Barbell Shrugged - Garage Gym Gurus with PRX Performance Founders Erik Hopperstad, Brian Brash and hosts Anders Varner, Doug Larson, and Coach Travis Mash - Barbell Shrugged #539

Episode Date: January 13, 2021

Join Class 2 of the Diesel Dad today.   Diesel Dad Training Programs:   Strong: “EMOM Strength” - This program focuses on top end strength, speed, and power utilizing Westside Barbell dynamic effort and functional bodybuilding principles to increase raw strength.   Lean: “EMOM Aesthetics” - This program combines old school bodybuilding and interval weight training to build muscle, burn fat, and look jacked.   Athletic: “Density Weight Training” is the “set it up and get after it” program with higher intensity, functional movements targeted to build muscle and metcons in under 20 minutes.   Join Class 2 of the Diesel Dad today. Registration closes January 17th. Training starts 1/18. Get strong, lean, and athletic without sacrificing family, fatherhood, or fitness.   Created in 2013 by two friends who were convinced that having a home gym was possible without giving up an entire garage stall or room in the house, PRx Performance has revolutionized the fitness industry with their patented wall-mounted folding squat racks and storage solutions. The founders appeared on ABC’s Shark Tank in February, 2016 and got a deal with Mr. Wonderful himself, Kevin O’Leary and were again featured in a ‘where are they now?’ segment in April, 2017. Located in Fargo, ND, PRx Performance is dedicated to delivering on their mission to help everyone Fit Fitness into Life.   In this Episode of Barbell Shrugged:   The birth of PRx Performance How they landed a deal on Shark Tank Immediate growth of garage gyms in COVID era How to build culture with clients and employees International growth strategies for the future of PRx Performance   Garage Gym Equipment and Accessories: https://prxperformance.com/discount/BBS5OFF Save 5% using the coupon code “BBS5OFF”   PRx Performance on Instagram Anders Varner on Instagram Doug Larson on Instagram Coach Travis Mash on Instagram   ————————————————   Training Programs to Build Muscle: https://bit.ly/34zcGVw   Nutrition Programs to Lose Fat and Build Muscle: https://bit.ly/3eiW8FF   Nutrition and Training Bundles to Save 67%: https://bit.ly/2yaxQxa ———————————————— Please Support Our Sponsors   PowerDot - Save 20% using code BBS at http://PowerDot.com/BBS    Organifi - Save 20% using code: “Shrugged” at organifi.com/shrugged   www.masszymes.com/shruggedfree  - for FREE bottle of BiOptimizers Masszymes   Garage Gym Equipment and Accessories: https://prxperformance.com/discount/BBS5OFF Save 5% using the coupon code “BBS5OFF”

We are Diesel Dads, and we train hard to be strong, lean, and athletic without sacrificing family, fatherhood, or fitness. Three training programs. Strength, combining west side barbell dynamic effort with functional bodybuilding to focus on top end strength, speed, and power. Hypertrophy, EMOM aesthetics combining old school bodybuilding and interval weight training to build muscle, burn fat, and get jacked. And density weight training, the set it up and get after it program with higher intensity functional movements targeted to build muscle and Metcons in under 20 minutes. The Diesel Dad is for dads that like lifting weights, for dads that want to be savage fathers, for dads that want to be savage husbands, for dads that want to be savage at their job, and for dads that want to be savage in the gym.

We are Diesel Dads and we train hard to be strong, lean, and athletic without sacrificing family, fatherhood, or fitness. Diesel Dad Class 2 registration is open now through Sunday, January 17th. Time is running out. All the dads are going to get super jacked and training starts Monday, January 18th. Head over to barbellshrug.com forward slash diesel dad to register today. That's barbellshrug.. I'm Anders Varner, Doug Larson, Coach Travis Smash, Eric Hopperstad. Everybody, if you have that last name, it just means you lift weights for sure. Brian Brash, owners of PRX Performance. If you've seen a single video of me in the last two years in my garage working out, it's due to these guys creating the most badass home gym. I'm incredibly excited you're here. I found you guys on Shark Tank like the entire world did. And I literally

remembered I was in a hotel and I saw it and I went, oh, those guys are going to crush it. This is exactly what I need. Two years later, two and a half years later, whatever it is, now I get to talk to you guys after lifting, after lifting all the weights on your, uh, beautiful squat rack here. It's like the greatest thing in my house. There's a lot of stuff in my house right now. I'm already rambling because I'm so excited to talk to you guys. Uh, but this squat rack is the greatest addition to my brand new house. And thank you guys for creating this awesome awesome awesome company and all this crazy weight we were just uh before the show talking about how you guys are taking this thing international um and we'll get back to who you guys are and all that but i want to hear how you broke into italy in the middle

of a plague yeah well it's uh you know eric and i we've had an amazing run over the last seven years and we always said we want to take this international. And there's a huge demand, obviously, now internationally for all the equipment. We can't even fulfill all the orders we essentially get in the U.S. We're a couple weeks behind in shipping right now. But the nice thing is we're making a lot of the product, you know, within a five mile radius in Fargo, North Dakota. And I was like, you know what, let's start some production overseas. So we decided, hey, let's start with Europe. And yeah, let's go to Italy. And then the challenge began.

