March 10, 2025 • 51 mins
EP. 71 Built to Lead: Lessons in Leadership, Hard Work, & Building the Brand
Jake and Braxston dive into a personal Q&A session, revealing their entrepreneurial journeys, defining life moments, and core values that have shaped their approaches to business and family.
• Jake's shift from pursuing material success to focusing on making impact and leaving a legacy
• The challenges of building a brand while balancing a full-time job, including sourcing quality products
• How childhood moments shape adult mindsets, including Braxston’s story of overcoming fear through baseball
• The reality that entrepreneurship isn't about having a silver spoon or perfect plan—just work ethic and belief
• The importance of communication and priorities in marriage and parenting
• The value of setting examples for children through intentional actions and relationships
• How fear often prevents people from starting, while failure actually teaches valuable lessons
• Balancing domestic versus overseas manufacturing decisions when building a product-based business
Send us your questions for future Q&A episodes by messaging us on social media!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Just watching these individuals, how much weight
they lost, how much, you know,their lives got impacted by this
, and he was giving away hisLamborghini and you know, at
that time I was like hell, yes,I want a Lamborghini, you know.
But as you get older, it's like, you know, I'm not.
Yeah, I still want thatmaterialistic stuff, but my
(00:21):
focus is more on the people andmaking the impact, not the money
, not the material stuff.
You know that might be a banfor other people, but it's just
not what I'm into now.
But yeah, money's not, you know, important to me right now,
it's just sharing this brand,getting it out and making an
impact and leaving a legacy.
That's, that's my number.
(00:42):
One thing is leaving a legacyand helping other people leaving
their own legacies.
What's up guys?
(01:12):
Welcome back to the Go All Inpodcast.
I'm Jake Fine.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
And I'm Braxton Cave, and in today's episode we're
going to jump into a little Q&Abetween Jake and I on some
questions that we developed justto give the listeners a better
understanding of who we are, thejourneys we've been on and then
what motivates us and drives usinto some, maybe some areas
that we haven't talked about sofar through our podcast journey.
(01:35):
So we're going to jump right inNumber one.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
First one.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
First question.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Who's the first for me?
I got you.
Oh man, here we go.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
So if money wasn't an object, what job would you work
in?
Why?
Speaker 1 (01:53):
I really thought about this a lot.
I mean, honestly, I'd still bedoing what I'm doing now
building the brand.
What I'm doing now is buildingthe brand.
Um cause, before I'll do alittle short story before I, you
know, came up with the brandthat I have.
Now a lot of people don't knowthat I did you know protein
donuts.
I mean you and Natalie know um,but that was like the first
(02:18):
business venture that I ever did.
And um, basically I mean I, andum, basically I mean I.
There's just you get thesethoughts in your head.
You know oh, here's a businessidea, here's a business idea.
Well, that was like the firstone.
This was on the back burner andum, but basically I'll go into
more of the donuts here later,but that was the first thing I
(02:40):
went into.
But building this brand is likethe I'd still do it.
Money isn't, you know, thefactor in this.
It's about making.
It's about making the impact,sharing the mission with the,
growing the community.
I just feel like, because I wastelling Jackie earlier, I just
(03:02):
feel like money is the bonuspart.
Because I was telling Jackieearlier, I just feel like money
is the bonus part, Because Ifeel like the more impact you
make on people, the more peopleyou grow.
A community with the money isjust going to come behind it.
So if you focus, I feel like ifyou focus more on the people
(03:26):
and the mission, I just feellike that's the bonus right
there.
And you know, I just have thatentrepreneurial mindset.
I want it.
That's what I want.
Yeah, I want that and becauseI've heard I had a conversation
about it and that's just I've.
I've grew up reading like alittle entrepreneur magazines
and stuff like that when I wasin high school, so that's what
got my lit the fire underneathUm Bill Phillips.
(03:50):
I don't know if you've heardthis name.
He was actually.
I don't know if you've heardEAS supplements.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Okay, he is the reason.
When I watched videos of him,he had his little, you know, he
had like a competition forbodybuilders.
You know, real people changingtheir lives, basically like
first form.
Those are transformation stuff.
He was the first and the mainthing that, like, I watched the
(04:17):
entire vhs too on videotape.
Um, I watched the entire thingand just watching these
individuals, how much weightthey lost, how much, you know,
their lives got impacted by this, and he was giving away his
Lamborghini and you know, atthat time I was like hell, yes,
I want a Lamborghini, you know.
(04:37):
But as you get older, it's like,you know, I'm not.
Yes, so I still want thatmaterialistic stuff, but my
focus is more on the people andmaking the impact, not the money
, not the material stuff.
You know that might beadvantage for other people, but
it's just not what I'm into now.
But yeah, money's not, you know, important to me right now it's
(05:00):
just sharing this brand,getting it out and making an
impact and leaving a legacy.
Right now, it's just sharingthis brand, getting it out and
making an impact and leaving alegacy.
That's my number one thing isleaving a legacy and helping
other people leave in their ownlegacies.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Two things I remember about EAS was one their colors
were purple and white.
Yep Two was I think that wasthe first deal that Brady Quinn
did.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Yes, well, they were the main sponsor for Denver
Broncos, Conor Allo Hiscommercial that Quinn did.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Yes, well, they were the main sponsor for Denver
Broncos, so I remember hiscommercial that he did with them
.
The one thing I wanted to addto your answer there I think
it's rare that you'll findsomeone who will say that what
they're currently doing is whatthey would continue doing if
money wasn't a factor, and so Ithink it's really cool that you
found that.
Now, obviously, you haveanother job you're working to,
(05:48):
you know pay bills while you'rebuilding the brand.
But the fact that you alreadyhave your hands in what you're
passionate about, I think, ispretty cool.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Yeah, and you know the RV, you know, pays the bills
.
It pays it.
Obviously it's keeping thebrand going and obviously the
support's keeping it going.
But yeah, that's what you dowhen you start.
You know you find that yourbusiness or whatever you want to
do is your side hustle fortemporary until you get that
(06:18):
thing going and you know it'sall gas, you know full send and
then you can leave thatcorporate America job and, and
you know, work your passion.
You want to wake up everymorning enjoying what you do.
You know, and um, I was justcause I was telling Jackie
(06:38):
earlier about um, we're allbrought up and raised to.
You know, go to school, go tocollege, get that career, get
married, have kids, white picketfence and yeah, and that that's
it.
Yeah, so it's like my path isnot that path.
(07:01):
You know I'm 43, not married,zero kids.
And it's like you know I have adifferent path that I'm taking.
I want to get financially right,I want to get my goals done
before I have that focus on aperson.
A person still have the focuson them, but I want to give them
(07:27):
all 100 percent of focus.
So, and that's the thing youknow that I'm doing right now,
it's one day at a time, brick bybrick, and and I've said it
before is not freaking easy.
You know this.
You you've heard andy frisellasay, you've heard at my list
that you have to have thatcertain mindset to be an
entrepreneur, because it is notfor everybody.
And I've thought to myself likethis isn't for me many times
(07:52):
and it's like no hell, no, Iain't going out like that.
So I'm very committed, and onceI, when I want something, I'm
going to bust ass to get it.
So, but that's where I was atyou, ready for yours.
Yep, here we go.
What's one principle or valueyou live by in business that you
(08:17):
refuse to compromise on?
Speaker 2 (08:20):
So I talk about this a lot with my leadership team,
especially as we're evaluatingtalent and looking at the
pipeline of people that we'relooking to continue to bring up
in the company.
And I stand by this of.
I firmly believe that you can'tlead others well until you can
first lead yourself, and it'svery easy to see that in the way
(08:44):
you know.
People show up every day andyou know, I think we've made
mistakes in the past as acompany and I can only associate
this to the current company I'mwith because I've been with
them since I left my NFL careerbut so often I think people get
promoted into leadership rolesbecause they were so good at
(09:05):
that skill that they had.
Let's use manufacturing for anexample.
You take your best welder andyou promote him to the leader of
the weld department and he orshe doesn't know how to lead
people, so they end up failing.
And I think one that's ahorrible job by a leadership
(09:27):
team of putting somebody in thatposition when they weren't
ready for it.
Like you can ID that person ashey, they got potential and then
you pour into them, get themprepared and then you know, take
that next step.
But I think there's often, um,there's a big switch that
happens when you go from anoperator to a leader and no
(09:48):
longer are you.
Is your expectation, or youknow what's expected of you, to
be the best at that position?
Right, things change, and so Ithink that people often struggle
with that aspect, and I firmlybelieve that, as a leader, when
(10:12):
you step in from operator toleadership, your new skill set
that you have to obtain or haveis that you're now building a
team of people around you whoare better at that skill than
you were.
Right and you can pour into themand help lead and guide them.
But if you're doing it right,they're going to be better than
you.
Now they may not have theleadership skills which
(10:34):
hopefully you have, and that'swhere you can help develop them,
teach them, help them on theirjourney, help them accomplish
the goals that they want toaccomplish, but it's no longer
about being the best at thatthing.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
It's.
You got to remove yourself fromthat and start building upon it
, and to me, it starts with howwell do you lead yourself?
Yeah, Because when people walkin to their work environment
every day, they're looking totheir leader as the person that
they aspire to be a lot of timesnot every time, but people who
are continuing to want to growin a company.
(11:09):
You're setting the example ofwhat, how I need to act and how
I need to show up to get to thatposition.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
And I think there's a lot of people who take that for
granted and they think that youknow, you could.
You know some people you knowthey feel like they've made it
and they kind of lay off of thethings that got them to where
they were, that that got them tothat position to get there, and
(11:39):
so that's a I would say, that'sthe biggest you know.
Principle to me is you have toset the standard and you have to
be able to lead yourself beforeyou can lead others.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
In a great way, I think you can half-ass it, but
at the end of the day, peoplesee right through that I've
worked with a lot of companiesin my past where the leaders
haven't done the work and don'tknow the process.
So they can be, you know,thrown into the leadership and
(12:14):
be good at the leadership part,but they don't know the process
of the.
So I've had a lot of you knowgroup leaders that didn't know
hey, what do we do with this?
