Matthew Mak 0:05

Do you ever notice the people doing the most aren't asking for advice? This is built without permission. I'm Matthew Mak. Before you ever drew a blueprint or signed a business deal, it's folding suits, hauling snow, and washing glasses until 2 a.m. Bank game architecture, no trucks, and a built business for the growing up with my partner. No blueprint, no safety net, no approval. Just real stories, hard pivots, and what it actually takes to build something from nothing. Let's get to work. Awesome. Sean, thanks for joining me on Built Without Permission. Welcome. Thank you for having me, Matt. Absolutely, man. Uh, thanks for sharing the time, of course. Uh so let's start off with getting to know who you are. Give us the 60-second version of who you are, what you built, the real story.

Shaun Shubert 1:02

Uh my name is John Schubert, and I am from uh Boston, Massachusetts. I grew up doing martial arts and actually kind of fell into owning the gym. I am a chef by trade, and I got into owning the gym because I got into a little bit of trouble and kind of lost uh lost my bearings. Um I had a martial arts instructor who asked me if I wanted to go in partnership with him about 15 years ago, and that's how I ended up starting in the the the gym business, uh at least ownership-wise. Yeah. And took me down some, you know, kind of a winding road. Um, so I got my traditional black belts, karate, kempo, shotokan, that kind of thing. That's what I grew up doing as a kid. And then I got into competition fighting, sport fighting, um, and started my combat sports career about 15 years ago. Uh, so I I was I was competing under this other guy, and then when I took the gym over, uh you know, some some things happened, and I I ended up with the gym and kept fighting, and the gym was really just something that I was doing so that I didn't have to go get a real job when I yeah, when I was competing. And that's uh that's really it. And and now I've owned the gym 15 years. Uh I employ 10 people. I am growing an online business um that kind of couples the martial arts with the the mentality stuff that I got from from being a martial artist my whole life. And uh that's that's kind of where I am today.

Matthew Mak 3:04

That's cool. And and you were seeing that um in the mix of all that, so you um you studied in uh culinary arts.

Shaun Shubert 3:12

I did. I went to a trade school because I was having a tough time in high school anyway. So I went to a regional high school and was virtually failing out. I was having a lot of trouble with teachers, having a lot of trouble keeping my grades up, and I was always active. I played hockey as a kid, played youth football, played baseball, and the sports were really the only things that kind of kept me in line. Yeah, and I was really just like by the skin of my teeth getting by with D's just so I could make make it onto the hockey team and things like that. Yeah, and I I I just got into a bit of trouble where I I hit about a depression. I I come from a broken home, anyways, and just some some real bad stuff kind of just started piling up, snowballing. Um, I ended up actually trying to take my own life when I was 15 and uh was unsuccessful, obviously. And it it brought me through a whole lot of therapy and mindset shifts. And about 17 I found uh Zen philosophy and started practicing Zen, and then later got into Buddhism and just the the martial arts stuff really kind of came back into my life. Yeah, about uh, you know, like I said, I I was growing up doing it, and then around 15-16, I kind of fell out of it, and that's where kind of those all those bumps in the road happened. And just going through all that kind of jazz, getting getting kicked out of school, I ended up at a trade school that was local, and I started to kind of thrive. Just the the way they handle academia, the two weeks on, two weeks off, getting into a trade, getting up out of a seat and being able to do something and be a little bit more productive. That brought me down to the culinary thing, and that's uh that's where I really started to kind of take off the first 10 years of my life. Uh out outside of school, I was I was doing it as a chef.

Matthew Mak 5:34

Yeah. So now um really your family's pretty much bonus because you got a kick-ass dad, right? And you can cook.

Shaun Shubert 5:45

Yeah, yeah. My wife won my wife won the lottery on that one. Yeah, you got a double combo there.

Matthew Mak 5:50

That's that's a deadly win. Yeah, yeah.

Shaun Shubert 5:53

Chef and a bouncer all the same, same guy.

