Fitness Tycoon Cory Gregory Uses Extreme Authenticity To Build A Multi-Million Dollar Brand

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And welcome back to Bacon Wrapped Business. I'm Brad, the host. Although I'm not sure if you expect in somebody else. I mean, my name is on the show so I want to welcome any brand new listeners to the show who stumbled across the title of this podcast. Maybe they're fans and friends of the guest and they're like, okay, I see bacon and I see business in the title of the show and I have no idea what that's about but you've piqued my curiosity and well, I am Brad Costanzo. I am an entrepreneur. I'm a marketing consultant. I have my own businesses and e commerce and coaching that I run. And this is my platform to pull people onto my show and pick their brains about really interesting topics, things that I can personally use in my business, things that I'm just intellectually curious about or when I have clients with problems. I love reaching out to experts, getting them on the phone and chatting with them just about, you know, what they did to grow in business and whether it's start their business or scale it or sometimes even exit it. We cover lots of topics on the show. So if you haven't been listening to this in a while, click the subscribe button or go over to baconrampbusiness.com jump on the newsletter so that you don't miss any of these. My goal for you is to walk away after listening to this episode and each episode thinking, crap, I just stole from Brad. I should have paid money for that because I'm going to use some of the stuff that he talked about and today's gonna be no different. I have brought on Corey GRE Gregory and if you have been in the fitness space, especially for guys, you may have heard of Corey. He is the co founder of sports nutrition powerhouse Muscle Pharm. He is a dietary nutrition industry leader and a top expert in weight training, fitness training and just getting in much better health. And as a way to save for college, Corey actually worked as an underground coal miner. So if you think you've got a bad job, I have a feeling that you can hear him laughing in the background. He knows he did that until he opened a Gym when he was 20 years old and then he quickly earned a reputation as an industry expert in personal training and nutrition. He's generated an enormous social following and he's doing some amazing things helping people get in shape. I invited him on the show today because I wanted to explore this a little bit more and see what he's done that maybe he can share with us for growing our businesses and getting in the right mindset. Corey, welcome to Bacon Wrap business.

Brad, thanks. Thanks for having me on man. I'm ready to add some value to your listeners today. So what's going on?

I love it. So tell me a little bit about like I love, I'm always fascinated by this, especially people who've built strong personal brands. And it sounds like you started like when you were in your, your 20s, you open or at the age of 20 you open a gym. I mean I remember when I was doing it 20 and it definitely, I may have been going to the gym in between classes. But dude, tell me about that.

Well, let me tell you what, so the gym term is relative or you know, to everybody it's a little different. So my gym at that point was literally like a thousand square feet. What happened was I had went to a one year exercise specialist degree at the local community college. I really wasn't cut out for a four year program nor did I want to spend the money on it to be quite honest. I really wanted to learn the trade of personal training. I started interning with a guy that got a little bit too busy and I got a little bit of runoff of his clients. And at that time I already had a pretty sick setup. I was paying like 2, 250amonth like a barbershop and I could train as many clients as I wanted. So I was like kind of already running my own business like right out the gate. But I wasn't paying for the electric and blah blah blah, right. So the company that I was working with in the tennis and fitness club, they came to me and tried to like hardball me and say we're going to take 30% of your money starting next month, blah blah blah. And over about a year's time I had worked up to about 15 clients and honestly I didn't even think about it twice. As soon as they told me that I thought there's no way I'm going to roll over, I don't care. They thought I would because I was only 20. I'm going to scrounge together some money and I'm going to go open My own joint and what that looked like was literally a small storefront that was totally beat to hell that I tried to really polish up. People were giving me equipment for five grand. I started the Dream man at 20 years old. I remember I was painting the walls in July. I turned 21 that September. So on my 21st birthday, I mean I remember like, oh, I got to get up and train like 15 clients the next day. Like I was running my own gym.

I had a different experience on my 21st birthday.

Yeah, I still got hammered too.

Oh man, the beauty of a 21 year old liver.

Yeah, but I got bounces back. I always tell people it was my goal, but I got pushed into it and I almost like because of my own sheer, like, like basically I was like F off man, you're not taking my money. Like I'd rather pay it to a lease than pay it to them. And that's really what it came down to. And dude, I was barely scripping by but I grew it from that point on and that's what started what has been a crazy 17 or 18 year journey as a full time fitness like entrepreneur basically.

That's awesome. So take me through kind of a fast forward version the next several years. I mean how did you move from, you know, small gym owner and whatnot into you know, covers of magazines and sure, a big name. Like how did you start to build your personal brand and tribe and business in, in this industry?

Things I did, I think, well, was similar to a lot of guys that now are teaching. Like I did a decade of just building a business. Like literally 10 years of personal training, 15 hours a day, having multiple trainers work for me. As it got bigger, I opened different locations, bigger locations, multiple loc locations and just built a reputation as a knowledgeable programmer, trainer. And not only did I do that, I think okay, but I always had a date on the calendar for myself personally and I still do. I've done this for a really long time. I literally go from photo shoot to powerlifting meet to bodybuilding show to whatever it is. And I always have something I'm training for and I've done it honestly since then. And it's done nothing but pay. And it's like you're creating content along the way, right? I didn't realize I was creating content, but I was creating my narrative, I was creating articles I could write for bodybuilding.com or whatever I was doing at the time. And so I literally just started being known as the guy, like man, he's competing in power Lifting, he's competing in bodybuilding. Then eventually, like, this is one thing that was kind of cool for me. I was in my little gym and I was like, how can I hang up my name? Every gym in the city so it would create business for me and be allowed to. And so I created a drug free bodybuilding organization that had two shows a year and I hosted it. So I was able to hang the flyer up not for my personal training business, but with my name on it with an organization I created just out of thin air and hosted events twice a year. The whole city started to then know now I wasn't like taking over the biggest show, but I was just making noise.

