The "Earn It" Mentality: How To Get Ripped, Create Your Own Niche, And Earn Your Success with Justin Cross and Adam Niall - 091

In this episode, I'm joined by both Justin Cross and Adam Niall of the Earn It All team. This is the first episode of the podcast where I'm joined by multiple guests and it created a really great dynamic throughout the entire episode.

Justin Cross is the founder of Earn Your Booze & Earn It All. He is also a Navy veteran and former aerospace engineer turned entrepreneur.

Adam Niall is the head coach at Earn It All Training, a Certified Nutrition Coach, Strength and Conditioning coach, and combat veteran, 

This episode is a masterclass on the mindset and principles needed to create exceptional fitness, successful businesses, and just plain dominate in today's participation trophy culture.

Inside The Episode:

• How to properly transition from employee to entrepreneur
• The pros and cons to starting your own apparel brand
• How to both be fit and enjoy alcohol 
• The #1 reason most people don't succeed at business or fitness
• Why success is simply a skill set
• How to avoid gaining weight again after losing it
• The key difference between earning something and being given something

Earn It All Links

• Earn It All Academy (Fitness apps and programs)
• Earn It All Website

Connect with Justin

• Instagram

Connect with Adam

• Instagram

Connect With Bradley

• Bradley's Instagram

Transcript

Bradley Roth: 0:32

Hey everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Not Most People podcast. This is your host, Bradley, and this is the show for those allergic to mediocrity group think and following the status quo. And before we get into today's episode, whether you are a first time listener or a repeat listener, I would just like to let you guys know of my one ask, and that is if you get value outta this episode, if you learn something, if it's entertaining, if it helps you think a new way, just that you help me out. And return that value by sharing the show with someone you know, who you think will also get value out of it. That's how I'm growing. It's all organic, it's all word of mouth. And so I'm relying on you guys, if I do a good job, just ask that you help me out and return the favor. And it doesn't have to be on social media, although that's appreciated. If you can just find that one person, cuz I know you know one person who this message might really fit well with, just ask that you share with them. And then if you wanna leave a rating or review whatev on whatever platform you're listening on, that is always greatly appreciated as well. And then for everything, not most people beyond the podcast, which we have a whole lot going on, just go ahead and check the links in the show notes for all of that. But that's it for reminders and housekeeping. We're gonna get right into today's episode. I actually, for the first time ever on the show, have two guests joining me, Justin Cross and Adam Nile. Guys, welcome to the show. Hey,

Justin Cross: 1:58

thanks Bradley. Good to see you.

Bradley Roth: 2:00

Yeah, I'm excited for this. It's kind of an interesting dynamic, a first for, for the show. So kind of cool. A little bit about these guys. They are co-founders. They work together. We'll start with Justin. He is the founder of Earn Your Booze and Earn It All, which we're gonna get into what those are all about. A Navy veteran and a former aerospace engineer, turn entrepreneur. And then we have Adam joining us as well. He is the head coach at Earn All training, a certified Nu Nutri nutrition coach, strength and conditioning coach and combat veteran. So we'll see. I usually like to get into the backstory and we'll start I guess with Justin. What was it that led you to hear, because you, you're in the Navy aerospace engineer. I don't know if those are both at the same time or those are two separate chapters. And then what led into earn your booze and earn it all?

Justin Cross: 2:57

Yeah, you bet man. So, you know, earn booze is a lifestyle that I was living in the Navy, that's kind of where it first kind of hit me, right? It had to be a good sailor to be in good shape, had to run, you know, just wanted to be in good shape cuz I was in the damn military, right? Mm-hmm. But in the Navy, you know, there's there's a couple stereotypes that hold true and, we cuss a lot and we drink a lot. So, that's kind of where it hit me Back then I was like, yeah, all right. I see what's going on here. I'm really gonna take my health extra seriously because when we pull in the port, you know, we're not necessarily doing a lot of healthy stuff So I think that's kind of where it started for me. I didn't start the business then, but that's where the idea started for me. So I got out of the Navy and that's when I went to Lockheed Martin, which is the world's largest defense contractor. And that's when I got into civilian aerospace working on classified programs. I worked on the F 22 and the F 35 fighter jets. So our jobs there were basically to take those brand new jets and put brand new things on them like weapons, stealth radar, like you name it, all these different technologies. Send them up and see what would happen. It was called flight test. So that's, that's kind of where that, where the Navy evolved into there. But, but I was always, I was always, you know, working on my, my health first, like that was a big thing for me. And then after that what kind of happened and how I got away from that, cuz that was a good career. you know that that paid, that paid pretty well. I had, you know, 401K and, you know, medical mm-hmm. and you know, and retirement and all that kind of stuff. Especially coming out of the Navy. But I hit a ceiling right there. I actually won, I won the interview for the next position. Like I was doing well, I was advancing quickly and I won the position of like the manager above where I was at. But HR told the director, even though he chose me, Hey, you need 10 to 15 years more experience. Mm-hmm. And I was like, alright. So that's when it kind of went off in my head. I was like, well, I'm not gonna sit here, you know, like forever. Like, I've already put my time in the Navy. I've now done a bunch of time in aerospace. I have all this, you know, energy and all this, you know, leadership and all this stuff. And I'm like, I'm not gonna just sit here to wait for that job. So that really is what, you know, started the fire in my head. Like, all right, I need to go do my own thing. Mm-hmm. you know, so, so I think it was about six months after HR said, no, you gotta wait 10 years. I had quit aerospace completely. So I, I was three classes away from getting my master's degree in aeronautical science. I ditched that we had a brand new house that we had just built and just customized the way we wanted. We sold that. Mm-hmm. got rid of that. Quit my job, completely moved the family to Arizona on, on a single, just my wife's income and my savings. And got into business for myself. And now here we are six years ago after that, But it's crazy cuz I mentioned like the idea for IBU started in the Navy. Mm-hmm. and that came back around when I moved over here cuz I, I moved over here to Arizona after being an engineer to open a brewery. But I was still helping people like lose the beer gut. I was helping beer bloggers and brewery owners and just people in general. I was helping them with their nutrition and just, you know, motivating their asses to move their bodies, which is, something I was always passionate about. And it, and at the same time I helped open a nutrition store here called Peak Nutrition. And it all just kind of all at once just went, hold on. I got, I have a concept here, something that I've actually been doing for a long time. Something I'm passionate about, something I know is very unique that a lot of people, no one else is, is still really not doing, like acknowledging that hey, there are a lot of people out there that wanna work hard on their lives, their bodies, their families, their careers, but they still want to have. Some fun sometimes, and for them that, that might mean some drinks on the weekends or whatever. I'm like, you know what, I'm not gonna be one of those guys that just has an absolute I'm gonna, I'm gonna show people that they can do both cuz most people do that anyway, you know, let's just be real about it. Mm-hmm. so, earn Your Booze became a company about five and a half years ago and here we are. That's how it's founded. So I can tell you what we've done ever since then. But that's the whole backstory from Navy to engineer, to entrepreneur, to here. We are talking with you today.

Bradley Roth: 6:58

Yeah. Very cool. So you went, did you go like straight into the Navy after high school? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do your four years and then did you get out?

Justin Cross: 7:08

Yeah, man, like I I got through high school. Like I, I hated school like I was. I just didn't wanna do anymore school, so like college was not gonna be an option for me. We, I was looking at like itt T Tech, you know, like a tech school or something that had, I was not interested in that at all whatsoever. Mm-hmm. Um, Then one day my buddy came in, we were working at Sam's Club and he is like, Hey, I'm joining the Navy. And I was like, oh, well that's a decent idea. So I went talking to the Marines, air Force Navy, and ended up joining the Navy with him. And yeah, this basically had I think like maybe a month or two after I graduated and then shipped off the bootcamp.

Bradley Roth: 7:41

Wow. So the next stage, I think people are listening and that's kind of interesting because there's a lot of people who listen to this and they are in that corporate job mm-hmm. that corporate path, but they feel a little bit kinda like you did, like restricted or, or, you know, yeah. You have to follow. It's not, it's not BA all based on meritocracy. It's based on like tenure and time in there and that kind of thing. And yeah. So a lot of the, I think, I think it's almost a good thing because I think a lot of those like. Right. Like young stars, the go-getters almost get pushed into doing something for themselves because there's not the room for them to, to move up or expand where they're at. And so was that pretty much an immediate decision? Like once you heard that they said, oh, you gotta spend, you know, X amount of years to get to where you want to go, where you like, all right, I'm out. Or was that a difficult back and forth decision?

