# 170. How I Built a $100M Brand from My Parent's House ft. Christian Guzman

An episode of [THE 505 PODCAST](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1591279585), 28 Aug 2025, 1 h 59 min.

Audio: https://podcasts.beehiiv.com/3f71d8b4-2a8c-40eb-8500-c62b76bd9acc/019d43e4-0103-7741-b37f-b81b41dca056/019d43e4-82ce-7ae1-8dd5-492a33e2afd7/019d43e4-8381-7131-ac46-3ff4b2c9fb0a.mp3

The 10 Minute Personal Brand Kickstart (FREE): https://the505podcast.courses/personalbrandkickstart What’s up, Rock Nation! Today we’re joined by Christian Guzman — fitness YouTuber, entrepreneur, and founder of Alphalete, Alphaland, and 3D Energy. His creator-led brands have generated over half a billion dollars in revenue. Christian shares how he went from sleeping on a futon in a failing gym to building Alphaland, and the hard lessons most people miss behind the $500M headlines - from chasing top-line revenue at the expense of profit, to nearly losing it all during Alphaland’s buildout, to why the right hires matter more than more hires. We also dive into what creators misunderstand about building a brand, why influencer marketing is fading, and why YouTube is still king. If you want the blueprint for scaling beyond content and turning vision into a business, this one’s for you. Check out Christian here: https://www.instagram.com/christianguzmanfitness/ https://www.youtube.com/ @guzmanchristian https://www.instagram.com/alphalete/ SUSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER: https://the505podcast.ac-page.com/rock-report The Creator Pricing Guide - The No BS Guide to Pricing Your Creative Services Coupon Code: ROCKNATION10 gets you $10 off at checkout for the boulders https://courses.the505podcast.com/pricing-guide Join our Discord! https://discord.gg/xgEAzkqAvs More Free Products: Our 5 Positioning Tips to Land Bigger Clients (FREE): https://the505podcast.courses/5positioningtips 6 Questions to ask on Every Sales Call (FREE): https://the505podcast.courses/6questionsfordiscoverycall COP THE BFIGGY "ESSENTIALS" SFX PACK HERE: https://courses.the505podcast.com/BFIGGYSFXPACK KG Presets Vol. 1 https://www.kostasgarcia.com/store-1/p/kglightroompresets Kostas’ Amazon Storefront: https://amzn.to/3GhId25 15% OFF Prism Lens FX with code: KOSTAS15 https://bit.ly/42sNdej Timestamps: 0:00 - Intro 1:29 - What makes creator brands scale vs. flop 2:22 - Separating from the brand 4:47 - Revenue isn’t everything 6:06 - Christian had no one to turn to for advice 7:53 - Dealing with ego 10:45 - Christian’s biggest lesson in business 11:50 - The power of A player hires 15:13 - Personal Brand Kickstart 15:39 - The dangers of being a checklist CEO 16:47 - Christian’s biggest hire to date 18:55 - Why Christian doesn’t ask for advice 21:29 - Alphalete’s infrastructure 24:40 - Bringing a team inhouse 26:37 - Getting people bought into your vision 28:11 - You lose everything tomorrow, how do you build back up 31:58 - Why YouTube will win 33:48 - Why Christian started a completely new YouTube channel 35:50 - The goal post is constantly moving 38:46 - Influencer marketing is changing 42:30 - Building a brand takes longer than you think 44:47 - Christian’s biggest rick 47:53 - Buying the Alphalete property during covid 49:27 - How Adderall affected Christian 51:43 - Customer Acquisition for Alphaland vs Alphalete 54:52 - What people don’t understand about building a brand in 2025 56:45 - Content is the #1 most important needle mover 58:39 - Christian’s YouTube strategy 1:00:28 - How Alphalete’s first package shaped everything 1:02:55 - How Christian handles messed up clothing 1:04:50 - Being obsessed with the details 1:05:30 - Alphalete’s first women drop 1:08:01 - The decision to do women’s clothing 1:09:18 - What happens when inventory sits in storage 1:10:39 - Holding inventory costs money 1:11:44 - Chasing Gym Shark 1:13:35 - The drop style business model 1:15:09 - When to bring back old styles 1:16:39 - Separating Alphalete Women’s vs Men’s 1:19:56 - Summer Shredding 1:23:07 - The response to Summer Shredding from the Body Building community 1:25:11 - How Summer Shredding has evolved 1:25:53 - Getting 3D back 1:27:31 - How to start an energy drink brand 1:30:01 - Re-introducing 3D to the world 1:30:34 - The pricing strategy of $2 per can 1:32:43 - Pitching 3D 1:34:45 - Christian’s time…

## Transcript

[0:00] I had my futon. I literally was sleeping there. Really within 10 months, I had to call it. I'm a failure.
[0:05] That failure there, though in the moment felt like the biggest loser, two and a half years later, we reopened the gym, and that gym was phase one of what Alphaland is now.
[0:15] That's Christian Guzman, 32-year-old fitness entrepreneur whose businesses have done over $500 million in revenue. And the craziest part, he's documented his entire journey on YouTube for over a decade.
[0:26] If you're starting a business, you're not gonna have the funds to pay every person to make content.
[0:31] You need to be your cameraman, you need to be your editor, you need to do everything A to Z in order to increase the odds of your success.
[0:37] In this episode, Christian explains the common traps that keep creator-led brands from growing, why the biggest risks almost broke him- And the lessons learned through navigating failure, ego, and rapid growth.
[0:47] The businesses, especially when you're, like, being ego-driven and chasing higher and higher and higher revenue, you're taking bigger risks and taking bigger investments, and you feel like you're unstoppable, that can definitely come and crash and bite you in the a- What Christian has built is no overnight success.
[1:01] His empire nearly collapsed before it ever began. How he responded in that moment is what turned adversity into a $100 million brand. My first Alphalete shipment ever arrived from China to my parents' house.
[1:11] I open up the boxes. The sizing's two sizes too small. Went back to the drawing board, ate that initial investment, and I think a big reason why Alphalete sort of established itself as it has.
[1:20] Christian is proof that the grind really does pay off. This is the blueprint for turning content and a vision into a $500 million empire. Let's go. You've built multiple eight-figure businesses.
[1:32] What do you think it is that makes creator-led brands scale and the other ones that just fall flat and flop? I think
[1:40] as soon as the business is not so directly tied to the creator, I guess that longevity factor is really what will make businesses succeed.
[1:49] I re- I remember like clear as day when I started building Alphaland, I had this terrible fear 'cause I went MIA on YouTube. I had this terrible fear that Alphalete sales were just gonna tank. If I'm not posting,
[2:02] if I'm just, like, hiding away doing the business, I had this huge paranoia, and it ended up being the opposite, which kinda gave me this feeling of, "Okay, shit, maybe I'm not as,
[2:13] you know, connected as I feared I would be," um, which really gave me confidence to, like... in longevity in all the brands.
[2:23] Did you always have the mindset to separate yourself from the brand, or was that something that after you started the brand you realized, "Oh, I should maybe take myself out of it a little bit"?
[2:33] No, I mean, I definitely started just owning the journey of the business and everything, but that is something I contemplated before I had launched the company.
[2:42] I was, like, 50/50, should I just be behind the scenes and kinda be this ghost person that, you know, promotes the brand and doesn't say it's actually mine, um, or do I lean to the fact that, hey, I'm starting this, this is me behind it, and kind of take them along that really tight journey?
[2:57] And that's what I ended up choosing, and I am definitely happy I did. Um, but it's tough. I mean, I guess a few years ago I would've just been preaching how
[3:07] it has to be so directly tied to what you're doing, but I guess now I've just seen so many peers succeed in other methods.
[3:16] So, like, I've seen people do it complete reverse, where they're ghosts and they, you know, get a great athlete team and they build Gymshark.
[3:25] Or if they're, you know, like Dom, uh, my partner for 3D and Raw, where he's just, like, not doing social. He's in his cave grinding in real life and just, like, d- able to build these massive companies.
[3:37] Um, so I guess, yeah, for me, it was very much tie myself to the thing, s- tell my story, build the brand like that, and then stage two was to get into women's and sort of reach past my, my immediate audience. And
[3:54] I think that's what really has taken Alphalete to the next level and kind of made that a solidified brand in my opinion.
[3:59] Is that a decision a creator needs to make right off the bat, or is it something where I can start a business, really be based around my personal brand, and then if I really wanna take it to the next level, let me find ways to market it outside of me?
[4:14] Oh, 100%. That's, like, screaming Christian Guzman.
[4:16] \[laughs\] \[laughs\] Um, ultimately, I mean, look, if you're starting a business, if you're starting a venture, you're not gonna have the funds to go and get these people, right?
[4:24] You're not gonna have the funds to pay every person to make content. Like, you need to re- rely on yourself to be that main driver, especially nowadays with social being in the spot that it's in.
[4:34] It's like you need to be your cameraman, you need to be your editor, you need to be the, the talking head.
[4:40] You need to kind of do everything A to Z in order to, in my opinion, just increase the odds of your success for the cheapest rate. \[laughs\] Right. Yeah.
[4:49] If someone saw the headline $500 million in revenue, what do they miss about the story entirely? That revenue is not everything, right?
[5:00] I think for many years I just got super caught into and sucked into growth and top-line revenue. And with that, ego builds, and with that,
[5:13] there can be crashes where you just lose sight of the entire purpose of the business, which is, like, financially speaking at least, it's not what you make, it's what, it's what you take home, right?
[5:24] It's what is your bottom line. If you're not having a clear eye on profits, if you're not, like, being sure you're on top of your accounting, you're on top of your taxes, you're actually, like,
[5:34] up to date with all those things and keeping that fresh eye on it at all times, the businesses, especially when you're, like, being ego-driven and chasing higher and higher and higher revenue, you're taking bigger risks and taking bigger investments, and you feel like you're unstoppable, that can definitely come and kind of crash and bite you in the ass and catch up.
[5:52] So I would say, like, really letting the ego go a little bit too much and just chasing top line, um, without-Keeping a very priority, you know, mindset on the bottom line can definitely be a big lesson.
[6:07] Was there anyone that you were able to talk to while this was all happening?
[6:11] 'Cause I know, like I've heard you say this before where you're like, it's hard to take advice from someone at that state when you're like, "Oh, you haven't, you're not building like what I'm building right now, and you don't see like a business like this," or it's like very, it's very unique.
[6:24] Was there anyone that you could have called or talked to, or did you talk to during that time period when it was just like flying by the seat of your pants? No, and I, I, I wish I...
[6:34] There's only like a hand- there's people I know now and relationships I have now that I feel like I could've called, but when I was in it, not at all. Mm-hmm.
[6:41] It's like, it was just definitely like a, I feel like I'm on, I'm on an island.
[6:45] Um, and I could just kinda take advice from my friends, from my, my parents, but no one had been in that territory yet, and so it was definitely like from... I feel like all the people around me,
[6:59] "This is fucking dope, man, but let me know how it goes." \[laughs\] Like, you know, "Let me know, let, let me know like how, how's, you know, did it work out?"
[7:07] \[laughs\] Or like it's almost like I was the guinea pig in a lot of ways. Yeah.
[7:10] And I think being the guinea pig through all that rapid growth really has led me to be so much more effective, decisive, and just like actually able to execute any...
[7:22] Like anything I've done in the last 12 years, I feel like now at 32,
[7:27] gosh, I c- I feel like it's just, I could do so much better work and just be so much on it with so much less time and stress than this, um, than any of those previous years.
[7:38] So it's just like evolution, and I don't think I would have that feeling if I didn't
[7:44] get fucked over or just like lose so many opportunities or, um, or have so many like consequences kinda happen by being the, the hamster or the guinea pig.
[7:53] In our last pod with Seth Godin, he told us about how he got kicked out of the publishing business, and that failure actually was the best thing that could've happened to his career. Was there a moment where
[8:07] your ego may- maybe being a little bit too inflated, was there a moment where it all came together where you had to check yourself and that moment led to new growth in the company? Yeah. I think the most
[8:20] prime example that comes to mind when you ask me that is I've never wanted to necessarily be a clothing owner.
[8:27] Never, like from the beginning, when I'm talking like high school years, if you asked me what I wanted to be, I wanna own a gym. I wanted to have like a training spot.
[8:36] I wanna train group classes of like 15 to 25 like teenagers and kind of run, you know, a really tight ship and, and that was my goal, and be able to own the gym was my goal.
[8:46] Now, in 2013, that's when I first opened my very first gym. I saved my money from online coaching. I saved money from a few merch drops, and I had enough to invest into my first gym, 900 square foot.
[9:02] With the offices, it was 1,500 square foot. And I pretty much just ha- had my futon. I literally was sleeping there. I was opening the door. I was closing the door.
[9:12] I was doing everything I knew how to do to try to keep the thing alive. Within, really within 10 months, I had to call it. The business was failing. There weren't enough people signing up.
[9:25] There, there weren't enough people consistently paying the membership without their card getting declined, and I just couldn't stay up on top of it.
[9:31] And I had to, after all my high school, college years, like this is all leading up to this moment and it felt so real, like, "I have to call it. I'm, I'm a failure. I have to close the gym." And I still kept the spot.
[9:48] I was still paying rent, but I just decided to use it for like content, and
[9:52] luckily, I had other, you know, the merch and that sort of, when Alphalete was in development, and that led to a bigger warehouse, and I just kinda moved my gym equipment with me. And that failure there,
[10:04] though in the moment felt like the world was crushing me and I felt like the biggest loser,
[10:11] two and a half years later, January 1st, 2016, we reopened the gym in a 10,000 square foot because the other businesses were going so good and I just felt like, "Fuck, like, I, I'm gonna give, I'm gonna give it another go."
[10:23] And that gym is or was sort of the phase one of what Alphaland is now.
[10:32] So since then, that day, the bin- the business has been growing consistently and evolving into bigger spaces and bigger spaces into what you see downstairs, which is like I feel like the success story of the high school version of me.
[10:46] What really helped this second gym be successful? Not the one that we're in right now, but what did you take from the first gym that actually made that second gym success- You need people...
[10:54] 'cause the gy- the gym business is hard. Yeah. Right? You need people. Um, I thought that I could just kinda do it all myself- Mm... and at, at first. So hiring people was huge.
[11:05] That was the first time ever managing or having anyone like report to me or, you know, kind of...
[11:10] But that, that's the first step that any business owner or anyone watching this is gonna have to take, um, if you want to build something, honestly. Like you, y- that, that's, it's people.
[11:22] And even now to this day, I think it's funny. People will, ever since entering that when I was, whatever, 20, 21 years old, people has and I think always will be the hardest part of business.
[11:34] So it's like it f- feels like a crazy daunting task when you start and you have your first like three to five to seven employees, but those same issues just get, they get ex- almost just like leveled up t- uh, tenfold, a hundredfold the bigger the companies get.
[11:51] So let me ask you this. If a creator was to come to you and say, "I wanna build a seven-figure business," what would be the steps you would tell them to build their audience...
[12:02] start building out the team or their product, what have you learned over the past decade plus of building your businesses that you could tell them that would save them years of frustration? That's a really good question.
[12:14] I can talk about, like, what I've... What I did. Mm-hmm. Right?
[12:18] And I can kind of reflect on that and say what I would do now, which at first it was always, okay, first hire an assistant, kinda teach them everything, kind of evolve like that.
[12:31] But I'm hesitant to give that advice 'cause I feel like... I really feel like w- that sort of led me into 10 years of just having imp- really staff that kind of ended up not working out.
[12:47] It, it almost like s- starting off like that with somebody doesn't always lead to the best end result. It, in fact, it's always led to it crashing and burning for me.