You know this certain situationor stuff like that.
So I mean, with what you'resaying, it's yeah, I think as a
leader.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
I think because I can put myself in that position
right coming from nomanufacturing background to
being in it.
Like I couldn't tell you how tolay a great bead on a weld line
.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Yeah, well, that's not easy man, that's not easy at
all.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
You don't know how, but I think when you, when you
come into it with a seek tounderstand mindset and you take
the feedback from the people whodo it every day and then apply
it.
That's got.
There's some meaning and valueto that.
When you come in and try to actlike you know it.
When you don't, that's wherepeople get yeah, they see right
through you too.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
right but Right.
But you didn't get thrown in.
You started at the bottom.
I mean I did, you learned theprocess.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
I learned the process , but there's people who've been
doing that for 20 years.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Yeah, right, every day.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Yep Every single day, and so for me to come in and do
it for a shorter period of time.
Did I gain the understanding?
Yes, a shorter period of time.
Did I gain the understanding?
yes, because that was mymentality going into it, but I
think if you don't take the timeto try and understand people's
(13:36):
perspective like that, that willset you up for failure.
So I think coaching is a greatanother great example of that
like I, I use charlie weiss asan example.
Right, charlie never playedfootball, but he was a damn good
coach and part of that wasbecause he had a great football
mind.
He studied it like crazy andthen he surrounded himself with
great coaches.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
See, I didn't know that about him.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
I mean, I think you look at anyone right?
Nick Saban didn't play in theNFL I don't know what.
Saban's backstory.
But he didn't play in the NFL.
Look at majority.
You're starting to see it morenow.
Guys who played are gettinginto coaching at a high level.
But a lot of these coaches whowe talk about, they didn't play
in the NFL.
They're not wearing goldjackets.
(14:18):
They can't sit there and tellyou how to block one technique,
right.
They can't sit there and tellyou how to block one technique,
right, mm-hmm.
But because of their footballmind and the understanding of
their team and their playerslike, they gain trust and set a
standard that guys will follow.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
That's unbelievable to think about.
You know, saban not evenplaying, and you know, and
Charlie too, I mean, charlie isunbelievable football mind even
as a kid.
Yeah, you know.
So yeah, it's just unreal.
I mean, those are top tiercoaches too.
You know, I don't even knowwhere Charlie Weiss Jr is at now
.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
He's an offensive coordinator at Ole Miss.
There you go, so he's been withLane Kiffin.
So let's jump to number twohere.
Let's go.
What's been the biggestchallenge in growing your brand
and how are you working toovercome it?
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Let me tell you.
Well, like I said before in thelast question, back to the
donuts.
That was my first businessventure and that was pre-COVID.
So that was 2019 when I startedthat and obviously we didn't
know anything was going tohappen.
What happened, you know, withCOVID and that, basically, once
(15:32):
I started that it took off and Iwas on WSBT and let me tell you
, once that happened I had toshut the phone off, remember,
and it was just so much.
I was like I don't know how I'mgonna do that, because what I
used when I did with that, Imean this was all strictly
social media.
With that, I took orders duringthe week because I worked a
(15:57):
full-time job and basically dideverything on the weekends.
And then I just set up, know,meet up points at gyms in
Elkhart, mishawaka on certaindays and did that.
It's just, it got overwhelmingand, um, going to bed smelling
donuts, you know, and mynostrils still smelling it when
(16:18):
you wake up in the morning.
It's just, it was a lot.
I was like man, what did I getmyself into?
And I mean I enjoyed it, cause,you know, I think, when I was
like man, what did I get myselfinto?
And I mean I enjoyed it becauseyou know, I think when I was on
WSVT there was one line thatstood out that got a lot of
people's attention, and it'swhen she asked me if donuts were
healthy.
(16:38):
I said there's no such thing asa healthy donut.
I said this is a better optionfor people to.
You know, take in instead oftaking in.
You know, dunkin' Donuts orKrispy Kreme you know diabetics
can have these, you know.
So, and I think that really hitthe spot because I had a lot of
people message me and, you know, applauded me for saying that,
(17:00):
because it's the truth.
You know there's no such ahealthy donut.
I'm a donut connoisseur.
I grew up, you know, my momtaking me to small donut shops
locally and it just eventually,as I got older, wherever we went
out of town or anything likethat, I looked for a donut spot.
You know what's the best donutspot and still do it.
You know, today I haven't doneit in a while, but need to do
(17:21):
that sometime, but but yeah,I've always enjoyed it.
And that that used to be my, myInstagram handle.
You know donuts and lift.
That's where the and she's theone that says why don't you just
use your donut, your Instagramhandle?
So that's what I ran with itand it stuck and yeah, I mean,
we did great, it was.
It was a good run, you know.
(17:41):
And then COVID hit.
I was like, you know, I need touh, need to hit the brakes on
this because I want to be, Iwant to be careful.
I mean back then we didn't knowwhat the heck was going on.
So I mean now we do, but it'slike I wanted to put a pause on
it and I want to be careful witheverybody and everybody else to
be safe.
So I that's why I put a put thebrakes on it, but hey, you
(18:03):
never know, I might bring themback.
I always think about it and Ialways talk to it with her and
you know I enjoyed doing it.
It's just like I said it was alot and like Be Better brand.
When I launched that, that wason the back burner and I was
like you know what I want to dothis and it was like the perfect
time because this countryneeded it.
(18:25):
And we still do.
And it's like we all need to bebetter in the mindset and being
kind to people.
Um, cause we're all on the sameteam.
We're, all you know, red, whiteand blue here, so I just
thought it was the perfect timeto do that and, uh, launch that
November.
Man, how am I forgetting 2022on my birthday?
(18:50):
So we're going on year three.
But I mean, I'm trying to thinkwhat I can put as my biggest
challenge to doing this becausethere has been many and it's
trial and error a lot of it, andfiguring out what works,
learning from the fails thatI've done, you know, with cause
(19:11):
I'm very OCD picky.
I want people to have goodquality, cause that's what
you're.
You're spending your hardearned money on my stuff, you
know, on the mission, on theapparel.
So I think keeping you knowit's just finding the right
company to trust with sourcingapparel.
(19:34):
So sourcing the right product.
Um, cause there's, there's justa lot of fake crap out there.
You know there's a lot ofyou're buying products that
don't last People arecomplaining about.
You see, you see it all thetime and it's like that's my
focus.
It's like it is the experiencethat customers are getting when
(19:56):
they receive the package.
I love that and making surethey have good quality products
and that's like my main focusand I'm very picky about that
too.
I want people to have the bestexperience buying from me.
But, like I said, it's findingand doing a lot of networking.
(20:16):
Networking is huge.
I'm like, hey, who do yousource from?
Like, when I went to the Arnold, I talked to Rock from Gym
Reapers.
I was like, hey, and he's likedo you need any information.
He's like do you need anyinformation?
He's like, just reach out.
He's like I'll follow you.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
And um, I mean, he's grown that brand huge in your
conversations and networkingwith people who are also, you
know, building brands and in theapparel, like what would you
say?
The split is of people sourcingfrom the us versus overseas
nothing is from here,Everything's from over there.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
And that's also been in my mind too, because I know,
obviously you know, you got theTerrace going on now too.
I don't know how it works withapparel, but yeah, everything
you know these big brands,they're getting stuff overseas.
You know Alpha Elite, christianGuzman's brand.
They're getting stuff overseas.
You know Alpha Elite ChristianGuzman's brand overseas Because
(21:13):
I actually worked with thecompany that did all their
designing and their sourcing andthis is the jacket I showed you
.
But yeah, I'm going to sayprobably 90% of my guests, so
don't take me.
You know, don't quote'm goingto say probably 90% of my guests
.
Don't take me, you know, don'tquote me on that.
But it's, it's very high.
Um, I don't just, there ismanufacturing here in the U S,
(21:36):
but if you look at pricingdifference you'd be like how do
you, how do you make money?
Speaker 2 (21:42):
How do you?
Speaker 1 (21:42):
keep a business going , and it sucks for us.
You know, if we had moremanufacturing here and the costs
would be different, it'd be alot different.
We'd have more jobs for peopletoo.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Yeah, I just had a conversation with someone the
other day over this and you knowI was telling them, you know,
in diving into, you know, someproducts like you, can, you know
, take these tariffs.
You can, you know, take thesetariffs.
You know we've ran many, manystudies and reports and
(22:13):
financials on.
You know you can take a productthat's made overseas and you
add in tariffs.
You can add in like we've eveninflated freight back to what it
was during COVID, right, like20 grand a container, right yeah
.
And your finished good price isstill cheaper than what it is to
(22:34):
build in the US, or maybe it'sthe same, but yet then you're
setting up a new vendor.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
You're going to vet through quality.
You're going to have to gothrough that whole process.
So people often ask thatquestion.
I'm like it's not as easy aswhat a lot of people think.
It's just like, hey, shut itoff, bring it to us.
I think any of us who areamericans would love all of our
products to be made in the us itneeds to bei.
I mean and I think, like youknow, we're we're working as a
(23:03):
country to get more of that, butpeople who have to run a
business that makes money,there's a lot of different
factors that play into that, andso, unless you're privy to that
information or understand theway business runs, it's never as
(23:23):
easy as what people think it is.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Oh yeah, I mean China relies on us.
I mean there's a lot, so, um,but yeah, it's insane.
I've always thought about that.
I'm like I slowly I'm findingmanufacturers that are in
locally.
You know la has quite a bit, um, I know there's a couple in
texas, I'm sure, and I think onein new york I've.
I'm pretty sure that I havewritten down but, like I said,
(23:48):
the pricing difference it'sinsane.
So I'll just give you anexample.
So if I have one of my hoodieslet's just say one of them that
I have is like $62.
That would probably be $10cheaper, maybe $20 cheaper
(24:08):
wholesale if you buy it in theUS compared to buying overseas.
But I mean, luckily, I foundsomebody.
You know the Be Better brandhoodies that I recently have.
I've found, you know, someoneout of LA and there's one in
North Carolina and they're inthe US.
So I was lucky to run acrossthem cause I saw it on.
