Massenomics Podcast - Ep. 272: Live Large Nick Robson

Episode Date: June 21, 2021

Nick is the owner of Live Large Fitness and Ohio Pie Co. Give it a listen to find out if it’s harder to sell t-shirts to meat heads or to make a pizza that pairs perfect with a glass of milk. We also talk to Nick about what it’s like behind the scenes at the Arnold and why McLarens might be a better investment than dogecoin. The Strength Co: https://www.thestrength.co/ Fusion Sports Performance: https://www.fusionsp.net/ MASS to save 20% on all FSP supplements Spud Inc: https://www.spud-inc-straps.com/ Texas Power Bars: https://www.texaspowerbars.com/

You know, thanks for what you do with your podcasts and all the rest. You're doing a great job. Hope everybody keeps tuning in. You get a lot of good info, a lot of insights, understandings on how to get strong, how to stay strong, how to use your strength. You do a great job, dude. You make things better than they are in real life, I think.

If you don't follow Massanomics, y'all do it. Social media, website, everything. Massanomics! Massanomics! website, everything. Massanomics. Welcome back, everyone, for episode 272 of the Massanomics podcast. We are the lifting podcast about nothing recorded live from western northeast South Dakota.

My name, of course, as you know by now, is Tanner. And my name is Tommy. Yes. If you don't know by now, I guess this might be your first ever. It's someone ever someone's first i'm tanner i'm one of the co-hosts i'm tommy i'm one of the guys yeah tommy um if i sing this lyric little lyric to a song and see if you know where i'm going with this yeah yeah some down with the sickness yeah you've you've been down with the sickness correct oh okay i was like are we talking about gym songs no no yeah just actually being sick yeah for real so yeah i guess if you're listening for the first time my voice doesn't normally sound quite like this but god tanner i tell you what when you have kids sickness just has a whole new meaning in life and i i can say i think in the

last 10 years if i've had what i would consider three sick days like i couldn't go i couldn't work because i was sick if i'd had three of those in the last 10 years that's probably about it like i don't get sick in that way yeah and all of a sudden you get a kid turns one like daycare with other kids and then boom it's like the plague has entered our house and here's a straight up infestation it's like a petri dish it's just like one thing after another and man i got hit hard with tanner it's uh like that one time we went to that power lifting meet rapid city and i woke you guys up with my noises from the bathroom that's's an interesting story. That alone is a good story. Was that like the first meet? That was the second meet. And me and your brother, was it just your brother?

It was us three. Yeah, it was us three. Staying in a hotel room. Yeah, we got a room in Rapid City. Was that the Rush, wasn't it the Mount Rush or was it the Adobe? Yeah, well, they keep changing the name of that damn hotel. But we went out to eat the night before you know we're all excited uh you know not having to worry about weight or anything just hey we're gonna have a good time eat some food before and then go to bed nice and early before our meat we got it all figured out and i remember that meat that meat i set up in bed i literally thought one of you guys like punched me in the stomach as hard as you could i've never sat up with shooting pains like that in my body wasn't it some pork or something that i think i had like a brisket sandwich or something it was brisket and i ran to the bathroom to puke and while i'm

puking i'm like nope turn this around and like i'm on the toilet like and that went all night and i i'm a violent puker too i'm a violent puker so am am I. And that was a brutal night. I did the meet still. It was not a fun day to do a meet. But when you drive six hours and spend that money, you got to do it, right? I remember Ryan and I were, I think Ryan was in your bed. And we both like kind of sat up in bed as you were doing that. And we're both kind of like horrified, but also didn't know what to say.

And I think either Ryan or I was like, Oh, Tommy must not be feeling very good. Like not, we didn't say it jokingly. He was just like, Oh yeah. We got to say something.

Right. And, uh, and I remember thinking like, Oh my God, we're doing a power lifting meet tomorrow. Like, I'm like,

there is no way he's going to be able to lift. Yeah. So that was, uh, I did lift that day. Yeah, you did. Didn't have a great day. Like squats were probably the worst. Yeah, that was the scariest part. Yeah, I did get better as the day went. Still at the end of the day wasn't 100%.

But yeah, so this weekend, it was kind of the same thing where the sickness came down on me. And boy, I spent a lot of time in the bathroom and it's really demoralizing when you just can't eat for like three straight days. And I can say, I stepped on the scale the other day and that said one 89. And I have not seen an eight, nine in that order since I was trying to do the math. I think like six or seven years. Like, in that order since i was trying to do the math i think like six or seven years like boy it's uh it's a scary number to see that i'm like god because i was almost 200 i'm like my weight's sitting pretty good like the gym's going good i'm floating right around 200

i feel like i'm getting stronger every week right and then man that just knocked me back hard so i guess the moral of the story is don't have kids right no i'm just kidding kids are great just uh maybe just... They are like walking petri dishes. They can figure out a way for them to not carry disease because that's the other problem is now he's fighting the sickness like every day, which means you don't get to sleep, which I think I would be 100% now if I could actually sleep during the week.

But when he's screaming in the middle of the night, it's... It's a horrible, vicious circle. It is. It is, though. It's like nobody can get on i now really feel i haven't had to actually punch a time clock i've been lucky i haven't had to punch a time clock in like nine or ten years actually i think like 12 years sometimes i walk in and i want to go give it a real good punch yeah and then you go mondays right guys mondays but i feel for people to have to do that man that's uh to just yeah to work a job where you already only get like 10 days of vacation and no sick days and then to just be like well used all of them on my kid i guess i'll maybe

if i'm lucky i'll get a vacation next year yeah not the life i want to live i'll go for that self-employed life amen except not me well massonomics is kind of self-employed life. Amen. Except not me. Masonomics is kind of self-employed, right? Oh, I'm like half self-employed, unfortunately. I just also have to have a fully employed. You're double dipping, Tanner. Yeah, right, right. What about an advertisement? Maybe you want to kick it off with an advertisement this week.

I kind of forgot about that whole part of it. We should. We've got to keep the lights on. We've got to keep the lights on we've got to keep the lights on there's three of them talking about neon talking about okay i'll read this ad first today's show is brought to you by the strength co the strength co operates starting strength affiliate gyms out of southern california they have a staff of experienced starting strength coaches that know the best way to develop strength through the barbell movements grant the owner of the Co., is a Marine and he is passionate about obtaining quality American products and labor for all aspects of his business.

The Strength Co. makes premium, made in America, barbell equipment, including their machined and E-coated plates. These plates are functional, easy to handle, accurate, and made to last a lifetime. The Strength Co. plates have become the go-to choice for all members at Massanomics Gym. Check out their plates and all their other Made in America equipment online at thestrengthco.com. That's thestrengthco.com. Tanner, this isn't even a what's in the can. We need to drink a can because my throat is dry. I've also, earlier this week, was not as sick,

but our family also down with the sicknesses. Just a lot of like, I don't know if the common cold is the right thing. It's that June time of year, isn't it? It's that June, those colds that you get when it's 100 degrees out. Also the first time in my life I ever felt like this in June. I thought once you hit June, that meant you were past the, is this a delicious cherry coke i really i'm gonna guess uh cherry so for people that don't know we are drinking a lime bubbly and i really like someone made a meme this week the the the

anime like butterfly i don't even know what series that's from but it's like the guy with the butterfly is this uh whatever yeah and it's a lime it's a lime bubbly in the guy's hand he says is this a cherry you know another one that would be good is the office one and it's like tell me the difference in these two pictures and it's they're a lot bubbly the cherry coke it's like it's the same thing yep the same thing wow all right tanner you were gonna talk about something. Oh, I was watching. I saw on TV the other day, Anchorman 2. When I was anchored to the couch, Anchorman 2 was on, and we were making a dumb joke about Mondays.

And in there, it had been so long since I'd seen it, I forgot the guy's name. He becomes a photographer, and he's showing the guys his picture of a cat, and it's a cat in like a fishbowl, and it says, I hate Mondays. Hang in there. What's the guy, the picture of a cat and it's a cat in like a fishbowl and it says i hate mondays and then uh hang in there what's the guy the the whammy guy um whammy yeah i can't think of his yeah i don't can't remember either he was on the office yes and it's uh he's like yeah i hate mondays i also hate tuesday wednesdays and thursdays and they'll go ha ha ha and they just stop instantly and they're dead serious. It was really funny.

Because you had to be there, right? Yeah. Okay, Tanner. Well, okay. We'll also say I have one more thing here. And I put this in before I got sick. So this is kind of weird timing. But I put in on our list of things to talk about poop.

And what I was going to say is, do you ever think, now especially that you have a kid, you have like an 80-pound pound dog you have your own self do you ever think like on any given week i spend a lot of time cleaning up poop i thought you were going to tell me that the human body is filled with 5 to 20 pounds of toxic poop just sitting in your colon have you seen that unless you get a cleanse yeah have you seen that youtube it's like in the front of all a bunch of youtube videos now this guy that's like and that's like 20 pounds of toxic poop just i'm like is that actually is that where is this where is this thing in your body that holds 20 pounds that holds the stuff would be just a toilet bowl completely full with shit and it's toxic yeah how did it get toxic but yeah like

so just the idea that we we're you're around poop all the time oh yeah just the sheer amount of time you spend in a given week actually cleaning up poop oh yeah and adding some sickness in there it's like man that was a part-time job cleaning up poop this week yeah especially when you got a few diapers a couple uh kids wearing diapers and stuff it gets insane sometimes i'm like i don't even know if it's worth washing my hands at this point i'm like they're just gonna get dirty again i do think about that with like uh you know we got a three-year-old and a baby and stuff like the three-year-old's always got a runny nose it's like eh i don't know i'm gonna get whatever you've got i've aren't like i'm just like covered in all of

your stuff like all the time. Next time you've got to cough, just make sure it's on my face. We'll just skip a step here. Toddlers are also horrible at covering their mouths when they cough. They're really good at directing it directly to you, but how to pet at the other part of it. Yes. Okay.

So, yeah, that's weird timing that I put that in before I got sick. Fact, though. Poop, it's everywhere. It's a weird timing that I put that in before I got sick. Fact, though. Poop, it's everywhere. It's a part of life. All right, this next thing. Do we want to talk about the podcast article? Oh, okay. I thought you just meant talking about the podcast.