Justin Cross: 8:36

Yeah, so I've, I've left two careers now, you know, the Navy, I could have stayed in that mm-hmm. but I did four, I did four years. But you know, especially in the Navy, like you're gonna spend most of your time or at least half of your time at sea. And I was like, well, you know, I do wanna have a family at some point this is not gonna be sustainable. And when you're floating around a ship in the Persian Gulf, it does kind of feel like prison. So I was like, you know what, four years is good. I'm out But yeah, so when I got in, so when I got out of that, actually. Yeah. Like, especially like my mom was like, oh no, are you sure? Cuz I'd started when I was 18, you know? Mm-hmm. quote unquote retire when I'm 38, you know? And she's like, you sure you don't wanna do it? And I was like, yeah, I'm done. I'm out. Yeah. But there wasn't a ton of like, pushback. However, when I got into aerospace, I was there for 10 years in aerospace and I advanced well through there. I started as a technician, got up to a manager, got up to a flight test control engineer, and then won that job to be the manager over the managers. And when I decided to leave that, that's when there was a lot of like, you know, eyebrows raising from people that you think are your closest supporters, coworkers, friends, family and everything. But it, it was a pretty quick decision because I had so much momentum. Like in that, in that career where I was doing well, I was jumping and when I would get a new job, I was doing well with that. I would get the number one at that, I'd get an award for how I was doing there and you know, these accolades and everything. So I was like, I wanted to keep going. I was really passionate about that space. I liked it. Mm-hmm. it was a lot of cool shit. You know, new technology, new weapons, new classified this, new that I'll, you know, some travel and everything. I thought it was neat, but once I realized that there really was that hard ceiling there, I was, I, I, I was able to stop for a minute and kind of get out of the, you know, the day to day. And I looked back and I was like, all right, even if I was to get that job now, and then that went three years later, or that went two years after that, I'm like, you could see the cap, you know? Mm-hmm. like, you could see how much money you're gonna make, and you can see how people, especially in aerospace, after a couple years, programs shut down. You get shipped off to another part of the country and you have to follow it, and you're basically kind of still in the military, you know, you're just making a little bit more money and you don't have to shave. But once I once I figured that out, that there was that hard ceiling there, it only took a couple months and I had, like I said, ditched my career, sold the house, and, and moved. Like that was it. Like I, I refused to, once I saw the light that I, mm-hmm. wasn't really gonna be able to, you know, make whatever I wanted for myself, that it was a quick decision to get out.

Bradley Roth: 11:04

And where did you

Justin Cross: 11:04

move? Oh, I was on Edwards Air Force Base, California, which is about 45 minutes or so north of Los Angeles. Gotcha.

Bradley Roth: 11:14

Okay. So you picked up everything. You moved and then you got out to, like, did you, but when you left, did you already have the concept in your head for, in your booze, or did it come to you after

Justin Cross: 11:24

that? No, it came afterwards. Okay. Yeah. I, I moved out here originally to open a brewery. That business partner had started a solar company in the meantime. So I came over here and started to learn about solar. Long story short, he wasn't able to go forward with the brewery, so I went about it on my own. Mm-hmm. But like I said, I was still helping people get in shape through nutrition, supplementation, you know, just basic stuff. And then opened up peak Nutrition with my buddy James Stratman out here in Scottsdale. Mm-hmm. And it was during that where I was still brewing beer on my own. I was still, you know, helping people get in shape and then really helping people even more through the nutrition company that would be opened. That's where it kind of hit me and I was like, you know what? I've got two totally different things going on, but they don't need to be totally different. I totally can bring'em together. So I actually, so I, I left the partnership at Pick Nutrition. James and I are still good friends, but you know, I was like, look, I found something else to go after. So I left back and basically started earn your booze.

Bradley Roth: 12:24

I think that's interesting because I think that a lot of people listen to this who are thinking about quote unquote jumping ship from whatever they're doing, think that they have to have that next piece like figured out already. Right. And yeah, you, it sounds like you didn't, like, you kind of just figured it out on the way. I mean, did you have a lot of the typical responsibilities yet? Did you have any kids? Did you have, I mean, I know you had a house, you sold your house and just kind of started fresh, moved somewhere new. Was there? Yeah,

Justin Cross: 12:56

yeah, yeah. Go ahead. Yeah, so, so kind of, so we sold a, we had a, a decent decently big house in California. We sold that. We downgraded, got a small little historic home here in downtown Phoenix, and it was my wife and I and my stepdaughter who was let's see, about 15 or so at the time. And so it was just the three of us, you know, we're just doing our thing. And like you said, man, like entrepreneurship, a lot of it is figuring shit out, like on the way down. Mm-hmm. you know, jump out of the plane, figure out how to build a parachute on the way down. Yep. That does happen a lot. So, of course when I, with my aerospace background, I, I built a good business plan. I built out exactly what I thought I wanted to do mm-hmm. and how I was gonna go about it and what I needed to make that happen. So, started with a good plan, but then. The other half of entrepreneurship is, you know, throwing that plane in the trash and figuring out how to still get after the goal, you know? Yeah. And, and still get that goal. But it was kind of crazy because like I said, it, the reason I brought up the small house is like we were operating really lean, my wife and I and my teenage stepdaughter, like, you know, we, we were tight, really easy, you know? Mm-hmm. it, it was easy. But then my wife got pregnant also shortly after I started the company. So now my little one's four and a half years old. So that, that definitely was like, oh, okay. You know, def definitely didn't a plan for this. Now we got this small house with hardly any room and now we got this business. I'm starting, I'm gone all the time, you know? So yeah, I had to basically, I had to quickly figure out, okay, how am I gonna be able to be there for them and give the business the attention that it needs? Cuz you know, they're. you gotta feed both of'em, you know? Yeah, for sure. So, so it was pretty crazy. But I always say, you know, if you're gonna get into something, especially with a new business, research the crap out of whatever industry you're going into, what, like the, where, where it's coming from, where it's going, the ins and the outs. You know, the possible possibilities, how you're gonna stand out, if you can do something better or something different. Research the crap out of it. Make a great plan on how you plan to be successful with this new thing. But also be prepared to crumple that plan up, put it in the trash because things change like all the time. Like yeah, like we were an event company. Like so, or Boozman took off we essentially were doing events. Mm-hmm. cause the liquor brands are not allowed to talk, for the most part about health or fitness, cuz they make booze But they found out that, oh, they can hire somebody like me with my planning expertise and the people that I bring on, like, you know, like Adam and, and our coaches. Like they can hire us to put on these events for them. So we became an event company. And I bring that up because that start, that took off. We had events all across the country down into Mexico. We had a tour with Malago tequila. We were traveling to conventions with Sagamore spirit. We were working with, you name it, all sorts of different brands. And then Covid came around, which is something that nothing could plan for, right? And all the events, all the venues, all the sponsor money all dried up. And so it, you know, like it was, I had to decide right then, all right, well, are we gonna pack up? Am I gonna go back to aerospace? You know, what are we gonna do? And the answer was, you know, obviously no, we didn't do any of that. We did a lot of things to, you know, keep the fire going, but, um mm-hmm. Yeah, I mean, always try to plan for shit, but you always have to plan to not have a plan and figure stuff out too.

Bradley Roth: 16:07

Yeah. Everyone's got a plan until they get punched in the face, right? That's the, that's the quote. Yeah. That's right. Yeah, that's right. So I wanna get into that, but there was something kind of subtly that you touched on that. When we talk about this transition out of something that's safe or the career path into something new, there's a lot of the people who get stuck on one end of the extreme where they, they never make the leap. They're kind of, you know, just afraid to, they have to research, like you said, do your research, but there's always gonna be something else that you can learn, right? Some people, mm-hmm. are just like, they learn, learn, learn, learn, learn. But they'll never actually like take the step. Right. Right. And then there's the other side, kind of like me, when I started out where I just jumped without a parachute and I had no plan really, I had no experience and I wouldn't recommend doing it the way I did it. Yeah. But I mean, at least I, I got in the game, but I could've saved myself a whole lot of, you know, stress and money and that kind of stuff. Doing it kind of more the way you did where you're really have. not an exact step by step plan, but a general like direction of where you're going and that sort of thing. So I think it's really important to kind of be in the mi that middle section if you are thinking about it, right? And so you can kind of know, like for those of you listening, do a little bit of introspection. Am I the person who needs to research every little thing and I'll never know enough to, to make the move, right? Or, you know, am I impulsive and I just jump into things like, you don't want to be necessarily either of those. You wanna be in the middle, kind of like you did. And even with Covid hitting you as an events company like that allowed you to, like, you, you had this plan and so you did all the right things, kind of moving into it, it sounds like. But then you still got quote unquote punched in the face when Covid showed up and you're an event company. And now it's like, okay, now what? We gotta pivot. So, right. What, what did that pivot look like going from events? I mean, going basically from a hundred to zero and then having to Right. Switch gears.

