Building a Champion: How Chris Bumstead Mastered Bodybuilding and Business

From my perspective, maybe one of, if not the greatest bodybuilder of all time. I know there's some big names out there like Arnold, but I know there's lots of comparisons in there with you and Arnold. I don't know, man. It's super impressive to watch what you've been able to accomplish. Now it takes an elite performer to compete at this level. What is it that you do to get yourself prepared to compete at this highest level with the most maybe intense athletic people in the world at the greatest stage? What is it that you have to do to perform at that level?

FOREIGN.

Welcome to the Wealthy Entrepreneur Podcast. I'm your host, Bob Goverow. It is a pleasure to have you here with me today. Now, this is something I haven't done. You know, we're a year and a half into releasing an episode every single week on the Wealthy Entrepreneur Podcast, but timing is of the essence and I feel very strongly that I want to replay an episode that we previously recorded. It was over a year ago, but I feel like the timing of this release and the individual that we interviewed part of it. One, we just want to give a huge cheer for this individual in an upcoming event that they're part of. But also, you know, the learnings, the teachings, I feel are really strong way to end 2024 on a positive note. And I'm going to talk a little bit more next week about, you know, how we end the year strong, what are some things that we need to focus on. But for today, I want to bring back an episode that we recorded just over a year ago with Chris Bumstead. Chris bumstead is the five times Mr. Olympia at the time of this release. It's going to be just post Mr. Olympia 2024 and I'm confident after watching Chris train that 2025 will will be a six victory for him. I feel very confident, but I want to just give a little bit of a preview before we replay this episode for you.

1.

You know, Chris is a world champion, arguably one of the greatest bodybuilders of all time. He clearly continues to harness his reputation as a leader in this space. But not only is he just a leader in the bodybuilder space, he's a high performer and he's an entrepreneur. I want you to hear his story. And Mr. Olympia is happening as this pre intro is being recorded and we just want to cheer him on to the extreme. But circling back to what you're about to hear, you know, one of the elements that is going to be a takeaway for you and I want you to hear from him. But it's the mindset of being the best in the world at something. And Chris delves into this and the conversation that he actually had with his wife about becoming the best in the world or maintaining his best in the world status. So without giving it away, I want to share this episode once again, first and foremost to give our friend Chris Bumstead a huge cheer on and wish him nothing but the best and hopefully a six time Mr. Olympia championship as we release this. But also to share some insights on how to finish the year strong, how to be world class, how to be the number one in the world and how to maintain that status. So this episode is going to be a replay. I hope you enjoy nothing but fantastic lessons from one of the greatest champions that the world has ever seen. So hopefully you'll enjoy and we'll, we'll see you on the inside of this replay.

All right, Chris, I am so thrilled, thrilled to have you here and it's been an absolute pleasure to know you for maybe the last year or so and to watch all the incredible things that you've been up to. So you're now a five time Mr. Olympia since last time we chatted competing at as one of the highest level physical athletes in the world, an avid entrepreneur, which I love and I want you to share more about that. And truthfully, one of the nicest guys I've honestly had the pleasure to meet. When, when people think of huge, strong physical athletes, you know, they, there's at a certain level of aggression that you assume comes with this and you just might be one of the nicest guys I've ever met. So anyway, kudos to you for that. But I would love to hear the story of how you got started into the world of bodybuilding.

