421 | How To Transform Your Passion For Fitness Into Profit

Jan 10

[00:00:37] Chaz Wolfe: What's up everybody. I'm Chaz Wolfe gathering the Kings podcast. Coming back to you here today with another King on the stage. I got my brother, Brian Velez. How we doing
[00:00:46] Brian Velez: Doing great, Chaz. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it.
[00:00:48] Chaz Wolfe: Absolutely. Absolutely, man. ~Uh, ~I appreciate you taking a few minutes with me here today and giving up yourself. ~Um, ~the audience, man, we, we just love hearing success stories and you're in the midst.
[00:00:59] Chaz Wolfe: I mean, we're, we're all in the midst of our success stories, but you're like really, really in the midst of, of really coming up,~ um,~ and all kinds of changes happening in your business and seeing some major growth. And I'm excited for this conversation because I don't even know if you've come out of the heat of battle.
[00:01:15] Chaz Wolfe: I think the stink of battle is still on you. ~Um, ~and I think you're going to give some great insight. So Brian, tell us what kind of business that you have.
[00:01:22] Brian Velez: Yeah, so I'm the owner and operator of Physical Culture. We're a health and performance gym in Brooklyn, New York. So we work with high performing people, so a lot of white collar professionals, a lot of athletes, and ~uh, ~people who generally just want to improve their health and longevity.
[00:01:33] Chaz Wolfe: I love it, man. There's all kinds of talks around people trying to be like, you know, a hundred, 108, 140. ~Uh, ~you know, like you said, people trying to,~ uh,~ go for that longevity. Although you said one quick thing here. We got, we got a sidebar here away from business for a half second because you said you're in Brooklyn and I have one of my favorite memories in Brooklyn.
[00:01:52] Chaz Wolfe: ~Uh, ~it's at a place called Peter Luger.
[00:01:54] Brian Velez: Oh, it's great. Yeah. Yeah. Very, very
[00:01:57] Chaz Wolfe: Very. Exactly. I'll tell you what, if the audience doesn't know about Peter Luger, give us just a quick two seconds on Peter Luger because it's in your hometown.
[00:02:04] Brian Velez: I mean, it's a, it's one of the oldest steakhouse in New York City. ~Um, ~you know, I think,~ uh,~ if you're gonna get steak out, they're plenty a great steakhouse in New York City. ~Uh, ~no shortage, but Peter Luas is probably one of the godfathers of, of steak in, in New York City.
[00:02:15] Brian Velez: So check it out if you're there.
[00:02:17] Chaz Wolfe: when I was, when I was there probably 10 years ago, I had a,~ uh,~ I just had to go, I had heard about Peter Lugar and I had,~ uh,~ the only option was 10 45 PM and I'm like, well,
[00:02:25] Brian Velez: Can I take it?
[00:02:26] Chaz Wolfe: I guess I got to take it. And, you know, of course they come in white jackets all the way down, you know, the whole nine had Porter house for two that night, it was.
[00:02:34] Chaz Wolfe: Beautiful. I was by myself just to be clear, but I ate the whole, actually I didn't eat the whole thing. I saved a couple of bites for the next morning. It was a delicious breakfast in the hotel. Anyway, Brian, let's talk about business for a little bit here. You're helping people become their best version of themselves physically, kind of gathering the Kings, help people become the best versions of themselves and their business and marriage and all the other things in life.
[00:02:58] Chaz Wolfe: And so we're like. You know, kindred spirits here, and I think that really becoming our best version is really ultimately what we're trying to do. Why is that so important for you? I mean, obviously you're on the physical side and you're helping people become, you know, elite. Physically, why is that like the inner part of the depths of who you are and why you do this?
[00:03:13] Brian Velez: Yeah, I mean, for me, I think training just makes you a better person. You know, training, I've been playing . Worked my entire life since I was four years old. Multi-sport athlete. Started lifting weights when I was 15 and. Through the ups and downs of life training, going to the gym, playing sport. That has been the thing that has kept me on the, the straight and narrow path and kind of kept focused throughout my life.
[00:03:31] Brian Velez: So, ~uh, ~I genuinely do think people who train are better people. So, you know, I think it trains your mindset not only just your physical, but your emotional state, your mindset, you, you move with more focus, more intention. And I want to give that to as many people as possible. I know how much it has impacted my life, and to the extent I could give it to more people who are open-minded about training and taking care of themselves.
[00:03:50] Brian Velez: I mean, I, I really wanna give that to people.
[00:03:52] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, and I think training Probably everybody who's listening has trained to some degree but maybe there's somebody listening right now that really doesn't understand how Training physically could impact them mentally and or in business. And so since this is a business podcast Tell us How, how could that person listening right now understand the benefits of how they could become a better business owner or a better thought leader or a better thinker, a better leader just by training and doing the hard things that you just talked about?
[00:04:22] Brian Velez: I mean, I think when you do hard things every day, it makes everything else easier. That's first off, but having your health is the foundation for life, right. I think of business as sport, right? This is my NBA, this is my MLB. I feel like I'm going pro as an entrepreneur, and if I want to be in the game forever, I need to take care of myself and be healthy, right?
[00:04:38] Brian Velez: And so when you, when you build these disciplines and these habits over time, whether it's, you know, waking up at a certain time, pushing yourself in the gym, eating the right things throughout the day, you feel better, you look better, you're more confident in yourself, and you just move with a different type of energy.
[00:04:51] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, man, I'm going pro or I mean, you know, the, the, the idea of some people maybe already think that they're pro, but which is great. But even at a pro status, it's not like, in fact, if anything, it's the pros are the ones working out even harder. They're working even better or, or, or staying up later or, waking up earlier.
[00:05:09] Chaz Wolfe: They're doing it even more extreme is my point.
[00:05:11] Brian Velez: Right, right. I, I actually think of it,~ uh,~ I'm a big baseball fan, so. I actually think of it as,~ uh,~ I'm in the, I'm in single a baseball and I'm trying to, I'm in the minor leagues trying to kind of, you know, get promoted, work my way up and get to the majors one day and maybe the Hall of fame. So, you know, it's, it's a journey.
