Barbell Shrugged - Guido Trinidad: Creating Wodapalooza And Building A World Class Gym With Only $3,000 — Barbell Shrugged #378

Episode Date: February 20, 2019

Guido Trinidad (@guidotrinidad) is the owner and Founder of Peak 360 CrossFit. Guido began CrossFitting in 2008 and hasn’t stopped since. Along the way, he has earned himself a trip to the CrossFit Games, 6 South East Regional appearances, and a Peak family that he could not be more proud of.   Guido is a family man, owner and founder of Peak 360, and the creator of Wodapalooza. Guido helps teach people how to  enjoy the process of becoming a better you while not being too hard on yourself. He views training no as a class you take a couple of times a week, but instead as a place where people get to be active and have fun.   In this episode of Barbell Shrugged, we talk about where Guido’s journey started, how he opened Peak 360 with just $3,000 in the bank, the creation of Wodapalooza, the keys to building culture, the secret to having jacked arms, where the sport of Crossfit is headed, and much more.   Enjoy! - Anders and Doug   Episode Breakdown: ⚡️0-10: Where it all started and how Guido started Peak 360 with only $3,000 in the bank ⚡️11-20: The creation of Wodapalooza and the experience of failing in business ⚡️21-30: The value of saying yes, understanding your capacity, family life, and Guido’s love for Peak 360 ⚡️31-40: Nutrition, how Guido and Noah’s relationship started, and the keys to building culture ⚡️ 41-50: How being a competitor helped Guido create Wodapalooza, where he found inspiration for various aspects of the competition, and the details of running a competition   ⚡️51-60: The secret to having jacked arms and the changes to the Crossfit Games season ⚡️61-70: The art of programming for Wodapalooza and the highs and lows of being a perfectionist ⚡️71-80: Unpacking the last year of Guido’s life and scaling Wodapalooza ⚡️81-90: Fostering discipline, the importance of personal growth, and the low down on being a dad ⚡️91-100: The importance of how you react to constructive criticism and Guido’s vision for the future ⚡️101-110: Breathing practices, meditation, and where the sport of Crossfit is headed ⚡️111-120: A snapshot of the last decade of Peak 360   ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Show notes at: http://www.shruggedcollective.com/bbs-trinidad ----------------------------------------------------------------------- @organifi - www.organifi.com/shrugged to save 20%   ► Subscribe to Barbell Shrugged's Channel Here ► Subscribe to Shrugged Collective's Channel Here http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedSubscribe 📲 🎧 Listen to the audio version on the Apple Podcast App or Stitcher for Android Here- http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedApple http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedStitcher Shrugged Collective is a network of fitness, health and performance shows that help people achieve their physical and mental health goals.  Usually in the gym, but outside as well. In 2012 they posted their first Barbell Shrugged podcast and have been putting out weekly free videos and podcasts ever since. Along the way we've created successful online coaching programs including The Shrugged Strength Challenge, The Muscle Gain Challenge, FLIGHT, Barbell Shredded, and Barbell Bikini. We're also dedicated to helping affiliate gym owners grow their businesses and better serve their members by providing owners tools and resources like the Barbell Business Podcast. Find Shrugged Collective and their flagship show Barbell Shrugged here: SUBSCRIBE ON ITUNES ► http://bit.ly/ShruggedCollectiveiTunes WEBSITE ► https://www.ShruggedCollective.com INSTAGRAM ► https://instagram.com/shruggedcollective FACEBOOK ► https://facebook.com/barbellshruggedpodcast TWITTER ► http://twitter.com/barbellshrugged

How do you get your wife or significant other to live this meathead life with you? Shrug family, that was the most pressing question that came up to me on Instagram this week. Unbelievable. What do you think I am? Some kind of relationship coach? No, but here's the deal. Might not be a relationship coach, but I sure have lived this life, this meathead life. Sometimes we try and put it off on other people so they become like us. Well, guess what? You don't really want to do that. I've been down this road. It's not that fun telling somebody they need to go to the gym and focus on their deadlifts and squats because we think deadlifts and squats are important. You don't want to do that. The truth is you are dating

or married to that person because they fill gaps in your life that you struggle with. And if they were focused on only the things that you're focused on, it would become very empty in your household. A lot of things would not be happening if that person wasn't focused on the things that they're good at and they were focused on squats and deadlifts. However, health and fitness needs to be a conversation in everyone's household. Should be the forefront of living a healthy life in the conversation that surrounds that. So here's what you do.

Instead of focusing on what you like, try and figure out what they like and then meet them in the middle. So maybe sometimes you go to the gym with your significant other. Maybe sometimes you just go on a walk or maybe sometimes you go to the gym with your significant other. Maybe sometimes you just go on a walk or maybe sometimes you make dinner the way that you think dinner should be made. And most of the time, let them make dinner. There's a lot of ways to incorporate health and

fitness and movement into your life and into your family and into your relationships without it being banging barbells. Banging barbells is great. I love it. Built a whole life out of banging barbells, but it's not for everybody. Health and fitness is for everybody. Meeting people where they're at. The conversation should not be, why don't you go to the gym with me?

Because that comes across as mean, insensitive, potentially judging the way they look. You don't want that in your relationship. What you want to do is say, hey, health and fitness is very important to me. I know it's very important to you. How would you like to do this as a family together so that we can ensure we are raising healthy kids

or we are building a healthy relationship? These are the pieces that you need to focus on. You don't want them being over focused on banging barbells like you do. What you want is to have a healthy relationship built around health, fitness, general concepts that create a nice place to live, health and longevity. But you don't want to put people out and tell them that they have to be doing things the way you do them because there's no such thing as right and wrong. Your partner is very right in the way that she would like to do fitness. Just have the conversation and meet them in the middle. What they're doing is perfect for them. You just

want everyone to be healthy. They don't have to meet you at the gym under the squat rack. It's not for everyone. Make sure you're having the conversation though. It's a very important conversation to have. Just know that you're not right. It doesn't mean you're wrong, but it doesn't mean you're right. There's a lot of ways to do this thing. Starts with a great conversation. Our friends over at Organifi, they know you know what you can do. You can wake up. You can make a delicious breakfast like i do every morning make the eggs throw the mushrooms in there throw the kale nah sometimes spinach sometimes kale depends upon what the greens are in the fridge and you know what else i do i pour some almond milk into a shaker bottle and then i put two scoops of organifi green juice if you don't believe me i post a lot of pictures

of this combo on the instagrams you can go over to anders warner and you prove me wrong almost every day i get the eggs up there the mushrooms the spinach the kale all of it and then i get my organifi two scoops of the green juice it's delicious it makes me feel great and you can go over to organifi.com forward slash shrugged right now use the coupon code shrug save 20 it's an incredible breakfast. It'll make for a better relationship because you're putting yourself out there. And then maybe you'll be able to get her to go to the gym with you and do some back squats where you love to hang out and look super cool. Shrugged family, we have Guido Trinidad on the show this week. I'm digging it.

I've been wanting to talk to this guy for so many years. Since the OC throwdown way back in the day when he was organizing Guadalupalooza. show this week i'm digging it i've been wanting to talk to this guy for so many years since the oc throwdown way back in the day when he was organizing waterpalooza and then he put up this killer instagram post about leaving waterpalooza this year almost brought a little tear to my eye and i was so excited to talk to him down in miami i can't wait for you to hear the show let's get into it boat and do some things on the water. What kind of things are we talking about? Wakeboarding or drinking? The Vitaid people rented a boat so we can watch the final workout of the night out on the water.

That's cool. That'll be dope. And then we have in the morning, I don't know, Sam really handles all this shit. We got some from Under Armour. Under Armour and then Gabby Reese. Okay. Gab really handles all this shit. We got someone from Under Armour. Under Armour. And then Gabby Reese. Okay. Gabby Reese is the best.

Gabby's legit. She's great. How old are you? 38. Oh, yeah. You remember Gabby. Yeah, we all had crushes on her. Totally. My 14-year-old body was not capable of understanding that Gabby Reese was a thing.

That creature is doing things to me right now. It's awesome. Yeah, I did their XPT experience here in Miami when they came down. And hung out with her and Laird and just dope people, man. Yeah, I went out. Real people, you know? Oh, yeah. I've been up to their house twice to train, and it's like, she is.

It's funny. I always talk about it. It's like everyone thinks Laird is so cool. Yeah. But they don't realize the reason Laird is so cool is because Gabby's the fucking one that makes it happen. Like she is the beast in the relationship. Let's push this one a little more. No way.

I'm too quiet? Well, I turned you down on purpose. He's always blowing the whole thing out. I always turn him down and turn everyone else up. Word up. You ready to rock, dude? Yes, sir. Welcome to Barbell Strug. I'm Anders Warner, Doug Larson, Guido Trinidad. We're hanging out at the FitAid booth

because I feel like I'm on meth all day long. We've got FocusAid in the house. FocusAid. I don't know what's in FocusAid, but you might not pass the drug test if you drink it. I don't know what drug test you would be taking. Do they still have drug tests? Like, if you had to get a job, do people have to take drug tests now?

Yeah. We're in California. I don't think they make you do it. I tend to forget about that, but. Could you imagine? If I had to get drug tests, I'd be like, oh, I forgot about that. Right? Forgot about the Focus.

Back it up. I took a Focus Aid. I'm sorry. Keto, dude, let's talk about this career and fitness of yours. When did you guys open Peak? Clearly we're going to talk about this amazing event we're at and how you started it and all that. But where did this whole journey kind of start for you? Awesome.

First of all, thanks for having me on the show. It's a pleasure. I've been listening to you guys for a while. So being part of this is pretty cool. Yeah, it's been a long time coming. Yes, sir. So 2008 started Peak360. Wasn't CrossFit.

I didn't even know about CrossFit, to be honest. I was actually selling elevator service maintenance contracts, which doesn't sound like a glorious job. It wasn't, but it was very well-paying. And you learned how to sell things. Got a lot of experience. Exactly. Yeah. That lasted 18 months until I basically almost got fired for just not being a corporate guy.

Yeah. And following all their rules and whatnot. And so in my exit, I just started to plan what I believe was my dream, my purpose, which is to train people. I already knew that I wanted to do it, but I didn't really have the financial resources or even a plan, so to speak. So anyhow, I started training people, kettlebells, med balls, going to their homes, doing boot camps at parks. Eventually found CrossFit, fell in love with CrossFit. It's a long story as to how I even opened up those doors, but I opened up the doors with like $3,000 in my bank account. No lights. I got a lease.

How did you do that? You want to hear that story? Okay, this is cool. I want to hear all the stories. Okay, No lights. I got a lease. How'd you do that? You want to hear that story? Okay, this is cool. I want to hear all the stories. Okay, so I was running a boot camp. We got two hours. Okay, let's go deep. I was running a boot camp out of a park which then I got asked by Mike Osuna who owns New Stone I Am CrossFit here in Miami, one of the first CrossFit affiliates.

And I just went there to start doing CrossFit there, you know, because I didn't really have a place to do it at. And in that process, he said, hey, I know you run a boot camp. You know, we have another space. You can run your boot camp here and just, you know, whatever. We split the profit, so to speak. That lasted about two months and started to be a little bit of a conflict of

interest with his CrossFit, my boot camp. And I had a timeline in which I had to leave. And I had about 50 members. So I just went and started looking for a place to take these 50 guys as opposed to going back to the park that I was at because it rains a lot in the summer here in Miami. So in that process, I found a guy who was more than generous. He said, hey, you know, I have all these warehouses, you know, come and I'll show them to you. He was showing me like 1,500 square foot warehouses. And, you know, it was either 1,500 square feet that looked like crap that I was like I can't bring, you know, my members here.

Or 10,000 square feet that was like pristine. Yeah. And I was like, why are you bringing me to this place? You know I can't afford this. He said, well, you said you didn't like the 1,000 one, so I'm bringing you to the one that I can give you. I said, okay, well, I can't really afford it. There's something in the middle. He said, look, I like you.

I like your ambition. I think you're going to do great things, and I want to help you out. What can you afford? I was like, did some quick math. He said, I can do 3,000 a month. He goes, all right, it's yours. You had 3,000 in your bank account, and you told him you could afford $3,000 a month? That's it.

I'll figure it out. I'll figure it out. Baller. And so we went month to month. He said, as soon as I can find somebody that pays market value, I'll give you the first right of refusal. And if you want to keep it, you can. Or otherwise, you've got to go. But at least you have a place to be right now, which I had 50 members and had to leave.

What was market value? Market value was about $10,000. Oh, you're way under. So the dude, I mean, Richard, he's a great guy, hooked me up. So he will always be part of my story. And I was able in those eight months, it lasted eight months, to build up a clientele to about 200 members. Oh, wow.

But, I mean, I showed up there without FPL. You're still running boot camps in there? Without an FPL bill. FPL is our power, electricity. Without stereos. Like, I literally the first night brought in my car, turned on the lights and the music from my car to have music and light for the gym. So it's been a pretty incredible growth from that day, right? Yeah.

Did you have a fitness background up until then? I did, yeah. How did you know how to train people? Yeah. No, I just read one book. Your book, the one that you guys put out, right? Is that different than a two-day seminar? I did, yeah. How did you know how to train people? Yeah. No, I just read one book. Your book, the one that you guys put out, right? Is that different than a two-day seminar? I don't know.

They're all one in the same. It's true. There is the OG celebrity right there. Good to see you, T. Elena Fortunato. Damn. The elite. She competed with the boys year one.

That was crazy. So, yeah, I played football growing up, and I used to write my own programming when I was training myself to play football, and I developed a passion for it. And by the time I developed that passion, I didn't formally study it in college, like exercise phys, but I started reading all the same books and then got certified by all the different personal training certifications one could get.

