Order of Man - MAT FRASER ｜ Becoming the Fittest Man on Earth

00:00:00.000 Gentlemen, my guest today is four-time CrossFit Games champion, Matt Fraser.

00:00:04.340 I've always been fascinated with what makes some of the most successful men

00:00:07.720 on the planet tick. And that fascination became the foundation for this podcast.

00:00:12.560 And I cannot tell you how honored I am to talk with this man, Matt Fraser,

00:00:17.680 someone I've admired and respected for years. He's going to join us to talk about his unusual

00:00:23.660 and extraordinary effort and work ethic. We talk about his background in Olympic weightlifting,

00:00:30.400 building self-sufficiency, the need for sacrifice and singular focus,

00:00:34.980 how to establish your core values and rules for life, the power of obsession,

00:00:39.920 and ultimately his path to becoming the fittest man on earth.

00:00:44.000 You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest, embrace your fears,

00:00:47.940 and boldly chart your own path. When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time. Every time

00:00:53.780 you are not easily deterred, defeated, rugged, resilient, strong. This is your life.

00:01:00.000 This is who you are. This is who you will become at the end of the day. And after all is said and

00:01:05.800 done, you can call yourself a man. Gentlemen, what is going on today? My name is Ryan Mickler,

00:01:11.400 and I am the host and the founder of this podcast and the Order of Man movement. I want to welcome

00:01:15.860 you here regardless of how long you've been listening. Even if this is the very first time

00:01:19.740 that you've listened to this podcast, we're glad you're here. It's my job and objective to give you

00:01:25.460 the tools and conversations and resources, guidance, everything that you might need to step

00:01:30.560 up more fully as a husband, a father, a business owner, a leader in your community, just a man in

00:01:36.320 general. And, uh, you know, as well as I do that it is needed now more than ever. I've got a very

00:01:41.620 interesting one lined up for you today. And, uh, the timing is very interesting in light of

00:01:46.040 some controversy sparked over the CEO and founder of CrossFit, Greg Glassman's comments, uh, over the

00:01:53.500 weekend. Uh, Matt and I recorded this podcast a couple of weeks ago. So we don't necessarily get

00:01:59.220 into those comments because those comments hadn't been made yet. Uh, but it was interesting because

00:02:03.880 I did ask him about, uh, the risk and potential volatility of being so tied into CrossFit. Uh, and he

00:02:11.960 addresses that, which is timely considering, uh, the controversy that has been, uh, that has been

00:02:17.780 sparked. So we get into that a little bit. I think you're going to enjoy this one. Uh, before I

00:02:22.100 introduce you to Matt, as if you need an introduction, uh, I just want to share with you very, very quickly,

00:02:27.180 uh, that we've got a great partnership going on right now with a warrior poet society network.

00:02:33.680 If you guys haven't checked this out, they've created an exclusive network, uh, and they've got

00:02:38.980 order of man as an exclusive show. So we're sharing content over there that is not shared anywhere

00:02:44.200 else, not on YouTube, not on the socials, not here. It's all exclusive over there. Uh, they've

00:02:48.880 got Tony sent my not real world tactical, of course, war poet, John level. Uh, they've got a bunch of

00:02:54.620 other shows as well. So if you are interested in some of that exclusive content, then check it out

00:02:58.880 at order of man.com slash WPSN as in warrior poet society network. Again, that's order of man.com

00:03:07.100 slash WPSN and you can check it out. All right. Let me introduce you to my guest. Again, his name

00:03:14.240 is Matt Fraser. He's a four times CrossFit games champion. Uh, obviously there's a lot up in the

00:03:21.280 air right now about CrossFit as they've lost their partnership with Reebok and most of their,

00:03:28.180 I don't want to say most, a lot of their affiliate gyms, uh, are no longer going to be affiliating

00:03:32.740 with CrossFit. And this is just in the past 48 hours or so, but, uh, no, regardless, uh, Matt

00:03:39.160 is operating in an ultra competitive environment and he's found a way to apply himself and achieve

00:03:45.220 insane amounts of work ethic and drive to become the best in his field for years. And he comes from

00:03:52.040 an Olympic weightlifting background. Uh, he planned on going that route until he suffered a back injury

00:03:56.600 in 2009, I believe, uh, before shifting his focus over to CrossFit. Now, most of you are already

00:04:02.560 probably familiar with him to some degree. Uh, and I've been following that for years now,

00:04:06.700 but I was very, very surprised at his level of humility. In fact, he's probably one of the most

00:04:11.740 down to earth men that I've had on this podcast in spite of his tremendous level of success and

00:04:16.300 accomplishment. So I hope you enjoy listening to this conversation as much as I enjoyed having it.

00:04:21.940 All right, there we go. So I interrupted. You said, uh, most days, most of your off days,

00:04:26.200 which I can't imagine are a whole lot. You spend time at the range. Is that right?