Yeah, for sure. First off, I appreciate you kind of having me on this podcast. Excited to kind of dive into this a little deeper, but I mean I'm a pretty simple story of how I got into bodybuilding. When I was really young, I played a lot of sports. My parents let me just play everything and try everything and I ended up sticking to mainly basketball and football, falling more into basketball more than, more than anything. And I was a center and eventually everyone was 6 foot 9, 6 foot 7 that I was going up against and I could still jump higher than everyone because I could jump really high, but I didn't really have the skill to be in any other position. And I just knew that my strengths as well was helping me in sports more than Anything. So I spent all my time in the gym and I just loved the, the feeling of working out, the progress that you could make in it, the direction control you had over the effort you put into the result that came out of it. I just enjoyed all that a lot. So in high school, I think in like grade 13, when I was 13 years old, I started really getting a gym membership and training. Before that I was even doing push ups and stuff and pull ups in my basement, just trying to do anything. So I've always had a love for training and fitness and then through the sports it really got me into weight training and I just fell in love with the whole process of all that. And it's something that I knew I was good at. Obviously I had great genetics. So as I was training and I was progressing, it felt good to be, to be improving at something and to be getting some attention. When you're a teenager you'll be like, oh, you're jacked. You have a lot of muscle and you're like, fuck yeah, this feels good. You know, I should do more of this. Well, that's just a young ego thing that can start anything, you know. And ego is a great thing when you're young. You hopefully expand on it when you're older, but whatever it gets you into when you're young, just run with it. And then when I was 18, I believe, or 17, my sister started dating a local bodybuilder, Ian Melier, who's now my brother in law. And he was kind of a prep at the time. He was probably the biggest guy in the city too. And I had new of him because I trained and had a lot of respect for just how jacked he was and what he had accomplished at a young age. And he, when they started dating, he saw me in the gym and I remember she always has a story where he came over, he was at her house, he's like, I gotta go home, I gotta eat. She's like, I have food in my fridge. She's like, you don't have the food I eat. She's like, I'm pretty sure I do. My brother lifts. She's like, your brother's in like grade 11, he doesn't have my food. And she's like, he's chicken, rice and broccoli. And he's like, what the fuck? Really? He eats like that? And she's like, yeah, there's a ton of it in there. And then he had it. And then from then he just kind of like respected how young I was. What I was doing. And when I graduated high school, he's like, you could be really good at bodybuilding. If you want to try, I'll coach you. Like, no pressure, but it would be fun. And obviously I'd gotten a little into bodybuilding outside of sports training at that point, and I was like, it, I might as well try it. I was taking a year off high school to make some money and pay for university and stuff. And I was like, I might as well just spend all my time training and working. So I did exactly that, did my first bodybuilding show. I ended up winning juniors and men's bodybuilding overall at the age of like 19. And that was another one of the things when you were young and you're like, damn, I'm pretty good at this. When you're good at something, you obviously like it more, so you start to do more of it. And I just dove more and more into it over time. And then in 2017, 2017, I had made it to the Olympia for the first time. And then I was like, okay, like, if I can do good at the Olympia, this could be like a career for me. This could be more than just a hobby. And the first time ever, 22 years old, I came second, 21 years old, I came second place at the Olympia. And I, it, this is like, I gotta go all in on this. I called my mom, I'm like, I'm dropping outta university. I, I'm sorry, I'm going all in on this. And she was like, all right, if you're going to do it, go balls to the wall. You know, they supported me. They were a little, questioned it a little bit more than that, but they still supported me. And, you know, I just ran with it. And over time, what was just ego and being good at something kind of transformed into me understanding how the intense training and the suffering and the discipline leads to you being better person and better characteristics in all aspects of life, not just in bodybuilding. You're really made me into a better man. It really helped me understand, like, who I was as a man, not just a bodybuilder. It built beautiful relationships in my life, brought a lot of great opportunities, and it's just brought a lot of things into my life that made me super grateful and I've just been enjoying it. You know, the old school saying of just being 1% better every day. What I love about bodybuilding, all you got to do is be a little bit better than the day before, work a little bit harder, a little bit stronger and keep moving. Forward. So kind of the beginning of my journey. And then the ref was, the ref was just off to the races.

I'll do. That is so good. Love that. Now, you know, thinking of it as being a high performer, do you feel like when you were getting those results? Because I know this is how we work with, you know, a thousand plus entrepreneurs and I can tell you from a high performance standpoint as well, whenever we start to get a little bit of success gets a little bit addictive. Right now when you started to see that as a younger guy, were you like, oh my God, I'm a little bit addicted to this. Like I need to work out all the time because it just feels good. I look good, I'm getting it. Tension. Is that how that kind of felt?

I mean, probably looking back, it was a bit of an addiction. It's hard. How you define addiction is up, up in the air a little bit. You know, it was benefiting my life. It was making things better.

A good addiction. A good addiction.

A good addiction, exactly. But yeah, definitely something. It felt weird not to have it in my life.

Yeah, 100%. I have another question for you which I'm going to come right back to. But I got to tell you, I've got a 15 year old son who probably started hitting the gym a lot this past summer too and, and probably put on 15 to 20 pounds and he got a little bit addicted to it because you know, again, same thing, a little bit of attention from everybody going, geez, look at how hard you must be working to get this. It's, it's pretty cool, you know, and I know there's been different transformations for me too where, where I've started being more disciplined and physical fitness, it does, there is an element of it where you get hooked on it. When you start to see results from that discipline, it's super cool. My other follow up question was, you know, as the athlete, and I know you, you grew up in Ottawa, if I, if I understand correctly. Were you playing hockey as well?

I played hockey till I was like 9 or 10 maybe, but I got hooked on. But my first sport I was skating when I was like three, but I stopped when I was a little bit older.

The good Canadian way. Right. That's what us parents do. We put our kids into hockey immediately because it's just our national pastime.

Learn how to walk and then a year later you learn how to skate.

That's right, yeah. And I always love watching kids when they go out on ice for the first time, they always half of them don't want to be there and the other half are just flying around like they've been doing it for years. So good. Okay, amazing. Thank you for sharing a little bit of that story. I think it's very, very powerful. But let's talk about your success as being one of, if not, you know, I'm going to throw this out there from my perspective, maybe one of, if not the greatest bodybuilder of all time. I know there's some big names out there like Arnold, but I know there's lots of comparisons in there with you and Arnold. I don't know, man. It's super impressive to watch what you've been able to accomplish. Now it takes an elite performer to compete at this level. What is it that you do to get yourself prepared to compete at this highest level with the most maybe intense athletic people in the world at the greatest stage? What is it that you have to do to perform at that level?

