Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 762: Barbell Shrugged- Unusual CrossFit History & MORE

Starting point is 00:00:00 If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mite, op, mite, op with your hosts. Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. Oh, dude, here we go. We're going to kick off the first interview that we did while we were at Paleo Effects, man. And this is what the second or third time, well, I mean, Sal and I just recently went down to LA. We met up with Doug and this was the first time that Sal and I had met Anders and Anders is a new addition to The Barbell Shrug team. Yeah, I really liked this guy. Really cool guy. Very talented. Yeah, I mean he's new, but he's very very talented He brings it. What I liked is like how passionate he was and like how stoked he was to be be a part. It's like, it's just, you know, it's one of those things.

Starting point is 00:00:48 It's contagious, you know, somebody that has that kind of energy that they're coming back in with. First time I met him in this, in this episode. So that was pretty cool. Good dude. Brings a lot of energy to the table, man. I think he's a, he's a great addition to their team. I think we had a great time within that was the first time just, this is the first time Justin meets him. Sound, I already had the pleasure of podcasting with him on their team. I think we had a great time within that was the first time just this is the first time Justin meets him. Sound I already had the pleasure of podcasting with them on their show a few weeks back. And there's a lot of changes that have happened since since the first time we met with them. Now they have something called a shrug collective, which is several shows on their channel. Barbell shrug. I'm pretty sure I gave him that idea. I'm not sure. Yeah. No actually they actually said that it was

Starting point is 00:01:23 Oh, just my talk. He did bring it me. Yeah, he did bring it up. I remember that, it's just insane. Yeah, we all talked about it and then they did it. But they have all these different shows now under their channel, Barbell Shrugged, being one of them. And that's the one with Doug and Anders. And they have the blood so show with Mike and some other shows on there.

Starting point is 00:01:39 But this is our third time. We did a first podcast with them a long time ago at Paleo. And that episode never aired. It got lost. The second one was with you and I, Adam, this is the third one, if I'm not mistaken. I feel like we have one more in there. And was there another one?

Starting point is 00:01:53 I just, was there another time we did? Nope. Oh, that's it, no? You guys finally, yeah, we're on Barbell Shrugged with just the two of you. I, you know, there's part of me that like, I'm glad the first one didn't get aired anyways, because I hated the way we started.

Starting point is 00:02:06 I remember the, you know, sometimes when you meet some of the very first time, this was early on when we were, they did the past the consciously. Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's like, hey guys in the room with everybody would rally, hi, my name's Adam Schaefer, I'm a recovering alcoholic. This is what, you know what I'm saying, we kind of did that where this long walks on the beach.

Starting point is 00:02:20 This was definitely our style. Now, there is, you know, I for one prefer to apologize for the people that if you don't know Barbell Shrugged and you don't know their host, you've got three hosts over there and then you've got three over here. So, six is a lot on the podcast. Yeah. I think for the most part that we did a really good job of navigating through that. I think we shared pretty well as far as time and like, you know, and try not to talk over

Starting point is 00:02:43 each other. No, and there was some great discussions, and we talked about the history of CrossFit, like the ins and outs, like the culture and the controversy, which I was, I don't know any of that. That was fascinating for me. That was, I definitely heard some things that I was not familiar with.

Starting point is 00:02:58 I had no idea about a zone diet being the first real diet within CrossFit. I thought it was paleo, but that was later on. Yeah, so he told some great stories there. He told some name drops some people and some crazy shit they've done. We talked about podcasting because they have been podcasting for a long time, over six years.

Starting point is 00:03:16 They've been on air, which in podcast land is a long time. The only person I know who we talked to has been around long, and that's like, it's been greenfield, right? He's been doing it for about nine years So so we have some good conversation on that we talk about the business of Podcasting and fitness. I mean overall a good conversation and you know the new host Anders I'm really I really like him. I'm really impressed with him

Starting point is 00:03:38 No, the first time we met him down there I thought and that was his first episode so the episode that Sal and I Did on their show was the first time ever he hopped in. And he talks a little bit about forgetting our names and everything in this episode. So it's great. So you'll enjoy, let his experience was like the first time meeting us and interviewing us. Right. Right. So great conversation. Also this month, we have a great promotion because summertime's coming up. And most people want to get lean for the summer to reveal the body that been working on year long. Now, nutrition plays a massive role in this process and we have two guides that work on

Starting point is 00:04:12 or talk about nutrition. One is the Intuitive Nutrition Guide and the other is the Intermittent Fasting Guide. Now, you can get both of those for free, okay? This month for free, if you enroll in any of our maps, bundles. Now bundles are where we combine two or more maps programs together and discount the total price by about 30% off. For example, we have something called a super bundle, which includes

Starting point is 00:04:38 maps and a ball, maps performance, maps aesthetic, and maps prime, and maps anywhere. And it's a year of exercise programming. And what we do is we took all those programs, put them together, slash the price, way down. And again, if you enroll in that or any other bundle for that matter, you'll get the Intuitive Nutrition Guide and the Fasting Guide for free this month only. For more information on those programs, go to mindpumpmedia.com. And without any further ado, here's Mind Pump interviewing Barbell Shrug. Is this bigger or smaller than last year's

Starting point is 00:05:12 just couched round table? All these small, small, small, small, small, small. Yeah, I think it was seven or eight. Seven or eight? I think it was seven. We planned for eight and there was seven, but then there were also people watching. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:05:23 So the room was just fuller. Yeah. Were you here last year? No. No, you weren't, right? Yeah were also people watching. Yeah. So the room was fuller. Yeah. Were you here last year? No. No, you weren't, right? This is the first time. Number one. We didn't like him yet.

Starting point is 00:05:32 You were proven yet? Yeah. Whatever it is. What is the test? What's the test? How do you get into the inner circle? How do you get into the inner circle? Oh, I was.

Starting point is 00:05:41 I was. Co-hosting for the first 13 shows of the year and then This was when Mike was off nomadding right? You're going off traveling right before the nomad so starting is cold since yeah To see the thing is if you start saying bad then it's gonna attract a very certain Yeah, as the whole as Mike was about to go nomadic We were sitting in a car and I was like hey instead of going nomadic. Why don't you go nomadic and oh? We'll help you guys build this new thing called the frog collective and

Starting point is 00:06:26 We'll help you guys build this new thing called the Throg Collective and now I'm sitting on your couch. So what's the idea with Throg Collective versus how it was before? Was this Barbell Shrugged? So thinking about just the Barbell Shrugged and what these guys have built all the trust and being around for six years, I think having one show and you guys do what, four or five a week. Five, yeah. Yeah, so having a one show no matter how how great the show is it really limits your reach because you're now swamped

Starting point is 00:06:50 Totally all these people like it's just endless information and These guys have inspired enough Podcasts in our space that it was like we have such a badass network and it was like why are we all kind of competing for air and why don't we just create this gigantic hub where we can just put creative badass thinking people in one spot and how does that work? Do their podcasts belong to the Barbell Shrug business and then their employees or do they have their own podcasts or how does that work? It's slightly different for a few different people. So like Mike, he has his own channel,

Starting point is 00:07:27 and he posts his own shows to his channel, but then he does shows for our channel that are like health and fitness related. But then he has all these other categories he wants to talk about, and so he does those with the Blood So Show. Ryan Fisher who runs Real Chalk, and then I keep on say Andrews, Warner, Michael,

Starting point is 00:07:44 Anders who runs Feed Me, Fuel Me. on his real chalk and then I keep wanna say Anders Warner, Michael Anders, who runs Feed Me Fuel Me, those guys similar deal. Feed Me Fuel Me, I think only post with us right now. So they're actually not posting anything on their own channel, which I think they probably will want to keep posting to their channel, they don't wanna let that die, but right now they're kinda just testing the waters with us,

Starting point is 00:08:03 but in the future maybe they'll do one show with us and then one show on their own channel. So I still think it's a good idea for them to continue to build their own channel because all the shows that land with us on the short collective, there are now R shows. So I was just going to ask if they cancel, they don't get to take their shows back, we're not taking them down like that that all belongs to us. I was just going to ask that because there's always that fear right, you're going to bring someone on your channel, they're going to reap some of the benefits of your audience, then they grow and they're like, peace I'm out of here, and they take off, there's always that fear right you're gonna bring someone on your channel they're gonna reap some of the benefits of your audience then they grow and they're like peace out of your shhhh and they take off there's always that fear right yeah yeah my own of

Starting point is 00:08:30 is a fear but they definitely can do that you know what I mean yeah yeah building up like a a nice subscriber base like now if you start now really hard to do now it's so much harder Really hard to do now. It's so much harder that it's like someone goes, I'm gonna balance and go do my own. It, they take a huge step back. So it's one of those things where like there's enough value being offered and total viewership that you're gonna obtain. Why do you guys think it's so hard right now to start?

Starting point is 00:09:01 Why do you think it's, because I agree with you, I think it's, I think it's way different already today than it was just three years ago. Three years ago. I totally did. I talk to someone every day that's like, oh yeah, I'm starting a podcast. My friends are on a podcast.

Starting point is 00:09:12 It's just everyone starting a podcast right now. It's super fucking fun, right? Like it's Sunday night and we're up here hanging out and talking about whatever the fuck we want. And we do it professionally. And everyone thinks it's easy. But it's really fucked hard. So you guys have been on air for originally,

Starting point is 00:09:30 it's like, it's really fucking hard. I mean, it is. Like, he's a guy who jumped into an established show. Like, when you've been doing it for a long time, you don't know how hard it is. And then you stick somebody in who comes in and now you've got all this responsibility. Well, yeah, every show, I feel like I learn

Starting point is 00:09:47 how to structure a conversation better. And it like, you know how you like start doing something and you're like, oh, I'm pretty good at talking and people like, how? Why? It's a skill. You're, yeah, are you able to develop a skill of having a better conversation?

Starting point is 00:10:01 I don't think that any of those people that are like, starting a podcast or trying to have that conversation with themselves is just like, oh, I gotta get better conversation. I don't think that any of those people that are starting a podcast are trying to have that conversation with themselves, it's just like, oh, I got to get better interviews. No, you got to get better at talking to people and having a... We were just talking to them down. Before we were all left, this is what we ended on, was this conversation, was the difference between that and people that communicate or speak to somebody versus having dialogue. It's dialogue.

Starting point is 00:10:22 And that's really like the art of this is the ability. It's like it's not one person who's giving an opinion, talking to this is how it is. It's collective minds coming together and sharing their thought process. And it's just this even feels like a dance together. All of it. Yeah, you have to find an even ground with people

Starting point is 00:10:36 which is really hard to do and guide them to finding their best self in like an hour. Right. Even if you're a really great trainer, if you're not world class, you're probably just kind of really good at what you do and you have some really good ideas. But the people that, you know,

Starting point is 00:10:52 you should be able to test people and see how far they can go and find out. So you're a fun one to ask because you're diving head first into all this with this guy. So what are some of the challenges that where you're like, fuck, those stupid, or all that, have you? I forgot your guys name on day one.

