CEO Truths: Success Doesn’t Happen Overnight in Business & Life | S3, Ep 8.

On this podcast episode of The Big Dawgs: with Manning Sumner, Manning Sumner did a special collaboration episode with The Happy Customer Channel hosted by Dan Arriola.

They dive into the entrepreneurial journey of Manning Sumner, founder and CEO of LEGACY Gyms and No Days Off Premium Water, and host of The Big Dawgs: with Manning Sumner podcast.

After breaking his back twice playing football, Manning dedicated himself to understanding injury prevention—leading him to train elite professional athletes like the one and only Shaun Livingston. He shares how he built LEGACY Gyms, launched his premium water brand No Days Off Premium Water, and mastered meaningful branding, systemized business, and vision-centric leadership—all by embracing the mindset of never quitting to achieve true success.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
I wanted to be a category disruptor.
I wanted to be someone that's doing something that no one's
ever seen before and no one's ever felt before.
What I was really good at is notmaking the same mistake twice.
I was really good at reading something and being able to
apply it immediately. It took about a decade before it
really took off. It takes years to be an
overnight success. The best of the best have one

(00:20):
thing in common. They do not give up.
You cannot give up. I'm going to do this stuff in
the dark that nobody sees, regardless of the applause,
regardless of the recognition. In your vocabulary.
Is at all. When you got a cancer in your
organization, you have to cut itout immediately.
I'm going to hire real slow, butI assure you that if you come in
here and you're disruptive, you're not doing your job.
We're going to have one conversation.
The next conversation is either you got your ass in here or

(00:42):
you're out the. Door.
So I never treated anybody different.
You walked into my gym or Joe Johnson walked in my gym.
I'm busting your ass. We're working.
I got into a lot of verbal arguments.
Everybody thought I was crazy. But that's why I don't train
anymore though, because these kids can't handle what I used to
do like nobody. Can I can be pumping you up all
day, But I know that you have high self esteem.
Why? Because you went through the

(01:03):
ground. Because I earned it.
Because you earned it. I'm Manning Sumner.
I've lived my life by 1 motto Nodays off.
No days off has never taken a day off on you.
It's a commitment to becoming your best self.
Get ready to be inspired to do the same.
This is the big dogs with Manning Sunder.

(01:25):
Just real fast, Dan Ariola saying that right?
And you are the Co founder and President of Intel Contact
Center Solutions, a leading business process outsourcing
provider driven by a passion fordelivering exceptional customer
service experiences. You oversee a dynamic
organization dedicated to elevating client satisfaction

(01:46):
and performance. There you go, my man.
Enough about me. I want to learn all about you.
That's cool, dude. So you you played at Auburn,
right? Yes.
Yep. Did you play under Tuberville or
did you play under Bobby? I actually, so it's interesting.
I had three coaches, head coaches.
So I was recruited by the offensive coordinator at the

(02:08):
time, Jimbo Fisher, who then went.
Yeah. And then I was, I came on as a
what they call a preferred walk on.
So you come on with the scholarship guys, but you have
to earn a scholarship. So that was under Terry Bowden.
And I'll never forget that. After 2A days, I'm walking up
the ramp. It's like one of those moments
you never forget little Terry Bowden.

(02:28):
He was tiny, you know he's. Like, yeah, he's a little guy,
too. You know, comes up to me, taps
to me on my shoulder pads and I turn around.
He's like Sumner, you earned a scholarship like that.
And then I got the letter and hehanded me an envelope.
And it was the envelope, you know, saying I got a
scholarship. So I earned my scholarship my
first year at Auburn. And, and then so they fired

(02:48):
Tuberville. I mean, excuse me, they fired
Terry Bowden, I think 2 years. And then and then I had Coach
Oliver, brother Oliver who came from Alabama.
He was the defensive wizard thathe's to this day one of my all
time favorite coaches. Coach Forrester in high school
is probably my favorite. And then brother Oliver was

(03:08):
like, I mean, he's the kind of guy that when you watch film,
you like, you walk away thinkingyou're like the master because
he teaches you. I mean, he'll point out
someone's toe, you know, and it's just he breaks down film
like nobody ever want to watch. So our paid it soon and then we
all thought that he was going tobe our coach and we all wanted

(03:29):
him to be our coach. And then out of the blue, of
course, like they love to do they.
Love to do it. On the news, we hear that
Tuberville our thing. Because Tuberville was at Texas
Tech. Ole Miss.
He was at Ole Miss, that's right.
And he was. He was assistant coach here at.
Miami, yeah. And it was a tough time because
he came in and basically what hedid was if he, if he didn't

(03:50):
recruit you at Ole Miss, he he disregarded you.
What position did you play? I played inside linebacker.
So did you play with spikes? Of course, tequila's.
One, that guy's got the biggest net necks in the world ever.
And what's his neck? What's his neck?
I don't know. When I played I had a 22 inch
neck. So he what do you?
Guys had a 26 inch. Neck.
I mean next. He basically had no neck, it was

(04:11):
all traps. Yeah, he was all traps.
It went from here to here. I was like.
So a funny story about him is the very first day I showed up,
Yeah. I mean, I was a huge workout
guy, obviously. So I'm in the weight room by
myself working out. He comes in and there was a, a
guy from Birmingham the year before that came into Auburn and

(04:32):
quit. He was a six foot four, 240 LB
specimen and he quit. And so I, I was tequila walks
in. He's like, oh, another white boy
that's going to quit like that. That's what he says to me, like
literally like that. So I was like, let's work out
together. And then after that workout, he
was like dabbing me up. He's like, yeah, you're the
real. Deal.

(04:52):
The real deal, Yeah, Quick quit is not in your vocabulary.
No, it's not at all. At all what kind of NIO money
you think you would have gotten if you're playing now?
It's such a good story. A lot.
A lot. Tequila had in, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But every Friday.
He got an envelope. So yeah, they said like the $500
handshake. So he's he's saying.
You know, it's crazy. He's like even my dad, my dad

(05:12):
played for Auburn and even, I mean, they had, he had a car,
they gave him suits. I mean, that's, you know.
That's why Nick Saber wanted out.
Exactly. Because because he couldn't hide
it anymore and now everybody's got it.
Walk me through, man, like, OK, so you, you, you play ball.
Did you get into training right away?
And like training other athletes, obviously.
My guess is it's it's part of your life.

(05:34):
You love doing it. How did you evolve into that?
Yeah, I mean it, it happened early, early, early in my in my
life with my dad. So my dad had us training when
we were like could barely walk, you know, like it was just in,
you know, there's a funny Christmas home Christmas video
of me saying, look, mom, dumb bars.
You know, it's called the dumbbells dumb bars.
But I what happened was as far as like training other athletes

(05:59):
is when I broke my back the second time.
So I broke my back in high school, my junior year in high
school, rehabbed myself back, became defensive play of the
year in Alabama, walked onto Auburn and all that.
Then my red shirt junior year atAuburn, I broke my back again,
but this time the one in high school was a hairline fracture.
This time it was a full fracture.
So it was my L5S1 fractured in half.

