The Teachable Entrepreneur: Tim Rexius on Grit, Gold, and the Power of Listening | Episode 1313

Welcome to the Remarkable People Podcast!: [00:00:00] The Remarkable People Podcast, check it out, the Remarkable People Podcast. Listen, do Repeat for Life, the Remarkable People Podcast.

David Pasqualone: Hello, friend. Welcome to this week’s episode, the Remarkable People Podcast. Whether you here for the first time, or you’ve been with us all eight years and 13 seasons, we’re so thankful that you’ve joined us today and can’t wait to share with you Tim Rexius a story. It’s fun, it’s exciting, there’s so much to it.

You’re going to hear his ups and downs and how he never quit. Not only how he did it, but you can too. He was a professional [00:01:00] bodybuilder entrepreneur, and he has not only one company, but at least four companies, and one of them impressed me so much that since the recording I not only became an affiliate.

But I also am going to work with him to represent the company. So this is an exciting episode. It’s a motivating episode. And again, I don’t use products or promote products until I use them and believe in them. I was so impressed by the interview you’re about to hear and the man that I got a sample box of Omaha Protein Popcorn.

I loved it. I shared it with my friends Tim and I spoke, and now when you go to his website and use promo code, Remarkable, you are going to get a special discount on your order and it’ll help support our show. But more than anything. You’re going to see how it can better your life, your family’s life, those who you love.

And again, [00:02:00] Tim’s story of how learning and listening changed his business from potential bankruptcy to huge profitability. So that’s it. Get your pen, paper, favorite beverage, and enjoy this episode of The Remarkable People Podcast now. ​

Hey Tim. How are you today?

Tim Rexius: Great. Glad to be here

David Pasqualone: man. We are excited to have you here. I just told our listeners a little bit about you and what to expect today, but straight from the source.

If someone commits to listen to this episode, what do you guarantee they’re going to get by the end? They can take apply to their lives and have a better existence.

Tim Rexius: No matter how bad your situation might be, there’s gold at the end of the rainbow. If you’re willing to work hard and believe in yourself, you can’t accomplish anything from homeless to success.

I’ve been there, I’ve done it, and so can you.

David Pasqualone: Awesome. I couldn’t agree more. And ladies and gentlemen, [00:03:00] wherever you are in life, we’re about to hear Tim’s story.

Tim, talk about your origins. We don’t ever want to dwell in the past, but everything that happens to us, good, bad, ugly pretty ugly. It makes us the men we are. Agreed. So where did your life begin and what was your upbringing like?

Tim Rexius: I grew up in Norfolk, Nebraska, Northeast Nebraska, small town. It seemed huge growing up. It’s 20,000 people. My wife calls it a village. She grew up in the metro of Omaha. But yeah, I grew up in Norfolk. I had a great upbringing. Great mom, stepdad grew up working on the farm, actually.

Which. Was great for building the work ethic, but also told me what I did not want to do for a living. And as much as I love physical labor, I like it more as a hobby than actually getting paid as a standout athlete and had big dreams of wrestling or playing football in college and I. I did the dance and got recruited and ended up going to division two school, not too far from where I grew up in Wayne State College in Wayne, Nebraska, but to play football and did track.

And the funny thing was that’s where things took a wrong turn. Right around the age of [00:04:00] 19 I, I realized that I like to party and I probably like to drink too much and got myself into some trouble. And which led to, I got outta the trouble, ended up paying an attorney and did some dumb stuff, dumb kid stuff, nobody got hurt kind of thing.

Just me goofing around and drinking underage. And I had the choice at 19 to, pay my lawyer and pay my rent or pay my lawyer and start a business. And it was my first taste of betting on myself. So at 19, I decided to start my first company. Poor college kids, lawn service, which seemed like a great name to get some sympathy for mowing lawns to make some money and bought the last money I had.

I bought into a lawnmower and had it hanging outta the back of my Oldsmobile. And that Oldsmobile became my home for the next five months. I slept in that car, showered at the rec center. I also worked at McDonald’s in the morning. I also worked at a bar at night. So that’s how I’ve. Fed myself and showered in the rec room, the rec rec center in college, and really learned how to be a hundred percent reliant on me and me alone.

My parents, God bless ’em, they, if I [00:05:00] probably could have gone home, but they had a thing, you’re a grown man. You make decisions, you need to deal with the consequences of your actions. And so I knew it was on me and it was a hard lesson and the point where, I didn’t have enough money for food and you learned how to be hungry.

And I don’t mean hungry in the aspect of business. Actually physically hungry, not knowing where your next meal’s coming from. And I think to this day, God knows how many decades later that I don’t think a certain time in my life has probably impacted me more than that. But shortly thereafter, got myself out of it, got back into the dorms and back in college playing football.

And I, I was trying to get my dreams to the NFL and I figured getting a job at GNC buying supplements, I could get a nice fat discount. So I went in he said he didn’t have any openings, so I went in every single day for two weeks until I annoyed him to the point that he hired me. And I started selling supplements and I realized.

As that next year or two went on that I had a real knack for selling. I was all set for pre-med or [00:06:00] pre-law and, that’s the family path. And I just realized that I like doing this not just from, making money but also helping people look. Good and feel good. Like there, it’s honorable, and I wake up with a smile. I wasn’t dreading going to work. It seemed like an opportunity and, getting my boss to turn it into commission was the greatest thing ever because, we had a little contest who could sell the most gold card gold cards. And I think the record before was 50, and I think I did 305 in one month at two bucks a piece.

And I’m sorry, but when you’re broke in college in the early two thousands, an extra five or extra 600, 700 bucks, that’s a lot of money. Yeah. That pays rent. That that paid food, that paid everything. And then I slowly turned that store into its most profitable it had ever been in, in its 15 year history.

And I was like, okay, this is what I want to do for a living. And that’s where things took another turn because college, in a business degree does not prepare you for alternative financing if you don’t come from family money. And I didn’t you don’t have a way to buy a store, and they didn’t really teach you that in college how [00:07:00] to find angel investors or find people who believe in your mission.

It was go to the bank, get told no, and that was pretty much it. And I was devastated. And then I got my shot at the NFL. Another dream that lasted two weeks. Shattered my shoulder in about 25 pieces. So no NFL no store and I gotta get a job. I’m getting married, got a baby on the way, and. I’m like, I’m only 23 years old.

