I Slept in My Gym for Two Years to Build My Dream

What if getting fired was the very thing God used to launch your purpose?

In this powerful episode of the Empowered Woman of God Podcast, I sit down with entrepreneur Gerardo Villarreal, founder of Invincible, to unpack a journey that will challenge the way you think about success, purpose, faith, and perseverance.

From turning down a college scholarship to working an entire year for free just to learn the business… from being fired at 18 years old to building a thriving fitness company with only $16 in his bank account... Gerardo shares the defining moments that shaped his mindset and ultimately birthed the Invincible movement.

Connect with Gerardo Villareal on Instagram @gerardovllr

#Entrepreneurship  #Faith  #Motivation

Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:00

And so while I'm praying and while I'm crying, I'm talking to God, I hear God tell me, and he says, if you would just fill up the gym full of equipment, I will fill it up with people. God didn't bring me here just to bring me here, right? This is just a part of my story. Right? And he is my number one factor. He is rooting for me, he is supporting me, he is lifting me. All I gotta do is have the courage to go through those doors and never stop. You guys see dollar signs, but I see an opportunity for me to learn something here, for me to elevate my life into something. You know, you guys just see like how much are they gonna pay you per hour? Right. I I see who am I gonna become in a year from now by working for this guy.

SPEAKER_08 0:48

Not too many people go around asking.

SPEAKER_07 1:20

I want to spend the money and make it out of peace. I want to make it.

SPEAKER_04 1:27

So you know I I I I always got that people fucking stories that they do.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

Although I didn't have a power, just a power. I had the greatest power of off. He was the one teaching me to live out.

SPEAKER_01 1:40

I don't want to be a power of God or anything else. I mean I'm fully dependent on God. I don't want to stay independent. I want to tell me someone even if it looks like that.

SPEAKER_03 1:54

That's such an important testimony to share because a lot of people I know go through these different stages of life where they are like, God, I can't do this anymore. Welcome back, everyone, to another episode. Our guest in house is Mr. Gerardo Villarreal, who I met at a networking event. Um, such an incredible story that he shared that I said I had to have him on this podcast so that you guys can be equally impacted as I was. And so, welcome to our podcast. Hey, thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_05 2:30

Thank you. Thank you so much for having me.

SPEAKER_03 2:32

His lifestyle brand is called Invincible. Just the name alone should tell you what you're about to expect. And um, you said that you created this brand for people who are built to never surrender.

SPEAKER_02 2:44

Right.

SPEAKER_03 2:44

Right? Right. So we're just gonna jump right in into the story of Invincible, how it all started, how it all was created.

SPEAKER_05 2:53

Um Yeah, you know, um, so to kind of take you a little bit back on my story, um, Invincible Fitness was created by me when I was 19, 2017. Um, very slow start, just like with any business owner, right? You know, who is discovering how to basically start a business from scratch and how to build it into something. My whole uh idea behind this brand, behind this company, and behind this philosophy of Invincible is that way you just said, built to never surrender. Uh I will I've always wanted to be a part of a brand, part of something really that resonated with me to my core of who I am, which is not a quitter. I don't quit. Uh regardless of how long it may take me or how much I may suffer or whatever, I just don't quit. Uh I realize that that is really the big difference maker in people is that there's some who do and some who don't. And uh being invincible is for those uh that do. So to remind those to never surrender, to never give up, never quit, neither on yourself, on your purpose, um, on your beliefs, right? On your mission of what God put you here to do. And uh for me, that's always been helping people, right? In any way. If it's a conversation, if it's building a gym in the community where they can, you know, uh work out and they can, of course, you know, fall in love with themselves or better themselves, whatever that may look like to them, I want to do that. Right. And sometimes, you know, all we need is just a conversation like what you and I are having right now.

SPEAKER_03 4:18

Yeah, I mean, a hundred percent. And um, you know, one of the things that that came to my mind, I'm like, why go into fitness? Why not just launch a podcast, go do uh speaking engagements, and just share that same story that you're sharing? Why fitness?

SPEAKER_05 4:34

Yeah, so I mean, the the story really took place when I was in high school. I was a senior in high school, and just like with anybody in high school, right, you get asked those questions like, Well, what do you want to do when you grow up? You know, you're 17, 18 years old, and you're just like, I don't know. I don't know, right? And that was where I was. I knew that school wasn't really something that I wanted to continue to do, meaning I didn't want to go to college. Right. Um, I had a two-year scholarship to go to LSU to run cross-country and track. I turned it down respectfully to give it to somebody else who did see that in their future because I just didn't see it. Something that I wanted to continue to do. I wanted to be in business, something that I've always wanted to be around. People, you know, who, you know, I thought somebody who made a million dollars, just for an example, was like, wow, that's phenomenal, right? And it's not until you meet someone who makes five million or ten million or twenty million where it's you know, your your perspective changes instantly, right? And it's not really about the money, it's more about the person that you have to become to make that amount of money, right? And so um, yeah, so my story really began second semester of high school. I was very, I was talking to this one girl and I was trying to impress her. And uh, I gave her this excuse that my truck was broke. Like I told her that my truck just didn't want to start. That was a lie. But I was just trying to get a ride from her to, you know, be, you know, just be out of school, but be in the same car, just talking about you know, live game. And uh, you know, I was trying to impress her, right? And so I, you know, here I am in high school with no money. I'm asking her, hey, can you give me a ride to go look at the shopping center where I want to put a supplement store? Because at the time I was so into supplements and nutrition and powders as far as you know, uh, you know, muscle gain and so forth. And she agreed. So we went and you know, we drove around for an hour. And uh the last place that we stopped by was a place that my dad and I had visited a few months prior, and uh, it was right next door to a gym. So I thought, wow, it's a gym, and then right next door to the gym will be a perfect spot to put a supplement store. Right. So um I tried to call the landlord, tried to get in contact with the leasing office. Nobody ever returned my calls, nobody ever answered the phone. So I was like all right, well, let me go ahead and go into this uh into this bank that was next door. So it was a bank, it was a Lenny subway, it was uh a gym, and then it was an empty space. So I go into all those businesses that were open and nobody has a number.

SPEAKER_03 6:54

Really?

SPEAKER_05 6:54

Nobody had the number. Yeah. And so um, oh, and there was a tattoo shop. So I didn't go into the gym at first. I went into every other business except the gym. So as we're about to leave, you know, I always think of this moment as uh I could have gone left or I could have gone right. You know, it's and sometimes, you know, you're at those crossroads where you just know that you're one decision away from changing your whole life. And this was a decision that changed my whole entire life because we were about to leave, so I'm getting into the passenger, right? So I'm opening the passenger door, and I tell my friend, I was like, hey, let me uh let me go visit the gym. Let me see if they maybe they have it. Right. Right. So I could have gone in the in the car and we could have left, and that could have been it. And you know, and this uh this interaction that uh that would have happened would have never happened, and who knows, right? So I close the door, I say, hey, I'll be right back. So I go into the gym. Big guy, you know, comes up, you know, from his office to the front door and he'd be huge, like bodybuilder, right? So instantly I'm intimidated. I'm like, whoa, you know, and he just greeted me with the biggest smile, you know. We're still friends to this day. His name is Marcus. And and uh, you know, Marcus introduced himself, hey, this is Mark, you know, I'm Marcus, nice to meet you. You know, welcome to Anytime. It was Anytime Fitness, it was the gym. And uh I said, Marcus, look, I'm not interested in a membership, I'm interested in the place next door. Do you happen to have the landlord's number or somebody who I can contact? He said, I'm sorry, I don't, but why don't you uh you know why don't you talk to the to the gym owner, right? To the you know his boss. So he gives me his boss's email, and uh as I'm leaving, he asked me, he says, What do you want to do next door? And I tell him, Well, I want to do a supplement store, right? It makes sense. He said, Oh, of course it makes sense. It's a gym, you know, something like that. And so um, he gives me a tour of the whole gym, and the last part that he gave me a tour of was uh one of the offices that he has in the gym that was completely empty. It's almost the size of this office that we're in. And then he said, Why don't you do something like this? Like, why don't you put your supplements inside of this office? You know, we already have a lot of members, people are already inside of the gym, they don't have to go next door, you can just rent an office in the gym. And I thought it was brilliant. So I leave a voicemail for the for the for the owner of the gym. This was a Friday, and I don't know if it was over the weekend. So on Monday, the owner calls me back. I'm in class, so he leaves me a voicemail. So after class, I check my phone and he says, Hey, this is Tony. Uh Marcus told me about you. Give me a call back. So I give him a call back. He says, Hey, Marcus spoke highly of you. I would love to meet you. I'm like, Absolutely, like, let's go. Right. So I didn't want to drive my old truck to that first interaction. So I asked my mom, can I borrow your server auto to, you know, right, be more presentable. So he says, I'll meet you at the gym at 7:30. I'm there at 7. First time in my life that I'm early to anything. You knew this was big. It was big. It was, it was, it was big. And um, I'm there and and he didn't arrive till about nine o'clock at night. So I'm there waiting for him for over an hour, just waiting, you know, and finally he comes in. I'll never forget it. He's wearing a uh a polo hat, uh a Rolex watch, gym shorts, and an Anytime Fitness t-shirt. I mean, very low key. And uh when him and I started talking, he says, you know, I think that your supplements will work a lot better in my other gym. When he said the other gym, I said, You got more of these? I was just instantly surprised because I never met anyone who owned the gym, much less two. Right. He says, I own six of them. I was like, You own, you know, you got six of these? He said, Yeah, yeah. He was like, uh, I'll give you tours like whenever you want. I said, can we go right now? This is 9:30 at night, you know, on a on a school night, because it's Monday. Right. And uh he said, Yeah, you know, it's on my way home because he lived in the woodlands and we're in Umbull, so we drive to spring. And as soon as we get out, you know, we see the gym, I'm instantly just mind blown. Because I'm looking at the equipment, I'm looking at the the whole gym. I'm like, wow, this is all yours. This is so this is so cool. He's like, Yeah, yeah. You know, we're sitting at 800 members here, and the gym that we're at, you know, earlier today, we're a little over a thousand members, and my mind is just blowing, right? I'm just like, I'm doing the math. I'm like, okay, 40 bucks a month times a thousand. Wow, right? Right. Yeah. And so as a high schooler, you know, this is huge for me. You know, I'm I'm I'm I'm finally around somebody who's actually doing something like big with uh you know in fitness and so and because I've always been into fitness and sports, you know, I ran across country, played baseball my whole life. So I've always I've always been athletic, but I've never met anyone who owned a gym. And so he puts me uh, he shows me an office, right? It's a little small office, and uh he says it's gonna be 500 bucks a month. I said, done. No, no. Really? Yeah, yeah, done. I had like 560 bucks saved. So I was like, I'll make it a lot. I got the first month. Yeah, yeah. I was like, no problem. I got it covered. So the next day, because he asked me, he said, when do you want to start? I said, I'll be here tomorrow. He said, Really? I said, Yeah, okay. So after school, uh I took a huge duffel bag full of products, my blender, uh, a water jug, you know, just what the necessities that I needed. And I set up shop. And for the first two weeks, I didn't get one single client because I thought that just by being there, people would automatically just come to me and you know, just like, hey, I saw you, you know. And I was like, man, I gotta pay 500 bucks again in two weeks. And I haven't made a single dime from being here for two weeks. You know, I'm doing my homework there, I'm I'm studying, like, yeah. So I had this idea of like, okay, let me go to YouTube, let me watch a couple videos, let me see how people get training clients involved. So uh saw a couple of videos, and I knew a little bit about training. So I create this, you know, it was a pretty good training program. So I create a training program, and let's say you're working out, right? So in the middle of your set, I wouldn't bother you while you're working out. Like meaning while while you're going to another machine, I'll just like kind of walk up to you, say, Hey, excuse me. Right. Right. I would say, Hey, excuse me. I'm so sorry to bother you. My name is Gerardo. I just started working here with Tony with the team. Uh, I'm their brand new. I I used to I gave myself a title. I'm the nutritionist specialist.

