#14 Ultimate Belief in Yourself

CoryG:

Mark Bell, what's up?

Mark Bell:

It's going good, man. We're out here in Columbus, Ohio, and we're out here at this messed up Arnold Classic, I guess.

CoryG:

What happens, Mark Bell, when no one believes in the thing that you believe in? Because I think this happens a lot. Whether it's Sling Shot or something else, how did you force things forward and say, "Fuck it, I'm just going to go win?"

Mark Bell:

Man, so I think first things first… There's been no one in the history of the world, there has never been one person on this planet, to ever have a message that has been interpreted the way that it was meant to be interpreted. You should stop and realize that you are not going to be able to convince people. You'll be able to make some people believers. If you believe in something and you feel that it's going to be good, you feel that it provides value to other people, you feel that it's going to enhance people's lives in some way, you need to go for it.

For me with the Sling Shot, it was, you've been around the game for a long time. Being around the fitness industry for a long time, many older lifters said, "Oh man, I used to do that. Man, I wish I could still bench like you guys are, still wish I could do push-ups or dips, but man my shoulder."

I kept hearing that over and over and I never understood it. I was like, "What is with these guys? Why have they all fallen apart?" Because when I'm in my 20s and 30s, I'm like, "I'm rocking it, I'm smashing weights," and all that ever happened to me from going to the gym is I always got stronger. There was never any negative feedback. Every once in a while, I'd get a little bump or a bruise here and there, but never any big injuries until I started really pushing the envelope.

As I got a little older, I started to get some injuries. Now I'm like, "Oh my God, remember all those old dudes that you made fun of, the guy at the gym that always rested like 20 minutes in between every set and he talks to every girl in the gym?" The old guy with the towel around his shoulder that you'd see all the time.

I was like, "Man, I don't understand why those guys are like that." But I started going that way. "What if I could make something that would help me," because now I'm in the same spot that they're in, maybe it would be something that would provide value to a market that at that point didn't even exist.

That was the hardest part for me. Even in getting a patent for the Sling Shot, then getting the patent here in the United States, getting it imported, even amongst putting a name to it to have it shipped here was weird and confusing. The Sling Shot ended up in its own category. My wife handles all of the backend stuff of our company, so when she was telling me that I was like, "Wow, that's really cool."

But yeah, no one in the beginning believed in it. There really wasn't anyone, not my wife, not my kids. Not that they were negative, they certainly weren't negative. My wife was always very supportive of it, but the only way people are going to believe you is if you show them. You have to show them to make people believers. It was something I had developed from coaching and working with a lot of high school kids, and I would try to have the whole team lift the same way.

Then I recognized, I took a step back one day and I said, "You know what? Out of all the people in here that play football, there's only five football players, there's only five real players in here. There's only five real people that have enough interest in football to want to get better for it, through lifting weights, and through doing the running, and through doing the conditioning. The rest of them are just here because they want to be here."

I recognized that I couldn't really make them do anything. I could put them through stuff, I could let them have some fun, I could expose them to new things, but I couldn't really change their minds. I wasn't going to be able to forcefully change their mind.

You're not going to be able to really do that, so when I recognized this, I made a speech one day and I basically just told everybody, "You know what? I'm only going to communicate with people in here that are sweating. If you're not sweating, then I'm not having conversations with you."

That stepped up the game a ton. I continued coaching there for two years and during that two years, whenever I mentioned that, there was a huge boost in morale. You would see kids working harder because no one wants to be isolated. And even when I was saying that, I said, "Hey look, it's not just coming from me, I want it coming from you guys too."

If you're working hard, it's not fair that the other guy is not working hard. We are all part of a team, and you're allowed to be on this team. You're allowed to be on the team in whatever fashion that you want, but everyone needs to put in their work. So, even if you're a little weaker than the other guy, I still want to see everybody trying and supporting each other the best that they possibly can.

CoryG:

Did you use that as a chip on your shoulder? How most lifters are like, "Oh, you know I got this." Did you use that to fuel you?

Mark Bell:

Yeah, it's made up, no one really cares.

CoryG:

Exactly.

Mark Bell:

Eddie Hall was just telling us about how no one thought he could deadlift 1100 pounds. And the truth is no one actually cares.

CoryG:

Yeah.

Mark Bell:

There's a very small subset of people that care, and if you asked people on the street, "Hey, will Eddie Hall deadlift 1100 pounds?" There's probably a lot of people that'll say, "Well, what does he deadlift now?" And if you said, "Hey, he does a thousand something," they probably have no idea, they're probably like, "Sure yeah, I guess so." They don't really give a shit, right?

When I say nobody believed in the Sling Shot, I just mean the small subset of people that were around me. Even in putting the device out there as you know, "Oh, he's just another guy with supplements, man.

CoryG:

Yeah, I've had that a few times.

Mark Bell:

I've been in the game for a long time, I competed in bodybuilding, and I competed in powerlifting. This is a culmination of a lot of work that you did, it's a culmination of something that you feel works great for you and you're like, "Hey, sometimes the supplement game's a little complicated. I know it inside and out, I'm going to provide you with something that I really truly believe in, if you want to get it, I sell it."

CoryG:

You were answering a need. You continued to see what wasn’t available. You believed in it because you kept seeing the guy at the gym. No one has blazed the path, and you’re going to go through loads of resistance and people not believing in you. People get very uncomfortable in these spots because their confidence starts to pull back like, “Oh, well maybe they’re right.”

Mark Bell:

Yeah, I had those moments myself. I mean, self-doubt is always going to be there

CoryG:

It creeps in.

Mark Bell:

It creeps in when you're told that something’s not going to work or if someone doesn’t understand. It's your job to try to help people to understand it. Are you trying to really communicate it the best you possibly can? As a father and as a husband and as a business owner? Communication is king. They say the biggest mistake with communication is thinking that it ever happened.

You have to really make sure that you're very clear with somebody when things get messed up at work or things get messed up in life. I'm always like, "Shit," I can get really frustrated, but I'm like, "My frustration is about myself.

CoryG:

Yeah.

Mark Bell:

I'm like, "Fuck, I'm so mad at myself. How did I let this happen again?" Then when I look back at it, it's like, "Well, I didn't really communicate exactly what I wanted, I was kind of wishy-washy on it." Or I said, "Hey, just make this look good, just make this thing cool." Then their version of cool and my version of cool are different.