Which one of you guys is the engineer? Like which one, which one put this, this rack together and said, we're going to make a really high quality. Cause I'm not going to lie. When I, when it got shipped, I was like, you know how many squat racks I've purchased in my life where they look cool

on the internet. And then I get them and I'm like, I'm going to break this thing for sure. And I got yours. And I was like, I'm going to have this thing for the rest. I should put this in my will right now. My kids should get this squat rack.

Cause it's going to be here forever. Well, technically, technically, neither one of us are engineers, actually. But I think, you know, we both are very innovative. And I've kind of thought that way my entire life. And, you know, when we were just in our infancy back in, you know, mid 2013, there was a lot of people in this industry doing a lot of different things. And we quickly realized that if we were going to make any waves and be able to build something that was worth sustaining and keeping that we needed to figure out who we were, what we were going to do and why it mattered. We knew we couldn't do what everybody else was doing. And as soon as everybody

started telling everybody, we, you know, fill your garage, your garage is up with gym equipment. We're like, what the hell? That's ridiculous. So then the quest began on, you know, how do we, how do we design something that creates that same experience, but when you're not using it, it's not in the way. And, you know, we went through a number of different prototypes and it looked simple, but it's not. And that's where we landed and it's proven to be successful. It's been fun. Yeah. What actually is going on in the world right now with equipment? I feel like I don't, there's obviously like a decade plus of work and thinking going into it and all of a sudden i ran a poll in our members group uh not too long ago probably three or four months ago and over 70 of our people work out in their garage now like it's insane how many people have home

gyms and the fact that you guys have only like a two or three week lag in shipping right now is pretty incredible. Well, that's the benefit of American Made. We have about four truckloads of steel coming in every day. And we've got a team of about 100 people now packaging, making sure everything's perfect, making sure it's, you know, we put a lot of care into making sure that it's going to arrive in the same condition when it leaves our factory and uh it's uh um you know the largest constraint we had a few weeks ago is we couldn't get enough fedex trucks to to get it all out of our our warehouse in our facility so that's incredible constraint now it's now it's fedex so yeah so it's a good problem to have well you guys aren't yeah you guys aren't just, I mean, I guess we're not,

we don't have this going up on YouTube, but, um, it's not just the steel. Like I, I just assumed at the beginning of quarantine, there was like a, a ship coming across the Atlantic ocean with just barbells and bumper

plates. Where is all of the stores stuff sourced from so that you could actually, I know you're not, you can't be making all of it in North Dakota, are you? No, no, no. We have, you know, a lot of the steel products are North Dakota, but bumpers, we have some great partners in the Southeast that have cranked up production. They're in the same boat we are. They're running around the clock, three ships. And some of the stuff you do have to get overseas. It's just a lot of, you know, some of the weights aren't made in the United States. And we've had long term relationships with, you know, that a seven

year company could have. I mean, initially, when we started this saying it, you know, we just made everything in the US local, local simple kept it easy that was a vision for the company we want to keep it that way as long as possible but you know as you guys know there is a lot of ancillary type products that just aren't economically feasible to make in the u.s those are the types of things that we have to source just like anybody else yeah just like anybody just like rogue or any other company so yeah yeah the bumper place is something that it's almost impossible to to think that we're going to make that at a rate that you're going to get say in china i mean i used to be the

executive vp for muscle driver before the the owner lost his mind and like and there's no longer muscle i was curious in the background, I can see that you have a pin lay on a plate. Do you guys, is that who owns that name now? I don't know who owns that name actually, but you know, we were just starting up when, when the muscle driver thing was kind of falling apart. And that was scary for us as a young company. Like what the hell these is this a company that we've known about for a long time. And, yeah, I'm not sure who owns that name or other. I know it was for sale, you know, when it went bankrupt.

It was part of the items that were for sale. I was always curious who ended up with that. It's sad because Coach Finlay is a, I wouldn't say friend, but definitely acquaintance of mine, and he sold his name. I was like – I remember thinking that's the saddest thing I've ever heard. I will never, ever sell my name. Like nobody is going to own MASH other than my family. So anyway, I just saw that bumper plate.

It kind of haunted me just a little bit. Actually, hey, fellas, can we zoom out just for a second? For all the people in the audience that may have not seen your guys' equipment before, what is the big differentiating factor? Your rack is kind of the flagship product, and you guys have other things as well, but what makes it unique and different from other companies out there? I think, you know, in a nutshell, we give you that same commercial experience that you want, right? But when it comes time to throw that thing away and hop in the shower, it's literally gone. There's no disassembly. There's no nothing. It's just push it up, put a pin in, be done. It's quick and easy. It's no bullshit. It's what you see is what you get. It is high quality, and that's why we stand behind it. Yeah. So it's kind of flush against the wall when you're not

using it, but then when you want to use it, you can kind of rotate it, and it kind of folds out, and then it can easily fold back into place. So it's kind of like pops out and pops back in, that type of thing, again, for someone that's never seen it before, so they can visualize what's going on here? Yep, absolutely. I mean, you end up with a squat rack or a squat rack with a pull-up bar, many different pull-up bar options, gas shock assisted, so easy to go up, super easy to come down, and it's literally a second, not even, up and down.

