Chris Gronkowski – Former NFL Player & Entrepreneur

In this episode of Big Head Pod, Kevin chats with Chris Gronkowski about his time in the NFL, what his family is up to and his entrpranurally ventures with his company Ice Shaker. Chris might of had a short stent in the NFL but tune in to learn why he is going to have a long future ahead as an entrepreneur.

A special thanks to our sponsor Herman Marshall Whiskey. Built from the grain up. Just like good whiskey should be.
www.hmwhiskey.com

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
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(00:50):
here on the Dub Network. Mynext guest is one of four brothers played
in the NFL. NFL took himto an entrepreneurial ship to where he is
today and without further ado mister,Chris Gronkowski, Chris, how are you?
Brother? Hey? What's going on? Man? I like that you

(01:11):
said four brothers. I was like, man, there's five of us,
but you know, one of themplayed baseball, so he didn't he didn't
make it to the NFL. Soand that's you know, you know,
and being around you guys for thelast few years with with the Celebrity Softball
that tk's put together and seeing yourinteractions that you guys have. I had
two brothers, old I was Iwas the baby. Where do you fall

(01:32):
in this pecking order? Yeah?Man, so I'm actually I'm the middle
of the five, So I'm numberthree. Okay, so you were destined.
It always seems like the third oneis destined to be the elite because
you know, you you've picked thefirst two brothers to see what you want
to do. So who's the oldest, Gordy? Yeah, it's yeah,

(01:52):
So it goes Gordy Rob and thenyou know, so we got Gordy,
our brother Dan. Okay, Dan'sin there a part of the Celebrity Classic
yet, but um and then meand then Rob and then we have the
younger brother, Glenn, who's beenthere as well. Okay, So that's
so. I mean I can't evenimagine what it was like with in your
household growing up. I know,as me being the baby, my brothers

(02:15):
used to abuse me. I wasputting a hockey goal with catcher's gear only,
and they're ten and fourteen years olderthan I am. So I was.
It was one of those where youbasically had to take it as a
kid. So, you know,so growing up a little bit, like
you talked about, you guys,what was the sport of choice or was
it just what everybody wanted to dothat day? Yeah? Man, so

(02:36):
we I mean we're from Buffalo,New York, so the sport was definitely
hockey and baseball. But grew upplaying a lot of hockey. We liked
it because you could hit people.You learn how to hit, you know,
on skates it's even more intense.So a lot of hockey. And
then after that it was it wasjust pickup games, you know, backyard
baseball. We played mini sticks inthe basement, or at least that's what

(02:58):
we called it. You know,you take like the little plastic steaks that
you're supposed to hang on the wall, you put them in a hot you
know, boiling pot of water andyou curve the steak and you go in
the basement and you know it's anall out battle, you know, full
checking and uh two on two games. So played a lot of mini stakes
growing up as well. But reallyanything all day, every day was a
competition and always ended in a brawl. Like had to end the day with

(03:21):
at least one fight. That's that'swhat it seemed to be where you know,
it's it's the competitive nature, rightthat that your brothers bring out and
you to want to be the best, right. I always wanted to be
better, you know, if theywere doing it, I wanted to be
better than they were. So whatdid I need to do? So you
guys had that dynamic from I mean, what's the what's the age difference from
from Gordy to to Glenn? Soten years totals were all about two years

(03:46):
apart. Wow, oh my goodness. So I can't even imagine. Probably
your parents should sit back and justsay don't kill each other and just go
at it. That was it,man. So my dad's rule was,
um, you know, no headshotsand no uh you know those shots below
the waist is how he went aboutit. But yeah, it was it.
That's how it was. If youhad a problem, cool you know,

(04:08):
Russell, fight it out, dowhatever, go outside. Uh and
then after that, you know wecan kind of become best friends after your
you know, you just beat thehell out of each other. So that
was kind of their their philosophy.You know, go aside, get that
energy out, fight if you needto, and get back in and uh,
you know, come come, eatyour dinner. It's kind of what
it was like. And it didit help create a better bond. I

(04:29):
mean, you know we talked asathletes. You see, the teams that
succeed are the teams that can fightwith each other but know that they have
each other's respect and backs to moveforward. I mean is that what are
that kind of was establishing you guysat that younger age should be help you
to get what you guys got totoday. Yeah, I think so.
I mean you see it over andover. You know, the guys that
kind of hate each other the mostat first, it's usually because they're the

(04:51):
most similar and the most competitive,and once they have it out for each
other, they get it a littlebrawl, you know. Same with the
football fields, same with the lockerroom. You know, you have a
lot of respect for them afterwards,and you end up being good friends and
really supporting each other. So that'show we were, you know, growing
up, it was all out brawlsall day, every day, doing whatever
we could to you know, geton each other's nerves or make the other

(05:14):
brother look bad. And then aswe got older, you know, we
kind of just turned into respect.We started playing on the same teams together,
we started playing together, hitting guys, you're blocking guys off the line
together, and it kind of justbecame the ultimate bond. So at that
point, you know, went tocollege together. Some of us played together
in the pros as well, Sojust one of those bonds that always took
you that next level as well.Because I wanted to get into the film

(05:36):
room and say, hey, bro, you know, watch this next play,
you know, watch what happens herekind of thing. And at the
same time, you know, withyour brother and they're watching you on film,
you didn't want to look bad either, you know, you wanted to
play the best you could to kindof you know, wint up your bro
or kind of impress your brother.So I always loved playing on teams with
my brothers. Always took us bothto that next level. So where did

(05:59):
you guys play end up playing together? Was it in New England? So
I played together. I actually wentto the University of Maryland. First played
with my brother Dan for two seasons. I transferred and I played with Rob
for two seasons at Arizona as brothersin the NFL. Dan and Rob played
together in New England, and thenGlenn and Rob played together in New England

