Rumble’s Noah Neiman on Authenticity, Resilience & Fitness Community

Today we're thrilled to welcome Noah Nieman, co-founder and creator of Rumble Boxing and CEO of Fightstyle Consulting. Noah has revolutionized the fitness industry with his innovative boxing-inspired group fitness classes, has expanded Rumble into a global brand. Noah, so great to see you, man.

Thank you for having me. I need that entrance. It's like a Game of Thrones entrance. Every time I walk into a room, I wish you would announce me.

Bring me everywhere and I'll just announce you. It'll be like when they announced Michael Jordan. In 1989 with the Bulls.

Right? Okay. Well, let's not blaspheme first off to kick off the interview, but I already like your energy. 'Cause sometimes when I do these pods that like the host, I'm like, how did you get a microphone? Your energy, like, do you even want to be here? So I feel like our energies are matching right now, which is great. 'Cause mine's a medical diagnosis. Mine is from ADHD, but yours seems to be more natural.

Me too. That's one thing we have in common. I'm sure we'll uncover many more things in this conversation unfolds.

Well, thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

Absolutely. So tell me about your background. You're an entrepreneur, and I love interviewing entrepreneurs in the podcast because it's completely unscripted. You don't have a PR team behind you telling you what to say. You are who you are, and that's exciting to me. When did you first become an entrepreneur and how did you end up in the seat you're in today?

Well, I don't even think that there was like a definitive moment where it happened. I mean, I always give the analogy. Have you ever seen the movie Slumdog Millionaire? Yeah, of course. So everything in my life, all the missteps, especially all the dark moments, actually led me to this kind of wild path that leads me to be sitting here right now. So I'll give you the brief version of it, 'cause I know you only said we have 25 minutes.

Yeah. And I want to hear about some of the dark moments too, if you're willing to share.

I'm an open book. 'Cause guys don't go to therapy. We go on podcasts and we talk about our traumas. So that's fine. I'm down to share because again, my entrepreneurial, I guess, journey was kind of by happenstance, to be honest. I never planned it. And if I did plan it, I probably wouldn't have succeeded because I wouldn't have been able to capitalize on these moments as I did. So I grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, diagnosed with ADHD and anxiety, depression at a young age. And I was overweight as a kid. I was one of those kids, like t-shirt on in the pool, and I just always had a lot of emotional problems. So I got put on medicine, I had to go to these therapy sessions and they never worked for me. I just had this boundless energy and I found, luckily, I'm going to date myself now. You might know this. You saying I'm old, Noah? I mean, we're getting up there, but listen, this is why we take care of ourselves because age is a relative thing. So I would get in the mail these AOL 50 free hours of internet CDs and my parents wouldn't let me on the internet. And so I would download, I would make up fake accounts and I'd get on the internet and I happened to find like bodybuilding.com or something. It was this like rudimentary website back in the, I guess the '90s that had all these bodybuilding tips and kind of fitness tips. And so for some reason I started to just dive into this world, not professionally, obviously I was a kid. And I found out rather quickly that the more I took care of my physical body, the more my behavioral problems, the more my emotional problems, the more my spiritual problems seemed to be easier to control. They didn't go away, but I was just able to focus them. So fast forward through a ton of just, I mean, I got my degree in accounting. My first job was at JH Cohen, a mid-size accounting firm in Midtown Manhattan. And now to be sitting here talking to you about starting one of the, arguably the most impactful boutique fitness concepts of modern time with its expansion and its impact on communities. That's a crazy journey. So again, it was just everything that I learned about fitness and martial arts, which I took up at a young age, boxing and strength training and jiu-jitsu and football. All of these principles I applied to my personal life and my professional life, and it's taken me to where I am right now.

So you're working in an accounting firm, probably in your early 20s, and you talk about you always were an entrepreneur, but you weren't an entrepreneur when you're sitting in the seat at an accounting firm. So what happened?

Well, listen, I kind of was an entrepreneur. A lot of entrepreneurs, and the statute of limitations is up, and I'm very open about this part of my life. I used to deal a little bit of weed and I used to sell some. I know a few entrepreneurs, I won't name them, but big Fortune 500.

Every entrepreneur I know that's very successful either was a nightclub promoter, dealt weed, or was a bookie. One of the three.

Well, guess what? I'm 2 out of those 3.

All right. I was just in that club for a moment.

That's it. That's why we get along. So my business partner Eugene Rem, who founded 10June, one of the—

I celebrate my 30th birthday at 10June. Long time ago, back in the day.

The universe is aligning. I don't know what I believe in right now, but I believe in some kind of serendipity and there's a reason we're talking right now. So I used to work, so after my accounting job, well, in college, let's, I sold a little bit to afford the things that I wanted to.

Hey man, now it's legalized, right?

Yeah.

Well, this was a long time ago.

FBI and all the cops.

Look, a long, I think it's 15 years. It was like 20 years ago. You can't get me. And we're, this is all satire.

Exactly.

