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Being STRONG is more than just how much weight you can lift.
The Strong New York Podcast is dedicated to inspiring you to become your strongest self- in the gym, in business, in relationships and in life.
Join Kenny as he sits down with his strong as fuck buddies and shoots the shit on what it takes to be strong willed, strong minded and physically strong. Season one features everyone from entrepreneurs and local business owners to doctors and industry leaders in the fitness and wellness space.
With over a decade of experience, Kenny Santucci has made himself known as one of New York City’s top trainers and a thought leader in the health and wellness industry. After transforming his life at 15 years old through fitness, Kenny made it his mission to transform the lives of those around him.
Kenny has trained some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, including Jon Bon Jovi, Liev Schreiber, and Frank Ocean, and has been tapped as a fitness expert sharing his training approach with Men’s Health, Men’s Journal, Runner's World, SHAPE, Well+Good, among other publications.
Kenny is the creator of STRONG New York, NYC's only Health and Fitness Expo. Strong New York is an immersive day of workouts, wellness experiences, panel discussions, and inspiring conversations with the best in-class wellness professionals, industry leaders, and change makers who are sharing their expertise on today's hottest wellness trends and first-hand experiences on how to optimize your overall health and life.
You can find Kenny at The Strength Club, his private training and group strength training facility in the heart of Manhattan located on 28th and 5th Ave in New York City.
Guys, welcome back to another episode of the Strong New York podcast. I'm your host, Kenny Santucci, and today I'm very excited to introduce our guest who has made, uh, a tough life, a little bit sweeter, and for anybody out there who's a cookie freak, like myself, and always looking for a healthy version of a snack, and you haven't heard a sweet Addison, well get ready to hear her story right now.
Without further ado, Addison Labonte. Yes. Oh, nailed it. Uh, Addison? Yes. You had a couple struggles in life. Uh, you were dealing with some, uh. Gut issues, some, uh, gluten issues. Kind of get into that. And that's how this journey all started for you, correct? Yes. Well, first of all, thank you so much for having me.
Thank you for being here. I flew into New York City this morning just for this. All right, look at that. See, we're moving on up the ladder. Finally strung New York podcast, making some moves. I risked my life through a snowstorm to be here. I was almost in, it's funny because you came from Dallas. Mm-hmm. I was supposed to be in Austin.
And you know, here we are in New York City. Yes. Well, thank you for having me. Thank you for being here. So I was a division one college soccer player at the University of Maine and had never had an illness, a sickness, an injury, nothing, felt completely healthy. And right after I graduated college, I wanted to continue on with some sort of athletic feet.
So I decided to start distance running and, uh, as I was running, my legs would start to lose feeling. And if I kept running, they'd go completely numb, which was a very strange sensation. Again, I'd been an athlete my whole life and had never dealt with this. Mm-hmm. But for some reason the repetitiveness of distance running set off what's what I was later diagnosed with, uh, which is compartment syndrome.
So Compartment syndrome is a blood circulation and inflammation issue. And for me, I had to go through an entire diet overhaul and it ended up being gluten. That was the issue. That's so interesting because sometimes, I mean, maybe because the, the Mac gets cold, but I've had issues where if I'm doing jiujitsu or I'm running, I'll have a, some my toes go numb.
Is that a interesting Yeah, and I, I clearly know it's some sort of poor circulation, but I don't know where it's coming from. I'll also get some numbness through my hands and stuff again. Another circulation issue, but tell us how you started to notice that. Like was it every time you ran? Was it short distances, long distances?
What was it? It was every time I ran and it would start around the three mile marks, about 30 minutes or so into the run. Mm-hmm. Um, I'd start to get the tingly sensation in my feet, like your foot is falling asleep. And then it would work its way up my legs if I kept running and my legs would be completely numb.
So I went to a physical therapist, uh, my. Primary care physician and I went to a sports specialist doctor, and they all said you have what's called compartment syndrome. And I specifically remember sitting down with my doctor and he said, you have two choices. You can quit running altogether, or you can get surgery on both of your legs.
I mean, at the time I was 22 and I thought there has to be a better way, right? I'm healthy, I'm young. I was a division one athlete, like there's no reason for this to be going on. So I said, I'm just gonna keep running through this. I don't, I'm, I'm not, I'm not quitting and I'm not getting surgery. So I was talking to my aunt one day who's a really great marathoner and she's gluten free.
She said, why don't you try the whole gluten-free thing? Because for me, it helped with my gut issues while I was running, and it might just help you feel better overall. So I was not convinced, but I said, you know what? I'm desperate. I just wanna be able to run and feel normal. So that following Monday, I quit gluten, cold Turkey, and I went from eating fast food every week to reading every ingredient label.
And honestly, I was. Horrified at what goes into our food, and I had no idea. Isn't it fascinating how so many people do not understand how important it is the fuel that you put in your body? Yeah. Like I've tried to explain this to so many people. They're like, oh, I have gut issues. Oh, I'm lethargic. Oh, I don't feel like getting up in the morning.