This is when all your dreams are supposed to come true. And all I got was I was not the exception to the rule. I was the rule. And so here I’m selling something that’s at a vitamin shot or a vitamin store and not sure what I’m going to do. And in walks a lady and I sell her the big weight loss kit.

That was the thing back 25 years ago. We’re selling these big weight loss kits, we’re on the radio all the time. And her husband came in to yell at me the next day. And I’ll never forget the guy’s about mid sixties. And I said listen, your old lady’s going to get going to get hot. And I was just young enough and dumb enough to stay stupid stuff like this, so bear with you.

I wouldn’t say this kind of stuff now, but I was like, bro, you gotta get shredded. Your lady’s going to get hot. So I [00:08:00] sold him some creatine and he comes back 10 minutes later, he goes, how did this happen? And I go, I’m really good. He goes, good, because you don’t work here anymore. You work for me. It’s okay.

So I got an opportunity to work for a company doing industrial chemicals. Definitely not my passion, but it was a paycheck, and I remember that interview. I was only 23. I think the next youngest employee was like 40. And, they explained to me the turnover rate’s really high. It’s 90% in the first year.

But if you make it past that, nobody ever quits. ’cause it’s resolving commission, a revolving commission. And they said, we’re only going to be able to pay you 500 bucks a week. And all I heard was 500 bucks a week. I was sold. That’s more money than, i’m getting guaranteed right now. And I moved up to Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Never even been there a day in my life before the day I moved there. That was my new territory and I started selling. Now the great thing was, is that I didn’t care about the product line, but man, I was surrounded by some really good, mentors, people who’ve been in sales a long time, who really took me under their wing and really taught me what it [00:09:00] was to create a relationship through your, your tone and how you approach yourself, and how you handle yourself, how you approach other people.

And I broke every sales record they had. I think the rookie record was 130,000 in sales their first year. I did 302,000 in sales my first year. So here I am making a six figure income by the time I’m 24. And I, as most people who’ve never had money, and all of a sudden you have money. I blew every last cent of that money on every dumb thing I could possibly buy.

But I never had money. I, it’s the first car I had where I had two working headlights. In fact, it was the first car I ever had that head of air conditioning. And so I, I was just, I bought a new car every year for six years. Bought the new house, had the kids and just bought and put all my money into my real estate.

And as I moved up the company and started working in the pandemic outbreak response with the FDA, and that was in Washington DC dealing with politicians, I realized that there wasn’t enough money in any job to make me work with [00:10:00] politicians. There isn’t a paycheck big enough to deal with these people on a daily basis that are some of the most corrupt I’ve ever met in my life.

And I had a, I don’t know what you want to call it, but a co, a conflict of conscience. I was 28 and I had six ulcers burst and. I’m like, this is not like I’m so stressed outta my max, the main mentor the CEO passed away very suddenly from a stroke. And so now the big reason why I was there and the guy I was trying to impress all the time.

I wasn’t no longer there and I, these ulcers burst and I’m not happy and my soon to be then ex-wife’s not happy and she’s going to move back to Nebraska where the family’s from and I’m not going to be around my kids. Just have this crisis of conscience that I’m like, all right, I’m quitting. I’m going to start my own nutrition store.

And right then the oh 8, 0 9 housing crash happens and all my money’s in real estate, so now I’m broke and miserable instead of being rich and miserable. And I figured, okay, this is the time to go for broke ’cause I’m already going broke anyways. So why not? But now it’s a little different. I [00:11:00] think a lot of your listeners will appRexiuste this is that all of a sudden now you have other people res you’re responsible to, you have children that need to be fed and housed and clothed.

And so it’s a lot more pressure at that stage than it is when it’s just you. But I did it, I moved back to Omaha and in 2010 I launched the first Rex use nutrition store. Which, going from making a couple hundred grand a year to paying yourself 15 bucks an hour. Yeah, that’s rough. It’s rough and I, it did, it pushed me into a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, which Amy’s never filed bankruptcy before.

Lemme tell you, it is not an easy process. It’s very emotionally damaging and very draining. But I knew I had to believe in me ’cause there wasn’t a bank that was going to, there wasn’t an investor that was going to, it had to be me and I had to be happy what I was doing. And so I, and what year

David Pasqualone: was this?

At this point? Around 2010.

Tim Rexius: 20 20, 20 10. 2010, moved back in 2009, then quit my job and then started the first store in 2010. And it is from the get go. It was an ability to sell yourself because no one wanted to gimme a lease, because [00:12:00] people don’t understand when you’re, get a business.

Yeah. Getting a loan for the business is one thing, but getting a commercial landlord to give you a lease on a retail spot, like you have to have enough equity or income to counteract the entire terminal lease. God knows I didn’t have enough for five years of equity, so I found out the guy that I, long story, but I found out the guy who owned the building.

The property company and I figured out who he liked the least was another opposing company. So I ran into him to, at a graduation party, I kid you not, and he’d had a couple beers and I told him I was working with this other outfit and he can’t stand the guy. He goes, I’ll give you, I’ll give you a lease.

You come call my guy on Monday. And then I called him up on Monday and he’s did I say that? I’m like, yeah, you were about 12 beers deep. But you did say that. So that’s how I got my first lease was just. At a graduation party when the owner of the building had too many beers. And today it’s all about who you meet and how you come across.

And so I started that first store and here I was with master’s degree and just making 15 bucks an hour and delivering pizza at night and refinishing old ladies wood floors on the weekends just till I had enough money to [00:13:00] actually pay my bills and make sure my kids were fed. And and

David Pasqualone: you were married at that point?

How many

Tim Rexius: kids did you, you

David Pasqualone: have? I’m

Tim Rexius: married. I had three kids. And then she, things didn’t work out with me and the mother of my kids and ended up getting divorced, which is very, on top of the fact going bankrupt, you’re in bankruptcy paying that off, and then you’re getting divorced.

It’s tough on you mentally. And I remember telling my brother, I’m like, I go, I’m never dating again. I’m just going to work and this is what I’m going to do. And, we, this is, we’re going into about 2012, 2013 here. And I’ve been doing it a couple years. My, one of my minority business partners who joined in with me, we’re working hard.

