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Proof That Anything Is Possible When You Bet on Yourself with Destin George Bell (Part 1)

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🎧 Episode 184: Proof That Anything Is Possible When You Bet on Yourself with Destin George Bell (Part 1)

What does it take to go from $2,000 and no industry connections to landing a deal on Shark Tank and building a fitness movement?

In Part 1 of this two-part episode, I sit down with Destin George Bell — founder of Card.io, the gamified running app turning neighborhoods into turf wars — to unpack the mindset, grit, and wild belief it takes to turn an idea into a national spotlight moment.

Destin didn’t come from privilege or a deep tech background. He taught himself product design, cold-DM’d over 400 engineers, and raised nearly a million dollars to build the dream. And he did it while refusing to wait for permission or play by anyone else’s rules.

This conversation is raw, real, and overflowing with lessons for entrepreneurs, leaders, and anyone sitting on a vision they’re scared to pursue.

We explore:

  • Why belief must come before the big break
  • What it means to lead with influence, not just title
  • How curiosity became his unfair advantage
  • The true moment on Shark Tank that changed him most (and brought his mom to tears)
  • Why great leaders multiply other leaders — not just followers
  • How he builds culture, trust, and conviction in a high-stakes startup
  • What most people get wrong about betting on themselves

🔑 Key takeaways:

  • You don’t need a blueprint. You need belief and bold execution.
  • Radical curiosity will open more doors than credentials ever could.
  • Leadership isn’t about barking orders. It’s about creating leaders who create leaders.
  • If you're waiting to feel “ready,” you're already behind.

đź’ˇ Quotes to remember:

“I didn’t come from the tech world. I didn’t come from the running world. I just radically believed in what was possible.” 
“If your business can’t run without you, you don’t own a business — you own a job.” 
“Great leadership looks like multiplying leaders who grow beyond you.” 
You only get so many hours in a day. Why you spend them matters.”


📲 Resources + Links:

A rising tide raises all ships, and I invite you along on this journey to Evoke Greatness!

Check out my website: www.evokegreatness.com

Follow me on:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonnie-linebarger-899b9a52/

https://www.instagram.com/evoke.greatness/

https://www.tiktok.com/@evoke.greatness

http://www.youtube.com/@evokegreatness








SPEAKER_00:

Why has always been really important to me? Because, you know, you have finite time. You know, you get 24 hours. And so maybe outside of your work and outside of sleep and eating, you've got maybe three to four hours that you can really commit hard time, whether you're a student, whether you're a professional, that you can invest in being the best version of yourself that you can be. And so the understanding of why am I learning this, why am I doing this really helps you find that self-actualization and how I'm using my time and what things I'm focused on. In the grand scheme of things, I was really good at the things I wanted to be and I didn't really care about things I didn't, because I understood the why of what I wanted to do and focused and doubled down on that.

SPEAKER_01:

Welcome to Evoke Greatness, the podcast for bold leaders and big dreamers who refuse to settle. I'm your host, Sunny. I started in Scrubs over 20 years ago, doing the gritty, unseen work and climbed my way to CEO. Every rung of that ladder taught me something worth passing on. Lessons in leadership, resilience, and what it really takes to rise. You'll hear raw conversations, unfiltered truths, and the kind of wisdom that ignites something deeper in you. Your courage, your conviction, your calling. This show will help you think bigger, lead better, and show up bolder in every part of your life. This is your place to grow. Let's rise together. What if the only thing standing between you and the life you want is the belief that it's possible? In this episode, I sit down with Destin George Bell, the founder of Cardio and a Shark Tank success story to talk about what it really takes to bet on yourself before anyone else does. We dive into mindset, leadership, resilience, and the kind of bold vision it takes to build something from nothing. If you've ever felt behind, unqualified, or unsure if your dream is even worth chasing, this conversation is your proof that anything is possible. Let's get into it. Welcome back to another episode of Evoke Greatness. From growing up in Kentucky with just$2,000 to his name to stepping onto Shark Tank and walking out with a deal from Damon John and Roshawn Williams, whose journey is nothing short of extraordinary. He's the founder of Cardio, the gamified cardio app, turning neighborhoods into turf wars and motivating thousands of people to get moving. Along the way, he's proven what's possible when bold risks meet relentless grit. Cole emailing CEOs, raising nearly a million dollars, and forging partnerships that are reshaping how we look at fitness and the community. In this episode, Dustin opens up about the hustle behind the headlines, the setbacks that fueled him, the moment on Shark Pink that brought his mother to tears, and what it really takes to chase a vision that others said couldn't be done. Whether you're an entrepreneur, a dreamer, or someone looking to reignite your own drive, this conversation is going to inspire you to think bigger, take bolder swings, and keep moving forward. Dustin, thanks so much for joining me.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I appreciate you for having me.

