Barbell Shrugged - Intense Q&A - Interviewed By My Intern — Real Chalk #94

Episode Date: September 24, 2019

For the first time ever, I am being interviewed on my own podcast. I get thousands of people who apply every year to shadow me or intern at my gym "CHALK" here in Orange County. I always say no. However, I finally had someone walk in and introduce themselves that I happen to like and I said yes for once. To give him the best experience possible and in efforts to answer any questions he may have, I had him interview me and ask whatever he wants. I said "nothing is off limits" and he absolutely killed it. Lots of great business stuff, personal stuff, and a bunch of hilarious banter. This show needed to happen for a while. Enjoy!   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Show notes: http://www.shruggedcollective.com/rc-qanda ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ► 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

All right, guys, it's Tuesday. Let's do the damn thing. Super excited to bring this episode to you today because my man, Jack Van Dam, who is an intern at my gym right now, is gonna interview me on this podcast. And what I think is really dope about that, I know a lot of you guys know a lot about my story and such,

and we didn't go over that. I just had him ask me every question that he would wanna get answered while he is here being an intern in the gym. So before he came here, he had followed me on Instagram. He had followed the gym. He had a lot of questions about how do you start a gym or what makes you more successful than somebody else. And just a lot of stuff that goes back and forth between a younger man who's trying to be up and coming and myself who's been doing it for a long time.

So if you've ever been somebody who's wanted to be around me all the time, like Jack is now, and you've had a lot of these questions that you've always wanted to get answered, I feel like Jack did an amazing job at asking all the questions that a lot of you guys are gonna wanna know the answers to.

I actually wish that I had thought of something like this a lot earlier. It was such a great episode. I loved it so much. And I think that it might be something I want to do like every couple weeks or every month or something like that is just have somebody on who has a million questions, who's obviously educated and can ask great questions and hold a great conversation.

But it was just so cool to get in there and really, really feel like I was making a difference in terms of answering a lot of questions that people really want to hear. So it's great to have people on who are experts in their field, or it's great to have a particular topic. But having these Q&As are amazing because so many people just have so many questions. So I'm really, really excited for you guys to hear this. And as always, we did not disappoint on the jokes and the hilarity that is in this episode. Now, before we get into this episode, I just want to remind you guys real quick that everything on JimRyan.com has a 25% discount. If you guys use all capitals, Real Chalk, R-E-A-L-C-H-A-L-K.

You guys get 25% off just for being Real Chalk listeners on any of my stuff. I think some exclusions are on like the Dark Horse program and the Carb Cycle program, but everything else, you guys get a discount. So all my high-intensity interval bodybuilding books are in there, dumbbell books, kettlebell books. I have so much stuff going on there. I have weeks and weeks of CrossFit programming, the Chalk Online program, the sweat programming, all that good stuff. And then on top of that right now, I'm not going to say a whole bunch about them, but I do

have a bunch of discount codes for you guys. If you're into the Whoop, the Whoop band, which tells you your strain level, your sleep, all that stuff, I'm always wearing it. I've been wearing it for a couple years now. They gave me a special discount. It's $30 off of your subscription, and it's capital F-I-S-C-H. That's it, on whoop.com. And these things, if you're kind of nerdy with your body and what you got going on, the sleep, the strain level, all that stuff is so cool. I'm obsessed with it. So if you guys want to get a discount on that, it's F-I-S-C-H on Whoop. And then as far as

CBD goes, there's so many brands out there right now. It's insane. And everybody's marketing somebody. But I know the owner of 7 Point CBD and he works out in my gym every single day. And I've tried all of his stuff before it was for sale, while it's for sale now, and it's just a guy that I trust because I know the owner, and I just, I really like him, and I like his style, and I like his product. I like the logo.

I like the way he does everything. Even his creams have, like, coconut oil. There's no, like, odd, weird things in there that you can't pronounce and all that stuff, so big fan. Real Chalk, again, all capital letters, and you guys get 20% off or maybe 25 on all of the CBD products as well. So without any further ado, those are the things that I love. That's the intro for the show. I hope you guys love the show. Make sure that when you guys listen to it and you do love a particular section, you do love the show. You're so pumped on

it. I just turned your average Tuesday into the best Tuesday ever. Make sure you tag me and the Jack Van Dam and let us know that you love the show. So excited if you guys listen to it. Let's go. All right, Chalk Nation, it's Tuesday and it's time for another episode of Real Chalk. For the first time ever, I am actually going to get interviewed on my own podcast. And the reason that I want to do this is because Mr. Jack Van Dam, who's sitting across from me right now in my office, is the first intern I've ever had at Chalk. He hit me up on Instagram. It was Instagram, right? Yeah, Instagram.

Instagram. And was like, hey, have you ever thought about having interns? And if this works out, I can get my school to start sending you over some more interns, which actually I got paperwork today about that actually being a real thing now. I'm like, oh, this is sweet. But anyway, since he's been here, I'm so in and out of the gym all the time. And he wants to learn a whole bunch about – I'm actually not 100% sure yet, but he wants to know everything about everything. And I was like, what better way to give him all the information and to give all of you guys the information than to have him interview me. So I

feel like a lot of you out there, you have questions about me. And I think this is going to be the best way to get those answered because I feel like I know what you guys want, but Jack actually is going to ask all the things that he's always wanted to know from the other end of Instagram, the end, the end where he doesn't get to see me every day. So we're going to go ahead and have him take over. And why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself? Jack Van Dam, you're a grad student, yeah? Yeah, yeah.

What's up, guys? So I'm a grad student at Cal State Long Beach in the sports management program over there. And I hit up Ryan mostly because what I've always wanted to do is open my own facility. And when it comes to the adult fitness niche of this industry, right? Niche. Such an interesting word. Niche. I think really what it comes down to is there are a lot of gyms out there that have results

or they have a good program, they got good coaches, stuff like that. But really what you need is a leader to develop that culture. And you need the fucking guy, right? And Ryan is the guy. So I just really wanted to know how he does what he does because when it comes to that i think that getting people in the door and retention and everything especially building that following online what you're selling is not a program or anything like that it's a why it's a philosophy it's a lifestyle and so i really

wanted to get into his brain about how to develop that and how to scale everything, especially coming from a background where I was a collegiate athlete and starting the conditioning coach. And there's no avenues out there right now. Like you're just going to be broke for fucking 15 years before you make anything. I remember coming out of school and just being like, what did I do? Yeah. Like I got my kinesiology degree. I was all stoked and then no jobs. And I was like, oh man. So maybe we can go over that, like what I would do differently. Yeah, for sure.

That, I mean, that's ridiculous right now. I saw a posting at a, it was a D1 school, assistant strength and conditioning coach working with softball and baseball, $1,000 a month with a master's degree required. It's ridiculous. Or it's, or I mean, even the $1,000 is good actually. Right. Because when I graduated, I got two internships. I got one at Notre Dame and I got one at Stanford unpaid.

Yeah. It was ridiculous. And I literally couldn't do them. They were my dream jobs and I couldn't do them because I couldn't afford to just – You can't just not have money. Yeah, it's stupid. I tried to haggle. I was like, hey, could I get like a meal plan?

Right. Or even dorm housing? Yeah, yeah. Anything? Nothing. And I was like, oh oh i can't do it yeah that's the worst um yeah so i mean we can start there in fact like just how do you go from being an athlete and then getting into owning a business and now being more like business centric

in your mind like has that always been something that you've been in touch with or did that have to develop over time so So I like to tell everybody that not to stress too much about what it is that you really want to do when you get older and your career. So if you want to say, if you want to call it that. So I used to always stress about my career with my quotes on my fingers here. And I'd be like, man, like, what am I going to do to make money? Like, what, what, what is my thing going to be? You know? And like, I love fitness and I would love to own a gym, but it's not going to make enough money. Or like, man, like, what am I going to do to make money? Like, what, what, what is my thing going to be? You know? And like, I love fitness and I would love to own a gym, but it's not going to make enough money. Or like, I want to be, I mean, at the time I was training for the Olympic

bobsled team and I was like, this is all I want to do. And like, when this is over, I'll be a coach or whatever. And everything just kind of just happened. Everything just kind of happened. And I was like, but the one thing that I think I did differently than a lot of other people, because I roomed with some other CrossFit games athletes. And I, as throughout my CrossFit training, I had known a ton of other athletes that were better athletes than me. Yeah. And as we got older, you know, I have a way more successful business than they do. And the one thing that I did differently during that time was I was always constantly watching what was going on besides what I was in. Like, yes, I was doing CrossFit,

but I was like obsessed with like what was happening in fitness. And when I was a bobsledder and I liked bodybuilding at the time, CrossFit wasn't that big yet. I noticed that CrossFit was getting big. And then when I was in CrossFit, I noticed that people were wanting to get more fit than ever.

Not necessarily CrossFit, but they were like, I just want to be fit. Because there's a lot of people joining CrossFit and they weren't really switching over from other gyms. They were just a lot of athletes. When they got done being athletes, a lot of them didn't really work out at all anymore. Yeah.

Like, football players and stuff, baseball players. It's a huge problem. Yeah. They get done and they just get fat. Yep. But now they're like, you know what? There's this competitive gym. Yes.

So now more people are fit. Yeah. So then I'm like, all right. I get it now. Like, this fitness thing is happening. And then all of a sudden social media happened. And then once social media happened, I was like, okay, like this is cool because now a person is almost as famous on social media as they are on TV. Like we've actually gotten to a place in our lives right now where there's YouTube people that are more popular and making more money than movie stars actually happening as we speak. So now we're in this huge shift.

I just bought my first house and I remember walking through it yesterday and the guy was saying, Oh, here's the telephone line. I'm not sure when that's going to be extinct, but it's, you know, we have to have it. And I was like, fuck, that's going to be like TV. Yeah. You know, like that's, I mean, when's the last time you actually saw a tv to the point where you saw a commercial dude i to be honest i don't even i don't really watch tv like that like i literally i think i have a netflix subscription so i can watch the office exclusively like that's that's really all it is i'm not i like even even watching sports at this point like because i don't have like cable or whatever uh i don't just turn it on and like watch a football game like i'll have to go out of my way to do it and so even things like that i think are kind of on a decline just because of the way that social media

and youtube and everything is taken over which is really cool and a good opportunity for a lot of people because the barrier to entry into the industry or to be that level or have that level of reach is so low at this point. It's free. Instagram is free. Everyone's got a phone, right? So as long as you start taking, like, cool pictures and shit, like, get on there and get your shit out there. Yeah.

Gary Vee talks all the time about social media being, like, if you're not part of social media, you're going to die. Right. And I agree. Yeah. you're gonna die right and i agree yeah and i think that in at this stage if you're not doing something in social media you're not gonna have like the high dollar jobs i mean sadly i remember just being in school and just being like holy shit if i got this job i was gonna make a hundred thousand dollars a year or if i got this job i would start at seventy thousand dollars a year or something like that there's like no job that's to start you at a salary that you can make as a mediocre influencer.

Yeah. Like mediocre influencers make a couple hundred thousand dollars a year. Yeah. And I don't mean mediocre as in like they're not good at what they do. They just have like a media amount of people buying their shit. Yeah. Yeah. No, for sure and a lot of things now you

have so much access to so many people right millions and millions and hundreds of millions of people that like all you need to do is sell something right that's ten dollars like you know ten thousand times and that's a million like a million a hundred that's a hundred thousand dollars i think actually but um some ten thousand times for a hundred dollars and you've made a million dollars right yeah yeah no it's great i mean like even for example like let's this situation right now without instagram isn't happening yep right because that's how i i just hit you up through a dm which by the way i would not recommend because in the interview if you want to call it that i walked in we talked for what like maybe five minutes or something i think before i told you that you could have the job it was like two minutes yeah

and then and ryan looked at me and he's like you know what i give people about 30 seconds before i'm like you're weird fuck off or like yeah i can like vibe with you right um actually this is true actually like people come in all the time and i'm i literally i just size them up and like i feel the personality right away and i've legitimately had people drive like 30 minutes to an hour to come here and in the first 30 seconds i'm like you can't work here and they're like i don't understand we didn't even talk and i'm like you whispered to me like it's over yeah i've had a girl literally i was like you whispered i had to say what three times and on the third one i was like yeah you can leave well that's it dude even like working the front desk signing people in if you're like me and you're like guys can you please

sign it people are people here are the nicest people in the world by the way yeah but they will look at you like daggers through your fucking eyeballs if you do that yeah they're like what did you say i'm like bro like sorry like just sign in but when you were saying about like bringing that vibe into the gym and creating it like everything that happens here, everybody here is really aggressive. Everybody here is really good at CrossFit. Everyone here is very confident. And it all happens because when they come in and meet me, that's the type of people that just gravitate towards this place. Which is cool.

And I feel like CrossFit in general has this dichotomy that the biggest thing you got going for you as an affiliate is your CrossFit. And also the worst thing because people are intimidated is that your CrossFit. And if you can get into the community and you can build an environment that especially is like welcoming and then have that retention, it's the most empowering environment that you could probably be in. But we do a little bit of bodybuilding here. We do a little bit of everything. And I don't know if you've noticed, it actually doesn't say CrossFit anywhere. Yeah, it doesn't. And. Not even on the sign outside. Yeah, which I think is also to your benefit, which is just a testament to your business skills,

which I feel like that comes sort of naturally to you. As you said, everything just sort of started to happen. Did you ever have a mentor necessarily that you would speak to? Actually, no. People ask me that a lot too. Did you have a mentor? And I really didn't. My business partner partner which i don't think you know this but he actually created myspace oh no shit and he's like a multi multi-millionaire no shit he like

he taught me business stuff um just like more along the lines of like you know we need to do this you know after you get your licensing for the business then you have like a doing business as and then like making an llc and why you don't want to do this and why you don't want to do that and then linking up with um all the cpas and all that different stuff that i had no idea yeah like if it was me i probably would just rented the place and then like put the sign on and just been like all right let's do this like i would have no insurance i probably would have classes at five let's do this. Like I would have no insurance. I probably would have like five.

Let's go. I just had no idea, you know? So he helped me with stuff like that. And then whenever someone comes to me with like a business idea, I go through him and like, Hey, what do you think of this?

And he like rips people apart, stuff like that. It's like, it's really nice to have him around. But as far as like, people ask me all the time too, is like, well,

how did you know like what you were gonna do with the gym and how you were gonna do it and stuff like that in terms of influence and i think the biggest thing that you can do if you want to open your own facility is to literally before i opened mine i literally i like purposely got in my car and i went in like a two hour radius of here and hit every single gym. And I took a class. Like there were some classes. There were some days, I should say, where I took like four classes in a day.

And I just wanted to know what the coaches were like. I wanted to know how the squat racks were set up. How many dumbbells did they have? Like I was taking photos. How many wall balls did they have? Like I wouldn't sit there and count. I was just like ching, ching, ching ching ching just taking photos of everything and then i went home to new jersey which is where my parents are and i went to new york city hit a whole bunch of gyms

there um i just like when i was traveling as a pro crossfitter i'd like gone to dubai i'd been to florida and all these things and i remember the gyms that I liked the most and then when it came time to doing the outline for my gym I knew exactly what I wanted it to look like like exactly and then I knew exactly what kind of classes I wanted like there's a couple little things that people don't even realize

like the color orange like why did you pick orange? Do you love orange? No, I don't have anything in my life that's orange but I like orange because I looked up colors that actually flow with your brain yeah yeah and how the emotions yeah what it makes you feel like and orange as far as a community a hangout the workout vibe like the heart rate there's all these different things that associated with orange and i was like okay orange is a color

then the sweat class like i i had known a big gym that had a conditioning class besides CrossFit, and it was a big selling point for the gym. Right. And this gym did very, very well. And I was like, wow, I'm definitely going to have that. And I think it's good because there's a lot of people who want to come work out, but they don't want to mess with the barbells. Yeah. So I did that. Yeah.

And then the next thing that I did, I think that was really good, was the structure of how the workouts went down. Right, right. I really wanted to make something that was different than everybody else's. And I was really excited to get to make my own program. And it was a lot bigger task than I thought. Yeah, absolutely. Trying to reinvent the wheel a little bit. Not reinvent it, but give people really what they want like how many people are really in your gym that really want

to go to the crossfit games yeah one percent i mean it's small and it's hard for you to not want to cater to them because they're like hey ryan can we have this can we do this uh or you know you get this guy that's like oh come to your gym if you have this, like, blah, blah, blah, blah. And it's like, man, like, I'm a competitor and I really, I feel for you. But it's not worth it. Yeah, if you can bring me 600 other people that are like you, then that's cool. But, I mean, you got to look at where you're at, the population, what's your target market and everything like that. And then what those people need, I mean, like, physically and then, like, mentally, how they want to feel coming out of here and everything like that too because i think i think the sweat class is like a great idea something that's generally missing in the industry um is is it is intimidating and you get people that

even if they're coming to here and they know what you guys are about and they and they know that you know the crossfit classes are maybe scaled a little bit and everything like that um they're still intimidated by barbell work and especially i I think weight loss clients, a lot of women, and not every woman, but in general, they come in and they're like, well, I don't, you know, there's that whole myth about like, oh, we're going to get bulky or anything like that. If you squat heavy and something like that, which is ridiculous. I can't even talk about it.

