"You become a CEO in your mind before you have the CEO title."
Greg Booth is the CEO of Gym Molly. He also consults for Google providing strategy for their Connected TV products. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University and an MBA from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. Greg began his career in the Mailroom at United Talent Agency. He serves on the Boards of Mending Kids International and the Georgetown Entertainment and Media Alliance.
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Table of Contents
Welcome to your ValiantCEO exclusive interview! Let’s start with a little introduction. Tell us about yourself.
Greg Booth: Happy to be here!
Inspired by all the other CEOs and I am excited to contribute. I know how hard it is to start a business (and I’ve started a few!). Entrepreneurs are the artists of the business world and what a great way to express yourself. These are rapidly changing times, so props to all the CEOs navigating these waters!
NO child ever says I want to be a CEO when I grow up. What did you want to be and how did you get to where you are today? Give us some lessons you learned along the way.
Greg Booth: When I was younger, I wanted to be a comedian. It allowed me to think creatively and honed my public speaking skills. Not all the jokes work, just like as an entrepreneur, not all the ideas work. But, overtime, you learn what works and what doesn’t. The best ideas remain, and you continue to listen to market feedback. Gradually you keep the best ideas and connect in different ways to different customers.
I think the top thing you learn as a comedian is you have to stay nimble and be able to move quickly. These have been very helpful skills as a CEO.
Tell us about your business, what does the company do? What is unique about the company?
Greg Booth: Gym Molly is an energy drink company. Too many people think of fitness as not fun or enjoyable. We wanted to create a fitness & lifestyle brand that would show how awesome life can be through health and fitness. Since we’re a fitness lifestyle brand we incorporate sports/fitness with the fun adventurous California lifestyle.
We have an international team of positive minded athletes who work to inspire people to live their best lives. We’ve worked with NFL Cheerleaders to Championship Professional Bodybuilders.
Our teammates know that we genuinely care about them and their careers, so we support them throughout all of their endeavors. We see them as family, not just someone who can help us get more sales.
How to become a CEO? Some will focus on qualities, others on degrees, how would you answer that question?
Greg Booth: You become a CEO in your mind before you have the CEO title. Ultimately being the CEO means that you are comfortable with taking responsibility for making decisions. People look to you for the support, particularly in challenging times.
Learning from other key decision makers I think is helpful. I recommend executive autobiographies. There are times as a CEO you will face similar challenges, and knowing how other leaders have handled similar situations I think is helpful.
But ultimately being CEO requires a leap of faith. A willingness to put your ideas into the market and see how consumers react.
What are the secrets to becoming a successful CEO? Who inspires you, who are your role models and why? Illustrate your choices.
Greg Booth: As a Boston kid, I really admire Samuel Adams beer. They were a total disruptor to the industry and really started the microbrew movement. I see Gym Molly as the Sam Adams of energy drinks. Like Tesla, Gym Molly does not do any paid marketing today. Just like Tesla, we want to make a quality product that speaks for itself, and consumers share their experience through word of mouth.
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mike Tyson inspire me as both athletes and businessmen.
My personal hero would be the legendary Steve Booth. He takes Gym Molly for cardio.
Many CEOs fall into the trap of being all over the place. What are the top activities a CEO should focus on to be the best leader the company needs? Explain.
Greg Booth: Weekly planning and daily review is the best planning possible in this day in age. There are certain tasks I try to complete each week, and each day I prioritize my top objectives for the day. As a CEO, you are constantly pulled in different directions throughout the day. But as long as the vision is clear, I know I’m at least moving in the right direction.
Another very important part of the day is the gym. The gym is really where I can close my mind and focus on the task in the moment. So much time as CEO is spend looking ahead and learning from what’s behind. The gym allows me to center and focus on the task at hand.
Finally, eating right and getting enough sleep is critical for my productivity. I think clearer and can do more in the day if I’m taking care of my body and mind.
The Covid-19 Pandemic put the leadership skills of many to the test, what were some of the most difficult challenges that you faced as a CEO/Leader in the past year? Please list and explain in detail.
Greg Booth: Gyms across America were closed most of 2020. We created our own gym in the kitchen to stay in shape during the pandemic. We tried to lead by example, doing additional giveaways and staying positive. Our social media emphasized inclusivity and positivity.
Our neighborhood in Hollywood was the focal point for many social movements from across the political spectrum.
The slow down allowed us to focus on new product development and how the industry was changing. We utilized the time to focus on releasing new cans, with new ones coming out even today. Staying in shape is one of the best ways to fight off covid, and we’re happy to be part of people’s health plans.
What are some of the greatest mistakes you’ve noticed some business leaders made during these unprecedented times? What are the takeaways you gleaned from those mistakes?
Greg Booth: We learn new information about Covid and the variants every day. I think the best leaders found ways to be flexible, and allowing people to react to the pandemic in their own way. Our goal is to respect our suppliers, retailers, and customers, where they are both in the US and worldwide. At each touch point, there are different rules and expectations about what is considered safe. I think the biggest mistake leaders can make in times of change is take a fixed position. Flexibility allows for change and a dynamic conversation, reflecting the changing nature of the pandemic.
Now that we know a bit more about this virus, we know that working out and staying healthy is one of the best ways to combat it. We are proud to help our customers on their fitness journey.
In your opinion, what changes played the most critical role in enabling your business to survive/remain profitable, or maybe even thrive? What lessons did all this teach you?
Greg Booth: The pandemic really allowed us the opportunity to step back and think about where we wanted the business to be in 5 years. Covid wasn’t necessarily a game changer so much as it was a game accelerator. So much of our life is moving online, and Covid made those changes come about even faster. 5 day commutes into the city we think are a thing of the past. People are much more geographically mobile, and comfortable working online. When the US went into lockdown we weren’t able to interact with our supporters in person and had to find news to engage our audience via social media. We started posting At Home workouts and created more LIVE content to connect with our customers.
Supply chain issues remain a challenge, but we diversified our product portfolio over the pandemic. We’ve been able to grow despite the headwinds, and are hopeful to continue to help America get back into the gym.
What is the #1 most pressing challenge you’re trying to solve in your business right now?
Greg Booth: Product development is our number one challenge. We are still new to the can business, and we learn more each time. We have some great new products and flavors coming out, and we’re excited to develop even more into 2022.
You already shared a lot of insights with our readers and we thank you for your generosity. Normally, leaders are asked about their most useful qualities but let’s change things up a bit. What is the most useless skill you have learned, at school or during your career?
Greg Booth: Great question.
In business school, there’s a lot of focus on margin per unit. For small businesses, your cost of doing business will always exceed your revenue. Focusing on profitability too early will cause most entrepreneurs to sacrifice quality for price. Margins get better as scale goes up. Focusing on making the best product possible, and worrying about profitability later, is definitely the way to go.
Thank you so much for your time but before we finish things off, we do have one more question. We will select these answers for our ValiantCEO Award 2021 edition. The best answers will be selected to challenge the award.
Share with us one of the most difficult decisions you had to make, this past year 2021, for your company that benefited your employees or customers. What made this decision so difficult and what were the positive impacts?
Greg Booth: One of the most difficult decisions was the canceling of a team trip Team events have been so much harder to coordinate as various outbreaks have happened across states. One of our trips was coming up, and the state in question put in a new rule for visitors from out of state that would have prevented us from getting together. Less than 7 days to go, we canceled our reservations and reorganized the trip to a new city and state. Not everyone was able to join, but we were able to get enough of the team together to create some great content. Very difficult decision, but ultimately we are happy with the result.
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Greg Booth for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Greg Booth or his company, you can do it through his – Instagram
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