An Army of Normal Folks - The 100,000-Man Movement That Will Change Your Life

Episode Date: August 4, 2026

Frank Schwartz is the CEO of F3 Nation, a 100,000-man volunteer led movement built around fitness, fellowship, and faith. Men at 5,000+ locations worldwide show up at 5:30am - no matter if it’s raining, snowing, or freezing - for free peer-led workouts. But the workout is just the entry point. What F3 is really doing is cultivating a brotherhood and teaching men how to lead, so they can take that home to their families and community. If you've ever felt like there has to be more than just going through the motions of life, then this episode is for you. And if there's a man in your life who needs to hear this, send it to him. Find an F3 workout near you at F3Nation.com. They’re free and open to all men. ARMY ACTIONS Subscribe to the podcast and rate & review us! Signup to join the Army, visit NormalFolks.org Follow us on social media @ArmyofNormalFolks Join or start an ANF local service club at https://normalfolks.org/service-clubs/ Take The 10 Level Challenge, "the hero's journey for service" at 10LevelChallenge.org  Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/#joinSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Have you thought about the cost of men that opt out of leadership opportunities to society? I think we're seeing it. I think we see it in the degradation of family values. I think we see it in the degradation of our institutions. When there is no leadership, this is what happens. America has a shortage of male leaders. Men are quietly checking out of leading in their communities, their own homes, and even their own lives. Is this the great destiny of my life? It's to just bring home paychecks and be sad. cubicle all day and make money for somebody else. Is this my purpose? This is what God called me too. It's to look another man in the face and say, don't worry, man. There's more. This is Frank Schwartz. He's the CEO of F3, which stands for fitness, fellowship, and faith. Men at over 5,000 locations across the

world join free peer-led workouts at 5.30 a.m. that are outdoors, no matter if it's freezing, blistering, raining, or snowing. You're the CEO of a hundred thousand man movement. Currently, we ain't done. The mission of F3 is to plant, grow, and serve these small workout groups for men in order to invigorate male community leadership. One of the core principles of F3 is that it's peer-led, right? It's all volunteers, and if you come out long enough, we'll say, hey, it's your turn, you've got to lead.

We want to teach men leadership, because if they learn how to lead, then they can take that home to their families. By the end of this episode, you're going to walk away with a blueprint for real leadership. You'll have a deeper appreciation for where your leadership matters most. You'll also discover the F3 movement, and that just might change your life or the lives of men you care about who really need to hear this episode. F3 ain't going to change the world. That's not what we're for. We're here to change men who will change the world.

This is Army of Normal Folks, where our mission, is to make service easier for all of us, and together change the country. Carr, the host of the podcast, Encore. Check out our brand new episodes featuring music from the show that everyone is reheating as we speak. Heated rivalry. Join me as I go behind the songs that brought Shane and Elia together.

I'll tell you the stories of Fice, My Moon, My Man, wolf parades, I'll believe in anything, and tattoos all the things she said, and how they all became a part of this global phenomenon. stream encore on IHeart Radio, crave, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, fam? I'm sports journalist Ari Chambers. Hey, what's up, y'all? It's your girl, Sam J.

And we're the host of everyone watches women's sports, a new podcast from Together and I Heart Women's Sports. Because let's be real. Women's sports is giving us way too much to talk about these days. So Kelsey Finler, she became the first female solo roer to go from California to Hawaii. My first thought is, like, what's up with the snacks? Like, what are we eating?

The highlights, the rivalries, the breakout stars, the moments that take over your entire timeline. And the conversations that start during the game and somehow keep going all week. Every week, we're breaking down the biggest stories across women's sports. Naomi Osaka showing out. She beat Sabalinka.

Shout out to you, Naomi. You get the palm, Naomi. You get the palm for that. Because we're not just interested in what happened. We're interested in why everyone's talking about it. Because everyone watches women's sports. Listen to everyone watches women's sports. Sports on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

Hey, this is Hayes Davenport. And Sean Clements. We host the podcast, Hollywood Handbook. Every episode we're trying to help our guests improve their careers by mainly focusing on how they can help us improve our careers. The show's famously super accessible so you can easily jump into any of our 650 episodes and understand what's going on. We recommend some of our recent episodes with Ben Stiller.

The definition of what is a movie has kind of changed anywhere, too, right? What do you think it is now? It's images. and words being spoken, captured by some sort of technology. Danny McBride. He loves over. Oh, that's fantastic. And you make it on, you make your own.

That's great. I call him Terro Reed. It's a good name. They're all named after cast members of American Pie. Yeah. Oh, gotcha. I call, I don't, I never looked up if she was in this, but I call him Leachie Sobieski.

Yeah. I don't think she was an American Pie, but I still like that. Haven't looked it up. She was prominent around the same time. Yeah. Then Mary Steenbergin. Why are you guys talking to me, look? I'm worried.

I'm worried. Why are you talking so down to me that you think I don't understand your little play game? I just really. I get it. I'm trying to set you up for success here. Listen to Hollywood Handbook on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Nick Totoro. You probably know me from NYPD Blue, the longest yard, or Spike Least Black Landsman.

But I'm also from Queens, which means I know pizza. And on my new podcast, delivering happiness with Nick Totoro, I deliver pizza from Prince Street pizza to a new guest. Are you delivering pizza now? Then we sit down for a real conversation. I've shared a slice with everyone from Seth Rollins. What are you doing my belt? To Alex Rodriguez.

Just to let you people know, we're talking to one of the goats here. To Bill Burr. I don't think I've ever met somebody so exactly out of their mind as I am. And now, we even have more great guests coming up, including the great John Tutu. This gold happiness. Delivering happiness. Mariano Rivera.

Thank you. Oh, my God. And many, many more. Open your free high-heart radio app. Search Delivering Happiness with Nick Tutro. And listen now. All right, everybody. We have super exciting news coming at you.

I mean, Alice is excited about it, but I'm not sure how excited I am. The podcast is now live on YouTube, which means now you get to see me in case you prefer watching it there. and we're switching up the audio format of the podcast. You can now either listen to the full version of the podcast on the same episode, meaning you no longer have to go to part one and part two to hear a whole episode we got going, or you can listen to a 30-minute version of the podcast that will be labeled as highlights. And we get it. Many listeners who aren't as into long.

form podcast or struggle to find the time to listen to the whole thing each week have requested something like this. And so Alex got off his butt and we finally created it. We're really not perfect. Nobody is, but we really do try to take in all of your feedback and advice. We hope to create a product that makes service easier for you and all of us. So check it out. And keep it coming. You can email us anytime at normalfolks.org, and we will respond. Now, let's go to the episode. Frank Schwartz from Fort Mill, South Carolina, which is basically Charlotte.

Yeah, basically Charlotte. Got it. CEO of F3 Nation, which I'm embarrassed to say, I didn't know anything about until I learned about you. And just want to thank you for coming to Memphis. Oh, thank you. And don't feel bad. Some of the best people I know have never heard of us. Well, hopefully, hopefully there's thousands more that we'll know of us in about an hour from now.

Absolutely. Pretty cool place. We're in the Memphis Listening Lab at the Old Search Tower, Cross Town Concourse, and a cool venue. And we are recording with a live audience for you, Frank. So it's a special thing. I'm microfamous, Bill. Microfamous, that's it. And so I want to thank everybody for joining us for, what do we call this?

Listen at lunch or something? Lunch and listen. Yeah, for lunch and listen. Sorry, Alex has all kinds of catchphrases. I'm not up on all of them. So let's jump into it. You joined F3 for one blunt reason. What was it?