(06:20):
as well. So I was theone that was left out. I think
we got a little too crazy incollege for Belichick to allow me to come
into New England. So you talk, So Gordy was a baseball guy.
I mean Buffalo, New York isnot a baseball play I mean, you
think about it, snow. Igrew up in the Northeast and Delaware,
so we had four seasons, right, we played. I played soccer in

(06:41):
the fall. I wasn't my schoolwasn't known for football. Played soccer and
then hockey in the winter and baseballin the spring. So how did,
I mean, how did Gordy endup on the baseball path? Right?
And then three of you playing football? And then wasn't Glenn the hockey player?
No? So Glenn Uh, heplayed football as well. We all
played hockey okay really up until highschool. But for us in Buffalo,
once you got to the high schoollevel, if you were still playing hockey,

(07:04):
it was almost like one of thosesports where you know, you only
played hockey. They were going tomake sure that you were playing all the
travel teams that you were playing yearround. So we like playing everything.
We like being athletes. I didn'tplay basketball, but all the other brothers
played basketball as well. I stuckmore in the weight room in the offseason
between football and baseball at that point. But yeah, it was and like

(07:29):
that's how it was, like youonly you only played baseball for like three
months because it was snowing the restof the months. You get it in.
We started doing trips down to Floridaearly on in the year to try
to get at least a little bitlonger of a season, but you know,
it's hard to get recruited out ofthere as well. My dad did
a great job with us of allowingus to go to camps. It would
get as many eyeballs as they couldon us. And he also just knew

(07:53):
the recruiting process, you know,he did it himself. He took a
great hound bus around the nation whenhe tried to get recruited, and it
up with an offer from Syracuse.So he kind of knew the ropes.
He knew what we had to doto get in front of the coaches,
and he did everything he could tokind of help us out if we wanted
to do it. So baseball wastough. He got him down to Jacksonville.
He took a you know, almostlike a countrywide tour with my brother

(08:16):
to visit every college possible. Endedup at the University of Jacksonville. For
me, you know, similar similarthing. You know, one or two
scholarship offers to lower level schools.The only d one offer was the University
of Buffalo. But just kept pushingand kept getting in front of coaches and
got a last minute scholarship offer fromMaryland, mostly because of grades and other
guys falling out. So definitely atough place to play out of. But

(08:39):
and you keep grinding and you putthe work in and know you have the
talent you're you're gonna eventually be seen. Yeah. So, so was your
dad Was he a football player grownup? Was he or was he a
hockey guy grown up. What waswhat was your dad's sport growing up?
Yeah? So he um, youknow, played a lot of baseball as
well, played a lot of hockey, but ultimately went to school for football.

(09:00):
So he an offense hard. Uhyou know, to too eighty back
in the day, big dude forthat time, and uh like to lift
a lot of weights. Yeah,so that's where you guys kind of got
that from. So did your dadever mix it up with you guys to
kind of balance it out have threeon three or was it just kind of
the three on two scenario going thewhole time? Yeah? No, he
um, I mean we we mixit up now more like basketball, cornhole

(09:26):
stuff like that. But back inthe day, he never really got in
on the action of you know,the sports with us. I mean,
he would have just destroyed us atthat point probably, So he's I mean,
yeah, Gordon when he's you know, twenty one years old, so
uh, you know, younger,younger dad and coaching all of our stuff,

(09:46):
coaching all our baseball or hockey games. So it was it was fun
growing up. Well that's good.I mean I've seen I've seen some of
the the interaction you guys have hadwith your dad, you know, through
social media stuff and the fun thatthat he has. So you know,
I know, Rob seems to bethe guy that the real the jokes are
the outgoing guys. Is that isthat how it's always been or is it
just something that he just kind ofdeveloped through playing, Because you know,

(10:09):
everybody has their own personality, youseem like you're kind of more of the
on the opposite side of where Roband Gordy are, So I mean,
do you see yourselves that way?Yeah? For sure. He was like
that from day one. So hewas a one that's always pushing everyone to
the limit. Uh, you know, right before he gets called to the
Principles office kind of thing, he'dstopped doing it. And uh, it

(10:30):
was all about trying to make uslaugh, you know, make his brothers
laugh, do something stupid to seehow we react to it. So yeah,
man, uh, he always healways had jokes. He was always
doing something crazy, and it wasalways it's always entertaining. So he never
really changed. I mean, youthink about it. He was twenty years
old, got a signing bonus fora couple million dollars and uh, you
know most people would mess that up. He was still going to the complex

(10:54):
and bringing home food for dinner,you know, because that's that's how we
were raised. Just earn every dollar. Uh, you know, we have
fifty bucks in college and spend amonth. You'll find a way to get
through, scrap it out, anddo whatever you have to do. So
parents raised this to really respect hardwork and respect the value of a dollar.
Yeah, it seems like that's that'ssomething that gets lost a lot nowadays,

(11:16):
especially in sports where guys get Imean, the signing botuses are just
insane, right, the amount ofmoney these they they're kids right there,
twenty nineteen, twenty years old,given this amount of money, and there's
there's no real direction, you know, right, So it's and that's I
know they try and create things tohelp you guys to money management guys too,
but there's so many outside factors pullingpulling guys all over the place.