I love that.

That right there helped me because I really thought like, how do I make my little brand wider without being in World Gym and Gold? But how can I get my stuff up there and they'll let it happen. And honestly, that was one of the smartest things I did on accident. But it worked, it worked really well.

So to really quickly recap that. So you created a competition, was it?

I created a bodybuilding event, right, Yeah, I created.

And what did that really involve? I mean that like you had to find an event, find a place to do it, right?

Yeah, that's what's funny is like people are like, who'd you have to ask to create your own bodybuilding organization? I'm like, well, I looked up Ohio Natural Bodybuilding Federation and got the LLC called a high school and said I want to rent the space. And just created was like, literally, I mean it was, you know, I had like 40 people a show, 50 people show the organization actually still around and they have like 80 and 90 people a show now. Like it's been around for well over a decade, 12 years. It's crazy. And so, but it was, that's how it started out. And what happened was I started to be known for my diets the way I use supplementation because I was always drug free. And that's what got me into like, man. This guy named Bill Phillips who wrote Body for Life.

Oh yeah, I remember Bill.

Yeah. So I know Bill, he was just a monster in the industry. I wanted to be like Bill. Yeah. So I thought the natural progression is how do I get in the supplements?

Yep, yep. And then when did you, when did you start the supplement business?

So I met my partner, his name is also Brad, in like 2000. He must be cool. Yeah, sometimes he is another story. In 2006 I met Brad and he was part owner of another company at the Time they were sponsoring me, he was done with that. And then we, we reconnected in 2008. He sent me the first version of our pre workout which sold millions and millions of bottles of while I was at Musclepharm and I had the doctors and a lot of the fitness side of stuff. He had the manufacturing side and dude, we kind of meshed worlds in April of 2008 and I think we had our first product for sale September of 2008. So I was about, I was right around 30 years old I believe when we started it and it went, I.

Remember I was a customer.

Yeah. I mean a lot of people were.

Yeah.

About, let's put this way, about a half a billion dollars of product was sold in seven years.

Seriously?

Yeah, we did. I think at the Height it was 180 million or something like that. I really don't pay attention to much anymore because I'm kind of on some new things. But it did really good. I'm still a shareholder, I still own some stock in the company and I'm just waiting for when they sell it.

Let me ask you this. Just about operationally on a big supplement business like that, what's the hardest part or what's the most challenging aspect of a, of a high volume supplement like that? I mean is it cash flow management? Is it, you know, maintaining a good profit margin? I mean, is it supply chain management? What would you say were some of the biggest challenges you had to face?

Oh yeah, that's so easy. And it's all those things. Brad and I really believe what we were really good at. A couple things and I'll tell you. And then we were really bad at some other stuff. And I don't mind saying that because it's the truth. I mean we're, you know, I was a personal trainer previous to starting a business that exploded. Brad played in the NFL. Like we, we weren't like seasoned like supply chain management guys.

Yeah.

You know what I'm saying? Like it just is what it is. I'm really good at customer interaction, content creation and just like getting people engaged and getting results and I understand how to use the application of the product. Brad was really good at branding, had some great marketing stuff where we were, I believe weak at. Was that so we were growing so fast, Brad. I mean I can tell you a story that I walked into a bank with a million dollars in sales and $700,000 in purchase orders and couldn't get a line of credit.

In 2009, a million dollars in sales and 700,000 in purchase orders.

Purchase orders. And couldn't get a line of credit.

Wow.

Because after that, like, housing shit happened.

Oh, yeah. That was the worst time, right?

Worst time, dude. So I literally had a business that was running so fast that it was. It was. It was very hard to scale. Now we found ways to do it with raising capital, with having manufacturers from product. We did, because you have. You have to find a solution. That's what a lot of people understand. Like, how did you get through that? Dude, people are buying it when I didn't even have it. You find a way to figure it out. I mean, that's just. That's the good problem to have. Right. But it can kill you just as much as sitting on product. So I will tell you, I think if we had an OG supply chain guy from day one and probably a really good investor that just got it, I think it probably could have done even better. But look, man, I learned a lot. It was a great run. And I was in what you said. Coming back to personal brand, I had really good advice from the guy who started Tap out, and I've said it on multiple podcasts, but Danny told me at a UFC event one time right after he sold his business, which was Tap out, and did really well, he goes, goes, I'm so ingrained in the brand that they need to pay me to be around. He's like. And so I kind of took that advice. And literally, that was early two. Like, I don't know, I guess, like early 2009, I went home and signed up for Twitter that night.

And I was a personal brand, right? To get that.

