On this episode of Exit Rich, Michelle Seiler Tucker welcomes Brian Brasch, CEO and Shark Tank alum, for a deep dive into what it’s really like to pitch to the Sharks—and what comes after. Brian shares the story behind his company, PRx Performance, which delivers space-saving fitness solutions that caught the attention of Kevin O’Leary. From prepping for national TV to scaling under pressure, Brian opens up about the lessons, surprises, and pivotal moments that shaped his journey. If you’ve ever dreamed of the Tank or just want a real look at entrepreneurship, this one’s for you.

 

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Hooking A Shark: How PRx Performance Won Over Kevin O’Leary With Brian Brasch

Welcome to another episode of the show. In this episode, you’d better get ready. You’re going to have to fasten your seatbelt because it’s going to be a bumpy, wild, and crazy ride. It’s going to be like drinking from a fire hose. You’re probably going to want to read this over and over again. We have the renowned Brian Brasch on our show. Welcome, Brian.

Michelle, thank you so much for having me. I’m looking forward to it.

Unveiling PRx Performance: The Shark Tank Pitch & Valuation

It’s a pleasure having you on. Let’s jump in. Let’s jump into your episode. Have you watched your Shark Tank episode since you were on?

It’s been a while. It might almost be new to me again, but I’m looking forward to seeing it again.

A lot of people tell me, “It was so stressful, I could never watch it again.” What episode season were you on?

Season 7, episode 19.

What year was that?

We filmed in 2015 in the summer. I missed Father’s Day. That was critical, but it all came together in February of 2016.

I bet your kids are proud of you.

“Next up is a home gym that fits into even the smallest spaces.

Hello, Sharks. My name is Erik Hopperstad.

I’m Brian Brasch.

We’re from Fargo, North Dakota, and our company is PRx Performance. We are seeking $80,000 for a 10% equity stake in our company.”

It’s $80,000 for 10%, $800,000 value. How did you come up with that?

We did standard calculations. We said, “What do we believe the revenue we can put into it? What’s our intellectual property? What other differentiators do we have?” We came up with a $1.6 million valuation, but we know that the Sharks discount, so we’re like, “Let’s start a little lower,” and we know they were going to cut it in half again. They’re bringing a lot of power too, so you’ve got to be ready for them to cut the valuation.

I don’t want to get into numbers because we’re going to talk about that in a minute, but what was your net at the time? Do you recall?

We had our first profitable month in May of 2015, and this was in June of 2015. The net was way negative.

We’re going to dive into evaluation, but this is the biggest place where people get stuck. Especially lately, I don’t know if you’ve been watching the new episodes, but people are going in there asking for $200,000 for 3%, $500,000 for 2%. No investor gets excited about 2% or 3% or anything like that. I think the $80,000 for 10% is very realistic. It’s one of the most realistic evaluations. Even though it’s still high based on the lack of EBITDA, you did have a lot of proprietary assets. It’s much more reasonable than anybody else that I’ve seen on the show.

We wanted the relationship. We didn’t even honestly need the money. We said, “If someone will give us the money, we’re going to close the deal, and we’re going to have a relationship from this.”

That’s very important. Did you raise any capital beforehand?

No. We’re self-funded. Credit cards and sleepless nights.

Credit cards, still the American way. I want everybody to pay attention to this because everybody thinks right away that they’ve got to go raise capital, they’ve got to go raise money, then they lay away a lot of equity, and then they end up not being able to hold onto their company. I think it’s very important to go in with a clear mind and ask yourself, “Is it the money I need or is it the relationships I need?” Relationship capital can be so much more important than money. There are lots of people who will invest money into a company, but if you have the money and you don’t have those relationships, you don’t have the expertise, you’re just going to go through the money.

Damon wrote a book called the Power of Broke. I teach entrepreneurs how to start businesses, and so many of them sign leases too early or commit to spending money too early. You have to pretend like you don’t have any money. You’ve got to guard every dollar with your life, and that gets you so much further. Don’t take money unless you have to, unless it’s strategic, like a relationship with one of the Sharks.

Be careful signing those leases, too. I know you have to have a lease, but they’re going to ask you for a personal guarantee. You’re going to pierce the corporate veil. You’ve got to be very careful. You want to find a landlord who’s willing to work with you, not necessarily require a personal guarantee. That’s when you pierce the corporate veil, and they can sue you personally.

If it fails, you want to be able to walk away and start over, or not have something hanging over your head. I had a great renter one time who said, “Just your LLC is going to sign this? If you go under, I’ll take care of it.” He knew we could cover it if the business didn’t work, but it did. We grew, and we still have a great relationship now. That was over ten years ago.

You say it’s a small detail. It’s actually a huge detail because I’ve seen so many people end up having to file for bankruptcy. They’ve got credit cards that they can’t pay in their name. They might have loans, they’ve got the lease, and then before you know it, you’re being sued personally, and they’re going to go after all your personal assets. Let’s see what else happens here.

“I can’t believe somebody didn’t think of this sooner. This is exactly what I’ve been looking for. Genius. Wow.

Sharks, these are a few of the things people say when they first see our PRx Performance products. We have redesigned traditional weight training equipment, so when it’s not in use, it takes up just inches of your valuable space. Our flagship product, the Profile Rack, is a slim rig that easily transforms any space into a multi-functioning gym. You can squat, you can bench press, you can do pull-ups, but when not in use, it folds away, taking up just a few inches on your wall. Our designs now allow for real gym equipment to be used in spaces that were never possible. Your garage, your basement, your small commercial space, any place can now be a real gym.”

The Genesis Of Genius: Founding PRx Performance & Partner Dynamics

That’s incredible. A couple of things. Number one, if I buy this, can I have a little person, machine, or robot pushing me up to do the pullovers? I need one of those robots to help me push and pull up. This is so interesting. I look at gym equipment all the time. I work workout every morning at 4:00 AM. I do use my equipment. Tell me a little bit about you and your partner’s background.

My partner and I, our wives were in each other’s weddings, just best friends. My partner and I always hung out and love to talk about business. I met other entrepreneurs for coffee. I invited him to hang out. After the session, he goes, “We should start a business.” One night over campfire and beers, we’re like, “What should we do?” We were both CrossFitting. That’s a growing market. Here we go. In any growing market, you want to capitalize on.

