Massenomics Podcast - Ep.153: Is an Arnold Booth Worth it?
Episode Date: March 11, 2019We survived the first ever Massenomics booth at the Arnold? So... was it worth it? We don't want to spoil all of the surprises before you listen, but we will let you know that we got to meet a ton of ...amazing people!
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Welcome, everyone, to episode 153 of the World's Strongest Podcast,
the Mastanomics Podcast.
The show is on the road today.
Well, you can see we've redone the studio finally.
We've talked about it for a while, and we to get wheels and uh some new windows for the studio and it is now mobile
we've got a some some uh ceiling lighting available we this this is a first isn't it
definitely the options are nearly limitless in here nothing can stop us now i like it yeah the
studio right now is i think somewhere in illinois yeah we are um we just left peoria illinois
and uh i don't know it all looks the same so it doesn't really we got nowhere to go for the next
10 hours so we really could go marathon style on this one if we wanted to this could be the longest episode world's longest episode of the world's strongest podcast instead
of doing 10 hours 10 episodes we're just going to do one 10 hour episode it'll be up to you to
start and stop whenever you want to um the interesting thing though about being on the
road is that everyone that we drive by gets to look at two guys sitting in the suburban together
holding microphones talking.
And everyone's like, oh, my God, is that the Masonomics guys?
Holy shit.
Yeah, we're getting just a lot of really positive reactions on the road out here.
Even from the police, man.
And the police over here.
I know some states have laws against texting and driving.
I haven't heard anything about podcasting and driving.
I'm not sure what illinois stance on that
is for sure they're probably pretty loose on it i would guess uh so we're on our way back from the
arnold if you haven't if you haven't figured that out yet uh we are we we're alive just barely. We're broken and bruised. I feel like this is Will Smith's or any of those shows where they have to leave.
They're stranded somewhere or they're like last of a surviving kind and they have to leave a vlog of their existence.
If anyone finds this, I just want you to know that I went out peacefully.
Yeah, it's kind of like that.
That's exactly what we're doing.
Yeah, I don't know.
What we're going to do, though, is because just the Arnold is so much to talk about,
we're going to break this into two episodes.
We're going to do this one, which is more of like our experiences,
meeting all you guys at the booth, all that.
And then we're going to do a second episode,
which kind of covers more of the accomplishments that went down
lifter wise
at the Arnold because there really was a lot of stuff
that happened this weekend. A lot of records being
broken and all that stuff but we'll save most of that
we'll try and save most of that for next time
so I suppose we better not have a big lift segment
in this episode. Yeah no we gotta skip that
so if you're one of those people that
only come to us for the hard hitting facts you might lift segment in this episode. Yeah, no, we've got to skip that. So if you're one of those people that only come to us for the hard-hitting facts,
you might want to skip this episode and just go right to the next one.
But for those select few that do want to hear our commentary, this is the one for you.
But we know most people come here for, like, really factual-based information,
really timely information, so this probably won't be the one for you.
Yep, can't please
them all should how do we start then should we start like from the beginning of the trip and
go chronologically or i mean the beginning that's like a week ago now i can hardly wrap my head
around that whole thing and it all it has all been such a blur between now and then
yeah i mean we could probably do that but the trip first of all the trip there
yeah i mean we could probably do that but the trip first of all the trip there is pretty brutal for us uh we knew what we were getting into with that but
the first day i think we were on the road for like 14 hours was it over yeah we did uh from
the time we left to the time we shut it down for the day it was about 14 hours um i think we spanned
850 miles in that in that time and uh crossed maybe three anytime you
hit the 800 mile mark in one day you're doing pretty good you're covering some ground so we
were fairly happy with that one we did go one six and a half hour stretch uh where we never got out
of the car we didn't say a word to each other we didn't look at each other didn't turn on the radio no uh drinking no eating just
meditation i call that uh uh sensory fast it was a little a little bit of sensory deprivation a
little bit just give give ourselves a chance to reflect uh on the weekend ahead of us just
packed into a vehicle surrounded by nothing but lift shirts and lift shorts and i mean what more could you want in life and we were quite literally surrounded by
all that stuff uh we're in a chevy suburban where we were sitting in the front two bucket seats and
then everything behind us was just a wall yeah you took the third seat out the second seat was
folded up yeah and you're like yeah i got it in it's packed pretty tight and when you picked me up i opened up the tailgate and there was literally
room for a duffel bag and a backpack like that is it there was no way that you could fit one more
person's things in here and it was optimized pretty well it was a good game of tetris that
there was very few air gaps in the entire thing. And that is actually the bigger one is that on the way there, everything was like just squeezed in so tight.
There was no rattling, no nothing.
And now that the back end's a little looser, you guys might hear us hit some bumps here and here.
The display's rattling and jumping and bouncing back there.
Yeah, you also might notice some road noise in this episode, I'm sure.
There could be some road noise.
That is just the nature of doing a podcast on the road.
Yeah.
We take the good with the bad on the Mastodonomics podcast.
So this is also the earliest we've ever done a podcast.
We've never started a podcast probably before 2 in the afternoon,
let alone 7.30 in the morning.
Right.
My voice is a little, like, not like I was yelling all weekend,
but just constantly talking for, like, three or four days a week.
I completely feel the same way that I'm, like, straining a little bit just to keep this going.
Yeah.
But we do it for you guys.
So, all right, hopping in the suburban.
I don't know if any of you guys have drove from South Dakota to Ohio before,
but it's not an eventful drive.
No.
It literally doesn't change.
They just went from more snow to less snow.
Yeah, the biggest change was the amount of snow.
As you go from South Dakota to Iowa, you might see some very, very mild hills.
And then when you get closer to ohio you see a couple more trees
yeah that's really that's the drive right there i just saved you 16 hours yeah um otherwise it's
no change and so uh that's uh pretty exciting to see that go down yeah we slept in champaign
illinois i think on the way there uh you know just uh had a guy's night out at Chili's like any guys want to do.
What more can you say about that?
That was it.
And stayed at a La Quinta.
Hot breakfast.
You know, really the bear qualifications for a hot breakfast mean you need a waffle iron or a microwave.
Then all of a sudden you have a hot breakfast.
They just met the bear qualifications of a hot breakfast because that's what they had.
So we had a good start to our day Friday.
That was Thursday, right?
The day before?
Yeah, that was Thursday.
So we got up early that second morning, and I think we were on the road by 630 probably.
And we got to Columbus then by about noon, do you think?
Yeah, it was right around there.
Because there is the time shift.
We finally go from the central time zone to the eastern time zone.
So there is that shift where it kicks over and you do lose an hour.
But, yeah, it was somewhere around noon, 1 o'clock when we pulled into Ohio.
And just to recap, one other point about that trip.
It's funny.
We're from South Dakota, and people consider that the Midwest.
You know, everyone we're from says that's the Midwest.
And people from Ohio, I think, also consider themselves to be in the Midwest,
and they are so fucking far apart from each other.
It's got to be the biggest geographical region in the United States.
I don't know.
That's probably bigger than most countries even.
Right.
