Hungry Dog Barbell Podcast
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Hungry Dog Barbell Podcast
Dwight Sheehan
Dwight Sheehan shares his journey from a 268-pound globo gym member to CrossFit affiliate owner, highlighting how an unexpected hospital stay changed his career trajectory and life path.
• Started CrossFit in March 2021 after two gym members suggested he consider bodybuilding
• Played offensive and defensive line in high school football, later becoming a high school coach
• Lost significant weight in 2016, dropping from 268 pounds to 225 through running and diet changes
• Developed a MRSA infection right before his first CrossFit comp
• Decided to leave his unfulfilling mortgage job after his boss asked if he could work from the hospital
• Took over CrossFit 717, growing membership from 65 to 110 members
• Created "Nobody's Safe Athletics" as his coaching brand for individualized programming
• Balances the dual challenges of being both a coach and owner
• Preparing for the Master's Fitness Championships qualifier after placing fourth by half a point last year
Yeah, so this was my third open as the affiliate owner. So when I came in it was already established the Friday Night Lights which I was a part of at my old gym and I loved it. So obviously I kept that this year. The signups just overall, obviously worldwide were down and we saw the same thing across our affiliates. So we still try to do our best to put on the best Friday Night Lights that we can. We still try to do our best to put on the best Friday Night Lights that we can. Just attendance was a little lower. And then we have a lot of people who follow their own programming and do open gym and stuff. So they're doing it throughout the day, kind of whenever they can get it in.
Speaker 2:So you did see like a little bit of a dip even for people that maybe did the open last year. They're still at the affiliate, like less people signed up and also less people came to Friday Night Lights.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure, like we usually, I'll do heats of six, just based off of space equipment stuff. I said like last year we probably had a solid six or seven heats and then there were two weeks this week where we had five and then we kind of just wrapped it up from there. So just overall numbers were down in general and and we definitely saw that during our Friday Night Lights. And then me personally I want to always do Friday Night Lights, but with running everything, making sure it runs smoothly and wanting to get a good warm-up in, instead of just being like, hey, put me in heat seven, I'll just run this the whole time and jump in. I always do it. I coach the 530, 630. I've been, I always do it. I coach the 5, 30, 6, 30, then I usually do some business stuff, eat, and then I do the workout like 9 or 10 during um, during the open. So there was, I did. I jumped into noon class on 25.2.
Speaker 2:so I was able to talk about 9 or 10 pm. At first I was like no, no, no. In the morning.
Speaker 1:I'm usually asleep by then, um, but I jumped into the noon class. We have a new class, so I jumped into that for 25.2, which was good because since coming out here, that was the first time I was able to do it with others, which you could only imagine it's it's hard to just be grinding through yourself yeah, it's tough, dude, I did the, I did 25.1 and 3 by myself.
Speaker 2:Okay, I redid, I redid the 25.2 solo also, uh, and yeah, it's. Uh, it's different man, you know, but as like coaches, especially people that run like the friday night lights and stuff like that, like you're usually doing it, hopefully with one of the earlier classes, so I've been in the same boat like for the past few years, bro, yeah, no, that's the CrossFit Open, exactly. So we didn't say at the beginning, right, we got Dwight, dwight Sheehan, is that how I say?
Speaker 2:your last name she, she, she co-owner of CrossFit 717 on the show here, dude, but how long have you been doing CrossFit?
Speaker 1:so I actually started CrossFit. People are usually surprised by this March of 2021, so I've only been doing it for four years. You were a COVID baby, a lockdown baby. Yeah, you could say that I mean, I was doing at that point in my life, I was doing just like your typical globo gym stuff. And then I remember specifically I had two guys two separate guys come up to me in the gym at some point and they were like hey, do you ever think about performing? And I had zero interest to bodybuild. That was like no interest at all in that. So that was finally kind of what clicked in my head. I'm like what, besides being healthy, which is a huge part of this what is the end goal of just coming here six days a week and working out? So I've played sports my whole life, so I'm super competitive. Um, so I was just like I think I just want to try CrossFit. I had thought about it for years and just never kind of pulled the trigger on it. Um, so that.
Speaker 1:So, march of 21, I did my fundamentals, my pet, my first gym I was at was power pack with Frank Delaney. So Frank's a huge, um huge mentor of mine basically taught me everything, uh, everything coaching wise and just CrossFit in general. So I remember March of 21,. I went in on a Sunday morning for my first fundamental with him and it was actually week two of the open. I remember people have a camera set up and they're doing it and I was like, what is this? And he was like, oh, it's the open. He's like you're like two weeks too late and he he's like but next year we'll have a whole year now to kind of prep for it. So 22 was my first open, but I've been doing it for four years now. What was hell?
Speaker 2:what were you doing that? The dudes came up to you and uh were asking you about performing. Were you in there like really getting after with the dumbbell presses, like what's?
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah just like your typical I mean chest on monday, arms on t, you know the whole thing legs, um, and then I had just I got back into working out, um like. So back in 2016, I hit a point where I just was like, played sports my whole life, didn't go to college Like I was. I was commuting for college because I got into coaching high school football, my, I graduated, played my senior year, graduated and the next year I got on the coaching staff for the high school that I went to and you were moved, yeah, so I got into coaching at 19. So I was just like I went to community college and then two years went by, I graduated my associates and I was like, well, I kind of want to still coach because we were changing the program. I'm like this is kind of what I want to do. So I just found a four-year that I could commute to. It's like a half-hour commute and I just did everything while commuting.
