Colin Wayne - From Soldier to Fitness Model to Running a $40+ Million Business

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So from like a military aspect, there was several different styles of leadership. I enjoyed the guys that would be there with you and they wouldn't just bark orders, but would be there with you. Right? So like when my, when we're over, when we're like, we've did a massive sale, I'm out there packing boxes with my guys. I don't have to should. I could hire four more people, but it's principal. Yeah, my guys are out. I'm not gonna ask them to work later if I'm not gonna stay myself.

Alright, what is going on, everyone? Casey Adams here. Welcome back to the Rise of the Young podcast. And today we have Colin Wayne with us and we are actually here in D.C. right now for the Military Influencer Conference and we just got back from dinner. We've had a lot of conversations, but it's time to take it to the podcast, man. I know we've been connected for I think over a little over a year now and we've been following each other on social media and I've been following your journey and we have a lot of mutual friends. So I'm definitely super excited for having you on, man. Thanks so much.

Yeah, dude, thank you for dinner first of all and I appreciate it, dude. I'm stoked that you texted me last night saying, hey, I'm going to be at the D.C. military Influencer Conference. Would love to connect. And you know, like you said, we've been trying to get in contact together and we've done some live streams, but this has been something long awaited for the last 12, 13 months. So I'm definitely stoked for this.

I appreciate it, man. And it's funny. So literally for those who are wondering, Military Influencer Conference, I want to kind of give some context on this. But last night, Dennis, you hit me up, me and Kieran o', Brien, and we flew out last second on a red eye flight to D.C. super last minute for us. And then I was on the website, I saw you were speaking, and me and Kieran were like, all right, yeah, we definitely got to be there. Got to get him on the podcast for the first. So for those who are listening, this was a very unintentional, unintentional, unplanned trip. So for those listening, make sure you take advantage of this and stay tuned for it. So, but before we get into your story, man, I'd love for you to get some context in the current situation of right now. Military influencer conference. Obviously, you were in the military. I'd love for you to touch on that part of it and obviously explain the conference you're speaking at just to give some context on it.

Yeah. So I served in the military from 2006 to 2013. I was actually one of the youngest staff sergeants and the military outside of Special Forces and like Rangers, so served in three combat tours. So one was in Egypt, Operation Bright star, Iraq in 2009, 2010, and then Afghanistan in 2012, where, ironically, I was injured. I got blown up in a gym by a 107 millimeter rocket. And I say ironically in a gym because after I transitioned out of the military, I went into fitness modeling. So I almost get killed in a gym, and then I use that as almost like fuel and start using that into where the gym almost killed me, but also saved my life from a psychological standpoint. So.

Yep.

Where most people would put it and flip the script, where, you know, I'm afraid to go in here because this almost killed me. I used it as the reverse and used it to leverage myself. Where I transitioned out of the military in 2013 and started doing fitness modeling and used social media. Before there was like, massive. Like before there was an algorithm.

Yep.

And use that as leverage to get pretty much anything that I wanted. And so that brought me to where we're at right now. Right.

Yep. Redline Steel. I know we want to bring that up. So for those who don't know, he's the CEO of Redline Steel, and obviously, I want to talk about the military aspects and your background, but bring us current to the company that you've been building for the last three years. Really hardcore, because I think regarding fitness and social media, it really brought you to what this point is in your life. So I'd love for. Just to give context before the. For the first couple of minutes of the show, Redline Steel. Talk about your business real quick. Bring them current so that they know who. Who you are and what business you built.

Yeah. So Redline Steel is a company that I created in 2016. So June of 2016 was our E. Com, our website launch. Since then we've grossed well over $40 million in revenue and have shipped over 4.2 million products.

Wow.

We're on track to have over a million customers by the end of the year and that's just within three years as an E commerce platform. So what we do to kind of let everyone know, we manufacture wall art, decor made out of steel. And then we also about 10 months ago launched other product ranges from canvas and candle products. We're also looking into other other products to stretch lifetime value of those customers that are coming in.

That's so cool, man. And I definitely want to touch on that. But just really just I guess started off, I know you live in Alabama now. I want to kind of bring it back to majority of people listening. Rise the young. A lot of young entrepreneurs are just getting started. Maybe they're 17, they're 16, they're 19, they're getting out of school, they might go to college. And for you, throughout your journey, I'd love for you to just give some context into where you're from and your background as a kid. Like, did you grow up in an entrepreneurial family? How did you decide to go to the military and just bring us to your childhood and what really brought you to this point in your life?

So guys like, like a lot of mainstream America, I was born and raised in a split home. Mom and dad were divorced. I come from an entrepreneur background. So my mom was photographer. Just a solo entrepreneur. Right. She didn't work for someone else. She worked for herself. And before there was digital cameras, 35 millimeter was. Was really big.

And.

And so now everybody's a photographer. But 20 years ago that wasn't the case. So I was around that and my dad right when the Internet was booming, night right when it was starting, 1999, 1998, he started to. He created a company called Business Needs and it took off. He was selling like copiers, fax machines, all that type of stuff. But it was, I was kind of around it, but they didn't like educate me on it, if that makes sense. So I was like surrounded by it, but I wasn't intrigued by it. It was just the norm. So I had an older brother and he served 13 years in the military. He was a Captain, I've got a younger sister and she is married. They're both married now. But I kind of have a lot of layers to me. So by saying that I was kicked out of my mom's house at 16. I wasn't a bad kid, but I just didn't listen. I didn't like authority as far as, like, my family, my mom telling me what to do, who to hang out with, when to do it. Oh, you're grounded. And I walk out the front door. So I just didn't listen. But with that being said, I did phenomenal in the military.

Right.

I made Staff Sergeant E6 in six years. So it's very, very, very fast. I. I did have a good childhood. They raised me. You know, I was as in a. I'd say lower middle class, I guess. You know, we never went without, but we didn't. If mom was on a diet, freaking everybody was on a diet, that type of thing.

Yeah.

You know, but we did have a good childhood at the end of the day. So it's. I don't know, it was good. And then I joined the military at 17.

Yeah. So that's. Yeah, literally, you joined. You said you dropped out of High School.

16.

You dropped out at 16. What was the purpose of dropping out?