We consider it the same region.
Yes.
When we got there to Columbus, though, it was the end of one adventure and the start of a completely new one
because the unloading and unpacking and where to even go was a little bit of a mystery to us.
That was the big gray area of are we going to show up and there's going to be a line of 100 semisis in front of us and they'll say all right tonight when these guys are done you guys can slip in or
how does that work and uh you know we kind of did a loop around the building to figure out where the
hell we were going and once we found the spot the security guy was there he's like you're just
going to back in right here and um so that actually went much smoother than we thought
yeah i think that went way better than what I was thinking it could have been like
because I didn't really know.
I don't even know if we – did we even wait 10 minutes to get a spot?
Yeah, if that even.
And then we started unpacking stuff and throwing it on the dolly
and going in with it pretty much right away.
Yeah, that was – I mean, that was really all there was to it it just get the dolly out start
loading up boxes and start running to the booth and you know from the loading dock to the uh
to our booth i don't know was it a hundred yards or so probably so it's not like we had to walk a
super far distance or anything and uh you drop your stuff in and it is really weird seeing the
arnold not in the state of chaos,
of everyone there, all the booths are set up.
You just see everyone, just regular-ass people,
setting stuff up and working away.
That is probably the biggest change of the Arnold that we got to see this year,
some of the before and after that we normally weren't there for.
Also, with that, the people that run these booths
or the lifters that are all at these booths,
how they're just there helping and doing all the same stuff
that everyone else is doing.
It really brings everyone to that normal person level.
Like, you don't see, or you kind of,
it makes people lose their kind of glow in their augs.
It's like, oh, yeah, they're just doing the same shit as me.
Yeah.
No different.
This was when we were packing up at the end of it.
But like how you said, you had to go get in line to get packed up and stuff.
And, you know, Lane Norton's in the vehicle in front of you.
Yes.
Yes.
That is exactly just to kind of drive home the point of how it's just these people.
Like after a while, everyone kind of just loses their like awe. Like like it's just like oh just just a guy i know at this point so um at the end of it
all when we had to start tearing down and we're getting a little out of order in the timeline
here but at the end of it all we start tearing down uh we had to someone had to get the vehicle
get in line at the loading dock because everyone's trying to do the same thing at this point and so i decide to get the vehicle tanner's gonna start packing up the booth
so i take off um i'm walking through the uh the convention center and um you know kaz just walks
across right in front of me and like any other time in your life you'd be like that's so crazy
and it's like nope he just goes just on his own that's just him and you don't even bother to say anything because it's like i'm sure he's sick of people
yeah everyone's i'm tired of people so it's like okay there goes kaz then i go a little bit farther
down the convention hall and there's huck finn oh how'd you turn out brother you know just and like
talking to me about the whole booth and he wanted to know how we did and i want to know he did and
so we talked about that for a while then i leave there get in the
suburban come down the parking ramp um get in line and there's a there's another suburban in front of
me and all of a sudden the suburban stops they open the door the guy gets out and it's lane norton
it's like oh lane norton's in front of me now so like that on its own too would be a very unusual
thing right and we had you know we'd talk to Yeah, we did talk to all these guys, too.
But it's funny seeing them in the situation of doing the same shitty stuff that we're doing at that point.
Yep.
And then even before I saw Kaz, I saw James Strickland again.
He's walking like, oh, you're still here, man.
Just so we see him.
So then Lane Norton gets out of his vehicle.
They're, like, switching people around or something.
They get out of line, drive off.
I loop around.
I get the vehicle parked.
I go running in to see Tanner and start to see how Tanner's doing at the booth.
While I'm running in, at the loading dock, the whole slingshot crew,
basically everyone besides Mark Bell and the slingshot crew standing there with a bench.
And that, again, is another thing where it's like if you saw that that'd be crazy yeah but they're all just hanging out there it seemed like they were waiting i go in get some boxes well
yeah so i go in get some boxes on the way out they're still standing there and i notice there's
a pickup backing up all of a sudden the guy gets out of the pickup and it's matt winning and they're
loading up matt winningning's bench.
And again, another thing that would be so unusual and crazy if it happened in your normal life.
And that was like, that whole chain of events was over the course of like 15 minutes right there.
And it's just, that is kind of the magic of the Arnold, is that you just run into people everywhere you go.
That is, that's true.
That is what it's like generally.
So kind of getting back to the order of things, though, is when to the arnold though the crazy thing about it is and tanner put this perfectly is that the arnold is basically if your instagram feed came to life for
a weekend that really is what it instead of scrolling by photos of people people scroll by
you in real life yes yes that is what it's like. That is exactly what it is. Instead of, oh, there's Matthias Kielkowski on my feed lifting a rock,
and there's quads like Rob walking by or lifting.
There he actually is walking by, and there he is going by our booth.
It is really that.
If your Instagram is mostly following lifters,
which probably a lot of our listeners are,
it is just that come to life.
Yeah.
So once you think of it that way, it is a really funny analogy,
but it's so true for how that weekend works out.
The setting up of the unloading of the equipment and everything, I think,
went faster than I was expecting, but the actual setting up of a booth took longer than that.
And that's so we drop all of our things off.
And I think we took a lunch break at that point, didn't we?
Yeah, we did.
We took a lunch break.
Because we were like, damn, we're ahead of schedule.
Yeah, we're feeling pretty good.
Almost like, wow, we kind of got the work done here.
Yeah.
Like, oh, we'll go stop at Hubert's Polish Kitchen like we do every year.
A Masonomics tradition.
It is a Masonomics tradition.
And we talked to Mr. Hubert at Puller.
As always.
I don't know what his name actually is for sure.
It's got to be Hubert.
He's always really cool.
We gave him our praise.
He gave us some fist bumps.
It was all good.
And then it's like, okay, let's get to work here.
So we head back to the booth.
We head back to the booth.
And 10 by 10 booth with what we have like 16 boxes.
Yeah.
Over a thousand shirts in there for sure.
Yeah.
All right, let's get this stuff put together.
And that took hours and hours and hours and hours.
Putting all the display racking together, the shelving together,
and then like trying to figure out how to organize it
in a way that you can somewhat get to that stuff when you need to get to it
was a was a real challenge i would say and we've never put a booth together in our life of any kind
like we don't have jobs that require us to be going to trade shows like outside of the arnold
i've almost i've maybe been to like one other trade show in my life. You know, that's not some small little local thing.
So we just have no idea what we're doing.
And then on top of that, like you're trying to set up a system where you get all your shirts out so that when people are asking for things, you can get them in a hurry.
Yep.
And it was just kind of a whole cluster of trying to get that system down.
Yeah.
And then the display, like, you know, how do you,
what makes sense to make this display so people can see shit
and know where you're at.
And even from that, we have all types of takeaways
for what we would do different.
But I think for what we had and what we took with us
and what we had to work with, we did it.
I feel like we did a pretty good job.
I think so too.
