Barbell Shrugged - Why You Shouldn’t Do Business With Friends — Real Chalk #84

Episode Date: July 16, 2019

Barrett has a background in the military in a tiny special forces group called CCT. Originally enlisting with a dental assistant job, he quickly realized that his personality type was closer to the special forces people he had met while he was in. As soon as he could, he signed up for the qualification and process and did whatever he had to do to make it in this elite group.    Once the military was over for him, that personality type and drive eventually propelled him into a successful business in the clothing industry with a brand called “NFQ.”    Not having much experience in business and partnering up with a friend with nothing more than verbal agreements eventually led him into a few problems as the business grew... A lot happens in a small Window of time and Barret shares his experience throughout the entire ordeal. As well as sharing what he wish he would have done differently along the way.  This is a great listen for anyone looking to get into business!  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Show notes: http://www.shruggedcollective.com/rc-barrett ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ► Subscribe to Shrugged Collective's Channel Here http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedSubscribe 📲 🎧 Listen to the audio version on the Apple Podcast App or Stitcher for Android Here- http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedApple http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedStitcher Shrugged Collective is a network of fitness, health and performance shows that help people achieve their physical and mental health goals.  Usually in the gym, but outside as well. In 2012 they posted their first Barbell Shrugged podcast and have been putting out weekly free videos and podcasts ever since. Along the way we've created successful online coaching programs including The Shrugged Strength Challenge, The Muscle Gain Challenge, FLIGHT, Barbell Shredded, and Barbell Bikini. We're also dedicated to helping affiliate gym owners grow their businesses and better serve their members by providing owners tools and resources like the Barbell Business Podcast. Find Shrugged Collective and their flagship show Barbell Shrugged here: SUBSCRIBE ON ITUNES ► http://bit.ly/ShruggedCollectiveiTunes WEBSITE ► https://www.ShruggedCollective.com INSTAGRAM ► https://instagram.com/shruggedcollective FACEBOOK ► https://facebook.com/ barbellshruggedpodcast TWITTER ► http://twitter.com/barbellshrugged

What's up, guys? It's Tuesday. Coming at you with another new episode. This time, we're going to get super, super into the whole business vibe. So my man, Barrett McCulloch, was part of a brand called NFQ, Never Fucking Quit. Maybe you guys have heard of it. Maybe you haven't. They had a big following on Instagram. They were doing really well. And I think there were some red flags along the way, what was kind of going on between him and his partner and a little couple things that happened a little bit later on that were not so cool. And a lot of these things can happen or can't happen depending on if you have some stuff in writing, which everybody should do, and we talk about that during the show. But I think it's really cool we go into the whole business thing and then kind of talk about his relationship with his partner, what went wrong, what he would have changed, what he would have done differently now going into a new business, especially if you plan on going into business at any point or you're in business right now and you don't have a lot of things kind of set in stone or in writing

or anything like that. So it's really, really easy to mess all this stuff up. And the longer I've been in business, I concur with a lot of things that are happening. And luckily on my side, I had a business partner who was just super all about paperwork and lawyers and all that stuff. So I never had to deal with what Barrett had to deal with in this particular scenario. But a lot of people do all the time. So get excited for this episode. You're going to hear a little bit about NFQ. You're going to hear a little bit about Barrett and his personal life story.

He's got a good amount of followers out there that love his following. So you guys are really going to like this one. I'm excited for you guys. Before we get into the show, I do want to hit our sponsors real quick, which is Wattify. And if you guys have been following me for a while, there's a good chance you guys do Chalk Online or you actually go to my actual gym, Chalk in Orange County. But there's obviously thousands of more people around the world on Chalk Online. That all goes through Wattify. So I use Wattify in my gym.

I use Wattify for Chalk Online. If I was a new and up-and-coming entrepreneur right now and I wanted to have a platform for a workout that was going to be on an app and I didn't want to spend like $100,000 up front to make an app, I would probably hook up with someone like Wattify and use their platform just for like a – there's a small monthly fee involved with how many –

depending on how many clients you have. So it's really great in that aspect. As a gym owner, CrossFit Chalk is known as a pretty well gym out there in the world. What I like about it is it's like a one-stop shop platform for everything. I don't go to a different platform for billing. It's all on the Wattify. I don't go to a different platform for memberships, for management, for scheduling, for athlete performance, anything like that.

It's all in one piece of software, which I think is super dope. And because of that, it really just makes everything so much more streamlined. And the more you get into the gym life and you're the manager, or maybe you start doing other things like this podcast, or you start selling books or anything else, the more moving parts, it just starts to get just really annoying. There's so many passwords and sign-ins and this and that, and you just want to go nuts. So I am a huge fan of the Wattify system. And another thing that's really dope about it is when you do a workout and you do it again in the future, it will actually go back and give you a little pie graph. It'll be like, hey, the last time you did this, you were 10% weaker. This is the exact date that you did. This is how you were feeling. And now you're 10% better. You got a

couple more reps. You can write notes in there on how you were feeling. It tells you the dates of every single time you did something. And let's say you're doing back squat, for instance, and it's 70% max that day. It will tell you right away as soon as you sign into the app. It'll be like, all right, you have 5x5 back squat today at this weight. And you don't have to even think about it. So it's really, really cool in that aspect. There's ways you can put nutrition in there. There's ways you can compare your scores with all your friends, especially in a classroom setting.

It has that interactive leaderboard, which is really cool. And the newest thing that they have is they have the my zone integration. So you guys can hook your heart rates up to it in the gym. I use the my zone. I would say half my gym members use it and half of them don't totally up to you. I think people like to see the amount of calories they're burning throughout the day. So I think that's cool. Um, and then I also think that the heart rate monitor is just kind of good to show you. It's like, it's proof that you're not going hard or it's proof that you're, you are going hard. And it also hooks up immediately to an assault bike if you have the my zone on. So you'll see it on the screen in your gym. And then when you're on like an assault bike, it automatically

picks up the heart rate monitor. So I think that's really cool. And then all of that is integrated into Wattify. So Wattify gave me a discount code that actually is making me really jealous. And it's 20% off for your first year of using Wattify. Like honestly, I don't think I've ever had a discount that gnarly on my show. So 20% off your first year of using Wattify, whether you own a gym or you want to start your own little personal training deal or whatever you want to do to use their app, it's Wodify, W-O-D-I-F-Y dot com slash chalk, C-H-A-L-K. So Wodify dot com slash chalk, and you can get 20% off your first year. That's insane.

I always get so jealous when I say that one. I'm so bummed I'm 20% off. All right, never mind. Without any further ado, let's get into the show. If you guys love the show, and I know that you're going to, make sure you share it to my Instagram, Ryan Fish, R-Y-A-N-F-I-S-C-H, and you guys can share it to Barrett as well. We all love to know what you guys think of the shows. We love getting tagged in them.

I see them all. I promise you. All right? So here we go. See you guys on the other side. All right, Chalk Nation. It's Tuesday. We are back.

I'm with Barrett McCulloch. Correct. And I was in 24-hour fitness the other day just working out, and I see these two dudes, and they're just head-to-toe in NFQ gear. And if you guys don't know what NFQ is, it's never fucking quit. And it's your previous brand correct should i say previous brand it's conflicted conflicted brand yes conflicted brand so we're actually on the podcast to talk about this and the reason i'm stoked on this podcast is because he entered a partnership with someone who was a friend

and um the partnership went bad and it happens a, but you don't usually get to hear the story. So I think it's cool that this was a big brand. I feel like a lot of people in the community had heard of the brand before. They had posted multiple photos of me with my really fucked up hands back in the day and me just getting after workouts going crazy. Love it. And when I saw him in the gym and I saw him head to toe in all this clothing, at first I just saw the shirt and I was like, oh, I wonder.

Like these two dudes were both wearing the shirt. And then I started looking down and he had the shorts on. And I looked down again and he had the socks on. And I was like, all right, this guy has to have something to do with the company. And then he comes over and talks to me. He's like, you're Ryan Fish, right? And I was like, yeah. And then we start getting talking,

and then now we're at this point now where it's just time to have him on and tell the whole story. So why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself. All right. I know there's more than just a clothing brand. You're in the military. Let's hit that a little bit,

and let's start getting into what the business was, what you thought it was going to be, and then some of the variances that we have. All right. So, yeah, you'll kind of have to help keep me on target here because I – You like to scatter. I don't like to. It's not my choice.

My mind is, like, literally constant. The people that interact with me, they kind of – they understand how I am. So forgive me. But this is the only way that I can kind of get things out is if I kind of they understand how i am so uh forgive me but this is the only way that i can kind of get things out is if i kind of just have no filter so i assume nfq never fucking quit has something to do with your military background uh it has everything to do with the military background so let's so i was actually a dental tech i entered the air force as a dental tech under false information by my recruiter.

That's neither here nor there. How often does that happen? I've heard of it a couple times. My case was pretty unique because of my vision. I was told that it would be hard for me to get a waiver because my eyesight's like literally 2400, like 20, instead of 20-20, I'm literally blind. I'm wearing contacts right now. Yeah.

I actually had PRK. Oh, see, I'm looking to get that. You don't need that now. You just need LASIK. Exactly, exactly, yeah. And I have like a thick enough cornea to where I can go back if something happens with the LASIK. Yeah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah.

As the tangent, as you can see where this is going to go. It's all good. So anyways, I was a dental tech in the air force for um three and a half years and was inspired by a my best friend ty barnes to um pursue the combat control route because him and i were stationed in okinawa japan together um when that was the first duty station i was there, or I was at. I was 18. I believe Ty was, like, 21. Thanks. I believe Ty was, like, 21 or so.

He was a few years older than me. But I just noted, like, we had met through a bunch of mutual friends. I was in the med group. So typically in the Air Force, how it's laid out is, like, obviously the medical career fields has the most females. Oh, really? Yeah. So all the soft dudes were always hanging around all the med group chicks.

And it was kind of funny just seeing how the different cultures were. I had never been really exposed to these types of dudes before. And I noticed a clear difference in not only them between, like, the rest of, like, the med group guys, but then also between them and the kind of person that Ty was. And what I noticed is that these guys were very pack mentality. You know, there is a hierarchy in those communities just like in society. And a lot of those dudes are considered sled dogs. And they get into their type A personalities, very driven.

So that translates into other things. Everybody I've talked to in Special Forces, they're just like – it's like a completely different group of people. Oh, my God. Always. Dude, and you can tell by like – When you meet them, like everything about them. Yeah. Yes. And if you're that type of person, that's what you want to be God. Always. Dude, and you can tell by like – When you meet them, like everything about them. Yeah. Yes.

And if you're that type of person, that's what you want to be immediately. Exactly. So I saw how they interacted, and they seemed kind of like they were – they felt above like the rest of people. I mean rightfully so. These dudes were like jacked, and they had every reason every reason to be but then ty he was a different story not only was he just like all of them but he was like the most humble guy way more jacked than all of them devilishly good looking like incredibly fucking smart like the the epitome of what you would want to like represent your country as like special operations.

That's what this dude was. Like Johnny Bravo. Dude, oh my god. Except way more handsome. Oh, man. Even more handsome than Johnny Bravo. No, dude. Seriously.

Ty Barnes, he's an incredible dude. And literally, he lit that spark in me to continue down the route that I did. And why I continue to do what I do. I actually wear this bracelet for him. He passed away in a motorcycle accident a few years back. And that's actually what spiraled my life into special operations. So I was actually in a four-year contract as a dental tech. So this happened while you were in the military?

Yes. Well, that was about three years in, or three and a half years in. Yeah, August of 2012. So as soon as that happened, you decided that was what you were going to do? Well, I had always kind of wanted to, and I kind of had trained that way. I had seen how he had trained in very similar CrossFit stuff. There's a lot of high-intensity interval training with weightlifting, a lot of running, interval training with weight lifting a lot of running swimming things like that um and i really liked how you had to work on like the finer details of

things especially with swimming because that's so unnatural for you know us as mammals so yeah whenever you get in the water environment whatever you whatever you feel is natural like on land it doesn't work in the water and uh so that was super interesting for me to to pick up on because i had spent my whole life around pools and water like you know the tennis clubs and stuff like that i grew up in el paso texas and like i had a lot of wealthy friends and so i'd be able to like me and my brothers we would all like go hang out these pools and so i was like whenever I heard about special operations, and they talked about, especially combat control specifically,

they talked about the water training or the pool training. I felt like I knew my way around a pool pretty good, but I didn't understand the depth that it goes into. Yeah, you guys do a bunch of scare tactics things. Do they tie your hands around your back and stuff like that, kind of like a little bit of Navy SEAL stuff? The drown proofing? Yes, that's a part of the uh water confidence training and you have to hold your breath and do like a 50 meter underwater swim

yes yeah that's not with the hands and feet yeah yeah those are separate events but still it's hard to do yes it is and and it all it all stems from the same thing of just first controlling your environment and the environment begins with your mindset because whatever you think and whatever you say, that's what you become. You protect that. And so if you create that sort of good environment when you're going into a stressful situation,

then you're kind of already set up for success in a way. And if you've kind of, whenever you're training and things like that, like I'm sure you're well aware of, if you're kind of just taking it more as like an educational approach, like not trying to hit PRs every single time, but working on the finer details of whatever it is you're doing, like breaking up the whole event into a bunch of small little tasks like um then that's how you start to develop that confidence and that that skill that eventually leads to talent and then what turns into greatness yep so gotta build the framework for you exactly yes before you have a pretty house all about the fundamentals and the basics and fucking everything and it's about being meticulous

and it's not about how many reps you're doing of whatever it is, but it's how many right reps you're doing. And so this all translates even in weightlifting and stuff like that. And, uh, all right. So now you're going through the pipeline. Yes. See exactly the changes. Thank you. Thank you. And then, um, what happens after you get through this pipeline? Um, so I, while going through the pipeline i sustained uh an injury i had flipped uh what's called the lta tv light terrain um yeah light tactile all-terrain vehicle um and it crushed my foot my left foot and i broke 11 bones in it that put me out of training for a little bit wow i'm gonna take a swig of this yeah Yeah. My lip's getting all chapped.

