Hungry Dog Barbell Podcast

Cowboy Dave 2

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We pull back the curtain on the WheelWOD Adaptive Games with Cowboy Dave, from forklifts and floor plans to contracts and coverage. Along the way we unpack CrossFit’s pending sale, affiliate value, and practical tactics to grow a small business without burning out.

• year three working WheelWOD and an expanded role
• unloading trucks, staging gear, building floors and rigs
• space changes, floor layout math, livestream planning
• athlete control, dispute handling, volunteer coordination
• licensed events vs one mega-games and visibility trade-offs
• private equity context and affiliate dues reframed as marketing
• CAP as time savings and included value for owners
• how to get five new clients by giving value first
• simplify website paths, fix listings, refresh photos for conversions
• goals for gym growth, consulting, and future plans

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SPEAKER_00:

What's up, guys? We are Coach Cowboy Dave back on the podcast today. He's back on the breakdown year three at the Wheel Wad Adaptive CrossFit Games and his expanding roles there. Also, we get into the pending sale of CrossFit LLC and what that means for his future as a CrossFit affiliate. Tune in and enjoy the episode. What is this?

SPEAKER_01:

Is this year three now working at the game?

SPEAKER_02:

This is year three working the adaptive games. Let's go.

SPEAKER_01:

So you were out there for two full weeks, right?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Uh that is a long time to be in Vegas. A long time.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. So what was that first week entailing? Like setting up process. I know that it while it takes a while, it can only take so long, you know. So I'm sure there was other things like on the docket. Like what were take us through like your first few days there before you were even setting up like equipment and stuff.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. So uh we got out there on September 1st. The competition wasn't till the 12th. So if you can imagine, first week you're out there, we're waiting for trucks to get on to get there so we can unload them.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

I happen to be the most experienced forklift driver we have. So most of my time is spent unloading trucks. Um we had two road trucks, like 18 wheelers.

SPEAKER_01:

Wait, hold on. Before you go into that, like what would how big was the team of people that were you're waiting with?

SPEAKER_02:

So the starting team was six. Okay. Um, and it was three people doing like admin, like games function stuff. And then there were three of us that were like, we're doing the equipment in the original setup. And so it was a wild mix of like, all right, the three of us were unloading all the trucks, we're setting things up in the right place, we're you know, laying out the floor. Um, because we're the first people that are there until Saturday is when we got some uh extra help, but we only got two extra people on that first Saturday.

SPEAKER_01:

So that's like five days where you guys are doing that stuff. And who who does the the layout of like the competition floor and everything, like that sent you guys the floor plan?

SPEAKER_02:

Uh so so we actually went out for a site visit of our first site visit. We figured out the space that we were going to use and how mathematically it was going to work as far as the space we had. Um, so I was a big part of that. There was there were three of us on the team that kind of did the layout. Then we had to pivot because we had a space change. So we were mixed with U.S. Masters weightlifting and a uh strongman event, and they ran like seven days. So the original space we were supposed to be in had to change because other people needed different space. So we moved to a different space and we had to do a relay out of the floor. Oh, we had planned for two floors, so we had to figure out how do we put two floors in one space. So I did a bunch of reworking on it, and then basically like talked about it with the other people that had helped with the floor plan, and then sent it to the owner, uh Kevin, and was like, Hey, what do you think of this? And then that's when he and I started talking a little bit more about well, here's the workouts. What do you think of this? Do we need more space? What do we do here? And so I got uh I got a little sneak peek into the workouts early. Yeah, that's not my lane, and so I I don't need to know roughly until like a month before, but we had to do stuff early because we had already planned out the workouts for a different floor layout, and so a little bit of mix there. It was it worked out well, it was a good pivot, and it was nice to have it all in one room, which originally we were gonna be in two different spaces.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. So wait, when was that site visit that you were just talking about? Was that in that week that you're talking about, or was that a little bit beforehand?

