#055: How Crossnet's Chris Meade Turned a $7k Gamble into the World’s First Four-Way Volleyball Game

Even when shit's bad for 18 months, you're like, all right, this is still better than cold calling people for 10 hours a day. I'm living my dream. I wake up when I want, do what I want. Nobody's giving like me direction. But what I think sucks right now is everybody's just trying to monetize it, right? You ask somebody, why do you want a personal brand? It's, I want to get rich to have a personal brand. It's not to make their company better. 99% of the time it's not to make their company better. It's just out of ego and wanting to fill their like paycheck, like their bank account with a fat sponsorship check. No, I don't think it's too late at all, but I think it's, you gotta zoom out like the Gary Vee guy says, right? It's like, take things in perspective. It's not gonna be an overnight success, but I'm very happy I started doing it 7 years ago and not today. The majority of people that live in the United States live in these random small towns where they just need the courage, they'll work up the courage to quit their job and like go for it. 'Cause in 18 months they're gonna be a really the best version of themself.

Chris Mead, founder of CrossNet, shares his journey from humble beginnings to creating the world's first 4-way volleyball net. Starting with just $7,000 from his 401(k), Chris hustled on Miami beaches, gradually scaling his business despite having no prior manufacturing experience. He reflects on the challenges of entrepreneurship, emphasizing financial discipline and the importance of finding happiness in the simple things. In this episode, Chris also discusses the impact of losing his father at a young age, which motivated him to succeed. He introduces the Founders Club, a community designed to help entrepreneurs avoid the mistakes he made, highlighting the value of health, wellness, and personal fulfillment in building a successful life. Welcome back to Season 2, Episode 18 of the Turning Pro Podcast. Today we have Chris Mead, who's the founder of CrossNet, joining us. Thanks for joining today, Chris.

Nice voice, appreciate it.

So the first thing that I'm gonna say about Chris I got put in a group chat with Chris a couple years ago and he big-dicked me.

Didn't show up.

No, no, ignored me. So my— the only boss that I had, my former boss at GoPuff, Phil Mikhailov. Shout out Phil. Phil's like one of my mentors. Uh, Phil's like, I gotta introduce you to this guy who used to work for me at Uber. And he puts us in a group chat. Chris just like wanted nothing to do with it. I think this was in the early days. I think this was in the early days of It was, I think, a SmartTheme at the time. I was just like trying to talk to anyone who had a brand because I was just like partially trying to sell, but also because I wanted to meet people in the industry. He's like, you should talk to Chris. Like, he's a hustler. He's one of the best people who've ever worked for me. I think you guys would really get along. He introduced us. Big dicks. I'm like, fuck this guy. And now we're homies like a couple of years later. So I feel comfortable being able to say that.

I think I responded back.

I think I followed up. I think I followed up again.

We took a selfie and we sent it to Phil.

No, that was like a long time back. So you eventually met up, he's trying to crawl his way out of this, but then like inevitably our, our like worlds collided in 74 different ways where he's like, we're gonna be friends, there's just no two ways around it. But it's really fun to be able to sit here now and talk about that moment.

That's funny.

Anyways, I had to get that off my chest. I'm glad you could join us today.

I appreciate it, thanks for having me on.

Uh, maybe just start by giving us a quick background on what you're working on.

Yeah, uh, invented the world's first 4-way volleyball net. 7 years ago, worked for that guy Phil, was kind of a mentor of my own. And dude, he was cr— perspective on Phil, right? Like, I was 24 at the time. I think Phil was probably 26. And I was always like, why the fuck is this kid who's not even older than me, like, being my boss? And from there, I was like, I just want to be my own boss. Like, I'm just sick of this. And Phil was a great guy, but I'm like, dude, I need to be my own boss. I need to quit this. I hate taking orders from other people. And so I had this idea for the game. Life was kind of in like a midlife, in your middle 20s, and you're like, I don't know where my life is going. I just know that I can't cold call 10 hours a day. And drew some sketches up for this made-up game and made-up sport, pulled out our 401k, moved to Miami, Florida with like 7 of our best friends and never left.

What was that first year like?

Oh, I just like— so that sinks in, dude. They literally— it was what, $7,000, I think? Yeah, had about $7,000 in his 401k, took that and put it in the business.

I only had 2. My other boys had like 4.

Jesus Christ.

And then we all just split it.

The way you're framing it is just like such a casual decision because it's so easy for him to sit here now having had some success.

But yeah, you know, we took a couple thousand dollars out of our— dude, that's fucking crazy.

