How Better Blend Makes Healthy Fast Food Feel Easy with Isaac Hamlin

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This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together.
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Here's your host, Deborah Coviello.
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Hello and welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast Live.
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Are you in need of healthy fast food?
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That business may be closer than you think.
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And today it is my honor to introduce to you your good neighbor, Isaac Hamlin of Better Blend.
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How's it going today?
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It's going great.
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Thanks for having me.
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Yeah, I think this is going to be a great conversation.
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I've looked a bit about your business.
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I'm really excited to hear the story, but I am going to pass the mic back over to you.
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We'd love to know more about you and your business.
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Yeah, sure.
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So I'll tell you a little bit kind of about Better Blend and then we can kind of dive into the backstory of all of it if that sounds good to you.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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Perfect.
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So basically, from a nutset from a nutshell, uh Better Blend as a business is a smoothie shop, but they do things a little bit differently.
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We really focus on nutrition facts and creating something that's fast, easy, efficient.
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It tastes like it's bad for you, but it's good for you, and getting as much of that good stuff into a cup or a bowl as possible.
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Uh, we also want to be a kind of a third space for people to come and be welcomed to be their most empowered selves.
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So there's also the happier aspect of better blend and the healthier aspect of Better Blend.
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So um kind of how this all started, if you want to segue right into that.
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Absolutely.
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Let's go.
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It was uh it was eight years ago, and um actually it was a little longer than eight years ago.
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I was a senior at the University of Kentucky, and I was playing rugby.
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And if you don't know what rugby is, it's kind of like football without pads, mix of soccer in there.
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It's a strange sport.
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But I was a uh I was a pretty good rugby player.
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Like I was big and fast and strong, but there was something missing in my game, and I realized that it was my nutrition.
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Because we used to have pregame meals like spaghetti meatballs and pork chopped smashed potatoes and chipotle, whatever it might be.
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And for some people, that was fine, but for me, it really weighed on me.
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So I started to think, what's the most efficient way I can get all the nutrients I need into my bloodstream?
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And I started looking at smoothies.
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And I don't know if you know this or not, but most smoothies in the industry aren't super healthy for you.
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They, you know, they got a lot of calories, a lot of sugar, not a lot of nutrients to make up for uh what you're ingesting.
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So I started to think, what can I get or what can I do to get everything I need in a healthy meal into a cup?
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And I started coming up with some really nasty smoothies, just grass clippings and concrete.
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They weren't healthy, but they weren't, they weren't tasty.
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And the beauty of being 22 and trying to do something on your own is everybody will help and talk to you.
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So I made every connection, every phone call I could, people in the industry, um, anybody who wouldn't who would help me create this better, different smoothie.
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And after a bunch of iterations later, I finally came up with the first blend, which was the oatmeal raising cookie with the banana, which is still on our menu today.
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It's under the OG.
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And um it worked.
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I ended up being SEC All-American my senior year, and I realized that there was a market for this kind of thing because the world cares about how they look, but more importantly, they care about how they feel.
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And again, if I could create something else fast, easy, efficient, it tastes like it's bad for you, but it's good for you, we could help the world eat healthier, right?
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We got be healthier.
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So armed with my big idea, I moved back to northern Kentucky, that's where I'm from, and I go to Banks and I say, Hey, you know, I've got this big idea.
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Smoothies haven't really changed in a hundred years.
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They've always been sugar, fruit, juices, and ice, and I've got a way to change all that.
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And they were like, Cool, kid, we don't care.
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I was a 22-year-old kid.
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I'm pitching him a restaurant with no collateral.
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They were just like, good idea, kid, best of luck.
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And long story short, I didn't get any funding for it.
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So I did what I don't recommend any entrepreneur to do.
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I went and uh maxed out eight entry-level credit cards.
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I worked at Amazon at night and we built the first better blend during the day with my family uh in the spring of 2018.
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Um and then June 22nd, 2018, rolled around, we opened the first better blend in Florence, Kentucky.
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And uh since then we have 20 locations and 11 food trucks.
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And it has been uh we're in Kentucky, Ohio, and uh we just opened in Tampa, Florida.
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And that's our story.
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Oh, wow.
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Um, I mean, just it's a wonderful story.
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You could you nail that you must be saying this like a hundred times a day, but no, but it's great.
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I mean, obviously you're the owner, you're the creator, and uh you're the best marketing tool for this end today.