Huh, to not be fat anymore. That was really the crux of that. How long ago? So that was 2014. So I guess I'm finishing up your 12 of this deal. So, I mean, what did you look in the mirror? I mean, they have these things called Planet Fitness. They do.

I mean, why a three? What was the deal? So, well, I went to the doctor. My doctor, it's been my doctor since we moved to Charlotte 20-something years ago. And she was like, look, you got high blood pressure. You got high cholesterol. You're overweight. You got sleep apnea.

She's like, you're basically just a stroke waiting to happen. I was like, well, thanks for that. I appreciate that. And so it was like she said basically, like, either you start actually exercising like I've been asking to you to for years or you can be on some medicines. And so I don't want to do all that. So she says, well, then you better start working out. So I started going to the gym.

Like I did a YMCA thing, right? And but I kept hearing about this F3 thing, F3, F3. And I knew a couple guys who had been in it. And there's a guy that I worked with who, who. had lost some weight and stuff and was looking pretty good and looked like he was feeling good about life. And so I said, hey man, what are you been doing? It's like, I've been doing this F3 and I was like, what does everybody keep talking about F3? Like, what is that? And so he explains it and told me kind of what they do for workouts and stuff. And I was like, well, I'm not doing that.

Like, it was terrible. It was very hard. Like, it's what it sounded like to me. You know, I was like, I'm more of like a jog on a treadmill for a mile and go and pretend I know what some of these machines do. and that's, you know, that was it. So I decided just one Saturday. I was like, you know, I'll just show up. Like, we'll just see, right? How bad can it be? It's November, bad choice.

It was probably one of the colder days of that year. And I went out there and Bill, I had never really exercised in earnest, you know, since like high school, you know. And so, I mean, it was horrible. It was an hour long. And one of the core principles of F3 is that it's peer led, right? It's all volunteers, and if you come out long enough, we'll say, hey, it's your turn. You got to lead, right? You don't get away with just showing up.

Everybody has to participate and not just in the workout, but also in the leadership of the workouts. So the way they did it on Saturdays then used to be, they would do two halves. It's an hour long and they would do, you know, one guy would lead 30, another guy would lead 30. But I didn't know that. I mean, I just had shut up out of nowhere. And we, they start running us around. It's all this horrible stuff.

And it's about 30 minutes in. And this guy goes, all right, man, bring it in. And everybody kind of comes to, you know, gathers around him. I was like, oh, thank goodness. That is over. That was horrible. That was the worst thing I'd ever done in my life. And he was like, all right, for the second half, I'm going to hand it off to this guy.

And I was like, how is there a second half? Like, we're all going to die. There's no way, right? And then we did the second half, and it was horrible. But, you know, you survived. But the thing was is so that, you know, you can get a workout a lot of places, right? And it's a little bit of a misnomer to call us a fitness group. We use fitness, right?

That is kind of the Trojan horse, if you will, to get a man to come out, right? But really, it's about, and not ironically, an army of normal folks, right? But it's about community. It's about bringing men together. So F3 stands for fitness, fellowship, and faith. All right. So I went down a rabbit hole. I had on my underwear in one sock, and it was late last night.

And got on my computer. There's a visual. That's good. Leases out of town. So I disturbed absolutely nobody. Noted. And I watched a couple of videos. And what I saw was a bunch of people about my age.

Jumping curbs, lifting cinder blocks, doing some other stuff that look like Jane Fondo a workout from the 80s. That must have been Memphis. No, it was not. I'm just saying that because they're all here. And, and, like, getting a serious workout in, but just like using what was in the parking lot. Yeah.

And I just started giggling, you know? It was not what I expected to see. No. So when you showed up and you joined F3 for that one blunt reason. Yeah. Was that what you found in the workout? was that kind of atmosphere? Yeah, yeah, very much.

Yeah. A lot of joking. You had to have been, are you kidding? Oh, yeah. That's why I was like, how, what is even happening to me right now, right? It was a lot of it. Now, at that one, we didn't have a lot of cinder blocks and that kind of foolishness, but it's not uncommon to, you know, you'll be running and they'll be like, oh, a rock pile

and everybody stops and then you work out with the rocks or, you know, whatever, whatever, fallen trees, all right? Pick up the log and carry that around, right? It's, it's, um. This peer lead thing sounds like it's like, it's like, Okay, if I'm leading this week, what kind of stupid can I come up with that? I'm going to make my group day. Fellas, would you agree?

Yeah, that's about it. Yeah, that's about it. That actually makes it fun. Yeah, it's fantastic. All right. So I got to get that. But you have said that F3 is a men's fitness group, but it's really a clever disguise. It is.

It is. Frank? What are you hiding? We're a cult. No, I'm just No, it's, uh, the, the mission of F3 is to, is to plant, grow, and serve these small workout groups for men in order to invigorate male community leadership. We want to wake men back up.

There's a lot, and this is, it was very true in Charlotte. It may be true in Memphis, and I know it's true in a lot of, uh, cities and towns throughout America, but men, uh, of our age, right, or similar, as you mentioned, right? And that kind of late 30s-ish to mid-early 50s-ish, right? You mean the dad-bodd crowd? Exactly. Well, not me, but some of them.

You're spelt. I'll show you a picture later. I'm a fat kid waiting to happen, Bill. But, no, but, you know, they, maybe they got. got a couple of kids now, right, this early stage of career in life. And probably they probably just had their second kid or something. They had something just had to buy a bigger car, right? Again, maybe a bigger house, get out of a three-bedroom into a four or five, right?

God forbid, drive a minivan. There it is. We say all the time, we're an army of minivan centurions. Oh, boy. That's what we are, right? So you get in this lifestyle. And pretty soon, what you find is after a few years of that, these guys who thought they were achieving,

much like you sitting in their underwear, one sock in their hand, on the end of their bed, and they go, was this it? Is this all I'm for? Is this the great destiny of my life? Is to just bring home paychecks and be sad and shuffle mindlessly and listlessly

in and out of these giant high rises in Charlotte, sitting in a cubicle all day and make money for somebody else or whatever else? You know, like, is this my purpose? and you look in their eyes and you can see it the hurt i was telling guys just this morning like i can't not do this this is what god called me too right it's to look another man in the in the face and say don't worry man there's more there's more and we get that's that's really what we are it's a leadership group and we we want to teach men leadership because if they learn how to lead

then they can take that home to their families right they can take that out in their communities They can go places and teach others to know what they know, right? To teach them how to be functional. I mean, that's why the fitness is all functional. Everything about what we do is functional, you know. So it's speaking to those men in those situations, certainly at first that's what it was designed for, right? Was those men in that kind of midlife crisis-ish? You said that you believe that F3 often finds men in the early stages of their midlife crisis.

We hope so. Do you think a dad bod is one of the first steps to a midlife crisis? And I'm being metaphorical. Of course. Yeah, yeah. But an emotional dad bod, if you will. An emotional dad bod, now that's interesting. Yeah.

I would say all of the men, we call them sad clowns. There's a room full of sad clowns. Yeah. Right. That's a sopranos if you watch that. But he says, you know, Tony says, hey, I'm like a sad clown. Like I'm happy on the outside, but I'm sad on the inside. And that's essentially what it is.

