273. Anthony Geisler: UFC, Pilates, $8T Longevity & ULC

You wouldn't look at Anthony Geisler today and guess he was 145 pounds at six feet tall, a burned-out kid working too hard, eating too little, and sleeping less. Then a doctor gave him three pieces of advice, and Anthony drove home and joined a boxing gym that same day. That moment is where this episode starts, and it's why he and I ended up partners in the Ultimate Longevity Centers two decades later. Follow the Ultimate Longevity Center page to learn more and follow the journey in real time: https://bit.ly/4e8snbx Connect with Anthony Geisler Website: https://bit.ly/4tIRneb YouTube: https://bit.ly/4usN2wL Instagram: https://bit.ly/4eQiX5s CLICK HERE TO BECOME GARY’S VIP!: https://bit.ly/4ai0Xwg Thank you to our partners A-GAME: “ULTIMATE15” FOR 15% OFF: http://bit.ly/4kek1ij AION: “ULTIMATE10” FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/4h6KHAD AIRES: "ULTIMATE20 " FOR 20% OFF: https://bit.ly/4a3Duze BAJA GOLD: "ULTIMATE10" FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/3WSBqUa BODYHEALTH: “ULTIMATE20” FOR 20% OFF: http://bit.ly/4e5IjsV COLD LIFE: THE ULTIMATE HUMAN PLUNGE: https://bit.ly/4eULUKp CYMBIOTIKA: "ULTIMATE10" FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/4tjyluP GENETIC METHYLATION TEST (UK ONLY): https://bit.ly/48QJJrk GENETIC TEST (USA ONLY): ⁠https://bit.ly/3Yg1Uk9 GOPUFF: GET YOUR FAVORITE SNACK!: https://bit.ly/4obIFDC H2TAB: “ULTIMATE10” FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/4hMNdgg HEALF: 10% OFF YOUR ORDER: https://bit.ly/41HJg6S PEPTUAL: “TUH10” FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/4mKxgcn SNOOZE: LET’S GET TO SLEEP!: https://bit.ly/4pt1T6V WHOOP: JOIN & GET 1 FREE MONTH!: https://bit.ly/3VQ0nzW Watch the “Ultimate Human Podcast” every Tuesday & Thursday at 9AM EST: YouTube: https://bit.ly/3RPQYX8 Podcasts: https://bit.ly/3RQftU0 Connect with Gary Brecka Instagram: https://bit.ly/3RPpnFs TikTok: https://bit.ly/4coJ8fo X: https://bit.ly/3Opc8tf Facebook: https://bit.ly/464VA1H LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/4hH7Ri2 Website: https://bit.ly/4eLDbdU Merch: https://bit.ly/4aBpOM1 Newsletter: https://bit.ly/47ejrws Ask Gary: https://bit.ly/3PEAJuG Timestamps 01:29 - Introduction: Resilience, entrepreneurship, and the ULC mission 03:28 - The $100 bill and seeing two kinds of families 06:19 - 145 pounds and the doctor who saved his life 07:41 - Buying LA Boxing and the first franchise sale 09:28 - The UFC acquisition and running UFC Gym 10:50 - On the couch, then Club Pilates lands 11:32 - Scaling Club Pilates from 18 to over 1,000 stores 12:27 - The TPG exit and going public 13:40 - Why industry data matters before you build 15:40 - Pilates Addiction and 300 franchises in months 17:18 - Mass-scale wellness vs. the top 2% 18:42 - Secrets to scaling without diluting culture 26:11 - Childlike fascination and the InBody story 28:19 - Fear, Navy SEALs, and the bug that never leaves 30:00 - Advice for anyone starting late 31:48 - The $8 trillion longevity opportunity 38:52 - COVID, citizen scientists, and Gen Z dropping alcohol 39:24 - Community, connection, and run clubs as medicine Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not provide medical advice. It is not intended for diagnosing or treating any health condition. Always consult a licensed healthcare professional before making health or wellness decisions. Gary Brecka is the owner of Ultimate Human, LLC which operates The Ultimate Human podcast and promotes certain third-party products used by Gary Brecka in his personal health and wellness protocols and daily life and for which Ultimate Human LLC and / or Gary Brecka directly or indirectly holds an economic interest or receives compensation. Accordingly, statements made by Gary Brecka and others (including on The Ultimate Human podcast) may be considered. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  If you're somebody that goes to work every day and says like, I don't want to be at this desk. There's something out there that is more for me than this, then you already have the bug. Then it just becomes, do you die with the bug or do you do something about it before you die?

• 0:14Gary Brecka?

  You've had a lot of success in the franchise industry. I kind of look at the franchise industry as like, it's a very esoteric formula that makes it successful or just makes it fall flat on its face.

• 0:25Speaker 00

  Not every franchisee is successful. They have a partner to do it with, but you still have to follow the models, still have to work hard. None of this stuff in businesses just add water, right? It is all risk.

• 0:35Gary Brecka?

  To build a culture that has scaled so many businesses in so many different verticals and to keep the same team together, that's more what I'm driving at.

• 0:42Speaker 00

  I've always been very passionate about entrepreneurship. And so the thing that I love about the world of franchising is that we see people all day long that come in and this is the catalyst to get them to finally do what they want to do and start a business.

• 0:55Gary Brecka?

  So someone at any stage of their life right now, it's actually getting ready to start a business, what advice would you give to them?

• 1:01Speaker 00

  I think it's very important to, in that type of business, if you're franchising versus corporate.

• 1:18Gary Brecka?