(06:23):
So the pain and everything was just unbearable.
And I had an opportunity to go through that whole process again
or take a medical hardship. And I just, at the time, the
pain was like something I've never experienced.
And sometimes I couldn't feel mylegs at all.
Wow. And it's real scary, you know,
So especially being young. And so I took the medical

(06:43):
hardship, let the dream die. Yeah.
But I absolutely dove into exercise science and kinesiology
and I really had this new purpose of I want this to never
happen to someone else. So I just leaned into learning
as much as I could. And then and then I was always,
even as a freshman, I was the guy that gave the locker room

(07:06):
talks. I was the guy before we ran out
on the field as a freshman, I was the one hyping up the whole
team. Like I've always been in that
that kind of role, just, you know, I wasn't even a starter,
but that's what I did. So I ended up having shoot like
20 something players coming to Ithink it was the powerhouse gym

(07:28):
in Auburn working out with me instead of the strength coach.
No way. So, so it was just, you know,
early on I just kind of like. Started just and the the
opponent for you ended up becoming injuries, right?
Trying to keep guys on the fieldworking through.
Everything was done in my opinion back then just ass
backwards. So everything back then was
bigger and stronger, right? Not functional.

(07:51):
We're now it's speed and agilityand you know, and more precision
and power rather than pure strength.
So like explosive power, not necessarily just how strong
strong you are. And that was one of like, I'll
never forget showing up at Auburn.
I was at Auburn. I showed up at 218 lbs running

(08:14):
like A46, flying around like flying.
Then a year later I'm 240 with a22 inch neck and probably
running a four seven, you know, and just not.
I still was good, but I wasn't that that specimen that came and
then after feeling like that, then I got back down to like 225

(08:36):
and then felt better. So that was just me kind of
experimenting with myself, but it definitely opened my eyes to
that's how people should train. We should train for function 1st
and then all that stuff. You know, and flexibility and.
More of a of a total. Holistic.
Holistic approach then just likeget as big as you can and as
strong as you can because that doesn't really correlate to

(08:57):
full. When did you go off on your own
to start training, you know? Pros and on so I did an
internship at Sanford Universityas an assistant strength coach
with Tommy Rowland shout out Tommy, Tommy Rowland was
actually my first personal trainer too.
So it was kind of came full circle.
He was awesome great mentor. He basically kind of gave me the

(09:18):
football team to work with. And so that was kind of my first
taste of of doing it at a high level.
Then a buddy of mine called me, said, hey, if you shave your
head. And that's when I had hair.
And he's like, they're they're hiring people to be a stunt
double, body double for Bad boys2.
He's like, you look just like this character named Zinc.
And so I did it. And then next thing I know,

(09:39):
gathered up $2000 in cash, packed up my car and drove to
Miami. And that's how you ended up in
Miami? Yeah.
Yeah. Bad boy.
Who knew? I know we got Will Smith and
you. And I'll never forget being on
Euclid. And it was like choppy and.
And I remember just saying I'm not ever going back, ever going
back. And the first night was like,
amazing. Yeah.

(10:00):
It was just Domino from there. And then I walked into Crunch
Fitness. Yeah, probably about three days
after being here in here. And what's his name?
Scott Hauser was the front desk boy.
He takes me and shows me around.At the time, they had 38
trainers that worked there. And it was like the happening
Crunch. It was 13th and Washington.
I used to work out there. OK, that's where Beyoncé.
Eminem. It was the happening.

(10:22):
So I became the 39th trainer andthen within three months I had
more clients than anybody, really.
Yeah. And then and then so from there,
you, you branch off on your own.You showed me a really cool
picture and an inspiring story out of the lobby of you went to
Wynwood when Wynwood was a Wynwood.
Yeah, so I ended up traveling a lot with clients.
Yeah, and just seeing what was out there from Atlantic City to

(10:49):
LA to Vegas to to Salt Lake City, UT to just I was training
these high, high profile people for years and every single time
I walked into a gym, I wasn't inspired and I felt like they
were all the same. So.
And, you know, it's the LA Fitness model right as you walk
in, there's offices on your right.
There's a cardio section with a bunch of TV's.

(11:10):
There's a free weight section. And then there's a machine
section. And then there's this aerobics
room tucked in the corner where all the energy is, right.
So I and then the gross, you know, and then they're all dirty
as hell. So when I came back from
travelling in 2005, I started toput the dream together.
I started out back then, you know, it was like old school
car, white poster board. Yeah, man, cutting out the

(11:33):
magazine pictures and, and all that.
And I had this vision of what what I wanted my gym to be like.
It took obviously, you know, nothing happens overnight.
So Fast forward to 2007, I meet a new personal training training
client called named Mark Gordon.And God rest his soul, he passed
away. But he, he asked me like

(11:54):
straight up, he was like, why don't you have your own gym?
And of course I was like the money, you know.
And so he's like, let's do it. And he believed in me and
believed in what? And then that's, that's where
that, so that was November 2008 is when we opened the one in
Wynwood and it was a tiny 2000 square foot part of an 11,000
square foot warehouse in the middle of the hood.

(12:15):
Like literally homeless people shaving and brushing their teeth
hookers 2 crack houses next door.
I mean, it was a it was a reach to say the least.
How? Did you go from look, You knew
what you were doing with training and then you're an
entrepreneur. Now you're a business person.
How do you learn business? Trial and error.
Trial and error, right? Me too.
Yeah, I mean, that's really it as you screw up and then you

(12:37):
learn from it, don't screw up again.
I would say that's the biggest thing I used.
I would do is that I think what I was really good at is not
making the same mistake twice. I was really good at reading
something and being able to apply it immediately.
So I would read it and then apply it.
And I think most people, sometimes they read it and they
gain, they gain the knowledge and they sit on it.

(12:58):
And they can't implement it. Yeah.
And so I was, I was really good at implementing, I was really
good at at figuring stuff out and and yeah, and then I was
really good at doing it my way. And so which was very got a lot
of pushback still to this day sometimes I do but.
Why do you get pushed back? Because people want to follow

(13:18):
the norms and they want to say, well, that's how it's always
been done, or that's how we do it, or that's how LA Fitness
does it. That's how this does like no.
And I wanted to be a category disruptor.
I wanted to be someone that's doing something that no one's
ever seen before and no one's ever felt before.
And I really wanted to build an experience.
And I heard earlier you said youread shoe dog.

(13:39):
Great. And so that was one of my first
books I read early on. So the reason why we have the
Pitbull, that's our Nike swoosh,right?
The reason why we have no days off.
That's our just do it. And then legacy is Nike.
You know, that's, that was very,very intentional early, early
on, yeah. All the way back in 2009, those
3 pillars, I, I just hammered and people didn't get it at all.

(14:02):
They were like, what's up with the dog?
You know, yeah, yeah, yeah. Dog trainer, they don't get it.
Yet like, people didn't. It took about a decade before it
really took off. It first of all, it takes years
to be an overnight success. Yeah, people have to realize
that and they they don't, they don't see the hard work behind
it. But branding is very important
to you. That's what I've noticed about
everything The the pit, the noseday, nose days off.

(14:26):
It's more than just a slogan. It is who you are.
Talk to me about it. What what?
Why is it? Why is branding so important to?
You. Well, I think it goes back
again. I mean, I'll lead with Shoe Dog
and the Nike story and Jordan. So I was, I mean, Bo Jackson,
Michael Jordan. I was obsessed.
You're my guy. Well, you're Auburn.

