We recently connected with Raul Garcia and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Raul, thanks for joining us today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

As a faith-based brand, we truly believe God has ordered our steps and led us through all decisions, even before we involved Him in every choice. The name of the brand is no different. When we first began writing names on scratch paper to start the company, we settled on ‘BestBodiesforLife,’ thinking it was a great name oriented toward nutritional and health products. However, it wasn’t until a couple of years later, when we sat down to write our mission, vision statement, and core values, that we realized He had given us that name.

Through prayer and seeking wisdom, we understood that ‘Best’ was because God gave us His best – John 3:16. ‘Bodies’ signified that He wanted us to build a bridge between the Body of Christ, also known as the Church – those He had called us to impact – 1 Corinthians 6:19-20. ‘ForLife’ symbolizes our belief that we are all eternal beings, and every decision we make has eternal implications, as our bodies are His Temple!

We believe that BestBodiesforLife was inspired by the vision, mission, and core values He gave us, so we could be stewards of the culture He wants us to cultivate in our business and the impact we can make!

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

How you got into your industry / business / discipline / craft etc?

My story starts right as I was going into high school. I was diagnosed with preliminary stages of type 2 diabetes and was heavily overweight, bordering on obese. One night, I met a gentleman at the gym who happened to be the nutritionist for the Dolphins. He decided to take me under his wing and help me. He put me on a concoction of natural supplements, including organic protein, and other items to address my digestive health issues. After a year-long journey of following this protocol, I began to help family members and then friends, which eventually evolved into my school and community. It birthed a passion for health and nutrition and serving others, which eventually led me to take a huge leap of faith out of high school. I decided to defer college for a year, sell my car, and put all my savings into trying to develop a product line based on my journey and those I had been able to help during high school. Seven years later, we have endured many challenges, but I wouldn’t change anything. We are now in over 300 retailers and continuing to grow, helping more people than ever!

What type of products/services/creative works you provide?

We have developed a line of clean nutritional protein powder products that focus on offering functional ingredients such as Apple Cider Vinegar, Vanilla Beans, Turmeric Curcumin, Ceylon Cinnamon, and more. Our aim is to address specific health issues that many of us face, with a strong focus on transparency and purpose in sourcing ingredients and developing each product. We offer them all with a gluten free, soy free, non-GMO, and even vegan mindset!

What problems you solve for your clients and/or what you think sets you apart from others?

What sets us apart is that, unlike most protein supplements, we not only offer a clean and transparent approach to sourcing our ingredients, unlike mainstream protein supplement brands, but we also wanted each ingredient to serve a specific purpose and function. This means you get ingredients like Apple Cider Vinegar + Digestive Enzymes, which others don’t provide, focusing on gut health and digestion. We avoid using artificial ingredients, ensuring that our customers don’t experience the typical inflammatory and digestive responses that other products might cause. Our goal is to highlight our ingredients and let our story and mission shine throughout the process.

What are you most proud of and what are the main things you want potential clients/followers/fans to know about you/your brand/your work/ etc.

We want our customers to know that our main focus is the culture that we are trying to develop of service, quality, honor, purpose and impact and they are equally just as much a part of this as our team.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

During 2020, as we all know, everything changed! For a small bootstrapped brand that only had 50 small accounts but a big vision, we had two options. Although most people told us it was not wise, we decided to put all our reserves and reinvest them into a rebrand, our team, and supporting our accounts with the support they felt comfortable with. It was nerve-wracking at the time, but we knew that if we trusted the process, God would sustain us through this storm. We were small, but scrappy, and now, assessing our decision, we wouldn’t do anything differently! We are growing in all aspects and are stronger than ever. Never forget to trust the vision you were given; there’s a lot more at stake than just business.

Have you ever had to pivot?

In 2018, I was asked to go on a trip to visit orphanages and safe houses in Uganda. However, what I didn’t realize was that I was about to enter one of the hardest seasons of my life. My partner at the time wanted to take the company in an entirely different direction than I envisioned, and I needed to enter negotiations to buy him out. It turned into months of very difficult conversations that a small company, which was only a year old at the time, couldn’t afford, but I knew we needed to endure through it. We were in our offices signing paperwork just a few days before I was supposed to travel out of the country and trust that my team could handle the transition process while I was away. What I didn’t realize was that on that trip, I was going to receive a vision that would shape the future of the company for Child Sponsorship and fighting child trafficking, which has now opened so many doors.

Contact Info:

• Website: bestbodiesforlife.com
• Instagram: BestBodiesforLife
• Facebook: BestBodiesforLife
• Twitter: BestBodies4Life
• Youtube: BestBodiesforLife
• Other: Tiktok: @BestBodiesforLife

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