The Sevan Podcast - #248 - Snorri Baron

Episode Date: January 2, 2022

Snorri is a legendary talent agent from Iceland. He currently manages some of the top CrossFit athletes, most known for his role as Sara Sigmundsdottir's agent and confidant. He has begun to dip his toes into other sports including weight-lifting and MMA. Follow Snorri - https://www.instagram.com/snorribaron/The Sevan Podcast is sponsored by http://www.barbelljobs.comFollow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/therealsevanpodcast/Watch this episode https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC59b5GwfJN9HY7uhhCW-ACw/videos?view=2&live_view=503 Support the showPartners:https://cahormones.com/ - CODE "SEVAN" FOR FREE CONSULTATIONhttps://www.paperstcoffee.com/ - THE COFFEE I DRINK!https://asrx.com/collections/the-real... - OUR TSHIRTS... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Call 1-866-531-2600 or visit connectsontario.ca. Please play responsibly. Hey, how are you? Bam, we're live. Bam. Listen, listen're live. Bam. Listen, listen. Oh, wait. Wow, we have Twitter issues.

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podcast. Thank you. Bye. Hey, how are you? Good morning morning i've never done the uh sponsorship at the beginning of the show those guys are such great sponsors they're just like hey here's some money we love your podcast but i was like you know maybe i should try to do one in the beginning yeah it's like just like must be something in it since everyone else does it so might be onto something yes yes i uh speaking of being onto something, I made a post, I was watching your podcast that you did with a gentleman named Justin last night from a couple of months back.

Ah, yeah. And I posted a clip of it on my Instagram and, uh, this morning at six hours later, it had nine views. And then at 12 hours later, it only had nine views and that's how much instagram likes me well or me no no it has probably mutual no well maybe maybe man they hate me people keeps people um hi brian good morning was that a raw egg you just drank nope looked like it You just drank. Nope. Looks like it. Literally every day someone says. So if you try to follow me on Instagram, Instagram will send you a message saying, hey, this guy's full of shit. Are you sure you want to follow him? And they put a big up on the screen. And every day someone will take a picture of me like, oh, my God, I thought shadow ban was just a conspiracy theory.

I'm like, no, just a conspiracy theory i'm like no not a conspiracy brian go ahead you have a bunch of followers though how did they get there were they there before yeah yeah yeah i'm just leveraging my my old crossfit fame like if i lost that account i would probably like i have another account has like 2 000. I've just like, I was in a position of power and I utilize that to just get a bunch of followers. You know what I mean? And I, and I posted like thirst pics of rich and like I would get inside information from Dave while I was the director of media. And I just leveraged that to build my own brand brand.

And now I'm just, now I got, now I got nothing. Now he's just hanging on. Yeah. As many people in the ecosystem said when I started the podcast, he's just trying to stay relevant. Fair enough. I'll take it. I'll take it. Well, from there, something happened because there's a lot of fame coming your way and has been coming your way.

I'd like to think this podcast has become the biggest one of them all. Actually. In the most humbling way I can say there is no second place. We have taken over. I like the sound of that. This is a, if you get out of line, Caleb works for the air force and he will come over on a jet

and get you in the meantime he's just going to run the back end Snorri, do you roll the R's in your name? like if I was Icelandic would I say Snorri? yeah, you would even roll them harder you have to go full blown R on it

Snorri yeah, it's like the pronunciation is like it's got You have to go full-blown R on it. Snorri. Yeah, it's like the pronunciation is like it's got 19 R's in there, not two. You actually start rolling them even in the first syllable. You're already rolling them. Snorri, yeah. It's all about the R if you want to pronounce it correctly. You need to get the R's down. Is that your real last name, Baron?

No, that's just something I took because it sounded cool and made a distinction on me. I wasn't baptized with that name. Snorrijonsson is my name. Baron is just something that was cool. It's so cool. It stuck so cool. That's the big story about that. When I was a kid,

one of the coolest cartoon characters was the one Snoopy would be the Red Baron. I don't know if you remember that, but he was like the ace fighter pilot. Yeah, that was so cool. And so you don't have... You have a real Icelandic... Hold on, hold on. Are you familiar with the word baron in the British or English language, Snorri? A source of royalty or – I don't exactly know where the baron is in the hierarchy of power, but it's somewhere in there.

The baron has some power, but not all of it. No, no. I wasn't sure either. I wasn't sure either. And when I looked it up, it says it's a member of the lowest order of British nobility, but it also says that barons are usually referred to as lord. Okay. So that seems fairly more prestigious. I mean, being not a king or something was maybe a bit too much.

So Baron was just right, I think. One of our sponsors for the – for Wadapalooza, our only sponsor for Wadapalooza is a guy named Liver King. Are you familiar with him? Yeah. Yeah, just because you guys mentioned him, I checked him out. He's a pretty awesome guy. Yeah, he's a pretty awesome guy yeah he's a savage you know so i was friends with him and um speaking of giving just horrible advice to someone i was friends with him and we talked a

bit and he sent me some videos that he made he goes hey i'm thinking about getting on instagram and start promoting these these supplements and that's how i found him because i was taking those supplements and and they were fantastic they fantastic. They really changed my life. When you're on the carnivore diet, if you're a strict carnivore diet, then you take those pills and you're not eating organ meat. And then you take those pills, you'll notice a huge difference. My hands and feet stopped getting cold. My heart felt better.

But anyway, so he sent me some videos and I'm like, hey, dude, those videos are too extreme. No one's going to be able to relate to that. You need to make shit that's more relatable. He went the exact opposite way. He made the most extreme shit you could imagine. And his shit is blowing up. He put on like 800,000 followers in two months. I'm like, OK, don't listen to me.

But it doesn't surprise me at all. I mean, it's entertainment as well. People just want to be entertained and he's doing just that. And his diet's accessible so whether you see him and all those chains and the and and and the and the stuff he does that might not be immediately accessible but he's like hey here's some raw meat and like this is what i eat and it's like wow yeah and i i can't tell you how many people i know who eat who started eating raw meat because of this guy and only raw meat only raw

meat and some supplements pills uh he i don't think he even takes the supplements that's what's one of the things that's so so great about him he's like hey you shouldn't take my pills basically unless you're a pussy and can't eat raw meat and i'm like well i fit in that category i'm a pussy and i can't eat raw because he's eating, I tried it. Because he's eating raw organs too. Yeah, organs, mostly organs. Most people can maybe stomach the meat, but to stomach the raw organs, that's a different level for me. Cock and balls, heart, brain.

This guy just eats it all. Raw eggs, the whole. Did you see the video? You don't have to go far back in history where everyone needed to do this just to survive so it's not that far back that this was the way of life that's a really that's a really good point that's that's a really good point i in in some of your thinking it's disgusting back then it's just what they needed to survive so i don't even think it's disgusting back then. It's just what they needed to survive. So I don't even think it's disgusting. It's just that, have you ever,

when's the last time you had liver snory? A while back, but, but liver is not that uncommon over here in Iceland. It's a, it's a part of the cuisine. So, but it's not raw, of course. Do you like it? No, I hate it, but. Yeah, me too. I just want some tenderloin or ribeyes or stuff like that. And I want it off the barbecue, not raw.

Right. And can you eat just about anything? Yeah. As you can tell, I like food. Yeah, me too. And I don't really distinguish. I can eat anything except this one thing that this guy wants me to eat, liver. Yeah, you just can't eat it.

If I smell it, I'm just like... But I take his pills and I'm good. He just shoves it into a pill for me. Yeah, well done by him. So there are benefits to the liver. I'm no nutritionist, but I could tell you the liver is a healthy thing to eat, though. Or that's what I'm told. So if you can get it in a pill form, then he's on to something.

Yes. Are you an agent or are you a manager? I don't know the difference. I never received the handbook, you know, it's, uh, I'm just someone that works very closely with athletes and try to utilize my skills to make their life a bit easier. So that's in a nutshell, what I strive to be. bit easier so that's in a nutshell what i i strive to be do you so does that do you give financial advice or athletic advice or romantic advice or i mean do you do yeah well i've known to do so do some pimping for my for my athletes so yeah advice, definitely something I get, but I'm mainly on the side of building an image,

helping to build social media like you are doing for the liver King and finding sponsors, finding what's the essence of that person. What's the essence of the brand? How do they, how, how, how do they work together how is that a successful relationship that can be a financial one as well so it's just like puzzles i have this pool of athletes i have this pool of brands and companies that want to sponsor and want to be engaged. So I place myself in the middle and I try to make some good stuff happen. How many CrossFit athletes do you have? Currently, as active relationships, it's 10.

But then there are about 20 others that i'm involved with in some way shape or form some of these people are just very capable at taking care of their own stuff or were there before there were any managers in the sport and just needed to figure it out but rely on me maybe for a second opinion or something so i'm involved with a lot of athletes, even though there isn't an official relationship there. What do you think is the timeline of when managers did start entering into this sport? Well, I came in in late 2016. 2017 is when I started really getting the grips of it.

And it felt like in 2020, there was a bunch of new faces there. There weren't all that many when I started or none that I knew of, apart from O'Keefe and those household names. Jason of X Endurance as well was working with a few athletes. So they were the only two guys that I knew personally at that time. But as time has went on, there are several new ones here in Europe. There are several new ones over in the States as well. And I assume in the other continents there are some managers as well.

In the other continents, there are some managers as well. But the sport still hasn't developed into the size or the financials that a lot of managers can make a living out of it, let alone the athletes. There are big-name athletes out there that still hold a coaching job or still do something else just to survive so uh what was the uh what was what was like what happened in 2016 did someone reach out to you did you see an opportunity yeah well uh the the long and short of it is that i never intended to become a manager that was never my driving force. I come from

advertising. I come from a marketing background. So social media, when social media exploded into the scene, it became very fascinating to me. And it became very fascinating to me how a person could take control over how the media portrays them through their own media, through their own TV station, through their own web scene. So Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and all those new tools that have come along the way were just really fascinating to me. And to see how few athletes at that time had turned on that light bulb of, hey, I can make, this could be my entrance into earning, and this could be my entrance into reaching the audience I want to cater to.

So that's kind of why I invested some time in working with people. And it wasn't only athletes at first, and it was strictly in Iceland, but you may not know this, but in Iceland, there are just over 300,000 people, but quite a decent chunk of them are world famous. And I have a standing in the global community, be it in banking or in music, sports.

There are many arts. There are many sectors like that. So it's kind of a privilege to be an Icelander in a country where I know pretty much everyone, or it feels like I know pretty much everyone here. So the route from someone like Sara Simonsdóttmens to someone like me was just one mutual friend. It didn't require anything else. So you guys are actually related. Let's face it.

Well, we're probably like we could look it up, but we're probably closely related. Like everyone else is over here. Like everyone else is over here. So we embrace the immigrants who kind of make it harder for everyone to have some serious problems because of this. But Icelanders start off as inbred. Are there Icelanders that have multiple wives? Is there any like… No, no, no, no, no, no. We don't have any of that. None of that? Is there any like. No, no, no, no, no, no. We don't have any of that.

None of that? There's a lot of Icelanders that have maybe someone they're married to, but see other people. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Sure. Like everywhere else. But no, we are. We are very westernized. A lot of the things that are coming over in the United States are coming over here as well.

I'm sorry. I apologize. On behalf of all americans i apologize yeah well i think you left some of the good bits here and took some bad bits with you so uh but but it won't be a culture shock for anyone westernized to come over here and uh i think that's pretty much what, when I, when I traveled to America, I don't feel like I'm in a completely different place that I have to adapt to everything there. So I saw, I saw that Sarah was the fourth person in Iceland to reach a million followers

on Instagram. I don't think that's correct. I think she, I think she was, no, it may be the fourth person, but she's the second. Okay, you want to say third? I can just change it. I can change it in my notes. Yeah, change it to third. Yeah, let's get it up there, but I'm not accurate on it.

