0 (2s):
Boom shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneur on Fire, brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals with great shows like The Hustle Daily. Today we'll be talking with the world’s most interesting CEO. To drop these value bombs, I brought to Adam Rothfelder into EOFire Studios. Adam is an ex-professional fighter, Versace model, celebrity trainer, and reality TV star turned CEO & Founder of a multi-million dollar company. And today, we will be chatting about mindsets. We'll be talking about leadership style, about pivots and how important it is as an entrepreneur to be able to pivot and so

The Goal Digger Podcast (45s):
much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today’s episode goes to Adam and our sponsors, The Goal Digger Podcast hosted by my good friend, Jenna Kutcher is brought to you by the Hubspot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. The Gold Digger podcast helps you discover your dream career with productivity tips, social strategies, business acts, inspirational stories, and so much more. A must listen episode is one of Jenna's recent on everything you need to know about affiliate marketing. Listen to Gold Digger, wherever you get your many

FranBridge Consulting (1m 17s):
EOFire listeners have launched non-food franchises and FranBridge Consulting has guided them. FranBridge's, Founder and frequent EOFire guest. John Ostenson has done more placements than any other in the country, and his service is free. Free. Sign up for a consultation with John or get a free copy of his book, Non-Food Franchising at FranBridgeConsulting.com.

0 (1m 39s):
Adam, we are here, we are on Fire Brother, and I want you to say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with.

1 (1m 52s):
What's up Fire Nation. What I believe is that you gotta start from the bottom. I do not believe in the top dead mentality. And starting from the bottom gives you the ability to truly understand the foundation of your business, your work ethics, your passion, your mission, and build from there.

0 (2m 9s):
Fire Nation. You know how we roll? We started from the bottom, now we're here. That's how we do it one step at a time, and it's gonna help with the fact that today we're talking to the world's most interesting CEO and Adam. Your journey has been incredibly diverse. I mean, you have spanned roles from personal strength coaching to acting fitness expertise, and now the CEO of the Strong Coffee Company. Give us a quick rundown of this journey in your lessons learned along the way.

1 (2m 41s):
I started at a young age working, you know, I had a paper route. I was given the opportunity in that paper route to go door to door and sell calendars and to let people know that I was their paperboy every day of the year I had been delivering this paper and now's your time to meet me. And that, that daily hustle of walking door to door, you know, led to me taking this passion that I had for health and fitness and turning that into, you know, the thing that I love to do, which was training, but it didn't start there. I, I dabbled in being a union electrician for five years.

1 (3m 21s):
I was a professional fighter for eight years. I, you know, through a tragedy of losing my brother through an overdose, I found myself, you know, in The World of, of fighting. And, and that gave me this incredible lesson of self-reliance and dedication and willpower because nothing makes you want to quit more than a full grown man on top of you beating the crap outta you. And if you can withstand that and come back from that knowing that that just happened, well it's hard to, for anything to truly take you down.

1 (4m 3s):
And that mentality has allowed me to continue to fight my way through this entrepreneurial battlefield where, you know, ever rising CACs and, you know, competition and, and yet continue to pivot and, and move and, and grow from it. You know, it's, it's not all wins, it's losses and, and learning from those has been a tremendous thing that I was given with my fighting career. It's like, hey, you lost, but now how, what do you learn from that

0 (4m 41s):
Fire? Nation? If I could sum up what Adam is saying in one word, it would be perspective. What is your perspective for me, And A, lot of you know some of my story. I was an Austin US Army for eight years. I did a 13 month tour of duty in Iraq. I can snap my fingers at any second and be there in the dirt in the Bombs exploding around me. Bullets whipping by my head and I can say, now that sucks. Whatever I'm dealing with right now in this moment, not sucking nearly as bad perspective Fire Nation, you've all dealt with crap in your life. Keep your head on straight. And you've faced Adam some challenges in your life.

0 (5m 23s):
I mean, we talked about some of them already, but what is the biggest challenge that you faced that has shaped your entrepreneurial mindset to what it is today?

1 (5m 34s):
Losing my brother was a huge catalyst to understanding the importance of time and losing my father 10 years ago. And at the same time, within a couple of months, becoming a father myself gave me a deeper understanding of making sure that I'm doing what I'm meant to do on this earth. And ultimately having a, having children and having a family has continued to be one of my greatest, you know, inspirations and, and you know, reasons and why of how I continue to keep moving and getting up.