SPEAKER_02:

No, so that was beforehand. So I think we went out in early May, and then we went out for a second site visit in June or July, and then uh the second site visit was really to button up stuff with the the final space that we were gonna use. Um, and we had another um one of our team members come out. She does all the like, we call her the wizard. She does all of the like social media and marketing and all the tech stuff. Yeah, and so she was out there to kind of help us like finalize the things that not in our lane, more of like, what's the live stream gonna look like? Where are we putting drops? Where's the internet coming in out? So it was it was a great second visit, and then you know, come out there September 1. It's the start of driving the forklift for me, really, is unloading the two rogue trucks, and then we had uh Strenflex uh has all the flooring, and so those those two trucks well, the three trucks came in all on day one, and so we were just unloading like crazy.

SPEAKER_01:

Wow, so you get all that stuff out there, right? Like uh before I say that, actually. So the the change from two rooms to one space happened in between the two site visits, not like when you got there September 1st, right?

SPEAKER_02:

No, no, no, no, no. Yeah, it was it was long before that.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, okay, that's good. That would have been I would have had a heart attack if it was in the middle of that, like going from like basically games week, you know, game day almost when you're there. So you're unloading all this stuff, you guys are have your team of like four to six people doing it. Like, are you are you laying it out in that time period? Are you putting it in storage? Like, like what's the process like there?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, so the first thing is you got to get the 18 wheelers out of there. So you unload everything off a truck, the next one literally backs in, and they're like, Hey, how long are you gonna be? And we're like, uh, we'll unload this, you know, 52-foot 18-wheeler in an hour, right? Yeah, and there are pallets double stacked in there, stuff on top. So um, it takes really one person driving the forklift and then like a spotter, yeah. Because you know, rogue sends 12-foot beams, and you can only maneuver out so far when the loading dock's a little tight. So we basically move it in and kind of stage it in areas that don't need to be built first, and then we take the proper things, put them in staging areas to where they are going to be built first, and go from there. So the first thing we laid out was the floor of the main floor.

SPEAKER_01:

So before I continue on with that, I want to talk about like the build-out process and like what comes next. But it sounds like, and correct me if I'm wrong, like last year you were like athlete relations, the person that people came to. Yep. Um, like if they had any scoring issues or if they needed to touch base with anyone that was like on the team. Is that right? Am I remembering that correct? That is right. That is 100% correct. And then you upgrade this year now to uh well, like did you have a role title, or was it just like, hey, come out here and we're gonna be doing this this year? We want you to be more involved.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, that's a great question. So last year, my role was hey, I can drive a forklift. So I got to come out a little bit early last year to basically drive the forklift and then do athlete control. This year, on site when the games were running, I still did athlete control. So I still handled disputes, I still answered questions, I made sure that my team, which I had a fantastic volunteer team, got everybody on at the right floor at the right time to make sure that everything ran smooth. Prior to that, though, I handled all the uh contracts. Um, and then I helped out with the floor layout, and and that's somebody else's role, but because we were both local in North Carolina, we got to use like the big whiteboard I have in here. And so spatial arrangement is like something I'm pretty good at. So it was it was nice to be able to help collaborate on that. But yeah, the main thing that I did throughout the year, outside of what everybody saw on social media, because that's where Cowboy Dave started, uh was contracts. Uh, so it's something that I have a little bit of skill in, which is reading contracts, editing contracts, repurposing contracts, and then sending them out, making sure they signed. And I'm a pretty tough negotiator, so having someone that's a little bit hard-nosed on the business side helped out this year when it came to some of the things that we needed.

SPEAKER_01:

That's really cool. So, like equipment, like sponsors, all those different things that are gonna like help make it go. You know, we don't have to get to the nitty-gritty of that because that's you know more of the inside uh brass tacks of it.

SPEAKER_02:

But yeah, so I I didn't find any of them. That was not my role.

SPEAKER_01:

My role negotiating them, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, well, was hey, once once the negotiation was done, I put together the contract and I sent the contract out. They approved it. Once it all got approved, I would send invoices. That was my role. We had somebody else handling all the like sponsors and vendors and who was talking to them and negotiating those things, but we had pre-done all the stuff, so mine was just more the legal side.

SPEAKER_01:

That's cool. So now, right, you get all the you get all three trucks unloaded. Like, what's the next process like? Is that that's all on day one? You said like September 1st, like that's all unloaded.