And, yeah, so I started dabbling into personal training when I was – so after I graduated from college, I played football in college. I played a little football overseas in Europe as well. And then my off-seasons, I would come and personal train. So I'd personal train here, and then I would go play football overseas. And I always felt like, you know like I want to help out athletes. What position did you play? I played linebacker. Middle linebacker.

Cool. All 5'7 of me. Right? That's it. That's what I played. Middle linebacker's the best. Man. He's fucking hit people hard all day long.

It's the best, dude. It's like kickoff. Kickoff is the best. You run full speed and just fucking smash people. There's nothing like it. That's it. You get to do everything that would be illegal in real life for about three hours every single day. You get mad at a guy in a grocery store, you want to do that.

You want to start on the other side of the room and just fucking de-cleat him. Run him up, put your head right in his jaw. So good. So, yeah, I had a background. Yeah, yeah. So you started running this gym, and then did you start doing little in-house competitions and whatnot and eventually built into something bigger, or did you just go like, go straight into wanting to do a big thing? As an athlete or a business?

Well, as a person running the gym, knowing that this thing is turning into a sport, did you want to, from day one, like, run these competitions and live events? Or just how did that happen? Yeah, so I was competing. So I actually, like, one of the reasons why I fell in love with it was not just the philosophical aspect of CrossFit. You know, Peak 360, the name behind that had like a CrossFit approach to it, right? To reach your maximum potential and 360 degrees in all aspects of fitness, affecting all aspects of life. Yeah. So I developed that before I even found CrossFit. So I started falling in love with the philosophy, but as well as the sport of it.

The first year I competed was in 2009 when regionals was, hey, you sign up, you're in. I remember that. That shit was in a parking lot. I remember nobody had the same workouts. Yeah. Every region was a different workout. That's right. It was so strange.

That was before sectionals because it was regionals. Oh, yeah. Then the next year was sectionals. The first year I competed was sectionals. That's right. It's so strange. That was before sectionals because it was regionals. Then the next year was sectionals. The first year I competed was sectionals. That was 2010. Yeah, we were in a parking lot that was like basically the size of the FitAid booth right now. I remember it was like one of the workouts had a... What's that? Where's that? In Georgia? Where was that? SoCal.

So it was SoCal in Arizona and literally like the parking lot. I drive by the parking lot all the time now. And to run a 400, they made you run around the parking lot like 12 times. There was no like, it was like do your deadlift, do your swing, and then run 12 times around in a circle. 400-meter shuttle run. There was maybe 100 people there.

It was fucking awesome. I took 51st place and got my shit handed to me. I think I got like 54th place. Yeah. You probably thought you were amazing too, right? 54th out. I think I got like 54th place. Yeah. You probably thought you were amazing too, right? 54th out of 150. I was like, I suck. Yeah.

But thankfully, the last workout of the event gave me hope that I could actually be pretty good at the sport. Yeah. So I got DNF'd in a rope climb workout. My grip strength was just horrible. Grip endurance was like horrific. But the last event was a chipper that had overhead squats and at that time like no one was good at overhead squats yeah i've always had good mobility so i crushed the work i think i came like fourth out of 150 guys and i was like

okay i'm gonna keep doing this i think i can be good yeah i started training and then always was just a few spots from making were you doing a lot of like uh i mean in training for football was it power cleans yeah doing the box jumps power cleans? Yeah. Were you doing the lifts and understandings? Look at this. Oh, Mr. Beautiful decided to show up. Hey, on your time. On your time. We didn't start without you, I swear.

I'm really glad to see you went and got some chesties while you left us hanging. Got a protein drink. You got some gear. Unbelievable. He brought that for us, though. Can you make sure his mic's turned down? Turned all the way down. You are looking more handsome than ever before. Oh brought that for us, though. Can you make sure his mic's turned down? Turned all the way down. You are looking more handsome than ever before.

Oh, this is good, man. I'm just grabbing your pictures. I take them to my barber and say, make me look like this guy. So I didn't get a haircut coming down here because I'm like, I was hoping your boy would be here every year since I've been coming. The spot, that's right. I love those dudes. Yeah, no, they're good people.

They have like 80,000 of them here in Miami, so I'm sure you can find one. Yeah? Not too far from here. How far is it in the air is one from here? Probably like 15 minutes or so. I've got to get over there. Quick Uber ride. My hair looks like shit.

It'd be good. Just don't do it now. You have somewhere to be now. Stay here. That new voice, Mr. Kaden Santucci, he's been entertaining the people out here in the crowd. He gets lost. It takes him 45 minutes to go to the bathroom here, seeing all the people. There's a lot of pretty people out here.

Can you believe the fitness lower halves going on here? Not so much fitness upper halves. They should really come up with a training program to help the upper half at times. The fitness upper half should be more bikini pro. Well, listen, there's one man we can thank for all this beauty down here in Miami. Yeah. And we got him on the show. Look at this.

Look at that. Kenny came in and made that smooth. So let's talk about your training program for football and kind of how that moved into what you were doing at the gym. So, yeah, so he asked me if I was running, like, small competitions, in-house competitions to prep for something like this. And I said, well, I started competing. And through the competing, I just, you know, was doing a lot of, like, the local ones.

In Orlando, here, I went to garage games. I've ended up going to the OC Throwdown. Always just trying to, like, expose myself more to the sport and to eventually make it to the games, which fortunately I was able to in 2012. And then I remember vividly, it's funny you ask that question, like, did you want to do that? I did one down here that was really popular and was really good, very well programmed, and it was just a classic CrossFit called Swamp Monster. Hot as hell. Like, it was exactly what it sounds like.

It was nasty, hot, but brutal. I love the names of those competitions. Yeah. They're like, we'll fucking kill you. Exactly. Dot com. Don't register today. And we were all in.

Don't be a pussy. Dot com. $150 for the weekend. And he only had like 100 people competing. And I just remember like, dude, this looks like so much work. Like I would never want to do this. And while the stream's asking the event organizers, I'm like, do you guys even make money off this thing? He's like, yeah, we'll make a couple thousand bucks.

I was like, yeah, that's for the birds. I'll never do that. And then so we came here. We were ahead of their time because no one really makes a lot of money like keep it small keep it in house keep it small keep it simple yeah why would you ever want to do something this big i think some people hear that they go oh you made a couple thousand dollars in a weekend that's not too bad you're like yeah no no no it's at least for you i mean for a big event like this it's all fucking year but like for a small in-house

competition even it's months it's months well that's what they say when when fraser wins the game well you made three hundred,000 in a week. And I'm like, really? You think he just made that money in the weekend? Forget everything else he did along the way. So I was brought here by my former partner, Steve Suarez, to Bayfront Park. And the manager of the park was somebody that he knew. And he said, hey, they want to run like they do yoga classes here,

and they want to run a CrossFit class here would you be interested i said i never say no to an opportunity to talk about an idea so i said let's come out here and we did and as as we were talking about it i started saying well we need a rig we need to store all the equipment and we need this we need that he said that sounds way too complicated we can't do it i was like all right sounds good i remember we're standing at the top of that hill um and i said uh what else do you guys do here you know he said well we run events we run the biggest event one of the biggest music events in the world at the time was ultra music festival i said okay i said so would you want to do like a crossfit event and he said let's do it right now i'm all in and only because of the venue and just the conversation and then the energy that you get from it.

Where did you meet this guy? Yeah, through Steve. Steve is a good friend of mine. We were partners in this event in Guadalupalooza. And he was also a member at Peak and was a coach for some time there. So he was bought into Guido. Yeah, right. We were buddies.

For sure. We were buddies, and that's why. So he was approached by this guy. He's like, We were buddies. Gotcha. For sure. We were buddies, and that's why. So he was approached by this guy. He's like, hey, I'm not really the fitness guy. My buddy's the fitness guy. Let me bring him. So then we came together, and when I said, yeah, let's do it, and Steve was like, hey, I'll do it with you.

Let's do it together. I said, sure. He had the relationship with the park, and he has relationships here locally in Miami as well. What year is this? This is 2000. We had this conversation 2011 yeah 12 was the first year right yes 2012 was the first year and just a funny story

we had no idea like what we were gonna do we're just gonna do a throwdown as a matter of fact we were gonna call it the independence throwdown and it was gonna be on the fourth of july weekend what a horrible idea was that and the only reason why we actually didn't pull it off is because we decided to do that like a month before the event we're like we may need a little bit more time to do this let's think of a better name a couple days yeah let's think of a better name and have a little more time like what about january yeah that's that sounds like a good good time you know it's better weather and we have like four months to pull it off this time so we'll bring everyone from the cold places to the warm place.

But I swear we didn't think about that. Because we weren't thinking that people would want to come. Year one, it was just like for Miami. And then eventually, like, hey, maybe more people would like to do this. Well, that's what's so surprising to me. I've been here five, six years now. And every year it gets bigger and bigger. But when do you go, all right, we're going to need a trailer to run this.

We're going to need extra security. Like, what year does that happen? Yeah. bigger but when do you go all right we're gonna need a trailer to run this or we're gonna need extra security like what year does that happen yeah yeah probably year three i would say you know like leading up to the year three so year one we had the event and everyone loved it and we're like holy cow we have no idea what the heck we're doing yeah um let's get it together and and always just wanting to make it bigger i I mean, we had five vendors. I think we gave four spots away and one we actually made $1,000 off of. So every year, like, we just wanted to, you know, amp it up, build it up more and more. And I think there was a point in time where we said, yeah, we're going to need a lot more infrastructure.

I remember, like, it was always more about, like, how do we actually get this to look and feel the way that we want it to. So from, hey, like that event over there on that side where Bayside's at, that's probably got the best backdrop, right? It's got the ocean. It's just like very, very unique. But it doesn't fit people to sit. Like how can we actually use that as a place for people to compete if people can't sit? Like, well, let's put bleachers in the actual fountain how do you do like we have no idea we don't have like a general contracting background and we didn't know that there were even come i'm telling you like this is how ignorant we

were we didn't know that there were companies you know production companies that could come and like do it all for you so we especially steve became like the general contractor of this whole event and saying like okay i'm gonna'm going to get the tent company. I'm going to get the bleacher company. And he would get all these guys. We would envision it together, and he would handle that aspect, and I would handle the marketing, the programming, the media, things of that nature. In the background, though, and probably even more in the foreground of your mind,

you have a gym running in the back, and you've only been open four years, and CrossFit really hasn't hit this gigantic boom yet. Had you created a sustainable business yet or were you trying to make this happen and still in the super gym owner grind?

I was super gym owner grind. So you didn't sleep? No. And I got married the first year that we had Waterpalooza. I opened up another gym that failed. Genius. I competed in the games. It was insane.

I had a kid in 2013. It was like I look back and I'm like, wow, wow. Insane. My wife always said, you're crazy. Why are you trying to do so much? I'm like, what are you talking about? This is fine. This is easy.

This is the way it's supposed to be. You got to just go. Every opportunity that comes your way, you have to take it. Can't say no. What was the story with the gym that failed? I think people see this from the outside looking in. This event's a fucking gangster. They think, well, from the outside looking in, you always see the successes.

You don't see those little failures in the background. But as the individual, you know all your failures and everyone has them. What was the story with the gym? I had two, actually, endeavors that failed in that same year, 2012, 13-ish. And it was a partnership with some buddies of mine that they wanted to open up on South Beach. You know, South Beach is South Beach. There was only one gym there that I had an opportunity, and I passed it up. And then, you know, fast forward to 2012, CrossFit is exploding.

You know, Peak is becoming a bigger name. I made it to the games. We're opening up Waterpalooza. So I was like, of course, how could this not succeed? Well, the truth of the matter is that none of us, including myself, had no idea what we were doing. I didn't know how to run a business. I just knew how to really get people fired up about CrossFit and work them out really damn hard until they broke and then they would leave, right? Or they would resilient enough and stick around.

I think we all know that story. Yeah. It's like the first four years of owning a gym yeah we'll just kill them all it'll be exciting so this time i didn't this time i didn't open it up with with three thousand dollars in the bank account and just wing it right like we each put our own money and and we're the stakes were a little higher the The rent was higher. We're playing on South Beach where there's real money out there. And we did it with permits, which I never even had that experience. I was just super naive. And I think my friends also were leaning on me as the expert, not knowing that I really wasn't an expert in business. I was more of an expert just in creating a culture and a community.

So it failed within six months. Wow. You know, but obviously I learned a lot. What's that failure point? Because you're at that point where you're like, all right, six months, I could still be building the business. Like why cut it off at six months? Well, because we were bleeding money.

Oh. Yeah. Like, and we didn't have like a finance guy that was like, sure, I'll put money into this. And then no one, we had four, there were four of us. And each of, we didn't even have like, who's in charge of what? that was like sure i'll put money into this and then no one we had four there were four of us and each of not we didn't even have like who's in charge of what um i was still trying to sustain my business you know in in peak i've been uh for many years a control freak so i wasn't like trying to like find a manager a head coach there i didn't have that foresight at the time um so i was trying

to divide myself between there and and and south beach and then at the time. So I was trying to divide myself between there and South Beach. And then at the same time, then there was another location of a guy that reached out and said, hey, we heard that, you know, you're the guy in CrossFit in Miami, and I want to build a CrossFit gym. This guy had a lot of money. He's like, I'm going to gift you 25% ownership if you come and run this thing. How could I say no? Yeah.

Right? At that time. Right now, obviously a different mindset. But so I did that. That also failed within the six months. So, you know, doors were closed for good reasons. I learned a lot of lessons from it. I'm glad, like legitimately glad that I failed at that because I wouldn't know the things that I know today.

