The Sevan Podcast - #32 - Police Officer

Episode Date: May 12, 2021

The Sevan Podcast EP 32 - Police Officer The Sevan Podcast is sponsored by http://www.barbelljobs.com Follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/therealsevanpodcast/ Sevan's Stuff: https://www.instagram.com/sevanmatossian/?hl=en https://app.sugarwod.com/marketplace/3-playing-brothers Support the show Partners: https://cahormones.com/ - CODE "SEVAN" FOR FREE CONSULTATION https://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

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Call 1-866-531-2600 or visit connectsontario.ca. Please play responsibly. This guy popped on my, this guy, it's okay. That's my favorite kind of guest guest one that can't hear us unplug your now he's getting if on how to set up his computer i love it we can hear them though i hear his wife right yeah she's giving him tech she's giving him technical advice she's saying bobby oh we go. I can hear you now. Put in the AirPods, Bobby.

The AirPods. Are the AirPods okay for this? I guess. Let's see. Looks better than these. These are my son's like school headphones. Bobby, you've recovered. You've recovered.

You sound great. You sound great You sound great Especially after losing Whitney You seem You seem like Man three seconds into it We got Bobby Brown jokes Wait you seem like You're in a good head space

Yeah man Let's see Let me turn that up I know she was the breadwinner You were screwed On your original contract You were screwed On your original contract

They were right into The Bobbyby brown jokes that's that's uh that's the story of my life how did how does someone get the last name brown do you know do you know the origins of your name i don't um just my dad harry t harry t brown i. Ask me again, I'll knock you down. That was my dad's say. I think that's the origin, and that's all I really know about it. Thank you for your service in the United States Marine Corps. Very cool that you did that. Thanks, man.

Appreciate it. You were in the graduating class of 2011. Is that right? You became a Marine in 2011? No, 2001. Oh. Why did I think? Oh, maybe I saw it.

Maybe I read it wrong. Yeah. No, 2001. I graduated high school 2001 in June and then shipped out about two, three weeks later, skip my summer vacation, which was a big mistake and reported right down to Paris Island. And yeah,

actually it was, I was in Paris Island during nine 11. So that, that altered the course of my enlistment pretty quickly bobby bobby this is i'm savon and this is uh brian friend the astute and intelligent morning soft yeah you knew there was more coming soft spoken yet easily handsome crossfit nice to meet you nice to meet you Brian why did you go why did you go into the Marine Corps

was your dad in the Marines wait hold on Siri is that over here acting up that was weird alright are we is this

are we recording now is this like pre-set up no we're recording but you know what's interesting Brian I don't see I don't see the recording light on your... That's what I told you was happening the other day.

On your... And it didn't give me a countdown for the recording like it usually does. I do podcasts with a lot of people, Brian. And I've had significant issues with you and with no one else. Is that weird? Can't say. I pretty much do them issues with you and with no one else. Is that weird? Can't say. I pretty much do them primarily with you. Incredible.

Incredible. You're making me nervous. You're making me nervous. Tell me, so how did you end up going to the Marine Corps? Did you go five minutes before you went to the recruitment office? Did it just pop in your head? Yeah, no. So, you know, going in high school, I was doing good, you know, doing well in school. My grades were good. And my dad was a truck driver and just recently retired. My mom was working part-time and then full-time. We were a middle-class family. We were by no means wealthy. My uncle was in the Marine Corps

and we have a pretty close family on my mom's side, big, big family. My uncle was a Marine side, big, big family. And my uncle was a Marine. And I kind of saw the Marine Corps as avenue to do something for the country, for myself, take care of school, and do a bunch of things, right? So obviously, the plan coming out of high school was, all right, I'll join the Marine Corps, and I'll go to school while I'm in the Marine Corps. Obviously there was peacetime when I enlisted. And like I said, you know, that changed pretty dramatically when I was in bootcamp. So for me, it was a way of taking a burden off my parents, For me, it was a way of taking a burden off my parents, not having to worry about paying for school for me, and I could do it myself. And yeah, that was one of my bigger motivations, but it just seemed like an honorable thing

to do. And if I had to pick a branch, it was going to be the Marine Corps. It was, like I said, my uncle was a Marine. They seemed like the baddest and the best. And, and that's what I wanted to do. Why did it take a burden off of your family? Do you get to go to college for free once you're a Marine? Yeah. So, I mean, you had the GI bill, you know, and it would, it would allow me, you know,

the plan was to go to school while I was in my enlisted years, and that did not happen. You know, I ended up being deployed twice, and then I ended up using the GI Bill when I got out of the Marine Corps. I did my two years of school prior to joining the Police Academy. So, it worked out in the long run, just the pace was a little bit different. And you said you were deployed. Where were you deployed? What happened once you enlisted? So after I enlisted, you know, we're getting through basic,

three months in Parris Island. And I would say, well, September 11th, you know, I was still down in basic. We were getting close to the end. And, you know, September 11th happens. But it's kind of, it was very surreal for us because we were there, but not privy to what happened. So, you know, there's no TV, there newspaper you're not you're not hooked up to anything so you're just there um and i remember

like the the drill instructors were all like on like high high energy mode and just saying things to us that morning um like hey hey, this is real now. Everything's changed. Everything's different. And that night they pulled us aside in the squad bay in our barracks. And first they started off with, you know, who's from the tri-state area? That's New York, right? Yeah, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut. So we're, like, raising our hands. tri-state area you know the you know that's new york right yeah new york new jersey connecticut

so we're like raising our hands and then they said does anyone have any family or loved ones that works you know in new york city and then you know a couple people were like you know i know somebody and they pulled everyone aside and you know just checking to make sure who we got you know and then they they broke it the news to us and you know you don't see any images of that they tell you what happened and you're just trying to put it together in your head what happened and I remember we had to go get like supplies in a van and me and like two other recruits were in this van and they had the radio on and, and it's coming over the radio, you know, an AM radio in this, you know, Econoline van. And even then still you're, you're, you're formulating this visual of that in your head.

And then I remember the next day they showed us a newspaper. That was the first images you saw of it. And it was like, whoa. And even then, you know, you see it on newspaper. You're not watching it on TV. You're not watching it live like the rest of the world. You know, you're 18 years old. You've just joined the military.

Your ambitions for joining the military. Yeah, you know, everyone 18 years old you've just joined the military um your ambitions for joining the military yeah you know everyone wants to serve everyone knows what they've signed up for but in that instant it's like oh this is gonna you know my four years are going to be dramatically different than i may have thought so um from there, you know, continue to train, graduated. And then over the course of the four years ended up being deployed twice to Iraq. You know, yeah, so that was like my entry. And it was kind of like, it changed everything for, you know, myself, my family, my family um my girlfriend who is now my wife uh you know that everyone that changed everyone's four years for sure do you have a fan on in your house in your room like a ceiling fan or anything do you hear that right yeah it's a laptop oh the fan from the laptop yeah so be it it's not bad it's not bad it's

not bad it probably kick off that means your stories have to be twice as good for people to tolerate that so um so you you enter the military 9-11 happens and you're off to um iraq um did you at that time did you have an idea that you wanted to be a police officer? Yeah. So, I mean, my plan kind of, you know, my young adult plan was like, all right, I'll do the military. I'll see, see how that goes. And I'll be able to, you know, do some school. And my uncle, my other uncle other uncle not the marine my uncle matt um was a state trooper uh and growing up he was kind of you know he wasn't kind of he was like

my idol my mom comes from nine uh a family of nine brothers and sisters so he was the youngest of them, was always like the cool uncle, was a New Jersey State Trooper, good looking dude, pretty wife, nice life, nice house. It just seemed like he had it all, a nice setup. And I was like, yeah, you know, they always wanted to be like my Uncle Matt. So my original plan was I wanted to be a State Trooper. My original plan was I wanted to be a state trooper. When I ended up getting out of the Marine Corps, state troopers weren't hiring. You know, it's all about timing with a lot of those things. And I had some, a friend of his was a detective at Franklin, and that's my hometown. This is where I grew up in Franklin Township, where I currently work. that's my hometown. This is where I grew up in Franklin Township, where I currently work.