I remember we had a— my brother had it, but like, we grew up pretty, like, pretty poor. But my brother, like, above his bed had like a negative $1.17 like printout from TD Bank when we had $0 in our bank account. That was always like motivation. But yeah, we moved to Miami, had the game, we had a few prototypes from China. So before Flash Float, like looking back, we had no, no manufacturing experience, right? We just knew how to sell DHgate jerseys from the NHL. So we got new— how to talk to like Chinese suppliers and yeah, the NHL shop, dude. So this is actually a cool hack, but whenever the playoffs happen, you list all the players, all their jerseys on eBay. And you can make like $50,000 in a night and just fulfill the orders from DHgate. So I don't recommend doing that anymore, but a former Chris used to do that. And yeah, I found my supplier through DHgate and through Alibaba, moved to Miami and had a couple of nets in my house and we just sell them on the beach every day. That was 2017, 2018.

2017, 2018. So was that—

that was pre—

that was pre-COVID.

Pre-COVID, thank God.

You were an early Miami resident.

Early Miami. The city's changed a lot. Yeah.

And, uh, do you like it more now or previous?

I like it more now financially. I like it back then, uh, but now like there's so many cool people that are moving down. Like, it's just becoming a hub. Like, back then I used to have to like beg my friends to come, and now people just want to come to Miami all the time.

People always used to come and would only hang out in the beach or Brickell. It would be hard to pull them. I think, I think the hard Miami pitch is that like it's actually a really cool city. There's a lot of cool parts of it. You can go out to Allapattah, you can go out to not just like the classic go to Wynwood. You go down all the way to the Keys.

There's—

it's just like a beautiful area.

It's awesome.

And a lot of people don't want to do the rest of it.

I do miss my— my friends used to rip Spirit flights for like $45, and now it's like $400 to get down there. So I do miss that.

And property prices are insane.

Crazy. But no, Miami's great. Love it. Uh, but yeah, dude, we would just hustle every day. Like, my job— like, you guys are podcasting and grinding. Like, we would go to the beach 8 hours a day every single day. We'd set up the net, we'd holler at people. We'd get them to play, and then by the end of the day, if we were lucky and it was a good day, we'd sell it to somebody for $100. We then take the $100, we'd like pay for McDonald's that night, and then we reinvest the rest of the money to go rebuy at least one more net. And we bought 100, we sold them, we bought back 200, and then we bought back 500. I remember when we bought 500, like, our world was like breaking. It was like the scariest thing of our life.

I want to talk about that early motivation that you mentioned, like that negative 1 point something that was on your brother's or something.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Early motivation. I feel like a lot of like experienced entrepreneurs, when they're honest about early motivation, they were just like, I didn't have a choice. Like my back was up against the wall pretty bad. Like you just quit your job. You're like, I got to figure it out. Right? Same with you. You just flew down there. You got to figure it out. And so maybe early days you don't need much motivation. It's just like you got to do something. But maintaining that through 7, 8, 10, 12 years, like entrepreneurs that have been in the game for a long time, I have so much respect for. So like today before the pod, you were talking about like you're launching new ventures, you're launching this Pilates studio. Tell me more about where that kind of consistent drive comes from.

Yeah. I mean, granted we've been doing it for 7 years, but it was also, I'm 31 now. So it was 24. Yeah. I don't do math on the spot. Yeah. 24 years of like pretty tough living and like upbringing. And I think when you have that perspective of like, you don't need a lot of money to really be happy. Right. Like I've spent $20 on matcha today. But besides that, we're going to play padel, which is super expensive here in the city. But realistically, my day is under $100. I'm having a sick day, and my day is not any better or worse than most people's. So like, when you put into perspective that you don't really need a lot of money to actually be happy, when you have the ups and downs of entrepreneurship, even when shit's bad for 18 months, you're like, all right, this is still better than cold calling people for 10 hours a day. I'm living my dream. I wake up when I want, do what I want. Nobody's giving like me direction. So it's easy to be kind of remember back to those days like we were food stamp kids, like literally EBT, like bouncing checks type of like kids at the grocery store. So it's very nice to be where we are today. Even if life ended now, it'd be pretty good.

So you always talk about how you like admire my ability to just like be my unapologetic self and like not waver. The way that you feel that way about me, I feel that way about him. I've never met someone who just like does not give a fuck what other people think. And then like, if it's— if it's an inch outside of his principles, if it's an inch outside of his principles, he's like, fuck you. Like, I don't care. And he won't waver for anyone. And it's like so admirable because I think with a lot of the success that he's had, you naturally start to get like, you know, seats at tables that you could have never imagined you'd be around. And you get— you get to be around people that you could have never fathomed in your wildest dreams. But I feel like the more successful I've seen Chris become, it's like the more unapologetically himself he becomes.

That's, that's a good point, dude. I think, I think it's just really important to understand like what makes you happy, right? Like we were talking about opening up a Pilates studio with my wife. Like that's the most— like I could be doing a million different ventures and I have a lot of stuff going on, but at the end of the day, as long as my wife's happy and I'm happy and I get to be on the couch watching Netflix with my girl and my like, you know, my dog, like I got money in the bank. I'm happy. I can pay my bills like What, what more do I need from life?

