Barbell Shrugged - Talking Competing, Coaching and Running a Gym with Ryan Fischer

Episode Date: March 14, 2018

Ryan Fischer’s entire life has always been about fitness. At the age of 12 he was a world ranked BMX racer. In high-school he ran track, played lacrosse, and football. Then, he got into skeleton and bobsled, and even qualified for the US Olympic Team Trials for both sports. Fischer is also a big time crossfitter, who finished top 5 in the CrossFit Regionals for the past 3 years. He went from being homeless, couch surfing, stealing food at Whole Foods, and a stint as a male stripper, to becoming owner of the most successful gym in Orange County, CrossFit Chalk.  He also created Chalk Online, a groundbreaking corporate wellness program. Fischer always had a belief that life would work itself out if he kept working hard on his passions.  In this episode, we look into look how hard everything has to be if you’re going to dream big and try to be your best everyday. Enjoy! -Mike, Doug and Anders ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Please support our partners! Thrive Market is a proud supporter of us here at Barbell Shrugged.  We very much appreciate all they do with us and we’d love for you to support them in return!  Thrive Market has a special offer for you. You get $60 of FREE Organic Groceries + Free Shipping and a 30 day trial, click the link below: https://thrivemarket.com/shrugged How it works:  Users will get $20 off their first 3 orders of $49 or more + free shipping.  No code is necessary because the discount will be applied at checkout. Many of you will be going to the store this week anyway, so why not give Thrive Market a try! Organifi is another great company with whom we’ve chosen to partner.  They offer a premium line of health supplements you can use to optimize your body.  Doug and Mike use their products everyday and highly recommend you give them a try. If you’d like a discount you can use the code “shrugged” to instantly get 20% off your order, click below to check out their supplements: https://organifishop.com ► Subscribe to Barbell Shrugged'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 Barbell Shrugged helps people get better.  Usually in the gym, but outside as well. In 2012 they posted their first 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 Barbell Shrugged here: Website: http://www.BarbellShrugged.com Facebook: http://facebook.com/barbellshruggedpodcast Twitter: http://twitter.com/barbellshrugged Instagram: http://instagram.com/barbellshruggedpodcast

CrossFit tried to destroy you. Oh yeah, they tried real hard. And they suspended you for a year for some not-so-awesome stuff. There seems to be this theme of continually getting knocked down. And why do you keep getting back up to fight these things, these battles? I just think that any publicity is good publicity. welcome to barbell shrugged i'm mike blitzer here with doug larson we got andrews varner co-hosting again you're gonna get used to this guy it's gonna be awesome so yeah and we're here at physical culture here in uh encinitas i almost forgot where we live. Lucadia, man.

Lucadia, California. That's right. And we have Mr. Ryan Fisher for the show today. And we brought him on because I keep hearing just crazy stories about your life. And I want to hear. And I hear a story and I go, is that the same guy? Oh, is that the same guy? Oh, is that the same guy? So we really just want to explore your life story today,

which I think everyone's going to enjoy thoroughly. Before we go any further, I want to talk about our sponsors, the first being Organifi, a really great supplement company. Greens, juice, red juice, protein powders, all plant-based, really easy to digest, and especially if you're somewhere where you're not getting a lot of organic produce. I had one last night. Way to go. With the green juice?

Yeah, the green juice. Oh, yeah. The green juice is rad. I started the day with the green juice, and I finished with the gold. Do you do the gold? I don't have the gold. I don't have the gold yet. Oh, shit.

I find myself, I look in my cabinet, and I'm always like, green juice, red juice. I always go to the red juice. You know what I like about the green one? Red juice is my favorite. You feel better, one. But what are the options when you want one of those green drinks? You either got to go to the Whole Foods and like, they're like shoving cucumbers down the thing.

Well, they try to put apples in it. Yeah, like the real things. You got to go to the store and all that. It's a $10 juice. Yeah. Or if you do it in your own house, you just spent like $50 in vegetables and got an eight-ounce drink. I've had people ask, is there anything cheaper? I'm like, no.

You want to hike? I mean, you can buy cheaper, but you're going to get something pretty shitty. It's going to be funky. Yeah. Don't do it. Get the Organifi. Do it right the first time. You'll thank me later.

You can try the other stuff, but I just, yeah. Compare and see. Our other sponsor being Thrive Market, which is super healthy food, grocery shopping online. Again, same situation. If you're in a part of the country or a part of the world where you're not getting great food, that's a really good spot to go. How many hours a day do you spend in Whole Foods? I would say it's a third of the world where you're not getting great food, that's a really good spot to go. How many hours a day do you spend in Whole Foods? I would say it's a third of the day. Yeah.

A third of the day. Every day. I'm working, like, a little bit. Mainly just making sure everybody else finished their food, so I walk around quite a bit. Or if you're just super fucking busy and you just don't have time to go to the grocery store, but you still want to make sure you're getting high quality produce.

Like having an online option is just nicer than having to spend an hour or two going to the grocery store two or three times a week. Yeah. You know, and we made our own mayo for a while and then we found mayonnaise. It's actually good. And other pantry items for sure. Yeah, yeah. All right, Ryan, let's dive into this. Where do we start?

Like I've heard all sorts. Should I even mention? What do you want? What are the highlights? I've actually known. Yeah, yeah. All right, Ryan, let's dive into this. Where do we start? I've heard all sorts. Should I even mention? What do you want? What are the highlights? I've actually known Anders for quite a while, so I think I'll let him kind of pick where he wants me to start. I have personally wanted to sit down and discuss your life and the progression that I've seen you go through.

I was lucky enough to meet you in 2010. I got an email from someone looking for a job at a CrossFit gym. And the resume literally read like US bobsled team, helicopter pilot, kinesiology major. Like the list went on and on. I was like, I don't have $100 an hour to pay you, dude. Like, why are you applying to my gym? And and walk this monster and i found out i just wanted to work out yeah what athletics looked like um and from the beginning we just kind of had this super hustle and grind together and where you've went from the day we met until today i've i've watched you grow and it's been a really awesome uh. And I think that a lot of people need to learn about how hard it is to grind every day and learn the process of gym ownership, what it takes to be a professional.

And the story goes beyond the seven regional appearances. And it gets into a bigger situation of the way you view life. And I think a lot of people need to know that. One thing I want to mention is you went from, at one point, being homeless to now owning a gym and being very successful as a business owner. So you've traveled the spectrum. I think a lot of gym owners have been homeless at one point. I feel homeless at least. You guys slept in the gym too, right? We used to live out of the gym.

We lived in the gym for a while. The one we owned. Yeah. Well, my situation was a little bit different. I actually didn't have money to stay in a place anywhere. You were really homeless. The gym that Anders owned at the time, there was a girl in there, and she offered me her couch. And I didn't know her at all, but she just, you know, out of the kindness of her heart,

was like, everyone really likes this kid. I feel like I should keep him around a little bit longer. And I was like, I don't know if I could do it. So I kind of put it on the back burner, and I didn't really, like, accept it. And then when it was real and I was actually going to go home, I was like, you know what? Let's just do it, and I'll see what happens. What do you mean by go home? I live in New, like when I

grew up in New Jersey, so it was a long, it'd be a long drive home for sure. So you were like, you were, it was a decision where I had to crash on this person's couch or I had to go back to New Jersey. Yeah. And to go back to New Jersey was like to go back to school and try to like, try to figure out a different life plan. And for me, I didn't know what my life plan was but i did know that like i wasn't done exploring that option and i knew that i all i cared about was working out at the time but i knew that i cared about more than that and i cared about people and i cared about my relationship to other people um and like no one could like really magnify like how important it is to have great relationships with people and like great interactions with people than than Anders here your guys's host he was just like everything he

did just like it taught me like everything that I have now and I don't know like I don't know how much he really um I don't know how much you really know that but I feel like it it it it changed my life watching him coach um like just the energy that he put into a class i was telling him earlier as we were getting coffee like he was like bleeding inside you know like he just like everything that was left was out there like every time he coached you could hear him from across the gym like you could tell he was really really passionate about it and i knew that if i ever had a chance to do something like that especially because i didn't have a job at the time and i was actually coaching classes before that i quit my

job because i hated it the the person who owned the gym they took away some of the privileges I had of making workouts and they're making their own workouts and I didn't agree with it um and we basically just got to a point where we couldn't really look at each other and I was like I have to go and but it shouldn't be a big deal I should be able to get a job pretty easily like I have a good resume and I've been doing this for a while and I'm good at what I do but then every door I knocked on, every gym I went to,

they were just like, we only hire from within, we don't know you and this and that and it just lasted a little bit too long and it lasted a lot longer than I wanted it to.

