Adam back there in the background.
He's our first first live audience.
So to actually Mariano was, was there when I did salty Dona
Mariana and my publicist was she stayed for pretty soon.
You'll do this in front of a live audience.
I know, right. So well Daniel this first I want
you to just kind of tell people who you are because you know
this for me is even me getting to know Do you even more?
Which so far? I've absolutely loved getting to
know you. And I had the privilege of
sitting with your daughter and, you know, I just, I just
listened to my pastor. Talk on the Apple doesn't fall
far from the tree and I could instantly tell that you did
something right because your daughter is amazing.
Also got to meet your son in New York.
He seemed amazing to. So, I know.
I know that means a lot to you from a kid standpoint, but just
first and foremost, give a little bit of background of Who
You Are. How do you ended up in this
chair? And let's, let's be really
clear. You can give me a lot of credit.
You're gonna have to give my wife Mary even more.
Okay. I have not had the privilege of
meeting, Mary. Yeah.
You definitely. I'm certainly excited because I
know it takes to and like to your point probably more than
her than you. I like to think I had some
positive. All right.
So look, I grew up Upstate New York.
I mean, I'm a little different than a lot of people.
I not only graduated from the same high school that my dad
graduated from. I graduated, from the same high
school that my Father graduated. So three generation Legacy right
there. Yeah, there's your legacy right
there. I mean it was you know I'm a
small-town kid, right? That basically never went more
than 100 miles away from, you know, where he was born my
grandparents either lived in Elmira New York where I'm from
or they were in Syracuse and Syracuse to me was the big city
and that's where we would go on vacation.
So that's kind of the universe that I knew.
Yeah, and you know, all my rows just a All town.
And when the time came for me to go to college, I basically got
to choose from any of the State University campuses that I
wanted to go to. So I went to Binghamton and as
most parents we're doing back then they influence their kid to
try and go in a medical school because that's the way you could
write a bigger ticket and take good care of yourself, right?
And then I immediately realized, when I was in college that I did
not have what it takes to be, you know, No, a doctor.
So, I was taking economic classes along the way, really
enjoyed them. Have a couple professors that
were, from University of Chicago and I decided, since I was
graduating in a period of time, when the last major recession
was other than the financial crisis was brewing back in the
early 80s that it would be a whole lot smarter for me to go
to business school. Okay, right.
So I went to business school at Chicago and I met a lot of
people that were way more sophisticated.
And I was like I didn't even know what a dry cleaner was for
other than the place you went to to rent your tux for the prom.
So I meet these kids that you know, they're getting their
shirts press right a week ago. Why you doing that might come
right out of the wash and they're fine.
I didn't realize they made sure it's 100% out of copyright my
word like the 65% polyester Blends, right?
So I learned pretty quick, what the real world is more about and
then I immediately Denies. I didn't have what it takes for
Wall Street. I don't like those kind of guys.
Okay, so I was going to get a job and then, you know, opened
up the door that went in Chicago.
I know we know what a big cities about.
I tried desperately to try and figure out how I could get to
the West Coast and get a job offer there because I thought
that would be pretty cool. No one would even fly me back
for an interview but I did get a job offer in New York at NBC and
I thought, wow this is pretty interesting.
So I went to New York, it's 1984 My first job, which is going to
sound incredible was working on the 1984 World Series.
Amazing, so is the Padres were playing the Tigers and I got to
do all kinds of stuff that was really you wouldn't need a
person for today because it was getting tickets ready for all
the production people and where they would go and how they would
get there. And it was really, really crazy
work but it was an interesting place to be as time went by
though I was there for two years.
It really was Isn't I realized early that I'm not in when
you're in that industry? Mmm.
You're either you're either a producer or director or your
talent, right? I won't really was a finance guy
in an entertainment business and that really, you know, you
realize soon you wanted to be where the revenue was.
That's really how you drove yourself.
And so, what did I do? I said, look, I have some great
stories. I could tell about some of the
guys that I worked with and I don't know if you want me to go
into one that really sort of changed my mind.
And why, Needed to leave? Yeah, I mean, let's let's let's
dive in. Also I'm working with a
production crew up in Buffalo, that I was on the jet.
I went from NBC baseball to football.
Okay. When baseball was over, I went
to football and I was assigned to the Jets and NBC was covering
the Jets. So we had a game up in Buffalo
and I am, I was a unit manager which means I took care of all
the mundane stuff that goes into a production, making sure the
cameras were in the right place that the engineers stayed Within
In what their Union allowed from them to stay away from how far
they had to travel to the game. To the making sure that one of
our broadcast, broadcasters had the right beer available to him.
When we did the meet the pre-meeting the night before the
game, right? There's no Mystery, by the way
when you ever see a camera, I'm why it's focused on one
receiver. It's because the coaches said
the production crew the night before hey, third and long,
we're going to look for Wesley Walker.
I got you right, things like that, so I almost forgot a
script beforehand. There's a lot more of that going
on than you might think. I mean, obviously, the players
and the coaches can call audibles right.
