True story. It was 2001. I had just wrestled a show about 3 hours from home. I gave everything I had in that ring. Left it all out there. The crowd was into it. The boys in the back said I did good work. Then I got my payoff. Twenty bucks. I hadn't eaten all day. I was running on fumes. Literally. My gas tank was almost empty and I still had a 3 hour drive home. I pulled into a gas station somewhere in the middle of nowhere Ohio and I had to make a choice. Do I eat or do I put gas in the car. I couldn't do both. I put the gas in. Drove home hungry. Got home after midnight. My wife Terrie was already asleep. I sat in the driveway for a minute and thought about quitting. Not because I didn't love wrestling. I loved it more than anything. But love doesn't pay bills. Love doesn't fill your gas tank. Love doesn't put food on the table for your family. A year later I walked away. My body was breaking down. We were broke. We had a family to raise. I chose survival. But here's the thing nobody tells you. It didn't have to be that way. I wasn't broke because I was a bad wrestler. I was broke because nobody taught me the business side. Nobody taught me how to build a brand. Nobody taught me how to create income outside of match payoffs. Nobody taught me that I was a business and not just a performer. I had to learn all of that on my own. Years later. The hard way. Through trial and error and a whole lot of expensive mistakes. When I came back to wrestling in 2015 and started New Ohio Wrestling, I promised myself I would never let another wrestler go through what I went through without at least knowing there was a better way. I spent years figuring this out the hard way. Now I'm putting it all in one place. More soon.

Your look is the first thing people see before you even open your mouth. If your look doesn't match your character, you're confusing people. And confused people don't care. Why This Matters Think about it. If you're a badass heel but you show up looking like a nice guy, nobody's buying it. If you're a babyface underdog but you walk in looking like a bodybuilder, the story doesn't work. Your look has to support the story you're trying to tell. The ring is visual. Wrestling is visual. Social media is visual. Everything about this business is visual first. You have seconds to make someone understand who you are. Your look does that job before you ever hit a move. What "Look" Means Your look is: Your ring gear. Your street clothes. Your hair. Your facial hair. Your tattoos. Your physique. Your accessories. Your colors. Your entrance outfit. Everything people see when they look at you. Does It Match? Ask yourself: If someone saw me with the sound off, would they know what kind of wrestler I am? If the answer is no, you need to fix it. Examples: - A monster heel should look intimidating. Big. Mean. Dark colors. Rough edges. - A flashy babyface should look bright. Colorful. Approachable. Clean. - A technical wrestler should look serious. Professional. No crazy distractions. - A comedy character should have something visually funny or weird. Your look tells the story. Make sure it's the right story. The Test Go look at your Instagram right now. Look at your last 5 photos. Do they all support the same character? Or are you all over the place? If you're a monster on one post and a gym bro on the next and a family guy on the third, people don't know who you are. Pick one. Commit to it. Build everything around it. What To Do Right Now Look in the mirror. Look at your social media. Look at your last match video. Ask: Does this look support my character? If yes, double down on it. Make it even clearer. If no, change it. Today. Your look is part of your brand. And your brand is how you get Reach, build Reputation, and create Revenue.

Up late at night… Watching the snowstorm… Trying to stay warm… And working on my book that’s years in the making… I am finally making some great progress and I am excited to share this book with the pro wrestling world and beyond… Actually, the book is becoming much bigger than I originally thought so I may have to break it down into two seperate books… We shall see 😀 For anyone interested, I’d like to share just a small piece of what I’ve been working on. It was a game changing moment in my life, and it kinda got me thinking about how far I’ve come, so I just wanted to put it out there. **My Battle With Imposter Syndrome** Most of my life I've struggled with imposter syndrome. Even as a kid, I would get into my own head. Am I good enough? Who do I think I am? What makes me think I can do this? That voice followed me everywhere. Into school. Into work. Into wrestling. When I was actively wrestling, I didn't know what mental training was. I just pushed through. I ignored the voice and hoped it would go away. It didn't. It wasn't until after I had to leave pro wrestling that I discovered mental training. I started listening to Tony Robbins seminars. I started reading books by Napoleon Hill, Elsie Lincoln Benedict, Dale Carnegie, Earl Nightingale, and Jim Rohn. These people opened my eyes to how the mind actually works. How the voice in your head can be changed. How your beliefs shape your reality. I also started studying business training. Russell Brunson. Dan Kennedy. Dean Graziosi. Alex Hormozi. Gary Vaynerchuk. Perry Belcher. Frank Kern. And many others. Learning how to market and build businesses also taught me how to build my mindset. Here's the thing. Studying all of these brilliant people is how I learned the stuff I'm writing about in this book. Everything you've read so far? The laws of success? The mental frameworks? The business strategies? I didn't make this up. I learned it from people who figured it out before me. I took their wisdom and applied it to pro wrestling.

This one might sting a little. That’s okay. Most wrestlers waste time, energy, and money chasing people who were never going to buy anything anyway. You know the ones: • Always say “I’ll grab merch next time” • Always comment but never show up • Always watching but never supporting They’re not bad people. They’re just not your people. Here’s the hard truth: Not all fans are equal. Some fans will: • Buy tickets • Buy merch • Bring friends • Come back again and again Those are your top of the ladder fans. Your job is not to convince everyone to like you. Your job is to take care of the fans who already care and give them more reasons to stay. Think of your fanbase like a triangle: • Top = super fans • Middle = casual fans • Bottom = people who barely engage Most wrestlers do the opposite of what works. They spend all their time trying to impress the bottom. Smart wrestlers: • Build for the top • Create offers for the middle • Stop chasing the bottom This isn’t greedy. It’s survival. If you want wrestling to last, you have to stop acting like attention pays bills. Support does. Question for you: Who are your real fans right now and what are you doing to give them MORE?

Promos are where most wrestlers struggle. They freeze up. They forget their words. They sound scripted and fake. Imagination can fix this. Before you cut a promo, hear it in your head first. Not word for word. That's memorizing. This is different. Hear the emotion. Feel what your character feels. See the reaction you want from the crowd. What does your character want to say? What do they need to get across? What emotion are they feeling? When you've imagined the promo from the inside out, the words come easier. You're not reciting a script. You're expressing something you've already felt in your mind. The best promos feel real because the wrestler felt them first. They imagined the emotion before they spoke the words. Use your imagination to prepare your promos. Feel it first. Then say it.