The Few Will Hunt Show

Focusing on yourself and stepping back can be tough, but it's a challenge worth facing and it will change your life for the better. In this episode, Joey and Drew sit down with Brian McNally, a 4-time Inc. 5000 entrepreneur and investor in FWH. Brian shares his journey from a blue-collar upbringing in Northeast Philly to founding one of the fastest-growing companies in the country. He also talks about how his own childhood influences his parenting style and how he teaches his children. Brian discusses how his experiences have opened up opportunities for him to start his own business. Tune in to learn how a shift in life can lead you to your success. 

The official podcast of Few Will Hunt, the world’s largest community of hard workers and Made in the USA apparel brand. Family-owned and operated and headquartered in Philadelphia. We’re on a mission to restore the dignity of hard work and help others live The Rules of The Few to strengthen ourselves and strengthen society. No entitlement or excuses are allowed here.

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Creators & Guests

Host
Drew Beech
Drew Beech is an entrepreneur and cofounder of Few Will Hunt. He spent several years in the sales and marketing industry, grossing over several million dollars in sales. But his love for the entrepreneurial journey and desire to escape the rate race started with his personal training business in college. Today, Drew leads the Few Will Hunt community alongside his cousin and cofounder, Joey in their mission to restore the dignity of hard work through the highest-quality American-made apparel.
Host
Joey Bowen
Joey Bowen is co-founder of Few Will Hunt.

What is The Few Will Hunt Show?

The official podcast of Few Will Hunt, the world’s largest community of hard workers and 100% Made in the USA apparel brand. We’re on a mission to restore the dignity of hard work and help others live The Rules of The Few to strengthen ourselves and strengthen society. No entitlement or excuses are allowed here.

Brian McNally:

Was like, this all starts and ends with me. Yep. If I wanna see change in the business, if I wanna see change at home, if I wanna change like, it's all starts and ends with me. I have this it's just all this stuff's gonna follow you no matter where you go. Mhmm.

Brian McNally:

You have to change. Welcome to the Fuel Hunt Show.

Joey Bowen:

What's going on, Eagles? Welcome to the Fuel Hunt Show. I'm Joey. I have my cousin and cofounder Drew here with me. And today, we are joined by someone very special, Brian McNally.

Joey Bowen:

He is one of the few. He is an entrepreneur. He is an investor. He's an investor in fuel hunt recently and, had a very large 8 figure exit multiple 8 figure exit from a company that he built from scratch. So, the community, I'm excited to have you here with us, and I'm excited for the community to get to know you on a deeper level.

Joey Bowen:

So we talk about your your accomplishments, right, and your exit that you just had. I'm excited for them to hear more about your story and the path that you took to get there because it was, I feel like sometimes people think that the path is very linear and, the vision is always there. And I I have a feeling that you held yourself to a very strong vision to get to where you've been or where, you know, and ultimately where you wanna go. But I have a feeling it wasn't like a super linear path. You know?

Brian McNally:

That was pretty accurate. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Joey Bowen:

I was feeling

Brian McNally:

So Messy at times for sure. Yeah. Yeah.

Joey Bowen:

So we'll, so we'll dive in. First things first, let's talk about you're a northeast Philly kid. Right? Born and raised. Okay.

Joey Bowen:

Alright. Born and raised. So, like, you know, I I love that. We're all

Drew Beech:

He's one of us.

Brian McNally:

We're all so I had a little,

Joey Bowen:

exactly, I had a little stint in more ways than 1. Right? One of the few, but then also, you know, one of us in in the Philly sense, born and raised. I had a little stint in North Philly, not too far from around here, but then we moved to the Northeast. So I claim claim northeast Philly kids.

Joey Bowen:

I have 3 northeast Philly kids on the show here.

Drew Beech:

I love it. It's the first. It's the first.

Joey Bowen:

I love it. So what was life like growing up in your family and in your neighborhood in northeast Philly? Let's start there.

Brian McNally:

Yeah. So, I mean, my neighborhood's all, you know, blue collar workers, cops, and firemen. Right? I mean, that's kind of the deal. And so growing up from a Catholic school, was I was a Catholic school kid, went to archbishop Brian, Saint Chris up in the Summerton area.

Drew Beech:

Oh, okay.

Brian McNally:

So I moved around a lot as a kid, but all through different places in the northeast. Right? I like spending time in Busselton, Somerton, Mayfair. I was born in, Tyson in the boulevard.

Joey Bowen:

Okay.

Brian McNally:

Moved out to Somerton, ended back at Princeton and and Tarsdale, when I was in late, like, senior year, junior, senior year high school. So Okay. All over the place. My family life was cool. It was like, my dad's a longshoreman.

Brian McNally:

Mhmm. My mom was like stay at home mom and also, like, whatever odd end jobs she could have. Like, you know, they both just have high school educations and kinda work their way up. My dad stayed longshoreman his whole life. My mom just took whatever she could get.

Brian McNally:

Right? Like, admin jobs. Eventually, he's got into, like, insurance. And then later in life ended up be doing, like, help desk and, like, you know, business analyst stuff. So kind of from where she came from, like, really worked her way up.

Brian McNally:

But, you know, we were paycheck to paycheck family. You know, if I wanted little extra things, like, we had a we had a shoe or clothing minimum. Like, that was it. Like, a cap, anything above that, I had to kick in for myself, like, always. But just hardworking Irish Catholic family from the northeast.

Brian McNally:

Right? I mean, that was kind of the vibe. Yep. You know, my dad struggled with alcohol, like a lot of people do, I think in in that area. So, that had its ups and downs for sure, but and ultimately had me, needing to be really independent at a young age

Joey Bowen:

Right.

Brian McNally:

And self sufficient, which I think it informed a lot of how I'm able to to do things I ended up doing in my life. Right?

Joey Bowen:

Yeah. That's a beautiful tie, like, that we'll make as the show goes on between, you know, your upbringing and the lessons that you learned there, what to be and what not to be, how to act and how not to act act, and how that translated into ultimately your success Yeah. You know, as an adult, really. We have similar similar similar stories, similar upbringings. Right?

Joey Bowen:

So, not Irish Catholic, but Italian Catholic with the same type of thing, like, blue collar. You know what I mean? I was in Fox Chase. Mhmm. So I don't think you did a stint there, but you did a stint in surrounding surrounding Yeah.

Joey Bowen:

Surrounding, areas. So, you know, thinking about my childhood, let me ask you a question about yours. Did your parents primarily instill work ethic in you with words or by example?

Brian McNally:

A little bit of both. Right? Well, I would say, you know, they both were hard workers. Right? And definitely by words, my dad always had an idea of who he wanted me to be, that he struggled to live up to him himself, frankly.

Brian McNally:

Right?

Joey Bowen:

I mean,

Brian McNally:

his mom died when he was 12. He's the youngest of 10. Like, he was basically raised by his older brothers. Like, so he's just a big kid at the end of the day. So he just went to work because he had to go to work, and he had to pay bills.

Brian McNally:

Right? Sure. And but he he stayed committed to that. Right? He knew as as a father, that was his job, you know, to bring home a paycheck.

Brian McNally:

Right? And so he I've always was raised that way. As as a man, you're you're valued by what you bring to the table. Right? And so always doing hard work stuff, you know, like, if I I was always picking up extra stuff.

Brian McNally:

I started working when I was 13. Before that, like, me and my brother used to cans from the recycling bin and take them to the recycling plant, get money that way. No. You're not. Yeah.

Brian McNally:

All that stuff. Right? Anything I could do. Me and my boy would shovel snow, you know, blizzard of 93. I killed it.

Brian McNally:

Yeah. I go, like, a 12 hour day. I'm like, oh, man. I'm crushing it. Too.

Brian McNally:

Yeah. Yeah. We were

Joey Bowen:

we were in prime shoveling form.

Brian McNally:

Oh, yeah.

Joey Bowen:

For the blizzard.

Brian McNally:

I think I still got back muscles from that trip. But yeah. So, you know, just always raised like that. And then just in the neighborhood. I mean, that's how you can't be lazy.

Brian McNally:

Like, people didn't respect you. Right? You didn't get respect if you were like the guy who couldn't carry his weight. Yes. And and so that's just how we were.

Brian McNally:

Mhmm. You know?

Joey Bowen:

That's that's the one thing that nowadays we've lost in neighborhoods. Right?

Brian McNally:

Yeah.

Joey Bowen:

It it's my belief that we've lost in neighborhoods. There was in my neighborhood growing up in the northeast, there was a accountability that we had as a as, like, a block. Like, as that block of our home Ave, we knew each other and, like, we were accountable. We we said that we're gonna take care of the front of our homes. We said they were gonna clean up our snow.

Joey Bowen:

We said that, you know, if we had parties that we weren't gonna, park in front of certain houses. Like Right. There was, like, accountability. You know what I mean? Because you didn't wanna be the lazy one or the one that didn't wasn't considerate of other people on the block.

Brian McNally:

Or, like, the old lady in neighborhoods whose car got shoveled out without anyone even asking. Yes. Never had to ask those kind of questions. You just did it. Right?

Brian McNally:

It was the right thing to do. Yep. And so, you know, it's a tougher place. Right? You gotta be able to handle your own and and all that kind of stuff, but in some ways, it's a more of a community than the nice beautiful suburb I live in now in Tampa for sure.

Joey Bowen:

Yep. Yep. Yeah. We've we've lost that. And, like, to to some degree, I think that we we won't go down this rabbit hole, but to some degree, I think it was, you know, over the past decade or so, actually, more than that, maybe 2 decades, like a systematic attack on the family unit and the community unit, you know, to try to, you know, divide and conquer with different agendas.

Brian McNally:

You know? I'm all about some toxic masculinity man. They'd they'd

Joey Bowen:

ultimately weaken us as a society. Well, they do two things. They make us feel alone and they weaken us, and that's why we start a fuel hunt.

Brian McNally:

Yeah. I mean, for me, it's like I take that as a personal responsibility to take care of my neighbors, my my family. Like, I I take that serious. I mean, that's that's important to me to be a protector and a provider for my family. Yeah.

Brian McNally:

And my wife and children, they appreciate it and respect it, frankly.

Drew Beech:

It's Parker is literally the only my son, the only kid child in the community in our neighborhood that I see bringing up neighbor's trash cans. Like Right. That was such a simple thing that I my parents told me to do. Like, if you see the trash can, just, like, take them up for your neighbor.

Brian McNally:

Like Right.

Drew Beech:

It, but you don't see really that anymore at all.

Brian McNally:

Mhmm.

Joey Bowen:

I I wasn't a big video game kid. Like, growing up, I was more, like, outdoors. Like, I was outdoors. I was in the woods and stuff. But, I do remember, you know, Sega Genesis back in the day.

Joey Bowen:

Like, I was killing some, I don't know what it was, Sonic maybe or something. And I remember my mom yelling up from downstairs and being like, you know, our neighbor was coming home with their bags of groceries.

Drew Beech:

Yeah. And it

Joey Bowen:

was the same type of thing. Like, you know, the elders on the block, you carry their groceries. Like, that's what you did.

Drew Beech:

Go into the they are trying to make us isolated and alone. Just and toxic man masculinity, it's like, if you look at I don't remember if I saw this, but it's like if you look at all the dads that are portrayed on sitcoms and TV shows, they're not us. Right? Yeah. Yeah.

Drew Beech:

That's

Brian McNally:

where they're they're the punchline.

Drew Beech:

It's yeah.

Brian McNally:

It sounds like dad's the punchline now. Right? Yeah. This goofy dumb guy.

Drew Beech:

Yeah. Exactly.

Joey Bowen:

Goofy dumb guy. No social awareness. Yeah. No smarts. Just don't

Brian McNally:

sit around, have a beer, watch the game, and be left alone

Drew Beech:

kinda thing.

