Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / Episode 60: George Foreman III, Former Professional Boxer & Founder EverybodyFights

Transcript

Episode 60: George Foreman III, Former Professional Boxer & Founder EverybodyFights · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: What's going on? Guys? You are listening to episode sixty
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: sixty I'm so geeked over that. A Hurdle a podcast.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: The docs to everyone from entrepreneurs to top CEOs and
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: athletes about how they've gotten through tough times hurdles of
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: sorts by leaning into wellness.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: My name is Emily.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: A Body, and for today's episode, I'm going to be
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: chatting with George Foreman the Third. If you don't know
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: of George Foreman the Third, you'd likely know of his father.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: He's a two time heavyweight champion, the guy behind the
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Foreman Grill. George himself also a professional boxer in his
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: past and the co founder of a chain of boxing
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: inspired gyms called Everybody Fights. Before I get into George's story,
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: quick shout out to my sponsor, Athletic Greens with twelve
• 0:49
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• 0:52
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• 0:55
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• 0:59
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• 1:03
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• 1:06
  Speaker 2: to Athleticgreens dot Com slash hurdle Again, that's Athleticgreens dot
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: Com slash hurdle to grab yours today. All right, So
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: let's talk about my guy George. If you ask George
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: what it was like to grow up with the famous dad,
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: he's pretty humble about it.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: And that's because really that's all he's ever known.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: He graduated with a degree in business administration from Rice
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: University and went on to manage his dad's business, traveling
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: the world, meeting celebrities and managing contracts, and in all
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: that hustle and bustle, that's when he came to his
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: hurdle moment. He was standing at six foot five, weighing
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: in at more than two hundred and eighty pounds when
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: he realized he wasn't happy. And that's how George himself
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: got into boxing. After a year of training, Foreman stepped
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: into the ring for his first fight, weighing in at
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: two hundred and thirty one pounds. He'd then go on
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: to have an undefeated professional boxing career that ended in
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: twenty just a year before he opened the first Everybody
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: Fights in Boston, and the story about how he got there,
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: well it's pretty insane. Today there are seven locations nationwide
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: and he plans to expand to sixteen new ones by
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty one. Trust me, this is an episode you
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: guys do not want to miss. As always at Hurdle
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: Podcast on Instagram and Twitter, if you have a hurdle
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: moment of your own to share or just want to
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: say hi, feel free to reach out to me. It's
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: Emily at Hurdle dot us and I'm going to keep
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: this intro short and sweet this week.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: With that, let's get to hurdling Today. I'm sitting down
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: with George Foreman, the third.
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: I love when I go into intro someone and they
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: have like a laundry list of things I can say
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: about them right.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: Off the bat.
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: I mean, you're an entrepreneur, founder of Everybody Fights, a coach.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: Some may recognize your name because you are also the
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: son of businessman and former two time heavyweight champion George Foreman.
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: Daddy, Daddy.
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: There's so much to dive into after that intro, But
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: I think what I would love first is why don't
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: you tell me what Everybody Fights is?
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: Everybody Fights is a fitness facility essentially at its core,
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: and we run. You know, one hundred and forty classes
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: a week, four different styles of classes, group fitness focus.
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: But we took it a step further and not only
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: can we like allow two hundred people to work out
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: at prime time, we also have not actually not of
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: my gym in New York, but all the other ones.
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: We have full time open gym, so you can just
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: hit the weights if you want to, luxury locker room,
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: sign the steam room, et cetera, kind of the whole
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: nine yards to get people no excuse not to show
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: up at the gym four or five times a week.
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: I just want you in there. You don't even have
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: to work that hard. So that's it. We're known for
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: a boxing component. It's one of our four boxing classroom
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: is one of our four classrooms, but it's only about
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: thirty percent of what we do from a modality standpoint.
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: But even when you're in the other classes, we're taking
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: the attitude that we're preparing you to be a better boxer,
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: even when you're running. It's a boxer focused road work,
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: et cetera.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: So what are the other things you can do in
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: the gym besides box?
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so you can box, you can run, you can
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: lift or do straint training, cardio recovery classes. We even
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: have yoga classes. That was actually my first class in
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: the entire company was a yoga class. No, people wouldn't
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: believe that. Those are all the different ways you can
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: train at ABF.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: And where are EBF locations right now?
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: Ebfflications are two in Boston, one New York here and Philadelphia,
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: and then we have one in Kentucky and Chicago. Oh,
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: in Atlanta just opened yesterday, and keep track of them.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: There's so much going on. Congratulations, that's super exciting.
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: Thank you, Thank you.
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: Not necessarily a boxing gym, but a gym that does
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: involve a lot of boxing. Yep, you have an extensive
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: background in boxing. Before we get into that, I just
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: really want to rewind it kind of start from the beginning.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: Where'd you grow up?
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: Grew up in Houston, Texas, a little bit of South Carolina,
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: mostly Houston, and then went to boarding school when I
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: was like eleven years old to Boston. Why Boston, that's
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: where the best schools were. They said, the schools are there. Yeah,
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: And then last two years were at a military school
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: in Indiana. So I had a couple of years there
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: and that's like my childhood right there in a.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: Quick little snapshot.
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: Tell me what it's like growing up with a dad
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: that everybody knows.
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: M It's really hard for me to answer that question
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: because I don't know what it's like to grow up
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: with a dad that nobody knows, because by the time
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: nobody knew who my dad was anymore. It's kind of
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: like now I'm a grown man. So when I was
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: a kid, I remember I was six, and sometime I
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: don't have anything to compare it to. You know, when
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: I was six, I was at a friend's house and
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: they said, your dad's on TV. And we went in
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: the living room and all the grown ups were around
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: watching him fight on TV. I think it could have
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: been in pay per view Cherry Cooney, and it was
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: a big deal and all the grown ups were impressed,
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: and I was like, oh, yeah, my dad's on TV.
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: And so since and he was a big star, you know,
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: and about two years later, three years later, he was
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: the biggest sports star and by the numbers at least,
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: And so I just don't know. So the things that
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: are awkward, I guess, are just when you meet people,
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: especially at times when he's like super famous, they assume
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: because they feel like they know him, they know you.
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: That's probably different. Everything else is pretty obvious, I think.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, pretty obvious.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: I mean these days, I feel like any celebrity sports
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: star would have you. They have people like stationed outside
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: of where they're at trying to talk to them.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: Was that something that you guys ran into a lot?
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: Uh? Like, we definitely had, you know, growing up, people
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: are always driving in front of our house over and
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: over throughout the day. People would it was funny. They'd
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: always ask my mom if she was the help. They
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: would actually get asked that. She would say, yeah, I'll
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: go get there. And so if that was awkward, I
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: think everybody around you they look at you as not you.
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: But your father is an opportunity and you as an
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: opportunity to get to an opportunity. So that's awkward. Yeah,
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: but whatever, man, life is hard, Like that's not hard stuff,
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: that's just stuff. I don't I there's nothing to complain about.
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: I think it's just it's definitely when people sometimes know
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: more about you and your past and your family's passing
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: you do, that's very different. But everything else I can't
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: even like every time I comment on it, it feels like
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: I'm complaining. I'm not negative about any of it, you know, totally.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's funny when you reference being younger and
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: you have this memory of like them being like.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: Your dad's on TV.
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: I feel as though, at some points when I reflect
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: on my younger years, like I've totally blocked out, Like
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: I don't remember anything from like before age like thirteen,
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: I'm like, what even happened? Then?
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: I don't even recall that. Okay, cool, So I'll give you.
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: I'll give you one more story. In ninety one is
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: a guy named Vanda Holyfield, my dad, if I don't know,
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: not everybody knows him. And so my dad fought him
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: and it was the biggest pay per view event ever,
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: and nobody had a box where you could tune in,
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: like most people didn't have those in ninety one. They
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: had closed circuit. They did a hunt one point four
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: million pay per view bys. Those are big by today's standards,
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: So that's how big the fight was. The next day,
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: I have to my dad lost a decision, so I
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: had to go home to school the next day and
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: I got teased so bad so that I remember that
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: was I didn't enjoy that, and then so after that
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: that was like, oh, Dad's got to win. I was like,
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: that was the first time I actually care whether he
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: won or lost, because I was like, I don't want
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: to go school on Monday if he loses.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: But whatever, were you athletic growing up?
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: No? No, no, worst athlete?
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah? Why do you say that?
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: I was a book a lead, A book a leade.
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: Oh I don't think I've ever heard anyone use that
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: to her.
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: I just first time I ever said it. When I
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: was six, I had one of my cousins who told me,
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: you know, you can read too much. That was me
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: growing up, and I didn't get into athletics until I
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: was older.