A lot of you can combat 90% of issues with what you're eating and how you live your life. It's so crazy. And we've been, we've been pushed away from this idea that like, oh, we should exercise. Even as, as recent as COVID, the first thing they're like, don't open gyms, keep gyms closed. And I'm like, wait, I feel like this is the only thing that's gonna help us.
Right? So yeah, I agree with you. So now you go cold to, so you, you. Clearly didn't have that good of a diet while you were in college? No, I didn't. I felt like I could eat whatever I wanted because I was working out so much. Yeah. But I think back and how much better could I have performed if I was treating my body the right way?
Mm-hmm. I mean, I was going through the McDonald's drive through several times a week. Oh. I'd go to Dunkin Donuts. What was your, what was your McDonald's order? A 20 piece McNugget, which is disgusting. I cannot even eat that many calories anymore. When's the last time you had fast food? Since going gluten-free.
I, I have not, I mean, maybe in the last like seven or eight years I've had Chick-fil-A once or twice and I get the grilled nuggets. Mm-hmm. But I don't eat fast food anymore. It's incredible. Right. The, I never knew how good I could feel. And also I never knew how sick I was until I wasn't sick anymore.
Well, I think that's a large portion of what's going on. People don't understand how good you could actually feel when you start to feel better. We kind of, our bodies are very good at just being. Okay. With the state that we're in, we get really kind of complacent with where we're at and we're like, oh, this feels fine.
Oh, I won't raise my arms above my head. Actually, I won't bend over. Uh, I, I'll give up running, and I'm like, how? So I dealt with a similar issue about five years ago. I was having crazy back pain. Every doctor I talked to wanted to just shoot needles in my back and give me surgery. And I get it. I mean, if I could buy a new boat when after I did surgery on you, I would wanna do that too.
But for me, I go, there's gotta be another way. Mm-hmm. And I fought for that and it, from my issues, it was more of a neurological and, uh, chemical issues. So I, my testosterone levels were low and I gotta cyst on my brain. It's a whole other story. But back to your whole thing. So. The where, where do you think that mental strength came from?
The fact that you didn't at a young age want to give that up? Because a lot of people give up exercise. I think the the old belief system is like, my doctor told me I can't do it. I'm just not gonna do it anymore. And now you fall into this trap of like, I'm depressed, I'm sad, I'm outta shape. I feel like shit.
Right. So growing up sports were a huge deal in my household. My dad was a division one quarterback, and so we, there was a big emphasis on playing sports, watching sports, being active. Mm-hmm. We are that family that runs the 5K on Thanksgiving every year. Love it. I love it. That's like a new, uh. Yeah. Like a, a new ick or people love it, right?
Yeah. Um, so it's, it's been wired in my brain since the day I was born to be active. Mm-hmm. And then I was so fortunate to be able to play Division one soccer, but when that ended, I almost went through an identity crisis because suddenly this passion of mine, this love of mine was, was taken away from me.
Mm-hmm. And not only was it just about playing soccer, but it was. How I stayed in shape, how I made friends, how I structured my day, how I, you know, my routine. It was everything. So I thought, how can I replicate this in normal life after college? And I decided on distance running. So it was never a question of should I do this?
It was, how can I do this or, or what's next for me? How old are you? 31. Okay. So you're a little bit younger than I am. How important would you say exercise and. Hanging out with your friends, like having a good communication with your friends is to you on a scale of one to 10? Exercise. 10 out 10. Yeah.
Friends, I'd say seven or eight. I'm an introvert. I love meeting people. Mm-hmm. And I love, I love being social. Mm-hmm. I do need my quiet time every day to reach out. I think we all do. Yeah. But I think when it comes to our lives, I think relationship. The are so important. Mm-hmm. Right? Because if I was doing all these cool things in my life and starting a business, but I had no one to share it with, what's the point?
A hundred percent. So I think family, friends, super important exercise. 10 out of 10. So take us through this. So now you, you go gluten free, you start to feel good, and then you start this whole. Baking process. Right. So once I became gluten-free, within three days, I could run again. That's incredible. Three days, which is shocking.
Yes. I, it was, it was, it pretty much felt like an overnight life change for me. Wow. And not only that, but day to day I felt better. So I had other symptoms clear up. I used to get one to two really, really bad headaches every week. I get maybe one headache a year. Really, I don't even own medication at home.
I went from like buying those huge bottles of ibuprofen and going through like one per month, which is, I can't even imagine the gut lining that, issues that, that caused. Um, but I started researching the link between being gluten-free. Or having celiac disease and compartment syndrome and the ability to not be able to run.
And there was no research out there. So I thought people need to know about this. Like, I'm so glad I didn't get the surgery, but I want to educate other people who might be going through the same thing. So I started my Instagram account organically. Addison started posting gluten-free recipes, how I was training for my races.
And that account just grew and grew. And then that account exploded during COVID when everybody was at home. Mm-hmm. Looking for healthier options. And then in, what do you think separated you from a lot of the, because there's countless people that I follow. I have family friends and people who come to the gym who love to bake, and they're, they're so passionate about it.