What year is this? 2010. 2010, okay. There was no money in CrossFit. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I remember 2010.

Even social media wasn't a thing yet. Instagram was happening but nobody was really on it um it was like hey do you have an instagram account you're like i don't know i thought about it you know like now it's like massive it's like everything um so once the couch thing happened i just like literally was working out more than i had ever worked out in my life because i just i just wanted to go to a competition and prove to everybody that I was as good

as all of these guys. Like I remember watching like Rich Froning and some of these other guys post these scores and I'd be like, well, Hey Anders, I just, I just fucking did that. Yeah.

And I did it and I did it with no shoes on, you know, I only had like one pair of shoes that I loved and I didn't ever work out in them. So like everywhere you'd see me, like I was homeless, but I look good, you know?

Like my shoes are fresh, you know, everything, everything looks good. I had Lululemon shorts that I wore four days a week. Actually, Andrews and I would talk about how many times you could wear them before you had to wash them. Well, that, and then if you tear a hole in them, you just took them back in the replay. He had the ability to wash them. I just didn't let him know that like, you know, four times is good. But anyway, I think a really good part of this story was, so now I'm on the couch, right? Everything is down in the life. So this competition comes out.

It's called the OC Throwdown. There's all these online qualifiers. And everybody doing the qualifiers has been in the CrossFit Games. They're all bad as fuck. So I the workouts i wound up getting second it was like i i beat like all these dudes right and it was like really cool like the way that uh the guy who running it the competition like every time i would do well he would post a video of it because no one had ever heard of me before and here's this guy like i got no shoes on and I'm doing all these workouts and I'm completely unheard of. And it just starts creating this hype. And like everybody

on Facebook is like, I maxed out my friends on Facebook. I wish I had Instagram at the time because I'd probably be so much bigger now, but like, um, I didn't have, I didn't, I didn't care to ever have one. But, uh, from there, I remember like doing really well in the competition and then I didn't sign up for the competition because $150 and at the time I only have 200 bucks and at the time I'm going to Whole Foods and I'm not paying for my food I'm just grabbing it and I'm sitting down and I'm eating it and fucking talk to me and tell me I didn't pay for it if you want to because I didn't have money to pay for it and I had 200 bucks and200, and I had to make that shit stretch as long as I could. I think I stayed with Aaron for like four months.

Yeah. Wow. So for $200 for four months. What? And I just stretched it and made it work. You didn't try to make any more money? It was like, this $200. Dude, I fucking tried.

I literally like – You went to every gym in town to find something. I would try everything I could. Like, because of my resume, I actually got an internship opportunity in Notre Dame and Stanford to do football, strength and conditioning, with no pay. Yeah. And I would ask them, like, can I have housing? Can I have, like, a food allowance? Can I have anything?

And it was just, like, all no. So I just wound up getting to the point where it was just really, really depressing. Even Andrews was like, dude, I'd let you like sweep the floors, but I just don't want to see you do that. So like, I don't know, it just got to that point where it was really, it was really bad. And, um, so the $150 to sign up was like not going to happen. So the guy throwing the competition calls me up and he's like, Hey, um, you should do the competition. Everybody's like hyped and wants you to go. And I'm like, well, I don't have any money. And he's like, well, how about I give you like, it's $75. We'll go half off. And I'm like, well, you don't understand. Like, I'm kind of embarrassed to tell you this, but I like, I literally don't have a place to live or anything. Like, uh, I really have nothing like the no shoes on in the video is not a joke so um so he's like all right you know what just come if you win pay me back i'm like cool so now we'll go back just a little bit because before that happened i'm working out one day and this guy walks by and he's like uh i'd love to talk to you about potentially being a male dancer for this gay club. And I'm

like, well, I have no money. So I'm fucking in. Let's do this. So like a couple of days after that, I go and I have to like go to this studio. And when I show up, that same guy is a girl. He's a drag queen. And he's just super weird. But like, I just I see money in the future. So I'm in. So he makes me do this exotic dance. And like, I have absolutely no rhythm. Like, I mean, it's embarrassing. Like, if I try to dance, right? Yeah, you don't. Nevermind. So he shows me how to do all these moves and everything, and there's a point where I have to sit on his lap and do some weird fucking thing, you know?

Perfect. It's just super degrading. I literally felt like there's nothing left right now. I've hit, like, if there is rock bottom, I broke that shit and fucking landed in the middle of the earth. And then now we agree that my next show is going to be next week and this is going to be my first time. So now we go fast forward. That moment happens.

I get the free billet into the OC Throwdown. I go to the OC Throwdown. I get second place at the OC Throwdown. And everyone in the world gets to see me work out, and everyone freaks out and likes me, and it's cool, and I get sponsored by Progenix and a clothing brand, and I get a job with Ronnie Teasdale in L.A., and all these things happened, and it was just meant to be that way. Unfortunately, I was not meant to be the male stripper.

Wait, did you just do one night in Gasap? So I never actually had to go because it would have been the next week. But then all that happened and it was... But you did have a private session with the drag queen. There was one night in which the whole world saw it

in which we celebrated New Year's Eve and the dance was so fresh that at least 75 people in the club found out that you, and they saw the moves. Yeah, I actually had to do the entire, oh, I actually went to Shore Club and I did it in Shore Club.

Yeah. I was really, really drunk and we all went to the bar and I just kept doing it and all these girls, they loved it, you know. Were you getting tips at least? I actually think I did make a little bit of money. I bet you didn't pay for drinks. You were on your game. It was a good time.

That went viral on Facebook, by the way, that video. All you hear in the background is Anders, and all he says is, I can't unsee that. I'll never forget that moment. Because you watch me do it, and you can't see him, and you just hear him say oh my god i can't unsee that um we're gonna find that video oh my god it's so good that's what really uh what got everything going was the oc throwdown and then from there

um i moved to la and i started like working out there and I remember just never going out and doing anything like never um like spending money on anything and I think I was there for one year in one year's time I had saved up sixty thousand dollars of beyond like living expenses. I, I remember my first chance personal training. I was like, I'm in Los Angeles. I'm going to personal train. And like, I know that I'm worth money, you know? So I'm going to look at somebody in the eye. I'm going to tell them that it's a hundred dollars an hour for training. And I'm just going to fucking hold my own and just see what they say. And I remember the first person who was like, you know, how much is it an hour? And I was like, it's a hundred dollars an hour. I only want to see you like three days a week like minimum or i can't take you on and the guy's like

okay and i remember i remember he left and i went in the bathroom and i literally like almost started crying and i was like it was like that moment where you just like freak out like you just ask like the hottest girl in the world out and she said yes so i'm like freaking out and i'm like oh my god and then that happened and i got like more people and more people. And I coached fucking every freaking class that was even imaginable. So I coached everything. I like did all these classes. I did all these privates and I saved my money and I moved to Newport beach

eventually and coached at a gym out here. And then while I was coaching there, I had met other clients that i was training um and then my the client that kind of changed my life was this guy aaron and he had a big piece in myspace and he had sold his portion of myspace for like 50 million dollars or something but he looks like a super normal guy drives f-150150, very average clothing, very average talk. Never suspect. Never suspect.

