Determined Society with Shawn French | Adversity & Mindset - The Epic Transition from Athlete to Entrepreneurship with Co-Founder of Burn Bootcamp-Devan Kline

Episode Date: January 15, 2024

 Devan Kline, co-founder of Burn Bootcamp, shares his journey from being a minor league baseball player to becoming a successful entrepreneur. He discusses the challenges of transitioning from athlete to civilian life and the importance of mental health during this process. Devan also emphasizes the significance of leadership and team building in creating a successful business. He highlights the role of the visionary and the operator in building a strong team. Finally, Devan emphasizes the power of consistency and not quitting, as well as having a winning attitude and not fearing failure. In this conversation, Shawn French and Devan Kline discuss various topics related to persistence, identity, and personal growth. They emphasize the importance of persistence and belief in achieving success, regardless of external opinions. They also explore the void that athletes often experience after their sports careers end and the need to separate personal identity from sports. The rise of college athletes as celebrities and the benefits of name, image, and likeness (NIL) sponsorship deals are also discussed. Additionally, they touch on the importance of staying even-keeled in the face of critique, the impact of body language on perception, and the value of embracing both the good and bad aspects of oneself. Finally, they talk about building a holistic fitness brand and encourage listeners to leave reviews and share the podcast. Transitioning from athlete to civilian life can be challenging, and it is important to prioritize mental health during this process. Leadership and team building are crucial in creating a successful business. The role of the visionary is to provide the vision and direction, while the operator focuses on executing the vision. Consistency and perseverance are key to achieving success. Having a winning attitude and not fearing failure are important for personal and professional growth. Persistence and belief are crucial for achieving success, regardless of external opinions. Athletes often experience a void after their sports careers end and need to separate their personal identity from their sport. College athletes are now seen as celebrities, and name, image, and likeness (NIL) sponsorship deals provide new opportunities for them. It is important to stay even-keeled in the face of critique and not let judgments on your business or game affect your self-worth. Body language plays a significant role in how others perceive us, and it is important to be mindful of our actions. Embracing both the good and bad aspects of ourselves allows for personal growth and self-acceptance. Building a holistic fitness brand involves addressing various aspects of life, including body, mind, emotion, spirit, relationships, time, and work. Leaving reviews and sharing the podcast helps to spread the message and impact more people. Building your brand as an athlete? Create your narrative today with Athlete Narrative- https://ambassador.athletenarrative.com/shawn-french-join     Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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So you're inherently getting this level of disrespect and torment or you've got this label on you. And then I kind of started acting in alignment with that label, you know, doing bad stuff as a kid. So I got labeled a bad kid who didn't have enough resource. to get to the showcases who was a live arm, good arm, but bad attitude, right? So that was my label. I wasn't recruited. Southwest Florida is one of the most beautiful places on the planet to live. For those of you that are thinking of moving from other states to come to Florida,

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It's time to break away from the crowd and stand out. Start your athlete narrative today. What is up, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of the podcast The Determin's a set. I have with me today a former minor league baseball player for the San Francisco Giants. And, you know, after he transitioned from the Giants and you'll hear his funny story today, but he ended up being a visionary and a co-founder for the fastest growing franchise in the United States of America. Burn Boot Camp.

You've probably seen him. They are everywhere, place to go get an amazing workout. He's also the co-founder of Burn. What is it? Burn Media Co. This guy's an entrepreneur, a master at transitioning from professional athlete to entrepreneur and husband and an overall badass. Devin Klein, welcome to the show, buddy. What's up, Sean?

Good to see you, man. Thanks for having me. I love what you're doing. Dude, thanks, man. It's great to have you on. Anytime I get the opportunity to interview a former baseball player or a former athlete that's doing amazing things out in the world, I jump on it, man. And you're more than welcome to be on the show and your message is needed for this audience. I'm glad to have you here, man.

It's always, yeah, anytime you get with like a fellow athlete, you know, there's kind of that energy or that aura around them, like you kind of know, you know. And so as soon as you know, you get to baseball guys. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's going to be some serious swag. So the audience is going to hear a lot of jargon, a lot of swagger in this conversation. And I just know it's going to be power. Oh, in locker room talk.

Yeah, dude. You might have to, you might have to do a spinoff project. I got to talk to walk. If you do want to share like, like, like non-educational, just straight. up like funny stories. Do it. We can do that at some point during this too. Oh, that'd be fun too, man.

What's the most interesting thing? Okay, let's start at that. The most interesting thing in a locker room that you've ever experienced with your teammates. So, all right. The most, the most interesting thing that I've ever experienced in a locker room, my teammates was probably when we were playing down in Florida. I was in the Southern Atlantic League.

And, no, we were playing in South Carolina. And one of my teammates went to a local exotic pet store. And he was an American guy. And, you know, obviously it's a cultural mixing pot for, you know, those guys all over South America. Oh, yeah. So it was one of our Dominican buddies. And he was, this kid's 18, right?

Like he throws like 127 miles an hour. He's 18. He's like one of the best prospects. But he's all over the place, right? And so we're just kind of trying to act. him to like American college locker room. And so one of my buddies goes down to the local exotic pet store and buys a baby gator and puts the baby gator in his, you know, the, you know, the Lvina League,

you start to get better locker rooms, you know, and the seats fold up. Well, he put the baby gator inside of the guy's bag underneath his gear, right? And left the, he didn't even leave the rubber band over the mouth. He just left it going and the baby gator starts freaking out as soon as my buddy, He opens it. He reaches down a baby gaiters and starts wiggling around. And bro, I wish,

I wish like cameras, camera phones were a thing back then. We would, we would have caught it. But we didn't catch it on video, but that was probably the most interesting thing I saw. Like, who does that?