Justin Cross: 18:13

Yeah. And I think the the final piece there, we're talking about taking the leap and either researching or, or whatever, like is, is taking action. Mm-hmm. you know, so like, even if someone's not fully committed to leaving a, a career or whatever yet, like you can still put things in motion with what you want to get into, you know, still start posting on social media, still start putting it out there, you know? Yeah. What you're, what what you're doing, who you are, why you're great at it, you know, like you don't necessarily have to be like, oh, you know, screw my. and now I'm gonna start on day one. You can keep your job going and start to put it out there, start to get feedback and start to formulate your plan. So when you do decide to jump, you already have a little bit of traction and you have some knowledge about the industry you're getting into and all that. But yeah, you have to answer your question about the pivot man. So we are like 90, 95% like an event company. We always had like some swag, like shirts and hats, but not much, you know, just a couple, you know, fun t-shirts, earn your booze and earn your tacos and stuff like that. Mm-hmm. So when the events shut down, I was like, all right, well what can we do? We can do e-com, we can do apparel. Mm-hmm. So we we went all in on that. We rented a building, bought some equipment hired a, a really good marketer and, and just started to really just go after apparel, but, That was one thing that I wish I had more experience before we jumped into, because e-comm is a bitch. I, I, I lost a lot of money doing that. We, we made enough to get it through the two years, but my God, that was, that was not a fun two years, especially going from like, you know, shirts and merch for us was always kinda like icing on the cake. You know, we'd sell event tickets and event sponsorships and it was great to see people wearing our shirts. They loved them, you know, that we did high quality and they were fun and everything, but that wasn't ever a huge cornerstone of the business. But it had to be during this pivot. But you know, one thing that. you know, is it gonna help any entrepreneur out there is to be, you know, innovative and to really look for different ways to, you know, do stuff. So one of the things that I got fed up with was sitting, sitting, literally sitting around one day on the couch and seeing that all the gyms were forced to be shut down. Like my friend Jeff Affy out here was at self-made training facility. Ian Smith in Jersey, you know, was going through all his crap. What's the, the Viking up in Canada was doing his thing. Sean Zimmer? Yeah. Was, yeah. Sean Zimmer. And I was like, this is a bunch of bullshit. What are we gonna do about this? And so I launched a campaign called Legalized Lifting. And we, we launched t-shirts as black and white shirts that had like a kinda looked, like, looked like a vintage like warning sign on it, legalized lifting. And we sold a bunch of those and I teamed back up with James Stratman peak Nutrition and we sold a bunch of those and gave the proceeds back to trainers and gyms who were forced to shut down. So That's cool. Even though we didn't, we didn't make any money on that. That was, that, that was great actually for us. Cuz that's how I met Ian Smith. We went out to Jersey to his event like a year or so ago. Yes. And, and it, and it kind of like showed people like, you know, who we are and what I, what I stood for mm-hmm. So it was a weird like way of, you know, just. not necessarily political, but kind of like, but it was a weird way of this, Hey, this is who I am, you know? Right. And so, and so, it helped, it helped us enough to, you know, keep the brand going and do more with apparel. But it never wanted to be in the apparel business. So we're kind of back to where we were before, where we have apparel and we're, I'm proud of the apparel that we have, but we don't, I don't really say that we have an apparel company mm-hmm. We sell great merch that has put up against anyone's out there, like it's great stuff. But we are, it always has been dedicated to helping people. So we, we just recently switched from earn booz.com to earn it all.com, and we're back to our main mission that I started with back in the beginning of helping people get in shape with the Earn It All Academy. So that's where we are now. Finally, teaching people again, like what does that mean? Build a strong. in the meantime, while you're building a strong body, you're building a strong mind. Mm-hmm. And now you have a body and a mind of working together to go after business. Because, like we've already talked about here, business is a wild fucking animal. And if you don't have, and if you don't have a strong mind and a strong body with the energy and the, you know, frankly, the courage to keep going through a lot of difficult situations is not gonna work. So that's, we're back to our core mission, thankfully, of helping people, you know, earn a bigger, better life through their body and their mind. And we're still selling apparel, but we're not trying to grow a gigantic apparel brand. So we'll sell anybody's shirts and hats. I love it. But you know, just the evolution of business. Yeah. You know, e-comm is a, is a hole in our animal.

Bradley Roth: 22:47

Yeah, for sure. There's, there's two key points in there that I wanna kind of pull out. The first one is what you said about e-com. Cuz I think a lot of people for the outside looking in are like, oh, e-comm, like, I could start it, I could drop ship. It's easy, I can make money from anywhere. Right. But, to me, I kind of look at it the same way that you guys did, where, you know, we have shirts and swag and stuff, but that's not the brand. Like, that's not the base. Right? Because compared to events or compared to education and that kind of stuff, there's a lot of costs that go into it. It's, you know, even, even if you have a unique brand that really resonates with people, like it's, it's still pretty commoditized, right? T-shirts kind of, it's like a battle to the bottom. Oh yeah. Across brands. It's really hard to, you know, make a good profit these days with, especially with shipping going like, so there's, there's just so many things where like if you try, you wanna make that your main thing, you're probably. It's probably not the first thing that you wanna start with in most cases. Right? Like start with something else. Yeah. Start with an idea and then the apparel just kind of like feeds the rest of it, if that makes sense. Right. It, it's free advertising, that kind of thing. But you're probably not gonna like just start an apparel company from scratch and like be super profitable off the bat, you know what I mean?

Justin Cross: 24:03

No, cuz the crazy thing about it is like the, the bigger that your apparel brand gets, the more capital intensive, the more logistic mm-hmm. you know, crazy. It gets logistically crazy. It gets so, like I've watched I've been in the Lions den with Sean Whelan for a couple years now. I'm actually one of his executive coaches in Inside the Lions Den. Mm-hmm. But I've been able to watch him come up from, he started, lions Not cheap, I think maybe a year or so before I started earn booze and be able, being able to watch his apparel brand grow. Like I, I was just talking with Adam about this a couple weeks ago. I was like, I don't want us to hit. Right. Hit off right now in like a hundred x like lion. Not cheap. Did because like, we don't have the infrastructure. Yeah. You know, like if, if you think about that, like if someone's pumped about selling, so you just have one shirt designed, you're like, all right, cool. I'm gonna sell a million of these shirts. All right, cool. That's when you need to look and see what does that really mean, like mm-hmm. are those shirts even available like right now? Because we went through shortages and we still go through shortages of blank shirts and hats and stuff. Right? Yeah. And then what kind of extra cost is it gonna take to print those? Because, and print and ship and store, you know. Yeah. It's crazy. So apparel's one of those businesses where it's if you scale. you potentially, you know, lose money because you have to really do put everything and more back in to even get the infrastructure. Mm-hmm. Cuz now you're potentially dealing with huge shelving systems and forklifts and a lot of staff. And then if you're really into apparel, there's always a new drop for a new season. There's a new drop for a new color, there's new designs. Like, it's, it's a beast. Yeah. So if, you know, if, if you have like a brand like your podcast, you know, where people listen to you, they get value at it and you have a shirt or two or three, that's great. People wanna support that. Mm-hmm. but that's different from having a quote unquote apparel brand that is always dropping new stuff and is always, you know, staying up with fashion trends and you know, yeah. Building out a big infrastructure in people. So it's definitely something to think about. You said drop shipping too, like Yeah, we could beat that one to death. Yeah. You know, some people can be successful with it if you're savvy enough, but I mean, Really the main thing is building a brand. Mm-hmm. And that's, that's a lot harder than I think if people realize, even, even for someone that has a good following, which I'm not saying I do like someone out there if they have a big following mm-hmm. it can still be pretty difficult to get people to care about your brand enough, enough to be repeat customers and, and mm-hmm. you know, make enough money. It's crazy for

Bradley Roth: 26:31

sure. Yeah. And I think it's slightly different if you're building like a brand where you're, you know, you're just, you're putting your brand on a t-shirt versus something proprietary like Nike or Lululemon where they have their own kind of fits and technologies and stuff. Like, that's a whole different kind of discussion. But I think most people who wanna start something are gonna start with, you know, let me get some blanks, let me put my brand on it, and that sort of thing, so. Right. Definitely something to think about. And then the other thing that you touched on that was really interesting was how you talked about like, we did this campaign and to legalize lifting and it didn't really make you money. In the short term, but in the tail end, it was a huge benefit for you guys. Right. It brought a lot of good attention. Yeah. And you talked about Ian Smith. Ian Smith's another perfect example. Like did, did keeping his gym open during the shutdowns, make him money? Like no, he got, he got fined up the wazoo and all this kind of crazy stuff, but he blew up because of it, you know, so yeah. Kind of standing for something and sometimes you make the moves that aren't necessarily like, oh, this is gonna bring me a direct return. But but in the long term, that's super valuable. Yeah.