I mean, there's probably a lot of minute things I barely even notice I do anymore because I've been doing it for 10 years now. But a good example I have this year of just what it takes to be at a high, at that high of a level is I. We're going to get into this a bit. I have some businesses now. I'm doing a lot more travel. I moved down here. I have a lot more responsibilities going on in my life. I've been in a office from like 9 to 5 and then I go to the gym after. And then I was doing a lot of international travel for business and all this stuff going on. And then Olympia Prep started and I just wasn't really like, my body wasn't feeling the same as it had in the past. I was just like, am I getting old? Is it not all there? Like, what's going on? I'd go to bed at night, my mind would be racing. I'd be thinking of all this stuff I got to do the next day. All these problems going on this trip. I have to go on all this stuff going on and I'd wake up at 4am and my mind would be racing again and I couldn't sleep. And recovery is even bigger than people understand when it comes to bodybuilding. So I'm not sleeping, I'm not focused, I'm working too much and, and I was just spread a little bit too thin and I was still like, I wasn't working like 90 hour work weeks. I have partners and I'm able to pull away when I need, but I was still on too many things on my mind. And it was honestly my fiance at one point who told me that, like, there's this book she had read or read a Cliff Notes version of it called the One Thing. And when you want to perform at a top level, you really have to put everything into one thing, and it can't be spread across multiple things. If you want to be the 1% in anything, it's gotta be all in on that. And it's going to sacrifice all other aspects of your life. It's going to sacrifice your relationship, you're going to sacrifice your businesses. Everything else except for that one thing will be sacrificed. And you have to make sure either you follow up on it afterwards, you're willing to lose it, or you make up for it in other ways. So I was like, fuck, you know, you're absolutely right. Like, I can't do this anymore. And before that happened, really, I started to, like, I wasn't sleeping great. My body wasn't responding. I actually came to Canada in the summer, and I lost, like, 14 pounds, I think, in two days. And I don't know what the fuck was happening. It wasn't good either. It wasn't like, I'm dieting and I'm doing good. I just looked skinny flat. All my strength was gone. I couldn't train. I had no appetite, and I was just super stressed out. And then one day I go to the gym, I'm training back here in Canada, and I felt defeated. I was like, am I even gonna get through this preps? And I tore my latter, and I was like, at the gym, in so much pain, just, like, crying outside the gym. I was like, fuck. Like, what? What? Like, what's going on this year? What's going on with me? Like, why happen to me? And I think it was just, like, a message. Some, like, sign for me, like, you got to slow the fuck down and choose to go all in on this or check out because you can't hold up all these plates all at once. So, you know, fast forward a few weeks of a lot of stress and worry. I committed. If I'm going to get through this injury and everything, I can't do anything else. You know, I told my partners, I'm like, I'm not even coming in the warehouse anymore. Maybe an hour, a couple times a week if you really need me. But you guys got to take over. Courtney understood what I was going through. She's like, you got to go all in on this. I'm like, I got to go to bed at 9pm now, can't be on my phone. I can't be having calls after 5pm because then I'm going to be too threat. Can't sleep, I got to get to the gym at the same time, eat at the same time. Everything has to be perfect routine for the next three months or I'm not going to make it. And I did exactly that. And slowly my body started coming back together. I was able to work around the injury long enough to recover enough to get through and train through it. And then it all started to come together. But it really showed me that if you want to be. If I'd wanted to win a local show or do okay or maybe come 10th place at the Olympia, sure I could have managed all that. But if I want to win and I want to be the best, I have to push out everything out of my life, focus on one single thing. And it has to be the only thing on my mind because if my mind's race on other things and it's distracting me, I'm not able to get in the gym and be focused and get the workout I need, get the sleep I need, everything's going to fall apart. I'm stressed, I'm missing meals, Everything can just slip away. And you need every single percentage to be your best. So I think that was a huge thing that I learned this year. And in the past I did it naturally because I didn't have anything else in my life. I was just a bodybuilder and I was just all I was doing. But as I was getting older and more responsibilities were coming in, it became a lot harder and I had to actively create those boundaries of what I needed to do for myself and apply it for myself to win.

Ah, dude, that is so good. That is a message. I know we're going to chop this up and have some spin outs. And I think that advice, oh my God, that hits home for so many everybody, right? Like if you want to do something exceptional, you have to commit to it. You have to be disciplined. And I like the one thing that's on my, that's on my wish list, on my audible. But I need to make sure that I get it right. I need to make sure that I listen to that one. So, so good. One side note, you know what the hardest thing I feel about exercises and, and putting extra body muscle on is eating. I cannot eat as much as I need to eat in order to do that. Like that is a commitment on its own that I can't even live up to. As much as I want that, I can't do it. Oh, that is tough, man.