(14:46):
So I was obsessed with them, Jordan, even to another level
every time I hear people try to debate over.
Jordan, LeBron, It's just silly,like.
It's really silly, especially lately It's gotten even worse
lately. So just stop, right?
You're gonna lose that one. But and just the, you know, the
Jordan image and and I was obsessed with Nike too.

(15:07):
So it was just watching these brands and then reading the
story and understanding that like Nike, didn't happen
overnight. Like no way man.
Tons of struggle and setbacks and almost went out of business.
And so it like when you read stuff like that, you realize
that that's what it takes. Yeah, man.
And so I've always believed thatas long as I keep going, as long

(15:28):
as I don't stop, as long as I never quit, that eventually I'll
be on the other side of success.And so no days off was really, I
feel like in order to do something great, you have to
attach yourself to A cause greater than yourself.
So to me, it can't be about me. And, and I even was told early,
early on, because I was the faceof the gym and I was training

(15:49):
professional athletes and celebrities that if you stop
training, this will go under. I had several like business like
super successful business guys, tell me, as soon as you stop
training this, this is not goingto work.
So I purposely stopped training,like, and I started pouring into
other people and started building systems and procedures
and stuff like that. But as far as branding goes, I

(16:09):
mean, I wanted to to live it like, I wanted people to
understand. Like, I like, Oscar and I were
here at 5:00 in the morning on aSaturday.
We were the only people here. And that's been my story for
yeah, man, 15 years. Like, I'm going to do this stuff
in the dark that nobody sees, regardless of the applause,
regardless of the recognition, because I know for a fact it's

(16:31):
going to pay off. And it's also, it's also
authentic. I can't be out there saying no
days off has never taken a day off on you.
It's a commitment to becoming your best self.
And I'm not becoming my best self at 47, like because I tell
people you never stop. Like my conversations with my
dad are so awesome. And my mom too, because they're
in their 70s and they're living no days off.

(16:52):
You know, they're living in tension.
They're they're trying to be their best selves.
Like, and that's The thing is like, why, like people say you
slow down when you get older. Like, no man, you're just
getting going. Yeah, exactly.
We have a saying here that we'rejust getting started.
And my staff can't stand it whenI say it because I say it at
every grand opening, at every, every chance I get.
I'm like, we're just getting started because we are.

(17:13):
And I truly believe it too, because where we are today is
not where we're to be in 10 years.
It's. Just 100% a big part of brand is
consistency and you have it right.
So you, you, you know, you hit it when the people around you
that work, they go, oh, here he goes again here.
Yeah, that's part of the brand. That's what you guys don't get.
It is, you know, we're talking about basketball.

(17:34):
It's that great story. There's it's all over the
Internet. It's clips.
It's Larry Bird. You know, he's practicing and he
goes, you know, about to go to the showers and then he goes
somewhere Magic Johnson is practicing free throws and he
goes back out and then they havemagic and he goes and they they
didn't even know that they were saying this.
Magic goes. I would practice, practice be
over. And getting ready to go to the
locker room and all of a sudden I go, you know what, freaking

(17:55):
Larry Bird is somewhere practicing layups.
I'm going to go out back and andthat's the stuff that people
don't see. They see your IG page, which is
great. You got great social media
people, but they don't see that you and I are Saturday at 5:00.
There's a lot of other things you and I could be doing right
now, but we're having a great conversation.
So 100. Percent.
So tell me a little bit about what got you started and what
you're doing and and where you are today.

(18:16):
Yeah, man. I mean, so it's, it's a company
that so my brother and I own twocompanies, right.
So we own Inktel, which is a outsourced call center business.
And I wish I could tell you thatwe had some master plan, but one
of the things that we did when we built the business is that we
didn't want to be like everybodyelse.
So we know that success leaves clues, so we're going to study
the best. SO guys like Phil Knight, a shoe

(18:37):
dog, Starbucks was a big one. How do they hire people?
How do they build systems? What do they do?
You know, how do they build an org chart?
How do they scale those sorts ofthings?
And we didn't study companies inour industry, which is
interesting enough. And I've taken disciplines from
guys like Bruce Lee to Michael Jordan to whatever.
Like, how do they prepare? What are their lives like, like
that? And over the course of many

(18:58):
years, ups and downs, I'd love to tell you that everything's
been awesome. It never is.
It never is. But you one thing I've always
noticed, and I can see it with you and people go, what's the
one characteristic that you haveto have to be successful?
Look, there's guys that are smart.
There's guys that are great at sales, marketing, engineering,
whatever I go. But the best of the best have
one thing in common. They are resilient

(19:19):
motherfuckers. They do not give up.
You have to understand, you cannot give up.
You can slow down, scale back, regroup, whatever, but you
cannot give up. And you have to be like have
tenacity in your running throughyour veins because if not, you
will get your clocking. Because guess what, there's a
guy across the street that's gota gym.
There's a guy in China that's got call centers.

(19:40):
That's like working around the clock.
So you cannot give up you and then you have to invest in
yourself. You have got to get better.
You have got to read, you got tohave, you know, you're fit.
I'm fit. We, we, we, you got to take care
of yourself. You got to take care of your
mind. What's your mindset?
And then that stuff is very contagious and it's contagious
to your team. The more you do that and it
talks to, you know, you're no days off, the more that it'll

(20:02):
get contagious with everybody else and that that feeds on the
flip side of that is cancer spreads.
So when you got a cancer in yourorganization, I cannot emphasize
this enough. You have to cut it out
immediately. So the old saying of hire slow,
Yeah, you want to, I want, I'm going to hire real slow.
You're not on my timeline. I mean, I'm not on your time.
You're not on my timeline. But I assure you that if you

(20:23):
come in here and you're disruptive or you're not doing
your job, whatever, we're going to have one conversation.
The next conversation is either you got your ass in gear or
your. Out the door and that's it.
And. And I've made a mistake with
that over the. Years we all have, as you
learned from the mistakes. And you always think that
because the whole job of a leader is to pour into them and
try to make them better or whatever.
And so you always see I, I, I said this on another podcast is

(20:47):
that I never see somebody in, inwhere they are.
Like I'm always seeing where they're going.
Yeah, man. And unfortunately, a lot of
times they don't see themselves of where they're going.
They only see who they are and they can't, they can't get out.
They're stuck. They're stuck person, you know?
Think about your self esteem. I can be pumping you up all day,

(21:08):
but I know that you have high self esteem.
Why? Because you went through the
grind, that's why. Because I earned it.
Because you earned. It like when you look at
yourself in the mirror, you can't lie to yourself.
You can't be in a you. Can't lie to yourself if you
have hit the snooze button everysingle morning.
You can't lie to yourself if you're sneaking, you know,
Donuts in the middle of the day.You can't lie to yourself if you
didn't hit hit the weights and the women you know.

(21:29):
So no, totally, dude, totally question I had for you, which is
which is because I'm I'm at thatstage in my life too, is like
scale. So you said you pulled away from
training, you made it happen. How did you get those all those
trainers on the same page buyinginto the pit philosophy?
How did you do that? Systems, systems, It has to be
systems. So I actually shout out.
I always have to shout him out. Lewis Barone, a good, a good

(21:53):
friend of mine, he told me to read a book called The E The E
Myth, The E Myth Seminar, The E Myth Seminar by Michael E Gerb.
I think he has four books. I've read them all.
Yeah, but the, but what happenedwas he, he told me to read that
book and I got the audio book instantly.
And that's another thing too like that I feel like I do that
other people's don't. If if somebody recommends

(22:14):
something, I've read the book the next day.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, calling him and saying,
yeah, you know, yeah. So 'cause I feel like, again,
you gotta act, you gotta go like, 'cause you're gonna forget
or, or you're gonna put it off. So I literally put that audio
book on, got on the art trainer.I didn't get off the art trainer
until I was finished with the book.

