Greg Robbins began his career inside the realm of Big Six accounting houses, an experience that he tells us laid the foundation for a career in financial operations and strategy. However, he credits much of his leadership style to his time at Red Bull, where he learned that real development comes from hands-on experiences, insightful feedback, and formal training, a philosophy that he has carried forward throughout his career.
At Red Bull, Greg participated in several leadership development programs—including the “Scott Spooner Experience”—that profoundly influenced his professional approach. Spooner, a former special forces operative turned consultant, brought with him a unique perspective on leadership and resilience, emphasizing the importance of mental and physical endurance in challenging environments. This experience broadened Robbins’s understanding of the qualities of leadership beyond the conventional corporate framework. –Jack Sweeney
Made Possible By
- Early Career and Leadership Development: Greg Robbins credits his foundational experiences in Big Six accounting and his time at Red Bull for developing his leadership skills. At Red Bull, he was exposed to various leadership development programs, including retreats with keynote speakers and on-the-job learning, which heavily influenced his approach to leadership.
- Focus on Team-Building and Business Understanding: As CFO, Robbins stresses the significance of building a strong team and ensuring that they are engaged and productive. He also highlights the necessity of understanding the commercial side of the business to effectively partner with other departments, especially sales and marketing.
- Strategic Priorities at Odyssey Wellness: At Odyssey Wellness, Robbins’s primary focus is on funding and scaling the business efficiently. He aims to capitalize on changing consumer preferences for healthier beverage options by promoting Odyssey’s unique, mushroom-based energy drinks.
- Future Vision and Growth Strategy: Looking forward, Robbins is keen on expanding Odyssey Wellness in the energy drink market by tapping into new distribution channels and leveraging data to identify growth opportunities. He also plans to continue his efforts to secure the necessary funding to fuel the company’s rapid growth trajectory.
CFOTL: Tell us about Odyssey Wellness … what does this company do, and what are its offerings today?
Robbins: Things have changed inside the beverage world. I’ve been doing beverages for 15 years, and I’ve seen them. Consumers—especially younger consumers—want healthier beverages. We’re talking about the Millennials, the Gen Zers—they want products that give them the functionality that they’re looking for. So, they’re interested in energy and cognitive-aiding beverages, but they also want healthier versions of these. This is really what Odyssey can give to the consumer. We use lion’s mane mushrooms, which help you with your cognitive clarity and focus. We use cordyceps, which helps you with endurance and basically provides the energy. Interestingly enough, a lot of athletes are using cordyceps these days. These are rather exotic mushrooms, but they’re actually trending. A lot of people are picking up on them.
Read MoreWe have three product lines. There’s a hydration product. Then we have our core product, which has 85 milligrams of caffeine and was sort of the product that got us to where we are today. Now, we also have a higher-caffeine version of it with 222 milligrams. They’re built on a mushroom base, so we’re leveraging the lion’s mane and cordyceps mushrooms.
There are a lot of active ingredients in the product—and 2,750 milligrams of mushrooms, to be exact. To me, this is clean energy. We have monk fruit for the sweetener and green tea for caffeine, plus the mushrooms and their benefits on top of that. Our products have a lot of what I call healthier or good ingredients—and are low-calorie as well.
When you look at the energy category, you find that all of these energy drink products that are on the market today have a lot of artificial flavors and sweeteners in them. I think that consumers are really drawn to our products not only because of their functionality but also because they come in a number of innovatively good flavors—this is something new, right? There are many of these energy drinks in this sector that’s been dominated by Red Bull and Monster over the years. Many other players have tried to come in and take some of the share. But I think that now has come a time when consumers’ tastes are changing and they’re looking for healthier alternatives such as ours.
Odyssey | www.odysseyelixir.com | Fort Lauderdale, FL