Crafting a Life Blueprint: Navigating Identity, Fatherhood, and Intention with Former Hormozi VP Tim Calise

Transcript

I loved this episode, and you are going to as well, man. Tim Colisse, Tim's got a A lot of variety has passed as far as his professional career and and path. He's had several different chapters as he describes them. But, man, he drops so much wisdom. He's an investor and primarily a a business consultant and business coach. I can see now why Alex Hormozie called him to, bring bring Tim on board to be a part of Alex's executive team with gym launch If you don't know who Alex and Layla Hormozi are, you need to to Google them real quickly, but they are on, an incredible trajectory themselves Tim, our guest today, was a huge factor in Alex's success and layla's success with, gym launch which has been was phenomenal. He is a wealth of knowledge, high energy. This episode's all about relationships. I think that's the primary through line here. And the fact that, there are more more ways to do get to success than just one. I think, Tim talks about how he grew up in a sort of a traditional finance world mindset, go to school, be the smartest, and get a get a job with a big finance company and work that for the rest of your life. And and be happy and that just wasn't a fit for him. And, so he's made some big decisions along the way to pivot and try new things. One of the stories he talks about is how for four years, they raised about three hundred and fifty million dollars, to create a hedge fund, and then they ended up giving that money all back before the two thousand eight crash. So essentially, quote unquote, wasted four years of his life. But in hindsight, He certainly did not. There were a ton of lessons learned that you're gonna hear today. He drops a lot of wisdom toward the end of the show for sure, so you're gonna wanna stick around. Buckle up.

Speaker 1

Welcome to the from adversity to abundance podcast.

Speaker 2

Are you an entrepreneur or aspiring

Speaker 1

entrepreneur, then this show is for you. Each week, we bring you impactful stories of real people who have overcome painful human adversity to create a life of abundance. Life of abundance. You are not alone in your struggle. Join us and you will experience the power of true stories and gained practical knowledge from founders who have turned poverty into prosperity and weakness into wealth. This podcast will encourage you through your health, relationship, and financial challenges so you can become the hero in your quest for freedom. Take ownership of the life you are destined to live. Turn your adversity into abundance.

Speaker 0

Welcome everybody to another episode of the from adversity to abundance podcast. I am your host, Jamie Batman, and I'm thrilled today to have with us. Tim Colise, Tim is an investor, consultant, business, genius, and, among many other things, a father, etcetera. And we're gonna get into a lot of the the relationship type stuff. But, Tim, how are you doing today?

Speaker 2

I'm doing great, Jamie. Thank you for having me on the show. I'm, really looking forward to it.

Speaker 0

Absolutely. And I know, I'm really excited to I, you you were flexible enough to reschedule, and I appreciate that. So, So who are you? We we touched on it briefly, but what are you up to today professionally? What are you, what's your focus today?

Speaker 2

Yeah. Professionally, I am an investor and consultant for service based businesses. My belief is that business is built on relationships. And so I work primarily in, service businesses that have or want to have. A recurring revenue component. So membership, subscriptions, things like that, and it could be traditional service or things like technology, say, software, SaaS, those types of things. But, you know, I just fundamentally believe that creating a, a relationship with with a customer or a client solving problems for them today and into the future is is really where I have found my expertise.

Speaker 0

Yeah. Well, I will say it didn't take me very long to find out that you run-in some, some well respected circles in the business world, and and you've dealt with some some, definitely, I'll say famous entrepreneurs. So can you do you mind naming one or two before we jump into your backstory?

Speaker 2

Sure. Probably the the most well known one right and I take a lot of pride and, have have been on the executive team at gym launch alongside Alex and live or for Mosey. But in addition to that, I have a phenomenal mentor, and a gentleman named Sharon Shravaza, who I believe we both, we both know. It was both in real estate as well as banking, investing, etcetera, and just kind of both being a a phenomenal guide, but also kind of a sage in in the advice that he's been able to give me and see around some of those corners that, that I that I'm not seeing. And then I started my career in the financial services business working on a team with a little over two billion dollars under management. And so I've been fortunate enough to find my way into some some great rooms and and stand shoulder to shoulder with some great people.