[12:57] Um, versus what I would recommend now to somebody looking to start a seven-figure business, the first person you hire, it needs to... I would say
[13:08] do things yourself until you're at the point where you can really bring someone good on, right? And I think skipping the phases of just, like, mediocre or
[13:19] task-driven employees, 'cause that's the thing, like, the first 10... Every assistant I had, I always thought they were gonna eventually become, like, the, you know, in a, in...
[13:29] If we keep grinding, if we keep killing it, you keep doing everything right, like, we're, we're on... We have great relationships, like, for two to five years.
[13:36] Like, I see a path where you're, like, leading this operation, right? Like, that, those are the, that's the tone of the conversations that happen. And it, I, it was, I was just so wrong so many times.
[13:48] And could that be largely due to me? Probably, right?
[13:53] But I think that right now, 12 years in the business is the first time where I'm really, really realizing how important pe- like, not just, I don't wanna say quality people 'cause, like, quality people I've had.
[14:08] The, I've always had quality people. But, like, people that just have more experience in the areas that you're lacking, that have manager experience, that have people experience. Like, I've found for me, like,
[14:22] I mean, a- a- age isn't, like, a, a firm thing, but, like, people that are older that have private equity experience, they have experience in, like, actual businesses and, like, in structure and that can have tough conversations, it's a whole different beast than, like, growing with someone and tr- and a- like, you got this conversation.
[14:40] Like, it, it's a whole different type of level, and at that level when you start hiring, you know, maybe it's instead of three people that are, you know, 50 to 70K a year, you look at one person that's 150, right?
[14:54] And just, like, entertain it. And it may seem like a bigger jump. You may be like, "Oh, fuck," like, "I'd, I'd rather have two people or three people f- than that."
[15:03] But what I'm telling, it, from my experience is, like, in a lot of cases it will be worth it to get that better person even if it costs more or equal to in the long run. You guys are all having a great time, right?
[15:15] I'm loving this. Yeah. Yeah. We gotta tell you about the first link in the description though because we have an awesome free product for you. Okay. Free 99, we all love the sound of that.
[15:23] It's a personal brand kickstart and it's gonna help you get clarity on the people that you wanna talk to and the content that you should be creating. It is so simple, it's gonna literally take you less than 10 minutes.
[15:33] I mean, are you enjoying this episode? I really am. And you know who had amazing clarity on their personal brand? Hm. It's Christian Guzman. 100%. I don't wanna hold you any longer, so let's keep it rolling. Yeah.
[15:41] We, we feel you- \[laughs\]... on this, on this conversation for sure. When you were going the early days of hiring people, you mentioned that you would give them a checklist. Mm.
[15:50] And my cousin is like, he's, he's sold multiple businesses and he was chatting with me about being a checklist founder myself and I was like- \[laughs\] "... So yeah can I see your... " He's like, "Do you do a checklist?"
[15:59] I'm like, "Every fucking day" \[laughs\] \[laughs\] Well, no, it'd be like I would do my checklist but then I would do my employee's checklist. Yeah. It- On, on things three. Oh, yeah.
[16:07] I would have, like, different categories for everyone's name. Uh-huh. And I would literally update checklists for them. Every day. Every day. Uh-huh. And I'm like, and it, that was... I mean, we were also...
[16:16] Granted while doing that we still reached 80 to 100 million in revenue which is fucking crazy, but that's also shows, like, how much timing has to happen, luck has to happen, product has to land at an exact certain time to make that happen.
[16:30] That's like an anomaly. Mm-hmm. Right?
[16:32] And but then that system quickly crashed and burned for me and then I've had to rebuild and that's kind of the stage we're in now is, like, this rebuilding structurally from the ground up with a healthy eye on mark, just like a whole business restructure is what we've been doing- Mm...
[16:47] over the last year. And talk to us a little bit about who you brought on. I know we, we spoke to Chris when he got here, uh, and he's helping run things. He's the COO.
[16:56] You know, what has it been like to hire someone on that you're like, "I, I don't need to oversee what's going on right this second." Like, "I can let them run and, you know, manage and do that whole side of things."
[17:06] What has that been like for the business? You know, like, I used to use that term let them run- Okay... a lot. Hm. And it's almost like I was always like, "I'm gonna get this person and let them, let them run," right?
[17:16] Mm-hmm. Like, let them do that. But \[laughs\] I'm not trying to be- \[laughs\] But what I've learned, bro- Stupid question.
[17:21] \[laughs\] No, but I, at first, all the way until, like, this year I've just kinda had this mindset shift of, like, when I think about me and Chris' relationship- Mm-hmm...
[17:30] we're talking all the fucking time, so it's like- Mm...
[17:33] we're running, he's running but with super consistent communication with me to the point where, like, I'm not in the office physically but I know exactly what, like, the hurdles of every department, what, what, what people are doing well with the dynamic i- because, like, I haven't just...
[17:52] When I first hired him I thought it was gonna be like, okay, we are gonna do a trial for 90 days.
[17:55] You're gonna sh- like, kinda shadow me, we're gonna go through everything, ask me questions, talk to the staff and then after...
[18:00] In my head I was like after 90 days, like, you're gonna be able to, like, really go and, like, execute.
[18:04] But what I've found is, like, the reason it's been so successful here is-It's more communication than I've ever had with anybody, right?
[18:14] And it's, we have like a once a week weekly call, right, where we spend about an hour just catching up everything high level, and that alone has been fantastic.
[18:22] But on top of that, it's like anytime we, we touch base every- we're always texting. There's no, like, off time.
[18:29] It's like anytime we need anything, we're there, and I feel like that's why he's able to consistently keep executing and not just, like, go off and run, and then it's like, "Oh, where, where you at? Oh, fuck."
[18:38] Like, and they- we've diverged from the goal. As long- You know? As long as it's before 8:00 PM, 'cause he told us he wakes up at 3:00 AM. Yeah. What's, what's going on with Chris' schedule? \[laughter\] Bro.
[18:48] I go to bed at 8:00. I don't know, but I ain't complaining. \[laughter\] Chris is like, yeah, he's like, "I've been in here for a few hours already." I was like- Yeah... "Dude, we got to bed late, man."
[18:57] \[laughter\] You know, it's interesting. I know that you guys have spent some time with, uh, Layla and Alex Hormozi. Mm-hmm.
[19:02] And we had Caleb Ralston on our pod not too long ago, who just, um, he was working with them for a minute.
[19:08] We were asking him, like, what he's learned from working with them, and he said something that he loved that Layla did was when they bring on a new hire, they have, uh, like, an onboarding process, like, 30 days before they even start, and that way they can kinda just hit the ground running.
[19:24] And then, um, like you said, the, the benefit of bringing on A players and people who crush it.
[19:30] \[sighs\] When you were really going through it and you feel like you had no one to talk to, now that you've been in it for a minute, are there people like Layla and Alex that you can talk to?
[19:39] And, like, what advice have you gotten from maybe other people in the entrepreneur space or other mentors that you've had? You know, that's a good question and, and I would say there's, like, three to five...
[19:53] Dale dab up every time we do questions. We, we joke, like, when we're doing, when we're doing pods and someone says, "That's a good question"- Come on... we're always like, "Dude, put it right there, man.
[20:00] Put it right there." We're... If we get one, we're like, "We're feeling real good." That's two, man. We've already got two more than 15 minutes in. I wish that I asked for advice more. Mm. I don't.
[20:11] A- and I think that roots back to probably something that's not a healthy habit. Sure. But, I mean, yeah, I don't know, man. I, I, I'd, I'd rather kind of...
[20:24] God, that sounds so, like, stupid and, like, against everything I've been saying, but when it comes down to it, it's like I know I could kind of reach out for advice here and there, but it's also, like, I have confidence in what I'm deciding to do, and I have to lean into it.
[20:38] And it's like I d- haven't got where I am by going and asking for tons of advice ever, really. So it's like, it's almost like I need to fucking prove to myself that I can turn this thing around.
[20:50] It's like after eight years of, like, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, it's like, okay, this is your first fucking test. Let's see how are you g- how are you gonna fix this?
[20:58] How are you gonna turn this around and grow a sustainable so Alphalete can be around another 10, 20, 30 years. I also feel, though, that that might be because it started as, like, a creator-led business. Mm-hmm.
[21:12] Nobody knows this business more than you. Like- Yeah... it's at your core. It's what you, like, live for. So I feel like at the end of the day, you kinda gotta trust your gut, and- Mm... you're like, "This is...
[21:24] Yes, I can get outside advice, but the, like, where I wanna take this business, nobody's gonna know it more than you."
[21:31] What does the infrastructure look like now from obviously the early days where we're writing checklists for people, and now we have this crazy office that we're in. It's in a beautiful space.
[21:41] You have very talented people around you. Like, what does it look like from a levels perspective? So, like, maybe just general staff at the gym, and, like, layer me up all the way up. Yeah.
[21:49] General staff at the gym, management, then it goes to Chris, essentially what you're gonna find, which is my COO/president, right?
[21:59] So that structure kind of goes the same with Alphalete to where it's we have our staff, we have our management, management reports to Chris, um, Chris reports to me.
[22:10] And same with our media team, um, or marketing, not media, sorry, and same with our design, and that right there has been the sole thing I feel like I have been looking for for my whole career.
[22:24] Um- Is that sort of structure... is that sort of structure. Uh-huh.
[22:27] Before, you just remove Chris, and then I have literally- All these heads I remember in 2023, I, we out- we're outsourcing an HR team, and they would come and travel here, like, once every, you know, two, three months, and I had 24 direct reports.
[22:41] So I had... Uh, it was the end of the year, I was doing performance reviews.
[22:44] I had 24 folders with like, you know, with yearly reviews that I had to, that I was independently having to, to do to give bonuses, to give performance evaluations, and I just real- that's when I realized how straight up shitty of a man- like, a real, like, manager I was being.
[23:04] I was like, sure, I can be a good leader, but I am not being a good manager. I am not consistently checking in with all of these people. I check in with, like, five to eight of them, right? And I have very close...
[23:14] But that, then that's when I was, like, living here. But realistically, I feel like the cap for reports is, like, eight to 10. Anything... Really eight, I would say.
[23:23] Anything more than eight people directly reporting to you on, like, a work chart, I don't think you can do well, right, without, like, killing yourself. Mm.
[23:35] Um, so doing all those reviews that year, it was like, I have to change this, right? And I didn't even realize I had 24 direct reports until HR came in, solidified the work structure.
[23:46] They're like, "Christian, you, this is, they all report to you." And I'm like, "Wow." That makes sense. \[laughs\] It, it, it makes sense- Yeah. Yes... it, it, it- Yeah, holy shit...
[23:55] it gets so out of hand, and it's like- Mm...
[23:56] when you realize, like, people are literally working their ass off every day, showing up and doing this, and then as a manager, if you can't give that back and you can't, like, you know, reciprocate that,
[24:08] it was a huge reality check that, like, I have to make changes here, and I have to dedicate, I have to actually get this shit done. Mm.
[24:15] 'Cause this is not fair to them, this is not fairTo, to me, but of course it's them first. But it's like and now so they're... That's when I really started experimenting with hiring higher level people that could manage.
[24:27] And we've had failures, we've had successes with that. We're s- it's a ever-growing every single day battle to build the team out and make it as effective as possible. Um, but I would say yeah, that has been the...
[24:39] Like I said, people is the, is the hardest part of business. You, you mentioned that you were outsourcing HR and at one point accounting. And accounting, bro.
[24:47] So- It's not you just like turning your hat around and be like- Yeah... "What's the issue?" \[laughs\] Well, I'm the, I'm HR. You're, I mean, we're the best HR department over here. We're amazing.
[24:54] \[laughs\] What is, what have you learned about that, about bringing that team in-house? Uh, you know, the trials and tribulations of that whole journey because man, I remember the first year that I had to do taxes.
[25:05] Didn't know that taxes could be so expensive, dude. \[laughs\] Amen. Remember me with the accountant. He's like- Every time I see a new influencer making tons of money and buying so much shit- Oh my gosh...
[25:13] I send, I'm like, "Get ready for tax. Just get ready, bro" Just get ready for the season. Just get fucking ready. Is cor- Just, just- Wait, did you see the, did you see the guy on the Graham Stephan podcast?
[25:22] Oh, that was insane. That was fucking crazy. He was like this, uh, this influencer and he was like, "Yeah, I spent like 700K on this." Oh, Togie. Yes. And they go like, "What are you gonna do-" I saw that...
[25:31] "about taxes?" Like, "What? I'm not gonna pay that." \[laughs\] What are you talking about? "I'm not gonna pay that." Get ready, get ready for a wake-up call. Do you do quarterlies now at this level?
[25:38] Is that what has to be done? Or do you try to- Ideally. Ideally. \[laughs\] \[laughs\] So our account, like accounting is actually still getting shifted. So like we hired- Okay...
[25:49] a CFO, and again, invested a lot of ti- didn't work out. Oh. So that put us kind of right back without still outsourcing here.
[25:56] Then we hired someone now, so it's like we're hoping by end of Q1 next year to have it all shifted in house. Mm-hmm. Um, but yeah, accounting has been a massive one.
[26:06] Um, we still outsource legal, which that fucked me last year. And then we now have HR in house.
[26:14] HR in house, I would say is the, because of the gym, because of just how my structures are and, and the amount of people we have in the gym, HR is absolutely number one to get moved in house.
[26:25] And then I would put it accounting, and then, um, and then- The legal... legal. But for most people, I would almost say, uh, it depends on your, how big the team is. Yeah.
[26:36] But I would probably put accounting up before HR for many. Okay. You brought up that you felt like you were a good leader, but maybe not as great of a manager. Mm-hmm. How do you get people bought into your vision?
[26:48] When you're bringing on a team and building it out, it's obviously your baby and you want people to work as hard as you, but that might be a little bit difficult.
[26:56] So how do you as a leader of a company get people really bought in and on board to work fucking hard and grind to help you build this thing into what you know it can turn into?
[27:07] Bro, just being honest, I don't think I've ever had an issue getting people invested. Mm. But I think that's because I've always just been like, I know what I gotta do.
[27:15] I gotta keep making vi- I gotta make my videos, I gotta do this like higher level visionary kind of, you know, kind of stuff. But where I feel like I've just failed is like, is being that manager, right? Mm-hmm.
[27:28] It's like the people will start worrying, "Oh, this isn't really what I thought." And like I own that, man.
[27:31] Like I completely real- or where it's like I didn't have the managers in place for them to have an experience where they could... They're ready to devote their life and this and that, and then like,
[27:41] you know, we just don't have proper leadership, and that's been a, a, a big thing over the last few years to be honest. So, um, I don't know. I think you get people bought in by being the big picture, right?
[27:55] It's just you have to be sure you have support that you're communicating with very constantly so that when people come on board and start working for you, they can have a good experience and a path up.
[28:06] You know, I think that's, that's just huge. It's- That's a big one... that's a huge one, and that's something we're still working on, I mean, very transparently. Mm-hmm.
[28:14] If you were to lose all the businesses tomorrow, we had to start over, you still get to... Do you get to keep the audience, you think, or no? You wanna- No, I think, I think- You think you...
[28:23] It'd just start over, but you have the knowledge that you have tomorrow, what is the first step that you would take? Would it be short form social? Would it be YouTube that these long form YouTube videos?
[28:33] What are you thinking you would do to build it back? You still have a consistent monthly salary, by the way, so you're not at like, you don't have $0 coming in. \[laughs\] \[laughs\] Let's make it realistic.
[28:42] But you do have to start building it back up. So to start the business or just to start like building the, the, uh- I'd say both... awareness? I, I'd say both. I mean, you want, you want the businesses back.