[00:05:25] Brian Velez: It's a grind. But you know, this, this is really what we play for. And the great thing about business is you could play that sport forever. You know, they play plenty of guys who are playing business into their sixties, seventies, and eighties, and, you know, I want to be there too. One day.
[00:05:37] Chaz Wolfe: Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, especially if we're going to live to 140, bro, 80 is just getting rolling, you know? I mean, come on. Okay. So health has been important. ~Um, ~important enough for you to be able to share it with other people. ~Um, ~tell us what happened for you to even start this company. I obviously, you did something beforehand.
[00:05:52] Chaz Wolfe: Give us a, just a little bit of the backdrop why you became an entrepreneur.
[00:05:55] Brian Velez: Yeah, so, you know, I think it, I think I was subconsciously imprinted when, at a young age, so my father actually, he was in the Marine Corps when he was younger, and he started a real estate business when he was 29, 30. And this is a guy who came from nothing. He was an immigrant from Puerto Rico, went to the military at 17, 18 years old, got out and then started his own business and.
[00:06:14] Brian Velez: Unfortunately he passed away when I was a child. But I did have very fond memories of him when I was young, being in his office, sitting in his desk, and just, I think at that point it was really imprinted into me that, hey, you can actually work for yourself and make a good living. And so, you know, kind of fast forward a little bit, sport has been a huge part of my life, been an athlete my entire life.
[00:06:32] Brian Velez: ~Um, ~but as I got into school, you know, obviously I was playing competitive sports, but I was also a good student. And so I, you know, I went to Columbia University. I studied applied math and economics, so traditional engineering background. ~Uh, ~got into working at a hedge fund as a trader, and then eventually I worked in Wall Street as an equity research analyst at an investment bank.
[00:06:50] Brian Velez: So very in the nitty gritty of corporate finance. And I would sit at my job all day just thinking to myself. How, how can I, how did I get to this point? And all the guys
[00:07:00] Brian Velez: I worked, how do I get out? And, you know, I, I realized that we were basically glorified weather people and the, the people who were actually making the money were the, the company CEOs and Right, so we were raising money IPOing companies, and it was these companies, those executives were the ones who were actually getting paid out.
[00:07:14] Brian Velez: And we were only getting slivers of it for working so much. And so . You know, I, I was tired of playing fantasy football and I wanted to play my own team, manage my own team. And the one thing that has been kind of constant through my, my life to my earlier point was the gym. And so I, you know, I, I teamed up with two bus, my two business partners who were actually coaches at a previous gym that I was at before.
[00:07:33] Brian Velez: And we had always jokingly talk, spoken about starting a business, but it wasn't until I was making enough money working in investment banking to actually make it come to fruition. As equity research analyst. I used to model out companies like Coca-Cola, Pepsi, these big multi-million dollar, multi-billion dollar companies.
[00:07:49] Brian Velez: And I always thought to myself, if I could, if I could find, do write a financial model for a big corporation like Pepsi or Coca-Cola, I could do it for a small business. And so I just that I built out financial models and it ended up making sense. The math. Math, and you know, the rest is history.
[00:08:04] Chaz Wolfe: I love that dude. Not that, not that my respect for you wouldn't have been extremely high. It already is just based on your history and story and success. But,~ um,~ now, now I just see this conversation in a completely new light because There's, there's a lot of people that do well in fitness,~ um,~ who don't do well in business.
[00:08:20] Chaz Wolfe: And there's a lot of contractors who do well as a contractor, but they don't do well in business. And as you mentioned earlier, it's the game of business that lasts forever and ever. It's not working on the job site or working in the gym or, you know, working at an edible arrangements franchise, which was my first business.
[00:08:36] Chaz Wolfe: And so it's like, okay, now we're going to have a conversation of how to, how to run a business. You know, financial models and how do we pull in and tug on levers, which I just think is just,~ uh,~ just such a greater,~ uh,~ opportunity for whoever's listening inside of that. So you just set up the stage for us beautifully.
[00:08:54] Chaz Wolfe: There's obviously been an on ramp to that, but what's been, I mean, from zero to here, where you're like. You know, you're in essence, you're exploding right now. Like I'll just toot your horn for you. You're exploding right now. And so what's, what's been the one catalyst. I know there's been several, but what's been the one thing inside that model that you've built?
[00:09:10] Chaz Wolfe: That's just, it just triggered the rest of the fire,
[00:09:13] Brian Velez: Yeah, I think, you know, when it comes down to business,~ uh,~ I kind of segment it into three pieces. There's acquisition, there's fulfillment, and there's retention. And for us, I think for a lot of, for a long time we were at, we were focused so much on the service, providing a great service and fulfilling that.
[00:09:27] Brian Velez: And we were very good on retention, but we did not have an acquisition engine for the business. And so this past year we really started investing a lot more money in resources into acquisition. ~Uh, ~whether it's through paid ads on Instagram and Facebook, and more recently we're starting to get more into content creation just to establish our new brand.
[00:09:42] Brian Velez: And so. I think focusing a lot on acquisition and being able to cover the cost of customer acquisition and, you know, start building out that recurring revenue stream for, from, you know, memberships on, on an ongoing basis kind of really was the unlock for us. ~Um, ~but you have to spend money to make money and I think for a long time, especially early in the business, I was so focused on paying myself just to get scraps out of the business, and I always thought that I was picking the fruit a little too early.
[00:10:06] Brian Velez: And it wasn't until I realized, wait, I can't pick the fruit too early. I need to let it grow, and I also need to spend more money to grow the business so that the fruit could be bigger in the future. And that's when things started to kind of click for me.
[00:10:16] Chaz Wolfe: Wow. That was such a succinct answer. ~Um, ~I appreciate the high quality answer there. ~Uh, ~there's several pieces that we need to like dissect. Okay. So first off acquisition, fulfillment and retention, you gave a really good idea of fulfillment being. You know, do the thing that you say you're going to do for your client.
