does everybody here know the adage the
miracle of life
it’s blinding right now but I think I
see some heads nodding
some people just sitting still on a back
track or does everyone here know how
babies are made good good I can hear you
if I can’t see you excellent no jokes
aside we call it a miracle because we
know just how circumstantial and
complicated the process is we know that
by the time a baby is born an
unbelievable number of hurdles and
invisible barriers have been cleared
that a series of events have coalesced
and aligned just perfectly I don’t have
any kids but second to the miracle of
life in my experience is the miracle of
small business right it’s a it’s a
lesser-known adage I know but I think
it’s equally as reflective of reality
you see well it doesn’t take two people
necessarily to start a business the
process the path to success I think it’s
equally as complicated and riddled with
pitfalls there are so many external
factors that you can’t control some of
them you can touch as an owner a little
bit but a lot of them are far beyond the
reach of any one individual person by
the time a small business is born an
unbelievable number of events just have
to fall into place and what do we call
that what do we call it when somebody
tries something new and things fall into
place some people call it beginner’s
luck some people call it dumb luck
blissful ignorance naivety but whatever
you want to call it I’m here to tell you
that sometimes not knowing what you
don’t know is a really great launch
point for big ideas and I would know I
would know because in the spring of 2009
I was 22 years old I was about to
graduate from college and I was about to
start my first small business and I was
blissfully ignorant looking back on that
we can do a quick sort of Wes Anderson
style inventory check on what it was I
had to offer the world and it would go
something like this top to bottom
I had a 2001 Isuzu Rodeo had about 125
five thousand miles on it may be worth
$3,000 I had $5,000 of borrowed capital
that I could invest to launch my
business I had a nearly completed degree
in English which of course which of
course came with about $35,000 in
student loan debt I had zero formal
training I had zero business experience
I had complete tunnel vision around what
I wanted to do and I think maybe more
importantly what I didn’t want to do and
I had a deep-seated love of fitness and
coaching and it was this last item on
the list that was most important as it
turns out the other items they weren’t
that useful to me I was enthralled with
fitness and with teaching people and
with helping people change their lives
through exercise and community and
shared experience but nonetheless when
it came time to sit down with a business
lender for the first time my lack of
understanding about that lending process
my lack of understanding of finance in
general it made me a fairly high-risk
prospect right now you combine this with
the fact that we were a year into the
housing crisis remember this is the
spring of 2009 and you might not be
surprised to find out that I was
rejected and I wasn’t rejected by one
bank or two banks I was rejected by
twelve different banks
it was terrible but each step of the way
because I didn’t know what I didn’t know
I could just bounce off of each
rejection with humility and optimism and
excitement about the next opportunity
and the reality is that it took lucky
number 13 first national bank of
Northfield Minnesota who in some way
unbeknownst to me approved me for a line
of credit it was a numbers game I played
it and eventually I got the money I
needed to launch and it was funny
because years later I was down in
Northfield making the final payment on
that loan and I found out that the
gentleman who had originally signed off
on me he had retired I was sitting in
the office with his replacement and at
one point his replacement looked up over
the top of his glasses and he said you
know you never should have gotten this
money from us right I mean in hindsight
the whole endeavor was ludicrous but I
didn’t know that I didn’t know how
woefully ineligible I was for a loan and
the reality is that if I had waited
until I understood the inner workings of
that lending process if I had waited
until I understood a financial
forecasting statement or a profit and
loss statement if I waited until I
understood QuickBooks I never would have
gotten started no way I never would have
walked into those thirteen banks
learning a little bit at each one and
applying that information at the next
one and sort of inching my way closer
and closer to that desired outcome now
in the miracle of small business and I
think in the miracle of starting
anything new danger and failure lurks
behind every single corner you should be
well aware of that but if you spend
every waking second fixated and worried
about that danger you will paralyze your
progress
and I have learned slowly and painfully
but time and time again that progress is
far more important than perfection
now when it came time for me to find a
space for my first gym I was not very
well set up I knew as much about real
estate as I did about finance so it was
a tough start so I did the only thing I
knew to do I I stopped going to class I
got in my car on the weekends I would
drive up to the Twin Cities I’d park
right here at the University of
Minnesota I’d pull my bike out and I’d
start dry or scuse me riding around
Minneapolis looking for lease signs on