That's an interesting thing. Having been in the coaching space, in-person coaching space for a long time, you never know who you're coaching. No. And I don't know how many times I've heard stories from coaches who, you know, they've coached 1,000 people, but that one person shows up that changes their life in some way. And that's what i try to tell all of my trainers that i was telling andrews this earlier as well as like when you guys coach like

i know that it's not your gym like you're not making a lot of money per class maybe you don't have training clients yet or whatever but every single person that walks in that door this is like probably the best part of their day and you are like what is making that hour the best part of their day and every single thing that you do like resonates with them and it means something and like i want you to coach every single class as if it is the last class you're ever going to coach and i want you to coach it as if you own this gym and i want you to coach it with every single thing that you have because someone in that class is going to respect the fact that you're that passionate. And like something is going to happen to you at some point.

Like if you shower and you smell good and you look good, you're eventually going to get a girlfriend. If you. Give it time. Give it time. You got to believe me. give it time right like if you gotta believe you if you work out real if you work really fucking hard and you show people that you're passionate and you show people that you're not you know like you're not like wasting the hour someone's gonna eventually say hey i have something for you or you know i have this connection that someone needs this or whatever and i and i try to

tell all of them that this is just a stepping stone into like into whatever else could happen into your life and how you approach this is up to you i don't necessarily want you to open your own gym and put me out of business or whatever but if that happens that's my fault so um like in in retrospect of it right like if you open a better gym than mine then fuck that i fucked up so and i just want you to be the best person that you can. And I tell everybody that when they come in the door. So I also think that it's important for every single person to be treated the same, whether they go down and their first squat looks like that,

or they go down and it looks great. Like you just, you treat them with, you know, the utmost respect. You tell them that, you know, they're going to have a great time here and this and that. And that happened. And I wound up having a gym. And from that gym, I had met other people who are personal training clients. And I try not to say no to anybody. Like someone wants to train, like, let's do it. I'll figure out how to make it work. Like, yeah, maybe for two or three years, I'm going to work so much that I literally don't even know what day it is when I wake up. So what? Like in 10 years, I'm probably going to wake up and be like,

I don't have anything to do today. Cause I have enough money. I already made enough money where it doesn't fucking matter anymore, which is fine too. Like, I mean, everybody has their own like life ambitions and like what you want to do later on in life, but I would love to work enough now where I don't have to work as much later. Um, and I think that I'm on that path and it's because I am just like super, super passionate about every single thing that I do. Like I'm so passionate about this fucking show right now that like, I wish I could fucking do Jumba Jacks and talk at the same time. You know what I mean? You don't look like you want nothing to do. I want everyone. I want to be inside everybody right now.

That's going to be pulled for Instagram later. That's an Instagram post. That's the beginning of the show. Yeah, exactly. One thing that's not just the business side. You know, you got your, you kind of got your chops through this CrossFit world. Oh yeah, I was a good athlete at some point.

I forgot about that. You did compete at regionals seven times and you probably will make regionals next year just because you're going to show up and do five workouts at 90% and just go hang out for the day. But that isn't even the story. CrossFit tried to destroy you.

Oh, yeah. And they suspended you for a year for some not-so-awesome stuff. There seems to be this theme of continually getting knocked down. And why do you keep getting back up to fight these things, these battles? I just think that any publicity is good publicity. You know? I love your style, man. This is so good.

I'd rather be Johnny McEnroe than fucking, who's the guy who wins everything now? Federer. Federer? Fuck Federer. I can't remember anything Federer did that made me, like, want to fucking jerk off to him. Like, Johnny McEnroe, though, like, he fucking went ape shit, you know? He's memorable. I'll wear that motherfucker's t-shirt all day long.

And my girlfriend will wear his t-shirt to bed as well. So, what are some of these controversial things that have happened? I mean, you've been banned from competing so i think it's important before i go into what i did to understand what i did or why i did it right so i trained all day every day for as long as i could remember and i lived in the pain cave and the only thing I cared about was going to the CrossFit Games I didn't care if I won or not I wanted to go and I wanted to show that I could be there and I wanted to do a week's worth of shit that really is not very smart you know so when your whole life is that and you turn down clients or you turn down opportunities

or you're you're turning down all of these different things like i mean i wouldn't even do a recreational hike with somebody if i didn't think it was going to make me a fitter person for this workout right like i'm letting go like my life is definitely on hold. And when you're doing deadlifts at three 15 and the workouts four minutes long, and some guy keeps telling you, no rep, and you're doing it totally fucking right. And the guy next to you is doing something completely ridiculous, like not even bending his knees. So if you don't bend your knees, you have to be bouncing the weight, right? Or you have to be doing something incorrect. I'm just going really fast. I have a 600-pound deadlift. I'm 5'5".

My arms hit my knees, and the weight's just fucking too light. You know? It's a true story. I mean, it makes sense, and it's a funny thing to hear. Yeah, so, I mean, I'm fine. I mean, I was born like this, so it is what it is. So I'm going really fucking fast. Obviously, the coach, I'm fine. Like, I mean, I was born like this, so it is what it is. So I'm going really fucking fast. Obviously, the coach is offended by it.

I'm offended by his vocabulary. So I tell him I'm going to fucking kill you if you don't start counting these reps. Because there's nothing left now. Like, I've already done 37, 18, 11 instead of 21, 15, 9 at this point. all I can think about is, I think I was like in third or fourth place going into that event, and I was in first place in that event by like light years. I was gonna

mash everybody. It was gonna be no question I was going to the games. So then, I just I felt all of that. Yeah. And I don't even remember actually saying it to be honest i you can watch the slow-mo and i'm like i'm gonna fuck you so like i remember hearing the guy and i go i'm thinking you can't do that yeah you can't i i just i didn't and at the same time i mean when shit's going down i don't

know how many times i've done stuff i've seen myself on camera afterwards and go i'm a real asshole well it's the heat of the moment yeah you know what i mean like when you're in heat of the moment like anything fucking goes you know what i mean well and and we're literally preparing for that single moment to solidify more or less your life yeah like i've put everything into this one thing and now is the moment that i am about to show the world what i can do and then someone takes it from you yeah and then i just felt all that so i freaked out and then in my opinion like i i didn't really do anything else after that it was just like that one time that i said it and then right and then later on they decided to make it this huge thing which I didn't even know was

even gonna happen when it was all over he was like sign this paper I was like fuck you I'm not gonna sign that paper why would I sign that I didn't do anything that happened on that paper so then um it became a huge thing and then Dave Castro decided to be a fucking giant douchebag and make it like known that I'm a douchebag. And then I got 50,000 messages that said that I'm not a douchebag and that Dave Castro's actually a douchebag. So I was like, oh, right on, cool. And then two years later, or maybe a year later,

I'm still really fucking good. So there's nothing they can really do about it. I was like, this guy's an asshole, but fuck, he's good. So we have to do something to put him down so they gave me a fucking failed drug test for no reason i'm at the oc throwdown working out like three years later and um the guy i i felt i saw the tech guys on my phone actually i will never delete it because i think it's it's great and i literally the guy's like hey i need to test you i'm at your gym and i'm like oh so i'm at the oc throwdown it's like, hey, I need to test you. I'm at your gym. And I'm like, oh, so I'm at the OC Throwdown.

