From NFL Underdog to Thriving Entrepreneur with Justin Forsett – EP 298

Justin Donald: Well, what's up, Justin? Good having you here. Glad you made it.

Justin Forsett: Glad to be here. Thanks for having me.

Justin Donald: Yeah, glad you're coming in town. And by the way, it's nice that you can kind of double-dip. It's fun that you get a chance to celebrate your wife's birthday. But we get a chance to hang out, do some podcasting. We've been talking about it for a while, so now it's official.

Justin Forsett: We're here now.

Justin Donald: Yes.

Justin Forsett: Let's go.

Justin Donald: Well, it's been a real privilege and an honor to get to know you and to become friends here over the years.

Justin Forsett: Same.

Justin Donald: It's also been really fun watching you as you've grown and scaled your company and watched you in two different fields of career. Like, your career path has changed dramatically.

Justin Forsett: For sure.

Justin Donald: And so, I want to get into it because I know a lot of pro athletes, and former pro athletes, especially with the work that we do, helping people become a lot more educated on the financial side, on the investment side, on the asset allocation side. But you've done it beautifully, and I feel like a lot of athletes really stumble in that transition and have a hard time figuring out, like, what's next, where am I going to go? And I feel like you kind of had some plans ahead of time, didn't you? You were transitioning before it was official, right?

Justin Forsett: Right. So, I started my business while I was playing in the NFL. Started around my third year in the NFL. I was fired within my first two seasons twice.

Justin Donald: Wow.

Justin Forsett: So, I started to think about what I wanted to do next, and we always had the joke inside the locker room that the NFL always stood for "not for long." So, what was I going to do?

Justin Donald: It's true, right?

Justin Forsett: Yeah. What was I going to do? The average career for an NFL player is 2.3 years.

Justin Donald: And I imagine maybe it's even less for a running back who gets a lot of wear and tear.

Justin Forsett: For sure.

Justin Donald: And that was you.

Justin Forsett: Highly transactional position, right? There’s no in and out.

Justin Donald: Seven teams, nine years. Something like that, right?

Justin Forsett: That is right. That is it. So, I was bouncing around a lot, and I wanted to invest in my future and wanted to have a smooth transition once I was done playing. I had seen the Sports Illustrated article that said that 80% of NFL players were either bankrupt, divorced, or depressed two years after playing the game, and I was like, "I don't want to be in that statistic. I want it more for myself, for my family." So, I started a business. I started speaking while playing, and when I retired, I hit the ground running.

Justin Donald: That's awesome. And by the way, I've heard you speak either two or three times. And you are a magnificent speaker.

Justin Forsett: Thank you.

Justin Donald: So, to anyone, like, tuning in that's like, "Hey, we want a real good speaker," I want to throw your hat in the ring.

Justin Forsett: Thank you. I appreciate it. It's been fun.

Justin Donald: No kidding. And I got a chance to hear you, again, just at the Pro Athlete Community in Scottsdale here, what, a couple of months ago?

Justin Forsett: Yeah. No, that was awesome, man. I was a part of that organization when it first started. It was in just like a little boardroom, and we were up in New York. And to see this thing blossom and grow where, I mean, it was, like, hundreds of athletes and investors and entrepreneurs that were there in the building.

Justin Donald: I think it was 800 people, right?

Justin Forsett: Yeah.

Justin Donald: I mean, that's a huge cast.

Justin Forsett: And to think about it started, like, around 20 or 30, and then to 800 people is pretty ridiculous.

Justin Donald: Well, I love it. Well, I love what they're doing. I'm actually interviewing Chip on the podcast this week, and I invested, so I'm part of their advisory council.

Justin Forsett: Come on, now. Yes.

Justin Donald: And just thrilled about the work that they're doing. I'm actually interviewing Devin McCourty this week as well.

Justin Forsett: Oh, great. D-Mac. I mean, both of the twins are awesome.

Justin Donald: They're so cool.

Justin Forsett: You got some high-quality interviews coming in. I don't know why you're settling for me. Like, you got these guys coming in.

Justin Donald: Hey, you're running circles around everyone on the speaking circuit. So, I'm going to give you that.

Justin Forsett: Man, I appreciate it.

Justin Donald: And really, like, your story, though, like you personify so much in the mindset game that I want to get into. Right? So, part of why I'm so excited about you is you've taken this skill set from the NFL, where most people don't take that skill set and apply it to business. You've done that. And so, I'm excited to talk to you kind of about like change, what that looks like. Persecution, people, you kind of got slaughtered at every stage of the game with a lot of people saying you couldn't make it. And then I want to certainly get into mental toughness because I think that's really where you shine at the highest level.

Justin Forsett: Sure, no. Happy to dig in.

Justin Donald: Yeah. We're going to have some fun. So, let's talk about change here and navigating uncertainty. You've navigated a ton of uncertainty, and throughout your career, you had constant change, many different teams. And I even remember back when you were playing in college, you were at Cal. And by the way, there was an all-star lineup of players that went pro that were in your class that you were playing behind, even in the beginning there, too. Right? So, you had some change there. But as we think about that and we think about how you reinvented yourself as a CEO of a brand that has really taken off, it's more of a household name at this point.

I want to kind of look back to maybe some of the most challenging transitional moments in your career. So, what did those teach you? How did you learn to handle and adapt to change?