So when I got kicked out of my mom's house and moved with my dad, I. I was with a schedule, with a school system that was a block period, so four periods, and then it went to seven periods. And so because of that, conflict was going to hold me back an entire year. Now, I was already held back once in first grade, and so I was already kind of one of the oldest ones in my class. Now it would be two years ahead of everyone.

Yeah.

So I'd be like 19 years old and graduate high school. So I was like, screw this. You know, now I'm like, technically a sophomore, but I should have been a junior.

Yeah.

But I'm going to go ahead and just get out completely. I'll get my GED and then join the military. And that's exactly what I did. I dropped out at a couple days before my 17th birthday, so technically I was 16, and then joined the military a few days after my 17th birthday.

What was, like, that transition moment of, like, me going to the military? What was your mindset then? Like, obviously now it's like, you. You're running a business and you're crushing the industry, and you come from a background of entrepreneurship, but, like, moving into the military, like, was it something that you were, like, looking forward to? Were you excited, excited about it or like, what was the current state of mind? Were you excited about the future? Did you have goals set for after the military or like going in there? Like, what were you expecting as an outcome for your future?

Yes, that's a good question. I've always had high expectations for what I could do. I was always looking ahead, so that's why I ranked up as soon as I could. I was always going to schools ahead of time. Anything that I could do to progress, Like I went to basic school, spot school down in Fort Bliss, Texas. There was a non commissioned officer course, NCO courses like PLDC and BNOC and anoc. And I was going through these schools prior, as soon as I was eligible, I would go to them. And it wasn't, here's the thing, this is super important, guys. I didn't wait for leadership to tell me, hey, you need to go and do this. I would go to them. So, so here's the big takeaway, direct approach, anything that you want. So I knew for me, I didn't want to just be a staff sergeant, I wanted to be a sergeant major. I want to be the highest fucking rank that I could be. So what can I do to make that happen? Well, I've got to take that initiative and that due diligence to say, all right, I finally am eligible. What can I do to make sure that I get in that school slot? And so I would go to my training NCO and say, hey, get me slotted for this. What can I do? What do I need to do to get slotted for this? And so that's how I was always ranking up before anybody else is because I would, I would take the initiative and proactive, not reactive, but proactively say, this is what's going to help me get out on top. And that's exactly what I did.

That makes so much sense and something I want to touch on because our conversations tonight at dinner and prior to that, you always talked about the phrase like autobiography, right? You have these chapters in your life and you've opened them and you close them and you've moved on to fit, which we'll get into. And now running a business. So like that chapter in your life, like what would you say from the military? I personally haven't been in the military and I want to know from you, and I'm sure other people would as well, what was the biggest takeaway from that? You know, was it the mentality? Was it the habits? Was it the discipline? Like, what would you say looking Back over those six years was, like, the biggest takeaway that you'd want to give to somebody that wants to maybe know what it's like to be in the military.

So I attribute a lot of my success based on the core principles and values that the military attributed.

So.

So I would say, like, the seven core values, right? So that's loyalty, duty, respect, honor, integrity, personal courage, selfless service. So those are your seven primary values. I mean, you can instill any of those core attributed values into a business, and you're gonna be super successful. And so that would be my biggest takeaway is just taking those core values and instilling that into the principles of. Of your work ethic and to, you know, never leaving a fallen comrade behind, never leaving a fallen soldier behind. So those. Those principles that were, like, instilled, ingrained from day one are the same principles that I would do right now in a business that I care for. Lead from the front, Those simple things, those same. You know, we have sayings in the military, like, what is it? Like, there's. There's so many, bro, I'm having, like, withdrawals on how many that there are. But those. Those key sayings that from the military that I. I contribute a ton of my success on the entrepreneur side.

So, yeah, what would you say, like, calling Colin, going into the military at 17 and walking out at 23, like, the different person you were and the different character you embodied at 23 to 17. Like, what do you say to someone? Maybe if someone's listening and they're in the military. Because I want to. Obviously we're here at the conference. You're speaking at a military conference tomorrow, and I just want to make sure people get this part of your story out there. And I'm sure there's people listening that maybe they have family in the military or maybe they're about to go into it, or maybe they are into it. Like, what would you tell someone just about to step into the military? Maybe they're 18, 19 years old.

So. So I was a recruiter. Most people join for about five different reasons. One is they join for adventure. They either join for education, for the free benefits. They join for maybe a family history, or they join for, like, a career. They have no other destination. This just made, like, logical sense. So you, like, find your purpose, find why you want to do it. For me, like, I enjoyed the aspect of adventure and not knowing what was ahead. And so when I mentioned I did those three tours, what a lot of people don't know is that I volunteered for all of them, I had to, like, literally leave the company I was with and join another battalion or another brigade to actually go on these deployments. And whereas most people weren't looking to get deployed to Iraq. And, you know, but I was, I wanted to put that chapter into that autobiography so that at the end of the day, I can tell my grandkids, one day, this is what I did. I did, you know, over 150 combat missions in Iraq as a gunner. And I did this. And I was able to, you know, all of these different things. So I would figure out, like, what it is that you want to accomplish. And then in addition to that, guys, like, think about the, like in the moment, think about what this can do for your long term. Like, I got a security clearance out of being with the military. You know, that's like a $50,000. Now, I could take this and work with massive companies like Lockheed Martin and NASA and Raytheon and, you know, Northrop Grumman. There's so many companies that I could take this just because I got a security clearance and go and walk in the front door and they're going to give you options to work with this company. And when you're 23, like, and without a degree as a high school dropout, like, there's not a lot of options to begin with, but because of the military and what it could contribute for you. So, like when I was a recruiter, I got, I got three people into UAV pilots. And so they get a top secret security clearance. And so that was my biggest pitch to them. They didn't, they didn't know anything about the UAV side. Well, I was like, okay, like, look, this is gonna get you so much value when you leave this. You're going to be able to take these same, the same resume and instill it into the. And now you're going to make six figures, easily 22 years old, 23, 24 years old, and be able to do that. And you don't need a degree and you can take that same clearance, but use it to the betterment of your life.

Yeah.

