Hey I’m Sam – a Social Media Director specialized in the health & fitness industry with nearly 10 years’ experience. 

Throughout my career I have been blessed to work with several leaders in the industry such as C4 Energy, Cellucor, XTEND, Legion Athletics, The National Strength & Conditioning Association, and more.  

One of my biggest learnings is that social media is…bigger than social media. Throughout my career I have had the opportunity to build and execute social-first campaigns and launches, crafted brands’ TOV and overall strategy, built memorable brand experiences at scale, led social campaigns and creatives with some of your favorite athletes and celebrities, launched and brought to life experiential events to the world on social, and so much more. 

More than anything I view myself as a strategist that lives on social and brings all facets of a brand to life through all strategic levers: brand messaging + strategy, content, creative, partnerships, channel strategies, commercial, experiential, and more. 

I love what I do, I love meeting new people so feel free to reach out! 

Email 👉 samwellsmarketing@gmail.com
Instagram 👉 @samwellsyo

Sam Wells

Wanna know the best part about working in Social Media? The fact everyone thinks it’s easy and that they can do your job because they have an Instagram 😅

P.S. it’s not easy

Director, Social & Brand @ Cadence | Ex C4 Energy | Social Media Guy in the Health & Fitness Industry

Do you ever go to make a Social Post and think “oh man this is gonna do numbers”…

And then it doesn’t…do numbers? 😅

Ah yes, that’s my favorite.

LinkedIn would be 10X more entertaining if Social Media Professionals regularly posted content, stunts, and ideas that were not approved by legal…

Could you imagine? 😂

Will Nitze

Founder, IQBAR (iqbar.com) 🍫+💧+☕️

🍫 Founder/CEO, IQBAR (iqbar.com)
🎙️ Co-Host, "Eating Glass" Podcast
🎓 Harvard BA

Founder/CEO

We make superior brain + body fuel. IQBAR® plant protein bars, IQMIX® hydration sticks, and IQJOE® instant coffees are packed with the functional compounds you need to win your day.

🚨 New product line launch 🚨

IQBAR PB&J Protein Bites are live today, only at Sam's Club!

High-protein, high-fiber, low-sugar, "poppable," and nostalgic. Coming in hot at the absurdly good value of $9.98 / 15-pack.

It took a full year to figure out how to manufacture and perfect these (shoutout to Matt Stinson). They may just be the best things we've ever made.

Major thanks to Alek Guzman and the Sam's team for making this happen 🚀

On the Costco [dot] com homepage for the first time ever.

Pretty rad.

🚨 EXPO TAKE-AWAYS from airplane text exchange with Daniel Puckett:

→ Taste is still king
→ Good design / packaging is now a commodity
→ Not much true “innovation” - very few surprises
→ The breakfast category is under-served; big oppy
→ This industry has great humans; more collegial than others
→ Nutritional “no man’s land” is a death sentence; pick a lane
→ Most big booths have been in the game a while; build to last
→ Booths are only as valuable as how engaging folks at them are
→ Meat sticks are now ultra-competitive; chicken's having a moment
→ Protein everywhere; less fiber / creatine / GLP-1 stuff than expected
→ More loyalty erosion (bad for Big CPG; good for upstarts / private label)
→ A.I. wasn’t mentioned much, but when it was the tone was positive (CPGs will get more efficient / profitable; none of the "doomerism" you see elsewhere)

💭 Solid add-ons from the comments section:

→ A shocking number of honey companies (h/t Drew Mabry)
→ In chips, tallow continues to steadily grow (h/t Jeremy White)
→ International flavors - esp LatAm - was big (h/t Andres Siman)
→ This year was mostly "back to the basics" (h/t Eric M.)
→ Energy / attitude / quality was higher than past years (h/t Andy Godish)

- - -

CRITICAL CAVEAT: true insight into brands is *entirely invisible* at at Expo cuz it's under the hood. Supply chain creativity, manufacturing excellence, cash management, media buying efficiency, SG&A streamlining, negotiation prowess, contracting strategy, etc. etc. etc.

If the "engine" isn't assembled and maintained right, trends don't matter.

Today I witnessed a non-negligible cohort of folks walk out of Natural Products Expo West and immediately light up a cig.

Humans are an interesting bunch.

Extremely niche Expo observation…

Lithuania goes hard in the paint.

Must’ve dropped a milly on 100 feet of booth space plus an army of people.

Never forget - you aren’t just competing with rival cookie / chip / bar startups.

You’re competing with entire Baltic states.

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I've made the difficult decision to age in reverse.

Compete with me if you'd like. But I wouldn't recommend it.

"Mainstream weird" is the best brand positioning.

If you're too mainstream, you'll get knocked-off into oblivion.

If you're too weird, you'll never achieve major scale.

Mainstream weird is juuusssttt right.

Optionality is the desired end state.

But FLEXIBILITY is how you get there.

Create maximally flexible products. And positioning. And teams.

Heck, ensure your OWN BRAIN is maximally flexible. (Can you learn new stuff quickly? Can you change your mind quickly in light of new data?)

In today's environment where the chess board is violently shaken up on an annual basis, the most flexible player adapts best.

And...over time...wins.

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Will Nitze

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The Battle

Sam Wells

Will Nitze

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Posts

Engagements

Likes

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