Order of Man - A Man of Conviction ｜ IAN SMITH

00:00:00.000 Men, I've got a great one lined up for you today with a man who I was just recently introduced to

00:00:04.980 in the past several weeks, his business has been forcefully shut down. He and his business partner

00:00:10.540 have been arrested and they're now facing a $15,000 per day fine for operating their legitimate

00:00:17.880 and licensed gym in New Jersey. Look, I'm not going to ask you to agree with the premise of

00:00:23.040 Ian Smith's current situation and the fight that he's been thrust into. Although I think many of

00:00:27.680 you will, but I would have you consider the validity of the fight that he's engaged in,

00:00:32.980 what it means to be a man of conviction, standing up to the government and ultimately putting it all

00:00:38.920 on the line for something you believe in. You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest,

00:00:44.020 embrace your fears and boldly chart your own path. When life knocks you down, you get back up one more

00:00:49.760 time. Every time you are not easily deterred, defeated, rugged, resilient, strong. This is

00:00:56.820 your life. This is who you are. This is who you will become at the end of the day. And after all

00:01:02.520 is said and done, you can call yourself a man. Gentlemen, what is going on today? My name is

00:01:07.840 Ryan Mickler and I am the host and the founder of this podcast and the Order of Man movement.

00:01:13.320 Man, we've really been growing. I just want to thank you. I want to thank you for tuning in.

00:01:17.420 Thank you for sharing. Thank you for banding with us. Ultimately, thank you for stepping up.

00:01:22.020 I mean, that's what, that's what I set out to do five and a half years ago is give you the tools

00:01:26.440 and the conversations, the resources you need to step up in your lives. Whether you're a father,

00:01:32.540 a brother, a husband, a business owner, a community leader, a coach, a mentor, an employee. I really

00:01:40.520 don't care. I don't care where you're showing up. It is your job to be a man. And it's my job to give

00:01:46.060 you all of the tools, all of the information, everything that you need to be successful in those

00:01:50.880 endeavors, whatever they look like for you. I would ask if you continue, please to leave the

00:01:56.720 ratings and reviews, continue to share on Instagram and Facebook and YouTube and wherever you're doing

00:02:02.160 the social media thing. You have no idea. Trust me. You have no idea how far it goes when you actually

00:02:08.760 share, even if it's just with one other person, you have free access to the information I share with

00:02:13.340 you, free access to the conversations I have with guests like Andy Frisilla and Jocko Willink and Tim

00:02:19.380 Kennedy and David Goggins and Grant Cardone and everybody else that we've had on the podcast. And

00:02:26.660 there's a lot of effort on my part. And so I asked that if we want to band together in this mission to

00:02:31.920 reclaim and restore masculinity, then you put forth the effort of sharing, promoting, letting people

00:02:38.080 know what it is we're doing, because it is apparent to me that this is much needed in this

00:02:42.980 degenerate, uh, somewhat pathetic, frankly, society that, uh, I'm beginning to see form around us.

00:02:53.240 So, like I said, in the introduction, I've got a very, very powerful conversation lined up for you 0.94

00:02:59.920 today. I'm going to get to that and introduce you to Ian here in just a minute, but I do want to make

00:03:04.760 a very, very quick mention of my friends who help keep this show going. They provide invaluable

00:03:11.420 services to not only you products and services to you, but also promoting American manufacturing,

00:03:18.680 uh, hiring people in the community, putting them to work, giving them meaning and purpose and

00:03:24.560 direction. And that company is origin main. Uh, I just had Pete Roberts, the founder of origin over

00:03:29.920 for dinner with his family the other night. Uh, and I really enjoy outside of our friendship,

00:03:34.980 just talking with Pete about business and his vision and how he wants to grow the business and

00:03:39.900 how he wants to reclaim and rebuild American manufacturing. And they just came out with a

00:03:45.220 brand new, uh, flavor of their, uh, their, their go drink. That's partnered up with Jocko. And I got to

00:03:52.760 say, this is their best flavor yet. I've liked everything else. The Jocko Palmer, uh, the Dak Savage.

00:03:59.920 I'm trying to think of the others. I can't think of them right off hand, but they just came out with

00:04:03.820 JP Donnell, who has been a repeat guest on our podcast as well. His flavor, which is sour

00:04:09.540 apple sniper. I want you to imagine taking green apple, Jolly ranchers, blending them up and making 1.00

00:04:16.280 it into a drink. And that's what this, that's what this tastes like. It's amazing. It tastes

00:04:21.380 very, very good. Uh, and I think you guys will enjoy it. So check it out. You can do that at

00:04:26.440 origin, main.com origin, main.com. Uh, and when you do use the code order, uh, at checkout, because

00:04:34.020 you're going to get a 10% discount when you do. And I want you to save money. If you're going to buy

00:04:37.500 anyways, you might as well save some money. So use the code order or D E R at checkout

00:04:42.140 at origin, main.com. All right, guys, let me introduce you to Ian. I think at this point,

00:04:48.580 if you've been on social media, you're probably somewhat familiar with him. We run around in a

00:04:51.720 lot of the same circles, but, uh, he is, uh, the co-owner and founder of Attila's gym, which is in

00:04:57.660 New Jersey. Uh, recently he's, he's been thrust into the national limelight. He's been featured on

00:05:03.420 Tucker Carlson, uh, CNN's Chris Cuomo. Uh, I just saw that he did a podcast with Charlie Kirk

00:05:09.780 and all of this for defying local business restrictions and refusing to close down his

00:05:15.640 gym. Now guys, this, this isn't a man who has set out to defy the government, to piss people off,

00:05:21.420 or even to be reckless with people's health, health, excuse me, and lives. Uh, but he is a man

00:05:26.900 who's willing to stand up for what he believes in, in the face of threats of imprisonment,

00:05:32.320 some unreal and astronomical fines. You're going to hear more about that, uh, for what he believes

00:05:38.200 to be unconstitutional infringements. So I think you're really going to enjoy this one. Uh, I

00:05:43.840 personally was impressed with Ian's knowledge, his thoughtfulness, but most importantly, his

00:05:48.240 willingness to take a strong stand for what he believes in. And there's a lesson that we can all

00:05:53.220 learn from that. Ian, what's up, man. Thanks for joining me on the, uh, on the podcast today.

00:05:58.880 Absolutely. Thanks for having me. It's a pleasure. Yeah. You've been on, uh, in the recent past,

00:06:02.720 you've been on Tucker, you've been on Chris Cuomo and now you're hitting the mainstream,

00:06:05.820 but you're on the order of man podcast. So yes, very mainstream. That's right. What other,

00:06:13.020 you've been on a lot of news outlets these days for, uh, some things that frankly shouldn't be all

00:06:17.360 that controversial, I think, but, uh, it's amazing that it is, but I commend you for standing up and

00:06:22.080 making a stand. And I'm excited to talk with you about what that means today.

00:06:25.360 Thanks, man. It's, um, it's, it's certainly been a, a crazy couple of months. Um, but it's, uh,

00:06:32.760 there's, there's a lot of good in it too, as, as much as it's kind of, we shouldn't even be here

00:06:36.920 and shouldn't have to do these things. Um, I think there's a lot of, uh, interesting takeaways from it

00:06:41.620 all. Yeah. So let's, let's explain some of this just for some background of the conversation.

00:06:47.280 Uh, like you said, this started a couple of months ago. Is that right?

