The Story Of TwoToned
The vision of TwoToned started with a love and passion for fitness. I was always an athlete so fitness was a staple in my life. I did not go a day without some sort of exercise. I really enjoyed sports and loved the competition. Coaches would explain the importance of training and building up your body to become stronger and more endured. Baseball was my main sport which tailored my training to baseball oriented workouts. At the time all I wanted to do was become a professional baseball player. There was no plan B.
I had what I felt like was a very successful high school baseball career. I had a few offers to play in college and decided to play at Treasure Valley in Ontario Oregon. I played my freshman year of college as a 2-way (pitcher and position player).
(I'm #21 in the middle, back row)
During my first year of college I was doing long distance with Jillian ( my fiancé at the time). Since I was moved away from my friends and family and did not party much during all of my time off I was in the gym. I knew just about everything I needed to know when it came to bodybuilding style workouts and spent all of my time doing those. I did not know it at the time, but I was training incorrectly for my sport. I was spending anywhere from 2-4 hours in the gym every night after school and practice. It got to the point were my coach told me that I was banned from the gym because I was getting too big impacting my speed and athleticism. I did not listen. Who would? I thought he was crazy to try and ban someone from working out.
There was a moment when I knew that I needed to find a way to make some money while I was playing ball. I was running out of money quick. I had a side job provided from the school called work study. This job paid me to do light work around the school and baseball field. This gave me enough money to pay for food and minor expenses. Only about $400 a month and that is not sustainable. I had responsibilities at home I knew I had to take care of.
I started doing as much "research" as I could about making money online and or side hustles. I watched countless YouTube videos and started finding as many trusted self-help books. I hated reading, but I knew it was what I needed to do. I started to tell myself that I enjoyed reading and continued to read until I actually started enjoying it.
Here is a tip I wish I would have learned sooner rather than later. Reading, listening, and watching educational content only helps you when you decide to use it in your day to day life. Most people will buy business and self-help books just to put them on a shelf and never read them. Only a small amount of people that actually read the books actually use the information given to them. Before buying another book or choosing another video, find a way to use the information given to you and study the material you already have.
After looking into drop-shipping, Amazon FBA, Stocks, Day Trading, NFT's, and every other get rich quick scheme, I decided to give some a try. I started with stocks and put very small investments into whatever stock was going crazy on the internet. Side note - if it's trending on social media, it is probably too late. I soon realized that stocks was a long term game and I was impatient. I needed money ASAP. That's when these things called NFT's were booming on social media. Every famous celebrity you could imagine was buying these things and for a ridiculous amount of money. I am sure you can guess what I did after discovering those. I watched every video and read as many articles as I could to learn all about these digital assets. I learned all about OpenSea, Coinbase, Crypto, and all the little things involved in NFT's. Keep in mind, I did not know that if it's trending on social media that it is probably too late. I actually thought I was early. After some time looking around for a NFT project I wanted to be apart of I joined tons of different discord chats. I found one called the Jacked Ape Club. It was perfect, all about fitness and making money. Most NFT projects had these discord chats for people to interact with the community and try for their spot in the "minting period" ( pre sale.) After tons of hours of boring small talk in this chat, I was put into the Minting group. I was as happy as can be. I thought that was going to be a free ticket to financial freedom. Minting period happened and I bought my NFT for $600 worth of the crypto ETH and instantly tried to sell it. You'll never guess, It didn't sell. No one wanted these NFT's. I had this NFT listed forever and never sold it. Eventually I accepted it and ate the $600.
(This is my actual NFT... Yes, I bought this for $600... I was young and dumb)
I finally realized that all these "side hustles" were extremely saturated and I needed to do something else. By this time I finished my first year of college and had an extremely rough experience. I was starting to lose my love for baseball, but I decided to give it another shot at another school. My family loved watching me play baseball and I knew it would kill them for me to throw in the towel.
I decided to play another year of college baseball. I got an offer to play in a much better conference at Colorado Northwestern in Rangely, CO. I was recruited to be a 2-way again and I was the highest paid athlete at the school. ( I wasn't supposed to say this to anyone on the team...) I was game two starting pitching and rarely took at bats.
By this time Jilly and I got married on July 20th, 2022. We had a beautiful wedding and tons of supportive people came to congratulate us.
Jilly and I got an apartment in Rangely for us to attend school and play ball. Jilly was also offered a scholarship to play softball for the same school. Pretty awesome right? This tiny town did not have much to offer and we were running out of time to find a place to stay. We got accepted for an apartment on the Main Street. We paid $600 a month plus wifi and power. Housing was decently cheap out there. We didn't need anything special for just the two of us.
Now that I was married and we had an apartment I really needed to find a way to get some money while I was playing baseball. If I did not find a way to make money, I would not be able to pay rent or for food. So how did I do this? I thought to myself what skill do I already have that I can charge for? Well... lots of people ask me for fitness advice maybe I can charge for that. I had no idea where to start with this. I've never built a program for anyone before. How do I send someone their program? How do I process the money? Where do I find leads and see if they are interested in a program? I was very very lost and I needed to figure it out. Then I remembered that back in high school I talked with an online fitness coach about giving a talk. Maybe he can teach me. I instantly sent him a message on instagram and offered to work for him for free if he was willing to teach me the ways. He sent me a message back asking " are you free for about an hour tomorrow? lets book a call and talk about your goals". I booked the call and started having these conversations a couple times a week until I was confident to start my own training business. After I launched my training business and got a couple clients I would still get on calls with my mentor and continue to learn. I was making a couple thousand dollars from my clients and I was able to work remotely while playing baseball. It was the perfect business to keep money rolling in while still being able to play baseball.