SPEAKER_02:

So September 1st, we got everything kind of in order. Um, so September 1st, September 2nd was when we got everything unloaded. And the first thing we had to do was start building the main floor because it's the center focal point and everything is built off of that, yeah. And so we like were rolling and taping lines and making sure that everything was correct, and then we start rolling out the floor, which every floor piece that we use is four feet by 15. Give or give or take a few inches, right? Yeah, and our main floor, I want to say was 17 of those wide by five long. Are they the interlocky like mats?

SPEAKER_01:

No, oh, they're just like black bats. They go to the battery.

SPEAKER_02:

They're like the rollout stall mats, uh, yeah, yeah. Um, but they're about 200 pounds a piece. So, you know, you have to roll them out, you gotta flip them over, and then you have to like tap them into place real like easily. So yeah, it was uh we did, we had three people for that, and it went very well. Um, and after that, we started putting up the main rig, which is 10 lanes long long. Um, that Rogue let us uh use.

SPEAKER_01:

Damn. Did you guys have, like I know you said beforehand, you went from two uh spaces to one space in between the the two different site business. Did you have any like big snafu's that happened or things that you like had to come together, put some brain power to, like in setup?

SPEAKER_02:

Uh the the not in setup, the we had a really good plan with the team that we had out there in order to here's the steps that we need to do, and several people that were like, Hey, what if we do this? And we'd be like, That's a great idea. Okay, and then someone else would be like, Should we do this next? And we were like, That you can't do that without this, and they're like, Oh, that's right. And so we have a really good team that works super strong together.

SPEAKER_01:

That's awesome. I mean, teamwork is the thing that makes everything go, right? Yeah. So like let's bring it to the games now. Is this the first or second year that the that Wheel Wad is separate from the CrossFit games?

SPEAKER_02:

So in what is uh in 2023? Three years ago, 20 in 23, yeah, Wheel Wad was its own uh games, right? It was his own thing. In 24, it became a licensed event, and in 25 it was a licensed event. So we were an extension or like an arm of CrossFit to run the adaptive division because uh in my opinion, Wheel Wad does it fantastic, right?

SPEAKER_01:

They do it the best. It's like similar to um Legends being a license event for the Masters games. So uh how do you unbiasely, how do you think it not happening at the same time as the CrossFit games um affects it? There's people out there that are like, oh, we need to. I mean, if you just look at the comments, we need to put them all together, like not even just adaptive and wheel wide masters, teams, like everyone should be at the big show again. That's where we get the most highlight. Do you do you feel that same sentiment, or do you think that there's it's better to have their championship separate?

SPEAKER_02:

So I have mixed feelings about this, right? The first thing that I would tell everybody that makes these comments is go back to when it was all together and what did you complain about then, right? And a majority of the people were there wasn't an in adaptive, not enough divisions, not enough people made it, no coverage. Same with masters. It was like, oh, they put a camera up here for this entire out 20 lane field. Yeah, yeah, and you couldn't see anybody, you couldn't support anybody. So now that they've licensed these events, it is now highlighted these individuals more and gives them a bigger space to compete. Would I like to see it all together again? Sure, but it's got to be done correctly. So each group is highlighted, and then I think it can come back together. If not, it should stay separate, and CrossFit should just pour into the extra things as far as a little bit of help goes, uh, to make them as great as they have been the last couple years.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. I mean, personally, just from a viewership standpoint, like I liked it being like there's one weekend where I'm watching Tia Austin Hatfield and all those guys throw it down like through YouTube and Instagram, and I'm like, there's another weekend where I'm seeing my adaptive buddies out there like repeatedly highlighted in those same spaces, you know, YouTube, Instagram where I watch it as a viewer, you know. It's like when it's all happening at one time, your eyes are gonna be pulled in different directions, you know.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, and and so how much of the old games did you watch the team events when they were going on the same time as the main individuals? And it was like the team event was a secondary to the main events, right? And then masters is a secondary to the teams, and then adaptive was a secondary to masters, and so it's just like one of those if you try to put it all together, are you gonna spread everything too thin to where the right people aren't highlighted in the right areas? Also, the people that do the adaptive stuff, what do they do if they compete at the same time as the games, right? They don't get to watch their idols and the people that they look up to compete because they're competing.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. Because these a lot of these people, like and athletes that are in the different divisions, are from similar training camps or coach athlete relationship, like um athlete and like training partner relationships, like like it's no different than if you are individual games athlete, you know. So I I think it's really good to and separate sounds like this word, and we're putting people off in a different quarter, like no, just going on at a different time, you know.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, it's it's giving each space a highlight or a time to shine where the other one isn't overshadowing them.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. So tell us some of like your personal highlights from uh the Wheel Wide Adaptive Games this year.