Joey Bowen:

Right? Exactly. Okay. That's so that's why I was going with, like, systematic attack.

Drew Beech:

You know what I mean?

Joey Bowen:

And maybe people did it, just to poke fun and

Brian McNally:

Mhmm.

Joey Bowen:

You know, I don't know why writers started doing that back in the day, but it's had, like, very severe consequences Yeah. On the family unit, masculinity, all that good stuff. But we don't have to dive down that rabbit hole

Brian McNally:

right now. So Yeah.

Joey Bowen:

So you said at a very young age, you were you were pretty independent. Yeah. That resonates with me, and I know that'll resonate with a lot of the few. I was too. You know, I was walking to school really young, 8 years old, coming home, starting to cook dinner.

Joey Bowen:

Like, I, you know, had a kid kid at a house. When I was I was walking to school at 8 Damn. 2nd grade. It was like a mile from, like, where I live to Saint Cecilia's.

Drew Beech:

Oh, that's

Joey Bowen:

Yeah. It's like a mile.

Drew Beech:

Yeah. But

Joey Bowen:

I had a key. I came home. You know, my parents were working multiple jobs. So, you know, I was getting dinner ready. Right.

Joey Bowen:

You know, I boiled the hot dogs. Like, you know what I mean? Like, whatever I had to do. Is that similar?

Brian McNally:

I remember asking my mom one time. I'm like, hey. Where's my my shirt? She's like, I do laundry on Saturdays. Yeah.

Brian McNally:

It's Wednesday. Like, here's and I was like, well, I need it. She's like, cool. Come on downstairs. That's the laundry detergent.

Brian McNally:

This is how it works. And I was young. I was like, maybe 10, 11 Did you

Joey Bowen:

just go shirtless instead? Did you figure it out?

Brian McNally:

I mean, I figured it out. I just wore it dirty that day. But other than that, it was like, you know, it was she was just like, from now on, you know, if you need something done, this is how you do it. So, like, she my mom always raised me that way. Like, she would teach me something before she would just do it for me.

Brian McNally:

Yeah. Because she was busy. So, like, she was trying to you know, my dad was in and out and Mhmm. Working and, you know, for other issues, and then my mom would be trying to run a household with 2 boys and work. You know?

Brian McNally:

So it was like, let's help out. Like, be be part of the solution. That is

Drew Beech:

something I try to do personally is to not solve all all my son's problems. You

Brian McNally:

know what

Drew Beech:

I mean? Like, today's day and age, we want to coddle and keep our kids comfortable, and it's brought us to where we are today in a soft society. So Yeah. Me, personally, I I don't I try to make them as literally as not needy as possible.

Joey Bowen:

I I said something way back in the day. I don't know if it was pre fuel hunt or during fuel hunt about, like, stealing problems.

Drew Beech:

Yeah.

Joey Bowen:

That's something I refuse to do, and I think that's one of the the biggest the biggest life lessons that I I learned and why I don't steal problems. I don't steal my daughter's problems. You know, I try not to steal the team's problems. Like, you teach. Yeah.

Joey Bowen:

You know what I mean? And you teach within guardrails.

Brian McNally:

Yeah.

Joey Bowen:

Right? So, like, you you're kinda like, I let my daughters bounce off the guardrails. Like, they'll do they'll fail. They'll do it. Like, but there's guardrails.

Brian McNally:

Mhmm.

Joey Bowen:

And I let them bounce off, bounce off, bounce off. I don't steal their props.

Drew Beech:

Yeah.

Joey Bowen:

You know, it's a very important important life lesson. So it sounds like, you know, a lot of that independence, it was out of necessity. Yeah. Yeah. So when I go back to, you know, my question about, like, was it words or was it work that was the example for you?

Joey Bowen:

You said kind of both. Now I I see that. Like, for me growing up, it was there weren't many words, man. Yeah. You know, dinners were quiet.

Joey Bowen:

Like, you know, there wasn't a lot of communication, but there was a strong example of work ethic.

Brian McNally:

Yeah. I never got, like, the life lesson sort of sit down, like, hey. Here's like, I do that with my kids now. Like, I'm talking to them as, like like, I'm their coach. Right?

Brian McNally:

Like, their life coach. I'm like, here you go. You know? Here's this this is how you do this. And but, like, my dad, it was just, like, just don't be soft.

Brian McNally:

Go go do things.

Joey Bowen:

You know what

Brian McNally:

I mean? Like, you're right. And even my mom to a degree, like, she wasn't gonna sit there and coddle me. She was, like, dude, I I ain't got time for this. Get get it together.

Joey Bowen:

Yeah.

Brian McNally:

Like, you know what I mean? You're grow up. You know, like Yep. So, yeah, a little bit of words, but, you know, but, you know, they had a standard from a verbal perspective. Like, I knew what the standard was, right, and how I was supposed to behave.

Joey Bowen:

Yeah.

Brian McNally:

That was pretty clear.

Drew Beech:

Yeah. Right.

Joey Bowen:

It's it's funny because I I do the same thing with my daughters with, you know, I'm kinda like their life coach. Yeah. I'm using obviously, actions, and and and they see my work. But I'm also using a lot of words. I'm like their life coach.

Brian McNally:

You know?

Joey Bowen:

Like, hey. You feel this how do you feel today? Like, you feel this good? Like, I'm

Brian McNally:

My daughter started to cut me off on it a little bit now. She's a little over it. So I gotta, like, measure how how often I do it. She's like, here we go. Again, with this is she?

Brian McNally:

11. So she's, like, 11 going on 19. You know how that is. Right? Like, she's too cool for it.

Joey Bowen:

That's exactly where I was going with this.

Brian McNally:

Yeah.

Joey Bowen:

So I'm their life coach. And even at 8 and 5, they're starting to get, like, a little bit, like they're like, this is getting a little tired, dad.

Drew Beech:

They do. They do.

Joey Bowen:

The lessons, the the most impressive things that I've seen them do at their young age and some of the things that I'm most proud of them for, it was, this is a popular phrase, but it was it was caught, not taught.

Drew Beech:

Mhmm.

Joey Bowen:

So in other words, they are mimicking something that they saw me do or my wife do a particular behavior the way we act. It wasn't my words. Yeah. So I am check trying to check myself nowadays, and they and they help me with it. Yeah.

Joey Bowen:

I'm trying to check myself with the words and and lean more into the work. Yeah.

Brian McNally:

We've seen some great things, like, recently with my kids from that front. Like, my son's super empathetic and just, like, nice to people. He just wants to be super nice to people. Right? He sees me go out of the way to be kind to everyone I interact with, hold the doors, like, all these little things.

Brian McNally:

And now he's like a little gentleman. He goes out, introduce himself, shaking hands like people in the eye I love that. At 7. Right? And it's awesome.

Brian McNally:

And he just naturally just does it. And even my daughter, like, not too long ago, she's gotten to, like, competitive sheer. Yep. And we never encourage her to work out. Right?

Brian McNally:

We're not challenging her to do that outside of the stuff she just does with sports and stuff. But she sees me and her mom work out every day. Yeah. She comes down and goes, can I go in the gym? Can you teach me how to use this?

Brian McNally:

I'm like, yeah, baby. It's working. And to your point, it's sinking in. She sees us do this all the time. And when she knew she needed something, she knew exactly where to go.

Brian McNally:

Oh, I need to get bigger, stronger. I know how to do this. This is what mom and dad do.

Drew Beech:

Right? Beautiful. I was, like, £260 in, like, grade school and high school, like and my parents would be like, oh, like, go work out. Like, go lose like, you need to lose weight. You're you're you're heavy.

Drew Beech:

Yeah. Like and they were never doing

Joey Bowen:

either of

Drew Beech:

those things. So wherever I feel inspired

Joey Bowen:

Took you longer to get to your point because yeah.

Brian McNally:

Yeah.

Joey Bowen:

And, you know, I don't nowadays, things are different. Like, I feel like fit physical fitness is a is a big part of culture right now.

Drew Beech:

Yeah. Health health, I think, is. Yeah.

Joey Bowen:

When we were growing up, like, not so much.

Drew Beech:

It's like podcast era we're in. It's like like, there's so much information. There's no excuse to

Brian McNally:

to be

Drew Beech:

overweight and out of shape or unhealthy.

Joey Bowen:

Yeah. Yep. So, you mentioned you went to Ryan High School. Right? Big school.

Joey Bowen:

Ryan was a big school. Yeah. Compared to

Brian McNally:

Close to 3,000 kids, I think, maybe when I was

Joey Bowen:

That's a big school. Yeah. Big school. I only had a couple 100 kids, and I went to, McDevitt. But

Drew Beech:

So I went to the each, like, uni or multi boy girl high schools in the Archdiocese. I went to Wood. You went to McDavid. McDavid.

Brian McNally:

I actually did a stint up with my freshman year.

Drew Beech:

Oh, nice.

Brian McNally:

I won't take you down that rabbit hole,

Joey Bowen:

but we're talking we're talking about paths that aren't linear. Like, it's already starting.

Brian McNally:

Yeah. It is. Yeah. It's already starting. I'm always taking risks and just doing like, I literally went out there for no reason.

Brian McNally:

Like, I already know everyone there. Let me just check out this place. I'm like

Joey Bowen:

Yeah. And you're literally doing it.

Drew Beech:

What well, anyway, I just didn't wanna be with the people that I had just gone to school with for the past. Some definitely Yeah. I was I was eating something new.

Joey Bowen:

You said you you take risks. Like, one of the things, from what I know about your life story, like, you exemplify the rules of the few. There's a couple rules in particular, but really just, like, overall. So that's that's one of the things I'm excited about to to get into your story a bit. So after high school, college, like, you know, was it a slam dunk?

Joey Bowen:

Like, hey. I'm gonna go to school, and I'm going to

Brian McNally:

Yeah, man. I mean, to be honest, it wasn't a lot of forethought in my life at that time. Right? So And we're

Joey Bowen:

from a generation where it was, like, still automatic kinda automatic. Like It

Brian McNally:

was, like, the thing you need to do. Right? You know, I remember asking my dad, like, can I come down the waterfront with you? Good job. Benefits.

Brian McNally:

And he was, like, no. Over my dead body. Like, you're gonna go to college. And that because that's just like what we all thought we had to do. And and a lot of times, still, I mean, it's loosened up now, but you couldn't get a job in the business world, most of the jobs, without a college degree.

Brian McNally:

It was like a prerequisite. So But I had no real direction, man, if I'm being honest. So I was a kind of a wild kid from, like, 17 to 20. I I was, like, at the academy, man. I'm, like, a and b student because school just kinda came easy to me.

Brian McNally:

Mhmm. And captain of the lacrosse team, like, athlete. Also selling drugs on the weekends or Yeah. Any other time I could, like, and just getting in trouble, like, really, like, pushing the envelope.

Drew Beech:

You were a businessman from day 1, man.

Brian McNally:

Dude, tell you what. I mean, certainly a weak decision. Right? Like, just trying to get ahead, but it was out of this desire to get ahead. It was like, you know, in my mind, I'm like, I need to get ahead.

Brian McNally:

And I'm I'm working at Steve's Prince of Steaks Yeah. Making cheese steaks. I'm also

Joey Bowen:

a janitor. Steve's. Yeah.

Drew Beech:

Shout out to Steve's. Philly.

Joey Bowen:

Yeah, man. Shout out to Steve's.

Brian McNally:

Yeah. I worked there through, high school. I was also a janitor. I'm, like, working 2 jobs Mhmm. Doing lacrosse.

Brian McNally:

Like, they used to leave me a key at the grade school next to, Ryan. Yep. And they would leave me a whole floor just to clean for myself. Like, when I I would go to practice, and then after practice, I would go do that. At the same time, I'm like, well, I still need more.

