March 17, 2025 • 53 mins
Ep. 72 Relentless Pursuit Ft. Nick Urankar
The journey to excellence is rarely a smooth path, and few people embody this truth more powerfully than Nick Urankar. In this captivating conversation, Nick takes us through his evolution from a kid bouncing between schools to becoming an elite CrossFit competitor and successful gym owner.
Nick's philosophy on progress cuts straight to the heart of why many people abandon their goals: "I don't believe there's such thing as a plateau. I just think the next step's a lot harder." This profound insight frames his entire approach to challenges. While most see slowdowns as dead ends, Nick recognizes them as transitions to more demanding phases that require greater focus and determination.
Growing up primarily in early school care and Boys and Girls Clubs while his single mother worked, Nick developed resilience early. His athletic journey took him from soccer to football (despite his initial fear of being yelled at), through college sports, and eventually to CrossFit—which he initially dismissed as "aerobics." What followed was a decade-long competitive career marked by extraordinary commitment. Training in his basement during his children's naps, working out in dress shoes in office closets, and eventually qualifying for the CrossFit Games multiple times, Nick refused to let life circumstances become excuses.
The most compelling aspects of Nick's story revolve around how he transformed negativity into fuel. When falsely accused of using performance-enhancing drugs, rather than becoming bitter, he channeled that experience into renewed determination. Similarly, his father's constant predictions that life changes would end his athletic pursuits became the very reason he refused to quit. In a touching twist, when his father finally acknowledged his accomplishments years later, their relationship transformed completely.
As a gym owner and coach, Nick has developed a leadership philosophy centered on empowering those who doubt themselves. His approach celebrates everyone's contribution, particularly those who finish last, creating an environment where improvement matters more than comparison. This perspective reflects his belief that "if you are at the bottom, you're in the right group"—because that's where the greatest growth happens.
Whether you're facing obstacles in fitness, business, relationships, or personal growth, Nick's story offers a masterclass in turning setbacks into stepping stones. Listen now and discover how an unwavering commitment to your goals can transform not just your achievements, but your entire approach to life's challenges.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
When talking in comparison, I like to always try
to relate it back, to focus onmyself and how I do.
That is the thing.
Braxton's heard me say this.
I'm pretty sure where I knowwhen I look back, because the
hardest thing that we don't dois look back enough.
And one of the things that Iwould say to a lot of people is
(00:22):
like, I don't believe thatthere's such thing as a plateau.
I just think the next step's alot harder.
I think we're so used tostarting something and moving so
fast that when it slows down,we think we've plateaued, when
it's just that the reason whypeople start to fail is they
look and they see that the stepis an inch.
It's an inch and they stare atthe inch.
(00:45):
And they stare at it and theycan't figure out why they can't
get the inch.
And then I say, turn around andthey're like but look, this is
all I am like turn around, lookhow far you've come.
And I say that because I lookback and my best days now don't
(01:09):
even exist.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Welcome back to the Go All In podcast.
I'm Jake Fine and I'm BraxtonCave.
In today's episode, we finallyare bringing to the table a very
special guest.
Finally are bringing to thetable a very special guest.
We talked about this one in thelast episode and we are
extremely excited to have MrNick Urankar yeah, I got it
right Joining us today and we'regoing to walk through his story
(01:57):
.
You know where he's beengrowing up, some of the really
cool things that he's been ableto accomplish in his life, both
athletically, as a husband, as afather and as an entrepreneur.
And so, nick, welcome to thepodcast.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Thank you guys for having me.
I didn't know, I was the firstone, first guest, first one.
That's pretty cool yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
So obviously I've got an opportunity to get to know.
You become friends run in thesame circle, but for those that
maybe don't know, you becomefriends run in the same circle,
but for those that maybe don'tknow, you give us a breakdown of
your story.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Oh man, my story.
I guess where do I start?
When I was like born I wasactually.
I was born in Cleveland, ohio.
When I was one we moved toFlorida, lived there until I was
about eight, moved up toIndiana, valparaiso, which is
not far from here, and shortlyafter we moved here my parents
divorced.
And that actually plays a bigrole in kind of my growing up,
because I had a single mom andthere was three of us at that
(02:55):
time and I basically grew up inearly school care.
So my mom, the job that she had, they found out she was a
single mom of three kids andthey're like hey, I think she
worked at like a mechanics placeand she was their secretary
like come in early, stay late.
So we would get dropped off atschool at 5, 30 in the morning,
which you know sucks as a kid,but you don't really remember
(03:17):
that because you start playingat five and you're like whatever
, and we'd stay after and it wascalled kids stop and then we'd
stay30, and then it shut down.
So they would take us in a bus,more like a van.
My siblings, we'd go to Boysand Girls Club and that's
basically where I was raised.
So I'd stay at the Boys andGirls Club, which, as a kid,
you're just playing all day.
So I went to eight differentschools growing up.
(03:39):
Finally, my family moved out tothe country.
I was actually a big soccerplayer.
I was like obsessed with soccerand I think I was good enough
to go to, uh, play for team usa.
That was what.
I think.
There was no mls at that time.
I don't believe.
I doubt that that's true, but Ican always pretend I was a kid.
I was probably 13, moved to thecountry and I remember my
(04:00):
stepdad hated my mom had justgot remarried and my stepdad
hated soccer.
And we moved to the country andhe's like well, now you got to
play football and I was scaredof football because people yell
at you.
I was like I saw people gettingyelled at and started playing
football and what was funny wasI happened to go to a game and
it was halftime and the onefriend I had met at that school
(04:21):
had been there maybe two months.
He's like hey, come out on,come out on the field.
And I was like I bet I can kickthat.
And they just set the ball downand I kicked it and I remember
everybody was watching me andthis was probably eighth grade
and I remember they came overlike coaches and they were like
who are you?
And they basically I playedfootball then and we started
(04:43):
kicking field goals and PATs andI was punting and I hated
kicking, loved playing, but itwas like I didn't have to think
about it.
So I went through high schooland, honestly, I was super quiet
.
My nickname in high school waslater this is like senior year
was the Best, and my brotherused to always tell me he's like
(05:03):
you know, they're making fun ofyou when they say that.
And I was like that's kind of anickname, you know.
But the reason for the nicknamewasn't that I like thought I
was the best, even though, likeI think, if you're an athlete,
you kind of do right, you're,you're always pushing for that.
But it was more so that whensomebody would do something, I
(05:24):
would immediately try it andmost of the time would try to do
it better, and guys would belike, of course, nick just did
that, like ah, so that kind ofcarried on, went on to play
football in college, was areceiver and a kicker, and after
my sophomore year, basically wegot a new coach and he was like
(05:46):
I see your next year name saysKP, that's it.
So my last two years I justplayed football or just kicked
playing so, which was actuallynice to save my body a little
bit, because I'd actually brokemy back when I was 18, kind of
recovered from it, didn't reallyknow it was my L5.
And then I redid it my junioryear in college to the point of
(06:10):
I was like I can't do any morelifting when I'm done playing.
I was about 210 when ithappened.
When I graduated I was about190 pounds, kind of stopped
lifting and when I graduated Ihad just met my well at the time
my wife now, but my girlfriendwho became fiance, and I started
(06:32):
training her and I had trainedpeople for a while just
literally in the gyms like forfun and helped her get into
better shape.
You know we got to reallyconnect through that.
And then when I graduated I waslike, sweet, now I can like
find a new challenge and thatchallenge was I'm going to run a
(06:53):
hundred miles.
It was the Western States 100.
If you, if anybody knows,there's a guy called Dean
Karnazes and he ran 50 marathonsin 50 days and he wanted a belt
buckle.
And I, like, I want a beltbuckle and if you finish the
western states 100 in under 24hours, you get a belt buckle.
You don't get money, you don'tget anything.
Nothing I ever did was for themoney.
(07:14):
It was literally like I want toprove something to me and I
signed up for a half marathonthat was six months out from
when I was like I'm going all inon this stuff.
I ran my half marathon, whichwas a 13.1 mile loop, and then
there was a marathon which Ithought I probably should wait,
build up, and you basically didit again.
(07:35):
And I remember at the end of myhalf marathon, as I was
churning, I was like how arethey doing that again Like this
is ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
I've been there, I've been there.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
I finished my half marathon and I looked at my wife
and I was like I don't careabout the buckle, I'm never
running any farther than thatagain in my life.
And I remember I was so soreand I just kept signing up for
half marathons and I probablyran seven or eight of them and a
buddy of mine was like dude,you've got to stop that, like
(08:08):
you're not a runner.
And it was a high school, itwas a quarterback at our high
school and he was at collegewith me.
We had worked out all the timeand kind of trained, and he
basically was like, dude, youneed to check out this thing
called CrossFit.
And I was like no, that'saerobics, not doing it.
And finally he's like, no,serious, check it out.
I'm like, fine, I will.
And then that's where, kind ofall that starts.
(08:31):
So that's my quick boom.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
That's amazing missed a lot in there.
But yeah, he said.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
He said it's aerobics yeah, do you haven't heard that
?
I said it was aerobics.
I was like I'm not doing it.
I haven't heard that in a while.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Yeah so let's back up real quick.
So I I love the story of howyou and chelsea met so you gotta
, you gotta, tell this story,okay?
Speaker 1 (08:50):
so in in college I uh , I had a lot of girlfriends.
When I say girlfriends Iliterally mean like girl friends
but I also liked a lot ofdifferent girls that weren't my
girlfriends.
It was just like you know whatwas really cool about my time
when I was kind of Facebook cameout and it was only for schools
(09:12):
, so you could just be walkingand then all of a sudden see a
girl and walk over and be likeoh hi, my name's Nick and
they're like my name's Sarah andI'm like nice to meet.
You Walk away.
I'm like Sarah, you walk away.
I'm like sarah, sarah, sarah,sarah, sarah and I go home and
you go online, you type in sarahand it's only girls in your
(09:33):
school and what, there's 50sarahs.
So I'm like that's the sarah.
Hey, didn't I run into you inthe parking lot?
Speaker 2 (09:39):
yeah, we're having a party.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
You should come over so eventually my girlfriends
were like nick, you need to likestop, come on like dial it back
a little bit.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Yeah, you need to get , you need to like get a girl.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
And they were like we've got the perfect girl for
you.
There's another one who you'retoo much alike, we think you'd
clash, but like we've got thisgirl.
So we had a party at my houseand we were like the football
house Door knocks.
I get a text like hey, they'reon their way.
I answer the door and there'sthese two girls standing there
and one of them is this girlwhose name is actually Sarah Not
(10:17):
the same one in my fictitiousstory, which wasn't really
fictitious, I guess and I shakeher hand.
I was like hi, I'm Nick, we'resupposed to meet.
And then her friend next to herI say hi, I'm Nick, and her
name's Chelsea.
And I say it's nice to meet you.
And she has an empty wine glassin her hand.
So I said do you like wine?
She was like I do and I waslike I've got something for you.
So I walk her into the kitchen,pour a glass of wine.
(10:39):
She takes and she's like thankyou.
She takes a sip and she goes.
Oh my gosh, that's disgusting.
And I said I thought it was bad.