So, yeah, I had broken my foot, and it put me back a team, and I went to combat control school seven months later, which is not recommended for a broken foot because it doesn't take – it takes a lot longer to heal. You know, it's small. There are not many muscles there, not a lot of blood flow. It's just mainly bones. So that was pretty hellacious to go through literally our hardest school in that condition.

And not only that, I was expected to leave. I was one of the older dudes. I was 22 at the time or 23, which is considered an older dude. Wow. They nicknamed me Graybush. Wow. Yeah. It's like, all right, thanks, guys.

Damn, 22. Yeah. And not only that, then you have officers that are above you that mainly are like 24, 25, so not too much older. Some guys, rare cases that are like in their 30s and stuff like that, that are a little bit more like mentally stable. Yeah. Not as high strung and sustainable or susceptible susceptible to stress and shit like that. Cool. So then what happens at this point when

your foot's broken? So yeah, I go through rehab and then I go through combat control school. I earn my beret and then I go to advanced skills training. Which is the fun part, yeah. Which is the fun part. You're done with pretty much the selection phase except now you have to go through pre-scuba

and that's like the whole different world whole different world so the combat control pipeline how how it was organized whenever i was going through it's i think it's changed now but um it was kind of like a crawl walk or it'd be like a sprint and then a crawl walk run phase so they would kind of try to weed out some guys with selection, and then whatever they had left over that, they would refine that product and actually teach them to be more efficient in the water and coach them. So all throughout the pipeline, we had human performance coaches, like dieticians, like people teaching us how to take care of ourselves, teaching us about foam rolling and like – Oh, that's cool. All that stuff. So I have a very basic knowledge of all of that,

but I know the air force and the Navy have the most funding for you guys to be taken care of the most. I know a lot of people think that like, you know, well, at least the recruiters try to tell you that the Marines are number one and this and that. Oh yeah.

The army tried to tell you that, but then they're getting the billet. Yeah. But then once you actually, you know, talk to CCTs and PJs and SEALs and all this. Oh, they got it good. They're all like, dude, this is the way to go.

And most people will actually tell you that Air Force is number one. Yes, that's so that I was actually growing up. I grew up in an Army household. My dad was a 160th DAP pilot. He flew the 60s. That's the Hueys, right? No, no, that's the Blackhawks. Oh, the Blackhawks.

Oh, okay. The Little Birds. Is that the Little Birds? No, Little Birds birds is that the little birds no little birds no no just straight up blackhawk yeah yeah yeah i'm a helicopter pilot too i have my private really for r22s and r44s holy shit i don't know what model that is but that's so sick it's the training ones that the robinsons they're called have you ever been skydiving i have a couple times do you have your a license or have you been tandem no just tandem oh my god you've got to get your A license. I know. I want to go. I actually wanted to get into base jumping.

Yeah. Fuck that. I know. I went hiking in Norway, and I saw all these guys that were doing it, and I was like, damn, that looks so fun. And I did a lot of research and found out that the margin of error is just way too small. Yeah. It's just too small.

Altitude, you don't fuck with. Yeah. No. I'm over it. So, yeah. I have a B license for skydiving and that's actually something. Now that I have a lot more free time with this new – You go up and go all the time?

Well, my funds are a little low right now. But they won't be for too long. It's relatively cheap once you have your own parachute, right? Yes. I don't have that because I haven't given myself the – Dude, I'm super – I don't spend money at all i'm super driven about trying to get to a certain place so like and i'm not jumping enough yet i don't have enough time to where i i couldn't like see myself spending like over three grand because i would want to buy really nice equipment it's

like three to five grand for a pack if you're buying you want to buy really good equipment for skydiving because it's literally your lifeline yeah for sure yeah so you that's something you definitely invest in and you don't try to cut corners you don't want to buy really good equipment for skydiving because it's literally your lifeline. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, so that's something you definitely invest in and you don't try to cut corners. You don't want to buy like a used parachute with a small stain on it. Yeah, no. Me personally. Dead person. Or that or someone shitting themselves.

I looked up like funny Craigslist ads one day and it said parachute for sale, small stain. Like one small stain. Cheap parachute, small stain. And I i was like cheeky little comment that's awesome yeah i um yeah so skydiving is is awesome but i feel like base jumping is that's a whole different breed of person that gets into that i'm i i like getting uh i like getting my heart pumping but i also like don't want to fucking die yeah yeah margin of error is just too much and that way would be gruesome be very gruesome to I like getting my heart pumping, but I also don't want to fucking die. Yeah, yeah. The margin for error is just too much. And that way would be gruesome.

It would be very gruesome to just be slammed into the earth like that. So is that one of your most exciting parts of the whole training pipeline was probably skydiving? Ooh, I don't know. Anything else that was super exciting? Dude, literally all of it. All of it. That pipeline, like, that is... You guys go through millions of dollars worth of training.

Millions. Yeah. Yes, and it is so good. It's so beneficial the way they develop these dudes. I just can't... And not only that, the level of, like, leaders that are within that community and the people that are developing, like, those young dudes that are driven and looking for direction, it's excellent.

And I'm just just everything i've learned from like business is literally like derived from that i'm excited to get into the business part so yes so before before we get there yes we need to let's talk about what barrett would have been like had he not gone to cct school like what would the qualities have you been going into business that's a good question without the cct? And then what qualities do you possess now because you went to CCT training? Well, I feel like now we're talking about the type A guy, right? Exactly. Versus the soft guy.

So give me the differences. Well, I feel like I've always just had that. It's hard to describe. There's always been something in me where I've just felt like this – I don't know. There's just more there. Thirst, yeah. Like I'm constantly unsatisfied. Whenever I do reach something, I find out that there's a whole different level to it that I need to attack.

And then it's just – Every day of my life, I'm the same, bro. Yes. It's a rabbit hole. And then I find myself in this position to where, dude, the people that interact with me on Instagram, they see that I'm posting stuff at 3 in the morning and I'm posting stuff at 6. You're only sleeping for three hours. But what they don't realize is what we were talking about earlier,

my schedule now is totally unorthodox. I kind of just sleep by necessity and not by a schedule because I don't need a schedule. I'm completely mobile and I've been doing online programming and brand building and marketing, stuff like that. Well, everything that we're taught is – it's just an infrastructure that people think needs to happen. I mean there's been a lot of amazing people in our lives who literally sleep multiple times a day for an hour. Yeah.

There's some sort of name for the type of sleeping that it is. I can't think of it, but that's – Like Benjamin Franklin I think was like that. I've heard of that. I've heard of that, and I, I think, was like that. I've heard of that. I've heard of that, and I remember other presidents and stuff. I've heard about it a lot. It makes something about the person

they've become way more productive or something. But as long as you don't tell that person that that's not okay, it's fine. It's just the mindset again. Exactly. So if that person gets by like that, it's fine. If it works for them, it works. But if the doctor's like,

hey, you really need to get eight or you're going to be fucked, then you're going to start thinking like, fuck, I only slept an hour. You know what I mean? Yeah. Oh, fuck, I'm not getting eight. Yeah, I know. But if the doctor's like, hey, you really need to get eight or you're going to be fucked, then you're going to start thinking like, fuck, I only slept an hour. You know what I mean? Yeah. Oh, fuck. I'm not getting eight.

Yeah, I know. Like I have this whoop watch and like if it tells me I didn't sleep enough last night, I trip out. But if I don't look at it, like sometimes I'll look at shit that happened three days ago and I'll be like, oh, thank God I didn't look at it because it would have stressed me out. That's exactly why I don't count my macros. Fuck that.

Because I will obsess about it and it will give me an unhealthy relationship with food and I don't want that. I'm already super strict as it is so I need to chill out a little bit. I don't want to advocate right now that no one's checked their macros. I think that if you're someone who is trying to reach a particular place, it is very important for you to track them, at least

for a few days, to understand why you're not where you want to be. For sure. If you're skinny and you can't figure out why you're not putting you want to be for sure like if you're skinny and you can't figure out why you're not putting on weight and you track one day and you get 1200 calories you're like all right now like it's right there yeah now i need to track or whatever but for you and i like we already look pretty good at this point do you want to stress about it no it's not worth it yes i just wanted to add that before people are like yo what the fuck yeah exactly so i've also been lifting weights for since i was 14 yeah i'm 27 right now i'm the youngest of three brothers they were lifting weights when they were like 18 19 so

you know i've just grown up being kind of like an observer and a sponge i'm the youngest in my family and so and that's all kind of translated into not only fitness but then how i've been developed and so going back to the question of like who who i would have been before the going that soft, that's kind of hard to say because that was literally ingrained in me since I was a little kid. But did some of it get highlighted while you were in CCT school where you're like, fuck yeah. Oh, for sure. This is what I was – Dude, natural leadership. So I came from a dental background, which literally no leadership.

It's crazy to talk to you about these two different paradigms. It's like dental? It's so vastly different. And not only that, I had to go. So whenever I was retraining, I had to go back and be a dental tech. And so I would be integrated with all these type A dudes that are fucking pissing vinegar and like borderline getting in trouble on the weekends. And I'm having, I'm like herding cats, like trying to keep these guys accountable.

And then like going through that world and not only that, you're stressed about, you know, failing a test the next day or whatever, like it's, you know, super high stress and you're dealing with like demolitions and things like that. Yeah. And then I go back to dental and I'm getting like yelled at because I was two minutes late to like bring my patient back. I'm like, all right, come on. This is way.

It's two minutes. And not only that, there's things that are way more important right now. So yeah, it was hard for me to kind of get out of that mindset because then I became very abrasive and I didn't really notice it at first. But whenever I was, like I said, environment is everything.

You become like who you're around and stuff like that too. So for a while, dude, I was not approachable. I was not approachable at all. Like's funny that uh jesse my friend that you uh met yesterday uh he we met at cannon air force base at that gym there while i was a dental tech and actually he he got to see the transition and yesterday whenever him and i are talking he's like dude it's so crazy just to remember remember how you were back then and to see you now because there was a point to where you were like, I felt like you fucking hated my guts.

I was like, dude, it wasn't anything personal like that. You got to understand where I was in my life and what was important to me at that point. I'm the type of person that once I have a goal or once I see something that I feel is attainable, there's nothing that's going to fucking stop me. Absolutely nothing that's going to stop me to reach that, to see what that tastes like at least.

I have a problem meeting new people if I don't feel like they're motivated in something. They don't have a passion towards something. I don't care what it is. They could be painting pink puppies. Like that's what you're passionate about. You know what I mean? But like if you're really, really fucking passionate about it,

we can be friends. But like if you don't have a lot of passion in something, I literally cannot be around you. What the fuck are you living for? I just can't be around you, like, at all. Like, I don't – you need to be fired. Like, if you work at my gym, like, you're not – It's draining, dude. Yeah, I can't do it.

It seriously is draining. Even if I hang out with friends, like, we go out somewhere. Dude, it doesn't have to be, like, goal – it doesn't have to be, like, career-oriented either. It's just literally, like – Anything. Like, being a better person. Literally just noticing like, man, I didn't call my mom today. She really likes it when I call.

Maybe I should just make her day. It takes five minutes. Even down to like the basic level. So dude, I have a German shepherd. His name is Loki. His name is Loki or Loki? Loki. But I play on words like Loki. I know. German Shepherd. His name is Loki. His name is Loki or Loki? Loki. But I play – it's a play on words like Loki.

I know. I like that. That's dope. He's an awesome German Shepherd. I've had him for six years, about to be seven years in October. Incredible dog. And anybody that's had an interaction with him knows he's a super special dog. Anyways, dude, I just try to – the way I kind of view dog ownership too is I try to put myself in that position.

Like I feel in the same way that I look at people. Like when I look at you, I kind of – I feel like you are me but in a different way, just in a different circumstance. We were grown from different parents and things like that. And then our parents were grown from different – and it goes on and goes on and goes on until what? It reaches something. Something started that. Yep. And that connects all of us.

But what is that? You know what I'm saying? Yeah. I mean, that's so the way I view it is that's the same thing with like my dog, Loki. So I view him as like a literally an extension of me. So whenever I'm interacting with him, I'm like, dude, what would be the like, what would be the coolest thing to happen right now if I was a fucking dog?

Yeah. Go to the beach. Dude. And a sunny side egg on top of my fucking kibble with some steak. You know what I'm saying? Damn, I want to be your dog right now. Dude. No, seriously.