any building that looked good and at the
end of the day I’d pull up my notebook
and start to call the numbers that I’d
written down I mean can you imagine what
those conversations must have sounded
like you imagined how silly I must have
seemed to these people when I would call
them and try to explain my grand plan my
big vision tried to feign some kind of
understanding about what I was talking
about did you say triple net lease yes I
did that’s the exact least I was looking
for how much money do you have
absolutely none
and that was how most of those
conversations went all right but here
again progress over perfection I
remember one building in particular it
was the most beautiful thing I’d ever
seen it was in the heart of the
southeast Minneapolis neighborhood it
was three stories tall big rollup garage
doors which is kind of important for the
kind of gym that I wanted to run it was
rugged but really well located I
remember kind of peering through the
window and seeing this wide open floor
plan I mean it was everything I’d ever
dreamed of it was perfectly aligned with
my vision so of course I called the
broker explained to me that this
building was over 30,000 square feet
which was funny because it ended up
being just a pinch larger than the 1,500
square feet that I actually needed the
1,500 square feet that my gym would
eventually go into but I had him on the
line so I said well what’s the rent and
he explained to me that this building
would need a couple million dollars in
updates before there would even be event
before anyone could even occupy the
space I didn’t know anything I could not
have been less equipped to negotiate a
commercial lease
but I didn’t have the capital to hire a
professional and I certainly didn’t have
the time to wait and learn slowly right
so I signed one I signed the best I
could and if I had waited until I alone
could make rhyme or reason of the
different clauses or terms or addendums
and a commercial lease you rest assured
I never would have signed one now is
there risk associated with what I’m
telling you what the idea of sorting out
the details after the fact of course
there is I recognize just how
counterintuitive this advice must seem
to you right now but I’m telling you
that one of my biggest assets at that
time was the freedom that I felt the
freedom to move forward unburdened by
the knowledge that at any moment I could
do something so ignorant and so foolish
that I would screw it all up and lose it
all which admittedly was very little
because I didn’t know what I didn’t know
I could break all of the rules that I
didn’t know about
I had no track record to uphold
I had no ego about past successes and I
think most importantly I wasn’t
embarrassed about myself when I find
started that first gym I lived there I
know I don’t mean that in the
metaphorical sense like I spent a lot of
time in my business I lived there I
literally lived there money was so tight
that I couldn’t afford to go out and
rent an apartment so I took my bed I put
it in the back corner I built a little
retaining wall had a little door on it
to keep it from view every once in a
while a member would kind of mosey back
there hey what’s behind this store
that’s just the storage closet don’t
ever go in the storage closet
the building was pretty rugged the space
was pretty rugged there was a shared
bathroom at the end of the hall place
where I could brush my teeth so you know
had that going for me there was no
shower so I had these vivid memories of
the showers that I used to take on the
train tracks back behind the building I
would fill up two milk jugs with warm
water and when the coast was clear I
have to run out under the train tracks
I’d pour one over my head I’d lather up
head to toe right shampoo a little face
wash with soap and then I’d pour the
other one over my head to rinse off I
did that for six months and I remember
everybody used to say the same thing
Tyler one day you’re gonna look back on
this and you’re gonna laugh
I had always respond the same way I
can’t wait now even now I don’t consider
myself a great business man not even
close not by a long shot but I am the
proud founder and owner of two
successful businesses one of the largest
CrossFit networks in the country and a
company called alchemy 365 which will be
opening its fifth location and going
national in early 2018 but if I did any
one thing right it was just taking the
first step and trusting that in time I
could find great business partners who
would fortify all of my weaknesses it
was listening to my clients who exposed
big shortcomings in my product and gaps
in the marketplace which is ultimately
one of the primary reasons that alchemy
even exists today were there bad
stretches dark times when my lack of
business experience caused big problems
of course there were but it was never
technical know-how that got me through
it was the people around me it was my
support network that helped me to take a
step back take a deep breath regroup and
continue moving forward
now this story may seem too specific to
me unrelatable some of you might be
entrepreneurs and thinking to yourself
that’s great but I need a more
traditional entrepreneurial story that I
can model my own story after here’s what
I’m gonna tell you there are no
traditional entrepreneurial stories
every entrepreneurial story is unique
and specific and made up of a confluence
of perfect events there will be no
guiding path for you
there will be no grand plan to help you
navigate the crossroads and in fact what