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: Okay, so let's kind of talk about that. I know
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: you mentioned you went to boarding school in Boston. What
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: happened after that?
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: So Boston, everything went great. I asked to go to
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: boarding school because I was a weirdo, and after my
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: tenth grade year heard there was a school that had
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: an airport. I wanted to be a pilot. I was
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: a hot idea. So it was a military school. So
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: I was like, I'll suck it up and go to
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: military school to learn how to fly. To the summer camp,
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: called my dad and said, this is awesome. Can I
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: stay here? I heard it's really hard during the school
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: year at the military school, but it was the only
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: boarding school with an airport, and he said yep, And
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: so I stayed in military school for that purpose, got
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: into lacrosse at the time Indiana, and then graduated, and
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: part of halfway through that, I went to the Air
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: Force Academy to a recruiting program over the summer for
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: a few weeks, and then they broke the news to
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: me that George, we really want you. Awesome, and you know,
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: I'd gone through the whole process, but the distance between
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: your butt and the top of your head is so
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: great that you won't be able to fly fighter jets
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: like the planes I wanted to fly. I'd had to
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: fly like cargo jets and maybe be two bombers or
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: something like that, they told me if I even got
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: to become a pilot. So I said, you know what,
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: I'm going to college. And so I heard about the
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: school named Pepperdine and visited it, applied early, got in, didn't.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: Look back, didn't look back. So what do you go
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: to school for?
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: And by the way, I regretted it I should have
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: served my country, But at the time, I was like,
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: I've had enough military school for the moment, right right?
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: What you study in college?
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: Business admin did that for three years, and my dad said,
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: there's one rule. You have to get straight a's. You
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: don't have to pay for anything. But my dad my
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: mom were divorced and my mom had bills. So I
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: was like, I'm not going to spend my dad's money
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: on my mom's bills.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: So I got three jobs, but I still no one.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: How does the thought process for that work?
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: You're like, Eh, one job's cool, but I could probably
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: take two, and then two jobs are cool, But like,
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: I don't need to hang out with any of my friends, So.
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: What are friends for? Man? Like I grew up my
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: dad was my friend and our time social time was
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: working always, so my brain didn't register. So it's like
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: I have free time. I got my a's for straight a's,
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: I can work, So I work security. I worked at
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: the student center overnight. I'd do my homework till six
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: in the morning, work and they're watching it, and then
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: I babysat.
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: Those jobs are all like you have your like very
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: serious security job, and then.
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: I babysat what better person that babysit your kids in.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: A security security card?
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: So my dad found out and he was like, what
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: you did? Huh? My sister told him me. She was like,
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: Monk has three jobs because he was boasting about how, like,
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: I'm both the.
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: Name you just used, monk, what's the root of that?
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: Short for monkey? That's my dad's an't name. Okay, that's
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: what everybody calls him in the family. But yes, he
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: was boasting about how it wasn't working and I'm getting
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: straight aed and she was like, he has three jobs.
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: And we got in a big fight and he's like,
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: if you want to work, you can come work from me.
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: And then there's a transition period and I moved to
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: Houston and transferred to Rice.
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: Okay, so when he says you can come work for me,
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: what kind of job is that? And did you even
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: at the time were you interested in doing that? And
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: then you said you guys were best friends, But I.
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: Think as interested as like if you grew up on
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: a farm, like are you interested in like harvesting crops?
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: Probably not, but you know how to do it, you know,
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: and it's fun and it's the family work. You know,
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: so that's all I knew growing up. Like if I
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: wasn't in school, I was counting rounds behind my dad
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: and he'd be running. I'd be twelve while he's doing
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: his road work, driving, helping him chop wood, dick holes,
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: recording his sparring. I was always working. Then when he
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: got into consumer products, I was reading scripts with him,
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: you know, like I set up his first AOL email
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: when I was like, I don't know, I had to
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: be really young when I did that backup, and so
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: always with him, just whatever I could do, I would
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: do it right. I was like the local, the family
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: it kid. So yeah, at the time, I had done
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: a little bit of everything. Would you ask what kind
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: of work? Yeah, yeah, what kind of work. So anyway,
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: I was always doing a little bit of everything. But
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: he always had to have somebody physically with him. He
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: never went anywhere alone. Ever. He's still liked that. And
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: do you think that celebrity lifestyle. Yeah, so you know
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: he's been a celebrity since who was eighteen win the
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: Olympics and it was like a high profile win nineteen.
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: So just always having somebody with you, it's important anyway,
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: So the exclusive travel companion of a guy like him.
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: At the time, you look travel around the world, you're
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: in private jets, you get to go like live in
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: the four seasons, you can like leave your food at
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: the four seasons between trips, like it was the best
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: job you could have. And he was like, you're gonna
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: do that because he had an issue with the guy
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: who was working with him at the time, and so
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: I was like, all right, cool, And so that started
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: the summer between my before my junior year, and then
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: by the end of that year he actually said, here's
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: a deal you want to negotiate it. It was a
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: contract extension with the mining car care centers, and that
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: was my first opportunity to actually do business manager roles.
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: And when within a year after that I was exclusively
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: managing everything.
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: Wow, I was like, twenty one, did you feel overwhelmed?
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: Not with work? Like I was always a workaholic, Like
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: the thing that I just hate sleep the idea of it,
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: but it feels good, but just the fact that I
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: have to go to sleep. Yeah, And so so I
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: didn't mind the work and I love the travel. It
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: was really cool at that age. You know, now I
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: look at all that stuff differently.
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: It's I'm processing this because I'm surprised. I've never heard
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: someone say that before, the idea that they hate that
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: you have to sleep because there's just so much you
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: want to do.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: But yes, such an interesting perspective. You have to stop
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: and sleep now, I mean you do have to stand point.
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: So that didn't bother me. But the mistakes being twenty
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: one and knowing like you know and I'm not some
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: people make billion dollar mistakes, but being twenty one and
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: know and you can make a mistake and it results
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: in we're not going to make two million dollars that
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: we were going to make because you made a mistake,
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: or you didn't handle the negotiation right, or you didn't
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: make sure information would exchange two million, three million, eight
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: million dollar mistakes being in depositions injunctions because you made
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: a communication mistake. That type of pressure was tough at
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: that young age, but it was an awesome experience. I
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: actually used to go sit in law school classes. A
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: friend of mine was a professor or the dean. He
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: just let me take the classes. But I ain't get
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: to degree.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: So so terrified, so terrified.
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: I mean, you obviously named a lot of big scenarios
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: that you could have messed up. Were there any particular
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: mess ups or quote unquote failures that you had that
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: really taught you a major lesson?
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: Oh god, I can't, I can't. I can't share. There's
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: one I just can't because it's just not my business's share.
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: But I'm trying to think, you know, this wasn't a
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: mess up. It wasn't my mess up. But actually, but
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: I can tell you. I remember one time waking up
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: and just the gravity of something. I was like, twenty three,
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: I pick up my dad's business manager, I pick up
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: the Houston Chronicle and then it went on to all
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: the other outlets. George Forman sued for fifty million dollars.
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: It's a lot of money.
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: And I found that in the news and I was like, eh, like,
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: how am I going to explain this? And we won
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: and it was all good because they weren't really trying
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: to sue him. They're trying to see someone else, but
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: they wanted to like put him in the news as lever. Yeah,
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: and it turned out great for us. But just like
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: that was that was heavy. That was a big one
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: at twenty three is very heavy.
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: What does that teach you though, that.
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: Teaches you that businesses businesses coal man, yeah, coal. And
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: you know, my dad used to tell me. He's like,
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: if you have one hundred dollars, he's like, twenty five
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: percent of that's for you, twenty five percent of that's
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: for that IRS, thirty five no, forty percent of that's
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: for irs, depending on where you land. And then he'd
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: be like a percentage just for this and he's like
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: about fifteen percent. You just put that away for lawsuits.
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: So that was the lesson. He didn't even do anything wrong.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, just your overall income, it's fine.
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: Just keep that to the side. That doesn't even belong
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: to you.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: Okay, so you're a business manager and you're traveling the world.
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: Do you have any moments of that time in your
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: life that are just so stand out in terms of
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: just sheer Maybe shock values the wrong term, but just
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: shock value, like experiences that were just absolutely unbelievable.
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know what, I'd say, I can think of
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: a long list of people. I never verbilize this, but
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: now that you're bringing it up, Like the stuff that
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: was really cool was when you meet like Tiger Woods
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: and he's like, George, can I have a picture. You know,
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: I'm just standing watching this happen. I'm like, this is weird.
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: And then because or you meet you know, a next president,
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: you know, or the president. I don't think I met
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: an actual president while he was president though. And then
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: you meet guys like Eddie Murphy and he's like, stop
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: the elevator, George, give me a hug. And this is
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: a time when Edie's still a big star, you know.