Brian McNally:

Like, this isn't this isn't fully paying the bills. Yeah. And so now I'm I'm, you know, things are around. I'm I'm obviously yep. I'm I'm a hustler.

Brian McNally:

Right? So I figured out that the easy path. Right? Almost my success story could have very easily been

Joey Bowen:

Yep.

Brian McNally:

A cautionary tale.

Drew Beech:

That's the time too when, like, it wasn't as, accepted. You know what I mean? Like, you call it that even more than Oh,

Brian McNally:

yeah. Yeah.

Drew Beech:

Yeah. Like, more than 8.

Brian McNally:

All the other stuff I was landing with was gonna and the size that I had, it would landed me in jail for a long time.

Drew Beech:

Wow. You know

Brian McNally:

what I mean? So

Joey Bowen:

I, man, it's crazy how

Brian McNally:

But I didn't have direction.

Joey Bowen:

Yeah.

Brian McNally:

And so I ended up going to Cabrini College. My buddy was going there to play soccer. I had a stack of envelopes that I never even opened from colleges because I went to, like, a showcase, and I just didn't I was so just checked out. You know? I was just going through the motions.

Brian McNally:

Just Mhmm. Living this wild life and No. I was just

Drew Beech:

in playing lacrosse. I

Brian McNally:

was supposed to go to play lacrosse at Cabrini.

Drew Beech:

Oh, okay.

Brian McNally:

And I got, like, a few months in the spring into, like, fall ball, and I'm just, like, 6 days a week, team study halls, all this. And I'm like, I just wanna party. I just wanna I'm out. You know? Yeah.

Brian McNally:

And so I finished out the year there, and I, this is how I ended up coming to Florida. I finished out the year there. Friend of mine had family in Florida, so she went down there for school, and I went down there for spring break. I'm looking around. I'm like, are you kidding me?

Drew Beech:

Like, this

Brian McNally:

is what you're doing?

Joey Bowen:

And this is in Philly,

Brian McNally:

bro. Yeah. It's like sign me up. I'm out. Right?

Drew Beech:

Like in, like, the middle of nowhere too.

Brian McNally:

It's right by Villanova. Yeah. It's like a little tiny Catholic college, which is like it was like a regression for me to go live in it. I'm totally independent since I'm, like, 15. You know?

Brian McNally:

I'm, like, all

Joey Bowen:

living on my cement box.

Brian McNally:

You're in a cement box. I got some RA knocking on the door telling me I can't I'm like, woah. Woah. Woah. What's going on here?

Joey Bowen:

Like Yeah. Think about that. Yeah? Yeah.

Brian McNally:

Like, it was crazy. He's like, oh,

Joey Bowen:

you have to live this way now. And you're like, wait a second.

Brian McNally:

I'm adult. Like, I've been on my own since I was 15, like, pretty much. Like, my mom I was completely self sufficient. And I'm like, these kids can't even wipe their own ass. And I'm like, woah, dude.

Brian McNally:

Like, this ain't for me.

Joey Bowen:

Yeah.

Brian McNally:

USF was a whole another world. I was like, I had an apartment down there. I'm an adult again. I was like, oh, this is cool. Bust fun in the sun and

Joey Bowen:

all those

Brian McNally:

good things.

Drew Beech:

But I was gonna say my brother leaves for college in a couple weeks and, the dorm things, it's great. Yeah.

Joey Bowen:

It's okay.

Drew Beech:

You cram sardines into a box and

Joey Bowen:

then Bro, literally, it's a block room. It's it's they didn't even try, dude. They didn't put up a drywall. It's just freaking cinder block. They were painted cinder block.

Brian McNally:

Yeah. Pretty much.

Joey Bowen:

At least the dorms I never lived away, but the ones I've been in.

Drew Beech:

While we're on the the college subject, I always I always pay this question to people, like, do you think but I mean, question for both of you. Do you think you'll push your kids to college?

Brian McNally:

God. I was literally just working on my financial plan yesterday, and they asked me if I want to include college for the kids, and I said no. I just brought my son to a entrepreneur mastermind the other day.

Joey Bowen:

Yeah. Yeah.

Brian McNally:

I mean, I'm training them to do what it is what they wanna do. I mean, I've created a lifestyle where they don't necessarily have to do that. But like you said, I want them to feel and so it's like if they really wanna go to college, maybe they're math or science focused or something like that, yeah, go for it. But I kinda want them to take out a loan to do it. I want them to feel the pressure because if mom and dad are paying for it and they know it, I saw those kids at school and they, most of the time, they've worked that hard.

Brian McNally:

Right? So I want them to feel a little bit of heat. I might help them out later, but I I want them to think it's on them at at a minimum. I was I was one

Drew Beech:

of those kids because I didn't truly understand or or grasp the weight of what what my my parents had paid for completely. They paid for, like, half or a little bit more. And I I'm still paying all my loans to this day, but it's like I didn't really comprehend what it was I was taking on. And I feel like if I was more involved in the process or talking about myself, then I'll be okay. Like, I gotta take this shit seriously.

Drew Beech:

I'm I'm my I'm on my I'm on the line for this.

Joey Bowen:

Yeah. We did my parents, like, we, you know, paycheck to paycheck. Like, they couldn't afford to pay for school. But, my mom made sure and I didn't really have a concept at the time, but my mom made sure to be like, first of all, you're getting a scholarship. Like, that's just how this is gonna go.

Joey Bowen:

Right. So, like, I had that hanging over my head. I was like, and that that song and dance, like, that March

Brian McNally:

started real early. That's still

Joey Bowen:

in our show, like, 7th grade or whatever. So I knew I had to do that. And the other thing is, like, when she filled out, my mom, shout out, mom, filled out, all of my, like, FAFSA, Sallie Mae, like, all the loan paperwork. But she made me, like, she made me painfully aware, like, what was going on. Like, people were going to give you money, and you need to deliver on this promise.

Joey Bowen:

Not only do you have to pay it back, you have to make it worthwhile. Yeah. You know? And she didn't do it with those type of words. I think she just showed me the sheet and numbers on it, and I was just like, woah.

Joey Bowen:

Like, you

Brian McNally:

know what

Drew Beech:

I'm saying?

Joey Bowen:

You know? But to answer your question, I don't, and I I ain't trying to cop out, but I think that the world for the ages that my daughters are at, I think that the world is going to change so much by the time that they get to that decision point that it won't even be a decision point. Yeah. And if it is, you know, I I would advocate for no. You know, ultimately, I want them to do what fulfills them, but I'd advocate for no.

Joey Bowen:

Yeah. You know?

Brian McNally:

No system needs an overall. I don't wanna put them into a

Joey Bowen:

broken system. It's not it's not sustainable. The way that the universities is not a sustainable model. Mhmm. Tuition is going up.

Joey Bowen:

Salaries are in the reverse. Like, it's not a sustainable model.

Brian McNally:

Well, if you think about it from any other business. Right? Like, you gotta deliver for the customer. Exactly. The customers aren't coming out of there with anything of value after this, and it's an awfully expensive thing to have to not have any value.

Brian McNally:

Right? That's how I looked at it. I mean, just

Joey Bowen:

If you could buy a $300,000 object that was going to sit on your shelf and not provide you any value to create the life that you want for your, family. Right? Yeah. Those you love and the world around you, would you do it? No.

Joey Bowen:

I just That

Brian McNally:

is my biggest No.

Joey Bowen:

I would not buy that thing.

Brian McNally:

Right. I'll put

Joey Bowen:

it on my shelf. Right.

Drew Beech:

One of my biggest diploma. And we're we're coming down hard on college right now, but my biggest qualm is that you and I, Brian, get to attend the same school and get the same degree and have a totally different experience of of classes and and what we went through to get that degree. So what we have why we have the same degree if we did if I did double the work and you use rate rate my professor dot com and got all of the the good teachers that are just don't have to have a hard on for their students and wanna just make shit hard for no reason.

Joey Bowen:

Right. Yeah.

Drew Beech:

It doesn't make sense.

Joey Bowen:

I I mean, I saw college do some things, some good things for my buddies that lacked structure Yeah. And, that really didn't know, really had, like, no clue what they wanted to do with their life. It exposed them to different topics, subject areas, gave them structure. It's just a really expensive way to do it. Right.

Joey Bowen:

Like, from our generation, that was, like, the way it was done. Now it's different. Like, you have to you have complete freedom of of information. Like, you can spend a couple days on YouTube and get a good idea of, like, hey. This is something I'd like to pursue, maybe not.

Joey Bowen:

Like, this is what it's like to build a skill in this area, and that maybe not. Like, for us

Brian McNally:

Yeah.

Joey Bowen:

Growing up, it was like you go to school to figure that out, and you pay dearly for it.

Brian McNally:

You know what I mean?

Joey Bowen:

So so that's what, brought you to, Florida Yeah. The first time, I think.

Brian McNally:

Yeah. 1st time. That's what What were

Drew Beech:

you majoring in too? The

Brian McNally:

Well, so I just did, like, a liberal arts for the first 2 years. That was one of the smart things. I didn't try and jump in anything because I didn't know what the heck I was doing. Okay. Now I did I rolled in a couple community colleges along the way to make that all happen, which helped keep my cost down in in the end, which was actually kinda smart.

Brian McNally:

It wasn't planned, but just what happened. Yeah. And then, ended up getting a degree in hospitality management.

Joey Bowen:

So So that's that's

Brian McNally:

because I thought I thought it was gonna be Tom Cruise in cocktail. Like, I'm gonna go to the islands. I'm gonna save money. I'm gonna come back, open a restaurant. Like, that was you.

Joey Bowen:

I got you.

Brian McNally:

That was the dream, the sexy dream. That's like

Joey Bowen:

a business degree, though. Right?

Brian McNally:

It's basically a business degree without math. I hate math. So, like,

Joey Bowen:

I was like,

Brian McNally:

this is cool. I get to swap out calculus for wine? Yeah. I'm in. Yeah.

Brian McNally:

Let's do it. You know? Cool.

Drew Beech:

Calculus is hard, dude.

Brian McNally:

Yeah. Right? Like, I had to get up to a certain point, like algebra 2 or something, and then I was out on math. I'm like, this works for me. Like, you know?

Drew Beech:

I That class almost kept me from.

Joey Bowen:

I don't I ain't toot my own horn, but I I was a diocesan scholar. Do you know what that is? Mhmm. I was a diocesan scholar. Right?

Joey Bowen:

So, half of my senior year of high school, I spent in college. Yeah. I almost lost it because I almost failed calculus. In Galveston. LaSalle.

Joey Bowen:

In Galveston. And I was like, oh my god. Like, I'm I was never super smart, but I was a hard hard fucking worker. Yeah. Yeah.

Joey Bowen:

And that's what got me that Galveston scholar position. And I was like, I'm gonna

Brian McNally:

lose this

Joey Bowen:

because I can't pass calculus. I hate it. Calculus.

Drew Beech:

Calculus doesn't make sense to me to this day. Yeah.

Brian McNally:

But but, like, here's the thing. This is where sign college does come to play. Right? Like, my boy is a civil engineer. He's talking about he's way beyond calculus.

Brian McNally:

Right? And so that's where I just think there needs you need to have the right application for it.

Drew Beech:

Right?

Brian McNally:

I just think a lot all these, a lot of these arts degrees, I think are just Yeah.

Drew Beech:

Yeah, ridiculous.

Joey Bowen:

And super expensive Right. For no value. Expensive. Right. So you're you're down there.

Joey Bowen:

Right? So you're loving life.

Drew Beech:

Fair enough.

Joey Bowen:

Tearing it up in school.

Brian McNally:

Do my thing.

Joey Bowen:

Got your hospitality path that you're on. Right? So what's what's college life like? Are you working

Brian McNally:

at the same time? Yeah. Always working. Yeah. Working at restaurants mainly.

Brian McNally:

Mhmm. You know, pretty much that. Just working and going to school doing that that whole thing.