Speaker 1:But I hit a point in 2016 where I was 268 pounds and 28% body fat. So I remember coming home from this is another huge aha moment that sticks with me in my life. I remember sitting at the kitchen table I went with, went on a cruise with a girl I was dating at the time, came home and I was showing my parents pictures from the cruise and I remember looking at the kitchen table, like looking at those pictures, and I was just like, oh my God, that's what I look like. And it was just like that moment. I was like something has to change, so changed. Like something has to change, so changed up.
Speaker 1:My diet started running because I was super heavy so I'm like I don't want to just start working out again. So I was like I want to get down to 225 was like what I played at in high school, like my playing weight and it's just being six, three, it's kind of, I think, of my, my weight in general where I should be at. So I want to get down to 225. That was my goal. So I mean my diet. I definitely didn't do it in the healthiest way. I mean I always remember like I was literally eating like egg whites for breakfast, salad for lunch, a rice cake in like middle afternoon and I was having like tilapia for dinner, like. So I ended up.
Speaker 2:That's what the health mags would tell you. For a while, though, you know that's what it's promoted man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that was June and it was like it was late September that I actually hit two 25. So I'm like, okay, wow, I was expecting that to be much longer. Yeah, so I was like now I just got to get back into working out, so I went to retro fitness got my whole over that like three months.
Speaker 1:Then you just hit the road, start running on your own and change the diet up like that yeah, yeah, I remember I downloaded run keeper and I just did like the automatic program that was like trained for a 5k, yeah, and did that five times a week, change the diet up. And then I ran a 5k that november, so like that was like kind of a goal of mine, and then got into working out. And then basically from that whole time up until when I started CrossFit, I went and got my personal training certification. I started my own personal training side business while I was doing a bunch of different jobs over that time and then it just hitting working out really hard.
Speaker 1:But, like I said, to a point where to me it got to a point where, like to me it got to a point where like there is no end goal and I'm super competitive and I'm like, all right, crossfit, let's just try it out. So I remember I went, I did my first workout classic situation where you drink the pool aid and and that. Do you remember what that first workout was? Yeah, it was. It was a mile run. Then you came and you did.
Speaker 2:I'm talking about your first workout in like class, right? Not the fundamental job, no, no.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, it was literally first class workout and it was. It was a 1600 meter run. You came in, you did 30 deadlifts I want to say it was one 85. Then it was an 800 meter run and then 30 deadlifts at one 85. And it smoked me because at that point, after like getting into pretty good running shape to lose all my weight, then I went back into like working out doing all the bodybuilding stuff and I'm like, well, cardio really wasn't that great of a thing, and but I remember like it kicked my ass and I was just like this is amazing. I love this.
Speaker 2:And that's a lot of running for a CrossFit workout. Oh yeah, absolutely, you know, is that 2400 meters, I mean a long 2,000, is like a long CrossFit workout, 2,000 meters, you know?
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly yeah. But I was showed up and I'm like well, I'm here now, so I might as well do it.
Speaker 2:That's hilarious, bro. Shout out to Frank destroy you with that first workout, man, that's great. So I want to talk about like the past a little bit more. Like bro, you played football, that's dope. You were 6'3", 225 guys were you. Were you an offensive lineman a?
Speaker 1:tight end, yeah, so. So everybody always says tight end, I wish I, I wish I was. But so what happened was I played sports my whole life. I played soccer. My mom, my parents, made us run cross country, um, and then baseball and basketball. Baseball and basketball is what I loved. And then, just to keep us active, we were doing cross country Cause I went to a kindergarten, through eighth grade, catholic school.
Speaker 1:So I remember, yeah, Catholic school kids they'd be running, yeah, exactly, and I hated it. Like we used to have cross country meets Saturday mornings as like a second grader and it was like 45 minutes away and my mom was driving me and my brother there and I'm like this is literally miserable. And it got to a point where, like, I always played, like I feel like everybody played soccer at some point in your life, but I always played rec growing up, never played travel or anything. But then after fifth grade you could go to the, even though it was still kindergarten, through eighth grade. It was like the middle school was six, seven and eight, so that's when you could try out for soccer.
Speaker 1:So my mom was like, either you can do cross-country or you can do soccer. And I'm like, well, I'm doing soccer a hundred percent. I gotta get away from this cross-country stuff. So played soccer, never played football. Because me and my brother always want to wrestle. But we were always bigger. So my mom would be like, when you're fourth grade you would have been wrestling sixth graders. So we always, yeah, to this day, saying like we could have been olympic wrestlers, but you just never let us have the chance.
Speaker 1:But but I told I totally understand where she's coming from, so never played football football. And then I went to. So the school I went to that has a Catholic high school on the same campus. So 85 to 90% of kids from that school graduate and just go to that Catholic high school. So that's where I went and I remember I wasn't going to play soccer and then I was just like I don't know if I really want to play football either.