Well, at that time, I was Muscle Farm Prez because I was the president of Muscle Farm. Now I switched over to Corey G Fitness. But everything that we did, I was involved in because I was the face of the company. I created all the content. I created the social media plan, I created the customer service plan. Like, I. I took care of the customer. And so I was always out front of the thing, so I was able to build. So I always think this is kind of funny. I used to tell people all the time, man, I feel like I know so much and I can deliver it, but no one knew about me because I didn't really have a platform. Like, I always felt like I had all this great information, but in little east side of Columbus, like, nobody was really seeing it, right? So once I had the platform, I really believe I was just ready for it. And I kind of created that platform alongside as the brand was built. It worked in My favor as I left and did my own thing. I still have my personal brand, which people have a loyalty towards me, there's no doubt. Because everybody that tweets me, I tweet them back. Everybody that messages me, I message them back. I don't have people do it for me. I do it. Yeah.

These days, that's so much more important to actually keep that personalized touch and the fact that we can do that. And it's funny, so many entrepreneurs I know that they just want to automate that. They don't want to talk to anybody. They just want to set it and forget it. They don't realize that it's more important than ever to talk to your people.

It's all about creating a personal impact. Like, I've ran into people. No lie, Brad. They'll say, hey, what's up, Corey? They'll see me in the airport, like, yo, what's up, man? You tweeted me back five years ago and answered my question. I've bought your creatine ever since then.

It makes a huge difference.

It took me two seconds to do that, Brad, and I did that. I would answer hundred. Like, I answered 150 snaps before we got on here. I do the same thing on Snapchat at Corgi Fitness. Same thing. You asked me a fitness question. I hit you right back. Personal video. Like, I know the value in developing others. And I always tell people when I quit chasing money and started developing others, everything I ever wanted came true.

That's beautiful. So let's talk a little bit more about that, about developing others. And that's one of the things that I'm doing in my business as well, is really starting to reach out, do more recruiting, more developing just internally, but also with customers, et cetera. But tell me, let's just explore that topic a little bit more.

Yeah, I think that I get up every day and I have a mission statement I talk about all the time. My driving purpose is to impact others with what I do and to change generations of Gregory's, which is my family, because I'm the first generation business owner that's popped a little bit. So I want it to be now passed down and taught culturally in my household how things are done and financial IQ and about business and about social media. I mean, my kid's 11. He's already got 5,000 people on this musical ly thing. This is what we do, man. It's the new culture of we show up, we do these. We do this stuff. And I think that as I'm creating this content and doing these things. People are really grabbing a hold of it. And I just realized if I spend most of my day giving it, it just, it just comes back, man. But I love it because I see so many people. Like, I lost 20 pounds. I'm you, I'm starting my own gym. I'm doing this, I'm doing that. Like, it, it's. It's addictive, man. And I got onto this a long time ago and I just. I don't know that I'll ever change it. I mean, it just works so well and it's just fun.

That's beautiful. And you have a book coming out about the entrepreneur versus the Wantrepreneur.

Yeah, so we've got an audio book. So I've got, I got one book I released earlier in the year was really just like, I call it like OG it was literally a softback I self released. It's called the Mindset Manual. It's really about success, principles that I've learned over years and personal stories that I have attached with them, how I utilize them, and it did really well. So you can check out the Mindset Manual. The newest book coming out is called Entrepreneur versus Wantrepreneur and that'll drop on itunes probably in the next couple weeks. And really what it is is it's a crash course through do you want this life? It's cool on Instagram when a guy's got a Ferrari and you know, either he's acting like he's really a wantrepreneur, an entrepreneur, or not. Like, you see all these things and the way we kind of explain this book is a brutal crash course in the truth of do you have the entrepreneurial skill set or where can you find. Maybe there's a weakness in it that you should like brush up on if you're going to try to do this life. And I really explained. Explain like some of the hardships I went through. Like, I just talked about walking into the bank with a million dollars already in sales and 700,000 in purchase owners and them telling like five banks, telling me you're too high risk. And I'm like. And I'm like ready to flip out going, why are you here then? What?

Right?

Who, what, who are you giving the money to? But what do you do? Just quit? I mean, you know what I'm saying?

I do.

So that's what the book's about. That exact type of stuff. Multiple chapters of things of that nature to really say, is this what you want for yourself? Because honestly, I've had family members that weren't cut out for it and they lost everything.

I've told people several times, it's not for everybody. No, it's not. And I said, do you want easy money? They're like, yeah. I said this at a speech not too long ago. I think this may have been how I started the speech. I was like, who wants to make some easy money? And I was brought in to speak about entrepreneurialism. And everybody raised their hand. I go, keep your day job, you know, or get a job, because it's the easiest money you'll ever make. You've got benefits, you get to clock out at 5. You get your weekends to yourself. That, to me is easy money. Entrepreneurs are the only ones who will work. They say that 80 hours a week so they don't have to work 40.

Yeah, right. I'm telling you, that's what it is though, because I think, and I always classify myself as kind of like a brat at this point. Like, I want to do what I want to do when I want to do it. I've earned that right over all these years, just like you have. And it's like, I don't care if I got to put in extra time to make that happen because it's worth it to me and my job is not work. I. Dude, when I was 17, I made a goal that I want to lift weights and get paid. Like, I don't. I didn't know what that meant. But, dude, when I get up today, I still just want to lift weights and get paid.

Yeah, well, it looks like he engineered the ability to do that.

Yeah. So it means it's meant something different at all, different facets of my career. And I'm one of the guys that's been on about every side of this thing. I mean, dude, I just signed a head to toe deal with Reebok as one of their master trainers and athletes.

Really? That's amazing.

Yeah, it's unbelievable. Dude, I'm. I'm going to be 38 this year. I just got a shoe deal. Like, I mean, it's.