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: And the list goes on to these stars allow cooja
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: at their height. You know. There's another one that was
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: like really big, Justin Timberlake. George. This is when Justin
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: was He's still Justin.
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: He is my top two.
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: Like, and I feel like I should ask you this now,
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: but you have the opportunity to eat dinner with one
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: of three people Justin's on my list.
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah, like cool dude, I was a fan. Yeah, And
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: he's like, George, can I have a picture, And then
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: and her mother's bringing it over and John Legend's like, hey, George,
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: my wife likes your kid. And you're like, is this
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: really happening? But no one would understand it because they
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: were like massive stars, even bigger than him. But to him,
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: it was like uncle George. You know it was weird. Yeah,
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: so that was that was fun.
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that was fun.
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: Okay, you're traveling the word world with your dad and
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: it gets to a point maybe you realize that you
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: need to take a step back from all of this glamour,
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: if you'll.
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: Call it that.
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I think a couple of things. One was I
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: just remember like feeling uncomfortable at all times. I'm like
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: my own skin, and I was just out of shape,
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: to be honest, not sleeping. Really successful in business for
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: a young guy, right Like, like I said, I don't
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: like toe like people have been a million times more successful,
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: especially if they happened to be happy. But my point is,
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: in terms of my goals, I was super successful. And
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: I remember like I had so many people kind of
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: hanging on if you will, that I flew back home
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: and I was like, I'm going to go check into
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: a hotel. I checked into a hotel and just stayed
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: there for three days. I was just like, I just
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: I don't want to be around anybody. I don't want
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: to even go home because my home's not my home,
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: and just like I'm just gonna be here for a
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: little bit. And then I think I touched base at home,
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: changed my clothes, and then went on to my next trip.
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: And I was like, how in the world does that happen?
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: You know? So that was a moment where I was
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: just like, something's got to change because everybody looked at
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: me like what you got for me? You know, which
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: is fine, Which is fine. I like to be that person.
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: But secondly, yeah, I was out of shape. It's three
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: hundred pounds, and I was like, how did that happen?
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: I'd get one hundred pounds from moving to Malibuda to Houston,
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: and so I said, I got to get in shape.
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, did you feel awful as well? Did you feel drained?
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: Where your energy levels low?
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: I just wasn't like I was just looking forward to
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: rest for the first time. I think I had ever
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: looking forward to rest, and that's not who I am,
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: you know.
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: Was there a particular moment where that really hit you?
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: You know what? Man? With the weight, I think with work,
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: I just could feel myself losing my relationship with my
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: dad a little bit. And oh, this is a moment
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: and then I'll tell you about the weight. We would
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: sit and look at each other in Saint Lui, jaw
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: On vacation. He never takes vacations, but he would just
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: like put it up, put up with it for the family.
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: He's not a vacation guy. So we go on vacation,
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: and the minute we were in the same room, it
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: was like we're at work. We were both tense and
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: what about this? We got to tick on that, and
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: I felt bad for him because I'm like, he can't
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: take a break with me in the room and vice versa.
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: But then there's no way I'm going to take a
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: vacation when he's at home working. It's just impossible. But
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: I remember that tension and I was like, that's not great.
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: You know, we were supposed to be able to stop and relaxing.
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: But I looked at the scale and I think I
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: tried a bunch of DIA pills and like some of
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: them may be like really angry and aggressive. And I
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: was like, okay, I can't do that, but I'm two
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: hundred and eighty nine pounds and something hit me. I
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: called my brothers and I was like, yo, they had
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: teased me all my life that I was not a
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: real athlete. There's no proof I was a varsity athlete,
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: even though I was, and so I said, look, if
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: I have one amateur boxing match, would you guys shut up?
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: Because I had been so my dad at HBO championship
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: fights and I saw Lennox Lewis walk by one time
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: and I was like, he's not that big. I'm as
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: big as Linux. I can do this. That doesn't make sense.
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: And Lenox's coach, who was a guy nam Emmanuel Stewart,
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: was like, George, give me your sign. I'll make him
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: a champion. He was probably joking. Sure he was joking,
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: but I was like, I can fight, and I want
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: to have one amateur fight to prove it, to prove
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: it to myself. Got them on the phone. They said,
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: if you have one amateur fight, you got your respect.
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: I started training by myself.
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: Started training for a year. Can you tell your dad no?
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: Not initially? Wow, he had shut down the boxing component
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: of our gym. It was about sixty thousand squareff facility
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: and the boxing room is just a small piece. And
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: I found a trainer from out and uh, he had
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: shut it down because of unsupervised s barring. Trainer met
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: me and I just trained every day and actually I
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: found one trainer. He worked me two hard, so I
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: got rid of him and I found another trainer and
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: a year About a year into it, my dad heard
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: I had been creeping in and out of the gym
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: and he was like, you're really gonna do this? And
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: I was like, yeah, I'm gonna have my first amateur fight.
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: He's like, who are you not?
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: Traveling with him constantly at this point, sot constantly, So
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: how does he not realize that you're doing this?
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: And also, I mean I would assume like you're losing weight.
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, he's.
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: Just like, wow, Son, you're looking good.
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: You know what we talked about? No, no, he noticed,
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: but he just did not want to encourage it. And
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: we always talk boxing all my life.
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: Why do you think he didn't want.
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: To encourage so us talking boxing wasn't weird? You know
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: at the time he didn't encourage me because I think
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: number one, I mean, my dad was always like he's like, man.
• 22:30
  Speaker 3: He used to call me and I met my brother
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: used call me like oh JFK JR. I don't know
• 22:33
  Speaker 3: what that meant, if that's even a thing. You know. Yeah,
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: they would be like, oh, you're going to be like this,
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: and they just wanted me to have like ten degrees
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: and like own businesses and like be the president, you know,
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: like had always a lot of big dreams for me,
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: you know, sent me to like every camp you can
• 22:49
  Speaker 3: think of, you know, put a lot of energy into
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: my education. His mantra was, you can be anything, you know,
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: and I'm killing myself to make sure you have every
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: opportunity and or you can just have a career and
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: never have a job and start businesses and all this.
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: And I tell him I want to go get punched
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: in the face for money, you know, or just punch
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: in the face for free. Yeah, So I think that
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: had something to do with it. And in hindsight, I
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: learned as a fighter why he didn't encourage it until
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: he knew that he couldn't stop it.
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: Right, Well, what was that?
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: This is like a spoiler alert? You can't say, Like,
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: in hindsight, I learned a fast forward.
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: So trained for a year. Tell him I'm in a box.
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: He says, no, you're not. I said, yes I am.
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: He said, I'm going to train you. No, I'm going
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: to make sure we pre match you with an amateur.
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: And I know that they have as many fights as
• 23:32
  Speaker 3: you have, so it's equal. I had zero nobody in
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: Houston will fight me because of his name, to which
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: he said, why don't you just have a pro fight
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: because you know the guy will show up for the check.
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: I said yes, he said I'll train you. I said okay.
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: That went on. He said it was going to be
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: for six weeks, went on for an entire year, and
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: I thought, there's two times I was like, this is death,
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: this is close to death. And then he said you're
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: going to have your first fight. And he made me
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: think this guy was going to be like this monster
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: boogey monster. And the guy was like a cream puff,
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: you know, knock him out and around and after it
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: he would he was too afraid to go out even
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: though the guy was like a cream buff my dad.
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: During the fight, he stayed in the locker room, and
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: about two days after the fight, I said something to
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: him about a informercial that we were shooting with the
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: Harrington's actually one of the original Shark team guys, and
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: he was like, don't worry about that, get ready for
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: your next fight. I was like, next fight. He's like yeah.
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: I was like all right, And within three months I
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: was completely out of business completely in the boxing, and
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: about a year into that, so I probably had eight fights,
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: maybe a year and a half. I remember my phone
• 24:31
  Speaker 3: would go bing, you know the apple sound when you
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: have a text, and my whole head would just go
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: and it would like my head would ring. I get
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: tingles throughout my entire body, and little things like that
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: were happening that I had never heard about it. I
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: thought boxers couldn't speak, you know, or the morolder skills
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: or someone have to carry them around. But I know,
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: you get like chills through your body. Weird. A lot
• 24:54
  Speaker 3: of weird stuff started happening, and I was far like
• 24:57
  Speaker 3: at least one hundred rounds per fight, you know, And
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: I got hit so much and sparring I get on.
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: I was typically on the better side of it, but
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: I got hit and I never thought like man head injury.
