Bryan Hauer Bio

My name is Bryan Hauer and I was born on January 11, 1976 in St. Paul, MN. Although my friends liked to kid me about it I am no relation as far as I know to the actor Rutger Hauer.

I grew up mostly in Minnesota and Wisconsin as I attended grade school in St. Paul, MN and junior high and high school in Racine, WI. After graduating high school I then went on to attend college in LaCrosse, WI.

Although I was born in Minnesota and lived there and Wisconsin most of my younger years, I’ve also lived in quite a few other states. From New York to Florida to Alabama to California to Las Vegas, NV which is where I currently reside.

While growing up in the Midwest I played almost any sport I could. I dedicated most of my time to basketball, baseball, tennis and golf. While in college I even made the basketball team in LaCrosse. Although I achieved my dream of playing college basketball, my dream was short lived as I tore my ACL for the second time which quickly ended that dream.

After college I decided to move out to New York City to of all things give acting a try. Of course like most that make this ridiculous decision I struggled. A few jobs that I did happen to land though were a “very small” recurring appearance on the soap opera Guiding Light which lasted about a year, a completely embarrassing book cover on a teenage romance novel (which I’ll give $100 to anyone who can actually find it online) and a few other totally random jobs. Although it was definitely hard, I’d have to admit it was fun trying and I’ll never regret giving it a shot. I met some of the coolest people in the world during that time of my life. Some of which I still talk to on a regular basis. One in particular was my first roommate in NYC. He’s an extremely talented actor by the name of Brad Raider. He’s been on a number of ABC shows and also in quite a few movies. To find out more about him check out the Brad Raider IMDB page.

While in NYC trying my hand at acting I like many others had to have a “real job”, so while on the set of Guiding Light I met an actress by the name of Amita Balla. Amita who at the time actually was a “working actress” also had another job. She managed a midtown health club that was in need of personal trainers and as I had some educational background in physical therapy decided she’d invite me to come in for an interview. A week later I was working part-time as a personal trainer.

A few weeks later my client list started growing and it wasn’t long before I was booked 12 hours/day.

While working at this club I was approached by a manager of an elite private training club in the Flat Iron district of NYC called The Madison Square Club. MSC as it’s sometimes known was owned and run by fitness trainer to the stars David Kirsch. I was asked to join David’s team and it wouldn’t be long before I ascended to head trainer and was privileged enough to work with top super models, investment bank executives and Hollywood celebrities.

Over the next few years I worked hand in hand with David and his team helping shape the minds and bodies of Manhattan’s elite. During this journey I couldn’t help dream of starting my own place in my hometown of the Twin Cities. Fitness had become part of my life and helping shape peoples bodies and more importantly their lives was nothing less than a rush. There was only one problem. How would I get the money to start this venture? Well, one of my clients that was so in awe of how I helped him transform his body in less the 3 months using the Body for Life program offered to help finance the start of my venture. Within 6 months I was in my car driving from New York to Minneapolis with dreams of making the most upscale, private health club in the Twin Cities. And that’s exactly what I did.

In just a few short months I had left New York and had started a small private training business called Central Park Fitness out of my town home/loft in the Twin Cities. It wasn’t exactly what I had in mind when I left New York, but it was a start and more importantly it was growing fast.

Over the next few months I worked hard along with the help of 4 great friends and of course some family. The business was doing well and I was loving work everyday.

One day I was trying to come up with an idea of how I could really grow the business fast and came up with the idea of putting an ad in the Minneapolis Star Tribune with before and after pictures of some of my recent clients. I went ahead and placed a quarter page ad for $2000 and had it set to appear for one day the following Friday. I had no idea what to expect. I actually remember the day it appeared. I went to the convenient store down the street at 6am to pick up a copy. As I got back to the club I got my first call about the ad. Man was I nervous! I completely blew it. The call was a disaster. From that moment on I said to myself that for this to work I had to use my talents, relax and start selling people on what I knew I could do for them. Then, that very moment the next call came in, then the next and the next and before I knew it me and my 4 friends were answering so many calls and giving so many tours over the next couple days that we literally we’re still taking calls Saturday night on our cell phones as we were heading out of town to visit a friend at a nearby college in Wisconsin. In just two short days… we managed to book so many clients that we actually made just over $100,000. I’m 23 or 24 at the time, just made $100k in two days with my 3 best friends and was heading to a college town in Wisconsin for the night. Let’s just say I thought I was Diddy for the night!

Over the next year the business continued to flourish and grow. I then met a client who like my previous client in NY had done so well he wanted to invest in the company and open new locations. Within just a few months I had the financing to build a brand new commercial facility in the western suburbs of Minneapolis.