So if you got a shoe, like named after you, I will.

I'm going to have a squat. Well, I get all the clothes and all that stuff now, but I'm going to have my own squat shoe.

Yeah. No way. That's awesome.

Yeah. So I've been working such a. Cool.

That's just one of those cool things, like you like a bucket list thing that a lot of people, they don't ever get to achieve something like that. I love that.

It's unbelievable. Like, I talked to Reebok. When I talked to him, I said, you know, remember when the D brown pumps came out? The Omni Elites, like, the ones he did dunk show? So I remember, like, there was a kid in my neighborhood, I lived in a trailer growing up. There was a kid in my neighborhood, like, a couple miles away that had really nice place. And it's kind of like when I was young. I'm like, man, when I grow up, like, I'm gonna be balling like this, you know? He had a pool and the whole night, whatever. So I remember he was a lot bigger than me. So, like, two years after he had already grown out of those shoes, I bought him at a yard sale. Like, my mom couldn't afford that stuff, man. She lived on, like, $12,000 a year. And so, like, when I was. They sent me a pair of those. I signed my deal in those. To me, it meant something completely different. Like, I couldn't even afford to buy these. Like, my family could no way afford to buy these. I had to buy them at a yard sale. They are paying me to wear them now. And I didn't play college sports. I'm not a world record holder.

Yeah.

I'm not the leanest or most big or ripped guy.

I don't know. I did. I saw some pictures. You. I mean, you kind of look like you are legit. Kind of look like you are, but you stand next to me.

I'm legit. But, like, I always tell, like, when I speak at colleges, I'm like, there's probably 10 guys in this room that look just as good as me. I mean, there is. Yeah, a lot of times. And so it's one of those things, like, I just am a grinder, bro, for a really long time, and I have some outlandish goals. Like, I wanted my. I. It's not out yet. I'm not done with it. But I want. Even if I get 10 pairs, I want my own squat shoe. Like, Reebok saw the value in me after I left Muscle Farm. They saw the kind of influence I have on a really interesting demo, which is hard to talk to, which is like 18 to 25, even up to 35 now, you know? And so, yeah, it's. It's cool, man. So there's a lot of, like, unique things. I mean, dude, when I, like. I talk about developing people, like, you know, we had to deal with Arnold Schwarzenegger. Like, I worked alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger multiple Interviews that had to be surreal. Dude, I went, listen, I went to Arnold's office and went through every take of Pumping Iron that exists. I'm one of the handful of people on the planet that saw every outtake, every behind the scenes. I saw everything from those guys who shot it, everything and then used what I wanted and put it together and ran it by Arnold for marketing stuff for Body. Like dude, I did some stuff that there's no way I could have even dreamed was possible. Like go to Arnold's house for Christmas parties and walk by to get a drink past James Cameron. Like dude, stuff that just blows your mind. And I'm like, how did this happen? I know how it happened man. I'm relentless. Mother ever who really wants to lift weights and get paid.

That's awesome. It shows you the power of the vision. Were there any big lessons that, that you learned from Arnold or any huge takeaways from that? Because I mean talk about a guy who's so multi talented from business to mindset to everything else.

Such a monster, man. I just did a blog post on, on my website three things that Arnold taught me.

Oh cool.

For my.

So see I didn't read that but I just, I knew there had to be something.

Oh yeah, there's. Well I actually just started on my, on Corgi Fitness for my members. Yeah. Three, three times I've met so, so many cool people in the last X amount of years and learned from so many people. I'm going to bring up the article while we're talking and I've been doing three times a week I've been dropping articles like three tips on this. Three things I learned from this guy. Three things because I've just had a lot of experience to this point and so I think they're short, quick hitter articles but people get a lot from them because it's like, I mean out of all the times I spend with the guy these are the three things I pick. Now I could probably do three of these on Arnold but here's what it is. First is definitely, no question, think big. Like Arnold said to me one time like when he became governor of California they, everybody told him he had to do something else first. I don't know if his mayor, senator or whatever it was and he was like no, I'm just gonna be governor. Like, like that's just the way I do things. Like he told me when he came over here like everybody in the magazine world, in the bodybuilding world wanted him to be here but none of the guys did because they knew he was going to beat them all. Like, he came here, he couldn't speak the English. Couldn't speak English. And the guys he trained with probably didn't even like him at first. Like, he just didn't care because he wanted to dominate so well. It didn't even. Like, he's such a boss, bro. When I hung out with him, you think, you think big and then you leave messing with Arnold and then you're like, what am I doing with myself? Like, he said, corey, I want to make the Arnold Classic the most. The most. Like, you know, what do you say? Successful fitness event on the planet. Which he did. That's in Columbus, Ohio, actually.

Yeah.

He goes, as soon as that happened, I want one on every continent. Now he has one in Spain, China. Like, he literally has one on every continent. Like, it's, it's. So think big's one of them is you never think big enough. Like, Arnold just crushed everything. Like, you know, one of the other thing is they told him when he became an actor that his. We all know his one liners, right. With his accent. Well, they, they told him his accent was not going to help him. He made what everybody else thought was a weakness into a strength.

Yeah.

That's what the stuff that Arnold does deliver on the fly. That's. That's every true entrepreneur has to do that. But Arnold, like, so we, we did a deal with them. We had a supplement line for a while and he called on a Tuesday. Now we had been working on the line together for a while and we're working on when we want to launch it. He calls us on Tuesday and says, I want to launch it on Friday. Now, mind you. Yeah, mind you. We had a lot of stuff done in, like, we thought we're gonna launch it like a month later.