Creative liberties. So I used to run to the bathroom like any good Jewish boy. I would call my mom in the middle of this accounting profession and job, and I'm like, I have to be destined for more than this. Like I would be crying literally in the stall. And the funny thing was, is I was actually pretty good at my job because I was kind of, as accountants go, I was kind of outgoing and I kind of had a different personality and a unique flair. Like I had my tattoos and I was, I had my little thing. So I would always get booked from clients because they wanted to hang out. They wanted me to audit their businesses. So my bosses, even though I was kind of checked out at the job, they would always, they would give me a raise. I would go in to quit and they'd be like, all right, how's an extra $5,000? And then there was this one pivotal moment where my boss at the time, He had this big corner office overlooking Rockefeller Center and it was beautiful. And he was like, Noah, you're really good at what you do, but you're just not focused. It's like, do you want to be here? He was like, look at this. And he pointed to his things in the office and he was like, if you lock down and focus in a couple years, like you too could have this. And when I tell you that my heart sank and I was like, I don't want this. That's what he wanted. I'm like, God bless. And so I quit on the spot. And the funny thing is, is listen, luck favors the prepared. And so I can't say it was luck, but I was certainly fortunate to be in New York City going through all this because I was able to leverage networks unlike any other city possible, which I'm a big believer that entrepreneur is only as strong as their relationship network and their sphere of influence. So when I left my accounting job, I linked up with this kid and we started a promotional direction company where we would hire DJs, we would hire promoters. So we were kind of promotional directors and we would take over nightclubs and we would run them. And I actually learned more about the service industry, about hospitality, about exceeding and kind of consumer expectations, customer expectations. So I learned all this in the streets of New York City growing up in this iconic era of New York City nightlife where 10 June and Kane and Guest House and Susie Wong and Pink Elephant.

Sweet 16. Yeah.

And Martí and Sweet 16 and Duvet and all these places that the rappers were rapping about, I was fortunate enough to learn how to, again, take care of a customer and at the peak of hospitality in New York City. So I did that. It was like one of those things where it's crazy looking back because I always tell the story about how I hired Aoki, DJ Aoki at one of my clubs for like, I want to say it was like $750. Maybe it was like $1,500.

I don't remember. He was on the come up, right? He's trying to make it just like everyone else.

And now he goes for half a million dollars a show. And so again, the timing was very fortunate for myself to do what I'm doing now. Fast forward to the housing crisis of 2008, New York City kind of bottomed out. Nightlife went through a big riff, a big hit. So I left and it was kind of like fortunate, unfortunate timing. I had some family members that were very sick. I won't call them out because they hate when I do this on a national— it's not often you get cancer and then you have your family member talking about it on a podcast. So I try to be respectful of them, but people very close to me, one had just suffered a heart attack, almost lost her life, and the other one was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer. So I moved to Pittsburgh, back to Pittsburgh, to my hometown to deal with that and just kind of find my place again after New York City.

How was that for you? Was that hard?

Because you were like in the middle of the limelight and all of a sudden— It was debilitating. It was like the child star that lost their space in front of the camera and their limelight.

Because you're probably thinking, am I, am I ever going to get back to New York? Or is that it?

I'm going back home.

Exactly.

I thought that especially coming from that exciting time of my life, and then listen, I love my family, but not only to just go back to your hometown, you feel like you're kind of, at least for me, regressing a little bit. 'Cause I was building such a prominent name and I was having so much fun and I was meeting so many interesting people. I was with Kanye and Jay-Z and Rihanna when they were doing like New York State of Mind, like releasing a song. And I was at 10 June when Busta Rhymes would grab the mic and rap and I'm like, I can't believe I'm here. So then to go back to your hometown, that's actually probably that moment right there in this year. And this is very important for, I think, everyone to understand because I almost at the end of that year didn't make it out. I almost like literally died. And I'll give you the brief story of that. Move home, taking care of my family members that are sick, trying to find a way to make a name for myself in my hometown and make some money. I didn't save any money, obviously it was all spent on clothes at Neiman Marcus, which is again, not me, but no traffic. So I got back into drugs and I started doing drugs again and it kind of got out of control just to escape from the situation you were in.

Yeah.

From my family being sick, from me not having a purpose, like idle hands are the devil's playground, especially with somebody with energy like me that needs to focus it somewhere or I'm very destructive, which is why I try to stay as busy as possible, as often as possible, still to this day. So I remember I was at a Super Bowl party and I was doing drugs and I was mixing drugs that you shouldn't just because I was, I felt invincible. And honestly, like at the time I didn't really care. I was going through such a hard point, low point that I wasn't thinking clearly. And I remember waking up in the hospital and seeing all of my family there. And that moment right there, like seeing my nieces, my nephew, my baby brother who adores me and I adore him, my mom, my dad, my brother-in-law, like my whole family just looking at me. Not with like anger or malice, but just concern. And I promised myself from that moment that I would never make my family feel that way again.

When you woke up, did you remember like how you ended up there? Fuck yeah.

