The Business Behind Mr. Olympia: Media, Branding & Millions with Dan Solomon

21:21So typically most licensing deals, and there's probably people who are savvier marketers and savvier salespeople than me that would tell you there's another way to do it. But for us, it has served us well. People come to us, they have companies that are in a space where they feel like that credibility is powerful. There's a company called New Tech, which is a Korean-based exercise equipment company. They are one of our main sponsors, which also merges a licensing deal. And they will tell you, they were sitting here, the impact that the Olympia and that connection has had on their growth has been massive.

21:58One of our other major sponsors, Integral Medica, based out in Sao Paulo, Brazil, they also have connected to the licensing element of what that Olympia relationship, and they all came to us because they identified the value of it. They understood that in their particular lane, they needed advantage. They need a separator. So even if you are a gym and you are all of a sudden become an Olympia approved gym, that is a massive impact in this space.

22:21Brad Sugars:Yeah, it's a very big difference. And I think that that's where a lot of companies don't realize that your brand is not just the logo. Your brand is everything you do. That's right. And how well you do it or don't do it is a part of that. So, okay, let's next phase of business for you guys. I'm just breaking down the business model here, gang. The event business, because I see a lot of companies that should have an annual event, that should give annual awards, because like, let's be blunt, gang. If I give my award, and I'll use me, right, Action Coach, if I give an award to my customer, that customer puts the award on the wall, they shout it out to social media, my brand is everywhere type thing.

23:07Brad Sugars:The Mr. Olympia brand is not probably a week goes by where Jay Cutler doesn't remind me on his social media that he's four times Mr. Olympia type thing. And him and Ronnie had a good run there for a while. But you think about that whole idea for you. Okay. When you sit down and start thinking about the business of Mr. Olympia, you build an event. but I mean you you didn't go we have a great company let's build an event it started around Joe building that event yeah it did and it didn't so Joe Weider had the media and he had the body building competitions and he was doing all of that and then he realized that there was it was too fragmented there was different organizations and he wanted to go ahead and create the definitive world championship the world championship maybe I should do the world championship of business you You should.

24:00You absolutely should. So he's sitting at a table much like this. It was he, his brother, his wife, Betty Weider, who's still among us. And she's beautiful. And she's 90-something years old. And they're sitting around. And there was a guy there sitting there named Larry Scott. Larry Scott was at the time regarded as the best bodybuilder in the world. He had won a couple different titles. But there was nothing that could anoint somebody the king, the top guy. So he's sitting there. And he says, let's create an event. And let's make this the... I won't say the Super Bowl because this actually happened before the Super Bowl was born.

24:31To be fair, right?

24:32Brad Sugars:Yeah, you wouldn't call it Super Bowl. It was nothing. That's right. So let's create this thing. So he's literally sitting there and there's a brand of beer called Olympia Beer, which some people may know about. And it's sitting on the table and they were trying to come up with a name for it. And he looks at the can of beer and he goes, what about Mr. Olympia? So that's how the name was born. I've never heard that story. And I tell the story because it's a fun story to tell, but it's also a point of clarity. The event wasn't the first thing he created, but he knew that if he owned control of who the number one bodybuilder in the world was, that was a massive advantage because by him owning this thing, he would now be in complete control of the storylines, complete control of the influence that comes with being the best in the world.

25:15So he really committed to it. So to your point, if you created a world championship of business, right, you would suddenly be in a position of authority and influence to anoint that person or to name that person. But the event person, the event industry is a very tricky one. Fun story to tell, not so fun to live. I will tell you this. The Olympia was acquired. There's been three owners of the Olympia. Joe Weider was the first. The second one was a company called American Media, which is that big publisher of the Inquirer, Us Weekly, all those big grocery store tabloids.

25:44Brad Sugars:Because they wanted the magazines back then. Correct. That's right. And they spent, and it was a public deal, they spent$350 million to acquire an asset group that included the Olympia, that included Muscle and Fitness Magazine, and a series of other fitness-themed media. And after they go in, and they spend all this money to buy it, so that was the second owner. And then back in, and I was with American Media during - That's right. You worked with them back then. Yes. I was brought in to oversee the Olympia for them back at that time. And then the CEO of AMI, a very polarizing business person named David Pecker, whose name comes up in a lot of conversations for different ways, but he was always a fun boss to work for.

