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Being STRONG is more than just how much weight you can lift.
The Strong New York Podcast is dedicated to inspiring you to become your strongest self- in the gym, in business, in relationships and in life.
Join Kenny as he sits down with his strong as fuck buddies and shoots the shit on what it takes to be strong willed, strong minded and physically strong. Season one features everyone from entrepreneurs and local business owners to doctors and industry leaders in the fitness and wellness space.
With over a decade of experience, Kenny Santucci has made himself known as one of New York City’s top trainers and a thought leader in the health and wellness industry. After transforming his life at 15 years old through fitness, Kenny made it his mission to transform the lives of those around him.
Kenny has trained some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, including Jon Bon Jovi, Liev Schreiber, and Frank Ocean, and has been tapped as a fitness expert sharing his training approach with Men’s Health, Men’s Journal, Runner's World, SHAPE, Well+Good, among other publications.
Kenny is the creator of STRONG New York, NYC's only Health and Fitness Expo. Strong New York is an immersive day of workouts, wellness experiences, panel discussions, and inspiring conversations with the best in-class wellness professionals, industry leaders, and change makers who are sharing their expertise on today's hottest wellness trends and first-hand experiences on how to optimize your overall health and life.
You can find Kenny at The Strength Club, his private training and group strength training facility in the heart of Manhattan located on 28th and 5th Ave in New York City.
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Every year it gets bigger and bigger. This year we'll have 5,000 people, 80 plus brands, and you will be there. So make sure you get your tickets@strongnewyork.com. It's that simple. Guys, welcome back to another episode of Strong New York podcast. I'm your host, Kenny Santucci. And as always, if you're watching this, if you're listening, like, subscribe, share with a friend today.
Uh, like many other male guests on my show, I'm on Instagram and I'm, uh, you know. Obviously admiring the people. I do and I slide in their dms and I was very excited about this one. Um, because there was really no connection. I don't really know him. I can't say, Hey, I know this guy other than Chris Stead and I don't know him, but I wish I did.
Uh, is the only real connection we had. So I slid into his dms 'cause I admire what he's built from a community standpoint, from a brand standpoint. Point from a collaboration standpoint. In my opinion, he's doing it better than anybody else and it's shocking that he's just a 34-year-old young guy from Providence, Rhode Island, a Guinea just like myself.
Dom Avo. Dom, thank you so much for saying yes to the show. Yeah, of course. Thanks for coming on. Um, you know, I think. In the industry and, you know, congratulations on your, your big win today at the Thank you. I appreciate it. Um, innovator of the Year. I mean, it's, that's a pretty cool title. Yeah, for sure. Uh, you know, ale Tech's doing some really cool stuff.
They're, they're innovating like nobody's business right now. Um, I think they're really opening up this space a lot with the fitness space, with the nutritional space, everything. But for a young guy to have created. In my opinion, one of the hardest industries Yeah. To really impact. Yeah. You know, because supplements are a very hard industry.
It's a lot of marketing, it's a lot of making the right moves. Mm-hmm. It's a lot of great collaborations. What do you attribute a lot of that to? Yeah. You know, I think that, um, I can, if I, if I take it a step back. I started in the medical industry, right? Mm-hmm. So I think I learned how to, did you go to school for I went to, I got my doctorate in chiropractic and my undergrad in molecular and microbiology.
So I did go to school to be a doctor. So I have a, I, my doctor, who the fuck are you? Doogie Hower. No, no, I know, I know. Yeah. Jesus. But I never practiced, so I never practiced. So I got outta school and um, I went straight into my medical office, right? And then I hired physicians and I. I had a, a mentor, I did my residency with this guy's name's Phil, uh, Dr.
Ska. Uh, and he literally, I remember I was sitting there and he was like, dude, don't do this. He was like, you don't want to ever trade your time for money. You wanna figure out a way to build a brand or a business that you're not trading your time for, for monetary value. Okay. And I like literally was like, fuck this guy's, right?
Like, you know, I don't want, I don't want to ti, I don't want to take that trade off. You know? So I literally went back and I was just trying to figure out like what I was gonna do basically. Um, but ultimately to answer your question, starting in the medical industry and really like dealing with like regulations and the DEA and, you know.
A lot of different, like real business grinding things that you don't really deal with in the sports nutrition world. Yeah. It taught me how to run the business really effectively and efficiently and how to build it the right way. And I think in the sports nutrition space, you have a lot of brands that, you know, for lack of better word, the founders are like at the right place at the right time, or they're like an influencer who just decides he wants to make a protein or a pre-workout.
And that's great and you can do really well with it. But you know, there's always like. The stigma in the sports nutrition space where like PE groups don't wanna buy them. Um, it's like kinda like a stained industry, right? And I think that what we've just proven is it's not anymore, right? Like what we've just gone through and the way we scaled and the way we built it and the way we marketed it, and the way we built our sg and a and just really built the, the company to be a profitable machine and to be sellable.
Um, just opened up a whole new world for, for supplement brands because traditionally in the past you would see sport supplement brands get acquired, but they were always, uh, kind of like combined with an energy drink brand. Mm-hmm. So, like for example, ghost, right? Ghost is great friends of mine, Dan's one of my boys, but that's a huge beverage brand that's attached to a supplement company.
Mm-hmm. Right? And then you look at other brands like Celsius or. Um, all the real major ones that I've sold, they've always had this beverage arm. Mm-hmm. And raw was just sports nutrition and it's, it's all ever will be, you know, so it, it was really unique to, to watch what we've done. And I think it's, I was actually gonna write a post about this today.
I think what we've done is really like, kind of shown people that like, you need to think bigger than sports nutrition. You know, these, these things can be, you know, so much bigger than anything that's happened in the past. Well, I think building a brand like you have, yeah. Uh, you see a lot of the supplement brand owners mm-hmm.
Or the figureheads. Very vocal, very out there. Yep. Building, uh, this persona for themselves to help drive sales in your business. Sure. But you were seems like a pretty big family guy. Very big. Yeah. And you kind of stay in the shadow. Do you think that ever hurts the brand at all? I think you need two pieces to a brand, right?
Like I utilized Chris for, you know, quite some time to help build that piece of the brand. But I think ultimately both of us, our decision was we never wanted the brand to be about a person. Mm-hmm. And I think that's a problem in the industry because traditionally you see brands that do really, really well for a short period of time because they attach themselves to an influencer.
Mm-hmm. And then influencers were only popular for so long. Yeah, right. Or they switch to a new brand and then you have to rebuild that brand based off of, you know, a new influencer. So getting into the space, I had two, two main goals. One was to not. Um, use an influencer model, but use like a partnership model.
So Chris is an equity owner of the brand. He was an equity owner the day he got involved with the brand, because I didn't want to build a brand necessarily around someone and then them leave. Mm-hmm. But then also we both had an agreement that we didn't want Chris to be the face of the brand for that long.