Justin Cross: 27:40

You know, in a nutshell, that's kind of what we do with, with earn your booze as a brand before we even get to earn it all because mm-hmm. Everyone knows the alcohol is not healthy right there, there's no benefit to drinking alcohol. Right? Yeah. So, so we could easily take the stance and be like, Hey, if you want to be in the best shape, don't. It's pretty simple, you know, like I get that. Mm-hmm. However, most of the world doesn't subscribe to that mi, you know, line of thinking. So we push back against that. We don't necessarily tell people to drink. We don't necessarily encourage it. We do have our own beer, so of course we want people to buy and enjoy that. But but like you said, like, we definitely go against the norm and, you know, we, we have a lot of you know, fitness and health experts that, you know, Adam and and Bobby are other coaches we all look up to, but are, they're right about, you know, sobriety being the best way to go. But you know, this is this is also like, you know, it's kind of like our flag. We planted this, we're here to help people to do, choose to drink. Of course other people as well. It's, we're not exclusively doing that. Mm-hmm. But it's interesting how much. How much flack we get for that sometimes, you know, like, you know Sure. People just kind of people talking shit about it and saying, oh, you can't do that. I, you know, you need everyone, you know, there's no benefit of alcohol. And they, look, we get it, but, but let's be real. The world is not gonna go chicken, broccoli, rice and so sober like that just doesn't happen, you know? So we are trying to help people that have, you know, that have been neglected by trainers for the most part kind of forever. You know, cuz they're like, Hey, if you're not going to eat this way and stop drinking, like, you know, I'm, I'm gonna call you a piece of crap. There's a lot of trainers like that and like, why we don't need to do that. You know, this, you know, if, if that's your audience, cool. But like, you know, we're trying to basically help people that have typically not gotten the help that they need you know, from health and fitness experts in the past.

Bradley Roth: 29:25

Yeah, I love that. And it's really interesting because it does, like on the surface you're like, okay, so they're promoting fitness and they're promoting. like booze and that kind of thing. So it almost like, on the surface it does seem contradictory to a lot of people. Mm-hmm. But I think part of that is because our society has become so, like, it's either this or that it's black or white, it's, you know, right or left. And we live in these absolutes, but like we kind of said earlier, when you talk, when it was about like going off on your own, it's not like, don't jump off into nothing and don't wait forever. Like the answer is somewhere in the middle and it's the same thing. Yeah. You can do both and yeah. No one's gonna argue that drinking, I mean, there's the people out there who are like, oh, well glass of wine helps prevent cancer, kind of thing. And you know that, but that's, you know, obviously we don't even have to debunk that year the benefits, but it's kind of this like, you know, you can do both. And the whole kind of earning it part is really interesting because I think a lot of people, they're either like, never drink, I'm, I'm sober, like it's bad, or. people are like, well, I drink. And a lot of people who drink, that's all they do. They don't work out, they don't do these other things, right. And so it's like you can enjoy these things, you know, obviously in moderation and that kind of stuff. But then you're, you know, you're earning it, you're making yourself a better person kind of at the same time. So it is really unique and I feel like I, like Do you guys have any direct competition? Kind of like in that space that. On both ends of that? No, no. There's like,

Justin Cross: 30:57

there's like some running clubs that are, you know, associated with a, you know, a, a beer brand or a brewery or something like that. But but there's nobody out there like taking a real like, professional expert scientific approach to it, like mm-hmm. there's no one doing that. And, which is kind of interesting to me. Like, I mean, there's, don't get me wrong, there's, there's definitely some great trainers out there. they acknowledge some their clients are gonna drink and they'll, they'll help them with that. But I think in general, like no one has actually like come out and been like, yo, we are the brand for you if this is how you live. You know, so mm-hmm. I, yeah. So we've been, we've basically been the lone wolf for the past five and a half years. We've had a few other people like attempt to kind of, to come in and like, you know, piggyback off some of our trademarks and stuff like that. Cuz I think they see a good marketing angle, but, right. But yeah, still like no one, no one out there is going at it. Like we are in a, you know, we have a, our two main coaches are Adam Nail and Bobby Maximus. Both of them are the top shelf like fitness and nutrition and mindset trainers and they both understand it. Like Bobby Maximus is a partner in Clearwater distilling out of Utah. Adam, Adam loves to have a good cigar and a glass of scotch and they're. They're both brilliant. You know? You know, cause if we were gonna really tell people like the absolute best way to live, like, you know, this is kind of my pushback sometimes to like, the people that are just kind of viciously sober is like, well, yeah, okay, if we're gonna go along that line, you know, like, okay, don't ever eat any seed oil, any processed sugar. Make sure you sleep eight hours every single night no matter what. You know, don't, you know, make sure you wear your blue light blockers. Like, there's a lot of crazy stuff. If you're really talking about truly optimal health, like, there's a lot of stuff they need to stop doing too. Mm-hmm. you know, so, yeah. We we

Adam Niall: 32:38

drop this, go ahead, drop this fact in here real quick. Sorry. I had to, I had to in Justin because most people don't understand that their, their tap water is more dangerous and poisonous to them than a beer. Mm-hmm. like if you live in the city, your tap water is lit, literally poison. and, and everybody's worried about having a drink on Friday. So it's like, that's why all the, all the trainers and coaches and stuff, and a lot of people in the fitness industry are so afraid of this topic because they're not educated enough on they're just not educated enough. Right. They haven't done their own research. And the problem is, I, I'm gonna, I'm gonna finish this rant real quick, if you don't mind. The curriculum I used to teach nutrition and physiology at a college level, and the curriculum that they were pushing down is the same curriculum, or is the same. It's from the same people that just released that study that said that fruit loops were healthier than steak. Like that's what you're getting in. Yeah. In normal education, that's what you're getting When you, when you're trying to, you know, going through your exercise science degree and things like that, that's the stuff that you're getting. So it makes perfect sense. You know, most fitness experts are afraid of this topic because they don't wanna touch it. They're not educated on it, and they, they have no idea what they're talking about.

Bradley Roth: 33:49

Yeah. It's funny you bring that up because Yeah. Number one, it's interesting with the water thing because, and this is something that I think people are starting to wake up to, but throughout most of history, people drank a lot of beer and alcohol as opposed to water cuz water's where all the diseases were and that That's right. Alcohol, like had a natural kind of like disinfecting to it. But then what you just brought up about kind of the, the whole fitness, exercise, nutrition, education space, like, I, we could do a whole episode on that cuz I, I don't know if I mentioned this, but I was actually like, I was an exercise science major and I spent my first five years post-college, like training people, like in the fitness space. So, awesome. Yeah. And, but I went to Yukon and at the time they had the, you know, quote unquote number one ranked kinesiology program and. My guy, like for my major was Dr. Kramer, and he was like world renowned. He's the one who wrote all the textbooks. He worked with Tom Brady and you know, the top of the top. Like, he, he was the guy in that space and, you know, he'd come into class and he's like, can hardly, he's, he's like dripping sweat just from walking around. He's like two, like 150 pounds overweight, you know, ex power lifter. And and then like you bring up CrossFit and he was just like, that is terrible for you. It's so bad. Like it's, it's unsafe. And I mean, this was still kind of like when CrossFit was kind of this like underground thing and that sort of thing, but I was just like, man, this guy. You know, he's, he's preaching like health and exercise and all this stuff, and it's like he, you know, I haven't seen his blood work, but I guarantee it's not good. You know what I mean? Yeah. And so it's just, there was just such this like disconnect that I saw and I was like, man, like people can be so like just tunnel vision into what they wanna believe or what they've been told that the reason, like leaves the room you know what I mean? In

Adam Niall: 35:45

general. In general, the, the curriculum is 30 years behind and then the people writing, the, the people writing the curriculum are 30 years behind that

Bradley Roth: 35:54

the academics aren't in the gym. They're the Yeah,

Adam Niall: 35:56

exactly. Yeah. And then on the clinical side, especially like kinesiology, I did, I did kinesiology classes at S D S U, which has a very good program, or they did I'm not sure how it is now, this was years ago, but especially on the clinical side, go to any hospital and tell me how many doctors and nurses are actually healthy. Yeah, like that, that's something nobody wants to talk about, that you walk into the hospital and every nurse is fat. And I'm like,

Bradley Roth: 36:22

Yeah. I should call my wife downstairs cuz she was a nurse for the last 10 years and grants about it all the time and Oh man. Yeah, it's crazy. It's a crazy world. But yeah, it's, I don't know. I, I could go on and on about that, but ju Adam, I know you, you just jumped in, you were kind of waiting patiently on the, on the side, but I wanted to ask, so like, I know earn your booze is still around, but now the focus, the transition's kind of been towards earn it all, which is not so booze focused, obviously. And then what did that transition look like in Adam? Where did you come into the picture?