SPEAKER_01:

I want to dive right on in. Going back, you shared that you came to Austin with$2,000 in a dream. When you look back now, what was that mindset that really carried you through those uh those early days that others might have overlooked?

SPEAKER_00:

I think the biggest thing is that I just radically believed in what was possible. And I felt like the longer I wait, the less time I'm giving myself to accomplish that dream. As one gets older, you know, life becomes harder. You got a mortgage, family, you got a corporate job, and the golden handcuffs of a consistent bi-weekly check, a 401k match plan, health insurance. And at the age of 22, after graduating college in the middle of COVID, I found myself being in a scenario where I had nothing to lose because I had nothing at all. And in my mind,$2,000 was enough to get started because that's all I needed to survive. And as long as I put myself in a situation where I was working hard towards a goal that had reasons for me to believe that eventually I could accomplish it.

SPEAKER_01:

Before cardio was even real, you know, I'm curious, how did you convince yourself that it was something worth betting on? Like, what did those first moments of doubt or fear look like? Because I think that's always right. It's we we look for the stability and the security of things. And I imagine you didn't look to this and go, ooh, this has really good stability or security here. Like, you know, this is a this is a sure bet. How did you push through those times of kind of fear and doubt?

SPEAKER_00:

That was a very tough part of it because, you know, you're you're putting all this time and energy into something. And even if you think it's a great idea, you know, idea is 1% of the uh of the of the process, you know, and the other 99% is execution and timing and having the right team and finding the right investors or being able to have the cash to be able to float it yourself and honestly a lot of luck. And so all those other things beyond the idea were the parts that really gave me pause. I you know, I didn't have a background in tech. I had just graduated college. I didn't have this huge corporate background of how to start a venture. I had never really worked in the fitness space. I wasn't even a runner at the time. I got the idea because I didn't enjoy running and I thought it'd be fun to gamify it to the point that I would actually enjoy it. And I didn't know much about the product design. I didn't have this litany of people in my network who were engineers, but I figured with each of those problems, there were meaningful solutions that could be found if I was ambitious and patient and aggressive in my process of figuring out how to solve them. So on the engineering front, well, I'm not an engineer. I tried to teach myself engineering. That was awful. I would never do that again. If I had to run a tech company by being an engineer myself, I would just go do something else. I go into real estate. But I figured there are people who do love engineering, who don't get the business development, the sales, the finance, the fundraising, that part of the process. And I figured if I could find somebody who is really passionate about building, I handle the business backend and all the administrative stuff on the monetization revenue op side. If I could find somebody, and I sent over 400 DMs to find my first engineer, and then that got me started there. With product design, I learned the basics of Figma and I looked at other apps that were successful and tried to figure out how I can emulate those in ways that are meaningful, but be different in ways that are also meaningful. And in terms of meeting people who had experience in the fitness space, I just started DMing people who are founders of other successful fitness companies. Or I would go to run clubs and I would talk to runners there. And I just started acquiring knowledge, building a stronger foundation and base for as much esoteric knowledge in the running and tech space as possible. And then from there, figuring out where do I fit into that puzzle. And then the parts that I could do, you know, fundraising, finance, the marketing, ideation, getting really, really strong in those places and the places that I wasn't, like the accounting and then for the product design and like real high fidelity UIUX, obviously for engineering, I found talented people who could handle that part of the business for me. And at that point, it was just patience and making it all come together.