You can see the growth. There’s going to be new solutions, new needs. We talked about what the biggest problem is. We looked at the problem, and we came up with the solution. We started the business. We bought the business in the back of a church in the middle of a two and a half hour Catholic wedding when we got our domain name. It went from there. We started, and here we are.

What was your background? What did you do before this?

He was a salesman and an amazing person. He’s one of my best friends. We’re going on a big golf trip coming up here. He’s good at design. My background, I’m a CPA and serial entrepreneur. Together, we made it happen. They always say that for the best team, you need an integrator and a visionary. He and I are both visionaries. He’s a better integrator than I am, but our strengths are visionaries. We’ll get to this later, but we’ll solve that problem in the future.

That’s a great point that you brought up because most entrepreneurs are visionaries. They’re not integrators. They have all these huge visions, but they don’t have anybody that they can trust to implement them. Not all employees are integrators. You have to find that key integrator that can come in and make your vision come to fruition. I think that’s very important for all entrepreneurs to know, because I’m the same way.

I’m a visionary. I can implement, but I don’t have time to do both. I’m a better visionary than an integrator. It’s very important to figure out what you are. Also, integrators will keep you straight because entrepreneurs are like, “Squirrel.” They’ll keep you focused on the mission at hand. It’s good to get yourself a good integrator.

The best decision we’ve made was to hire a president who’s an integrator, and he tells me no a lot. That’s the best thing because I would distract the team, and he’s keeping everyone laser-focused. That’s critical.

I do the same thing. That’s another great point. Be okay with somebody telling you no, especially if they’re an expert in a particular area that you’re not. He’s an integrator. You’re not an integrator, right, Brian? You’re okay with him telling you no. You’ve got to make sure that you hire people who are smarter than you in areas that are not your core competency, and then make sure you’re okay with people telling you no, if it’s the right fit. It’s got to be the right fit because entrepreneurs are stubborn and they’re like, “Don’t tell me no.”

You nailed it. You hire people who are smarter than you, and you’ll align them with a clear vision, but it has to be a shared vision. Once you’re good, you step back and you let them integrate, and life becomes so much easier. You can’t have an ego as the visionary. You need to trust your integrator.

I always say, “Check your ego at the door.” You’ve got to have that strong integrator because they’re like an attorney. An attorney will say, “No, don’t do that. No, you shouldn’t do that. No, that’s going to get you in trouble.” Same thing with an integrator. You need that voice of reason.

“Incredible. Amazing.

Best investment I ever made.

Sharks, these are the few things you might be saying after today.

Which one of you sharks wants to help us shake up the fitness space by taking up as little space as possible?

Tell us a little bit about how it works. How does it lock into place? Because you have an entire structure behind it.

It’s made to be attached to 16-inch on-center, or 2-foot on-center studs, concrete.

Don’t you need all of that behind it?

Absolutely not.

You just need a wall.

A very stable wall.

A strong wall.

Most of the weight is on the two actual posts, right?

Exactly right. He’ll pull it down and put it in the usable position again.

How do I adjust it? Can I make it go up and down the top bar?

Absolutely. When you install it, you can put that wherever you’d like it to be.

Does it come with the weights?

Just the rack, as you see, is mounted to the wall separately.”

Subscription Success: Unlocking Recurring Revenue For Business Growth

Lori should know you’ve got to have an upsell. You’re not going to do everything.

Cross-sell and upsell, and even more importantly is the annuity. We never figured that out with an app. If there’s a way to get ongoing revenue, that’s even better, so upsell, cross-sell, and the annuity focus.

Peloton does that. Peloton has a huge subscription model because in order to use their classes, you have to subscribe to those classes. Same thing with Carl Daikeler with P90X and all those training videos.

I like the gentleman who owns TRX, which are the bands, which are a great product. He was on a podcast. I heard him say that his sales were $25 million a year, but his recurring revenue was $25 million from his app. Not only are people buying the straps, but they’re not going to buy them again. They’re well-made. It’s like our products. You buy them once, and you can leave them in your will to your kids. You want to have something that you can continue to provide value to the customer and thus, continue to have an ongoing revenue stream.

The market shifts. I’ve been doing this for 25 years. I wrote the book called Exit Rich. The market has shifted dramatically. Now, buyers are looking for that mailbox money. They’re looking for that congruent revenue stream, a subscription model. If a business doesn’t have it, more often than not, they’re passing on that business now. I can’t even begin to stress this point enough. It is 1,000% imperative that you figure out a subscription model.

If you think about the future, what every entrepreneur should do is if you have a product like ours that’s phenomenal and there’s always a customer base out there for something that’s solid, but your multiples are between 3X to 6X to 7X. When you have an annuity, I’ve seen those products. Starting at 10X, going even up to 20X, which is nuts. The value is there, and that’s what the buyers are looking for.

The number one multiple driver is proprietary. I talk about my 6 Ps. Proprietary is the number one value driver. If you have those patents, if you have that subscription model, if you have those transferable contracts, if you have a SaaS model, guess what? You said it, you hit the nail on the head. You can go from 8X to 10X, even as high as 20X, that you’ve seen. When you can become a SaaS model, now you’re getting paid a multiple of revenue, not just EBITDA.

“We also have about 30 other products that we’ve designed that complement this well.

How much is it?”

Innovation Never Stops: Expanding The PRx Performance Product Line

I don’t hear you talking about the 30 other products. Did you develop those when you were on stage, or do you already have 30 other products?

We have about 250 now, and you need it. We launched our functional trainer, which is like a cable system that allows you to stack weights. Right now, everything you see, you can squat, you can bench, you can do pull-ups, but a lot of the pulling motions, like curls, lat pull downs, and a lot of the other triceps push downs, those movements, you need a cable system. We launched a product that adds to this and does everything.

If you walk into a gym, we can do 99%, like leg extensions. You can do 99% of every movement in a gym on our system that folds up against the wall. I can’t think of one you can’t. It has taken us thirteen years to get there. We had a review too from a gentleman who’s at the top of the gym fitness community. He’s like, “This is the best system, hands down now.” We are behind because we didn’t have a functional trainer, but we caught up again. We lost sight. That’s another story. However, we’re back, and we literally have the best solution in the market again as of now.