00:06:50.040 Uh, correct. This started, you know, um, right. As, uh, COVID hit. Yeah. No, as, as everybody

00:06:57.540 knows, we were all asked to, uh, to shut down for two weeks. You know, most businesses closed,

00:07:03.120 all small businesses closed. A lot of us stayed home for two weeks. They were going to flatten the

00:07:08.440 curve. You know, we all, we all remember the, the narrative, the request. Yes. And at the time,

00:07:14.280 um, you know, just like everybody else, we didn't know what we were looking at. So, you know,

00:07:18.480 we comply. It seemed, seemed credible, seemed scary. Um, and it seemed like government had

00:07:23.280 our best interest in mind. So, you know, all right, let's do it. And then two weeks turned

00:07:27.400 into three, three turned into a month, a month quickly started approaching two. And we were,

00:07:31.520 instead of getting back to life after a virus with two weeks incubation period was supposed

00:07:36.540 to slow the spread. We, uh, we, we started to smell smoke, you know, and it was like that

00:07:42.040 smoke was the fire of these politicians not wanting to relinquish these, um, these rights

00:07:47.820 that they had taken away in the interest of, you know, the greater good or public health or whatever

00:07:52.300 they want to, you know, whatever, uh, politically correct term they want to throw over the top of

00:07:56.060 it. Um, you know, so we decided that either a, we were going to lose our business, you know,

00:08:02.380 because our bills were still due. And, um, the, the, the so-called aid packages that they had were,

00:08:07.920 uh, government standard, they were laughable, you know, um, while the, uh, the good people

00:08:13.840 of the country, the hardworking people of the country, the middle class, um, you know,

00:08:18.180 is worried about where they're going to pay their bills or where their next paycheck is going to

00:08:20.900 come from or whether or not they're going to have a job or business, you know, they're bickering back

00:08:24.600 and forth, uh, throwing bills at each other that half the money is pork spending. And, you know,

00:08:30.060 you hear the stories of, uh, sports teams and multimillion dollar businesses getting small

00:08:35.640 business loans. And it's like, then they, then they just tell you to just shut up and wait.

00:08:40.580 And it's, you know, enough, enough was enough. Six weeks was there. Our bills were still due.

00:08:44.460 Um, my partner and Frank and I are the type of guys that, you know, we, we've earned this,

00:08:48.600 you know, um, I, I work hard and I'm very proud of that. I have a nice little, uh, middle-class

00:08:54.220 American life, you know, uh, living the American dream. And I wasn't going to just have that swept

00:08:59.280 away. Um, because this was more about just more than just about opening our gym and our

00:09:05.600 business and us surviving. Cause if we wanted to, we could have just snuck people in the back door,

00:09:09.740 but, uh, you know, the threat is that they can do this at any time, you know what I mean? And,

00:09:14.340 and so we wanted to stand up to that. So we put out a plan, a very detailed one, 15 point safety

00:09:19.560 protocol. Um, and we announced it, uh, on, uh, my Instagram, uh, the who, what, where, and why of what

00:09:26.360 we were doing. We didn't want to blindside anybody. We let law enforcement know. We let township know

00:09:30.840 that we were opening on May 18th. Uh, and what was the reason for you letting him know, Ian? Like,

00:09:35.540 why not just open up out of curiosity? Uh, because it wasn't, it wasn't about being defiant. It wasn't

00:09:40.660 about being an asshole. Um, you know, I have, I have respect for the American institution. Um, 1.00

00:09:46.420 you know, it's, it's not about being an outlaw. Uh, it's about, there was no plan put forth to open

00:09:52.980 and we were quickly approaching two months. Um, and, and we took responsibility for that. We said,

00:09:59.960 okay, we'll, we'll do it and we'll present it forward, you know, because the idea is that

00:10:04.060 government's supposed to work with the people, right? You know, that's at least with and for

00:10:08.160 the people, right? Yeah. With and for, and it's, it doesn't seem to be like that. It's just these

00:10:12.780 dictates coming down, you know, and you can't get in touch with these people. Yeah. I, you know,

00:10:17.660 I think when, when you say that, I think what people are going to hear sometimes, and I know there's

00:10:22.200 plenty of people who believe this, that keeping businesses shut down and the directives and

00:10:27.080 initiatives set forth by local and federal governments is in the best interest of the

00:10:32.460 people. But what's fascinating to me, and then we'll get back into your story is, yeah, we all

00:10:37.060 got the narrative of flatten the curve and the curve was flattened, right? Mission accomplished.

00:10:41.520 We did that. And, and so like, what's the point now, you know, and everybody's like, well,

00:10:46.120 we don't want people to get COVID look, everybody's going to get COVID at some point.

00:10:49.440 It's the, it's the, the constantly changing. They're constantly changing two things. They're,

00:10:54.280 they're, they're changing the goalposts, you know, and then after they changed the goalposts,

00:10:59.680 they start, they start changing the metrics, you know, they were first, it was flattened the curve.

00:11:04.760 And then, you know, somehow that's warped into wait for a vaccine. And that, those are two very

00:11:10.800 different requests. And at the same time, first, it was the death count that everybody was worried

00:11:15.760 about. And then now it's about the case count. Well, I thought, I thought low deaths and high

00:11:20.460 cases were a good thing. And it's like, no, no, no. Now we care more about this, because this is

00:11:25.680 the one that's going to keep you home. And it's like, nah, it doesn't, it doesn't work like that.

00:11:29.580 You know what I mean? Because it's, it's not government's responsibility to babysit you. It's

00:11:35.960 not government's responsibility to protect your health. Now, if this thing was anything like they said,

00:11:41.380 right, because if we remember correctly, Dr. Fauci said 2.2 million people would be dead by this

00:11:46.180 time, 2.2 million, we are a long way off from that. And that's not even going into the fact that

00:11:51.920 those numbers are very, very, very questionable. At best, you know, that those death numbers, we've

00:11:59.120 all read the news articles of people, there's no distinguish, you know, there in the beginning,

00:12:03.840 there was no distinguishing between dying with COVID and dying of COVID. They are two entirely

00:12:08.120 different things, you know, so that, that, that small number, not small, I won't say small,

00:12:12.420 because that's, you know, I don't mean that in any disrespect to anybody who's just subject,

00:12:16.000 subjective or relative to what was predicted. Yes, exactly. So, um, and I, I stress the importance

00:12:22.540 of that because my business, my business partner lost his mom to COVID during this, you know, so this

00:12:27.640 is something, this is something that is, is very, we understand this. Um, but anyway, you know, it's,

00:12:34.180 it's getting back to the idea of government working with, with the people. That's why we put

00:12:38.500 it forward. Um, you don't see that, you know, you're, you're seeing these dictates coming from

00:12:43.180 down above, you know, and that's, this isn't, this isn't Kings and peasants. That's not how this

00:12:48.160 system is set up. You guys are not rulers. You guys are elected leaders. There's a very big

00:12:53.340 difference between the two of those. And I think that somehow, uh, they've got that a little confused,

00:12:59.380 you know, and it's, it's, so we put that plan publicly and said, Hey, we're going to open up.

00:13:03.860 You want to talk about it? You know where we're at. Here's our plan. Take a look at it, come down,

00:13:08.860 check it out. We're opening. Um, unless you want to talk about it. If you want to, if you want to

00:13:13.140 talk about it and say, Hey, wait, let's come down and check out the facility. Great. I would have

00:13:17.940 absolutely held off nothing. And we went on national news about it. So it wasn't a secret.

00:13:22.640 Right. And I announced that on Tucker Carlson, you know, so that there, there's no,

00:13:27.220 there's no secret to that. Um, I liked, I liked that you're talking about not,

00:13:30.900 not it being about being defiant because I think it'd be easy for people to look at it. People that

00:13:36.480 don't agree with you specifically to look at it and think, well, these guys are just being dicks. 1.00

00:13:40.120 They're being assholes. They want everybody to die. That's the easiest criticism that people will throw. 1.00

00:13:44.540 Of course, of course. And we can see that that's not the case. Uh, you had this, this,

00:13:50.100 this plan laid out. You were, you were respectful. You made it available. I mean,

00:13:54.620 you obviously are very sensitive to it because your business partner's, uh, mother passed away

00:13:59.020 of COVID. So this isn't just some thoughtless act that you're just trying to be defiant for the sake

00:14:03.780 of being defiant. No, not at all. And, and, and that was, you know, that's, that was our plan moving

00:14:08.740 forward was we, we're just trying to help, you know, because the way you guys are doing it,

00:14:14.100 it's just not working. You're like, you can't stay shut down forever. It's just not that the world

00:14:19.120 doesn't work like that. There's not a pause button on, on, on the global economy. Um,

00:14:24.020 and the other thing I think we have to consider too, is that the people that generally speaking,

00:14:29.200 that, that come to your gym and work out with you are going to be young. They're going to be healthy.