I think everyone I know that's gone from a nobody, so to speak, to having a lot of success, especially financially in the world of business and whatnot, has point or another and I've done this I definitely have done this we're just talking about it actually on a separate show they end up doing too much too fast say yes to everything I don't I don't think you're unique in that respect you're entrepreneurial and you're motivated and you have resources and people like you like it's easy just to be like fuck yeah I can do it all and then all of a sudden you're spread too thin and you're like oh shit I'm in over my head what do I do and when your first one then all of a sudden you're spread too thin and you're like, Oh shit, I'm in over my head. What do I do? And when your first one works, you think you know what you're doing.

Yeah. And then it's like, the reason that one worked is also like, has nothing to do with future businesses. Like, Oh, I'll just sprinkle the same good energy on this thing. I'm supposed to good vibe there too.

That's all it is, right? No big deal. Peter Teal says it all the time. If you start a company and it works, then you leave that company thinking business is easy. And if you start a company and it just fucking fails epically, you think business is impossible. But really, the answer lies somewhere in between. Yeah.

Yeah, no, I had, I would say within those last seven years, I mean, I probably learned more than I have in the last 32 years of my life. It's through the experiences and then also just when you fail, then you try to ask yourself, like, why? No excuses, like, I'm going to take accountability for this. What could I have done differently? And what do I not know that I need to know in order to actually have it be successful? And the hardest thing for me has always been no, saying no. And then now I want to learn, like, okay, why is it that I even wanted to say yes to begin with?

Was it just because I wanted to, like, feel important because I like to feel liked? Is it, you know, is it because I want to like to please people? And if so, why do I want to please people? Like, I've gone down that path to really truly understand so that when other opportunities come to be able to make you know good decisions which are still hard to say no but I think before you have traction on something it's really important to say yes to a lot of things and be open to the possibility that this thing might might work if you're assuming it's something you're passionate about and it's like a direction actually want to go but you get opportunities we don't have traction you say yes to a lot of things and then eventually something starts happening

once you land on something that really you feel really good about, that you see it has scalability, et cetera, then people start coming in and asking for things. Then it becomes really important to say no. So there's value in saying yes to things. There's value in saying no to things. You just need to figure out when the right time is to say yes or to say no. Yeah, and then understanding, too, like as far as capacity is concerned,

I had no idea like what I thought that there was limitless capacity from bandwidth, time, energy. I thought it was literally infinite. There was not ever an end to that. So now I definitely have more of an appreciation for that, especially having a family. That's what I wanted to ask about. You have a family. You get married. You have a kid.

And all this is going on. How's home life during all that? Yeah, it's tough. It's tough when we only have one business. it's tough but it's uh rewarding you know my wife is very supportive and not only that she was supportive not from an emotional standpoint but she was involved you know involved in helping run the business involved in helping build water blues as a matter of fact you know i always credit her to creating the name you know her and i want to drive back from a competition in south carolina we're like we're not getting we're not going to stop home until we have a name for this

event so she helped create the uh the name for the event and um yeah she's she's been awesome especially as a as an athlete because that's probably the most selfish thing that we can do right um is you know take three hours of my day to train for a hobby that i'm not getting paid for i can i can justify it and say well it's helping build my brand, so on and so forth. But at the end of the day, it's a hobby. So she's always been really supportive of that. And, yeah, I wouldn't be able to have done it without her support for sure. But it's a hobby that, like, keeps you going, like, keeps you going as a person.

Like, training for me is what, in a lot of ways, like, drove a significant part of my life. It's like what I woke up in the morning to do. Like, if I didn't train, then, like, the whole lot of ways, drove a significant part of my life. It's what I woke up in the morning to do. If I didn't train, then the whole rest of my day was a mess. I was like, that's why I don't train in the morning. If I train in the morning, then the day's over. It's 9 o'clock. I might as well go to sleep. I want more of this. I don't even

have to work anymore. Maybe three hours is not what you need to do, but skipping training is not an option. I mean training to actually make it to the pinnacle of the sport, right? Right, right. When you're playing football, it's different than you're training to feel good and just feel better about yourself and go on about your day and feel productive, right? 100%.

Yeah. Being a gym owner, and we've chatted about this a couple times, I mean, Andrew's walked away. Do you ever see yourself walking away from being a gym owner and taking on another venture, trying to recreate this somehow? So, yes and no. I wouldn't say that. I mean, I would never say no to that, but it would be very hard.

And I would think that that's one of the reasons why Steve and I, personally, I made the decision to partner with other guys with Waterpalooza. It's because I didn't want to just, I could have said, forget Peak, I'll sell it or just, you know, run it differently and go all in on Waterpalooza, which in theory is probably the gym, is in the relationships with the people that are there, and just knowing that, like, that's who I am, there's somebody that I want to, like, have that personal contact with others on a day-to-day basis, I really enjoy the creativity and being able to give back to the community, but yeah, I didn't, none of us did, really, you know, he had his thing going, he had his own business as well in the real estate world and whatnot. And I had mine.

And the reason why we partnered with others was because we didn't want to leave those things behind. But I do see myself definitely taking a step away and empowering others to run the business with my oversight. Just trying to figure that out and what that looks like so they can't free me up to do other things that I'm passionate about as well. In the midst of all of the things you're working on, did you ever kind of lose the love for Peak? Never. It was always kind of like the heartbeat of all of the other things. I mean, we'd have all our meetings at Peak because I had to be there.

I was going from coaching classes to doing a workout training for the games to going up into a meeting to plan this. And it was just like one thing after the other. It was all just, you know, all in one. Yeah, it was never an option for me. Yeah. Well, with this, I feel like you stayed dialed in, right? Like you came here, I mean, from, you know, saying hello to the everyday Joe

who comes to Guadalupalooza to running your gym. Do you ever see scale in the gym to a point of this, like, you know, big like this, like having multiple facilities where you kind of keep everything together? You know, I've thought about it, to be honest, and I think that it's twofold. Number one, I'm big on not wanting to water down the product, right? Like, I'm going to be honest right like my my growth my any business success that i've had is more from the ability again to create culture community um and be just very authentic with the passion that i share um as i as the more i do business the more i'm growing as

an actual business person businessman and i probably don't make the best business decisions for scalability because my heart is so in the business. So what I'm getting at is can I scale peak? Yes. It's hard for me to take that time away because I want to be with the people so much. And I can't see myself dividing myself across five different locations and being able to actually know everyone's name in the gym. Is it, I asked myself, is it worth it? Right? worth it right like is it worth it would i what would be the purpose there would it be simply to make more money would it be because i believe that i can replicate this and still maintain the integrity of what peak is and offer that same value that we do in one location across five because if it gets watered down to a certain level then i'm not willing to do it

it's not worth it do you see yourself as like a businessman now instead of athlete coach like now that you've been through so many of these like businesses realizing like they're not going if there isn't a business approach to it do you see yourself really as like the businessman behind peak now yeah i mean i definitely i've always seen myself as a businessman. I started entrepreneurship in college. That's what I studied. I would say, though, in the structure of the organizational structure, right, I am more the visionary, creator, thinker, problem solver,

not so much executor, operator, do it know boots in the ground guy not not that i don't like to but i thrive more in in the the concept the startup process of it that excites me that gives me energy um and then i'm like okay it's it's it's this is what it's supposed to look like it's maintained what it's supposed to look like you go and run with it and that that's what we did with with waterpalooza and you know i'll credit uh dylan was one of the guys uh who still works for waterpalooza today and uh basically operate like helped operate it you know and did a lot of the leg work are you still inspired by doing the gym things like one of the things that i really struggled with was like i just didn't want to run another nutrition challenge like i just i just

didn't there was it was like how many new things can i throw into this like one location and that was why i asked you did you ever lose the love for because like it's i found myself being more annoyed by the process that i had to go run a nutrition challenge yeah then like stoked for the people that were in it it's like where is the next level for one gym? Do you have to scale to multiple gyms or are there ways that you're interested in kind of scaling that business that like, how do you scale that business for's what I'm trying to decide now. Do I want to spend my energy scaling it? Is there still more growth opportunity just within that box that I have right now? That's actually what I've looked at and said, wow, I actually think we can make more money here. We can impact more lives at a deeper level here. And if I bring somebody in to actually help me operate it, then I can focus on building other things that I'm still passionate about, whether that be events and things of that nature.

But to answer your question, how do I stay, like, you know, stimulated and passionate about the gym is as I continue to learn and evolve and learn new things, whether it be, you know, like my latest thing, like this year for the first time, I exposed myself to, like, three different certifications that I've never done before from the XPT experience that we were talking about. I did the Julian Pannot strength thing. I did something else as well, doing more running stuff with Pose. So a lot of this stuff is like, man,

and then I've started to really just look at nutrition from a different way, and I see the effect, so I'm like, I need to share all this stuff with these guys. Wait, what was that different way? Yeah, when I was competing, I was basically just eating whatever the hell I wanted. And not really very present or aware with how it was making me feel. I just look in the mirror and I would be like, okay, I still look pretty good. And I'm lifting heavier, you know, and let's go at it. And I never really wanted to even think about developing the discipline of counting macros. Like, heck no. I have way too much to do today than developing the discipline of counting macros. Like, heck no.

I have way too much to do today than to think about counting my macros. But I would eat clean, you know, about 80% of the time. McDonald's has the best steroids in the game. Get your Big Mac, PR's everywhere. A lot of people are probably wondering, like, if you look in the mirror and you look great and you're performing really well, why would you even need to spend time counting macros? Yeah. But, I mean, for longevity of health is what started to interest me a little bit more.

And then just, you know, when you hear other people who are very intelligent speak about food, you're like, damn, I wonder what it would be like if I actually ate like that. So, you know, just, you know, eliminating grains, intermittent fasting, you know, going heavier on the fats. Like I've never felt so good in my life. I haven't eaten today. It's 2 o'clock. I'm on fire. See? Stop eating so much.

See, I've done that before too, and I feel great. Everybody's like, well, you shouldn't really starve yourself like that. But I'm like, I feel pretty good. You're not starving yourself. Yeah. So, question, because I met Dylan, and Iylan i'm like man this little dude is really sharp i mean he's a young guy yeah did you meet him just at the gym i mean how'd that i did man he just walked into my gym probably weighed about 150 pounds soaking wet yeah uh he was actually

buddies with noah i think him and noah were uh were both like ras or something like that at um and he came i want to say like six months after Noah. And he was really, his engine was awesome. So he would throw down and always just, you know, be right up there with all the big dogs at peak. And eventually he wanted to coach. So I said, okay, grab a broom and start sweeping the floor. And he did. And he started coaching and was really good at coaching. He was very passionate.

And then I think it was year two. I think he was a judge year one here at Waterpalooza, and year two we were thinking about MCs because Steve and I were the actual MCs for the event in year one, and we're like, hey, we need somebody else because we don't even have a voice after the first three hours. So my wife thought about Dylan, and she's like, let's ask him. And he took it on, and he said he was extremely intimidated he didn't know what he was gonna do but

I swear I can I remember like it was yesterday that you know none of these tents were here the music wasn't as loud we had probably only two stages and he was on that stage over there a Bayside stage and I could hear his voice I'm like who the hell is that that dude sounds amazing like he's been doing it all his life I run over there and it's Dylan I just grabbed him like bro you're really good at this he's like oh thanks I'm nervous as hell then he goes back on this is doing it I'm like okay this guy's legit and that same year he got asked to be at regionals and that same year he got asked to be at the games nice so and then so then he became more than just an emcee, little by little.

But, yeah, he's a sharp guy. What does he do now? Hardest worker. Hardest worker you'll know. I don't know who this person is. Oh, Dylan, yeah. Yeah, Dylan Malitzky. You'll see him.

He's floating around. Yeah, he's one of the emcees at the games. He's probably one of the most sought-after emcees in all of CrossFit. I mean, he travels all over the world to do it. He's got an amazing voice and energy. And he knows the sport really well. And he started off just kind of helping us out with the media side. And he was a great athlete.

Yeah, he was. Did he make it to regionals one year? He did. He made it one year. And he never, like, actually, like, gave a lot of time and energy to it because the minute, like, he started to get good at CrossFit, he started to take on more responsibility with Waterpalooza, and he, you know, we didn't force him to stay up to 2 in the morning,

but he sure as hell did. When did Noah show up? Noah showed up, one-year anniversary, so I think it was 2010. He opened up 2009. Did he show up? Was he just a freak on day one? I mean, he had to grow. He was like 19 or something, wasn't he?

Yeah, he was a punk. Yeah. He was a freak in that. When he showed up, you were like, I was like 19 or something, wasn't he? Yeah, he was a punk. Yeah. He was a freak in that. When he showed up, you were like, hey, this little shit keeps beating me. Nah, he wasn't beating me. He wasn't beating me. He was sure that was pretty close. Yeah.

And he was cocky. But you know, he was cocky. He didn't even know he was cocky. Like, it was like a good cocky. Like, yeah, I can do that. And I'm like, no, you can't. There's no way. When did he start like really crushing?

He wasn't talking shit. He was just believing in himself. Like, he really believed that he could do that. Like, he would show up. I don't know if you guys remember, but Chase Daniels, Jared Davis, like, they'd all come, and we were all, like, high-level regional guys, and those guys made it to the games as well. And Noah would show up, and he'd finish 10, 15 minutes after us,

but he used the same weight. Like, dude just scales. Like, no, man, I could do it. Really? Yeah. So when did he start, like, just creeping past everybody? How many years in? Yeah, I think it took him a while.

