Mark Bell's Power Project - Building a Multi-Million Dollar Fitness Product: 10 Years of the Sling Shot!

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey everybody, welcome back to Mark Bell's Power Project podcast hosted by Mark Bell, co-hosted by Nseema Iyang and myself, Andrew Zaragoza. Today's episode is a very special one. Today's episode is a compilation of interviews regarding the 10-year anniversary of Slingshot. Yes, we've been in business for 10 years now, so we made this awesome video that was thrown up on YouTube, but the interviews are so dang good. I think you guys really will love this one if you missed the video. If you did, please check the podcast show notes, whatever app you're listening to this to on and check the video version because I think you guys will really dig that one as well.

Starting point is 00:00:35 But what you guys have to look forward to in this one is basically from start to where we are now, how the slingshot came to be, the whole experience and journey from Mark. We hear from his wife, Andy Bell. We hear from Mama and Papa Bell. Of course, Mark's parents, who you guys remember from Bigger, Stronger, Faster. Speaking of, director from Bigger, Stronger, Faster, Chris Bell chimes in on his experience and what he saw right away, right from the jump, right from the get-go. He kind of understood what was going to happen with this thing. You also hear from employees of Super Training Gym, like little smoky right from the jump, right from the get-go. He kind of understood what was going to happen with this thing. You also hear from employees of Super Training Gym, like Lil Smokey, Steven Granzella, our homegirl Jessica Smith, and yours truly.

Starting point is 00:01:13 It was really an honor to be a part of this 10-year anniversary video. Huge shout-out to Ryan Soper. He's the one behind the camera. He's the one that interviewed us all. He's the one that put this whole thing together. So huge thanks to our homie, Ryan Soper. That's it for me. Hope you guys enjoyed this one.

Starting point is 00:01:29 Let us know. Let everybody know. At Mark Smelly Bell, at MB Slingshot, at Mark Bell's Power Project, all on Instagram. Hit us up and let us know what you guys think about today's podcast. And we'll catch you guys later. Peace. I'm Mark Bell. I'm owner of Super Training Gym. I'm a father of two. I'm a husband. I have a few inventions in the fitness space. Mark's a very interesting person. He's probably one of the more interesting personalities that I know.

Starting point is 00:02:01 He definitely wears many hats. I get the question a lot about what is Mark like in real life? Because I think there's probably, I'd say maybe three or four versions of Mark. There's Mark training, there's Mark competing, there's Mark on social media, and then there's Mark at home. He's probably the most successful person in powerlifting. He's done the lifts. He has broke records. He's given out free information and then created products that make lifting easier and more fun. The impact that Mark and this company has had on the fitness industry, in my opinion, is second to none. Mark has been putting out videos since before YouTube.

Starting point is 00:02:41 He has probably more videos than any fitness influencer on any social media platform. The best way I can sum it up is name me an influencer that Mark hasn't influenced. My brother Mark is one of the most interesting people. I always say he's like the dumbest, smartest guy in the world because he never reads books and he never studies, but everything is done practically inside the gym and with his own body. And he's been able to figure out things that no one else has been able to figure out, including inventing the slingshot.

Starting point is 00:03:14 From a factual standpoint, the slingshot is a supportive upper body device for bench press, push-ups, dips. It allows you to handle more reps for more sets, more overall volume. It allows you to add more workload to your training. And it's a product that I invented 10 years ago. I've been a competitive powerlifter since the time I was 12 years old. I'm 43 now, so over 30 years in the game, in the sport of powerlifting, I've been hurt every which way you can think of. Torn my biceps, torn my triceps, torn a hamstring, and torn pecs is what

Starting point is 00:03:48 really led to the invention of the slingshot. It was a series of events that led to the creation of the first slingshot. The reason why we started the company was a couple things. I had just lost my job. Leading up to that time, Mark was a kept man and didn't have a real job and so when I lost my job we lost our income and so we had to figure out a way to make a living and that's when we launched Power Magazine which is a magazine that we ran for several years and Mark came up with the idea of the slingshot. He had had the idea for quite a while and needed to figure out a way to make it a product and he didn't know anything about textiles or materials and so after researching and talking to many different people and doing all this stuff he came up with a concept. And then the concept became a prototype. And then

Starting point is 00:04:45 the prototype became something that we could actually take to market. So that whole process took from basically 2008 till it launched in 2010. The way it started was one day I was over at Starbucks getting a coffee and I've come walking out of Starbucks and there he is with his hat on backwards and sunglasses and he's his iPhone, and his feet are up on the table as he's sitting in a chair. And he says, oh, Dad, sit down. I'm like, what? He goes, you're here for a reason.