00:14:33.760 Uh, they're going to be able to combat according to the data that are going to be able to combat,

00:14:38.680 uh, uh, being diagnosed with, with COVID, like they can handle it right. Relative to,

00:14:44.560 you know, the older population or somebody with some medical issues or an unhealthy lifestyle, 1.00

00:14:50.460 we've got to be a little bit more sensitive to that than a group of people who generally are young,

00:14:56.740 strong, healthy, and take care of themselves. The data is different for those two groups of people.

00:15:01.920 Yeah. And so, you know, jumping right off of that, the, um, the data is very clear and has always been

00:15:11.380 very clear that regular exercise is a good thing. It's, you know, one of the criticisms that we got

00:15:18.660 for opening was like, Oh, you know, you guys were just, you guys want to just look at your muscles

00:15:22.780 and do bicep curls. And it's like, if you think that's what people come here for you, you really,

00:15:28.820 really, really need to just maybe step outside your little box for a little while and, and just

00:15:33.700 open your mind just a little bit, you know, cause we have people in this gym, you know,

00:15:37.660 we have a lot of veterans in here. We have a lot of active military police, firefighters, um,

00:15:42.820 just regular people. You know, this is, this is like a local gym. Um, and I don't know where it

00:15:50.480 happened, but somewhere along the line with this, public health became a one dimensional entity

00:15:55.900 where it starts and ends with COVID. And that's, that's not fucking public health, you know, and 0.93

00:16:02.100 public and, and, and even, even with that public health is not shelter in place, isolate yourself, 0.95

00:16:07.640 um, stay home, sanitize the world around you, you know, put on a mask and wait for a vaccine.

00:16:13.820 That is a very defensive strategy. And that's, that's not how you handle the world. You know,

00:16:19.280 it's just, it's just not, it's, it might be temporarily, you know, I, and I've heard this

00:16:23.920 temporarily. Absolutely. Right. That, you know, you look at, you look at a global or even just

00:16:30.000 national lockdowns and you think, all right, well, there's a very blunt tool. And, and I think

00:16:34.740 that's necessary when we don't have a lot of information and we're trying to figure out,

00:16:39.460 okay, what the hell is going on? Right. Now that we know, we can start being a little bit more

00:16:44.440 surgical. If this was two weeks or if this was even a month. Okay. Got it. I get it. Like sometimes

00:16:51.580 there is, there is a, there is a line where it's like, I, you know, you don't want, you don't want

00:16:55.800 government to have certain, certain powers, you know, but in certain times, in certain situations,

00:17:00.540 they need to have the authority to say, all right, everybody bunker in place. Like, let's do this.

00:17:05.140 You know what I mean? Yes. So, okay. I totally agree. But now we're on day. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

00:17:11.060 And then, but somehow we're now on day 143 of 14 in New Jersey, you know, and it's like,

00:17:18.800 what, what happened there? What happened? It's those moving goalposts and it's those,

00:17:23.480 it was changing metrics. And it's that old, that old quote, you know, politicians are really quick

00:17:28.160 to take away rights, but they're very slow to give them away or give them back. Give them back.

00:17:32.480 We've seen that in history all over, you know, and to sit here and, and I could be wrong about that.

00:17:39.480 You know, it could be, they could be completely benevolent in their actions and they, they could

00:17:43.500 be just thinking what they're doing is, is, is the right thing. Um, well, I don't know if you've seen

00:17:48.640 this or not, but in, uh, in, in California, I believe the governor of California or maybe not

00:17:53.560 the governor, maybe, uh, the mayor of LA, I don't know. LA mayor of LA. I think I know what you're

00:17:57.200 talking about where he's going, he's threatened to shut off, uh, water and power for things that

00:18:02.740 fall outside of what they deem appropriate. Yes. Yeah. And if, if you don't look at that and go,

00:18:08.160 what the fuck, then you, you, you really, somebody needs to splash some cold water in your face, 1.00

00:18:14.600 you know, at a minimum. Yeah, exactly. Oh yeah. They need, they need to, you need a wake up call 1.00

00:18:19.920 because that is that, that should set off the biggest red flag for anybody. I don't care who

00:18:27.220 you are, what race, color, creed, you know, anything in America, no fucking way. That's not 0.99

00:18:33.560 how we do things here. You know what I mean? It's, and it's crazy because not a lot of people

00:18:40.200 are willing to stand up to that and say, you know, nah, no way. We're not doing this.

00:18:46.320 Yeah, exactly. There's, there's a, and I wouldn't say a majority, but there's a large group of people

00:18:51.140 who, who just, uh-huh. Uh-huh. Yeah. Okay. Like, you know, it just, and don't question that and

00:18:57.720 don't at least go really, like we can't think of another way to do these things. It's gotta be this,

00:19:04.460 this oppressive, forceful pushing downward. Again, government, like pushing down. And it's like,

00:19:11.780 nah, you guys are supposed to work with us. You're supposed to be among the people. You know what I

00:19:15.120 mean? Right. Not above. Because, you know, damn well, these guys, these guys and these girls are

00:19:20.900 not following their own rules. They're getting caught doing it. If you're gonna, if you're gonna, 0.73

00:19:24.880 if you're gonna put down those type of dictates, you gotta, you gotta at least roll with them

00:19:28.840 yourself. You know, you got Governor Murphy talking about no indoor dining. Dude eats indoors every,

00:19:33.740 he eats out every night at a restaurant. Right. Right. And it's cool, right? No,

00:19:37.740 no problem. You know, nah, it doesn't work like that. It's not a do as I say, not as I do

00:19:42.660 kind of, kind of ruler. And anybody that's okay, that is okay with that is, again, you need,

00:19:50.120 you know, smack in the face. You need to wake up because that's, that is the beginning signs of, 0.95

00:19:54.060 of a world that I don't think anybody, any of us want to live in. Well, and that's the unfortunate

00:19:58.200 reality is that these people who, who don't see this as being an issue, they will get a wake up

00:20:03.600 call, but the wake up call will come way too late. Exactly. Where, where they, they literally

00:20:08.300 enter a position where they cannot do anything about it any longer. Let's, let's go back to your

00:20:12.700 story. Cause this is important. So you guys open up, you go, you go through the process and then

00:20:19.200 you're, you're met with what fines initially threats. Like tell me where it went from there.

00:20:23.340 All right. So quickly run into those events. We opened on May 18th, uh, to, uh, national media

00:20:29.360 attention on the, on the front step. Uh, Pete Hegseth actually drove down from Fox news,

00:20:33.200 wanted to interview us as we swung the doors open. Um, parking lot full of a couple hundred

00:20:37.800 people lying wrapped around the building, police presence just there to kind of protect, make

00:20:42.720 sure everything went well. Um, awesome. It was, you say what went well for what went well,

00:20:47.480 just like no, no violence, no, nothing like that. No, it went off great. The crowd was awesome.