Starting point is 00:11:05 First and real. I was all stoked. It was literally like the best day ever. Like if you were gonna like, picture this day of like, you're taking over barbell shrugged. Like, I'd really like to go to like, one of my best friends, Jim, check, we did that.

Starting point is 00:11:19 Love to lift weights with my friends, check. It'd be really cool if like a hot chick brought food to us. Check. Now we're gonna go into the show and I fucked up the very first thing you're supposed to do. Get the guest name right. Figure it out. I'm like you actually play the tape in your head.

Starting point is 00:11:38 You're like, oh, it's coming up on Wednesday. I'm gonna have to cross this. What do I say? Like I'm gonna paint this beautiful picture. No, you're gonna forget the guest name right off the bat. That's what I'm gonna have to cross this, what do I say? Like I'm gonna paint this beautiful picture. No, you're gonna forget the guest name, right off the bat. That's what I'm saying. I always find the best podcast for the ones where you feel like you're just sitting in on,

Starting point is 00:11:52 like you're eavesdropping on a really good conversation. And you know what happens in real life? You forget people's names. Yeah. So it's really not that big of a deal. And especially when you're dealing with, like we don't give a shit, you forget my name, I don't care, I forgot your name.

Starting point is 00:12:02 Yeah, just right now, in fact. It's like, who's that just right now it's not a big anger that's what you're saying that's how we call it you guys see justice there tag totally the other guy yeah the other guy the whole thing is a lot of me so I'm sorry so I have a question because you guys you guys started your podcast originally how many years ago very beginning 2012 so six so six years ago which in podcast land is a long time?

Starting point is 00:12:27 Anything over I think three or four years is like ancient, right? Yeah, road to history. How different is the world now? How much more or less competitive is it now? What are the differences you guys are noticing now versus when you first started? When I first started, the audience, getting amazing audio quality was rare. So most podcasts for shitty phone calls. Yeah, just shut phone calls.

Starting point is 00:12:55 And then things were cutting up. So that was like 9 out of 10 podcasts for shitty like that. So if you had good audio, that's sorry I had to do a standout. All right, that's what, that was one of the things that I saw in the beginning was do that. But now everyone's got amazing audio. And even if you're doing a Skype interview, the audio quality is better than it was.

Starting point is 00:13:18 Way better. Yeah, so it's like, it's like trying to win on audio quality now. Isn't it kind of, everything's out? Other standards coming out? Yeah. Other standards come way out. Yeah, there's a new standard now where you just, if you, I mean, I find myself doing this now too,

Starting point is 00:13:33 I don't care how good the guest is, how good the content is, I've been so spoiled by good sounding podcasts that if you sound echoey in a bathroom or anything like that, like, it loses me. I started turning down being interviewed on podcast that don't do it in person. Yeah. I don't.

Starting point is 00:13:50 I just don't know if I want to be recorded shitty. When you do the ones on Skype, you feel like you're just giving stick. You just can't be, you don't feel that person. You're like, I'm just going to talk to my computer a little bit here. I still get into it. I'm just gonna talk to my computer a little bit here. I still get into it. I'm like standing up. Yeah, I'm like, I'm literally like pacing the house, but I'm like, who am I talking to?

Starting point is 00:14:13 Like, you're kind of talking to yourself, like making yourself believe this thing you're going to. The part of the podcast source, or so awesome, is that like we come together right now. We all hang out, we kick together, last year we're we're we partyed afterward like maybe we trained together Maybe we go get a meal together like and you walk away like either strengthening and or making a new friend or a new group of friends Like in person or sorry on a on Skype or whatever I've done people shows and they had come people come up to me Six months later and be like oh wow like you know Adam and I And I'm like, no, like, what the hell is that? And they're like, how, like, why do you think I know them?

Starting point is 00:14:47 They're like, you're on a show and it's like, which guy was that? And they say the show and I'm like, I didn't hear that show. It's like, because I talked to some random dude for like an hour just because he asked me over Instagram if I would come on a show and I said okay, but like, there's no real connection. Oh, that happened to us while we were here at Paleo.

Starting point is 00:15:03 So this girl comes running up to us. She interviewed us from Australia. And she's hugging us. She was from Hong Kong, but she's Australian. Yeah, she's Australian. From Hong Kong and now lives in New York. And yeah, we've done quite a few interviews. I ain't talking about it.

Starting point is 00:15:17 You do? Okay, so she comes over, having fun with us with that. And she makes a comment and Sal acts like he remembers and I can tell he doesn't remember and I don't She called him straight call the right up she goes oh Don't act like you remember who I am I died laughing I'm trying to play off like oh yeah

Starting point is 00:15:39 Notting said I'm like this motherfucker don't remember because I don't remember you don't say it's like it's over Skype And you and of course for us the the, like I'm sure just like we sound, like we sound like all the same. I'm sure it's just someone over there, right? They all sound, all the ones I've done over there, they all sound really safe, so I'm not picking up anything. I didn't see you, so I can't make any connections. I mean, in most communication is nonverbal anyway.

Starting point is 00:16:01 How do you do that over the phone? Yeah. It's almost impossible. I don't know when to come in. A lot of times, because it's like you're, it's such like a distant conversation you're having with this person. I'm just like trying to pick up on all these cues

Starting point is 00:16:12 when to come in, when to come out. And you just don't get it, so it's tough, man. Especially if there's a delay and you do the like, oh yeah, you're talking, but I don't know you're talking yet. So I start talking them, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, you go. You go all the time on Skype. I can't fucking joke on Skype at all. This game will receive. them. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, Is that what you said? Yeah, seven grand. Oh, wow. Yeah, that's not bad. San Francisco is almost like that. I was gonna say you guys are in Norkau. Like you got to have

Starting point is 00:16:50 some. Yeah, my brother's a poor man. He has a two bedroom for six grand. Yeah, San Francisco. And this is you walk outside and it's chaos. Oh, it doesn't make any sense. Isn't that funny? That we I think I think that will change though. I really think with the way, like you see how we can get around so much faster and easier as soon our cars will be moving offices and I think people then will start seeking to get out of the city. It's so popular to be in the city right now and in the mix of everybody because that means you have that most access to everything. That's why.

Starting point is 00:17:20 So what we reason why, but when we have the access anywhere we want, which we're right around the corner from that, you better believe the houses that are up in the mountains and far away. Especially with self-driving cars. Yeah. Yeah. It's gonna spread out and then there's gonna be like right now we have everything concentrated in winter and you have farmland all over the place. It's just gonna spread out and there's gonna be more farmland within where you're living. It's just a healthier way of doing things. Yeah, I think we're coming.

Starting point is 00:17:45 It's I think it's around the corner, man. I would definitely, I would definitely do better. Do you guys find that as wherever you're at, like my wife and I are moving to that already, just because it's like it's fucking chaos all the time. And like you get on the five, five is like a war zone. Like I have no, it's not a fun place to be. And when you're up and down from LA

Starting point is 00:18:06 or like Newport all the time, it's like, where's my life's being spent? What am I practicing the most? Sitting in this fucking car all day long. Like you can listen to Mind Pump. Yeah, that's the time. Yeah. What's happening? That's who's listening. Yeah. That's our target audience. What was the craziest thing Paul said today, by the way? Oh, God. You know, give me like a top three. You know, here's the thing about Paul. He's one of the, you know, what does that say?

Starting point is 00:18:36 You want to, you know, describe a Picasso piece of art. You know, that's like how it is. It's worth gaining that kind of information. He said some of, you know, he said a few things. He said some about exercise as it's, he called it stress way to apply stress or something like that or way to utilize stress or manipulate stress on the body. Therefore, you need to consider all forms of stress

Starting point is 00:18:57 that happen to you. They all, that's all part of the equation. Right. But the way he put it was so, was so, so brilliant. Right, right. Yeah, we used to say all stresses cumulative. Yeah, yeah, it's all, it's all stress. It's all stress on the body. But the way he put it was so, was so so brilliant. Right, right. We used to say all stress is cumulative. Yeah, it's all stress. It's all stress on the body.

Starting point is 00:19:08 But the way he put it was very well. But you know how he communicates. He communicates very, he'll go super narrow and deep and then you'll spread out to the sides and then you're talking about something completely different. But you're in thrall. I always tell somebody who hasn't heard listened to Paul was like, you know, bare with it, stick all the way through it.

Starting point is 00:19:24 Because within it you will find something in there for you that like, it's a scattered, because there'll be time, he'll be talking, right? And I'd be sitting there listening for like five minutes and I'm deeply into what he's saying. And he goes so fucking deep and then starts going out that I get lost. And I'm trying to regather my thoughts like,

Starting point is 00:19:41 what is he answering right now? Because I don't even know, I forgot, where were we even answering, right? But then he'll, and then I'll send like, what is he answering right now? Cause I've never now, I forgot where we're even answering. Yeah. But then he'll, and then I'll send him, he'll just grace right over this, like profound thing. And it went, whoa, hold on, you gotta say that again, that was fucking deep as fuck.

Starting point is 00:19:53 I think Paul's one of those people where, the more you know, the more you think he knows. Yeah. It's like, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Because you have context of the why he's a fucking genius. Oh shit, yeah. And you get it. You know when you put that YouTube video up and half the comments are like, you fucking quack.

Starting point is 00:20:12 And then the other ones, you're the greatest person in the world. You're right. Whatever it is, you're right. You did it. I asked him, I said, why do you know, why do you have this unsatiable thirst for all this different kinds of knowledge?

Starting point is 00:20:25 And he goes, well, when you're trying to figure out how to optimize your health, and I'm paraphrasing him, I'm definitely not communicating the way he does. When he says, you're trying to figure out your health, like you start with figuring out like, okay, I need to exercise, we'll affect these parts of my body, and these parts of my body are affected with this food, and the food comes from the earth,

Starting point is 00:20:41 and the earth comes from the planets and the stars, and everything's connected, and then the energy and then your thoughts, and he went out and out, and I'm like, I guess you're right. You need to know everything. You need to study everything to literally understand how to truly optimize or become your most healthiest well self or whatever. Have you guys thought about doing this class? My girlfriend took us HL no she took us HLC one course and loved it. So when I have trainers, I have a we're blessed to get to better version. We get to curate it.

Starting point is 00:21:10 I'm saying, I get to ask him what I want to fuck it up. I don't say it. I think where I'm at in my fitness career of just sitting in all those classrooms and getting certifications, I want to know the brilliant minds behind those sort of new experiences that I want to ask questions. I want to ask them to say these are those guys.

Starting point is 00:21:24 I enjoy these moments. Yeah. Yeah. Another thing I've noticed with the current state of podcasting is in the past and you guys are changing this. It used to be like, you know, one episode a week, two episodes a week. Now you need to have a lot more. I mean, we start out.