Speaker 0

Yeah. It's fantastic. Yeah. The Hormozies are obviously a on a on a a significant rise right now for sure. And and and I've really gotten into Alex's podcast in particular. He offers so much. And then Sean is Sean is the man. He's such a such an awesome guide. I've gotten to know him a little bit over the last couple years. It's been fantastic. He just continues to give, and and that's just just awesome, and he's he's super smart. But but this episode is not about either of those two. This episode is about you, Tim, and and you story, but but really also about the listener and what we can learn from your story and what we can, you know, gather as far as lessons learned from the your journey and some of the adversity that you've been through, just to quickly set the backdrop, you know, from adversity to abundance we don't pretend that someone went through adversity and then and then overnight, they reached abundance and they have no no more challenge and everything's you know, fantastic. But the fact is I know we're gonna get into some mindset stuff. The fact is we do have a lot of influence over how our lives go and how we how our perception or perspective, you know, is and and how things end up for us. So, do that the the the goal of the show is to inspire as well as provide tactical tactical insight into, you know, how you've been able to grow and get to where you are, Tim, and so that we can take that and and better ourselves as listeners and as entrepreneurs. So, enough of me rambling. Let's jump back. What's, where do we wanna start, Tim, and your backstory?

Speaker 2

Yeah. I think when when I when I heard adversity to abundance, for me, it was I I was very fortunate. I was raised in a a phenomenal family. I had my mother, father, were both home. I had two great sisters, all nine yards. So, you know, I don't I don't have the kind of traditional you know, the the the deck was stacked against me, that type of thing. But in reflection, I think the thing that my adversity was very much between my ears. It was the adversity of relationship for me, like who I was, my identity, how I could kind of navigate the context of, you know, of my life through these different chapters. And so, you know, kinda starting from today, I I've chosen to build a life of intention around being a a father who's, you know, home with my I have three kids all kind of ten to fourteen. And and helping attract people who who want to have this idea of not just working more to get more but realizing, you know, kind of how we can build and reverse engineer a life where we get a lot out of every hour that we end, and and we get optionality into to to be able to do the things that we wanna do. So I was gonna start now and almost work backwards and just Yeah. And just to say, you know, I think that the adversity again was just kind of the the coming of age story of of giving up the the what I should be doing versus what I feel is my zone of genius and what I what I choose to pursue. And I think a lot of people can resonate with that. Yeah.

Speaker 0

Absolutely. No. A hundred percent. And, let let's drill down as far as in in your in your in your past. Excuse me. You know, and and I'll I'll throw out the caveat here that it's very easy for for us to look back and, you know, judge you or your family or any of, you know, your teachers. I'm making this up, but you know, as far as we have the the gift of hindsight at this point. Right? And so we're the the goal is not to put anyone down or anything like that. But What would you say were some of the influences that maybe kind of created some adversity in a sense for you and your your mindset and your relationship with yourself as you mentioned end.

Speaker 2

Yeah. So I think from from a very early age, and again, all of the things you just said are a hundred percent agree with. I am not speaking down to anyone. I've I've so fortunate to be to be surrounded by positive influences. But I think for me, it was always this, disc connection between what I saw going on around me. I grew up on the North shore of Long Island. I was surrounded by a lot of, you know, professional folks. My dad was the know, put on the suit and tie, take the train to work, you know, those types of things. Yeah. And and being surrounded by folks that were in kind of traditional commerce, you know, banking, lawyers, etcetera, etcetera. I think at least my interpretation of that was here are these these very well respected, quote unquote successful, financial, and otherwise, you know, folks around me, and they all have this kind of common pattern. So therefore, I should probably want to be, you know, seeking the the banking job where I will be there for forty years and extend through the ranks. I should wanna go to law school business school, etcetera. And I've just quite frankly I was always kind of more emotional one, and I, yeah, I just it just never that it felt like clothes that you know, just weren't my size. And I think I was I followed that up until kind of my college and and beginning of my my professional career. I was able to really kind of take stock and say, you know, the proverbial fork in the road, do I want to, you know, die living the life that I I, you know, or or potentially fail living the life that I want or potentially succeed living the life that somebody else wants for me. And I think the next kind of fifteen or twenty years was the pursuit of kind of working through that in many, many ways. And now being a husband and father, I think it just gives you those additional opportunities of reflection.

Speaker 0

Absolutely. So so as you got out of college, it sounds like you and I think a lot of us can relate. You just do what you think you're supposed to do. Right? Right. And follow the example you've seen before, and, you know, that, apparently, has worked for others. And so there's kind of you know, one track or a traditional model. So walk us through those fifteen years. I know that's, you know, we can't pack fifteen years into fifteen minutes, but How was that, you know, what were some of the high points and low points of that that kind of fifteen year period where you were sort of figuring it out on a professional level?

