We recently connected with Cary Williams and have shared our conversation below.

Cary, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

Taking risks is a huge part of being an entrepreneur.
Being a serial entrepreneur, I have taken many risks and feel like it is in my nature to be a risk taker.
I am sure you have read before, “No risk, no reward”. This is absolutely true in life.
My first business was a boxing & fitness gym and I opened it well before the words boxing and fitness went together! It was a huge risk to open a gym that offered something that no one was offering anywhere.
But, it was something I could see a need for. The demand was there but I had to look deeper to see it.
My most current risk was to start Tussle.
Tussle is a female fight & fitness brand that specializes is female gear. Being in the business of service for over 25 years, creating a product company was a big risk.
Once again, I could see a need but when you are first to market, it requires you to educate the customer. Until they see that they have this option, they didn’t know that they needed specific gear that fits them properly or that is beautiful.
There is always a financial risk when you are starting a company. That financial risk is yours initially.
I just hear this the other day, which really resonates with me. “Scared money doesn’t make money”.
If you want to start a business, you must take a risk!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Over the past 27 years in the boxing and fitness industry, Cary has been featured on NBC, CBS, ABC and FOX as well as in national publications such as Shape, Energy, Fitness, Entrepreneur, Inc., SUCCESS, FHM, USA Today and The New York Times. Cary has even graced the cover of Muscle & Fitness HERS and appeared on the popular NBC show, Fear Factor. As well, on EXTRA and on Lifetime network as a trainer on the show Fit2Fat2Fit and on CNBC’s Billion Dollar Buyer.

Cary has contributed to numerous national publications, news shows on tov and radio. She is also a key note speaker giving motivational speeches at venues and schools on a regular basis.

In the boxing world, Cary boxed competitively in the amateurs and won the Pacific Northwest Women’s Tournament before hanging up her gloves. She is now a Level IV Olympic Level Boxing Coach with USA Boxing. Cary has trained many boxers, some of which have made it to Olympic Trial Qualifying Tournaments. Cary caught the attention of many when she trained and cornered a female boxer for 3 Olympic Qualifying tournaments. All done without the help of an assistant coach in the corner for each fight.

As a spokesperson for Everlast, Cary created a boxing class format for 24 Hour group fitness called Everlast ShadowBox and was a part of several print ad campaigns for Everlast.

Cary founded the “Knocking Out Obesity” tour which stopped at 10 of the “fattest” cities in the nation (according to Men’s Fitness). Cary conducted non-contact boxing workouts with students at 10 middle schools in the nation.

In the beginning, she founded PRIME TIME BOXING, INC. and created Prime Time Boxing Club, a non-profit organization that offers scholarship programs to pay for the training, equipment and travel expense of disadvantaged children. Cary grew PRIME TIME BOXING, INC to 4 boxing clubs in California and even started franchising in 2008.
Cary has worked with thousands of young girls teaching them boxing, but the biggest lessons they have learned from Cary is that they can be strong, smart and successful without sacrificing their femininity. Her work with young women got her recognized by The California Legislature along with Brandi Chastain and several other women in sports, for her contribution and impact on girls’ sports.

Cary has taken those years of experience in the boxing, fitness and gym world to create something unique for women in combat sports….. Tussle!
Tussle, not only designs and creates gear specifically for girls and women but also gloves that are the most versatile on the market! Before now, boxing gloves needed to be taken off to lift weights, get water, use a phone, etc. With an eye for innovation and a portfolio of Olympic level boxers and everyday gym warriors, Cary created a boxing glove that will never interrupt a workout. Convenient but with a beautiful, high-quality design.

Tussle is a Certified woman owned and operated company in the USA. We are the only woman owned USA company that specializes in women’s fight gear.

Have you ever had to pivot?

The pivot I needed to do was still in the same industry but i went from service to product.
I was at a fitness tradeshow about a year ago as a presenter and I also had a booth for my boxing certification company.
For my certification company I had a workout program called Boxing & Barbells. For this program I invented gloves that could be used to hit the punching bag and lift weights.
At my booth I had those gloves displayed since they were sold with the program.
A buyer from TJMaxx happened to walk by and see the gloves. She was intrigued with them and asked if i would be willing to sell them to her.
I was surprised but at that moment I felt like it was a sign for me to pivot.
Spending 25 years as a boxing coach does put some wear and tear on the body, and i was feeling it.
This was the perfect time to transition to a product company.
I did know that there was a gap in the market for female fight and fitness gear, so that was my direction.
Voila, Tussle was created!

Conversations about M&A are often focused on multibillion dollar transactions – but M&A can be an important part of a small or medium business owner’s journey. We’d love to hear about your experience with selling businesses.

I sold two of my boxing gyms about 10 years ago.
I knew that they were not going to be as successful with me being in another city so I thought it would be best to sell them to an owner/operator.
Because a gym is a service business, it was important to select an owner who wanted to work within the business and had passion for the business. This lead me to sell them to my former managers of the gyms.
It was more important to me that these individuals were successful so I sold the gyms at a very low price and even allowed them to make payments.
When you create something from nothing and grow the business, it is hard to let it go.
You have to look at where you are i life and what your next adventure is. Focus on that so that you can move on and move forward in the best way for you.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.tusslegear.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tusslegear/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tussleforher
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tusslegear/?viewAsMember=true
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@tusslegear