  Hey guys, welcome back to the Ultimate Human Podcast. I'm your host, human biologist Gary Brecka, where we go down the road of everything, anti-aging, biohacking, longevity, and everything in between. And today I decided to bring a special guest on the podcast. He is a partner of mine in the Ultimate Longevity Centers, our vision for bringing social wellness to the masses. I've felt for a long time like our industry has just been chasing that top one or 2% and came up with an idea, birthed by Anthony, to bring social wellness to the masses. But this isn't just about our Ultimate Longevity Centers and what we can do to keep tens of millions of people out of the broken, bloated healthcare system. But it's more a story about resilience, entrepreneurship, and things you could apply

• 2:03Gary Brecka?

  to every single part of your daily life, about resilience, tenacity, and sticking to your dream until it comes. True, because Anthony is the embodiment of all of those things. So Anthony, welcome to the Ultimate Human Podcast, man.

• 2:16Speaker 00

  Thanks for having me, man.

• 2:17Gary Brecka?

  Yeah. And full disclosure, we're partners in the Ultimate Longevity Center. You know, along with Life Force, which is one of Tony Robbins' companies that does the corporate practice of medicine in there. And I couldn't be more excited to go on this journey with you. But I want to back your story up because I think it's so applicable to so much of my audience, because I have a lot of entrepreneurs. I have a kind of an even mix of entrepreneurs and folks that are just all on this healthcare journey, but so many of them are on their own business journey. And I find that the most impactful people that come on the podcast are the people that solve the big problem in their life. These become the most passionate,

• 2:58Gary Brecka?

  driven, purposeful, impactful people that come on here. And sometimes they're not the most credential, right? They're not the PhD, the MD, the researcher, the, you know, the biohacker. They're, they're like a soccer mom that had a kid with autism, you know what I mean? Or they had chronic Lyme disease or drug and alcohol addiction. But what was the problem that you solved in your life, or was there a problem that really led to such a successful career in the franchise space?

• 3:28Speaker 00

  Look, I think growing up, I had an interesting view. I had my best friend, who's still my best friend to this day. And his family, just simply put, had a lot of money, but not necessarily a lot of home life, you know? And I had the polar opposite. I had a great family who showed up to everything, was really supportive, but no money.

• 3:56Gary Brecka?

  I think I'd take the latter, though, man.

• 3:57Speaker 00

  You know, I got to see the two different, right? And so it was very interesting. We had, you know, there was one night, we went to his house and we showed up and he was so excited, bring me to his house for dinner, right? Because he'd always gone to my house for dinner. And so we showed up, the house was dark, and there was a hundred dollar bill. And this is, you know, 40 years ago, you know, 35 years ago. There's a hundred dollar bill in the kitchen table. The note that said, hey, sorry, not going to do dinner tonight, but take Anthony and, you know, go wherever you want to go for dinner.

• 4:27Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 4:27Speaker 00

  Well, he's literally in.

• 4:29Gary Brecka?

  Kind of like that at 14.

• 4:31Speaker 00

  He's literally in, almost in tears, right? I don't say in tears, but he's almost in tears at the counter because he was so excited for us to go and have dinner there. I can't believe there's a hundred dollars on the counter. I don't know what he's pissed about. I, I want to go like, we're going to go out to eat because I didn't get to go out to eat. Right. And he was like, hey, I'd, I'd rather go to your house for dinner tonight, right? Than to go out and eat. And so I saw the two, and I think the problem I wanted to solve early on was kind of, how do you have it all? Right? How do you create a good family life, right? And at the same time, create a good career that still allows you to raise a family, be there, have some financial viability, but really, you know, really get to do both. And so I've, I've always tried to find a way to, to balance that, right?

• 5:16Speaker 00

  And then through the world of franchising has been able to help other entrepreneurs that, that want to get into, you know, that type of business.

• 5:24Gary Brecka?

  But I feel like franchising is, I want to say it's random, but I don't think anybody like wakes up one day as an entrepreneur and is like, I want to start a franchise. So it couldn't have, or maybe it did, but I mean, did it start with, I want to start a franchise or did you find a business? Cause I know you've had some unbelievable LA boxing, which you exited to UFC.

• 5:44Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 5:45Gary Brecka?

  And, uh, which is why you and Dana are such bodies, um, exponential, uh, club Pilates. I mean, you've had a lot of success in the franchise industry. I kind of look at the franchise industry as like the hospitality space. You know, I watched Dave Grodman go from being like a VIP host to one of the most dominant forces in hospitality in one of the most difficult industries. And I kind of look at franchising as the same way, you know? It's, it's a very sort of esoteric formula that makes it successful or just makes it fall flat on its face. So how did that journey begin?

• 6:19Speaker 00

  Yeah. I think franchisees as, you know, it's kind of a, a quasi entrepreneurial journey, right? And that's why I like it. It's not somebody going. It's just gonna create Bob's Boxing on the corner and say, okay, I know nothing about this. I'm going to go at it, right? They have a partner to do it with, really. So, so that makes a big difference, right? But, you know, obviously, even in that, not every franchisee is successful.

• 6:45Gary Brecka?

  Right.

• 6:45Speaker 00

  So you still have to follow the model, still have to work hard. It's not just add water. And, and for me, how I got into it, I actually was having some health issues. I went to a doctor, a traditional doctor, and I was still six foot like I am today, but I was 145 pounds. So I was like 30 pounds lighter, 20, 30 pounds lighter.

• 7:06Gary Brecka?

  Wow, and you're lean now, man.

• 7:07Speaker 00

  Yeah. And, and so, and basically it was because I, I wasn't sleeping. I wasn't eating, you know, properly. And I was just working, you know, a lot at that point. And so the doctor literally said, he was like, look, why don't you try eating? Why don't you try sleeping and why don't you try working out? And come back to me in 30 days. And it seemed like novel advice.

• 7:29Gary Brecka?

  That is the best advice I've ever heard a doctor give, dude.

• 7:32Speaker 00

  It was great.

• 7:32Gary Brecka?