He was so small. Yeah. He was so small. Yeah, so it was 2010. And I think 2013. So it was, like, three years before he actually, like, got strong. His strength was always, like, his biggest nemesis, right? Because he was smaller.

But his engine was always on point, you know, and he was very coordinated. So a lot of the skill stuff he developed really fast, but he was just obsessive about getting it right. You know, I remember he tells this story about, I had an office at the time at that old gym where he first joined that was right next to like a strength, we called it the strength room. And I would be working and he did two things. one time he came and asked me for a spot and i was like we don't do that here just if you can't lift it you drop it buddy a back squat i was like no you got that and then like 10 minutes later he's like all right well can you come and watch me do this and he just like look and i was like okay i. You got that. And then like 10 minutes later, he's like, all right, but can you come and watch me do this? And he just like, look.

And I was like, okay. I'm like, bro, I'm actually trying to do work here. And he'd keep coming back, and he was relentless about just pursuing, like he wanted to know if he was doing it right. He's like, look, I've set up the barbell, so all you have to do is open your door and turn your chair and just watch. It's going to take you five seconds. I was like, this guy is awesome.

All right, let's go. Ryan Fisher used to do that shit to me all the time. It's going to take you five seconds. I was like, this guy is awesome. All right, let's go. Ryan Fisher used to do that shit to me all the time. It's so annoying. I'm always really curious about culture. Coming from someone who is good at culture, what do you think the keys are to having a good culture, both in a gym or just any business? Yeah, I would think the keys are to build culture.

That's a good question. I would say actually be genuine about what, like be specific and intentional and genuine about what it is that you want to create, right? Whether you want to create a death metal gym, you want to create a family gym, you want to create a gym where you're, you know, whatever it is, what is it? Like what is it that you're envisioning? Can you put it in words? Can you put it in the fewest words? Three words maybe, you know? And then can you repeat that? And can you repeat that to others? Can you get others to buy into it, to believe in it, specifically

those who are working for you and with you and are part of the team? And then your actions, are they in line with those words, right? So if you're a family gym but you're playing cuss words and, you know, you're just not acting like that in that way, then your actions aren't in line with it. So I think building a culture is constant nurturing of that, right? So when we did here at Waterpalooza and we're saying, like, this is going to be a festival, I would say after year one it was like, well, are we really? Like, what are we doing to actually be festive? It has to be more than just a competition because then we should just call it a competition. So we're like, okay, well, what can we do to be a festival? And we just started lining things up.

And we're like, okay, well, what do you do at a festival? We celebrate. LSD. We celebrate on drugs. At least we feel that way after our workouts. That's why everyone walks in and they lick their wristbands. I don't think everybody knows you're supposed to do that. Are you from Miami?

So, wait, hold on. Actually, I want you to expand on that point. What do you do to make it a festival rather than just a competition? Yeah, I mean, we do. I'm trying to be funny like you. I lick your wristband. I can't think of anything that fast. But, yeah, so we did a lot of things.

We said, look, we want, I don't know about you guys, but I don't know how much fitness you've watched, but it's actually kind of boring after you've seen the same workout a couple times. I haven't seen a workout in, like, two years. So we're like, okay, how do we get people to stay here? Right? Like how do we get people to stay here and actually have fun? All right, food.

That would keep me here instead of leaving because I'll leave if there's not good food, spring food. How do we make this energy inviting? What of you know miami music how about lights how about if we brought lights in here um what else if you came with i have kids we both steve and i both have kids we've got kids okay let's i don't know uh the bounce house you know rock climbing um what else like i really just don't want to watch any more fitness um let's have uh people talk and share about their knowledge and education. And what about, you know, how about a place just to chill and relax and get away from it all? And VIP or just a place for people to hang out in the hammocks. And just, like, continue to develop that idea.

And it has to make sense, right? It has to be in line with what we're trying to do. It has to make sense. Even if there's not a competition going on, if nobody was doing the events, people would still want to be here. People would still want to be here line with what we're trying to do. It has to make sense. Even if there's not a competition going on, if nobody was doing the events, people would still want to be here. People would still want to be here. That's it. There's a lot of times pitching an idea like lights and all this stuff, it's not a necessity, but it adds to the element,

which makes it more entertaining, which is really impressive. Walking around here, how does that feel for you? You are the guy behind this. I've said it for years. I know I've said it to you when we've done other interviews and stuff i said i go this is better than the games and i think it's outlasted the games the way they're changing regionals and all this stuff it's it's almost like they're desperate whereas you guys just continue to grow how how's that feel for somebody who's created something so awesome yeah man i'm humbled i'm honored really um because it was never the intention you know and we try not to like compare

ourselves to anyone else or um we really like i think it's a testament to you know staying true to who you are and what you want to do and doing it for the right reasons and um you know i've always envisioned this as something of of gratitude you know, like, yeah, it's a business, so you have to make money. But we always poured back into making this an experience for people. And we've just, you know, been very intentional, like, okay, who's the experience for? Because a lot of people just did the experience for the athletes or just for the sponsors. And it's like, no, there's four people, there's four stakeholders here, sponsors, volunteers, volunteers spectators and the athletes has to be awesome for all four not more one than the other at the end of the day some of us play

all four at the same time you know yeah um maybe not athlete and volunteer but yeah we may wear multiple hats so how does it feel i feel it feels pretty awesome it feels um i feel honored humbled and i'm just very very grateful yeah the reason reason I asked if you were actually from Miami, when I think about what Wadapalooza should be in a competition or festival in January in Miami, you nailed it. The colors, the vibe, it's all like I want to come to a place and know what Miami feels like. And, like, who would I be hanging out with if I moved here?

But this is it. This is where I would go. This is what I would want to do. What would you be wearing? Yeah. What would I wear? We should be speaking a little bit of Spanglish then, too. Well, you got a little accent in there.

I need that. I need that. I'm going to have a little bit of salsa. But all of that stuff is very intentional in the branding. And, I mean, we talked a little Spanish. I need that. I need that. Let's dance a little salsa. But all of that stuff is very intentional in the branding. I mean, we talked a little bit. I was on the other coast, and we had our competition, OC Throwdown, two weeks before this. And I remember you working your ass off in between events

when you were out there doing all that. But as soon as you guys launched, because we were already like a year or two, two years deep in the OC Throwdown when you guys launched this, and I was like, oh, shit. That shit is way more thought out than ours right now. We have got to step our game up. And this one's still here. That one is not.

But did you take some of the things that they were doing at the OC Throwdown? Always. I mean, I actually did a lot of competitions for that reason was to learn from the good and the bad, to learn from the mistakes, to develop relationships. It was awesome. Being a competitor gave me a perspective of, A, I was developing relationships with athletes. I was trying to understand, you know, the process. How do you get these athletes from point A to point B, the setup? What did they do wrong? What did they do right? And then, yeah, it was a great learning experience to be able to compete for sure. Did you go to a lot of other festivals?

You mentioned Ultra earlier in the show. Did you go to other big events like that that had nothing to do with fitness and take away things? We did a little bit. I think as we started running this, I just saw everything. My eyes just became open. Everything. Especially like branding. When it comes to logos, before I wasn't like that.

I look at everything. I screenshot a thousand times a day. I'll be driving in the middle of the street and see something like this. I could use this for my business. I'm like picture, like idea. I remember one of the biggest ideas was I took my daughter to like a dance show here in one of the Adrian Arts Center, which is just across the street. And I was like, dude, this is a bad show. This is awesome.

The lighting, just the music. And we just incorporate, you know, you can pull ideas and inspiration from anywhere, man. People take for granted, you know, how everything seamlessly kind of falls into place. Like the whole vibe, the music, the lights, all the vendors, just the backdrops, the way everything flows, people take for granted. When it's done wrong, everybody can point it out. When it's done right, people just expect it to do that. They have no idea.

Well, it's also a testament to what you guys have built here and the fact that it continues on because if you are running, like, a $3 million competition, but 3.2 is going out the door you still lost you lost a hundred thousand dollars yeah and this space the event space is very challenging on the financial side there's a lot going out there's a lot coming in yeah there's not a lot left over at the end and when if there is something left over the people expect bigger and better next year. Yeah. How have you guys been able to actually financially keep this thing going when so many of them have popped up, made a big splash, and then there's no longevity to it?

Yeah. I mean, yeah, we did our best, the best we could. I have a financial background, and I didn't do anything with it. Actually, my partner was the one who really oversaw that. But you know what's funny? I've consulted a few other events throughout the last couple of years and we never spent more than we made. And this is year one. We started this event. Yeah, right? Like why didn't anybody else think of that? But basically what I'm getting at is because of the nature of these events, you pull all of the registration money up front. The sponsors, they're paying you up front.

So you kind of know what you're working with. I'm not going to spend more than this. That's it. And then year one, I think we each put maybe $1,000 in the bank account. And I think we made $1,000 at the end or $2,000 at the end. And we're like, all right, good. Let's put that $2,000 and put it to work next year. We never invested money.

We invested $1,000. We never pulled out money from any line of credit, borrowed from anyone else, which it wasn't like we didn't want to. We just never felt like we had to. So, yeah, I think it was just the nature of the way that we sold sponsorships, registrations. We was like, okay, this is how much and we will project this, how much we're going to make. All right, now how much are we going to spend? So it wasn't really that difficult. When it started to get difficult was at the end, like, you know, the last couple of years.

When it starts to grow, there is a lot of miscellaneous expenses. And you're like, you just start bleeding. It's like, whatever. You know, like, oh, we forgot about this. Or you need this piece of equipment. Or order this much food for these volunteers that we didn't know we were going to have to hire. Well, one of the biggest things that we would run into is like, you set all this up, and then the fire marshal comes.

And he's like, you're going to have to take down half of this and restage it over there. And you're like, dollars. They're going out. Nothing's coming back into the, like, the cost that you don't see or the problems that you don't see, I think, are the pieces that really hurt these events from continuing on. It makes it so painful. Did you guys have, like, a ton of things just figuring out

how to make this work at the Bayfront? Yeah, I would especially say after the event is when we would receive the most of those. You know, like Park said, hey, there's a lot of damages that weren't here before pay up. Or Rogue, hey, you didn't send back all the equipment that you had. And we're like, what do you mean? They're like, yeah, this is broken. And, you know, those light poles that you tore down, like, we can't send back all the equipment that you had. And we're like, what do you mean? They're like, yeah, this is broken.

And, you know, those light poles that you tore down, like, we can't replace those. So you're going to have to pay for that. And, yeah, there's a lot of that. With some of the equipment, I'm so intrigued by that. Like, Rogue rents that equipment. Was it ever worth it at one point to just buy all this shit? Yeah, we definitely considered that a few times. But the sponsorship deal with rogue has

always has always changed every year it changes you know so um i'm not yeah i won't get into details because they're boring really but but it changes so some years it was you know better than others but at the end of the day um yeah it could be depending on on uh you know if you're going to run more events and it definitely might make make sense to invest in buying the equipment. I've seen some of the large ones, and they literally have like two semi-tractor trailer things parked outside the gym just waiting for next year, and it just seems like such.

Really? Yeah, they like buy. They bought everything, and it just sits there until the one weekend that it's needed. It seems like a massive cost. You can almost make a business out of that and just rent that equipment out. Rent that equipment. There it is.

See? Let's do it. Were there any big things that you always wanted to do here, but you just could never finally get to the point where you could pull it off financially or just get the team bought into it or anything like that? Not really. I would say one of the biggest you know accomplishments that i wanted to do was was have that barge out and we did that a couple years ago which was cool

um i always envisioned a little bit of a like double decker kind of like a place for the athletes right so the bottom floor all ac'd with with like the the sides um uh not like be the clear, transparent plastic where they can feel like they're protected from the sun and all that and the heat, and they're in a nice environment, but they can also see the event, so it would be two stories. Yeah, yeah. These are all just flashy things that you really don't need, but again, add to that experience for the athletes.

Another way to draw on money, have you ever thought of having a concert? You already have the stage set up. There's so many music acts down here in Miami. I'm not talking having Will Smith here, but having some low-level. Yeah, you are. I want Will Smith. Pitbull.

Is he busy? I went to high school with that guy. I was going to say, you probably know him. He's one year younger than me. Was he the same guy? I taught him everything he knows. I love that. Dude, you need to learn how to squat more.

You have the music thing handled. Come on. But you think about it. You have everything already logistically set up. Why not bring in a music act, sell tickets to that? We always talked about it for sure, and it was just a matter of making it happen. What does that look like? Do we have to pay that guy?

Would we charge extra for it? As a matter of fact, one of the reasons why we partnered with the guys that we did is Do we have to pay that guy? Do we, would we charge extra for it? Um, as a matter of fact, one of the reasons why we partnered with the guys that we did is because they have a music background. They run, they organize and sell concerts actually loud and live does. Yeah. Was there ever a time like mentally and emotionally where you thought you

wouldn't be a part of this every year? By literally the day after it ended, you were like, no more. Yeah. I mean, it would like have those ebbs and flows like there's no way

I can do this anymore and then to be honest what would keep me going were like the thank yous people coming up to me like thank you this is like

really been impactful this is the most amazing thing I've ever been a part of and I'm like okay I gotta do it again this event literally I think is the biggest like

one the media that you guys create and give access to the athletes, but I don't think I've ever heard it, especially the bigger name athletes. They show up and every single one of them is so stoked to come back and the experience that they have coming here. You could just tell that they're so happy to get out of wherever the hell they live to come to a place that's warm, that has a good vibe. Like everybody is always speaking so highly of what you've created.