Where do you find that drive now? I mean, I think like it's easy in the early days having not come from much to then being self-sustaining, but now you're like, you're past the self-sustaining point. You're now into the like, you know, let's get fucky rich kind of like stage. What is it like that makes you want to keep driving, dude?

I think it's, it's really fun right now building the network that we have. Like, I mean, me and you, like, we're all in the same like network. Like, the people that we get daily communication with is just wild if we look back like 10 years ago, the people that are in our network, the people that are in my phone, it's like, holy fuck, this dude's texting me. Like, that's crazy. So I'm having a lot of fun now building businesses with people that I admire and that I'm just fortunate to be in the room with, right? Like growing up on the farm in Connecticut, it's kind of a crapshoot, right? Like I built the business with like one of our best friends and my brother, which is amazing. And I'm super grateful for what CrossFit's brought. Maybe Now being able to do all that networking, all that leveling up to kind of pick the cream of the crop kind of partners to take the next step, uh, is really sick and gives me a lot of motivation.

I wanna— I mean, we can also cut this out. I don't know what's kosher to talk about and what's not, but I want to unpack like some of the other things that you're working on because I think it's really fucking cool. I think first thing, something you've done is built a bit of an audience. Uh, I know like your, your Twitter and your newsletter are like a source of income at this point. And you have a lot of people who really look at what you do or the tools you use or how you think about it. So I want to understand kind of how that started, what the motivation was for that, and like where it's at today. And then I think the second thing we could talk about after that is obviously the Founders Club, which is a whole nother behemoth in and of itself.

Exactly. Yeah, I would say it's interesting because a lot of people right now are trying to build this personal brand. It's a race to who can build the biggest personal brand. But what I think sucks right now is everybody's just trying to monetize it, right? You ask somebody, why do you want a personal brand? It's, I want to get rich to have a personal brand. It's not to make their company better. 99% of the time it's not to make their company better. It's just out of ego and wanting to fill their paycheck, like their bank account with a fat sponsorship check, which you see a lot of people do it very shittily. I started doing it 7, 8 years ago. Out of necessity. I didn't know Facebook ads. I didn't know how to make Crossnet popular. The only thing I knew how to do was use LinkedIn. And I would use LinkedIn every day at my sales jobs back before Crossnet because it was the only social media that I could pretend to my boss that I was actually working. But I was on LinkedIn, right? I was looking at stories, I was having fun. It felt like I was on my phone. But if I had my phone out, my boss would come over and like slap the shit out of me. Because I'm not allowed to have a phone out at work. So I was like, all right, cool, LinkedIn's where I'm going to build. So every day I'd come home, I'd post stories from the beach, I'd post stories about Crossnet. Oh, we made 2 sales today. Here's the trick to unlocking that. And it wasn't like I wasn't trying to be a guru. I was just trying to share the Crossnet story. And every day things just got a little bit better. And I felt the snowball kind of like how you guys are feeling right now, right? Like momentum is building every day. It's energizing. Things are really fun. I just shared that on LinkedIn and I was never expecting anybody to write me a sponsorship check for me to promote some SaaS, right? It was just, I'm telling my story and I'm connecting with every single retail buyer and every single retail marketer at all the stores we'd ever get in. And one day Dick's and Walmart came inbound with a purchase order, literally through a LinkedIn DM being like, yo, I got it. I got an order for $450 grand for you through it. Pretty much through a LinkedIn DM.

For CrossNet.

For CrossNet.

Wow, I never knew that.

Yeah, this is like the case study on why to invest in LinkedIn.

Right, exactly.

Well, I guess I have an interesting question for you though. As someone who's been in this for so long, what are your thoughts on like starting today versus like— like, do you think it's too late or you think that's just like a stupid misconception?

I think it's too late. I think it's— you shouldn't be starting with the, the idea of how do I monetize this quickly, how do I join all these engagement groups with the spammy-ass comments that everybody knows is going on. And how do I just be like authentic to myself? I think you just have to like, you can't overthink it, right? Like building out a content strategy is cool, but at least for me, like the unapologetic Chris is like, shoot straight, shoot from the hip. Don't overthink it. Your best stuff is probably gonna be what you thought was gonna be the worst and the worst stuff's gonna be the best. So, uh, no, I don't think it's too late at all, but I think it's, you gotta zoom out like the Gary Vee guy says, right? It's like take things in perspective. It's not gonna be an overnight success, but I'm very happy I started doing it 7 years ago and not today.

Yeah, I mean, I think the best advice I got on content is either show up every day and be useful or show up every day and be yourself and drive that authenticity. How do you think about kind of balancing those two?

It's easy to be myself because I don't allow anybody else to like outsource my shit right now. I have a newsletter that I write every week. I have a Twitter and LinkedIn that I'm caught— like, I'm constantly still doing all the content myself. I was on a plane ride here today. Typed a newsletter for like 2 hours on that plane. So very easy to just be authentically myself. I know there's a time where I may like hire a team and start doing that, but yeah, um, be useful, post stuff that's authentic to me and helpful to me, and hopefully it helps somebody else.