[00:10:32] Chaz Wolfe: Retention is do it so well that they keep doing it with you. ~Uh, ~which are kind of both backend operations. Okay, fine. So acquisitions on the front end, we're talking sales and marketing. You said you, you spent a lot of time in that answer, talking about marketing and whether it's paid ads or just lead generation through content or, you know, sticking your ankle out on the street.
[00:10:51] Chaz Wolfe: I mean, you've got plenty of people that drive by, you know, point is, is that you need leads, but secondarily, right behind that, you have to have a sales process that can. Usher those leads into some sort of an offer. So, tell us about that for a quick second, because you said you've leaned in hard now to investing and lead gen.
[00:11:07] Chaz Wolfe: What happens after that for you, or what have you learned through that process?
[00:11:09] Brian Velez: Yeah, so really what we do now is kind of, it's more client finance acquisition. So we have a high ticket upfront offer, so we'll spend money to acquire leads. I do the entire sales process. So I'll, I'll, I'll kind of qualify the leads,~ uh,~ get on a jump on a call with them, and then kind of follow 'em over to the coach.
[00:11:24] Brian Velez: So my coaches don't do any of the selling process, right. The real focus for me is to get . Clients acquired at a price such that the cash fee collect upfront is multiples of that. So that way the the client that we acquire is paying for the future acquisition of a new client.
[00:11:38] Brian Velez: Right. So if you're getting a position where you're doing that, basically the flywheel can continue to roll so that you know, a portion, not everyone's obviously gonna convert into a recurring membership, but a portion of them will, and that'll kind of build up the backend revenue over time. But then you always have this funnel that's flowing forward.
[00:11:51] Brian Velez: So you're never using new money to acquire new clients. You're using the money from the newly acquired client to acquire a new client in the future. So that's really helped us a bit.
[00:12:00] Chaz Wolfe: I love everything that you've said here. ~Uh, ~now we're totally over here in Mosey nation, breaking stuff
[00:12:05] Chaz Wolfe: down.~ Um, ~but I, I want to break it down a little further because what you're talking about, CAC client acquisition costs or cost of client acquisition is really, really big. And it applies to every industry, not just fitness.
[00:12:16] Chaz Wolfe: In essence, what you're saying is that you have to spend money to get a lead and then to make a sale. But that collection,~ um,~ Has to be enough to then fuel the next, not just the next client, AKA paying for leads or lead generation, but like several of them. Give us just a little bit more detail there, or if you can give us some, give us some numbers.
[00:12:35] Chaz Wolfe: That way we can kind of wrap this, this concept around some of the things that you're, you're, you're looking at every day on your screen.
[00:12:39] Brian Velez: Yeah, so just for simple metrics, like it usually costs me about $300 to acquire a client. And so the upfront offer for the average client would be $900 for a six week trial. We also have more premium packages that I kind of think of icing on the cake, but in that situation, if it cost us $300 to acquire a client and we're collecting $900 in cash front, I'm making three to one of my money immediately.
[00:12:59] Brian Velez: And then if that client converts into a recurring membership down the line, that's just icing on the cake. We could just stack that up forever. So now obviously not every six week trial client converts. In general, I'd say probably 75% of our six week trials convert into recurring membership, so people fall off.
[00:13:14] Brian Velez: But it's not really a big deal because one of the, one of the four clients who didn't convert into a recurring membership, I could just take that $900 to acquire a new lead in the future and get another customer.
[00:13:23] Chaz Wolfe: Yep. All right. I'm going to give one little synopsis here. Tell me what you think about this. Because this for the audience, like, yeah, I hope you're paying attention. This is really, really, really powerful. Like this is what will turn the heat up in your business period. And so that, that 300 broken down even further is, you know, he spent, let's say a thousand dollars on ads somewhere.
[00:13:43] Chaz Wolfe: It generated X amount of leads. Those X amount of leads turned into X or Y amount of phone calls. The Y amount of phone calls turned into that. One 900 sale. ~Um, ~and from that 900 sale, it still cost him 300 to get that client. ~Um, ~and so now he has wiggle room here to go run his business. And if you happen to be listening to this and you're one of this dude's clients,~ uh,~ first off, congratulations, because you're probably going to get ripped and shredded.
[00:14:07] Chaz Wolfe: Number two is This is how a business works. This is how business works is that they provide value and so much so to where they can make a profit. This is how your business should be happening as well. This is really for the audience because there's so many people out there trying to get to that seven figure mark, even multiple seven figures, and they're just not charging enough because they don't like, Oh, 900.
[00:14:29] Chaz Wolfe: It only costs me 300. Maybe I'll only charge. It's like, no, no, no. Like you, you have to operate like that because then you got to take some of that money. And put it right back into the next one because you do have a fall off ratio. You can only help a certain amount of people. You're limited on the back end.
[00:14:40] Chaz Wolfe: There's all kinds of factors that go into what that profit looks like. What are your thoughts on, on all that?
[00:14:45] Brian Velez: Yeah, I mean, I would say especially for us,~ uh,~ you know, we recently re rebranded the Business to Physical Culture and one of the big things was raising our prices pretty significantly. And, you know, we want to serve everyone we can. ~Um, ~you can give free content out, you know, over social media.
[00:14:58] Brian Velez: You can come out with free courses. You, there are plenty of ways to help people out and whenever I encounter a lead who doesn't have enough money to work with us, I always tell 'em, YouTube is free. There's plenty of information out there. You're paying us not for the knowledge, you're paying us for the execution, right?
[00:15:10] Brian Velez: You could find anything you want about health and fitness online for free, but you're really paying for a coach through the accountability and that's what you're spending the money on the coaching, not necessarily access to the gym. And so I have actually found that when you raise the prices, you get a better client.
[00:15:22] Brian Velez: They're more bought in, they care more about what you're doing, they value it more, and they're more likely to stay for a longer period of time. And they, by extension, they also know other wealthy people. And so it's just a self-fulfilling prophecy and it does help the business quite a bit. ~Um, ~but the reality is you just can't help everyone, unfortunately.
