Happy Dad's John Shahidi: 31% YoY growth in January during dry January and record cold, shifting to in-store trade marketing

Speaker 4: Do you hear that?

Speaker 1: That's the sound

Speaker 4: The sound

Speaker 1: of John. A happy

Speaker 4: dad. Barking.

Speaker 1: We bring

Speaker 4: him in? What's happening? Here we Cracking them open for It's

Speaker 1: 05:00 somewhere. It's 04:00. I went to New York Stock Exchange. Cheers, John. Good to see you again. Good boys.

Speaker 16: Yeah. Good to see you guys too. I'm good. Good. I know it's been a few weeks, but I just want to congratulate you guys again on the Super Bowl ad.

Speaker 1: Oh, thank you. That was a lot of fun. You know,

Speaker 16: I I want to tell you guys like, man, I I actually got emotional because I remember a year ago when we spoke and when TBPN like was just taken off and you know, just watching your guys' journey has been incredible. You know, I get I get like once a week or so, I get like someone calling me and like trying to pitch me on a show and they're like, we're the TVPN of sports. The TVPN of I got some guy the other day like, we're the TVPN of Europe.

Speaker 5: Oh, yeah.

Speaker 16: So it's it's kind of cool. It reminds me of it it reminds me of a like ten years ago when I was in music. People used to always pitch, I'm the Justin Bieber of Latin music. I'm the Justin Bieber of India. And like that's that's what TVPN's become.

Speaker 1: That's yeah. Yeah. That's somehow yeah. It's a good sign. It rarely works. I mean, if someone's trying to do the happy dad for wine, it's like that's probably not Happy dad

Speaker 4: for mom.

Speaker 1: Either you'll do it or whatever works in that category will just look completely different and have a different strategy because Yeah. People want new things. What what walk us through how what's the experience like at the New York Stock Exchange today?

Speaker 16: It's pretty cool. I mean, you know, yeah, I came out here to support Airborne and Yeah. And what Palmer and and Trevor and the team are doing. Yeah. Really excited. You know, we're gonna be switching all our companies over to Airborne in the next upcoming weeks. So it's very it's very, you know, they're they're and it's not just because they're good friends of mine, but it's, you know, it's really nice to see a bank doing something different and having that personal touch and, you know Yeah. You know, and to have, you know, their philosophy of just truly caring about companies and, you know, whether you're a startup or an established company. So it's just a good feeling to be a part of it.

Speaker 1: Yeah. How is business going? How did how did 2025 shake out? There were you know, the economy was up. There were tariffs. There's lots going on, but what was it like in your world?

Speaker 16: Well, tariffs don't really affect us because Yeah. Almost all our products are US made. So, you know, happy dad. Yeah. So so, you know, outside of our merch business, which is, you know, just a, you know, less than 3% of our business. Mhmm. Everything else is US made. So tariffs don't necessarily affect us. You know, so far, I mean, this year has been already a great year for us.

Speaker 6: Mhmm.

Speaker 16: You know, happy dad in January was, you know, year over year in January was up 31%. Yeah. Just yeah. And this is this this is is dry January by the way. This is Yeah. And this is like, you know, if you live anywhere outside of like California or you know, some of these West Coast states, 90% of the country was pretty much frozen. You know, including Florida. You know, I was in Miami a few weeks ago and it was 35 degrees in Miami. So you know, and and you know, Happy Dad's not a cold weather product. So to start the year off like that

Speaker 4: Hot chocolate. Yeah. Although maybe launch the Happy Dad hot chocolate for next January.

Speaker 16: Yeah. I think people were okay with the cold drinks so we're gonna probably stick with that right now. Yeah.

Speaker 4: So How are you Yeah. How much time do you spend in New York? Feels like a lot of your your your your business and and is is more West Coast leaning, but New York is really feels like the epicenter of so much happening and just like the creator industry broadly.

Speaker 16: I don't spend a lot of time here at all. I actually would only spend time here because more personal reasons because my wife's family's from New Jersey, but yeah. No. I spend most of our most of my time is actually in California to, you know, work with our team in in Orange County and yeah. My brother Sam does a lot of the traveling to meet with our third party partners, but I yeah. I I spend most of the time in California, not too far from you guys.

Speaker 1: Give us some give us some tips, some hacks for expanding consumer products, expanding in retail. I remember this fun story from Mark Rampola who started a vitamin water company or sorry. Coconut water company. And he went to all his sales guys and was like, whoever sells the most, I'm giving you an f one fifty. And they worked extremely hard, and it was just kinda funny outside the box. Most people would be thinking in the spreadsheets. But what's been working on the retail side? What has been the interesting like unexpected growth vector throughout the last year?