Dude, how scared was he? Oh, terrified. Yeah. Like, yeah, he's probably,

he's probably like not even okay now. Like, oh, I wouldn't think so, man. He was very, he was very delicate. Well,

like. Yeah, yeah. And then all the, all the coaches and stuff are like, dude, you're going to ruin this guy's like psychology. He's like the best prospect we've had from Dominican and forever. You're going to ruin his psychology.

It's like, can you guys go easy on this dude? Yeah, go easy on him. He throws 127, but he's scared of a three foot gator. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Why wouldn't even that big if he fit in a locker? Yeah,

I have no idea where he is now. They wasted their money because he didn't make the big weeks. Oh my gosh, dude. Hey, man, that happens, huh? That happens. Like,

it's like an investment. You never know if it's going to turn out. And then you see guys that have no investment into them, and they're in the big leagues, man, winning World Series championship. So it's kind of hard to really, you know, quantify it. I would hate to have that job, dude. Yeah, it definitely was a business.

You know, I played at Central Michigan University where, you know, the Chip was in the Mac conference. Like, if we're, if not, if we're not winning the conference, then what are we doing? That was the culture, right? And then you go to the, then I go to the Giants. And it's like, we won in, we won in 10, we won in 12. And then I got released and they won again in 14.

and I just was around championship cultures. And one thing that I don't talk a lot about when it comes to that, but there's a real playful nature, too, to really good teams and really good cultures. They keep it loose. They keep it fresh. Put baby gators in your locker just to throw a curveball. That's the fun stuff, man. Dude, we're my buddies.

Two of my buddies were on that on the Giants team, Ryan Tario and Michael Fontno. Okay, yeah. So I was just a farm game. I don't remember what year. I don't remember what year. Yeah, but no, they were on the big club and they won it together. Ryan won it the year before with the Cardinals and then went over the Giants and they won it there.

But to his point, Bruce Bochy, they kept it light, man. They kept it light and everybody loved each other. One of your biggest things is building winning teams. And I can tell you, let's just go into your journey from, because I want you to touch on how you're building a winning team with Burn Boot Camp. because I've been in multiple locations and they all have a great culture in there. But let's start from the nuts and the bolts, right? We've already mentioned that you pitched with the giants of those years, but walk the audience through your transition from athlete into just Devin.

Well, being an athlete meant everything to me. Growing up in Battle Creek, Michigan, I come from a very chaotic, toxic environment. My dad in and out of jail, prison. My mom took me when I was a little. little kid we traveled you know across the country away from home for a handful years we were turned back only to just be met by like an escalated level of physical violence child abuse there's 50 criminal charges in my house before i turned 18 just to kind of paint a picture it made me who i am well it made me who i am and i you know i would hope sure people don't think that i'm trying to get

sympathy when i talk about my story i just like to paint the fact that it you know like to paint the fact that like when you come from a place where you're constantly trying to assess it escape from or it's just not a comfortable environment or atmosphere, you find something that is like your scapegoat. And for me, that was baseball because I could be on the field early. I could be on the field late. You know, I could, a lot of times you can practice by yourself with a tea and a, in a, bat and some balls. And, you know, between the ball field, the basketball court, the weight room, I tried to spend as much time there as possible because I knew that, you know, any given day of the week, there was a, you know, dynamite about to be lit around, you know, 7, 8, 9 p.m. at my house and

didn't like to be there, you know, to be in a small house. We only paid a couple hundred bucks a month for rent. It's a small house with paper thin walls and, you know, hearing, they still burn in my brain today, but hearing like these sounds of just a grown man hitting a woman is they burn in your brain and they don't go anywhere. And then it became me. And it's just like, okay, I'm out of here. So I tried to spend as much time away from home as I could to get to the baseball. And the baseball field was my escape. And so obviously that doesn't do it.

You have to have talent, right, in order to go to the next levels. But I did. My dad was a Detroit Tiger. He played in the minor leagues. McDonald's All-American basketball player. So he's a good athlete, man. I mean, it's just like could have put the party life down and maybe excelled in a really big way, but didn't.

And so now it's my turn to have that talent and to take that into. to what I thought was an amazing school, Central Michigan University, the only school that would recruit me. So here is my MO as a kid. This is the way that a small town with 50,000 people would look at a guy like me who comes from a name that everybody knows because his dad was the man in high school, right? And now you have this 50,000 people that all kind of know who you are through him. So you're inherently getting this level of, you know, disrespect and torment.

men or you've got this label on you. And then I kind of started acting in alignment with that label, you know, doing bad stuff as a kid. So I got labeled a bad kid who didn't have enough resources to get to the showcases who it was a live arm, good arm, but bad attitude, right? So that was my label. I wasn't recruited. And then they would tell me things like, you're too skinny.

Yeah, I was sitting low 80s, mid 80s as a freshman in high school. And they're like, you're too skinny bulk up. So that was about the only thing I could control. All the other stuff was, I think, I didn't know it at the time, but I know now projections from people onto me. It had nothing to do with me, really. But I took to heart the too skinny thing. And so I got to work and started teaching myself nutrition, gained 25 pounds, started lifting with the football team, bigger, faster, stronger program in high school.