We write that. And it's not really important either. What's fascinating about that, at first I was like, yeah, I've seen a bunch of people with a million, but then you think, but there's only 300,000 people in our country. Like you said, you contextualize it.

It's really amazing. And for the longest time, the Icelandic CrossFit athletes weren't really that commonly known in Iceland. It was, the statistics over here were maybe 20 affiliates uh maybe like 6 000 icelanders doing crossfit that's two percent of the nation so that's that's quite an impressive statistic yes didn't really know what it was and had had no interest in it the media wasn't really covering CrossFit that much or the athletes or anything they were doing.

We knew Annie because Annie is a name that stands out in a crowd. It's not like a very common name in Iceland. Usually a woman would be named Anna, not Annie. And she also just, her looks are iconic. So we did know Annie, but for the longest part, I think many Icelanders weren't really sure who was Katrin and who was Sarau and who else. I mean, BKG, really good crossfitter, but no one really knew who he was until maybe three years ago, apart from the people in his box and in his town and the CrossFit people. So this has all changed now. These girls and these people are national celebrities over here, just like there are celebrities in many other places. And have you been a part of that?

in many other places. And have you been a part of that? I have had some part in it, but I also just think the local media caught up. They realized that there was interest in this and that these were impressive people that should be covered equally to other Icelandic athletes or celebrities, and even more,

because there were a lot of stories to tell about them. And these are charismatic and media trained people who, who can really hold their own when the camera is turned on. You know, I hadn't thought about this before, but there in an American, you know, I don't know. I don't know what the word is, but in America, there was a kid, there's a character named Annie Oakley. I don't know if you've heard of her. It's an old play.

I was in the play in high school. And Annie really is an Annie. Are you talking about Annie? She's not in the play, the musical. Annie the musical. No, no. That's a different one. That one too.

She really is an Annie. Annie's a redheaded American girl. Just across the isn't annie annie's a red-headed american girl like just across the board it's like the man i didn't never really thought of that she really fits the yeah that i was in that play annie oakley yeah okay well done who did you play you didn't play annie did you no i was like some persian like snake oil salesman i played myself i played myself. When someone has a huge following, it's not a slam dunk that they can make money off their following, is it? No, no, it's not. And there are so many factors to this. And then it is the gap of expectations between who is paying you the money and what you're willing to do so there it's easy to say that the follower numbers uh are the the

denominator is that the word is it's what makes makes the shift it definitely helps and brands do look at how many followers you have but they are more enthused with who you are and how you can serve their message and the purpose that they are seeking. You have to be an exceptional athlete and be shining on the big stage even though your own follower numbers aren't. But if you have plenty of followers but you're not really tending to your media, you're not really promoting the products, it will be pretty hard to make a decent living out of it. Do you know who John Brzezinski is? He's the world's greatest arm wrestler. No, but I should know who he is. I love arm wrestling.

Pretty good at it myself, actually. Well, it's funny you say that when I noticed when you posed in pictures, you pose like this and I'm like, wow, either Snorri's done a lot of arm wrestling or he's done some fighting. Have you done both?

I'm doing, I'm trying to distract people from my ugly face. Ah, I got you. I'm doing something else. Look at this. Yeah. No, I didn't do any competitive either. I've done plenty of fighting that I'm not proud of, but that ended many years ago.

I did boxing for a while, but as soon as some real athletes entered the gym i found out that i ate shit if i don't punch i'm done is there organized crime in iceland yes there sure is were you a collector for them no comment wow wow wow it's like you fell out of a movie i just sniffed that see that see people you make fun of my big nose but this thing can sniff a man it could poop on the bottom of a shoe from 100 yards away on that topic i i had addiction problems when I was a teenager and I ran into a lot of shit. I had to rehab when I was 20 years old. It's 26 years ago and I haven't looked back since.

So anything bad that I did was in a different century, in a very different life. So I'm not the person I was. It's interesting. A lot of these people that you see like skyrocket to the top, they went through some sort of drug addiction or rehab. They basically put all of that energy and focus into something else. What was it for you? What was it for you?

It's crazy to even, because I experienced this in such a big way that I all of a sudden, once that I had overcome the issues I was overcoming, once I had completed my rehab, it was a pretty lengthy rehab and all of that, I just felt like I had so much energy. I had so much drive and I had so much time on my hands because I wasn't partying. I wasn't doing any of that shit that I was doing. So I was handed a completely new opportunity to give, give just a new crack at life. So, uh, and I think about this very often. I don't have the same energy anymore, but I, I, I was handed something that has benefited me really, really, really much. And, uh, it's the reason for why I'm here today. animosity might be too strong of a word,

but do you have any animosity towards someone that you leverage to, to, to go further or maybe animosity is not the thing, but do you have like anything like, okay, I'm going to prove to my parents that I can be something great or that girlfriend who dumped me in the, in the eighth grade, I'm fucking going to show her.

She, she dropped the ball. I didn't have any girlfriends. No, I, I, I don't have any girlfriends. No, I don't. I'm not driven by negativity. I know a lot of people who are driven by that. I'm not. I'm driven by something completely different.

And I'm motivated to make a difference. I'm not motivated to prove someone wrong or stick it to someone. That's not me. Or maybe that's even too strong to show off. Like I had this guy, Dusty Tuckness on. He's the world's greatest bullfighter. He has no peer. The next closest guy is-

Sorry, you're gonna learn about all the very specific world's greatest people on this show. I love it. Give it to me. And so Dusty, basically basically he's won 10 championships and the next closest guy is five championships but his life revolves around this one bible verse and the bible verse is that um basically um there's there's no better friend than a friend that will die for you and so his job every uh 300 days of the year is to step

between a bull and the guy who falls off the bull and he's voted the 10th best guy in the or the best guy in the world at that 10 years in a row by his peers so like so it's crazy right and um so but when i talk a friend to them he places himself as the friend who is willing to die for you. I think the whole time I'm talking to him, I'm like, man, this guy wants to show God, his daddy, that he's the best friend. That he – yeah, there. Thank you, Caleb. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man laid down his life for his friends. And when I talked to Dusty, I'm like, damn, this motherfucker wants to prove to God. Like he sees God as his daddy and he's trying to prove to God that, hey, I'm the best son you ever had. And I mean, I'm not judging that. I think, wow, that's what a great way to live your life. Pick a Bible verse and then just show God, hey, I can do this one. But that's a crazy one.

I agree. This wouldn't really do it for me. I need something more tangible than that. And so I wonder, you must have something like that that gets you up in the morning. Do you think that, like, do you think maybe, would you say you're more running away from your addiction or you're more along the lines of, and I'm sorry to put you in either or, like, hey, I got a second chance at life. I better do something with it. Yeah, it's that category. It's the latter. And then these successes I have had, albeit not all that impressive, still successes that I've had that I wouldn't have had otherwise. Something that does a lot for me.

And when I feel that I did make a difference, it's like, okay, this is what I'm doing here. This is what I'm doing here. This is what I'm doing. So I just take it to heart. Every small victory that I acquire myself or someone that I'm working with gets, then I take it to heart and it motivates me to keep on going. Do you ever, you're around, and I'm guessing a lot of agents are like this, but you're around a lot of really successful people.

Maybe success isn't the right word. We'll go with success for now. Do you ever feel inadequate or motivated or inspired? What are some of the things, the consequences, positive or negative, that come with being around such – High skill, high-level people. Yeah yeah people who are just really pushing i have i'm yet to meet the person that is just completely great at everything that uh i i see them channel all of their energy into something that they become absolutely monsters at, but they still leave open spaces somewhere else, usually in an area where I am pretty good.

So I am yet to find myself completely out of the league, out of the league. And if I will find myself in a situation like that, I'll just put my hand up and say, hey, get a real agent, man. I'm not the man for this. I don't have anything to offer you. I'm yet to find myself in that situation, man. Funnily enough, as some of these people, especially those who are very well known,

the first requirement that they put on someone that they want to trust is don't be a fan. Don't be someone who is clearly just there to get that selfie with them or to be able to talk about it elsewhere that they're close to them. You never get to the next level with that person if you're acting like that. to the next level with that person if you're acting like that. Just be authentic and be real and be truthful about the things that you actually have some skills in or have some knowledge about

and don't try to be a genius at everything because no one is. And it served me well. Even having said that, that there's always, you know, you haven't met that perfect person, that person that whatever. Have you at any time in the past four or five years that you've been doing this come across someone and thought, this person could use someone to help them, but I'm not that person?

And had to have that conversation and maybe just said that to them or maybe pointed them in a different direction? I haven't found myself working with that person because I do some due diligence beforehand. And I'm usually pretty sure that I actually want to work with that person and that we will probably make for a good relationship. It will not be the skill set where I will come up short. It would rather be that the personalities don't match and on the personality front yeah I have parted ways with and people have parted ways with me just because the personalities didn't match and the trust that is required wasn't being built and that's fine but I haven't I wouldn't offer my services to someone that I feel that I couldn't work with. And there are definitely people out there that I see that, that I think to myself, I probably wouldn't add anything to that person.

Sure. At this point, is it more common for you to reach out to a person of prestige or for them to seek you guys out? It's 50-50. But this is the beauty of CrossFit, which is it's such a small pool still. So everyone is acquainted. I wouldn't say everyone knows each other, but everyone has heard of each other, especially at the elite level. And there is professional courtesy for the most part shown. There hasn't been a lot of interaction between the agents where there is a fight for an athlete or something.

It is still in a place where there's plenty of athletes who don't have an agent. And most of us who are working on that front, we are stocked up as is. So it requires some bringing on a new athlete. It requires something special to happen because all of us, the way it looks to me, already have the roster filled up. Yeah. They're short on podcasts though. I noticed I was looking at your list of podcasts that you represent. You're very short on that. You should, uh,

you should look into that and buff fill that section up a little bit. Why do you think I'm here, man? So Snorri, as that that as that like roster fills up or maybe before that even like what do you think is a reasonable number of crossfit athletes for one person or one company to manage okay this is uh this is a good question what what i look at first is the roster must be is symbiotic the the right for it. They need to be able to coexist. They can't be people who despise each other or are such big competitors that it will be a really hard time being the manager for them. So your roster is a family?

So it's a family, the roster? In a way. I wouldn't say family, but there are no ill wills there anywhere. There's no one there that is absolutely disgusted by the next person. You couldn't have Trump and Biden both. You couldn't represent both of them. Exactly. Exactly.

And I'm really mindful of this because this is also – some of them are fighting for the same meals. So there is a brand that comes in that wants to sponsor an athlete. And if I have too many people that fit the bill, I'm letting someone down by diverting the deal to someone else. So therefore, 10 is just a beautiful number to me. And as things stand, I spend more time with Sarah than anyone else. She's the first CrossFit relationship that I formed. She is way more to me than just an athlete that I manage. We're close friends and we engage a lot. just an athlete that i manage we're close friends and we we engage a lot so uh all the other females that come on board know that i am very close with sarah so if they see her as someone that they want

to then that wouldn't work you know so and therefore i i've been very mindful of how the roster is created. And you work very closely with BKG also, right? Yes. Yes, I do. This is a little shallow. The conversation is going well. I apologize for taking it in this direction. No one's surprised. When you get a guy, going back to your last name, Baron,

when you get a guy like Bjorgvin, so I think, speaking for myself, when someone has a name – going back to your last name, Baron, when you get a guy like Bjorgvin, so I think – I'm speaking for myself. When someone has a name that's hard to say, you avoid talking to them. Like you and I could be at a sporting event. We're in a box. Some rich guy gets a box. We're all in there. And I like you, but I just can't say your fucking name. And I want to talk to you, but I just can't say Bjorgvin.