(24:30):
Um, I forget who I saw it from,but I was like man, I will give
these people a run and checksamples.
I was like Holy cow, this islike Lulu and, um, I do washing
tests and drying tests, see howthey look, and you know it's the
whole process.
It's, it's a lot and I wantthese things to last.
(24:51):
And then, um, yeah, it's,that's the main focus, you know.
Um, another challenge I wasgoing to add in with you know,
the sourcing is is balancingeverything.
You know, with the full-timejob and you know the podcast,
(25:12):
and then, um, running the brand,it's just balancing everything
out, that's you know the podcast, and then um, running the brand
.
It's just balancing everythingout, that's you know.
Another one that I have becauseI couldn't decide between the
two, but that's another one Ihave is balancing everything and
um, you know, because I makeall the content, I do a lot of
the photography.
I mean, I have a couple peoplelocally that does photography
for me and you know, I like touse local people because they're
doing their.
That's what their passion islike.
Hey, I'm gonna use you, um, butyeah, it's, it's just balancing
(25:35):
everything.
And, uh, eventually, you know,scaling out the business and um,
what the next five years aregoing to look like, next 10
years are going to look like.
And you know, there's otherbusiness ventures that we've
talked about, you and I'vetalked about.
So it's like there's it's notjust this, I want branches, you
know.
So there's just a lot, you know, but those are the challenges I
(25:55):
have is the sourcing and, youknow, balancing everything.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
So it's a lot, man, but I'm loving it, I enjoy doing
it, and what's the next daygoing to bring me, you know?
So, number two what's adefining moment in your life
that shaped who you are today?
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Yeah, I mean, I'm going to give you a, I'm going
to give you a story and somepeople are going to find this
like really silly.
Um can't wait to hear this butum have I heard this, yet I
don't think so I don't know thatI've told very many people this
story, um, and it'll seempretty insignificant to most, um
(26:38):
, but I, it's a vivid memorythat I have.
And I was probably.
I was probably seven or eightyears old and growing up,
baseball was my sport.
I really didn't care aboutfootball, I mean, I liked
football, but baseball was whereit was at for me.
And so I remember, seven oreight years old, being in the
(27:02):
backyard playing catch with mydad and you know we're just
playing casual catch and hestarts throwing it harder and
harder, and harder.
And I remember, like crying outof fear, right, it was like
catch the ball or it's going tobreak your face, right, like,
(27:24):
and my dad probably would nevereven remember this and my dad
probably would never evenremember this, this, this
incident.
But you know he's whipping itat me and I'm catching it and
throwing it.
He's telling me, throw it back.
And he's whipping it at meharder and throw it back.
And I remember crying and beinglike so fearful at the time and
and after doing that for Idon't even know how long it,
(27:45):
like it just broke the fear inme, and not just the fear of
getting hit with a baseball.
It was like fear of anything.
And you know, I I guess to melike that's the first time I can
like remember that of just not,of just losing, of just losing,
(28:14):
being afraid of fear.
And then I talk about just therole dads play, and I love the
quote of moms raise babies toboys.
And then it's dad's duty toraise boys to men.
And, you know, first of all,god bless the single moms out
(28:53):
there that have to do it aloneand, you know, is to equip his
sons with, you know, disciplineand the ability to thrive in an
unkind world.
It's not rainbows and sunshineand all those things like the
world, the real world's hard.
And and I think, as as a father,it's, it's, that's my duty to
prepare my boys Um, my daughtertoo, but it's different.
And, um, you know, I don't.
(29:14):
I know, I know that my boyswill be great men, and I don't
know if they'll be athletes ordoctors or businessmen, and I
don't, I don't care about any ofthat.
The only thing that matters tome is that that they will grow
up to be great men and I don'tcare about any of that.
The only thing that matters tome is that that they will grow
up to be great men.
And you know and I think itsounds people can say it sounds
(29:38):
cocky or whatever but, like, Iam a hundred percent confident
that my, my boys are going togrow up, as you know, standout
individuals, because they'regoing to grow up and they're
going to be, they're going to bedisciplined, they're going to
be hardworking, they're going tobe respectful and they're going
to grow up with a mindset thatthey're not entitled to shit but
(30:00):
you are entitled to nothing.
Like, we have that conversationnow with our daughter and cope
because he can understand it,but Asa obviously doesn't yet.
But, like, mom and dad havemoney you don't have with our
daughter and cope, because hecan understand it, but asa
obviously doesn't yet.
But like, mom and dad havemoney, you don't have anything,
you have nothing.
And I want them to grow up withthat mentality that they have to
work to earn everything andlike, just because dad went to
(30:21):
notre dame and dad played in thenfl and dad's got a great job,
that doesn't mean anything toyou and you're gonna have to go
out and earn it every day.
And I think that this you knowit sounds sad to say, but I
think it's going to be very easyfor my kids to be great because
this generation that's up andcoming is not any of those
(30:44):
things Undisciplined, weak, like, stuck in front of screens,
like that's important stuff tous that we don't like.
Those are non-negotiables in ourhouse with our kids, and so you
know, I think the last thingI'll leave you with is that I
truly believe that fear killsmore dreams than failure ever
(31:04):
will, because at least withfailure, you're going to learn,
you're going to grow and you canstart over I agree but if
you're too fearful to start,you're never going to learn
anything.
So that's what I would say.
It all kind of trickles back toplaying catch in the backyard
with dad, um, and just not beingafraid to get hit with a
(31:25):
baseball.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
But I'm gonna add into that you had no other
choice right to you catch thatball, right, you know?
Or if your nose is gone, right,you know.
So I played catch with my momall the time my mom was the
baller man and she'd get pissedbecause I'd break a nail, you
know.
Hey, you want play, you know.
(31:47):
But those are those moments wedon't forget, you know, and
obviously, that one yeah, thatone's like that was a good one.
I like it.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
Number three.
So when people look at yourjourney from you know blue
collar life working in the RVindustry to entrepreneur, um you
know, in the success storythat's going to come of that
someday, when your brand popsLike, what do you hope people
take away from your story?
Speaker 1 (32:16):
That they know it's possible.
You know you don't need asilver spoon, an investment, a
perfect plan.
You just need work, ethic,discipline and the belief in
yourself that you can do it.
Um, you know, you just talkedabout discipline is a huge and I
feel like, obviously, successdoesn't come overnight.
(32:40):
I'm not successful.
Um, hopefully one day I will be.
I can't even really define whatsuccess is.
Um, I mean, if you're willingto sacrifice, put in the work
and the time and the hours andbet on yourself, I feel like you
can build anything you want.
And you know God has given ustalents and abilities.
(33:01):
You know, obviously, we've seenwhat your talents and abilities
are.
You know in football and allthat and much more.
You know, I feel like you haveto really dig deep and you've
got to find what your passion is.
You've got to find whatabilities and talents that you
have and find that passion, thatburn you have and run with it.
(33:22):
That's the big thing.
I just want people to know it'spossible.
You can do whatever the hellyou want.
That's what's nice about beingin the usa, you know.
And uh, anything's possible.
I think that's the big takeawayfrom this and, um, yeah, that
was a deep one, because I feellike a lot of people don't know
(33:47):
what they have and, um, it'sjust like you know, and people
will just go through lifecomplacent, you know, following
through the movements, and oneof these days you're just going
to be gone.
But you're going to be going tothe grave with all those
abilities and all those talentsand not use them.
(34:09):
And I forget where I heard itfrom.
I don't know if it was amotivational speech or video.
The guy was talking aboutpeople going to their graves.
You have these ghosts that arein your ears chirping, and these
ghosts is like your talents,your abilities, your visions,
(34:30):
your dreams.
Do you want them going to thegrave with you, talking to you,
or do you want to go in life anddo all that stuff so they don't
go to the grave and you leave alegacy?
yeah and I thought that hitreally hard and I was like man,
it's, you know, it's the truth.
But, like I said, god has givenus everything.
You just need to dig deep andfind it.
And I've wanted to do this, youknow, since I was in high
(34:54):
school.
You know, and uh, but we'll seewhat happens.
Right, I, everybody has theability to do it, man, they just
, you know, we got to take theaction, yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
I mean, I think Ben Newman says it really well- yeah
, he says everything you need isalready in you Yep.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
I already knew where you were going with that Yep,
and uh, it's so true.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
I mean.
So many people doubt themselvesand their abilities.
That's what kills everything.
Sure, your abilities may not beto the level you want them to
be yet but you still have them.
You have these things in youthat maybe you just haven't
woken up yet.
And again it goes back to you.
Just got to start.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
Yep, and it doesn't matter how old you are.
I mean, like I said, I'm 43.
I always tell myself I'm like,damn, I'm too old.
I'm this is it's too late forme, but as long as I'm breathing
, it's never too late, you know.
So I'm going to keep goinguntil I'm not breathing anymore.
You know that's what I'm doing,but we're on three, all right.
(35:53):
What's the most importantlesson you've learned about
being a husband and a father?
Speaker 2 (36:02):
That marriage and parenting is hard.
It's really hard.
I think it's.
It's two, two things.
I think communication and yourpriorities are most important.
You know, anytime Natalie and Iget in like a little bit of a
funk or you can tell things areoff, it's typically because
(36:25):
we're not communicating wellwith what's going on.
There's times where I can getfeeling a certain type of way
because there's stuff going onwith work or this or that, and
you know she can do the samewith dealing with the kids all
day long.
Or you know there's drama withthe situation.
(36:45):
You just never know.
And if we're not sitting downand spending intentional time
communicating with each other, Ithink that that leads to to
issues, and I think we do areally good job of that.
We're not perfect by any means,but I think that that's a lesson
that I had to learn, just as animmature.
I mean.
Natalie and I have beentogether for a long time and so
(37:07):
I was extremely immature when westarted dating at 16 years old
and just growing up through lifetogether and maturing and
learning, and so communicationis a big one.
And then priorities, like Ithink that I can't think of like
an exact moment, but when Istarted to prioritize, make her
(37:30):
and our, our marriage, a realpriority, like that was a game
changer.
And you know, to me it's.
It leads into parenting.
You know we we make it veryclear to the kids that mom and
dad and our relationship isnumber one.