Joey Bowen:

Yep.

Brian McNally:

I did some crazy, like, summer jobs. I actually came up back up for one summer, went to Ocean City, Maryland. Yep. You guys know, Scopes? The guys who run around the beach and, like, take pictures and put them in a little telescope.

Brian McNally:

Yeah. No. I don't. Picture me with, like, long blonde hair, skinny, run around the beach, like, hey. You guys ready for your pictures?

Brian McNally:

You know, it's And

Joey Bowen:

then you put them on

Brian McNally:

one of those little, like, the little keychain. Yeah. Thing. Yeah. But it was, like, a straight commission job.

Brian McNally:

It's hustle. And if you hustled, like, these these guys are making, like, $10 a summer, so I'm like, sweet. Sign me up. I'm in. Right?

Brian McNally:

Like so I was always doing crazy stuff. I was I went to, like, Herbalife. Yeah. Credit card processing. I was trying to do credit card processing sales in college.

Brian McNally:

Right? Like, anything where it's, like, residual income. Like, so I always had this mindset of, like, I don't wanna keep working the rest of my life. Like, that's right. How can I make money that's gonna keep me feeding me?

Brian McNally:

Like, I saw that. Yep. I didn't really understand it, but I was like, that sounds like the way. Right? Mhmm.

Brian McNally:

You know? And then, like, I'm in my senior year. I'm doing my project for, like, where I'm, like, interning at the hotel.

Joey Bowen:

Yeah. And I'm,

Brian McNally:

like, talking to one of the GMs. I'm, like, how long have you been doing this? She's, like, 25 years. I just became the GM, and I'm just making money. You know?

Brian McNally:

And I'm like and you gave up every holiday weekend, and you had to move all over the world and country to get to this level. And I just was like Yeah. Nah. No. This is how

Joey Bowen:

sound like the Tom Cruise thing.

Brian McNally:

Yeah. What happened to Tom Cruise? What happened to the the beach? No? We're not doing that?

Brian McNally:

Alright. So, I was like, no. This is not for me. It just didn't seem smart. I was like, that just doesn't seem like a good way to to do it.

Brian McNally:

Yep. I I knew I wanted to make more money. And so I was like, it's almost like you should just get in sales, man. Like, you you know, you're personable, you work hard, like, you you'll, you

Joey Bowen:

know because you got the you have the DNA or the that you're cut from that cloth. You're like a hustler. You know what I mean?

Brian McNally:

So I switched gears and asked the hotel if I could work in the sales department for my internship. Oh, wow. And they were like so instead of, like, sending me to every department, they're like, yeah. You can just stay here in the sales department and just make phone calls

Joey Bowen:

all day.

Brian McNally:

I was, like, trying to recruit Oh, so you work in the phones. Yeah. Working phones. I'm making you know, I'm doing sales material. So I'm like, alright.

Brian McNally:

It's not great. It's not fun, but

Joey Bowen:

Yeah.

Brian McNally:

Sure some beats that, you know, the other stuff I was looking at.

Joey Bowen:

It sounds like even at this age, like, you you don't have a fully formed idea of what you want your life to be like, but you do have a vision. Like,

Brian McNally:

maybe you maybe you

Joey Bowen:

didn't know it at the time, but, like, you had a vision. You were kinda like, it sounds like you

Brian McNally:

my mom back in the day, like, when I was a teenager. Like, I'm gonna find a way to retire early and, like, I knew I didn't wanna, like, do all that. Right? That was why the cocktails was cool. I was like, oh, if I stack these chips, I come back.

Brian McNally:

I can open a restaurant. Like, you

Joey Bowen:

know what I mean?

Brian McNally:

Like, this is the way. At least that's just what it seemed like to me. But hell, yeah. I knew Yeah. Like, the idea of working, waiting for social security so that or Medicare to kick in so that I can retire or whatever.

Brian McNally:

You

Drew Beech:

manifested that shit thing.

Brian McNally:

Yeah. Yeah. I just always did.

Drew Beech:

Told the universe. You're like, I'm gonna retire earlier than when you were in high high school when you fucking did it.

Brian McNally:

I didn't know how to do it, but I just knew I want I knew what I wanted. But and I I more than that than that, I didn't know what I wanted. I knew what I didn't want for certain. I did not wanna live that life.

Joey Bowen:

Yep. Yep.

Brian McNally:

And so

Joey Bowen:

So, man, what a brilliant move to say just, like, park me in the sales department. Yeah. And so because I'm assuming what you did learn there, even if it was just a handful of things for that internship, you applied later on in your greater pursuits. I gotta imagine.

Brian McNally:

100%. And the other thing I learned there is, ask for forgiveness or don't ask. Yeah. Right? Permission.

Joey Bowen:

Yeah. Yeah.

Brian McNally:

Don't ask for permission, ask for forgiveness because I never asked my professor that I could do that. I just told him at the end of the semester that that's what I did. I was like, 2. And that was in, like, the inaugural class. They didn't want anyone to foul.

Brian McNally:

He's like, I I what are you doing? Like, you didn't go around the hotel? I'm like, no. I'm not doing it. I just he he's like, well, it's too late now.

Brian McNally:

He's like, I'm like, well, how'd I do? He's like, whatever. Fine. I'll just pass you guys back. Okay.

Brian McNally:

Sure. I could I I put the leverage on it, the pressure on him to just move on. But, yeah, I mean, I made that decision myself. I wasn't gonna ask somebody. I was just like, this is what I want.

Brian McNally:

This is what I'm gonna do.

Joey Bowen:

Every high performer that I've ever met, especially since we started Fuwan, has a similar story Yeah. With just hustling Mhmm. All sorts of different jobs. And it is amazing, and I ain't gonna let my mom down on this show, but it's amazing how many times drugs come up in those conversations with working all these jobs. I've I've worked in funeral homes.

Joey Bowen:

You know what I mean? I've been groundskeeper. I've done letter delivery. Like, I've done, like, all sorts of crazy shit, and it's true for pretty much everybody we know that's performing at a high level. Like, that that hustler spirit.

Joey Bowen:

I don't even really like the word hustler, but I'll use it because people get it. You know, that type of work ethic paired with the, well, I'm just gonna do this, and I'm gonna figure it out later. Right. Right? Which is the permission forgiveness thing.

Brian McNally:

Yeah. You know what I mean?

Joey Bowen:

They're they're common threads in everybody that I've seen perform at a high level in life. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Brian McNally:

So that took me to the end of college, and I'm there. And I'm, like, doing door to door credit card processing sales in Florida. In, like, strip malls, like, low end strip malls going through, like, 3 shirts a day. Yeah. And, I get, like, halfway through the summer.

Brian McNally:

And again, I have one of these moments like, dude

Joey Bowen:

What are you doing? What are you doing?

Brian McNally:

Like, I like the idea of residual income. This makes sense, but I don't think this path is getting you here. Right?

Joey Bowen:

Yeah.

Brian McNally:

And, so I looked around. I was like, I don't really know anyone in Tampa. Right? I've just been down here doing my thing, and, I was like, I gotta go home. Now I'm I'm dating for a few years now at this point, my now wife.

Brian McNally:

But this time, she's my girlfriend.

Joey Bowen:

And you met in Tampa?

Brian McNally:

We met in Tampa. Okay.

Joey Bowen:

Alright.

Brian McNally:

Like, 1 year after I moved to Tampa. So I'm down dating her for, like, 3 years. I'd break up with her to move back to Philly.

Drew Beech:

Oh my god.

Brian McNally:

Which was like a big, yeah. It was a big

Joey Bowen:

It was in a 3 month, 6 month relationship where you're

Brian McNally:

No. It was a couple years. Right? And it's like and I loved her, but it was it was like, you know, I think sometimes you gotta be really introspective and at certain points in your life, like, you know, I'm I kept saying I was like, I'm too young to make my life plan and account for your life goals. Right?

Brian McNally:

Like, I have to figure this out. Yeah. Like I said, I knew I wanted better in life, and it's like, I just gotta figure this out. And I know one place I can go where I know people who can help me find a job. I've got resources.

Brian McNally:

I've got a network, and it's not Tampa. Like, it's Philly.

Joey Bowen:

Yeah.

Brian McNally:

And she was, well, why did I just go with you? And I'm like, dude, like, I can't do that and have to account for your goals and all this kind of stuff. So we broke up for a little while. I come home. I'm now I got $1,000 in my pocket.

Brian McNally:

I'm living in my mom's my old bedroom. Mhmm. Actually, my brother's bedroom because I I moved on up since he was out of the house, my older brother. And I'm working at, I was at the time, it was Jillian's, which is like a Dave and Buster's knock off at the Franklin Hills Mall. Right.

Brian McNally:

Like, I'm waiting tables there.

Joey Bowen:

No. I haven't heard that name

Drew Beech:

since. Really?

Joey Bowen:

Like, what? 10 years. They're a plus.

Brian McNally:

Yeah. So this is, like, 2,000, what, 5 or something like that. I mean, so, I mean, it's only 2024. So we're talking 20 years. My life has changed pretty dramatically.

Brian McNally:

Right?

Drew Beech:

You just went through a rough breakup.

Brian McNally:

And I'm through a rough breakup. I'm out of shape, by the way. Like, I'm I'm I'm porky.

Joey Bowen:

I don't

Drew Beech:

think I'm I

Brian McNally:

got a chance.

Drew Beech:

Girlfriend weight was hitting. You

Brian McNally:

can say fat. Girlfriend say

Joey Bowen:

you're fat, dude.

Brian McNally:

Yeah. Yeah.

Joey Bowen:

Yeah. I mean, like,

Brian McNally:

you know, which is crazy. Right? So, which didn't help my self esteem any right? It's like, I had a beautiful girlfriend

Joey Bowen:

Yeah.

Brian McNally:

Who I got fat on, right, who still love me. Right? Like, you know what I mean? And now hit

Joey Bowen:

to let her go. Now you're like, oh, man. Now

Brian McNally:

because I eventually asked.

Joey Bowen:

Self awareness on point, though, for you. It even from a young age, like, it seems like Yeah. There are multiple moments where you stopped and you step back and you were like, hey. Wait a second. Let me just think about what's going on right now

Brian McNally:

and the

Joey Bowen:

moves that I'm gonna make. It's that, like, I define it as that self awareness is, like, what I'm about to do next is gonna help me or is it gonna hurt me?

Brian McNally:

Yeah.

Joey Bowen:

And in a big way, it seems like you've done that at multiple points in your life.

Brian McNally:

A lot of decision points like that that have worked out and because I stopped and

Joey Bowen:

because I

Brian McNally:

didn't just blindly keep going. Right? I already made the mistake. I'm like, I gotta course correct.

Drew Beech:

Yeah. You also seem self being so self aware knew that you have to be super happy with yourself and who you become before you can be that person for someone else. You know what I mean? Like, it's like you're just you really can't pour into it's my belief that you can't pour into anyone or be a good partner, a good leader, or a good father unless you're happy with the person you've become, and you knew there was still more growth for you.

Brian McNally:

Yeah. It's like I I think in a weird way, like, I've I've kinda thought on this more. I think in a weird way, it's like I felt like if had she come with me, I would have been more focused on being her boyfriend than achieving my goals. And then I think I just end up presenting her anyway.

Drew Beech:

Yeah.

Brian McNally:

Right? So I end up getting a job at a start up staffing company called McGrath Systems with a guy, Mike Wiley, friend of a friend kind of thing. I'm the 2nd employee in a 3 person company. We're up in Plymouth meeting. I'm in the basement of a bank building with no windows.

Brian McNally:

I'm making $29,000 a year, and I'm working like 55 hours a week salary. Right? But with the promise of if you do everything I tell you to do and work your ass off at the end of your 2nd year, you'll make $75. And I'm like, cool. Who do I got to kill?