We got two stores now and we’re working real hard and then walks in a girl into my store who is now my wife and Brittany. It’s crazy when you meet somebody that matches your crazy. That tells you’re not completely insane. You know that no you can do this. And what that support meant to me.

And she was my first female [00:14:00] sponsored athlete. A her coach was a friend of mine brought her in and she was competing in women’s figure, show, similar story to mine. And she had two girls and I got my two boys and a girl. And we started dating. And within one year of dating that girl, we expanded into five states of operation in 12 months.

David Pasqualone: Yeah, when you have someone supporting you from the inside because,

Tim Rexius: oh it’s different. A

David Pasqualone: hundred percent. And what a lot of people they think that business is, business and home is home, and they absolutely connect and doing coaching. Most of my clients at the C-suite, at the executive level, we spend most of our time almost in a counseling session, how to balance the family and the Oh yeah.

Struggles they’re having. So you’re going through that firsthand. And when you were just talking about the differences, ’cause in no way am I encouraging divorce like that happened to you, then you recovered from it. And that’s a whole issue in itself. But what are some of the things that you learned [00:15:00] from that experience that listeners who are all over the world they’re hearing you, but they’re like, okay, where do I go from here?

I’m discouraged, my family’s falling apart, my business has falling apart. What’s the way up?

Tim Rexius: In this, and I took a different approach, obviously when I got remarried. Now, first of all, my wife and my ex-wife text more than I do. ’cause we have kids at the end of the day. I think the one good thing that, out of all of this that happened was, that we, I grew up in a divorced family, that it wasn’t copacetic, it was very volatile and with the divorce.

And I didn’t want my kids to experience that. I didn’t want my kids to miss out on anything. So putting the kids first after, you filed divorce is a big deal. Blending a family and, businesses is even more challenging. And it’s very interesting. I think just being open and honest and listen, if you’re getting divorced and you have a business, or you’re in that process, or you’re already past that process, I believe the best aspect and approach, and I know it’s hard, is to kill ’em with kindness at the end of the day.

No one’s right or wrong in a divorce. It’s not [00:16:00] easy on anyone, especially when you’re running a business, because then you have people who won’t shop at your store because they know your ex. And it’s just, it’s painful and so never publicly saying a bad thing about the other person ever.

And I’ve been very well not to do that. My kids have never heard a crossword outta my mouth about their mother. Not one time ever. The same as my daughters from Bri Britney’s girls never said one bad word about their. They’re dads either, and that’s not what I’m here to do. I’m here to build something new and better, and you’d have to constantly push that positive narrative into your life at every single stage, which means notes on your phone, notes on your mirror notes in your car, because it’s easy to get mad and get jaded.

It’s really easy. God knows I went from. Brand new everything to busted everything. All my kids’ Christmas presents came off Craigslist and Facebook marketplace. I couldn’t afford anything ’cause I was building this, this dream and it’s hard, and that’s it. It was a great lesson for me to learn because I went from poor to wealthy, back to poor again.

And it [00:17:00] reinvigorated that, okay, only bring in what I absolutely need. My kids need love and attention and to feel like they’re important more than they need a brand new bike. That’s what they want time. And so involving my family in the business is the best thing that I ever did. Now, this obviously over the next 10 to 15 years after that really changed into what we do now.

As Brittany and I, it’s blending a family’s hard. It. And getting them all involved in the business, letting them all be proud of the business that their family owns, and making sure that my stepdaughter, my adopted daughter, don’t feel any different than my kids and vice versa. It’s easier said than done, but it’s something that has to be attention to it.

And, fast forward, we end 2017. And we’re married and we we wanted to have a baby together. And if anybody’s been through fertility, that is not an easy process. And we did that for two years. And at the same time we’re doing that, we decided to start a gym. So that’s how the next company started was Iron Heaven Gyms, [00:18:00] which we now have three large locations here in Omaha, Nebraska.

And we’re doing that while going through fertility. And trying to invent the Omaha Protein Popcorn Company, which is actually our biggest company now. ‘Cause our we took our depression of not being able to have a child at the time and let’s throw this into something positive because it’s, we, otherwise you just sit there at night.

Anybody who’s been in fertility knows what I’m talking about. It’s the most depressing thing ever when you can’t get pregnant and all you want to do as a man, you want to be able to give your wife a baby. And as a woman, she wants to be able to give me a baby. And it’s just very emotionally challenging and just, devastating, honestly.

So let’s take all this energy and let’s put it into our companies. Let’s start these gyms. Let’s expand ’em fast, which we did. Let’s you know, we spent a year coming up with the first batch of the Omaha Protein Popcorn Company. It took us a year to figure out the formula and it’s going really well and.

We finally launched in 2018 into 2019, and then magically or 2018 she she, after we quit fertility, we’d already spent, God knows how much money she gets pregnant. [00:19:00] And that’s my youngest son. So we have six kids and just outta nowhere, we were both in bodybuilding and busy making protein popcorn and running gyms.

And she goes, is that a blue line? I go, that’s a blue line. I’m going to the Methodist hospital and asking for my money bag. ‘Cause I already spent 50 grand and they told us it wasn’t possible. But that’s, God’s got a bigger plan than you do.

David Pasqualone: Yeah. I, on this show, I’ve spoken to so many people about this exact topic.

And personally in my life, I know that 10 times more, but it seems so many people like you and your wife who want to have children, they try and they try, they go with fertility. And it’s almost like when you give up and just, you’re not that stress on you. It’s bang, the baby happens. Or I know, oh yeah.

I can name five friends right now who adopted. And now they’re not thinking about getting pregnant and then they have their natural child. So is that kind of what you think happened? You just took your mind off it and then nature took its course how God intended?

Tim Rexius: Yeah. I mean it’s my business partner has this tattoo on his wrist [00:20:00] called Let Go and Let God, and that’s really when you get to my level in business and where I’m doing right now, quite often I have to let go and let God do what he does.

And we have tough business meetings coming up this afternoon and it’s, told my business partner, Hey, I need you here at 5:00 PM We have a beating and I think we’re going to get nailed on this deal. And he goes that’s God’s plan. Okay. That’s where we have to put it at because you can’t control everything.

And then for people are in business, it’s hard not to be a control. Freak and I am a control freak to the nth degree, but now understanding that, all of a sudden we relaxed. We were just having a fun, enjoying what we had instead of being worded about what we’re missing. Let’s be grateful for all the things that are going well.