They're number two, um, but weare very intentional on how we,
(37:52):
you know, set the standardaround them and how we live.
And then also the expectationof, like what they should expect
out of a relationship or apartner.
And you know we, you know, likewe not I think a part of it's
just cause I come from anItalian background we're very
(38:15):
touchy, feely, but like that'simportant to us with our kid.
Like we kiss in front of ourkids, we hug very touchy-feely,
but that's important to us.
We kiss in front of our kids, wehug in front of the kids, we
hold hands when we're out inpublic, we flirt all the time in
front of the kids Going out ondate nights when we go out on a
date night every week becausethe kids don't want us to leave,
but we're very intentional insetting them down and tell them
(38:37):
how important it is for mom anddad to to continue dating each
other and spending quality timetogether.
And you know it's and I thinkthe other piece of that is like
we don't we don't argue that,like we don't really argue
anyways, but like we definitelydon't argue or have any type of
(38:58):
serious conversation in front ofthe kids.
And so much to the point thatlike if her and I are just
having a conversation about likewhat we're going to eat that
night, we're just kind ofbickering at each other.
The kids be like stop fighting.
We're, like we're not fighting,like you guys don't know what
fighting is, um, but I thinkit's just setting the example
(39:19):
for them of you know all thethings of marriage and career,
just working hard and you knowthe kids absorb everything we
talk about that all the time.
They they see it um, we see itcome out of them in in the
moments that you least expect itand you're like they really are
watching.
You're taking everything thatwe do.
(39:41):
And so, yeah, I think at the,at the end of the day, it's
those two things, it'scommunicating and then making
marriage and family a prioritywould be the the biggest lessons
I've I've learned.
I like it.
I'm going to throw a bonusquestion at you oh man All right
(40:02):
, go ahead.
So you've talked a lot aboutbuilding the brand, both the
donut company and then Be Better.
Can you think of a moment thatmade you say I feel like I'm
called to something bigger, likeI'm going to start my own brand
, I'm gonna start my own thing?
Is there a moment you can thinkback to and then, if you can
(40:28):
like, then what was your firstaction step that you took?
Speaker 1 (40:32):
Well, it was actually not just one moment, a series
of moments.
Well, it was actually not justone moment, a series of moments.
You know it's where I saw theimpact of you know, mindset and
my work ethic and my own life.
Dude, I had no work ethic I had.
(40:53):
I was lazy, you know and thepeople I surrounded myself with.
I basically followed suit andthat's not who I wanted to end
up being, you know.
And it's just, I've alwayswanted to push myself to be the
best human I can be.
And that's when, you know, Iwrote this, you know, know,
(41:18):
brand name down.
It's like you hear the 1%better every day, all the time,
and, um, I mean, it's true inall aspects, you use that
mindset every day.
And um, there's no stopping youif you keep that, that going
and that mindset going.
But to go back, yeah, when Iwas younger, I was immature, I
(41:38):
didn't care about my future, Ijust went through life, you know
, one day at a time, and um,just really had an awakening and
it's like this is not who I amwanting to be, this is not who
Jake fine is.
And um, yeah, I just that'swhen, you know, the fitness got
(42:02):
locked in and then my health gotlocked in because I was I mean,
I was always intrigued and inlove with bodybuilding and the
you know the aspect of it.
And just incorporating that,the discipline and the mindset,
it's when I realized, man,mindset is like number one out
of everything.
(42:22):
You know, the health, I meanthat is number one.
And once I started developingdiscipline and building it, I
just it started to get anaddiction to it, which is
awesome.
And if you just keep thataddiction going and doing it
every single day, like I said,there's no stopping you.
(42:43):
And I feel like that's.
I don't even know how old I wasat the time when I you got to
help me on this.
I don't even think I can.
I can't remember, but it waslike I said I'm 43.
So I started late because I hadthat little burn when I was,
you know, 16, 17 in high schoolbecause I used to go to Barnes
and Nobles all the time and lookat entrepreneur magazines, you
(43:06):
know.
And that's how I found a buddyof mine mentioned Bill Phillips
and he was in love with BillPhillips and their brand and
introduced me to that.
And that's basically how I waslike, okay, I'm liking this, you
know, but, like I said, seeingthat material stuff that he had,
I'm like that's the life I wantto have.
And then it just simply fadedafter school and, you know, you
(43:29):
get to that age where you startdrinking and going to the club
and cause everybody else didCause.
Here I'll go back before this,like when I grew up, my dad was
in a band and my dad dj'd, so Iwas surrounded by it and him.
You know working gigs on theweekends, coming home at three
(43:49):
to four in the morning.
I started doing that.
Speaker 2 (43:52):
I worked at you thought that was normal.
Speaker 1 (43:53):
Yeah, that's normal so it's like you, I'm going to
start doing it.
I started DJing in high school.
I DJed graduation parties whenI was in high school and that's
when it first started.
And you know, I found out aboutClub Fever, which was called
Heartland, back in the day whenI first started going there and
started working there and I justfell in love with the club
(44:18):
scene scene, you know, and edmmusic and seeing all the djs
from chicago come through and Iliked being surrounded by it,
just that crowd and the booze,and you know it's like you get
caught up in it.
But I feel like you just gothrough these phases as you're
growing up and then you get tothat certain age you're like,
okay, I need to stop doing thatand start focusing on my life
and my career and my future,because that life is not going
(44:40):
to get me anywhere.
You know so.
But yeah, that's I want to say.
I can't remember how old I was,but it was pretty late in my
how old I was, because I mean, Itold you I'm 43, so I've
started late when I had thatlittle awakening.
But, like I said, it doesn'tmatter how old you are, you can
be 50-some years old and finallylike okay, I need to get my
(45:02):
head out of my ass, yeah, so Forsure.
You ready for your bonus?
I'm ready.
Did I even tell you what thebonus one was?
Throw it at me.
I know what it is.
I did.
I sent it to you.
What's your most memorable?
I even want to know thispersonally.
This is why I put it what's themost memorable moment playing
(45:26):
football at Notre Dame or evenin the NFL?
Because, I've heard your JohnnyManziel story.
I've heard your Brady stories.
Speaker 2 (45:36):
Is there any more?
I mean there, other than the,the group of guys I got to meet,
obviously a lot of great, greatplayers, great guys in the NFL,
that there wasn't a whole lot.
That was very memorable of myNFL career.
um, I would say, the two thingsthat stand out to me, at least,
from Notre Dame were when I hadearned my starting position.
(46:00):
I remember being in class on aFriday before our first game and
the professor had the new likemorning america on and on the
ticker below it, for whateverreason had our starting roster
(46:25):
going across the bottom tickerand to see my name interesting
was like a a crazy moment for meum that's how you found out I
mean, no, I had, I had knownalready, but like it wasn't
really like it, none of thosewere really posted anywhere yet.
Going into week one, and so, um,that was, that was cool.
(46:50):
I mean just felt like all thehard work for all those years
had finally come to fruition tobe named a starter at you know,
your dream school and all thethings you've been working for.
And then I would say the secondone would be in 2012, when we
beat USC out in the Coliseum youknow that's.
We went 12 and all in theregular season that kind of that
(47:11):
stamped our way into thenational championship game.
And I remember, you knowchampionship game.
And I remember, you know, goingover to the sideline as time
expired and finding my parentsup in the stands and just kind
of locking eyes with them andbeing able to share that moment
with them of like all the thingsthat we had been through
(47:33):
throughout my Notre Dame careerthe horrible seasons and the
coaching changes and all thedifferent O-line coaches and to
finally get to where we hadexpected to be all along and my
parents to be on that journeywith me and then for them to
actually be out in Californiafor that game.
It was a really cool moment.
(47:54):
It was actually.
Angelo DiCarlo captured it oncamera and played it on the news
that night.
That's dope.
I hope he gave you that, yeah,ang still talks about it every
time I see him.
Speaker 1 (48:10):
Good.
Speaker 2 (48:10):
He's like I can't believe I caught that moment on
camera.
Speaker 1 (48:13):
That's one thing I do have on my list.
I do want to go to the Coliseumfor a game.
I've always had that on my list.
Um, my mom has been and shetold me she's like it's nothing
like over here no and yeah thatI remember that game clear as
day.
That don't ask me how I was.
I was dude.
I was like come on.
But yeah.
Speaker 2 (48:33):
So I would say those are the two, but I think we've
got some exciting stuff comingup.
I think we're going toobviously continue to provide
you guys with some great contentand we're going to dive in a
(48:57):
little deeper on our journeysand kind of give you guys more
of a behind-the-scenes of.
I think we'll open up a littlebit more than what you guys have
seen so far the good, the badand the ugly of what that looks
like.
And then we also I know we'vebeen teasing this one for a
while, but we've got a guestlined up that we're really
excited about, who's got anunbelievable story, and we'll be
(49:22):
able to bring him on andintroduce you guys to somebody
else.
Speaker 1 (49:27):
I'm excited about that one because, I mean, even
though he's local I don't knowthe story, you know, I've just
seen his career, what he's doneand what he's done on the tv.
I mean on tv, I saw it yeah anduh, he's, uh, he's in hell nap,
he's in hell of an athlete.
Speaker 2 (49:45):
I'll tell you that yeah so, yeah, I mean I guess
I'll.
I'll leave you guys with thislittle teaser of him, and I have
gotten pretty close over thelast handful of months and he
has inspired me in ways that youknow.
He's opened my eyes to thingsthat I just didn't think about
(50:06):
before, and what he's gonethrough in the life that he's
built for himself is incredibleand it's inspiring and the the
thing that I love about him themost is that every time I'm with
him, he just makes me thinkabout things that I didn't think
about before, and so it's goingto be a.
Speaker 1 (50:28):
That's good to have.
Speaker 2 (50:29):
It'll be a great episode and I'm really looking
forward to it.
Speaker 1 (50:32):
Why should that thing be a two-hour episode?
It might pull a.
Speaker 2 (50:35):
Rogan on you guys.
You never know It'll be worth.
Speaker 1 (50:36):
Rogan on you guys Dude, you never know.
Speaker 2 (50:40):
It'll be worth it.