Ladies and gentlemen, you can tell he’s successful because a lot of times, I do this. At the end of the story, the business owner wasn’t so successful. We’re going to talk about life after the Tank, and you’re going to read about everything that Brian and his partner did.

“Our commercial line is $1,099 retail.

Is there a consumer line?

It’s a lot.

There is. We are just launching a standard line.

How much would a consumer one be?

They start at $550.

DIY Vs. Done-For-You: The Evolving Landscape Of Product Installation

Who assembles it, and who puts it up on the wall?”

The standard was $1,095. What was the cost of that?

I think at the time, our cost was around $450. You think about shipping costs, there’s not much margin there because if you’re not doing 40 or 50 points to cover your overhead, you’re not making money. Plus, with the volume, it was tough in the beginning.

Do the right thing; the brand is more important than the product. Underpromise, overdeliver, and follow up. That's how you build long-term customers and relationships. Share on X

The consumer one is $550, cut in half. Was that much smaller? Was that a lot less expensive to ship, or did you have good profit margins on that one?

About the same. We were trying to keep a 50% margin, but it was ending up at about 40%.

Ladies and gentlemen, know your numbers. He knows his numbers.

“It is the responsibility of the end user.

How easy is the installation? Can you do it in five minutes? Is it 30 minutes?

No, 1 to 2 hours is what we say.

How did you come up with this?

We’ve been involved in the fitness industry now for 3 and 4 years. As we got into it, we saw an opportunity. We had a large competitor in that space. They were encouraging people to buy equipment and fill up their entire garage stall and work out in their gym. Being from Fargo, North Dakota.

I’ve always wanted to visit there in February.

We can’t give up our garage stall. I said, ‘We have to figure out how to do this.’

Do you have a patent on this? I’m curious.”

There’s a place where Robert says, “I can’t even find a stud on the wall.” I don’t think it’s as easy to install these. I think I would probably have trouble installing it. I guarantee my fourteen-year-old daughter could probably do it. Has that changed? Do you guys now have an installation company? How many of these are self-installed? How many are installed by an installation company?

You grew up in the Midwest, and for your fifth birthday, you were given a pickup truck, and by the time you’re six, you’re given a stud finder. Everybody in the Midwest knows how to throw stuff up on a wall and cut wood, and build a tree house. I think that’s where we lost sight, where the general public isn’t like that.

We talked about that in the Tank for quite a while about how to use a stud finder. That was a big problem that they had. It was an education for us because we didn’t think ahead. We missed that aspect of the difficulty of the system. Now, we do have a qualified network of installers. To be honest, though, it’s so simple. If you have a stud finder, you can throw this up on a wall in an hour, which is fast. If you don’t, you have a friend. You buy them a twelve-pack of beer, and they will do it in an hour.

I have that friend.

Everybody does.

He wants tequila instead of beer.

You’ve got to call him, but it’s something we got stuck on. You’re always going to hit that thing. Plan for the best, prepare for the worst. That’s the thing that we got stuck on. We worked through it, we worked around it, and we had the discussions. We watched all six previous seasons. In every episode, we wrote down the questions, wrote down the answers, and wrote down how we’d answered them.

We spent 200 hours preparing to go on there, in addition to knowing our numbers backwards and forwards. This isn’t something you just show up on. The preparation to do something like this is such a phenomenal exercise. Even if we didn’t get on the show, the process to go through the application to get ready for it is invaluable. Everyone should pretend they’re going to be on Shark Tank even if they don’t make it that far. It’s a great process to go through.

I specialize in helping entrepreneurs get ready to go on Shark Tank because a lot of people show up, and you can tell they’re completely unprepared. You can tell they don’t know their numbers. Some of them don’t understand gross revenues versus cost of goods sold versus gross profit. It’s very important to prepare, and it’s very important to align yourself with somebody who’s been down that road before, whether that’s me or Brian. I’m sure he could prepare you to get ready for it, too. It’s something you’d want to have.

“We were the pioneers. We were the very first to launch this thing. There are two pretty big companies that have since released something. They are in violation of our claims if our patent is accepted the way it is.

You’re assuming you have a patent coming. They’re violating it. This is going to be very important because Kevin is going to make you an offer if you’re going to sue them into the Stone Age.

Have you gone to the patent trademark office and said there’s an infringement to try to fast track it?”

Patent Power Plays: Protecting Your IP in a Competitive Market

Patents are so important. Back then, I think it was 2015, you said, you had a patent pending. You had two competitors competing against you and infringing on your patent. Where are you now and what points? I know you’ve got a lot of good golden nuggets to share here with my audience as far as what you should do for patents. I’m going to let you roll.

I’m going to start off by saying it depends on the industry. First of all, in the fitness industry, it’s such an amazing industry where everybody comes together, everybody is helping everybody. Everybody wants the best for everybody. You want people to get in shape, and you want people to eat better. You go to the shows, and it’s like a family. It’s refreshing. While we have the patents, I think we’re at 40 now. I think I have 30.

When you say you have 30, what do you mean by that?

First of all, when you file a patent, you get your name on it, which is fun, but you assign it to your company. As our company grew and we hired engineers, they started to come up with new ideas that Erik, my partner, and I had no clue about. The first time PRx got a patent that he and I were not involved in, I was almost more proud of that than any of the other patents out there.

A funny story is that one of the fathers of one of our engineers saw we were struggling with our foldable bench that we worked on for four years. He said, “I have an idea.” We said, “Fix it and we’ll give you a royalty.” He came back, fixed it. It’s now the product we’re using. We gifted him the patent and a plaque for Christmas. Not only that, we paid him so much in royalties that he paid off his house.

It was such a fun experience, and to see that is a great story. What I’ve learned is that in the fitness industry, we have a lot of patents, but everyone respects our patents. We haven’t had to do any lawsuits, and we respect everybody else’s. There are stories, too, where maybe somebody came up with something beforehand, and we filed a patent.

We were unaware of it, but we noticed it, and we’ve reached out to them and we’ve given a few people now some royalties on stuff that already existed. That’s not normal. You don’t have to do that. In this community, like I said, it’s family. You want to do the right thing. The brand is more important than the product because if you underpromise, you overdeliver, you follow up, that’s how you make long-term customers and long-term relationships. That’s what we strive for. It’s been a fun ride. That’s critical to building the brand.