Business is crushing it at the time. Kids are awesome and here we are hyper obsessed about the thing that we can’t have. Once we, I think once we really got more grateful for all the opportunities at our doorstep, everything started to happen even bigger, including Roman Reus, who’s our [00:21:00] youngest as my wife’s prince, the one that can do no wrong.

And oh, he is, he’s perfect. We have three boys and three girls. It was the perfect end of the matching set. And my family is everything and, then we go into. We proceed to start trying to launch this popcorn company and it did not go well. It was underneath a different brand name and the bag was ugly.

I was proud of it, I was selling it to pro sports teams and, meatheads, bodybuilders, ’cause that’s what I am. And launch into Mr. Olympia thought we were going to get rich and it didn’t work. And, then COVID happened and I have retail stores in seven states and certain states locked down, and now I got a little baby and we got all this craziness at our house.

I think the schedule was six kids spanning 20 years apart in age difference. On top of businesses, stores in seven states and different types of businesses. And it just got to be a lot. And then, we lost a lot of stores during COVID, just ’cause the lockdowns were six, 12 months for certain we weren’t considered a necessary business.

And these are franchise locations. And my wife and I made the determination to help [00:22:00] everyone out of any debt they had because, I didn’t want anybody file in bankruptcy because of my last name, if I could help it, if it wasn’t their fault, then we helped ’em out and it was pretty rough.

And, I it was a. It was the post COVID supply chain issues that actually caused more problems in 21, 22, and 23 than even COVID Lockdowns did. And. All this is going on. I’m just looking at my wife. I’m like, all right how many more, how many more arrows can God throw my way right now where he is not telling me not to do something?

Am I focused on the wrong thing? What am I doing? And she’s this popcorn company, my wife will, she’ll admit this. She’s do you think you’ve spent enough money on this yet? I’m like, but it tastes so good. I don’t understand what I’m doing wrong. And the funny thing is if I had the time, how I got roped into this, I got voluntold into being the president of the Chamber of Commerce in 22.

And

David Pasqualone: oh fun.

Tim Rexius: I’ll never do it again. But I was the longest standing chamber president in, in, in chamber history in 65 years. I did two years, came in and reset the whole thing. And a grocery chain here in the Midwest is [00:23:00] in my chamber and they’re like, Hey, let us sell that popcorn. And I’ve already lost so much money on the stores.

I’ve lost so much money on the popcorn. I’m like, oh God. I go. I even told him, I go, it’ll never work. He’s what? I go, it won’t sell it. Only meat heads buy this stuff. And. He goes, let me try. I’m like, let’s do a consignment deal. That way I don’t have to return you any money when it doesn’t work.

That’s how I had gotten him, which is not my optimistic go get ’em attitude, but I was just like, all right, God. Like this is your plan the to teach me one more humility lesson. Okay. I’m listening. All right, fine. You can have the popcorn That one grocery store outsold all of my stores, 50 to one.

So I sent my bubbly, blonde haired, blue-eyed daughter down there, and I go spy. ’cause at this point I’m still bodybuilding. I stick out like a sore thumb. I wanted her to go spy. And she comes back, she goes, all these little old ladies and little kids are buying this popcorn. Is their job really?

So I go down and talk to the dietician at the grocery store and they’re like, yes, it’s the only snack we can get. Our elderly patients and our younger kids who need protein to actually eat because they won’t eat the bars, they won’t drink the [00:24:00] shakes. They don’t want the fake chips, the fake pretzels.

They want it to taste. Perfect. And yours happens to taste perfect because it does. My plate protein I use is the highest grade in the world, so anybody can consume it. Where most protein snacks are not that way. Most protein snacks use the lowest grade on the planet, but I made mine for pro athletes.

I made it. I made it for what I would actually want to eat, not some garbage to make more money. So we went into 10 of their stores, same process. And all of a sudden I’m like, all okay. And then you know the, thank God those folks at Hy-Vee Food Stores were like, Hey, you should go to Sweets and Snacks conference.

I go, they have a snacks conference, brother. If you haven’t been to the Snacks conference, you have missed, we’ve missed life. Oh my god, 200,000 qualified buyers, 1200 vendors, Hershey’s has a 6,000 gallon chocolate fountain. And I’m like, I just wanted to jump in and get. Type three diabetes and call it a day.

I got a new banner backdrop staff of four 5,000 samples. It was called Optimal Performance Popcorn back then, and I’m like, told my wife we’re about to make it and it’s three days long and no [00:25:00] one stops by my booth the first day. And the lesson in this is every time I let my ego get ahead of me, God gives me a gentle humility.

Re a gentle humility reminder that I don’t know everything. And I think now that I’m in my mid to late forties, I’m really taking this as my mantra that I want to be a student again. And learn from every person I meet. And this really started then, and my wife at the end of the first day, she’s what do you want to do?

Because I’m so depressed. No one stopped by her booth. I thought I was about to get rich. And

David Pasqualone: and hey, just to stop, if somebody hasn’t been to a trade show or a conference like this, what Tim’s talking about is a giant hall where like some, like if it was in Vegas, you can walk. All day. People are walking literally miles around the complex.

There’s thousands of booths. So Tim’s on his feet probably from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM Yep. And that concrete hurts like after a while you’re just standing

Tim Rexius: [00:26:00] back. Yeah.

David Pasqualone: Yes. And when you’re seeing other booths killing it and you’re not getting traffic, I can tell you from firsthand experience at conferences that can be.

Destructive mentally. So good thing you had your wife there, so continue with your story. I, not all of our, I’d say probably the minority of people have actually experienced something like that

Tim Rexius: oh these shows are huge and they’re expensive. We’re out 10, 15 grand being there and

David Pasqualone: Yep.

Tim Rexius: I’m like, I took a big gamble, ’cause that’s still a lot of money, especially post COVID. We lost a million dollars in each year post COVID, just trying to combat out everything that shut down. Me spending an extra 15, 10, 15, 20 grand, that’s a lot of money, and I had high hopes because we had this little bit of success and I was like, I got this thing figured out.

And then I didn’t, and my wife, I am, she’s the calm one, right? She just has a different way of looking at things and is where at the end of the day, she’s what do you want to do? I’m like, I want to go to the bar like I am. I’m upset. I want to drink and forget today ever happened. And I got two more [00:27:00] days of this garbage I have to deal with and I’m just upset.

