Bedros Keuilian Podcast Show - Randall Pich: An Inside Look - 042

Episode Date: April 11, 2018

In this episode, Bedros Keuilian interviews Randall Pich, creator of the international apparel sensation, Live Fit. Like Bedros, Randall came from a place of poverty and massive adversity. Also like Bedros, Randall used these challenges as an opportunity to forge himself into an unstoppable entrepreneur. Watch or listen now to discover how you can thrive in business even when you don’t have the resources and the odds are stacked against you. For more information on Randall Pich, check out his website at www.randall-pich.com. “When you don’t have the money, you have to create the money.” - Bedros Keuilian Here’s what you’ll discover: 2:24 - The first step Randall took to turn his apparel side gig into a worldwide brand. 4:23 - How Randall got started with only $300. 7:03 - How Randall constantly stays cutting edge by staying true to himself. 10:50 - The invaluable lessons Randall learned growing up in Section 8 housing and poverty. 16:02 - Why you don’t need a degree to succeed in business (and it might actually hurt you). “Entrepreneurship is about doing shit no one's done before.” - Randall Pich

I don't have any kind of degree or bachelor's or MBA. I barely made it out of high school. I know it's similar for you, right? The best lessons you can get as an entrepreneur, do you either want to come out of a four-year education with $200,000 debt or do you want to take $200,000 and learn in the trenches? Hey, friends, Bedros Kulian here. Welcome to another episode of the Empire podcast,

and this is a special one because it's another inside look. And today we have my dear friend, and one of the coolest cats I know, So Randall Pitch, founder and CEO of Live Fit. Randall, what's up? What's up, man? How are you, buddy? Good, good.

Thanks for coming and joining us, first and foremost. So what we do with the inside look here at Empire is we take an entrepreneur like you and go, how did he start? What is he doing? What was his secrets? What failures can we avoid that he's had? What successes? So why don't you tell everybody exactly what Lyft fit is and how it came to be?

Oh, Live Fit. It's a worldwide suitewear clothing brand with Heavit. the influences of fitness, skateboarding, surfing. And it actually came about from my personal training business. So it was never meant to be a clothing brand. Okay, so that's where it stemmed off of. So the whole idea, if I remember you telling me correctly, you had your personal training business and you were like,

oh, I'm going to make some shirts. Yeah. So that the community can wear it and kind of get your brand and your fitness business out there, right? Right, right. How did you come up with the term or phrase, lifet? Lift it.

That was actually the slogan for my personal training business. Oh. Okay. And at that time when I was making merch or whatever producing the stuff for my clients, I had already had all this knowledge from creating brands prior. So I just maneuvered really, really quick, you know. Gotcha. So what year was that?

Because we're going to go through a timeline here. Okay, let me see. What year was what when I... When you were like, you know what? I think this Lift Fit brand has legs. Like, it can take off. I think it was 2012. At the end of 2012, yeah.

Okay. So at the end of 2012, and then this time you're a personal trainer. Now, I'm guessing you're not making millions of dollars as a person. trainer. So all of a sudden you have this idea to start this, it's now a global brand. What was the first step you did to get it out of your community inside and on more people? Well, it started locally. Like I said, it started with my clients. You know, we started rocking it and stuff and we posted it on social media. And then that started getting traction locally as well from my friends and from family and stuff.

And then my clients that posted the videos too as well of them training and rocking the shirts. It started reaching a local level. And then with social media, it started attaching people that I could, you know, get a hold of it. And that's where the whole, all right, let me actually start a brand and push it as an e-commerce brand, you know. And then, yeah, that's where it started really scaling. So when you start thinking that, all right, I'm going to put it on my clients and we're going to start making videos. Were you making videos with the intention of getting more eyeballs to see it? No, dude.