But there are some guidelines, as to what we think, we might do
in a certain circumstance. So, anyway, we're doing this
game. I'm assigned to the producer and
that's who I work for. So, literally the night before
the game, he's reading us, the riot act like how we're supposed
to behave in the bar that night and all the things that, you
know, we need to you to pay attention to and you're now in
the place where, you know, the Jets are staying and all the
people from Buffalo are going to be at this bar, because
everybody wants to rub elbows with the New York.
Folks, it goes maintain decorum, just be professional, right.
And literally an hour after dinner, we go to the bar.
He's had like three cocktails already and he's passing tickets
out to anybody that walked by like so you didn't follow his
own size of the rules and I go. Wow, that's pretty wild.
Yeah, next day we're in. Struck by that point.
The game is started and I'm really my day is over, really
I'm at least during the game so it's a really crappy day outside
and it's snowing I think and it was maybe it was just cold, I
can't remember. Exactly.
But anyway, I'm in the truck and the producer looks at me and
goes down. Can you get me a coke?
Well, it's my job to do that. So, I went back into the stadium
where we have our little setup. I get the coke.
I bring it back to him. I put it down in front of him.
He looks at it. Goes.
I meant the diet coke. Oh wow, it's one of those guys.
So what I realized. Okay.
So this is a long story to make the long story.
Short was I realized I was going to work with people like this.
Let me go at least try Wall Street, because if I'm going to
deal with people like this, that I didn't think I would deal with
other than going to Wall Street. If I could succeed in Wall
Street, I could get paid for it. Nice.
So legitimately, that's when I decided, Well, you know, like
you you it was a great moment. They're like, you you because a
lot of people would just take it and just stay.
But you, you identified something that that you knew you
had to Pivot and go do something else like instantly.
Like, you know what, it's really important.
I think one of the things I think of, and I've said this to
my kids and you've talked to Hillary.
It's like when you're dealing and you're only responsible to
yourself, you can make choices that are a little bit more
risky. There's not somebody else that's
going to depend on the choices you make in order to have a
livelihood. So you're going to take risk.
Take it early. Yeah.
Take it really. And, and challenge yourself.
Yes. Once you have a family and what
have you, it gets harder to make riskier decision, right?
That's a great Point. Um, so when we were in New York,
we were having breakfast. And you told me just a fantastic
story about when you were younger.
And I really thought that it resonated with the no days off
philosophy and even a little bit of Legacy, like it was just a
tremendous story. Can you go?
Back to your it was high school, right?
Yeah. Go back to your high school
days. I know we're taking it pretty
far back way back. We're going way back and back.
I was driving a Ford Granada back, the okay?
I don't even know what that is. That's held at exactly.
But I just the story I was, I was, let's just, let's just go
back to that because I would love for you to tell me again
and tell our audience that story because again, the things That
came from that, like, obviously May of actually that.
And I think people understand when you tell it is, probably
why you made the decision you made, you know, because it was
in you already, you know? So anyways, elaborate on that
true. I mean, I think that so I'm a
junior in high school, right? I'm 125 pounds soaking wet.
And legitimately, I couldn't imagine any girl was looking at
me anywhere, right? So I asked my parents on my 17th
birthday, if they would buy me a set of Weights.
So, wait a minute at 17, you weighed 120 pounds under twenty,
five, hundred and twenty-five pounds.
I think I weigh that when I was in like second grade so when I
was 17, I was 225. Yeah.
Let's just be really clear the football coaches weren't looking
at me, right? They were really they were
looking for me to do anything. So I really like I want to kind
of look better, I got to do something.
I mean I'm just nothing. So I said, let me let me get
weights this was in the days before real gyms, where anywhere
the right, the high school had a universal and the only other
place you could work out was going to the Y, okay, right.
And that wasn't an easy thing for me to get to.
So I said, let me build a gym in my basement.
Yeah. So legitimately they bought me
weights. The Old-school kind, you know
with plastic around cement? Oh yeah, remember those?
Yeah, of course I bought. I bought a bench that you know,
did an incline or flat and I just started buying different
pieces that I could start putting together a gym.
Curling bar. I built my own lab machine went
to the hardware store bought pulleys and pipes and built a
lap machine. I love it in the basement.
So I built a gym in the basement and I lived there, I started
doing those protein shakes, the soy protein back in the day, you
would have loved it. I took a mayonnaise jar.
Right? I fill it up with some ice cream
raw. Egg little a rocky style then
yeah, literally like Hi-C. Hi sugar stuff.
Yeah, and I stirred in all this soy protein and I would do one
of those like every day. Yeah, I work out before school,
I worked out after I got home and during the summer, I even
doubled up on that. So by the time I went back for
my senior year in September, I had gained 25 pounds of muscle.