I feel like weightlifting gyms would love that here's why it's because uh as a weightlifting coach that you need space space is always super important and i know like in the you know now that we're at the school like we have a lot of equipment in the middle and it's this big old you know like street conditioning coaches love all that big you know stuff in the middle that takes up a lot of room for no possible reason. But for us, that's not cool. And so, like, it just gets in the way. And where we could be using, like, jerk blocks, blocks, like, you know,

we don't have space. So I feel like your racks for a weightlifting gym, I think that's an absolute must. I can't imagine anything being better. Because even, like, the smaller racks take up more space than your rack. Literally, in Anders, it just goes against the wall and it's like as if

it's not there. So you can go from having this open space to do snatches, clean jerks or whatever to just like, you know, and then you can squat and then you can pull it out and now you have a squat rack. It's just beautiful. What a brilliant yeah do you guys have uh contracts with commercial gyms uh or uh work with them at all i mean even just getting into like the the boutique crossfit type gym i feel like i have to go set up a gym right now and you're looking at 2000 square foot

just you know probably the average size of CrossFit gym somewhere in there, you can actually use all 2,000 square foot when you don't have these giant racks taking up all the space. Brilliant. Yeah. Yeah. About 10% of our business is commercial facilities for that reason alone. And Brian, I see in the background behind you, the racks are beautifully up against the wall, but then everything else is also hanging on the wall. It's like the whole wall is covered with equipment and there's nothing on the ground. Like that's, that's obviously intentional. Oh, absolutely. The goal is to be able to take a broom to your gym when you're done and nothing has to be lifted off the floor. And you save, you still use a hundred percent of your garage

when you're done with your workout. You know what the best part is? You can totally convince your wife that it makes sense because it's not in the way. It's like the easiest sell at your family of all time. You go, well, you don't have to worry. All I got to do is paint this one wall. It's going to sit all the way up there. It won't even be in your way. You can still park the car right here,

right in front of it, and we'll back it out. It'll be great. You don't have to worry about it at all. It's the easiest sell in the world. I'm about to go through that sell as soon as we're off this podcast we just bought a new house with a two-car garage and my wife has made me commit that i would not take up space with you know with the gym because i saw it great this is gonna be the sickest gym ever but she's like yeah um i have a real interesting uh question about just coming into this space when there's just

monsters already in it i mean when i remember when i opened my gym rogue didn't exist and then rogue existed and i got i bought the the five person gym package and then all of a sudden somehow rogue turned into this like gigantic behemoth. Yeah. And then you guys showed up. And I remember when you showed up and I was like, why would anybody want to go compete with those people? They've got so much just momentum. Where were you guys in kind of the carving out your own like little niche inside the equipment industry, which is not first off the capital to get into it and actually

build a business is not easy. And then, you know, realizing you have to go and play the marketing game against people that have giant budgets. How did you guys see yourselves fitting in and carving that space out in the beginning? Well, I think, you know, you said, how do you start in something like this when you have people like the rogues and, and, you know, the behemoths, but I don't think we have that mentality going in. I think we just saw an opportunity to do a lot of things different and a lot of things better. We weren't trying to be anybody. We were trying to figure out who we were and we figured that out. And as soon as you have something that adds value to our customers, it's a win.

And it's not easy to do, but we just had a little bit different vision, I think, or a little different mentality going in, really. Yeah. Where did you guys get startup capital for this? Did you guys take on investors right away? I mean, it's not simple. You've got a gigantic amount of steel coming into your facility. And equipment to build it. And equipment to build it.

And equipment to build that. Those awesome, awesome pieces. Yeah. How did you do it? I say, well, we bootstrapped. We bootstrapped until we got the shark tank. And I like to say blood, sweat, tears, and beers. That's what gets anybody through anything.

Yeah, especially the deers. I'm sure you've told the story a million times, but I'd love to hear just the Shark Tank story. That was, that was really, when I, I looked at it and I was like, this thing is so legit. I want to be on the stage and be a part of this. Um, cause I just, I knew you guys just nailed the market. Um, as soon as I saw the product. How long was that process? And just behind the scenes, we only get to see 15 minutes

of probably what is like a multiple hour long grilling by the big sharks. Eric sent me an email. He said, hey, we're going to be in Miami for Wadapalooza. Shark Tank is there, additions the day before. So I didn't even email him back. I called the airlines and I said, Hey, can you change our tickets back a couple days? And this is a week before we're flying out. So I'm expecting a couple thousand dollar bill and we didn't know where we're going to get the money. And the, uh, the airline agent said, and I mentioned shark tank and he goes, Oh, for shark tank, I'll change your tickets for free. And that was the first of many serendipitous moments that got us going. I'll let Hopper tell the next part. Yeah. So, I mean, it's, uh, from there we hop on the plane and we get to Miami and we basically stand in line and you come in. They heard you through shoots like cattle and give you 30 seconds basically, or maybe it was 60 seconds actually. You give them your pitch to one of the producers and then they tell you to get the hell out of there.

Don't come looking for us. Don't wait around for us to call. We'll find you if we need you type thing. So that's what we did. We're like, yeah, what the hell? We got nothing to lose. And the next thing you know, we're getting an email and a phone call. That's where the fun started.