We wanted to utilize Chris's pop popularity to get people into it, but then RAW would have its own legs who would build the foundation and like the, you know. The meaning of the word raw and the community behind raw versus Chris. Mm-hmm. And I think we've done a phenomenal job of that. Yeah. So the brain is way bigger than both of us.
Um, and, you know, the, the next part of it is, I think people resonate with, with founder stories in a way that like, they, they buy into things when they like what the founders are doing, and you know who they are as people. Mm-hmm. So I think as long as I'm a good example to whether it's a new father or an entrepreneur or you know, a another husband or a wife that wants their husband to be a family man.
Like, I think that that's something that when you go into a store and you have 20 of the same thing on shelf, traditionally it's caffeine or it's protein powder. Like you're buying the brand, you're buying the people behind the brand. And, um, I think we've done a, a damn good job of, of setting a good example for the people who are buying our products.
Do you ever. A good relationship with your parents? Um, my mom. Your mom? Yeah. It seems like you got really good, strong roots. I do, yeah. I have a, a great family dynamic. So, um, my mom and dad got divorced, uh, pretty recently. Um, and I had a good re not always the best relationship with my dad, but I respect.
My dad on a level of, he was my father and he got like, I am who I am because of what I've went through. But you know, he also taught me a lot of what not to do. Yeah. You know, and, and I think that you can either, you know, unfortunately take the bad and use it as like a victim card or you can take the bad and say, look like I learned what not to do because I don't wanna do that, or I don't wanna be like that with my wife, or I don't wanna be like that with my son.
And I think if you want my honest opinion, I think I'm a much better father because of of that. I think that I've learned what I. Miss when I was younger. And, um, I'm making sure that Enzo never has to feel that way, ever. You know? So I want to be a present dad. I, I want to be there for him. I don't wanna miss anything.
I want to be like his best friend. Mm-hmm. So that's kind of where I'm at with that. I always hear Tony Robbins talk about that, like blaming responsibly. Like you could have easily said like, oh, I'm this way because my father. Yeah. And I don't know any better because when. You've done a, a great example of that when you're building out your team, right?
Yeah. Where, what point was Chris at when you guys kind of brought him on? Like where was he at in his career? Yeah, so he was, uh, I think he had won his first Olympia. Um, he went through a really nasty health scare like the year before, and, uh, he was just signed a contract with a sports nutrition brand. At the time, I think it was Jack Factory, so he was like.
Coming up, I think like people knew like he was gonna be the next best thing. How'd, how'd you know? How'd you know? I just liked Chris, like, and the honest answer is like, if you ask me. I get this all the time. Other brand owners would be like, you know, who would you pick Yeah. To do this with if, like, if you, if you didn't have Chris.
Mm-hmm. And it's the same answer to everyone. And it's nobody because there's not many people like Chris in the industry and even in like the world of, I would consider Chris a celebrity more so than a fitness influencer now. A hundred percent. You know, he's, he's way outgrown the fitness space. You know, I think he's like 30 million followers, you know, hundreds of thousands of likes and engagements on his videos.
Um, and Chris is probably the most. Genuine human being that I've ever met. He spends more time on self care, on mental health, on being a good father, on being a good wife, uh, husband, um, that, you know, it's like hard to, to not love the kid. Mm-hmm. And I think that that's the biggest problem that people don't understand, like.
People love Chris because he's Chris. You know, he doesn't give a shit about followers. He doesn't give a shit about money. I've seen the kid turn down the most ridiculous, ridiculous deals that you would be like, are millions of dollars a month to do nothing basically. And he's like, it doesn't fit my brand.
I don't want it. You know, and, and it's, and it's a testament to who he is. Yeah. But that's. That's Chris, you know, so that's what made me drawn to him is it was just such an easy conversation. It wasn't, I mean, we have some athletes that are not anymore, but that were part of RAW in the past that have had, you know, a 1000th of the following that he had.
But you would think they were Kim Kardashian, the way they acted. You know, I've dealt with that. It's brutal, man. It's brutal. And like, that's why they're never gonna get anywhere. Yeah. And they just, they're so thick headed, they don't even notice it. Yeah. So. When you were, were you always just like into the gym?
Were you always at like kind of a meathead in a way? No, I was fat. Really? Yeah. So I was, um, it's such, I had the exact same. I was a fat Italian kid. I was, I was a dude. I mean, my grandparents, like, if you didn't clean the plate, like, you know, you were, uh, yeah, no, like you were, you know, you were sick. Like, if I wasn't 30 pounds overweight, I was, I was too skinny.
So I grew up in that type of an environment. So for me, it was funny because, um, I. I went to high school and I got made fun of like crazy, you know, I was just way overweight and I got into football first. So I started playing high school football and I lost all my weight. Um, and that's truly kind of like what got me into working out was just playing football because we'd have weight room sessions, like squatting and bench pressing and all that.
And then getting outta high school, getting outta college and not having like collegiate sports anymore. I just kind of fell into fitness. And it was just a way for me to stay in shape to compete competitively. I started doing some bodybuilding shows when I was gonna school. Um, and I enjoyed it. I loved it.
You know, I was studying to be a doctor, so I had no free time and I couldn't really party, so it was like I'm already like in the library or studying all day and. I can take two hours a day to work out and I can cook my food. 'cause I'm home all day studying. So like why not? Do you ever feel like you missed out on like, that college experience and stuff?
Um, I think I had a little bit of fun, like afterwards, you know, like once I got out and I started like doing pretty well for myself. Um, but, uh, yeah, maybe like, I don't know. I mean, I, I think that. I'm so grateful for the life I have now. Yeah. That like, I don't regret anything. Right. Like, I think like it's easy to be like, oh, I wish this, I wish that, but like the place that that, that I'm in right now, I wouldn't trade for anything in the world.
Like, I have an amazing wife, I have a great relationship with my mom. I have the most beautiful son in the world. Um, so for me it's like I'm living my dream. Yeah. It's, it seems like you're very proud of what you built. I am. Yeah. You know, and there's a lot of people who'd be in your shoes and they're like, well, now I've made it to the top of the mountain.
It's time to party. Yeah. No, but it seems, it's like you've only. A little bit like kind of chilled out even more, right? Yeah. I think, uh, you know, I've never had that mentality ever truly, like I, I'm always, I, I think I have like imposter syndrome sometimes because I feel like I, I shouldn't be, like for instance, like doing podcasts and like I do some mentorship stuff and I'm always like, am I really like good enough to do this yet?
Like, or do I need to like get to this next level of life or whatever it is. And, um, for me, I think that, uh. Having a son really just like even grounded me more like the second he came out, like my whole life changed even more. It was like, I need to work harder. I need to provide for him. I need to make sure he doesn't ever need any.