Starting point is 00:21:38 We start out out the gates with a lot, but it seems like more now podcasting. We did. We start with two. We start with two very beginning and then we went to three, and then we went to four. Are you guys seeing that in the rest of the space? We are. And in the rest of the space, I think we are kind of

Starting point is 00:21:50 the only one that I've thought about this. There's a few other things. So I'm doing the network. No, no, just having that many shows. Oh, yeah. Whether it's a network or a network. I tell you what, meeting you guys is what got me thinking about doing them more frequently.

Starting point is 00:22:03 I basically, after that night we hung out, I went home and that week I said, hey, I think we need to bump our frequency somehow. But we thought that at the beginning, it would be, it was like, hopefully 60% of the audience will show up for these other shows and like, we'll have the trust just because they're in here, people will like them and 100% yep, they want yep

Starting point is 00:22:27 Oh, you guys actually blowing them up as quick as yourself. Oh, yeah, wow. Yeah, I would not have thought that yeah We thought I still get some like you're cuz I feel like there's gonna be some people that probably identify with some of the other hosts for the other shows But so much loyalty you guys that only I'm listening to you guys But you actually are getting that many people that are listening to their shows. Wow. Barbarost Rugs like middle of the pack. Yeah, I think it's like a show's in the lead. Wow. Everyone's a complete new look. There is no starting whatever it was. April 1st that we launched it. Nothing is the same. Like Barbarost Rugs doesn't even the same. So we're all literally we just all have a platform and oh that's really cool. That's interesting.

Starting point is 00:23:04 Now did you guys think that was going to happen? Because I wouldn't have thought that. I wouldn't have guessed that. I would have thought that. Dude. All right, this was such a big leap. I just had no idea. Right.

Starting point is 00:23:15 Oh, we're just like, this is a serious experiment. Oh, cool. This is like a lesson that everybody keeps learning. Like, if you have an audience, the more you can produce, the more that they'll consume. And so it's just a content war. It really doesn't matter, just produce more information, good quality, it's gotta be quality.

Starting point is 00:23:31 It's gotta be good. Of course, can't put out shit. That's the trust in you, right? Because I trust you. And the show's a good one. And the show's a good one. I love you as a show. I trust you'll curate that for me.

Starting point is 00:23:39 You're not gonna bring some douchebag underneath your collective. You're gonna pick people who you guys like and probably think a lot of like. So that makes sense, but fuck I would not have thought that. That's cool. So you guys have done how many podcasts since you've been up here at Paleo?

Starting point is 00:23:50 You said we're good. This is 15. This is number 15. Podcasts are hard. I just had to get you guys a shirt down. No, you may have earned a shirt. Yeah, but like you have, when talking about this at the beginning,

Starting point is 00:24:02 I was like, what's what I do? He was like, you know, got burned out a couple times. I called Doug, I was like, we're gonna fucking do it. Like just load it up. We'll see what the, we'll see what the max is on the first one and we'll back it down from there. 15's good number. It's a heavy number.

Starting point is 00:24:18 Last night I walked out and I felt like I just got hit by a truck all day long. It's a lot of energy. Our standard is two shows a day. I think that's, that's like the maximum that is sustainable for many days in a row. While keeping the quality of the shows very, very high. Everyone on the team is happy.

Starting point is 00:24:33 Everyone's still getting enough food. Everyone's sleeping well. Everyone's getting their workouts in. We're practicing what we preach by making time to fucking train. Yeah. Rather than just being like, everyone needs to prioritize training.

Starting point is 00:24:44 And getting is not a priority than you're not gonna do it. You'reized training. And getting it's not a priority, then you're not gonna do it. You're not too busy, you gotta make it a priority. And then they're like, would you train today? I'm like, well, no, I'm fucking busy. Yeah. I'm fucking busy. I gotta think, that's funny though,

Starting point is 00:24:54 because that's exactly about where we land, right? We figured that out, because we've pushed some limits as far as I think. We've done five, six, and six. Yeah, we've done some, and it's just not worth it, because you're right, you start to, and there's nothing worse than like the fourth or fifth cast Like get the probably would have been the better interview

Starting point is 00:25:08 But you're so fucking burnt from the career for me though. I like I'm so new at hosting that I learned so much so fast right now So that's what the best show that I really have done today was number 14 or all of them. So we noticed this too. So we always, we smashed the cross. Oh yeah, I think we got this off. We always grow after a 15 episode type of sprint. Like we do them all like that because it's just,

Starting point is 00:25:37 it's just like anything I practice, anything else, or like a sport. Yeah, if you wakeboard it, serve, snowboard it, done any of those things before. If you ever ridden for like a whole week and gone on vacation and done that, like fuck, that's you makeboarded, serve, snowboarded, done any of those things before, if you ever ridden for like a whole week and gone on vacation and done that,

Starting point is 00:25:46 like fuck, that's you make the biggest gains right there in your skill. So, it was really, really good, but it was the first time where I was like in the conversation and felt like it was kind of like very well structured and I was like, man, if I have to go to this length every time just have a good interview, it's gonna be a long life.

Starting point is 00:26:02 So, well, that happens a lot too though. It's very normal, especially when you get guests that, you know, there's some guests you'll drop right in. Yeah. And dynamic dialogue happens and so that. Then there's a lot of guests where you'll spend 30 minutes to an hour almost just getting to there. Yeah. I'm saying because it's just so, but how long are yours usually? Our shows, one and a half, two and a half hours typically. Yeah, when we first started it was like 40 minute shows It's short and that our first strategy was for the commute the average commute in the US is 25 minutes Yeah, so we try to keep it right around 25 30 minutes at first

Starting point is 00:26:34 It was so it's no and we don't we we end them when we end them and so they typically go about an hour and a half They are our episodes when we do interviews they can go anywhere they can go up to three four hours So we went Mike Nelson. He was like two and change. Oh, how was that? Sabu. Yeah, that's our guy. You guys are awesome. I interviewed him as well Amazing killed Yeah, so anything he's saying right now just listen we do him like standing and There's like a physical battle kind of like going on

Starting point is 00:27:04 And I mean it like we're're like, you're in it. Like it becomes an intense conversation. You're standing and everyone's kind of feeling to other out and you look over and there's just like the statue that is just hammering micro nutrients in your face and you're like, dude, I quit. You won today. Like, dogs throwing out words and Adam and I just at you turn to like, it's on them now.

Starting point is 00:27:28 I was talking to them all. They were talking about things I had no clue. It was, he killed. Who was your worst? Who was the worst? Are we allowed to say names here? Sure, absolutely. It doesn't mean that they were bad.

Starting point is 00:27:44 I'm just saying. No, so in a strength-conditioning podcast. I think sometimes It can be really I really like the show I don't need we don't need to say names. I'm just yeah, I don't know I like shows that dig deep like I really dig Mike Nelson I want I don't want to win the conversation. Yeah, and I don't want to I want to learn like I'm here to I get to want to win the conversation. And I don't want to learn, like I'm here to, I get to talk to the smartest people in the freaking game. You spend your whole life reading and writing and listening and trying to learn all this shit.

Starting point is 00:28:12 And now I got you in a room. I want to know everything. And if someone keeps it really surface level, I don't want to hear that. I want to dig. And one of the things that, that's nice of you not to roll them. I roll them all the time. We need names though, but I roll it

Starting point is 00:28:27 You come on my show in my surface that might be the last time you come on the show I think there's a bigger point to it and we talk about a lot is I want to go long I want to go three hours. I'll be beat to shit at the end of it But if you everyone's got an hour. It's kind of like stand-up comedy, right? Like, you're there to entertain, and if you don't have more than an hour, you haven't really done enough work, if that makes sense. Can you sense and feel the guys that come on the show and they have an agenda and they have something?

Starting point is 00:28:57 Or they can't veer off, like they can't tangent. If you ask a question, they come right back to their thing. So I love to fuck with dudes like this that you're coming in. There's a strength conditioning world. There's science guys. And also I ask about their sex life. No, I know. You want to throw a dude off who's coming in. He's all he's been thinking about is macro nutrients and fucking all this shit.

Starting point is 00:29:16 All I went, Mark, this is awesome. And all I wanted to do was talk to him about a sex life. It's like, what do you do? It's like that age. What do I have to look forward to? If I eat perfect, you're telling me there's vagina, it's 60. I'll do it. That ring the quality of your boner. Tell me every day. Did you get a chance to ask him that?

Starting point is 00:29:37 No, he got to go to it. See, I would love to hear that answer. The primal blueprint, let's talk about that. We like it late at 60. He got something to do a panel last minute. It's like 40 minutes with them. So I'm super nervous. What did you do before all this?

Starting point is 00:29:53 Are you doing this full time now? So I own another business as well. Every eight, two CrossFit. That's right, that's right. And James can move them into one gigantic one, sold it a year and a half ago, started up an online movement and rehabilitation company with a physical therapist.

Starting point is 00:30:10 And this happened. This is really cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah, this is where it's at. Really awesome. What do you think of the state of that world, that CrossFit world? It's changed a lot in a very short period of time. Yeah, it's changed very, very rapidly.

Starting point is 00:30:26 And what are the goods and bads that you've seen that change? So I guess to me, that's like a culture thing and not a training thing. For the type of training back in the day, the people that were doing it, were really hardcore. They were already squatting. They were already deadlifting. And then all of a sudden sudden someone put this structure together

Starting point is 00:30:46 that said, hey, see who's stronger, see who's faster, and we'll make scoreboard, awesome. Well, all the meat heads showed up, and everybody that was like already doing that, and already doing conditioning, just fit. And then it hit the mainstream, and there was a lot of people that didn't have 10 years of back squats under their belt

Starting point is 00:31:06 before they started doing it really fast. And the separation between the marketing and the actual person that's doing it got really weird there for a second. I was very well explained. Yeah, I think that the state of CrossFit Inc. is doing really well. Maybe the affiliate sides down internationally,

Starting point is 00:31:28 I think they're growing, but I think that most importantly is they dominate the media. It is the team that they have that's covering the games, like they created a sport, it's real. The cost to putting the games on is incredible. So they have to keep feeding that. That's a very real thing. And who's feeling the heat is gem owners, especially in very populated places because they were all over the place. Yeah. And it's really starting to force this like the cream will rise to the top mentality,

Starting point is 00:32:02 right? Where it's, I mean, I see CrossFit's that have, or like fucking 50 yards apart from each other. You can't be a douchebag. You can want to meet T.L. locations. Yeah, so one of the things I struggled with so much was in the beginning stages, I own a CrossFit gym. Whether it was cool or not, when someone walked in, they said, well, what is CrossFit?