And then Central gave me a shot. I went to Central, the Chippewas, fire up chips for any Chippewas out there. And then ended up playing a few seasons, a couple full seasons with the San Francisco Giants with back for my third season. And as we were talking about off air, that's when my career ended that spring training after my fastballs were being met by the centerfield fence over and over and over again. It was time, it was time they let me go. So they let me go. They released me, which is a nice way. For those of you that don't know of saying that you were no longer good enough and you are, you're fired and you're no longer. You are fired. You are fired. You are done.

So that was it, man. And then, you know, obviously, as you know, I, an athlete that leaves up this huge void in your heart like who am i what am i doing next what am i here for i think i do it's an important thing to talk about as we mentioned off air as well and thank you for being vulnerable and talking about that moment where you know your fastball was being met with the centerfield fence you know it's it's a memory that you know catapulted you into such success but one of these one of the things that the main the main theme behind my ted talk in march is that retirement from the sports and how it can derail an athlete's mentality or the mental health. A lot of athletes can get into drugs,

alcohol, severe depression, and a lot of times, you know, in their lives. How, how was that for you transitioning? Because look, man, when you're an athlete your whole life, you were Devin the pitcher. You're Devin with the arm, right? And then when it's gone, now you, you know who the hell you are. what was that transition like for you? Because for me, I, dude, I hurt as many people as I possibly could on accident. I mean, it wasn't on accident. But I didn't set forth to hurt people. It was just like, I'm going to go get whatever I want because I got to fill this void.

You know, so it didn't matter if someone had a girlfriend, a wife. It didn't matter to me at that point because I was so low. I was broken, dude. So, sorry, a little wordy, but how did you transition? Well, when you're low, right, it's like you want to bring other people down there. If you look at like this world in terms of energy and frequency, like you move toward love and away from shame. And if you're down towards shame and you're shameful about yourself, well, you're going to mirror that energy and you're going to only connect with other people that are in that same energy. And so the whole deal is to kind of move up, right, move up toward love.

And the only way to do that ironically is through pain. And so for me, right, so for me going through what I went through, growing up, up, you know, getting knocked out by my father at 12 years old, right, like waking up from that, watching him get his hands handcuffed, put in a cop car, watching my hero getting, you know, carted away from my house, right? Like, that's pain. Like getting left by your mother when you're a young boy, like, that's pain. And so I had this thing called baseball that was this escape from that. And as soon as that was taken from me, because I wasn't. expecting to get released. Like I got dinged around a lot, right? I knew I needed to like do something

better, but I wasn't expecting it to come so sudden and so quick, especially when I had visioned myself since I was five years old being a big league or playing under the big league lights. And then that's all you have through all the pain when you're growing up, like even more of your identity because that's really what got you out of where you came from was this, you gravitate towards this ball that you get to throw across grass. And it's like, Like, wow, that's, I can really get out of my childhood situation into a college scholarship and then go from there to actually make the minor leagues where I'm touching people literally that are in the position that I want to be in. Wow. You know, I think as you move up the ranks, you know, as you in college, as you be, you're the conference player of the year.

You're an all American. The more you achieve in that sport, the more it more it becomes linked to your identity. and then when you rip it out, the void is bigger. Like if you just played high school baseball, right, and then you stopped playing and then you go out, yeah, you probably miss it for a few years. But if you're this close to the big leagues,

your childhood dream and then you get ripped, it gets ripped from you. You don't know that it was coming. The void was like gigantic. The only person I had that I could lean on was Morgan, who's my then girlfriend, my now wife. We've known each other since we were 12 years old. She was my rock through like,

all of those, all of those tough years. I was able to really lean on her family and some other friends to, you know, go stay at their house when things got wild. And they did. And I would. And they took care of me. And I'm grateful for that. But she was the only one that was really there for me at that moment in time when I got

released. So after taking my giant's half, throwing it across the room, you know, cussing my cleats out, beating a shit out of my glove, punching my pillow, like just taking out all the young, uncontrolled alpha male type aggression. I just can remember looking at myself in the mirror, just in this somber mood. With my hands on either side of the sink, I was sweating, leaning over,

staring at yourself in the mirror, in complete silence, wondering like, is what's next for me the same path as was, what was next for my dad when he stopped playing. That's heavy, bro. Well, that's all you could think about because that's all I was exposed to.

It's all I saw. Yeah. Right. That's why I was kind of a bad kid and as a teenager is, it's all I saw. I thought that was normal. My uncle, no mentors, man. It was just like my uncles and my dad, they were all cut from the same cloth. They were all in and out of jail.

That's what I saw. I saw him doing bad things. So, yeah, it was a huge void. I talked to Morgan. And she said after that long stare in the mirror that felt like forever, it was probably a solid 10 or 20 minutes. I called Morgan and I said, what the hell do we do now? And I'll never forget it. It's at the bottom of my emails today.

All she said was look how far you've come. You've just got to keep moving and just keep moving. So I just remember that. It was just one of those emotional moments where anything that would have happened in that moment is going to be locked in my brain for life. And luckily she was there and those words came out. And it was insignificant to her. She's just talking. She's just trying to, you know, give me some empathy and help me through it.

But she did. And I got back in a plane, went to Naples and said, I don't know what I'm going to do, but whatever I'm going to do next is with you. Wow. That's that's heartwarming, man. Because I've, you know, I've been through a lot of different things in my adult life that my wife has said things like that to me. Like, hey, look. Look how much better you've gotten.

Look how much you've grown. And just insignificant words. And at the time, you know, a lot of times I don't like to hear it if I'm in my own shit. I mean, just going to be honest. I'm like, okay. But then I look back and I assess what she says. Then I assess who I am and where I'm at. And I'm like, dude, she knows me better than I know myself sometimes, man.

