HemoLife Podcast

Unbreakable: Defying Every Limit with Will Crumpton

• L.A. Aguayo • Season 2 • Episode 2

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We trace Will’s path from severe hemophilia A to competitive swimming, strength training, and building a fast-growing roofing company. The conversation lifts the lid on medical myths, empowered parenting, and a patient-led movement creating practical mentorship and the Hemophilia School.

• reframing labels and building an empowered mindset
• swimming and strength as joint protection for bleeders
• advocating through medical misconceptions and procedure prep
• moving from depression to intention and daily habits
• bootstrapping a roofing company and leading teams
• building patient-led events and a practical Hemophilia School
• mentorship, scholarships, and accountability for real change

Make sure to subscribe and stay connected with the group of extraordinary achievers and pioneers on behalf of L.A. Aguayo and the entire Hemo Life team keep pushing forward strive for excellence and remember you are the architect of your own destiny until next time stay strong stay inspired and continue on your path to an elite life


Thanks for tuning into the HemoLife Podcast. Be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with someone who needs a spark of hope or encouragement. Follow us on Instagram @HemoLife_Podcast and YouTube for updates, guest highlights, and behind-the-scenes content. New episodes drop regularly—your story matters, and this is just the beginning.

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to the Hemo Life Podcast, your gateway to transformation and power. Hosted by Elliott Wio, we're diving deep into the world of rare disorders, unlocking the full spectrum of your potential. Each episode, join us as we connect with pioneers, wellness experts, and food survivors. They're here to share powerful stories and invaluable insight from mental resilience to physical health, community news to life-altering strategies. At HEMOLife, we provide the tools you need to excel and inspire. Prepare to elevate your life, learn, laugh, and grow with us. Let's embark on this journey together.

SPEAKER_04:

Well, yeah, let's start with uh Will. Like uh we'll just go top to bottom, but I want to know more about you and your successes and guess just everything. So yeah, let's let's let's start it off.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so um I was born with severe hemophilia A. Um, me and my little brother both were. So I have a younger brother that's also severe hemophilia. My parents always so my mom's a nurse, my dad's a doctor, so I grew up in a pretty medically sound household. They knew it was coming because of my granddad. Mom's a carrier for it. We got tested her, you know, as soon as we were born, we knew we knew we had hemophilia. My parents never let us use it as a crutch. Um, that was the biggest thing. So never use the word disorder, um, you know, disease, anything like that. It was always we just have hemophilia. Um, it was never something that we used to say we couldn't do this. Obviously, there's things like football, you know, people shun football for us inophiliacs. Um, but my little brother's a college baseball player. Um, he's a phenomenal baseball player.

SPEAKER_02:

Wow.

SPEAKER_01:

Throwing on low to mid-90s at 21 years old. I mean, phenomenal players. So it was it was never something that they allowed us to use as a crutch, which is probably the reason that we're in the shoes that the shoes that I'm in today is because of that. Um I swam since I was two years old. Uh apparently just put me in the bathtub. I was the kid that they had to pick up out of the tub because I would always hold my face down. Um so they have to watch me in the bathtub. Um so they realized I was pretty good in the water. Um and obviously swimming is really great for mephiliacs. Um, it keeps the joints moving, builds lean muscle. That's it's phenomenal for mephiliax. It's phenomenal for anybody, um, especially with an anaerobic exercise like that. Um so I got into swimming at a very young age um and stuck with swimming for uh 18. See, I started when I was three. Um I stopped swimming when I was uh 19, almost 20. So probably about 16 years, I swam competitively. Um I was um multiple times on the podium at State. Uh swam in high school, swam USA swimming. I've just always been super active. Um so that was uh that was that was a lot of fun. Swimming was fun for me. Um and then once I decided to not swim in college, um I jumped into just staying fit and active. I I like to feel good, look good. It's a confident boost when you feel good. Um it's a confident boost when you look good too, and confident how you look. Um so I started getting into uh bodybuilding, not really bodybuilding, but just it started for me just being super healthy. So watching what I eat, I'm staying active. Um I've always been a big proponent of hemophiliacs being in the gym. Uh you know, we we have a stereotype that I hear a lot that we, you know, hemophiliacs have to protect their joints and to protect their bones and protect themselves. Um well the best way to do that is to exercise, right? The strength in all of those things. I mean, strengthen your joints, strengthen your muscles. If your muscles aren't strong, your joints aren't gonna aren't gonna do what they need to do either. So I got into weightlifting and started really small and sort of building up, building up, building up, and uh now I'm looking towards a show, hopefully at some point next year.

SPEAKER_03:

Really?