(11:41):
So I mean, what did youexperience as far as you know, you
know, once you got into playplaying football and in that aspect of it,
Yeah, with it from the moneyside of it. Um, it's
funny, man, because you know, I started a rookie year, I
was undrafted free agent rookie. Imade the Cowboys team. I started as
a starting pullback, and you know, everyone thinks you're making millions. You

(12:01):
know, you're you're balling, You'rekilling it. At the end of the
day. You know, my salarywas three hundred and five K. You
know, you take probably half ofthat home. You have living expenses to
pay for as well. And uh, you know, you're not balling.
You're not a multimillionaire. You know, you're not buying your family houses.
But you know everyone expects it.You know, it's it's hard to just
buy, you know, ten friendstickets to the game because you're still paying

(12:24):
for the tickets. You'll get ticketsfor free. So I think everyone's perception
of it is that every single playeris just absolutely balling. But it's just
not the case. So uh,you know, for me, you know,
people were you know, I couldn'treally do anything about it because really
I didn't have the money to doit anyway, So I wasn't really in
that same position that someone that wasdrafted high would be in. And you

(12:46):
have that big, that big fatsigning bonus to to really worry about and
have people coming after. So youwhen you were you undrafted free, did
you did finish your your four Youfinished four years two at Maryland, two
at Arizona, correct, yep,Yeah, so ire up with the degree
and at that point went into uh, you know, into the draft,
but went undrafted. Yeah, sowhat was your degree in? I ended

(13:11):
up getting an accounting degree, SoI was one of one of the football
players in the entire business school.You have to actually apply to get in,
and uh, you know, Iwanted to get what I thought would
be the hardest degree to get.Um, you know, it was free
at that time. You know,you're on scholarship. Might as well try
to get the best I can.And I figure a band, if anything,
I could at least be a CPAand make decent money. So that

(13:31):
was kind of the game plan atthat point. So, I mean,
so a lot of guys too,once they're playing, they're playing, they're
still going to school, you know, still trying to educate themselves better than
themselves. And it's it's one ofthose things where something you know, some
guys do, some guys don't.Was that Was that always a part of
it to the entrepreneurial ship, toto where you are today? Was that
something that you were focused on whenyou were playing or was that just kind

(13:54):
of in the back of your mindwhere football was first and that was it?
It was football first. Um,I wish I had a bigger vision,
like some guys do. I alwaysgive credit to Pat mcafe had paid.
I played with him twenty eleven runswith the Colts, and you know,
he was already forward thinking, manlike. He was already building that
audience and engaging with the fans whilehe was still playing, which was really

(14:15):
at that time something that no onewas really doing. So but for me,
man like, I was. Iwas locked in only focusing on playing.
But you know, I was alsoa guy that could be cut any
day. So if that focus,you know, wavered at all, I
was probably gone at that point.So I knew it wasn't last long.
I knew there had to be aPlan B. Plan B was actually to
do players taxes. I saw anopportunity for that when I got into the

(14:37):
league and realized I have an accountingdegree and these guys have to file tax
in every single state they play in, and they've never done it before.
And some guys are literally not filingeven though we're all going to get big
fat returns because they withhold way toomuch. But uh, you know,
guys just don't know, they don'tknow what to do, and uh,
you know, CPA's charge a lotfor them to do the taxes, which

(14:58):
you know, it's mostly software justdoing it for you at this point.
So I saw a good opportunity there. But things change. Things change quickly
when my wife started her own businessafter my third year in the league and
doing that, so I don't havepeople understand that we as athletes have to
pay a tax and everywhere we play, every state the celebrity tax, which
is it just insane? Right?You know, you get thirteen different tax

(15:22):
returns and you know, and someof those can be outrageous. Some of
the states you get them right.And like you said, if guys don't
know what they're doing, that moneythat they have is just is completely gone.
So that seems like it was something, like I said, you were
focused on to help out. ButI mean even now, are you still
seeing guys that still don't understand thatprocess that are playing, Yeah, for

(15:43):
sure. I mean they don't doa good job on really throughout. I
mean I think it should be donein high school. You know, you
should have to do a tax returnin high school or at least in college,
especially if you're an accounting degree,at least have to do some kind
of mock version of taxes, whichI never did either, at least not
that I can remember. And then, um, you know, these guys

(16:03):
get in the league and there's reallyno direction for that either. You know,
there isn't someone saying, hey,go to this guy. He'll really
do a good job, because hedoes it for all the players. It's
kind of like, hey, askyour boy or someone from you know,
your hometown or whatever if they canhelp you out on it. So you
just you kind of just gramble andyou kind of figure it out on your
own, which a lot of timesisn't the best way to do it.
So kind of surprising that they don'tgive more support in certain areas like that.

(16:30):
But I think it all comes downto guys getting people getting burned.
In the past, though I knowmy agent du Rosenhouse did have guys that
were financial guys that you know,he got in trouble with because of bad
investment investing advice. So I thinkthey kind of just try to stay away
from it and try and handle themselves. And it's tough though you're right,
because it's that's all you see now, guys just all these schemes and everything.

(16:53):
They're taking millions from athletes. Heck, I mean you're even seeing families,
parents taking it athletes that because theyyou said, they don't trust anybody.
So I mean, so as anathlete, what are these guys supposed
to do? Really? I meanbut take it home, tuck it under
their sheets, put it under thebed, under the mattress, as stuff
called. Man. I mean,my dad I could. I can tell

(17:14):
you right now. He saved usmultiple times from from people taking money out
of the pockets of of you know, mostly Rob you know not I didn't
really have to worry about that,but the O. There's even events where
he was doing where um you know, it was a charity event where he
was showing up for free. Umyou know. At the one point he
went in the back room and theysaid, hey, you got to sign
these forty items and he said,what are you talking about. I have

(17:37):
an exclusive deal with New England cardat the time, I can't sign anything.
And they said, well it's youknow, it's in your contract.
Yea, we paid for this,and he was like, I'm there's a
charity event. I'm here for free. What are you talking about? And
you know there's people that were settingup the events that were pocketing six figures
on him being there and he didn'teven know it. So, uh yeah,
guys, they'll they'll come out ofanywhere. Did they get super we're

(18:00):
creative on different ways to really screwthe players over, Oh, for sure.
And then it falls back on yourbrothers just saying what time out?
I didn't know what was going on. But right then the media spins this,
Oh this guy is this You don'twant to be around them yet,
and then then they wonder why athletesare so reserved when it comes to having
interactions with people because we're not surewhat they're what they're actually are there you