Matthew Mak 5:55

That's awesome. That's awesome. Yeah, but no, that's um, and yeah, like, you know, it's it's so while you're uh explaining that to like what you went through from when you were in your teens and all, right? It's like um you recognized kind of now where you were then, you know, and you were able to bounce back out of what was going on then without realizing it maybe in the moment that helped you get to where you are now. You know what I mean? Like it's like it could totally have gone south, worse. Way worse. Way worse, right? But then when you started recognizing and you were doing things, you were executing things that were helping you lead you to where you are today, right? You followed that path that made you know got you out of where you were, right? Because I I find that environment definitely one of the biggest effects in all our lives is where we are and who we're around, right? That just trumps a lot of things, right?

Shaun Shubert 6:55

Yeah, I I definitely my my mother tried to to hold things together the best she could, and I was just really far gone. Um, I didn't understand a lot. I I was really angry all the time, and that's why I was taking a real shine to the combat sports, and there's a ton of statistics, but most people that grow up without having that kind of male figure in the house by a certain age, they're gonna go out and they're gonna find those male figures. And if there's not somebody that's old enough and wise enough and masculine enough to kind of take hold, then you're just gonna do that with whoever your friends are, right? That you're gonna start following their advice, you're gonna start following whoever the the crowd is, and that's you don't know what's right or wrong. No, of course not, of course not. And and so that definitely led me led me astray. I was lucky enough to to get back into martial arts. I had an aunt who kind of saw the writing on the wall and gave me a gift certificate back, and I actually had that gift certificate in my wallet for for years, and when I finally went back to the to the school, they were like, Man, this thing's been expired for two years, right? And but it got you there. It got me there, yeah. And and the the owner of the school remembered me from when I was a kid and kind of took me back under his wing, and even when I when I got in trouble uh doing the restaurant thing, he was he was right there to help me pick up the pieces and kind of push me back into the right direction, you know?

Matthew Mak 8:52

Yeah, that's amazing, man. No, that's a great, great, great, great story, right? And um now I know you kind of kind of uh brushed up on it a little bit, but let's say going back now in a little bit more detail on a sacrifice that you made that most people they would never see or even talk about.

Speaker 3 9:14

Yeah.

Shaun Shubert 9:16

I don't I don't I don't think I even look at it as as sacrifices because I'm looking forward so much that I was just re I I was just so so lost that the only thing that looked promising was like what could it be, right? And when I decided that I was going to take the combat sport thing a lot more serious, sacrifices are just a part of the game. Yeah, and you're missing birthdays, you're missing parties, you're missing all the holidays, you know, and and you're picking it, right? It's different than if you're working for the state or the government, or you're working, you know, uh my wife is a is a firefighter paramedic, and like you don't get a choice. Like you're working those holidays if you're scheduled, right? But this was by choice. I was making these sacrifices on purpose with purpose because I knew that I wanted to be able to cut weight. I knew that I wanted to be in the best shape that I could be in. I knew that I had to stay displayed and that motivation was so far removed from it. You know, uh there's there's obviously days where you don't want to be in the gym, you don't want to be going to sparring, you don't want to be getting hit, punched, kicked. You're having bad days, but you still got to show up anyways. And those kind of things were just they were such a regular part of every day because uh the combat sports is is so demanding.

Matthew Mak 11:07

Yeah. And then you're just pretty much, you know, um nailing it like it's it's the consistency, right? As much as you don't want to or you don't have the energy for it, but you just force yourself because yeah, showing up. You just gotta be consistent because it's it's like consistency in everything that we do, that's the game changer, right? And even you don't see the results right away, but it's just it's steps, one step at a time, right?

Shaun Shubert 11:30

A hundred percent. And and you know, like you were saying before, it's just such a blessing now because I made those sacrifices, and I made it such a prominent part of my early 20s and and into my 30s that one of the one of the biggest sacrifices that I had to make personally was to not be fighting anymore, right? It was like I got married, had my first son, and then it was like, all right, now I gotta start treating this clubhouse like a business. Now I've got to start doing things to actually make money instead of just like breaking even enough that I don't have to go to work, right? Now I and and that's when I started hiring business coaches. That's when I started really leaning into entrepreneurship instead of just having a clubhouse, a fight club that you know was was paying a couple bills, and you know, but there was a time where I was I was sleeping at the gym. I I didn't have rent, I didn't have that, you know, everything I was was doing was was for fighting. Um and and now fast forward the last three years have been the reading the books, the the the the not taking profits out of the gym and paying staff and and trying to build teams and lead people and uh my my latest venture now is that I've started uh looking at coaching up other dads, other other guys who kind of lost themselves, other people that sacrifice a lot of time and energy, but they're not able to be present for their wife, for their kids. And that's to me one of the most important things, especially growing up as a latchkey kid, as somebody that didn't have their parents around, always had babysitters, always had family members watching them. Like, you just want that time with your parents, and and now at 40 years old, like that's the stuff you can't get back. That's the stuff that that makes the most sense to me. Um and I'm just really I'm lucky and I'm and I'm super grateful to have had uh you know the faith and the foresight to to be able to build this kind of life.

Matthew Mak 14:08

Yeah. And now there's like two things like what you're saying here that that strike me. Um, and one of them is uh about um I think this is at the last chapter of Dan's book, Buy Back Your Time, was that like the the path that we choose, um, you want to make sure that you know, as much as you're working really hard for whatever it is that you're doing, that your wife, your kids, whoever it is that you love around you, that when you do reach that goal, that they're there with you. Right? Like that's the part that really like hit me so hard. I'm like, because you know, you you get all tunnel vision and and what you're doing work-wise, right? And you're making all these like sacrifices, and one of the biggest ones is their time, right? And that's not their choice. And whatever you're planning to do when you're thinking of that great future, it's not a part of their plans, but you want to make sure that they're still there when you reach that that plan of yours, right? Along the way until you get there, right? But like that one.

Shaun Shubert 15:08

Yeah, you know it was really crazy. Um when I when I finally did have kids and uh not just like the newborn stage, but the stage where uh they're uh going to daycare type of thing, right? Yep. And I'm like, dude, there's no way I'm putting my kids in daycare. There's no way. And like I just started coming up with all these like who's gonna watch the kid type of scenario, like, I'm gonna watch these kids. Like, they're coming to the gym with me. Like, they're gonna grow up in one of these most epic environments where like they're gonna be around dedicated people, they're gonna be around discipline, they're gonna be around all these people that have dreams of whether it's fighting, weight loss, just being better people, you know, training physically, mentally, the mind, body, spirit stuff that comes with martial arts. Like, my kids are just so lucky to to grow up in that, and I'm so lucky that I get to to make that a part of their lives where they can just like my son came to work with me this morning, and we didn't have to call a babysitter, we didn't have to pay for daycare, we didn't have to drop them off and pick them up, like he's just with you, you know, and now he's just like immersed in this gym culture, which he's gonna grow up and he's not gonna know any different. He's only four years old. He's not gonna he doesn't know like people that don't go to the gym, right? He doesn't know people that are that are undisciplined or that that have these other ways of life, like it that's gonna be the culture shock for him, is like when he finds out like there's overweight people that there's kids that eat Cheetos and watch Netflix or whatever, you know what I mean? Like, yeah, that's gonna be the culture shock for him.

Matthew Mak 17:04

Yeah, yeah. No, absolutely. It's so it's what you're uh exposing to them in their environment, right? And that's a that's a great thing that you're doing. Right. I I try to um do that with my son too, like bring him with me to work and all. My wife just reminds me of that, but sometimes because in my my mindset, it's that because I'm around heavy machinery, I don't want an accident to happen, so that's the safety factor that hits me. But then my wife's like, you gotta expose him to it. At least he knows. I'm like, okay, so I try to juggle that in my mind.

Shaun Shubert 17:35

Yeah, but I mean, like, how how lucky are you? How how grateful are you that like you have that ability, right? Like, yes, there are there are people that don't and and I don't I'll I I'm not sure that I really had like the exact foresight. Like when I was 19, 20 years old, like I was having a way different lifestyle. There, like getting married and having kids was not in my agenda, it was not in my big plans, right? But but it did happen, and I'm like, man, like I've been like subconsciously doing this for for 10 years, right? Like, I've been building this subconsciously so that I don't have to I don't have to lean on the system. I don't have to put my kids into you know like somebody else's care. Like they're they're just gonna be with their parents all day every day, you know? Um yeah, and I just think that that's I think that's so cool. And I it it almost like breaks my heart for the people that got stuck in in some other way. They're they're in these loops of like I gotta go to work, I gotta, I gotta work 60, 80, 100 hours a week, I gotta be doing X, Y, and Z to be the provider for my family. But like man, it's like you're there's so much that you're not providing because it's it's not just money. It's not just you know come coming home and and saying like, oh yeah, you know, I can come home for and and have family dinner. Like, if that's all you got, like that's great, right? But like I feel so blessed that I I can legitimately have my my kids with me from daybreak all the way through, like giving them a bath time and and putting them to bed reading stories and all that stuff, you know?

Matthew Mak 19:38

Absolutely, right? Yeah, no, and that's that's totally true, right? And you know what, at some point I think a lot of ourselves have we were there at one point, but we just managed to break free out of that when we hit our ceilings at certain points in our lives, right? And unfortunately not everyone gets to that.

unknown 19:59

Right.

Shaun Shubert 19:59

Yeah, it it it sometimes makes me curious to even know like who who's awake enough to even realize that, right? Like how many people just still have the blinders on that think that they're doing a a real bang up job. They think that everything's great because they're pulling a paycheck, you know, like they're not even struggling financially, they're not even struggling, like, you know, like but they're not they're not awake, they're not having date nights, they're not awake, they don't like they're not like going back and and and imagining like what's it gonna be like they're not you know what what are their kids gonna say in every day's the same growing up rinks and repeat everything every day is the same, it doesn't change. It's crazy to me.

Matthew Mak 20:47

It really is. But you know, uh and I'm thinking and I totally agree with you on that. Um, I was talking to one of um so I had uh his name is Michael Mock. He was uh also on our elite group, and I had a cast uh podcasting with him, and he brought something to my attention that tweaked my thought on that, which was really interesting. Because the question about built without permission, I'm thinking about entrepreneurs and that you know we're we're done waiting for permission from anyone, but we give ourselves permission. But he he twisted my my mindset that saying, but you know what, Matt? People that worked, let's say the nine to five, maybe that is what they enjoy want to do. So they are built without permission, they want to help the other person, the leader, fulfill their dream. They don't want to be that leader, right? So I was like, huh, interesting. Like, you know, I thought that was pretty cool.

Shaun Shubert 21:38

Yeah, I I definitely agree with that. I actually just hired uh um she's working at my front desk, but she's like really working her way more into like that EA type of position. Yeah. And she is my polar opposite. These things that I'm like, why would anybody want to do this? She's like, and she loves it. I love doing it, you know. Like, she's just she's just really, really great in that regard. And you know, uh, she's all she's all set up, you know, she's got a kid, and she has a husband who's retired from the military, which I'm sure they're getting some kind of government stipend. I'm sure that they're all right. And she really enjoys just being at the gym and doing things to help me out and to help me grow my business. And like even gives me like that little bit of coaching, like, hey man, like it seems like you're you're doing my job again. Seems like you know, you're doing like all these all these tasks again, like, hey, did you ask anybody for a favor that could help you out and like so that you don't have to do it? Like, hey man, you shouldn't be doing this, like you're the you're the owner type of thing. And I'm like, man, like and and that's I guess you know, my curse is like I'm so far on that that other end, like, yeah, I can't even see like who would wanna who would want to do these jobs, you know, like who wants to work the 95? Who wants to do and like yeah, that's exactly right, man. It's exactly what you just said.

Matthew Mak 23:22

So that's the keeper.

Shaun Shubert 23:24

Yeah, oh a hundred percent, man. A hundred percent. A hundred percent. Yeah, man. I got a I got a real good, real good friend who who um he's pretty high, high level of it, and and he works for somebody else. He's the VP VP of another company, and he's like, Man, whatever you do, you take care of this girl, like you give her whatever she wants, like that's like that's the golden nugget right there. Like, that's a god send, you know.

Matthew Mak 23:51

And now she's giving you your time back where you can focus on other things, right? That's where you don't have to worry about the admin, the you know, all the things you don't want to do.

Shaun Shubert 24:02

Right, yeah, man. Yeah, right back to right back to being creative and building and uh and all that's the stuff that I that I really enjoy that that makes me thrive.

Matthew Mak 24:12

Yeah, no, that's awesome, man. That's awesome. Um, so I know we're we're getting cut short on a bit of time here because I know we're getting into it and I love I love the vibes and the energy, uh, Sean. So let's get to the built without permission.

Speaker 2 24:26

What does it mean to you?

Speaker 3 24:29

Oh man.

Shaun Shubert 24:33

I was uh I was told a long time ago by another kind of mentor um who actually told me something that that it really never went away, and he said it's always better to beg for forgiveness than to ask for permission. And that mindset really just stuck with me. Like you know something in your gut, and you you just know it's it's the thing to do, you know it's the moves to make, you know that that was gonna get you there. And if it's a problem, like it's way easier to say, hey man, sorry, like uh, you know, didn't think it through. Hey man, sorry, like didn't think this was gonna be an issue, and yeah, and I've been really living my life like that for a very long time, you know. Um like I like I mentioned at the beginning, like kind of was like grew up as as like a little bit of a troubled kid anyways, so I was always like getting getting busted up and doing the wrong thing, but like some shifts in in the mindset and like you know, working towards like good merits and having good karma and and all that kind of like Zen philosophy, Buddhist type of stuff that like started influencing me. Like I I just like sometimes you just know you just know better. Sometimes you just know better your gut's telling you just like just do it, man. Just yeah, just just build, bro.

Matthew Mak 26:07

So can you agree with me on this that and I fully believe this is that the gut feeling is a hundred percent right. Yeah, man.

Shaun Shubert 26:17

Like I was saying to you at the beginning, like I I built a lot of this stuff and didn't even I wasn't even thinking about it, right? Like I actually read somewhere that you know you got um all these clusters in in the back of your brain, Nugget. Like uh your um man, I I'm gonna mess it up. Uh either way, like right right in the back of your head, like is is where all of these clusters of nerves happen, right? And it helps you to like be making decisions and what whatever have you, right? But the subconscious part of your brain actually lives in your gut.

Speaker 2 27:02

Yeah.

Shaun Shubert 27:02

And you have like these nerve clusters, there's like halfway down your spine, and that's uh where the the term gut feeling comes from, man. Like so you yeah, so your subconscious is actually in your gut, and yes, it's just wild, like you know, like you're saying, you know, it it's it's crazy, but yeah, I think a hundred percent a hundred percent on that, and and there's actually now the science that that proves it for you.

Matthew Mak 27:30

And you just keep going with it, man. Keep running with it, run with the one wind bullseye. Yeah, that's it, man. Awesome, Sean. Now, where can we find you? Where is the best place to reach out? If people want to reach out, uh check you out in your gym, IG. What's the best spot?

Shaun Shubert 27:48

The the best place to get a hold of me is at Sean underscore Shubert on Instagram. That that's 100% the best place to get a hold of me. If you're interested in catching any of the fights or any of the Muay Thai coaching, I do have some fights up on YouTube. You just type in my name, Sean Schubert. That's sh-a-un and s-h-u-b-e-r-t. So there's there's a U for Sean and no C in Schubert.

Speaker 2 28:17

Uh here you go.

Shaun Shubert 28:18

And and yeah, you'll you'll be able to catch some good fights on there. Uh, some wins, some losses, but all of them are are entertaining and all of them are wars. And uh, I've got some Muay Thai coaching shorts up on there. Um, I also have a Facebook if you're interested. And if anybody's local to the Cape Con uh Boston, Massachusetts area, uh redsealma.com is is my my website where you can sign up for a free trial.

Matthew Mak 28:46

Awesome. Well, thanks again, Sean, for joining me on Built Without Permission. Love to chat again soon. Have a blessed day, brother.

Shaun Shubert 28:53

Matty, thanks so much for having me. I'd love to get back together.

Matthew Mak 28:57

Fantastic, bro. All right, cheers, buddy. Awesome. See ya. Bye. Peace. If you're waiting for permission, you're already behind. The life you're building starts with the decisions you make today. So stop thinking and start moving. Subscribe, share this with someone still thinking about it, and start building something of your own. No blueprint, no approval, no excuses. I'm Matthew Mak. This is built without permission.