It's been sitting there for sixmonths.
I just needed somebody to tryit and she didn't bat an eye.
We just kept talking.
Sarah was the girl I wassupposed to meet.
This chelsea girl was actuallya girl that I was a year older
(11:03):
than her my fresh, her freshmanyear, my sophomore year.
We had to eat in the sororityarea and you have like this
little blending period where thesorority girls are eating when
you're eating and I remember shewalked by and I asked like
who's that?
And somebody was like oh, Idon't worry about her, like you
know, like whatever, like it'slike okay, that was it, but it.
(11:24):
But I just remember being likeshe was like the first girl that
I saw and I was like she caughtmy eye.
And then, six months later, I'mwalking through a cafeteria and
a buddy of mine on the footballteam's like you're in car.
He said it like that, likeyou're in car, you're in car.
And I was like what's up?
(11:45):
And he's like hey, like yeah,and he turns, looking a
different direction, and goeshey, you, you think he's hot and
it's chelsea eating like 10seats down from this guy.
And I look at her and she'slike he's okay.
And I was like all right, there, I'll see you later.
And I walk away.
Six months later that happensat my house.
She doesn't remember the twoprior of, obviously, the time
(12:10):
where I was staring at herwondering who she was, or the
other one, but I knew who shewas when she was standing at my
door and it was that girl andthat was a girl that I wanted
and from that moment on wefigured it out, figured it out.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
It's amazing, Before we jump into some of where your
life journey is taking you tellus a little bit about family
life.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Oh man, I'm so blessed family-wise.
It did not go as planned.
I don't think anybody's familyever goes as planned.
But we got married young.
Um I uh, right after graduationis when I proposed and she was
like, okay, I want to have afall wedding, let's wait a year
and a half.
Well, if you know my wife, thatyear and a half turned into
like six months.
(12:59):
So it was like, well, if wehave a fall wedding.
So it was like, well, if wehave a fall wedding, we can do
it sooner if we do it now.
So we got married and she endedup going for like a regular exam
and found out they were likeyou probably can't have kids,
and that kind of freaked her outto where she was like can we
try, please, please.
And I'm like we just gotmarried like six months into
(13:20):
being married.
I don't think this is what wewant to do.
I'm not ready.
No.
And then the next six monthsinto being married, I don't
think this is what we want to do.
I'm not ready, no, and then thenext night she's like crying
and I was like, all right, Ithought about it, we can try
once.
However, if it works, we can'ttake it back.
Uh, this isn't, like you know,practice like we're taking a
shot and uh, we tried once andwe had my daughter jada, and
(13:48):
that was crazy to be as young aswe were having, uh, because
she's 15 now and having adaughter and I was really busy
at this time.
So, like I for her firstprobably two or three I wasn't
like around how I would want tobe.
I was trying to figure out whatI was going to do then building
(14:10):
a business and, um, just sofocused on that.
And then we had my second,who's now uh, 11, she'll be 12.
They're three and a half yearsapart and when she was born I
had much more flexibility, so Iactually got to spend the first
two or three years raising her.
She would get dropped off to meand I would be with her all day
(14:32):
.
So we had these like Thursdaydays where my Thursdays were my
rest days and I would try not tohave to do anything and we
would just watch movies.
Like she would sit on my lapand we would just watch movies
all day.
And then I don't remember whatyear it was, but I was always
fearful of the day when shewould just get up off my lap and
she got up and I was like no,we don't do that, we watch, we
(14:54):
watch TV, and that was the endof the TV.
But I but for me, probably thelast 10 years I've got to the
whole time my daughters havebeen in school.
I've got to spend almost everymoment with them, get to take
them to school, pick them up,drop them off.
My 15-year-old just rode a busfor the first time because last
(15:16):
week my wife and I just went fortwo days to Chicago and just
spent days together and went toa concert and she had to ride
the bus with a friend.
But we travel a ton my wife andI like obviously, like any
relationship, you have to workat it, uh, and I always say
relationships aren't 50 50 butthey will.
If a good relationship over anextended period of time will
(15:39):
work out 50 50.
Um, how it is for you it looksdifferent for everybody else,
but there always has to be 100%and sometimes I've given 100
because she's had nothing togive and vice versa.
So I think that for my wife andI, that is something that I
pride myself in is I will neverquit.
And then, with my girls, Ipride myself is that I will
(16:02):
always be there.
I'll always be what I can givethem, whether it's what they
need.
I struggle at that because Igive them what I can and I'm
learning how to be the best thatI can, but I always want them
to know that, as their father,that they've seen that life
doesn't end with kids.
(16:23):
Life doesn't end at any point,that you can always be doing
something at any time.
So I think for us and my family, it's like so important to me
that I've been able to get to apoint that I'm living a life
that I'm super proud of, and Iwould hope that all three of
(16:44):
them, if they're in this room,they'd be like giving me a big
hug right now, because theywould just love to hear that.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Well, they're going to see it.
So let's talk about, let's jumpinto where you kind of left off
in your journey.
So there was a moment, you know, you tried CrossFit and then
you're like I'm kind of good atthis, yeah, well, no, or there
had to be a moment at some point.
So well.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
So I think like everything sometimes.
So everybody always says, right, go after what you're
passionate about, what youchange.
And I think that I wouldn't say, go after what you're
passionate about.
It's what gives you energy,like, what's the thing that,
like when you're doing somethingelse you can't stop thinking
about right, they're cut.
What's the thing that you wakeup at 3am in the morning,
excited and you're like how, whyis this on my mind?
(17:32):
And it, and it's just thatconsistency of it's, almost like
there's something speaking toyou for something more.
And what ended up happening forme was I finally watched the
video, but that friend came overto my house and brought a vhs.
I believe it was a vhs, couldhave been dvd, we'll call vhs,
that'd be cooler.
Um, and it was.
(17:54):
It was called every secondcounts the 2008 crossfit games,
and he played it for me and Iwas like this exists, this is
what you were talking about whydidn't you say that?
and he's like I was trying andthis is the guy that had like
all the underground stuff He'dlike send you this like he was
the Ocho, you know, espn theOcho right.
It's like everybody knows Mike,nobody knows that was that guy.
(18:14):
He was the guy giving you themagazine.
And uh, I basically looked uphow do you start?
Like I didn't get a handbook.
He wasn't like, he was justlike do this.
I'm like what is it looks likeit's kind of I don't even know
what the stuff is.
So I looked up and said, dothis workout called fran.
So I was like, all right, I cando that.
It's basically pull-ups andthrusters, which I'd never
really done a thruster, but I'mlike it's a squat and a press.
(18:36):
I've done those.
And I went in my basement, usedlike a p90x bar and an old
school like thin bar with thespin on ends, and I went like it
was like 95 pounds and I wentheavier because I'm like 95
pounds, it's not heavy.
I think I went like 103.
I'm like it's nothing Right.
And I did the workout and Iread that like two minutes and
(18:57):
30 seconds was like really good.
And I was like, well then, I'mobviously going to be the best,
so we're going to do this.
And I was like, well then, I'mobviously going to be the best,
so we're going to do this.
And I did it in six minutes and47 seconds and I was like I
couldn't feel my chest.
I'd never felt like that in myentire life.
I crawled up the stairs and mywife was eight months pregnant
(19:19):
with our first when I decidedlike, and I looked at her and I
said that was legit, I'm all in,like, I'm going all.
And I looked at her and I saidthat was legit, I'm all in, like
, I'm going all in and all in tolike, just be the best at it.
This is 2009.
End of 2009.
So at this point, so basically,when people tell me like well,
what if you have kids?
What if you have this stuff?
I started this with my wifeeight months pregnant, to then
(19:43):
immediately kind of off on atangent.
She said she didn't want to goback to work.
I was trying to open up abusiness.
I had to quit that.
I had to then hustle to find ajob that paid enough money to
support a family that I was notprepared to have to do.
While trying to compete, Iended up shaving my head so that
I didn't have to shower.
After I would work out at lunchI wouldn't eat.
I would eat on the like.
I would literally train every.
(20:04):
I would go into the one roomthat we had that there was no
cameras and I would work out andI would come out like okay,
guys, People still are like like.
There were times I'd have peoplebe like come in here, what's on
the wall?
Why is it black?
And it was my dress shoes.
Doing handstand pushups on thewall, my dress shoes doing
(20:26):
handstand push-ups on the wall,the rubber marks and I'd be like
and like, I'm like, oh, I canclaim that, but nobody knew what
was happening in that room soI'd have stuff in my car.
Well, the first competition Iever did was in 2010 and it was
at the arnold classic, whichactually just happened, and it
was called.
Called it was basically, ifanybody knows CrossFit, there's
(20:46):
a process to qualify and thefirst step is now called the
Open, but before it was calledsectionals and you anybody could
sign up and in our sectional itwas like six states or
something like that and therewas 183 people that went and top
20 moved on to the next round.
So I was all right, I'm gonnado this, go in there in the
first event.
I watch people go and Iremember thinking they're
(21:10):
cheating, they're not doing thisright, they were doing toes to
bar and they were doing otherthings and like all these
movements, I'm like they'recheating, like they're, they're
doing weird movements, they'removing their bodies all funky.
This doesn't, this isn't right,and the reason why I said that
was I didn't know what they weredoing.
So to me that's wrong and I goand basically get my butt kicked
(21:32):
.
And I went there with my wife'sdad, scott, my father-in-law.
He was big into bodybuilding,like growing up, so he wanted to
go.
And I remember we got in thecar and he said to me those guys
were so good, they were likeamazing, like that one guy and
this guy and that guy and I'mjust sitting there like because
(21:53):
I didn't get top 20, I didn'tqualify, and I'm just like again
, like feeling devastated andhe's just going on and on and on
and I look at him and I go I'mgonna beat all of.
And he just kind of looked atme and he, like you're not that
good.
And I remember I just literallywent all in and again, I'm
(22:23):
working a lot, got a new baby,but there's this tunnel vision
of this is what I'm going to do.
And I remember it'd be nineo'clock at night and I'd be at
the bottom of the stairs andChelsea be at the top of the
stairs and she'd be just upsetLike what are you doing?
And I'm like I'll quit.
You want me to quit, but Ican't like, I can't stop.
(22:45):
I every waking moment of me islike I have to do this.
In the middle of that year yearthere was a competition that
came up that was coming up injanuary, so this happened in
like march.
So january the following yearthere was competition and a
bunch of the names of the guysthat were on that list at that
competition that basicallydestroyed me were on it and I
signed up and I went to it and Iwon.
(23:07):
And that was the first timepeople started saying like hey,
you're actually really good.
And I had never done anything,like I'd never been out in
public.
I went from like this whateverto just I'm gonna do everything
I possibly can and I justlearned how to move.
And I think when, when it comesto movement, I think people
(23:28):
misinterpret things and theythink that there's a way to do
something, but in reality thereare progressions to do something
in a in a different way.
So, like, every movementessentially has this sister or
brother, this other side of it,and this, this step up.
So when I teach things, it'slike this is step a, step b,
(23:52):
step c, d, e, and these allprogress on each other and you
can choose to go as high as youwant with it.