00:04:28.900 Yeah. You usually once a week, you know, I take one day a week where it's completely off. I don't,

00:04:33.420 um, you know, no gym, no, no anything fitness. Um, and so usually on, uh, on that day of the week,

00:04:42.460 it's, you know, my fiance and I will load up the truck, uh, we'll go to the gun range and it's like,

00:04:47.320 she'll pack lunch and like, she loves to shoot as well. So she has a few of her favorites that she likes

00:04:52.800 to shoot with. And, you know, it's kind of more the merrier at the gun range. I love taking people

00:04:57.620 with me, you know, especially first time shooters kind of trying to give them a good experience with

00:05:02.120 it. Um, but yeah, just a professional dirt shooter, you know, I got a good, good plethora

00:05:08.540 of steel targets and you know, that that's like my day outside. Yeah. Um, do you guys, do you guys

00:05:15.300 shoot pistols, rifles, both? What do you, what do you guys shoot mostly? Uh, so mostly I've been

00:05:19.100 into pistols. Um, that's what I've done, uh, for longer mainly just cause the price point of

00:05:24.600 getting into it. Um, so, you know, like my first gun that I took to the range consistently,

00:05:29.880 it was like a used Glock 17. Okay. Yeah. And then, you know, the kind of the collection

00:05:34.100 kind of grows from there, but you know, the pistols, they're just usually cheaper to buy

00:05:38.200 ammo's cheaper. Uh, the steel targets are cheaper, uh, easier set up and it's just easier

00:05:45.260 to find a spot to go shoot. Um, in the last year or two, I've tried to get a bit more into

00:05:50.720 like mid range rifle. I have a couple of rifles that are, um, like I have a Barrett 338 Lapua.

00:05:58.340 Oh yeah. It was a gift. Um, but it's like finding a spot to go stretch that thing out is they are few

00:06:06.020 and far between trying to find like a mile range or something. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Unless you have

00:06:10.880 land, like it's difficult to get out to the range and be able to, like you said, to stretch something

00:06:14.600 out and really get that long range rifle going, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, I mean,

00:06:19.060 the main thing I love about shooting is just like hanging out with friends, you know, shooting is

00:06:23.220 the part in the background. It's just like the thing that brings everyone together. Something to

00:06:26.480 revolve around. Exactly. So, you know, just getting a couple of trucks at the gun range, everyone drops

00:06:31.300 the tailgate and you know, you just got all the ammo buckets lined up, you know, you kind of run

00:06:36.460 everyone through. If you have a new person, you know, you kind of keep an eye on them, show them

00:06:40.400 how to do it properly. But yeah, it's just kind of what, what the, what the day is revolving

00:06:45.200 around, but it's more just about spending the time with people. Have you, uh, have you been

00:06:49.320 having, like, what does your training schedule look like with this whole coronavirus thing? Like,

00:06:53.960 is it still, you're going a hundred miles an hour. Has it changed at all for you?

00:06:57.860 No. So training, training during like this whole like pandemic thing for me, hasn't changed

00:07:03.860 at all really. Um, you know, I've always set up my life to, you know, hope for the best plan for the

00:07:13.040 worst. Um, so like my home gym, you know, it's what I do for a living. Uh, so it's basically my

00:07:19.380 home office. I've always wanted to be completely self-sufficient if I have to be, you know, 99% of

00:07:26.140 the times I can go into an affiliate, you know, go into a bigger space that's better. But, you know,

00:07:32.020 just in case there's a shutdown or locked it, whatever it is, um, I've wanted the capability

00:07:39.820 of not having to leave my home. So, you know, my, I've just a regular size, like I think it's

00:07:45.720 called a two bay garage. Um, but you're fitting one car in there and some shelves. Um, I have one

00:07:53.280 of everything, so I don't have to leave my house for training. Really. Um, I have a ice bath sauna

00:08:00.680 in the backyard. We have a massage table here. So my fiance will do body work on me. Um, you know,

00:08:07.540 if things get serious, I don't have to leave my house for like a month, which is a good,

00:08:12.500 it's a good position to be in, especially when you want to be competitive and there's outside

00:08:16.680 circumstances. I mean, no, nobody would have guessed it'd be Corona virus or a global pandemic,

00:08:22.020 but there's things that come up, you know, and it's cool that you create those contingencies so that

00:08:27.600 you can still train and do the things that you want to do. Yeah. You know, it's like,

00:08:30.740 I'm always hoping that things are going to go smoothly that I, that like, I can still go to

00:08:35.640 the gym, that I can go to my body work person that I can go, you know, use these other facilities.

00:08:41.820 Um, I don't know why I've always enjoyed being self-sufficient or, you know, like in terms of

00:08:47.360 like spending money, it's like, no, I save enough money so that like, if the world shuts down

00:08:52.040 or like if my, if I had a job and I got laid off, I can live, I can be self-sufficient for

00:08:57.440 like an entire year without changing my lifestyle, anything. And, you know, I've had a lot of

00:09:02.340 people with like, well, when are you not going to be able to work for a full year? I'm like,

00:09:05.380 well, I don't know. Right. It makes me sleep better at night. Yeah. And then this whole

00:09:09.620 thing kind of happened and it's like, Oh, all right, here's the situation that I've been kind

00:09:13.660 of expecting or, you know, planning for, for the last, you know, five, six years. Um, but yeah,

00:09:20.520 so, I mean, my training, you know, all the competitions in our season, um, have been postponed,

00:09:25.300 canceled the one that's still going on. It's in, uh, Columbus, Ohio. They canceled the in-person

00:09:32.360 competition. They moved it to online. Um, so, you know, they're kind of in the mix of trying to

00:09:37.080 figure out the logistics of that, figuring it out. What are they going to do? They're going to send

00:09:41.020 out, are they going to send out people to, cause obviously there's a quality control component of

00:09:46.060 that, that wouldn't be there if it was in person. Yeah. So, you know, like we have one big online

00:09:50.500 competition every year. It's called the open it's five workouts over five weeks and they release one