I was literally just making a video because I thought it was cool. I just wanted to show off like, this is what I'm doing. And you were putting it on, was it Facebook or Instagram at that time? Facebook we didn't have Instagram then okay so you're putting it on Facebook yeah and before I know it people who are following your friends or your clients like hey how do I get that yeah and this is when you go I think I have something here brilliant all right so this goes to show you that sometimes you're running a business but a better opportunity presents itself in fact one of my company's FitPro newsletter which has over 4,000 gym owners who are subscribed to a seven-figure business I started by accident I send out emails to personal trainers every day five days a week and in 2000

2006, personal trainers would respond back to my emails, my marketing emails, and they go, man, you're so consistent. I wish I could be so consistent with my emails. Well, when you get enough emails like that, I was like, hey, if I created a software that automatically sends out newsletters for you, we write them and it sends it out, would you buy it? Oh, yeah. So, and we've got like thousands of trainers on board for $69 bucks a month, right? And they get the value, and we get the value.

So sometimes your best ideas come from the community saying, I like that, I want that, How do I get more? And you have to be listening. And that's what Randall was doing there. So, all right, so let's fast forward a few years. You decided, all right, I'm going to go all in on LiftFit. Right. Did you take out a big loan?

Did you bring on investors? What did you do next? No, so check this. So a lot of people don't believe me, like the people that don't know me, you know, like outsiders, social media people, whatever. So I started with 300 bucks. Holy cow. 300 bucks.

That's it. You know, 300 bucks in like the t-shirt industry or whatever and the clothing, it can get you a pretty fair amount of shirts, you know. And at that time when I first invested into the merchandise, you know, I was making pretty good money personal training. So I can live off of that money, personal training. So when I first invested at 300 bucks, I think I got like about 70-something shirts, you know, and or, yeah, and then sold all that. And the profit margins on shirts are pretty good, you know, even though I sold it for like 15 at the time for my clients. Where did you sell it?

Did you have a store? Did you create a website? I sold it straight out out of my trunk. Out of your trunk. Out of your trunk. Out of my trunk. So $300 gets you $70. shirts yeah the 70 shirts that you then printed your logo and design on yeah yeah you

started pedaling out of your car yep the trunk of your car yeah and you made enough money back to then buy more shirts I'm guessing all the profits I made from that or all the money I made from that at revenue I just rolled it back over I didn't even touch it and it snowballed to one skew one t-shirt led to the restock of that t-shirt to another one and literally scaled within years to like a multimillion dollar thing and I didn't touch it yeah people are in disbelief I'm like dude how it's just simple math you know you put everything back in, you don't use it. It's going to grow. You just got to make sure to keep selling, you know? That's it. That's it. So a lesson for all of our people watching and listening

to this real quick. Two lessons here. One, delayed gratification. So you could have sold those 300 shirts or the $300 worth of shirts, gotten the money and you're like, shit, I'm going to go out and party and drink and, right? But the reality is you delayed your gratification and you went all in and then all in again and all again in. So one, delay your gratification. Two, our friend Gary, Gary Vaynerchuk says this all the time. Every single one of us started off with a job at first. And he owned his own job. He was a personal trainer.

You were living off your personal trainer income while going all in on this side gig. So what does Gary say? Look, you want to be an entrepreneur. That's great. Don't quit your day job. Bus assing your day job. And then from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. work on your passion project until that gets legs and then quit your day job.

So two great lessons there from Randall. All right, so now you've got this, you're so embedded in the fitness, kind of skating, lifestyle space. How do you constantly stay so cutting edge with the brand? Because I'm actually, this is weird. We're not only friends. I'm actually a customer. I own the backpack. I have shorts.

I have shirt. Right? So how do you constantly bring up new gear products, designs to keep it interesting for us to buy? So I always stay true to, like, who I am. am okay so that that comes with like all my upbringings with the skate culture music culture all that that stuff you know and I carry that with me with with the brand you know so everything I put out it's all real and it's all like stuff I know and and you know I still keep up to date with like the the skate scene and

stuff too you know so I still skateboard today yeah so like I'm just like bringing those influences to the table you know to this industry that isn't exposed to that sure I'm saying sure so I'm just combining all these things that I'm experiencing and whatnot and you know So really what I'm seeing, and I don't want to put words in your mouth, but I know this because I'm also friends with you is everything that you live, you translate into your brand. Right. Because the reality is other people love what you love. They love the tattoos.