Adam Niall: 36:59

Yeah, so I'll, I'll give a little bit of backstory first. Justin and I actually mm-hmm. Have pretty similar stories. I was in the Marine Corps for eight years worked on aircraft for most of that. Got out of the military, went into an industry that was really great. I had, I was a sub engineer in the oil field made great money, but again, just like Justin said, it was like, this isn't, this isn't what I want to do, you know, I want to go. And, and I had a pa, I had a passion for fitness for a long time and I was like, okay, I need to, I need to change something up. So I went back to school and ended up teaching nutrition and physiology, like I said at the college level. And the problem that I had with that was just like I had mentioned, the curriculum was garbage. Everything that we were being taught and pushed was from these ridiculous studies that you can see. Like if, if you have a little bit of common sense, you can see who's paying for the study and that's gonna tell you the outcome of the study. You don't even have to read it.

Bradley Roth: 37:53

Yeah. Follow

Adam Niall: 37:53

the money. Yeah, follow the money. Right. So I had a problem with that almost immediately when I, you know, when I started my journey into, into teaching and into educating especially on the nutrition side. So I had a real big problem with that. So I ended up leaving that starting my own company called tbo, O 90, which is no longer around. It's a total body op optimization 90. It was 90 day challenges where mm-hmm. you know, I would take people through 18 days of different things, mindset and nutrition and exercise and all that stuff. And it was basically just to build habits. It was 18 days to build habits. And I saw a lot of success with that. And it, it's actually kind of funny. I personally was was sober for two years because I had a, I had a problem with alcohol myself. And it was at the end of that two years when I was like, okay, I think I can, like, I have really good habits now. I'm doing really well. Like I, I think I can go and have a drink. Like, I really like bourbon. I love whiskey. Like, I was like, okay. So I went and bought a bottle of bourbon. I had a drink of it. The boogeyman didn't jump out. I didn't, I didn't go beat my wife. I didn't, you know, I didn't burn the city down. I didn't, you know what I'm saying? I was like, okay, interesting. And that was right around the time when when I actually found earn booze on Instagram. And I, I was like, I was immediately like, wow, I really like this company. I like what they're like, what they're pushing. I really like what Justin, the, the owner is pushing and it's all health related. It's like almost all of the content that Justin was pushing out the time was like, Hey, make sure you're hydrating. Make sure you, you know, you're, you're in shape. Make sure you're doing all the things you need to do. Be a good father, be a good husband, be a good person, you know, all this stuff. And I. Well, this is, this is a booze company, you know? And so it really resonated with me and, and I personally found that it wasn't the booze that was a problem for me. It was personal. It was, it was something with, with me not the booze, you know? Yeah. So, so we ended up talking and and, and connecting and stuff. And that led to me being a partner with Earn All and eventually led to me being the head coach here. So,

Bradley Roth: 39:51

very cool. Yeah. It's, it's interesting what you said about how like, alcohol doesn't just change people. It just brings out what's been kind of hidden. And so like, you kind of had issues with it. You went two years sober, got rid of it, which is kind of the, you know, the route most people try to take mm-hmm. but then you're able to come back to it effectively after kind of doing this work and stuff. And so what, would you have any advice for people who are kind of like, You know, do I have a problem? Do I not? Can I, how do I handle it?

Adam Niall: 40:28

Yes. And this is actually pretty controversial advice. It's stop identifying with your issue. Stop identi. The first thing that somebody says when they're sober is, Hey, I'm sober cause I have a problem with alcohol. It's like, you didn't even tell me your name yet. You know, it's like being vegan. You know what I'm saying? It's like, oh, hey, I'm a vegan, or, Hey, I'm this, or Hey, I'm that. Or Hey, I have type, I have type two diabetes. And it's like, oh, do you know you can get off of your medication and not have type two diabetes? And it only takes eight days. We know that the science says that I can get somebody off their diabetes medication. Off of Metformin off of in eight days. Mm-hmm. like it's been done over and over and over and over again. So it's the same thing to me where it's like, okay, number one, you have to stop identifying with the fact that you have an issue because of something else. You have to go to the root cause. Same thing for obesity, same thing for, for any issue or any, like trying to go towards any goal with your body. It's okay. Find the root cause first. So the root cause for me, I had un unhealthy habits. That was it. Yeah. As soon as I fixed my habit issue, all that other stuff went away. So it's, it, my number one advice for that is don't identify with it.

Bradley Roth: 41:40

Yeah. It's huge. And I had someone on a while back on the show who runs. Like an addiction treatment center. And she's kind of doing things a really differently, and she says, like, the biggest problem is people come in and they say, all right, first thing you gotta do is admit that you're an addict. And all you do when you say I am something, you're reinforcing that belief in that identity. Mm-hmm. And so it's just gonna make it harder to change that. Right. Because if you wanna go from like, I am an alcoholic, to, you're not, the more you say I'm an alcoholic, the, the further it keeps you in that identity. So

Adam Niall: 42:15

Yeah. The, the story you tell yourself will then be perpetuated. So, yeah. Which is really interesting that AA is, you know, even years later, my, my ex-fiancee, his father was sober for I think 40 years. Mm-hmm. and he has like his 40 year coin or whatever. And I went to it to, to like celebrate that with him. I was, he, he thought it was a big deal. And I was like, all right, cool. This is a big deal. Yeah. And the first thing he did when he went up there, he said, said, it's been 40 years, you know, I'm Dave and I'm an alcoholic. And it's like, You haven't had a drop of alcohol in 40 years, and you're still identifying with the fact that you're an alcoholic. So, you know, and it's like, man, that, that just seems like it's perpetuating the issue to me. Mm-hmm. and, and I, that's kind of the mindset I have with in nutrition and with fitness and everything. It's like, okay, find the root cause first and then open your mind to being a growth mindset. Because I don't know one person who has a growth mindset that also has problems with addiction, because they can grow, they can move forward, they can pass that they can, you know, that's in the past, I don't even think about that. Even if it's, even if they're one day of not doing heroin, they don't do heroin anymore. It's just not something I do anymore. It's just I'm not that person anymore. That was y. Right. So I don't know one person who has a growth mindset that that is in that, in the step of, of their life where they're like, no, I'm building to something better that has any issues with any of this stuff. So that's kind of the target that we're going after is the, the people who, who they want to be better. They want to, they want to do more stuff with their life, but they also don't want to go the way of, you know, the coaches and trainers that are really prevalent right now on social media that just yell at you, tell you're a piece of crap for enjoying a old fashioned on Saturday night.

Bradley Roth: 43:59

So, yeah. Yeah. It's a little bit of kind of the holier than thou mentality. Yeah. homeless. Yeah. Yeah. So one thing that was interesting when I asked if you guys had a competition, because you kind of combined these two seemingly very opposing things and, and put'em together, and that no one else is doing that. So I think it's a lesson for anyone listening that that's a great way to create your own. Market or your own blue ocean because you guys maybe aren't the, the biggest or the best in the fitness industry. You're not the biggest or the best necessarily in the booze industry. But when you create that unique combination, it sets you apart cuz no one else is doing that. And so I think it's important for people to look and be like, man, I'm not the best at any one thing. But it's your com. Like how you combine your skills or what you're doing that, you know, like you create a combination that no one else has. You don't have to be the top in one specific thing. Sure. So I think, I think that's a, yeah. Key lesson.