SPEAKER_01:

But yeah, I've got a coach. Uh jumped on board with a coach. I'm kind of like his little lab rap. It's pretty fun because I'm aphiliac. I've never worked with an apheliac before. So it was cool for him to um it was cool for him to be like kind of have to mold himself around what I can do as well at the same time. So that was that was pretty neat. But uh yeah, so swam for a long time and then jumped into bodybuilding. Um now looking hopefully do a show. Matt McCutcheon is phenomenal. He's he's really helped me out in the in the workout world. It's kind of like what LA's doing um in this well, just supporting hemophiliacs. A lot of a lot of people wouldn't really um want to touch hemophilia because it's kind of scary. There's a there's it's there's a lot of what's the word? It's it's not people a lot of people know about it. Um there's kind of like people know it's you know, you were free bleeders. That's what most people know.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, you're you're a bleeder. We don't I mean I've had I've had dentists that are like, oh, you can't come here. I was like, all right.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, it's a fun fact. My dad is actually a dentist. Um and he was he's one of the guys in Georgia that um with HOG Semophilia Georgia is the is who we use in Georgia. No big shout out to them. But uh anyway, that's who we get our who I get our factor from. Um he's always been involved in that to say, hey, hemophiliacs, my kids are hemophiliacs. I know how to deal with it, I know how to prep you for that. You know, we've got a load factor up multiple days in advanced. We can do a treatment plan for that. Um and he was actually so he's he has actually hemophiliacs that come to him and and say, Hey, people say you know what you're doing when it comes to hemophiliacs because of that exact thing. A lot of us, I mean, doctors, anything are like, nah, sorry, you're scary. You're that's a big number.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, I mean, we we had I I I kid you not, I've had uh doctors in the ER that you'd come in with various things, they'd be like, What is this? When'd you get it?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

And then you're like, All right, well, I'm gonna leave.

SPEAKER_01:

So you don't know what's going on. I had a place, I mean it's something simple, I had a place on my neck um March of last year that I had to I think I went through six different surgeons. It was, I mean, it was very small, obviously they didn't they wanted to make remove it just in case it was was something, it was nothing. And I went through seven different surgeons before I found a surgeon at Vanderbilt um that was willing to do the surgery because of the fact that I mean it's uh yeah, it's it's wild to think that you know you can go through med school and whatnot, and then they they just don't focus on hemophilia, and then it becomes like a foreign thing.

SPEAKER_04:

You go into the emergency room, they don't know. I mean, I just had a a new baby uh two or three weeks ago. He's my first boy, yeah, little Joe. Uh so they were like, Well, the baby, does the baby have hemophilia? I'm like, no, the baby's not gonna have hemophilia because it's an X-linked disorder. So the mother would have to be the carrier to give it to the boy. And they're like, Well, you know, we're not even gonna do the circumcision. We're not even gonna, we're not even gonna do blood draws, we're not gonna do this. I'm like, are you guys insane? Wow, like it's like it's like I was I was giving the baby the plague or something. I was like, no, no, the baby doesn't have hemophilia. I'm sorry. It's just it's it's interesting, man. It is interesting.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's crazy. Sorry, go ahead, Elizabeth.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, no, I was just gonna say, um, to not I don't want to go too far off the top of your introduction, but you mentioned something that I think is really powerful for a lot of the parents who are listening. And you were saying that you grew up with your parents having an empowered mindset that they passed on to you. How were they able to cultivate that mindset? Was it just something that like how they were raised, or like what made them so comfortable to empower you like that and and to say don't use these words like disorder or disease?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, so I have two older brothers as well. Um, and neither of them got what everybody calls, you know, the bad X, right? As well, I'm being a carrier. Um, you mean my younger brother did. So they'd had two kids that are 12 years older than me and 13 or 14 years old as my younger brother. So they'd had kids for a long time at this point, and then you have decided to have more kids 5 13, 14, 15 years later, and now it's oh crap, they have hemophilia too. Um, and my mom had grown up with seeing my great-granddad with hemophilia way back in the day where it was debilitating, and because we didn't have the medical advances that we do now. But really, it was it was a just the point that obviously there are there are things that limit what a hemophiliac can do, right? But it's not really what we can do, it's how we do it and what you have to do to be able to do those things. So, I mean, the biggest thing for us is that it was it was there were things that obviously football. That's that's not smart hemophiliac. That's that's kind of one of those unwritten rules. But there's so many other things that you can do and you can be so good at as an aphelix. Swimming was great for me. You know, a brother has to be really careful with baseball. You know, that's kind of one of those fine-line things with baseball, but he exercises twice a day. He's on top of his factor, he makes sure he's infusing. Same with me. I am on top of it. I mean, I I could tell you if I've got a you know, a dag um pull, you know, joint in my finger that's feeling funny because I'm in tune with my body. Um, and it's something my parents always instilled in me when it comes to the fact that yes, we have a disorder, we have a disease, and that's what everybody else labels it. But when you really have an understanding of what we have, there's not much that a hemophiliac can't do. There's nothing that we can't do in this world.