Justin Forsett: Well, what I found in my career as an athlete and also as an entrepreneur is that most people are resistant towards change. The uncertainty that comes with it, the growing pains that come with it, we're resistant towards it. But I believe if we have the right heart, the mind, and purpose behind change, then that resistant change can turn into empowered change. And I think every transition that I went through, whether it was as a young kid, I never owned a home. My family and I bounced around from one place to the next, and I was homeless at one point, living out of a hotel. And throughout those courses, bits of change, I was like, "How can I learn from this? How can I grow? How can I use this as fuel to help me get to where I want to go to?"

And when I went through so much change as a high school athlete moving from Florida to Texas and then going from Texas to California to go to college, playing behind J.J. Arrington, who was a 2,000-yard rusher my freshman year, then Marshawn Lynch, who came in the same class, playing behind him, the next two years. And then me sharing the load with Jahvid Best, my senior year, who was also a first-round draft pick. It was like, man, this is bits of change. But I was like, I was going to use all of the lessons that I could gather in those periods of transition to help propel me for when I got my true opportunity.

So, I like to think of it as if you're into Marvel, I was collecting Infinity Stones until I got my breakthrough. So, it's like from Marshawn Lynch, I learned how to embrace the game and have joy while playing, because I was just so rigid playing the game because I was one-track mind, like this has got to get me out of poverty. This is going to change the direction of my family. I was a perfectionist, and it was to my detriment at the time. I would take losses hard. I would take fumbles. I would take criticisms very hard. And, I don't know, that rollercoaster of emotions was, like, very detrimental to me. And he just taught me how to really enjoy the game and remember that it is just something that we play, and it's not something that has to own us.

So, that was really, really special for me. And then, as I went to the NFL, playing behind great running backs like Edgerrin James, Joseph Addai, Arian Foster, Maurice Jones-Drew, and the list goes on and on. I was learning patience. I was learning how to be a good student again. I was learning how to be a pro on and off the field, how to take care of my body from all these different guys, these veterans before me. And then when year seven hit at age 29, I get my breakthrough 15 years later from me starting from high school on and trying to get my name out there to be recognized amongst my peers.

Fifteen years later, man, I get my real breakthrough, and it was all because I embraced change at every step of the journey, just learning how to increase my craft and my skillset every step of the way. And then I was able to use it when my number was called.

Justin Donald: It's crazy to think how long it actually took for your number to get called.

Justin Forsett: Yeah, yeah.

Justin Donald: But again, you learn something from each of these players. You learn patience. It's really cool to see, and for me, like, behind the scenes, I've heard so many different aspects of your story. And I appreciate it so much, but for our audience, they don't know it. So, I love hearing that you, as someone that's been in the NFL a long time, even while you were there, it wasn't like you were crushing it. There's injury, there's trading, there's being… You're seated behind someone sometimes, behind two someones.

Justin Forsett: Yep, yep. Injuries.

Justin Donald: Yeah. It's intense. So, I know talking to a lot of athletes, this is the case, but I also know just talking to entrepreneurs and business professionals, investors, there are a lot of people that really struggle when a major chapter of their life or their business life comes to an end. So, what mindset shifts for you really helped you have that successful transition from pro athlete to CEO?

Justin Forsett: Man, I think that mental toughness to really push through difficult things really helped me. I think the mindset to be just like really a jack of all trades because even my versatility on the field, that's what made me special. Me being able to catch balls out of the backfield, me being a return specialist, me being tough enough to go down and run down a kickoff and bust a wedge open, me being able to block linebackers in the A gap, all those things allowed me to stay as long as I did. So, naturally, as I transitioned to be an entrepreneur, to be a CEO, it's like all that versatility just to be a student of the game allowed me to hit the ground running. Now, there were still a lot of things I had to learn.

There were a lot of just terminology. It was a different playbook that I had to learn. But again, I was going to be a student of the game. I took some bumps, I took some losses early, but I grew from every challenge that I had. And we like to say within the company that the only Ls we take are lessons. So, just trying to grow and learn from those things. But if you would've asked me when I first started, "What was EBITDA?” I'd probably tell you it was something that you could catch. And I didn't have a clue or inclination of what that would be. But learning the game, knowing how P&Ls, balance sheets, and finances, cap tables, and why all those things matter, I had to grow and then learn to be a student of the game. But my versatility to be able to be a jack of all trades on the field allowed me to be a really good CEO, I think, to this point.

Justin Donald: Yeah. Well, it's fun also. Maybe not everyone thinks it's fun. For me, it's fun to be a novice at something again, to like have to figure it out, to have to crack the code, to not have it. When you have 10 years in an area, you have some sort of expertise or some sort of mastery, then you transition, you start something new, you don't know anything. You don't know much at least. And so, there are so many people that can teach you. But I like that, like the trying to figure it out, like cracking the code. I really like it. You know, what's the cheat code? How can I crack the code faster than the 10 years or 10,000 hours to get to mastery?

Justin Forsett: Yep.

Justin Donald: And it sounds like you do that well because you're networking, you're learning, you're surrounding yourself with the right people, your mindset's right. You got a lot of things that kind of helped you in that category.

Justin Forsett: Sure. I will say I was blessed to be able to have really great connections and network around me, and people that wanted to mentor me and help me along the way, but I didn't do everything right. I'm first to say that when I was looking in, I was outside looking in, you could see, like, "Man, Justin, wow, you started a business. You started speaking. You didn't have any issues finding identity after the game was done." But I was struggling at home. Right after retirement, I'm 70 flights a year. I'm traveling, I'm pitching to investors, I'm having business meetings and working on partnerships and things like that, and I'm not home, where my family, my wife is thinking, "Man, okay, you retired, so now you're probably going to hit the golf course and you're going to be relaxing, you're going to be with us."