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: And I remember one time going so deep. I'd never
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: been understood what it meant to be depressed. I'm not
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: into that. That's I have to believe, like, oh, I'm
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: not depressed, and it's not real. It's not depressed and
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: your weak. That was like how I thought. And I
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: remember one time I had a bad sparing session and
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: the guy like cleaned my clock like it was an MMA. Guy.
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: He's just throwing punches from angles I had never seen seen.
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: And my dad was like, yeah, you sub to take
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: a couple of days off. And I remember for three
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: days I was so depressed. I like drove down to
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: a hotel in Galveston and just shut the door, shut
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: the windows, and I just like stayed there and didn't move.
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: It's really bizarre, and that I was depressed. There's the
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: only thing I can think of. Like I was just
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: in a deep, dark, like weird place, like I'm just
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: going to go drive into a hotel and shut myself
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: in the room for three days. And then when I
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: was done, I was like, Okay, I'm better. And the
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: only thing I can attribute it to because just not
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: who I'm not my style is the injury, you know,
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: and that's one of the symptoms. Shook it off and
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: moved on. So I think knowing that, knowing the I
• 26:07
  Speaker 3: had to teach myself how to speak again after a year,
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: and I'd have to mouth every syllable of every word
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: and learn how to use my tongue, and I'd speak
• 26:16
  Speaker 3: fine now, I think, But I never had to think
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: about it. Attention span. All these things changed. Maybe Sharper
• 26:23
  Speaker 3: I came up with tricks so people wouldn't realize that
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: my motor skills were different. Maybe I've never used names.
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: I'd use nicknames. I still do that now. But all
• 26:34
  Speaker 3: these things, you know, And you know, if I'm like,
• 26:38
  Speaker 3: if I knew something I could look at a person
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: and think about, I'd like, figure out, what's the one
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: thing about them that my brain would always remember, and
• 26:44
  Speaker 3: I would call them by that name instead of their
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: name because I can't remember names, right, and so little
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: things like that. And I know that my dad, knowing that,
• 26:52
  Speaker 3: would not have wanted me in that right. So those
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: are the things I found out that people don't talk about.
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think it's an interesting idea to
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: decide one day that you want to put yourself in
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: an environment where someone is literally coming to hurt you.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Like, there are so many things you could say.
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: And I was joking with someone about this the other day,
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: but I was like, when I was growing up, I
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: was like, I want to be a journalist. You're like,
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: I hope someone punches my brains out.
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: I don't know why, man. I mean, when you put
• 27:24
  Speaker 3: it like that, it's very like, duh, don't.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: Do that, Like What was that?
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: Do you even remember, I'm sure you do the first
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: time that you actually had a moment where someone was
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: coming at you and you were like, wow, I'm really
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: doing this.
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: So my third fight, I think it was guy named
• 27:39
  Speaker 3: Dale Mitchell, MMA, guy two hundred and eighty nine pounds.
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: How heavy were you when you started fighting?
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: Two thirty one?
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: Oh wow?
• 27:45
  Speaker 3: He punched me right in my throat. Oh like, for
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: whatever reason, he wasn't aiming for my throat, but it
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: hit me right below my chin. I've never been hit
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: there before. After I said, man, this is not what
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: I signed up for, Like hit me in my eye,
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: my nose, but not my throat. And he mopped to
• 27:59
  Speaker 3: float me and I came back out and I was
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: able to get a hold of them, but hired them
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: as my sparing partner. But that was the moment where
• 28:06
  Speaker 3: I was like, oh, this is real. And then the
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: second time was the only time I got knocked down
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: off my feet. I didn't fully hit the ground. I
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: caught myself with the glove, but I didn't even notice it.
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: I just looked up and I was like, what happened?
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: And then I had to go back out there and fight.
• 28:18
  Speaker 3: And then find out what happened later. So those are
• 28:21
  Speaker 3: moments where I was like, this is real.
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: Quick break from today's episode.
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: To give my sponsor, Athletic Greens a little bit of love, guys,
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: I did something the other day which was just classic Emily.
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: I'll admit I'm the kind of person who loves to
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: go lay out in the park in the summer with
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: a six pack of years. But I'd been training for
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: the Brooklyn Mile, trying to be well behaved, and so
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: when I went out last weekend to get some quality
• 28:52
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  Speaker 1: Let's get back to it.
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: When you really got into it, your first fight, second fight,
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: third fight, it's still going. Do you feel an extra
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: amount of pressure because of your dad's name in this industry?
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: No, I don't feel because I just don't know how
• 30:02
  Speaker 3: much more pressure you can feel. Yeah, I think I
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: feel pressure when I sit at home maybe and think
• 30:07
  Speaker 3: about it, you know, the did just I don't. I
• 30:11
  Speaker 3: think I'm maxed out in pressure. There's just nowhere to go.
• 30:13
  Speaker 3: It's like, did you feel pressure to make your business successful? Well,
• 30:17
  Speaker 3: if I didn't, I was going to fully be homeless,
• 30:19
  Speaker 3: So I don't know, you know, Yeah, no, I hear you,
• 30:22
  Speaker 3: are right, I don't really proceeds pressure in those times.
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I totally hear you.
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: So let's transition then a little bit into your boxing professionally,
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: your dodge and punches left and right, getting thrown in
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: the throat.
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: When do you start to realize.
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: Is it after you go to the hotel and you
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: kind of like turn down for a beat that you're like,
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: maybe I should start to think about what's next.
• 30:47
  Speaker 3: I would never change what I'm doing because of adversity,
• 30:52
  Speaker 3: but love, while this is going, this is another storyline.
• 30:55
  Speaker 3: So my dad, that memory said when he said, I
• 30:59
  Speaker 3: have to train you as a pro. Yeah, he said,
• 31:01
  Speaker 3: and I was happy about it. He said, A requisite
• 31:03
  Speaker 3: is this boxing program this building where you're training because
• 31:06
  Speaker 3: Memory was closed, I had the key. I want you
• 31:09
  Speaker 3: to open it back up. It been closed for almost
• 31:11
  Speaker 3: two years at that point. I want you to open
• 31:13
  Speaker 3: it back up. You're going to be the only boxing trainer.
• 31:15
  Speaker 3: And I was like, Dad, I'm just learning how to
• 31:16
  Speaker 3: do this. He said, that's fine. Whatever I teach you
• 31:18
  Speaker 3: that day, you teach others. And I got hooked. I
• 31:24
  Speaker 3: get this to the gym sometime like because the kids
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: couldn't get there until about two thirty, so I'd get
• 31:28
  Speaker 3: there at two and get there early, be ready for him,
• 31:31
  Speaker 3: and I'd be planning out my lesson playing because I'm
• 31:32
  Speaker 3: so nervous, you know, And I just teach him whatever
• 31:35
  Speaker 3: he taught me that day, and it just added added,
• 31:37
  Speaker 3: built on, and I would do two to like five.
• 31:41
  Speaker 3: He trained me from like five to six thirty hard,
• 31:43
  Speaker 3: and then I'd go from like six thirty to sometime
• 31:45
  Speaker 3: nine at night. And these are people from ages nine
• 31:48
  Speaker 3: to thirty, a lot of high school kids. I had
• 31:51
  Speaker 3: an amateur boxing team, and I remember feeling like from
• 31:54
  Speaker 3: my first time in my life, I would have to
• 31:57
  Speaker 3: talk myself out of work. Because I love work, but
• 32:00
  Speaker 3: I could be like, Okay, time for a break. Let's
• 32:02
  Speaker 3: enjoy the finer things. Let's spend some of this money,
• 32:04
  Speaker 3: you know. But in that gym when I'm training people,
• 32:07
  Speaker 3: I'm like, you just got to go home, man, put
• 32:09
  Speaker 3: it down for a second. Go home, go home, Send
• 32:12
  Speaker 3: him to go home. They need rest. I'd have to
• 32:14
  Speaker 3: talk myself out of work, which I've never been in
• 32:16
  Speaker 3: that situation until that point. Right even training boxing training myself,
• 32:20
  Speaker 3: I was like, yo, can we just stop this ten
• 32:22
  Speaker 3: minutes early? And so I remember telling a friend of mine,
• 32:25
  Speaker 3: if I could do that for a living, if I
• 32:27
  Speaker 3: could find a way to make that eleving, I would
• 32:29
  Speaker 3: just stop professional boxing period. Like I wouldn't even think
• 32:33
  Speaker 3: about it. I didn't think that was the case. So
• 32:35
  Speaker 3: about a year and a half later.
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: What are we like in time right now?