Yeah, we've got a podcast. There was yet another snub in western northeast south dakota in podcast land yeah and you guessed it we were we were not we did not make this article so it was in the aberdeen american news aberdeen american news our local newspaper and we didn't pump this one out on instagram namely because we don't have a problem with who they covered. Right. Right. And like. They are Masonomics supporters. They're Masonomics supporters. And also like she's really nice. And those are two things.

Also like they seem to actually be doing a pretty good podcast. Yes. And they do. I'm sure it's worthy of being covered from what we've seen actually. You know. But just funny that like another. Another feature. Another podcast. Another podcast. In Western Northeast south dakota got a feature

in our in our local newspaper and it wasn't ours no and we're still the one that's been recording it in this city for 272 straight episodes you know have multiple paying paying sponsors for long periods of time you know like we we've done all the funny local advertising. We have a shtick centered completely around western, northeast South Dakota. We've actually probably... People talk about Aberdeen that would have never known what Aberdeen was.

Yeah, we've probably... Yeah, we came... Way more people are aware of Aberdeen now than probably have been from any dumb tourism ad they've ever ran. Right, right. But snubbed again snubbed so we're just making the rounds of yeah greatest greatest snubs in podcast history right yes okay oh Tanner close my freaking list out we got a lot of that we we had a large list this week i know we have

a large list okay um i don't even know what one to do next i feel like a few of these next ones are on you yeah so should we talk about let's do a little sack segment how about that do you want to do a sack segment we can do a sack segment okay so we did those okay is your screen cracked hanner did i see a crack there the angle. Must have been the angle. Yeah. The angle. It's the angle of the dangle. The pitch of the yaw.

We've got a large sack segment today. Multiple items. Multiple contributors. These first items are from Big Andy from the same podcast that I was recently on. So he also does apparel. And that one would be for me. I'm just sorting them out here. Is this a joke where they're all going to be for you, Tanner?

Yeah, I'm like, this one's for me and that one's for me. What do we got here? Metal barbell. Okay. Yeah, metal barbell. And how do you spell metal? I think there's something to that. N-E-T-T-L-E.

That'd be in the sense of you're meddling around, right, Tanner? I do not know. I am not. Come on. You're the grammar guy, right? No, no. But you know what it is? You almost get forced putting a couple posts on instagram every day for like five years you do have to watch

very close in your grammar because the second you put anything wrong someone's on it that fast that fast yes um but these are from big andy he said um the white one is his origins tea and he it the one i'm holding up gives the notes of weights, nature, and tattoos together. Very nice. And the sand one is his laid-back long-sleeve tee. And I do like me a good long-sleeve. We've talked about this several times. We have the logo on the left chest and the saying down the sleeve, which is so perfectly creased,

strength from within. Okay. Very cool. I like this color, too. Yep. Sweet. I will definitely be wearing this long sleeve in the gym. Good stuff.

So that's from Big Andy at Metal Barbell at Sane Podcast. He's got a few other things going on, but just look up Sane Podcast, and you can find anything through there. Or Metal Barbell, I suppose. I don't have his Instagram handle off handy on that, but just look up Metal Barbell as we spelled it on Instagram and you'll find it. Sweet. Thanks, Andy.

So cool. That was cool. Glad again that we got to get out. I mean, I was on his podcast, but we got to talk Masonomics on his podcast. And then on top of that, he sent us stuff. Win-win. Yes. So that was that part of it. you got more goodies here well so the next part of it before i get to the other part of the

sack i'll do the before we get to the other part of the sack i'll first do the barbecue sauce follow-up oh yeah yeah because the next part of the sack is also related to barbecue sauce but so the follow-up maybe makes more sense to you first so last time you talked about uh was that last episode or i think it was like a couple episodes ago my newfound love for vinegar-based barbecue yeah and a couple people that listen to the podcast uh actually multiple people brought it up and said didn't you say before that uh your mom owns a barbecue sauce company and you never said anything about the barbecue sauce i'm like well i well, I thought we talked about it already, but I guess it would be what is relevant in the conversation. True, true. So I didn't have any last time, but now we have the Old West barbecue sauce.

So I figured I'd get this. So what's in the sack this week? Old West barbecue sauce. And this is from the Old West factory in western northeast South Dakota. Yep. Just down the road from us. And this barbecue sauce is damn good. Yeah.

It's really good. It's a cult favorite. It is around here for sure. You pretty much just assume that if any restaurants around here have barbecue on the menu, whether that's like barbecued ribs or a barbecue flavor wings or barbecue anything, it's almost like always this flavor. Yeah. Uh, because it's that good.

Big John's old West barbecue and dipping sauce. Great barbecue sauce from the great planes. I like that. Um, and it is funny cause Grant from the strength co who will get to more here in a little bit. He had, we was,

he, he was, he's from South Carolina originally. I remember when you were talking South had we was he he was he's from south carolina originally remember and you were talking south carolina barbecue sauces and he was talking barbecue sauce and i mentioned that and i'm like oh my mom actually owns a barbecue sauce company too and his response i think was well ever you know everyone's relative uh has a barbecue sauce i'm like oh i suppose that's true but like maybe where you're from not yeah that's right and also i was like yeah it's kind of like a a pretty relatively successful barbecue sauce you know it's not like

uh making it up this isn't this isn't every grocery store around here like and in the area walmart it's like it is everywhere like yeah um and like they've had a factory for like i don't know 30 years or something like that and employ employ. I mean, you've been there. I've been there. Yeah. You've done work for Old West. I have. You've done work for the company because they do some other things, too.

So they also sell some animal sense and dog treats. Yeah. And that's the James Valley Company. So I do like it does say bring out that great outdoors taste. Bring that great outdoors taste indoors to all your favorite cuts of chicken, pork, beef, and ribs for that bold, genuine, over-the-campfire flavor. Extra rich, extra thick, extra delicious. Yeah, and Old West is actually made just outside of Millette, South Dakota.

Right down the road from your high school, right? Right down the road from my high schoolota right down the road from your high school right right down the road from my high school and right down the road from where i lived and uh uh yeah so west a little treat from western northeast south dakota so this old west is a tomato based one it's not vinegar it is thick like a lot of tomato ones are but it just tastes different uh to me you could you could get a of, you could go buy like 10 random barbecue sauces off the shelf at the grocery store, and seven of those 10 are going to taste really, really similar.

To me, this one is not one of those that's going to taste similar. That's why it's so damn good. I always run into someone that says, oh, I just have to eat that on everything. Like I said before, I'm not necessarily mean. I think I remember Tyler saying he would buy it by the gallon because he'd go through so much of it.

I also do remember Tyler saying that he would pick what he wants to eat by what condiment he felt like having. Yeah, that's true. I remember that. I'm not that much of a condiment guy. I think he would talk about how he'd go through a lot of ketchup. That's not me. I do remember him going pretty in-depth, going pretty hard on the ketchup. Do you think we need to should i hit another ad yeah we should we should okay this

episode today is also brought to you by fusion sport performance supplements and this just in what breaking news breaking news on fusion sport performance the ticker is going across the bottom of the screen i can see it this is straight going across the bottom of the screen. I can see it. Dee, dee, dee, dee, dee, dee, dee, dee, dee. This is straight from Merritt, the owner of Fusion SP Supplements. He says, the company is moving from New Jersey to Georgia next month, and everything must go. So he can make the move and not have to move a bunch of stuff, I think. Because of that, there's a special sale.

The mass discount code is as we speak, no longer 20%. Is it 24? It's not 24. 28. It's not 28. 30? 30% off. Damn. Mass, M-A-S-S is the the discount it'll save you a whopping 30 off is he running a business

or a charity over there no so all you have to do is go to fusion sp.net it'll save you 30 off by using code mass on anything in the store wow that is just he should be locked up i hope he's going through an insane asylum in georgia because he's absolutely nuts um and he said it'll be like that for maybe like the next couple weeks i suppose it just depends off fast year so what i would do is i would go to fusion sp.net right now as you're listening actually pause the podcast go there put everything in your cart and say this is mine now mass 30 off you almost can't afford not to do it at 30% off. You really can't.

So Fusion Sports Performance Supplements. He's practically paying you to buy from them. That's right. He will send you a check at this rate. So go check him out. Well, that's really cool. Yeah, get your supplements 30% off now. Great deal.

Okay. Do we want to go to the next part of our sack now oh i thought the barbecue was the next part of the sack no that was the barbecue update this is the sack that keeps on giving this week because i could clearly see there was a sack and it was empty ah now there's a box okay are you familiar with uh olive garden's bottomless breadsticks this is t Tanner's bottomless sack. All the sack you can eat. Oh, boy. Okay. Oh, and I see bubble wrap. Oh, I got to show you something funny about this, too.

Did you see? Look who this is addressed to. It's addressed to mass space E dot nomics. Like the man's name is mass. Middle initial E. Very funny. So this is from Cox barbecue sauce. How do you spell that?

C O X. Cox sauce. The website is Cox sauce, BBQ sauce.com. And that's for ordering and more info you can visit. Or you can email them at cocksbbqsauce at email.com or gmail.com. Sweet. Okay.

So it's cock sauce and it's got a picture of a cock on it. Yeah. But maybe not what you're thinking. It's like a rooster. Yep. Not what you're thinking. Not a rooster rooster. Yep, not what you're thinking. Not a rooster. Hey, here's a koozie.

We didn't have koozies today. Oh, perfect. There's some stickers. And then probably the most important part about what's in the sack for this particular right here is the cock sauce. Okay, this podcast is turning more and more of like, hey, tune in for 20 minutes of Tanner and Tommy opening gifts from people. Opening bubble wrap. That's becoming a recurring theme of this. And I don't dislike it. All right. So we

have original family recipe cock sauce. Yeah, baby. And we are in a tomato based sauce here, Tanner. Okay. We'll get that right out of the way. Well, but vinegar is pretty high there. God, this looks Carolina red barbecue sauce. Maybe this sauce here tanner okay we'll get that uh get that right out of the way well but yeah vinegar's pretty high there um god this looks carolina red barbecue sauce maybe this is maybe a little more

my vinegar style too that's i'm just so new to this world of things yeah and this they are from charlotte very cool so who is this from well this is from i think think... Or did we not disclose the names? Well, no, I think you can buy this through the Strength Co. website. Oh, like someone just sent this to us? No, Grant arranged this. Oh, okay, we're back to Grant again. Yeah, so Grant at the Strength Co. I think you can buy this through the Strength Co. Sweet.