And he said, hey, you know, why don't you go sit down with, you know, Detective Culligan. He'll, he can show you around the PD and hopefully talk you into joining, you know, getting involved with them. And so he kind of swayed me that day. And I ended up having to go to, it's called like the alternate route program. So you sign up for the police academy without a job. You graduate the academy, you pay your own way, which I was able to use my GI bill for that. And then you interview with police departments upon graduation. So I was able to get, I wanted to go to Franklin. That was the only place I really in the area, I wanted to go to Franklin. I, that was the only place I really

in, in, in the area that I knew I wanted to work. Obviously I would have taken a job anywhere, but, um, I interviewed there and got hired. So I've been there since. So you patrol, sorry, you've been there since when? Uh, 2007, I got hired right after the academy. So you patrol the streets you grew up on. Yep. Yeah. So, yeah, like I said, Franklin Township is my hometown.

I came back, you know, when I got out of the service. I was living here, going to school at a community college, moved back in with my girlfriend, Allison, my, like I said, my now wife. And yeah, now we're, you know, when I got hired back right where I grew up, like literally, I remember my first call was like a block from my bus stop growing up, which was pretty cool. And I remember my training officer was like hey you know where you're going i'm like yeah we're on point here i know exactly where i am so that made things pretty easy so the city that you grew up in as a young man throwing rocks at stop signs and drag racing your friends you now you now patrol those streets that's amazing what what what a great story and and the community's lucky to have you because obviously you have insights into the community.

I feel like that story used to happen a lot more and it's pretty rare this time period. is probably more in some smaller towns. We actually have a pretty good, we have, I don't want to quote myself on number, I think about five or six guys who are currently from Franklin working in Franklin. So we, we do have, you know, I'm not the only one in Franklin Township who grew up in Franklin. We have, you know, we're about 105 man department, We have, you know, we're about 105-man department, which is a bigger, it's a bigger suburban department. You know, we're not a big city. So we do have a lot of officers. And like I said, we have, you know, all through the ranks, probably five or six officers who grew up, went through the Franklin school system, um, that work for Franklin township. So that's pretty cool. I used to live in Berkeley, California and the, um, the police would come to

the neighborhood and they would have these, I forget what they were called community outreach programs and, or community discussion programs or whatever. And basically we would meet at one of the neighbor's house and you know, that 20 of us would be stuffed in in there that's when i knew i was old when i started attending events like that and we'd all be stuffed in someone's living room and a police officer would come and we would just ask him a bunch of questions about the neighborhood and the police officer said something very interesting to me he said that i forget how many people were on the force it was a lot i want to say 200 i could be wrong and he said only two of the guys actually lived in berkeley and everyone else commuted there because they couldn't afford to

live there and the two guys that that lived there were going to retire like in the next year or two is that is that an issue in your community is there is there housing that you can purchase on a police officer salary? Oh, yeah. I mean, there's I don't I think I might be the only one. There's a couple that. Out of those guys that grew up here, I think I might be the only one that still lives here in Franklin Township. Everyone else generally lives rather close. Um, everyone else generally lives rather close. Um, we, you know, we, we elected to stay here in Franklin and my, my, my parents are still in town. Uh, my, my in-laws live in town. Uh, you know, I have a lot of roots here.

It just made sense for us. Um, and we, we always liked living here in Franklin. Um, you know, a couple of guys have moved out and they live, you know, further south, closer to the shore. Different for different reasons, you know, whatever, whatever the case may be for them, it works out better. But I live literally seven minutes from headquarters, which I've always liked. It's a quick commute commute more time at home and um yeah i've never had any kind of issues with it you know some guys are like you know has it ever posed a problem for you i'm like no you know people see me in town they see me at the grocery

store you know they see me wherever out with with kids, at a restaurant, getting ice cream, whatever. Are there people in town that used to call you Bobby that now call you officer? No, not really. I mean, no, you know, no. They pretty much know me as Bobby. I think some people are a little tripped out sometimes when they see me, especially after they see me for the first time. They haven't seen me in a while. You know, Siri keeps jumping in here.

I don't know why that happens. I don't know. It's weird. But, yeah, no it's, it's, it's pretty cool. You know, now my friends are having kids and, and, and they're introducing me as officer Bobby, which is, which is cool. And in a way, you know, we grew up together and now you know they're having kids and they're in the school system and uh you know it's it's been cool to stay stay locked in with with the town for all these years is is your dad are you how many generations has your family been in the united states do you know as far as i can as far as i know you know you don far as I know. You don't have great-great-grandparents. Okay.

So you don't have stories of your grandparents coming through Ellis Island or your great-grandparents coming through Ellis Island? No. I mean, maybe my great-great-grandparents, but we're pretty rooted here. Like my grandparents were in the next town over, New Brunswick. You know, my dad's kind of a local guy. So it was, we're pretty local. We have like no immigrant story as far as I can remember or ever been told.

So, and you're in Massachusetts? Oh, no, New Jersey. New Jersey. Yeah. Brian, why are you laughing at me? Did he already say that five times? can remember or ever been told so and you're in massachusetts oh no new jersey new jersey yeah brian why are you laughing at me did he already say that five times tri-state maybe it probably was the fan yeah yeah yeah the fan it's it's interesting um i've been very fortunate i was raised in uh in a very liberal household, in a very liberal community, the Bay Area in California. And it's the entire Bay Area. It's massive. It includes Silicon Valley, San Jose, San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, and a bunch of other cities. Extremely liberal area. And I was raised implicitly, not explicitly, but implicitly, you know,

like if we drove by someone's house and they had an American flag, someone would always say, why do people do that? Or there was always this underlying dislike and you don't even realize it. That's how implicit it is for the United States of America. And there was always sort of, I don't know if it was because I was a young man, but there was always a dislike for police officers. I don't remember waving to police officers when they went by as a kid. And it's pretty strong there. And you don't even realize it.

It's pretty, pretty, pretty darn strong there. It's actually a tragedy because now as an older gentleman at 49, I realized the huge importance of the relationship between the citizenry and the, I don't know if that's a word and the relationship that we have with police officers. We've hired them with our tax dollars to take care of us. And it's really a partnership in my mind now as I've gotten older. But when I started

doing CrossFit, obviously I was surrounded because, you know, the foundation of CrossFit and the base of CrossFit is people whose lives depend on their fitness. Meaning if you get into a scuffle with someone or if you have to save a baby from a burning building, your fitness is everything. And so if you take your job seriously, you're going to want to be super fit because that could be the difference for you between life and death. And it's, it's gotta be the cornerstone of every police officers or first responders, um, life. So through CrossFit, I started meeting all of these guys in the military and I started

meeting all of these guys in the military and I started meeting all of these police officers and now I'm a man who has three kids and I can think of no better gift in the world than having my neighbor be a police officer because who wouldn't want a police car parked in your neighbor's driveway so that when your kids are out in the street throwing a ball and not paying attention or riding around on their tricycles someone sees that car and slows down i mean it's just a um it's a uh and in general and now i know a lot of police officers and obviously my perspective has completely changed right i can't have my judgments and my perceptions because i know them and they're just people like like anybody and um yeah it's it, it's, it's been a fascinating journey

and transformation for me. All the very, very subtle, all of it, but, but, but not, um, not profound on the same level, super profound because some of the most subtle things in our life impact us obviously the most, right? It was, it was deep in there. It was deep in there. And, um, I, I, I don't know how, I don't know how that's going to change. Unfortunately, you know, one of the ways, or fortunately, I think, and I don't know how it would happen, but one of the ways is people need to have friends with, be friends with police officers. If that's not your profession, you should have a police officer in your cadre of friends, someone who comes over to your house, someone who your kids play with. I would implore anyone, if you're at your kid's sporting event or you find a police officer who also takes their kid to your kid's preschool, reach out to that guy or that woman and befriend them.

It will change your perspective and you'll be contributing to your community because it's also good for the police officer. Because they are also, you know, just like if you work at Apple, all your friends work at Apple. If you're a police officer, you're more likely to have all your friends being police officers so i just wanted to get that out there is a a really um important point on how people can contribute to humanity and civilization as a whole it's really important to uh interact with our first responders do you have friends go ahead sorry no and i think it's important for us to go the other way too you know like they you know basic training they tell you you know like develop friendships outside of the police department you know you don't want to be like the cop that only associates with other cops you know and i feel like you know i although i do have some very close friendships my agency and other agencies, the bulk of my close friends and relationships are not police officers.