[00:15:37] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. Well, I love the little tag in there that you place that when we spend money and not just any amount of money enough to where it makes us hurt a little bit when we just like, ah, then, then typically we pay attention to that because it hurts. ~Um, ~and if you don't, then maybe you need to spend more. I don't know what, what your problem is, but,~ um,~ at least when I spend money, Typically it's like, okay, now I'm going to pay attention to this.
[00:16:00] Chaz Wolfe: I'm invested literally,~ um,~ not only with my money, but now my attention. And that's typically when you get results,
[00:16:05] Brian Velez: A hundred percent. Yeah. It's funny, every time we used to run a free offer in the, in the past, people wouldn't show up to the gym. And I actually have done posts before on social media where I have called people on. I was like, well, if I gave you a month of our membership for free, I guarantee you wouldn't show up to the gym because there's no skin in the game.
[00:16:20] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. Yeah. It's the same thing for gathering the Kings. We have,~ uh,~ we started off with just a single premium level peer to peer mastermind. We've since opened up some like entry, level you know, access points for smaller business owners trying to just get around successful people, which I think is great.
[00:16:35] Chaz Wolfe: But I'll tell you, we don't have any problems with premium level clients,~ um,~ whether, whether they were financially ready or, or they, they were like, Oh, this is a little bit of a stretch, but I'm going to do it anyway. Right. That mindset will pull you forward in your business, whether you're getting fitness coaching, whether you're joining a peer group or whether you're investing in your family.
[00:16:55] Chaz Wolfe: ~Um, ~I've noticed the same thing about my family. I can. I can do a date night or if I like really do a date night, I'm like in you write the note. You don't just order the flowers. You go pick them up and you make sure that they're perfect and you deliver them hand right from you to her. Like there's just so much more intention when you're invested, right?
[00:17:14] Brian Velez: A hundred percent. Absolutely.
[00:17:16] Chaz Wolfe: All right. Well, so let's, let's move on here. You've given us kind of like the key of, of what it looked like to turn the heat up. I'm sure you've stumbled on a bunch of stuff. Give us. The one thing that comes to your mind where you're like, dude, if I could not have done this, but I'm sure you learned a bit.
[00:17:31] Chaz Wolfe: Give it, give it to us. What was it? Yeah.
[00:17:35] Brian Velez: about marketing. So we picked the fruit too early, probably around 2021. ~Uh, ~coming outta the pandemic, coming outta Covid. Now you have to put into perspective, I used to work for Wall Street making quite a bit of money, and so there's a lifestyle you need to also maintain a little bit as well.
[00:17:49] Brian Velez: Now, I'm also been very, I'm a very frugal person, but you also want to get paid for the effort you're putting into the business, and so I found myself picking the fruit too early from the business and taking the gas off of acquisition. Right. And I thought that we could kind of continue to float the business and we would keep growing and there was a obvious drop in growth for the business in 2021.
[00:18:09] Brian Velez: Now obviously there are other things going on with inflation and cost of living increasing, especially in New York City, but I do take responsibility and I realized that yeah, I, I pulled, I stepped off the gas in terms of marketing spend. Especially in the early years of a business, you can't do that.
[00:18:21] Brian Velez: Right? I would even argue in the first five years of your business, you probably shouldn't be paying yourself too much. You need to keep reinvesting money into the business. So, ~uh, ~obviously we've kind of, we've of course, course redirected at this point, but,~ uh,~ I would say that's a big issue that I see a lot of entrepreneurs make, and we made it too, so everyone's human.
[00:18:37] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, we are. You're right. And I think that the cool part inside of that, you said that you're frugal. How is it that someone who's frugal got trapped in picking too early? Because those are kind of two different principles. One is leaving it on the tree. The other one is I took it, but now I'm careful with it.
[00:18:56] Brian Velez: Sure.
[00:18:57] Chaz Wolfe: Give us, give us kind of like how that works. Cause you're still a frugal person, even though now you're reinvesting.
[00:19:01] Brian Velez: Sure. Yeah. I mean, you know, it's all relative, right? ~Um, ~$5,000 when you're making 200 k is different than $5,000 when you're making 60 K, right? So I think it, especially if you're coming from a, a previous situation where you're working a corporate job, making a lot of money, and then transitioning to being an entrepreneur, that's a big culture shock.
[00:19:19] Brian Velez: It's a big ego hit that a lot of people just can't stomach. Right. And because you're also going to that understanding that it could fail, and you also don't have a timeline on when you're gonna get back to that previous salary. So you kinda have to throw all these timelines out of your head and just kind of stick to the process, keep growing the business, and your time will come when you're, when it comes.
[00:19:37] Brian Velez: But you, you can't pick the fruit too early.
[00:19:40] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. I love the, the analogy that you keep giving of picking the fruit too early. I think that you're right too, that. Especially if you've had previous,~ uh,~ experience with making large amounts of money,~ uh,~ whether a corporate job or, or a different scenario, whatever the, whatever the deal is. When you come into that and you have to kind of give that up.
[00:19:59] Chaz Wolfe: At least for me, it was like, well, I don't have any other options here. I should probably run as hard as I can.
[00:20:06] Chaz Wolfe: Um, you know, I was the only probably only difference is that I was married at that time, but,~ um,~ it's still like, you know, married and children and, and it's like, okay, dude, like we got to make this stuff happen and we got to make it happen fast.
[00:20:17] Chaz Wolfe: So that's my encouragement to the listener is that you're right. You shouldn't pluck it off the tree too soon inside of that. That should be like fuel. It should be like, Hey, dude. Like write it on the board. I made nothing today. Good. Okay. What about tomorrow? Let's see if I can make some tomorrow. And obviously there's some targets there that need to be identified.
[00:20:34] Chaz Wolfe: And what's the, what's the point where I can start plucking a little bit. And I think there's even like a little bit of emotion of like pluck a little bit, maybe then a little bit more than a little bit more. And like, there's a work into that,~ um,~ because you still got to eat, but dude, let it burn. Right?
