From $5 PDFs to $100M+ Empire

Hey founders,

Most people start with a plan. 

Mari Llewellyn started with a PDF and a mission.

She didn’t have funding. She didn’t have a team. She didn’t even finish college.

But she built one of the fastest-growing wellness brands in the country: Bloom Nutrition.

Today, we’re breaking down how Mari went from personal transformation to 9-figure empire. Because there’s a lot to learn from the way she built, not just what she built.

Let’s dive in.

Build Community Before Product

Mari’s journey started with vulnerability. She shared her 90-pound weight loss transformation online and the internet took notice.

That one post turned into thousands of DMs: 

“What did you eat?” “What workouts did you do?”

So she gave the people what they asked for: a $5 fitness PDF, emailed manually, one by one.

Then came resistance bands. 900 units packed by hand in her dad’s attic. Again, driven entirely by her audience's demand.

Here’s the lesson: She didn’t guess what people wanted. She listened. 

Then built a product around it.

Start Simple. Let the Market Pull You

The supplement aisle was saturated, but Mari spotted a gap: everything was built for bodybuilders.

She wanted something approachable: low caffeine, gut-friendly, and female-focused. So she and her husband Greg worked with a local manufacturer to create it.

Their first big hit was Bloom’s Greens & Superfoods. And they launched at the perfect time (2020, peak health-consciousness + TikTok boom).

It exploded.

But they didn't launch with 20+ products. 

Just a few, built for a specific customer, tested in real time through her social presence.

It’s a great reminder that simplicity scales. 

When you focus on one thing and do it exceptionally well, people notice.

Go All In on What Works

After a viral TikTok campaign and a restock that sold out in 12 hours, Bloom hit its first $1M sales day.

How’d they do it?

• Built hype on social with restock countdowns

• Let creators post authentic content (not overly polished ads)

• Prioritized direct feedback loops from Mari’s community

Instead of splitting attention across dozens of channels, they doubled down where they were winning: TikTok, influencers, and direct social selling.

Today, 90% of Bloom’s marketing budget is social-driven. 

Their in-house influencer team has partnered with 5,600 creators and generated over 12 billion views.

Own the Brand, Own the Growth

Bloom never raised outside money. Zero VC. Zero debt.

They used profits from the $5 PDF business to build the next thing. Then reinvested again. And again.

That bootstrapped mindset kept them nimble, lean, and customer-obsessed.

Today they’re in Target and Walmart. They’ve sold over 6 million tubs of Greens. And they’re doing 9 figures in annual sales.

Incredible!

The Blueprint

Whether you’re selling services, software, or supplements, the blueprint is the same:

Start small. Serve well. Scale what works.

You don’t need to go viral to win. Although it helps. 

But you do need to deeply understand your customer and deliver something they actually want.

Start somewhere, build a community of similar people, then ask them what they want. 

BUILD that for them, not for you. 

When you have that, it's on you to get word out. Influencers, social media, using your community, etc. 

Questions to ask:

• What are your customers asking for?

• How can you share social proof online? 

• If you were to try to leverage influencers, what types would you try? (Local, niche, B2B, etc)

Have a great weekend!

—The TRIBE Team