He gets hooked up. That's so funny. I love that. Dude, he has such a good diet. Yeah. He has such a good diet. Good for him. And it's funny.

He's gotten way more bougie, too, the older he's gotten. Dude, he seriously, he will look at me in disgust if there's not an egg on his kibble. It's good. Or at least some sort of coconut oil or something. He needs something. I love that. Yeah, he's a good dog, and he definitely deserves it. All right, so I know right now there's a lot of people hanging on.

They're like, all right, this story is great and all, but I want to hear this business stuff. So now that we're transitioning now, we have a little bit of your background. We're creating this brand. What's the first spark that tells you that this is going to be the brand name? Because picking a brand name is hard. Exactly. So actually, I had no part in that. That NFQ, that's something that was was never meant to be sold okay monetary gain

that's something that's held close to the combat control brotherhood oh really i didn't know that yeah it's all throughout the schools there's like pictures of or not pictures like literally if you go into some of the gyms it's painted on the walls nfq stands for never fucking quit no fucking quitters oh okay cool yes and so like going through the pipeline dude that's literally what all the dudes like i was talking about like how you are an extent like i feel like you're me dude there's that also but within like a niche of special operations so whenever you're going through the pipeline dude you can fucking sniff out weakness everybody that's there knows who the fuck's not going to make it because we all all have that same, like, we're seeking each other out,

and we can see good qualities in dudes. We're just not picking up on things. I can see it in the gym. Like, this person's not going to make it. Exactly. It's all about body language. Yeah. If that dude's, like, you know, holding his chest up,

or if he's kind of had his shoulders rolled forward whenever we're singing Jody's, if he's not fucking singing his guts out, you know. Yep. You can tell when someone has a fucking heart. You can definitely tell. Mm-hmm. And you don't have to say much to know. And I don't even know how I got on that little tangent.

We were talking about what NFQ stood for. Oh, yes. So exactly. And that's where it comes from. So I was going through the pipeline, and I had met Taylor, who was my former business partner. And I had cleaned his teeth as a dental tech. Really? Yeah, exactly.

That's how I met him. I taught him how to work out. I had actually brought him in like that, and that's how we became friends is he looked up to me. I've never met him, by the way. At least I don't think I have. Oh, no. Yeah, you probably haven't. He's not very interactive.

And that's where I came in really for the brand because I was the face of the brand because I'm super interactive. I like talking to people and all of that. I'm a writer as well, so I was able face of the brand because I'm super interactive. I like talking to people and all that. I'm a writer as well, so I was able to develop the mindset that was actually bred within me from that community. That's my background, so that's the whole reason it was working. Anyone that's following it now, they can kind of see that it's a totally different product than what it was like two months ago. So was it his idea to call it NFQ? Yes. So that's initially what he – no, and it wasn't NFQ at first.

It was never fucking quit. Oh, okay. Explicit. Not good for business. So I forced us to change it to at least NFQ because for, you know, obviously – Whenever you have profanity in the word. Exactly. Not only that, like, dude, at this time I was kind of – when I was going down this route, it was awesome for our community.

All the guys on my team, they loved it because I was doing satirical writings and very niched humor. If you got it, then you got it, and then it made it like a community. So people would kind of – I would do safety briefings, and I would just say crazy shit. I still have all the writings. I'll show you sometime. Because Jerry Seinfeld is pretty niche. You're like the Jerry Seinfeld of special ops. Something like that.

So it was developed off of this Instagram page called OAF. Okay. And that's what they were known for. And so I had developed kind of a style off of that because it was just fun to write that way. And then I actually became friends with the owner of that brand. And he actually helped guide us in some of the ways that we went with NFQ. So that just goes to show also about network and being open to meeting people and things like that. Okay, so now you solidified the brand name.

Exactly. So now that we solidified the brand name, then we started plotting out how we were going to start doing business. And for me, at first it was cool just doing shirts and stuff like that. Hold on. Before you get there, how did you actually create a business? Were you an LLC? Were you – I mean – Because this is where my –

I have a whole bunch of businesses too. So I want to understand where this was. Oh, no, no, no. So, yeah, he's the one who had initially started the – I think it was an LLC. And it was initially between three people. It was me, another guy, and then my previous business partner. And it was out of New Mexico at first. So you can actually look up the trademarks too on USPTO or, yeah, the search engine.

And you can see who has the ownership of NFQ right now too and all the designs and things like that. So for anyone that's confused on the situation, hopefully that will clear it up, and maybe you can ask some more questions and kind of get a better perspective for yourself. But going back to the subject, after going into business, I didn't know about any of this stuff. I was in special operations,

so I was dealing with a totally different monster. I didn't know that entrepreneurship was even really... So you guys didn't have a huge paperwork worth of shit? No, we did not have an operating agreement. Oh, no. No, no roles and responsibilities and things like that. Just stuff we had talked. Verbal and over text. Tons of text. So when you create an LLC, though, it does ask

who the ownership goes to and how much percent and all that. Did you see that? Not for that one. And then also for the second one that we did that we tried to re-register as NFQ in Florida, he tried to do it $51.49 without telling me and just trying to get me to sign it. And I was like, yeah, this needs to be fit. It's like, that should have been red flag number one.

But, you know, me being a trusting friend, thinking I could trust my military brethren of six years. Did you sign that? No. Okay. Actually. So none of those were signed. None of those were filed correctly. Okay. So it got dissolved.

Okay. And then whenever we moved to California, he re-registered a new LLC because we were going to do NFQ as a DBA. So now we're starting to learn a little bit more and fixing our shit. So we were really good at selling stuff and marketing and things like that and like developing the community. But we lacked the back end because we're young. You don't know what you don't know. And so once we started networking and meeting more people, then we're like, oh shit, this

is what you got to do. Oh yeah. Yeah. So, um, a lot of learning definitely occurred. Okay. A lot. I mean, I didn't know any of that stuff when I opened my gym either. Yeah. Yeah. So a lot of learning definitely occurred. Okay. A lot. I mean, I didn't know any of that stuff when I opened my gym either. Yeah.

A lot of people don't know that my actual business is called Movement. Fuck yeah. So it's Movement LLC. Yeah. So this is a DBA that you would be able to sell off. DBA of CrossFit Shock. Yep. Exactly.

So that's what – And I do have an operating agreement and I do have percentages with my partner. There you go. And I had two partners at first and I bought one out. There you go. And I had two partners at first, and I bought one out. There you go. And, yeah, there's a big process that went on. Yes. Very nice. So, yeah, you learn quickly that 50-50 is maybe not the best option unless there's clear-cut responsibilities and the people's jobs are not overlapping in any sort of way, and they stay in their own lanes.

I think it's pretty sketchy, though, that he tried to go 51-49. Exactly. I don't like that sketchy though that he tried to go 51-49. Exactly. I don't like that. Oh, man. Me either. It gets – so we're not going to go too far into details, but man, there's so many red flags that I just – I was just trusting, man. And that's the biggest – dude, that's the biggest thing about all of this is that

like you develop such good friendships with people in the military too and then like you guys all move out to like different areas and uh some keep in contact some don't but like you have that bond of like you know you serve together you are at the same location whatever and the biggest loss is that that i just lost someone that i had that with especially because him and i were like at the same bases like him and i spent so much time together and So right now you're speaking as if the brand collapsed, right? So no one knows how we got here yet. Oh, yeah. So with the current state of it, yeah.

So let's run through. Yes. How the partnership continued to. Yep. And then we'll go. Let's go back and talk about things that you would have changed. For sure. For sure.

So whenever we were going in through business, we had our verbal roles and responsibilities. Which is numero uno, do not do that. No matter how good of a friend it is, you've got to write it down. Do not do that. Yes. And you've got to have a lawyer. Yes. Big time.

For sure. Someone that knows what they're doing. Yes. And then make sure that you understand what you're getting into. And yeah, you're becoming a business owner. You need to take ownership of what you need to know. So, obviously, you can be naive to an extent. Correct.

And after that, you need to wake the fuck up and let's get to work. We have a lot of gym owners that listen to the show, a lot of people who own brands and stuff like that. So this is great, great knowledge for them. All right. So now you have a verbal agreement. You guys start making shirts to start? So, yes, we start off with shirts, and then we start – we had a heat press. And so I actually got out of the military before Taylor did. And then I was literally heat pressing every single shirt whenever he would get off work. Sometimes he

would come in there and help, but he was pretty hands off. I'm kind of a sled dog type mentality. So if there's work to be done, I'm going to be doing it. I don't care what it is. If it's sweeping, if it's mopping, if it needs to be done, i'm going to do it because i know that you're not going to do it because you're fucking lazy you know what i'm saying and i'm tired of saying it so i'm just going to do it yeah that sort of thing and sounds like a girlfriend no i'm just kidding i mean there's good girls out there i mean it's just a majority i'm just sorry ladies i'm sorry there's a reason i'm single right now and i'm going to stay that way i've got i've got i like my free time and i like i like being able to be like a controlled psychopath.

Yeah. In my attempt, you know what I'm saying? In my endeavors. So you start making shirts, you're heat pressing. Yes, exactly. So we start heat pressing things and we start getting into contact with people that can start helping us scale up by printing our shirts and going that route. And then after that. Where do those connections come in? Are they overseas?

No, no, no. So for the shirts, it was stateside. And that's another thing, too. Make sure you do a background check, especially if someone's approaching you to try to get your business. Be very wary about that because they're probably a fucking shark and they're looking at young little startups to kind of... Because I do get a lot of

people reach out to me about doing shirts. Yeah, exactly. They're like, hey, do you a lot of people reach out to me about doing shirts. Yeah, exactly. They're like, hey, do you want us to do your shirts? Do you want us to do your shirts? Yeah, be careful. Make sure you know the right pricing and make sure you know that what you're actually paying for is what you're paying for because you don't need to be paying for like someone's knowledge or whatever it is.

Yeah, all these little fees pop up. Exactly. It's like seven, eight bucks a shirt and then all of a sudden before you know it, it's like 60 for this and this and this and the design. And that's naivety or naivety, whatever it is. So that comes with it. We learned about that. And in doing so, I've always had trouble finding a good pair of shorts, workout shorts.

Especially dudes with thicker legs. Like, dude, it sucks finding, like, a pair that the length is just right, but then they're too tight. Or, like, Nike running shorts. I love the cut. I love the length of them, but I hate how there's so much excess material. Yeah. I didn't like how flattering it looked when you stood. It looked like it was, like, a skirt almost.

And so I was dating this girl at the time who actually bought me my first pair of Lululemon shorts. Which I'm wearing right now dude which are already my life was changed my life was changed and so uh after i after i wore those shorts it clicked i was like dude we gotta make our own shorts no one else is doing shorts especially in the veteran community and then me and my friend at the time, Jake, he bought this hat. It was a tiger stripe hat, like the old Vietnam tiger stripe. Yep. And he kept sporting it to the gym, or not the gym, the beach and shit like that.

So whenever we were out drinking, dude, he rocked this fucking crazy handlebar mustache and had this tiger stripe hat on, full chest hair. Like, dude, love that guy. And so he repped the hell out of this tiger stripe hat on full chest hair like dude love that guy and so he repped the hell out of this tiger stripe uh hat and this is the time of when i was like really trying to develop these shorts and i started um telling taylor the measurements we started to look for because he was looking for a manufacturer and so i literally would sketch them out all shitty on a piece of paper and write the measurements that i wanted them to be for the inseam and all that the the materials we wanted, and, like, going in depth about, like, what would be on the drawstrings as far as tassels.

Like, what are our options? Yep. What can we do? And so we finally get – we connect to a manufacturer that can make it happen. So right away, I was like, dude, tiger stripe shorts. Those are going to fucking crush. Yeah. Because we're going to make them a little bit shorter, like,

in the way that we'll market them. I have a little bit of thicker legs, so they look more filled out on me. And I had this vision of exactly how we're going to market it because we were going to market it as a cool guy thing but not being just a cool guy thing. Anyone can wear this shit. It just comes from that background.

And that's been my whole thing with NFQ. I want it to be inclusive. I never want it to be super niched or overly priced or anything like that. I wanted it to be about the message. The whole thing is mindset. That's all it is. You can apply never fucking quit to anything in your life. It doesn't have to be always the explicit.

But if you just harness that mentality and you go at things, obviously with a level-headed approach, and recognizing when you're going to actually injure yourself if you don't – you know what I'm saying? Yeah. There's a difference between being smart and then like – I love when a brand like just represents like one particular meaning or like a cause or something. I always talk about Patagonia. I just think Patagonia is just such a rad brand because like they just like stand for so much and i'm like whenever i see their stuff i'm just like fuck you know it's just so cool like i just i like it i like the person who owns it i

like what it stands for i like you know where they put a lot of their money like just they're just a rad brand they are and they they hold actually a special place in the special operations community's heart because they create some fucking badass gear yeah like seriously like for for just the special tactics guys too thankfully whenever i went through advanced skills training and i got issued a bunch of gear that was my first experience with patagonia and right away is totally different than all the other ones there's also like arcteryx and uh beyond clothing and then also cry yeah a lot of the guys out in the military know exactly what i'm talking about but like pat patagonia is known as like

patagucci yeah like everyone knows that that's like this shit is silk this is what you wanted like all the cool guys are wearing patagonia and uh um so yeah that's my experience with it i don't know how we got on this tangent i was talking about you were talking about how nfq just stood for like a mindset yes exactly i was talking about, you were talking about how NFQ just stood for like a mindset. Yes, exactly. And I was talking about how I just thought Patagonia was cool. Exactly. What they stand for.