SPEAKER_03 12:55

Hey, I love it.

SPEAKER_05 12:56

Yeah. So so that was my title. I gave myself a title. And uh I said, look, I don't mean to bother you, but I have a client coming in in about an hour and a half. It's my first client. I'm kind of nervous. So I would really love uh your insight as far as like what do you think of this training program? So would you mind if I can train you today for free, no charge? And all I ask is for you to give me your authentic feedback. And most people say, Oh, free training session? Yeah, of course. Go ahead, right? So, what what do I do next? So, this client, you know, we would talk and I'll ask them about their goals and what's your motivation being in the gym. Then you're just trying to get to another person. So at the end of the session, that same person would ask me, Hey, by the way, how much is the package? Like, how much are you selling this for? I said, Oh, well, it has to be 90 years. Yeah. So I'll say, I got one for 150 and one for 185. Well, what's the difference? Well, in 150, you get the same training session, but with the 185 compared to the 150, you get one more supplement. So this is a multivitamin, this is you know, it helps you with XYZ. I'll do the 185. So I didn't have anybody coming in in an hour. That was the person who I was pitching, but that was the best way for me to actually get it in front of them. And this is when I was in high school, a senior high school. Crazy. And so, yeah, so uh in those two weeks, the first two weeks I didn't make anything, and then the following two weeks, I made 1200 bucks. Right? So I was like, oh wow, I have enough to pay my rent. And then some. And then some, you know, I could take a girl out. I could, you know, high school. And uh, and then even in you know, in high school, you know, I was running tracking cross-country. So in the mornings, I would take that same duffel bag that I would take to the gym, I'll take it to school, and I would sell smoothies to my teammates, to my cross-country teammates.

SPEAKER_03 14:37

You're kidding me?

SPEAKER_05 14:38

Yeah. So my co I obviously I had to ask permission for my coach. I was like, hey, coach, I had these supplements. Like, you know, obviously breakfast in school is it's not good, but this stuff is good. It's just this nutrients for our bodies. And we're, you know, we're running eight, nine miles a day, training, you know, very, very hard. And it's like we need to put good, proper nutrition in our in our systems if we want to get to that next level, right? And so he I didn't tell him I was gonna sell smoothies. Obviously, this stuff is not free for me, so I'm gonna, you know, but it was it was like four dollars uh, you know, a smoothie. And I actually had a line like outside, like I had a line outside the locker room. So one day my coach is, you know, he he he had to do some other stuff. So he would he'll he would leave the locker room. That's when I will set up shop, and then he will come back right before we need to go to go to you know third period. And uh he saw the line and he was like, what is going on? So he walks in and I'm over here working my two blenders. I'm over here having like ice scoops, you know, just oh my god. And he's like, Junior, what are you doing? I'm like, I'm I'm making smoothies, coach. What do you but you're selling them, Junior? You can't be selling stuff on school grounds. I can get in trouble. I was like, Oh, I'm so sorry. I mean, I didn't know. So I had to, I had to, you know, basically terminate that. Oh my gosh. But that's really how I started all you know, all this. So I would do that in the mornings in class, like in school, and then I would do it at the gym. And Tony, my boss, you know, he's like, one day he says, uh, he says, what do you think if I cut your your rent from 500 to 250? Okay, gosh. Let's go. What do we what what what do I gotta do? 250? Done. Right? So what do you have to do? He's like, I have a manager here on Tuesdays and Thursdays that's going to nursing school. So she needs to leave early. So I need you to be here at 3 30 from 3 30 to 6. So it's two and a half hours. Okay. Um, he he kind of gave me a gist of how to how to sell, but not really, uh, he he didn't really train me hands-on. He was like, you need to figure it out, right? And that's the best school that he can give me because he allowed me to figure it out my way. Right. Not particularly following his way. So in the beginning, you know, I would stutter a lot and people were coming to the gym. Here's the gym, here's the prices, which one do you want? You know, that was my tour. You know, and then and then as as time kind of went on, this is a couple weeks, not a not a few months, this is a few weeks. Um, I started practicing by myself. Like, you know, I would pretend people were like walking in. I was like, hey, nice to meet you. Hey, I'm Gerardo Day, you know, welcome to anytime. You know, and I would just kind of go through the whole tour. I would show them, like, this is the cardio section, this is this, this is this that, you know, just right. And there's nobody there. I'm talking to myself, but I'm I'm practicing. Wow. So, long story short, within two months, what the manager was doing on a full time, I was settling more than her in those two and a half hours, Monday, uh, Tuesdays and Thursdays, no way than she was that full week.

SPEAKER_03 17:26

No way.

SPEAKER_05 17:27

Yeah, so Tony really liked, you know, he really you know took a liking to me. He said, Hey, you know, would you mind going to my other gym uh to help them out? I said, sure. You're in high school. I'm in high school, right? High school, yeah. And I'm not getting paid, by the way. Like he's he just cut your rent. He just cut my rent, yeah. So uh I said, Yeah, Tony, for sure. Like, you know, whatever you need, like I'm I'm your guy. Right. So uh I would drive to Richmond to one of his other clubs, I would drive to the Woodlands at his other club, Umble, Spring. You know, he had a bunch here in Houston. And I would, you know, take them water cases, I would you know, go clean the toilets, I would go clean the equipment, I would go sweep the floors, I would go clean the mirrors. I would basically be like their handyman. So whatever they needed, I was there. And mind you, I was not-not getting paid? I was still so so I did that for a full year. Did not get paid at all. Like, at all. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_03 18:17

That's a lot of people watching are like, no way.

SPEAKER_05 18:20

I'm I'm the youngest of four sisters. So my uh the youngest of four sisters, and I have no brothers, right? So it's it's only me and four older sisters. My sisters, when they found out that I was working for free, they what are you doing? Like you're so dumb, like they're taking advantage of you, like, you know, this is and this. And you know, I'm 17, 18 years old, you know, and uh I just remember telling my sisters, you know, like you guys see money, you guys see dollar signs, but I see an opportunity for me to learn something here, for me to elevate my life into something. You know, you guys just see like how much are they gonna pay you per hour? Right. I I see who am I gonna become in a year from now by working for this guy who has six gyms, right? And so um, so first year I worked for him for completely for free. Second year, he finally put me on payroll. I was managing one of his gyms. Uh, and that was really the gym. So one day he calls me up and I'm I'm I'm at one of his clubs. He says, Gerardo, I have an opportunity for you. I said, okay, I'm opening up a gym. I think it'll be a great opportunity for you to really understand and learn how to open up a gym from scratch, right? What goes on, how to do, not necessarily how to do it, but more so like what happens. The blueprint. The blueprint, yeah. I said, Tony, I'm in. He said, well, it's an hour, it's a little over an hour from your house, right? The gym that I was working at was like 20 minutes from my house. So you're gonna drive almost three times, two, yeah, three times the distance, right? Uh, and by the way, it's the same pay. I said, Tony, I don't care, I'll do it. So here I am. Yeah, so here I am, fresh out of high school. I just graduated, you know, I'm working, I'm already working for him, but now I'm finally getting paid. And now he's giving me an opportunity to go to a gym and basically build it from scratch. Not with my money, but not with his money, but I get to be there daily. I get to meet with the contractors, I get to meet with people, you know. And so we do the pre-sale, right? We do the pre-sale. The pre-sale was very quick. Um, I think I sold about 300 memberships in less than four months, if that, around there.