Yeah, it's that emotional dad bug. Why do you think so many men, especially middle-aged men, have never with purpose? And when I say lead, I don't mean managing a business group. True community. And that's part of what I love about F3 and really about what you guys are doing, too, is that it's volunteers, right? if you got hired, as it were, to be in the position you're in, and that's your leadership, then you really are a manager, right? Somebody's paying you. You're paying the people beneath you,

and that means you have the leverage and the power of them to say, like, well, if you don't do what I say, I'm going to pay you anymore, right? So that's managing, which isn't bad. It's a form of leadership, right? But leadership in its most pure fashion, I think, is a man or a woman with vision who can articulate that vision and then persuade others to come with them, right? Have you thought about the cost of men that opt out of leadership opportunities to society? I think we're seeing it. I mean, in terms of dollars and cents, incalculable. I think, incalculable. But I think we're seeing it. I think we see it in the degradation of family values. I think we see it in the degradation of our institutions. I mean, it's as obvious. I mean,

we're seeing the cost. We're seeing the cost. This is what is. the problem is when there is no leadership, this is what happens. Alex being a producer has done his due diligence for me over the last three years prepping me. Good. And he's also a data minor. And I can't go, we don't have time to go into the depth of it. But basically, he found that Pew Research did a cool study that said that about a 40% approval rating of the White House and historically over the last eight presidential

elections after two years, regardless of if it's a Democrat or Republican, that's about the number. So it's really not about the politics. Same number for Congress, a little bit lower number for Senate. For the first time of our history, there's less than a 50% approval rating of the Supreme Court. It's supposed to be a nonpartisan body. Even more surprisingly, for the first time in our history, there's less than a 50% approval rating of CEOs of our Fortune 500 companies. Interesting.

So we don't approve. And at the same time, the same Pew Research found that everybody knows that if they're watching Fox or CNN, 94% of respondents said they realize, depending on whose news they're watching, that it's going to be slanted toward one view point or another. And when reading social media, that at the very least it's slanted all the way to pass. fattenly false when getting your news from that. So we don't approve. We know we're being fed. Yet the exact same respondent said they spend an average of 2.2 hours a day either listening to Fox, CNN, or on social media.

I know that this poison is terrible for me, but I'm going to keep hearing it. Like a bunch of sheep. Look, man, we live in a... We continue to follow narratives that we know our... And then we wonder why we feel bad about ourselves. and we opt out of service and leadership because we think the world's broken because we're feeding ourselves with... Yeah, 100% true. Yeah.

F3, it seems to me, breaks that down. We like to think so, yeah. We like to think. Because here's the thing. And to your point, I think it's really encapsulated well in our second core principle, which is that it is open to all men. All. we make no qualification

no kind of I mean there's no fee there's no I mean number one number one core principles it's free right it's always free no matter what period and the second is open all meant and so there is no barrier to entry we don't care who you are

what you look like who you worship no you love don't care how you vote don't care and now a few messages from our generous sponsors but first earlier this year something we're really proud of, Army members launched six ANF local service clubs around the country. Their design is to make service easier for your fellow community members by really having

zero requirements of the club's members. All you've got to do is just sign up and join our service activities whenever you can, when it works for you. And you welcome kids to join us for everything, and they cultivate an in-person, family-like tribe, for lack of a better term, that makes service even more rewarding. We are now really because of the success of these first six looking at launching more local service clubs. And if you'd be interested in either leading or serving on the leadership team of a new one in your community, email Alex at Alex at normalfolks.org, and he'd love to connect with you about this cool opportunity. We'll be right back.

Hey, I'm Ruby Carr, the host of the podcast, Encore. Check out our brand new episodes featuring music from the show that everyone is reheating as we speak. Heated rivalry. Join me as I go behind the songs that brought Shane and Elia together. I'll tell you the stories of Fice, My Moon, My Man, Wolf Parades, I'll Believe in Anything, and tattoos all the third. things she said and how they all became a part of this global phenomenon. Stream encore on IHeart Radio, crave, or wherever you get your podcasts.

What's up, fam? I'm sports journalist Ari Chambers. Hey, what's up, y'all? It's your girl, Sam J. And we're the host of everyone watches women's sports, a new podcast from Together and I heart women's sports. Because let's be real. Women's sports is giving us way too much to talk about these days. So Kelsey Finler, she became the first female solo rower to go from California to Hawaii. My first thought is, like, what's up with the snacks? Like, what are we eating?

The highlights, the rivalries, the breakout stars, the moments to take over your entire timeline. And the conversations that start during the game and somehow keep going all week. Every week, we're breaking down the biggest stories across women's sports. Naomi Osaka showing out, she beat. Sabalinka. Shout out to you, Naomi. You get the palm, Naomi. You get the palm for that.

Because we're not just interested in what happened. We're interested in why everyone's talking about it. Because everyone watches women's sports. Listen to everyone watches women's sports on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, this is Hayes Davenport. And Sean Clements. We host the podcast, Hollywood Handbook. Every episode we're trying to help our guests improve their careers by mainly focusing on how they can help us improve our careers.

The show is famously super accessible so you can easily jump into any of our 650 episodes and understand what's going on. We recommend some of our recent episodes with Ben Stiller. The definition of what is a movie has kind of changed. Anyway, too, right? What do you think it is now? It's images and words being spoken, captured by some sort of technology. Danny McBride. He loves Mouthins.

Oh, that's fantastic. And you make it on, you make your own. That's great. I call him Terro Reed. It's a good name. They're all named after cast members of American Pie. Yeah. Oh, gotcha.

I call, I don't, I never looked up if she was in this, but I call him Leachie Sobiesky. Yeah. I don't think she was an American Pie, but I just. I haven't looked it up. I haven't looked it up. She was prominent around the same time. Then Mary Steenberg. Why are you guys talking to me?

I'm worried. Did you understand the movie? Why are you talking so down to me that you think I don't understand your little play game? I just really. I get it. I'm trying to set you up for success here. Listen to Hollywood Handbook on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Chelsea Handler from Dear Chelsea.

Every week, the news gets worse. The world gets crazier. And Yamanika is here to tell. whoever's responsible, you're the problem. If you come over here to play games, I'ma check you. Okay? If you do some in the news that don't sound good, I'm going to play you. Join Yomeneka Saunders as she breaks down the week's most problematic stories on her new podcast.

You're the problem with Yamanika. Do you know I just found out who Sidney Sweeney was? New episodes weekly every Wednesday is part of my new network, the Dear Chelsea Network. If he got a bunch of women, then I should have a bunch of men. Do better or do less, so I don't have to do so much. So join Yamanika each episode as she answers one question. Who's the problem? I'm Yamanika, and I'm out.

Listen to You're the Problem with Yamanika on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I was telling guys this morning, there's a, it needs to start to crop up all over the place, but one of the original workout spots early on in Charlotte is at a local treatment facility, right? Live in, you know, I think it's, you know, 180 days now that they give for free. It's a Charlotte Rescue Mission. And a guy named John Lambert, who is my predecessor, started that. And he says, you know, these guys, and he was an addict, right? So he knew.

He also runs a, you know, multi-billion dollar construction company now, right? And so he was like, these are men that he had a heart for us. So he goes and he starts a work out there. And originally they didn't even want us there. So they were like, everybody fails these guys. Everybody fails these guys. We don't need one more, you know, great hope to come and pretend like they care and then wash out after a few weeks. And then these guys once again look at their lives and go, well, I got nothing, right?