It's really awesome. Thank you, man. I'm proud of that. I'm proud of not just that those elite athletes have that experience because it is cool and different, especially for them to compete without that pressure of, is this going to get me to the CrossFit Games where I'm here on the biggest stage in the world?

But they're still competing against their peers under a professional setting. And then they get to actually connect and be really close to the community, which is where they train every day. And then athletes that maybe can't lift as heavy as them or do things as fast as them are doing the same workouts as them scaled to their level. That's what I always thought was so cool. It's that you don't have to be the best of the best. At the CrossFit Games, it's always the top tier. Here it's everybody. Everybody can compete.

When you guys started doing the adaptive division stuff, I thought that was awesome. And it's cool because now you have people. It's not even just like the Granite Games. A lot of these other competitions are national competitions. This is a world competition. There's teams from Italy here and Brazil and everywhere around the world. I think Miami is probably the draw

too, to be honest. It's right here. It's the gateway. Miami's probably not even considered a city in the United States. It's like its own country. It was the first thing I noticed when I got off the plane. It was like, what language did we speak here? I went to dinner last night with Ben Alderman and Blair,

and the waiter was, and it was in English. It wasn't like we went to a Latin place. The guy was just speaking full-blown Spanish to Ben, and he was looking at him like, huh? What did you say? I'll just take food. Food? Do you serve that here?

Agua. Do you walk around here even today and, like, see the competitors out there on the floor doing their thing and just wish, like, fuck, I wish I was still out there um so i just got here by the way like i came here you know first to be able to hang out with you guys and do this interview and yeah and i came here on thursday um to do the opening ceremony talk um and then i'm going to hang out a little bit afterwards and uh and watch a little bit and just so do i wish i was still out here um i don't haven't haven't tapped into that feeling yet you know i'm just kind of trying to and watch a little bit. So do I wish I was still out here?

I haven't tapped into that feeling yet. You know, I'm just kind of trying to soak it all up. I mean, as a competitor. As a competitor. You see him out there lifting weights on the floor, and you're like, man, I wish I was out there lifting weights. That looks awesome. Yeah.

No. No, not right now. You know, I mean, we competed for a long time, man. I think I burned that candle through and through. I actually, when I said I'm done, that next year, Dave announced that they were doing the 35 Masters. And I was like, I'm not doing it. And I was like, okay, I'm not training for it, but I'll do the Open. And I had enough fitness left over from the six years or seven years of doing CrossFit that I just did a little extra conditioning leading up and was fortunate enough to qualify. But I think right now I'm just so focused on spending time with the family, building business, doing other things.

And then knowing that CrossFit is that sport that you can always just jump right back in on. Well, you have a lot of the skills already built in. Yeah. It's not like you're going to a lot of the skills already built in. Yeah. It's not like you're going to lose handstand push-ups or something. Exactly. I have completely. I haven't done one since I stopped completely. Why did you look at my arms when you said that?

I was going to say, I can't stop looking at his arms. I'm like, how the fuck does that happen? So here's how it happens. I tell you, you just got to flex like every two seconds, like all day. Just walk around. Can you imagine if you did that for like for like whatever 16 hours that you're awake? You just did this. Didn't Bruce Lee say he used to do that?

I mean, Bruce Lee. Like isometric just holds. I think the bodybuilders just passively get so fucking yoked because they're posing all day long. Just constant contraction all day staring at themselves. I feel like walking around here, the three of us look like three guys who never worked out. He's all jacked up. I was like, you look better than most of the competitors. I rolled up my sleeves on purpose.

We're going to take a quick break. When we get back, we're going to talk about some of the changes that are happening in the CrossFit season, how this kind of plays into it, and then where you're at now. I love it. Let's do it. Thanks, guys. Hope you're loving the show. Make sure you get over to Instagram

at Anders Varner. I'm answering one question a week. Ask AV. Those are my initials. That's why you should go over to my Instagram at Anders Varner. Hit me with your most pressing questions. I'm going to be putting them

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nutrition for weightlifters, websites loaded with all kinds of fun things. I'm at Anders Varner. Make sure you send your questions over there. Take a screenshot of the show. Hit me with the hashtag GoLong. I love the long shows. Everybody that stopped me and said thank you for extending the show out in Miami, you're making me happy.

You're making me happy. Let's get back to the show. Welcome back to Marble Shrugged. I'm Anders Warner, Doug Larson, Kenny Santucci, finally on time. Guido Trinidad. Dude, smashed the first half, bro. Thank you, man. Let's talk a little bit Wadapalooza here.

Let's talk CrossFit as far as was there ever, I actually remember when we were doing the oc throwdown being in conversations and regionals was kicking off and thinking this would make a lot more sense if they made the oc throwdown the regional event like why isn't wadapalooza like the northeast championship at the time that bergeron was running like why don't we have these competitions mean more than they do and then we get to the point where it happens. Here it is. Were you guys having that?

I was the guy. You're welcome, Glassman. Sorry, Castro. You lost your job. He listens. It's okay. Did you guys have those conversations? Were you, like, ever building this thing and the idea of if this thing pops the way we think it's going to we would like to be like the biggest

competition kind of in the country right now that which i i believe you guys are and probably the most sustainable uh competition was that ever part of the conversation with you guys i mean the conversation not not necessarily with crossfit itself you know i think that it's pretty uh safe to say that that they you know didn't really want to have anything to do with any other events yeah space did that ever bother you no not really i think it was just like it was what it was yeah like i didn't expect anything else okay you created the sport um you know i all i wanted was their support and we were fortunate enough to get it, you know, which not a lot of events did, right? And their support meaning, you know, the godfather giving the blessing.

Yes, you can run a business and run this sport without our name on it, which sounds weird, but, yeah. Yeah. It used to bother the shit out of me. Like, we're doing the exact same thing. You never talk about us us but we always talk about you yeah maybe it's genius on their part that's changed i don't think so i think they finally realized that we're actually doing it helping their sport helping their brand of crossfit we're getting people more people in the gym to stay there longer to buy more stuff like

yeah if crossfit games existed without all of the smaller events, the sport wouldn't thrive the way that it would. It just helps the ecosystem. When the Ogar thing happened, the very first person that showed up that afternoon was Castro. And I was like, oh, you never want to talk about us. You never want to do anything. And then as soon as something bad happens, now all of a sudden we're a CrossFit event

and we all have to play on the same team. It was super. I hated the vibe between CrossFit and all of the smaller events. It just sucked. Yeah. Well, that's, I mean, we were talking about it before, the same thing that you guys are doing with the Shrug Collective. You're bringing in these other people.

You're like, all right, we're all doing the same thing. Let's pony, you know, piggyback off each other, help each other out. Yeah. And I think if they would have done that earlier on, I think they would have found a little bit more success instead of this, like, cut down the middle right now. I think to their defense and what I've heard is that, you know, they, even though at a CrossFit affiliate gym they can't regulate and they're not sure what we're even doing in there, right?

We don't even have to be doing CrossFit. We just have to pay them the couple thousand dollars that we have to pay. But I think from the event standpoint, I think they were very concerned about, you know, what that could do to their name, to the brand. Why that wasn't the same, you know, mindset that they had with the affiliates, I'm not sure. But I think that's where their mindset was at before. But now they view it as, okay, any event that's a fitness competition should be a CrossFit competition because it's only going to help grow the plan, I guess, so to speak, that Glassman has, which is to go, you know, how many?

A million affiliates? Yes. How many wants? It's a big number. It's a big number. How have these events changed since the structural change where now they're saying some cross events and they count for getting people to games and all that?

Like this event, Dubai, Granite Games, et cetera. Do you know ways that these events have changed for the better or for the worse? I don't because I haven't been involved in those conversations ever since the announcement was made or anything like that. I don't know how much CrossFit is and is not involved. I imagine that they're not very. There's no one from CrossFit here this weekend that's involved in any organizational aspect of the event or looking at any judging or anything like that.

I think the only thing. I see Justin Berg. Is he still a part of it? Of the games? Yeah, he's still part of it. All right, so I've seen him. So at least there's some people. But they're not controlling anything.

They're not saying, hey, you can't do that or you can't do this. Well, that's what I think is weird. Could you imagine just going to a business that you know about but you really don't know the inner workings? And be like, all right, you guys are going to be a part of us and not have any. Yeah. I don't know if, like, programming has to be approved.

I'm not sure. I really don't. I'm not sure. It doesn't seem like it. We would love know if, like, programming has to be approved. I'm not sure. I really don't. I'm not sure. It doesn't seem like it. We would love for you to speculate, and we'll give you at least 100% confidence in your voice. No, but I feel like they had a bunch of different people. Like, I know Misfit made a workout. Yeah, they had a collective group of guys.

Hinshaw had one. Yeah, Hinshaw had one. And one or two. Yeah, it seems. Were you in control of the programming for all the events? That was like your sweet spot? That was my baby, yep. I love that.

Yeah. How do you make sure that you get all the things done that need to get done for the athletes that are all still very spectator-friendly? Yeah, I would say the hardest part about that, by the way, is to make it spectator-friendly with the landscape that we have. I don't know you know i don't think people actually think about it that much when they're watching there's not a lot of space right like crossfit games you have a whole tennis stadium which is bigger than any of

these stages that we have here and then you have the whole darn football soccer field we don't have any of that so that was the hardest part was to like get creative but test, you know, well-rounded fitness. And then for every single division in the world, teams, masters, adaptive, youth, all that stuff, have it rotate with the equipment. I mean, it was like I'm not in the medical field, but I imagine it was equivalent to like doing open heart surgery, brain surgery at the same time. I always thought the programming was awesome. Like anytime I've ever come down here, I think the first year when I emceed it, I'm like, man, I want to actually try out some of these workouts. Yeah, I took a lot of pride in that.

Probably too much, to be honest. It was probably the thing that, although it gave me a great sense of satisfaction doing it, it's probably the biggest relief that I don't get to do it anymore because it was just it was like I related it to that I've never seen myself as an artist until I started doing this and I was like it was never good enough and I always had to make it better like and I thankfully was you know in good enough shape that I would be my own guinea pig and I'd be like I need to hurt more or no it's not grippy enough or no I want it like you know, in good enough shape that I would be my own guinea pig. And I'd be like, I need to hurt more. Or, no, it's not grippy enough.

Or, no, I want it, like, you know, so I just kept over and over. And it would actually, to some degree, you know, I'd be very transparent. Sometimes it would affect, you know, the operation of the event because, you know, this workout wasn't designed yet. And in time for everybody else to be in the know that, like, oh, no, it's this rep scheme or this is the weight on the bar because I would change it last minute because it wasn't perfect. It had to be perfect. And we all know that perfect is not actually something that exists.

Were there pieces where you knew, like, I have to be 100% in on the programs? Like, the workouts have to be right, but you can't do that for all four of those stakeholders that you're kind of laying out. Like, how do you manage that? You're going to have to give a little bit on some things. Was there something for, like, for volunteers that you just had to have that was, like, the most paramount thing for each piece? Like, what did the sponsors get?

Why are so many sponsors here and so happy with the event? Like, when all the other ones, they don't have as many sponsors. It's not as flashy. How do you manage the most important things with workouts, sponsors, maybe each piece of those? Yeah, keeping it all in mind. I think the one that's easiest to sacrifice is the spectator component of it from a visual standpoint. Like, okay, so we can't see them actually progress the bar. We couldn't because we didn't always have the short bars or maybe there just wasn't enough space and we i was big on like showing that progression you know how like the

games had like that pylon that they would move there wasn't always that much space so okay we have to sacrifice that that's that's fine but hey we'll make it up because we're gonna have amazing music and lights and I think for the sponsors though like yeah we always try to like make this as much about them and you know just positioning this where we're at right now like this is at the center of the event like you can't

go from one stage to the other without having to walk through here so we always wanted to make this part of the experience it's hard to leave here I noticed I have to spend money every time I leave. All the booze are right there. You got to go through the gift shop to leave the park. Do you have any background in media?

Because one of the things that I love about this event is you guys cover it so well, especially like the night event on the water, the rope climbs. Like if you're an athlete and you get that picture of yourself yeah you're keeping that one you're taking that one to the grave no matter what happens for the rest of your life you're like look i hit the top bam hand plant right on the freaking rafter whatever it is everything in miami looks so rad like you look so cool dude i don't have a background in it no no i think i just have an eye for it but i don't have a i don't have a background in it no no i think i just have an eye for it but i don't have a i don't have a background in it you know um it was always something that was very meticulous

about like no it needs to look and feel a certain way and we're not releasing it unless it says that especially with the language and the language that we use and it needs to sound this way and from and i'll take it one step further even emails and the way that we respond. It's like we have to have the same tone when we speak. Welcoming, loving, excited, you know. I mean, imagine, especially in qualifiers, right? We reached, I think, at one point, like 15,000 guys. Like, you got a lot of emails to answer. And it's really quick to just give one-line answers.

Like, no, sign up here. You know, like, no, man. Like, if you got to be you know smart about it and could do a copy and paste what have you but it needs to sound like like you're genuinely grateful that they even want to do our event yeah um and that you want to help them you know so yeah i've always just been i guess detail oriented in that way which you know sometimes can backfire again because sometimes you take too long to produce things and you run an event and it's time sensitive and it could hold things back so it could become a double-edged sword but in in a lot of ways it also is beneficial you know yeah i'd like to kind of unpack a little bit of the

the last year of your life i mean you made an instagram post the other day i have sold a business and also left that business probably not like exactly like I wanted to. And, dude, I felt that. I felt that. I was like, I know some of those emotions. But what is like Monday morning at the end of Wadapalooza 2018, what's kind of going through your brain and you just finished the event. You have no idea what's coming for the next year.