Also, of course, you can buy it through Coxos, but I believe the owner of this company is also a powerlifting coach. I talked to him. He actually coaches some massonomics fans that most of you would be. I'm not going to name drop in case there's to protect the innocent. But he knew massonomics, but I believe he's a starting strength coach or something of that nature. And anyways, also has cock sauce.

So I'm excited to try this. Sweet and tangy Carolina red barbecue sauce. An old family recipe created by Bojangles co-founder Jack Z. Volk. Mr. Bojangles? Oh, is there more? Yeah, I think they're the same. Oh, double or not. There's four of them, so we'll each have a couple to try.

14 fluid ounces. And you read this part of it that yeah created by bojangles damn dude i'm excited god sauce not affiliated with bojangles did you see the asterisk oh i was wondering why that was there okay now we know yeah the more you know so i'm excited to try that so thank you to i guess grant and jack and everyone involved in getting and bojangles so i i even mentioned before my palette for barbecue sauce is like oh yep it's barbecue sauce so i'm not gonna have great feedback what the people want to know is what you think, Tommy, of cock sauce. So we'll stay. I'm a man of culture. So we'll stay tuned maybe next within the next couple episodes to get your full review on the cock sauce.

Yep. I can guarantee you I will be making. And then I can continue to say cock sauce for that episode. Sweet. So that was everything that was in my sack. And boy, do I feel better getting that all out of there. Load off my back. Yeah. and my bowels wow well we really were knocking through some things there tanner yeah we did we did the barbecue sauce oh what's that accidentally well did we're we gonna talk about boxing we can we can before it's too old okay because this is something

that we want we actually you and me talked about it off air last week because we forgot to talk about it on air. And this is almost like by the time this comes out, this just feels like such old news, but yeah, boxing, the sport is in such a weird spot in my brain. And before we even say much about this at all, this,

this is purely from a person that knows nothing about boxing, which is probably good because I feel like no one knows anything about boxing. So I'm, I'm boxing's number one fan right now. Right? Right right right right like that's who boxing's that's who is catering to i would say people that don't know a damn thing about it right and it's so weird to me like i don't i don't have any problem with um the paul logan paul or jake i always make i don't know which one is which i always i just don't know which one is which. I don't know which one is which. I would,

I'm not even mixing that up. I just don't know who is who, or I wouldn't know the difference of you showed me. I don't know what they like. I have no problem with them. And Floyd Mayweather having a, having a boxing fight, a match and like making just millions and millions.

Like, Hey, if there's that much money in the sport, that's awesome. That's great for you. But like, my thing is like, that's arguably the most exciting thing in boxing this year, right?

Right, though? Isn't it? Who's the heavyweight champion of boxing? Well, also, Mike Tyson did a little fake fight this year, and didn't he fight Roy Jones? I don't know. Did he? Yeah, Mike Tyson and Roy Jones did another exhibit.

I mean, it's the same thing, though. It's just another exhibition-y style. So that's my thing. What's it say about the sport in general when the most exciting thing is like retired people and exhibition people like have, like if the most exciting thing going on in the NBA or NFL or MLB was retired people and YouTube stars playing,

I'd be like, well, that's a shitty product. Because at the end of the day, isn't that what it's a, isn't that what you want to watch though?'s like exciting like high level stuff like the closest thing i can compare this to is there was a and golf has done this and i enjoy golfing so i'm starting to like it a little more watching on tv i'll watch golf once in a while like if it's a bigger tournament there's some stuff on the line it can be exciting and golf is starting to play around more with the idea of like a couple times a year they'll do where it's like tom brady is with phil mickelson and yeah peyton manning's with i don't even remember who they did these with i probably have my people wrong but you're like oh this there's some novelty here this could be fun and then right away you're like oh but they're not

good golfers and not watching good golfers is kind of boring because the whole point of the sport is it's fun to watch good people right and maybe i'm maybe i'm different in the way i think about that i can't imagine that's a completely unique perspective right so no in boxing right now that seems to be what people like like people just just show me someone that's popular that's now also boxing a little bit and that's like that's fun it's like i don't know like i wouldn't want to watch that in basketball. Like, just popular people. Like, because they do that, like, at the All-Star game. All-Star weekend, don't they do like. Yeah, they do that.

Here's like five random. And it's not a very big event of the All-Star game. Yeah, it's like, well, because it's lame. It's like, oh, I don't want to watch the low-key people that suck at the sport. Like, that's boring, isn't it? Yeah, let me see Matt Damon. Like, it's the exciting thing is always like oh quavo can like make a three oh he's a baller i guess like yeah yeah like that's the most exciting thing to come out of it who

actually is the guy though that's playing like semi-pro basketball overseas now he's uh somebody i think he's a rapper or something like that you'd probably know the name but he actually is i don't know uh i don't know i was don't know j cole i was like people say j cole's pretty good i think j cole's playing right now but that's again like and i'm uh foreign and i like j cole's music but i don't care about how good he is at basketball i don't really have much of a desire to watch him play right he's an nba player maybe right i honestly don't have most people don't even have much of a desire to watch people that aren't NBA starters play even, you know? Right, right. So I don't, I guess that's our, that's our hot take.

Really hot take. Yeah. Hot in parentheses here. Yeah, and I think. On boxing, it's like, how hyped up people are for like the sport where it's just, I guess the most exciting thing in it is just kind of celebrities doing it and retired people. Well, I don't know who the who is who are like i say heavyweight because usually heavyweight to me that's kind of the most isn't it the fury guy isn't it i don't know i have no idea i have absolutely no idea tyson fury isn't that the big one that sounds like a familiar name to me or the other guy i i thought were like the two main

but again there i don't the last i would have known was like Lennox Lewis. And to me that you could just made that name up right now. Okay. Lennox Lewis. And then like Vitaly Klitschko or there was like Klitschko's or, yeah, don't know. I'm not sure if I have that name exactly correct,

but yep. Don't know it. Yeah. But I mean, and that was like 15 years ago, even like Lennox Lewis, I think was 15 years ago. Even like Lennox Lewis, I think was 15 years ago, maybe. Yeah, you're literally could just be making a boxing is just in general, a weird sport,

how there's so much money. And yet it seems like there's no hardcore fans are so few and far between. And like, I don't know who these people are. I and I don't have any problem with the sport. I just don't get it. it like i get how there's a lot of money behind ufc stuff everyone's into ufc stuff you get to watch people punch each other in the head you usually have a pretty good idea of who won a ufc match that's the thing with boxing a lot of times you're not even really sure who won it's like oh i don't know these guys were kind

of like locked up the whole time and right i guess statistically this guy hit more punches so he's the winner i maybe that mike tyson documentary that's out is really good right now though i do need to Right, right. I guess statistically this guy hit more punches, so he's the winner. Maybe. That Mike Tyson documentary that's out is really good right now, though. I do need to watch that. Is that on Netflix? Well, it was on TV. It might be on Hulu or something. I don't know. It's probably on Hulu.

It's really good. I do want to watch that. I caught just little bits and pieces on TV. Don't know what it's called, but it's worth a watch. But when you watch his highlights, there was no doubt about what was going on there. Oh, right. Yes. And you knew you were watching like some athletic greatness. Like it was obvious, right? Yes. It wasn't

a, hey, this guy talks a lot of shit. Let's watch him box. There was no debate as to what you were watching there. No, it was good stuff. All right. Should we let's see. What do we do one more ad? Yeah, right. Should we, let's see, what do we?

We should probably do one more ad before we hop into this. We better do one more ad, yeah. Right. Who's up to the plate here, Tanner? Me or you? I think you are then. Okay. All this barbecue sauce is just stacked up over here. Things are getting sticky over here.

Finding myself in a sticky situation. I found myself in a sticky situation. Okay. Today's show is brought to you by Spud Inc. and the two-ply deadlift belt. The deadlift belt is great for deadlifting. Believe it or not, Tanner. Ah, that makes sense to me.

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Great for all lifts, too. Not just, not just deadlifts. I would assume the Jefferson deadlift fits into that category. Oh, absolutely. I think that's what they originally designed it for. And like most things with Spud Inc, if you're between sizes or need a custom belt, give them a call. They'll get you taken care of. They do have a handy dandy size chart on their website too, though, because you probably do fit one of the standard sizes you can check out the spud ink two-ply deadlift belt online at spud-ink-straps.com excellent should we get big nick let's do it on the horn and this is nick of live large nick of live large

And this is Nick of Live Large. Nick of Live Large. Yo. Big Nick, you're on the Mathonomics Podcast. How's it going? What's going on, big guys? Hey, Nick. We're excited to have you on.

I know. I was waiting for when the hell you'd actually ask. What the hell? You thought we'd never ask. It's only been years. Someone canceled last minute today, so i got a spot no no we didn't nobody canceled even believe it or not we are this last minute with our guests you're as bad at me as me as planning everything somehow we can just get someone like every time it works out you gotta put the pressure on it really makes you find out what you made up.

It's also actually better doing that because, you know, if you hit someone up like, you know, it's five hours before they actually know whether or not they're booked when it's like, oh, you hit someone up like a week in advance. And it's like, oh, sorry. Shit. It's like something came up. That honestly, that's like that happens like every time you know because we do try to do that sometimes and it rarely works just because it's really hard for almost anyone to plan like oh yeah like next thursday night yeah it should be good yeah it should be i'm good until uh i'm not yeah right until the first thing comes up yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah so i mean like do i really

want to spend my night on this podcast? It's like with these guys from South Dakota that I don't really know. So, Nick, do you say your last name Robeson? I've never actually even heard it said before, so I just assumed. Robson. But it's actually a semi-contentious thing within my family. I'm on the Robson side, but then there's the Rob ropes in half as well so okay uh it goes both ways i guess so big nick robson uh founder and owner of uh ohio pico more recently i guess and then prior to that uh and still running live large uh fitness

apparel yeah yeah uh so that's kind of a lot of what we want to talk to you about, you know, your business endeavors and also the fact that we, when we were kind of starting off, we got to hit you up years back and you gave us a bunch of good advice. So we still owe you thank yous for that today. We still talk about it.

It all started at the pizza contest, man. Why did Nick give us a helping hand in anything? thank yous for that today. We still talk about it. It all started at the pizza contest, man. Why did Nick give us a helping hand in anything? Why did he do that? I mean, that's the whole key to the world, right? It's like good people help good people, and then all the good people get to smash out all the dickheads. You keep doing that, and it's like, all right, cool. Cream rises to the top.