SPEAKER_02 20:20

What?

SPEAKER_05 20:20

Yeah, by myself. So there's no other staff. It's I'm the I'm the general manager, I'm the I'm the salesperson, I'm this, I'm the receptionist, I'm I'm everything. And uh, we sold through over 300 memberships, and within seven months, we hit over 800 memberships. Well, him and I, we kind of had a fallout, a falling out, and uh, and you know, it it did, it wasn't one day to the next. It was kind of over time, right? Because, you know, partners that he was bringing in didn't really have the best intention, and I can see that. And I would try to kind of tell him he wasn't really paying any mind to it because in those two years, so mind you, again, year one, completely year for free, year two, I'm finally getting paid. At the end of those two years, he went from six gyms to 29 gyms. I'm sorry, let me get out of here. What? 29 gyms, and that's what really blew my mind was to see how one person was able to go from six locations to almost 30 locations in under two years. Right. That was that to me was my college. That was he was my professor. I was getting paid to learn from him. That's great, ideally, you know, and so um, but long story short, you know, we had a falling out and it was the day after labor day. So usually, you know, Mondays are off and then you go back to work on Tuesday. So uh my dad and I had something to do, and uh my dad was like, hey, like I'm gonna just go with you to work because there's no point in view having to drive an hour and then having to drive an hour back, and then where we're gonna go is basically 15 minutes from the gym. So I might as well just go. Right, go with you, right? Of all days that he comes with me to work, he comes with me the day that I get fired. So I step into the gym like a normal day, like a normal Tuesday. I have my backpack, I got my gym keys, I walk in and I turn. Into the office, and I see somebody sitting behind my desk. And I'm kind of like appalled, right? I'm like, who are you?

SPEAKER_02 22:06

Right, right.

SPEAKER_05 22:06

And he's looking at me like, Who are you? I'm like, I'm the manager. He says, I'm sorry, but I'm the manager. So now I'm super confused, right? I have my dad behind me. I'm talking to a stranger that I just met literally like five seconds ago, and he's telling me that he's the manager. So I'm over here thinking, like, either I'm dreaming or I'm tripping. Right. Or both. I don't know. Right. So in the corner of my eye, I can see my my uh my boss. Not Tony, it was Tony's partner. Because again, Tony brought in different partners for different gyms. And his name is John. And you know, I can I can read, I can read eyes, right? Eyes never lie. He looks at me, his eyebrows go up, he looks right at by right behind me to my dad, his eye, his eyebrows go even higher. He's like, oh crap. Like he brought in thumbs for him. He brought his dad. You know, his dad's with him uh the day that I'm firing him. And uh he comes to me, he's like, Gerardo, I'm so sorry, but I gotta let you go. For what? And I'm like, John, like exactly. I'm like, why? Like, like what did I do? Like, what did I do wrong? He's like, nothing, like nothing. It was just, you know, we're looking for a manager with more experience, you know. I'm like, John, like, I got you, I got you over 800 members in less than a year by myself. Like, I had no additional help. Like, like, what do you mean? Yeah, and so I'm you know, again, 18 years old, very confused. You know, it's like a deer in the head of lights, right? You know, my dad's right behind me. I'm like, oh my god, like I'm getting fired in front of my dad. Are you like in my mind, I'm like, are you kidding me right now? And so I remain as calm as I could, just very composed. I said, okay. So I had to get all my stuff from my office, pack up all my stuff. So while I'm packing up my stuff, my dad is talking to John, right? And John is a very, you know, very Christian, very in the church, he's in that inner circle, right? And my dad, uh, I'm I'm I could hear my dad from the corner of my ear, and I'm I could hear me saying, John, you know, you're a man of God. Like, do you think God would be proud of this, of what you're doing, of how you're doing what you're doing? Right? You could have gone about this in a whole different way. If you want to fire him, hey, that's your choice. But you could have gone about it a whole different way. My son was there with you since you're a priest. I mean, he my dad was just giving it to him, it out. And that and not in a yelling, right? In a aggressive, but more so as like a what are you doing? Right. Right? And uh so as I'm packing up my stuff, John comes into the office, tears in his eyes, right? Yeah, tears in his eyes. Really? My dad made him cry. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 24:38

And uh made him think.

SPEAKER_05 24:39

Yeah, I'm looking at my dad, like, dad, what did you tell him, you know? And uh I look at John, and the first thing that popped into my head was say, say thank you. Thank him for the opportunity, thank him for allowing you to learn to be here. And so he's crying, he comes into the office, and before he can say anything out of his mouth, I say, John, I just want to just start off by saying thank you so much. Thank you for this opportunity, thank you for believing in me to help you run this business. You know, I greatly appreciate you and all the time and investment that you and Tony have put into me. Um, I wish you guys the best of luck. If there's anything I can do, like I'm here. You know, just again, like never never burn bridges. That's something that my parents always taught me as a kid, like never burn a bridge. You just never know. Okay. You never know. And so that made them cry even more.

SPEAKER_03 25:26

And uh, you know, I want to cry and I'm like, John, you messed up.

SPEAKER_05 25:30

Yeah, you know, you know, we uh you know, we shake hands and and and I, you know, and and I leave, right? And as I walk out those doors, I realize like I'm never coming back through these doors again. Like that's you know, it's everything like everything that just happened, uh, everything I learned from Tony. Now I gotta take it with me. Like I can't rely on him to continue to teach me or you know, learn from him, etc. And so uh my dad asked me, said, Hey, like let me drive. You sit in the passenger seat, I'll drive. So I'm living in my parents' house at this time. So we go back home, it's an hour drive, complete silence, no radio, just silence. And so uh we get to the house, my dad says, Hey, go to your room, go to bed, like go to sleep. We'll talk about it when you wake up. This is like two o'clock in the afternoon. I'm in my room, I cannot go to sleep. I mean, I'm running on adrenaline, I'm I I have I'm processing everything that just happened. And in my room, you know, I had a very tiny room at my parents' house. I had like a wardrobe where you have like a mirror. And uh I'm looking at myself in the mirror the whole time. You know, I have tears in my eyes, and I just can't believe what happened. Like all my friends are in college. I told everybody I was gonna be this hot shot, and you know, I was gonna be somebody in my life, and I was gonna do something with my life. And here I am, no job, not in school, no friends, because all my friends went to college, confused, right? And I'm looking at myself in the mirror, and I get as close as I could to my mirror to the point that I can't even see my body. All I can see is my eyes. Like I'm just focused on my eyes. And I've made a promise to myself, and I said, I'm never ever gonna allow us to go do something like this again.

SPEAKER_03 27:01

Ever.

SPEAKER_05 27:01

I'm never gonna allow something like this to ever happen to us.

SPEAKER_03 27:03

How old again are you? 18.

SPEAKER_05 27:05

18, yeah. So I'm talking to someone in third person. I'm saying us. Like I'm talking to my reflection. I'm saying, I'm never gonna allow this to ever happen to us again. I promise you, it's never gonna happen again. And um, in that moment, everything just started kicking in. I was like, oh my God, I just bought a brand new car like four months prior. I just rented a brand new space a month prior. You know, so I have a brand new card note, I have a lease that, you know, we just I just signed a month prior, and now I have no job and I have less than three grand in my bank. What am I gonna do? And again, there's big decisions, right? Left or right, right? Which way you're going, Gerardo, where you know, are you gonna go left?

SPEAKER_04 27:46

Right?