And in a, in the good way though, like I'm just gonna give him everything. You don't wanna be a make him spoil? No, I'll never do that, but I, I'll always make sure he has what he needs to be successful. Right. Um, and then also just like you have a set of eyes that are on you all the time. And like, it's so funny 'cause I was on vacation, I was smoking a cigar and I literally looked over and he had pulled a cigar out of my bag and he put it in his mouth, like in the plastic.
And it's like a true testament to like these fucking kids watch everything you do. Yeah. Right. So like for me, it's like now I have these little eyes watching me and. The, the number one thing that I think of every day when I wake up is like, I don't wanna do anything that he would be upset about later on in life, like seeing a, a post or a video or mm-hmm.
An article. So it's like, now I'm like at a whole nother level of like, I need to just be incredible and be such a good role model for him being a parent now. Yeah. You know, having a kid of your own, you see so many people on social media and in the world today, just doing a lot of stupid shit. Yeah. You know?
As a parent, what, what do you think of these other people who are, you know, like Yeah, what, what's your real fear having a child now bringing up in this world? 'cause we grew up in a very different world. Very different world. You're a little bit younger than I am. Yeah. But at the same time, like, I don't think there was so many questions.
Yeah. You know, there. No, you're right. I feel like there were definitives when we were coming up. Yeah. Right. Yeah. It's tough. I mean, it's like you can get it into a million different ways, but. The world is very different. Like I, I went to public school, you know, and like I was talking to my wife about, she's like, he we're, there's no way he's gonna public school.
And I was like, oh, okay. Like, I'm fine. Like I turned, but like, I have to remember, like, it's not fucking, you know, when I was in school anymore. It's just a whole different world. And, um, I, it's, it's scary for sure. Like, I think there was a point in time where we even question having kids, like, is it like, should we do it?
You know, is is it gonna be okay? Um, but I think at that point it's just like it's up to you to be a good role model and a good father and a good mother. You know, I think the, the what do you like the openness to, to the relationship you have too? Like, I don't want my son to be scared to tell me shit.
Mm-hmm. Like if he does some something stupid, like I would rather know than, than rather him hide it and then do even more dumb shit and then get in trouble. Yeah. And I never had that relationship with my parents. So like, my parents were very strict Italian parents. You know? How old's your father? My dad's 63.
Okay. So he is a little bit younger than my dad. Yeah. I, when people ask me, they're like, what was your fa relationship with your father? I'm like. I don't think we really had one. Yeah, we did. I used to just get the shit kicked outta me and I did something wrong, you know, like that's truly what was my, yeah.
Like a belt to the back of the head or whatever it was at the time. But, you know, and granted like that's how everyone's parents were when, like, at that age in my neighborhood, you know, it was like you let, they led with fear and my mom was a, my mom was the breadwinner in my family, so I lived basically with my dad full time and she was on the road traveling and working.
Really? Yeah. So it was just a shit dynamic for me. 'cause I got stuck with the parent I didn't have a relationship with. Um, but again, again, it made me what I am today. Uh, but yeah, man, I don't know. I, I still question, you know, I see shit all the time and I look at my wife and I'm like, holy shit. Like if it's bad now, like what's gonna happen when Enzo's 10, you know?
Um, well, when we were growing up, and I talk about this all the time, and I always feel bad for younger girls. I have eight nieces and nephews. Yeah. Uh, three of them are boys and the rest are girls. Yeah. And when I see how. Social media kind of affects me. Yeah. As an adult where I really don't give a shit about much.
I couldn't imagine being a fat kid. Yeah. Growing up. Yep. You know, at that time, like I always make the joke that there were guys in school that you hated because they were smarter than you. They were better in sports. Yep. They got all the girls, but when you were home, you never didn't have to see them or look a hundred percent.
Now it's in your face all the time. Yeah. And it's a lot of false positives. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Like people, Instagram and social media is an absolute highlight reel for 90% of people, right? Mm-hmm. So, like I agree. And I, and I, I, it can go both ways too. Like if, if there was social media when we were kids, we probably would've got caught doing a lot of dumb shit on, so, right.
Like, but there was vanity or beauty and being able to just do stuff and it not be recorded or it not be all over social media. So I think social media is a blessing and a curse. Obviously. I've built an amazing brand. Mm-hmm. Multiple brands on social media. But I wish that there was regulation on, on some of it, just because I feel, I feel terrible for, I mean, I've seen the, the effects of bullying on social media.
I've seen young kids in our area, you know, I mean, do terrible things to kids, and it men messes them up mentally for a long time. So it's, it's pretty fucked. Yeah. I think a lot of times it turn on social media and you get fed the same horrible shit all the time. Yeah. Every other scroll for me is.
Bombings and you know, yeah. It's all the stuff that, it's propaganda, you know? And it's unfortunate because that's like, I don't watch the news. No. Like that's my news source. I'm on social media, I'm scrolling and I'm like, holy shit, did you see this? And I'll send it to somebody and it's what they want you to see, right?
Yeah. So you're absolutely right. And I think that there needs to be some type of a, our, as a parent, our job is to kind of educate our kids on, you know, what to do, what not to do, and how to be good people. It's a lot easier to do that. Like it was easier for our parents to do that than it's gonna be for me to do that with my son.
Yeah. So, you know, he's grown up in Florida now. Yeah. What's the school systems like? It's good. They're good. You know, there's like, you know, you have your private, you have your public, uh, the town that I live in has like the best public schools, like in the state, so I'm. Worried per se. But, um, I also like wanna split time soon between two places.
So we're literally trying to figure out like where that's gonna be and like how it's gonna work with school. And what, what are you leaning towards? The Hamptons. Nice. Yeah. Yeah. So we're Do you go out there a lot? Yeah, I started to like two years ago. Okay. And we, I just love the weather. I love like the beach.
I love the water. So like, I love being around the water, but I also love What part of the Hamptons? Uh, like East Hampton. Okay. Uh, sag Harbor, like that area. Yeah. Beautiful. Yeah. Sick. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I'm actually going out there next weekend. I was talking to the guy who owns Post House. Okay. And I was like, yeah.
I was like, I wanna come out. I wanna come work out. He is like, yeah, dude, come. Yeah. But there's a lot like that SAG Harbor gym. It's amazing. Such a great sport. Yeah. That would be like a prime location for like a really sick gym. I know. Yeah. And the thing about it I like is like I'm, I love New York City for like four days, right?
Like coming in, doing my thing. Like busy, busy, busy. But like I'm such a small town person. Like, yeah. I'm like right outside of Palm Beach, you know, like I live on five acres, like I'm, I don't see my neighbors. Yeah. So like for me, going to the Hamptons still gives me that feeling of like being away, but being right in the mix of close enough, you know?
And like being able to go pick like fresh vegetables and then walk to the beach is like the craziest idea ever. And the weather is amazing. So where else would you have all of those things? Yeah, it's very hard. And obviously listen, the real estate out there speaks for itself. Yeah. There's a reason why.
