- I brought some food for the office.
Some mac and cheese burgers.
- [Man] That's very nice of you, thank you.
(people chattering)
- [Man] I didn't know if you eat that,
so I brought you this just in case.
- [Man] That's amazing, that's fucking amazing.
- [Man] Brian, you sit over here.
- [Man] We heard you're a trading card guy,
so, we got you something.
- This is a beast!
This is a beast!
I love, it's so peachy too.
That is what is up!
- I guess I can jump into, I don't know if you know
anything, really, about me or what I have going on.
- Give me it all.
- I created the Ainsworth. - Yep.
- So, sports bars around New York City,
growing nationally right now.
We're kinda through a weird transition in our company
because we grew so fast, and I feel like the culture
in the community has kind of dissipated in the sense.
- It becomes more vanilla because.
- Yeah, because we're. - It's farther from the sun.
- It's just like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom and now.
- It's what happens to everything.
Everything, just so you know, everything.
Now some things get it back, and they become Nike,
and other things lose it, and those are all the things
we knew were once hot and they're not.
Right? - Yeah, for sure.
I'll just tell you my story really quickly.
- Please.
- Always been a super hard worker.
Worked in delis my whole life as a kid.
I remember my uncle coming a picking me up at 4 a.m.
for Christmas Eve to get the mozzarella and roll it.
- Yeah, love it, that guy. - Always a hard worker.
Won national championship in soccer in U16 soccer team;
got a scholarship to go play for the University
of Rhode Island; quit my senior year over a girl.
A lot of people say don't live with regret,
but I live within my regret to never
make a stupid childish decision like that again
'cause I could've played professional soccer,
which is crazy, actually, two years ago,
The Red Bulls asked me to try out at 31.
I'm in the locker room. - So think about that.
- I'm in little underwear changing.
The dude next to me is like, "how old are you bro?"
I'm 31, I'm like, "How old are you?"
15, his parents dropped him off.
So, it's just crazy I had that opportunity.
- That's cool.
- So, I moved to New York City with $400 in my pocket.
My dad was a school teacher, my mom's a hairdresser,
and I just said fuck it, I'm gonna move to New York City.
I'd have no job and figure it out.
So, I just bartended, and I always had a network
from going to the University of Rhode Island
because everyone came back to the tri-city area.
So, did my thing there.
My sister at the time was a prominent
hair colorist for Warren Tricomi.
Her client was Rachel Uchitel at the time.
Rachel was like, "listen, I need kid who wants to work to be
"my assistant at the nightclub in The Hamptons."
I know Ryan Harwood and Alois, they used to be my clients.
They used to come spend a lot of money.
So you can tell Ryan, is Ryan around here?
- He might be around here.
See if Harwood's around.
- We had Dune out there in The Hamptons,
and I met my partner, Matt Shendell, there.
So, I was Rachel Uchitel's assistant:
pickin' up her laundry. - I get it.
- Walkin' her dogs, doin' my thing.
I was enamored by the business.
We had Leonardo DiCaprio coming in, athletes, people,
I loved it, money everywhere.
I had a rent controlled apartment.
My rent was $600 a month.
I lived in a little railroad studio.
So, I said if I could make $2Gs cash a week
with this in The Hamptons, I'll do it.
So, I did that, and everyone started noticing
my people skills, and I was able to network and do my thing
and treat everything like it's my living room
and make it nice for people at the nightclub.
So, then, that just opened so many doors for me.
So, my partner, now, hired me, and I learned everything
from busboy to being in the kitchen
to being the manager, doing everything there.
So, in 2009, we're sittin' on.
The Market was crashing, it was during that tough time,
so we really didn't know what we wanted to do,
but we had a space on 26th between 6th and 7th,
which is the O.G. Ainsworth.
So, we said let's create an Ainsworth.
An Ainsworth is two, six in poker, a terrible hand in poker.
We're on 26th Street, and we said.
- That's cool. - If it never works out,
we can say Ainsworth shit, so, we create the Ainsworth,
and now we're about to have nine Ainsworths.
Doin' Nashville this month. - How many are in New York?
- We have four in New York. - And where are they?
- 26th, between 6th and 7th; 33rd, Park and Madison;
East Village, and we just opened Financial District.