(18:23):
actually here to really concern about me? Are you just looking for something on
the back end? Correct? Yeah, that's and that's why you stop seeing
them go out and they get soreserved and they stopped sharing. You know,
you see guys early on where they'rewilling to stay later and help out
and show up at events and docharity events, and then you know,
pretty soon as they get bigger,they start you know, kind of getting

(18:45):
burned a couple of times, andthey're not willing to do as much because
they got to protect themselves. Sodefinitely a huge aspect of why guys you
know, really stop doing what theystarted doing in the beginning. Yeah,
and I could see it too,actually, I mean with you guys,
right, and everybody sees when theythink of Grunkhouse, they think of your
brother, right, they think ofrob Is he's the big But at the

(19:06):
same time they might be just tryingto buddy up to you, to buddy
up to maybe Gordy to just toget a piece of that. Right.
So it's and it's hard, andI'm sure people look at you and your
brothers and go, you know,we're not we don't like you because you're
kind of reserved and what you do. I mean, have you run across
people that have just said, I'mnot dealing with you, Chris, I
don't want to because it's they seemslike you're coming off one way when you're

(19:30):
actually just trying to protect yourself andyour family and your family name. But
I mean it's it goes both ways. I mean, it definitely helps open
doors for me, um, youknow, in business for sure, but
a lot of times that door getsopen because they know they're they're trying to
get to rob Like you said,you know, they will reach out and
you know some crazy scheme or agreat idea, and really, at the

(19:52):
end of the day, the wholeidea is to you know, get robbed
to show up at their event.It's like, hey, guys, uh,
you know, just because you fiftybottles from us, isn't gonna get
rab at your event. Like Iapologize, but that was never a part
of this at all. And uh, you know that's I can't make that
happen. You know, it's I'mnot him. So that's what it comes

(20:14):
down to. So a lot oftimes I just have to tell people straight
up, like I'm willing to help, but yo, I'm not robbed at
the end of the day. SoI definitely run into that a lot.
Are you guys, I mean,now that everybody's done done playing, are
you guys still as close as youwere when you were younger? Now?
I know you guys are spread out. You doesn't Gordy live around in our

(20:36):
area as well? So Gordy's inNew England, My brother Glenn and I
are here in Texas, and thenwe're from Buffalo, New York. So
my dad's back and forth between Floridaand my brother Dan's up in uh In,
New York kind of running the familybusiness at this point. So yeah,
we're super close. Um talk tomy brothers pretty much every day still

(20:57):
at this point. Once you havefour kids, though, it gets a
little crazier and a business to run. So I'm you know, I don't
have that time to kind of justchill and fly out and hang out.
So what usually ends up happening iswhen Rob comes through. Um, you
know he's flying it to la orback to New York or something like that.
If he's coming through this way,he'll stop in you know, sometimes

(21:19):
just twenty four hours, a coupleof days stuff like that, catch a
couple of games with the kids andand head on to his event. So
that's always a good way to catchup. We try to do family things.
You know, he gets so manyoffers and deals and different events that
he's doing, so a lot oftimes we like to plan on just going
to the events together. You know. Good one was He'll Brady through an

(21:41):
event last month and we got togo to it and you know, Rob
was on stage playing cornhole, versusTom Brady, stuff like that, and
just just a great way to getthe whole family back together and hang out
for an event. Yeah, andyou don't skip a beat day once you
get back together, you know that, just pick up like you were kids.
And then my brother hadn't seen mybrother in about four or five years,
and we got together a few months, a few weeks ago. Just

(22:02):
you know, you pick up rightwhere you left off doing stuff, being
competitive, whether poll ping pong orwhatever, just just doing that. So
so we go to you know,the end of your career and you start
this entrepreneurialship. And as I wassitting here thinking we talk about the interview,
I found mine. There we gothat I found my ice shaker.

(22:23):
So the concept of this, explainedthis to the to the people out there.
When I got this, I waskind of confused as well as how
this thing was constructed. And thenexplain this to me a little bit of
how this even came about. Imean, being an athlete, understand,
you know, what we need andeverything else. But explain to me how
this whole concept came about. Yeah, for sure. So yeah, I'm

(22:45):
here in Dallas, Texas now,and I was it was a June day.
It was probably over one hundred degrees. I was actually using an insulated
cup at work. I went home, I grabbed a plastic shaker. I
went to the gym. By thetime I got there, I go sweating
everywhere. It was all over mycup holder. I was getting it on
my shirt, I was putting itdown. I was actually making little seat
rings on the gym floor. AndI took a sip and I'm like,

(23:06):
man, it's already warm, tasteterrible, Like, why isn't there an
insulated bottle that will actually blend mixed. It's easy to clean, easy to
fill. And just went home thatday and I'm like, I'm just gonna
go buy one an Amazon, Likeit's got to be made. Every cool
idea you have is already out there, right, So I jump on there
and I searched for an insulated shakerbottle, and there's literally nothing out there.
I couldn't purchase it. So Iwas currently already running a business with

(23:30):
my wife. I was about fiveyears into it. We were creating products
and sourcing our own stuff. SoI used my same resources and I started
making a shaker bottle. I wantedit to be insulated. I wanted to
be able to blend and mix powders, and that's kind of how it started.
It started as his side hustle forsomething I was super passionate about,

(23:51):
which was working out, going tothe gym, crushing some weights, crushing
protein shakes, and turned into theside hustle, which then turned into a
visit to Shark Tank, which thenturned into a full time business overnight at
that point. So pretty cool.The product itself. I use it all
day every day, so I tryto make sure it's it's perfect, because

(24:11):
every little thing that isn't would driveme crazy. So we've actually remade it
three times now. It has atwisted agitator on it that we're pat that
we patent did that will actually breakup powders. This piece will here correct
Yep, it'll twist right off youthrow it in the dishwasher, so it
makes it super easy to clean withthat though. It will make sure that

