YouSaid · the spoken record

Andrew Abraham

lines on the record: 93
first: 2023-08-07
most recent: 2023-08-07
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“I knew it had to be shelf stable, but I didn't know what that meant at the time. And so as soon as I got that phone call prior to this, I had been working with a small agency to design the package to make sure that it looked nice. And I just was gathering as much information as I could. I was taking all of these notes every day. And then when I got the go-ahead from Whole Foods, I contacted a manufacturer, you know, and I got rejected and it was very hard to get capacity, especially as a small brand. Somehow, some way, I was able to convince a manufacturer to take us on. Where was it?”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I was up next, and I have my sneakers on, and I have 10 pages that I had printed in Kinkos in color. And I was just completely honest. I said, you know, the truth is I don't have anyone here with me. I don't have a fancy PowerPoint presentation prepared. But what I do have is a product that I firmly believe is going to transform a category and change people's lives for the better. And they tried the product. They didn't give me that much feedback. I think someone said I like the taste. I didn't hear anything else from anybody else in that room. And I went home. And four or five weeks later, I got a phone call and an email that said, you know, can you handle a national launch? I didn't know what that meant, of course. And I said, absolutely.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“What I thought, you know, and I thought maybe some grocery stores could entertain it, but I really thought it would be in hospitals and we'd be selling online. And I prepared in every way that I possibly could. I remember very specifically getting there, I had like a suit. I was extremely prepared in every way except when I woke up that morning. The one thing that I didn't have were my shoes, my dress shoes. So I got there. I'm waiting in the lobby. And out comes Heather Mills, who had just divorced one of the Carnegie. Paul McCartney She had a full team with her, and they presented a vegan line of frozen foods there. They had all kinds of paperwork. It looked like they had given a laser light show presentation.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, you know, he probably thought that obviously the packaging and the design, you know, it was completely underwhelming, which I agree with. But I think he was intrigued by the story, the fact that I had developed this formula that tasted good, that all of these ingredients were in there, and he gave me a chance.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Not at all. No, not only was it not there in Expo West, but I remember when I was sick and beyond there, I would call all of these random companies in the United States and beyond in the world to see if anyone was doing it.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“He tried the drink, he liked the flavor profile, and said, Can you come out to Austin? And six weeks later I was on a flight to Austin, Texas.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Continued anyone that would give me just a couple minutes, I would tell them about the product, try to tell them a little bit about the story and the genesis of it. And the show went on. And one guy came up to me and spent five minutes with me. And I told him the story, what we're doing, the plan. And he said, can you come share it with me? And I said, absolutely, I'd love to. And I thought he was maybe a physical therapist in the Anaheim area. And he turned his badge and he ended up being the global buyer for Whole Foods.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I remember that moment sticking in my head that now my new goal was that I was going to come back next year. To be honest, we looked a bit foolish and we weren't buttoned up. I mean, people are wearing matching uniforms. Some of these boots have like two or three floors, right? It's just. So I'm sitting here with my blank packaging looking up and wondering, okay, what am I doing?”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, it's funny because, as you say, that I remember a moment where there was a guy that I spoke with on the side. He didn't know I was presenting at the show. And he had been there for 10 years and he was telling me about it. And I was listening in earnest. And he said, you know, you have this guy over here that's selling this iced tea, that wants to take on these big iced tea companies. He goes, over here, there's this other guy that has some organic nutrition drink that wants to take on these big pharmaceutical companies. He goes, these guys aren't going to be here next year is what he said. And he was talking about me.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I'm with my wife, and she looks at me and she goes, We got to go. This is not what we expected. And I said, I know, but we paid $5,000. It's non-refundable. And we're going to set up right there. And we're going to talk to people about this.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I had nothing other than a formula in blank packaging and a name, and I see these massive booths being put together. Some of them look like small homes.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's right. It's one of the biggest natural food shows in the world, and it just so happened to be a few weeks after we came back from Texas. And it just so happened to be 15 minutes from my home. So I called them and I don't even know what this, I thought it was like a farmer's market. I don't know anything about it. And I sign up to register. And it's $5,000 for a booth. And it was, you know, for me, that was a lot of money at the time. But I thought, look, I got to get this out there. I'll just sign up and go, really not knowing what to expect. So I sign up for Expo West. Three weeks later, they have a load-in day where you're loading in. And I didn't know what that meant because I'm walking in with two chairs and a folding table.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I didn't know. And to be honest, I flew home. I asked my food scientist, and he's, like you said, he's a food scientist. He makes the product and you're on your own after that. So first thing I'd need to do is come up with a name. And the name came to me while I was driving one day. I wanted it to have the word organic in it. And I thought about what people would benefit from this. People would gain health. They would gain energy. They would gain life. And I combined organic and gain into this word organ that would stick. So I had a name and I had a formula. And that's all I had. So when I came back to California, I was talking to people, researching online. And someone told me, you know, there's this trade show that just so happens to be in three weeks in Anaheim, California called Expo West.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, and I thought that was going to be our demographic. It was going to be people in the hospital, people that had GI issues, maybe someone that had their wisdom teeth removed and couldn't eat for a few days. That's what I initially thought would be the demographic and where this product would go.