And so, like, what I would say is anybody trying to join, like, look at things that, like that, right? I was a military police officer, so I got a, I got a secret clearance. Not a top secret, but, you know, thinking of things like that, what type of occupational skill can I join in the military? It's going to translate to what I also want to do. And if it's not what I want to do, because maybe that job's not available. I don't know. You know, there's, there's, there, there may be something that you. That's just not available through the military at that time. Because that does happen a lot. But then look at it from what is going to embed me in the future.

That makes sense. So go ahead. So for you moving out of the military, you said that one story. I want to touch on that real quick. The gym, you said there was. What was it called exactly again, the type of missile or bomb?

107 millimeter rocket. So it's about a four foot rock.

Okay. So I want to know like that situation like before we move on, that's obviously something, a touching point in your life and like how did that go down? Like, what was the story of that? You know, because I think that's something in a gym. Obviously no one was there besides you and your crew. Like walk us through what it was like that day and what you, when you, when you understood what happened, like, what was your takeaway from that, like leading to the next chapter of your journey, which we'll get into.

Yeah, so that was hard, man. May 3, 2012. That was the day that it happened. It was, it was night, so it was dark out. We have a blackout FOB was very, very small. It could almost be considered like a cop. So for those in the military, it's contingency outpost. So it's very, very small base. Less than 100 people on the entire base. Super, super small. My, my gym was not like a standardized gym. It was literally like a single wide trailer that was cut in half. It was very, very small. There was no. It was, it was concrete cylinders that were around the base. But then it had just a wood roof. So there's not like nothing that would like. So the bomb came in through the roof. Obviously it was shot in. So when you think about where I was in Afghanistan, it was a small base called FOB Boris. They shut the base down because it was very, very deadly. Okay. A ton of. Actually I'm not saying a ton of people, a lot. Let's say one tenth of the base through The, I think five and a half years that it was a base. Fob Boris. I think around 10 people got killed based on my math.

Yeah.

So not good odds. Not when you think there's 100 people on this base during that duration. But that's also during a five year period. So it's only about, you know, about two a year, which is still horrible.

Pack.

So we were right on the Pakistan border And I haven't really told this story a lot, so you're kind of getting an exclusive. So Bob, Boris was right on the Pakistan border. So I know you can't see my hands, but we're kind of. I'm showing Casey right now. So if my base was right here, think of Pakistan and Afghanistan, mountain ranges all going around. And we were basically a horseshoe. So my base was at the center. It was a horrible geographic place because for us, we were getting shot on a daily basis. Guys, while my, While I was on this base, our base got overran three times.

No way.

By Taliban. I swear to God. Literally, Taliban run into the base on our base. Taliban on our base, and only 100 people on the base. So we had V bids vehicle born IEDs every day. There was rockets there. So they. They call it. There's fighting seasons. So like spring and fall were the biggest fighting season seasons. When it gets winter in Afghanistan, it's very. It's almost impassable. And so there's not a ton of movement from. And then what ends up happening on the Taliban side, they'll flee to Pakistan. But because we're right on that border, it's not a lot for them to travel on. So I was there during, like this happened May 3rd. So it's right during that. That. Yeah, that spring almost into summer time for terrain. But these mountains are impassable. They're like. When we flew into the base, it's only through helicopters.

Oh, wow.

Yeah, it's. It's. They're very. It's very, very difficult from a terrain perspective to get from one place to the other. So we were flying Blackhawks and.

Wow.

But.

And you're 20, 22. 20. Yeah. 21 years old at the time.

Yes.

That's just. That. That's insane. That is insane. But it was.

It was crazy, man. So May 3, 2012, I was in a gym. It was about 7:30pm in the gym.

Working out or like, what are you doing?

I was working out. There was three other people with me.

Okay.

We heard the IDF alarm siren go off. So you could hear like.

Does that mean like bombs approaching?

Incoming. Incoming.

Okay.

So our radar system would detect that there's incoming threats. And so it alerted us to the. There was an incoming threat. And so I was near the. There was a machine that I was on which was towards the end. There was two. I looked at it as like. So the. There's concrete on the sides and there was two doors. You had a front entrance and an exit. My thought process was as soon as I heard the alarms, I'm gonna go to the middle and just lay down.

Oh, my gosh.

So, because this is a small building, the switch suite we're in right now, it's about the size of this room.

The tall gym.

The whole gym. It was tiny. Like, when I say, like, it's the size of a single wide trailer cut in half. Like, it's about what it is.

Yeah.

So you didn't have a lot of. You take 10 steps, you're in the middle.

Yeah, it's.

That's. That's where we're at. So I was on my way into. Probably on my fourth or fifth step to get into the middle, and you're a little. You almost, like, out of jog at that point because you're trying to move fast. You only have seconds until this thing could impact. You don't know where it's gonna go.

Yeah. Okay.

We know that there's a rocket that's gonna. Somewhere around base, and our base isn't that big, so we know it's gonna hit somewhere. And it's. But this happened all the time.

Yeah.

So this wasn't like, oh, our first one, like, we were literally getting rocket attacked every day. So it's just, like, an instinct just to say, okay, another. Another rocket, you know, okay, and. And let's just get in the middle and go down to the ground. Ground. And hopefully nothing happens. And that's it. So you just kind of pray at that point. So definitely high adrenaline.

Yeah.

But it wasn't anything we weren't accustomed to, if that made sense. Nothing was necessarily out of the blue, but on this case, it ended up hitting about three and a half feet from me. So it went literally through the roof and. And impacted about three and a half feet from me. So when it impacted the. I had a concussion, so I was blacked out. So I got treated for tbi. I had shrapnel that went all the way through my leg.

No. Yeah.

I almost lost.

No way.

And had shrapnel to both arms.

Literally hit three feet. And that's where it.

I should be exploded. Yeah. I should be dead, man.

Wow.

Seriously. So even the medics. I'll show you a picture. I know you can't see it on audio. We're gonna have some video. So I'll try to show you guys what it actually looked like because it gives you, like, a very vivid picture.

Wow. But you don't tell that story often.

No, I don't.

Yeah. I appreciate. I appreciate the open openness for sure. That's insane. So you. So from there, you therefore have to leave the military just due to injuries?