Yes, yes. And so yeah, it is all intertwined because yeah, that mindset is what helps forge those dudes that are performing

the country's mission at an elite level. So now you have these shorts, the tiger stripe. And they caught fucking flame, dude. Yeah.

Flame. Because I didn't know much about the brand and then all of a sudden like, I think you guys reached out to me and they're like,, dude. Yeah. Flame. Because I didn't know much about the brand, and then all of a sudden, like, I think you guys reached out to me, and you're like, hey, would you guys wear a few of our stuff and tag us? And I was like, absolutely, no problem.

Because I was trying to get into the CrossFit niche. Yeah. I was trying to make it more diverse, because obviously it takes a lot of fucking endurance to do this, and especially on an elite level like you've been doing. Dude, you guys sent me a few shirts, and I wore them around the gym. Exactly.

The extra mile is never crowded. Yeah. Yeah few shirts and I wore them around the gym. Exactly. The extra mile is never crowded. Yeah. Yeah. That day I wore it around the gym, everybody in the gym knew the brand and I didn't know the brand. That is awesome. I was wearing it around and they're like, dude, NFQ. And I was like, yeah, they just sent me these shirts.

That is insane. They were like, those guys are so cool. And I was like, oh, shit, I didn't even know that this was a big thing. Yeah. Dude, I'm still learning that as it is. This is three years into it and like yeah i still haven't had a lot of exposure to like people at public events but i've noticed i've been getting recognized more and more on public especially there's 10 people out there right now in my class that for sure know what it is dude

that's sick 100 that's so dope it's awesome that it's spread like that and it's awesome that people have like taken that much um like buy-in to it too. And I know a lot of people that, dude, they live that. And that's why it's kind of disheartening that it's kind of gone the way it has because it's not the partnership that got dissolved and the friendship, but also this huge following that was like, now what? I have questions now like where that's going to go, but we'll wait to get there. So now the short starts

taking off yes this gives you probably a little extra boost of like all right we made something cool it's gonna work let's just start fucking working hard and so yeah that's it and i had always i tried to keep it as tied in with like the combat control community as much as possible because that's what it was to me it was just spreading that mindset and trying to link us like with because i saw i saw a lot of toxicity in that community, a lot of people that don't associate with people that aren't other operators because you're not at my level, so I can't associate with you. In a lot of ways, it's the same how I am with people,

but I'm way more of a friendly person, and I'm not going to judge someone just because they don't do the same job as me. Yeah. So as long as you're a good person, and like you you're just trying you're you're pursuing excellence in your own route dude we can be great friends and i would love that because everyone has a different perspective yeah so it's always nice to hear other ones yeah it is and especially you start to learn why people are the way they are and then that gives you some more perspective to like how to approach people in the in in the future um so going back to it it, we had these shorts that kicked off really well,

and they sold out consistently for quite a bit, and then we just continued doing variants and scaling accordingly. And as this was going on, I was nearing the end of my contract in the Air Force, and I had been torn about if I was going to re-enlist or not because i was at the end of my four-year enlistment and i had extended while i was in the pipeline to get to when i whenever i had my beret because once i had my beret then i could do a selective re-enlistment bonus and it'd be 80 grand in the span of four years it's not really that much if you think about it spread over four years but at the time you're young dude and you're like dude 80 grand

that sounds fantastic yeah and i still get to do the job i love sign me the fuck up so that's the thing is that i was fully ready to do that if it would have been the job that i had wanted to do i was getting assigned to the the 23 the. The 23rd Special Tactics Squadron. I had got my orders. And I was going to an assault team. Or assault zone team. Assault and survey team. And for everyone that's aware of the combat control community.

Like all the dudes. If you're going in that way. Everyone wants to be on the strike team. Everyone wants to be a JTAC. Everyone wants to be a JTAC. They want to be a SOTAC dude that gets attached to, like, the SEAL teams, the ODAs, the Raiders or Rangers and things like that. So that was not what you were going to get. No, and I was already an E5,

so I was already getting put kind of like into a leadership position to start, and then they were going to kind of put me back through like going through courses so whenever you're going through whenever you're in that world you're constantly learning you're constantly going through courses whether it's a shoot course an advanced halo course or hey ho and that's what you want fuck yeah yeah oh yeah because you're just getting better and you're getting trained and you're jumping with your boys you guys are are going diving. You guys are, you know. But that wasn't the contract they were offering you. No, no, no, it was.

So I still would have been able to do that stuff, but my main point was of deploying. The whole reason of why I even wanted to become a controller is because I wanted to have a kinetic impact. I've always felt like I've been meant for, like I can do more than what I'm doing right now. And I felt like at that time, you know, I can do more than what I'm doing right now. And I felt like at that time, and you know, I'm, I'm a super family driven person. I'm very, I love my country. Um, and I feel like I possess something that I feel I can help other people. And I felt like I was a protector in that sense. And I could go. And as long as like, I would rather take the hit, I would rather take the hit and go down range and confront evil in that way as opposed to that infecting my country you know yep that's my

ideology behind all of it and so through nfq after uh my i i had done a lot of writing that's when i kind of realized that i still have that effect but now i can have it in not such a specific way. And not only that, I have a larger platform now. And yeah, I mean it's just – it's the same mentality. It's just a different approach. So as the brand started to grow, what happened with you and your partner? It was actually – it was really good for quite a while. We had settled it.

We had agreed on 50-50 and that we were going to do an operating agreement. Cool. Everything was good for a while, and we started doing fucking crazy good. So did you sign paperwork with the 50-50? I'm trying to remember for this. No, because – no. So we didn't even get to sign that one because then we had started – after he had got it, like we were both super busy and wearing a lot of hats. But not only that, he kind of told me that he had already done things when he hadn't really done them yet.

So he had like signed your name on something? No, but that he had – like he wasn't keeping me up to date on like timelines. So for instance, he had told me that he had trademarked NFQ and a different breed and all that stuff and that he had had it already filed. And it wasn't. It wasn't. It wasn't. And so I went and – so this goes back into it. So we had kind of been having some arguments on how the brand should go and things like that because he wanted to lead it the route that it is right now.

And it's – the qualities went to crap. He's cut corners on a lot of like production things, which was not cool with me. I've always stood about quality and affordability. That's what I want in a brand. Yep. I don't want to be paying overpriced. Yeah.

I don't want to be paying too much for like a shitty product. I mean, just like a couple minutes ago, you were saying that was like your, one of your pillars. Exactly. all right. So,

yeah, I can. Yeah. So, all right. So, yeah. Yeah, so now like you guys agree on 50-50, but it's verbal again, yeah? Yes, yes. And now the brand is growing. You guys are starting to make money. A lot of money. You're getting close to like a million bucks. Yes, last year in 2018 we hit $858,000 in gross sales.

So your brand is doing pretty well. Doing pretty well. This year we were on track to potentially hit 3 mil. Okay. Which is pretty impressive for a brand that we started selling clothes in 2017. Yeah, that's really fast. And that just goes to show the teamwork. We were working as a team.

So good. We had our strengths and weaknesses that we were going out. So you had no – Well, there's little things about the money. I was gonna say right right when we made six figures the first time we hit six figures he went out and leased to i8 without consulting me or anything yeah on the business account yeah i mean shows up to my house with a huge smile on his face i'm like that's a cool car but dude what are you doing uh-huh what are you doing? Uh-huh. What are you doing right now? It's not what you do.

Yeah, it's not what you do right away. Three months later, BMW M3. Oh, my God. He has both cars now. He traded – so he had like an older BMW, but yeah, then he traded it out for like a – Three months later? Something like that. It was something close. So he's a very – like this is another thing about getting into –

Because you lose a lot of money bringing a trade in that early. Dude. So this is another thing about getting into – Because you lose a lot of money bringing a trade in that early. Dude. So this is another thing about selecting a business partner. Do not choose someone that is emotionally impulsive. Oh, okay. Yeah. Do not. That's –

I think we all have these like little – We all do for sure. No, I think we have impulses. It's just like whether or not we act on them. Yes. Like I've looked at cars before. I'm like, I'm going to fucking buy that. Exactly.

And then I'm like a month later, I'm like, thank God I didn't buy that. I'm not going to lie. I love driving that thing. Yeah. It was so cool to drive. And it still is. It's a cool car. It had a lot of issues at first, but the warranty got fixed.

Yeah. It's been all right. And not only that, I didn't really care. You're my friend. If that's what makes you happy, then cool. Yeah. I don't care. So at the time, you didn't even really care.

But you were like, this is dumb. This is dumb, and we're going to learn from it. Yeah. We're doing great. We're doing great.'re doing great so it's fine you can reward yourself i'm still driving the same i have i drive a 2013 buick enclave that i fucking drove here that's crazy that i drove from that polar opposite oh yeah but that's i mean it's good to have balancing yeah for sure attributes if you guys can recognize that you know work through it um but so yeah we went down that route.

As you can see, things started to differ. And then once we moved here, I started getting a lot of recognition, a lot of public recognition. When you say move here, where is that? San Diego? San Diego. So we were based out of northwest Florida. Okay. We were both stationed – or I was stationed at Herbert Field for my final duty station,

and he was at some other little base out there. But we were in the same location. We were running the business out of my house, my garage. That's actually the reason why I even got a house there because I felt like we were going to be pretty small scale, and then we could run it out of my garage for however long while I was deploying. Because I planned on being a controller. I didn't plan on just going NFQ full time. But instead it took off which is great it took off and i wasn't going to be doing the job that i wanted to do so i didn't want to waste any more time of my young adulthood doing something that i didn't feel like i had full control over and so like, well, now I'm going to be 25 when I get out or 26, whatever it was.

26. No, 25 because I'm 27 now. Yep. A few years ago. Which still sounds so young to me. I'm like almost 30. I'm almost 33. Dude, it is.

I don't know if you know that. Really? Yeah, I don't know if you knew that. No, I didn't. I thought you were like 28. No, I'm almost 33. Dude, and that's the thing too. So since I've been out of the military, I literally think everyone's the same age as me.

I literally think like everyone's like 28 to like 30. I hope I'm – I look 28. I'm stoked. Good, man. Well, I mean you've clearly taken care of yourself for many, many years. So that pays off. All right. That's how I'm trying to be.

So – I love it. I'm 28 right now. Just so you guys know. Yes. All right. So now you guys start making money. You move to San Diego because that's where we had the biggest influence yeah i think it's because the military bases of california is

the place to be it is it really is socal is nice socal is definitely nice i love it here in newport this is the spot this is way nicer this is way but i like this vibe a lot more than san diego i hope i like i hope i get a chance to take you around and do some cool shit. Dude, so that's the thing. So now I'm freed up completely. I used to – we moved here in August, and, dude, we were just working. We were grinding hard, and it was paying off, obviously. But now that I don't have – oh, so that's the thing.

I can't even go to my warehouse anymore because there's a restraining order on me. Okay, so let's get into this. This is what I'm excited to hear. This is what everybody else is excited to hear. So right now the story sounds great. I mean you have a couple red flags on your partner. Yes. But it's all going well.

The income is going up and up and up and up. Yes. And then you guys moved to California. Yes. You're stoked. You're young. Like fucking California. Yeah California I mean come on and then now

so that's the thing too is whenever we moved here we both had girlfriends that were helping us with the business okay not good not good

don't ever do that girls again fucking up the situation dude and that's well it's just because of the relationship that we had too

and not only that you can't treat your girlfriend like you can an employee yes not saying that's being disrespectful or treat your girlfriend like you can an employee. Yes. Not saying that's being disrespectful or anything, but especially the type of person that I am. I dated a coach at one point. It wasn't the best idea.

It's not good. It's not good. Not a good look. Yeah, anyways. So what did you guys do with the girlfriends? So mine actually abandoned me while I was visiting my family in florida that actually sounds like the best case scenario unfortunately it was she is a super good girl came from a small town and like we had a very good relationship but he just came home and she was gone yeah well she tried to give

me an ultimatum and i'm the kind of dude like dude i'm so headstrong that i'm like well you can fucking stay or you can go but but I'm not going to chase you. Like, I'm about to do some great shit, and I would fucking love it. I would just love it if you were to just chill out and just enjoy the ride because you can. Yeah. But some people want more of a commitment and that sort of thing. Right now, dude, in the way that my personality works, I have to, like, when I'm ready for that relationship, I want to give everything that I am into that relationship because that's super important to me. But at this moment in my life, I have to think about my livelihood, my longevity.

There's just too much going on. And not only that, I have something so great at my fingertips, and I can just feel it. I know a lot of people that have been supporting NFQ for a while. They're just super pumped about things that are going. When I first opened the gym, I had a girlfriend like that who was just trying to take more of my time. And I was like, if you just chill out and let me get this going, you're going to be so stoked.

It could be so good. And she totally blew it. Oh, but it's unfortunate. But okay. So your girl abandoned you. What happened? What happened to his girlfriend? Uh, they got pregnant.

