The Sevan Podcast - #244 - Sherman Merricks

Episode Date: December 29, 2021

Sherman is the CEO of @lassoframework and @dynastycrossfit, husband and father, and also host of the matrimony and money podcast. Follow Sherman - https://www.instagram.com/sherm5/The Sevan Podcast is sponsored by http://www.barbelljobs.comFollow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/therealsevanpodcast/Watch this episode https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC59b5GwfJN9HY7uhhCW-ACw/videos?view=2&live_view=503 Support the showPartners:https://cahormones.com/ - CODE "SEVAN" FOR FREE CONSULTATIONhttps://www.paperstcoffee.com/ - THE COFFEE I DRINK!https://asrx.com/collections/the-real... - OUR TSHIRTS... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Make your nights unforgettable with American Express. Unmissable show coming up? Good news. We've got access to pre-sale tickets so you don't miss it. Meeting with friends before the show? We can book your reservation. And when you get to the main event, skip to the good bit using the card member entrance.

Let's go seize the night. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Visit amex.ca slash yamex. Benefits vary by car and other conditions apply. This episode is brought to you by PC Optimum. If you like a curated playlist, why not try a curated grocery list? With Swap and Save, the new feature in the PC Optimum app, you'll get PC Optimum's best price for your grocery items.

Simply add products to your shopping list in the app, and it'll show you similar items at a lower cost. Add coffee to your list, then swap it for one that's cheaper. Craving chips? The app will suggest some on sale. To get started, just open the app. It's as easy as that. See the PC Optimum app for details. Morning. It's early.

Bam, we're live. It is early. Well, you know what it is, is I just got it. I just got a crazy morning. Uh, yeah, I just got a crazy morning. It's,

it's, it's, I got to do some shit. It's going to take me out of my comfort zone. Yeah. Okay. So I'm, um,

it's, it's, it's nothing major. It's, it's my son has an infection. He got some antibiotics that will first we try the holistic route. And then after a few days of that, then he, uh, then we tried antibiotics and they didn't work. And then we found out that the, they just, they just, it's

a urinary tract infection. So they just did some tests on them and they're like, Oh, he has a UTI. So they gave him antibiotics. And then basically they should have done something with the urine like to double check something else and they didn't so now i gotta go back there and i know he's bummed and i know it's stressing me and my me and his mom out and i'm just like oh and my wife's like i'll take him i'll take him don't worry i'm like no no i'm gonna take him like it's dick stuff i like i need to take him and i know that they're gonna be like put a mask on and I'm, and I'm going to fucking grab my ankles like a compliant little bitch. Cause it's anything for my son.

Yeah. So just, just going through my, you know, I got you through what's a perfect life. And then complaining. Cause I got a splinter. I know.

Exactly. Exactly. You know, it's, um, it's wrong. I should be cooler. Wait, let me see.

Am I monetizing this shit? I need to be making money off of Sherman. Man, I'm going to, you're going to pay me money every time you swear because your mom doesn't like you talking like that. I remember you told me that. It's done. No more swearing. It's done. Your mom doesn't like it.

You told me that. I told you that on the last show? Yeah, I think so. You're like, my mom tells me to clean the language up. I was like, all right. I had a handful of listeners tell me that they didn't like me. I'm not even going to say the phrases, but they're two popular phrases. And one of them has the word God in it.

And the other one has his son's name in it, Jesus in it. And I would use those phrases a lot. And some of my listeners were like, hey, man, I really like you, but can you stop using those phrases? I was like, sure, no problem. And people were like, Hey man, don't bow down to them, but it's not bowing down to them. It's an easy fix for me to do. And I, I, I like the challenge of the discipline. Um, And I don't want to alienate people. Like if they were like, hey, shave your mustache. My religion doesn't like it. It's offensive.

Like I would be like, hold on a minute. But like I don't have to use those. I can make an effort to make, you know, on something. This window is frozen. I can make an effort to make things more comfortable for comfortable for other people wow all my windows are frozen that is so bizarre well at least i see you at least the main window is not frozen let me see oh shit there wow oh there goes another swear word ladies and gentlemen sherman merrick's with an s um i i know sherman um we're crossfit buddies uh sherman owns dynasty crossfit and gains Sherman Merrick's with an S. That's right. I know Sherman.

We're CrossFit buddies. Sherman owns Dynasty CrossFit in Gainesville, Florida. Correct. Correct. And he also owns another business in Gainesville, although I think it's worldwide, right? Yeah. It would work anywhere. It's called Lasso Frameworks.

Correct. Lasso Framework. Correct. worldwide right yeah you'd work anywhere it's called lasso frameworks correct lasso framework correct um he has a he's very well known um maybe even most well known for um the work he's done um in the name of his podcast sums it up very well um matrimonium money podcast and sherman's and Sherman's a big believer in financial freedom. Freedom, yes. Yeah. How old are you? I'm 38.

Yeah, 38. Yeah, 38. Yep. Yeah. And you have three kids. Three kids and one wife. You still have a wife? I do have a wife congratulations that's

awesome some people this um the response to this thing they call sars-cov-2 has put stress the societal response to that that they're calling a pandemic has put a lot of stress on people's marriages no not mine man it's been better i've managed to spend more time with my wife and kids. It's been better. So. You know what? I think I can say that too. I almost feel guilty saying that, like I'm showing off. No, I don't, man. I mean, hey, like, I mean, I love my wife. I love my kids. I got to spend more time with them. It was definitely an adjustment. You know, it's an adjustment when you're not used to working from home than being at home all the time.

So you have to come up with, you know, boundaries and rules. But, yeah, we love it. I don't. Yeah, I like it this way. Yeah, I definitely have used everything that's happened as an excuse to further go down the road that I wanted to go down with my kids. Definitely. Absolutely. So I was listening to this podcast you were on with these two guys.

They're local guys in your hood. And basically, it sounds like the premise of their podcast is to promote Gainesville businesses. Oh, yeah. The Woe podcast. Yeah, that's my buddy Colin. Yep. And there was a lot of. Yeah. That's my buddy Colin. Yep. And, um, there was a lot of talk about keeping up with the Joneses in that. And, you know, that's really, I'm in either denial or that's a phenomenon I don't experience.

Yeah. And so when I hear people talk about it, I'm just, I'm totally, uh, And so when I hear people talk about it, I'm just I'm totally. I'm totally tripped out. But before I go there, what does that mean to be debt free? I know that sounds like maybe a dumb question, but I don't know what that means. What's that mean? No. So there's two pieces of it. One is, you know, you could be consumer debt free. That's what most people really strive to. So no credit cards, no car notes, personal loans, none of that. And then the big one is when you have all of that, plus you also don't have a mortgage, right? So I'm at level one debt freedom. I don't have any loans or car notes, any of that. Now, the next big one for me is no mortgage either, right? So I won't owe anyone a dime. So that started two levels to it.

Um, and being so total honest, some people really want to get to level one and they're totally fine with riding out their mortgage for, you know, 15, 30 years, just paying it off slowly,

but surely there's some folks like me, like I want to get it done rather quickly. And like, I don't want to owe anyone. So that regardless of what happens, like, I don't need a lot of money to survive. Right. Because I think that, right. Right. You know, I think that, uh, debt freedom at times in certain circles gets a bad name. Um, but we're, when we're talking about the average person, the average person needs to

be debt free. Right. We can always look at Warren Buffett and Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. Oh, look what they do. But I mean, these guys guys are rock stars most people aren't rock stars they just want to be but i mean you make you know 70 80 100 grand a year you're not really a rock star when it comes to finances right like that's fine but it's not you know it's not it's not billions and millions of dollars per year what what about this what about um your you you pay off one house and let's say you own a five hundred thousand dollar house and then you buy another house for that's like two hundred and fifty thousand dollars or let's say the same value five let's say it's no let's make it easy let's say it's another five hundred thousand dollar house. Then are you still – and you buy it not to live in but as an income property. Yeah, investment property, yeah.

Yeah, and let's say it's great. You break even on it. When the people pay the rent, you're able to pay the property tax and the mortgage and put away 300 bucks a month just to take care of the house right the gardener and if the roof goes then are you considered debt-free no well no so like not so so not on the mortgage side right that's what i say there's two i want to make sure but isn't the value of the house cancel that out so let's say you owe 420 on it but you can sell it for 500 you're not debt-free? No, because what if, okay, and I'm sort of going to play the other side of that. Yeah, please, please. You can sell it, right?