And through CrossFit, you know, a lot of them are from my gym, the gyms I've worked at over the years. And, you know, the garage, our garage gym crew, when we first got started, you know the garage our garage gym crew when we first got started you know those are like my lifelong friends who aren't police officers and you know have uh you know nine to fives or business owners or you know investment bankers whatever you know, it's refreshing to not always be talking police stuff and talk like people and get perspectives from, you know, other people, other walks of life, hear their stories, hear their ideas on things. They listen to my stuff, you know, bounce it back and forth they get to see you know they ask questions we go from what what's going on with me to what's going on with them and get some dialogue going you're exactly right crossfit's a great spot if you don't know how you're ever going to meet a police

officer the only three gyms that i've ever like been a regular member at have all had at least one police officer that was a member there and at the one i coach at now the guy who's a who's a cop he's one of the original members from the gym from when it opened in 2012 or 13 and uh i mean he you know he'll have conversations with with everyone at the gym like a normal dude but he's also you know available if you need and i had a you know an incident where i needed some advice from a police officer over the summer, and he was more than willing to talk to me and give me some advice. It's just a really nice thing to know someone who's in that profession because the perspective is very different than someone who isn't.

Is that the first cop you've ever met, Brian? Is that the first one you've ever been friends with or no? I mean, I've known him for eight years. You know, minimal interactions for a lot of those years. But he's a friend of mine now. But no, I think I've had some police friends before that. Where did you meet them? Well, one of them was actually.

Besides in jail. One of them was, he was a police officer in the town I grew up in actually. And then as I became an adult, I, I did some volunteering at the elementary school I went to, including like this outdoor education trip that he was on. Uh, he was one of the chaperones as well. And so I got to know him that way, just random stuff. and so I got to know him that way. Just random stuff. And before I go into how you popped on MyRater, Bobby,

what's crazy is I saw a statistic the other day that there's like 350 million calls you guys go to a year where you have interactions with the public. year where you have interactions with the public. And it's just, people have to be very, very clear that and understand that the media is only showing you a minuscule amount of those interactions, and they're all negative. And that is a tragedy. I know people like bad stories, that they're exciting, but there's a lot of really cool good stories out there that the media could also use that would also be great for clickbait. And they should flip the script on that because as a society, we have to view this as a partnership. We have to. We have to support them because attacking them does no good.

It's not good for them. It's not good for us. It's a mistake. No matter what you think about police, it's a mistake to not look closer at them as opposed to just jump on the tiny little narratives that make quick date on the Internet. It's absurd actually yeah i mean i think you know you can you can liken it to a weather report you know no one ever gets excited hey it's another beautiful day right or it's sunny again right oh it's 65 degrees sunny no clouds like no one gets excited for that. Hurricane comes around. We got 24 hour coverage and we're going to talk about the devastation and all the bad things that are going to come with this hurricane. Right.

But the next week and a half where there's not a cloud in the sky, it's weather's not really a topic of discussion. So and it's something that's well known in our world on the police side. And again, that's something very similar to the military. You kind of sign up for that knowing that built in that you're going to be held to the highest standard. You're going to be expected to do the right things and do a good job. And you're not always going to get a pat on the back for doing that. But sometimes, you know, people are going to be quick to judge when anything goes wrong or is perceived to have gone wrong. So, you know,

So, you know, when a lot of stuff's going on in the world right now, you know, my main focus and from my friends and my colleagues is just to continue to do the right thing, you know, lead by example and just try to, you know, just keep marching forward and doing the right thing. You know, it's really all you can do you know i try not to get the the negative stuff weighing me down and and and just keep keep charging you know just just try to be a good example you know go out there handle your stuff and um do right by people and i think with that kind of attitude you really can't go wrong And do right by people.

And I think with that kind of attitude, you really can't go wrong. And I guess that can be said for about anything you do in your life. Just try to shed that negative energy and just keep a positive outlook and about to switch to the fitness topic, but I was just thinking about that guy, that guy that I knew from that trip with my elementary school. And I don't think I ever even realized this until just now, but he totally changed my perspective about police officers because he taught me that they actually have personality. He was one of these guys, I mean, we're on a trip with fifth grade kids. And he was the guy who went out. When the kids were out doing their activities all day, he'd put a fake vomit in the girl's bathroom back at the bunk. You know?

And then they'd see it and they'd all scream and whatever. Or we'd be listening to someone give a tutorial and he'd all of a sudden go, oh, my God. And he'd run into the woods and he'd pretend like he was chasing an animal. And he'd come out holding this squirrel. It was a fake squirrel, you know, and he was just, you know, bringing joy to the kids and like changing up the environment. And it completely flipped my mentality when I had interactions with police officers that maybe I wasn't choosing to have, you know, when I used to get pulled over, you know, the speeding ticket or ran a red light or, you know, didn't stop at a

stop sign, whatever these small little things and a cop would pull me over. I used to be bitter immediately. And now when I get pulled over and I think I don't think I ever realized that that guy flipped the switch for me. Now I'm still not happy to get pulled over, but I also recognize that maybe the cop's not that happy. They have to pull me over. And so I'll just have a conversation

with them and i i was wondering bobby because i've never really asked any police officer this before but if you if you interact with a person even if you know you have to write them a ticket or whatever how much does it affect your job if that person's just like if you can actually sense empathy or sympathy from them if they say to you like hey man i know i know it's tough for you to have to do this whatever but uh you know how's your day going something like that yeah i mean when i i would say this i'll speak for myself when you know when i was a patrol officer um you know and doing things like the car stops on a regular basis and you know know, and doing things like car stops on a regular basis and, you know, you know, enforcing, you know, speeding violations, the, you know, the nuts and bolts of a patrol shift. I was never a big fan of issuing summits or tickets.

It's just not something that, you know, it affects your day, right? As a, especially as a person, right? The ticket, it's a fine. It's a, it involves, you know, you going to court. So, you know, Hey, sometimes they need to be issued. They have to be issued. You know, something is egregious, you know, you try to feel it out with people. I always gave the benefit of the doubt, try to hear, hear what's going on. Why, why, why are we driving so fast? You know,

what's going on with them? You know, try to have a dialogue, you know, while you're there at the car. I mean, I've given more than my fair share of like warnings hey let's let's let's get this right and maybe stop this and send you on your way um you know i don't not many police officers go to work like yeah i shouldn't say none of the police officers i know go to work going, I can't wait to hand out summonses or. Today, I'm going to set a record. I'm going to give 200 speeding tickets. No one's doing that.

You know, all the officers that I know, you know, you know, we're regular people just like everyone else. So we want to have a good day at work. Go to work, you know, go to work, come home safely. Obviously, number one,

you know, serve the public, you know, help people out. If a bad guy's got to go to jail, he got to go to jail. It's part of the, part of the business that we're in,

but no one's hoping to go there and, and mix it up. Right. No one's, no one's looking for that,'re in, but no one's hoping to go there and mix it up, right? No one's looking for that. You know, at least from my years of experience, you know, I don't know anyone who goes in looking for a rough day, right? So, you know, I don't know, when people, sometimes we hear that, oh, you know, this guy had it out for me. I doubt it. You know, they have a job. We have a job to do. You know, making stops is part of that job. You know, going to calls.

We you know, we are responding to calls. We're responding to things that are happening. You know, often sometimes you do see things and you have to calls. We're responding to things that are happening. You know, sometimes you do see things and you have to ask, but, you know, for the most part, you're responding to something that's already occurring. It's already started. And now you're kind of thrown into that situation. Now you're the mediator. You're the one that has to either figure this out and come to some kind of conclusion. So, like I said, most guys are coming to work hoping that, you know,

you get a nice quiet day on the radio, everyone's driving smooth, there's no car accidents, and you come back home. I mean, that's the hope, you know, at least for my years. I always hope, hey, nice day, boom, come home, great, you know, at least for my years. I always hope a nice day, boom, come home. Great, you know. I lived in this small town with 20,000 students called Isla Vista, California. And every week, I forget, there was like one to three DUI arrests every week in that town. It was just a college town, super densely populated on the

edge of the North American continent, right on the Pacific Ocean. And as a young man, hey, avoid the cops at all costs because you don't want to get a DUI. And now as a 49-year-old man with three kids, it's, hey, never drink and drive. And I hope they pull over every single person who's drunk and take them off the street for the safety of my kids. And it's, Hey, never drink and drive. And I hope they pull over every single person who's drunk and take them off the street. Cause for the safety of my kids. And it's just, it's also interesting how perspective changes. Um, but, but what you were saying, I just had a friend the other day telling me who's a police officer that he was on the freeway and some, someone blew by him doing 80 and he just pulled up next to him and looked at him and kind of like shook his head.