For sure. That's one of those things, too, where when you're traveling, like I was traveling every week for a while, trying to keep up on your meals on airplanes and in hotels and eating six times a day, getting 300 grams of protein, like, it's not easy. It's. It's hard for sure.

Well, so you go on the plane and you get the. The flight attendant that comes up. Do you say, can I get 14 of these little chicken meals that you. That you're serving?

I have a backpack full of Tupperware. When I'm on the plane, I bring my own.

It's so good. Thank you for that. Outside of bodybuilding, you have many entrepreneurial ventures on the go, which I've got to learn a little bit about over the last year, so. Including a very successful YouTube channel, online training, health supplements, and clothing, just to name a few. I don't know, you probably have more. Can you talk a little bit about these, what you offer, and how you got started in these with being, you know, the world's greatest bodybuilder all at the same time?

Yeah. So it started off when I was with my first supplement company, and I was working with my athlete manager at the time, who's one of my business partners now. We were working together, and we just kind of wanted to get him out of the business as an athlete manager and doing something else. And he came on and started helping me make merch. So we were just making T shirts, printing on T shirts. And it started off with one simple T shirt where I had, in my. My house packaging myself, printed stuff off Microsoft Word and stuck a label on top of it and shipped out like 150 orders or something. And we saw that it could be a very lucrative business, started expanding on that, and we build this, like, brand around C Bum Fitness. And then from that came the opportunity to build the online app. And that was a lot more efficient than online coaching, because coaching, you can really only handle one person at a time for both, but for a much lower price point. On an app, you can have, like, thousands of people paying $10 a month, and you just put a program on and they all follow it. It's not as. As detailed, but it's a lot more affordable for the masses. And you can get a lot more. You can scale it a lot easier. And then those were all good things on the side, just like, added revenue. But I was constantly working with clothing companies and supplement companies. Selling their. Working to sell their supplements and everything. And I just kind of got to the point where I was like, I feel like I'm giving these businesses a lot of money and I'm not making that much for myself. I was good money, but not as much as I knew I could. And I wanted to have my own thing. And then I worked with loan company that let me have my own line and I put my name on it and it was their best selling product. And I was like, all right, if the best selling product had my name on it, the company should have my name on it too. So I was like, screw this. Like, I feel like I got to find a way to do it on my own. But I also understood that, like, I'm not. I'm not the most proficient businessman and there are times a year I have to check over the Olympia. There's my things I have strengths of and things I don't have. So a lot of people were telling me to do my own thing. I could do it all by myself, but I understood that, you know, like, I can make it a lot bigger and better with good business partners. And so I have a friend, Matt Jansen, who was coaching Ian a while ago, and he was partnered with a now good friend of mine, Dom, in Florida, which is why I moved to Florida. And he brought me down. Kiss it. Come down for the weekend. Let's chat about some business stuff. And we had another business opportunity on the side we were talking about, and he just kind of slipped in. They were like, what if we started a supplement company and you came on as a equal partner and we started that. He's like, I'll run the back end. You can do like, your social media, your marketing, be the face of it, all that stuff, and be involved as you want. And I was like, I mean, fuck, yeah, that sounds good. And then down there, he had a few businesses already and meeting his employees, the way they operate and just being down there, the culture that was already around there, that felt like it was like home already. And I ended up. Instead of staying there for like five days, I sent. I spent six, five or six weeks there just like hanging out, getting everybody doing a lot of stuff, and it just, like, everything just fit. I was like, all right, this feels like it's meant to be. And before that, I was trying to find a place to move because I didn't want to be in Ottawa anymore. And I couldn't find anywhere that felt right. And I went down there and it just was like, all right, this is just like an open door. I feel like I need to take and try this, take this risk and go with it. So we did it, we partnered on that, which is now Raw Supplements. And that's, that's our, definitely our biggest company we have right now, which has been super successful. And like I said, it's him. Dom and Matt are my partners in that and they both have their expertise that they're amazing at that I'm not good at. He understands the back end of a business like nobody else. So he can scale it like crazy. This past year we've gotten that into Walmart, Sam's Club, GNC across the country, vitamins across the country. We're in multiple countries, international, spreading across Canada slowly now. So it's been doing really good and it's been a lot of fun to do and it's a lot more rewarding when you own it and you're building something rather than building someone else's brand where long term there's no play in that. So in that I had to sacrifice a bit of money in the short term, but I believed it was going to be worth it. So I was getting some pretty crazy contracts at a young age, like offering 500 grand plus a year just to promote someone else's stuff, make some posts on Instagram and call it a day. And then I had to kind of say no to all those and go to this company where I'd be making no money for a few years and believe that it would be worth it long term. And it was the best decision I ever made. Obviously now I'm not really making a crazy amount of money more than that. But if we ever sell or we choose to start taking money out, or when we plateau and stop growing so fast, we'll have the opportunity to do a lot more than just a salary, that's for a few years. And then God forbid I get injured or retire or something, someone might drop me and I lose a lot of that opportunity. So that was really what really got me developed into like the whole business mind. And then through being down here and through the success of Raw and being around people like Dom and a lot of other business minded entrepreneurs down in Florida, it really just started learning a lot of knowledge on the capabilities that you can have when you build one brand, how it's a lot easier to build another brand off it, another brand off of it. So now we have multiple brands down there. Our second funnest one now that we're bringing on is Bum Energy, which is the energy drink and it's, it's easy when you already have a lot of funds coming in from one company, you can kind of follow them to the next and then you can use your distribution channels and all your distribute, all your distribution and manufacturing relationships you already have and just kind of pair it onto that and you already have the trust of people which you don't need to build over years. So it's a lot easier to start the second one than the first one when the first one's always built and then it just kind of keeps expanding from there. So it's been a lot of fun, for sure. And I mean, yeah, it's been a, it's been a wild ride. Nothing I expected to be as big as it is, but we're just enjoying it and doing the best we can.