Starting point is 00:32:19 And now I have a place to educate. And now I can teach them about what we're doing. Who doesn't know what CrossFit is now? So you're either looking for that or you're not. There's no, I heard about this, is there a way that this could be for me and you can come in and teach somebody, some fundamentals, whatever it is,

Starting point is 00:32:37 everybody already knows. You're gonna do it for three months. It's kind of like, I'm gonna go do F45 for three months. Okay, cool. There's nothing special. I'll say this, in the 20 years I've been in fitness and the industry of fitness, I have never seen anything impact fitness

Starting point is 00:32:52 as much as CrossFit. It was a massive change in the gyms. I don't know if you guys remember, but I used to run clubs. I'd be a 35,000, 40,000 square foot facility. There'd be one or two squat racks and it would have dust on it like nobody would squat nobody would deadlift

Starting point is 00:33:08 nobody did those lifts and crossfit single handedly made those lifts popular popular and among and among they were when it all started yeah the most popular things when they first started was a lot of girls doing clean and jerks yes yeah credible yeah and it looks good even

Starting point is 00:33:24 mediocre lifters in CrossFit Gems are doing way better clean and jerks than my first one when I started doing it. It's really incredible how many people are very comfortable with complex movements, moving a lot of weight, getting things overhead, like understanding positioning. You're going to have that conversation with a very large group of people now. Now what about the nutritional philosophy? It started out very paleo But then it feels like it's moved out a little

Starting point is 00:33:50 Further back on that yeah, how did it start? I had forgotten about him I was like who are they about? gotten about him. I was like, who are they about? I know. That's a lot of time ago. Very serious in glassman. We'd get it. So it was zone. I don't know that. And then they started doing, they had the CrossFit

Starting point is 00:34:14 specialty course, Nutrition, and it was zone. And then for some reason they brought Rob Wolfen. I think he was helping with the curriculum and started teaching, but he's putting this paleo spin on everything. Yeah. And so there was like, people started saying, oh, I'm paleo-zone.

Starting point is 00:34:33 Right. And then, but it was like, I'm going way back, dude. I know. This is 10 years ago stuff. That's wild. It's all hard to weigh in here.

Starting point is 00:34:42 Paleo-zone. Dude, I remember the blog. I said that before. How ridiculous is that? Oh my paleo zone. I just learned about keto veganism yesterday. That's fuck that. How do you even do that?

Starting point is 00:34:54 That's my question. I'm about to get hooked up on the top of the cheeko. Yeah. So, so people were then saying like, Hey, I'm paleo zone. So now you're following the zone prescription, but with the Paleo, within the Paleo, whatever. And then people would also say,

Starting point is 00:35:12 zone is like a set amount of fats, proteins, and carbs. 40, 40, 30. So it was like, then there were articles coming out in the CrossFit Journal that were like, this is Chris Speeler, because he's an athlete, he does Zone Plus for Fat. Like, that motherfucker's not doing Zone Bitch. So funny.

Starting point is 00:35:33 And it's like, oh, that ridiculous shit. It did. Fucking dead. Those two famous, I remember that. Like, it took me about one week of like reading those and seeing some videos of you, like, I'm Zone Plus something fat, so much fat, so much fat. And I'm going, okay, did you see the post year?

Starting point is 00:35:53 And I was like, yeah, what am I plus fat? I was like, and then I was like, dude, counting all these Zone blocks is way more complicated than calories. And now I'm adding fat blocks. This is the dumbest shit ever. I'll just go back to counting calories. Yeah, the zone block was like, if you did one, it was like you got three almonds.

Starting point is 00:36:11 So you've got people squatting and dead living. Heavy as shit, counting nine almonds out as if that's gonna like... Really get them to their goal. No, no, this was the typical thing. This was what was taught. Oh, this was cool. I remember being at the level one certification San Diego 2008 and They they were talking about, you know, oh, you don't have time for luck. This is actually a pretty good thing that they did But you don't have time for lunch people like how much time they did a test They how much time does it take for someone to go to like Wendy's or McDonald's or something like that, go get a burger and someone to go to the local grocery store, get deli meat, strawberries, and almonds, you know, so you can make your zone meal. And they did this test. It was like, it was faster,

Starting point is 00:36:55 it was cheaper and everything. It's like, it's better. It's like more convenient and cheaper to eat healthy. It was what they were saying. So that's a pretty good message to be giving, right? Yeah, overall. but then everyone starts eating almonds. Don't lunch meat. Yeah, it's like they did. I did it. I went home. I was like, this is awfully convenient.

Starting point is 00:37:12 Strawberries, lunch meat, and almonds. So that was like the zone thing for a lot of people, just because they did that at the level one for a while. But what happened is, I think there was just some confusion about are we supposed to be doing zone or paleo or whatever. And then there was this thing called black box summit. Oh, so good. Yes.

Starting point is 00:37:35 This is where it all started actually. Yeah. Oh, this is madness. I didn't have any of this shit. Yeah. I actually, I'm just at this point, I'm just the fucking gym owner and Memphis, Tennessee, who's been exposed to CrossFit headquarters one time at level one certification.

Starting point is 00:37:50 I've got really no ties to anything. I'm just kind of like on the internet saying, what's happening with CrossFit? And so they had this, so there was a summit that was put together that was not CrossFit, didn't put together, but some boxes got together, some gyms. I said they were gonna do this thing, but there's a lot of CrossFit representation there.

Starting point is 00:38:09 And what was it? Oh shit. It was the Olympic weightlifter. need to get better at weightlifting, but he uses a picture from the CrossFit Journal of someone weightlifting to point out what you should not be doing. So Dave, take all these CrossFit. Yeah, sorry, okay. Yes, Dave Castro, like stands up and starts like cussing him out.

Starting point is 00:38:41 During the presentation. During the presentation. Oh, shit. They're talented to fight like he took a fight oh yeah oh shit Rob Wolf had to get involved in the whole location and Rob was like he's a jiu-jitsu guys like a fucking

Starting point is 00:38:54 kick your ass like but Dave Castro is like former Navy SEAL like one of baddest dudes and it's like all right so I wouldn't fuck with Dave Castro but um generally speaking, but that was that huge altercation. And so with that, I think Dave and Rob had words. And then Rob was kicked out across fit and not doing

Starting point is 00:39:21 nutrition anymore. And so for them. And so it was one of those cases where it was one of the first people who, it's not the first guy, but one of the first people who got kicked out of the cross-accommodity who was in a leadership position. Wow. And then how did he come back then? He didn't. Oh, I didn't. No, no, no, Rob. Rob probably. He still heavily followed a lot of people in that world. That's what it is. But it ended up probably being the best thing that ever happened to Bob.

Starting point is 00:39:45 Because it gets him a lot of attention. He's got a book coming out like, right after that, the Paleo solution, his book fucking blows up. He's like the man when it comes to Paleo. So a lot of people, and then I think when, I think around that time, CrossFit started being more of like,

Starting point is 00:40:03 yeah, zone, but like taking less of a strong stance on nutrition, period. And because so many people, I think so many CrossFiters weren't following it. The biggest thing that I know, one of the biggest things I know about CrossFit is it had this, and I'm going to use a term cult, but it's not, obviously, but it had that feel of like everybody ate the same way, trained a certain way, and then like even their politics, like there's this huge libertarian like streak with him. How did that start?

Starting point is 00:40:31 Is that just from great glassmen or is that like part of the like, hey listen if you get our certification? Way less so now than 5 or 10 years ago. Let's go down a little bit. If you go to the old blog, like the old type had blog, they had running back 0708. Although I'm probably, I want to say 2010, 2011, they were posting a lot of libertarian views as, so you have to work out, you had a picture of someone doing the workout, and then you had like a little play, pull it out.

Starting point is 00:40:58 Something is completely unrelated. Oh wow. There's a very libertarian view on something. And so it was, it was the rest day comments. They would always post an article that they wanted you to read on the rest day. And that was the only way that they could, yeah. Like this is what you're supposed to do today

Starting point is 00:41:16 is read this of whatever. Do you guys know who's providing it or who's writing it at the time? I think. So, but it, go ahead. I don't know, well, the posts on CrossFit, but they were linking to a lot of different things, but you're wondering who's selecting this shit.

Starting point is 00:41:30 Yeah, yeah, I'm pretty sure. Glassman was in charge of most of the content at the time. Well, obviously he's approving it for sure. I know that. Castro took over the programming for the daily website and all that. Now, do you guys see, you know, like in other sports I know I see this a lot where like a because now it's becoming so big and there's a lot of fame around it now

Starting point is 00:41:51 These all these guys are the top performers and shit. Are you starting to see bad habits or stupid things that people do just because this guy trains that way or he He wears this thing or does a certain thing. Are you seeing other other people mimic that to be like that when they shouldn't be? Do you see things like that? I feel like there's less of that now than there was even a couple of years ago. Oh really? I feel like the guys, the games are like, they're so far beyond now, the normal person

Starting point is 00:42:15 that people are accepting that they're... That people are going, well, okay, he does that, but he's the sky. So that makes sense, yeah. Here's another thing that'll happen though. CrossFit in 2005, if you're going to do it, you are a really independent thinker. You weren't really falling. You were looking for something that nobody else was doing.

Starting point is 00:42:35 So it creates a lot of personalities. So when regionals happens, now all of a sudden you've got these really weird people showing up. That's true. And like, you never even thought about all the early adopters. That's true. And like, people who don't know how. All the early adopters. The early adopters were like wild. We didn't know.

Starting point is 00:42:49 Like really intense, either like hardcore military people or like dingy garage gym owner type people. They did not want to listen to people. And that was glassman's culture of CrossFit back in the day. As the sports grown and as Reebok has come on, now all of a sudden we need to create what this profile looks like. And they've beaten down all the people that have had this personality. Like I'm friends with a lot

Starting point is 00:43:17 of them. I've seen. Is there a lot of resentment from them? Do you think Fisher feels resentment? I think he actually loves attention and Castor wants to suspend him for a year. He told a judge he was going to fucking kill him in the middle of a competition. But he was no rapping him. He was no rapping him. You guys know what I'm talking about. You guys would love him. I'm totally okay.

Starting point is 00:43:39 There's nothing more frustrating than getting no raped in a competition. It's better. Not only am I going to have to do more, but now I'm gonna lose. But it's like a whole story of how much like Fisher's life was really at the bottom at the time and CrossFit was the only thing he had. So when someone's taken all the work away from him and he just lost his mind out there. But yeah, he was actually doing pretty good reps. He was just going so fast.

Starting point is 00:44:03 Have you guys had anyone like- Like I was having trouble like seeing all these days. On a like a judge, like, like, throw a barbell out of him or get crazy. Cause Ronnie Teastale, another buddy of mine that they, yeah. Yeah, man, we could do like, yeah, there's so. Tell me, I want to know,

Starting point is 00:44:18 I want to hear a story, bro, that's why I asked. There was like the coolest competition. So before, like the games was cool, but the games was like on it. It was sort of attainable, but It was very regionally hot so In SoCal everybody like knew who was the shit I don't know a single person anymore

Starting point is 00:44:36 I'm sure the guys that are still in it like no, but crossfit the community. We all trained together So it was like we would all drive and there was 30 gyms and from LA to San Diego. So it was like we all we all knew each other and the Fuck I forgot where I was going I wanted to run a tea. So we had very local competitions and it was like the big competition in SoCal was the OC Throwdown, okay, the big one in the Northeast was like the big competition in SoCal was the OC throwdown. Okay. The big one in the Northeast was like Ben Bergeron's thing. Water Paloza was the southeast, and then there was a couple up in the Northwest.