It's like one mile down the road. You're welcome to come here anytime. And I'll pay your fucking entry to come in. Whatever, right? So he's like, oh, I'll go tomorrow. Because I'm already here. And I'm like, okay, I'll be here tomorrow, all day, working out. So he texts me again and says, hey, I'm at your gym.

And I'm like, I'm not at the gym. Like, just come to the competition and test me and then he's like i'm no longer available to meet you today that's exactly what it said and i put it on my instagram and i put it everywhere blasted everywhere and then it came out they put me on the list of people who failed they didn't say that i failed but they just said like he refused to take his test. And I was like, that is not what happened at all. Interesting. So why do I keep getting up from it? I just brush it off.

I mean, this is my life. I already committed to it. Everybody already knows. Like, if you don't know who I am, then I don't really fucking care. Like, I own a gym in Newport Beach. Like, that's what matters to me right now. Like, do my members in the gym care about what happened? Maybe of them you know they're still paying now I mean 98% of my gym doesn't even know the fuck Matt Fraser is yeah so what do I care if CrossFit wants to say

that I did this or I did that I don't really care anymore yeah um so there's the reasoning behind that I mean I also think it's always good to show people that that stuff doesn't bother you. And I think that's like way more admirable. Yeah. I actually wish that

I would have made it to the games this year. And I really thought I was going to because it was just like all like stuff that was right up

my alley. And they, they fucked me so hard this year. Did you see the muscle up then? It was so embarrassing. I really wanted to

wear a shirt. Uh, says, you know, like the Justin Bieber song, my mom don't like you and she likes everyone. I was going to, I was going to wear a shirt that says, you know, like the Justin Bieber song, My Mama Don't Like You and She Likes Everyone? I was going to wear a shirt. No.

I don't listen to Justin Bieber. Justin Bieber has a song that's like, My Mama Don't Like You and She Likes Everyone. I was going to wear that shirt and have Dave Castro on it. On the podium. Because either that or I was going to take my pants off and show my ass. I wanted them to know that, you know, I just didn't really care anymore. So you went a little bit down a different path though like uh opening a gym in the middle of newport beach with a thousand other 12 crossfit gyms within a nine iron from you um one why would

why would you go and do this and two kind of all this stuff leads up to something. Like in this crescendo moment is chalk performance. And why would you open in the middle of such a saturated market? And what's the vision of like why did you spend all of that money to open a gym in the middle of CrossFit's, basically the hub of CrossFit. Okay. Let's take a break first and we'll hop into that question. Yeah. Thanks for watching the show.

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All right, and we're back with Ryan Fisher, the stripper. Oh, yeah, Anders, you had a question we were left off on. Oh, yeah, why did you open a gym right in the middle of Newport Beach in a saturated market? Okay, so at point it's fucking crazy hey it really was um i don't really know what i was thinking but i i i knew that if i was going to open something it was going to be different and it had to be different um and i remember when i was in la i had been to a few gyms um that were just

they were so much nicer than the gym that i was working at that it kind of like i remember like wanting to work out and like i wanted to go there and work out i was like even though i loved my gym i loved my community i loved everything about it i was like man they have all these comp plates they have like nice bathrooms like it's just it was like super nice and i remember just being like in orange county like every car that's rolling up it's like a bentley like all these different things i'm like these people need something nice like i guarantee if i do it right i should be cool so i i asked this guy that the myspace guy and i was like hey man like if if you want to open a gym because he was telling me you should open your own gym and this

and that and i'd always be like, no, it's like, look at this map. Like look on CrossFit, look how many gyms are here. Like, what's the point? Um,

and he's like, I think you could do it. Well, like I just, you know, like whatever. And then after a while I started thinking about it and I was like, well,

it's like, what could I do to make it really, really cool? And I started thinking about it and I was like, this is what it has to look like. It just has to look like this. So I was like, Hey man,

would you be like opposed to giving me like a million dollars? So I was like, hey, man, would you be, like, opposed to giving me, like, a million dollars? And he's like, I think that's a little drastic. But he's like, whatever you need, you can have. Like, let's just do that. He's like, but you have to pay me back. Remember that. So he's like, if you want to spend some insane amount, I still need it back. So I was like, all right, there's got to be a way to do this in an intelligent way here.

That's a really cool opportunity. I think that's probably a really great way for someone who wants to own a gym to approach it is, okay, say I had an unlimited amount of money, but I had to pay it back. How would I design the gym then? And then that gives you an ideal situation. Yeah. And you can work your way back from there. Yeah, like originally I was like, oh, shit gonna go completely ape shit and then i when he told me i had to pay it back like because

so weird so yeah okay wait a minute it was my understanding but you have like hundreds of millions of dollars i just want one of them it was my understanding that like he was going to have a percentage and we were just going to split it so I didn't really

think of it that way and then like and then and I wasn't like a business person at the time right like I'm just like most investors

want their money back yeah I found that out maybe more I found out a lot about business like throughout this whole thing

I mean I didn't know that either you know when we first got into business I was like oh they'll get a percentage they'll earn it back over time and then I found out later it about business throughout this whole thing. I mean, I didn't know that either. When we first got into business, I was like, oh, they'll get a percentage. They'll earn it back over time. And then I found out later, it's like, oh, it's common that they get paid back. They get it back, and then they get a percentage. So I was like, oh, okay.

So once he said it, I was like, okay, so that changes things a little bit. So there was this space. It's just a super nice space, and Andrew's been there. It was originally like a globo gym, like a regular. It had machines and everything in it. But it's like a very private type of thing. And it had about $250,000 worth of equipment inside of the gym already. And it was really, really nice.

But they weren't doing very well. So my investing buddy was like, I know this guy. We should check it out. I guarantee I can get it if you really, really want it. So I went and I looked at it and I was like, man, like, I think this is the spot. Let's do it. And then from there, it became just like, what is it going to look like? What are the colors going to be?

What's the name going to be? All these things. And I'm so OCD that like it just took over my life. You know what I mean? Like I remember specifically going into the gym like multiple days in a row for multiple hours and just sitting like indian style in the middle of the gym and just like literally just trying to envision like what it would look like like it was the only thing that mattered to me and like if you walk in my gym and you do look at it it does have a different flow than you're used to like it's

very very organized and the way that the rigs and everything is is like i like i maximize space in a way that like no one else really has to be honest um so it is very very different it is like it's definitely my my own twist on what the crossover gym looks like and from there like i i that was like my goal was that everybody who walked in when they asked how much money it was they never really thought about it like I can't remember how many times I would be embarrassed to tell someone how much the membership was like when I was working at all these other gyms they'd be like well how much is the membership I say well it's about 200 a month and they'd be like for what

you know and like that's a common thing when it comes to CrossFit like you have to that person has to do CrossFit for like two or three months before they tell their friend, oh, like, it's really expensive, but, like, you'll understand after, like, so many times. Like, no, fuck that. Like, I want them to come in and be like, oh, this place is cool. It looks expensive. Like, I'm probably going to get what I'm paying for. Right.

And in reality, most of the members out there, like, this is what blows me away is, like, all these CrossFit athletes. Like, I'm going to open a gym, and it's going to be really athletes, like I'm going to open a gym and it's going to be really cool. And it's going to be this, it's going to be that. And it's like, no dude, like 90% of people who walk in don't know who you are. Like no one cares. Like no one's paying $200 to X person. Like they're paying $200 to be part of X facility, not the person. So you need to, it needs to be like a restaurant. Like it's gotta be your favorite fucking restaurant. Every single time you go in, it has to look good. It has to be vibing and like everything has to be on point all the time. So like I try to make my gym like the best restaurant you've ever been in.