00:09:55.720 workout, uh, was every Thursday night and you have until Monday to submit a score. Um, and so that,

00:10:03.300 you know, if you have a top score, you need to submit a video. You have someone there that's a

00:10:07.720 judge, but it's like, there's still questionable reps that get submitted. No doubt. Um, and so that's

00:10:14.600 where like you submit the video after the fact, and then they can go through and adjust your score

00:10:19.660 if needed. Um, so with this competition, I, I'm not a hundred percent sure how much I'm actually

00:10:27.680 allowed to say we had to sign an NDA. Um, but, uh, if you're familiar with the, the company rogue,

00:10:35.140 I mean, anything they do, they, they do it to the best of anyone's standards. So I think this

00:10:44.360 competition is going to be run a little bit differently than the open. Um, but I mean, I,

00:10:49.080 if anyone's going to do it, rogue is the company that I have full confidence that they're going to

00:10:53.520 just smack it out of the park. Well, and I think that's what makes CrossFit so different. You know,

00:10:58.360 I think it's definitely more legitimate than it's been probably, I mean, you, you correct me if I'm

00:11:02.640 wrong, and it's been over the past five years, but I think that's because it's been taken so

00:11:07.360 seriously, right? Like it's not just like a hobby thing. It's not just a, for fun thing. It can be,

00:11:13.080 but I mean, it's, it's as stringent as any professional sporting event. I mean, in the

00:11:19.300 last, in the last probably five or six years, you know, it's, we've started seeing bigger sponsors

00:11:28.120 coming in. So it started out, you know, sponsors that were in the space were trading sponsorships

00:11:34.360 for, um, product, you know? So people were signing shoe deals for a free pair of shoes.

00:11:41.900 So they're exclusive with this brand. And then, you know, once certain people started getting a

00:11:47.660 little more of a following and being in the sport growing, then money started getting involved.

00:11:52.340 And now we're getting to the point of sponsors that have nothing to do with the sport. You know,

00:11:57.880 we're getting these outside brands coming in and just like any other industry, once more money starts

00:12:04.520 coming into it, you, you know, people are taking it more seriously. Like, uh, probably five years ago,

00:12:11.540 there was probably no athletes doing it as a full-time job. Really? That recently, just five

00:12:18.500 years, huh? Yeah. So, I mean, a lot of, a lot of them treated it like a full-time job. Um, you know,

00:12:24.380 they would hire someone to manage their affiliate or, you know, something like that. Um, but they all

00:12:30.120 had those side businesses that they would run in the off season or just year round. Um, now,

00:12:36.660 I mean, you're probably getting close to 10 men, 10 women on each side where, where we don't have

00:12:44.120 jobs. We don't sell t-shirts. We don't have an affiliate. We don't do online coaching, nothing

00:12:49.640 just competing. Um, how do you feel about that component of it? I mean, I don't know how it

00:12:55.540 stacks up compared to other sports, but knowing that things could change the, the, the CrossFit

00:13:02.300 could change altogether. It could go away altogether. Like, do you feel like, you know,

00:13:05.800 you're talking about self-sufficient earlier. Yeah. Do you feel like there's a risk there and

00:13:09.720 how do you mitigate that risk? A hundred percent. Yeah. Yeah. There's a huge risk. Um, I mean,

00:13:13.760 we're living a career that, you know, if, uh, if I step off my front stoop awkwardly and twist my

00:13:21.360 ankle, right. Well, if I miss, I'm, if that leads me to missing the qualifier or whatever, I have a

00:13:26.600 sprained ankle. Well, my year's done, you know? Um, yeah. So there's huge risk. Um, early on in

00:13:33.200 my career, I was still a full-time college student and I was making a good living doing CrossFit,

00:13:38.180 but I knew there's a timestamp on this. Um, I never thought I would make enough money in the sport

00:13:45.040 that I could retire off it. Um, so I kept school as a priority. And so my first two years competing

00:13:51.800 at the world championships, I was still a full-time college student. I got, uh, what years was that?

00:13:58.380 Was that what? 13, 14, somewhere in there? Uh, 2014, 2015. Okay. 14, 15. All right. Yeah. So I got

00:14:03.780 one degree in mechanical engineering and one in business. And because so before CrossFit, I did

00:14:10.680 Olympic weightlifting and I lived at the Olympic training center. You know, I was an Olympic hopeful.

00:14:14.880 That was my life. That was my dream. Uh, school was on the back burner while I was training for that.

00:14:21.800 And there's no money in weightlifting. You're doing it for the love of the game.

00:14:25.260 And, uh, and then I broke my L5 vertebrae and I just saw everything like, boom, like I realized

00:14:32.080 like, Oh, this could all be over. And I'm left with nothing. Right. You, you quickly realize that

00:14:38.340 I have nothing. I've accomplished nothing. And everyone in my life that I thought

00:14:43.180 were going to be there for me, they just tossed you. You're broken. You're a broken asset.