You don't have to go past a andthat's totally fine, but a is
just the beginning, so I learnedeverything I possibly could and
in 2011 so the year after Iqualified for the crossfit games
, I went back to thatcompetition.
I didn't win it, I got thirdqualified or actually sorry.
(24:15):
They had the Open so I beatmost of those guys, went to the
regionals, which was where Ididn't qualify, got third and
qualified for the CrossFit Gamesin 2011.
And I remember that was whenthere was no social media and I
walked out and by the time I gotto my car I had like 10 or 15
sponsors already emailing me,trying to like sign me, and I
(24:35):
remember being like dang, I justwent from a nobody walking out,
having my father-in-law talkabout all those other guys to
like I've got this thing aroundmy neck and I made it and it
felt easy.
That was the hard part.
That was the part that I thinkthat's when everything changed.
So what most people don't knowis that, yes, I qualified in
(25:00):
2011, but in 2012, I missed itby one point.
In 2013, I went in not feelingshoulder and and basically I
kind of crapped the bed, gotlike 10th and didn't qualify.
(25:20):
2014, I got like sixth orseventh, didn't qualify, and I
remember I had to have aconversation.
My wife was like why are youdoing this?
Like you, yeah, you made in2011, but like it's all.
You're going to 2015.
Like you're putting in all thiswork, you're sacrificing all
this time, and like you're notdoing it.
(25:42):
And that was hard, because theonly person that really ever
believed in me was her.
Like anybody that was in mylife, nobody thought, unless you
came to my gym which at thispoint, I had gyms they came and
like, yeah, because they lookedat me as 2011 and you're really
good and people know who you are.
But family friends before, likepeople didn't understand what I
(26:03):
was doing.
And the truth is like I didn'tcare Because it wasn't about
anything other than I want to bethe best, wasn't about anything
other than I want to be thebest.
In 2015 hit and my wife wasbasically like we need to make a
change.
And I and she's like you can'tbe doing this, like you're doing
it.
And we basically came up with aplan and I said all right, give
(26:26):
me five days a week.
She's like how long do you need?
I said give me five hours everyday for five days a week.
If I don't use that time, Idon't get that time.
She's like okay.
So we scheduled it out.
I said if there's extra time Ican use it, but ultimately, like
I can't be doing this longerthan that 25 hours in the week
so we scheduled it out and I gotvery diligent with maximizing
(26:47):
my time.
Five hours to train sounds likea lot for a lot of people, but
I was in the gym before thateight, nine hours and I was
using that time and we got tothe.
Basically I qualified to thefinal stage again and I'm doing
really, really well.
And there's a third event whichtraditionally that third event
was always the event.
It's like a little longergrinder and I think I got like
(27:12):
28th place and it dropped me tolike 12th place, let's say, or
10th place.
Like basically where she's like.
I remember she said I had torun across the street and take a
shot.
And she came over and Iremember I was sitting outside
and she walked over and she saidall the right things.
(27:34):
I couldn't tell you what shesaid, honestly, she could, but
it was basically like go outthere and just win.
And it was that I remember thenext event.
I told her I was like this iswhat I have to do and then if I
do that and I win the it was atwo-parter and I said, if I do
(27:58):
well on this and I win thesecond part, I can do this.
Still.
She's like then just go do that.
And I went out.
I did really well in the firstpart and it was like a there's
video online of this wholeentire process, like there's
this awesome video.
But there basically was like a60 second window after the first
part where your shoulders wereshot and then we had to do a max
(28:19):
snatch and if you don't knowwhat a snatch is, look it up.
But basically you had twoattempts.
You had to just choose a weightand you had 20 seconds to hit
it and then you had about 90seconds between other people
going and then then you had onemore shot and it was your top
weight and I practiced.
The most weight I had ever hitin practice was 265 pounds.
(28:40):
But I kept failing it inpractice and right before I went
on the floor it got said thatsomebody hit a world record of
290 on that event and I rememberbeing like there's no way I can
win.
I couldn't even hit 265 inpractice.
What the heck.
So I walk out and I remember Isee my wife she's screaming,
(29:04):
crowds going crazy and I putjust put 265 pounds on the bar
and I happened to throw out toomuch weight and there was two
and a halves and I was gettingready to go.
I just threw the two and ahalves on, which is 270.
And I hit it and I rememberbeing like, oh my gosh, like I
nailed that and I took off theweight and I added to be at 285.
(29:25):
Well, those two and a halveswere just sitting there and I
was like I mean, might as well.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Can't leave them out there.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
And I just remember being like if I do this it's 100
points, I tie for first.
I still get first put theweight on and it showed it and I
remember my wife was like she'slike I was freaking out and I
nailed it.
And I remember when I stood uplike there's a 360 video of it
and it was like that momentwhere you can just see like that
(29:57):
was the change and I got allthe way up to seventh and I had
to be top five but there was ahuge gap and the next day was an
event six actually sorry, I waslike in 10th or 12th there's
still two more events and thatnight they did this this TV show
show, and they were basicallylike they said I was out, I was
too many points behind.
No one's ever came back fromthat many points.
(30:18):
And the next event I got likethird place, the final event.
I remember I was walking aroundand there was guys in front of
me.
You ever, you ever hear theterm like there's blood in the
water.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
I walked over to my wife and I said there's blood in
the water.
I'm going to win this.
She was like what do you mean?
I'm like they're all scared.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
Like all of them.
And I was like all I have to dois go out there and perform.
And the next event was a sprintand I went out and I'm.
The next event was a sprint andI went out and I won it.
And I remember I turned aroundand this was an event where,
like, you started all the otherside of the floor and you had to
do a bunch of stuff and then itwas like lift heavy weights
really fast and I could do thatand I finished in the guys I had
(31:04):
to be we're all still at thebeginning which meant that all
the other heats had beat them.
And I remember I put my arms onmy head and I jumped all the
way to like third or somethingand I qualified again.
Now the whole point of thatstory is to get to this.
After I qualified, the numberone question I got from every
(31:25):
single person my mom, everybodywas so are you done now?
And I said I would say this toeverybody you think I spent four
years trying to do this, toquit now, just to qualify, to
qualify Like.
And what's crazy is I didn'tqualify in 16 or 17,.
(31:51):
But then I qualified in 18 anddid my best did in 19,.
One did in 20.
And I look at it and I'm like Iqualified in 11 and had a
mediocre, if not, in my opinion,below average, till 2018.
Took me seven years to figureit out and when I figured it out
, it was like that that 2018 to2020, that made me understand I,
(32:14):
I, I deserved it so 19 was youryear.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
You wanted, all right , yep 19.
And so what?
What would you say wasdifferent that year?
Speaker 1 (32:28):
I think 2018 really showed me like I felt like I was
the best.
I had been up to that in 2018.
And I was like, wow, I'm likereally good.
So I think that it was more themental, the mental shift Like
in 2017, I I was really reallygood too, but I got hurt.
Um, I would have qualified thatyear, I I believe.
(32:50):
Now you know I can say whateverI want.
Um, I believe that.
But I hurt my peck in that year.
I got um.
The head of CrossFit basicallywrote a book that year and he in
the book said that he thought Iwas taking PEDs and I faked an
injury so that I wouldn't testpositive.
(33:11):
However, they tested me likethree times before and then that
moment during the competition,they pulled me out, like after I
had said I was hurt and theytested me and I remember being
like are they testing?
Why are they testing me?
Because they think I'm faking.
Why would I do this?
And then other athletes kind ofsaid we think he's faking.
Guys that were my friends whowouldn't even look me in the.
(33:37):
So then I said, all right, I'mfor sure doing this thing.
So that lights a fire.
The next year I.
The next year in 2018, I cameback and I qualified and they
that year I got tested.
Every month I was blood tested.
I remember I'd get calls andpeople would be like again I
walked in to compete, I gottested the whole time and I
(34:03):
remember we had the first eventgetting announced and the head
of CrossFit.
I'm walking out and he taps meon the shoulder and he's like
hey, come over here, pulls me ina room and he sticks his hand
out and he says we're good,right?
I said no, we're not good.
And he was like he pulls hishand back and he's like no,
we're like, you're not gonnamake, you're not gonna do
anything.
Stupid, are you?
(34:24):
You're not gonna make a scene.
He's like this is the biggestevent we have.
You can't make a scene.
And I was like you owe me apublic apology.
And he was.
He started laughing and he'slike I can't.
He's like we're good, right.
I was like we're not good.
You, you owe me a publicapology.
Again, we're in a back room.
(34:44):
There's nobody here.
We're getting ready to go outand like get fitted for stuff.
And we kind of ended at that.
Walk out and I'm riding a bikeand he comes up next to me and
he's like hey, yeah, let's doone of the camera guys, get a
picture of us.
Get a picture of us.
He's like let's race, so I justtake off.
He's like no no, no, you'regoing too fast.
You're going too fast, slowdown.
(35:05):
And there's a picture of himand I, and I'm right in front of
like what, what is this is hisway of being like and he ended
up pleading it.
But what's crazy is after hemade, he made a post when he
(35:29):
thought I was faking it and saidnikki rankar does this thing
after tearing his pec which Ididn't tear my pec but
ultimately makes this commentand my wife goes on and comments
and says way to support yourathletes, and he deletes the
post, so it doesn't existanymore.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
But Somewhere it does .
I'm sure you can find somethingelse.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
But again, that's like the process of like people
quit so easily.
And Again, that's like theprocess of like people quit so
easily.
And that's where I thinkpassion is great, but like
there's something else inside ofpeople that if I would have
never, ever done it, I wouldhave not changed a thing,
because it wasn't aboutqualifying, it wasn't about
(36:09):
winning, it was that I couldn'tnot do it.
It didn't matter what you saidto me, I couldn't not do it.
The winner, when I firststarted, got $2,500.
And then it up to $25,000, andI was like what I'm like?
Well, I'm going to work aregular job and do this anyway.
And then I grew with the sport.
So throughout that process,obviously things changed.
(36:32):
There was a lot more money thatgot brought in, but again, I
just there was this thing inside.
So to your like 2018, reallythat him saying that game
changer.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
So what point did you go from doing a lot of your
training downstairs in thebasement to transitioning over
to the gym?
Speaker 1 (36:57):
so I did all of my training from 2000 all the way
from till 2012.
So in 2012, um march, I openedup my gym.
So after I qualified for thecrossfit games, I was actually
sitting.
So reebok signed me after Iqualified and don hasselbeck at
the time was like I don't knowif he was ceo or what which matt
(37:22):
hasselbeck's dad, super awesomeguy.
Well, I'm sitting with him andthe games just ended, I think in
2011, and he's.
This is when, like rich froningwas getting ready to open up
his gym.
He's like why is he calling itMayhem?
Why isn't he calling it likeFroning?
Why isn't he using his brand?
And he's like somebody needs tomake their gym their brand.
And my wife looked at me andshe's like, hey, why don't we
(37:44):
use this CrossFit stuff somehow?
Cause I and tie it into like agym, cause you want to open up a
gym.
So we call, we named itcrossfit 061, which was my
crossfit games number from 2011.
It was 61, but they put a zeroin front because of all the
divisions and whatnot.