[00:21:38] Brian Velez: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I've become a lot more formulaic with how we pay ourselves now. Like there are certain metrics I watch and,~ uh,~ we look at like trailing three, three and six month revenue, and you take a percentage of that. ~Uh, ~just as, just so I know, I'm always on the right . Path and I'm not paying ourselves too much.
[00:21:53] Brian Velez: And then it's also more performance based too, right? You eat what you kill. That's the beauty in being an entrepreneur, right? There's no floor, but there's also no ceiling either. So to your point, you just gotta run faster if you're not making enough.
[00:22:03] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. And which is, we have a hundred percent control.
[00:22:07] Chaz Wolfe: I mean, you control today, how many phone calls you've already made. If you're in New York city, it's already 1140. How many phone calls did you make today? Well, that was dependent by how many you wanted to make, you know, cause I know you got leads.
[00:22:19] Brian Velez: Yes, sir.
[00:22:20] Chaz Wolfe: So I think that the, the, the combination of what we're saying here for the audience is look, man, get after it.
[00:22:25] Chaz Wolfe: Like you're on a timeline of sorts, pressurize yourself. Cool. Like it's okay. But at the same time, at one point sometime or another, like that day does come where you, You can pay yourself and not just like menial, like it can be worth it.
[00:22:40] Brian Velez: It should be worth it if you're doing it right.
[00:22:42] Chaz Wolfe: yeah. Yeah. Which, I mean, looking back, I'd tell my younger self, like, I just, I delayed a long time, man.
[00:22:51] Chaz Wolfe: Five years would have been nice, but it's like, you know, some of that, we just become obsessed, right? Like, I mean, okay. So talk about that from a quick angle of you, you know, being in a world, I mean, investment banking, you want to talk about obsessed, like. Bro, like that, that industry in itself is, is like what a lot of people hold up as success, right?
[00:23:10] Chaz Wolfe: So what was that like for you taking that maybe energy from what you learned from that industry and applying it to your own business? Was that, was that kind of like running in mud for a minute there?
[00:23:21] Brian Velez: I mean, I definitely learned a lot from my bosses in, in, in banking. I mean, definitely my managing director who oversaw me. I learned a lot from her, just the way I even do things today, whether it's managing my email or running meetings internally for the team, I do exactly what she did with us. ~Um, ~yes, it could be a lot and it could be intense, and,~ uh,~ I'm sure my team sometimes will th you know, they, they're like, oh, Brian's in corporate mode right now.
[00:23:41] Brian Velez: ~Um, ~it's not to me, I'm not a person, but I think there's a certain level of diligence and a certain energy you move with when you're in those settings because it is sink or swim. ~Uh, ~most of those situations in investment banking or any corporate job that's that demanding, I would say,~ uh,~ you really need to perform.
[00:23:55] Brian Velez: Right? It's a, it's up, it's a very upper out mentality. It's either you're moving up in the standings and you're getting promoted, or they're gonna kick you out somehow or force you out. So, I. ~Um, ~I think just having that mentality is probably good as an entrepreneur. And you realize once you're an entrepreneur that a lot of other entrepreneurs who are competitive with you don't have that same standard.
[00:24:15] Brian Velez: And so what I realized, especially as running a gym, is that a lot of gym owners are just gym bros. Or they just love coaching or they're just good athletes. And I'm coming in from a different angle as a business guy and when you, when I have conversations with other business owners, even today or even four years ago when we first opened
[00:24:32] Brian Velez: The things I was thinking about, not even having opened the business compared to somebody who was running a gym for 10 years was completely different. We were looking at, we were playing two different sports and over time you start to lap them and you realize, well, it's because I had this huge, you know, this pedigree from coming from an I believe school and you know, having an engineering background and I'm very good with numbers and things like that.
[00:24:52] Brian Velez: And it really does add up. It's, these are very useful skills that you should have. ~Um, ~it's not just about writing the best workouts, it's about running a business.
[00:25:00] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. I love it, man. ~Um, ~okay, well, let's talk about along the way. We're going to keep this obsession kind of lane. I know,~ um,~ that you've given up things. ~Um, ~I'm sure friendships, I'm sure relationships talk about what the obsession in a good way. Like, I don't mean like you have to be obsessed and you have to give up everything to have a successful business.
[00:25:18] Chaz Wolfe: Although I think that there's a play for that. I think I gave up a ton of stuff. I've never really talked about that. Maybe we should do a show on that. So my question to you, Brian, here is, along the way, I know you've given up some stuff, give some examples of what those things were, but then also maybe like, how that benefited you as a holistic person, not just necessarily, I'm giving up these things so I can be rich, you know what I mean?
[00:25:38] Brian Velez: Yeah, absolutely. So I, I think when you become an entrepreneur, there's a lot of sacrifice that you have to accept initially from the jump. Whether it's making less money, whether it's having less time to spend with friends, less vacations, you can't buy nice clothes, things like that,~ um,~ it can, it can really beat down your ego though over time.
[00:25:54] Brian Velez: Right. ~Uh, ~you know, I've had to give up a relationship. I was engaged previously and, you know, our lives were just going in different directions and, you know, she did kind of see through the whole banking journey and me starting the business and everything. But after a while, it is really tough to progress in life if you are the one that's holding back the relationship because you are, you're not making enough money or you're not at the point that you want to be at.
[00:26:15] Brian Velez: And so I do think there's a lot of,~ uh,~ struggles and tri trials and tribulations you need to overcome as an entrepreneur. But again, it also does give you another opportunity to refocus and kind of rebuild the foundation and kind of make sure,~ uh,~ you're, you're getting all your bases covered. For me, health is a huge thing for me.
[00:26:30] Brian Velez: I always make sure to take care of my body. I always make sure to take care of my mind. That's first and foremost, because I can't perform if I'm tired or if I'm sick, or if I'm not feeling confident. And so thankfully my business is in alignment with that. So it makes my life very easy to, you know, go to the gym and take care of myself and eat well.