All the good people are on top, and all the people that are terrible get to be miserable together at the bottom. It's all right. Yeah. And so this would be kind of the generic question that you've probably been asked a few times. So you kind of know the answer to this. But I think you started Live Large back in like 2014. But just wondered, you know, let everyone know kind of how or why or where that started from.

let everyone know kind of how or why or uh where that started from uh so it was literally i had like a weird obsession at the time where i wanted to move to hawaii more than anything ever uh which still exists to a certain extent um but i was like all right cool so i can you know the fitness apparel industry is absolute trash like at the time i was like flag nor fail only and just like wild neon shirts with like the worst sayings on them imaginable so i was like time i was like flag nor fail only and just like wild neon shirts with like the worst sayings on them imaginable so i was like yeah i was like there's room to improve this stuff at least marginally um so i'm gonna make some t-shirts and try to sell some t-shirts i toured with bands and stuff for years so like the whole diy merch thing is uh an area i'm somewhat familiar with um so like all like, all right, cool, make some t-shirts,

and I'll pump them out there and see if anybody cares. And I figured, all right, great, cool. So if I can get some income that could move with me, I can do flat rate shipping from Hawaii. That'll offset the absurd cost of living there. And I can get the hell out of Ohio and finally be clear. And then I quickly realized that the best way to grow an apparel company is actually by setting up events in person,

and Ohio's the meathead capital of the world. So using Ohio as a home base and having an event every single weekend within six hours of here, it ended up trapping me in Ohioio even more than i originally was which is fine because it provided opportunities for us to do like our you know live large hawaii trips that we did a couple of and um you know it's running running an apparel company isn't exactly like a super full-time gig so there's there's a little bit of free time to well it's a full-time gig but it's not something that uh you can't weasel a couple days

off here and there so provide opportunities to travel and stuff like that which is cool but yeah moving to hawaii that was the goal yeah um it's funny you talk like it you almost kind of were in the perfect place in ohio like you said there's so it feels like so many powerlifting meets and stuff going on around there where like you said you know there's one within six hours almost every you know most weekends probably where we're lucky like like it's like within six hours you get like a backyard yeah yeah yeah yeah unless you guys are hosting it there's nothing within six hours we're lucky to get like two power lifting meets a year within six hours yeah well we're like we're like jack because the showdown feels like it's just down

the road and that's like eight or nine hours yeah right right yeah that's you guys are somehow actually closer to that than we are yeah yeah that's that's like 11 from us or something i think so we've talked about that before it's funny funny. You know, South Dakota, a lot of times it's considered the Midwest. And Ohio is also considered the Midwest. And when we drive. It's only like 26 hours apart. It's the same drive. It might as well just be the opposite sides of the country.

Yeah. We need to be like the Mideast. Yeah. There's already one of those, I think. Ah, true. Good point. Yeah. I don't know if it works. I don't know if it works no we can do another one

this one's different than that one yeah yeah it's like the good one yeah the good side yeah the one you want to go to yeah um so yeah what i wonder what year would have been the first year that we met uh nick at the arnold then it would have been like 2016 year that we met Nick at the Arnold then. It was like 2016. Whatever dumb year you guys applied for media passes. It's just like a random, oh, we'll see if this works. And then you all just showed up randomly and were interviewing everyone like you knew what you were doing at the time.

Yeah, you summed it up really good right there. Yeah, that's exactly what we did. We were just trying to pretend like we knew what we were doing when we really didn't and um by that time you were already running like a full double huge production booth at the arnold and so that if that would that would have just been like a couple years into uh uh lift large existing then at that point right yeah so i mean it started like february of 14 so like missed that arnold since it was like literally the arnold was like a week after i launched live large like a week or two um so obviously it wasn't at that one and then uh because i was you know went out on a limb with like this massive you know two thousand dollar risk of the first print run you know so that was

like a life a life-changing risk at the time um the commas moved a couple times run you know so that was like a life-changing risk at the time the commas moved a couple times but yeah so then first year i had a booth was 2015 um and that was a you know crappy single booth right across from the animal cage because i thought that'd be the coolest place to be in the whole expo turns out terrible place to be but uh there's no uh everyone's body space everyone's back is too yeah right yeah well it actually is so we were uh kind of across from like the merch area okay so it worked out a whole lot better and then uh luckily we're actually set up next to iron rebel and shelly from iron rebels like a actually phenomenally sweet lady who you know kind of held my hand through the whole arnold process uh because i didn't know what the hell i was doing at all and then uh met like derrick kendall yeah met dan bell that year met everybody at that 2015 arnold ended up sponsoring derrick kendall so then met you know

got to know dan better got to know lillibridges you know all that you know whole old chicago uh yeah barbell central crew from back in the day, uh, which still friends with all those guys, you know, to this day, but yeah, Derek Kendall's first sponsored athlete. And then the next year was, I think the year I met you guys, which is the first year we did a double booth and we went right from single booth year one to double booth year two. And that to me, well, so that was our first Arnold. And to me, it was like a t-shirt company has a double booth what the craziest thing like that didn't seem possible in my brain yeah well i mean at the time i mean there wasn't it wasn't what it

is now right where you know it's like any any person that has over 10 000 followers is like i gotta sell t-shirts yeah right just you know what it has become now i guess um yeah at the time there weren't a ton of companies out, you know, there really wasn't anything going on. It was still like flag nor fail. And you know, a couple others. Um, so it was really just getting started. Like I remember those first couple of years at the Arnold, our big selling point was like, Oh, we actually have three X t-shirts. Like most of these other groups, it was like XLR two X. So it's like,

you'd see some big ass dude walking by and it's like, yo, like our, our whole pitch was like, we have your size. And he's like, yeah, sure you do, bud. And it's like yo like our whole pitch was like we have your size right and he's like yeah sure you do bud and it's like no no we actually do i promise yeah and then uh so we started stocking up to like 5x uh arnold only just to cover all the big dogs we're like well at least we can sell to them yeah those are people they don't they might not like the shirts but it's something that fits them, so they have to buy it. So how big of a deal is the Arnold for the company? I mean, we obviously went through a year where we didn't have it here, and now… I mean, it's huge. I mean, the Arnold is, give or take, 15% of our sales for the whole year in three days.

So kind of important yeah i guess yeah when you have you know three days in a row where it's like you know every hour it's like you kind of you have to maximize because you only have so many so much time at the expo so if you don't maximize each one of those hours i mean you're you know missing out on like potentially thousands of dollars like oh and we had uh you like the last the last arnold it was awful like arnold walked by the booth yeah and it like log jammed the crowd for like 45 minutes to an hour like in that aisle that we were both there was that part and then that what that kaylor von mogan or whatever the guy that looks kind of like arnold he was he came in not long later and that like shut it down and that sucked oh yeah yeah no it's like i've it's like everyone at the booth is like oh this isn't bad like it's kind of chill meanwhile i'm like um that's not what we're losing

my mind like i'm staring at the same 10 people for the last hour uh it's like if you guys want to get paid for this arnold uh move the people right right yeah right. So we missed... We've gone through two Arnold's of not having... Yeah, 2021 and 2022. 2020, 2021. We had our fake Arnold that we made at Joe's gym,

which was actually... You guys should have still come, because it was the actual most fun year ever. Financially, not as fun. Um, but, uh, it was basically,

it was like, if it wasn't like a 20, if it wasn't a two day jacket, we would have been there for sure. Yeah. No, it was everyone basically who you would like want to hang out with at the Arnold.

Yeah. But kind of like cutting out all like the bullshit, you know, it's like, it's like, Oh cool. You know, none of like the weird,

um, you know, tank top dads puffing their cool you know none of like the weird um you know tank top dads puffing their chest out or anything like that or whatever looking for some free workout you've never been to the arnold before there's a lot of that like oh yeah dude my my dad and grandpa come down every single year um just to hang out for a half day for people watching only yeah uh the first time my dad came down he was like massively confused he's like why are the guys that look like me wearing tank tops like this is what people do here it's weird it's funny like that so it would have been 2019 that was so far it's been the only year we got to have a booth

because it was our first year and then they've been canceled since then but we were kind of across the aisle from you but a ways down and like uh next to us where there was a double booth it was like npc where yeah that's what it was but it was just all like stringer tanks and it looked like they had about 50 of them there or you know it was just like weird assortment of like there's no like individually wrapped yeah yeah poly bagged and i know so so that guy's been around for like he's like one of like the og dudes it's this guy rico that runs np like – he's like one of the OG dudes. It's this guy Rico that runs NPCware that is like one of the OG guys. But he's literally been selling like the same exact merch item since like 1994, I think. It might have been like the original order, and he just ordered like way too much in the 90s, and it's just like still churning through it.

It's like I got to get my money out of this somehow. He's going to get lucky pretty soon here though because that's gonna be back in style in just a few years like it's gonna happen it's like the 30-year cycles of trend right you know so it's he's not far off it is funny though because there's different ways a lot of different ways to run a merchandise booth at the arnold like that and like i would look at yours and i'm like ah this is a well-oiled machine like i look at their presentation here there's no doubt about what you're looking at like it's great stuff on display and then you'd look at a booth like that and you'd be like why did you spend five thousand dollars to come here to the you know you spend

five thousand dollars to like dump a box on a table and you're like yeah that'll do you know but it's like that dude has the same setup at like he's at like every uh like local bodybuilding show and stuff out here um it's the same thing where it's just literally like it looks like he has this box of just like mix and match garments and sizes and everything just like dumped on a table like i couldn't imagine like the process of like okay cool so i need a large in this specific shirt like how are you finding that? Check the box. Maybe check that pile over there. I don't know.

I thought I saw large earlier over there. Yeah, that's what we learned in a hurry. That's what we learned in a hurry because we like thought we had our system down so well. Like, all right, this whole shirt style is right here. These sizes are on this shelf. And even then, once you get busy, you can't even keep up. It like, it all goes out the window.

