Both Dave’s dad and grandfather were business owners, who inculcated and demonstrated the value of hard work. Dave helped his dad as a teenager, and his dad stressed the importance of quality products (which Dave has stressed with EliteFTS’ equipment).

As a teenager, Dave grew sick and tired of being “beat all the time,” so he trained harder and worked harder and started to see benefits. His wrestling coach saw him running stairs one day and told him that if he worked harder than everyone else, he wouldn’t be beat. This, paired with the benefits of strength, started to help him build confidence.

Dave also struggled in college, but ultimately decided to return, work hard, and brought up his GPA.

He was deciding whether to move to Columbus or Cleveland and ultimately decided to move to Columbus (in part) because of a girlfriend, which meant that Dave would train with Louie Simmons at Westside Barbell.

Dave had different jobs, including personal training, bouncing, and gym management, and describes in his story at a couple points where he did not want to continue on the track he found himself, so he made a change.

Helping Louie sell equipment and deal with customer service, paired with creating a Q&A website, ultimately created EliteFTS.

Elite FTS began in the late 1990s, with the internet early and shipping times for gym equipment being 16 weeks.

He learned, from eMyth, that he needed to free up time to spend more time as manager and then owner of the business.

Dave and Matt talk about the importance of adversity and how it has refined them both. This aligns with Matt’s voluntary hardship principle. Ultimately, as a business owner, coach, and human, you will face adversity. Prepare yourself by doing so voluntarily so that when the involuntary challenges come, you can handle them better and grow from them as well.

Enjoy Dave and Matt talking about building EliteFTS.

PS - 
Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX

Matt's Links
Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en

Chris's Links:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/

 

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