(22:35):
Wow. And then when I got off the art
trainer, I started implementing system system.
We're gonna answer the phone like this.
We're gonna, you know, we're gonna build, this is how we're
gonna clean. This is how we're gonna greet
our customer. Like basically building out a
franchise model and and making sure that everybody then also
making sure that so we have strength day and conditioning
day and performance day. There's different kind of ways

(22:58):
we do things. There's a Rep scheme, there's
time like all this stuff. So making sure that anybody that
comes on our staff knows how to write a workout out in the way
we want it. So we have different systems for
that. And then it's just required
reading for my staff. So that was something I thought
was so it's the Advantage by Patrick Lisoni.

(23:21):
They have to read that Ego is anEnemy by Ryan Holiday.
They have to read that Holiday is great.
And then the Leader that had No title by Robin Sherman, they
have to read that. Okay, so those are required
reading for all my staff. I think what that does is it, it
makes sure that we're taking care of them from a personal
standpoint more than anything. Are you developing yourself
first and foremost? Because if you're not becoming a

(23:41):
better person, then you're not going to be a good employee.
So we kind of put that stamp into them and make sure they
understand that this is the culture we want.
This is the way we want you to act.
And, and, and then that sets thefoundation.
Then obviously you got to learn our systems.
And then I love, I know you havea customer service background.
So we, I feel like that's why weare where we are today is that

(24:04):
we're not selling fitness, we'reselling energy, we're selling an
experience and we have to make sure we have a thing that we say
people have to walk out better than they walked in.
If you're not leaving today's podcast and you're like, man,
that guy just got me fired up. If you don't feel that way, then
I'm not doing my job and that and I'm also not making this
world a better place. Like I want people to walk in

(24:27):
and then their experience that they have here, they're going
out there and telling people that's your marketing.
That's every single time you go see a new movie and it's good.
100%. How many people do you tell?
Bro, you got to see Gladiator 2.It's unbelievable, you know, and
why aren't we doing that with our businesses?
Why aren't we, you know, why arewe not doing the same thing?

(24:47):
You go to a good restaurant, you're going to tell people.
So gyms, selling water, anything, it's all the same.
It's all the same. And I actually have read a bunch
of books on hospitality and restaurant business because
that's one of the hardest businesses.
It is. So if you can learn from the
restaurant business, so like Danny Meyer's books Table,
Unreasonable Hospitality, you know, all these things, we apply

(25:11):
them to our business. So I truly feel like, you know,
and again, we're not perfect, but I think we run our gyms more
like a restaurant than we do a gym, right?
So look, you're thinking about it even differently.
You're not, you're not competingwith in theory, you're competing
with the other gym, but you're competing with the best of the
best. So you're competing with Danny
Myers, right? You're learning from it.
That's the way that I think that.
Obviously, like everyone that's always questions you get asked

(25:33):
is like who's your competitor? No man, who's your competition?
The best I'm competing here's I'm competing with my best.
So right. And that never is.
You never reach that. Correct, because as.
Soon as you think you're the best you have to improve on that
yeah if you don't improve if youdon't better your best then
someone else is coming for you 100% so that that's kind of our

(25:55):
our way we've. And you're always competing for
talent. Right, 1000.
It's it's the the hardest part. It's the fuel of the business,
right? So if you don't have the talent,
it's just like a football team. Auburn could be great to have
all the great facilities, but ifit's got a bunch of D2 players,
you ain't gonna win the next championship, right?
So you've got to unfortunately, or you have IL dollars, but but
the other thing is with your brand, I can see it.

(26:15):
And and you got to have high standards, right?
And you cannot compromise those standards because somebody else,
the guy who told you, hey, man, you're never going to take off
because you got to keep trainingpeople.
Oh, really? You'll watch me?
Unless you do that and you flex that muscle, it ain't going to
happen, man. Did you how did you scale this

(26:36):
business? Did you take out outside
investor money or did you bootstrap it?
Like what did that look like from an?
Entrepreneur leave it or not like when I so I opened November
2008, I expanded so unfortunately.
By the way, great time just to open it.
It was financial, yeah. It was a disaster for us so.
Two years later, I bought out mybusiness partner for $11,000.

(26:59):
He put in way more than that andI got my entire business back.
So now I own 100%. Then I brought in some employees
and they kind of earned some equity and I did that.
Then when I went to expand, I met a guy, I'm not going to name
his name yet. I met a guy who invested for 20%

(27:22):
of my company that got us to expand the existing location so
we went from 2000 square feet toto about 8000 square feet.
Had a following out with him, bought him out undisclosed
amount. Bought him out, got my company
back. Then I was looking to expand to

(27:45):
finally open up a new locations.So Coral Gables was there was a
gym called Iron Tribe. And basically it's like CrossFit
gym. And they, they were really
struggling really bad. And I heard through the
Grapevine they were really struggling.
But it was an amazing location in the heart of of Coral Gables
22 Merrick way right behind it. And so I went and looked at it

(28:07):
and then through a friend, I waslike started messaging him, hey,
would you sell me your gym? And after negotiating a bunch of
things, I bought his gym. So they had never had more than
100 members in 3 1/2 years. I think the most members they
ever had was 110. So I immediately called my

(28:28):
brother and his and moved his entire family here.
And my brother was gonna run theCoral Gables location because my
brother can sell anything to anybody.
My brother is the greatest salesman I've ever.
Experienced. Like he just got the gift of
gab. We say he can sell a ketchup
popsicle to woman wearing white gloves.
Like he's that good. So he can.
And he's actually been in the gym business longer than me cuz

(28:49):
he got in the gym business freshout of high school.
So he was in the gym business for years, being a general
manager, a salesperson, whatever.
So he knew the gym business and in less than three months we had
430 members. No way.
Yeah. So then it's like, OK, your
systems are working. So now is the first time that
we've proved that we can duplicate this.

(29:09):
Yeah. So that's where my eyes really
lit up. And I was like, all right, well,
then we can. And in that time, I met a man
named Adam Siegel who invested asmall amount of money through a
convertible note to help me get Coral Gables open and run.
Then Fast forward to, I mean, there's so much going on, yeah.
This all the stuff people don't.See man, so now I have Wynwood

(29:32):
and Coral Gables and so basically Wynwood paid for Coral
Gables. You know, the growth.
I didn't really take on that much money.
It just a little bit of money and but then that opened my eyes
to the system is working. I thought I was going to
franchise that back then. That was what I thought I wanted
to do. So I did two of my love them to

(29:53):
death. Two of these girls that were
members, they flew their parentsin from France and they were
going to do a restaurant in Wynwood.
And after meeting me and after experience in the gym, they're
like, no, we're doing a gym withyou.
So they were actually my first franchise and that was in Doral
and that was 2017, I believe. And, and then at the

(30:14):
simultaneously, I took out a loan, a $330,000 loan from
Iberia Bank and I went to open Kindle, Pembroke Pines and Fort
Lauderdale all at the same time.Wow.
And and then Adam reinvested or did he reinvest yet?