Ooh. Yes. They were, they were starting to, well, I guess they had been trying to get pregnant for a while and they, I don't think they're married now okay i don't i'm not gonna dig into their relationship but like they were trying like they were trying to have a baby very soon into the relationship like i think within a year of dating so they got what they wanted so that's that's fine i think yeah so now they're they're i think they're yeah they're having the baby but i don't know okay when it's due.

So she stuck around, I assume? Yes. She's still around, and she was helping out a lot with the back end and stuff of the business. Very super organized and was actually a very good team player for a while. And then, yeah, the things happened with my ex, and that kind of changed the whole dynamic of the team. And then we brought other members on, and then there's some sort of animosity things that I think kind of of the team and then we brought other members on and then there's like some sort of like animosity things that i think kind of divided yeah what was that like hiring more people for the team like what were you looking for in an individual well to bring on to the team i knew exactly what i was looking for because i know exactly how i work i'm used to running a bunch

of type a dudes it's hard to hire people super hard super hard so especially young people that don't have a lot of like experience because you got to train them up. Yeah. Yeah. I think that and you're so busy that

training them is it's a whole nother it's gnarly like for me to hire a new coach if you're meticulous if you're meticulous too then it's even harder because you have a

standard that you expect because they're representative of yes. So did you pick one person two people three people. We had we eventually ended up with one, two, three, four, five at this point. Actually six.

And were you happy with all five of them? Not to the fullest extent, but they were able to get the job done. Okay. All of them were lacking extremely in some areas, but they all could have had areas where they were all young. Okay. But there was all room for improvement, and that was my plan. But so far, everything's still going really well, right? Everything's still going good because I was running it,

and I was teaching them all the way I like doing things, the way that Taylor-Ion operated and all that. And, yeah, it's going really good for a while. And then there's no signs of the company, like, blowing? No, aside from blowing um no aside from uh i could start seeing the animosity between like you know social media you can communicate through without even saying anything the way people like stuff and all that for sure so um i started picking up i'm um i'm an observer by nature so i am constantly analyzing things not

in a negative way or anything i'm just gathering information and like i like checking out your surroundings exactly i like to know everything that's available to me so i can make my best possible decision okay so what were you starting to see i was just starting to see you know a little bit of distance no like not really saying good morning to me anymore whenever i used you know it used to be different it used to be some sort of kind of friendship went to like a straight cold shoulder type deal. And it's very awkward for me to come into my own place of work. And how was that? Why was that developing? Um, I, it's a good question. We never actually got to solve that, which I was, we were supposed to, but some people

don't like confrontation. They think confrontation is like avoiding it. And that's the thing is so Taylor literally hasn't spoken to me about any of this. I've tried to come at him. I can show you the most recent text, which I'll show you after. But it's like, dude, I've tried to come at him as a friend for so many times. But he's adamant about getting the lawsuit and things like that. So what was the defining – when did you know it was totally done? So whenever he was –

Something happened, right? Yeah, he had threatened quite a bit. He had threatened quite a bit about neglecting shares and things like that because he didn't like the way some things were getting ran. And so we both had access to the Instagram, right? And I was starting to develop a really large following for like the Instagram TV because I was... You guys had like over 100,000 followers, right? On NFQ, yeah, we had like 120 or something like that.

But on my personal one, it was Mike Actual before. That was my alias associated with NFQ because while we were developing nfq i was still active duty and i didn't want people knowing my true name so i used mike from the phonetic alphabet which stands for mcculloch my last name oh cool yeah so it was believable for a while um and then uh where we go so we're talking about like the demise of the whole of the whole thing like what happened at the very end like when did when when did it get to the point where like it just imploded so because you said so he got he got upset about me so i started getting a lot of um attention on these instagram tv videos because i had been providing workouts i was just giving people free workouts i would literally

film the last set of each workout that i do and i just post on instagram tv so people could just have an idea of what to do in the gym. Yep. So that they're just aware. Because I know that whenever I was trying to find my way around the gym, I did not know what the fuck I was doing. So the best thing you could do is like now YouTube is huge, obviously. Now Instagram TV is big too. It's super accessible. So I saw the benefit of that.

And I was like, all right, well, this is also a way for me to advertise the clothing that we're going to be dropping so I can wear all the clothes. And you're building followers. Exactly. You're getting more views. Exactly. It's all relative to the brand. Getting more sales.

So anyways, I had posted this video, this Instagram TV video on my personal Instagram this night before. I think it was like a Tuesday. And then the next morning I got on the main account and then shared it so I can try to get more traffic, you know. Yep. Spacing out the exposure of it. And within like five minutes of it being posted, he sent me a text saying, I'm the only one that's going to be posting on the Instagram like it's always been. And I, unfortunately, I approached it wrong. I laughed at him because that's not how it's always been.

You know, I've been the face of the brand, and so I communicate consistently with the following. And I do that a ton on my personal account. That's actually where I do the most communicating. And that didn't sit right with him. And so because I laughed at him, he withdrew all the money from the business account and left me with $800. He took, so we, we just put in, we just put in like a huge, um, order and he, uh, so we were down to $188,000 in our business checking and he transferred that to a personal account and that's it. That's the, that's literally the last time you guys talked. So whenever he did that, though,

unfortunately the timing that he did that, I was looking into the back end of our business because I was trying to protect us. I was trying to protect us because I want everything. And since he was being sketchy, he wasn't following to his word consistently, so I started questioning things. So for some reason, I had the idea just to go look at the trademarks because we had had this conflict with Bradley Martin.

He did a shirt that's cold that had a different breed. And my business partner had seen that and lost his mind and tried to get our following to go at him, get in some drama. It was early on. Bradley Martin has like a million plus followers. And not only that, he seems like a pretty cool dude yeah like no point yeah and he's been selling that shirt since 2015 yeah so it's not worth oh my god yeah and dude so this was another red flag that i didn't recognize but he's already like trying to get lawyers involved like before even approaching the dude and i was like whoa we don't need to be doing all that. And not only that, I'm pretty sure it's like his first.

So maybe let's chill out and hopefully he'll let us keep doing business. Okay, so now you realize that the trademark was never made. They were, but they were dissolved. So there was one that was, and it was LLC, that we had started between three of us, like I had said earlier, and Clovis, and it got dissolved because it wasn't filed correctly. And then we re-registered as a 50-50 in Florida, but never signed it fully. And then, because we had planned to move to San Diego, so we were just like, all right,

well, we'll just re-register it here and then do our back taxes. So there's literally no contract anywhere? There is, but nothing's signed. So there's actually two contracts right now that I have. One that shows our 50-50 split for the Build Better Humans LLC, which is the new one that we started because we were doing exactly like you have movement. That's what we were doing. So we were doing the Build Better Humans as our LLC, and then we were going to do NFQ

as a DBA. Yep. Because then we had two other brands that we were working on, Stake Your Claim and SheLifts, a women's specific activewear brand. Cool. And then Stake Your Claim is like a cultural digression type thing that I'd been working on for a while. Yeah.

And, um, so, um, so now the LLC, you starting to notice that? Oh yeah. So, so I went in and looked into the LLC and, um, and other things and I noticed a lot of things that weren't adding up. And so I searched NFQ, saw that it wasn't – or it was – there was NFQ trademark, but it was for, like, some computer systems thing, but nothing for apparel. Yep. And so then I searched, like, a different breed, and a different breed was taken. It was taken by a canola seed company.

I believe it was, like, in May of 2018. A canola seed. Yeah, a canola seed, a different breed. I fucking hate canola oil. Yeah, it's fucking, a different breed. I fucking hate canola oil. Yeah, it's fucking terrible. I know. I always talk about it. How are they getting away with like –

I just don't get it. It's in everything in Whole Foods too, unfortunately. Oh, God. All right, moving on. You shouldn't have told me that. Now I'm going to look and everything. Dude, I know. I know you like Whole Foods as much as I do, which is really funny.

I got it from you. Oh, really? Yeah, because in Florida we didn't really have – we had one like in Destin destin but nothing really close to me and since living in california um it's so accessible and it's so easy especially the way i'm living now i don't have to meal prep or anything like that there's certain things that don't have canola oil and you have to read but i just go to like the deli and i get like the fresh chicken breast and like salmon and stuff oh yeah there you go yeah and then uh so yeah and i actually um your approach to, like, carb cycling. Oh, yeah. I've been doing that for, like, the last 12 weeks.

Crushes. Dude, holy shit. So I actually have, like, a progress thing on my timeline. Oh, you got to get those to me after for sure. Yeah, it's really good. So anyways, where were we at? The canola seed. The canola seed.

Yep. So, yeah. So there's no brand for different breed. Yeah, there's no trademark, no mark that's – So you guys have nothing. We had nothing. We have unsigned contracts. We have no trademarks.

Someone could have just swooped in with a trademark and just – So you technically could just start trademarking these things on your own and kick him out of it if you wanted to. That's exactly what I've done. Yeah. Oh, you have done that? I already have all the trademarks for all of it. I have the trademark for – But you're not even going to use it anyway?

You're going to start a different brand anyway? Yeah. So I have Bears trademark for... But you're not even going to use it anyway? You're going to start a different brand anyway? Yeah. So I have Bears Den Athletics that I started. You don't want to use NFQ anymore? Well, no, I do, but I want to give it back to the community

that started it. Oh, okay. So I trademarked it. I trademarked the phrase Never Fucking Quit. I trademarked NFQ, and then I also trademarked N space F space Q,

because that's also our acronym. So now he's totally fucked. Yeah, and now it's completely – and that's the thing. His lawyer sent me an email, and I told him, like, hey, I own the trademark. I'm super busy right now. I haven't contacted any legal representation, but I will get back to you once I'm stable. You would think that he would be smart enough to do this immediately when this happened. You would think so.

Unfortunately, that's – So I think that lawyer actually looked into it and um um well he wants us to meet now so there's a restraining order on me so like taylor he can't contact me i think i don't know how that works i've never had i'm not sure around me but anyways um i can't contact him or anything like that and i can't go into my old place of work so like i'm kind of stuck i don't i don't really know what to do um a lot of people give me advice a lot of people told me to, I'm kind of stuck. I don't, I don't really know what to do. Um, a lot of people give me advice. A lot of people have told me to like Lori up,

but right now I don't have any money. It was all taken from me except for, um, so I did, I've been doing, uh, my tactile athlete program, which is like a soft prep program that I've been working with tons of dudes

for. I've sold, um, a lot. Yeah. I've sold over $80,000 worth of programs in that one alone. Cool. So I've helped mentor a lot of people over the last three years.

Not only that, I've been running pool clinics throughout the country. I travel around, and that's where I was just in Sacramento and did a pool clinic up there. Oh, awesome. I do them in San Diego quite a bit. I was just in Dallas, did one there, and I've literally done them all over the country. Awesome. And so aside from that, that um so now that's how i figured out how i can make my revenue um all the money was taken from me but you know that sucks

but that's not what it's about money's money i can make it probably just as quickly as fast yeah just as i lost it yeah once you figure out how it really is so just that easy it's just like all right i already have the tools i just gotta just gotta use them again yeah there yeah there's a demand there for me so unfortunately it wasn't as easy as people purchasing programs um through like our website and i've been having to email all of them but uh that's actually what i've done is i create so i was like all right well i have this program that's really good i'm gonna just write three other programs and make them into a PDF and just start slanging them like that. Yep. And then, so I did that with my following, my following that they,

like I said before, energy cannot be destroyed. It can only be redirected. So these people that were a part of NFQ, they realized that I was pulled back from it because my writings were no longer posted. And all of a sudden, this is after he's kicked me out, right? Um, none, none of the writings really being posted. It's all this is after he's kicked me out right um none of the writings really being posted it's all self stuff it's all giving out discount codes and giveaways and like a lot of really sketchy things that wasn't happening before because i've never believed in that sort of advertising it's just more like a cookie cutter brand now yes that sort of advertising does not work because people do not want to feel like they're just constantly like

someone's trying to sell them shit yeah well that message is no longer there that patagonia style message you know like the never quit message is gone just constantly – like someone's just trying to sell them shit. Yeah, well, that message is no longer there. That Patagonia-style message. Like the never quit message is gone and gone, and now it's just another brand that wants to make money. Yes. Which is kind of a bummer. It is. But that's not the end of it, and it will be able to revive. So once this all settles, I would like to rebuild it in the way that at least can be beneficial for what it was meant for. And then I have my own thing going with Bears Den Athletics, which I'm actually doing

an apparel release on July 29th, which is my birthday. And thankfully I've had Brandon Rudak from ID Supply Co. Him and his team have been super helpful with you know,

they're just helping out. They're not taking any sides. This is who we used to use for NFQ, and he's just helped, like, just get me on track to at least get some shirts out the door. So it's cool. You know who would be a good contact for you is Randall, who owns LiveFit. He lives right here. Randall Pitch? Dude, I would love that.

Unfortunately, I feel like we kind of, like, got on, like, a little abrasiveness because of the previous owner, though. Oh, okay. Because he used to literally draw inspiration from LiveFit. And so if you're biting off on someone's style, and you can see, dude, you can see what stuff is bit off them. Yeah. And that doesn't sit well. You don't want your fucking intellectual property stolen and just reformatted in a different way.

