We recently connected with Duke Armstrong and have shared our conversation below.

Duke, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

The name Propello Life came to us over a long process of brainstorming on a whiteboard in our basement. We knew what we stood for, we knew our values, morals, and mission, but finding a name that is memorable, simple, and has an available website domain address is much harder than you would first think! Propello Life stands for “motivated life.” Propel is the Latin root for motivation, and it embodies everything we stand for – changing lives for the healthier. And to change your life, you need a BIG why; a big reason that motivates you and fuels you to change the foundation of your beliefs and practices around healthy living.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

First of all, thank you for sharing my story and my business, Propello Life. I have been in the supplement industry for over 19 years working for and leading some of the largest brands in the industry. My journey to starting my own business all started when I went on my own personal health journey discovering what healthy balanced living is for me. During this personal journey, I found the gap between what I believed in and the companies I was leading growing larger and larger – until finally, I made the decision to build my own company. Propello Life is unique because of two main reasons. First, we believe in balanced living centered around 7 aspects of a healthy life (movement, nourishment, mind, spirit, passion, love, and rejuvenation). Second, we found a gap in the industry for natural supplements that taste great and are backed by science (i.e. actually work!).

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Growing Propello Life organically has been the hardest thing I have ever had to do. In the first 6 months of being in business, we lost 2/3 of our sales channels due to environmental changes completely out of our control. This forced us to go back to the drawing board and change our approach to growing our business. The work to adapt was hard and slow, but we persevered by focusing our efforts on being a direct to consumer brand first and partnering with local gyms and retailers. At the time, it was extremely hard, but these struggles forced us to grow into what we are today, and we are so thankful for it!

The other huge environmental factor impacting us was the pandemic. Just as we were getting into our groove 4 years into business the pandemic rocked our world as it did so many companies. But it wasn’t right away in the pandemic. The beginning of the pandemic was actually really good for us since we are an on-line company. What eventually got to us was the uncontrollable supply chain issues, rising cost of materials, and the ever changing customer demand for supplements. On top of that, on-line based competition shot through the roof making an already hyper competitive industry even more competitive. Once again, we found ourselves having to adapt to huge environmental changes. We are still dealing with these issues, but they are getting better and we are getting better at dealing with them. Propello Life is growing and stronger than ever!

What I have found through all of this is that the hardest times have created the greatest opportunities for Propello Life to grow.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

Propello Life is 100% self funded, and has grown through our profits and reinvestment of those profits. To fund the business, we saved money for over 2 years to raise the necessary capital to purchase our initial inventory, set up our website, and get the company off the ground. Since our growth is dictated by our IRR (internal rate of return), we did not take any salaries or pay ourselves for the first 4.5 years in order to reinvest that money into the business to grow faster. Self funding the business has definitely slowed our growth since we do not pay for any advertising. But we have been able to consistently grow year over year through word of mouth, influencers, great products, and industry leading customer service. We also offer free shipping on orders over $50.00 in the USA and provide a 100% satisfaction guarantee – so there is no risk to trying our products. We even offer single serve packets that are great for trying us for the first time, travel, or just convenience.

Please check us out at the information below and give us a try using our 15% off discount code: FIRSTORDER

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.propellolife.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/propellolife/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PropelloLife/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/25056831