Oh man, that's such a good story. And I think you started that off saying, I'm not the most astute business person. And then you just rhymed off like maybe some of the most successful strategy of partnering up with the right people. Right where you are already doing a lot of the marketing, which I want to talk about that in a second. But you're already doing a lot of this work. So now it's just partnering with people who are building product and manufacturing it and distributing it through their skill sets in the back end. So you guys are like, what a fantastic business vision that that is. And you know, I think one of the challenges that a lot of business owners see, because I get the privilege to work with so many, is that they do feel like they have to do everything in order to be successful. And, and even your mention that people were like, you could do this all on your own, it's like, yeah, but go by yourself, you might go far, but you're not going to go as far when you build an incredible world class team. So awesome for you to recognize that, especially when, you know, you bring this big brand with you, right. And this big recognition that comes with it. Sometimes when that's the case, we just, we don't feel like we need those people to come in and join us, that we can just do it all ourselves. And man, like, what an awesome story. And you know, the other exciting part that I see about that is that not only are you building up, you know, an income now that will hopefully match some of those supplement payments that you were getting, but that when you do retire that, you know, typically those supplement payments would stop and now you're building up this long term revenue generating asset that's got value super smart. I love it. Let me ask you this, because I think when we chatted about this a while ago, you talked about your social media and now you manage all of your social media yourself, right? I know you've got millions of followers, maybe one of the world's largest influencers, and you do that all on your own. How the hell did you figure out how to get that much attention?

I mean, I do the posting myself. I have a videographer who films my YouTube and edits because I'm not proficient enough to do that. But yeah, no one's logged into any of my accounts or doing any of that stuff for me. And I would say it's just a little, a little bit of luck and, you know, good parents and good morals and values. Because my only strategy I ever had on social media was to be myself and to be honest as possible, to share my journey and whatever I was doing. And then on behind those closed doors, I just wanted to be super disciplined, work hard as fucking, be the best in the world or something. And obviously if you want that, achieve that, people want to follow along that journey and it's exciting to watch. And then on top of that, if while you're presenting that journey, people can sense you're not full of shit, you're not trying to be someone you're not. You don't have a huge ego. You're humble enough to like continuously learn and be better and share your ups and downs. Not just a perfect, like the, the perfect reel of your life where it cuts all smiles and nice cars and mansions and all this stuff. There's tough times in anyone. You know, you have a beautiful life, but if you're doing anything at a high level, there's going to be times that suck and you feel like shit and you want to quit. You're being hard on yourself. Anyone at a successful level, successful level is definitely just really good at suffering because they probably had some times in their life and it's not necessarily a positive thing to be happy about, but it can make you successful. So I've done a, my best job at sharing a lot of those ups and downs. And I think people have just related to that, you know. And the reason I have my wife now and soon to be like baby mama, the. She's over here too, because I put up a video in 2018 of me like I, I went to the Olympia, I got sick one year and then I didn't do as good as I wanted. I thought I was going to, Wasn't even going to make It I thought I was going to have to retire. All these things were up in the air. And I put out this video sharing all my fears and doubts and worries that I had. And I cried in the video and all these things. I scared to put it out there. At first I was like, it, it's real, it's how I'm feeling right now. And I'm sure I'm not the only one going through like this. I put it out there and when she saw that, she's like, wow, this guy is like, I've never seen a bodybuilder put something like this out there. Like it doesn't like match or the mismatch there. And I think a lot of people felt like that too and they just really appreciated the authenticity of it. And whether that's luck or not, like I said, I always say my parents raised me right just to be nothing more than myself. So I think it's just paid off. And definitely in a world right now where our politics are so full of shit, news and TV and everything else is just such bullshit online, people just want to look at something they don't think is fake and they appreciate it. So there's definitely a movement of people leaning towards that more, following more people like that on social media, which worked out in my favor and is definitely a positive thing for the impact on our community in general. But the only thing I could say that I was consistent. I worked hard, I had a goal that I accomplished, I shared my journey and through it all I stayed true to myself.