Like you can sell it, but what if you can't sell it, right? Like what if you have, because everyone always talks about sort of like the ideal situation, right? Like everyone's like, well, if this and this, this cash flows this, but what about when it doesn't? Or some people, they have all these properties and what about when the bank, because they can, they call the loan and you can't pay it, they're going to come and take it, right? So it's not really yours. So for me, right, like I like to just not owe anyone. Now, when it comes, like there's a lot of people that get into the investment stuff and, you know, hey, we can, you know, you can sort of play that game again. I don't like to owe anyone. Yeah. You know, if I get an investment property, it probably won't be a five hundred thousand dollar one.

It'll probably be more like a two hundred thousand dollar one. I can save up for a few years and pay cash for and then move on to the next one. Right. for a few years and pay cash for and then move on to the next one. Right. Cause again, like, like Buffett said, Warren Buffett, you know, you can tell who's really skinny dipping when the tide goes out.

So when things are good, everyone's like, Oh, I'm cash flowing all of this and this and that. But when the market is bad, then you see these guys trying to sell properties. They don't have a lot of cashflow. They're jumping off buildings.

They're leaving their wives and children because of this facade that everything was great when it was. But when it's not like that's that's sort of the flip side of me. I don't like all of the risk. That's just me. I don't like all of the risk when it comes to certain things. Boy, we could take this a million ways. OK, I'm going to I'm going to jump here and tell me if this is too quick. You can always go back if you're like, hey, someone, I want to lay down some groundwork before I answer that question. Like if you think it will help people if I'm jumping around too fast. At some point today, I want to talk about taxes. I want to talk about taxing the rich and what the government is and taxing the rich versus taxing the poor.

And because I'm a very firm believer of someone who is extremely poor and who is homeless and probably some of the best days of my life, to be quite frank. I know that's hard for anyone to imagine because some people fear that. But there is a very strong similarity to being homeless and being very, very rich. You are very rich if you're homeless, if you're not a drug addict, and I was not a drug addict. And a lot of people think that you should tax corporate America and you should tax rich people, and that's going to help. I think that they're – me personally, they're hugely misguided because I have had a lot of money, I do have more money, I think, than most people now, even though I'm. It's weird. I'm poor, but I'm I'm richer than most people in this country. And and when someone takes my money, it doesn't it doesn't hurt anyone except people downstream from me, other civilians.

Of course. So basically, you have a choice to get my money directly to you. Fuck it. Let's just talk about taxes. When the government taxes – when my taxes are low, I give my money to the people in my community, the businesses in Gainesville, Florida. community, the businesses in Gainesville, Florida. Yep. I, um, when I, when I stop at the gas station, um, to fill up gas and I, and I, and I have bank, I don't worry about how much I have. And I run in and buy a cantaloupe, maybe two. I don't care that I have to pay a dollar extra more at the gas station when my money's tight. I go to the cheaper gas station that doesn't have

the store and I stop at Safeway and I start buying those those cantaloupes or maybe i don't even buy cantaloupe everyone just has to drink water today um same with the gardener so so some classic examples when i when i took when i got fired from crossfit the first thing i did is i had the gardener come instead of every week every other week yeah i didn't continue my i canceled my serious xm membership yeah i um i turn my computer off at night the heat doesn't stay at 66 it goes down to 64 you know um i i don't i don't i don't tip the kid at starbucks anymore i don't even go to starbucks anymore exactly um uh so so the only Exactly. you can either let people have their money and they'll spend it and there's this huge miss there's this huge misconception of wasting money i want to tell you two things it is impossible to waste

money and it is impossible to waste time these are lazy man's words unless you're burning money it's not being wasted it's it's it's out there it's being circulated you may you may think it's a waste for someone else to buy that bentley but when that person buys that bentley that money's not wasted it's um no no it's definitely not wasted when you buy a guy who washes your car who paints your car it's all the people are getting paid the the professional guy that does the leather on the inside he's getting paid the guy that's painting the car like i agree with you wholeheartedly that's sort of a that's sort of a poor man's tale of oh like like for me for someone to say um this person shouldn't have this if they've worked for it and honestly built up this cash if we're talking about

finances you can't tell someone that they can't buy something right like it's all about relativity right like you know if I make a million dollars a year I can go out and afford to buy certain things that someone can't buy that makes 50 grand a year and that's okay like that's how the cookie crumbles but I don't think a lot of people like they don't like that they don't like that man I'm like I'm working my butt off my wife works I work we only make 60 grand a year this guy over here he has one job his wife doesn't work and he makes 600 grand a year like like this isn't fair right tax him more so that he doesn't have as much money like that's a like that's a bogus thing to me um i'm definitely against it um and again where do we draw the line with the quote unquote, the rich, right? Like it starts at, okay, well, this person that makes 500 grand a year, they're rich,

but we all know, like we know the government, right? Like they want more money. So it starts at, okay, the families that make 500, then a couple of years later, well, now it's the families that make 450. And that's the families that make 400. And down the road now is any family that makes anything you're going to be taxed at this big rate for no other reason than being successful right to me that's what the whole tax the rich thing is and um yeah i think it's a joke for like absolutely

the um i have been in that tax bracket and after you pay your 401k and give your portion to the government your 500 is 250 absolutely it is crazy people i know some of you can be like well move the hell out of california i'm telling you they'll get you anywhere they'll get you anywhere um so so what is the solution why why why don't more people see that why do people think that like taxing the rich is going is it all just on that based on that one phenomenon that they're upset that they think it's not fair and that they think if we can get the problem also is is that when you tax the rich you have to understand people you don't get that money are you just doing it just to be mean to them? Because the government gets that money.

And who is the government? That's the homecoming king and homecoming queen. Those are people who just won the popularity contest that we voted into power. You can trust rich people and let them pay directly to you, or you can give it to the government. They can take their cut and then decide where the money is spent. The whole thing seems so obvious to me. It seems obvious to me as well. But I think that's sort of, you know, like the government, they've done a good job of, you know, that whole fair share thing.

Like, I mean, let's be real. If we really jump into it, you know, like what's a fair share, right? Like if I make a million dollars a year, I'm going to be taxed at, you know, if I can get the things right, I'm going to be taxed to say 25 percent. Right. OK, so 250 grand I'm paying in taxes. You find someone that's making 50 grand a year. How much are they paying in taxes? You know, whatever it is. Right. I feel the person that's paid 250 grand, that is more than a fair share, even though they've figured out ways they've paid accountants and lawyers to get that tax rate down, they've already paid their fair share, right? So it's not like, yeah, the whole thing blows my mind that all these

people are talking about a fair share, right? There's no fair share. There's not a fair level of effort in anything, right? Like the person, I think a lot of people, it makes them feel better because it lets them feel like, okay, this person has become uber successful because of their mom, their dad, they got lucky, this and that. For me, when I see someone uber successful, I say, well, they, they got lucky, this and that. For me, when I see someone uber successful, I say, well, they can do it. I can do it. I'm going to figure it out. I tell everyone, I want my kids, I know you feel the same way, I follow you, boy. You want your kid to have every advantage possible. That is why I wake up in the morning. That is why I work my butt off. That is

why I do all these things so that one day, like I was raised by a single mom, all of that stuff, and the project, low income. I don't want my kids to deal with that. I want my kids and my grandkids to have a leg up on everyone else. So I'm willing to make that sacrifice for them. People say that like it's a bad thing. Oh, look at the Walton kids or the Rockefellers or the Kennedys. They only do this because of such... That is the goal of this. That's the goal of this generational wealth thing, right? That's the goal of it. You don't want... I don't want my kids to have the same struggle that I had. I don't want my kids to have to pay off $203,000, right? I don't want them to have to do that. I want my kids to have to pay off $203,000. I don't want them to have to do that.

I want my kids to be able to invest $203,000 in a short amount of time. Isn't that interesting? It's a trip what you said because it comes down to the heart of, I guess, what it means to be a parent. If you can't offer your kid more than what your mom could offer you, Sherman, then you have to insert your own controlled struggle. By that, I mean if your kid doesn't have to walk five miles to school, that means that you have to walk your kid five miles a day. And then you have to figure out how to do it. It doesn't mean, and correct me if you disagree with me, I'm open to this. It doesn't mean that your kid doesn't walk five miles a day. It doesn't mean that, here's the thing that's trippy. Sherman wants his kids to have all the struggles he did, but he wants it to be in an environment that's safe. Correct.