SPEAKER_02:

Um, I had a super funny moment where so there's two of us that wear cowboy hats.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh boy.

SPEAKER_02:

So there's me, right? And this year I've done a lot of the like social media stuff, so like cowboy Dave became a thing. There's another guy, his name's Carl. Real name's Kevin. We already got a Kevin that runs the show, so his name's Carl. He I have to give a shout out. He's the one that actually had the idea to get cowboy hats when we were in San Antonio. Let's go. And he was like, Look, I really want a cowboy hat. And I was like, Oh, I'm in. I will go with you to get a cowboy hat. And he got a really nice one, he looks great in it. He looks like um, what's that show with all the cowboys? What am I thinking of?

SPEAKER_01:

What Dallas? Like like JR though? Um oh oh uh no, the one with uh the Dutton family, yeah, like on the ranch, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

I can't think of that. He he's he's that type, right? Yeah, yeah. Now the funny part is is that everybody has I've done a lot more with the social media stuff. So like I'm I'm the like cowboy from Wheelwad, right? And some of the newer athletes misrecognized him as me and were like, hey, can we take a photo with you? And he was like, Oh yeah, and he and it was uh it was funny, and then the next day they would tag me in the photo with him. And so being oh but you kept the tags up.

SPEAKER_01:

I hope I could go and it's a right now is still you.

SPEAKER_02:

I tagged some of it, and uh, but being the prankster that I am, right? Some of the athletes that I've gotten to know over the years, I was like, hey, take a photo with me and tag him in it to just like play the fun game. So that was a that was a big highlight for me. Um, really, the other stuff was how successful we were this year prior to last year. It ran 90 million times smoother from a back-end perspective, and I got a lot of appreciation. So, one of the things that I tried to do is I like to see how it's made. And so this year, starting on the first, I was like, you know, I'm gonna start doing some selfies. It's not really my thing, but I was like, I'm gonna start doing some selfies and showing everybody like how this is made. And with that process, I got tons of feedback from from athletes, from parents, from spectators there that were like, Yeah, oh, we watched you like crazy on Instagram. It was cool to see how everything was made and the step process to happen. Well, I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I thought it was I it was I feel that exact same way, like being able to like watch the setup going on, you know, the build-up to it, like knowing that like the Super Bowl is about to happen, you know, like the championship for for these people is about to happen, and like so seeing the behind the scenes and like because conversely, I can watch like my friends that are gonna go compete in it, their last little setup going on. So it's like that build-up to everything that's about to happen, you know. Yeah, I thought that was really cool.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I and I I would love to see that with like the big CrossFit games, so like those little things, like when uh Rogue puts out their video of them building the Zeus rig, I'm always like, Oh, I'm watching this, even though it's on fast forward and it's you know takes 12 hours. I'm into it, right? So that was one thing that I wanted to make sure that that people saw was like the behind the scenes of like this is a lot of work, a lot of time to make this thing happen, and it's really all from volunteers. So yeah, I'm just a volunteer.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I like it. Uh the marathon row that they had the games this year. That story goes around that that Katie Heninger uh self-tested all the rowers that were out on the floor. I would watch like a fast motion video of her like slowly doing 10 pulls on every rower, make sure it's calibrated correctly, you know. Like I believe it's a really cool part of it.

SPEAKER_02:

I believe she did a 1k or a 2k on each of them.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that's dude. So, how many rowers do they have out there?

SPEAKER_02:

That's uh tons, tons.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah. That's crazy. Or like building the the pyramid box from last year's uh Chad. Imagine that, like the setup that goes into that.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, just the just the time and placement and making sure everything's snug.

SPEAKER_01:

Like yeah, yeah, super cool. So when will planning for next year's event start? Like layout all that stuff.