Mm-hmm. But you've kind of stepped it up a notch. What do you think you were doing different That other people weren't consistency posting every single day. This became, I was working in finance before being a full-time entrepreneur. Mm-hmm. And this was my, mm-hmm. Nighttime and weekend job was building this account and reaching out to people, and I've always been a very opportunistic person.
So if there's been a chance to meet someone or go on a podcast or go to some event, I always take advantage of that. So, but the plan wasn't this, the plan was to just share your message, right? Yes. So I started posting and then. I think I was at like 150,000 followers or so in. December of 2022 and I decided to do a Christmas cookie series and it went viral.
And I started getting dms from random people all over the country saying, where can we buy these cookies that you're making at home? And all the while I was thinking, you know, social media is very volatile. It's not something that I own. Mm-hmm. What if I started my own brand? What, what might that look like?
And then in January of 2023, I was in a really, really bad car accident and I thought. Life is short. I gotta do this. I have demand for something that I feel like doesn't currently exist on the market, which is big, soft, gooey, thick, nostalgic desserts that are made with clean ingredients and still taste good.
So what's your background in. In culinary, my mom and my grandmother taught me. That's it. That's it. Just homegrown. That's it. But I will say I'm, I was a math major in college, so I have a very analytical way of thinking. Mm-hmm. So recipes to me, it's, it's like a science. Of course. Yeah. And so when I became gluten free, I went through all of my mom's old recipes and tweaked them to become gluten-free, so, so they were just pulling out all the stuff that didn't work.
Yeah, yeah. Take out all the bad stuff, add in all the good stuff. I always feel like there's a point with every entrepreneur where they start doing something kind of out of the joy of it. You, you enjoy cooking. This is something you obviously grew up with to where it goes, holy shit, I can make some real money from this.
When did that happen for you? Probably. About six months into having this sweet Addison's business was, I really realized, wow, this, this could be huge. It was quick and it was quick. Yeah. Um, and I realized I'm going to make more from this than I ever did in finance, which was really cool. So while I was formulating the recipes for this, I was still working in finance at the time, and my plan was to quit my finance job after Christmas 2023 and go all in on Sweet Addison.
What I wasn't expecting was to get laid off a few months earlier. So then I had no choice but to go all in on this business. Mm-hmm. And I launched it January, 2024. And it's just, I've been all in since day one. So take us through that. Right. Because as an entrepreneur myself, it's, there's so many different hats you have to wear and so many things you have to understand.
And I couldn't even imagine for a CPG product, something like this, the amount of startup capital you need to get this off the ground and. Dealing with the FDA and all this stuff. Take us through that process and how you kind of navigated that. Who helped you out with that? So, for about six months, as I was starting to formulate recipes for this, mm-hmm.
In 2023, I went on LinkedIn and I just. I probably messaged 200 people in CPG and just said, Hey, this is what I'm doing. I have no idea, can you about X, Y, and Z? It looks like you have experience with this. Can we hop on a 20 minute zoom call? And I had probably three zoom calls every single day for a few months.
And wow. It's kind of like my LinkedIn MBA, and I learned so much. I took all these notes and just made so many connections in the industry. So that's really how. I've always believed you have to, you really have to ask for help. Mm-hmm. And I love meeting people who are more successful and more smart than I am because there's always something to learn.
Well, I think you, you've shown so many different skills that you have naturally, that a lot of people who say, I want to be an entrepreneur. How do I get started? I think they just come naturally. What do you think three things that you are doing that most people aren't doing? Or like, for instance, like you going on LinkedIn, you're clearly hungry and aggressive and.
There's no stopping your success be right, because it's a train that's moving and you're either getting on or getting off. Mm-hmm. What are three things that you think you're doing that other people are missing from being able to build a brand like this? Because I, like I said, I mean, I probably know three people, four people right now who are trying to bake and trying to do something within the culinary space.
Mm-hmm. And they can't quite figure it out. Right. I think the first thing I possess is. Courage. Mm-hmm. There's a million reasons to be too scared to be an entrepreneur or to not follow your dreams, but I've never let fear hold me back because I really believe life is so short and I don't wanna get to the end of my life and think, what if I actually.
Did try that Or what if I, you know, I don't have any regrets. Regret, yeah. So I feel like courage is probably the number one thing that I have that I think a lot of people who don't pursue this are missing. Mm-hmm. I have extreme discipline. Like extreme discipline. Well, you're a marathon running. You have to Yeah.
Ultra, ultra, ultra marathon. How, what's the furnishing done? 31. Almost. Yeah. Which was about a month ago actually. Congratulations. Thank you. Yeah. It was one of the coolest days of my life. I loved it. Um, extreme discipline when it comes to. I'm really good about delayed gratification. I'm willing to work extremely hard now knowing my reward is coming maybe years down the road.
Mm-hmm. I don't think about what am I doing now to reward myself tomorrow or today. So I'm able to push off that gratification and work extremely hard in the current time and know that it's going to be paying off someday. So I think courage and discipline really are. The the biggest things. I also, like I said, I'm very opportunistic.