But that is
definitely something that um you know future booths future years we know we know things that
we could improve for sure and optimize it's like you said now now there's more things we know that
we can do better on that we just wouldn't know without having been there and done it once before
at least the biggest one it sounds so obvious but at the time you kind of get caught up is just
getting getting more things up higher and getting more things out front yeah that those are probably the two bigger
takeaways and yeah um you know we'll dress things up a little bit too um now that we know kind of
what's going on but um yeah so we we learned something there that was always good and we had
to uh the the one one funny thing about setting up the booth is like our racking in the back that the shirts hang on.
We realized it just wasn't as tall as it could be to help us.
And that was kind of, you know, we didn't want to bring a trailer with us.
Right.
So not bringing a trailer, one, saved us money and just makes the whole trip so much easier.
Big time.
So getting it all into the Suburban meant that the longest thing you can put in here is about six feet yeah and we had an option for eight foot racking but it just doesn't fit in
here right so we got six foot racking thinking now that's fine well we're both six feet tall
or taller so um you know in your little booth we block out all the stuff yeah so we're like we got
to get this stuff up higher.
We've got to find something to put our racking on so it goes higher.
So we start looking around the back of the convention center,
thinking, oh, is there a pallet or something?
Well, pallets won't work because we'll need 50 of them to stack all of it up across a 10-foot space.
Yep.
And then we're like, well, there is milk crates laying there.
Yeah.
So we jacked some milk crates from the back.
Kind of look back and forth about three or four times to make sure no one's really looking.
And no one really cares at all.
That's the other thing at the Arnold, too.
There's just a total lack of people that seem to be in charge in any way.
Nobody is really in charge of anything.
You can almost do anything if you just really want to.
And there's actually even
cops walking around and i'm not even sure they're completely aware of what is and isn't legal i
think they're just uh having fun almost that does seem like just to get the impression the impression
of order when there really is none there at all yes i agree but we got some milk crates to give
us an extra you know foot foot and a half lift on our things just to get them up a little higher.
And I think that did help.
And I don't know, did it take us like five, six hours to get the whole booth set up?
I think so.
And even just, you know, organizing over a thousand shirts in that small of an area is tricky.
It is.
Because every piece you move, you have have to like you can't just move
things you have to move one thing in order to move another thing it is just a big puzzle kind of yeah
yeah it is but all in all it worked out pretty well for us so that was thursday night and same
way with with all the all the lifters and stuff that we look up to and respect and enjoy talking
to you know most of those guys are around getting things together
all these people that we know from the other booths that was another cool thing right away
as we get to uh hang out with all these guys that we maybe haven't uh hung out with in person before
that own the other companies like frank from lift evil uh we never met him before got to meet him
for the first time which is awesome yeah and his booth was right around the corner from us, so we got to hang out with him all weekend.
And Nick from Live Large helped us out a lot in preparation for this
and even over the weekend and everything just because he's been there
and done it for so many years.
Oh, and he's probably been, I mean, he for no doubt has been
and exhibited at more events like this right now than we ever will in our
lifetime. There's no way we will match his number of events that he's gone to. And you can tell
he's got it down. Yeah, he knows like numbers, percentages, all types of stuff that just you
don't know that unless you have experience. Right. And so yeah, he had all types of like insider
tips and tricks and hacks and all
that stuff so that was a major help for us having nick yeah nick feed us some info and then around
us too jb boss and uh huck finn barbell they were both right right across from us and uh huck finn
barbell just like you guys would all expect was really low-key just nothing out of the ordinary
wasn't drinking any beer no there was no beer no beer, no yelling, no antics at all.
So don't even ask about it.
Yeah, you do wonder how he keeps it up for that many days.
That's the more impressive thing is, God, that guy's strong,
but he's also got stamina.
Yes.
The fact, one, that he still had his voice yesterday at the end of the day
was mind-blowing, and then that he could just go as long as he does.
Yeah, I think it's safe to say he is fueled by Miller Lite and Monster.
Yes.
Those are the two things that he's putting down all the time.
For sure.
And then kind of on the other sides of us, there was some supplement companies.
Yeah, we were surrounded by some supplement companies, which...
Supplement companies.
Yeah, they suck.
What do you say about them?
And their booths are a little bit annoying
being right next to, I would say.
Maybe the only acceptable booth for a supplement company
would be the animal cage,
just because it's so focused on lifting
and not just like,
here's powder.
Take it.
Take this pre-workout.
Like here we dumped a bunch of chocolate protein in this clear glass,
and it looks like liquid diarrhea that we're serving up to people all day long.
It really does, too.
And everyone's just taking all this. Oh, yeah.
I'll try some pre-workout.
I want to know how many people just drink, like, I don't know,
a gallon of pre-workout in a day.
By the time you leave there, you're on like 1,000 milligrams of caffeine.
Like, that can't feel good.
How much sugary, just sweet, sweet shit do you need to have
down your suck hole all day, you know?
Some people, I think that's what keeps them going.
Yeah, yeah. you know some people that's i think that's what keeps them going so yeah yeah uh so we get all set up and then friday morning was you know the big day and we got there at what seven in the
morning yes yeah seven seven thirty we show up uh the mostly exhibitors and maybe some VIP type people are in there around eight,
you know,
that time eight to nine,
I think nine 30 ish is when I was at nine when all the VIP got in.
Yeah,
that's probably right.
And then like nine 30,
10,
the,
uh,
the general public started showing up and it was,
you know,
not knowing what to expect.
It was right away in the morning. Things are a little slow. And then before, you know, not knowing what to expect. It was right away in the morning.
Things are a little slow.
And then before you know it, like, it's just like boom, boom, boom.
Like, shirts are moving off the shelves.
People are showing up like, oh, I've been waiting all year for this.
You know, just things like that.
And it was really, really cool.
And this is just where you start to see, don't know maybe the impact this podcast has like
we start to see people coming by like i listened to the podcast or i found you guys online or
i found someone mentioned you guys on reddit someone mentioned you guys on the powerlifting
motivation facebook chat like just all these avenues and different ways that people found us
for the podcast it It was really cool.
I would say I was surprised by how many people came up and said that they are fans of the podcast.
I knew we'd get a few people, but it was way more than I would have guessed that were like, yeah.
Because some people will come up and won't say that right away, but you can tell that they...
We chat with everyone that we could as long as we were not like crazy busy.
And after talking to them a while, you can tell that they kind of, they might say a couple things and know that they know Masonomics prior to this expo.
You know, they're not just there because they saw our shirt and liked it, which a lot of people were buying shirts just because they saw the shirts my favorite was the
guy that's like it i think it was sunday he goes man i saw all these people walking around in the
yeah buddy shirt and i got home last night and i was googling non-stop trying to find that thing
and i couldn't that had to be the world's most frustrating google search like what do you type
in yeah buddy beer shirt like it it's not gonna like I get
what he's trying to find but just Google's not gonna track that down for him somehow he found
us I can't even remember what he said how he how he did actually if he talked to someone or found
it on Instagram but uh he didn't find us so um credit to that guy for really sticking it out yes
but there there was so many people that said yeah i've been
listening to your podcast forever or uh i just started uh i found it at like episode 120 and
i've been listening since then or one guy that's like i just found the podcast and i started at
the beginning of episode 30 something and i was like damn dude that's yeah that's impressive that
you're gonna do that yep yeah i just started and's like, I'm up to episode 30 and I just listened to your most recent one too.
