Episode #504: Tessa Arnold on Shifting Careers and Founding Snapback Energy

I am super excited to announce that we now have a formal partnership with the prospect wizard. And when I say wizard, I mean wizard. Obviously, you have a website. This allows you to convert your website traffic visitors directly into leads. It's not just another chatbot, and it's not AI, but it allows a visitor to call, text, or leave a voice mail, immediately goes to you, your sales team, or anyone else in the club

instantly. MIT shows a study that if you contact a lead within 10 minutes, chance of them converting goes up 9 times that of the average. We got the Atlanta Clubs on it, Pete Fitness, Gold's Gym, Mountainside, City Fitness Philly, College Park, Become one of the next halo companies to deploy the wizard. It's easy to use. Go to the prospectwizard.com. Get a free 30 day trial. Talk to my boy, Dave Gallon. He will get you all set up and let the leads flow based on the wizard. Go get them.

This is Pete Moore on HALO Talks NYC. I have the pleasure of bringing to the podcast Tessa Arnold by way of Ocean City and South Florida. She is a banker converted to a HALO evangelist. So, Tessa, welcome to your first halo talks. Thank you so much. I am so excited to be here. Love it. Awesome. So, you know, you start off in banking like, like myself and many of us. So talk about how that, lifestyle, and, and career kinda led you to say, hey. Time out. I'm gonna pivot. Right.

Banking was fantastic. To be homegrown in banking and really dive into in my twenties, early twenties into commercial banking, I don't think there is a better place to grow up. I mean, as I'm Moore, it it gets you going. Their structure keeps you grounded. You're learning core values like networking and building rapport with people and kind of learning, drinking from a fire hydrant. I think it was fast paced and burning the candle both ends and trying to start a family.

And it was dynamic and it was great. And I'll tell you, I keep up with those connections regularly. And, I met a lot of amazing people, but I was in banking for 12 years. And I had really set up a a pretty significant career that I was very proud of in banking. And it was very structured and it was very reliable, and there was a projection of growth and all the things. And at the end of the day, I'd wake up and I'd be like, there's something else.

There's something else. So so when you when you had that itch of something else, and obviously, you had a lot of, trade offs to make Right. You know, from, financially Right. As well as, you know, networking standpoint. I I left banking and private equity to start up an Internet company. And then when I decided to come back to banking, I kinda had to go, you know, take 2 steps backwards to go forwards again. Right. So what was what led you to the conviction, that you

wanted to do something different? And did you do a lot of research to figure out, hey, what am I gonna do next? Or did it kinda naturally evolve? Yeah. It did. Organically and naturally, it did evolve. And I'd have to say, things were happening in my personal life, sort of imploding from the inside out Square I was like, oh, I was making it more challenging. And I came to a place where I I relied on my work. My work was consistent. My work was stable. It felt good.

I knew what I was gonna get. I knew my place. I had appreciation, at the attention that I needed. I could put the attention on stuff. So I'd have to say that was probably the most difficult to leave when life can be so chaotic and unknown. When you know what you're walking into every day, that's fine. But that's also complacency. And complacency are where dreams go to die. And I have to say that I, was shifting in such a way that I was unbalanced with how much I was working and then what I

was putting into my family. I mean, I was giving on all cylinders, family, partner, work, this, and Square in that equation was I showing up. Where was the stuff for me? Where were the things that were so fundamentally important to me? I mean, I honestly can't tell you what I did through those 12 years that made my soul happy. It's like, there wasn't any one thing that I was like, no, I carved out, you know, an hour a day for my, you

know, whatever it was at that time that made me happy. I was losing myself bit by bit, day by day. And I knew that I couldn't continue on at the same pace. And that started to really weigh on me where I sort of slowly decided that I was gonna have to take a leave, not knowing if I was gonna go back or not. Ultimately, I took my leave. I moved my children across the country. I was going through a divorce at the time. It was a lot of dynamic Talks, supporting my partner with health issues.