Starting point is 00:05:16 And I'm like, what? What's the reason? And he goes, I came up with this fantastic idea. Now, at the time, Andy had lost her job. I think they were just receiving unemployment at the time. They had lost her job. I think they were just receiving unemployment at the time. They had a house, they had one child, you know, they had a lot going on and like almost no money coming in, you know. And so I sat down and I said, what's the reason that I'm here? And he said, I came up with an invention and I need $17,000. I met him there a couple days later, and he showed me the prototype.

Starting point is 00:05:48 And at first he showed me with the big rubber bands that they have, and he asked me to hold the excess over here, and he was doing this with it, because he had it around his arm. And then he said he was going to show me the prototype. So then he showed me the prototype, and I'm like, that's pretty good, it does what the band was doing, but who's going to buy this? And he goes, oh, are you kidding me? Powerlifters all over the world will buy this. And I'm like, who are they? You're the only powerlifter I know. Mark has always been creative. And that started, I think, back when he first started with

Starting point is 00:06:21 professional wrestling and learning how to cut promos and how to talk on camera. And that sort of led him down this path to be a power lifter. But when our older brother Mad Dog died, I think he got inspired and he decided like, I already have a wife, I already have a kid. We're not here for that long and I better do something with my life. And I think that triggered him to really follow his passions

Starting point is 00:06:45 and invent the slingshot, which I think has always sort of been in his head since the first day he put on a bench shirt and thought that he could make something that's better than a bench shirt and much easier to use. There's some unintended results of being an inventor that are kind of neat. I didn't make the slingshot to work for dips. I didn't make the slingshot to work for dips. I didn't make the slingshot to work for push-ups. And I didn't design the slingshot to allow you to

Starting point is 00:07:09 handle more weight. I wasn't trying to create like a bench shirt like you might see in powerlifting. I was simply trying to figure out how can I still lift because I keep getting hurt. How can I train through and around these injuries that I keep facing? Even with my knowledge of training, I was trying to be the best power lifter in the world. And so sometimes that stuff's a roll of the dice. I ended up bench pressing 854 pounds. I ended up squatting over a thousand pounds,

Starting point is 00:07:38 squatting 1,080. And when you're chasing after that elite status and you're trying to get to that next level, just really led to a lot of injury. So I needed to make a product that was going to still allow me to do what I love. I love to train. I love to lift weights. And the second that even just part of it is taken away from you, it just makes you feel like crap.

Starting point is 00:08:01 I could still come in and squat. I could still come in and deadlift. But man, I loved bench pressing. I loved being a full power lifter. I loved being able to do all three lifts and having full access to those lifts. And once I created the product, once I made the product, I was now able to kind of gift that to other people, share that with other people. I felt that there would be a strong calling towards it. I think the slingshot is really important because as we move forward, we're always evolving and we're always learning how to do things better, right? And if you look at some of the top world record holders of all time in

Starting point is 00:08:35 the bench press, they're using a slingshot to make themselves better. So I think it's really important in just the fact of thinking outside the box and creating something that can help people get stronger without getting hurt. Because a big part of Mark and I's career in powerlifting involved getting hurt. And we didn't want to see other people wearing down their joints. I feel it's an important innovation in strength training to think outside the box. Being a younger guy, being in my 20s, I remember hearing older guys that were now the age that I'm at, they used to say, oh, I used to do that back in the day, man. I used to stack on four plates or I used to do three plates. And I always thought to myself,

Starting point is 00:09:16 well, why can't these punks, you know, why can't they still do it? You know, why can't these older guys still do it? And the main factor was that they got injured. They got hurt or something just got too uncomfortable along the way and they just could no longer lift those weights. And I would always say, when I'm older, I'm going to be still moving around those weights. As I got older and as I got deeper into the sport of powerlifting, I myself got hurt many times over and started to recognize the problems. And trying to come back from those injuries.

Starting point is 00:09:46 A lot of times you're just never the same. You can be tough mentally. You can try to do everything physically the right way. And it just seems like nothing ever heals up quite the way it once was. And to get those newbie gains that you had when you were a teenager or when you were in your early 20s, all that is kind of history and behind you. And so I wanted to create a device that would allow people to get back to doing what they love. I've met people at seminars and at trade shows and they've come up to me crying because they love, it might sound silly, but they love bench pressing that much and it's been taken away from them.