Yeah. Where are you at in that process, just finishing last year's event? So last year I was finishing the event and I was exhausted, as always. Yeah. Exhausted, but feeling grateful, you know, that everything was a success. And we had just partnered, you know, six months prior to that with with loud and live and i was very grateful and excited about that and um yeah i just felt like obviously like hey okay we're ready the first six months we're like hey we're just getting to know each other and starting to plan for the future but really let's just focus on this and then once the event's over we're going

to start talking about what's going to happen moving forward. What was Loud and Live? What kind of company is that? So they were a marketing event entertainment company. I think specialized in specifically marketing activations and in concerts and things of that nature. And then they were just beginning to... The founders of that company had sold the previous company and then Loud and Live was a brand new company and they acquired us. They partnered with us and they wanted to get into the fitness and sports space. So yeah, it was exciting to know that we were partnering with guys that have done things that we've never

done before and that had experience that we hadn't had before and that had the ambition and appetite to scale it. And it's something that we really wanted to but didn't know how to do, weren't sure. So, yeah, that was our reason for that. Was that something where you were looking for them or they were looking for you? Like who initiated that conversation?

Steve had a relationship a mutual relationship um that they were introduced and you know my idea was always we're going to find a non-endemic is the you know the the jargon industry jargon uh non-endemic sponsor which is basically someone who's not in this space to come and give us money sponsor this event so that we can actually activate and then go ahead and scale. American Express, American Airlines, companies like that, T-Mobile, what have you, would come and put their name on this and then we'd be able to grow it from there. And I think Steve's mindset was like, hey, I think that it's better if we would, we have a better chance of actually selling it because we

don't have relationships with these big corporations. And so he found that and we both made a decision and thought it was a good idea to partner with them and well he had an event planning background right he didn't know who's the concert no no the loud and live had gotcha yeah yeah they haven't so looking back now do you think that was you know a good decision yeah yeah i don't it. I don't regret the decision at all. You know, we needed help, man. This thing kept getting bigger and bigger. And like I spoke about earlier, I didn't want to leave peak. And Steve has, you know, a bunch of other things that he had going on and had on his plate too.

And so it was kind of like, you know, what are we going to do? You know, because we were getting spread really thin, getting burnt out, and we needed to do something know because we were getting we were getting spread really thin getting burnt out and we needed to do something uh about the business we need to take it to the next level because everybody kind of expected that right like what is going to happen to waterpalooza because every year kind of outdid the prior year yeah yeah so i wanted to uh to take it you know somewhere else scale it uh that required money it also required, okay, is CrossFit going to give its blessing? Does it make sense? Are we going to water down the product?

There was a few different ideas that we were playing with. But in order to basically just create a whole other event or even multiple events, you need people, and those people need to be managed. And those people that need to be managed need – it just requires a bigger team than what steve and i had so i think uh you know partnering with those guys was was a good idea there's very few events if any that do multiple events right i mean you guys are probably the biggest one but nobody's doing multiple events and there are very few gyms okay i think jason's probably one of the only ones who's

doing it successfully yeah like creating multiple gyms Do you think it's just the community isn't that big to create multiple events on either sides of the country? Or, I mean, to create multiple gyms? I mean, what do you think the flaw is there? Because you have a great gym. You create a great event. You would be one of the leaders to create another one with your vision. Like, where do you think where do you think that roadblock where i think we're about to find out right because no one's done it yeah at

least that i know of on a on a big scale i think there are like flex i think garage game started doing it right where they where they create multiple events um but the flex events up in new york yeah like none of them ever did well like i worked for those guys for a little bit you know they never did it right. Yeah. You know, they were always done like you'd get there and it's nothing like this. You'd have two vendors, you know, a couple hundred teams and stuff, but there's no one spectating.

Yeah, my fear was always like there's just not enough money out there to run an event of this magnitude. We could do it, but we have to be okay with making making it smaller and then I was worried that oh it's not the same you know we're not gonna go to that it was just a lot of apprehension as as far as like you know do we do it again and if so what does it look like and then that's when you know we're like okay well if we do it how they have to be tied in in some capacity and there has to be an incentive for people to go to both.

So that's kind of like where we were at in that process, and then I became not part of it anymore, and then the whole CrossFit thing happened, and they switched their whole season and what that was going to look like, and here we are today. Where, how deep into 2018 were you when you started to recognize the pattern might be heading to, like, when did some conflict arise or you not being a part of this? How did that, without going into whatever depth you can,

like, where along the year did you start to notice you might not be a part of this? It's a little complicated, and it's actually, like, both parties parties, we've chosen to keep it a private matter, so to speak. But as far as timing is concerned, I would say just a couple months after the event, we parted ways. Oh, it was that quick? Yeah. Wow. Yeah, a couple months after the event. But yeah, it's all good.

Just recently, at that time, I was still a partner. And just recently, we reached an agreement, in which I'm not anymore. I sold the rest of it, and we're both on good terms. I really am excited to be here at the event, and I wish the event continues to grow and thrive. And that's why I came and did the opening ceremony speech, because I love this community. I wanted to keep kicking ass. You have no partner anymore. No.

I mean, no. Dude, you started something, and then you sold it five years later. That's rad. Yeah. All of the other things, like I have to think about this all the time because, like, you think about the number of things that you wish you could have done different or the relationships or the way you talk to people. But the truth is, is, is like you didn't know what the

hell you were doing five years later someone came in here and you made money off of it yeah about seven years later to be exactly yeah no it's it is it is uh it is an honor for sure yeah it really is especially guys guys and and to be very frank like legit business guys too like not just like anybody that had money like oh i want to own water palooza because i do crossfit and i got tons of money i don't know what to do with it like no these are guys that like studied our business looked at our numbers and like yes this is a great business opportunity and we believe in in in the vision and where this is going yeah so good boom and all these people still show up to this thing yeah literally based off of the the vibe and the culture that you created.

Like, it's a really impressive thing. It's always been an impressive event. But when, I think part of why we all do this entrepreneurial thing is literally like to create something that lives on past us. Yeah. And have some sort of imprint

into what we do that it's like, man, it'll be 2025 and you'll go to Waterpalooza. People are like, oh, this is so rad. You're like, I know. Yeah. I fucking started it.

Thank you, man. You did it. I agree. Thank you for that. I really feel that that is everything right there, right, is if this can continue to live on in my absence and it gets just as good or better, I mean, I'm happy with that. Very, very fulfilled.

I played. I feel like we're all here, right? Like we're doing life. And if we're actually present, like what's the whole point? What are we doing? Why are we doing? It's like we have gifts. It's our job to, like, recognize what they are

and use them to the best of our ability, not for our own good, but for the good of others. And it looks like people are having fun, and we're all benefiting from it. When you're giving the speech at the beginning of the ability, not for our own good, but for the good of others. And it looks like people are having fun and we're all benefiting from it. When you're giving the speech at the beginning of the event, like what's happening for you internally? Is it mixed emotions? Are you excited to be here? Like you're just happy to see everyone?

Like are you somewhat like sad about like this isn't my thing specifically anymore? Like where are you at when you're giving that talk? Yeah, I mean, look, it's like a cocktail of emotions, right, if I were to compare it to like something physical. And I'm very aware of the fact that if I am not happy because I am not, in theory, part of it and I'm not playing on the field, that that's my ego talking and that's prideful and that's not why I started this.

I didn't start this for me, for people to look at me and to say that's coming from a that's not why i started this i didn't start this for me for people to look at me and to say that i get to do this i did it because i want to create something awesome for us and it still exists and i actually get to hold the microphone and remind people of it that that's that that's what i try to embrace and focus is on that truth is that i'm grateful that i get to be here and just remind you of the mission and the vision that that still is in my heart and let's if we keep and we stay true to this this event can still be awesome forever when uh now that you do not have the uh the this guy's an animal by the way oh my god I'm drooling over here he's the sexiest humans alive you need need a bra, bro. Nick, you're right here. Put some clothes on.

Good to see you. Are you? Okay, you're not coming after me. I'm done. Good to see you, bro. When you have an extra 60 hours in your week, now that you don't have to do this and prepare for it and have all of the stress of it, how do you feel that time now?

That's so funny you say that. It feels like I have the same amount of time. Zero. Zero. Yeah. As an entrepreneur, you guys know, right? You're always busy again. The to-do list is endless.

And I'm always wanting to start and create something new and trying to be a little more intelligent about saying no and which opportunities to jump into which not should i put more energy into peak should i think about starting another event do i i'm really into this mindset development personal growth you know space and wanting to help people on that end and should i try and make that a career or do i just keep that as a hobby or with with the mindset and personal growth thing, is that something you're kind of pioneering at the gym with your members to perfect and refine this new idea that you have before you expand it to the rest of the world? Yeah, 100%.

So first of all, just really doing it for myself personally, right? Like personal growth, the same way that we would. The way I'm relating to answer your question is i i remember when i was training myself for football to try to be the best athlete that i could physically and then i said man i actually got my five foot seven self to be a really good football player and a lot of it's because of the way that i trained myself maybe i can help other people and that's what i started to see is like i just did this for myself like i'm a spiritual guy i'm a man of faith, you know, and I start doing things to like help sharpen my mind my spirit

Emotionally what have you and I start like man This is actually like really good stuff that I can help other people with I saw it helped me when I went to the games 2017 and I just feel like Growing as a person and and I look you know at life and what we're doing at the gym. I'm having conversations with people that go way beyond the barbell, right, and what they're doing with their fitness. And people are coming in and they're broken and they're unfulfilled and they're mentally not strong.

They're not resilient. They don't have peace in their heart. And it's like, okay, but I've been where you are, and now where I'm at, I need to help you. I need to teach you. And I have that desire in my heart to do so. So what I'm trying to do is almost like create somewhat of like a program, the way that we do for fitness, but for the mind, for the heart. I mean, personal growth is a big category.

Like where do you feel like you're kind of in the 90th percentile of where you think you can be? And like where are your blind spots where you're in the 20th percentile and the gap is the largest where you could gain the most ground in the shortest period of time? What do you want to work on? Yeah, that's a good question. I would say, you know, so I'll tell you first where I've made the most improvement on has been focus, perspective on this one thing called anger. As a kid, I came up, everyone told me I was angry.

My mom put me in football at nine because they said, you're angry. And you're angry at your, like they even told me who I was angry at, which I never thought I was angry at this person. I still don't think that that's the case, but I think I just didn't understand my anger and how to actually express it or what to do with it. Anyhow, I was labeled, and I labeled myself as angry, and I remember in my relationship with my wife, who I love, I would have these outbursts, and I just would pray, I'm like, God, help me, fix me, I don't want to be like this anymore. And then I went and just said, you know what, I remember walking one day, I just walked

to a bookstore, and I'd look up like where are these books on anger I've seen therapists as a kid and I just don't want to have to live like this anymore there has to be a solution right picked up a book anger is a choice so that makes sense let me grab that and read it and I did and it started to just shift my perspective on like to see myself. And then that opened up a whirlwind of just taking control of my life, so to speak, and saying I actually have a choice here on how I respond to things. But I have to create. So it's one thing to understand that, but then it's another thing to be able to develop the muscle to be able to do that.

And that's where meditation has helped me is create that space and that awareness so that when you say something or do something that I have that awareness muscle well developed enough that I can now respond and not just react in my natural way which would be angry

right? So but to answer your question I think the thing that I've been hitting on the hardest the last six months has been discipline and like really being aware of like what areas of my life lack discipline and why, you know, one of them has been just waking up early in the morning because in order to, to, to personally grow, everyone says it and I had to buy into it. It's like, it has to happen in the morning. Can't happen in any other time.. So as much as my whole life I've told myself and people have told me, you're not a morning person, you're a night owl, I'm forcing myself to wake up anywhere from 5 to 6 a.m. and do the work.

And I put in 90 minutes of just me time without anyone else. So that development of discipline has been really, really tough but very rewarding at the same time. What's that look like? Because I'm very interested in that. Because I see the way you're handling everything and the way you've been and some of the stuff you said. I'm like, that's so impressive. What does that me time look like?

You get up in the morning. Yeah. Take us from there. So I'll tell you. First, it's called what the way that, that I interpreted was, uh, I heard it from two different people. One was Anthony Robbins calls it, you know, your power hour. And he has his, he created his, right. It has like four stages.

It starts off with like gratitude, uh, different things. I think he goes into like affirmations and incantations. And then I read another book. My wife got me about called the miracle morning. And it was like geared geared towards networkers. It was a little weird, but by the way, I never grab books and read the whole thing. I read about half, and I was like, okay, I got it. And I get unmotivated, and I read something else.

But I got this, and I just said, I'm going to create my own Miracle Morning. Yeah, exactly. I'm going to create my own Miracle Morning, and what it looks like is I wake up. I'm like a little thief in terms of ideas. I just get ideas from different people, and I'm like, let me borrow that and see if I can melt it into my own thing. So now what I do, and I've been doing this specific thing for the last two months, is I wake up in the morning, and I'm going to rep max push-ups. Like Margot Alvarez, just not naked. Okay?

I don't know if you saw that Instagram post. I have not. No? Now I will. Now you will. I love Margot and her husband, just not naked. Okay? I don't know if you saw that Instagram post. I have not. No? Now I will. You will. I love Margo and her husband, by the way. They're awesome. But it was like, what are you doing?