And then on her way out she goes, do you think it hurts us that our backdrop and our bags don’t say protein or healthy anywhere on it? And I go, oh my God. Because everything I do in a nutrition store, in a gym is protein or health related, just ’cause that’s my field and I’m so tunnel vision in my own field.

I didn’t think about everyone else. I didn’t really think about like my parents or my brothers who just aren’t into the same stuff I’m into or my kids right And it’s 10 o’clock at night. I’m like, so we find a staples that’s open. They like staples are open 24 hours. We pay way too much money for a 10 foot banner that said protein popcorn.

The next day we safety pin it on top of my brand new backdrop. I just bought says protein popcorn, and I had a line of 400 people for two straight days. And we’re crushing it. And I’m like, we ran outta samples and the last day, what? And an hour before you shut down, I’m like, successful show.

Super excited to see what’s going to happen. And [00:28:00] a gentleman from Hershey’s, and if I ever figure out this guy’s name, he’s going to get Christmas presents from me for the rest of his life. Very nice suit. The higher up he goes, are you the guy, I’m the guy. He goes, I’m going to give you five minutes of free advice.

I said, okay, why is that, sir? He goes everyone who works at my booth is eating your popcorn at my booth, and that’s a problem for me. I said, okay. He goes, are you easily offended? I go, no, I have six kids. Can’t offend me at this point. My kids have, and they give me more crap than anybody else does ’cause they’re all salespeople too.

And started laughing and he goes, okay, cool. The bag is ugly. The name makes no sense. You need a mascot, you need a better color scheme, you need a better packaging. You need pallet ready boxes. It just starts going down the list. And I’m writing these notes down. He goes, I hope I didn’t offend you.

I said, you just gave me the greatest advice ever. So on the flight home, I’m sitting there and just raving about this advice this guy gave me.

David Pasqualone: And just to again, stop talking point, ladies and gentlemen, this, Tim mentioned this earlier, but this is a difference between a teachable spirit and pride.

Yeah. Because if you’re proud, Tim wouldn’t listen to that at that point. And maybe a year ago you wouldn’t have listened to that

Tim Rexius: advice. [00:29:00] I had I not lost so much money during COVID, I don’t think I would’ve.

David Pasqualone: Yep.

Tim Rexius: Honestly. Yep. I think that was, God put me in humility spot again, being like, all right, are you ready to listen?

They would say, you’ll make God laugh. Tell him your plan. I kept telling him my plan and he kept laughing. He is and I just kept telling him my plans and finally he is like, all right, lemme show you my plan. And that’s really what it was. It’s just me having, more receptive heart to it all.

And I took these lessons and my wife, I realized that, I’ve got this great woman, this the most perfect woman on the planet, and. Without her, the stores would never, would’ve scaled with the gyms, never would’ve started. That’s all my wife, it really is her just encouraging me at the right time, giving me the right guidance.

She’s better at finances than I am. That’s what she does. She’s a CFO. And just running the numbers and I’m just raving on the flight home about this advice. It’s just short flight from Chicago to, so about 45 minutes, my wife goes, can I tell you why? Sure. And she just starts laying in, in the most positive way.

She goes. You do realize you haven’t gone grocery shopping in 10 years, I go, yeah, I have. She goes no, you haven’t. We don’t let you go. ’cause [00:30:00] you’ll you’re on dad mode, you’re on broke mode all the time. You’ll, she goes, I sent you to the store 10 years ago to buy a bag or buy a box of rice.

I go to Sam’s Club, buy the 50 pound bag and a lot of dads out there. No, I’m talking about says white rice on it. That thing is still sitting in my house. My kids won’t eat it. And that was the biggest discount item I could get. She goes, we don’t let you go because. You’ll buy the cheapest, most ugly garbage on the planet.

And I realized she, I started doing the research. Women make 80% of buying decisions in the household when it comes to that stuff. I don’t even pick out my own toothpaste. My mouthwash, my wife does.

David Pasqualone: Yeah. She’s got, that’s those tiny products. They did studies years and years ago. You have the same box.

They shrink the product down, charge twice as much, and they can’t keep it on the shelf because ladies and children do most of the buying and they think it’s cute. They do. They think it’s cute.

Tim Rexius: That’s it’s right, and with three daughters understand that I’ve got the ultimate. How many times Amazon TikTok shop on Shopify packages show up at my house on a daily basis?

I love my girls and I don’t take this as a [00:31:00] negative about them. They seem to think a credit card limit is a challenge. They just buy stuff because they’re motivated by social media and they think things are pretty. Why did I design the package? I don’t, I can’t even draw stick figures, bro.

And if I’m wearing new clothes, guarantee you I didn’t buy ’em. My wife did. She dresses me. I’m the basic, the only thing I ever wear is like company logoed stuff. ’cause that’s like my wife says, I’m like a nascar. I’m walking around advertising all the time, which is true. And so my daughters and my wife redesigned the package.

We changed the name to Omaha Protein Popcorns, where we are bringing that home style film. We kept the kind of same name my daughters designed, the mascots, the color schemes. I decided to invent a new bag that could be clear and see-through, because like they said. A lot of people think that when they’re buying a healthy snack, it’s going to be green.

It’s going to taste like kale or smell like bad gym socks. I’m like, okay, let’s make a clear package. We don’t do that with protein products, otherwise you have to add preservatives and nobody wants one. Let me invent one because my background’s bio mechanical engineering, so I invented a new bag that we are actually patenting right now that gives me the longest shelf life certified popcorn on the planet.

Without using [00:32:00] preservatives. And that’s ’cause it’s how our bags are made. Like a

David Pasqualone: UV coating or something in the bag. I’m taking it.

Tim Rexius: No, it’s just multiple layers of bags and it’s how we do is we glue these layers together. And a lot of other processes I can’t mention just due to

David Pasqualone: Yeah.

Tim Rexius: You’re not patented yet.

David Pasqualone: Got it.

Tim Rexius: But it’s it allows it to be much thicker, much more rigid and allowed to be see-through so people can see what they’re going to eat. ’cause I’m not going after the meathead. I’m going after the 95% of people in the United States or in the world, honestly. ’cause we’re in 16 countries now. That the nutrition industry forgot about.