Justin Cross: 45:02

And especially for an entrepreneur, that's a great lesson to not try to take on too many different things. You know, like if you do see one lane or one avenue that you're like, all right, I think I can crush this. Well good. Go crush that. Mm-hmm. you know, so like, instead of like trying to do that and three other things and now like you're not really that great at anything. Like we, we really have carved out our own lane and we are becoming the dominant. Force there, you know, like it mm-hmm. it only took us, I think it's about a year and a half. We had been in a men's health magazine, chilled magazine, liquor.com, like small business journal, and now we have a PR campaign going on right now. We've been on live news a handful of times. We have billboards, we all have all this stuff. A lot of it's right here in Arizona, but like mm-hmm. that's, that's, I think the right way to grow it is like, dominate your niche, your avenue and, you know, in like your, like local market especially, and see where it goes. Let it branch out from there. But you gotta stick with it. You know? If we had, yeah. When we switched over from Earn Your Boo to earn it all.com, if we, we could have, like I said, jumped over and be like, all right, cool. We don't, we don't do the drink thing anymore. You know, maybe we still have the shirts or whatever. but like we would've been given up that whole niche that, you know, we've spent all these years making, you know mm-hmm. and there's still, like you said, I love the blue ocean. That's one of my favorite things. There's still a blue ocean of opportunity out there to help people that are not getting the help that they need, you know? Yeah. So we are absolutely still hard charging down our blue ocean with her dear booze. And now with Earn It all, we're able to expand out to everybody else, you know? Mm-hmm. So we've mm-hmm. we've been fortunate enough, we've partnered with do you know Andy Elliot yet? I don't, no, Bradley. All right. So, his official, Andy Elliot is his Instagram. He's the number one sales trainer in, in my opinion, in the country. And they started with car sales. And now they are also helping run real financial with Bradley. I have a life insurance agency with them. But when I got connected to go meet this guy, Andy, you know, the sales guy, it only took about five minutes of stepping into his seminar and listening to hear him talk about fitness, mindset, family being a good person and all that kind of stuff. But because we stuck with our lane it's opened up all these other doors. You know, so, yeah. Anyways, I'm not even sure where I was going with that, but I guess with earn it all, like, you know, that's, that's kind of the evolution of things is start with one thing, don't quit on that one thing, but, you know, see what other opportunities are out there. And that's, you know, especially for an entrepreneurs, you can't be scared to consider new expansions or new avenues. Mm-hmm. Um, And that is really what opened the door for us to now do what we do with with Andy, Elliot and Bradley and, and all sorts of other stuff.

Bradley Roth: 47:37

Yeah. No, very cool. I think it's a, it's an analogy that applies to both business and fitness, right? Like the, you see, yeah. All these people, they wanna start a business and I think if you don't give something a true six months, like you didn't really give it a shot, you know, but like, I would say less than 10% who are starting something new, make it to that 10 month mark or that six month mark or further. And like you guys, you know, you hit that kind of wall, you pivoted, but you stuck with it. It's the same thing with fitness and diets, right? How many people jump from diet to diet to diet to workout plan to trainer to this and that. And like anyone who does anything within reason consistently, whether it's diet or exercise for six months, like you're gonna eventually kind of break through and get, get the results you're looking for. So it's just, for sure, it's one of those cliches we've heard a thousand times stick with it and that kind of thing, but it's, it's. It's a cliche because it's holds true. You know, it's true.

Justin Cross: 48:33

That's, yeah. And that's, and that's why we highly encourage our, our clients to jump into, we have a, a 12 week program called Total Recreation. We, we encourage'em to go into that first because we know if they can get, at least get those 90 days, those 12 weeks, they're gonna really start to actually see and feel more results. Mm-hmm. then they're most likely to stick with it. Yeah. You know? Cause if they jump into like a 30 day challenge or even a 30 day membership, right off the bat, It's a little, and towards the end of that, they're already thinking, all right, am I gonna keep it going or not? Yeah, maybe I feel something. But if you can get them to commit to like those three months, they're going to keep going. Cuz like you said, right? The goal is to get'em to 6, 9, 12 months. Because then, now, now that they really have become a completely different person, like the way they used to eat, the way they used to train or maybe didn't train at all. Like the, the old habits are gone, new ones have been built, and now they're really like, that's, that's the new them, you know? So yeah, we're a results driven company. So that's, that's why we, you know, highly encourage our people to start with something like that, to kind of break'em down a bit and build'em back up the right way and help totally recreate their whole life.

Bradley Roth: 49:37

Yeah, for sure. And I think 90 days versus like 30 days is, 90 days is a long enough time to really get some momentum that's gonna carry over. Yes. Like in, in terms of seeing physical results, I mean, same thing with business too, but 90 days you can see big results and do it in a sustainable way where like if you're gonna really see big results in 30 days, you're probably charge it real hard and then you're gonna crash and burn after those 30 days and fall off. Right? Is that, is that what you

Justin Cross: 50:03

guys see? Yeah, that happens. Yeah. Cuz that's what happens even with 75 hard, like I've done that mm-hmm. before where, but a lot of people, they they look at it as like a one-time challenge and they get through it in, you know, day 70, 71, 72, they're, they're struggling and day 75 comes and they feel like they just freaking made it, you know, the very top, you know, of the cliff and, ah, I did it. And then it's, you know, then they take a break and they fall off a lot of times, you know, so. Mm-hmm. Like 90 days is obviously a little bit longer than 75, but it's the way we progress people through it too, right? And it's the breaking down of habits, building up of new habits, and also like teaching them along the way. So we don't, our, our total recreation is not a challenge. It's really an education system. So along the way they're getting multiple live coaching calls every week. Like they have all this opportunity to learn from Adam and Bobby and myself and our other, you know, special guest coaches and Andy Elliot. So by the end of that thing, they didn't just feel like, oh, I beat my body to death and I'm thank thankful that it's over. They've gotten beat up, they've gotten real results, but they've also learned a ton and they've realized how damaging their life was before and all that BS is most likely gonna stay gone now because they've also been educated all, all the way through the process.

Adam Niall: 51:20

Yeah. Justin, Justin hit the nail on the head with, with the. You know, when you get done with something like that, like a 75 harder, any type of challenge or anything like that, most of the time people feel beat up. They're like, I'm glad it's over. You know, I'm gonna take a rest a little bit and then see what, see what comes out. The other end we see with, with our system that we designed, is that when people get to the end, they're fired up for more. Yeah. They've seen, they've, their habits are different. They're different people. Their, their relationships are better. Their bank account looks better in a lot of instances because we do we do do calls on, on wealth and things like that as well. This is a full, you know, full lifestyle. And what we see is when they get to the end of it, they're like, what's next? How? Like, let's keep going. Let, let's keep this going because, you know, it's not any, any trainer could take somebody through a 30 or 60 or 90 or however many day thing and just beat the crap outta their clients. Give them, you know, a 1200 calorie diet, let them lose a whole bunch of, And then at the end of it, it'll just be like, that show my biggest loser, most of the, you know, 90% Yeah. Of the, of the people gained all the weight back or more mm-hmm. And it's like, that's not, that's not sustainable. And, and here's something that, that I preach a lot and I've actually gotten some flack from, from some of the rest of the fitness industry. Even some, some pretty big like influencer type people in the fitness industry. When I, I like to tell people the secrets, like trainers secrets and the biggest secret for any type of result is adherence. Mm-hmm. That's it. If, if you want your client to get results, you have to design a system and a program for them that they personally could adhere to, you know, so it's like the 75 hards and all these other systems out there that, that it's just one benchmark, kind of a cookie cutter thing where it's like, if you, you just follow this and if you can't follow it, then you're not good enough or whatever. And it's like, no, we, we bring people in. Everybody gets the same like, I would call it like a, like a skeleton of what I would like them to accomplish over 90 days. But then e each individual person's system is then personalized by myself and our coaching team. So it's like, that's the difference. The difference is is like, I, I always say it like this, like the personal has been taken out of personal training in the last three, four years. Even more than that. I, I'm sure you saw it as well. Yeah. There's no more personal and personal training because everybody has their, their$10, you know, cookie cutter, P D F that you can buy or mm-hmm. or whatever it is. You can find how it's not the workouts. It's nothing like that. It's the personal touch on being able to design a system for somebody that they can adhere