00:14:47.780 They want nothing to do with you. Um, and so it was, do weightlifters recover from stuff

00:14:52.860 like that and, and, and continue with the sport or is that something where it's like, yeah,

00:14:56.760 I don't know if you're ever going to be as strong or capable as you once were. I mean,

00:14:59.660 obviously you've gone on to do big things. I was told by multiple surgeons, like you will

00:15:03.800 never work out again. You'll, the best you'll do is a light jog. Um, yeah. So I, I got surgery

00:15:10.620 on it. Um, came back from it, you know, I hit PR numbers. Um, but it was coming back

00:15:17.920 from that. You know, I just, I was motivated by resentment and that's a great fuel that that

00:15:24.340 fuel burns hot, but it's a very limited supply. It'll burn. I was going to say hot and fast,

00:15:30.740 right? Exactly. Yeah. So, uh, I was a little bit over a year from my surgery. Um, and I remember

00:15:36.700 like I had a great competition, I hit a lifelong goal and I came off the floor and I just looked

00:15:41.780 at my coach. I was like, Oh, I think I'm done. Really? Like, and, and he wasn't surprised.

00:15:46.480 He just kind of was like, yep. Okay. What did he see in you? That was, he was like, I got it.

00:15:51.640 Like, did he see something mentally or like, or what was he looking at? I think it was probably

00:15:56.400 just a combination of, you know, I wasn't, wasn't my usual self in the gym, you know, looking forward

00:16:01.140 to training every day was like, Oh, I'm going to prove, I'm going to prove you wrong, prove you wrong.

00:16:05.680 And, um, so, you know, I wasn't doing it because I loved it. I was doing it because I wanted to

00:16:09.680 give a big fuck you to everyone. And, um, so after that competition, I retired from weightlifting.

00:16:15.560 Uh, I moved to Vermont and I was just a full-time college student. You know, I realized like, okay,

00:16:21.560 like the sports career didn't pan out the way I wanted to. So I was like, all right, I need an

00:16:27.160 education. If I want to, if I want to survive in this world, if I want to make a living, I need to go to,

00:16:32.120 go to school and, uh, offer something to society other than how to clean and jerk.

00:16:37.360 Do you feel like you're, yeah. I mean, there, there's, there's definitely some motivation and

00:16:42.440 inspiration there for other people and you do it for yourself too. But yeah, I can see how having

00:16:47.400 another skillset would be valuable at some point in your life for sure.

00:16:51.040 Yeah. I mean, it was one of those things like, I didn't really know what I wanted to do in life.

00:16:56.300 You know, it was just from the time I was like probably 13, 14, it was Olympics. Like that was

00:17:02.400 all I cared about, all I wanted to do. Um, you know, just competing and, uh, and I just saw how

00:17:11.000 quickly it could be taken away. Right. And, and so even once I started making good money in CrossFit,

00:17:19.380 I, I still wasn't pushing all my chips in the middle, middle of the table with it because I

00:17:24.580 knew I was like, you can literally have a day in the gym where you hit PRs. You you've never been

00:17:29.760 stronger. And then you pull your trap, putting on your gym bag to leave. And I was like, I'm not

00:17:35.420 taking that chance. I'm, I'm getting an education so that if I have that security blanket, I'm once I

00:17:42.820 have those degrees, once I make those connections, do whatever my resume is padded, then I can afford

00:17:48.680 to push all the chips in on CrossFit and take that chance because if it doesn't work out, well,

00:17:53.780 fuck it. I'll go get a desk job. I'll be an engineer the rest of my life. Like they make a

00:17:57.500 great salary, um, great work environment, you know? Um, but I wanted that security blanket to

00:18:03.800 fall back on before I gambled on myself. That makes sense. Cause I mean, I talk with a lot of people

00:18:08.880 who, yeah, obviously we're talking with high achievers on the podcast, but you hear a lot of the times

00:18:13.340 like I went all in and burned the boats and everything else. And I'm like, really? Like, did you,

00:18:17.560 or does that just sound cool? Cause it does, but I mean, think about the level of risk that you're

00:18:22.080 taking. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's such a good little buzzword to say, like I burned all the boats and,

00:18:27.580 and there's no turning back for me. It's like, eh. So, so I took a different approach. You know,

00:18:33.500 you hear that a lot and it's, it's very motivational. It'll light a fire under your ass hearing someone

00:18:39.760 talk like that and it worked out for him. Right. And it's like, if it was true, if it, yeah,

00:18:44.820 if it was true, bad-ass, that's awesome. Um, I, I kind of took a different approach, you know,

00:18:51.760 kind of hoping for the best planning for the worst. Um, you know, I was making a great living,

00:18:57.820 uh, competing in CrossFit. You know, I had some sponsors that supported me and, uh, you know,

00:19:03.860 at, by the end of my college career, yeah, I could have afforded to go buy a house and get a car

00:19:08.880 and all this stuff, but I wanted, I wanted as little risk as possible. So, so until,

00:19:17.960 until fairly recently, I lived in my parents' basement. So didn't have rent, didn't have any

00:19:25.240 responsibility, like that there was nothing, you know, if, if I wasn't there to get the mail,

00:19:30.920 my mom would get it, you know, she would sign for packages. Uh, I didn't have utility bill.