Oh, okay, right on. So, yeah, unfortunately, I feel like he probably has a bad taste with nfq but i can get you the connection right and only that not only that like i think they did a never quit design which sounds good never quit live fit never quit yeah that sounds great but the previous business partner took super offense to that and did a never quit design too but then put a box around it. Like that's a clear shot. That's not good for business. You don't just take shots at people. Did you know this was happening at the time?

Yes, I did. Or was it something after? No, I did know that all this was happening, but it wasn't anything where I was like – Super concerned. Thinking – yeah, because it was just – I was like, all right, well, we're just trying to make more products too. Like at this point, I wasn't really even thinking of how important those personal relationships are. Even with people that you haven't met.

Because there's so many people that are viewing your stuff. And you're setting off this vibe. And I feel like a lot of people that have come across NFQ have gotten mixed vibes. Because there is like, especially now. Now it's very apparent where that sale gimmick start thing is coming from. Is he still operating the brand right now? Oh, yes. Okay.

Yeah, so all the purchases that have gone into NFQ since I've stepped away, or since June, what is it? I think it was June 19th is when he locked everything down. Okay. So since then, if you've purchased anything from NFQ, then it's gone to the I-8 payment. Okay. Oh, my God. That's funny. So hold on. Now you're starting this new brand. Everyone just heard a whole bunch of stuff about the other brand. Yes. What are some things, I mean, you've obviously learned a few things, but like, what are you going to do going into this new brand? That's going to be totally because like i'm assuming well i'm just it's going to be completely my vision like the way i wanted things to go in the first place you're going to be 100 owner you take it on investors

oh yeah no i have my yeah i have complete ownership but i'm gonna see and that's another thing too i'm i'm open i'm open to figuring things out right now i kind of like but let's just say right now i'm like all right dude i'll give you 100 grand fuck yeah what do you want what do you what do you what do you want out of it i'd be willing to talk to you i'd be like all right well what can you provide on the back end that i'm lacking and then i can tell you what i can provide and then we can then are you gonna give me a fucking contract make me sign it yeah dude let's do it of course i'm just i'm just testing you oh yeah for sure yeah absolutely and i should be pumped about that because i feel like you're a super smart dude and the way that you think about

things is very methodical and it's awesome to see that from someone that's not from my background because I could tell dude right when I met you in the gym it's the same thing you know same thing as whenever I went initially into a team you can tell whenever someone shakes your hand in the way that they look at you like I dude I knew right away like so I've always I've obviously followed you for a little bit too um and it was just cool actually seeing you in person because right away i could see that even if i didn't know anything about your background like dude this motherfucker this guy would be a hard guy to fight you know because i kind of have like resting angry face because i could no well because i could tell that like you would literally scrap to the fucking death.

Like you would go tooth and nail. And I could get that just from not only the presence that you had about you, but the way that we both like looked at each other. I was like, all right, cool. This is like he's – this is a motherfucker. You know? This is a motherfucker. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

And so it was really – it's really cool to see that from a fellow business owner too. And now that I come from a totally different background, it's cool to see that how business is still applied. Like the same thing applies to it. It's addicting. I just love the whole business vibe. It's so fun. Yes. I guarantee you're like a servant type leader.

You're kind of like the facilitator probably where you're trying to think of how you can assist your coaches to have like the best equipment. Oh, 100%. Exactly. Because that's investing in yourself. You can just see this place and you know that I'm like that. Right when I came in, I was like, I love the cleanliness of how these like, what are they called? The little pillars? No, the wooden rings that are hanging down.

What are those called? Oh, yeah. Just rings. The muscle rings or whatever. So I like how it's like very minimalistic. It's all very clean and like up and put away. There's not just like a huge big chunk of racks right in the middle. You can tell it has a flow.

When you come into it, it has a nice flow. And it has a very clean community-type feel. Like the outside. Even the people who come here are one of a kind. There's no out-of-shape people out there. They're all bad motherfuckers. This whole place is type A yes like i dig it like we have this special ops community of crossfit hell yeah dude no i dig it i dig it have you ever been to um um rebot crossfit one

in boston i have yeah dude so i have some good buddies um that work out there uh i know i know awesome aliolo okay yeah and connor murphy and connor yeah okay okay i actually coached classes on the boat that went to the bahamas the water on the waves oh dude i was supposed to go to that yeah but yeah we had we had a huge drive going on i actually got fairly intoxicated with connor really well that's not surprising dude that guy is oh my god he's a dancer he's yeah he's an incredible dancer i Oh, man. I wish I had just a fraction of his time. Oh, the moves. Yeah, we went to a bachelor party.

His bachelor party or his engagement party in Boston. And we have this little tight-knit group of guys that come from all backgrounds. And it's that same type of like, dude, I guarantee if you were to meet these dudes, you would just fucking love it. Because they're all about just good vibes, good people. And they're all like super driven motherfuckers. And they all come from different areas of business and a lot of soft dudes and a lot of like contractor guys. Like it's all a mix, CrossFit athletes and everything. So it's – but everything is the same.

We're all the same through that like fitness, like nutrition approach too. All those dudes are like like strong ass dudes but aside from that um yeah we were talking about this gym and how i really dig how it's not it's not like a sale gimmick it's very involved and that's what you want out of a business you want to develop a community and a reason for people to support it people for a reason for people to want to wear that shirt and that's exactly what nQ was, is with those sayings. So all the sayings of, like, all it takes is all you got. Like, dude, these are motivational things that you're supposed to read

and say to yourself, and that eventually becomes you. That was the whole purpose. It was some sort of manipulation. Mindset again. But, yeah, in a good way. And so I would develop writings for every shirt. So that way, whenever people saw the shirt, they had an immediate connection. Dude, that writing meant so much to me at this point.

And that's what it's for. It's not just a shirt. It's like something that you put on and you feel that shit. Whenever you wear that shirt, you're proud to wear that shirt. That's your fucking brand. And it's sick that it's the cheetah print. I know. I actually wore this as i summited uh mount

hood a couple weeks ago that is so sick i love that dude yeah and i love that you do that too like you kind of do your own thing and people like vibe on it like i don't know if you followed me or if you've seen anything i've done with like the last week but i repost a lot of things that people tag me in they tag me in like um kiwis and shit like that because I developed this thing based on dominant discourse, like a conversation topic because there's this thing about Americans with textures. A lot of Americans don't like shrimp or like sushi stuff because it's like slimy. Yeah, and the same with like Kiwis because of the fur. Americans – and they don't like it and they haven't even ever tried it. And so – So many people are like that it's so weird i've had a lot of friends like i'll be trying to like make something at my house or we'll go out and eat something i'm like you want to try this

and they're like no no i don't like the texture and i'm like the fuck does that mean yeah what does that mean eat it yeah just fuck it let's eat let's eat it we'll talk about it let's see if you don't like the taste exactly yeah i mean swallow the motherfucker yeah so anyways i this is a good thing about social media too is that i i had posted like because i used to slice the kiwis in half and i'd scoop them out and i'd throw away the the outside the peel yeah yeah and my australian friend jacob he he saw my story and then he was like why don't you just bite the fucker i was like what that's just can you eat the skin. That's the most nutritious part of it. I actually didn't know that.

Yes. And it's really not that bad. So just rinse it. Oh, I've eaten some of it for sure on accident. Oh, yeah. I just didn't know. No, it's really good. The fiber is really good for like your gut health.

Right on. So yeah. I'm in. It's funny. A lot of people are going to. So if you want to put stocks or investments in something, do it in kiwis. Because it's not the fucking spike. You think so?

Well, it's funny. So I do these pool clinics. And literally people come and give me like offerings of kiwis because it's not the fucking spike you think so uh well dude it's funny like like so i do these pool clinics and literally people come and give me like offerings of kiwis yeah they'll bring us like a thing of kiwis for like the whole class to share and so it's become like this inner thing like this community thing and then school and aside from that so that's what i started getting people just to take pictures of it because what they would it was a conversation topic they would take a bite of it and their friends would be like dude that's disgusting why are you doing that yeah like what you don't know about cute you know it's this thing so they show them the article and it's like bing and so one at a time people are thinking for themselves and it's all about health things

so now they're subconsciously getting involved into like this community and they don't even know that it's based around health and that's meant to get them thinking for themselves and thinking that wow i thought kiwis were bad this entire time but they're actually really great for me what else do i think that is really bad for me but that is actually really good for me i used to think crossfit was the dumbest shit ever yep then i tried it through my friend connor murphy totally different respect for it totally different different. And it really depends. Every gym is independently owned. It's as hard as you make it to. Yeah, exactly.

And that's the thing. So I have been to a couple different boxes and had to pay the drop-in fee. And, dude, I've been to some where I was immediately not about it. Turned off. Yeah, because it felt like a very clicky. And it pisses me off that they're allowed to call themselves CrossFit. I almost wish that CrossFit, we all had to do the same workout every day. I almost wish that.

Because it could be balanced if it was just scheduled and everyone was on the same thing. And then it's not like you went to a bad gym. You just had a bad trainer. Yeah. You know what I mean? It's almost like I wish we all had to spend, I don't know, a certain amount of money on equipment. We all had to have the same equipment. Because you might go to some gyms and they have three fucking rowers yeah and that's it and then they have some shitty

ass uh salt bikes or something like yeah like everything is all fucked up so like every gym you go to like i have a bunch of skiers assault bikes rowers we have everything and you might go to another gym where they don't i've actually been to gyms where they don't have any cardio pieces it's just weights wow which is fine, but it's hard for me. You're kind of missing out on a whole different market. What if that person thinks that's what CrossFit is? They went to that gym, and then they're like, oh, I tried CrossFit. Exactly.

That's kind of like where my mentality was because I found out about it when I was stationed at Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico, Clovis, New Mexico. They had opened up this little outdoor fitness area, and that's what they were doing is teaching CrossFit. And there's this guy that was teaching it and I just immediately was thrown off. I liked how they were preaching like the functionality of it because I think that's very important. I like the pain. Sadistic. You can just see like the way I said it. I'm just like I'm excited.

Like I can't wait to be in pain today. Well, because you know that's when you're growing. That's when you know that you're actually putting in the work is like when you're feeling that struggle. I mean, that's great and all, but I like looking around and being like, you can't beat me. Yeah. See, and I see, yeah. So I haven't even worked, and I want to work out with you too. That's super exciting because I want to see, like, I'm that way too, but I'm super, like, I will will try my hardest but I won't care if I lose

yeah you know but I will put in my fucking effort and I'll probably have a heart attack before I like dude I have I have a bunch of little

20 something year old trainers and they're all badass and like they all know that like I'm older and I like I competed for a long time and stuff like that and like I don't do a lot

of the class stuff anymore I still make all the workouts and stuff but every once in a while I'll hop in class and the other trainers will look at me and be like, oh, Ryan's doing class right now. And then we'll start doing the workout.

And I'll always just turn this switch on and just kick everybody's ass. And they're like, dude, you gotta let him know. I always have the old man strength coming out of me. Dude, that's exactly how my oldest brother is. So it's funny because we're all like, so I'm the youngest of three brothers. And I'm the only one with the background that I have. I'm the one that's consistently lifted weights not only for 14 years.

My brothers have had other life events to where they've been traveling a lot. They didn't have the same structure that I've been able to have through the military and through high school and stuff like that too. I was able to lift and work out and wrestle. And it's cool because my oldest brother, he's always been the oldest brother. But now I'm definitely way stronger than him and bigger than him in a different sort of mindset. But he makes sure to fucking let me know that I'm still a little bitch. Like any chance he gets – but he doesn't have to do it nearly as much anymore because the type of person that I am is totally different than who I was even a year ago. And I feel like that all has to do with just kind of the shit.

Dude, I've kind of been fucked over the last two years pretty consistently by people in my life. So I feel like that's helped me develop in a different way, but it's funny that no matter what, I'm still like I can't – there's a difference between that old man strength, that maturity. And it takes – the only way that you can get there is through going through that age. Yeah. So I get a lot of guys, a lot of young guys that follow me that are like 16 and 17. They're like, dude, what do you do? How do I get to your level? I'm like, well, first thing, I'm 10 years older than you.

I have a decade of, like, building density. And not only that, my background is totally different too. Like, not everyone goes through that sort of training in that way. It's crazy that they even have access to ask that question. Yeah. Like, when I was even, like, your age, I couldn't even ask that question. Dude, I couldn't ask that question whenever I was trying to go through. Yeah.

It was not accessible. It's just crazy. There's no information on really any ask that question. Dude, I couldn't ask that question whenever I was trying to go through. Yeah. It was not accessible. It's just crazy. There's no information on really any of that stuff. And that's why I feel like I'm in a very good position because I'm still young and I'm still relevant. But then I also know like a lot of older people that have helped develop me and help me with like training and stuff. Like I've literally – whenever I was going through advanced skills training, I would spend my free time whenever we were done with stuff. I would go hang out with like the coaches while they were programming and stuff sometimes. Or like the nutrition, I would go like ask the nutritionist for like meal plan ideas.

And I would tell her my goals or whatever I'd want to do. And they would like measure your body fat and BMI and all that stuff and tell you where you're lacking, where you have like muscular imbalances. And give me like exercises to fix that. And so like I was able to retain all of that and that all translates into now I use that in my programming. And so, um, it's, it's just cool to see, I guess all of that come full circle because I, it's like, I didn't lose anything. I've always, everything I've learned, I've consistently maintained, um, and built on and built on. Yeah.