SPEAKER_02:

Um it it semi has already begun, but the steps are is working with uh the company to figure out what the relationship with CrossFit is gonna be. So once CrossFit relays that, it won't come to me, right? But once CrossFit relays that to uh the owner of Wheel Wad, Kevin, um, and they go through the conversations of what the licensed event would look like, um, then more stuff will be released. So I know they want to release a bunch of stuff early. That's my understanding of it. And uh some cool ideas are in the works, but really I don't know anything.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I I hear that's big the big, big wigs, you know. That's for them to uh and I want to get into a little bit of CrossFit stuff too, uh, before we wrap up. Uh next up, what do you is it announced already? Do you have any insider information is returning to Vegas next year?

SPEAKER_02:

Uh I don't know. I I will I can tell you that we if we are in Vegas again next year, it will be at our our own venue. Um, so I'm not sure US Masters is going back to Vegas, but whatever they're gonna do, I'm not sure that their space will allow us to have the same space as next year. So I don't know if it's gonna be in Vegas. I would love to tell you.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, and but it's gonna be in its own venue, old like area next year.

SPEAKER_02:

Potentially, potentially, yeah. Yeah, potentially. Um, again, right? The biggest thing is what does CrossFit want to do with the licensed event? What does WheelWad want to do with CrossFit? How are they gonna interact? And that's above my pay grade.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Uh so you were gone for two weeks, right? Started September 1st, got back. When did the when did the games end?

SPEAKER_02:

Like so they ended end of the 14th. Uh, we packed up a little bit on the 14th and then loaded all the trucks on the 15th, and then I flew out on the 16th.

SPEAKER_01:

Got home 16 days later. Um, how did you feel about being away from the business, both businesses for 16 days in good hands?

SPEAKER_02:

Great hands. I have fantastic people that run the two businesses for me. And I worked a little bit remote. So, like uh the second week on the first, I was like, hey guys, I won't be out to help till like two o'clock, three o'clock. Just know that that that's the time I got to work on my actual business stuff. And so I worked a little bit at night on my own things, but I have fantastic people that run my businesses day to day. Um, one of them is being one of them is my wife, the other one is one of my best friends that got me into CrossFit. And so I super trust those people. Um, not to mention, we have a we have a third business partner in my second gym that is a wizard behind the scenes as far as like member management management mint goes. And so giving those two guys like they just they just did it. And they were like, hey David, we need your help a little bit. And I was like, Great, what can I do? And I would do it real quick, and right then I'd put my laptop up and go back to work on the adaptive games.

SPEAKER_01:

Heck yeah. So I mean, you've been in business for a couple of years now, right? Like uh yeah, a few years now. Like, how long did it take you with till you got to that point where you were comfortable going away for like extended stays in your your business ownership?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, that's that's a great question because this is the longest I've been away from my business in ever. Yeah. Um, so the long the other longest time was probably about five or six days when me and my wife went away. Um, but other than that, this has been the longest that I've personally been away.

SPEAKER_01:

When when was the the five-day trip like in your timeline of owning it? Was that like a year or two ago? I feel like did I I feel like I saw that.

SPEAKER_02:

It was uh last year.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay.

SPEAKER_02:

So it it still is recent, right? And I've been a part of the ownership group for CrossFit Brave for nine years, and I've solely owned it for four. And it really is in like the last couple years that I felt like I've had the freedom to do things because the business has been built up so much.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Like we went out to Seattle for three days, um, and it was over a holiday weekend, so I was kind of able to pull it off like that. And I had a coach that didn't end up working out come on for her uh first like two days in that time period. But man, was I stressing over that time, you know?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, yep.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, but like luckily, I uh luckily is an odd word to use in it. Like I was just starting out, so like the the membership's not huge, and I the one coach could cover it in that time period. I but I had to have all of my T's crossed and dotted before I I look got on that plane, you know, going away. Yeah, so yeah, that's a that's a tough thing. Um I would say in the I mean you're saying like five years, five, six years before you really were like, I I feel comfortable going away for that like five-day time period.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I would say it was for the first about seven years. Um, I did not travel uh much more than like four days.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Oh man. Which for the business.