Yeah.

He called on Tuesday and says, I wanted. At Muscle beach on Friday. I want a lot of people there. I want it to be really cool. I want to make sure that this is going on and that's going on. I'll see you on Friday. And that's it.

So what did it mean that you guys had to.

Mike dropped it. Mike dropped it on us. Well, we had this big bus thing we had to wrap with Arnold on the side of it that we had to rush. We had to get all these permits at Muscle Beach. Like, there's all these. Because the wreck owns it. Like the city owns it. You can't just walk up there and have an event, you know what I mean? So we had to do all this Paperwork, fly all these people out. We pulled it off, and it was super gangster dude, like Muscle Beach, Arnold Schwarzenegger, like, for the line. It was unbelievable. But he would test you on things like that a lot just to see if you would pee down your leg. And then more and more you deliver, the more respect he would give you. And number three, I was at his party one time. He did. So I used to go there, like, twice a year. And one of them was this poker thing we did. And Tim Ferriss was there, actually. And so I'd never met Tim before. I walk up, I explain, I say, hey, Tim, I'm Corey. I know. I'm one of the guys that started Muscle Farm. He goes, yeah, I know you. You're the dude that squats all the time. We run some of the. The same circles. Barbell shrugged and AJ and all these guys. So he knows the training stuff. And so this is a quick story. Then I'll tell you the last thing about the last. Point is, the thing was, the person who gets last in the poker tournament wins, like, a $5,000 watch. And I know that because I was there last year. Tim must have heard word of that, too.

Wait, the person who gets last wins.

Last wins a $5,000 watch out of it. Like, Don Cheadle's there and Joe Maginello and all these celebrities are like, maybe 50 people playing poker. The winner gets $150,000 watch, right? So I suck at poker. Annie Dukes sits down right beside me. Now, Annie Dukes won the World Series of Poker. I believe she's the woman on ESPN who crushes everybody. So my goal is to make her so mad, she takes all my chips on the first hand, right? So I can win the watch because I'm not going to win anything else.

You're like, yeah, screw it.

I may as well get the watch. So I act like I know enough just to get myself in trouble. I don't really gamble, so it's, you know, it's a donation thing. We've already. I mean, I'm not getting the money back. So anyway, so I'm putting in chips, and I'm raising her. And she's like. I'm seeing her. She's thinking, is this dude just a nut job or does he know what he's doing? She can't tell, right? Because I'm trying to really play. So I get her. No lie to go all in on the first hand of the night, Brad. So two things are gonna happen. I'm either gonna epically beat Annie Duke, who I have no business beating or I'm gonna lose and win a $5,000 watch. I can't lose, bro. So I lose. I tell her, thank you. They announce me as the first loser, so I know what I'm getting. I'm gonna tag Hoyer. I'm pumped, dude. 30 seconds later, guess who had the same strategy.

Tim. No way.

So Tim, I beat him to it by 30 seconds. Comes over to me, he's like, dude. He's like. I was like, yeah, Tim. I was like, you know, it was really cool meeting you. I was like, but probably when I write my next book, my first chapter is going to be how I beat Tim Ferriss. This same strategy. And he just laughed, you know, and whatever. So my whole goal was lose, win the watch, and hang out with Arnold, because Arnold doesn't play poker. He's smoking cigars in his cabana by his pool, right? Walk back here, and I'm like, getting a scotch. I'm smoking a cigar. I'm living it up. And Arnold always. This is one thing I loved about Arnold. He always asked me what my training was first, because that was important. Then we talked business. Second, because I was always going goal to goal. He's like, so what are you getting ready for? I'm like, yeah, I got a photo shoot for this magazine and I've been squatting. I'm gonna do this meet, blah, blah, blah. And I'm drinking a scotch and I'm puffing this cigar, and he looks at me and he goes, it's good to have a little dysfunction with all the discipline. Corey. Love it. And I said, I agree. Like, because he's a cigar smoker. He's been smoking cigars his whole life. He doesn't. I don't know that he drinks. I don't know if I've ever seen him drink before. But I think he just was meaning like, dude, you need to relax sometimes. And so he could tell I was really enjoying myself. One, because I just gamed Tim Ferriss, bro. I'm not gonna lie. That felt kind of cool. It felt extremely cool. And two, you know, Arnold's giving me love, and we're chatting it up. And so I would think, like, those are the three things that I wrote in my article. Think big, deliver on the fly, and have just a little dysfunction, which is basically have something that, you know, I try to have a few beers every Saturday. Just something that just kind of kicks you back a little bit with your family, with your friends. And I think it's important in the whole balance of this crazy life we live.

So I love that story, man. That's awesome.

I couldn't even make that shit up if I tried, bro.

I know. That's great. So wait, what did second to last place person get? Nothing really. So, so literally they just had, okay, the biggest loser. And then, and then like people realized, okay, lose quick. That's great.

So good that Tim was the next guy out though. That made it just the best, right? Yeah.

So, okay, so you set yourself up with something thinking big. You got a lot going on you, you know, from Corey G Fitness and training people and giving them the virtual coaching and the all of the like, wealth of resources you give people. What's your big, what's your big goal now? Like, what is, what are you training for?