SPEAKER_01:

Jumping back, like almost before any of this, were you always really curious growing up? Did you like lean into like trying to figure out how things worked?

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, yeah. So growing up, people call me George. So curious George was a lot of my nicknames. That was a big part of my nicknames back in the day because I was always extremely curious. You know, my mom and my dad used to get really mad about this, but I was the type of kid if they would say, Go do this, I would ask why. When I would go to class and they'd say, All right, you need to learn how to do quadratic formulas, I would ask the teacher why. You know, if I am at a job and they say, you need to clean this or you need to do this or learn this, I would ask why. I've always been a very why-oriented person. I feel like when we get to the why, you know, there's um, I've I've learned a lot of very random things in my life. And so one of the random little side quests I had in my education journey was I got a green belt in Lean Six Sigma. And so in Lean Six Sigma, when they talk about, you know, Kanban systems and all these different systems, I can't remember exactly what the Japanese word for it is, but so Toyota created this system about why, why, why, why. And I asked like five to seven whys about something to really get to the root of the issue, to get to the root of what's actually happening there. And even before I knew that, that was always something that I felt very strongly to. I gravitated towards in my process of understanding the things around me. It wasn't that, oh, you need to learn algebra just because you need to learn algebra, that's why. It's like, oh, well, it's gonna be on the test. Well, why is it on the test? It's part of the curriculum. Why is it part of the curriculum? It's like, oh, because it's an important thing for you to know. Why is it an important thing for me to know? Because that's how you're gonna be able to understand how much you're gonna get paid this week. And you're gonna understand that if you have this goal and you make this much, how many weeks, how many years will it take to get there? When you're looking like the rule 72, that's algebra, you know? That's all these different functions and formulas that make sense. And so in my mind, I was like, oh, that's important. Now really focus in on it. And now I was a I was a great math student. You know, I got 34 on the math section of the ACT. So I'm like, oh, I can see how math is practical for me. On the flip side, science was not like that for me. Because in my mind, I was like, okay, why do I need to know about chloroplasts and mitochondria? It's like, oh, well, you should just know those things. I'm like, okay, that's cool. But will I ever really need it in my day-to-day life? If I don't want to be a biologist or be into floral stuff, you know, do I need to know that? And it's like, not really. So, you know, my grade in biology wasn't as good as my grade in algebra. Because my brain has always been very like, why do I need to know this? And once the why is solidified, now I can actually put my mental thought process into that thing. And so, yeah, why has always been really important to me because, you know, you have finite time. You know, you get 24 hours, hopefully you sleep at least six of those. You got to go to work, you gotta go and do your personal stuff. Hopefully you're going to the gym. You got time with your social circles and whatnot. And so maybe outside of your work and outside of sleep and eating and all that, you've got maybe three to four hours that you can really commit hard time, whether you're a student, whether you're a professional, that you can invest in being the best version of yourself that you can be. And so the understanding of why am I learning this, why am I doing this really helps you find that self-actualization and how I'm using my time and what things I'm focused on. Because yeah, I got a 3.0 GPA, but you know, in the grand scheme of things, I was really good at the things I wanted to be and I didn't really care about the things I didn't. And I think that served me well than trying to be good at everything because I understood the why of what I wanted to do and focused and double down on that.