But then sweat opens up that demographic for you. You know what I mean? So I think, I mean, that's a terrific idea. And then I have a lot of travelers. So I made the daily D for them and people who just they're at home and they can't get to the gym. And then also like the space, it was always the norm to have like a shitty space, have relatively shitty equipment and just kind of have that raw vibe. Yep. And I was like, I don't really want to be like that. I worked out at a gym one time in New York, and I worked out at another gym in LA that were so nice that I never, ever forgot it. Really? It drilled a hole in my mind.

I was like, man, those gyms are cool. You know? Yeah. So I got this space, and I put the nicest equipment I could in it. Just on my own account, like of all the gyms that I had visited, which is probably like well over 100, I was like, you know what? Of all the gyms I know that do well, like if I was to say this person's gym does well, this person, this person, these are all the people who are killing it. Yeah. All of those people had one common trait that I like,

I could not oversee in my mind. I was like, I have to have it. Yeah. They all had competition plates. Right. All of them. Yeah.

I didn't know any gym that crushed that had high temps or whatever. Right. They did. Okay. Yeah. But the gyms that were all crushing all had that common theme of the comp plates. So to me,

I was like, you know what? That's the value. They see the plates. They don't know what they are. They have no idea how expensive they are. They look way cooler. But they just look expensive, right?

It looks like a Rolex. It doesn't look like a Timex. Well, and the other thing, too, I think that if you're, especially if you're talking about people that have been around Olympic lifting or they've been around CrossFit a little bit or anything like that, or literally, dude, like any football player that's ever done a clean ever with bumper plates. If you drop it, the shit falls off the bar. And if you got calibrated plates, it doesn't fall off the bar. Yeah. So like, it's so much more convenient just to have that. And then it adds that value,

like not just visually, but in the workout, it feels 10 times better. I used to get embarrassed coaching and then people would be like how much is the membership and i'd say it's 200 hours a month they look around and be like what and i'm like dude you'll understand like once you start and once you get into the community you understand but i want you to be like okay you walk you walk in and you're like yeah 200 bucks that's why yeah and that's cool yeah and that and i think you have to do that too because while 200 bucks like especially for the programming and the quality of the results and the community and everything like that, you're not going to get that shit anywhere else for 200 bucks.

If you go to a personal trainer and let's say that you're doing, you know, even three times a week with a personal trainer, it's going to probably run you between a thousand and 1200 bucks a month or something ridiculous like that. And you're working out at, you know, a big box gym or something. And it's not like you can be super efficient. You don't really know the quality of training you get based on whoever your trainer is. I think personal training should die. I think it should die too. And that's why I was talking about that, the program the other day. Um, I'd rather have group classes that are more expensive. Yeah. Like I'd rather have a $500 a month gym than have someone pay a hundred dollars a session, Even though my gym would make more money that way, I just feel like that person's actually

paying for a cop-out. Yeah. They're paying for someone to sit there and listen to their problems and talk to them. And just hang out with them. And have it be okay that they only did eight reps instead of ten or whatever. But if you're in class, you're getting judged by everybody in class. There's a little bit of accountability there for sure. A little bit more stress there.

Yeah. And I think too, like just the structure of personal training and the way that it works, I think it's a sham for both the instructor or the trainer and the client. Because if you look at it and like maybe what's reasonable for most people

is that they're going to pay for one session a week. Okay. Well, like me as a trainer looking at that, how do I effectively write you a program? Because we got like basically two ways we can go about this. One, I can have you for a day, a week, and I'm going to just murder you. Right. We're gonna hit everything. You're going to die. You're in a sweat, like dah, dah, dah. Or two, I can put you through like a workout that you like, you like doing it. You like hanging out with me, everything like that. And then, and then what, like what at the end of the day, what are you doing the other, you know, four days a week, you should be going to the gym or

three days a week. You should be going to the gym. I have no idea. I don't even know if you're showing up. Right. So how, how can you reasonably get those results? And then, and then on the end of the trainer, right now you've used up your session packages or you only bought one and now I have to resell, resell, resell, resell. It's just inefficient on both ends. It's like kind of bullshit, honestly. Yeah. Great. Yeah, yeah for sure what other questions you got for me over there um so yeah first of all how many people because i like you know the way i approached it was through instagram which was tight that it ended up working out and you texted me i think like 10 minutes later and it's like yeah i fucking want to intern um i do try to bang out my my dms as fast as i can yeah sometimes i was surprised i literally i yeah i took a

screenshot of that and sent it to probably like 10 different people because i was like dude fucking ryan fisher just texted me like look at this shit it's so sick um how how often does that happen though like how often do people hit you up like it's got to be all the time oh i get like like for people wanting to do something for you. Yeah. Or partner with you on, on some kind of opportunity or something like that. Opportunity style of thing is probably like five times a day.

Yeah. And that, and that just, you just look at it on average. Some of them are just like, nah, like a, some sort of company wants to team up on something that happens all the time. And I'm usually just like over it on the first sentence.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, everything for me is like 10 to 20 seconds. Yeah. So like our interview, like genuinely you really only had 10 to 20 seconds with me. Yeah.

And then I know or I don't. Right. And I... You told me that you thought I was going to be weird. That shit was hilarious. Did I say that? Yeah. You were like,

I was worried you were going to be weird. I was going to tell you to fuck off. Do you remember that kid that was in here the other day? He had like the kind of like the like red scar on his that? Yeah. You were like, I was worried you were going to be weird. I was going to tell you to fuck off. Do you remember that kid that was in here the other day? He had like the kind of like the like red scar on his face. Yeah. So he was in here yesterday telling me it was his last day and he's not doing very well. And I let him come here for a week for free. He was a big fan on Instagram.

Yep. And he came in and he's like always freaking out when he saw me and whatever. Yeah. And then when he was leaving, he's like, you know, I don't have any money to stay here or whatever. And I was like, all right, well, you know, and he's like, I don't want you to feel bad for me. I know that you've been at the bottom too. And I was like, yeah, that's right. So I'm going to let you leave.

Yeah. And then I was like, before you leave, I'm going to tell you something that's going to hurt your feelings right now. And I was like, your Instagram fucking sucks. Does it? I was like, I genuinely thought I was going to absolutely hate you when you came in. Really? And I was like i genuinely thought i was gonna absolutely hate you when you came in really and i was like it is so bad i was like there's nothing on there about you that remotely reflects who you are in person really i'm like and if you're trying to get a job as a personal trainer or a trainer in general group fitness trainer whatever he said he's gonna go

get a personal training job i was like yeah this is your interview like you're trying to tell someone that you're gonna train them and turn them into something, and you literally have the energy that you're falling asleep on your Instagram. The lighting is dark. You're wearing a beanie in California during the summer. It just doesn't match. None of it matched. And he was like, oh my god, blah, blah, blah.

And I was like, dude, honestly, when you leave right now, I need you to go home and delete all of it and right and he was like oh my god blah blah blah and I was like dude honestly like when you leave right now I need you to go home and delete all of it and start over again I'm like I don't want you to save anything

yeah so was he offended by that or did he appreciate he like was kind of blown away and I was like dude I don't care

if I'm hurting your feelings or not I don't know if I'm gonna see you again I was like but I do need you to know that you might not get a job in the future

because of this like if you didn't just come in here and like shove yourself in front of me, I would have never given you the time of day. Right. Right.

Not you, but him. No, I know. I feel you. Um, but yeah, but that's like,

that's like super valuable. Like in terms of what he wants to do, it sounds like is that information. So, you know, you can't be offended by that. Like seeing that people always tell me like, man,

how'd you get these great trainers? And they all had the same interview as you. They had 20 seconds. Yeah. Literally. And I'm like, man, how did you get these great trainers? And they all had the same interview as you. They had 20 seconds. Yeah. Literally. And I'm like, I can just feel it. Just that vibe. If you vibe with me, then you're going to be fine.

I mean, I obviously was a great trainer because I built all of this. And I coached every single class every single day myself when I opened. So I already know if you're anything like me or you're at least really passionate about something or anything like that, I'll know right away. Absolutely.

You can't hide that shit. Right. Even like your first impression on somebody, you just know right away. Yep. Yeah. So I did the same hiring process

for all of them. They had about 30 seconds until I was about to like actually tell them what they were going to be doing. Yeah. And then we got into it and it's the same. Like when someone messages messages me on instagram they have like 10 to 20 seconds

for me to like be won over yeah once you start telling me the background about your business and what you're trying to do i'm already out there's nothing in there that excited me yeah so all these companies that reach out done well the girl came in the other day when i don't even know what you're doing it was like you had you had the door shut and she had to come in. The no-co drink girl. Yeah, the no-co girl. And I felt like I didn't feel badly for her. I felt a little bad for her.

It's uncomfortable. Because she was so like, hey, like, great day. She was super hot, too. Yeah. She had the best attitude. She was very excited. Even after you, like, closed the door and was like, bye, she, like, walked out. She was like, bye, have a great day, da, da, da.

And I was like, how do you still have that energy after he just kind of shut you down? Because you're like, dude, I have 20 seconds. Do you have a card or something? And she started like, okay, so this is a great drink and da, da, da. No, just tell me the information and get out. You know what I mean? I stop people too. They'll keep going.

And I'm like, no, listen, you need to stop. I don't have any time. I'm going to turn around. Well, what were you just talking about? You make like fucking every 10 minutes, 40 bucks you need to stop. I don't have any time. I'm going to turn around. What were we just talking about? You make like fucking every 10 minutes 40 bucks or something like that. So 20 seconds of your time is like worth some money right there. You can't waste that. What's the creepiest DM you've ever gotten?

Oh, boy. Some guy actually, this actually hit me pretty, actually I have two that are tied. Okay. One is this guy offered to give me $50 per photo of my extended belly. What? He said he wanted at least five to ten photos, and he just wanted a photo of me sticking my stomach out more than normal. Yeah. And then he's like –

That's it? It was very odd. That's the weirdest fetish I've ever heard of. And he was going to masturbate. He made it clear he was going to masturbate to them. I had another person. Like at least feet would be like almost like common for people to have. Fucking belly.

That's the weirdest shit. I had another guy offer to buy my spandex sweaty. No. Like he's like, I want them sweaty. I don't want you to wash them i'll give you 50 dollars a pair 50 bucks a pair yep or whatever you tell him like bro that's not even worth it to me because the spandex i buy are like 70 bucks so what the fuck yeah i mean maybe it was like 500 for five pairs or something crazy right but then i have one more last one okay this guy

well i thought it was a girl yeah i got a video of a like a butt okay it was like a butt it was like a booty like popping butt and i was like interesting right and i looked at it and i was like damn like a nice butt right on and then the person turns around and it was a guy oh shit and it says and the guy says, hey, Ryan, I bleached my butthole for you. What? And I watched it again. Because I was like, what's a bleached butthole look like again? And I'm like, oh, shit, that motherfucker really went hard on that. And then.

You fucking bleached his assholes. So then I watched I don't know what was arguably like a lady boy or something very personal video though if you're out there listening to this thank you for that I'm 100% sure that I am straight now

definitely like vagina which by the way I am single a lot of people ask if I'm single that's it does the next question actually because apparently you're out there you know catfishing people on these dating apps oh just fucking on tinder like nine different profiles out of state and shit dude how how many people have sent you stuff like that um that was the first time the day that i've ever seen myself on a dating app because i've i've heard from girls that they've like seen you like on bumble and shit like in the area like actually

like a while like oh are you actually on there all right well at least that one says ryan the other one was like chris or something like that yeah that one's not mine there's a 24 year old chris out there that's actually wearing the hat that i'm wearing right now that's hilarious they didn't even take time to change the picture um all right what is uh you know what we're just gonna go straight to this one so are you a fucking robot bro like you drink smoke ever like what's up with that um okay so i drink probably two like if I'm single... Uh-huh. If I'm single, I'll probably drink twice a year. Like, this year, I've been single, like, the whole year. And I want to say I've drank, like, one time so far.

And it was Christmas. Okay, yeah, yeah. Christmas party. I heard your Christmas party gets wild. Christmas party always gets wild. I actually had sex with some chick in the closet, the janitor's closet in my gym, which I probably shouldn't be publicly talking about,

but I love borderline not okay things to talk about. I'm the intern. Now I'm going to have to go clean the gym. I'm going to have to go clean that closet out. But yeah, the Christmas party is always fun. I drank there, and then I'll drink maybe for my birthday, which is this weekend. This weekend, yeah. Or like just another like big occasion, something like that.

If I have a girlfriend and then if I know that when we go out to drink, something good is going to happen. Or if I'm in a situation, even as a single person, where like I know that drinks is going to lead to me hooking up with some girl that I'm like really, really excited about, then I'll do it. But it's, I would never like hang out

with the guys and drink. I would never drink because I'm sad. I would never drink, you know, because I feel like I, just because like it's Friday or Saturday or whatever.

Because I feel like I need to. I've gone out with all the trainers, Henry, Herky, Summer, all them recently and they're always like begging me to drink. And I'm like, well, dude, I'm not talking to any girls here right now. Yeah, what's the point?

I'm having a great time. I don't need it. Right. So sometimes I'll cave and just say, all right, dude, get me a beer or get me a drink, and I'll just hang on to it the whole night. The whole night. But I don't necessarily drink really all that much. Yeah.

For a while, I was taking edibles every night to sleep. Oh, yeah, yeah. But then what was taking edibles like every night to sleep oh yeah yeah uh but then what was happening was i was sleeping great but i was getting up too groggy yeah so i didn't really dig it yeah and i actually smoked weed a lot yeah in like high school early college years and i could say like without a doubt i think that 80 to 90 of the time i always just hated it and did it because my friends did it. Okay. Yeah.

But recently, when I had that really bad injury in my shoulder a couple days ago, I was like – I actually hit up Henry, who's one of my coaches. I know he likes to smoke. And I was like, dude, Henry, can you come over and just fucking – and just blaze me out right now? And he's like, dude. He's like, I will be there in 10 fucking minutes and it's so funny because henry's notoriously late for everything yeah i was i was dude it was like my third day and someone came in because i was at the desk and they were like is memory coaching or henry and i was like i think it's henry and they go all right cool so he'll be here at 358 and i was like all

right like i don't fucking know no yeah that's funny so he's always late for everything like if you're going out with him you're like rg let's go out at nine he will like not be out until like 11 it's crazy and i was like all right can you come over and smoke and he's like yeah so then he's like dude i'll be there in 10 minutes he was literally there in like five oh shit i was like oh my god just stoked he like felt my text message it was already in my driveway yeah and we smoked and it was like the first time in a very very long time where i was like dude this is like it's chill pretty awesome yeah and he's like like a fucking weed guru and he's like this is what we like to call a connoisseur and he starts like talking about like all this like different types of weed he's like the reason

you don't like other weed is because you smoke the cheap shit right like this is the good stuff oh my god he starts going into it so i could see myself maybe doing that a little bit more because I slept insane that night. Did you wake up okay? I did. Nice. I woke up great actually. Helped out your shoulder a little bit? It helped a ton.

Fuck yeah. So I'm wondering, I might try it a few more times and kind of see how it goes. But I'm not against it. I don't think that. No, for sure. I used to think that people who smoked were like kind of douchey or like not the type of people you want to be around. Yeah.

I feel like there's like an unmotivated like kind of vibe around them sometimes and i still don't believe in it like during the day no and that's the thing like i don't think anyone should be like we're just like high all the time yeah because i think well i think it goes like hand in hand with like drinking like you almost gotta handle it like the same way um but i think like definitely like for me i mean i don't know about you, but for me, if you're going to pick, like, one, especially as an athlete or anyone who's, like, trying to get in shape at all, like, alcohol is fucking super detrimental to any of your gains. Awful.

And weed can at least have some benefits. You might fuck up your lungs, but if you're doing, like, edibles or something, and if you're trying to gain, like, you just get the munchies and start fucking crushing food, dude. I know. Did you guys eat a bunch that night or what i actually ate a bunch of those uh optimum nutrition little cake bites oh yeah yeah oh my god that's actually that's just so good actually dude i just like have to add this to the podcast i remember when i was 18 i was living in hawaii

i was a helicopter pilot at the time i don't know if you even knew that yeah and i got so high one day and i remember falling asleep in my dorm and i I woke up the next day, and I saw this thing that I had eaten half of and just stopped eating. Oh, shit. What was it? And at the time, I remember it being really good, and I remember making it. Yeah. But I can see why how I didn't finish it now. So it was, at the time, it was a sandwich.

Right. Regular wheat bread, and I had a piece of Spam on it. Yeah. Cheese, mustard, ketchup, peanut butter, and jelly. What the fuck? You just broke out everything in the fridge. A tomato. And then I put like a can of tuna fish on it.