Many of our longtime listeners will understand the phrase turkey person. I'll explain it to you later when I got it. Perfect. I have a feel, maybe as checkwriters, like kind of the same, yeah? Show up on Thanksgiving, give one turkeys, and they never show my time. And they never show up again. And so they said, we're not really thrilled with this idea, but we'll give you a shot. Well, it's been now, I don't remember 10, 12 years or something, we've been doing this every single Saturday.

And at that location, you have men who are in the depth of chronic addiction and homelessness, right? Sometimes they've been in and out of this facility a couple of times. working out next to men, literally who are billionaires. And really, outside of, I mean, if you know, if you're astute, right, you can pick it up. But really, they're all wearing the same t-shirt. Nobody asks, nobody cares, right? I only know because I know the guys, right? If you know them, you know them, maybe.

But they don't look at it and go, this guy's less or, oh, he's a project or whatever. we really have a true deep ethos of every man is every man. God created every man to be a leader. He created every man to be successful. He created every man to have purpose in his life. Whatever that purpose is. Some purposes are bigger than others, right? You reach thousands and thousands of people, right? Other guys, that may not be their deal. That might not be where they're called to impact. but we believe that every single man on this planet has been called to impact. And so our intent is to go and to find them and to unlock them, to give them leadership skills and purpose and to set them free.

All while lifting cinder blocks. It's the weirdest thing. Bill, if knitting was the thing that brought men together into community and unlock their hearts and minds, we would knit with a fervor unknown to man. That's what we would do. It just so happens that the workout's a pretty good way to get guys in. So F3 isn't therapy. It's not not therapy.

It's not therapy, but it's not not therapy because you're not therapists. Nope. But it feels like it's where men break themselves down a little physically to get stronger, but they also break themselves down emotionally and become vulnerable. Is that? 100%. Yeah, yeah. The fifth core principle.

of F3 is that it ends in what we call a circle of trust. Isn't that from Meet the Fokkers? I'm watching you, Focker, right? Yeah, exactly. I probably. That's another thing I should say, just kind of a caveat is every good thing we have, we stole from somewhere. Okay, good.

So, and we make no apologies about it, we don't care, right? If it was good and it worked, we kept doing it. If it was trademarked, fight us. Yeah, fight us. I don't know, right? We're not making any money over here. There's nobody, so what are you going to say? Right, exactly. November 14th, 2014, that was day one for me. And we finished this workout.

Now, again, like I mentioned before, I thought I was going to die. And I'm out there, my, you know, very sexy, all-gray, you know, rocky sweats looking like a weird old. I mean, guys are like, what are you wearing? I'm like, I don't work out in the cold. I don't know what I'm doing, you know. But that was the thing. This circle of trust, this place where men can finally, there's a place where men can share.

There's a place where men can be, you know. And it was, there was something magical about it to me. We got to the end and what they do, you know, we do the idiot nickname thing and all this kind of stuff. That's part of the kind of the tribal that was of it all, right? You mean, you go on, you know, money and see. Yeah, but I'll ask you about that in a minute because I think that's hilarious. It's fantastic. But we do all that.

And then the final thing you do is you come in close. After the hour workout. After the hour workout, after all the analysis. and all the naming and all that kind of stuff, you come in close and you lay your hand on a brother. And depending on where you are in the world, it takes different forms, right? Or depending on who the guy is that led that day,

it takes different forms. If the guy was a Muslim, he may offer a Muslim prayer, right? You know, that may be his jam. And obviously where we are in the South, it's predominantly Christians, so you might have a Christian prayer. The guys that are up kind of in the pack northwest, right? that there's not a lot of religious fervor or belief.

And so it might be, it might sound more like an inspirational shoutout or something like that, right? But there's always something that you bring there. And the way I said it this morning that I've said it a lot is you come to either share your burden or your joy. And a burden shared is half a burden. And a joy shared as twice a joy. And so we've created a space unintentionally, mind you at first, right now very intentionally. but at first kind of accidentally stumbled on it. But we've created a place in a world

where these kinds of places have been hollowed out where men can come together and lay a hand on a brother and feel good about the fact that, you know what? I just shared with this dude that my daughter's going through something horrible, right? And then within the next,

before I make it back to my car, he's going to come over to me and be like, hey man, I had something similar in my life. Why don't we get coffee? Why don't we talk about it? For all of our listeners, I watch this video and when you say laying hands, I don't want people to envision an altar call at church where people are laying hands on them. It's more like a football huddle. It is.

It's, yeah, very good point. Yes. It's, uh, we call it a ball of man. Like you just get all in there. A ball of man. Just make a big ball of men and just get sweaty and hit. And it is very much like a football circle where, um, you know, you're all facing each other. And there's just that there's that a little bit of, uh, at the risk of sounding.

some kind of way in front of my buddies, right? But a little bit of tenderness, you know, a little bit of care. God forbid. Right? God forbid a men show, a man show tenderness. Right. Feel confident enough. Yeah.

To allow us tenderness to show. Confident and safe enough. Safe is a better word. And safe is a weird word in our world too because, you know, oh, safe spaces and some guys get real twisted up about that kind of thing. But look, the fact is the fact, right? I'm not going to become vulnerable. in a place where I fear I'll be attacked.

Or maybe laughed up. Fair. I'm 57. And I grew up... You don't look at a day over 60. What's that? No. Thanks.

I don't know. And I, you know, my generation, or at least how I grew up was, we didn't have a lot of catchphrases for stuff. We just said what we thought. rolled with it. And there's good and bad to that. Sure. In today's world, there seems to be a catchphrase or a title for everything.

So when I think about masculinity, as I'm thinking about F3, the two are basically synonymous, Bill, so it makes sense. I understand. But see, here's the point because of that tongue-in-shee comment. I think about the terms, Matt, toxic masculinity. bro culture masculinity, soft masculinity. What is an F3 masculinity? Real masculinity, true masculinity.

Tell me what that is. We would say virtuous masculinity. That's probably the way that we would phrase it. Masculinity to us, most of the things you describe there, like the bro culture, you know, these red pill guys, you know, or whatever, and the Andrew Tates and the, you know, these kinds of guys that are out there. I don't believe that that's masculinity. I don't think there's such a thing as toxic masculinity. I think that's masculineism, right? Much like feminism

or other isms. Essentially, what you've done is you've taken this thing that really is beautiful and holy and good, and you've turned that into your God. You've turned that into the thing that you worship. So these guys that spend a lot of time in the gym, sure, they do that because they worship their bodies. They think they're very handsome and very strong, and some of them are, right? And they're They're there to do that because that is who they believe that they are. Their identity. That's right. We don't believe in that.