A couple of things there that I’d like to point out are, number one, I like how you were creative because you had a problem to solve. Lots of times, we have problems to solve as entrepreneurs, but we don’t always have the money to hand over. We don’t always have the cash you can give out, especially if you’re starting your business on a shoestring budget, which a lot of entrepreneurs do because they want to maintain a hold on equity.

I love how you came up with the royalty system. You paid him royalties, and you had to trust him. He had to trust you. He got royalties. He paid off his house. That’s a great story. Also, you’re right. Branding is so much more important than anything else because your brand is all you have. If you lose your brand, if you lose that reputation, then you’re practically out of business, no matter how good your product is.

When you were talking, I was smiling because I said the same thing, “Underpromise, overdeliver. Always underpromise, always overdeliver.” You did something that is profound in any industry, which is, “They already had this, let me pay them royalties.” A lot of people would never do that. That speaks about your character.

To talk about relationships, one of the gentlemen we did that with, I’m working with him every Sunday morning. We have a call at 7:00 AM, and we’re launching new products for a subsidiary of this business. We’re working together. That relationship, I’m going to make him a lot more money, too. I couldn’t be there without him. This guy is a genius, and he’s a savant when it comes to engineering. It has helped both of us.

We mentioned earlier that relationship capital is sometimes so much more important than money. Always say your network equals your net worth. Well done and well explained.

“Just talk about your business. How long have you been selling? How much have you been selling?

We started selling this product in Q3 of last year. This year so far, we’ve done a little over $170,000.

How many have you sold since Q3?

We just crossed 100 units.

Did you make money?

 

We made money this quarter, however, we have not taken salaries yet.

What’s your gross margin on these new units?”

You made money, not much money. You didn’t take any salary. How were you supporting your lifestyle?

Credit cards.

That truly is a shoestring budget. There are a lot of entrepreneurs like, “How am I supposed to support myself?”

I had a conversation with my partner about shutting the business down a month before we got on Shark Tank. I was like, “Do we want to keep this going?” We told the wives. I think we both had $25,000. We put that in, and that was gone. Now we were on credit cards, and he’s like, ‘I’m out of money.” He had quit his job, too, so he didn’t have money coming in. He found out he was having a baby to buy diapers for. Anytime you go to a show, they have to pay you a per diem. When we walked in there and they paid us our per diem of $75 for four days, like $300 each, he was so happy. That was the first time he had held that much cash in six months. That shows you how tight everything was.

Startups are not easy, but you’ve got to have stickability. There’s a book out there called Three Feet From Gold, and right before they were about to strike gold, they gave up. Have you read that book, Brian?

I haven’t read the book, but I’m very familiar with the story.

They gave up, and somebody else came in.

The largest find of gold vein ever.

Within a very short period of time. They came in, and they started striking. The moral of the story is never give up. Go on Shark Tank if you have to. At least you’ll make $300.

The gentleman who sold the gold mine said, “I’m never giving up again.” He went into insurance and became one of the best insurance salesmen, and started a multimillion-dollar company. This was 100 years ago. He would not take no for an answer. He became successful, but he had to learn the lesson the hard way.

We’re here to shorten your learning curve.

“Right now, we’re at 43%. We will get it up to 50%.

You have to because there’s so much capital outlay for inventory. You have to turn a lot. That’s my problem. What you’re doing is good for two guys owning a business, trying to make some money, but to come in and bring in an investor, that changes everything because then, you have to start worrying about our return or reinvesting in the company. You’re way too early. You guys are two guys who have a good product, but I think it’s not quite right for me. For those reasons, I’m out.

Thank you.”

Strategic Alliances: Who Do You Want As Your Shark Tank Partner?

When you came into the Shark Tank, did you and your partner have a preconceived idea of who you wanted as your partners?

We wanted Damon.

Why Damon?

He owned six CrossFit gyms and had invested in another product in our fitness industry. We thought he would be the most logical.

When Mark went out, you were not that upset?

No. A lesson to everybody in life is to thank them for their time. Don’t take it personally. You’ve got to keep your head up, and you don’t want to burn that bridge. Many people, you can tell they’re visually upset. We knew there was a bunch of noes coming, and we’re okay with that.

I interviewed Bouqs, a floral company. They got no deal. Robert remembered them when he was getting married, and he called them to do his flowers. They went out there and did the flowers, and Robert was so impressed. He’s like, “Let me look at the numbers again.” Robert became their partner because they were respectful, they were nice, and they didn’t burn bridges. They exited the right way.

“In addition to AD, we would be looking for a line of credit as well.

Guys, I love the fitness industry. I’ve done a bunch of investments here. Here’s what I’ve learned. If you want to make a lot of money in the fitness business, you want a product that appeals to a very wide group of people, that’s easy to use. The challenge with this is it’s going to scare a lot of people. It’s technical, it looks complicated, it looks hard. The idea of me assembling this is never going to work. I don’t know how to find a stud in a wall. I think it’s not going to appeal to a wide enough base of people where I can invest and see it scale. I’m out.

I know how to find a stud in a wall.”

I love that. He’s out. When I first looked at it, I thought it was a little intimidating, too. I thought, “How would I put that together and what wall would I put that on?” However, you guys have solved that problem, and I disagreed with him. I don’t think it’s a niche. I think there is a huge audience for it. Don’t you? I look at where you are now, so obviously, it is. Let me ask you something. Where do you manufacture that?

We built a 200,000 square foot facility in Fargo, North Dakota. Everything between the ring and raw steel. We have laser cutters and tube benders. We do the bending with brake presses, and we have a full powder coat system, which does all the cleaning. We can coat ten different colors, package them, and ship. We send them out the door. Everything is in Fargo, North Dakota. If anybody is up in that area, we’d love to give tours. It’s state-of-the-art robotics.

Didn’t they film a movie there called Fargo?

I might have heard of that movie.

Were you in the movie? That’s great. It’s all manufactured in the USA, which probably decreases your shipping costs a little, I would assume.

Yeah, and to be honest with you, too, with this whole tariff thing looming, it’s good for us because a lot of our competitors are in China. We’ve already had a few competitors reach out to us so we can manufacture for them. We’re going to be hiring people, we’re going to be growing, and we’ll help our competitors, and it helps us too. I think it’s great. It’s a big family, and it’s a big community.