[28:52] You're a businessman. What would you do? I would 100% get on... I'm gonna take the risky route, but I'm gonna go on YouTube. Okay. You are gonna go- Yeah. Okay. And why, why do you feel like YouTube is so important?
[29:03] To me, YouTube is the king of all platforms. It goes YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat. LinkedIn will probably be above Snap- Snapchat, I'd say, but I don't, I don't really do LinkedIn.
[29:13] But, um, that- Did I close my biggest deal ever off a cold LinkedIn DM? Really? Biggest deal ever. So maybe bump that up. I, I- And in front of TikTok... I was actually astounded at just who is seeing this stuff. Yeah.
[29:25] 'Cause you can see like C-suite level people or manager level- Yeah... people. And then, you know, I, I found this other app where I could just type in their name and it'll give me their email- Yeah...
[29:34] immed- immediately on LinkedIn, which is kinda crazy, but it's been, it's been nuts. I feel like your video stuff would eat.
[29:41] If you literally just repurposed the, the videos you do on Instagram and threw them over there and just added it in, we had a guy on who's- More connections...
[29:48] 100%, but there's only 1% of people on LinkedIn are creating. Mm. So it's all consumers. So like, and you have 1,000 fucking videos- Yeah... that could go up, they would hum. More like 3,000 now. No, I know.
[29:59] \[laughs\] Thousands. I mean, like even the journey of building back 3D and getting it- Just have someone clip all that and just like do it on LinkedIn... 100%. And just put i- it's a, they have a reels feed now basically.
[30:09] Damn. And like- And Heidi's like pretty big on LinkedIn... I've seen, I've seen her stuff pop up. I think it'd be- Yeah, you could crush. Yeah. It would eat. Yeah.
[30:16] And it'd be a whole, it'd be a whole new audience of people- Yeah... that's like, that has no idea that you even exist. Yeah. Which is crazy. And then you'd probably get way better staff too\[laughs\] \[laughs\]
[30:26] They're like, "I wanna work for this guy." Yeah. Um- Okay, so YouTube would be- But definitely YouTube. Uh-huh. I mean, I think that that's also from starting from zero, it's gonna be the hardest to grow for sure.
[30:35] But I just, I still believe that it's... Like, we have people with 10,000 subs that kill it with Alphalete. They kill it with the brand. They ki- they kill it in any source.
[30:46] So I would work on YouTube, and right after that I would still find a way to still do short-form, mainly Reels, and I would immediately start a service, something that has zero costs, zero, uh, overhead, right?
[31:01] What can I build out? What can I teach? What can I s- sell and give service to until I get s- money in my savings to go and, you know, comfortably start a business, and give that time for my content to grow.
[31:14] Man, I think the play of YouTube is- Which is the same thing I did twel- Yes... in 2012. Mm-hmm. So it's crazy that I would still give the same advice now. I would, I mean, I would also maybe argue that maybe now
[31:30] it is more of a volume game on short-form over YouTube, but be- I, I think I'm biased 'cause I've just, like, been so driven by YouTube.
[31:38] But, like, posted, if you have the capacity to get on short-form four or five times a day, I've heard that's, like, r- in th- today, that is what really helps grow. Just that much volume. That much volume.
[31:50] It's just, I per- like, honestly, I- Five is insane... uh, it's insane, and I have a hard time seeing a world where I could produce that and, you know what I mean? But you're, you're spending...
[32:01] It's a different type of viewing experience on YouTube than it is on- Yeah... short-form, and I think the reason why even early on, right, before you were fucking as big as you are now,
[32:15] like, you had such a dedicated audience because you were really leaning into, like, your story
[32:23] and having an actual connection with your audience, which is so much more difficult to do on short-form, and that's the reason why you were able to move so much product.
[32:30] I, I 100% agree with your take on diving into YouTube. Yeah. And we've been talking about this, but with AI and everything, it's gonna be s- th- hard to compete on short-form- 100%... as we move forward. Yeah.
[32:45] And YouTube's not gonna be monetizing AI content. It's big. And so- Thank God. I know. Yeah. \[laughs\] I think it's gonna be- Yeah, it's massive... a, a big saving grace for, for creators, for sure. Yeah.
[32:54] I, I see that being the future. I think people are gonna get... Life is a circle. Business is a circle. Content's a c- a circle. How people enjoy content's a circle. And I think that with AI coming in so heavy,
[33:08] you're right, I think short-form is gonna start burning people out. It's gonna start feeling like just, "God, I need a break from this," and what's that break gonna be? Slower paced, long-form, not quick cuts, Reel.
[33:20] Do you watch any YouTube at all yourself anymore? Do you get the chance to? Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
[33:24] That's by far my favorite platform, but I think it's also, like we were saying, connected TV, I guess, is, like, skyrocketing for them.
[33:31] So people are watching these, like, 30, 40, 50-hour podcasts, vlogs- That's all I watch... on their TV. Yep. And you're just posting up and watching it. I think that, I think that YouTube is where I'd spend the most.
[33:42] Obviously, it's the hardest, though. Yeah. 'Cause remember when you, when you started, it was just mostly commentary, right? Like, you would do a vlog and it would be, like, a commentary of your workout.
[33:49] Vlog and commentary, yeah. When did you see it start to shift where you were like, "I can't rip this same playbook anymore"?
[33:56] Um, I just, I, I would say I start- started to see rapid growth when we changed that up in, like, 2016. And- The, Nabil was 17? He was 17, but I had a few people, um, before that w- w- Javon- Mm-hmm...
[34:09] Kelvin, um, Lawrence, shout out, when we started, like, really trying to elevate the videos with the deography. But now it's not... I don't know. I think it could work now, for sure, but now it's just we're...
[34:21] Like, for the last two years I started a new YouTube channel. I hit a million. It was a 12-year-old channel really plateauing and losing followers.
[34:30] It was an uphill battle, so I started a fresh channel, dedicated my whole everything to that, and it's been a constant growth. But I edited all the videos myself for two years, right? But that meant clips and voiceover.
[34:44] \[laughs\] \[laughs\] So, so that's what I've been doing the last two years until Nabil got here, like, five months ago. Wow. Yeah. On the topic of your new channel, okay, your boy, Max- Am I crazy? No, no, no. No, no, no.
[34:55] We don't think, we don't think you're crazy at all. Okay. What's up with your boy, Max, dude? We gotta talk- He's dogging you... we gotta, we gotta- I think you can hit a mil. We gotta talk to Max.
[35:02] We're gonna talk to him tomorrow. I think you can for sure hit a mil. I think that- Does that fuel you? Yeah, does that fuel you? Yeah, it's not the... I'll tell you, like, when I got the mil plaque, I had no feeling.
[35:12] I was like, "Dope. What's next?" \[laughs\] So it's like, when I got my 100K plaque just, like, yesterday, I was like, "Dope. What's next?" So it's, I, I know no matter what the goal is I'll always just feel like that.
[35:24] But I'm not gonna lie, it does motivate the fuck out of me. Do you- Just, just 'cause I... And, and it's not the mil number, but it's growth. Uh-huh. I want, I, I want to- But it's Max.
[35:33] \[laughs\] \[laughs\] We were saying, we were saying what you gotta do, I don't know if you knew you could do, do this with, like, the 100K plaque or the million plaque.
[35:40] You can get a second one if it's, like, you and your boy, if you have, like, a channel together. Mm. You need to get him one and sign it.
[35:45] \[laughs\] Ship that out and be like, "You're gonna put this in your office \[laughs\] behind you." Okay, back up to something you just said about how you hit this goal. Yeah. You hit 100 and you kinda moved past it. Mm-hmm.
[35:57] Do you feel like that's been an ongoing thing that you maybe haven't been able to sit and feel, like, these massive monumental moments in business or in these things that you're chasing?
[36:09] Do you feel like you always have moved the goalpost? 'Cause it's something that I feel like I've dealt with a lot and I'm trying to work through.
[36:16] Like, you know, you'll, you'll hit these numbers or, you know, you hit a, a podcast episode and I'm like, "This is so fucking amazing."
[36:23] But like you're saying, it's like the, the ne- the next day I'm like, "W- we need a new guest." Like, as soon as- Yeah...
[36:28] you hit this milestone that you've been chasing for so long, the goalpost just automatically moves forward. Just think that's life, man. I, I- Uh-huh...
[36:36] as much as I wanna be like, "Oh, just let's, let's-" \[laughs\] I don't know.
[36:38] Okay, I will say, like-There's a sense of, with me getting married and stuff last year, and just like kind of combining our pots and both money, you know, savings and being like, "Oh, shit," like, you know, great. Like,
[36:53] it- it- it's nice for sure, but I find when I let myself kinda like, oh, this is... I don't have to work. Like, that's bad. That- that's a dangerous territory to get. That's a dangerous mindset to get in, right?
[37:06] 'Cause it- it... I don't know. I...
[37:09] We appreciate how far we've come, for sure, but it's like it may sound so cheesy, but if you're not trying, if you're not working on growing, I find like I just feel lost, and I just don't really... I- I...
[37:20] That's just not how I've wanna wire myself, um, with fitness, with- with work, with the content. Um, so I just like the chase, and I wanna put myself in positions to always be chasing.
[37:33] And like should you stop and appreciate? For sure.
[37:34] Like, sometimes I'm outside of the gym and I have like this wide angle just view of like everything, like, and it's peak hours, the sun's going down, the sunset looks beautiful, and I'm just like, "Fuck yeah, man," like I'm living it right now.
[37:47] I'm him. \[laughs\] So I think just- just be sure to remind yourself, like you are living it right now. Mm-hmm. Like y- if- if five years ago you dreamt of this moment- Yeah... fucking embrace it.
[37:57] And just all I can say is like be more present in the moment, and it's like don't be so distracted.
[38:01] I- I feel one big thing that I've been working on is like just being more in the moment with things, and I think that's something I've really gotten better at since really starting this new channel and the...
[38:12] This is a whole side tangent, but like going, getting off of Adderall cold turkey and sort of like I found that what slowing down,
[38:22] I thought slowing down would be is actually just me being more clear and having more clarity, making decisions quicker and just sharper.
[38:29] And by doing that and not fogging myself with like stimulants and stuff like that, I'm able to be more present and just enjoy the things more. You know- Have you tried NeuroGum? Uh, once. It was just really chewy. Yeah.
[38:41] You know, that was the only downside. I'm- I'm into it. \[laughs\] Yeah. \[laughs\] Got some extra in my bag. We got, we got five tin patches right now. \[laughs\] We got plenty of some \[laughs\] for the pod.
[38:50] Okay, you brought up that there's a few athletes that crush for you guys that maybe don't have as many followers.
[38:57] You mentioned to us that influencer marketing has changed a little bit and isn't necessarily what it once was, and your guys' marketing strategy is changing a little bit.
[39:05] Can you talk about how your marketing strategy has changed and how it's different from, or how it's different in 2025 than it was maybe in 2015? Uh, for sure. Um, I mean, 2015 was...
[39:17] I don't think there were many influen- many influencers back then, but I would say like 2020, let's say. Okay. So in 2020, I feel like that was a very, easiest way to put it,
[39:28] about 50% of Alphalete sales used to come from influencers, athletes, creators in that. Now, it's down to about 32%, right? And what that... It- it- it's interesting. Like what that means for us, it's not a bad thing.
[39:46] It means that we're investing also into ads, into Google, into things like that, and just like really the shift that I'm making now is
[39:55] having our t- our marketing team actually put their brain and attention on the marketing outside of just the influencers and just the ads. Or sorry, uh, just the athletes. So like we need to...
[40:07] We're investing so much money into this stuff, and it seems like all of their day, their actual workday, has been so heavily involved in just like what's dr- the next drop, what, who are we shooting, this, this, this.
[40:19] It's like pause for a minute. Dive, split the attention from, you know, 90% this and 10% on this other stuff. Like, let's actually see what happens if we switch that to be 30, 35% focused on the athlete, the marketing.
[40:36] Let them more so do their thing, right? Let's lean on them to do their thing, and let's put our internal team focus on how can we improve what we're putting out as a company, building the brand.
[40:47] Like, how are we gonna do that instead of investing so much into these infl- into influencers. I mean, don't get me wrong. I stand behind our athletes so much, but it's like
[40:59] at a certain point, we need to let the athletes do their thing and like, right, a- and not try to hand hold it so much and give so much attention to it in the sen- does that make sense? Mm-hmm.
[41:09] I'm not trying to come off like- No, 100%. Why- why do you think, though, that it has gone down for tons of companies? Like it...
[41:15] A lot of people that we talk to that run any sort of brand that relied heavily in the very beginning on influencer marketing, it's like, it's changed a ton. I mean, it's- It's changed a ton.
[41:24] Like, the space is so different. There's way more brands. Yeah. Like, there's so many more places that I feel like you could be going to, and the com- there's more competition. Yeah.
[41:32] Like, there's more competition from the big, big players, too. Not just like people that are making brands that are like under 200 million in that space. Like it's, you know- Yeah. I- I'm gonna stop trying to sugarcoat.
[41:43] I'm like, man, if my athletes watch this, I... It- it's not that I'm... But the straight up, there's too many brands, there's too many influencers working with too many brands.
[41:51] Your code is not as valuable as it once was. Mm-hmm. It's not as unique, and it- it's, it...
[41:56] I think by the more things as an influencer and creator you say yes to, if I'm gonna say yes to doing this or yes to doing that, all you're really ultimately doing, you may get a, you know, a check or may- make some commission, but like you're just making it harder and harder to grow organically out of this hole that you're building yourself.
[42:14] And it's of, it- it's such a hard balance to kind of understand, 'cause it's like you gotta, you gotta pay the rent. We gotta make a living and stuff. And I'm not saying don't work with brands.
[42:24] I'm just saying that what I'm finding over the last five years is the conversion and the value, it's- it's just shrinking. Mm-hmm. And it's like i- i- it's shrinking. Mm-hmm. Straight up.
[42:34] Can you touch on a little bit about how long it actually takes to build a brand?
[42:39] Because we've been doing this pod for, we're coming up on four years, and we feel like we're just now starting to get-The traction we thought we could have got in year one, but it's taken us...
[42:51] We fucked up so much stuff, but it's taken us, like, four solid years to almost feel like we're just starting out- Yeah... in a sense. Can you talk about how long it really does take to build a proper brand?
[43:07] Bro, I feel like Alphalete's just becoming a proper brand \[laughs\]. Yeah \[laughs\]. Like, well, just a- a- in the sense of where, like, I feel like we're building the, the foundation to be able to withstand rapid growth.
[43:17] Yeah. Like, we're building it properly so where it won't, like, things won't crumble on the... It, it may look perfect from the outside, but, like, to where things won't crumble on the inside.
[43:25] So it's like, I mean, it's, it can take... E- even if I don't use that example, it's like 3D's been around since 2017, right? That's when we launched it, and just now I feel like...
[43:37] We've, we've had launches, we've had to change the name of the product, we've, um, gotten retail stores, lost retail stores. I've had to r- you know, rebuild those relationships, find new partners, and reformulate.
[43:50] And it's like, hey, now it's actually starting to g- really gain traction for the first time in what, eight years? Yeah. That's fucking crazy, right? And it's still... Like, it, it... So that's another example. I mean,
[44:04] like the gym, with all the money we've invested to this place, like, it's finally starting to show, like, signs of, like, healthy, consistent profit. Yeah. So it's like, fuck, that only took 10 years \[laughs\].
[44:16] I feel, I feel like that's- You know? \[laughs\]... it's so refreshing to hear that because it's v- I feel like it's very easy for someone to see what you've built and think that it can just happen overnight. It's...