I’m telling you is that there are no
crossroads if you’re lucky enough like I
was there are no roads wherever you are
that’s where you are and while there
will always be a reason not to start and
while there will always be reasons to
quit while there will always be big
nasty obstacles in the way there will
always be away you see the denominator
here is the idea that you don’t have to
be a master of business to be successful
in business be prepared to learn be
prepared to suffer right be prepared to
sleep in your own gym closet and take
your own proverbial train track showers
but take the step anyway it is worth it
a caveat to this whole message a
disclaimer if you will
my blissful ignorance was an asset to me
ten years ago but it wouldn’t fly today
I know that and for many of you not
knowing important information it’s a
luxury that you can’t afford to take in
your particular industry or field so let
me be very clear about something in no
way am i telling you to ignore the
details or to brush under the rug all
the crucial blocking and tackling that
goes along with starting a business what
I’m telling you is that once you have
acknowledged the details once you have
acknowledged your shortcomings don’t let
them get in your head and convince you
that you can’t do it or that it’s broken
or doomed to fail or won’t work
there’s a quote in the book The
Alchemist number one it’s a great book I
suggest everybody pick it up it also
happens to be the namesake of my second
company and the quote goes like this
every search begins with beginner’s luck
and every search ends with the victors
being severely tested now I didn’t know
what I didn’t know back then but in the
years since launching in 2009 I have
been tested time and again in all of the
areas where I am weakest but even when
you do know what you don’t know brush it
off embrace some of that ignorance let
it empower you to act and to focus on
what you can control and what you can be
best in trade at
and that building that big beautiful
building the one that I ought to have
been humiliated by that is a picture of
one of my business partners and I
standing outside of it the day after we
signed I released for our third alchemy
location in the spring of 2015 we took
the whole first floor so to whoever in
this auditorium is sitting on the idea
to whoever in this auditorium has always
wanted to try something start something
build something it is concerned that
they don’t have the right stuff things
aren’t lined up just right even if it’s
just one person out of every person in
this auditorium I am here to tell you to
trust yourself trust your instincts
listen to your gut and I am here to
remind you that the time is now thank
you very much
you
miracle of life
it’s blinding right now but I think I
see some heads nodding
some people just sitting still on a back
track or does everyone here know how
babies are made good good I can hear you
if I can’t see you excellent no jokes
aside we call it a miracle because we
know just how circumstantial and
complicated the process is we know that
by the time a baby is born an
unbelievable number of hurdles and
invisible barriers have been cleared
that a series of events have coalesced
and aligned just perfectly I don’t have
any kids but second to the miracle of
life in my experience is the miracle of
small business right it’s a it’s a
lesser-known adage I know but I think
it’s equally as reflective of reality
you see well it doesn’t take two people
necessarily to start a business the
process the path to success I think it’s
equally as complicated and riddled with
pitfalls there are so many external
factors that you can’t control some of
them you can touch as an owner a little
bit but a lot of them are far beyond the
reach of any one individual person by
the time a small business is born an
unbelievable number of events just have
to fall into place and what do we call
that what do we call it when somebody
tries something new and things fall into
place some people call it beginner’s
luck some people call it dumb luck
blissful ignorance naivety but whatever
you want to call it I’m here to tell you
that sometimes not knowing what you
don’t know is a really great launch
point for big ideas and I would know I
would know because in the spring of 2009
I was 22 years old I was about to
graduate from college and I was about to
start my first small business and I was
blissfully ignorant looking back on that
we can do a quick sort of Wes Anderson
style inventory check on what it was I
had to offer the world and it would go
something like this top to bottom
I had a 2001 Isuzu Rodeo had about 125
five thousand miles on it may be worth
$3,000 I had $5,000 of borrowed capital
that I could invest to launch my
business I had a nearly completed degree
in English which of course which of
course came with about $35,000 in
student loan debt I had zero formal
training I had zero business experience
I had complete tunnel vision around what
I wanted to do and I think maybe more
importantly what I didn’t want to do and
I had a deep-seated love of fitness and
coaching and it was this last item on
the list that was most important as it
turns out the other items they weren’t
that useful to me I was enthralled with
fitness and with teaching people and
with helping people change their lives
through exercise and community and
shared experience but nonetheless when
it came time to sit down with a business
lender for the first time my lack of