Speaker 1 (50:41):
Oh, yeah, for sure I'm excited.
Well, that's the episode,that's it.
That's it.
Let us know what you guys think.
If you have any questions, sendus some DMs, send us questions,
we'll even answer them.
I enjoy the Q&, yeah, I thinkso.
To have some viewers ask somequestions and answer them on
here, it'd be dope too.
Speaker 2 (51:02):
So tag us share it out.
We'll see you guys next time.
See ya, bye.
Just watching these individuals, how much weight
they lost, how much, you know,their lives got impacted by this
, and he was giving away hisLamborghini and you know, at
that time I was like hell, yes,I want a Lamborghini, you know.
But as you get older, it's like, you know, I'm not.
Yeah, I still want thatmaterialistic stuff, but my
(00:21):
focus is more on the people andmaking the impact, not the money
, not the material stuff.
You know that might be a banfor other people, but it's just
not what I'm into now.
But yeah, money's not, you know, important to me right now,
it's just sharing this brand,getting it out and making an
impact and leaving a legacy.
That's, that's my number.
(00:42):
One thing is leaving a legacyand helping other people leaving
their own legacies.
What's up guys?
(01:12):
Welcome back to the Go All Inpodcast.
I'm Jake Fine.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
And I'm Braxton Cave, and in today's episode we're
going to jump into a little Q&Abetween Jake and I on some
questions that we developed justto give the listeners a better
understanding of who we are, thejourneys we've been on and then
what motivates us and drives usinto some, maybe some areas
that we haven't talked about sofar through our podcast journey.
(01:35):
So we're going to jump right inNumber one.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
First one.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
First question.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Who's the first for me?
I got you.
Oh man, here we go.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
So if money wasn't an object, what job would you work
in?
Why?
Speaker 1 (01:53):
I really thought about this a lot.
I mean, honestly, I'd still bedoing what I'm doing now
building the brand.
What I'm doing now is buildingthe brand.
Um cause, before I'll do alittle short story before I, you
know, came up with the brandthat I have.
Now a lot of people don't knowthat I did you know protein
donuts.
I mean you and Natalie know um,but that was like the first
(02:18):
business venture that I ever did.
And um, basically I mean I, andum, basically I mean I.
There's just you get thesethoughts in your head.
You know oh, here's a businessidea, here's a business idea.
Well, that was like the firstone.
This was on the back burner andum, but basically I'll go into
more of the donuts here later,but that was the first thing I
(02:40):
went into.
But building this brand is likethe I'd still do it.
Money isn't, you know, thefactor in this.
It's about making.
It's about making the impact,sharing the mission with the,
growing the community.
I just feel like, because I wastelling Jackie earlier, I just
(03:02):
feel like money is the bonuspart.
Because I was telling Jackieearlier, I just feel like money
is the bonus part, Because Ifeel like the more impact you
make on people, the more peopleyou grow.
A community with the money isjust going to come behind it.
So if you focus, I feel like ifyou focus more on the people
(03:26):
and the mission, I just feellike that's the bonus right
there.
And you know, I just have thatentrepreneurial mindset.
I want it.
That's what I want.
Yeah, I want that and becauseI've heard I had a conversation
about it and that's just I've.
I've grew up reading like alittle entrepreneur magazines
and stuff like that when I wasin high school, so that's what
got my lit the fire underneathUm Bill Phillips.
(03:50):
I don't know if you've heardthis name.
He was actually.
I don't know if you've heardEAS supplements.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Okay, he is the reason.
When I watched videos of him,he had his little, you know, he
had like a competition forbodybuilders.
You know, real people changingtheir lives, basically like
first form.
Those are transformation stuff.
He was the first and the mainthing that, like, I watched the
(04:17):
entire vhs too on videotape.
Um, I watched the entire thingand just watching these
individuals, how much weightthey lost, how much, you know,
their lives got impacted by this, and he was giving away his
Lamborghini and you know, atthat time I was like hell, yes,
I want a Lamborghini, you know.
(04:37):
But as you get older, it's like,you know, I'm not.
Yes, so I still want thatmaterialistic stuff, but my
focus is more on the people andmaking the impact, not the money
, not the material stuff.
You know that might beadvantage for other people, but
it's just not what I'm into now.
But yeah, money's not, you know, important to me right now it's
(05:00):
just sharing this brand,getting it out and making an
impact and leaving a legacy.
Right now, it's just sharingthis brand, getting it out and
making an impact and leaving alegacy.
That's my number one thing isleaving a legacy and helping
other people leave in their ownlegacies.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Two things I remember about EAS was one their colors
were purple and white.
Yep Two was I think that wasthe first deal that Brady Quinn
did.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Yes, well, they were the main sponsor for Denver
Broncos, Conor Allo Hiscommercial that Quinn did.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Yes, well, they were the main sponsor for Denver
Broncos, so I remember hiscommercial that he did with them
.
The one thing I wanted to addto your answer there I think
it's rare that you'll findsomeone who will say that what
they're currently doing is whatthey would continue doing if
money wasn't a factor, and so Ithink it's really cool that you
found that.
Now, obviously, you haveanother job you're working to,
(05:48):
you know pay bills while you'rebuilding the brand.
But the fact that you alreadyhave your hands in what you're
passionate about, I think, ispretty cool.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Yeah, and you know the RV, you know, pays the bills
.
It pays it.
Obviously it's keeping thebrand going and obviously the
support's keeping it going.
But yeah, that's what you dowhen you start.
You know you find that yourbusiness or whatever you want to
do is your side hustle fortemporary until you get that
(06:18):
thing going and you know it'sall gas, you know full send and
then you can leave thatcorporate America job and, and
you know, work your passion.
You want to wake up everymorning enjoying what you do.
You know, and um, I was justcause I was telling Jackie
(06:38):
earlier about um, we're allbrought up and raised to.
You know, go to school, go tocollege, get that career, get
married, have kids, white picketfence and yeah, and that that's
it.
Yeah, so it's like my path isnot that path.
(07:01):
You know I'm 43, not married,zero kids.
And it's like you know I have adifferent path that I'm taking.
I want to get financially right,I want to get my goals done
before I have that focus on aperson.
A person still have the focuson them, but I want to give them
(07:27):
all 100 percent of focus.
So, and that's the thing youknow that I'm doing right now,
it's one day at a time, brick bybrick, and and I've said it
before is not freaking easy.
You know this.
You you've heard andy frisellasay, you've heard at my list
that you have to have thatcertain mindset to be an
entrepreneur, because it is notfor everybody.
And I've thought to myself likethis isn't for me many times
(07:52):
and it's like no hell, no, Iain't going out like that.
So I'm very committed, and onceI, when I want something, I'm
going to bust ass to get it.
So, but that's where I was atyou, ready for yours.
Yep, here we go.
What's one principle or valueyou live by in business that you
(08:17):
refuse to compromise on?
Speaker 2 (08:20):
So I talk about this a lot with my leadership team,
especially as we're evaluatingtalent and looking at the
pipeline of people that we'relooking to continue to bring up
in the company.
And I stand by this of.
I firmly believe that you can'tlead others well until you can
first lead yourself, and it'svery easy to see that in the way
(08:44):
you know.
People show up every day andyou know, I think we've made
mistakes in the past as acompany and I can only associate
this to the current company I'mwith because I've been with
them since I left my NFL careerbut so often I think people get
promoted into leadership rolesbecause they were so good at
(09:05):
that skill that they had.
Let's use manufacturing for anexample.
You take your best welder andyou promote him to the leader of
the weld department and he orshe doesn't know how to lead
people, so they end up failing.
And I think one that's ahorrible job by a leadership
(09:27):
team of putting somebody in thatposition when they weren't
ready for it.
Like you can ID that person ashey, they got potential and then
you pour into them, get themprepared and then you know, take
that next step.
But I think there's often, um,there's a big switch that
happens when you go from anoperator to a leader and no
(09:48):
longer are you.
Is your expectation, or youknow what's expected of you, to
be the best at that position?
Right, things change, and so Ithink that people often struggle
with that aspect, and I firmlybelieve that, as a leader, when
(10:12):
you step in from operator toleadership, your new skill set
that you have to obtain or haveis that you're now building a
team of people around you whoare better at that skill than
you were.
Right and you can pour into themand help lead and guide them.
But if you're doing it right,they're going to be better than
you.
Now they may not have theleadership skills which
(10:34):
hopefully you have, and that'swhere you can help develop them,
teach them, help them on theirjourney, help them accomplish
the goals that they want toaccomplish, but it's no longer
about being the best at thatthing.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
It's.
You got to remove yourself fromthat and start building upon it
, and to me, it starts with howwell do you lead yourself?
Yeah, Because when people walkin to their work environment
every day, they're looking totheir leader as the person that
they aspire to be a lot of timesnot every time, but people who
are continuing to want to growin a company.
(11:09):
You're setting the example ofwhat, how I need to act and how
I need to show up to get to thatposition.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
And I think there's a lot of people who take that for
granted and they think that youknow, you could.
You know some people you knowthey feel like they've made it
and they kind of lay off of thethings that got them to where
they were, that that got them tothat position to get there, and
(11:39):
so that's a I would say, that'sthe biggest you know.
Principle to me is you have toset the standard and you have to
be able to lead yourself beforeyou can lead others.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
In a great way, I think you can half-ass it, but
at the end of the day, peoplesee right through that I've
worked with a lot of companiesin my past where the leaders
haven't done the work and don'tknow the process.
So they can be, you know,thrown into the leadership and
(12:14):
be good at the leadership part,but they don't know the process
of the.
So I've had a lot of you knowgroup leaders that didn't know
hey, what do we do with this?
You know this certain situationor stuff like that.
So I mean, with what you'resaying, it's yeah, I think as a
leader.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
I think because I can put myself in that position
right coming from nomanufacturing background to
being in it.
Like I couldn't tell you how tolay a great bead on a weld line
.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Yeah, well, that's not easy man, that's not easy at
all.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
You don't know how, but I think when you, when you
come into it with a seek tounderstand mindset and you take
the feedback from the people whodo it every day and then apply
it.
That's got.