Oh, I actually want, now I want to come up and train. Yeah, it's cool. Yeah. I have the most ridiculous sound system. I can fucking vibrate you off your feet if you wanted to. Yes. Yes. I'm in.

And do you have like a, like a video walkthrough of your feet if you wanted to yes yes all right man and do you have like a like a video walkthrough of your gym where you just lay it out that you've made that we could just like put in the show notes yeah i have something like that yeah i did very cool i think the thing that because you came from like when we started our gym i can literally it was i think i had fifty thousand dollars i remember talking to you about what you you did. I think you had 60 is what you said. Yeah, 60. Which is funny because that's how much I saved. How fucking crazy is that?

And I think that there wasn't like an extra penny laying around to have nice things and like clean the gym to the level that you guys have. And when you went to Mean Streets, it was the same story. Like Teasdale started that place with nothing. And was just like oh wow a new member like i can go buy one plate with this extra 200 so many of us in the beginning days started to in the beginning days though it was like that was so it was really attractive because it was it was crossfit it wasn't like the location right and you saw so many of the holes that we were working from behind to fill. And I think that really the biggest thing is that it's every personal training client that you had in your life has turned into something that helped you in business, has helped push you further along in your career.

It's because you show up every day. And when you walk into Chalk, you can feel that with the vibe the energy i mean literally it is the cleanest fucking place you'll ever walk into yeah it does not feel like a gym it doesn't feel like a crossfit gym how long you've been open now it's almost four years now um and i've i remember my first day open like i used instagram to my advantage and i was like, Hey, we're going to have all these comp plates. Hey, we're going to have, I just bought this. I just bought this. And I was blasting it out. And like, by the time I had opened my doors, I'd had a hundred members on my first day. Like I almost, the gym wasn't big enough for my six

and guys on the first day. If you don't mind me asking, you can turn this question down. Go for it. Uh, how much did you invest or how much was the investment 260,000 260,000 dollars so i mean i which i got very very lucky i call my gym a million dollar gym because the space uh was reached was recently renovated for 750,000 to make it look the way it is right now and then we had to give my the the previous tenant $50,000 to leave. They wanted some tenant improvements back. They wanted $200,000, but they couldn't get anyone to rent the space in time who wanted to spend that much money on it. My rent's $10,000 a month, and it's 5,500 square feet.

The actual workout space is only 3,500 square feet. I'm glad you're saying all these numbers because this is dropping some reality bombs. Yeah. A lot of gym owners are like, I hear a lot of complaints. Yeah. Or people say, how much money should I drop in a gym? And I'm like, it's not like it used to be. So I started mine with $17,000.

You can't do that anymore. No way. $60,000, you're not going to stand out. $260,000, that's going to help you help you stand out even like I take it more seriously now even garage gym people who wanted to garage gym and eventually spread out people email me all the time and ask me about that like hey man I won't I'm gonna start with this actually I had someone asked me to be like a like a chalk affiliate like they really wanted to use my name and everything and I was like well how much money do you have to spend he's like well i have like 50 grand and i was like i can't do it

yeah like if your gym doesn't remotely look like mine i just can't be part of it and i don't want to sound like a douche but like it's got to all flow the same that's your brand you gotta protect it yeah and i actually want to be around you for a few months and see who you are because i don't even i there's so many things that go into it. But anyway, that was something I was like really, really looking for in my gym. I wanted it to look like, and yeah, my rent was really,

really expensive and it's a small space. And we have like 330 members, right? Maybe like right now, which is insane. And sometimes we have classes that are literally busting out the seams and I have someone outside, you know,

working out. What do you charge members? $200 a month. Wow. That's a great price for where you're at. I'm shocked at how cheap that is. For what you're paying for rent. But everybody in town is like, everyone in town is about that price.

So my goal was to be the same as everybody else and just a way nicer product. Wow. So it worked out well um and then i never really knew like what was going to happen after that like i just it was the same thing like now now i have this and i need more money like obviously to you know do whatever it is like if i want to buy a house in california uh especially in newport like you're looking at a fixer-upper is a million bucks. Totally. So like, if you don't, if you don't have at least like a million bucks spent on a house, it's like, all right, well, that's not going to do it on this salary right now. So like, I'm going to do the same thing I've done for my entire life. And I'm just going to stay calm. And I'm gonna work my ass off. And I'm just, I know that being passionate and showing everybody

how passionate I am will turn into something else so another personal training client that I had um he's like he's uh he's working on helping me get into Costco as a corporate uh wellness like the head of the corporate wellness group and it's gonna be something that'll change my life yeah the guys I know that are making good money in this space is doing corporate stuff. I know Jason Kalipa does a lot of corporate stuff. And I've talked to him about it. I think he makes the majority of his money there.

Yeah. Yeah. I think that you should not pass over the early days of opening chalk. And you say, like, oh, I worked my ass off. What does that mean? Oh, yeah. I think a lot of people get into the gym business and think, like, oh, I'm going to hang out with my friends and I'm going to teach some fitness.

And they don't realize what a grind and the day-to-day looks like. I'm happy you brought that up because I feel like I did miss something. And I think that's, like, probably, like, one of my proudest moments of my whole life is the amount of work that i was able to do like i understand like when someone says they like became a navy seal and like they they did something that they like never thought could they could do right like i worked so fucking hard that i almost like don't even remember it i could have been in fucking navy seal during that time because i don't even fucking remember it you know what i mean like i remember

not having any coaches because i didn't think any coaches were good enough to coach in my gym it's my gym and you're not coaching in the way i want you to i want you to fucking own this gym mentally i need you to be inside everybody so um it's got to look like this and you watch me coach and let's see what you do. And then you coach. And I literally, it would just be like, they get one chance. You know, it's like, I wouldn't give them more than one chance. They would be like, all right, guys, we're gonna get going.

I'm like, that was fucking, you didn't fucking yell loud enough. But get the fuck out. You know, like I was a freak about it. So like I coached 5 a.m. to 7.45 p.m. was my last class. I had 10 classes a day. Right out the gate. I needed it. I had enough. I had 100 5 a.m. to 7.45 p.m. was my last class. I had 10 classes a day. Whoa. Right out the gate. I needed it.

I had 100 people already the first day. So I coached every single class, every single day, and three clients a day, every day for two months. And then on top of that, I would get home at like probably 10 p.m. I would clean some stuff up, make sure the gym looked good. You weren't paying anyone to clean it or you were cleaning it? I had people cleaning it. I just wasn't, like, organization. And, like, they didn't really know where everything went yet.

I didn't even know where everything went yet. Like, I would move stuff nightly. Right. I didn't even really think about, like, having a class come in and be like, hey, guys, help me move all the dumbbells over here. Like, I would just do it at night. I'd just move fucking 10,000 pounds of dumbbells like on my own and just be like,

you know what? That spot sucks. I'm going to move it back. Yeah. And then that would last like, you know, for the first two months. And I finally got a coach who helped out.