Bradley Roth: 53:52

to. Yeah. And not everyone necessarily needs to go get a trainer off the bat. Right. Or buy some expensive program. Like a lot of people just need to go for a walk each. Like, you know, yeah. It can be real simple. And then, you know, I've done 75 hard as well, and I think 75 hard has been a, a major net positive as opposed to the negatives. But the problem is when I see people who, they either have to be on it or they completely fall off the wagon, right? Yes. And it's, it's like what we talked about before, being at these two extremes, right? You go to, like, the pendulum swings one way, like you're, you're dialed in, you're doing your two a days and all this stuff, and then it comes off and it's like, whew. Like you, you fly back to the other side. And so for me, like right now, I'm on day like 26 of, I do a couple times a year. I'll just do like 30 days of live hard. This time, you know, I hurt my foot. I'm just getting back into working out after kind of a crazy second half of last year where we were traveling and stuff like that. And so I said, you know what? Like what am I gonna do and not hate and like want to continue on, right? Because that's the key. And so I said, you know what, I'm gonna do it, but I'm just gonna do one workout a day for now. I'm not claiming that I live hard program and for like social media clout, I haven't told really anyone except you guys and people right around me. Mm-hmm. you know, but it's sustainable and I'm like field momentum and it's something that I can just keep doing pretty easily. And so I think it's pe like, and I, and I've been doing fitness and training stuff for a long time and so I thi it takes a certain amount of time to build up the self-awareness about what works for you, how much volume, you know, what do you enjoy, all that kind of stuff. But absolutely. But again, that came from doing a lot of trying a lot of different things. So again, same thing. I think, I feel like that's kind of been like this overarching message that comes right. And it's like you can work out. You could, like, you don't want to just work out and like hate your life. You don't want to just be boozing all the time. Right. There's that middle ground. Same thing with the fitness, like finding what works, what's sustainable. Because like when we talk about not most people, and most people, like most people, there's probably 40% on one end of the extreme, 40% on the other, and then that small percentage that has kind of figured out that middle ground that works long term. So yeah. But one other thing that I'm curious about with the whole kind of like earn it mentality, earn it branding, is that, At all, like a subtle jab at kind of participation culture and that sort of thing that's going on and people wanting handouts and all that. It's not so subtle. Abso

Justin Cross: 56:26

Yeah, it's absolutely, yeah. Yeah, absolutely, man. Like, especially on, in these past couple years, like, I think a lot of eyes were open to how many people are, are looking for some sort of a handout or assistance mm-hmm. or someone else to do something. They're trying to step away from responsibility and that's exactly what we're fighting against because like, I, I have a four and a half year old and I, it's apparent to me we need her and kids her age now to grow up and have the earn it mentality. Otherwise they're just gonna fall into the system. They're gonna be getting the handouts and they're just gonna be following along, doing whatever the TV tells'em to do. And that, that big responsibility, personal responsibility piece is. has been damaged a lot. Yeah. Recently, in the past couple of years. But even think back like couple generations, like my grandfather, you know, like World War II era, like I would say most people back then were all about working their asses off to earn mm-hmm. you know, the, the house, the car, go to war, whatever was needed. Like they just did that. They, we call'em the greatest generation, right? Yep. So now like we're in this, we're in this culture where there's so many shortcuts, there's so many handouts. There are so many people, like you said, trying to do a quick business and if they don't get success in a couple months they're out. And it's like, no. Like look, whether you are trying to get, you know, in better shape, build a better mindset, make more money, build a business, have stronger relationships, you need to earn it. Mm-hmm. like, so we are really trying to restore that, earn it mentality everywhere to everybody, to kids, to older people like white collar, blue collar. It doesn't matter. We want people, no matter what they are after to earn it cuz like, It, it does feel better, right? Like mm-hmm. what I mean? Yeah. It's cool. Like if somebody gives you a check for, you know, a good amount of money, that's cool. Like, you get that you like it, you're happy. But like if you work your ass off and then you get that check, you look at it like that gratitude or, you know, for, for the check, for, for the experience, really that because you've earned it, is so much different. Mm-hmm. and I, you know, and I, I, and I think if the more people they can experience that even bite size wins it starts to become infectious. You know, like when you see your hard work pay off a little bit and you do drop a pant size, or you do get a, you know, a bigger check in the, in the bank account or, you know what I mean? Like, people just recognize you, like, man, that Bradley's always out there doing this thing like that, that feels good, you know? Mm-hmm. And, and I think that that spreads and we need it to spread to everybody out there if we really want to, you know, continue to be one the best, strongest country around if we want the, you know, a, a good, strong close society like. To earn it mentality needs to come back. So that's a huge push for us, especially with the younger generation. Especially a lot, a lot of the younger boys that we're helping grow up into men. We, we really see that needing. you know, to be pushed hard. Yeah,

Bradley Roth: 59:17

no, I love that. So well said. And yeah, go ahead, Adam. Earning, so

Adam Niall: 59:21

earning is actually like the, the, like when you earn something, the human body, and you, you probably know this, Bradley we have a positive feedback loop for that. It's our dopa dopaminergic system. Like we have a positive feedback for when we do hard work and get something for it. Mm-hmm. it's like when you hunt for your food, it's a, the whole different feeling. And, and anybody who's never hunted before has no idea what it feels. To go and stock an animal, hunt it, and then bring it home, you know, and, and, and everything like that. They, they have no idea what that feels like. And in a, in a world where we're getting a constant negative feedback on that dope manic system from, from fucking social media and from, you know, instant gratification and all this stuff, everything is an instant gratification. Like, to earn something is the only thing our body has a positive feedback loop of. Mm-hmm. So it's like, it's not just, it's not just the feeling. It's like, this is how we were designed, this is what Yeah. You know, this is what human beings were designed to do, is to earn and to fight and to conquer and to, you know, to push for more and things like that. To expand the perimeter and, and, and, and all that, especially for men. Mm-hmm. So yeah, that's what we're designed to do. So it's like, if we're not doing that, then like we're dying.

Bradley Roth: 1:00:34

Yeah. And I think there's a million parallels, countless parallels between like fitness and business. Right. And I don't know why this just came to me, but it's like, if you don't earn it, you don't learn it. Right? Like if you don't mm-hmm. work hard for your money. If you get a handout, if you, you know, if you win the lottery, you're getting inheritance or something like that. Those people usually blow it. They're not happy. There's no sense of satisfaction versus like the person who goes out, they build from nothing and earn it. Like those are the people that we always kind of look up to and follow. Right. Or the person who works their ass off to lose a few pounds versus the person who goes and gets liposuction and is just gonna continue the bad habits. Right. And so it's like if you don't go out and earn it and do the hard work, You're ch, I mean, obviously you're choosing yourself in the end, but you know, if you don't learn the lessons along the way, like I think that's, that's the most valuable part, right? It's not like, oh, I got this money in my bank. It's, I learned how to, and now I can go do it again and more if I want to.

Adam Niall: 1:01:35

Yeah. That's the, the big, you know, the big question that a lot of, a lot of these really successful people get asked, especially Jordan Belfort was asked this question, I just recently watched a podcast with him. Mm-hmm. and they said, Jordan, what would you do if you had to start over with nothing? And he goes, I'd be a millionaire in six. Yep. He goes, I already know

Bradley Roth: 1:01:51

how to, it's a skillset. It's

Adam Niall: 1:01:53

a skillset. Yeah. As soon as you mm-hmm. Like if you are just given something, if you're gi you never learn the skills or in the habits like you, like you said, you never all, it's all the things on the way that really matter and really teach you and really, you know, make whatever that la that thing is lasting. Mm-hmm. Hmm. Cause it's like, it's the same thing, like, give a man a fish. You can eat for a day, you know, but teach a man to fish. It's the same, it's the same thing. And we have so many different examples of earning it in literature and in history and in all that stuff, we have so many examples of why it's important. It's almost, it's almost crazy that, you know, the way the world is now, it's almost insane. That like, wait, why aren't we doing that? Just out of like, you know, out of out of just, just inherent like, oh, that's, oh, this is what we're supposed to be doing. You know? Yep. It's like, so

Bradley Roth: 1:02:43

it it's crazy. It is, it is. And I like, I feel like in another synonym for earn it all is like, you know, screw socialism, Right. Or something like that in a sense. Yeah. Earn, earn your keep. Yeah. And yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

Adam Niall: 1:02:57

And you know, it's funny because in a, in a proper socialist thing, everybody is earning their keep by, they're doing something in the community. I'm not a socialist, by the way. Let's just get that outta the way. Right? Yeah. But a lot of people don't even understand like the, a lot of the people who claim to be socialists, they just want stuff for free. And it's like, well, the original like concept of socialism was that urinary society and everybody does their part for the society, right.

Bradley Roth: 1:03:24

That's been skewed. And then you

Adam Niall: 1:03:25

say that, yeah, you say that to a socialist and they're. You know, no, I'm supposed to just get stuff from the government.