SPEAKER_04:

And I'll to echo that, I will say, I mean, I think we've all been to chapter events, we've all been to the big, you know, conferences that are hosted. And, you know, as hemophiliacs, you can converse with other hemophiliacs there, not necessarily just going to each, you know, table or whatever, but there's there's hemophiliacs there that you can connect with. And to be honest with you, like there's hemophiliacs that I've encountered that they have that opposite mindset where they've been told you can't do this, you can't do that. And it just pushes them down. And they're almost like in this box and they're just scared to do anything. And not only uh health-wise, but in more of like a business wise, uh school-wise, like they're they're so scared to do anything with their life. And I see that they're in this like box because you know, whether it's where they grew up or what they were told. And it's kind of it's it's sad because, you know, I'm a physician, you're obviously uh a successful guy. We're gonna get into like your business side. We want to talk about that. And then LA, he's starting a clothing line. Like, I feel like from an early age, chemophilia can like put that, I guess, picture in your mind that you are this and this is what you're gonna be, and you are limited to this. And then when you just told me your brother's like almost throwing 100 miles an hour, it's like, no, that's not true. That's not true.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, I think go ahead. No, you could go ahead. No, I was just gonna say to um feed um feed off of what Dr. Joe was saying is the first part of my life, my first 20 years, I developed so many limiting mind beliefs. And that really affected me. And it wasn't until I became mature enough and was able to recognize those limiting beliefs that you know, I had to, I mean, it probably took me five plus years of extreme intention and goal setting to be like, if I'm gonna get out of this depression, then I'm gonna have to do something about it, and that I'm no longer a victim to my hemophilia. So that just took a lot of work, and that's part of my journey with like sharing my story is just some because I see that. I see it's a common denominator in a lot of hemophiliacs, they kind of use it. Or I mean, we we all have some fixed mindsets based off of you know our environment, our family, religion, all these things. And then you throw in a disorder, and then you know, that can really affect you.

SPEAKER_01:

So yeah, no, it can, and it's it's like I really like what you said, it's a mindset. It really is. And this, you know, you can really get down and out about it. I mean, I'll tell you, when I have injuries in the gym or anything, it really gets in your head because you you get in such a groove and you start seeing progress. And for us as Maphiliac, it's it's more progress than you you not, I mean, I don't want to say should be seeing, but you're you're really growing, right? And it's a big deal for somebody that has a bleeding disorder like this to be able to do what we are doing. LA, I mean, I I was drawn to you by what you're doing when how you look, you know, how much you work out because I do the same thing. It's it's and it may not be for everybody, but again, it falls back, everything falls under that mindset that there's nothing that we can't do out there as long as we put our mind to it and we we can't think of this meophilia thing that we have as a limitation. We can live a very normal life with the factor and the and everything that we get. I mean, I live a I live a very normal life, right? Obviously, there's things that we have to deal with, like bleeds, you know, those those we're all gonna have those moments. But as long as you stick to that mindset that, you know, I can I can get through this, right? There's life into that tunnel, then it's possible.

SPEAKER_04:

And and just to uh kind of give you a little snapshot of what me and LA are building, we have the Hemo Life podcast, you know, that's obvious what we're doing now, empowering people, sharing their story. But we started doing these events sponsored through Rise, and these events are getting you know people together. We had a big show, and we had about 20, 30 guys that came out, and each event is going to be sponsored by it could be RISE, it could be another entity, but we're getting other outside businesses to sponsor these things to where we can connect with other hemophiliacs and not just have it to where it's it's in a setting where you know you have to go to a conference or you have to go to the chapter event. We want four hemophiliacs by hemophiliacs.

SPEAKER_03:

Yep. Yeah, so you mentioned like at one point you stepped away from the community and then and then now you're kind of transitioning to maybe wanting to play a bigger role again. I mean, kind of you kind of like walk me through like that that uh that mindset.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so I mean, because of um because of how active I am and how active my little brother is, and then obviously my mom's a nurse, so she's always been very on top of um how hemophilia is, and she's she's my mom's a nerd when it comes to hemophilia. I mean, she can tell you probably more than most hematologists can because she's got two kids that are hemophilia. Um, so she was always trying to keep us involved. And I went to camp um camp one o'clock here in Georgia. You know, I went to um a lot of a lot of the HOG and our local chapter events, and then I was actually asked to speak, um, or not really speak, but I was asked to be a part of an event in Chicago that um I guess it's uh whatever the big hemophilia event is every year, it's just uh it slips my mind.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, like NHF or HFA, one of those big ones.