Speaker 16: Well, with Happy Dad, you know, I think last time I was on the show in September, we were talking about creator brands and creators like overextending themselves when they launch a brand. And one of the things that we're doing this year is we're going to actually spend a lot less time and effort on marketing with creators and spend more of the money on trade marketing and being actually where the customer's at. So if you think about Happy Dad, you know, Happy Dad, you know, you go on a weekend on a Friday or Saturday to buy the product. Well, you might as well spend money in the store with displays and and, you know, decorating the stores or putting up neon signs. Like, money is probably better spent where customer is versus where the customer isn't. Like if you're, you know, you know, you know, you know, you're you're sponsoring a podcast and the podcast is live at 8AM on a Tuesday and you're, you know, an alcohol company and most of your sales are Fridays and Saturdays or Sundays during football season, it's you know, the the customer's gonna forget about you by the time Friday, Saturday come out. So you might as well spend that money when they're actually in the store. So that would be my tip with any CPG brand is focus on trade marketing, focus on actually, you know, decorating stores, proper displays, and being seen in the stores because what's the point if you're not necessarily in the store or if you're hidden in the back because your competitors are actually doing what I just said.

Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah. We were talking about this. Expensify spent a lot of money sponsoring 10

Speaker 1: mil something.

Speaker 4: 15. 15. 15. Sponsoring the f one Apple f one movie. Yeah. And cool concept, but the challenge is like think about the the sort of person's like frame of mind when they're watching that movie. They're not in the business of they're not thinking I gotta buy Facts. Management software right now and so being at the right place.

Speaker 16: Unless you have a lot of money. Like if you have a lot of money and let's just say Taylor Sheridan calls you and says, hey, you wanna be stocked in our fridge in Landman season three. Yeah. If you've got extra money and you're already in the stores and you're doing everything I said and you just have, you know, an extra amount of cash to do that, so your friends could text you and say, hey, I just saw your product in Landman, that was awesome. If you want to do that, that's fine, but I would I would focus on the act where your customer physically is and they're ready to go and they're ready to buy. They've got their wallet so, know, trigger them at that moment.

Speaker 4: Yeah. How a lot of a lot of your a lot of your shows have partnerships with the sort of like the DraftKings or the FanDuels of the world, some other online gaming platforms. I'm sure a bunch of prediction markets now. How are you navigating that whole landscape? Obviously, the the big the the big sports books have been talking pretty openly about how their businesses have been impacted by prediction markets even though they're getting into the game themselves. What are those conversations look like, and and how often do those contracts actually turn over?

Speaker 16: Yeah. So so, you know, we have a media company, Shots, which was part of the TBPN Super Bowl commercial. So thank you. You know, we don't have a lot of time, so we don't need to do that. Yeah. But but, know, I'm doing it in my head. Yeah. You know, Shots has a partnership with with Price Picks Okay. Which was, you know, which was a daily fantasy. You could select players more or less. And recently, they implemented prediction markets in there. So we have a long term partnership with Pricepix amongst all of our content, and they've been great partners. We've been with them since 2022. We recently renewed our deal for another three years. They're great because they already had a fan base. We didn't have to worry about you know, most most of our fans right now, they actually have Pricepix, so they you know, we're we're more focused on getting them reengaged in the product or educate on some of these new features that Pricepix has. So yeah. So that that's that's our partner when it comes to the prediction market slash sports yeah. The the sports app space.

Speaker 2: Yeah. Talk to sorry.

Speaker 1: Talk to us about, like, the broader growth of alcohol consumption, particularly among among young people. Obviously, your business is growing. Your category is growing. But beer, I believe, had a 4% decline. And alcohol broadly, it feels like young people aren't drinking as sort of a meme, but how are you processing that?

Speaker 16: Yeah. So I'll people are the, you know, the the this new generation especially, but most people are just they're drinking. They're just drinking differently. They're not, you know, they're not going heavy. They're not going, you know, spirit. They're not drinking beers.

Speaker 1: Mhmm.

Speaker 16: You know, if you look at most beer companies, if they haven't got into like the seltzers or the tea or no no bubble space, they're struggling. Mhmm. So, you know, I think beer consumption is down. You know, I say this all the time, you know, people don't want to get, you know, they don't want to wake up hungover so they're not drinking Mhmm. You know, vodkas and whiskeys

Speaker 4: and Yeah.

Speaker 16: You know, some of these hard earned liquors because people want to get up and they want to feel good. People are more on their kick more than ever these days. You know, that's why you're looking at, you know, all these supplement brands, these these fitness brands, GLP one peptide companies are all through the roof because people want to be healthy. They don't want to wake up and also have this theory that people want to look good on social media too. So Oh, yeah. You know, so there's only one two ways to look good on social media. Either be in shape or add 15 filters to your picture.

Speaker 4: Or grab a hammer. Grab a hammer.

Speaker 1: Stop with the hammer. Yeah. We're not bone smashing. Bone smashing is now. It's over. Yeah.

Speaker 2: That guy

Speaker 16: yeah. Anyway That's a one that guy's a one of one.

Speaker 1: He is a one of one. Jordy, anything else? I

Speaker 4: wanna yeah. I wanna I I do you think do you think clavicular will create 10,000 claviculars? Like, do you think IRL streaming is is gonna be a big new meta, or is there just a much I mean, there's naturally a smaller base of people that can be an IRL livestreamer than a traditional influencer who might have a normal job or or something of the sort.

Speaker 16: Well, media as in general is changing in general. You know you know, I mean, you know, I I consider you guys I IRL Yeah. Just in a different format.