Yeah, so we – like everything – I mean within five minutes of the doors opening at the Arnold, everything is out the window. We'll basically have like one person the entire time whose whole job is just to like re-tidy our stacks of t-shirts. So they're just literally like – everyone who's selling at the booth is just pulling you know as fast as they can selling as fast as they can and then someone is just kind of following them around like refolding and retidying and rearranging or if someone changed the size out they're putting it back in the stacks like that's one person's job the entire time yeah and they're still like you're playing catch up at the end of the day where you know everybody kind of you know it takes like about a half hour or so once it's cleared out right so i kind of rebuild the booth and make sure it's not a

complete disaster to start the next day because if you start with a disaster you're done right yeah you're screwed it was it was always at the end of the day it was like shell shock oh everyone's gone like it's a battlefield like it's empty and like so a great thing you've got going is how you know how far are you from like what how big of a how far away do you live oh dude it's yeah it's like hour and a half two hours so you've got all your people like you could just get you've got access to all their people yeah like i'm a we're a little bit uh we got to plan it out a little bit like how would it even go the next when like for the 2022 arnold because you know we just have a lot bigger customer base than we did the last time we were

there. And like, we're, you know, hope that we're going to sell more when we're there, but like, it was already insane with the two of us, like what it was like before.

So it's going to be a wild experience. Yeah. Like a double booth and have two people running. No, I just don't know. No, no, no.

Do you guys have a double for the next one? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if you have a double, that's what you need. No, I just don't know. No, no, no. Do you guys have a double for the next one? Yeah, yeah, yes. I mean, if you have a double, that's what you need. I would say you guys plus four people minimum. We'll just put a bunch of ads on Craigslist when we get to Columbus. No, because there's so many people going to Columbus that make a couple posts.

It's like you'll have customers that will be beyond stoked to do it and would gladly do it for free. It's like yeah you'll have customers that like will be beyond stoked to do it and would gladly do it for free it's like i obviously can't let anyone you know you know i could staff the booth for free every single year easily it's like but on principle it's like i can't do that it's like it's like working the arnold it's like everyone's like it'll be so cool it's like it's constantly has to remind people like this isn't a vacation. Like there's nothing vacation. I should put it this way. It's still, um,

a lot of fun. It's like, it's a great, it's a great experience, but it is a lot of fricking work too. No, it is. It is the absolute best and worst weekend of the entire year.

That is what it's like. It's, it's every single day is an absolute nightmare. That is also like the coolest thing you could ever possibly do. It's like you see all these friends from like around the world. You know, you meet a bunch of people that you've only ever known

on the internet and stuff, which is a weird new phenomenon where it's like, yeah, we actually already know everything about each other and we've just never met each other in person. It is like Instagram coming to life

is what you've said before, Tommy. It's like if your Instagram just became real. Your Instagram feed was live. Yeah, you got to walk in there for me said before, Tommy. It's like if your Instagram just became real. Yeah, your Instagram feed was live. Yeah, you got to walk in there for it. No, your Explore page is in your face. That's a better one. Yeah, your Explore page is right in front of you.

Absolutely. What do you think 2022, Arnold, will be like then? Oh, dude, Ohio's ripping now. It's full go, dude. It's Ohio. full go dude like it's ohio um like as soon as like so i was like yeah june 2nd like you know that's when you know we're removing all these restrictions and everything but like two weeks before when the cdc was you know oh we've changed our recommendations and you know take your masks off basically uh ohio was like beyond ready it was uh just immediately which i was like

you know all my employees at the pizza shop were like uh i was like yeah so we're gonna like at least keep these on like the employees up front for a little bit like i just want to like see the vibes like i don't want to i'm not gonna be like the first place it's like yeah take them off screw it you know um but uh yeah ohio's full go now like nobody cares about anything. So by March, unless we have COVID-20, it should be pretty much a normal Arnold. But if anything, everything right now is almost cranked up a notch or two. Like making up for lost time? Oh, yeah.

And I think we could see that with that Arnold. It's like we missed two Arnolds. And I think we could see that with that Arnold. It's like, you know, we missed two Arnold. That's what I, so many people look to that as like their things where like, yeah,

it could be the ultimate, you know, mayhem Arnold where it's just like, all right, cool. You know, instead of the, you know,

200,000 people over three days, it's now 300 and they're like, you know, actually capping the doors and, you know, you gotta wait for someone to go out before you can come in and things like that, which I don't know if they could actually do that. i don't know if that's possible to manage the crowd

but it could it could get to like overflow or something but if they wanted to negate it all they'd have to do is just add one extra day and then you know it's right we're not a little bit more but so one thing we had like talked about you know before we knew what's what's 2021 gonna is there going to be an arnold and you know there was the scenario will will it be in march 2021 will be later in the year now we know there's not you know there's going to be uh uh you know the competition but there's no expo do you think would you have been in favor of having an expo because one of those events is like august or september or what are they when are they doing september i think it's all like late september i think it's literally like the same weekend as the showdown um so if

that did happen it would have been like a nightmare scenario for like us and you guys everyone else who's going to the showdown because it's like as cool as the showdown is going to be uh it's probably a little bit more important well we still already have our booze paid for and stuff so it's like well yeah I doubt you're going to be like, they're going to make you use it, I think, at that point. At that point, I think the showdown would have literally had to punt and move a weekend. There's no way that you could like, I mean, you could try to do it,

but I don't know. I think you'd lose so many sponsors. I think you'd lose all your vendors. I think it would have been an all-time nightmare scenario. So luckily that didn't happen, and Showdown was still going to be awesome and great. Yeah, for sure. But what you were asking, do you think— Do you think, in your mind, would it have been a bang in Arnold in September

and then another good one in March, or would it have been too close together? I think they both would have ripped just because like I think the September one would have like really capitalized on like that you know we're back you know like let's go like you know making up for lost time because that's what I mean that's what this summer is going to be everywhere you know this is going to be like the wildest summer you know of all time you know because it's everyone it's like all right cool so we it's like we just missed a year and a half of fun so we have to have all of that now in the next six months so that's what like everything should be crazy this summer and i think that's going to carry into september it's going to carry through the fall and i think it should carry through the end

of the year you know if march might just go back to just feeling normal and everything might be normal again um but that being still the first Donald Beck, I think it's going to feel pretty special. Yeah, I think so too. Ah, looking forward to it. Yeah.

So you, so you had live large rocking and rolling and things were going great. And then, so talk about the pizza shop, you know, how, how did that start? And like,

when were you like, you know what, this business is going all right. You know, I think I need to do a different business also well so that's I've always like worked in pizza shops randomly uh even like the first I mean literally four years ago I was still delivering pizzas um that was while Live Large was going really well um just because I had a little bit extra time so i you know i always liked working in pizza shops i've done it for like half my life and uh always been a fat kid forever so big food guy as you know so then pizza was like the one right so um touring with bands for years i traveled

around all the best shops around the country and just like really started loving you know pizza you know specifically as a food and getting really nerdy about it and caring about it entirely too much to where like you know i always thought it'd be the coolest thing to open my own shop you know every shop i found it's like well this shop's cool but you know they could do like these things better you know so being the you know irrationally confident person i am i uh figured it's like all right cool i can do that so the fitness world is like also massively finicky it's like when your ticket gets pulled and you're not cool anymore it goes away really fast you know so the second someone decides you know live large isn't cool or massonomics isn't cool it's like all right we're gonna go from you know we shoot

them 20 20 orders 30 yeah it's like well you go from like 20 orders a day 30 orders a day whatever it may be yeah down to like 10 to 5 to 2 there is an expiration date on all this you know like it's not forever like when is that day you know you never know oh exactly and that's why i was like all right so this is going well um so while it's going well and there's money coming in i should probably parlay that money into something that's like absolutely not going away. And that's pizza, you know? So it's, and then, uh, you know, it's, if you can figure out how to sell, uh, a t-shirt to like a subset of a subset of a population, we've said that so many times, like if we were in any other business right now, we would be rich.

That's the thing. The level of selling that we have to do to pay our bills off of this stuff is insane because seeking out customers is actual nonsense because it's like one out of what? Maybe 1,000 people on the planet is a potential customer? Yeah, there's a gym over there with 500 people. Well, if we're lucky, like two of them would be my customer. That's true. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then it's like, all right, cool.

So you figure that out. Now you have to sell pizza. It's like, all right, cool. Wait, who's the market for that? It's like, all right so uh anyone with taste buds uh great cool have a pulse yeah you'll like pizza yeah yeah yeah so that was like uh you know all these like you know restaurant industry people are like you know how do you like figure out how to market pizza so well i was like it's pizza like you post pictures and people eat it

and they like it as long as it's at least like marginally good which i guess mine is you know so yeah i would really like to try it i know i did it looks good in the pictures i see on on instagram that's we we definitely have to do something like the next arnold um you know either like before or after we need to have like some big event up here because that's like everyone from around the country it's like all right that's as close as you're going to be but it's still an hour and a half away so it's not like you're gonna be like yeah well so we'll just detour after the uh you know we just worked this grueling expo day now we're going to drive an hour and a half one way to go eat pizza and then drive an hour and a half back and uh work another

expo day it's like that seems like a bad time yeah so we want to figure out some sort of event to do to where like all friends from all over the kind of give another reason to come up this way you know either before or after the arnold if we can possibly pull it off and you know obviously you know a lot of people are flying and stuff so you know not ideal for them but everyone who's driving like you guys, it's not that big of a detour before you drive 26 hours back 20, 26 or 27 and a half. Like, yeah, whatever. You know, who cares? Yeah. Yeah.

So when you started the pizza shop and everything you had to like, there's only one of you and you, you know, there's literally, you know, there's only 24 hours in the day and you've got to do some sleeping. So you can only literally do so much at any one point in time did you have to pull back personally from live large a little bit and like i mean i kind of know you did uh and it just is that is or was that difficult you know like to be like hey can you guys kind of take over more of this i have to do this right now is that a hard is that hard for you to do since it's another one of your babies you know what i mean i mean it would have been hard if i had like any option yeah right right so so like when the pizza shop opened um it just like basically got the front door like booted in on us like it was just immediately like so obnoxiously like we thought it was going to be like me and a couple of my friends like

dicking around and like hanging out and like doing like pretty well. And then, uh, so like, you know, just the, so we're supposed to open February 9th, uh, 2019. We had a photo shoot February 8th, um, in the afternoon, it was a Friday. And we had the whole crew there. Cause we were still just kind of like testing stuff and making pizza for the photo shoot, making sure we're good to go for opening day the next day. And, you know, we had about, you know, 100, 150 dough balls left after this photo shoot. It was like four o'clock. So we're like, oh, cool.