understanding about that lending process
my lack of understanding of finance in
general it made me a fairly high-risk
prospect right now you combine this with
the fact that we were a year into the
housing crisis remember this is the
spring of 2009 and you might not be
surprised to find out that I was
rejected and I wasn’t rejected by one
bank or two banks I was rejected by
twelve different banks
it was terrible but each step of the way
because I didn’t know what I didn’t know
I could just bounce off of each
rejection with humility and optimism and
excitement about the next opportunity
and the reality is that it took lucky
number 13 first national bank of
Northfield Minnesota who in some way
unbeknownst to me approved me for a line
of credit it was a numbers game I played
it and eventually I got the money I
needed to launch and it was funny
because years later I was down in
Northfield making the final payment on
that loan and I found out that the
gentleman who had originally signed off
on me he had retired I was sitting in
the office with his replacement and at
one point his replacement looked up over
the top of his glasses and he said you
know you never should have gotten this
money from us right I mean in hindsight
the whole endeavor was ludicrous but I
didn’t know that I didn’t know how
woefully ineligible I was for a loan and
the reality is that if I had waited
until I understood the inner workings of
that lending process if I had waited
until I understood a financial
forecasting statement or a profit and
loss statement if I waited until I
understood QuickBooks I never would have
gotten started no way I never would have
walked into those thirteen banks
learning a little bit at each one and
applying that information at the next
one and sort of inching my way closer
and closer to that desired outcome now
in the miracle of small business and I
think in the miracle of starting
anything new danger and failure lurks
behind every single corner you should be
well aware of that but if you spend
every waking second fixated and worried
about that danger you will paralyze your
progress
and I have learned slowly and painfully
but time and time again that progress is
far more important than perfection
now when it came time for me to find a
space for my first gym I was not very
well set up I knew as much about real
estate as I did about finance so it was
a tough start so I did the only thing I
knew to do I I stopped going to class I
got in my car on the weekends I would
drive up to the Twin Cities I’d park
right here at the University of
Minnesota I’d pull my bike out and I’d
start dry or scuse me riding around
Minneapolis looking for lease signs on
any building that looked good and at the
end of the day I’d pull up my notebook
and start to call the numbers that I’d
written down I mean can you imagine what
those conversations must have sounded
like you imagined how silly I must have
seemed to these people when I would call
them and try to explain my grand plan my
big vision tried to feign some kind of
understanding about what I was talking
about did you say triple net lease yes I
did that’s the exact least I was looking
for how much money do you have
absolutely none
and that was how most of those
conversations went all right but here
again progress over perfection I
remember one building in particular it
was the most beautiful thing I’d ever
seen it was in the heart of the
southeast Minneapolis neighborhood it
was three stories tall big rollup garage
doors which is kind of important for the
kind of gym that I wanted to run it was
rugged but really well located I
remember kind of peering through the
window and seeing this wide open floor
plan I mean it was everything I’d ever
dreamed of it was perfectly aligned with
my vision so of course I called the
broker explained to me that this
building was over 30,000 square feet
which was funny because it ended up
being just a pinch larger than the 1,500
square feet that I actually needed the
1,500 square feet that my gym would
eventually go into but I had him on the
line so I said well what’s the rent and
he explained to me that this building
would need a couple million dollars in
updates before there would even be event
before anyone could even occupy the
space I didn’t know anything I could not
have been less equipped to negotiate a
commercial lease
but I didn’t have the capital to hire a
professional and I certainly didn’t have
the time to wait and learn slowly right
so I signed one I signed the best I
could and if I had waited until I alone
could make rhyme or reason of the
different clauses or terms or addendums
and a commercial lease you rest assured
I never would have signed one now is
there risk associated with what I’m
telling you what the idea of sorting out
the details after the fact of course
there is I recognize just how
counterintuitive this advice must seem
to you right now but I’m telling you
that one of my biggest assets at that
time was the freedom that I felt the
freedom to move forward unburdened by
the knowledge that at any moment I could
do something so ignorant and so foolish
that I would screw it all up and lose it
all which admittedly was very little
because I didn’t know what I didn’t know
I could break all of the rules that I
didn’t know about
I had no track record to uphold
I had no ego about past successes and I
think most importantly I wasn’t
embarrassed about myself when I find
started that first gym I lived there I
know I don’t mean that in the