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But what I really like going back a bit when you talked about is that it's not just you know healthy body, but I I heard kind of like healthy mind, culture, happiness.
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I mean, how did that all weave in?
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Obviously, you could just provide a product, but it also sounds like you provide a bit of an experience.
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Yeah, the there's something called the better blend feel that we don't really have like a perfect name for or perfect uh recipe for, but it's a way you feel when you walk into someplace and it feels like uh we actually we call it our Saturday dinner philosophy.
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And we want people to feel like you're inviting guests into your home for Saturday dinner.
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And I always use this analogy, like everyone's had people over to their house, and I'm like, when your best friend walks through the door, you don't say, Hi, how are you?
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What can I get for you today?
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Right?
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You mention you you comment something about their sunglasses or what they're wearing or what they did last week or their ski shirt they're taking with their family, or something that makes them feel welcome and empowered and truly feel like they're in a place where they belong, especially when it comes to healthy eating, where there's so many people that are starting their health and wellness journey.
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And Better Blend, having flavors like brownie batter and peanut butter pie and having 250 calories and a full serving of protein, that's a great segue for those people, for anyone to come in and help with their health journey.
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But if we're cold to them, if we're not welcoming to them, if whatever capacity we don't make them feel like a million dollars, then we can have an adverse effect on their health journey and their life.
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And I think that's a lot of weight that we get to carry and a lot of pride we get to carry that we get to help people.
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I think it's a great differentiator, obviously, you know, product to meet a particular need.
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Um, but also again, you know, you can buy the product once, buy the product twice.
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Okay, I've done that, and you know, they may move on.
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But that feeling, that connectivity with the human the human person, when thinking about, hey, let's go hang out, hey, let's meet up, you would be top of mind because you know it's a welcoming, warm environment.
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Right.
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Such a cool business model.
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I love that.
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But um, obviously there's a lot of pluses here, a lot of positives.
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You've created a great business model, but also this is an opportunity to educate our listeners and um our viewers.
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Um, you know, any myths or misconceptions or anything you want to dispel uh about uh the industry uh in terms of smoothies, blends, bottles and stuff.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, I mean, I I again I never like to throw any shade on any competitors, but the smoothie industry for the last hundred years has not really changed.
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Um I always encourage people to just check the nutrition facts, check those macros, you know, calories, fat, sugars, carbs, um, all of those things, and really understand what's going into the products that they're ingesting.
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Because I think the younger generation, especially, I think it's really bleeding into every generation.
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We're starting to realize that time is our most valuable commodity.
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And how you feel in the time and the core memories you make, or whatever it might be, what we ingest and how it makes us feel is a direct reflection of how that time passes and how we feel in those experiences.
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And I think people are starting to make more or higher ROI decisions of like, this is gonna taste good, it's gonna fill me up, but it's gonna be healthy, is is climbing on the scale of restaurant decisions.
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And I always encourage, because there's a lot of there's a lot of businesses out there that aren't super transparent about health.
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And I'm just encouraged to do your research fully when you're making those decisions.
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Um shape anyway, but yes.
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No, I mean, again, we have to be educated consumers um because again, time money uh is uh a precious commodity.
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So, you know, the the other thing I want I'm curious about, you've obviously been successful, uh, maybe uh uh not necessarily an overnight success, a lot of sweat, tears, and time put in.
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Um, but like how do how have you grown your business?
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Like how what is your target?
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We we know what your target market is, but how do you get the word out?
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How do you market?
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How do you people find you?
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Yeah, great question.
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So um, you know, we do a lot of social media stuff, we do a lot of um, we really focus on field marketing, word of mouth, but we deal with two things that are a little unique business-wise, especially from a restaurant standpoint.
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Um, we have an ambassador program where basically uh we can have uh micro influencers.
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Um, we will exchange gift cards and in exchange for content.
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So basically we get to rent their audience for a few months and they post about BetterBlood and what they like or dislike, they answer questions to anybody who reaches out to them.
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And it really lets us let them be an ambassador and spread that education about health food and better blend in particular.
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And kind of the second thing that we do, which is really unorthodox, but we started doing food trucks last year and we got a bunch of them.
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And what we noticed really quickly was not only are food trucks a good revenue machine, but they are the ultimate brand awareness growth like lever.
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And when people are going out in their communities and they're trying to think of ways to bring new customers into their door, there's no more efficient option than to sell them a product and then explain to them what they're eating and then tell you where they can find you next.
