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Well, hello ladies and gents. 
Roberts sykesketosabs.com Today 

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I've got me on the podcast. 
This is going to be a short 

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podcast. 
This is not with a guess. 

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This is just with me bringing 
you up to speed on what I 

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learned in Brazil. 
So I went to Brazil to figure 

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out what's going on with the 
cacao crisis situation for the 

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Keto Bricks. 
I learned a ton and we are going

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to have to start changing things
as a business in result of that.

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And I'm going to talk about that
in this podcast. 

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But before we dive in, let's 
roll the intro. 

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What is going on y'all? 
Robert Sykes, Keto brick.com and

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I got some information for you, 
as you may have known, may have 

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not have known, may know, I 
don't know. 

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I just came back from Brazil, 
spent the last week in Brazil 

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looking for a cacao. 
I made an announcement earlier 

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this year about the cacao crisis
that we are now experiencing. 

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For those of you that do not 
know cacao butter, this is a 

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cacao fruit. 
It is a cacao butter is our main

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ingredient in the Keto Bricks, 
main ingredient in the Keto 

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Bricks. 
Cacao butter is awesome. 

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It's got a whole host of health 
benefits and the extraction 

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process is super cool and 
unique. 

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I learned all about it while in 
Brazil. 

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Earlier this year, I talked 
about the cacao crisis that we 

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are currently experiencing. 
I'll throw a chart on the screen

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here where you can see the price
change that's happened over the 

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past few months. 
It's insane and it's not good 

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for business because again, that
is our primary ingredient. 

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So I went to Brazil just to give
you some Mac story as to why 

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that price change has occurred. 
Basically a lot of the cacao is 

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produced in Africa. 
Africa, D Force the the the 

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forest plants, a bunch of cacao 
trees, hires child labour to 

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process that. 
And they have jacked up the 

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pricing because they had 
experienced an El Nino rain 

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season which decimated their 
entire crop. 

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And now there's a run on cacao 
everywhere globally. 

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I've never gotten my cacao from 
Brazil or from Africa. 

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I've been getting it from Peru 
and I went to Brazil to try and 

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find better pricing on cacao. 
I had hoped in going to Brazil 

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that I would be able to go 
direct to the farmer, get a 

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better price and not have to do 
anything drastic with the 

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company. 
That is not my reality. 

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That is not our reality because 
the pricing of COW is just here 

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to stay for a bit longer and it 
will likely increase a bit more,

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which is scary times, scary 
times. 

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So what does that mean for me? 
What does that mean for you? 

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How does that affect Keto Brick 
as a company? 

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Well, we're going to have to 
start charging shipping first 

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and foremost. 
I have been in business for six 

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years. 
All of our carriers have pretty 

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much increased our shipping cost
every six months in that six 

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year span. 
So for all intents and purposes,

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our shipping cost have increased
roughly 12 times since we opened

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the doors of Keto Brick. 
I have not once charged shipping

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domestically because I have not 
wanted to pass that cost on to 

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y'all. 
In light of the cacao crisis, 

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we're going to have to start 
charging shipping. 

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That is just simply the reality 
of the situation and it is what 

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it is. 
I don't like it any more than 

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you do, but I would rather 
apologize for having to pay for 

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shipping due to a situation 
outside of my control than 

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apologize for not being able to 
produce the bricks at all 

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because we go out of business. 
So that is what it is, ladies 

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and gents, and that's just our 
reality. 

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So going forward, starting in 
August, we will be charging 

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shipping and we have never 
charged shipping before, as I 

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mentioned. 
So we're going to be working 

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through some bugs, we're going 
to be working through some 

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kinks. 
We're going to be trying 

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different softwares, different 
carriers, different discounted 

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rates, trying to get the best 
shipping prices that we can and 

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do right by y'all as best we 
can. 

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And that is subject to change as
we learn more about charging, 

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shipping and different platforms
and carriers and softwares that 

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we can use to streamline that 
process. 

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But expect to be charged 
shipping starting in the 

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beginning of August. 
That is one thing that we're 

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going to do differently. 
The next thing that we're going 

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to do differently is that we are
going to be focusing on 

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diversifying our primary 
ingredients. 

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So as you know, cacao butter is 
our current primary ingredient 

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and we're going to be focusing 
on also offering tallow. 

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So quality beef tallow as the 
primary fat source. 

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I'm super excited about it. 
We've been actually working on a

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tallow brick for four years now 
at least, and we have not yet 

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released it because I've been 
focusing on cacao, but because 

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of the cacao crisis, I'm going 
to be focusing more on tallow. 

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I do not want y'all's first 
impression of the tallow bricks 

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to be negative. 
So we are not going to launch 

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those until it cools down a 
little bit and we can offer 

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tallow without the risk of it 
melting because tallow, while 

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it's great, it's great from 
hysteric acid standpoint, it's 

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great from lots of different 
standpoints. 

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It is not quite as shelf stable 
and resilient to the heat as 

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cacao butter. 
So in light of the cacao crisis,

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in light of my increased costs 
and in light of my increased 

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shipping costs and my increased 
ingredient cost, we're going to 

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be charging shipping that's 
going to go into effect in 

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beginning of August. 
We're going to be focusing on 

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tallow bricks and offering those
for you as well so that you can 

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have another option outside of 
just the cacao. 