Speaker 2

Yeah. The summary I would give is, there are some distinct chapters kind of through that fifteen years, and each one marked by you know, the the saying, you know, giving up the good for the great or the potential of the great. So I graduated from college, economics, finance, things like that, degrees. And I went to work for a division of Citi Group, so I was in the kind of traditional brokerage world. And I was so fortunate to have a, a boss and a mentor who said, you know, you're you don't wanna be here. I don't think this is the right place for you, and he made a connection a very, very hard kind of like you are no longer gonna work here at the end of this year, and you're gonna go and talk to this person, you know, and hopefully you guys can figure something out. And what that looked like was from the outside, a very risky decision, which was leaving a an opportunity at a big bank of Consistency in the known quantity and all of those types of things as a kid from New York who moved to DC for school then ended up in Birmingham, Alabama of all places to build a hedge fund. Now on paper, that seems like the most lunar Chris idea. And if you were a betting man, you'd probably say this seems like it's got a low probability of success.

Speaker 0

Sure. But

Speaker 2

it was the best thing that ever happened to me, it allowed me the space to pursue something that probably at the time I was just too naive to to know any different. Like, I just went and did because why not? I had no reason to to doubt myself. And it was the coming of age for me of, like, I put my you know, stake in the ground. And I succeeded on the merits of I'm gonna go raise money. I'm gonna go create something with a partner of size and and and value for others. And over four years, I was able to raise almost three hundred and fifty million dollars from various investors in my early to mid twenties. Which is when when I say it today seems, again, possibility versus probability. It was possible, but not probable.

Speaker 0

Sure.

Speaker 2

I think that was the greatest part of the whole thing. It was this idea of the adversity of making a hard decision seeing it through betting on yourself, and then kinda walking through that process. And and that ended the end of that story was we voluntarily gave all that money back before the two thousand eight market crisis. So again, adversity being, I spent four years of blood, sweat, and tears, and risk, and all of these things in my early to mid twenties, only to effectively undo it all.

Speaker 0

Get back to the start again, basically.

Speaker 2

And we're right back to the start again. So so these kind of Wow. This theme of hard lines in these chapters was literally I have shed that skin. It's I it's not like I carried that forward. It was I left the hedge fund business and went into technology and fitness because it was something I just felt passionate about at the time. And that led me in a ten year period, led me to, being introduced to Alex and Layla over at gym launch, stopped being a business owner, a gym owner, and became part of the leadership team at at gym launch. And again, new chapter started, which was in a sense in a in an eight figure business. So You know, I I think the the adversity is just kind of these chapters and making making hard line decisions

Speaker 0

Sure.

Speaker 2

For hopefully pursuing something better.

Speaker 0

Yeah. Absolutely. And I also want one thing I like to would like to highlight is that it sounds like you didn't go from, you know, w two for fifteen years. And then business owner for fifteen years. Life can have seasons and chapters as you said. Right? And so we've had other guests on the show who've been very successful and you know, started businesses. And then I I won't even say I don't mean to say gone back, but just gone to a different chapter where they they take a w two again, you know, but but in a and it's it's it's a, you know, fantastic path for that season of their life. You know, just looking back before we move move on from that, at those, I guess, decision points, you know, let's let's take the first one as far as, no longer working at the division of city group. I mean, what's going through your your mind at that point and how did you know you had the influence of your mentor and you had the influence of the person he introduced you to, but really what went into that decision making process?

Speaker 2

I asked myself a question, and I think this is important for anyone to do, which is like when you're facing the decision, you play it all the way out to what's now total conclusion. And I said, okay, months have. Let's say it goes perfectly to plan.

Speaker 0

Right. Right.

Speaker 2

I'm now a stock broker in a job that I don't wanna have in a business that I don't feel passionate about and probably doing things that I would regret the the me of today making that choice. Mhmm. That's great. Yeah. In many cases, we, you know, some of this is is related to, you know, you you have to kind of have another paradigm, another vision, or have somebody else, you know, look to somebody else's example just to know what's available to you Yeah. And, you know, I think at that time, I was looking at the the gentleman who who treated me very, very well, and we're still friends today. And he was kind of the relationship guy. He worked a couple of hours, but he had all the connections. He had all the network and all of that kind of stuff. And I was like, how do I do something? And again, I as I mentioned before, I was much more kind of the emotional I tied more into that piece of me than the gladiator piece of me. I'm like, I actually really like the relationship based stuff. Like, I, like, being a broker, yes, is is relational, but it's much more I'll call it, like, tactical, you know, it's it's not crazy stuff like that.

Speaker 0

I I just it's more transactional.

Speaker 2

Exactly. Exactly. And so I I I I think I was pursuing this idea of how can I build relationships where I've got a well, I've got a bigger lever? If you will.

Speaker 0

Sure. Okay.