If there's an opportunity to meet someone, to come on a show, I'll always, I'll always say yes. I, I really admire that. I think what you have and don't, it's like shameless, like you, you'll go on LinkedIn. I do the same thing. Yeah. There the countless amounts of people that I've had on the podcast who I'm like, I slid in their dms mm-hmm.
And was like, Hey, I'd love to have you on my show. You know, if it's cool up front and you have to be okay with hearing no from people. The amount of times I've been turned down from. Different opportunities. I'm like, I would've hated myself if I didn't try. Exactly. I think the only thing that you regret is that what you didn't do.
Yeah. What you didn't try to do. Not taking the chance. You have to be okay with rejection. I get rejected every day with this business. People saying no, or customers saying, I didn't like it, or someone saying, no, we don't wanna carry this in our store. I tried onto the next one. Yeah. I'm not gonna think about it.
Something that you're not for everyone, right? Nobody. No one. No one's for everyone. Nobody. Amazon's not for everyone. There are still people who don't use Amazon. It's crazy. Yeah. I order every day. I know. I think you have. You really have to be okay with rejection and I think another quality, but entrepreneurs that's maybe not talked about as much as confidence.
Yeah. You have to be confident and you have to have. Unshakable faith and belief in what you're doing. Yeah. No one else has to believe, but you do. I think when you take that, I mean, because I'm sure the investment into this wasn't cheap. Right? Right. Mass production is very expensive and getting all the, um, patents and other things that go into this, like people don't realize there's so many different avenues from the social media side mm-hmm.
To the business side, to the, uh, investment. I mean, there's gotta be. So many pitfalls. Like I've had so many CPG brand owners on here and they talk about like, I went all in and I put the money in and now I have to sell. Now I have to keep going. Right? Like there's no, there's no turning back. Mm-hmm. I think one of the things that most people mess up on when it comes to sweet treats like this, um, or anything, uh, in the, uh, baked good space is that they tend to have a lot of calories.
Mm-hmm. And there's never enough protein. Wow. I fixed that. Yeah. I, I'm gonna say there's 17 grams of protein in a cookie, which is unheard of. Mm-hmm. Um, I'm going to open this up if it's okay with you. Please go for it. Yes. We're gonna try this on camera now. When I first, when we first met, when we were at Impact Kitchen mm-hmm.
I tried a cookie and there was a couple of us fighting over it, like wild dogs here. Um, so I wanna try the new protein cookie. When does this drop? When's this out? It's already out. It's been out for six months now. Okay. And it's been, it's received really great. Feedback and response. And the thing is, most protein tastes like chalk or cardboard, right?
This doesn't, no. How the, the ingredients that we use our special proprietary blend. Which secret? All clearly It's secret. Secret. Yeah. Because there's no, where's the, um, there's a list of ingredients. There's a list of ingredients, and now what's the, um, what's the calorie count on this? Three 50 for 17 grams.
I'm terrible protein. I'll do that for a treat. And they're, they're large cookies. They're big in size. That's another thing with gluten-free. Sometimes they're like teeny tiny, or they're really flat and, mm-hmm. Crispy. Now, this is a healthy sized cookie. Mm-hmm. This is like. What's a place downtown Levine?
People have compared us to Levine, which is such a huge compliment. Yeah. Well, you feel disgusting after taking a bite of wine because there's 8,000 calories in each bite. This thing is delicious. Thank you. Yeah. It's gooey. It's exactly what you said. There's really, honestly, there's nothing like it on the market.
No, and that's, that's why I decided to launch the protein was because being a runner and someone who tries to eat my body weight and grams of protein per day mm-hmm. Is, it was, it was really hard to hit that. If my dessert had no protein in it, and listen, I eat dessert. I joke, I say eight nights a week. I cannot go a night without eating my dessert.
So how do you get it to like, I, because it's impressive to me. There's so many people that I would go, Hey, make these protein cookies, and they always taste dry. Mm-hmm. Protein is there. Is it whey protein? Plant-based protein. Bone broth. Protein powder in this. Okay. Unflavored. You can't taste it. Um, but it, it doesn't dry out the cookies the way other protein would.
And is that something you came up with? It was my idea to use bone broth. Yeah. And we, we partnered with Taylor Duke's Wellness. Okay. She's another Texas entrepreneur, also an influencer. And she and her team are just wonderful. So we came together, launched this, and it's been, it's been a big hit. And then in our protein brownies, we use collagen protein, gluten-free.
Dairy fee or refined sugar free, soy free, no seed oils. Mm-hmm. And every, every, every ingredient you can pronounce, there's nothing that we're hiding in there. Yeah. Olive oil, organic, uh, coconut sugar, chocolate chips. I mean, this is all nothing, uh, nothing too crazy here. No sea salt, baking soda, vanilla extract.
Who has bought your cookie where you're like, holy shit, I can't believe they love my cookies. Um. We, okay, so I'm not, I can't a hundred percent confirm this, but we did get an order from a David Ortiz in Miami, Florida. Okay. And I may or may not have looked up the address and it was a mansion. And I'm a die hard Red Sox fan.