SPEAKER_01:

Um and I was 16 or 17 at the time, and I remember to a certain degree them telling me, like, hey, this is what you need to say. Here's the one question you have to answer. Don't speak outside the box, and that's it. And I'm like, but there's so much I want to tell these kids. There's so much that I want to show them. There's so much that we can do. I mean, I got up on stage as mephiliac at that time in a suit, like a nice tailored suit that I literally was trying to like bargain for because I wanted to buy it, right? But I wanted to show these kids that we we're normal people. This is there is nothing in this world that we cannot do as mephiliacs. But when you they put us in this box, and I was I was very, very blessed at a young age at HOG and AFLAC in Atlanta to get a doctor that did not put me in that box, right? He said he would always say, Okay, if you're gonna do this, we need to change your profi to this, we need to make sure you're doing this, be aware of these things. It was never don't do this, don't do that. It was very, okay, if we're gonna do this, these are the things you need to think about. If you're gonna do this, we need to treat you this way. Yeah, it was never in that box. My parents do the same thing, is never put me in that mindset to say you can't go do that. Because as soon as somebody tells me I can't do something, I'm gonna prove it. That's that's just that's the mindset I've had my entire life. And it started probably with um hemophilia, and honestly, because it's it's a massive hurdle to be able to do.

SPEAKER_04:

But I feel like I feel like hemophilia has been like a gift in a sense, because I mean, it's made me who I am today. Like when I think about it, like I'm driven. I mean, getting through 12 years of med school, I was recently on the Dr. Drew show on Hulu. Like, I would not be where I'm at today if I didn't have that mentality of, okay, you think I can't do this? Watch me. Right. You can't think, watch me. And then I like it wasn't for like like to build myself up. It won't, you know, I have a little brother, he's 25, I'm 38, he has severe A. Like, I wanted to show him, like, hey man, like pull up your bootstraps, you can do this. And for all the future generations, like, I never had a doctor that had hemophilia. Like, I was like, no, no, no. I'm I want I want to be that. Like, I want to be a doctor with hemophilia that I can relate because I've walked in your shoes, actually. That bleed, I've had that bleed before. And I I never had that. And I was like, you know what? I want to dedicate my life to doing that and giving back. So I think in each one of our instances, hemophilia is like pushed us. Like, thank God we have it because we wouldn't be where we're at today.

SPEAKER_03:

It's been a blessing and a curse for sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

But yeah, so back to your question, LA. I mean, really, when I saw I've been a long time following you. So funny fact, that same Chicago was when you and I met, if I'm not mistaken. You and I were introduced through Miss Kathy, a nurse. Uh, I don't know where she's a nurse at now um or where she was at the time. My mom knew her. Um, she used to be in Atlanta, and she introduced me to you at that point. I've followed you on Instagram ever since. Man, that was six, seven, eight years ago, whatever she found you was.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, I was trying to think about it when when I was uh creating the show, I was like, man, when did we meet? And how was that?

SPEAKER_01:

It was a long time ago, dude. Okay. And I saw what you're doing with the team of life and these meets and these groups, meetings, and everything, and I was like, man, like I'm in a position now where I can show these kids even more. Like I'm at a point in life where I can show these hemophiliacs I you can do even more. Like I thought I could do a lot then with swimming. There's so much more to it, man. There's so much more, and I can show that. And it's I got to a point where I was just like, I'm sick of sitting on the sidelines. It's it's cool to see you do that, right? But why sit on the sidelines when I I have a story? I can tell that story, I can teach and show. And yeah, and like, and like you said, Dr. Joe, that I've had that bleed. I've been in that position, I've done that, I've I've seen that, done that. Why not, you know, push? I mean, even if even if it affects one person, or I can tell one person that changes one person. It's one person, man. It's one person that lived the quality of life that you and I, the three of us are living with hemophilia.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. The common denominator that you and I have, Will, that kind of connected us too, was that I also was getting approached to do all these uh speaking engagements, getting paid. And then I would go and then they would tell me, well, your story's nice and all, but our lawyer said you can't talk about this. Yeah. And and I think that we all have this like purpose because of what we've gone through, that we want to utilize what we've gone through to help other people. But we want to be genuine and we want to do it, you know, in the right way. But the way that the community has kind of built everything out with the chapters and everything, you have to promote a medication or you know, follow their guidelines and their red tape. And that just doesn't bring out the most genuine side to our story and the realness. And I think that's the journey of the HEMOLIFE podcast. And, you know, now collaborating with Dr. Joe. And, you know, Dr. Joe is a very successful entrepreneur and a good leader and mentor as well. And because of his connections, now we're able to do even more and to take this to new heights. And, you know, we really we saw what you've done and what you've accomplished. And you have to do, you know, success leaves clues. And, you know, you you're you're doing something right, and that could provide value to a lot of people. So we're hoping to work with you with you know the hemolifestyle.

SPEAKER_04:

And it boils down to I keep bringing back four hemophiliacs, bihemophiliacs. So the greatest thing, the greatest value that I that I've witnessed, even going to these chaptered events and everything, was just getting hemophiliacs in a room and just conversating, not like sitting there and like, let's learn about this, let's learn about that. It was just a group of guys that maybe from all different states, all different parts of the country, wherever. And they were, we were just all like sitting there talking and like conversing. That's where the really secret sauce is. And that's what me in LA want to promote is like, look, maybe there's a guy there that just wants to talk about how do I look better and how about bodybuilding. Maybe there's a guy there that wants to know, like, hey, you guys are really successful. Can you help me? I'm interested in uh setting up podcasts, screaming. I actually want to be a guy that I want to be a plumber. I don't know what it would may be, but there's so much value in us connecting because we share a similar story and there's a lot of pain points that we've all gone through and at different stages of our life that we could really provide a lot of value to each other, just in a room talking, going having their dinner.