• 32:39
  Speaker 3: Two thousand and eight, then two thousand and nine, I
• 32:43
  Speaker 3: decided to just take a break from the sport, from
• 32:45
  Speaker 3: more so from a business level, but like a break, like, hey,
• 32:48
  Speaker 3: two months off train and go fight again. I actually
• 32:50
  Speaker 3: did fight again after that. I'm watching an interview by
• 32:52
  Speaker 3: Dave Chapelle, and this is when I was like done
• 32:55
  Speaker 3: for fighting. This is late two thousand and eight, Texas,
• 32:59
  Speaker 3: watching interview by Dave Chappelle, and he says he's arguing
• 33:02
  Speaker 3: with his father, telling his dad why he wants to
• 33:04
  Speaker 3: be a comedian. His dad's like, the odds are you
• 33:06
  Speaker 3: being successful are like less than one percent. His dad's
• 33:09
  Speaker 3: a professor. I think all his family had educated people.
• 33:12
  Speaker 3: And he said, Dad, if I can make a teacher
• 33:15
  Speaker 3: salary being a comedian, wouldn't that be successful? And his
• 33:20
  Speaker 3: dad was like, yo, you got me. I watched that
• 33:21
  Speaker 3: and I was like, light bulb. Teachers in Texas make
• 33:24
  Speaker 3: thirty five thousand dollars a year. If I can teach
• 33:26
  Speaker 3: boxing and make thirty five thousand dollars a year, that
• 33:29
  Speaker 3: would be a success. That was like how my brain works.
• 33:31
  Speaker 3: And I think they make a lot more than thirty
• 33:32
  Speaker 3: five thousand dollars a year. So had this kind of
• 33:35
  Speaker 3: like moment with my father where I was just like, Yo,
• 33:38
  Speaker 3: this is not the right type attention. We're successful, you know,
• 33:41
  Speaker 3: and I didn't want to, like once again, lose my
• 33:43
  Speaker 3: relationship with my dad over boxing. So I was like,
• 33:45
  Speaker 3: you know what, let me take a breathe and reset
• 33:47
  Speaker 3: and think should I be doing this. Visiting a friend
• 33:49
  Speaker 3: in Boston and he goes second down there he's like, Yo,
• 33:53
  Speaker 3: come check out this gym. We go work out. He
• 33:55
  Speaker 3: used to be a boxing trainer but never boxed. Best
• 33:57
  Speaker 3: friend from boarding school Boston and met him when we
• 34:01
  Speaker 3: were eleven chubby kids, and we come out and he's like, dude,
• 34:04
  Speaker 3: you should open a Boston gym in Boston. It would
• 34:06
  Speaker 3: crush it. And I was like yeah, what And he
• 34:09
  Speaker 3: was like, don't look at me like that because I
• 34:11
  Speaker 3: gave him this weird look because this is like the
• 34:12
  Speaker 3: ninth business idea he's come to me with since we've
• 34:14
  Speaker 3: been kids. And I was like Noah. I was like,
• 34:16
  Speaker 3: I really want to do it. And I just never
• 34:19
  Speaker 3: looked back because it was the culbination of all those
• 34:22
  Speaker 3: thoughts people were paying one hundred and forty dollars a
• 34:24
  Speaker 3: month to belong to its stinky boxing gym, and Equinox
• 34:28
  Speaker 3: was one fifty six. So I literally never went back.
• 34:32
  Speaker 3: I just stayed in Boston and opened the gym two
• 34:35
  Speaker 3: years later.
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: What did you with you?
• 34:38
  Speaker 3: I had? Okay, So I had a jeep. I went
• 34:40
  Speaker 3: to I think it was TJ Max, one of those,
• 34:44
  Speaker 3: and I went in the back and I had a
• 34:46
  Speaker 3: carry on suitcase. It was cheap apparently license there brand
• 34:50
  Speaker 3: to like crappy suitcases, and I was like thirty bucks.
• 34:54
  Speaker 3: I remember buying it, and I had So I had
• 34:56
  Speaker 3: that carry on suitcase full of whatever I could pack
• 34:58
  Speaker 3: in it.
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: And you're a big guy, so it's not like you
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: can really fit a lot of stuff in here.
• 35:03
  Speaker 3: No, you can't, you know that.
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: I mean, I mean, I'm sure you can't traveling with
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: a carry on.
• 35:10
  Speaker 3: It's hard as a big guy.
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: And I had this backpack and so that same backpack,
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: that one you made a lot of money traveling around
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: the world, bought in a new backpack sentimental.
• 35:20
  Speaker 3: I still have that carry on and it doesn't it's
• 35:22
  Speaker 3: like the zippers.
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: Broke mental note.
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: Anyone listening to this podcast that wants to say, George
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: a new backpack for a new suitkit.
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: Oh my god.
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: I used to have one of those north faced backbacks
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: in college. I looked north facebacka.
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: Someone please send I'm gonna George. I got you. We're
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: going to work on that.
• 35:39
  Speaker 3: After the pod, I slept on AJ's couch for three
• 35:42
  Speaker 3: or four, probably three months. He told me travel a
• 35:45
  Speaker 3: little bit. Be sure you're sure. I traveled for like
• 35:47
  Speaker 3: a week, came back and I said, I'm sure, and uh,
• 35:50
  Speaker 3: slepping this couch until I can find a roommate. And
• 35:53
  Speaker 3: bought an air mattress. And I had the air mattress
• 35:55
  Speaker 3: and the box of air mattress came in and I
• 35:58
  Speaker 3: rode that out until I had no more money. Just
• 36:00
  Speaker 3: kept trying to open the gym.
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: Wow, okay, so what's the first thing that happens when
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: you decide that you want to open the gym?
• 36:07
  Speaker 3: You? First thing I did was I put on my boots.
• 36:11
  Speaker 3: I always ran in military boots. He's like, I got
• 36:13
  Speaker 3: them from like the Marine Corps.
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: So the way, I don't know, a second, when you
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: look down and pointed at your feet, I was like,
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: are you really a f.
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: One of the.
• 36:24
  Speaker 3: Thank God and the way and I just I don't know.
• 36:26
  Speaker 3: My dad made me and I got used to it.
• 36:28
  Speaker 3: So I ran around the city. I had a list
• 36:30
  Speaker 3: from Google of all the gyms, and I would just
• 36:32
  Speaker 3: walk in one by one and took a tour and
• 36:33
  Speaker 3: just learned, studied all the websites, and then then I
• 36:38
  Speaker 3: did a walk from Equinox to the sweaty boxing gym
• 36:41
  Speaker 3: that charged one thirty and one hundred a month of
• 36:43
  Speaker 3: you signed a contract. And I landed somewhere in the
• 36:45
  Speaker 3: middle because I was like, okay, one mile, they're two
• 36:48
  Speaker 3: miles apart, equidistant. There's this area called the Seaport. And
• 36:52
  Speaker 3: AJ had already said he thought the Seaport was a
• 36:54
  Speaker 3: good area, but I didn't know what that was. So
• 36:56
  Speaker 3: I come back. I'm like, yo, this area is called
• 36:57
  Speaker 3: the Seaport. The buildings look like an old like they
• 37:00
  Speaker 3: looked like boxing gyms, and he was like, duh, that's
• 37:02
  Speaker 3: why I said you should open it. And then I
• 37:04
  Speaker 3: would go night by night and I would wait till
• 37:06
  Speaker 3: about five or six, and I would see people from
• 37:08
  Speaker 3: these condos that had been built. It was a ghost town,
• 37:10
  Speaker 3: but there were a few condos and they'd walk through
• 37:12
  Speaker 3: the Seaport into Fidi Financial District and then back. And
• 37:16
  Speaker 3: so I was like, there's a demand here, and if
• 37:18
  Speaker 3: people are paying one thirty for gym, I wouldn't even
• 37:21
  Speaker 3: go to My parents are from the hood, you know, yeah,
• 37:24
  Speaker 3: I kind of from the myself in many ways, like
• 37:27
  Speaker 3: I'm comfortable in the hood. I wasn't comfortable in that.
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: Hood right right, right.
• 37:30
  Speaker 3: And so I was like, all right. Then I got
• 37:33
  Speaker 3: a software called liveplan dot Com called up and I
• 37:36
  Speaker 3: started making a live plan to figure out where break
• 37:38
  Speaker 3: even was because I was I remember learning in business
• 37:41
  Speaker 3: school like if you can get to break even, it's
• 37:43
  Speaker 3: a business worth being in. You just figured out how
• 37:45
  Speaker 3: to be profitable.
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: So live Plan is just literally a planning software.
