Willy Kwak: Make sure you're ready so that when the opportunity comes, you are ready to take that opportunity, maximize it to its full potential.

James Lacey: Meet Willy Kwak, the founder and CEO of Krack'd Snacks, a brand dedicated to low-sugar, keto, and plant-based treats. Stay tuned to hear Willy's journey of redefining healthy indulgence, one snack at a time.

Willy Kwak: So we started the company back in 2019. It was just a small side business at the time while I was working full-time. And I started the company because, I tried all the keto-friendly, low-carb, sugar-free snacks and sweets out there because I was on keto for about nine years myself. And yeah, none of the stuff was good and I was just kind of dumbfounded at how they're selling some of these snacks in all these stores.

And I just kind of thought to myself, you know what, I can make something better. And I kind of needed something for myself too, because I would try all the stuff out in the market. It just didn't hit on the taste or the texture aspect of it. And so basically I kept getting kicked out of keto, because I would be eating really clean on keto, eating keto-friendly, like whole foods and some snacks at the time, but none of them, like when my sweet cravings would kick in, none, none of them really satisfied, what I was actually going for.

And so I would end up just binge eating on like sugary snacks, like candy bars and all that stuff. And so I needed something for myself, which was, I needed something really sweet, something with a good crunch. And we launched in 2021 with our two candy bars, the peanut butter, caramel crunch bar, and the aloha caramel.

And basically what we're trying to do is just help people eat healthier. so our candy bars have less than one gram of sugar. They're vegan, keto-friendly, gluten-free, plant-based, dairy, dairy-free, all that stuff.

James Lacey: That is impressive that you can say all of that. I mean, yeah, it's funny, you go to the grocery store and or you look online and you see so many options and if you just take a second to actually look at the back of the pack, read the ingredients.

You're like, hang on a second. This is like, it sounds healthy. It looks healthy, but you start reading the ingredients and you're like, nah. Yeah, and so I was looking at your guy's site, krackdsnacks.com and just looking through the ingredients, the options, I was like, wow, this is incredible. It's super clean.

And reading some of your story. How do you go from like something that's a passion and idea, and then even seeing a solution to a problem, how do you go from that conceptually? So then actually building it into a product and a brand. I mean, that's a huge step to especially the food industry. And so if somebody may be in a similar boat right now, maybe they're experiencing a similar problem that they've seen the solution to, what would you say to that person from the decision to go from idea to reality?

Willy Kwak: Oh, man, that's tough because there's so many ways to approach it. But what I did was I planned it out a little bit first. I had a general guideline and like a blueprint of how I wanted to do things. But as a small business, as a startup, things change so quickly. And so if I could have gone back in time, I would have told myself, just start, just get out there, get a product out there, try to get that first sale, the branding or the packaging or the product itself.

It doesn't have to be perfect because you can always iterate along the way. I wasted a lot of time. I first made sure the product was really good though. That is the one thing that, there's some things that we can update in the future, but at least the taste and the texture has to be there. That's kind of the big thing that us as a company, we're going to make sure every product that we release, that it's something that people would actually like, because I started the company because I was not happy with what was out there.

And so, yeah, making sure the product is good, but I spent a lot of time on the branding, the packaging, feeling, kind of waiting until I felt like, Oh no, this is like, this is close to perfect. Let me go ahead and release it now. When we actually rebranded last year. And so all the stuff, all the time and money that we spent on it, we changed.

And so for anyone trying to start up, it's really difficult to put yourself out there. But I realized once you get that ball rolling, it's a lot easier and it becomes less scary. You kind of start to see the path of how to grow just as you continue down it. And so I think the best thing is to just start.

James Lacey: I love that. Just start. It's like Nike saying, just do it. You know, it's so true. I like, yeah, I mean, it's such a great, it's really hard to beat that. I think, yeah, I can speak as well from some minor experience. It's so easy to overplan and overthink and then like months down the line, you actually didn't do anything.