00:20:52.800 They were so supportive. You know, there were people out there, you know, like just wanted to,

00:20:57.160 to meet us, have thanked us for what we were doing. It was the right, it was the right message

00:21:01.320 at the right time. People were sick and tired of these lockdowns. Um, and it was, it was well

00:21:06.720 received, you know, um, members came in, we, we, we did our daily business. We had about 20

00:21:13.160 people as volunteers kind of working. Um, and at about 12 o'clock, um, there's a viral video

00:21:19.120 that, um, went out and that was, excuse me, um, about 12 o'clock, uh, the Belmar police

00:21:26.600 department walked up to the front door and requested to talk to Frank and I, we walked

00:21:30.320 out, there was a big crowd. The crowd was kind of upset and I, I quieted them down and

00:21:34.920 I was like, you know, let these guys speak. And the captain now retired of the Belmar

00:21:38.560 police department, you know, said, uh, I'm here to tell you that formally you're all in

00:21:43.240 violation of an executive order. And he took like a pause and long breath and on that.

00:21:47.120 And he said, on that note, have a nice day. He turned around and walked away and the crowd

00:21:50.600 just kind of erupts. Wow. I remember seeing that video. Yeah. I mean, uh, Anthony was

00:21:55.280 there. Um, so he came down to visit like a lot of people did and it was just this awesome

00:22:01.000 moment where, is this part of the reason this, uh, this, uh, police chief then retired? Is

00:22:06.080 this, I'm pretty sure he was on his way out the door anyway, but that from, from everybody

00:22:10.080 I talked to, that's who he was. Right. I mean, he wasn't, he, he wasn't listening to stuff

00:22:15.600 that he didn't agree with that he knew was wrong. And, you know, which I actually think

00:22:20.440 more law enforcement officials and officers ought to, you know, think about doing that.

00:22:24.100 I, I, again, to go back to LA, it's like, if, if you guys, if you guys start to enforce

00:22:28.100 this, you're only going to create more problems, more contention between law enforcement and

00:22:32.920 the public and it's going to get way worse. Yeah. No doubt. You know, there's a part of

00:22:37.640 me that feels like that's actually by design that they, that they put these cops in these

00:22:40.760 bad positions. Um, and my heart actually goes out to them. Like we got probably

00:22:45.480 15% of our members are law enforcement or families of law enforcement, you know, half

00:22:49.340 the Belmar police department works out here, or at least did before COVID they're not allowed

00:22:52.900 to. Um, and these men and women are put in a really tough position because no doubt a

00:22:59.480 lot of them have 10, 20 years in a pension on the line, you know, and if they step out of

00:23:05.420 line, like you don't know what these, what these, these politicians are going to do. I mean,

00:23:10.680 they're threatening my business with a $15,000 a day fine. Is that what it is? I saw

00:23:15.180 10,000 last time. Yeah. Yeah. You need like a, you need one of those most wanted posters,

00:23:21.420 you know, where it says like what it finally gets to, and you're proud based on how much

00:23:25.060 it finally gets to. Yeah. It's insane. And that's even insane. And I'll, I'll, uh, we'll

00:23:30.560 touch on that. But, um, so that day, uh, we got some citations a little bit later cause

00:23:36.140 governor Murphy threatened the Belmar police department that he was going to furlough them

00:23:39.900 and use the County police for 60 days. If they didn't, you know, come down and enforce these.

00:23:43.920 Yeah. Yep. So we got some bullshit tickets. Uh, the next day we opened, we got more bullshit

00:23:47.600 tickets. They started citing our members with bullshit tickets. They actually arrested one 1.00

00:23:51.220 of our members, looked really bad for them, blew up in their face. Wednesday we opened again. They

00:23:55.840 put a camera in the parking lot, mailed us our tickets because we kept accepting them on the

00:24:00.320 front step in front of the media. And they didn't really like that. So they started mailing

00:24:04.260 them and then they were pulling people over, uh, down the street with the camera system they

00:24:09.580 had set up in the parking lot and giving them tickets there instead of in front of the

00:24:13.060 media. Um, what were the tickets they were, they were issuing violations of an executive order

00:24:18.340 for these people who were coming to your gym. Yes. And us too. And we got some, right. Sure.

00:24:24.260 Sure. Um, so from there, um, Wednesday night, uh, or Wednesday during a press conference,

00:24:30.320 governor Murphy was addressing us and he said that he was going to use the health department on us.

00:24:34.360 So he had already weaponized the police force. Then he went on, he, he openly said he was going to

00:24:38.860 weaponize the health department against us. Um, and that night in the middle of the night,

00:24:43.300 we got a notice of embargo slapped on the door, which was a closure notice. And it was basically

00:24:47.980 you're closed because Corona virus. Um, keep in mind, no health department official at that point

00:24:54.700 had ever stepped in our door or contact us. It was just slapstick on the door. It was, it was,

00:25:01.100 and it was, uh, and it just, it was his will via the health department instead of via executive order

00:25:06.200 via, um, the police department. Cause he knew, he knew that he didn't have a right. Uh, if he

00:25:11.200 arrests us, it would have been a wrongful arrest. Do you know, Ian, of other gyms, do you know of

00:25:16.080 other gyms either in your area or in your state that are, that had reopened that were doing similar

00:25:22.220 things to you that weren't getting the same attention or the same types of fines? Or do you feel

00:25:27.040 like that was applied? Nobody's gotten the punishment we've gotten. So why you guys?

00:25:33.520 Um, because I think governor Murphy's got an ego issue. I think that we stepped up and he saw it

00:25:40.660 as a challenge. Um, and it wasn't, you know, like I said, I, you know, I, if it was a challenge,

00:25:46.460 I would have just opened up, but it was, it was an invitation, but I think he took it as a challenge.

00:25:51.560 Um, because if, if you look at, we, I mean, Frank and I read every word of every executive order,

00:25:58.300 you know, we, we watch every second of his press conferences. We do the research. This is,

00:26:04.140 this is our life. We literally live at the gym. There's an air mattress right over here. Um,

00:26:07.880 there's one in the other room, you know? So if you just read the wording in some of his executive

00:26:13.160 orders, um, you can, you can tell it's, it's clearly against us. I mean, we have in our state,

00:26:18.500 we have strip clubs open, tattoo parlors open, um, mixed martial arts, uh, dance and gymnastics

00:26:27.760 are open. And the funny part about those in that executive order, um, it comes down to

00:26:35.580 the licensing. So as long as you are licensed and, and insured as a fitness studio, um, then you are

00:26:44.240 allowed to open. If you are licensed and insured as a gym or a health club, cause you, as a, as a

00:26:49.580 mixed martial arts place or a dance place, you could, you could do either. Um, licensing as a

00:26:54.560 health club is more expensive. It's better insurance. So a lot of places, they don't need

00:26:58.120 that insurance. They just go with the fitness, uh, studio stuff. Um, but gyms can't have the,

00:27:03.660 um, the other gyms can't go the other way. You know, gyms, it's health club only. Um,

00:27:08.960 so long as you are not licensed as a health club or a gym, you can open. If you're licensed

00:27:16.140 as a health club or a gym and you're, you own a jujitsu academy, you cannot open.

00:27:21.700 Like it's what's, what's the reasoning? Like there's gotta, there's gotta be something

00:27:25.660 explained. No, nothing, nothing. And he's put, so he, he, he uses, you know, he, he always says

00:27:33.760 when he gets questioned about gyms, you know, we're not there yet. You know, we, we make our

00:27:37.480 decisions of science and data. We make our decisions of science and data. He always says

00:27:41.060 that, you know, we're guided by science, but they're always these conclusionary statements.

00:27:44.480 We're not there yet on gyms. They're, they're, they're high risk because of, um, respiration.

00:27:49.920 And it's like, all right, we'll show us the science.

00:27:52.060 Yeah. I mean, science has become the new quote unquote, my truth, which there isn't a,

00:27:57.020 my truth. There's the truth or your opinion. Yes. And, and, but that's what people say is like,

00:28:03.300 we go by science. Well, show me, well, that's not really science. If it's

00:28:07.280 subjective, it's not really science. Yeah. Like it, not all science is created equal.