Speaker 1:And a good friend of mine called me and it's a super, super small school. I graduated with 82 kids and my buddy was like dude, we need two more people and it's going to be the first time the school had a freshman team in like 10 years. They were on a 28-game losing streak at that point And'm like all right, maybe I'll do it. So I tried out, but then again I was probably six to every bit of 215 as a 14 year old. So of course I come in and it's like well, you're not playing freshman. It was the first game of the year varsity I didn't play and then every game for the rest of I had like a five game in like injury my senior year, but every game after that I started so but then I ended up loving it and then it came togame injury my senior year. But every game after that I started but then I ended up loving it and then it came to a point where senior year we had really small schools coming. So it was like William Patterson, moravian, fdu and FDU. I remember the recruiters came in and they were like we're coming off a back-to-back 0-10 years and I'm like I love football but I don't love it that much, like d3 it's just as much work as d1, with less credit. And I'm like there's no way I'm going to school for wear and tear my body for another four years, like I don't love it that much. So I ended up going to community college and then I knew I wanted to. I had a good big role. Model of mine was my offensive line coach and he was still on staff after I graduated and then I had stayed in touch because the quarterback my senior year was a junior and he was a good friend of ours. So we stayed and like watched all his games his senior year and then the next year we talked about it. So I like started as a volunteer and then eventually became paid and I did that for 20. My first year would have been 2012 football season and then I was there till 2016. Then I left to go with another coach to a different public school for a year and then I went back to that catholic school in 2019 and then, since it's closed down um, but 2019, like they ended up becoming. They were state champions in 2016 and then 2015. When I went back, we lost in the state championship at ruckers, but ended up, just like enrollment and money-wise, they ended up having to close the school like two years later.
Speaker 1:Or were you like a help with the offensive line? Yeah, yeah, offensive, offensive defensive line and then same thing because of how small the school was, I ended up I had no choice but to play offensive defensive line for varsity when I was playing um, but yeah, it was. It was good, though, because it was so small. Like my junior year, we had a thanksgiving day game and we suited up freshmen to senior programs 17 kids. My junior and senior year we were playing offense, defense, kickoff, special teams, punt, punt, return. So it was. It was a lot when you were 17 years old. We look back at it now and it's like I got so much playing time and so much experience that it was just so much fun yeah, that's dope.
Speaker 2:I mean, I had like 70 kids on my high school football team, so I can't even imagine that.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, it's crazy playing a full game with 17 kids yeah, it was a lot and four. I forget that game. I think four kids didn't play because they were true freshmen. There was no way they could be on the field, so it was 13 of us, just the entire game.
Speaker 2:That's nuts. I mean, we had three kids that were just kickers, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, our kicker was the quarterback and the safety. You know what I mean. It was crazy.
Speaker 2:That's nuts. So, like, what brought that to you that you wanted to go back and help out with coaching? Like, do you? Where did that develop from to you that you wanted to go back and help out with coaching?
Speaker 1:Like, do you? Where did that develop from? Uh, I don't even really remember exactly where that would have the conversation that would have even started that. Um, but I remember my coach. He would always be like when he was talking to us he was our offensive and defensive line coach. I mean I spent so much time with him through. He got hired my sophomore year, so for those three years I mean he was literally like a father figure to me and I feel like he would always talk about how, like the impact that he would have on his athletes and that he there was nothing better than when you had an athlete who would want to come back years later and coach for you. He would always talk about that Like if you one day have a varsity program and your whole staff is made up of guys that played for you, he's like there's no, no bigger compliment than that. So I think conversations just like that and how much I think he meant to me and just kind of wanted to to make an impact.
Speaker 1:At that point I forget what I was even doing for my part-time work. I think I was delivering. I was like delivering parts for a car dealership. So between that and just, I've always wanted to kind of stay busy. So between that and then school which especially community college, I mean it kind of came easy to me. I was just like you know what, let me go do this and just kind of enjoy and see if I can make an impact yeah, that's dope.
Speaker 2:I love people that like spread the, the importance of bringing in like the intangible right, like all the things that make you feel successful, without like being able to actually put your hands on it. You know, yeah, yeah, all that stuff's super important. So tell me, how does the first year of coaching go? Like you're still a young guy yourself, you're working with other young guys that like you were just in their shoes.
Speaker 1:Yeah well, that that's the hardest part. So when I went back the soft, the juniors and seniors were kids I played with, yeah, so that's definitely a very um, it's a very hard. It's honestly kind of relatable to when I started coaching at power pack, because I was there for a year and a half just like taking classes as an athlete. So I I always say it's very hard to kind of separate now, like they want to be, you are friends with some of them and it's like now, when you're trying to go coach them or like correct them, it kind of is just like, oh well, it's hard. You, when you're trying to go coach them or like correct them, it kind of is just like, oh well, it's hard, you want to be taken serious, obviously, and I think that's probably the biggest thing, that not doesn't always happen. So it was definitely hard.
Speaker 1:I think it definitely helped that Like again, I was just volunteering that first year and kind of like my coach's shadow in a way. So a lot of just like echoing stuff that he did. But I think it's also beneficial because I think you can also have a different kind of connection with players that, let's say, we hired a different coach and this guy's coming in, you can, you're a little more trustworthy of of them. So when things happen and or like so you have to deliver certain kinds of news, you know like you're getting bench type thing. I think it, coming from a comfortable source, could definitely be beneficial.
Speaker 1:Um, yeah, so it was good. That first year was just like hey, I'm a sponge and I'm just gonna follow around every coach and just be around every. We ended up having a couple staffs, like. When I went back in 2019, it was the same thing where the people on that staff were just like so Brian Flores, his high school coach, was the head coach of the program. So this guy is an NFL coach and this guy coached him in high school and basically multiple state championships in like a prep school in New York. So for me it was just like I'm all ears, I'm not smarter than any of these people, I'm not going to pretend.