No. So I ended up getting medevaced. I got medevaced while we were incoming. So incoming rounds were like, Blackhawk down. Incoming rounds are coming in. We were also artillery, so we were firing back at them into Pakistan. And then two Blackhawks come in, pick me up, and then go back and take me to three bases over, which was a base called FOB oe, which is FOB Oregon East. And so then they start treating me and assessing me for wounds. I ended up having pretty permanent nerve damage in my back. L1 through L3. We had lumbar block fusion surgery on my back, but I had to do that stateside. And they were concerned with my oxygen levels. And so I could. Even with the mask on, I was low 90s, and they couldn't fit, so they thought I had internal bleeding. And so they ended up. They didn't have equipment, they didn't have CT scans, they didn't have X rays. This was literally another small base.

Like.

Yeah, but where we were, it was basically like EMTs. And at this base, they had, like, registered nurses.

Yeah, yeah.

And so then they needed to fly me, priority with Blackhawks to the biggest base in Afghanistan called Bagram. So it's Bagram. And so then they went and did testing on me, and I spent a week there at that hospital, and then I recovered. It wasn't. So they ended up giving me too much morphine. I had no clue.

Okay.

So it ends up restricting your blood vessels and your. Your. Something about your blood vessel. It can't get oxygen to where it needs to be. And so even with O2, I couldn't get my oxygen where I needed.

That's an insane, crazy man.

And that obviously survived through the grace of God and ended up going back to.

I just want to touch on that real quick, too, before we move on. Like, that's number one. He's never shared that really publicly, so I really appreciate that. And those listening, obviously you can kind of see the journey before we get into the business aspect. Right. Because I think one of the things. Right. Maybe. Maybe people follow you on social media or this is their first time coming across to you. I think it's like that story truly set the tone for who you are, how you approach business, how you approached weightlifting and, like, fitness. So it's like, I really do appreciate you sharing that part of yourself, because I'm sure that really shaped everything prior to that. So, I mean, let's Move on to more. Some positive stuff too. So the fitness, you were telling me at dinner, you're like, yeah, I was on 50 magazine covers. And I, and I say this because I'm sure you wouldn't just start with this, but I think it's very impressive, number one. But number two, it really was that next chapter that you said, following the military. And I think just getting into that now, I wanted to really see like the transition from experiencing such a, like a crazy altering life moment of having a bomb drove through the ceiling and you almost died to then becoming in the fitness space just shredded. And on these magazine covers, like, that's like two different lives. Right? So give it like, give us the transition period and like tell us the story. Story of how you got into that space and then obviously started making money there and really started to pursue that as a career. Like, what was the transition period from the military to then your fitness career?

Yeah, so good question. So I ended up transitioning out of the military and it wasn't because my contract ended. I'm one of the few people that got a release for. What's that one called?

It's.

I said it in the car. Yeah, it's change the lifestyle.

That's right.

Yes. Change a lot. And so what happened is while I was a recruiter, so I was a full time recruiter when I got through with all my physical therapy, I transitioned and started a Facebook page. And I had no clue. I was like fitness while I shot with a local photographer. Yeah, I was in a gym, working out and stuff. And the gym has been my passion for, you know, a decade at this point. I love, lived and breathed the gym. And so I started a Facebook page and went viral. And it's just kind of like how I started into the entrepreneur space and out of the military. So I transition out of the military. And at that point I probably had around 800,000 followers across social media.

Right out of the military.

I was still in.

Wow.

I was still in.

So you're building that as like a side hustle while you're in the military.

But I had no clue what I was doing.

That's insane.

Like, this is so. Again, guys, if you, if you, if you listen, the very beginning. High school dropout. 16. Not. I did. I did do like two semesters in college, but I wouldn't even call it anything. It was like the easy classes.

Yeah, yeah.

And school was never for me. But like, I started to learn the back end of the marketing side. It was very intriguing. And so I transitioned from the military into trying to pursue fitness modeling. And so that was kind of this next chapter. And so the next chapter was I started to grow my social media not just on Facebook, but also diversified into different platforms. Now, this was a different era. This was not the era that we're in right now where it's very, very difficult for penetration, like market penetration. So this was the time where Facebook didn't even have paid ads and there were no algorithms. So I started to. My first 30 days with my Facebook page, we grew over 30,000 followers.

Or.

I'm sorry. No, no, no, no, no. 100,000 followers. 100,000.

First 30 days. First 30 days, I was just like, I'm posting on, but I had no.

Clue what I was doing.

Times are so different.

Yeah, it's totally different, but like, dude, 100%. So if. If this person saw this post and they commented, it would be seen by everybody that liked that, anybody that followed them. So it was unbelievable. It was a phenomenal time. So timing is more relevant than. Than anything now. Guys, here's your biggest takeaway with this is now's the time to start. Don't wait five years down the road. Don't wait 10 years down the road. Diversify and start scaling new platforms that are coming on board. Get on board right now, like, as soon as possible.

I tell people that about TikTok. Like, the platforms that you may not know that are evolving or like something that you. You'd rather regret doing it and not it not becoming the next big thing than regret. Regret not doing it because. Become the next big thing. You know, that sort of mentality.

That's right. Yeah.

What we're saying, though, is just like that the timing was obviously very important of new platform. It's really early. You're on there, you start crushing it. 800,000 followers. How do you capitalize on that? And obviously having, hey, how can I start becoming an, like, this fitness model to actually doing it? Like, what was that? That journey? And how long was it that you were doing it?

Yeah, so that was about seven. Seven years ago. Eight years ago. Ago is before social influencers was even a thing.

Yeah. OG status.

It was super og, bro. Like, nobody. Nobody was doing this.

Yeah.

And so I kind of was pioneering this space without knowing it. Like, you didn't. I didn't know what I was doing necessarily. It hadn't been done before me. So it was definitely like a blue ocean market. Whereas right now, it's super red.

Yeah.