I remember every single feeling. I remember the feeling of my eyes rolling in the back of my head. I remember the feeling of like, if I pass out right now, I'm not waking up. And I remember that vividly. And to be honest, that fuels to this day, even though that was 15+ years ago, To this day, that fuels a lot of my hustle and my fire to continue to push away from that dark spot. I still, despite everything that on paper I've done, I still have that chip on my shoulder and I'm still just that same kid from Pittsburgh that doesn't want to give their family that look in their eye again. So it was such a beautiful, again, serendipitous moment where I got out of the hospital a few days later and I was driving down this street in Lawrenceville in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. And there was this guy was hanging the sign that said Warren Stout, Enzo Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Pittsburgh. That was a mouthful. That sign must have cost a lot. But they were literally opening the studio and I had trained jiu-jitsu with, at Sarah Jiu-Jitsu down the street from Hofstra in Long Island. And that was always kind of my sanctuary where I got to get my energy out and my aggression out. And so I was like, why don't I get back into jiu-jitsu? So that moment, I'm pretty sure that Warren and that crew in Pittsburgh saved my life, to be honest, and I give them so much credit. So I started training with these guys 5 days a week, and I kind of essentially what a lot of entrepreneurs, or especially people in fitness do, we traded addictions. So I traded the drugs and the partying and the sense of the lack of purpose, I should say, with let me train, let me get with this community of people that just want to see you get stronger and better physically. And then again, it reminded me of me as a kid when I would go to the gym and I would submit to like strength training and football, and I was like lost in that world. It got me centered and focused and it got all of those like panic attacks and the anxiety I was going through and the drug withdrawals. 'Cause I quit cold turkey with no help, no pills, which is very tough. And every time I would feel negatively, I would train jiu-jitsu. So fast forward a year after that, my parents literally kicked me out of Pittsburgh. They were like, listen, you're destined for something more than this. They've always been my biggest advocates.

Well, not everyone that has parents that believe in them, right? Not everybody has that.

They've been my biggest supporters. Even when I didn't see any potential in myself, I've always had a great support system, and I'm fortunate for that because honestly, sometimes that's all it takes when you're going through a dark spot and you just have people that believe in you as opposed to reinforcing your own systems of disbelief and distrust in yourself. That could be the difference between success and failure. So I'm very fortunate again. What got me to this seat is that Slumdog Millionaire. Every single little thing that's happened in my life is why I'm sitting here right now. And I wouldn't change a damn thing even though it literally almost killed me. So I got kicked out of Pittsburgh. My parents gave me, again, very open with my story, $10,000. I had no money. I was literally broke and lost. And they gave me $10,000. God bless them. But as you know, in New York City, that doesn't go very far. So I was doing odd jobs. I moved back, I got a Craigslist apartment. From this guy Alex Malyshev, who was a Ford model who wanted to sublease his apartment for 3 months while he was in South Africa. So he gave me a really good deal, really good guy. He was like, listen, don't even pay my full rent, pay half rent. I just want something. And so I could afford to stay there for 3 months. That was my timeframe. I had 3 months of living. So I'm bartending, I'm modeling, I'm doing like little odd jobs. I'm like just whatever I can do to survive. I'm trying to get back in the nightlife scene. And then one of my friends asked me, this guy Micah Jesse, he was doing a write-up on this place called Barry's Bootcamp.

Yep. We had JJ, the CEO of Barry's Bootcamp, on our podcast.

Exactly. So I always give them love. Again, talk about my origin story. You gotta respect the people that helped you get where you're at. So I almost didn't go because I was having a really bad week. I was still suffering from panic attacks and going through anxiety. So I almost canceled that. And again, I'm not sitting there if I cancel that moment. So I dragged myself up. I was like, listen, I feel like shit right now, but guess what? I'm still going to go to this class. My friend invited me. I'm gonna show up. So I showed up and I remember being in the bathroom before that class. Literally, I would get panic attacks and my arm would go numb. So my left arm was like feeling kind of funny and I was feeling like short of breath, but the class was starting. The mic came on and the music came on and kind of startled me a little bit. And I was like, all right, whatever, I gotta do this. I told my friend I was gonna do it. I gotta show up for them. I walk into Barry's and I end up just having the time of my life. I'm sprinting up hills and I'm squatting and I'm like, but high-fiving my friend and the trainer at the time happened to be Joey Gonzalez. Joey.

Yeah. Joey's actually who we have on the podcast.

Yeah. So Joey Gonzalez. So I don't know what happened, but we struck up a conversation. He was like, listen, I don't know what you do. He didn't know that I trained jiu-jitsu, that I had studied every strength and conditioning book in the industry, that I had access to world conditioning coaches and strength coaches. Got to learn again, not from a classroom, but from real life. Like I was out there learning and applying in the same light. So he asked me if I wanted to train there. They had just opened a week ago.

And Joey is now the CEO of Barry's Bootcamp. So he was a trainer and he became the CEO.

Well, he was a trainer, but at the time he was also a partner. So he wasn't the CEO at the time, but he was a partner at the time. So I didn't know that. But that's where he got started.

He got started as a trainer.