There's some meaning and valueto that.
When you come in and try to actlike you know it.
When you don't, that's wherepeople get yeah, they see right
through you too.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
right but Right.
But you didn't get thrown in.
You started at the bottom.
I mean I did, you learned theprocess.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
I learned the process , but there's people who've been
doing that for 20 years.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Yeah, right, every day.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Yep Every single day, and so for me to come in and do
it for a shorter period of time.
Did I gain the understanding?
Yes, a shorter period of time.
Did I gain the understanding?
yes, because that was mymentality going into it, but I
think if you don't take the timeto try and understand people's
(13:36):
perspective like that, that willset you up for failure.
So I think coaching is a greatanother great example of that
like I, I use charlie weiss asan example.
Right, charlie never playedfootball, but he was a damn good
coach and part of that wasbecause he had a great football
mind.
He studied it like crazy andthen he surrounded himself with
great coaches.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
See, I didn't know that about him.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
I mean, I think you look at anyone right?
Nick Saban didn't play in theNFL I don't know what.
Saban's backstory.
But he didn't play in the NFL.
Look at majority.
You're starting to see it morenow.
Guys who played are gettinginto coaching at a high level.
But a lot of these coaches whowe talk about, they didn't play
in the NFL.
They're not wearing goldjackets.
(14:18):
They can't sit there and tellyou how to block one technique,
right.
They can't sit there and tellyou how to block one technique,
right, mm-hmm.
But because of their footballmind and the understanding of
their team and their playerslike, they gain trust and set a
standard that guys will follow.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
That's unbelievable to think about.
You know, saban not evenplaying, and you know, and
Charlie too, I mean, charlie isunbelievable football mind even
as a kid.
Yeah, you know.
So yeah, it's just unreal.
I mean, those are top tiercoaches too.
You know, I don't even knowwhere Charlie Weiss Jr is at now
.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
He's an offensive coordinator at Ole Miss.
There you go, so he's been withLane Kiffin.
So let's jump to number twohere.
Let's go.
What's been the biggestchallenge in growing your brand
and how are you working toovercome it?
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Let me tell you.
Well, like I said before in thelast question, back to the
donuts.
That was my first businessventure and that was pre-COVID.
So that was 2019 when I startedthat and obviously we didn't
know anything was going tohappen.
What happened, you know, withCOVID and that, basically, once
(15:32):
I started that it took off and Iwas on WSBT and let me tell you
, once that happened I had toshut the phone off, remember,
and it was just so much.
I was like I don't know how I'mgonna do that, because what I
used when I did with that, Imean this was all strictly
social media.
With that, I took orders duringthe week because I worked a
(15:57):
full-time job and basically dideverything on the weekends.
And then I just set up, know,meet up points at gyms in
Elkhart, mishawaka on certaindays and did that.
It's just, it got overwhelmingand, um, going to bed smelling
donuts, you know, and mynostrils still smelling it when
(16:18):
you wake up in the morning.
It's just, it was a lot.
I was like man, what did I getmyself into?
And I mean I enjoyed it, cause,you know, I think, when I was
like man, what did I get myselfinto?
And I mean I enjoyed it becauseyou know, I think when I was on
WSVT there was one line thatstood out that got a lot of
people's attention, and it'swhen she asked me if donuts were
healthy.
(16:38):
I said there's no such thing asa healthy donut.
I said this is a better optionfor people to.
You know, take in instead oftaking in.
You know, dunkin' Donuts orKrispy Kreme you know diabetics
can have these, you know.
So, and I think that really hitthe spot because I had a lot of
people message me and, you know, applauded me for saying that,
(17:00):
because it's the truth.
You know there's no such ahealthy donut.
I'm a donut connoisseur.
I grew up, you know, my momtaking me to small donut shops
locally and it just eventually,as I got older, wherever we went
out of town or anything likethat, I looked for a donut spot.
You know what's the best donutspot and still do it.
You know, today I haven't doneit in a while, but need to do
(17:21):
that sometime, but but yeah,I've always enjoyed it.
And that that used to be my, myInstagram handle.
You know donuts and lift.
That's where the and she's theone that says why don't you just
use your donut, your Instagramhandle?
So that's what I ran with itand it stuck and yeah, I mean,
we did great, it was.
It was a good run, you know.
(17:41):
And then COVID hit.
I was like, you know, I need touh, need to hit the brakes on
this because I want to be, Iwant to be careful.
I mean back then we didn't knowwhat the heck was going on.
So I mean now we do, but it'slike I wanted to put a pause on
it and I want to be careful witheverybody and everybody else to
be safe.
So I that's why I put a put thebrakes on it, but hey, you
(18:03):
never know, I might bring themback.
I always think about it and Ialways talk to it with her and
you know I enjoyed doing it.
It's just like I said it was alot and like Be Better brand.
When I launched that, that wason the back burner and I was
like you know what I want to dothis and it was like the perfect
time because this countryneeded it.
(18:25):
And we still do.
And it's like we all need to bebetter in the mindset and being
kind to people.
Um, cause we're all on the sameteam.
We're, all you know, red, whiteand blue here, so I just
thought it was the perfect timeto do that and, uh, launch that
November.
Man, how am I forgetting 2022on my birthday?
(18:50):
So we're going on year three.
But I mean, I'm trying to thinkwhat I can put as my biggest
challenge to doing this becausethere has been many and it's
trial and error a lot of it, andfiguring out what works,
learning from the fails thatI've done, you know, with cause
(19:11):
I'm very OCD picky.
I want people to have goodquality, cause that's what
you're.
You're spending your hardearned money on my stuff, you
know, on the mission, on theapparel.
So I think keeping you knowit's just finding the right
company to trust with sourcingapparel.
(19:34):
So sourcing the right product.
Um, cause there's, there's justa lot of fake crap out there.
You know there's a lot ofyou're buying products that
don't last People arecomplaining about.
You see, you see it all thetime and it's like that's my
focus.
It's like it is the experiencethat customers are getting when
(19:56):
they receive the package.
I love that and making surethey have good quality products
and that's like my main focusand I'm very picky about that
too.
I want people to have the bestexperience buying from me.
But, like I said, it's findingand doing a lot of networking.
(20:16):
Networking is huge.
I'm like, hey, who do yousource from?
Like, when I went to the Arnold, I talked to Rock from Gym
Reapers.
I was like, hey, and he's likedo you need any information.
He's like do you need anyinformation?
He's like, just reach out.
He's like I'll follow you.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
And um, I mean, he's grown that brand huge in your
conversations and networkingwith people who are also, you
know, building brands and in theapparel, like what would you
say?
The split is of people sourcingfrom the us versus overseas
nothing is from here,Everything's from over there.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
And that's also been in my mind too, because I know,
obviously you know, you got theTerrace going on now too.
I don't know how it works withapparel, but yeah, everything
you know these big brands,they're getting stuff overseas.
You know Alpha Elite, christianGuzman's brand.
They're getting stuff overseas.
You know Alpha Elite ChristianGuzman's brand overseas Because
(21:13):
I actually worked with thecompany that did all their
designing and their sourcing andthis is the jacket I showed you
.
But yeah, I'm going to sayprobably 90% of my guests, so
don't take me.
You know, don't quote'm goingto say probably 90% of my guests
.
Don't take me, you know, don'tquote me on that.
But it's, it's very high.
Um, I don't just, there ismanufacturing here in the U S,
(21:36):
but if you look at pricingdifference you'd be like how do
you, how do you make money?
Speaker 2 (21:42):
How do you?
Speaker 1 (21:42):
keep a business going , and it sucks for us.
You know, if we had moremanufacturing here and the costs
would be different, it'd be alot different.
We'd have more jobs for peopletoo.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Yeah, I just had a conversation with someone the
other day over this and you knowI was telling them, you know,
in diving into, you know, someproducts like you, can, you know
, take these tariffs.
You can, you know, take thesetariffs.
You know we've ran many, manystudies and reports and
(22:13):
financials on.
You know you can take a productthat's made overseas and you
add in tariffs.
You can add in like we've eveninflated freight back to what it
was during COVID, right, like20 grand a container, right yeah
.
And your finished good price isstill cheaper than what it is to
(22:34):
build in the US, or maybe it'sthe same, but yet then you're
setting up a new vendor.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
You're going to vet through quality.
You're going to have to gothrough that whole process.
So people often ask thatquestion.
I'm like it's not as easy aswhat a lot of people think.
It's just like, hey, shut itoff, bring it to us.
I think any of us who areamericans would love all of our
products to be made in the us itneeds to bei.
I mean and I think, like youknow, we're we're working as a
(23:03):
country to get more of that, butpeople who have to run a
business that makes money,there's a lot of different
factors that play into that, andso, unless you're privy to that
information or understand theway business runs, it's never as
(23:23):
easy as what people think it is.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Oh yeah, I mean China relies on us.
I mean there's a lot, so, um,but yeah, it's insane.
I've always thought about that.
I'm like I slowly I'm findingmanufacturers that are in
locally.
You know la has quite a bit, um, I know there's a couple in
texas, I'm sure, and I think onein new york I've.
I'm pretty sure that I havewritten down but, like I said,
(23:48):
the pricing difference it'sinsane.
So I'll just give you anexample.
So if I have one of my hoodieslet's just say one of them that
I have is like $62.
That would probably be $10cheaper, maybe $20 cheaper
(24:08):
wholesale if you buy it in theUS compared to buying overseas.
But I mean, luckily, I foundsomebody.
You know the Be Better brandhoodies that I recently have.
I've found, you know, someoneout of LA and there's one in
North Carolina and they're inthe US.
So I was lucky to run acrossthem cause I saw it on.
(24:30):
Um, I forget who I saw it from,but I was like man, I will give
these people a run and checksamples.
I was like Holy cow, this islike Lulu and, um, I do washing
tests and drying tests, see howthey look, and you know it's the
whole process.
It's, it's a lot and I wantthese things to last.
(24:51):
And then, um, yeah, it's,that's the main focus, you know.
Um, another challenge I wasgoing to add in with you know,
the sourcing is is balancingeverything.