It's like a different show.
Yeah.
I hope, I hope with anything that you do for three years, I hope it changes and evolves over the course of time.
So I think that's a good sign.
Yeah.
He was saying he just listened to the episode where we did the first, uh, Masonomic Strongman showdown, which that seems so long ago.
It does.
Like, is that even in my lifetime when that happened?
That's history yeah uh the other one that i liked is you know anyone that listens to this podcast regularly is in on the lift shorts joke of the price of those and like are we gonna see people
that are also in on that joke like there's got to be a couple but is there going to be that many
and it was already the first day there was right away a
couple people that made the comment of like uh like because we had a pricing sign and they go
these shorts are really expensive and you're thinking are they like being serious and then
they kind of they just say that then they give you a smile and it's like all right yeah these
guys know what's up and that was kind of the running joke because we tell people like yeah
next year we're going to bring a glass case in.
And it's going to be under a key.
If you want to see the shorts, we'll have to unlock the case and pull out a pair for you.
Most people seem to like that.
I do like the idea of how just over the top and ridiculous that is.
There was so many people that were in on the lift shorts joke.
That was so cool.
Yeah, the number of people that are like, oh, you know, I took out a a loan before i came here and just i've been cutting on other things in my life it's almost like if anyone
would buy the lift shorts and not mention anything about it i had to almost ask him like so do you
know about the lift shorts do you know the legend of these things yeah because man you are you're
really missing out on having the full story here because there are there was like you know there'd
be a guy that would walk by that literally it's jam-packed in there. He's just walking by, and he, like, feels the shorts, and he's like, oh, I'll buy a pair of these.
Because that's funny, too, that people do that.
Like, champion, black shorts.
Yeah, these are cool.
Yeah, can I get a pair?
Yeah.
Like, man, okay, sit down.
We've got to tell you a little story about these shorts first.
There's a lot of power and responsibility that goes with these things.
No, you can't just buy a pair of lift shorts.
No one just buys lift shorts.
You think about it, debate it.
Think how long it's going to wreck you, the type of stress it's going to put you through.
You don't just walk by our booth and just, like, I was almost offended.
I'm like, no, do you know how many people can't just do what you're doing right now?
Not everyone's a millionaire that just carelessly throws money around.
I mean, he was wearing a tuxedo.
He did say something about his driver pulling up in the Bentley, too, to get him. Everyone's a millionaire that just carelessly throws money around. I mean, he was wearing a tuxedo. Yeah.
He did say something about his driver pulling up in the Bentley, too, to get him.
So I don't know.
Maybe that's just how people in Ohio are.
Another thing there was another, you know, this is a recurring thing of the podcast.
We always say we don't have any female listeners outside of maybe our mothers and three others.
Uh-huh.
And there was a lot more women lifters that came up and said that they enjoyed the podcast than I would have ever imagined. There was.
I really would have thought, at best, there would be two or three.
And there was way more than that.
And, I mean, we got comments like, oh, you guys are funny, which, you know, maybe your sense of humor needs some help.
No, like, we did get a lot of really good compliments on just from men and women of various age groups even, you know.
So that's cool.
Maybe we're appealing to a few more people than we initially thought.
Yeah, I would say older people than we would have imagined, younger people than we would have imagined.
I would say older people than we would have imagined, younger people than we would have imagined. And it's just a cool feeling to see it, too, and get to actually meet those people.
And then be like, oh, I guess we'll keep doing it.
Yeah.
Okay, we'll do a few more episodes.
We won't end it with the road trip episode.
And then also just the number of people that wanted to stop by and, like, take a picture.
Yeah.
Even just chat for a while.
I mean, all types of stuff.
The ones that surprised me, too, were the people that were like,
oh, they would come running over,
basically literally holding their wallet in their hand
and being like, oh, okay, I've been really excited for this.
And go, okay, lift shirt, bent shirt, lift short.
And you're like, whoa, whoa, hold up, man. I can't remember all these things and they just rattle stuff off yeah like oh i'm so
excited for this guys yeah that was that's really cool for us too it's like oh someone actually
likes this stuff yeah that and that is probably the most rewarding part is like seeing people
like actually appreciate and value something that we're putting all this work into it's funny with
the people that want to come up and take a picture and stuff too.
Like one year ago at this time, that happened for the first time ever.
Yeah, and I think it was three or four people maybe did that.
Yeah, I think the first one ever may have been Mr. Scott Dodd.
It could have very well been.
And at the time we were like, wow, that's so cool.
Someone actually like recognized us or recognized our logo or something and knew who we were.
And this year it was just like a regular occurrence.
Yeah, it was a regular occurrence.
And that's just speaking to the people that I would actually call fans,
the people that wanted to stop back and come take a picture and chat and have jokes.
And a lot of them came back multiple times
through the weekend too which is cool like they're just like hey what's up guys just uh how's day two
going how's day three going yeah um scott dodds yeah he kept us in the loop on everything that
was happening i don't know if there's a guy that sees more of like the strength events like strong
man and like gets in there for that than him and meets and meets he had
this scott has a belt of every and okay for the people that don't know scott dodds is a
masonomic super fan we would classify him as scott carried a belt with him all weekend and
that belt has the who's who of autographs on it he does uh you know larry wheels big z brian shaw uh casmeyer magnus for magnuson literally every
i mean there's probably 10 others yeah really i mean probably anyone that was at the sbd booth
the entire weekend yeah just you got everyone and also um scott i know you dropped by the booth a
few times this weekend tanner mentioned something about you having some crazy dunk mixtape out there
and i'm really jealous that i didn't know about this and i didn't see anything of this so uh we
might have to get in contact with you to to find out about these things yes yes definitely uh so
that outside of just all of the uh supporters just supporters that came by the other thing that was
really cool is the number of like kind of personalities and personas and lifters that stopped by the booth, too.
Yes.
And we're definitely going to miss some people because it was so many,
but over the course of the few days.
And these are people that just didn't just stop and, like, get a handshake,
and we got to hang out with them all.
No, like, they came back behind the booth and hung out for a while.
Yeah.
I think the very first, well, James Strickland, SwimHack, was the very first one.
He was there.
He got first.
He did get first in real life.
That's quite the accomplishment.
He was also first comment on YouTube.
Doubling up this week.
So Big James is kind of hitting home runs right now.
So he was like the first guy.
Obviously, with Huck Finn being right there.
You know, he's always around the booth.
Tom Callis was right there.
JB Boss was right next to them.
So Ed Cohn was kind of always in the area.
Andre Milanochev was around.
We had Pete Rubish stop by for a while.
Pete Rubish was hanging out for quite a while.
And with him, Perseus from Alabama was with him.
We'll touch on the Alabama guys in a minute here.
But, yeah, the whole Alabama crew was always around.
Jesse Burdick was around for a while.
He stopped by a couple different times.