They’re not going to eat the fake chips. Nothing wrong with ’em. I like ’em, but I’ve been in meathead for 30 years. I, I’ll eat that stuff. I like protein bars. I think they taste good. My parents don’t, my neighbors don’t. The average person does not. So I made this snack for them. Is it perfect? No.

There’s no such thing as a perfect snack. I want perfect for the vast majority of people who want to eat better but will not sacrifice, taste, or quality for health. ’cause that’s why we have such an obesity epidemic. That’s why we have so many people who are like, screw. It’s too hard. Too many people in the [00:33:00] fitness industry have made it an all or not at all situation.

And the problem is every time they try to be helpful, they actually talk all their neighbors and their friends who are not fitness freaks into not trying at all. It’s people. Social media has made it worse because everyone thinks their opinion is a hundred percent valid and they decide to throw it out there.

And every time somebody says, Hey, I’m trying this new health kick, I’ve lost 10 pounds. And then what you’ll have is 10 fitness friends jump in. Yeah, but you should be doing this instead. Or, yeah, you shouldn’t be eating this instead. And all they do is make it so complicated. Nobody wants to do it. So I’m not we narrowed our focus down.

This is for grandmas and grandpas and kids and the other people in the industry has forgotten this is what they’re for. I want to taste perfect, the macros to be the cleanest I can possibly make them while not sacrificing taster quality. And so that’s what we did. And we relaunched in in 23 and we’ve launched into 16 countries in just less than three years.

I’ve been in five countries this year already doing launches in, in Central America. And it’s been so much fun. And the lesson of it is, I was just talking with our great distributor down in Costa Rica, Javier, and we spent [00:34:00] some time last week at the, or two weeks ago at the Central America Walmart ex folks we’re launching in Walmart and.

He said, he goes, we talked about what brought me here in the story. And I said, honestly, it was me being a student again, not being egoistical and looking at my kids, not as the ones draining my bank account. Not saying that they don’t drain my bank account because they do and being that motivator for making more money, which they are.

But I started looking at them. They’re consumers. They’re consumers. Where do you, where’s your attention at? What social media apps are you watching? Why do you buy what you do? I start asking questions instead of scrutinizing what they buy. Oh, you shouldn’t have spent that much money on that FOMO latte or whatever it is.

I start to ask questions, why’d you buy that? Oh, because this influencer I follow, does this? Okay, note taken. Why is, oh, because it’s pretty, oh, because it was in this section, because it was smaller, because of whatever it might be. I’m no longer, I’m just trying to listen. I’m watching more than anything, and I think all these humility lessons have taught me that I am good at what I [00:35:00] do, but I can be better.

And the only way I can be better is by listening to everyone else around me, which, I’ve never had a board of directors. I’ve never had investors until this last year. I brought in investors for Omaha protein popcorn one financially, because I’d never done any marketing ever. I was in a dozen countries before I ever ran an ad.

But I wanted a group of people around for, I obviously help out with the financials, we’re scaling the company this large, but also I wanted people that could help me. I got a guy from the restaurant industry. I have a great guy from the hotel industry. I’ve got a guy from the bodybuilding industry.

I’ve got a guy from the marketing industry. I got a guy from the legal Why, because these are guys and gals of. So many different walks of life and I and two of ’em already told me this is the most fun board they’ve ever been on. Because I don’t sit there and fight with anybody. I’m like, Hey, what do you think I should do?

I think this. Okay. Why do you think that? And I really get down to understanding their expertise. And I’m telling you, tell you right now, brother, five years ago, me never would’ve listened to any of that. I was writing checks of my ego that my bank account couldn’t cash, and I did it [00:36:00] repetitively because every time I had some success, I started to believe my own hype.

And, that’s the reason why I podcast so much, is because I, man, I love to be that page in somebody else’s storybook where I get to help them avoid some of the dumb things that I have done.

David Pasqualone: Yeah, and putting it in check. We always want, especially for our kids, we want them to learn the lessons the easy way so they don’t have to learn it the hard way, like us.

So sadly, I’d probably guesstimate, not guesstimate, but educated guess probably 95 out of a hundred times people don’t listen. Even your own children, they gotta go through it themselves. But for those five people who are wise enough to listen, to avoid the pain. What kind of adjustments because there is adjustment.

It might have taken you a week, it might have taken you six months, but from going to the thought process of I know it all to man, I can learn something from everybody. What are some of the things you had to remind yourself of Tim, to sto, to [00:37:00] slow down, to stop, to shut your mouth and to listen.

Tim Rexius: A couple things.

One, it for me it was not when waiting to actually hear somebody, most of us are silent just long enough to give our response. We’re not actually listening. And so some of these AI tools or these new technology devices, like there’s plot, the phone has one. I start recording my conversations in meetings, so the AI takes the notes for me so I can go back and reread it because I find myself still, it’s just a habit where like they say something and it just triggers something in me where I’m like, I got a response for that.

And all of a sudden, as soon as that happens, I’m not listening to anything else they’re saying. I know me, I’ve worked really hard on this, but it’s still, you can’t overcome your natural need to talk, which I do. I’ve gotten in trouble since I was in grade school for talking too much in school and take that and all the people at the Catholic High School, all those nuns told me my mouth would only get me in trouble.

Nope. Got me a job. But anyways I just I’m working on it, but I know, okay, I know I’m [00:38:00] not going to hear everything he has to say today because I’m waiting to respond to that one thing that triggered a thought. And so I’ve started using the plot device, my phone devices. I’ve got AI glasses I’ve used just to record everything in because I may miss a very important tidbit and I start to look at all these little nuggets I get from everybody around me, like pieces of gold.

There’s just thousands of ’em. And so nobody’s going to gimme one big rock of gold that’s the size of this microphone case. They’re going to give me, 50 million tiny little pieces that still equal a lot of money. So I need to collect all of them. The only way I can do that is just to be the ultimate student for the test.

And the real. The greatest part of all of this was, it was about five years ago, four years ago. I was pretty depressed on the family side because none of my kids wanted to work in the family businesses. I was like, I build all these things and no one wants to work at the shops or the gyms or the brands or anything.

And I told my wife, I’m like, I’m building this legacy, but my legacy doesn’t want anything to do with it. Not because I’m hard to work for, ’cause I’m not. It’s just wasn’t, [00:39:00] I don’t know if, I think it was the ego thing, I didn’t listen to my kids and now they all work for me. They all came and wanted to work in some aspect of the business one way or another.