So in 2012, opened that up andstarted training there.
(38:06):
I still trained at home quite abit because of my kids.
When they'd go to bed I'd workout, they would nap.
I'd work out like, literally,when people like I don't have
time, I'm like, no, you havetime, you just want your time.
And to me it was like Icouldn't waste my time and I was
with my kids all the time, butit was just like intermittently,
oh, I got five minutes, I gotsomething I can do in five
(38:27):
minutes and, yeah, I would workout.
Then, starting 2012 on, waspredominantly the gym man, yeah.
And in 2012 to 2014, I don'tknow how I competed.
I literally was sleep deprived.
I didn't.
I don't know, I have no ideahow I did it.
(38:51):
And again, I didn't qualify 12,13, 14.
Makes sense?
It didn't make sense to me.
But I like I was in the gymfrom 4 30 in the morning until 8
30 to 9 30 at night, everysingle night and training
intermittently.
It'd be like coaching, doingthis stuff.
Okay, I'm gonna work out for 20minutes.
If I'd be talking to somebodytoo long, I'd be like, oh so
(39:12):
jittery, like you're wasting mytime.
Sorry, if anybody thinks of, ifI'd be talking to somebody too
long, I'd be like, oh so jittery, like you're wasting my time.
Speaker 2 (39:16):
Sorry if anybody thinks of that, it wasn't you.
I love you, but I got to go,yeah.
So I mean you brought up a lotof, you know, obstacles,
(39:38):
challenges, failures along theway.
The incident of basically beingcalled out for the PEDs or
cheating was the kind of thelight bulb moment that just lit
that fire.
Or do you have another definingmoment that you would say that
kind of?
Speaker 1 (39:45):
pushed you to.
I think there are moments thatelevate you.
I wouldn't say I'd say thatthere was this.
There was this early fire thatwas just so bright but so young.
I like didn't really know likethe strongest, brightest, but
like burned everything and thatgot fine-tuned and I think for a
(40:11):
long time I really usedeveryone thinking I was going to
fail, and didn't say much, gotreal quiet and, truthfully,
there would just be.
If I didn't get enough of that,I probably lost some purpose in
(40:34):
in the in like that flame.
But in 2018, and probably alittle bit, yeah, 2017 I think
that that fire was like strongand purposeful, like I learned
that I have to figure out how tobe steps ahead of everybody.
(40:55):
It's not just about being fit.
I got to learn things othersdon't know.
So I started doing much moreresearch on like, like gymnasts
and specific movement patternsthat would.
That wasn't about, wasn't aboutfitness.
So one thing I say a lot isthat, like crossfit people be
(41:16):
like oh, it's the fittest onearth.
I don't believe it's thefittest on earth.
I believe it's a test oftraining methodology.
I believe that what you canfind out through the crossfit
games is that you can havethousands of people and then
narrow it down to 40, who canget very similar results, doing
(41:38):
completely different things,never having done something, and
then very, all completed, verysimilar.
So to me, when I what I, when Irealized that it's about
training methodology, I realizedthat my training in my
preparation and my programmingand how I was doing it had to
improve.
So I learned how to move fasterand stuff that people didn't
(42:02):
know how I just learned.
If you've ever watched videosprobably pre-2018, nobody fell
down a rope.
Go online and watch likelegless rope climbs or watch
regular rope climbs Everybodywould climb up the rope and they
would essentially try to getdown fast.
I learned.
(42:24):
I watched one person who was agymnast and knew how to climb,
fall and I learned how to fallbefore everybody knew and it
just churned out that in that2015 year, as much as people can
be like, oh dude, there was anevent that I knew how to fall
off the rope and it was 27 ropeclimbs and I knew how to fall
(42:45):
every single time.
Now you know what happens whenyou lose your mind and you can't
think and you can't see becauseyou're so deep in what you're
doing.
Like I ripped, my fingers gotripped.
I remember I got done with theworkout and they had to like
stop the next heat.
And I was like what are theydoing?
Like they're removing a rope,like why they're like it's all
bloodied up and stuff, and I waslike what?
I didn't even know it was me.
Look up, I'm like, oh, it wasme.
(43:06):
They had to take my rope downbecause it was just red.
But it was that stuff, likethose little things where that's
not fitness, that's that's justlike being a step ahead.
So I think in most things, alot of people it's like hard
work, hard work, hard work andit's like smarter works with
hard work.
So I don't know if I'd answeredit.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
I can get off on, but tangents yeah, no, I think a
lot of times there's maybe notone pivotal moment.
It's like you said, it's aseries of moments that compile.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
There's one person I would say.
My dad was the person that Iwas always like whatever you say
, I'm proving you wrong.
And he was the one that waslike you know, you get married,
you're're not gonna be able towork out anymore.
You know, when you buy a house,you're not gonna be able to
work out anymore.
You know, when you have a kid,you're not gonna be able to work
(44:01):
out anymore.
You know this you're not gonnabe able to do that.
You know it was.
Everything was just like.
Whenever a new life changewould happen, he would always
explain to me how now my lifehad to change and uh, did your
dad work out?
Speaker 2 (44:15):
No, ever.
No, no, I didn't know if maybehe did at one point and then
those were his excuses.
No, my dad was not.
Speaker 1 (44:23):
So my dad, when my my dad was not really around, when
my mom, when, when my parentswere married, and then when my
mom, when him and my momseparated, he basically left.
He went back to Cleveland,which we were in valpo at the
time.
He went to cleveland, um, andwe would see him like in the
summer for like a week.
You know, he'd come pick us upoccasionally and he always hated
(44:46):
it.
We'd hear about it, how he hadto drive and, um, so he was just
like the thing he had to do,yeah, and he was just always,
always, it was just verynegative, um, somebody.
I was just like that's not whoI'm going to be.
So growing up, you think that?
So, when they say like, well,this is who you're going to be
now, it's like I'm going toactually be the opposite.
(45:07):
And fortunately, the stuff hesaid was all the things I didn't
want and yeah, so for him andthe crazy thing is in 2021, he
called me.
It may be 2020.
He called me and basically saidI'm sorry.
(45:28):
He's like I've been wrong everysingle time and this is a guy
that forgets.
Yesterday he said something wasstupid.
So a lot of times I'm like he'sjust saying I don't even know
if he means it, but like I'mpretending like this matters.
But he apologized for likeeverything and he ended up
saying I mean, this is aconversation, this is one of
those conversations you likeremember forever.
And he was just like whateveryou touch turns to gold and
(45:54):
whatever you decide to do fromhere on out, I want to be
involved in it.
And and whatever you decide todo from here on out, I want to
be involved in it.
And my fire went out.
I stopped competing.
Literally.
People were like you're so goodand I'm like I don't want it
anymore, and he became my bestfriend.
(46:17):
He's the person that I'll callfirst friend.
He's the only person that I canthat I believe, minus my wife
and that I can tell him my truesuccesses, like I can call him
and be in my wife's and be likeshit, like this, or like this is
what I, this is what mybusiness just did, or this is
what like, and tell him things,and he doesn't think I'm just
(46:37):
gloating or trying to because hehe's like dude, that's awesome,
like that's awesome.
And it's one person, becausethere's very few people that you
can call.
I was never able to praisemyself for qualifying or doing
well and in in crossfit orreally in anything, and I've had
(46:58):
to try to overcome that.
But he's the one person, theperson that I hated and didn't
want anything to be involvedwith, that wanted to do
everything opposite of.
He's the one person that I cancall and tell him things and
don't have to feel judged sothat's a crazy like full story.
So the one person that trulydid that was him.
(47:19):
He lit the fire and kept itburning and everybody else just
threw logs on.
Speaker 2 (47:26):
And gasoline.
Oh yeah, let's transition alittle bit to like having the
gyms doing, you know, coaching,impacting people's lives.
Um, you know what's give uslike your, what's your
philosophy on leadership andyour style and your, you know,
(47:46):
working with people oh man, soopening up the gyms?
Speaker 1 (47:52):
I didn't know what I was doing at all.
Fortunately, I, and I think fora lot of people, sometimes you
just got to talk about what itis that you really want, like
where your passions are.
Again, it's not not to havepassions, but like where your
passion is, where your energy is, what you want to do, and just
like speak it.
And I would say I want to opena gym, I'm going to open a gym,
(48:14):
I'm going to open a gym.
And fortunately I said itaround enough people that a
woman who I was helping saidlike you're the best, Like I've
worked with a lot of people,I've had a lot of people help me
, like you're amazing, I want tohelp you open a gym.
And I was like, oh my gosh, andthis is when my wife is at home
with our youngest she's you,you know, two years old, two and
(48:46):
a half and I'm like I'm tryingto make sure that we're good.
I can't just like throweverything into a gym and she's
like well, we want to invest inhelping you.
So they basically put up thecollateral um for me to be able
to open the gym and fortunately,a lot of people kind of knew
who I was.
So I started off with a decentkind of member size and what I
(49:06):
fell in love with that I didn'tknow that I was going to was
taking somebody who didn'tbelieve and flipping it and
flipping it.
And I think a lot of times forme, like when it comes to
leadership, you know, causeobviously you can, when we talk
leadership, a lot of times we'retalking, you know, leading a
(49:28):
team, whether that's at work orsports, um, but leading people
who don't even know that there'sa place they're trying to go,
like example, is like I wouldtake in 15 new people and most
of the time there's somebodythat takes up the energy in the
room or there's a person thatyou're like ah, that person's
(49:51):
not coming back, there's goingto, there's you.
You just have to understand thedynamics of this team.
So we would be together forlike four weeks.
You just have to understand thedynamics of this team.
So we would be together forlike four weeks.
And one of the things that Iloved and I still use this in
context all the time is when Iwould first thing, I would say
to a group I'd be like all right, here's the thing.
You're all scared that you'regoing to be last.
(50:12):
You're all scared that you'regoing to be the one that
everyone's waiting for,everybody's looking at.
But here's our rule If you arethe last one, when you finish
you say you're welcome andeverybody else says thank you,
because nobody cares that it'syou, they're just happy, it's
not them.
So, just so you know, if you arethat person, nobody cares, like
(50:41):
we're literally all here foryou.
So we finish every workout andthe last person would say you're
welcome and they'd be likethank you, and it just made that
person always came back.
And I think that so many timeswe compare to where we think we
should be and you hear it allthe time and it's well, it's
(51:04):
just you, right, it's you versusyou.
It's you versus you.
How do you get somebody torealize that that's actually
what it is?
And the analogy I would use allthe time and I would talk to
this in groups, because I thinkstory says a lot, especially in
leadership, when you're likeleading a team, like having
stories and things that peopleconnect with, a vision, and
normally that comes throughsomething deeper than just like
(51:27):
here's why, and what I wouldtell people is all right, you
think that you think that it'slike all these people you're
comparing yourselves to.
All right, how about this?
Let's use me as an example.
I'm going to go to a littlelocal competition.
Okay, I'm going to do sixworkouts.
I win every single workout andI get first place and everybody
(51:50):
praises me and every singleperson comes over and they're
like you're amazing, oh my gosh,you won.
And I'm like I am, you're right.