Die Hard Red Sox fan. They're my favorite, favorite team. How did that happen? You're from Texas? I, I grew up in Maine. Okay. Yeah, so Die hard Red Sox fan. And so I'm just gonna pretend like it was definitely the The real David Ortiz. Yeah. Which would be really cool. I'm sure if you sent him some cookies, he doesn't look like he turns away too much.
Cookies. Yeah. And especially a protein cookie, the guy could definitely use it. Right. And then the other coolest thing is Luke Combs follows me on Instagram. Oh wow. Really? And he only follows like 900 people and I'm one of them. That's pretty impressive. So I'm gonna also pretend like he's ordered cookies under some fake name.
It probably has his assistant order or something. Right. I shipped to Nashville almost every day. I get so many orders from Nashville. Yeah. Where would you say most people are buying this? California, Texas, New York and Florida. I mean, which is probably most businesses. That's every business. Um, yes. So what's next?
I mean, how, this is a huge undertaking. Mm-hmm. How do you have a, a kitchen? Like how does this all work? Yeah. We have a commercial kitchen in Texas and we, so we self manufacture my team and I bake everything and package everything and then ship out all the orders. So what's next is more flavor launches, collaborations with other brands and influencers and.
We'll see. I mean, I would love to start another business. I think there's so many people who don't understand the power of the influencer marketing. Right. Obviously you're, it's insane. You're obviously your own influencer. Mm-hmm. But collaborating with other influencers is a business hack. Hands down, you get the right, I mean, for instance, a friend of mine, his wife owns a clothing store mm-hmm.
Uh, called Hazel, New Jersey. Mm-hmm. They have blown up. They have multiple locations, but. They have become super successful because of, um, what's that girl's name? Alex Rell. Oh, wow. Like, she was like working at the store as a kid and like making all these videos and the, the company is blown up. Mm-hmm.
Because of that, it's like, it takes one influencer to talk about who is I just talking to? Yes. I was talking to somebody and they had said as soon as this one person put them up. Boom, right to the top. It's crazy. Yeah. Yeah. It's impressive. So who, who are some of the influencers that you're working with who have really helped you kind of navigate the space and have you found some that aren't like, Hey, pay me this to do that?
They're more just like, I like your product. I mean, I'm kind of one of those people, like there are a bunch of products that I work with. A bunch of brands that I work, I'm like, I'm gonna use it anyway. Right. So I would love to just kind of make this happen. Right. Yeah. Which as a brand, that's so nice when I find influencers who just wanna post about us.
Yeah. We did two really huge collabs last year. We worked with Sydney Adams King. Mm-hmm. She's a lifestyle and fitness content creator down in Florida. Okay. We launched peanut butter brownies with her. Then we also worked with Health with Hunter, who's, oh my god. Yeah. I love Hunter. Yeah. New York City native here.
Yeah, he's a New York City guy. Yeah. We did the smores cookies with him. Okay. And to put it influencer marketing into perspective on those two launch days, we did about five times more than we did on the previous Black Friday. Wow. That's incredible. Which is wild. Okay. So crazy. Kind of walk us through that.
You know, one of the things that we work on here, you know, I have a, a clothing brand. We obviously have the gyms, we do the event. Um, picking the right person, you know, because it, it becomes a, a lot of attention. You, you have to spend a lot of time and effort on this, and even money. How do you pick the right person?
Like, is it someone who reached out to you? Is it somebody that you're like, Hey, that's our perfect avatar? Right? So with Sidney and Hunter, they were both fans of the brand and had ordered on their own before we ever worked together. So to me, that signaled. They genuinely love the brand and they love the products.
You don't have to convince them that your product's great, right? Yeah, exactly. They both have extremely engaged audiences who are obsessed with them. Mm-hmm. So I see what they post and people are commenting and sharing and just. Their audience naturally gravitates towards what they're posting about. So I knew that they had really, really great engagement.
Mm-hmm. And that when we launched this, their audience would buy it simply because they love the influencers. So both were really awesome partnerships. And now I'm friends with both of them, which is, which is, that's incredible. The best part. So I have a, a young lady who comes here, she's been one of my members for five, six years, and she's a nurse here in New York City, but loves to bake.
Mm-hmm. And I said to her, I go, you gotta just take the, the leap. Leave the nursing industry and go all in on this baking thing. She's like, no, I can't. You know, it's just a lot harder than you think. What's your advice to there? There's a lot of people out there mm-hmm. Who probably love your product, you know, and are intrigued by the story.
What are, what are some things that they could be doing to kind of leave the, uh, the mundane night to five and jump into this entrepreneurial world of baked goods? I am such an advocate for finding a mentor. Mm-hmm. And finding people who have built what you've already or what you're hoping to do, and ask them how they did it.
Ask them their story. I am such a student of life. I love to learn. So I'm listening to podcasts all day, every day. So when I was thinking about launching Sweet Addison's, suddenly I was listening to all these CPG podcasts and podcasts from Bakers. I went on. I think it was Hulu and watched, uh, a whole documentary about Mrs.
Fields, those cookies. Great story. Isn't it amazing? Yes. I, I found out about, I think I was in college when I first heard about that. Yeah. And it was like unheard of at the time. Now it's, everybody's an entrepreneur, right. But at that time. She was like a pioneer. Yeah. And that was also back when women typically didn't have their own businesses.