Dude, I love. I can't wait to watch some of the cutouts of this man. This is beautiful in so many ways because I think, you know, we're talking about maybe some specifics about bodybuilding and, and entrepreneurship and you know, being an online influencer, but these are friggin life lessons that, that can apply to every element of it, of life. And one of the, you know, you talked about the struggles of entrepreneurs and I talk about it a lot because I feel like the social media influence of people is that they do only share their success and that everyone who comes in and feels like they're inferior because they aren't achieving those same, you know, 100% success rates that everybody is sharing online. And I talk about, you know, the greatest attribute I feel of being an entrepreneur is resilience or being a high performance, being able to get the shit kicked out of you emotionally have tough days and to be able to get up, dust yourself off and say, I got to figure this out. And I'm going to figure this out, and everything's going to be okay. We're going to get through this. It is a beautiful thing when people share some of those really challenging times because it makes everybody feel real and to know that we're not alone in this. And I do feel like the entrepreneurial space can be sometimes very lonely. So thanks for sharing that. I do have a beef with your social media, though. Are you ready for this? So my beef with. My beef with your social media is that one, I was following you leading up to Olympia, which was an amazing journey to watch. I watched the torn muscle, I watched some of that happen, and then. I don't know, man. Or do you feel like you were in the best shape of your life in this Olympia or not?

Yeah, they're all different. I had more muscle this year. I think I would been leaner in the past. So on a scale, you know, I'm hard on myself, but I'm definitely up there top two times.

Totally. For sure. Okay, so here's my beef. I watch a couple of your videos, watching your progress leading up to Olympia, and every time I open my phone, all it is is bodybuilders through my Instagram feed at all times. So you've converted my algorithm on my phone to be that if my wife opens up my phone, I feel like she's got some questions and I don't even know how to answer them.

Everybody says the same thing. They're like, I. I meet someone new. They follow me like a picture, and they're like, man, my Instagram's ruined. Now it's all bodybuilders.

Totally. Yeah, all bodybuilders. And I'm like, I don't know. I don't know who any of these other guys are, but obviously watching your journey, dude, I. I appreciate the documentation of it. I appreciate the story of it. And I think, you know, one of the things I appreciate the most about it, other than sharing, you know, some of the tough times, the torn muscle, is sharing your commitment to being the best. Because I think a lot of people don't understand. You know, I think of people who aren't entrepreneurs or aren't high performers or athletes, they don't see what goes behind that dedication and that commitment. Like, you're at the gym, popping all the time, eating all the time, like you're doing all the things you need to do to be the premier bodybuilder in the world. And I think people need to see that it's not just by chance. You didn't take, you know, one particular supplement, and all of a sudden, look at. It's Chris Bumstead. You know, it's superhero, right? It's. There's a lot that goes into that, and it's a huge commitment. And dude, like, super proud of everything that you've accomplished. Which leads me to this. Leads me to this. So you've done this five time, Mr. Olympia. You've got all these entrepreneurial ventures going on, which are still growing. Obviously, there's. There's time, there's commitment that goes to that. What's next for you, Chris?

Great question. And I'm glad that in the last three years I've answered this question the exact same way, so people can't call bullshit on me. But every year I'm like, I take it one year at a time. I compete to win this Olympia, and that's all I'm focusing on. And after that, I take a break, and then I decide if I want to win the next one. And I've said that for the last three years. And the first time I said it, everyone, like, he's retired, he's done, and I came back and one or three more, two more times. So I'm just taking time off right now. I haven't really worked out, even in, like, five weeks. I was in the gym yesterday for, like, the first time. So I'm just chilling, enjoying my time right now. I have a baby on the way, and I'm very excited about that. So I'm just kind of enjoying the season of life where I'm at. And then if there's another one in the cards, there's another one in the cards. But I can say I definitely feel very good. I'm healthier than I've been. Like, you know, over years, I've been getting healthier and healthier, which doesn't always happen for bodybuilders, but I put a lot of focus on that. So I'm just kind of doing what I can right now, recovering my body and enjoying this. This aftermath of the. The most recent win. So I'll leave that at that. But in terms of business stuff, we're just, we're. We're put a lot of focus on that, especially this year. I have a lot of travel and be crazy busy. And we're just, we're scaling to a new level this year for sure. We're getting into some bigger FDM stores nationwide, which are like a whole bigger volume, that a lot more goes into that. And it's not just people who follow me now. It's growing big, much larger than myself. So understanding that bringing on a new marketing team which is going to help us expand all that and all the different aspects that are going in there are something we're putting a lot of focus on. You know, we've started up like four or five businesses in the last three years and the goal is to just cut those off now, focus on what we have and not spread ourselves too thin. And that's a lot of what's going on. But what I'm most looking forward to, most excited about is my baby that's coming in April and we finally announced that it's going to be a baby girl. So going to be a girl dad. And I'm super excited about that. I've always been very vocal that one of the things I'm looking forward to the most in my life is being a father. So when that comes, I'm just going to lean in and be the best dad I can be.