So, we have that goin' on. - Where are they in Jersey?
- Two, we have one in Newark and Hoboken
right next to the Prudential Center.
So, throughout this whole process, I was able to,
I've been always a big fitness guy in sports.
So, I'm kinda in a tough position right now
because I have this great business.
We're about to be a $40 million company in sales this year,
and I also have this fitness aspiration
to me and motivating and getting people inspired.
I was just on the cover of Men's Health
last year for South America and in Mexico.
So, I have these opportunities, and now it's like
how do I blend these two: restaurant, fitness.
I'm a new dad, nine month old son, best thing in the world.
- Congrats.
- Thank you, my wife is a journalist at CNN.
So, it's like how do we make everything one,
and how can I continue to grow my personal brand
that will entail grow the Ainsworth brand at the same time
so that we can keep movin' forward?
We're goin' to Nashville on Monday.
So, Evan and I will go into Nashville,
Evan's my head of sales.
We'll go into Nashville, and we'll infiltrate
the whole fitness market and the scene
and get people in for tours, and we'll become a local,
part of their local community.
I do that really well through fitness 'cause that's
what I can do very well 'cause people gravitate toward that
through my Instagram and everything.
- How many people follow you on Instagram?
- I'm about to have 60,000.
It's all organic, and that's just me doin' my thing.
- Don't hedge it, it's a real number.
- Yeah, I just don't know,
and I would love to get some advice from you
on how I can continue to grow that personal brand
in that sense to continue doing what I'm doing, I'm patient.
For the first 10 years of my career,
I didn't enjoy a summer.
I missed weddings; I missed birthday parties; I missed.
- It's very similar to my story.
- Exactly, the work for me. - I get it.
- I fuckin' don't care, I love it.
- Listen, the whole deli thing, you punt in your 20s,
you're preaching, right, preach, I lived in New Jersey,
I was in New York City nine nights in my 20s.
Nine, nine, at least you had fun.
Straight up, at least you had fun punting.
Y'know, punting your 20s in the setting you were is very,
I mean, I really punted my 20s, straight up!
So, I have empathy, and I understand.
I think it's more the same.
Truth is, there is no hack.
There's a couple things.
I'll give you one very smart piece of advice:
don't create friction for your audience.
Here's what I mean by that: you can't just be on Instagram.
Because if the person that thinks you're really cute or cool
or smart in Nashville, like if she's a 37-year old
fitness influencer, who is also a real estate agent,
and she's in her car all the time
you need to feed her your podcast.
- So, today, we launch our podcast.
My buddy, Rob, was just here the other day,
the lacrosse player. - Yeah, yeah, yeah!
- He's a very dear friend of mine.
- That's awesome!
- We're starting our podcast today.
- I love it!
- It's called Four because my principles are the Fs,
the four Fs: family, fitness, fashion, food.
- That's cool.
- So we're launchin' that today.
- Look, look, I think, I honestly think, it's about.
My point of view, I always say do what I do
not listen to what I say.
I poured all my money into people
to be able to be a full-fledged CNN media company.
I'm fuckin' more of media company right now
in the actual sense of a media company on April 2018
than most of the biggest media companies, like,
I have more resources and am pumping out more content,
properly, in an Instagram, YouTube-medium, LinkedIn,
Facebook, Snapchat, Alexa world,
than the biggest media companies in the world.
Because I.
- [Alexa] Should I play some world music?
(laughing) - No, you shouldn't, Alexa.
No, thank you, Alexa, stop.
So, I think that, I think that's the game.
Having, empathy, a nine-month old, not having a sense
of what you've done with, let's say, an apartment or home,
what you and your wife need for luxuries,
but it's literally a basic P & L
just like running a business, you know it.
I would look at, on personal brand side,
your intake of dollars, and again, your partner
and my partners believe this, if your partner believes
that it's the best interest of the Ainsworth,
if the overhead of an audio guy, a written gal,
the meme gal, the video guy, if that goes
into the Ainsworth P & L, fine, but that's.
You understand what I'm saying;
that's, you and your partner to decide.
And I'm a mix: certain things come out of my pocket,
and there's things that Beener.