Yep. You know, a cheap house is 10 million. Correct? Yeah. Um, so being a good Italian boy, I am sure you, you know, a movie I'm talking about. Would you, in your business, in life, on social media, would you rather be loved or feared? Uh, man, I would rather be respected. Yeah. I think that if I had to pick, I think that fear is.
I think some people are definitely scared of me. I think some of my employees think I'm like the scariest human being on earth. Yeah. But I don't think it's because I do anything. I think it's just like what I am for to them at work. Yeah. Um, I don't, it's a tough, it's a tough question, man. Uh, fuck. I want to, like, my heart wants me to say I would rather be loved.
Yeah, yeah. Right. But I also know that like, that doesn't really get you anywhere in business, uh, at all. So in, in, in the essence that. I'm, I'm speaking on business and I'm speaking on building a brand. I think I would probably say I'd rather be feared. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's, it's, it's quite the struggle and I think that's what made that movie so iconic.
What are some other Italian, you know, kind of mob movies that you kind of lean into? Oh, man. Casino, casino Casino is one of the best movies ever that's seen I, I'll never, I, I watch it as a kid. I'll never get the scene like, 'cause I have two brothers. Yeah. Do you have any siblings? No, I don't. It's just me.
So I have two brothers and I always think of like that one scene where they kill him and his brother out in the Oh yeah. And I'm like, oh my God, what would I do? I'm like, I would just be fighting so much harder than he was. Yeah, yeah. When they killed Joe Pechi and, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And it's such a brutal scene.
Horrible. Yeah. Yeah. But that movie's a great movie. Yeah, it's a great movie. I like that one. I mean, they're all great. Like all those like, you know, classic Italian movies. Yeah. Early nineties movies. Yeah. So being a, being in the nutrition industry, obviously you're, you're in gyms all the time. Yep. You know, where, where are some gyms and like, what's some equipment that you kind of lean into, like you were a bodybuilder?
Yeah, so we own two gyms. We actually, so we own Raw Athletic Club. We built a gym like a, I saw them. Big gym. Yeah. I remember that was like in the last year or so. Yeah. And then before that I owned Revived Gym, which was the gym that was attached to my other business. And then we've just switched both of them to Raw Athletic Club.
Okay. Um, and I'm actually partners in a franchise called Carbon Culture, which is in Nashville. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So those are, are ours as well. Those are used too. Okay. Um, and, uh, we're opening one in Atlanta. We're opening one in Charleston right now. So the gym business, believe it or not, I think is a very great business right now to get into.
Yeah. If you have the capital, because it hasn't, hasn't been innovated in so long. Mm-hmm. You know, and I think that people are really geared towards quality equipment versus like the spa, like gyms. Yeah. As long as you have like a very, like our gyms are beautiful. They have like coal plunge, you know, room recovery rooms, infrared.
So we do all that stuff, but our main focus is equipment. So if you come to, if you ever came to raw, like you would see, we probably have the most equipment in. Any gym in the United States probably, but it's all like the best of each piece. Like we don't stick to one brand. We pick pieces based off of, you know, like for example, we have an Arian standing leg curl that's from like the eighties that we've refurbished because there's no better piece than that piece.
Yeah, yeah. But then we have all the panada, we have all, you know, the, um, there's a brand out of Korea right now that's just going crazy. Uh, the 80 gym? 80? No, it's called, uh. Fuck, I'm not gonna remember it. And then I'm gonna get shit on for this. Uh, God, I forget, I'll, it'll come to me. But you know, like the pinatas of the world, we do, uh, some arsenal stuff, not a ton of it.
Um, do you like Watson? I love Watson. Yeah. Yeah. Watson. Watson. Hit Press is a great piece. Atlantis is great. Can those like, are always gonna be great brands? Mm-hmm. Um, Atlantis makes really great stuff. I think they have probably one of the best leg presses, but like literally if you go through the gym, prime makes amazing equipment.
Yeah. They just come out with a hack squat that's like. Probably the best hack squat. Yeah. So if you come through, we literally have almost every piece from every brand, but we really picked like the best of each. Yeah. No, I think, uh. I've noticed that, and obviously I watch a lot of Chris's YouTube stuff.
Yeah. And I saw the gym he built himself. Yeah, that's right across from our gym. He has like a little warehouse gym right across from our gym. Oh, cool. Yeah. And now are all the ones that your franchise, are those franchises or are you No, we we're, they're ours. Really? Yeah. Yeah. They're all ours. They're all Carbon 80.
So the one, the, some of 'em are carbon culture. So the Carbon is Nashville's carbon. Atlanta's carbon Charlotte's, um. Um, carbon and there's two in Nashville, so there's a, a West Nashville and there's a, a Franklin, and then the two in Florida are raw athletic clubs. So the one in Port St. Lucie is a raw athletic club, and the one in Stewart is a raw athletic club.
What I find difficult in business personally is finding the right people. Yeah. Right. Like the, that's the most difficult thing of place. It is the most difficult thing. Yeah. And. Yesterday I spoke at the event and I had, there were two guys on the panel with me, and I own two gyms, and these guys both, one of them owns 21.
Mm-hmm. One owns another 10 or 12, whatever. It's, yep. And I said, I go, for me, it took me so long to find the right people that I trust. Yep. Right. Like somebody, if I gave you my wallet, I'd come back and there'd be the same amount of shit in it. Yeah. Or more. Or more. There you go. Or more. There you go. And. I go, it's so hard to find how, like what do you look for in an employee?
Yeah. This is an awesome question and this is a question that I also get a ton and I think, I think we've done such a good job of building such a badass community and such a good culture behind the brands. Mm-hmm. That it attracts quality people. Now granted, like you get like a lot of the, uh, how do you say this nicely?
Like the, um, the people who just like. Love the brand and they'll do whatever to get there. Yeah. And then it kinda is weird. Yep. So there, there's those people, but they weed themselves out pretty quickly. And then, to be honest, like I'm very family driven, so like my little cousin runs my gyms, so I, my little cousin Natasha, um, I, I moved her to Florida.
She's going through like a, a pretty rough time in her life. Okay. Um, she like beat her, beat like addiction, you know, put her through rehab. And I just like, you know, put her in a position to be successful. Um, I was super hard on her, but now she runs my, my gyms and she's, she's an amazing manager for the gyms.
Yeah. So I think it's a combination of building really good culture, building a community where people want to be involved. Mm-hmm. And then hiring for. Qualities like trust, honesty, integrity, and teaching them how to be in the positions they need to be in versus hiring like someone who has a gym management, management experience.
Because to be honest with you, like it's not that hard to run a gym. It's more so being honest and, and not stealing and doing all the shit that you expect. Well, yeah, the, the qualities you can't teach, but the skills you can. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. You can teach, you can teach people how to do pretty much anything, but you can't teach people how to be good people.