That’s great. The more people you help, the more people will help you. I think that’s a great point. You’re right, the tariffs are going to kill a lot of businesses. I work with a lot of manufacturing businesses to say, “What else can you manufacture? Who else can you help?” They’re going to get crushed by the tariffs. That’s a good point. Any manufacturing companies tuning in, call out to me. I’ve got lots of clients you can manufacture products for.

“We have also had licensing interest.

I think it’s brilliant. It’s a great space saver. I don’t think it looks difficult to install it, but I hope you get your patent, and then you’ll be able to move forward in this space. Right now, you’re early for me. I’m out.”

Lori is out because of the lack of patents. Now you have 40 patents. Anything you want to comment on there?

No. Just a trend I’ve seen in Shark Tank. We were there in Season 7 when people were early like us. We were pre-revenue, we were growing, we had an idea. We started to find our market. We’re selling 10%, 20%. Now it seems like the company is getting on are established, they’re making money, so they know their market, and now they’re trying to sell 2% or 5% of the company, which isn’t exciting. It’s a different show than it was many years ago.

I started out where I said entrepreneurs are coming in there and giving 2%, 3%. I’m an investor. I have my businesses. I invest in businesses. I turn them around and flip them. There’s no way I would invest in a company for 2% to 3%. I would’ve done your investment all day and all day over, especially with what I know now. Even back then, $80,000 for 10%, I would’ve invested in your business.

You look at businesses now, and when you’re up and profitable and you’re making money, you don’t need money. You don’t need to raise capital. Why do it? When you’re starting out here, you need capital, but you don’t have the track record. That’s the hard thing for investors to find that sweet spot. If you’re pitching your business, you’ve got to think to yourself, “How do I make myself in a company that I guarantee I can get trajectory and growth by adding capital and reducing the risk for my investors, then you’re going to get cash?” Until that happens, you’re on either stage, and then you don’t need investors.

The highest paid people in any business should be the sales people. Share on X

If you do need investors, there are multiple ways to raise capital, whether that’s through equity, through a convertible note, a safe note, or crowdfunding. There are different ways. The problem that I’ve seen with a lot of businesses and even Shark Tank guests is that they have bought in so many investors that now they’ve lost control of their company.

There was a Shark Tank guest I had, and he talked about this. He bought into a private equity group, didn’t read the fine print, didn’t hire the right attorney, and now they fired him from his company. You’ve got to cross your T’s and dot your I’s, and make sure that when you’re dealing with investors, you’ve got somebody much smarter than you on how to structure that so you don’t lose everything you built, everything you worked for.

Michelle, I’m going to share something with you. I think it’s going to be the most important point on the show. My secret weapon for startups is NSOs. Those are non-qualified stock options. What I did when I started this company was I said, “I need help with marketing. I need help with purchasing, I need help with engineering.” You go down the list. I knew people who had that expertise, and I got everybody in the room.

Some of those people worked for me at another business I owned at the time. I said, “After hours, would you do this work? If so, I’ll either pay you your hourly rate or I will give you that inequity for the business.” Those NSOs, if people believe in the idea, you have a good track record, you have the trust, and it was a fun experience. Those fifteen people, every one of them, took the non-qualified stock options. You do need to work with an attorney to set it up. It paid off.

Are you giving them equity in the business?

Correct. What you do is you say, “For the next year, you will give me these ten deliverables. Based on you hitting these milestones, you will then earn X shares in the company.” Those vest over the following four years, so five years may now have these shares or options in the company to switch shares.

That’s the key. Invest over the next five years.

We had one guy who did a few days of graphic design for us, and he called me up, he’s like, “Brian, my son was in a car wreck. Are those shares worth anything?” I said, “Yeah. I ran the numbers, and I’ll give you $45,000.” He is like, “Done.” He bought his son a new car. It’s a cool story. We still have six people who have shares, and we’re trying to grow it even bigger. I want to see some big exits from those last six people. I want to make them a lot of money. It’s fun to write those checks.

I’ve done that with some of our other companies, even with employees, because you can do that with employees.

Their ISOs are for employees.

What’s so great about you versus some business owners I’ve seen is that I love to write those big checks. I love for them to make money. I would love for him to buy a car for his kid. I used to work for a major corporation, Xerox. I was regional vice president. The more a salesperson made, the more they wanted to cut that person’s check. It’s that corporate mentality. There are also entrepreneurs like that. You are going to think about what goes around, comes around. As they always say, the more you help others, the more you help yourself. I think it’s a good attitude to give back and have fun writing those big checks. I love writing big commission checks.

The highest-paid people in any business should be the salespeople. They should be paid more than the CEO.

You should be happy to write those big checks because if you’re not writing those big checks, you’re not making any money.

“I happen to know this space fairly well. There are two types of users. This user, who’s the enthusiast, 99% of them put it underneath their bed, and they need to buy a duster with the equipment because they never use it, or you have the enthusiast who goes and pays $300 a month to be a member. I see this as being the area where it’s very hard to grab one or the other. For that reason, I’m out.”

Shattering Gym Stereotypes: The Rise Of The Home Workout Revolution

He’s in a CrossFit business. I agree with him 1,000%. People pay for gym memberships and never show up. People buy equipment. I’ve got friends of mine, they got the climbers and everything, I know they put them in a corner and hang their clothes on them. He said it’s hard to grab either audience. What did you find out about that?

We were a little shocked, maybe thinking that he didn’t know the market that well because not everybody has time to go to a gym, and the people who put the stuff under the bed, that’s not for a real product. That’s for something you buy on an infomercial at midnight. I’ve got the home gym in. Every morning at 5:00 AM, all my neighbors show up. This morning, I had six guys in my gym. We’re all lifting, killing it, having a blast. At 6:00 AM, my daughter and a couple of her friends will show up. I train my daughter and her friends. At 7:00 AM, my son comes in, and one of his buddies comes in.

By 7:45 in the morning, I’ve had over a dozen people in my garage now, four days a week. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday. We’re killing it. That’s life. It’s so invigorating. Everyone is off to work, and you’ve got your workout done. It’s a great way to live. He didn’t see what the home gym community has become and the benefits of that. That was shocking to us.