SPEAKER_03:

I mean And like we always say, you know, you become the three or four, you become like the three or four people you hang out with the most, you know. So like we're the goal is to bring these leaders who've who've intentionally built a successful life and overcome these adversities so that we can ask these kids the right questions whenever we are mentoring them. You know, we're not just talking about chicks and stuff like that. You know, we're talking about like, you know, what are your dreams? What are your goals? Okay. Do you have clarity to that vision? Do you have steps? Like these are the right questions. It's all about asking those valuable questions. And, you know, I think that's what all of us can really accomplish.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. I mean, it it like I said, I mean you you're pretty much born with hemophilia into like the coolest blood brothers club of the world. Like we we all have the same. I mean, obviously, LA, I think you're hemophilia B, right? Yeah, B. Yeah, I think Dr. Joe, you're the same as me, hemophilia A. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I mean, dude, it's it's all the same concept, but I mean you're you're born in you're born with it, and it's you guys are building like the coolest Blood Brothers club in the world. I mean, it's it's it's it doesn't get much real than this.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, well, we want you to be a part of it. I want I want you to share a little bit about, you know, I'm an entrepreneur, LA's an entrepreneur. We want to get into that. So tell us a little bit about like, hey, you did your swimming, you did this, but obviously you're I don't know if you have a family or not, but you have to selling a multi-million dollar business or something like that.

SPEAKER_03:

I mean, these are these are some huge achievements. I have to know more about the business setting.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so um, so finished swimming, went to college for two years. Um, in that two years, my older brother, um, who's not a hemophiliac, um, he's an engineer, decided that it was he wanted to start brewing beer for a living. And so he built he built out a brewery. Um, we had a huge brewery here in our local town, um, which was super cool. So I helped him build that business. For me, it was a learning experience on how to build a business um and grow a business. Um and so about three years into that, he sold it. Um so I was about 20 at the time when he sold that. Um and I was, I mean, I was the grunt, man. I was anything he needed me to do. I mean, I I poured concrete countertops and hung this and moved that, you know. It was whatever I needed to do. Um, and I helped in sales. That's why I started first started first learning a sales, honestly, just client-based, right? Just talking to people, just having a conversation, um, you know, shaking hands, kissing babies. That was my first introduction to just customer service. Um and so when he sold that, uh, I was like, well crap, what am I supposed to do now? So I was still in college and started to look for a job. And I needed something that was flexible because I had classes. I was working an internship that was based on my degree at the time, and I found roofing uh because it was knocking on doors, making sales, just talking to people. I mean, it was the worst they can say is no. I was like, this sounds fun. Okay, I'll try it. Tried it, loved it, fell in love with it, man. I don't know why it was so much fun, but it was you just go knock on somebody's door and and if they answer, you could have a bigger one.

SPEAKER_03:

You're a better man than me, man. That scares the shit out of me.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, it's because it's I mean, one of the things my dad taught me was that all somebody can say is no. I mean, the worst case scenario is I slam the door on your face. I mean, really they can pull a gun, they could pull a gun. I mean, they can do that too.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, they they can do that too. That's not the worst thing, brother. I mean, but it's stick the dog on you.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and in the big scheme of things, like the the they all that all they're gonna say is no. I mean, they might slam the door on you, they might yell at you, they might cuss you out, you know, whatever. Okay, cool. On to the next one. But in that, you you you also get to have some really cool conversations. I mean, most of the time, I might even sell somebody a roof, but I I build this really cool relationship, meet somebody really cool. I've met some friends that I have now through that, some older guys that are in their 60s and 70s. That you you the stories they have and the life lessons that they have are some of the coolest things in the world. But um, so I worked for worked for a company um while I was still in college, um, and um realized that in college or not it was a waste of my time, it was a waste of my money for me personally. Not knocking college at all. It's for some people, it's not for others. For me, it was not for me. Um, I was in school for business, and I'd already ran a business with my brother, and I was already running a business again um in roofing, and I realized that I could do the roofing thing on my own. So I started the roof, my roofing business, investment roofing, at 20 years old. Uh-huh. When I yeah, 20 years old, and we are trucking through year four right now. Uh so went from first year and a half, I had nobody. I was solo. I worked seven days a week, probably 13, 14, 15 hours a day. I went to sleep roofing and I woke up roofing. I was working Sunday to Sunday, 24-7. And it was awesome. I grew it. It just it just exploded. The connections I had built in college, the connection I built, talking to people at the brewery, just everything. I just I took every avenue I possibly could and call people, cold calling. Hey, remember me? I used to, you know, sell you beer at the brewery. Need a roof? Dude, I'm serious. That's what I was doing.