  Especially at the timeframe he was giving it to you, right?

• 7:35Speaker 00

  Years ago.

• 7:35Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 7:36Speaker 00

  Right?

• 7:36Gary Brecka?

  And, and. He was Maha before Maha was, you know, ever born.

• 7:40Speaker 00

  He was. And so on my way home, I literally drove past a boxing gym, a one-off boxing gym, and I pulled in and I went in and I signed up because I was like, I don't necessarily want to go lift something heavier than my body off my chest over and over again as a workout, like, you know, traditional workouts. I wanted to go do something. And so I went and joined LA Boxing when it had one location. And a long story short, I trained there, I fought in these, you know, way less than amateur smoker fights. It was like, you know, two angry people at a, you know.

• 8:14Gary Brecka?

  I still see that on TikTok. What do they call it? Backyard boxing or something? They got the little fence and it's like two fat dudes.

• 8:21Speaker 00

  It was good enough to be backyard boxing. I think it was like two angry women in a bar fight. I don't know what it was, but it was, it was bad. But, but, you know, I did that and I actually really enjoyed it. And I ended up buying that business and that location from the founders. I opened a second one in a suburban. Neighborhood, opened a third one in kind of a blue collar neighborhood and they were all corporate at that point. And at that point, I was, I was out of capital to go forward, right? I didn't come from a family that, that had money. And I didn't have enough to, enough assets to get an SBA loan or do any of those kinds of things. And so, um, once I got to three, um, I ended up meeting a franchise salesperson and he said, you should be franchising this.

• 9:03Speaker 00

  And I knew as much about franchising as like McDonald's existed or whatever at that point, but I, I didn't know anything about it. And, you know, just kind of began my, my journey of franchising, uh, LA boxing. And I think that first one was 2004, I think is when I sold that. And I think we opened that in 2005.

• 9:23Gary Brecka?

  So you changed its name or was it called LA?

• 9:26Speaker 00

  It was LA boxing.

• 9:27Gary Brecka?

  It was called LA boxing?

• 9:28Speaker 00

  It was LA boxing and we had sold, the numbers get away from me now, but I believe it was close to 200 and we had close to 100 open. Maybe, you know, 60, 70, 80, you know, something like that open. And the Fertitas came along, uh, from UFC. They had created UFC gym at that point. I think they maybe had five locations. They were really big boxes, you know, three and a half million bucks and 40,000 square feet. They were really massive, uh, but those are hard to build and they're hard to franchise, right? And so, um, they'd came to me and said, hey, can, you know, can we change the name? And will you stick around and run it? And I said, yeah, let's, let's do it. So, um, they ended up buying LA boxing.

• 10:09Speaker 00

  We changed all the brand to UFC gym and I ran UFC gym as its president until I think it was 2014.

• 10:16Gary Brecka?

  Wow, that's, that's awesome. So you had a partial exit?

• 10:19Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 10:19Gary Brecka?

  And then went on the ride with the guys from the, from the UFC?

• 10:22Speaker 00

  I did, yeah, I went on, uh, I think it was, I think it was 85% if I remember right that I sold. And so I had a, I had a small piece going forward and then, you know, they bought the rest of that back for me when I exited and, and I had a few stores myself, um, that they bought along the way. I, you know, I had some stores that I had either set up or bought or, or whatever it was along the way. And so we sold those to them and, and that was it. And then I was, uh, I was home on the couch. For a little bit, my wife was pregnant, um, you know, with our first daughter and, and then, um, you know, some guys came along in the, in Newport Beach and said, hey, there's this lady struggling with a, a brand called Club Pilates and she's put it up for sale in San Diego. I think there was

• 11:06Speaker 00

  18 stores or something like that. Five were like corporate.

• 11:10Gary Brecka?

  All around San Diego.

• 11:11Speaker 00

  Yeah, San Diego, Orange County. It was kind of SoCal mostly. And, um, I went out to meet her and, um, when I went to meet her, you know, the conversation evolved into, hey, why don't you, you know, why don't you just buy this? I, I want to teach. I don't really want to run a business. And, um, and so that was, uh, that's what we did.

• 11:31Gary Brecka?

  And then, um, how did Club Pilates go? Was that another exit for you?

• 11:35Speaker 00

  Yeah. So Club Pilates, we took that from, you know, those stores were doing about $250,000 a year. And over time, um, and I said, I think there was like 18 of them open and over time, you know, we were able to open over a thousand stores and

• 11:48Gary Brecka?

  Over a thousand?

• 11:49Speaker 00

  Yeah. And take the average to a million bucks.

• 11:51Gary Brecka?

  Wow.

• 11:52Speaker 00

  So we're able to drive that, you know, four racks, um, you know, and I just, uh, ended up taking that business and then, um, exited that, uh, to TPG, uh, private equity firm. I think they were like an $85 billion firm at that point, but ended up exiting to them.

• 12:09Gary Brecka?

  Can I ask you what you exited for?

• 12:10Speaker 00

  Uh, I don't know if I'm allowed to say, but it was, uh, it was, it was a lot more.

• 12:14Gary Brecka?

  More than a little and less than all you need.

• 12:16Speaker 00

  Yes. Okay. It was, uh, yeah. I mean, I thought it's

• 12:19Gary Brecka?

  It's like whenever somebody asks Dana White if he's a billionaire, he's like, I'm doing just fine.

• 12:23Speaker 00

  Yeah, we're doing okay. Uh, I mean, for me personally, because, you know, the way I grew up, we didn't, you know, we didn't have a ton of money. And so when I, when I exited to the UFC, both, both at closing and then again, at the end, um, that was enough for me to, to not work. Um, you know, with the way I wanted to live and way, the way life looked. And then, um, you know, I ended up selling to TPG for four times what I sold to UFC for. So, um, so for me, I was, I mean, I was really happy with, with where that was at that point. And then TPG. You know, wanted to continue that relationship and add other brands kind of to that portfolio.