And so the fact that you have a woman in your life and you've had her in your life since you're 12 years old. and you know it takes a big man to realize and say hey i don't know what i'm doing but but i know i'm going to do it with you that is big like that is big so from that point there when did you co-found burn boot camp like how did that come about yeah it's not a small franchise dude yeah not a small thing so this was 2011 when i got released we moved to naples florida she was down that she had a food marketing degree and went to western Michigan University. So she was a Bronco and I was a Chippewa rival schools. Okay. And yeah, so she, she was down there killing it. And she got a job offer to move either to Charlotte or Dallas.

We chose Charlotte. She let me have a say in that decision, which was cool because I'd played in both areas. And so we moved to Charlotte and she moves to the regional office for Kellogg's, brings me with her. And when I get here, my goal is to not work for anyone because I had a couple bad experiences back in Florida working for other people. And I decided, I didn't even know what the word entrepreneur was, but I knew I had the tendencies. At 12 years old, really was like 11, but mostly when I was 12 and 13, I started a snow shoveling franchise back in Michigan. So, you know, you got that season and I went up to the local, we called it big, it was big lots. I don't know if you ever heard of that store. We got them here, man. Do you got some big lots? Okay. We got them here. Yeah,

we had some big lots. And I went up and got the, you know, the three for 15 shovel, snow shovels contracted two of my buddies to do the shoveling and I would knock on doors and literally cold sell 20 minutes no removal and we wouldn't touch a driveway less we thought we could do it in 20 minutes. So that was like the first business model that I ever created. And then once I started getting older and realizing, hey, we're on food stamps. Like we're on bridge cards. Yeah. You know, I need to make money. Nobody's going to give it to me unless I go make it. And that was also a way of like getting my kind of getting disassociated from my parents was not needing. them for anything. And so started flipping cars. I worked on the roofs, did my snow shoveling

business, saved up a couple grand, bought a car, flipped it. I found a little website called eBay. Flipped it again, flipped it again, flipped it again, did literal car arbitrage on eBay for until I was 18, went to school, had 10 racks and a Mustang at the time, and had a little successful stint as a teenager being an entrepreneur. But I didn't know what it meant when I got released. I just was like, I'm going to go own my own business, right? And so we- That's really cool, man. Yeah, we did that.

I moved here and so Morgan moved end of 2011. I stayed back, finished up my personal training contracts, moved up to Charlotte, started burning a parking lot in 2012, $600, some dumbbells, some mats. And, yeah, after the first, after the first 30 days, I had 21 members. And sitting here today, there's 121,000 members. So that's insane. That's so cool, dude.

You know, I mean, it's nuts. That's why I love doing what I do now talking to entrepreneurs and having this show that. And it's so funny because for me, I built this with my own two hands. I didn't have, I don't have marketing. I don't have any of that stuff yet, right? It's not time to turn on the faucet. My goal was to build that foundation in the parking lot, right? Just like you did.

I started this show inside of a VW Atlas, SUV. Now we're here in my home studio, right? We got lighting now. We have a background. And this is like 2.0, but this isn't where I'm going to be in six months, right? It's going to be in a full on freaking studio. Right. And so when you're here, we're going to have to do a redo in person. For sure. Right. So it's just, it's one of those things, man. But that moment right there, just like you said, when you start that and it goes from 21 members to 121,000 members. And I'm sitting here with this freaking microphone and I see burn boot camps everywhere. Hell, I go to Jersey Mike.

Just one next door. Right. Never in a million years. Am I sitting here thinking, you know what? I'm probably going to interview that guy one day. It's just you don't you don't think about it. But then as it comes and it's just like, wow, the alignment, right? With the alignment for the universe to open up for your person to email me directly and for me to have the gumption to click

on the link and not think I'm getting spammed, right? And here you are, you know, telling your amazing story on this show. I just commend you, man, because you have built something incredibly amazing. I have not heard one negative thing about your franchise, about your gym. And I'm going to tell you, there's a lot of group gems around here. And all I hear is negativity. Not from a person that's worked there, not from a person that's attended your studios. Why is that? Well, I think it goes back to the concept that an organization is a mere reflection of their leader. And the standard that we hold as the leader of any organization, or let's just say the coach of any team,

the standard that you hold is a very important one because, you know, you played juco ball. You played at LSU, okay? You probably had somewhere in your career a coach that you did not respect. you've probably had a coach somewhere that you did not want to play for. And in that regard, what is the, what's the aura of the team when nobody wants to play for the coach? They find every, they find every reason to pull the thread on any negativity that they possibly can because nobody has respect for the person they're playing for. But on the other hand, when you have a coach that admires you, that you admire back, that respects you. And why do they respect you and you respect them?

Because they challenge you. They actually say, hey, look, kid, you've got more than you're capable of giving. I know that. You're not going to like me right now, but you're going to love me in the long run. I'm going to get more out of you than anybody else has ever gotten out of you. And then they do that. They follow through. And then you get more of yourself than you ever thought you could.

And now all of a sudden, when you comes to stepping on the diamond and I got to go pitch for this guy, hey, I'm going to lay it on the line for him. I'm going to listen to him. I'm going to respect him. I'm going to have nothing. I'm going to actually want to win so bad. that when I get the game ball after striking out the side in the ninth and the last in, you know, the college world series of the conference championship, I'm running that ball and

giving it to him. Yeah, man. Because we play for him. And so it's very similar in the business world. The only difference between business and sports is that the teams are way larger and there's way more teams. It's the only difference. Other than that, there's still a leader.