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And that will hopefully hedge 
our bets a little bit as well 

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and diversify our ingredient 
sources and allow us to stay in 

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business and going strong and 
offer tallow bricks for all of 

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you all that have won in tallow 
bricks. 

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So I'm super excited about that 
keto brick, this company of 

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mine, this company of ours, this
company that my wife and I 

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created six years ago on a wing 
and a prayer for our own need 

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that has become what it is now 
is something I'm incredibly 

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passionate about. 
We slept on a freaking warehouse

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floor for three years to make 
this a reality. 

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I'm not going to go down without
a fight and I'm not freaking 

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going down because there is no 
Plan B in my life. 

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There is only Plan A and I'm 
going to make Plan A work. 

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I want everybody to be healthy. 
I want everybody to not have, 

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you know, food cost, ingredient 
cost as a barrier to entry to 

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eating healthy. 
But the reality of our situation

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is that we offer a premium 
product. 

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We offer a quality ketogenic 
Carnivore premier product 

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without filler ingredients. 
And I'm going to keep doing that

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because that's who I built the 
product for and that's who all 

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of y'all are. 
And the simple situation, the 

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simple reality is that a lot of 
these companies that use Kakaum 

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are either going out of business
or they're increasing their 

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prices drastically, or they're 
trying to hedge their bets by 

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putting in subpar ingredients 
and fillers and seed oils and 

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just nonsense. 
And I'm not going to do that 

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because y'all don't want that in
the products that you eat. 

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I don't want that in the 
products that I consume. 

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And I certainly don't want to 
put my name on it. 

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See that? 
That's a figure of me. 

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That's my name. 
If I'm putting my name on, it's 

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going to be the highest quality.
That's why I've kept production 

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in house from day one, so that I
can oversee the quality. 

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I'm not going to cut corners, 
and I promised that to y'all. 

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That said, I'm going to have to 
charge what it cost to produce 

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and ship the bricks. 
I can't make money. 

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I can't stay in business if the 
cost of my shipping and the cost

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of my ingredients exceeds the 
cost of what I'm charging them 

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for. 
So that is a simple reality and 

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I'm not going to waiver from 
that and I'm not going to 

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apologize for things that I 
can't control. 

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I can't control the cacao 
commodity system. 

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What I can control is how I run 
the company, what I charge for 

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the costs to procure, produce 
and deliver a quality product. 

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And I can control the quality of
that part. 

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And that quality is always going
to be the most pristine quality 

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you can give. 
And I promise and commit to 

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that. 
That said, I, like I said, I 

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don't want people to have cost 
be a barrier to entry for eating

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health. 
If you simply want to eat 

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healthy and be as healthy as you
possibly can, you can't afford 

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the brick, then that's fine. 
Eat a whole bunch of eggs. 

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You know, eggs are great. 
They're cheap. 

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They're going up in price too, 
but they're cheaper than 

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anything else. 
So if you're trying to get 

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healthy, eat a whole bunch of 
eggs, but if you want the 

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convenience and the quality of a
keto brick, you're going to have

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to pay for it. 
And that's just the reality 

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because we're we're going to 
stay in business and we're going

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to cost what it takes to stay in
business. 

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I'm not driving a Lamborghini. 
I'm not, you know, retiring on a

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private yacht somewhere. 
I'm not trying to price gouge 

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people. 
I'm trying to do right by y'all 

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and make sure you always have a 
quality product that I can 

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offer. 
And as such, I'm going to have 

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to increase prices to make sure 
it's a viable company at all 

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times. 
That's the reality of our 

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situation. 
We've had some people chiming in

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on Facebook ads and Instagram 
saying that we're price gouging,

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saying that we charge too much 
for our product. 

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And to be completely frank and 
honest with you, those are the 

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people that don't value the 
quality ingredients. 

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They don't value what they're 
putting into their body as much 

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as we do. 
And for that reason, they're not

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my target customer. 
I don't want their money. 

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I don't want their business. 
I don't want their headache. 

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That may sound brash, but that 
is what it is. 

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If you want a premium product, 
you have to pay for the premium 

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product. 
And I can't, I can't say it any 

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other way. 
That is just simply our reality.

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I'm going to fight to stay in 
business. 

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I'm going to fight to do what's 
right by y'all, and I'm going to

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always maintain the quality 
integrity of the product, and 

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the chips will fall where they 
may. 

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Who knows what the price of 
cacao is going to do in the 

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future? 
It may go up, it may go down. 

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I don't know. 
I'm going to do everything in my

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control, which may include 
buying a freaking farm in Brazil

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and going to direct in the sense
of growing my own cacao trees. 

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I don't know what that's going 
to be, but I'm going to do 

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everything in my power to do 
right by y'all. 

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I trust that those of you who 
know me, that those of you who 

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have been around for the long 
haul recognize that, believe in 

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that and appreciate them. 
And I will never, ever try and 

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do wrong by y'all. 
And I'll be transparent like I 

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have from the very beginning. 
So there it is ladies and gents,

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that's the reality. 
That's what I've learned in 

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Brazil and I hope we can all be 
at peace with that. 

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And I appreciate all y'all that 
are loyal customers and do value

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that premier quality of product 
more than you could ever know. 

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So thank you very much. 
Much love to all of y'all. 

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Have a wonderful, wonderful day.
And again, the shipping cost 

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will be added at checkout 
starting August 1st. 

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So plan accordingly there. 
Appreciate y'all talk to you 

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next time.