• 13:07Speaker 00

  So I still, when I exited the TPG, I still retained 30% of the business. So I sold 70% of it and then we created this portfolio company and added another nine brands to it. So ended up with 10 brands and a portfolio company.

• 13:22Gary Brecka?

  And are you still a part of that or are you?

• 13:24Speaker 00

  I'm still, I took the company public. So I still, I think I'm still one of the larger shareholders of that. It's always hard to keep up with kind of who's who at what point, but yeah, I'm still a, still a large shareholder of the business.

• 13:39Gary Brecka?

  And, and you know, you and I have an interesting story to tell too, which I'll tell here in a second. But I mean, you, you made a comment, I wrote, actually wrote it down, you made a quote that,

• 13:52Gary Brecka?

  and it had to do with the importance of data. And you said, for an operator, the research that matters is industry data, the numbers that frame,

• 14:03Gary Brecka?

  what Anthony is building in ULC now, and probably why my audience should care.

• 14:09Gary Brecka?

  What is it about industry data that matters? I mean, what, what, you know, when, when, when an entrepreneur is looking to scale a business, you know, how important is industry data? Where do you get it? And then how do you utilize it to craft your, your, your plan?

• 14:23Speaker 00

  Yeah. So if you look at kind of what you and I are doing, for instance, at Ultimate Longevity Center, UBS has pegged that to be eight trillion over the next 48 months, right?

• 14:33Gary Brecka?

  And so 48 months?

• 14:34Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 14:35Gary Brecka?

  Well, I'm feeling pretty good about this.

• 14:37Speaker 00

  Over the next.

• 14:38Gary Brecka?

  Of course you didn't get into it for the money, money trajectory. I got into it for the impact, but, but it's a.

• 14:43Speaker 00

  Yeah. So when you look at it, you say, okay, there's a massive, right? Whatever piece of that you're going to own, right? But there's a, there's a massive go get, right? So obviously you want to start a business where there's demand for people and you know, there's demand. And then you, you know, do your best to go out and fill that demand. It was even, and I looked at that in the boxing space, right? There was nobody out there, there's no brand name in boxing, right? Boxing gyms were not a new concept. Pilates gyms were not a new concept. There was Pilates everywhere. And when we created Club Pilates, we created that at scale because there was no one at scale.

• 15:21Gary Brecka?

  Right.

• 15:21Speaker 00

  And now today, you know, I think the second largest business that I that I can think of behind Club Pilates is probably Solid Core and they're probably 90% smaller.

• 15:33Gary Brecka?

  Wow.

• 15:34Speaker 00

  By locations. I think last time I checked, they were, you know, at about 150.

• 15:37Gary Brecka?

  Pilates is that that popular? I mean, I mean, you know, it's interesting because now that I think about it, my daughter, my wife, my daughter-in-law, a podcast manager who just, by the way, became Pilates certified. She is official Pilates coach.

• 15:52Speaker 00

  Very nice. Congratulations.

• 15:53Gary Brecka?

  They all do Pilates, you know, and there's a Pilates studio in my building. So actually, you're probably right.

• 15:57Speaker 00

  Yeah. And even after us building, you know, 1,000 plus stores with Club Pilates, you know, we came back with sequel and we just launched Pilates Addiction, which is a, you know, a high intensity Pilates workout on a gold machine. So pretty cool LED lights and, you know, kind of think of what SoulCycle did to cycling is what Pilates Addiction is is doing to Pilates. And we've sold 300 of those in the last several months, just kind of out of the gate. So there's still massive demand and then we're seeing those stores open really well, really strong. So that's the great thing. And yeah, you're not necessarily getting into a business just to make money. But you also, if you don't have high enough demand and high enough, you know,

• 16:40Speaker 00

  ability to go and make money, then you're not going to be a business either, right? So it's at least knowing that there's a big go get to go after out there. And we're still seeing that Pilates, we're obviously seeing it in the longevity space. So same is true where, you know, Ultimate Longevity Center is not the the first longevity center on planet earth. Right. But there is not at scale a brand name that is out there. Right. That has done it. Right. And for us, you know, we've sold well over 100 Ultimate Longevity Centers in the first month, which is great. And you know,

• 17:18Gary Brecka?

  No, I was astounded at the adoption rate and I didn't want to turn it into a commercial for the Ultimate Longevity Centers, but I just really felt that need to not just go after that top 2% to really get down into the Masses and and not, you know, just try to find the people that can afford a $20,000 stem cell IV or these expensive $15,000 blood filtration technologies. But how do we go out there, reach the message, do, do, you know, testing on a mass scale, hormone balance, peptides, but also give people what you call the playground, you know, which is where you can create community and connection around something other than drugs and alcohol and nightclubs, but around like real, real connection,

• 18:00Gary Brecka?

  sauna, you know, red light therapy, cold plunging, you know, lymphatic changes, hyperbarics, like, so when you leave, you're better off than when you arrived and do it over and over.

• 18:11Speaker 00

  And you're seeing that in the pop up we built, right? When these people come in, you're, you're seeing 25, 30 people in there and it is, it reminds me of kids in a playground where it's like they, they get off the cold plunge, like it's a slide.

• 18:24Gary Brecka?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 18:24Speaker 00

  They go talk to their buddy or their partner, their spouse and they're like, hey, did you, did you try that? Well, did you try this? Well, I'm going to go try that while you go over there. And it's kind of like seeing the people on the slides and the monkey bars and the whatever is. And so I think we're definitely going to see that, that community base out of it, too.

• 18:40Gary Brecka?