Totally. And for me, you know, I've got two beautiful kids too, 15 and 13. My 13 year old is a girl, Sophia. Man, there's something about being a girl dad. I gotta tell you that you're, you've never felt more protective over another human as you will for your daughter. And it's something like, I can't wait to watch the journey for you to go through that it's something special. So excited for you guys. And I did see the announcement of it being a girl. It's super exciting, man. So happy for you. So question here. So I want to get maybe just one question into sort of health and wellness and high performance of a physical state because I think we talked about the emotional state, which I think is probably more important. But man, when your physical state is in the right position, it can support your mental. Someone who really understands the physical body and the science behind what makes you physically perform at the highest level. What are one or two cheat codes that you could share with, you know, other individuals, entrepreneurs, to feel stronger and maybe have more energy and feel free to plug your own supplements in here too if you know, like the energy drink, I am definitely going to have to try that out. But you know, if there's anything that people can, can do on a regular basis, obviously physical exercise is, is a must. But what can we do to just feel and put ourselves in a position to perform at our highest level?

Yeah, I mean there's definitely countless things. I barely even know where to start. I genuinely won't even plug a company because I truly believe the Natural way of doing everything is always first and then you can add more supplements as you go. So I would say the biggest thing is just consistency. You know, the amount of people I know who will kind of like on a kick to eat clean and then a weekend comes where they have a stressful day and they're like, well, it's Saturday, I'm going to eat like, or this, that. And like, you don't know. That can affect you for five days after you know you have a 2,000 calorie pizza, you're adding, you're adding on 300 calories for the entire week of your daily intake. And you wonder why you can't lose weight because you only ate bad one day. Maybe your metabolism, great, it can affect you a lot. So consistency helps a lot. And inconsistency. The more applications you can do just to like, not overthink it and be healthy. Like all these diet fads that are going out right now, the biggest change I ever made to my diet, to add it to my energy, my recovery, my bodybuilding, everything was just eating whole foods. No carnivore, no keto, no this, no that. It was just like eating whole foods. Single ingredient foods is the easiest cheat code that anyone can do. And you'll immediately become healthier. The less processed, the less better you are. And, and I can't even explain how, like, I can't even eat like refined sugar and processed food anymore without feeling like shit the next day. And I'm like, damn. Like, you can really see how much it affects you when you cut it out of you. So I think that is something that can really help brain clarity, sleep recovery, performance, everything. Which obviously helps any aspect, whether you're a sport or an entrepreneur. Something I always love to talk about that's so big is sleep. Not just being in bed for eight hours, but like getting proper, like eight to nine hours of REM sleep, of focus sleep, of like creating a routine around your night, not being on your phone before bed, not being on your phone when you wake up, being in a comfortable, like, state when you're in sleep and everything. As a bodybuilder, if you're not getting eight plus hours of sleep at night, like good stuff. Yes. It's barely enough, you know, I sleep nine, ten hours a night in prep and I need that to function and it helps. That's one of the new things they're, they're studying that helps reduce the risk of Alzheimer's and dementia and everything because it's so important for your brain and Everything like that. So it's hard to give a broad stroke answer, but I would just say consistency and routine, you know, waking up and do the same thing every single day. I know when I'm in prep and I'm everything. Every meal six times a day at the same time. Every workout's at the same time, cardio, same time, sleep, same time, wake up same time. When it's all in routine like that, everything flows better in my life. And you don't ever miss it because you're just, you know, you're tired today, you don't want to work out. Well, it's one o' clock when you're working every day, so you just do it anyways and you just kind of get into that routine and it helps a lot. So I think that consistent routine, healthy whole foods, a lot of good sleep were some of the best things I think you can add. And they're super simple and they're free for everyone to do.

Exactly. You know what? Now I feel like shit about myself in so many ways about my lack of consistency. But you're bang on, right? And you, you talked about this earlier, the 1% per day, which I think comes from the book Atomic Habits and Which makes sense, right? Getting consistent habits and routines that are simple, but they just become a habit versus something. Force is just the way you do things. And the idea of being able to increase 1% per day, you know, the drastic growth for you as an individual and your performance level is like exponentially multiplied. It's. It's pretty cool. So we'll add that to the, the book list too, with the, with the other one. That's awesome, man. And you know, for me, I know I consistently try and have that good balance, but yeah, I know for me, I need to get into more consistency for sure. Just wait. I want to see when Your daughter is 15 or 13 and she's in all the things because you know she's going to be competitive. Because I believe your better half was also a bodybuilder, correct? Am I right there?