At that time, I had two kids. It was two and a half. My third was on the way at that time. And I'm not there. I'm not home. We're in a new city, we don't have any help, and marriage was suffering, family was suffering, because my wife was carrying the weight that she never should be carrying alone. And I had to learn, as an entrepreneur, how to prioritize, how to schedule, how to be intentional about the same vigor that I wanted to go after being a great player and a great CEO. I had that same energy, give that same energy to my wife and to my family. And that was over time, it's something I'm still fighting because I'm just that competitor. I want to be the best. I want our company to be the best at all times.

But also, I just never wanted to be an All-Pro football player. I wanted to be All-Pro entrepreneur, I wanted to be an All-Pro businessman, I wanted to be an All-Pro husband and a father, and that takes intentionality and boundaries. So, still working on that.

Justin Donald: That's right. Well, you nailed it. I was actually going to say boundaries for me were key. I just need to schedule it in. I need to figure out what it is and just have my absolute no zones, because the greatest weakness that I have is that I want to say yes. And I feel bad saying no. And so, I started saying yes too much to too many things that took me out of family rhythms, and I really had to, and our family dynamic suffered because of that, early days. And I had to learn to say no. I had to learn, you know, my wife was really good about saying, "Hey, well, you may just think you're saying yes to this opportunity, but when you say yes over here, you're actually saying no to the family, even if you don't realize it."

And that was kind of like a wake-up call to me, where I'm like, "Yeah, I've got to do it different, and I've got to be smarter inside the timeframe that I'm working. And I've got to have this, like, I want evenings, I want weekends with the family, but I need to be disciplined to say no, and then I need to be disciplined to be more efficient during the hours where I can work."

Justin Forsett: Yeah, exactly. Man, that's so good. What I realized, even more so, being an entrepreneur now, is that the most valuable thing that we have is time. And the one thing that most people in business will waste is time. And people will try to waste your time with meetings, dinners, lunch, with empty promises of some things that make it happen. And I just realized that, man, not everyone can take my time. I want to be open, I want to meet with everyone, but they just can't have that amount of access if I want to be efficient. If I want to be at my very best at home and in the workplace, not everybody can have the time. So, I have to be able to delegate, I have to be able to make sure that I have great time management skills, and being efficient with what I have, so my family can make sure that, at least I should say, I'm giving the most to those that mean the most to me.

Justin Donald: That's right. That's awesome. I love that. I love that we could get into that. I want to talk a little bit about persecution and the naysayers, and just, you know.

Justin Forsett: The haters.

Justin Donald: Yes, the haters. And there are a lot of them. There are tons of them. And I've learned a lot about this over the years. But for you, would you say... There are a lot of people that tune into our show who are entrepreneurs, who are W-2 employees, many of which have climbed up the ladder quite a ways. There are investors. We actually have a decent number of stay-at-home wives and working women that tune in as well. And sometimes it's funny how people who join our mastermind ultimately heard about it. They may have heard it through their wife who was listening to it and said, "Hey, you should check this out and join."

Justin Forsett: That's awesome.

Justin Donald: So, we have quite a spread of people. And so, I'm wondering what advice you give to anyone listening, anyone watching this, where they constantly are having to prove themselves or feel like they have to prove themselves to other people.

Justin Forsett: Man, as someone that was the underdog most of my life, I have naturally become a people pleaser, looking for validation for other people. And when that runs out, when you find you come to that, the end of the line of that, when nothing that you do matters, and then there's still going to be criticism, and it doesn't matter how many milestones or the metrics you hit, people will still try to find reasons to doubt and criticize you. You learn that when you live for people's acceptance, you'll die from their rejection. And I was getting to a place where I had work, and I had some bit of fame, and I had production, but football, sport, and business had become an idol. It is a good thing that has now become an ultimate thing.

And so, the criticisms that would come of it would be, man, I would take just the slightest thing that the error or a false step that I would take, whether it's in sports world or in the business world. And I would take it to heart. And I was like, "Man, this is my..." I'm tying my purpose now and my value to one mistake that I made. And we find ourselves spiraling out and burning out when we do that. So, I would say, "Man, just find your purpose in something higher, in something greater.” For me, it was my faith. It's something I have to come back to, to really just say, "Man, God, who do you say I am? My value is in you and you alone, not necessarily in my productions and the results that I'm seeing in the workplace or in business. It's in you.” And I had to feel and get comfort in knowing that, because everything else was fleeting. Everything else, you can get caught in the cycle of, "Man, this person doesn't like me.”

There's always something. like, man, Justin... Once upon in my life, man, it was, "Justin, you're not big enough. You're not strong enough. You're not fast enough." Now in business, they're like, "Man, Justin, you're not old enough. You don't have the right experience. You don't have the right financial backing or know-how or know-it-all." And, man, it's always going to be something out there. So, if you are constantly trying to find validation from someone else, you're going to find that, man, that is a slippery slope that's going to lead you to nowhere and devastation. And, emotionally, it was taking a drain on me, and it got me to a place where I just had to surrender it all to God and just like, "God, I just want to be what you've called me to be and do what you've called me to do and hopefully be the best at it and have the impact doing it."