00:28:13.420 You know what I mean? There's, they're just like not all writing is created equal. You know,

00:28:17.180 you can write an essay and I can write an essay and yours will be fantastic. Mine's shit. It doesn't 1.00

00:28:20.800 mean they're both, you know, so we have asked over and over again, where's the science, where's the

00:28:27.720 science? Because we, uh, as gym owners and as, as the gym industry, we have science there, there's

00:28:33.700 conclusion, there's conclusive stuff, uh, and very up-to-date stuff, very COVID relative,

00:28:40.240 relevant studies that are out. Um, you know, one of the criticisms was, oh, you know, everybody's

00:28:44.680 touching everything, right? That was, that was their first, again, talk, talking about moving

00:28:48.480 goalposts, why gyms can't open. Oh, everybody's touching everything. Okay. Well, the science comes

00:28:52.440 out that it doesn't stick on surfaces nearly, um, as, as long, um, and almost not at all.

00:28:59.660 The, the science shows that it, yeah, I remember initially, yeah, I remember initially they were

00:29:04.460 talking about, you know, you'd be careful of getting, you know, an Amazon package or a letter

00:29:08.260 in the mail. Exactly. Exactly. Right. Right. And which is long since been debunked. Yeah. Yeah,

00:29:13.240 exactly. Debunked. Okay. So next goalpost, um, they say, uh, it's heavy. Um, what's the,

00:29:21.820 what's the next one? Heavy breathing. Right. So, oh no, asymptomatic. I'm sorry. It was the

00:29:26.060 one. Oh, you know, you're, if you're asymptomatic, you're going to put everybody at risk. You could

00:29:29.640 be totally fine. Do it for others. Okay, fine. Let's see the science. Well, there's a, there's

00:29:35.340 the most updated study. I think it's pubmed.gov. This one is, uh, 450 and you can just Google

00:29:41.500 this stuff. Um, 455 people were exposed to a COVID positive, asymptomatic person for a period

00:29:50.400 of five days. Um, and of that 455 people, you had people of all different, you know, sort of

00:29:56.640 on the health spectrum. You had some high risk, some diabetic, obese, insurance results of that

00:30:02.700 study. Not a single person contracted cocoa. Wow. I haven't seen that. I haven't heard of that. So

00:30:08.760 yeah. Um, you could just type, type that in. I think it's pubmed, but just search, uh, asymptomatic

00:30:13.900 455, I think was the number. Um, but anyway, okay. So, and that's not saying it, you know,

00:30:20.000 it's, it's a hundred percent guaranteed, but that's a pretty low percentage. You know what I mean?

00:30:24.640 That's, I'm sure, I'm sure some asymptomatic people may, but you guys were saying that asymptomatic

00:30:29.420 people were just breathing COVID on everybody, you know? Okay. So that's the bump. And then it's the

00:30:34.480 next thing. Oh, well, we don't have proper ventilation in gyms and it's, you know, it's

00:30:37.980 too much. Well, you know, guess what? It falls straight to the ground when it comes out of

00:30:41.720 your mouth. Oh, it's wear masks, you know? And then it's, it's, it's just these constantly

00:30:45.560 moving goalposts. And every time again, coming out of, uh, Oslo, um, opened up their gyms

00:30:52.860 in the city of Oslo. Um, is that near you guys? I don't know exactly where that is. Oslo,

00:30:57.680 uh, it's either Sweden or Norway. Oh, I'm sorry. I was thinking, yeah, I'm sorry. I was

00:31:02.460 thinking near you guys, like in some areas near you. Uh, so the city of Oslo in Norway,

00:31:07.340 uh, opened up, I think it was like seven gyms or something. And they, they did a study, um,

00:31:12.780 and the study, the conclusions of the study, you can type in the Oslo gym study. That'll

00:31:16.340 come up. Um, was that not only did, was the percentage of people who were gym goers, um,

00:31:23.140 you know, the, the, the, the control group that was in the gyms, what not only was that

00:31:27.960 percentage of infection lower, but when they opened up the gyms in the entire country,

00:31:31.860 as a result of those studies, the general infection rate went down and it's like, I'm

00:31:36.940 not a doctor, but that seems pretty fucking straightforward to me. You know what I mean?

00:31:41.100 It's like, and, and, but we're, we're told like, Oh, you know, you're, you're fragile.

00:31:45.460 You got to stay inside and this and that. And, and, and, but nobody actually puts forth any

00:31:50.320 good plans about public health. You know, we should be encouraging people to eat better.

00:31:53.980 We should be encouraging people to get outside and exercise, exercise, right? Socialize. You

00:31:58.640 know, you can't tell me that there's not detrimental effects on your mental health and

00:32:02.560 thus your physical health, because they are connected when you're socially isolated for

00:32:06.920 long periods of time. And when you've been staring at a screen, watching Netflix for six

00:32:10.980 weeks or eight weeks, or now 143 days, you know, there's, there's a lot of collateral

00:32:16.680 damage that they don't care about. Um, and that's health wise, financial wise, you know,

00:32:21.880 relationship wise, the freedom. Exactly. Exactly. It's you're causing too much damage

00:32:27.340 for not enough of a, of a, of a threat. Um, right. So anyway, back to the, the, the timeline

00:32:33.760 of events. Um, eventually that week we kept opening Friday, we got a court order from the

00:32:38.720 judge, um, which is, uh, judge Robert Lugie. He is a previous attorney general for the state

00:32:44.800 of New Jersey and he is Murphy's kind of right hand man, just signs right off on whatever

00:32:49.700 he wants. Uh, so now there was a court order for us to shut down. Um, and they actually

00:32:55.260 came and physically changed our locks, locks us out of the building. We fought it, fought

00:32:58.820 it, fought it. Three weeks later, we got back open. We were pulling 45,000 pounds worth

00:33:02.820 of equipment outside every day. Um, and back inside.

00:33:06.400 Wow. Letting people work out there in the parking lot or let people work out there in the parking

00:33:09.960 lot just to kind of keep the ball rolling. Um, we were having about 300 people a day come

00:33:14.200 through fucking 95 degrees out. You know, we were destroying the equipment. Um, we were 0.97

00:33:19.160 destroying our matting, dragging all this stuff. So on 4th of July, we said, fuck it, you know, 0.99

00:33:22.960 come arrest us on independence day. We're, we're, we're done with this. You know what I 1.00

00:33:26.360 mean? Um, cause again, at that point we're coming up on month four. Yeah. Um, so we're

00:33:31.420 like, you know, we're like, no, this is, and, and meanwhile, we're seeing all these other

00:33:34.380 places open up. You can do jujitsu. You can do all this other stuff. You can go down the

00:33:38.380 street to a strip club. Um, you can literally go anywhere in the state of New Jersey,

00:33:42.460 except a gym or a movie theater or indoor dining. You know, we're left. And what, what's happening

00:33:47.640 is you're going to crush the entire industry. You know, show, show me, show me even a big

00:33:53.020 business, show me a multimillion or billion dollar corporation that can survive without

00:33:57.100 any revenue while paying its bills for five months. Right. I'll wait. You know what I mean?

00:34:02.580 Of course. Yeah. But meanwhile, you know, Murphy, the, you know, $600 million man or whatever

00:34:07.540 he's worth, as he flies around in his helicopter just tells you to be patient. And it's like,

00:34:12.500 nah, I'm not going to be patient. You know what I mean? Like I, I gave, I gave you more

00:34:16.760 than enough time already. You know, um, at this point you're, you're threatening my wellbeing,

00:34:21.980 the wellbeing of my family and the wellbeing of, in my opinion, the entire state. Um, so,

00:34:28.260 uh, we continue to stay open and, um, we finally got held in contempt of court. We had,

00:34:34.460 we beat one of them on a technicality. They threw it right back at us. Um, Murphy gets

00:34:39.180 his court dates overnight when he files in court and gets it the next day with via Robert

00:34:43.340 Lugie. We filed in court three different times and have not even spoken to a judge yet.