Yeah. When you guys actually show up, how long is that meeting inside there when we only get a tiny little piece of of it on tv there there actually isn't a time limit when you walk out there stand on the x and they tell you go um and i think we uh we were getting drilled for about it was just about an hour so you know they cut that down to you know what seven eight ten twelve minutes um and it looks really nice and cutesy right on tv like it's all organized and shit but that's not the case to you know when those those sharks they're miked up separately right so they can edit out all that stuff and when you're done they're drilling you and they're all yelling at you at the same time it's uh it is

literally the tank so that was quite an experience. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, what happens to business when you walk out of there? I mean, like how long does it take before all of a sudden, like the process is rolling? Like what does it look like when you actually have a shark on your team all of a sudden? The cool thing is they come to meet you. Well, first, when you're done with your pitch

um a lady who's a licensed therapist comes in to see you like okay are you thinking about killing yourself like oh we just got a deal but they want to make sure you're you're mentally there because what if you just made an ass out of yourself in front of like 7 million people. Interesting. But then Kevin's partner came in and just said, guys, we want to do this deal as long as it's good for everybody. You know, just be honest with us. This is for everybody's benefit. And then they walk through a six month due diligence process with you to make sure that everything is right and everything is good.

And then you close. And it was a, it was a great experience. How much did the, how much capital did you get from those guys? So we can just tell us whatever the TV number is. We don't have to know whatever else happened. Or if you can tell us, tell us. Yeah, we don't, we don't mind sharing the background. Yeah, tell the story. The deal on TV was $80,000 for 20% of the business. They found out that I, at the time, owned a few other businesses. That's kind of, you know, we both put a lot of cash into PRX at the start. We were both putting cash in, but we were both just bootstrapping. It was getting tight.

And Kevin said, oh, you gotstrapping. It was getting tight. And, uh, Kevin said, Oh, you got other priorities. You got other jobs. I will only do a debt deal. So we negotiated 60,000 for 10% of the business, but we had to pay him back. And, uh, uh, he actually had another option to buy another 10% of the business, uh, for another 80 grand. And we were praying, that was 18 months later, we were praying that check was not coming in. And he didn't take advantage of that option, thank goodness. So today he owns 10% with his partner. And it's the only capital we brought in. When, how much of that deal do you get to, I guess, call Kevin and say, hey, we have this problem. We're trying to figure it out.

Like, what is the support system staff? This is this whole thing. I got a feeling it's zero. Yeah. No, no, no, no, no. You know, his partner, Alex, is amazing. You can call him on a Friday night at 10 p.m. He will not only take your call, he'll talk your ear off.

And he has a legal background. He has an engineering background. And he'll talk your ear off and he's uh he has a legal background he has an engineering background and he'll just he'll come up with ideas and if he can't solve that year give you thoughts he'll pull kevin in kevin's it's funny half time we call him kevin's in the other playing the guitar and he'll pull him in no way yeah i mean we only talk to kevin a couple times a year you know it's like a big one for big needs, but he's a good partner. It's a lot of fun. I wonder how many different businesses they own, like percentages of.

Yeah, Kevin's, I think, two years ago when we met, he was 30-some businesses that he had a piece of. That's so cool. Yeah, I think you're right, Brian. Is it low 30? It might not be low 30s even. I guess after're right, Brian. Is it low 30? It might not be low 30s even.

I guess after this season, it probably would be, huh? Yeah. Every May, we typically go down to Miami with all the other companies that he's invested in, and we all get together for a few days, and it's fantastic. It's just a great network. And, you know, Kevin, no secret, right? He looks like the ass on tv but when you sit down with that guy he is the most down-to-earth guy you could ever meet and he wants

everybody to succeed and um brian is a visionary like mad and and kevin o'leary is a visionary like i've never ever experienced in my life before that guy's thinking about shit that nobody is thinking about it yeah it's been it's been an amazing partnership what are some of the like what is the biggest challenges you guys have have come across since being in business because I know you know as experienced I know a bunch of challenges we went through but like what are your biggest um bumps in the road that's a loaded question. I mean, I think, I think given, given the, you know, where we're at today with about a hundred employees, since we have, since we have such an amazing culture and we empower our people every day, we encourage them to make mistakes. We haven't really had a hard time finding people,

but I think now for the first time, it's getting a little bit challenging to find people. I, you know, I, I don't even know what to say. Looking back, I've tried to forget about a lot of those things. Yeah, totally understand that one too. Why is it more challenging now to find people? I feel like a lot of people probably out of work. There's, there's, there's more, a larger pool to pull from. And in some cases that is that not accurate no not really not really here um you know we're if anders if you find fargo you you'll know we're kind of in the middle of nowhere right there is an awesome gym right near you guys that we talked to ehp yeah yep yeah i used to be I was a member there for a few years,

a couple of years, actually. You should just go pick all their people. They would love to work for you. A bunch of CrossFitters building squat racks? Yeah, right? No, and that's really what it's been. I think that, you know, on a town of 100,000 people, you know, we don't have the pool either.

But we've actually had people relocate from the West Coast recently for some different positions. And, and when I say challenge, it's not like we're, you know, we're gasping for air by any means. But it's just, we, we had lines right before and now we we don't have lines. So that's a challenge. I don't know. What do you think, Brian? Well, I want to echo what Andrew said. One of our secrets is the first time when we have a job opening, we put the recs up in the four different CrossFit gyms because CrossFitters or people that work out, they're committed. They're community-driven.

I mean, they get in there, they work their asses off. And those are the people we want to hire. And I think that's true for any business. If I own any business nationwide, the first thing I was doing, if I was looking at people, I'd put resumes up in the local gyms. But yeah, we are having trouble hiring people. We even took the minimum wage from 14 up to $24 kind of during the pandemic time. It's kind of more of as a thank you because everyone's working their tail off, everyone's sweating, stressing. You know, we have great benefits. But when it's all said and done, unfortunately, a lot of people are having trouble hiring people nationwide because of all the free payments from the government coming now.