CeCe Holcomb came by.
I'm trying.
I just can't even wrap your head around everyone.
Julius Maddox, LW the Machine.
Yeah, Leroy Walker, TD Smash.
We talked about this.
Between TD Smash, Leroy Walker, Julius Maddox, James Strickland,
I think just about everyone that benches like 650 or more.
Probably came and visited.
I don't know.
Outside of like Kirill Serchev.
They all came by and hung out at the booth, which was really cool.
And it was cool.
Like, you know, we had never met like guys like Julius or TD Smash or those guys before.
And they're kind of genuinely fans of what we do.
They were.
They were jacked to see us.
They were excited to come over and hang out and talk about it.
So that's super cool for us, too,
and these guys that are world-class strength
actually enjoy what we got going on and stuff.
Yep.
Ernie Lillibridge stopped by for a while yeah
um then maddie forberg yeah last day yeah that was actually one of the biggest surprises is yeah
um because we knew some of those guys would be around stopping by yeah and uh matt vincent yeah
oh yeah matt vincent swung by for a little bit and chatted it up uh but it was towards the end we were just getting ready to start kind of taking things down and this guy and this lady slip into the booth and i just
hear this raspy voice and i look down and it's meg squat she goes massonomics i love you guys so much
sorry my voice is gone and um she was just like i'm so glad i made it over here like i can't believe
i can't believe you guys have been here all weekend.
It just sucks.
You know, having a booth, we were never able to see anyone.
And then she goes, am I talking to you?
She's talking to me when she says, am I talking to you online all the time?
Like, no, no, that's Tanner.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Um, so she was really cool to meet in person.
Like I had no idea what she'd be like.
And, uh, she's kind of one of those people that transcends power lifting a little bit,
you know, which she has like deals with Kellogg's like special k just all types of other
women's things it was her and uh her boyfriend there and yeah both yeah both really cool really
nice really cool and to us it's just like you know we know like maybe you know she'll comment
on our stuff sometimes and we you know people like, we've made Massanomics verses for them, so we know
they're kind of aware of it, but for them to
actually stop by and then be like,
oh, we love what you guys are doing. It's so cool.
It's like, whoa!
In the world of Instagram,
someone like her with 300,000
plus followers, that probably gets
DMs and messages and
offers tagged all day
long. To have someone like us stick out in her memory.
Yeah.
That is a really cool thing.
That was.
And then, yeah, shortly after her, Maddie Forberg came by too.
Yeah.
Both of those girls, surprising how little they actually are.
Yes.
I just still in my head have a hard time just gauging sizes of people.
Yeah.
And both times it's like yeah
you're just like small women like not these enormous scary power lifters that it seems like
maybe you would be but nope they're just uh just uh yeah cool people that stop by uh terry holland's
terry holland's did walk by the booth and talk for a while too he remembered our interview from
last year and again he's still really big too yeah
his wife she was competes in figure or something like that still really big he hasn't gotten
smaller since last year maybe more ripped since last year but yeah uh not smaller uh the other
one that was shocking didn't stop but walked by was brian shaw just when he walks down the aisle
the size of him yeah we huck huck finn was uh yeah Finn was in our booth at the time.
And I go, say, there's Big Brian.
And Huck looks and he goes, Shaw!
And he turns back and just gives him a.
He's probably like, I don't have time for this right now.
I mean, he had torn his hamstring.
But there's just of the general audience, there's a ton of people that walked by the
weekend that with, you know, Tommy and I will even point them out to each other that we're
like, Whoa, look at that guy.
He's really big.
You know, like, Whoa, that guy's got a huge back or his arms are like, gotta be like 30
inches around.
Herbie the love buggy.
Oh yeah.
Herbie came, came, uh, came, uh, to the booth for a little while.
Really nice guy too.
He was, and, uh, he has this thing where his back connects to his ears.
Yes. His traps don't make any sense at all.
Yes.
But with Shaw, too, he dwarves all those other guys that are huge.
He does.
He looks, I mean, honestly, to me, he looks like a giant person.
If giants existed.
And I'm comparing him to these other people that are enormous.
Yep.
Even just the way he walks, like he has the mannerisms of someone that you actually think is a giant, like is a different species almost.
Yeah, absolutely.
The other one, other strong man, I always forget how you say it.
Halina or?
Oh, Re Ronald Heinle.
We saw him. I talked to him
for just a couple seconds. Him and
Mateus came by and
I've always thought
and it is changing over
time here because he's so young, but Mateus
always seemed like
a smaller strong man a little bit.
Maybe even leaner.
He is somewhat tall he's like
six five six six yeah um but he just looked so much smaller than shawn thor but when he walked
down the aisle he has such like a unique physique in the way that how just filled out he is without
looking fat at all yeah like he doesn't look like just um like shredded you know he's not like a bodybuilder
defined but just the sheer mass of his body yes it's hard to you just don't see that ever no he
has a physique that's very very unique to him right so that really put into perspective how
big of a guy he is and then it did make a little more sense like okay i guess i can see why that
guy can just throw stones around like no one else in the world.
Right, right.
Because he is built different than anyone else in the world.
Yep.
Are we forgetting anyone?
I mean, we're definitely forgetting someone.
Steve Johnson, Forsaken Warrior, was around.
Yeah, Steve Johnson was by for a little bit.
Chris Wiest.
Oh, yeah, Chris Wiest.
Yeah, he came by.
We finally got to meet him, which was overdue and awesome to have that.
We won't spoil how he did in the cage because we'll probably save all that.
Yeah, we'll save that for the performance section.
But he did have a really good day in the cage.
Yeah, he's also another guy where his traps just kind of go right up to his earlobes.
Absolutely, they do.
We said that a couple times where it's like,
We said that a couple times where it's like, huh, funny how all these guys that can deadlift close to 900 pounds or more
do not have necks.
Yeah, Pete Rubish is the exact same way.
None of those guys have a small upper back, like neck trap region.
It's all very oversized.
You know who's back I may have been the most impressed by?
Whose? CeC? Cece's.
Yeah.
Her physique is
maybe the craziest thing.
Yes.
She was wearing a not that tight
t-shirt and her traps
literally stuck out from her back.
It was like
I mean
people wear like fake marvel
costumes for halloween that look more realistic than her actual body because she's so jacked yes
yeah that one we actually did talk about that if she left like what
yeah it makes sense that she can do what she does yeah because she's so strong. The Spud Inc. Yeah, Spud Inc.
We'll buy several times.
Basically every day, which is really cool.
They're really nice, too.
And they had some good ideas for a potential future podcast segment that maybe you'll see
at some point in time.
They did, yeah.
And I like that a lot.
Yeah.
We won't spoil the surprise there.
Hopefully we can make some things happen and make that come through.
Our friends to the north in North Dakota also stopped by.
Yeah, full circle strength.
Mitch Hughes and his wife stopped by.
I'm annoyed because I know that we're going to be missing probably 10 people
that we could rattle off here, but there was a lot.