You know, with the full-timejob and you know the podcast,
(25:12):
and then, um, running the brand,it's just balancing everything
out, that's you know the podcast, and then um, running the brand
.
It's just balancing everythingout, that's you know.
Another one that I have becauseI couldn't decide between the
two, but that's another one Ihave is balancing everything and
um, you know, because I makeall the content, I do a lot of
the photography.
I mean, I have a couple peoplelocally that does photography
for me and you know, I like touse local people because they're
doing their.
That's what their passion islike.
Hey, I'm gonna use you, um, butyeah, it's, it's just balancing
(25:35):
everything.
And, uh, eventually, you know,scaling out the business and um,
what the next five years aregoing to look like, next 10
years are going to look like.
And you know, there's otherbusiness ventures that we've
talked about, you and I'vetalked about.
So it's like there's it's notjust this, I want branches, you
know.
So there's just a lot, you know, but those are the challenges I
(25:55):
have is the sourcing and, youknow, balancing everything.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
So it's a lot, man, but I'm loving it, I enjoy doing
it, and what's the next daygoing to bring me, you know?
So, number two what's adefining moment in your life
that shaped who you are today?
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Yeah, I mean, I'm going to give you a, I'm going
to give you a story and somepeople are going to find this
like really silly.
Um can't wait to hear this butum have I heard this, yet I
don't think so I don't know thatI've told very many people this
story, um, and it'll seempretty insignificant to most, um
(26:38):
, but I, it's a vivid memorythat I have.
And I was probably.
I was probably seven or eightyears old and growing up,
baseball was my sport.
I really didn't care aboutfootball, I mean, I liked
football, but baseball was whereit was at for me.
And so I remember, seven oreight years old, being in the
(27:02):
backyard playing catch with mydad and you know we're just
playing casual catch and hestarts throwing it harder and
harder, and harder.
And I remember, like crying outof fear, right, it was like
catch the ball or it's going tobreak your face, right, like,
(27:24):
and my dad probably would nevereven remember this and my dad
probably would never evenremember this, this, this
incident.
But you know he's whipping itat me and I'm catching it and
throwing it.
He's telling me, throw it back.
And he's whipping it at meharder and throw it back.
And I remember crying and beinglike so fearful at the time and
and after doing that for Idon't even know how long it,
(27:45):
like it just broke the fear inme, and not just the fear of
getting hit with a baseball.
It was like fear of anything.
And you know, I I guess to melike that's the first time I can
like remember that of just not,of just losing, of just losing,
(28:14):
being afraid of fear.
And then I talk about just therole dads play, and I love the
quote of moms raise babies toboys.
And then it's dad's duty toraise boys to men.
And, you know, first of all,god bless the single moms out
(28:53):
there that have to do it aloneand, you know, is to equip his
sons with, you know, disciplineand the ability to thrive in an
unkind world.
It's not rainbows and sunshineand all those things like the
world, the real world's hard.
And and I think, as as a father,it's, it's, that's my duty to
prepare my boys Um, my daughtertoo, but it's different.
And, um, you know, I don't.
(29:14):
I know, I know that my boyswill be great men, and I don't
know if they'll be athletes ordoctors or businessmen, and I
don't, I don't care about any ofthat.
The only thing that matters tome is that that they will grow
up to be great men and I don'tcare about any of that.
The only thing that matters tome is that that they will grow
up to be great men.
And you know and I think itsounds people can say it sounds
(29:38):
cocky or whatever but, like, Iam a hundred percent confident
that my, my boys are going togrow up, as you know, standout
individuals, because they'regoing to grow up and they're
going to be, they're going to bedisciplined, they're going to
be hardworking, they're going tobe respectful and they're going
to grow up with a mindset thatthey're not entitled to shit but
(30:00):
you are entitled to nothing.
Like, we have that conversationnow with our daughter and cope
because he can understand it,but Asa obviously doesn't yet.
But, like, mom and dad havemoney you don't have with our
daughter and cope, because hecan understand it, but asa
obviously doesn't yet.
But like, mom and dad havemoney, you don't have anything,
you have nothing.
And I want them to grow up withthat mentality that they have to
work to earn everything andlike, just because dad went to
(30:21):
notre dame and dad played in thenfl and dad's got a great job,
that doesn't mean anything toyou and you're gonna have to go
out and earn it every day.
And I think that this you knowit sounds sad to say, but I
think it's going to be very easyfor my kids to be great because
this generation that's up andcoming is not any of those
(30:44):
things Undisciplined, weak, like, stuck in front of screens,
like that's important stuff tous that we don't like.
Those are non-negotiables in ourhouse with our kids, and so you
know, I think the last thingI'll leave you with is that I
truly believe that fear killsmore dreams than failure ever
(31:04):
will, because at least withfailure, you're going to learn,
you're going to grow and you canstart over I agree but if
you're too fearful to start,you're never going to learn
anything.
So that's what I would say.
It all kind of trickles back toplaying catch in the backyard
with dad, um, and just not beingafraid to get hit with a
(31:25):
baseball.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
But I'm gonna add into that you had no other
choice right to you catch thatball, right, you know?
Or if your nose is gone, right,you know.
So I played catch with my momall the time my mom was the
baller man and she'd get pissedbecause I'd break a nail, you
know.
Hey, you want play, you know.
(31:47):
But those are those moments wedon't forget, you know, and
obviously, that one yeah, thatone's like that was a good one.
I like it.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
Number three.
So when people look at yourjourney from you know blue
collar life working in the RVindustry to entrepreneur, um you
know, in the success storythat's going to come of that
someday, when your brand popsLike, what do you hope people
take away from your story?
Speaker 1 (32:16):
That they know it's possible.
You know you don't need asilver spoon, an investment, a
perfect plan.
You just need work, ethic,discipline and the belief in
yourself that you can do it.
Um, you know, you just talkedabout discipline is a huge and I
feel like, obviously, successdoesn't come overnight.
(32:40):
I'm not successful.
Um, hopefully one day I will be.
I can't even really define whatsuccess is.
Um, I mean, if you're willingto sacrifice, put in the work
and the time and the hours andbet on yourself, I feel like you
can build anything you want.
And you know God has given ustalents and abilities.
(33:01):
You know, obviously, we've seenwhat your talents and abilities
are.
You know in football and allthat and much more.
You know, I feel like you haveto really dig deep and you've
got to find what your passion is.
You've got to find whatabilities and talents that you
have and find that passion, thatburn you have and run with it.
(33:22):
That's the big thing.
I just want people to know it'spossible.
You can do whatever the hellyou want.
That's what's nice about beingin the usa, you know.
And uh, anything's possible.
I think that's the big takeawayfrom this and, um, yeah, that
was a deep one, because I feellike a lot of people don't know
(33:47):
what they have and, um, it'sjust like you know, and people
will just go through lifecomplacent, you know, following
through the movements, and oneof these days you're just going
to be gone.
But you're going to be going tothe grave with all those
abilities and all those talentsand not use them.
(34:09):
And I forget where I heard itfrom.
I don't know if it was amotivational speech or video.
The guy was talking aboutpeople going to their graves.
You have these ghosts that arein your ears chirping, and these
ghosts is like your talents,your abilities, your visions,
(34:30):
your dreams.
Do you want them going to thegrave with you, talking to you,
or do you want to go in life anddo all that stuff so they don't
go to the grave and you leave alegacy?
yeah and I thought that hitreally hard and I was like man,
it's, you know, it's the truth.
But, like I said, god has givenus everything.
You just need to dig deep andfind it.
And I've wanted to do this, youknow, since I was in high
(34:54):
school.
You know, and uh, but we'll seewhat happens.
Right, I, everybody has theability to do it, man, they just
, you know, we got to take theaction, yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
I mean, I think Ben Newman says it really well- yeah
, he says everything you need isalready in you Yep.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
I already knew where you were going with that Yep,
and uh, it's so true.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
I mean.
So many people doubt themselvesand their abilities.
That's what kills everything.
Sure, your abilities may not beto the level you want them to
be yet but you still have them.
You have these things in youthat maybe you just haven't
woken up yet.
And again it goes back to you.
Just got to start.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
Yep, and it doesn't matter how old you are.
I mean, like I said, I'm 43.
I always tell myself I'm like,damn, I'm too old.
I'm this is it's too late forme, but as long as I'm breathing
, it's never too late, you know.
So I'm going to keep goinguntil I'm not breathing anymore.
You know that's what I'm doing,but we're on three, all right.
(35:53):
What's the most importantlesson you've learned about
being a husband and a father?
Speaker 2 (36:02):
That marriage and parenting is hard.
It's really hard.
I think it's.
It's two, two things.
I think communication and yourpriorities are most important.
You know, anytime Natalie and Iget in like a little bit of a
funk or you can tell things areoff, it's typically because
(36:25):
we're not communicating wellwith what's going on.
There's times where I can getfeeling a certain type of way
because there's stuff going onwith work or this or that, and
you know she can do the samewith dealing with the kids all
day long.
Or you know there's drama withthe situation.
(36:45):
You just never know.
And if we're not sitting downand spending intentional time
communicating with each other, Ithink that that leads to to
issues, and I think we do areally good job of that.
We're not perfect by any means,but I think that that's a lesson
that I had to learn, just as animmature.
I mean.
Natalie and I have beentogether for a long time and so
(37:07):
I was extremely immature when westarted dating at 16 years old
and just growing up through lifetogether and maturing and
learning, and so communicationis a big one.
And then priorities, like Ithink that I can't think of like
an exact moment, but when Istarted to prioritize, make her
(37:30):
and our, our marriage, a realpriority, like that was a game
changer.
And you know, to me it's.
It leads into parenting.
You know we we make it veryclear to the kids that mom and
dad and our relationship isnumber one.
They're number two, um, but weare very intentional on how we,
(37:52):
you know, set the standardaround them and how we live.
And then also the expectationof, like what they should expect
out of a relationship or apartner.
And you know we, you know, likewe not I think a part of it's
just cause I come from anItalian background we're very
(38:15):
touchy, feely, but like that'simportant to us with our kid.
Like we kiss in front of ourkids, we hug very touchy-feely,
but that's important to us.