They'd rather sit at home and watch TV and get paid than to go into work. And so we find great people. But, you know, and anyone who wants to sit on the couch and not work, we don't really want those people anyway. I'm curious. A lot of people out there right now, when you raised it to $24, did you notice an increase in productivity? What happened when that happened? You know, I don't know if we noticed anything, to be honest with you. We did it because it was the right thing to do. And because we know the people are working their tails off. And we just wanted that extra level of commitment. We actually didn't even really advertise it. I think we just did it because we like our employees. We had the ability to do it.

And we want them to take that extra care. So I don't know if we really noticed anything, but we've always done profit sharing, giving back to our community, giving back to our employees. It was a way to let them know every day that we care about it. Yeah. I just hope everyone listening takes note on that. Like you guys are like a one in a million nowadays.

And that is, that's your employees. That's a beautiful thing. What you just said. I think, yeah. Good to hear. What happens to your website the day after you're on Shark Tank? Does everybody come and buy a gym actually it's not it's not like what you'd think right because our our price points aren't 10 bucks or 50 bucks or yeah our buying cycle is a little bit longer but it was fun to watch the spike in traffic so that

was the that was the fun thing but um you, orders started to trickle in after that, which was good to see. Um, I don't think we had any clue in the world what was about to happen after that exposure. Um, but from there, I mean, it, it just kind of took off and, and coupled with that exposure, we figured out how to dial in our, our paid targeted marketing online, which I'm sure you guys see all the time. I'm right in the crosshairs. Yeah, right? Look, Facebook already got it.

I'm already a happy, happy back squatting person with my PRX rig. Yeah, that's, and from there, it was just double, double, double, double every year. I mean, it's, and it's just been crazy. Taking a quick break to thank our sponsors before we get into it, make sure you get over to barbell shrug.com forward slash diesel dad for all the busy dads that want to get strong, lean, and athletic without sacrificing family, fatherhood, or fitness registration for class two is open.

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And there has never been a more important time to boost your immune system today. So go to bioptimizers.com forward slash shrug. Friends, let's get back to the show. When you guys are looking towards the future, I mean, I know you have built out a few new products. What is, Mash, what's the, I'm losing the name of it. What is the thing that Louis Simmons created for your low back? Reverse hyper. Yeah, you guys built one of those that folds up onto the wall.

Matt, you got to go check this thing out. It folds up so it fits five inches. I'm looking right now. I'm on this side right now. I'm on it. It folds inside five inches onto your wall, so you could have an entire reverse hyper and GHD in your garage. It takes up no space

i'm so jealous of everything you're saying all the money yeah how like yeah like where where do you guys go i mean like what what new equipment or you know what is the process and actually i can't imagine building a reverse hyper for a garage that folds up onto the wall is a simple process like how long does it take before you have this idea of, I think everybody should have one to actually being able to get it out and selling it. And like, is that a multiple year thing from idea to shipping? Yeah. The very first product we created,

we did a 40 foot rack 12 feet tall, you know, 10 stations, 6 feet wide. We created that from scratch in 10 weeks because we had a friend who was opening a gym. So when you've got two people and you're doing nothing 24-7, that's what you can accomplish. But as some of our products become more complicated, it takes multiple years to get them to market and we made a mistake we actually teased that we were in Germany evaluating our international strategy a year and a half ago and we teased the products two months before we launched it and the same day we launched ours we had two competitors launch something also that told it.

It doesn't have the patent that we have that folds against the wall, but they worked their tail off in a two-month process to do it. So, you know, since then, we don't tease stuff anymore, and we got some really cool stuff in the pipeline. So, unfortunately, I have to stay tuned for what that is. I will. I'll be emailing. Guys, I'm ready. Where did that capital, once you guys got it where did it go to where did you what did you need the most when you got that capital from shark tank i'm just curious like and was it a good choice what you decided to do you know i think we've

talked about this a number of times and our business was at a point at that point in time that honestly we didn't know what we were going to use at that point in time that honestly we didn't know what we were going to use the money for we didn't know we didn't know exactly who we were what we were going to do and why it mattered going forward so we really had to step back and and make sure that our next moves were good moves and not critical moves right right and and to answer the question on on would we do it again million times over um yeah the i i gotta believe that that fast forward in our business at least five years with the exposure alone um without that we we might not be having this discussion right now who knows yeah and you think about it sorry you think about it, sorry, you think about it this

way. When we went to film Shark Tank, the first day we showed up, they gave us a four day per diem at 70 bucks a day. When they give you $280 cash that's tax free and you've been scraping by and eating ramen noodles for a year and a half, that's a payday there so all of a sudden it turns from that to 60 000 you can do a lot with that money yeah i was actually gonna ask in the middle of that story i wanted to know was there a day where you were just like this thing's just not gonna work we've got a great idea but we're just we don't have the traction how much longer did you guys have families at the time yeah there you go was there a day where you were just kind of like maybe we should just go back to whatever this was before and and

stop chasing this this idea I would say I'm gonna just go out on a whim here Brian and I have never had this conversation I'm gonna guess that that him and I independently probably both had those thoughts periodically on the journey, but we never had the discussion because with one another, I think because if we would have had that discussion with each other, it would have been too easy to quit. Yeah. Hey, is this thing working? Yeah, I don't know. Well, then you kind of talk each other into it. So instead, I think we kind of shelved those ideas when they would come up and we just kept pushing on the wheel, kept grinding. When people saw the product and loved it and got excited, we knew we had a good product. So we just had to figure out how to execute. But every month we wrote those checks