metaphorical sense like I spent a lot of
time in my business I lived there I
literally lived there money was so tight
that I couldn’t afford to go out and
rent an apartment so I took my bed I put
it in the back corner I built a little
retaining wall had a little door on it
to keep it from view every once in a
while a member would kind of mosey back
there hey what’s behind this store
that’s just the storage closet don’t
ever go in the storage closet
the building was pretty rugged the space
was pretty rugged there was a shared
bathroom at the end of the hall place
where I could brush my teeth so you know
had that going for me there was no
shower so I had these vivid memories of
the showers that I used to take on the
train tracks back behind the building I
would fill up two milk jugs with warm
water and when the coast was clear I
have to run out under the train tracks
I’d pour one over my head I’d lather up
head to toe right shampoo a little face
wash with soap and then I’d pour the
other one over my head to rinse off I
did that for six months and I remember
everybody used to say the same thing
Tyler one day you’re gonna look back on
this and you’re gonna laugh
I had always respond the same way I
can’t wait now even now I don’t consider
myself a great business man not even
close not by a long shot but I am the
proud founder and owner of two
successful businesses one of the largest
CrossFit networks in the country and a
company called alchemy 365 which will be
opening its fifth location and going
national in early 2018 but if I did any
one thing right it was just taking the
first step and trusting that in time I
could find great business partners who
would fortify all of my weaknesses it
was listening to my clients who exposed
big shortcomings in my product and gaps
in the marketplace which is ultimately
one of the primary reasons that alchemy
even exists today were there bad
stretches dark times when my lack of
business experience caused big problems
of course there were but it was never
technical know-how that got me through
it was the people around me it was my
support network that helped me to take a
step back take a deep breath regroup and
continue moving forward
now this story may seem too specific to
me unrelatable some of you might be
entrepreneurs and thinking to yourself
that’s great but I need a more
traditional entrepreneurial story that I
can model my own story after here’s what
I’m gonna tell you there are no
traditional entrepreneurial stories
every entrepreneurial story is unique
and specific and made up of a confluence
of perfect events there will be no
guiding path for you
there will be no grand plan to help you
navigate the crossroads and in fact what
I’m telling you is that there are no
crossroads if you’re lucky enough like I
was there are no roads wherever you are
that’s where you are and while there
will always be a reason not to start and
while there will always be reasons to
quit while there will always be big
nasty obstacles in the way there will
always be away you see the denominator
here is the idea that you don’t have to
be a master of business to be successful
in business be prepared to learn be
prepared to suffer right be prepared to
sleep in your own gym closet and take
your own proverbial train track showers
but take the step anyway it is worth it
a caveat to this whole message a
disclaimer if you will
my blissful ignorance was an asset to me
ten years ago but it wouldn’t fly today
I know that and for many of you not
knowing important information it’s a
luxury that you can’t afford to take in
your particular industry or field so let
me be very clear about something in no
way am i telling you to ignore the
details or to brush under the rug all
the crucial blocking and tackling that
goes along with starting a business what
I’m telling you is that once you have
acknowledged the details once you have
acknowledged your shortcomings don’t let
them get in your head and convince you
that you can’t do it or that it’s broken
or doomed to fail or won’t work
there’s a quote in the book The
Alchemist number one it’s a great book I
suggest everybody pick it up it also
happens to be the namesake of my second
company and the quote goes like this
every search begins with beginner’s luck
and every search ends with the victors
being severely tested now I didn’t know
what I didn’t know back then but in the
years since launching in 2009 I have
been tested time and again in all of the
areas where I am weakest but even when
you do know what you don’t know brush it
off embrace some of that ignorance let
it empower you to act and to focus on
what you can control and what you can be
best in trade at
and that building that big beautiful
building the one that I ought to have
been humiliated by that is a picture of
one of my business partners and I
standing outside of it the day after we
signed I released for our third alchemy
location in the spring of 2015 we took
the whole first floor so to whoever in
this auditorium is sitting on the idea
to whoever in this auditorium has always
wanted to try something start something
build something it is concerned that
they don’t have the right stuff things
aren’t lined up just right even if it’s
just one person out of every person in
this auditorium I am here to tell you to
trust yourself trust your instincts
listen to your gut and I am here to
remind you that the time is now thank
you very much
you
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