Speaker 12: Yeah.

Speaker 16: And and, know, if you look at like how many people are viewing this right now, it's a lot less people than how many people are gonna clip the TBPN episode interviews. So Yeah. You know, the longer you could actually stay online, the more more of a chance you have to have multiple clips. You know, if we had to count all the TBPN live views on x and YouTube versus, like, all the clips of TBPN amongst all the platforms, shorts, TikTok, x Yeah. Reels. You know, it it it it's a probably, you know, hundreds x. So, you know, I I do think IRL, whether it's streamers, whether it's this format, you know, I think that's that's where media is going because it's really about short form. Most people aren't, you know, people are gonna watch Palmer's clip, you know. Yeah. You know, and and that those clips are probably gonna go I I was in the other room so I didn't didn't hear what he was talking about but everyone was laughing so, you know, I'm sure there's any clips

Speaker 1: on that.

Speaker 16: Yeah. You're gonna see the clip

Speaker 4: for 19 year olds to run bang.

Speaker 16: It's what's what's crazy about Palmer, I spent a lot of time with him and sometimes I'm like, what did he just say? Then then when it when it I don't know what he said about the 19 year old but running banks, but sometimes I'm like, fuck. He's kind of like He's great

Speaker 1: at he's great at making a point that he can defend and and actually peel back the onion but tie up in a bow. Yeah. It's really great stuff every time. Yep.

Speaker 16: One more thing I think about media too is I do think we're gonna see in the next year, we're gonna see our first podcast produced by Grock. Like, I think there's gonna be a very

Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.

Speaker 4: We talked about this on the show today. There's a top 20 there's like a top 20 series on Apple that's a 100% generated with AI. Somebody it's on the Epstein files.

Speaker 1: They took all the Epstein files, put them in deep research reports and and different coding models Audio. To then turn it into audio, and it's charting. It's in, the top 20 because people That's that. They can turn it over immediately and even though it's AI generated and it's probably not as nuanced as, you know, some, you know, journalist with a bunch of reputation, like it's giving people what they want faster and so there's demand. Yeah.

Speaker 16: Yeah. So so so now imagine like like you guys have TBPN

Speaker 1: Yeah.

Speaker 16: And then you have diet TBPN, but imagine like TBPN brought to you by Grok or or some sort of AI engine that goes live at like 04:01PM eastern time and breaks down the stock market, like Yeah. One minute after the stock market closes. Yeah. You know, or sports, you know, like, you know, today in sports, you know, it goes live a couple hours before tip-off NBA Yeah. And this is what's gonna happen in the NBA. So and so is playing so and so. This guy's hurt. That guy's not hurt. This is what the line looks like on price picks, our poly market, you know. I I think we were gonna see one of those pretty pretty pretty soon.

Speaker 1: Yeah. Very interesting.

Speaker 4: Well, it's it's Always been fantastic to see you.

Speaker 1: It's exciting

Speaker 16: to see Yeah.

Speaker 13: Good to see

Speaker 4: you. Come by the Ultradome soon. I want

Speaker 8: to well,

Speaker 16: that's what I was planning on doing and then when I heard you guys were here and I was here, I was like, I was gonna reach out to you guys next week about coming by but Come by. I'm at this Stock Exchange.

Speaker 4: You know where we are. Last on, I think John like somebody's only offered your handle on Instagram to John Cugen like 10 times. They hit him up every

Speaker 1: constantly. Do you want at John? And I'm like, I know Josh Hidi. I I'm not stealing his that laughing lockdown. And also Can

Speaker 16: you add John on Snapchat? Cause I have that,

Speaker 5: but I don't use it.

Speaker 1: So I'm doing the Snapchat.

Speaker 16: That's yours.

Speaker 1: I I like the consolidation of you have the John guy. No.

Speaker 2: You gotta

Speaker 1: be John. I'm happy to have

Speaker 4: the full name. The final John.

Speaker 1: Yeah. The final John. Anyway, thank you so much. Great to see you. Bye

Speaker 16: Yeah. Good to see

Speaker 1: you guys. Thanks for having me. Cheers. Good one. Let me tell you about Cisco. Critical infrastructure for the AI era unlock seamless real time experiences and new value with Cisco. Software multiples have been reset at a fair level given AI uncertainty, said Brad Gerstner. He says, if you own a software stock, you must expect the CEO to say, quote, we crush numbers and expect that to continue because our business accelerates with AI. If you don't expect to hear it, don't own it. Too hard basket. Dylan in the too hard basket.

Speaker 4: Dylan did that. Dylan did that? Dylan Field.

Speaker 1: Oh, yeah. Oh, exactly. Yes. Yes. Yes. For sure. For sure. Also thing. There there there was some funny stuff in the chat, but we can get to it later because we, of course, have Will Brewery from Bardis base.

Speaker 4: For a lightning round?

Speaker 1: The restream waiting room, and it is time to kick off the Lambda lightning round. Let's fire up that cloud, fire up the graphics package, and let's bring Will Brewery in to the TV and Ultra. Will, how are doing? Check.