  So what's the, you know, for, for people that are watching this, and I've got a very strong base of entrepreneurs, they're obviously also health and wellness focused, but what are, what are some of the secrets to scaling a business, maintaining a culture? Because there's, there's zero chance that you go from 18 locations to over a thousand locations. I mean, you think about a thousand locations, that's like 20 locations in every state in America. You know, that is a massive undertaking. I at one time had three clinic locations in my, in my previous clinic. We required, we had one, we were to three or four, and just the infinite complexity of four versus one.

• 19:24Gary Brecka?

  And what I noticed was as we added clinics, we made more money overall, but less money per clinic, because there was this dilution, right? And, and when we originally started, we thought, well, if you have one clinic and You know, it's earning a certain amount of money and when you have another one, you'll double your revenue.

• 19:44Speaker 00

  Right.

• 19:44Gary Brecka?

  And then what happens is this one drops by 30% and this one only does 70% of your first one.

• 19:51Speaker 00

  It's like having children. You can't go from one to four and they all get the same attention.

• 19:55Gary Brecka?

  Yeah, exactly. I cracked my way to four, you know. I had three, waited about the 10 years and then picked another one up. But I had them three years apart, so it was great spacing. But what is the secret to, to scale in a business like that and maintaining a culture?

• 20:16Speaker 00

  Well, I think different than what you did on the corporate side and the franchising side, right? You're partnering with somebody who's local, right? And so for them, they are building, their average franchisee at the time had three. And so they are outbuilding their one, two and three, but there's a lot of people outbuilding their one, two and threes, right? And so you, you get a lot of that. And so if you sell 300 franchises, let's say, you're selling, you know, three to 100 different people.

• 20:42Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 20:43Speaker 00

  And so, you know, you can open 100 stores in your one, 100 stores in your two, 100 stores in your three, when really that's 100 people out opening one and another one, another one, kind of year over year over year. So I think it's very important to, in that type of business, if you are franchising versus corporate, of course, pick really good partners and then support them to the best of your ability.

• 21:05Gary Brecka?

  Yeah, just be a really good partner.

• 21:06Speaker 00

  Yeah, the tough part about franchising is that, you know, you're franchising with partners, right? And so they have lives.

• 21:12Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 21:12Speaker 00

  They have people pass away, people get divorced, they need to move, they have different financial things that happen, they lose a job, they, whatever it might be. So you're, you're dealing with a lot of, you know, you and a partner and then the partner's life, right?

• 21:26Gary Brecka?

  Right.

• 21:26Speaker 00

  And kind of how do you, how do you go about that?

• 21:28Gary Brecka?

  Yeah. You know, and then more so even in, in Sequel, your parent company, because I noticed that you have a real culture, you know, profound work ethic. When I went to the headquarters, I was really, really just impressed. A lot of these people have been with you for 20 plus years.

• 21:44Speaker 00

  10, 15, 20, yeah.

• 21:46Gary Brecka?

  Yeah, you, you find very little legacy companies right now. I just think, just in general, our, our attention span is shorter. People feel undervalued, you know, their feelings get hurt so easily. You know, so to build a culture that has scaled, you know, so many businesses in so many different verticals and to keep the same team together.

• 22:08Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 22:08Gary Brecka?

  That's more what I'm driving at. How, how, how does someone create that culture and sustain it over time?

• 22:16Speaker 00

  Yeah, and it's, you know, it's been interesting, that particular team. And we've literally opened, you know, 3,000 stores.

• 22:21Gary Brecka?

  That's what I mean, that's mind numbing.

• 22:23Speaker 00

  And it's, but all of us were single without kids, basically even when we started, you know? And then you become.

• 22:30Gary Brecka?

  That's the trick. You're single without kids.

• 22:32Speaker 00

  That's where you start. But then we ended up married with kids. So we literally all grew up together. And I think what's so important is, you could put together a great team with great people as individuals, but can they play well together on the team? And do they know each other well enough to know, you know, what everyone's flavor is? Where they're strong, where they're weak, you know? Think in general, you have, you know, salespeople, you typically can push salespeople. And one of my very first salespeople, when we pushed him, he just, he turtled. He was like, well, look, if, if I'm not the great, you know, a good salesperson, then you should just get somebody who is because maybe this job isn't for me, right? You're like, no, you're actually a good salesperson. We're just, we're pushing salespeople.

• 23:15Speaker 00

  But, um, you know, and the, and the membership sales side, right? And so, you know, you're trying to drive franchisees and their, their teams to do well. But, you know, sometimes you gotta know, you know, who, who gets pushed which way.

• 23:28Gary Brecka?

  Right.

• 23:29Speaker 00

  And so for us as a, as a culture, we are, I mean, for the size business we are and the size business we were in the, in the past company, um, you know, we really operate like a family business, you know? And that means when, when someone's down, you pick them up, right? And you treat people like humans and, and like adults.

• 23:48Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 23:48Speaker 00

  And I think people respect that too. Where they're like, look, you know, you're an adult, you'll figure it out, right? We're here to support you, um, as opposed to just, you know, leaving people on their own island.

• 23:58Gary Brecka?

  But yeah, yeah, I agree with that. You know, when, uh, when you first approached me, uh, I was highly skeptical, not skeptical of you, just. Skeptical, I had had a lot of, you know, framework around franchising. Not all of it bad, not all of it good, you know, it's a big unknown for me. I knew that I wanted to make an impact and I knew that I wanted my message to reach the masses. And I wanted to touch as many lives as as we could. But what was it that you made you? I think it was Callie Means from HHS, Health and Human Services, that actually first introduced us.

• 24:35Speaker 00

  The first night, so it was interesting. So, you know, I start on my own health journey, right? I've been, I've been doing, you know, kind of the Gary Protocol before I was finding Gary.