They love skating. They love surfing. They love lifting. They love that lifestyle. They go, you know what? I jive with him. So with this new era of social media, how important is it for you to be transparent and authentic in who you are? It's very important.

And I always tell people, too, like, not everyone's going to like your. your taste or your brand or whatever. And that's okay, but there's gonna be millions of other people that do. So just focus on what you know so when you come across to the public, it's more real, you know what I'm saying? Sure.

So that's why I never got into like BMX or stuff that I don't know it because I really don't know it. I push skateboarding because I know this stuff. You're gonna talk to me about skateboarding. We go for days, you know, or fitness or body, I know that stuff. And it shows, right?

Like if all of a sudden your greed glands started to secrete and you're like, oh, you know what? I'm gonna go into BMXing and fucking Pilates and yoga, whatever. If you're not authentically in that space, it's going to show in the brand. Yeah, exactly. But you are authentically in the space here with, like you said, skating and lifting it. Okay.

I love that. So let's say we've got some people watching here and they're like, man, all right, I want to create my own brand. It could be it could be apparel line. It could be watchline. It could be digital products or services. But they want to use social media because the reality is you are the king of showcasing your life on social media in a way where the rest of us want to go, shit, I really like him.

I feel like I know him, like him, trust him. And the more we know like and trust you, the more we want to do business with you. So how does a new young entrepreneur, what's the formula for social media to build a no like and trust factor so that they can have the same level of business potential as you do? I would say be obviously real and authentic. And, I mean, sometimes the harsh reality is, is sometimes people haven't lived enough yet to have the history, that have the credibility to showcase what brand they want to make. So for example, I've had tons of streetwear.

brands before that didn't make it, but no one knows about it because that shit didn't take off, right? Right. But now that I've lived through all this life, I mean, I'm 30, but I felt like I lived through a ton of shit, like going through hardcore shows, going through, you know, skate parks, experiencing a ton of different stuff. Now I can translate that to the brand. And unfortunately, people that are really young have not experienced a lot of life to give to the brand.

Yeah. So it's hard, but that goes to show. Like with me, it was trial and error all throughout, you know, with my other previous brands that was just teaching me, you know, that's it just led up to this. So, you know, I always talk about entrepreneurial scars. And what I mean by that is, is one of the biggest scars that I see new entrepreneurs make is they want the Randall Pitch outcome without the Randall Pitch suffering over a decade and a half, right? And they want the franchise outcome that I have without the decade and a half of suffering. And so one of the training scars or entrepreneurial scars that

you're going to have as a new business owner is you've got to put the time. It's time under tension, right? Yep. And so with that, you just kind of hinted to, I had some businesses and things that didn't work out. So let's be really honest here. What didn't work out? And did you come from a rich family? Did you, like, have money or did you have to suffer through this?

How did it all start? No, I didn't have anything. I grew up like in Section 8 housing, you know, with government funding and all that stuff. We were really poor of me, single mother and my older brother. But that didn't stop me, you know, because everything I did, I was just like I put 110% and just used what I had. You know what I mean? Yeah.

And I remember my first business was, I mean, you can call it a business. It wasn't like I was out to make millions of bucks. I just wanted to rock clothes that I made, designs that I made. Me and my friends that were skateboarders, you know. It was this brand called Ruckus a long time ago. And, you know, that taught me the process of making T-shirts and whatnot, but it didn't take off. And I was like 14 years old. Holy smoke.