And the guy immediately slowed down, gave him the thumbs up and kept driving like yeah i get it and i've had police officers do that to me high california highway patrol pull up next to me when i'm speeding on the freeway turn on their microphone be like hey man you got to slow down i'm like yes sir and it's like um that being said my cheesy advice to all police officers and and this is i'm just a one guy, but at any time, if once you have kids, it doesn't matter how much you like or dislike someone. If they're nice to your kids, everything changes. All of a sudden you're like, that's a good person, you know? And so every time a police officer, um, gives my kids a sticker and my kids completely fucking lose their shit and are so excited to

get a sticker there. I have two four-year-olds and a six-year-old man. It like that one little gesture from officers and they do it a lot in my town is keeps me, you know, keeps me on the cop love and train. I mean, it's just great. You just want people to be nice to your kids. And going back to what you were saying, Brian, I, I had to have a, uh, I don't know what it's called, but it's one of the guy you bend over and the doctor sticks the finger in your ass. And I remember thinking, I remember thinking prior to going into the appointment, I don't want to have this finger in my ass. I don't want to have this finger in my ass. And then right before he sticks it in, I'm like, this fucking guy doesn't want,

I feel sorry for this guy. I just flipped the script, the story in my head. This poor guy has to stick his finger in my ass and everything got better. Like I was like, Oh man, this sucks for him. I thought I had it bad. Which, which end do I want to be on? And then all of a sudden I'm like, okay, you know, it's, it's a, it's a, it's not a win-win for anybody. So, and I sure as hope, I sure as at it i sure as hope whoever as you were saying i don't think any cops that are no cops that you know wake up in the morning are like hey i'm out to get people i sure as hell hope that no one who sticks a finger in someone's ass has that same mentality hey i hope i'm out to get some bass today you pop you popped on my radar, Bobby, because I saw someone sent to me on an Instagram clip of you working out with kids.

Tell me about this. What's going on? What are you doing? Yeah, so this year, over the last year, we've been trying to get the program off the ground. But over the last year, we've been trying to get the program off the ground. We've had some new leadership at the department. So now we have a brand new director, Director Sproul, and some new leadership in the captain's positions. And it's created a lot of new opportunities to try new things and get new programs off the ground and get, you know, some of our younger officers involved in kind of having a say in how we move forward as a department. And CrossFit's always been super big in my life. And I was introduced to CrossFit by my sergeant when I was a rookie. So I've been involved with CrossFit for as long as I've been a police officer.

And I've coached at gyms and currently still do coach at CrossFit Stealth in New Brunswick. So it's a big, big part of my life and it's impacted me in a major way. As I'm sure both of you know from your own experiences. So last year, you know from your own experiences so last year you know with a lot of the things that are going on in the world with all the tensions that are going on between people and police and young people and police covid health it just everything's just the world's upside down in 2020 and I'm sitting in my backyard I'm just

like you know there's opportunities to do stuff you know the new director you know is encouraging it so I had a conversation with uh my partner a good friend of mine um and kind of brought up the idea of this Franklin Fit program to try to get a youth CrossFit program going through our police department. You know, in the past, it was always kind of viewed like, all right, well, what do you want to do and why do you want to do it? You know, it's a workout thing. Is this really, is this for you? Is this do it you know it's a workout thing is this really is this for you is this for you know and and my goal you know mapping this thing out was to create a program that we're

we're giving giving the kids of franco township and the surrounding towns actually giving them something that is happening on a reoccurring basis. Not something that's just like a one-off, you know, one and done. Because, you know, traditionally in the past, police department, we do a lot of good things. We do a lot of little programs that are just like, on this Saturday, we're going to do this, you know, on this date, we're going to do this and you know, on, on this date, we're going to do this. And then that's it. You know, so my, my thinking was, I wanted to create a program that not only is continuous,

but now we can affect the kids in multiple ways for a longer period of time. Essentially give them the CrossFit gym experience for free from the police for years to come. Right so you know just like any member at your local affiliate or the gyms that you guys go to or have been involved with you know you get someone and then they lock in and then you have them for years. And you see the change, and you see them change physically, mentally, the conversations, all that stuff that goes on inside the gym. I wanted to bring that to our department.

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it down like real simple like hey this is what i'm thinking you know we're going to do this program and we'll meet like we'll start at once a week and do it kind of grassroots we'll get you know we don't need much equipment i just need the green light to do it and slowly but surely we got there um worked with crossfit uh did my affiliate application um got granted the green light from CrossFit to create FTPD CrossFit, let them know we were going to be doing this for the kids, nonprofit program. So that was huge. That happened early this year, which I was just completely gassed up about.

And then I had been building this, you know, on paper and mapping it out for people and explaining it to people, you know, what I was trying to do, how I was trying to do it. And then I think it was like the second week in April, we started our, we had our first class. We had a donation from one of our citizens. We had a baseline of gear and we started outside working with seventh grade to high school, through high school is the target that we're shooting for, at least for now. target that we're shooting for, at least for now. We had 14 kids come to our first class, I believe. And we worked out, right?

We had some, you know, and I structured it just like our CrossFit classes at Stealth. You know, we started off with the question of the day, you know, kind of breaks the ice. That's something I grabbed from our gym that we do every day is a question of the day. So right off the bat, these kids, not only are they kind of coming into a new setting, they're with the police, they're at our community relations buildings, like a new place to them. They're doing something new. It's CrossFit's new, but right off the bat, we want to open it up with,

tell me something about you. What's your name? Who's your favorite athlete athlete that was the week one question of the day got some surprising answers we had a larry bird a 14 year old kid told me larry bird i was like man all right so right off the bat you know like the first 10 20 minutes of class we're talking about athletes together with you know a 38 year old you know and a 14 year old and the other coaches we're all we're just kind of talking about you know who our favorite athlete is breaks the ice all right here's what we're going to do today run down the run down the class schedule like this is what we're going to do warm up work out have some fun

sweat a little bit cool back down and send them off their way and and the first class was great and then right off the bat i'm like did they have fun week two they all come back you know i got shirts for them i bought i had these done. My buddy John from Stealth. Those are sweet shirts. Yeah, we had them. Thank you. Respect and props to John. Thanks for it.

He designed these for us. And we got them made. I got them made for all the kids that came out for the first week. So right off the bat, you know, getting a class, you're getting a shirt, you're on a team, you're on our team. You know, the coach is wearing the same shirt as the athlete. Week two, they show up. Everyone who came to week one is wearing the shirt, which made me smile. It's huge.

They're invested. That's a great point, by the way, because when my kids used to play soccer, they would give the kids shirts, and none of the kids would come back wearing the shirts. We would all take the shirts home, but none of us would come back wearing the shirts. Mostly because they didn't fit and they were all jacked up. It was like oversized. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was lame. Thick, thick cotton shirt.