Yeah, I was I actually like hey I can do this, the girls were
watching, they were watching. Yeah, you know and not that so
many I'm started knocking on the door where you know, it is a
little bit easier to build my self-confidence up, but it made
me realize if you put your mind to something when you realized
early in your life that when there's something you want when
you go at it with a lot of Vim, Vigor, and Gusto and dedication
much like what you're trying to do and teach people and help
them, it goes a long way to teaching his self-confidence.
Like when you One thing, right? When you can set one goal,
that's not something you just wake up with, right?
You actually have to work at to the whole no days off thing.
I never took a day off from working out and you worked at
you were committed to the process and it was three months,
right? Because it was the whole summer.
I started in April, okay. April May June July?
Yeah, four and a half months. So, four and a half months of,
like, literally two a days. Eating the same thing every day,
doing the same thing and you built it yourself.
Self. So, that had to give you a lot
of confidence to just in the fact that you created something
to create something. That's right.
No. Like I thought that was really
cool but that's kind of like what I hear is like.
It's like not only did you build this new body but you also
created the the place to do it in and I just find that to be
really cool too. So I mean it was real.
It's with such a confidence Builder.
Yeah. Like when you get people like I
done your workouts. I think I told you this morning
I think there were 40 people in the class and I'm Sure, I was
number 40 on the list that you're in the room so that's all
the matters. So sometimes it's just about
showing yeah but I'll tell you something, you teach people how
to think about themselves and it starts with your mind and your
body, mmm, right? If you can get them both working
in Harmony, when your mind tells your body, what to do on the
body responds, it reinforces it. And you're all of a sudden, you
know, you're moving forward, right?
And I think that that's something that is obviously
evident in what you're trying to do.
And I think also just the take home to is like, at a young age.
Like to all the you know and I don't know if any 17 year olds
are actually listening to us old heads talk, but if they do come
across this stuff and parents that have younger kids, like it
can happen at a young age, like your your choices can happen at
a young age that will affect you later on.
And by making the wrong decisions in the wrong choices,
at a young age can affect you tremendously as you get older.
So to me that those four months probably did more for you than
than anything else. At that time, you know, and
obviously you had to do other things to get to where you are
today, but but it certainly to me, was like a foundation of the
man that you are today, you know, just by doing that along
me. But and you found at least I
found that it repeated itself. So I went to Chicago.
Like I mentioned I'm from a small town from a small unit.
Well, maybe it's a bigger University today and I'm with
all these ivy league, kids and everybody else.
And I'm thinking, wow, I wonder if I really belong here.
And then all the sudden, you know, you take the same test,
they do you know you're in the same class as they are.
Mmm and all of a sudden, you realize, you do belong in this
room, right? You keep teaching yourself over
and over again, why you should be in that room and I think
that's something you take until life everywhere, right?
It's it's like, what are you? Worthy of test yourself?
Find out nowhere. You can go with what you have
and as long as you have the dedication, you can make
yourself better just about anything anyway.
Yeah, it's the Decision to dedicate to something and to
stick to it. I'll try.
I that's another thing too. I think people don't do often is
they don't stick to something. Like once you try something,
don't give up after a month, like I feel like everything now
is so instant, you know, it's instant gratification.
This instant, this is ubereats. It's Uber has, everything is
like right there for you that when you're trying to lose
weight or build muscle or start a business or or be in a
relationship that you want everything to happen overnight.
Night and that's just not realistic.
You know, know it's true. Look I try at least I try to
think about my philosophy as I don't like to spend a lot of
time doing something that I can't get myself better at,
right? I'd rather find something or one
thing or two things dedicate myself to trying to become
really good at those things. Yeah.
Like the only thing I've ever done over and over again and
I've never gotten any better at his golf just doesn't was the
hardest sport in the world. So you know, I've tried and I
just no surprise. I know I'm never going to put my
10. Thousand hours in on that.
And I'm pretty sure even if I did, I might not get any better.
I know Adam, we got a call Gail, maybe Gail can help this
situation. So, well, I want you to lean
into a little bit about, like, your so, I know you recently
retired, but you were obviously. And what's the, what was your
title before? Like, well, I was, I worked at
Bear Stearns first. Where it's where I met, Adam
those lie. So, let's talk.
I want to see the correlation between this no days off.
Philosophy. The of how you guys apply that
to finance and in your world versus, you know, the fitness
and the Beverage World, whatever.
Like because that's I Adam. And I talked about all the time
that there are a lot of correlations, there was a Warren
Buffett quote, what was it? Adam.
Yeah, consistency compounds results.
So, Adam would always talk to me about how there actually is a
correlation there between being consistent with your health and
also be inconsistent with with investing or finances and things
like that. And I think a lot of people
again, goes back to everyone's waiting to hit the lottery
right. Like you know, let me invest in
this and then two months later, I make 10 times our money and
that's just that's not really a good way to think about
investing and think about your money.
So lean into that. A little bit.
I'm actually really interested in that too, so, well, there's
two ways to think about this, what?