Speaker 2:And it was just like I'm going to take all their information and try to implement it for things that I do. Yeah, it's still. Who do you think it was harder to get buy-in from? Like people you had been like a gym member with, or you know teens that are like who's this guy trying to tell me this stuff?
Speaker 1:yeah, that's a good question, I would say I sometimes think it actually might be the gym member into that. Yeah, that's why take taking over. This was great Cause it was like it's hard. It has its own pros and cons, but it's it's hard because no one knows who you are now. But that also can be beneficial, cause now it's like you just got to coach your ass off from day one and show these people that you care, and then they're all going to buy in. But everybody else it's like and I had a tendency to be known as like the cut up in class and just like hopping into things, not warming up. So then all of a sudden it's like, hey, we're now going to take time to warm up. And it's like, well, we all watch you work out and you never warm up.
Speaker 1:You're barking and you're screaming into the middle of workouts and I'm like that now.
Speaker 2:I totally hear that you start to see yourself in the classes right Like as you get deeper into your like oh my God, I'm the worst to deal with Exactly.
Speaker 1:It's like, oh, that's who I was.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh man. So now tell me a little bit more about your CrossFit experience, right? Like working out, like when was the first time you saw the CrossFit games? Was it before you actually started working out at CrossFit gyms? Or like, was it sometime after?
Speaker 1:No, it was after that, so I definitely knew about it, but I definitely never like sat down and watched it, and even that August. So I did it March, that August I remember I didn't cause even at that point, like I wouldn't even say I was fully into CrossFit yet, because exactly this is exactly what would happen. It would be like running and deadlifts I can do, I'll take class, but even for the longest time it was like snatches overhead, squats, hand stand, push-ups, all stuff I'm still not really great at. If that came up in workouts I would just go into the back of the gym and I would just do like I would make my own circuit as if I knew what I was doing, and it would be like wall balls, echo, bike and then push pushups and I'm like I'm just doing stuff, a little cardio workout. Yeah, it was stuff I could be doing at Retro Fitness anyway and I'm like better. So even in August, it wasn't until we signed up for MacFest and it was me Frank Shannon, michelle that November that I'm like okay, now I got to start taking this serious.
Speaker 1:But the games that year I didn't watch. But I remember specifically that october was rogue invitational and I went home on. I left the gym that friday. I like grabbed food, I went back to my apartment and I turned on rogue invitational and it was the bella complex and it was my first time of like sitting down watching, seeing these athletes. And I remember like the next day I was all hyped up. I went in, I tried to do the bell complex to see what I could and I'm just like this is this is crazy. So I've always been into Rogue the most. Um, I don't know if it's just like the time of year, but that's always what I end up watching the games even. I'm just kind of like it gets to. I don't know, it's me, just get.
Speaker 2:I'm with you. I think Rogue has been more exciting for the past few years maybe. Maybe, like the 23 games were pretty good, but no rogue has been like it for the past few I think exactly so I'm like always dialed into ropes and I just love it um was that before after mac fest? Like did you do?
Speaker 1:that that was before. So that was it was late november or middle of november was mac fest. So, yeah, so that's when I like, that's when I definitely started to get serious. Um, and then Frank was always would always be like, dude, once you compete, like you're going to get hooked, and that's exactly what happened. I remember the first competition, getting walked out of your corral to the backstage and then onto the floor. That was the first time I always compare it to like. It was the first time I felt like I was walking out of a locker room for a high school game. So I'm like, at point, it's 2021. I played in. My last game was 2010. So we're talking 11 years. I hadn't had that feeling and it came back and I'm like, oh my God, this is amazing. I was all in at that point.
Speaker 2:That's sick dude. Macfest is your first comp too. That's a good one, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And then we ended up so we were in scale division Cause it was. It was just like we don't know, that's always pretty good competition there, like RX plus is definitely elite, and then RX is RX and scale is even intermediate. But it was my first ever comp and then we ended up winning it and I remember like Frank was like dude, don't get used to this, he's like this, your first ever one and you want it. So he's like it's kind of crazy.
Speaker 2:But it was it was so much fun that's funny. Yeah, I've met people like that before. I'm like all right, you did this scale comp here. Like, don't get used to this. Yeah, now you're gonna want to do rx and you're gonna have to be like somewhere in the middle or like maybe even at the bottom in the very beginning yeah, yeah, crew of us did it this year.
Speaker 1:I've done it every year since then. I did in 22 with them, again 23 when they changed the format. I ended up doing pairs and then I wasn't going to do it again because I was like this format's kind of lame, how they only did the one day. So then when they went back to four this year, we did it and we finished in rx. We finished like 15th out of 33, something like that. But it just it's always well run great events. So it's it's fun doing it yeah, shout out to wil.
Speaker 2:He does a great job out there. What's the name of that gym that runs it? That he's a part of? 12 Labors, oh, 12 Labors. Yeah, shout out to them, dude, that's a great company. Every year, so you do the MacFest. You keep doing it year after year, right, like what's the next step after that, competing wise and like just making yourself fitter and, overall, better.