It's almost overwhelming when you think about a of how many
how many people that we kind of look up to and enjoy watching that we get to get to hang out
with for that weekend yeah it's it's uh you know it's tough to manage it too because at the same
time of doing all of this there's still customers coming by yeah and that that is the that's where
it gets tricky is um you know you do do want to play, well, you one
just want to sit, any one of these people you'd want to sit and talk to for an hour,
hour plus, two hours, three hours.
But then you also.
And anyone that's also buying a shirt from us, I want to talk to them too.
Yeah.
And I want to be like, I want to know, hey, like.
How did you find us?
Yeah.
Like, do you know about us?
Just like kind of get the whole story and just kind of, you know, feel like what, what
the audience is like out there.
Um, it just, you can't split your time that many ways, you know, it's just not possible
to, uh, to, to spend that much time with everyone and then still kind of do, cause at the end
of the day we did come here.
It is a business trip.
We're going to sell stuff.
Like we don't sell stuff.
One, we're not coming back next year.
And two, like economics isn't going to be around if it's not selling things.
Right.
Yes.
We can't, like, continue to donate money to the project forever.
Like, eventually it has to.
Especially, you know, I would say this weekend is with a booth in comparison to what we've done the last few years of just walking around and interviewing people.
The booth is so much more work.
It is.
I mean, it is work.
Especially when there's two people, you don't really get a chance to get away.
This is how it would go.
Every morning, Tanner and I would eat breakfast.
When we'd get to the Arnold, usually about 7.30, we'd both say,
all right, this is our last chance for a bathroom break.
So one of us would go.
The other one would come back.
We'd go.
And then it'd be about 1.30, and we'd say, oh, we haven't ate, drank, or gone to the bathroom yet today.
And about that time, the Alabama guys would show up with a sub or water or beer or something for us and be like, yes.
And then we'd say, okay, bathroom break time.
One of us would go because everything would be so jammed at that point.
It would take about a half hour or more to get to the bathroom, get back.
Then the other guy would go.
And then we'd wait until, you know, 6, 7 o'clock at night
to go to the bathroom for the second time or the third time of the day.
And I remember, especially the first day,
feeling like about 4 o'clock that like an intense hangover was hitting me.
And I think it
was just dehydration and just tiredness from all the activity was setting in yesterday we didn't
eat yeah it was uh we were in the we were in the suburban and it was what was it seven o'clock we
go yeah uh when was last time we ate like well someone walked well no it was like we had breakfast
at the at the convention center
oh and then someone from robert robert irving's protein bar booth walked by and gave us a mystery
bar and we go mystery bar she goes ah it's it's peanut butter and jelly i'll just tell you
um other one uh jessica stopped by well actually two jessicas jessica from slingshot which was
awesome to talk to her.
She's super nice.
She did say that she's like, yesterday might have been the best day of my life.
I got to have dinner with Arnold, Mark Bell.
Mark bought me these brand-new Jordans, and John Cena texted me.
So that's a pretty cool take.
Not your average day.
So that was cool.
But Jessica, you know who you are.
Yeah.
She's helped us out through the years getting photos, getting some strongman coverage.
She swung by the booth, got to take a picture, give us some support.
Yeah.
And we got to hook her up with some things, too.
So that was really awesome.
And should we talk about the Alabama guysama guys at all uh no i don't
maybe we should just maybe we should just not cover them at all um unfortunately we didn't get
to do a podcast it's just the nature of the weekend with how crazy it is they were lifting
going to west side like they had all types of stuff going on too um and who the alabama guys are for if you
don't know uh uh it'd be uh bacon and beer bells on uh instagram is jonathan oldham and we we uh
you know kind of sponsor him and help him out with stuff yeah if you don't follow him check that out
for sure actually all these guys that just applies to in general and we've uh you know he's been a
big supporter of massonomics for a really long time and one of the biggest supporters.
You know, he posted a picture on, I think, getting ready to come to the Arnold of all his Mastonomics.
I might have to have him send me that picture.
He might have more than we do.
Yeah, that was what you said.
You're like, I think John might have more Mastonomics stuff than I have.
Like, I might have more, but some of it's in the bottom of my closet and I don't know where it's at right he has more that's like in rotation and use than i do
for sure to get that picture from him and we'll put that out there for people to see that can be
everyone's goal for 2019 a metric to shoot for uh so he came and then uh less keys actually it's
less kai as i learned. I didn't know that.
Talk about spoiler alert there.
That's his coach out of,
they,
uh,
train out of Diamond K powerlifting,
uh,
in Birmingham,
right?
Yep.
Irondale,
I guess,
but we learned that's kind of all Birmingham in Alabama.
Uh,
Les is his coach.
He came with,
and then,
uh,
got to meet the gym owner,
um,
big, big Richie Bully.
Yep.
Yep.
Who I.
He was a little disappointed that Mastodonics doesn't follow him on Instagram.
Well, I heard they do like some of his comments.
Yes.
Right.
I told him.
If Mastodonics doesn't follow you on Instagram, don't feel bad.
You can even look and watch and notice for yourself.
I try to keep that number
around 450 because it's a number i made up in my head one day and it is somewhat manageable still
yeah so um that's that's why uh but those guys were around all weekend and were really helpful
to us actually like you said getting us so we didn't die of starvation and thirst well yeah
and there
was just i mean there's just so much to talk about with them yeah it could almost be an episode on
its own but everyone else might get tired of hearing about that but uh i mean we had never
got to meet the guys and this was a crazy one where just with the state of lifting nowadays
and instagram and just the internet that you can kind of feel like you're really good friends with people yet never have met them in person or really even talk to them on the phone for that matter.
Like, it's basically we keep track of each other's lives through DMs and Instagram clips.
Like, that's how we know each other.
Yeah.
And, like, we talked about it this weekend.
Like, God, what if we meet these guys and they're like actual total weirdos like it's possible because we do only know them through instagram that we're missing some huge chunk of
their life it'd be really weird if we were that far off base but it's possible and um that wasn't
the case at all no i mean you could say they were weirdos but it was for the right reasons like you
know it was the kind of weirdos that we like yeah Yeah, that we like and we need to have around.
But, yeah, they were, one, just lifesavers for us the whole weekend,
and then, two, it was awesome to have them around.
We were going to podcast and stuff.
It didn't work out the night we were planning for.
Some of them ended up going to Westside Barbell to train, so that's pretty.
It's like, yeah, you know, given the chance to podcast with Maths and Amics or go to Westside, I think we know the answer there.
I mean, it's becoming more borderline with the growth of Mathonomics.
Next year, I think that answer becomes much more obvious.
Yes, that it's the Mathonomics podcast.
Absolutely.
But yeah, so some of them got busy with that.
But we did get to the one night.
We went to a taco shop.
Excellent taco shop.
Yeah, ate quite a bit
And I drank a lot of Modelo
And they had some
Margs, and it was a good night
I think we all, for how tired
You and I were Tanner, we probably
Sat there probably several more hours
Than we initially thought we were going to
But I had a lot of fun and I could have
Sat there many more hours if I didn't
Have to wake up at 5.30 the next day and suffer through standing in a five-foot cell for 12 hours.