00:34:47.660 So just kind of, again, showing you the, the, the hypocrisy and the, and the BS and all this.

00:34:53.360 Um, we've had judges abstain from hearing the case because it's too controversial, you know?

00:34:58.160 And it's like something, something, this is like what you actually need to do. This is your

00:35:02.220 job. Well, that you nailed it. You know, I'm pretty sure anybody else or most other jobs,

00:35:08.740 when you show up to your job and don't do your job, you get fired. Right. I don't want to do

00:35:13.700 anything hard today. Can you make it as easy as possible? No controversy, you know, like risk.

00:35:18.360 Yeah. Craziness. If you didn't want to make controversial decisions, you shouldn't have

00:35:23.020 been a judge. Wrong industry. You should have been a fucking roofer or whatever. Serve ice cream

00:35:28.280 to little kids or something, you know, whatever. Yeah. I don't know your judge. Your job as a judge

00:35:34.320 is to make difficult decisions and you're walking away from that. Gentlemen, let me hit the pause

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00:37:03.980 I'll finish things up with Ian. You're, you're, you're failing the institution that you swore an

00:37:10.240 oath to protect, you know? So at that point, you know, that's, that's where you get this attitude

00:37:14.460 where it's like, you know what, we're open, we're open and we're not closing, you know? And it

00:37:18.220 doesn't matter what you do to us because we're playing with a loaded deck here. We tried to put

00:37:22.440 faith, um, into the system and the system has failed us on every level now, except the legislative,

00:37:27.540 you know, on the executive level failed on the local level failed. Uh, you know, uh, we've had

00:37:33.560 the police force weaponized against us. We've had the health department weaponizes the judicial

00:37:37.020 system has failed us. And it's like, so that's, that's where we're at. Um, at this point, we,

00:37:42.560 we finally got held in contempt of court. Um, they threatened to come take the locks again. Uh,

00:37:47.780 and this time, uh, just about a week and a half ago, Frank and I started sleeping in the

00:37:51.980 building. Uh, we pulled the locks, uh, or we pulled the doors off of the hinges so that

00:37:56.780 we couldn't lock them. And we opened the gym 24 hours a day. We slept in shifts and we said,

00:38:00.880 we're not leaving. We're not leaving. We're not shutting down. You're not, you're not going

00:38:04.260 to, you're not going to take this from us. Um, and it's every step of the way, you see how

00:38:10.460 much more determined they are to crush you. And it's, it's, it's becoming this situation where

00:38:15.200 go ahead, keep it up. I'll take all the punches you got because every time you do something

00:38:20.040 punitive, you lose more people who thought that you were doing the right thing. You know,

00:38:25.160 because again, here we are 143 days in and 76 days since we originally opened, uh, reopened

00:38:33.100 and you have still not reached out to even come check it out. Come check out the facility.

00:38:38.800 I promise you, we do more than any small business in the state and in the country. We do more than

00:38:43.120 what hospitals do. We have a, a fucking biometric face scanner at the door. 0.99

00:38:47.460 Really? 0.99

00:38:47.960 You know, so that you walk in and it takes your temperature. It doesn't save the picture or

00:38:51.600 anything. It takes your temperature. The entire system walking in is touchless. You know, we

00:38:55.980 have, we have a comprehensive safety protocol. We have a, I mean, you don't need to have doors

00:38:59.600 on, on anymore. So like people aren't even touching the door handle. So yeah, it's,

00:39:03.540 but it's, and it's laughable how far above and beyond we've gone. And then it's like,

00:39:10.920 Oh, but Walmart's Walmart's allowed to be open because you slap a, you know, a piece

00:39:15.640 of cloth over your face and wiped the cart before you walk in. And that's public health.

00:39:20.920 And it's like, nah, like it's, it, every day it goes on, it gets, it gets more absurd.

00:39:27.380 And I think that's where we're at this point.

00:39:30.260 Yeah. So you guys, you got arrested you in Frank. It sounds like you were arrested. Is

00:39:34.700 that right?

00:39:35.020 Yes. After, I don't know, being inside for five days or so, um, they popped in Monday

00:39:40.820 morning, um, and took us down, booked us, hit us with three more charges, which brings

00:39:45.540 our total up to 24, um, 24 charges altogether, 12 each.

00:39:50.980 And now they're threatening $15,000 a day for every day you stay open. Like where, where

00:39:55.960 do you see this going? Like what, what's the, what's, what's the objective for you? And

00:40:01.580 then where do you see this going and how it actually plays out?

00:40:05.220 So yeah, they, um, they arrested us. Um, then they boarded up our doors. Then we kicked them

00:40:10.280 back in, saw that right back up in operation. Um, now, uh, three things are happening. Uh,

00:40:16.320 governor Murphy is requesting that we first, he, he requested a $10,000 a day fine. Um,

00:40:22.600 and what's funny about that one is he shows his hand as to why he, he picked that number

00:40:27.780 because that number is not indicative of like our, our revenue, right? You know what I mean?

00:40:31.920 Like say, say a business is operating the way it's not supposed to be. So the government has

00:40:35.260 to find them, right? They don't find them like just arbitrarily. That number is based off of

00:40:41.580 something. He says in, or they say the attorney general, um, you know, finding $10,000 a day.

00:40:48.200 And the reasoning is, is because we have more than enough money in our GoFundMe to pay that.

00:40:52.780 So, so they're looking at what they can fund. That's our legal fund. So you're, you're open,

00:40:59.100 you're openly admitting at this point that you're trying to cripple us and target you.

00:41:04.960 Yeah. And it's, it's, I mean, it's laughable. Like, it's like, man, like you, you got a lot of balls

00:41:11.400 because you just think you're untouchable and it's, and it's, you look at it and there's, 0.93

00:41:19.120 at that point the fight or flight kicks in and it's like, man, I'm standing my ground. Like

00:41:23.860 you, you think you're going to get away with this? Like not today, not, not me. You know what

00:41:28.340 I mean? Like you're, you're not gonna, you're not going to push me around like that. Nobody is

00:41:32.680 nobody. Um, and so that $10,000 fine got raised the other day up to 15. Uh, that's still not been

00:41:41.580 decided yet by a judge, but the same judge who is deciding it is the same judge who has decided

00:41:46.020 everything along the way. Right. Sure. You know, uh, he's probably sitting in his underwear,

00:41:52.400 you know, during these zoom conferences and just, you know, doodling on a paper as our lawyers plead

00:41:57.300 the case. Um, or taking a look at your GoFundMe account and deciding, you know, how much he can

00:42:02.520 raise this to. Yeah, exactly. Um, so he's also asking that we be in prison for a longterm. So

00:42:09.100 looking for like six months or more to actually arrest us. And on Tuesday, um, Tuesday of next

00:42:16.060 of this upcoming week at five o'clock, we'll be in front of the Belmar municipality. Um,

00:42:21.140 they're going to try to revoke our mercantile license. Um, so we have to go in front of six

00:42:25.940 council members and the mayor in a, uh, very left leaning town. Um, excuse me, or at least a left

00:42:33.380 leaning in terms of their, um, their elected officials, um, and plead our case so that they

00:42:40.360 don't take our business license. So the end game to answer the question you actually asked,

00:42:44.520 um, you know, this is, this is, it's funny. It's, it's, it's straight out of like a book.