There's a ton of social influencers out there. And and, and even like from an influencer perspective now it's more, it's not sales driven, it's more brand awareness driven. And like your vloggers, your, your guys that are on YouTube, those are going to get your most exposure now versus somebody that just had an awesome Instagram page eight years ago, seven years ago. Everything is evolving and changing, so you have to change with it. But I was able to take what I've learned from the social side and I grew my personal brands to over 3.8 million followers to date. And then what I did and I showed you at dinner is I started to grow other pages. And so I grew pages within the fitness space that I could leverage so that when I would approach massive companies and acquire contracts with them, I could use that as a leverage tool. So then if I shared it on my personal page, I could use this as a distribution source to get more eyeballs. So Now I've got three pages in excess of over 4 million on that. So now I have over what, 7.8 million followers across my umbrella that now I can charge a premium for to other companies and leverage that to monetize. And so, but guys, all of this was like, there was an agenda. There was just literally like, let me try it out. I wasn't doing it to Monet, I wasn't doing it to make money. It was literally like what made sense. And it was like, logically, hey, this is working, let me just keep doing it.

Yeah.

And then share for shares were massive, you know, a couple years ago, two, three years ago. And now it's like, it's irrelevant. Don't do it. It's best to just collaborate with other people. They post a picture, you post a picture. That's the best way for like a share for sure. Now whereas a couple years ago we, what was great was they would share your account and you could grow and it would work phenomenally. So but what I did that was a little as an offset was I would leverage sharing them on the pages that I own that were not Colin Wayne branded and brand, where they would grow my page, I would share content for them and then they would share mine.

Yeah.

And so all of my pages would essentially grow my non branded and my personal page. Yeah, that's keeping mine from a branding perspective very, very clean and without showing that I'm endorsing all these other people and sharing them where on a daily basis I would be sharing two or three, four other follower, other fitness influencers that had millions of followers as well. While mine's Continuing to grow and it's page engagement for my other fitness pages and it would just, it would work in full cycle.

Got it. So that's super cool. So with, with fitness and everything you did there, how did that evolve into something much bigger? Obviously like I want to, I want to touch on the fact of like when you did cover after cover after cover, you're shredded to then now having your own company and that being the primary focus, meaning from hey, I'm the person that's growing the following to then saying, okay, how can I actually figure out this whole back end marketing platform and sell a product and or service to a customer online? Like bring us to now today from that transition period of the fitness industry. Because I think that obviously I want, I want to dig into what you're doing now, obviously, which, how have you learned to get to where you are? And I think people obviously get value from that. So just bring us from the fitness space you're getting these contracts with big companies to now saying, all right, let me actually start Redline Steel and go all in. Like, what was, what was that massive transition like?

So I think it took everything that I accomplished for Redline to be where it's at right now. So me those chapters. That's correct. Every chapter was very critical. And I don't think that Redline would be successful without all of those chapters, without me understanding the social side, without me understanding the power of social media and Facebook. And you know, I didn't run a single ad before face, before Redline Steel. I didn't know anything about it, but I learned it. I never hired a coach. Yep. No schooling, nothing, nothing geared towards this. I just, I went on my intuition and all of those existing chapters, whether it was the military and all the core values and principles instilled from there, or the fitness side where I would leverage my social platforms and also contributed value that I would put on myself into other brands. Leveraging the credibility of saying, hey, I've been on the COVID of men's Fitness, Muscle and Fitness, Ironman, Vanity, you name it. Anything in the fitness space I've been on the COVID of. And not just in a spread, but literally on the COVID Now what a lot of people don't know is that value, perspective. I was always looking long term, guys. If you get the commonality here, I am always looking long term.

Yep. And even so, to this day, we were in the car and you're talking about your family goals the next 10 years, like the critical components of timing. I picked it up up for sure.

So it's so relative, bro. Like everything that I do is already preconditioned and planned out. And so, you know, dude, I already have an exit in mind for Redline even before I was even like, I knew that Redline Steel would be a multi billion dollar exit within a time period and so always having those time periods in place. So the reason why I got so you asked me a question, I thought it was super relevant is, you know, why transition from the fitness side into the entrepreneur side? What was that? What did that transition look like? And so for me, what I looked at was where's the longevity? What is the liability? I've got an eight year old son, I've got three kids now, so I've got a two year old daughter, a three month old daughter and then an eight year old son. Now when I was going through the fitness side, I obviously had my son because I was still in the military when I had him. And what I looked at was where is. What happens if I get hit by a car tomorrow and my, I'm missing this whole arm, my right arm, it's just gone and half my face is messed up.

Yeah.

What happened? Right. So that's a scary place to be.

Yeah.

When you can like in terms of modeling aspect, everything is reliant on my looks. That's a problem, that's a liability and I'm not looking ahead.

Yep.

So what I, what I thought about was like, all right, if this was to happen, I've got a son that depends on me, I've got a wife that doesn't work, that's a stay at home mom that relies on me. What am I going to do? Like this is, I've only got a high school diploma or ged. Like, you know, I can't go and get another job that's going to pay multiple six figures. So like it's, it was a big challenge internally where I was like, all right, what else can I do? And so it was honestly like my wife that was challenging me to say, you need to get out of the fitness. I don't know what you're going to do. You need to get out of fitness modeling and look at other things. Like don't just stay stagnant with it. And so she was right. So I started Redline Steel and it was initially all I was going to do is just be a consultant. It ended up evolving and I started to build out an entire business plan. I saw the market opportunity, wanted to go after it and I put in an offer. I'm not going to go into all the details, but I did put in an offer with the pre existing company the day we were supposed to sign. He ended up backing out. And so I ended up using that fuel and firing it internally to grow my own business. And so, you know, here it is. I created a business plan for this pre existing company and then the business plan shifts just like that. Now I've got to figure out how to make it, I got to figure out how to manufacture it, where to put all this equipment, get the capital needed to make this all happen. And so within, you know, 24 hours, the entire thing. But it didn't stop my train of thought. It fueled me ten times harder.

Yeah.

I said, all right, I've got something to prove at this point. And so I use that as fuel internally to say, I'm gonna make this guy. I personally want to make it a vendetta that he's gonna regret this. This decision.

Yeah.

And so that's, you know, it's kind of the dark side of it. But that's exactly what I needed to. To leverage it.

Yeah, yeah. So, so manufacturing as a whole, like, what was that like, that industry, what made you gravitate towards that in terms of what you're doing now? How did that come about?

