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In this Side Hustle Spotlight Q&A, we feature Sean Hall, an Orlando-based entrepreneur who has launched several ventures in the “good-for-you CPG space,” including his latest, a protein powder company. WeliusAnswers have been edited for length and clarity.
Image courtesy of Wellious, courtesy of Sean Hall.
When did you start your side hustle and what was your full-time job at that point?
I launched Wellious in late 2021 as a side business while working full time running a digital publishing company called TOFM Media, an online food and health publication.
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What inspired you to start Wellious as a side business?
At the beginning of 2021, I was going through some personal health challenges that made me especially conscious of what I was eating. I realized that the protein powders I was consuming contained the same harmful ingredients I was trying to avoid in my junk food. I found it unbearable that our “healthy foods” were actually bad for me. So I became obsessed with developing a protein powder made from just a few real food ingredients.
After thousands of hours spent working nights and weekends after my full-time job, I created Wellious. It was the cleanest, tastiest plant-based protein powder I’d ever tried. I knew I had to share it with the world, so I began working towards a soft launch as a side hustle.
What did it take to develop Wellious’ product?
“You may not know this, but many food and supplement products are developed in the same labs for multiple brands, resulting in very little innovation. I needed something that didn’t exist yet, so I had to develop it myself. I’ve worked in the food industry for 10 years, developed multiple products, and studied cooking and nutrition, so figuring this out was right up my alley.”
I fell in love with almond protein. We cold press California almonds to remove the saturated fat (oil), then dry and grind them to create almond protein that is high in protein and calories per gram. This gives us great taste, texture and a highly nutritious source of natural plant protein. We then combine this with chickpea protein to perfectly balance the amino acid profile and enhance the nutritional profile.
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Nearly every protein powder brand uses artificial or “natural” flavors in their powder. “Natural flavors” are vague white powders that can be made from anything to taste like chocolate or vanilla. It’s great scientifically, but why use chocolate-flavored animal parts when you have cocoa? (It’s cheap and easy, that’s why you do it.) But I’ve tried dozens of the best cocoas from around the world and created my own cocoa blends that strike the perfect balance of pH level, fat content, and flavor profile. I did the same with vanilla. I met with vanilla experts and chatted for hours about vanilla beans.
Finally, I decided to use Monk Fruit as a sweetener. Monk Fruit is 400 times more expensive than other sweeteners. Monk Fruit is the most natural sweetener in the world and is not known to have any adverse gastrointestinal effects. I have tried dozens of varieties to find the purest one I could find.
I still source all my ingredients myself, as close to farm level as possible, while maintaining strict quality standards.
We third-party test every batch of our products, and when we say Wellious is “clean,” it’s not just a trendy value proposition, it represents our commitment to making one of the healthiest products on the market.
Finally, we designed the entire manufacturing process from scratch, including packaging design and pricing. Often this is all outsourced, but as a bootstrapped side project, we did every element ourselves and didn’t spend a cent until first production.
Images/Photos Courtesy of Wellious
It started with $3,000 and an Instagram post. What happened after that?
Yes! We spent $3,000 on initial materials to make about 250 bags. We made about 50 of them in a local commercial kitchen, got all our business licenses in order, created a website, and it was time to “launch.”
To be honest, the plan was that I would post about this and nothing would happen, giving me time to build out the actual production and fulfillment infrastructure and plan for a hard launch.
But within 20 minutes of posting that Instagram post, orders started coming in. This may seem like a “no brainer,” but I didn’t expect people to be interested so quickly, other than my mom. People immediately reached out to me and were like, “Wow, this is what I was looking for.”
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The best part was that within two weeks, people all over the US were purchasing the product on the website, and people who bought a bag at launch were “hooked” and came back to buy two more bags.
Since launch, demand has grown steadily month over month, mainly because we have a very high reorder rate and it’s a product that people want to share with their friends and on social media, sometimes with millions of followers.
How did you continue to grow your business and how long did it take to become full time?
I moved to a co-packer so I could produce enough product, started selling on Amazon, gifted products to influencers, and created content on TikTok and other social channels talking about why I started this business. Orders increased every week and honestly, I spent most of my time figuring out how to produce twice as much product per production run. My family and I shipped thousands of orders ourselves. I was still running another business, so I was often working late into the night and most weekends too.
The momentum was hard to ignore: celebrities were buying and requesting our products, our content was going viral on TikTok, major influencers were posting about Wellious being the best product they’d ever tried, and major retailers were reaching out to us.
This was amazing, but the biggest reason I continue to work hard is the messages I receive from customers. Every day, people share amazing anecdotes about how the product is revolutionary, how it’s the only protein that doesn’t cause bloating or cramps, how they finally have a product their family with dietary restrictions can enjoy, how it’s the product their picky kids begged for, how Wellious helped them during pregnancy, and more.
After about six months, I started focusing on Wellious full time and then pivoted to running my previous business in the evenings and on weekends.
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What was the biggest challenge you faced growing your side hustle into a full-time business and how did you overcome it?
Time and Money. There are literally countless obstacles every day, many of which can make an uphill battle impossible if you don’t have the time or money.
The product sold out eight times, and it took weeks for it to be back in stock due to long lead times and the need to wait until enough money was raised for production.
I had to turn down retail deals because I couldn’t handle that amount of business myself.
Building this as a side business has been very difficult because even when you work full time there are just not enough hours in the day.
Now I’ve been very fortunate to not have issues with too much demand, but it’s still very stressful to have to say no and to move much slower than the opportunities that are presenting themselves.
I got through all of this by focusing on being grateful that everything is going well. Keeping a positive perspective makes everything more acceptable.
Other than that, it was consistent and disciplined work. When you have 100 hours of work to complete to get over the next hurdle and you have limited time and resources, all you can do is sit down and get to work as often as possible. I logged back in at 8pm and worked for 3 hours, then spent an entire Saturday working on it. Slowly but surely I continued to make progress and get what I needed done.
It’s definitely not for everyone, but I love it – it’s a never-ending creative challenge.
What is Wellious’ current growth and revenue situation?
We are currently experiencing 600% year-over-year growth. We are currently generating six-figure revenue every month and are on track to generate millions of dollars in revenue in the next 12 months.
What are you most excited about for the future of Wellious?
Providing the best product and user experience for my customers. I believe in permanent product improvement and am working hard to make Wellious better. I also want people to enjoy the experience of buying our product, using it, and being part of our community.
If we can excel at all of these things on a large scale, all the other fun stuff will fall into place.
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What’s your best advice for aspiring entrepreneurs who want to start a side hustle or full-time business?
One of my favorite business philosophies is, “The only real failure is not trying at all.”
The $3,000 was still a risk to me and I considered not starting the business, which would have been a real shame.
It’s important to fall in love with building a product that truly solves a problem and is worth existing. Don’t start something because you think you can make money from it, start because you think you can build something truly special.
But either way, there’s no point in staying in theory. So make it happen. Learn, iterate and keep working until your side hustle becomes your full-time job. It doesn’t matter if it takes 10 months or 10 years. There’s no time limit to follow your dreams.
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