Yeah, she was Miss Olympia in 2016.

Exactly. Which is incredible. So the genetics that your daughter is going to be given, she needs to come out and say thank you immediately when that happens. But she's going to be super competitive and she's going to be an elite athlete. And I want you to tell me when she's 13 years old that you're balancing all of your nutrition, your sleep, your exercise and everything, because their schedules are so unpredictable. So I'm going to circle Back to this a decade from now, Chris, and see how you're doing, because maybe that'll make me feel better about me right now.

Hold me accountable too. Hopefully I'm still on my ship. Life can get.

Oh, you'll do. You'll just have this massive empire of, you know, clothing and your online Fitness brand, your YouTube channel, you know, it'll be. You won't even have to worry about bodybuilding ever again at that point. Although I'm sure you'll always have the. The perfect physique for a high performer. I don't think you'll ever want to see that go away with your supplements, online training, clothing, merchandise. Where can people best find you? Like, I know again I mentioned Instagram. You've got a very significant influence and following there. I know you've got a massive YouTube channel as well. Where would people get access to all of your products, merchandise, anything that you do?

I mean, it's all listed easily on my Instagram. You can search up my name and find that. The supplement company, Raw Nutrition, you can Google that or Google Bum Energy. We're in stores like Vitamin Shop, gnc, there, Rosin, some more stores like that. But Google it, Amazon, it's on the Internet. You know, it's. People are proficient at finding stuff right now, so I'm sure they'll find it.

Totally. And then, you know, the last piece that I just want to ask, and I. I know you've given so many incredible thoughts, concepts already, but if you had to pick one piece of advice that you would offer entrepreneurs specifically to achieve success at the highest level like you've had, what would that one piece of advice be?

I would say relationships, you know, the treating everybody like your mother would be proud that you treat them with, you know, and understanding. Like we spoke about earlier, you can't do it all by yourself. How much more efficient you can be with other people who can do things not only as good as you, but potentially better than you, so that you can spend more time on what you're best at. And to have those kind of people, you have to have trust. So you have to build those relationships over time. You have to put trust and respect into those relationships so that they put that trust and respect back into you. And I think a lot of what's come into my life has came into how I treat people. I mean, even the fact that when Matt and Dom came in and were talking about starting this company with me, the reason they did was because Matt was coaching Ian and he had known me over the years. And he really respected the kind of person I was for my success. I never changed who I was. I always treat everybody very well. It's just a really nice, likable guy. And he was like, I want to work with an asshole. I don't want to be partner with an asshole. This is one of the best kids I've ever met and I at this level, so I think we should do it with him. And I never did that on purpose. I wasn't like, I'm going to be nice so I get a job in the future. No, it just was being who I was and being someone my mom would be proud of. And it all kind of ended up paying off in the end. And now here we are. You know, all three of us have different strengths, building an empire. And we trust and respect each other to no end. And it's not only are we doing great in business, but we're like all best friends now. We get to do some cool ass shit together and we're just enjoying life. So. Probably one of the best things.

Yeah, 100%. Isn't it just nice to be able to live the authentic you, though? You know, like, I feel a lot of people put on this Persona of trying to be somebody they're not, but, man, when you're just genuine and. And who you are and you get to live that way, it's. It's got to be freeing, right?

Yeah. I mean, I can't imagine living any other way. Honestly, it's. It would be stressful.

Yeah. And, you know, I'll just chalk it up to you being a good Canadian boy. Really. Chris at heart, right. Is being so friendly. Listen, Chris, first off, I want to thank you for joining me. I know you've had a lot of travel and you've got a lot of different things going on, including hanging out with some pretty important people, like the Navy SEALS this past week, which sounded amazing. Thank you for joining me and thanks for sharing your insights because, you know, as someone who performs at such a high level, you have so much clarity and have gone through so many elements, highs, lows, that you have such great experience and your ability to articulate that in such a wonderful way is amazing. So for sure, my friend. Thank you so much. I'm going to make sure that. Not that you need any of my help from a marketing standpoint, but we're going to tag everything, your products, Your website, your YouTube channel in here so that if anybody's looking for you, obviously you can look up CBOM anywhere. Guys, he's going to show up at the top of your feed without question. But man, everybody should be following you and checking you out and watching your journey because it's something super impressive to watch. So thanks, my friend, for being here. Appreciate you so much and look forward to chatting again soon.

Of course, Yeah, I appreciate it. Thanks a lot, Bob. And careful, be on the podcast and sure, we'll talk soon. So how's it going?