and we maxed out our credit cards and we took mortgages on the houses to keep it going. And we were, it was a month or two away from, we had no cash left and, but we never had the conversation. And that's about when it started turning around. The goal was to sell 30,000 a month just to break even. And we were just scratching to get there. That's 30,000 units or $30,000? I was going to say, holy crap, that's a giant number. I was like, what are you doing nowadays? um yeah i feel like yeah put into perspective we have um the average day now is uh 10 times what we used to pray for in a month that's beautiful yeah i feel like the there's there's like the entrepreneur journey and all this i remember like laying in my bed opening and say

laying in my bed was a mattress on the floor when I opened my gym and just going, well, if I go bankrupt, nobody's going to care. It's not like I have anything. It's not like anybody needs me. But facing those battles with a family, you just go home at night and you go, thank you. Thanks for dealing with my brain that feels like I have to go slay these dragons out here? Yeah, I mean, if you don't have the support system, it's nearly impossible, I think. You know, those times I was just talking about when it's like, man, I don't know if we're going to be able to push this thing. Is it ever going to go? I'd come home and share those feelings with my wife because, you know, Brian and I didn't talk about that stuff. And she was the one that would turn me around.

So the next day I got up, I was ready to kick the ball again. And I think that's so important when you're going to start anything. You know, it can be really lonely. Thankfully, Brian and I had each other. But if you're going about it yourself, man, oh, man, you've got to have support. I love you, man. Seriously, I was like, guys he's in italy right now these guys haven't even hung out so long i i honestly i we wake up uh tuesdays and thursdays and we get to hang out with our

best friends on zoom right now unfortunately unfortunately, and not in real life. But these are my two best friends. I hang out with them more than anybody else that is an immediate family. And do you guys miss some of that now that you're separated by the ocean? And, I mean, I miss it a ton that we don't get to go on the road and do barbell shrug things and hang out. Like, it's just so few and far between now, but in expanding into an international company, does, do you guys feel like you've, I wouldn't say lost some of that, but do,

do you notice that there's just a different vibe about things? No, I'd say we talk daily and I don't think we skip a beat. I mean, yeah, it'd be fun to have a beer together. I was telling him, Hey man, you're hunting this weekend. Why don't you wake up and have a beer and I'm going to get some whiskey at night and let's, let's do this drinking thing and brainstorm and come up with another idea for the company.

Yeah. I'll sit in on that. That's the part that I miss the most. That's the part where you're just sitting in a long car ride going somewhere and it's just all ideas and hanging out and laughing that's awesome i know we got we got it on one trip all year so far as long as we went to arkansas it was a good trip on your own but yeah made me want more than all i did was like just wet my whistle a little bit you know and then i'm is the step to going from a a national to international what what are some of the challenges you guys are facing and what is it i assume there's some sort of

plan that's laid out of step by step kind of how you'd like to get into the european market yeah a lot of people don't understand this even in kevin o'leary's, a lot of people don't understand this. Even in Kevin O'Leary's team, a lot of people haven't done it. So it's kind of treading new territories. And, you know, you need to go in, you need to look at the market, you need to do a bunch of research, demographics, and then you start at, okay, warehousing, fulfillment, you know, marketing, customer support, how are all these things managed? How are things handled differently internationally? And the more you dig, you know, taxes, there's so much that comes up, but it's kind of fun. It's educational. So it's, yeah, it's a

journey. Eric, is that not your wheelhouse? Like if you were to sit down and start reading tax law, would your brain explode like mine? Yeah, you know, Brian is a CPA by trade. Ah, there he is. You got to have one of those around. It's a good person to have on the team. Yeah, and we've got a fantastic CPA here that we work with. So, yeah, you're damn right.

I'm not reading that shit. That's so good. You don't want me reading that shit is what you it's probably not a big deal just tell me where to sign i'll sign it yeah a 20 year lease fine whatever yeah i'm gonna keep this business forever right um yeah when you guys actually kind of lay out like is that is there an exit strategy is there do you guys ever think about kind of the the very long-term side of this i'm sure mr o'leary would love to have his big payday in this perfect company that he invested into you don't have to like actually say you're going to sell the company. You know, it's a hard question to answer because we do think short term,

medium term, long term. Right. And I think that if we do anything like that, we have talked about it and our number one concern and we would never do anything unless this is the case, is that we want our people taken care of. Yeah. You know, they're the reason that we are where we are. So this isn't all about just a big paycheck. This is about something that we've built because of a bunch of freaking awesome people. So if opportunities like that come along, we'll entertain them. And if it makes sense for everybody, not just Brian, myself, and Kevin, everybody, then that's something that we might consider. I'm curious.

This will probably help our listeners too. When it comes to marketing, what do you think pays off the most? You've already talked about Facebook marketing, but there's influencer marketing. There's lots of routes to take. What have you guys tried and what has paid off the most and what hasn't paid off? Well, it's, that's an easy one. It's the, it's the like seven names just popped into the head of all the ones that don't work. Yes. Seriously. Let's hear those three. we have, we've dabbled in that a little bit and, um, we've had some good things happen and some stuff hasn't really worked at all.