Yeah. Now it's pretty common. But I listened to her whole story and how she grew her brand and I think being open to learning about all this, and like I said, finding a mentor is, is really important. Yeah. So not only do you have, you created a very successful brand. Thank you. But you're also a marathon runner?
Yes. An ultra-marathon runner? Yes. Uh, so you just did 31 miles? Yes. A 50 k. And how was that? It was awesome. Yeah. I loved it. When was that point? You know, you're kind of three days after you got, you went gluten free. Mm-hmm. You're like, okay, I have this new life. I mean, that's kind of how I felt like after.
Got myself out of pain. Now I'm like, oh, I want to do everything right. So within one year I did, uh, two high rocks. I did an um, a triathlon, I did a juujitsu competition. Like I was just doing everything and anything I could. How good did that feel? Take us through that moment when you realized you could run without pain.
It felt it was life changing at the time, and I. Have always been very, a very grateful person. Mm-hmm. But when you're not able to run or something that you love gets taken away from you, you realize how much you truly take for granted. Yeah. And I really try to not take anything for granted in my life.
Mm-hmm. But when running got, you know, essentially taken away from me, and then when I was able to run again, I thought every single step I take is a blessing and I'm not going to take any of this for granted. So even if I'm tired or sore or it's cold out or it's. Pouring rain on me. I get to run and I've always had this like interesting mindset.
I call it the deathbed mentality. Mm-hmm. I think there's gonna be some day, and it's coming before we all know it, where I'm laying in my deathbed and I'm, and I'm old and I'm dying and I'm not able to get outta bed and what, what would I give to hop outta bed at 5:00 AM and go run? Mm-hmm. I think people always think so morbidly that one of the things that we put on a lot of our stuff.
Die strong, right? Mm-hmm. Like it's, it's one of those things that's gonna happen to all of us. Mm-hmm. But if I could be the best version of myself at that moment, why wouldn't I be, why wouldn't I do everything I could to get me to that point, to be the healthiest, best version of myself? Like, we're all gonna get old, but like you could kind of pick and choose what version of old you want to be, right?
The difference between a 30-year-old who works out versus a 30-year-old who doesn't work out isn't really that different. But an 80-year-old who works out versus an 80-year-old who doesn't work out it's life or death. Right. Or the difference between you getting out, up in the morning and going for a run, or you laying in bed all day not being able to move.
Right. So I encourage everybody to move. So I, I love this, I love this, uh, path you've kind of carved through yourself. You're this endurance athlete, you're this entrepreneur, you know, what's the, what's, what's next for you? I've been thinking about starting a second business. Uh, that's more so in the.
Performance nutrition, just because when I started Sweet Addison's, I was baking all the time and was really focusing on content around that. And as I've had a little bit more bandwidth in my life, now that I've hired a team to do that. So you're not in the kitchen anymore? No, I don't do any of the baking.
But you don't, you don't come up with the new formulas or, I do. I do all of that, but I don't do the, the day to day baking. Um, and as I've had a little bit more time, I've tried to do things that bring me joy and running is one of those. And so I've really, really gotten back into running, doing the Ultra.
And two weeks before the Ultra I had a 26.2 mile training run. So I technically did a marathon and then an ultra within two weeks of each other. But all that to say I'm, I. I'm thinking, how can I elevate my performance? And I've realized my passion is very strong for performance and nutrition and supplements and vitamins and all of that.
So stay tuned. Okay. But um, so we're already working on it. Yes. Nice. Thoughts are brewing. Yes. So, I mean, a marathon's easy for you, but I feel like the Dallas Marathon for you is like a pivotal moment. Right. When, when did you run that? Was that right after December, 2025. Okay. Yeah, so it was running 31 miles.
I, I think running is so mental and it all comes down to mental toughness because there's really no reason your body should be able to run 26 miles in a row. Mm-hmm. And so I did a lot of mental preparation for this run. So when I signed up for the race months prior. About three months I think I trained for it.
Mm-hmm. I had a really great base of running, but three months I was following a training program. What I did every single day was I envisioned myself crossing that finish line. What would it look like? How would I feel? How would it feel when I could say I'm an ultra marathon runner and I just ran a 50 k.
Mm-hmm. So I think vis vis visualization and. Really seeing that outcome is super important for me, and I wanted to realize, I wanted to respect the distance, but not fear the distance. And so I looked up all these ultra marathon runners, listened to podcasts about them, and really learned how to fuel myself before, during, and after.
Mm-hmm. A run. And most runners talk about carbs. For me, I need a ton of protein. That's where the protein cookies come into play. Whoa. Okay. So you're saying you. Your runs are fueled by the protein. A lot of protein. Okay. I don't eat, I personally don't love carbs, and I think that's because my body knows that gluten was an issue growing up.
So I was never like a huge fan of pasta or bread or bagels, just because deep down it knew that it was not, it did not feel good. So take me, what? What are you eating before? Like what? Or like you go, let's say tomorrow morning you go outside for a seven mile run. What do you have? If it's early, I won't eat anything.