So I love that. I think it's so true. Would you recommend any daily hacks or have you learned anything about daily routine that keeps you on track to basically do that just start because it's easy to not easy. It's easier to start in the moment, but then being consistent over time.

Willy Kwak: Yeah, for me, so I used to always be a night owl, I would sleep at 1, 2 a.m. My entire life. Yeah. And I would wake up around like nine or 10 a.m. Something that I noticed helped me out a lot was actually waking up earlier, making sure that I get all my mentally heavy tasks done in the morning. And then I do my less mentally heavy stuff, just more physical stuff later in the afternoon.

But I didn't find that out until I just forced myself to one day just start waking up early because I did kind of notice after reflecting like, Hey, I'm actually feeling a lot better earlier and people, I don't have to reply to emails or answer to calls as soon as it's 9 a. m. Because that's when everyone's trying to contact you, or you're trying to contact other people.

And so I realized that just even that two-hour window, it gave me a lot of mental clarity to really to really make a big dent, in the progress that I wanted to make for that day, but I don't think there was any sort of hack. I just kind of thought, you know what, after I guess some self-reflection, I realized I am more efficient in the mornings.

Let me try to do this. And it is really hard to get into that habit. Even now, I still want to press this news button for like 30 minutes. So I'll do it like six times, just five-minute increments and so I think it's just a matter of building up that willpower, which for me, it kind of comes from me having a habit of going to the gym, all the time. And so that kind of discipline in the gym kind of bled over into other aspects of my life, which, a big one of that is the business.

James Lacey: Yeah.

Willy Kwak: Right.

James Lacey: That makes sense. Yeah, it's, interesting how things like gym consistency and the ability to still say yes, when you don't want to cross over into having to run a business.

That's, that's kind of a win-win. You get health and productivity, both just through, through learning a discipline of staying consistent even when you don't want to. Is there any advice that you've received over time? Is there a favorite quote that you have? Like just fun question that might inspire someone?

Willy Kwak: Oh man, there's a lot. I think if I had to, I would probably take it back to one of the things that my dad said ever since I was a kid. He said, it basically boils down to just make sure you're ready. So make sure you're ready so that when the opportunity comes, that you are ready to take that opportunity to maximize it to its full potential.

That one is a huge one that for some reason it's just always in the back of my mind. It always just kind of pops up randomly. And then another one is one of my intern mentors said, and I learned a lot from him because, he was very demanding, but because he wanted you to grow and be someone that you could be.

And so basically he said, your word is the weight of gold. Basically, when you say something, you execute on it, because that's a promise that you made to someone else, but it's also a promise that you made to yourself. And so when you say something, make sure you follow up on it. I feel like those two are simple, but very difficult things to do.

But, you know, you kind of, when you do execute on it, or when you can follow through on it, you just kind of prove to yourself over and over that you're the type of person who actually does what they say.

James Lacey: That's awesome. It reminds me, there's a verse in the Bible, I think, that says, “a good name is better than riches”.

It's you know, integrity, the value of integrity, will, it's almost like, over time, that'll be more valuable than just riches because it stands the test of time, like you're saying is somebody that can be trusted, with being a man of their word. It's like that person is going to, no matter what, be seen as valuable because they are trustworthy.

And yeah, I think both of those things are really powerful, man. make sure you're ready and your word is the weight of gold. Is that right?

Willy Kwak: Correct.

James Lacey: That's awesome. I love that.

Willy Kwak: I think for me, it's the people who believe in me and the people who have trusted me by investing their time into the business.

I just want to make sure I can repay that to them by making sure the business is successful. So it's not a fee per se, but it's more so like a, they're believing in me, so I need to repay them, with that trust.

James Lacey: I love that. And so it's almost like honor. Like it's like you're, you want to honor them for that risk in kind of believing in you.

Willy Kwak: Yeah, exactly. 