1 (6m 23s):
And you know this, as you grow as a business, it's, you know, more revenue does not make things easier. You just, as you continue to grow, the challenges only get bigger and therefore the stakes only get bigger. And there has been one moment in my mind that just stands out so strongly that has tested me beyond anything as an entrepreneur. And that was, you know, with Whole Foods, going global with Whole Foods was definitely one of the most intense learning lessons of my entrepreneurial career to this date.

0 (6m 56s):
And that's what I wanna dive into because I did want to hear some of your personal challenges and you went through those and I think that's meaningful. 'cause Fire Nation, I know a lot of you can relate to certain things that people have experienced throughout their lives. And guess what, these individuals have gotten up and they've moved forward every single time. Now, this business challenge you had with Whole Foods, this could have been something that took you out, but it didn't tell us more.

1 (7m 22s):
You know, we did what so many people thought was impossible. We were a small brand that was asked to launch global with Whole Foods, and I raised capital in a short period of time and delivered the Goods to 505 stores across the Nation. And, you know, to the disbelief of my own investors, you know, and I mean, just the road there was so intense where we hadn't even received an actual PO for up until like weeks before the actual due date of that product where it was like, you're supposed to be given like a 1216 window upon like initial being brought in and all this paperwork says that, and we're just, you know, begging for, you know, a PO so we even understand the volume and so we fill the product and you know, somewhere around $800,000 worth of revenue, And A, couple of months later we're asking them, you know, the same questions kind of week in and week out.

1 (8m 32s):
You know, what is the, how do we get access to the veloc, you know, the portal to see velocity, you know, the portal's down. Okay, well please let us know and we can, you know, and then weeks go by, portal's still down, you know, and while at the same time receiving emails, talking about how distribution points are low, and we're like, man, we like sent everybody that set product. Like, how is this even, you know, how is this even possible? But okay, we're, we're looking into it. Hey, your product's still low. Are you guys gonna do something about this? So all of a sudden we get, I'm on a road with my wife and kids and my, you know, operator calls me and he goes, Hey dude, we, we got some pos.

1 (9m 14s):
And he sounded, he like, sounded worried and he's like, we got some pos. And I'm like, oh wow. Well that, that's cool. Like how much? And he's a million dollars. I'm like, what? I'm like, dude, that can't be right. So, you know, he calls our SRM, we, you know, we, we, we reach out to Whole Foods. It's like, yeah, I mean, if we're sending you a PEO, you fill, it's your job and responsibility to fill it. Cool. Well we'll just take all that money you gave us and we'll flip it back into product even though we have trade spent slated and this and that because we're gonna get this amount of money back in the next like 90 days.

1 (10m 3s):
Well, eight And A, half weeks later, UNFI is literally picking it up and somebody just jumps into this email thread out of nowhere like a ninja. They're just to like put a samurai sword through my soul and tell me that they're canceling it all. And then they admit fault in the fact that they just didn't do the proper analytics and didn't recalculate velocity metrics. And I mean, we're a small company at the time, beating Vital Proteins, a billion dollar company in that category right next to us, price adjusted to beat us and we're beating them by four times revenue.

1 (10m 49s):
And they just did us like that. And then they tried discontinuing us and I fought it and I won, stuck around for another year, you know, and just stuck it out. And, you know, a crazy amount of overstock made my creative mind pivot, you know, and I, I thought of new ways, you know, everybody else is willing to like devalue their product and sell to the lowest bidder to, you know, get from under the debt. and we found new ways to create channels and in that, what could seem like would've killed us because I mean, I felt like it was literally killing me. I mean, for the first time ever, I mean, I had, I had fared against some of the biggest fighters in The World, and I had never felt so hopeless at that point.

1 (11m 36s):
You're like, what do I know? I'm a trainer, I'm a gym owner, I'm an electrician, I'm a professional fighter. This is a problem for somebody so much smarter and experienced than me. And yet the solution I came up with, nobody else came up with. And I doubled our company's revenue in the process. I just knew there had to be a way, right? I just knew that I couldn't give up because this is everything beyond my family that I have. And this is part of our family. You know, my wife, my kids, they show up, they do servings. My daughter literally will not let me run the register when she shows up to the booth. She's 10 years old.