• 37:49
  Speaker 3: I looked at all the business plan softwares and live
• 37:51
  Speaker 3: Plan had just started at the time apparently, and I
• 37:53
  Speaker 3: was like, Yo, this is awesome. And I called up
• 37:57
  Speaker 3: La Boxing, which is now UFC. UFC bought them, and
• 38:00
  Speaker 3: I was like, maybe that's just franchise. So I asked
• 38:02
  Speaker 3: them questions. I didn't tell my name, and they were like, yo,
• 38:04
  Speaker 3: we love Boston. Boston has the highest percentage of people
• 38:08
  Speaker 3: with a gym membership in the nation at twenty five
• 38:10
  Speaker 3: percent Massachusetts did, so I wrote that down and they
• 38:14
  Speaker 3: were like, yeah, it's great for this, that and the other,
• 38:16
  Speaker 3: and we're looking for a franchiseing and I was like awesome.
• 38:18
  Speaker 3: So did more research, but that was Massachusetts at twenty
• 38:21
  Speaker 3: five percent. Boston skewed higher than that, and the average
• 38:24
  Speaker 3: price paid for a gym membership was ninety one dollars.
• 38:26
  Speaker 3: That was third in the nation. Wow. So I ran
• 38:28
  Speaker 3: my numbers at the LA boxing average, which they told
• 38:31
  Speaker 3: me it was like seventy, and I ran him at
• 38:33
  Speaker 3: ninety one. And then I ran him out with the
• 38:34
  Speaker 3: sweaty Boston gym chargers one thirty and I ran him
• 38:37
  Speaker 3: at Equinox numbers one fifty six, and I found that
• 38:40
  Speaker 3: right around ninety at five hundred members was break even
• 38:43
  Speaker 3: and I could pay thirty k a month.
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: Rent Okay, rock On, rock On, And.
• 38:47
  Speaker 3: Then I was like, for sure, I'm not going anywhere.
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: What's your dad think?
• 38:51
  Speaker 3: That took about a week.
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: That took about a took a week for me to
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: be like all right, he was not so.
• 38:58
  Speaker 3: Jazz because this was like you went through all this
• 39:02
  Speaker 3: beat up. I almost killed you three or four times.
• 39:04
  Speaker 3: You know, they were training and you're he's like, you're
• 39:07
  Speaker 3: actually getting good and he's like, man, you hold on
• 39:10
  Speaker 3: for a couple more years. You could have a championship
• 39:12
  Speaker 3: twenty million dollars and you know, and I just didn't
• 39:16
  Speaker 3: want it. I could. I couldn't function the idea of
• 39:19
  Speaker 3: doing something when I already knew I loved something so
• 39:21
  Speaker 3: much more. I was like, no, I love this, you know,
• 39:24
  Speaker 3: boxing would be easy. And I ended up having one
• 39:26
  Speaker 3: more fight to just like kind of put it to
• 39:28
  Speaker 3: bed by myself. But we butted heads, not but it heads,
• 39:32
  Speaker 3: but we just disagreed, you know. And I was like, well,
• 39:34
  Speaker 3: I love your support, and he's like, how am I
• 39:35
  Speaker 3: going to support that when you have a real boxing career,
• 39:39
  Speaker 3: you know, like you can fight on pay per view,
• 39:41
  Speaker 3: you can do all this stuff. And I was like nah,
• 39:43
  Speaker 3: And so yeah, he wasn't through.
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: In retrospect, when you look back and you realize that
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: you really did follow your heart, Like what did that
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: experience and leaning toward the boxing gym really teach you?
• 39:55
  Speaker 3: You know what? It taught me like this is right
• 39:57
  Speaker 3: and the wrong way to do things. I think the
• 39:58
  Speaker 3: way I handled things that my father was wrong because
• 40:03
  Speaker 3: I didn't I don't know, man. I just finally I
• 40:06
  Speaker 3: was just like, forget it. You don't understand da da
• 40:08
  Speaker 3: da da, you know, And I wish I had just
• 40:11
  Speaker 3: like literally picked up the phone and had a hard
• 40:14
  Speaker 3: conversation with him, like every day of the week until
• 40:16
  Speaker 3: he was okay with it, because guess what. In the end,
• 40:19
  Speaker 3: his point was like, you can make four hundred thousand
• 40:21
  Speaker 3: dollars a year of boxing. You're about to sign a
• 40:22
  Speaker 3: lease that requires you to pay four hundred thousand dollars
• 40:26
  Speaker 3: a year whether you're successful or not. He's like, why
• 40:28
  Speaker 3: would you put yourself under that pressure? So he was
• 40:31
  Speaker 3: worried about my success, and I think drilling down into
• 40:34
  Speaker 3: like learning that and understanding it, I think would have
• 40:37
  Speaker 3: been better and more productive.
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: Did how long did you guys go?
• 40:41
  Speaker 3: Kind of it was like finally we were just like,
• 40:44
  Speaker 3: let's just not talk about it, you know, let's talk
• 40:46
  Speaker 3: about horses and family and hamburgers. Literally horses.
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you horse bedding family.
• 40:52
  Speaker 3: No, we we race horses that people bet on, but
• 40:54
  Speaker 3: we don't bet on them.
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: Got it.
• 40:56
  Speaker 3: I probably would, My dad doesn't.
• 40:59
  Speaker 2: Okay, So you got get over that hurdle of sorts
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: and you're working on opening a gym in Boston, and
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: when does it actually open?
• 41:06
  Speaker 3: So started. I moved to Boston two thousand and March
• 41:11
  Speaker 3: twenty twelve, and it opened January first, January second, twenty fourteen.
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: That's a pretty quick turnaround.
• 41:18
  Speaker 3: I thought it was gonna take six months.
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, how did that feel?
• 41:21
  Speaker 3: It hurt? It hurt. I think in the I learned
• 41:24
  Speaker 3: a lot in the process. You remember all those people
• 41:26
  Speaker 3: that I told you were crowding my house? Yeah they were.
• 41:29
  Speaker 3: Nobody was anywhere to be found. I remember looking at
• 41:32
  Speaker 3: my cell phone because I'd gone from you know, being
• 41:35
  Speaker 3: the man to like not the man, and no one
• 41:40
  Speaker 3: was calling, no one was hit me up. I had Facebook.
• 41:42
  Speaker 3: I was like, y'all can find me.
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: I was going to ask you. So was social media
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: even really a thing for you at this point?
• 41:47
  Speaker 3: Uh? It was not like it is now. But I
• 41:49
  Speaker 3: had five thousand friends on Facebook. Yeah, you know. So
• 41:53
  Speaker 3: it was just weird to see how quiet things get
• 41:55
  Speaker 3: when people don't think you're doing anything. Yeah, not having
• 41:58
  Speaker 3: money when you're used to have a lot of money,
• 42:00
  Speaker 3: it's awkward. Like I had this moment where I had
• 42:02
  Speaker 3: a ten thousand dollars BRIONI trench coat and I checked
• 42:07
  Speaker 3: it in and I I had a ticket to a
• 42:10
  Speaker 3: fundraiser and I couldn't. I didn't have enough money to
• 42:13
  Speaker 3: get it back out. I didn't realize you were charging
• 42:15
  Speaker 3: and I was like, whoa, whoa, this is awkward, right
• 42:18
  Speaker 3: and some pa. But I was like, how do I
• 42:23
  Speaker 3: tell them aout have any money? I just never They
• 42:25
  Speaker 3: probably would have been okay. And some lady paid for me.
• 42:26
  Speaker 3: She saw me get stuck and just later found her.
• 42:30
  Speaker 3: But that and then I remember one time like I'm
• 42:33
  Speaker 3: just like because I can't ask my dad for help,
• 42:34
  Speaker 3: you know, He's like, hey, you have a career, you
• 42:37
  Speaker 3: have a home you can come back to, but not
• 42:39
  Speaker 3: doing that, you know.
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 42:41
  Speaker 3: So and I remember one time scrounging on my chain
• 42:44
  Speaker 3: to get on the bus to get to the to work.
• 42:47
  Speaker 3: They sent you the office where I ag let me
• 42:50
  Speaker 3: use some of his office space to work on my
• 42:52
  Speaker 3: business plan, and I miscounted. I thought I had more
• 42:54
  Speaker 3: change than I did to get on the bus and
• 42:56
  Speaker 3: I was like, this is it. The bus driver let
• 43:00
  Speaker 3: me on anyway, And so it was those moments seeing
• 43:03
  Speaker 3: that guy like be nice to me, and it had
• 43:05
  Speaker 3: nothing to do with my father or me. He you know,
• 43:07
  Speaker 3: he was just like, yo, you's just some big, dark
• 43:09
  Speaker 3: dude and trying to get on the bus. And so
• 43:13
  Speaker 3: those moments changed me.
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah for sure.
• 43:15
  Speaker 2: All Right, so you open up the gym January twod
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: twenty fourteen, and now, I mean you listed a whole
• 43:22
  Speaker 2: lot of other gyms, so obviously it's doing pretty well.