I'm going to talk a little bit about how you conduct your
business and we'll talk a bit about financing and Warren
Buffett because totally a hero to me.
So, one of the things when I when I came in to the business,
I was on the sale side and one thing I know you can't do is you
can't rush a relationship with a client, right?
You build, trust you build this working relationship and it
takes years years until somebody's willing to like a
trust you a little bit and trust you a little bit more and then
trust you a lot and you know when you violate any of that
trust it's like so it's all you get one chance to essentially
people's money. He like I mean it's a very
sensitive. So I took what I talked about
before and said, hey look, if I'm going to succeed, I need my
customers to actually try to not do a trade with me to try and
not do business with me. You know, I didn't want to give
them any excuse. Somewhere else.
So I really try to leverage all the strengths that we had in our
firm with the needs. I knew my clients would have and
really make it hard for them not to do business with us, so that
worked out really. Well.
I went from, I went from a nobody in a training class to a
senior person in seven years and what were some strategies there?
So because you're if I'm hearing you correctly, you're saying you
didn't want them to give you your money like you were Trying
to make it very hard for them to invest.
So, do I know I want an I needed to earn it.
All right, and their truck, I needed to earn their.
And then what was some ways ways you did that?
You know, what you even when, you know, they're not going to
do something with you. You give them an idea.
You give them something to remember that.
You actually paid attention you asked for work, no one else
wanted to do, okay you stayed late at night in our world back
then running their portfolios when you knew the guy from
Goldman Sachs might not be doing that.
So you earned, what you had by being better at what you were
doing than others. And I tried to make that sort of
evident the clients I built. I'll give you a funny one
another sort of not aranjuez. Yes, yes, definitely.
So there was a big Bank in Ohio that I got assigned.
I don't know, maybe three years into the business.
And I went out to Columbus and I met the senior portfolio manager
and we hit it off. And she introduced me to her
portfolio managers and I hit it off with two of them.
And then there was another one that wouldn't give me the time
of day. I mean, literally nothing.
So I started doing really good business with, you know, the
senior manager and they're under 200 links.
The other guy I remember he picked up my phone.
Once and then basically hung up on me.
Alright. So sometimes, you know, you
know, you're not going to win at everything but you keep trying
to do the same, right things. So, anyway, about six months
later, I call up and they tell me Steve's no longer here.
I'm like going. Yay.
Yeah, right. They put a new person in that
spot and I started having a decent you know go with this guy
and I'm thinking everything is great then I got one of the
greatest surprises of my life. Maybe another three months
later. Steve the guy who never returned
a phone call basically calls me up.
And I think I'm just heard like okay it's Steve on the on the
phone, right? Like I see calling me Jake.
Never talked to me once before I like what's going on here.
I pick up the phone. He's there he goes.
I want you. I'm at this new place.
I want you to be my coverage. I want I want you.
I'm like Steve. I don't I don't get it like a
wolf like you wouldn't return a phone call for me.
But you don't know why I didn't return a phone call from you
because I always thought you were really smart.
But I hated my boss and my boss told me I had to do business
with you and as soon as she told me, A I had to do business with
you and I don't like her. Then I don't like you because I
don't want to make her look good.
I doing business with you. So he became my biggest client.
And if you had asked me at that moment in time, would that be
the case? My handicap on that would have
been zero, right? Well, what did all the right
things? He knew what I had and you don't
even know why somebody doesn't choose to do that.
Exactly. And to me, that's what I've
actually learned that recently is that you can do everything
right on. You're in, but you often don't
know what's going on with the other person lutely like you
don't know, so it could have nothing to do and then you know
we always think is always has to do with us, right?
Because we're the ones trying to get the business or were the
ones trying to close the deal but oftentimes it has zero to do
with us and that's such a prime example of, and you know what
made me realize it reinforced again, do the right thing enough
times you're going to get paid back and do the right thing
anyway. So I think that oftentimes
people don't do the right thing because of their reaction that
they get. So then they change because of
the response or the reaction. Stay true to who you are.
That's right. Stay true to doing the right
thing because either a it wasn't meant to be or be it comes back
around like eventually a lot of times our nose in the beginning
is just because it's not the right timing.
That's right. And then eventually doors open
and is the right time and it could be That very same person
that close the door originally, no doubt about the.
That was one episode that just proved that.
Exactly what? Yes.
And I'm is. So it's more people need to hear
those kind of stories because I'm telling you like, and I'm
guilty of it. I've been very guilty of is one
thing that you don't do in business and in life, and it
don't burn Bridges because of something not working out, like
always understand. There's another perspective,
there's, there's other things happening.
I mean, somebody could be going I'm through a divorce, you don't
even know that or or their kid that like anything, like you do
not know. So it's that was great, get one
other, Yak sideline to that. So you know, I went to pretty
good school for finance and learned a lot of great stuff at
Chicago. But the thing I remember the
most we took this one HR class, right?
Human resource class. And if in that class one of the
days they played this old film strip.