Um, and then I would shadow her for like a month. And then during that time I was actually training for regionals and like the little 10 minute breaks I get in between classes, I just do a 10 minute AMRAP. I just 225 cold in the bar. I'm doing three power queens and three muscle ups every minute on a minute for 10 minutes and i'm gonna coach class and i would do shit like that like that's like what i would do i got fourth at regionals and like fucking alternate to the games but uh during this

time during this time wow so i'd go to bed like maybe like 11 and wake up at four, get ready for the day again. And that just went on forever for that two months type of, it felt like forever. And then even after that, it probably was about like four or five months until I had people coaching enough to where I didn't feel like I was dying. And then I was online putting the workouts in and then I was doing this and I was doing that. But like unknowingly there was a couple things that i did that i think that put me in the predicament where i'm in now

where it's like it's cool enough to be on the barbell shrug podcast so like i like originally was like i don't really love crossfit as part of the name i want something that does not have that associated with it in case anything ever happens and i want to have like a legacy i want like anything's gonna happen to anybody it's you Yeah I mean most likely right

and actually something did happen so I forgot about this Dave Castro strikes again Dave Castro's like a fucking Star Wars series

So basically I start emailing back and forth with Kathy Glassman Greg Glassman's wife if they're still married I don't really know

what's happening there so sister by the way we go back is it a sister yeah it's a sister oh Jesus I'm all fucked up

you're good so also not his sister so they're going back and forth. Weird things happen in the middle of America. I'm going back and forth with Kathy about CrossFit names, right?

So I'll never forget my first five names that I asked for. I asked for CrossFit Chalk. I asked for Diesel CrossFit. Sweat. I wanted to call it CrossFit chalk. I asked for diesel CrossFit sweat. I wanted to call it CrossFit sweat. Well, actually, I can't say I'll never forget because I forgot those two. I'll never forget. Shit, just now. I had those three.

Those were my main ones. I shouldn't say five. It was three. Those were my main ones. I shouldn't say five. It was three. Those were my main ones, and I went through 87 emails back and forth with Kathy about names. I remember it was 87 because I remember seeing the number, and I remember her saying, this is your 87th email, and I cannot do this anymore. So every time you ask for a name through CrossFit, they have to look legally and see how it works out. I asked for the name Brute CrossFit, even though there's like legally and see how it works out. I asked for the name Brute

CrossFit, even though there's a Brute strength and all this stuff, but I want it to be B-R-U-T, like the bitter taste Brute, but I just thought it was cooler and it had two dots above the U. I just thought it would look rad. So they're like, we can't do that because what if you're in the CrossFit games and it's like Brute without the E's in first place and then Brute with the E, and then there's Brute whatever. And like, oh and I'm like, oh, okay, I get that. Right on. So we keep going and going and going and going and she's like, none of these names are working for you.

You live in Orange County. So I asked for like Orange Box, all these different things and she's like, the founder is, you know, John something. Why don't you be like John something CrossFit or what about Sweet Fruit CrossFit? And I was like, hold on a second.

Sweet Fruit CrossFit. I emailed her back, hold on a second. Sweet fruit. I was, I emailed her back and I said, listen, I would actually go. Well, I'm going to leave that one. I live.

Citrus citrus. I go, listen to this. I have all this money going into this. This is my entire life. This is going to map the rest of my life. I'm going to ask people for $200 a month and you want them to look up at a sign that says sweet fruit. Are you out of your fucking mind? i wrote her back and i said i am gonna call my gym

um something else and it's not gonna be affiliate with you guys and you guys can go fuck yourselves and i literally wrote it like that like it was so aggressive that she probably had to go to church after she saw so i don't know why you have so many problems with these people. So she writes me back. And in that time, I remember writing on Facebook. I was like, I'm just going to call my gym untitled. It's going to be CrossFit untitled. And if you look up the definition of untitled,

it means that I'm a higher power and I'm above any name. I get a fucking phone call from Dave Castro. And he says, oh, you're going to be untitled it means that i'm a higher power and i'm above any name i get a fucking phone call from dave castro and he says oh you're gonna be untitled huh and like someone had screenshotted that and sent it to him and said this guy's being an asshole and he's like you're never gonna be a crossfit gym ever because of this and blah blah blah and blah blah and i'm like are you out of your fucking mind are you guys kidding me like there's some guy trolled that enough to send it to dave castro and who cares if i want to call it untitled it's not a name that's taken i think i should have it so somehow some way he writes me an email and says you know you you can still someone must have said hey man this guy's going to give us three grand.

You should just let him fucking do it. So basically what happened – You had already cost him ten grand. So they were like, just leave him alone. So I get the thing back from Kathy, and she's like, you know what? The first one might work, the chalk CrossFit. We have it under contract. No one has used it in like five months or something.

So I'm guessing they're never going to use it so we'll just give you that and you got to pay it in the next minute and i was like all right cool let's do it i got chalk crossfit right so then i was like all right i'm gonna call this thing chalk it's fucking it stands by itself it sounds cool um and i'm and i'm stoked on it and that was something that i did unknowingly i didn't really realize how much, like four years later, how much like smaller the CrossFit like demographic is getting. Yeah. What year is that?

I opened in. It was four years ago. 14. Yeah. Yeah. There was, there was a sweet spot. Yeah. Like I remember opening a gym in 07 and I would drop the name CrossFit at the bar and

everyone would be like, what the fuck are you talking about? And then it was around 2011. I could drop it and CrossFit at the bar, and everyone would be like, what the fuck are you talking about? And then it was around 2011. I could drop it, and people would go, wow. And then by 2015, it didn't matter. Yeah. So, like, now it's almost. If you look at Google Trends, the word CrossFit peaked in 2015. It's come down since.

Gotcha. Is it down quite a bit? I don't know percentage-wise what it's down, but my, just from what I remember of the graph, it looked like it was probably, like, 70% of what it was. Yeah. Something like that. It's down quite a bit. In the older demographic, I live in Newport Beach, median age is like 35 maybe. So that's the older group who's kind of like, hey, man, I don't know if I can snatch. I don't know if I can do this. I don't know if I can do that.

So I was like, CrossFit can't be on my sign. It just can't be. Plus, everybody in the world, i started dating this girl who was sponsored by a giant supplement company and i remember like hearing these numbers of how much money these people were making and i remember just being like i gotta do some research about some stuff so like i found out that like and i i anybody would know this who you know had graduated college but like it was just something i just didn't think about. I was just like, man, CrossFit's this big. And fitness is this big. So why would I market to this group

unless I absolutely 100% have to? This group already hates me. That's a good point. I mean, and marketing, it's always good to go as niche as possible in the beginning. Like find the smallest crowd possible and really nail them down really tight. But I was too late for that. I was at the tail end of it.

Yeah, it sounds like it was probably better that you didn't do that. So unknowingly – You're no longer niche. Now you're just – it's a bloody market because there's just so many people in it so it's and unknowingly it made me really really cool and it was just and people are proud to go to chalk and it's and they say it and like it's it's cooler than crossfit and a lot of them are crossfitters but they feel better about going to the gym like that and because the sign says chalk on it i get more people who walk in and they're like oh what is this place you know um so that's really cool and then another thing that I did like unknowingly, um, well, I, I knew

what I was doing, but I knew in the beginning it was hurting me was I never posted my workouts online. I just thought that was weird. Like I just always was like, why would I, why would I put my workouts online for free when I'm asking people to pay $200 a month to be part of those workouts? I don't care about my coaching staff or myself. It's just like, that took me a really long time to make that workout. And I'm not going to give it away for free. So people would always ask like, Oh, what's the workout today? I'm like the workouts come in and figure it the fuck out. You know, like I would never tell anybody my workouts, you have to come in, you have to see it. And after a while, like I

know that I had a little bit of a social media following. so Chalk naturally started getting a little bit of a following, and people wanted to know the workouts. So one day I was like, you know what? It's $20 a month, and you guys can see the workouts. And not only that, I have another program called Sweat, which is like a conditioning program. It doesn't really have barbells involved in it, and anyone can walk in off the street and just do it,

and I have that on there too. And you guys can follow either one of those um it's 20 bucks a month and i remember that just like being something that i never really realized it would be i was like i wonder i'll probably get a couple people who sign up for it and i just wind up being you know hundreds of people signed up for it and i was just like man this is fucking really cool i don't have to open another gym i don't have to deal with like the whole headache of you know this trainer's gonna go out of town and i have to cover that and i have to figure out all these things or i have to spend fucking thousand dollars on chalk and toilet paper or i really like that approach because what you've done is you've really honed your skill

as a coach and instead of spreading yourself thin or trying to figure out how to franchise your system and all this you just go online yeah and you know a lot of people doing that now i mean we've done that which is i think i think it's a smarter move i mean if you really do have a special product and a special brand that attracts people that's definitely the way to go well i talked to so many gym owners they're like man the programming is not that hard it takes me like 20 minutes i'm like what the fuck are you making? Like, it takes me hours to make a week of programming. Like, there's no chance I'm putting that up for free online.