Speaker 1:Yeah so. So the craziest story about all this and ultimately how I end up in this gym right now in this moment, is so during MacFest. I remember we're going down to MacFest and that Friday morning I woke up and I had this little. It looked like a pimple on the top of my left knee, and I've always been a touchy-feely person and I touch it and it opened up and it plussed a little bit and I'm like that's feely person and I touch it and it kind of opened up and it like plus a little bit and I'm like that's kind of weird. Didn't think anything of it though. So then we're going to Mac fest Friday night, like we're driving to Maryland Friday. We get there and my knees just like burning up, like I could feel it's like it's red hot. I'm like that's so weird. So we go to sleep. We wake up Saturday and at that point in like where I was working out, like I would always meet this guy in the parking lot.
Speaker 1:The first CrossFit class was at 5.00 AM at Power Pack. We would meet at 4.15. We would run before class and then jump right into class at five o'clock. So I was waking up at like three, 30. So I didn't sleep and it was my first comp so I definitely was nervous. I wake up and my knees like killing me like I go to get out of bed and I can't unlock my knee. So I'm like, oh man, like this is going to be really disappointing to tell them like my knee might be all messed up. So I like stretch, I loosen it up, it's fine. So the comp goes fine.
Speaker 1:Day one or in first place we go out to dinner. After we come home. It's like in the back of my head but I'm like I'm like trying not to think about it. So next morning we wake up. Same thing, like I wake up before everybody. Same thing, like I can't lock it up and it's like starting to swell, damn. So I remember we were like I told Frank, I'm like dude, my knee's pretty jacked up, but like I forget what the two workouts were. But I'm like we should be good, but as long as the final. It's like the top five teams make the final. I'm like the final hopefully isn't horrible, squatted, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So we get to the venue, they go over the first two workouts and then they're going to announce the final. So I'm there, I'm like I remember being so nervous and wilson's like it's going to be rowing and I'm like, great, I can just keep my leg locked out if I really needed to like, and it's gonna be 40 feet of double dumbbell lunges and I'm like, oh shit. So I'm like, well, we got to worry about that when we get to it. So I remember we did the first workout every time I would sit down, my knee would just instantly lock up and I would try to stand up and it'd take me like five to ten minutes to like loosen my leg and stand up. So then the final workout's coming up. I remember we just put I had let knee sleeves and then we took frank's, I put it over it and it's just like we just double wrap, yeah, so we get through it, we win.
Speaker 1:And then I like pull my knee sleeve off and my knees literally triple the size of my other knee and I'm like this is not good. So three hour drive back, oh the car, my knees. Like now, not only is it, it's like it's throbbing, it's yeah. So I'm like this is not good. So I'm usually one of those people that doesn't go to the doctor. It takes me a while. It's the last, last resort for whatever reason. I'm just like this is not good and something's wrong. Like I got to go get call my mom. I'm like, hey, we're about to leave, it's going to be three hours, you need to be there. And we got to go straight to the ER. So we go to the ER and they're like all right, why did you come in? And I'm like listen, look, yeah, I was like I'll tell you what they were. Like all right, he tore something, whatever it may be. I'm like this happened when, like I was completely healthy. So the doctor comes in and she looks at it and she's like all right, we have to admit them. And I'm like whoa, whoa, whoa, like what are we talking about admitting me? Like I thought you were just going to tell me like go for imaging and then we're going to be good.
Speaker 1:So I end up having mercer and, long story short, I did a. I did a spartan race the beginning of october, so, like a month before got crazy poison sumac all over my body, yeah, and I I was scratching and right, right in this spot, right here, it ended up getting such an infection that it ended up like growing like up to here, and then I had a car. Like three weeks later they had to slice it, pack it the whole nine right, but I went on an antibiotic for that. But I was already on an antibiotic before that for a sinus infection and they stopped me. So they said it was a result of a failed antibiotic and traveled to my knee. So ultimately so at this time I was working a mortgage job nine to five that I just absolutely hated. I was miserable.
Speaker 1:I'm someone that needs to feel fulfillment and I remember like I would just get home at night. I'd be like I don't even know what I did today and like I'm getting nothing from it. So they bring me up. It's like midnight, they bring me up to the room and I remember I texted my boss and I was like, hey, this is what's going on. It's Sunday night. I'm like I ultimately I can't come to work tomorrow, like I'm in the hospital. And his response and it changed everything for me in that moment His response was can you get your work laptop delivered to the hospital? And that was already debating on. Like I knew I wasn't going to do it long term, but it was like what's my plan B? What am I going to do? Yeah, and in that moment I was like I'm done, like I got to figure out a way.
Speaker 1:So then I spent four days straight so I was in the hospital for but I was talking to Frank and I was kind of just like figuring out my finances. And I went to him and I was like, hey, what can you get me? What? How many classes a week can you get me? Like, hey, what can you get me, how many classes a week can you get me? He gave me the number of 15. And I ran the numbers in my head and I was just like I can do it for a year, but then all my savings are going to be gone. But I'm like, at least it's going to be what I want to do and I'll figure it out, type thing. Like give me a year, I'll figure it out. Like, as long as, do it for a year.
Speaker 1:Um, so I put my my two weeks in and then I ended up because I was like I had access to sensitive, like sensitive information. They were like well, we, two weeks is irrelevant, like your last days today. And I'm like, well, I guess I'm starting to coach full-time at the gym sooner, sooner than I thought. So I did that for I mean, maybe it was probably like two, two months like posting nonstop of like my two days that I was working out coaching stuff, um, so by doing that, the owners of CrossFit 717 at the time was an ownership group of four guys.