I mean, literally something made in the 1950s and it was a black
and white. Factory floor kind of setting.
And it was about how you would manage things on a factory
floor, okay? And motivating people and
dealing with people and the name of the film strip was called.
What you are, is where you were when and what resonated so much
to me on that one, which is something that's always stayed
with me. Whenever you meet someone,
whenever you talk to somebody, they are a product of where
they're from the values that they grew up with and all the
influences that they've had. So for you to sit there and
judge people, you Don't know where they've been exactly.
And, and the more, and the whole point was as a manager, and this
is always help me as a manager. Was, if I could actually look
back and understand who you were, I might be able to
understand your motivation. I also might be able to
understand What's blocking you from being better, right?
Because when you listen, and you ask questions, you are much
better manager. You're a much better motivator.
Definitely. And you know what?
You're more effective and almost everything that you do and then
people respect you for taking the time to understand them.
Yeah. Find that origin story is I
tried. I know it's like exactly right
because everybody comes from somewhere everybody has Learned
something from someone and and then oftentimes they haven't
learned things because they didn't have certain people in
their lives. Like a lot of people don't grow
up with a two-parent home. That's right.
And and these are things that if you don't ask questions then you
don't know. And then you started, I always
say, in our, in our business, at one of the worst things you can
do is assume and expand have false expectations.
So don't assume ask questions, right?
Don't have expectations communicate.
It's like You can get so much further if you'll just talk
about it like and then our you know in the world of texting and
and kind of hiding behind our screens when.
Oftentimes it's like another thing to like when it comes to
communication and finding someone's why and why they're
doing certain things it's so that you can help them.
Is that if you don't like this, we can see each others body
language but in a text I could text you.
Hey, how are you doing today? And you could literally read it
is. How are you doing today?
You know, because of what's going on with yourself.
So, So I would say also is not only find out people's why and
their origin story but do it in person do it you know do it in a
conversation which is something this generation needs to be.
Yeah, I'll say when you go your gym experience when you're doing
those workouts the fact in your partner interval training that
you do, you always have a partner there.
You're always, you have to talk to somebody that's that.
You actually have to have an engagement and they'd say, you
know, certainly, you know, the trainer's that you have very
engaging. I mean, literally They're there
to help you and they they'll just and they do it in a really
nice way that you find that they're very supportive.
Even for the low level. After that I am in that in that
in that goal we want to we want a culture of accountability.
And one of the things you look at, even from myself, is that if
you don't have someone that is waiting on you at the gym that
will spot you that will changer changer weight that will wipe
down the equipment that will encourage you throughout the
workout, then you're missing. In out a lot.
And that's why you see often times and these gems where
everybody has headphones on. Everybody staring at televisions
that they're not seeing a whole lot of progress and then what
happens is they they fall off right because there's no
Direction. So one thing that we're trying
to do with Legacy and I wouldn't even say trying, we're really
doing is is a place of accountability and a place where
is just. As soon as you walk in, you're
surrounded by a community of people that have the same
Mindset and goals like we're all here to improve ourselves.
We're not just here to go through the motions.
We're not just here to watch TV or listen to music.
We actually want to get better today, you know?
So let me ask you a question. Yeah.
How do you find these? These folks that worked on
there? I literally I've been impressed
with every single person I've met and it can't be that easy to
find the right chemistry. For this place is all about how
do I find my coaches. Yeah, yeah.
So that that's, I would say right now in the business World
in In general because I have a lot of friends are in business
owned restaurants on car, dealerships or whatever.
And one of the toughest things is staff.
I mean that is finding. So what I believe is that we
created an extraordinary business, extraordinary systems
but ultimately you have to find Extraordinary People to deliver
this this thing that you build, right?
And so it's what we've done is we've enhanced our hiring
process. So what I mean by that is I
really think it's very Pour in it for them to go through a
sequence of people. So not just me.
So it used to be, they would sit with me and then of course, I
like everybody. So I'd be like, you're hard and
then, then three weeks later wouldn't work out.
And then I had, like, I literally, for the, when I first
opened, I went through 19 trainers in, like, 3 months.
Like, it was a disaster because I just hired the wrong people
constantly. Now we're a lot more mature in
our in our hiring process. So, not only do they go through
a series of interviews, then. We have a series of questions
and there are a lot more practical questions, not
necessarily business question. So they're like, what time do
you wake up every morning? What's the last book you read?
What, what do you eat? Like, just trying to get a
little bit deeper into again their origin like and also like
who they are now. So who are you now before you
get the job because if you're going to have to change
everything to be good at this job, It's probably not going to
work out, but if your lifestyle and your routine, actually, our
job, your, your, your position would complement that and just
be a nice fit. Then the normally works out.
So if I'm interviewing somebody and they're like, oh, I wake up
at 10:00 every day, then I'm like, yeah, that's not going to
work because the fitness industry is 5 a.m. to 10 p.m.
it's early, early mornings and late evenings.
That's the Fitness business. You can't get around it.