00:42:52.280 This is your, your typical big guy versus little guy fight. You're David and Goliath. It's these

00:42:59.620 people know that if you make it to round 12, you're going to knock them the fuck out because 0.98

00:43:05.020 they know what they're doing is wrong. But what they'll do is they will try to crush you 0.98

00:43:10.480 every step along the way. They're going to try to throw me in jail. You're going to try

00:43:14.740 to, you know, financially cripple me. You're going to take my business license away. You

00:43:18.720 know, what else are you going to do? You're going to do all these things because you know

00:43:21.620 you're wrong and, and you know, you're wrong because you haven't approached us. You haven't 0.83

00:43:25.820 tried to mitigate. You've only tried to come down with these punitive measures and

00:43:29.600 you keep on ratcheting them up and ratcheting them up and flexing your muscles, flexing

00:43:33.780 your tyrant muscles. And it's like, you just, you look bad because we're not bad guys.

00:43:40.740 We're not, we just, we just, we just want to work. We're not, you know, we're not, we're

00:43:45.160 not out causing destruction. We've had after today, we'll have over 16,000 visits to the

00:43:51.840 facility. We have our own contact tracing system. You know, part of the check-in process is we

00:43:56.340 register every single name, phone numbers, all that stuff.

00:44:00.520 You're, you fill out a health questionnaire, name, date. You answer a couple of questions

00:44:05.460 regarding some general, general questions. COVID health, same thing you would do in the

00:44:09.100 hospital. We take your temperature. It's signed, dated, and timestamped. So we know each day

00:44:14.960 how many people visited the facility, when they were in here, when they were out of here.

00:44:18.580 Um, and to date, um, we don't, we haven't even tabulated, uh, May. So this is just from

00:44:24.260 our second reopening, uh, from June 16th forward, uh, after today, we'll have 16,000 visits to

00:44:30.920 this facility and not a single case of COVID has been reported. You know, is that right?

00:44:36.140 Oh my goodness. That is right. That is, that is a fact. Um, and that's something that we, we,

00:44:41.820 again, we take this seriously. Um, we're not just some, some idiots, you know, who people who 0.99

00:44:47.500 are acting out of pocket right now are the people who call themselves our leaders, but who are 1.00

00:44:51.800 acting more like our rulers. Um, because we've obviously put forth a good plan and it's like,

00:44:56.820 how much longer are you going to wait to, to want to talk about that? Um, you know, because the whole

00:45:02.860 rest of the world is talking about it. The whole rest of the country is talking about it, but you,

00:45:07.500 you don't want to come to us and talk about it. Yeah. And I feel like from my perspective,

00:45:12.660 the longer you do this, the, like, like you said, that 12th round and the more people see what,

00:45:20.040 what your governor's doing, what, what the elected officials are doing, it disenfranchises,

00:45:26.780 disenfranchises them from those individuals and wins them over to what it is you are trying to do

00:45:32.100 and what you're trying to accomplish. Yeah. There's a lot of people who initially didn't agree with us.

00:45:36.300 You know, they didn't necessarily understand, you know, I, I wouldn't go so far as to say that

00:45:40.640 they were wrong for feeling that way. But we've had at this point, hundreds of people contact us

00:45:46.700 and say, Hey, I didn't, you know, I thought you guys were fucking assholes at the beginning of 0.98

00:45:49.760 this, but like now that I've, I've been following the story and like seeing that everything else is 0.99

00:45:54.480 open, you know, again, there's no evidence that our gym is any more dangerous than walking into a

00:45:59.680 Walmart. Um, but maybe even less so based on what you're talking about. Yes. Yeah, exactly. And

00:46:05.840 there's evidence that, that, that proves, you know, otherwise. Um, so yeah, I mean, the longer

00:46:11.340 it goes on, you have, you have people coming and saying, you know what, I, I, I'm behind you guys.

00:46:15.340 You know, I thought, I thought you were doing this for attention in the beginning, or I thought

00:46:18.320 that you guys were being reckless or I thought that you were selfish and I look at it now and I

00:46:23.020 want to become a member. It's like, or I want to donate, you know, or, or I share your story or I want

00:46:28.920 to buy a t-shirt. I support you guys. I stand with you. So the longer it goes on, like I'm,

00:46:34.040 we're prepared to go 12 rounds, you know? Yeah. Yes. The question I finally answered it,

00:46:37.880 you know, we're, we're, we're prepared to see it all the way through. Um, I'm not, I'm not afraid

00:46:41.660 of whatever you threatened me with. And I think that it's, that's a huge takeaway that people need

00:46:47.400 to realize is these, these people operate off of fear. Um, you know, and it's, it's, it's a,

00:46:55.300 it's a smoke and mirrors kind of thing, you know, because once you, once you, once you stand up to

00:47:00.420 it, you see, you see that they're, I mean, what are you going to do? Do you want to turn me into

00:47:04.820 a martyr? You want to throw me in jail? I mean, cause do it. The whole world is watching now.

00:47:10.100 Yeah. Yeah. Everybody's eyeballs are on it for sure. The whole world is watching. So go ahead,

00:47:13.760 go ahead. You know, if you want to make me a martyr, make me a martyr. I don't want to be a martyr.

00:47:18.080 I just, I just kind of want to go to work and get back to my normal life.

00:47:21.200 You want to live your life, man, lead your family, lead your community, run your business. Right.

00:47:25.300 I don't consider myself, you know, I'm, I'm certainly not a saint, but I'm not a bad dude.

00:47:28.800 I'm not a criminal, but you want to make me one. Go ahead. Go ahead. Cause history,

00:47:33.020 history will prove me right and prove you wrong. And I'm, and I'm, if I say that with the utmost

00:47:38.160 conviction, because I know that what Frank and I are doing is right. What's your, uh, what's your

00:47:44.000 call to us who are listening? Uh, whether that's, you know, a call for help from us to be able to

00:47:48.160 support and stand up, uh, whatever, what, what, what is your message to us? Um, you know, to the,

00:47:55.100 the big one is, is not, not be afraid to, to question these things and to, to really stand

00:48:00.480 up, especially when the evidence is, is pretty strong. Um, you know, I think a lot of us have

00:48:05.680 this gut feeling that this deep down, none of this is sitting very well with any of us. Um,

00:48:11.620 so it's, it's about standing up for what you believe in and don't be afraid. Um, and, and that

00:48:17.920 can be anything, you know, it doesn't have to be open in your business. Uh, you know, it can be

00:48:22.040 whatever, um, you know, stand, stand firm in what you believe in. Um, and as far as,

00:48:28.520 you know, ways to help, uh, there, there's a ton of ways to help. You know, one of the

00:48:32.500 biggest ways that I make sure I tell everybody is, uh, in a non-financial way, uh, you know,

00:48:37.720 cause it's not all about money. Um, the biggest thing that I think has helped us and that,

00:48:43.220 and that's not the money, um, has been the, just the attention. Um, right. The fact that people

00:48:49.060 are listening and people are watching because it holds the politicians accountable. Um, you

00:48:54.960 know, if nobody was watching and the first day they just came in, like smashed us, um,

00:49:01.720 we, that would it, then there would be no story. There would be no fight. Um, you know, but because

00:49:06.420 when we opened our doors, Pete Hegseth drove down from New York to, to come interview us

00:49:10.740 and the whole world saw it or the whole country saw it. Um, it, it, it, it gives us the ability

00:49:16.380 to fight, uh, because it gives us the ability to tell our side of the story to somebody other

00:49:21.560 than like a judge. You know what I mean? Um, the public and, and, and that's, that's a

00:49:27.320 takeaway. The public is very strong, you know, together. Um, we've, we're, we're much stronger

00:49:32.380 than I think on an individual level, we really realize. Um, so just, just something as simple

00:49:38.800 as sharing the story. You know, you see an update about it, you know, follow me on social

00:49:42.640 media, like on, uh, my, either my Instagram, uh, Ian Smith fitness or the Attila's gym one,

00:49:48.280 which is Attila's gym Belmar. Um, there's a Facebook too. Um, so just sharing it. It's,

00:49:54.280 it's incredibly powerful because the more people that see this, the more people get upset by

00:49:58.660 it and the more support we garner. And that is more important than anything I think. Um,

00:50:04.560 but there is a GoFundMe set up. The link to that is on my Instagram. Um, you can just Google

00:50:08.980 it, Attila's gym court relief. Um, and just, you know, in, in other ways, if you own a small

00:50:14.740 business, you know, start putting together a plan, don't just open your doors recklessly,

00:50:18.380 but I'm sure if you have a small business and you're not open yet, or they're, they're doing

00:50:22.220 these second rounds of lockdowns, uh, in places like California and stuff like that. Um, you

00:50:28.140 got to resist it. Like, you know, the gyms out in California are getting, um, you know,

00:50:32.020 they're, they're being forced to move all their equipment outside and these were open.