Speaker 1:Three of them were a year younger than my fiance, so she's from this area originally, she. They were a year younger than my fiance, so she's from this area originally, she. They were a year younger than her in high school. So one of them I had like a mutual connection with just through like when we were here visiting and like friend group stuff.
Speaker 1:So he reaches out to me like maybe the end of april of that year and was like hey, it's cool to see that you're crushing it and my crossfit just checking in. He's like, um, do you care if I give your information to my business partner? And I was like, yeah, sure. So we set up a meeting and never in a million years did I think that I was going to go when. And um, we all jump on this call kind of checking in. And then the one guy was just like, hey, cut to the chase, like I'm sure you're wondering why you're here. He's like we're looking to get out of CrossFit 717. They have a really successful weightlifting team 1440. Have you ever heard of them? Oh?
Speaker 1:yeah, kyle and them, yeah, yeah, yeah. So me and Kyle are on FaceTime with Dave and they essentially were leasing space back in I don't know 2016 from CrossFit 717. And then, when the old owners before them wanted to sell, they came to them first and was like you're already leasing this room out. Do you want to buy CrossFit? They did, and then it just got to a point where it just doesn't make sense. They had to put all their eggs into one basket for 1440. Yeah, so I was just like I mean, yeah, I want to own a gym, but I don't.
Speaker 1:I never thought, three hours away, like my life is here. I never thought I would leave power pack. I never thought I was born and raised in the same house. My grandparents built it, so my mom has lived in the house for 65 years. Like damn, um, that was where my whole family is. I'm like I don't know. And then, like, the more I thought about it, I was kind of just like, if it's what I want to do, like this is definitely a little bit of an easier route than just like starting from scratch. So ultimately it was just like, yeah, let's do it.
Speaker 2:Damn. So you said it was like on your. You said it was like on your radar, right, like that's like what your passion was, but like how close on your radar before you had that conversation, do you think it was?
Speaker 1:oh, I mean it would have been a while because I would have had to save up a lot of money to probably be like, feel comfortable to do it, to dive in on my own and make it.
Speaker 2:But like not financially, like like mentally and like just where you were. Like, do you think that you would have stayed in if you had the money at that time period? Right, like if frank could make you full-time coach and pay you salary, would you have wanted to stay in like that coaching role for longer?
Speaker 1:or are you like, yeah, for sure yeah, I definitely feel like so my big thing when it comes to coaching, um, I say this all the time. It's like for me it doesn't matter how long you've been doing it, it's like how often, right. So like if somebody has been coaching two CrossFit classes for five years, okay, they have plenty of experience. But for me it was just kind of like, hey, I got to, I wasn't coaching that much, like I wasn't coaching 40 classes a week at PowerPack. Enough to where it's like, hey, I've got to hopefully take over this gym with a coaching staff in place, and then I'll kind of fill in.
Speaker 1:We took over, we ended up for the first three months I had three other coaches, so four of us did it. I'm coaching anywhere from 20 to 30 classes a week, and that's before you know how, everything else that you have to do trying to turn the gym around. But that first I mean the first couple months alone, if not. I forget that first year I have it all on like an excel spreadsheet that first year I think I coached 992 classes. Like, after that first year, like, the first year was kind of like I feel confident enough to do it. Um, but you can always get better, and I can still get better today in today's world, but after 992 classes in a year, it's like, okay, this is like my thing now for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah but I think having another year, two years, three years definitely would have helped, um, but I felt confident enough to where I was like let's just, let's just do this thing and then let's not look back.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I feel like you kind of just answered about the coaching aspect of it. When you came in right Like 50-50 on the confidence scale, but how about on the business ownership side? When you first got into it, how confident did you feel about that?
Speaker 1:Not as confident. I definitely had more confidence in my coaching ability. I'm creating a culture and just kind a culture and just everything that you see and members see I felt confident on. But all that it's not the fun stuff, the taxes and the payroll and all that stuff I figured it out. But there was a lot of trial by error and just you kind of figure out things as you go. But definitely less less confidence on that scale. Yeah, I hear that.
Speaker 2:When you, when you're out on the floor right now with your members, do you feel like, are you able to feel like just the coach, or do you always feel like the owner? So that's something I go through right now. I'm damn. When, when I was just the coach, it was great. I could have like fun and be relaxed.
Speaker 1:Now, but, like now, I'm also the owner and I have to make sure these people have a good experience because we're in the service industry, you know yeah, yeah, um, that's probably one of the top hardest things to kind of um, go, go through because I've I say it probably more than I want to, but I always in my head I'm like I wish and I don't mean the word just in a bad sense, but like I wish I was just a coach. Like I have days where, like I at power pack, like I did there, there were times where, like I would sign up members, have them do the whole waiver, go, put all that stuff through um and help out where I was needed. But like it's just. It's not that I don't like doing that stuff, it's the fact of like it makes you view things differently. So like the hardest part of like members leaving is that that you create a personal connection with all these people but then when they leave you're getting hit twice as hard. You're losing members because they're people you see every day and they become a part of your life. But then you're losing them as paying customers where you don't feel that when you're a coach Just coming in coaching, and then there's just always Any decision you make, you're not making any of those decisions as a coach.