Oh, shit. Dude, it was like every single thing in my fridge all together. I think I remember looking at the fridge and just being like, oh, that sounds good. That sounds good. Fuck it. Let's just put it all together. And I just put it all together mashed i think i remember looking at the fridge and being like oh that sounds good that sounds good that's a fuck it let's just put it all together and i just put it all together but dude the smell of this thing when i like woke up i was like i cannot believe i took a bite of this dude i've had that like almost exact same experience there was one night

in college and uh i woke up the next day and i was like oh my god what is this smell dude apparently it was my roommates and i had gone out and we got fucked up we ended up i don't know why or how but we took a fire extinguisher from somewhere and sprayed each other in the face with it and so had like all of that shit that fiberglass everything i'm just like smell and i'm like fuck what does it smell and i like walked out of my room in the kitchen smelled 10 times worse and i'm like oh shit like what the fuck like what's in here i opened the microwave and it was you know the uh frozen white castle burgers oh wow i put it in the microwave with the plastic on it still for 20 fucking minutes and it just reeked in the house it was so disgusting that's so gnarly oh my god it was dude It was so fucking gross. Little mini hamburger fossil in there. Yeah, dude.

Yeah, it was just a hockey puck. Oh, my God. Good times. That's so funny. Didn't expect those questions, but I'm stoked for them. Right? What, like, so is there any time, like,, you've been going hard at this shit forever. Like, is there ever a day that you wake up and you're just like, bro, I don't want to fucking do

anything. Like, I don't want anything to do with the fitness industry. I don't want to talk to anyone. I don't want to write a workout like, or any of those things, you know what I mean? Just wake up without that drive. Yeah. So people always ask about that all the time. I always have like pretty high energy. Even when I don't feel like I have high energy, I'm just a high energy person. I never am like, fuck, I wish I did something besides fitness. Never, ever, ever, ever. I'm always stoked on that. Because even if I don't want to do any work for the day, I want to ride my bike.

I want to go paddleboard. I'm obsessed with fitness. Like 100%. It's probably an issue actually like how much i just want to be outside right and do fun things um but sometimes because i really do so much and i think a lot of people think of chalk and they think of this like team of just awesome people you know and like they're right like there's a there is a team of people but the actual stuff that everyone's getting yeah it's all you is all me 100 i'm not lying this is all fucking right

like even if you're watching a video i might have taped it yeah even though i wasn't on yeah well that was like we that was like my third day or something we tried to do that uh squat warm-up video and i thought uh because herky usually films most of the stuff and i was like oh okay like me and herky are gonna do it or whatever and r Ryan picked up the camera and he was just like, all right, let's fucking do it. I was like, uh, okay, I've never been in front of a camera before. So I guess let's just do this. And there is really no other way to do it than to just start doing it. Right, just do it.

Yeah, exactly. So we threw out your first video, right? But you did it and you learned from it. And your next one was way better. Yeah, I stopped talking like a robot. My face moved and shit like that. People ask me all the time, time like how can i get better at talking to the camera how can i get better at my social media just do it my first tip is actually to stop texting your friends and to do voices yeah i saw you post about that or to do videos or like i mean it might feel weird to do

a video but you can feel yourself being taped yeah absolutely and it's almost the same as um like when you're gonna do a workout when you hit the clock versus don't hit the clock it's two totally different workouts even if you say i'm gonna do 70 but you hit the clock it's like i want to go a little harder yeah yeah um shit what was i just gonna that's how i feel about how the video stuff is like you put the video on you and you're a better human yeah and that's do you ever get to the point where you're like better human yeah and that's do you ever get to the point where you're like almost like i don't want some of my life recorded right now or you're just like stoked on that too all the time just the time so like when i when i make breakfast when i

make lunch like i know that everybody wants to know what i'm eating all the time dude if i was following somebody that i really liked and i watch their stories all the time which sadly i don't have anyone like that in my life right i just post so much to Instagram that I never see what's actually happening. But there is people that I do follow that I like seeing their stuff for inspiration. And there's some people that I'm like, man, that guy is ripped and gnarly. And I'm always like, I wonder what he eats. But to me, it's like, you know what? If that guy looks like – if I'm super i think that you know if you're something like that

then i'm just like this guy's on drugs 100 but like you know i have like an attainable body type like yeah well except for your fucking tortoise shell that's on your stomach i think i was just genetically blessed there but like well i mean i've fuck my whole life dude i was really big into squatting massive and deadlifting massive numbers yeah and i also was doing a lot of heavy conditioning right so it just comes with when i was doing crossfit at the time a lot of people were not nearly as strong as i was but they were doing all the conditioning too and i think that i just started to grow that way like if you watch me progress from 18 to now like my my midsection has gotten a lot thicker yeah Yeah. But my breast and my body is like relatively the same.

But anyway. That makes sense. I look at all these people's things and stuff like that. And I would be really excited to see what they were eating every day. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I know. So you put out what you want to see. No, I just like, I put out what I think other people would want to see.

Right. That's what I'm saying. So like if you were, if someone like. But I don't always get excited about it. Like you're asking, like, are you excited to do it? Right. Not all the time. Like sometimes I'm like, these motherfuckers all know what I'm going to eat today.

Yeah. But do they really? Yeah. Like, or do they want to be like, you know, re-edified that like a hundred percent he's going to eat that again. Or like, man, he really does eat that every day. Or like, I have a new follower. They want to know what I eat.

You know what I mean? So I understand like why I should keep doing it. But it is annoying like especially when you're with people. Right. Like there's a – you know, if I'm hanging out with a girl or I'm hanging out with some guys over at my house or like I'm hanging out with some friends at dinner and it's like, let me take a photo real quick. They're like, oh, let me take a photo. And it's like, dude, fuck you. I feel that.

Dude, I fucking – a lot of people ask me like is this weird is that weird like how do you deal with this what about drinking and i'm like dude i tell people some gnarly shit sometimes yeah like people will ask me like why don't just have a drink dude it's not gonna be a big deal and i'm like listen motherfucker yeah like and i'll literally get mad as fuck i'll be like i make money off my body yep i don't know what you do for work yep but whatever you do i'm sure you do everything right to make sure that you make more money i'm sure you wear the right suit to go do your real estate fucking interview i'm sure you like look up all the stats before you make a bet or whatever if you're a bookie or some shit like

i'm sure you do your homework all the time my homework is looking good all the time so yes your little fucking muffin that you say just live a little bit or your little drink, live a little bit. Someone's asked me to live a little bit every fucking day. Yeah. So if I live a little bit right now and tomorrow with the new guy and this other guy, then I'm going to be fucking fat. And before I know it, I'm going to be like, how did this happen? And everyone's like, I don't know what happened. What happened?

What happened? Like, dude, you know what the fuck happened. Right. Your willpower sucks. Yeah. Get your life together. Yeah. If someone has something to say,

then peace the fuck out. You are no longer my friend anymore. Yeah. I don't care. Yeah. Guess how many family, I have seven brothers and sisters. Guess how many I talk to?

Zero. Once you do something that I don't like, you're fucking gone. I don't care who you are. Yeah. And I'm jumping up and down right now. They can't see it. Like I just,

it's over. You know what I mean? Like I love our brothers and sisters, but you know, sometimes they'll ask something that I don't like. They'll do something I don't like. And my mom's like, you know,

you shouldn't be like that. And I'm just like, well, I'm at this point in my life right now. Like this gnarly, gnarly point in my life right now where like all distractions are fucked. Yeah. And I remember Arnold Schwarzenegger and he was like, my dad died and they were like, you need to go to the funeral.

And I said, no. Yeah. And I was like, damn, that dude's just like me. Yeah. But I mean, at the end, like I'm sure there'll be a time where it's like, hey, Ryan, is it worth like having all this money? And then like now you don't have a family. And I'm like, I wouldn't say that, but, like, I will do everything I can for, like, my mom, my stepdad, like, the people that I talk to all the time who never really take anything away

from me. Yeah. They're always, like, adding to my life. Adding to your life, yeah. And that's a big thing that my mom always told me is, like, if they're, these girls, like, if they're not adding to your life, they have to go. Yeah. And, I mean, I'm totally fine being single.

I have a great life single and i fucking so amped on it you ever want to not be single like yeah i'm all the time i'm shit like that i would love to have someone just help me dude like i was i actually texted you the other day for people on here and i was like hey i really want you to know like how stoked i am to have you in the gym yeah and i genuinely meant it and like i felt like i needed to do that text message because I genuinely have – it's very rare for someone to come in and be able to help me make a workout. I've asked people to make workouts for me for years. Just give me a week, and I'll say it sucks, but I'll tell you why. And then give me another week, and give me another week, and give me another week.

I tell all of my coaches i tell so so many friends like exactly what they need to do to get to where they want to be and they they want to know what to do but they're not willing to go through like the truth they don't like it's like little hoops you have to jump through yeah i'm like dude you don't care about hoops yeah i was fucking homeless yeah stealing food i was fucking stealing like every single day. Yeah, man. You know what people actually don't know? What's up? This is real.

I actually got arrested stealing one time. Did you really? When the gym was open like a year before the gym opened and I got sentenced like three months

before the gym opened. Uh-huh. I think I had a thousand or fifteen hundred community service hours. Oh, shit. So when I was coaching

or I had to go to jail for three months. Oh, shit. Yeah, fuck wood coaching, Orr had to go to jail for three months. Oh shit, yeah, fuck it, how are you going to open a gym? My mom never wanted me

to tell anybody this story because she was so embarrassed about it. Sorry mom. And I'm embarrassed by it too, it is what it is, but it was something I needed to do at the time.

But anyway, I remember coaching every single class, every single day, and I had my privates, we're talking 13 hours of coaching every day, and every single time I had any time at all for anything, I was cleaning up garbage at

parks all over Costa Mesa. Yeah. And every time in the middle of the summer, I was wearing sweatpants and a hoodie because I did not want anyone to see me. Yeah. Shit. Super embarrassing. Was it food or what?

It took me a really long time to finish that. It took me two years to finish it. shit two years holy for two years i had zero life at all like god damn dude it was bad dude i was i finally got coaches obviously after like my first six months and then they'd be like where do you go like when you're not here and i'm like uh i actually wound up telling one of the coaches about it. Okay. Because I was like, yo, I have to tell you this because I'm never going to be here. Yeah.

And I need you to know why. Yeah. And then they were like, oh. They understood it. Right. I feel like most people who work here and they meet me, they have a pretty good understanding of the work ethic that went behind it. And I actually – I kind of get sad to have like a new like female

in my life who like comes in like maybe they don't do crossfit or something i don't care if they do fitness at all right but it's like i like need you to understand who i am yeah like i need you to understand like what it took me to get here like even friends like especially now i just bought a nice house and stuff and it's like let's say i have a new friend and like oh dang dude like this is dope or whatever and it's like you got it easy yeah i mean fuck like god forbid they think that like that would make me lose my mind you know what i mean can't be around those people it's not even that like i just like before you walk in i feel like you need to watch a video yeah like yeah i like i need you to understand the

story and to me i would rather have a shack somewhere in the middle of the woods that costs like $100 as long as everybody who walked in the door understood. Because to me, my story is more important than anything I have. It's more important than my things. It's more important than the success. It's more important than the gym. It's like, it's more important than how long I live.

Like, if I died tomorrow, I'd be most proud of my story. Yeah. So that, um, I guess my next question is like that, cause that kind of encapsulates it, I guess is like, what, what is your like, why? Right. Like have you ever read the book? Uh, start with why by Simon Sinek or Ted talk. If you watch the Ted talk, it gives you a pretty good like uh idea of like basically what the book's about but basically it's the um an opposite or inside out approach to your business right like you starting with why and then to how and then to what and most companies struggle because they start from the outside and they go oh i got this product this is how we're going to do it and then they like uh maybe circle around like why

and more successful companies like let's take an apple for example right they start with the the why right like oh we're going to be more innovative than people we're going to have these early adapters as our customers and stuff and how are we going to do that and then the product is now the computer so what in terms of chalk and everything that you're doing, what is your why? What's your drive? What's your emotion? When you get to like a raw emotion, what is that for you? I like to tell people like a short story with it.

And it's more of like, I never knew who my dad was until I was 18. Once I found out who he was, I met him when I was 24. My whole childhood, I felt like I was in the Once I found out who he was, I met him when I was 24. My whole childhood, I felt like I was in the wrong family all the time. I was like, why am I like this? And why is no one else like this? And like, why do I always want to do these things? And they don't, or like, why do I want to leave and go live somewhere else? Like, why am I just like, why do I go home and just not like anything? Yeah. You don't fit. Yeah. And then I found, I met my dad when I was 24. I'd already been living outside of my parents' house for six years.

I moved out when I was 18. And he was exactly like me. Oh, yeah. He owned his own business. Like he was all into sports and like crazy stuff. And it's insane to grow up with all these other siblings. And I grew up exactly like my dad, not even knowing who he was my whole life.

And then I think like once I had, there, there's something, and I, I can't say this for sure, but I do feel like once I found out what he did, I think that it, like it,

it charged me in some way, somehow. Yeah. And it was like, oh, this is doable. This was in your family bloodline. You know what I mean? My family did – growing up, I had grandparents that were very wealthy, and they did construction and different things. It just didn't really vibe with me. And then my dad had built this giant company and he made millions of dollars

and stuff on his own okay but it felt more like closer to my heart because i was like he did it and like i was the same as him growing up i know i can do it i think that helped and then also not having that family vibe growing up that i really wanted i had a bunch of different stepdads growing up i just had like this very odd feeling and then having i dude i was amazing in a bunch of different stepdads growing up i just had like this very odd feeling and then having i dude i was amazing in a bunch of sports like yeah i was it seems like a bmx and all that bmx like when i was like when i was like 10 yeah i was like one of the best bmxers in the world and then like that lasted all the way till i was like 16 i had like been breaking running records in high school and elementary school and

everything since I was whatever. And then I got into skeleton and then bobsled and then CrossFit and then CrossFit, I think kind of stole me because it had the community feel in the gym. Right. And that was the family that I'd been missing. Yeah. Right. And I was like, wow, this is really cool. And there's other people doing it with me. I'm not just in the gym alone asking for a spot. It's like, hey, do you want to do this workout with me yeah and then it just kept growing from there and then now as i've been getting like more successful in this whole space now i get like tagged like 100 times a day like doing ryan's workout like i'm doing high intensity interval bodybuilding like i'm doing this dumbbell program that he made this thing that we're making right

now the buddy building thing. Buddy building. Which I'm so excited for you guys to see. It's going to be fucking so sick. I'm so excited. I actually talked to a guy who owns LA Fitness about it today. Oh, really? Yeah, it's pretty cool.

What did he say about it? We'll talk about it later. So, yeah, I start getting to the point where it's like, wow. I think that eventually when people think about workouts, when I thought about workouts, I always thought about Charles Poloquin or some of these big names, Arnold Schwarzen about workouts, like when I thought about workouts, I always thought about Charles Poliquin or like some of these like big names like Arnold Schwarzenegger obviously and like some of these other bigger names, bodybuilders, Jay Cutler, all these different things. But then there's like – but now like bodybuilding is not the only famous programming people. Now you have people like Charles Poliquin who's like a strength conditioning guy. And then you have like these CrossFit guys. Like people are like always talking about Ben Bergeron or the guy that owns Invictus, C.J. Martin.

But literally, as much as people talk about them, they probably talk about Ryan Fisher. No, for sure. And they're like, oh, the guy at Chalk. But the guy at Chalk is not creating a competitive CrossFitters. No, because it's accessible for damn near everybody. Because you've got shit for everyone between the Daily D, between Sweat, and then the CrossFit that you can just follow online. But it's cool. And then with the books.

Yeah. And it's fucking – all of it's sick. Because no one is doing what I'm doing. Right. No one is doing the same workouts that I'm doing. And I'm like the magnet for that area. And now I'm like, you know what? I have the dopest, biggest, gnarliest family in the world. And I think that what happened was I think like subconsciously I wanted a family so bad that I like wanted to latch on to that I just built it.

Fucking yeah. I mean that's a pretty good why right there, man. Dude, I've never said that before on a podcast. I'm stoked the way that came out. That's pretty cool. But like I think that's what happened. Yeah. No, that's awesome.

I mean and then being able to provide that for so many other people, I feel like that's if you, if you talk to anybody and I don't know that anyone would immediately say this, but like, what do you want out of like life in general? There's people just want a place to belong like that. And that's what it comes down to. And that's, I see like, you know, walking around and I see like four or five year old shirts and people have been here forever and shit like that. And you got other gyms in the area and, uh, you know whatever and people do the six-week challenge they're in and out they do

whatever they make 60 bucks and they just fucking pack classes and da da da see mediocre results it's the fucking back to how we started right is that the philosophy the culture the the why right um i think that i think that's how you sell i think that's how you stick around because like in this game it feels like you know if you're good at it, you get, you know, 10 years for like a good shot, maybe a little bit longer. And if you're not, you get like either none or like maybe two years and then you're out. Yeah. Um, I opened with as many members as most people have after the end of their first year.