00:19:34.940 I didn't have rent, nothing. Um, I drove a $300 Oldsmobile that just like, it was an absolute

00:19:44.560 bucket, but it was, but it was reliable. Right. Got you where you needed to be. You know,

00:19:49.780 I had zero luxuries in my life. Like I bought my, my couch was from like a secondhand store. Um,

00:19:58.620 you know, I lived as close to zero expense as possible. So I could afford to take the risk

00:20:07.480 of going, making my life, making my living competing. Um, and you know, I went without

00:20:14.780 for a long, long time. Like, yeah, I could have bought a house and done all that, but I was like,

00:20:21.300 no, I don't want, if I get to a competition, I twist my ankle. I don't want to be fretting

00:20:26.160 about where my next mortgage payments coming from, where, how I'm paying my health insurance,

00:20:30.240 anything. So it was like, I'm going to live like I'm dirt fucking poor so that if it doesn't work

00:20:37.240 out, nothing lost, you know, I'm not, I'm not making a financial commitment to anyone that I'm

00:20:42.780 then going to leave them hanging, you know? Um, so do you think that level of sacrifice is,

00:20:50.660 is it something that you, you feel like, oh man, I was born with this or it's in my,

00:20:55.580 my genes or genetics, my parents instilled it into me. Like, where does that level of sacrifice

00:20:59.820 come from? Cause there's a lot of people who would say, you know, like I want to be the fittest man

00:21:04.680 on earth, or I want to own a billion dollar business or whatever, fill in the blank. Yeah.

00:21:10.080 And they pay it lip service, but they don't ever do anything about it. Or they do it to the degree

00:21:14.400 where they were like, ah, I'm not really willing to sacrifice that much. And then they throw in

00:21:18.540 the towel. A hundred percent. Um, you know, I see it all the time. These social media warriors of,

00:21:24.260 you know, they, it's a pretty big red flag when you hear like them talking about how committed they

00:21:31.800 are, this and that. And then every other picture they post is on the beach. And it's like, where the

00:21:37.640 fuck are you getting time to go to the beach? Right. Like when every night their dinner is out of the

00:21:42.480 restaurant and like, it's like, where are you finding the time? Do this. Um, I get asked all the time,

00:21:47.500 you know, from people that are like college students hit me up and be like, Hey, I heard

00:21:50.780 you were mechanical engineer and competing at the games. How did you do it? And, and I,

00:21:57.240 I try to reply like when I have the time and stuff and you know, if the person seems like they have

00:22:02.100 good intent, I try to reply and say like, it's very simple. It's not easy, but it's really,

00:22:10.900 really simple. Take everything that isn't contributing to your performance and cut it

00:22:18.100 the fuck out of your life. You know? So whether that's hanging out with friends, uh, like having

00:22:23.820 a girlfriend, having any social life, um, anything that's not related to benefiting your performance,

00:22:30.680 cut it the fuck out. And then once you do that, you have so much free time during the day.

00:22:36.780 You know, I was, I was a double major, double minor and I was, uh, on the podium twice at the

00:22:44.180 CrossFit games. And I was carrying like 18, 20 credits a semester. Um, and it was like, I would

00:22:51.920 leave the house at six 30 in the morning and I wouldn't get back until 10 PM. It was super simple.

00:22:57.980 You know, it, it sucked, but it was super simple. Um, I remember I couldn't tell you how many nights

00:23:04.780 like I would leave the gym and I'd have to go to straight to the library. And so I'd stop at the

00:23:09.620 gas station, get a pepperoni stick and a gallon of whole chocolate milk. And that was my dinner.

00:23:14.500 You know, it was like, it was the gallon of whole chocolate milk, 1600 calories. And it was like,

00:23:19.280 yeah, it's not enjoyable. It's not like after the first like couple of glugs,

00:23:23.580 it's the enjoyment's over nasty. Yeah, exactly. But it was like, I had $3 in my pocket and I had

00:23:29.880 to go to school to keep my grades up. So it was a very easy, simple decision. Um, but it was a lot

00:23:36.020 of, a lot of work. Um, you know, Sundays, like every weekend, I was the only one in the library

00:23:43.060 and you go in Monday morning and it's packed. Everyone's trying to get their, get their school

00:23:47.800 work done before class. I'm like, you dumb, dumb, like you're out partying, you know, you're,

00:23:52.880 you were doing those non-essential things that weren't contributing. Yeah. It's instant

00:23:57.020 gratification. You had a great time and I was here. Um, but then like, you know, tests come

00:24:03.160 around, competition rolls around and I'm the one that's prepared. Um, yeah, I'm glad you talk about

00:24:08.800 that because I think, and, and I'm sure you get this all the time. I'm sure people say, you know,

00:24:12.640 like, Oh, it must be nice, you know, to be able to work out every day, all day. It's like,

00:24:16.320 Oh yeah. Dude, like you have no idea. And I don't either. So I don't want to pretend like I do,

00:24:22.540 but no idea the level of commitment and dedication and sacrifice that you must have.

00:24:27.560 I can't tell you how many times early on in my career I had people like, Oh, you know,

00:24:33.800 like I want to compete too. I want to do it too. And, and I'll be like, okay. And you know,

00:24:38.480 you'd hear them. Oh, I spent six hours in the gym on Saturday. I'm like, motherfucker. I was here

00:24:43.380 with you. You did two workouts and then you hung out a whole bunch. You know, you got a couple of

00:24:49.540 good pictures for the gram and yeah, like you didn't get shit done. And, uh, like I remember

00:24:55.780 one summer, like I worked, uh, an internship and so I was working as an engineer at an aerospace

00:25:02.440 company. And it was like, I would train, I would get up, do rowing intervals first thing in the

00:25:08.360 morning, get to work. And it was like, there was no warmup. There was no cool down. It was like,

00:25:13.600 no, I have 50 minutes until I need to be out the door. You get on that rower and you

00:25:19.400 hammer, get out the door. And then my lunch break, I have one hour and I would go, I would

00:25:28.160 throw on a pair of shorts, go out the back of the facility. And there was a Hill and I would just do

00:25:32.240 Hill sprints, just sprint up, no talking to friends, no, nothing sprint up, walk back down,

00:25:38.980 sprint up, walk back down. When I had about five minutes left on my lunch break,

00:25:42.640 scarf down your sandwich, throw your tie back on and go back in. And then straight from there,

00:25:49.480 straight to the gym. And it was like, all right, I got two hours. And it was be like,

00:25:54.360 workout, rest five minutes, workout, rest five minutes. And like, if you cut out, leave your

00:26:00.560 phone in the car, like you, you make it a point to like not make eye contact with anyone. And people

00:26:07.000 learn pretty quickly. Like, all right, you're here to get, get that guy's not messing around.