Starting point is 00:45:12 So like it was very, very regional. And Water Paloza is the most fun, by the way. More fun in the games. What a great game. Did they model the wall of the game? Now is that because of who's putting it on? They do such a great job. Yeah, they do a really good play? Now is that because of who's putting it on? They do such a great job. Yeah, they do a really good job.

Starting point is 00:45:26 So, funny how that stuff really matters, you know. There was this was like the one of the first online qualifiers for a local competition. And this kid running to his day, I freaking love him. He's a nut. But he back in the day, his gym was called CrossFit Mean Streets. It was in downtown LA, in Skid Row, and it was the most heinous thing. They used to film Fight Club in it.

Starting point is 00:45:51 In the basement, there was two bums living in the basement of the gym that would come upstairs and be like, Hey guys, the ceiling's falling down. They're like, why are you in the basement? Why are, it was so grinding. But he was able to, like, make it work. So he snapped up his judge. So there was, like, some backstory of,

Starting point is 00:46:12 there's always probably, like, a girl involved, but there was some other gym owner, like, thing, whatever it was. So we're at the OC Throwdown and she starts to know rapping. I mean, he's looking at her and, like, it happens again. It happens again. It happens again.

Starting point is 00:46:25 It happens again. And he's like, oh, this is personal. And as soon as he's done with his last rap, he just kind of like, happened to drop it over her. And it was like, oh no, this is gonna be bad. This is bad PR. Like, this is not what we want this for right now. And you can go online. Like, if you, I think if you YouTube is name,

Starting point is 00:46:48 the very first, like, thing that you could type, like, Ronnie Teasdale, and then Google Auto Feels, like, throwing a barbell at a judge. Like, there's no reason to look him up unless you're looking for that video. What are some other, like like unique stereotypes in that world? Because I find this so fascinating, because I'm relatively new to this world. I mean, when we started podcasting,

Starting point is 00:47:10 when we started diving deep, but what are some other things in that world that are I guess indicative of it? I don't really know any more stereotypes. Yeah. I mean, you got paleo, you get the libertarian thing. The stereotype used to be like board shorts. You remember like the board shorts, no shirt,

Starting point is 00:47:25 stereotype, like all crossfit. So so, Kyle, you couldn't work out with the shirt on the board shorts. Crossfit, you were gonna go hit the beach and surf right afterwards. Which made a lot of sense, right? Wow, wow. That's kind of,

Starting point is 00:47:37 you guys kind of faded though. When you guys started, you were like, were you guys like the official podcast, and I don't mean official, but we like the podcast, the Crossfit podcast. Well, yeah, we have nothing to do with Crossfit. Yes don't mean official but we like the podcast the CrossFit podcast? Well, yeah, we have nothing to do with CrossFit. Yes the company, but but we are like we're like the first kind of biggest Strength conditioning podcast that was mostly followed by crossFit

Starting point is 00:47:54 That's it. That's it. And did you see your guys as growth grow along with the sport of CrossFit? Was that what fueled a lot of it when it first started off? Yeah, cuz we we rode We rode the wave that the games had kind of created. The games was really the thing that made CrossFit go from just something that was kind of fun and some people knew about to, like, going mainstream. It was kind of like the UFC had the ultimate fighter, and that was really like the tipping point for the UFC

Starting point is 00:48:16 to bring it mainstream. I think the games did that for CrossFit, and the games was started in 2006 or 2007. Seven. And so it'd been around for a couple of years, but it hadn't really caught big, big, big mainstream attention yet. And we started in late 2011 recording from shows.

Starting point is 00:48:35 And then early 2012, we posted our first episodes. And then, while CrossFit was on the rise, kind of peaking, I want to say CrossFit probably peaked in the US like in late 2015. 14, 14, 15. And so like we were cross it was accelerating and we were like just starting this podcasting. So we just got to ride that wave. No, but and we had almost no competition at the time. And the other thing was well podcasting was just taking off all this. We were riding two very good waves. Yeah, I was looking at podcasting and I totally recognize there was no one doing good

Starting point is 00:49:07 strength and conditioning advice because I was listening to some other guys. I was listening to Rob Wolf for one and it was all nutrition. It was very content driven. And I was talking to other gym owners very consistently. I was on the phone with guys talking about training, talking about gym ownership. It was, I was getting the point where I actually was considering like should I be charging for consulting because I'm on the phone hours a week talking to these guys because they don't have any, they don't know anything about training.

Starting point is 00:49:40 They're background before a lot of these guys were gym owners and coaches was, they were a firefighter. Mm-hmm. They don't know the better at that. Yeah, they're not a lot of them. They don't have degrees in kinesiology and things like that. And so I was I that was one of the reasons we wanted the podcast is because so you guys saw the you saw the riding on the well. Oh yeah, it's like well nobody at that time was good. really good at weightlifting. And we had our background was weightlifting before CrossFit.

Starting point is 00:50:09 And think just a lot of things like that. It's like, all right, we can just take actual strength and conditioning advice and weightlifting advice and bring it in this podcast. It'd be amazing for people. So definitely saw a big opportunity there. When did you guys decide to monetize? When did that become a thing where you're like,

Starting point is 00:50:25 oh shit, this is a business. Well, we thought it was a business the whole time. Yeah, because you guys already had a business. It was, you were already thinking that the podcast is here. We already own a gem. Right. So we were like looking for the next kind of moving through already. We experimented with many things

Starting point is 00:50:41 between opening the gem and then doing the podcast that had failed or just wasn't the thing for us I mean we took a swing at an equipment distribution. Oh god, that's a tough one Yeah, I know our concern. We sunk 50k in got 50k out and I said fuck this for God You guys saved 50k. Yeah, it took me three months to know. I did not want to be in that business. So, when the podcasting thing happened, what I want people to know is there was a ton

Starting point is 00:51:19 of what a lot of people might think of as failure between opening the first successful business and then the second one, it wasn't like a smooth transition. a lot of people might think of as failure between opening the first successful business. And then the second one, it wasn't like a smooth transition. So we were always looking to create other things. And so when the podcast, when we started it felt good, but we weren't sure that it was going to be like the thing. What did you guys have? What did you guys have?

Starting point is 00:51:42 No idea. It was going to turn into what it turned into at all. Like, I always wanted to have an online company. Like, the first show that we started was Techniquad, which was just gonna be me making Techniquad videos online. I was posting to a website, I wanna do seminars at the gym, record them, and then sell digital information products online.

Starting point is 00:51:59 I thought that was a great system that I could just, I could put on a seminar at our gym whenever I wanted to. Record it, put it online. People that like my technique-wide videos would go watch these other more comprehensive strengthening based digital information products and we could just make a little money on the side.

Starting point is 00:52:17 If that business was just that business where I was just doing that, we'd be just, you know, single digit percent as big as we are right now. But these guys, like about six months after I started making those videos, had this podcast idea and it was very obvious within a month or two of doing the podcast that this was really actually going to be the thing that was going to get the traction. So the business model basically stayed the same.

Starting point is 00:52:39 So you still did the online content piece was radically different and was way more engaging, way more exciting, way more fun to listen to than the thing that I was doing. So this became the main thing and then Techniquad became just kind of a fun side project for me because I still would enjoy doing that. Then the digital information product piece went from being like one off single course sales to online continuity based training programs. Then that was the other big thing that was a game changer for us. It was now we had stable recurring revenue.

Starting point is 00:53:10 And so we had stable content generation that we had to produce on a weekly basis. And then we had stable monthly recurring revenue, continuity-based online training programs. And now we have a real actual sustainable scalable company. Well, I don't know if you guys see this a lot. I know I see it a ton is because you guys are one of the only, not only, but the handful of podcasters that I met when we were first getting started that I was like, oh, finally, someone who was actually a real business. Not just podcasting, getting a lot of people listening and then pedaling some shit or

Starting point is 00:53:42 making a percentage or hoping that they're going gonna make all this money off our average advertising you guys actually had legitimate value that you were providing and you were thinking about the scaling piece I see a lot of people right now in this space even some kind of successful right now that are relying on things that I go like Well, hopefully that's still there in three or five years like I don't know if that's still gonna be there It doesn't it's not a real business model Like if you took the podcast out and the list ends every single day, you're not making any money off your advertising or the people that you're trying to push a market because you don't have a real business.

Starting point is 00:54:10 One of the biggest myths is that you're gonna make all your money with sponsorships with podcasts. By the time you make a lot of money with sponsorships, you're massive. You're already a big podcast. You're not gonna have to go on. You guys didn't even fuck with it at the beginning. You gotta be big.

Starting point is 00:54:23 Or else we'd even consider it until like a couple months ago. Yeah. Oh, so before that you weren't even fuck with it at the beginning. You gotta be big. Where else? We didn't even consider it until like a couple months ago. Yeah, well, so before that you weren't even sponsored. Yeah, they weren't even, they didn't even, it's been, it was my entire time, it was my entire time, but January. Yeah. I remember when you called me on the phone and you were asking me questions,

Starting point is 00:54:36 like, hey, we're thinking about doing it. That's right. That's right. That's right. But the thing is that I think that's so important to learn from that while like sharing this on the podcast because I get it a lot, I get a lot of kids that are young adults that reach out to me that are wanting to start a podcast and they have this brilliant idea and I'm like,

Starting point is 00:54:52 okay, well, what's the business plan behind this? Like, how do you plan to monetize? Well, you know, I'm going to provide this value and I'm going to have all these people and then I'll get sponsorships and I like these companies. Well, the other thing too is you got to figure out how niche are you going to get now. Right. You've got to get even how niche are you going to get now. You got to get even more niche than ever before because it's so crowded. How are you actually going to stand apart?