26:26Right. He came to me one day and he said, I need, or I would like to seek out somebody to buy this asset from us. The fitness lifestyle asset that included all of those things. So I happened to know a guy named Jake Wood, who's based out in Arizona. And Jake was a real, is a real deal, ultra passion, authentic lifestylist of the bodybuilding world loves this stuff. He's had great success in his life. He and his father built this very successful company that, um, created, um, fasteners to build airplanes. Right. And they sold it for a big, a big payday. And he now was in a position to live out his dream and to buy this thing.

27:05Right. Much like a football fan buying the Superbowl, if that were a possibility. Yeah. And so he came in and I brought the parties together. And, um, so Jake buys all of this back in 2020, and weeks after the deal closed, weeks after, hours after the ink dried on the contracts, the world shut down. He had just acquired this asset for a substantial sum of money, by the way. And he now had this thing and we were in a spot where we couldn't have the event. I mean, we've all been in spots where we've bought stocks at the wrong time. This was one of the most hard luck I felt for Jake in this spot.

27:45It was a really tough spot that he was in, but we never took our eye off the ball. We used it as a real opportunity. We were going to put this event on. The event was supposed to happen in Las Vegas. Five weeks before the event was supposed to happen, the governor here in Nevada announced that more than 200 people could not gather in one place at the same time. So we had already sold thousands of tickets. It was an absolute shit show scenario, right? Oh, I remember. Yeah. So we had to go ahead and we had to scramble. It takes about seven months to fully produce an event of this scale. So we went ahead and we found a venue in the middle of Florida, the Orange County Convention Center.

28:22I will forever be in your debt in Orlando. Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida, he made sure that the path was clear for us to come on in and put on our event. It was obviously a smaller event than normal. It wasn't, but we were able to honor the tickets that we had already sold. And most importantly for us, we were able to create the stage for these athletes to compete in. Guys, men and women who are already multiple months into their contest prep. And a contest prep for an event of this caliber is a very intensely arduous commitment, right? And these folks were able to compete and we were able to crown our champions that year.

28:58So the event business is a tricky one, but now it's back to full swing, right? The event business has never been done.

29:04Brad Sugars:What are the, I guess, main things that make the event business really work? Yeah. So I think the challenge is real. What makes the event really work, obviously, is just building up that demand, right? Of everything that we do over the course of the years to tell the stories. But I want to stop you there because too many business people are focused on supply more than demand. Yeah. I ask you how to succeed in something and your immediate reaction is demand versus supply. You didn't go into, well, we have the right people running the back office and doing all that sort of stuff. You immediately went to demand.

29:40Yeah. Has that always been your thing? It's just kind of the way I think about it, right? I feel like it's a significant advantage to walk into. I feel like you've already won if you've established demand, right? It's just a matter of how you win and how the win looks, right? But in our case, the Olympia represents something very important. We don't have the luxury to shrink it. We don't have a luxury. We have 11 competitive divisions from bodybuilding, male and female, to bikini and wellness and wheelchair and all these other divisions that wellness and physique that compromise our competitive landscape.

30:14There are other events that have the luxury to eliminate events, do what they want to do with prize money or other elements. We don't. We have a responsibility. There is a governing body called the IFBB Professional League, which sanctions the world of competitive bodybuilding at the highest level. they sanction the Olympia and hundreds of other Olympia qualifying events that take place in cities around the world every Saturday night in a cities around the world there's eight to ten events that take place and these events are Olympia qualifiers yeah you got to win there to get there right and it's it's this whole system that it leads to the Olympia so we do not have the luxury to compromise or to shrink or to not have our events right we have to do it So, but to answer your question, yeah, there is licensing, there is sponsorships, there is exhibitor sales as part of the Olympia for those who have not experienced one is the Olympia Expo, right?

31:04And that's the part that a lot of people forget about because the Olympia has been so heavily branded as a bodybuilding competition that what people don't realize is if you come to the event at the Las Vegas Convention Center, there's five or 600 ,000 square feet of convention center space where some of the best brands in the fitness lifestyle from, you know, like I mentioned earlier, equipment and apparel and nutrition and supplementation and wellness and all of these other even non-endemic categories that come in and they want to connect with our audience and thousands and thousands and thousands of enthusiasts, they come through the doors and they get to learn all the latest of what's happening around the global fitness.