SPEAKER_02:

Hey, it's paying off now because now I have really good people in place and the business is growing at a certain point to where like now at my main gym, uh, well, my main gym, it might square my office is across the brave, we're looking to bring on a more full-time individual. And so that'll give me and my wife a little bit of I don't want to say relaxed time, but it'll give us time that we can focus on other things in the business.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, where you can, yeah, open up even more um other avenues, I guess I'd say true, true. So now, speaking of business, uh, what was it, March, somewhere around that time period? Donfall comes out and says they are actively shopping for a buyer for CrossFit. Yep. Give me your reactions when that comes out.

SPEAKER_02:

Not shocked with uh what I've learned about private equity. So private equity comes in, they'll buy something, they want to turn, turn, make it better in in a in a three to four-year deal, and then they want their money back to move on to another investment. So not super uh shocked by it, right? There is no upfront. Finding the right person is uh is kind of a bigger deal in keeping the CrossFit ecosystem going. So one of the big things that they did was raise our um affiliate dues to$4,500. Well, the offset is that what they did prior to that was they've given us more communication than we had with CrossFit in a long time. And then they were like, hey, we haven't raised rates on you guys in 10 years or ever. So we're gonna raise this rate. Do I think it could have been done a little bit different? Yeah, sure, right? So for some people that had like a like a uh ad year where they went from 500 to 4,500 in a two-year period, could have could everybody have jumped like that, where we got a little like play-in period, sure. But 4,500 is a very small marketing budget, yeah. And for the people that run affiliates that were up in arms about it, it's because either you were used to a thing and you didn't budget for it, or when it came down to it, you probably you may or may not be doing the right things to add people. And if all you do is add two people that stay with you for one year, it covers it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

And I know for us, we get more than two people that try us out every month. So my ability to add people because of the CrossFit name is super valuable for that.

SPEAKER_01:

So I'll come back to that one too. When that comes out, there's a bunch of rumors that drop about the different people that might potentially be taking over. Do you hear any rumors that do any stick out to you that you were let that like you remember right now?

SPEAKER_02:

No, there's I mean, there was the like affiliate group that was gonna buy it, and it's one of those things about you kind of look at it and you're like, How? Where is a group that isn't private equity or somebody that's independently wealthy on their own gonna pay two to three hundred million dollars for something?

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Now, would you get a return on your investment? Eventually, you you definitely would, right? Because if you do the rough math of let's say we have 10,000 affiliates that pay forty five hundred dollars, right? You're that's that's forty-five million dollars a year. So simple math there, right? You can make your money back. I don't know what the overhead across fit is, but it's very low and it's very there's a small number. So you could make your money back pretty quickly in there, but you're now looking at the extent of time. And so I don't know what the number is. I just I couldn't see an everyday person or affiliate group. Investing that time and money, yeah, without somebody that was like a large backer.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Do you on that on that note, like large backer usually means that they're coming from outside of CrossFit? You know, unless there's someone out there right now that we just don't know about that is in a different tax bracket that is regularly doing CrossFit class workouts. Does how much does the person or group that uh purchases CrossFit affect your affiliate status going forward? There's some people out there that are like, hey, I'm waiting to hear about who's gonna be up next, and that's gonna affect um be re-upping my license or not. Do you have any of those thoughts?

SPEAKER_02:

Um eventually. Once somebody new comes in, you always gotta give them time and to see what they're gonna do. Some other private equity firm could come in and make really good changes that benefit everybody moving forward. If they do that, why would you be upset about being a part of CrossFit? So if you were like, oh, private equity is coming in, I don't like private equity, I'm out. And then all of a sudden the gym down the street that stays with you now gets a hundred extra members in a year. And you're like, oh no, what if I would have just stayed affiliated? I could have gotten a hundred extra members as well. You know, a hundred extra members. I don't know if you know this, but it's a life-changing amount of number, right? That you would bring in revenue on a monthly basis. So you have to give somebody the time when they come in to feel it out to see if it's still the right fit for you. For me, I believe in CrossFit, I believe in the methodology. And if the ownership and the way the company is going stays with my values and my beliefs, then we will stay with CrossFit.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that's awesome. That's a great answer, too. Uh, you said that we've gotten more communication from CrossFit, like as an affiliate owner, at least. What is something else that you would love for them to start implementing or that you would get back out of your affiliate fees?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. So one of the cool things that they had this year was the affiliate conference. Um, that was right before the games. Super cool, a lot of different stuff to go to. Great to meet a bunch of people. Um, I thought that was a super big value. It's kind of like A summit that everybody got to go to, right? Where you talk to all the affiliate owners. I think that's super valuable. I think they're doing great with the region people. So Gordon is our regional affiliate guy. He's super impactful in the things that he's doing, as far as like, hey, we're gonna have small gatherings everywhere. So people really get value in what we can provide in our region. Um, so I've also had a cool opportunity. So uh as you know, CrossFit does round tables. Um, roundtables are CrossFit's version of a TED talk. And so I've actually given two TED talks on money management for affiliates.