I think COVID changed the way that people workout. Before, everybody went to the gym and workout. I used to get up at 4:00 AM to go to the gym by 4:30. The gym is 15 minutes away from me. I started saying, “No, I’m going to work out from home. I’m going to get up at 4:00, workout at 4:30, be done, and not have to drive back and forth. I bought the Peloton and other equipment. I use it. I looked at your stuff. I looked at your website. I’m like, “I should probably do that,” because I’m a work-at-home person. I don’t see the benefits. It’s a waste of drive time. You’ve got to get dressed, get undressed, shower, etc. I’m your client.

Now with a flexible trainer, you don’t have an excuse not to. Michelle, let me share one of the most fun stories. Everyone who’s an entrepreneur loves to hear about these when you strike gold. I’ll tell you, for us, striking gold was COVID. At one point, during COVID, it got so crazy that we were sold out almost immediately.

Our manufacturing wasn’t up yet. We had seven local manufacturers that would deliver seven truckloads a day. We’d spend a day packaging, and FedEx would send seven truckloads out. Our max was $300,000 a day. We had to shut our website down because the most important thing is that you protect your brand. We said underpromise and overdeliver. We told everyone, “It’s going to take you six weeks to get your stuff.”

We knew we could get it out in four, but the only way to do that was to not sell more than $300,000 a day. Every day, we’d turn our website on for 30 seconds, and in those 30 seconds, we would sell $300,000, and we’d shut it off. This went on for 5 or 6 months. We would ship that out. Sometimes, we’d work the weekends to get ahead, and we’d open it up for an hour on a weekend, and we’d sell $1 million. This went on. It was so exciting.

Here’s the thing. We always beat our promised dates. I talked to someone else who sold treadmills, and I was like, “Our brand is big. Our customers love us.” He goes, “Our customers hate us.” “What are you doing?” He goes, “We’re telling everyone a month, but they’re getting it in six weeks.” It’s like, “Tell them eight weeks. You’ve got to underpromise and overdeliver.” It’s so simple.

The Power Of Under-Promising And Over-Delivering

Before I transitioned to mergers and acquisitions, my background was franchise development. Franchise sells and puts franchise orders on the map. I can’t begin to tell you that’s why I feel like it’s refreshing, Brian. By the way, I had equity in every single one of them. How many of them would overpromise and underdeliver, and then put me in the firing range? Everybody is mad at me. The biggest thing you entrepreneurs can do is, if it’s going to take you 4 weeks, say 8 weeks. If you could deliver on half the time, then everybody is happy, but if you’re one week late, people are mad.

You’re checking the mail, and you’re checking the delivery every day, “Where’s my stuff?” It creates anxiety, and it hurts the brand.

I buy stuff on Facebook all the time, not knowing it’s coming from another country. They said it’s going to be shipped in a week. It doesn’t arrive until three months later. I forgot what it was.

“And then there was only Kevin, the fittest Shark.

I like it. I’m connecting with it because my wife is putting a gym into our basement right now at our lake house, and she has run into this problem. I think it’s a very interesting solution. How would you pay back an investor who gave you $80,000? You put an $800,000 value on this. I have no idea if it’s worth that or not.

Based on our projections, we’ll sell another 300 units this year. That’s the way we’re trending right now.

What do you think the average selling price will be on those 300 units?

Probably around $700.

I’d look at it this way. I’d give you the $80,000 for 20%. The way I would structure the payback would be as you pay yourselves 80%, I get 20%. You need the capital for the first 100 units. I think it’s an eloquent solution. I’m assuming the patent is going to hold up. By the way, I’ll show you how to sue those guys into the Stone Age.

Waiting for that.

That’s awesome.

Guys, no one else has made you an offer. I’m the only one who believes in you. What do you want to do?

We got a deal.

Alright. Let’s go to work.

Congrats, guys.

Thanks a lot, guys.

Thank you very much.

All right. Good luck.

Don't chase every opportunity. Stay focused; the main thing is the main thing. Share on X

Look forward to it, guys.

While you’re up there, can we see Kevin do a chin-up?

Robert, I don’t want to embarrass you.

Thank you, guys, very much.”

That was a great episode. Did you start thinking, “I’m not going to get a deal. No, shark is going to give us a deal.”

We were nervous, but it came together. There were a lot of serendipitous moments that got us to that point in the business, and it all worked amazingly. It’s been years later now that we met Kevin. We’re still working with Kevin. Kevin is great. We meet with him almost yearly face-to-face. He’s a great supporter of entrepreneurship and business. It’s been a great relationship and a phenomenal experience.

If you ever need him, I’m sure he is there, giving you advice.

He’s got a lot going on, so we also don’t bug him. We may reach out to him proactively once or twice a year, but I’ve reached out to him for some help with charities more than even on the business. He’s always helpful.

Great episode. You didn’t overinflate your numbers, in my opinion. I would’ve given you the $80,000, and I can’t say that about a lot of companies on Shark Tank. Let’s talk about the lessons you learned and what has happened after the Tank. We dropped a few of those hints as far as what the business is like now. You have one patent pending, now you have 40 patents. We talked about different things like that. One thing I like to say about patents, though, do you have them in the same corporation as your company, or do you have them in a separate corporation?

We have them in the same corporation. I know there are thoughts on that for asset protection, to separate those in the different entities. We haven’t thought that was necessary. I know there’s the thought that is good to segment them out, and that can be a whole different discussion on itself.

I’m in favor of separating them out. I always keep my proprietary assets in a separate company, and I’ve had clients get sued before. They have lost everything. Yeah, it’s a separate discussion. Some people haven’t been in a corporation. My advice is always to separate that into a separate entity if you can.

The patent world is changing. The one thing I’d like to emphasize to our readers is that there are provisional patents now. I filed the very first one by myself, and it took me 40 hours. It was the most painful experience. I’m not a writer. I filed the second one 100% by myself. What I did was I used AI. AI wrote the patent in five minutes. I uploaded the drawings from my engineer for all the references. There are no claims in a provisional. It took me about three and a half hours to file it on the government website because it’s so confusing. In half a day, I now have a provisional patent. Now I have one year to decide whether that’s worth spending $15,000 to have an attorney do it correctly.

I’ve drawn a line in the sand, and with the new first-to-file system, I think that’s been around for 4 or 5 years now in the US. There were two times when we filed a patent, and someone else had filed something similar a week or two before us. Get that provisional in ASAP and then do everything you can to take that product to market, so you know if you need to spend $15,000.