Brian McNally:

Like, let's do it. Right? Like, I'm in. So I get that job and I get I get settled a little bit and it's like and I'm looking around. I'm like, I'm really unhappy without my girlfriend.

Brian McNally:

Right? Like so to her credit, she ends up moving to Philly with me for a couple years.

Joey Bowen:

How did that happen though?

Brian McNally:

I called her. You did? Yeah. We stayed in touch. Like, we actually stayed in touch a little bit.

Brian McNally:

I was like, listen. I'm I'm not saying I never wanna see you again. I just need some time. Like, I can't do this all. I I got this is major upheaval in my life.

Brian McNally:

Like, right? I gotta focus on me and get myself right before I could like, 2.4 I could

Joey Bowen:

ever focus

Brian McNally:

on you. Yeah. Realistically, to be fair. And so, I mean, my wife's the same. She's so awesome.

Brian McNally:

Like, she was she was she's pragmatic as hell too. Right? And, like, she's like, okay. Well, let's figure out what does it look like. Right?

Joey Bowen:

And then

Brian McNally:

That's amazing. So she ended up she's a dog too. Like, she went and beat out, like, 250 other people to get a pharmaceutical sales job in Philly. So what year

Joey Bowen:

was it?

Brian McNally:

The little microchips is 2005.

Joey Bowen:

Oh, yeah. That's like when it's like there's a boom going to pharmaceutical sales, but you had to be like you you had to be a dog.

Brian McNally:

Yeah. Like, she went in there. She studied. She did the whole thing, you know, all the stuff, and she came out with the job. So it's like, now I got a decent job or I'm on my way to making good she's making good money.

Brian McNally:

Like, the startup I was with was really successful. We won fastest growing company in Philly on, like, the Business Journal. Yeah. We went from 0 to, like, 6,000,000 in 3

Drew Beech:

and a half years.

Brian McNally:

Wow. Right? And so Wow. I'm starting off, like, so my first real job out of college, I'm seeing it all. I'm seeing a startup from the ground up.

Brian McNally:

I'm sitting right next to the owner while he's renegotiating leases. He's dealing with banks to get lines of credit. You know? He's pawned off just training new people on me, hiring, firing new people on me, like, within a year.

Joey Bowen:

Yeah.

Brian McNally:

Right? Welcome. Yeah. Like, I'm in, you know, but I'm I'm loving it.

Drew Beech:

Sick the hell were you

Brian McNally:

at the time? Well, I guess so 25, 24.

Drew Beech:

That's sick though.

Brian McNally:

Yeah. So I was just like, alright. But this goes back to the like, being raised the way I was. Yeah. Whatever.

Brian McNally:

Like, I was already, like, an I've very much carried myself like an adult. So people would always be, like, how old are you, man? Like, you're like, oh, it's easy for you to say you're 3rd. And I'm like, dude, I'm younger than you. Like, you don't realize that.

Brian McNally:

But I carried myself. I was kind of I was a savage, frankly. I was, you know, the idea of being, like, a empathetic leader and all that stuff was not in me and and the way that my mentor worked.

Joey Bowen:

I mean You're in a yeah. In that We

Brian McNally:

were just intense.

Joey Bowen:

In that vertical and in that startup space, like, that's, like, boiler room shit.

Brian McNally:

That's exactly what it was, man. We just grind it all day long. We had a kid come in at noon leave at noon. He's like, this is just too intense. I want nothing to do

Drew Beech:

with this.

Joey Bowen:

I I've my come up in tech, it was the same same type of way. Like, we weren't working in phones, but we were building software in 3 months that should have taken a year and a half to 2 years. Right. So it was like we were sleeping there. You know, CEO had a couch in his, in his office.

Joey Bowen:

We would sleep on take shifts, sleep on the couch. Like, it was a grind, but you learned so much.

Brian McNally:

There were basically no windows. I didn't see the sun Yeah. Like, almost the whole week. Yeah. I might be there before the sun came up in the winter.

Brian McNally:

Yep. And I was in that office till it came out, you know, and we just sat my desk and ordered in. Wasn't great for my health. I came out of there about a buck 90, 5, 6, no muscle. Looking good.

Joey Bowen:

There's some man sacrifices AKA investments will be made.

Brian McNally:

Yeah. Yeah. I mean I in hindsight, I didn't need to do. I could have done it all, which I've later figured out in life, and we can talk about that. Amazing to to

Joey Bowen:

figure out.

Brian McNally:

Yeah. Yeah. I eventually figured it out. It took me a while, but, yeah. So I got to see that up close and I got to just, you know and which was cool because I got to be me.

Brian McNally:

I mean, I'm an intense dude. Like, when I I'm when I'm on a mission to do something, just get out of my way. I'm doing it. Like, I don't give a shit. And that's how we just burn through people all the time.

Joey Bowen:

The dude that left at noon, like, you were probably 10 minutes from telling them to leave anyway. Yeah. So, like yeah.

Brian McNally:

We're like, see you, dude. Yeah. No worries. You know? So that was not an issue.

Brian McNally:

But, so

Joey Bowen:

It sounds like you had so, you know, we're kinda squealing on this prize a little bit, but the business that you grew and ultimately exited was a staffing firm. Correct?

Brian McNally:

Yeah. Ultimately. Okay. Yeah. My whole career is in staffing.

Joey Bowen:

So you now have basically, like, a a view directly into the heart of the machine with this first job that

Brian McNally:

you have. And his goal was to grow it and sell it. Like, that was the mission. Yeah.

Drew Beech:

So Which

Brian McNally:

he ended up doing eventually.

Drew Beech:

I'm just curious. I'm I'm gonna be jumping ahead in

Joey Bowen:

your No. Go ahead.

Drew Beech:

How take can you take us from your exit from that, staffing firm and to starting your own? Like, how did that Yeah.

Brian McNally:

There's a few things in between there. So, but I'm like a sponge at work. I sat with him, and I would just ask questions. Why are you doing this? How's that work?

Brian McNally:

You know? And I was committed. I called him one night, like, after, like, I'm grinding. Right? Mhmm.

Brian McNally:

And I didn't think I gave my best effort that day. I literally called him on the way home. I was like, hey, man. I'm sorry. I've been checked out.

Brian McNally:

Like, I just wasn't feeling it today. And he just started laughing. Dude, you're insane. He's like, you're killing yourself for me. But he's like, what are you calling and apologizing for?

Brian McNally:

I'm like, I don't know. I just didn't feel like I gave my best.

Joey Bowen:

You have a standard for yourself.

Brian McNally:

Yeah. And I had that standard. So that's just how I was wired. Right? Mhmm.

Brian McNally:

So anyway, we have some success, but like I said, I'm really out of shape. My wife's now been in Philly for, like, 2 years, my girlfriend at the time. Yep. And she's from Detroit originally. She's like, listen.

Brian McNally:

Not for nothing. I didn't leave Detroit to end up in Philly. Like, I liked it in Tampa.

Joey Bowen:

For sure.

Brian McNally:

Any chance we could make this happen? And at the time, I was working so much. I didn't see my friends and family anyway. Mhmm. I'm like, yeah.

Brian McNally:

Why why am I even here? Like, I don't need to be here anymore. Like, you know, I don't get to see anybody. I work all the time. And so he let me open an office for him.

Brian McNally:

I told him I was gonna leave. He said, don't leave. Let's open an office in Tampa.

Joey Bowen:

Oh, so you were prepared to just you know, just like I was. I'm gonna close-up shop.

Brian McNally:

It was hard for me. I was emotionally attached to that business because I was I was invested. That's how I am with anything. I I was we were gonna sell that company, and I had equity in it from my per I got I earned equity in it through my performance and stuff

Drew Beech:

like that.

Brian McNally:

So in my mind, I'm like, this is the thing.

Joey Bowen:

Yep. But I

Brian McNally:

burned myself out, man, because I was unhealthy. I didn't have well-being. You know, I didn't you know, it was just it was all work. That's it.

Drew Beech:

Eating, living like that, like, just not seeing the sun, eating, ordering in, like, you're eventually it eventually it eventually catches up.

Brian McNally:

Yeah. And that's basically what happened. And I'm like, you know, man, I I I can't

Joey Bowen:

do it. I did somewhat of a similar thing Yeah. To myself. Like, sitting behind a computer, you know, 17 hours a day, whatever, 18 hours a day, like, sometimes 24 hours a day, like, run yourself ragged.

Brian McNally:

So I end up leaving. We go down to Tampa. I opened that office for him in Tampa. And this is 2,008, basically. Oh, yeah.

Joey Bowen:

So the economy

Brian McNally:

is light industrial manufacturing staffing.

Joey Bowen:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And and the and

Brian McNally:

the world goes to yeah.

Drew Beech:

Light industrial manufacturing.

Brian McNally:

Yeah. I mean, just brutal stuff. I mean but I mean, I learned so much work out there.

Joey Bowen:

Months did you do you remember what month it was in 2,000 in 2,008?

Brian McNally:

I don't I'm not a 100% sure.

Joey Bowen:

Okay.

Brian McNally:

I know there was a point at which I called him up. I said, hey. You know I don't quit easily. Yep. You need to save your money.

Brian McNally:

I'll go find another job. Like, I fired myself. I was like, I've I've done everything I can possibly do with this business. I was like, I I was like during

Joey Bowen:

that economic downturn you're saying? Yeah.

Brian McNally:

I was like, man, I'm I'm pivoting. I'm trying IT. Like, I'm doing everything I know how to do.

Joey Bowen:

Yep.

Brian McNally:

And even if I start to get some traction, you're 6 months to a year from this thing even barely coming back if I'm successful with these paths. And I just don't see it happening, man. And he's, are you firing yourself? I'm like, yeah. I think I just fired myself.

Brian McNally:

I was like, he looked out for me. Right? This guy gave me an opportunity. I'm not gonna throw it in his face and suck up a paycheck when I'm not delivering for him.

Joey Bowen:

Right? You're looking out for him.

Brian McNally:

Yeah. We and and we have a great relationship. And I'm like, dude, I'm giving you my honest assessment of situation. I'll I'll be fine. I'll find a job, like, because you're gonna burn money.

Brian McNally:

You need to keep your business going up there. Yeah. Did you

Joey Bowen:

fire yourself?

Brian McNally:

Yeah. Pretty much. We wrapped we wrapped everything up and Smart. Smart. And just put the investments back here, you know, in the in the the main business.

Joey Bowen:

Yeah. Smart. So now you're back on the market.

Brian McNally:

I'm back on the market, put my resume up.

Drew Beech:

Equity in that in that company. Right?

Brian McNally:

Yeah. I had a little bit of equity in that. It didn't get to the at that point, I was, you know, planning on being long enough for it to be mean meaningful.

Drew Beech:

Yeah.

Brian McNally:

I mean, to add more to it. So I had a little bit, and he cashed me out a few years later and stuff like that. K. But not a lot. It wasn't like a meaningful.

Brian McNally:

Right? Gotcha. The, so yeah. So I did that. I put my resume in the market.

Brian McNally:

I get a call from a company down there called Kforce.

Joey Bowen:

Staffing?

Brian McNally:

Staffing firm. Staffing. Big but now it's like now I'm in a $1,000,000,000 international staffing firm. Oh, boy. And Now

Joey Bowen:

you gotta be mister Emtek.

Brian McNally:

Like a different Yeah. Yeah. What Yeah. What a rude awakening, man. That works.

Drew Beech:

Different culture. Different culture.

Brian McNally:

Yeah. I mean, we're, like, celebrating birthdays and, you know, we're doing cake and I'm like, what the hell is going on here? You know, like, I was didn't know. My, like, 2nd week there, they nicknamed me McNasty.

Joey Bowen:

Oh, that's hilarious.