SPEAKER_01:

That's really cool. So being able to be involved in those is uh really big deal. I mean, I was gonna say a big deal, but it it is uh really big deal for people to gain that like resource from you, you know. Yeah, um and I think like there's some people that are saying the resources like aren't enough, right? Because you can I don't know, go uh anywhere and get them, but you can't. Like that's not true, you know.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, you can, you can, but like they're making it accessible for you, you know. You gotta do a lot of research, you gotta uh pay people, you know. Um, one of the businesses that I do now is I do some small business consulting, and it's like for the amount that you would pay me from my knowledge, like uh the what CrossFit provides in their like their book and their like people that you can reach out to is far cheaper. Um, and I always think about it as like I don't know how many lawyers you've paid, but you know, a lawyer is not cheap, and their cheap hourly rates like$350. And yeah, you know, they're charging you 30 minutes to have a conversation about what they gotta do, right? So yeah, when you think about it in those terms, right? Like divide 4,500 by 350, I mean, you're what 12, 15 hours of time, you get a lot more from CrossFit, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, over for the whole year. For the whole year. Because that's marketing, those are the resources. Like, I mean, if you just want to say the programming, like whatever you feel about cap, like yeah, that is a big resource. Like on like 6040, like in using cap, and it's great to be able to only need to tweak a few workouts instead of laying out every single day of programming, you know.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, and capsule value add for new affiliate owners that just want to change it a little bit to give it their style, their flow for their community. Yeah, we don't we don't use it, but I have seen it evolve from the beginning.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

So when CAP got on, I was at the CrossFit games and I won a free year to CAP and the like little raffle thing. And so I got to see it in the beginning, and then uh and then I got to give feedback on it. And I was like, oh well, you know, CAP is good, it's a great program, but it's like CrossFit Main site, and people just don't value that in an hour. It may be what they need, but it's not what people value. So I think uh CAP has changed for the better and it's improved quite a bit over the years, and now that they provide it as a part of your affiliate thing, I mean, it's the extra$1,500, really. Like yeah, because it was$150 a month, and now you get it as a part of your add-on in your affiliation fee.

SPEAKER_01:

If you just look at your time and money and value, if you break it down like that and you do, I mean, if your gym's open seven days a week and you need a workout for each one of those days, and you need to sit down and write one for all 52 weeks in a year, you know, just look at your time like that, right? That's and that's what you're going into. That could be worth just the 4,500 itself, right? You know, like you added it as the extra 15, but it can be worth just the 45. Like my my time is worth that and and even more realistically for like the time that I saved in in uh not having to do the full programming, you know. Yeah, yeah. But so what's next for Dave, right? Like, what do you want to have? What are you trying to accomplish by this time next year?

SPEAKER_02:

Uh that's a great question. So I would like to grow each of my gyms uh membership by about 20% over the next year, and that's through lots of processes, that's through just getting things a little bit more fine-tuned. Uh, and I'm going through that right now in order to build the thing ahead of time so that it can be fruitful when the time's right and the people are there. Outside of that, I'd love to have a few more consulting clients. Um, I'd like five total. I have two right now, so I'd like another three. And basically, I work in the range of small businesses that need I would say kind of like a basic um basic contracts to uh financial advice as far as like tax strategy and financial planning. So kind of like a fractional CFO. Um, those are kind of the two main things that I'm looking at this year. Um, obviously, one of the bigger things, me and my wife are not not trying to have kids. So if it happens and we get, you know, and we get pregnant in the next year, like that's going to be a big life event for me as well. So those are kind of the big things that I've got. Now, and as always, right? I would love to buy some commercial real estate. So if there's anybody that's retiring out there that wants to sell some commercial real estate, I would love to get into that.