So I just avoid you. And if you could have a name like Sevan, and no one wants to talk to you but like i just can't say bjorkman so i just avoid you and like if you could have a name like seven and no one wants to try to say that either um i mean this guy is a uh um bjorkman carl goodmanson he's a um he's a specimen he is there's no need for him not to be in the million um the million he's nice he's easy going you can talk dick pics with them politics with them uh health you can he'll go anywhere we had him on the podcast the guy's like there's there's no coward in him um yeah you could tell there yeah he's a cool he's a cool dude yeah you drive cross country with him that's the worst picture ever taken of him though let's make that clear you could you i mean he's i would i would drive cross-country with him in a second and i wouldn't say that about a lot of people i'd much rather be by myself um yeah but

what about his name uh bjorgvin like is he toast you started off off by saying BKG, which is what we have pushed, which is to make it easier for lazy people who don't want to roll hours and attempt something adventurous. Yeah, it is adventurous. So BK or BKG is what he is commonly referred to by the media. Which is beautiful. Yeah, which is beautiful, BKG is what he is commonly referred to by the media. Which is beautiful. Yeah, which is beautiful, BKG. It isn't his name, though, but he will respond to it.

If you say, hey, BK, even though an Icelander would say that, he will just respond to it. He is just accustomed to it. But you're damn right, he should be bigger, and he should be more popular, and he should be all of those things that you listed. But some that is down to himself he is an easygoing guy he isn't driven by faith he isn't driven by being that all-out person all-out social media personality he couldn't give less of a shit about it he just wants to train. He has a pretty good

life where he lives. He has a hot girlfriend. Yeah, he has a hot girlfriend. He's the king of his town. He's got a lot of friends and he's got the life that he strived for. That's one of the things.

His goals are primarily athletic and sporting. His goals aren't trying to catch more of the things. His goals are primarily athletic and sporting. His goals aren't trying to catch more of the fame. So is BKG a plan? Because you were aware of that. You're like, hey, Björgen's tough. We've got to help. These numbnuts in America are never going to say it.

Yeah. Well, BKG was started by another snorri, a common friend of ours who was doing his utmost to make him a social media star and was filming him a lot. He's a really good friend of ours, and he is the one that spotted that name, that spotted that he needed an Americanized abbreviation so that people would identify him more. So I cannot take credit for that, but this was one of the first things that I spotted. Okay, let's run with that. Let's make that something that he will be commonly known as. And the cool, you know, I don't know if you want to, how much longer I talk about PKG, but the really cool thing about.

Two more episodes back to back. Yeah, let's do it. Let's do it. I think, I, but the really cool thing about him. Two more episodes back to back, just three hours. Yeah, let's do it. Let's do it. I think one of the best things about him, and in that Instagram post that we were scrolling through, you could see his statistics at the games, seven consecutive years in the top eight.

And that is not easy to do. And you see so many athletes who rise up into that category and then drop off out of there for a year or two. You don't see anything from maybe they come back. Maybe they never come back. But the consistency that he's been able to do, you know, elite level performances is very rare. And I think he's if for people who are striving to have a long career in this sport, you should study the way he's gone about that, because there have been times that he's had to turn down major competitions. The first time that Rogue was a live invitational, he turned that down

to focus on the games and you were already working with him and knowing him then. How difficult is that? This is something that's been a big topic this off season for a lot of athletes. How many of these competitions should I compete in? How do I manage the training versus the competing versus the health versus the recovery to have a long career like BKG? What have you learned from him or how have you been a part of that process for him? I just text him, by the way, and asked him for his phone. I just DM'd him and said, Bjorgvin, can I have your phone number? Okay.

I can guarantee that he has a pretty bad headache right now. It was New Year's Eve and he took advantage of that. But regardless, on this topic, it's so personalized, Brian. It's so different between the individuals, the volume of competitions they want to do, how their coaches set them up, and all of that. Björnqv, he's methodical. He looks at these competitions.

He's chasing that singular goal of the CrossFit Games. That's what he's chasing. So every decision he will make about whether to compete or not is, is it beneficial to my goal or not? While someone like Sarah, her confidence is built on the competition floor. It's the energy she gets from the crowd, that feeling of pushing yourself because she feels she pushes harder in competition than she ever could in training. So she's just, she just wants, if she could compete every week and she would, that's just a very big difference in how they apply themselves.

He has a long-term plan. He has a long-term programming in front of him where he is studying the levels he is reaching. Scientifically, he has a great coach who he – their relationship is beautiful, by the way. Who's his coach? Who's his coach? Yami. Yami Tikun. Oh, right.'s his coach who's his coach yami yami ticker oh and he's coach and brilliant dude yep brilliant dude and uh i don't interfere in that

i execute after they make the decisions on how to how to proceed i i just trust the process there and the data shows it. And whatever I influence myself in with him is based on the decisions they have made without me in the loop. And I'm absolutely fine with that. The coach should have more sway on this front than the manager, always. What nationality is Yami? He's Finnish. Does he live in Iceland? Currently, he has

spent a lot of time in Iceland and I think he plans on residing here or juggling his time. He lives in London which is close by. It's only a two and a half hour flight. So he will be balancing his time between Iceland and London, I think.

Who's Annie's manager? I think O'Keefe. But Annie is a very, I think O'Keefe is her manager. But she's very independent and very, she has a lot to say about how things are done and i think frederick her boyfriend has has a lot of things in there as well i think he does a lot of uh a lot of the talking on her behalf like week in week out but i think when it comes to deals and partnerships and stuff like that i think it's okay. And Annie's is an interesting topic, and I'm sure that some of the athletes that you're coaching,

eventually they'll get to this stage too, making that transition from being a top five, top ten level athlete in the world into whatever else they want to do next to kind of extend the relevance of their career into different fields. Is that something that you do think about? You're like, you know, I know Sarah Björgman within the next three to five years, they probably won't be able to maintain this for whatever reason. Are you already thinking about what you can do in the future for them?

And our plans are always based on the faces. What, what, what do you want to achieve? What, what is your end goal? Where, where do you want to achieve? What is your end goal? Where do you see yourself in five years, 10 years, all of that? We're striving towards that. We're not just looking at maximizing the impact of each contract and then just fuck off

if you don't want to sponsor me anymore. I'll just jump to another brand. We're not there. So I have a pretty clear idea on what both Sara and BKG intend to do once their careers are over. So all of that can change, but I know what they're thinking. I'm trying to think of who's a super duper um successful transitioned athlete like what's that look like is that like a charles barkley or shaquille o'neal like they like basically you have to go to tv or like like what is it like what what does that look like

what what other options are there for athletes i mean a lot of them just transitioned into something completely different. I think on the CrossFit front, Jason Kalipa looks like he's pretty successful. Rich Froning definitely is a success story. Matt Fraser sure looks like he is about to become a massive success story outside of the competition floor. It's a young sport, so we don't really have too many of those stories in front of us. But sporting-wise, entering a business of some sort which maximizes what you have created image-wise as an athlete is very relevant, be it a training program or a supplement brand or a clothing brand or whatever.

Then some of those athletes have already become involved with brands, already have some ownership in the brand that they are representing. And there might be like a golden parachute out of that when they want to cash in on it. So that's one of the things that I look at. Is there an investment possibility here as well as a sponsorship possibility? So there's a lot of options. And it's the beautiful thing about CrossFit that isn't really in many of the other sports that I have studied. Still such a young sport.

There's still so much room for creative dealings and for opening new pathways. While in MMA, where I dabbled a little bit, it's all nailed shut already. Oh, it is? Yeah, pretty much. I hear bad shit about MMA in the behind the scenes, the managers, the agents. Like, everyone I've met seems nice as shit, but man, I hear some crazy stories.

I've heard them too. Is it more cutthroat than CrossFit? A lot more. It's a lot more primal sport. It's got a lot more primal people in it as well. You know, the level of education and background is different. Most don't want to be punched in the face for a living. They do it out of something else or they started in it out of necessity.

They started in it out of necessity. And the limited experience that I have from there made me realize that I didn't want to chase that. It would also require so much for me, so much effort to make the space in there. And the dealings are different. The business ecosystem is different. I think the CrossFit ecosystem is still in the development

stages and there are so many open minds in there still. If we can get rid of this fucking virus once and for all and the world can open up again and we can start living live on normal terms again,

I think the sky is the limit for where the sport can go. Just, sorry, I don't mean to be contentious, but just to throw in there, I don't think it's the virus we need to get rid of. I think we need to get rid of what people think about the virus. Or that, yeah. I think that's the big problem. Hey, you said something so interesting there so crossfit is this ecosystem of people who want to better their themselves

they want to be better people they want to take personal responsibility personal accountability they're about improving themselves and so that could that seeps into the just the whole ethos the the air of it right or you would hope would hope so. And, and, and UFC, although there is a lot of personal accountability, it's also the, the main ethos is that, Hey, I can fuck everyone up in this room. Of course. I can beat everyone up in here. Yeah. So I never even thought of that.

Go ahead. Of course. Yeah. And this thing about everybody being nice person as an inclusive a diver fuck that there is so much uh pretentiousness in crossfit as well and you see there's a trend about looking really as a very good person. Not all of them are, but it brings likes on social media. And there is, I've been so, sometimes I've been just shocked at seeing

what some of the people in the sport are posting about when I've had conversations with those same people, which are about the direct opposite of what they posted. So it's the the main thing we can't paint crossfit or the crossfit audience athletes the business and everything up as just virgin marys it's it's uh it's a business and it's a super competitive sport and it's got all kinds of different types of individuals in there but if we compare it to mma for example you will see a clear difference in just the just the markup of personalities in there uh it's more extreme on the mma side at least it is so far. Do you know who Jordan Peterson is?

I sure do, yes. And do you know who Kimbo Slice is? Oh, yeah. Love Kimbo. I love him. Yeah. I was thinking today that they both got their fame

in identical branding ways. I don't know if branding is the right word you can help me out with the verbiage but basically jordan peterson was in a street fight he was in front of his college he was accosted by a bunch of people who basically called him a homophobe and all of these things because he refused to use the pronouns they wanted and he very logically explained to them that it had you it has nothing to do with being a homophobe or not homophobe it's about the thought police like like i'm very sympathetic to to everyone's struggles in life i have no

problem with it you know dick on dick but you can't force this on people or vagina on vagina sorry i don't mean to be sexist you can't force this on people because and he explained very logically why you can't force it on people because it's a slippery slope to other bad stuff. Next thing you know, we'll be killing Jews. And he won the fight. He beat the fuck out of them, a whole fucking angry mob of fucking nose-pierced fucking red-headed, dyed-colored hair. He whooped their ass on the street, and he stood up for himself against them. And Kimbo Slice did the same thing. This guy got in street fights and won. the street and he stood up for himself against them and kimbo slice did the same thing this guy

this guy this guy got in street fights and won and i was just thinking when you were talking about um when i was listening to your interview with um um um justin justin yeah it's basically it's basically what a little bit of what i'm doing now i don't mean to compare myself to kimbo or jordan peterson but once you're free and you're willing to be who you are and fight, you can really fire off a brand. Once you're not afraid of what people will think – now, you can't be a fucking dumbass. Well, you can. I mean we know dumbasses who built huge brands. But there's something about not backing down from a street fight in this day and age that no one wants to see the bully win, I guess is what I'm saying.

Jordan Peterson stood up to the bully. Kimbo Slice, I mean, granted, he was a bigger-than-life character, but he stood up to every fight. And I just think, wow, I love this kind of brand building. I love this kind of brand building, standing up to the bullies. I kind of struggle to see the comparison between Kimball and Jordan. I'll give you another really raw example. Okay. When Greg Glassman posted Floyd 19 and people said that it was offensive or that it was insensitive, he should have told them, hey, fuck you.