Yeah. That's crazy. What are you at right now? Membership wise in the gym? We like consistently have 300 members. I had a point where I had 400. Was it wild, class sizes and stuff? It was a little bit much.

Most of them were on Punchcard at the time. I haven't really lost any consecutive, consistent members. Real monthly, all those people. That's all been relatively the same. I think when I look at the analytics and all that stuff it's like i've been pretty solid for a while yeah and i don't really want to get too much bigger i definitely don't want to get smaller obviously but like i think a lot of people think that the gym is a lot bigger than it really is yeah it's kind of a smaller gym yep it's just really like laid out well yeah no it's a it's a great open space and everything and space is maximized

for sure and that was i mean that was cool because i was like the i think during like you know 20 seconds after our interview when you were like what do you want to do you know i mean um and that first conversation that we had and and being able to like get bigger but scale online is like the best way you could go about it because um so again like my goal was to open a facility and i had asked ryan like hey what's your advice on that and he was like don't fucking do that like go go rent a tiny ass space my rent's eleven thousand dollars like crazy shit like that like go and then phase yourself out and then and hire on coaches and do online stuff like that um it's a great opportunity for the industry and everything like that um and i still believe that like yeah i if you were like right now,

what do you think I should do? I would be like, have a thousand square foot space and make it like a studio. Yeah. And then, you know, start building soup programs.

Cool ass programs. I mean, start spending, you know, the 9,000, 10, 11, $20,000 you'd be spending on rent.

You could be spending on 1,500 and then using the rest of that money to market. You know what I mean? Originally when I opened my gym, we had a marketing budget of $3,000 every month. Okay. We knew for sure it was going to get thrown out. Right. And then I was always like, man, that's a lot of money. Do you really need to do that?

Yeah. And then I realize now, I'm like, oh, 100% I need to do that. Absolutely, yeah. to do that yeah and then i realize now i'm like oh absolutely i need to do that i think a lot of people don't realize on my end i probably spend get ready for this one i probably spend a solid 20 000 every month on ads for myself no shit yeah holy shit dude yeah like every month like 20 g's boom and what was nice about it is i get a lot of free like hotels and shit thank you american express um i got a uh i got a out of left field question because like five minutes ago we were talking about charles polklin and arnold um so the arnold quote which better, the pump or nutting?

Because Arnold had a hard opinion on this, man. I'm going to have to go with the pump, I think. Pump, right? Solely because I'm pretty sure I've pumped more this week than I've jerked off. Hey, one's more enjoyable. You do it more frequently, right? And as you get older, like when you're my age,

a lot of girls aren't really as nearly interested in the nut as they are as like, what can you buy for them? You know what I mean? So it's like you start to get less interested in like...

In that part? Yeah. That's what I mean? So it's like you start to get like less interested in like. In that part. Yeah. That's a fucking great answer. I'm like, bitch, I don't even want to fuck you. I already know. Get out of the DMs, bro. I already know what you're going for. Too many distractions.

I'm going to go work out. Can I come over tonight? Do you want to lift instead? That'd be way more fun for me. Dude, I'm terrified of Hashtag Chicks right now. I'm terrified. Well, shit. Because now that you're doing well, it's like, fuck.

Yeah, someone's going to come after you. Have you seen the new Dave Chappelle special? Oh, Sticks and Stones? Yeah. Hilarious, dude. That shit was hilarious. Oh, I don't new Dave Chappelle special? Are you probably sticks and stones? Yeah. Hilarious. That shit was hilarious. Oh, I don't know if I find out that you fucking did anything and I don't care when you did

it. Oh, right. Yeah. Fucking you're going down. That shit was fucking hilarious. I like when he's like, dude,

if you have the ability to abort your child, I should have the ability to abandon. Yeah. And just say nothing. Yeah. He's like, if you can abort, I don't have to pay child support yeah he's like he's like i'll be all for abortion if you guys are all for me not paying just yeah i'm just bailing out and he's like and i didn't want it either he's like i'm also not for abortion debating on who i got pregnant

all valid points on who I got pregnant. All valid points. All right. No more of that. No more of that. That shit was funny. If you guys haven't seen it, you guys need to check it out.

You got to check that out. The new Dave Chappelle. So, it can, okay, personal, fitness, or business related.

Let's start with business. Like, what's next? You got plans? Like, I like creating programs that no one's done yeah uh me and you have been brainstorming recently we've been thinking about this thing called buddy building and it's basically it's bodybuilding but with a partner right and it's like all the time associated with being in a regular gym but we're turning it into a community vibe. Yeah. And you're always the buddy. Yeah. And it creates kind of like your own like CrossFit-esque style of life

in a regular gym, and I think it's something that the public really needs. Yeah. And I don't really care to even kind of, you know, give people this little teaser right now because no one can program like I do. Yeah. And no one can think the way that I do,

so I'm not even worried about it. Right. But I love to create programs that do not exist. Yep. And no one can think the way that I do, so I'm not even worried about it. Right. But I love to create programs that do not exist. Yep. And that puts me on the map. And I think another thing that I really want to get into is kind of like coaching other people in terms of like what they should be doing

to get to where I'm at now. Yeah, yeah. Like I know everybody does that, like eventually at some point. Yeah. But most of the people that you talk to, or not that you talk to, like a lot of the people who are out there doing these business coaching, they've never done anything.

They've never done shit. Yeah. I've noticed that. Like a lot of them. It's really, really bad. Yeah. It's like why are you coaching people right now? Because you're not doing – like this is not – what have you done?

If you watch a Gary Vee thing, they'll be like – they'll ask some kid, like, what do you want to do? I want to be a motivational speaker. Right. You can't be a motivational speaker until you've done something motivational. Motivational, right. What the fuck? Yeah. You know what I mean? And there's there's dude i know a lot of people

right now in my life they're like i want to be i want to i want to speak i'm like why yeah you can't yet like there's nothing right that you can tell me that like i'm gonna want to listen to you for you know what i mean like we need to figure this out yeah but i do i love my story is so important it's so fucking just lively like it's i've had there's so many corners in it and pieces to it yeah i'd love to have a book i would love to like stand on i'd love to get on stage and be like yo here's what happened to me right i can tell you how to do it like i can genuinely tell someone how to do what i did right like i can definitely do it yeah um i mean it might not be the exact same outcome i had a couple very lucky moments yeah yeah and i and i can outline the whole thing and i'd love to help people out with that and i

think i'd love to get into that yeah i i have a thing right now a lot of people don't know about where i actually am managing some other high profile instagrammers and I help do all of their like marketing and their ads and all that stuff. And that's the, I take Ryan, you said, yeah. And a lot of people ask me,

I've had people on another episode. They were like, man, I really want to get into that. But there's prerequisites before you can call a lot or something like that. You already have to be doing pretty well. And then I just, you know,

multiply the shit out of it. Yeah, absolutely. Cause I have a proven formula at this point. Yeah. Which is insane. Yeah. That of it. Yeah, absolutely. Because I have a proven formula at this point. Yeah. Which is insane. Yeah, it's sick. But yeah, I'd like to get into that side of things.

I'd like to create more programs. The carb cycle challenge is a huge thing right now. But I'm actually creating something called the Earn Your Carbs Challenge. So that's kind of like my whole lifestyle is earn your carbs. Absolutely. I feel like if you limit your carbs to just around your workouts and eating after your workouts you're always going to look good no matter how much you measure right so i really want to take the carb cycle principle and then put it into a practical sense of never measuring and like always looking good yeah i think that's i think

that's a big piece for a lot of people because as easy as the carb cycling thing is there are people that like i'll introduce them to it and they'll be like we've even done carb cycling challenges at my gym and then they'll like um they'll just be like oh i can't do this i can't i can't weigh out food i can't like whatever which is it's a pain and then like eventually but eventually you know like if you're two weeks into it and you're really sticking to it you honest to god ball yeah you can eyeball that shit and you can like you know and then you can start to understand the what the composition of food is and how big a serving size and like now you're really starting to understand i get a better understanding of like okay when i go to somewhere that is supposedly healthy right you take a flame broiler for example or something like that that

like most people i would say is like they look at it as like oh it's rice bowls like it's like healthy right well it's still covered in oil yeah it's a terrible oil and the right the serving of rice is like four times what you need and it's ridiculous so I think that once you get into something like that especially if you're trying to lean out or anything you start to understand like okay like oh that that shit was like way too big of a serving everybody needs to measure yeah at some just at some point for it just some point. Just to get a sense of like what is actually appropriate. There is,

I mean, there's like some study I saw a couple weeks ago. If all this shit was easy, everybody would fucking shred it. Right? Yeah. Right?

Like, if you look at somebody's body, you're like, man, I would do anything to look like that. Would you? Yeah. Most people won't.

So we're doing like a whole 30 challenge at my gym through – That has more fails than any other challenge of all time. For sure. And we're doing it through a meal prep company, which is awesome, to help out with most of the meals. I don't trust meal prep companies. You don't trust them? Nope.

I mean – I don't give a fuck what it says on the label. They always use cheap oil, 100% of the time. Fair enough. It'll even say olive oil. I guarantee you on my life, it's a guaranteed olive oil, canola oil blend. 100%. That's probably true.

So my point is that I showed people the meals, right? And they look at it and they go like, oh, I could make that at home. But will you? People that aren't doing it, right? They're like, oh, that looks really good. Yeah, I could make that. But will you?

And most people, I don't think they will. And there's a million reasons. And whether they're legitimate to you is not really up to me to decide. But I mean, if you're going to tell me, uh, you have a certain goal and then I see you on Instagram, cause I follow you and I see you doing dumb shit. I'm going to be like, well, either you're lying about the goal or you're not willing to do what it is to get there. And then, and I think that plays back into what you're saying about like when you go out and people are like, dude, just have a beer, just have a muffin, just have a burger, like whatever it is. It's like, well, my fucking goal is not the same as most people. So I'm not going to do what 99.9% of people are doing.

So that's just not going to work for me. It's just not, you either have to adjust your goal or, you know, limit your expectations or bring up your habits to meet those right and i think most people just in general aren't really willing to do that um instead of getting uncomfortable in those situations i actually get excited now i'm like oh yeah this guy's gonna ask me yeah like i'm about to make him feel really bad about himself i get like so excited about it now literally it's like exciting for me i'm like all right go ahead guess your ask your say your little live a bit live a little bit question right right no and that's and i'm gonna fucking rip you apart right and i'm sure that hasn't happened to you an incredible amount because

it all i mean it happens to me people i'll go out with them and they're like oh just what i'm like i literally again like i've had someone tell me that every day this week so if i listen to all of you fuckers like i'm gonna look worse than all of you and they're all insecure you say like you're what your goal is i think it does make people uncomfortable. They touch their stomach. They're like, fuck. Yeah. I think it does make people uncomfortable if you're like around them.

You're like, yeah, I'm not, I'm not going to eat that. So they make you try and like feel bad about it or whatever. Fuck them. Which is, yeah, it's, it's, yeah, I know. I'm already about to freak out right now. What, what's your, what's the biggest hurdle either business-wise or or physically as an athlete that you've had to overcome man my knee yeah is bad talk about a lot so i mean a lot of people actually don't know a lot of people ask me like

dude when are you going to the crossfit game it's like when this when that you guys don't understand like how bad it is when's the last time you guys watched me squat in a video yeah never like i haven't squatted in a very very long time like once a year i'll squat just to see how much i could lift yeah and it's always like 500 right like all that i'm always still strong but i'm i do a whole bunch of lunges and a lot of people say if your knees fucked up why are you lung Well, lunging only brings you to like 90 degrees. And understanding that I could no longer compete anymore was really, really hard for me. Not even that.

Forget competing. Now I can't even work out in my own gym 50% of the time, at least. I'll make this dope workout that I really want to do. It looks fun. I could do it with class, but I'd be modifying the fuck out of it to the point where I'm, like, not even doing the workout. Well, can you even do, like, a full snatch or full clean right now?

No, not at all. No. Can't get below parallel on anything. Really? I can't even do, like, excessive wall balls. Like, is this painful or physically? Like, it just stops. So, I'm just, like, so one-sided now on my good leg that every time I squat, it's just mainly right leg.

Yeah. Does it fuck up your hip too then? Yeah. I get sore all weird and I start to feel crooked. During the workout, it's just negative feedback from my body. I can feel that I'm not doing it properly and it just bothers me and it gives me a shitty workout. Mentally, I'm just copped out. That's defeating.

That's annoying. Like all my stuff is like single leg deadlifts, single leg squats, single leg lunges, single leg this, that, blah, blah, blah. But honestly, I mean – It's great. It's not fucking with my training. Like mentally, like my training is still fine. I still have fun training. Right. I just – I want to work out in the gym more.

Yeah. Yeah. But since I started going to like 24 and doing workouts there and in my gym i'm just feeling good i feel like a lot more people like following me now they're like they they kind of like the the contrast yeah i feel like that's like oh that's cool like he's doing both and not only is he doing both and he's a crossfitter he's still shredded he owns a crossfit gym you know what i mean it's like whoa that's really like i remember posting my first photo in a 24-hour fitness.

Do you like feel bad about it a little bit? Dude, I was scared to post it. I was like, man, I don't want my members to think that I work out here. I don't want people to think that like I'm not into CrossFit anymore. And I remember being really nervous about it. I was like, man, this is like a ballsy post right now. And the post is actually – it's a selfie of me in the mirror and I have an Iron Maiden shirt on. And I have a chalk hat.

And it says, yeah, I'm the guy who owns a crossfit gym and i'm working out at 24 hour fitness and here's why and i talk about all of it and it's like one of my best posts i've ever done yeah i'm sure because i well i think again like that it just expands your reach because it's accessible to people like people like people vibe with that there they are there are people out there that no matter like how hardcore they are into anything, I think everyone wants to go and do something else at some point. Even if you are super into, I'm going to take five classes, six classes a week at a CrossFit gym or strength and conditioning gym or just wherever. Sometimes, dude, I want to go hit a bicep workout at 24 right now.

Just got to get the pump. I do four-hour bike rides on the weekend. Yeah, exactly. When I'm done with that, I won't go to the gym and it's like, all right, well, that's what your workout for the day was a four hour bike ride. Yeah, exactly. What it was, which is, which is sick. I mean, that's like, I feel like everything that you, and in your lifestyle is like probably the best example of it, but like everything you do in the gym, the other, you know, 80, 90% should match, you know,

especially with those goals or what you're doing in the gym should really allow you to do everything outside much better. And if that's not matching up, then there's no, you got to find a different place. Dude, if you're listening to this fucking podcast or you're into CrossFit or you're into this community where you even know my fucking name, there's no reason when I post a photo of me on my bike yep that should ever get less likes than me in the gym yeah but it does like me in the gym is like 10 000 likes me on my bike is like three yeah right if i post these photos but it's like you're listening to

someone who does functional fitness right like i'm trying to function outside of my fitness and yes there was a point in my life where the only thing that mattered was what i did in the gym but then i realized that i was wasting a lot of time right like i don't want to wake up one day and be like all i did was work out and and snatch 300 pounds and yeah i never do anything like this and squat that and it's like it was really impressive and i really loved it a lot but man like i went to europe and like rode on these mountains and I found out that like there's some other really cool shit out there. But I always want to look at myself in the mirror and be like, I like what I'm seeing. I look good.

I like fucking the pump. You know what I mean? Like I like all these things. And I think a lot of people really need to like experience it. I don't think they know. You know what I mean? They're all jerking off and they never actually had sex with a girl. You know what I mean? Yeah. 100%. I mean, and they never actually had sex with a girl. You know what I mean?

Yeah. 100%. I mean, that's a good analogy. Yeah, that's great. It's like, you know, all of a sudden you get some pussy, and you're like, holy fuck. Oh, shit. This is great. Like, I want to go fuck all sorts of pussy.

You know what I mean? But, like. And they're not all the same, you know? It's like the gym. I want to snowboard. I want to bike. I want to hike. It's like the gym, right?

Yeah, absolutely. Like, all of a sudden, like, every gym's got a little different hole in it. Yeah. So, it's like the gym. I want to snowboard. I want to bike. I want to hike. It's like the gym, right? Like all of a sudden, like every gym has got a little different hole in it. So it's like – Dude, this podcast is gold. You guys should get ready to share the fuck out of this. This podcast is like a swinger relationship. Anybody can chime in. Anyway.