Brian McNally:

Because I showed up at we do these whiteboard meetings in staffing where it's like, hey. Sales team has these jobs, recruiters, and and staffing doesn't work unless both sides of that coin are operating efficiently. Right? And so the world I came in, I mean, that's a time for accountability. And it it and we're not there to hurt your feelings.

Brian McNally:

We're just trying to get the job We

Joey Bowen:

have a standard.

Brian McNally:

Done. We have a client we have to deliver for. We've got thing you know what I mean? Mhmm. So I walk into this meeting and and the sales guy's like, well, I got these jobs, like, how we doing?

Brian McNally:

And they're like, I don't have anybody. And then they they move on to the next job. Listen. I don't have a dog in this fight at all. I just happen to be at the meeting.

Brian McNally:

I'm like, if I'm gonna be and I'm used to running these things, not just participating in them. And I'm like, if I'm gonna leave my desk where I should be over there trying to make money for myself to be here, like, I'm gonna add value. I'm gonna help this get better because I'm wasting my time otherwise. I'll just go back to my desk. And since I have to be here Mhmm.

Brian McNally:

I guess I'm gonna ask the people some questions. Right? You're like, you wanted me here. You're gonna get me. Right?

Brian McNally:

So I was just like, well, hold on a second. They're like, what? I was like, well, I just had some questions. Like, how many people did you call? Why didn't they want the job?

Brian McNally:

Yeah. Was it a bill rate? Like, a pay rate issue? Is it a location issue? But what can you go back to the client?

Brian McNally:

I'm I'm just pamper on my question. What can you go back to the client with to get better information so that you can fill the job? Right? Like, it's all about getting better. It's the performance of the company that matters.

Brian McNally:

Everything else is irrelevant. And people just looked at me like I was crazy. Yeah. I'm like, oh, these are real questions we should be asking here. Otherwise Yeah.

Brian McNally:

Let's just go back to the desk and send an email saying I have no one, and we'll get on with our day.

Joey Bowen:

Yep.

Brian McNally:

You know?

Joey Bowen:

Yeah. I knew So

Brian McNally:

they jokingly nicknamed me McNasty?

Joey Bowen:

McNasty. I mean, do you do you like that name? Because if you do, I think I would've keep

Brian McNally:

it No. No. I mean I mean I'll let it go. Yeah. And it's cool.

Brian McNally:

I mean, it's it's a good memory, but yeah.

Joey Bowen:

Yeah. I'll let it go then. I'll let it go.

Brian McNally:

Dope dope name now. I

Joey Bowen:

mean, Google searches for it, though. I don't know if it'll really be good for you.

Brian McNally:

Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. You know? Who knows what's gonna come up?

Brian McNally:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Joey Bowen:

You're gonna stick with it. Now. We probably now we

Brian McNally:

got a comment.

Drew Beech:

You don't need that domain.

Brian McNally:

Yeah. Yeah.

Joey Bowen:

I know. So, yeah, that shift, man. Yeah. I've I've got some some of my own personal stories. Like, I I didn't do well in that corporate thing either.

Brian McNally:

Yeah.

Joey Bowen:

So I just kinda stayed in my lane in, like, the, the agency world where, you know, that you could bring that type of fire and passion and, you know, you didn't get penalized for it, essentially. You know?

Brian McNally:

I had a boss who was really adept at navigating those waters. Right? So he was, like, my roadblock out because I would always go to him. Why is this, like, can't we just fix all this? And one day, he's like, hey, man.

Joey Bowen:

Yeah. He was showing you how to

Brian McNally:

you can't just fight every fight. He's like, you're gonna make yourself crazy.

Joey Bowen:

Yeah.

Brian McNally:

And so I learned. Right? So this is goes back to growth in everything. Right? There's always a learning opportunity.

Brian McNally:

I could have sat there and been pissed off and been like, this place but I took that opportunity and learned, and that got me into health care Yep. Which was obviously a huge shift in my life because I ultimately end up starting a health care company, which is the reason I have the success I did. Sure. So I just soak it up. I'm like, well, how does this work?

Brian McNally:

You know? I could have easily done staffing there and not really learned about health care and billing and how it works, but that's not my how I do things. Right? So I'm like, the more I know, the more confident I am, the better I can deliver. So I just constantly grew.

Brian McNally:

So I'm asking him questions, like, well, how do I handle this? How do I get this across the goal line when I gotta get approval from a VP? So I learned from him that skill. That we're gonna show you how to Yeah. Just understanding all that.

Brian McNally:

And then I learned how to, I learned about health care, like, in-depth. Like, how hospitals bill and get paid and all that kind of stuff.

Joey Bowen:

Yep.

Brian McNally:

Did Did that for a few years. Was, like, one of the top performers doing well, doing my thing, kind of grow my income. Mhmm. Moving up a level, get married Yeah. To my wife, you know, like, so we're progressing a little bit.

Brian McNally:

And then, I get an opportunity to work for a consulting firm in health care because I kinda just got tired of being there after a while. Like, I felt like I kinda capped out.

Joey Bowen:

Yep.

Brian McNally:

And I could have stayed there and kept making probably more money, like, selfishly, purely financial. Mhmm. I could have stayed there and made money. And it was the better pure financial decision. It's just to stay there.

Brian McNally:

But I chose growth. I chose to go add a new skill set and go to this consulting firm where I ended up traveling around the country with this former hospital and insurance company executive. Mhmm. I was traveling, like, 3, 4 nights a week doing dinner, sitting in a room with executives, sponging

Joey Bowen:

it up.

Brian McNally:

Sponging it up. Everything up. Yeah. And then I learned the whole insurance side, how they do what they do.

Joey Bowen:

Yep.

Brian McNally:

And and I learned, like, consulting like this. So now it's not just staffing. Now I know how to, like, go in and talk to them about, hey. We can help change your business. Right?

Brian McNally:

Do that. And then we have my daughter, and it's like, this is all during her 1st year of life, and I'm traveling 3 nights a week.

Drew Beech:

And and

Brian McNally:

I was just like, no. That's not a life I wanna live. Right? This is cool. I'll earn it, but I gotta make an adjustment.

Joey Bowen:

Yeah.

Brian McNally:

So, but I have a reputation for adding value. Right? One of the old VPs from Kforce is now somewhere else. I reach out. She's, yeah, man.

Brian McNally:

Come over here. I'll make a spot for you. We could use you over here

Joey Bowen:

Yep.

Brian McNally:

Where I get to work from home, add more skill in health care, learn how to outsource departments, all that kind of stuff. So now I'm just deepening my knowledge and my skill

Joey Bowen:

Yeah. Yeah.

Brian McNally:

Yeah. And aligning with my family goals, you know. And I think that the lesson for a lot of people is, like, don't just accept it. Right? Don't accept, oh, I've got this is what I need to do because I it's a paycheck.

Brian McNally:

I'll just suck it up. No. I mean, if you challenge yourself to to build the life you want, find the career you want, the job you want, and like you said, manifest it, make it happen, take action to do it. Like Yep. You know?

Brian McNally:

I I could have sat there, but I was like, no. This isn't what I want. I'm gonna put it out and try and find people

Joey Bowen:

who can

Brian McNally:

help me find the life I want.

Joey Bowen:

People the thing that keeps people from from, like, best or better is that they accept good, like Yeah. Like, a lot of times. Right? And you had a good you had a good situation. I'm sure you're you're financially doing well for yourself.

Joey Bowen:

Sound like, you know, you're sponging it up. You were enjoying what you were doing. Seems like to me that you're a curious person, like a lifelong learner. You get benefit from that, like, self worth from that. You know what I mean?

Joey Bowen:

Building skills. So you could have been like, hey. This is really good. Yeah. So I'm not gonna go for better or best.

Joey Bowen:

But

Brian McNally:

Yeah. You could growth. I did that job for a few more years there. Mhmm. And, you know, so but I always live below my means.

Joey Bowen:

Yeah.

Brian McNally:

Like, my wife's pretty pragmatic. Like, that's like so we were just like, hey. I'm in sales. I could be killing it this year. I might not be killing it next year.

Brian McNally:

Mhmm. So let's always just stay here. Right? So, like, my coworkers are driving Beamers, and I'm driving a used Toyota Corolla with manual windows.

Joey Bowen:

Yeah.

Brian McNally:

But I'm stacking chips because I know, like, even this is not the life I want ultimate. Ultimately, eventually, I wanna start a business. I'm gonna I didn't even know what it was. But to your point, I knew I just wanted something different. Even in that world, I'm working in the cube farm till I wait till retire.

Brian McNally:

That's just not what I want. So I was just stacking chips until I could make a move. Right? Yeah. That was really the plan.

Brian McNally:

And my wife was down for that too. So, I end up getting to a point where I'm making, like, 200 grand a year as a sales guy. I mean, that's a good life. Yeah. I'm working from home, like, the whole 9.

Brian McNally:

Right? But I was just wasn't still wasn't happy. Right? Yeah. And,

Joey Bowen:

Yeah.

Brian McNally:

Put myself in a position where I saved up, like, a year's worth of living expenses.

Joey Bowen:

Mhmm.

Brian McNally:

And then my business partner, who was a guy I used to work with a kforce, me and him had always stayed in touch. We were talking about starting something. Mhmm. I mean, at one point, I didn't care what it was. It was car wash, Chick Fil A.

Brian McNally:

I I didn't care. I was doing something. Yeah. Back when I was at k Force, so a couple jobs before this, like, where I was at, we would sit up me and him would sit there late at night and just talk about like, dude, one day, man, we gotta do something.

Drew Beech:

Like, we gotta do something.

Brian McNally:

That's the only way I like to really

Drew Beech:

have that. Interesting. As you're telling the story, I'm thinking where we are going more and more down the path of, like, okay. It's gotta be a staffing company, but, like, actually, like, it's you were you were just you

Joey Bowen:

were just You could've taken it you could've taken it off frame.

Brian McNally:

In fact, I did not want it to be a staffing company. That's the last thing I wanted to

Joey Bowen:

do. Yeah.

Brian McNally:

Because, I mean, I'm burned out, man. I've it's a grind. And me and you were like, anything but staffing. Right?

Joey Bowen:

Yeah. My

Drew Beech:

my wife did staffing for a while. Yeah. It was brutal. Yeah.

Brian McNally:

I heard all that. And so that was the plan. I was like, anything but staffing. I was like, I'll figure it out. Right?

Brian McNally:

But I was saving all this money. And then, you know, we come to the realization. We're like, our quickest path to success, man, is staffing. Like, we know we we know what how to do this.

Joey Bowen:

Efficient damage.

Brian McNally:

Yeah. We know how to do this. Like, let's just bite the bullet. And I think this becomes where we'll be able to get a really good point as to what I think designing with the end in mind is important.

Joey Bowen:

Right.

Brian McNally:

I knew I didn't wanna run a staffing company the rest of my life because I'd

Drew Beech:

you know?

Brian McNally:

But I was willing to do it if I know where the end line where the where the finish line is. Right? And we'd seen what some other companies had done. So we set a goal for ourselves to be a $20,000,000 company in 5 to 7 years and then exit. Mhmm.

Brian McNally:

Like, start by having a north star, and that was it. Everything else was irrelevant to

Joey Bowen:

us. Yeah.

Brian McNally:

I didn't care about quarterly numbers. I don't care about it. Yep.

Joey Bowen:

I was

Brian McNally:

like, nope. It's not enough. Keep going.

Joey Bowen:

Yeah.

Brian McNally:

Right?

Joey Bowen:

Yep. Yep.

Brian McNally:

And so we set out with that goal in mind.

Joey Bowen:

And we're like, dude,

Brian McNally:

I know we don't wanna do this, but we can do it for 7 years. Yep. Like, we know if if that's the if that's the goal, if that's the if that's the finish line. Right? For sure.