So even though the brand failed, you walked away with lessons to apply to your future business. Exactly. And I was 14 years old. too, like exposed to all that stuff, you know? How is it that you became so entrepreneurial at such a young age? I think it was just, you know, growing up on the streets, too, as well. With like I said, previous interviews and stuff,

talk about like my upbringing and whatnot, my hustler mentality. For example, like if I was out skating and whatnot and I needed some money, I was strapped for cash, I would sell something I had extra of, you know, to friends and whoever that needed it, like a pair of wheels or a new deck or my old shoes. I would sell that stuff, you know, because I need to make money. And it was just, in my mind, I was like, I just needed more money to do this to that.

I wanted to get this. You know, so I didn't think of, oh, I'm going to be this business, dude, you know. That's just, that's life for me. Right. Like, I need 20 bucks. All right, I need to sell this. So, I mean, you grew up in Long Beach. And back then, especially the area that you grew up in, actually, even now.

Even now, yeah, it's hot, yeah. It's not the nicest place to live in. And so single mom, taking care of two sons, when you don't. have the money, you have to create the money. So you started to get, so one thing I always talk about to the people who follow me on social media and on my blog and Facebook, et cetera, is that when you don't have the resources, you got to get resourceful. Right. And that's what you did. You're like, hey, I got an expert deck. I've got an old pair of shoes. Someone's going to want them and you found a way to sell it. And little did you know at the time, that's like the best

entrepreneurial lessons you're getting. Yeah. Yeah. And so today, now let's talk about what are some of the if you could uh i don't know let's say there's a young man here that you're never going to see again and you have to give him two to three big lessons about being an entrepreneur and this is like what he's going to take away and apply the rest of his life what would that those young lessons be i don't know be social be likable to you know always be aware of yourself and and yeah just be likable i don't know how i mean that that goes far you know as a business person too like you want to be able to be that person where everybody wants to do business with you,

but obviously hold core values, you know what I mean? So is there, and dude, is there a secret to being likable? You're a likable guy. Like, have you done something to make yourself likable? I don't think so, but what I've learned to do as well through my, you know, years of growing is learning how to read people as well, you know? And I think that's what personal training taught me

is learning how to communicate with different people with different backgrounds, different cultures, different upbringings, you know. I think that was like my key, because we had to sell personal training at corporate valleys. Right. You know, no matter who this person was. And I was already covered in tattoos.

Like, no one wanted to talk to me at that time. Sure. This guy's not approachable. But you had to learn how to just break that red wall down and just be likable, get down with the person. Just like, you know. Brilliant. You know what I mean?

Brilliant. So communication. I always tell people that if you're starting out and you want to be an entrepreneur, get a job in sales or service. And as personal trainers, we were in service and sales, right? Because when you have to sell to someone and they come up with objections, like I can't afford it. I got to talk to my spouse. It costs too much.

I don't have the time. You have to learn to overcome these objections. And when you approach them like me, I was, at the time I was baldheaded when I was a personal trained, baldheaded, used a lot of steroids, 242 pounds, and I was a competing power lifter. And I would approach Mrs. Jones in the gym and I could see her backing off. Probably no different than when you approach them with your tattoos. First impressions. I had a big old hose of my ears too.

Right. I had like one inch, one. I remember those. I remember those. Do you still wear those? No, I haven't taken on a while. Yeah, but they were big. I love that.

My nephew was rocking those too. So being able to be liked and understand and read people is the best thing you can do. And one of the best ways to do that is through a sales or service position, right? All right. What are the lessons would you give to someone? So you said, be social, be likable. If they want to be an entrepreneur, is there some other lesson that we can teach them? Not other lessons. I mean, if I were to say again, don't listen to what the general public has to say to you. I never took in like, like, I mean, yes, school is good, but like the college stuff, you have to be aware that those are businesses as well. They got a fun. They got to do it, you know, so the world lives off of business. I don't even know how I realized that or what age I did, but I realized it and I was like, all right, you know. So you got to keep everything, everything you do, you got to be optimistic about it. You know, you have to keep an open mind and just,

realize like this world runs off of business, you know? And that's true because so many colleges, universities, now online universities offer, hey, you can get a degree in business. And I see so many people reaching out to me on DM. You've got a massive following. I'm sure they reach out to you. Hey, I'm going to college to get my bachelor's in business or MBA. I don't have any kind of degree or bachelor's or MBA.