Uh, and it's, it's not as easy to measure. So they, those haven't been nearly as successful for us as, as just the targeted and online marketing. Um, sorry about that. It's all right. Yeah. The, you know, and obviously everyone who's listening to the podcast, our marketing team is like, you got to get on a, on a podcast with these guys. We're getting a great return with Barbell Shrug. So that was a no brainer. And out of all the things we do through that marketing team, that's not social media direct. The podcast has been a great, great marketing vehicle. You guys have an in-house, you know, marketing team, or is it like you outsource this? No, it's, I mean, it's kind of a combo, right?

It's outsourced, but it's their family. Right. So we outsource it to a close relative of mine and my wife's that has been in it for years and just knows inside and out what's going on and has just done fantastic for us. And that can be dangerous too, for people that don't know what they're doing. There's agencies out there that you don't have a little bit of an idea of what's going on. They just want your money. So you got to be careful with that stuff. Yeah. Owning gyms, that's what you're going to find. You get a million of those companies coming at you every day. They're like, Hey, just put 15,000 down and we'll give you this huge return. I'm like, all

right, can I get a guarantee on that, on this huge return? Oh no, we don't guarantee. Interesting. So yeah. On the other side of you guys building beautiful home gyms and having this business, there, there is like the brick and mortar gym and those gym owners, like CrossFit gym owners, I feel like that right now is like a very difficult business. Do you guys have any ideas of kind of like where the actual gym business goes in the next two years? I mean, the gym owner at my gym, I still call it my gym, even though I don't really go to it that much anymore, but CrossFit Surmount, they're like amazing people and I want them to do great and be a part of it. I just have this beautiful thing in my garage that I end up working out on the most.

Have you guys talked to gym owners? Like, is there a way that all of this kind of flows together? Because I feel like not only are you providing an awesome product and doing it in a way that allows people to not have to go to gyms and we're in the middle of a pandemic. Do you just have any general thoughts on like where does the gym industry go? Because we've all owned gyms and a big piece of my heart is with gym owners knowing how hard they work. Um, and like there's parts of me that feels terrible that I don't go to the gym multiple times a day. I just in a way have, have a different option. Um, do you guys connect with gym owners and understand kind of where they're at and what they're going through right now?

Yeah, absolutely. Um, mean, the PR system is perfect for anyone who's self motivated wakes up, they know exactly what they're doing. They know their routine, they have the programming, or they can get that from like some sort of app. I personally, even though I have the same setup right behind me, I love to go to a gym because I need community, I need someone driving me someone coaching me. And because of that, there will always be a place and a public forum for getting together to sweat, to grow as a team, to learn about nutrition well between sets. And that's absolutely necessary. So, you know, obviously we hope people supplement it with our home product as well when they can't get to the gyms like now.

But I think there will always be, you know, the need for those gyms. I don't know the number, though. You know, now more than ever, I feel like the equipment from PRX is what even gyms need because they need to be able to maximize space, you know, more than ever. And when they start dropping these orders back on us of, you know, 50% capacity, 20% capacity, it's going to get more and more important. So maybe it's a time, not just the home gyms, but the gyms to be calling you guys. You know, throughout the last seven years, you guys have had a lot of growth and been very busy. Of course, you're running a fitness company. How has your own training and fitness been along the way? Have you had enough time to use your own training and fitness been along the way being able to have you had enough time to use

your own equipment that initially it was no problem um you know for the first uh handful of years probably i would say that for me personally over the last couple years i you know i was strict crossfit you know for for years. And for the last couple of years, it's been a combination of whatever the hell I can do. Um, you know, whether that's walking down the hallway and hopping on the Peloton for 20 minutes or 30 minutes, or hopping in the sauna or actually getting a Metcon in or going for a damn walk, you know, running a company like this and having two small kids. It's whatever you just move, right? I mean, it's the days of having all the time in the world and getting up at 440 AM and working out for two hours are gone for now. So we just put out a program

called the diesel data. You basically just wrote the mission statement that we also wrote with you because we're all just a bunch of dads that run businesses trying to stay jacked. That's right. But we might only have 20 minutes to do it. And if you did it for two hours, you wouldn't have a family anymore or a business or kids. You'd just be some dude lifting weights at a gym. That would suck. That's why we call it the diesel dad. So I'm trying to get jacked and just do it in like 20 minutes. And not be broke. Like the days of sleeping in the gym just don't exist anymore.

I don't know why my wife wouldn't be cool with that. I don't want my wife to be cool with that one. That's what I'm avoiding. The hardest thing about being in Italy is we don't have our equipment here yet, so I have no equipment. So I get up at 5 a.m., I do my run, and I wake my son up. And we start off 10 push-ups, 10 sit-ups, 10 squats, and three pull-ups. And then every day we're adding one.

Now we're up to about 50 of each. It's a bonding time. It's a way for he and I to not lose the games I have and get him going. He's 9. It's a good – but I can't wait until the equipment starts coming in. Yeah. How long until you guys – this will probably air here in a good eight weeks or so with, but where are you guys?

How long until equipment shows up and you're actually able to release the products over there? We got to catch up in the United States. We have to redo websites, translations, CE certifications. I won't go into any more detail. Translations.

Holy crap. Did I not think about that? That's the first thing I've seen about that. Oh, my Lord. That's the bad one. Yeah, we're doing German, Italian, French, and Spanish. Oh, my gosh. Hats off to that, man. Awesome.