Yeah, like all these different avenues I think are really – it's creating such a different vibe in my life. And everybody is like all about all these like biohacks. Yeah, yeah. How can I like be more naturally like connected to the ground by being barefoot and doing this and doing that and being in the sun an hour a day? And all these new things that everyone is realizing is like really, really good for you. Well, how about working outside? Yeah, do something outside. Some outside shit. really, really good for you. Well, how about working out outside? Yeah. Do something outside. Just go stand outside. And I think that that is like one, especially to someone that's like pretty pedestrian to like the fitness industry,

I think is maybe intimidating or confusing because like we're nutrition. I mean the, the, the sponsor that you have going right now about the carb cycling challenge, like how much confusion there is just about like nutrition and how much of it is just bullshit because most are not even bullshit, but people get into these like schools of thoughts are like, I'm keto, I'm paleo, I'm whole 30, I'm this, I'm that I'm like, you know, whatever it is. And all you're talking about at the end of the day is caloric deficit most of the time. And it's just a different like school of thought to get there. Like, okay, it's just a different rule to get you to that same goal. And I think that fitness in general is like that right now because yeah, you, you run into like, okay, you have to work out and you have to do yoga and you have to be barefoot and you have

to use kettlebells and you have to use maces and you have to do cleans and you have to run, you have to bike and you have to fucking go and stand in the sun and you got to drink kombucha and you got to, and you're like, fuck, I have a 90 item checklist that I have to do every day on top of like, go to work and have friends. Like how the checklist that i have to do every day on top of like go to work and have friends like how the fuck am i supposed to do this and that's crazy like intimidating to people that are just interested in like hey i want to get fit and honest to god like for anyone listening in the world just start yeah start doing something start moving that's it like that's that's that's all you gotta do and find something that you like doing that's all

it matters yeah and it doesn't matter. There are people that are in shape that do weightlifting, that do powerlifting, that do CrossFit, that cycle, that do OCR races. There are people that are in shape in every aspect of fitness. And sincerely, the two things that they have in common, consistency and their nutrition. And that's it. Because people look awesome across all these different things. So whether you want to do Pilates only or you want to do CrossFit only, you should have all these other things that maybe

are unstructured. Cause I'm sure like your bike rides, you're not like program. Okay. Like today, I'm going to know you just get on the bike and ride, you know? So just be active, like start doing something and be able to do it a lot. Dude, I'm going to be honest. Like, I think that for a little while I was like kind of depressed, like depressed with the gym and where I was living. I was like, man, I wish I opened this gym somewhere else. I don't really like Newport all that much. It's okay. A lot of the people here are a little bit older.

There's not a lot of great places to eat right around here. Not like right here, but a little bit away as there are. Well, here's the moral of the story. A guy in the noon class was like, hey, Ryan, why don't you come on a bike ride with me? I think you'd really like it. And I was like, no, I just don't have time today. This guy asked me for months. Really?

Like he didn't give up. And I'm very happy that I've decided to go one day. So I went with him one day. I was like, all right, let's go. I went with him. And fuck, he was going so fast. And I was like dying. And I was like, this is supposed to be fun and it's not fun.

And then I was like, you know what? I'm going to go on my own one day and do that ride again because it looked really cool. Yeah. And I went and did it myself. It's just a 10-mile loop from the gym. And I went around this loop and I was like, holy shit. I live in an unbelievable place. Yeah. Like an unbelievably pretty place and i'm so

so lucky yeah and i had been here for like four years before i had known that i didn't even know then i started riding in these other places and then i was like oh my god and then you know i would go travel and i'd go to like oregon to do something like for work or whatever and i'm like oh man i wish i lived in the mountains like they have cool mountain biking here probably and they have good hikes and whatever and then all of a sudden a friend took me to laguna and was like hey let's go mountain biking over here i want to take you like if you like biking because i started getting like more and more into it and i was like wow like we have all these mountains we have all this we have all that and then all of a sudden i'm like holy fuck like now like i'm getting excited right now just telling you about it and it's like wow like i love where

i live yeah you know what i mean now and i can go out and ride with my friends who went to world championships for triathlons kona world championships these are like the fittest motherfuckers on earth yeah and i'm not that far off of them because of what i do in the gym yeah and it's like that's why i post the photo of me riding bikes like absolutely it makes me excited yep i genuinely feel like people who can't wait to just go work out at the gym and then go back home and go back to their life yeah i feel like you're on your way to some sort of depressed state yeah for sure if you don't enjoy where you live you don't have like other activities of it, it's really hard to stay motivated.

And people ask me about motivation all the time. It's like I'm motivated because I do everything. I do everything, dude. I'll take three, four days off and just go climb a goddamn mountain that takes me three days to climb. And I'll be totally – I mean I won't be totally fine. I'll be like a little stressed out that I'm not working out. But like that's the thing. But you're climbing a mountain. I mean that like a little stressed out that I'm not working out, but like, yeah, that's the thing. I'm in a mountain.

I mean, that's fucking working out right there, dude. I could fucking plaster my whole house right now in photos of me doing the coolest shit that anyone's ever seen on the planet. Yeah. And my decorator said that I'm not allowed to, because it'll look absolutely dude on that wall.

It'll look awful. But I mean, I do, I want to do something. So I'm going to have a giant scrapbook on like the table at my house and be like, where's Ryan been? You know what I mean? Like, like a where's Waldo but like where's Ryan and just have like all these dope photos I mean dude I've seen things that literally I've done different hikes and different rides and I mean hikes specifically have like changed my

life I've been at the top of certain mountains where like when I down, I was never the same person. Really? Yeah. I would say the most influential moments of my life, the very first one that I can remember was my seventh grade track coach telling me that if I drank a soda, everything I did at practice was no longer going to matter. For most people, that would fuck them up, but i feel like for you that was awesome he tried to implement the fact that like eating healthy yeah he was like very big into eating healthy and i didn't understand what it was because you're too young yeah but he's like i don't want you guys drinking soda yeah i don't want you eating this and this and this and that and blah blah i don't remember exactly what he was saying but the soda like really i remember that one yeah and i started eating healthy yeah and i remember by like ninth grade like i had like a six pack and i remember

running around the track and girls being like whoa you know what i mean and like all my friends like how do you look like that right and like well because i don't need pop tarts i'm not even gonna tell anybody i'm just i'm eating better you know and then i remember the next most influential thing was when i was in college i saw a guy guy in the weight room that I just kept asking him questions. And he was like, everything that you eat should have a purpose. Yeah. Everything. For sure.

Everything. And then he's like, research why you eat carbohydrates and protein and this and that. And then I started putting together why I was eating everything. I would look at something and be like, can I eat that right now? I don't know. I'd have to research if I could eat what I wanted to eat. Then I was eating everything. I would look at something and be like, can I eat that right now? Like I don't know. Like I'd have to like research if I could eat what I wanted to eat, you know, that I figured that out. And then I met the guy that is my partner for the gym, Aaron.

And for those of you out there who don't know, I own 70% of my gym and he owns 30. A lot of people like to say that like I don't own my gym and such. I'm like, I own 70% of my gym. Go fuck yourself and then i own 100 of everything else that i do right so there we go and then um i met him that changed all this and then after my first year this girl fong who is a member of my gym brought me on my first huge hike okay and it was Mount Whitney which is the biggest mountain

in the continental US yeah and it's very very hard to climb yeah and most people take two or three days to do it and we did it in a day shit

and I wasn't sure if I was gonna be able to do it I was nervous right and we all went and we did it and a bunch of people dropped off

and couldn't do it and we got to the top and I remember being at the top and being like this is before biking even started yeah I just remember being at the top and being like this is before biking even started i just remember being at the top and being like wow like i'm able to do some crazy shit yeah and it's all because of the stuff that i'm doing in that gym right and it's not like i like to tell everyone you should be doing all these crazy things because i like doing them and stuff but

it's i mean man when you follow someone on instagram these days they're all just so one-sided like they just work out like they're just this person or just that person it's like how cool is it to find someone who's like wow this guy climbs mountains this guy rides like yeah he's done all these different things and he's really fit and he's really strong and he's really fast and he can fucking swim and he can do all these things and like he travels like you know i mean like and you're and you're writing cool do all these things and like he travels like you know what I mean and you're writing cool shit too it's not like you're like

an athlete that doesn't know what the fuck they're talking about you know what I mean like it's just like oh hey like what do you do to work out and they're like I don't fucking really know

you know or they don't understand training principles or anything like that you're writing fucking cool ebooks and especially like the Dark Horse program like that shit's fucking awesome

yeah but I chase those feelings now like I'm addicted just adrenaline junkie I just want to do things that no one's done and like That shit's fucking awesome. But I chase those feelings now. I'm addicted. Just adrenaline junkie or what? I just want to do things that no one's done. Even climbing Everest just doesn't do it for me. It's like, I already know too many people have done it now.

I want to do something else. And I want to do this. I want to do that. I want to be known for being the fucking craziest motherfucker anyone's ever seen, but also successful in all these other cool things. Yeah, and be good at just fucking everything. Yeah, I mean, you could always just go off the bandwagon and fall off Earth and be that guy who just travels and does these other cool things. Yeah. And be good at just fucking everything. Yeah. I mean, you could always like just go off the bandwagon and fall off earth and be that guy who just travels and does all these cool things.

But people have done that too. Yeah. Yeah. I want to be the guy who does everything. Everything. And is successful at the same time. It's probably why being single is cool. It's probably.

Yeah. I was going to say, I was like, well, cause like having, I ended up working the front desk because, uh, I kept texting you and i was like do

you want to shoot the video today and you're like no dude i'm fucking doing whatever and i was like all right well let me just get some set hours you know i mean like i'll be here at three every day before that if i can train and everything like that um so yeah that's got it's got to be stressful too i mean is that is there ever a point that you're just like so overwhelmed that you don't even know where to start during the day at work or what? All the time. Just all the time. Yeah.

When I'm super overwhelmed, typically what I'll do is I'll try to go to bed really early. Yeah. So that I can wake up and get so much done before it gets like light outside and I start to have FOMO that I'm not doing anything fun. Yeah. So I think what a lot of people don't understand is my typical day day is probably like a six to six AM to a 10 PM. So you're looking at 16 hour, 15 hour. What was that?

So six to six would be 12 and then 10, 16 hours. Like that's a normal day. Like you get eight hours of sleep and yeah, like I'm going, I'm working out during some of that. Yeah. I'm like chatting to people in the gym about nothing,

but like that is part of it. But it all has a purpose and all of it does. It's pushing you towards, you know, the ultimate goal of your business. Cause I mean, I've seen you interact with people where it's like, this is not fucking really doing anything for me.

Like it's not worth it. I mean that girl that came in here the other day, that same person the other day was like, I don't see you in the morning anymore. Yeah. And that was bullshit too. And we were talking about that. I was like,

Oh, you're not here at five AM. Well, yeah, but I got other shit to do. Yeah. You know, like it's not like i'm not working but that person's feelings will be way different if i was there at 5 a.m and i asked them how their kid was doing yeah like and we talked about nothing for 10 minutes like that would have been a win for the day yeah and a lot

of people like a lot of times i'll come in the gym and just talk the day away but that was what i was supposed to do that it provides value in, in that moment for whoever that is. And I think, and it, and it increases your sense of community and how they belong and like, Oh shit. Like, but I know the,

Oh, I know Ryan, but then someone might argue like, so did you really work for 16 hours? It doesn't sound like it. It's like, well, did I get to do anything that I wanted to do that day?

Yeah. No. Like in 16 hours, I did what was going to benefit my job all day, every day. So when I want to go on my trips for fucking wherever, right. For however long I go, everyone say it must be nice to go do, cause I'd go on gnarly trips all the time.

Those trips are when I'm about to burst. Oh yeah. Yeah. So like when you, when all of a sudden, remember like the other day you're like, Oh, what are you doing this week? I was like, I might go to Canada and go mountain biking. And like nobody even knew about it. It's like, well I'm about to freak out right now.

Right. Cause my house is taking a lot of time. Like all these things are taking a lot of time. And I was like, need to do something i need to get the fuck out of here yeah and i'll just go like i've actually never bought a plane ticket more than a week in advance well when i came into when i came into interview in the middle of the fucking interview like i'm going to spain next week i was like all right dude fuck. What am I starting then? I was like sick. I forgot about that.

Yeah. Yeah. But I told my members last year, I was like, I'm going to Norway tomorrow. And they were like, Norway? Yeah. Tomorrow. And when you had a ticket, I was like, like an hour ago. They're like, should you go home and pack? And I was like, I'll get it in the morning.

It'll be fine. And then they're like, oh my God, how long are you going to be gone for? I was like, I only bought a one way ticket. Oh shit. And they're just all like, everyone is like freaking out and they're like, are you okay? I'm like, yeah, I'm fine. Yeah, I'm good. The workouts will be in.

Yeah. Like everything. Yeah. And I'll be good. Fuck. Yeah. No, and that's, and that's gotta be annoying too. Cause I'm sure people tell you that all the,

the like, Oh, must be nice shit. Cause I feel like it's the same thing with the, just live a little or like stuff like that. Like they're almost calling bullshit on like, Oh, you don't work,

which is fucking insane. Depends like, especially with how, how much reach you have and how much money you're making and everything, like everything you're doing, you're successful at right now. So like, Oh,

it must be nice. Like, yeah, fucking is nice. I'm sorry.'m sorry your life sucks like don't make me feel bad about it you know what i mean like that's how often does that happen like if you just have a conversation it happens quite a bit my little jabs oh the jabs yeah all the time i mean the thing it is kind of what sucks right now about doing well is like you have like two friends like yeah either have the friend who is

like likes you because you have money or you have you'll have the friend who like hates you because you have money yeah but like i don't think anyone's genuinely happy for you yeah like ever yeah unless they're doing this they're also doing well yeah everyone either wants to like ride your coattails or bring you down they need to be like doing better than you a little bit or equal yeah if they're if you're doing really well they're doing really well but they're making ride your coattails or bring you down. They need to be like doing better than you a little bit or equal. Yeah. If they're, if you're doing really well, they're doing really well, but they're making like a little bit less than you. They're still not happy. Yeah. Yeah. It's like a, it's a weird feeling for sure. Yeah. Well not like, okay. So like people hit you up like for partnerships

or to work for you or anything like that. How has it ever happened that you've misread a situation and ended up with someone that basically just wanted to be around you to get like, oh, if I'm around Ryan, maybe he'll post me and I'll get the crumbs of something. I'll ride his coattails until I can just coast. They don't have to put in the effort. I can feel it too fast. So they've come in and I'm like, you got to go. Yeah.

You just get weird people. I know it right away. Yeah. So they've come in and I'm like, you got to go. Yeah. Yeah. You just get like weird people. I could just know. I know it right away. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's got to suck too. Cause it's like, they're just wasting your time at that point. Yeah.

Wasting their own time. Um, shit. I mean, thankfully I've never gotten to that point where that's happened. Yeah. Like, and that'd be the worst thing too, especially like getting down the line, like into a project. Yeah, exactly. Right. Like getting into a project with someone and then just having it totally fall

apart or anything. There's gotta be some questions that you might have in terms of like, before you had gotten here, like, you know, like what would you do if you were me right now in school? Like, you know, what should I do? I mean, I guess I I've asked you, I've answered like what you should do. Yeah. But like, what about like what you could do right now? Yeah. Like, yeah, exactly. So, so I mean, I guess I've answered what you should do. Yeah. But what about what you could do right now? Yeah, exactly.

So, I mean, we've talked and like, okay, so like the buddy building and then I have a bunch of programs that are like my own style. I mean, like even the heat that I gave you, like that's 100% inspired by sweat because I saw like you were doing that and obviously it fills a need in the industry. And I think that making it efficient like that so i have the the two pathways right you can either do team which is barbell work and a lot of strength stuff for the first however long into 15 20 25 minutes of class and then if you if you're not comfortable with it or you want to get more conditioned you can do more of like a conditioning style workout dumbbell bar kettlebell, medicine ball, stuff like that. How, if you're starting out and trying to grow your reach

and then trying to get more into the online market, where would you start? If you don't have a big following, what you have to start with is training somebody for free. Yep. Like finding somebody who has a good reach, but they're not doing any sort of following. Like maybe they have a nutrition challenge or maybe they're known for, you know, something other than workouts. Yeah. And just be like, hey, like try these workouts out. Let me know if you like them.

You know, and then like maybe we can team up together. Yeah. And do something like this. So I had a really good friend who has great programming, and he teamed up with a girl, and she wasn't a big programming person. She was more of like food and like more of like a female specialist, and she had a good following, and a lot of people were asking her like, you know, what do you do for your workouts?

Because they liked the way that she looked. So one day he teamed up with her, like, you know, what do you do for your workouts? Because they liked the way that she looked. So one day he teamed up with her. And his workouts now went from, you know, making a little bit to making a lot of it. Yeah. And just because he had reached out to the right person. Yeah. So I feel like if you don't have the reach solely yourself, you need to find someone who does. Who's also going to be on your side too, you know.

Like it's this person that he reached out to at the time only had maybe 20,000 15 right or 20,000 followers wasn't a huge person but i've talked about on the podcast several times people who've had 10,000 followers are making 40,000 a month yeah so i wouldn't necessarily look at the number as much as like you know how much this person reflects who you want to be teamed up with if their goals match yours, and how strong their following really is. Yeah, like how much engagement they get. If you go and you have 40,000 followers and you're getting 100 likes, I don't want to mess with that. No, that makes sense. This person had really strong engagement, and his program we took off because of it.