I would say that of my 40 patents, maybe half of them didn’t need to have that $15,000 investment. I wish I had come up with the idea, done essentially the provisional, and taken it to market. If it can make enough money, then spend the $15,000 for an attorney within that one-year period from the point of disclosure, and then you have something much more stable in income rather than probably the $300,000 we threw to the wind.

I think that’s good advice. We filed for one. For one of my companies, which I own multiple businesses, we filed for a provisional patent. We did hire an attorney. I have a proprietary patent attorney right next door to my office. None of us had the time to do it that way, but I think a great first step is a provisional patent first, before you spend the money. It’s not always necessary. Sometimes, these patent attorneys just drag it out when you can get it done much quicker.

They have to remember, too, that a patent is the right to sue somebody. If you’re going to go through that, it’s seven digits. You’ve got to be ready to play that game, and it’s not a fun game.

You’ve got a good partner who likes to sue on patents, Kevin O’Leary, Mr. Wonderful.

Yes, he does. Got to keep a leash on him when it comes to that.

Yeah, you do. You can say, “Okay, Kevin, you spent $1 million.”

We find that people back off when the attorney sends a letter. It is a great industry. The other aspect, too, is that there’s such a thing as trade dress. If you make something that looks original and if someone else looks at it and says, “That looks like so-and-so’s product,” if you’re so-and-so, and then if somebody else copies it, you can go after them for trade dress. You don’t need the patent. Now it’s stronger with a patent, and you can’t send a cease and desist. Maybe you can, for trade dress. You can send anything you want, and it’s more powerful with a patent. Don’t forget about trade dress either. It’s a powerful tool out there.

What is trade dress again?

Trade dress is essentially, let’s say, I make something, and then I grow the market. I don’t have a patent, and I’ve taken it to market, and somebody comes out with something, and it looks exactly the same, I can sue them for trade dress, which means you’re pretending to be me, or you copied what I did. It’s harder. Now you’re in a seven-digit lawsuit, and you don’t have a patent. It’s harder to protect, but it’s a way to protect people who didn’t have the resources to do the patent side of the gate, and more or less go after copiers.

If you can, go online, use AI, file for a provisional patent, and get an attorney to do it because it’s worth the $15,000, $20,000 that you’ll spend to protect your intellectual property. What were the valuable lessons where you said, “I had no idea,” and you went back and implemented them? Can you give me a few?

I would say, from Shark Tank, don’t chase every opportunity. There were some things that happened behind the scenes that I can’t go into legally. What I learned is to stay focused and have the main thing be the main thing. I think that’s something I learned. Keep more of a focus and hit home runs on one thing, like a game of golf. Focus on just the ball and only the ball and where it’s going. Don’t think of the other holes and everything else. Be present. I think I learned that from the show and from Kevin.

We entrepreneurs have a very difficult time looking at the ball. It’s like, “Rabbit, squirrel.” It’s very difficult because I am notorious for that. I’m like a kid in a candy store. I can’t wait to find out how you built your business to a multi-7, 8, 9-figure business. I’m like, “I’ll invest in this. I’ll do this, I’ll do that,” but you do have to have that focus. You have to have those goals. You’ve got to keep yourself on track.

My vice president of sales at Microsoft before I started this company had a saying, “When you get a new hammer, everything looks like a nail.” It was his job to show you where the nails were so you didn’t just go whacking all over the place. You had the focus, you had the hammer, and you hit that one nail. You drive it home, and you finish the job.

No playing whack-a-mole. Any other valuable assets? We’re going to get into life after the Tank.

No, that’s the big one.

Beyond The Tank: PRx Performance’s Billion-Dollar Journey & Future

You’ve got a deal. You’ve got Kevin, you’re happy. Tell me, on that stage, you had $170,000 and $800,000 evaluation. Kevin put up $88,000. I’m sure he is available for a line of credit, etc., if you need it. What has happened to the business since then?

If you look at USA Today in 2024, we were ranked the 11th bestselling product ever on Shark Tank with a total amount of sales of over a quarter of a billion dollars.

Is that in the USA?

Yes, that’s in the USA.

That’s impressive. Out of how many?

They’re going on 16 seasons and over 100, so 1,600 companies.

This was a Shark Tank ranking.

By the way, when Kevin mentioned, “I’m going to come to Fargo in February,” we got them there the next year. Look for the Shark Tank update, too, with Kevin in Fargo in February. It was fun. We shot it in the genre of the Fargo movie scene of him walking across the ice. It was a fun update.

I have to bring you back on and talk about that. What is life like after the Tank now? What is the business doing now? You’ve been voted number eleven.

During COVID, we had 100 employees. That was a crazy time, the new building. We believe that everyone has the right to sweat. A lot of kids in a demographic that’s ignored are the people who with adaptive needs. Kids with autism and kids who are neurodivergent. If you go to SensoryRx, we’ve come up with a group of solutions that allow kids to return to baseline through plane crashing, jumping, and sliding. We’ve made a whole new set of tools and products so more people can be active.

Where should I go?

 

Go to SensoryRx.com. To keep everything tied together, we also created a company called ClimbRx that is for neurodivergent families’ kids that is made by occupational therapists who help families move and get out, and learn new tools, anywhere from going on nature walks to tying shoes to how to build a resume.

That’s impressive. Not only did you build a fantastic business with over $300 million in revenue, but you have also built a community and provided real services to special needs people, and people with challenges. That’s admirable.

Once you’ve been given, you have to give back, and this is a great way to do it.

It’s all about giving back and making the world a better place, and not being greedy. It’s about giving back. The company has exploded. What happened to those two competitors who were infringing on your patent?

Both of them, I have the highest amount of respect for. They’re doing very well, but they focused on other solutions and other products. To be honest with you, one of them came out with a new product line that we didn’t see coming, and they crushed that. I think it was good that they stopped trying to copy us, and they went after a new product line, and they created something that no one else has been able to touch. It was good for them to come up with their own thing.

It was great that you didn’t burn bridges. You’re not hostile towards them, and it helped them to go in a different direction. Is the mainframe still your major product?

Yeah.

You said you had 200 products now.

We have so many options, but the Profile Pro is timeless. Now with the Functional Trainer, it’s a game changer.

Tell me about the Functional Trainer real quick.