Is that automated in any way, or you just have to pay people to go rewrite the website? You have to pay people to do it because, yeah, little translations, people know. It's got to feel like an Italian site. It's got to feel like a German site because you need to connect with them. You can actually respond to emails and customer service in English

because they don't mind emails. They don't like phone calls because then they put them on the spot. But people actually don't mind, you know mind translating to English just when helping buying. But if you're going to bring them in, it's got to be in their language out of the gate. Eric, you mentioned Peloton in your answer to a question or two ago. Is that model something that you guys are following? Is there anybody that you're really following their growth?

Obviously you guys are kind of in the same space with equipment, but, but you know, I know, and you guys have an app, I believe that that does workouts. Is there like a subscription model to, to garage gyms and just Peloton's kind of leading a lot of that charge. I feel. I love what they're doing. I mean, I love how they've bundled what they've bundled. I think the one thing that they're missing is what we have to offer,

but that's another discussion. We are working on some things that I think you'll like. Brian can probably share a little bit more. I know. I get to test some of them out next week. I'm so excited. I can't talk about it, but I get to beat the test on me.

We're deep in development on an app that I think is really going to change the way fitness happens in the home. The current apps we have now are nice, but we're taking it to a whole new level, uh, that we're launching Q2 of next year. So keep your eyes out for that. I will. I'm going to keep my email open. I'm so excited about it. I have my kickoff call next week. I'm going to get so jacked.

Um, what are you, uh, what are you hunting this week? I actually was just gone this last week. I was hunting whitetail deer all week long. Did you get any? I did. Because you're – Got a big 10-pointer, 220 pounds dressed. No way.

Dang, really? Wow. That's legit. That North Dakota hunting, is that where you hunted up? Were you hunting up near you um yeah just northeast in minnesota though oh yeah beautiful um brian when are you uh are you going to be coming back at any point during this yeah maybe come back for the summer. Yeah, do you want me to share how I got out here? I would love to.

Okay. So one thing I like to draw the analogy is between lifting and business. I had a buddy once. I asked him, hey, what motivates you in the mornings? Because he was at the gym every day. He goes, Brian, it's not about motivation. You don't look at some Instagram feed and get motivated and go work out. He goes, it's about consistency and commitment. He goes, you get up every day whether you want to or not. And, you

know, it's kind of like business. You just got to go do what you say you're going to do. When you think of an idea, go out there and execute, go out and test it. So we said we were going to Europe. So last, or August, was that three months ago, I said, I'm going, we bought the plane tickets for the family. And literally told the family that this may be a three day trip to a day and a half there and a day and a half back because we're not supposed to be able to get into Italy, brought a bunch of documentation with us. First couple people in New York said, No, you can't get on a plane. Finally talked to the third supervisor and he was so confused.

He's like, ah, you can tell your story to the guys in Rome. Got into Rome and the first guy, no, you can only come in on business and then you got to leave. And that would have been it. And I waited and he was gone. Another guard came over and i said hey how about my kids are in school he goes i'll redo the paperwork and put school i did that and they let us in it's uh amazing uh just got to take the risk you just got to try it

go for it and uh and here we are and now we're you know helping the economy here doing our part one of the things that i i really believe is that if you just in the idea that if you have like a a real purpose behind what you're doing whoever you're talking to definitely doesn't care about their job nearly as much as you do so if you ask like four people you're finally going to get to somebody that doesn't give a shit enough that they'll just go dude just get out of my face. You're making me think today. Yes. And if I have to go get my supervisor, then I've got paperwork to do. Just go. Yeah. Now all of a sudden you're in trouble. Yeah.

Don't get in trouble. If you get in trouble on my watch, I'm going to be pissed. But right now get out of my face so I can go back to scroll on Instagram. Yeah. Enjoy Italy. Speaking of being diesel dads, we got to go do breakfast right now. The little ones are up. We're going to drop some kids off at daycare. Where can people find you?

PRX performance.com, Facebook, Instagram, all over. All of it. There it is. Coach Travis mash. Uh, mashley.com facebook instagram all over all of it there it is coach travis mash uh mashley.com uh it was a pleasure meeting you guys amazing products i've been like zooming to your website like every time i was not talking i'm like man i want this this pleasure to meet you too yeah you guys if if you want to really test somebody, test how strong all this stuff is.

I've seen all the stress tests you guys put the racks through, dropping 800-pound barbells. Travis Mash can actually lift those 800-pound barbells. So he might be the model for see if you can break it. Might have to. I'll give it a shot. Doug Larson. You bet. Find me on Instagram, Douglas C. Larson.

Really happy for you guys and all your growth and success. Congratulations. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, Doug. Appreciate that a lot. This has been fantastic. I'm really happy that we were able to do this.

I've enjoyed the rack for everybody. I'll have in the show notes our code. As soon as we went into quarantine, I felt like I was like the center of the universe for people that love lifting weights because everybody was reaching out, wondering where my rack came from. Do I like it? So thanks to everybody that did that because now we get to have them on the show. I'm Anders Varner at Anders Varner.

We are Barbell Shrugged at barbell underscore shrug. Get over to barbellshrugged.com forward slash DieselDad for strong dads that want to get strong, lean, and athletic without sacrificing family, fatherhood, or fitness. And make sure you get to Walmart in San Diego, L.A., Palm Springs, and Vegas. We are on the shelves in performance nutrition. Friends, we'll see you guys next week. That's a wrap.

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Friends, we'll see you on Wednesday.