Speaker 2

And that is a common thread that goes all the way through. And and I think I was also, you know, looking within myself, saying how how do I match my personality to what I think, you know, is, is what's needed, and that's more of a blue ocean red ocean, in my opinion. I went somewhere where I felt like I could be more competitive and not just, you know, go head to head against everyone else doing the same thing.

Speaker 0

Yeah. No. I mean, just a couple of things I wanna highlight for the for the listeners. Again, if you make a decision, it doesn't a career decision that seems monumental at the time. And and, you know, it it was a very important decision that you made. Right? But but you've had chapters, you've had seasons. It doesn't mean you stayed in that, you know, in that particular position, for the rest of your life. You know, and just secondly, what you just said about highlighting kind of taking a long term view or almost stepping outside yourself and look in fast pressing fast forward and say, am I gonna be happy with how this plays out if I if I stay where I am? That's a that's a really key key point there. So, okay, tell tell me real quickly about handing back the three hundred fifty million. I mean, what what went into that decision. I know that's That could not have been fun. I mean, I I raise capital. I've never raised that much money. That's that's a that's a lot of money. What went into the decision making process before two thousand eight?

Speaker 2

Yeah. So, all of the great moments of pride that I have through my personal and professional career have been times where my kind of moral and belief systems were both tested, and I'd like to say it here too. What I mean by that, in this case, it was what got us from zero to three hundred and fifty million, there came a time where that was not gonna carry us forward. And we had a very distinct conversation, which was, the market economy just for anyone who kind of wasn't in that, in the in the equity markets in the US at that time was you know, this is when, mortgage defaults were starting to pick up, like, the big short, the movie. Mhmm. Yeah. It's kind of all around this time, right, where things were dislocated. There were weird funky things happening in the industry. And so we saw the early parts of that. And so we said we either change our stripes to to kind of mold into what works today.

Speaker 0

Mhmm.

Speaker 2

Because we weren't in a normal market climate, or we stick to our knitting and say, You know what, we're gonna take our ball and go sit on the sidelines. And that is the conversation I had with our investors. It was October two thousand and seven. I still have the deck, and I say, Here's everything we're seeing. Here's graphs, the whole nine yards. Here's how we've gotten to where we are today. Here's why you trust us. Here's why the reason that our strategy is not working today, and here are the decisions that we have to make. And I will leave it to you. If you trust us to navigate this, we'll give that a shot and try to articulate that. If you feel like you want your money back, you're welcome to take it. And overwhelmingly, people voted with their with their feet. And they said, we'll take our money and go elsewhere. And I don't fault them because there was a lot of uncertainty, and saying, you know, we're gonna go to cash when you're in the business of investing other people's money is not a popular opinion.

Speaker 0

No. Right.

Speaker 2

But again, it was one of those, like, I cared about the relationships that I had with these folks. Yeah. And I had a moral and a fiduciary obligation, and it sounds very in hindsight, like, oh, you know, you are quite a buoyant and did all the right, like, that's something. We just gave up an eight figure revenue business effectively on the on the the the nightmare that could have been, which is if this all comes crashing down, I don't want it on my head that we lost three hundred million dollars worth of capital because we leveraged and all that kind of stuff. I don't think I could sleep at night. I just knew that I could sleep at night knowing I took all the learnings and moved forward. Yeah. And I love I I love, Jeff Bezos has this concept of, you know, one way versus two way doors.

Speaker 0

Okay.

Speaker 2

One way doors, you can never go back through two way doors.

Speaker 0

You can

Speaker 2

go both ways. Right?

Speaker 0

Sure.

Speaker 2

I could always live another life. Having given up the money.

Speaker 0

That's If

Speaker 2

we have gone forward and gone off the cliff at a hundred and ten miles an hour, Yeah. In my opinion, probably more psychologically than anything, that was a one way door I could never go back to.

Speaker 0

Man, that's, it's just that I think that would've that's so much harder than than we're giving a credit for right now. I mean, that that must have been really challenging just to just to present that slide deck. I mean, just to even bring up the conversation kudos to you for having that, you know, transparency. That that's not an easy conversation to have. So it but, yeah, I mean, that's it does seem like, you know, you're you're absolutely right. You when having options is better than having no options. Right? So Yeah. Okay. So so walk us through, I mean, how do you not look back at that four year period though and say, That was a complete waste of four years. And, I mean, how do you move forward from from there?