I barely made it out of high school. I know it's similar for you, right? The best lessons you can get as an entrepreneur, do you either want to come out of a four-year education with $200,000? or do you want to take $200,000 and learn in the trenches? Exactly. And entrepreneurship is about doing shit no one's done before. And how the fuck are you going to learn that shit from people that had fucking done it for 10 years prior?

Like, I don't want to learn from your ass. I want to fucking do this shit and create something new. Yes. Because we're paved in the path for the future. You know what I mean? Like Elon Musk, you know, like just doing shit that no one never thought about. And that's how you move the world. That's how you fucking make the world go around, you know?

And that leads to the last thing here. that I want to share, which is to really think big. Like, if I could summarize, like, I'm pretty decent at reading people. If I could summarize you, I would say someone who is authentic and is not afraid to think big. Exactly. Elon Musk, like, every other fucking country

is like, we're gonna go to the moon, and he says, fuck you, I'm going to Mars. In fact, I'm gonna send a Tesla to Mars. Like, that's how big we need to think. He decides, he doesn't like the fact that there's traffic between here and San Francisco, so he goes, I'm gonna make a, tunnel underneath, right? Think bigger. One of the ways that FitBody Boot Camp grew for me was

I saw the outdoor boot camp model. I was running the outdoor boot camp models. And I knew that it rains, it snows, it gets dark. We have so many things that work against us in the outdoor boot camp model. I said, what if I brought that indoors and try and every, the entire industry, idea, EURSA, ACE was telling me that's never going to work. It's a stupid idea. Now we're on the list on Inc. 5,000, right? And entrepreneur list. So think big, be authentic. Is there any last parting words you want to leave with our audience here? As far as being like entrepreneur or whatever. Entrepreneur or just achieving their dreams.

Yeah, just like what you said, people are going to think your idea is stupid or whatever. I mean, you're the only one that's going to know that truly that this is going to make it. You know what I'm saying? Because when I thought Liffitt was going to blow up like, hey, this is the next thing, this is next. I would tell people to a point where I just started shutting up because people are like, yeah, okay, okay. So many times we're like, oh, no, okay, this is another clothing line. Okay, then I got to a point where I'm like, you know what? I'm just going to shut up and just work on this by myself and do it and show them through my progress.

So work in silence. Work and silence. That's it. Work and silence because who you share your dreams with determines whether those dreams get legs and fly or if they die, man. I'm convinced that. I just want to share my dreams with entrepreneurs, other entrepreneurs. The reality is I don't even share a lot of my big aspirations with my close family. No.

Because we come from a foreign country. They're closed-minded. Adds a risk. What if you lose $3 million in that process? What if I make $30 million in the process? Exactly. That's why I look at it. What if I make $30 million, right?

Cool. So, Randall, dude, this has been, one, an absolute pleasure. Thank you for joining us on the Empire podcast. And number two, how can people find you if they want to connect with you or learn from from you on social media or websites? What do you got? My personal website has all my info on there. It's randle dashpitch.com.

I don't know who the hell took Randallepitch.com. Someone did, I think it's probably trying to sell it to me watch later. But yeah, you can find all the info there, all my brands there, and all my social media links to YouTube, Instagram. It's all on there. So randall dash pitch.com. There you go, folks. And, of course, we'll put this in the show notes for you. And again, if you enjoyed this show, please make sure to like, subscribe, and share the Vampire Podcast.

Let's build a lot more entrepreneurs so they don't go to college and come out with tremendous debt. Drop out. No. Seriously, no, I've had eight people. I've helped eight people drop out of college. college when they're half with they're almost halfway through one guy who works for me upstairs right now he's he's got six months to go on I just just drop out you don't need more debt just work for me I'm going to give you five-year education while I pay you right right it's the best thing he can do so

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