Just three short months and a few “hundred k” later in April of 2001 we officially opened the doors. The club was a hit and clients were pooring in. The summer was busy, we were all working hard, making money and having a blast doing it. Things couldn’t have been better.

Then September 11th happened. The stock market crashed, people weren’t spending the same amounts of money and at the same time our overhead had grown tremendously. Without the same growth in revenue things got tight. Spending went way down, no advertising and cutbacks were needed. I was even forced to fire by best friend who had helped me start the whole thing. Life just plain sucked! To top it all off I was getting blamed for numerous false accusations and eventually decided it was time for me to move on. I had options at the time… some legal and some that involved different partners or different ventures, but really the best thing for me at the time was to just leave. I’ve never returned to the world of fitness to this day. The whole venture was bittersweet. I was young and inexperienced and had a lot to learn about the business world and was really learning it on the fly. Although I lost a number of close friends and overall a ton of money… I truly believe overall it was a positive experience. It taught me a lot about business, business with friends and what to do and what not to do. It’s too bad it had to end the way it did, but to this day I say it was one of the best things that could have happened to me. Without that experience I would have never entered the profession I’m in today.

Well, fast forward a year or so to 2003 and while sitting around playing poker with friends we happened to catch the 2003 World Series of Poker on ESPN. You know… the one that crowned Chris Moneymaker the world champ and catapulted poker to the media giant it is today. Well that night I went home and started thinking about how I could make money from poker. I loved playing it, but thought there had to be a more stable way of making money from it than just playing.

Soon after that I started researching online poker and came across Party Poker. At the time it was the largest online poker room and while searching their site I noticed a link at the very bottom in the footer that said “Affiliates”. I clicked it and began my journey as a successful online poker affiliate.

At the time I knew absolutely zero about web design, search engine optimization or anything that related to online marketing. So what did I do? I learned. I read as many books and online forums as possible. I got involved in the top forum for poker affiliates called Poker Affiliate World. This was a great resource of information and the members were great in helping new affiliates learn the ropes.

This was the real beginning of the online poker boom so success happened quite quick. A lot of people who got in early made quite a bit of money as long as they weren’t an idiot. To give you an idea… I actually was the 48th affiliate ever at Full Tilt Poker.

Over the next year or so I worked on various sites I created and made decent money, then in 2004 I created BroadbandPoker.com which originally was created to hopefully one day host high speed, broadband only online poker games. It ended up being my main affiliate and poker news site, but in itself was a huge success and had made a name for me in the online poker world.

In late 2006, President Bush signed into law the UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act) of 2006 which basically made it extremely difficult for off-shore online gaming companies to send or receive money from US banks. It basically crippled the industry and in one day wiped billions of dollars off the London stock exchange.

After that many publicly traded companies like Party Poker and Pacific Poker decided it was in their best interest to leave the US market and focus more on the international market.

At this time I had gotten really fed up with how the industry was progressing. Dealing with these foreign companies had become a pain, advertising online gaming in the US was almost non existent except for the .net loophole. So, I decided it was time to move on and leave the industry. In October of 2006 I sold BroadbandPoker.com and began exploring my next venture.

So what am I up to today? While the world of online gambling got me into online startups I eventually decided that industry was too volatile and that a more mainstream industry would not only be a safer choice, but also more lucrative as it would appeal to a larger audience. That industry turned out to be an extremely fast growing industry with a ton of opportunities. That industry is Premium WordPress Themes.

While working on a project I had the chance to meet at the time an unknown, up and coming WordPress theme designer by the name of Brian Gardner. Although at the time Brian was an unknown I could definitely see his talent and continued for months to work with Brian on various projects. We even partnered for a short time on one project.

Over the next 6 months Brian’s premium WordPress theme business was starting to take off and my passion for the world of online gambling was quickly fading. During this time Brian and I had become good friends and our talks soon went to the fast growing industry of theme development and I soon noticed the explosive growth and potential that premium theme development had.

I decided to study and learn the ins and outs of coding, theme development and design and over the next few months with the help of Brian Gardner and some other great friends I launched Omni Theme. Over the next 6 months I grew Omni Theme extremely fast and was offered a sale price for the site that I just couldn’t refuse.

I currently run BHauer Media, Inc. which consists of my premium WordPress themes site called Mod Themes, the WordPress Theme Store and my personal blog BryanHauer.com.

I also currently work and play in Las Vegas, NV and part-time in Minneapolis, MN. I spend most of my days working from home, golfing and playing a little poker.