Brian McNally:

So lifelong freedom was the goal. Mhmm. And this was the vehicle that was gonna get me there. I know people talk about chasing their passion and, like, doing something you love and all that, and I'm all for it. But I just took a different path.

Brian McNally:

Like, for me, it was like, nope. This gives me freedom. I'm passionate about that. I'll go find fun things to do after the fact.

Joey Bowen:

Exactly. Right? Yeah. So Exactly. Exactly.

Joey Bowen:

Yeah. I mean, you don't always love all the work that you have to do to get to the vision that you have for yourself, you know, and that's part of the problem. Everybody thinks, like, they should be super passionate Yeah. About it or all the work that they're doing should be super sexy. Yeah.

Joey Bowen:

You know? And the reality of it is it's not. Mhmm. You know?

Brian McNally:

I mean, as far as the work goes.

Joey Bowen:

A majority of stuff they have to do day in and day out, and it's not gonna be sexy.

Brian McNally:

Yeah. I mean, if something's not making you happy Mhmm. Or it's not going to lead to a path that's gonna make you happier in the future Yeah. That's a good point. That's a

Joey Bowen:

good point.

Brian McNally:

Like, for me, it didn't make me happy, but I knew

Joey Bowen:

it would be the second part.

Brian McNally:

To the happiness in the future, so I was willing to do that.

Drew Beech:

The problem is people just get these jobs. They just take any, like, job out of college, and it's like you just suffer for 30 year. Like, there's you were like, okay. 5 year 5 to 7 years, we're out, and we're millionaires. Like, it's like it's not like, oh, like, I'll just suffer through this career through my entire life.

Brian McNally:

Right.

Drew Beech:

And then maybe have a good 4 zero one k or

Brian McNally:

Mhmm. Yeah. Like which if you can find something you like to do and you you know what I mean? And, yeah, you don't have to chase $1,000,000, but for me, it's I can't really find anything I wanna do full time, like, that I have to do. And so it's like freedom.

Brian McNally:

That's it. That's priority number 1.

Joey Bowen:

I feel like in the beginning of of your story, right, growing up, it seems like you were motivated by earning by earning money. It seems.

Brian McNally:

The bigger paycheck. Right?

Joey Bowen:

Because that's Yeah. Like Yeah. To have to meet your needs because you grew up without it.

Brian McNally:

Right.

Joey Bowen:

I was kinda the same way too. But then I'm feeling like from the conversations that we've had recently, like, I'm feeling like that's kind of shifted for you post 100%. Yeah. Yeah. It's shifted.

Joey Bowen:

And maybe the shift started maybe it started while you were building your health care saving company, but I know for a fact it shifted now.

Brian McNally:

It did actually while I was building the company. Once you hit a level of success, and I grew as a leader Yeah. Like 2020 was a pivotal year for me. Mhmm. You know, we we were in 2019, we did just about 10,000,000 in revenue.

Brian McNally:

So from 2015 to so we boot shopped the company. No outside capital. Just me and my business partner, a couple of laptops and some phones. Yep. Took out a small business loan to hire our 1st, like, big employee.

Brian McNally:

Yep. And we took it from 0 to 10,000,000 in 2019. Mhmm. Right? In just those 4 years.

Brian McNally:

So Beautiful. 20 and we were on pace to double in 2020. We were gonna be a $20,000,000 company in year 5, like, mission accomplished. Let's do it. Right?

Joey Bowen:

Yeah. COVID happens. I mean,

Brian McNally:

I lose 50% of the biz we lose 50% of the business in 6 weeks. My life's dreams

Joey Bowen:

are health care?

Brian McNally:

In health care. They were supporting hospitals. They didn't need us. There was the hospitals were shut down. And I've got a 100 employees deployed all over the country.

Brian McNally:

We've got them in apartments that we're paying for.

Joey Bowen:

And I

Brian McNally:

gotta cancel those leases. I gotta take that hit. Yep. Like, it's you know, on account, I'd be good partners to my clients because they're taking it on the chin.

Joey Bowen:

So I'm just like, yeah. We'll just take it

Brian McNally:

on the chin. Like, pass that burden

Joey Bowen:

on the air. Wow.

Brian McNally:

So we I don't get rattled very often. Like, I'm all but that messed me up. I I had a setback for, like, a few couple months. I'm like, dude, it's I just lost everything I've been working for, like, commission, and I'm so close to the finish line. Right?

Joey Bowen:

Yep. That's the thing. That's a that's a real punch in the gut, man. Like, you're so close to that finish line.

Brian McNally:

And the whole company was rallying around 20 and 20,000,000.

Joey Bowen:

That's more than 20. That's getting that's getting gut that's basically getting gutted. Not that's not a setback.

Brian McNally:

Yeah. And then I'm looking around. Right? And I'm I'm a fierce, like, independent person. I believe in our constitution, and I'm just watching it go to shit all day ever.

Drew Beech:

Yeah. Yeah.

Brian McNally:

So now I'm in a dark place.

Joey Bowen:

Double. Yeah.

Brian McNally:

Like, I'm just like, the world's ending. Doubling depressing. Yeah.

Joey Bowen:

Doubling depressing. How many boys

Drew Beech:

did you have at the time? Like, how many team members are you doing?

Brian McNally:

We probably had, maybe 10 internal and a 100 and so people deployed in the throughout the country.

Drew Beech:

Wow. A lot.

Brian McNally:

And they're

Joey Bowen:

all and you're you're the guy. You and your partner are the guys. They're looking to you for answers.

Brian McNally:

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I take that seriously.

Joey Bowen:

Your clients, your people, your team, everything. Yeah.

Brian McNally:

I took the responsibility as a leader. Like, I felt like I was responsible. At the end, we had, like, 300 and 40 people or all told consultants and, like, until I took it I was responsible for their livelihood. Every day when I woke up, I felt that. I lived that way because I am.

Brian McNally:

At the end of the day, like, the decisions I make impact every one of these people's lives and they've got children. They're trying to take them to colleges and schools or whatever they're trying to do. Yep. And so I took that very serious. And so, yeah, I mean, I had employees that I made promises to.

Brian McNally:

Like, one of the big things I, at the company where then I always told the employees is like, listen. You come here much like the promise was made to me. You give me everything you got. I'll ensure that you can earn this kind of money, like life changing money. I paid my people really, really well.

Brian McNally:

And you can talk to some business strategy stuff on how we built our culture and what we did and why it was so successful. I mean, we had a shared mission.

Joey Bowen:

Mhmm.

Brian McNally:

We got all the employees aligned with that. I aligned variable compensation with every employee in the company. So if the company performed like, even our noncommissioned employees got a bonus based on the company's performance.

Joey Bowen:

Gotcha.

Brian McNally:

Everybody had a chance to earn equity in the business. We sold when we sold, I think about 5% of the business went to the employees. Yeah. Some of those people got life changing money, like, that's you know?

Joey Bowen:

That's that's one of the and we're definitely gonna have to come back for around 2 on the business strategy side of things. But I do, that's a story that you told me. Yeah. And you told me that it's been a while. Like Yeah.

Joey Bowen:

I don't know if it was post seminar the first time you told me that story, I think. But I do want you to tell the story of one of your team members, that you made the promise to, specifically about her child in college.

Brian McNally:

Yeah. Yeah.

Joey Bowen:

I would love for you.

Brian McNally:

Just came full circle, like, last week too.

Joey Bowen:

I would love for you to tell that story because, everybody watching and listening can feel the shift in 2020 that happened, but I want you to really back it up with with, with that story.

Brian McNally:

Yeah. So a few years before, she was our 1st employee in, like, 20s late 2015. Right? 2016. So, I think I have an SBA loan to hire.

Brian McNally:

She, like, she I was recruiting her. I'm like, you need to come here. Like, we need a stud like you on the team. And she's a grinder. Right?

Brian McNally:

And she's just like, listen. I'll take the risk. I'll come with you guys. But my son's, like, super smart. He's like a real little tech genius.

Brian McNally:

Like, he's gonna go to MIT or something. He's gonna start a software company. Like, this is his life dream. Like, this is what he wants to do. I wanna pay for his college.

Brian McNally:

Yeah. Will I have the will you guys help me, like, make that happen here? And I'm like, yeah, I promise you we can make that happen here. Yeah. We just put in the work together.

Brian McNally:

We'll do it. So fast forward 2022, he's actually going into college. We're able to cut her a check that more than pays for college. It's amazing. He's now at Georgia Tech.

Brian McNally:

He's a freshman, 1st ever freshman to win this accelerator program where he started a software company, him and his buddies. It's like a music distribution sort of thing where he signs up. I don't even know, what you call them, like record label

Joey Bowen:

kind of place

Brian McNally:

places. You know what I mean? Like and, so he signs them up, and he's got, like, the software as a service going on.

Joey Bowen:

Amazing. Amazing.

Brian McNally:

Come to a mastermind with me last week. He's just a sponge. He's soaking it up. I mean, that's full, full cycle there. And what's so cool about that is, like, for me as an entrepreneur, like, that's the most fulfilling part of this.

Brian McNally:

Like, yeah, I I got to make a lot of money along the way, but people's lives got changed forever. The directions of their families, some of the people in my company, they're changed forever based on the, what we were able to create and give them the opportunity to earn on their own. Like, I didn't give that to them. They earned it. But my job as a leader was to give them an environment and an opportunity to execute on that.

Brian McNally:

Right. And that was the promise I had to deliver on to keep that going. And, dude, so incredibly fulfilling. So if you think about what I'm trying to do, I wanna put that on steroids.

Joey Bowen:

I mean,

Brian McNally:

I want more companies. I wanna teach other leaders how to do that, and I wanna and I only wanna work with people that wanna have an impact far beyond their bottom line.

Joey Bowen:

If you didn't I don't wanna call it a shift because I think that that type of that type of caring Yeah. Nature is in your DNA. But if you didn't make that move to open up earning to your team, you know what I mean, so that when there was an exit, they could their lives could be changed. And if you didn't do that and you just had your exit, right

Brian McNally:

Mhmm. And it

Joey Bowen:

was about you and you got to pay out and all that stuff, what type of mental state do you think it would have put you in?

Brian McNally:

Certainly wouldn't have felt as good about it.

Joey Bowen:

Yeah.

Brian McNally:

I I I I don't know because we were always so connected as a team and as a company. We've I mean, people use that term, like,

Joey Bowen:

the whole family thing.

Brian McNally:

Yeah. I really don't. I just it wasn't what we were.

Joey Bowen:

Yeah. It seems like people use

Brian McNally:

the whole family thing. Like, don't call your your work team. But, like, we we operate that. We actually gave a shit about each other. We actually gave a shit about our clients.

Joey Bowen:

Yeah. Believe it or

Brian McNally:

not, we just cared about doing a good job. Everyone that we brought in for the most part, right, we had a few people you had to work through, but they actually just were they cared about for their own pride Yeah. Doing a good job that day. And for the person next to him, we had a a a, a phrase. We said flexibility with accountability.

Brian McNally:

Like, we were super flexible with hours and all stuff, but you had to be accountable. And you wanna go to your kid's game? Cool.

Joey Bowen:

Yep.

Brian McNally:

Just send an email and let us know you're out, like, because you got it because that's important to you. That's cool.

Joey Bowen:

For sure.

Brian McNally:

That's that's important to me too.

Joey Bowen:

I like the phrase. I've never heard it described quite that well. Yeah.

Drew Beech:

It was because

Joey Bowen:

you can

Brian McNally:

do whatever you want.

Joey Bowen:

Work needs

Brian McNally:

to get done.

Joey Bowen:

Yeah.

Brian McNally:

So, yeah, maybe you left early on Friday, but guess what? Saturday morning Yeah. I expect that still to come in because it needs to get done. Right? Yeah.

Joey Bowen:

For sure.

Brian McNally:

Or make a plan, lean into a teammate so that you really can check out.