Speaker 1:So like you might be viewed differently by members because it's not a decision that they might like, like they don't like it, and then they might view you differently to where, if you're a coach, as long as your classes are just on point and you're doing what you're doing, people are going to love you, you know. So I think, definitely, and just like trying to keep like a professional, um, where, like having coach, you could probably have more fun and, like you said, balls a little bit like hey, we got to make sure we're doing everything kind of by the books not that I wasn't when I was just a coach, but you could just be. It's a little different. It's different for sure, and yeah, they struggle with that some days, um, but it's good I think. I think a lot of members can see me for who I am and in that moment there's a time to kind of separate both. I think, and I think when you're on the floor, they're hopefully viewing me as a coach and the coach that they like to have in class.
Speaker 2:For sure. I definitely told the people when I was just the coach, like that power snatch sucked. You know as my, as my feedback, that now I really limit that down to all the really really personal people, right, yeah? Yeah, so we talked about the open earlier, right, bro? And like you're, you're competitive. What do you got next? On the competitive, schedule.
Speaker 1:So my biggest thing all year. So I did the master's fitness championships cause they added that 30 to 34. So I did it two years ago, didn't qualify, wasn't really even close to qualifying. Um, last year I did it. I ended up qualifying. I think I finished 26 in the qualifier so I fell in that RX bracket. So it was like 21 to 40 was RX.
Speaker 1:Um went to Indiana in September to do that and just had a blast. I think it's also to compete against other 30 or 34 year olds. It's good. I don't want to be competing with 18 year olds Again. There's guys right now competing in the games that are 33 and they're super fit, but that's not who I am. An 18 year old, 19 year old right now has an advantage on me for sure. It's cool in that sense and it just it's a young man sport. Yeah, yeah, and they and they ran it really well.
Speaker 1:Um, all the events were really good. You got free rad shoes out of it, so it was. It was really cool. So my hope and I finished fourth by half a point. So I missed oh yeah, you know, by fourth by a half point.
Speaker 1:So that all year since then it's kind of just been like my goal is to get back to indiana. So I have that qualifier starts may 9th to the 13th. So that's really. I'm just going to kind of dial it down until then and then I have battle by the bay in june and then probably I mean maybe something local in between there, but then it won't be until if I make masters it will be october. When's that qualifier? May may? Yeah, it was supposed to be. It was supposed to be the same weekend as the community cup, but when those dates came out they were like, hey, we gotta, we can't push it back any further because we need to like plan logistics and all that. So we got to move it up. So he moved it to may 9th, which which is a good time. There's nothing really else going on, yeah.
Speaker 2:Hell, yeah, that's dope dude. We'll be locking in until then. You know affiliate owner life. Yeah, exactly, oh, bro. Well, this has been an awesome conversation, man. At the end of it, I just want to ask you now, like, what are you hungry for? Like, how are you going to make the affiliate better? How are you gonna make yourself better? Like, what's motivate you right now?
Speaker 1:I mean I always I went to get my old two in last May. I mean L3 is definitely on my radar. It's. It's something that I don't want to just stay stagnant, I always want to. If there's another level to achieve, that's obviously where I want to go Personally when it comes to fitness just stay as fit as possible.
Speaker 1:It's hard to get some good training days in with everything going on. You know how it is, um it's. I mean there's some days where I'm like I probably shouldn't work out, like I really have no time to do it, but I have to squeeze something in um to get something, even if it's like a mile and a half walk, maybe throw a vest on, just to do something mentally to kind of keep me sane. Um. So my days of training two hours are are long over, um, at this point in time. So just try to stay as fit as possible with the limited time kind of that I have in a day, um. But when it comes to the gym, like I just want to continue to to grow it.
Speaker 1:Um, we had 65 members when we took over. We're at one 10 today. Um, there we go. My goal was just to kind of has always been one, 30 has been like a target and then just continue to go. We definitely we have the space and the capacity to have a pretty decent number here, um, for total member wise, and just continue to make this place a safe place, um for people, a place where they can kind of just escape how hard life really is, for yeah, it's an hour, um, and just kind of continue to build a coach culture of this place that's awesome, dude, I know about that man.
Speaker 2:Like when I first opened here, I was like, oh man, I'll be able to work out whenever I want now and freaking. Then that really goes out the window. First month and a half too busy, and then the open comes up and then I got injured during the open. Haven't worked out at all in the past two weeks besides like push-ups and uh and fucking strict pull-ups. That's it. You know, time just goes by like, and now I'm finally feeling better, like I, I like roughed up my side, my sciatic nerve, on that last workout, bro, like could barely walk the past two weeks. Yeah, like when you were telling your story about you know you barely go to the doctor, right, like I felt that completely like I, I haven't gone to besides like my primary care doctor, a doctor's appointment, or like the hospital or anything like that years. And last wednesday, like, after like four days of the pain, I was like dude, I woke up.
Speaker 2:I had to go to the uh, when they call it the urgent care, really, yeah, like just to make sure I wanted to get like an x-ray done to make sure that, no, my knee and my hip wasn't like broke or anything yeah exactly because, like, I could not like bear any weight on my right leg and there was a shooting pain going down it and it's like all centralized in the calf and it was so bad that I it felt like it could be my knee. Uh, yeah, so when they did the x-ray, I said it wasn't broke. I was like all right, cool, they gave me like a muscle relaxers and then I was good like three days later. Yeah, yeah okay, hopefully.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was. Yeah, I was scared, though, bro. I was like, oh my god, I I felt that you know, yeah, one of those situations where you're like I gotta see somebody about this, yeah yeah, I know it's never good when it's that last resort yeah, dude, you know what I completely forgot, like I got locked into your story man. Oh, tell me what's what's. Nobody safe. Right, that's the brain, that's the training team. Where did that come?