31:41It is a B2C environment and we're really proud of that and they come in and they really connect and they're surrounded by like-minded to people, they build relationships and it gives these companies the opportunity to connect and market to this audience.

31:56Brad Sugars:That brings the next business model into the game and that is the connector model. If you look at Amazon, Amazon connects small businesses, they're more than 30, almost 40 % of their business is small businesses selling to end users type thing. Your business platform is you connect that group with that group sort of thing. And you, you know, you share the windfall of those two groups coming together. That expo idea, I think that too many businesses don't get to the idea of you can have sponsors, you're hitting that market. It's even like for my podcast, now that we've started adding sponsors to the podcast and people like, well, why would you have sponsors because I want my customers to be able to deal with the best of the best customers.

32:41Brad Sugars:That's right. You know, the best suppliers. So I think that that's a really important aspect of understanding. Now, that all brings us back then to the overarching thing of all year round, there's social media. You guys are not just good at it. There's a lot of amazing stuff you do. But before I get to that, I want to get to this whole network of events around the world. most people think that they're the only company that can sell what they do for themselves. But you've literally got thousands of agents around the world promoting your brand every single month. And there's some great ones too.

33:19There's some great events, right? There's an event that, there's a massive event that takes place in Dubai. There's a fitness expo in Germany. It's one of the biggest in the world. There's a great event in Columbus, Ohio, every year called the Arnold Schwarzenegger Classic. Arnold Schwarzenegger is our seven-time champion. and he puts on an event called the Arnold Classic, which I'm sure a lot of your audience is familiar with. And it's one of the best fitness expos in the world. They really bring a lot of people. It's positioned in Columbus, Ohio, so it's kind of an easy event to access, to drive to.

33:47It connects a lot of that region. But yeah, all of those events, in the end, those winners feed into the culmination of the year, which of course is the Olympia. So that does serve us well. We're always the storyline. We're not a storyline for a week or for a month. The Olympia is always the ongoing narrative of the year. So that definitely serves us well. Another thing that serves us well also is if you sponsor or an exhibit at the Olympia, especially if you're a high-level sponsor, we really work hard to bring you into our world and not just provide the value that's on the contract, right? We try to make sure that you have access to distribution.

34:24We like to make sure that if I know somebody like you or another power player in the world who might be able to provide value. and I think we're all sort of taking that on in our businesses, right? We're all putting -

34:34Brad Sugars:But you also give them a chance to just have a photograph with someone. Sure. Like just that alone. I'm sure there's some sponsors that just become sponsors just to have a photo. Yeah, for sure. They want to have that. Well, I know, for example, you just mentioned that. So a great example of that, the event that Arnold puts on in Columbus. Make no mistake about it. A lot of people, companies are there because they want that moment where Arnold's going to stop by, take a picture. They then take that picture, put it on their social media, put it on the wall in their office, headquarters, and that's their badge of honor.

35:00That's their status moment. So yeah, we're all selling status right at the end of the day. And I respect that model. And Arnold has been famously amazing out of leveraging that aspect of who he is, right?

35:11Brad Sugars:He's done it real well. Lou, obviously. Jay's done it. Ronnie's done it. I mean, back to the strategy. And I don't think that a lot of people get it, gang. Having thousands of people out there in the world as your affiliates, whatever you want to call it, it's a strategy of having a network of people that promote your business for you type thing. So that brings me to the social media side of it, because let's be blunt, there's more people mentioning. I would say that you guys are better at getting social mentions than you are at social media, if that makes sense. I would agree with that. Is that a strategy?

35:52Brad Sugars:Do you plan it? How How does that happen for your business? No, I don't think it's a stroke of genius at all. Actually, to be honest, I don't think we're very good at social media, to be honest with But you're great at social mentions. Yes, we are. We are. No, for sure. So especially now with AI, right? The model, that's a whole nother thing we can get into and it's probably another show altogether. But yes, social mentions is a big part of who we are because obviously everybody is trying to get to that rarefied air of the Olympia stage, right? So it's always going to be woven in. So that creates a world where we are mentioned in nearly every conversation that exists.