Yeah. That's what I tell everybody. Well. In, in this growth period. Right. You have so many because you don't just have raw, I mean you have multiple No, yeah, yeah. We have like between all the brands, you know, the medical offices, raw Revive, my cookie dealer, uh, three DI just acquired 3D Energy, bomb Energy.
Oh wow. Yeah. You know, I would say close to a thousand employees. Damn. Yeah. Yeah. And it's gotta be, I mean, listen, I have. 100th of that. Yeah. And it's a fucking headache. Yeah. Dealing with people. It's, it's people, man. Yeah. It's just finding good people like I have probably. 15 direct reports, you know, that directly report to me and they 15 people.
Yeah. And that's a lot for, for someone. Two is a lot. Yeah. You know, so I have like, you know, my, our, my brand managers for every brand I have my CFO, I have my chief legal officer, I have my CFO COOs, um, and I have multiple of those across brands. So I think that just taking the time and developing those people and being a real CEO, you know, I think that I, I, this is something I also say a lot.
I think that people don't. Understand what a CEO's job really is. Mm-hmm. Um, and I, I hate even using that word. 'cause like if people ask me what I do, I just say I work there. Like, I, I never, I never use the word I hate, like wearing the thing that even says it on it. I don't wear it. Like I didn't wear it today.
Yeah, yeah. I'm not into it. Um, but like my job is to give people. Every tool that they need to be successful. And that's all my job is. So if you look at it on a high level, it's the most selfless job in the world, right? Like you work for every really, you work for your company, you work for everyone else.
Yeah. And I think that if more people in that position were selfless, because I think a lot of CEOs have a, a huge like chip on their shoulder, very ego driven, and you see that that culture dies really high and then everyone underneath them is the same way. Mm-hmm. But if you don't have that and your job really is to just.
Give and give and give and give and give and go where you're needed and, and help develop where people are, are lacking. You tend to build a really strong team really quickly. Mm-hmm. And I, I can honestly say that I have, I think I have the best team in the industry and I think that's a testament to where we are today.
Yeah. Did a lot of those people come from within the company and kind of come up with you? Or are these people you kind of knew throughout life and you were like. I think I need you to come on board. Yeah. So to be honest, most of them came from like nowhere. Like, not, like for example, one of the guys that's with me here, um, not in this room, but he's in New York with me.
He started as like one of my friends from high school and now he runs all my direct sales for Bum Energy. So he, you know, crushes it makes you. A killing. Um, another guy started as a janitor in my gym, and now he's like my COO. Yeah. Isn't that awesome? Yeah, no, it's great. And then even like the, the people who I hire outside of the company, most of them are from another company that did the same thing.
So for example, Taylor, my COO for, for Raw, um, one of the most intelligent, hardworking kids I've ever met in my whole life. He started in the warehouse of another supplement company and he worked his way up. And then what happened at this company was they got bought by PE and basically. F took everyone's job that worked their way up and replaced them with these like Harvard executives or, you know, Bain consultants.
And the, the company took a shit and he, the, these kids who got replaced were super pissed off. 'cause they're like, I worked my ass off, I worked from the warehouse all the way to here, and then I get replaced with someone who doesn't even know the brand or understand the business. So I grabbed those kids and I'm like, look, come over here.
You know, we'll do, we'll, do great things. And it's worked really well for me. Yeah. Yeah. Coming up, you know, being as successful as you are, obviously there's trial interpretations and a ton of shit you have to deal with. Yeah. How many, how do you deal with, I'm guessing a ton of hate from other brands and other people Yeah.
Who are just like, this guy's bullshit it, product suck. Yeah. I'm sure you hear Sure. That constantly actually I hear it like there's one person in the end. It's true. It's, it's really true though that. The, the majority of the people in our industry are great. Yeah. Like, truly like Dan the Danes of the world.
Um, the guys from First Form Sal and Andy, I talk to Sal Priscilla weekly. You know, we, we literally send each other voice notes. We'll have hour conversations on Fridays with each other. So I would say it's actually less like, like now than it used to be. Mm-hmm. But there's always like two or three people in an industry that just leave a really bad stain on the industry.
And it's funny because I tell my guys this all the time, like, when we look for innovation, we look for things. I wanna look outside of sports nutrition. Mm-hmm. Find your favorite clothing brand, find your favorite, you know, like beauty brand for some of the girls and like, let's bring some of that innovation in.
I don't want to take it from anywhere else in the industry because I don't wanna copy anyone. If you look at the way we've built raw, we've built it fully on its own. We haven't done licensing deals, we haven't done anything. Another brand in the industry is on. It's been true to us, you know, and I think it pisses people off.
The way that we did it, because we're not leveraging anything to be where we are. We're just us. Yeah. You know, and we'll get a lot of like, hate, like when we were going through the acquisition, there was another brand owner. It's really all the same brand owner. It's kind of funny. Who, uh, who will be like, oh, like telling me more than I know about my deal.
You know? And it's like, how would, first of all, like, and it's coming from like my buyers. So my buyers are calling me like, Hey man, just so you know, like, this person's saying this about your brand. And I'm like, well that's great because I don't even know that. So if he knows that, he knows more than I do, you know?
Um, and, and it's. It's comical. You know, I, I think I'm like immune to it at this point. I don't really care. I don't focus on any brands. I look at data, like, I'll always look at data on a weekly basis. I'll pull IRI data, I'll pull spins data and I'll be like, Hey, these guys are doing exceptionally well. Or, you know, I'm always chasing that.
Mm-hmm. But I'm never like, oh, these guys suck. We're doing better than them. I have no desire to do that. You know, I really like to just focus on my own shit. Yeah. And I think that's why we do so well, because, um, really just care about us and getting better. Yeah. You're racing yourself and not everybody else.
Yeah. Who are some other brands though? Like obviously, I mean, I'm in the gym industry. Yeah. I look at other gyms. Sure. I love going to other gyms. Yeah. I do like gym reviews and I make it, you know, I make it my business never to shit on other gyms. 'cause a hundred percent, you know how hard it is to get there.
Run business a hundred percent. And you can't judge all the hard work you've done by one employee who might screw up. Agree. Totally agree. So I always try to big up Jim. Yeah. And, and what I look for, yeah. Similar to you is like. It's all about the equipment. Yeah. It's all about the environment. Sure. The culture, the gym, um, you know, so who are some of the brands that you kind of look at and you're like, all right, I like what they're doing.
Yeah. I'll, I'll tell you, there's, there's multiple. So like, I think on a community level, there's two brands that I think do it better than anyone, and one of 'em is like an influencer model, and the other one is just like true straight community. Mm-hmm. Um, first forms influencer model is insane. You know, the way that they build that at Advantage.