We don't believe in that. We think your identity comes from something bigger than yourself. And most of these people who are practicing what I would call masculinism are those who believe in themselves and only themselves. You hear a lot of self-care and you know this kind of stuff. And these guys, when you listen to what they're talking about, it's very, very damaging stuff. Very, very damaging stuff. So a virtuous man or a man who practices virtuous masculine. which I think is true masculinity,

is a man who I think practices courageous love, you know, full and complete self-abandoned in the service of his fellow being. That's really what we're for. The reason we get strong out there, lifting, you know, rocks and trees and whatever else and jumping over, you know, picnic tables or whatever, you know, whatever idiot stuff we're doing,

is because, Bill, heaven forbid, and I'm not that much younger than you are. I know you might think I am, but I'm not. You like I'm so good. It's so bad. It's so bad. No, honestly, I thought we're the same age. Pretty close, right? Yeah. Yeah, it feels good. Yeah. I don't look bad for 98, right? Yeah. Yeah. I can tell you with clarity, if you were in a dangerous situation, right? Let's say, you know, the car crashes and it catches fire and you're unconscious, right? I know. I know because I've done it. We did it this morning. I can hoist you, on my back and run flat out for 100 yards and you'll be fine and that's who I am. You know what? I'll tell you a story about that actually. Not about carrying somebody, but but this idea of kind of the

masculinity we're going for. So I had this bad tendency to sort of stop for folks on the side of the road. My wife says it's dangerous. You got to go somehow, right? But if I see somebody in distress, I just that's part of who I am I can't really help myself and this is a few years ago now but I stopped one time and it was just a you know car stop flashes on I can see people in the car so I pull over and and I'm like you know get out to help or whatever now I'm not a big guy I'm not like a menacing presence or something I'm not a you know big fella and I didn't play you know college sports or anything but I'm not you know it's just a random dude like getting out of his truck, you know, walking back toward your car, you know, you might, might be a little weirded out,

right? Well, the beauty of it is, it's a clearly several generations of family in here, right? The lady driving the car will look like probably her mom and probably her daughter in the backseat. I start walking back toward this car and she hops out and runs up and she's like, oh, thank goodness. And I was like, oh, yeah, are you guys okay? And she says, well, we've had people pull over and I just kind of waved him on. She says, but I, this is truth. I saw your F3. sticker and I knew that I would be safe and I knew that you would help. Wow. Now, part of that's the blessing of being in the Charlotte area so a lot of people know what F3 is.

But in my mind, Bill, that's masculine. That's a great story. The truth often is. You're able to fix their car or are you just a dog home? I end up having to give them a ride. Okay, good. Yeah. Yeah.

I know. Now, real masculine, you would be like, oh, yeah, and I fix the car and I change the title. Like, no. I walk into the car and I'm like, car broke. I don't know, you know, like I have no idea. Car broke. I have truck. Yeah, exactly. So I gave her a ride, you know, whatever, right? So we got them home and got people called. But yeah, but that was the point. We'll be right back. You talked about the location that had billionaires and formally incarcerated folks working out together. Yeah. That was kind of the, the passion project of your founder. Not the founder, but yeah, another guy, but yeah.

another guy. That's the beauty of it too, right? The founder didn't think of that. Just somebody in the crowd had an idea. With that perspective as background, talk about some specific friendships that you know that are from two to similar worlds that now lead and serve and are friends with one another

specifically because of F3. Man, that's a... I'll be honest. That's a long list. Give me one. That's a long list. Well, I'll tell you what. Yeah. Give me one of yours.

Okay. I'll do that. That's probably easier even. So one of the things we believe in in F3 is in shared leadership, right? No one man can run anything. It kind of helps avoid a lot of problems. You know, you don't get this kind of cult of personality. Like, I can't choose to do anything without, you know, kind of this group of men that I've selected to come with me, right?

We share leadership. Well, now, early on, I didn't do it this way necessarily because, you know, first thing you do is pick some of your buddies, like-minded guys, and you think, it's fantastic. You know, this will be great. We'll hang out with our buddies. We'll make decisions about things. And I've learned over time that that is a very ineffective way to lead a very large volunteer group. So there's a guy named Scratch and Win. I presume he has a real name.

Scratch and win. First of all, I get that that's like a lot. Auto card. Yeah, yeah. But I can't help but think of a dude, you know. Scratch. Scratching. Scratching.

Win. Scratch. It feels good. I win. Yeah, exactly. I can't wait to share that with him. Scratch and win. But John Horton, and he actually is now our, are, uh, he's our only employee, right?

He's our fundraising guy. He's the only one who actually works for us. Everybody else is volunteers. But, um, anyway, he's a guy who has very, uh, different political leanings for me, let's say. And that's one of the things that we love to fight with most in this country, right? Fight with those kind of people, people that are opposite of us. But I specifically asked him to come and serve with us and be a part of the team because I know how different he is. Now, I probably shouldn't even share this.

I'm sure this is the first time some guys will ever have heard it. But we were on a retreat as a leadership team. And John and I, I don't want to say we almost came to blows, but it was warm. We'll just say that. It was warm. Disagreeing over something. right now that's a guy that normally you would be like forget that guy i'm done it's over he's dead to me throw him off the team and we move on right and get done we need to get done well some good

advice from guys on that team you know come to me and say well you know he doesn't believe in god i have a very strong faith in right he doesn't believe in in a lot of the the social things that i do or and vice versa right there is nothing about us that is uh i mean outside of the fact that we're both men and uh i mean we're his ages he's a fair amount younger than me and uh whatever but um we we shouldn't we shouldn't especially after fighting with one another and disagreeing so vehemently about certain things there's no way that we should be getting along and yet just before i came here even you know he's calling me going hey man anything else you need for the trip what else going to do for you and you know you're going to be gone is your wife need anything blah blah blah blah blah all this

kind of stuff, right? And he is one of my dearest friends. I disagree with him so strongly about so many things, you know, that he still does and believes, you know, whatever. And so we don't fight and yell anymore, but, but those kinds of stories, I mean, there's guys who, you know, on paper, it would like, why would you ever talk to this dude? But some of the greatest friends I have are, there's up in the northeast, there's guys who worship very differently. non-Christians, very different, you know, different colors, different, all these kinds, I mean, and when you, when you remove all of the stuff that the world tells you you're supposed to pay attention to to make you part of the same group, if you remove all that, and you can get a man

who believes in his heart what the mission is, what he has as a mission as a man. We can disagree about whatever you like, you know. And so, you know, I, you know, I, I call this guy now because sometimes when I'm upset about something else, and I'll be like, hey, I need a different perspective from my own, because my perspective is just making me mad, you know, so I need somebody to tell me to get my head out of my rear end so I can come back around and be a normal person again. Like that's the kind of thing that happens all the time.

And that only happens with fellowship and trust. It happens with fellowship and trust. And the way that we build fellowship and trust a lot of times this is part of why the workout is so useful is, Bill, you seem like a reasonably trustworthy guy. I have no reason. I mean, I watch you on the film and all this kind of stuff. You seem like a good dude. Like, a guy I would really love to be around. I could learn a lot far. I get that sense, right? Right? But I don't know. You're not battle tested.

Fair enough. Right? So I think you are because I've watched, you know, I've seen enough evidence, right? but I mean, but another guy who hasn't been out there in what we call the gloom, which is that early morning hour before the world is awake, right? Another guy who hasn't been out there and sweated with you, there's just a different kind of thing. And you build that trust in community. I can tell you dozens, hundreds of stories of men who it's like, hey, fellas, in fact, come in here.

Somebody was like, you know, you're headed to Memphis. And no, no, hold on. I know you're laughing because you're, You think what you know what I'm about to say. You're heading to Memphis. I got a buddy whose brother is really struggling right now. You wouldn't be able to maybe get him in touch with those Memphis F3 guys and pull them out to a workout.

That's cool. And that happens a dozen times a week or more. Constantly. Guys calling me or calling around and going, hey, I mean, another quick story. I'll try and be quick. I'm in the middle of St. Louis at a different, totally different thing, right? I go to the airport and idiot, right? I see a woman sitting on a bench at the rental car place crying.

And I'm like, I should just not get involved here. Like, why am I was wrong with me? Ma'am, are you okay? And she starts telling me the story about all the different things that have gone wrong on this trip as she's trying to visit her son who is ill and she cannot get to him. She's from New York. And she's tried desperately. And everything has gone wrong for her.