[00:26:47] Brian Velez: And,~ uh,~ there's a lot of alignment there, which is really positive.
[00:26:50] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, I'm glad you spun it in this direction, because that's what I was hoping that you would do. Really the obsession of, Getting rid of the negative things, but it also allows us to then obsess further about the other things outside of the business that also then either help the business or just help us as an individual become our best version.
[00:27:06] Chaz Wolfe: So I appreciate you going there, your optimism towards how easy it is for you, I think is actually you, because how easy, how, how many times have we heard the guy that. You know, who's a, who's a gym owner or who's a painter and he's like, yeah, I haven't painted my house. I know that I need to paint my house, but I don't paint my house cause I paint all day long and I don't want to come home and paint my house.
[00:27:29] Chaz Wolfe: Right? Like you could totally say that about mind work and body work, but you don't. Is that, is that just because it's so important to you or how are you incorporating those other things? I know that you own the freaking gym, but you still got to choose to go there as a person working out Not the owner looking around and doing owner things.
[00:27:48] Brian Velez: Yeah, that's a great question. I mean, I, I, I like to be a good example for the clients I work with, and so I actually even tell my team all the time, I want you guys to work out in front of the clients because they need to see what it looks like also, and so . I'm busy. I have a lot of clients who are professionals, also entrepreneurs.
[00:28:04] Brian Velez: They're busy too. And if I could do it, they could do it. And then conversely, if they could do it, I can definitely do it, right? If they're working 12, 14 hours a day and then showing up to the gym to get after it, I really have no excuse either. Or if I have a mother of two or three and she's running around all the over the place and she also has a career and she's still making time to come into the gym.
[00:28:23] Brian Velez: I have no excuse either. So I think it's, it's a very reflexive thing that goes on in the gym and I think it's, it's very inspiring. We all inspire each other and I, I try to do that on the gym floor with people as well. I wanna be a good example.
[00:28:34] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, and so practically inside of okay. Yeah, you're gonna schedule time to go to the gym Let's use mind work or, or just learning,~ um,~ as, as something different. Cause maybe you don't go to the actual gym for that. And so you're not being a, like a physical representation of what it is to be an example.
[00:28:49] Chaz Wolfe: You're just in your office or you're just in your, in your room doing the things that you know you need to do and to be obsessed with. AKA the things I'm teaching you guys to do. It's the same stuff though, but, but you're still choosing to do it. Talk to us about that. How do you, how do you find time for that?
[00:29:02] Chaz Wolfe: How do you practically do that? When, how, who, you know, all that stuff.
[00:29:05] Brian Velez: So the first, the first part of my day in the morning is in my home office, so this is usually time for deep work. I'm usually doing some more backend operational things. ~Uh, ~and then kind of midday around two 3:00 PM I will head into the gym and so I'll close the gym also with this, with the, with the coaches.
[00:29:19] Brian Velez: And so that's where I'm gonna work out with the clients. That's when I kind of touch base with people, Hey, how's everything going? Just kind of develop those relationships with people. And then usually in between that when I'm driving in my commute, I'm trying to listen to some type of podcast or even just talk to myself.
[00:29:32] Brian Velez: Having conversations with yourself I think is really important. Sometimes I think we over, we overconsume content and we don't reflect on it enough, and so I really try to make it a point to . To have conversations with myself throughout the day about what I'm looking at, what I'm digesting, what I wanna focus on, and then at nighttime, that's usually time for me to rest.
[00:29:49] Brian Velez: But of course, you know how it is, you have things on your mind. If you want to kind of explore certain ideas when it's really quiet, that's probably the long, the best time to do it. Take your dog for a walk, go for a, an extra long walk and kind of just be with your thoughts by yourself at night. ~Uh, ~really goes a long way to, to kind of creating some mental peace there.
[00:30:05] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, I love that, man. I think you gave just a really great example. There's a leading question here around you not coming into the office or the gym until 2 or 3 p. m. How does your team... Or what have you done to communicate with your team that that's the expectation that they're not going to see you until then.
[00:30:22] Chaz Wolfe: And that in essence, you're doing other things, deep work on yourself, operationally in the business. In essence, you're in a hole, you're being quiet. You probably have some sort of, you know, sound,~ uh, uh, ~headphones on and you're not being bothered by anybody and you're doing deep work. How is the business still running without you?
[00:30:37] Chaz Wolfe: ~Uh, ~during that time?
[00:30:38] Brian Velez: Yeah, so thankfully I have a supportive team. ~Um, ~it's me and my business partner and we have four full-time coaches, so it's really six of us who run the business. ~Um, ~I really handle all the operational. . Side of the business, the marketing, the sales, all the backend, finances, everything. They focus on coaching, right?
[00:30:53] Brian Velez: They don't have to think about anything else. They'll help out with content, obviously. ~Um, ~but there is a really, there is a real separation of church and state in terms of who's running the business and who, who's working on the business versus who's working in the business. And so. I think, you know, I, I try to lead by example.
[00:31:05] Brian Velez: They know I work harder than all of them combined, so I don't think there's ever a question that I'm not working, like I'm just sitting at home,~ uh,~ you know, watching movies or, or yeah, there's, there's no shot that's happening. ~Um, ~and, and they know it because when I'm, you know, I'll call them in the morning, Hey, I got a new client for you.
[00:31:18] Brian Velez: Hey, let's schedule this. Hey, I have somebody who's inquiring about this so they know things are always happening, even on weekends, I'm hitting them up. So I think there's a mutual respect and understanding and . Listen, my philosophy with work is I understand as a business owner, you're never gonna care about the business more than I do as an employee.
[00:31:34] Brian Velez: And so I just kind of deal with that. And you know, thankfully the gym is such an interesting business where it is a passion for people. All my coaches are passionate about this, and I always make sure to remind them that they actually live out their passion, whereas most people just work a job they hate.
[00:31:48] Brian Velez: And so they should be thankful and grateful for this opportunity. We all should collectively. . And that by itself should make you wanna work hard and get after it. So I think everyone's on the same page and we never have any issues like that.