(30:34):
I don't think he's reinvested yet.
And here's the reason why. So we start that process in
2019. So we got Kendall open it just
crushed it. Like like surpass all
projections crushed it. And then we start the two other
construction. And then COVID hit, right?
So now I have, I have 1078 members in Wynwood, goes to 0

(31:00):
and we close down. I have 400 something members in
Coral Gables goes to zero. I have Kindle with 300 something
members goes to 0. And by the way, all these zeros
are not just members, they're also dollars.
No, no, no. Yeah, yeah.
The drafts were like, you know, very high.
Yeah. Construction, though, because
construction workers can't get Kovid.
Yeah, keeps going, right? We were allowed to keep going.

(31:24):
So now I've still gotta do construction and pay for
construction for the two gems that are being.
So then I was one of the people that actually got everybody back
open because I let the mayor absolutely have it.
And when they did these big zoomcalls, I was the only one like
fighting, like truly fighting when people were texting me like
you can't talk to the mayor likethat.

(31:45):
And I'm like, yes, I can absolutely grown ass man.
So when he's trying to ruin our lives.
So make Long story short, which is impossible, but we after we
were shut down for three months.So that's a lot of revenue gone.
And then, you know, and I'm trying to get 22 gyms open.
They re they let U.S. Open back up, so they shut us

(32:06):
down. I had three gyms when we when
they came back and let everybodygo back to work.
Now I have 6 gyms. So and in the meantime, gyms are
crap like falling like, you know, there was 114 24 hour
Fitnesses that closed down. There was like 30 F, 40 fives
that closed. Everybody's flywheel went out of
business. That's right.

(32:27):
You know, and I'm like growing. So it was weird, you know, and
then but. That's where the opportunities.
Are right. Exactly.
Yeah. If again, you don't quit, no
days off. And then also that was when this
is even Wilder is that I identified.
So when when the pandemic happened, I knew everybody was
going to freak out like I just knew it.
And I'm not a freak out person. Me neither at all.

(32:49):
And I also thought it was all bullshit but.
Me too. That's a different conversation.
Yeah. Shut down the healthy people in
the gym. Yeah, OK.
That's. That's that's a part of K's bat.
Yeah, yeah. But anyways, a whole nother
topic, but what I knew as I knewpeople would be sitting in fear
and not thinking about. I knew this.
I knew people would make permanent decisions in a

(33:12):
temporary season and I did not want to do that because I saw it
like berries. Berries went full blown online
training. Like all this online crap.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It tanked really.
I mean bad. And because I knew that this is
temporary, guys like don't start.
Everyone went to on like Peloton.

(33:33):
Blue, blue, blue, blue. Blue.
Right now, they're about to. Go Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And so then what happened too isthat I was in this no AC
warehouse, right, which was never really my true vision.
My true vision was something like this, right?
And I was there for 13 years. I was in a nasty fight with the
landlord during COVID because ofcourse they don't give a.

(33:53):
They don't give a crap about youjust paying rent.
Where's my rent? So I strategically started
looking for a new place to move the gym in the middle of the
pandemic. So I was calling Realtors and
everybody, and I mean, everybodywas like, what are you doing?
It's covert, all right. And I'm like, I don't care.
Like I want to find. So I found something on the good
side of the tracks brand new andnegotiated the deal August 2020

(34:18):
in the middle of the pandemic. Which was great for you.
Yeah, and then moved the gym, the filament built it out and
moved the gym. And by the way, had no money.
Like had no money to do anything.
None. But I figured it out.
Dude, amazing story, resilient as hell.
How did you get into water? All right, so it is 2021.

(34:38):
Well, let me take you back a little.
Yeah, man. In 2018, I had a member that was
an investor in Liquid Death, andhe introduced me to the product.
And I actually, I'm a water drinker and I've always have
been. I literally only drink water.
Me too. And so I thought it was like the
coolest thing ever to be able tofinally drink water like a
normal person and not some cheese ball with a plastic

(35:01):
bottle. So I thought it was a genius
marketing play, a genius concept, and I started buying,
had a ton of liquid death. Then he actually asked me to
invest in the company and I tookit to my existing business
partner and we talked about it, but he said the evaluation was
way too high and spying on the boat.
Then I was like just kind of sitting there and I was really
like staring at my logo and kindof looking at their can.

(35:24):
And I was like, I think I can dothis.
I was like, I can do my own water.
And so there was another member that was in the beer industry,
so in beer comes in cans. So I was asking him like, hey,
do you do water? And he was like, well, no, but
let's do a beer. So my very first beverage was

(35:46):
actually a beer. Oh, really?
OK. I did it with JW Wakefield, who
makes fantastic beer. And we made an electrolyte
Raspberry beer. Very cool, low, low Abd was like
4% alcohol. And people loved it.
And the can looked just like theblack can.
So the can looked just like the black can.
And we were selling that total wines for like $9.

(36:06):
And it was a big success. But and so when we first started
doing the beverage stuff, we thought we were going to do
beer, but we absolutely, after hearing about, you know, the
three tier system and all this. Yeah, yeah.
And then it just wasn't really on brand.
So so we just heavily, heavily, you know, shifted gears and
pivoted really fast to water. But how I was able to open a

(36:28):
beverage company was I was trying to raise money for the
gyms. Got it.
And Adam Siegel, my biggest partner, yeah, and great friend.
So he's like the the numbers savant.
He worked for fortress for 17 years and a bear stern guy like,
you know, New York finance, you know all that.
So and he's fantastic. We're we're very good.

(36:48):
Like, you know, I'm the muscle and he's.
Kind of. Thing, you know what I mean?
I mean, I'm very street smart, but he is really smart.
You know, it's like a different level of the way he thinks so,
and I've learned a lot from him.And I think vice versa.
We just compliment each other very well.
So we're trying to raise money for the gyms and he is doing
business in Jamaica. He's running a NFE.

(37:12):
He was a new Fortress Energy. He's running an LNG plant,
natural gas plant for his for his boss, Wes Eden's the owner.
Of the Yeah. So he introduced me, a man named
William My Food. William My Food owns Wisinco,
which is the largest food and beverage distribution company in

(37:32):
the English speaking Caribbean and Jamaica.
So we get him to Coral and he also like his family and kids
that live in Coral Gables. So we bring him to the Coral
Gables location. I'm talking about the gym.
I'm trying to, you know, sell them on on this whole journey.
And I mean, the guy was just, all I did was stare at the
beverage cooler and, and, and respectfully.

(37:52):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, obviously. But he was just really paying
attention to the beverage cooler.
And we have a pretty big beverage cooler at the Coral
Gables location. So he turns to me in his
Jamaican accent and says, like, who do you get your beverages
from? And then like, have you ever
thought about doing your own beverages?
And then I was like, hell yes, Iwant to do my own water.
And then we start, I want to do,I want to do it in the can.

(38:12):
Have you ever heard of Liquid Death?
Then I start selling them on that.
So you know, after like 7 meetings and all this stuff, we
end up going to dinner with his son Joseph and we really just
start talking about like what I wanted for the brand and where I
wanted to take it. And I had an apparel company
also and I really like leaned into what I believe is going to

(38:33):
ultimately be where we go with the brand is the the movement.
It's like I've always wanted something that went beyond a
product, beyond a service, beyond a brick and mortar
business, something that you could attach to your life,
whether you're wearing it, consuming it or going to it.
Like just do it like one of my favorite movies, pay it forward.