Yeah. Summer smash. Yeah. I mean. It's a testament to the leadership there. Yeah. Yeah. They're just great people. And then a brand that's really impressed me lately, uh, and I wish they had like a bigger niche because they would be even more successful is BPN. I think Nick Bear's done a pheno phenomenal job of bringing back like community into the brand.
I think he had left for a minute and I think. I don't know what happened, but I've been following it since He started posting about how he was coming back in as the CEO or the, or running the brand. And from when he left to now, I, I'm overly impressed with what he's done with it and the community that he's built there, I think, and they have great product.
Yeah. And I think he's dove head first, a hundred percent. What's something, you know, obviously like the, the nutrition or supplement industry gets a lot of crap, like obviously, like the FDA's not proven everything. Yep. What do you. What's more important to you? Having a super clean, expensive product or you know, kind of giving people more of what they want.
Right. For, for instance, like there are obviously great restaurants here in the city. Yeah. But. If I want something really good and clean. Yeah. It's probably not gonna taste as good as the others for sure. Yeah. I think this is, uh, it's, it's two ways, right? Like Matt is one of the partners in raw and he's like one of the most intelligent people when it comes to formulating and doing all that stuff.
But we've had talks since the beginning of time when we first started and it was like. We can't build a formula that's amazing that no one can afford. Mm-hmm. You know, like, I would love to sell the, the most impressive, you know, total health vitamin. But at the end of the day, if it's unaffordable to 90% of people.
Are we doing the world a favor? Mm-hmm. Or are we just really not doing anything for anybody? Right. So I think there's a, a, a balance where you have to be able to make things that make sense for the brand, make sense for the business that are scalable, sellable margins there. Um, if you want to run a really good business, and I think that you have those brands that make, you know, $200 protein, but at the end of the day, like I'm also in business to make money and I'm also in business to sell eventually.
So it's just not the business for me. Yeah. Where do you look for inspiration, like innovation, inspiration, like. What are you looking at? Like for instance, for me, I do look at other events. Mm-hmm. Like I have a big event and I have gyms, so I look at other gyms and events, but a lot of times I'll look outside.
Yeah. My absolutely my world and try start to see like. What are other people doing really well? Yeah, like for instance, like you said, the beauty brands and stuff, like, I think there's so much innovation out there and there's so many, uh, where do you pull a lot of your inspiration from? Yeah, I love high fashion, man.
Like, I'm a big, like, um, like for example, like the satisfy of the world. Bandit is doing a phenomenal job in New York City. Um, and then when it comes to innovation in sports and nutrition, really, like there's not much you can do there. Mm-hmm. So like a lot of the stuff we sell is the same as other people.
Putting different formulas together obviously makes a difference. So we have like a group that's consistently innovating on that side. But I think when it comes to my wheelhouse of business, it's all about community, like building a stronger community. Mm-hmm. And how can we do that? What events can we do to do that?
What brands can we collaborate with to do that? And I think what we've learned is, you know, like we don't. We want to partner with brands that have the same like goals, aspirations, beliefs as us. So like we have a strategic partnership and exclusive partnership with Gym Shark now, so we're like the only brand that they use for sports nutrition.
Oh, wow. And then we do a lot of collab events with them. Um, and it's because we love them. We love what they stand for, we love what they're doing. Kind of a similar story with Nick, with BPN. You know, um, Ben had left, Jim Shark kind of went in the wrong direction and then he saw the writing on the wall and was like, I'm going head Firstt back in.
And he literally revamped the brand and it's doing exceptionally well again. Yeah. So like those are things that you love to see. Right. And um, you know, we just, I think we're at the point in our, in our business and in, in the career path of like, we just want do cool share with cool people now. Yeah. Um, and we have the luxury of being able to pick who we wanna do that with.
When we first started, we kind of had to do whatever to just get, make ends meet. Yeah. Um, but. I mean, I think that's really it. I try to take no inspiration from other sports nutrition brands just because I wanna really be true to ourselves. Um, and it's worked really well for us. Do you, what do you think that a lot of the other brands are, um, doing, right?
But what do you think a lot of the other brands are doing wrong? Why do you think the, the industry supplements, gyms, the fitness industry, me and Eddie talk about it all the time and why he wanted to do the innovation summit was because we both agreed that the. The fitness industry, the wellness industry, and the nutrition industry Yeah.
Has been very under serviced. People always looked at it like a sides show. I agree. I mean, that's, that's really like what I, I said earlier when I said like, we're kind of breaking the mold of that and like we have pe like we participated in an exit this year in the hardest time. Like we literally sold in the middle of a tariff boom, right?
Mm-hmm. So like that showed how interested these groups were in, in buying us, you know? Um, and I think it's. It's funny because like if, if you ask me what brains are doing wrong in our space, I think they're just doing too much of the same. I think if you look at, like for example, ghost led the way, paved the way when it came to licensing, right?
Like there was, there was no one doing licensing before Ghost. They owned it. That's it. Like anyone who do, who does licenses after that, in my opinion, is like, you're just copying ghosts. Mm-hmm. Right. You know, like if a brand puts, you know, protein in a, in a, uh, carbonated beverage, and then the other brand just copy, like, you need to be unique.
You need to be true to yourself. And if that's. Doing something that you don't know if it's gonna work, do it. Try to figure it out. You know, like get unique, get weird. Like that's how you get different. Yeah. But like doing the same as everyone else. It doesn't do anything for you. And I see that in our industry.
It's like you get to the kind of like that top level and brands are just like, oh, I'm gonna make, I mean, I literally have seen packaging that is like the exact same packaging as us with a different name on it. And at first it's like flattering, but then it gets annoying. Yeah. Yeah. You know? I struggle with that all the time.
I'm like, I don't give a fuck what these people are doing, and I don't know why it's, I'm letting it bother me so much. I know that they're like stealing my shit. Yeah. There's so many times I, I wrestle with that all the time. I'm like, this guy's so fucking below me and I'm letting it bother me. I know. And it's like, but it's because you care about the brand you built.
Yeah. Yeah. You know, and like, you don't want confusion to be like, oh, is that, is that his brand? Is that Kenny's brand? And you're like, fuck. Like, I don't want that. You know? That happened very recently. Yeah. I had. I do these like, uh, kind of pump and runs, like, we'll do like a, a workout and then we'll go for a run.
Yeah. And we were doing Hoboken, New Jersey and these other guys just this year put like pump on the pier and Aries go, is this yours? I go, no. And I'm like, motherfucker, I don't care. Yeah. But at the same time, I'm like. Like you're confusing people and you're only just watering down my shit. Yeah. So it does get annoying.
It's like I do, I own the rights to the word pump. Yeah. But at the same time, it's like you're confusing people. Well, bro, I have a crazier story. So when I started my medical franchise, like in 2017, it was called Revive. Right? It was the same name as my supplements, and I had it trademarked. I owned the trademark, but everyone copied me.