We want our kids to have – I want my kid to fall down. I don't want him to fall down in a neighborhood where he has to worry about falling on a needle. Correct. Correct. Correct. correct correct you know i want him to learn about needles and the dangers of needles but but on his own terms not when he's four and every time we go to the fucking park i gotta be like oh shit those guys are shooting up over there i guess we're gonna switch parks yep yeah no i i agree with you 100 but they have to struggle they like they're so like that's the thing right like i agree i think like i put the onus on me like we homeschool our kids the government teachers there's nothing wrong with them schooling kids that's totally fine I don't think that anyone can do a better job at teaching my kids at the you know at the grade school level than my wife and I can I feel that we're smarter than blah blah blah all like all of

that and so that's why we homeschool our kids, because I want them to know things that that are going to help them long term down the road. Right. I'm not anti-public school or anti-private school. Our kids used to go to private school. Maybe they'll go back one day. But right now we homeschool our kids because I feel that we are the best educators for them to have them prepared for life and everything that we want to instill in them moving forward. Do you think I'm ass backwards because I homeschool my kids not because I think I can do a better job than them, but because of what they're teaching? No, no, no. I mean,

that was, they're, they're teaching, they're teaching stuff. That's a lie. Yeah. That's definitely a piece of it too. That's definitely a piece of it too.

Absolutely. Like, I don't want, I don't want to have to, I don't want my kids at like 20 to be like, like, like, you know,

now I am at 49. Like, holy shit. How did you let them teach me this? Yeah. That's not true. That's not true. Yeah.

Yeah. Like you, not only is it not true yeah yeah like you not only is it not true you made it part of my identity yeah yeah no no no you're like i know so many like i know a ton of whole school families because i'm you know i'm in that circle and most of them are doing it because they don't want their kids to learn you know you know all the stuff like they don't want to learn that just point blank i don't been exposed to that i was like yeah like it's different because when we're going to school

i mean you gotta freaking do your math you're reading and you're trying to hang out with your friends and have a good time and eat lunch and that's pretty much it now there's now there's just so much going on and again i think that my kids can't wear masks either, like under my watch. They just can't. Yeah. They just can't. Yeah, I get that. I get that.

I just can't. I can't. I just can't. This guy says in the comments, oh, shit, I really am – my computer doesn't work. Caleb, can you – do you have access to the comments, brother? Oh, look, I do too. I didn't even know that. Yes. Oh, could, could you, um, uh, Darth Bane, if you make 150,000 a year, could you throw up that comment? Sorry, dude't rich these days, but the taxes are higher. So in, in my neighborhood and I live in a neighborhood where, um, it's not, it's not

fancy at all. Like, like people who make half as much money as me in Oklahoma live 10 times as good in my neighborhood. If you're make $120,000 or less, and you have two kids, you're below poverty line. Yeah. You're below poverty line. What does that mean? That means that, um, $120,000 a year, you can afford, uh, you and your wife are going to share one Honda civic. You're going to be in a house where your kids, it's going to be a two bedroom apartment and your kids are going to share a bedroom. And, um, and you, you know, it's, it's not, it's not, it's not nice. You're going to have mice. You're going to have rats. You're going to have a lot of homeless people.

And I live outside the big city. I mean, I live 20 miles from Silicon Valley down a treacherous highway where not a lot of people come. I'm in Santa Cruz, California. So, yeah, $150,000. I guess maybe some places that is good money. Is $150,000 good money in Gainesville? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, 150s. I guess maybe some places that is good money. Is that good? Is 150 good money in Gainesville? and girls has always helped me. And like, there's definitely, you know, when you start making between $200,000 and $500,000 per year, that's sort of like a bad spot to be. Now, I want to make sure I clarify this. Tax-wise, it's a bad spot to be because a lot of times when you make

$200,000 to $500,000, you have a ton of tax you have to pay because you don't have a lot of assets, right? Because you don't make enough money to buy a ton of assets to get your tax rate that much lower. So that's sort of like no man's land where you need to either stay a little bit below 200, or you need to get over 500 so that you can buy certain things that can lower your taxes and stuff like that. But so many people don't understand this because again, we aren't taught taxes and all of this stuff. So's just oh look this dude makes 400 grand a year like he should be killing it this dude decides to buy him a nice mercedes so oh look he's killing got a nice home a nice mercedes but again we know just based on the data

most most americans are only two or three months away from pure financial ruin, right? How do those people sleep at night? Hey, listen, I don't know. I mean, that's why I'm so big on debt freedom, like emphasis on the freedom, Savan, because for me, I want to be able to know like, hey, regardless of what happens, I'm going to be fine for, you know, a standard period of time.

I tell people six to 12 month emergency fund. Yes, it may be hard for you to get. Yes. You may have to get two jobs. Yes. Your wife may have to work for a little while for you guys to pay off your debt and save up this emergency fund. But the emergency fund, like JL Collins talks about, um, like it's sort of like F you money, right? Like you would like that, right? Like it's F you money because you can say, Hey, F you, I'm going to go figure some things out. And I tell most folks, think about it. I had this play out in one of my good friends, like real life. He's big on the debt freedom as well. He has five or six kids.

Oh, man. Yes. Five or six kids. Listen, it's five or six kids. But he was big on the debt freedom emergency fund. He had a six, seven month emergency fund. He got fired out of the blue. He had been in this company for years, fired out of the blue, totally blindsided him. However, he had a seven month emergency fund. So it was a big inconvenience. The feelings were a little hurt because he was like, oh, I didn't see this coming. I thought we were on. But when he got fired, he actually took the first month just to sit back and say, man, let me enjoy some of this time with my family. Let me figure out what the next move is. And then two months later, he ended up getting another job, better job.

But he was only able to do that because he was able to set himself up beforehand where he had six, seven months of living expenses where there was no freaking out, right? Imagine this man with six kids loses his job. He doesn't have anything like most people. I mean, he's bagging groceries at Publix and driving Uber Eats. There's nothing wrong with that stuff. I want to be clear, but it's a totally different lifestyle and it's a totally different mindset for him if he has to do that type of stuff. So that's why for me, you know, I get into a lot of back and forth on the internet because some people, oh, you know, you're old school. Those principles are played out. Yeah, like it's played out until you get punched in the face, right? And everyone, like no one thinks they're going to get punched in the face. And we know that, you know, in everyone's lifetime, there's going to be three

or four major financial things that is going to happen to you. If you're not ready for it, like that could change the trajectory of your life. So I tell everyone six to 12 month emergency fund is a must. It's a must. I, um, I, I was, uh, my wife and I were both fired on the exact same day. Wow. I'm from CrossFit Inc. Yeah.

Both, both hyper, hyper productive, um, uh, people. I don't want to speak for my wife, but no one in my department, uh, produced more than me. I I'm open to someone saying that they worked equally as hard as me, but no one worked harder than me. And, uh, and it sort of came out of left field because I had been promised that it wouldn't happen. And my wife and I both fired on the same day. And there's two things. There's a relationship piece here and then the financial thing. I had 12 months of mortgage saved.

Yep. And I was still terrified. Yeah. Yeah. Because I know I'm incapable of working. I'm incapable of doing something that I don't want to do. Yeah. Yeah. Like I'm like, I shouldn't say I'm incapable of it. I'm really a fucking whiny bitch if I have to do something I don't want to do. Yeah. And I'm borderline unemployable. I'm a fucking rain man. And but but I knew that i always lived within my means and my co-workers and then so that's one thing and then the second thing is within a week you know my wife my wife and i

basically it was like it's like dropping a bomb on you because when you work somewhere like crossfitting for 15 years and you've given your whole life to it when you lose your job you lose a huge chunk of your identity for sure you kind of you kind of feel like a balloon and someone let go of you a helium balloon you're like whoa what you kind of just it's not even bad or good you're just kind of like in the ether and um and you can't hang out there when you got kids like you can't be like hey i'm just gonna wait and see what happens like i've done that before that's how i ended up being homeless i'm like okay i'll just wait and see what happens and then i'm like oh shit i'm homeless yeah um but uh so we had we we had saved 12 months of mortgage and um then i said to my wife after about a week or two i said hey speak going to generational wealth

there's under no circumstances do i want to lose any of our assets how do you feel if we if shit gets really weird that we just move the family into a van and rent out our house so that we don't lose the house she goes oh yeah whatever you want i'm game and like the fucking way of the world fell off my back yep i was free yep i was free to accept now my next my next role like i was like oh shit my partners my partners got my back yeah and then you immediately have to do do stuff you got to cancel the serious xm you have to quit drinking coffee out you have to quit drinking alcohol alcohol is a complete sorry sherman fucking sorry mom fucking waste of money um complete waste of money if you're worried about money and you're drinking alcohol you're you're not even at step one um sherman's a little nicer than i am on his podcast he he he gives