Yeah. As a trainer. So much like my story. So each one teach one. So we end up striking this conversation up and he asked me if I wanted to be a trainer there. And I was like, I never thought about this, but yeah, sure. So I ended up going through all the trainings and stuff and they gave me one class Monday night, 9:00 PM. And that's a very hard sell. 9:00 PM, New York City, it's late. So I would show up sometimes and 3 people would be there, then 7 people, and then 1 person, and then no people would be there. And I'd walk home all be disheartened. But then 10 people, 20 people, 60 people, 60 people with a waitlist. And it was because again, that chip on my shoulder, I was like, listen, if I can focus for this hour of training people externally and not focus on the panic attacks I'm having, not focus on the shitty situation that I'm in and not consistently reinforce how tough my life is right now. And I can just for that hour focus on, is the music dope? Is the experience awesome? Are the lights going? Am I motivating and galvanizing the room? Am I connecting with people so I'm authentically giving them this energy so that they can feed off of? The community responded to that. And again, talk about luck, like to be in New York City and doing that is definitely a big advantage. So I was training producers and directors and there was this guy, Michael Rourke, who I was training, who was the founder of Hudson Media Group, and he was doing this series for GQ. About fitness. It was called Fighting Weight. It was short episodic content on little 4-minute workouts you could do anywhere. And the host was Eric Valdez, I think a former soap opera star. And he was like, yo, your energy's so good. I know classical training. He was like, why don't you jump on camera for this GQ Gentleman's Quarterly opportunity? And I was like, yeah. I'm like, I'm a bum. Like, I don't know anything. I've never been trained. I don't know what I'm doing in front of a camera. Like, I was like, sure, if you want to put your reputation on the line. He's like, nah, just be yourself.

You'll be great.

So I was like, all right, cool. I mean, I'm still again filled with a little doubt because I've gone through this trauma and I've gone, I'm a little shell-shocked still about what I've been through in my past and all the dark spots. But I showed up and again, when the camera went on, it was like us talking right now. I just, for some reason, even though I'd never been on camera, I just felt at ease. And so that GQ series led to media features in Vanity Fair and Harper's Bazaar and Times and I'm getting opportunities. I got a show on Bravo and all of it, and a deal with Nike to host massive events for them. And I'm in the middle of Nike Town, New York City.

What was it about you that you think opened up those opportunities? Is it your personality?

I don't fucking know, man. I don't know.

Well, I mean, I can tell. Well, I have my own thoughts.

Well, I would rather hear 'em from you.

Well, no, I can tell you come off as somebody who's comfortable in their own skin, who's authentic, who doesn't try to be anybody else but themselves. You also come off somebody that's vulnerable, that doesn't kind of portray something. And I think those are the types of people that people want to work with and be friends with and be around.

First off, thank you. There was a time when I tried to emulate what I thought I wanted to be and I failed miserably, which is why I got into drugs and all of this.

Of course.

Right.

Everyone else is already taken, right?

Exactly. Be yourself. And I think that I actually just did another, uh, that I think you touched on it at the end. This is very important for entrepreneurs.

Be somebody that other people want in the room.

And being somebody, it's not about portraying something. It's about developing your own unique taste palette by ingesting as much as you can so you have a specific and diverse point of view. I try to do everything. I try to understand different walks of life, different points of view, different genres of music. I try to watch different movies that I might not like, and I'm trying to consume as much as possible. So that one, I can identify trends and see kind of what's out there. But two, you find yourself, you're not in an echo chamber and reinforcing what you think you're supposed to be. You're being vulnerable and being out there. And one, meeting so many diverse people, you know, the Pink Floyd line, all you touch and all you see is all your life will ever be. We got one run at this shit. We don't have the reset button. We don't have Game Genie to get more lives. So I try to Jim Carrey, yes man, everything I can. And hopefully it's put me in a position to be articulate and educated and well-rounded enough where people want me in the room. And obviously for people starting out, you're not going to have that diverse taste palette and you might not be as lucky to hang out with Kanye and to hang out and to get that input from extraordinary people. But it reminds me of one of my first clients, this guy Rick Gerson, who was a mentor and a good friend. He said something that was pretty profound. He was like, listen, I didn't have two pennies to rub together. And this guy, Rick Gerson, self-made billionaire, there's no reason I should be in the room with him. But the reason what he said and why he wanted me in the room is, listen, you bring this consistent, boundless, positive energy. I want to be around that. So when you have nothing to give and you have nothing, I guess, tangible to offer, bring your motivation, bring your energy, bring your positive attitude. Because in a world where there's a lot of negativity and that negativity is consistently reinforced in social media because that's what gets the clicks. Be that as authentically as possible. And sometimes you do have to fake it, to be honest. I don't always wake up like, hey, let's fucking go, buddy. But as authentically as you can, be that person, be that positive energy, be that well of inspiration and that backbone for other people who may need it. And you'd be so surprised at where that can take you and what rooms you'll be sitting in because of it. So again, I'm just here because of that and the rooms that I got to sit in where I'm very fortunate to be in. So fast forward out of Barry's to Rumble. I built up my brand within the parameters of Barry's, or I guess under the umbrella of Barry's for a long time, 4.5, 5 years. But it was like, all right, what's next? I'm always— ADHD is a very sinister but beautiful disease, I guess, or disorder I should say, because when we accomplish something, we don't ever like give ourselves a medal or pat us on our back. We're just kind of relieved that it happened. We're like, all right, I did it. Now what's next? I learned from my mom, you're only as good as your last sale. So I accomplished all these things within Barry's and I was making great money and I had the Lambo and I had the things that I thought were going to make me fulfilled. But when I got those things, I was like, cool, what's next?