And then six months later I goto the CrossFit Games and they
happen to program the exact samesix workouts that I just did
six months ago.
And I go there and I do themall way better than I did six
(52:11):
months ago.
But I get dead last.
Everyone's going to walk up tome and say what happened?
How did you not win?
And I'm going to say I beatmyself by so much.
They were just better than me.
And that's okay.
I can either be the big fish ina small little pond or a small
(52:34):
fish in a big pond, and I thinkpeople would always rather be a
big fish in a small pond andnever find out.
But I grow so much more outthere.
I grow and those people pullyou.
So if you get in a group andyou are at the bottom, you're in
the right group.
And that's the part where Ithink in leadership.
(52:57):
I think if people have to beled, it's up to the leader to
find out how.
And if you can pull that bottomperson up, what's the problem?
There's a new one.
There's always going to besomebody down at the bottom.
So how can you to me it'salways how do you make the
person at the bottom see theirvalue and want to move up
(53:20):
somewhere, and the person at thetop you want to teach?
How do you get them down andpull the people from the bottom
up?
No,
When talking in comparison, I like to always try
to relate it back, to focus onmyself and how I do.
That is the thing.
Braxton's heard me say this.
I'm pretty sure where I knowwhen I look back, because the
hardest thing that we don't dois look back enough.
And one of the things that Iwould say to a lot of people is
(00:22):
like, I don't believe thatthere's such thing as a plateau.
I just think the next step's alot harder.
I think we're so used tostarting something and moving so
fast that when it slows down,we think we've plateaued, when
it's just that the reason whypeople start to fail is they
look and they see that the stepis an inch.
It's an inch and they stare atthe inch.
(00:45):
And they stare at it and theycan't figure out why they can't
get the inch.
And then I say, turn around andthey're like but look, this is
all I am like turn around, lookhow far you've come.
And I say that because I lookback and my best days now don't
(01:09):
even exist.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Welcome back to the Go All In podcast.
I'm Jake Fine and I'm BraxtonCave.
In today's episode, we finallyare bringing to the table a very
special guest.
Finally are bringing to thetable a very special guest.
We talked about this one in thelast episode and we are
extremely excited to have MrNick Urankar yeah, I got it
right Joining us today and we'regoing to walk through his story
(01:57):
.
You know where he's beengrowing up, some of the really
cool things that he's been ableto accomplish in his life, both
athletically, as a husband, as afather and as an entrepreneur.
And so, nick, welcome to thepodcast.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Thank you guys for having me.
I didn't know, I was the firstone, first guest, first one.
That's pretty cool yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
So obviously I've got an opportunity to get to know.
You become friends run in thesame circle, but for those that
maybe don't know, you becomefriends run in the same circle,
but for those that maybe don'tknow, you give us a breakdown of
your story.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Oh man, my story.
I guess where do I start?
When I was like born I wasactually.
I was born in Cleveland, ohio.
When I was one we moved toFlorida, lived there until I was
about eight, moved up toIndiana, valparaiso, which is
not far from here, and shortlyafter we moved here my parents
divorced.
And that actually plays a bigrole in kind of my growing up,
because I had a single mom andthere was three of us at that
(02:55):
time and I basically grew up inearly school care.
So my mom, the job that she had, they found out she was a
single mom of three kids andthey're like hey, I think she
worked at like a mechanics placeand she was their secretary
like come in early, stay late.
So we would get dropped off atschool at 5, 30 in the morning,
which you know sucks as a kid,but you don't really remember
(03:17):
that because you start playingat five and you're like whatever
, and we'd stay after and it wascalled kids stop and then we'd
stay30, and then it shut down.
So they would take us in a bus,more like a van.
My siblings, we'd go to Boysand Girls Club and that's
basically where I was raised.
So I'd stay at the Boys andGirls Club, which, as a kid,
you're just playing all day.
So I went to eight differentschools growing up.
(03:39):
Finally, my family moved out tothe country.
I was actually a big soccerplayer.
I was like obsessed with soccerand I think I was good enough
to go to, uh, play for team usa.
That was what.
I think.
There was no mls at that time.
I don't believe.
I doubt that that's true, but Ican always pretend I was a kid.
I was probably 13, moved to thecountry and I remember my
(04:00):
stepdad hated my mom had justgot remarried and my stepdad
hated soccer.
And we moved to the country andhe's like well, now you got to
play football and I was scaredof football because people yell
at you.
I was like I saw people gettingyelled at and started playing
football and what was funny wasI happened to go to a game and
it was halftime and the onefriend I had met at that school
(04:21):
had been there maybe two months.
He's like hey, come out on,come out on the field.
And I was like I bet I can kickthat.
And they just set the ball downand I kicked it and I remember
everybody was watching me andthis was probably eighth grade
and I remember they came overlike coaches and they were like
who are you?
And they basically I playedfootball then and we started
(04:43):
kicking field goals and PATs andI was punting and I hated
kicking, loved playing, but itwas like I didn't have to think
about it.
So I went through high schooland, honestly, I was super quiet
.
My nickname in high school waslater this is like senior year
was the Best, and my brotherused to always tell me he's like
(05:03):
you know, they're making fun ofyou when they say that.
And I was like that's kind of anickname, you know.
But the reason for the nicknamewasn't that I like thought I
was the best, even though, likeI think, if you're an athlete,
you kind of do right, you're,you're always pushing for that.
But it was more so that whensomebody would do something, I
(05:24):
would immediately try it andmost of the time would try to do
it better, and guys would belike, of course, nick just did
that, like ah, so that kind ofcarried on, went on to play
football in college, was areceiver and a kicker, and after
my sophomore year, basically wegot a new coach and he was like
(05:46):
I see your next year name saysKP, that's it.
So my last two years I justplayed football or just kicked
playing so, which was actuallynice to save my body a little
bit, because I'd actually brokemy back when I was 18, kind of
recovered from it, didn't reallyknow it was my L5.
And then I redid it my junioryear in college to the point of
(06:10):
I was like I can't do any morelifting when I'm done playing.
I was about 210 when ithappened.
When I graduated I was about190 pounds, kind of stopped
lifting and when I graduated Ihad just met my well at the time
my wife now, but my girlfriendwho became fiance, and I started
(06:32):
training her and I had trainedpeople for a while just
literally in the gyms like forfun and helped her get into
better shape.
You know we got to reallyconnect through that.
And then when I graduated I waslike, sweet, now I can like
find a new challenge and thatchallenge was I'm going to run a
(06:53):
hundred miles.
It was the Western States 100.
If you, if anybody knows,there's a guy called Dean
Karnazes and he ran 50 marathonsin 50 days and he wanted a belt
buckle.
And I, like, I want a beltbuckle and if you finish the
western states 100 in under 24hours, you get a belt buckle.
You don't get money, you don'tget anything.
Nothing I ever did was for themoney.
(07:14):
It was literally like I want toprove something to me and I
signed up for a half marathonthat was six months out from
when I was like I'm going all inon this stuff.
I ran my half marathon, whichwas a 13.1 mile loop, and then
there was a marathon which Ithought I probably should wait,
build up, and you basically didit again.
(07:35):
And I remember at the end of myhalf marathon, as I was
churning, I was like how arethey doing that again Like this
is ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
I've been there, I've been there.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
I finished my half marathon and I looked at my wife
and I was like I don't careabout the buckle, I'm never
running any farther than thatagain in my life.
And I remember I was so soreand I just kept signing up for
half marathons and I probablyran seven or eight of them and a
buddy of mine was like dude,you've got to stop that, like
(08:08):
you're not a runner.
And it was a high school, itwas a quarterback at our high
school and he was at collegewith me.
We had worked out all the timeand kind of trained, and he
basically was like, dude, youneed to check out this thing
called CrossFit.
And I was like no, that'saerobics, not doing it.
And finally he's like, no,serious, check it out.
I'm like, fine, I will.
And then that's where, kind ofall that starts.
(08:31):
So that's my quick boom.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
That's amazing missed a lot in there.
But yeah, he said.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
He said it's aerobics yeah, do you haven't heard that
?
I said it was aerobics.
I was like I'm not doing it.
I haven't heard that in a while.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Yeah so let's back up real quick.
So I I love the story of howyou and chelsea met so you gotta
, you gotta, tell this story,okay?
Speaker 1 (08:50):
so in in college I uh , I had a lot of girlfriends.
When I say girlfriends Iliterally mean like girl friends
but I also liked a lot ofdifferent girls that weren't my
girlfriends.
It was just like you know whatwas really cool about my time
when I was kind of Facebook cameout and it was only for schools
(09:12):
, so you could just be walkingand then all of a sudden see a
girl and walk over and be likeoh hi, my name's Nick and
they're like my name's Sarah andI'm like nice to meet.
You Walk away.
I'm like Sarah, you walk away.
I'm like sarah, sarah, sarah,sarah, sarah and I go home and
you go online, you type in sarahand it's only girls in your
(09:33):
school and what, there's 50sarahs.
So I'm like that's the sarah.
Hey, didn't I run into you inthe parking lot?
Speaker 2 (09:39):
yeah, we're having a party.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
You should come over so eventually my girlfriends
were like nick, you need to likestop, come on like dial it back
a little bit.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Yeah, you need to get , you need to like get a girl.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
And they were like we've got the perfect girl for
you.
There's another one who you'retoo much alike, we think you'd
clash, but like we've got thisgirl.
So we had a party at my houseand we were like the football
house Door knocks.
I get a text like hey, they'reon their way.
I answer the door and there'sthese two girls standing there
and one of them is this girlwhose name is actually Sarah Not
(10:17):
the same one in my fictitiousstory, which wasn't really
fictitious, I guess and I shakeher hand.
I was like hi, I'm Nick, we'resupposed to meet.
And then her friend next to herI say hi, I'm Nick, and her
name's Chelsea.
And I say it's nice to meet you.
And she has an empty wine glassin her hand.
So I said do you like wine?
She was like I do and I waslike I've got something for you.
So I walk her into the kitchen,pour a glass of wine.
(10:39):
She takes and she's like thankyou.
She takes a sip and she goes.
Oh my gosh, that's disgusting.
And I said I thought it was bad.
It's been sitting there for sixmonths.
I just needed somebody to tryit and she didn't bat an eye.
We just kept talking.
Sarah was the girl I wassupposed to meet.
This chelsea girl was actuallya girl that I was a year older
(11:03):
than her my fresh, her freshmanyear, my sophomore year.
We had to eat in the sororityarea and you have like this
little blending period where thesorority girls are eating when
you're eating and I remember shewalked by and I asked like
who's that?
And somebody was like oh, Idon't worry about her, like you
know, like whatever, like it'slike okay, that was it, but it.
(11:24):
But I just remember being likeshe was like the first girl that
I saw and I was like she caughtmy eye.
And then, six months later, I'mwalking through a cafeteria and
a buddy of mine on the footballteam's like you're in car.
He said it like that, likeyou're in car, you're in car.
And I was like what's up?
(11:45):
And he's like hey, like yeah,and he turns, looking a
different direction, and goeshey, you, you think he's hot and
it's chelsea eating like 10seats down from this guy.
And I look at her and she'slike he's okay.