00:26:10.400 Right. Exactly. Like, all right, no chit chat. And, and if people in your life are supporting you,

00:26:16.100 they get it, you know, they'll jump in on workouts with you. They'll, they'll support you.

00:26:21.300 Um, but you just cut out all the bullshit in your day. And it's like so much time opens up.

00:26:27.320 And if it's actually what you want, then, you know, you make it happen.

00:26:32.600 Yeah. I mean, I experienced that today. I actually, I trained this afternoon before we got on the call

00:26:37.040 and I was like, okay, I'm going to get this done in an hour. But I lied to myself because it took me

00:26:42.540 an hour and a half. I'm like, why'd that take me an hour and a half? Like that wasn't an hour and a

00:26:45.800 half session. Yeah. But I had my phone in there. I was switching from podcast to this music and then,

00:26:51.440 oh, I got to check Instagram and all, let me message that guy between, you know, reps. I'm

00:26:55.640 like, yeah, my training didn't take an hour and a half. It probably took 30 minutes. I was just

00:27:00.740 there digging around for an hour and a half. I mean that, like when people ask me like how,

00:27:04.340 how, how much time do you train in a day? And I'm like, there's, there's two different answers.

00:27:09.080 How much time do I spend in the gym and how much time is like, are my hands on the barbell? Am I,

00:27:15.280 is my ass on the bike? You know that they're two completely different answers. Totally. It's like,

00:27:20.400 yeah, if you break it down, I'm probably actually in the process of working out for 90 minutes,

00:27:27.580 but it's like that stretches into four hours of like setting up, tearing down, doing like all the

00:27:34.740 bullshit that goes with it. Then you factor in like, all right, meal prep, uh, you know,

00:27:39.560 warming up, cooling down recovery work when you're done training. Like, and then if you throw a phone

00:27:45.120 into the mix, holy shit, it's gone. It's bad. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's it. That's, that's where I get

00:27:51.600 caught up a lot, whether it's, you know, spending time with my family or being in the gym or whatever.

00:27:56.980 It's like that phone is the biggest temptation for me and the biggest distraction for me accomplishing

00:28:01.760 things, man. If I, you know, it's easy. Cause you say, well, but I need it for work. Right. Like

00:28:07.020 those are the things that we tell ourselves. And so, yeah, you get lost in it and make excuses.

00:28:11.660 I mean, I definitely like, I'm as guilty as anyone else. Like especially when I'm like not near a

00:28:18.540 competition. And so, you know, training, like just the mood's a little more lax and it's like,

00:28:23.900 I can run my life off my phone. You know, when it comes to, you know, working with sponsors,

00:28:28.900 friends, family, uh, like I do all my investing trading on my phone. So it's like, I try not to,

00:28:36.980 I try not to touch my phone for like the first 30 minutes or hour of the day. But it's like,

00:28:42.520 if I get up at, if I get up at eight market opens at eight 30 and like, if, if something drastic's

00:28:49.300 happening, I need to need to jump on. Um, is that something you're really into? Are you,

00:28:53.560 are you picking in stocks and trading and buying? Is that something you're getting to,

00:28:56.840 or have you been doing that for a while? Um, about a year and a half now I've done it on my

00:29:01.520 own. Um, you know, like ever since my first paycheck, you know, I don't spend the money on

00:29:07.100 myself. I just save, save, save. Um, and, uh, you know, once I was out of school and had a little

00:29:14.700 more time and, and the biggest thing was talking to someone that I could ask questions about investing,

00:29:19.420 you know, I was like anyone else, I would get my monthly statement and it was like, well,

00:29:23.400 what the fuck am I looking at? Right. Like this guy could be taking no commission. He could be

00:29:29.340 taking 50 grand. I have no idea. I don't know where to find this info. Right. Um, and so, you know,

00:29:34.900 I got, I have a buddy that started helping me, gave me some, some books to read. And, uh,

00:29:40.460 and the biggest thing in every single book was, uh, like, don't pay someone to do your investing for

00:29:47.020 you. Like that 1% compounded over 40 years is the difference between a wealthy retirement and like,

00:29:53.740 I'll make it work. Um, yeah. So I, about a year and a half ago, I took it all in under,

00:29:59.500 under myself and you know, it's, it's as complicated or as simple as you want it to be.

00:30:05.180 Right. So I, I err more to the side of keeping it simple. You know, I don't need to double my money

00:30:11.900 in the next two years to have a good retirement. You know, I have enough money. Uh, I just want to

00:30:17.820 keep up with inflation and, you know, do that. So it's very conservative investing, but it's,

00:30:24.720 it's growing. Yeah. My, my, my background is financial planning. That's why I bring it up.