And I think that’s because they feel valued. Because before I wasn’t ever really listening. I was waiting just long enough for them to finish, for me to give them my rebuttal, and now that I’ve actually learned to listen and ask them significantly more questions. Okay. Why’d you buy that though? I go just a total student, inquisitive type of attitude.

They can tell. It’s genuine too. I’m not asking to make you feel good, I’m asking ’cause I genuinely want to know. And when you empower people as a good listener you’ve empowered them and people like that. I that’s in sales too. You’ve seen it, you’ve done this. When people feel like they’re in the teaching aspect, the amount of care and attention that comes with their words, how they eagerly want to teach you they, because they know, they feel valued right now.

And if you teach, take that attitude with everyone, it’s amazing how many people will just help [00:40:00] you for the sake of helping you. Family included.

David Pasqualone: Yeah. No, I couldn’t agree more. I’ve been in sales and management and taught at a college, and I always ha, this sounds weird. As much as I love people and I love teaching, I hate teaching people sales techniques because they can be manipulated and used for evil more than good.

Yeah, agreed. And but what you’re saying, if you just stop somebody and say, Hey, can you help me? Most of the time, people who would never communicate with you, they’ll help you and help could just be, Hey, can you help me understand this? It’s just small little changes and the way you approach it are so powerful, as you saw so with your.

Children now in the business. You got a great wife supporting you and involved and active. Where are you first off between your birth and today? Did we miss anything? Tim, before we transition to where you are today and where you’re headed next?

Tim Rexius: Not from the business aspect. I really think through [00:41:00] this entire journey of all this from 23, 24, I grew up in a household of faith, went through a Catholic school, but I really found my faith.

Like really deep rooted into every aspect of what I do for a living and me as a person around my mid thirties. And I don’t know and I don’t, I bring this up in every, time somebody asks me like, what was the real change? It is like I, I had to learn to let go and let God take. Take the wheel that I am a facilitator of talents that were given to me that I didn’t deserve.

And the more I remind myself of that the more true to the mission, I think I stay. And so for me, just so everybody knows, like my faith is part of who I am, it is not negotiable, and it is. And so this is going internationally in areas where, my faith isn’t celebrated. And I have to go and know, I’ve been in a lot of places, I’ve been in a lot of countries, and I’m just like, listen, if I take an attitude of compassion and caring and listening with every person I meet, even if they don’t share the same background I gotta believe that I’m protected and that I am chosen.

And if I [00:42:00] take that attitude and it’s worked everywhere and

David Pasqualone: yeah, there’s a great verse in the Bible. I want to say it’s an Isaiah. I remember the concept, thankfully, but sometimes I don’t remember the reference, but talks about how no weapon formed against these shall prosper. Yeah. And it doesn’t just mean a gun to your head, but it means just God, like you said, is with you.

If it’s God’s will, you’re going to be fine. If not, the great thing is you’re going to meet ’em and not have to worry about these earthly woes.

Tim Rexius: Yeah, that’s, and it’s just, it, my wife brought it up. It was a, oh God, about two months ago and. We were at church the occasional weekend.

I’m actually home. We go and my wife goes, look at the three rows behind us. I’m like, yeah, we know all those people. She goes, look at the three rows in front of us. I go, yeah, I know those people. She goes, you do realize you’re the common denominator with six rows of people in this church that either worked for us or worked with somebody who worked for us over the years.

And the amount of people have come to me to ask me about my faith after working with me. And now I see all these people, some pronounced atheists. That are now going to church. And she goes, you’re a [00:43:00] big part of that. I go, that ain’t me. I’m just being used as a tool. I was just full blown tears, brother.

I’m like, God if that’s what all this has led to. And I never do any more in business than what I’ve done now, but it led all these people to faith. And if you know a better life, then man I’ve good job. My faith, my faithful and loyal servant. I am totally good with where I’m at. I’m completely satisfied because that’s the end of the day for me meant a lot more to me than amount of money in a bank account.

David Pasqualone: Yeah. And that’s so hard to get that focus. ’cause the real focus, the real purpose. Jesus said, what’s the two main commandments? Love God with all that. Mind, soul, and heart and love thy neighbor. And really our relationship with God is all that matters ’cause we’re on earth for 70, 80 years average and then we’re an eternity.

And

Tim Rexius: that’s, and that’s where I figured out where my life verse was, is something that’s always been on me for, 10 years my friend and I realized that I’ve been putting these opportunities and blessed with these opportunities for one [00:44:00] main reason. Mark one 17, come follow me and I’ll make you the fishers of men.

My job is not to just run successful businesses, but to teach other people how to do it with compassion, integrity, and a faith-filled heart. And more people are coming. I’ve got to officiate. About 20 weddings now of former employees are franchisees. I’ve got to baptize a couple, which might have been the coolest experience of my life, honestly, next to baptizing my kids.

And that doesn’t happen if I’m not living out here and being what I’m supposed to be. ’cause so many people are, a great Christian on Sunday for an hour. But what do they do there six days of the week? Especially business owners. ’cause we’re in a spotlight. I think that to me means that I have, I’m doing a decent enough job now.

I could always do better. I guarantee you I could make the list long and distinguished of the things I could do better, but the fact that I’ve been blessed to be that page in some people’s storybook is probably the greatest honors of my life.

David Pasqualone: Yeah, and it’s what matters. You can’t take anything with you but each other to [00:45:00] eternity.

Tim Rexius: Exactly.

David Pasqualone: Awesome, bro. So where are you today and where are you headed next? How can we help you?

Tim Rexius: Honestly, that’s, for us it’s a lot of people were jumping in the protein snack game because of GLP ones or whatever you might call it. The Kardashians launched a protein popcorn last year, but they didn’t make it near to my level.

So I don’t consider them a threat. But what I don’t have is, I don’t have a Kardashian, I don’t have a shack, I don’t have the rock. Would love to meet Shaq, man. That’s like top 10 goal of mine. He just,

David Pasqualone: I met him at a trade show actually in Vegas. Did you really? Yeah, I was selling. Oh, that’s awesome.