And I was like all right, there, I'll see you later.
And I walk away.
Six months later that happensat my house.
She doesn't remember the twoprior of, obviously, the time
(12:10):
where I was staring at herwondering who she was, or the
other one, but I knew who shewas when she was standing at my
door and it was that girl andthat was a girl that I wanted
and from that moment on wefigured it out, figured it out.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
It's amazing, Before we jump into some of where your
life journey is taking you tellus a little bit about family
life.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Oh man, I'm so blessed family-wise.
It did not go as planned.
I don't think anybody's familyever goes as planned.
But we got married young.
Um I uh, right after graduationis when I proposed and she was
like, okay, I want to have afall wedding, let's wait a year
and a half.
Well, if you know my wife, thatyear and a half turned into
like six months.
(12:59):
So it was like, well, if wehave a fall wedding.
So it was like, well, if wehave a fall wedding, we can do
it sooner if we do it now.
So we got married and she endedup going for like a regular exam
and found out they were likeyou probably can't have kids,
and that kind of freaked her outto where she was like can we
try, please, please.
And I'm like we just gotmarried like six months into
(13:20):
being married.
I don't think this is what wewant to do.
I'm not ready.
No.
And then the next six monthsinto being married, I don't
think this is what we want to do.
I'm not ready, no, and then thenext night she's like crying
and I was like, all right, Ithought about it, we can try
once.
However, if it works, we can'ttake it back.
Uh, this isn't, like you know,practice like we're taking a
shot and uh, we tried once andwe had my daughter jada, and
(13:48):
that was crazy to be as young aswe were having, uh, because
she's 15 now and having adaughter and I was really busy
at this time.
So, like I for her firstprobably two or three I wasn't
like around how I would want tobe.
I was trying to figure out whatI was going to do then building
(14:10):
a business and, um, just sofocused on that.
And then we had my second,who's now uh, 11, she'll be 12.
They're three and a half yearsapart and when she was born I
had much more flexibility, so Iactually got to spend the first
two or three years raising her.
She would get dropped off to meand I would be with her all day
(14:32):
.
So we had these like Thursdaydays where my Thursdays were my
rest days and I would try not tohave to do anything and we
would just watch movies.
Like she would sit on my lapand we would just watch movies
all day.
And then I don't remember whatyear it was, but I was always
fearful of the day when shewould just get up off my lap and
she got up and I was like no,we don't do that, we watch, we
(14:54):
watch TV, and that was the endof the TV.
But I but for me, probably thelast 10 years I've got to the
whole time my daughters havebeen in school.
I've got to spend almost everymoment with them, get to take
them to school, pick them up,drop them off.
My 15-year-old just rode a busfor the first time because last
(15:16):
week my wife and I just went fortwo days to Chicago and just
spent days together and went toa concert and she had to ride
the bus with a friend.
But we travel a ton my wife andI like obviously, like any
relationship, you have to workat it, uh, and I always say
relationships aren't 50 50 butthey will.
If a good relationship over anextended period of time will
(15:39):
work out 50 50.
Um, how it is for you it looksdifferent for everybody else,
but there always has to be 100%and sometimes I've given 100
because she's had nothing togive and vice versa.
So I think that for my wife andI, that is something that I
pride myself in is I will neverquit.
And then, with my girls, Ipride myself is that I will
(16:02):
always be there.
I'll always be what I can givethem, whether it's what they
need.
I struggle at that because Igive them what I can and I'm
learning how to be the best thatI can, but I always want them
to know that, as their father,that they've seen that life
doesn't end with kids.
(16:23):
Life doesn't end at any point,that you can always be doing
something at any time.
So I think for us and my family, it's like so important to me
that I've been able to get to apoint that I'm living a life
that I'm super proud of, and Iwould hope that all three of
(16:44):
them, if they're in this room,they'd be like giving me a big
hug right now, because theywould just love to hear that.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Well, they're going to see it.
So let's talk about, let's jumpinto where you kind of left off
in your journey.
So there was a moment, you know, you tried CrossFit and then
you're like I'm kind of good atthis, yeah, well, no, or there
had to be a moment at some point.
So well.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
So I think like everything sometimes.
So everybody always says, right, go after what you're
passionate about, what youchange.
And I think that I wouldn't say, go after what you're
passionate about.
It's what gives you energy,like, what's the thing that,
like when you're doing somethingelse you can't stop thinking
about right, they're cut.
What's the thing that you wakeup at 3am in the morning,
excited and you're like how, whyis this on my mind?
(17:32):
And it, and it's just thatconsistency of it's, almost like
there's something speaking toyou for something more.
And what ended up happening forme was I finally watched the
video, but that friend came overto my house and brought a vhs.
I believe it was a vhs, couldhave been dvd, we'll call vhs,
that'd be cooler.
Um, and it was.
(17:54):
It was called every secondcounts the 2008 crossfit games,
and he played it for me and Iwas like this exists, this is
what you were talking about whydidn't you say that?
and he's like I was trying andthis is the guy that had like
all the underground stuff He'dlike send you this like he was
the Ocho, you know, espn theOcho right.
It's like everybody knows Mike,nobody knows that was that guy.
(18:14):
He was the guy giving you themagazine.
And uh, I basically looked uphow do you start?
Like I didn't get a handbook.
He wasn't like, he was justlike do this.
I'm like what is it looks likeit's kind of I don't even know
what the stuff is.
So I looked up and said, dothis workout called fran.
So I was like, all right, I cando that.
It's basically pull-ups andthrusters, which I'd never
really done a thruster, but I'mlike it's a squat and a press.
(18:36):
I've done those.
And I went in my basement, usedlike a p90x bar and an old
school like thin bar with thespin on ends, and I went like it
was like 95 pounds and I wentheavier because I'm like 95
pounds, it's not heavy.
I think I went like 103.
I'm like it's nothing Right.
And I did the workout and Iread that like two minutes and
(18:57):
30 seconds was like really good.
And I was like, well then, I'mobviously going to be the best,
so we're going to do this.
And I was like, well then, I'mobviously going to be the best,
so we're going to do this.
And I did it in six minutes and47 seconds and I was like I
couldn't feel my chest.
I'd never felt like that in myentire life.
I crawled up the stairs and mywife was eight months pregnant
(19:19):
with our first when I decidedlike, and I looked at her and I
said that was legit, I'm all in,like, I'm going all.
And I looked at her and I saidthat was legit, I'm all in, like
, I'm going all in and all in tolike, just be the best at it.
This is 2009.
End of 2009.
So at this point, so basically,when people tell me like well,
what if you have kids?
What if you have this stuff?
I started this with my wifeeight months pregnant, to then
(19:43):
immediately kind of off on atangent.
She said she didn't want to goback to work.
I was trying to open up abusiness.
I had to quit that.
I had to then hustle to find ajob that paid enough money to
support a family that I was notprepared to have to do.
While trying to compete, Iended up shaving my head so that
I didn't have to shower.
After I would work out at lunchI wouldn't eat.
I would eat on the like.
I would literally train every.
(20:04):
I would go into the one roomthat we had that there was no
cameras and I would work out andI would come out like okay,
guys, People still are like like.
There were times I'd have peoplebe like come in here, what's on
the wall?
Why is it black?
And it was my dress shoes.
Doing handstand pushups on thewall, my dress shoes doing
(20:26):
handstand push-ups on the wall,the rubber marks and I'd be like
and like, I'm like, oh, I canclaim that, but nobody knew what
was happening in that room soI'd have stuff in my car.
Well, the first competition Iever did was in 2010 and it was
at the arnold classic, whichactually just happened, and it
was called.
Called it was basically, ifanybody knows CrossFit, there's
(20:46):
a process to qualify and thefirst step is now called the
Open, but before it was calledsectionals and you anybody could
sign up and in our sectional itwas like six states or
something like that and therewas 183 people that went and top
20 moved on to the next round.
So I was all right, I'm gonnado this, go in there in the
first event.
I watch people go and Iremember thinking they're
(21:10):
cheating, they're not doing thisright, they were doing toes to
bar and they were doing otherthings and like all these
movements, I'm like they'recheating, like they're, they're
doing weird movements, they'removing their bodies all funky.
This doesn't, this isn't right,and the reason why I said that
was I didn't know what they weredoing.
So to me that's wrong and I goand basically get my butt kicked
(21:32):
.
And I went there with my wife'sdad, scott, my father-in-law.
He was big into bodybuilding,like growing up, so he wanted to
go.
And I remember we got in thecar and he said to me those guys
were so good, they were likeamazing, like that one guy and
this guy and that guy and I'mjust sitting there like because
(21:53):
I didn't get top 20, I didn'tqualify, and I'm just like again
, like feeling devastated andhe's just going on and on and on
and I look at him and I go I'mgonna beat all of.
And he just kind of looked atme and he, like you're not that
good.
And I remember I just literallywent all in and again, I'm
(22:23):
working a lot, got a new baby,but there's this tunnel vision
of this is what I'm going to do.
And I remember it'd be nineo'clock at night and I'd be at
the bottom of the stairs andChelsea be at the top of the
stairs and she'd be just upsetLike what are you doing?
And I'm like I'll quit.
You want me to quit, but Ican't like, I can't stop.
(22:45):
I every waking moment of me islike I have to do this.
In the middle of that year yearthere was a competition that
came up that was coming up injanuary, so this happened in
like march.
So january the following yearthere was competition and a
bunch of the names of the guysthat were on that list at that
competition that basicallydestroyed me were on it and I
signed up and I went to it and Iwon.
(23:07):
And that was the first timepeople started saying like hey,
you're actually really good.
And I had never done anything,like I'd never been out in
public.
I went from like this whateverto just I'm gonna do everything
I possibly can and I justlearned how to move.
And I think when, when it comesto movement, I think people
(23:28):
misinterpret things and theythink that there's a way to do
something, but in reality thereare progressions to do something
in a in a different way.
So, like, every movementessentially has this sister or
brother, this other side of it,and this, this step up.
So when I teach things, it'slike this is step a, step b,
(23:52):
step c, d, e, and these allprogress on each other and you
can choose to go as high as youwant with it.
You don't have to go past a andthat's totally fine, but a is
just the beginning, so I learnedeverything I possibly could and
in 2011 so the year after Iqualified for the crossfit games
, I went back to thatcompetition.
I didn't win it, I got thirdqualified or actually sorry.
(24:15):
They had the Open so I beatmost of those guys, went to the
regionals, which was where Ididn't qualify, got third and
qualified for the CrossFit Gamesin 2011.
And I remember that was whenthere was no social media and I
walked out and by the time I gotto my car I had like 10 or 15
sponsors already emailing me,trying to like sign me, and I
(24:35):
remember being like dang, I justwent from a nobody walking out,
having my father-in-law talkabout all those other guys to
like I've got this thing aroundmy neck and I made it and it
felt easy.
That was the hard part.
That was the part that I thinkthat's when everything changed.
So what most people don't knowis that, yes, I qualified in
(25:00):
2011, but in 2012, I missed itby one point.
In 2013, I went in not feelingshoulder and and basically I
kind of crapped the bed, gotlike 10th and didn't qualify.