And I'm like, well, what do you hear? for right now at this moment. I need a rental car, but they won't take my debit card because I only take credit card, blah, blah, all this kind of stuff. I don't have a credit card. Okay. So what is it you need? I need a ride from here to next place where her son is. And then we can figure it out from there. And I said, hold on a second. And you just call the local St. Louis guy. And he goes, yeah, I know where that is. I'll be right over. That's community. Right. That's what we're building. under the guise of leadership, I think the greatest leaders of our time served. If you think of Gandhi and Mandela and Lincoln and King and the list goes on and on,

when you think of them, you think of them as some of our world's greatest leaders ever. But if you look at their actions in order to leave, they served. and that's exactly what you're talking about. It's just serviced. I would say, yes, service, but not in the, but what, in a way that is counter cultural to what you were talking about before the turkey people. Right.

That makes sense. Service. Right? This is real service. This is actual abandoning yourself in order to serve and care for your fellow man. Look, man, I played five sports in high school. I'm a football coach.

I like hanging out with dudes. My two sons and my father-in-law, the four of us take a guy's trip every year somewhere. Love it. Three generations. We have a blast. And when you're around dudes, there's a thing called dude humor. We don't do that here. And one of the most endearing things, as I found out about you guys, is you guys embrace some serious dude humor.

I mean, I love it. It's like, sure, there's a guy right now who's a buddy of mine who had all kind of teeth problems. And so he had all his teeth pulled. And he's getting dentures. Well, the three days after he had his teeth pulled before he got his dentures, you know, I'd called up one of those delivery places and sent him some soup for lunch. Very decent of you. I wasn't worried about it. He was hungry.

I just thought it was funny that he could only eat soup. Right? Yes, 100%. Then he got his dentures, and they were a little extended out front and too long, and he looked just like the donkey and Shrek. And so I sent him a Shrek doll. Perfect. Yeah. Yeah.

And he's going to check me just as hard about being fat and ugly and formerly redheaded and whatever. Okay. So, you know, I love dude humor. Yeah. I love dude humor in a locker room. Sure. I just love dude humor. And I don't expect a lot.

In fact, some of the things that me and my buddies or my sons think it's hilarious, Lisa looks at me like we're just the biggest jacked idiot Neanderthals on the face of the planet. But I don't care because she's not a dude and she's not supposed to get it. You ain't welcome here anyway. It's actually best humor if she doesn't get it. Yeah. If she appreciated it, Then I missed.

Yeah. Yeah. So you call half squat while holding your ankles monkey humpers. You call push-ups Burkins. You call pike push-ups Carolina Dry Dogs. I could go down the list. Here's one. Spider-Man Mountain Clammers are Peter Parker's.

That's great. Progressive sit-up, flutter kick combo is a Captain Thor. Wide-arm push-ups are workings. We actually call those Larry Craig's now. Okay. If you remember that story. I mean, the list goes on and on. And then some of the true legendary names are flying squirrels, pickle pounders, squirrel splats, primate humper or rama.

Yeah. That gets into the beastiality. The primate humper oramas is what you get arrested for at the zoo. Yes, 100%. Tour to humpers, blockies, crawls. bear's copperhead squats and batan death march and your name is dark helmet dark that is the stupidest stuff i've ever read in my life yeah oh thank you what gives uh you know it's funny because just just before i get we got on the plane to come here my wife last night was uh scrolling through

facebook i don't know how these things ended up in her feed and she sees some guys from i don't know where and it's 4th of July and they've got their you know their American flag ranger panties on and they're doing all kinds of crazy poses and stuff and all I heard like no context for this right she just goes your friends are idiots and I was like I'm sorry absolutely love it right so a couple couple things with that one I mean we could come up with something that's a little more descriptive so you knew what it was right but monkey humper's objectively funny it's just absolutely hilarious It's just a funny thing to say. And so, you know, with all of this growing up that we have to do so we can, you know,

accumulate more and more crap. There we go. You know, that doesn't mean anything. I figured this was a, I was hoping you would say this because it felt like being childlike is helpful. 100%. Yeah. 100%.

There's not a lot of places in the world after 8 a.m., I should say, right? Where maybe even after 7, right? where it's acceptable for me to say things like monkey humper, right? I'm not sure it's appropriate right now. My show, I love it. It's appropriate. Fair enough. All right, good.

All right. But for a guy who has felt caged, you know, where his heart has been locked up for whatever reason. Maybe he grew up in a tough world. Look, maybe he has to make a living and his boss sucks. Could be any of those. It could be all of those things, right? When I say a tough world, I was going to say, like, you grew up without a dad, right?

Sometimes we would say, we wish we grew up without a dad, right? I mean, it's a thing, right? We all come with it somewhere, and it keeps us locked up. It keeps us protected. And this is a place where, man, we don't care what you do, we don't care how you act, we don't care who you are. Just come be. Just come be, brother.

You know what I mean? And everybody gets a nickname? Absolutely. Oh, boy. At the workout. Don't get, you're not getting one before you leave here, Bill. I got it. If I'd have showed up at 5.30.

If you'd have shut up at 5.30, you'd have gotten one. What is going downrange? And why is that so special to F3 guys? So downrange is a lot of what it sounds like, right? It's going someplace that wasn't your house, right, or your home area. And so we go downrange, like I'm downrange right now, right? I'm in Memphis. What's special about that for me is, I mean, look what I get.

to do. You know, and so when a guy, I mean, not everybody guy goes down range, gets to do this, right? But I get to hang out with some of the best men that the world has ever had to offer. And I get to hang out with them. And I get to talk to them. Down range feels like it's, it's how you say to your F3 guys outreach. Hmm. That's interesting. Uh, I would say that's not the way that we intended it, but I'm going to steal it now. Good. Right? Because when we say downrange, it really means that you posted it a workout someplace that wasn't yours, right?

Somewhere away. I got it. And the special thing about that is, is there's a workout. So like a Memphis F3 guy that happens to be in Birmingham or Charlotte or pick a place, and they just go hang out with those F3 guys when they're in town. And say idiot things. And that's part of why it's so cool because it's like. Do they show up and say, my name is Squirrel Jumper?

Yeah, 100%. I love that. Yeah. My name is Squirrel Jumper. And he knows exactly what a monkey humper is too. Right? Right? We'll be right back.

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Who's the problem? I'm Yamanika, and I'm out. Listen to you're the problem with Yamanika on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. You're the CEO of 100,000. Yes, that's right. Listen to this. F3. 100,000 man movement.

Currently. We ain't done. And you're paid nothing. Correct. And you have to pay your bills, so you have a full-time job. I know what it's like to have a full-time job and then run a football team in the hours they're posting it. I imagine your world is 70 or more hours a week

if you're running this organization and having to provide to put food on the table and serve in my church and all the all that so are you nuts oh yeah it's a lot isn't it it is a lot but you know something but i feel like i have figured out a way where most of the things that i do and spend time on are part of my calling they're part of my mission they're part of my personal purpose on this planet and i tell people at work even you know my my job job. They're like, man, you have the best freaking job in this company. Because I do like culture and engagement for this whole software company, right? And I'm like, yeah, that's just, it's because I can't not do

this. You know, this is what I was born for. This is what I was made to do, you know? And I'm also a very optimistic guy. I just, really. I know it's hard. You don't really check that from me. But like everything that comes into my life, I feel like is manna from heaven. I feel like, is manna from heaven. I feel like it fell there. And all I get to do is just every day I get to go and pick it up. It's crazy. You, um, you watched undefeated recently. So I guess you know that my father left when I was young. My mom was married and divorced five times. None of them stuck around. By the way, my dad was married and divorced three times. And if you're on your third, it's your fault. Okay.