Starting point is 00:10:25 Simply just because they love to do it, they maybe have done it too often. They maybe have tried a little bit too heavy of weight because they love lifting heavy weights. And as a result, they ended up with an injury to their elbow, an injury to their shoulder, an injury to their pec. But with the slingshot, you can still train through those injuries, and you can also handle more weight. shot, you can still train through those injuries and you can also handle more weight. So maybe, you know, someone who's in their forties, fifties, sixties could handle weights, uh, that, uh, that they were throwing around when they were younger. Mark and I got married actually, um, it'll be 20 years ago this August, which is just almost exactly a month after the launch of the Slingshot. So we had been married almost 10 years before we started this company. In that 10 years, I worked in advertising.

Starting point is 00:11:13 I had what you would call a 9-to-5 regular job the entire time during that 10-year span. Mark, on the other hand, was a bouncer, a personal trainer, a fitness enthusiast, working on many, many different things. And it just, it worked for us. Like we, we just had our roles, you know, he, he worked on that and, and I had my job and we just made it work. And, um, I was fine to be like that forever. And then in 2008, when the real estate bubble burst is when reality really hit and I lost my job. I hadn't been out of work since college. I'd always had a job. I'd always had a pretty good job.

Starting point is 00:11:57 Meanwhile, I'm panicking and I'm like, well, we have a mortgage and we have we had just had our second child. So we have two kids and a house we had just bought. And I was definitely freaking out. And he was his typical, like, it'll all work out. I would describe Mark as a very loving and caring person. He stays very focused and very consistent. No matter what's going on, he doesn't get too ruffled. I think that's a good

Starting point is 00:12:25 quality to have. When Mark said that he came up with an invention, my first thought was, wait a minute, you need to have money week to week, you know? And I thought, well, how's that going to work out? And then I figured, you know what? He's married, he has a child, he has a wife, they're going to all figure, Andy and Mark will figure it out together. And they don't need any kind of you can't, you can out of us. So I'll just back up and pray for him and pray for their idea and pray for him to go forward in it and to know what he's doing. And I did pray this prayer.

Starting point is 00:13:02 Lord, wake up every power lifter across America and across the world and let them know they need a slingshot. It took off like a rocket ship, you know. The first order came in and it sold out like in no time. And they were doing it all out of their garage. It was amazing. Almost a miracle, you know. I had no idea. He knew much faster than I knew that the

Starting point is 00:13:29 slingshot was going to be this big idea. I was more skeptical. Having the idea of the slingshot, I knew it just wasn't enough. I knew that the slingshot could be very successful, but I knew that it was going to be important to turn the slingshot idea, take it from an idea, turn it into an invention. The difference between idea and invention is that you actually go through with making it, which most people don't do. You have to actually go through with making the product. I knew it was going to be massively important though, to grow the company the correct way that I had to turn that idea into an invention and then sprinkle some seeds on it and water it every single day and turn that invention into an actual business. Yeah, I remember when Mark first told me about the slingshot and right away, I think I was one of the only people that got what he was talking about and understood what it could do.

Starting point is 00:14:23 The second that I saw it, I was like, this is revolutionary. You're basically just taking the top half of the bench shirt, the part that actually does something and sort of manufacturing that into something that's really easy to put on and really easy to use. And so you can slip on a slingshot and increase your bench press by like 50 pounds, you know, or by like probably 10%, should say in like five seconds and you can train safely without getting hurt and progressively just keep getting stronger and i think that's why it's a really important factor in people's training the company started out with a very solid foundation based on the product itself the slingshot what everything really started with plus

Starting point is 00:15:03 andy and mark being, one, passionate about it, but quite prepared to take on the big task of bringing that to the market and bringing it to the world. What they've done is taken something that was a wonderful idea, a very helpful to the sports that it applies to, and then added product lines and different applications so that the company is now on this path to grow and really touch different markets that it hadn't before creating the product was was kind of difficult I think a lot of times when people think about making a product I think they think it's gonna be this like huge ordeal and especially especially, you know, the more complicated the product, the worse off your thoughts probably are. But I think something that can be valuable to people is to understand that the anxiety that you have over that,

Starting point is 00:15:56 the anxiety that you may have over the hurdles that could potentially be there, they are all, you know, anxiety is fear over things that haven't happened. they are all, you know, anxiety is fear over things that haven't happened. So there's, when you say it that way, it's like, well, there's really no reason to be scared of it, right? So I want to encourage, I want to urge people to give things a shot because I did. I gave something a shot. I gave something a try. I was scared too, you know, I was nervous about it. I didn't know what would happen, but it wasn't really something that was scared too. I was nervous about it. I didn't know what would happen, but it wasn't really something that was that scary