He and has started a business that I was supporting him on. So there were so many different things. I'd say catalyst within this that Pete just, like, in your own was chaotic. You're like, what do I do? What do I do? But you're just putting one foot in front of the other. So I'd say I have to say it was a complete journey getting to the point where I woke up that one Moore, and I'd even gone back to banking because it was what I knew. So I'd taken some time off, went back for 2

years. Oh, wow. But by that point, I was a different person. I Talks time off. I had taken time and started to implement some things to take care for myself. And I was like, yeah. No. I'm a little bit more aware now of what I need to do to support myself. This is not for me. And that still took 2 years for me to totally disconnect from it because it was, you know, my safe harbor.

And I truly did not know. I knew I was gonna put everything into my business, Snap Back Energy, as a cofounder, and chief operating officer, but I did not know what that was gonna look like and I was terrified. Sure. You know, I worked in banking and, for 3 years, it just became normal to work 7 days a week. You know, and you're like 1 my one, like, bonus was, like, I'd rollerblade to the office on, like, a Saturday or Sunday, you know, in Manhattan. That was, like, the only thing

for me. And and, you know, they they talk about now in some of these big banks that you have, you know, like weekends where, you know, you're not allowed to use your cell phone or log in to, the system. I'm shocked that that that that actually exists because the the job is so 247. And you, you know, you remember, I I Talks in my sleep a lot. So, like, my significant other at the time was like, wait. What are you Talks about? So my plastics company, like, talk about

plastic bags in the middle of the night. Like, is this safe to be, you know, in bed with you? Like, oh, yeah. We're gonna have some plastics skillet. You're like, it's a deal. I'm working on it. Plastic bags to, like, Walmart or something. And it it gets so infused in you that you you can't really take a step out of it because it's it's all that you do. Yeah. So so I I hear you a 100%, on that. I'm hoping that the bankers now, you know, with all the focus on, you know, mental

health and not burning out. I hope some of those programs are working, but I still see people that I know that, you know, basically, you can't get off the the hamster wheel because your lifestyle and your expenses has expenses have increased to the point where it's hard to replicate. So so talk about Snapback and, you know, did there aren't that many other businesses where you can make the amount of money at

a young age. Right. You know, as you do in banking and also, you know, people that are 25, 30 years older than you, you basically, like, sitting in the room. Right. And just absorbing all that information. Exactly. And it's just the synergies too. And I have to say it was hard because financially, when you have that stability. But it's also and I I just wanna take a step back because you said

segment's so important. I know with the companies that I were working I was working with the large, you know, global for firms, they were definitely pushing out to us wellness, overall wellness, well-being, balance. But when you've been in it so long, it's hard to step away from it and it is 24 hours. And we also have, the inability sometimes to see that that our presence is stretched to so many different things because we live in a world now

where we are constantly bombarded by stimuli. So we stay in the sympathetic nervous reaction, and it's so there's so many and that's where the coaching really gets involved. You have to step away from it. But you're exactly right. The companies I think today, you know, 2024 are doing a lot more and bringing in coaches and programs so people can truly understand what that looks like to have fine

balance in your life. But that's where SnapAct came on board, family owned and operated, and it really is a passion of mine. It's a supplement, that you take daily, and it has all the good stuff. It was funny. I was talking with my partner earlier, and he was like, he has a cold that he's been struggling with, and he was taking some just, like, all of these different supplements. And I was like, well, snap back. That's all of those. Did you take your snap snap back this

morning in our patented formula? And he was like, yeah. I did, and I did a pre workout. So it's just it's a great way to love your body so your body can love you back, and there's not a lot of supplements on the market that are patented and have what we have, which is an isolated patented formula that specifically supports your liver. And the yeah. The liver supports over 500 functions in the body. So why would you wanna show it some love? It needs it. You know,

it's pretty magical. It's the only self regenerating apart from the skin, and it's the 2nd largest apart from your epidermis. So why wouldn't you wanna show it some love? So so when you wanted to develop that, you know, how did you go about doing that as an entrepreneur? Did you have a consultant that was on the, you know, scientific or did you go to an outsourced

manufacturer? Talk about some of the steps you Talks. Given you were in banking and you know that you do diligence, And you know that there's a process to everything. Absolutely. You know, how did you kinda lay out the blueprint for yourself? Well,

