The World's Most Interesting CEO with Adam Rothfelder

0:01Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs 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 have brought Adam Rothfelder into EO Fire Studios. Adam is an ex-professional fighter, Versace model, celebrity trainer, and reality TV star turned CEO and founder of a multi-million company. And today we will be chatting about mindset. We'll be talking about leadership style, about pivots and how important it is as an entrepreneur to be able to pivot and so much more.

0:45And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Adam and our sponsors. The Gold Digger Podcast, hosted by my good friend, Jenna Kuchar, 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 hacks, inspirational stories, and so much more. A must-listen episode is one of Jenna's recents on everything you need to know about affiliate marketing. Listen to Gold Digger wherever you get your podcasts. Many EO Fire listeners have launched non-food franchises and Franbridge Consulting has guided them.

1:22Franbridge's founder and frequent EO Fire 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. 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. What's up, Fire Nation? What I believe is that you got to start from the bottom. I do not believe in the top-down 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.

2:09Fire 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 going to 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 and your lessons learned along the way. 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 paper boy every day of the year.

2:54I had been delivering this paper and now's your time to meet me. And that, that daily hustle of walking door to door, uh, you know, led to me taking this passion that I had for health and fitness and, uh, 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. 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 fighting. 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 out of you.

3:50And 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. And that mentality has allowed me to just continue to fight my way through this entrepreneurial battlefield, uh, where, you know, ever rising CACs and, you know, uh, competition and, uh, and yet continue to pivot and, and move and, uh, 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, uh, thing that I was given with my fighting career. It's like, Hey, you lost, but now what do you learn from that?

4:40Fire 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 officer in the 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 dirts, 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.

5:22I mean, we talked about some of them already, but what is the biggest challenge that you've faced that has shaped your entrepreneurial mindset to what it is today? 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 children and having a family has continued to be one of my greatest, you know, inspirations and, you know, reasons and why of how I continue to keep moving and getting up.

6:23And, 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 with Whole Foods. Going global with Whole Foods was definitely one of the most intense learning lessons of my entrepreneurial career to this date. And that's what I want to dive into because I did want to hear some of your personal challenges and you went through those, and I think that's meaningful because Fire Nation.

7:04I 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. 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 dates of that product, where it was like you're supposed to be given like a 12, 16 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.

8:13So we even understand the volume. And so we fill the product and, you know, somewhere around, uh,$800 ,000 worth of revenue. And a couple of months later, uh, we're asking them, you know, the same questions kind of week in and week out, you know, what is the, how do we get access to the velocity, you know, the portal to see velocity, uh, you know, the portals down. Okay. Well, please let us know when we can, you know, and then weeks go by portal 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 said product.

8:54Like, how is this even, you know how is this even possible but okay we're looking into it hey your product's still low 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 uh we got some po's and he sounded he like sounded worried he's like we got some po's 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 reach out to Whole Foods. It's like, yeah, I mean, if we're sending you a PEO, it's your job and responsibility to fill it.

9:45Cool. Well, we'll just take all that money you gave us and we'll flip it back into product even though we have trade spend slated and this and that because we're going to get this amount of money back in the next like 90 days 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 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.

11:15And we found new ways to create channels. And in that, what could seem like would have 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 sparred against some of the biggest fighters in the world and I had never felt so hopeless at that point. 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.

12:06And 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. 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 want to win anyways. Because if you just are racing to the bottom, being the lowest priced, there's always going to be somebody that comes in and is willing to cut and slash.

12:44And 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 out, we have a doozy. Artificial intelligence has been a hot topic this year. Even if you're not using it, You've likely heard about the many benefits it can provide, like helping you save time, brainstorm ideas, and tackle your to-do list. But how do you put this into practice? If you find yourself spending hours each day on content creation, then I've got a tool that will help you do just that. Meet HubSpot's new AI-powered Campaign Assistant, a totally free-to-use AI tool tailored for the marketers and business builders who spend hours each day on content creation.

13:24Campaign Assistant will transform the way you work by crafting personalized emails, ads, and landing pages with just a few prompts in a matter of minutes. And you can start seeing the benefits fast. Just pick the content type, add key selling points, and let AI take it from there. Campaign Assistant isn't just free. It's also fully integrated with HubSpot's smart CRM so you can publish the AI-generated content directly into your landing pages and emails from your CRM. So work smarter, not harder. Head to hubspot.com slash campaign-assistant to test drive campaign assistant for free. More and more entrepreneurs and investors are discovering the awesome franchise opportunities that exist across a variety of industries.

14:06Franchising can simply be the better path and interest in franchising is at an all-time high. Lucky for you, John Ostenson, founder of Frambridge Consulting and a frequent EO Fire guest, is here to help you explore the premier franchise opportunities today. John and his Frambridge Consulting team are part of the largest brokerage in the US and have vetted the market thoroughly. Franbridge is 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.

14:39John has served as an Inc. 500 franchisor and a multi-brand franchisee himself, and he does more placements than any other in the country. Sign 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. Adam, we're back and I want to talk leadership style. How would you define your leadership style? I was taught how to be a leader in a martial arts mindset and also in the union. I mean, I did 10 ,000 hours as a journeyman electrician. And it's kind of a sink or swim leadership mentality with an open line of communication that allows you to ask me any question.

15:32But 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. If your answer to that thing is I don't know when you look at it, just ask me, what does that mean? What do you want me to do here? How do you want me to respond to this? I'm always going to lead from the front, meaning that I'm never sitting back watching people work for me. 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.

16:31I, 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 should have known better and that I'm totally sorry this didn't work out. I want to shift to pivots. So in other words, I want to pivot to pivots. Let's pivot, baby. 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?

17:10Do 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 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 want to do this done. You want to go out to New York and model done that me saying yes to go to New York one time, it turned me into becoming a two-time Versace model. 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.

18:05And 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? Like these like random things that occurred along the way i was training the founder of tom's blake mycoskie and this was the first time i had trained somebody that was worth almost a half a billion dollars i had trained like people that were millionaires you know but like those people would still scoff at 80 bucks an hour 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 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 mycoskie ben goldhirsch and another gentleman were my initial angel investors

19:58and 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 can do it 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 have 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 want to 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.

21:08But at the same time, like I want that direct impact. I want to 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 that was my choice. That was my decision. Fire Nation, there's a couple of things that I want to 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 bomb 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.

21:49Adam, you dropped so many value bombs today. What is the one thing you want to make sure Fire Nation gets before we say goodbye? 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. Adam, how can Fire Nation connect with you?

22:33How can we connect with Strong Coffee? And then we'll say goodbye. Yeah, strongcoffeecompany.com, at 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 them strong. 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.

23:11The show notes 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. Peace. hey fire nation a huge thank you to our sponsors and adam for sponsoring today's episode and 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 free podcast course.com i'll catch you there or on the flip side the gold digger podcast hosted by my good friend jenna kuchar is brought to you by the hubspot podcast network the audio destination for business professionals.

23:51The Gold Digger podcast helps you discover your dream career with productivity tips, social strategies, business hacks, inspirational stories, and so much more. A must listen episode is one of Jenna's recents on everything you need to know about affiliate marketing. Listen to Gold Digger wherever you get your podcasts. Many EO Fire listeners have launched non-food franchises and Franbridge Consulting has guided them. Franbridge's founder and frequent EO Fire 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.