You know, let's kick the open sign on and, like, I'll take a picture of the front of the store and try to get us some, like, live fire know before our opening day so we can you know if there's any kinks we can work them out today and uh two hours later we'd sold out of everything uh without ever even announcing we opened I finally got to post the picture online that I never even got to post um so at that point we knew we were completely screwed and we were basically screwed from that point until now. Um, so it's just like hanging on by a thread. Uh, now the crew is awesome. We got it all built up. We're good to go, you know, working on opening up a second shop and blah, blah, all that fun stuff. But the, uh, you know, the, the taking a step back from live large was, you know, my hand was forced. It wasn't something that I was like, you know what, I should focus more on pizza. It was like, you yo, there's someone, you know, standing in my face trying to order a pizza right now. So

I guess I got to deal with that. Um, so really, I mean, the first year of the shop, you know, was not great for live large, you know, cause priorities had to go to pizza. And at the time, you know, I hadn't hired, uh, Kevin and Anna yet. Um, I hired Kevin McHugh and his wife Anna and moved them out to Ohio from Chicago. But that was about a year into all of that. So once we got them out here, we kind of got them, Kevin kind of running all the socials for Live Large and all fulfillment. And now that we've got the team, we're back where everything's grooving. We're good to go. There's enough bodies to kind of handle everything that needs to be handled. Um, but it was definitely, there was like a six month panic there where I was like,

yeah, so I'm just like punting a little bit too hard on live large right now. Like this, this could be the end, but whatever, at least there's pizza. Um, and there was, I mean, there was like a fork in the road moment where it's like, all right, what am I doing here? It's like, either I need to hire people and like, and get this cranking back up or, you know, kind of turn it into passive income and ride it out as long as you know, that'll go and, uh, you know, focus on pizza. And it was like, all right, well, there's still kind of too much here. And I still care about it too much to where it's like there's I can't just let it die so you know gotta at least give this a go and you know I've known Kevin known Kevin and Anna for years and they're both awesome so um they're both kind of like weird

points with their jobs anyway so it was really kind of a perfect scenario for everybody and got them out and somehow convinced them Ohio's a great idea. Now we got the crew. We're good to go. When you're having those tough business calls and those decisions you have to make, do you have a person you're going to that you're talking through all this with? Do you have a group of people or is it all in your head? It is mostly in my head. Then I will just spew it at people and uh

they'll just like stare at me like i'm a lunatic because i'll like rocket like 40 things at them at once and they're like uh like a blank stare in return it's like so i guess i'm figuring this one out on my own yeah we're doing here so yeah normally it's just a lot of uh you know near mental breakdowns and then you have no choice but to figure it out right so so you you've made the comment you know if you can figure out you can find another power lifter somewhere in the world to sell another t-shirt to you know that's hard work and it's hard to do so and selling a pizza is easy because everyone likes pizza but really like from what i've seen with people at least locally for us like running a restaurant is hard very hard

work and it's also like hard to do it successfully and sustainably it seems like unless you have like deep pocket books it's really really hard and it does seem to be that you know you're doing a great job of it so hey i'm wondering like did the live large you know, you're doing a great job of it. So, Hey, I'm wondering like, did the live large, you know, what you'd learned through that company, did it transfer over and you were able to use some of what you had learned or was it like just, I mean, learning a completely new industry all over again from scratch? No, I mean, well, I already knew the pizza industry from working in shops

forever. Uh, but it's also like, you know, through running live large and through like, you know, touring for years, like, so touring with bands is like the also like you know through running live large and through like you know touring for years like so touring with bands is like the ultimate you know we weren't doing like big dollar tours here like these were tours where it's like me and my dickhead friends in a van and we're like yo so uh how are we getting enough money to make it to boise idaho tomorrow you know and like stuff like that where it's like scraping. It's like, all right, cool. So we don't know if we have money for food or for gas or for anything. We have to figure all this stuff out.

And when you have when you're working through those problems of covering your basic necessities in life, business problems seem easy. And I'm also just not scared. With anything business, as you guys have learned as you've grown, it's i'm also just not scared it's you know with anything business as you guys

have learned as you've grown right it's like your risks grow exponentially with the business you know and it's just really just not being scared of that you know it's like i've doubled down over and over and over and it's like i'll put my last dollar on the line over and over and over because i'm in control of it so it's i, I'll bet on myself. And if I, you know, blow it completely, whatever it's on me, then I can live with that, you know, but it's, you know, you kind of learn, you know, once you kind of learn how to be resourceful and dig your way out of like stupid situations repeatedly, you know, then it's like, you know,

as the stupid situations become like, as you dig your way out's like, you know, as the stupid situations become, like, as you dig your way out of like bigger and bigger, like stupid, risky situations, um, it just becomes normal. And that's like, you know, as I tell everybody all the time, they're like, you know, what's like the key to being an entrepreneur? It's like, it's solving problems. That's all you're doing all day is solving problems.

You know, and the problem is just as a business, it's bigger. So do the problems. That's all it is. You're repeatedly it's like all right cool i solved this problem which now created this other one yeah awesome great figure that out now go the commas move over a place like you said yeah yeah yeah all that stuff it's like you know the whether it's you know a money problem or a people problem or a product problem or or a product problem, or whatever. They don't get smaller as your business gets bigger. Yeah, right, right. Nick, rank these four national pizza chains in order from worst to best.

Here they are in normal. Papa John's, worst. Just wait, no, no, no, just wait. So your choices are Papa John's, Little Caesars, Domino's, and Pizza Hut. So what's the worst? Yeah, Papa John's, it literal just you can't do it it's it's the worst pizza on the planet i'll do five dollar hot and readies over because like i mean those touring years we lived off of five dollar hot and readies like yeah bang for your buck you're not beating a five dollar hot and ready straight up they're awesome

yeah uh pizza like still actually love pizza. You know, like it's good pizza, like the buttery pan pizza. And like the toppings feel like legit toppings. Like they don't feel like something that's like been frozen and flattened a thousand times. It definitely is.

But, uh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't, yeah. Yeah. Now pizza, they can keep their like hand tossed like try to be fancy stuff it's like it's i just want that the pan pizza that's really like dripping

grease and butter that's from from our youth basically yeah um but yeah no papa john's all time worst and it's it's not close like dominoes is sick like the business side of dominoes i love you know it's they're like so on top of all like the tech side of everything and uh you know it's like nothing that i would ever care to do because i like punt on anything technology related it's like yeah we don't even do online orders like you have to either call or come into the shop we only have two phone lines at the shop so uh people it's like you just call and get like a busy signal so we do like we're like the anti-dominoes yeah right people call me like yeah i called and they're just like this weird like

beep i don't know what it is like oh a busy signal it's like it's like a middle-aged lady it's like yo how have you never heard one it's like yeah but yeah it's uh i mean so do you ever think do you ever get pizza hot or any of that stuff anymore like would you ever do you ever eat it uh i will very like if it's like you put it in front of me it's like yo i'm eating a slice you put a any pizza in front of me outside of papa john's and i will eat a slice um okay yeah we gotta hear the rest of the lineup here though if we have oh yeah yeah i just put it what it was give me the list again papa john's is the worst for sure so then we have all time works little caesars dominoes and pizza all right so pizza is definitely the best out of those okay and then like little caesars and dominoes are like kind of playing

the same game they're both playing like cheapo pizza game it's kind of like same equivalent quality it's like domino's pizza, probably slightly better, but Little Caesar's probably slightly cheaper, so bang for your buck, probably pretty much the exact same. Although Domino's pizza did get a lot better when they did their menu recipe overhaul that they did a few years ago. It was really, really bad and kind of actually became edible. Yeah, I think that's a good breakdown.

Yeah, I would agree with that. Yeah. I don't know Papa John's. See, we don't have one around us here. We used to a long time ago, and I haven't had it in a long time. That's good. It's for the best. Avoid it for the rest of your life, ideally.

Okay, good. Okay, Nick, we've got a game of overrated, underrated for you. So we picked a set of topics special for you, and you've just got to decide whether each one is overrated or underrated, and you can elaborate on each one as much or as little as you want to. Are you ready to play? Important thing here is no riding the line. Yeah, you can't ride the line.

You have to decide whether you have to come up with an overrated or underrated. Yeah, I'm not one to shy from stances on things. Topic number one, overrated or underrated yeah i'm done i'm not one to shy from stances topic number one overrated or underrated breadsticks uh breadsticks probably massively overrated um because you didn't say cheesy breadsticks cheesy breadsticks probably underrated um but like all right so that's like the one side we sell at the pizza shop is we have like cheesy breadsticks they're really good i would still rather have pizza so overrated skip the breadsticks just get more pizza but isn't it funny how like when you're like i need a side and you get cheesy you basically just order pizza without the sauce isn't that kind of funny that's literally all it's like yo this is pizza that we just like cut differently yeah and you're like this is different enough to

be a side to compliment yeah yeah yeah it's it's like let me have carbs with my carbs. Great, cool. Like on the new shop board. Yeah, we're even like pumping on salads in the new shop. So that will be your only option. It's like, cool, you're getting pizza or a pizza variant cut into sticks. Yeah, pizza without the sauce and the dipping sauce. I know, people like it though.

Yeah, it works. People do really heavily care about the party bread it's uh i just don't give me more pizza yeah yeah okay overrated underrated mclarens uh massively underrated because people uh there's all the talk about them like breaking a lot and it's like you know from my personal experience uh they uh don't seem to break much uh and they're also just that like bang for your buck supercar wise they're like nothing is going to outperform a mclaren you know they're absolutely insane so and also when you're at that level of car like is reliability like in your top five concerns like right so uh with mclaren has the best sort of so that's like the problem with

mclaren's like if something breaks it's going to cost you a honda civic well yeah there is that kind of matters it's like it's like the tax so um you literally would have like if something breaks i call mclaren philly they uh send a covered transport come pick my car up take it back to philly and then uh repair it and then bring it back to me and that's all included in the service how far is philly from you guys kind of like six hours so it's far but not like so is that is that where you got is that where yeah that is that where you got it is that where yeah right right is that where you got it from then or yeah yeah from mclaren philly so what model do you actually have i have the mp412c which is like the cheapest mclaren you can get and like really the best

bang for your buck supercar you know half of the reason i got it is it was kind of like a value investment play as stupid as that sounds. These cars are normally massively depreciating assets. But they depreciate it as far as they can possibly depreciate. It's too much car to ever get any – they will never fall below $100,000. So being able to get one very close to $100,000, my plan was basically like all right cool i can drive this thing for two years and sell it for as much if not more than i paid for it we we had this exact conversation before the and it's like and then like the people are like that guy's crazy how does he do that and in the meantime they bought a sixty thousand dollar truck and they drive it for five years

and it's depreciated thirty five thousand at the same time yeah yeah i mean it's because you use car values right now it's like all right i can sell a different story for 30 to 40 000 more right now than when i bought it in october right right so it's like all right cool you know your honda civic depreciated ten thousand dollars this uh obnoxious supercar that i bought has now appreciated by you know the total value of your honda civic um which is really stupid but um just with i'm with there are opportunities with like very limited production special cars um where once people realize how rare they actually are the value just starts shooting through the roof so are you are you like a huge mclaren

fan or was it just like hey this is a great car to get it on well i'd always like joked around about getting a lambo for literally my entire life so i was like so i had like my fund i was like this is like my lambo fund like as a just like the stupid fun money that's like kind of set aside away from like life money and uh then it really was just a value thing where i was looking it's like all right well the lamborghinis i want are two hundred thousand dollars so you know i'm still not anywhere close to that but you know looking at cars like well so what are some cool cars that i could possibly get that i do have the money for and the mclaren was one of them and then you start looking at the performance of these things. And, you know, my 2013 McLaren will outperform a brand new Lamborghini Huracan easily.