Is there someone that you're writing to when you're building this content? Like, I remember the early— I think one of the early Tim Ferriss interviews or something, he was like, I wrote The 4-Hour Workweek for myself 4 years ago. And I wrote it with like one of my really good friends of mine.

Absolutely. And yeah, we kind of, me and Aaron, my partner, built this out yesterday of like the content strategies for the Founders Club that we'll get into. But essentially for me, I'm creating content for the Chris in 2017 and 2018 who simply wants to leave their job, get ahead, build their business and make their first million, make their second million. And ultimately I'm writing for the person so they could quit their job and look their kids in their face one day and say, at least their parents tried. At least Dad tried. Like, I could not imagine how shitty of a feeling it would be to, like, look at my future kid and be like, yo, your dad's still working a 9 to 5 doing cold calls. He hates his life. He lives for the weekend. He barely gets to go to your soccer games. And I had a cool idea that I never fucking tried. Like, that would be the shittiest thing in the world. So I'm writing for those people. And if I empower one person to quit their job or make the next step, then the content for the day worked. Like every few weeks I'll get an email being like, yo, quit my job. Like we're going all in. Sick. Like that, that makes me feel really good.

What would you say to the person who maybe hears that and resonates with that, but like they don't have any money in their bank account and they're scared of like, how am I going to pay my rent? How am I going to eat my next meal?

Absolutely, dude. I think it really comes down to being you, you have the, the numbers don't lie. There's so many idiots out there that just live with so far without, like beyond their means. I have a really good friend who's probably not watching this podcast. Kevin, if you're watching this podcast, you cannot afford the new $50,000 car. I love you, but you can't afford it. But you just have to be real, right? Like I don't have a $50,000 car. I have a $23,000 Tesla. I could have a $50,000, but I don't because I don't like, I don't need to impress anybody else. I don't need a $50,000 car.

Like, I'm gonna clip that, it's gonna go viral. He's like, he's like, I doubt he's listening. I was like, yeah, but he's gonna be listening to the Instagram reel that goes viral. I'm definitely clipping that.

That's fine. I love him to death. He's my best friend and he needs— people need hard advice.

Okay, but did you say this to his face yet?

Fuck yes, 100 times. He knows it.

And what did he— what does he say when you say it?

He says it builds my credit. Look at her face. Yeah, so that's what people think, right? He did not say that to you.

Deadass, dude. It builds my credit.

It's credit. If I make the payments, they'll build my credit. Got another idea? Buy a $7,000 car.

What about the idea of like it actually hurts your credit when you can't make the payment?

Check back in a year, bro. Wow. Yeah, dude, it's a lot of money. In all fairness, that's how people live though.

So I think it's hard— maybe it's hard for me to relate to that because like that gives me so much anxiety to put myself in that situation. Like I think I maybe live above my means on a micro level in certain areas, or like maybe I like spend more money on like personal trainers than my accountant would maybe tell you that I should. Money on personal trainers, like, no, I know, I know, but like if you think about it objectively, it's like you maybe aren't saving as much as you could be because you're like— but like the thought of that gives me anxiety.

That's not the audience I'm writing to. I'm talking to the people who are like lucky to have— like they're so hyped that they get— it's pizza night, right? Like we're ordering pizza tonight, we have enough money. That's where I grew up, right? Like, we're fortunate enough that we got pizza coming on Friday night. Like, that's best. And we have some money left in our bank account. So I write to those people. What I would tell them is like, one, humble yourself, build a personal P&L. Like, how much money are you actually spending? I even did this with my mom like a year ago. Like, what are you spending your money on? Why do you not have as much money that you think you should be having? And like, where are the holes here? And figure that out. And if it means working more, great. Which probably means just cutting back, paying down the stuff that you have really high debt and interest on and attacking that first and just humbling, like live like shit for 12 months to have a better future.

I've heard Aaron say something which I can't imagine you haven't talked about, but when he was hiring someone and I think his biggest pet peeve is when he hires someone and he'll ask them like, how much do you want to make? And they'll give him a range.

Yeah.

So I go like $120,000 to $140,000. Like, all right, How much do you need to live and how much do you actually want to make? Because those are two vastly different numbers.

Absolutely.

And I think that plays into this idea that you're saying of like, if you want to go all in on something, it takes sacrifice. We can each sit here and go around in a circle many times over and like the things we had to sacrifice to be able to get to where we are, as if we've even made it. Like, I haven't even made it to where I want to go, but I'm like, I think I'm making progress day by day. But undeniably, there's sacrifice that goes with that. So I think there's a lot of people who also will like hear your message and resonate with it, and the idea— the idea of it is really attractive, but they don't actually want to like do the things they need to do to make it happen.