So what I'm training for, I actually just redefine my goals, which is on my blog, Coreyg Fitness.com, see. I keep myself accountable to my members too. That's the other thing. What I love about it is that like I write my stuff up there. This is stuff I used to write right in my notebook. I write up there for my members to see so they can, you know, keep me accountable just the same. And so kind of my newest things that I'm training for is I'll be 38 this year, which I mentioned. I really. And this isn't going to happen right now, but I'm starting to prepare for it. I want to make the CrossFit Games as a master at 40. Now I would be 40 and a half when I would qualify, so it wouldn't be till 2019. But I'm literally starting to program many workouts because I'm a bodybuilder, powerlifter guy. I'm not. I don't have like a big Olympic lifting background. I don't have a big cardio background. I'm good at diet, I'm good at those things. But I'm starting to like program a little bit each day just to work on some of their intricacies. From a standpoint of goals. I have a photo shoot at Muscle beach on September 15th for a magazine cover. I want to squat 600 pounds at 181. My best to date is 5:40. So yeah, in actual contest and deadlift 600 pounds and I just missed a 600 pound deadlift at my last meet. So those are kind of like my things in the gym I'm working on right now. From a business standpoint point, I outlined goals too. I wanted to author another book which I just Did. It'll be out in a couple of weeks. I have a podcast with John Fosco, who's my business partner in the media company that I own, and it's called Business and Biceps. And we're trying to get up to 10,000 listeners an episode. I think we'll probably hit close to 3,000 this week, which is cool. And then I've got a new supplement brand I'm launching coming up in about four to five weeks. And with Activate Media, we do probably some stuff similar to you do, Brad. Like we do consulting, social media, digital stuff, like for big and small companies. And so seven figures under sales in the first 12 months is.

Any particular types of companies.

Yeah. So I can't, like, I have one monster blue chip company that I'm like, in contract stage with right now. I can't release, but that my goal was to have seven figures coming in in that business from the first calendar year. And when I sign this deal, it'll be there.

Are these primarily like health, fitness, wellness companies, or are they all over the place, really?

So I'll give you an example. I did a full branding package, a new layout for a guy that has an outdoor kitchen company that does 4 or 5 million a year down North Carolina. I take on companies like that all the way up to your blue chip companies. I helped them with social media strategy. New site, new branding, new logo. Because building a brand that did as much sales in multiple brands, because we built the Arnold brand, the fitness brand, built my own personal brand. I really think I can do it for whatever genre. I don't think it matters. I think that I have a trained eye for logos for. For, you know, my team, John Fosco and I, we own it together, and we have some guys that work with us, and so we come up with some really cool stuff for people.

And what's the name of it again?

Activate Media.

Is it activate media.com or.

It is.

Yeah, I'm gonna go there right now as we talk.

Yeah, check it out. So we do some. We do some cool services, man. It's outlined on the right side. We also have, you know, we write a lot of articles too. We have some interns that write articles just from an SEO standpoint. But we literally. We started this business out of. John owned the biggest marketing company inside of the ufc. So when I did literally millions and millions of dollars of advertising on the Octagon through the fighters, and that's how we got popular at Muscle Farm, is John was my guy. And so when we both left our respective businesses at the same time. We called each other and said man, we need to do something together because we worked so well together for six or seven years and moved a lot of product through the marketing. And so now, you know, we, we help launch video games, we help do. We help do all kinds of stuff, man. It's pretty cool. I love it.

Yeah, I want to look more into that. So I've got a. And the one, one of the reasons I ask is my. I don't know if Lowe's had told you about this or if you. I don't think I sent you anything to this prior to our conversation, but I launched an E commerce brand, a national brand with my wife just this year and it's called Stiletto coffee dot com.

Nice.

If anybody hasn't seen that, it's an interesting story behind it. Like actually I'd love to get your feel for the brand as well because we're really proud of the branding we've done. So we're the first and only coffee out there that's message and branding and purpose is marketed and geared towards women and especially classy, sassy, driven, you know, high class women who give a shit about the way they look, what they put in their body, their how they taste. And a portion of the proceeds goes back to helping women like charities, microloans, et cetera.

Right.

So we are in the early stages of I guess really just about six months in of to getting the brand and building traction through all the various content marketing and E commerce heck yeah. Brand storytelling and influencer marketing and you name it.

Oh, that's all we do, man. And I'll tell you that I the prime example of what I call unique content marketing. So like the content that I would create you literally could not rip off because it was so, so unique to me because I, I literally the, the training protocols, the, the diet pro I've literally created. Like when you come to Coreygfitness.com, it's I created it. I didn't just steal it off somebody. Like I learned from this, you know, amazing Soviet this guy that learned all these Soviet techniques and I mixed it with this guy that knew all these Bulgarian techniques and then I learned directly from this like super OG high fat diet guy and mixed it with an intermittent fasting guy. Like I've mixed things that maybe have done well on their own but needed changed in a Corey G twist and then not only just taught but lived lived to show you that they work explained it, teach them. But so like the unique Content I would put together is why it was really hard to rip me off, man.

Right, right. That's exactly. And that's one of the things we're trying to do with this is because we've got some. The most amazing coffee beans and we've got exactly great taste and all that other things. But it's the intangible branding and message and the story and everything else that we're trying to really stick out with and make an impact that you can't just duplicate.

That's the key, dude. I honestly think that was the proof that was the. Like, I used to sit in boardrooms with guys that had Cornell degrees, built decent sized businesses that used to just freaking hate me, man. Because I was the intangible.