[44:28] Even at the amount of revenue that you guys have done, it's like to hear that you guys are a decade in, if not longer, and you're now feeling like you're kinda just getting started and- Yeah...
[44:39] and at a new chapter, it's really refreshing to hear 'cause I feel like people, especially with how social media is nowadays, they just want that instant gratification. Mm-hmm.
[44:46] And not really willing to put in, like, the years and years of hard work that it actually takes to build something. Was the gym the biggest risk you think you took? This property was the biggest risk, for sure. This...
[44:55] That's what I mean, this property. I mean, it, the one thing about the property is it's always been gym, Alphalete, kind of all-encompassing, so that is how I viewed it. I'm like, "This is...
[45:05] The, the gym ain't gonna fund this place," right? Mm-hmm. Alphalete is gonna fund most of it, but, like, everything funnels to here. But yeah, I mean, bro, like, just,
[45:16] just to maintain this place is a fucking crazy amount, and it's, um, not to mention the build-out and the property costs. So it sits on 13 acres, right? 18 and a half. 18 and a half. Oh. Wow, okay.
[45:28] When, when you get the idea and you see this land and you're like, "I do wanna... I wanna buy this-" Yeah... what was going on from a financial standpoint of, like, okay, is it, do you have to put, like, 2 million down?
[45:40] Do you have to put 5 down? It was about 2 million. Okay. And then do you have to go to the bank and say, "Hey, this is what I'm willing to finance"? Like, how does, how does...
[45:46] I wanna know the, how the whole thing works. So how... Essentially, I had a lot of cash saved- Okay... because the businesses were just very healthy. Mm-hmm.
[45:54] And it was time to, you know, make a purchase and stop renting, and it kinda made sense to try to find this, the all-encompassing place. Mm-hmm. Um, so I think it was, like, 20% down.
[46:06] Got the building for eight and a half million. It got appraised at 11, so then I negotiated down to eight and a half, so then I was like, "Oh, that's actually a pretty good deal for this property."
[46:18] Yes, it's a huge headache in maintenance and a whole different beast, but at least I'm getting a good value. I only asked for $1 million from the bank, like an idiot, to, um, renovate.
[46:30] So 9.5, not 8.5, and then I put whatever the 20% down, so it was, like, about 2 million. Why 20%, just so people know? Like, is it, does it help with, like, taxes and whatnot, or does it help with, like, their financing?
[46:43] To, to get it? Yeah. That's just what the bank said I had to put down. Okay \[laughs\]. Okay. Okay. \[laughs\] Oh, no. 20%, okay. Yeah, it was, it was, like, ab- about 2 million- Okay... put down. Okay.
[46:50] Yeah, from there, not to, like, go on a tangent, but I ended up spending way fucking more than that 1 million, so that was anything, uh, that exceeded that one was from my savings.
[47:00] Um, and that was many million, many millions spent. Um, the good thing is now the property's valued, like, 22, 23 million. Wow.
[47:09] So the, the appraisal's double what it was when I bought it, um, 'cause we put so much into it. And on paper that sounds great, it's like, yeah, fuck yeah. \[laughs\] But \[laughs\] it's like what are the reality- Yeah...
[47:19] you know, benefits? It's like, you know, more leverage with, with banks and, you know, lines of credit, stuff like that.
[47:25] So there's definitely leverages, which I'm kind of finally starting to understand, and Chris is definitely helping a ton with that, like, having experience in private equity.
[47:33] I, I don't have any experience in any of that. Like, I'm the dummy who bought the eight and a half million dollar... Asked for a million dollars and spent, you know. So I definitely learned a lot with this property.
[47:43] It, uh, was definitely the biggest risk, for sure. And yeah, with that timing with COVID, it took two years to get this open. Um, so yeah, two years of hell.
[47:57] Was there a moment during that period where you were like, "I am way in over my head and I have to claw my way out of this?" 100%. It was, uh... I bought it in February 2020, in March COVID- February of 2020? Yeah.
[48:11] COVID hit in March. Oh, man. And so, and I remember by, like, May or something around that time,
[48:18] I was working in the shack and I walked out and a few guys had gotten COVID, the staff, so no one could come in, and it was, like, two week.
[48:26] So I, I literally just staring at this massive property with everything demoed, wi- with my gym being shut down, that was open at the time. Hundreds of, uh, thousands of dollars coming out per month from my accounts.
[48:39] Oh my God. Being out of the million dollars, so the, all the, straight up from my cash flow, right? Um-So I just had to really bust my balls with Alfleet.
[48:50] So like that's where, you know, I didn't give a fuck if it was creating 100 task lists for people. \[laughs\] It's like I just had to get that shit done and communicated in the only way I knew how.
[49:00] W- it was full on survival, and survival by pushing myself and just like i- if I didn't have the time to onboard new p- you know, high level people and do everything like the right way, I just was clawing my way, man.
[49:15] And like, "You, I need you here. You, you come do this. I need these things done. You got till the end of the week. Like get that shit done and I'll give you new shit to do." Like that's how, that's how we survived. Wow.
[49:26] So it's like, yeah, it fucking worked \[laughs\]. \[laughs\] Yeah. Were you sleeping a ton during the, the build of this? No, I mean, the sleep schedule was ve- I'd never wanna relive that again. Mm-hmm.
[49:37] But yeah, it was super fucked. Like- Do you think it...
[49:40] Zooming back out now, do you think it was possible when you walk up and you look at like the scale of this place and like what it is now, like, I mean, we got here at 7:00, there was 100 cars in the parking lot.
[49:51] Do you think it's possible to do, to do it like, uh, now? Like going back to that period of time when you were in this hustle and you're fucking coming here every single night, you're sleeping here, like, you know.
[50:02] You know, I really think this place is a big reason why I got so hooked to Adderall.
[50:10] I think now without the Adderall, I would do it so much more effectively, efficiently, and it's almost like I spent so much extra time, and this is what I want to be clear when people... And I was prescribed it, man.
[50:23] Started finding and taking more than I was prescribed, but like Adderall makes you loop in circles like this, and it, it really makes you like get in your head and spend a lot more time running through scenarios, and you do deep dives, and you do...
[50:36] And all this like shit that's ultimately unnecessary 'cause... And when you're taking it and kind of on the stimulants, you're like, "Okay, I need, I need to have my process. I need to like do it a certain way."
[50:46] But what you realize when you are clear, it's like now I'm able to just make decisions, bro.
[50:52] So it's like instead of changing the floor plan as many times as I did, and like that, so many of the nights were like floor plan, material, like just like scouring for every single thing- Mm-hmm...
[51:03] so many times, changing my mind qui- it's like I could have just... I, I really think I could do it for 35% cheaper now. I think I could do it
[51:16] probably the same amount of time or maybe a little less so I just wouldn't be so indecisive and like unsure. Mm-hmm.
[51:22] So every time you would change the contractors, one would probably be butthurt and then also cost you a little bit more- Oh, yeah... every time you're changing. 100%. Uh-huh. Yeah. Wow.
[51:30] \[laughs\] I, I really think a lot of that was due to like me being on the Adderall. It's literally like 21 Jump Street when it has all the things. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's like- Science. \[laughs\] Yeah, exactly.
[51:38] \[laughs\] Ex- We're changing it again, but this is the one. Yes. I got it. \[laughs\] This is the one. Okay, you bring up cash flow, and a big part of that is customer acquisition.
[51:51] I'd love to know the strategy behind customer acquisition in 2025 as it pertains to both clothing and then also getting people into the gym, into a physical space, and like how they differ or, and how they're similar.
[52:06] Honestly, the gym has done so... I just filmed like quality ads for the gym for the first time in my life a few months ago. I saw, I saw that. \[laughs\] Until that point, it's been
[52:20] organic via YouTube or word of mouth, and it's gotten us to a crazy point, and so I don't wanna come and sit here, like I say... And I've tried different sales teams.
[52:28] I hired this really experienced guy from this commercial, really popular commercial gym to come in, try to redo the team, bring that structure over here, see if we can get more s- you know, people in the door.
[52:41] Didn't work. Why do you think it didn't work? 'Cause this demographic, it just, it sh- it, it really turned all of our people off and people actually stopped coming. It changed the whole vibe down there.
[52:52] It changed the whole, uh- Like, uh, do you think it became like when you'd walk into like an LA Fitness and they're like, "Hey man, you wanna sign up for a year?"
[52:59] \[laughs\] Like, "Dude, I'm just, I'm just here for a day pass." It, it, it really came... It started, the, it, it- You can't cancel your membership... you're like- Yeah. Nope...
[53:06] you're joking, but that exact thing leaked into the company so bad. Uh-huh. And
[53:12] I mean, as someone who was trying to like, do the right thing for the business, I wanted to see it through, but after like X amount of months of it not working on paper and seeing the negative effect in person, it was all right, let's cut it.
[53:24] We went back to just the old way we used to run stuff. Boom. We're at, we're grant- gaining more memberships than we ever have right now.
[53:29] And, and it's, it's purely just from the fitness community knowing that this place exists. Yeah. And what's the, what's the- And knowing that like that energy is out. Uh-huh.
[53:37] What's the split between just day passes versus retained members? Now fi- we're making...
[53:42] For the first year, we actually m- in, I think two years, we might have done more revenue in day passes than memberships, which is fucking crazy. Wow. We did like 70,000 day passes year one.
[53:52] What's a day pa- or what's a day pass versus membership cost here? 29. $29 for a day pass? Day pass. Membership, 109. Oh, wow.
[53:59] So we were doing cra- uh, but now we're just kinda steadily between 25 and 30,000 day passes a year. Um- And how many members are here? A little over 3,000. Wow.
[54:10] And do you think that's just 'cause you've built the brand to what it is? Yeah. And people just come out from outta town or- I mean, dude, I flew in when-... come across... I flew in when I was in high school.
[54:20] Me and my boy flew out to your other gym, the one that had that- Really?... gold writing on the, on the thing. Damn. Yeah. And we, I remember like, I was like, "This is, this is Disneyland." Wow. It was huge.
[54:29] And it, it's, it's funny 'cause you... I don't know, I'm excited I haven't... Uh, we obviously didn't get to see it, but I'm like- Yeah...
[54:35] this is so wild to see, to remember like what that place was and like, you know, you've se- I've seen this place on videos, but it doesn't even compare. Like you walk up and you're like,
[54:44] it's literally like fucking Disneyland parking lot. It's got the little banners on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. I'm like, "Holy shit, we're here." It's so wild. Yeah. Do you guys offer fast passes?
[54:52] Like \[laughs\] How do I get to the front- Yeah... of the line for the bench? So what do you feel like, hearing that, what do you feel like people
[54:59] still don't understand about building a brand in 2025?I think that overall people try to focus in on product too much, and like I'm guilty of this as well.
[55:09] Like, I'll say for Alphalete, I'm always so involved in the product development, and I'll get on my stories and like literally tell you why our items are better \[laughs\].
[55:20] \[laughs\] Like, literally I'm going to describe why and how these items are superior, and like all the love that goes into... Not just like, "Oh, I love designing so I made this shirt."
[55:29] No, it's like, "We chose this seam because of this and this and this, and this fabric is different than our old one 'cause you guys gave us feedback." Like, I dive heavy into that, and I think that does
[55:40] really, really help for sure. But sometimes I get... Because the building of the brand
[55:48] and the aura of Become More, which is our mission statement, has always come natural to me, 'cause I've always just like documented what we're doing, and that is sort of... I've relied on that to be the mission.
[55:58] Now our challenge is how do we... I need to shift my marketing team's focus to like not relying on just me and what we're doing to... And actually like take... We need to find out how do we focus on Become More.
[56:12] Don't focus on marketing the clothes, selling the clothes. Yes, to an extent, percent of it, but we need to shift more focus onto the messaging. So my point is messaging is more important than anything- I mean, it's-...
[56:24] and being clear with that... it's the classic Nike example. Like, you see a- Yeah... Nike commercial, they don't talk about the new tech in the shoes. Sometimes, but it's, it's all about storytelling- Yeah... for sure.
[56:37] I also wanna ku- give you kudos because I had never, uh, like felt your clothing, and you have the merch store downstairs. Mm. Phenomenal. Thank you. I'ma be copping some stuff.
[56:48] \[laughs\] You, you told us that you're back to focusing like so much energy onto the content from a YouTube standpoint, from a short-form standpoint. Why is that the, like the biggest driver?
[57:02] For me, like shifting- Yeah... my focus? For you, yes.
[57:04] Well, I finally have help in the office, so I, I, I'm able to do that, uh, because I think that's where, in the long run, I think that's where I will provide the most value.
[57:12] As long as like in the CEO operation, like as long as things are getting executed and I'm communica- like, that's a huge chunk of my day. But- Is the content side of stuff? Uh, is like being sure we're all good here.
[57:23] Oh, the... Okay. Okay, okay. But yeah, by having higher people, higher elevated people, um, I've just freed up more time to get back to the content. So it's like I, I just firmly believe
[57:37] with that free time, if I dedicate it to being consistent on YouTube, to trying new things, to getting on a short-form, I, I have a full-time short-form guy now, right? For...
[57:48] Anytime I would like hire people like that, when I was in the weeds, I'd be like, "Nah, fuck that. You gotta go to Alphalete. Alphalete needs you more than me," right?
[57:55] And so I, I kind of like kept doing that, and this is the first time I'm trying to make my stuff a priority in a long time with help. And just I think the return on that eventually will be worth it.
[58:07] And you've divvied up content people now, right? So you have Nabil doing YouTube specifically. YouTube, and there's Dohan doing short-form. Dohan does short-form, and then is there someone also doing 3D short-form?
[58:16] Uh- Or like the ads behind 3D? That team we're actually sh- uh, we were trying to split it, just trying to s- we were trying to split it between our mark- our Alphalete team.
[58:23] We were like, "Hey, some of the staff, we will pay you in addition to your Alphalete role." It didn't work. It didn't work out. Too much. Too- just too much stuff for them. Overwhelmed, so we're actually- Uh-huh...
[58:32] Dom will be taking that piece of the business. And of course, like when we need content, me, Dohan, and Heidi, we go film- Mm-hmm... for 3D.
[58:38] But yeah, the chunk of the ads and newsletters, all that stuff, like they're gonna, we're gonna shift that to a team over there.
[58:43] When you think about how you wanna structure your YouTube videos, how often are you uploading currently? Twice a week. Twice a week.
[58:50] When you're thinking about the structure of those YouTube videos, how much of it is I'm just gonna document my life and then make a sick edit, versus planning out, okay, I have this big thing that I wanna highlight or this other thing that I wanna highlight?
[59:02] How much planning goes into each YouTube video?
[59:06] There's been different times, like different eras, and I'll say right now I'm definitely in an era where it's like 100% organic, whatever's happening of the capturing of the life and vlog. I wanna get it to a point...
[59:17] I, I think the only way for me to really grow past that is gonna be to start dedicating and scripting and, and coming up with topics and like things to do, but I never want it to be more than like a 70/30 split.
[59:30] Um, I think the whole purpose of my new channel is to feel the flexibility to like do whatever I kinda want.
[59:35] Um, but it's a double-edged sword, 'cause I know like in order to grow, I will have to plan a little bit more probably. Sure. Especially on short-form.
[59:43] Short-form is where I kinda get stuck a little more if I'm just like, "Oh, let's just film whatever's happening for the..." It's like here's another day in the life, right? It's not a bad thing. Mm.
[59:50] It's, uh, definitely should be in rotation, but I definitely have... I get turned off when I have to like try to script something or like s- get a solid message. I'm like, "Ah, I just rather vlog my life."