And I think that's what we got to get to because, yeah, for a long time, that motivation of doubt and critics from the outside would motivate me to get that chip on my shoulder to help propel me forward. But I think I got to the point where my biggest hater actually was the man in the mirror. The person that was criticizing me the most was the man in the mirror. When I wake up in the morning, "Man, Justin, you're not as far as you should be." "Justin, you shouldn't be in these rooms. You shouldn't be... Like, you don't have the academics, the degrees to be in these rooms with other people." And I'm just like, "Man, that's not the truth." Like, I had to speak truth to the criticism that I was giving to myself. That's not the truth. I may not have all those things, but that doesn't mean I don't belong in the room.

Justin Donald: That's right. Your story's beautiful, and I love that you were able to right-size where your faith was. Because I do think for most people, there's this hierarchy of it's your value set, what you value most. And I think most people's is out of whack. And so, that's where you see for people, some people have a hard time. If you value money and success and fame above all else, maybe you get there, maybe you don't, but you're going to ruin a lot of relationships along the way. And those things are going to start to own you versus you owning them, right? Like, your possessions own you. Your idols or what you're chasing owns you, versus the other way around. And so, I love that. You prioritize your faith first, then your family then from there, probably close friends, business, all that. And it's in the right order.

Justin Forsett: Man, that's so great that you said the right order. It's all about alignment. In the morning now, when I wake up, I want to make sure that I'm aligned correctly. I think a lot of times, especially those of us that are in business or running businesses, when we wake up in the morning, our alignment is off because we're coming and attacking the day from a point of deficit, and not of abundance, where I know I got to, I'll speak personally, I got to a place where I'd wake up in the morning thinking about all the fires that I had to put out. I would think about all of the things that I had to fix, all the problems that I had to solve, instead of being like, “God, like, I'm grateful for having life, to be able to do what I love to do,” just have this, like, mindset of gratitude to start the day was important for me.

So, now, over the course of time after having burnout and after having heartache and frustration and disappointment along the way of this entrepreneur journey, I now start the day, I give God 20 things that I'm grateful for every single day. I start with prayer, meditation, 20 things that I'm grateful for. Before I get into trying to fix a problem, to solve a problem, I'm thinking about, "Man, I have so much to give today." Because I've been given so much. I've been blessed with so much to give. How can I have meaningful impact today, before thinking about what I don't have? Right? And it's going to allow me to be more fruitful and more productive at the start of my day than I was before, and I think everyone should start with that mindset of just, "Man, I'm grateful, and I'm having alignment with my purpose and my vision to start the day so I can be more productive."

Justin Donald: It's beautiful. You're starting from a very abundant mindset, right? It is hard if you are thankful to be, like, ungrateful. It’s hard, like if you are so thankful for all these things, it's then hard to live in a place where you're even focused on what you don't have, or what you haven't done yet. And so, I love that. I also want to get into mental toughness because I think I've got my group of friends that are pro athletes, many of which are NFL players. I've got this other group of friends over here that have served, many of which are Navy SEALs or Rangers or highest level inside of their group. And so, the amount of mental toughness that exists to get to the highest levels there is just unfathomable.

Justin Forsett: Sure, yeah.

Justin Donald: When I hear the things that you and some of my other buddies that have served have gone through, I'm just blown away, because I reflect and I'm like, "Well, I'm glad I took a different path." I've got a lot of mental toughness in different areas. I don't know that my mental toughness could have gotten me through some of these physical demands, you know? And it's neat to see what you've been able to persevere through, setbacks, roster cuts, injuries, the whole nine yards, even just uncertainty. Like, I don't know what's next. I'm on a one-year deal, or I'm on the last year of my contract, right? Or the uncertainty in business. Like, we don't know how to get into these big box stores, but we know we need to go there.

Or we just got into this one, but what one's next? Or what's the... I mean, we could go on and on about that. But I'm just wondering how you define mental toughness today for you, and how that definition has evolved from being a running back in the NFL to being a CEO of Hustle Clean?

Justin Forsett: Man, well, great question. I think mental toughness or mental fortitude is the ability to embrace and push through hard things. And that is true not only for an athlete, but for anyone. For me, as a CEO or entrepreneur, I think the work that I did as an athlete prepared me to do the work that I'm doing as a CEO now. I was constantly in positions where I had to do hard things. I was constantly in positions where there was great uncertainty. I was at the bottom of the roster, so any year I could be cut. I mean, I was cut seven times. I was fired seven times throughout the course of nine years, right? So, there are tons of just, like, waking up not knowing if I'm going to be able to, or how much runway I was going to be able to provide for my family, or if I was going to have to pivot to something else.

There were constant in-game moments that if I take one step the wrong way, I don't make the team. If I take one step the other way, I make the team, and my future is a lot different, right? So, I was in these high-pressured situations. I was just telling this story the other day.

I remember, I think it was my third preseason game, and notorious in the NFL when we had four preseason games, two preseason games, that third preseason game is when the rookies and the undrafted free agent guys, on-the-bubble guys, they play the most on that game. So, that’s your time to shine.

And I’m playing a lot of special teams, of course, in that first season and in that preseason. And the first, and I’m what is known as a PP, which is kind of the quarterback on the punt team. So, you got your punter. I’m the one that’s making the calls to make the directional blocking call for the line to know where to go, where the threats are. I’m the guy making that call. And I remember that first punt of the game, first or second punt of the game, I make the wrong call, and I get a punt blocked. So, the worst sounds that you want to hear as a PP, a personal protector is what the position is called, the worst sound you want to hear is a do-do. So, that means the ball was kicked, and then another hand came in and blocked the ball.