36:30Whether or not it's the first thing that comes out of Jay Cutler's mouth, I am a four-time Mr. Olympia, or whether or not somebody is just qualified for the Olympia, or whether or not a supplement company or an exhibitor has just inked a deal to be at the Olympia, or an influencer is announcing to his followers that he, in fact, or she will be at the Olympia experience. It has a way of weaving its way into everything that we do. So it's a keen observation by you to see that. When I say we're not particularly great at social media, there are better ways to use social media than the way we use social media.

36:58Brad Sugars:Well, you guys are stuck with the same problem a lot of businesses are, and that is that you're a corporate brand. You're no longer Joe Weider. You know, when it was Joe, there's like, imagine him today in the social media world. Oh my God, the guy would have more followers than everyone combined sort of thing. but that struggle is the struggle for all of us in business. You've got to be, there's got to be a front person for the business. And you know, you've taken up that mantle for Mr. Olympia as being out there and hence the book. Was that as a strategic decision to put the book to self brand?

37:36So I'm glad you asked that. And I appreciate talking about the book. The book is not a book about bodybuilding. It's not a book about fitness. it's a book about you know some of my approaches to business understanding self-awareness navigating fear um understanding that the most powerful you know superpower that you could have is being able to see the world through the eyes of the person in front of you and all of that stuff that we all talk about so that's what's in this book and the book has been great but to your point i wrote the book because i have worked real hard over the last few years to connect with different audiences to be able to get in rooms that people that typically have jobs like mine don't get into And the book has really served me well.

38:17So I know you work with a lot of clients who are focused on their personal brand and they're trying to connect in different areas. The book has served me well. The book has sold fine, but the most powerful beneficial aspect of this book has been and has given me an opportunity to show the world that I am capable of a different level of thinking that goes beyond sense. I'm not just a Mr. Olympia Meathead. I wrote a book. A hundred percent. You got it. Oh, buddy, that's funny.

38:45Brad Sugars:And that is spot on. It's not just that I wrote a book. It's the nature of the topics that I wrote about. And I have other business interests in my life. And this has really served me well to start those conversations. I don't think people realize that the purpose of a book is really the best brochure you'll ever have in your life. Yes. Because it actually shows people what you think, how you think, who you are, what you stand for, all of those sorts of things. But I come back to that personal branding side of things because I think personal branding for a CEO today is almost vital. You know, more people follow Phil Knight than follow Mike Nike sort of thing.

39:24Brad Sugars:More people follow the founder than the actual brand in vast majority of cases. So you guys are genius at the social mentions, genius at social proof, I think, because the social proof of everything that happens just, you know, It keeps the brand at that level. The winner of Mr. Olympia is the winner. It's not a, oh, we thought you were close to winning. No, no, you are the world champ at that point in time. But when we come to personal branding, I had a challenge with it. I told you before that I didn't want to go out and be the face of the company. Was that something that you and Jake discussed, that you would do that as the CEO or the president of the company?

40:08Brad Sugars:or is it just something that you realize you had to do? It's just a responsibility. When there are stages around the world that give you an opportunity to walk out onto those stages and talk to whether it's hundreds or thousands or tens of thousands of people about this lifestyle, about what we do at the Olympia. And a lot of what I talk about isn't just about what happens on the Olympia stage or coming to the Olympia. A lot of times I talk to groups of people about how the fitness and bodybuilding lifestyle can be a bridge to really amazing things. What makes this industry really unique, and I'm sure you've seen this a little bit, is this industry is comprised of some massive success stories.

40:53People that started off on a bodybuilding stage living this lifestyle, the characteristics that live within a competitive bodybuilder, like dedication, sacrifice, suffering, a relentless approach to getting this thing, whatever it is, whether you want to get your pro status or whether you want to just win or whether you want to just get in shape for a photo shoot, whatever your goal is, if you're willing to take that on, your wiring is typically such that you will be successful in whatever you do. And whatever you do next will be infinitely easier for having had this experience. Imagine walking out on a stage, half naked, right?