Starting point is 00:55:11 Because it's like I started the Bleto show and I have a good friend who just will say what a f**k he thinks. And it was like, well what's going to be different between what you're doing in Joe Rogan? Like how is that actually any different? Right. Because it doesn't sound any different. And it's like, oh, okay. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:55:31 Like, I got to go like a step further than, because I'm talking about just a lot of subject matter I like, which is, that's another thing podcasters get into. Being someone who just starts off talking about whatever they like, and that picking up, not likely. Not likely. You got to be really fucking cool. You have to be well known already before, before trying to pick up. I think a lot of guys are listening to somebody who's doing that and he's going,

Starting point is 00:55:57 yeah, yeah, if you have that following already, I mean, nobody's going to want to, nobody cares about you until you're somebody that's already well known. Otherwise, yeah, remind people all the time time Joe Rogan was hey, I got UFC And now commentator Stand up comedian And then he had decades of being an entertainer for Dude doesn't Joe Rogan is such a good job of convincing you that he's just kind of a normal guy. Oh, you know An absolute fucking pro

Starting point is 00:56:29 Yeah, he's a total pro. I remember he's he plays it off like I'm just some fucking doofus I'm just like I'm just standing up Like you know, I host cage fights when we when we were He's an absolute pro. Oh, yeah, when we were interviewing job Shob was saying he we are I was asking like some of the most influential people that he's been with It's helped him and so that and Bar none. He's like it's Joe Rogan and then everybody else He's like Joe is the most well-prepared discipline person I've ever met in my life And he says that guy puts hours and hours of research in before every single interview before he goes

Starting point is 00:57:02 So but he doesn't play you, don't think that. Smoke's weed. Just talk like that. Cool conversation. But that's not an object, though. He did his homework. So, shake this that I wanted to talk to you guys about this. He doesn't love this because just recently on our show,

Starting point is 00:57:14 we decided to like share like, we were kind of reminiscing after three years. And we were going over the stupidest shit that we'd ever thought of. And we did. And probably like one of the ones that came out of the room. I had a really excellent idea to advertise our podcast on porn.

Starting point is 00:57:28 Sites, it was very cheap, you know? Like the numbers are very cheap. You get a click on lots of views. And a lot of people are there. Everybody's visiting the porn sites. And our show was very, we're demographic in our demographic, probably look very much.

Starting point is 00:57:44 Yeah. Primarily, guys, 25 to 34. was very in our demographic probably look very much Primarily guys 25 to 34. That's why we thought it was brilliant right? So we actually set out and that's the whole work test Everyone had to go home. I was like We all wrote all wrote ads. We all wrote ads came back to work It's Doug went out look for images to match the ads and you should have seen the fucking ads that we had created. Well, because the idea, I'm sure, I'm gonna miss.

Starting point is 00:58:09 Yeah, I do, can we see these ads? I'll tell you one of them. Just tell them one of them. The idea was, you're on a porn site. How am I gonna get you to click over here to my podcast while you got your, probably your hands are occupied? Yeah, what do you want? Get out of my way.

Starting point is 00:58:25 The only way to do that is to make it more porn. So everything was, they were porn. They were like, shacking on. Porn ads, so it was like, broach. So like a girl bending over, right? Maybe like, fill your holes with my pump or something. Yeah. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:58:39 This is, these are real ads that we actually were gonna, and I think we ran one of them for like two days. And then we're like, what the fuck are we doing? It's terrible. I love that you guys have like a brainstorm. We said, just like, let's go with that one. That's okay. So what I was, that I was so funny was that like,

Starting point is 00:58:55 this was literally like two or three days of work. I was like, I was like, I was like, I would have loved to see the ones that you were like, I don't think that's good. No, Doug has about, We all came with five. And we have him written down. So we actually pulled him out after we had it. We got all high and we had this conversation.

Starting point is 00:59:10 And we're like, let's go see him. Because I couldn't remember all of them. And Doug pulls him up. And we're like, oh my god, dude. What a man. That's so funny. Well, because it was too much fun. Did they work?

Starting point is 00:59:20 No, we didn't. You got to go to the edge. Yeah. You don't go to the edge The cost per click is like nothing and those sites get visited by so many different people yeah sounds brilliant Yeah, it's a blame can cannabis. I think that was one of those weird ideas. We like that's brilliant No one's in the space right now You guys have any ideas like that or any things that you did in the past we like that was a dumb idea You guys have any ideas like that or anything that you did in the past we're like, oh that was a dumb idea

Starting point is 00:59:48 Sorry, they certainly do Hey top bars Try to launch like four new projects at the same exact Oh, yeah, and I even knew it. It was like everyone was telling me I knew it For some reason I think I can do it There's like I'm different But I think that's also the mark of a good entrepreneur is not listening. No, you gotta have that blind faith.

Starting point is 01:00:29 You can't be so... If you listen to the dark, and if you listen to everybody, you would never start a fucking business, right? And so, and like... Or I'll assist by analysis, so. And you would never make these leaps that might have to happen during the business

Starting point is 01:00:43 and all that. And so I think that there's, I'm attempting to learn to listen to like wise words, you know, but like filter out the people who are afraid. Yeah. You know, it's like getting, getting dialed into that. It's like, okay, that's a really good point. This person speaking out of fear because they're afraid of jealousy fear jealousy or whatever on the from the from the or or they like no this is actually kind of fucking yeah like listen dummy I've tried this already listen you got as many as many times at bat as you want you swing as many

Starting point is 01:01:19 times as you want you're gonna hit the ball more you're gonna you have a higher odds of hitting the ball if you swing more yeah just, I'm just the way fucking business works, man. And I've gotten to the point now where I've been doing business long enough to where I don't, oh shit, I'm gonna keep this thought. Cut it. Oh. Uh oh.

Starting point is 01:01:41 Yeah. Business swinging the bat, taking turns. Oh yeah. I used to feel like it was my last yeah like I'm gonna do this business thing if this doesn't work out everything's fucked Mm-hmm, and now I'm like wow if we fell that's okay Like like how many times have we like swung and failed and that's in time and I'm like, I'm like you know What is emotion doesn't work? Yeah, yeah, I's in my mind. I'm like, you know what? That is the most important. This doesn't work. Yeah.

Starting point is 01:02:08 That's a ton. I've been broke. It happens. All right, the most important part of failure, I think, is that lesson right there, is to get comfortable with it. What is the worst that's gonna happen? Well, you know what, I think the thing that helped me the most,

Starting point is 01:02:19 is that's like one thing to have that conversation with yourself, but I think what most people are tied to that keeps them from having that risk of like, I'll be fine if I'm broke. People are attaching their own personal value to how many dollars are in the bank. Sure, right. And so it's like, okay, if I don't have,

Starting point is 01:02:41 if I have this much money in the bank, then I'm valuable, but if it goes down Even though you know you know you're gonna be okay. Your ego doesn't know that. Oh, it's all you go Yeah, once you realize once you realize that once you start to develop the confidence that okay If if this all goes sideways if it doesn't work out I'm not only am I gonna be okay, but I'm gonna learn from this shit I'm not gonna wait yeah Then you become not fearless because fearless. I hate that word because's bullshit. Everybody has fear. I think you you're okay with it. So you go in and you're scared, but you're like, yeah, exactly. You have a good relationship.

Starting point is 01:03:13 Well, that's where growth happens. Growth happens in the failures. I would say this fear feels different in my body now than it used to. That's like, and I think it's from working on that relationship with the feeling we call fear. What's it all saying? There's only the only thing the fear is fear itself, or it was your fear of fear, that was the problem. It was your own feelings about your own feeling. Right, just experience the fear.

Starting point is 01:03:41 And I find that if I have that fear and I breathe and I expand my body when I'm in the state of fear, it turns into excitement. That's what I'm saying. It doesn't feel the same anymore. I've framed it. I haven't had anything happen to me that was so frightening or painful that I couldn't open my body to it.

Starting point is 01:03:59 We had this conversation the other day where, and I used it at different analogy because I think when you talk about fear like that, and this is good because we have a lot of entrepreneurs that listen to the show, when you talk about fear like that, it's hard for people to grasp because fear tends to paralyze you. And so when you're frozen and you don't know what to do, like a deer in headlights, it's difficult to be conscious of how your relationship is with it because you're just reacting. But a lot of our listeners also work out. And when you work out, you feel pain.

Starting point is 01:04:27 But you perceive pain differently than the average person, or at least the pain of working out. I've trained lots of beginners. And when they first get started, they can't even tolerate the fucking pain of a muscle burning or of a squat or a stretch. They can't tolerate it. But somebody who has been working out for a while,

Starting point is 01:04:43 when we feel the exercise pain, I feel the same pain as that beginner. We feel the same thing. I just have a different relationship with it. And I enjoy it or I thrive off of it or I understand what it's doing for me. And that's the same thing with fear, with business. I mean, if you haven't failed, you haven't tried enough times. And I don't know anybody that that succeeded in their definition of success because I have to be clear some people think success just means making a lot of

Starting point is 01:05:09 money or just whatever. I know lots of people who make lots of money who are total failures. So that's not the point but when you for you to really reach your definition of success you're gonna fucking fail because the only thing that's gonna push you to grow in the direction or in the right direction of total success is something that's really fucking uncomfortable. Otherwise, you're just gonna sit. If you're not experiencing fear regularly,

Starting point is 01:05:33 you're playing small. Right. Like you should be uncomfortable. That's called no meaning, that's called nihilism. I think also, I just really want to experience really cool shit. In order to do that, you're going to have to put yourself out there. You can live a really normal life.

Starting point is 01:05:52 But if you recognize that you have to kind of stare this thing down in order to do something really cool, I'm super interested in living a very large epic life. And in order to do that, I have to do a way different than everyone else. Like a radically different view that is extremely cool to me. And being around all the other people that are like on their own wavelength is super cool because they don't really know what's gonna happen tomorrow.

Starting point is 01:06:23 Right, it's very, yeah. Well, once you realize too that the bigger the challenge and the scarier it is and the more fear, the more rewarding it is on the other side. And once you start making that connection and you get those moments where you're like, fuck, that's scary. And you're like, oh, and I catch those moments and go, oh, fuck, this is cool, I haven't felt like that in a while. Yeah, I got that scared.

Starting point is 01:06:41 Yeah. I know on the other motherfuckin' side of this, it's gonna be a wild ride. So when you learn to count with it on its head like that, that the scarier it is and the bigger and the better the ride's gonna be. I think entrepreneurs that are really successful piece that together. And then you start looking at all of it like a nice ride.

Starting point is 01:07:00 And I had the biggest ride I ever had back in the fall. And it actually felt good through the process instead of What I think you're comfortable when I was younger when I was younger. I would have called it a bad, you know quarter Right now. I'm like and I was a better it was expansive right yeah, yeah, yeah No, it's um the other thing too is, especially with what we do. And I think you can broadly apply this towards entrepreneurship because I've met enough of us to, you know, I can kind of make this generalization,

Starting point is 01:07:33 but I'll speak more specifically with podcasting because we're all podcasters here is, you know, when I feel like I have a meaning or a purpose behind what I'm doing, then the fear, I feel emboldened, I feel courageous in the face of fear. It's not that I don't feel it, I still fucking feel it, but I feel a lot of courage.