Justin Donald: Oh, man.

Justin Forsett: And again, I’m a rookie. This is happening to me. I’m the seventh-round draft pick and I’m doing well in training camp, but high-pressure situation, I got a decision to make. Justin, I could think, man, Justin, this is over. Like, you just gave up a punt. You had your opportunity. They’re trying to get you in the game to see what you could do. You can go now and think, and just go to the sideline and just sulk. And now, the other decision is just like, “Man, I got to go figure this thing out.”

Justin Donald: Earn it back.

Justin Forsett: Yeah. I got to go find a way to make this right. And my back was against the wall, fight or flight scenario. I’m a fighter at the end of the day by nature. And so, I just clawed my way back. Ended up that game, I broke the franchise record for total yards in a game, kick returning, rushing, receiving in that game. I think I had over 230, maybe some yards, all-purpose yards in a preseason game, which is crazy.

But in that moment, I had a decision to make. Was I going to give in or was I going to make excuses or was I going to make a move to help better myself and my position? I chose the latter. And that kind of pressure, high-pressure situation, that mental fortitude and toughness of constantly being in those moments, and I would see those later on in my career, allowed me to being a CEO. Like, man, Justin, you failed on Shark Tank. Like, nobody went on a national televised show where they didn’t offer you a deal. Failure. Do I got a decision to make, man? Do I just sulk? Do I turn in my hat? Do I want to be an entrepreneur? Is this something for me? Should I give it up, go do something else?

It’s like, no, I’m going to find a way. I’m going to find a solution. I’m going to fight my way out as best I can. I knew with faith, I knew that I had the mental fortitude. And then, years later, we still have our breakthrough. We have our breakthrough moment. And now, from that moment, I want to say we’re eight years later from that moment, we’re still around kicking. So, yeah, mental toughness and fortitude is important.

Justin Donald: I love it. Well, you’re going to appreciate this. As a family, we do Tuesday night Shark Tank night.

Justin Forsett: Come on now.

Justin Donald: And, it is so fun. It’s just all the things that we can all learn through the process, but it’s so fun seeing my 13-year-old daughter learning the stuff, asking really smart questions.

Justin Forsett: Oh, yeah.

Justin Donald: It’s so neat. So, I do want to talk a little bit about the Shark Tank days. I’ve had a handful of friends that have been on it. My buddy, Kyle Jansen, who is one of the co-founders of Guardian Bikes. He was on and ended up doing well and getting a deal with Mark Cuban. But you also see a lot of people that don’t get a deal. And maybe you can hang your hat and be like, “Oh, it didn’t work out,” but the exposure that you get is incredible. And for you, guys, though, you also received some valuable information on, like, hey, branding probably needs to change. Like, this brand that you’re rolling with, like, this probably isn’t the brand to actually scale with.

Justin Forsett: Sure, sure. No, it was incredible, one, for the exposure piece, right? It’s hard to– I mean, you could pay for seven million viewers, but it’s going to be pretty expensive.

Justin Donald: That’s right. That’s right.

Justin Forsett: Unattainable for most people, most companies. So, that was beautiful for us. But also, just being able to learn how to really run our business and really sink our teeth into every part of a business, like I told you, like, I knew nothing when I started my business about, like, the finances, importance of P&L, COGS, margin, all those things. So, learning those things were extremely critical for me to be a better CEO and being able to tell that financial story to investors, right? Because they want to know how they’re going to get their money back at the end of the day.

Justin Donald: That’s right.

Justin Forsett: And so, being able to learn that from that experience and grow was critical for me. That was one of the things in my career, no matter how bad or hard it was for me to go through that, that disappointment, I wouldn’t change it because I wouldn’t have those lessons. We wouldn’t have those growth experience that we needed in order to have that right mindset to be able to flourish now and thrive now. And yeah, it was great in a number of ways. And then we moved on from just not only being a product to a brand, from what we had as a Shower Pill product, which is a disposable washcloth to remove sweat, dirt, and body odor, to now a full assortment of personal care products for the everyday athlete and is in Hustle Clean.

Justin Donald: Yeah. And by the way, talk about the evolution of Hustle Clean, because it wasn’t called that back then.

Justin Forsett: Yeah. It was Shower Pill.

Justin Donald: How did you decide on that? Yeah, so Shower Pill which, by the way, me as an outsider, I’m like, oh, yeah. Hustle Clean, you made the right call there, right? There’s no doubt about that on branding. But how did you decide that? And what’s happened since Shark Tank?

Justin Forsett: Sure. Yeah. So, I would say, when I retired from football, I was doing sideline reporting for the Ravens. And I remember I was going to fly and meeting the team in Cincinnati. I live in Dallas.

Justin Donald: You had a big year with the Ravens before ramping up, right?

Justin Forsett: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It was some great times in Baltimore, that’s still family. I still root for them and the Seahawks. Those are my two…

Justin Donald: Okay, because Seahawks drafted you.

Justin Forsett: Yeah, Seahawks drafted me

Justin Donald: So, just for clarity so everyone knows why these are your two favorites.