people a little uh wiggle room um but maybe those are people who don't have kids when you have kids there's no wiggle room it's it's um i need to see as much runway as I can. And then the people I work with Sherman who under the same circumstances, they were using their 401ks to buy stuff. They were, they were, I knew that my, I, if you have a mortgage and you can pay your, well, what do you think about this? I was paying my mortgage twice a month. What do you think about that yeah that's totally fine that's totally that's yeah that's totally fine and and i had a car i bought a the only brand new car i've ever bought in my life was a fifty thousand dollar brand new sienna and i fell into the exact trap that sherman talks about my wife had twins and i was like i need the best car possible to to shepherd these three children and so they can be saved so i bought the first and i and i had my mommy go with me who had like a 820 on her credit so we got it she got here i am at 46 years old i had my mommy go with me and she signed for me and we bought a brand new 50 000 minivan i put 20 000 down and i got a 30 000 no interest

loan and i paid a thousand dollars a month on it and everyone's like smart people were like hey don't do that it's zero interest yeah yep so glad it's paid off dude paid it off paid my my first house off and my car off um the same month i got fired that's that's great that's great sherman says this thing in um when you pay your home off it's like getting a raise and so so here's here's another thing i'll tell you my wife and i did we're living in a home where the mortgage was 1100 a month but we could rent the home for four thousand dollars a month and even though money wasn't tight for us and we were great we moved out of the house yeah it's financially irresponsible to live in a home that you can make three thousand dollars a month on

right yeah i i mean that's the that's the beauty of this thing so i'm like you have when you don't owe a ton of people money you have the freedom to do stuff like that right like you even if it meant moving into a shitty house having cash is king but like you don't care about but here's the thing like you like you don't care about what such a gym down the road thinks that you're moving out of your house and then you move into a crappy house and someone has rented out your house you don't care about that i'm gonna tell you like i deal with enough people like it matters what people think right it matters It matters. That's what we talk about. Keeping up with the Joneses. Right. There's this. And I will say social media has ruined us. Right. Because on social media, everyone only talks about like the highs. Right.

Like it's the highlight reel. Right. So if I only watch game film highlights of LeBron James, I'm going to say LeBron James is the best basketball player in the world um because I'm only seeing his highlights which he may be like that was a bad example using him but if you look at social media and you only see you know Suzy down the road highlight where you're like Suzy's killing it she's bought a new house and got a new car look she's on vacation look at her kids they're matching they're so cute and then when Suzy loses her job now Suzy's you know working at Target she's on vacation. Look at her kids. They're matching. They're so cute. And then when Susie loses her job, now Susie's, you know, working at Target. There's nothing wrong with working at Target.

But Susie was a C-suite executive three months ago. Now she's working at Target. I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen it. Like, yeah, but that's the thing. So many people haven't seen it. So they just think, like, that's not going to happen or that doesn't really happen.

But it happens all the time. Like I talked to so many people offline. Cause most people don't want to put their garbage out there on social media. I talked to so many people offline that like, they just say, man, thank you. I wish I would've learned stuff like this. This is what happened to me. Like it sucked. You're telling people the right thing. And I'm just like, I just want to help people, right? Like I grew up with nothing and to have what we have now at only 38, like it's like, it's cool. But like, I don't want people to just continually stay on, stay in the rat race until they're 49, 59 years old. Like I, like I have a great, like one of my best friends, um, he's a,

he's a physician. And we talk pretty much every day. We talk about everything. And there are a ton of physicians that work for 30, 40 years, right? They make anywhere from 200 to a million dollars a year and they can't retire. to a million dollars a year and they can't retire. That's why you see some, not all, you see some physicians that are 75, 80 years old, still working five, six days a week. It's not because they love the profession of medicine. It's because they have to keep that income coming. They got to keep up that level of lifestyle. They haven't set aside enough money over the years. That's the way it is with most people, man. Most people, they only think about this year. They're not thinking about 20, 30 years down the road, like what this is going to look like. And I wish just more people

would think long-term because if you do, like you outside of a big disaster, you're going to live to see 50, 60, 70 years old. Now, what is your life going to look like? And please don't disaster, you're going to live to see 50, 60, 70 years old. Now, what is your life going to look like? And please don't tell me you're going to depend on the government to take care of you because that's a sucker's bet right there. You know, I'm horrible with money, and I don't look down the road. Mine's all fear-based. Yeah, yeah. Do you know what I mean?

I would never go on a vacation i never i like like the thought vacations when i hear people say vacate like my wife doesn't have a wedding ring we didn't get we don't we didn't have a wedding like that's all to me that's crazy talk yeah ten thousand dollars on a wedding ring i could put that in the bank now like i did for my three boys and when they're 77 they're gonna have 11 million dollars each yeah ten thousand dollars when they're set because i'm looking at my mom now and i'm like man if i could give my mom 11 million bucks right now that'd be awesome so then when my kids were born i was like okay great i'm gonna put 10 000 in the account and make sure they all get whatever

it takes i'm gonna get 10 000 in in this account for them this uh um um what are they called it's the kind of stuff you sign up with vanguard or basically they double every seven years yeah yep yep yep why would i buy my wife a wedding and i know some people are like well you got to do some things i i just don't i i just i i um i i had a i i have a dear friend of mine who recently was like, Hey, he's been telling me for two years to come visit him. And I said, I'm like, Hey, I can't visit you because I don't want to spend a fucking dime to do anything that's out of my circle. So after two years, he sent his jet to come pick me up and took me to his house and he

paid for everything for the week. I was like, well, thank you. Oh, I saw that. Yeah. It was the best vacation I've had in my entire life but it didn't cost me a dime and i was okay if i didn't do it yeah my life's good i don't i do not need a vacation my life you know gandhi said this thing you can't separate um religion and state because your life is your religion you know what i mean by that your life is your religion just like how i treat you how i brush

my hair how i brush my teeth how i get dressed in the morning how i how i talk to my gardener how i talk to my dog it's all my religion yeah and and it's all my life i can't compartmentalize that shit no you can't no you can't some people try, you can't. No, you can't. Some people try to. You can't. No, I mean, you really can't. So here's the thing. I think that we deal with these finances, you know. You have to know what's really important to you and then you have to put your life around that. Right. Like me, vehicles aren't important to me. Yes, I like cars, but they're just not important to you. And then you have to put your life around that, right? Like me, vehicles aren't important to me. Yes, I like cars, but they're just not important to me, right? So I drive a crappy car. My wife has a nice van that we bought, but like me, it's just not important to me. But- And isn't it more important to you that

your wife drive a nicer car that your wife's happy? Like that's part of your happiness, right? Yeah, for sure. But here's the thing, like that's part of your happiness right yeah for sure but like but here's the thing like there's nothing wrong with like if i did like cars i can afford to go buy me a fifty thousand dollar car and that's and that's nothing wrong with that me i like to vacation i'm glad you said that so for me like i would rather hey i'm not gonna spend money on a ton of things i'm gonna invest in all this but when it's my turn it's gonna be two or three times per year i'm gonna take a nice vacation that's what i'm gonna spend my money on like i'm not you know how to enjoy it yeah um but so many people they want to like they want to do everything like they want to have everything and they don't make enough money

to have everything right you can't have a nice car nice home nice vacation nice this on a sixty thousand dollar a year salary well you can just call credit and then, you know, we know how that goes long term. It just doesn't work out. Most of my happiness comes from stuff that I don't even realize it's coming from. It's like behind the scenes stuff. So by that, I mean, not having to worry about the price of gas. Like, you know, when you're 16 and you're like okay i have three dollars and 85 cents and i'm gonna try to get oh shit i put in 386 and now you're looking under the mat for the penny to pay the guy and it's just a mess right or um or you want to eat an avocado and it's 299 and you

have to stress about the price of the avocado like for me um that's where i get my freedom well it's funny you say that because i didn't even notice this just you know like that's the way i grew up right you go to the grocery store you already know me and my sister going to my mom hey don't don't ask for anything we got yeah at times on government assistance there's not a lot of money so i don't go in here saying i want this or trying to pick up stuff. Don't do that. Right. But then, like, this just happened, you know, four or five years ago, like my mom, she comes up to visit when the grocery store and I'm just shopping. Right. Like I'm just getting stuff and getting what I want. I don't look at price when I go shopping. Like I'm grocery shopping at the best grocery store in the world. Publix. We're going to talk. We'll talk about that later.