Okay. Let me just read here. And she hits max set push-ups. And the reason I wanted to do it is because I wanted to make myself do something that I definitely did not want to do when I just first woke up. I wake up, no matter how much I sleep, and what I did the night before, I typically wake up and I feel like hell. My first five minutes are hell. I'll sit in the toilet just hanging out for like five minutes, like contemplating life. Okay, I'm going down, push-ups max set, seeing that grow. My PR right

now is like 58, and then I'll match that with air squats. The same amount in air squats. 58 air squats, let's just say. So I'll do that. And okay, now I'm alive. Brush my teeth. Go make some coffee. Either pour over, French press, some good stuff.

And then I'll start. I'll put some music on. I'll pray. Some gratitude. Stretch. Mobilize. And then I'll meditate for about 10 minutes. And then I'll read. Typically either a Bible, devotional.

Then I'll go into the stoic, I think it's called the stoic way. It's like meditations from the stoic way of living, philosophy. And then I have a book, and I'll read a little bit of that. I'll journal in between. And then my kid wakes up, and I'll play and hang out with her and then go on about my day. And that takes – I try not to rush it. I don't want to be in a rush in the middle of the – in the morning

because the rest of my day is, you know, pretty fast-paced. So I take my time, and that takes about 90 minutes. How old is your youngest? My youngest is five. Right on. Yeah. You got one on the way, right? I do, yeah.

35 weeks. So that routine might change a little bit. Call me after she's born because I have a six-month-old. That was a lot of details that might change. Yeah. I have a six-month-old. I used to be morning routine guy, and now I'm morning survival guy. I'd be like, I'm going to wake up and get my zen on.

I'm going to do this thing. It's like I do a little writing. Like that's my creative time no one's awake now it's like yeah fuck i slept three hours last night i'm not doing any of that crap anymore i'm just trying to survive yeah forget just get through the next couple months i hope i can share today yeah i i don't know how is being a dad and all that fun stuff played into it as the stress of the last year and re-centering? Man, as cliche as it is, I didn't know anything about this parenting thing. I just thought you just became a dad.

And all of a sudden, yo, that little thing takes a lot of time and energy and effort. And you've got to be there. And, like, my work day literally was, 6 a.m to 6 p.m and then i would train in the middle of the day and if i got home at whatever time it was like cool no big deal i'm just your wife husband and wife and we can go do our things yeah now it's like five you're home because you got an hour and a half until she goes to bed yeah well what about my fucking work day what about the things like? I don't have those anymore. Crazy. You gotta do what Kenny does. He only has

kids in cities he doesn't live in. That's it. And I have a dog. That's amazing. And the dog has an Instagram account. And the dog is killing it on Instagram. Super cute dog. So you're gonna start making some cash. Lola. That's awesome. You better start making some cash. How many cities, by the by the way How many kids

In how many cities None Cause my dad had like five Zero Really Straight up No literally That's impressive

He had three in Spain That's impressive That we know of So that's one of the country And then he had my brother and I And then he had another But yeah he didn't Yeah

He wasn't there for me I'm not trying to make this sad But he was like Yeah bro You ran me and my dad. I wish I could pull that off. Oh, man. The problem is there has to be a girl on the other side of that.

It can't just be you. You've got to find them. That's it. So how is it balancing all this or just putting it in perspective? I mean, it puts things into perspective and, like, what's important and what's not. And, you know, really it's given me – it's all happened at a really good time, right, because this – my wife's, like, about to pop, and I would be not there to support her during this time

because I'd be running this thing here. So it's, you know – When you look back on all these things, do you feel like they all happen exactly like they're supposed to? It's just really freaking painful sometimes realizing that, like, you were only maybe supposed to create this and set it on fire and then it it had to go it wasn't supposed to be for you anymore absolutely i do i do i do believe that i believe that all things work you know for the good um and in that moment you're not gonna like it it may not be exactly the way that you envisioned it.

Like, why couldn't it just have been this way? Like, it would have made more sense. Well, like, no, because you can't see what the next year, two, three years look like. And you can't also see the growth that you're going to experience because you had to do it this way. Yeah. You know? So, yeah, for sure. I mean, even just something as simple as, like, relationships.

Like, thank God my fiance in college broke up with me and left me because then i'd be stuck in kansas with maybe someone i didn't really love yeah you know what i mean like so something some things like that like i think everything in life works works out that way if you if you choose to look at it that way though we're just on like a path that we're supposed to be doing all these things. It's just, man, sometimes it's super painful having to say goodbye to that, whatever that piece is in the current state. That's the safe zone. Now you're in the weird zone.

You don't know what to do. You don't know all the things. There's no answers really. That's good though because the worst is holding on and wishing and being angry and resentful that she left you. Do you think that would have happened with Wadapalooza? Like, it's too much. I can't grow it the way I want without taking on.

Like, you probably made the decision because it needed to grow. Yeah. To bring other people in. And now it's like, had you not done that, it wouldn't have grown. You would have been angry and pissed off that you can't do the thing you want to do. So there's always the other side of it. I think it's always easy to focus on the anger and the resentment because that's the first thing your brain goes to

instead of finding the compassion and the forgiveness that go along with, wow, that was actually supposed to happen that way in order to open up the space for where you're supposed to be right now. Well, I think it's similar to what we were talking about before. It's like our businesses that we've lost, friends that we've lost, situations that we didn't want to do. We're going to be looking back in five years from now and be like, oh, remember when that happened?

And you kind of grew from it. I really look back at most situations in life. Obviously, I think the loss of an actual human would be the only exception to the rule. But everything else is like right in that moment, even if you know it's painful. I remember a moment of vulnerability here, right? Like where I was told by one of my employees at the box that a lot of the coaches at the time or just my employees were not happy with the way that I managed them and that I was micromanaging them. And it was like, they were telling me and I felt like throwing up tears, rolling down my face. And I'm like, just take it. Cause this is going to be a, a, a pivotal point in your career where you're going to just like, it's, you're going to make a one 80 and you're going to grow so much

from this. I'm telling this to myself as they're saying it, but it hurts so damn bad too. You know? And I would say that I'm definitely a different and better manager, leader for my companies than I was at that time. Yeah. When someone's giving you feedback like that, what are you doing in that moment? Are you just sitting there listening, tell me more, that type of thing? Or is there the tendency to want to be defensive and justify your decisions because they don't know the whole story, quote unquote? Where are you at when you're receiving what we call negative feedback with just a constructive criticism yeah yeah yeah for sure i mean i think as a as a former football player and athlete right we're kind of ingrained

to be like tell me but they're not telling you things about your character they're telling you things about your performance which don't necessarily reflect your character so when they say things about your character it's easy to to get, you know, defensive. But I think a lot of these character flaws deep down inside, we know that we have them, you know, so then when, when they put the mirror there, you know, and if they're gentle about it, then, you know, I think a lot of it just depends on where you're at personally and how much, you know, where you're at and that spectrum of growth, right? Like if you can accept constructive criticism and recognize that you're getting defensive, you know. Yeah. I think a lot of times you can tell why someone's telling you.

Are they telling you it and being passive aggressive because they really want to say fuck you or are they actually trying to help because they care? Yeah. Yeah, very true. Yeah. Like in that instance, they wanted help and care for sure. Maybe they didn't know the whole story. It would have been easy for me to get defensive about it, and I may have in some regards,

but definitely I did know that there was something there that I needed to work on, and I was able to receive it and make some changes. How much when you go back to peak and your attention is fully focused kind of in that gym and in that space and on the members, how much feedback have you gotten from the coaching staff or the members saying, fuck, dude, I'm so happy you're back? Like, has there been this re-love feeling of, wow, now I'm,'m like really fully committed to these people specifically versus being more scattered like i i have been over the last seven years well i think it was very seasonal um it wasn't like i was gone for seven years it was like i'm gone for like four months yeah i was

still working on water palooza but it was only like for a very short amount of time that i would like you know completely yeah spend a lot less time at peak and i haven't been like on the coach's schedule at peak for at least two or three years now are you back my little one no i'm not do you want to be on barbell shrug say what's up say hi yeah say your name. Did you get some floor press in today? I have. Tell them what exercises you did today. What exercises? Running. You did running. What else?

Riding bike. Riding bike. Did you use a barbell? Yes. Yes. Love you, baby. You need one of those now. I know.

I'm feeling the pressure. Just choose a city, bro. Any city. And then move out. What are the big things that you're working on with Peak and kind of what does it look like? What's so first? Have you sat down and really hammered out like what the next three years looks like

or just keeping it going? Yeah. I think just really the last six months has been dealing with these changes, not being involved in Waterpalooza and trying to understand what that looks like. And I think over the last month and being able to solidify a clear break and say, okay, I'm not part of it, now that's allowing me to be a little bit more open in terms of, okay, what do I want to do? What should I do?

What should I do with the gifts that I have? Peak, first order is we're expanding another 2,000 square feet. Beautiful. So that's going to be nice. And just looking to bring somebody on to help operate and grow our coaches' team and do some stuff online and really focus more on adding different programs, more membership retention, and continue to be innovative in that space. Help people out with more than just fitness, nutrition, and mindset as well.

So instead of just having a challenge that's just fitness challenge or just nutrition challenge, but have something that's more 360, three aspects, fitness, mindset, and nutrition as well. So we'll be doing some coaching on that. And if it works well at peak, then take it outside and do some online stuff. So the expansion of the gym, some online stuff, added programs. We have six now. We're going to be at eight. So that'll be nice. That's a lot of humans.

You still coach a couple classes a week just to keep a pulse on things. Yeah, I jump in. I'll jump in and coach a few classes a week. Maybe not a week, to be honest, maybe like one a week just to keep a pulse on things yeah i jump in i'll jump in and coach a few classes a week um maybe not a week to be honest maybe like one a week but i do uh coach the coaches which is what i you know i get a lot of pleasure doing that it's just you know we have not and i don't do i take the classes so i'm able to give them like real feedback um but i also you know take pride in helping them grow and develop and not just like letting them do their thing right like we'll have coaches meetings and they're very thought out about, okay, what is it that we need to do to continue to step up our game

and be better and provide a better service? Do you facilitate personal growth with the coaches, like helping them set life goals, that type of thing? Yeah. Anything that I'm experiencing that I think works for me, I like to give it to them. Whether it be I've done – we do Headspace together sometimes. We'll do, you know, I'll do like reflection questions. It's like, hey, look, you know, this topic, I forget what was the last thing.

It was like letting go. Like, hey, just when I'm reading something and I want to share with them and, you know. Headspace is the meditation app. Meditation app. Yeah. So we'll do that. You know, some of them love it and one of the things

that we've been incorporating into our programming a lot has been the breath work you know I was exposed to that at XPT and I really liked it a lot when we expand I'm going to be adding a sauna

and cold baths there as well so I really just want to like make Peak more than just you know the CrossFit is at the foundation at the base of the philosophy of everything we do, but really continue to, like,

be innovative in how we serve our clients because I think there's a lot of options here in Miami, and I want to be a place for everyone, not just people who love CrossFit. Was XPT the first time you'd really gotten into the breathwork stuff? It's the first time I've gotten into it. I've heard about it, you know,

before, but I've never experienced it and done it and seen the value. How deep do they take you? I've only been, I've been to it a couple times,

but it's always been like an invite day where they come and give you kind of like the high level thing. Yeah. Do they take you down

like the super trippy breath work? Well, Andy Galpin was there, so you know that he gets crazy with it. That guy doesn't know anything.

He doesn't know anything. Does he have an associate's degree or something? Something like that. He works with no athletes. The time that I went there, and Laird takes you through the full hour. I had done some of the things before, like the halotropic more like psychedelic breathing practices okay no we didn't do that no no i think they freak everyone out we can go hang out dude laying on the ground the halotropic breathing thing is one of the freakiest things i've ever

done like i was laying in a yoga room and they did a little bit of it but I think they didn't want to go too far with people because it's super weird. Really? Literally you do this thing and you're like breathing and you can feel like all of the tension and like I don't know what level of fascia you're dealing with but you basically get so much oxygen into your body and everything tightens up. You can feel literally like this tension coming from the back of your head through your face. Your face gets super stiff down and through your arms into your fingers and it gets like eight minutes later of doing this single breath practice and then the guy was like scream as loud as you can and you just scream and all of the tension

leaves your body. You do this thing three times and you are scream and all of the tension leaves your body you do this thing three times and you are tripping balls in 15 minutes like it is the gnarliest thing so we're all laying on the ground at laird's house and all of a sudden we start doing this thing i'm like oh god i'm about to be in a fucking world of rolling through the ether here in about five minutes but i've never been to the actual certification piece to know if they, like, really get into it. We should bring JP over here, make him go and do all the stuff with us.

See, dude, look at all the love. JP's over there. We should bring him over here and make him do all the craziness with us. So who led that? JPT's over. Is it PJ? Laird.

Laird does all the breathwork stuff. So they don't do drugs. They just breathe oxygen. You can do a lot of oxygen. I've never. Hyperoxygen. Yeah. I don't know.

All the drugs that I've done, this was the most. Yeah, I think there's some drugs going. There has to be. You have to be on drugs to go and surf a 100-foot wave, right? Yeah, for sure. But how cool is that? That whole methodology is so interesting, right? I left there day one, and I was like, what the hell did I just experience?

Like, why are they doing this? Why are we lifting weights underwater? This makes no sense. Yeah, it was very cool. And it was like, oh, because Laird's going to climb a mountain on a surfboard, and that mountain doesn't give a shit about him, and it's going to knock him 50 foot down. And 50 foot down, there's a bunch of rocks and some, like, coral reef and whatever the hell else.

Maybe a shark or two. Yeah. And he's just down there like, no, no, no, no, no, no. Just zenned out. The bottom. About to drown. Insane. Just watch himself go.