It's just like, it's just no way. And like, and I think about it in so many different ways. Like, I don't think about making the best CrossFitter. I like literally specialize my workouts and looking at it. Like, every single one of my members will tell you the same thing. You're like, dude, I do not know which day to take off Monday through Sunday because everything looks so fun. And I really try to make the fun aspect the major thing that you see

when you look at the workout. Classic CrossFit workouts are great. We do them every once in a while, but I really, really try really hard to get that fun factor. And for it to be fun, it's going to take you a lot of time to figure it out yeah and no one's ever made a workout in my gym in four years i make every single one very cool what's the uh what's the relationship with some of the coaches and how you've built that staff because it takes you four months to even let somebody get in and i know that you've been lucky enough i mean i've only had like five coaches in four years, period.

And I know there's always tough decisions on personnel and who's going to be the face of a class. It's absolutely terrifying as a gym owner when you see somebody kind of like mailing it in and you're like, God, nobody from this class is going to go tell their friends how cool that was. Like, what is that process? And a little bit of the training, some of the hard decisions you've had to make.

I know there's, you know, it's never easy when personalities are involved. And if you're running that tight of a ship, it puts a strain on a lot of people that can't handle that pressure. So I tell them all that speech in the beginning about, you know, this is a stepping stone in your life. Some things I've done wrong probably. A lot. I had a female coach who kept coming to class like right on time.

She was going to coach like a 9.15 or a noon class, and she'd get there at 9.15. And then it got to the point where I was like, if you don't get here 10 minutes early, like you have to be here 15 minutes early to open the gym. You have to be here 10 minutes early to coach a class when the gym's already open. That's it. That's all you have to be here 15 minutes early to open the gym you have to be here 10 minutes early to coach a class when the gym's already open that's that's it that's all you have to do so she got to the point where she'd get there on time and i'd be coaching the class and as she'd walk in like i

would purposely see her like pulling up and like it'd be like 9 14 and i'd be like i'm gonna start coaching class hey guys bring it in and i and then she'd she would walk in i'd be like you can go get me a coffee or something because you like there's you're not doing you're not doing anything today that's for sure and and i would tell her like that or sometimes she would get there on time and then when the class was over i'd be like hey just so you know you're not getting paid for that and then like i would do stuff like that and i know that was super gnarly but i just really needed them to understand like you have this job. And like I tried as hard as I could to pay everybody as much as I possibly could. And now that I have Chalk Online and now that I have these other things going on, I still do that.

And for Christmas, I gave every one of my coaches this year $1,000. It was something I was like, I almost like cried writing the checks because I was just like so happy i was like i wish this ever happened to me when i was a trainer like a thousand dollars as a crossfit trainer has a like a christmas bonus so cool and then like in the middle of the year this year just the middle of the year for no random reason at all i bought um this one guy he wanted one of these portable bow speakers like 300 bucks and i asked his asked his girlfriend, I was like, do you know anything that he like really, really wants? Like, and she's like, he's been wanting this thing forever. And then I got him that and he like, he actually cried in front of me.

Like, actually, he's a 40 year old man. And it just was like, oh my God, this is the best gift I've ever had in my whole life. And I was like, dude, I just want you to know that like, whenever we have extra money and you deserve it, like, I'm going gonna make sure that something cool happens for you and i got someone else a pair of beats headphones um i bought somebody else like a skateboard like different different things you know like whatever whatever tickled their fancy at the time um that's that's really motivating for people like when people are working for you instead of hanging out hanging an incentive

in front of them and saying well when you meet this mark like surprising them after the fact yeah something i think it really brings out that not motivation but i think it is more of an inspiration type of thing where it's like oh wow i feel appreciated versus saying well you'll get this bonus if you hit this performance marker. Yeah, I don't really like stuff like that. And I don't really like saying that you're going to get paid more than this person if this many people show up. It's like, no, like that many people are probably here because it's 6 a.m. and they have to go to work. It's not because you're a better coach than everybody else.

Like I don't like that. I just like my goal is always to be like I always want to give them as much as I possibly can. I think the biggest struggle for a gym owner is keeping coaches. Yeah. So if you can't keep your coaches, you can't keep your membership. So you literally have to just give them. They have to be family. They have to mean everything to you.

And all of my coaches do, and they all know that. I'll do anything for them at any point in time. Actually, in four years, I have not gone home for Christmas because I let all of them coaches do and they all know that um i'll do anything for them at any point in time i've actually in four years i've not gone home for christmas because i let all of them go home for christmas wow so there's that how much do you coach your coaches and what's that look like at your gym um i'll just step in and randomly coach a class but okay check this out or whatever um or like there'll be like a big thing i'm really big on is like, you have to walk around constantly. Like, I don't care if you talk to everybody and like you give everybody great feedback

and this and that, like if you're not constantly walking around, like they don't feel you over their shoulder. It's not like, it's just not good enough. Like you have to be constantly, constantly moving around the room. Um, I, so many people say that like, as soon as you walk by, they just instantly go faster. Like if you walk by me going on the assault bike and I'm going like as soon as you walk by they just instantly go faster like if you walk by me going on the assault bike and I'm going at

200 watts and you walk by fucking I'm gonna go 400 at least minimum minimum I'm gonna double or like maybe that doesn't resonate with

anybody like let's say you're running like two minute pace and you walk by I'm gonna go 145 yeah and it works that way like you just need to

walk around even if you don't say anything fuck you could be a mute and you just walk around you you'd be a great coach. Yeah. I think that extra 10% is if everybody just found a way to try and be just a little bit better and find that extra 10% somewhere in their game.

And a lot of that just comes down to the learning process and just the never-ending pursuit of, like, how can we make this just a little bit better? And whether it's spending half a million dollars on opening a gym or, you know, coaching somebody through an assault bike that those lessons don't go away. And if everyone in your gym is bought into that same purpose, it's impossible to fail.

Yeah. I mean, yeah. I mean mean i've actually i've seen classes and and i just pull coaches in immediately and i'm like that class was just 60 effort you know what i'm saying like i just i just i can't keep watching that i think this is a really good thing for everybody to hear because i think that as gym owners, we have, I look back on my own career and I see where I let people off the hook or, you know, I saw somebody on their phone in the corner and I was like, I waited a day or two to mention it like as a rule to everybody.