SPEAKER_05 27:47

Are you gonna are you are you gonna go and hide in the corner? Or are you gonna go and walk with your chest out and saying, hey, it happened, but now what's next? Right. And that was my whole mindset, right? Invincible. And so uh, and this is this is before I even created the name Invincible, before I even came into, you know, uh into reality. And so, you know, here I am, uh, no money, confused, what am I gonna do? So I decide I'm going all in. Like if I'm gonna, if I'm gonna lose, I'm gonna lose swinging. Like I'm going makes sense. I'm gonna get my licks in, believe me. Okay, and so that was my whole mindset. And so what I decided to do was, okay, what what what are my options? Right? I got no job, where can I get money from? Okay, I can file for unemployment. So I went to the work, you know, Texas workforce, stood in that line. Everybody's in that line has either lost their job or trying to seek help from the government, right? And here I am, and I'm telling myself what I told myself in that mirror, like, like, like, see all this, be present, because it's never gonna happen again. You're never gonna see me again. Okay, so I did what I had to do. Um, thankfully, you know, with everything that I've worked, and you know, I think I I uh they gave me like four grand spread across like four months, or a grand a month, something like that. Nothing big, but something is something, right? And all that money plus the money that I had saved, I invested it into my business. So opened up my supplement shop, didn't go as planned, right? The day that we opened, nobody showed up. You know, uh, I had my parents there, my older sister there, one of my sisters was there, and nobody came to my grand opening. Uh I'm so devastated. You know, we spent four months, you know, all this money building it, and nobody even showed up. And I'm very negative at this point. Like, very, like, I'm very like, what was I thinking? Like, how stupid can I really be? How excuse me. Um, how you know, and um my sister, you know, I was I was looking for my sister to res like to give me a little bit more of like that that shoulder to kind of lean on. She's like, what are you doing? Like, like you decided to do this. Nobody made you do this. You decided to do this. So now you go figure it out. And I said, okay. I said, tough love, but I needed it. Right. You know, and so I, you know, started passing out flyers, started, you know, I didn't know about ads, I didn't know about you know social media as far as like you know advertisements and stuff like that. So all I did was I printed out flyers and I went and I passed it out to people. And so I thought that, okay, if I do 30 flyers a day consistently for seven days a week, how many flyers is that? Okay, that's these many flyers. Okay, if I do that across the month, how many flyers is that? Okay, out of 800 and so flyers that I pass out in a month's time, I gotta have at least at least 20 people come.

SPEAKER_03 30:31

Right.

SPEAKER_05 30:32

So it was a it was a numbers game for me. So it started to become a game. And so um unfortunately the business wasn't wasn't surviving, and I was less than a month away from closing my doors. And um one of my clients, you know, her daughter's wedding was coming up, and she said, Hey, you know, I I want to lose a couple pounds. You know, I understand that you used to work at any time, so I I'm assuming you know how to train people. Would you mind training me? I said, sure. I don't have any equipment, I got just dumbbells. I could, you know, I could bring them from my house and you know, train you with them. She's like, great, how much? My again, I was less than a month away from closing. So even if she was to pay me, I didn't have enough to cover my bills. So I said, no, don't worry about it. Just be here at 11 a.m. every day and and would and we'll train. So I trained her for two weeks straight, every day, Monday through Friday. And uh at the end of those two weeks, she was down eight pounds, which is incredible, right? And you can you can noticeably see it in her face and her arms, you know, eight pounds is eight pounds. And um the following week, as I'm mopping my floor, because again, not many people knew about my business. I didn't I couldn't even afford a sign on my my on my building. So nobody knew what it was, right? And sometimes I would just leave the doors open just saying whoever comes in comes in. Wow. Most of the time it was just flies coming in. You know, and so sometimes I would I would mop my business three times a day because I was so bored. I was just I would just clean. I would clean the same thing over and over again. And you know, and so one day I'm mopping my floor, three ladies walk in and they say, Hey, are you Gerardo? I said, Who's asking? I thought it was a bill collector. So I'm like, who's asking? You know, it depends on who's asking. I could be Gerardo. I could be and uh and so they told me, they said, Hey, you know, you train one of our friends, Maribel, and you know, she told us about you know her weight loss journey with you in the last two weeks. And you know, we're just interested in knowing what your memberships are. I'm like, memberships? Like I looked around, like, there's no squat racks, I have no, I have no machines in my gym in my talking about, but then the huge light bulb went off, right? I was like, wait, I did it for Tony, I did it for his gym. Who says I can't do it for myself, right? And so um I looked at my bank account, I had $16. $16. That's that's how I knew I was, I was, I was, it was done. Like I was I I knew at the end of the month I had to return my car to the dealership. I knew that I had to talk to my landlord, cancel my lease, my credit was gonna basically go to zero. Like I was mentally preparing myself for that, right? And uh when when these three ladies walked in and they and they asked me this, light bulb went off. I said, wait a minute, like I can do this. I can I can do this. And so I looked at my bank, $16, like, yeah, that's not gonna work. I said, where else can I get money from? I said, okay, I have this credit card that I got when I was in high school. It was mainly used for my gas money and lunch money and you know stuff like that. And and uh I had a $1,500 limit on it. So I called Wals Fargo, I said, hey, can you please raise to uh $2,000? So raise it $500. They said no. I said, okay. So I went to an ATM, withdrew the entire limit, so $1,500. I have it in cash, I go to Craig's as an offer up, and I buy used equipment. So I bought three used squat racks, three barbelts, 400 pounds of plates, and some old high school mats. And that's how invincible fitness was created. I transitioned it from invincible nutrition, which was my supplement store, to now invincible fitness. And that's how it was born. And um, and yeah, so that's how that's that I did that, you know, at the age of 19. And I uh I slept in my office for almost 24 months, almost a full two years. I slept in my office on a on an air mattress because again, it's an hour from my house, you know, that's that's gas money, that's time. I was like, hey, if I'm gonna do this, I gotta be all in. I gotta, I gotta be immersed into this business, right? And so there's times that I'll wake up late and my clients are knocking at, you know, on my door at six in the morning. You know, I'm and I was so embarrassed because I didn't want to tell them, like, yeah, I'm sleeping in my office, right? I said, I'm sorry, I was in a meeting and you know, it's six o'clock in the morning. We were talking to it at six o'clock in the morning, you know, like just but they knew, right? And and they were so patient with me, and and and and most of my clients that I signed up at that at that time are still clients today. And that's something that I'm most proud of to say is that these people have been loyal to me, to my brand, to my mission, to everything that I've built, you know, and now what they're seeing with invincible, right? Because we're transitioning from invincible fitness to just invincible. Uh I had them comment on my on my Instagram stories the other day, and they're just like, wow, man, like just to see how far you've come in a short period of time is inspiring to say the least. You know, and just know that we're gonna continue to support you, we're gonna continue to be here with you. And that to me is is is something that every business owner needs. Like you need, you need a tribe of people who believe in you. And sometimes people who are not even in your proximity, right? Like maybe not in your close friend circle, maybe even in your family circle, are gonna be the ones who believe in you the most. And that's that's okay, right? My parents always believed in me, you know, they always saw potential in me. But at the end of the day, it was up to me to go become somebody, right? Based off of the values and the lessons that I learned growing up, you know, being in their in their house, right? And so uh yeah, so you know, here we are, almost a decade later. I feel like I'm just getting started. Uh, we're about to open Invincible Katie, and that's something that I'm just phenomenally just uh inspired of, you know.

SPEAKER_03 35:55

Listen, Torado. I literally am listening to your story and I feel like I want to cry. I feel like I'm listening to a documentary, a movie. Um, but this is real life stuff that you're talking about because you're inspiring me as you're talking. Because as any business owner, anyone who's tried to go into business for themselves, everything that you've described is different journeys that a lot of us have felt, and some people have just not continued on the path because they've been let down or they've been disappointed. But because of that, your tagline, let me read that again. It's a lifestyle brand created for people who are built to never surrender. And every single thing that you just shared is just literally, man, I'm sorry. But you you are building something inside of me again and reminding me of why I'm doing what I'm doing, even in this season when I'm not seeing everything happening the way that I anticipated.

SPEAKER_02 36:53

Right.

SPEAKER_03 36:54

You giving that lady that that training for free produced three clients. Right. You decided to work free for one year to learn, to go to college. That was your anytime fitness was your college.

SPEAKER_02 37:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:11

One year cleaning toilets, doing whatever was asked for you for one year without pay. Not a lot of people would do that. And I know you know that. But you were in college, your mindset was that this is college for me, I'm learning. Right. And all this time, you're getting gathering all this information, you're doing this all out of goodwill, out of the goodness of your heart to not only learn, but you wasn't you the main things I really heard from you is that money wasn't a big driving force. Right. You knew that you needed to be, you were gonna be in business, and you knew it was something to do with fitness.

SPEAKER_02 37:44

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 37:45

And so you surrounded yourself with someone who was able to help you learn those things. And you took that despite the challenges, despite the setbacks, despite everything that was showing up. $16. A lot of people would have been like, this is not happening. Oh, yeah. I'm not even thinking about anything else. It's done. Right. But I believe God has been amazingly blessing you in your life. And so I wanted to talk a little bit about you know the in-between parts of this story where God was showing up for you and what was your faith journey like during that time, and also your parents. Um, I mean, I have not met them, but um I listen, I love you guys. You raised a wonderful man here, and um, it's kudos to you. I have to give a shout out to the parents. I love what you did, dad. Oh, everybody needs someone like that in their corner.

SPEAKER_05 38:34

Absolutely, absolutely. And you know, and for me, like I want to be that person in everybody's corner, right? Everyone needs that brother, that uncle, that cousin, like that type of figure in their lives. And maybe they're not blood related, but they could be spiritually related.