It's pretty cool. And he was able to package that and present it to us in a way that we can do it. That's what JP's for. Yeah. So what do you feel the benefits for, for you, for the breathing practices? The breathing practices. So obviously they're meditative, right? So they help you relax, but also just expanding, you know, your capacity to be able to breathe in that whole system, right? Becomes further developed. Scientifically is what's claimed, right? And I think it's just

like anything else. You're flexing a muscle. You're learning how to control it. And I think more than anything, it gives you something to be aware of and present with when you're in a MetCon, which is what I do most of, right? So if you think about metabolic conditioning, we're essentially just processing all the oxygen and the carbon and whatnot and getting rid of it. And the more aware we are as to are as to how we're intaking that

and if we actually can be intentional in training it. I view it as accessory work the same way we do, a competitor would do accessory work, right? If you're not doing strict pull-ups with weighted strict pull-ups or strict muscle-ups, you may not see that in a competition or Bulgarian squats or things of that nature at a tempo. It helps develop so that you can perform the sport of CrossFit, whatever sport you're in.

You're doing the same thing with your cardiorespiratory system. So have you incorporated that into your morning routine? You gave us a big list of things you do in the morning, but I don't remember if that was in there. No, that I haven't. No, I mean, I focus and just, you know, pay attention to the breath as a form of the meditation or mindfulness, so to speak. But no, what I have is I've incorporated into our programming at peak.

So on Thursdays, we do that. Okay. On Thursdays, our Thursdays are what we call flow days. I saw that. Yeah. You posted that stuff. Yeah, it's cool. So we'll do just like moving large loads, long distances.

I really try to get these CrossFit junkies that just want to just suffer all day long to chill out. It's okay to not want to feel like you're dying in a workout. Just move your body at a pace that you think your body wants you to move at that day. If your body is feeling resilient and you want to crush it, then go for it. But if you want to just come in the gym, you don't have to feel like you have to like perform at a certain level like we're not like this is not for a time this is not for reps this is for you to move here are the movements you should move through let's breathe before let's breathe after um so that we've been we've been doing that and you know there's a there's a there's a good percentage

that are embracing it and love it and there's some that like i don't come on thursdays because you know the workouts are easy it's like no you don't get it yeah you know the hard part's slowing down yeah um are you going to bring some of those xpt principles like have you thought about the water training is that even a possibility i would love that man we don't have a pool um we've been talking about it you know about maybe trying to find a space to do that. I think it would be great. I don't know if as a business it's profitable. Yeah, it's weird.

I like to be a pioneer, but I don't know if my pockets would. Those are never a good idea. You do the contrast thing? You do the sauna, ice bath? Yeah. I don't have a sauna, but I want to when we expand. We can put you in touch with somebody. We got saunas coming. You got them? They're all the way. They're on the way. No, I'm serious.. We can put you in touch with somebody. We got saunas coming. You got them?

They're all the way. They're on their houses right now. No, I'm serious. We can totally put you in touch with somebody. Okay. Let's do it. They're decking a lot of gyms out. They're making a huge push with influencer people,

trying to get them in gyms. Okay. Yeah, I think Noah's got one now in his backyard. Noah. Yeah, so we're going to want to put one at peak and create a cool little space for that, you know? Right. Yeah, we're excited.

So moving forward, man, did you guys ask me what I thought about the sport? Because I want to talk about that. Oh, yeah, let's talk about it. Like where is this sport going? What is it? Yeah, what is it going to be? What's going to happen? Are we all sitting back and just watching or is someone going to do something?

I don't know. Tell me. Where's it going? I don't know. Tell me. Where's it going? I don't know, man. You've got more insight, I think, into this than we do. I think that. I think what's going to happen is Frazier's going to keep smashing people. There you go.

And Tia's going to keep smashing people. And no matter how much they change the rules or the venues, Tia and Frazier are still going to smash people. For a long time. And they don't give a shit. I think Hinshaw had a really cool outlook on it. He was comparing it to triathletes, triathlons. And when they first started them, it was just like a local,

you know, national thing. And when they started to expand to other countries and forcing some of these athletes to go to these other countries, it kind of leveled up the world rather than just on a national level. And it started to bring up other athletes from around the world. We're seeing it in bodybuilding, too. You know, I just watched a documentary, Generation Iron 3. I haven't seen 3.

It's out. Oh, my gosh. So 3 is out. What am I going to do? I'm so behind the times. Oh, I'm dying. I have no idea what you're even talking about. But they were talking about all these Middle Eastern bodybuilders

and how they're comparable to some of these American guys and how they're just trying to get everything sanctioned now and get all these guys in there. I think it's a good way to look at it. But he was saying how it's not really about the athletes. It's about the general population getting people moving and expanding the brand. So I don't even think he's looking at it from an athletic standpoint and i think right now we're going to see him take three steps back to take six steps forward yeah so it's interesting to see what's happening interesting yeah i haven't

even seen it that way i like that perspective i think maybe because i am around a lot of especially in the gym um and if you think about the majority of the athletes that compete at an event like this, you have these middle-of-the-pack, regional-level, bubble games athletes that feel like they're left out. So it's something, what are they training for? I've even heard that a lot of these training companies that provide programming, that their numbers are going down. They don't have as many athletes to serve.

It's not their thing to control. I think about those companies all the time. I have tons of friends that are in that I train athletes to go to regionals. Now if you can only train someone to go to the games, that's hard. And they gotta

come through this. I don't know. The best always find a way. It's not supposed to be fair. That's why they're the best, because they deal with the adversity every single year when it comes around. If you don't, there's no room for it. You gotta go. Agreed. Cremo, rise to the top. Always.

But what, I don't know, do you think that the sport continues to grow? Like, will we ever see it at, like, an Olympics? Or do they, do you think they'll ever even take something? Like, do you think they care about that? I'm not, I think it sounds like he almost wants to make the CrossFit Games the Olympics. You know, with all the representation from every single country that has an affiliate. I think that's genius.

That's an Olympics right there. That's a really cool thing if you can get. The countries that never make it, now they have just somebody in the country. The daughters, basically. I mean, the second most visited place is CrossFit Reykjavik. The other one, number one, is the airport. That's crazy. Nobody goes anywhere else except those two

places. And he is smashing it and dropping fees. But it put them on the map. It put Iceland on the map. Now I hear about people going to Iceland all the time. That's awesome. That's pretty awesome that this sport could do that. Their country has a hero now.

They probably have other heroes I don't know about, but they have a hero in this sport. Now every other country has the opportunity to have a hero now. They probably have other heroes I don't know about, but they have a hero in this sport. Now every other country has the opportunity to have a hero. I disagree. Since the Vikings, it's been no heroes. Now Annie's there. That's it. Since the Vikings came and conquered, they've had nothing.

But, yeah, clearly there. The philosophy of CrossFit spread through the general population in large part because it turned into a sport. The sport tainted what the philosophy was supposed to be in a lot of ways. I don't think Greg likes how it turned out in every single facet. But bottom line is it's way more well-known because it turned into a sport. Now, people are coming back and saying, we don't need to train like we're professional athletes to do CrossFit, and maybe that isn't the best way to just live a long, healthy, energetic life where you're just a normal, healthy person.

But having the role model, having the superstar to look up to, to say this thing is really cool, will influence enough people to go try the regular CrossFit that it will spread worldwide because in the United States it's plateaued, so to speak, but the rest of the world, there's still a lot of potential for growth, and I think this is only going to accelerate it. Well, look at everybody around us.

I mean, nobody's competitive here, but we all still do it. You know, every one of us is training CrossFit, but none of us are looking to go there. I enjoy it just for the fun of it, and when it starts to suck and I hate it too much, I stop doing it for a little bit. Then I'll go back to it. Yeah. And you guys offer a bunch of different programs at your gym. I mean, I think I've been over, you could probably answer this,

like CrossFit itself is probably, I don't even know what percentage, but the people we were talking to were saying, like, that program specifically is just, it's not, it's just a part of the gym. Yeah. Especially on the financial side of it. Like, so many people love your other programs that you offer. Our numbers show that more people want to do the HIIT training. Our classes for the HIIT training and non-barbell stuff is like 85%, 86%.

And then our CrossFit classes are at like 65%. So there's more people taking the HIIT stuff than there is CrossFit. We still offer it, but it's not as popular with our members and with people coming through the door. That's awesome. Yeah. Interesting. It opens up a lot of space for a lot of new things.

I mean, the competition thing actually had a question for you. I mean, you opened in 07, you said, and so you rode that wave for a long time, and now it's kind of plateaued in the States. How many gyms opened around you in that time that you were, like, fending off? And at the same time, you've made it through that and now have a sustainable business. Just if you were to have, like, a high snapshot of what the last decade has looked like of Peak and, like like making it through

the big bubble yeah what was that like in Miami in the scene yeah I think it was I mean Miami's full of a lot of people who wanted to make a quick buck you know so I think we saw that those guys come and go and then fortunately I never had that many people like open up that close to me i actually had a situation where the building that i was in um got bought out and got demolished so i had to move really close to somebody who was close to me um i was in that area first then they moved there and then i was like hey buddy i'm we got to be neighbors sorry you know uh but we both have been able to sustain growth you know and in a business for, it's going to be six years now. Yeah.

Right next to each other. Literally 200 meters away. Oh, wow. And now you're just a CrossFit gym. No, no, no. We've always been. Since day one, I started with boot camp. So I've never taken the boot camp away.

It's been boot camp and CrossFit. But I started to take and put less attention into the boot camp, and it became, I'm not going to lie, like not a great product. And for the last, I want to say, three years, we've put a lot more attention back into that. So, yeah, as a matter of fact, I'm working on a new concept, and I'll share it when it's done. I'm basically having, you know basically having an ongoing boot camp class.

When I expand, I'm going to divide the room in half, and half is going to be for that type of workout, which we called a few years ago our Sweat 360, and the other half is going to be more strength conditioning CrossFit style. That's essentially what I've done. I have two floors, and the upstairs is just that, sweating. Downstairs is more skill-based. Yeah.

I remember I went and visited you. You weren't there, bro. Yeah, I know. I was very upset about it. You're in another city doing something else. Visiting his kids. Procreating. Right on, dude.

This has been an awesome time. Same. I'm super stoked to catch you in of like in this fun transition period. Thank you. It's like the most exciting parts of life. I think what you, and this is just

the first time I've met you and had this conversation, but I think what you'll find, and I hope you already are finding it, like the vibe and the culture and the love

that you put out builds a lot of trust with people and all that stuff will find you on the way down to bring you back up to wherever you're supposed to be. Thank you, man.

I really appreciate you guys having me on. I'm glad that you're here, and we're all celebrating, having a great time, and I hope to connect again with you guys soon. That's good, man. Where can people find you? At Guido Trinidad. What do I have? What are we looking at?

Social? Everything is at Guido Trinidad. All the things. Facebook, Instagram. I don't tweet. No Twitter? No Twitter. No tweeties. But yeah, that's itinidad. All the things. Facebook, Instagram. I don't tweet. No Twitter. No Twitter. No tweeties.

But, yeah, that's it for now. I love it. Kenny. At Strong New York, at Solace New York, Kenny Santucci, and obviously the Fit A Morning Show. Can you tell the people about Strong New York a little bit? Yeah. If you're in New York, just go to his gym.

It's gorgeous. But Strong New York is a really cool event that we were allowed to be a part of. And if you want to give a little spiel on what you're building out there. Yeah, Strong New York was kind of an event that I feel like there was a missing puzzle piece in New York for a fitness event similar to this. We're more based on education and, you know, working out with people and learning and also having a little bit of depth to it. So we always pick a charity each year.

We pick a charity that we work with, and we raise a bunch of money for that charity. First year we raised $6,000. This last one we did, we raised $10,000. And we try to have a little purpose and a little depth behind what we're doing. When is that? It's been really cool. We just did one that these guys were at December. First week of December.

Yeah, December 1st. I'm looking to have a couple smaller events, but I bring out friends and I have all these great friends who have all these great contacts and stuff and I bring them out and raise a bunch of money and it works out. Super cool. It's kind of like just put all the right people in the right room with the right vibe

and magic happens. It was a really cool thing. Very cool. Doug Larson. You bet. Dude, thank you for coming on the show. No doubt you're on to bigger and better things. It was a really cool thing. Very cool. Doug Larson. You bet. Dude, thank you for coming on the show. Yeah. Dude, no doubt you're on to bigger and better things. I'm excited to see what you're doing next. Thank you, man. I appreciate that.

I feel it. For sure. You can find me on Instagram at Douglas E. Larson. I also have my own site, DougLarsonFitness.com. Barbell Shrug every Wednesday. Everything Shrug Collective. I'm around. I'm Anders Varner at Anders Varner.

Get into the Shrug Collective at Shrug Collective. iTunes, YouTube, like, subscribe, leave a nice comment. If not, Guido's coming after you. We'll see you guys next week. Ha ha. Shrug family, we crushed it.

Thank you for tuning in. Can't believe we've only been at this thing like 15 months now, 14 months. Feels like we're just getting started. Thank you to everybody

that reaches out. I love getting all the messages telling me how the show has affected your training, affected your life. I really getting all the messages telling me how the show has affected your training, affected your life. I really appreciate you guys tuning in and being a part of this fun journey. So much cool stuff we are going to be launching here in the coming months. Doug Larson and I are just getting started. We're on a tear. This thing's killing it. Want to thank our sponsors, Organifi.com forward slash shrugged. Make sure you use coupon code shrugged to save 20%.

30daysofcoaching.com and make sure you get over to Instagram. I'm at Anders Varner. Send me all the messages. Hit me with the hashtag go long. Take a screenshot of the show. We'll see you guys next Wednesday.