Yeah, so when I looked at competitor analysis, I noticed that this was a massive market opportunity. So virtually anybody, anybody with the home or a friend, right. I could go. So here's the thing, guys, when you're creating art, you could go into cannabis space, you could go into the motivational space, kind of like what Iconic's doing and Mark and them. You could go into sports licensing, you could go into government contracting. I need to use the same equipment into so many different niche verticals and different avatars and different demographics. So I looked at as a no brainer, like, and I also said, all right, I wanted to do home decor. There's Nobody that's over 10,000 square feet within this space. That is a massive market opportunity. And so that's considered a blue ocean market opportunity. It's kind of like we were talking about with the social influence side, right?

Yeah, yeah.

Eight years ago. It's wide open.

Yes.

He just saw it and I just saw the opportunity. Opportunity. And so now it's becoming very, very saturated because they've seen the success that I brought with it.

Yep.

And so, you know, we've shipped, I told you, over 4 million products now have over a million customers by the end of the year. Grossed over $40 million in three years. As an econ platform.

And what was the, that being three years, like what was the, the first year, the first six months? Because I think if people are starting companies now or maybe they're like in the early stages, I want you to break down like the, the rate of growth in terms of like what you did in terms of the hiring processes. But most importantly like when you started it to the first three, six months, like what was the foundation you built on? You know, because I think if people are starting businesses today, like how should they look at their first three, six months? Because like you said before, you're always meticulous with timeframes. So to do that in such a short, short amount of time of three years, I mean sure, you had deadlines or you had to hit these numbers by this date. Like what was your growth strategy moving into the business?

So I think it was a two part one was looking into your liabilities from like a, a rent perspective. Right. So looking at acquisitions on like I'm going to be into this space, I would never sign a lease longer than 12 months because I don't know where I'm going to be in 12 months. And I know if I'm, I'm right here. And our first building was only 5,000 square feet. If I'm still there three years from now. Which that's exactly what he wanted. 36 months. He didn't want a budge.

Yeah.

And So I said three years from now, if I'm still in 5,000 square feet, I'm in the wrong. I don't even want to be in this business.

Yeah.

Like I messed up.

Yeah.

So something is wrong. So I had to renegotiate power of the deal. I had to leverage, putting more of a down payment to lessen that liability for him. And then what I also looked at was, well the first six months I was trying to figure out how to turn the damn thing on. I didn't know how to, to run a manufacturing like the plasma table, how to grind, how to powder coat.

Yeah.

I didn't know what I was doing to be honest. So this was a market that I had absolutely no, no reason to be in.

Yeah. During that time, like was there frustration and doubt and like what was the mentality when you had no idea what you, you were doing?

Driven.

Okay.

Driven. I was never, I never doubted myself.

Okay.

Ever. I still don't doubt myself.

Yeah.

There's still not a day goes by that this won't be a multi billion dollar company.

Yeah.

So it started with the vision. I knew that this could be a multi billion dollar company. And I put time limits on it. I said, you know, within seven years it's gonna be a billion dollar company. And same thing I told you at dinner, like offline, off, off this podcast, like, this is where it's going to be and this is what's going to happen. And by the time I'm 40, this is what's going to happen. Then I'm going to run for Congress or senator.

Yeah.

When it's going to happen.

Yeah, it's so cool. I picked up on those little cues for sure.

And so all of these things are destined to take place premeditated because I believe in it. And you don't doubt yourself.

Yeah.

And so I think that that's, that's a massive, like for any entrepreneur wanting to get started. Never second guess yourself or doubt yourself. You know, when I left a very, I was, I was at the pinnacle of success within the fitness space when I left. And I was questioned left and right, like, what are you doing? What's your little. Yeah, exactly. Like, why are you, what are you doing?

Yeah.

And, and you know, the first 12 months we didn't see massive success.

Yeah.

You know, we did, we did less than a million. Well, I'm not saying Massachusetts, we did less than a million dollars our first year. So it's like 980, 981,000 thousand dollars. We gross year one. Not massive success, not horrible. But it was enough. Whereas like, enough to get your beak wet. And like, okay, this has legs. We can scale it. What we started to realize was that the, the constraints of our manufacturing capabilities to our incoming orders, it became very hard to manage the two. And so that's still a challenge. And so I'm in a very, very unique business model where we control all aspects. So everything within the business, from the product development, the creation, the customer service, the la de everything, the product manufacturing, the fulfillment, distribution, the marketing, the, you know, everything is done internal. And so that's how you control the growth and that's also how you have, have larger exits at the end of the day. So on everything, yeah, it's, you know, it's managing those expectations but also putting time constraints and time limits. And I'm very, I'm very accountable and I'm very, I hold myself to a high standard.

Yep.

I, I look at it as someone, I'm from Alabama. Right. So Nick Saban, I look at it as a, as a Nick Saban approach. I don't care if we're up 100 to 0. We miss the Phil.

Go goal.

Why did we miss the field goal? Like, we shouldn't have done that. So there's. There's some KPI.

That's.

And that's how you make it better, and that's how you make it stronger. And it's not Band Aid fixes. This happened. What can we do to prevent it from happening again? And this is the outcome that needs to happen. And so. So it's taking those learning lessons and it takes you. And dude, it's a pivot, right? You've seen those entrepreneur charts.

Oh, yeah. Oh, no.

We're. We're doing horrible. Why did I do this? And then it goes back up and it goes back down and it's massive low. When there's highs, there's huge highs. When there's lows, there's huge lows. And we all go through it. Same with me. No matter what scale. And guys, the bigger that you get, the more obstacles and things that come in the way. So, you know, within three years, we'll be, you know, over $100 million annual as a business, and we'll be hitting new challenges. That what today was super stressful. Three years from now aren't even a thing. That's not even a worry or a concern. It's like, whatever. And so I think it's just getting comfortable with the uncomfortable.

That makes sense. So now looking throughout, like the last three years with scaling and hiring, what is your process with that? How do you maintain team culture? Like, we were talking about Andy Versella earlier in terms of just what he's built first form wise. And I know you guys have agreed, great relationship. So for you, what's it been like to scale to a team of. You said 60 people or around? Around 60. Like, how do you maintain culture and keep people accountable?