00:50:35.980 Right. Um, so you, you gotta, you gotta, you gotta,

00:50:38.980 you gotta stand up against this stuff and there's a million ways to do it. You know,

00:50:42.320 if you don't own a small business, support small business, you know, shop. And, and it's

00:50:47.120 not even, um, ones that are just open, you know, or, uh, ones that are opening that aren't

00:50:51.060 supposed to be the ones that are open, support them. Stop, like stop shopping at Walmart.

00:50:54.820 Stop doing all your shopping on Amazon. You know, go to like, I got a local, we got a local

00:50:58.860 grocery store. That's, uh, it's like a Brazilian meat market by my house and it's locally owned.

00:51:03.540 You know, every chance I get, if I'm grabbing something on the way home, um, you know, to cook the

00:51:07.920 dinner, I'll go there. You know what I mean? Because what's happening is all these small

00:51:12.580 businesses that are affected by this. Um, and you know, this is, and this is talking about

00:51:18.540 the collateral damage. Um, all the businesses that are affected by this and go out of business,

00:51:22.620 you know, that's money that stays in the, in the community. You know, when you, when you lose

00:51:27.480 these businesses in that community and people start shopping elsewhere, um, that money never

00:51:32.540 returns back into your community, it goes to some mega million billion dollar corporation.

00:51:37.200 And I think that might be one of the biggest casualties on the other side of all this is

00:51:41.360 that, um, if this goes on too long, you know, small businesses are going to exist. Um, and

00:51:46.900 we're going to all be shopping at Walmart, you know, and it's going to be something from

00:51:50.480 this, uh, this future where, you know, every, there's three stores and 12 corporations in

00:51:56.880 the whole country. And, you know, I don't think that we want to go down that path.

00:51:59.880 Yeah, I agree. I agree. And that's it, man. It's, and then, and don't be, don't ever doubt

00:52:05.520 how, um, how much of an impact you can have as an individual. You know, if you would have

00:52:09.140 asked me six months ago, uh, if you thought that I would be where, where we're at today

00:52:14.100 and making as much of an impact as we are, um, I would have laughed because never in a million

00:52:19.620 years did I ever think, but you know, I, I, the fight came to us and we, we, we stood up

00:52:25.100 for it. Um, and it's gone a hell of a lot further than I realized it ever.

00:52:29.880 Never would. And it's, it's as hard as it's been, it's, you know, you gave me a thousand

00:52:34.740 chances to redo this and I would, I would make the same exact choice every time. So

00:52:38.320 it's good to know. Yeah. Well, you know, that's a, that's a big reason, you know, we run around

00:52:42.680 in similar circles and I think we have some mutual friends. I see your lines, not sheep

00:52:45.820 hat, you know, Sean's a friend of mine. Yeah. Um, but yeah, that's a big reason I wanted

00:52:52.040 to have you on is I wanted you to be able to share your message and bring some light to what

00:52:55.480 we're doing here or what you're doing here. And then, uh, letting the guys know that,

00:53:00.080 yeah, you, you, you have an obligation and responsibility to stand up when you see things

00:53:03.840 that aren't going right. And, and the other thing I appreciate about what you're doing

00:53:08.240 is it doesn't seem to me that you're being reckless. You know, if you were just a bunch

00:53:11.560 of assholes and like you said, just being defiant. And I don't know that I would have wanted 1.00

00:53:16.540 to have this conversation, but what I saw is an intelligent approach to standing up against

00:53:24.100 what you see as an injustice. And that's what I really, really appreciate about what you

00:53:27.840 bring to the table. I, I appreciate that. And I think, I think you said that, um, really

00:53:33.320 well, that it is our responsibility, um, as, as men, um, especially, um, but just as citizens

00:53:42.040 in general, um, you know, if, if you, if you like the life you live, sometimes you got

00:53:47.660 to stand up and, and, and, you know, defend it. Um, and that's, that doesn't always mean

00:53:52.360 violence, you know, that you can, you can defend it in many ways. And that's just about standing

00:53:56.560 up for what's right. Um, and that's usually an easy distinction between what's right and

00:54:00.620 what's wrong. And I think that that's going on right now. Um, you know, and, and it is our

00:54:05.980 responsibility, um, because if we don't, then, then we're, we're part of the issue. I think

00:54:11.800 it is. Definitely. Well, Ian, keep up with a good fight. We'll keep supporting you. I'll

00:54:16.060 make sure I sync up everything. So the guys know where to go, if they want to support or

00:54:18.940 learn more about what you're doing and how they can engage in this battle with you. Um,

00:54:23.140 like I said, keep it up, man, we need more men like you. And I really appreciate what

00:54:26.380 you're doing. I know it's difficult for you and the people around you, but, uh, you're

00:54:30.140 doing a good thing. And so keep going, man. Thank you. And thanks for having me on. I

00:54:33.860 appreciate it. You bet, brother, man. There you go. My conversation with Ian Smith. I

00:54:40.040 hope that you got some value from that. Um, if you weren't already familiar with Ian's

00:54:44.500 story, now you are, uh, he gave you a lot of resources and ways that you can help out

00:54:48.980 if you feel so inclined and support him and what he's doing. And I think all of us now,

00:54:53.420 look, whether you support his mission or not, I think all of us can attest to the power of

00:54:57.900 standing up for things that you believe in. I mean, ultimately, isn't that our job as men

00:55:01.540 to have some conviction, to have some, some testicular fortitude, to believe in something,

00:55:07.560 to have principles, and then to actually be willing to stand by them in the face of,

00:55:11.360 like I said earlier, imprisonment, fines, everything else that he's subjected himself

00:55:16.380 to. I think it'd be easier for him to acquiesce to some of these restrictions and orders, but,

00:55:23.080 uh, this is what men do. They make a stand for what they believe in. So whether or not you

00:55:26.740 believe in what he believes, I think a lot of us will just by the nature of the show and

00:55:31.480 the men that we, we, uh, attract and bandwidth in this podcast. Uh, but even if you don't,

00:55:37.080 I think there's some lessons to be learned for a willingness to stand by what you believe.

00:55:42.100 So please connect with Ian on the socials, connect with me on the socials, uh, hit me up on Instagram,

00:55:47.460 Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, all the places, like I said earlier, take, take 60 seconds.

00:55:53.360 If even that go into your podcast player, just click five stars or four star, whatever,

00:55:59.160 whatever it is you think that we're deserving of click the stars, leave a rating, leave a review,

00:56:04.600 let people know. So they know where to go when it comes to the information, uh, that's going to

00:56:09.780 best help you become the man you have a desire to be. All right, guys, we'll be back tomorrow for

00:56:15.060 ask me anything with Kip Sorensen, but until then go out there, become a man of conviction.

00:56:20.980 Use the lessons and the stories that we learned today from Ian in your own life and the way you

00:56:25.320 see fit and become a man you are meant to be. Thank you for listening to the order of man podcast.

00:56:31.060 You're ready to take charge of your life and be more of the man you were meant to be.

00:56:35.080 We invite you to join the order at order of man.com.

00:56:38.200 You're ready to join the order of man.com.

Order of Man - August 11, 2020

A Man of Conviction ｜ IAN SMITH

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