(25:20):
2014, I got like sixth orseventh, didn't qualify, and I
remember I had to have aconversation.
My wife was like why are youdoing this?
Like you, yeah, you made in2011, but like it's all.
You're going to 2015.
Like you're putting in all thiswork, you're sacrificing all
this time, and like you're notdoing it.
(25:42):
And that was hard, because theonly person that really ever
believed in me was her.
Like anybody that was in mylife, nobody thought, unless you
came to my gym which at thispoint, I had gyms they came and
like, yeah, because they lookedat me as 2011 and you're really
good and people know who you are.
But family friends before, likepeople didn't understand what I
(26:03):
was doing.
And the truth is like I didn'tcare Because it wasn't about
anything other than I want to bethe best, wasn't about anything
other than I want to be thebest.
In 2015 hit and my wife wasbasically like we need to make a
change.
And I and she's like you can'tbe doing this, like you're doing
it.
And we basically came up with aplan and I said all right, give
(26:26):
me five days a week.
She's like how long do you need?
I said give me five hours everyday for five days a week.
If I don't use that time, Idon't get that time.
She's like okay.
So we scheduled it out.
I said if there's extra time Ican use it, but ultimately, like
I can't be doing this longerthan that 25 hours in the week
so we scheduled it out and I gotvery diligent with maximizing
(26:47):
my time.
Five hours to train sounds likea lot for a lot of people, but
I was in the gym before thateight, nine hours and I was
using that time and we got tothe.
Basically I qualified to thefinal stage again and I'm doing
really, really well.
And there's a third event whichtraditionally that third event
was always the event.
It's like a little longergrinder and I think I got like
(27:12):
28th place and it dropped me tolike 12th place, let's say, or
10th place.
Like basically where she's like.
I remember she said I had torun across the street and take a
shot.
And she came over and Iremember I was sitting outside
and she walked over and she saidall the right things.
(27:34):
I couldn't tell you what shesaid, honestly, she could, but
it was basically like go outthere and just win.
And it was that I remember thenext event.
I told her I was like this iswhat I have to do and then if I
do that and I win the it was atwo-parter and I said, if I do
(27:58):
well on this and I win thesecond part, I can do this.
Still.
She's like then just go do that.
And I went out.
I did really well in the firstpart and it was like a there's
video online of this wholeentire process, like there's
this awesome video.
But there basically was like a60 second window after the first
part where your shoulders wereshot and then we had to do a max
(28:19):
snatch and if you don't knowwhat a snatch is, look it up.
But basically you had twoattempts.
You had to just choose a weightand you had 20 seconds to hit
it and then you had about 90seconds between other people
going and then then you had onemore shot and it was your top
weight and I practiced.
The most weight I had ever hitin practice was 265 pounds.
(28:40):
But I kept failing it inpractice and right before I went
on the floor it got said thatsomebody hit a world record of
290 on that event and I rememberbeing like there's no way I can
win.
I couldn't even hit 265 inpractice.
What the heck.
So I walk out and I remember Isee my wife she's screaming,
(29:04):
crowds going crazy and I putjust put 265 pounds on the bar
and I happened to throw out toomuch weight and there was two
and a halves and I was gettingready to go.
I just threw the two and ahalves on, which is 270.
And I hit it and I rememberbeing like, oh my gosh, like I
nailed that and I took off theweight and I added to be at 285.
(29:25):
Well, those two and a halveswere just sitting there and I
was like I mean, might as well.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Can't leave them out there.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
And I just remember being like if I do this it's 100
points, I tie for first.
I still get first put theweight on and it showed it and I
remember my wife was like she'slike I was freaking out and I
nailed it.
And I remember when I stood uplike there's a 360 video of it
and it was like that momentwhere you can just see like that
(29:57):
was the change and I got allthe way up to seventh and I had
to be top five but there was ahuge gap and the next day was an
event six actually sorry, I waslike in 10th or 12th there's
still two more events and thatnight they did this this TV show
show, and they were basicallylike they said I was out, I was
too many points behind.
No one's ever came back fromthat many points.
(30:18):
And the next event I got likethird place, the final event.
I remember I was walking aroundand there was guys in front of
me.
You ever, you ever hear theterm like there's blood in the
water.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
I walked over to my wife and I said there's blood in
the water.
I'm going to win this.
She was like what do you mean?
I'm like they're all scared.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
Like all of them.
And I was like all I have to dois go out there and perform.
And the next event was a sprintand I went out and I'm.
The next event was a sprint andI went out and I won it.
And I remember I turned aroundand this was an event where,
like, you started all the otherside of the floor and you had to
do a bunch of stuff and then itwas like lift heavy weights
really fast and I could do thatand I finished in the guys I had
(31:04):
to be we're all still at thebeginning which meant that all
the other heats had beat them.
And I remember I put my arms onmy head and I jumped all the
way to like third or somethingand I qualified again.
Now the whole point of thatstory is to get to this.
After I qualified, the numberone question I got from every
(31:25):
single person my mom, everybodywas so are you done now?
And I said I would say this toeverybody you think I spent four
years trying to do this, toquit now, just to qualify, to
qualify Like.
And what's crazy is I didn'tqualify in 16 or 17,.
(31:51):
But then I qualified in 18 anddid my best did in 19,.
One did in 20.
And I look at it and I'm like Iqualified in 11 and had a
mediocre, if not, in my opinion,below average, till 2018.
Took me seven years to figureit out and when I figured it out
, it was like that that 2018 to2020, that made me understand I,
(32:14):
I, I deserved it so 19 was youryear.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
You wanted, all right , yep 19.
And so what?
What would you say wasdifferent that year?
Speaker 1 (32:28):
I think 2018 really showed me like I felt like I was
the best.
I had been up to that in 2018.
And I was like, wow, I'm likereally good.
So I think that it was more themental, the mental shift Like
in 2017, I I was really reallygood too, but I got hurt.
Um, I would have qualified thatyear, I I believe.
(32:50):
Now you know I can say whateverI want.
Um, I believe that.
But I hurt my peck in that year.
I got um.
The head of CrossFit basicallywrote a book that year and he in
the book said that he thought Iwas taking PEDs and I faked an
injury so that I wouldn't testpositive.
(33:11):
However, they tested me likethree times before and then that
moment during the competition,they pulled me out, like after I
had said I was hurt and theytested me and I remember being
like are they testing?
Why are they testing me?
Because they think I'm faking.
Why would I do this?
And then other athletes kind ofsaid we think he's faking.
Guys that were my friends whowouldn't even look me in the.
(33:37):
So then I said, all right, I'mfor sure doing this thing.
So that lights a fire.
The next year I.
The next year in 2018, I cameback and I qualified and they
that year I got tested.
Every month I was blood tested.
I remember I'd get calls andpeople would be like again I
walked in to compete, I gottested the whole time and I
(34:03):
remember we had the first eventgetting announced and the head
of CrossFit.
I'm walking out and he taps meon the shoulder and he's like
hey, come over here, pulls me ina room and he sticks his hand
out and he says we're good,right?
I said no, we're not good.
And he was like he pulls hishand back and he's like no,
we're like, you're not gonnamake, you're not gonna do
anything.
Stupid, are you?
(34:24):
You're not gonna make a scene.
He's like this is the biggestevent we have.
You can't make a scene.
And I was like you owe me apublic apology.
And he was.
He started laughing and he'slike I can't.
He's like we're good, right.
I was like we're not good.
You, you owe me a publicapology.
Again, we're in a back room.
(34:44):
There's nobody here.
We're getting ready to go outand like get fitted for stuff.
And we kind of ended at that.
Walk out and I'm riding a bikeand he comes up next to me and
he's like hey, yeah, let's doone of the camera guys, get a
picture of us.
Get a picture of us.
He's like let's race, so I justtake off.
He's like no no, no, you'regoing too fast.
You're going too fast, slowdown.
(35:05):
And there's a picture of himand I, and I'm right in front of
like what, what is this is hisway of being like and he ended
up pleading it.
But what's crazy is after hemade, he made a post when he
(35:29):
thought I was faking it and saidnikki rankar does this thing
after tearing his pec which Ididn't tear my pec but
ultimately makes this commentand my wife goes on and comments
and says way to support yourathletes, and he deletes the
post, so it doesn't existanymore.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
But Somewhere it does .
I'm sure you can find somethingelse.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
But again, that's like the process of like people
quit so easily.
And Again, that's like theprocess of like people quit so
easily.
And that's where I thinkpassion is great, but like
there's something else inside ofpeople that if I would have
never, ever done it, I wouldhave not changed a thing,
because it wasn't aboutqualifying, it wasn't about
(36:09):
winning, it was that I couldn'tnot do it.
It didn't matter what you saidto me, I couldn't not do it.
The winner, when I firststarted, got $2,500.
And then it up to $25,000, andI was like what I'm like?
Well, I'm going to work aregular job and do this anyway.
And then I grew with the sport.
So throughout that process,obviously things changed.
(36:32):
There was a lot more money thatgot brought in, but again, I
just there was this thing inside.
So to your like 2018, reallythat him saying that game
changer.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
So what point did you go from doing a lot of your
training downstairs in thebasement to transitioning over
to the gym?
Speaker 1 (36:57):
so I did all of my training from 2000 all the way
from till 2012.
So in 2012, um march, I openedup my gym.
So after I qualified for thecrossfit games, I was actually
sitting.
So reebok signed me after Iqualified and don hasselbeck at
the time was like I don't knowif he was ceo or what which matt
(37:22):
hasselbeck's dad, super awesomeguy.
Well, I'm sitting with him andthe games just ended, I think in
2011, and he's.
This is when, like rich froningwas getting ready to open up
his gym.
He's like why is he calling itMayhem?
Why isn't he calling it likeFroning?
Why isn't he using his brand?
And he's like somebody needs tomake their gym their brand.
And my wife looked at me andshe's like, hey, why don't we
(37:44):
use this CrossFit stuff somehow?
Cause I and tie it into like agym, cause you want to open up a
gym.
So we call, we named itcrossfit 061, which was my
crossfit games number from 2011.
It was 61, but they put a zeroin front because of all the
divisions and whatnot.
So in 2012, opened that up andstarted training there.
(38:06):
I still trained at home quite abit because of my kids.
When they'd go to bed I'd workout, they would nap.
I'd work out like, literally,when people like I don't have
time, I'm like, no, you havetime, you just want your time.
And to me it was like Icouldn't waste my time and I was
with my kids all the time, butit was just like intermittently,
oh, I got five minutes, I gotsomething I can do in five
(38:27):
minutes and, yeah, I would workout.
Then, starting 2012 on, waspredominantly the gym man, yeah.
And in 2012 to 2014, I don'tknow how I competed.
I literally was sleep deprived.
I didn't.
I don't know, I have no ideahow I did it.
(38:51):
And again, I didn't qualify 12,13, 14.
Makes sense?
It didn't make sense to me.
But I like I was in the gymfrom 4 30 in the morning until 8
30 to 9 30 at night, everysingle night and training
intermittently.
It'd be like coaching, doingthis stuff.
Okay, I'm gonna work out for 20minutes.
