This episode of Side Hustle Spotlight Q&A features Orlando entrepreneur Sean Hall. Hall has launched several ventures in the “better-for-you CPG space,” including his latest protein powder company All right. Responses have been edited for length and clarity.
Image Source: Courtesy of Wellious. Sean Hall.
When did you begin pursuing this side hustle and what was your full-time job at the time?
I began Wellious in late 2021 as a side hustle while I used to be working full-time as the owner of a digital publishing company called TOFM Media, which produced online publications about food and wellness.
What inspired you to start out Wellious as a side hustle?
In early 2021, I used to be struggling with health issues that made me more aware of what I used to be consuming. I spotted that my protein powder contained the same harmful ingredients I used to be attempting to avoid in my junk food. I believed it was unbearable that our “health products” were actually harmful to our health. So I became a total nerd when it got here to developing a protein powder made with just a few real food ingredients.
After putting in 1000’s of hours of nights and weekends after working full time, I created Wellious. It was truly the purest and tastiest plant-based protein powder I had ever tasted. I knew I needed to share it with the world, so I began working on gently introducing it to the market as a side hustle.
How much effort did we put into creating the Wellious product?
People may not know this, but many foods and supplements are developed by the same labs for multiple brands, which ends up in little or no innovation. I needed something that did not exist yet, so I needed to develop it myself. I’ve been in the food industry for a decade, have developed many products, and am a student of cooking and nutrition, so it was in my power to figure it out.
I used to be fascinated by almond protein, where we take California almonds, cold press the saturated fats (oils), then dry and mill them to get almond protein that is high in protein per gram and calories. This provides a natural source of plant protein with amazing flavor and texture and so many dietary functions. Then I combined that with chickpea protein to perfectly balance the amino acid profile and enhance the dietary profile.
Almost all protein powder brands use artificial or “natural” flavors to flavor their powders. “Natural flavors” are ambiguous white powders that will be made from anything under the sun to by some means taste like chocolate or vanilla—while scientifically cool, why use chocolate-flavored animal parts when cocoa exists? (They do it because it’s so much cheaper and easier.) But I’ve tried dozens of the best cocoas from around the world, then created my very own proprietary mix of cocoa to get the perfect balance of pH levels, fat content, and flavor profiles. I’ve done something similar with vanilla, even meeting with vanilla experts to speak for hours about vanilla beans.
Finally, I committed to sweetening with monk fruit, which is 400 times dearer than the alternatives. It is the most natural sweetener on the planet, with no known stomach upsetting properties. I attempted dozens of sorts and found the purest I could find.
I still source all my ingredients myself, as near the farm as possible, applying rigorous quality standards.
We third-party test every batch of product. When I say Wellious is “clean,” it’s not only a trendy value proposition; quite, it’s a commitment to creating one of the healthiest products on the market.
In the end, I designed the entire production process from scratch, including packaging design and pricing. Many times, this has all been outsourced, but as a bootstrapped side project, I did every single element myself and didn’t spend a dime until the first production run.
Photo credit: Courtesy of Wellious
You began with $3,000 and an Instagram post. What happened after that?
Yes! I spent $3,000 on initial ingredients to make about 250 bags. I made about 50 of them at a local business kitchen, had all my business licenses, and a website up and running…so it was time to “launch.”
Honestly, the plan was to post about it and nothing would occur that may give me time to build out the actual production and execution infrastructure and come up with a rollout plan.
But inside 20 minutes of that Instagram post, orders began pouring in. That may seem to be an “obvious” thing, but apart from my mom, I didn’t expect people to be so interested immediately. People immediately reached out, saying, “Wow, I’ve been looking for something like this.”
The coolest thing was that inside two weeks, people from all over the United States were buying products on the website, and individuals who bought a bag at the launch got here back to purchase two more bags because they were “smitten.”
Since launch, demand has continued to grow, mainly because we have an incredibly high re-order rate and also because it is a product that individuals need to share with their friends, on social media and sometimes with their thousands and thousands of followers.
How did you grow the business and how long did it take before it became a full-time business?
I moved into co-packing so we could produce enough product, launched on Amazon, gifted products to influencers, and created content on TikTok and other social media sharing my story of why I began this business. Orders grew week after week, and truthfully, I spent most of my time attempting to determine how we could produce twice as much product in each production cycle. My family and I shipped 1000’s of orders ourselves. I used to be still running my other business, so there have been a lot of late nights and I worked most weekends too.
The momentum was hard to disregard. We had celebrities buying and requesting the product, content going viral on TikTok, major influencers posting that Wellious was the best product they’d tried, and major retailers reaching out to us.
It was incredibly cool, but the customer feedback was the biggest reason I went all in. Every day people would reach out and tell me how this product was a game changer, the way it was the only protein that didn’t cause bloating and cramping for them, that their members of the family with dietary restrictions finally had a product they might enjoy and that their picky kids had been asking for, that Wellious had helped them through pregnancy, and other amazing stories.
After about six months, I began focusing full time on Wellious and then began running my previous business on evenings and weekends.
What were the biggest challenges you faced in turning your side hustle into a full-time business and how did you overcome them?
Time and money. There are literally tons of obstacles to beat every day, but without time and money, many of them can make the hard struggle seem inconceivable.
We sold out of product eight times. It took weeks to get it back because of the long lead times and how long I had to attend to have the opportunity to afford the runs.
We needed to turn down retail opportunities because I could not handle that much business on my very own.
There are never enough hours in the day, even if you’re employed full time, so dealing with this after hours was very difficult.
I have been incredibly fortunate to have struggled with the issue of too much demand, but even so, saying no is a huge stress for me and requires me to maneuver much slower than the opportunities that present themselves allow.
I got through all of it by focusing on being grateful that things were going well. Keeping a positive perspective makes all the things more digestible.
Other than that, it was consistent, disciplined work. When you have 100 hours of tasks to finish to get over that next hurdle, and your time and resources are limited, all you possibly can do is sit down as often as you possibly can and get the work done. I might log in at 8 p.m. and work for three hours—I might spend my entire Saturday working on it. Slowly but surely, I made progress and got what I needed to do done.
It’s definitely not for everyone, but I actually love this job. It’s a creative challenge that I can not wait to get through.
How is Wellious’ growth and revenue looking now?
We are currently growing 600% 12 months over 12 months. We are now doing six figures monthly and will do thousands and thousands in revenue in the next 12 months.
When you think about the way forward for Wellious, what are you most looking forward to?
Creating the best product and user experience possible for customers. I imagine in consistently improving products and working like crazy to make Wellious higher. I also want people to enjoy the experience of shopping for, using our product and becoming a part of our community.
If we will achieve excellence in all of those points on a large scale, all the other cool stuff will fall into place.
What is the best advice you possibly can give to aspiring entrepreneurs who want to start out their very own side business or go into business full-time?
One of my favorite business philosophies is, “The only real failure is not trying at all.”
$3,000 was still a risk for me, and I considered not starting the business. What a shame!
It’s necessary to turn into obsessive about creating a product that actually solves a problem or deserves to exist. Don’t start something because “it seems like a money-making opportunity,” but quite because you think you possibly can create something that’s truly unique.
But either way, none of this matters if it’s just theory, so put it into practice! Learn, repeat, and work until your side hustle becomes your important job—whether that’s 10 months or 10 years. There’s no timetable for chasing a dream.