Yeah. So I feel like that's one way you can really do it. I've actually gotten to the point with Chalk Online, I've almost wanted to start paying athletes to kind of just push it. Okay. Not push it kind of just push it. Not push it, but genuinely love it. And if you genuinely love it and you put the link in your bio and you kind of start throwing some sales towards it, I'd pay you. For sure. You know?

Yeah. That makes sense. How do you manage... Because you write all three programs every single day for the last five years insane. How do you never fall behind on programming? I wouldn't say I don't fall behind sometimes people are like what's tomorrow's workout right like oh fuck i forgot uh like a lot of times like my my goal is sunday to get them all in for the week yep and sometimes i'll get like monday through friday right and i won't get saturday in which doesn't seem like a big deal but

like i won't do saturday until fr Friday. And then people start to freak out. But every Sunday I get them in no matter what. For a while I was a week ahead and it felt amazing. Yeah, that's great. And then I lost it after like a month. I couldn't hang on because I just needed a week of chilling. And I chilled and then I never got back ahead again. A lot of people are like, why don't you just program for the whole month?

I'm like, dude, one week takes me so long that like my brain is done. Well, even writing like, cause I get into a groove where I'm like, this is awesome. And then when I look at it, I'm, you know, I'll even look at the calendar, let's say, and I'll start like looking into cause I have a pretty like set split in my head that I, that I like to work off of and just have like kind of as the blueprint. Right. And, um, you know,

if I look at the calendar and I start programming out stuff, I'll be like, oh, this is really sick, like, you know, clean workout or like whatever. This is really awesome for squats and da-da-da. And then I finally get like, you know, 12 workouts done and I look at the calendar and I'm like, okay, I don't have one complete week. Like I have like this, this, this, this, this, this. A lot of the workouts are very like similar body parts and stuff. Yeah.

You can't put them in the same week. Because I just like I get in the same and I'm like, oh, fuck, that's really cool. I got to use that. So I put it in. And then I'm like, well, fuck, what am I doing on Tuesday? You know what I mean? And I feel like, yeah. So if you write out the month, especially writing three programs at the same time, one,

you start to accidentally reuse exercises back-to-back days, or you get that writer's block almost that you're just like i don't even know like i've had workouts that like i i want the workout to work so bad that i'll sit there and work on it for like an hour hour and a half and i'll just keep like moving other workouts around changing movements to make this one workout work yeah and i just won't give up on it yeah and i'll make it work but it'll take me way too long for me i should just gave up on it yeah does it end up being like the sickest workout that week yeah it's sick yeah for sure and at some point i may be able to go back and copy some workouts and i have copied a few workouts

and changed them a little bit right but my style just changes and everything's changing over time and it's it's really hard for me to say yeah I can go back at this month and just start over again. People in my gym remember, first off, they remember things like that. They're like, oh, I remember this workout. I'm like, do you really? Fuck. And then second, like I have some people who are like, hey, can you start doing squat programs on Tuesday because I can never make it on Monday and I never get to do the program.

I'm like, oh, that makes sense. So then I try to like flip flop, you know, certain days for strength and stuff like that. Like that stuff's kind of important to people. Yeah, no, for sure.

And that's, I like, so you can't always have a template either. Yeah. And that's the split that I work off of. And that makes sense. Cause the split that I work off of is, it is basically full body every day.

It's just different, like basically levels of movement patterns. So like, let's say for a Monday, it's going to be a lower body push, upper body pull, and then a hinge movement. So you're kind of hitting basically everything. And then the next day will be upper body push, lower body pull and a lunge. So like, let's say you didn't come Monday. We're still getting in a lunge on that day, even though you didn't squat the day before for, you know, the person that you're talking about, they never come on Tuesday or whatever it is. Um, but yeah, if you have

someone that like, even if they're doing all the lunges and shit and getting their leg work in they're like well i want to squat 500 pounds so like why can't i squat yeah so i mean that makes a lot of sense um in terms of like because if i is if i read a workout and i know you've posted about this like people in hotel gyms doing a workout and they're like are you doing ryan's workout like yeah oh yeah how how long did it take you to like find your like voice in programming oh he's like right like how did i get famous in the world well not like that but like like your style you know i mean because you could write i could look at probably any of your programs at this point and be like yeah that's like right and then look at someone else writing it, and I'm like, that's not right writing that.

Yeah. You know? Okay. So I think after like two years of programming for the gym, I created a style that was very unique. Yeah. Like I remember after two years, it was like, okay, I get it now. Like, all right, I want to keep this crossfit vibe but i also want to be like body part oriented yeah and i also want people to look really good

and i also want to maximize time so like i got personally offended if someone was to ever leave my gym and someone was like hey hey, where do you work out? Yeah. And you said it. Or like I went to the gym, oh, where do you work out? And they said it, but they didn't look good. Yeah. I started thinking about that every day.

Yeah, okay. I was like, oh, man, like someone's actually going to say they work out here, and if they don't look good, I'm fucked. All right, well, that means that this whole 15-minute first part thing has to go. Like every CrossFit gym was like 15 minutes to hit a max clean and jerk, 15 minutes to hit a 5-rep max press, 15 minutes to hit a max clean and jerk. Yeah. 15 minutes to hit a 5 rep max press. Right. 15 minutes to hit

a 5 rep max back squat or a 1 rep max back squat. So it was like 15 minutes of strength. Yeah. And I was like, you know what? Fuck that.

Yep. Let's do 20 minutes and we'll do a superset. Yep. We're going to do squat and fucking step ups. Yep. Or, you know,

back rack lunges and lateral lunges. Or like we would do like strict press and weighted pull ups. Like shit like that. I, like, we would do, like, strict press and weighted pull-ups. Like, shit like that. I'm like, all right, now they're getting a little bit better workout in. Sometimes I'd even add, like, a three-piece. Like, the other day we did strict press, weighted pull-up into 50 dubs. And that was, like, one sequence.

And we'd go through it four times, and it was 20 minutes. And we still did a gnarly Metcon. Yeah, and that's probably my favorite, like, circuit at this point is compound movement core exercise cardio and you hit that and like and then if you hit like a bodybuilding circuit at the end like fuck you got you could even do it in 30 minutes and that would be an awesome workout right there i've definitely had workouts in the gym where the entire day was like five heavy back squats like 15 pull-ups, and then like a 20-caliber sprint. And it was like rest three minutes and then hit that as many times as you can in 35 minutes. You know what I mean?

And then people are like, dude, I don't know about this. And they do it and they're like, dude, that was fucking awesome. And I'm like, yeah. Yeah, it feels great. That's like interval bodybuilding style shit. So after a while, I started realizing that this style was not only helping people not move so fast that they were about to get injured. Because if I say, do five squats, 15 pull-ups, and a 20-count bike, but I don't say do it for time. I say do that, hit the bike hard, and then rest, and then repeat.

You're not going to do your five squats as fast as you can. You're just going to do five good squats. You're going to go over. You're going to hopefully get all 15 pull-ups unbroken. And you're going to hit the squats as fast as you can you're just going to do five good squats you're going to go over you're going to hopefully get all 15 pull-ups unbroken yep and you're going to hit the bike as hard as you can at that time yep and it it keeps people more in tune with their body they're not like you know going overboard and anything they're focusing more on how it should be done and they're getting a way better workout and they're probably because that's going on for 35 minutes getting more volume in than anything else yeah for sure and i think you're gonna look better yeah and i think like because we've talked about like doing you know like even like a like a sweat workout or

something like that uh organizing it in such a way that and this is really fun to me too and i'm sure it is for you is almost playing like the clock like it's a like a puzzle right and you're just like oh what kind of like cool like time split can i fuck around with in here and it like forced rest periods and then speed stuff up and like whatever it's almost like um like being a dj and like fucking with like the beats per minute or something like that you know what i mean so like that heart rate up and everything and i and i love that um i think like in okay so in terms of like back to like questions I had like before getting here, um, how do you get over the, like trying not to be the annoying fitness guy on Instagram? You know what I mean? Cause that's the only way you're going to build a reach is putting out content

and stuff like that. But you start with your personal Instagram account. I think I have like maybe 1300 followers at this point. And most of them are people that I know personally or our family or something like that. How do you not be, or how do you get over? Do you just not give a shit about being the annoying fitness guy? So I don't think I've ever posted anything that I thought was like spam. Yeah. You know, like I always feel like I'm excited about what I'm about to post. Okay. And I like, oh, I've always kind of been like that. I think I remember reading this guy's post one time where he was like, I started killing it once I started to realize exactly what I was supposed to be on Instagram for. And I still don't think that I figured that out yet.

Yeah. But I remember reading that and being like, I need to do that. Like, that's what I need to do. Like like i need to do that like that's what i need to do like i need to stop posting like things that i like like you know like if if i like you know going to the beach and i'm hanging out i'm like man this is so fucking dope i should take a photo like this is cool you know and it's like yeah put it in your story yeah it doesn't belong on your page or like you know if i love riding my bike and i have this really cool photo and it's like i'm doing a jump or something it's like put it in your story yeah you know, if I love riding my bike and I have this really cool photo and it's like I'm doing a jump or something, it's like put it in your story. You know, it doesn't belong on your page.

But every once in a while I'll do something like that. But ever since I read that post, and this guy is murdering, by the way. And I started looking at his page and being like, wow, all right, he really has a purpose. Like every day this guy is like putting a movement up. He's talking about the movement. Yeah. And it has like real value, you know. But I'd look at my page and I'd be like, I have some value and then I have some random stuff and whatever.

But then I'm like, well, people follow me and I do really well. And I think that that's why they follow me because they feel like they're part of my life. Yeah. But I don't have a million followers. So maybe I am doing something wrong. Yeah. You know, so I don't really know about that. I feel like right now where I'm at and how everything is going, I don't know if I care about a million followers as much as I used to. Yeah. You know, so I don't, I don't really know about that. I just, I feel like right now where I'm at and how everything is going, I don't know

if I care about a million followers as much as I used to. Yeah. Cause it will, I mean like, okay, let's say you do have a million followers. Like what does that even look like? You know what I mean? Like if you don't, it could mean a lot more money though. It could. But also like if you have a million followers and it ends up being that, let's just entertainment

shit and nobody's really, you know, those, those other mill, cause what do you have right now? It's over 200,000. Yeah. No, I have like almost that. I have almost million i have like 185 185 okay um so let's say you know the next 800 000 and only two i mean it'd be a ton of money anyway but like most of them are only there for the entertainment value what does that really do i have friends with four million and they don't do it they don't do as well as I do.

So, I mean, there's definitely, like, a difference sometimes. Yeah. Yeah. How do you deal with an explosion of following like that? Like, getting to the point where you can't. Mine was all slow. Mine was pretty slow build. So, even, like, getting to, like, a big following, though, how do you deal with, for instance, people posting in a much higher volume than any other normal person? People hating on something or being like, what the fuck are you talking about?

Oh, dude, I get steroid comments every day on ads and all sorts of stuff. Like, oh, why would you sell that when you're obviously doing this or that? Dude, have you seen the people that are fucking all these people on instagram that are just like actually on steroids that are like gnarly like you might look at me and be like yeah he looks gnarly but like obviously like there's so many bodybuilders that look so ridiculous and honestly like there's so many different body types out there yeah that like are all using drugs or something at some point like people people need to understand there's so many more people doing this stuff than you ever would imagine well and a lot of them look

like shit too because a lot of them don't live the lifestyle i was gonna say there's that too like you're never gonna look good unless you're like literally doing everything you're preaching like you're not eating well you're not living well you're saying yes to the live a little bit all the time you're doing all these different. I have so many friends on drugs that I look way better than. Yeah. And it's, like, ridiculous to me. Because it's, like, a little help, but then they're like, oh, well, it's okay if I go and do it, which also is going to fuck up your liver if you're drinking and shit like

Everybody I know that does drugs, they are, like, very unmotivated to work out unless they're taking drugs. Really? Yeah, they're just like... You think it's, like, a hormonal thing thing or you think it's just like a lifestyle thing? I just feel like they know what the results are like because they use them. Yeah.

And then what happens is... They get disappointed. Yeah, like they're working out and they're like, I'm not getting any results. I'm like, well, it's not going to take six weeks of like regular life. Like maybe your little cycle helped you in six weeks.

But like this might take six years, bro. Right. Or six months, you know what I mean? Like no big deal. But I've been doing this for so long. like you're welcome to go back on my instagram for until the first day and i've looked the same yeah that's always like my like my drug right um responses it's like being dude if you see like a big fluctuation in my physique from when i first started instagram to now then let me me know. When you're consistent... What's the heaviest you've ever been? 210.

I'm 5'5". I weigh 180 right now. I was 30 pounds heavier. That was my bobsled days. Goddamn, dude. My lightest was when I was in Hawaii as a helicopter pilot. I was like 160.

Yeah. Could you still, could you still like, so if I had a helicopter out back, can you still fly that shit around? Oh, for sure. 100%. You can fly that around? Yep. You ever do that?

A couple of years ago I did and I just haven't really flown ever since. It's just, it's very expensive to just keep the license going for no reason. Yeah. That makes sense. Um, how, how, how did you because okay i guess like crossfit sort of answers isn't like helps um build like the following of the gym but how do you determine like like price point the people you're going after because even between like crossfit boxes is going to be a different population obviously like, this is easy. Obviously, your demographic.

How do you determine that? So you look up the demographics online and you find out what the median household income is. Right. And then you kind of base it off of that. Yeah. And you'll kind of look at the other businesses in the area. Yeah. Like we have SoulCycle.

We have Orange Theory. And so then you make a competitive price towards them. But I think when you have a product like this, it's best to probably be the same price as, like, the nicest one in town. Yeah. But also have a way better experience. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's pretty much my goal. Because that's, like, you guys never run, like, a Groupon or anything for classes and stuff like that.

Never have. Yeah, because it doesn't – I don't think it fits. I think it attracts a different kind of customer. Like I was saying earlier, like, people will do, you know, the six-week challenge at this gym that gym the other gym and like then i think it fucks up your community first of all so i had class pass which is like okay yeah right yep when people have like memberships to multiple gyms and they can come in like once or twice a month or something and i had it open to all classes and then they started going across the classes they had no idea what they were doing and it was terrifying. And I got a bad review one day

and I was like, this is done. So I let them go to sweat now, but I don't let them go anywhere else. So you still run class pass? Only for sweat. Only for sweat,

which is my conditioning class for people who don't know. Yeah. CrossFit's way too scary now. I get a new person that doesn't know what they're doing and I'm like,

fuck, this is not good. Yeah. Do you guys do, i mean i know like we'll do like an on-ramp yeah like an olympic lift to class but not an on-ramp necessarily i do one on ones only so like if you want to learn how to do movements it's optional right and it's one-on-one yeah people who have classes for that is that paid too or yeah they'll pay the trainer right i take none of the money the trainer gets all of it yeah and if there's ever an issue where they're like hey i can't like really afford this i'm like all right i'll just take it out of your first month okay like if you

feel like you really need it and you you know you definitely need it then i'll just take it out of your first month no big deal it might be close to them getting a free first month but i'd still rather do that than anything else yeah and just have it be like safe and everything i mean i noticed that because that's like i think that's what honestly why people gravitate towards your program is one the just the awesome results and two especially if they're following online is like the great price points like 20 bucks a month yeah crazy access to three different programs for five years yeah you can go back and just forever yeah it's like yeah with that uh like roulette game you were talking about. Right. Um, that's, I mean,

that's insane, but I think that one of the things that definitely like separates you in that sense is the understanding, just like basing this off the conversations that we've had just about programming and the philosophy behind it is being able to have a workout that like most people can do if they're inclined to do CrossFit,fit right like you're not getting crazy out of shape people doing crossfit like most of the time i think there are some people out there that like want to use it as like a weight loss or something like that but again you have sweat so i think i think that definitely and the daily d yeah and the daily d and i think that's definitely like just a crazy separating factor from what most people are doing because there's genuinely a huge difference and i think

that a lot of people like mess this up um and like you were saying like it kind of happened naturally but going from being an athlete to a coach or to a business owner there's a lot of great athletes and there's not that many successful business owners um what what do you think in your opinion like other than like being skilled in the programming in the marketing uh sets you apart just like personally as going from that athlete to the successful business like is there anything that you do personally like you talk about the um voice recording on the phone like when you're in a social situation just as yourself is there anything

in particular that separates you from maybe some other athletes you know that have tried to do the same thing and haven't been successful or i think about every person this is like the weirdest thing but like i actually when someone is coming in to meet me like like even for you for instance right i'm thinking to myself okay what is he thinking right now and i and i'm literally putting myself inside your body right like all right he's walking up to me and i'm walking thinking to myself, okay, what is he thinking right now? And I'm literally putting myself inside your body. I'm like, all right, he's walking up to me, and I'm walking up to myself. Like my first goal is like I want this person to never forget me. Yeah.