(38:54):
I don't. Know if?
Yeah, of course that's yeah, it's good.
When I watched that movie, I waslike, I want to be that guy,
Yeah. I want to make a impact like
that. Yeah.
Don't want to die afterwards, you know, but.
They're solid for people. And so I was tell him that and
he's like, look, I'm not really into gyms.
He's like, I don't understand the business.
I've never been a part of it. And it sounds like it's a tough
business, but I know beverages and that's what I do.

(39:18):
He's like, let's open up a beverage company and let's do
this. And so me, Adam and William, we
open up Indio Bev LLC and we started on this journey of
developing our own water in a can.
So we're playing on the sustainability.
And then also what we did was Liquid Death disrupted the

(39:38):
budget water space. So they disrupted the
Zephyrhills, the Poland Springs,the Aquafinas, the Dasanis,
right? I looked at it and I was like,
OK, we don't want to like go head to head with an established
brand that's already valued. I mean, now they're valued at
over a billion. Back then, they were valued.
At the Super Bowl. So I was like, we don't want to

(39:59):
play that game. And also like, you know, they
already kind of own that that world.
They're the Doritos of canned water.
That's how I saw it. I was like, let's be the steak.
I was like, let's let's go afterit.
Like we are the premium player in this in this new way of doing
water. So immediately I thought of,

(40:21):
well, how can we put a stamp on the fact that we're going to be
the premium canned water in the game?
I have relationships with all these professional athletes,
right? Let me contact my people at
Miami Heat and let me see if I can just get in the door with
this idea of replacing Fiji and Perrier in the arena, right?
And you've never done any of this before?
No, no. Which is a great story.

(40:43):
Yeah. So we set up a meeting with
their people and I did not have water, a can, I didn't have
nothing. I had a cord cardboard, like
presentation of what the idea was.
Sure. So we pitch them on the whole
thing and they love it. You know, they're like no days
off, matches the heat culture. They're like, this is

(41:03):
unbelievable. But obviously they're like, OK,
you need a product and where's the water?
So obviously in the background, we are, we are, you know,
developing stuff. Yeah.
So we had met a guy named Rodolfo that did water for Pepsi
in Venezuela for 20 years. He came up with his new reverse
osmosis system. It's a 7 seven step reverse

(41:24):
osmosis system with ozone and ultra light and tonal
pasteurization to absolutely take any water on the planet and
get all the impurities out of it.
And if you can do good water in Venezuela, you can do good water
anyway. So we're doing this in Pembroke
Pines and we are developing our water.
So it was very important to me coming out of the Wellness
industry and somebody that's going to be constantly drinking

(41:44):
this. And the CEO of Liquid Death has
constantly said he doesn't care what's in the can, that it's not
even a it's a marketing. Company, Company.
Which I get and salute to him and congratulations.
But for me, I want to have a premium water company.
I want what's in this can to matter.
And so we painstakingly went through about a year and a half

(42:06):
process before we actually put out the water that we wanted.
And now we have like a booklet like this big on how to make our
water and they're crazy, but it's, it's literally kid you
not, we do 400 page testing on all the waters out there, like
all of them. And we are the purest water in
the world. Like it, there's not even a,
it's not even a debate like no one has the amount of dissolved

(42:26):
solids that we have. Nobody, everybody has something
in their water bad. Everybody, really everybody,
everybody has something bad in their water except for us.
So and that's what we're going to lean on.
And then we're coming out obviously with our glass
bottles, which kind of puts another stamp that we're
premium. But yeah, so.
What, because it's funny how I got introduced to the brand was

(42:50):
the Heat games. I saw it and then I, I work
right behind in Doral, right by your thing.
I was like, oh, the water guy sponsored the gym and then I got
the whole brand. I'm like, oh, wait a minute.
I mean distribution, like where,where are, I mean obviously
South Florida's your home, but like are you guys everywhere?
Yeah. So this is, I love this story.
I mean, it's one of my favorites.

(43:11):
Obviously we launched by ourselves, so DSD with direct
direct service distribution or something like that.
I can't remember what it stands for, but you know, we bought a
Sprinter van and it out and you know, and started selling our
own water. And then we started with a
there's a Kickstarter program bya company called SAS that kind

(43:33):
of gets you in the door in certain areas of Florida.
So it's just like just to how tostart, right?
And and then we did the heat deal.
But then one of my favorite things is we launched on Amazon.
We sold this a true story. Yeah, we sold in every single
state, including Puerto Rico in the 1st 60 days on Amazon.

(43:54):
Yeah. I mean it's.
Wide and that's a tough so because a beverage on Amazon is
the toughest shipping well. It's 2890.
Nine. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's expensive. Amazon rapes you.
But, but anyways, but that's really how we got the brand,
like initially out there. Yeah.
And then door to door, you know,door to door, we have a
phenomenal team. Dustin is a fantastic.
So Dustin, one of my head of OPS, he used to be in the

(44:16):
restaurant business. He used to own some bars, so he
knew all the bars. So one of the things we've done
is we've taken about 83% of liquid desk market share here.
Like we've basically just basically get the hell out of
our city and we have opened the eyes to beer distributors on an
on premise play. So we are.

(44:38):
What we are doing is we're againdisrupting selling water in
clubs, restaurants, bodegas, coffee shops.
Yeah, it's everywhere. Mommy fireman derricks, like,
you know, all these places. So then what happened was is
kind of like you found out is Reyes Holdings.
So who's the largest beer in Chicago country?

(44:59):
Yeah, out of Chicago. They own about like 60% of beer
distribution. They're massive.
They're massive, massive. So what they have is they have
subsidiaries in every different,not every state, but a lot of
the states they kind of like go like this on on the map.
So their subsidiary Gold Coast heard about us and said, and we

(45:19):
were, we were making noise because of our own distribution
that we were building and we were running into Gold Coast
reps and they're like, who the heck are these guys?
And so they asked for a meeting and then we absolutely crushed
the meeting and we saw them at Gold Coast.
So the Gold Coast is the largestbeer distributor in the state of
Florida and we open up 1090 accounts in the 1st 30 days with

(45:42):
Gold Coast and and then simultaneously we're still
opening up our own stuff. So we really have made a no,
some noise with them. Then Tennessee subsidiary debt
Det reached out to Gold Coast and was like, hey, we want to
bring this to Nashville. So we just launched in Tennessee
on Monday, February 17th with Nashville and we saw we opened

(46:04):
up 40 accounts on the first day in a snowstorm, you know, and
then we just signed with Alabev,who covers the entire state of
Alabama. And we also just got approved by
Walmart. So good for you, man.
So things are, you know, next steps is we'll work on Georgia
and South Carolina and North Carolina.

(46:24):
Our water's actually made in Mooresville, NC.
So eventually, obviously that'llbe a play.
And then obviously I want to go to Texas.
And then the ultimate game plan is you got to get into
California. And California is where Reyes
owns 70% of the beard distribution.
So you get in California and you're hitting a home run.
So we are. Dude, you got to get in Alabama.