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_02:

If you got a yogurt shop out there, you know, that you're looking to get out of. Yeah. Yeah. I ice cream place. If you're in your 60s and just don't want to deal with it anymore and want to get money for the rest of your life, let me know.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I love that. Oh man, Dave's been another great episode here. Thanks for coming on, breaking down wheel wide, um, everything that you've been doing over there with the gyms. Uh, you know what? I have one one more question for you. If you had someone out there, uh speaking of small business and like what you said about fine-tuning stuff, if you had someone out there that wanted to add five more clients, not even just in their gym, you know, like bring in five more clients, like what could they go fine-tune today, tomorrow, like right away, that would put them on the path?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, that's a great question. So I would tell them when you seek out these people, or if you know them, if they're in your network, what can you provide them for free that shows that you're knowledgeable enough and then teach them how to do it? So I'm super knowledgeable when it comes to business, what you can write off on taxes, how you set up the whole back end system. And I can tell you it if you want me to help you set it up because I have all the contracts, agreements, templates done. That's the portion where people can come to you and where you can gain clients.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Give something for free, show your value, and then if they want, then they'll come to you.

SPEAKER_01:

Right, provide that value. Um, I'll give an answer to my own question, too, man. Um, uh something that I've like learned recently too is like, you know, you're in it, and especially when you've been doing something, because like we've done CrawlSit before we were ever members or like owners of the gym, coaches and all that, like you just think it's easy to like get into it, right? Like, right, so so simplify your process. So I I go on, I'm uh reviewing my my Googles, my Facebook, my Instagram, my website, and stuff. And like beforehand, if you just ask me, like, oh, how is it navigating your website? Like, if I wanted to go become a member, and like you would say, Oh, it's easy. Go give a refresh to all that stuff out there. It may not be you may be speaking to people that are already your members instead of speaking to potential new clients, true. You know, yeah, like go give a quick refresh of all that stuff and really simplify the process. Like it's cool to have like something that's overdone and look really cool, but if people go to it and they're like, How do I how do I do this? How do I become one of those people? Then you're losing out right there.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, there's a lot to simplicity. I will also say if you are a business owner or you run a business or you're in that space to where you have clients and you're wanting to get better, remember, like it's small steps that add up to big steps over the year.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, for sure. Yeah, so go do those small things. Like, I that's something that I was definitely overlooking. And I'm like, wow, I mean, I could just go on and like edit my website, and it's much, much cleaner and easier. Yeah, you know, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

All you do is add new photos to your Google, right? Right. And they're like, oh, you're not in this weird, crappy warehouse, which is where we used to be. You're in this like nice facility with AC and heat. You know, those things matter.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. Yeah, like I mean, dude, my my website versus the Google had different um different addresses, like not the actual address, but like zip codes of like townships, because of you know how like zoning stuff will happen sometimes where you'll put we're in West Norton, but the Googles had it in Norristown, which is two blocks over, but just not where the gym is itself. So that is annoying the Google search when people are looking for CrossFit gyms or even specifically my gym, you know. So it's like a matter of just going in and editing that to make it all simplistic, you know. Agreed. So go do all those small things, man.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep, agreed. All right, Dave, it's been another great episode here. Are you gonna keep that cowboy hat on the rest of the day?

SPEAKER_02:

No, no, this is uh this is like my uh social media online persona. Um I have a couple things that may come out with this. I'd like to give like a uh like a tip of the day. Let's go in the well, it really so I love coffee, right? So I want to do like coffee with Cowboy Dave, yeah, and like give like a tip of the day. Although lately I've been drinking espresso. So oh yeah, we're hardcore.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm excited for all that stuff. I'm excited for Will Wat to keep growing. I'm excited to uh hopefully you you bring the cell phone back out again next year. We get to follow along with uh the setup process.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I definitely will. I think it went over well this year, and uh yeah. I mean, if anybody's got ideas, I would love content ideas, and I'll try to make them happen.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, you got the personality for it, you know. Appreciate it. All right, brother. Well, guys, it's been another episode of the Hungry Dog Barbell Podcast. We are getting out of here. Peace. Peace, yes, sir.