Starting point is 01:07:51 We had probably, I can say this for myself, one of the most impactful moments of our career, a couple days ago, at P.O.L. FX. So we're walking around the convention and fans are coming up and we're shaking hands and high five and people and just having a great time. We have such a blast at those places. And we're on our way out and I'm looking around

Starting point is 01:08:12 and Adam's in front, Doug's over here, I look, we're just, and I turn around and see Justin and somebody a fan had found him. And I can see the look on his face and on her face. I'm like, well, this looks like a serious conversation. I walk up and she's crying. And we're all starting to get emotional. And she tells us about how, you know, she sets like two

Starting point is 01:08:31 or three years ago, she had these autoimmune issues that were terrible. She lost 25 pounds. Her parents didn't believe her. Nobody believed her. They thought she was anorexic, but she couldn't keep weight on. She felt terrible.

Starting point is 01:08:42 And she's like, and the only thing I had, she's like, my friends abandoned me. The only thing I had was my pump and that saved my life. And I felt like, that's fucking purpose right there. There's a meaning. So then when you get scared of making a new change or trying a new thing or whatever, I remember that.

Starting point is 01:08:59 I remember the responsibility of that. Have you guys been impacted like that by any of your fans where you feel like, oh shit, this is more to this than just being fans where you feel like, oh shit, this is, there's more to this than just being my bitch. Oh yeah, yeah. Oh yeah. Those things are hard to believe sometimes.

Starting point is 01:09:10 Isn't it crazy? Oh yeah, it seems surreal in that, how really. Yeah, last year at Regionals, we had gotten a, there was a new guy on our team and it was like the first time he'd really been at an event with us. And like in the first five minutes of walking in, he, I'm standing there talking to him and someone walks right up,

Starting point is 01:09:25 I mean goes, you changed my life. And he, I just looked like right away. I looked at this other guy, he was like, what the fuck? And I'm talking to that guy, and like he told me this whole story, and I actually don't remember the whole story, but like he was so appreciative of what we had together.

Starting point is 01:09:42 And then he walks away. And the guy looks at me, he goes, you changed my life. He's like, what do you guys do? Like he had no idea, like really like, that we have that level of impact. Like he kind of heard that. Like seeing a fan come up and say that,

Starting point is 01:09:58 like totally changed his perception of what is gonna be like. You know, it's cool about that, is you. Yeah, I think you could do one of two things to you. Can either blow up your ego, right right you think you're the fuck a man I'm gonna say or it can humble this shit out of you and and and it and you know, I Of course is responsibility. That's what I felt. That's what I feel when I hear this shit I'm like, oh man. I gotta be better. I gotta be careful with what I say in a way like I could be real people are listening Real people listening or making real impact And I want to communicate the right thing

Starting point is 01:10:25 and not the wrong thing. And I want to make sure it comes from the right place. And it's fucking crazy, man. It's really, it's an honor to be able to do that. And Mike wanted Iwaska and Peru. And one of the really interesting parts about one of the experiences that I had was I could see in front of me like visually

Starting point is 01:10:44 all the different lineages of all the people I knew and how they were interconnected. And I could see all the people that I had looked up to like mentors to me. And I could see beyond them mentors of them and how I was a part of my mentor and I was actually a part of their mentor. And then I came scaling back from that. And was like, I'm a part of this. I'm not like an end piece. I'm a piece of a very long continuum, which means other people think that I'm a role model and that's an immense responsibility. And like in that moment I was like I was crying and I was like, whoa, I'm a fucking real responsibility. Like people look up to me and like, I'm not the person that they want me to be or need me to be.

Starting point is 01:11:25 And I'm going to let them down. Like, I can't, I just can't do that. Like I, I have to be the person that, that I want to be, I have to be the best person that I can be. That way when I, when I meet fans, or even not fans, even if it's, say, it's my, my nephew or my cousin or anyone that, like, that trusts me to give them good advice, like, I can't give the best advice if I'm not the best person. So my whole job is to be the best person I can possibly be.

Starting point is 01:11:48 Yeah, it's a massive responsibility. The other thing too is that the advice I give people, because I get people who ask all the time about new media, podcasting social media, how to build a business around that. And I tell people, no one can be a better you than you. In other words, the person in the world is either CEO or CEO. That's representative. Yeah. No one's you a better you than you. In other words, the person in the world is either serious or representative.

Starting point is 01:12:07 Yeah, no one's you or the new. That's right. No one's you only. Whoa. Dang. Hey, we're arguing. You're a philosopher. For sure.

Starting point is 01:12:16 No, I mean, it's true, right? On a didgeridoo. The person that could be the best version of you is yourself. And the other side of that is if you do, if you are lucky enough, and you have the honor of actually influencing a lot of people, be as real as fucking possible because it shows that you're real and it shows that you're vulnerable and you're not perfect and that's going to lead people better, but it's also going to protect you because with that sometimes comes those big pitfalls when your ego does get hit and you're like, oh, I'm

Starting point is 01:12:42 not as cool as I thought it was. I think it matters more now than ever for this generation that's coming up now too, because I feel like these kids aren't connecting, really, truly connecting to anybody. And so if you're getting somebody who's in your ears that like fuck, I can connect with this guy, I feel like they become even tighter. And that's why we're seeing impacts like that,

Starting point is 01:12:58 I feel like because all these relationships with this 15 to 20 year olds that are out there right now, it's so superficial and fake and not real and you're not getting real substance. And so I think they're yearning for that, which is also what's driving podcasting going up. I mean, we're growing year over year because it's people are picking up on it. They're starting to figure out that like I think I mean, and I know we're in the woke generation, right, that people say they're so woke. I'm not saying that.

Starting point is 01:13:25 Let's make a collective effort. Well, no, I mean, in their defense, I think that people are starting, some light bulbs are going off for some people that at some point we're gonna have to start thinking like growth might it be that way. So I think that the intentions are right. I just think that there's a lot of noise out there.

Starting point is 01:13:44 You know? Do you have you guys talked about like the purpose, a single purpose or meaning behind what you guys do? We have, but not in a long time since Anders' come on and the Stradqelectva has started and we brought in all these other people. We haven't served up and defined like a certain mission statement or purpose. The one that we were really strong on maybe two years ago, the last time we had a big meeting about that was we were feeling people's love for fitness and health.

Starting point is 01:14:15 That was our internal slogan for a long time. We don't have to do anything in particular. We're just inspiring people and giving them fuel to go on their own journey. Excellent. Now, I know you guys recently have went through some business changes and you had some business coaching type stuff and now it's different. How is the business working now? How are you guys monetizing or growing the business now versus before or is it the same and just different? Aspects of it are the same. We sold that chunk of our company. That's what it is. That sale is giving us monthly revenue for a period of time. That's one revenue stream. But we're not focused on coaching gym owners so much anymore.

Starting point is 01:14:53 We used to have barbell business as a show. We monetized through business owners specifically, but we've backed out of that since we sold that part of our company. We're not focused on coaching Jim on specifically anymore. Are you guys figuring out like a pivot then in that case, like in terms of future monetization? Yes, so the biggest piece really is, which is also the most exciting is once that ended,

Starting point is 01:15:18 it gives us the ability to kind of break free of that and restart everything. Got it. So that, and we're literally a month into it. I mean, we talked about it earlier, we bring five new shows on, a new host of our bell shrug, and we're rolling the dice. And it's very nice to see that 100% of our audience stays on every single show. And we're able to one do something that's brand new.

Starting point is 01:15:41 It's really exciting to a lot of people. And all of our friends are doing it with us. Like, we have a house down the street and all of our friends showed up and they just happen to be working with us now. That's so weird. Yeah. And, um, We're just hanging out. Like pretty cool.

Starting point is 01:15:54 You created that for yourself. Yeah. The fact that we are taking on sponsorship money is awesome. It's going to be a great thing to create long-term deals and partner ourselves so that we can travel and go meet the people. Now, how will that work? How will that work with like the, so the shrug collective collect all the advertised money because it's all coming on your channel. I imagine it's all yours.

Starting point is 01:16:15 We're essentially contracting the other podcast partners. And so, yeah, we negotiate all the sponsored deals and then we just split the money. Okay, so you just, yeah, that's what I was asking you. I didn't know if they still hooked them up with money or not because it's still coming underneath their channel. Yeah, that's like a network definitely. Yeah, it also gives us a really cool opportunity to be very, very new in how we monetize the podcast too.

Starting point is 01:16:37 Like when these guys started doing the programs, not many people were doing online programming. Now everyone has an online program. To fight through the noise is a waste of your time. Like you can still do really well, but you're just another voice, a more trusted voice, but what is that, what is that 10% cooler? Sure.

Starting point is 01:16:56 And then the online business coaching and kind of those systems when they started, there was nobody else. There's probably 10, 15 of those and then the space now from the biggest to the smallest new startup. So the ability to just connect with the audience is the number one thing.

Starting point is 01:17:13 Like how do we access the audience and give them a voice as much as possible? And me being brand new, I wanna talk to them all the time. I wanna hang out with them. I was a fan of the show. Yeah, thanks. Like I was a fan of the time. I want to hang out with them. I was a fan of the show. Yeah. Thanks. I was a fan of the show.

Starting point is 01:17:28 So the fact that I'm here is hands down the coolest experience. I'm here. I'm in a room talking to you guys. I don't know if you think that's cool, but I do. I think it's cool to talk to you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Starting point is 01:17:44 Yeah. But yeah, I, I, I, you talk about a little bit earlier, like, what is the mission of the show? And I think it really comes down to like, Doug and I, um, you personally, I've kind of always thought that even owning a gym, whether it was the coaches, the athletes, whoever it was that I was in front of my sole purpose in fitness was to educate them on some a Way that could get them to their goal So if you lead from police of education now you're kind of giving people the tools to make a decision

Starting point is 01:18:13 And if we can inspire action, that's awesome. I Want to be entertaining as shit. I want you to want to crave hearing my voice in your ears Like it should be so fun to hang out because I love strengthening conditioning. I really want you to love it. And if you love it as much as I do, everything in your life will happen because of a barbell.

Starting point is 01:18:36 That's really weird to think about. But since I was 13, it's the only thing I've really done and been good at. And here I am. And the entertainment, you said the entertainment piece, the fun part, that makes a big difference Only thing I've really done and been good at and here I am. Yeah, yeah. And the entertainment, you said the entertainment piece, the fun part, that makes a big difference because there's a lot of smart podcasts out there

Starting point is 01:18:51 that are boring as well. So the only people listening to them are like us, like business nerds, like, you know, and there's not a lot of us. And if you're really trying to impact and help people, you want to try and reach the people that are not, like, you know, you get a room full of guys like us, we're going to go seek it out anyway, and we're going to figure out, there's a lot of people out there who they need a little bit of, you know, that little extra push, that little extra help, and entertaining them as a great

Starting point is 01:19:14 way to kind of, you know, get them in, get them in. I just in the short time, I've noticed that there's like a kind of like a continuum of personality or information and the goal is to be at least to be in both of them. And if you get to like an A minus, you're a gangster. If you're Paul Czech, you've topped it out. But if you're too far on one end, like it's too dry and no one listens or it's too personality and no one cares and you need to work on both. Even when I own to Jim and we were running classes,

Starting point is 01:19:47 I would talk to our coaches about how we are coaches, this is strengthening conditioning, but you should remember that this is performing arts. We're out here to make sure that people are having a fantastic time, every single time they're in here. Excellent point. If you guys get asked like, hey, from a kid or someone is wanting to start up a podcast, what's

Starting point is 01:20:07 the single piece of advice you give them, or what do you normally say to them? You tell them, don't do it, it's really hard, or stay out of my lane. I tell them to do it. Don't try to do it by yourself. I think anytime someone's starting a company, they don't have to do this,

Starting point is 01:20:25 but I think having at least one or two other people who are fully bought in with you, I think for me, my style, my personality, my experience, I think three is kind of the sweet spot. Dave Logan calls that tri-adding, where you have no matter what, there's always someone available to take the reins, or if one person's really busy, then you still have one other person to collaborate with, or you're not siloed all the time, and then you can have, you're talking about being a B at education and entertainment, but what if you have two separate people? One guy's an A in one, and one guy's an A in the other.