SPEAKER_01:

And it sounds like that hasn't changed. You've probably just refined it a little bit more with age, is like, you know exactly how to ask the why or how to dig as deep as you need to be to be committed to like, hey, this is gonna serve me, or this is gonna serve members who are are utilizing the cardio app. Now you've fine-tuned it, it sounds like.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, exactly. Because with anything, product design, financial literacy, dealing with people, it literally doesn't matter. Selling a product, understanding the why behind anything is important. Oh, we're having a lot of churn from this step of the onboarding process to this step of the onboarding process. Well, why is that happening? Oh, because people don't feel comfortable putting in a phone number. Oh, let's change it to email. Now all of a sudden, conversion on onboarding from this page to this page increases 40%. Oh, people are forgetting to track their runs. Why is that? It's because, oh, they're literally just forgetting to track the runs. Not they don't like the app, they're just forgetting to track it. Okay, well, let's add a notification where if they move more than 50 meters, they'll get a notification that pops up to say, hey, we see you're on the move. Would you like to track your run? Then all of a sudden, conversion of new downloads to running on the app at the first time increases 15%. In a sales conversation, you know, the whole sell me the pin angle is not really about talking about all the features of a pen, but it's asking the whys of your customer. Why are you in the market for a pen? Why do you want this pen? Why are you looking for that? What is this? What is this? Do you care about this? The viscosity of the ink? Do you care about that? You know, asking all these whys gets you to the place that you want to be, which is understanding where their pain points are, understanding what the value they're seeking is, and then being able to execute on that and getting down to that, you know, vital few pieces of information versus all this trivial mini noise that you get on the outside from things that aren't really a part of the big why.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, that curiosity led you to have millions watch you on Shark Tank and strike a deal. But I'm curious, what's the part of the story that we didn't see on TV that changed you most as a leader?

SPEAKER_00:

I think the thing that changed me the most as a leader, gosh, so man, there's so many different things that just happened in my life that I feel that way. I'm going to say that the thing that changed me the most as a leader was as I was younger, you know, high school, college age, and I'm working jobs. You know, I'm working your typical serving job, and I'm working on campus jobs. I got an internship at a big company when I was a junior doing sales internship work there. And being under other people and seeing how other people led just taught me all the things that I did not want to be when I led other people. It's not very democratic. This is what we do. Don't ask why we do it. It's just how we do things. It's very dogmatic. It's very utilitarian. It's very authoritarian. We're going to do this. This is how we've always done it. This is the way I like it to be done. And nothing else really matters. The only thing that's important is that this is what I, the person who's in charge, tells you to do. Oh, well, I have this different perspective and it's backed by data and it has these results and whatnot. Doesn't matter. That's your idea of how things should be. This is how my idea of things should be. And I just realized that, man, I hate working for people like that. I don't want to be that type of leader. I want to be the type of leader that people are not afraid to disagree with. I want to be the type of leader that people believe that if they come with unique ideas, they will not only receive credit for those ideas, but then those ideas could actually be executed on and they could be used in whatever the future ramifications of whatever it is that we're doing in that category is. And then honestly, I just want to be the type of leader that people would go run through a wall for. I want to be the type of leader, especially in the startup space, you know. Being a startup, you can't pay people their market rate, especially if you're talking about really good talent. The equity in your company is interesting, but especially when you're early, it's all basically a lottery ticket. It's like the equivalent of going to Vegas and putting all your money on double zero. So you don't really have any guarantees of that really churning out. So the main thing people are doing, the same way investors do, is betting on you, betting on you as a leader, as a founder, as an executive, as the person that they should follow into war and being the type of leader that people want to follow behind, especially in the early stages when it's really all about building a strong culture and getting people to run through a wall for less money than they're worth, working 80 hours instead of 40 hours, not seeing their friends on the weekends or hanging out with their family on their birthday and all this different stuff that is required to grow a company. I think that all comes down to do I want to work with this guy or this girl? And if they say no, well, then you're screwed. You know, you're not gonna recruit good talent. You're not gonna get investors to believe in you early on when you don't have a track record. And frankly, nobody's gonna like you. And this is a people business.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm guessing that given you are so inquisitive, it's important for you to convey the why behind your vision and why behind for for each of the people that are on your team. And I think that is the part that people miss sometimes. That's sometimes left out to your point. Like if they have a very democratic or authoritative approach, you don't need to know the why. Just follow me because I say follow me and into you know whatever this future is. Well, oftentimes as leaders, we are leading people into futures that like don't even exist yet. We're we're we're like in the motion of creating in the moment. But I think that's how you get people bought in and locking arms and running through a wall for you is when you're like, hey, I want to, I want to connect all these dots for you so that you can feel the vision the same way I see it.