Yep. And that's what people don't understand about entrepreneurs and people are like, how is he still working? He has so much money. It's like, it's not about the money. And it's as soon as you buy something, you're like, okay, what am I building? Because it's about what you're building. It's about the journey.

Exactly.

So it's been an amazing story just hearing how you got to the point where Rumble was created. And obviously Rumble's a brand that so many people have heard of. It's made such a big impact on the fitness industry. So tell us about the story of Rumble and given this crazy twist and turns of your background, how you got involved in this venture.

So story of Rumble is it was almost a thing that never happened, to be honest.

So I was at Barry's Bootcamp. That was my first foray into the fitness industry. Now I'll quickly rehash. So I had this wild year of drugs and almost ODing and getting kicked out of my home city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with $10,000 in my bank account and trying to make it to New York and going to this Barry's class. And fast forward a couple years working with Barry's, becoming the master trainer, becoming pretty much a prominent face of that brand, which again was not my brand. I was just, leveraging that platform to build my own personal brand at the time. And Eugene Rem, who's the founder of Catch Restaurants, nightlife impresario. So she reached out to me and he said, hey, I see you posting all these videos of you boxing. And I had already built up my name in New York and kind of nationally by doing some national press and media and television within the Barry's brand. Would you ever want to start your own concept utilizing the boxing? Because in my classes, I was always trying to work in boxing in another brand. And I originally, I said no because I'd finally dug myself out of the hole, which there was a lot of hesitation because I was scared to go back to where I was. I had that chip on my shoulder.

I had a path.

I was on the train tracks. I was driving the train. I was shoveling coal into it and things were going great. So it wasn't like I left because there was anything bad going on in my life. It was just— I had this fear about losing everything. So Eugene hit me up. He's this Brighton Beach son of immigrants. Just, he's very headstrong. And again, he always tells the story differently, but Eugene, I'm gonna tell it the way it is. I said no for literally 6 months, but he is a very persistent man. So for 6 months, I was so, again, I let fear stop me literally in my tracks from Achieving something.

You just didn't know if you could deliver. Like Eugene's been very successful and he's trying to get you involved and you're just like, can I do this or not?

I don't even think it was the fear of not being good enough to start my own thing. It was literally like I would wake up and think about what Eugene had offered and I would flash back to being in my basement in my parents' house in Pittsburgh, like having panic attacks, sitting with my dog. And just trying to figure out like what I was gonna do with my life and being paralyzed. And I was so afraid 'cause the momentum was there with me. I had Uncle Mo on my side and I didn't want to kill that momentum, especially to start something brand new in a very, as everyone will say, a very saturated industry, especially in New York City where fitness concepts.

Yeah. You had SoulCycle at that point. You had Flywheel, Barry's, they were, they were everywhere. Equinox, et cetera.

Everything. It was not even that, Orange Theory.

There was a thousand and then mom and pops gyms. It was like Starbucks in New York City.

So after 6 months of Eugene, hey, let's go for a smoothie.

Let's just talk. Let's see like if you know of anybody that can help me start this new concept. 'Cause he was an investor in Flywheel and he wanted to balance out his portfolio with something healthy. He had cash, which not unhealthy, but it was just a different pursuit. And he wanted to get into fitness, which was also a very important thing in his life. He was on his own little fitness adventure, getting strong and getting healthy and getting in shape. So Fast forward the 6 months of him really hammering it home, like, we should do this. It's a great idea. There's nothing else out there like this. We can do it uniquely. He asked me to come to a meeting with these other 2 guys who ended up being the co-founders, Andy Stenzler and Anthony DiMarco at Soho House and Meatpacking District. So we all met up and within those 6 months I had a little composition notebook and I had already been ideating the idea of Rumble. I wanna punch things. There was literally, I think I mentioned this, but there were 3 principles, 3 tenets that I wrote on those college or high school composition notebooks. And the first principle, the first tenet was I want to punch shit. Second one was I want to listen to rap music. Because at the time, the fitness industry was very EDM, very poppy, very top 40. And that wasn't what I listened to growing up ever. So it wasn't really doing it for me. And I was always at Barry's trying to, instead of playing Taylor Swift, I was playing Method Man, I was playing DMX, I was playing Ice Cube, I was playing NWA, like all that stuff. So that was the second principle. And then the third principle was I want to do dope shit with dope people. Because again, when you're working for another brand, you have no control of who's involved in that brand. You have no control over who's hired. You're just kind of a mercenary. So I wanted something that was literally, I just wanted to surround myself with like-minded people that were fun to be around. So I met these guys and they gave me an offer I couldn't refuse. I don't have the cotton balls in my mouth. Like Brando, but they gave me this offer and financially, and I was looking at it coming from the little kid that had, you know, minus $76.