I think it helped my background in banking because I was a project manager. So to get to step a, you know, all the way to fruition, I knew how to take it, very methodically and figure out who I needed to reach out to and bring in and connect with people and bring

in partnerships. So that I could do. So then working with my team at Snapback and bringing in a food scientist and going through a ton of variations and developing our formula to what it is today was an incredible learning process, and I couldn't have done it without the team, especially our food scientist who helped us work there. And then all of the input from the rest of the very lean team that we have based on their food knowledge and then just customer

knowledge. So absolutely. I mean, I brought in the best that I could to help formulate this. And then I myself went and worked with the team to push through and get the patent, which took us 3 tries to get. And when I say 3 tries, that doesn't sound like much, but there were about 8 months in between each try where you're waiting to see what the board is gonna come back with, the patent officer, and how they're just gonna poke holes in it

as they should. It's a Pete, you know, your patent team, which you say that you can do with this supplement, and we stand behind that. And I like to say Square as close as you get to magic to making you feel really good. But, yeah, I was ready to give up on that last on that last try. I was about to just, you know, throw in the towel and say, no. But I've been pretty gritty my entire

life, you know, with the cards that have been dealt to me. And not to compare, you know, just any trauma to anybody else, but it's it set me up for independence and grittiness. And when I set my mind to something, it's gonna get done. This is Pete Moore. I wanna let you in on a little secret. There's this company called Promotion Vault, and what they do is they give out rewards from retailers that allow you to incentivize your members without having to do zero down and 1 month free or

giving away shakes or giving away t shirts. What you wanna do is build a rewards program that lasts, that people value, and that doesn't discount your own products and services. So here's the deal. There's something called rewards vault. The rewards vault is going to allow a member to set up their own profile. They are

going to answer questions. You are gonna get those answers. You're gonna be able to target those members, and you're gonna reward them inside your club, inside your spa, and outside of the club and outside of the spa to get them to become loyal, to get them to pay their monthly dues, and to be rewarded properly for the actions. A lot of companies are cutting back on rewards. You shouldn't be. Promotion Vault's your answer. Trust me. This is real.

So a lot of people that that set up companies, whether it's product, service, food, it's mostly based on the brand and and and the patent protection. If you get patent protection, you basically have to enforce it, which costs a lot of money legally. You know, it's not just to cease and desist, letter and

and people are just gonna behave. So so, you know, what brought you to, 1, believe that the patent, you know, would would actually be a real protection given the cost of what it gets to go through and how the brand and the patent kind of meld together to give you a real competitive advantage? Absolutely. So I'll take the second question actually first because that's where I started with it. It was the authenticity,

behind what we state that we can do within our product itself. And I believed in the formula, the panda formula so much so, and the combination not having been seen before that I knew that

I needed to get I wanted that. I I didn't need to get it. I wanted it in a way that it spoke for itself, and it stood on its own two legs to say not only do we have this formula and I'm telling you that it's gonna make you feel really good, and you're gonna try it, and you're gonna feel really good, and you're gonna send the feedback, but so does the patent office. So that was the first step.

Secondly, as far as enforcing it, yes, that is a much lengthier, longer, expensive process, and we're in the process of it and working with our attorneys. And, you know, you just decide Moore gonna send the cease and desist letters, you're gonna have the conversations, you're gonna continue to do the reviews, and that you can do, but you stand by your brand ethos too.

You know, we built such a following with snapback and our subscriptions of people ordering it on a monthly basis that, yes, others can try and emulate and imitation is the most serious form of flattery, but nobody's gonna be able to create what we

have in such a way. So, yes, we'll continue to chase those that do try, but at the same time, we're continuing to expand and we will potentially have our 3rd flavor out this year, which is even an additional growth into what we do in such a beautiful way with the Ayurvedic work that I do as well, that I don't know that they know that we're Square we're gonna go next and won't be able to keep up. So just sticking on the patent side, what do you actually have patent protected? Yeah.