-Thank you Derick for the help on starting my training business and I truly believe that I would not be where I am today without your help.
When I started playing baseball in Colorado for my sophomore year of college, my passion for health and fitness grew. I was starting to enjoying working out far more than I was enjoying baseball. Don't get me wrong I still enjoyed baseball (other than practice) my love for fitness was just much greater. I had a really amazing group of teammates. If I didn't have such a good group of guys I may not have made it through the year.
On the team I had a few guys that were also very into fitness and weight lifting. There was one thing we all had in common that we used very often and shared. That was pre-workout. We tried to many different pre-workouts and loved some. This started to spark ideas. I knew that I wanted to be rich one day and have a very successful business. I've always wanted that I just did not know what I wanted to start. Things started to piece together. I knew a lot about fitness and a decent amount about pre-workout. Then sparked the idea.
I was sitting in psychology bored as could be, and all I could do was think about this idea. I had no idea where to start. How does someone even start making their own Pre-workout? I thought about buying bulk ingredients and mixing it together in my apartment, but I was worried that I would not get the dosages correct. I did not think that would be good so I googled ideas. A video came up about someone else starting their supplement brand and they recommended finding a manufacturer. Then with one google search, I found one. I did not know which manufacturer was going to be the best one so I starting doing some research on reviews. I found one called NutraCaps. Yes, this all happened in class. I filled out the consolation form and scheduled a call that day. I found my favorite pre-workout and looked at the formula. Then I decided what I wanted to change about it. when I told the consultant how I wanted the formula it was time to decide flavor and get samples sent in. I didn't have a brand name, business plan, or anything ready. All I had was an idea and a lot of passion. I was very hesitant to start this and it required ALL of my money. I have been giving up all the money I have earned ever since. It was time to figure out a brand name and logo, make the business official with an LLC, build a website, grow my socials, and so many more things. Best part, I was clueless. I had no idea how to start and had no experience. Which led me to do as much research as I possibly could through asking questions, watching videos, and reading books.
I did months and months of taste testing and performance testing. I had everyone I possibly could try it. At this time I was also learning how to make videos and edit. There was a lot for me to learn and most of these skills I am still learning to this day. During the testing I also needed to get a logo made up. For me this was the hardest part. I could never make up my mind on what I wanted it to be. I partnered with the graphic designer that specialized in logo and branding. He gave me exercises to do to get my brain flowing and come up with ideas. After over a hundred different ideas wrote on sticky notes and laid out across my windows I started narrowing it down. Days and days past thinking about which one I liked the most. To me this is everything. I wanted a brand that I would be happy rep forever.
Then it came it me when I wasn't even trying to come up with it. I was working out and I had a gold chain on with a silver bracelet. I always had a love for two toned jewelry. I had a two toned watch I was given for graduation. I also started training in a versatile method. I was playing sports, weight training, and running. Like I said, always loved two toned jewelry. I thought about fitness and my love for two toned jewelry. Toned is a fitness term and I am training in multiple training methods. Put it all together and I decided on TwoToned.
The graphic designer took everything that I had inside my head and put it on paper. It was amazing, like he could read my mind. After he sent me the final design and colors I knew it was perfect. 
After I got my logo and brand name figured out it truly felt like I had a brand. That meant I needed to start all the boring back end stuff and get it all out of the way. That's what I did. I talked to every business person I knew about how to get the business registered legally. After I got the LLC figured out and secured all the other ID numbers and certificates it was time for the fun stuff. Created the pre workout label, start posting about it on social media, starting making shirts and putting my logo on items, went to business meetings to learn about business, and did a lot of talking to some really smart men.
I got a really amazing opportunity to attend a corporate meeting with a huge brand that wasn't even in my industry. Even though this company had nothing to do with my industry they tailored their training to help me understand. Shout out and thanks to Chad.
Label was created, order was placed, website was ready and it was time for production. Everything was ready for the product to be made and placed on the website for people to order.
TwoToned getting produced. I cannot explain how excited I was to see them being made. I was super happy with how the labels turned out. I ordered 288 bottles for my first launch.
I received my shipment and start stocking the shelves. Now that I had the product I had a few more things to do and I could make the website live and start selling.
All I had left to do was take my product photos and create an ad. I bought a pop up studio for products and used my everyday camera. The pictures turned out better than I thought and put a ton of effort into my first ad. Which again I was very proud of.
Now everything was ready and it was time to upload everything to the website and make it live. I spent my last two days making sure everything on the website was good to go and it all looked great.
10/30/23 was the official date of TwoToned's very first drop. This first product was a long time in the making and I put every last dollar I had into this. I am very proud of how far the brand has come already. Everyone who bought this first drop is a part of the beginning. This luxury brand will grow into something big. The products can speak for themselves we just need enough people to try it. I will continue to work as hard as I can to blow up this brand. Anyone who truly believes in this brand and wants to help spread the luxury can apply to become a TwoToned Athlete. We want versatile athletes that know what true hard work is. Come join the team and thank you for reading the story behind TwoToned. This is only the beginning.