Like what can I say right now? And it's not purposely, but it's like I don't want to be like everybody else they've ever met. I don't want to be like asking the same questions at the meeting you know like where do you see yourself in five years where do you see yourself in 10 seconds i want to be like yo i almost kicked you out in fucking 30 seconds because i don't give a fuck you know what i mean like you'd be like damn that motherfucker was gnarly yeah i'm like yeah no i yeah i won't forget that like that first like interview it's like oh shit okay cool but it's like everything like when i meet people they're like oh wow he had a lot of energy or wow he was like this or he was that and it's like it i like, okay, cool. But it's like everything. When I meet people, they're like, oh wow, he had a lot of energy or wow, he was like this or he was that.

And it's like I like to give a presence that is unique and is only me. And I like to be the first person you think of for hard work or for workouts or like anything that I do. I want you to be like, huh, who could I call for this? Definitely Ryan for like all of the above. And I think that once you're that person, you're the person that someone's going to call for a great idea to open a good gym, to be partner in something. Like, you know what I mean? Like these are the things that matter the most.

Like when you're not your best version of yourself every day, even the days that you're having a bad day, nothing good's going to happen. Dude, none of my shit happened because I just sat there and just kept grinding and grinding and grinding away. Like, yes, in a way, but a lot of my shit happened because I just sat there and just kept grinding and grinding and grinding away. Like, yes, in a way. But a lot of the things happened at a pivotal moment where I met the right person.

Yeah. Right? Like I met the right person for the gym. I met the right person to do my online marketing. I met the right person for all these different things. But what if I was a dick that day? Yeah. I wouldn't have met that person.

That one day I could have been a dick that day? Yeah. I wouldn't have met that person. That one day I could have been a dick and it would have been all different. And that's, that's something or less passionate. Yeah. And I think about that all the time. So you're not being a dick. We'll call it less passionate.

Right. And so, well, and like, even like, uh, like people's opinion of a coach, right? If they come to a class and that's their one hour a day with you and you're a

dick for that one hour, that's a hundred percent of the person that you are to them. Or if that was the first time that they were going to... Dude, I've had people come in here and they're like, I was going to come here, but Ryan was a dick. Oh, really? Because I was having a bad day in the back of my gym. In the office where I was coming out and I'd be like,

someone asked me a question and I'd just go back inside and I'd be like, that's the owner? Fuck that guy. I've only heard it twice in five five years and i and it's usually girls yeah or maybe i or i think i might have said like a dirty ass joke one time like someone was offended or some girl was offended and i was like oh god do you does it happen frequently i feel like it can't but like does it happen frequently that people come in here and they just don't know who you are they're just like this is a gym oh 100 all the time probably 50 of the time really yeah that's fucking crazy that's the thing too like people who get these like big heads about

who they are uh-huh no one gives a fuck yeah no one gives a fuck like there's so many dude i've known so many games athletes that like try to open gyms and it just buries or like they think that this is gonna happen because of who they are and it's like that's not the case at all man like that's not that's not really who they are. And it's like, that's not the case at all, man. Like, that's not really who you are because you're not – like, people in the area aren't 100% tuned in to the CrossFit atmosphere. I bet half – let me stand up real quick. I bet half the people in this class right now don't even know who Rich Froning is. Really?

Oh, for sure. Really? Maybe not this class. I feel like 4 o'clock is pretty intense. Yeah, this is 4. I thought it was 5 o'clock for a second. Yeah. If it was 5 o'clock, good portion, don't know.

You just don't even know who Rich went. Well, that's, I mean, like, so, for instance. Do you even know who got third place last year at the CrossFit Games? I don't. What about the year before that? No. What about second? No.

And you said that. You posted that a while ago, right? Yeah, I talk about that shit all the time. Yeah, exactly. And I think, well, I think it's, like, I was fully fucking amped for like this shit to happen like even when you texted me the other night and like asked to do this i was like yeah i like screenshot that i'm like at home i like show my mom i'm like like a fucking ryan and she follows you too and i was um like talking about i'm like yeah i'm gonna do this podcast so i went to i actually had class last night for grad school and i started telling people some stuff about like oh yeah like he said we're gonna

do a podcast and when i was there they were like well like some of them were like who's ryan fisher and i like had to explain it and what i actually ended up doing was i was like just just look him up on instagram so i pulled up instagram and it was like one of your like first six pictures or something and it's like you on the beach like doing like a wheelbarrow run with somebody. And they were like, holy fuck, look at that guy. And I was like, yeah, that's who I'm fucking interning for right now. It's actually funny. I guess the program director had seen the affiliation agreement and he was like, oh, this is like, oh shit, like Ryan Fisher.

Like he's legit, which is surprising because like I talk about you a lot. And if people aren't super in tune to it, I think they just don't know. Which is crazy because it's like our own little world. And there are so many people that are just insane and blowing up and everything. And everyone outside of it is like, who fucking cares? Yeah. And it's so crazy to me too. I don't even know how to describe that.

It's hard though when you have something that's free that you can market yourself on for free and blow up. I mean, when the possibility is there to not do it, it's crazy to me. Yeah. It's like if someone told you that you can go to a casino and keep pulling all the handles

and eventually one of them would hit and you wouldn't have to put any money in, wouldn't you do it? You'd just run around all day and just do that shit. I don think i've ever heard anybody say that that's a dope that's a really good analogy you've had like three you're on fire today that's what instagram is all about is like it's it's a free casino yeah and you're just running around fucking pulling handles right and i mean something will hit yeah and something's gonna hit and i think that to not go ahead and just spend the time running around pulling handles like what is wrong

with you yeah i don't want to hear why you're not successful i don't want to hear must be nice i don't want to hear you know live a little bit like none of these things it's like dude the work was right there the whole time all you had to do was do it yeah i told you the assignment and you never hand your fucking homework in right what um so in that so on that note like what is what would be your approach to, I mean, we already talked about like, okay, you partner with somebody and something like that. Um, what do you think about, so I see it a lot is these people that will go on social media and to generate a following, which I feel like this is just as bad as buying followers.

They'll just follow a million people. Right. And then their ratio is like super fucked and they're like yeah you know i have 10 000 followers but i also follow 11 000 and like whatever they only follow 11 000 because they hired a service to follow and unfollow people yeah but like how i've actually tried that once before yeah how'd that work out and i'm like i'm not embarrassed at all like i don't buy followers but i i have tried different things to help build it yeah and it would follow like fucking borderline weird porn yeah no like i had it follow like a guy selling steroids yeah and i was like oh my god i can't do that and it like liked a photo of a guy with like selling a whole bunch of

different vials and i was like oh my god like this is exactly what that. And it like liked a photo of a guy with like selling a whole bunch of different vials. And I was like, oh my God, this is exactly what I need someone to see. And I'm fucked. And I just like canceled it. Yeah. And then,

and I even hit American Express and I was like, I don't, I don't want that shit. Yeah. Yeah. And then this happened to me. Like I tried like three different ones and they all did the same thing. And I was like,

I don't even care anymore. Yeah. Cause it will. I mean, even if they follow you back, then it's like, okay, it's some weird like meme page or something like that. They're not going to buy your shit. They might. You never know. Yeah. You never then it's like, okay, it's some weird meme page or something like that.

They're not going to buy your shit. They might. You never know. Yeah, you never know. I mean, dude, I posted a video. Oh, I want to do it again, actually. I posted all these. Do you remember seeing a video of my story of all these countries that were buying my books?

Yeah. Yeah. Dude, that must have been the most response I'd ever had. People were like, holy fuck. Yeah. Because then they were like, yo, this dude's crushing. Yeah. And it was like you know

because every single country had thousands of insane of purchases and they were like oh my god but like you know all those other weird countries those are probably weird motherfuckers on instagram yeah yeah yeah they've got like nine letters and numbers next to their name and it's like it looks like a robot or something i've had people uh literally reformat my interval bodybuilding books they turn it a different color. They put different photos in it. They like,

and then they try to, you know, sell it to themselves or sell it for themselves. I remember DMing a person from Mexico because someone wrote me and was like,

dude, this guy is trying to sell your book right now and it's all in Spanish and it's this and it's that and blah, blah, blah. And I looked at it

and I was like, holy fuck. I went to his page and he even had examples of the book and everything. No shit. Like for sale, high intensity. I went to his page and he even had examples of the book and everything. No shit. Like for sale, high intensity interval bodybuilding,

even called high intensity interval bodybuilding, everything. No shit. And I sent him a video in his DMs. Uh-huh. And I was like, listen, motherfucker. I know what you're doing. People have messaged me. Yeah.

Not only do you have the proof right here that I can see, but you have your gym address on here in Mexico. And I just want you to know that I will literally fly there right now and kick your ass if you don't take this off. I swear to God, I'm not even lying at all. I was like, I will fly there right now and show up to your gym and beat the living shit out of you if you don't take this down. That's fantastic. And he gave me a video back and was like, dude, I respect you. Blah, blah, blah, dude, I respect you.

I'm not even trying to do that. And he's like, I was just trying to show people that I was doing your program. And I was like, so you went out of your way to the point where you put it in Spanish and all this stuff. I can't read the motherfucker, but whatever. He took it down and it was all gone and whatever. That's insane. I was ready, dude. I was ready. I looked up plane ticket prices and everything.

I was like, I'm just going to go there and show up be like what's up what's up yeah that's fucking hilarious you give me like 10 grand right now i just beat the fuck out of you we'll settle out of court right now and then i've had people try to sue me for yeah for the cart site i was just gonna ask about that because it's like public domain like that like that because there's a difference like right clearly with the high intensity interval bodybuilding that's your shit you wrote the book you wrote the program you put it out there but the acronym is actually taken by like high intensity boxing is it really yeah so have

they tried to say anything to you about that i don't think they're big enough where it's like a it's a thing conflict or anything like that because yeah we were talking the other day about the but someone was like this carb cycling deal which is bullshit kind of because like everyone I mean I don't know how much I can say about this

yeah it's fine it's out there like everyone knows the carb cycling is a thing I mean there might be different variations on you do like high mid low when I hit up my lawyer you know yeah

he was like hey once you get to this level like you should just keep my number. Right. People are going to do this. He's like, this is super, super normal. Yeah. He's like, I don't want you to get stressed out.

Leave the stress to me. Right. Blah, blah, blah. Because I was fucking losing my mind. Because they mean they have scare tactics and they work really well. Yeah. I'm sure. Hey, we got this much money from someone and it was like millions.

And then we also like, you know, there's these damages that could be worth this much. And if you don't respond, like this could happen and blah, blah'm sure. Like, hey, like, we got this much money from someone, and it was, like, millions. And then, like, we also, like, you know, there's these damages that could be worth this much. And if you don't respond, like, this could happen, and blah, blah, blah. And I was like, holy fuck. And then I just, like, you know, got, like, the best, you know, attorney ever. Yeah. And wrote them back. And it's basically, like, you know, the smartest way to say go fuck yourself. But, like, yeah, he's like, dude, this is going to happen.

Everyone's going gonna be trying to see you like i feel like do people just like throw out lawsuits just hoping that all the time something yeah so that's what i was asking him too i was like what do they really want to get out of this because like this information is not even worth anything yeah like like yeah like i mean like the information in the book and like how you wrote it and like the maybe the instructions and stuff like that. But even the website with the TDE calculator is just another website. You know what I mean?

So it's not like it's something that's crazy. Well, every book ever written by anyone ever is all cited from someone else. Right. Unless you're creating a genuine scientific article, in which case people don't want to read shit like that. Nope. So somebody will write a book a couple years later about nutrition, and it's citing like... Oh, it's right, the study or whatever it is.

You look at the back of the book, and there's like 100 sites. You know what I mean? That's normal. People need to understand that using somebody else's information is normal. I feel like it's just a jealousy thing at that point. It's like, hey, you're selling the same shit, and you're doing it better than me. But if they can prove it, maybe they get 10, hey, you're selling the same shit and you're doing it better than me. So like, but if they can prove it,

maybe they get 10, 50, a hundred grand or something. I feel like people, if they're going to throw out a lawsuit, they're probably just looking for something to be like, no,

let's settle out of court for like, whatever. It's annoying though, because even to, even to respond is thousands. Like my letter, just say,

go fuck yourself. Cost me a couple grand. Fuck. For sure. That's fucking insane. What, um, you have, you have any, like like what's your biggest regret dude you have any the only thing i wish i ever did was i wish i went in the military really yep really like right out of high school or like when just at any point immediately yeah like 16 17 whenever they would let me go yeah you just go like balls out be like a seal

or what yep yeah it's the only thing I regret. Yeah. And that was, like, without hesitation. Was that... But, like, what... So, if you do that, like, would that be a career thing and then there's no chalk or what? I don't know what would happen if I did that.

Yeah. You didn't have a plan? You just, like, send, like, let's go? I mean, dude, I almost went into the military multiple times. Like, all the way up until maybe 24 so the reason i moved to california in general yeah was to go be a seal oh really i got a special eye surgery called uh prk and i had letters letters recommendations from so many different special forces friends of mine and so many i mean i was

trying to go in as an officer and getting that way you ended up with a helicopter license or is that just a separate now that was before okay but it was what i really wanted to do i like really wanted to go in and like i didn't want to just like like i had i was the fucked up mind where like i wanted to fucking kill motherfuckers yeah you know what i mean people are like you think you can kill somebody i was like, absolutely. Like, that's not a doubt. Like,

I probably shouldn't go in. I was like, I don't want to run far as hell just to cut someone's fucking head. You know what I mean? Like,

I want to like, be the guy who swam 20 miles and then ran 10 and then like, ate like, the leg of a live sheep and then murdered your face off.

You know what I mean? And then they like, put it on the news like, this guy literally ate someone instead of killing him. He was too hardcore to kick him out. We were going to give him a medal, but he said he'd kill us. And I dream of being that kind of savage all the time.

You know what I mean? Yeah. I mean, I probably don't. I can't believe it came out like that. Solid. Yeah. So, yeah, I wanted to do some shit like that. Yeah.

I think that even now, like, even after all this, like, okay, I built all this. This is cool. Really rad. If I could run, I'd probably still do it. Yeah. It's one of those things. I just feel like the experience must be so cool and the brotherhood of it and all that. There's a seal actually out there right now, that guy, Travis.

Yeah. He's got a pretty big following, too, as well. He's starting. Yep. I had him on the podcast, and he got a ton of followers yeah that's fucking sick dude cool story that's yeah and i feel like that's that's like you know i asked like what's next i feel like that is your thing like you're trying to put people on and everything like that like even having me here for the short time and like now like working on buddy building and shit and doing this like fucking yeah that that seems to be like you're out for sure we're all meant to meet someone right all of us are meant to meet somebody in my opinion i mean

as long as you're looking if you're not looking then you're already fucking up yeah um you should always be looking for something like as much as people look for you know a female or a male or the opposite or whatever the fuck yeah i don't even like fuck i don't want to say that yeah you don't like gay people? I fucking love gay people. I looked at a bleached butthole twice. But you should always be looking out for someone. And it should be very, very important to you. And once you find the right person,

then you know you've got to put a little extra effort in right now. So I think that for you, you have a great skill at programming, which is cool. And I think that we'll probably you have a great skill at programming, which is cool. And I think that we'll probably do some cool shit together on that. And I think that for right now, I'm just meant to be the guy that people meet. So I think I'm done meeting everybody for me and everything's cool. And I think that now I just need to meet the right people and help people.

And I think helping people – people say like, oh, all I care about now is helping people. It's like, no, you care about making money still. And do I care about making money? I really don't think I care as much as people might think or as much as I think that I think I do. I think it's very low on my list. But I think that whole family thing for me and the connection thing for me is so big. And I feel like I get most enjoyment out of my life i can help somebody else yeah yeah i've done a lot of cool shit for people like some of my friends recently i'm pretty excited about yeah i feel like if you're if

you're kind of in this industry in general if you're not in it to help people in the first place like you're already fucked. Cause if you're, if you open a gym, like solely like, Oh, I think I'm going to get rich doing this. Like, but you don't really like helping people in the beginning.

Cause you're helping like one or two people at a time. Or like, maybe you're helping 10 people and like, you feel like, yeah, like it's cool, but like, I'm not making any money.