• 24:46Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 24:47Speaker 00

  I found this little angry marine in my neighborhood who had a gym. And, you know, nine years ago, I went to work out with him, right? And I spent first 15 minutes, I thought I was gonna die. And I was up against a wall and he came and gave me a red solo cup with salt in it and told me to drink it. And, and I knew like every other human, you don't drink salt. You don't drink ocean water, you die.

• 25:12Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 25:12Speaker 00

  But at that point, I was willing to do whatever to feel better than where I was. And I did, and I came back. And he came over to me and he was like, you're back. And I'm like, yeah. And I thought this is the part where he sends me home and I get to be done for the day. And he's like, now go finish the workout.

• 25:28Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 25:29Speaker 00

  And I was actually able to finish and push through that. And so originally, when I saw what you were doing, the message you were spreading, I'm like, you're, you're on the exact right path and right, right track. And I actually had a couple of friends that knew Sage.

• 25:45Gary Brecka?

  Really?

• 25:46Speaker 00

  So I was texting with Sage and then I saw the UFC fight.

• 25:51Gary Brecka?

  That's right.

• 25:52Speaker 00

  Dana was there and I was talking to Dana and you came up and then we talked. And I said, I actually know Sage or have been talking to Sage. And we went over and then Callie was there.

• 26:01Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 26:02Speaker 00

  You, me and Callie took a picture together and, you know, that kind of kicked, kicked everything off.

• 26:07Gary Brecka?

  Yeah. But I mean, you, you have like, I find like that you have this childlike fascination with longevity and wellness. And, and I think that intellectual curiosity, it's, first of all, it's one of the most attractive things to me and any human being, being, being intellectually curious, being passionate about something, whether it's health and wellness or artwork, you know? I used to go to Art Basel here in Miami every year and. I knew nothing about art. I still knew nothing about art. You know, I don't profess to be a contemporary art collector, but every year that I would go, I would be so impressed by listening to an artist talk about like the passion that went into a certain piece. And I would even get this like momentary sense of jealousy where I was like, man, I wish I could get that jacked over something like that.

• 26:52Speaker 00

  Over something I care about enough. Yeah.

• 26:54Gary Brecka?

  I was super not that excited about your painting when I walked up, but now I think it's the coolest thing in the world because the way you described to me, you know.

• 27:00Speaker 00

  It took you on the journey.

• 27:02Gary Brecka?

  Yeah. So I feel like you had that kind of childlike fascination with the human body and performance and, you know, fitness. I mean, you, you seem to have scaled in that, in that sort of wide vertical, you know.

• 27:15Speaker 00

  And I like to compete. You know, you sent me Cole's in body and I said, that's it. I'm coming for him. Yeah, now I'm coming for him. Here we go.

• 27:22Gary Brecka?

  You got like 4.6%.

• 27:24Speaker 00

  I got like three and a half at one point before my 50th birthday.

• 27:28Gary Brecka?

  That's actually getting too low, man. Yeah.

• 27:29Speaker 00

  It's that in-body scanner. I don't know. It's.

• 27:31Gary Brecka?

  The 50th birthday took you back to 10% just that one night.

• 27:35Speaker 00

  I did. Again, 11 pounds over the weekend.

• 27:37Gary Brecka?

  Yeah, I don't think you remember FaceTiming me during that, but you definitely gained the seven pounds of body fat back.

• 27:43Speaker 00

  I wanted to be a part of it.

• 27:45Gary Brecka?

  But, um, you know, is that kind of the driver too? Because I, it can't just be a monetary obstacle to, to work that hard and to deal with all the headaches you have in the franchise industry. I mean, is that what the golden goose is to find something you're either passionate about or, you know, intellectually curious about and turn it into a business?

• 28:05Speaker 00

  Yeah. And I, I don't think I, yes, I'm passionate about fitness and, and health and wellness, but on the franchise side of it, that's the product, right? That we sell on the franchise side of the business. And I, I went to USC, I graduated from their entrepreneur program. I've always been very passionate about entrepreneurship. And so the thing that I love about the world of franchising is that we see people all day long that come in and this is the catalyst to get them to finally do what they want to do and start a business. And we had one of the franchisees in the other day who was looking at buying a franchise and he said, hey, you know, I opened up for questions and he's like, hey, how do you get over the fear? And I said, you don't. You never do. I said, I, you know, I started this backup and I'm scared.

• 28:50Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 28:51Speaker 00

  Right? And so it doesn't matter how much money you have. It doesn't matter what your resume is. It doesn't matter any of that. I said, every time a Navy SEAL goes on a mission, they should be scared.

• 29:01Gary Brecka?

  Right.

• 29:01Speaker 00

  Right? Like, I feel like, I don't know, you've had these guys on here and have to ask them which ones are, right? But I've, I've heard these stories where on the way to missions and some guys are sleeping, some guys are freaked out. Right? But, um, but I feel like even if you've done a hundred missions or whatever, whatever a large number is of missions and you go to do another one, like you should still, you should still be tentative. You're gonna jump out of a helicopter or go somewhere in the dark or swim underwater for 30 minutes or whatever it might be, like that should freak you out. And, um, and that was my answer to them was like, hey, look, you, you don't get over it, right? You manage it.

• 29:36Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 29:36Speaker 00

  You manage it, you get through it, you do your best to de-risk as much as you possibly can. But none of this stuff in business is just ad water, right? It is, it is all risk.

• 29:47Gary Brecka?

  So someone at any stage of their life right now, Gen Z year, that's actually getting ready to start a business, someone who's actually comfortable right now in a, in a, in a long-term career, but is inspired by, either by something you, you said, or, or by something that they, you know, a trend that they've seen and they want to actually break out of that comfort zone.

• 30:09Gary Brecka?

  And, and go out and do something on, on their own. What, what advice would you give to them?