Mm-hmm. So like when, in that, in that space, like the med spa space, there was like. Hundreds of revives. And then when I finally got like the funding by myself to like scale, I changed the name to Relive because I didn't want there to be any confusion because I was so sick of getting Instagram dms of like, yo, is this you and in Miami?
Is this you over here? Is this you over there? I'm like, fuck no, it's not. But when I started my brand, I didn't have the money to fight all those trademark lawsuits. Like, yeah, yeah. I had barely enough money to keep my lights on. I'm not gonna go after all these assholes stealing my name. So, you know, I had to make a really tough decision of like when I.
When we started opening a lot of these locations, like we have 300 licenses sold now. Holy shit. I was like, do I, do I rebrand now or do I let all these people kind of like ride my coattail with the same name? And we made the decision to hire like a really, really good. Like a firm to come in and help us with a full rebrand and relaunch.
I had to pay for, I think at the time I had like 24 locations open and I had to personally pay to rebrand all of them because obviously they like leaned on me to do this. So I had to redo all their outdoor signage, all their indoor signage, all their marketing material. I had to redo everything outta my own pocket.
But it was the right move to make because now like no one owns that word relive besides me, and I police the fuck out of it. Like if I see anything come out and even near it, like we have one in the Upper West Side here. We have one in East Rutherford, um, and we're opening a lot, like literally spas. Yeah, they're like hormone replacement, IV vitamin therapy, stem cell therapy, Botox and fillers, laser services.
And you got into that pretty early on. I literally, that was my first business, so I opened my first one in Stewart when I, when I graduated school. And, uh, I got it up to about 12 locations by myself, and then I sold, uh, 30% ownership to the founder of Orangetheory. Mm-hmm. And then he scaled the shit out of it.
So I'm still the majority owner of it, but now we have like a whole, my mom is actually the CEO of that company now. Holy shit. Yeah, dude. It's, and you're 34? Yeah. What do you do next? I don't know, man. I just, I, I have, I made a promise to my wife and to Enzo that I was gonna be dumb by 40. Really? Yeah, like I, I, I missed like my wife's pregnancy.
Like we were going through our acquisition during my wife's pregnancy and I was like not present at all. I was because the company who bought us is in Germany. Like, I was in Germany a lot. I was like on calls at, from like four in the morning till 10 o'clock at night. And you know, I've, I've worked a lot and I've missed a lot.
I've missed a lot of, you know, birthday parties for my friends. And, you know, like you said earlier, like, did you miss like this party phase of your life? Like, I don't, I just think I missed life. Like, I, I don't, I don't even know if it was partying, you know? So for me it's like I want to be done by the time my son turns five.
Because I truly want to be like the best dad. Like if you ask me what I wanna be when I'm 40 or in five years, I wanna be the best dad in the world. That's all I wanna be. I don't care about anything else. I'll have enough money to do whatever I want. He'll have enough money to do whatever he wants. His grandkids will have money.
Like we're good. Mm-hmm. I just wanna be an awesome dad. That's incredible. Because you know what, as a 42-year-old, I look at you and I'm like, that's so impressive. Because I always feel like I still haven't figured out. Yeah. Like you've almost cracked the code, like the game of life. When it comes to being a male, right.
You, you figured it out. I don't know, man. I, I, who knows? You know, I, I, in my, my version of what I want to do with my life, I feel like I did it. Yeah. But what I'm saying, like, I look at you and I'm like, well, it's impressive. He's obviously a fucking mental savage. Yeah. I look at you and I'm, I'm hoping it all works out the way you, she's gonna, my wife tells me all the time what you're gonna tell me right now.
Like, I'm not gonna stop. You're never gonna stop. Yeah, yeah. No, you, you're not wrong. 'cause you're, you're, you like to hunt. Yeah. But there's other things that I can hunt, right? Like, I can do real estate, I can do things that don't require all of me to do them. Or I can put in a team in place to do those things.
But when it comes time to, like, I want to be able to just be with, be present. Mm-hmm. You know, and I've, I've lacked that or I've missed that for so long. When you sold the brand. Yeah. Uh, and you know, you're saying you're on these calls till 10 o'clock at night. Yeah. What the fuck are you guys talking about, dude?
Oh man. So it's such a funny story. Be such an intricate, yeah. So it was, uh, it was honestly like very frustrating. So. It was actually the morning calls that suck the most because the time difference is six hours the opposite way. So they're six hours ahead. Yeah. So I would start calls at like four 30 in the morning.
Mm-hmm. And, uh, during the process, basically what they did was they hired a consulting group and it was Bain at the beginning. Um, and we went through this consulting and they loved us. So Bain was like, these guys are great, blah, blah, blah. Like, and I'm pretty sure, and they won't admit it, but I think that they were upset that they couldn't find a ton of shit wrong.
Mm-hmm. So then they hired another consulting group, which, um, I. What was the other consulting group's name? I forget the name of the Con Consulting group, but they, we, so we basically had to do the same thing three times. So we did it for the first consulting group, then they hired a second consulting group, and then they like tried to pick things apart, but like, we didn't, we weren't hiding anything.
So it was all of that again. And then they rehired Bain for the closing of the deal because the PE group that owns the group that bought us, um, it just looks really good for their, uh, they have like a. Advisory board. Bain's like the best closing group for that. So they rehired Bain at the end. But it was, it was honestly just like.
Going through the financials, making sure the financials are legitimate. Um, going through like, uh, we had to do like a quality of earnings because like we had to get some money back, um, on our like, uh, adjusted ebitda, things like that. Um, it was just a lot of shit that I hated, man. Like, like I'm a very vision person.
Like I'm a visionary. I like to like, make shit happen. I like to make money. Yeah. I, I like put. Excel sheet in front of me and asked me to explain it, and I'm just like, I just melt. You know? I feel your pain, dude. Yeah. It's like you're more of a big picture guy. Yes. Yeah. How old were you when you made your first million?
Uh, 27 years old. Holy shit. So it wasn't that long ago. No, I was 27. Yeah. Well, I was in school until I was 25. Damn. Yeah. So I literally graduated my doctorate. You figured it out pretty quick. Yeah. I mean, I think I also got into it without an OnlyFans, without an only fan or a feet finder. Yeah, no, for sure.
Yeah. So I, uh, I got outta school. And it was within a year and a half of me leaving school that I did it. So I, I got outta school and I, uh, I opened my first office and at that time it was like when Facebook marketing, like had just gotten like popular. Yep. And I was also in an industry full of like old doctors, so like.
Like the shreds of like the, the medical scene was kind of me at that time. Like I was the first HRT like clinic to get on Facebook marketing and really like start promoting using Facebook ads. And then the other thing that I did that was really unique was back then the HRT world. Like they used to be called rejuvenation clinics.