I think as we get older, it gets harder and harder to restart your life because your friends are so much more far— like, I'm very lucky that I did it at 23. Like, I don't think I'd have— I don't think I'd be able to do it at 31. Like, my life would just be so much different. I had so much debt and responsibilities and like be so fixed in my ways, I don't think I'd have the energy, especially if I want to have a kid in a couple years. Like, not to say it's not possible, but I'm very happy that I did it when I did it.

I'm sure though, if we're listening to this when we're 60, you'll be like, that is so silly.

But no, I agree, I agree with you. But I also think that that's probably partially why I feel this like level of angst and urgency, because undeniably it's the easiest time to do it.

It's not—

it's not hard. Sorry, sorry, it's not that it's easier to do it when you're like, call it 35 with a kid.

100%.

It's that it's just harder to do and you have more responsibility and the stakes are higher. Yeah, I'd rather be an idiot that's making mistakes at 28 with no mortgage and no kid than like playing with fire at 35 years old and I have a wife and a kid and I don't know what the future holds. So I do think there is validity to like, there's no better time than when you're young and naive.

Yeah, dude, 100%. Absolutely.

You mentioned spending money on personal trainers. We were talking about spending money on paddle. I guess question to both of you, maybe if you want to start, what are a handful of purchases as you've, you know, not made a ton of money but started to make a little bit more money? What are a handful of purchases that have been overwhelmingly worth it?

I mean, this apartment, but it's not even— I mean, it's my rent, but like living in a nice apartment, I think far and away the number one, like nothing even close to it. I think that's because I spend more time here than anywhere else in my life. So I want to enjoy my space. Uh, other than that, I, I don't really like— I don't splurge on many things outside of like fitness-related, food-related, and occasional travel-related. I'm not like going shopping every week. Like, I just bought a new pair of shoes for like $100.

Those look great.

Yeah, because if you look at the ones I've been wearing, like the heel of them is literally gone. I'm like, I'm actually going to start having back problems, so I need to get a new pair of shoes. Yeah, but I'm not like— I'm not real— I'm not an impulse like shopper by any means.

That's good.

But I overspend on like wellness. Like if you go look at the supplements category, like the shelf in the kitchen. Like, dude, I don't know if you needed all these. I'm like, I don't care. Like, I don't— yeah, it's very— it's— I spend a lot of money on the very few things that I care deeply about.

So personal trainer, cold plunge, just, just fitness, fitness, wellness, food, and travel.

Yeah.

What about you?

Same stuff there, but I have a personal trainer I work out with twice a week, which I love. Um, have a personal masseuse that comes to my house once a week.

No shit, he's amazing.

Massage per week? This is such a good investment.

It's amazing. Oh my God, a former Miami Heat trainer. No way. Uh, comes to the house, me and my wife, an hour each session, set up in the living room. It's awesome.

How much does that cost you?

$100? I think it's $110 per session.

That's not bad at all.

You're not gonna come home to come to your house? I buy a, I buy a 10-pack for $1,200, $1,100.

What?

And yeah, he comes every week. It's amazing. Comes right to my house and we'll just, uh, 6 to 8 PM normally.

We were in Argentina 2 months ago and massages are like $30 USD an hour. We did massages every day.

Of course, dude.

And I have never felt better in my life.

It's incredible. And I've had, I've had a lot of injuries throughout the years. Like, he's nursed me back to health. So after the marathon, like, dude, fixed my whole body. It was great. But that just started getting a cleaner for the house. Game changer.

Worth it.

And then I upped her this week. I had her fold the laundry for the first time ever. I had never had somebody fold my laundry and put it away. I felt really bad at asking her to put it away, but she crushed it. So she's coming back. Um, that was a good investment.

I have never had that.

She's coming back.

She spent like a 6-hour day doing laundry. It was great. Um, personal trainer, fitness, that's about it, boys. Any— oh, matcha. I spent a lot of money on matcha. Love matcha.

Any like great experiences?

You know, there's a Matcha Fool right next door.

I just threw out the cup. Oh, okay.

$8 matcha bowl?

12.

Oh, purple drink?

Vanilla Zen.

Jesus Christ. Yeah, tell me more about experiences, like whether it's bringing your friends out, family out, parents.

Experiences, uh, love my mom. Oh, so I think it's also a good perspective, right? Like my dad dropped dead when I was 17, 2 days before Christmas. It kind of just like made me really live for the moment and realize that money isn't like everything, right? Like once you have enough money to make yourself happy go spend the money on shit that makes you happy. So for me, it's concerts. When I'm done with all this shit, I want to build concert venues. I want to build like the next Bonnaroo, whatever it is. So just flew my mom out to the Sphere in Vegas. We saw the Grateful Dead, which was sick, and Maroon 5 the next night. Um, just got back from Bonnaroo myself. So big, big music guy. I spend a lot of time listening to music. Don't know the first thing about the, the finances behind running a music festival, but I think it'd be a fun new challenge.