Justin Forsett: Yes, I spent four years there. So, I was there and, yeah, I was doing solo reporting and I was flying to Cincinnati to meet the team in Cincinnati for a Sunday game. And man, it just hit me on my drive to the airport. I was thinking like, man, I’m always thinking about the brand. Your brain never really shuts off when you, as an entrepreneur. And I was thinking about where we were as a company and how we could really scale this thing. And thinking about names, and I thought to myself, like we were really at this cool intersection between hustle and hygiene. And I wanted to be at that intersection to meet the customer, that everyday athlete where they were, and provide like really an assortment of care to help them do more and be more without compromise and hustle hygiene, hustle clean because we knew clean not only as being able to clean yourself, but to live clean, to be clean, had a number of just like with the connotations that we were okay with as a brand that were scalable.

Justin Donald: A clean brand.

Justin Forsett: A clean brand, right? Because it could into nutrition, it could go to hygiene. It could go, whole number of things. It just opened us up to a lot. And that’s literally how it came about. Shared it with my team. They loved it. And I want to say maybe, we started working on what that transition would look like, and how we could help our customers move along with us. And maybe a year and a half, two years later, we made the move.

Justin Donald: That’s awesome. And how long did it take you from starting the company to actually get into some big box retailers?

Justin Forsett: Oh, man.

Justin Donald: Because I know you were working really hard on that early day. I mean, I remember actually…

Justin Forsett: So many noes.

Justin Donald: Like, hearing some of your struggles through that before you got access, before they said, “Hey, we’d love to have you.”

Justin Forsett: Man, we pitched to Safeway, which is a grocery store on the West Coast, QFC, a number of big box retailers, REI at the time, just said, “No, no, no. It’s not the time.” And we kept going. And eventually, I want to say 2018, after I had retired, the Super Bowl was in Minneapolis. And I go to every Super Bowl for Radio Row marketing purposes to showcase what we’re doing with the brand.

Justin Donald: Well, that’s awesome. What a good gig. That’s so cool.

Justin Forsett: So itit was really cool for me to do that every year to use Radio Row. But I was like, “Man, I’m not going to go to Minneapolis in February. It’s going to be freezing cold.” And then I got an email from the NFL Players Association saying, “We’re going to do a tour of Target,” because that’s the headquarters of Target. And I remember it was like a week out. I had some friends that had stayed up there. All the hotels were booked or crazy expensive. I mean, like the Ramada Inn was like $600 a night. So, I was like, “I’m not going to do that.”

I found some friends that would let me stay on their couch and in the guest room. And I went up there, had a backpack full of product, saw and scoped out who was going to be in the room. At that time, CEO Brian Cornell was going to be there and a couple buyers. And I studied them and I was like, at the end, I was going to corner one of them, pitch, give them an elevator pitch, three to five-minute elevator pitch. And I did at the end of the tour, and they were like, “I like this.”

And a couple weeks later, they put me in touch with another buyer, later on getting us into test stores with maybe 300 stores. And then a couple months later. we were a full chain retail and that’s how we started. Now, we’re eight years in.

Justin Donald: That’s awesome. And by the way, I just want to point a few things out here. That was a relationship move. You did your homework. You studied up on these guys that you were going to be talking to. So, you learned a little bit about them, some of their background. Probably had some nice intro conversation with them. and then you knew that you were going to pitch, and you knew that it probably had to be a fast pitch. But it’s interesting to see, like, you could’ve just called them. I mean, I don’t know if they were on your list originally and got shut down. But it’s like this is the power of relationships and this is the power of also perseverance. You just keep going after it. But this is why it makes sense to know people and to keep building that relationship because you never know what door it’s going to unlock. And I love that story for you.

Justin Forsett: Man, I appreciate it. What I learned on this journey of entrepreneurship is that never go into a meeting ill-prepared, right? No phone conversation, no meetings. Study up. Because when I was in the NFL, we had full books and binders of scouting report from whatever the linebackers, the safety, because I was on offense, the linebacker safety, defensive line, to like

I would go to a player’s Facebook page to figure out, like, what the edge I could get from him. Like, maybe he had some type of personality trait or something that I could pull at that I could use on the field to get him off his game.

And it’s the same thing now as an entrepreneur. It’s like, man, I have to be prepared. I got to study up. I got to go to the LinkedIn. I got to go to their Facebook or whatever to study to make sure that, man, maybe there’s something that I can relate to them on. I found out in that meeting that Brian Cornell, he went to UCLA and he played sports. And then, man, there was a tie-in. There’s something that I could use this. So, I think that was a critical lesson for me.

Justin Donald: You were rewarded for your hard work. I love it. And by the way, to talk about, like, just the prepping, game planning and all that, I think I watched a video on this where Peyton Manning, I guess, would study to the Nth degree and he would know all their wives’ names and he’d have plays called based on their wives’ names. He’d be like, “What? Did you– wait a minute, my wife…”

Justin Forsett: It’s insane.

Justin Donald: He’s just throwing them off. I mean, I just, I love that. But that is how you, like, to be a tactician at the highest level, like that’s it, right?

Justin Forsett: Mastery.

Justin Donald: Yes. So, I love that you’re even, like, using social media, using their background. Like, let’s get as much info as you can. And by the way, that’s also applicable in business. It’s just as if not more applicable.

Justin Forsett: Wholeheartedly.

Justin Donald: Yeah, so cool. So, for listeners and those watching this who are focused on building wealth and focused on creating freedom and living intentionally, these are the things I talk a lot about, what would you say are the most important lessons that you’ve learned about leadership, ownership, and really creating lasting values after sports?