And like, you know, I'm not, you know, I don't have my career yet. Like all these different things. And then all of a sudden you start helping like thousands of people and you're like okay helping helping people is pretty cool yeah because now it's it's on such a large scale that you feel appreciated enough you know what i mean like

helping you're a kid growing up like i'm not a dad but i can imagine like helping as they grow up it's like annoying because they can't say thank you they can't you know appreciate you they just keep breaking shit and all these things, right? And then eventually they get older and they actually, you know, like maybe you're dying

or something and they say like, hey, thank you like so much. And I feel like you needed all that buildup to get there. And I feel like that's how, like, you know,

owning a gym and helping thousands of people is because at the beginning I didn't care about helping people as much as I do now. Damn, that was another good analogy. That's's pretty sweet um on a roll dude yeah crushing this has to be the best podcast of all time so yeah i feel like eventually

you start to get it and i think a lot of people they always talk about getting it like when did you get it and it's like oh i got it when i was 32 yeah i'm 30 i'll be 33 next week and i i think i understood everything when i was 32 yeah on my 32nd 50 year anniversary of the gym on the 30s on the exact five year anniversary my lucky number in my life is five okay like everything in my life has the number five in it it was very very strange uh like i mean i graduated in 2005 like when i used to race bikes like my you know your number was number five was everywhere and like it's crazy like number five is everywhere yeah i grew up with five brothers and sisters and then like later on i found i had more but whatever um and then on my fifth year anniversary of the gym i was the first time i looked at my

account i had had a million dollars. Holy shit. So I was like, holy fuck, I made a million dollars. And some people were like, oh, maybe, like, you know, how much did you take? I'm like, no, motherfucker, I had a million dollars in my bank account. Right. Like, I looked at it and I was like, million dollars. Yep.

Taxes were done and everything, and that was my million dollars. And I was like, holy fuck. God damn. And that happened when I was 32, And I still didn't get it yet. But then sometime near the end of 32, mid-32, I was like, all right, I got it. And then now nothing really phases me anymore. I have all this stress. I have all these things.

I mean, that's just months ago. You know what's going on. You know what I mean? Yeah. That's not – Yeah. But it took a long time. Yeah.

And even now like even when you see me running it out of the office or i'm doing something i'm still like excited like oh dude i'll be back yeah you know and it's like i'm stressed but at the same time it's like i because i get it now it's like all it's almost fucking matrix like yeah you know where he gets to the point where he puts his hand up and he's like yeah i'm over it and like the guy no matter how how hard he's going he's just like puts his hand up and he's like, yeah, I'm over it. And, like, the guy, no matter how hard he's going, he just, like, has his hand up and he just can't do shit anymore. Yeah. That's how I feel about people hurting my feelings.

Go ahead. Write something fucked up on my wall. Go ahead. Do this. Go ahead and tell me you're going to leave the gym because, you know, I wasn't here at 5 a.m. And I hadn't seen you in a couple months. Go ahead and do this. Go ahead and do that.

Family's not going to talk to you or this or that. It's like, oh, well. I'm doing my shit. Yeah. I'm doing my thing. And I'm really, really happy for, go ahead and do that. Family's not going to talk to you or this or that. It's like, oh, well. I'm doing my shit. Yeah, I'm doing my thing, and I'm really, really happy for the first time. I feel like having my outdoor hobbies, everybody that works at this gym right now, including you right now, being here, I love Henry, I love Summer, I love Memory, and the new coach Joe.

I love the group. Herky too. Oh, Herky. Shout out Herky. Oh, fuck. Dude, Herky's like very, very monumental piece. Yeah, he is. That's why you were last. Yeah. Herky helps me with all of my personal things, actually. He's the only person

that helps me personally. Which was amazing because I basically told him to go fuck himself for a long time and he just forced himself here nice which i have respect for yeah so i love all the people that are here and i love everything that's happening and and then i you know had that feeling of getting it and you know financially everything's cool and then everything just kind of like cruises now and i feel like now once you get to a certain point where it's like, everything's going well, then like everything just kind of keeps going well because you're just stoked on it.

And then you, you're just exuding positive energy and people want to believe in you because you believe in yourself more than ever. Yeah. It's like once you get to a certain point, you're like, yes, like,

I mean, I always believed in myself, but then once you like know that you are the, like you the one like the matrix thing again it's just like fuck like i really am like changing motherfuckers lives like on a massive scale and i'm doing the right thing and you know yeah like doing the right thing is huge too people talk about gratefulness right now everyone's like all talking about this stuff like being grateful and all this stuff like dude this is all like stuff that we've all known forever. Just people aren't focusing on it.

But we also never had so much voice. Being on social media and talking, having these podcasts and stuff and being able to go talk to a scientist who's been geeking out on this for 30 years and now all of a sudden he's like – Now you have access to him. Yeah, you can talk to him and he can tell everybody how important it is for your brain to have gratitude on different things. Yeah that's that's a tangent but fuck no but yeah no it's all great information um how much do you how much time do you dedicate or if any um i'm sure

you do to uh studying like new training protocol like do you read studies not nearly as much as i wish i did nutrition and things like that as soon as i'm done right now with like all these projects i have as soon as they're like it kind of cools down which i always say once it cools down i'm gonna do this but um i would love to start studying like at least an hour a day like i'd like to wake up and do some more stuff like that i used to listen to podcasts and like walk yeah or listen to a podcast around my bike but then i stopped like enjoying the moment of like being out walking yeah and being out riding my bike and it ruined working almost it ruined it for me like i don't like it at all um so i have to like get a little time aside from that i think like one thing that

i want to get better about is like being okay with not being in the gym okay i'm getting better but it's uh it's one of those feelings like man i should be in the gym okay i'm getting better but it's uh it's one of those feelings like man i should be in the gym like i should just be there it's like like i should just work in my office it's like no like when you work at a coffee shop you get five times more work done yeah but it is almost like i feel like people that come here especially people that know you like if they come in it's almost like they go to disneyland mickey's not there yeah like for sure yeah and i think about that all the time And that's why I probably will never get legitimately way better at it. Yeah, because it's double-edged sword.

It provides value. And people love seeing you here and the energy and everything like that. They know that it's legit. It's not just you, the man behind the curtain or whatever. And like, oh, yeah, he's like maybe programming stuff, like whatever. You know, they don't see it. Because, I mean, people see it. If the door's shut, the door's shut. And like you're fucking grinding in here, which yeah, he's like maybe programming, like whatever, you know, they don't see. Because I mean, people see it. If the door's shut, the door's shut

and like you're fucking grinding in here, which is, yeah, it was really cool. But what's your favorite outdoor activity that you're doing right now? Probably mountain biking. Yeah. I like all forms of biking, but mountain biking is fun. Did you finish out the race series?

Yep. Yeah, how'd that go? I got first place. I didn't even tell anybody that, but yeah. that but yeah dude because it wasn't the pro division so i didn't feel like i didn't feel like talking about it wasn't worth it but uh is that you know so i did solid and then i actually went to like the semi pro division on my last race okay and i like if i if i use that score as my final score i got ninth overall i mean shit that's like you're not a mountain biker you know yeah i mean it's like five different levels so like the one the one that i got ninth and was like the one just below the top uh-huh and then one below that i would have

gotten first okay so it just kind of depends on which which one i wanted to end the season with you get to drop your two worst races you can continue with that yeah i think so super fun just because um i don't need my knees. Yeah. They just go in circles, so there's no impact on them. So I think for me, it's definitely something I am interested in doing because I like the competitive atmosphere. It's really, really fun. Yeah, I think – And painful.

Yeah. It's very painful. Jesus Christ. Especially if you fall like you did a couple weeks ago, right? Oh, I eat shit a billion times. And when I eat shit, it makes me feel like a kid. Yeah. This is so cool. I'm out eat shit, it makes me feel like a kid. You know? This is so cool.

Like, I'm like, I'm out there just like getting it, you know? Right. It's crazy. The training is insane. Yeah. It's so hard. Yeah. Like, in a race, you're going anywhere between, you know, 45 minutes to like multiple hours.

Uh-huh. As hard as you can. Yeah. So, I mean, it's a different feeling for sure. It's just, yeah, it's a different feeling for sure. It's just intense. But I think my favorite part about it is I'm experiencing the area that I'm in. Like now when I travel, it's like I want to go bike in the mountains so I can see everything. It's like it's an amazing – I think it's great to go anywhere and be in the city for

a few days, go like surf, like, surf. Yep. Like, the coast if you're a surfer. And then, like, go in the mountains and, like, either go hike or mountain bike. Yeah. I feel like everybody should be into a water sport, into a mountain sport, and then, you know, love cities a little bit. Yeah. And that's when I feel like you really get to, like, feel an area.

Yeah, for sure. It's been amazing for me. Like, I haven't been able to travel until I was 30 i think 30 or 30 maybe 31 was like my first like true trip yeah yeah i think 31 that was when i went to norway and and italy and iceland and i did this crazy trip yeah and i bought my ticket the day before right and i told everybody i was leaving and um after that i was like i finally had money to travel and do stuff. And I was like, fuck, this is so cool. And then I started realizing just how much stuff was out there and how much I was missing out on.

And just like when you experience these things, it just puts everything else on a different outlook. Like thinking about someone in Croatia doing my workouts. What's it like? Well, what's it like to be there? Now I know what it's like to be there, and I know what it's like to be in that gym, and I know what's it like well i you know what's like to be there yeah now i know what it's like to be there and i know what it's like to be in that gym and i know what it's like to this and i know what it's like to live in that culture and have a question about food and i know what it's like you know it's just crazy like you need to know like if you're not traveling you're

not trying different gyms you're not trying different activities you're really hard to be relatable to well i was like you were just in ireland and dropped into a gym right do you feel the gym culture is the same in the u.s as it is other places or is it a little bit different or what i wouldn't say like u.s or different countries i just say like every gym is different yeah every single one is just like monumentally different ben and one i mean i'm sure you have this is a stupid question i hate it like yeah you just fucking all the time i hate this when i'm traveling i almost 95 of the time hate the workout that they're doing oh really so typically when i travel and everybody always asks me why don't you drop into more

cross jumps when you travel is i don't like the workout uh-huh so you ever been able to tell them like hey can we like do this workout like doing it no that's so embarrassing i wouldn't even want to try but i've had a lot of people reach out to me and they're like, yo, I think a good selling feature for Chalk Online right now would be to market who does your programming. Because when I travel, I will purposely get a hotel closer to that gym and work out at that gym. And that gym will make more money because they know that they're following your programming. And I was like, well, fuck. That's a good idea.

That's great. You can hit them up and go travel to wherever they are. Well, I have all the addresses for everybody so now I just have to have my website guy just plug those addresses into a map and then like people

could just look and be like fuck all these people are doing Chalk Online that's sick so I'm gonna do that and then I think that'll help a lot of

people who are following Chalk Online yeah I'm excited for it for sure super excited for that yeah it'll be the Chalk Nation affiliate map

nice that's a separate app or what are you gonna sure. That's awesome. Super excited for that. Oh, my God. It'll be the Chalk Nation affiliate map. Nice. Chalk Nation. That's a separate app, or what are you going to do with that? Yeah, that's one of the many things that's going to be happening. Yeah. It's not a separate app. Sorry. It'll be on the website.

Okay. Yeah. That's cool. And you'll just know. It's like going across.com and seeing where your affiliates are. You'll just see where the Chalk affiliates are. Yeah, you'll see where the Chalks are. That's fucking sick.

Sick. Sick. That's a great fucking idea. God damn. It just keeps are. Yeah, you'll see where the talks are. That's fucking sick. Sick. That's a great fucking idea. God damn. It just keeps going. How do you come up with fucking – you just keep – I'm certain, like, because I'm a little bit the same way. Like, I won't shut the fuck up about, like, fitness or, like, programming or gym stuff or anything like that.

Is that just your whole day is just, like, wake up, like, think about, like, what's a cool idea, cool idea, cool idea? Well, yeah, if you look at this right here, this is, like, next to my bed at all times this is my notepad yeah um it's from a hotel that i stayed at in ireland actually and and i change them out whenever i'm traveling and uh it's just a it's just a notepad i don't like using my phone because it keeps me awake once i look at my phone yeah uh but i have a note i have a piece of pen and a notepad next to my bed all the time and actually have it in my backpack all the time. Actually, I'm always with a backpack. Everybody always sees me and they call me like a little kid. Actually, you said it too. I said that earlier.

I'm always excited to do fun things and I always have a backpack. So my notepad goes with me everywhere because it's in my backpack. And I just write down ideas all the time. Nice. Because I'll forget them. Because I'll get these great ideas and I'll forget them. And you always keep them on like a similar or same notepad at least for a while? Because I'll do the same thing but with note cards.

And then I end up like, I have probably 90 in my backpack. Like your fucking sticky notes you gave me the other day? Yeah, my sticky notes. I was like, dude, I can't do this anymore. I know. Yeah, I fucking, yeah, I got to put them on that shared note or whatever. After like a week to two weeks, I'll go through and be like, all right, this idea was great, but it's got to go now. I just need a smaller list to work with because I'll look at the big list and it'll overwhelm me and I won't do anything. Yeah.

So I was actually going to ask you that. Do you have a list in mind every day that you wake up and you're like, I got to crush this, this, this, this, this? Yep. And I also – How do you manage keeping it a good size so that you don't feel anxious at the end of the day? So I have that and I also have this, which is super dope. So what I'm showing him right now is this app. It's a different app.

So it's called Week Agenda. Okay. And it literally looks like a notebook. Yeah, that's sick. And you can flip through it just like you would with a regular notebook. And then each day I'll put all my appointments and stuff on there. So I can see everything in one shot.

Like Monday through Sunday is on there. Is that a paid app or is it free? No. I think it might have been like a dollar. Okay. Sick. What's cool about it though, actually Weightlifting Worlds are October 3rd. I'll be there.

Nice. One of our athletes is going to go and win that. Oh, fuck it. Literally. Older guy. Masters? Yep. Nice. literally older guy um masters yep nice and um the the thing that's cool about the app is like

when i look at like google google maps or not google maps like a google calendar or any of those other things they show you the whole day and there's just so many blocks yeah and it's so confusing and there's all these colors and stuff yeah i don't like it's like i absolutely despise it but i can have a thousand things each day on that and i can see exactly what's happening for the whole week and i love that and I love my notepad. So everywhere I go, you guys can't see right now, but I have a little notepad, I have my phone, I have my computer and I'm good. And if anyone steals your computer, you're going to shoot yourself.

Yeah. You said that the other day. In the face. With birdshot. I want my whole face to be fucked up. Just gone. That's so funny um shit well they hit it all i've been talking forever i feel like we have hit it all um i'm gonna ask you the question that i asked at the beginning i told i said it was gonna be the last one it's the last one it It's the last one. It's the last question. You got coffee. You got meat cereal. You got dude tacos.

You got to fuck one, marry one, kill one. What are you doing? Fuck one, marry one. I'm marrying coffee. Okay. I have to... Meat cereals. Oh, actually, did you say dude tacos?

Yeah. That's the one I'd fuck for sure. It's the taco. It's the taco. You got to fuck it. You got to kill meat cereal. Oh, gotta fuck it you gotta kill meat cereal uh oh man i have to kill meat cereal yeah i could probably kill meat cereal over well because you can put meat cereal in a dude taco yeah that's what i mean that's why i was like yeah yeah there

we go yeah there's the perfect answer fuck yeah crushed oh yeah all right guys well those are all the questions that have come from my intern. And those are also all of the questions that I would assume a lot of you guys out there would want to know the answers to. But not only did we answer all of those questions, but we threw out some really great life lessons. And we also had some of the best analogies the planet has ever heard. 100%. So when you guys listen to this and you love it, because I know you're going to love it, make sure you tag me and

TheJackVanDam. TheJackVanDam. Spell it out. TheJackVanDam. T-H-E-J-A-C-K-V-A-N-D-A-M. Like Jean-Claude Van Damme. Love sports. Alright, so yeah, make sure you guys

tag us. Make sure you guys let us know that you love it. And then just put some quotes on some of your favorite quotes. I love seeing. All right. So, yeah, make sure you guys tag us. Make sure you guys let us know that you love it. And then just put some quotes on some of your favorite quotes. I love seeing the quotes because, like, sometimes, you know, when I'm done with the podcast, I don't remember them all. That's right. And, yes, if you guys aren't part of the current Chalk Carb Cycle Challenge, Ryan Fisher Carb Cycle Challenge, make sure you guys visit jimryan.com, G-Y-M-R-Y-A-N.com. You guys can sign up any time for the challenge. It's just that if you sign up at a time that doesn't have the official start time,

you just lose out on the ability to win the $1,000 cash for the top three. But you also, or you still, I should say, get to be part of the group on Facebook for life. In all the videos that we do on there, we email the people who don't have Facebook, so you still get to see all the videos. But the group on Facebook for life and all the videos that we do on there. We email the people who don't have Facebook. So you still get to see all the videos, but the group is insane. People are making Excel spreadsheets to figure out all sorts of numbers and different goals. And they're helping each other out and putting recipes in there. And it's nuts. Like I'm telling you, you want to be part of it. And then as far as all the books go, anybody listens to real, to real chalk. If you put real chalk in, in all capital letters, you get 25% off anything on

your order. And the only people who know about that are the Real Chalk listeners because I don't put those discount codes anywhere else. So again, hope you guys loved the episode. I will see you next week, next Tuesday. And again, make sure you tag us. Make sure you let us know that you loved it. Peace.