But I could put you in touch with the 10 people you'd need to answer that question.

So concerts with friends is one of the best experiences.

Yeah, going on Thursday, we plan all the Founders Club events around concerts actually.

No way.

Every single one has a concert behind it.

I didn't know that.

That's fun.

That just you and a couple people go to?

Yeah, me or myself, by myself, it doesn't matter.

But you've gone to a concert solo?

Oh dude, all the time. I go to the movie solo.

Dude, he does not miss a concert. His Instagram is so funny.

Are you in the crowd or VIP?

Oh fuck, I'm on the rail, bro. Front. I'm pushing through all like the emo chicks. But, uh, yeah, yeah, we're on rail for sure. Yeah, I love, I love traveling. Got married in Italy, uh, 2 years ago, which is dope. So love, love Europe, love Italy. Want to go to Australia soon. But yeah, I think travel is important. It's cool. And I have a lifetime homie with my wife to go wherever, so that's cool.

I feel like the cheapest, like, if you think of all the things you can spend money on and the ROI, going to a movie theater for like $15 is, and you just get 2 hours of almost like borderline meditation. There's no phone, no one's talking to you, you get to enjoy this thing, and you can kind of just relax.

Unless you see A Quiet Place 3. That thing sucked. I want my money back. Really? I just—

I can't watch horror movies.

It's trash, bro.

Is it scary?

No, it's trash. Refund. Oh, it's PG-13. It was a terrible, terrible movie.

Should walk out, ask for refund, charge back.

It's terrible. But, um, no, I think movie— oh, I'm a big— I actually went to film school, so So I wanted to be a— I spent— yeah, that was also a fucking dumb situation. Spent $200 grand on a film degree.

$200 grand?

I wanted to become a film—

at least make sure you print it and put it on the fridge or something.

I have the degree over my toilet.

Great. Um, it's right where it should be.

Yeah, exactly. Quinnipiac University, baby. Yeah, $200 grand on a film degree. So I wanted to escape my farm town, become a famous Hollywood director. That was like the original motivation to get out.

I wanna I actually didn't know this about you, so I want to talk a little bit more about this, about losing your dad when you were 17. Yeah, I actually— I don't think I ever knew that. I want to get a better understanding of like, what was the self-talk like during that experience?

Tough, bro. Tough. It was, uh, 2 days before Christmas. He was like a chronic alcoholic, and, uh, the last words I ever said to him was, go fuck yourself. And 5 minutes later he died. And that haunted me for several years. And, uh, yeah, it was really challenging, really tough to lose him. Like, we were not in a good financial situation either. Like, I immediately became like the father of the house, like taking care of the bills and the mortgage. I was 17, I was working 60 hours a week in college at like a school cafeteria, extending the money back home to my mom to like pay the rent and keep the shit on. But it was tough. It kind of just made me realize like every day is not for granted. Like call the, call the people you love in your life. Never go to bed mad. Like you can never call your mom enough. You can never call your brother enough. And shit happens. So yeah.

How did that affect the relationship you had with your brother and your mom?

Oh, dude, the squad got so tight because we had no other family. I had— I grew up. I didn't have grandparents. I didn't have uncles, I didn't have aunts, I didn't have cousins. It was just 4 of us on an island. So the island got chopped by a quarter. So we just got a lot tighter. And then we all— a few years after college, we all moved to Miami together. So we all lived together. I brought my mom down from Connecticut and she came for the journey.

Does she live with you?

She used to live with us. She used to live on an air mattress right by the door when you walked in. And it was all the boys on like the couch and the air mattress in Miami. And then, uh, yeah, we, we, we got her her own spot eventually.

Is she nearby?

No, she lives in, uh, St. Pete now, but she lived there for a while. Yeah.

Hell yeah. So were you in— did you ever do therapy or anything after? Talk through it?

Yeah, I think we did a little therapy. Little, little therapy, little therapy. A lot of, uh, listening to like sad, depressing records on repeat.

But, uh, Beach House will do it to you.

Uh, Bon Iver. And, uh, yeah, City in Color. But Yeah, I think it was just every day got a little bit better and you just kept thinking to yourself like, tomorrow will be a better day. And it never becomes perfect. And there's a lot of times where you'll randomly break down and you're like, damn, I got cheated, right? Like, he wasn't at my wedding. He didn't see the success of the company. Just got a new house. Like, he won't be there. My brother's getting married in a few weeks. He won't be there. It's just like you constantly feel cheated, which sucks. But the only thing you can do is just try to make him proud and keep it moving because That's it.

I mean, what, what keeps you up at night or stresses you out at this point? Because I feel like you've gone through— you've gone from hell, yeah, hell and back. And it's like, now I feel like there's very few things that can actually like faze.