That's the best part. That's's like as you get older you start to build on these things and you don't even realize where everything comes from it's just like this thing that you learned at some point and it just like keeps like just trying something coming back and like i remember like my big switch in my head that got me like the most gains in my life was i remember asking this guy that he looked a way that i really wanted to look in the gym. And I asked him what he ate. And he said to me, he goes, it's not about what I eat. It's that everything that you eat must have a purpose. If you're going to work out, what are you going to eat?

If you're done working out, what are you going to eat? If it's this time at night, what are you going to eat? He's like, ask yourself why you're going to eat something and what it's going to do for you. He's like, obviously a fucking cupcake. And he even uses this analogy is not going to be good for almost any of these reasons. Exactly. So he's like, you do some research and look up what you want for each point of your day

for every meal. And I start like, I just went crazy. I was like, all right, what do I need for pre-workout? What do I need for post-workout? Why? I started looking in journals and stuff and I was like figuring it out. I was like, all right, I need carbs here. pre-workout? What do I need for post-workout? Why? I started looking in journals and stuff, and I was like figuring it out. I was like, all right, I need carbs here. I need carbs here.

I don't want carbs then. And like whatever. Or like if I have this in the morning, I might fuck up my hormone levels. I started geeking out crazy. Yeah, your insulin levels will spike or whatever. Just all sorts of stuff, you know. But that was like the determining thing for me. I was like, all right, I just made 10 years of progress just now because i just figured out

how to fucking eat and it's a huge thing a lot of people just don't even know it's crazy how basic fundamental it's crazy how much you like so i feel like i've always ate pretty healthy but oh dude i just think whole wheat pasta was like healthy i was like i'm going to subway it's gonna be fucking healthy you know what i mean like yeah at this time before i heard that i was like you know these are all healthy things yep and honestly through following tv tells you that exactly at this time before I heard that, I was like, you know, these are all healthy things. Yep. And honestly through following – Because TV tells you that. Exactly. At the time.

It does. Or also the social norms like eating dinner. You have to have your dinner with like a bread and specific things like that. But yeah, honestly through following you, you helped me out a lot too through recognizing a lot of areas where I was – I was kind of giving myself excuses to have excess. Like something as basic of being a little bit hungry. Well, if you're trying to lose some weight, you're going to be a little bit hungry because you need to be in a deficit.

It's that simple. It's calories in versus calories out. But the quality of those calories and the macros and the micros, especially that go into that, is all very important because there's a lot of people that do the if it fits your macros things. i'm not a believer in that because a lot of people take it to an extreme they do like pop tarts and like crazy like process stuff it's like you're just constantly craving that shit dude that's all good and well that you know you're hitting your your uh macros and stuff but you got to think of the content where that's coming from what that's doing to your body and your hormone

levels and stuff and they still don't look as good as people who don't do that stuff. Yes. They still might look pretty good. They will. Especially chicks. But they're usually always in a caloric deficit. That's why it works. Yes.

I can't even tell you how many girls look good and it's like, I'll hang out with them for a day. They'll come out and work out. We'll go do shit. I'm eating like seven meals the whole time we're hanging out and they've had like three bites of a donut, two bites of pizza and like an Oreo. And I'm like, all right, you ate a bunch of fucked up shit, but you've literally had the same calories that I've had for breakfast.

But you can tell that does a difference to like the development too, because those people that eat that way literally aren't as like dense. It's like a little bit of like a softer consistency. They're not hard. Exactly. They're not because it's not that like. And if you want me to be hard, you need to get some harder muscles. Yeah, seriously. Some harder muscles. no but but that's the truth not obviously not to

i understand that my method to a lot of things is very unorthodox and i don't expect everyone to want to do things the way that i want to do them especially a partner I understand that my mindset and the way I go about things is very, very different. And so... You like to make things hard, and I think that things should be hard. It should. If it's not hard, you don't even respect the results that you're getting. You don't appreciate them.

I would have rather built my business with no money than ever have anyone give me the money. Because they give you those values, man. And it's the same with my values, man. Through that. And it's the same with my body and the things that I eat and everything. I want everything to be fucking hard. Like, I like that at night it fucking is hard not to eat a cupcake.

Yeah. Or a piece of fucking pizza. Going to bed a little bit hungry because you're like. I'm like, yeah. Yeah. Or I can go to bed and not eat it. Yeah. You know what I mean? And when someone asks.

Take some fucking water. Yeah. Fucking man up. I'll take a scoop of peanut butter or like a scoop of coconut oil yeah and just completely turn my stomach yep i'll take a scoop of coconut oil no joke to the face and just be like now what fuck yeah like your body's like yeah i'm gonna go to bed yeah go wake up to a nice uh nice movement yeah now that's a good thing too about like um getting like your diet on point too is

that you actually your body becomes more efficient like people don't realize the effect of like actually having like fucking greens like roughage in your diet because that helps you break down like your nutrients more efficiently and gives your body a longer time to absorb them and then not only that especially things where you're focused on like cleaning your gut health like i've got health is getting it's getting a lot of hype right now yes because like kombucha stuff yeah and that shit's great it's good people don't understand the quality of fats i did a whole podcast on just oils because our brains are majority fat made up made of fat so like if you're eating canola oil for instance you're basically building a house with fucking styrofoam blocks instead of bricks you start creating this brain that is just built on

just the shittiest fats and that's why like grass-fed meats and all these things come into play because there's a lot more omega-3s in them oh i see and there's higher omega-6s and everything and everything else so you start just building this brain with like all these lower quality fats and that's why like even kids like the formula that they're given and like they're getting soy proteins and all these different things that are going in. It's just like fucking everything up. So I can just go off. Especially those ages.

Those ages are the most important because you're literally a sponge. Like whenever you're a baby, you're literally, you can't speak or anything like that. You're just on like absorbed mode. You're just watching everything. Yeah.

And how we develop is through consistency. So you're only able to become what your environment is. So if you're just watching everything yeah and how we how we develop is through consistency so you're only able to become what your environment is so if you're like that just goes into like how you turn out as a person too like if you're in an environment where you're constantly stressed and your family's constantly worrying about money and they're eating a bunch of shitty food because they're kind of forced to like that kind of all plays a role because now you're going to be naturally more anxious and knowing that your quality of diet is degraded. And when you're that young and you're still forming, like you're literally – I feel like that has like a very big role in how you turn out as like a mature adult. You're literally talking about a chicken right now.

I know. Literally. It sounds ridiculous. But like – you know how they have a cage-free? But like a caged chicken, like a regular set of eggs that doesn't have anything on the label like cage-free or pasture have a cage free but like a caged chicken like a regular set of eggs that doesn't have anything on the label like cage free or pasture raised or anything like that white eggs they're literally so stressed the fuck out that the quality of that egg goes into your body and has like giant levels of cortisol and you're just absorbing like negative

energy damn it's it's a little geek out and hippie-ish but not only that like the protein doesn't get absorbed the same. The fat is not the same. The energy in your body is not the same. The whole thing is fucked. And that's – I mean bad environment, bad chicken. Exactly. We're an organic product too.

We need organic shit. We can't be putting all this processed shit that's not like it's whole raw what it is to some extent we can. It sounds like we're going off on on a tangent but in reality we're talking about mindset again and how it just transforms into everything so i think you know that the original mindset of what nfq was supposed to be it got off topic it broke it broke apart it's all the same thing of like just as joe rogan says like defeat your inner bitch at some point behind the at some point throughout the day and that can just be with diet if you're just hold some accountability back i really don't need that right now you will see such a drastic increase in like not only just how you look and feel but then like your performance too you're gonna know and it's a win in your mind it's a win sometimes like if i wake up and feel shitty i'll get in a freezing cold fucking shower. And I'm like, I won.

And I'll start my day like that, dude. That's a good idea. I'll wake up with a party like that. Dude, yeah, that's a good way to get going. I swear to God, if I wake up and I'm like, I'm not feeling it today. And I'm like, all right, I'm just going to punish myself.

I'll go in the shower and just straight up cold. All right, got the bitch out of me early. Yep. Start the day. Win for the day. I'm excited right now just thinking about a cold shower, even though it sounds miserable. Dude, I'm excited to actually work out with you whenever we get a chance to.

Let's go. All right. So what I want to touch on right now, and I really wanted this show to be about people listening to basically a business venture gone wrong and things that they can do to prevent themselves. So obviously the whole contract part of it is a humongous thing. Picking your partner. Yes. Looking for these red flags. Communication.

Yeah. Really, communication and intent. And addressing them right away. Exactly. If we would have started with that, we would have been in a totally different ballpark. And I feel like we would have been...

I honestly wish we could still work it out right now, but I feel like it's kind of... Unfortunately, the other party has taken it to the legal side, and I don't know where we go from there. Well, he'll probably listen to this podcast. Is there anything you want to say to him? I mean and I don't know where we go from there. Well, we'll probably listen to this podcast.

Anything you want to say to him? I mean, I just wish that we could have gone about this in a totally different way. This didn't have to go public at all, and I wanted it to happen. I texted him multiple times. I wanted to do this in person, but it is what it is. You kind of got me in a corner here. I mean, it kind of sucks that we had something super good to get crushed by whatever it is going on the other end. Because I still got, you know, what I'm doing, and it's obviously working, and there's people super pumped about it too.

But it just kind of is unfortunate that we couldn't continue, like, a good not only business relationship, but also a friendship. Yeah, the friendship is the worst part for sure. Because I literally had, like, dude, now I literally have no reason to stay in San Diego. He was my only friend there, and not only that, and I have family up in Sacramento and stuff like that. And my lease is actually up end of August. So I'm going to be out of San Diego, but the reason why I'm going up to Sacramento is I'm actually opening up a gym there. Oh, cool.

Yeah. So this could be the part of the podcast where I see what your new ventures are. Yeah. So we have a new gym. What kind of gym is it going to be? So it's – I won't get into the name or anything like that. That's totally fine. But because nothing's for sure yet, we haven't signed an operating agreement or anything like this, but this is –

You have a partner? Yes, I have a partner, and we have a location and stuff like that too. And then I'm just moving my stuff and going up there. How big is it? I think this one is 10,000 square feet. It's a huge, because it's going to get built out into something else too.

Like a half warehouse for another brand? For a couple different things. Within that gym, I'm also going to be opening up a bunch of different small brands. It's like meal prep service, and then we're also going to have a supplement line for Bears Den Athletics. So thankfully, this person that I am, that's going to be my new business partner, has done really well with starting out gyms. And unfortunately, he was in a poor situation with his business partner too. Got shafted out of a deal. Had a good track record of being a good dude had an investor that wanted

to help him get back on track got him back on track got him super got him profitable within three months of starting that gym now he's sitting at i mean i'm sure it's it's pretty nice getting paid off membership fees so now he's that he's grown his um his client basis up to what it is he's able to expand and so then that's where i come into play and i'm going to help grow that one and i'm going to be able to travel and kind of do this in a bunch of different places so i'm going to start up in sacramento area then i'm going to go to dallas then from there i'm going to go to virginia and probably up north to b if I can. And then bring it back to San Diego eventually. Sweet.

Doing a little world tour. So you're pumped on this. Yes. Yes, cool. Yes, because it's a new type of business, but it's kind of the same thing. Does Bears Den have an Instagram right now? Yes, it does. So Bears Den Athletics is what it is.

Yeah, B-E-A-R, like the animal. And then S. athletics is spelled out yeah b-e-a-r like the animal uh-huh and then s so bears den d-e-n athletics a-t-h-l-e-t-h-s and then my personal instagram is underscore underscore barrett like the animal bear b-e-a-r then i-t also play on words like can you bear it yeah i like it and then also like well never mind just it's for. So at this point for people to find you, it's going to be your Barrett IG. Yes. So that is actually a huge confusion too,

because whenever we were doing the NFQ stuff, I was known as Mike, Mike actual and stuff like that. But my real name is, is Barrett McCulloch. And, um, um,

the brand I'm, I've developed bears in athletics. It's, it's awesome because the, the symbol of the bear, it's very symbolic, and it's something that I can really relate to as far as writing and things like that. And not only that, the way I plan on doing the content for it, I'm super pumped for.

And the designs and things like that, it's just, I'm excited. And I already have all that in the works too. So like I said, I mentioned earlier, Brandon from ID Supply and his team, they really helped me out. I think getting the logos and the brands are so cool. Dude. It's fun, yeah. Yes, and I'll show you all of that stuff too that I have.

It's hard because there's so many cool designs sometimes, but it's an exciting part. But that's the thing, though, too, is that you can just do little different variants down the line. And it's your thing. Yeah, exactly. And that's what I'm really excited about, too, is because not only is it going to be apparel, but I'm also doing the programming side because that's what I love. I love informing people. That's my favorite part, exactly. And that's what I'm really excited about too because not only is it going to be like apparel, but I'm also doing the programming side because that's what I love. I love informing people. That's my favorite part too.

It's so good to see people actually listen to what you're trying to tell them and use it because then you can see it transform them. And it's like, dude, it's so good because I know they feel good. And I know that they feel a little bit how I feel because I feel great every day. Whenever I get it in and if I've been on like track dude i feel on top of the world and if i can show someone to do that for themselves dude that's so cool and i i'm amazed where where all my stuff went like i started it just for fun in the gym everything started in the gym because this is my home yeah and it just kind of like you know people were like well i want to do it and they're like somewhere else.