00:30:28.940 Oh, no kidding. Yeah. I got out of the business about, um, well, completely out of the business

00:30:33.760 about four years ago is order and started to pick up. And I think you're right. You know,

00:30:38.260 like there's a lot of people who want to like ramp up and do as much as they possibly can and double

00:30:42.500 their money. And it's like, like you said earlier about burning hot, like it burns hot, you know,

00:30:47.120 but it crashes hot too. So you gotta be very careful of that stuff. I mean, even, even doing

00:30:52.400 like what I'm doing and you know, it's, uh, I have most of my, my money in, uh, like mutual funds,

00:31:00.200 ETFs, super diversified, like huge, huge portfolios. Um, I have a couple stocks,

00:31:08.540 but they're, they're the ones that like, if they go to zero, we have a bigger problem on our hands,

00:31:14.940 you know, stuff like Apple and Walmart, you know, very huge conglomerates that it's like,

00:31:19.960 all right, the odds of it going to zero are pretty slim. Uh, so I can stay as hands off as I want to.

00:31:26.940 Um, but you know, I'm just trying to have a comfortable future. I've realized that no amount

00:31:34.820 of money's ever going to make me feel financially secure. Um, you know, I've set that number and

00:31:40.460 passed it 10 times over. And every time I was like, Oh, once I get this amount, I'll feel,

00:31:45.820 I'll feel safe once I hit this amount. And then you hit it and you're like,

00:31:49.040 what next? Yep. And, uh, and so it's like, okay, I've come to the conclusion that I'm never going

00:31:55.520 to feel financially secure. So it's just like, all right, just that steady growth, you know,

00:32:00.700 protect, protect all the assets, make sure they don't go to zero. Right. But yeah.

00:32:06.300 If you've realized that that's not what is going to be satisfying and fulfilling to you,

00:32:11.180 have you replaced that? Like, have you spent a lot of time thinking about, okay, well this,

00:32:14.980 this is genuinely what makes me feel fulfilled, satisfied in my life. Yeah. So, so I, I was very

00:32:23.400 open about it when I first got into the sport. Um, and it got, I think it got perceived pretty poorly

00:32:29.260 cause you know, like it's just not, I don't think anyone else in the sport had, um, kind of talked

00:32:36.800 about it, but like, I made it very clear. Like when I first got into the sport, I was in it to make

00:32:42.280 money. Like that was it. You know, um, my first competition, uh, I couldn't afford the signup fee.

00:32:49.060 So the owner of my gym paid it, signed me up and I won 500 bucks. And I was like, Oh shit.

00:32:56.040 How does this work now? Yeah. I was like 500 cash. And, um, and so I literally just started,

00:33:03.900 I remember asking another competitor in the gym. I was like, are there competitions like this

00:33:08.320 all the time? And she was like, yeah, every weekend. So I was like, well, fuck it. Let's go.

00:33:14.940 And, um, and so, you know, it just slowly built, but it was always financially driven.

00:33:20.920 Right. And because that, that was the milestone that I used. It wasn't, you know, I for like that

00:33:28.740 instant feedback of, okay, well, I'm winning money. That means I must be doing well.

00:33:33.160 That's how you measured it. Exactly. Now I'm winning more money. I must be doing better.

00:33:38.720 Um, and my original goal when I got into the sport, you know, just hustling these local

00:33:43.700 competitions was I want to make 20 grand. Um, for some reason I thought that was enough for a

00:33:49.500 down payment on a house. And so that was my goal. I wanted 20 grand for a down payment on a house.

00:33:54.920 Um, and, and then, you know, 20 grand came and went and then went, okay, I want a hundred grand.

00:34:02.580 If I have a hundred grand, it's a nice security blanket. It's a nest for when I graduate college.

00:34:08.020 Great. That comes and goes. And then you, you double it again and the bar keeps moving. And then

00:34:13.300 I always thought chasing that number was my motivation. Um, but then I realized after like

00:34:21.540 the 10th time that I hit the number and still wasn't satisfied. I was like, oh, okay. It's not

00:34:27.480 the money that I'm chasing. I just love competing. You know, what we do as a sport, you're just

00:34:32.740 constantly problem solving. Um, you know, there's such a wide variety of movements and time domains and

00:34:41.360 different everything. Um, and so, you know, you go to a competition, you have an event that you

00:34:47.460 didn't do so well in. It's all right. Well, why didn't I do well? Um, you know, was it a strength

00:34:52.760 deficiency? Was it a stimulus deficiency? Was it like, I wasn't comfortable with the movements?

00:34:58.640 All right. Well, why wasn't I? We do right. Exactly. So you just break it down to the

00:35:03.600 tiniest baby steps and you take this like year long goal and you go, okay, what can I do on a daily

00:35:10.440 basis to take a tiny step towards that goal? Um, so, you know, it's always interesting. There's

00:35:17.040 always something to work on. There's always something to get better at. And, uh, and I've

00:35:21.540 seen, I think I've had some of the feedback of like this huge, what seemed like an unobtainable

00:35:28.500 goal. And then I took those baby steps every single day and I went from last place to like

00:35:34.740 winning my heat a year later. Um, so I've gotten a taste of that, those progressions.

00:35:41.780 And now I'm just forever chasing that. Uh, it's, it sounds like, uh, it sounds like that

00:35:47.740 engineering type mind that you're talking about. Always solving, always crunching numbers,

00:35:53.180 always crunching numbers, problem solving, man. Let me hit the, uh, the pause button real quick.