There's multiple leaders on a football team, but the head coach is the guy, right? And you've got to have somebody at the top who upholds those standards. And so that's all it is. It's all it is is the difference that you see and burn from other facilities is that our team wants to play for their coach. And I will, it's not really tough love. It's more like loving tough. Like I'm going to lead with empathy and compassion because I want to hear people. I want to listen to people.

I want people to feel seen and be heard and feel important and appreciated and loved. but I'm also going to be the I'm going to be a mother effer right and I'm going to be one tough person to work for because I'm going to constantly demand more out of you than you're demanding out of yourself and it's going to get exhausting unless you have a championship attitude and you want to step up and you are destined for greatness you need someone like me so what happens is that through that process of really putting pressure into the organization organization pressure to not just adhere to the standards, but to elevate the standard is that that pressure creates diamonds or it creates pancakes. And we just got a lot of diamonds. I don't

build, I don't build businesses, honestly. To me, it's all about building people and letting the people build the business. And so my full-time job as the visionary is relationships with my people and making sure that they always have a coach they want to play for. I love it, Devin. I mean, Listen, what you're describing is that leader with a heavy hammer and a velvet glove. That's right. It has to be that way. Like even if you look at parenting, you know, like I go, I want to be that empathetic father, but I'm going to be an MMF or sometimes, right? That accountability portion of what we do, not just in this, in this house, but outside of this house is super important.

And as I build my team, because I'm building, I'm bringing on team members and I'm very selective who I bring on. I bring on people that want to play for me. period. I don't care if they don't know anything about this space. If they want to play for me and they will run through a freaking wall for me, they're all my team because I can teach them. I can teach them what I need done. I can teach somebody how to, you know, edit a show. I can teach somebody, you know, how I want them to reach out. I can teach somebody, you know, the content, right? but like dude you can't teach people want to play for you like that that is something man if you as long as you get people ready to go through a wall bloody for you man you're building a team

you're going to be successful i think that's i think that's partially what people mean when they say being a great entrepreneur is partly inherent uh it's partly DNA driven is that um you know you have to have a few great qualities to be a great leader like to have the makeup but i believe anybody can become a good entrepreneur anybody can be a good business owner if they know what, how would you say, if they know what role to fill, right? A lot of entrepreneurs are actually operators and they don't realize it.

And they're not entrepreneurs. They need an entrepreneur. They're a business owner, but an entrepreneur drives the business and the operator integrates the business. And I read a book called The E-Mith. Have you ever read that by Michael Gerber? No.

So who wrote it? It's called Michael. It's called E-Mith by Michael Gerber. It's right here. And as you can tell, It's all beat up, but it's this cover. Oh, yeah, look at that. You've been reading the hell out of that thing.

Yeah, I've read this thing probably four or five times, and it is literally the most simple business book you could possibly read, but it's so simple that it really does a great job of really dispelling what the e-myth is. And it's that a lot of people who are actually entrepreneurs or would thrive under the leadership of an entrepreneur, think they're entrepreneurs, but they're really operators or their managers. And it just helps you understand why most small businesses aren't going to work unless you have an operator and an entrepreneur together or else it's just not going to, it's not going to work. It might work to a certain extent. But like, is it really going to grow past five years?

Is it really going to cross that million, five million, ten million, you know, dollar EBITO mark? And so this was the first. I actually got a recommendation from the founder of Planet Fitness. So I was down in Jupiter, Florida. and my franchisee down there, shout out Jill and Chris Green, they're amazing. They're not any franchisees. They're friends of mine as well. Well, one of their members happens to be the founder of Planet Fitness's wife and her daughter were there.

And so I got an opportunity to sit down and break bread with him. And I asked them a few questions. And I said, what's the one book that you would read that you recommend to people in my position? He said, read this. He goes, you're going to think I'm silly for recommending. you this, but read this book and then do it again every single year because it will mean something to you at different times. And he goes, you'll know when you're ready to pass it on to somebody else. And so I think that's amazing, dude. I think that might be my somebody else right there. Who knows?

Aw, look at her. That's Cam. She's over there. She's my, I can't. She's my admin today. That's awesome. You have one child? How many? Three, seven. She's the oldest and two boys. One just turned six. I have three as well. man nice nice three as well building a team building the family yeah yeah go ahead dude's nuts man it's nuts so you i got i got one boy and two girls okay see so my boy is 10 and then my daughters are seven and almost five it goes hard in this house bro it goes hard it's a circus bro just it's a circus in here balls constantly flying around all over the place everything man just everything yeah you know bobby's playing too rough you know and they're sit he's got sisters and he's jumping around

scaring the hell out of them. It's one of those, it's one of those things in here. But, dude, I'm going to read that book because it's funny, because like,

I'm the visionary. Like, I'm the visionary. I see the vision. I need people on my team that can operate. Like, go do it.

Tell me what I need. Go do it. Right. And as we build this, I think it's normal, right? As I build this business, I'm sitting there thinking,

like, I was thinking of this last night, what you're talking about right now is exactly where my mindset. it's at. It's like, wait a second, I'm the visionary. Someone in here needs to be the operator. Like, I need that operator. The operator is this beautiful Ecuadorian woman called Mrs. French. And she's just unavailable. She's just not available to do it right now, right? She's a Spanish teacher. My wife's a badass. Like, so for me, finding that person that can go operate is,

is it super important because there's two different things. Two different things, man. And Michael talks about in the E-Mith, he also talks about just the importance of that relationship. right, how synergistically the personalities have to click as well. And like, once you find that, it's rocket fuel. So Morgan is our CEO. She's our integrator. And, you know, I never wanted to be the CEO. I always told her that, hey, you're the CEO of this company.