(24:33):
you're never drinking a chunky protein shapebecause that the chunks aren't going to get
through that it's going to blend itup. But it also works as a
strainer, So probably ninety nine percentof the time I'm using it for water.
You put a bunch of ice inthe insulated cup, it flows to
the top. A lot of timesit clogs that spout. That agitator will
actually work as a strainer. Youalways get good water flow. And then
in turn people they like to pourshots with it, like they like to

(24:53):
party with it too. And nevereven thought about that. I just see
the work outside of it. Yeah, and then people start hitting me up
and they're like, hey, didyou know that it floats in the pool
like that? That's a great fact. And then they're like you know that
like the YETI doesn't flote in thepool. I'm like, no, I
didn't know that, but I'm gonnastart using that so pretty cool. People

(25:15):
start using it all day, everyday for everything, and really it's just
it's just the ultimate bottles when itcomes down to you could shake it,
use it for water, really,use it for anything. This is I
mean, it's a great concept forso talk about the whole shark tank idea.
How is this something you approach themwith they approach you. I know
it's I've seen the video of youguys all coming out when in this whole

(25:37):
thing, But how did that?How did that come about yeah, so
it's kind of crazy. So Iwas with the Broncos in twenty twelve and
my agent at the time sent outjust an email blast to everyone on his
roster just saying that ABC Shark Tankslooking for any current or former NFL players.
So at that time, I'm like, man, I love this show,
but I'm in the middle of anNFL career, Like I nothing.

(26:00):
So I started the email and youkind of always just thought about it in
the back of my mind. Sofast forward almost hand almost five years later.
At this point, um, youknow, I think of the idea
and I'm like, man, I'mgonna get on Shark Tank, like I
gotta get enough sales so to actuallyshow that this product is legit, and
then I'm gonna hit this email back. So first three months I got up
to about twenty five K and sales, just hustling and making family by going

(26:23):
to show stuff like that. Andat that point, I'm like, there's
enough proof of concept here to reachout, So reached out hit up the
email. The girl's like, it'slike five years ago. I don't I
don't work here anymore. Like Luckilyshe was still checking the emails because I
probably would have just gave up tothat point, but she ended up forwarding
me to the girl that took herjob, and she hit me back right

(26:45):
away and was like, hey,send submit a video, you know,
submit a video and we'll let youknow from there. So I did,
and it was it was a ridiculousvideo. I didn't know what I was
doing or how to edit or anythinglike that. But I can't find it,
Like I had to up up upon YouTube and I want to find
this video so bad, but itjust disappeared from the internet. But submitted
it. They liked it, theyhit me up. You went through the

(27:07):
whole due diligence process, all thepaperwork, and ended up filming. So
the show's cool. But what theydon't tell you why everyone runs out of
stock is because they don't tell youwhen you're gonna air until two weeks before
you actually air, so you filmyou got this, you know really for
me, I filmed in June,it didn't air until October, so you
kind of just have this, youknow, mysterious time of Hey should I

(27:30):
stock up on inventory? Uh?You know, am I even gonna air?
You know when am I going toerr? Because you know it's really
you can air between October and allthe way to I think March or April
at that point. So I tookthe gamble. I was like, you
know, I flew my brothers outhere. I know they want the additional
audience that's going to come in.So I'm betting pretty much ninety nine percent

(27:52):
sure we're gonna err at some point. So I just started stocked up on
inventory the day that we got thedeal on the show and ended up getting
the new stuff a week before weaired, so it almost was perfect timing.
But yeah, the show's legit.I mean, we exploded. What
people don't tell you is you don'tjust chill um when your business explodes and
it's out of your own house asa side hustle and you have no employees

(28:15):
at the time. You put yourselfin a position where you're going to be
working very long hours for a verylong time. So uh, grinded it
out, really, you know,that whole month just exploded and then had
to sit, you know, actuallyfigure out how to get employees and run
a business and get a spot anddo all that as well. So um,
it's awesome. It jumps us yearsahead, but at the same time,

(28:38):
it's it's a lot of work,it's it's an absolute grind. So
you when you pitch this to yourbrothers, you know, brothers can be
harsh, right, they can havesome of the worst comments in the world
of you know, probably stuff wecan't stay on here, you can't have
just the stuff, so you know, So did you pitch it to each
one of them individually or is itjust like a group call? Guys?
What are your thoughts? Because Ican only imagine what some of the comments

(29:02):
were originally from your brothers. Canyou talk about that a little bit?
Yeah, I mean they probably thoughtI was the biggest idiot, you know,
just I sent over this fire thatI made myself, like highlighting the
product, and it's so terrible lookingback on it, but at the time
I thought it was like the coolestthing ever. So sent that over and
I'm like, hey, guys,you know I'm gonna be on this show.
And yeah, I talked to liketalk to my younger brother first who

(29:26):
kind of also watched the show andknew what it was about, and got
him on board first. And thenuh, you kind of had to weave
my way through until I got toRob and then uh, you know,
he kind of at that point everyoneelse was in, so he was like,
yeah, let's do it, butyou gotta fly me in first class,
and I have an event that day, so I gotta leave, like
literally right afterwards, like all right, let's let's figure this out. So

(29:48):
I ended up getting him in.And the best part is like we closed
the deal, you know, weshake hands and like we walk out,
and he's like, man, thatthat seemed like it was real. And
I'm like, what do you mean. He's like, oh, it seemed
like they're really going to give you, like actual money. I'm like,
yeah, they are, what doyou mean this is this is real?
Like they're really investing And he's like, oh, the whole time I thought

(30:11):
it was just like for TV.Well it is, but at the same
time, like they're they're actually investingreal money into the company. So uh.
And they did. I mean,not every deal closes, I think
less than fifty percent of them actuallyclosed, but about two or three months
in of diligence, we we didclose the deal. They wired the money
in and there they're still or atleast Mark is still a part of the