We're in there shopping. And my mom mom said are you not looking at prices and like it was the first time in my life i realized no like why would i look at price i have to buy groceries the prices don't matter but like like it was about four years ago i realized man life is starting to get pretty good you know yeah you made it yeah isn't that great yeah like it had nothing to do with how much money i had an investment account or anything like that. It was just like, no, like I don't have to look at prices of groceries. I'm just buying groceries for me and my family. Like, get what you want, kids. You know, don't ask for too much. I'm not going to buy you all the candy, but it's totally fine. And by the way, do you see if you overtax Sherman, he won't be able to spend that money at Publix.

Sherman, when I was homeless, I got a job that paid $7 an hour, and I was fucking rich. I could go in and buy a coffee, and instead of stealing cream from them and pouring a whole cup full of cream to get calories and drink it, I was tipping the cashier. Because I was making $7 an hour, still homeless, but I was balling, right? $100 in my pocket, drinking lattes, tipping the guy behind the counter a dollar. I mean, it's all relative. It is. It is. It is.

It's all relative. I agree. I agree. But you said something earlier. i want to talk about you said that you don't really understand or you don't see it the whole keeping up with the joneses thing yeah like people make fun of my minivan and i'm like so i i almost i'm like i i welcome that yeah yeah no like my minivans the shit like and I think you're like me, you know, like, we're sort of outsiders for the most part, right? There are some people like us, but most people, man, you know, when you go to wherever you go, your social spots, and you see this person doing this, or they're talking about what they're doing this weekend or this family is going on a Christmas trip. And look, they got matching pajamas on social media. Why didn't we do that?

Like that's the stuff that really drives most people. It's not that they really want it, but they want to portray it because they know. 17 other families are going to post pictures with pajamas on and they're going to they're going to go on some type of vacation over Christmas break. pictures with pajamas on and they're gonna they're gonna go on some type of vacation over christmas break and it's not that they necessarily want to do it but we like that's just what we do because that's the lifestyle we live and yeah um i think that crushes people long term man i really do oh what do you think about um a super unleaded versus regular unleaded? I put regular unleaded in my car. I have a 2003 Toyota Camry with 270,000 miles on it. It's only getting regular gas, regular unleaded. That's all it's getting.

So one of my close friends just set me free. My whole life, I've only put in super unleaded. And about a month ago, one of my friends set me free. He's like, hey, just out of the blue, he goes, hey, he didn't know I put in super unleaded. And about a month ago, one of my friends set me free. He's like, Hey, just out of the blue, he goes, Hey, he didn't know I put in super unleaded. He's like, Hey, you know, the whole gas thing is a scam, right? I'm like, what? And the gas at my house is $5 a gallon for regular and five 50 for super. So, um, but maybe when you say that there, I was even, maybe I was a little pretentious about putting in the super unleaded i think i think yesterday i was at the gas station and i maybe

i hit the unleaded button real quick so no one would see me do it i don't know there's no even though there's no one within 100 feet of me i'm like no one better see me put in the regular unleaded holy shit oh my turn in red i don't doubt it but a little but look here's the thing though right like you know like you're aware of nothing like you actually say it man look you know there's still peace of me like one of my buddies years ago he was going through yeah i don't want that shit gas in my car and i don't want anyone to see me buying this shit gas exactly one of my buddies he was going through a tough spot financially years ago so him and his wife decided hey we're gonna do sort of the Dave Ramsey thing, cash based everything.

And one of his biggest struggles was, believe it or not, was actually taking his hard earned money in cash into the gas station to pay for it instead of just flipping in his car. He absolutely despised it. And I was and to me, I'm just like, bro, like, it doesn't matter if you're paying with cash or a card is is money that you've earned you're putting gas in the car but to him why he thought go ahead sorry go ahead no he just thought like i don't know he just like it's like why would i go in why can't i just fly my car i i gotta walk like someone would judge him that he didn't have a credit card yeah wow yeah i never even thought of that. Everyone ignore that. Don't let that seep into your brain. Holy shit. But but that's the thing, though. Like it's little stuff. It's real, though. It's real. I get it. It's real.

Exactly. Like it's real everywhere. It's just like, man, if we don't you know, if we don't take this trip, people are going to notice we haven't gone on a vacation in a long time. So, hey, like we got to take a trip, honey. We don't have the money. It doesn't matter. Well, we need to get a new credit card to do it because like we need to do this and take these pictures and get them on social media and like like this is a real thing that no one really likes to talk about but i know for a fact that like it's happening every single day every single day. Um, you, you paid off your house. No, no, I paid off my mainly student loans. Mainly. Is that what the $203,000 post was? Yeah. About, so, uh, we'll talk about that. So I basically went to a private undergrad, private graduate school. Um, and I'm going to tell you again, I'm gonna tell you how messed up my mind was. So I went to a private grad school,

And I'm going to tell you again, I'm gonna tell you how messed up my mind was. So I went to private grad school, private undergrad. Damn, your family's beautiful, dude. Thank you. That's my wife, Christina, my oldest son, Caden, my youngest son, Judah, and my daughter, Ariana. So how old are the kids? 13, 10, and 8. Dude, Caden's as tall as your wife already.

I know. I know. I think he's going to be tall. Christina's dad and them, they're tall. So so i think caden's gonna be taller than me wait her dad's tall aren't puerto ricans like just little tiny people some of them um her dad's not her dad's about six three so oh shit um and so are so her brother so um i think caden got lucky i think he's gonna be sort of tall. Yeah, that's a big 13-year-old. So I went to private grad school.

And when I got out of school, Siobhan, I'm going to be total honest, I was pissed off. And let me tell you why. Because I went to undergrad, grad school. I did all the right things. Like they had been telling me for years since I was a little boy that if you go to college and you go to grad school, everything is all the right things. Like they had been telling me for years, and I was a little boy, that if you go to college and you go to grad school, everything is going to be okay. And then when I got out of school, I realized that, okay, but I'm making 40 grand a year and I got these degrees here. What's the point of that? So I'm like, I'm not freaking paying these people back. I'm not paying back all this money.

So for years, I just let it sit there. I would defer it. I wouldn't answer the phone calls when they would call me. And then I would pay them like, just say two or $300 a month, just enough to keep them off my back. Right. Yeah. And then a few years ago, it was just, I was, I was talking to my wife and we're on vacation, actually visiting some good friends. Actually, one of my friends commented on here. I saw it. David Coley. I would visit in them and we were going somewhere and they call me on vacation. And for some reason that that just like that just rubbed me so like it rubbed me the wrong way. I was just like, man, I'm tired of this. I like I'm tired of it. I was like, I'm going to pay these folks off. So now this has been what, I graduated college in 05, so a couple of years ago.

So it had been 14, 15 years or whatever of just, it just sitting there, me paying $300 a month, interest accruing. And when I looked, it was about 180, 85 grand I had to pay. God, so much money. Who are you telling? Who are you? So now I'm just like, it doesn't matter. I like, it doesn't matter. I'm going to do it. Um, I don't know how I'm going to do it at the time. And I want to, I want to be careful when I say only, um, I was only making about a hundred grand a year. So I was like, well, like how's it going to work? Like, I mean, that's free tax. So I'm just like, how is it going to work? Like, yeah, I mean, it's free tax.

So, yeah, so I'm just like, how's it going to work? I like it doesn't matter. I'm going to I'm going to be obedient to God because that's what I felt like. And I'm going to make it work. And fast. What do you mean by that? Obedient to God? Is there something in that you have to pay off your debt?

Well, for me, I just feel like. I feel like God, you know, I have a relationship with God, consider myself, you know, you know, a godly man. So I just feel like, you know, God had been telling me for a little while, Hey, you need to pay off these debts, mainly the student loan. That's really the main thing. But peace of me, I was just so angry, man. I would just put that in a corner, just, just, you know, that's the good debt. You don't have to worry about it. And did when I was on vacation, it just stuck out to him. And I was gotta do it and i was like like why is this shit interfering with my life here i am with my family i'm in total bliss and basically now they're stealing some of my vacation from me like something like i paid five grand for this vacation and now these motherfuckers are here

hello man like that man my wife would tell you she would tell you just like out of the blue over the years i would just get pissed you're like why are so mad? It's mainly when they would call or something, I'd get an email. She's like, I was like, because I shouldn't have to pay this back. Like that was my mindset. I shouldn't have to pay this back for loans that I took out, right? Like no one put a gun to my head and said, sign this promissory note. And so then when it happened, I was just like, all right, I'm going to pay it off. And we started paying it off. And then we started another company. And then everything just started rolling, started rolling fast forward. Twenty seven months later, we pay off two hundred and three thousand dollars.