Like you, you're a true thoroughbred integrator. You're detail oriented. You don't let anything slip. You're the best question to asker. I know. You are a strong, powerful, motivated. mom, woman, entrepreneur, white, like you are just a badass all around. And I told her three years before she even knew that she was going to be the eventual CEO that,

and she thought I was crazy. She's like, don't you want to be the CEO? And I just explained to her that that's not my personality. That is a, that is a title that, of course, I would like to keep that title. That's a badass title to be the CEO of anything. It's a sweet title. Of course. But I couldn't let my own ego get in the way of making the person who is the appropriate

CEO, the CEO. And in our world, the visionary is the person who's up and out. That's me. And she's the CEO, the integrator, who has all the direct reports. She has a C.O, 10 to 11 VPs and oversees about 400 people on our home office. And then obviously runs the business that has, you know, 6,000 employees and team members total. So, I mean, she's, I couldn't do that. Like, I honestly couldn't do that. It's not my personality. I would get lost. I would create,

we call it whiplash. Like, wait, wait, what's mom saying? What's Devin saying? What's Morgan saying? Guys, my neck hurts.

My neck hurts. Yeah. Yeah. I'm that way too, man. And it's funny because as, as my brand grows, right,

and my business, because I'm sitting there thinking like, I'm looking back and forth way too much. Like, this is not, I can't do this. I just need to execute certain things. Like,

have amazing people like you on the show. I need other people getting it out. it out. Yeah. You know. Yeah. And we're putting some things in place for 2024. It's going to be pretty insane. It'd be pretty amazing. I have this amazing marketing company. My buddy Pat Sikkins owns it up in adaptive jacks up there in, you know, Jacksonville, Florida, brick and mortar business, some of the, you know, social media online, you know, stuff that we, we deal with, the fake marketing companies. Real legit, dude. I've got another visionary operator, though, working on sponsors. and going out and dialing in, who's also a former, he's a baseball buddy.

That's what he does, right? So I'm starting to surround myself. It's funny how things work out, right? It's like all of a sudden year four, like all the pieces are just now starting to fall where they're supposed to be. Well, it's consistency. Yeah. Consistency. Like anybody asks a question around, how do you win?

It's like show up every day. Okay. Then if you keep showing up every day, 99.9% of the world just stop showing up. You've seen those memes on Instagram where it's like the cartoon of the guy with the shovel and he's digging toward the gold and he's about like one or two more digs away and he stops right there. I mean, how many people just do that? And if you just don't quit. Three feet from gold, bro. Dude, if you just don't quit.

Yeah. If you don't quit, that's it. That's the only thing you need. You don't need to be talented. You don't need to work really hard and do it long enough. You'll figure it out. You'll figure out enough to put. the pieces together to make yourself aligned toward productivity, people just quit. They quit.

We're surrounded by quitters. Just don't quit. People ask themselves how not to lose rather than how to go win. And if you're asking yourself how not to lose because you're fearful or you know, you think you're going to fail, then you probably should be fearful and you will fail because how not to lose is not a winning, it's not a winning philosophy. No. And it's so funny because there's so many people, like if you're having a conversation with somebody, right? And you say something like, I have this big vision and I'll talk to you about it off air, right? But I was going through this business plan and the in the mockups and everything. And people are saying, well, that's just going to be very expensive.

Why don't you try this? I'm like, that's a losing attitude. I'm not here to write on the coattails of somebody else. I'm here to do something that nobody else in the United States of America is doing. And that's what I'm creating. And people can either come along or they can sit there and they can second guess it. and they can bring that losing attitude. But in five to ten years,

when it's the biggest thing on the planet, and there's like 25 of them, 50 of them, one in every state, they're going to wish they didn't tell me that, hey, that's a little expensive, right? Because I remember,

I remember who tells me shit. I'm sorry, I do. You know, you cannot go into anything thinking, what if I lose? You just can't, man. You just can't do that. You just got to go.

You got to go. And the fact that you're talking about, just not quitting. How many people, every single day just stop? Because they're afraid of maybe what their wife will say, their husband, their friends, their boss or whatever. I just think it's super important that when more people come at me and tell me, like, why are you still doing that? Or, hey, how's your little podcast? A dude, my little podcast top 2% top 2% in the globe, dude. Like no marketing. Right. All me. Right. And I sit there and I go, where's this going to be in five years?

Because I'm not going to quit. It's a five years. I like the thing in terms of like five to ten years. It's going to be explosive. Well, especially if you keep it real, too, like keep it raw and just say what's on your mind and talk about, talk about what you want to talk about. Right? Like people are interested in the journey of building a podcast. They're interested in the journey of, you know, going from athlete to being something.

We talked about how athletes have this huge voice. and they end up just, you know, really peaking, like either in high school or college or, I mean, like we talked about as you go up the hierarchy and the more you're accomplished in anything, the bigger void it leaves. Like, imagine some of these guys that are holding on to minor league baseball after 11 years and they're going to think they're, you know, they're now 35 and they now think they're going to get their shot in the big leagues and it never comes. Listen, you've been bitter and resentful every August because you haven't got your call up for the last decade. that's going to stay with you. And, you know, it's just we can't, we can't put so much of our personality and so much of our identity, you know, into a sport and like our worth. I'm not saying that don't go all in.