So tired every day, though.
You know, the whole thing is just you're running on.
Luckily, sales are pretty exciting to me.
Yes, sales are rejuvenating in a way that, like, caffeine or anything like that isn't.
Where you're like, oh, someone's buying something.
All right, I can handle sticking around for this.
Yeah.
Just to speak in it kind of vaguely, though, sales, we were really, if anyone's curious,
I think we were really happy with the way things went as far as the booth goes.
Yeah, I think so.
You have no idea going into something like this. Like, are we going to lose money?
Are we going to break even?
Are we going to see any money?
And we just, we tend to be, you know, very conservative with any estimates business-wise and anything.
And that's probably the best one because it's more realistic and you don't get your hopes up as much.
And I think we, I think it's safe to say we exceeded our expectations of what we thought was possible. If you said a week ago how it went, I think we would have been like, no, we wouldn't have done that.
And if you heard just the total numbers of sales, you'd probably be like, whoa, that sounds like a lot of money.
But then when you factor in how expensive.
Auto booths are crazy expensive.
Driving halfway across the country, hotel rooms, Airbnbs for a week.
I mean, there's a lot of expenses into this thing.
It's still not, you know, as good as we did, we still look on paper and, like, it's not like a complete no-brainer.
Like, oh, man, we've got to do that for sure.
But I think the real thing is just on top of, yes, financially it did go well, but also we really got the word out about Massanomics.
That would have taken a couple months online to, one, get that much product sold
and then also just meet and talk to people.
That would never happen online.
And there's no way to make kind of those same quality connections online.
Yeah, no, you don't get to do that. You don't get to show people like hey we're not weirdos look we are i think somewhat normal guys to be around we do lift you know we
are fans of the sport we're not just two random dudes that said oh let's make a t-shirt company
and then uh we'll sell it to lifters like Like, we are involved. We are trying to, you know, just increase awareness, knowledge, education,
just everything about the sport.
And I think we do that.
I think so.
You know, whether it's through this podcast or lifting legends posts
or versus posts.
The number of people that came in up and said,
oh, your stuff on Instagram is so funny.
I love those things where you compare the two people.
Yeah, there was a lot of people that said that too and then one of their buddies would be like what are you talking
about and they would be explaining one of them oh yeah i've seen those yeah yeah and then so a lot
of people just know it through things like that which is cool too so you know the word is getting
out there and um yeah i mean as as of right now we we definitely feel like yeah we will be there
again next year yeah yeah it's we're
already kind of talking about logistics you know what how we could do do that better and what we
could do a little bit differently and it'd be really daunting to think about doing that anytime
soon but luckily it's it would be a year away from now so yeah um yeah overall i would just
if we had to classify the Arnold as anything,
I would say a huge success.
Yeah, I think it was, without a doubt.
Like we said, we're not going to do a big lifts because that's almost like the next episode.
It's kind of what the next episode is.
What about comment of the week?
I don't know if we have, like, one specific.
Well, actually, are we crossing the Mississippi River right now, Tanner?
Is that what it just said?
It's a big.
It's a big river.
It's a big.
Is this the border from?
Let's see.
What's our sign say?
Buffalo Bill Museum.
Isn't that the guy from Silence of the Lambs that would tuck his sack back?
They made a museum for that guy?
Kind of weird, but whatever.
LeClaire Brentendorf?
Not familiar with that one, but that's what our exit sign says.
If you've forgotten, we are still driving.
Yeah, we are still on the road.
Semi-truck drivers are really staring at us right now.
This guy is doing a quadruple take on us
he gave me a lot of looks and uh just so you know like i'm getting pretty comfortable right now with
podcasting and driving i'm gonna try and throw in texting as a third with my other hand uh we
did notice like someone needs to like make a brand or a shirt that America's new pastime,
America's great pastime right now is texting and driving.
There's just no way around that one.
We've certainly noticed it across the last four or so states.
Oh, we have officially entered Iowa.
Okay, guys, we're in Iowa now.
So you've now gone a second state with us at this point.
The podcast is winding down in time, so it is cool that we could take you on a two-state
podcast tour.
And maybe
later today we'll get a second one and we'll
cover some more states for you too.
We can keep you in the loop on all of the amazing...
We're going to take this podcast all across the United
States.
That's what we need to do.
A Massanomics, maybe 2020
we'll do the Massonomics road united states
tour that could be a lot of fun all just audio podcasts just audio just from the car like the
tour part really doesn't have any bearing on anything other than to say that we did it uh
but yeah tanner we are 55 minutes deep right now well Well, what about us? Okay, how about this? A special Arnold version of underrated or overrated.
Okay, I think we can handle that.
I think we can sneak that in.
Maybe you probably should go over the rules, though, because we are in a car.
We're in a different state.
People might not know.
We're in a different state.
The people from Iowa aren't going to know the rules.
Exactly.
So we should probably explain how this goes.
I think that's how podcasts work, right? If we're in Iowa, the people from Iowaowa aren't going to know the rules exactly so we should probably explain how this goes that's how podcasts work right if you're in iowa that people from iowa
will be listening yep uh yeah and i normally read the rules so this is going to be tricky
yeah the teleprompter guy usually loads these up for you right now uh you're gonna have to wing it
hopefully you don't mess anything up because we'd have to start the whole segment over that's right
well so you know underrated or overrated is lightning round questions
that I typically come up with and ask Tommy to answer.
And most of them are kind of random, pop culture related.
Sometimes we throw some lifting related topics in there.
This week's going to be a little bit special because it's an Arnold theme.
So it's all lifting related in a way, it's also all pop pop culture in a way
but the probably the most important thing to remember on under and over is
that the questions are in fact lightning around the questions are always going to
come at you lightning around it's the answers that do not have to be lightning
around you could say though today we do have like a 60 mile limit
Because the the maps are gonna kick in here pretty soon
We're gonna start making some turns that might interrupt the segment that could be bad for listeners
So is there truly a cap there could be a
Special and even if we ignored the maps at some point we would run out of gas so we would have to stop so
Technically there is a cap today. We don't so we would have to stop so technically there is a
cap today we don't know for sure what it is but there is one okay all right well you know the
rules then so the first one it's arnold related in a way this came from a suggestion from uh big
james strickland that we need to do on under overrated is that uh underrated or overrated
the rules of underrated or overrated well i think we've just shown right
now that you can never overrate the rules they are of utmost importance when it comes to this
segment because we cannot have anyone suffering any confusion at any point during this segment
so we do have to cover the rules and i'm very in depth if we didn't have rules what would we have
i mean we'd have total chaos. Anarchy.
Yeah.
And at that point, no one's going to listen then.
People would be listening right now being like, what are they doing?
I don't understand.
This isn't how it works.
Like, the questions are lightning round, but the answers aren't?
Is that what it is?
My whole life is questioning their whole lives all of a sudden.
Yeah.
We could never do that.
So the rules are incredibly underrated.
Okay.
Underrated or overrated, the bathrooms at the Arnold.
Well, okay, you can come at this one from two ways.