• 43:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah. So right around about six months out, I literally
• 43:33
  Speaker 3: moved into the gym, and now five months out and
• 43:37
  Speaker 3: I started pre selling, and I would four hundred dollars
• 43:40
  Speaker 3: a pop, first and last, plus one hundred and fifty
• 43:42
  Speaker 3: dollars sign up fee, and we sold six hundred of those. Wow.
• 43:45
  Speaker 3: And I did like five fifty of those myself, and
• 43:48
  Speaker 3: I would just sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell sell,
• 43:50
  Speaker 3: because I was like, we're gonna can't. I can't open
• 43:52
  Speaker 3: up paying thirty k, you know. Yeah, And so we
• 43:54
  Speaker 3: opened up cast well positive and then things have since
• 43:57
  Speaker 3: then business wise, they've been pretty.
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, pretty solid, pretty solid, I mean Atlanta yesterday. It's
• 44:08
  Speaker 2: interesting because you really went from this time where your
• 44:10
  Speaker 2: entire existence went revolved around being there for your dad,
• 44:15
  Speaker 2: doing things for your dad, and then all of a sudden,
• 44:17
  Speaker 2: like you wanted to do things for you, whether that
• 44:20
  Speaker 2: was the weight loss or opening this gym. And I
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: feel like you were so big on supporting him that
• 44:26
  Speaker 2: it must have been really difficult for you to feel
• 44:28
  Speaker 2: like you didn't have his support in return.
• 44:32
  Speaker 3: It was a really weird thing, really weird thing. And
• 44:36
  Speaker 3: it's so funny, man, because yeah, I look back in
• 44:39
  Speaker 3: my entire life. My entire life was like like when
• 44:43
  Speaker 3: I was seven, I remember my dad would give me
• 44:45
  Speaker 3: one hundred dollars for straight a's and I was like, man,
• 44:48
  Speaker 3: I got to get that hundred dollars. And I remember
• 44:50
  Speaker 3: one time I came home and I got a bee
• 44:52
  Speaker 3: and my mom was like she was counting on that
• 44:54
  Speaker 3: one hundred dollars. She was like, you can't do this.
• 44:57
  Speaker 3: Bees are for you know what. I was like, Okay,
• 45:00
  Speaker 3: I'll never do that again. And and so I was like,
• 45:04
  Speaker 3: I got to get them trade a's to get the
• 45:05
  Speaker 3: hundred dollars because my dad's going to be proud of me.
• 45:07
  Speaker 3: And then so on and so forth, and like always
• 45:09
  Speaker 3: just performing at a high level, speaking well or whatever
• 45:12
  Speaker 3: it was because of my dad. But I looked up
• 45:14
  Speaker 3: to my dad and these are all great things, good grades,
• 45:17
  Speaker 3: speaking well, never getting in trouble and then went right
• 45:21
  Speaker 3: into my professional career managing him and it was all
• 45:23
  Speaker 3: about making sure like he was successful, but I was
• 45:25
  Speaker 3: successful on the way as well, and then fighting although
• 45:29
  Speaker 3: it was all about me and it was it was
• 45:32
  Speaker 3: about doing exactly what he told me to do. And
• 45:34
  Speaker 3: so yeah, the menu and I'd stopped doing that. And
• 45:36
  Speaker 3: it's so funny. I think it was a minute I
• 45:38
  Speaker 3: started to gain his respect in a good way, but
• 45:41
  Speaker 3: it was just it was weird for everybody, Like what
• 45:43
  Speaker 3: do we do in Monk's life? Is not all about dad?
• 45:45
  Speaker 3: You know? And the good news is I have had
• 45:50
  Speaker 3: three occasions when my dad grabbed me and sent me
• 45:52
  Speaker 3: a text and said it verbally. He's like, man, you
• 45:54
  Speaker 3: did this all on your own. You would have had
• 45:58
  Speaker 3: no other chance to do it. He's like, you can
• 45:59
  Speaker 3: finally say that you did something no one else helped you,
• 46:01
  Speaker 3: because everybody's the thing. I did it. You did it
• 46:05
  Speaker 3: all on your own. I'm so proud of you. And
• 46:06
  Speaker 3: he's told me that three times, so in hindsight, it
• 46:09
  Speaker 3: was awesome.
• 46:10
  Speaker 2: It's really special that you can recall all three times
• 46:13
  Speaker 2: where he said that to you.
• 46:14
  Speaker 3: Yep.
• 46:16
  Speaker 2: It's interesting to me though, because I feel like it
• 46:19
  Speaker 2: almost makes me appreciate the relationships that I have, whether
• 46:23
  Speaker 2: it's with my parents or with my friends, when they
• 46:25
  Speaker 2: say things that like I'm so proud of you or
• 46:27
  Speaker 2: I support you, because I've lost track of that with
• 46:30
  Speaker 2: a lot of the people that I care about.
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: So to think about this idea that.
• 46:34
  Speaker 2: Your father has said this to you three specific times,
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: it's mind blowing.
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: It's so mindful.
• 46:40
  Speaker 3: I didn't think about it to you said it. But
• 46:41
  Speaker 3: it's important to note those things, you know, sometimes you
• 46:44
  Speaker 3: forget when you're upset with people.
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: Totally all right.
• 46:46
  Speaker 2: So now we've built a successful business, We're feeling good.
• 46:51
  Speaker 3: What I got off the couch?
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: Got off the couch? Where's your primary home?
• 46:56
  Speaker 3: Boston?
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: Okay?
• 46:57
  Speaker 2: When you when you look back on building this business
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: so far, what would you say has been one of
• 47:01
  Speaker 2: the best pieces of advice that someone has offered you?
• 47:04
  Speaker 3: I'd say too, I think I hate to give my
• 47:07
  Speaker 3: dad credit because but uh, I don't know why I
• 47:09
  Speaker 3: just get him in credit, you know what I mean,
• 47:11
  Speaker 3: because I know he's like yep, but I see two
• 47:14
  Speaker 3: pieces of advice actually too from two Georgia's One Guy's
• 47:17
  Speaker 3: guy named George that ran a large internet company, and uh. Anyway,
• 47:23
  Speaker 3: he told me get rid of non nonperformers, get rid
• 47:26
  Speaker 3: of no performers. But then he said he'll take his
• 47:28
  Speaker 3: time with nonperformance. It got to get rid of him
• 47:30
  Speaker 3: quick because by the time you notice, other people in
• 47:32
  Speaker 3: the company notice and it affects their not only there,
• 47:36
  Speaker 3: so the person who's underperforming, but everybody else starts underperforming
• 47:40
  Speaker 3: and the other reasons. So get rid of them, but
• 47:42
  Speaker 3: take your time, schedule an hour or two for a
• 47:45
  Speaker 3: few weeks, and help that person find a place where
• 47:47
  Speaker 3: they shine with another company if it's not within your company.
• 47:50
  Speaker 3: So that's been great, and typically it is hard, but
• 47:53
  Speaker 3: when you take that extra effort to see somebody into
• 47:55
  Speaker 3: a place where they shine, you actually feel better than
• 47:58
  Speaker 3: if you had let them stay in your organization and
• 47:59
  Speaker 3: fast on their own. You know people underperforming, like that's
• 48:04
  Speaker 3: the worst thing that can happen to a person in
• 48:06
  Speaker 3: my opinion, and a professional organization and know they're underperforming.
• 48:10
  Speaker 3: Number two is tender loving care. I asked my dad once.
• 48:13
  Speaker 3: I was like, I don't know how to open the
• 48:14
  Speaker 3: next gym because I don't know why people are coming
• 48:15
  Speaker 3: to this one. I was like, I have nicer treadmills
• 48:17
  Speaker 3: and Equinox. You know. I always like, was like, I
• 48:20
  Speaker 3: got to make sure I can get an Equinox customer,
• 48:22
  Speaker 3: not that I knew about the business model. I was like,
• 48:24
  Speaker 3: I have shower, steam room, juice bar, physical therapy, I
• 48:27
  Speaker 3: have one hundred and forty classes a week. I have everything.
• 48:30
  Speaker 3: So when I open the next one, do I just
• 48:31
  Speaker 3: do everything? It could be a waste. They may only
• 48:33
  Speaker 3: be coming for one thing. And he said, what you
• 48:35
  Speaker 3: may find is that people are just coming for a
• 48:38
  Speaker 3: little tender, loving care. The way you make them feel.
• 48:41
  Speaker 3: He's like, they might just be coming for you. And
• 48:43
  Speaker 3: what he meant by that is the way you make
• 48:44
  Speaker 3: them feel. And he's like, you're trying to replicate energy
• 48:47
  Speaker 3: and a swagger and a vibe. And I was like,
• 48:49
  Speaker 3: as long as you figure that out and people feel
• 48:52
  Speaker 3: welcome when they walk in and motivate it on the
• 48:54
  Speaker 3: way out, you shouldn't worry about opening the next gym
• 48:56
  Speaker 3: because it's about that, it's not about the treadmill. I'd say,
• 48:59
  Speaker 3: those two pieces of advice.