And he should have explained to them that they're projecting their racist ideologies onto what he said and that actually he's looking out for black people and he's looking out for the health of the world and that his record shows that and that it's like he could have he could have laid it out but instead the mob was so massive and and and granted like he's richer than god now he fucking made a killing put it in the stock market his shit just is like on a whole nother level and he's on to the next thing but but he imagine if he would have stayed and fought and been like fuck you you don't like this like like he did to that one fucking chick at rocket crossfit or whatever that chick tried to stand up to him and call him racist. Someone call me a fucking racist, I'll fucking have it out with them. You call me a homophobe, okay, let's have a dick-sucking

contest. I'll have it out with them. But imagine the brand you could build off of that. Let's say he would have told 3,000 affiliates to go fuck themselves. Imagine how strong that brand would be now two years on the other side instead we have a fucking crossfit with like it's just completely fucking confused we have gyms being forced to close all over the fucking world and we're not we have i don't want to go down that

path but um it's interesting to to hear this i i have so many thoughts on it. I think a street fight really, when you stand up for yourself, there's incredible brand value there that's missed because people are trying to get everyone to like them instead of really just focusing on their base. You know? mm-hmm you know like in in the sense of jordan peterson i think he is still controversial but he has oh yeah you're going to be controversial if you're going to be huge yeah though right but but that's that's fine being controversial he stays true to his word he stays true to his beliefs right and every now and then he surprises those who judged him the hardest by, because he is, he is a human being and he's not shying away from that. So he still has the,

every, the odd card he plays that his, his biggest critics completely agree with him on. So I've, I've, I've indulged a little bit in him. He is very fascinating to me, that guy. And I also just on this whole topic,

I reserve the right to be wrong. I reserve the right to change my mind when I look at something and I feel differently about it. You don't always have to pick a side on everything. This Glassman thing it was just on a very emotional time they're very emotional i agree there were there were some that may have been looking at it as a business opportunity uh software testing testing how it would uh if they would go all in, what would happen.

Right. It spurs from, it was just like a little drop. I mean, I don't think the timing of it within this whole Black Lives Matter thing. Yeah. It was. Very emotional. That was just a timing. This was bound to happen though. It was bound to happen that there would be an explosion regarding CrossFit and the community and the people in it.

It was bound to happen. There were a lot of people who were unhappy about this or that. It needed to be bought. Very well said. We are yet to see what the results yield. We are just completely yet to see if there is big change, if there is constructive change, if there is better lives for the people involved.

We're just yet to see. So I will pick my battles in this because on a personal front, I don't have too much to complain about currently. Yeah, me neither. What happened during this time, my relationship with HQ improved massively. Oh, good. Congratulations. My relationship with other managers improved massively.

with key personnel within the sport came to a place that I'm not sure it would have been at if it wasn't for this whole practice. So on a personal note, I'm grateful for this whole thing. And I will just try to play my role in making sure that it has a happy ending. I love a happy ending. We all do. Sorry. What's, so I know, I think a lot of people are pretty curious about a couple of the newer

athletes that you've taken on, or maybe I don't know how new, but in particular, I'm kind of curious how you've developed the relationship with Roman and also with Emma Lawson more recently. Could you talk a little bit about those two? Sure. Roman was, it was in 2019 that I met Roman for the first time. I saw him at the 2018 regional in Berlin where he just blew everyone away.

And there was this Russian guy who just won it. He came out of nowhere. He had some terrific performances there. And he caught my attention that time. But then he came to Reykjavik in 2019 for the Reykjavik CrossFit Championship. And I met him there. And we spoke through a translation device. And soon after that, he just asked me if I would be willing to assist him with a few things,

which I happily did. I cleared it with Björkvin, as in they were and are competitors. And Björkvin was fine with it. Wow. No matter how intimidating this guy looks, he is an absolute peach of a person. He is such a beautiful person, that guy. And you will see it as soon as he smiles. Then you just know everything is going to be okay. His smile just means the world is safe. We're in a good place.

That's how impactful and how kind his smile is. So I instantly liked the guy. And from there on, we've just been building a relationship. And it's been tough. It's been really, really fucking tough because he lives in Siberia, as far away from where I live as he possibly could be. Russia is so huge.

So Iceland to Moscow isn't really all that far, but Iceland to Irkutsk, his town. What's the name of his town? What's the name of his town? Irkutsk. I-R-K-U-T-K-S something. I fucked up the spelling. But if you got it on the right note. It's by Lake Baikal.

It's the biggest freshwater lake in the world. Oh, wow. Wow. He has a beautiful life over there. That's one of the misconceptions. And what I'm leading at is his whole visa thing. He just lives. He's a coach in his box.

I like to spread the rumor that he's part of the Chechnyan army. That's not true. Yeah, well, there have been a lot of rumors. And I'm happy to quash all of them because there isn't anything like that on his resume. He is one of the good guys. and he's a very driven athlete. He did serve in the Russian army, but so did every fucking one else because it's mandatory over there. So he joined the army at 18 years old, I think,

and he was there for a year and a half, and mostly in an athletic capacity because they realized what a freak of an athlete he was. So those things, he has never seen any combat or anything even close to that. I can't even get his hometown and where I'm at on the same map.

He's that far away. Holy shit, he's far away. It feels like he's just far away from everything. It's like he lives in this one spot in the world which is far away from literally everything else. But Roman is a great guy. I can't emphasize that enough. He is, His mental strength, him

staying motivated through all the shit that's thrown at him is admirable and inspirational for everyone. And Roman, whenever he is in competition or whenever he is around the other athletes, you can just see they all respect

him and they all like him. He is not a... He's a threat on the competition floor, but he is someone that they all respect him and they all like him he is he is not a he's a threat on the competition floor but he is someone that they all genuinely like everyone acknowledges that this guy is a good guy uh he could he could drive to north korea did you see that on the map like he could vacation he could vacation in north korea trust me he he can't. Even North Korea is fucking far away. If you start looking at the miles it takes, it's like a seven-day drive or something. I've heard you say that basically the reason why they won't let him out of the country is the same thing that they've been saying for the last 50 years. Because I had relatives over there also, not siberia but in the ussr

that they're afraid you won't come back and that's been a big thing like they think you're going to what's that called defect but here's the thing here's i mean first of all what a crazy thing to world to live in um that you that's basically caging humans like animals when you talk like that it's fucking insanity talk but russia hasn't had an increase in population in 21 years they're stuck at 145 million that means that either people aren't fucking there or people are leaving or both so um so something's happening or maybe it's like one of those guests that like joe rogan has like who talks about the sperb count just in just pure plummet maybe it's something like of those guests that like Joe Rogan has, like who talks about the sperm count just in just pure plummet. Maybe it's something like that, but something's happening over there.

I think, I think they actually had a population decline a couple of years ago. They can't even hold their population. None of that is Roman's fault because. No, no, I agree. I agree. No, no, I'm sorry. I don't mean to justify it. I don't mean to justify it. FanDuel Casino's exclusive live dealer studio has your chance at the number one feeling, winning. Which beats even the 27th best feeling, saying I do.

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You have to prove a legitimate reason for why you have to go to the United States. That's the first thing. Then you have to, once you have acquired this proof, in his case, qualifying for the CrossFit Games, he has to apply for an interview at the U.S. embassy and it's not like there are U.S. embassies all over he has to travel for like forever to find an embassy that is willing to grant him that interview and it's not like you get an interview the day after it can take weeks. And once you have secured that interview, you show up there and you have to prove your case and you have to talk them through why it is imperative for you to be granted the chance to enter the United States.

And for the last four times he has qualified, he has qualified every year since 2018. Four times he has qualified. He has qualified every year since 2018. The first time in 2018, he tried this himself. He didn't really have any backing. He didn't have the experience. He didn't really know. So even though he landed the interview,

he didn't really know how to play this instrument that he needed to play in order to increase his chances. He didn't have a write-up from CrossFit stating that he needed to play in order to increase his chances. He didn't have a write-up from CrossFit stating that he was a person of importance and all of that. So that fell flat. 2019, he was qualifying for the second time. He had a

little bit more with him to the interview, but still they denied him. 2020, no games. So he participated in the online games, and he finished in 13th place. Then 2021, he didn't qualify through the semifinal. He had to do the online or the last chance qualifier, and that was by the end of Juneune so oh man couldn't even get he

couldn't even get any man even though at that point in time he had so much behind him he had eric rosa uh filling out paperwork for him he had multiple sponsors he had fellow athletes he had like he had so much documentation proving that he was important for the for the growth of the sport he was he was a important person from every single angle needed so we did feel if he would have gotten that interview he probably would have been approved that time. Oh, really? We did feel, you can never fully make a statement like that, but we did feel that he had a lot to put on the table

so that they could base their decision on that. What about these MMA guys that are flying back and forth like it's there like it's nothing is this um this is just all politics this is because it's a bigger sport they know more people it could be paved the way for everyone we are hoping this is and peter yan who is from siberia as well so yeah i would i would hope that those guys are actually paving the way and i just think uncle dana is pretty good at making shit like this happen. He probably makes – he probably actually just called Donald Trump at the time and said, hey, fix this for me.

Or Putin. Or Putin. Yeah, or both. I mean, yeah, I mean, they just fixed it. But let's – Do you know Peter Yan? No, I don't. Oh, does Roman?

He might. Yeah, wow. He might. I'm not sure, though. I've never asked him, but Roman is a big MMA guy, so he follows very closely on all of that. Snorri, when you said you spoke to Roman using a device, did you mean a translator?

Yeah, like I read into the translator in English and it translates it to Russian and I press play and he listens to it. He reads in in Russian and press play and it reads it back to me. And then we just communicate via Google Translate. I mean, I write it up in English and he translates it and sends back. So that's how we communicate. Then he does have a guy that travels with him to competitions who speaks perfect English and translates for us. So we find a way to make that work. I'm going to make a pretty strong assumption here.

I'm going to guess that there is a little bit of good faith and charity on your part with Roman. That he's not, he's no Sarah Sigmund's daughter. He's not my highest earner. What? Not my highest earner. Right. I can just tell you that this is a hundred percent charity mission. And at some point in time, that may change.

And at some point in time, that may change, but I will happily invest my time in someone like him because I fucking care. Right, right. That's that. You fucked up somehow. You let your emotions cross into your business space. You're all fucking right. You're in love with Roman.

You're in love with him. I can tell. You have a crush on Roman. I get it. I mean, he's totally – I saw him dancing in a video. I have a crush on him too. He's awesome. We all do. We all do, man. And there has to, you know, there, there has to be the risk. There has to be the first guy, like, you know,

there might've been a struggle for those MMA guys to, to get the freedom to travel that they have now, but they had to go through that process. And look, Roman's not the only Russian athlete who's qualified for the games. It hasn't been able to make it there. The woman that qualified last year, the team that qualified, and one of the other two guys that made it also were unable to make the trip. So this is, you know, Snorri taking this time to work with the best Russian athlete

we've had so far and hopefully break down those barriers could be paving the way for us to see more and more Russian athletes in the future at the games, which of course, although, you know, everyone wants, if you're good enough to be there, we want to see you there. Hopefully. I mean, I hope everyone is willing to chip in for Roman. Everyone is willing to back him because he is also capable of that special performance. And if you just look at his trajectory now in the later stages of 2021, he completely annihilated every single competition he participated in. He needs the chance to go up against those other very best guys because he's beating all those other ones with 100 points plus.

Like in Dubai, I think it was a 94- gap between him and lazar and lazar is a terrific athlete as well so if we just look at those things and pile them up roman has every business going up against velner medeiros bkg and everyone else the world needs to see how he does in that setting well we did see it in 2019 and he held his own he's up right up there 100 points ahead of pkg nine points behind velner 40 behind fukowski and these are the best guys in the world so you know he he definitely has a strong case it's great to hear the thing that really made me happy was that you said that there are a lot of athletes that also are are supportive of him being there and you know this as well as anyone that

the athletes want that they want the best people to be able to show up and compete and it's really cool when it happens to be people from all over the world so that's why i think that having ricky back hopefully in the in the competitive mix having a guy like roman at the games like these would be huge things for the sport so you're saying he wouldn't defect either way you're saying he wouldn't defect he's going to. You're saying he wouldn't defect. He's going to come here and he's going to fly back home with his first place prize money and get back to work. Exactly.