Okay. I do like to run fasted. Mm-hmm. If I'm going out and running 15 miles or more, I'll probably have a rice cake or two, and then I'll bring. Protein bars while I run. I can't do the gel packs, those two sugary for me. But I'll do, I love RX bars. I love Jacob bars, so I'll literally bring that. So there's some carbs and sugar.
Yeah. Yeah. Some, some carbs, some sugar. But I'm not, you know, having a huge plate of pasta the night before for me, that weighs me down. I'll do meat and sweet potatoes. That's great. The night before. That's great. That's really good. Um, there's a lot of people out there who say that like, fasting for women isn't.
That great. They also say that running long distances isn't great. What do you say to the naysayers who kind of, kind of turn their nose up to a lot of what you're doing? Unless you're my doctor, you have no say over Great. My body. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I, I combat people with this all the time. I go. I, I always wanna encourage people to move more.
I think there's certain things that, like, if it doesn't work for you, then don't do it. But if it's, if you feel good doing it, why not just go and do it? Right? And I learned that having to advocate for myself with the compartment syndrome and not listening to my doctor and not going through with the surgery, but I knew that there had to have been a better way.
I feel great running 20 miles a day. Who's someone to tell me that I can't? Absolutely. Right. Take us through your day. Like what? What does some of your training look like aside from the running? There's so many great, I mean, I feel like Texas is the epicenter for fitness and wellness. Oh yes. Dallas, Austin, Houston.
Yes. I call Dallas the healthy wealthy city. It's like everyone loves to work out and lots of entrepreneurs there, so I love to wake up early. I'll either go to the gym and get in a lift or I'll go running. Mm-hmm. And then sometimes I'll do them back to back, or I'll do one in one in the evening. And then I typically go to the kitchen, which is where our fulfillment center is.
I'll fulfill orders during the day, oversee the team, make sure things are going well, create some content, go home, maybe work out again, eat, make, and eat dinner. I try to eat, make myself dinner most nights and not go out just because I love super clean ingredients. Now, what time are you typically running in the morning?
Anywhere from 5:00 AM to 7:00 AM Wow. Depends. I try to run with friends, so meeting up with them, whatever their schedule allows. But early What's the, what's the run club scene look like in Dallas? I'm part of two different run clubs. Okay. It's how I met most of my good friends there, which has really great, I, I feel like that's like the new bar.
Yeah, learn from like meeting people really late at night at 11 o'clock at night, and now meeting people at 5:00 AM to go run, which I much prefer that because you automatically have something in common with these people For sure. And they're pushing themselves and there's a lot of people that I've become friends with at the run club in Dallas who are also D one athletes, which is really cool.
Well, you think about the type of person who gets up at that time to go and run. Mm-hmm. You probably have a lot more in common with them than you would. Going to a bar, meeting somebody there. Absolutely. You know? Yeah. I think people go to a bar because they're lonely and they're looking for something. I think you go to a run club at 5:00 AM because you're very Type A you, you want, you know, you need to get the work done.
I think it sets your morning up for success. I was listening to, um, how, what's your thoughts on manifestation? I don't, like, I prefer visualization. Mm-hmm. I'm, my faith is also really important to me. So praying, I don't think. Saying, I'm, you know, I'm gonna do this, or this is gonna happen for me. I just, I don't love that.
I like to visualize it, pray about it. Mm-hmm. Uh, I love to tell people like, these are my goals. Help hold me accountable. Um, I think. People are talking about manifesting in the way of, I'm going to say this out loud and repeat it to myself so I can gain confidence and start to believe it. I think that's great, but just saying it and not acting on it or doing the work behind the scenes, I don't agree with that.
I've been really into, uh, kind of learning on a similar journey, uh, being an entrepreneur. There are so many different skills you have to have. What's a book or two that you might've read in the last couple years that you could recommend to everybody that kind of. Put you on the right path or kind of helped you reinforce what you believe.
Atomic Habits, which is great book. I feel like everybody knows that book. Yeah. But so much of our life is our habits. Mm-hmm. And habit. He talks about habit stacking, and I think when I wake up at 5:00 AM and go for a run, it's like, how can you have a bad day after that? I've started my day off with this really awesome habit.
And then the last thing I wanna do after that is go eat junk food. Right? Mm-hmm. Because I feel great. I'm on this high. I get crazy runners high after I run. And so I'm, I'm gonna go home and I'm gonna make, you know. Eggs for breakfast instead of whatever, you know, packaged, processed food. It seems like you haven't had a lot of pitfalls starting this business.
What's one thing that you did struggle with? Where's like a one pain point, like kind of starting the business? The, well before I started it, I struggled a bit with. Am I, am I meant to do this? I was a math major in college and I'm going to bake cookies for a living. Are people going to buy these? Yeah. So just dealt with, I guess, a little bit of imposter syndrome you could call it.
Mm-hmm. But then once I launched and saw the response, that completely went away. And then it was just reinforcing to myself that I needed, I needed to do this because the, that those first 12 months were grueling, I mean. I was barely sleeping. I was working all the time. I hardly saw family, didn't see friends, wasn't traveling.