I'm not trying to say, don't go all in. I'm like, don't be like me and just like have everything in your life on the, you know, like counting on that one thing. I didn't even read a book, dude. Like I didn't read a book. My first book I ever read was Tony Robbins Money Master of the Game. and that was when I was 25, 26, and maybe a good time for people to start reading the book, but, you know, I should have started a lot earlier.

But, dude, like, I think we were, I think baseball players in general, I think that's a systemic issue. Because, like, dude, I can't tell you how many teammates I had. We're in college and we're thinking like, all right, well, you know, I play baseball at LSU. I just need to have a heartbeat. I'm going to get through my classes. You don't, you don't like to go to class. you don't like to do everything because you, you are literally stretched in a thousand different ways

when you're a division one athlete. People don't realize it. You're up at five. You don't get home until 9.30. You have zero time to be you. So your identity falls under the freaking umbrella being a damn baseball player. And when that's over, you have no choice but to be like,

oh my God, what the hell just happened? I put all of my identity into this game with a ball and a bat. Now I don't know who the F I am. Right. Now I got to work double time, start reading books like you did, and start, you know, building a sense of self. So to your point, yes, you have to go all in. But if I could give athletes any advice, your sport is something you do. It is not who you are. And athletes need to really go on that introspective journey earlier now because the access to him now is even greater. Dude, these college athletes are freaking celebrities now.

Can you believe that shit? I think it should have been that way for much longer. I can remember at Central Michigan University, Dan Lefevre was there. I don't know if you remember that name, but he was a football player. And dude was a stud. He tied or broke Vince Young's record for most passing yards and most rushing yards in a single college football season. This guy, I mean, our campus had never been more lit.

It'd never been more rowdy. They were selling clothes like crazy. I mean, he was driving so much business for this school. Like, dude, give the guy 100K. Like, let him go get an NIL sponsorship deal. I just think it's such a, I think it's a great move. It was a little, you know, any net new change. You're like, how is this going to play out?

But now you see what's that LSU gymnast? What's her name? Oh, I don't remember her name. Yeah, I only know her. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She's like on commercials now, right? She's like, she's in Sports Illustrated, dude. Yeah, I saw on her commercial yesterday.

And it's like, okay. You know who she's dating, right? You know what she's dating? The big tall righty, Paul, right? Paul Skeens, the number one pick. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I wish I followed ball as much as closely as I did when I played. It's the same in business, though.

Like, you know, you're, you, you can't put, your business is not you and you are not your business. If you make that mistake and you put them together, well, then every judgment that's made on your game or every judgment that's, made on your business is inherently a judgment on you. And that's not fair to yourself. Like, you know, like you said, you're not the game. You're just, you're playing the game. It's not who you are. It's what you do. You could, I couldn't have said it better. That's like such a perfect. You're going to TED talk about this, aren't you? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's,

yeah, that's obviously going to make the talk, I'm assuming. But that's, it's exactly, that's exactly how it is on the other side. So it's not like you're thinking that way because you have a losing mindset. If I'm not all in, then my chances of making it go down. It's like, no, your chances of making it if you disassociate yourself from the critique that you get on your game actually go up because you're not so high and you're not so low. My coach taught me at Central Michigan, he taught me to stay even keeled. He said, never get high, never get too low at any given circumstance, whether they're cheering you or they're booing you, whether you strike out the side to close a game and you won the conference

championship or you got, you know, tatted off the wall in center field for four straight at bats. It doesn't matter. Don't change your body language. Don't change your attitude. Don't change your demeanor. Because either way, you show weakness. You show weakness that I can be celebrated and be weak or I can, I can have tough

waters, swimming in tough waters and be weak. So that was probably one of the most valuable things I've learned from baseball, bringing it into the business world, is that I am not my business. and the critique of my business is only evidence that I should do things in the business a little bit better and that I have personal room to grow, you know, as Devin. Like my character has room to grow. Dude, I love it. It's so funny because you're talking about we always, we learn that from every baseball player learns that.

Calm, cool, and collected, even keel. Like, I should be able to show up in the ninth inning and you'd be 0 for four. And I think you're four for four because your body language is so good. Like I think, you know, if you look at that now, knowing what you know, that's never about baseball. No, it's a, yeah, that's a human thing. It's totally a human thing. Body language for me was a lot of the reason why people called me a bad kid. Because I had always had the growing up playing sports, I was a three sport athlete.

Honorable mentioned all state basketball players. So I had some hoop skills as well. And when you're the best one on your team, all eyes are on you. And when all eyes are on you, they see your every move. And when they see your every move, they can pick it apart. And so it's like, don't give people a reason to pick you apart. It's pretty logical. And that's why I got picked apart a lot as a young guy, not only where I come from,

but how my body language had manifest in moments of, especially on the basketball court, man. I used to be such an asshole of the referees. Yeah. You know that guy? Yeah, I was even playing in a rec league basketball game not too long ago. and and my Isaiah's laughing he's this Isaiah he's at here he's my he's my right hand man content creator and and yeah I got kick I got a double technical foul in a in a in a in a rec league game I've now that's great yeah I mouthed off to the ref and I didn't like what he said

or I didn't like what he said a mouth off to him he teed me up and then I said um something along the lines of that's the first time you put your eff and mouth on that whistle all night long and then he gave me another one and sent me to the bench So I still, I, you need, I've controlled it. It's still there. I control it for the most part, but it's, it's, it's, yeah, the animal's still there. We're going to have those moments, right? I got, yeah, he's going to come out.