(30:33):
company. Rob ended up buying AlexRodriguez out of the company about two years
into it. Okay, that's justlike I said, I just couldn't imagine,
so that that so all of asudden, now you're just you're going
non stop with this, with thisbusiness. And this was what twenty seventeen,
Yeah, twenty seventeen, so fiveyears since the anniversary. I've been
doing this for for six years,you know, full time, all in,

(30:56):
all day, every day at thispoint. So it's been and I
mean so I mean when you goand go to speaking engage and talk about
this and people always you know whatmade you know, everybody has that moment
you talked about years was at thatwas at the gym, that one time,
at that moment, and then peopleare right, you know, but
they don't also understand that too.The perseverance from the football side, right

(31:17):
of the grind of not knowing,right. I mean, like you said,
you're an undrafted player in the NFL. What am I every day?
Is? Am I still going tobe here? Right? There's nothing guaranteed
and everything else. So when youwhen you sit there and you talked and
you hear this younger generation, Iwant to I want to how do I
do that? But how do Inot I don't have to put in the
work. And then do you heara lot of those comments of I want
to do I want to you know, in all the glory, but I

(31:40):
don't want to have to put anythinginto it. So how do you how
do you explain that to kids inthis generation of it's not this. It's
not as simple as hey, ideashark tank millions of dollars? So what
do you how do you explain thatto people? Yeah? Man, yeah,
I couldn't tell you how many peoplehave told me that they thought of
that idea before me. I am, I'm sure you did. It's it's
a pretty simple idea, but toactually putting into motion is is something completely

(32:04):
different. I mean I kind ofexplain it to my kids. Is you
know, if it was easy,everyone would do it. If it was
that easy, everyone would be runningtheir own company. You know, everyone
would be a star baseball player,everyone would be you know, super jacked
in the gym kind of thing.But it's not easy, man. It's
it's an absolute grind all day,every day, and you know, to
build something of this size. Ialways tell people, they're like, aren't

(32:28):
you scared Someone's going to come andknock you off, And I tell them,
you know, I'm six six yearsahead of them. You know,
they would have to if I continueputting the work in every day, it
would take them, you know,six years just to catch up to where
I am now. So it's prettymuch impossible for them to catch up to
me as long as I keep gettingbetter each and every day. So that's
how I look at it. Man, if if you want something great,

(32:51):
it takes time. It doesn't happenovernight. If it did, like I
said, everyone would do it andthere'd be a bit, you know,
a ton of people doing the samething. You're already doing. The stuff
that's successful that actually lasts is becauseyou you put that time and effort in,
those relationships in and you learn moreand more every day. Networking is
huge. Systems and processes are areabsolutely massive, and you know, it

(33:14):
takes time to figure them out.Like you, you might think it's going
to work right off the bat.Sometimes it does. Sometimes it doesn't work
at all, and you have tocompletely change your procedures or your process or
you know, your game plan orthe way you incentivize or your salaries that
you're doing so and you learn somuch every year, And every year I
go to my team and say,I cannot believe we were operating like that

(33:36):
last year, Like what were wethinking? Like how do we get through
that? That's that's crazy to eventhink that we used to do it that
way. And that's because we're gettingbetter and better every single year. And
I know, you know, peopletalk about the you know, there's always
going to be competition. You know, people coming through they ask you,
how, well, what do youdo about that? I mean, because
a lot of people would get scared, right if creating a business, all
right, well they have that idea, all right, well that's not going

(33:59):
to work. Well then they havethis idea. How do you help them
get past that part of it?If not right? Somebody like you said,
have somebody had that. I hadthat idea, but you didn't take
it that next step. Maybe itwas the fear right of not being able
to succeed with it, But Imean, you think about it, it's
just elementary, is what the petrock sold for millions of dollars? Right,
Like you said, this is anelementary idea, and I just you

(34:21):
believed in it. It's something thatwas in still new as a kid,
and this is so what do youtell those that's just say it's not gonna
work. But with those ideas,it's funny, man, because you all
everyone gets like that, especially atthe beginning. But it's unlimited and the
markets unlimited. I mean, ifyou think about it, we've we've sold
millions of bottles. At this point, I could walk down the street from

(34:43):
my warehouse and I could ask tenpeople if they ever heard of Vice Shaker
and I'll be surprised if one personsays yes at that point. So it
just shows there's so much potential.And this is just my hometown that I'm
talking about. I'm not even talkingabout internation at this point. I'm only
talking about, you know, theDFW area, and I'd be lucky if

(35:05):
ten percent of people knew who wewere. So it really is. I
mean, if you put the workin, you're going to find a way
to be successful. A lot oftimes you don't even need that. You
need to actually niche down and reallyconcentrate on one area and become super successful
there and then just let it grownaturally. Let people talk about you because
you're so good or the service youprovide was that amazing and different and stood

(35:27):
out that they have to tell theirfriend about you as well. So man
I was listening to a podcast theother day and they asked what was the
fastest way to grow and the answerfrom the entrepreneur was Andy Frizella, who
runs first Form, a big supplementcompany, and he said, you know,
one person at a time, andthey're like, how is that scalable?
He's like, well, one persontells another one, so that's two.

(35:51):
They tell two people, that's four, they tell four people, that's
eight. And it exponentially grows likethat, you know that fast, And
once you start getting up to yoursixteen thirty two sixty four, then it
really starts to explode super fast.So you take care of people, you
do it the right way, youprovide something that's unforgettable. They're going to

(36:12):
tell other people and you are goingto grow extremely fast at that point.
Yeah, and it's and that's whatit is, people, that's you think
it's It just goes back to anything. It's just like being a coach.
If you've changed one person's life,you've done your job that day, right,
because that person goes and tells anotherperson. Then, like you said,
it's a law of multiplication. Butpeople don't think that way. They
think, right now, that's it. They don't they don't see that.