[00:31:58] Chaz Wolfe: That's good, man. I appreciate the,~ uh,~ the honesty there. I assume that that there's some systems and some communication that you've put in place. Like you said, that they know what you're working on. The, the last piece that you mentioned there, as far as. You know, just collectively being grateful. I think that entrepreneurs should think in that same vein, like, man, I literally got to woke, I got to wake up today and, and choose to be on a podcast with Brian, like, wow.
[00:32:24] Chaz Wolfe: Or, or whatever business that you're in or whatever meeting that I'm having this week, whatever business,~ uh,~ that I'm, that I'm addressing at that moment. And it's like, this was, this was on me. I got to do that. I chose to set up this meeting. I'm, I'm freaking leading this meeting. This is incredible. Or do I just go have a job that I hate?
[00:32:41] Chaz Wolfe: Right. And, and, and maybe someone's listening today and then they have a job. They're not an entrepreneur yet, which is fine. ~Uh, ~but even inside of that place to be able to have that type of energy of creation and really enjoying, like you said, like you're for your coaches, maybe they're not an owner, but to have a gratefulness around like, ah, this is, this is what I get to do every day.
[00:32:59] Chaz Wolfe: Like it's pretty incredible. And a pretty small percentage of people who actually get to do that. Right.
[00:33:04] Brian Velez: Yeah, I mean, I would say most people, especially my peers that I went to school with, all very successful people. I'd say 99% of them probably don't do what they love for a living. And that's really sad. These are very capable, intelligent people, very hardworking, but there probably is a part of them that is,~ uh,~ unfulfilled, right?
[00:33:18] Brian Velez: And so for me, I really tried to, I really made it a point when I quit the job, when I quit the banking job. That I was never gonna work for someone ever again in my life. I, I made that oath to myself. And you know, I think it's incredibly important to the extent it's possible to live in alignment with your passion and soul and try to make a living out of it.
[00:33:36] Brian Velez: Because life is a long, life is a long, long game. And if you're gonna be working, doing something you don't enjoy for 20, 30, 40, 50 years, I mean, it's gonna eat at you at some point, right? So you might as well start young.
[00:33:47] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, I love that man. ~Um, ~kind of end up here with,~ uh,~ some, some information along the way, obviously you've, you've already quoted several,~ uh,~ resources even in this show, but is there, is there a book? Is there a podcast? Is there someone that you're following that you get just a lot of great stuff from,~ um,~ that you can recommend to the audience?
[00:34:05] Brian Velez: Yeah, I mean, I think the, the number one book I'd recommend to people is The Almanac of Naval Ravikant. I don't know if you're familiar with that.
[00:34:12] Chaz Wolfe: I'm not, please take at least a minute and tell us what this
[00:34:15] Brian Velez: Sure. So it's a, it is actually based off a tweetstorm. So Naval is the founder of,~ um, uh, ~a venture capital firm. And he wrote, he wrote this tweetstorm a couple years back about how to get rich quick or how to get rich,~ uh,~ basically how to get rich quick. But it's really more of a, it's really more of an expansion on business, philosophy, life, and it's just a lot of really great frameworks for people to kind of think from.
[00:34:36] Brian Velez: Um, the, the concept is basically how do you get rich without getting lucky? That's what he's trying to solve for, and he's explained that building wealth is not just a luck thing, it's a skill that you have to build and cultivate, and it has, some of it has nothing to do with business. Some of it has nothing to do with numbers.
[00:34:51] Brian Velez: A lot of it is internal work, which I'm pretty sure you're familiar with. And so very, very insightful. I actually give this book to . My cousins, I give it to anyone. I, anyone who's like a budding entrepreneur, I always give it to them because there's just a lot of good frameworks there that are helpful for people to learn from.
[00:35:07] Brian Velez: ~Um, ~you know, you can always read some books on nitty gritty finances and stuff like that, but I'd say in the beginning for people, it's really good to have a good foundation of good frameworks. And if you know how to think, you know how to problem solve and you know what wealth extra looks like, you can eventually kind of reverse engineer your, your way into it.
[00:35:22] Chaz Wolfe: I love that. ~Um, ~it, it hasn't, it's been a while since someone has recommended a book that a, I've not heard anything about,~ uh,~ and, and not read, you know, 10 times myself. And so thank you for that. ~Uh, ~we'll put it in the show notes, but,~ uh,~ I'll be getting that book as well. ~Um, ~last, last couple of pieces here.
[00:35:39] Chaz Wolfe: I want to, I want to kind of, ~Uh, ~give an opportunity here,~ uh,~ for, for the audience to connect with you and for you to be able to help them if you can remotely. I know that you said you have a gym and I want to ask you a couple questions about,~ um,~ you know, do you work with clients remotely? If you've got an audience member who right now is, you know, crushing it in their business, but they need to level up their health game.
[00:35:57] Chaz Wolfe: Can they work with you?
[00:35:59] Brian Velez: Absolutely. So we work with clients onsite and also remotely. I have clients who are out the country all the time, who travel quite a bit for work. ~Um, ~it's obviously very nice to have the clients onsite. I would say for the clients who work remote, there is a level of independence that's expected out of you.
[00:36:11] Brian Velez: You probably should be of a higher training age. I wouldn't say you should start remote, but you can eventually transition to remote. We're trying to teach people how to fish, right? I want to teach you how to train on your own, how to eat properly. How to, how to establish good, healthy habits. And so over time, working with our coaches, you should be able to work out on your own and probably not even need us in the future.
[00:36:29] Brian Velez: Also,
[00:36:30] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. Love that. Cool. I got one last question here for you. And I want to know, this is interesting always when I get to ask a young guy this question, but if you could roll back the clock to your younger self,~ um,~ and I do mean this even though you're young. ~Um, ~what would you whisper to your younger self in that moment?