[1:00:01] You know what I mean? So I'm trying to get back to that 70/30 instead of just 100% like real time, whatever's happening. And you think that you do have to get back to the 70/30 to see a bigger spike? On short-form, yeah.
[1:00:16] Okay. For sure on short-form. For sure on short-form. I agree with that. Yeah. F- short f- short-form has to be more curated, I feel like. You kinda have to think of like the hook- Yeah...
[1:00:24] the idea, something that's gonna be shared. Oh, it's so frustrating. Yeah. Yeah. \[laughs\] Yeah, it's fucking annoying. It's super annoying. Okay. Uh, we wanna go back to the beginning, beginning.
[1:00:32] You open up that first box and something's not quite right. But you had a conversation with Paul, and he gave you some advice, and that kinda helped take you through- Mm...
[1:00:43] the rest of your career and how you operate as a businessman. Can you talk to us about the moment you opened up that first package and what's going through your mind and that decision that you made? Yep.
[1:00:54] So my first Alphalete shipment ever arrived from China to my parents' house, right? I open up the boxes. The sizing's two sizes too smallLike literally I had to wear a double X and I was like a large. \[laughs\] And
[1:01:09] I took the, those Alphalete T-shirts that were custom made, custom fabric, custom fit to my T-shirt printing guy here down the street, his name's Paul, that I was doing my merch with, CG Fitness, and
[1:01:22] I asked him, I go, "Paul, you think I should just like put them on the website and say order two sizes up?" He goes, "Christian, if you... Do you wanna be a millionaire?" He asked me. And I go, "Yeah." "Don't sell them.
[1:01:35] Remake them. Can you afford to make... Do them right, redo them, find out something to do with these, but be sure the first time you launch the brand you do it right."
[1:01:46] And I took that advice, went back to the drawing board, ate that initial investment, which sucked, but invested about double for the actual first launch. And looking back, were those shirts perfect? No.
[1:02:01] \[laughs\] They weren't. They were way better than the initial ones I d- I didn't do, but they were... I was very happy with them at the time.
[1:02:11] And then of course, like, then it marched inevitably, okay, let's try to get them better and better and better.
[1:02:15] But yeah, I mean, that advice was everything, and I think a big reason why Alphalete sort of established itself, um, as it has. And even now, man, I mean, literally 10 years later, like we still have factory issue.
[1:02:30] And, and if a bulk shipment comes in, it first comes to retail and we test it, right? And we've found stuff in the last one to two years we've had to completely scrap. Don't put it online. It's like they didn't...
[1:02:43] Whatever may have happened, um, and that sucks.
[1:02:46] It's like we have to go into these battles with the factory and maybe we don't get, you know, they're not just gonna give things for free, and maybe some, some of our, some of it falls on our design team, maybe some fell on them.
[1:02:57] So it's a, it's honestly a lot of that. And, um- That's what I was gonna ask, with the... When something comes in and it's messed up, like, and you're ordering so much at scale,
[1:03:07] what happens with, you know, with this factory team that you've built up a relationship with? It's all- Are you guys like, "Yo, what the-" It's all individual cases, man. All very case by case. Yeah.
[1:03:15] And s- like, okay, so if something comes in and it's messed up, do you first go, "Hey" to the design team like, "What the fuck's going on here?" What do you- No, 100%. I go, "I need backlog.
[1:03:22] I need to see what the fuck happened and where." And then it- Is it typically sizing issues or color or fabric? Like, or is it different every single time? Normally sizing. Normally sizing and, and the way they...
[1:03:33] Maybe for example, like the straps that they put on a bra is not like the same stretchiness that we approved, or it's like, uh... A very recent case, we have a Sandy bra, and it's called Sandy Bra.
[1:03:46] And literally the factory made them all a size too small. So the smalls were actually extra smalls, and they're all labeled. Mm. Mediums were actually smalls.
[1:03:54] So in that case, that's a one case where we just went on our website and we said, "Size up" all over the place, communicate with the athletes, "You have to size these up." But it sucks, as you get...
[1:04:03] We do everything based off, like, percent splits, extra small, small, medium, 15, 25, 30, whatever. So all that's fucked up. And not only that, but a second order of them is already committed to and developed for...
[1:04:16] that's coming later. So it's like we have the whole lifespan of this product now is fucked and had the wrong straps. Right, so, and that's one where, like, we claimed it to be like,
[1:04:26] you know, i- in some cases, size up, size down, that's not a huge issue, right? But it is in the sense of being a perfectionist and, like, wanting the best product. Like, that's not what I fucking ordered.
[1:04:37] Um, but there's been many cases where things just don't come out right and we can't release them, so we have to go and fight tooth, you know, tooth and nail to kind of see what we can get back, what we gotta do with the product.
[1:04:49] It's, uh... Clothing is the toughest business I have ever been in by far- Do you find-... and probably will be in. \[laughs\] Do you find yourself obsessed with the details of all of it?
[1:04:59] Like the gym, the clothing, all of it, do you find yourself like- 100%. And the, the issue with the, with clothing, being so obsessive with it, is the fact that, like, bro,
[1:05:08] I wanna upgrade everything, and that comes at a cost. And it's like we can't just... With product costs going up in...
[1:05:16] It's, you have to have a, you have to find a balance of like, "Okay, I need to, like, not make this, uh, something I have to sell for 120 bucks." Mm. You know what I mean?
[1:05:24] It has to stay within, like, our Alphalete kind of range. But that means, what does that actually mean in real life? Fuck, we just have less margin, 'cause I increased the product quality.
[1:05:32] I didn't wanna increase the price. Mm. But that's to, that's to you just wanting to make- Yeah... a great product, and you hold yourself to a certain standard. You also ha- \[laughs\]
[1:05:44] What percentage of your business is women's now? About 67%. Okay. So more than male. Yeah. The first- Which is actually r- it was, like, 80% a few years ago. Wow. Oh. So men's is coming back up.
[1:05:55] Do you think that's because the, the women's buying habits are so different than men? Yeah. Okay. It didn't- 100%. Like, we're buying...
[1:06:02] We were just talk- we were talking about this as I heard you say that on a pod, about how, like, think about when we buy, men, it's a lot of birthdays. It's like if we're coming out here, we went and got a fit.
[1:06:12] Like, you know, it, it's so much less. \[laughs\] Our girlfriends walk out the door and they'll come back with, with Skims. I'm like- \[laughs\]... it's just fucking Tuesday. Yeah. What, what's going on? Yeah.
[1:06:20] Why did we get a big bag of Skims? \[laughs\] And it's just, it's just a... Whose credit card did you use to get this stuff? \[laughs\] \[laughs\] Mine's missing out of my wallet. That is crazy.
[1:06:29] Tell us about the first women's drop. First women's drop we sold, I invested- \[laughs\]... a decent amount of money, made a sports bra, a tank, a legging, and a short. We sold, like, three sports bras.
[1:06:45] And I looked at my shipping guy at the time, Derek, and I go, "I'll just go deliver them myself." \[laughs\] \[laughs\] "I'll, I'll, I'll walk them. I'll walk the women's orders to the..."
[1:06:56] \[laughs\] Like, just so d- disappointed. And it wasn't the quality. The, it was great quality, uh, especially for that time, but we just weren't a women's brand.
[1:07:05] And so it took-Getting that product like slowly out and then working on a new legging, um, and it took getting that into YouTubers' hands and, you know, honest try-on hauls.
[1:07:18] And when that started kind of organically happening, I started reaching out to the people making the video, Gabby was really the first one, and I was like, "I would love to like work with you in some way."
[1:07:31] So that was kinda like the first you know organic pop-off item that we had had that really... Like, that changed the...
[1:07:38] That's when we went from ordering, you know, 3, 400 units of something to like 2,000, 3,000- Oh, wow... 5,000, and that's what really took the revenues, you know, r- really kind of...
[1:07:51] A lot of Alphalete's growth over the first eight years was really due to women's cat- It was a strong men start, only men start. Women's was a slow catch-on, but then women's is what took...
[1:08:01] Men probably stayed steady really, a little increase here, but women just like skyrocketed. Was the decision to get into women's because you knew that
[1:08:12] obviously it's like a whole other market that you weren't tapping into? Did you feel like for Alphalete to really, really grow into what you wanted it to, you had to tackle both men's and women's? That's a good question.
[1:08:22] Third, there's another one. \[laughs\] \[laughs\] You're on fire. You are, you're hot today. Dude, you haven't gotten one, but that's all good. \[laughs\] H- honestly, like I- it's not that
[1:08:35] I desperately wanted to make women's wear, I just, one, knew I could, and two, knew that my competitor's, Gymshark, was doing it, right? I was kind of at the forefront.
[1:08:46] I was an athlete with Gymshark when they launched the women's, and was really like kind of in those initial stages, and knew I could do it, I could do the same thing, right?
[1:08:56] And honestly create what I think w- what I thought would be better fitting, higher quality materials and things. And you know, I remember like instead of like doing a printed logo on the leg, I was like, "You know what?
[1:09:06] We'll do knit it in so it's like forever in there. It's not gonna peel off. It's like another selling point," right? Um, so I think I just,
[1:09:15] yeah, I, I just knew that was the next step in Alphalete, to be honest, and wanted to tackle it and not quit when it only sold three bras at first. Yeah. Was the creator marketing like pivotal? 'Cause during COVID,
[1:09:28] I remember seeing that... Was it the Revival leggings go crazy on TikTok? Uh, Amplify. Amplify went crazy on TikTok. Yeah.
[1:09:35] W- when you saw those numbers, were you like, "This is something that we've never seen," from just like organic- Oh, well, 100%, bro, and the pop-off of Amplify, it...
[1:09:43] I know I was talking on ego at the beginning- Mm-hmm... of this. The pop-off of Amplify is what really just like led me to ordering so much fucking clothes of e- and everything.
[1:09:55] So that like ended up meaning over-ordering, and that sort of was the biggest reality check. It's like when you see something catch on that big, you are almost like, it's easy to get,
[1:10:07] you know, caught in the hype and riding your wave and like, "All right, anything we touch is gonna fucking pop off," and that's not always the case. You're like, "Those stimmy checks are hitting.
[1:10:15] People are gonna go off." \[laughs\] \[laughs\] Spending the whole stimmy check on the Amplify legging. On the Amplify leggings. \[laughs\] So funny, dude. We've moved probably over a million...
[1:10:28] Mm, probably close to or over a million units of that. Holy- Of just the Amplify legging? Yeah, I would say yes. I was doing orders of like 70, 80,000- Wow... between different colors and stuff, right?
[1:10:41] But that was like peak buy. Yeah, it was, it was craziness.
[1:10:45] Something most people don't know is when you do get a lot of stock and you're, say it's not your own warehouse, and you're having to use like a fulfillment center- Oh, yeah... or someplace.
[1:10:53] \[laughs\] What ends up happening with stock that is sitting? Can you tell us? Oh, you just get feed up the ass bro. 'Cause it's not moving. It's not moving.
[1:11:02] You get feed, and even like honestly we're f- we're just constantly unraveling so many things that like miscounted, things that are sold out on the website 'cause it's not in our direct site now, it's in, uh, it's in fulfillment centers.
[1:11:14] When we go in person and check it's like, "That's supposed to be sold out. Why is there a box?" Right? A lot of that happens. Um, but ultimately you just get feed up the ass.
[1:11:24] So we had so much square footage getting taken up of like inventory, and especially if you or- over-order hoodies, if you order...
[1:11:30] If you over-order items that are more volume, like leggings and shorts not too bad, but if you're ordering, you know, duffle bags and gym bags and all this stuff, it just takes more square footage.
[1:11:40] So it's really by the square foot. Um, by not cleaning out our SKUs on Shopify, like everything just adds up like way more than you think when you're signing that contract.
[1:11:49] You also brought up Gymshark, and you told us that at one point you were really chasing them. Do you still feel like you're chasing them at all? No. Not at all? N- no. Not at all.
[1:11:57] Um, I wanna stay in my lane, make healthy margins, get the company heil- like in a consistently healthy spot, and grow it from there.
[1:12:06] It's like where I lost myself so much was chasing that number, and it led to so many consequences that, yes, now I have things and people and structures in place to be sure if that next Amplify fucking pops off again, we'll be ready for it, and I won't make the same mistakes again.
[1:12:22] Mm. But it's like, yeah, it's, so much can be destructed when you just chase revenue without really like...
[1:12:30] Especially I'll say like it's different with, say, supplements and with, with like 3D and stuff where like you're ordering more real time, but with clothing you're ordering m- nine to 18 months in advance.
[1:12:43] So right now we're depositing, like I have a meeting, a doctor drop. So it's like are we gonna keep, are we gonna cancel for women's summer 2026? Wow. That's so crazy- Yes, bro... how far out you are.
[1:12:53] It's so far out, and it's so, it's so... You're... The way we do it with drops especially, like we're trying to shift away from just drop, drop, drop, 'cause every drop is such a risk, right?
[1:13:05] So we're trying to get, you know, realign our12 men's SKUs that we're gonna be, like, restocking and kinda replenishing, but we've kind of shot ourselves in the foot where we trained our customer to be so drop-oriented.
[1:13:19] And how, how often is the drop? Is it every 10 weeks or something? We have seven drops in a year, six to seven drops in a year. So yes, seven, eight- What's the math on that? It's like eight to 10 a year.
[1:13:27] Eight to 10 a year, okay. Yes. Okay.
[1:13:28] Which is so interesting because- And then we have restocks in between or, like, subtle, like, um, capsules of, like, re- new colors of, you know, certain items, but drops are, like, new styles, new development. Mm.
[1:13:39] That's the drop.
[1:13:40] It's so interesting that you say that because I feel like the drop style has become so popular and such a great marketing tool of like, "I'm gonna build a story around each particular drop, and I'm gonna do a limited amount.
[1:13:52] I'm gonna sell out. I'm gonna build this world around this specific drop." But I guess, yeah, as you scale, it's like having those key styles that- Yeah... are, uh, are, like, at the core of Alphalete.
[1:14:05] And it's just totally different. You look at Gymshark, they don't have, like, hype drops. You look at- Yeah... YoungLA, it's all drops. You look at Oner Active, they're more consistent.
[1:14:13] They have a few drops, so they only do a few days of hype, then they kinda release on the website, and then things go. It's like trying to kind of not be like anyone specific- Yeah...
[1:14:21] kind of make our own model is what we're trying to do by, you know, having the six to seven drops a year, having small capsules, which would be, like, new colors and stuff in between.
[1:14:31] And then where the business will get more healthy is, like, we used to never wanna make the same thing twice, and that was such a fucking cocky thing for me to do, bro, and, and say and kind of, like, stand behind.
[1:14:43] When people like it and they want it, let's replenish and, you know, bring a few new colors. And so those restocks that we're slotting in, we're hoping to see that really, like, build that...
[1:14:53] start moving the customer away from just drop first hour sales is everything to a sustainable higher daily sale average. And, and actually, this whole year, like, our...
[1:15:05] We haven't got our numbers for July yet from the accounting, but we had our highest daily average in June w- i- out of the whole, which is, like, literally, like, exactly what we wanna fucking see.
[1:15:14] What is average cart value? Do you know off the top of your head? Cart value is about 110, 115. Nice. Wow. Yeah. I'll tell you why I think it's really smart to make something again and even bring back an old color.
[1:15:28] I'm just thinking about the way I shop. I recently got this shirt from Kith. I've had this style of shirt in a couple of different colors.
[1:15:37] As you have something for a few years, you wash it, and maybe it doesn't feel like it- Mm-hmm... once did, and you're like, "I fucking love this color. Maybe it faded a little bit. I would love to have that again new."