Joey Bowen:

Yeah.

Brian McNally:

Like and but the the goal was, like, have a plan. The work still needs to get done.

Joey Bowen:

Yep.

Brian McNally:

And in that, we became really dependent on each other. Right? I mean, my employees could call me anytime. Like, I mean, I had clients in California. It's, like, 10 o'clock EST.

Brian McNally:

I'm firing some guy because one of my employees whose job it is to do it went out for happy hour. She's like, I can't do this right now. You know? I'm like, I gotcha. Yeah.

Brian McNally:

Yeah. Yeah.

Drew Beech:

You got

Brian McNally:

your back.

Joey Bowen:

I got your back. Yeah.

Brian McNally:

We always had each other's back. You know what I mean? And and we cared about each other.

Joey Bowen:

And you delivered on that up until the very end.

Brian McNally:

Always. Yeah. And even through the earn out, like so we sold the company and who we sold the company to, we made sure that

Joey Bowen:

Yep.

Brian McNally:

Our cultures were aligned.

Joey Bowen:

Yeah. I love that. Yeah.

Brian McNally:

All that kind of stuff. It was really important for us.

Joey Bowen:

I love it. Yeah. Questions about the building or the or the exit before I take us away from that?

Drew Beech:

No. Not not all then.

Joey Bowen:

So, what is what's it's a big question, but what what's next? Right? So, I know because we've talked a little bit about it, but I want you to share it with the community. And I think, some of that what's next also, ties into, why you're here with us and, you know, our excitement to be on this now journey with you, like, for real for real. Like, you know what I mean?

Brian McNally:

Yeah. So I think I can tie this back into, like, 2020. Right? So things went sideways. I found the bad habits.

Brian McNally:

Right? Started not drinking, eating pizza every day, like, just, like, whatever. It's all over.

Joey Bowen:

Yeah.

Brian McNally:

Right? So I went from working out pretty regularly and doing well with the business to just, like, whatever. Right? I'm just gonna and, So you

Joey Bowen:

went back you started sliding back to, like, post college.

Brian McNally:

Bad habits. Yeah. Exactly. Post college guy just working all the time, like, just like

Drew Beech:

Yeah.

Brian McNally:

Just got completely disengaged, frustrated in social media. Dude, I think one day I just woke up, and I was like, I hate how I feel. Like, this is not who you are. Enough is enough. And, someone's like, yo, you need to read this book.

Brian McNally:

So I read David Goggins, Can't Hurt Me or the audio version.

Drew Beech:

Oh, great. Great.

Brian McNally:

Bro, I got done that book, and I'm just like, you're being a little bitch. Like, this isn't who you are as a person. You're a fighter. Like, get your shit together. Mhmm.

Brian McNally:

Deleted all social media off my phone, which is funny. It's like now it's like everyone's like, well, I haven't heard of you. Like, dude, I was in a bubble for 8 years. I don't even have a social media. Like, I had it, but it wasn't accessible to me at all.

Brian McNally:

I just locked in and did the work for 8 years. And I think a lot of people are too busy trying to tell how great they are and, like, playing the game of entrepreneur instead of getting the work done. Right? So, like, I've now I've got proven cred. I'll go play the game on social media and help people understand, like, what it is and tell the story because I think it's impactful for people.

Brian McNally:

Yep. So I had a huge turnaround. And then, Jocko's extreme ownership was the other thing that really helped me switch around my mindset with regards to my family, my health, and even as a leader. I was like, this all starts and ends with me. Yep.

Brian McNally:

If I wanna see change in the business, if I wanna see change at home, if I wanna change like, it's all starts and ends with me. I have this it's just all of this is gonna follow you no matter where you go. Mhmm. You have to change. So that idea of being introspective and changing that really informed me on what I want to do next.

Brian McNally:

Right? And so, like, that's when I started to be, like, you know, these are people's lives. This is more than me just getting a win. I signed up for jujitsu, then I just I'd never done martial arts wrestling in my life.

Joey Bowen:

Yeah.

Brian McNally:

And I go into Matt Arroyo's Gracie Tampa South Mhmm. And just get choked out for 2 years. Right? Like, I'm like this is brutal. But humbling as a leader Yeah.

Brian McNally:

You get humbled every morning. Right? So I went into work totally humble, ready to lead, ready to go in service. Yeah. Totally ego in check.

Joey Bowen:

Servant. Yep.

Brian McNally:

And I think it's a huge part of leadership, man. You have

Joey Bowen:

to be able

Brian McNally:

to keep your ego in check. So I do all that. I have the big exit, and I have the freedom now. Right? Like, I can do what I want with who I want whenever I want.

Brian McNally:

Right? I could live the international man of leisure life if I wanted to.

Joey Bowen:

Yeah.

Brian McNally:

But I just not fulfilling. I've seen now what it's like to have an impact on people's lives. And I'm like, dude, that's the juice. Yep. So for me, it's it's multi pronged.

Brian McNally:

Right? I I the recognition that I need if I wanna have the impact I wanna have in the world, I need to increase my wealth. Mhmm. And not just so I can have more shit, so I can have a bigger impact.

Joey Bowen:

Yes.

Brian McNally:

Like, I recognize now if I wanna have an impact on our nation, like, I want to, cultural impact, I need to have cultural relevance, and I need to have financial influence.

Joey Bowen:

Shitload of money to do it. It's gonna

Brian McNally:

take a shitload of

Joey Bowen:

money to do it. We just Tim and I Tim's in the back. He works in a shop, and we just had this conversation yesterday that, you know, money is a magnifier of meaning and impact.

Brian McNally:

Yeah. You

Joey Bowen:

know what I mean? And, like, without it, you're never gonna be able to 10 x, steroids, whatever. However you wanna describe it, like that impact that you want.

Brian McNally:

And that's the plan. Right? So multipronged approach. I just started a book.

Joey Bowen:

Nice.

Brian McNally:

So I was all gearing up to do a amateur MMA fight, just my personal joy and challenge. Because to me, like, that's the ultimate form of discipline. Like, my life has to completely align around it, and it had been. I left the company in late February. I was training like a pro for 4 months, like, you know, just dialed in.

Brian McNally:

Then I just had emergency surgery. So that kind of kicked the can on that. Yep. It took about 3 days, and I was like, alright. Well, I got 6 weeks.

Brian McNally:

What can I get done? Right? So I I tagged in this person I know who helps write books. So I'm like, look. Let's get on that.

Brian McNally:

We'll start the book. Yeah. And I'm working on building out the structure for coaching and speaking businesses

Joey Bowen:

Nice.

Brian McNally:

Really with the with the goal of teaching this model and hoping that I only wanna work with leaders who wanna have an impact. Right? So Yep. If I can help them have an impact with their employees and their company and kinda implement my model so that they can have a ripple effect. Yep.

Brian McNally:

And then I wanna

Drew Beech:

acquire

Joey Bowen:

companies

Brian McNally:

Sure. And invest in companies where I can help them spread the message.

Joey Bowen:

Yeah.

Brian McNally:

And so doing, hopefully, by the time I'm wrapping up, you know, there's a massive, wave that I can Yeah.

Joey Bowen:

Well, I mean

Brian McNally:

You've got a book you've

Joey Bowen:

got a very heavy, hefty book of proof Yeah. That it's gonna happen.

Brian McNally:

Yeah, man. And I think, you know, it's scarce as shit. I mean, I don't wanna be doing like, I'm not I'm a pretty private person, believe it or not. Mhmm. The reason I'm leaning in all this is because it scares as shit

Drew Beech:

out of me.

Brian McNally:

It makes me incredibly uncomfortable, and I'm like, every time I've leaned into something, it made me uncomfortable Yeah. It had a compound effect on the back end, like, massively for me. Every time I lean into that. So this whole thing makes me uncomfortable. I'm gonna go speak on stages, and I'm gonna go act like I coach for people.

Brian McNally:

But the more I do it, the more I realize I do have something to share.

Joey Bowen:

Yeah. Of course.

Brian McNally:

And we can have an impact. So I'm just leaning into it.

Joey Bowen:

Yeah. And

Brian McNally:

I wanna acquire a bunch of companies and and have a little bit more hands in it myself. You know?

Joey Bowen:

Sure.

Brian McNally:

And hire CEOs to to do the thing.

Joey Bowen:

Amazing. Amazing. Any questions? No?

Drew Beech:

No. That was I mean, what a story, dude. And, like, the ending is just.

Joey Bowen:

That's the thing.

Drew Beech:

It's like beginning, obviously. Yeah. Yeah.

Joey Bowen:

Yeah. That's the thing. Like, you know, it's just the beginning. It's far from the end. I feel like, you know, the feelings that you had with being able to give back to your team during that earn out are actually gonna be dwarfed by what you do next.

Brian McNally:

You know? Hope so.

Joey Bowen:

Yeah. I

Brian McNally:

really did because it it lit a fire under me where I'm like, alright. I can sit around chicken margaritas forever. I guess. But Yeah. I don't know.

Joey Bowen:

It's not yeah. It's not you.

Brian McNally:

And and for me, it's like I've I've kind of come to this idea, like, true wealth is not just having a bunch of money. Right? Like, if I don't have my my health I've been working on phrasing for the book. Right? Trying to, like, categorize it as a wealth, well-being, and wellness.

Brian McNally:

Yeah. Right? Mentally and physically strong, have financially strong, and then just be generally happy and comfortable. Yeah. Right?

Brian McNally:

For sure. And if I can create that for more people, get more people out of that paycheck to paycheck, free them from that mundane, I think they can be better informed citizens. Yep. And then I think we can have a real change in the country.

Joey Bowen:

Yeah. Make better decisions. And, actually, when you alleviate that stress and anxiety from them, they can start to think for themselves and not what they're fed. So I see it all connecting, man, and I know it's gonna happen and, like, I'm so pumped to be for our wagons now to be hitched together Yeah. So that we can both do the work to to make it happen, you know, with what you're doing and what, you know, we're doing with few on similar missions.

Brian McNally:

100%.

Joey Bowen:

Yeah. Yeah. Similar missions. Yeah, man. Yeah, man.

Joey Bowen:

Alright. So where can the community find you?

Brian McNally:

Yep.

Joey Bowen:

On social or if you have a site. Yeah.

Brian McNally:

Well, just Brian McNally on Facebook. McNally_b on Instagram. But really Okay. The hub is brianmcnally.com. All the socials are there.

Brian McNally:

Amazing. I did start a charitable fund called the Baru Fund.

Joey Bowen:

Okay.

Brian McNally:

So you can make donations there and everything.

Joey Bowen:

So Very nice. Very nice.

Brian McNally:

They'll all be linked to brianmcnallydot com.

Joey Bowen:

Okay. Cool. We're gonna bring it back for part 2 where we dive into similar to the business strategy.

Brian McNally:

Yeah.

Joey Bowen:

But the overwhelming majority of the community of the Eagles that are gonna watch and listen are going to take a lot of value from your story and what it really takes to live the rules of the few Mhmm. And what can really happen when you do. Yeah. So, I appreciate you coming in today. You didn't bring the flamingo, but that's okay.

Brian McNally:

I mean They're not gonna be I tried. It wouldn't fit my carry on. When you were.

Joey Bowen:

When Brian flew in, there's a giant flamingo in, the airport, in Florida, and, he threatened to bring it with him. He just came by himself. I told him that's all we need. You just need him. That's it.

Brian McNally:

That's awesome. Well, I appreciate you guys having me, man. This is exciting. I'm excited for what we're gonna

Drew Beech:

do in the future. Brian. Yeah. Very grateful for

Joey Bowen:

you, man. Very grateful for you. Alright. I'll leave the few with a reminder. Always choose hard work over handouts.

Joey Bowen:

Always choose effort over entitlement. And remember, no one owns you. No one owes you. You're one of the few. Now let's