I really didn't. I don't think it would be possible that fast. Right. But I had committed to doing whatever it took. Right. So I knew no matter what, like once I put my mind to something is going to happen. Right. But I had committed to doing whatever it took. Right. So I knew no matter what, like once I put my mind to something, it's going to happen. Right. That's just how I am. So 27 months later, paid off 203 grand. And now I can't tell you how much lighter and better I feel just even waking up in the morning. Like it's a beautiful thing. I tell everyone become debt free, man. Like if you don't like being debt free, it's a beautiful thing i tell everyone become debt free man like if you don't like being debt free it's totally fine you can always get more debt but until you've really felt

until you've really felt it i'm gonna tell you like there's nothing like it the freedom the freedom i i heard this uh this this public speaker one time who was trying to sell get rich dvds and i went to like a i was actually making a documentary about this guy who went to go listen to this get rich guy speak and uh it was a free three-hour lecture and then afterwards you give him a thousand bucks and buy the dvds right if you like the course like what he said and one of the things he said in there was um and you know i'm not a i'm not a i'm not a god guy i'm not a i'm not a religious guy. I'm just a heathen walking the planet. But he said this and whatever. And I knew it was true when he said it.

He said, if you resent rich people, if you resent the guy who drives by in the Lamborghini, God will make sure you never have one of those. And you will never be rich because God is the the all giving God and who only gives people what they want. And I was like, and so if you resent it, he'll never give it to you because he doesn't want you to have something to resent yourself. And I, and you know, being raised in the Bay area, there was a certain resentment for rich people and people who had more. And, uh, even though we had an abundance, right. And, but,. And at that moment, I flipped the script. I told myself that I'm going to be humble enough that every time I see a penny on the ground, I'm going to pick it up and I'm going to say I'm a money magnet. And I'm always going to be appreciative of other people's wealth.

I'm going to fake it until I make it and I'm going to be happy for them. I'm gonna be so i'm gonna fake it till I make it and i'm gonna be happy for them and dude sherman It's just like what you said when you made the decision to pay that back when um In your mindset changed your you started actually making more money too, right? Yeah, absolutely Yeah, exactly. Yep. Yeah my whole life since that moment I was in new york city when I made that decision since that moment my whole life just took off. Yep Yep I just I don't feel guilty for anything I have. I'm appreciative of everything that everyone else has.

I try to be good to the good people. What do I mean the good people? Like the guy playing the violin, the guy selling hot dogs, not the guy begging for money. That's not my thing to give money to beggars. But the guy on the corner, like washing my window, he's doing something. He's participating in the betterment of humanity like just i'll tip who i want to tip you know yeah yeah um yeah it's crazy um is is that when you started lasso i started lasso about about two or three months after I made that decision to pay it off.

Yeah, so around the same time, pretty much around the same time. Tell me what Lasso is and why did you choose it? Why do you have a partner? Do you have a partner in your CrossFit gym? No, just me and my wife. Okay, and why do you have a partner in Lasso? What is Lasso for starters? Yeah.

So Lasso framework. So Lasso stands for lead and sales system optimization. Right. So basically, my partner, his name is Blake. I still have my gym. He recently sold his two CrossFit gyms. But we used to be mentors for one of the big CrossFit mentoring companies. Right. Right. And we parted ways for various reasons.

And then we decided, hey, we're going to do our thing. Right. He was sort of the marketing guy. I was sort of the sales and marketing guy. So, man, we can do this like we can do this piece of it better than anyone else. guy. So we went, man, we can do this. Like we can do this piece of it better than anyone else. And we focus on helping primarily gyms get out in front of people with paid social media marketing and their sales process and websites and stuff like that. So that's really what we do day in and day out. It's funny because just the other day I posted something in one of those affiliate owner groups online because so many people, they like to say, well, you know. There's a lot of failed gym owners getting into the, you know, that turn into gurus. Right. And I was like, I get that. But I posted something with my prices and my rates and, you know, how my gym was doing just to show folks, hey, like, don't fall into that trap of, you know, just

talking bad about people because you don't like when other people start stuff because my gym is still doing, like, my gym is doing great. And I didn't start Lasso because I, quote, unquote, needed the money. I started Lasso because there was a need that I know that we could feel, and we feel it, and we do a great job at it. But yeah, so my partner Blake and I, we started Lasso a little bit over two years ago now. And it's been great. It's been phenomenal, man. We we're we're going to help a lot of gyms and meet a lot of people and things like that and get to really for me, the freedom that we have with Lasso really, you know, it's our first time really having a sort of a digital company, right? Because everything that we do, we can do it from anywhere, which is totally different from owning a CrossFit gym, right?

Most guys own a CrossFit gym. You're stuck in the trenches for years if you ever even get out. So this company is definitely a huge blessing to us and we love it and we're gonna help a lot of people man it's fun can you give me an example i want to go back to being stuck in the trenches for a second because uh i want to come back to that because it is really important to spend part of your life definitely stuck in the trenches but give me an example of what you guys do like who reaches out to you yeah so like could my podcast reach out to you and be like hey sherman we've been just stuck at a hundred thousand downloads a week what can we do to like take us to the next level yeah yep yep you could and by the way we're not stuck we're fucking

sorry god i need to stop swearing we are murdering it we are doing fantastic but go on um but so like what happens a lot of times gyms will reach out and be like you know like we it has to be a gym that's your specialty gyms no i would say that 80 of our clients are gyms so i'm just going to talk about gyms because that's most of our clients um they reach out and they will say hey like you know we've tried some social media before but we hear good things about you guys um like what do you do do? Then we sort of tell them, Hey, like we're going to get you in front of more people. This is going to be, you know,

sort of some cold traffic and stuff like that. And then we talk about the sales process and we want to make sure that they're a good fit before we really sign them on. Right. Because here's the thing, as you know, in the CrossFit community, right. The affiliate owners are different, right? Like it's different than, like most businesses understand. I can't spend a dollar today and think that dollar is going to turn into a dollar the next day. But affiliate owners, for the most part, they're like, hey, I need an ROI in 24 hours, right? Like, so we want to make sure they're going to be a great

fit for us so that we can get them that quick ROI because, you know, namesake is everything in this little small community that we're doing most of our business in. So when they come to us, we want to make sure they're a good fit. We show them what we can do. They've heard about some testimonials. That's how most people reach out. They knew someone that knew someone or something like that and then we go from there um and we've been able to help some gyms really do some cool things uh because they were stuck you know like when greg really was in charge of crossfit back in you know back in the day like when we first started like it was fight club it was underground right like there was no marketing like we're doing this like hey we'll let you come over and if you survive you tell us if you want in or not like

that's our marketing right now but now like it's totally different right it's totally different right like there's orange theories and eat the frogs and like all of that stuff and if we don't and if we're not out there in front of folks like they are like the affiliate community will be drowned out in five to seven years um and it's not because our product isn't better it's because people will know about us but we won't stay front of mind right all these other guys ton of these marketing they'll stay front of mind and then they'll be the ones eating for the most part you know know, for lack of a better term. So that's what we're really trying to do, trying to help the affiliate community stay in front of folks and have an opportunity to help these people that would probably do something else and be frustrated with.

Right. Because there's no I strongly believe there's no better fitness regimen out there on the planet than CrossFit. Why do you have a partner? Why didn't you do Lasso by yourself? Honestly, me and him, we just like we left the company at the same time. We vibe very well and we just said, man, we can do this thing together. And this is my first time ever really having a partner. I was a little hesitant because I had heard horror stories. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what I that's what I just think horror stories.