When I could have just walked straight to that person and thrown their phone out the door, you know, or, you know, you shouldn't do that. But, you know, really, really, you know, doing what you're talking about doing, I think we've let a lot of coaches slide. And a lot of coaches think it's okay, like, oh, I'm getting paid 20 bucks a class, show up right on the minute, coach the class and then walk out the door. You know, don't participate in what else is happening in the gym? And I think that the industry as a whole is seeing that because a coach might come from another gym where that was okay, and now they come to your gym and that's not okay. And I think that there's a huge opportunity for guys like you to lead the way

and say, hey, this is what coaching looks like. Because I also think that's why we're only charging $200 a month. It sounds like the value that people are getting at your box is probably closer to $300 or $400 a month, and you're competing with the guys around town. But, you know, these coaches, it's like the CrossFit has, is tarnished in a way because it hasn't been treated as professionally as it could have from the very beginning. So now we have to, in this industry, you have to overcome all the laziness of what happens when people are coaching. Because you walk in the gym and there are coaches on their phones texting while they should be focusing on their clients and all that kind of stuff.

I mean, so if you're one of those coaches and you're hearing this right now, you know, step it up. Yeah, I mean, I've been to gyms where I literally am just like, I wish the owner was here because I need to tell them to fire this person. And then you find out it is the owner who's coaching the class. That totally could happen for sure. Yeah, I mean, it's's just like it is really bad. And what really bothers me, and if anybody out there who does follow me on Instagram,

you'll see that I get really, really into and I'm super passionate about how hard coaches should coach and how much you should be putting into your gym. And it's like really really embarrassing to me when when there's just like a mediocre effort like in the gym and like the gym owner like doesn't like he's not doesn't spend his time there like yeah if you don't spend your time there there's no vibe like you're like the vibe that you want will never happen if you keep wishing it was gonna happen and you're not there doing it well i think a lot of gym owners gym owners too, they're there. They didn't do things right in the first place. You know, they, they had too little money. They got burnout. They're 18 months in,

they're still coaching all the classes. They're phoning it in because they're just burnt out. And I think a lot of times either it just wasn't the right time for them to open the gym in the first place, or they're just in the wrong thing. You know, if they're, if they're not showing up passionate every day and they're not, then it might be time to move on. Yeah. And so I think that there's a lot of that going on too. A ton right now. You know, getting into this industry and opening a gym was really cheap.

You know, like I was saying, I opened one with $17,000. So you got, what, $60,000? And that's actually really fucking cheap to open up a brick and mortar business compared to, say, the restaurant business. The gym business, you're not fighting even the gym that's right next to you because there's a 24-hour fitness. There's 10 CrossFit gyms. There's the functional fitness facility that looks exactly like your CrossFit gym that doesn't pay the thing. But you're also fighting every single person that just wants to be on their own in their garage. You have to be a better option than someone spending $1,000 and putting it in their garage and just getting to work without ever leaving their house.

And that is a massive step from $0 to $200 a month. And what are they getting for that? There has to be something that's so far over the top to pull them out of their house, out of their life. And now you have inserted an hour into their day in which hopefully it's the best hour of their day, but you get them addicted to that feeling every single day when they walk in. And that is the most important thing because that hour becomes so healthy and so just freeing for them that they need it and they crave it. And if they're not getting that, there's a thousand other places that they can go within a half mile of you. And then like in the warm-ups, I make all my coaches like ask like, hey, did anyone see this movie this week?

Did anyone – like how was everybody's week in general? Like, hey, like Susie, how's your hip? Or like whatever, right? Like that was so generic. I felt like Susie breaks how's your hip? Or, like, whatever, right? Like, that was so generic. But, like... Fucking Susie. I feel like Susie breaks her hip in, like, every story. But, like...

Like, when you ask people those questions, and they're like, man, someone actually thought about me. Like, you know what? They worked eight hours that day, and they get home, and they go to bed, and they don't really have anybody to share any time with. And it's, like, that one moment probably meant so much to that person that day. And it's just like people don't understand how big that stuff is.

And we're a community-driven business. So if you don't know everybody's name, if you don't know what people do for work, if you don't go out and surf with them after class or any of that, then what are you really doing? And I give incentives to the coaches all the time. Like, hey, if you guys want to take members to the grocery store, I'll pay you for a class and show them how to fucking shop for groceries. If you want to do a seminar on how to do kipping pull-ups

and butterfly pull-ups and muscle-ups, go for it. Keep all the money. You want to do personal training? Do it. Keep all the money. I try to let them do as much as they want. If they have questions about anything, just like let me know and I'll help you out. I eventually want to get my online programming to have like tons of different programs and they're all programming

each one. Maybe one's like body weight, one's just kettlebells. I'm trying to get all my employees to be doing corporate stuff with me so that it's, like, a career for them. Like, I want to, like, literally, like, when I retire with my gym, like, they retire with me. Like, I want them to be there for the whole thing. Yeah. And if I don't want them there for the whole thing, they're fired. Like, I don't, like, I'm getting married to everybody in my gym.

So, like, right now it's, like. Well, you're going to get inside them anyway. Yeah. It's never going anywhere. It's here. We're stuck with that. We need to get Trojan to sponsor this show.

Keep it safe, folks. But, yeah, I want everyone to come with me, like, as far as... Jesus, come with me. I want everyone to go on the whole

shebang with me. So, like, it'd just be great to have the same coaches forever. I think that'd be such a great goal. And you have members for such a long time. It'd be so cool to just be like, man, this guy's been coaching me for like 10 years.

That's so cool. Eventually you've got to get a fresh face in there, but it's nice to have the same crew. Dude, thanks for joining us today. This is an incredible story. Yeah, it came out well. Where can people find more of you? I'm Ryan Fish, R-Y-A-N-F-I-S-C-H on Instagram.

You guys can follow the jam. We have some pretty funny Instagram videos on CrossFit Chalk. It's just the way it sounds. And then if you guys ever want to follow my online programming, which is super fun just like i described it's a crossfitchalk.com and then you just click on the online programming it's 20 bucks and you get to literally not think about workouts ever again yeah and you just started a podcast and i have my own podcast called real chalk

so uh the the name is solid he really likes the name i want to say that the podcasts are good if as you guys can hear like i'm pretty raw material out of coming out of my mouth so it's like that for everything um i do like a lot of like really hot topics my last one was on coffee and caffeine and and then i do a lot of stuff on like oils like i'm super big on eating healthy so there's a lot of stuff like that. Life Story stuff is on there too. And one of my coaches, Yannick, he's from Germany. He's on there, and he is my co-host. Very cool.

It's super fun. Sounds fun. I'm going to have to give it a listen. It's really good. Anders, do you want to tell the people what you're up to? Come and hang out with us. It's movement-rx.com. Dr. Teresa Larson,

a physical therapist, and myself, write strength and rehabilitation programs for gym owners. They're members and functional fitness athletes dealing with shoulders,

hips, low back, knees. Come and hang out. Learn how to move better. And on the socials, Anders Varner. Dope, dope.

And Doug and I are doing some expansion here Doug's got, where should people go if they want to find out what you're up to I got a catch all website now called DougLarsonFitness.com anything that I'm thinking that's kind of outside the realm of barbell shrug but still fitness related that I've wanted to do for a long time I'm putting that on that kind of catch all site

I got some seminars coming up so if you're interested in doing something in person with me go to douglarsonfitness.com and uh i got yeah come check me out at thebloodshow.com i got another podcast over there doing some events coming up so uh head over there see what i'm up to we'll hang out it'll be fun and uh if you like the show which i don't know how you just didn't laugh your ass off and share this show with every single one of your friends

on every social media platform you have including Tumblr if you got an offender bender while listening tag us yeah just go over to iTunes

five star review positive comments go subscribe on YouTube great videos as well and see you next week thanks for making it all the way to the end of the show if you liked the show which I know you did comments, go subscribe on YouTube, great of NBC Strong, and we talk about everything from movement to mushrooms.