[1:15:49] Or it's the same style, but I love when they drop a new color 'cause I'm like, "I know this fit. I love it. I love this shirt. I'm so down to have this sh- specific shirt in multiple different colors."
[1:16:00] But I remember, like, I had one of these in, like, a teal green, and then I fucking stained it. And I'm like, "I can't fucking wear this shirt."
[1:16:08] \[laughs\] I'm like, "I'm praying that they bring that same colorway because I loved it so much," but I don't have the shirt anymore.
[1:16:14] \[laughs\] Yeah, and, like, the, the challenges as, like, a clothing owner for, like, that- Yeah... scenario is, okay, if my daily sales, if I'm only moving three to seven pieces of this per day, it's like, is it...
[1:16:26] And then it kinda steadily drops and drops. Like, how long do I keep investing into that? I- if I'm selling, do I order another thousand? Yeah. That's gonna take me, what, if things keep going well, another y- you know,
[1:16:37] seven, eight months to sell through. What's the cost of the warehousing that? What's the cost of... Like, where does it all break even? Mm. So that's been with as many SKUs as we built up to- Yeah...
[1:16:48] that just caused so much complexity in the business to where it's now we're, like, bringing the SKUs down, limiting to, like, six to seven men's items per drop, 10 to 12 women's, and even maybe bringing that down slightly so we can find the key SKUs that are gonna be, you know, the ones that live for four to five cycles.
[1:17:07] Um, that's kind of where we're at, we're at now is, like, resetting the men's and seeing and tracking, like, you know, okay, momentum tee. That sold out within 40 days, so that's one we're gonna bring back.
[1:17:19] If it sells out in 120 days, mm, maybe it's not really worth it. If it sells out in a week, yeah, fuck yeah. Bring it back, air ship it, get it on the site ASAP. Order, we put it on C, take some longer time to get it.
[1:17:32] Like, will the other drops take away from that item? Even if we restock, it sold well the first time, what if we launch something and people want that instead? Now we're stuck with this restock.
[1:17:41] So it's, it's just a super complex business is what I'm getting at, for sure.
[1:17:45] Um, and I'm learning more time- Do you cater the more, more women's drops to more men's drops, or is it the same, like, every time you do a drop, we're getting both? For, like, a year and a half, we split it.
[1:17:53] 'Cause at first, it was always everything together. Okay. And we split it, and now we're actually going back to combining, uh, men and women together on the same day. But- Why was that? Super, super interesting.
[1:18:07] You're about to... You'll love this, but we're... When is this going up? Uh, in a week. Mm, can't say it yet then. Yeah. \[laughs\] In about two weeks. Okay, 'cause I...
[1:18:16] If it's two weeks, we're launching our Alphalete women's Instagram. Okay, two weeks. Yeah. \[laughs\] On the 20th of August. Okay. And keeping the Alphalete page, but we're pretty much...
[1:18:26] What ended up happening is women's just overpowers the men's so much in sales, and then therefore marketing, right? So it's like we're gonna be posting if that's where the sales are coming from.
[1:18:36] It's gonna be like the page will look 70% women, so that's causing men to not necessarily resonate with the brand as much.
[1:18:43] So what we're gonna do is really instead of making the current Alphalete page men's only, just be more Alphalete, become more focused, more male content.
[1:18:53] Women still included in that obviously, but a women-specific page to have the more, like, fun, like, you know, matcha. Like, the, the, the more lifestyle- Mm... women-specific content. 'Cause I do...
[1:19:05] Me and my marketing team go back and back all the time, but I... Having all that content and when you're trying to, like, have a solid become more mission and, like, it, it, it, it's too conflicting.
[1:19:15] Like, what is Alphalete?Right? And it, it, that's just been the burning question in this office for like the last two years, like, what is our, what is our mission? How are we making content that revolves around it?
[1:19:24] Are these TikTok videos that's not on brand, but it's still a needed, right? So it's like really separating those, and then having TikTok content for TikTok, you know, and just having content that...
[1:19:37] Giving it more structure so it's not just like, oh, you see this bad o- badass, you know, runner, George, running a, a full marathon become more athletic, cinematic, dope, cool blurry pictures.
[1:19:51] But then you go to the next post and it's like outfit trials. \[laughs\] Yeah. It just, it just- It feels conflicting... it, it's like what is the brand messaging? Mm-hmm.
[1:19:58] And I think, yeah, that's something we're about to try. Mm. So I'm excited to see how that goes. That's so interesting. You used to also compete.
[1:20:04] When did the idea for Summer Shredding become a thing and just throwing your own show? Mm, 20... So a- after doing Summer Shredding, that was our first like YouTube series. I just titled it for my competition prep.
[1:20:17] Uh, it led to an online competition where we had pr- one year we had like 30,000 people sign up. It was free, and they could like win money. So I had 30,000 people doing the 90-day thing with me. Yeah. Um,
[1:20:30] and after that it was like, man, how would... These shows I'm doing kinda suck. Like the organization of them, like the, the gift, the experience, like no one talks to each other backstage. It's a very kind of,
[1:20:41] you know- Isolating... laser focused. Yeah. Yeah, very isolating kind of vibe. So it's like how do we make a show and involve transformation?
[1:20:47] 'Cause like I was doing this online competition, how much can you transform in 90 days? Take a newspaper picture, newspaper. And so then the idea of like, we'll have a transformation class.
[1:20:57] We'll have people make a video. We'll put it at the top screen, and then they walk out. We have the before photo, after. We see the before and after.
[1:21:04] So it was like kind of taking that online thing and putting it in person was like the sprinkle that a competition needed that now makes that Summer Shredding.
[1:21:14] And it, it just took like going to the Stafford Center down the road and being like, "How much would it be to rent the weekend?"
[1:21:18] And once we got those numbers, like, okay, so we need like whatever, 110, 120 competitors to break even. Let's see how it goes.
[1:21:26] And then since then we did like three or four years of one show a year, um, at the Stafford Center, and then it led to wanting to make the SSC, which is like a league where we have top five from every show qualify for a big championship, put prize money back there.
[1:21:40] And we actually have our biggest show ever September 12th. Here? We're here coming up. Yeah. Wow. And will it be at the gym or it'll be at the Stafford Center? At the Stafford Center. At the Stafford Center.
[1:21:48] But we kinda host everything here. We do the athlete check-ins here. We throw a big bash the day after. We have judges' feedback and all the vendors.
[1:21:55] So like we're just able to provide a really dope experience when we do it in Houston. What was the response like after that first one? The first show? Yeah. The first Summer Shredding. Fantastic.
[1:22:06] And did you have people saying, "Man, this is different than anything else I've experienced"?
[1:22:10] Like h- what percentage of those people that came out for the first Summer Shredding had competed before versus, "I'm just really into fitness and I fuck with Christian"? I'd probably say like
[1:22:21] 50 to 60% had competed before. 40% were wanting it to be their first show. Uh, and I would say that's a, maybe about the ratio now.
[1:22:31] Uh, there's a big like misconception where like Summer Shredding is just a beginner show, and like I just say to anyone who says that, "Come do it then." \[laughs\] Yeah.
[1:22:42] It's, you know, it's- Yeah, come win if you're- Come, come win... if you're that legit. But it, it, it's definitely like a great...
[1:22:47] For transformation especially, for people that aren't quite at, you know, "I'm gonna place top in a NPC. I'm, I wanna be an IFBB," it's like this is a great place to get your feet wet, for sure.
[1:22:58] But not to say there's not good competition as well. Dude, give me a year. I just took up before. You think so? I just took up before. Hey, we got a, Fit- Let's not, let's not get ahead of ourselves...
[1:23:06] we have Fit Physique. That's a natural drug-tested physique division. Dude, maybe you have a chance in there. \[laughs\] Yeah. Come on. We'll see.
[1:23:12] Were, were people in the other bodybuilding leagues, were they kind about this idea? Or did you feel- Kind? Like were they like- No. That's what I was... Yeah. They were...
[1:23:21] Was there a lot of resentment towards like- There still kind of is. \[laughs\] Well, no, I, I mean, I can only imagine.
[1:23:25] I bet they're butthurt 'cause they're like th- you, you're coming onto the space and trying to make something that's so much better. What did, what did that look like? Were they trying to like block your shows at all?
[1:23:36] Is that something that happens? I have no idea. I'm just curious. I, I got a phone call that was like, "You need to change some of your posing." Uh, just like... And so, you know, hearing that, I changed some stuff up.
[1:23:47] What, what, what does that, what does that mean exactly? Like change the... For example, the, and this is not... It's never been like firm concrete, like there's no like har- it's just like context clues- Okay...
[1:24:00] which I don't really appreciate. Yeah. So- Just call me and tell me exactly what's going on. Yeah. That, that's what I would love. But I mean, so for example, we added a front pose to bikini.
[1:24:09] So now it's like you have your, uh, it's always been front and back pretty much. Okay. But now we have a front, which is like your favorite hip. Uh, w- we added a front pose where your hips have to be dead on.
[1:24:20] So that's like something we added this year just to make our division a little bit more unique. Transformation, we have Fit Physique. Um, we
[1:24:29] do our, we added a side tricep into Classic Physique, which is like just like kind of adjusting the way we do the, the posing, and just finding more ways to make it more unique is all I can do.
[1:24:40] And that's all I'm gonna do. But it's also like there's also been conversations of, you know, having a sanctioned show with the NPC be through Summer Shredding.
[1:24:50] So it's like, but again, it's kinda like gets thrown out there, then no one follows up, and it's kinda like, uh, I'm just gonna do my thing. Mm-hmm. But I think- Just put on a great show and hopefully people come out...
[1:24:58] like, like Summer Shred, it's not I- it's not the NPC, not the IFBB. And it, that's a pa- that's a whole different...
[1:25:04] If you're going, you wanna, if you dream to be on the, the Olympia, shut the fuck up about Summer Shredding. That's not what you should be doing. Mm-hmm. You need to go that path. Right, right.
[1:25:11] Like, if you wanna be an IFBB pro, that's the path you go. But I'm just trying to build my own thing over here. Mm-hmm.
[1:25:17] How has the show changed since that first one?Besides the posing A lot more prize money, a lot more... Essentially, like we try to give the cha- the two champions the best opportunity to succeed.
[1:25:28] We give them like camera packages, laptop. We give them all the tools. We give them an- Yeah... Alphalete sponsorship. Um, all the tools so they can, if they put the effort in, create a business for themself.
[1:25:43] That's awesome. And you guys also just had your first one in- Instead of like just winning like a pro card, right? Okay. I see. I see. So it's like realistically to make a career out of this- Mm-hmm...
[1:25:52] you're gonna need to start understanding social. You're gonna have to start understanding how to market yourself, and like that's really what we lean into a lot. Mm. That's super cool. Yeah.
[1:26:00] With, with 3D, when you have a falling out with the partners that you were originally with, how long did it take to fully get the company back to be your own? About two years. Wow.
[1:26:13] Two year- but I will say like a lot of that was also... I feel like a lot of it was me not being prepared to have the tough, blunt, decisive conversations, right? It's like, oh, let me get... And, and lawyers are...
[1:26:31] We needed the lawyers, we need their lawyers going back and forth, especially after w- everything was kind of happening. But I think if I would've called and just said, "I want 100% of the company, what's it gonna take?"
[1:26:44] But, see, that's a very different tone than... That's a very different outcome. They would've been, "Oh, it's gonna take you buying us out," blah, blah. Mm-hmm. Versus like, "No, I'm fucking serious.
[1:26:52] I'm gonna get my lawyers involved. I'm not gonna..." Like, and so that ended up I was given the 100%, and they're like, "Oh, you know, good luck with the product," or whatever.
[1:27:01] But I was able to pick it up, new partners, like getting all that sorted, and we sold that old inventory, got it all out, used those funds, invested in the new one.
[1:27:10] So it's like we're able to kinda save it, but it was a long... I mean, two years could've been much quicker, but I kinda needed that time to like find the new partners and kind of... You know what I mean? And
[1:27:23] not like let the weight of Alphalete and all the other things crumble, 'cause like 3D was always there, but it's like I wasn't on a daily basis putting a lot of time into it.
[1:27:33] So it's like I had to be sure I was ready to put the time in again. As someone who wants to start an energy drink one day, what are three things that I need to know?
[1:27:43] I want that one in a crack to be a part of a drink brand. \[laughs\] Hmm. Online... You can start it online for sure. Okay. But you're gonna need distribution.
[1:27:56] So wa- was your whole playbook like show them what this first drop can do with my audience- Online, yeah... and then go, "Hey- 100%... this is what we did"? 100%. Okay. How did the- And, and that worked in 2017. Uh-huh.
[1:28:06] And I will say like when we... Our first like online, the first place you could buy this when we relaunched was Vitamin Shoppe online, not in person yet. Yeah. Fucking crushed it. Oh, wow.
[1:28:19] Like, like every single link I would do, 700 link clicks, 1,200 link clicks. Like- Wow... A- a- and Heidi as well, right? We're, boom, Vitamin Shoppe texted Don. They're like, "I think you got a winner here," right?
[1:28:31] And so it's kinda the same like that traction. So it's definitely like use the online to get it in, but I would say just like try to find... It's tough, 'cause you're gonna have to... It's like the chicken or the egg.
[1:28:42] Mm-hmm. Do you make the product first or this, and then take the risk and then get it in? But, um, yeah, I mean, driving your people to clear the shelves is the surefire way to keep growing. And beware of the minimums.
[1:28:55] The minimums are high. Okay. What- The minimums I wanna say per flavor- Uh-huh... are like 250,000 cans. Holy shit. Per- Cans divided up by 12 for cases, per flavor. So we had- Oh my God...
[1:29:06] we did like one and a half million cans.
[1:29:08] With the OG, when you were trying to just get it created and get the flavor tested, how hard was it to get anyone to take you seriously, 'cause they're like, "I don't know how much volume at this time period"?
[1:29:17] Like, what was that like to actually get some- I did the minimum. Oh, you just were like f- I have- I did the minimum- Oh... and then we sold it online. And it has to be 250- like in the beginning, had to be 250?
[1:29:25] That's what these were. Wow. That's fucking crazy. You might be able to find different companies that has- How many, how many cases is, does that shake out to be? Do you know?
[1:29:32] Was that- Divide it by 12, so like- Oh, they're all a, all a 12-pack. Wow. Like 10. Yeah. 20,000. Uh, something... Wow. \[laughs\] A lot. A lot of cases. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's fucking crazy.
[1:29:44] Brain's never been too good at math, but- No, it's not my thing.
[1:29:46] But- But what you said, you see somebody like a Ryan Trahan who's killing it in Target with his candy, it's like that is the power of personal brand and having an audience that- My best friend Max just sold Powerstraps.
[1:29:58] \[laughs\] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's insane. Right? It's crazy. But having that audience to go ride for you and go buy it in store to prove to these stores- The retailers... yeah, yeah. 100%, that's the, that's the way.
[1:30:08] Once you got the keys back and 3D is yours, how did you go about reintroducing it in a new way? Just literally finally, honestly leaning on my content, leaning on YouTube- Mm...
[1:30:19] leaning on, leaning on let me catch you guys up. And from that point, 'cause I wasn't talking about it for years 'cause of the lawsuit stuff. Yeah.
[1:30:28] So I finally like opening up about it, and then from that point through launch and even now, literally like documenting every single step. Um, and I think that is what has led to the successful relaunch for sure.
[1:30:41] Have you studied any adjacent brands in the, like in the drink sector, like a Poppi that sold for m- multiple billions or something? Is there anything that you've noticed from...