Yeah. We have like 10 soccer shirts and they've never worn them once. But anyway, that's really cool. I appreciate that. That is a great sign when people come back wearing the shirt yeah so they come back wearing the shirt um coming early and i and i try to have everything set up when they get there so that they get there early you know maybe the the plyometric box is out or I had the sleds out the other day and they're like, what's that? So they're there, I'm like, push it, see if it's heavy enough. See how far you can push, how fast you can push it. So week one, everyone's tight. Everyone's a little shy. Week two,

everyone's starting to kind of, all right, hey, what's up, Coach Bobby? Now, okay, it's not detective. It's not officer. It's coach. And that's one of the big things I wanted to push is like, we're also we can be that for you, not just, you know, the detective, the officer. So they're getting there early. They're trying things out. They're testing themselves and and trying to no i can do that i can i can push to this sled i can i can jump this high i can probably beat you in a sprint all right let's do it so and this is all happening before

class before we even started anything we're already engaged and we're already having a conversation. And I think the program, you know, and working out offers that like barrier or I shouldn't say barrier. It offers that opportunity for us to meet on that same level of, hey, we're just working out. We're just working out where we have this in common together you know um and and it lets down their guard and lets them just talk talk with us and and come have a good time and and not and have their first their first interaction a lot of these kids with the police is now this as opposed to you know if this program wasn't around, maybe the first time they interact with a police officer is when something's going wrong

at their house, right? Or they're in a car accident or their parents get pulled over for maybe a speeding violation, right? So now their first interaction with the police officer is the five volunteer officers and myself that are there at the community relations building, coaching them for weeks and talking with them and asking them questions and asking them how school is going and teaching them, pushing them. So that's, that's profound. My first 200 interactions with police were always when shit was going sideways speeding getting in trouble with other guys uh you know lack of

registration um caught in an area i'm not supposed to be in it's it's you're right it's that and and if i would probably would have met a police officer beforehand i would have thought twice about that because it would have given me some accountability and some reality to the situation, to who they are, what they do. Or it might even just create conversations between the kids and the parents. Yeah. Hey, that was a police officer? Is that like the same guy as Coach Bobby? You know?

And then just have the conversation oh yeah he's like coach Bobby whatever and the parents can you know opens up an opportunity to talk for them to talk to their kids about yeah and when coach Bobby's not working with you guys he's doing stuff like this to keep the community safe or whatever and you won't be Britain if you know that if you're training with coach Bobby during the day you're not at night breaking into the school you know most likely not because yeah i can't see that right but and i don't mean that in a malicious way i was a good kid but that was something we did every weekend we broke into the high school gymnasium and we hung out in there me and my friends you know i don't know why but we did it yeah and i think you know like having opportunity like like these kids are rocking with us right it's a it's a it's a team thing you know like i generally

i'll be coaching the class and i have you know the other officers that are coming out and volunteering their time you know they're involved in the workout. We had even just like yesterday, we had our fourth week. We had a class and our captain came out who is he's OG. He used to work out here at the house, at our house, at our garage gym. And he's been pretty busy. So this was his first week coming to train. And we had an odd number of kids. So he jumped in and he was partnered up with a 15-year-old kid,

and they're doing this partner workout back and forth, right? So we're working together, and now, like I said, we're on the same team. You know, we're peers in that moment, on the partner workout especially, right? in that moment on the partner workout especially right the last thing that kid's probably thinking about is this guy is uh the captain at the police department no he's just he's just your workout partner right um the only thing that kid's thinking about is i gotta go as soon as he's done doing his work you know right as soon as he's done with the push-ups i gotta run so it seems like you know when i've explained it to friends sometimes it seems like too good to be true but it is that simple that we're i feel like this working out together um this program creates just so many opportunities. This has changed the relationship probably forever for these kids.

Anyone who's involved. And for the police officers. You see two guys get in the ring at the UFC. For those of you who don't understand exactly what it's like to work out with other people, and I don't mean it's your goals or your planet fitness, but I'm talking about the CrossFit. You see guys in the UFC and they hate each other. And there've been the weeks of buildup of them talking shit. And after five rounds, they're hugging and holding each other's faces and they kiss each other. And you're like, holy shit, what's going on? And the audience at that point is a little bit alienated. They know

that something's going on, but they don't get it. If you want to taste a little bit of that, that is what happens in a CrossFit gym. Now, I can't say it's at the level of trying to beat the shit out of someone. And then at the end, you guys are in your own special club, right? The two of you were in the ring. But when it's one of those things that every single person who does CrossFit trips on someone who you hadn't talked to the entire class and you had no plans on talking to, the second the workout is over, there's a moment there where you guys are best friends. Holy shit, that was hard. I mean, it's the only person around who you can now have a conversation or a discourse with about that nightmare that you just went through. And you guys have both come out on the other side better people. So it's not just a police officer coming to your classroom.

It's not even close. I'm not saying that that's bad or not effective, but it's not even in the same universe is what Bobby's doing. Bringing kids together and having them do some shared suffering with police officers, it puts everyone on the same field everyone in that hundred or maybe said now equal that shared experience is that you know that that's what that's what that's the bond is the the shared experience because otherwise it's me talking to you with nothing there's no monality just the training is what you know i've been using that

the hashtag on the post united by fitness and that and that really is the unifying commonality it's the workout the the showing up training together you know trying to improve yourself whether you're you know uh an older officer or a young, one of our young athletes, you know, everyone's there with the same goal. And, you know, especially when you can do that, you know, you're out of breath, that you're lost in that workout for however long it is and and at the end of the class we've done it together and um you're definitely i can see the light in their eyes and and the light bulb you know it's going it's going off and um each week they're just they're having more fun with it

you know we're ramping it up you know just a little bit every week. Cause we're in that good age group of, you know, from, we have 12, we have 12 year olds up to 17, 18 year olds in the class. And so they're in those like preteen teenage years of like, they can do more than just, they can do more than they know. Right. Right. So it's not like the CrossFit kids kids like super young kids where like it's got to be more like play like now they start yeah they can handle some weight right once we've

locked in the movement they can handle the challenge and they you can see that they like it they want it they want to impress They want to show their ability. And I think they're having a lot of fun doing that. And especially, you know, doing it for the police officers who some of them might have the perception that, yeah, you know, police officers are tough. They're hard. They're rigid. And now it's their chance to show us that they can be tough, too. their chance to show us that they can be tough too right that um they can be strong they can be fast they can lift things they can jump on things it's just man i'm really geeking out about the whole thing and you know for all my friends that know me you know like i'm super i've always been super passionate about crossfit you know coaching, whether it was at my house or at gyms, this, this coaching experience has just been a game changer. It's just, it's been so much fun. I've never really coached kids in this capacity like this frequently.

And this is just, man, it's just, this is awesome. Where did you find the 14 kids? How did you get them? So we started through Instagram, first of all. We put a link up on our Franklin PD Instagram. We have a link to apply on our township website for the program. So we put it out there on the Franklin Township website. That was the link to apply. We shot a quick little demo video of me and two other officers working out at our

community relations building and you know we had we had the bumpers out there and in a box and like some dumbbells and we're doing a quick little workout and we put it out there like you know come in in April Franklin Fit to the community relations building and we put it out on our own Facebook and Instagram. And some, you know, my friends and people I know from town were like, man, this is great. This is awesome. So people start sharing it, liking it, you know, that kind of stuff.

The natural, organic, the stuff that Instagram is good for, right? Sharing good news and stuff. And I wasn't even looking for, I was like, maybe I'll get six, like five would be great. You know, especially when we have limited equipment, we, you know, right now we're still like in the building phase. Like we don't have a ton of stuff. And from coaching classes, I know like smaller, sometimes it's better in the beginning. First week, the applications start rolling in and we had like 14 applications, I think. And everyone showed up.

And for first class, I'm like, man, OK. And in four weeks now, we have we have 22 kids. And yeah, I mean, and not only that, like 22 kids and they're like, I'm getting emails from the kids. Hey, coach, can't make it this week. I'm going to be out of town. Let me know if anything changes. I'll see you next week from a 13 year old, 13 year old kid. Yeah.

So cool. Who I met one time. He did one class and then he sends me this email. I'm like, like man that's awesome he has good parents he has good parents and they're and they're all and you know like last uh last night we had a kid who got recruited he was recruited by his two other friends that had been coming so you know we're getting we're getting new kids from the kids, which is huge. You know, we haven't been made a big, big, like PR push, trying to grow it naturally and organically. And

it's happening, which I think that's the that's the best recruitment is through itself through the program itself. Like if I can have, you know, Avery and Demir go to school, tell their friend, Dominic, you know, Avery and Demir go to school, tell their friend Dominic, Dominic grabs somebody. And then that's that's the same way we build that at our gyms. Right. Oh, my God. I'm so sore. Why? Because I was working out with these cops, man. You got it. Yeah. It's so cool. So fun. Any kids you've seen dropped off by their parents where you can tell like the parents basically kicking them out of the car, like the kid doesn't want to go, but the parents insisting. And then already in the four weeks, like you see a whole different demeanor.