It was just all encompassing and just reminding myself, this is going to pay off someday. You're working really hard right now, but it's not always going to be like this. Mm-hmm. I think for me just, it was really tough mentally, but it made me so much stronger. Yeah. I think the hardest thing for me to deal with these days.
We've been working on the event and the brand for God, 10 years now. You know, and obviously we've had some success because I wouldn't continue doing if it was completely flatlined, but to have that instantaneous kind of takeoff, um, it's, it's a blessing. Mm-hmm. It's, it's incredible that, where do you think, was that like your, your, your friends and your family, was that your following?
Like, how were so, so many people convinced to be like, all right, I'll try that cookie. It was my following on Instagram. I mean, friends and family have always been super supportive, which is. Such a blessing. But there were people who, who said, I followed you for years and I've always wanted to try the things that you were baking at home, so I'm gonna place an order.
That's great. And so the day I launched, I had orders from people all over the country just from building up that audience over time. And again, when I became gluten-free. Never in a million years did I think I'd be here. I mean, my goal was to work in finance for my career and having that. Health, scary health diagnosis and then seeing what I've been able to do with it is, is to me it's really cool.
And I just wanna encourage anyone who, who's going through a hard time or doesn't know, why am I on this path, is that it's what you make of it, right? Like beauty from the ashes, you can really make something cool with your life. Yeah. Now these are shelf sustainable, so you won't have to worry about like keeping it refrigerated.
So it's an easy delivery. Um, where does most of your business, is it online sales or are you getting into stores now? Mostly online right now. We are getting into some stores. Uh, one of my goals for this year is to launch into a nationwide grocery chain. Mm-hmm. I'd love to launch with Sprouts. I'm a huge fan of Sprouts.
I'm a Sprouts shopper myself. I don't think we have Sprouts here, do we? I don't think you do. No. It's, I guess it's somewhat similar to a Whole Foods or a Wegmans. It's a higher. Okay. A higher end grocery store. Lots of healthy products. Are they in Texas? Yes, they are. But living, when I was living in Maine, I had never heard of Sprouts.
Okay. Uh, but we have several in Dallas itself and a bunch in Texas. So, but that's the number one question I get from customers is where can I buy this in store? Mm-hmm. And right now it's, there's a few spots in New York City, popup Grocer, Butterfield Market Rooted restaurant. Okay. Very cool. So yeah, it's here.
Yes. If you don't mind sharing. Mm-hmm. Like what did the numbers look like? Day one you launched, you're like, Hey, we're putting these on sale. What? What did day one to now? Where we're at today, what those numbers look like. Um, the first month, I think we did like 8,000 in sales, which at the time I was like, that's great.
Oh my goodness. This is, this is cool. Everybody can use an, actually we're a track to hit like a hundred K this year. Yeah. And that was my goal for the first year. Um, and then I'm proud to say that we hit the seven figure mark last year. Wow. Yeah. We crossed a million. That's incredible. In three years, two years.
And that was in within 20. Two months ahead. That's incredible. Thank you. Wow. Very impressive. Well, guys, if you haven't heard enough, I mean. Addison is definitely somebody you should follow, get some advice from. We're excited to hear about the new product. When can we, uh, when can we expect the new product out?
Let's check back in like three to four months. Okay. Oh, so it's very soon. Oh, I, this is 2026 drop. This waits for nobody. Yeah. Listen, I money don't sleep. I, I believe that there's probably three or four people out there who have the same idea I do that are running just as fast and just as hard, so, oh, I'm sure there's always somebody younger.
Faster coming up behind you For sure. Yeah. I, I love following Kevin O'Leary on Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Instagram and I listen to podcasts of his, and he always says, there's someone out there in China who's working eight days a week trying to kill your business. And I think about that. There's people all over who are trying to do what I'm doing, but it's very true.
You gotta run fast and hard. So business or running, what comes first? Ooh. I can't really have one without the other. Yeah. I, I, I'm gonna have to say business because I did give up running for a bit to start this business. Mm-hmm. But now. I'm gonna give up sleep instead of either one of those. Wow. I can sleep when I'm dead.
Savage, move. I love that mindset. Addison, thank you so much for coming by The Strong podcast. Come checking out the Strength Club guys as as always like, share, subscribe, check out Sweet addison Sweet addison.com. Sweet addisons.com. Yes, and you could get some of these delicious cookies. I just finished most of this cookie.
I can't finish the whole thing. And how do you feel? I feel great. I'll tell you what, and this is God's honest truth. What was it? Christmas time? I bought a box of Levine cookies. Not to say there's anything wrong with Levine cookies, but I. A piece of wine, and it was like sitting on my stomach mainly because of all the sugars and all the other stuff.
I just ate 90% of this cooking and I feel great. I probably, I'm gonna end up finishing it. She, you want some? Okay. Um, so guys like, share, subscribe, tell all your friends about Sweet Addison, and obviously follow along because she's got some really cool stuff coming up. And as always, we are sponsored by Celsius.
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