• 30:14Speaker 00

  Depending on the size of the business and I, you know, I always hate to say, you should, you know, don't just quit your job and uproot your family. I've seen people do it and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But, uh, I've always very careful not to say that. But, um, I think just getting involved in an industry that you're in and also knowing that it's not too late. Like, I don't know if you know who Gary Vee is, but I,

• 30:33Gary Brecka?

  I do, yeah.

• 30:34Speaker 00

  I saw him this morning at breakfast.

• 30:36Gary Brecka?

  Oh, did you really?

• 30:36Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 30:37Gary Brecka?

  Here in Miami?

• 30:38Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 30:38Gary Brecka?

  Oh, right.

• 30:39Speaker 00

  Hotel this morning and, uh, you know, he always talks about, hey, it's not too late. Also, right? All the people, because you think, well, I'm married, I have kids, or I'm in this career for 20 years, I'm in this career for 30 years. It's not too late. You know, I would say the average age of a franchisee we even see come in is probably mid 40s to mid 50s. You know, these are people that have been in a career 20, 30 years. But what I always tell them is, look, if you've ever thought about starting your own business, then you already have the bug.

• 31:11Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 31:11Speaker 00

  Right? Because there's plenty of people that just haven't even thought about it. It doesn't appeal to them.

• 31:15Gary Brecka?

  Right.

• 31:15Speaker 00

  They're very happy to get up, go do the job that they do, come home. They've got this guaranteed income with promotions and increases and bonuses. And they're, they're 1,000% complete with that, which is great.

• 31:25Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 31:26Speaker 00

  But if you're somebody that goes to work every day and says like, hmm, I don't want to be at this desk. I don't want to be in this cubicle. I don't want to be in this office. There's something out there that is more for me than this. Then you already have the bug. Then it just becomes, do you die with the bug? Or do you do something about it before you die?

• 31:43Gary Brecka?

  Yeah. Wow. It's a, it's a really refreshing way to look at it. What, what, what excites you so much about Ultimate Longevity Centers?

• 31:51Speaker 00

  It is.

• 31:52Gary Brecka?

  What we're doing together.

• 31:53Speaker 00

  Yeah. It's a couple of things, right? It's the, the ability that we're going to have to go make a massive impact, right? Because there, I don't think there's ever been another time, and you know better than me, but in, you know, in the longevity space, I felt like no one was listening even three years ago, four years ago, I mean, nine years ago, when I was eating clean, I had to go to so many different grocery stores just to try and make a meal.

• 32:20Gary Brecka?

  No doubt. Yeah.

• 32:21Speaker 00

  Um, I remember when, I think it was Primal Kitchen came out with like ketchup or something. And that was crazy.

• 32:27Gary Brecka?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly.

• 32:28Speaker 00

  There was like 900 flavors and 10 different people like that, or whatever it might be. And so now you can go to a basic grocery store and still shop and get good food. You know, you can eat a whole food diet. You don't have to go to any of these specialty markets. They're great when you do, but, but you don't necessarily have to anymore. So I feel like people are starting to listen the last few years. Um, I feel like. And whatever you feel on politics, I feel like there's an administration that is listening to this that is open to the change, which is great.

• 33:05Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 33:06Speaker 00

  And whether that's the timing of the conversation, if it's the Maha Moms, the Maha Movement, you know, whatever, like, like anything great, it's probably all of it.

• 33:15Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 33:16Speaker 00

  It's a recipe of a lot of great things that are all happening at the same time. You know, you'd be us looking at this marketplace to say that this is here says that it can be a viable business to help people a really long time. And I love what you do. I love the work that you do, but you're also one guy.

• 33:34Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 33:35Speaker 00

  Right. And I've seen your schedule and I've seen the people that are trying to get on it and have a minute of it or eight minutes of it or whatever it might be.

• 33:43Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 33:44Speaker 00

  And so really, how do we take what you're doing, take the side of the business that Life Force is doing, right, and put those together and have the ability for somebody who is, you know, getting a Starbucks and walking back to their car to finally say, okay, this is where the journey starts. Cause that's one of the things that you've said that that really impacted me in the business was the number one question you get is everyone's like, where do I start?

• 34:10Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 34:10Speaker 00

  Right. Because, you know, you can listen to your podcasts, you can, you know, see the things online that that you do. And then when it's done, it's almost like getting on the phone with Gary. And then when he hangs up, you're like, all right, now what?

• 34:23Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 34:24Speaker 00

  Now what do I do tomorrow? What do I do today?

• 34:26Gary Brecka?

  Yeah, exactly.

• 34:26Speaker 00

  How do I start this journey? And, and I think it is so much easier done at scale in brick and mortar, where people can park in their grocery center and they can walk in, someone can say, well, yeah, this is where it starts, right? It starts right here. And we measure baseline protocols, right? We look at where you're, you know, you're deficient. We supplement where you're deficient and we have the playground, right? Where you have hyperbaric chambers and red light and lymphatic drainage and cryo guns and all these things that that are there. And I think I always tell everybody the second most confronting thing outside of, you know, getting your blood work. Got done is, you know, these in body scanners.

• 35:07Gary Brecka?

  Oh, yeah, yeah.

• 35:07Speaker 00

  Right. Where you

• 35:08Gary Brecka?

  Very revealing.

• 35:09Speaker 00

  For the first time, because everybody may know their scale weight within five or 10 pounds.

• 35:13Gary Brecka?

  Right.

• 35:14Speaker 00

  But scale weight doesn't really matter as much as, as the other kind of pieces of it. Right. And so people find out for the first time, someone who doesn't appear to, you would never call them fat or say they were overweight, all of a sudden finds out they got a lot of visceral fat.

• 35:29Gary Brecka?

  Right.

• 35:30Speaker 00

  Yeah. And they could have just gone their whole life not knowing it.

• 35:33Gary Brecka?