Yeah.

And because I'm the guy with abs. Yeah. And I'm the guy that built a bigger company than them.

Yeah.

I'm telling you, I got a lot of hate, bro. I still get it. And you know what? I just laugh and go, look, there's like, I'm a grinder. I know what I want, I'm passionate about it. You can't change it. Like, I don't always do everything right, but I'm like on fire constantly, man. Because I just know what I'm about and like, it's a confidence thing. Yeah. I know myself. I know why I'm supposed to be here. Like in. I think people that have lacked their lack confidence and feel entitled, like, they don't like me, honestly, you know, and that's.

That happens. That's. Yeah. You know, it's okay.

Like me. Yeah.

I mean, you know, it's like they either hate you because they ain't you.

Yeah. And I, and I don't really get caught up in it, but I ran into it in that like boardroom world a lot, dude.

Really?

Oh, yeah. Honestly, I took myself off the board because of it. I said, you know what? I'll just stay in my lane. You guys can do this stuff. I got no interest in it because I'm not getting anywhere. No one's buying into the fucking muscle guy, I'm telling you. But they didn't realize I was probably responsible for a high percentage of the sales because of what I did. I know. I mean, the problem is in content marketing, if you do other initiatives too, it's hard to like pinpoint exactly. There's a few things that in certain websites, certain content I did, I could really track. Like, you know, I did some stuff on bodybuilding.com that did like 12 million page views and you know, I could say, oh, well, I sold a million dollars in product on this stack because of this workout. Like those type of things. Yes. But like, you know, loyalty, long term buyers, unique, you know, new buyers because of content. Like, it's hard to track all that stuff. But I'm telling you, it's extremely important. And I really think I can do it for anybody, no matter what it is, just because I just got a real feel for that. The editorial calendar, what people want, the engagement. It's a pretty unique skill set, I think.

I love it. Are there any specific tactical things that you think people listening who are trying to do something similar can do?

Yeah, I think you got to really be you, man. Like, I think that authenticity. Yeah, the authenticity is always the key. Like, I'm not. Not as concerned if the lighting's perfect, if my message is right. I'm not concerned that your mom might not like it if I'm a guy who yells at the 12th rep of 315 to a catcher stance. Like, I'm just doing what I do. And if you like it, that's awesome. I don't give you, like an ultimatum. Like, if you're not this way, you can't do it. You know, I'm just like, look, these are the things that have worked for me. This is the way I do it. I live with passion. I'm kind of a maniac. I'm a different person in the gym. Like, today was max reps every Wednesday for the last four weeks on the program at Corgi Fitness. We just load 315 up and we just take it to the bucket dude, and we go against each other. That dude got 13. I'm gonna try to get 14. And we do that for three sets and we're hooting and hollering and got gangster rap and we act crazy, but that's what it takes. That uncomfortable craziness, no matter what you do. They call it the dark place. Like, you gotta go to that dark place sometimes to really get things over the hump. And so I think the gyms helped me with a lot of that, man. And I just know there's always a solution. And if I just keep grinding, I can get through it. And there's always one more rep and it just. Yeah, man, that's the way. So I'm just real authentic, bro. And I think that's the other problem is some people want to change the way I am and I just won't.

That's good. That's awesome.

It's not will I'm not willing to, you know, I mean, you know what? I talked to Eric. I'm a really good. I'm a fan of Eric Thomas's and became a friend of his, the speaker. And he told me that cj, his business partner came to him, was like, hey, so and so wants to pay you 50 grand, but they, they want you to wear a suit. And he said, yeah, I'm not doing it.

Yeah, I'm not doing it. And you lost me.

Yeah, he said, I'm not doing it because I wear my unleashed T shirt or the whatever one he reps with his hat. And he likes to wear Jordans and basketball shorts. Yeah. Michigan State stuff. And that's just the way it is. And if you don't want that message and that fire, go get another dude.

Right.

And he just straight out flat, no. And he said at that point, 50G was a lot of money to him. It is now, but it would have been at that time. And so I love that about Eric. And that's really kind of the way I am. And join a real gym, old school gym. Like, my gym's a 1970s throwback. That's part of the reason why Arnold liked me because he came to my gym before and realized, like, I'm a real weightlifter.

Yeah. You know, it's not all about the, the pretty perfect gym. Nothing like stuff. It's. It's dirty and raw and real.

And it's real. It's literally joinareal gym.com.

Really?

Yeah.

That's great.

I swear to you, I'm gonna go there right now. Yeah.

Joina you pussy dot com.

Yeah.

Let's see my show. I can say it. Yeah, you can too. But I'm talking listener school. I love it.

Yeah. I mean, so old school gym is. It's a cool brand. We actually sell clothing all over the world. It's just really raw. The picture that you first see when you come up is actually my high school weightlifting partner. We own it together.

Oh, that's great.

So we've been doing business together since we literally were in the gym at 17. Going to be cool to own a gym someday, right?

Exactly.

How many?

Yeah, I got a kind of off track question, but I'm just curious about this, something I'd written down a minute ago. How many people are on your team right now, like with your business? Because I know you've shifted some things up.

And so we've got probably five on the media side and about four to five on the gym side.

Nice.

And so Nothing crazy. Pretty small.

Small and nimble. And you know what I look at?