(36:35):
So so you go to these youknow, these these seminars to talk to
talk to kids and and people thatwant to do this, and you know
what, what's the best piece ofdevice that you can give these people when
they ask, Hey, Chris,what do I need to do to succeed?
How do I push through all thenegativity, all the doubts? Yeah?
Man, I mean in business,Um, I mean I could tell

(36:59):
you this first. You know,you have to have a plan. That's
that's one thing. And I didn'tat first. But if you want to
get to that next level, ifyou want to be great, I mean
even in sports, you know,you want to be the best possible,
you have to have a game plan. You have to have a schedule,
you got to map it out,you have to have goal set in place
as well. Same thing with business. You know, budget, forecast,

(37:20):
game plan or chart, all thatkind of stuff. You don't realize how
important it is until you really startto get into it and really grow.
If you want to scale, getto that next level, there's got to
be a game plan there. Secondthing I always tell people like you have
to love it, like you haveto be passionate about what you're doing.
Same thing with sports, you know, you get into it. You see
a lot of guys that are verytalented, they burn out. You know,

(37:40):
they just don't want to be there. They're not going to get to
that next level because they don't trulyloves the grind man. You know,
a baseball seasons insane, you know, training for football it's insane. Waking
up early, you know, goingthrough that beat down each and every day.
And then same with business. Youknow, there's so many ups and
downs. You know, if youdon't love what you're doing, you're gonna
give up on it because at somepoint you're gonna do something stupid, or

(38:04):
there's gonna be a bad deal thatfalls through, whatever it is, and
it's gonna hurt, and you know, you might lose a lot of money,
you might lose a big deal,whatever it is. And if you
don't love what you're doing, you'regonna give up too early and it's not
going to be successful. You know, most businesses out by year five.
We just hit year six and it'sbecause I wake up every day excited to
still be here and you know,just put that work in and as a

(38:27):
team, we all love winning together. And that's that's I think that's the
beauty. Like you said, youhad your brothers around you, even on
the athletics side, of just ofpushing you right, of just wanting the
men wanting to be better doing that, And that's that's the beauty. I
think being an athlete being able totake that, find somebody around you that
can push you, to motivate youto to do that. Like you said,
if it's something as small as wellmy cup sweating, I can figure

(38:50):
this out. What do I needto do? So, I mean it's
great advice that people here, andit's and like you said, it's ever
evolving. You're never going to becontent with where you are because you're trying
to make it, to make itbetter and just and get and like used
to get the word out. You'veonly touched what maybe a microcosm of what
you're capable of doing. And you'resix years into this, right, the

(39:10):
sky's the limit. So, Imean, it's so so people moving forward
to be able to check check outyour products and everything else, what do
they need to do? How canthey follow you? And your your story,
and you know, I'm sure peoplewill have questions, Hey what hey
Chris, how can I do this? So how can people reach out to
you and follow you? Yeah?For sure, So I'd love answering questions
on social I do a lot ofthat on TikTok Instagram as well. Just

(39:35):
my name at Chris Gronkowski. Theproduct itself I Shaker dot com. Of
course, we're on Amazon, We'rein all the GNCS vitamin shops, Lifetime
Fitnesses twenty four our fitness So yeah, check us, check us out for
sure, and if you get theproducts, man, hit me up,
let me know, tag me init. I'd love to reshare as well.
These are like I said, thisis the great and great product and

(39:58):
I never even thought about the alcoholside of it. But hey, it's
whatever you can write. Like yousaid, that wasn't the plan. But
you know who's the who's to say? So? I mean, there are
there any products coming out that areany that are newer? With with what
you got, You're you're really pushingthis year for sure. Man. We're
always creating something new or at leastnew patterns or new partnerships. So we

(40:20):
have a new Duffel bag. Wejust launched and Slay a Duffel bag,
which is pretty cool. I useit every day now at this point,
and I always hated Uffel bags,but I don't know, I really like
this one. But you have aspeaker bottle coming. It's a partnership with
a company called bump Box. Soactually they'll twist off you can throw in
your golf card stuff like that aswell. But they make the loudest bluetooth
speaker on the market. So thisthing, this thing bombs even though it's

(40:42):
really small. Some really cool partnershipwe have coming with them. And then
um, we have a couple ofcollabs. We we're actually gonna partner up
with a company called pit Viper.They make pretty sweet shades. Yeah,
I've seen your brothers wearing them allthe time. I don't think i've seen
you wearing them. I've seen Gordywears the crap out of those things every
time. Every time I say ifhe loves those, Yeah, so we'll

(41:02):
do. Uh, it's a bundlepack, you know, you buy a
shaker, you get the parish ofpit Vipers with it, and uh,
pretty pretty excited to launch that oneas well. So that will come around
in the summer. Gotcha. Gotcha? Man, Well, I appreciate you
jumping on. Like I said,I didn't. I never never thought where
this could go. I mean tobe able to to get to where you
are with it. And like Isaid, man, you know, congratulations

(41:25):
and how you've you've pushed through thereand succeeded. But you know, but
it comes down to, like Isaid, how you were raising the guys
around you to help you become whatyou are. So man, I appreciate
you jumping on here. And theysaid, people will be able to follow
you and keep up to your story. And I'm sure i'll run into you
again, but since you're busy doingstuff, but hopefully i'll see. It's
the softball game in uh in Novemberthis year and we get maybe will have

(41:45):
updated last year. Had had thebaby the same day, so I had
to take last year off. ButI'll be back. Got you right?
And garthink Gordy he was hurt too. It hurt his back last year.
He had back, just had backsurgery, so that was it. Back
to we'll see. Maybe he maybe chilled out on the muscle chugs and
he's gonna rehab a little bit betterthis year. We'll see, man.