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Because not only are you you have the revenue from the bowl that you sell, you have the conversation, the connection piece from the conversation, and you're able to drive them back to your store.
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It's like the perfect conversion piece for a new market when people have no idea who you are.
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And it's like the most expensive and most effective business card in the world as a food truck, especially when you have a brick and mortar that pairs with it.
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And we've seen a lot of success with that.
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Now, I'm just gonna ask another question because I know this is something that I had to do for building my business.
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You seem to have nailed it again in both the creative ways of marketing as well as all the social media, but you're a tremendous mouthpiece for the business.
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And I do see you do a bit of video on your social media.
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Um, have you ever thought about your own podcast as another lever to pull in that marketing strategy?
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Absolutely.
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We actually were having this conversation this morning about um with our marketing team.
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And over the next few years, there there will be a shift into uh myself creating a lot more content and having a lot more of these conversations.
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So I that's also why I'm very thankful that you would have me on to have a conversation with me here.
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Now, and again, you you show up really well.
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Uh so again, you make it easy for me.
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You know how to sell your business really, really well.
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Um, but the other thing, obviously, you're very personable.
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It's been very enjoyable to talk to you, but to know a little bit more about you.
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Now we know you do rugby, we know where you went to school, but what do you do for fun or your hobbies outside of work?
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So I I love being with friends and family.
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Um, family is also part of the business, which is super, super special.
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My sister is my CMO.
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Um, my mom helps her out.
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My dad is wise counselor and he also fixes everything when it breaks.
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So it's great to get out with them and to explore and um share a nice dinner or or travel with them.
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But also I really love to be competitive.
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I think business is the ultimate competition, so I'm in the right space.
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But when I'm not doing this or I'm not hanging out with friends or family, I I want to be competing in some capacity, whether it's like soccer, pickleball, playing the occasional rugby match.
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Um, I really, really enjoy just that.
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And I ever I always have since I was young, and I don't think that'll ever go away as long as I can keep running and jumping and throwing.
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Well, when we're done with this, I've got some other suggestions for areas for you and your family to compete, but more to come after the show.
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So um so so Isaac, I I mean I love this conversation, but we want to make it short and sweet.
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But the other thing though is um, you know, people remember this has been a great conversation, but often they'll remember the last thing that they heard and felt.
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So I'd love for you to share with our listeners, you know, one more thing that or a parting thought that you want to leave with them uh about better blend.
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Hmm.
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Parting thought about a better blend.
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Or just one thing that they should remember you by.
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Oh, yeah.
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I mean, just from a holistic standpoint and what we believe in, uh, we are very community focused and people focused.
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Um, nothing matters more to us than the empowering stories we get from our customers, whether it is um an encouraging word that they found on a cup.
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We write on all of our cups, little encouraging things, because you never know what somebody's going through.
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And we've gotten thousands of messages like, you have no idea what I was going through.
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I saw these three words and it completely changed my day.
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Little things like that to big things like people losing 80 pounds uh going or drinking, eating better blood.
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Um, people that are having horrible days and their their week or day or whatever is uplifted because we were able to have that connection relationship with them.
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Um, we've had a lot of people going through cancer remission, and a lot of people we've lost a few people to cancer as well.
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And it's always special to be able to be there for people during their lowest times for us, because our our goal is to help people and our goal is to change the world one person at a time.
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And um, we have an awesome team to do that.
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So I always encourage people to come in, say hi, uh, have a blender a bowl and and feel that for themselves.
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Such a great parting message.
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And again, you get sometimes I get chills when I listen to our guests' uh you know, words, but this is not the end.
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And and obviously, um, this has been a great conversation.
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Where should people find out more uh about Better Blend?
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Yeah, so you can find one of our 20 locations in Kentucky, Ohio, or in Tampa, actually Brandon, Ohio, right outside of Tampa.
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We also have 11 food trucks.
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You can go to our website, uh it's www.betterblend.com.
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You can also go to enter social medias, reach out to us there.
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We're always monitoring that stuff and we'd love to have a conversation.
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All right.
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Well, Isaac, this has been uh a great conversation.
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I can't wait to continue it with you.
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Uh, but I just want to wish you and all your customers and future customers uh and your business the best moving forward.
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Thank you so much.
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Thanks for having me.
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Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast.
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To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpsincennati.com.
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That's gnpsincennati.com or call 513 878 0987.