And he has a settled life where he lives. They have a baby on the way. He has a wife. They've got two dogs. They have backyard barbecues. They have loads of friends over there. Their life is just a really cool life. And he has no reason to want to abandon it.

He just wants to be able to travel freely and use his skills to make money and to make a name for himself. Have you been there? No, but I clearly intend to, and I know I'm very welcome over there. So it's definitely something I plan on doing. They may or may not actually have backyard barbecues, but he tells Snorri that because he knows that's the biggest selling point for getting him there. Well, if he stages the pictures and videos he sends me,

then good on him. Well done. Snorri, do you travel a lot? Yeah, I do. I travel immensely much. And COVID, of course, put the brakes on that. But I've been traveling a lot now this fall. And I'm on my way to Miami next week.

So there's a lot going on. Yeah. When Patrick Vellner got married or something happened. And I remember O'Keefe saying that he was going to go to his wedding. And I was thinking, oh man, being an agent must be so fucking hard. Like I would never,

I would never want to go to a wedding. I don't care. And then to go to all these weddings and shit like that. And he had to like go, he had to, Vellner lives like in a far, far away land. Like he lives on an island somewhere in some fucked up country. And he had to go there, and then he had to go like on a week boat ride with Vellner and like a bachelor party.

It just sounded – I think he had to drive the boat actually. I'm going to blow my brains out if I had to do that for someone. I'm not going to my own kid's wedding. Do you ever – are you ever just like go ahead yeah you develop feelings for these people you become a part of their life so yeah when they invite you to the wedding it's something you happily do and it's not work it's uh that okay that's just a friend of yours inviting you to his wedding and you feel really, really special about it and good about it.

And you look forward to it. Do you have a girlfriend? I have a wife, man. You have a wife. So you can't even go to. Where is it? Yeah. So you're not even going to the wedding with like ulterior motives.

You're going, you really are. You're not like, okay, I'll get a bridesmaid while I'm there or something. I can, man. I've faced up to that i'm no alternative look at my beautiful wife how did i land back so that is a beautiful story congratulations no ulterior motives whatsoever man what does she say what is you don't drink no he's 26 years man i didn't know i didn't know i thought 26 years i assumed he was on. I didn't know. He's still 26 years. I assumed he was on heroin or something and that drinking he still drank. It's all relative, man.

You either quit all of it or you're setting yourself up to fail. That's a nice thing right there. Yeah. My Armani. My one and only time in Armani. I can tell you the story about how that suit ended up in the wedding some other time, but it's a very long story. I don't

want to bore you to death. Did it get destroyed? Yes, it sure did. I ripped the pants in the church. Squatting? Yeah, squatting. My whole backside blew out, man. Fucking Armani. Don't buy that shit it's crap

hey are have you ever been into power lifting yourself do you got a big old ass like yeah yeah i got a big old ass but it's uh it's 50 50 power lifting on hamburgers so it's uh but there is some power in there uh i've done a lot of powerlifting, but I've never been elite at anything that has to do with athletics. I'm fairly strong. I'm fairly this and I'm fairly that, but I'll never win a competition there. And I realized that early, and then I found out that I can be pretty good at this communication shit

and all of that. Yeah, look at that. 240 kilos. Yeah, wow at that. 240 kilos. Yeah, wow. Oh, my goodness. I'm lifting three times there. Yeah. What's that in pounds?

That's going to be close to 600 pounds, I think. Yeah, I did 24 reps of that that day. I did it eight sets of three. So, yeah, I can be considered fairly strong, but compared to my friends over here, I'm nothing. And there are some pretty fucking strong guys over here. Yeah, you hang out with some savages. That's for sure. So anyway, that's awesome.

Thank you for sharing all that about Rome. And I think there's like so many people that have the wrong ideas. Like you said, a lot of rumors out there. So hopefully that can just put in perspective what you guys are doing to try to make it possible for him to get over here. He deserves to have that chance. And he is receiving help from new places now that I can't really comment on, but there is, we have increased hope because there's a new strategy that has been put in place by people in power who might, that might actually work out.

So I am, I am silently and calmly hopeful that we will see Roman at the games this year. Well, I think everyone's kind of feels that way. And then, you know, I also asked you about Emma and this is, you know, this is super interesting to me because when you started in, into this domain of helping CrossFit athletes out,

they were already competing in CrossFit. Now we have this new generation of athletes coming up that are, and especially on the women's side, that are so young and already like sticking their foot in the door and saying, I'm ready to compete with some of the best girls in the world. I mean, a top 10, you know, a couple of top 10 finishes, a couple of good events over in Dubai, like that's nothing to think twice about for someone who's only 16 years old. So what is it, but how does the perspective change for you helping an athlete or, you know, who's so young getting into the sport and what are the, you know,

what are the differences in terms of priorities for someone at the beginning of their career? How old is she right now, by the way, before we start? She's 16. She turned 17 in four days. She is, uh, she's two years younger than Mal O'Brien, for example, just, just for context. So it's absolutely mind-blowing how far she has come. But in Emma's case, it's her father that reaches out. He had heard some good things about me from someone that knew me.

And one of her idols is Sarah. So I assume that Sarah was the validator for me in that sense. But me and her father, we just had some really good conversations. She definitely scored high in the parents lottery, that girl. And her parents really navigate the balance between her being still a teenager who is in high school, who needs to do teenager stuff and have a life and have friends and all of that. And then that relentless, grueling training and all of that, that is required to reach any of those goals. She is a fantastic kid.

And I'm kind of looking for the words to describe, without being irresponsible, just how much potential I think she has. Because not only is she an athlete of this caliber and still in the development phases but she also has a personality she also has a wicked sense of humor and she has she has so much to offer as a person that brands would want to be involved with that fans will relate to and like she has so many of those things that come naturally to Sarah, come naturally to her as well.

And the two of them get along great. She has a big following already. She has a big following already. She does. And if you look at her social media, it's very professionally handled. And that's not my doing. That's a premeditated approach that she and her folks already had in place when I came along. Yeah, I basically think that Rich was the impetus in the CrossFit space for people realizing that they could leverage their competitiveness, their excellence on the floor into something off the floor.

But I think now people like Emma and Mal and Emma Carey who are coming in and doing so well so young, they have to consider on two fronts. I have to continue to train and compete well, but I need to position myself or put people around me that can help me be relevant in social media, be relevant in the sponsor game, because that like that he's opened the door the way that Tiger Woods did or Michael Jordan did so that you can have support off from off the floor to make training, recovering, et cetera, the things that you need for longevity more feasible. And that's where I think, you know, now, now we're at the point where people like you and O'Keefe and the other agents that have popped up become really important in terms of setting up the foundation so that that career can extend

for a long time. Fully agree. Fully agree. It's interesting. She's just a kid and she's in a, and she's in a, um, and she's in a woman's world already. I have some pretty strong feel. already i i have some pretty strong feel yeah i give it to me yeah there's some weird like um i remember being in meetings where i where the the the or on emails where they would the crossfit games crew would talk about what the teens should be wearing and should they be wearing the same

thing that the that the women wear because of just how much of their skin they see. And I just can't emphasize enough to people who are watching this. These are still fucking kids, man. Don't ever get that shit twisted. No. Like a 16-year-old girl is a fucking kid. She is. And I feel so protective over it.

Along the same line, you know, the prime minister of the UK, Boris fucking dipshit. Johnson. Yeah. He just told his country, hey, you're better off taking the injection because dieting and being healthy is too hard. I don't care if you say that to adults, but don't say that shit to my kids. My kids don't need anyone arguing their limitations for them and and i just feel so protective and i see her and like like if you don't tell me she's 16 i just see this beautiful woman but the second you tell me she's 16 i flash back to what a knucklehead i was when i was 16 and it's like it's like for an agent man it's a

whole different world right you have this fucking sophisticated powerhouse that is that is the force of nature sarah sigman's daughter i mean we had her on the show it was like just two hours of just blitzkrieg i mean it was nuts um she's so special and then you have emma lawson not a dig at her but she's a she's a plant that doesn't even have she hasn't even given fruit yet sarah's a full-blown tree you know like yeah like it's just nuts it's quite the juxtaposition of um of characters and potential and yeah it's uh yeah but it's nuts have you seen them together in the same room emma and sarah yes yeah they're great i mean we were together in dubai and i mean, Sara has some like big sister wife there,

which is a very good thing to have. And they have spoken multiple times. They have spoken on the phone. And I introduced them quite early on because I felt that Sara could be a very good influence on Emma, which she is. Yeah. a very good influence on Emma, which she is. Yeah.

But then she's got this network of people around her. She's got a whole family. She's got parents that are very, very aware of how sick society is, you know, and how hard it can be if she isn't protected from some of that stuff. So barriers have been put up. And we're just very transparent in all our communication about what needs to be done and what doesn't. And if there is something that we need to stay clear of, et cetera. I'm a parent myself. Oh, you are?

Yeah, my younger son is a year younger than she is and my older son is two years older than she is so it's uh i have uh as a parent i can relate to a lot of the things that her parents are dealing with yeah and i think that's that serves me in good stead as well so it's uh well. So there are multiple things to look out for. And those young teenagers coming into the sport now, we're all just learning now. We're all just on a learning curve. But trying to stay the course is all I can do. And there will be some things that will come up.

Nothing bad has come up yet. And nothing that makes me concerned has happened yet. If she needs time to develop, she has all the time in the world. So it's rather that if she would have qualified for the Games, if she would have been one of those, if they would have been three, the teenagers who were for the Games, if she would have been one of those, if they would have been three, the teenagers who were among the elites, that might have brought on some spotlight, some undesired spotlight to her. So the months since then and now till Dubai, I think actually were very pivotal in her growth. What happens in 2022? It will be a, an approach that will be mindful of

her age. Yeah. Awesome. Hey, um, you see someone like Sarah, she has nearly 2 million followers on Instagram and she still seems pretty normal. Like actually very, actually very normal. And, um, and, and, and you see it more with men. I feel like the men stay more normal than the women. But a lot of the women, shit starts getting weird at like 500,000 followers. Like they start getting like plastic surgery or injections in their face or they turn into just world-class bitches. they turn into uh just world-class bitches um i i know i know social media is really hard and i know like for for me it's fantastic because i'm old and like there's nothing you and probably for you too i sense it like there's no where you can't throw you can't hurt me with anything

like make all the big nose jokes you want tell me about like i'm old tell me about the great like bring it all on and then when people attack me that i have a podcast it's actually fodder i'm actually looking for confrontation so i can bring up on my next episode of my podcast how how thick is sarah's skin like you've known her now for a while like I mean, she could rescue someone out of a burning building and someone's going to ridicule her on how she grabbed the kid. Oh, she shouldn't have grabbed the kid's arm. She's going to hurt the kid. I mean, it's a savage landscape. There's nothing you can do good on there. Does she have a crazy thick skin compared to someone like emma or like how

how do you see people cultivate that thick skin do you talk people through that i mean people forget that on this on the other side of every account there's just a a child we're all just children we're all just people and go ahead sorry her feelings get her feelings get hurt too you know yeah yeah but she but she expects it she realizes that sometimes that just happens and the spotlight whatever that the spotlight brings there is some garbage that comes with it for the most part because because Sarah is such a normal person, because she is so approachable. She is so much of that girl next door that most people have extremely good vibes towards her. Because that's what she projects back. She has, of course, like you discussed on the podcast, she gets an assortment of dick pics.

like you discussed on the podcast, she gets an assortment of dick pics. She gets marriage proposals and she gets all of that crap. Snorri, there's got to be a billion dollar NFT in there with those dick pics. I'm telling you, there's got to be. Okay, sorry, go on, go on. So she gets bombed with all the love affairs.