James Lacey: That's really cool. Is there anything specific that inspires you, motivates you when times are tough, like that just kind of causes you to keep going.

Willy Kwak: Yeah, so things have been pretty tough this year, just a lot of things going on in the business. We rebranded last year in November and we lost a lot of, we lost a lot of customers because I didn't manage it that well. 

I thought I did, but that was more so on the aesthetics and the logistics side. The part that I failed was where I didn't convey to our customers and our fans that, hey, we're still the same company. We just have a different name, a different look, but we're still the same people, the same product, and everything.

And so that was kind of something we were struggling with earlier this year. And so when things get tough, I take it back to why am I doing this in the first place. When we do the events that we've done over the past few years, when we get to see people's instant reactions to them, trying our stuff, people who are diabetic.

Type 1 or type 2 diabetic or people who are on keto, people who just can't have certain snacks because of the ingredients, the way it makes them feel. When they try our stuff and they say, “Oh my God, I didn't know I could have something like this again”. That's something that I really enjoy giving to people and I know we have a good product.

And so when things get tough, I know that our products can make someone feel happy for even just a moment in their life, in that day. And so that's something that, that does motivate me as to help me keep going of like, why am I putting myself through something so difficult? yeah, of course I'm looking forward to growing a successful business having some good profits, but yeah, I really do want to just change the industry and show people, hey, you can have really good-tasting food and sweets and snacks, but you can cut out a lot of the sugar, reduce the amount of ingredients in there. You can kind of really pare it down. Let's start back from step one.

Like, let's try to simplify things because things are just getting too complicated in the processed food space. 

James Lacey: So true. I love that. It's a great mission, not just obviously helping people in what you said, seeing the impact that it has, but also the actually impacting an industry by saying hey, let's lead a charge here.

Let's see if we can shift something, bring things back to being a little bit more simple and just a little bit cleaner. Yeah, that's awesome. Like I said, looking at krackdsnacks.com and seeing the ingredients in the product offering, it's, it really is hard to find, but there's not a lot out there that is staying that clean.

And especially from the, like you said, especially being able to people that are in keto, et cetera. Being able to trust what they're buying, that's huge and obviously a big part of your story. You know, leadership can be a pretty lonely place at times. Have you experienced that now being a founder, CEO and kind of growing a business?

How have you managed that and is there any advice you have for staying connected, to the outside world, to outside of business and not feeling too isolated and in that place of leadership.

Willy Kwak: Yeah. I'm very fortunate because being an OC based company in Orange County, there are a lot of other founders that I can connect with.

So that's a huge, it's been very helpful, helpful because I can talk to people who are way ahead of me, a similar path into business or just starting out. And just connecting with them, kind of understanding what their struggles are. I realized a lot of them are similar or a lot are very different, and so I am very fortunate.

But sometimes it's difficult because you just don't know if you're doing a good job or not, because there, there's no quite like blueprint. No one's really assessing you except I guess the amount of revenue. It's I almost connect myself to the revenue of okay, is this a good marker of how successful we're doing?

But, yeah, I'm just very fortunate that I do have this network around me. Other than that, it's just, my family helps me out a lot. My dad helps out with whenever I can't make deliveries or whenever packages come and I'm not there to receive it. 

He's always there to help me out. He drops whatever he's doing, he helps me out. My aunts, and my 95-year-old grandma, they also help out in the business as well. Man, that's awesome. And so they're my network. I love building this business because I've gotten a lot closer with my family, just because they are helping out with the day-to-day. So it allowed me to spend more time with them and I've gotten to actually get closer with my family and learn more about them and learn about all the struggles.

My grandma went through because things have changed so much. And so that just that kind of helps put things in perspective of like, how fortunate I am. 

James Lacey: That's powerful. You don't often hear people say that they are thankful that they've been able to start building a business because it's enabled them to spend more time with their family, like it's often the other way around. Whereas people like, yeah, I started building business and I don't see my family anymore, or because, and so that is a really unique kind of incredible case scenario. I think, what would you say, if any, are your roadblocks to scaling the business right now?

