Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in nutritional supplements but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Tyrone Faverey, Founder of Revolutionary Supplements, located in Dallas, TX, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
Revolutionary Supplements is a performance-based supplement brand focused on revolutionizing the minds and bodies of the urban community. As a subset of RevolutionaryFitness USA, which is a fitness lifestyle platform touching various aspects of fitness, our mission is to provide nutritional, health, and fitness resources to a world that needs it the most and isn't talked about.
Our vessel to reach this community is through hip-hop music/culture and popular trends. We need to meet our demographic where it is, which is under the influence of sports athletes, hip hop/R&B musicians, producers, urban influencers, etc. As a minority-owned business, we find it our responsibility to do everything we can to break the vicious cycle of undernutrition that plagues the underserved.
Tell us about yourself
I started my fitness journey years before RevolutionaryFitness USA was born. Growing up, I was an athlete playing soccer, basketball, and track and field. Basketball, which I played through high school, was my passion but genetics just weren't on my side. I had athleticism and jumping ability but just never developed well enough to play in college. Track and Field was easy for me as I had a natural ability to jump over the moon. With a 40-inch vertical, high jump just made sense. After my time at college, I didn't really touch a weight room for about six years. I got content with my lifestyle, drinking often, eating pizza, Chinese food, and fried wings almost every night. It wasn't until I saw a picture of myself that I realized something needed to change. This began my fitness journey. I learned what a gym buddy was valued at, as without one, my workouts didn't exist.
Fast forward four years, my family and I moved to Puerto Rico, and that's when I was forced to look at life differently. From quitting my job, where I was excelling greatly, to going to an island for an undetermined amount of time to support my wife's career was a whole new world for me. I didn't know what I would do professionally because we had a two-year-old at the time that needed looking after, but I was no stay-at-home dad. I knew this about myself. The short time I was forced to be almost left me with the Michael Jordan haircut. My wife saw how crazy I was going and suggested that I look at doing something professionally again.
In mid-2020, when the world was on fire, the George Floyd incident had just picked up steam, and the national protests started happening. Being in Puerto Rico, so far away from family and friends, my wife and I felt helpless to support them. It was at this very moment did I decide to start RevolutionaryFitness USA. I wanted to create a platform that would focus on providing resources to the urban community in a way that could help change lives.
Knowing how far we came from starting to where we are now is what keeps me going every day. The more people we speak to and tell our story to, the more people see our vision and what we stand for. Right now, our focus is on building out our supplement brand to help people understand the importance of supplementation and how it can become an aid in your everyday life. Erasing the negative stigma around supplements being scary or bad for you keeps us motivated. We want to spread correct information and be looked at as a credible source for people to learn from.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
To date, our biggest accomplishment is securing our brand ambassador, Julius "The Chef" Jackson. Julius is a former professional boxer, 2008 Olympian, professional chef, and business owner who, after learning about our organization and what we represent, decided to join the core team to be the face of our company. Since having him on board, our supplement sales, sponsorship opportunities, and customer engagement have increased. Julius is from the beautiful island of St. Thomas and is very well connected from his days in boxing. He has also opened the door for future opportunities that will be announced before the end of the year.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
One of the toughest aspects of being a business owner is dealing with rejection and decision-making. I honestly love what I do every day. I create long-lasting relationships and strategic partnerships to propel the company forward. But with that comes the heavy crown. If the wrong decision is made at the wrong time, all the blocks could come tumbling down, which I am very mindful of at all times. Should we decide to work with a major influencer and spend a chunk of money on that relationship, then they get into the bad press, well, that could crush us. The art of navigating the unknown in a space that isn't knowledgeable of your products can be challenging.
Additionally, the exhaustion of knocking on doors over and over again, only for people to waste your time and not see the vision is frustrating but eye-opening. It's all perspective. You could either let that kill your momentum or look at it as an opportunity to fine-tune your message and come back even stronger the next time something presents itself.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- Start the process - A lot of us will have great ideas or products and can't get out of our own way. We tend to over-analyze potential situations or statistics and forget to start the process. Yes, market research and proper analysis are essential to success, but I have seen too many people quit there and never bring the business to life. Make actionable steps to get the train moving, knock out the big stuff first and keep going.
- Network - Tell everyone and anyone that will listen about your BUSINESS, not your ideas. Once you are ready for sales or servicing, you will be surprised by the doors that will open from a conversation you had with someone at the grocery store. These doors will open when you are ready for them to, so don't rush the process. People tend to get the concept of sharing ideas and sharing their business confused. When you share ideas too soon with no action behind them, people may steal them, but if you share your business at the right time when it's ready, networks start to open.
- Never stop learning - I am actually just now realizing that in order to become the best at what you do, you need to learn from all different types of people in your industry or positions. Kanye West once said, "I don't listen to people older than me anymore; I listen to the youth" There is some truth in this. People tend to go to the accomplished first and "pick their brain" on the dos and don'ts. This is a great strategy; however, these people have already done what you are trying to do and may have succeeded in a different time when reaching people wasn't the same. It is also important to learn from people who are in the trenches with you. Your competition, peers, family, friends, etc., are all opportunities for insight and help with improvements. The things they see will help you learn what your customers are seeing and how to cater more towards creating an optimized experience for them.
Is there anything else you'd like to share?
The goal of RevolutionaryFitness USA is to help people understand the value of living a healthy and fit lifestyle. We want this message to spread throughout the world, starting with the urban community, as they have been plagued the most with unhealthy habits. We want to be a staple in the music industry and entertainment as the number one resource for nutrition, health, and fitness.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://revsupps.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/revsupps
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/revsupps/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/revfitusa
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