Starting point is 01:20:59 Now you have two complimentary people. So having at a minimum, one complimentary business partner, and then maybe one person that's kind of in the middle, like Mike's on that spectrum, I'm way over here and Andrew's is kind of in the middle. That's kind of how I view us, as far as like who's like creative and who's like really organized or analytical, and I think Andrew's kind of right

Starting point is 01:21:17 in the middle of me and Mike. And so we're, It's like if you guys had a kid, yeah, it'd be Andrew. I'm the organized one of these people. He's really good. So it's true. It's true, baby. I'm the organized one. He's really good. Sure you are. I'm so light. By interviewing you guys.

Starting point is 01:21:27 Who's happened to remember the idea? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

Starting point is 01:21:36 I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

Starting point is 01:21:44 I don't know. I don't know. I don night. Yeah, bro, this is just looking for it. Well, so just now, like all this laughter that's happening right now, that makes it so much easier to listen to, like a room full of people fuck your cat, like, it makes your day better. If you're on your commute and you're listening to people fucking crack up laughing in your ear, your day is better. And so it's harder to do that in a one-on-one setting

Starting point is 01:22:07 to get that level of energy where one person's interviewing one other person's true. It's a little more dry. And especially like I'm an analytical, more organized person, like if I was interviewing one of you guys one-on-one, it would be very dull compared to what we have going on right now, which is like the full other end of the spectrum.

Starting point is 01:22:24 There's six of us. Good, we got six. Yep, six. Yeah, Doug's over here not talking. So, seven people, six people talking. There's a lot of energy here. And so, I think having multiple people on a podcast, three or four people, I think, is kind of the sweet spot. There's enough perspectives and enough different knowledge basis to like have the education piece. That's right. And then, but there's enough, there's enough of a

Starting point is 01:22:47 conversational flow to it where it's fun and entertaining. You go off to some tangy, tell some stories that people laugh, jokes are told, and there's like a sitcom, like there's a laugh track, and that makes the sitcom so much better. If you've ever seen it like a regular TV sitcom, there's no laugh track. It's like really awkward and not an audience an all. Watch it all.

Starting point is 01:23:06 So the fact that the group of people can like can laugh and like bring that energy to the education, I think is really really powerful. So that having different people to add person I was on the show is important, but also those people are going to have different roles within the company. And like you guys said earlier, if it's not a company, well then you have limited resources you can't trial, you can't do it in person, you get it by plane tickets, you need rental

Starting point is 01:23:32 cars, you get it by food, especially if you're traveling a three or four or five people, you need some revenue stream to keep the business alive and make it where you don't all have to be firefighters on the side. Right? So if you can't put full time into it, well then it's just a side project and it's only gonna go so far. Yeah, the other thing I'll tell people too with that is whoever you pick to be your partners on your podcast,

Starting point is 01:23:51 make sure these are people that you love to talk to when you're not podcasting. Totally. Because that's what you wanna hear when you turn on the mics. You don't wanna have somebody like, I hate talking to that fucking guy. We only have conversations on the podcast. When we turn these mics off, it's still mind-pump for us.

Starting point is 01:24:06 We're still, same conversation, still having a great time, and that's easier. It's easier to do that. Otherwise, it's forced and much more difficult. You got to want to travel with them and hang out with them all day. Here at PaleoFX, we've been here since Thursday, it's Sunday night right now, and we have worked. We have woken up at six in the morning and worked all day

Starting point is 01:24:23 and fucking just slammed into our pillows at 10, 11, 12 o'clock at night and I feel like I'm on fucking vacation. If we work all day, like what time is it right now? Like it's Sunday night at 9 p.m. We're fucking podcasting right now and I'm fucking loving it. Is it any crazy? Don't you guys come in. We're all about the same age and I feel like it was so necessary to go through all that shit

Starting point is 01:24:45 Though to get to here. Oh, yeah to really appreciate it, too You know right? Yeah, well, where's some of the worst jobs you guys had oh, I had some shit jobs 100% I worked in bread factory on assembly line and just all day sitting sit in one spot grab something in front of me Slide inside me grab something in front of me, slide it in front of me, slide to the side of me. I'm gonna get to the front. Slide to the side of me. 10 hours in a row, that sucks. Oh, what?

Starting point is 01:25:10 That sucks. I did assembly when I was doing the work, was not the worst part about it. It was the other people who were lifers that worked there that you had to hang out with. Like you just said, you want somebody you want to talk to, like to be on the podcast with you. Well, you have to hang out with people who are making a career out of being assembly line workers. And totally just making bad people for being there or whatever, but like, but they're going to want to talk to you because they're bored and you just have to put up with 10 hours of conversation with someone that might not be the most engaging person, like really wears on you.

Starting point is 01:25:42 I had a, I had a summer job. I'm from Virginia Beach and everything in Virginia Beach is somewhat related to the Navy. And I got a job in which I was called a fire watch on a Navy boat. And a welder sits at the top and you go all the way down to the bottom of an aircraft carrier and wait for the sparks to hit the ground and hope a fire doesn't happen for six, 12 hour days a week. Wait, see just watching. You literally sit in a hole by yourself and there's no way a fire started. It's regulated that you have to be down there. So we would just sit down there. Yeah, it might be up there. It's close.

Starting point is 01:26:28 And so the only way that we would stay sane is all the frigerators and stuff. So the elevators are like kind of how they get the food transported around this biggest floating city. And we found out how you could break into the fridges and like steel candy bars. and it was the worst. So I did something between the two of us.

Starting point is 01:26:50 I worked this assembly line job when I was in high school and one of the jobs, the biggest highlight was to be to rotate where you're on the assembly line, like whether you're screwing the caps, sewing the bag, or like the sawd after job was the hopper upstairs because you could fall asleep because it was so fucking boring. But you would go upstairs and you've got this huge, and they bring the crane of powder over whatever that's, you know, a couple thousand pounds,

Starting point is 01:27:15 whatever, and all I had to do was cut the bottom open and make sure the powder was funneling down to the top of the funnel and sending it up to the assembly line. And then that thing would run for at least a good, I don't know, 45 minutes or so before the next bag would come and I'd have to do it all over. So I'm working maybe three to five minutes every 45 minutes, but you have to stay up there to make sure, you know, every once in a while you'll hear them go, BAY BAY BAY BANG, HOPPER! And that's because the powder did got clogged or something and then I push the bag

Starting point is 01:27:42 go, otherwise I'm just, staring at a fucking bag for eight to 10 hours a day. All day long, waiting to be yelled at hopper or wait for the next bag of 45 minutes. So that was pretty bad. That was the protein. Protein, yeah. Way protein, right?

Starting point is 01:27:54 That was my first experience of doing how much bullshit supplements were, too. This was, they were like fucking kids like me putting together some of that. We're like, oh, a crazy ball for us. I see you're doing your boobs just fell in there. Oh, no big deal. Oh, god, it's bad. Oh, yeah. Do you see so they were like, oh, a Crete ball for us. I see you doing your stuff. Like, whoops, just fell in there. Oh, no big deal. Oh, God, it's bad.

Starting point is 01:28:06 Oh, yeah. Do you see the measurements? We're like, oh, yeah. Eyeballed. Yeah, everything was eyeballed. No, it was bad. Oh, that's fantastic. Yeah, my, I was at Pete Soria.

Starting point is 01:28:15 It was my first job. My third job was in the gym. I was a trainer at 18 years old. Loved it from day one. Absolutely loved it from day one. And since, been no difference since, God, since then, I worked in the bank. That was my worst job.

Starting point is 01:28:26 Yeah, I managed, just washed the clock. I grand open clubs for 25th and it's I grand open to a couple of them, and then I left the company, and I wanted to open my own business, but I thought, okay, because when you're running gyms, you don't have time to pursue looking

Starting point is 01:28:41 into being an entrepreneur, because running a gym is a 12 hour a day, six day a week or seven day a week job. I mean, I was there all the time, just a lot of work. So I left and I thought, I'm gonna get a job that's gonna pay me a decent amount while I look into other things I may do on my own. And so I don't know how I got this job.

Starting point is 01:29:00 I guess I'm really good at convincing or at sales. I talked to Bank of America and got hired as a premier banker. So you guys can see how loud I am and how I talk and I'm in a bank. I'm in the back of an office and I'm trying to make sales calls and I have the bankers in the front going, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh. I'm like, what the fuck I'm trying to cool to deal?

Starting point is 01:29:20 This is how I talk. Terrible. I've never been in a job where I had to watch the clock. You know, I would watch the clock and just be like, this is how I talk. Terrible. I've never been in a job where I had to watch the clock. You know, I would watch the clock and just be like, two hours past by, it feels like I'm supposed to be done by now. That was insane. Could it, it's how you live forever actually.

Starting point is 01:29:34 Could it, yeah. Exactly. Absolutely could, it's time stands still. Well, gentlemen, great time. Yeah, great time. I enjoy hanging out with you guys. Yeah, definitely. We would do this again for sure.

Starting point is 01:29:45 We got to have you guys come visit us. He is a coach at Studio. Bring your ass up there to Cali. We definitely are you guys going to do a trip out someday. It's high on our list of places to go. Yeah, excellent. We can do some YouTube content too. Yeah.

Starting point is 01:29:57 It's been like two weeks up there. Right. No, for sure. I have to have a kid first. And then I keep saying, when the kid happens, I'll be able to go do these things and Doug keeps looking. He's like, yeah, because most people have kids

Starting point is 01:30:08 and then have a lot more freedom. He's starting to like, yeah. I'm gonna do a whole tour, I'm gonna have kids. Oh! Yeah, you obviously don't have kids yet. No, yeah. You're my thing, wait, we'll know how to actually work. Yeah.

Starting point is 01:30:20 All right, gentlemen, thanks again. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy, and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Superbumble at Mind Pump Media.com. The RGB Superbumble includes maps on the ballad, maps for performance, and maps aesthetic. Nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by Sal Adam and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks,

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