Right? Like that was like their name. Yeah. And you would have to buy like I. 10, like not 10 months, but like six months supply at a time. So it was very unaffordable for the average person to start hormone replacement therapy because it wasn't, you know, $300. It was three or $4,000. Mm-hmm. And like, to be honest, the people who need it the most are like blue collar workers.
The guys who are busting their ass every day, construction guys, police firefighters, those are the guys who need it the most. So what I ended up doing was, I like was the first in the, in the US to. Form this like recurring monthly payment system for hormone replacement therapy. So I went to a compounding pharmacy and I basically was like, look, these people can't afford all this shit the way you're doing it.
So can we work out a deal where like you ship like a monthly kit to their house and it's like smaller stuff, like a smaller violet testosterone, you know, just the amount of needles they need, you know, a smaller part like vial of HCG. And then what I'll do is I'll like collect the money and then I'll pay you.
After I collect it and then you ship to their house. No shit. Yeah. So that's how I started. So smart. Yeah, it was super smart and it was like this whole group of people that never were attracted before because they couldn't, they just couldn't afford it. So I started advertising, you know, hormone replacement therapy for 1 99 a month and you know, it exploded, man, like.
It just, and then people started to copy me, but I had such a good backend system because there were so many little processes in place to make sure that like the medicine got there on time, the payments went through the relationship with the pharmacy, they were shipping it the right way, and it just like ended up working really well.
That's incredible. Yeah. So, if you don't mind me asking her, I'm, I'm sure it's public, right? Yeah. What, you guys sold the company. It's not public. It's not, yeah. So I'm, I'm, I'm not gonna say, um, and that's just for like, the safety of my family. Yeah. Yeah. But so, but you, but you're very happy about it lot.
Yeah. Yeah. A lot of money. Um, and we still own, we only sold 55%. Wow. Yeah, so we're still really heavily into it, and the structure of the deal is actually really unique. So it wasn't like a traditional exit. We, we did cash out the, the, the cash from the 55 per, or 55%, but the company that bought us, the name of the company is called the Quality Group.
Mm-hmm. And the quality group owns, uh, two brains in Germany. One of them is called ESN, the other one is called More Nutrition. Yeah. So ESN and more nutrition. ESN has been around forever. Yeah. And they, so CVC is the private equity group that owns the quality group. Mm-hmm. CVC bought the quality group two and a half years ago when they bought the quality group.
They were doing about the same amount of money that we're doing right now, revenue-wise on a, on an annual basis. Mm-hmm. And in the last two and a half years, they went from doing about 200 million a year. Um, to over a billion dollars a year. Holy shit. So like, they, they know what to do to get to that next piece.
And like, I was in the position of understanding that I didn't know that. Right. Like, I knew that I could get to 200 and I did it, but like anything over that, it was like, I was like trying to figure out how to put the pieces together. Right. And I knew that if I wanted to do this, and like, this brand means the world to me.
It's like, I want this to be a legacy brand. Mm-hmm. So like, I want the right partner, you know, and there were other. Partnerships that offered us way more money, like in the deal, like we could have made a lot more money with other people. So you went with these, but we went with the strategic partner to grow and we kept a lot of money in.
And the cool thing. That they allowed us to do, which were really sweetened it for us, is when we reinvested our 45%. Mm-hmm. They let us take a, a pretty big chunk of that and own the quality group. So now, like Chris and I and Matt own a big chunk of the parent company and then we still own raw Holy shit.
Yeah. So like the way that we've done it, they have some good attorneys. Yeah. Yeah. We had a really good bank. We used Lard for the deal. Okay. Um, their offices right here, they're one of the best investment banker in, in the, in the world. Um, like. I'd always find it so hard to like, kind of trust some of these guys.
Yeah. I knew them through a friend who did a deal with them. Okay. So it was very easy. And then, uh, Tracy, um, Farr, he's like the, the main guy at the lizard in, in Manhattan. Um, he's like a huge fan of the brand. So like, I actually, it was so funny because. We used their, uh, office, I think it was in Minneapolis.
Their Minneapolis office. Mm-hmm. And I was at a Gym Shark event. The one they did at the pier here. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, yeah. So I was there and then Tracy came to the event and the owner, Ben and Ben of Gym Shark introduced me to Tracy and he was like, Hey, you know, blah, blah, blah. Oh, I know. Tracy fucking jacked up.
Tracy the tone house. That's Tracy. Yes. Yeah. No shit. Yes. I, Tracy Tracy's awesome. Tracy brought Ben to my gym. Yeah. I have a, a small private gym. Yeah, yeah, yeah. City. And Tracy's like, yo, I'm gonna stop by with a buddy of mine. Yeah. And they walked in and I'm like, oh, this is so fucking cool. Yeah. Tracy's amazing.
Yeah. And we did a couple like small events with them for sure. Yeah. Yeah. So anyways, so I started talking to Tracy and he's like, yo, who's doing your deal? And I'm like, Lazar. And he's like, are you fucking kidding me? And I was like, no. He's like, I didn't even know. So then he got really involved in the deal and he really helped.
This helped us bring it home. That's awesome. He's a great dude. So towards the end, the negotiation, like there were points where I was like, fuck this, I'm out. Like I'm not doing this. Like, 'cause it was just frustrating at the end. Mm-hmm. And he really came in and like went to bat for us and like he, he got on all the calls with us.
He didn't need to do any of that. No shit. Yeah. And he just like really like just an incredible human being. Tracy's one of the greatest people I've ever met. What dude? You have an incredible story. I think what's next for you is you need to write a fucking book. It's very impressive. I, uh, a meatheads guide to how to be a million.
Yeah. Right. Yeah. I think I just, uh, I got, you know, part of this has to be something higher than me, right? Yeah. Like, I, I, I, I do believe in God, and it's been something that I've actually found recently, but there's no way that I, I, there was no one up there helping me get to this point. No. Like I said, you know.
From the beginning, I think you've done a great job with collaborations, the brands that you work with, the people that you work with, uh, the culture that you've created. To me as an outsider looking in, I admire it. I think it's so cool. I think there's just a, just a really cool energy around the brand and what you guys have done.
Um, you know, Chris's side, I think you've done an incredible job. Like even just looking at your page and watching, I'm like. This fucking guy's got a great head on his shoulder. I appreciate that. Somebody who's done some really cool shit. So I appreciate you coming on the show. Of course. I'm so glad you said yes.
Yeah, no worries man. So I appreciate it, man. Uh, guys, if you don't know about raw nutrition, which I'm sure most of you do, if you're a fan of mine, uh, 'cause we sell it in my gym. Um, definitely check out raw nutrition. Yeah. And, uh, Dom's been doing some really cool stuff. I'm sure whatever he puts his hands on, it's gonna be just as successful as always.
Like, subscribe, share with the friend and thank you for always, uh, tuning in and getting strong. That was.