I feel like or kids who participated. Yeah, yeah. We had one kid came in. He's a little older, you know, in the late teen group. And, you know, as a 17, 18 year old, you're starting to become a man. You're starting to feel yourself out. You know, you got maybe a little cool little vibe going. And he kind of came in on that, like, let me see what this is about, energy. You know what I mean? It wasn't like, he wasn't sold yet, right? And I recognize that. And then here we are week four, and he's promising a better performance on week five, right?

He's promising, I'm not going to sit down in between the workout because it's nothing more than a simple talk. Hey, my man, we're not done yet. So stand up, right? He's an athlete. He plays, you know, play sports. Hey, we don't sit there. You're going to let the opponent know you're you're wiped stand up we're not done yet right so that little moment he goes from week one the shy kid who's trying to play it cool to week four promising the coach you know that he's gonna do better that he's gonna bring it next time like really really bring it next time win When, right? Change of attitude in four weeks, change of perspective and showing investment where now he's engaging with us, you know, making promises

that he's going to do better. Not like I'm not, I'm not going to try. I'll see what happens. I'm going to do better. I'm going to beat you next week. I'm going to, you know. And that's it. You can't ask for much more from a teenager. It's hard enough as it is to get adults to want to, you know, try this stuff sometimes. And I think it's extremely brave. Very brave. I agree.

It's extremely brave. Very brave. I agree. It's very brave. Even though, even though there is no threat and it's kind of, it's very brave. Hmm. It's an interesting thing because there's nothing to fear and yet it's still very, very brave. I agree 100%. You said something there about how you said stand up. We're not done yet. And it's a very interesting – and you probably know this with parenting. It's a standard to a level and it's okay if they fail and they don't reach it but we have to respect people and give them the opportunity to shine

and not coddle them now that doesn't mean to be abusive to them but there is a um all my kids martial arts instructors when they went in the private lessons, when the kid will be okay, it's my kids will be like, it's, it's, you know, it's eight 30 classes over. The teacher will be,

we'll always say to them, do you have one more in you? And I love that because there's a respect there to the kids that you're challenging them, but you're also empowering them, but you're letting them know, I believe in you. I know we've been hitting the bags for 30 minutes and you're exhausted, but do you have one more?

And it's that kind of belief in each other and that kind of respect runs rampant in the CrossFit community. You know, the worst thing I heard someone say to my wife one time, I was watching her work out at her affiliate and I heard one of her partners say, Hey, let's not, let's not keep count. And I was really, that really bummed me out. You know what I mean? Because it was like, you're not being, you're not being a good partner. If you want to sandbag it, fine. If you don't, if you, if you, but don't put that on your partner as your partner, you have to But don't put that on your partner. As your partner, you have to show up.

You have to – there will be plenty of time to be weak the second the clock stops, right? There will be plenty of time. So I really like that. Yeah, I mean, you know, and we talked about – we touched on – like each week I'm trying to touch on a topic right and this this week we we talked about looking goofy while you're trying to learn things and and being okay with not being good at something immediately I feel oftentimes everything is about it's okay it's okay it's okay and I was trying to tell them it's okay to not be good at this right now you we're just starting we're scratching the surface

I want you to come in with an attitude that you're learning and it's okay to mess this up we will fix it we will make you realize what you're doing wrong and we'll make it better I'm gonna show you you're going to do it right you know my my coaching style is a bit of a I've always kind of had like a a detached feeling like when I come into the gym I like of had like a detached feeling. Like when I come into the gym, I like it. I like a little bit of edge, right? I like it to be a little nasty, a little gritty.

I'm trying to tell him, you know, this week that when you come here, I want you to flip that switch. It's time to train. It's time to get let's get nasty. Let's work. Right. Let's not be. Don't hold back because you're trying to look cool, right? I want you to give it your all. I want you to feel like when

you come here, you can be a different person. I want you to be the athlete. I want you to, to, to go a little harder, to make some noise when you're working out, to just let it fly, right? And I think that's important because not every place that kids go to wants that, right? I want you to go. Let me see what you got. And then we can go from there they you know they want to be challenged they can they can take it they like it and i think when it's all when class is over they can it's something they can be proud of i did that right i did crossfit i pushed that sled i they show up i had the bumpers on the sled it's not like let's see what we can do no you're gonna push this and they look at it they you know they see the rubber bumpers it's all that stuff's new

to them they're like that looks pretty heavy probably weighs as much as them and then they start dragging it down the parking lot and then they do it faster and then and it's like oh man i did that so it just i think it's such a cool thing to be able to present these challenges to them that they're just otherwise wouldn't have the opportunity to do and um it's a it's been a pretty cool experience thus far you know we work with kids a lot at the gym in different capacities and it is it is cool to see how the dynamic changes um there's there's one guy that that comes in he calls it his contract he's like i got eight more weeks on my contract but he keeps coming back you know what does he mean by that that's how much he's paid or what's he mean by that no i mean

you know i was trying to find him up for the kids class for eight weeks. Oh, right. He's like, ah, this is my contract, but he never wants to come. But then when he gets there, he has a good time. He calls it his contract. And then there's other kids that, you know, when the, when they first start coming, they can't wait for the class to end. But then when you, you know, four or five weeks in and they'll be like, what do you mean we're done coach? We got three more minutes.

That's that one more in you type mentality. And you never know how the kids are going to react. Sometimes you won't see them for six or eight months, and then they'll come back around. But no matter what, even if they come one or two times, the seed's planted. They've been in the community. They've had the challenge. They've overcome something, even if it may appear to be small. And then at some point in their life, and this is true for lots of different areas,

but something will happen. They'll find another community or gym or something like that, and they'll have that memory, and then they can hold on to that. So at least they have something, even if it was only a small period of time. Yeah, and I think what Saban was saying about the challenges, I try to end the class with a bonus. Like, all right, here's something that's going to be even harder than what we did. Who wants to try?

Who wants to do the sled race? Who wants to try to beat me to 10 burpees? I'll do 15 i'll do 15 you do 10 who thinks they got me or i said i said i'm gonna do 10 you do 10 let's see who wins they were like nah i was like all right i'll do 15 you do 10 and then we got the hands up i'll do it i'll try so we grab him all right he cooked me i got 12 I got 12. He got 10. My wife and I would, my wife and I would do that at the end of workouts. Like we're just laying there and always me,

not her. And I'll be like, Hey baby, I bet you I could beat you to 20 burpees. She's like, no, you can't. I'm like,

Oh yeah, I can. And then, you know, you just push that extra mile and it's easy, but you already put in the work. You're warmed up. You might as well just give it,

give one more shot and wound yourself. I did that to my son the other day. I had him do 100 burpees, all three of my kids, and then they were just chilling. And I go, hey, do you think you can do 20 as fast as you can right now? And he just got up and crushed them. And I'm just like, yeah, it doesn't hurt to ask. One more. Yeah.

It doesn't hurt to ask one more. Yeah. They, in, in, especially they, they like it. They like going against them, you know,

their peers. But when you throw, when you throw in like, all right, who's going to try this against coach Malcolm and coach Matt, you know, who are the other two guys helping me out with this primarily. They're like,

Oh yeah. Like I, yeah, we're going to do this do this then they're like looking amongst each other like me and you me and you we got them so i'm like i'm gonna put an extra bumper on their sled since they're you know grown men and uh we we had some good relays that night but um yeah and for them it's like it's an opportunity for like we cook the coaches you know we you know we beat our coaches you know and that's you know and i try to set it up so it's going to be close

yeah and then i mean that then the two coaches are really trying and then now now they're working hard because they're like i don't want to get beat either, which is great. That's what we're doing, right? Yes, yes. It's all learning. It's all learning. So not only if they beat the kids, all right, well, they beat the kids because they were putting out a concerted effort. They were working, you know, to beat them. And the kids are working as hard as they can to beat the coaches.