You know, so it's like, all right, you know, as someone that likes to go really fast, it's like, that's very appealing to me. So, you know, the goal was always Lambo. McLaren was really just because of the value because because of the depreciation point on the car. It's like the car got the original sticker on it was over $300,000, so someone else got to eat $200,000 of depreciation. I mean, it's the only thing I talked about. How many miles a month are you putting on it?

I've had it since October, and I put like 5,000 miles on miles on already you've been using it yeah oh no i yeah is it your daily do you is it your daily driving car it is my daily pending ohio weather like if it's my state i'm ripping dude yeah it's no matter what it's like i don't i don't buy toys to not use them and that's the whole point what's the point yeah so we have you know our group of friends and everyone has you know fun exotic or very fast cars and they're all cars that most people keep under car covers in their garage and never touch them and never look at them and uh it's the complete waste of time like what the whole point of owning a fast cool car is to do fast cool things in it yeah it's like it's the adrenaline rush is why on the car,

not to look cool, not to do anything. No, to go 200 miles. That is the key here, which I haven't done yet. Only like one 92. We'll get there. So underrated easily on that one then okay yeah massively underrated I'm sold on that now makes me want a McLaren so yeah when you guys bring some in your trailer when you guys get your McLarens bring them on the trailer

to the Arnold and we'll just all flex on everybody in downtown Columbus when our doors open up there's Tanner there's probably a McLaren dealer in Chicago that's only like 12 hours away it's on the way it's just down the way yeah it's on the way yeah yeah Columbusaren dealer in Chicago that's only like 12 hours away. It's on the way. It's just down the way. Yeah, it's on the way from Columbus.

Yeah. So maybe that's... We'll get triple booths. So we get triple booths and we just park a McLaren in the extra part of each of our booths. What's this have to do with these companies? No, I don't know.

It's obvious. We don't even put a company-related wrap or anything on it. Like, yeah, we just want to show you how cool we are there's nothing to do with the company like us these people we're yeah yeah now please you know but we could really you know use your help buying this t-shirt yeah we have mouths to feed over here it's like yeah sure buddy yeah which let me preface that with, uh, that was pizza money, not, uh, yeah.

Yeah. T-shirt money, unless you are, uh, Robert Dano and Bailey is not, uh, buying a McLaren anytime soon. Yeah.

Yeah. The, the, the economics of pizza make a whole lot more sense than telling t-shirts to meet heads. Yeah. Yeah. Right.

Okay. Overrated, underrated the Arnold, uh, as hyped as it is, it's still underrated because until you actually go and experience it, there's no way to like, you can't explain it to someone. And if you try to, they think you're lying

about half the things you're telling them. It's like massive expo immediately. And we're like, there's no way this all happens in the same place in three days like no like i promise it does like yeah cool buddy sure yeah um but i mean it's it's the the biggest coolest thing like i've been going first of all i've been going there for like half my life you know it's like i've been going since i was like 18 19 years old um so it's a it's probably a bigger deal around here than it even is for like you guys do you guys this is oh it's this thing out of state that's this cool big expo in ohio it's like an event you know everyone you know you if you say the arnold to a random person that doesn't

lift weights they're aware of it because it's one of the biggest events that happens in ohio every single year so it's like kind of extra special around here but yeah i've definitely underrated i've mentioned the the Arnold to multiple people and I've had multiple people say Arnold Palmer as it goes. That's how it doesn't make any sense here. There's a reason that the Arnold statue

is in front of the convention center in Columbus. People in Ohio are at least very aware of it and know that it's something special. They may not know what the hell it is but they're at least aware of it existing as a thing yep yep uh overrated underrated pepperoni pizza uh underrated because everyone is always looking for like so people always come in the shop all the time they're like all right man what should i get first time and i'm like yeah pepperoni and they're like

they expect me to have like this like crazy novel answer it's like yo there's nothing better than a pepperoni pizza like you want to switch it up and get a buffalo chicken pizza or something like cool it's gonna be good it's you know vaguely pizza at that point it's more like an open-faced sandwich or something that's massively delicious still, but their pepperoni pizza is the greatest food on the entire planet. So underrated as underrated as something could possibly be. I do feel like that is the measuring stick

for pizza. Like everyone has to have a pepperoni pizza and that's the easiest way to compare how good are these pizzas? Yeah. Are you a cheese or a pepperoni person? Right? So it's like everyone's kind of like a cheese or pepperoni. So if you're going to a shop for the first time, don't get the barbecue chicken. Maybe try the cheese or the pepperoni.

And it's like if there's something cool that the shop's known for, like some goofy specialty of some sort, it's like you can get that. That's great. But you have to get your real pizza as well. Yeah. People always come in the shop. The real sauce, the real meat. Yeah. Yeah.

Like maybe some red sauce or maybe like an actual pizza. Like, I don't know, like people come in, like, it's my first time. I look at their order a little bit for pizzas that are all like white sauce or goofy stuff. And I go like, cool. So like maybe next time try a real pizza. And they're like, what do you mean? And I go like, like a cheese or something. Like, I don't know, like, cool. So like maybe next time try a real pizza. And they're like, what do you mean? And I go like, like a cheese or something. Like, I don't know, like red sauce.

Give it a whirl. That is a funny thought, like at the cheese and the pepperoni too, because I've always been pepperoni. And I always thought it was like a sin to just get cheese pizza. I'm like, no, I'm not getting just cheese pizza. But with having all my kids around and stuff, there's been more cheese pizza around and i'll always try it and i have started to understand like good just cheese pizza is also like its own uh has its own fine qualities i would say too where you can kind of measure it

like there's significant differences in different cheese pizzas oh it's just the charm to the simplicity right like if you you know it's the like the best things in the world are like, you know, food wise, it's like, oh, two, three, four ingredients only, you know, these very minimal ingredients that are just all really good and all, you know, work together perfectly. Like, oh, a peanut butter and jelly. It's like, you know, it's crappy bread and peanut butter and jelly, and it sounds so stupid. It's like, oh, this is like a perfect food. Great. Awesome. Yeah, that's true. So you don't have to get cute. The simplest stuff is always best.

Yep. That's it. Getting too crazy. I always joke around about other shops. You can hide mediocre pizza behind a crazy idea for pizza. You put all these crazy toppings, all this crazy stuff. It's like your pizza could suck, but there's so much going on. You can't tell. It's like a circus act for pizza because you put all these crazy toppings all this crazy stuff it's like your pizza could suck but there's so much going on you can't tell yeah it's like a circus act you're at yeah yeah cool awesome great yeah uh and it's like you know you don't see that like everyone in the circus is like a maniac meth head and like the elephant is like on its last legs

everything about this is actually like held together by duct tape. Yeah. You know, cause there's so much mayhem going on. It's like cheese or pepperoni pizza. Like there's nowhere to hide. How late are you guys open?

Actually not super late. You know, we keep it kind of chill. It's 10 o'clock during the week. You don't get like that weird, crazy like bar crowd coming in at any time or anything. No, no. We're in like a, like way out in like a very chill suburb that's gotta make life easier we don't live near like any big city no college town it's just like a okay 40 000 that

seems like a good 40 000 you know suburb whatever yeah um you passed over it underrated that was it you so congratulations on that and there was one last question I wanted to ask. If someone was telling you they were going to start a fitness apparel company and you could give them one piece of advice, what would it be? Yo, good luck. Like, seriously. Like, yo, you kind of missed the bus by like five years. I couldn't imagine.

I knew that that would be the answer dude like trying to start something today i couldn't even imagine unless you are like you know dumb internet like famous dickhead or whatever that's like the past right it's like all right cool you have your 100 000 followers right you're sad that you'd like hopefully you didn't buy them first of all and uh second uh, second of all, hopefully you, uh, actually like provide some value other than just like being hot or having cool abs or something, I guess. Um, cause that ain't going to carry you very far. I promise. Um, I guess maybe it can, I don't know. Maybe we should all get hotter. Maybe that's where we're missing the boat. We haven't actually tried that yet. So that could be, yeah. Well Maybe that's where we're missing the boat.

We haven't actually tried that yet, so that could be the problem. Well, we'll save that for when we quit being cool. We'll just try to get really hot. And then I'll be like 45 years old. I'll turn in. I'll actually be Papa John at that point. Well, then it'll be like, why is this old guy wearing tank tops at the Yarn Hall? Then it's like, that's from Full Circle, yarn all the time yeah it's very sad very fast we we become the npc warriors like we're that guy yeah just dumping boxes of stringers on a table yeah sorry rico if you're listening

i think you're right though like that the takeaway is like it's super hard to uh uh get the get it started i mean you'd have to be really dedicated to it for a long time probably to get your feet off the ground yeah and it's really just like having a thing like i think generally starting something where it's like these t-shirts just look cool like that's not enough you know it's like you have to you know really like hone in and be very specific and have you know something that is kind of your little niche like if you don't have that you know specificity is kind of what everything's going towards where you know you can't just be like oh i'm gonna make uh fitness apparel it's like okay cool like that's that's like like no no one person like whether it's a crossfitter

or a powerlifter or a bodybuilder is going to care about like general fitness apparel you know it's like the best thing i ever did with live large was kind of narrowing the focus to powerlifting still you know paying attention to bodybuilding things like that but narrowing the focus made it grow because you know the specificity of it specificity of it, you know, where it's, if you're focusing on one exact audience, it's a lot easier to learn that audience and kind of what you need to be doing. Yeah, I, we would agree with that. Uh, well, Nick, that was awesome. We were glad to get you on. And also just thanks for all the help with everything over the years too. You know, we've, you've always been a really good resource for us especially when we're getting

started and had no clue what we were doing uh so we always appreciate that yeah thanks a lot nick as crazy as the first arnold was for us it would have been an absolute train wreck if you didn't even just tell us a few things of how it worked like we would have really been screwed if we didn't get a get a few words of advice from you so thank you no that's what i mean because going in blind is like uh you're like all right cool so like how do i load this stuff in that was the thing where it's just like what do i do do i like you know like even like like not knowing that um no it was like do i carry this in like the front door like what's going on it's? You don't know that shit. Tanner had the list.