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Not at all. I wish it was like that. So we had to ship all of our ingredients in. We had like dehydrated, freeze-dried fruits and vegetables. We had organic proteins. We had everything just shipped and we would experiment. And the other thing is no one had made inorganic ready-to-drink shake it. It had never been done before. So it was unchartered territory.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“He's based in New Jersey. But the place where you trial these is in Texas, and he met me out there, and we developed some concepts and prototypes before. We tried a bunch of them. They all tasted absolutely horrible in the beginning. One formula that came off the machine, I take a sip and I said, this is delicious. And I was so happy that we were able to finally get all of these ingredients in and have it be enjoyable”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Just searched and searched online and was calling random food scientists and I didn't know who was good or who was bad. But this was the one guy that was willing to talk to me. So in my mind, he was great. And he ended up being excellent.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's right. I actually had no idea what would have go in. I wasn't sure, is it a tetrapack? Is it a bottle? I didn't even know the difference. But, you know, I contacted food scientists all over the United States, got a lot of rejections, of course, you know, and I got a lot of crazy quotes on how much it would cost and what was involved. And there was one food scientist that clicked with me, and we became very good friends. And he said, you know, why don't you meet me in Texas? Let's run a trial together with these different options and see what happens.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, this was going to be a little side business. I would sell it online. You know, I thought how hard could it possibly be? I would do this on the side, and then I would practice medicine during the day.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Correct. So, my wife has her master's in holistic nutrition, and we basically took out a plate and we asked ourselves what would we want in a perfect meal? Let's work backwards. And I wanted to take that concept and put it in a ready to drink shake for patients. So we wanted to have organic protein, organic complex carbs, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and we laid it all out and developed organ.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, conventional nutritional shakes ensure. And I said, I would tell them no, please, this shake changed my life. And I would give them this long list of ingredients. Go buy a blender, blend all of these together. It's going to change your life the same way it changed mine. The issue was compliance out of 20 people. Maybe one would do it. So I knew that giving them this list of ingredients and having them blend them was not the answer. It wasn't going to be a sustainable solution for my patients.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Didn't not in medical school, it was really during that first year of residency, and I never thought of it as a business. I thought of it as a need. So I had patients asking me for more protein, hey, I'm on the go all the time. I'm looking for more nutrition. Is there something I could just grab?”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's right. And during medical school, I remember we had about two weeks of nutrition, and it was very high level and we went through it, and then it was done. And I remember going up to one of my professors afterwards and said, you know, do we get nutrition again? Do we go through that again in a little bit more depth? And he looked at me and he said, nope, that's it. And I was completely floored. I thought that nutrition was going to be one of the cornerstones of medical school, one of the things that we talk about the most for prevention. But it ended up being something that they just had to check the box and move on to the next thing.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Went right into medical school with the intent still, of course, to take over my dad's practice and really make sure that I was going to live up to his dream and my dream that I would be taking over his big practice that he had built in Long Beach.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I was a pre med student there. I arrived late, so I was a couple semesters behind, but I started there, yes. And that I ended up finishing college early. Because I didn't want cancer to be the reason why I would be set back in life. But I was certainly watching my diet very, very closely and applying all of the learnings that I had.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, it would have to be liquid. I had a very tough time with food. Even the foods that I loved before, I couldn't even tolerate the smell of them. So my mom and I went out. We purchased a blender and every day, you know, we'd go to the market, buy organic fruits, organic veggies, organic protein sources, mix them all together and blend them together five to six a day. And I would drink these. I can't tell you that they tasted delicious, but the one thing that I noticed is that I started to feel a little bit better. And then I started to gain a little bit of weight. And I gained some more energy.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, and that's the irony of all of this, actually not only my family, but I would say medicine in general puts very little emphasis on nutrition versus medication. And I think for me, like we have this full medicine cabinet in our kitchen. And even during my residency, before I took out a prescription and wrote a script, we would talk about diet and exercise. But in a different way where it was really tangible.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“When you're healthy, let alone when you're sick. I was referring to high fructose corn syrup, sugar, genetically modified meltodextrin from corn, genetically modified soy protein, artificial flavors, preservatives. And I saw these shakes. Everyone had them. All the kids around me on the pediatric floor had them. I saw them all throughout the hospital. So I was under the impression that it was good for you. But the more I read, the more I realized that even though it said nutrition shake on the front, it was anything but nutritious.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, that's exactly right. As I was reading these books and reading these ingredients that I should put in my body, these foods that I should be consuming, I was also reading about ingredients that I shouldn't be consuming. And the more I read, the more it opened up my eyes, and the more I realized that these conventional shakes that I were drinking were actually full of all of the ingredients they're telling me not to put in your body.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Exactly right. It gave me some control and it gave me a lot of hope. And between those two things, that's why I ended up reading 150 books that year because I wanted as much, I needed as much hope and I wanted as much control as possible.