• 49:01
  Speaker 2: Interesting, all right, I've got to ask you. I mean,
• 49:05
  Speaker 2: you did just offer me a piece of advice that
• 49:07
  Speaker 2: your father gave you.
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: But I feel like you, unlike a lot of kids.
• 49:12
  Speaker 2: Growing up, and especially like during those teenage years, I
• 49:15
  Speaker 2: feel like you like look for independence, you try to
• 49:17
  Speaker 2: get away from your parents, but literally during the height
• 49:20
  Speaker 2: of your teenage years, and like, as you're becoming like
• 49:22
  Speaker 2: a young man, you are spending so much time with
• 49:25
  Speaker 2: your dad. Yeah, when you think about that time, is
• 49:30
  Speaker 2: there anything specific that stood out to you, like a
• 49:32
  Speaker 2: lesson that you learned as you were coming of age?
• 49:34
  Speaker 3: There's so many We spent so many hours talking like
• 49:37
  Speaker 3: he made me read like Warren Peace when I was
• 49:39
  Speaker 3: like eighteen or something, you know, like yeah, and we
• 49:42
  Speaker 3: talk about it on our like so many hours, man,
• 49:44
  Speaker 3: But observing how things play out year after year and
• 49:49
  Speaker 3: being able to sit and talk to it four years
• 49:51
  Speaker 3: later with your dad and you guys were talking about
• 49:53
  Speaker 3: it four years before in business. But I would say,
• 49:55
  Speaker 3: if I look back, it was pattern recognition. Big on
• 50:00
  Speaker 3: that pattern recognition, taking notes so you can have the
• 50:05
  Speaker 3: ability to recognize patterns and reflect on them and plan
• 50:09
  Speaker 3: for the future. And patience, man, patience, patience, patience, patience.
• 50:14
  Speaker 3: And I'll tell you a funny story that I'll help
• 50:15
  Speaker 3: you remember his take on it and what he passed
• 50:18
  Speaker 3: on to me his sparring partners. Glad I got to
• 50:21
  Speaker 3: box that I would have never taken this lesson full
• 50:23
  Speaker 3: full circle. He had a sparing partner that would fight.
• 50:26
  Speaker 3: He sparred with my dad. Well, my dad was active
• 50:30
  Speaker 3: and then he stayed healthy enough to be my sparting
• 50:32
  Speaker 3: partner when I was training and he said, your dad
• 50:34
  Speaker 3: is uh. He said, George, you got to watch out
• 50:37
  Speaker 3: for him because mostly when you spar and you box
• 50:40
  Speaker 3: right it, guy hits you with a good shot and
• 50:43
  Speaker 3: everybody hits a guy back right away. He said, George,
• 50:46
  Speaker 3: wait two weeks before he gets you. And you know
• 50:51
  Speaker 3: that that's something I learned from him, just the patience
• 50:55
  Speaker 3: and you know, if there's going to be any reconciliation,
• 50:58
  Speaker 3: like don't do it when people though you know, yeah,
• 51:01
  Speaker 3: and by the time you decide to do a boxing
• 51:03
  Speaker 3: is different. You gotta get them back, but by the
• 51:04
  Speaker 3: time you decide to do it, you typically find out
• 51:06
  Speaker 3: that it wasn't that important anyway. And the full circle
• 51:10
  Speaker 3: on that is forgiveness.
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you just had a baby, right.
• 51:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah, how does that forgiveness?
• 51:20
  Speaker 2: I was going to say, well, like, what do you
• 51:22
  Speaker 2: want to pass on to your forgiveness.
• 51:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, forgiveness, forgiveness, forgiveness, forgiveness. I mean, my favorite saying
• 51:28
  Speaker 3: is uh, forgiveness is a subtle thread that bonds both
• 51:32
  Speaker 3: love and friendship. And I think without that, who are we?
• 51:36
  Speaker 3: Without the people around us? You're gonna have to forgive
• 51:38
  Speaker 3: somebody in your life, especially the people close, because they
• 51:41
  Speaker 3: get the ability to hurt you the best. So I think, well,
• 51:44
  Speaker 3: my daughter, it's more about I need her to forgive me.
• 51:47
  Speaker 3: I already know I'm a helicopter dad times ten. So
• 51:51
  Speaker 3: forgiveness I love it.
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: Okay, winding down here the final question.
• 51:56
  Speaker 2: I asked all my guests right now, if you had
• 51:59
  Speaker 2: the opportunity to offer yourself one piece of advice that
• 52:02
  Speaker 2: George who's almost three hundred pounds, he's doing everything he
• 52:07
  Speaker 2: can for his dad, but he is not happy and
• 52:10
  Speaker 2: he knows that he needs to make a change. What
• 52:13
  Speaker 2: piece of advice do you give that guy? Looking back
• 52:15
  Speaker 2: on that time in your life right now.
• 52:17
  Speaker 3: Cut the cord. Cut the cord, any cord that's attached
• 52:21
  Speaker 3: to you, that's holding you back. You know, you thinkure
• 52:24
  Speaker 3: about a big pipe, right and you attach a little
• 52:26
  Speaker 3: pipe on the side and suck a little water out
• 52:28
  Speaker 3: of it, then another and another. You have this big
• 52:30
  Speaker 3: eight inch pipe. But by the time you have all
• 52:32
  Speaker 3: these little hoses poking at the end of that pipe,
• 52:34
  Speaker 3: where your goals are and your dreams are, I'd say,
• 52:38
  Speaker 3: there's nothing left right And that's where your happiness is at,
• 52:41
  Speaker 3: the ability to have some pressure, some force. So cut
• 52:45
  Speaker 3: the chords. Anybody you have to cut the cord on,
• 52:48
  Speaker 3: Sit down with them, give him a hug, like love them,
• 52:52
  Speaker 3: put a picture of them on your wall. But if
• 52:53
  Speaker 3: you need to cut the cord on someone who's sucking
• 52:55
  Speaker 3: you dry, you got to do it quick, swift and
• 52:57
  Speaker 3: now like swift and deadly to me means like saw
• 53:00
  Speaker 3: somebody's arm off, Just chop it, cut the cord. And
• 53:03
  Speaker 3: then secondly is look at conflicts as an ability to
• 53:08
  Speaker 3: make all your relationships stronger. It's the shirt. If you can,
• 53:12
  Speaker 3: you're not always gonna nail it. But conflict to me,
• 53:15
  Speaker 3: on the other side of conflict is growth when you
• 53:18
  Speaker 3: face it head on with the goal of ending on
• 53:21
  Speaker 3: the other side friends and family. So just like like
• 53:25
  Speaker 3: get good at resolving conflict, Like there's books on it,
• 53:29
  Speaker 3: and I think those are the two things, Like I
• 53:31
  Speaker 3: didn't know there was a book on conflict resolution. I
• 53:34
  Speaker 3: wish I had read that. Cut the chords, resolve conflict
• 53:38
  Speaker 3: and follow your love, man, follow your path, your dream,
• 53:40
  Speaker 3: your north star. Like fast.
• 53:43
  Speaker 2: Now, where's any spoiler alert somewhere?
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: The next EBF is going to be I want one
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: on every corner, every corner, seriously, like I think a
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: boxing I'm sorry, I want to boxing you on every corner.
• 53:55
  Speaker 3: So to the extent I can be a part of
• 53:57
  Speaker 3: supplying even just motivation for p but to open more
• 54:00
  Speaker 3: boxing gyms. That's what to me. It's all about.
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: I love it. Thank you so much for giving me
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: your time.
• 54:06
  Speaker 3: Thank you.
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: This is dope.
• 54:07
  Speaker 2: Please take a moment and leave a quick review by
• 54:10
  Speaker 2: clicking the link with the description to this episode. We
• 54:12
  Speaker 2: all face multiple hurdles in life. I want to hear
• 54:15
  Speaker 2: about yours. Reach Out to me at Emily at Hurdle
• 54:17
  Speaker 2: dot Us. Connect to the podcast on Instagram and Twitter
• 54:21
  Speaker 2: at Hurdle Podcast.
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: George, where do they find you? Where do they find EBF?
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: Give me the rundown.
• 54:27
  Speaker 3: I'm everybody fights Everything and George forman the third pretty
• 54:31
  Speaker 3: transparent reach out please awesome.
• 54:34
  Speaker 2: I am at Emily a body another hurdle conquered. Catch
• 54:37
  Speaker 2: you guys next time.