So we have our our patented formula. So it's a 5 ingredient formula within our proprietary blend that is patent protected. Gotcha. And if you had to enforce it? Yes. No. We have not we have not had to, sorry. We have not had to enforce it yet. We have had reviews of other products that have come out, but it's been minimal. But no. With the exact combination of what we have within the patent, we have not had to really go into legal action Pete se with companies. So. Gotcha. Yeah. So

there's a lot of supplements out there. They're not patent protected. Right. They might be pixie dust. We we don't know. Right? When you think about pricing your product, given that you come from banking and you work really well in Excel spreadsheet Yes. And, you know, if I could take price, I could do a lot of things, you know, beneficially with that, not be, you know, the low cost producer of an

awesome patent protected product. So how did you think about the pricing model, and how do you think about recurring memberships or purchases and subscribers? And why do you think the way that you do? You know, you can you can you hearken it back to a deal you worked on or, you know, a project that you work on and said, look. This is a business model I want. Now that I have this product, I'm gonna kinda put Pete this business model. Yeah.

I mean, I can say definitely from my background in commercial banking, having dealt with products, that was extremely beneficial. And looking at the bottom line in the ROI, so the return on our investment there, of course, you know, that's definitely where the conversation is gonna start. But more so, you know, being a mother and being of 2 and providing for myself and my family and being within the wellness space, I knew how much money I would spend on something.

Goodness, I spend more on my dog supplements sometimes than I spend on mine. So, right, there's definitely a passion that moves you to purchase. And for me but it also had to be something that when I look at my the demographic of those that purchase our product and the large range of ages that purchased it too, I knew that people are gonna be in different circumstances and situations where they could be budgeting what they're spending on a

wellness supplement or a daily supplement. But you also have to take into consideration, which I did, is that you're minimizing multiple supplements that you're taking by just taking snapback. So right there, it's very cost effective. And I did a lot of, I'd say, pilot study on what's out in the market today. So those were a lot of the factors that I broke down the price points as it relates to snap back in itself. And, you know, we

include shipping. We have free shipping. If you're getting to the 30 pack, which is gonna last you for those 30 days, sometimes even longer depending on how often you're taking it. And we have the free shipping when it goes to that. And it's very competitive, you know, in the $50 price point range. And then we drop that in half when you're looking at the 10 pack box

to really try it. So it was very competitive as it relates to others in the marketplace, but still a return in our investment when we talk about packaging, shipping, all of the costs that go into this too. Because, right, the money that we take back in, we are still in our infancy, I'd like to say. You know, we're still under that 5 year Moore. We're even under the 4. We're just in the 3 year mark of being out in

the public. And we're doing well enough that we've extended, and we've gone from grape now to our second flavor, which is orange, to our 3rd flavor. All of that money comes back into the business. We are veteran owned and operated as well as women owned and operated. So we do give 2% back to our 1st responders and veterans every year. Yep. Based on the money we've received, they, veterans and the programs that we work with are near and dear to us. Just having veterans on the team, you know,

it's an incredible experience. I would say for those business owners and entrepreneurs out there, go out there, you know, connect with your local veteran groups and first responders and all that, see what you can do within the community and see who you can hire on board because it's an incredible experience. This is Pete Moore. Here's the last tip for you of the podcast. We are partnered up with a company called Higher Dose, higher

dose dot com. They are the leader in workout recovery products, infrared technology, LED light masks, neck enhancers, and other products such as Pete mats and sauna blankets. If you have not gotten on the workout recovery train yet, your time and your stop is now. You gotta get these products in there before these workout recovery and spas end

up saturating your Moore. Having your members walk out of the club and going into one of their locations for $200 per month where they're paid 39 to you, Let's become an expert in workout recovery if we are already an authority in workouts. Higher dose, check it out, There's a wholesale code, and we look forward to helping you augment your products and services to meet the demands of

your members. And, hey, let's get people happy, healthy, and sweating, and the recovery should be just as good as the workout. You know, before we, close out here, just, you know, talk about being a wellness lifestyle coach. Talk about how many clients you can take on and and how you, you know, help diagnose, you know, the root issue that that someone's dealing with. Absolutely. So I specialize in Ayurvedic, health and lifestyle coaching, and I like to call it guiding too.