Yeah, so that's. That's very difficult, especially when you start getting to certain numbers. It's something that's very important for me from the culture perspective. I think that by leading from the front and also having all of our leadership accountable and that are also in the trenches with your guys, Y has. So from like a military aspect, there was several different styles of leadership. I enjoyed the guys that would be there with you and they wouldn't just bark orders, but would be there with you. So let's say that we had to go and we called it police calling. So it'd be like picking up cigarette butts around. It's the little things.

Yeah. Yeah.

Right. So like, when my. When we're over, when we're like, we've did a massive sale. I'm out there packing boxes with my guys. I don't have to should. I could hire four more people but it's principle.

Yeah.

My guys are out. I'm not going to ask them to work later if I'm not going to stay myself.

Yeah.

Like Dan said at dinner, I'm one of the last ones to leave every day. Do I have to? No, I don't. I don't have to. Honestly, other than Mondays and our Monday morning like all call meetings and, and some circumstances, certain like KPI meetings was key management. I don't have to be there. Like I'm at a point right now where we're scaling into the, I'm personally scaling into the macro where I can focus on some of the bigger pictures.

Yeah.

And looking at like massive plays. Like getting into the drop shipping side, getting into large retailers like Walmart and Cabela's and Amazon and doing these like speaking events and you know, going to Vegas in three weeks and doing that type of thing. That's a little bit more intriguing to me. But I, while I'm home in Alabama, I divert and give 100% attention. And I also expect that my leadership would lead from the front as well.

Yeah.

And so I don't care what your resume says at the end of the day. Like if, if we don't. So here, here's a perfect example. And I hope she doesn't listen. I doubt she would. We hired a CPA from, for the finance side.

Okay.

And dude, phenomenal resume. Right. She had like five master's degrees. Dan knows. And the first day she was there it was ironically a Monday. And Mondays are all call meetings and so we have all of our key executives and management in a meeting. And so there's about what about 10 of us, nine of us, something like that. And so we're, we're in a, an all call meeting and we, she's over there and she's like dozing off and like while I'm talking and you just.

Hired this like phenomenal resume person, bro.

Like I was so frustrated because like I don't care what it said, what your resume is, at the end of the day you could be the most talented person in the world. But that's disrespectful. If somebody's talking, give them your, your common courtesy.

Yeah.

Like don't act like you're about to pass out and go to sleep. Like. And I get everybody's a little bit uniquely different, but that's Just one prime example that here's another thing. And Dan can contest. He's videoing right now. For those of you are on audio. So every, whenever we do these meetings it's very important that everyone brings notebooks because if I say something that's important or Dan says something or Gary says something or Deborah says something that's important, you need to be able to take accountability of that, note it and, and log it. And so, so then we also look back. Okay, These are certain KPIs. If I tasked you out for something last week, we can report back on it for the following week to make sure that it got done.

Yep.

You know, I've had, I've sent people back and I called them out in front of everybody. Not intentional, but out of, out of, out of. I guess just to prove a point that it's disrespectful to show up without a. Nope.

Book. Yeah.

And I don't know if that really makes sense to you. I'm probably not, I'm not portraying it. Right. But at the same time it's like I'm gonna do the same, give me that same common courtesy for me. And so culture is very important. But it's also like for me, I think the biggest thing that we embody is that we're not I from the top to the bottom. We're not too good for it and we're not above it and we'll do anything and we'll go in the trenches with you and I will outwork everything.

That you do that makes so much sense. Leave from the front. Right, Leave from the front. I have a couple more questions right before we wrap up and that is number one. Just like throughout the last three years, if there's someone listening, that's literally I would say I want, I sort of want to gear towards your younger self. Right. With you. Don't. You didn't know these chapters in your life, you didn't know it was going to go from the military to this fitness training to this thing on social media becoming super hot and then starting to see company. Like how do you describe those transition moments and how. What would you tell to some 18 year old that's listening, like what to expect along their journey, Just in terms of your journey so far.

So I guess the best way would be to put myself back in my 18 year old self.

Yeah. And let's hear 18 year old Colin. What would you tell him listening to this?

So I would just, you know, for me I've always, so I've never There's several things that I wish I would have done different. Okay even, even four or five years ago, like from, you know, I'd make in like really good money as an influencer. But at the end of the day from like a finance perspective and looking at like your overall P L and your balance sheets, like what do you have to show for it? And so there's certain things that like there was from a long term perspective. Yeah, I bought nice cars, bought nice rims, bought, you know, modded all this stuff. But like your bank account says something different.

Yep.

And so if I could tell my 18 year old self something, it would be to be smart with your investments. And I'm telling myself that right now. Like yeah, there's, now I'm a little, I'm at a cushion. Right. I've got savings and I've got, there's, there's, yeah, there's contingencies and there's backups. But like I wish that I wouldn't have lived a certain lifestyle for people that didn't necessarily care for me just to portray certain things. Now I'm talking to myself in third person, but just literally a couple years ago. Yeah, the same thing I wish I would have known at 19 or 20 years old now. I've always been a car guy, still love cars. And that won't go away. I'm still going to, but it should be based on like passive income and income that's not that that can be disposable, that hey, if my job were to leave tomorrow, can you sustain another year? Yeah, that's a great question. Can you do that? And I think that if the answer is no, you don't need it.

Yeah.

And if the answer is yes, then go and do it. Yeah. You know, if you want, if you really want it, you truly want it for sure. So I think from a financial standpoint I would tell myself that. And that's not even saying 18 years old. I didn't have. Dude, I was on like a Roman noodle diet, bro. Like you know, I've been on my own since I was 16. Like my first home I was like almost, I don't know what you would call it appropriately, but basically in the ghetto.

Yeah.

Run down neighborhood gunfire like at 16. No, 17.

Okay.

At 17. And so, you know, I've been on my own for a while and so I've been through like what would almost not even paycheck to beyond that. I don't know what you would call beyond. Beyond the rock bottom, like paycheck. To paycheck, where you're in debt and even this paycheck isn't going to pay for what's in debt and. Yeah, exactly, but I've been there, right? So, but you can get past it. And I didn't know that I would be where I'm at right now in 12 years, 13 years from that point. But at the end of the day, like, I just kept moving forward and kept momentum and if something worked, I continued to move forward.