And what we pull out, everyone's best effort. And it just made it so much fun. And, um, you know, then after class and, you know, the parents come pick each other, you know, pick the kids up and we're sitting there and, you know, three kids were waiting on the ride and we just start chatting it up. Right. Started talking about basketball. We're talking about, you know, who's your team, this, that. And before you know it, we're talking about, you know,

why they want to train or why they, what's going on. We're talking about school, you know, you know, talking about, you know, most of them are dying to get back to regular school. They hated the homeschool, you know, just having normal conversations. And I think, like I said before, it's just changing how they feel about us and what they can say, and how they can interact with us as officers. When, when one of the most profound things about CrossFit,

I really think especially for people who aren't physically gifted or interested in physical movement is the fact that everyone will eventually be the best at one thing in their group. It's really, really weird. So in high school, I was the guy who always got when we, in PE, all the guys would get picked and then some girls and then I would get picked. Or when I had to do the presidential fitness exam, I couldn't do pull-ups with the boys. I always had to just put my chin over the bar and do the flex arm hang. Then I started doing CrossFit and I saw those girls doing muscle-ups and I thought, holy shit, that looks amazing. So for like six months, five days a week, I was 34 at the time, I hung some rings under a set of stairs and I would just do negative muscle-ups, just tons and tons of negative muscle-ups. Flash forward and I'm 44 years old

or whatever, and I'm working at CrossFit HQ and every single person there is better than me, no matter what, like every girl, guy, child, everyone beats me in every workout. But if muscle-ups popped up, it was a showstopper where they had a pull-up competition going one time and i just walked into the to the gym and and you know there's navy seals there and you know police officers and everything and i just didn't i tied the record for most strict pull-ups cold no warm-up and why because i found my niche here i was a kid in high school couldn't do a single pull-up and through CrossFit, I found, Holy shit, I can do strict muscle ups all day long and I can do just strict pull-ups all day long. So, um, it was a huge boost to my,

who I am. I'm, I'm, I'm good at something, you know? And that's, and that is the kid who loses every foot race. Cause he's always racing his brothers starts to get like a beat down, but then flash forward. And he's the guy who has the you know fastest turnover of power cleans at 95 pounds and he's beating all these kids who he always thought were better athletes than them and it's like it's this moment yeah this moment well that's that that was that's a good point because sorry one more thing and sorry one more thing and maybe even more profound for women, because all of a sudden, they're like, oh my God, I thought I was the weaker sex. This dude, there's five dudes in my class who've never beat me. You know what I mean? And it's these profound narratives that change in your head. I think it was like third week because we, you know, we have,

we have girls enrolled in the class too. And we have, we have really, really just a wide array of body types, sexes, ages, and everyone and race and races for what it's worth for anyone to get this shit. Yeah. It's quite, it looks like a, uh, I don't think you're allowed to say this word anymore, but I don't care. It's a melting pot. You got the whole, the pictures are kind of cool. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, I mean, we have kids that are currently fasting for Ramadan that are participating.

And they're coming in and they let me know, hey, you know, the parents were like, the kids haven't eaten all day. They might get a little lightheaded, you know, to just, you know, keep an eye on them and, you know, just, you know, make sure they're all right. And each week they've come and they've trained. And I can see that they're kind of maybe they're bonking a little bit. They're tired. You can tell it's getting close to the end of the day. And we, you know, at the end of week three, I made it clear. I say, hey, you know, we're going to give a round of applause for these two guys.

You know, it's a brother-sister. I'm like, for three weeks, you know, now four, they've come, they've trained, they haven't said a peep about not eating all day and doing it for religious purposes. And I said, let's get a round of applause for these two for coming and doing all this, but having not eaten all day. Well-deserved round of applause for those two it also kind of lets lets everyone know that they're going through something that's different than what we know it to be normal um and and then like hey you know what it makes them tougher in the eyes of maybe the kids who may have beaten them in the workout or did a little better because they're on a full tank of food, right? Or they're, you know, maybe just happen to be just stronger athletes.

Now they can have that respect and knowledge that, hey, you know what? That's pretty cool that these two are showing up and doing what they're doing while fasted. and doing what they're doing while fasted. And then what I try to do is also like set up the workout, kind of like the grid league. Like I made two teams. We made a heavy sled. I got, there was a sprint portion for the team. There's a, there's a burpee portion. There's a box jump portion. I was like, I need two athletes from each team to be this. I two sled people i need two runners i need two burpee people i need two jumpers so amongst yourselves you know

your two teams figure out who's doing what who's your fastest runner who's your who's your heavy hitter for the sled who's your bur guy? Who can crank these burpees out? And my cat's pushing them. So now they've come together. All right, you do the sled. You do the, all right, you two do the burpees, and I'll do the box jumps. So not only is it a chance, like I said, we talk about finding that niche. What works, like, where can we talk about finding that niche. What works?

Where can they be the superstar for that moment? Maybe they were getting their butt kicked on the sled. They're not great at jumping, but they can run. So they're going to be the runners. They'll be the strong link for the team as the runner. Maybe the big fella can't run that fast, but he can put that weight behind the sled. So, you know, those little opportunities allow for the specialist to kind of come out, and that's fun too.

You know, so it's been with all these little things, I'm learning just so much about them, about coaching them and trying to pull the good out and in all these little areas whenever we can it's been cool you have any of the of your other like uh officers who've just been like curious stop by what's going on yeah check this out yeah so you know i'm pretty i'm known at work as, like, the CrossFit guy. There's, like, two of us that are still, like, way into it at RPD. He's a lieutenant now.

He's one of the guys that got me started up. And then other guys, we have a lot of guys who are gym heads or gym rats, but I'm always trying to, you know, recruit for CrossFit. I'm a diehard. And they're like, hey, you know, we have had guys show up in uniform, show up. They're on shift. Now they'll pull up at the community relations building. We had my buddy pulled up yesterday.

He's full kit. You know, he's got his vest on and belt. And he jumped in for a set. We were doing the EMOM with front squads, you know, push presses and thrusters. So he jumped in, grabbed a dumbbell, full uniform. Wow. And he did the EMOM with the kids. You know, they're in shorts.

He's in uniform. And then jumped back in the car back on the road which was cool you know very cool what a scene that was super cool it was great that left an impression on them for sure that's cool yeah and but he's not a crossfit like a crossfit guy but there's hope he came in cherry he came in cherry pick. So, you know, and we've had, you know, the guys who are involved, you know, trying to get them brought up to speed on all things CrossFit too. Like, hey, you know, I want you guys to be as invested in, you know, the CrossFit model as I am so that we can continue to grow this. And I want them to buy in as well, you know, because they're fit guys, they're strong, but they're also still learning a lot about CrossFit and the methodology

as well. So we've had a lot of people come out, you know, people come when they can, you know, with our schedules, it's a little weird. My schedule is a little more flexible, the position that I'm in currently. So I'm there each week. And then I have a group of guys and girls who are helping us out, you know, like I said, coming out, working out, just trying to, you know, encourage the kids. Even if it's just a round of applause or you know calling their name out while they're working out it's just it's been great um

i don't know much about it sorry go ahead good oh no go ahead sorry no i said so you know i think now too and they're seeing it more and more and people are stopping out just to check it out right this yeah so we had a couple you know patrol cars in the lot and we're right there it's right on our main drag or i would say our main street of town it's hamilton street in our town and it's at a major kind of close to a major intersection so there's a lot of foot traffic other kids are kind of rolling by on bikes oh wow there's a there's a footlocker next door where people in and a convenience store people are kind of you know I could see them out of the corner of my eye yesterday just standing there kind of like what's going on the Walgreens across the street so there's a it's a

high traffic area so we're getting a lot of you know looks just from being out there in the front of the building and you know I even heard one of the kids say like I can't wait to talk to so-and-so because he saw his buddies ride by on the bike they had come they were coming like getting a snack from the convenience store they rode by and they were both kind of like creeping on what was going on he's like he goes i'm gonna i'm gonna get at those two i'm gonna try to see if i get them to come oh awesome so it's it's real it's real cool the location is is a great for us too for that it sounds awesome you know i don't know much about ramadan but the other day two days ago i went into a store i go into all the time and I

hadn't been in a couple of weeks for one reason or another. And the owner was there and he's this 55 year old man. And I'm like, damn, AJ, you look good. He goes, really? I'm like, dude, your skin looks totally different. You look lean and mean. What are you doing? You start working out what's going on. And he goes, no, it's Ramadan. And I thought, holy shit, that's really cool. He's fasting. And, and I mean the, the improvements I saw in him were just, it was crazy. Bobby, final question. And I have a lot more, but we're approaching an hour and a half. Your wife, what did, how did you get her into CrossFit?