It's it. And that was my question. Is your first example, masculinity was your dad. So I don't mind asking this question because my business is on the street, so let's put yours there too. How about it? Sure. How did that relationship shape the kind of community you want to cultivate for men? I think it, yeah, that's a good question. I think that it largely defined my purpose. When I talk to guys about finding purpose in their life, I say a lot of times there's patterns that you can find, right?

all P words, right? There's patterns you can find, there's things you're pissed off about, right? There's people you're supposed to serve, but one of the big ones is the pain, is useful pain. And so for me, my dad was around, and when I was younger, he was, it was funny, he was a happy drunk. So when he was drunk, it was actually better. But then our faith indicates that you don't drink, right? So when he would stop drinking, he was horrible. We'd always be like, maybe you should just leave the church. Like, you should just go drink. You're much nicer. Or become a president. Presbyterian. There you go, right?

It would have been much better for it. I'm a Presbyterian. Everything's okay in moderation. There you go, right? Yeah. But, yeah, you know, so grew up in a house where, you know, literally they would say, he'd say things like, you know, you're lucky you don't work for me. I'd fire you.

You're like, what kind of thing is that to say to your kid? I mean, I was bananas, right? Nothing you did ever was good enough. Not one chance. My dad's what I used to call a thousand dollar man. Like, what's that? Well, it's a guy who you. You hand $1,000 to?

And he goes, you only had 20s? It's the people that I say, you could make it rain golden eggs and they bought the litter. Exactly. Yes. That is quintessential Doc Schwartz. I got it. And so growing up in that environment, I think, you know, it's like anything, man, you can go one and two ways. Right?

I could believe it all. I could take it all. I mean, I did for a lot of years, right? And then eventually you just kind of go, I don't, I don't think this is how I want to be. I don't think this is how I want to do this. So when I look at my life, I don't want F3 to become a projection of my, you know, weird childhood garbage, right? I don't want that.

But I do believe every man has weird childhood garbage, right? So I want to become a place where it doesn't matter. I mean, it's part of the idiot nickname thing too, right? You name a guy with, you know, big ears, Dumbo. Right? Because we want them to understand like none of that matters man like that's all just stupid stuff all that stuff that happened when you were a kid and stuff you got picked on or wherever your dad did or didn't leave your life or whatever none of that matters you're the

master of your own destiny like you get to pick up from here and decide what you're going to be and how you're going to be and that's what I want to create that's what I believe in I believe in a world where literally I've been called delusional I'm okay with it we're literally every man in every culture, in every corner of the world, knows what he's there for, knows why he exists and knows how he, but by virtue of that, knows how to serve his fellow man and his community. You led or were with, I don't know if you led or were just with them, the F3 men of Memphis today.

I'm ashamed that I did not know that there was an F3 Memphis. I'm all ashamed for you. Yeah, no. It was at Shelby Farms, which is a cool place. Awesome place. It's actually, I think the, somebody can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it is the largest inner city park in the United States. Second largest. Is that right?

Second. Central Park. It's huge. Yeah. I mean, it's massive. And it's, it's really had a lot of development over the last 10 years. It's pretty nice. So you went out there.

First, how many were there? Uh, 80, 84, 84 guys. 84 guys. 84 guys. How'd they treat you? Helmet, dark person, whatever your name is. With, with the appropriate amount of poorness. So today, yeah, before this, yeah.

You met 83 F3 Memphis men and got it an hour workout and then y'all huddled up and said some stuff. Yeah. Our, our boy, uh, I get it. Sorry. I was going to say, I was going to, I know his cheese head. I was going to say, but I was debating because I renamed him this morning because when I met him, his shirt wasn't on. And so I said, I said, man, I didn't, I didn't know it was Nipple Day here. And so I started calling him Big Nips the whole workout.

He doesn't even really have particularly large names or anything. But anyway, so Cheesehead, he started his vehicle ran it for 45, but it's a brewed coffee on his tailgate. that's how we roll right so we did the hour workout came back and these guys it was amazing there was a table set up and there was coffee and water i mean it was like this whole and i would say probably i don't know half half or more of them stuck around and in fellowship with each other just talk about stuff you know so it's what it's supposed to be it's what it's supposed to be so the memphis f3 club gets an a if i was auditing i was auditing yeah a plus we also called memphis the land of rules uh that's a That's a throwback to an old reference, because these guys like to be very, very specific in how they do things here at F3. They got it pretty well systematized.

They're doing real well. Yeah. You guys have built something remarkable, I think. Thank you. But at its core, one of the reasons why you're such an interesting guest to Alex and me is that you're just normal people showing up for normal people, ultimately. Yeah. 100% the man out there or the wife out there who has a husband who's listening to us not the husband but the wife's listening to us the man who thinks it's just too ordinary to make a difference or the wife that sees in her husband

a degraded version of what she fell in love with what does f3 say about what just one normal person can actually do we often say because people look at f3 now that we have you know we're known a little bit in certain places and they know we have some size you know to our ranks and things like that and i get a lot of guys to say things like oh man f3 ought to you know fill in the blank pick a number do whatever it might right right and and we often say that that man f3 ain't going to change the world that's not what we're for we're here to change men who will change the world so to a one guy who thinks he can't make any difference i think he needs to probably step back and decide what difference really means he needs to figure out that it it ain't building some

big massive you know billion dollar company or flying to the moon or any other that nonsense right he needs to recognize i have um done a lot of speeches all the place some big big big ones and all that and one of the things in the leadership speech that i do is um you can probably be the most effective, most important leader and servant without even leaving the front door, your spouse and children, your family. 100%. And you don't have to be part of any big 501C3 or anything to have profound effect. And I know that because I lack that leadership in my own life.

I love what you're doing because I can see a man after joining F3 and being involved for just a short period of time. I can see him feeling better about himself physically, better about himself emotionally and spiritually. And I got to believe that is most clearly reflected at home. 100%. 100%. In fact, I say it a lot and I feel like I'm not quite getting it. it through to everybody yet in F3, you know, but like if you're not taking everything that we teach you out there about leadership, about the principles of the workout, even. I mean, things like, you know,

like our third core values that we, our third core principles that we work out outdoors, no matter what. Rain, Sean. Doesn't matter. Not it. Doesn't matter, right? No matter what. We're outdoors. That's just a thing. And every man has to just, you know, assess his own risk and decide whether or not he wants to be there. Now that's up to him. But all those things that we teach you about, becoming more durable, right? The fitness is functional fitness. I want to know that if I have to pick Bill up, I can, right? I want to know that, I mean, even down to something stupid,

like if the plane is late and I got to carry all the bags and our family has to run to the next gate or something, right? I can do that. I'm strong enough to do that. I have the mental durability to do that, right? If you're not taking all of those things that we teach you home, then there isn't any point. there isn't any point the family is the basic building block of society how the family goes

society goes and how the man in the family goes is how the family goes and that's just facts guys we got about 10 minutes left um with love and obviously there's some f3 people hanging around in here one or two some of are giggling especially when we talked about the nicknames of the monkey Humpers and all that. Anybody got a question for Mr. Schwartz? I keep wanting to say shorts. Mr. Schwartz. Ikepades.