That makes sense. And I want to sort of end it with, with this before we wrap it up. And that is like, obviously we, we got connected on Instagram on social media, but you, you've been in this social media game for years now. You, like we said earlier, One of the OGs that did it before the algorithm and you didn't know what you were doing, but it started to work. And in 2019, as the year's wrapping up and you hear so much stigma like, oh, is social media still working as effectively? There's the algorithms, like, how are you looking at social media from a personal brand perspective, but then also a couple company perspective. Because I always like to ask that question because I believe with someone that's had so much experience with social, how are you and your team spending time on it? Where do you think the future is with it and how are you going to adapt and be ready for that?

Great question. I think that if you're not already connected on all platforms, you need to be and you need to be consistent. I don't do as good of a job as what I used to when this was my only full time job. So I definitely neglect it, but I do know the importance behind it. So there's a difference between the two. Now it's just personal accountability to ensure that I do it for my personal brand because I don't, I don't need, I don't do it as much as I should and I know that I should. Now here's the difference. You know, looking back eight years from ago when I started, it's completely different. And so it is a little disheartening to know that what used to be I would post a picture on Facebook and get 75,000, 100,000 likes.

Yeah, that's insane.

Now I'm lucky to get 4,000 or 5,000. It's just, it's, it's, it's not only like embarrassing, but it's also just like, yeah, why even bother right at the end of the day? Okay, so from a business perspective, majority of our, of our Revenue is brought in through actually the paid side.

Yep.

And so the importance of knowing your avatar and then knowing how to set up a pixel and creating audiences, creating look like audiences and using that data to bring in not only retargeting so pre existing customers, but also brand new leads to your page from a brand awareness and then also from a buyer and purchaser perspective. So those are so. So that's kind of a two step. One is for your personal brand, but also I think they marry as well. It's very important humanizing the brand. When you look at, like when you look at Tesla, you think about Elon Musk.

Right.

When you think of like all of the. They humanize the brand. So that's kind of like with me with Redline.

Yeah.

Like I've, I've showed my family, dude, we did. This was super off the cusp. We did over $250,000 while I was at the hospital giving birth to my, my daughter who was six weeks premature on a baby bogo. That I had no clue. So I was doing like a vlog, literally in the hospital saying, hey guys, I had no clue this was gonna happen. I'm in the hospital so taking those.

Yeah.

But it was like, because they already know me as a person, they're super, like intrigued. The engagement was stupid.

Yeah.

We ran ads to it and you know, with a phenomenal ROAS, like a 7x8x ROAS, you know, grossed over a quarter million dollars within two, three days.

Yeah.

And so it's knowing how to connect with your brand from a personal and branded, like personal brand relationship with them and then also leveraging the data to retarget and then also prospect new customers to your. Your business pages. So. But they, they're both, both very, very important.

Got it. All right, just to wrap it up, last question. So what would you define moving forward? Is A. You're 30, like you said earlier, you're 30 now and you have these landmarks of time in your life that you want to have goals, buys. Like, what does success look like for you moving forward with a family now and three kids and management of time and understanding. You need to make these smart investments. Like, how do you define success in your future?

Man, it's tough. I haven't really thought about it, man. So this is kind of catching me off guard. So for me, I mean, it's just like living life on your own terms, but without stress. Right. At the end of the day, like, when you look at most like relationships, the communication is one of the hardest downfalls. For most relationships. And also to take it a step further, a lot of times it's financial constraints that are causing the tension to begin with. So financially being free, but also from a communication aspect with my family, with my wife, with my key executives, as long as there's an open dialogue and an open communication workflow, and also a financial stability where I know I'm taking care of and also my employees and my key executives know that they're fine and there's no worries, then it creates an atmosphere of that true success where there's not necessarily a massive stress level where we can adapt to anything that comes our way, but we can pivot without. Hey, if we take a down quarter, it's not a big deal. We have KPIs, we have savings that will sustain us for another 12 to 18 months without any issues.

Yeah.

So I think that that's kind of what I'm looking at, like, from a 30s perspective, like, and it's a little unique. Everybody's going to be a little bit different. But, you know, the communication workflow as well as the financial stability. To say that if something were to happen, let's just say. Okay, perfect. Exactly. Example, Google went down on one of their main servers, which affected so many different platforms. That affected Shopify, it affected Google AdWords. It affected so many different things. And that was a massive play. There's our econ.

Yeah. What happened?

Well, we're 100% direct to consumer. If it would have been down, let's say it's a cyber attack.

Yeah.

Another country did this and wiped our entire data center off. And I was offline for 30 days, 90 days, 60 days, whatever. What's gonna happen? Right. Those are the things that, yeah, that, that, that'll truly define your success is to say without knowing that this is gonna happen. Nobody can predict that. Yeah, I can't predict it. I have no clue it's gonna happen. But if I can say, okay, if this were to happen, it's the same thing, like while I was in the fitness, saying, if I were to get hit by a car, what was. What happened? And so it's those premeditated things that I'm constantly thinking about to make sure that I can negate those. Those obstacles before they even become obstacles.

Yeah. That makes so much sense. So really, man, con, I want to end here, man. Just, where's the best place that people can learn more about your story and your journey? Obviously, we've been talking about social media the whole time. So if they want to follow you and get more connected with Redline and yourself or everything you got going on the events. Like what's the best place for them to connect?

Yeah. So our website, redlinesteel.com you can check out some of our products. Everything's made in America. They're awesome products. We put a lot of, you know, literally blood, sweat, tears into each one. So much work that goes into it. My personal Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, everything. If you look up Colin Wayne one, that's me on and they're all verified platforms. Facebook, just look up Colin Wayne. YouTube's Colin Wayne. So you just look me up and.

You'Ll got it and I'll link it all below for sure. I mean last but not least, Colin, I know this is our first time connected. I feel like we did a pre podcast before the podcast. We've been talking all night and I know it's getting late now, so I definitely appreciate your time. Appreciate just the, the information not only from a military aspect, but I believe like the story itself. How you got to where you were truly impacted me for sure man. So thank you so much for sure. Thank you. Everyone listening, make sure you go follow Colin. All the links will be down below and other than that, make sure you subscribe. I will talk to you guys soon.

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