SPEAKER_03:

And then it was just like some old school marketing tactics at the time.

SPEAKER_01:

It was awesome, man. And so about a year, probably about I'd say 15 months into it, um, I had a guy come to me and say, Hey, I'm looking to leave the roofing company I'm working for right now. I've seen what you're doing, you've got great reviews. You seem to be really doing great and running a good business. Do you have a job for me? I'm like, I mean, yeah, I hadn't really planned to hire anybody. I was pretty happy where I was making good money, you know, wasn't making a ton of money, didn't, but I didn't want for anything, I didn't need anything. You know, bills were paid, living in a decent house, roofing my head, I'm happy, and I was just continuing to grow. So I was like, you know what? Sure. I've send a little money back in case something like that came about, and I hired him. Well, next thing I know, he's like, hey, uh, there's like six guys from the company I was working for that all need jobs. Do you want them? I was like, oh crap, holy smokes. Okay, so next thing I know, I have like five or six sales guys blow in at one time. Um dang. Yeah, so it went from by myself, not managing a team, to boom, like all out, go, go, go. And so year two, that happened in August. So yeah, so it was right at like 13 or 14 months in business. And by December, I was like pulling my hair out. I was like, holy crap, this is this is nuts. Year three was a boom. Year three, we exploded. We doubled revenue, somehow pulled it off, managed it. It was, I mean, I was I was learning as I went pretty much because roofing is it's a lot of fun, but it's it's you've got 15 million moving parts, you've got homeowners that are pissed off. You know, it's one thing if you give somebody the wrong beer. I'm gonna use that as an example, right? It's another thing if the roof isn't right or they've got a leak. You know, your your entire home is protected by your roof. Your HVAC is tied to it. How much your heating and cooling costs are, your plumbing. You don't realize that how much is truly I mean, your everything in your home is protected by your roof. Your starts leaking, your room's your home's ruined. It can ruin every story, every floor, everything. And so we we exploded year three. Um, and that was last year, it was our best year yet. Um, we've grown consistently every year. I'm excited for year four. So our our technical year starts in August when it comes to how many years we've been in business. So we just went through year three, we're checking through year four right now. Um, I have a phenomenal team right now. We have uh nine sales guys, uh, we've got two project managers, and then I have um we run anywhere from 15 to 45 crew guys, depending on the roof size and everything like that. And we service just about the whole state of Georgia. Um it's it's it's awesome. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah, that's an amazing story, dude. You you went from you know, working at a brewery, you sold the brewery, and now like you took that. Now you have nine plus guys that you're you know, essentially uh, you know, providing income. I I don't know, man. Like this is an incredible story. Like genuinely, it's amazing. Hey, you didn't let hemophilia define you. Like it didn't stop you in any way, like, oh, I can't get up for work, I can't do this, I can't do that. Look at what you're doing. Like, it's a testament that shows, hey, you might have some physical ailments, you have this disease, we'll call it, but look at look at all of us. Like, we're successful. Like, I don't know, like, Will, like, it's amazing what you've done.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. And that was that was the cool thing, is like everybody, you know, obviously, like I said, my dad's a doctor, my mom's a nurse. My family, I grew up, you know, never wanting or needing anything, but uh my dad was never one for handouts. He still isn't to this day. So when it comes to the business, it was maxing out credit cards, it was trying to figure it out as I went. It was not, you know, getting a loan from you know, dad or anything. It was it was literally either you make it or you break it, and you're gonna be in debt. Um you make it or you break it, or they're gonna repo my truck. It was it was brutal for the first six months. I didn't know, I mean, I was 20 years old, I didn't have tons of money in the bank where I could just go throw it at a throw it at a business. I mean, it was everything I could do to pay for the business registration and the down payment on the insurance policy so I could go to work. Like that was that was me maxing it out, man. I mean, I yeah, I used to make ramen. I was living at the time. There was probably two or three months before I really started making money because I was just dumping everything back into business where I think I found probably 15 or 20 different ways to make ramen, dude. It was like it was it was fun. But it was it look where we are now, man. Like life is great.

SPEAKER_03:

Like life, I life is it wouldn't be the same without that struggle either, without those memories and that journey, the process. And my brother, he's a little bit younger than me, and he's kind of going through these stages now too. And it's like, man, I I feel for you, but at the same time, like these moments, these this time frame is so crucial. And like, and it you have to go through it. Like, I it's like I want to help him get through it, you know, but it's like you need to endure some of these things. You need to miss a few meals, and then you're like, and then you really start appreciating, you know, the success when it comes to things.