She brushes it up. But you also have to realize that Sarah is a cynical person. She has so much sarcasm in her. She has so high tolerance for rude jokes. And the stuff she is, she has a dark side. The stuff she is capable of saying as a joke, it would surprise you. But it all comes from a good place. But what I'm leading at is she can take most of those things.

Sarah is the last person on earth who will be offended by something. And that's just her personality. It's not a personality she developed she just entered this earth as a open-minded free-spirited person who doesn't get offended and doesn't over dramatize anything and Those things are really really helpful when it comes to all this spotlight and all those things She's also comfortable with the person she is she doesn't have to act as a different person Sarah camera turned on, camera turned off, exactly the same person, exactly the same. And she does want to spread joy. She wants to keep people around her with a smile on their face.

But it comes from a natural place. It isn't marketing. it isn't something other than that's who she is so the way she functions in this whole thing she doesn't over dramatize the negatives and she takes a lot of heart from the positives so if if someone has found the way to really navigate through this, it is Sarah. I thought it was really interesting when you guys had her on the podcast because you bombarded her with some questions. She was never faced with any of it. And that's exactly how she is. Yeah, she was amazing.

You can say some nasty shit to her that would really get a lot of people riled up and she will just laugh it off. That's to her credit. You are not going to put her in a tough spot. The last year in Sarah's life has been an absolute fucking nightmare and there were things that were widely reported her injury nightmare her her dog literally her best friend uh got hit by a car and died and there were so many things that went sideways for her and she still maintained she still thrived she still did all of that stuff that she needed to do and she was back on a competition floor eight months post-surgery and kicking ass. Her fitness wasn't all there, but she was all there.

She set a record on her. What did she say on the show? She said a PR. Go ahead, Brian. Sorry. It was a post-surgery PR, but it was a PR. She had done 95 kilos split jerk previous to the competition. Oh, no, it was a run. 107.5. It was a lifetime PR for a run, wasn't it? One kilometer or one mile run. It was either one of those. Yeah.

That's crazy. Yeah, just buckle your seat. She's coming back. That's crazy. Yeah, just buckle your seat. She's coming back. And given that her body holds up, I have this theory that the whole rest of her body healed up while she was healing her knee. So I have a feeling that we're getting a Sarah who has everything set up for success now. You know what?

What about this? set up for success. No. You know what, what about this? Uh, when, when I, that, that going back to that guy, dusty tuckness, the bullfighter, I had a feeling he's, I have a feeling he's going to transcend the sport. Okay. Because he, and he already did because people go there. The first step has happened. People go there to watch the guy ride the bull, right? And he's been so good at protecting the Cowboys that now people are going to the sport to watch him. It's like if someone went to the sport to an NBA game to watch the judge or the referee. I mean it's just weird, right? And you look at Sarah, and not that she's not one of the best CrossFitters who ever lived, but she's been injured. She's been out.

She's had struggles, and yet she's still at the very, very top of the food chain in terms of attention. I think she can be that one person who transcends the sport or people who aren't into CrossFit. Like Tiger Woods did for golfing. I could give two shits about golfing, but he went beyond the sport, right? I mean she's got it, right? Yep, and she is already on that trajectory. She's the girl next door and yet she's still sorry say that again she is on that trajectory already i mean what we're watching

there is the launch of her clothing line she is she's sponsored by volkswagen who didn't sign her as a crossfit athlete they signed her as the, independent woman who does her own thing. The number of letters she gets from mothers and from others just highlighting what a good role model, what a nice example she is setting for their daughters, for their children. She's already in that space. I can't speak for the other ladies, but I definitely can't speak for Sarah when I say that there is a lot of different people paying attention to her than CrossFit enthusiasts. And they're not there for the underwear pictures because she doesn't post any of that stuff. She never leverages herself or her sexuality yeah please talk to

her about that please can you fix that story thank you i i like how i like how good she is with bkg too by the way i love seeing their camaraderie when they're together in the pictures i love that it makes me want to be there with them it's crazy they are genuine friends they like they hang out they they give each other tons of shit and when when one is competing the other is watching and all of that they're just they're genuine friends a lot of training partners love training together but they don't hang out afterwards they whenever there's an opportunity they have they hang out afterwards. They, whenever there's an opportunity, they hang out and they engage. And they're just like brother and sister.

There's nothing more there. They're just like really good friends that hang out and respect each other. So that's absolutely a wonderful thing for me to watch as well. And quite often the three of us are involved in some dealings they have uh some of the sponsors sponsor both of them and then we leverage both of them both of them do photo shoots at the same time etc and it's always good fun and good banter um what do you think about the phenomenon i heard

you talking about this with um with uh just talking about this with Justin. There are these different events. There are these events like Rogue does that are just outstanding for the athletes, perfect weather, perfect everything, perfect money, all this, and yet the seats can't be filled. Yeah. CrossFit Games is selling out in 11 minutes the stadium, and the tickets are more expensive than fucking seeing Guns N' Roses. Is that all the affiliates? What do you think has – why does the games – why does CrossFit HQ have such a stronghold on that, on the fans? Why didn't the fans go to the Rogue event? Why aren't they going to Waterproof? I mean they't they going to water but you know what i mean what say that again you disagree there was okay good there's a bunch of people at rogue there was a bunch of people there and the the stadium was just set up in a way where you couldn't fill all the seats because the line of disability wasn't wasn't there from from angle. I don't know how many people were there, but there were thousands.

And I believe there is a route here to the popularity of this sport that needs to be explored. I cannot explain CrossFit to my grandma. I could explain soccer to her. I could explain soccer to her. I can explain boxing to her. I mean, the guy that gets knocked out loses. Or the team that scores more goals wins. But CrossFit has all these crazy curves to it.

And when you're announcing all the events at the very last minute, it gives the broadcasting team and the announcers and everyone such a limited time to prepare to really give a good, engaging broadcast experience to those who know nothing about it. tell someone, hey, watch this event. Watch Dubai or watch the Rogue or whatever. People who don't know what CrossFit is all about, who haven't done their beginner course or aren't training it themselves, they have a really, really hard time understanding what's happening on the screen.

It's not like they're popping popcorn and bringing out the sodas to just indulge in CrossFit. Let me propose this to you. Let me propose this to you. Yeah, give it to me. Let me propose this to you. I remember being a kid and watching American football

and not being interested in it because I couldn't follow the rules. I basically had to be stuck watching it with some other people to finally get into it. So I get that feeling. people to finally get into it. So I get that feeling from 2007 to, uh, to, to 2016, 17, the media team at CrossFit Inc did so much character development. We basically wrote the playbook for what that, what that I think that the UFC uses with the, the, we went to all the athletes homes. We did all the like road to the games. I mean, it was crazy. You two would reach out to us and be like, holy shit, we've never seen anything like this.

This is the biggest series outside of the UFC for their embedded series. And their embedded series was not nearly as – I mean, granted, they had to do more. But it was not nearly the quality of road to the games, not the in-depth with the characters, none of that. games not the in-depth with the characters none of that and then basically and and so now we know we know from what we did at the games last year and what we did with rogue from the feedback and how the podcast has exploded and now we already know from wadapalooza like people i've already gotten five dms in the last you know 24 hours saying i'm gonna watch wadapalooza because you interviewed james sprague i would have never watched it before my feeling is is that um and i'm open to your idea too about it being too complicated but i'm like hey there's no character development it's kind of like um yeah like we don't know how much cool how many people would be into roman if we could get

some character development i mean like it's like you said russia si Siberia is just like might as well be Mars to an American. It's a mythical place. It's like fucking – it's Wonderland. It's Alice in Wonderland. My days of traveling are over. I would love to go. Those days, I filmed a bunch of movies and shit in Russia. It was awesome. It was awesome.

But my days are over. But go get them, Clive. Go get them. So I think it's character development. When they got rid of the media team at CrossFit HQ, no, sorry. When they got rid of me at CrossFit HQ, it went to shit.

That's my theory. No more character development. I will give a lot of applause to this. And when I was studying CrossFit, I didn't know shit about CrossFit. And I didn't really care about CrossFit or anything. But what really helped me was all this terrific content that was available to get involved in it. And those movies that you guys did, the 2015, 16, and 17 movies. Or even Every Second Counts.

Even the first one from 2008. Like, you got to see these people. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And you got to see all of them. Not only just the champions. Yes. And all of that. And I think in terms of Sarah Singlestoke

and her fame and everything she has become, this was the springboard. This was beyond doubt the springboard. Because without this, you would have only had this blonde girl who crushed a few events and nearly won it in 2015 and 2016. But you wouldn't really have the character that you really engaged with, you really believed in, and you really wanted to know more about. So definitely this is all correct. It doesn't change the fact, though, that during the exact broadcast of the event,

we're not really catering to people outside of the CrossFit and fitness space. We're not getting people who might become interested if they have more of a chance of understanding what's going on. And they don't need to know the difference between a pull-up and a muscle-up and all of that. They don't really need that. That can be developed over time. But if the excitement about each event, the excitement about each event,

the excitement about how the points are accumulated and how this is all driven through, there's a lot of ground that can be made up on that. And because so many of the events are announced at the last minute, the announcers resort to telling stories about those select few that they know personally or know everything about and you have a longer time domain event and the camera is on one athlete while the announcer is telling their life story while someone else is maybe doing something terrific they miss a lot of stuff that's for sure yeah they miss so much and it may be served those who know everything about CrossFit,

but it doesn't really serve any of those others. All those burger-eating truck drivers that could be loving this will just stick to UFC and football and those sports that they understand. I'm not even sure that's the case because this example that Savant said about James Sprague is a great one. I think that maybe before we interviewed him on on here like he was very uh unknown like you'd have to be a pretty serious fan to have any idea who james sprague was this guy's got a great personality incredible work ethic and a ton of potential

he's training with you know and he has been training with the brute strength which is a very well established program he's got friends and support system that are helping him do this. He started his own business and all, and there's so many athletes, there's like 85 individual athletes competing at Wadapalooza in the elite division. There's almost 200 of them competing in the elite teams of three division. And, you know, we're not going to be able to tell us 300 stories, but there's a,

but there's a lot more athletes that could that we could be shining a bigger spotlight on. And I agree completely that a lot of the competitions, and I think this is in part a derivative of the games and in part of just the weirdness of the ups and downs of the media space in the last three years after it was kind of disrupted, but it makes it difficult for people who do know a lot about the athletes, who do appreciate a lot of the athletes to be able to get those stories out there into into the psyche. I mean, James Sprague might not appeal to everyone, but he's going to appeal to a different demographic than a BKG or than a Roman. And if we can tell more and more stories, then we draw from more and more fields and it's better for everyone. Man, people liked him, by the way.

Yeah, definitely. it's better for everyone man people liked him by the way he yeah yeah definitely and uh it's great that you guys are bringing someone some of those incomers into into the discussion and you're featuring them and giving them a shot to shine but who is your audience uh right right any outside of crossfit are actually watching this my mom oh no wait she does crossfit too sorry no no one no one the thing i'm looking at is let's say there are five or six million people in the world doing crossfit let's say there are people around them who don't do it but appreciate CrossFit and have some interest. Let's say we have a 10 million roof on this. We have 10 million people that can be catered to.