A few facts about me:

Birthday: January 11, 1976

City of Birth: St. Paul, MN

Currently Reside: Las Vegas, NV and Minneapolis, MN

Hobbies: I enjoy golfing at least 3 days/week and play occasionally in poker tournaments at Bellagio, Wynn, Venetian and Caesars Palace. Otherwise I’m a tech geek. Love my gadgets… iPhone, MacBook Pro, Apple TV etc…

Favorite Vacation: Springbreak ‘95 to Lake Havasu City, AZ, Spring ‘09 and Winter of ‘98 trip to Montego Bay, Jamaica

Favorite Movie: The Shawshank Redemption

Favorite Album: Toss up between Pretty Hate Machine by Nine Inch Nails and The Best of Both Worlds by Van Halen

Favorite Sports Teams: Football (Minnesota Vikings), Basketball (Minnesota Timberwolves), Baseball (Minnesota Twins)

Favorite Athlete: Basketball (Michael Jordan), Golf (Tiger Woods), Tennis (Andre Agassi), Football (Randy Moss & Brett Favre), Baseball (Torri Hunter), Poker (Phil Ivey)

Favorite Quote: Half of getting what you want is knowing what you have to give up to get it. Bill Phillips

Jobs I’ve Had: I’ll try to put them in order…
- Racine Journal Times: Sold newspaper subscription until I got bit by a dog. (About 12 years old)

- Chancery Bar and Restaurant in Racine, WI. Started cleaning dishes and moved my way up to grill. (About 15 years old)

- Hardee’s Fast Food Restaurant in Racine, WI. Single handedly ran the fried chicken area and worked with a ton of high school friends. (About 16 – 17 years old)

- Sheraton Minneapolis Metrodome in Minneapolis, MN. Bellman/Limo & Shuttle Driver. (About 18 years old) Also thought getting a second night job at a gas station working the overnight shift would be a good idea until I kept falling asleep inside my bulletproof glass cubicle and customers kept knocking on the window to wake me up.

- Boat detailing in Racine, WI. Basically cleaning boats in freezing cold weather in Lake Michigan without proper tools. Worst job I ever had! I honestly lasted half a day. Went to lunch and never came back. Best decision ever!

- Wisconsin Electric in Racine/Kenosha, WI. Worked with my friend Mike turning people’s power back on after it was disconnected for non payment. We were the good guys. (Summer job when I was 18 – 19 years old)

Hardee’s Fast Food Restaurant in LaCrosse, WI. College job. Had to take advantage of my vast fried chicken knowledge from high school. Actually was promoted to drive thru. (About 19-20 years old)

- Express/Structure in New York City. Worked at Structure (Now called Express for Men) until I was moved upstairs at the mall to Express for Woman. Never understood that move by management considering I knew nothing about women’s clothes or sizes. Lasted about 2 weeks until I got yelled at by a queen named Mahogany for not folding clothes right and told him/her to just keep my check and that I quit. (About 21 years old)

- Guiding Light Soap Opera in New York City. Appeared in about 15 episodes over a 1 year period. Roles ranged from extra work to small recurring roles. (About 21 – 22 years old)

- Worked one day dressed up as a butler at a tech conference for a small unknown startup at the time called Ask Jeeves. I believe I was actually the first Ask Jeeves Butler. Can’t confirm that though.

- The Athletic Complex in New York City. Worked as a personal trainer. (About 22 years old)

- Madison Square Club in New York City. Worked at a personal trainer and trained numerous celebrities. (About 22-24 years old)

- Central Park Fitness in Minnetonka, MN. Started my own upscale, luxury personal training facility with the help of a high school friend named Rod. Ended up going in the shitter, but overall was a great learning experience and to be honest I had a blast while it did last. (About 24-26 years old)

- Broadband Poker. My first venture into the world of online gambling affiliating. Taught me the ropes of web design, coding, graphics design, online marketing and overall what to do and what not to do with an online startup. Sold it to a UK company in 2006. (About 27-30 years old)

- Various online projects with other partners.

- Omni Theme. Created my first venture into the world of Premium WordPress themes. Started it, ran it extremely successfully and sold it all within about 6 months. (32 years old)

- Currently: Recently launched the WordPress Theme Store and WordPress Plugin Store along with a line of advanced Premium WordPress Themes called Mod Themes.

- Also I’m currently in development on two other projects. One which is an iPhone App and the other which deals with a problem that’s been plaguing drinkers world-wide for as long as bars and pubs have been around. Both coming soon and will be announced on BryanHauer.com.