And I'd start it. Yeah. And then like now the fucking carb cycle challenge now. I mean, I can't even tell you how many movie stars have done it. Fucking professional athletes. It fucking works. Like I said, I'll show you mine too. Dude, I've had thousands of people do it.

Like I don't think people realize like how many people have done that. Like it's insane. You should do like some sort of deal for people people have done that like it's insane there's a you should do like some sort of uh some sort of deal for people that have done that if there's a way that you can track it to have um i don't know some sort of like shirt for it you should make like a shirt design for people that have had purchase this patient i don't get super stoked in clothing yeah but you're following me yeah they might they might get dig into it yeah it's a little something for them to wear and i'd like to give you a chalk shirt with the cheetah print yeah like i'm wearing her now i love this shirt.

That would be sick. So I bet you have a bunch of different variants of that. I do, yeah. And people love them, I'm sure. Yeah, they love this shirt for sure. See, that's the same thing too. People want to just represent. It's iconic for the brand too. It's like, this is the shirt.

Yes. And this one, there's not a lot of these. It's very rare. So if you have this one, people freak out. That's how our Tiger Stripe shorts are. Yeah. Our Tiger Stripe shorts are like what put us on the map. Very limited. Very limited, yeah. yeah i like that and we did a

couple different variants of them too but um nothing will be like the the og i made a 24 karat gold chalk shirt and i only made 10 of them really yeah and they cost me like 80 bucks to make each or something ridiculous did people buy them oh yeah they bought into them sure especially if it's limited that much so yeah we actually did that with some shorts. We did like a collector series to where we could – because you can do so many designs with shorts. Yeah. And there were so many that we just knew that we didn't want to consistently keep on our lineup. But we wanted to mess around with them because we figured people would like them. Yep.

Do a little cool hang tag that says like the collector series and like even give it like a variant number, stuff like that. But we only did two variants of that, and then that kind of went out the window as the business started to go a different route. So, yeah. All right. Well, everyone can find you now at Bears Den Athletics. Yep, that's the main page.

Do you guys have a website yet? No, that's actually in the works. So hopefully by July 29th. Not hopefully, it will be up. But yeah, until then, I post all the updates on it by July 29th. Not hopefully. It will be up. Until then, I post all the updates on it on my personal one. You're starting off with shorts and t-shirts? Just t-shirts too.

We've got to start small because obviously I don't have a lot of money to purchase the stuff yet. We're going to start off small. Just do a couple shirts and tank tops. Is the gym guy partnering up with you on the brand too? No. Okay.

No, this is all just me. Cool. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, a couple things, like two variants of like a unisex shirt, a tank top for dudes, crop tee for women, and then also like a flowy tank, I think, or something. Okay. And then also some Sophie shorts because people have been wanting those. And they're going to be embroidered.

So a big thing that we've had with Taylorlor and and how the brand where we got a big disagreement is that the um this material that was put on the shorts because we used we initially did it with embroidering the original tiger stripe i wanted them embroidered because i knew they would last the logo would never come off i had some nike shorts to where it was that plastisol and it comes off it comes off the second you put it in the heater. Yep. Or sometimes if you put it in hot water. Yep. And so our shorts started doing that because we were trying different methods

and it was only a few cents cheaper to do it that way. But it looked a little bit cleaner, but I've always been a fan of kind of, I like the embroidery because you can like feel it. Yeah. You know,

and it doesn't really degrade the product at all. And yeah, so. It can look cool. It can for sure. And I think, so that it doesn't really degrade the product at all. And yeah, so it can look cool. It can for sure. And I think, so that's what I'm doing with the Sophie's, the Sophie shorts that we're doing. People have been asking me,

or they asked us for a while to do that for NFQ. But once we got into, uh, literally designing our own shorts and things like that, we kind of, cause yeah, the Sophie's, but you also mentioned you're gonna be doing programming as well.

Yeah. That's what I'm currently doing right now. And that's, is that going to be part of the brand? Yes, that's actually the main focus of the brand. Okay, cool. So what kind of programming is that? Is it all operator style? No.

Here's the thing. I'm so glad you asked that. So I have a very large network of friends, and we're all communicating. We're all very connected through fitness. So like I mentioned, I have friends that are up at Reebok, and they have friends too that own their own little personal gems and things like that and um so everyone basically has some sort of background some sort of knowledge and the programs so what i'm doing is i've created or what i'm going to create is a platform for uh for um what's it called

all of these programs it's i'm going to do like a writer's council. So all of my friends that have some sort of background in like nutrition or whatever it may be, I even have some guys that are going to be in – that are going to be ghostwriting for me because they're still in the special operations world, and they're going to be developing programs for guys that are trying to go that same route, except it's going to be relevant because it's a guy that's actually doing the job right now. Obviously, his name can't be known, so he'll be writing for me as an alias. On top of that, I have people from all different sorts of backgrounds that I'll be kind of doing like a highlight on.

And so the people that come to this website or that are looking for any sort of programming, they can come select the person and then go off from there on what kind of program they would want. And the basis of it is I'm just trying to get people more aware. So I'm not selling these programs for hundreds and hundreds of dollars or things like that. It's basically like a bunch of guides that are super cheap, five bucks at a time, 20 bucks at a time, whatever it is, depends on the weeks. Just to get people because unfortunately the

way people take things seriously is money money talks if you're going to spend money on something you're that's an investment to you and i feel like you can put out all the free information you want on instagram but only a few people are going to retain that yeah and that kind of sucks you're kind of wasting energy that's what sucks about instagram in general yeah it's here people just watch yeah and and the thing too is like with the programs, if someone's like buying the program that you made for them, they're getting a piece of like your brain and a piece of your knowledge and your perspective. So then they're going to learn something totally new that they didn't even think about before. And now they're going to be like, holy shit, there's this whole thing of dieting. I didn't know.

What's carb cycling? Yeah. You know what I'm saying? What's ketosis? What's a ketone? For sure. You know? I'll be honest. I don't know how to fucking get into a What's ketosis? What's a ketone? I'll be honest. I don't know how to fucking get into a state of ketosis. It's not that hard.

Just don't carb cycle. Don't even eat carbs. That's the thing. I recognize that, man, I've been lifting weights for 14 years, and there's so many things that I've missed that some of my friends have a really good understanding of and i think that that can be beneficial to the masses just providing a platform and i've i've thankfully i've been able to do that with my personal page the barrett um one and people literally take pictures of their food now because they want it approved but so i i call um food sustenance and then i have a slang for that called sus

and so these uh a lot of people that interact with me and follow me they send me pictures of their food and they try to get it approved so i don't know if you've seen like i haven't seen like sus god do you approve of this offer like it's just it's a super like interactive just stupid thing same thing with like the kiwi kilos and all that shit like it's just fun things for people to be interactive and it's not really – it's not taken seriously. It's just literally to get you thinking like I need to eat more fruit like a kiwi. Dude, a kiwi is actually like a superfood. Not only that, like going into like taking a picture of your plate and realizing like, damn, this thing looks weak as fuck.

It's just like a piece of chicken with like rice. I need some broccoli or something. Yeah, so it reminds you to just spice it up a little bit. Yeah, spice it and make it a little bit more colorful. Take pride in your food. This is what's going into you this is what's nourishing you this is what's allowing you to keep doing what you're gonna do so you need to take pride in the quality of that you know and if you don't it's because you're not aware of it and that's the thing because i just want people to be aware because that's the key to fucking starting

anything is just becoming aware you don't know what you don't know you don't know you've been lacking in the gym until someone's until they see someone like you fucking crushing like it's like wow that guy's in sixth gear already and i'm barely getting up to like third all right well before we tangent off too long here um is there anything that you'd like to add before we get off the show here about any of the business stuff um i would just like to say – Any tips for people out there that you really want to just get across? No. We've hit quite a few.

The biggest thing is that I'm just super thankful that I've even been given this opportunity to come and speak my side of it because for a lot of people that support the brand, they've gotten a lot of misfed information. And the biggest thing that I could hope is that we could just be transparent about everything. Like everything that I've said, I haven't – it's nothing that's not true. Everything that I've said is factual and that's from my perspective. From my side, this is what's happened to the brand and this is why it is the way that it is. And this is why I've been going the route that I've been going. So my biggest thing is that, dude, people just deserve answers. A lot of people have been left in the dark.

Especially if they're supporting a big brand. Dude, that's their money. And now they're noticing the quality has gone down. Like why? Where did that happen from? Why are you guys changing things? It was working so good. What happened?

Like I'm not going to support this brand anymore if now the quality – you know what I'm saying? Yeah, for sure. So the biggest thing is just to have people aware and just to have them ask questions for themselves and to see if that this is something that they still want to continue to get behind. If it still follows the same, the same values that they initially followed the brand for. And that's, that's my big, biggest thing. And it's super unfortunate that it had to come out in such a public way. That's incredibly embarrassing.

Honestly, it's incredibly embarrassing to have to do. This is like child's play stuff, man. So, um, so um i thought the way i mean we just kind of went over it could have been what to do what not to do could have been handled better definitely could have been handled even on his end for sure and my into like dude there's there's things like i could i shouldn't have laughed at him i shouldn't have you know i'm an abrasive type of person i seek confrontation so like in some senses other ways ways, a lot of ways, I don't give a shit, but like if, if there's a problem and I see it, I'm going to attack it. And if it's within our relationship, like I want to fix that, dude, I'm not coming at you. I'm not

saying, I'm not saying that you suck as a person right now, but I'm saying that your issues that you're like, there's things that if you continue doing this, it's going to affect us as a business and we need to fix it. And we just need to be honest with each other. And that goes with any relationship. But anyways, I'm going to stop talking because I'm going to fucking go on for like three more hours. Well, I hope that when you guys meet up eventually at some point, which will happen probably in court or something like that, you guys can reconcile it in a little bit easier fashion. It was supposed to be 50-50 and I'm cool with that, dude. Take your 50 and go with it. It's fine.

Like I literally have no – I'm not holding a grudge or anything. It sucks that we're not friends anymore, but it is what it is. Let's at least clean it up, dude. Let's just clean it up. I wonder if he'll reach out to me and be like, I want to talk about my side. We'll see. Alright, well, I wish you the best.

Thanks for being on the podcast. Thanks for giving people some good tips. I like the beginning part where we talked about how the business started. There's a lot of obviously things you could have changed which I think is there's a lot of people

that want to start brands and gyms and all these things and they want to go off word. You know, like here's my word or whatever and it really,

a lot of times stuff like this happens. So it's not really even an unheard of thing. Yeah. It happens all the time but I think it's good just to remind people. And even for him too.

This is just a learning thing. This isn't something you can recover – that you can't recover from. So just take it as a learning thing. That's it. That's what I'm taking it as. I wish the best for you and your family and however life continues to go for you. Dude, I seriously – I don't want anything – I just have nothing but good hopes for people because that's what I would want them to want from me. I don't want to wish anything bad on anyone because I don't feel like, dude, I didn't really get – it's money.

It's money. Who gives a shit? Okay, take it, dude. That's fine. And I truly believe the best success comes with some big failures like this. So I'm excited to see where Bears Dan Athletics comes, goes to. I'm excited to just kind of see the whole thing grow. Excited to see what happens on his part.

Excited to see what happens on everybody's part. Yeah. And just see what everybody learns from it. Absolutely. I hope you guys learned a ton. I want to thank Barrett here again for being on the show. Yes. It's a pleasure.

And don't forget to reach out to myself and Barrett and tell us what you thought of the show. Share it. Tag your favorite parts or whatever. And I'll see you guys next Tuesday. Thank you again. All right, guys, that's it. Thank you so much for listening to the show. And if you guys ever want to see what I'm up to, you guys can check out Jim Ryan.com. That's G Y M R Y a n.com. And all of the eBooks and all the things that I'm working on and talking about on my Instagram are all on there right now,

including the new dark horse programming that I did with Richard Diaz, which was part of that crazy YouTube series that I did that hit like a million views. It was like insane. So now he's actually put together this really, really cool way to go through your workouts to get the absolute best result with the absolute least amount of work. So everything is based off a heart rate. He has just really, really cool flow chart for each and every person for each and every workout. And we also attach a running video with it that also shows people how to run more efficiently with way less economy and get you guys through running a little bit better because a lot of people need help on their running. Besides that, the interval bodybuilding books are on there. I got crossfit workouts on there now. I have sweat workouts on there now. I have all sorts of stuff on there right now.

You guys get 25% off of everything in the store with code REALCHOCK in all capital letters. That's just for my podcast posse. You don't get a discount on the dark training, on the dark horse training, but everything else is 25% off. So you guys should take advantage of that. And then the carb cycle challenge, which is actually the biggest thing that I do right now, that is like what's making me actually worldwide famous at the moment is on there as well. And I throw one every six weeks. So there is one coming up in about two or three weeks

from when you listen to this episode. So again, it's jimryan.com, G-Y-M-R-Y-A-N.com. Thank you guys so much for listening to my podcast. Thank you guys so much for following me, supporting everything that I do. Again, I'll see you guys next Tuesday. And thank you again

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