- Which I do also. - Got it.
So, on your side.
- Anything personally for me doesn't touch.
- Understood, on your side, I would pour as much money
into people to build the infrastructure.
- To produce content constantly.
- At scale, contextual for platform.
In written form, audio, video, and pictures.
- So many people are reaching out to me,
"You're helping me, thank you for helping me."
- Yeah!
- This woman in Louisiana reached out to me,
"I need to lose 30 pounds by September."
- I get it.
- We accomplished that goal together.
- I get it. - Did it all through DM.
So, how can I really take it to the next level?
- Everybody has to define next level.
Are you saying monetize that opportunity?
- I don't even know, I just. - But you understand?
- Yeah, I get it. - By the way, I don't think
that's a bad thing. - For sure.
- I need to know what's next level is.
- I mean. - You need to hear it out.
For me, next level is complete penetration of awareness.
- That's what I want!
- Well, then you should charge for nothing.
- So, I just did a fitness retreat in Miami at the One Hotel
a month ago, 200 people came.
So, I totally get it.
It's not really a money thing for me
because I have nice income from our business.
- And you know it'll be there at the end if you win.
- Exactly, so, for me, it's how can I can in front
of so many more people and be more impactful.
- Hire more people.
- To continue to keep pushing and growing and growing.
On a personal level - Here.
This, that's it.
(crowd chattering)
The fuck are they doing?
What the fuck are those 20 people doing?
They're, y'know.
They're biz-tapping, they're developing,
that nerd in the corner is building my Facebook message bot.
He's filming, Andy's strategizing everything.
Seth's working on the audio.
Sof, right now, is DMing influencers that have
enough awareness and engagement
that it feels like there could be something worth my time.
Se-nan is focusing on pre-roll YouTube video.
Tyler's my ad man.
- You know we're starting to get some awareness
with athletes that are coming in, celebrities.
Saquon Barkley just trained with me at Equinox
and he ate at the restaurant.
Robert, the player on the Cardinals that you.
- Nkemdiche. - Yeah, was supposed to come.
- I get it.
- You know that, sorry.
- I know him, anything can happen.
- Yes, but, so that's also another angle
that we've been playing.
- [Man] Casper Smart.
- Casper Smart just trained, I don't know.
- Yeah.
- I don't know if he mentioned he trained with us,
so I'm getting involved now with a lot of different,
I guess, doors are opening.
- I think it's.
- You know, not only is it speaking engagements,
it's telling my story.
- I mean, listen, listen, bro.
You know, you know I know all this stuff,
meaning, you know the answers.
Like, all you have to do is more.
The answer to your question is more.
- So like.
- Brother.
- Lemme just ship out Thursday and move to L.A.
- Do it. - Do it.
- Lemme give you a really good comp.
When you have the right work out and eating regimen,
the answer is more and for a longer period of time
and you'll see results, right?
- For sure, I mean I preach it all day.
- It's how I think about this.
Like you should have a post on LinkedIn every day
for business professionals for health and fitness.
You're gonna get more of the Wall Street crowd
coming to the Ainsworth.
You're gonna have people that have hedge fund money
that are gonna wanna give you $50 million.
Literally, your LinkedIn strategy is
more important than everything.
'Cause you're gonna get the guy or the gal
who wants to write you a $50 million check
to build a $250 million fitness empire,
and then you'll decide if that's
the right move or not, right?
- Okay, cool.
- But that's not the natural place
where people go, right?
- Yeah I mean, I would've never thought to do that.
- See, well, that's like my Dick's thing,
like I got, nobody's coming here,
by the way, none of you guys are coming here
'cause I'm cute, y'know?
Like, this is what we're here for.
I think, I think, you know what I mean?
I think your LinkedIn strategy could be baller as fuck.
- Yeah.
- Like if it's all under the guise of like,
y'know, fitness for professionals,
content on LinkedIn is balling.
But, here's how I would do it,
I don't know how you are as a writer,
but I'm not, you know, it's funny, being a five time
New York Times Best Seller,
who can't put two sentences together?
- Yeah, I mean, my wife is like a beast.
- Yeah, right, like that to me,
I wasn't even thinking about that.
What I would do is film all day
and then let transcriptions come from it.