I got this on my arm. I don't know if people can see it. It's my wolf right here. Oh, I see that. Yeah. It's a tail of two wolves. And it says that there's, there's a good wolf and a bad wolf. And we're both.

Which one you feed and baby. Which one you feed. And so that was, that was kind of, that's kind of when those, when those little moments of the moments of the bad wolf pop up, I'm like, man, grew up your whole life seeing that shit. So please give yourself a little grace. Maybe don't cuss at the rest next game. Maybe not.

Maybe not. But hey, your children are in attendance. You should probably not get kicked out of the basketball game. No, they actually weren't there. But no, it's true, dude. Like, we have the two wolves, right? And it just matters which one you feed. That bad wolf is going to show up every now and again.

And I think that's, I think it's all about the good balance of life, right? It allows us to really dive in and say, you know what? I still have some room to grow. I still have some room to to, you know, have, you know, an opportunity to emotional, you regulate a little bit better because I still lose it at things. I mean, dude, I still lose it. I still lose it. You know what drives me crazy?

I guess I, this is going to sound so bad. But I coach my kids at a league team. And it bothers the shit out of me when an umpire makes a call that's clearly wrong. Like it's not even a judgment call at that point. When you have a runner breaking down past first base and the ball hits the glove and you call them out, I got a problem. I got a big problem because you're robbing the kids of an experience, right? Or when it's dark out and they're like calling balls where these kids had strikes just so they can get out of there. It's like, wait a second.

I'm saying that third base. I'm like, we have an opportunity to come back. These kids can actually understand what it's like to fight from behind and win and just know that they're not done ever. And these youth umpires constantly take that empowerment away from them. Like there's, there's times where I have to like really bite my lip because I do want to say. So I do that bad wolf wants to come out.

But then I'm thinking like, dude, I can't do that. My kids watching. My daughters are in attendance. Yeah. And this is like a 10 year old. And those kids are like probably like 15. They don't even know what empower.

Empower means. They're like, dude, I want to go play video games, man. I want to get out of here. Yeah. Yeah, like it's cool, coach.

I mean, there's ice cream. Like, let's go. And I'm like, these kids are like nine and ten. I'm like looking at the umpire, I'm like seriously? Like, really? We're doing that right now.

So last year, you know, I think I only got almost got tossed one time. And, um, it's funny because I wasn't even ragging the guy. So I must rag him so much. He thought I was ragging him.

Yeah. But hey, that's my cross. Well, I think there's a, I think there's something to be said about, uh, exercising that bad wolf every now and again.

And to me, I actually have, I probably think about it the opposite way. I'm just glad it can still come out because I'm practicing empathy and compassion and and, and, hell yeah. Solid leadership at the 99.999 percentile. And so the fact that it's still there gives me a little confidence knowing that if I, if I really do need it, uh, it can come out because you sometimes do. Yeah.

I mean, listen, dude, I, I, I, I say this all the time to my wife and that she shakes her head. I'm like, dude, sometimes the kids need to know that I got a little Tupac in. A little west side. Like, they need to know. They need to know. People need to know that. Little West Coast.

Yeah. Little, little, little, uh, little fire in me. So, but look, man, I, I appreciate you hopping on. Um, how can the audience, um, you know, dive in, dive into you and, and, and be a part of the, the journey you guys have. So, yeah, guys. Well, I appreciate you, Sean, for having to. having me. Hopefully we can do this again. But I am, I am on, I'm on YouTube and Instagram.

I've been making health and fitness content for 10 years inside of Burn Boot Camp and really being the training face of that. I've trained over 15,000 of our camps. And, and I fired a VP of fitness, Matt Morris. Morgan has the CEO position. We have a COO on now. And I've been able to really step, I think, not losing, not losing that folks. but step more holistically out there and start to teach people how we've created what we've created and I'm having a lot of fun doing it. I'm making a YouTube video and a podcast three times a week right now, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. And yeah, it's anything from body to mind to emotion to spirit to relationships to time, work, money and, you know, really, really everything that makes

us move as a human being. We try to have some fun doing it. So. Well, I love it, man. I got all your links and everything. I'll put them in the show notes so they can go find you. follow you and, you know, follow along on your journey and listen to your amazing words and, you know, get encouragement from you on a weekly basis. But I just, hey, man, do thanks again for hopping on. And, uh, right on. You know, it was an amazing time. We'll definitely be doing it again, bud. No worries. All right, bro. All right, man. See you guys. Hey, until next time, rate the damn show. Why don't you guys get on there, leave a written review. Tell us what you loved about the episode. We'd love to hear it. And don't forget to share this with somebody that you

care about. Chat soon, y'all. Southwest Florida is one of the most beautiful places on the planet to live. For those of you that are thinking of moving from other states to come to Florida, or even just moving to a different part of the skate, I want you to think of a big, beautiful, luxury home. Contact Legacy Luxury Builders. They are a family-owned and operated luxury residential construction company. As a family-owned business,

they believe in the power of building not just homes, but legacies. Contact legacy. electronic filters. The nightmare of feeling like you'll never measure up of constant second guessing and self-doubt. It eats away at you and destroys your confidence. I've been there too. Feeling like I didn't belong on the field with my teammates, but it doesn't have to stay that way. I used to compare myself to everyone around me. I thought that no matter how hard I work, I'd never be as good as the other guys. It killed myself, believe. I now help athletes develop an elite mindset, so comparison no longer controls them. We teach techniques to cut out the negative

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