(46:45):
That should be all over Auburn. Well, that's we just signed with
that Alabama. So it's happening.
Yeah, good. It's definitely the kids coming
home. There you go, the kids coming
home. Where did this entrepreneur bug
come from? Did you always have it?
Were you always having like little side business when you
were young or just it just happened?
I believe that, and this while Ialways I really believe in
sports, is that, you know, I thought I was going to be a

(47:07):
professional football player andthen and then I thought I was
going to be a movie star and then I thought, you know, I was
going to be a model. And then, you know, like
honestly, like I thought that I was always like, you know, when
you walk in a room and everybody's like, who's that
guy? I've always been that way, like,
and not because I look great or anything, it was just I I carry
myself, you know, and then that's been me since I was in

(47:28):
like second, like I was always the the you know, my wife says I
always want to be the center of attention and I'm like, I don't
want to be it just happens. All right, So, but I think that
what was the question? I just.
Lost my Where did the entrepreneur bug come?
From OK, SO I think what happened was is that when you're

(47:48):
as competitive as I am? Yeah, but the outlet is taken
away from you, and then you're not the person who you've been
telling everybody you were gonnabe.
So you're telling everybody I'm going to the pros, I'm gonna be
this, I'm gonna be that, and then that's taken away from you
and you know that's gonna happen.
Well, you better find something else to do and you better be

(48:09):
great at it. And then so I feel like I've
always had like a chip on my shoulder that and then the fact
that I trained professional athletes and, and, and I was
around that and then also celebrities.
So I'm flying and private and all that.
I knew I needed to develop something that was bigger than
just training people. Like I knew that.
So I think that's where the bug came in.

(48:30):
And then also, I'm telling you, like, Shoe Dog was like, I can't
stress enough. Like when I read that book, I
was like, I'm gonna be, I'm gonna own a company bigger than
Nike one day. Yeah, like I said it out loud.
Yeah, I believed it. Yeah, I still believe it to this
day. And so it was really just kind
of that kind of like it just spoke to me.
It was like, it was like you cando this man.

(48:52):
Like if you if you do it every single day for the rest of.
Your life, something's gonna happen.
And that's what I've been committed to the wins.
Add up. Yeah.
Where's where's this business? What does this business look
like in the next 5-10 years? What do you what do you think
you're? At bigger than Nike, so.
That's really big. Yeah.
I mean, I think that, again, I mean, obviously, it'll take
probably 20 more years to do that.
But in the next 5 years, we'll be a national brand.

(49:15):
We will be opening up in Nashville, a legacy in Nashville
10,000 square foot facility in Germantown will be disrupting
that market that that really needs a a nice gym like like a
nice brand that we're bringing to Nashville.
We're doing Aventura in the nextcouple of years whenever they
break ground. That's been like a two year

(49:36):
delay. I have I have some some things
that I'm I'm not going to speak about yet, but that I have.
That'll be episode 2. Yeah, that I have, I'm going a
little different, Another business that I'm working on.
I truly believe that the waters are going to open up a lot of

(49:56):
doors because the what the waters do is allows me to grow
at A at a fast pace where gyms are, you know, you can only do
one, maybe two gyms a year. Yeah, yeah, because of the
leases and the build outs and the construction and the people.
So doing brick and mortar, you can only grow so fast.
But I truly believe that becauseyou can grow this the beverage

(50:17):
brand fast, that what's that's going to do, It's going to
amplify our brand equity. And then also I'm doubling down
on media. I truly believe we, we live in
this world that's headed towardsmedia.
So I need to be on the mic. I need to have awesome guests
like yourself. And let's let's talk about
things. I mean, we're seeing that like
we are our own commercials constantly.

(50:38):
So you got to lean into that space and and then just
continuing to pour into those around me and making sure that I
am building clones of myself as best as I can so that these 20
year old kids can do what I did,you know, under the no days off
umbrella. But I tell all my staff that
when they come on that like you can be a star within the

(51:01):
umbrella, like as long as you play that like take advantage,
of course of 16 years of planting seeds, lean on that,
you know, like you, you've. Done all the hard work.
Man, it's crazy though they they'll pick it off it where
everything but your brand and like that you work for me like
it's wild so. It's crazy.
Yeah. I can't let you go without
asking you the question about Shaun Livingston.

(51:22):
For most people who don't know, he's a great basketball player,
but he had one of the most gruesome injuries.
Check it out on YouTube and you.Don't.
I actually don't because it's, it's Joe.
Yeah, it's Joe Theismann level bad.
It's really. But he came back and had a great
career. And you were his trainer.
Yeah. What was that like?
What was the recovery like? What did that look like?

(51:43):
So I'll never forget Shaun walking into my gym and, you
know, asking me a million questions and I'll never forget
saying I need to talk to your doctor.
And he's like, what? And I was like, let me talk to
you. And so I called his doctor.
It was either his doctor or I think it might have been his
physical therapist, But I straight up asked him.
I said, is he 100% healed? Like absolutely.

(52:04):
The knee is 100% repaired. And they said yes.
So that day, the first day I trained him, I freaking
destroyed his ass and did not hold back at all really.
And I truly knew that every single person that worked with
him before me had was where theywere scared because of the

(52:27):
injury and because of the. And at the end of the day he
needed someone to believe in himthat he is 100% held.
And I think he, he trusted me inthat moment to then trust
himself. And when you go through a, a
knee injury like that, and I've,I've been around tons of
athletes that have had that you second guess everything about

(52:49):
your, about anything about pushing a sled, about jumping,
about landing a certain way, like you're horrified that
you're going to do it again. So in that moment, we developed
this amazing trust. And then I mean, he was crawling
out of there every day. And then I'm talking like no AC,
brutal workouts, like brutal workouts taken to the edge.
And I mean, he was second guessing life many, many times,

(53:14):
but it turned his career around.I mean, he signed one of his
biggest deals with the Brooklyn Nets and then went on to be a
four time world champion with the Golden State Warriors.
So. Yeah, they thought he was done.
Yeah, I think they're saying like they might chop off his leg
kind of bad. No, no, he was he.
I think the story is is that he was like 16 hours away from
losing a limb. And then he went on and played

(53:36):
forever. No, he, I mean had a.
Phenomenal the. Truth is like if he didn't have
that injury, he would have been one of the greatest ever.
Like he was sick. With yeah, he's a tall point
guard. I mean, he's. 6-7 yeah, could.
I mean, he had moves for days. Like he's one of the true the
mid range. Yeah, you know, they don't even
exist anymore. Yeah, so.

(53:57):
What do all the greats have in common?
So you've trained some of the best athletes.
What do they all have in common?Two or three things.
Belief in their self #1. So a lot of confidence A.
Lot of confidence in their and and a lot of the confidence
comes from the work ethic. Really it comes from the years
and years and years of them being in the gym or the weight

(54:19):
room on the field and working onthemselves.
So I think, and I think that that's the biggest, biggest
thing I can say. Secondly, is almost, I feel like
almost all really good athletes have a chip on their shoulder
really, you know, have someone told them they are not going to
make it someone or maybe they'recompetitive with another guy or

(54:41):
like we're true, all great ones are true competitors.
Like we play ping pong. I'm whooping your ass, you know
what I mean? Like true competitors.
And then lastly, just obsessed, you know, like.
Like this is the only thing in their life.
This is it. This is what I do.
I live. Especially basketball players.