(42:07):
Well, I appreciate you jumping on, Chris, and we'll be in touch,
man, And good luck to youwith with all these endeavors and like
I said, we'll keep pushing thesethrough and everything else. Man, So
I appreciate it. Have a greatweek. Yes, okay, appreciate it
all right. Cann's out yet,says ninety nine. On my end,

(42:29):
I know it's got to go toone hundred. So speakers a little bit
smaller because of the speaker, theactually will twist on the bottom. It's

(42:49):
uh, it's pretty sweet, soit has threading on it for that version.
But h yeah, bumps man.I guess it's loud enough. Like
if I had it outside with meright here, I would only have it
at like seventy five percent volume becauseit's actually that loud that I wouldn't turn
it all the way up a gym. Yeah, like Jim Pool, Um,

(43:15):
I'll bring it to like I'll playpickleball in the morning and I'll turn
it on and like jam out foreveryone in there. Yeah at lifetime yeah,
um yeah, yeah, try toinvest in it. They wouldn't take
outside money or oh they're cranking thatplays rocking Man, it is cranking.

(44:07):
If you know, you say youcan rent, you can rent um a
court per hour if you just ifyou're just doing a court only, I
think it's um. I think it'sforty bucks during the day and then sixty
at night. But if you go, if you go food with it,
then yeah, you're you're paying overa thousand for sure. If you go

(44:28):
food, it's it's expensive. It'slike, man, I think they were
hitting us like eighteen a person orsomething like that to start um for food.
Maybe it's maybe it's twenty five itwas up there for uh, it's
like I'll just have my team justbuy their own food instead of getting it
cantered. But okay, yeah,m a nice tournament. Yeah, we

(45:21):
do it right here in South sowe turn it quick too, So usually
three business days or less. Sowe're ight at South like Boulevard and the
one fourteen right there. So doyou know where d bats? Yeah,
but right across we're right across fromd bat. Um, okay, is

(45:46):
that right there as well? Yeah? Marka up, Okay, okay,
I got check it. Check thatnice for sure. Oh no, we're

(46:23):
good babysitters over so it's all good. So I have a six four,
two and eleven months. Yeah,we're done. Yeah, we got a
girl, so we have we havethree boys and just had of girls.

(46:43):
Oh appreciate nice. So you ohyeah he's in kindergarten and then pre k
and yeah I am now. Yeah, we've been building for three years in
South Lake, so um, weput them in the South Lake School district

(47:06):
because we'll be there in August.We'll move. Yeah, okay, nice.
My employees all have memberships there andgo eat the food at sky Creek.
They get like the fifth if youhave a membership, so they go

(47:27):
eat like lunch every day. Theylove it. And I used to and
then after the first kid, itwas almost never. Then after the second
kid, it completely stopped. SoI have I mean, I have straight
baseball swing though I'm slice City andI can. I can. I'm like
a bogey to a you know,like I'll shoot like around one hundred.

(47:50):
So yeah, it's hard for meto get that six hour window at any
point. All right, Yeah,that's that's the move right there. But

(48:17):
that just they just gotta get alittle older. I mean, it's just
we're in the grind zone right now. That's rough. That's you're just asking
for punishment at that point. Sothere's only there's eight other brothers as well,

(48:45):
and then the other three don't haveany kids yet. Yeah, they're
not married and don't have kids yet. Especially Gard's living living, living it
up right now. Bad. Yeahhe thinks he is too. I think

(49:37):
we do well there, but um, Sporting Goods is huge that we don't
really tap. But it drives meinsane because I feel like we should be
in every Dickson Academy and it's likethe only we're not in. UM.
So sporting good has been tough,and it's tough to kind of tap into
the little leagues as well, UMbecause most people buy like the other stuff
at Dicks. Dick sends out thetwenty percent off coupon code before the sea,

(50:00):
and it's been tough to kind ofcrack that market. We do a
ton of custom though, and reallywhere most of our money comes from is
the custom bottle. So, youknow, golf events like you were just
at, like we would make custombottles for an event like that, but
really anything companies will come in.They'll buy them for employees, they'll buy
them for big customers. They'll buythem for events. It really unlimited uses.

(50:22):
I mean they'll even buy them astrophies stuff like that for Employee of
the month and whatever they want onit, we could put on it and
we turn it quick. So alot of times it's like, hey,
I didn't buy anything for my employeesand I have an event this Friday,
can you help us out? Andwe're able to get it out the door
for them. So that's where alot of it comes from, because it's
bulk. You know, they're notbuying one, they're buying a hundred of
them or two hundred or you know, what are they selling for? So

(50:46):
we sell them the retail on THEMSthirty four ninety nine, so that's what
they're out in stores. And thenyou know, for custom engraving, we
have a wholesale price, so weyou know, we give it to them
at a pretty good deal. Andthen a lot of times like they're just
handing them out for free, whichhelps really build a brand too. So

(51:10):
he might have purchased them or Ithink what we did was trade for sponsorship.
The thing is what we did.Yeah, I think that's what we
did. So yeah, verb isthat vacation rental app but I think what
we did was we traded a lotof times. We'll trade for sponsorship,
so instead of paying like two grandfor a booth or something like that,

(51:31):
we'll come in and be like,hey, we'll trade your bottles. Or
what people will do is they'll getsomeone like Verb to pay for a bottle
sponsorship, and then they'll just buybottles from us and we'll put their y

(51:54):
X whisk they did. No,I haven't, but I like barbecue.

(52:42):
Yeah yeah, h yep. Ishoot dot com. I mean it's on

(53:07):
as well, and I mean everywhereyou'll find. I'll be leaving next week
for GNC conference in Vegas, butum after that, I don't really have
much plans. I'll be around.No, I haven't. I know,

(53:37):
Oh where do you go? Yeahyeah,