[1:30:51] Or, or other energy drink brands you're like, "That's something very unique that I want to implement here"? Is there anything like that? I mean, the only thing I would say is that making this product and having it
[1:31:05] retail under $2- Yeah, it's crazy... is a massive statement. Yeah, it's crazy. And that's a huge, like reason why this is gonna succeed. It's like we're placing it... Like, you know the NOS drink in Venom? Yeah.
[1:31:17] That's where, that's where- Those are the only two drinks in that, then this... So it's like if you have that, that, and Venom does like 100 million every y-Like either quarter- Wow... or half a year.
[1:31:27] So it's like- That's crazy... if you put 3D in that lineup, taste is better. Uh-huh. Can's more attractive. Mm-hmm. It's cleaner no c- artificial dyes it's like just-
[1:31:37] Is, is that a combo you had with Dom and you guys were like- Yeah... we, we, we're, we're gonna have to play here? The pricing thing was 100% him. Okay. What does, what does one can cost? Cost?
[1:31:46] Like what, like what can I get it at for? $1.98. Okay, so just shy of two. A dollar, under two. Everything's fucking four bucks now. Every, every drink is four. Between three and four, yeah. Yeah, everything's four.
[1:31:55] You go to Erewhon, four bucks dude, every drink on that damn shelf. And if, if I buy- Super expensive... in shop cases it's $19.99 a case. Oh, wow. So that's even cheaper. Even cheaper. Yeah.
[1:32:07] So it's like, it, it's, we're willing to take less margin because we're gonna bank on volume on this.
[1:32:14] Okay, that's what I was gonna ask, is this isn't gonna be like an Uber situation where you get me in at two bucks and then in two years these are four. No. Okay, this is, that is, that is the point.
[1:32:22] That the business model is like we're gonna- Is to stick at that price... stick at that price, kill that price point- Okay... and just like grow it like that. And beat them with volume. Yeah. Wow.
[1:32:30] And is the, like, is there something you have your sights set on where it's like, do you wanna be in like a Walmart or a Target or something? That, Walmart's already on the way. Ooh, wow. Target, not yet. Okay.
[1:32:41] But, uh- But Walmart's on the way. Walmart's on the way, yeah. How, how is the- Dom texted me, he goes, "Walmart done." Oh, wow. "Fuck it." Let's go. \[laughs\] How is the- It's kinda how it goes.
[1:32:49] \[laughs\] How's the pitching process been with Heidi when you guys get to go in and sell these retailers on your guys' product? Like, what have you, what have you learned about pitching with Heidi?
[1:32:59] It's interesting 'cause like we actually have Kroger next Tuesday. We're driving to Dallas, and we're gonna go meet with those guys to lock in that deal. But I mean,
[1:33:09] bro, like literally I- when I went to H-E-B, that was our first like pitch, and had no idea what to expect. But all, it, it's, it's one of those where like if
[1:33:18] I would've started to think about, how's this gonna go, what do I need to say, it's like I just kinda showed up and- Mm-hmm... told the story. \[laughs\] You know? Mm-hmm.
[1:33:25] It's like, started this energy drink 'cause I love White Monster. I just didn't like how it bloated me, and it was kinda expensive.
[1:33:30] So just kind of the story even about the partners failing, the partners not working out, restarting, finding new partners, and just honestly being transparent, honestly transparent, uh, being transparent with anybody you're talking to is always just like the best plan, and
[1:33:48] yeah, everyone who's picked it up so far has had an incredible reception for it selling quick so. It tastes really good. I was never into the White Monsters until I moved in with Brayden. Yeah, dude, I- And-...
[1:33:59] I needed it. They sent me a tower of them. Yeah. Never wanted to work with me. Unbelievable. \[laughs\] I was like, what are we doing here? They just... Remember how, how many did they send me? Like 40 cases?
[1:34:08] Um- Marketing director, I finally got in touch with the guy, I was like, "Dude" Yeah. And you're so- like the stomach's kinda like, eh. Yeah, no, it's not good. It's not the vibe. But I- But they-...
[1:34:14] that was what I, that was what I used to drink when we were in college, and then we switched. I'm a coffee guy, but- Costa likes coffee. I'm not a big coffee guy. These are great. I do both.
[1:34:22] \[laughs\] You like, you like coffee? A little pre. \[laughs\] Little pre. Do you drink two a day? 'Cause I feel like I'm a two a day kinda guy. Two a day. Yeah.
[1:34:29] Uh, do, o- what, if I'm doing like coffee in the mornings, which is almost every morning, it'll be like usually one and a half. Black coffee? I like to add some protein shake. Oh, okay. Some like RTD protein shake. Okay.
[1:34:40] With some Stevia. Uh-huh. A little Stevia. I was doing black for a minute, but I just prefer it with some- Yeah... some protein. \[laughs\] Who we trying to impress, you know? \[laughs\] Like, black coffee? No.
[1:34:50] Uh, how, okay, you have four businesses that could easily take up 100% of your time. As a CEO managing four different businesses, how do you think about divvying up your time? I mean, honestly, it's like,
[1:35:06] where, where, what's gonna have the most impact is kind of always the question you just have to ask yourself and answer, and most of the time it's Alphalete, \[laughs\] right?
[1:35:15] It's mostly Alphalete, but at the same time, by having the gym here, and it's where I train every day, it's like my gym work always happens during my workout. So it's like, okay, I'm making all these things I wanna see.
[1:35:26] I'm kind of making the list of usually communicating with everyone that I need to communicate while I'm lifting, which I shouldn't be doing.
[1:35:31] \[laughs\] But like normally my two and a half hours here is, you know, setting up the next steps for the business and for the, for the gym.
[1:35:39] Um, and it looks a lot different now than it used to look, but I will say it's always been like, it's hard to spit numbers, maybe like 60% Alphalete, 15% to 20% gym,
[1:35:55] 20% 3D now, and like 5% to 10% Summer Shredding. Mm. Like very little, Summer Shredding is like really just a little bit of promo a year, and I show up to the shows and just talk to everybody.
[1:36:06] That's like my, and that's my number... It's like I don't have to really do much business for it. It's a pretty good system and flow. And kinda, I guess that's the thing where like every business has a different cadence.
[1:36:17] So like the gym was a shit ton of work to get it up and running, and there the time was probably a little more than 20. But now it's like, it's very easy to have, it's, it's built, it's done.
[1:36:30] It's like, we'll upgrade here and there, but like that's a running thing that now just take less, takes less time. Same with Summer Shredding, we got the system down.
[1:36:38] Now, next year we're gonna add one show, maybe a second if this one really, like does really well, which we might do. But it's kinda copy/paste. So like those two are super easy.
[1:36:48] 3D is where I'm like opening up a lot of my time for right now. So it's like right now I've got more of my time focused on content, and my responsibility with 3D is like the market.
[1:36:57] I need to fucking own that shit, right? So I'm prepared to go in any direction. I'm kinda feeling this out and like prepared to give more wherever it's needed. What need, what do I need to do to, to blow this up?
[1:37:08] And I'm relying on my partners to feed me that information.
[1:37:11] Um, but really the most difficult and the one that's always been the most time-consuming is Alphalete due to the ever-changing style of the business with the drops, with the new product, with the tweaking of fabric.
[1:37:23] W- It's, it's just a c- uh, that's a constant most challenging for sure. I still just can't believe... If we could get 18 months out on the pod, holy shit, dude.Dude We can get two months out of the pod.
[1:37:34] Two weeks \[laughs\] And I'll, I'll say 18- Two weeks... 18 months if you're like you're putting things on a boat, you're really ordering big rolls of fabric and like... That's like a...
[1:37:43] That's something I kinda tried to do and that also in combo with Alf- with the pump, or sorry, with Amplify popping off, trying to get too far ahead also fucked. Mm. So it's like it was a combination of things.
[1:37:54] Ordering too much, making too big of commitments, ego was high. But now we're working on more of like a, for womens about a 10-month timeline.
[1:38:08] And obviously, like, the shorter your timeline goes, the more your cost is gonna be. So it's like that's a, that's, it's a double-edged sword again.
[1:38:14] Like, do we wanna be more real time with their data, pay some higher prices, be a little bit quicker to ship and all these things, or do you...
[1:38:21] So I'm trying to get to that business model again, but right now it's like in men's is even like six to seven months.
[1:38:27] We're like on a shorter turnaround time so we can just kind of have lower margin for a second but get the data so we can work further out again. Gotcha. I mean, you, you have...
[1:38:36] We got the, the big gym literally right downstairs. What's something that has stayed the same or changed in the training protocol? 'Cause I know you're doing something totally different now. Yeah, totally different.
[1:38:47] Um- Have you enjoyed that or has it been a pain in the ass? No, I- I... It's like a fucking pain in the ass, dude. It, it's, I mean- \[laughs\]... it- it's definitely like different. And it's like- You know?
[1:38:58] It's like, it's like a bunch of negatives and then going slow on the way up too, right? Something like that. Yeah, it's just a lot of weird movements. Mm-hmm. I mean, it's still got its like basic...
[1:39:05] Every three, four weeks it's a different set of things. Mm. So like sometimes I, on the first day of the week I'm like, "Fuck, I hope I like this," or, "I hope I don't hate it." Uh-huh.
[1:39:13] But it's definitely just, um, it's a nice challenge to have to really think about what I'm doing in the gym instead of just, like, kind of going through my motions and, like, just slowly trying to add weight and stuff.
[1:39:25] But I definitely... I mean, I like having some free workouts here and there, but I haven't really done that. I've really been strict on the plan. But my body is in a great spot right now, so. Hm.
[1:39:36] But it's also like a lot of that's through the diet. I was just about to ask- I mean, it's like-... if you, if you did-... 80% diet, bro... okay, 80% diet.
[1:39:42] If someone just like, "Hey, I wanna get fit," it's get in here as often as you can, but more so- Yeah... more so the diet. That is so great to hear because- Dude, you have a chance... we had In-N-Out at- Yeah...
[1:39:52] what, 1:00 AM last night- Yeah... when we got in? And we, and we were so hungry So we're- Dude... we're on the right path. \[laughs\] I'm feeling, I'm feeling good. I'm ready to lift later. \[laughs\] Dude, yeah.
[1:39:59] We can get a- You guys gotta try Alphalete's. No. 100. We, we, we, we- Oh, we, we had a sandwich for breakfast... we had a sandwich this morning. It was great. Oh, yeah? Yeah. Which one?
[1:40:04] The break- with the croissant one? No. No, I had a prepackaged one. I don't think it was open yet, I think. Oh. But we had a little prepackaged one. No, no, no. Here's what it was. It was open.
[1:40:11] We were just setting up and I was like, "I'm gonna get a prepackaged sandwich." Oh, fair enough. Delicious by the way. The croissant breakfast sandwich is the best- Okay... breakfast item. Okay. Okay.
[1:40:19] That's good to know. If someone's listening to this and they're maybe eating In-N-Out and they've maybe lost a little bit of motivation,
[1:40:28] could you talk to them for 30 seconds and get them fucking hyped up and maybe a little Hope Corps going on?
[1:40:35] \[laughs\] Talk to the people who are maybe a little bit unmotivated and how can they get re-motivated, get off their ass, and make change in their life? Look, I'm gonna give you the hard truth, man. It's gonna take you
[1:40:49] looking in the mirror every day, and you're gonna hit a breaking point. You're gonna be like, "I'm fucking sick of this," right? And the hard truth for most people, that's what it's gonna take.
[1:41:01] And it's like that moment when you're like, "Fuck," like, "Who have I turned into?" Right? That's when you get your ass in shape. No one's gonna get you motivated.
[1:41:09] No one's gonna, like, get you consistently, maybe for like a month or two kinda going in. But, like, to really invest into it, you just have to s- flip a switch, man. And I mean, then it's, it's always way harder
[1:41:22] to get there than to maintain it. Maintaining it's not easy, but getting there is the hard part and you just have...
[1:41:28] I, I find for most people, like, in our transformation class and stuff, it's really just like a light bulb goes off. And you have to just want it. I mean, it's a lot of effort. It's not easy. It's not a...
[1:41:42] It's like you can't just go on and off. It's something you're gonna turn on and keep on, and, like, you just have to... Yeah, I mean, I could sit here and be like, oh, it's... I don't know, try to sell some shit.
[1:41:53] \[laughs\] But it, it's really you just have, you, you have to want the change, you know? And, and usually it comes from hating what you see. Yeah. You know? Or hating how you feel, but usually it's hating what you see.
[1:42:05] Or, like, if you're kind of, sort of in shape, right? When are you gonna be tired of just, like, kind of seeing the same shit year after year? Yeah. And it could be that as well.
[1:42:14] It's like, "God, I've looked the same for five years." It's like, then do something different. I think that's kind of the point that I'm at right now is I've always...
[1:42:22] I've, like, always worked out, but it's always been kinda like, at least the past couple years, it's been- Be honest with him...
[1:42:28] three, four days a week, getting in a flow, going on a trip, maybe feeling a little injured, falling off, and I've been r- in this cycle for the past three, four years, for as long as I've known Brayden.
[1:42:40] \[laughs\] And turning 30 I kinda flipped that switch of if I don't make a change now- Yeah...
[1:42:47] I'm, like, run- not that I'm running outta time, but in a way it's like I would love to be able to see where I could take myself physically from, like, a lifting and, and how, like, how strong I could get or how athletic I could feel.
[1:43:03] So I think that- You gotta pick a program. Yeah. Lock in the diet, which in the diet if you don't wanna be tracking your food, switch to whole food. Just do whole foods. Yeah. Hit your protein and eat whole food.
[1:43:14] Follow a workout program is huge.
[1:43:15] Just pick, like, what style you wanna do, if it's like hybrid s- or like a high rock style, or if it's gonna be a, if you wanna get strong as hell and it's like a 5-3-1, or if you wanna do a bodybuilding split, you buy Jeff Nippard's program.
[1:43:27] Or if you get CBum's app, it'll give you a split. But just, like, get some split that you can track your stuff. I think that's huge, is just, like-The fitness app I use, it's, it's pretty much like CBum's app.
[1:43:40] Um, my coach runs it with him. So that's made a huge change for me.
[1:43:44] And instead of, like, just going in and kinda doing mentally, that w- which I've done for many years, the, like, logging all the stuff and being sure, "Okay, this week I did 80 pounds for nine." Like, start tracking it.
[1:43:55] All right. Do whole foods. Mm-hmm. If you're trying to get strong and all that, like, do three to four sessions of cardio a week and your body's gonna start changing like crazy.
[1:44:05] What, what do you notice has been one of the biggest drivers to strength? Like, in those periods where the workouts have been more strength-focused, is it... Like, what, what has really moved the needle for you?
[1:44:16] I mean, strength, a lot of that is recovery, honestly. Like, I find I'm resting now more than I ever have and doing, like, a four-day split right now. Um, and it's lower rep range.
[1:44:26] It's a lot of tempo work, so, like, pausing at the bottom, three or four second negatives to really control things. Um, like, the more control...
[1:44:34] Okay, the more controlled you can lift the heavy weight, the stronger you're gonna get. It's not necessarily like, "Oh, I can do the 130s for one."
[1:44:42] It's like, no, like, I'd rather you do 110s slow, controlled, pause and control that shit, like, own that. Be fluid with the movement. Don't hit those sticking points.
[1:44:51] And then if you do that enough times, then overall your strength is gonna be so much greater than if you're just, like, kind of trying to do max weight with kinda subpar form. Have you had to- So form is everything...
[1:45:01] have you had to get, like, m- put more weight on to lift heavier? You can stay, you can stay a similar weight- I used to think I'd have to put weight on, but the...
[1:45:09] I've been, over the last 14 months, constantly just trying to get leaner, obviously having ups and downs. Mm. But, like, on a downward trajectory for sure, and I've... I'm the strongest I've ever been. Wow.