(55:03):
Yeah, basketball players like a guy like Joe Johnson.
Yeah, it's, I mean, now yoga is life.
But shout out to Joe. That dude played forever.
And he still can play, really heis.
And it's because of his dedication to his craft,
dedication to his body that has to do the craft.
Like that's something I'll neverunderstand is when these

(55:23):
athletes are not taking care of their bodies, especially the
amount of money they make. Yeah, it doesn't make any sense.
And there's a lot of young athletes that are not and.
They don't last and they don't last.
But you truly can see, I mean, in business, the one percenters
are few and far between. 100%. You know the reason why there's
only three athletes, 4 athletes hanging them on walls is because

(55:44):
there's not a whole lot to choose from.
There really isn't. And that's kind of mind blowing
if you really think about it. But people don't, you know, Tim
Grover says it like, there's, there's just, there's only a
few. There's only a few of those.
They really want it. You know, they, they, they
really want it. They're hungry.
They're willing to obsess over it.
I mean, almost like a sickness. I think one of the problems with
some of these guys when they retire is where do they get

(56:06):
that? How can you reproduce that in
everyday life? It's it's tough for them.
Yeah, I mean, I wish there was more outlets for them.
I've had some horrible stories with some of my NFL guys.
Just. They blow all their money.
Losing all their money and then not having any purpose.
And I think I think all the leads could do a better job of,
of supporting these guys when the career is over.

(56:26):
From a, from a health standpoint, you know, more, more
assistance and like insurance and doctors and, and just, you
know, being able to lean in on that.
And then secondly, business opportunities, you know, like
getting them in front of people like me, getting them in front
of people like they do sales, getting them in front of anybody
you like, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

(56:47):
Just opening doors for them thatthey don't have to necessarily
be passive investors, like they could actually open up their own
business. I've got a great story of Steven
Tullick, one of my former clients.
And linebacker. And he's Circle House coffee and
he's thriving. And that's The thing is that I

(57:08):
don't know if they all know thatit's the same thing.
It's the same thing that you learned that discipline, that
that that that team structure, the teamwork.
How to build them And then they it's like you're you're now what
happens is you go from athlete to coach, right?
That's really it. You're.
Transferring the playbook. You're transferring Yeah,
exactly. So I mean I and I love freak

(57:28):
Ricky Jean Francois yeah think he owns now 40 Dunkin' Donuts
and no way. And then he has other projects
and his and he just loves learning about business and
entrepreneurship yeah, growth. And so, I mean, there's so Matt
Kemp has amazing businesses, BBQbones like and he made a a a.
Yeah, he made a He made a few bucks.

(57:48):
Yeah. Yeah.
And then Charles Johnson, yeah, I mean, it's interesting.
A lot of my guys have are very successful, successful outside
the the field so. Well, my guess is the kinds of
guys that were drawn to you had a little bit of this gene.
They had to. Because so the guys that, that
came into my gym, so I never treated anybody different.

(58:09):
Meaning if you walked into my gym, you're busting your ass or
Joe Johnson walks in my gym, I'mbusting your ass like we're,
we're working. Like, I'm not gonna you know,
treat you any different. I'm yelling at you just like I
yell at, at, at the 17 year old kid that comes in here.
So it was a wake up call for them.
And I, I got into a lot, I mean,Ricky Jean now, like we almost
fought every day. So I got into a lot of verbal

(58:31):
arguments, a lot of a lot of pushback.
Everybody thought I was crazy. But to this day, I'll do the
same thing all over again. You got the that's why I don't
train anymore, though, is because these kids can't handle
they can't handle it. What I used to do back then,
nobody can. So it's hilarious now, you know,
I, I created pit, right? And everyone asked me like, you

(58:54):
know, when are you going to coach again?
What are you going to do? And I'm like, y'all can't.
I can't, you can't. I would, first of all, I'd be on
the cover of the news story likethat, You know, I made seven
women cry or, you know, or so like, I can't, I can't what we
did back then. Yeah, you can't.
You can't get away with it today.
You're not can't even get away with it.
Like that's why I like, you know, like a Bob Knight.
He can't. No, he can't coach.

(59:16):
You kidding me? You know, no.
No, no, no, no, no. Bill Parcells, like you.
Know, but, but, but I, I got a sense if you, if you brought
some of that, if you got a youngguy who would accept it and you
brought some of that, you're going to make that guy so
fucking tough that he's going toeat the young generation alive.
They're not tough enough. Yeah, but you got to, I would
have to have like literally someone walk some an athlete in

(59:39):
and be like he signed all the waivers.
He knows what he's getting in. Himself into he's.
Gonna put himself in and. Paying you a fortune?
Yeah, that's another thing too. I won't do it unless I'm getting
paid A. Fortune, at this point, why
would you? Yeah, my friend, you've been
super generous with your time. I appreciate it.
Where can people find out about?And by the way I'm saying this,
I'm in your home court. You're fine.

(59:59):
We're we're, yeah, we're at the headquarters in Little River
right now. And we're actually in my office
where we shoot the podcast The Big Dogs, which is great with
Manning Sumner and definitely just check that out.
We have some actually, I'm actually encouraged by the
conversations I've been having and the people I've been having.
It's been like, this is something that I, I didn't think

(01:00:22):
I was going to enjoy. Yeah.
And it's actually been overwhelmingly like, I love
this, this, this platform. Yeah, to be able to talk about
business, to be able to tell my story 15,000 times over and over
again. Like I actually, it's nice to be
able to do. We have 7 locations in South
Florida, Fort Lauderdale, Kendall, Pembroke Pines, Coral
Gables, Doral, Wynwood and Little River.

(01:00:45):
And then we're opening in Nashville, Nashville and and
Aventura to be determined. We signed the lease, but.
We're still waiting to. Deliver the waters drink no days
off on the Instagram and we're available on Amazon and yeah, I
mean things I'm completely, absolutely grateful and blessed.

(01:01:06):
I've, I have an 8 month old little girl, Congrats and a five
year old son. So it it makes you move
differently. It makes you appreciate things a
lot more and it makes you work for your legacy because now you
have something to leave behind. Yeah, and so I'm I'm, I'm not
slowing down at all and I don't even like it doesn't even phase
me. Like just keep going, you know,

(01:01:26):
keep going, man. No days off, you know it's.
Funny because people ask why do you do the podcast?
And I'm like, there's a bunch ofreasons, but it's mostly just to
meet interesting people. Yeah.
Yeah. And having these kinds of
conversations, that's the fun part 'cause you learn.
I mean, you learn, learn. I love.
Like when people people ask different questions, Yeah.
And people seem like like engaged more on certain topics
and stuff and it's cool to see like what what you're into and

(01:01:49):
what you're what you know. So I like it.
Stay at it. I'll leave you with a stats so
there's. I think there's been 5 million
podcasts launched. There's only a couple 100,000
active. So 75% of podcasts never make it
past two episodes. Oh wow.
I think another 10% make it never make it past 10.
If you do 30, you're in the top 2%.

(01:02:11):
So it's all about consistency, consistency in getting after it
just like your brand. Yeah.
What is this? Yeah.
So you already blew it out of the water.
Yeah, you already. Blew it out of the water so you
just unintended stay at. It thanks, man.
Yeah. Thank you.
Appreciate you dad. Nice bro.