[00:36:47] Brian Velez: ~uh, ~I'll give you a practical answer and I'll and I'll give, and I, and I'll give you some philosophical answer. Yeah, I was gonna say,~ uh,~ buy some Bitcoin, buy some more. ~Um, ~I would say,~ uh,~ I mean, I, I think I followed most of the, the things I told myself already. That's a good question. ~Um. ~ Well, I'll give you some perspective.
[00:37:04] Brian Velez: I, I started the gym when I was 26. I'm 31 years old right now. ~Um, ~I knew that I wanted to start the business young because . The later in life, you start a business, you have family, kids, obligations, lifestyle creep, a house, right? So I felt that starting a business Young gave me this space and air cover to really go all in without any distractions and just sacrifice a good chunk of my twenties, probably some of my thirties, so that I could build a good foundation.
[00:37:32] Brian Velez: And so I'd probably whisper that again, start earlier, probably. Start thinking about something when you're 21. Right. ~Um, ~and it's funny enough, I actually, I took a business school course at Columbia,~ uh,~ when I was 21 with one of my good friends, and we actually created a gym. We had to create a, we had to create a business for the, for that, the final project of the class.
[00:37:49] Brian Velez: And, you know, at the time it was a joke. You know, we, we wanted to start a gym and everything like that, but it actually came into fruition five, six years later. So, ~um, ~you know, it's funny how life works, but I would just say start earlier. It's never, it's never too early to start. ~Um, ~if anything, you're gonna learn a lot more running a business than you will ever learn from business school.
[00:38:06] Brian Velez: And I know that for a fact.
[00:38:07] Chaz Wolfe: What do you think? Now I'm, now I'm sidebarring on my own show here cause I already told you last question, but I'm gonna ask you another one. Do you think that it was that moment at Columbia when you made that business plan with your, with your classmate, was that the seed in the subconscious or was there a different seed previous to that of you in a gym and entrepreneurship and that was just a little spark of this previously made seed?
[00:38:34] Brian Velez: I think it's a compounded effect of a lot of things. I think building the gym in the, in the in college was an interesting thought experiment. It wasn't until I actually graduated that one of my training partners actually opened up a CrossFit gym in Brooklyn and I actually got to see, I actually got to help him build it out from like day one.
[00:38:51] Brian Velez: So like we were like doing construction and stuff. 21 years old. I just wanted to work out and hang out. I just recently graduated and you know, I got to see him grow the business for the first maybe two or three, four years, and I got an inside look underneath the hood of what it actually takes. And I sat there to myself and I was like, Hmm, this is totally doable.
[00:39:08] Brian Velez: And then once, once I worked in banking and I started learning the financial modeling skills and you know, you start to accumulate all these skills over time. I think I arrived to the point when I was 26 where I was like, I have every single skill I need to execute on this. Now is the right time. But you know, I, I think seeing it in person, seeing actually somebody who's running their own business from scratch is a real eye-opening experience.
[00:39:29] Brian Velez: And you realize it's not as crazy as you think. It is daunting for sure. Absolutely. And there's, there's a lot of pitfalls. Definitely. ~Um, ~but it's doable for sure if you, if you work hard enough.
[00:39:38] Chaz Wolfe: dude, you just, you just fulfilled exactly why this show exists. ~Um, ~and it's because you got courage in that moment. ~Um, ~this whole show exists for you and me right now to be able to transfer courage to the listeners and them listening to your story. They go, oh, well, if that guy can do it, then I can do it.
[00:39:53] Chaz Wolfe: That's exactly what happened to you in that moment. You were in the midst of it. You saw it happening, and you're like, well, my buddy's no different than me. I'm as smart. I have the same skill. He just is doing it.
[00:40:05] Brian Velez: A hundred percent. Sometimes you just get, so sometimes you just gotta see it. And I would even say sometimes apprenticeship is probably more important than education in terms of school. Like, ~uh,~
[00:40:13] Brian Velez: yeah.
[00:40:15] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. Cause in the midst of that, yeah, you're watching him, but you're learning all the things like you said,~ um,~ which then. ~Um~~, ~the courage turns into confidence and the confidence turns into action.
[00:40:23] Brian Velez: Yes,~ sir.~
[00:40:23] Chaz Wolfe: and, and then there you go down the story. Okay. So how can the listener find you number one, if they're across the country and they want to reach out to one of the best,~ uh,~ trainers in the country and have you or your coaches,~ uh,~ help them, how can they find you?
[00:40:35] Chaz Wolfe: Or if they're in Brooklyn or New York city, where are you located?
[00:40:38] Brian Velez: So we're in Brooklyn, New York, so we're in the Gowanus area. So between Park Slope and Carroll Gardens, you can go visit our website, physical culture.co. And you can also look at our Instagram physical culture, NYC. And then my personal Instagram is Brian and Valez. I'm pretty active there, so you can always reach out to me directly if you want.
[00:40:54] Brian Velez: Also,
[00:40:55] Chaz Wolfe: Love it, man. We'll put all that in the show notes as well. I hope that a bunch of really, really high performing people reach out to you because they got to stay high performing with their mind and their body. ~Uh, ~as, as many of us in gathering the Kings,~ uh,~ think about and, and do regularly as is. And so we're going to be having some future conversations, you and me,~ uh,~ on the same topic as well.
[00:41:11] Chaz Wolfe: So I'm super happy to meet you. Thank you for being here. Blessings to you and your team and all the people that you're touching, not only in New York city, but across the country with fitness. Thank you so much for being here.
[00:41:20] Brian Velez: Yeah, thanks for having me, Chaz, and enjoy the holidays.

We're thrilled to introduce Brian Velez, a visionary entrepreneur and the force behind Physical Culture. Graduating from Columbia at 31, Brian's journey is nothing short of extraordinary. A lifetime athlete and CrossFit competitor, he swiftly moved from investment banking to launching a health and performance gym. Despite a challenging start during the pandemic, Physical Culture is on track for explosive growth in 2024. Brian's dedication to individualized coaching and his partnership with the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Franchise stand as testaments to his innovative spirit and commitment to excellence.

Brian Velez:

Website: https://opexbrooklyn.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/briannvelez/

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