They gave you an offer to start the concept, like to say, we're gonna fund it and you're gonna be running it basically.

Essentially.

They gave me a co-founder position, obviously. So I was right there with them. We had already, I think, almost been fully funded for the first location because they kind of proceeded as if I had already said yes. 'Cause you Eugene again is very persistent, so he kind of, for the month prior, was like, all right, we got this kid, we got him locked. So he went out to investors and ended up getting pretty much fully funding the first location, the bricks and mortar. So I remember they gave me this offer and I was like, minus $76 in my bank account, sometimes putting food back at Key Foods in Alphabet City 'cause I couldn't afford it.

And that's not easy in New York when you're that age and you're out and about and you have to portray a certain vibe and the reality is you're struggling behind closed doors.

A hundred percent.

I mean, by the end of my Barry's tenure, I was very stable. That's why I didn't want to leave.

But in the beginning, I had first moved and first started training as a profession.

It was like credit card roulette. I would swipe that card and pray to God that it went through. And a lot of times it wouldn't. I would have to put back like the chicken and I'd keep the cottage cheese because I needed my protein. And then I'd swipe it again and they'd be like, and still no good. And I'd have to put back the cottage cheese, but I keep the tuna fish cans.

But New York, man, you learn to be scrappy.

You learn to work with whatever resources you have, which is why I love that city so much.

So they gave me this offer that was like something that I never ever thought that I would ever be able to achieve.

And I remember I ran out and I, first person I called was my mom and I called her and I go, listen, these guys are offering me this like insane offer to like found this company with them. I already know what we would do. I already know what it's gonna look like. I already know exactly the presentation, the, like, exactly the execution. I'm scared though. I don't want to end up back in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the basement looking at my cell phone, praying to God that it, someone calls me to get me outta my situation. And she goes, most profound thing, and this is a very important moment as an entrepreneur that a lot of people just don't have the luxury of having, is support. Family support. And she said, after listening to me, she goes, listen, no matter what you do, I'm gonna be proud of you. And I was like, it's awesome.

I got a little lip, I was like the little lip quiver.

And I walked back in with the confidence of having the pride of my family behind me and the Lion King.

And I walked back in.

You're playing with house money at that point, right?

Yeah.

And I'm like, you know what?

I made my family proud after that moment when I woke up in the hospital and they were all looking at me very scared, very disappointed, and very just, uncertain of what their son was gonna become. And that was one of those moments where I was like, listen, no matter what happens, even if I take a risk and fall on my face, because it was risky when I was leaving my job, I was talking to a principal at my old company and he was kind enough to tell me that 9 outta 10 gyms fail.

And I was like, all right, cool.

So thanks buddy.

So 9 outta 10 gyms fail.

So knowing that, I felt I wasn't fearful anymore. And I have this tattoo that's from Shakespeare, it's from King Henry that says, fearless minds climb soonest unto crowns. And so I looked at my arm, I got this in college, and I looked at my arm and I was like, how dare I have this tattoo and fake the funk? I was like, I gotta be fearless. I have to go for this. I have to.

So I did.

And then the rest is pretty much history. I mean, we opened up January 9th, 2017 to a wild fanfare. I think before we launched, we had over 100 pieces of press because Eugene in his own right, myself in my own right, we had built up this kind of brand awareness, our personal brand awareness.

Was it the newness of the concept, Noah, that it was boxing?

No.

Like besides the founding team, like what about it was unique and why do you think it ultimately took off the way it did?

It could have been fucking badminton.

It's the people.

I always say this, it ain't what you do, it's who you do it with and how you do it. But that's really indicative of who you do it with. So it was just, we had a powerhouse of personalities. We just had, a backbone behind the brand that was at least undeniably interesting to watch. So you have these kids that, you know, we've been building up our own thing in New York and Eugene has built up Caché Restaurants, iconic. Teng Yoon, Abe Arthur's great. He's just a serial entrepreneur. I had built my name up at Barry's and was training some of the biggest people in the world, and obviously they have a big mouthpiece, so they're talking about me. So It's just we had a lot of eyeballs on us, but that also put a big crosshair on our back because imagine if we opened up January 9th, 2017 and it was underwhelming. But I thrive under the fire. So again, not many, like I'm very fortunate, we're very fortunate because there's so many concepts, so many things in and outside of the gym that they open and shut without a whisper. And like I said, we were, before we even had our first studio open, I'm doing morning shows, I'm doing Covetour, I'm doing all of these really cool— Shape Magazine, Muscle Fitness, like all of like everybody who's been supporting Eugene for over a decade in New York, supporting me for over 5 years as a trainer, group fitness trainer in New York City. We had that support. And so when we launched, of course we had something unique because like I said, we listened to hip-hop, which was pretty unique at the time in 2017. Not a lot of studios were playing hip-hop. I mean, I think you had some yoga studios that were trying to play some hip-hop. So that in itself was actually kind of—

But boxing itself is something that was never, at least to my knowledge, something that you could consume in a class, or was it?