Secure storage solutions. And as strange as this sounds, he’s a huge man. Yeah. But his clothes are so well tailored. He doesn’t look as big in person as he is because he wears, custom made clothing. So I remember standing there and being like. You are giant, but he doesn’t look it from, it’s like on TV you could see a two foot difference between him and a little five foot reporter.

But yeah, from the little admit I met him, he seemed like a great human. But again, I don’t know him [00:46:00] personally.

Tim Rexius: I’ve just seen some of the things he’s done for charity and a lot of people say, oh, they do that for public. I’m like, yeah, whatever they might do. I just take it at face value. It’s not for me to judge everything.

But

David Pasqualone: oh yeah I’m, I’d love to meet ’em too.

Tim Rexius: Yeah. And it’s, and that for us right now is just growing the brands without having a super famous person to be the catalyst for the brand. And so I’m doing podcasting nonstop, and I’ve grown I’m in the, I’m in the top 150,000 most search people in the world right now.

There’s a ranking for that, which I’m like, you’ve gotta be kidding me. My daughter’s figured that out because they do all my social media stuff for me. Hey, take their talents where they’re at. I’m like, you guys are on the phones already. You want to get paid to do it. So they’re the ones out sharing my stuff and doing all that.

And I got great advice from Tom Balu who sold Quest for a billion dollars a couple years ago when he tried the popcorn. He goes, you need to build yourself as big as the brand. You gotta get out there. And my board of directors has been very supportive in that aspect. And so I keep doing the speeches and I keep doing the keynotes and I keep doing the podcast.

I enjoy doing it too. It’s building the brand. So the biggest [00:47:00] way people can help is just, obviously you go to tim reus.com, my website, and you can click on any of the companies we do and just get on social media, give Omaha protein popcorn a follow, give us a follow. That’s the biggest thing.

It’s the easiest way for us to reach larger audiences and the bigger the following the bigger you put up in the algorithm and do all that. Obviously we’re doing paid marketing too, don’t get me wrong. But I’m not, for me, it’s just more, the more following we get, the easier it is to get the word out when we do crazy things and do good stuff.

And that’s, and then obviously say us, say some prayers for us. We’re climbing in a billion dollar industry with with a shoestring budget. Marine prayer and following is the greatest thing they make a do for us. And that’s all I ask.

David Pasqualone: Yeah, and if someone wants to reach you, there’s people who might want to reach you personally.

And there’s companies CEOs right now listening be like, Hey, I want to get ahold of Tim and get his product in our stores. Yeah. What’s the best way for someone to reach you?

Tim Rexius: Honestly, if you go to tim rexes.com, there’s a contact form on that page that leads to all the companies that’s the easiest.

My assistant Alejandro, my other assistant Zoe they keep [00:48:00] up with everything. They chart everything for me. And then we get it depending what, where it’s at. I got brokers in every industry and we get everyone in contact with who I need to. And otherwise you go to omaha protein popcorn.com and reach us on there.

And we have. Like my wife says, we have 50 email addresses. You just gotta pick one and send it. It’ll get to us. Yeah.

David Pasqualone: All right. Tim, it’s been fantastic getting to know you, spending some time together today. Before we end the interview, is there anything you’d like to share with our audience around the world?

Any final thoughts, anything that’s popped in your head before we close this session?

Tim Rexius: Believe in yourself. Believe in yourself. You were uniquely and godly created for a reason, so any doubt you have, that is not God. That is not you. It’s the enemy. So believe in you and you can accomplish anything. And if there’s a any way for me to help you, if I can, it’s in my power, I’ll do why? Because God gave me opportunities that I shouldn’t, I don’t deserve. And I think we all have those opportunities. We just need to be cognitive of the [00:49:00] fact that we were uniquely created of serious talent and we need to be proud and jump on the opportunities in front of us.

David Pasqualone: Amen. I agree, and I’m thankful.

Thank you for being on the show today, Tim.

Tim Rexius: Thank you for having me. I’m honored to be here.

David Pasqualone: Yes, and ladies and gentlemen, if you’re a first time listener or if you’ve been with us all eight years and 13 seasons, you know our slogan, Listen. Do. Repeat. For Life!. Don’t just listen to the great advice Tim gave you, the man from Hershey’s gave him, but do.

Repeat it each day, form those healthy habits so you can have a great life in this world, but most importantly, for eternity to come. So I’m David Pasqualone. This is our Remarkable friend, Tim Rexius, and we’ll see you in the next episode, Ciao!. ​

Ladies and gentlemen, I sincerely hope this show has inspired you. The whole purpose of The Remarkable People Podcast is to [00:50:00] inspire you, to motivate you into action, to help you have an even better life, to overcome things you’ve not yet been able to overcome or to grow to the next level that you never thought possible.

And all of this, not just to benefit you in this world, but to have you come to a relationship with God where it grows every day stronger. And not just this world is blessed, but your eternity is blessed. And we sincerely want to do just that, and to glorify God. And we hope with this episode we accomplish that.

If we did. Please let me know. It’s great to be encouraged and to spread the word to our Remarkable guests that it helped in your life. If we didn’t, let me know. Write me an email. You can go to DavidPasqualone.com . Go to our contact us page and let me know what you think. I got tough skin. Let it rip.

Anything you can think [00:51:00] of to make this a better podcast to help you grow and to glorify, God, I’m in. So that’s it. Thank you for listening to the podcast. Thank you for sending us feedback. If we can help you in any way, let us know. And if you can spread the word about the Remarkable People Podcast, share the episode to your friends, your family on social media.

It would be a huge honor and blessing. Again, I’m not trying to be the most famous podcast in the world for my benefit, I truly want a podcast that’s the best podcast in the world to help as many people as we can to have a better life, come to know Christ, to grow in the Lord, and to have that salvation so they can be with God and peace and joy in eternity.

And right now we’re together on this earth, so let’s do everything we can to work together and help each other grow. Like the Bible says, love the Lord thy God as a first commandment. And the next command is to love thy [00:52:00] neighbor as thyself. So let’s do it together. I’m David Pasqualone. I love you. Not as much as God loves you, but if I can help you in any way, just ask.

And again, please share this with your friends and family so we can help them too. Ciao and see you in the next episode.

Welcome to the Remarkable People Podcast!: The Remarkable People Podcast, check it out, the Remarkable People Podcast. Listen, do Repeat for Life, the Remarkable People Podcast.