Justin Forsett: Wow. That’s a lot. I’ll attack it this way. I want to say, those who want to lead must read, constantly being a student, growing. All the great leaders, all the great businessmen that I’ve ever been around, man, they are diligent about studying their craft, their industry, great readers. They always have something, a new book that they’re into, growing in a different way, and they’re very curious. The great leaders that I’ve been around, the great entrepreneurs that I’ve been around, they’re more curious about who you are and how you’ve become successful. They take all the light off of them, and they’re just, like, humble and just like, “Man, what can I glean from you to be better at what I’m doing?” They’re just consistent students.

And then I would say great leaders, they know the way, they show the way, and they go the way. So, a leader must know his craft and his industry. If he’s going to be dominant, he’s going to excel and thrive. Student of the game forever, a life learner. He’s got to know it so much that he can communicate it with his or her team. So, he’s got to be able to understand the information like the back of his hand so he or she can share that information, communicate it properly where it can resonate with the team that they’re above.

And then, at the end of the day, after you’ve talked the talk, after you’ve shared all the information, after you’ve gleaned all the information that you need, you must then go live it out because none of the great leaders that I’d ever been around, they weren’t just talkers. They actually lived it out. Like, they were out on the front lines with you and they felt like, I remember great Tony Dungy is one of the best coaches I’d ever been around. He never…

Justin Donald: One of the best men, I would imagine, in general. Like, he’s just incredible.

Justin Forsett: Salt of the earth, right? And the reason why people would run through a wall for him was because it never felt like you were a transactional piece. He was a guy that you walk past him in the hallway, he would acknowledge you. He would just say good morning, which was uncommon in our profession. Like, there are people running in and out, going through the hallways throughout the day, in the locker room, and they wouldn’t even acknowledge you. Head down, just going, just laser focused on what they have to do. Nope, he’s like, “How you doing, sir? How’s your family doing?” He’ll sit down at a lunch table with you. And that bit of humility and the ability to be able to get down with his troops really resonated with me. And it’s like, man, that’s what a great leader is and that’s what he does. So, I would say that as an entrepreneur, man, I would encourage entrepreneurs out there, those in our business, to be efficient, effective with your time. And just because you’re busy doesn’t mean you’re being productive.

Justin Donald: That’s good.

Justin Forsett: A lot of people out there are taking the meetings, taking the flights, taking the calls, taking the lunch, all those things are great, right? But where are they getting you? Are you actually moving the ball forward? Or are you just spinning your wheels, just wasting money, wasting time, meeting a bunch of people or having great times connecting with people, but not really moving the ball forward for your business? You got to think about, like, man, again, we talked about earlier, time is the most valuable thing that you have. Make sure you use the most of it. Make the most of it. And that’s what I want to encourage the entrepreneurs and those that are trying to get into the spaces. Like, man, don’t be busy. Be productive.

Justin Donald: That’s good. Don’t be busy. Be productive, right? And that even goes back to, I remember I did this exercise where I figured out what are the greatest income-generating activities that I was doing in my business at that time? Because I was wearing too many hats and I was doing too much. I needed to delegate. I wasn’t exactly sure what I should delegate. It was hard even in the early days to delegate, period, right?

So, then you do too much and then you’re not even as good as you should be. But it made it really clear to me when I said, “Okay, well, if we use Pareto’s principle, what are the top 20% of activities that produce 80% of the profit or the revenue?” And so, that exercise was so helpful for me, where it’s like, oh, well, I don’t need to be spending all this time doing all these things. I actually need to be spending more time doing these items, this top 20% of work that’s producing almost everything. Delegate everything else out. And how do I spend even more hours in that?

Justin Forsett: Yeah. And I think it also goes back to alignment, to what do you feel like God is giving you to accomplish? In this season of life, with this work that you have, with this business that you have, everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial. Like, I had to because I’m speaking, I’m running a business, I coach, I’m a father, a husband, all those things. Like, what are the things that are actually giving me life?

And I had to look around at all the things I’m involved in. Like, what are the things that God has blessed me with these unique skills and abilities? Like, what is he giving me to go out to actually conquer and go after and accomplish in life? And there were some things I had to cut out. There were some things that were just, like, nothing burgers that would seem– they were really good intentions, but just not beneficial in the long run. It was not tied to my purpose and what I wanted to accomplish at the end of the day.

Justin Donald: Or even good for the ego, but ultimately not good for you, right?

Justin Forsett: Right, exactly. Lot of, like, really cool opportunities because what I see from the athlete standpoint is, like, you’re going to get pitched and propositioned to do a lot of really cool things, but the best word that you’re going to learn how to say and give out is that no, that boundary of just, like, “No, I have something that I’m going after.” Like, I have a value, I have a goal, I have a dream that I’m going after, something that has been divinely given that I have to go after and pursue, and that’s going to take me away from it. And though it is good, it is awesome, and it may put my name in lights, but it’s not moving me closer towards my purpose, for me, that’s a no.

Justin Donald: That’s great. I think the more clarity that we all, anyone tuning in, the more clarity we can get around, what falls in the no box versus what falls in the yes box, like, how do we say no more frequently? And how do we get so clear on what the yeses are that it’s a slam dunk when that opportunity shows up, right? And we’re not too busy to even recognize it or to get offered it, right?