Willy Kwak: Yeah, so financing is always an issue. I saved a lot of my money, back when I used to be a litigation consultant, so we're bootstrapped, a hundred percent bootstrapped right now.

But when it comes to scaling, it does require a lot of money. If you want to grow at the pace that you want, or if you want to grow at a certain pace, it does sometimes require some funding. And so we're not quite there yet where we need the funding, but it is something that we are exploring, other than that, it's when it comes to something that we're facing is making sure that the quality of the product is the same on a small scale.

And when we continue to ramp up our production, that is something that especially in candy making, it's been difficult to try to do it on my own. And so that's where we'll probably have to hire a professional to help us out more with that when it comes to scaling. And so I would say it's been a, financing, is something that we're going to, come across soon as a potential roadblock, but also just making sure that the quality of the product is there, as we continue to grow, and then always finding new customers, that's always going to be a struggle for every brand. 

James Lacey: Absolutely, that's the number one. But yeah, that's, I, it's great to hear somebody say, just retaining the quality as you scale up, because that is a hard thing to do.

Especially when you're keeping something so clean, it's a hard thing to do. But, and I don't understand, you know, the details that go into manufacturing or creating a food product, but, it's good to hear that, that it's despite whatever scale comes, it's trustworthy that it's going to remain such a quality product, you know. Is there anything that you are learning specifically at this time or just really excited about at this time?

Willy Kwak: Yeah, I'm excited because I know there's kind of a path to how to grow and the road is just becoming a little bit more and more clear. I feel like at every step of the business, you're always kind of walking into a new room. You got to walk around and explore to kind of see where things are.

And so I feel like I've kind of stepped into the next level and I'm understanding what we need to do to grow, just making sure we're doing all the things in the right way so that we can have the same consistency in terms of the quality of the product, making sure we're doing everything right. 

And so we're growing step by step at the pace that we want to, and so now that I'm kind of seeing how that looks, there's a more clear path forward and what work we need to do and execute on to make sure we can get there as opposed to before, just even earlier this year, I was just trying to throw money at the problem, but that wasn't the solution.

And so that's something that now that I understand the path forward to growing a little bit more. It's exciting, because I know a little bit more of how to get from A to Z.

James Lacey: That's great. You have the clarity of direction, which is yeah, that's a huge thing. I think, it's interesting to hear, the origin of your story being in kind of your experience with, I mean, nine years on keto, that's a ton of experience to then go from that and be like, you know what, I need to build a solution to the problem experiencing, what would you say to other people that are either wanting to go keto, have experienced and living a lifestyle of keto, or even people that maybe just want, lower sugar, healthier snacks. What would be your, I guess, message to them about Krack'd Snacks? Like what, why Krack'd Snacks for those people?

Willy Kwak: Yeah. I always recommend for people to eat whole foods, try to prioritize protein whenever possible, but sweets and snacks are a part of life, at least for me it is, where I feel like there's a lot of enjoyment in eating sweets, even if it's like fruits or just eating, like for me, it's like Sour Patch Kids or Oreos from time to time.

But I think that's the key kind of minimizing it to just occasionally having it and sometimes same with Krack'd Snacks, occasionally just switching out like a regular candy bar or regular treat that you have that might have a little bit of sugar, or for some people who can't have sugar at all, then making that switch or providing them with an option to still enjoy sweets.

And so that's where we come into play. Maybe it's not an everyday thing, but you can, when you want to feel healthier or for the people who don't have any other options. They can go for  Krack'd Snacks and still get that sweet satisfaction without getting a blood sugar spike.

James Lacey: That's great. That's great. Is that, do you have a, do you have a big sky, wild dream vision when it comes to Krack'd Snacks?

I know that's a huge question, but I'm just curious.