Speaker 2

So one of the I mean, we've talked about kind of relationships. One of the things that I have quite frankly because I I'll put it this way. I have chosen to do things in my the last ten to fifteen years of my life that I truly, you know, it's like take a job that you would do for free kind of thing. Because you're so passionate about it. That's actually what I care about. I care about the work. In that experience, it was one of the first times I had a partnership. And I think I took from that didn't make a lot of money in the grand scheme of things now kind of looking back on it. I probably should have advocated for myself more so, but I was young and in my young twenty, you know, and you know, seeing a six paper check was like, oh my god. This is this is amazing. I'll take everything I can get. Rents are actually or my my reflection on that time was actually less about that one decision and more about I squandered the opportunity. I didn't kind of strike while the iron was hot.

Speaker 0

I see.

Speaker 2

And I think that's actually where my head goes more than anything because I I'm kind of at peace with the decision, but I would've with it wasn't to answer your question four years of waste. It certainly wasn't. But I think I probably at hindsight could have made it. Allow me to do different things, thereafter financially and and otherwise. The biggest asset I walked away from was not only experience. But the rolodex of people and and I was talking to some some high school kids this morning, and I used the freight rolodex, and they looked at me, like, I have no idea what you're saying. So Alright. But I but I left with a a a fairly,

Speaker 0

a strong network of investors.

Speaker 2

Network. Exactly. So so it was definitely not enough. It was not a a zero, above and beyond the the experience.

Speaker 0

No. But I think it, you know, with the it correct me if I'm wrong in in your case. I mean, but for me, I think, you know, given the given time, it's easier to see that it wasn't at all, all, all, like, a wash. Right? And so it's it's hard to see those inherent benefits, right at the time. So you know, that's, I think in hindsight, yeah, you can see, okay. This wasn't all terrible. This wasn't actually four years of wasted time. Okay. So you so did you then leverage that network or, what happened in your career after that?

Speaker 2

Yeah. I I so I was in Birmingham, Alabama. Didn't know anyone my wife and I were basically we'd just gotten married. We were gonna start a family, and we're both from the northeast. So we took the opportunity to relocate, back to my wife from Massachusetts, which is where we are now. And so not and I knew I didn't really wanna be in the hedge fund business. I I had a short stint, had a fund in in Boston, but we weren't we didn't live in the city and logistically wasn't what we wanted to do. And we met as division one rowers in in college. And so we were always kind of I like athletics. I was always the kind of help in working out and things like that. And when we relocated, my wife Googled, you know, personal training in the town that we were living in. And there was a banner out of top that said some version of, you know, automated personal training. Twenty four seven. I was like, alright. I'm an entrepreneurial guy. I like fitness. This sounds halfway decent. Like, I'm gonna go check this out. And I went and and did a sample day, or session at one of these brick and mortar locations. And I thought it was really interesting, really novel. And so I called the all the CEO and said, are you taking investors? And he said, thanks, but no. Thanks. We're fully funded, but we're starting a franchise. Do you have any interest in kinda being one of them in early franchisees, and we're gonna figure this out as as we go. And so we took the opportunity to. And so I got into fitness technology, you know, brick and mortar business, shortly after relocating. And we grew that from zero to, we had eight locations at one point. Multi seven figures. And so it was my first foray into building a service based you know, brick and mortar business, a full operation, hiring, training, marketing, and it was a it was a trial by fire. And at the time, you know, whether it be the best use of my kind of end up being part of it for almost ten years. But it was it taught me a lot of lessons about how to actually build a business well. How to, you know, put my ego aside. I was still very much trying to, like, be the alpha male and didn't work out all that well. So I learned a lot of lessons through the kind of application of the principles. And the end of the story is is, of course, I was introduced to, to Allison Layla, which, became a very transformative part of my life.

Speaker 0

Sure. And then there's definitely still the relationship piece. I mean, through that whole, the the relationship thread through all of that. But, you know, drill down a couple of the lessons that you did learn during those ten years. I mean, look, I building a business is not easy. Becoming an entrepreneur. It's a it's a sexy term these days. Everybody wants to be an entrepreneur. And, you know, and I love it. I mean, I think entrepreneurship is fantastic. There should be, you know, more entrepreneurs out there. Yeah. I don't know that it's for everyone though. And, You know, it's not, it's it takes a special someone, I guess, to truly, have a startup and and make it successful or or or not successful, but talk to us about some of what you did learn as far as just building a business, what were some of the lessons that you took away.

Speaker 2

Yeah. One of the most important ones I'll kinda highlight too. The first is, especially in the fitness industry, depending on what you read, there's somewhere between fifty and seventy thousand gyms in the at States. So talk about a red ocean of competition. It's like Sure. How the heck do you differentiate yourself in such a crowded marketplace?

Speaker 0

Crafting a Life Blueprint: Navigating Identity, Fatherhood, and Intention with Former Hormozi VP Tim Calise

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