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Know, I put very little weight on with them, but I was maintaining my weight with them, but I felt horrible I didn't feel well. And that's what set me on this journey. So, you know, one day I picked up a book and this book was about nutrition. This book was called something along the lines of prescription for nutritional healing or prescriptions for nutritional healing. I didn't know what it was about, but I picked up this book and I started reading the first 10 pages and I was hooked. Integrative medicine, nutrition, but not just fats, carbs, and protein, more like metabolic health.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And of course, my mom heard this, and she went out and bought every flavor imaginable, flavors I didn't even know existed, and came home. And I can't tell you how happy she'd be when I would consume one of these because it would give her a little bit of joy knowing that her son was at least getting some nutrition.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And it was that point where my doctor said, We need to get calories in you. They were hooking me up to IVs that had nutrition in them, but he said, I need you to consume your calories through liquid. And he handed me a bottle of the conventional shake insure with a stack of coupons and said, I need you to drink as many of these as you can per day.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, that's exactly right. I mean, it really takes a toll in every way. You know, my weight kept dropping cycle after cycle. My weight would drop, you know, five pounds, three pounds. So I was 140 pounds or so, and then I got down to 130, then 110, then about 100 pounds.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Extremely difficult. Absolutely. Absolutely While I was getting hooked up to an IV infusion on one floor, my dad was being wheeled in to the OR above me to have his kidney removed. And my poor mom, of course, was between upstairs and downstairs between the two of us. So, you know, I would say to say that year was extremely difficult would be an understatement.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I stopped school. Yes. I was in the hospital getting IV infusions for seventy two hours. I would stay in the hospital. I was nauseous, I was vomiting, I had no energy, I was in bed, and that went on for 12 months As you can imagine, it was a very trying time on my family and I, and my father was with me, and my mom was with me every step of the way. And my dad would tell me I'm praying not that God takes away this cancer. I'm just praying that He gives it to me. And on the first day of my chemotherapy treatment, I woke up and I heard my dad in pain. It turns out that my dad on the first day of chemotherapy that I had, he was rushed to the hospital with severe flank pain, back pain, and was diagnosed with kidney cancer.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I will tell you that this is an interesting thing. My father, I'd always ask him, like, Dad, you know, what are my chances? And he would say, it's 99%. He'd always say it's 99%. You're going to be just fine. And then when I turned 18, I turned 18 midway through my treatment. They had to, by law, come in and tell me, you know, answer any questions that I had. And I asked the nurse, can you give me an idea of my prognosis? And it was in the high 20s So I liked my dad's answer a lot better and what he would tell me. So I stuck with that in my mind. But the prognosis was very poor. I had to undergo chemotherapy, radiation, additional surgery. And it was a year long of just the most intensive chemotherapy one can imagine.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And at the age of 17, I felt like kind of the world stopped when he said that because I didn't believe him. But again, I didn't know what that meant. And I thought, okay, let's just remove this and can I move on? And the answer ended up being much more complicated, unfortunately.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Told my dad about it, he took a look and said, You know, if it doesn't go away by tomorrow, let's get it checked out. It doesn't seem like anything, but let's just be sure. Sure enough, it didn't go away. And next day we went to a doctor to get an opinion. And he said, well, we should take a biopsy just to be sure. And that biopsy, you know, they took the biopsy. We waited a few days. I got called back into the doctor's office. And the doctor tells me, you know, that we took this biopsy a few days ago. Unfortunately, you have a rapidly aggressive cancer called Rhabdomyosarom.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, it was right January 1999, right in the middle of my senior year of high school. So I'm the captain of the tennis team. I'm playing varsity tennis, applying to colleges. My grades are good. I'm feeling the best I've ever felt in my life, really. Come January 1999, I was taking a shower and I feel this little lump in my abdomen. And I didn't think anything of it, but I thought maybe I should just mention it to my father.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, for sure. And I think it goes back to that just kind of unconditional love that he gave me. He was very busy. He worked extremely hard. He always made time for me, though. In particular, my parents wanted me to be a doctor. My uncles were doctors, cousins were doctors. My dad was a doctor. He was building a practice. So at a very young age, basically, I was told, look, you could be anything you want, choose any career you want as long as you become a doctor and follow in your father's footsteps. But, you know, I don't even know if it was really being the doctor part that really attracted me. It was I just wanted to be him. I wanted to emulate him. I loved everything about what this guy did on a daily basis. So for sure, like I saw him as a superhero, if I'm being honest.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Came here with nothing and opened a very small practice with what little funds he had. And so he treated everybody. So even though he was a pediatrician, there was adults that would go to him. And he was just the community doctor. And he was the hardest working, most humble guy and would treat people for free all of the time. And he treated people for free when he didn't have really a penny to his name. And it stuck with me in such a big way.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Because I was a one man show, I was the customer service guy. So anyone that would call me, they would ask me a question. I would answer very thoroughly, give them a wonderful answer. And they would ask me, you know, what's your name? And I would say, Andrew. And they would say, okay, well, thank you so much, Andrew. But are you not the Andrew on the back of the package, are you? And I would say, yes, I am, actually. And many people thought that was great, but others didn't think it was that great because you're not a big company anymore, right? Are you running this from your garage?”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT