[distant clock ticking]
[clock ticking]
[phone ringing]
[phone button beeps]
- How're you holding up
in this time, my friend?
All right, listen.
Can you give me some stats
with Wahlburgers?
How many of our stores are open?
- The thing that I'm really worried about
is the individual franchisees.
You know, this is their livelihood.
What are people gonna do?
You know, honestly, I mean, I'm, like,
a super positive person,
but I don't know, it's just all this doom and gloom
that's kind of got me down.
All right, let me ask you a question.
Are we gonna get through this?
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- [laughs] No, I'm good.
- Hey, yo, look at that billboard
for the movie right there. - "Spenser Confidential."
- Right here. - Yeah, right there, yeah.
- There's another one right here too.
- Where? - Oh, there's two of 'em.
Two right there.
Four billboards on Sunset all next to each other.
[phone ringing]
[phone beeps]
Adam? Listen, we have to make sure
we figure out this master franchise agreement.
Right? So I can go and open up,
you know, 500 studios, 1,000 studios, whatever it is.
[phone rings]
[phone beeps] Hey, buddy.
But I just wanna figure it out because, dude,
if you--if you figure out
the value that I bring in all the stuff that I'm doing
to not only promote the studios,
but also the brand,
then that should offset some of the cost.
Okay, and I promise you, Adam.
I know you've seen what I can do,
but I'm telling you, I'm just getting started.
Give me a Sharpie. Give me a Sharpie.
Okay, great. And I promise you,
what I can give in return is going to be
fucking unprecedented. Okay?
Give me the Sharpie. - Here you go, I gotcha.
- Okay, all right, cool. Let me go.
I'm at the premiere right now.
[crowd clamoring]
[cameras clicking]
[crowd chattering]
[spray paint can rattling]
[air whirring]
[slow saxophone music]
♪ ♪
I started in music, and then I dabbled
in the underwear modeling thing,
and certainly, people always thought of me
as one thing.
And when I said that I wanted to be an actor,
people thought it was a practical joke.
And I had always had, you know, a grind in me
and an interest in business,
so that's kind of how it progressed.
Sometimes I feel like I should just go back to making movies,
but I'm also doing things that I'm passionate about
and that I believe in, and that are really
kind of a direct extension of who I am.
And I'm wanting to share that and really inspire
other young entrepreneurs to go out there
and be able to figure out how to do it
and go out and make it happen.
♪ ♪
- Thank you.
We'll just do some of it. I'll just pull the stuff out
that I have ready. - Yeah, I've only got
a few minutes, let's go. - Okay, perfect.
Maybe if you wouldn't mind just signing--
this same person sent all these top ones.
I have been Mark's estate manager for seven years.
I'm managing all the crazy stuff he does,
and as each year goes by, I'm just seeing it
get busier and busier and busier.
- You wanna move all this stuff somewhere else
just to sign it?
- I was gonna maybe put it in your office.
- Oh, hell no. - [chuckles]
I think he feels that he's getting older,
and his life as an actor might slow down.
And, yes, he's got movies back to back all the time,
but in between, he's really opening doors
to businesses and stuff that I would have never seen coming.
It's like nothing is off limits.
- Ooh. - [chuckles]
- What do you think, guys?
- It is what it is, bro.
- I don't know the answer!
That's what I'm trying to find out!
- That's it. I'm just gonna do that stack.
- Why don't we do one more stack?
- You want to? Awesome, thank you!
- Oh, this is a good pic right here.
It's fantastic to be able to make a living
making movies and acting,
having the luxury of being able to have a great day job,
which I take very seriously.
It's allowing me to kind of take these other bets.
We're leaving here in eight minutes.
I mean, I think it's important to really have a career
where you can do different things
and not be put into a box.
[violin music]
How's it going? - How's it going?
- Building a business
that, A, you can make a lot of money,
but also changes people's lives for the better,
is something that really, obviously, appeals to me.
- Every color.
[laughter] - "Every color."
- I have multiple businesses
that I really believe in. We have
Closest to the Hole Productions,
AQUAhydrate, Performance Inspired Nutrition,
F45, MUNICIPAL,
Mark Wahlberg Auto Group,
Unrealistic Ideas,
and Wahlburgers,
a family-owned restaurant chain.
♪ ♪
But, you know, there's so many downsides
and learning curves and growing pains
and all of those things.
It's a process.
[laughter] - "It's a process."
- I think, ultimately, at the end of the day, I got the bug.
You know? I got the bug for business.
And, you know, I got people who are, like,
putting in parts of their life savings
and betting their future on me and us.
So I'm gonna work twice as hard
to make sure that I am bringing something
to the table that's beneficial to other people.
So now, kind of being out of my comfort zone,
being in place where I'm kind of learning everything
as I go along,
I need big-picture advice from real professionals
who I know I can count on
to give me good, solid, sound advice.
- I'm Daymond John. - Alli Webb.
- Janice Bryant Howroyd. - Michael Eisner.
- UFC President Dana White.
- Having people who are very experienced in business
helping me make an informed decision.
- You ready for me? - I am so ready.
- Here's something I think a lot of people don't get.
Success is transferrable.
You can be highly successful in one industry
and transfer to a different industry
as long as you're prepared to put the work in
and to honor what you don't know.
♪ ♪
[jet engines whirring]
- Hey, how are you doing, sir?
[laughter]
Thanks again. We appreciate you.
- All right, guys.
[soft music]
♪ ♪
- Hi, babe.
Grace wants to make a video for you.
[chuckles] - [giggles]
I love you.
And I miss you.
- And the first night without you is really hard.
♪ ♪
- Shooting a movie overseas, away from my kid, it's hard.
Not being there for everything?
That's by far the hardest part.
♪ ♪
But every film we do, we try to make
the best version of that movie possible,
and a lot goes into everything that we do.
- Rolling!
all: Rolling!
- You know, we're there to get the job done
and then get home to our families.
- And three, two, one. Action!
♪ ♪
[soft music]
♪ ♪
[TV blares]
- [groans]
♪ ♪
[groaning]
[straining]
[blender whirring]
[shouting]
- My doctor. - Ah, yep.
Rip down. Jay, you can do this.
You can just pull
as much as you can
and try to move this down.
Come on, Jay.
Come on, pull it down, rip it! - I am.
[laughter]
- Making films usually
entails me being on location,
so it makes sense for all of my business partners
to kind of come and visit.
We can have a little bit more, kind of, face time
to grow and build all these other businesses.
I get in business with people that I like
and that I have a real connection with.
Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing,
it's just kind of how I operate, so...
But, you know, they mostly gotta have tough skin.
- Ah! Hey, we have an agreement.
- I can't fight back because you're filming.
So I came out of
General Nutrition Company, GNC.
Mark convinced me to work with him on different deals,
and we became fast friends.
So now, you know,
I vet out other businesses
and review opportunities
that we're gonna get involved in together.
And yeah, we talk five times a day sometimes,
you know, if not more. [chuckles]
- Down, down, down. Down!
Come on, down, further. - That's it!
That's down for me! Come on!
- I usually call him about 3:00 in the morning
every single day and wake him up.
Sometimes it's to talk about business.
Sometimes it's just to bust his balls.
- I can do my--this is my space!
You're in my space.
I can do whatever I want in this space.
People don't understand, you know,
the grind that it really is.
It pushes you to really make things happen
and stay in there.
- And we have each other's back, so it's like,
yeah, could we have somebody else
who, maybe, on paper, are more qualified?
Certainly, but do I have that comfort
and that level of trust?
♪ ♪
[video call ringing]
- What's up, guys?
- What's up, Mark? - Hello.
- Thanks for taking the time.
This is awesome for us to be here
for the first time to look at
where we are in the inception
of Municipal.
- Lev and myself,
we were talking about
and wanting to be
in the apparel space
for a long time.
There were talks with lots of brands,
but I remember kind of thinking about
just doing on our own.
- The team's really excited to go through
and show you where we are at the start of this process.
I met Mark almost 10 years ago.
I was an executive at the Callaway Golf Company.
Clearly, his career is a little different than mine.
But we really bonded over making a brand
from scratch that we could be proud of.
- Who's there at this executive boardroom?
- So you got me,
you got Dave Ortley, who's head of product.
Kim Dippel, head of product design.
Roxanne Pedroza. She makes the stuff for us.
Lev's over there in the corner.
- We're gonna start out with our bomber.
I love this one so much.
- Can I ask you a question? - Yep.
- You know, around the neck, just gotta make sure
that that's, like, strong, flexible fabric,
'cause I'd hate more than anything
when the bomber gets a little looser.
- We're super focused on recovery
like you just said, Mark.
That's all of our pet peeves.
That's a good point.
- Oh, that's good.
So you know me?
You know my reputation.
- Yep. - Yes.
- Um, okay. I love this style.
So we're elevating the Henley. - Hot guy shirt.
- It's the "hot guy shirt." I love a Henley.
- That's all she needed to say to me, Mark.
- Can't wait to see you in it, Harry.
[laughter] - Yes.
- Being in a place that's starting
from scratch, it's really cool.
This type of opportunity doesn't come along
very often.
But, um, there's also
a lot of trial and error.
Municipal is aiming for a June drop,
which is a big challenge
because if there's disalignment,
things change, I have to go back and change product.
You know, that affects development and production.
- What are you feeling so far, Lev?
- I'm digging it. The materials are great,
so I think it's looking awesome.
So when do we actually see some samples?
- Fabric's already being delivered today.
- I can't wait to touch it and feel it and wear it.
- We'll have them send you a package.
Thanks for making time.
- Bye, guys.
Okay, the initial idea is like, "Oh, my God,
"this is fantastic, yeah, we're gonna do this.
Oh, high fives all around." And then all of a sudden,
like, reality sets in and you're like, "Oh, God.
"These guys are literally going to walk away
from their job." You know?
"Their name on the door and the parking spot
and--and do this thing."
So it's scary.
- I think that there's
a lot of people out there
who have great ideas
and would love
to build a business,
but are afraid to.
The answer is always, "Believe in yourself,
"believe in your idea,
and dive in headfirst and go for it."
It's that simple.
[soft music]
♪ ♪
- Ace! Actually, Ace,
go right up there. We're gonna do
a big video on promotion
for Ace Productions.
You stand right in the middle of that fountain.
You want to make sure you introduce the site,
tell 'em about the products, give 'em a little taste,
and then, "Boom." - Okay.
- Ace and Rasta Phil are my best friends from childhood.
We have a spiritual bond and a brotherhood
that has spanned over 37 years.
- ♪ Come on, baby ♪
- You know, Rasta was one of the biggest DJs,
and Ace was dancing choreography.
- ♪ It's about that time ♪ - Yeah!
- So when putting together the Funky Bunch
that consisted of me being the front man
and the rapper in the group, Ace became
an original member of the "Funky Bunch."
- We got an L in every state.
Going iller for real-a.
- Ace was always somebody that we all
looked up to growing up.
That loyalty, that love, that trust.
That goes a long way.
- And, action!
- Big Ace in the building.
At the top of the world here in London.
- What about the music?
- And we got some music for you.
I got that hot heat
called "Clap" on all platforms.
- The clap? - YouTube music--
[laughter]
- You download the clap?
[laughter] - The clap.
- All right, ready? Action!
- It's your boy, Big Ace of Big Ace--
- What's the phone for?
- Oh.
- What the heck?
Action! - Big Ace Productions
here in London at the top of the world.
I got the queen over there, but I'm the king.
- [chuckles] When they go off to Hollywood,
a lot of people change.
It's good that he stayed grounded,
he's keeping his friends around him,
and it's going good so far, you know what I mean?
Look at all the things we've done.
We started with music.
Then we doing acting now.
Now he's doing businesses,
so he's giving everybody jobs
and he's not taking it all.
He's giving back.
[mid-tempo music]
♪ ♪
- My schedule with working on set,
each individual business, and taking care
of my family when I'm gone, is pretty difficult.
- Yo, let's get a picture.
- So if I'm not working on set,
I still have quite a number of other projects to do.
This is gonna be great.
All right, everybody say, "Hashtag, foxy falcon!"
Oh, this is gonna be great!
Everybody say, "Hashtag, faxy--"
Foxy, faxy? Fucksie, fucksie.
[laughter] Sorry, no swearing.
- So this is the one where
Blue Falcon really becomes Blue Falcon.
- Let's take a swing at it.
- There you are. Brian,
what are you doing back here?
- I'm calling my dad.
- You don't need your dad.
- Yes, I do. All right?
He's the hero. I'm not.
I can't win this.
- Good, good. - Hey.
- We're good. - Everyone's gonna be--
- Thank you so much. - Thank you so much.
- Bye. - Safe travels.
- Thanks. - You too.
[upbeat dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- So I had discovered F45 through some mutual friends,
which is a global fitness chain.
I got curious enough to go and visit a studio,
and when I walked into the studio,
I saw a 50-year-old woman
just starting her fitness journey,
working out with a collegiate athlete.
Together, they were high fiving each other.
There was a sense of community and support system
that I had never seen in a gym before.
It was the best gym concept I had ever seen by far.
And there is where I met Ryan,
who is the owner of that studio.
- Am I a fitness person?
Well, clearly I'm not.
I look more like
the "before" picture,
but I make everybody
feel comfortable.
I'm not intimidating anyone.
I'm the owner of four F45 studios
in the Los Angeles area.
From what I've learned about Mark is that the "why"
of what you're doing really matters,
and I think that's where we really see eye to eye.
He's got state-of-the-art gym
in the convenience of his own home,
but he still chooses, two, three, four days a week
to come and be a part of that F45 community.
♪ ♪
Mark and I decided to partner
on a much larger rollout of these fitness studios.
We've been working really hard with F45 corporate
on a very aggressive master franchise agreement.
- A master franchise would be an opportunity for us
to buy a piece of the parent company,
but then also to go and open studios
and accelerate that growth.
I'm excited about the opportunity for sure.
- [groans] Oh, my God.
Oh, no.
- [laughs]
- Bye!
- Hopefully, we'll be
opening up studios soon.
I wanna be in for the long haul.
I would say, 40, 50,000 studios
is what we think we can do, you know?