SPEAKER_00:

Exactly. Exactly, 100%. And that's how I want to lead because eventually the day will become where the people who you create. I'm a big fan of John C. Maxwell, the author. And so one of the books he talks about the five stages of leadership. And so as you move up the levels, the thing that differentiates, I won't go through the entire book because obviously it's a great read. I I think that anybody who wants to be a founder or a manager or a leader in their company, whatever it is that you're doing, should read it because it helps you really contextualize what it takes to be a good leader and what makes people bad leaders and good leaders. But one of the things that I really internalize about that is that what really defines a great leader is not only somebody who can lead people directly, but somebody who can lead people to a point where they become their own leaders and it becomes this spider web of leadership where you create people who become great leaders, who then lead their departments, who then grow upon themselves and become this organization top-down based on this democratic understanding, open to ideas, open door policy type of organization where everybody is a leader in their own right and is willing to speak out to build that culture and then also just take radical ownership of whatever it is that they're doing versus just being told and doing what they feel like they're being monitored and watched and you know, basically forced to do. So that that's something that I really take to heart and trying to become that type of leader.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, there's one thing, and I and I'm very familiar with that book. And there's one thing when it comes to a title, right? Title power is very different than like influence power. And it doesn't matter what your role is, I would strongly encourage that read because it is, it's very eye-opening. And some people who have been led in the old way of leadership, they have a tendency to lead that way. Those who say, ooh, maybe I've learned more examples of what not to do than what to do, start opening themselves to new ways of being and new ways of leading. And I think that the goal of multiplying leaders as a leader, that should be all of our goal.

SPEAKER_00:

The goal with any company is that it's exponentially growing beyond your scope. Like if the business can't run without you, then you don't really own a business, you own a job. And of course, owning a job is better than having a job working under somebody else who tells you what to do. But the goal for any entrepreneur is eventually to get to a point where if you were indisposed, if you had surgery or you fell into a coma, or you just wanted to go hang out with your wife for a week in the Bahamas for her birthday or something like that, that you come back and the business has not imploded on itself. And a big part of that is developing your internal talent to become leaders in their own right. And so that should be the goal of anybody who wants to build a scalable operation that goes beyond their 24 hours put into it every day.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. And I think a portion of that is recognizing talent around you. That's not like the, that's not the shiny talent all the time. Sometimes the talent is like the hidden gem that's really rough around the edges. But being able to recognize that talent around you and then helping polish people and helping them figure out what that next step looks like. And I think even sometimes stretching them beyond what they think is possible, right? And having them explore things that maybe scare them a little bit. But I think that is like the true root of creating bench strength within your company or your idea.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, yeah, 100%. I feel like I was that down in the rough, because especially when I was in college, just fresh out of college, I was rough around the edges. You know, I had a problem with authority, and I was very strong-willed and very confident, and I did not feel the need to dumb myself down to talk to other people. And I spoke with this gravitas and whatnot. And there's even times I talked, like, even to Damon and Rashawn, where they're like, you know, when you first talked, you had this level of energy and confidence and brashness that came off as arrogant and this and that. But really, as I got to know you, I really understood you a little bit more. But they saw, like, hey, this guy's got some real latent potential that if we can help rough, you know, sand him out a little bit, you know, buff the edges and the scratches out a bit and really smooth him out, he's going to be a really solid guy. And I think you as a leader have to always be looking, especially for, you know, people who aren't sure about themselves yet, especially young talent, post-college grad talent, who have a lot of ambition, but they're not really sure exactly where to point all this energy to help narrow them out and give them a direction to shoot for, but also allowing them to get outside of those guardrails to start expanding their knowledge and get uncomfortable and get comfortable in that uncomfortability. So it's really difficult to do, especially as a startup, because you know, every decision is life or death. So it's kind of hard to help your talent be uncomfortable with uncomfortability because if you screw up somewhere, well, dang, that really set us back. We got limited time, limited resources, and really don't want to. And I've even struggled with that sometimes of allowing people to go beyond what their skill sets are because a mess up is not like, oh, you mess up at Google. Oh, okay, they'll fix it immediately. They got a staff of a thousand other engineers who can clean that up. If you only have the one or two engineers on your team, if one of them starts screwing stuff up, that's 50% of your work staff messing up. So it gets very difficult. It definitely is a lot larger in scope and a lot more risky to do it. But usually if you have the right kind of talent who really care and are smart and have that, you know, neuroplasticity to pick things up and start developing these new habits, new skill sets, it's it's worth it along.