SPEAKER_04:

Well, hey, diamonds are made from pressure, so sometimes you gotta be in the pressure cooker, man. I'm serious. Like, I've been in the pressure cooker. I think we all have. It's just one of those things where I don't know, we we we want to do good for our families, but we also want to provide an example for the future. I don't know, like we have a lot of guys that are from that 12 to 16-year-old range, 18-year-old range, and they're trying to figure out what they want to do with their lives. And a lot of these, you know, podcasts, a lot of these events, they hey, what can I do? How do I do this? Well, this is what I did. And it just provides like a layer of confidence that they have us as mentors. I mean, think about all the big things. I mean, you have, you know, these mastermind courses, Andy Forsella, you have some of these big mastermind courses that teach you like mindset, but they're very expensive. Like, but what if there was a hemophiliac mindset platform like what we're creating? That's what we're creating. That these guys maybe don't have to spend two. thousand dollars and do this thing, they can come to us. That's why we're developing the hemophilia school. And we're hoping that we can continue to engage and mentor folks that can build up the hemophilia community without these large price tags. And like that's what me and LA are building.

SPEAKER_03:

We want to I think we should have all these deep conversations like going into you know like having people who've been successful in sales and you know being able to teach a sales course and like are the things that made you good, you know, how to start a business. You know, Dr. Joe, you can teach them how to set up the LLC. Like I'm talking like that's how like like you know in the in the trenches I'm talking about with the the hemophilia school program, you know, we at our last event we had a young boy who said I want to be a streamer. Hey that's that's the new age like that's possibility. So guess what I'll I had a guy a hemophiliac reach out to me. He's like hey I'm I'm a streamer I'm like this is what I do and hey well you want to create a course for us on like how to set it up and like how to be successful with it. And and like I think we just have this platform where we do we pick we we handpick certain leaders and you know we can collaborate create content because I I mean content is the name of the game right now to be honest. If you're not making good content you're not really reaching people and I and Dr. Joe I think he invested you know a lot into us with this content stuff.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah and Will I mean you never know you might have a guy that's like hey I've been wanting to get into my own business and I actually want to get into roofing. Like hey well let me help you I can you know let me mentor you or I could have a guy that says hey I want to be a doctor well look this is what you need to do. Let me like exactly we're all here on this podcast because we want to help future generations we don't want to go to a conference and be like let's go get some free frigid that's why we're doing this is we want to we want to change the whole narrative uh about what we're putting out there.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah yeah well and it's like for me you know it even it ties back to in roofing you know it's it's physical but it's not like it's not like I'm not out busting concrete all day. Um you know yeah I climb some roofs so I you know it even ties back into that to my health and my training and what I do in the gym. I do a lot of flexibility training. I do a lot of agility training I you know do a lot of not hyperextension but extend myself because when you're walking on a roof my ankles as often Apheliacs know our ankles are sometimes a little worse. Ankles, knees, hips, dude those are they'll kick my tail sometimes so I really make sure that my ankles are super strong right I do a lot of agility my knees I gotta make sure my knees are tanked man because it's it's for anything in life especially for my job. Like if I'm not healthy and active I can't work my job but it's also the favorite thing about my job is I don't have to sit in a cube I'm not trapped inside. I am constantly go go go get a drive everywhere all day I get to be outside breathe fresh air I get I mean like today dude I gotta go play in the range like how many guys can sit there and say dude I went and slashed in the puddle to the roof today in the rain I got to go in the rain that's fun. Like that was fun for me and it's measurable and cold but it was fun at the same time you know and it's it's awesome.

SPEAKER_03:

It's it's what we can do when you're healthy it's it's amazing yeah that's why I love it because I feel like you're saying you know it's like stop focusing on the reasons why you can't do something but like hone in on okay well if I do want to do you know this this thing that I want to do what other ancillary things do I need to do in order to do this thing safely is it the stretching is it working out eating healthy mindset what are those things like instead of just not searching for those answers like figure out what those answers are. Do those extra things that you need to do so you can safely you know attack your goal that you're going for. And I I I feel like that's what you've done.

SPEAKER_04:

I think what we need to do is is have an event in Georgia.

SPEAKER_01:

You're in Atlanta right I'm north of Atlanta but yeah Atlanta's the big city yeah Atlanta's a big city man and it's there's a lot of hemophiliacs here dude I I there's it's really hard to connect to them because as you know the hospitals and the doctors and HOG I mean you pretty much I give all they let me do is give them my number and my name and say if somebody wants to call me they can't they don't give me anybody to reach out to so it's it's if they don't reach out I can't really reach anybody. I mean and it's it's we're rare man I mean there's yeah one out of what a hundred thousand of us if I'm not mistaken Dr.

SPEAKER_04:

Joe yeah I mean depending on what you have whether it's hemophilia A, B, you know there's only I believe 33,000 of us in the United States if you just Google it but basically we're all rare but bringing everybody together from one of these events I mean we have a couple guys in Georgia LA we have a couple guys in Georgia we've got maybe I won't say that.