(mumbles)
Awesome. - Sure.
- More of the same. - Yeah, thank you.
- More of the same, I would take as much.
You know, to me, it's very basic.
Everything that's a luxury in your life
on the P&L of your home life,
you and your wife look at each other and be like,
you know if you take one vacation a year, could it be zero?
If you take four, could it be one?
And like, it's literally that.
Let me tell you, every time I cashed in on things,
I regretted it.
The apartment I bought in the Upper East Side
cost me more Facebook and Twitter stock.
- Damn. - Straight up.
Every time I've made a play, it costs me.
'Cause I'm on the offense.
And so taking money out for stuff means
it's not money to use.
Got it? - Got it.
- Right now I think the biggest thing
that can crush for you is if you can really go there
and afford, maybe you can, maybe you can't.
But if you can afford a four person staff,
and like you know, people are trying to get like
half pregnant on one person.
Like, yo, you know how it is.
Like, all the influencers in this space right now,
they'll have management and teams,
but like, y'know, it's really cool to be like
"Yo, you take 10, 20, 30% off of whatever you bring in."
You kill, you eat.
That's easy.
You writing a fucking check for 55,000
for an employee, that's different, right?
- Oh, yeah.
- That's what I did. - I get it.
- Just, y'know, have the empathy to know what
the score is right now, over communicate.
- Love that.
- You come in and say "yo, just hung out with
"Gary Vee, I believe him, here's the jam;
"I think it will really work, three people,
"a hundred thousand 'cause we can get three kids
"at 35, y'know, Gary will help, I think he has a good sense,
"like I think you could figure it out."
And if he's like "Fuck you!"
Then you're like "okay," then you go back
and you look at your life and you look
at your fucking bank account
and you're like "do I wanna put this up?"
And if it has to be one of 35 to start,
you see where I'm going?
- Yeah. - That is the blue print.
- Okay.
- That is what you need to do, it will work.
- So like, 24/7, or not 24/7, but.
- You know how people talk about.
- Every day in the office?
- You ready, yes.
- Every day in the kitchen, to the work out.
- The second you realize that you're
Barstool and CNN and ESPN and Vogue,
the second you realize you're that
is the second you decide "okay, if I'm that,
"well who's the writer, where's our."
Once you decide you're actually a media company
comma human being, you'll be off to the races.
- Cool. - Got it?
Everybody's like "oh machine learning
"and all this is gonna eliminate jobs."
No it's not, I have 22 full time
employees for me as a human.
Do you know what the economy around
a human being is about to look like?
- Hmm.
- Like, here's Beyonce
and here's an emerging artist that's
starting to make some money, right?
- [Man] T Grizzly.
- T Grizzly, T Grizzly, in five years,
is gonna have six full time employees, not none.
People that are just influencers
on the rise are gonna have more employees
on their payroll than the biggest stars in the world.
If he listens to me, a year from now,
he's gonna be writing out checks
to more employees, for more money
than fucking Brad Pitt.
For his business.
Maybe not for four nannies and shit, I don't.
But like, for his business.
Because Brad Pitt's business manager
and P.R. person and agent; agent and manager
are working on commission,
P.R. person's their only overhead.
- [Man] Yeah.
- Yeah. - You know.
- I get it.
- Me, I'm fucking seven figures deep.
- So are we right now.
- No, no, I'm talking my fucking team.
- Well, my company, yeah.
- No, no, my company, I'm fucking eight figures deep,
nine figures deep, actually, you know.
Seven for me, that's what's gonna happen.
- Okay, cool.
- Got it? - Yes, I appreciate it.
- So it's the balance of, y'know, just like
if you've had the luxury of growing up in a
family business or if your uncle's the manager,
watching that and now doing it for yourself
on a business side, it's just getting the right cadence.
But my big recommendation is, it's a land grab.
And anything you leave on the table,
from one extra nice watch or trip
that you can put into another copy writer,
you're gonna fucking win 10 times over when you're 41.
Take it from somebody who's 42, it feels just like 31.
And 33 and 37, it's the same shit.
- Awesome. - You know what I mean?
- I appreciate your time, thank you.
- You're welcome dude.
(upbeat dubstep music)