Speaker 1:from. So it kind of all stems from when I was in the hospital. Um, that guy, good friend of mine, brian, that's the guy I would meet in the parking lot. We would just run, we would just say, like we just started saying that around the gym like nobody's safe, but not in a sense of like. It always came across as kind of like, like this, like threatening type of like saying, but it was more so like hey, everybody, somebody is coming for your spot, no matter who you are. Somebody's there somewhere in the world, someone's outworking you and if you're really serious about like, you just got to always be one step ahead, continue to work. Um, so then that was like a saying of ours for a couple months. And then I'm sitting in a hospital bed and I'm literally like holy shit, like I'm always talking about, like you can't get complacent, and I'm like 24 hours ago not even like I was six hours ago I'm standing on the podium of my first cross for competition first. Right now you're in the hospital, hospital bed where they said I could have lost my leg. So I'm like it's literally now just like become a brand.
Speaker 1:And then I started doing. Um, I started like I made shirts because it was like a known thing in the gym, like we would always be saying that. And then my goal back then was just like it was like an apparel thing and I was like like let me sell, how can I give back? So I found a charity that kind of hits home for me it's the National Association for Children of Addiction and then I would raise money and put all the proceeds to that. And then we did like then we raised me and him also. I remember like he long story short with him, first time we ever met was Murph of 21. So I did Murph after, like whatever that would have been two months after starting CrossFit and it was there were three feats. He went in the first one, I went into the second one and I guess Frank at this point he took 5am and I always took 6am to start and Frank went to him at one point. He's like, dude, start. And frank went to him at one point. He's like, dude, you got to meet this guy twice like he just started, he goes, he's very similar to you just like in the way you guys act and all that. So he had heard that and then we had never met. At that point. I actually remember he took a class that I took on like a saturday and he was like screaming, like let's go, people, let's go, like right. And I was like this guy's so annoying like I was. It was like first, I'm like this guy needs to shut up, because I was like dying in this workout and I'm like why is this guy screaming while he does box jumps? Well, I'm like over here can't even catch my breath.
Speaker 1:I didn't murph in the second heat and I finished. I remember I was sitting in a chair with a vest, my vest off, and he comes up to me. He's like all right, get up, we're doing it again. And I'm like whoa, I kind of laughed it off. I'm like what are you talking about? And he was like come on, let's go, we're doing it again. And I'm thinking like dude, you got some time off into that second heat. Like I just went and we did. I just got up, we did Murph again.
Speaker 1:I didn't do it vested, but we I like we DM each other on Instagram like that night. I was like dude, like thanks, thanks for doing that, like that was really cool, like I'm glad I ended up doing it. And he's like next week we flip a tire for a mile, like that was his response. It wasn't like nice meeting you too. I was like, what are you talking about? And it was like something he wanted to do. So we ended up five thousand dollars leading up to it and we we flipped a 288 pound tire for a mile each. It was nuts. I saw the screenshot of, like a video, a picture of my watch. It was like I think I forget how long it took. It might have took us four hours and it was like one, that's not one thousand three hundred twelve flips.
Speaker 1:Um, then we just kind of continued to do stuff like that and then when I, when I left, that was kind of hard because, like he was, we trained together all the time. Um, so then when I got here, I'd always wanted to, I want to dabble into individualized programming. Um, that's something that I just want to do and I kind of want to like create a brand. Um, I remember, like me and my brother were I'm a huge professional wrestling fan. My brother were huge into it as kids I remember we would just make our own factions and wrestlers and wrestle in the backyard. I was four years younger than him, so I'm the one going through tables all the time. It was horrible.
Speaker 1:I remember one year we had my mom made a playhouse. It was literally a full house with furniture in it. We had a nintendo 64 and it was like the coolest thing, but it was. I mean, we're talking probably eight to ten feet up in the air and we had one of those fisher price tables and it was snowing so it was all covered, powerbomb me off that. I went right. We were the way. My mom was like dude, what are we gonna do? So we piled snow up on it to kind of cover it up and we're like, well, once the snow melts we're screwed. So snow melted and my mom was furious. But I've always just loved that professional wrestling.
Speaker 1:I kind of look at it as a form of art honestly, just like the way they're performers but they're super athletic and the story all that. So I already had Nobody's Safe established in a sense. So I was like, dude, at this point let me just add athletics to it and make Nobody's Safe athletics. So then I ended up starting.
Speaker 1:Maybe two years ago there was a kid that came home from college. He moved back from Iowa and he was looking I don't think he really had the money to look to buy a coach and I didn't have any criteria or like resume to do it. So I'm like, hey, this is it. Like, this is my time to kind of get any pig. Yeah, yeah, to get it. So I'm like, let's do this. We did it for a couple of months. He saw really big improvements. He ended up being like, hey, I want to, I'll pay for it, and then I'm up to I think we have nine current athletes on it. So it's just, it's just like my brand that I just want to kind of continue to expand upon and then hopefully it gets to a point where it ends up becoming just like my full-time thing. That's kind of a goal of mine while still running the gym. But it takes I mean, it definitely takes time like anything else, but we're getting there, so I'm happy with it.
Speaker 2:I love that dude Build a brand out man, that's so funny. Get power bomb through tables. I know that my brother's seven years older than me, so I live that same life, man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly Like he got to always be Kevin Nash, and I'm like the jobber and I'm like no-transcript.