We think we can have more locations
than Starbucks, you know?
[cheering]
[violin music]
♪ ♪
One day, my brother Paul came to me and said
he wanted to do a burger joint.
And I was like, "Cool," and then he said
he wanted to call it "Wahlburgers,"
and I said, "Over my dead body."
I said, "I worked too hard to kind of build my brand."
But I did believe in my brother's talent.
And then, of course, the entrepreneur in me
started thinking, "This is a great opportunity
"to build a family business,
pass it on to future generations,"
which is why I then wanted to do
the "Wahlburgers" TV show.
In quite a while, we're the fastest-growing
restaurant in the history of franchises.
♪ ♪
My brother created an amazing experience
for customers, but to be able to duplicate that
and make sure that the consistency is there
and it runs flawlessly--
it's not any easy thing to do.
- You know, London is very expensive,
and this particular Wahlburger,
since we opened six months ago,
there's been, really,
more than one challenge.
We had a couple issue with service, with food.
You know, we're doing a lot of things
to try to improve it.
♪ ♪
- Good evening, guys. How's everybody doing?
[cheering]
This is a new territory, and, you know,
you have to earn people's respect,
and the respect comes from the experience
that my brother provides.
[cheering]
The fact of the matter is, we're in a bit of a funk
when it comes to certain things.
We're having a lot of growing pains.
Yeah, yeah.
That's why I keep scratching my head here.
We're hoping we can figure it out.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
[phone ringing]
These guys aren't answering the phone.
- Yep.
- This is a big one. We've been working on this one
for a long time, you know.
- Hey, Mark. - Hey, Mike.
So, can we talk about where we're at
with the master franchise agreement?
- [sighs] - We've been dealing
with Luke forever,
and Luke has never been on the same page with Adam,
and then he punts it to Chris.
And now it's gotten kicked back to Luke?
- Yeah. - Oh, my God.
The F45 deal is not done yet.
Everything is kind of--
kind of in flux, and I'm continuously
pitching myself to them,
which is a little bit frustrating.
I haven't had to do that
since I started out in my career.
We should obviously have the means
and the ability to go out there and own, operate, build,
everything souped to nuts when it comes to the studios.
- Uh, that's so complicated.
The optics and the fairness
and the potential pitfalls, risks,
I highly doubt it.
♪ ♪
- "No" is something that
an entrepreneur gets to hear
more than anything else
in the world.
People love to tell you
what you can't do.
And I'll tell you why.
Because a lot of people
don't want you to win.
But that has to drive you.
- Okay, I've been a good partner thus far.
- Yeah. - For us,
we wanna open as many studios as possible.
You know, sometimes you just have to bite
more than you can chew and then just chew like hell--
- And figure it out later, right?
- Yeah. - That's right.
- You know, if you just look at the numbers
from what they were selling per franchise
to what they started selling after I got involved,
it's pretty astronomical.
So, this is--this is pretty crazy.
We're all committed to it, you know, on our end,
and we've got a great team.
Let's--let's lock this down.
- All right, sounds good. Thank you.
- Bye. Okay.
♪ ♪
- Thank you. - Oscar, come with the key!
- I'm coming. I'm right behind you.
[chuckling]
- The apparel business-- it's always difficult.
Lots of people out there who have lots of different tastes,
and so making something that appeals to the masses
is the most important thing.
- This is new for all of us,
and to get us to market
when we're going through this
for the first time, you know--
that could be super, super stressful.
- I have to make some serious hard decisions
on what product we are going to focus on.
Thank you, guys. - Thank you.
- You know, I have a lot of respect
and a lot of love for my partners.
I wouldn't be in business with them if I didn't think
that they were great at what they do.
But, you know, you have to be able to tell each other,
you know, when we've done a good job,
we did a not so good job.
That's just the nature of business.
[mid-tempo music]
♪ ♪
- So we're working on a film called "Infinite,"
directed by Antoine Fuqua.
[motorcycle engine humming]
- Does it feel like it's faster?
So we can play when we're switching gears?
- You know, it adds down time from filming,
but during breaks, generally we'll have people waiting
to sit and have meetings.
♪ ♪
- Nobody really does chowder,
so we want to see how that goes.
The guys in the kitchen seem very confident
that people would be excited by it.
- Maybe they don't make it because people don't like it.
- I think it's just more people don't make it...
as opposed to people don't make it because they don't like it.
- What--what's the problem?
- I'll be back there Monday morning.
I'll do another tasting.
Some days, I feel like, you know,
"this is what I'm meant to do," and other days,
I'm like, "Let me kind of focus on what I'm good at,"
what I thought was complicated and stressful,
which is my--my acting and producing business.
[zipper buzzes]
♪ ♪
[electrical buzzing]
- [straining]
Why do I gotta go?
[intense mid-tempo music]
♪ ♪