SPEAKER_01:

Going back to Sharp Tank, there was a moment with your mom on Sharp Tank that was so powerful. And you shared this when we were on the Outlier project with Scott. And I'm curious, you know, as you think about that and that role that your mom has played, how has that shaped you when it comes to having resilience?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, a ton. You know, my mom, she's a superhero to me. When I was younger, like I said, I mentioned it a little bit before, didn't have a great GPA. I was definitely not an honor-roll A-B student, cut class a lot. I didn't do my homework. I got in fights. I was always in detention, and I didn't really care much. And a lot of my teachers didn't really care for me. I wasn't like this huge social butterfly, but I was always focused on things that were different than a lot of people my age, you know, where people really were into sports, which I was. I played basketball, and obviously I was really into that. But I spent more time reading books and like wanting to go with my mom to networking events and wanting to learn how to be a better speaker. And, you know, of course, we grew up watching Shark Tank together, and that was something that she brought me into. But eventually I had my own genuine interest in business. I used to read economic textbooks in high school that were for college kids just to start understanding micro and macroeconomics and understanding things like supply and demand and elasticity of markets and all these different things. But it didn't really manifest into the ways that typically a high school student is judged, or GPA, and how popular they are and how many friends they have. I wasn't really that kind of kid. And a lot of my family and a lot of my friends and a lot of other people, even my dad in the level, they just didn't really get that. And they always brought this negativity and criticism of me. And my mom was really the only person at that point in my life who was consistently like, nah, I believe in my son. I think he's got it going on, and I will support him to the ends of the earth. Even when he gets kicked out of school or suspended, even when he brings home a D and P E class, even when he has a 1.8 GPA that semester, I believe in my son, and I will always double down and believe in his plans, his ideas, his strategies. And I just appreciate that a ton because it's hard to believe in yourself when no one else does. At least having that one person that you can go to who know who you know if I call them and I have this crazy radical idea of making a cardio fitness app will say you're not crazy and you get a real job. Even if it's only one person, having that one person is really important for you to feel like you should even try. And she has always been that person.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, you know how this goes. Time to hit the pause button. I want to make sure that you check back next week for part two, where Destin and I dive into the setbacks that almost broke him, the leadership challenges that tested everything he believed about himself, and the shark tank moment that flipped it all around. We talk about co-founder breakups, rebuilding from ground zero, and the mindset required to turn a loss into legacy. And his answer to what he'd leave the world if today were his last day, you are gonna want to write that one down. So don't miss it. Make sure to check back next week. If today's episode challenged you, moved you, or lit a fire in your soul, don't keep it to yourself. Share it with somebody who's ready to rise. Can I ask you to take 30 seconds to leave a review? It's the best way to say thank you and help this show reach more bold leaders like you. Because this isn't just a podcast, it's a movement. We're not here to play small. We're here to lead loud, one bold and unapologetic step at a time. Until next time, stay bold, stay grounded, and make moves that make mediocre uncomfortable.

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Sonnie Linebarger

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