Starting point is 00:16:29 because my initial investment, I think, was like $600, which at the time I didn't have, so $600 was still expensive for me. But I just took a chance. I just took a shot. I just kept thinking. I just kept, I continued to think. I took a concept to my wife's friend that sews together swimsuits for a swim team. I don't think there's anything all that special

Starting point is 00:16:52 about that. What I did doesn't require a certain type of genetics. What I did doesn't require certain type of social status. What I did doesn't require, you know, money, doesn't require certain type of social status. What I did doesn't require money, doesn't require anything. It just required me thinking, can this thing that I thought about, can it be beneficial if I go through with making it? And the answer was yes. And when the answer was yes, I pushed forward.

Starting point is 00:17:22 There's a lot of companies that come and go, but I'm pretty proud that we not only are still here, but every single year we've gotten bigger. Every single year we've expanded our line. Every single year we've come out with new and innovative products. And I think that's pretty cool. I had no idea when we did the first one, the original Slingshot, the one product that we would even do when he's like, I have ideas for other versions.

Starting point is 00:17:48 I'm like, whoa, slow down. And now, you know, we just had a meeting earlier where we have like 2,500 SKUs of things. So it's definitely grown to something I never thought it would be. But I'm super proud because it's not been easy, but we have really surrounded ourselves with a really good team. And I think that's been the key is that we just keep moving forward and we try to make really good decisions. We try to make slow decisions. We try not to do anything too big or too fast, but we try to really be thoughtful. And I think that's why we're celebrating our 10-year

Starting point is 00:18:25 anniversary. The significance of the 10-year anniversary to me is huge. I have been a part of Slingshot for seven years now. I have been working for them like salary and full-time for six. And to me, that's my livelihood. That's my family. I've been able to accomplish a lot of things in my personal life because of Slingshot. And so when we're hitting 10 years, it's just another milestone. It's another point on the scoreboard, as Mark would say. 10 years is exciting. Most companies don't make it 10 years. I'm really proud of Mark, and I'm really proud of Andy.

Starting point is 00:19:00 This is a joint venture with Mark and Andy. Obviously, Mark's the brainpower behind what's being created. But I think that you have to have that other side, um, to you that balances you out. And I think like Andy's been there not only to balance them out, um, you know, just with the, with the business, but like just in life, you know, I've seen her be by his side the entire time. And like, honestly, like I've never seen two people get along so well for so long. It's, you know, it's just not normal in our society these days, you know. So I'm actually just really proud of them as a couple.

Starting point is 00:19:36 We're putting it down that we have endeavored over 10 years to take this really cool kind of off the wall idea that Mark thought of. And Andy had the wherewithal to get to market. And now we're here. It's 10 years to take this really cool kind of off the wall idea that Mark thought of and Andy had the wherewithal to get to market. And now we're here. It's 10 years later. And not only do we have a slingshot, we have all these other products that are just killing it. The 10 year anniversary, you know, it's it's I'm super excited. I'm super pumped about it. I would say what it signifies the most personally for me is my relationship with my wife because I know how to invent products. I know how to be creative in terms of handling people

Starting point is 00:20:10 on a day-to-day basis, handling employees, handling customer concerns, handling our internet, handling this facility, handling our bills for the company, handling paying the employees, handling employee disputes, handling all the different things that go into business, I, very luckily, I don't have anything to do with. And I never have. And it gives me the ability to be more creative, which I think is a huge service to the company. So having a business for 10 years and having our marriage, I feel like I'm more in love with my wife than I've ever been before. We're going on 20 years of being married as well. So there's a lot of victories in there. There's a lot of things for me to feel really good about. From a competitive powerlifting asshole standpoint, the 10 years

Starting point is 00:21:09 signifies, you know, planting a flag in the ground and telling everybody else to go fuck themselves because we're the first company, you know, we're the first man through the wall. They say the first man, first guy through the wall gets bloody, you know, we're the ones getting bloody, we're the ones getting our hands dirty, we're the ones getting bloody. We're the ones getting our hands dirty. We're the ones who had to kind of push this entire business and this entire power lifting slash performance enhancing equipment forward.

Mark Bell's Power Project - Building a Multi-Million Dollar Fitness Product: 10 Years of the Sling Shot!

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