There is no like sleeping and and have a conquer the middle of
the day. There's no such thing as that in
the Fitness World. Know it's either dominate, the
mornings or dominate, the evenings and most the time, if
you want to be really successful.
Yeah, dominate both. And I think that's been like my
gift is that I've always been able to figure that out, is to
be great in the mornings and great in the evenings.
And we do that really well with Legacy because we have the four
to five locations. Excuse me, the four to five
classes in the morning and then the 45 classes in the evening.
So it gives gives people that option.
I would say. Another thing too, is we make
them take a class first and then we actually pair them up with a
member. And, and then we asked secretly
ask the member how, how was your experience?
That's another like, you know, I'm letting all our secrets out
right now and then also, I get feedback from the instructor.
So now I'm getting feedback from the existing coach.
Did they give up on certain things that they push through?
Did they were they a good partner?
That's another thing to like, There are good partners in bad
Partners right in the class. Some people like her into
themselves fixing their hair, looking in the mirror.
Instead of spotting there's partner and motivating their
partner. So a coach should be a motivator
should be someone that participates not spectate.
So I look for that. We ask those questions so the
coach is also paying attention to how they're performing in the
class how they're treating their partner then we asked their
partner. What did you think?
You know, was it a good partner? And oftentimes, I'm telling you,
it's, they lose the job right there.
Like, sometimes I've had them do great interviews, then they take
the class and the instructor says they weren't engaged.
They didn't help their partner. They were rude.
They're all about themselves. Like I'll give you one example,
we have this guy knocked, he knocked interview out, that his
resume exercise science, Kinesiology Masters and
biomechanics. You know, the whole nine, this
guy is doing handstands in between the stations and
flexing. In the mirror in between the
stations. Instead of being a good partner,
red flag, you know? I mean it's like okay obviously
there's too much ego there. That's not gonna happen.
So, I would say that and then I would say this probably the
reason why you're having a good experience is because of what we
do after we hire them. So there's a strategic
onboarding process. Number one, they have to
memorize the training men. Do not, not read it.
I seen your training means a lot to, it's a lot to, it's a lot to
it. And it took six years to develop
that training manual so you're that I could have used with my
Salesforce back in New York I think on the Adam and I'll talk
about all the time we're going to definitely make one for the
Bev company for sure. So should I think there's a lot
of value in that that that training manual is a lot of
books. Like I'm a big reader and it's a
lot of stuff that I learned and put it in there and so we make
them read and learn and know the training manual.
That That's first and foremost, then they have to train with our
existing staff. So they have to, we got away
from calling it. We used to call it shadowing,
but then it wasn't as as proactive as we like.
So, we change it to their training, but their training
with existing coaches and they're doing it at all six
locations. So they're really being able to
soak up the good and the bad from all locations.
And and seeing because initially you're learning a system but
then also you're learning. Are we call it?
You're in. A trainer, right?
You're not just a trainer. You're almost like a an
Entertainer to you're on stage every day.
You have a microphone. You're you're you're you're
putting on a performance. So it's really nice for them to
see how all the different coaches.
You know, the different jokes they say or different cues they
say are different things. They say everybody does it in a
different way and finds their own voice.
And so, that's important. I think also too.
I have required reading. So, there's a lot of books and I
don't think a whole lot of companies do this.
This especially gyms and you know, and I always get a lot of
pushback because you know, they we it's a long list and so
they're like, I got to read all these books.
But I will say this, every single time they actually do it,
they always tell me how much it means to them and how much they
apply it in their job, you know? Like they actually are taking
this stuff and then applying it and then I'll you know often
have to remind them or whatever. But I will say this, there's no
perfect science. We mess up all the time.
We have people that start out Great and then fall off but I
think it's our ability of making people feel like they're a part
of something bigger than themselves and I would like to
think that I'm doing a good job of like making sure people know.
This ain't about me, this is about Legacy.
This is about no days off. This is about a movement that
goes beyond the Jim walz be on a product beyond the service,
Beyond one class beyond anything.
It's literally something that we are.
Coaching and teaching people that they can Implement into
their relationships into their business.
And that's what's happening. And it's really cool to hear our
members talk about no days off, just like we do.
And so there, it's an extension of my voice and extension of the
other coaches voice that that is pouring into this community over
2,000 people and and it's growing every day.
That's great, that's great. I mean one of the hardest things
is finding the right people that you can work with and that make
your business better. And that really want to be part
of it and I think you've accomplished that.
Thank you. Thank you.
All right Dad. So let's get into little dad
stuff here because I'm a new dad.
I have a three-year-old son and again I just want to salute you
I'm telling you. The Apple doesn't fall far from
the tree. I know when you give your wife,
all the advice, all the all the accolades.
But I know you had something to do with it.
And I think that I would just love to hear like, how did they
turn out so amazing because they both are and Can you look back
and say these are the things that I did that that kind of
helped solidify. You know, coming up with look, I
think that part of it is like my job required me.