Yeah. But then I had a few friends that I know it can work if you lay ground rules down and, you know, blah, blah, blah. And I really like Blake's personality, work act and all that stuff like man let's give it a try you know we wrote some things down and and now uh looking back you know like it was a great move you know it was a great move i uh yeah i wouldn't i definitely wouldn't change it um i wouldn't want to be in this thing by myself um doing what we're doing i don't think we would have as much of an impact as we have without either one of us but yeah that's why i have a partner we just sort of buy really well and we're just like let's give it a try do you think you could be where you're

at with the company if you would have done it by yourself absolutely i do like because I believe in myself so much. Absolutely. Do I think that it would have been. Much more difficult and I would have had to make different sacrifices. Yes. Right. Yes. And I think that with me and me and Blake doing it together, that's allowed us to sort of bounce stuff off each other, grow this thing to the level that we're growing it to. But not. I'm trying to think of the right word, not not sort of lose ourselves in the process. Right. Like, you know, I know how it is to start something from scratch. Like when my wife and I started this gym, like we were man, we were like we were in the trenches eating apples and eggs for dinner because this is what we were doing and um we really didn't have to really go through that

with lasso because it was two of us um both of us were successful in another field so it allowed it allowed us to really think and honestly always do what's best for the client because even if it didn't work we still had other ways that we were making a living so um could i've done it by myself for sure um am i glad that i didn't do it myself absolutely because uh when i can't even get my head i can't even get my head uh wrapped around it i i had uh i had matt suza kind of pushed me i had my wife kind of pushed me um i had some you know old employees at crossfit inc push me and then now um there's these two other guys just jumped in. Just random dudes from the web. Like this dude, Caleb, running the shit from the back.

I don't know this dude. This is just some Air Force dude who like a couple months ago reached out to me and was like, I'll help. And then, you know, you kind of go through. You dance. You go through the vetting process. You like see how they text. You see how they email. I didn't even know he was going to come around and run the back end this morning.

Like run the show and put up clips and like, you know, you with your family, it's nuts. It's nuts when you're in the flow. And so that's why I was, I was wondering like, but, but, but having partners scares the crap out of me. My whole life, I always had partners. That's why I like, and I'm not comfortable with calling this thing, the seven podcast. I'm not, I wasn't comfortable ever even having my face on screen, but this is like hey face all these fears and just jump in and just go yeah yeah no i um again i i was i was definitely hesitant um i was definitely hesitant about um having a partner and i was totally honest with him because i had never had a was like man i'm used to doing things my way um yeah i'm used to you know like if something like if it drops like it's on me um but you know we talked it out and like i said we had been we

had a relationship over the years and we're like man let's just like what's the worst that could happen we could try this thing and then it doesn't work and it's totally fun right like but like i said it's been a great it's been a great work and it's totally fine. Right. Like, yeah. But like I said, it's been a great, it's been a great relationship, man. It's been great. I'm going to bullet through things. Okay. Bear with me. Would you do college loans again? No. Wow. But how would have things been different? Like, did you meet your wife in college? I did.

Oh man. But no, no, you wouldn't do college loans again. You wouldn't. Are you going to pay for your kids to go to college? Yes. Just, just pay cash. Like my mom did. Yes. Yeah, man. You're a good dad. Um, when you make these posts, um, about, um, showing that you paid off your student loans what what do you hope like let's just let's just say that everything we post on instagram is just bragging and it's stuff that we want the joneses like if i show that i bought a new car and it's a new suburban it cost me 110 000 i'm basically letting everyone know they should do that too or if i show someone

that i'm high on ecstasy at a rave i'm telling everyone hey you should do that too. Or if I show someone that I'm high on ecstasy at a rave, I'm telling everyone, hey, you should do that too. What are you, is that what you're doing? You're posting that and being like, look how happy I am. I'm debt free, but it's kind of a healthy disease you're trying to spread. Yeah. So, yeah. So I'm going to take two minutes to talk about this. We're not going to make it quick.

All right. So, so when I grew up, like I said, again, single mom, low income, poverty, all of that. So when I grew up, like I said, again, single mom, low income, poverty, all of that. When I grew up, the only way for a few years there, I thought the only way I could be successful is if I dribbled up, if I played with some type of ball to make millions or I was an entertainer. Because the only people that were African-American like me that were over successful were the ones on TV that played a sport or they were entertainers. And then, you know, I got some mentors early and figured out, like, I could do, you know, there's other things you can do. So now for me, I want kids to see all kids, but especially kids that look like me to see, hey, there's nothing wrong with dribbling a ball like i like there's nothing wrong with playing sports and being entertaining but like understand that that is not that is not how more than likely you're going to take care of your family right and there's guys out there that run successful businesses um so let me tell you a little story just the other day a few days ago um we like to joke around that like

our front yard is sort of like sesame Street, sort of like the United Nations. We have like I'll go out in the front yard. We have an Asian kid, Indian kid, black kid, white kid, Indian kid. I was like, like, what are you? You know, just kids just have kids being kids having a great time. Right. But there was a kid. They was over here having to be a black kid. And I don't know how we start talking about it. He may come and He was like, well, you know, the only people that are rich are white people. I was like, what? I was like, what did you say? He was like, well, like, who do you see with the big homes and the nice cars? And that, and when he said that, like, I talked to him a little bit, but I was like, this is what motivates me to post this stuff about my life. Some people take it as bragging. But for me, I want kids and folks to

see like, you can do whatever you want to do. And you can do it the right way. It has nothing to do with the color of your skin, where you come from, how you grew up. You can do it. There's people out there doing it. But so many people, what happens is most people, when they become successful, they sort of fly under the radar. And you have to. I get that. But if we don't ever talk about what's possible, then we have another generation of kids like I did. I just grew up thinking like, hey, it's a like it's a professional athlete or a multi Grammy award winning entertainer or bust. Right. You see, I'm going to be in the NBA. I'm going to work at Walmart Warehouse. There's nothing wrong with working at Walmart Ware warehouse. I want to be clear about that. But I'm just saying, those are the two ends of the spectrum. Either I'm going to do this or I'm going to do this. There's no like, you know what? I'm going to build a business that's

going to do well for my family and it's going to take care of my kids. And my kids are probably going to work in this business that I built up. So that's why I talk about this type of stuff right here. Because I know a ton of people of all races increase with a ton of student loans. So for me, when I post that stuff, like I hope that someone will reach out to me and say, how'd you do that? Then we can talk about it. So I can let them see like it's possible. Like it will suck at times. There were times it sucked. You know, everyone, you know, everyone likes a cool story like oh 203 grand in 27 months if you know if i do the math that's about seven eight grand a month oh well look look obviously you must make a ton of money

if you can do that every single month well let's not talk about that right like that's neither here nor there with your income in your debt are you paying even a hundred dollars a month on your debt no i'm not yeah you're not doing anything so don't talk about what someone else is doing. You got to do the small stuff first. And then it just sort of snowballs for lack of a better term. And then you start doing things that you can do. So for me, absolutely. Like I can really care less what people think, but I want people to know like, Hey, it's possible, right? Like it is possible to do all of these things that you dreamed of. Yes, it will be hard.

It's funny. My wife and I were putting away something the other day. We were trying to find, I don't know, a Social Security card or something. And we found our W-2 from, like, nine years ago. It was my wife. My wife wasn't working at the time. She had finished work taking care of the kids. We had the two young kids. we didn't have the third one and we saw our w-2 and it was for like

thirty five thousand dollars family of four like that's the stuff that like i won't even pay your taxes now exactly like people don't even like like like that's stuff people don't even think about or really talk about because that's not the cool stuff. But when I saw that, I was like, man, look how far we've come in such a short amount of time. That's what I tell people. If you really want something, are you willing to go in the cave for five to seven years? If you're willing to go in the cave for five to seven years with your family, you're going to come out with pretty much everything that you're willing to work for. Most people aren't willing to do that, like like they're just not five years too long like what do you mean no vacation no fun right like no like for five years there's none

of that and then what if we also told them this sherman you never get there so so here's my thing so that's the crazy thing people like us like we know it's basically all we're doing and i'm open to being wrong if you have a different mindset than me we're basically just mitigating disaster like we don't want to be caught but what did you say what warren about we don't want to be caught with the tide out and everyone see us that we're skinny dipping yeah so for those of you who don't have kids now's the time ma'am put your head down and grind so here's the thing i i don't believe that anyone like i think this is a marriage i think anyone can reach specific goals i think that some people have

goals that no like like you're not going to be like, you're probably not going to make $50 million a year. Like that's probably not going to happen. But if you have realistic goals, you know, and realistic, you have to really sit down and look at like, what are you bringing to the table? Like these type of things, most people can reach whatever goals they really set for themselves. Like, like I strongly believe. Yeah. Like I strongly believe. Right. I agree. I agree. Like, I strongly believe. Yeah. Like, I strongly believe. Right.

I agree. I agree. By not get there, I mean... Joe Rogan's not happy that he has the biggest podcast in the world. Yeah. Like, it's great. I'm sure he's fucking happy. But it's not... Like, he still has an itch.