SPEAKER_02 38:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 38:48

Right. Where they can uh, you know, speak life into you and speak dreams into you and and and keep them in you where you can then make them into existence, right? Uh yeah, in my in my story, you know, there's been, you know, like I mentioned at the other event, right? God and I we're we're we're tight, like we're close, we're best friends, you know. Like there's times I I even ask him, like, hey, how's your day going? Right? How you know, how are how are you doing today? I love that. Yeah, just you know, you because I you know sometimes I get so caught up just asking him for things and just hey, I'm praying for this and I'm praying for this. And but sometimes I forget, like, hey, like I want to ask about you. I want to ask, how are you doing? How are you feeling today? How are you, you know? And um, and then my mind just kind of wanders, like, oh, he will say something like this, and he would say something like that. Oh man, I pulled this miracle today, you should have seen it, you should have been there. You know, it's just and so um, yeah, just like you know, with anybody in business, and sometimes you know, you run, you you have to run through different walls, right? And some some walls are thicker than others, right? Sometimes you run through a wall that's made out of solid concrete, and sometimes you run into a wall that's made out of a bush, right? It just depends, you know. But for myself, for my own journey, I I just remember being in the being around, you know, uh my sisters and being around my parents, you know, going to church. I just remember like always having to really not rem, I would say remind myself of like, hey, you you gotta be present. Even even in your worst times, you gotta be present to God. You gotta talk to him, you gotta, you know, speak to him. And I just remember I was running through this uh one particular uh story in my entire journey is that I felt in my business that I was taking three steps forward, but then I would take five steps back.

SPEAKER_02 40:29

Right.

SPEAKER_05 40:29

And so, you know, I would I would get new clients, but then I would lose old clients. And it was like that back and forth. And I felt like I I wanted to progress, I wanted to get to that next level, whatever that next level to me was. But I felt like I was kind of like running with anchors behind me, right? Running with chains behind me.

SPEAKER_02 40:47

Really?

SPEAKER_05 40:48

And so one day, you know, I'm running my business like 10 months in, I'm doing everything, I'm doing the billing manually myself. I'm signing people up myself, I'm making the smoothies myself, I'm I'm weighing people in myself. So I'm I'm doing all the work by myself. And you know, when you have 20, 30 clients, no big deal. But once you have 80, 90 clients, it's very taxing on your mind because you're just you're just on go mode. From the day that you from the moment you wake up, it's like go, go, go, go, go, right? Because I couldn't I couldn't ask anybody to run a class for me because I was the only one who was doing it. I couldn't ask anybody to, hey, make this smoothie for this client because I was the only one making smoothies. Uh hey, can you build this client? Because I didn't have a billing system before. I would bill everybody manually through through Square. And sometimes, you know, when those transactions wouldn't go through, I'm like, oh man, now I gotta call him and ask him for money. And it was just a huge pain. And so one day, uh, I'll never forget the day. So we opened my business January 25th, 2017. I transitioned from invincible nutrition to invincible fitness March of 2017. And by October of 2017, that's when I felt I was kind of plateauing, hitting this barrier, hitting this wall, more like concrete wall. And I uh ended up canceling all my classes for the day. So this is around 10 in the morning. I cancel all my classes. I said, I cannot be here right now. I need to breathe. I need to get out of here. I mean, I was living there, I was working there, uh, everything. You were just doing everything? I was doing everything there. I would be there nonstop all day, every day. And so I I closed my business down uh for the day. And instead of going home, I go to my church. And so I mentally I was prepared to quit. I was I was ready to quit. But I was hoping that my pastor would talk me out of quitting, right? And uh and so I go to my church, I I asked for the pastor to the front receptionist. I said, Hey, is Pastor Mike here? She said, Unfortunately, no, he's at a lunch. I said, Okay, it's is Pastor Nelson here. No, all pastors went to lunch together. I said, So I said, okay, so there's no pastor here, somebody I can talk to. I said, uh, would you mind if I can, you know, go into the uh sanctuary and pray? She said, Yeah, there's somebody there, but yeah, of course. I said, I won't be long, you know, and so I go in there, it's pitch black. The only thing that's lit up is the stage, right? The stage and and the steps leading to the stage. So as soon as I get to the steps, I fall on my knees, I start bawling, crying, because uh prior to that, I hadn't cried in I don't know how long. I think since I got fired was the last time I had cried. And so I had built all this emotion, all this tension inside of my body that I needed to release it, I needed to let it out. And so I'm there, I'm I'm on the stairs, I'm on my knees, I'm crying, I'm asking God, like, what's going on? Like I'm doing what you're I'm doing what you're telling me to do, but why is it that I feel so much resistance? I don't understand. Like, like what like what is it? Right. And uh prior to that, you know, you know, I don't, I don't come from you know a very wealthy, you know, financial family, right? You know, we're you're very big in love and you know, everybody's close, but in terms of money wise, that was not the case for me growing up. And so what do you do when you grow up without money and you accumulate a little bit of money? You want to save it. Right. You don't want to spend it. You don't wanna, you don't wanna see it leave your bank account because then it's like you're back at zero. Right. Right? You're you're back at where you started. And so I was so afraid of reinvesting money back into my business that I was just kind of just running on an autopilot in a way. And so while I'm praying and while I'm crying, I'm talking to God, I hear God tell me, and he says, if you would just fill up the gym full of equipment, I will fill it up with people. And that's all he said. Like that, like that was that was literally start to finish. Like if you fill up the gym with equipment, I will fill it up with people. And I said, Okay, okay. So I leave church, church, uh extremely rejuvenated, very energized, very inspired, very like, okay, now I know my next my next task. So within the next 45 days, I invest that entire eight grand that I had saved into buying newer but still used equipment, setting it up in my gym. And by this is October 2017, so by March 2018, my business had quadrupled in size. So at that in October, I was taking home maybe $2,500-ish dollars a month profit. By March of 2018, I was taking home almost $10,000.

unknown 45:19

Wow.

SPEAKER_05 45:20

Profit.

SPEAKER_03 45:20

Wow.

SPEAKER_05 45:21

Wow. Yeah. And so, you know, just just just a flip of a chance and believing, right? Being invincible, right? Never giving up, never surrendering, never like never bending a knee, neither to your excuses or to the reasons why you should give up and why you should move on to something else and do something else from scratch. It's not it. You know, we all go through things, right? I'm sure you've been through things. I've been through things. We've all been the listeners listening to this have been through things, right? But you know, again, two decisions, left or right, where are you going? Right? You can either scour away and hide and pretend like whatever's going on is not going on and and just, you know, or right, big or or you can lean more into it and say, hey, typically in the gym when you're working out, how do you grow a muscle when you feel the most resistance? How do you grow a business when you feel the most resistance? Right? So when you feel that resistance is really when you're on the verge of something big.

SPEAKER_03 46:16

Yes, big, big. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_05 46:18

And so that's what I believe in, right? And that's what I want to remind people. I want to remind people like, hey, it's okay, it's okay to go through things. Totally understandable, right? But what's not okay is to give up on yourself. That's not okay. I'm not okay with that, right? If it takes you a year or a decade to get ultimately to where you want to be, it is what it is, right? But if you give up, for sure that's never gonna be the case. So that's why I feel it's my duty and responsibility to put this mission, to, to, to put this brand out there, to connect with people who resonate with it, right? Who resonate with like, hey, I'm that type of person who doesn't give up. I never surrender, I never back down, right? You know, and so by by believing in something that's bigger than you, by believing in something that's bigger than you, that created everything that you see around you, it gives you that understanding of like, okay, God didn't bring me here just to bring me here, right? This is just a part of my story, right? And he's my number one fan. He is rooting for me, he is supporting me, he is lifting me. All I gotta do is have the courage to go through those doors and never stop.

SPEAKER_03 47:31

So wow, listen, Gerardo. Woo! Heavy, listen, heavy in the sense of so much wisdom, so much experience, so much resilience that you have fought through to get to where you are. And I mean, I don't want to take away because there's there, listen, this your story still continues because now um I think one of the biggest things that really shook me was when you we were at this networking event, business kingdom business networking event, and you spoke about how you sold your first franchise.

SPEAKER_02 48:05

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 48:06

And I was like, wait a minute, what? You're opening a new gym here in Katy, and you also have your first franchise. So tell us a little bit about how that navigated into that. How did you get there?