Justin Forsett: Yep. That’s true.

Justin Donald: I mean, I’m learning this. I’m part of this group called 100x Forum, and a really cool group for you to check out at some point, too. Lloyd Reeb, he was partnered with Bob Buford, who started the Halftime Institute and wrote the book Halftime. Just incredible. And so, I’ve been working with him, and he’s all about getting so much clarity in your purpose. What are your God-given talents and gifts? Like, how can you utilize your platform and your skills to have the biggest voice to do the greatest good in the world? And how can you be so clear that the yeses are obvious, but everything else becomes a no? And that’s been really good work for me.

Justin Forsett: That’s awesome. No, that’s good. I got to check that out, for sure. That’s all I get. At the end of the day, if I was to die tomorrow, God forbid, but I want to make sure that I’m going all out, 100 miles per hour, into the things that God has called me to do and what He’s called me to be. And if that’s being an entrepreneur, if that’s coaching, if that’s speaking, whatever it is, I just want to be going 100 miles per hour that way. Because one of the things that I think, what trips us up as competitive, as ambitious people is we get too consumed with speed when it’s not necessarily about speed. It’s more about direction.

Justin Donald: That’s good.

Justin Forsett: Just because someone else got to the place that you want to get to, first, doesn’t mean that nullifies your spot. You just want to be headed in the right direction, and I just pray that everyone that listens to this podcast and everyone that is pursuing something great is that they’re just headed in the right direction. And that’s all God is just calling us to do. It’s not about speed, right? So, I think that’s a message that I’m continuing to tell myself as things are happening in social media and LinkedIn. You get caught off with the Forbes 40 and all these great things that people, like, their accolades and accomplishments are being broadcasted. You get kind of like, “Man, am I doing the right things?” And just like, man, as long as you’re headed in the right direction, don’t worry about the results. Embrace the process.

Justin Donald: That’s so good. Well, I was thinking about what would be a great question to wrap things up. Like, that was it. Like, you just knocked it out of the park with that.

Justin Forsett: Awesome.

Justin Donald: What I’d love to do is just find out where our audience can learn more about you and learn more about Hustle Clean.

Justin Forsett: Sure. Well, you can go any of the Instagram, social media channels, platforms, jforsett or @hustleclean. You’ll find us there. TikTok Shop, if you will, or Amazon, we’re there. Target, every single store, a number of retail. Gyms throughout the country, you’ll be able to find us. And then for speaking, JustinForsettSpeaks.com, you’ll be able to find me if you want me out for your event or offsite.

Justin Donald: That’s so good. I’ve got to ask it. I was like, “Ah, I don’t want to end the episode without asking this.” Like, what’s your plan and vision for the future? Where do you see Hustle Clean 5, 10, 15 years from now?

Justin Forsett: Man, well, one, hopefully, still in alignment, right, for me. I want to create and grow this brand where it’s not only just a household name globally, but I also want to have an impact in the world that when people see us, they say, “This is not just an athlete-ran business, but this is a Christ-centered business.” And I know we wrestle with spirituality and the marketplace and what that looks like, but I believe the new wave of evangelism is going to come through the marketplace. And I feel like the marketplace is way more open now to faith, to spirituality than it’s ever been before.

Justin Donald: Totally agree.

Justin Forsett: And I want Hustle Clean to be a part of that movement that says, “Hey, if there is a place or culture where I want to work, when I feel loved, that’s going to embody the principles and be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ,” I want people to say, “Oh, man, Hustle Clean is a part of that movement.”

Justin Donald: Well, I love it. Well, part of this 100x Forum, I met all these incredible Christian entrepreneurs that have just blown my mind at what is possible, like we had John Maxwell come in and he is the best. But what was really interesting is he said, “Hey, I just picked a net worth number, and instead of the goalpost moving every time I hit it, I said, ‘That’s it. And I’m just going to give everything above that every single year.’” And it was such a great unlock for me.

And then we learned from Terry Looper and we learned from David Weekly. And these guys for 35 years have been giving over 50%, have been giving 50% of their business profits away to charitable kingdom work. And it’s so cool to see that, I know. I had David Green, founder of Hobby Lobby, on my podcast in…

Justin Forsett: Oklahoma.

Justin Donald: Yeah, I think since 1973, he’s been giving 50% of his profits there away. I mean, they now give well over a billion dollars away every single year. It’s like the impact that’s possible, like I am so glad I’m being exposed there. I’m still playing a much smaller game than that, but it inspires me to get to their level and figure out, like, how can I move from being generous to radically generous?

Justin Forsett: Yeah. I love that.

Justin Donald: It’s powerful.

Justin Forsett: Yeah, yeah, that’s awesome. That’s a great challenge, too. How can we all become more radically generous?

Justin Donald: Yep. Well, Justin, it’s been a pleasure having you on the show. Thanks for coming into town.

Justin Forsett: Thank you.

Justin Donald: What a great excuse for us just to be able to hang out anyway.

Justin Forsett: Oh, man, yeah. God bless my wife.

Justin Donald: That’s right. That’s right. Thank you, Angie. We appreciate it.

Justin Forsett: That’s awesome.

Justin Donald: I love ending every episode with a question for our audience. So, if you’re watching this, if you’re listening to this, what’s one step you can take today to move towards financial freedom and really move towards living a life that you desire on your terms? Not a life by default, but a life by design. Thanks so much, and we’ll check you next week.