I get up on Monday morning and I was out a lot at night, so I
didn't get a chance to see the kids whole lot during the week
but I spent every part of the weekends with them and whenever
I could, I really tried to set an example for them, let them
try and figure out what they're good at encourage them.
Things they should try more always be supportive, right?
I mean everyone's got their own. As I said origin story and what
their parents did right and wrong with them.
Right? My goal every day was to try not
to do something that my kids would never complain about
later. So you know what, you empowering
your kids through through encouragement and knowing when
and how to compliment criticize and you know, and then when you
do criticize, you know, criticize and in April
Productive way, right? Like I'm here, Karthik what's
the word constructive? Criticism destructive, criticism
some on my mommy's always. And I think, you know, Our kids
were, we were very lucky, they had a great experience growing
up. Listen to my daughter at one
point, you know, she wanted to change schools and you know,
Meri and I would spend time and we talked about it, we had
different opinions and Hillary ultimately chose, what was an
enormously positive experience. And I think that, you know, it
put her on a path to be the woman.
She is Today and I couldn't be more proud of the business she
started and the passion that she brings to shout out to the Soto
method. Yeah.
Shout out to that soda method. I think she's tremendous.
It was really fun sitting with her and talking and then you can
just the passion she has for what she does.
And the way she communicates is on an another level, like she is
one of the top communicators I've ever spoken.
She was that way as a child when she was 10 years old, we were on
Nantucket It I think Mary had gone inside to get ice cream or
something for us, and we're just sitting there and as all these
adults, just hanging on benches and what have you and Hillary
looked at them all and said, why don't we all just sing the ABCs.
And she just got this whole group of adults to do that.
And I always felt her superpower was if she knew what she was
talking about the age of 10, you could put her in Yankee Stadium
and give a speech and she wouldn't have blinked an eye on.
Yeah. Yeah.
And my son different person went the same path.
School-wise. He didn't want to do that,
right? So he came back and graduated,
you know, High School in Westport and I don't know.
I'll give you another story here that hopefully it's interesting.
It will tell you about the character of my son and I really
to me this is one of the most amazing things that that I could
say about somebody's. Just first of all, the kid
doesn't know how to lie, wouldn't know how to and that
led to this following sort of way of thinking about my son was
a recruited athlete out of high school.
He decided, one year I was going to run track Check and, you
know, in the FCX, which is the county that we're in came, in
third, in the 100 and the 200 and I knew it was fast but I
didn't know it was that that. Yeah.
And he went on one official recruiting visit to, you know, a
well-known school. And, you know, he had asked some
questions the night before, about, you know, could I play
wreck basketball? No.
Can you do this know what, our practice schedules, like, blah,
blah, blah. And the next day, it is
interview with coached, Coach says to him, why don't you apply
early decision? Okay, that's basically an
invitation. Yeah, right.
On the way home, we started talking about it.
You started going through the pros and cons of playing college
sports in track. Only positive.
He could come up with to run track.
Was he get a brand new pair of sneakers every month?
And he said, the rest of it will just ruin my high school
experience. I mean, my college experience.
All right, so roll. Now we roll forward a little
bit. Remember the college was
recruiting, Scandal people put down Sports.
Yeah, right to get in and the kid never played anything right?
And people pay hundreds if not Millions of dollars to get their
kids in my son decided since he didn't want to play.
He wasn't going to use Sports as a way of getting into a school
and then going to have to tell the coach, he wasn't going to do
it, right. All right.
So he didn't apply to an early decision school that recruited
him. He applied to another school in
the same conference that he would have waltzed on.
Never told the coach at anything about whether or not he would
get there. He applied to Syracuse his time
in the 200 in high school, would have put him third on the
varsity team at Syracuse on the 200.
And he'd even tell Syracuse that, you know, he was a track,
nothing, nothing that would help his chances because he wasn't
going to live up to it. I don't think there are too many
kids that would have the character to sort of stay true
to that, right? And just and just follow where
they end up going to college, went to Indiana University.
Okay. Right.
So you know what and what year is he now?
Davis 29 now. Okay.
So he's graduated and, and and where is he living New York
living in Williamsburg in New York, okay?
And working in finance. Yeah, we followed Dad into the
Finance field. I do think that, you know, your
kids even Hillary is she'd mentioned, you know, she started
at Goldman Sachs she ended it oak tree, you know.
So everyone went down the path of finance and then I realized
that wasn't her calling and decided to go into the Fitness
business just like you did. Yeah, and you know, your kids
will find their own path. One piece of advice.
I will give you a dime, you can take this to when your kids get
to a certain age, you have to really recognize our your when
they're your child asks you for Are they asking you for support
or advice and if you screw it up you might regret it, right?
Because if you give advice and all they want to support you got
a-you got another. That's a good one.
That's a good right? Any secrets and how to determine
that? Ask.
Yeah if you don't know, which is the one just ask.