SPEAKER_05 48:19

Yeah, yeah. So, you know, um, you know, my my first gym, we started it in in a small little town, Magnolia, Texas. It's it's north of Houston's uh it's close to the woodlands. Uh so that's our first location, and then our second location, we opened it in spring, third location is in Cyprus, and now we're we're doing Katie. But um, but going back, you know, to you know where we started and and and how I saw my first franchise. So back in back in 2018 when my business quadrupled, right? Um obviously I'm I'm I'm on cloud nine. I'm I'm like, wow, like I'm gonna go in there. Now we're pumping on all cylinders, like you know, we have all, you know, I'm thinking of my business like a like a V12 engine. Like right, we're pumping all cylinders, like everything's functioning, everything's going great. And uh one of my clients uh came to my office and said, Hey, you know, I was just curious, like, how much did this franchise cost? He didn't know that I was a founder, like he didn't know I was the owner of Invincible Fitness, so he thought I was a franchisee of the brand. So when he asked me how much is this franchise, I said, it's not a franchise. Oh, it's not. Wait, I thought you were a franchisee. None at all. He's like, Oh, I didn't know you were the owner, like I didn't know you were the founder of the company. So we get into conversation, and and when he leaves, it just it's my my mind was just so like anytime fitness, you know, Tony was in my mind, him growing from six locations to 29 locations, franchise locations. I'm like, I can do that. But instead of me being a franchisee, maybe I can be a franchise or then I can help other franchisees and I can help lead them, you know, through this business. So um looked into it like lightly, and uh a guy who I was following at the time on Instagram, um, I I I knew that his his headquarters was in was in California. So I had already had a uh scheduled visit to go visit my sister who was serving in the Marine Corps uh in Camp Pendleton in California. So the day that I arrived, I go to her base, I'm there, and she had to do something. So she's like, hey, here's my keys to my Jeep. Go do whatever. Yeah, go cruise, right? I'm like, wow, I'm in California by myself. Like I have a Jeep, I have my sister's Jeep. Great. So I go, I go hiking, I go eat, and at that point, my sister's still busy. She, you know, and so I was like, okay, well, what else can I do? How else can I kill some time? And I found out that this guy's headquarters was like about an hour and a half away from where I was. I said, perfect. I'll just drive over there, right? Beautiful scenery, right? I'm driving, you know, so it's it's it's a great drive. So we I drove from uh basically from almost from Camp Pendleton all the way to Chino Hills. I don't know how far that is, but uh it was about an hour and a half or two-hour drive. I can't remember what it was, but I drove, I get to, I get to the headquarters, it's uh it's a fit-body boot camp headquarters. Uh at the time they had about 700 locations all over the United States. And 700, yeah. Wow. So yeah, I'm I'm blown away, right? And so I I as I walk in, nobody's in the nobody's in the in the front office, not a single soul. So I'm thinking like, okay, what's going on? I is you know, so I'm yeah, so I'm knocking, I'm I'm ringing the doorbell, nobody's coming in. So as I'm leaving, somebody coming into the into the building greets me. And of all people, it's the president of franchising for Fitbody Bootcamp.

SPEAKER_02 51:26

Interesting.

SPEAKER_05 51:27

And he asked me, Hey, have you been helping? I said, No, I was actually curious to know more about this opportunity, and you know, I wanted to know more about franchising more than anything. So knowing that I was following the CEO of the company and the Look at how God just puts you in these places. I was there, you know, and so he you know, he's like, Oh yeah, I'll give you a tour. I was like, Really? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So he puts the stuff down and he gives me a tour. So he shows me every part of the building. He shows me the sales team, he shows me where the marketing team works, he shows me where the product development team works, he shows me where Pedro's, the founder and CEO uh office is. I I actually got to walk into his office and and see his desk. And and you know, at this moment, I'm just I'm just I'm taking everything. I'm just taking everything in. I'm just like, wow. Like I when I woke up this morning, I didn't expect that I was gonna be here, right? But here I am, right? And so I leave, I leave that day, you know, go back to my sister, you know, hang out with her for the weekend, come back to Houston. I'm super inspired, very, very inspired. I told my parents, I said, I'm gonna franchise my business. Or like, you're gonna what? I'm gonna franchise my business. I was like, they said, How are you gonna do that? I have no idea, but I'm gonna figure it out, right? And so I call around, call around, call around. And finally I landed on this on this company who helps businesses go from you know an ordinary business to a franchise business. Right. And um, I didn't really realize how expensive it was gonna be until after I signed up and I said, Okay, yes, and then I signed the agreements. When I first when that first bill came and they said, hey, this is how much we're gonna need, I said, Whoa. I was like, I had to put it in the light. I was like, wait a minute, you know? And uh, and so I, you know, in that moment I said, okay, I cannot keep this up. I can maybe do two, three months, but this is a this is an eight-month process. So every month I need to pay these guys. And so at the at the time, one of my clients, you know, he he owned a huge irrigation and landscaping business. His name is Daniel. I said, hey Daniel, I said, hey man, like I am currently transitioning my business to a franchise business. He said, Oh, that's great. Yeah, right. Well, turns out that I need a job. Like I need I need additional work, like I need I need additional income. So I had already somebody running the gym, no problem. So I can leave. Yeah. So he asked me, he said, Are you sure? I said, Yeah, of course. Are you sure? I said, Yes. Like my I've worked with my hands before. My dad always had me outside working on the yard. And I was like, for sure. Okay. So I went to Ross, I got me a button-up, long sleeve, a sombrero, got me some boots, got me some pants, everything from Ross. And here I am driving my Mustang behind a truck with a trailer full of like irrigation equipment going to people's, you know, homes. And uh, and I did that for about six months. You know, I was in million-dollar homes, you know, trenching, you know, my job was to trench. So wherever the pipe is gonna be laid, I had to trench all of that so that way the pipe can be laid can be laid down. And I'm in these million-dollar homes and I'm talking to myself, like, what am I doing here? What am I doing here? Like, and I'm like, gee, what are you doing here? I'm just going back and forth with myself. And I tell myself, like, this is only temporary. It's only temporary, okay? Like, you're only in this, in this, in this bubble of of pain. Because it was emotional pain for me, because I was like, I want to focus on my business, and I feel like I was taking my eyes off the ball. And that's really what was affecting me the most. Because I was putting all my resources and my energy into the landscaping business. So, long story short, you know, Daniel, you know, who didn't doesn't have papers, didn't have papers, I don't know about now, but didn't have papers at the time. Hopefully he does. Daniel, I hope you have papers now. I'm sure he does. He's a he's a he's a multimillionaire, so I'm sure he does. So uh, so one day, you know, I'm I'm I'm in the uh, you know, I'm I'm I'm at this house, you know, and uh and Daniel comes to me and says, Hey, what do you think if you go to school and you get your irrigation license? Okay, for what? Well, we need a license in order to do big jobs, like parks, baseball fields, football fields. Like that's that's where more money's at. Like not in the residential, but in the commercial. I said, okay, what do I have to do? So he was like, you need to take this course. So I went to go take the course, it was like a 36-hour course, did the course, now you gotta take the test, right? So now you gotta go to uh Texas AM to take the test there. It's five different exams. So I take the test, I pass two, failed three. I told Daniel, Daniel, I said, Hey Daniel, I failed three tests. He's like, hey, don't worry about it. Nobody passes it, nobody passes all five on this on the first try. But I have a buddy of mine named Eddie, he can you know coach coach you and you know. So he put me in contact with Eddie. Eddie and I met up. For the first 30 minutes, we're talking in Spanish because that's how me and Daniel spoke, just in Spanish. And uh I pronounced a word in English because I couldn't say it in Spanish, and then Eddie, perfect English. He's like, You speak English? Yeah. I'm like, I'm gonna fire. I'm looking around the restaurant, like, wait, you speak English? It was a funny moment, you know? And and at that moment, he cuts me off. Say, Gerard, Gerard, I gotta stop you, man. Like, what why are you doing this? Why? I don't understand. You're you're 20 years old, 21, however old I was, uh, 21 years old, you know, you were born here, you speak English. Like, I don't understand why you're doing irrigation. Like, for what? And so I told him my my purpose and my reasoning behind it. That's why I'm like, you know, I'm accumulating, trying to get money to pay my bills, and this is why, because I'm franchising my business. And so I gave him the whole story, and he's like, I want to go see it. Yeah, whenever you want. No, no, no, I want to go see it right now. So we leave the restaurant, we drive 30 minutes to go to my my gym in McNolley, because I only have one location. And uh at the moment, you know, when you walk into my gym, I mean, the the equipment that I had in my gym, you could you could buy it at Academy or Walmart. It was it was that type of equipment, you know. And I said, Eddie, look, I know it's not much, but trust me when I tell you, man, this is gonna be big. One day we're gonna have our own equipment, we're gonna have our own line, we're gonna have our own brand. Like, this is gonna mean something, it's gonna be something. Just believe me. And he did, right? So uh he left, didn't think much of it. Next day, I'm at another job. He calls me out of the blue. Uh actually at this job, so the night prior it had rained really hard. So the following morning when I'm at this job, I mean, I'm I'm I'm wearing my boots and to my shins, I'm in, I'm in mud. Right. And so I'm I'm you know, here I am with uh with my shovel. And Eddie calls me and I answer the phone and I say, Hey, what's up? And he says, Hey, you know, I'm I came to your gym again with my daughter Haley. She loves the gym. I was like, Oh, that's great. I love the gym. That's great. You know, that's that's awesome. I love it. Yeah, great to hear, man. I'm you know, he's like, Yeah, man, so look, listen, um, I want to do it.

SPEAKER_03 58:14

Do you want to do that?

SPEAKER_05 58:15

I'm like, do what? Yeah, I want to be your first franchisee. I want to, I'll yeah, I believe in your I believe in you, I believe in what you're doing, I want to be your first franchisee.

SPEAKER_03 58:25

I'm sorry, woo, you're giving me goosebumps.

SPEAKER_05 58:26

Yeah, man, I get them too. Okay, and here I am, you know, at a at a project, and here I am. You know, I have somebody who believes in me so much that they're willing to put their own capital into building one of my gyms, right? And long story short, right, he gives me the check. I have the check in my hand. I'm like, wow, like we did it. We did it. Like, like, like we became a franchise in May of 2019.

SPEAKER_03 58:56

And you were uh you're 2019, and you're how old? 21?

SPEAKER_05 59:00

This is yeah, about 21. Around 21. Yeah, 21 years old.

SPEAKER_03 59:02

Yeah, I have to keep reminding myself because I'm just like, wait a minute, how old?