As far as the staff goes, the bathrooms are overrated because they ain't going in there ever.
Like, the staff might as well say, oh, we have a bathroom where tens of thousands of people are going to wreck it?
Nah, we don't need to check on those things.
The number of times you go in and there's an inch of standing water in a bathroom?
The whole bathroom.
The whole bathroom has an inch of water.
It's just like, please, God, do not let me fall,
because if I fall in here, one, I'm going to burn myself alive. One, I'm going to be soaked.
But two, I've probably contracted so many diseases.
I would have.
Either that or you would develop some super tolerance to something
because you just got subjected to every single bacteria and virus available to mankind.
So, yeah, from the staff's point of view, the bathrooms are overrated.
In fact, they think they're so overrated that at 730 in the morning when they should be the cleanest they are all day because I'm the first person to go in there, there's still water and toilet paper all over the floors.
And you can look and the toilet paper isn't in the things.
Like, those are bathroom basics right now.
So, yeah, staff point of view, bathroom's way overrated.
From our point of view, they're incredibly underrated because they don't get served.
And I just made that point clear.
So, yeah, that one's a two-piece one.
Underrated or overrated, Hubert's Polish Kitchen at the North Market.
Very underrated.
I can't even remember what half the food is called.
The one is pierogies are really, really good.
I like the ball.
Yes, we only got to eat there once this year, which was the biggest disappointment.
But I got two pierogies.
I got the mashed potatoes.
He puts the spicy Polish stew over all of it.
And the other one, I don't even know.
It starts with an M.
I cannot remember what it's called.
But it's a big ball yeah with uh is that was there
rice in it at all it was for sure it's for sure cheese or chicken cabbage yeah and it's like fried
yeah and there might be one other thing in there too that i'm missing but it's so
damn good and that i get that thing covered with the stew too man i like i did take a picture of that
and put it on my story and i got probably more dms about that picture of that food than i have
gotten in quite a while actually yeah so hubert's very underrated um last one here underrated or
overrated the deal seekers and haglers ar Arnold. They're the worst people.
Okay, we do, even the way our booth works, T-shirts are one for $25, two for $40.
Yeah.
Some people might be like, well, that's kind of a lot.
But online, yeah, they're a couple dollars cheaper, but you pay for shipping.
So, like, it ends up being more.
Yeah.
And then two for $40 is a deal for you. Like, like a 20 t-shirt is pretty fair market price right and as far as the arnold goes we
charge the same price as everyone else or cheaper we're definitely not more expensive
um and so there's a few people that's just like um two for 40 how about i just do one for 20 it's
like nah man how about you do one for 25, like the sign says?
Or the people that just come in and just shoot you low ball right away.
Like, oh, I'll do that shirt for 10, 15.
It's like, no, it's 25.
All right.
Yeah, we'll start at 10.
All right, 15.
No, it's 25.
All right, have fun taking it home, they say.
It's like, we will, and we'll sell it for a full price online to people that want to wear it.
So run along, man.
And then the indis...
And I get it, too, because I'm like this a little bit.
I'm not like Tanner.
Neither you or I are like this, where we're just like firing off the cuff, just spending money doing things.
We probably both overanalyze, and I think both of our wives would probably say you need to make up your
minds a little faster sometimes but there's a number of people that come up to the booth
and one have a hard time picking shirts which is good because i think that means we're giving
them a lot of choices that are good yeah i don't mind that part then there's people that
you bring them out a large ah i don't know maybe a
medium you get a medium they're trying a medium uh you know what maybe the medium's too small
let's go with a large and actually you know what i'm gonna change the style too so then they see a
large of a different style okay yep this one's better uh you know what let's just do the sweatshirt
and then actually the number of people
that their price can go from 25 for a single shirt they get all the way up to 60 for three
and then back down to 25 for one and then settle on a 40 sweatshirt it's like wow you ran through
the entire cycle of possibilities i'm super grateful you bought something yeah it's just
funny to see like how people's brains work out
like justifying prices
and what's the right fit for them
what's the right style
it almost is like an experiment
in human psychology
it really is
even the same thing, it's with people coming to the booth
compared to some of the bigger booths what we may have lacked in sales i
think we uh gained in laughs and reactions yeah oh gosh because the number of people that would do
like look at our stuff kind of do a long look look away look back really quick and start smiling or
laughing you could always see guys from 30 feet away that would get it and be like yep you could
literally see them pointing
pointing hitting their friends and laughing and then if they run over um usually that was a pretty
good sign i think we got a lot more of that than your average booth yeah we did get a lot of
reactions a lot of reactions so uh that was that was awesome but uh what was the original underrated
overrated there uh the the hagglers the hagglers oh god they're so overrated yeah um i think that wraps up wrestles wraps us up on underrated overrated the arnold arnold
classic underrated overrated the whole thing the whole thing oh i would almost say overrated but
like that's probably like shooting yourself in the foot if you say that.
But like,
I,
I kind of think it's a little overrated.
I do think as a part of the sport,
it's something everyone should go to once in their life.
Like you will have a great time.
No doubt about it.
And we get a little desensitized going to it,
you know,
every year.
And we also don't get to take in like this year,
besides our booth,
we almost didn't see anything.
Yeah.
But, like, I really like going and like what we do and everything like that.
So I don't want to say, like, there's just things about it that are, like, the intense crowd.
Probably the better question here is overwhelming or not overwhelming.
Very overwhelming.
And it's incredibly overwhelming.
Yes.
It's just, like, ultra stimulation for just three straight
days but um i also think you'll be two days you do yeah the average person only needs two days uh
and they don't need to be two full days either but no at the end of the day we do love the arnold
and that's why we've gone back three days in a row you just you just have to mentally prep yourself
for it that is what it comes down to.
Tanner, we are at our time, basically.
All right.
I think that wraps us up.
You can go to our online store.
Hopefully, by the time you're hearing this, we have everything mostly restocked and in inventory.
There's going to be some things that are fairly low, though.
So if you're after anything in particular, I would get on it quickly.
We're going to be reordering and restocking. So if there's something we're out of now um just wait hold on a little bit we'll get that sorted out
and get get inventory back in but the curl hard shirt is brand new uh and if you've uh weren't at
the arnold you haven't had the opportunity to buy it yet we'll have that online on our site
by the time you're hearing this yep it's possible by the time you hear it's actually more than
likely by the time you're hearing this, certain sizes are probably completely sold out. Um, there should be,
it's going to be pretty limited. So if you're interested, make sure you get on there. Don't
wait on it because, uh, there's a good chance those could be gone for a while. So hop on that.
Yes. Um, other than that, check us out on YouTube, like a subscribe on there on Facebook,
leave us a podcast review. I didn't get a check to check into those if we've got any since we've been driving for hours on end and I have
been trying you've been texting and driving I've been trying my best to not
be on my phone it is hard to not get on your phone for like seven hours in a row
you know for like to not look at your phone for that long yep but check us out
on everything that we do tell a friend about the podcast
and we will see you
next year at the Arnold
and we will see you for our next
episode of the podcast
who knows what state we'll be in then
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