[1:45:19] Though it's also doing movements consistently, so not changing up your workout routine every week.
[1:45:23] Like, s- pick something, and if it's wor- if you're progressing at it, stick to it until literally the wheels fall off, until, like, that's not wor- till it, you feel like you're not going.
[1:45:32] It should be, like, you know, three, four, it can even be five months that you're f- doing the same workout split. And just if you're adding weight, you're getting better form, you're gonna be seeing progress.
[1:45:43] So right now you feel like you're- Day one today. It's day one for us today, dude. Dude, is it, is it day one or one day? For, for one day. Dude, you tell me. It's day one, brother. Um, no, I'm like two weeks in.
[1:45:52] \[laughs\] \[laughs\] Dude, we got a little bit of momentum. You feel like you're the strongest you've ever been right now? In the sense of, like, overall... For example, if I were...
[1:46:02] When I was in my bench pressing phase and I was benching twice a week for, like, six months, I was a, I'm a stronger bencher back then than I am now. I see.
[1:46:09] But, like, overall, if I go pick up any movement, yeah, overall strength. But, like, of course if you do the same movement for long periods of time you'll get more...
[1:46:18] If I go in incline bench right now, I'm doing 275 for a few. A year and a half ago when I was doing incline bench with the barbell all the time, 275 for 11.
[1:46:27] So it's like, but if I just do the 275 for, you know, the next two months, I'll be back up there no problem. So it's like my body's in the best stage to be strong at anything I'm doing.
[1:46:38] That's kinda how I feel like with, like, speaking Spanish, right? \[laughs\] It's like, it's, like, iffy, but, like, dude, take me to Mexico for a week. \[laughs\] I'm back, dude. \[laughs\] That's so fucking funny.
[1:46:49] Is there... When it comes to fitness, uh, y- obviously, like, you love bodybuilding. Um, as you get older and continue to train, like, do you think you'll continue to just be, like, in love with the bodybuilding?
[1:47:02] Are there other forms of fitness that you maybe wanna, like, bring into your lifestyle? Bro, I did a half-marathon in May. Oh, hell yeah. Yeah.
[1:47:09] Um, 'cause Ashley Flora, who's one of our athletes, called me a pussy the other day. \[laughs\] You didn't do the half? So I said, "Fuck it, I'm doing it," and I didn't stop.
[1:47:15] 13- Bro, I did a full in May of last year, haven't ran one time since. Yeah, and, and honestly it took that half-marathon for me to be like- I was like-... "Yeah, I'm not really-"... bro, really... loving this anymore.
[1:47:24] I'm like, I don't, I don't like this. I went... Same situation.
[1:47:26] My friend and I were going, we were going on, like, a Christmas vacation and he's like, we're in line at LAX in, in an Uber and he's like, "You won't run a half-mara- you won't run a full marathon with me in May."
[1:47:36] And he's like, "You could not do it." I was like, "I'm buy, I'll buy the thing right now." Literally- And then you realize that you're just literally like- Every day is running... \[laughs\] Bro, every...
[1:47:43] It's so much in my... And then I'm realizing, oh my God, my Saturday and Su- gone. You run for four fucking hours or- Mm... like, you run for two and a half hours, you're exhausted. The last thing I wanna do is anything.
[1:47:52] I'm also so sore. You're, like, walking. Or then I didn't wanna lift. Yeah. Then I got super small and I'm like...
[1:47:57] The weirdest thing I feel like is people that get into running, as someone who enjoys lifting, is you're like, "Okay, great, now I suck in the gym, and I also still suck at running."
[1:48:06] \[laughs\] This is like- Unless you're Nick Bare. \[laughs\] Yeah, unless you're Nick Bare and you can run fucking a three-minute mile. Yeah, it's just ridiculous. It- It sounds like you just gotta go one more.
[1:48:14] \[laughs\] It's so, it was so frustrating. And I remember when we, we hit the half, like a half-marathon of the full marathon, and I'm like, "Dude, I'm kinda cooking. I'm at 155." \[laughs\] Like, I'm flying.
[1:48:26] I got hurt though, so after mile 15 in training, I didn't do anything after 15. So after 15 on the day, I'm like, "Man, I'm feeling pretty good. This is all new territory." Yeah. That's 11 more miles of new territory.
[1:48:38] It's a lot. It was awful. Yeah. It was so brutal. Yeah, I mean, I think my focus, I definitely wanna keep my focus on...
[1:48:44] Bro, I follow these guys, 3DMJ team, that are in their high 40s still making progress, like- With, with-... naturally. Oh, with, with b- With, with bodybuilding... with, like, fitness? Okay.
[1:48:54] So it's like I, I definitely wanna keep my physique, uh, primary focus while, you know, dabbling in, in trying other stuff as well, but not to the point where, like, like, when I did that half I really had to say, "Okay, I'm putting my gym gains on hold for a minute so I could, like, accomplish this goal."
[1:49:11] But I found, like, I really just didn't enjoy that that much. I didn't like running, dude. Yeah. I didn't like running like that. I've gone on a few runs and kind of enjoy it, but
[1:49:19] I'm probably shorter runs- Wait, like, I'll give you guys- Wait, wait-... 30 minutes... wait till you go run for an, an hour and a half, and you're like... \[laughs\] Dude, I, I was...
[1:49:26] I tell my girlfriend, I'm like, "I'm gonna go run." \[laughs\] I come back. I, like, ran like a mile. \[laughs\] She goes, "You're back already?" \[laughs\] "What the fuck did you do?" You gone 10 minutes.
[1:49:36] Also, also another thing, I told Brayden this last nightUh, my dad just turned 70 and we're like, "Yeah, so like what kind of goals do you have?"
[1:49:43] He goes, "Oh, I just wanna make it to 100 so I can, uh, ah, compete in the Centenarian Olympics." \[laughs\] And I go, "What a sick goal." \[laughs\] Hilarious. That's so funny, dude. Yeah.
[1:49:53] Is there, is there any specific goals outside of fitness that you're really trying to master in business, that you feel like- Mm...
[1:50:02] there's something where you've, you've looked at this goal and you're like, "Man, I, I really wanna go after this in the next two to three years, or even the next year?" Could be shorter term, too.
[1:50:11] In business, man, like I, I really think that all of my 20s I spent so much time like hyper mode, kind of like starting a lot of things, almost too many things.
[1:50:20] I've had to, you know, cut ties with a few businesses I wanted to do just 'cause I was spreading myself way too thin and just overly excited.
[1:50:28] So it's like right now I'm just truly honing in on making the four businesses more effective, structurally sound so when with growth we can like do it the right way this time.
[1:50:41] And yeah, just get on a really good growth pattern, man, and like have s- sustainable growth year over year. It's like as simple...
[1:50:50] Uh, that's kind of basic that you wanna grow every year, but I wanna do that with a structurally sound, \[laughs\] um, foundation, so it's not just me like killing myself with no i- with, you know, no control over the details.
[1:51:02] I wanna do it all over again in this next decade.
[1:51:06] It's like finishing one decade, I was really able to reflect of like, you know, just how things went, the good, and I feel like I've learned so fucking much that now I'm just trying to do it in a different way.
[1:51:18] And a lot of that is because I'm ready to start a family. Mm. Like I was gonna say, like one big huge goal is we're really trying to start a family, have like kids back to back right now. So I wanna, you know,
[1:51:31] set things up to where I have a healthy balance of... I, I hate that. I hate healthy balance.
[1:51:37] Um, where I'm able to trust and keep like a, a good level of in the business, but also like have the time to be the dad I wanna be. That was a question I was gonna ask you about balance because as someone...
[1:51:52] You hear that thrown around a lot. I feel like it obviously var- really varies depending on s- like if you ask, "Oh, what's your goals in the next year?"
[1:51:58] Like, they'll kinda tell you what level of balance they want or have. Is that kind of a bullshit thing that someone made up and it's, it's just like fugazi? I think it needs to be bullshit until you get to the point.
[1:52:10] Like, I guess- Mm-hmm... it's a weird spot 'cause when me and Heidi got married and we were looking at what we've actually like accomplished, like we're fucking proud. We're like- Yeah...
[1:52:18] we're, we've come a long way, man. And it's, we've... But it's also realizing like we have busted our asses so much- Yeah...
[1:52:26] to be able to be home when we start a family, and to be able to like spend that time and like really do that how we wanted to.
[1:52:32] So it's like we sacrificed years to live that future life, so it's like now it's time to like get working on that life. Mm.
[1:52:39] But not just saying like, "Oh, I want ba-" It's like, I know I still want and I'm chasing and, uh, gonna, gonna put all the effort for all these companies, but understanding family like has to be priority now, 'cause like we're not getting any younger.
[1:52:51] We're about to start a third round of IVF. Um, like we have to take this seriously now if we wanna make it happen. Mm. So it's like that's a big shift.
[1:52:59] And like two years ago when I was in the trenches, bro, three years ago, the, "Kids? Uh, not yet. I can't. I physically f- w- w- I can't in this head space."
[1:53:08] Like, but now I'm prepared and I'm, I'm, m- you know, super ready and stuff. But it's just, uh... Yeah, I think biting off Alpha Land and kind of that whole j- rollercoaster of three, really four years, um,
[1:53:24] has put, has like I've earned my spot, I feel like. Yeah. I've earned this next chapter, and she feels the same. How have you felt in your early 30s? 'Cause I just turned 30, and
[1:53:40] I don't know what it is, I feel kinda younger at 30 than I did at 29. Right. Honestly, it's just clarity. It's like- Yes... I think my 30s is, have equaled to clarity. Yeah. My 20s were like hyperdrive.
[1:53:51] \[laughs\] Uh, but hyperdrive isn't always effective, right? So it was chao- like Chris Bumstead calls me 'cause he, like from all the years he, he'd known me.
[1:54:01] I was like, "Chri-" We were on a podcast kinda like this with the Raw Team and he goes, "If I had to describe Christian one, in two words: chaotic hurricane" \[laughs\]... is what he said.
[1:54:10] \[laughs\] And I think that describes like my 20s so perfectly. It's like chaotic as fuck, got it done, hurricane, but like there's an eye in the middle of the tunnel so it's like, you know, still get the shit done.
[1:54:21] \[laughs\] But that was his metaphor and that kinda... I was like, "Hmm, that does make sense."
[1:54:26] But like now it's a very different demeanor, and I think like being in the, the 30s or just being in the stage of life, like I feel I could outperform, outdeci- I could outperform- Yeah...
[1:54:39] anything my 20-something-year-old self could do, uh, and with less energy. Mm. You know what I mean? It's more effective. And I feel like, at least for me,
[1:54:50] I have a lot more clarity on, I guess, what I wanna do career-wise, but also like you understand who you are as a person- Mm... so much more.
[1:54:59] So I think that goes to what you're saying about being able to make decisions effectively 'cause you're just like, "I know who I am, I know how I operate, and I know what is actually best for me." And in your 20s,
[1:55:11] like I remember feeling like I had to accomplish everything and have everything figured out in my 20s, and then as I've
[1:55:18] become a little bit older and like going into my 30s, I'm realizing your 20s is kind of for just trying a bunch of shit- Trying shit, yeah... working hard, fucking up, and then taking that into your 30s.
[1:55:29] It's like, it's like you gotta like brute force your way through your 20s. Yeah. And I feel like that's a healthy... It, it's like but people that are in their 20s that are like, "I need balance, I need..."
[1:55:37] That's how I messed shit the fuck up. \[laughs\] Yeah. Brute force your way through, power through, and do... Like, that's the time to really just push, honestly.
[1:55:45] And like that's when your body's ready for, you can just really push that needle like, you know-One way and, um, you know, see when see \[laughs\] see when you overheat- Yeah...
[1:55:55] see when you rev the engine too hard and, like, it's okay to burn out. It's okay. Like, you... Uh, I would almost... I would 100% say you need to burn out to see what your limits are. Mm.
[1:56:04] And then it's like every time I would burn out, I'd kinda take a little, you know, little rest, and then I'd restart and then get a new threshold.
[1:56:13] So it's like, oh, I was able to, you know, go a little further this time, and you kind of build tolerance that way. You go through more shit. You have more issues in your company. You face more obstacles.
[1:56:24] And then years later, obstacles that happen feel like nothing. You callus over those scars. Yeah. How do you refill your cup when you do feel burnt out?
[1:56:35] Sleep, not look at my phone much, and, uh, watch Netflix and- Oh, yeah... fucking just chill, play some Halo. \[laughs\] You know? Like, honestly. Yeah, you've... Have you been playing a lot of Halo and CoD?
[1:56:45] Honestly- Are, are you good at CoD? Not CoD. No, I, I downloaded- Not CoD... I downloaded it- Uh-huh... first time ever- Mm-hmm... like three weeks ago. Mm-hmm. Can't get past the first fucking level, bro.
[1:56:54] \[laughs\] But I think I'm, I'm doing it on too high of a difficulty. Oh. But, like- Oh, you're doing story mode? Yeah. Okay. Trying it, yeah. Okay. Yeah. \[laughs\] That's funny. I'm a Halo guy. Uh-huh.
[1:57:02] Dude, Halo back in the day, I remember going to, like, a neighbor's house, and my mom had no idea. I was like, "We're playing fucking Halo. This is crazy, dude." And you're playing with, like, four different people.
[1:57:11] I was just getting dogged on by the other three guys who'd had the, had it for so long. I was never much of a gamer. I played, like, 2K and some Madden. I was never a gamer other than RuneScape. RuneScape for sure.
[1:57:21] What's Ru- what's RuneScape? It's, like, a massive online, um- Like a Z-... never-ending... Zelda kind of situation, no? No, more like WoW, but better. Okay. Interesting. Yeah.
[1:57:32] I don't have, like- It's, like, 35 skills that you can level up to 99. Like- Okay... a wh- you know... I don't know. What, what do you call it when it's, like, thousands of players online at one time?
[1:57:42] You can, you know- Like battle royale kind of situation or no? I don't even know what that is. It's where you play, like, like, Fortnite, you play, like, 100 people at once. Yeah. It, it's like that. Okay.
[1:57:49] You, you chat with everybody. It's, like, a whole, like, world. Wow. Interesting, huh? That's such a- Learn economy, just buy and sell, make profit, buy shit. Hell yeah.
[1:57:59] If, if you could go back and chat with your 18-year-old self before you go on this crazy journey building the gyms, building all these other companies, what would you say?
[1:58:09] Nothing that would change the journey, but what would you say? Buckle up. Let's fucking go, man. \[laughs\] Just get him hyped. I, I think, I mean, like, I, I was
[1:58:18] very confident in my, in my actions, things like that, but I would've, um... I think if I would've had somebody, like, in my ear really saying, "You can f- just fucking go. Like, this is your time to try shit.
[1:58:30] Go do it," like, that's what I would tell him. You know, if I had a kid that was 18, I'd go, "This is your time to try and bust your ass and, like, go through the flames, power through, push your limits.
[1:58:41] This is your time." What do you- Instead of, like, play it safe, what's gonna be your... Like, that's not the advice I would, I needed. What do you think 18-year-old Christian would say if he could l- peek
[1:58:53] in, like, 10 years- Behind the curtain Yeah... 12 years into the future? He'd be proud as shit. Yeah. Yeah. Proud as shit. And Nala's still here, so that's dope, 'cause sh- I got her when I was 19. Yeah. That's so crazy.
[1:59:03] Yeah. That's amazing. Yeah. She made a little appearance in the pod. Ladies and gentlemen, this has been episode 167 of the 505 podcast with Christian Guzman.
[1:59:10] If you're still here, please hit that subscribe button, drop us a comment, and we'll see you guys all next week. Peace.

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