Your itch never goes away itch does never never goes away yeah it never it never goes away um when i when i was homeless i picked i and i got that job seven dollars an hour working at a home for disabled adults i used my money to buy a video camera and i carried that video camera everywhere i went for basically 10 years. And I just interviewed people nonstop and I made just, and I, and I plugged in computers into cigarette lighters and cars and slept in cars overnight for years editing late at night. And, you know, I didn't have a goal, but, but I was on a mission and I had a habit and I would have never thought that, um, 30 years of interviewing people would bring me to having the discussion with sherman merrick's yeah from the from the comfort of his home and and it paid off i didn't even know

where i was going yeah but i put my head down and now this thing i just saw you know with 350,000 downloads on itunes last week alone like it's just crazy. But also, once again, when we started six months ago, it wasn't like that. It was 500 downloads. It was depressing. Oh, man. Yeah. I truly believe that people want what's best for them.

But I think that so many people are just distracted with so much noise out there. Right. Like I see so many people in the comments. Someone said, I'm a teacher. Just paid off my car, pay additional money off my mortgage each month. Feels great. So good. That's the type of stuff that like fires me up, man. Right. Like that's the kind of stuff that fires me up because I know that single father of three talking to his kids, like that's the stuff that fires me up because the freedom that his girls are going to have, this teacher going to have like down the road, you know, it's probably not going to be freedom like today. Right. Like, right. Anything that's very hard, like you talked about, like you talk about when you're sleeping in the car, like that's not the fun part. No, you know, the fun part isn't paying off your car early, you know, investing in your retirement. No, that sucks doing that.

Like that's not like that's not the fun part. The fun part is when you get to the other side and you finally get to check that off and you reach that goal. Now everyone says, oh, it must be nice. And you're like, absolutely, it is nice. I made the sacrifice for it to be nice. Yes, it is nice. And you can have it, it too if you're willing to sacrifice and work for it and when you do two years of what you did paying it off ends up not even being the great thing you have like you you built some insane habits and discipline in that two years huh yeah yeah it's

not even you know like it been you know like i had a um i had one of my best friends tell me when i told him because i'm one of those people once i want something i tell people to hold myself accountable um and my buddy he's a little bit older he was like i was like man i'm gonna do it he was like you've already done it he's like if you just told me you're gonna do it you really bought in you're like you're gonna do it he's like it's already done he's like now get to work and do it he's like but it's already done. And I was like, what do you mean? And now when I paid it off and made that last payment and called him and we celebrated, he was like, what do you mean? I told you 27 months ago, it was already done because you decided. And that's the thing, my wife, man,

my wife, my biggest supporter, she says stuff to me and I'm just like, do you really think that's possible? She's like, what do you mean? You don't don't see it? Like, no, I don't see it. But my wife sees things in me that like semi-scarred me, right? And I'm just like, yes, it's crazy. It's crazy. But yeah, that's so odd. That made me so happy to hear that. I always wonder that every every person I interview, that's one of the questions I always write down the paper, who believed in you, who believes in you,

man, if you can get one person to believe in you. And I, I know that's not, I know we should, we're supposed to believe in ourselves, but man, my wife believes in me and it's nuts.

So does my mom. It's crazy. If I say mom, I say I have my wife has some great friends, but my wife, my mom, my sister, like I know.

Yeah, my sister believes in me like crazy, too. It's nuts. Just like, man, this is it. I can do anything. I freaking walk to the moon if I had to. Like they believe I can do it. Sherman, these are some things I wrote down, and I would love for you to add some things to this list. Practical things that you can do to save money. And I just thought of this one.

One of the things I have, I have a hundred fruit trees. And when I was balling, I didn't eat any of my own fruit. I gave it away. I let it fall on the ground. Now I pick all my fruit. And even when I was in college to save money, I would walk around my neighborhood in California and pick fruit to save money. I would just pick tons of fruit because there's times of the year where there's so much fruit in California just falling on sidewalks. Stop drinking. I don't go to other people to save money. I don't go to other people's weddings. I don't feel obligated to buy people

presents. I cut back on my, I told you I canceled my SiriusXM membership. I cut back on the expensive dog food. I don't buy coffee when I go out anymore. I turn off my computer at night to save money on electricity. I make sure all the lights are out. If I don't need three light bulbs and a lamp and I need to save money, I unscrew two of them. So like that room, when you turn on the light, all three lights don't go on. Um, my wife doesn't have a wedding ring. Uh, don't drink alcohol. Do you have any like practical things that people could just like start today and be like, okay, I'm going to save money doing that. Yes. So, so I, I'm going to give you one thing

that is going to, so the one thing, if I had to pick one that they're going to do is going to get on a zero based budget. Okay. And if they don't know what a zero based budget is, just Google it, Google zero based budget and do your finance. If they do their finances like that, that will give them more freedom than they had in years. Because when you know where every dollar is going, and I don't think necessarily, I don't think that once you get to a certain income level, you necessarily have to know where every dollar is going, but while you're trying to pay off debt and do other things, you need to be on a zero-based budget because every dollar is important. You need to know where every dollar is going so that you're not wasting money on coffee if you really don't have money for it or you're not buying gifts if you really can't afford gifts. So living on a strict budget, that's the big one. Get on a strict budget. Thank you, Caleb. Zero-based budgeting is a method of budgeting in which all expenses must be justified for each new period. The budgets are then built around what is needed for the

upcoming period, regardless of whether each budget is higher or lower than the previous one. I don't know what that means. I don't even know what I just read. What's the summary of that? Basically, don't spend more than you make every month yes um yes and you basically have to you basically have to um do your budget each month before it um before it before the money comes in right so if you know hey i make four thousand $4,000 per year, I mean, $4,000 per month, you're going to budget all of that out to where your expenses and everything you're going to spend

is going to equal to zero, right? Your savings and everything. I had you on the show early on, huh? Yeah, you did, early on on and then were you also on the crossfit podcast with me i don't know maybe i don't know um ladies and gentlemen i have uh three i didn't even touch any of this stuff that that um i wanted to talk about um generational wealth more i wanted to talk about addressing as a black man versus a white man i wanted to talk about generational wealth more. I wanted to talk about addressing as a black man versus a white man. I wanted to talk about this.

We touched on a little bit about what people think they're capable of doing based on their ethnicity or race. I want to talk about mentors and mentees. I didn't even get to talk about your gym. I wanted to talk about the whole last two years of your gym and just the, so, uh, I guess, um, I have a pretty crazy two couple of weeks coming up with water Palooza. I'm going to milk that for everything. It's worth to increase my viewership.

Yeah. I mean, because I love the sport of CrossFit and, uh, and then I'll circle back around with you and we've got to have you back on. I want to talk about David, uh, Dave,

what's the guy's name? David Ramsey. Oh yeah. Dave Ramsey. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Is that the guy? Should people Ramsey. Oh, yeah. Dave Ramsey. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Is that the guy? Should people be looking into him?

Absolutely. Dave Ramsey's the man. He's the man. Yeah, you give him a lot of love. I do. But I'm off to deal with my, to face my uncomfortable day. I'm going to go put on a mask. All right, man.

Well, yeah. Circle back around. We didn't even get to the good stuff either. No. What is the good stuff? Tell't even get to the good stuff either so no what is the good stuff tell me what's the good stuff generational wealth yes okay that's a big one because that because that really yeah like that really

yeah that's a whole nother conversation right there in and of itself it really is ladies and gentlemen Sherman Merrick's with an S. Everything else is spelled just how you would think. It's at Sherm5, S-H-E-R-M-5. He's the owner of Dynasty CrossFit in Gainesville, Florida.

He's also owner and CEO of Lasso Frameworks along with his buddy Blake. And there was one more thing. Oh, the Matrimony and Money podcast. Check them out on iTunes. I listened to two episodes last night. Very good. Oh, wait, wait, wait. One more thing.

You stopped doing the last episodes in February of 23rd. Yeah, I'm going to bring it back. So what happened? Bring that back. That is so good. Listen, I'm one of those people where I'm like, I got to focus. So I was like, until I pay off the debt, I'm not doing it. But I am bringing it back in 2022. Okay. And and i'm gonna have my wife on with me more as well

she tried to she tried to fly under the radar too much but i gotta have her like if i had her on my podcast more i could probably have 300 000 downloads a week too but she like yeah he's always flying on the radar i need it to be us um i can't even end the broadcast. Can you do that, Caleb? None of my buttons are a year to man. Thanks, dude.