SPEAKER_03:

I was going to say their name out loud I shouldn't do that.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah no but we bring them we we could do an event where it can be a mentorship event. We'll we'll figure it out but yeah we'll we would love to have you a part of it and uh you know just come speak our first event we had a couple guys in Houston that were local I think your story is very valuable to you know maybe a mom that just had a baby with hemophilia or somebody that's living with it that they're in their adolescence who just needs some guidance. We're we're gonna do a lot of things with the Hemolife podcast, the hemophilia school that we're developing and you know I'm a one of the owners of uh a couple companies and what we're gonna do is take these companies that I'm owners of I own that we're gonna have scholarships that are going to sponsor hemophiliacs. And so we're gonna do a lot to empower hemophiliacs to get their dreams, goals. We we want to really support the next generation of hemophiliacs and really not define them by their disorder.

SPEAKER_03:

We want them to be strong, successful entrepreneurs or whatever they choose but do it well and realize that they can adapt in this uh yeah man absolutely I mean that's been the biggest thing on my heart you know I've been working in the community for 10 plus years and I've met so many guys who are living off the state you know in disability and they don't have the self-belief that they can achieve anything else that they can still dream. To them their life is it's it's over. Like there's nothing else for them. And it's it's it's sad to see because you know they don't deserve that. And you know I mean guys like us we have the ability to to fight and push past it. You know there's lots of reasons on on you know upbringing or whatever that whatever it was that we were fortunate enough to overcome but you know there's other guys out there that really need our help. And Dr. Joe and I, I mean we've been we've been changing people's lives already man. It's been crazy. It's been really really cool.

SPEAKER_04:

Some guys getting some guys out of depression yeah I mean simply having there's like two guys that came to the event that they were depressed now they're not it's it's life changing for them even just providing some simple tips on how to eat like they're just they like eat healthy the one ingredient diet I I have a medical weight loss practice that I'm helping some of these guys help lose weight. Like there's so many things that we can do to help these individuals and yeah man it's it's exciting I mean we're we're gonna develop a port a part of the uh chemo life podcast that's gonna be in Houston we're building out an entire office and we're gonna have an actual podcast studio that we're gonna invite folks in fly them in and sit down like almost like a Patrick Bet David and have like a real podcast where we're all sitting with Mike. So we're spending a lot of time and money and energy to build that out to actually have a platform for people that for people to come like we're doing a lot to make sure that this this goes because the mission is important. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah I mean this isn't gonna be our last conversation uh you know uh we're gonna be teaming up and stuff but I think this is like a really good first episode to introduce the world kind of to Will and but yeah man I just so I appreciate you I know Dr.

SPEAKER_04:

Joe you said you you had about 30 minutes so we're kind of at that mark but I got the I got the kids the the four kids rolling in so uh they're gonna be beating me up here in a minute but will it was great chatting with you LA uh this is just the beginning of something special and will we want you on the next event in Georgia we we want to have you involved in this because you're you're an inspirational guy you've done a lot and even getting your brother involved I don't know if your brother but man like my brother's involved in it yeah like the more the merrier man we didn't pick the next date uh event location but it sounds like you just made up your mind Dr.

SPEAKER_01:

Joe you keep on saying that's it Georgia now sorry why not he was saying Miami Georgia I got all the connections here dude y'all come on just let me know what you mean we'll make let's get it yeah do you guys got good barbecue dude come on it's Atlanta man absolutely I don't know if it's I don't know if it's I don't know if it's Texas barbecue but it's it's good Georgia barbecue is its own yeah I'm a big I'm a big barbecue guy so I'm from St.

SPEAKER_04:

Louis I went to med school at uh Kansas City but barbecue is huge. Yeah we'll have to get it sponsored get a get some barbecue and just uh start the you know the the Atlanta push well I don't know what we're gonna call it but we'll have to have a a huge mentorship thing that we do and giveaways I mean our last uh event to get everybody healthy we gave away Apple watches nice so I mean people feel actually they need to track their steps they need that if they're interested in going to the gym like I guess just we're we're doing this big this isn't something we're just gonna go out and hand out a piece of paper and that's it. Like we want to do this to really change lives.

SPEAKER_03:

And I think the school program will really help with the follow-up because after the event's over it's like well we want to stay in touch with you you know we want to you know follow up and make sure that you're staying on track. So we can't wait till we launch that school program which will you know probably be within the next month.

SPEAKER_00:

Well you guys have a great rest of your week real and it's nice meeting you cheers guys thank you for tuning in to the Hemo Life podcast today's episode hopefully inspired you and provided valuable insights to enhance your journey join us again to hear more incredible stories and expert advice from our community make sure to subscribe and stay connected with the group of extraordinary achievers and pioneers on behalf of LA Guayo and the entire Emo Life team keep pushing forward strive for excellence and remember you are the architect of your own destiny until next time stay strong stay inspired and continue on your path to an elite life