If this sport is to reach any new heights, we need to get those into a billion or at least 100 million. It's Sarah's fault. She needs to transcend the fucking sport yeah we need to put sarah in a rocket ship and send her to mars to do thrusters or she needs to get with elon she needs to get with elon take mary you have a baby with elon if she had a baby with elon or if she had a baby with elon like i think that's like we need some sort of like you know transcending from

somewhere else well yeah to to that point it's uh there's a lot of things that can be done and there's a lot of things that will be done so it's not like I'm over here being overly pessimistic that that that CrossFit has found its roof and will never never grow from here it definitely will and yeah it will definitely some some opportunities one of the ways to do it is character development and i'm really grateful for exactly this podcast here because you guys have been bringing in people that wouldn't have been featured other ways i mean colton merton he's been around for a while you guys finally started featuring him laszlo tukic not a lot of people would have interviewed that guy yeah wonderful guy i wouldn't have interviewed

him brian's like you got to interview him i'm like i want to talk to some fucking bulgarian serbian fucking dude who doesn't speak english now I'm in love with the guy and his brother. Oh my God. I want him to come to my house and play. They're awesome. He's probably up for that. Hey, you represent,

you represent the brothers. No, but I'm friends with them and they are in the category of people that I do help out from time to time. You're in courtship with them. Yeah. And I mean, they are, they're just friends of mine. And the European, what's the word for it?

Collegiate? No. The group of European athletes and people involved in the sport over here in Europe, we tend to have tighter ties. I think you're looking at the European contingency. Yeah, that was it. That was it. And I am more motivated to be of service to someone over here

than from somewhere else, to be of service to someone over here than from somewhere else just for the reason that we try to stick together and help each other out is sarah going to get married do you think soon not soon no no not soon and why should she get married she shouldn't not really that's not really our culture i mean no one is caring if you if you sleep around before marriage over here so she's pretty good to go oh uh well i wasn't even going there i don't even think she has from from the little bit we that i've spoken with her i don't even think she has i opened pandora's box i don't even think she has time to sleep around i that's the second time you've done it. You brought up the virus before he could.

Now you've brought up sex before he could. His two favorite topics. I'm here for the first time, and I'm making the mistakes so that I won't have to make them again later. Hey, she loves going to Dubai, huh? Yeah. I keep thinking we're going to find out she's, like, marrying a prince over there or something. I keep thinking that there's, like, when I see she goes over there like two months ahead of time, I'm like, man, there must be something over there. We asked her about that. I asked her about that, about men in her life.

And she basically she gave a very honest answer. I really liked it. It was like, hey, man, like, yeah, it'd be great to have someone, but I don't know. I can't give anyone attention. Like, hey, man, like, yeah, it'd be great to have someone, but I don't know. I can't give anyone attention. And it's like, that's exactly the thing. If someone wants to tag along, then it will be on her terms. Man have a problem with that. So she will she she just she navigates her life on her terms. Everything she does is on her terms.

her life on her terms. Everything she does is on her terms. She tries to be as nice about it as possible, but training and competing and doing the things that serve her goals come first. There isn't a place for anything else, but I mean she's got friends all

over. She does whatever she wants to do, whenever she wants to do. And then Dubai just happens to be where her best friend lives. And there happens to be a group of motivated people training there. The sun is usually the factor of where she wants to be at any given time. She loves the sun. So she is planning on spending a considerable time in America now next season.

Max is over there. She will probably stick around in Florida for a little while after the Guadalupalooza. But she just doesn't tie herself down to anything. She's just free. That sounds like me. Except you're stuck in Californiaifornia all the time it seems yeah yeah yeah but like i just do whatever you know but that's on his terms is what he's saying what's what's what's this word mean dollarama i will vincent chung i will gladly be her low

maintenance dollarama plant prince what's dollarama mean i have no no idea. Oh, okay. Here, I'm looking up on Wikipedia. It's a Canadian – oh, it's Canadian money? What is that? Someone – is it Canadian dollar store retail chain headquartered in Montreal? Oh, it's a – you'll be her retail store prince? Okay. I'm not sure I get that, but I like it. All right.

Well, I mean mean try sending a dick pic in your dms and see if you join me oh my goodness um you know what's funny stories i'm using this i i don't want to be i don't want to be in the CrossFit space. Okay. Where do you want to be? I'm leveraging. It's not that I don't want to be. It's not that I don't want to be.

It's that I don't want to be. I would rather – I'm leveraging the CrossFit audience and the people through CrossFit to pursue this idea that, um, to just take one shot at making the biggest podcast in the world. And like, and like all these people are fucking amazing. It truly is crazy. Like every morning when I'm in the shower, I'm like, I can't believe someone sent me a dollar 99. Like it's crazy that someone would click and do that. But to, to me, like, um but but i'm leveraging i want to bring i i'm hoping that crossfit my crossfit friends can and community can push me into outer space do you know what i mean yeah i'm just lever i'm just leveraging this so i do the um and

thank god i've run into people like brian who will help me do it and people like Matt Souza. I don't know where I was going with that, but it's just interesting. I mean I think it's mutually beneficial, right? But I'm just as interested in interviewing James Sprague as I am interviewing someone who's like at his same level in the ultimate frisbee circuit or some kid who's the best physicist at his college or I'm just as interested although you know I reached out to a ultimate frisbee guy and he told me that I would have to pay him to come on my podcast he's a disc golf player not ultimate frisbee yeah you're saying shit maybe that's why maybe that's why he didn't charge me potato tomato but hey do you do. Do any of your clients charge to go on podcasts? No, no. And we aren't there.

I remember when Conor McGregor was rising to fame, he did every single fucking interview he could do. Local radio stations, podcasts weren't a really big thing back then, but he was doing all these radio and cable video and whatever interview he could go to. And this is what propelled him

into, because he knew he could talk, he knew he could impress people, but this, the media is what helped him get there. So, my view on this is we're selective on the media that they do. It's not like, uh, every single respond, uh, request for an interview is granted, but we have never ever asked for payment from the media for, for, uh,

for an athlete to be featured. I never thought in a million years, I never thought in a million years Sarah would come on this podcast. Really? She really likes you. You must have known that she likes you. She likes you. And I'm not meaning sexually. Like the person you, your humor, whatever you stand for,

she's always liked you. You've interviewed her multiple times through the past. You had the camera in her face many times. And she either likes you or not. It's very clear to her. And you were in the former category. So when you reached out to her, she was always up for it. I don't think anyone – do you have any insecurities about people liking you

like i feel like no one really likes me no you don't you think people like you well i know for a fact that there are plenty of people that don't like me and uh there's plenty of people that i don't like either and i just assume that most people don't like me okay why do you think people are watching this podcast, man? Why do you think you are generating all these views? And liking and liking. I mean, that's – They want to watch it.

They're hoping there will be a train wreck. They're hoping that I'll say something. They're just waiting for someone to tell me to shut the fuck up. They're waiting for me to say something to you and think I'm safe because I'm 6,000 miles from you. And then you walk in the door and you just start beating my ass. I think that's what they kind of like. Everyone secretly hopes that.

That's the way I think. You have to take this to a very, very dark and unsecure place for that ever to happen, man. So, no, I think you're more liked than you give yourself credit for and i think deep down inside you know that that that is the case well good i i i'm not gonna tell myself then that though because it because it drives me thank you leslie thank you thank you thank you look look look see look at look at this is my mom I like you Yeah

That's really all that counts That's really all that matters Does your mom know what you do Snorri Does your mom know what you do Absolutely Does your dad know My dad passed away this year but he knew really really well Yes

My mom knows what i do but my dad doesn't really know what i do okay excuse me no my my parents they uh both showed a lot of interest in in any business endeavor that i've been in and especially now on this trajectory i i share quite a lot especially when there's something happening through my social media. So my people have a pretty good view of what I'm doing when something is happening. How did your dad pass? He had cancer. And it was just like a five-year deterioration until he finally couldn't take it anymore.

So he passed away in September, and it really sucked. I'm still getting over that. But at least we managed to have the conversations that we wanted to. I mean, I had five years from the point in time where he announced that he had cancer until he died. So I had five years to really use to get everything that I could from him. So I'm happy about that. It started as a testicular cancer, but then it spread out all over the place. I think he probably toughed it out a bit longer than he should.

Hey, that's really cool what you said, though, that you had five years to like. Yeah. You had five years of the last day. And do you live close to your mom? Yeah, we live maybe 10 minutes apart. And do you see her a lot? Yeah. And of course, after he passed away, I tried to do more of it.

I, of course, in a normal year, I'm traveling like half the year. I'm traveling maybe 150 days a year. So I'm not seeing my mom those days. And I also have a wife and kids. So there's a lot of sacrifice in time that has to be made so that I can be doing what I love doing. But so far, so good. It works out. Yeah.

You're lucky you have your mom close by. Do your kids have a relationship with your mom? Absolutely, yes. I mean, that's one of the beauties of Iceland. It's small and compact. Yeah. That's one of the beauties of Iceland. It's small and compact. So if you want to have a good family or a close family, then that's very possible here. We aren't scattered all over. In my family, I didn't know my grandparents that well, like hardly at all.

I mean, a little bit. The ones I was close to, they spoke a different language than me, so it was hard to communicate with them. My Armenian wasn't that great. But my kids have my mom and my dad, which is awesome. Yeah, and you guys can do that in Iceland. Yeah, absolutely. Like it's not uncommon for people to have relationships with their grandparents. No, not at all. That's the way of life over here.

Most families keep it pretty close over here, yes. Would you encourage your kids if they wanted to become CrossFit Games athletes to encourage that? Or would you say, no, it's too hard. I will encourage them to do whatever they want to do and to chase any dream they want to chase. I mean, that's how I got where i am at in chasing a dream one dream after another so uh that's what i will try to inspire them to do how about ufc would you let them go that route well my older son was training at the mma gym i I would happily let, let him make those choices for himself if that's what he wanted to do. So I am, I'm not here to put blocks on anything, but you're better,

you're better dad than me. I'd probably be skeptical about it. I'm scared about it, but still, I mean, uh, Gunnar Nelson, do you know Gunnar Nelson? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he's a friend of mine. And his dad is a very good friend of mine. And we have a lot of conversations about that. So, I mean, that worked out well for Gunnar. So why wouldn't it work out well for someone else?

Yeah, he's a special guy. We need to get him on this podcast. You can speak to him. He's not only special, he's loads of fun. He's a really fun guy. He just made Savan's day. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Originally, I thought I had when Brian first mentioned me to you and I started digging around in your business, I thought that I was like, oh, I got to meet Snorri so I can get Gunnar. I got to meet Snorri so I can get Gunnar. Yeah, I'd love to do that. Let's make that happen. He is about to get active again.

So hopefully he will be fighting sometime in Q1 this year. So it will be a good time to speak to him because he's been out for two years now. Who's the other? You represent someone else too who's huge in the 205 pound division. I don't represent any of those fighters, but I've been helping out every now and then.

I don't have anyone else in the MMA realm that I've been working with other than Gunny. You weren't representing um uh who's the guy he fought john jones gustafson no unfortunately the swedish guy gustafson yeah no it's i i i don't even know him do people confuse him and gunner a lot even though they're in different weight classes no i think you're the first one oh shit because they got kind of they got a similar look going Do people confuse him and Gunnar a lot, even though they're in different weight classes? No. I think you're the first one. Oh, shit.

Because they got a similar look going. They got a similar look going. It's that Nordic Viking vibe, yeah, the blonde looks. But, I mean, Gustafsson is considerably bigger than Gunnar. Is Gunnar going to do 155? Is that his weight class no no once uh what is it 175 welterweight oh 171 oh wow yeah he's been in welterweight the whole time but he's small for a welterweight he is uh he walks around pretty close to his fighting weight while a lot of those guys are maybe 10, 15, 20 pounds higher, and then they just cut it off during fight week.

Hey, the division needs him too, because you know Kamaru has just run through the division. Yeah. We've got that new Kamsat guy who we don't know where his roof is. He was fucking scary. But Gunny has been unfortunate. He's had close fights. He had a very close fight with Leon Edwards.