I will give all praise to what I think is the godfather of Rumble, Michael Olajide Jr., who had Aerospac. So Michael Olajide Jr. was a professional boxer who ended up losing his eye in a match. And that obviously ended his career. So he had this cool eye patch. He would always wear the Jeremy Scott Adidas with wings, and he had this studio in Meatpacking District, coincidentally, not too far from where I had signed the deal to become co-founder of Rumble Boxing. So he had this thing called Aerospace where in the '90s and early 2000s, he was training everybody. He was Adriana Lima, a supermodel's boxing coach. And Adriana Lima, AKA Hot Lava, she was one of those early pioneers in making boxing cool and making it prominent and taking it out of the gyms of Gleason's and Mendez and Fortune and Trinity and bringing it kind of to the mainstream. So it was always around, it was just never kind of penetrated the zeitgeist in hip-hop culture.

It's interesting because there's a couple takeaways that I have from your story. One of which is like, if you weren't posting social media content like you did, then this opportunity doesn't happen, right? So I think one lesson is like, put yourself out there no matter where you are in your life, in your career, because if you don't, you're closing out opportunities. If you're not in the consideration set, then you have no chance of something fortunate happening to you. So why were you posting? What were you getting out of it? And I guess what advice would you have for people that maybe were in the situation you used to be in, that have something to say or do something different, but are afraid to put themselves out there on social media?

Why did I put myself out there? To be honest, it wasn't for anybody else. It was for me.

It was to keep me accountable.

Because when you're vulnerable and you put out your pursuits, you put out your passions, especially on a bigger scale than your personal network, as social media tends to be, even if you have 100 followers, that's generally more people than you have in your personal day-to-day life saying, hey, you've been posting boxing, you haven't posted your workouts, you haven't posted anything in a few weeks. Like, what's going on? Are you good? So social media definitely kept me accountable, but it also, for so long, for those years that I was in the basement and I was inside and I was reclusive, I didn't like that.

I didn't like that.

It was very lonely. So social media gave me an outlet to share what I love with the world that I had repressed for years. And it was fun and it's— the likes are cool and that gives you a little shot of dopamine and you're chasing the treasure. But I was an early adopter of kind of— they say now like you're your own personal brand and make sure that you're putting yourself out there and you're building your own brand. And oftentimes that becomes a little disingenuous because we're putting out what we want the world to see as opposed to putting out what we actually are. For me, I just wanted to showcase what I did. So it's honestly like when I, my first post on Instagram, I don't remember what it was. I was a late adopter to Instagram. It said it was a post of me holding my dog and flexing. And I was like, folks, this is pretty much what you're gonna get forever. I'm not gonna change because that's what I love. I love my dogs and I love to work out and I love to apply the principles of training into my entrepreneurial and personal life. That's it. That's what I like to do. And I talked about this for 10+ years and I've never wavered in my execution.

I've never changed.

And it might be boring and it might be redundant, but oftentimes the soil of success is that redundancy, is that commitment to doing what you have to do just with that same passion, even though you've done it 10 trillion times before.

Yeah. So looking ahead, you talked about the origins of Rumble and why you think it was a success. Where is Rumble today and where do you hope to take it moving forward? Are some of the opportunities you have your eye on?

Tyson, he's very excited for this part, the future.

He wants to know if he could still afford gourmet Wagyu beef for his meals. So when you build something based on authenticity, you don't have to worry too much about the direction in the far future. I focus on putting one foot forward, one step forward every single day and executing on what I believe to be true, which is that composition notebook. I wanna punch shit, I wanna listen to rap music, and I wanna do incredible things with incredible people. If we follow those three principles, the music will change a little bit. The artwork that we adorn on the walls will change a little bit with the times, but in its essence, Rumble's gonna remain Rumble until the last brick falls. So it's my goal as a founder, as much as I can, to maintain that authenticity, to make sure that as we scale, to make sure— the lowest analogy I can come up with is Roy Kroc. You wanna make sure you're not selling hot dogs at McDonald's, and you wanna just make sure that as much as you can innovate in the margins, you You don't want to completely reinvent your brand. You don't have to do that. That's where a lot of brands fail when they think they have to totally change their vernacular and lingo and how they present their brand just to adapt to times. I think those little kind of marginal innovations as you progress while staying rooted to your original ethos is super important. And that's solely my goal. Solely my goal is to make sure that people are showing up, they're getting an incredible workout, that's gonna make them not just look better, but again, feel better. That was another differentiating factor where all these workouts in the early 2000s, late '90s and early 2000s, we're talking about let's burn calories, let's look sexy, let's make sure we have summer bodies. We were just like, no, let's just feel fucking great. Let's develop something where you can literally tap into your visceral core desires to just throw your fists and fight or flight where you can just fight and throw things and feel good and do it with great people. So my goal is, as we scale, we have like, I think, 100 studios open now. We opened in Tokyo, Australia, from that one little January 9th, 2017 opening in Chelsea with another 250 on the way, 250 licenses sold. I just want to steer the ship the best I can as it grows like wildfire and just make sure, again, it's an authentic representation of what I wanted to bring to the world and the experience. More importantly, the experience and the feelings that I wanted our consumer, our clients to walk out with. So that's really it.