Thank you for coming. I mean, tell me that's not a great name, Bill. Ice Capades? Ice Capades. That's pretty good. Ice Capades. Long story there. We can go and do it for time. Coach Bill, any Thursday morning, 5.30, right out here in front of Crosstown brewery,

open invitation. I love it. There it is. You have one right here out front? Every Thursday morning, right there on the street, right across from the new How many guys do you have usually show up? Anywhere from one to 20. That's great.

And it's when you're the one that day, you get to measure how you've built yourself by forcing yourself to put yourself through 45 minutes of monkey humpers. I never recommend. Which is really embarrassing now. That'd be bad. Dark helmet. So one of the things we talk about is male community leadership. And that manifests itself.

Obviously, we talk a lot about it in our personal relationships. You got a new nickname, by the way. Our family relationships, but it also is into the community as a whole. For example, here, I think it's about once a month we feed or work at a homeless shelter for men. Can you talk about any of the other initiatives, some of the other regions have taken on? Sure. I would say that, well, first of all, I'm glad you asked that. Because I think sometimes guys think that when we talk about male community leadership,

that it's like they got to go start something and that's what it means to be a leader, right? To sit atop an organization somewhere or something like that and it's just not true, right? Leadership happens everywhere in an organization. My dream, one of the dreams I would have for F3 is that we would be, guys don't like this term sometimes, but bear with me,

but we would be an organization of infiltration. Right? We would go and we would say, hey, I don't need to start the red crossover. They've kind of nailed it. Right? but I bet they could use some help in leadership. And I got a willing mind, a strong back, right? And I know a couple things about leading people to make them more effective.

So I love the asset because that's really the ultimate dream, right? Is that we wouldn't go start some big thing, that we would just go and be in all the things. I used to say all the time, I'm not sure I'm going to be satisfied until I see our logo in every boardroom in America and all the halls of Congress and everywhere else, right? then I'll know that we're getting somewhere, right? So to answer your question, there's guys like in St. Louis, they've decided that human trafficking is kind of their deal, right? And they raise tens or maybe even hundreds now of thousands of dollars every year for a couple of their local charities that deal with that.

You know, alcoholism, recidivism. I can't think of a more masculine thing to do that protect vulnerable young women. 100%. That's as masculine as it gets. I love that. I had no idea what you just said, but when you said it, I'm like... Makes sense. Yeah, that makes sense.

And the funny thing is, with F3 being the way that it is, the way that it's structured, right? It is completely decentralized, right? I am the leader. It's loose, right? I can't tell these guys what to do in the morning. I mean, they don't pay any money. I can't revoke their charter.

You know, I got nothing, right? So the only way that they would lead or follow up, anything that I said is because either A, I have a more superior vision to another man. I'm better at articulating it and better at persuading them to come along with me. That's the only way that this means anything. But the guys on the ground are the ones who decide. They're the ones who use the things that we teach them to then go and do the good in their community. So as an example, this human trafficking thing, one of the guys who helped set it up in St. Louis was like, it's not good enough to leave it in St. Louis. And so he took

all the things that he learned, all the principles that he learned about dealing with these, you know, the local charity and all this kind of stuff, wrote himself a playbook and has launched it, I think, in, I don't know, 20 or more locations across the U.S. now. And is using F3 guys. Using F3 guys to power an engine to serve, not just raise money, but also to serve these. You realize that's literally an army of normal folks. That is literally. Why do you think I was so excited to be here?

because because you got to meet Alex. Which one's he? Yeah. Any other questions? This is Rabbit from F3 Memphis. Dark Helmet, what's the best piece of advice you've ever gotten? And Bill, I'd like to hear that from you as well. The best piece of advice I've ever gotten?

You know what? A guy said to me one time, I think this is a pretty reasonable piece of advice. Never take advice for a man you wouldn't switch places with. That's, I've heard that. That's great. Yeah. It's pretty good. Best pieces of advice I've gotten,

and we don't have time for me to tell the whole story, but I alluded to it earlier is it's better to do nothing than to be a turkey person. And real briefly, all that means is my first year at Manassas, I took over a team that the previous 10 years record was four wins and 95 losses. Now I had 17 kids on a team, and midway through my first season there, we were three and three. And I think that's pretty average. But when you won four games in 10 years, they thought I was a fat, red-headed version, Elaine Kiffin or somebody, right? So there, yes or no, sir, on the football field.

But it was pretty clear that we need to start coaching things other than football, like character and commitment, integrity. The basic tenets that lead to a meaningful life long after the days of playing ball are over. And while the whole team is buying the football, only half the team was buying to the important stuff. And so I went to my guy, everybody as a guy, and I said, hey, man, why can I get that half the team to buy an important stuff like your half the team? And I knew he'd give me an answer, but instead, I got that dismissive tone that you get from your kids when they don't want to hear it. And he just kind of said, I'll coach, just keep doing what you're doing. I'm like, no, man, real talk. Why can I get that half the team to buy important stuff like your half the team?

I appreciate you're all into the football, but what about the important stuff? And he said, coach, I don't want to hurt your feelings. I said, you're not. He said, all right, real talk. I said, real talk. He said, coach, you're trying to figure out if you're a turkey person or not. And I'm like, what are you talking about? He said, man, coach, every Christmas and Thanksgiving, people from where you live come into New Chicago

and Smoky City where I live, and they give us gifts and hambs and turkeys, and we take them because we ain't got none. But did they leave? and we never see them again. Makes you wonder if they're doing that because they really care about us or they're doing that to make themselves feel good or brag to their friends

about what they're doing for these poor black folks down here. Hit me dead in the face. That's toxic charity. You know, if you're doing it because you enjoy the backslops or you're doing it because it looks good on a resume or you're doing it to check a box at your company, and you're not doing it for the simple edification of someone who's not as blessed as you, you are a fraud.

And that's what a turkey person is. And the best advice I've probably ever been given in my life was from an 18-year-old kid from the hood, who was basically saying to me, do it for the right reasons and be consistent or don't do it at all. Maybe we should call that charitism. Maybe. Because it's taken this beautiful thing, the love of Christ. and then turn it into this thing. You're morphing it to fix you.

To serve yourself. That's it. Yeah. Which I've heard you basically say that three different ways during our conversation. Alex, do you have a last question for us before we sign off at all? Frank, dark helmet. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate you taking a day out of your life to come to Memphis and visit with us. I love that you run out with the F3 guys.

I want to thank all of you for showing up and supporting the. show and supporting Frank and and joining in the interview and I can't wait for this thing to go live and hopefully there's F3 groups popping up all over all over the place beyond the ones you've already done I mean you're going to go from 100,000 200,000 let's see if we can get that I love it thank you so much honored great story great work thanks for being here Frank Schwartz everybody thank you and thank you for joining us this week. If Frank Schwartz has inspired you in general, or better yet, to take action by joining an F3 workout, sharing this episode with men in your life who could benefit from it, leading more

intentionally in your home or community, or something else entirely. Seriously, let me know about it. I'd love to hear about it. You can write me anytime at bill at normalfolks. us. If you enjoyed this episode, do us a favor. Share it with friends. Share it on social. Subscribe to the podcast wherever you're watching or listening to it. Rate it. Review it. Join the army at normalfokes.org. Join or start one of our local service clubs. Take the 10 level challenge and buy our merch, which we don't make any money on. Any and all of these things that will help us grow an army of normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney.

Until next time, do what you can. This is Chelsea Handler from Dear Chelsea. Every week, the news gets worse. The world gets crazier, and Yamanika is here to tell whoever's responsible, you're the problem. Do you know I just found out who Sidney Sweeney was? If he got a bunch of women,

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