  Right.

• 35:33Speaker 00

  And so, you know, people getting on that machine, kind of in a physical world, right? The outside physicality of like, okay, what's going on in my body or a DEXA scanner or any of these things. Um, and then matching that up with what's going on inside.

• 35:46Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 35:46Speaker 00

  Right. And then how do I supplement for that? I just think it's, I think it is a crossroads of, of something that is truly perfect. Right. With the people that you have in your platform, how longevity is going and our busy, our ability to scale. I think those are the three pieces that, that put this in shopping center.

• 36:04Gary Brecka?

  Yeah. I mean, I, I really agree with that. And for me, it was about, uh, you know, sometimes the pendulum swings so far. And, and then it takes a while to swing back. And I think they, you know, in a way, the pandemic did us all kind of a favor. Cause it put everybody's wellness in, right in their own face. And I think it woke up a generation of citizen scientists that said, I want to take my healthcare choices into my own hands. Maybe that I'm not as trusting as I was of governmental elites or what have you. I'm not going to outsource my healthcare choices to the extent that I don't have to. And I'm going to take matters into my own hands. And, and I also think that, because I know Gen Z, because I have four kids and they're all Gen Z.

• 36:47Gary Brecka?

  I've got a 17 year old, a 22 year old, 25 year old and 28 year old. So I run the whole gamut. And what I see happening in that generation is very promising to me. You know, the alcohol consumption is down 34% in that generation. That's a third of the alcohol consumption. I mean, the last thing you want to be is like a vodka brand, you know.

• 37:08Speaker 00

  Yeah. I don't know how true this is, but I heard online that at Coachella, which they had, um, which is. That Gen Z.

• 37:15Gary Brecka?

  Mm hmm.

• 37:15Speaker 00

  That they sold more at Stagecoach in the first night, which is an older demographic.

• 37:22Gary Brecka?

  Really?

• 37:22Speaker 00

  They did all at Coachella.

• 37:24Gary Brecka?

  Really?

• 37:24Speaker 00

  Yeah, cuz no one drinks there anymore.

• 37:26Gary Brecka?

  Right.

• 37:26Speaker 00

  There's uh.

• 37:27Gary Brecka?

  Pretty wild.

• 37:28Speaker 00

  Lines, less to no lines and things like that, which is just amazing.

• 37:31Gary Brecka?

  And and I think too that people are craving real human connection again, like community and connection again. Like the number of run clubs and social wellness clubs and and uh each of my kids has been in different run clubs here. I mean, some of their biggest DJs like Diplo and and some of the biggest rap artists are having run run clubs now. And I think it's it's a sign of the times and a shift in people's uh, you know, attention going towards community and connection. So having an environment where they can connect and and create a sense of community with with people that are on a a like minded journey.

• 38:07Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 38:07Gary Brecka?

  With them. Um, it's it's one of the foundational underpinnings of longevity. We we don't talk about it a lot. We don't talk about faith, uh, community, connection as being medicine, but they are.

• 38:19Speaker 00

  Right.

• 38:19Gary Brecka?

  And and to do that at scale, you know, as I got involved with Secretary Kennedy and and the Maha movement, I realized it's gonna be decades before we fix the bloated, broken healthcare system. There's too much entrenched um, my uh, worth there, there, you know, big food, big pharma. And other entrenched corporate interests, including chemical companies.

• 38:44Gary Brecka?

  They just have too much of a stranglehold on it, but what we could do to make an impact is keep people out of that system in mass.

• 38:50Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 38:50Gary Brecka?

  Right? And knowing that eighty five percent of all chronic disease right now is preventable. The things like what we're building, you know, it's really exciting.

• 38:59Speaker 00

  And as you talked about with COVID, I think everyone pre-COVID thought somebody else, whether it was the FDA, the government, whoever it might have been was, you know, yeah, was in charge of their healthcare.

• 39:11Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 39:11Speaker 00

  Right? And so they're just kinda like, hey, they're in they're in charge of my healthcare. I just kinda muddle along and do whatever the doctor says. And somebody out there like this, you know, overlord or something of health is is out there looking at it. And when COVID happened, you know, I remember people sitting there. I was sitting there and you're like, well, now what? How do I do? Now you're locked in your house. You've got something you can't see that's out there. You know, you got parents, you got kids, you got all that stuff. And like you said, then people figured out, wait. Like I'm in charge.

• 39:40Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 39:41Speaker 00

  Right. Like I'm in charge of my home protection. Right. And I need to make sure I'm making those choices. And so I feel like people, you know, getting out of their houses, you know, really realize that that community connection was taken from them.

• 39:53Gary Brecka?

  Yep.

• 39:53Speaker 00

  Right. You weren't having Christmas with family. You weren't doing those kinds of things, you know, so many parts of the world you, you know, your neighbors called the police when you went outside.

• 40:01Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 40:02Speaker 00

  And so, you know.

• 40:03Gary Brecka?

  That pendulum swung a little far in some senses.

• 40:06Speaker 00

  But now people realize that they're in charge and, you know, they want to get back out and be with people and, and really be in charge of their own health.

• 40:14Gary Brecka?

  Yeah. Well, Anthony is this great man. I'm, uh, you know, I'll be the first one to say I'm proud to be your partner and, and really excited about what the work that we're doing together and the opportunity we're going to create for the masses, you know, to create community and connection around wellness and longevity and anti-aging and bring the best of evidence-based therapies into middle America so that we can, we can really move the needle for people. We're going to go into my VIP room now because my VIPs have a lot of, a lot of questions for you. But do thank you so much for coming on the Alt.

• 40:46Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 40:47Gary Brecka?

  And I'm excited about this journey.

• 40:49Speaker 00

  Sure.

• 40:49Gary Brecka?

  Till next time, guys. That's just science.