Look, Hilary up again. One last story with Hillary when
she went to take one of the jobs that she didn't like between oak
tree and and Goldman. I had done some diligence on
some Of the people that she was going to go work with and it
didn't come out, great, but I didn't tell her, yeah, like she
was going to make this choice and afterwards when she
realized, she didn't enjoy this job and I asked her, then should
I have told you what I knew and she goes, no, Dad.
I'm old enough to make my own choices and my own bad
decisions. Yeah, so you know what?
You know, you go through your whole life and you do all these
things for your kids. The one thing, you know, when
you try and protect them from everything is you got to make
sure they know how to make choices on their own.
Right, right. That's really good.
All right, so one of the reasons why you're here is because we're
we're launching a new beverage business and you're getting
involved, which were tremendously ecstatic about you
retired and now you're diving into a new Venture.
What? What excites you about about
this? This consumer brand building
that we're doing? Well, first of all, the water is
just amazing to taste and drink. I mean, you've whatever formula
you have, you have mastered. I this water holds its own
against every other water I've ever had.
If not better than all of. Yeah, it's good for you and as
you always say, we're 75% water. Let's put the best water in our
bodies. When items and let's in let's do
the right thing because as you have said, a million times to
wear under hydrated as a people. Yes.
And you know, staying hydrated is important, so it's a brand to
you've developed these cans. They're great to hold their
great to look at. I have yet to put a can in
anyone's, and it doesn't say, wow.
I I really love the way this looks.
This is about brand, there's a million different Waters, we're
trying to get people to spend money on something that
basically is free. Right, right.
So what do we do first we make a better water, then we deliver it
in a really cool way. We make people enjoy holding the
can. Yeah.
And then we build the brand by affiliating with the right other
people that can help build a brand.
Branding is so important right now.
I'll tell you something. Little goes to something that we
talked about before about investing, like Warren Buffett.
Built Brands Warren Buffett recognized that American Express
the Coca-Cola. These were brands that people
would pay a premium for right, we're a premium water.
So, we're already at the point where we're going to sell water
to someone who wants to spend a little bit more on a better
product, right? And when they do that and then
they like it then the value that accrues to them, for being
associated with it and having it is going to be really valuable
to the building of this business.
And I think you've started something that's Going to
continue to grow. I think, once people start
seeing more of this, as we as we grow, this brand outside of
South Florida, think you're going to see a really powerful
impact that it's going to have on people and I think it's going
to draw people in and I think, you know, you kudos to you and
what you've done so far and I can't wait to be part of what
it's going to be coming. So I'm really excited to be to
be part of this. So I appreciate you letting me
in and yeah, I think we're all going to be, you know, we're
going to all love being associated this and just like we
Talked about earlier, it's about discipline of how we're going to
do it, right? And having the right time frame
to understand how it's going to pay us back and again, to quote
like a Warren Buffett before, right, this compounding effect
shows up in Brands as well, right?
You do the right thing, it. Expands one fan gets 2 to get 4
for get eight, right? It's an exponential build.
I think like anything else. And I wanted to tell a story and
Adam wanted me to talk about this.
So I also have taught Finance. As part of my journey and one of
the stories I like to tell people about and I also do a lot
of volunteer work to teach people about financial literacy,
okay? So I truly believe by the way
that I can teach anyone to be a millionaire, I actually believe
I can. If I get you early enough
because this power of compounding and turning a dollar
into more than a dollar is really powerful when you pick
the right investment. So, just to give to two stories
here, I start off with people and say, can you save two
thousand dollars a year, right? Year, two thousand dollars here,
can you save it? Okay.
Alright if you can do two thousand dollars a year and you
put it in your mattress right? In 40 years, you have 80 grand.
If I invest that money in the stock market, Okay, and I do
that for 40 years and the stock market returns, have
historically been about eight percent.
Some people would argue, it's even higher, but let's just
stick with eight and I put my money in the stock market and I
follow the Warren Buffett idea that, you know, you just let
your money work for you while you're sleeping, hmm.
Right. After 40 years instead of 80
grand, I have over 500,000. And if I can really push your
limits and say, can you save four thousand dollars a year for
40 years at 8%? You end up with over a million
dollars in 40 years. So am I asking for heroics, you
have to have some discipline to save money and to teach people
that that's really important thing to do.
And you really will be able to make money work for you.
And I think that's a really important thing that kids have
to learn in the last story that goes along with that.
I always like to do this when because it really resonates
because you can think about and holding in your hand.
So in June of 2007, Apple released their first iPhone.
If you got the highest memory phone you had, you paid five
hundred ninety nine dollars, okay?
Instead of buying that phone had you invested in Apple stock
today, you would have owned, you would own 137 shares of Apple
stock, which would be worth, 40 times that money that you put
in. So it's a while legitimately for
people that love math and they know, I like to think about
internal rate of return. That's a 27 percent irr on Well,
stock since the iPhone were released, you know, what money
can work for you? If you're I heart about yeah.