Bradley Roth: 1:03:32

Yeah, yeah,

Justin Cross: 1:03:33

yeah. But yeah, we don't. Yeah, but exactly. We don't even want the original intention of that cuz like, we're trying to go after bigger, better lives. We don't just wanna be a cog in the machine, which is why we all left. Mm-hmm. you know, the, the jobs and the careers that we had cuz we do wanna earn more in life. But if you just go by and, you know, do what they say to do and, you know, go to college, get a job, buy a house, have kids like that is just, A cog in the wheel. Like you're just a piece of society. Yeah. You're filling this role as a doctor or an engineer or a janitor, whatever it is. Like you're doing that. So like when we break out of it, we really need to make sure that we keep that, earn it mentality cuz no one else is gonna do the business for us. No one's gonna get us in shape for us. Like it's, it's daily actions, intentional daily actions that are gonna really decide if we're successful in, you know, in business and in our life and our, in our body and, and everything.

Adam Niall: 1:04:26

Mm-hmm. John, John d Rockefeller paid good money to make the school system in a way where we would all be cogs in the machine and work at the factories. Yep. So, and that, that's proven. Like they, they paid a lot of money to set the school system up tho those, the founders of America, the John d Rockefeller's, the Rockefellers, the Carnegies, you know mm-hmm. they shaped the way that our school system is to

Bradley Roth: 1:04:48

make good workers. Exactly. Yeah. Because we needed

Adam Niall: 1:04:52

work, we needed, we needed workers. So, and we just have perpetuated that same system. And it's, it's showing now. It's definitely showing.

Bradley Roth: 1:04:59

Yeah, exactly. I mean, that is not, like, not most people, like I said, allergic to group think and following the status quo. And so there's nothing wrong with being a doctor, you know, or like kind of these like standard career path things that are promoted, but it's, are you doing it just by default and going through the motions and what everyone says to do? Or is it like your choice mm-hmm. you know, so, but that's another rabbit hole we could go down. I know. Yeah. We've been, we've been going for a while. And it is interesting in the new dynamic I haven't had two guests before, but it feels like it's easier to talk about things forever cause you got more, more voices. But I want to kind of start to wrap things up here and there's one question that I ask everyone who comes on the show, and that is, and now I get to ask it to both of you separately, is what is your definition of not most people or what do you think of when you hear that?

Justin Cross: 1:05:48

Justin, you wanna go first? Sure. That's a good, that's a good question, Bradley. I mean, most people in my opinion are asleep out there in the world. Like most people are just kind of going through the motions. They're they're believing, you know, whatever they're told from wherever they get their information, whether it's on social media or the news or whatever, and they're, it, it, it's clear as day to me that most people are just kind of going with the flow. They don't have a lot of intention or, or any purpose. They're looking for a purpose, but they're just kind of, I don't know. I don't wanna necessarily say everyone's a sheep, but cuz they don't, they might not know it. But I do think that most people just don't really, you know, step back and look at what they're doing with their lives and they're just being most people. Mm-hmm. So when I mm-hmm. When I, you know, you ask me that question, I think, you know, like people like us, you know, we're not, most people we're questioning things, you know, we're questioning narratives, we're questioning, you know, if someone, if the news says something is bad, okay. I don't know. Is it bad if the news says something is good, is it actually good? You know, like, yeah. And you know, we're questioning, you know, okay, what are we gonna do with our experience, with our educations and, and with our time? Are we gonna do what most people do? Or are we gonna try to create something else and do what, you know, most people won't do. So to me, that's what it is and it's I look at it every day through the lens of being a father and a husband and a business owner, and you know, just. A guy in general. And I see most people out there not really knowing what they're doing. They're just going through the motions. And so that's why I think your, your name of this podcast is so great because it's for people that are kind of broken out of that, you know, that that matrix, if you will, to steal from Tate That's what I think, that's what it kind of means to me. Yeah,

Bradley Roth: 1:07:34

that's a great answer, Adam. How you gonna follow that one?

Adam Niall: 1:07:38

Yeah. I think not most people are, most people you hear about in history. Mm-hmm. I think if you've heard about somebody in history, they're not most people. Because if you're, if you're somebody of, you know, if you're somebody of status or you're somebody that people write books about, or you're somebody who people listen to, or you're somebody who has, you know, the power of persuasion, that that has an audience, I think you're not, most people, I think, I think most people just kind of fall in line with whatever the hierarchy is. And I think it's always been like that kind of, but at a smaller scale, you know, even when we lived in like a, like a, like a tribal, you know, even in little tribes you had the not most people, which were the hunters and the, and the people who made the fire and, you know, and all that. And then you had the most people who kind of just sat back at the, at the village and, and made it, and made all the babies and you know, did whatever. But nobody remembers those people either. You remember, not most people. So that, that's what I would say about. Yeah, that was good. The history that you've ever heard of is not most people.

Bradley Roth: 1:08:40

Yeah, it's true. Or any, any movie character ever that people root for. Yeah. Right. It's not, yeah.

Adam Niall: 1:08:46

Was it what's that movie, Troy? It's like, oh, that's why nobody will remember your name. Yep, exactly. Just you're just

Bradley Roth: 1:08:51

a, a talk of the wheel, so, yeah. Yeah. Or like what you kind of brought up Justin with the being stuck in the Matrix or like ano another kind of Tate reference, you know, love him or hate him, but his he talks about NPCs non-player characters. Yeah. People who just cut up and, and if anyone wants to kind of like a great movie that kind of highlights This is Free Guy, that movie that came out. Totally. Yeah. And the, like the guy who kind of breaks out of being an MPC and that kind of thing. It's actually like a. Kind of analogy for, for the world in general. So those are yeah, yeah, yeah. Both phenomenal answers though. Really like those. And then I wanna give you guys, like, we, we touched on it a little bit, but I'm sure people listening are like, okay, you know, how do I find out more about the events or the programs and that kind of stuff. So where is the best place for people to find you guys and what you got going.

Justin Cross: 1:09:43

Yeah, our main website is earn it all.com and then there's also a button on there, but you can go to earn it all academy.com. So earn it all.com has all of our merchandise that has the flyers for up upcoming events, shirts, hats, tank tops, stuff like that. And then Earn It All Academy is where you can train with us. So we do our, our 12 week system, we do monthly memberships. But if you, you have any questions about, you know, Hey, how do I earn my booze? How do I just get in better shape? What do I need to do? If you like, you know, something you heard here, that's where you can find all the products and services that we offer. And then my, my Instagram is Justin J. Cross and I'll 6 0 2 3 9 6 0 2 7 7. I always give my, give out my cell phone number as well. But anywhere you look up, earn your booze or earn it all, you can send a DM and get in touch with us.

Bradley Roth: 1:10:28

Very cool. And Adam, anything to add to that or where people can find you? I

Adam Niall: 1:10:34

think he hit the nail on the head. I'm the Adam Nail on Instagram and all, all platforms. Find us@earnallacademy.com and I look forward to training with you.

Bradley Roth: 1:10:43

Awesome guys. Well, this has been a lot of fun and I wanna give you a chance, though. Is there any, any last kind of parting thoughts or words for the audience? Yeah, I've

Adam Niall: 1:10:52

got one real quick. Go ahead Justin, if you wanna go first. Mine's, mine's real short. Yeah, go ahead. So, yeah, so my, my, one of my favorite quotes and I'll, I'll just say it it's never too late, but don't

Bradley Roth: 1:11:03

wait. Hmm. Love it. Short, simple to the point. Yep.

Justin Cross: 1:11:09

And I would say, especially for my business owner, entrepreneur friends out there, you have to come first. Mm-hmm. So a lot of the times we prioritize, you know, money or marketing or other business aspects, but I believe that's why most people get burned out or they get super stressed out or they get suicidal. You know, they, they go down these dark holes because they're not taking care of themselves first. And you do that by building your body in your mind. So put you first so you can give yourself the best shot to crush your business and still be there for your family and yourself.

Bradley Roth: 1:11:38

Yeah, I love that. That's a very important message that we inherently know, but get, get lost a lot of times when we're, we're in the thick of it. So, and man, thank you guys so much for coming on the show today. This was, this was a lot of fun. I don't even know how long we've been going, but quite a while. And look forward to, you know, more collaboration in the future. So thank you.

Justin Cross: 1:11:56

Yes, sir. Thanks, Bradley.

Bradley Roth: 1:11:59

Take care, brother. Yeah. Thank you. So guys, thank you for tuning in again. And after listening to this one, I know I said it at the beginning of the show, but I guarantee there's at least one person, you know, who is gonna benefit from this. Whether it comes to someone who wants to, you know, learn to deal with alcohol better, who wants to get in shape, who wants to break out of their job. Like there's so many topics in this episode that are gonna be useful to someone, you know. So again, please think of that person, share this episode with them, and you know, that's really all I ask. And other than that, thank you for tuning in. We'll see you in the next one. And always remember, don't be most people.