SPEAKER_05 59:07

So, yeah, so so you know, here I am, you know, 21. This guy's telling me that yes, I want to buy into the I want to buy into the opportunity. So I have the check in my hand. I'm like, wow, we did it. Right? This is you know, May 2019 became a franchise, July 2019, I saw my first franchise. Right? This is you know, this is happening so quick, very, very quick. This is less than two months that since I officially become you know became a franchise or now that I saw my first franchise.

SPEAKER_03 59:32

Is that unheard of? Is that typical? I don't know what it is.

SPEAKER_05 59:35

I have no idea, to be honest. I mean, I've I've heard crazy stories. I've you know I've heard people do it in the same day, they become franchise. Yeah, so yeah. So for me, it was a huge, it was a huge deal because I did it with no advertising, I did it with really just talking and telling people my story.

SPEAKER_03 59:49

Telling your story.

SPEAKER_05 59:50

And so, and so he believed in it so much that he said, okay, let's do it. So I have the shake of my hand, and my next instant thought was, now what? Because you did it, right? You saw a franchise. That's great. Accomplish that, yeah, yeah. But now what? Now what happens? Now you gotta find a location, now you gotta negotiate, now you gotta find an architect, now you gotta file permitting, now you gotta, you know, XYZ, right? And so while we're building his gym, this is during the pandemic, right? In the in the heart of the pandemics when we're building his gym. And at the time, you know, with my gym, you know, all my equipment was used equipment. So I was going based off of what I knew and what I learned over the time of okay, why buy new when you can buy used that looks new for the for the half the price of new.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:30

Right.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:30

So uh I find this guy here in Houston, we go to his warehouse, he's showing us all his used equipment, we're putting price quotes together, and I said, Man, this is all old. Like this is rusty, this is not what I want invincible fitness to look like. He says, Well, I have a new I have a warehouse with all my brand new equipment. I said, Why didn't you say that before? So we go to his new warehouse, I see all the equipment, and he imported a lot from overseas, right? And so he told me, he's like, Gerard, look, since you're a franchiser, any franchise that you come to me and that buys equipment from me, I'll give you 10% of whatever they buy. I said, What? 10%? I said, okay, so you're telling me that if somebody buys 50 grand worth of equipment, you're gonna write me a check for five grand? To me, five grand at the time was like was like 50 grand, basically, you know? And so I said, okay, great. So Eddie and I, we talked. He loves the equipment. He buys about $60,000 worth of equipment. Two weeks later, uh, the guy he calls me up, he says, Hey, I have your check here, come pick it up. I literally I dropped whatever I was doing. I said, I'm gonna go pick up this check. Give me my money. You know, so I go pick up this check as I as I'm picking it up, and this is really where my again, left or right, right? You know, these these moments, you know, everybody has these moments. Yeah, we make a decision. And this moment, you know, inspired me so much because when I when I pull up to his warehouse and he has a he's outside with the check in his hand, when he gives it to me, he gives it to me with the biggest smile on his face. I mean, ear-to-ear smile, right? Jim Carrey type of smile. Like very, very wide. And and when he gives me the check, I'm in my mind, I'm thinking, I'm like, man, you're giving me $6,000. I was like, I wonder how much out of the entire uh product that you you profited from, right? Right. That's where my mind went. And I said, look, you know, I'm doing this franchise thing, like I would love to learn more about equipment and gyms and so forth. And like, what do you think? Like, you know, and same thing with I, you know, I offered to Tony, right? I'll work for you for free, right? I'll basically like like an internship. Right. I said, hey, I I'll I'll work for you for free. Like I want to learn. I want to learn how you do this. He said, no chance. I don't know. I guess my I don't know, maybe the way he looked at me in my eyes, I don't know. But he definitely saw a hustler for sure. He's like, yeah, no. He's like, if you want to learn this business, you gotta go learn it yourself. Interesting. I said, okay. Two weeks later, you know, government says, hey, all fitness centers have to shut down temporarily for, you know, during the pandemic. So I had to shut down. So that means I couldn't go to work, which means I was at home most of the time. And so at home from my bedroom is where I started another company that would have then top my current company, right? Because you know, we did we do gyms right with franchising, but then we also started doing fitness equipment. So in my mind, I said, okay, it's either I can go ahead and buy it from supplier C or I can go to supplier B who makes the stuff that supplier C buys from.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:29

Right.

unknown 1:03:29

Right.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:30

So instead of me having to go to the middleman who then goes to a different person, who then goes to a different person, how about I just go directly to the source who builds the stuff? So that's what I that's that was another business, another fortune waiting for me to uncover. And uh, and so the remaining portion of his gym, because remember, we only bought almost half of his equipment from this guy, and the remaining half, he bought it from me. So he was my first client. So I imported all this stuff from overseas, right? I remember the day that my dad and I pulled out to my gym. There's a container sitting outside the gym, and I'm praying to God, please don't let it be empty. Please don't let it be empty. Because I had Eddie's family, I had his employees, I had my team. I was like, please, please don't let it just be empty. So as soon as they opened the doors and we saw that the whole thing was packed, like, I was like, wow, like this is for real, you know, and uh, you know, that was five years ago, maybe, yeah, about five years ago. This is during the pandemic, and so yeah, you know, we've been selling, you know, gym equipment now. We've been doing uh, you know, we we do everything for our franchisees. You know, not only do we look for your location, but we also build it for you. We supply everything for you as far as like your fitness equipment, we supply your flooring, we supply your mirrors, we supply your lighting, we supply your panels, we supply everything. Everything. So that way it's a one-stop shop. You know that you're getting the absolute best prices possible. And so again, sometimes you know you you have this mission, you have this objective that you're that you're chasing, but you have no idea that this one door is gonna open up 10 doors. Yes, right? Absolutely. And the thing is that a lot of people give up on that one door, not knowing that that one door is gonna get them those 10 doors that they've been praying for. Irrigation, from choosing to go do irrigation to meeting Eddie. To meeting Eddie. Yeah, to selling him a franchise, to then selling him on the first batch of fitness equipment that I ever imported from overseas, uh, to then just just yeah, just going from there.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:25

Listen, your story is layered. Very layered. Tons of nuggets. I'm not talking a lot. I hope I'm not talking about it.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:31

No, no, no.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:32

Listen, I love what you're sharing. I think it's important for me. I mean, listen, you're one of a kind. I told you that when I um I first met you that your story is so powerful. And I said your story will be the the thing that people know you for, even though the gym and everything else is there, you're adding value and you're giving people an opportunity to own something for themselves and to buy into not just a gym. It's so much bigger, so much bigger than a gym or fitness. Your story is just the it's not a rags to riches story, but it's more of how a lot of us need to stand up and fight for the things that we are meant to be doing in this season of our life. And um invincible represents that. Of course. Uh you know, I feel invincible now that I'm looking back on my story and just some of the things that I've gone through, and maybe a lot of people wouldn't understand the decisions I made, that left or right decision I made is what has me here, even doing a podcast, because otherwise I would not, you know. So your story is just listen.

unknown 1:06:36

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:36

I'm literally fused up because I don't really know the words to say, and I know my listeners are listening and they're just probably feel the same way because there's so much power in our stories. Your story is absolutely powerful. And I mean, there's still more layers to the story that I know we could talk about. But if there's one thing that you can leave with our audience today, someone who is looking to start a business or who's just been down and out and just feel like giving up, like quitting right now, what would you say to that person?

SPEAKER_05 1:07:06

I would say just don't. You know, I would say just um just don't. Just keep your foot on the gas, right? Uh understand and know that you are gonna face challenges, part of life, part of business. Um, you know, you're not the only one going through what you're going through. I can guarantee you that. But um, but what separates the winners and the losers is just one simple decision. It's are you gonna give up or are you not gonna give up?

SPEAKER_03 1:07:30

Right.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:31

That's really surrender. That's really it, no surrender. No surrender.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:34

Awesome. I love that. But let us know for someone who might be interested in you know being a part of Invincible, um, the brand, and having their own franchise.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:44

Yeah, so you know, um, all the information is on our websites, um, you know, www.invincible.com. Uh invincible spelled I-N-V-N-C-I-B-O-E.com. And uh yeah, you know, all the information as far as franchising, all of our locations, the pricing, uh, just any information that you can possibly want to gather, it's all on there. I make sure that we're completely transparent with our audience, with our with our future franchisees. We want to make sure that, you know, this is a big decision, right? It's uh, but it's one decision that I want to make sure that we can give you everything that you need in order to make a good decision, right? Whether you want to proceed and want to go ahead and do it, or you don't.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:22

Yeah. Okay. Well, there's only one last thing that I wanted to say. I remember saying to you, you need a podcast or something. You need your story needs to be heard because it's so powerful. And I mean, this is, you know, our purpose evolves as time goes by. You started with nutrition, then you went into fitness. Now you're going into a different realm. Right. And now you're going into bigger things. And I'm saying that because I believe in the power of your story. I see you doing the TED talks, I see you doing all of these things. And so um, you said something that was pretty unique to me. Um, you said that the name invincible on all social media platforms when you were looking into securing that.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:03

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:03

Do I want to tell them that story?