Yeah, I would think, uh, the thing that stresses me out is, am I using my— the capital that I'm lucky to have created, am I putting it to work in the most efficient way? And I'm constantly thinking about that. If you go in my Google searches, it's, I got 100 grand, how do I turn it to 200 grand, but also not lose it at the same time? Instagram's really shitty where it makes you feel like you're not doing enough all the time. You see friends get ahead or somebody has a sick company. Maybe CrossFit's not catching the momentum that it used to have. That stuff hurts and it keeps you up at night, but at the same time, I think it's dialing it back to just be happy with what you have. Tonight's gonna be sick. We're gonna go play paddle. I'm paying $60, which sucks, but it's gonna be fun. I'm with the boys. Like, yeah, I'd say, I'd say that. Trying to like keep up with the Joneses even though it's really not important.

I feel like you do a really good job of staying present and appreciating the little things at every step of the way, even though it— we're like constantly, like to your point on Instagram, chasing the big thing that's unattainable in a lot of ways. Like, are there moments where you have to check in with yourself and be like, snap it back in? Like, stop being so distracted by like chasing.

Yeah, it wouldn't sound like—

because like, I don't, I don't know very many people who would sit here in your shoes and be like, I'm just excited I get to go play paddle tonight.

Like, yeah, I think it's, I think it's where I grew up, right? Like, my, my fondest memories were like just going out and playing with the homies. Like, I lived in a broke farm town. Like, there's no Shopify, there's no venture capital, everybody's still working their day job. I have a group text with all my boys from school, like from literally middle school, and every day they're like, oh, 30 more days, 30 more years, I gotta work at this job till I retire. Like, that fucking sucks. I'm so happy to be out of that. Like, that makes me feel very blessed and feel very humbled. And I lived that life for so long that it's hard to get away from just realizing, like, life is so much better now.

Like, so we talk about this a lot, uh, as you kind of evolve in your own journey, how that affects relationships you've had in your life from, like, your childhood friends.

Yeah.

Can you speak about that a little bit? Like, how has it affected you?

Yeah. Um, so still have a lot of my childhood friends, which is great. Um, it's definitely conversation at times between some of them is a little bit hard in moments because we're just on different wavelengths. Um, but it's, it is nice. And I'm sure you guys probably feel the same way. It's really nice to have friends that you could just talk about sports, music, life. And not talk about e-commerce conversion rate.

So important.

Like my favorite, I have a monthly boys dinner with my guys down in Miami. We go out, we all have very good, successful lives. We don't talk about business at all. Like that's the one rule is like we just talk about everything but business and like it's just so nice to have talk about normal shit like how are the Jets and how are the Knicks doing, right? So yeah, still have the homies for sure. I've had mistakes hiring some of the homies and tried to bring them on the team and it turned into entourage for a little bit, but Yeah, it's been, it's been good to have some people to just keep you grounded.

Have you tried to pull, not pull, have you tried to convince any of those older friends to start companies, take the kind of entrepreneurial path?

Dude, I think, I think it's kind of that, that story we were talking about back a little bit ago about they're so far in their lives now, right? They have two kids. They got married when they were 22 years old in Connecticut. Like they, they miss the rent one time. They're screwed. They can't really do that. And they're living paycheck to paycheck. Which is— it's fine. It's just, it's the way of the world. Like, I got very lucky in a sense that I took a shot on myself and worked my ass off. But I always felt growing up that like, there's no fucking way I'm staying in this town. Like, there's always going to be more for me.

What was that initial chip on your shoulder from?

I think it was very frustrating. My mom's not gonna watch it, so it's all good. But, um, we, uh, my dad— my dad lost his job.

I'm just gonna make a compilation reel of every time Chris is like, this person's not gonna watch it, neither is this person.

Dude, my dad lost his job when I was 16, and he started working at the gas station, like the Cumberland Farms, pumping people's gas for like $8 an hour. And then all my homies would come and be like, yo, I saw your dad today. I'm like, I was so fucking embarrassed. And so that like, that sucked. That really sucked. And that was like when we were living on food stamps and Yeah, from there I was like, fuck that. Like, I'm way too good for that. Like, I'm changing that life for me. So from there I was like, we're changing this, we're changing this big time.

It's so crazy.

So, uh, I'd say that, I'd say that for sure.

I wish we had some financial literacy in the house when I signed those college loans, but yeah, I mean, that's a huge problem, huge problem across the whole country. And also by that, you like, you need the literacy to maybe not make those decisions, and then you also get to college and you realize they don't teach you the basics about financial literacy after college. Yeah, I want, I do want to highlight Founders Club because I think what you guys are doing with that is dope.