It was like, well, Nick says go back here and you load in here and do this. And it's like, all right, I guess we'll see what happens. It's like, oh, there it is. There it is. Wow, it's just like he said it was. Wow, that's crazy it worked out that way. Yeah, but that's something where it's like, all right, cool. Paying it forward to good people is always like, anyone that I like, i will help to the end of the earth as much as i possibly can you know and i was also helped my first year at the arnold by a person i'd met that year you know shelly from

iron rebel you know it's i met her while setting the booth up and you know my dumb ass was like you know just try it's like well how do i load out, when can I get my car? What is going on? She's like, all right, go to this person. They'll tell you what you have to do, blah, blah, blah. You know, and kind of laid it out for me. Like I laid it out for you guys. So it's like, and without that help, it would have been an actual nightmare.

I was like figuring it out. And everyone, you know, all the staff there's furious because I'm like the idiot that's asking them what to do repeatedly. They're like, I don't care. I'm just like a union guy ripping this forklift around yes absolutely yeah all right yeah well that's great hopefully we'll see you in september then right yeah we'll see you at the showdown showdown is going to be an absolute ripper that's the next uh the majority of our team is doing the showdown. So we'll be rolling out full force, bringing

everybody out for that and should be kind of an all-time mayhem powerlifting weekend. I mean, that's it. That meet is going to come as close to unifying powerlifting as any meet has in a very long time. So it's going to be really cool to see. Sweet.

But most importantly, we we're gonna get to hang that's right who cares about the lifting yeah i got the barbecue spots we're good to go oh awesome good good okay good we'll look forward to that then too we can skip pizza it's all barbecue do kansas city right yeah yeah yeah all right thanks nick we appreciate it thanks nick awesome appreciate it guys see you talking to you see you soon later well what do you give them tommy we know we he's got the cool beans on that for sure cool beans and hot pizza that's the way nick likes it that was fun that was good you know it was good tanner talking shop like a bunch of industry veterans over here that That's right.

We knew that would be a fun episode just cause we have a long history with Nick and stuff. So it's, you know, he's someone that we can, it is just like chatting, you know, it's someone we already know well, and it got talked to.

It just seemed, it seems like we've been around them a lot more than we even have. You know, we've, we've met him in person three, three different times, like, which is insane to think about. Right. Right. And none of those times that we spend more than like even have you know we've we've met him in person three three different times like which is insane to think about right right and none of those times did we spend more than like i mean the longest we probably ever spent together was we went to the pizza place yeah

otherwise it's we talked to him for 20 minutes for the arnold end of the day 10 minutes how to go yeah today was crazy same thing next day like that's been our experience but but he's also or he's always been a super helpful dude and also like that's not just me saying it to like everyone else i've talked to like kind of in this uh it is funny like all the like we talk all the time with like all these companies that kind of do the same thing as us yeah like there's a group of them that we're like always talking to and always you know like there's a lot of shared information going around and stuff like that. And Nick's one of those guys.

It's like a mastermind class. It is kind of. But it's really valuable. It is. It is really valuable information that you get back and forth from everyone. Definitely. So good stuff. Definitely cool beans.

What else did we have for this episode? We did a lot of stuff, didn't we? Yeah, we've emptied our sacks. We've talked to Masonomics. Do we got an ad? I would like to hear one more ad. Would you? I feel like that really put the bow on this package.

Here's the capstone ad for this week's episode. It was brought to you by Texas Power Bars. Buddy Caps first started lifting weights in the late 60s and began power lifting in the 1970s the mid-1970s at that time he was working for image barbell building gym equipment around 1976 local machine shop started making olympic bars for them and calling it the image bar in 1977 image barbell became champion barbell it was then that buddy started looking at the bars with an intent of changing them for the better in 1979 buddy bought his first lathe lathe to begin addressing the known issues.

You know, it just gets serious when the lathe comes in the picture. You don't buy a lathe on a whim. There's some pent-up frustration when the lathe is getting purchased. Yeah, you know stuff. My brother-in-law did just recently buy a lathe kind of on a whim. Was it a metal lathe though? Yeah, it's like 20 feet long. I helped him unload a tractor

and a bobcat and it probably weighs like 10,000 pounds. I don't think he's making barbells though. Making tractor parts and stuff. Barbells would be cooler. Yeah, it'd be a lot cooler if he did. In 1980, his passion I'm talking back about about buddy again not my brother-in-law

in 1980 his passion 1980 my brother-in-law was born in 1980 his passion driving purpose now had a greater mission but he set out on his own to make what he believed was the greatest bar he had ever seen and trained with and the texas power bar was all right it was strong as a house with with and the Texas Power Bar was more. It was strong as a house with the best sterling and it was maintenance free. Hundreds of states. Check. I see that. Listen. I go check, check, check. All good. Hundreds of states, national,

international, massonomics, Ohio Pico and world power lifting records have been and continue to be set and broken on the Texas Power Bar. To learn more, visit them at TexasPowerBars.com All right. Thank you Texas Power Bar. To learn more, visit them at texaspowerbars.com. All right. Thank you, Texas Power Bars.

Tommy, we got a big drop coming, actually. We do got a big drop coming. Because, you know, our drop is coming out the week that this podcast episode is. We actually probably should have talked about that earlier in the episode. My weeks are always off. Yeah, those things just sneak up on us all the time don't they really do yeah so should be thursday i just have to scrap this whole episode just start over and just can you just make this part the beginning part i might have to cut this into the front and be like

why are they talking so long about yeah uh so yeah thursday we should have another drop going out yeah and this one is a lot of fun. This one's a lot of fun. Different than all of our other ones that weren't fun. This one is fun. This is fun. Everything else was on cool up to this point. We just saved everything fun for this one. So here's the big one.

And it should be Thursday, like you said. Multiple t-shirts. Multiple tees. Maybe another goodie. Yeah. Yes, hopefully. We kind of have everything just waiting on this one pretty limited edition item that's coming. There is one limited edition item.

That's going to be pretty exciting. Pretty exciting. I guess I just shouldn't say too much about it yet. It's going to be very fun. Fun is a great word. Pop is a good word, I suppose. It will definitely pop. It's pretty wacky, a little crazy crazy a little wacky a little crazy i'm just so what are all the t oh the t oh

this is a good one i'm just remembering what what the what the what the t's are in the release and yeah this is a good uh it is a good it's a good release for summertime yes and for south dakota and for south dakota and for massonomics and for massonomics and for massonomics and for just oh man this is a this is a great one this one might put us on the map tanner i think this is gonna put western north this might be the one to really put us on the map i'm gonna carve our market out that corner put our face in stone if you will. Ah, good, good. That was good.

Okay, so be prepared for that. Buy our other stuff in the meantime. Listen to the podcast. Leave us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts. We're on the road to the road to 400. Let a friend know about the podcast. Catch them up on what's been happening for the last five years. Yeah.

Give them a good crash course and everything that's going on. Send us more barbecue sauce. Like us on Facebook. Yeah. I like that. Send us more barbecue sauce, more various barbecue sauces, other kinds of sauces,

whatever sauces you might have, preferably on open. That is the preferred method. Subscribe on YouTube. Go hop in on the first comment race on YouTube. That thing just is hot and heavy. It is hot. That thing's hot and it's heavy.

They bring in the heat. They bring the heat hard. And if you like the show, if you really like the show, please consider becoming a supporting member of the podcast. You can do that. How do you do that, Tommy? Massanomics.com slash join. That's so easy of the podcast you can do that how do you do that tommy massonomics.com join that's so easy a caveman can do it that's like did i just come out with a great slogan yeah did i just make that up so easy you could do it in 15 minutes and save 15 percent

is that progressive or geico or which one is that geico okay oh we're what so which one's the caveman is that they're both guys oh okay yeah geico's pretty good they're pretty active marketers and what's flow progressive okay so is that all you know what's the guy actually while we're on that topic i am am shocked. What's mayhem? I think that's Allstate, isn't it? Okay. I'm pretty sure it's Allstate. Yeah. I am shocked. You know, have a one-year-old. Sometimes we have Disney Junior on.

There are Disney Junior commercials where Flo is dancing around in like a little animated world. It's like, yeah, because a one-year-old really needs to associate Flo and progressive insurance. Like, it needs to be subliminally part of their brain. Progressive. progressive thank you why is car insurance like one of the pinnacles of advertising uh because because it's all based on uh subscription thing like once you get it do you shop around for your car insurance very often and and the prop and it's almost like a commodity probably because it's like yeah yeah sign up for any of them because they're all just about the same thing like so we just have to convince you into ours because once we got you to ours, we just got you for life because you're not going to borrow to change it because the other one's

not any better because none of them are any better. They're all the same damn thing. We're going to make a ton of money. And if you ever do mess up and need to use us, well, you're probably screwed. We're just going to make way more money anyway. So, and even then it's like, yeah, you're not going to get exactly what you want out of the deal. probably. You're going to be like, what do you mean? I still have to pay like $2,000? Let's be honest here. The only one that's going to win in this scenario is us, not you. Yeah.

The perfect business plan. That's what we need to get in on. Masonomics Insurance Agency. Yeah. Imagine the commercials we could make. Oh, God. Yeah. We would have the marketing on point.

Yeah. I like that idea. I do. I think that's about it. Yeah, I like that idea. I do. I think that's about it. Tommy, where do they find you? You can find me at Tomahawk underscore D. You can find me at Tanner underscore Baird. Don't care about that.

Just make sure to follow Mastonomics at Mastonomics. See ya. See ya. See ya.