And I'm making that sort of assumption that you got her into it since, um, from looking at your Instagram and it's clear from your Instagram and her Instagram that her body's gone through quite the transformation. And did she ever, and did she ever think you were crazy, um, for, for doing it? Like, did you have pushback from her at first or what? Tell me about that and how, and finally, how has it affected your relationship with her well first of all i want to say thank you for that compliment and you probably just made my weekend a lot better by saying um yeah so when i mean you clearly celebrate her success on your instagram well she's not here currently. She's doing the quarters. She's doing the age group quarters now, quarterfinal workouts with my buddy.

Yeah, so when I started, it was 2008 in my buddy's garage. And coming from the military background, when I came out of the military, I was just running calisthenics. I wasn't really a weight guy at all. I didn't really have much experience, like Olympic lifting, none of that. All that was not in my life. And then I was doing sprint triathlon stuff, and my sergeant got me going on crossfit so then every day after shift i

would go to his house and he had a nice little garage set up and it was three of us um and we were training his house so at that time we were dating my wife allison or no we were we had we were engaged or whatever but anyway I'm going there every day. Right from day shift, 5 o'clock, drive to his house, train. And I come home and I'm like, you got to come try this. I'm like, what is it? I'm like, what is it like? Just come. And this is like pre the CrossFit sneakers.

This is like the thick A6 and the funky sweatpants and and chuck taylor's like the og stuff you had to have your chucks you know what i mean like flat bottom shoes like everything homemade we had the homemade uh homemade medicine balls with basketballs filled with wet sand and all that all that stuff the great stuff so she comes out and she was always, she'll self-admittedly say like, oh yeah, I was the skinny girl. Like she would run on the treadmill for an hour and a half and do a little bit of weight, but never was a,

she swam, we both swam in high school. She's a really good swimmer. She has that athletic drive in her that's a big that was big in her very competitor at heart right so she finds this we take her in there she gets she gets served like everyone does on your first workout and then we brought it back to the house you know when we got married and bought this house the first room we painted in the house was our gym. That's how I learned. So she was sold.

She did that first workout and she was hooked. She did that first workout and then slowly started coming around. And she wouldn't come like every night to my buddy's house when we were doing it there. But she would come on the weekends and start showing up to workouts. And really when it got like for real for her, we were, you know, we were getting kicked at yelled out at retro fitness for taking the medicine balls outside and trying to do wall balls. And so when we bought the house, that's when it really clicked. You know, we we painted the outside room, built our gym with next to nothing, we got gifted those sand, those homemade medicine balls from my buddy. And we brought the stuff here.

We had some like iron 25s and 45s and started doing the stuff, built our own pull up rig. And slowly but surely, she got more and more involved. And over the course of 10 years has built this frame that is just, first of all, beautiful. Yeah. She's an outstanding shape. She's a killer. You know, has an engine for days. I think you described her as a wet noodle, but no one would ever dare describe her as that now. Oh, I mean, dude, she is jacked.

Yeah, she's in great shape. And I think it took her a number of years to realize that she's changed in a dramatic fashion. a dramatic fashion. You know, I've, I've seen the change in me, but it took her a number of years to actually see it for herself, right. You know, and then other people telling her, right. And, you know, there was, there was times where she had like lack of confidence and it's, it's been a great thing for her to, to be, to, to get so good at it over the years and to see the change in her body and in her spirit. It's been a big thing for her and our family. Oh, you know, for years when the kids were born, you know, she was home with the kids and it was her outlet. I was working, she was home with the kids. That's kind of how we decided to set our life up.

So when I would come home and training in the driveway and then ultimately getting involved in coaching at an affiliate and her coming to the gym all the time, it was a big release for her. And now it was always, especially now too, with the homeschooling and she's back to work part-time, it's still that therapy for her and an escape from her normal day, right, a chance to push herself. So the same thing that we're, we're promoting with the kids, it's the same thing we do for us as adults. It's our, our chance to play, our chance to shine, our chance to perform and,

and do it for all sorts of different reasons. I don't know if it's an escape from her normal day. I think she's just gotten so used to it, it's part of her normal day now. It's different than everything else. Yeah, but at the same time, it's like, you know, we're here at the house, right? So I'm sitting at my dining room, and the current setup is this. My wife works at the dining room table. My one kid is in the computer room.

My other kid's set up downstairs when we're doing the homeschooling and for her it's like i got it i'm gonna go to that 9 30 class in the morning it's my hour out of the house especially with everybody home it's not it's it's yeah it is a big part of her day but it's it's my i know what you mean yes yes all your attention goes on yourself yeah yeah but yeah she's crushing it and uh you know she i'm sure she's killing it today um there's some dramatic changes there's so if you go way back i can't remember if it's her instagram or your instagram i can't remember she i think maybe she does a snatch and she's at the bottom and

you're telling her to stand up. And when she stands up, you're watching that and you're like, man, that is a really skinny chick. How is she doing that? You know, like, and it's her early years. And then now you see her and you're right. She's this, she's a force to be reckoned with. You see her and the weights aren't throwing her around. She's throwing the weights around. Yeah. and the weights aren't throwing her around. She's throwing the weights around. Yeah, it's an awesome transformation. What's up?

Why are you getting all white? Why? So you're that proud of her or was she on her deathbed and you saved her or are you just that proud of her? No, I mean, I am. No, I am that proud of her. Yeah. And it's cool that someone else, you know, aside from me, can see it. I know other people can see it.

Oh, your kids see it, man. Yeah, I mean, I'm her biggest fan, you know, and, you know, sometimes as, you know, a husband and wife combo, the compliments from husband can just be like, oh, you're supposed to say that. You're, you know, you have to say that. You know, I have tried to, I'm saying it because it's the damn truth, you know. Everyone must see it in her, right? I mean, when she goes out, I mean, it's clearly, I mean, she does have a remarkable physique and she looks extremely athletic. People must say to her, when my wife started CrossFit, it didn't take long at all before all of a sudden, you know, especially if you're a lean woman to start with. But if the second you start working out, people will start saying stuff.

Hey, what's going on with your shoulders? What's going on with your arms? Hey, what do you do? I mean, she must get questioned a lot, right? If she wears a tank top out. We'll be out and they'll be like, where can you go to? Yeah. She gets, are you a trainer a lot?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's the ultimate compliment. No one's ever said that to me, but I can't wait. I've got to know where do you work out. And that's nice. But if you're a trainer, that's when you know you look like something that belongs on TV. Yeah, she's a walking billboard for our gym. And, you know, like I said, I can get choked up pretty easy.

But, yeah, like I said, the Crossitch has just been a big part of our lives. It's gotten us through some, you know, life's challenges. It's, it's just been so much for us. And, and, you know, we've argued in the garage or in the gym about like, I'm like, you're doing great. You're getting stronger. You're getting, you're getting faster. Like, and stronger. You're getting faster. And it's been a great journey. And it's been so good for us as a couple to have that common interest and something that we're both passionate about. You know, sometimes she can be a little hard to coach.

I think anyone who coaches their, their spouse can probably agree to that. Um, but it is a lot of fun. Um, we have, we've, it's been great for our marriage and great for our,

our health and fitness. And it, uh, it's a big part of our lives, you know, whether we're in the gym or at home, like how we prepare food for our kids. You know, it's just it's just our normal life. You know, our kids don't think it's crazy of a lifestyle than it is a hobby, right? much easier because you don't have to explain away the, the diet, the, the hours in the gym, you know,

coaching for three and then coming home and still wanting to work out. She gets that. So it's, it's, we got a good thing. It's, it's good. Bobby, thanks for coming on. Great. I appreciate it. Hopefully the fan wasn't that loud. I can't, I'll be interested to hear how that. Whatever. We're just doing our best to try to bring good messages to the people.

If we get one fan sound or if Brian can't figure out how to use this fantastic software that I pay a small fortune for, fuck him.