Yeah, I think it kind of ties into the mantra of like why I'm building and like how I create content too, is like I want to build for the person. We're so lucky like to live in these major cities and we have connections now and we have LinkedIn friends and all that shit. The majority of people that live in the United States live in these random small towns where they just need the courage to work up the courage to quit their job and like go for it because in 18 months they're going to be really the best version of themselves. So I'm always about creating content and now we're creating a community. So we've created a thing called Founders Club. It's a private exclusive network and community for over 200 members right now, which is amazing. And they're from the person who just started their Shopify store at like $200 grand in revenue up to, there's a couple hundred million dollars and publicly traded companies in the club now, which is crazy.

Wow.

It's for founders and entrepreneurs only. Our one promise to you, will never be agencies, will never be SaaS people selling you shit. It's just founders of consumer brands and other walks of life just sharing, networking, mingling. We have an event tonight actually for about 60 founders. Uh, it's going to be epic. And now we're doing retreats and masterminds. We're renting out a private hotel in Tulum for 50 people for a 4-day workshop. And it's honestly just leveling up because along the way with Crossnet, there's been so many mistakes I've made where I just didn't have a person to pick up because I felt like I was on an island. I've made millions of dollars in mistakes over stupid shit that could have been solved. So now it's building not only like a friend network, but also resources that feels like College 101, you know?

Are you guys expanding beyond just brand founders now?

Yeah, we are. So we're dipping our toes right now into real estate, legal, music, a lot of different things. I love to like get back into software, but we just need to create some type of safe space where people aren't selling each other. So we're trying to figure that out. But right now it's, it's still very much focused on consumer, but kind of going back to like what keeps me up at night. I love learning about different industries. I love learning about real estate. I love learning about everything that I don't know. So if we get those type of people in the club, I think everybody would benefit from it.

What does the Founders Club look like in 10 years?

I'd like it to become the most elite entrepreneur group in the country, regardless if it has real estate or any of that. Like we actually have like physical locations to meet. We're now creating hubs in a ton of major cities. So like in Miami and New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, there's about to be hundreds of founders that are networking and doing stuff on a daily basis. So we bring, build like the, the world's strongest peer group, bring in mentors, bring in high-level speakers. And on top of it, it's about getting your health and wellness dialed in cuz It's cool if you make a couple million bucks, but if you can't touch your toes and you die of a heart attack, like, your life sucks.

So why is that such an important part of it?

Because I think it's really important to be well-rounded. And the people that myself and Aaron want to be around are people that think of life holistically, right? It's not— it's cool you got a Rolex in your hand, but that doesn't mean shit if you're unhappy and you cheat on your wife and you're just a shitty person. Like, we want the best of the best and people that are filling all buckets. And that's what we're creating at Founders Club.

Oh yeah. Are there any specific health-focused activities aside from like retreats and stuff that you guys do?

Health-focused activities? Uh, this Saturday we're doing a 12-hour workshop, uh, with Anne, uh, the founder of Solidcore at her house. No way. Yeah. So she's like a legend. She's become a really good friend of ours, but it'll be 12 hours of mind-body business, cold plunges, wellness, taking you through how she sold the business, the mistakes she made along the way, how you could set yourself up for an exit, how you could even just start your company and the mistakes you're making. But Yeah, everything likes to— we'd like to tie everything back to mind, body, and business and becoming the best version of yourself. Doesn't mean you're going to be walking around with a six-pack or working like, you know, you don't need to be a CrossFit athlete to be a part of the club, but you need to think about the decisions you make to become the best version of yourself every day.

So I think you've touched on this multiple times indirectly, but I want to leave you with one last question, which is the turning pro moment in your life. Looking back, where you feel like things just went on a whole new trajectory.

Randomly woke up one day to an influencer video. We had, we'd seeded a bunch of crossnets out. Most of the time nobody ever, they get the product, they rob you and they never post anything. Woke up one day and my phone's just vibrating like crazy. Go to Facebook. I have 5 million views on this video of this guy playing crossnet, hundreds of thousands of comments. The Shopify's dinging for the first time ever. Check my phone. The retail stores we're in, Shields, it's a small store. They have like 34 locations, but we were only in 2. Guy writes back, yo, everything sold out overnight, I don't know what happened. And that one video kind of just took CrossNet off, off the grid. Yeah.

What was your reaction in the moment?

It's fucking sick, dude. It was amazing.

Did it feel like, oh, things are, things are about to happen?

I don't know, I just thought it was pretty dope seeing a video with 5 million views. My content was terrible before that.

And then he was like, let's do it again.

Yeah, we, so we've used that video for years on years. Uh, we've probably put easily $5 million in ad spend behind that one piece of the one video.

$5 million on that one video?

Yeah, for sure.

Yeah, that's insane.

Great video, dude.

This is fucking epic.

I appreciate it.

I appreciate you coming on. You want to just look at that camera on the left, let everyone know where they could find you, what you're working on?

Chris Mead. You can find me on LinkedIn, you can find me on Instagram, you can find me on Twitter. That's all of them. Um, joinTFC.com is the Founders Club, or crossnightgame.com on Amazon or our website.

Oh yeah, thanks for coming on, man.

Appreciate it.