If I'd be talking to somebodytoo long, I'd be like, oh so
(39:12):
jittery, like you're wasting mytime.
Sorry, if anybody thinks of, ifI'd be talking to somebody too
long, I'd be like, oh so jittery, like you're wasting my time.
Speaker 2 (39:16):
Sorry if anybody thinks of that, it wasn't you.
I love you, but I got to go,yeah.
So I mean you brought up a lotof, you know, obstacles,
(39:38):
challenges, failures along theway.
The incident of basically beingcalled out for the PEDs or
cheating was the kind of thelight bulb moment that just lit
that fire.
Or do you have another definingmoment that you would say that
kind of?
Speaker 1 (39:45):
pushed you to.
I think there are moments thatelevate you.
I wouldn't say I'd say thatthere was this.
There was this early fire thatwas just so bright but so young.
I like didn't really know likethe strongest, brightest, but
like burned everything and thatgot fine-tuned and I think for a
(40:11):
long time I really usedeveryone thinking I was going to
fail, and didn't say much, gotreal quiet and, truthfully,
there would just be.
If I didn't get enough of that,I probably lost some purpose in
(40:34):
in the in like that flame.
But in 2018, and probably alittle bit, yeah, 2017 I think
that that fire was like strongand purposeful, like I learned
that I have to figure out how tobe steps ahead of everybody.
(40:55):
It's not just about being fit.
I got to learn things othersdon't know.
So I started doing much moreresearch on like, like gymnasts
and specific movement patternsthat would.
That wasn't about, wasn't aboutfitness.
So one thing I say a lot isthat, like crossfit people be
(41:16):
like oh, it's the fittest onearth.
I don't believe it's thefittest on earth.
I believe it's a test oftraining methodology.
I believe that what you canfind out through the crossfit
games is that you can havethousands of people and then
narrow it down to 40, who canget very similar results, doing
(41:38):
completely different things,never having done something, and
then very, all completed, verysimilar.
So to me, when I what I, when Irealized that it's about
training methodology, I realizedthat my training in my
preparation and my programmingand how I was doing it had to
improve.
So I learned how to move fasterand stuff that people didn't
(42:02):
know how I just learned.
If you've ever watched videosprobably pre-2018, nobody fell
down a rope.
Go online and watch likelegless rope climbs or watch
regular rope climbs Everybodywould climb up the rope and they
would essentially try to getdown fast.
I learned.
(42:24):
I watched one person who was agymnast and knew how to climb,
fall and I learned how to fallbefore everybody knew and it
just churned out that in that2015 year, as much as people can
be like, oh dude, there was anevent that I knew how to fall
off the rope and it was 27 ropeclimbs and I knew how to fall
(42:45):
every single time.
Now you know what happens whenyou lose your mind and you can't
think and you can't see becauseyou're so deep in what you're
doing.
Like I ripped, my fingers gotripped.
I remember I got done with theworkout and they had to like
stop the next heat.
And I was like what are theydoing?
Like they're removing a rope,like why they're like it's all
bloodied up and stuff, and I waslike what?
I didn't even know it was me.
Look up, I'm like, oh, it wasme.
(43:06):
They had to take my rope downbecause it was just red.
But it was that stuff, likethose little things where that's
not fitness, that's that's justlike being a step ahead.
So I think in most things, alot of people it's like hard
work, hard work, hard work andit's like smarter works with
hard work.
So I don't know if I'd answeredit.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
I can get off on, but tangents yeah, no, I think a
lot of times there's maybe notone pivotal moment.
It's like you said, it's aseries of moments that compile.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
There's one person I would say.
My dad was the person that Iwas always like whatever you say
, I'm proving you wrong.
And he was the one that waslike you know, you get married,
you're're not gonna be able towork out anymore.
You know, when you buy a house,you're not gonna be able to
work out anymore.
You know, when you have a kid,you're not gonna be able to work
(44:01):
out anymore.
You know this you're not gonnabe able to do that.
You know it was.
Everything was just like.
Whenever a new life changewould happen, he would always
explain to me how now my lifehad to change and uh, did your
dad work out?
Speaker 2 (44:15):
No, ever.
No, no, I didn't know if maybehe did at one point and then
those were his excuses.
No, my dad was not.
Speaker 1 (44:23):
So my dad, when my my dad was not really around, when
my mom, when, when my parentswere married, and then when my
mom, when him and my momseparated, he basically left.
He went back to Cleveland,which we were in valpo at the
time.
He went to cleveland, um, andwe would see him like in the
summer for like a week.
You know, he'd come pick us upoccasionally and he always hated
(44:46):
it.
We'd hear about it, how he hadto drive and, um, so he was just
like the thing he had to do,yeah, and he was just always,
always, it was just verynegative, um, somebody.
I was just like that's not whoI'm going to be.
So growing up, you think that?
So, when they say like, well,this is who you're going to be
now, it's like I'm going toactually be the opposite.
(45:07):
And fortunately, the stuff hesaid was all the things I didn't
want and yeah, so for him andthe crazy thing is in 2021, he
called me.
It may be 2020.
He called me and basically saidI'm sorry.
(45:28):
He's like I've been wrong everysingle time and this is a guy
that forgets.
Yesterday he said something wasstupid.
So a lot of times I'm like he'sjust saying I don't even know
if he means it, but like I'mpretending like this matters.
But he apologized for likeeverything and he ended up
saying I mean, this is aconversation, this is one of
those conversations you likeremember forever.
And he was just like whateveryou touch turns to gold and
(45:54):
whatever you decide to do fromhere on out, I want to be
involved in it.
And and whatever you decide todo from here on out, I want to
be involved in it.
And my fire went out.
I stopped competing.
Literally.
People were like you're so goodand I'm like I don't want it
anymore, and he became my bestfriend.
(46:17):
He's the person that I'll callfirst friend.
He's the only person that I canthat I believe, minus my wife
and that I can tell him my truesuccesses, like I can call him
and be in my wife's and be likeshit, like this, or like this is
what I, this is what mybusiness just did, or this is
what like, and tell him things,and he doesn't think I'm just
(46:37):
gloating or trying to because hehe's like dude, that's awesome,
like that's awesome.
And it's one person, becausethere's very few people that you
can call.
I was never able to praisemyself for qualifying or doing
well and in in crossfit orreally in anything, and I've had
(46:58):
to try to overcome that.
But he's the one person, theperson that I hated and didn't
want anything to be involvedwith, that wanted to do
everything opposite of.
He's the one person that I cancall and tell him things and
don't have to feel judged sothat's a crazy like full story.
So the one person that trulydid that was him.
(47:19):
He lit the fire and kept itburning and everybody else just
threw logs on.
Speaker 2 (47:26):
And gasoline.
Oh yeah, let's transition alittle bit to like having the
gyms doing, you know, coaching,impacting people's lives.
Um, you know what's give uslike your, what's your
philosophy on leadership andyour style and your, you know,
(47:46):
working with people oh man, soopening up the gyms?
Speaker 1 (47:52):
I didn't know what I was doing at all.
Fortunately, I, and I think fora lot of people, sometimes you
just got to talk about what itis that you really want, like
where your passions are.
Again, it's not not to havepassions, but like where your
passion is, where your energy is, what you want to do, and just
like speak it.
And I would say I want to opena gym, I'm going to open a gym,
(48:14):
I'm going to open a gym.
And fortunately I said itaround enough people that a
woman who I was helping saidlike you're the best, Like I've
worked with a lot of people,I've had a lot of people help me
, like you're amazing, I want tohelp you open a gym.
And I was like, oh my gosh, andthis is when my wife is at home
with our youngest she's you,you know, two years old, two and
(48:46):
a half and I'm like I'm tryingto make sure that we're good.
I can't just like throweverything into a gym and she's
like well, we want to invest inhelping you.
So they basically put up thecollateral um for me to be able
to open the gym and fortunately,a lot of people kind of knew
who I was.
So I started off with a decentkind of member size and what I
(49:06):
fell in love with that I didn'tknow that I was going to was
taking somebody who didn'tbelieve and flipping it and
flipping it.
And I think a lot of times forme, like when it comes to
leadership, you know, causeobviously you can, when we talk
leadership, a lot of times we'retalking, you know, leading a
(49:28):
team, whether that's at work orsports, um, but leading people
who don't even know that there'sa place they're trying to go,
like example, is like I wouldtake in 15 new people and most
of the time there's somebodythat takes up the energy in the
room or there's a person thatyou're like ah, that person's
(49:51):
not coming back, there's goingto, there's you.
You just have to understand thedynamics of this team.
So we would be together forlike four weeks.
You just have to understand thedynamics of this team.
So we would be together forlike four weeks.
And one of the things that Iloved and I still use this in
context all the time is when Iwould first thing, I would say
to a group I'd be like all right, here's the thing.
You're all scared that you'regoing to be last.
(50:12):
You're all scared that you'regoing to be the one that
everyone's waiting for,everybody's looking at.
But here's our rule If you arethe last one, when you finish
you say you're welcome andeverybody else says thank you,
because nobody cares that it'syou, they're just happy, it's
not them.
So, just so you know, if you arethat person, nobody cares, like
(50:41):
we're literally all here foryou.
So we finish every workout andthe last person would say you're
welcome and they'd be likethank you, and it just made that
person always came back.
And I think that so many timeswe compare to where we think we
should be and you hear it allthe time and it's well, it's
(51:04):
just you, right, it's you versusyou.
It's you versus you.
How do you get somebody torealize that that's actually
what it is?
And the analogy I would use allthe time and I would talk to
this in groups, because I thinkstory says a lot, especially in
leadership, when you're likeleading a team, like having
stories and things that peopleconnect with, a vision, and
normally that comes throughsomething deeper than just like
(51:27):
here's why, and what I wouldtell people is all right, you
think that you think that it'slike all these people you're
comparing yourselves to.
All right, how about this?
Let's use me as an example.
I'm going to go to a littlelocal competition.
Okay, I'm going to do sixworkouts.
I win every single workout andI get first place and everybody
(51:50):
praises me and every singleperson comes over and they're
like you're amazing, oh my gosh,you won.
And I'm like I am, you're right.
And then six months later I goto the CrossFit Games and they
happen to program the exact samesix workouts that I just did
six months ago.
And I go there and I do themall way better than I did six
(52:11):
months ago.
But I get dead last.
Everyone's going to walk up tome and say what happened?
How did you not win?
And I'm going to say I beatmyself by so much.
They were just better than me.
And that's okay.
I can either be the big fish ina small little pond or a small
(52:34):
fish in a big pond, and I thinkpeople would always rather be a
big fish in a small pond andnever find out.
But I grow so much more outthere.
I grow and those people pullyou.
So if you get in a group andyou are at the bottom, you're in
the right group.
And that's the part where Ithink in leadership.
(52:57):
I think if people have to beled, it's up to the leader to
find out how.
And if you can pull that bottomperson up, what's the problem?
There's a new one.
There's always going to besomebody down at the bottom.
So how can you to me it'salways how do you make the
person at the bottom see theirvalue and want to move up
(53:20):
somewhere, and the person at thetop you want to teach?
How do you get them down andpull the people from the bottom
up?
No,
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