What an incredible story. So shifting gears here, Noah, as we wrap up, and it's been so inspiring to hear about your journey. As you look back on the whole story that we just went through from the earliest days when you first got to New York to the dark days when you had to go back to Pittsburgh to where you are sitting today, what were some of the decisions that you think you made right along the way that set you up to be the success that you are?

The best decision that I ever made was absolutely without a doubt doing what I had to do and not doing what I felt like doing. Because especially when you're dealing with, like, I have diagnosed medical conditions. I have ADHD. I probably still have it, but depression, anxiety, I curb it with what I do, with what I physically do with my life. But There were so many times when, again, even something as simple as like not wanting to post boxing, not wanting to be in, you know, out. I remember when I was starting at Barry's, not wanting to show up because I was going through panic attacks and I had a bad week where I felt super depressed and dark and didn't want to be outside. And that's kind of the insidious thing about depression and anxiety is all of the things that it takes to get yourself out of that hole. Goes against the natural order of depression because to get out of that depressive state, you should be doing your normal routines. You should be out there in the public. You should not be insulated, just thinking about every problem, not holding your wrist like I used to do, feeling my heart start racing and getting so worked up that it was racing. I would try to stop and I would actually lose my mind trying to like calm myself and it would actually make it worse. So every day it's kind of like that Tyson approach, like being a champion is showing up every day and doing what you hate to do sometimes, but executing, performing like you love it.

And that's not fake. That's not disingenuous.

There's so many times where I don't want to do what I know that I have to do, but yet because I've trained that discipline for 10 years, and it's something you train and you have to consistently train it, I was able to, like you said, put myself out there, to consistently put myself out there, to consistently showcase my skills, my attributes to the world, and to become that person that people wanted in the room, wanted to be around, wanted to give their time, attention, effort, and energy and money because I was consistent in myself and who I was and the energy that I brought forth, even on days where I didn't want to fucking be that person. So that's my biggest takeaway is I learned the very hard way. So hopefully you don't have to learn that way and you can just take my word for it.

Yeah, for sure. And with that, Noah, is there a kind of quote or mantra that you like to guide your life by, given everything we've talked about today?

Of course.

I have a gang of them. I can sit here. I got quotables for days, bars, but the biggest one, and I quote it pretty much almost every time I do a podcast or every time I talk in general, it's a Muhammad Ali quote that I always say. So if you've watched a few of my podcasts, I'm so sorry for the redundancy, but like I said, the soil of success is generally being redundant and being consistent and saying the same thing. So it's service to others is our rent for our room here on Earth. And I'm trying to find a better quote. I can't find it, especially with what I do as my profession. Service to others is our rent for our room here on Earth. When we focus on creating an environment to enrich others and we use our skills to create a space for others to get stronger, healthier, happier, to feel safer in society, then we're probably gonna be pretty well off. We're probably gonna do all right. Because the flip side of that is when we create an environment that's only for ourselves and we're only trying to self-serve, even if we pretend in some clips or some encounters that it's for another person or for the greater good, people can sniff out that disingenuous kind of moral fiber or the fiber of a brand. So when you actually set up to create systems of service to other people, chances are, one, you're gonna feel really good about yourself. I wake up every day really happy with what I've accomplished, not because of the things, not because of like what it's provided, but because I so many times get messages. I feel better. I got outta that depressive state that I know you were in because I went to Rumble, because I was able to walk into a space that was full of energy and life and vibrancy, and I got to work out all these demons and literally knuckle therapy, I call it. I got to have my daily knuckle therapy. That's incredible. And then hopefully, and more often than not, the profits, the revenues, the brand loyalty for your consumer is gonna come from that.

It all follows.

It follows that. So Steve Jobs said the same thing. He said, focus on the product and not the profit. May he rest in peace.

Same thing. They're all saying the same thing.

Why? I think a lot of people lack patience and they chase the money too soon and put everything else aside and when you do that, you're always chasing the money. And I think when you go through the hard work, uh, what that you've gone through both personally and professionally, it's on the other side of that that you really are able to achieve greatness, which is something that you're doing. So I want to thank you so much, Noah, for joining today and sticking with us through the technical issues. I cannot wait for our audience to hear about your journey, and I can't wait to meet in person.

Thank you so much.

So on behalf of Susie and the Advikim, thanks again to the great inspiring Noah Nieman, co-founder and creator of Rumble Boxing, for joining us today. Be sure to subscribe, bring you to Speed of Culture Podcast on your favorite podcast platform. Till next time, see you soon everyone, and rumble along. Thanks again, man.

Hey!