0 (12m 16s):
One thing that jumps out to me here at Fire Nation is something I heard Seth Godin say a long time ago. It stuck with me, and it definitely applies here with something Adam shared. Be careful about the race to the bottom because the problem with the race to the bottom, you just might win. And that's a race that you just don't even wanna win anyways. Because if you just are racing to the bottom being the lowest priced, there's always gonna be somebody that comes in and is willing to cut and slash and that race to the bottom has no winner. So think about that with your products, with your services, with your business. And when we get back from thanking our sponsors watch outs, we have a doozy.

Hubspot (12m 56s):
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FranBridge Consulting (13m 59s):
More and more entrepreneurs and investors are discovering the awesome franchise opportunities that exist across a variety of industries. Franchising can simply be the better path and interest in Franchising is at an all-time high lucky for you. John Ostenson, founder of FranBridge Consulting. And A, frequent EOFire guest is here to help you explore the premier franchise opportunities today, John and his FranBridge Consulting team are part of the largest brokerage in the US and have vetted the market thoroughly. FranBridge has hands down the premier source for the best opportunities in the franchise world, including both active and passive opportunities. From TRT to insulation youth soccer to pets, senior care to health and wellness and more. John has served as an Inc 500 franchisor, And A, multi-brand franchisee himself, and he does more placements than any other in the country. Set up for a free consultation. Call with John today or get a free copy of his book, Non-Food Franchising at FranBridgeConsulting.com. That's FranBridgeConsulting.com

0 (14m 59s):
Adam. We're back and I wanna talk leadership style. How would you define your leadership style?

1 (15m 7s):
I was taught how to be a leader from in a martial arts mindset and also in the union. I mean, I did 10,000 hours as a journeyman electrician, and it is kind of a sink or swim leadership mentality with an open line of communication that allows you to ask me any question. But if you do not ask the question, I don't know to give you the answer. So just simply saying, I don't know, is totally okay with me. And I tell people that I said, ask me anything I if your que if your answer to that thing is, I don't know, when you look at it, just ask me, what does that mean?

1 (15m 53s):
What do you want me to do here? How do you want me to respond to this? I'm always gonna lead from the front, meaning that I'm never sitting back watching people work for me, for I am working if not as hard, harder than everybody else around me. So that they look at me and say, I have to catch up. And that is the only way I have ever been able to understand being a leader is because at the end of the moment, I never want to skirt responsibility or anything. I, if anybody has ever not worked out for me as an employee, I have literally apologized to them and told them that my style of leadership was not appropriate for them and that I, you know, I should have known better and that I'm totally sorry this didn't work out.

0 (16m 47s):
I wanna shift to pivots. So in other, in other words, I want to pivot to Pivots. Let's,

1 (16m 53s):
Let's, let's pivot baby,

0 (16m 54s):
Because you've made a few pivots in your time. You've had to, you've discussed a few of them already with that whole debacle with Whole Foods, who by the way, I'll never look at the same anymore. What advice would you offer to entrepreneurs who are thinking about a pivot of their own?

1 (17m 11s):
Do not allow perfection to impede progress. Do not think that you cannot do it. Just do it. I was a trainer making $55 an hour in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, running a gym that was baking, that was, that was doing well, but not well enough for me to do well. And I got, I I just, I never said no to something on it would reach out. We'd like for you to write these articles done, Hey, you want to do this done, you wanna do this done? You wanna go out to New York and model done that? Me saying yes to going to New York one time turned me into becoming a two-time Versace model.

1 (17m 53s):
I mean, that year was the same year that I was then casted by NBC to be the star of a TV show, Transforming Women's Lives, which I did, and I was on the billboards all over America. I was literally the face of the show and the show was called Strong, which resonated with me in a way so much deeper than any audition that I ever had with Biggest Loser. And I never sought out an agent I just said yes to when an agent asked me if they could help me. So when I had the opportunity to pivot is when I moved out to California and after the TV show, after two time Versace model, after having two gyms after starring in a movie, right?