SPEAKER_05 1:09:05

Yeah, yeah, of course, of course. Um, yeah, you know, just uh it was just, you know, an ordinary day, ordinary night. It was, it was nighttime at this point. But uh yeah, you know, my girlfriend, we're we were watching a movie, it's 1 30, maybe 2 a.m. in the morning, and you know, she hit the pause button on the on the movie, and I'm like, what are you doing? She's like, I want to talk to you about something serious. I said, Oh my god. Nobody went there, huh? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Two in the morning, like what's gonna happen, you know? And so no, she's like, look, you know, we start talking about life, start talking about our future, start talking about, you know, how do we want to raise our kids, where do we want to raise our kids, how you know, all the all that conversation as far as you know, where do we want to live? And and um the conversation ended up going towards Invincible, right? And she said something that really shook me, like really shook me. She said, something about the name needs to change. I don't know what it is, but something in the name. And I had already felt that way for months, but I didn't know what it was. And so when she said what she said, I instantly was so laser focused on her words. I said, What? What do you think? What's on your mind? She's like, I don't know, but something needs to change. And so maybe, maybe it was the wine that we were drinking, maybe just the timing, maybe who knows, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:10:15

It was something.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:16

It was something, but uh I go to I go on my phone and and you know, we're looking up different ideas, and I go to goddy.com, which is you know where you buy all your domains, and uh I just type in invincible.com. And to my surprise, it said available. And I thought, I honestly thought that I was seeing things. So I I remember like I was like, you know, touching my eyes, and I'm like, It's available, it's available. Exactly how I spelled it. Exactly how I spelled it. I said, No way. And so I'm in complete shock, right? I'm you know, I I I instantly buy it in case somebody from across the world was thinking exactly what I was thinking at the moment I was thinking of. I said, Let's cure it right now.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:54

Let's lock it in.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:55

Let's lock it in right now, today. So I as soon as I locked it in and it said, Congratulations, invincible.com is now yours. I told her, I told her, I said, wow, like we're gonna be billionaires. Like, this is it. This is the moment. Invincible Airlines, invincible phones, invincible, you know. I just started using because you know, I take a lot of inspiration from Richie Branson, you know, the founder of Virgin Mobile and Virgin Airlines, Virgin Records, and how he used that brand around every other industry that he's a part of. I said, we could do the same thing with Invincible, right? We could do invincible soaps, we could do invincible shampoo, we can do, you know, just going on the populace. My mind is going a thousand miles an hour at two o'clock in the morning, right? And uh and I told her, I said, this is the future, like this is it. Like we're not gonna just cater to fitness, we're gonna cater to lifestyle, we're gonna cater to people because with gyms, you know, I feel like a lot of gyms, including myself, you know, I I was really, I kind of shot myself in the foot because any marketing, any advertising that we were doing was catered around just fitness. Just around, you know, gyms, joining, working out, etc. But I felt like that I was not reaching as much people as I could because I was diminishing it because I had fitness at the end of invincible.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:13

Right.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:13

Right. So anyone who has fitness behind their name or or iron or gym. Yeah, think of just one thing. You're gonna promote your service to just that niche of people, right? And I wanted to cater to everyone because everyone has an invincible story. We've all been through something, right? And the thing about it is that invincible is something that you can relate to that reminds you of who you are to your core, which is you don't give up, you don't surrender, you don't bend a knee, you go full throttle in to whatever it is that you're doing, right? And so that was how we landed on Invincible, and then from then on, we started rebranding the whole entire company, created a whole new website, created a whole new structure as far as how we operate, how we serve our clients, uh, a brand new model as far as our gyms, our layouts, our equipment, the selection of equipment, uh, the spaces that we are having now, because now our gyms have tripled in size. Um, so everything has changed. Everything has changed, but for the better, of course.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:09

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:10

Right, for the better. But yes, but in Invincible, I I wanted to be an icon of a brand that resonates with you of who you are, not who Gerardo is, not what my story is. My story is just my story, right? But your story is also as special as my story, right? You know, and so I want to make sure that the listeners and the people who become familiar with Invincible, who, you know, in one way or another stumble upon it, that it just resonates with them to their core.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:38

Absolutely. I mean, how many locations do you have now?

SPEAKER_05 1:13:41

We currently have four. Okay. So four locations. Uh, but it comes 2026. I've already been invited to different uh franchise expos. So we're hoping to get really good exposure for Invincible for the brand. It's the year where I'm reshaping my whole entire focus. I'm aligning my values with what God has in store for me. And so I'm just so excited to, you know, meet people like yourself, right? And just build a great community of people, of like-minded individuals who never surrender.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:09

Never surrender. Oh my god. By the way, your gym is absolutely beautiful. I do not typically like gym spaces because it's always the typical same hardcore ha ha, you know, you're in there, people doing all this stuff. But when I walked into your gym, the Katie um location, and we did the tour. Yes, it's just the details, the touches of the slab, the marble slab that you have for is it right for the sink area, your cold plunge area. I'm like, cold plunge, sign me up. Um, just the space in general, it feels so alive. I love it. It's it's not your typical gym space. Right. Let's just say that for the listeners. Thank you. Um, and so I definitely will have your information in your bio for this episode, along with people just go check out the gym. Look it up, check out the website. We'll have all his information there. And is there any way that we can support you? Do you have merch? Do you have anything that you have uh right now that we can jump into?

SPEAKER_05 1:15:09

Yes, so um the merch, you know, we are uh we are launching uh the first line of invincible uh athletic apparel, right? So our apparel line. Want to make sure that it's it's it's as perfect as we can as we can make it, right? Because if you're gonna do something, you might as well do it. Do it right. Right, do it right. But as far as you know, my my Instagram handle, you could follow me at Mr. Invincible, or you can also follow my my gym at invincible official. Uh, those two is the best way to get in contact with me, or to my website, right? Invincible.com. Those are the three best avenues to get in best contact with me.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:41

Yeah, listen. You're listening, this is gonna blow up. You're gonna blow up. I'm excited to just meet you and just see all the incredible things that you're doing. And I'm and I'm believe me, your story is gonna go so far. Thank you. Um, in inspiring such a heart of humility, such a heart of servants, thank you, servant leadership, just being present, being in spaces, being aligned, and having the faith and just knowing that, trusting God in it, and having parents that really believe in you, because again, that community helps shape a lot of the things that you would have done right to this point. So I'm and your girlfriend helping you. Listen, yeah, it's a community here. Like it's a village.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:22

It's a whole tribe, you know. Um, never once will you ever hear me say that I'm self-made or that I did this myself or I did all this by myself. Like that's that's not the case at all. I've had great, great individuals, great people around me, great, just genuine people around me who have helped me, who have believed in me, who have uh been a part of my story, even those who are no longer part of my story, right? At some point, you were a part of my story, you know, and that matters to me. Maybe not to you, but to me it does, right? So I take all those people with me everywhere I go, every conversation that I have, if it's talking about my life, talking about my business, or talking about where I see Invincible going in the next five, 10 years, right? I take all those people with me. Um, you know, I'm not I am not self-made.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:06

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:06

But uh but I but I am I I am a high believer that when you do something with love and with passion and something that you truly believe in, it'll all work out. So if you're going through challenges, if you're going through situations where you don't see how you're gonna get out of it, you know, just just know that this is temporary, okay? It's just temporary, you know, but you do have a choice. It's either you can give up on it or you can continue to push through and see where that takes you. I would much rather you go through door number two.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:36

Hey.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:37

And push through.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:38

And push through.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:39

Just push through.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:40

Yeah. Oh my gosh, thank you so much for being on here. Um, really blessed by your by your story and for sharing everything that you've gone through. It's really uh life-changing.

unknown 1:17:50

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:50

And I mean, I'm not just I keep saying that because I do want you to understand, and I think you are getting it at this point, that your story means something more, and um, a lot of people will be looking to you and following you and just wanting to be a part of your journey um in whatever way they can to support. And I see that and I feel that totally because you are a true man that represents everything that is authentic, real, and you you just you can feel that passion coming through. So thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Thank you so much. All right, well, we'll see you on the next episode and definitely check out the links below and just support. Um, we believe in God for a big billionaire status, as he says. So I just keep praying um for brothers and sisters in Christ as we are moving forward. So thank you guys, see you again. Hey guys, so I just wanted to share that everything that we're doing in this season on the podcast is to really transform the lives of those who are watching. We understand and recognize that there's a lot of people who might be doubting where their gifting is, what their calling is, and what how do they respond to what God has given them or what others have told you, leaders, prophets, even just doing the work is hard. And so my encouragement is that you keep seeking God, you find a community that will help you to build that relationship. Echo Community Church is the church that I go to. Um, but you may not be in that area, and you need to still find somewhere that will resonate with your spirit. And you want to make sure that you're tapping to God. Building that relationship is so key. These podcast episodes, I hope you're enjoying them, are really inspiring for me. Even for me here, I am growing and just listening to the different testimonies being shared. And I mean, this is not a perfect walk with God. And that's one of the things that I really wanted to say is that we are not walking in perfection, but we're growing together in Christ. We're growing somewhere. As we would say, as Pastor Eric and Pastor Kay would say, we are growing somewhere, and we just have to go through the process and trust that process. So please subscribe to our channel, hit that notification bell so that you can see more of these episodes. Please comment as well as we go along encouraging each other because we need each other as a community to support. So thank you guys so much for watching. Thank you for supporting our network and what we're doing. And if you want to see more videos like this as well, we do have a donation page where you can actually just help us out by donating and helping us so that we can provide more quality videos, more of all of these guests that you see on, so that we can have this word spread across the world. So thank you again for watching and see you on the next episode.