Willy Kwak: Yeah. Yeah, I do. I, we're starting off in, sweets just like mainly candy right now, but I do want to eventually open up into snacks in general. Hence the name Krack'd Snacks. And so I think there's so many other good brands out there. So I'm so happy because this entire industry it's getting better in terms of the pricing, the prices are getting more comparable to other snacks that have a lot of sweets or that have a lot of sugar, the taste and the texture is getting better, but I still feel like it's still lacking.

And I feel like that's something that we have a competitive advantage in, and yeah, I want to start with candies, move over into other sweets, and other snacks, such as high protein snacks, which that's just something that kind of aligns with my lifestyle, high protein, less carbs, less sugar and just trying to help people eat healthier.

That's in whatever way that is, that's my mission. And that's something that, that I want to make sure, retain, remains the same, no matter how big we get.

James Lacey: That's great. I love that. We have a final question that love asking people and then I'd love to just hear if you have any other thoughts, that you want to share and also just to make sure that we know where we can follow more about yourself or Krack'd Snacks, but final question that we'd love to ask is what does real fulfillment mean to you?

Willy Kwak: That's something I'm trying to find out myself, actually. When I can stay a hundred percent present and not get caught up in my mind, that's when I feel like that's what fulfillment means for me. Very removed from business, but I feel like I'm the happiest when I could just sit down, listen to the birds, take in my environment, and just be thankful and grateful for being alive and being able to experience this. Might sound woo-woo or whatever, but I feel like I get so much stress relief and I just feel calm when I can actually get to that point, but it's very difficult to get there.

James Lacey: I think that's incredibly beautiful. I don't know if there is a higher ecstasy of life than the pursuit of peace and restfulness.

I think that's pretty much everyone's longing is to be at rest and at peace despite whatever circumstances, like that is, I've, I often think that the difference between joy and happiness, maybe there's, this might just be my opinion. I don't know. And I think happiness is experiential.

It's or it's like reactive kind of thing. You, it comes through experiences whereas joy is like a state of being. and so I often think it's, for me, that's my faith and I'm a Christian. And so for me, that's, that's one of the reasons why, I'm like, it gives me the sense of, or peace and joy, despite circumstances.

And so I'm like, this is the biggest cry of my heart. Like without this, I don't know what I'd do. I'd be a mess. But, so I love that answer. Like the ability to sit, listen to nature, listen to the birds, be present. I, yeah, I think that's awesome.

Willy Kwak: Yeah. Awesome. It's awesome that you're able to experience that, through your own methods too. 

James Lacey: Yeah, that's encouraging, man. Is there anything else you'd like to share Willy about yourself or about Krack'd Snacks before I let you go? And also please do share with us where we can follow along with Krack'd Snacks, where we can follow along with yourself. Yeah,

Willy Kwak: Yeah. So we've got a few more product launches ready for this year in, on October 31st, we're going to launch our milk chocolate, peanut butter, caramel crunch, and milk chocolate, aloha caramel, and also a vegan white chocolate, pumpkin spice, which all three of those items are vegan. We've been having a hard time, getting a really good milk chocolate.

That's dairy-free and that's still keto-friendly without sugar alcohol. So we have to make it ourself. And took a lot of R and D, but we're able to get it. And so we're going to launch those. So look out for those, around Halloween. And you can follow us on, Instagram. So Krack'd Snacks, that's spelled K-R-A-C-K-D-S-N-A-C-K-S and same with our website, it's just krackdsnacks.com.

James Lacey: That's perfect. Willy, this is being just awesome. Just hearing your heart, hearing about Krack'd Snacks, your desire to see people be healthier and seeing what you're doing, building this business. I'm very excited to see what happens with Krack'd Snacks.

I would not be surprised if I'm seeing it everywhere soon and eating it myself. Thank you so much for being on today. That is it for today's episode of Fulfilled Podcast. We'll be back soon. Thanks so much, Willy. 

Willy Kwak: Thank you, James. Appreciate it.