We met these guys called Dialed Motion, and they came up with this technology that you put a little cable system in a weight stack, like when you see those weight stacks in the gym, and to lift 100 pounds, you need 200 pounds of weight stacks. They came up with a technology that when you pull 100, you’re lifting 100, so you don’t need to ship other weights. It’s much more efficient.

You don’t have to pull the pin out and put it back in.

They crushed it. We built that into this Functional Trainer system that not only is available, again, it also folds up against a wall, and nothing touches the ground. We changed the industry, and it’s exciting. It’s a great solution. Basically, 100% of the movements that you could do in a commercial gym, you can do on the equipment on your wall.

Is your product different than the Total Gym?

I’ve got a quick story. I called him when I started the business, and I’m like, “Can I get your advice?” He called me back the next day. An Italian gentleman, he is working with Chuck Norris, and I’m like, “How did you do it?” He told me my product was too heavy. He goes, “You’ve got to make it under 75 pounds, or it’s not going to ship, and you’ve got to do infomercials.” In his model, yes, but I want to make my stuff quality. I want to have people leave it in their wills to their kids. This has to be American-made and amazing.

We changed the model, but he was there. He was supportive. I remember having this person who built this crazy business. I think he sold like 4 million systems at the time, calling me back, and having a conversation with this little entrepreneur up in far North Dakota. It shows you giving back, and spending half an hour on the phone with an entrepreneur was a life changer. I have utmost respect for Total Gym. We don’t sell that stuff, but he was cool.

I’ve always found in my career that the more successful the entrepreneur, the more they’re willing to give back and help other entrepreneurs. Where do you sell the product? Is it mostly online?

Over 90% of our sales are direct to consumer online. We’ve created another partnership, it’s commercial grade, where we’re going to be in a lot of commercial facilities. That’s coming out. That’s future announcements. You go to PRxPerformance.com and search for folding squat racks, and there are packages. Now with the Functional Trainer, it’s an all-in-one gym. You don’t need to leave your house.

Can somebody do classes? Is there somebody showing you what to do and how to do it, and how to lift?

There are a lot of apps out there that support it. We built one called MVT that’s out there. That’s another story. I do all the programming for my groups in the morning. I’ve lost 50 pounds in the last 8 months on a program.

Without the weight loss drugs?

Yeah. I was out to dinner with friends one night, like, “You look great. What have you been doing?” I’m like, “Ozempic.” I laughed. The person I’m talking to said, “Yeah, I hate that stuff. I get a chalky taste in my mouth.” I was like, “I was joking, but okay.” I lost 51.5 pounds through diet and exercise. I joined a group called Superhuman, and they crush it. I have a PhD in Nutrition now that I wish I had 30 years ago, but that’s another story.

What’s that called?

Superhuman. They have it figured out. It’s expensive. It’s $800 a month, but I saved more than that from cutting back on alcohol, eating properly, and cooking my own food. I literally would have killed to have this knowledge 30 years ago.

Any last-minute thoughts? I know you already shared so much content, so many golden nuggets. We’ve already talked about branding. If somebody is struggling, they’re starting out. They have limited money like you and your partner, they think they’re not going to eat, and they’re about to quit. What would you tell them?

Maybe if they’re about to quit, ask someone else. Do they believe in the product? Do they think the market needs it? It’s your baby. Your baby is always attractive. You’ve got to ask somebody else. You can’t ask a mother if their kid is attractive or not. As Kevin says, don’t be afraid to go behind the barn and shoot it. I’m not saying everybody should keep going when they’re out of money. Just because we did doesn’t mean everyone is going to make it.

You should never launch a product until you talk to 200 people. Another thing is to join the CO-STARTERS program. It used to be a nonprofit, I think it’s like $500 to start, maybe it’s $1,000, but it’s a nine-week course. Every Tuesday night, you meet with a local entrepreneur, and you go through a business canvas, a new segment every week, and you need to the independent. They make you talk to 200 people before the end of those nine weeks. Listen to your peers and listen to your customers. If you have something, don’t sign contracts. Watch every penny. Stick with it. It’ll be worth it.

Go on Shark Tank, maybe, because at least you get exposure. If you don’t get a deal, you get exposure. You can get lots of orders.

The value of being on Shark Tank, I’ve heard, is worth $3 million or something for the advertising. It’s a gift that keeps giving because every once in a while, we’ll get a spike in our sales, and we’ll look, and we aired on Shark Tank again on one of the networks. It’s a great experience.

Do you see you and some of your competitors putting the gyms out of business?

No.

There will always be people who want to workout with other people. There are people like me who would rather work out at home.

Some people like to workout alone. The home gym is perfect. Some people need accountability. That’s why I invite all of my neighbors over every morning. I have to show up because my neighbors are showing up. There are only three days in three years when someone didn’t show up.

Everybody reading can do the same thing. Go buy your home gym, and invite your neighbors. Have a party and get fit.

All my neighbors are getting jacked, and they’re looking great. One of the wives said, “Brian, I’ve got to thank you. Andy has abs again.” I’ve gotten the neighbors’ wives to love me because I’m changing their husbands’ lives, too. It’s fun. It’s a community now.

What’s important about business these days is building that community, especially for the younger generation. Having that community is imperative. Any last-minute things?

Michelle, I appreciate the time. This has been a lot of fun. I’d love to be on again sometime. There are 100 other topics I could go into, but we can cut this one here. I thank the audience for sticking with us this long.

We can have you back on the show. Thank you, everybody. I know you found this to be a good episode. Go back to it again and again. Most importantly, share it with your network. Share it with your friends who can buy the gym. Get fit, get in shape, and feel better. However, also, read this again and again for all the entrepreneurial blessings, all the golden nuggets. If you haven’t yet, make sure to subscribe to my show. Go out and get my book, Exit Rich, on Amazon. Have a great day. Read this again and again. I can’t wait to bring you more content. Until then, have a great and productive day. Make sure you’re planning your exit so you too can exit rich.

   

Important Links

• Brian Brasch on LinkedIn
• PRx Performance
• Power of Broke
• Exit Rich
• Three Feet From Gold
• SensoryRx.com
• ClimbRx
• Michelle Seiler Tucker on Facebook
• Michelle Seiler Tucker on Instagram
• Michelle Seiler Tucker on X
• Michelle Seiler Tucker on LinkedIn
• Michelle Seiler Tucker on TikTok

 

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