We kiss in front of our kids, wehug in front of the kids, we
hold hands when we're out inpublic, we flirt all the time in
front of the kids Going out ondate nights when we go out on a
date night every week becausethe kids don't want us to leave,
but we're very intentional insetting them down and tell them
(38:37):
how important it is for mom anddad to to continue dating each
other and spending quality timetogether.
And you know it's and I thinkthe other piece of that is like
we don't we don't argue that,like we don't really argue
anyways, but like we definitelydon't argue or have any type of
(38:58):
serious conversation in front ofthe kids.
And so much to the point thatlike if her and I are just
having a conversation about likewhat we're going to eat that
night, we're just kind ofbickering at each other.
The kids be like stop fighting.
We're, like we're not fighting,like you guys don't know what
fighting is, um, but I thinkit's just setting the example
(39:19):
for them of you know all thethings of marriage and career,
just working hard and you knowthe kids absorb everything we
talk about that all the time.
They they see it um, we see itcome out of them in in the
moments that you least expect itand you're like they really are
watching.
You're taking everything thatwe do.
(39:41):
And so, yeah, I think at the,at the end of the day, it's
those two things, it'scommunicating and then making
marriage and family a prioritywould be the the biggest lessons
I've I've learned.
I like it.
I'm going to throw a bonusquestion at you oh man All right
(40:02):
, go ahead.
So you've talked a lot aboutbuilding the brand, both the
donut company and then Be Better.
Can you think of a moment thatmade you say I feel like I'm
called to something bigger, likeI'm going to start my own brand
, I'm gonna start my own thing?
Is there a moment you can thinkback to and then, if you can
(40:28):
like, then what was your firstaction step that you took?
Speaker 1 (40:32):
Well, it was actually not just one moment, a series
of moments.
Well, it was actually not justone moment, a series of moments.
You know it's where I saw theimpact of you know, mindset and
my work ethic and my own life.
Dude, I had no work ethic I had.
(40:53):
I was lazy, you know and thepeople I surrounded myself with.
I basically followed suit andthat's not who I wanted to end
up being, you know.
And it's just, I've alwayswanted to push myself to be the
best human I can be.
And that's when, you know, Iwrote this, you know, know,
(41:18):
brand name down.
It's like you hear the 1%better every day, all the time,
and, um, I mean, it's true inall aspects, you use that
mindset every day.
And um, there's no stopping youif you keep that, that going
and that mindset going.
But to go back, yeah, when Iwas younger, I was immature, I
(41:38):
didn't care about my future, Ijust went through life, you know
, one day at a time, and um,just really had an awakening and
it's like this is not who I amwanting to be, this is not who
Jake fine is.
And um, yeah, I just that'swhen, you know, the fitness got
(42:02):
locked in and then my health gotlocked in because I was I mean,
I was always intrigued and inlove with bodybuilding and the
you know the aspect of it.
And just incorporating that,the discipline and the mindset,
it's when I realized, man,mindset is like number one out
of everything.
(42:22):
You know, the health, I meanthat is number one.
And once I started developingdiscipline and building it, I
just it started to get anaddiction to it, which is
awesome.
And if you just keep thataddiction going and doing it
every single day, like I said,there's no stopping you.
(42:43):
And I feel like that's.
I don't even know how old I wasat the time when I you got to
help me on this.
I don't even think I can.
I can't remember, but it waslike I said I'm 43.
So I started late because I hadthat little burn when I was,
you know, 16, 17 in high schoolbecause I used to go to Barnes
and Nobles all the time and lookat entrepreneur magazines, you
(43:06):
know.
And that's how I found a buddyof mine mentioned Bill Phillips
and he was in love with BillPhillips and their brand and
introduced me to that.
And that's basically how I waslike, okay, I'm liking this, you
know, but, like I said, seeingthat material stuff that he had,
I'm like that's the life I wantto have.
And then it just simply fadedafter school and, you know, you
(43:29):
get to that age where you startdrinking and going to the club
and cause everybody else didCause.
Here I'll go back before this,like when I grew up, my dad was
in a band and my dad dj'd, so Iwas surrounded by it and him.
You know working gigs on theweekends, coming home at three
(43:49):
to four in the morning.
I started doing that.
Speaker 2 (43:52):
I worked at you thought that was normal.
Speaker 1 (43:53):
Yeah, that's normal so it's like you, I'm going to
start doing it.
I started DJing in high school.
I DJed graduation parties whenI was in high school and that's
when it first started.
And you know, I found out aboutClub Fever, which was called
Heartland, back in the day whenI first started going there and
started working there and I justfell in love with the club
(44:18):
scene scene, you know, and edmmusic and seeing all the djs
from chicago come through and Iliked being surrounded by it,
just that crowd and the booze,and you know it's like you get
caught up in it.
But I feel like you just gothrough these phases as you're
growing up and then you get tothat certain age you're like,
okay, I need to stop doing thatand start focusing on my life
and my career and my future,because that life is not going
(44:40):
to get me anywhere.
You know so.
But yeah, that's I want to say.
I can't remember how old I was,but it was pretty late in my
how old I was, because I mean, Itold you I'm 43, so I've
started late when I had thatlittle awakening.
But, like I said, it doesn'tmatter how old you are, you can
be 50-some years old and finallylike okay, I need to get my
(45:02):
head out of my ass, yeah, so Forsure.
You ready for your bonus?
I'm ready.
Did I even tell you what thebonus one was?
Throw it at me.
I know what it is.
I did.
I sent it to you.
What's your most memorable?
I even want to know thispersonally.
This is why I put it what's themost memorable moment playing
(45:26):
football at Notre Dame or evenin the NFL?
Because, I've heard your JohnnyManziel story.
I've heard your Brady stories.
Speaker 2 (45:36):
Is there any more?
I mean there, other than the,the group of guys I got to meet,
obviously a lot of great, greatplayers, great guys in the NFL,
that there wasn't a whole lot.
That was very memorable of myNFL career.
um, I would say, the two thingsthat stand out to me, at least,
from Notre Dame were when I hadearned my starting position.
(46:00):
I remember being in class on aFriday before our first game and
the professor had the new likemorning america on and on the
ticker below it, for whateverreason had our starting roster
(46:25):
going across the bottom tickerand to see my name interesting
was like a a crazy moment for meum that's how you found out I
mean, no, I had, I had knownalready, but like it wasn't
really like it, none of thosewere really posted anywhere yet.
Going into week one, and so, um,that was, that was cool.
(46:50):
I mean just felt like all thehard work for all those years
had finally come to fruition tobe named a starter at you know,
your dream school and all thethings you've been working for.
And then I would say the secondone would be in 2012, when we
beat USC out in the Coliseum youknow that's.
We went 12 and all in theregular season that kind of that
(47:11):
stamped our way into thenational championship game.
And I remember, you knowchampionship game.
And I remember, you know, goingover to the sideline as time
expired and finding my parentsup in the stands and just kind
of locking eyes with them andbeing able to share that moment
with them of like all the thingsthat we had been through
(47:33):
throughout my Notre Dame careerthe horrible seasons and the
coaching changes and all thedifferent O-line coaches and to
finally get to where we hadexpected to be all along and my
parents to be on that journeywith me and then for them to
actually be out in Californiafor that game.
It was a really cool moment.
(47:54):
It was actually.
Angelo DiCarlo captured it oncamera and played it on the news
that night.
That's dope.
I hope he gave you that, yeah,ang still talks about it every
time I see him.
Speaker 1 (48:10):
Good.
Speaker 2 (48:10):
He's like I can't believe I caught that moment on
camera.
Speaker 1 (48:13):
That's one thing I do have on my list.
I do want to go to the Coliseumfor a game.
I've always had that on my list.
Um, my mom has been and shetold me she's like it's nothing
like over here no and yeah thatI remember that game clear as
day.
That don't ask me how I was.
I was dude.
I was like come on.
But yeah.
Speaker 2 (48:33):
So I would say those are the two, but I think we've
got some exciting stuff comingup.
I think we're going toobviously continue to provide
you guys with some great contentand we're going to dive in a
(48:57):
little deeper on our journeysand kind of give you guys more
of a behind-the-scenes of.
I think we'll open up a littlebit more than what you guys have
seen so far the good, the badand the ugly of what that looks
like.
And then we also I know we'vebeen teasing this one for a
while, but we've got a guestlined up that we're really
excited about, who's got anunbelievable story, and we'll be
(49:22):
able to bring him on andintroduce you guys to somebody
else.
Speaker 1 (49:27):
I'm excited about that one because, I mean, even
though he's local I don't knowthe story, you know, I've just
seen his career, what he's doneand what he's done on the tv.
I mean on tv, I saw it yeah anduh, he's, uh, he's in hell nap,
he's in hell of an athlete.
Speaker 2 (49:45):
I'll tell you that yeah so, yeah, I mean I guess
I'll.
I'll leave you guys with thislittle teaser of him, and I have
gotten pretty close over thelast handful of months and he
has inspired me in ways that youknow.
He's opened my eyes to thingsthat I just didn't think about
(50:06):
before, and what he's gonethrough in the life that he's
built for himself is incredibleand it's inspiring and the the
thing that I love about him themost is that every time I'm with
him, he just makes me thinkabout things that I didn't think
about before, and so it's goingto be a.
Speaker 1 (50:28):
That's good to have.
Speaker 2 (50:29):
It'll be a great episode and I'm really looking
forward to it.
Speaker 1 (50:32):
Why should that thing be a two-hour episode?
It might pull a.
Speaker 2 (50:35):
Rogan on you guys.
You never know It'll be worth.
Speaker 1 (50:36):
Rogan on you guys Dude, you never know.
Speaker 2 (50:40):
It'll be worth it.
Speaker 1 (50:41):
Oh, yeah, for sure I'm excited.
Well, that's the episode,that's it.
That's it.
Let us know what you guys think.
If you have any questions, sendus some DMs, send us questions,
we'll even answer them.
I enjoy the Q&, yeah, I thinkso.
To have some viewers ask somequestions and answer them on
here, it'd be dope too.
Speaker 2 (51:02):
So tag us share it out.
We'll see you guys next time.
See ya, bye.
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