Welcome to Running a Business 201

Welcome to your sophomore year of business management.

So unless you are under a rock, we have launched our first YouTube video and it was well received (opinions may vary). We also posted shortly after, a follow up interview with Mike's mom about the whole ordeal.

Video and Interview

Within a little over a week it has received over 150,000 views all around the world and made it to the top of most popular for the day. It has garnered attention on various radio shows including:
Opie and Anthony XM
The Break Room on WCMF 96.5 in Rochester
WDDD in Southern Illinois (interview later today over the phone)

Two national tv shows (cannot name them yet, 2 months out)
And one tv interview over in England (interview in about 2 months).

We never could have imagined it would have played out this way and are so grateful to our friends and fans who helped push it through. Although some of the press is outside our sales region, it will be helpful in the future for expansion. People will recognize the brand and know what it is before we even get there. Locally people have started to be more aware of it, and seem to be buying it more. We aim to build our online and physical presence over the summer. Hot weather = cold drinks!

It is becoming very apparent that traditional media in its current form is dying. Advertisements will always exist, but like the music industry 5 years ago, the internet and social mediums are forcing the industry to adapt. With social internet you are able to extend your brand globally with little more than some time and an internet connection. For us, being a start up and with limited working capital that is HUGE.

We are planning over the summer to start having micro contests and mini giveaways. This means short contests in the range of hours or even minutes for small gifts more often, with larger ones occurring less frequently. We hope to encourage all of you to participate as well. Share photos of you drinking a Vital or doing something fun and original with the bottle. Show us your VITAL-ITY! Durrrr. So please join our facebook and twitter (@vitalenergy) to keep up with the most recent goings on.

We want YouTube to also be a means of us to communicate directly with everyone as a start-up. Video blogs that will parallel our standard blogs 'hopefully' will let people grow with us personally instead of just the brand of Vital Energy. We want to hear your ideas, complaints, and what we can do better, faster, harder, stronger. Daft Punk, great song btw.

While they are in session we are going to hammer colleges and soon after high schools. We only have a few weeks until summer and want everyone possible to try this delicious mystery beverage invading your brains. It wants to be in your mouth.

As for Wright Wisner, we are in their system and in the sales reps hands. Now we are starting the learning process. For the next few weeks we are going to have our kick off meeting where we tell the story of our brand, the idea and concept of the product and why it basically is going to rule the world with a plastic flexing bicep. We are also going to start riding with the sales reps so that new stores can put a face to the brand.

I can't stress it enough, we want you to know who we are. See what it takes to run a business and learn as we go. Get your hand out of your pants and go roadhouse a garbage can to show it who is the boss. No, not Tony Danza.

Sorry its so long, but its so good.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh so excited after a long crazy week.
-Vital Boys

Thanks Mom ♥

To anyone who has met my mother, you know she is the BEST MOM in the world :) and I sincerely mean that. What other mother would stick my their son after he leaves graduate school at Michigan and begins to fill her house with drinks and watches them get lugged up and downstairs for over a year, all the while supporting me with free housing, meals, and defending me to people that question why I am still living at home when I have a great graduate engineering degree. And on top of all that continues to support me after we post a video of her having a legit anxiety attack.

That’s love ladies and gents <3

What makes this video so great to me is that I have never seen my mom lose her marbles. When we planned this I thought we’d get the best freakout reaction from my dad. I figured we had to do something huge to get my mom to even budge, thus we took her china down.

So to anyone who knows my mom, please take a moment to share your love and admiration and let everyone know that this is not the Mary you all know and loveeee :) And let her know that she's great for supporting us and letting us post this phenomenal video (in my opinion of course).

-Michael

PS. Keep spreading this video, through facebook, email lists, work lists etc! It’s taken a lot of work, and certainly a lot of emotional stress, to get this thing posted!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=as7jgdh9rPA

Going going back back to Cali...

So it is time to give everyone a little update on my trip to California. I went with my girlfriend Casey to visit my little sister Rebecca. I must say that the trip started off great. My flight from Rochester was delayed and somehow I got switched to a different flight in first class. Free food, drinks, and unlimited hot towel’s was a very nice surprise (Plus it gave me some extra brownie points with Casey). THANKS DELTA!!!!!!!! I arrived safe and sound and was very happy to see my little sis. But the real journey began the next morning.

My first stop was San Francisco and wow what a cool city. Never in my life have I seen so many happy hippies; not even at a Phish show!! Our day was spent exploring the city, its people and its landmarks. I remember staring at the Golden Gate Bridge and thinking to myself, there is only one thing missing in this picture, and that is VITAL! I reached into my bag and grabbed the greatest stuff on earth. Check it out, nothing better than a little Golden Gate Bridge and some VITAL!

My next stop was Yosemite National Park. I suggest to anyone that has not been there, to make it a priority to get there. It was truly incredible. Our first day was spent exploring the Yosemite Valley and checking out some of the waterfalls. Let me tell you, those falls are just like a Vital Energy. They are beautiful, powerful, refreshing, and something that I could just not get enough of.

We then explored the giant sequoia trees at Yosemite. Some of these trees are over 2,000 years old and are just enormous. Although it is hard to spot a Vital Energy next to a tree 350 feet tall, with a 30 foot diameter trunk, check out these pictures, I am sure you can do it.

All and all it was an amazing trip that took Vital across the country. When I returned home I was greeted with a facelift to my vehicle. Our Spring and Summer season has officially begun, and we are looking forward to introducing VITAL to everyone!!!!! Until next time, remember a Vital Will Fix You Right Up!!!!!

-Patrick

The College Tour Has Begun.

The past few weeks have been busy with being brought into the Wright Wisner fold. Pat took a little vaca last week so Mike and I ended up hammering out a stressful week due to an email mix up.

After a few 12+ hour days we collected all of our drinks from our various warehouses and managed to make the delivery of 27 pallets to Wright Wisner (~2700 cases). This week they are starting to disperse us around their territory.

To make sure we use the end of the semester to our advantage we are going to be hitting a different college everyday (assuming not cold and rainy) to hand out drinks and flyers. After that will come High Schools and their sports teams. Then we are fully into the summer time.

We are one of the smallest brands that WW has ever carried and we are going to have to hit the streets hard to make sure you people know about it. With the expansion comes higher costs and the need for further investment. Over the next year we will be focusing on building our brand in the new territory and building up our reputation.

I am a amazed at how much traditional media fails to faze me anymore. With DVRs to fast forward and the pop-up ads making me actively hate a brand for being annoying it has become a total shot in the dark in order to hit your target consumer.

Over the next few weeks we will begin to start rolling out YouTube videos and really starting to focus on starting conversations with our fans and friends. So please let us know what is and is not working out there. What we should do different/better faster stronger etc.

Til then Pat should be posting about his adventures in the sunshine state.
-J