I look at Corey G Fitness as a family owned business. My mom does customer service because I didn't want her to have her gig anymore. She's, she loves it. She's got my, my wife does the billing from just getting everything prepared for the accountants and everything. On the Activate Media side, we have a COO that takes care of everything because we got some bigger numbers going on in that. But they're both doing really well. They both run pretty lean. And honestly, man, we're selling what we've done for 15 or 20 years. We just know it. I'm not going to pee down my leg. If I look over your branding, if I can help you, I would say, man, I really think this, this or this. And if it's, if it's awesome, I tell you, it's awesome. Yeah, like, you know, so it's like the things that we're doing, we love it. The content we're doing, the podcast, the audio books. Like all this stuff is just so fun, man. Like, I just feel like I'm still grinding, but it's just different now, you know?

So what's a nut you're trying to crack in your business right now? Whether it's a new skill set you're trying to learn, a person you're trying to hire, a strategy you're trying to master, anything like that just. Or issue you're trying to overcome. Because this is where maybe myself or some of my listeners could be like, dude, I got a solution.

So I just did. We do activate dailies on our YouTube, on Activate Media YouTube and I talked about one yesterday that was. I'm always optimistic. I'm always talking about, you know, half glass, half full. I was like, I did just a page on what I'm bad at. I love that. Like, I just, I have, I honestly still carry around a regular notebook and write in it all the time, like OG style. And I just, I have three of them. Yeah, I just wrote down this is what I'm bad at. And if I'm doing something in any of these multiple streams I got at this point that's in that wheelhouse, I'm going to ask for help, which is the most powerful word in the English language to some degree. Or I'm going to hire somebody to do it. I'm not. Or if it's, I can get a little better at it, I will. But some things I'm just not really good at. I'm really good at. I Think I've done a good job of identifying the things I feel like I'm really good at and I just crush them. But these other things, man, I really struggle with them. And I also did that for me inside the gym, too, because that's part of me. It's my hobby. It's my business. It's everything. What am I weak at in the gym? What do I need to work on daily? What do I need to get better at if I want to reach the goal of being a Masters Games CrossFit guy in 2019, which is completely different than what I do now? What do I have to work on to get in this exercise? That mobility that I broke myself down, I think it is really helpful exercise.

That's awesome. I love it. I'll go check that out and read that too. Because I've also. I've been really forthcoming on my podcast and with other people talking about the things that I hate, the things that I suck at, my weaknesses. I've probably done almost every business model that you can think of, and I've failed spectacularly at some of them and won spectacularly at some of them and to the process of elimination and started to find my big weaknesses and strengths. I'm 42 years old, and it's taken me a while to really understand myself and capitalize on the areas I can. And then what do I want to say? Just reach out for help, whether that's hire, partner, buy, or whatever. The areas that I'm weak at, as opposed to just totally improving those.

Yeah, I mean, it's key, man. You got to constantly be working on yourself to. It's just like the gym, if the weakness is exposed, the chain's gonna break, man. Like, I'm trying to squat £600. I've gotta know, out of all that chain, lower back, hamstrings, glutes, hips, like, what's my weak chain? You know what I mean? You gotta break yourself down like that in the gym and out of the gym. I think it's important.

Yeah, you're absolutely right. Cool, man. So where. If people wanna get more information on you, where do they go? Send them in some directions.

Yeah, man. I think, honestly, I think there's so much value in CoreygFitness.com for 8.99amonth. And I'm constantly finding a way to make even more value in there. I just think whether it's business, life, training, diet, you just need a change. You need some motivation in the gym. You need me to yell at your ass. I think That's a perfect way. Also, I would really highly recommend both books. The Mindset manual has helped a lot of people and the entrepreneur wantrepreneur I think will be, I honestly think will be a lightweight type of viral audiobook. I'm really excited about it. My partner, John Fosco is a fiery dude who's done a lot of good business too. And so we complement each other really well in this book. And so I would look forward on itunes soon and check out Activate Media for updates. That's it.

Dr. Love it. Love it. Well, guys, go check this out if you've enjoyed this. I know I have. This has been really cool to get some of the insights on and not only the insights of the stories. I love some of the stories between Arnold and Tim. That's, that's really cool. And I'll definitely be checking out some more of your stuff and following you closely to what you're doing. Yeah, thanks. And if people want to follow you on social media, is it pretty easy to find you from the Coreyg fitness.com.

Dr. Just Corey G Fitness. Everything all across the board.

Perfect. Well, once more, man, thanks a lot to all my listeners. If you've liked this, share it. And if you have any questions about your business, your life, what you're doing and you don't know where else to ask for help, you can always shoot me an email to ask bradakenrat business.com I mean, if you're not, if you're not scared to share me, your, your problems, etc. I mean, I've actually helped, you know, quite a bit of people. But you know, you have to, you have to ask, you have to put it out there. You have to ask for help, you have to ask for more resources. You have to ask what, you know, what nut you're trying to crack in your business. Because I've always believed that the biggest difference, and you mentioned this, Corey, between people who get help or have success and don't are the ones who aren't afraid to admit they don't know everything. Ask for help when it's needed and either go learn something or take a leapfrog and buy it. That could be advice sometimes, just depends. But as I said, I'm here for you. If you have any questions, ask bradakenratbusiness.com and Corey, man, it's great to meet you. Hope to stay in contact.

Absolutely.

And to everybody else, subscribe if you aren't, review it if you haven't and I will see you on next epis What? All right, bud. Talk to you soon.

Hey, thanks, Brad.