Innately, we have the wisdom with inside of us, but it's been so bogged down with all the stimuli I had Pete of eyes that we can't connect back to it. And I think that's been part of the journey in leaving commercial banking was understanding how to find my own balance and

fulfillment in life. Once I was able to find that such an amount of peace just came flooding into my life in such a beautiful way, you know, year over year through the journey that it's now called it's cultivated this incredible, you know, life that I have around me that's become almost magnetic. And I think anybody can do that absolutely if they're willing to do the work. And the work simply put is the work in themselves. You know, going within,

having the courage to do that because it's not for the faint of heart. Taking a hard look at yourself, taking a hard look at your life, and that's not doing deep uprooting of everything. Absolutely not. And that could mean that being in commercial banking is the best thing for you, but we've gotta find the balance so everything is at its best. Right? So there's no point in having longevity if the quality of life is not there. That's what I absolutely specialize in,

but it's not dealing systematically with symptoms. So, you know, you come to me and you have anxiety or you have the fatigue or the feeling of loss or it could be the nutrition, any of the 6 pillars of health, you know, truly, and we'll break it down into what's really going on and help you determine what you need

to because everybody's path is different. To find the balance and what you'll find is then more moments of stillness Square you can really tap into your creative genius and then see all the things that you can create within your life. It's incredible. Absolutely incredible. That's amazing. And how many clients do you take on at a time? Yeah. So right now I'm working with 3 clients. I will take on up to 7 clients at a time, but I'm now this is a it's a

journey that we walk on together. We have at least 6 sessions with an intro session, and then we do our first, you know, 15 minute, 30 minute, just get to know each other to make sure that, you know, it's the right fit and you're feeling good, which is great. And they can all find that information at the balance of you.com, where you can find all of these guiding and kind of mentorship. There's business breakthrough sessions, life breakthrough sessions,

building a meditation practice, which is really scary for a lot of people. It's the most incredible gift. Tomorrow is Valentine's Day. Give yourself the gift of building up a practice of stillness so you can really connect with yourself again because you embody that and bring that out to others. And I do that. I I choose, you know, the 7, you know, 6 to 7, because I put a lot of energy into this, and I come to

you a lot of times right to listen. So I can hear what you're saying, and it can take it can, you know, exhaust you quite a bit because I am just really that guide for you who has a totally objective. Right? Just helping you find your own path. So I like to not get too overwhelmed. But as the team grows, we'll we'll take on additional clients. Yeah. We'll do webinars and YouTube video. We're really working on the webinar area right now

and then potentially hoping to have a book out, which I like. It's like the, I always play around and joke, you know, the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. This will be Moore the human guide to being human just in a few simple steps. Sounds like you have the authority to to write that book, at this point. So, so in closing, any, any good quotes that you live by or Oh, gosh. You know, Cessnasims that that people, you know, hear from you? Yes. I gosh. There's so many. There's so

many. There's 2 that I'll share that I heard. There's one that I heard, most recently and one that I love. And I'd say the first one is, you know, are you getting what you're getting? Are you getting what you want from life? So think about that. Are you stuck just taking in what you're being offered and that's what it is and you're you're sort of sleepwalking almost in a robotic sense through life or are you the agent of your life

and are you living it? And second to that, to make that first step is not to do it without fear, but it's to be courageous enough to do it in the face of fear. That's awesome. I think that's FDR who might have said that. So Oh, I'm gonna practice some stillness tonight and tomorrow. Good. You should. I don't really spend much time still, so I'll see how that goes for me.

Yeah. Go for a walk. Yeah. If you go for a walk just on your own, take out the earbuds, put the phone somewhere where you do not have it on your body. You don't have to just sit somewhere, but anywhere that you can just find the opportunity to not have anything demanding your attention or ready to take your attention anytime you go from the sympathetic to the par nervous system. It's homeostasis and that's balance, and we don't go there often as we should. So try. Amazing. Well, I'm

glad, I'm glad we connected. Dave, thanks for setting this up. Just been been impactful for me, as well as, just a a podcast discussion. So thank you. Good. Absolutely. We will, we'll we'll get the, the patented supplements around our network. That's great. When you're ready for more distribution and, you know, congrats on making the move that some people talk about but never do. Thank you. And, I'm sure you've helped more people than you know along the way. So Thank you.