He had him in a fucking lock. He needed five seconds more to finish the submission and the end of the third round. But he lost that one on points. He lost to Gilbert. What was his name? Gilbert. Burns.

Burns, yeah. Very close fight, too. Lost that one on points. All top of the food chain guys. All top three guys, yeah. Those are his last two fights. Ahead of that, he had just been storming it. last two fights, ahead of that he had just been storming

it. In a different reality with a different approach, maybe being a bit more aggressive or a bit more this or that, these were such close fights, it would have had a different outcome

and we would have been talking to him in a different light, but he's still only 32. I mean, those guys are pretty fucking old over there. Hey, 32 isn't really that old. I just put into Google Gunner and Kamzat. And Shail Sonnen made a video about that. I haven't seen that yet. Just last month.

Is that fight being talked about? I don't think Kamzat is doing it. I think Kamz that yet. Just last month. Is that fight being talked about? I don't think Campside is doing it. I think Campside wants someone ranked and higher up. But Goody called him out. Goody said, hey, if you're looking for someone, you say everyone is dodging you. I'm not.

Wow. That would be some fight. I would be scared shitless because goodness has been out of action for a while and we don't know how good this campsite is he has he has not gone against like top top level opposition yet so we don't really know but he sure looks scary that the guy has like 300 punches landed and three absorbed or something so how about the guy from china how about the guy from china he thought he picked him up and carried him over to the other side of the ring and then looked at dana and goes

this is what i do to your fighters and then just throws him on the ground i'm just like what the fuck that's a fucking great fighter so yeah i sent a clear message but still not a top 10 guy uh we're still to see him against that level of opposition yeah i would love to see him against colby oh i'd love to see that as well who wouldn't yeah and i mean colby is that good that if he runs through Colby, then everyone can be scared. I mean, then it will be clear that he's going to win the 71 and that he's going to go up

and get Izzy. How about this guy who's in the 185 division now who beat Izzy in kickboxing and they say he's made out of mahogany. This guy is nuts. I wish I could remember his name.

Maybe someone will say in the comments. Is that Khabib's friend? No, it's a Brazilian. It's Glover Teixeira's boxing coach. Okay. And he's the only guy. So, you know, I guess, I think he's the only guy so you know i guess um i guess uh uh i think he's the only guy ever to knock out israel adesana and you know israel had like a kickboxing career of like 75 wins and five losses or something right yeah and this guy beat him and beat the fuck out

of him and uh and i saw his first ufc fight and his knockout was so crazy. Anyway, I like it that you like the UFC. Yeah, I love it. I haven't brushed up on it enough in the last half year or so. I have been a bit more distant to it than I used to be, but I will probably get right back into it. That said, I watched all those great fights.

I watched all those biggest fights. Some fights, they have been now in the recent weeks. Now they're taking a few weeks off, and I have nothing to do on Saturday night. Are you going to watch the boxing match tonight? There's some heavyweight pay-per-view event tonight. Are you going to watch that?

I wasn't aware of it. I love boxing, but I have been selecting what I watch and what I don't because I don't have all the time in the world. Boxing kind of went on the back burner. When you come home,

you have to be with your kids. Sorry, Brian. Go ahead. Yeah. You're always chasing the next dream. What can we expect to see from you and your athletes, your company in the year ahead? Yeah. So I have looked a bit outside of CrossFit. I've been working with one weightlifter. I'm working with one strongman as well.

And I feel like i can chase a bit more over there i'm i'm pretty stuck in the crossfit department but i will be looking to increase in those other departments because there there's this is so synonymous there there are the same brands are sponsoring those athletes as well. So it works out well. And I kind of like having, yeah, there she is, Yasmin. She's incredible. And I started working with her like half a year ago,

and she's been just a monster to work with. Which country? She's from Malta, which is probably one of the reasons for why we get along so well. We both come from a small island nation. So even though the weather is different, there are a lot of similarities. She went to the Olympics. She's been competing at the World Championships. She's beautiful and she's driven.

She's intelligent she she has so many attributes that have been contributing to the fact that she's just skyrocketing every month in new followers and new this and new that so and a lot of opportunities that have been coming her way dude look at this people look where she lives she lives between naples italy and tripoli in a puddle of water called the mediterranean sea my god yep someone lives hey where's gabriella is that near magawa where doesn't she live oh no she's on majorca over here yeah she lives in majorca oh but you could take a boat they could boat to each other that's the med Mediterranean. If they want to, they can roll. Meet halfway.

It looks like it's about 1,000 miles. That's a lot of rolling. How is that? You represent Magawa, right? Yeah, I do. How is that? She trains on that island? Yeah, she lives there.

Do you represent Laura? No, she lives there. Oh, do you represent Laura? No, I don't. Yeah, she was great. Not Laura. But I represent Kristoff, Laura's brother, the Hungarian bear. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And he's been kind enough to be on. Yeah, he's a regular with you guys, and I love that.

You're giving him a platform. He's a really cool guy will he be in miami no neither one of them will be there uh out of my stable it's it's really only sarah who's competing there and then there are some athletes that i am involved with or have some sort of a relationship no i'm kidding sam stew. Sam Stewart, the Irish guy. Oh, that's right. He was on the show too. He's on team. Yeah. He's one of my guys. Yeah. Hey Brian, let me ask you this and then I'll see Snorri's reaction to it. Are you guys, are you, Brian,

are you surprised that Sarah would just come back brand new, do Dubai, and then do Wadapalooza, especially since so many athletes are like, hey, they're too close to each other. And here we have an athlete that's trying to just come slowly in, and yet she's charging both of them. And then on the other hand, we have Snorri saying, but this is where actually Sarah develops in competition. She's a competition developer. Yeah. And obviously that's a significant factor. And we know that that's something she's been missing and craving. The last two years, she's had very little live competition experience. But I would expect that the conversations are very mature with her and Max and whatever her personal trainers or physical therapists are in Iceland and Snorri.

My expectation is that they were like, let's do Dubai. We think we're healthy enough. We passed all the tests. Let's see what happens there. Let's do Dubai. We think we're healthy enough. We passed all the tests. Let's see what happens there.

And honestly, Dubai was a great test because they got to run in unstable conditions and they had to do the thing that caused the injury or was the last straw that broke the knee, so to speak. So she checked those boxes. And I would assume that week following that, they did a little check in. They did some whatever analysis, had the conversations. And she knows she's coming to the U.S. anyway. She knows she wants to spend some time here. She had an invite to compete there. And so if the body was holding up, then it said, okay, let's, you know, let's give this a shot too. And that would be exciting for her. So that's my perspective without knowing on the back end, what the conversations were.

You're a smart guy, Brian. You hated pretty much every single aspect of that thought process and how it evolved. We have been in communication with Waterpalooza prior to Dubai. Just if Sarah would not be cleared to do Dubai, then she would do Waterpalooza. Never did I expect that she would be doing both, but based on the evidence of Dubai, based on how she felt, then it was clear she wanted to do the other.

And in Max, she has a fantastic coach. She has someone that is a very smart guy. He doesn't take no bullshit, but he also listens. He listens to what she wants and what she wants to achieve. And he is developing an understanding to how she operates. This will be more about if there's anything iffy that she pulls out. That's my hope. If she's feeling that anything is being being compromised if her knee is acting out or if

there's anything then she can just pull out right there and then and i hope she will stay true to that because this doesn't really contribute to the 2022 season at all but it does contribute to her self-confidence her belief and her trusting that her body will hold up. And that's what she's chasing mostly. She isn't looking at the podium even as something that she is thinking about. She's thinking about just performing in a competitive setting. And I really think that prior to Dubai, Savan, we'd had a lot of conversations about the history of Dubai and the intensity of that competition and the beatdown that it often was.

And that wasn't the case. They had, the athletes had plenty of time day to day to recover. There were never too many things in one day. There weren't these hour-long runs in the desert or insanely heavy barbell cycling workouts that would just leave you, you know, unable or with a week or two needed to recover from that. And if, and so that's another factor that plays into it. And I think also having seen the programming for Guadalupalooza that they're also being responsible with the way that they're programming. So it's not a huge setback for athletes who choose to compete there, but instead it's an opportunity to test their fitness. They're still going to be tested and it's going to be hard, but they have the opportunity to recover day to day. And it's not such a grueling test that sets them back for

a month from their training or whatever. Brian called the programming at Wadapalooza responsible. It's funny when I hear that, I just think of all the, I just want to know all the events that he thinks are irresponsible. I have a question for you,orri but first i gotta say something to caleb hi caleb uh don't we have a uh a new overlay that when someone says brian is smart it's supposed to pop on the screen and say brian is smart yes what are you doing over there uh you're doing your day job or like what's going on show up show up jesus crime anybody hell's going on sorry you guys the reason no the reason why i say that it's responsible is because the competitions are aware that the ecosystem needs – Oh, wait, wait, wait. Hold on.

It's one of those overlays? I don't mean – don't be getting crazy, Caleb. It fucking will come over your house. Sorry, sorry. No, no. There needs to be a balance. Athletes want to compete in the offseason, but they know that there's only so many times they can compete. As Tony said, it's going to be

different athlete to athlete. But the competitions also need the athletes there. So if they're doing things that are so difficult, so demanding, so fatiguing, so draining that it then prohibits them from doing other competitions, it's actually worse overall for everyone. Hashtag CrossFit Games? Hashtag CrossFit Games?

CrossFit Games is different because it's the end of the season. It's at least a couple months, and it's for the best of the best. How about us? Can you point out to any – do you know competitions in your head that are irresponsible? No, some of these have been programmed differently and with different purposes in years past. Okay. in years past. But now we kept all of the, everyone in the sport, the competition directors, the managers, athletes, the coaches, et cetera, are all realizing and learning more and more every year about what's reasonable in terms of volume of training cycle, volume of training day, volume

of competing in a season. And that if people are more cognizant of that, then they can create the reality for athletes to compete a little more often without having to worry about how detrimental it's going to be to whatever their other goals are. I like that. Yeah. Do you think that Sarah has the discipline to pull out if she is, I know these people,

they're, they're, they're some of their best qualities that got them to where they are is that they are hyper competitive. I hyper-competitive. I guess that is the question. If she feels something like, hey, it's better to fight another day than die on this hill, does she have that in her? Not by herself, but there is a team there. It's a team.

And it has been spoken about. And she knows what her goals are, too. But no, on the day, it will be really hard. But she also remembers how fucking hard it was to be on the sidelines for eight months. So she's a smart girl. You should put that on the screen. Sarah is super intelligent. I'm looking at Caleb and he's smiling.

So Caleb, I couldn't find it either, just so you know. I couldn't find the Brian is smart. I saw it. Yeah, there we are. Let's get rid of that H. There is an H in her name. It's Sarah. It ends with an A.

Hey, can you say her real name? Snorri? Snorri? Snorri. Yeah, I sure can. Her name is Rachneri Sarah Seymour Stott. Rachneri Sarah Seymour Stott. Put that in your Bible and smoke it. Hey, I really need someone to spell that out for me.

Is it phonetically? So that I um start saying it like i say bjorgvin carl gudmundsson you have come a long way with that one yeah you have i feel like when i say his name it's like when i start up my motorcycle i just feel like better than everyone around me snorri thank you uh thank you very much I hope we won you over that you will feel safe and encourage us and allow us to interview any of the

people in your stable I hope you'll stay in touch it was great having you happy new year yeah you too guys thank you so much and I'm a big fan of this podcast and I have been for a while so it's been an honor to be here. And I was just thinking what took you so long.

So it wasn't a, you know, it's just waiting for the right time. I was just thinking, these guys probably think I'm a fucking asshole. See, so you have the same problem I have. So you have the same problem I have.

Just from you guys. Just from you guys. But thanks for.