41:26And you're standing - More than half. Yes, more than half. And you're standing in a room full of strangers, a judging panel of men and women that have never seen you, don't know you. And they're sitting there telling you your value. They're telling you that you are 16th place, 12th place, whatever you are. And they're measuring you. And the level of vulnerability that comes with that, if you are able to do that, no matter what you do next. And I have so many friends that have taken that lifestyle and have built brands, have had half billion dollar exits, have achieved massive success. And it all started because of the habits that they established in the world competitive bodybuilding.

42:02And that to me is a really cool thing. So when you talk about getting out there and talking and carrying that flag and doing that whole thing, I think it's a responsibility to Joe Weider, who started all of this, to basically make sure we're doing everything we can. This is a movement that we're building in my role atop the Olympia. What makes it different than maybe a lot of the other events? And there's some great event promoters out there. Really good ones. Excellent ones, actually. And I think what makes what I do different is I feel like my responsibility is not just growing the Olympia. It's growing the sport, the movement, the lifestyle.

42:37And I feel like that will all trickle down because the Olympia sits atop all of that. So a lot of times if you hear me speaking, it's topics that are all about growing this movement and building this lifestyle. The Olympia is going to win regardless, right? And so that's been a strategy that I've deployed. And I think it's worked. Yeah.

42:55Brad Sugars:The responsibility factor, like, you know, a lot of the entrepreneurs that I talk with and that watch this show, they started their thing. So they have that founder idea. You inherited something that deserved you, the irreverence of the brand. Like people just revered Joe Weider and all those champs that we've talked right through. And that keeping and carrying on the movement. but business strategy that you just, I don't know if you realize you threw it out there. Sometimes it's about getting a percentage of the pie. Other times it's about building the size of the pie. That's right. It's the law of abundance, right?

43:38It's the whole thing. And that's kind of what I've always subscribed to. A lot of people feel like this is competing or events are competing with each other. We're not competing with each other. It's not about getting more pieces of the pie. It's about making this pie bigger. And that's of course the law of abundance, right? That's what we're trying to do here. And it's worked well, but we have a lot of work to do. I mean, there's so much more that we need to do. And when we finish this interview, bro, I'm going to be blowing up your phone because I know what you do is taking things from 10 million to 100 million.

44:07Right. And that's what we're trying to do at the Olympia. That's what we're trying to do with our industry. So I can't wait to talk to you more about all that. But there's definitely a lot of work still to do.

44:16Brad Sugars:Yeah, look, I don't think that any business. It was a joke with a few of my team the other day. we look back at some old videos we put up on YouTube and it was like, oh my God, did we really post that? And I said to the team, look, if we look back at an old video and think it's still good, then we haven't evolved. For sure. If you don't look at what you're doing and think there's still a lot to be done, then you don't have that vision of the future. So let's finish there. What is the vision for the future for the Mr. Olympia? And how do you share that with people out there, especially your team?

44:49Brad Sugars:because your team is, they're all dedicated to the industry, the movement, the culture as well. Yeah, no, I mean, it's, first of all, we, and a shout out to my team, they do a great job. And it's a smaller team than most would think, right? As most teams seem to be these days, right? But no, really the objective now is to just start to leverage some of these technologies. We're starting to deploy certain elements of artificial intelligence to create more of an interactive experience with the people who live this lifestyle. It can no longer be about just physically getting to the event, which of course we know is always the pinnacle experience.

45:23But I think a lot of the things that we're trying to do now is just trying to create a year and a year on value, provide more education, provide more inspiration. There's a lot of people out there who are building businesses around this world and we want to help people be successful. A lot of things that I talk about when I do interviews like this, or when I go around and I talk to groups is how you can take this passion, this lifestyle and turn it into something you can monetize and you can build packaging your expertise into something sellable. So that's the kind of stuff that I think is an extension off of what we're doing at the Olympia.

45:53We want people to come to the Olympia and feel like they have access to things that are going to make them far more successful in their lives as a whole in ways that go beyond sets, reps, abs, and biceps.

46:05Brad Sugars:Love it. Brilliant. You're on the$100 million podcast. We'll be back next week with more for your success. Thanks for joining me on the$100 million podcast. If you've got value from today's episode, make sure you've subscribed and share this with all of your friends. Never miss a strategy that could change your business and your life. And remember, the fastest way to scale is to learn from those who've done it. That's what this show is all about. See you on the next episode.