1 (18m 44s):
Like these, like random things that occurred along the way. I was training the founder of Tom's Blake Koski, and this was the first time I had trained somebody that was worth almost a half a billion dollars. I I had trained like people that were millionaires, you know, but like those people would still scoff at 80 bucks an hour. Blake Blake was paying me 200 bucks an hour to be his trainer. So I went from $55 an hour to $200 an hour just by driving 1600 miles. I didn't change my profession, I changed my location from there. I used my position to get to know these people.

1 (19m 28s):
And the, and the, and the idea of you are the six of the people that you spend the most time with. The sum of those people couldn't have been more true because at that time I was literally training three And A, half billion dollars in NET Worth, and I launched Strong Coffee less than a year later. And they, Blake Koski, Ben Gold Hirsch and another gentleman were my initial angel investors. And I believe that I could do it. And this isn't a knock to them, but I was like, if they could do it, I could do it.

1 (20m 9s):
And I pivoted. I saw that I was at the top, I was at the top of my food chain as a trainer. People envied my career. I would've people sitting next to me at like a cool gym and they'd be like, dude, you have the life you train four hours a day, you go to the beach and you live in Venice, California, you know? And it's like, yeah, I do, but this isn't the peak because I'm also stuck in a car for like three hours a day and this is as much money as I can make doing this. And this isn't me doing what I really wanna do, which is ultimately help as many people as I can help. How do you go from being on a TV show and showing people millions, showing millions of people what's possible and how to move differently and think differently about food like I did on the show and owning a gym, helping a community, thousands of people to then just training, you know, a couple of rich people that value you and you could say there's an impact like a waterfall of like they own businesses and they're healthier so their company is healthier.

1 (21m 8s):
But at the same time, like, I want that direct impact. I wanna be like cups to lips, like, you know, strong coffee, 10,000 miles, 20,000 miles, a million miles every morning. Just like, how do we get there? And, and that was my choice. That was my decision.

0 (21m 26s):
Fire Nation, there's a couple things that I wanna circle back on. Number one, do not allow perfection to impede progress. Remember those words do not allow perfection to impede progress. That is such a key value bond from Adam. And then I love that one phrase, I didn't change my profession, I changed my location. Think about that for you in your life right now, Adam, you've dropped so many Value Bombs today, what is the one thing you want to make sure Fire Nation gets before we say goodbye?

1 (21m 58s):
Strong and strong coffee means so much more than the idea of how much weight you can lift. It's about what you can do and those you can lift up around you. Strong stands for striving to reach our natural greatness. Ultimately, we all want greatness in our life. No matter how we measure or what that value is, we know that we want something greater for ourselves, for our family, and for everyone around us. Never stop until you get it.

Strong Coffee Company (22m 30s):
Adam, how can Fire Nation connect with you? How can we connect with strong coffee and then we'll say goodbye? Yeah, strongcoffeecompany.com, @Strong Coffee Company. It is important the company because it is the company you keep. Remember, you are those that you surround yourself with and always keep 'em strong.

0 (22m 50s):
Adam might not know this Fire Nation, but you do. We end this conversation as we do every conversation by saying you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with AR and JLD today. So keep up that heat. For links to everything we talked about, visit EOFire.com type Adam in the search bar. The Sonos page will pop right up with links to everything that he has going on. Adam, thank you brother for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation. For that we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side.

1 (23m 23s):
Peace.

0 (23m 25s):
Hey, Fire Nation a huge thank you to our sponsors and Adam for sponsoring today's episode in Fire Nation. Are you ready to rock your very own podcast? Check out our free podcasting course where I will teach you how to create and launch your podcast for free. freepodcastcourse.com. I'll catch you there. Or on the flip side,

The Goal Digger Podcast (23m 44s):
The Goal Digger Podcast hosted by my good friend Jenna Kutcher is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. The Gold Digger podcast helps you discover your dream career with productivity tips, social strategies, business acts, inspirational stories, and so much more. A must listen episode is one of Jenna's recent on everything you need to know about affiliate marketing Listen to Gold Digger wherever you get your podcasts.

FranBridge Consulting (24m 9s):
Many EOFire listeners have launched non-food franchises and FranBridge Consulting has guided them. FranBridge ISS founder and frequent EOFire guest, John Ostenson has done more placements than any other in the country and his service is free. Sign up for a consultation with John or get a free copy of his book, Non-Food Franchising at FranBridgeConsulting.com.