00:35:58.220 I know that last week I told you about this month's topic inside the iron council, but I thought I'd

00:36:03.940 bring it up again because, uh, after the first week of our discussions and challenges, it is

00:36:08.480 apparent how important the relationship is between a man and his father. And it's apparent that many of

00:36:16.240 us have a strange relationships with our dad. Uh, this is unfortunate since most of us have learned

00:36:21.520 for better or worse, uh, how to show up as a man from our fathers. But when you band with us

00:36:26.520 inside the iron council, you'll be able to join in on these powerful conversations and participate

00:36:31.200 in the challenges. And they're all designed to push you into, uh, the deep end of your past,

00:36:36.820 your potential, uh, the narratives that you consciously or subconsciously lived your life by.

00:36:43.160 So if you're ready, uh, to make a change and step into the man, you're capable of becoming,

00:36:48.520 then join us at order of man.com slash iron council. Again, that's order of man.com slash iron council.

00:36:55.660 You can do that after you finish up the conversation with Matt and I, and for now,

00:36:59.740 we'll get back to it. How do you, uh, how do you stay motivated when I guess I'm, I'm assuming that

00:37:07.700 your growth isn't as exponential as it was when you started a hundred percent. Yeah. So how do you

00:37:15.060 continue to be motivated when like the first couple of years, you just see these like meteoric rises

00:37:20.560 rankings and your ability. And now it's like, okay, well like you're at the top

00:37:26.080 comparatively. Like it, it kind of depends on what day you catch me on, you know, every,

00:37:32.520 every day there's, um, a different, different motivation. Um, and it just depends on what,

00:37:39.960 what type of mood I'm in. You know, there, there's a couple that are very frequent reoccurring.

00:37:44.020 Um, you know, something as simple as I want to have a dope, dope fucking story when I'm old,

00:37:50.360 you know, I don't, I don't want to be telling my grandkids about the time I got to level eight of

00:37:57.820 some video game. No, who gives a shit, you know? It's like, no, like, like I want to have a cool

00:38:03.980 story to tell. Um, I've realized that some of the best stories come from shitty times. Yeah. Um,

00:38:11.960 you know, all my most miserable times when I was 10, like 10 years ago where I was just hopeless and

00:38:18.780 like, this is never going to end. I look back at them now and I'm like, holy shit, have I got a

00:38:23.540 story for you? Like this one job I had. And so it's like, okay, those terrible times turn into good

00:38:29.320 laughs down the road. Um, and I think another big one was, um, kind of realizing like once you realize

00:38:39.560 your jaw's not made of glass, it's fucking great, you know? Um, like for me for working out, it's

00:38:46.460 like, we get to places while we're working out where you think you're dying. You think like my

00:38:51.820 lungs can't take in enough air. My legs just are puffing up. Like they're just everything,

00:38:58.220 all the alarms inside are going off. And then no matter how bad it hurts, 10 minutes later,

00:39:03.940 you feel perfectly fine. Right. And so I realized like, okay, in this workout, I can either slow

00:39:09.700 down and get that instant gratification and feel a little bit better right now. Or I can keep pushing

00:39:17.400 as hard as I fucking can 10 minutes after the workout with either scenario, I'm going to be at

00:39:24.380 the water fountain, getting a drink, joking around with my friends, feeling perfectly fine. But in one

00:39:28.880 situation I took the instant gratification and I'm not proud of the effort I put in. And in the other,

00:39:33.560 I'm like pounding my chest, just like, fuck yeah. Like I put everything in there and I feel proud

00:39:39.640 of myself. That sense of pride that comes from like just a hard day's work. Um, you know, that

00:39:46.080 once you find, I'm trying to think of how to word it. Like once you find that gratification of a hard

00:39:53.460 day's work, uh, you know, you're always chasing it. Yeah. You know, I can sit down and watch Netflix

00:39:58.640 on an off day and it's like, I just feel like I'm wasting time. You bust your ass. Like I've worked

00:40:04.480 construction. I've worked out in the oil fields. I've sat behind a desk. Like you put in a hard

00:40:10.720 day's work, sitting down and watching an hour of Netflix has never felt so good. You know, you're

00:40:16.160 you're, you're, you earned it. Exactly. Um, so yeah, that's just the sense of pride that comes

00:40:23.480 with it, you know, of just busting your ass day in, day out. Um, yeah, I'd say that's probably

00:40:29.340 my biggest motivation. And also I've lost, I've got my ass kicked on a big, big stage with a ton

00:40:35.280 of people watching before. So having that fresh reminder all the time, you know, that'll get your

00:40:40.120 ass in gear. I wanted to ask you about that because most people, when they fail, you know,

00:40:44.560 their wife sees it or their kids see it or their boss gets mad at them. And you have millions of

00:40:49.600 people who are like, Oh yeah, he's a piece of shit or he's weak or he's lost his edge. Millions

00:40:55.780 of people saying that, like, that's gotta be a whole different game. I can't even imagine what

00:40:59.100 that's like. Oh yeah. Yeah. I mean, it was tough. Um, when I first got, when I first got plopped into

00:41:04.460 the world, uh, of social media, I mean that, that shit will eat your soul if you let it. Um, yeah.

00:41:14.220 Uh, so I mean, perfect examples. So for anyone watching that doesn't follow my career or whatever,

00:41:20.200 um, my first year going to the CrossFit games, which is like the world championships, I got second

00:41:25.300 place. Um, I came into it with zero expectations. You know, I was doing backflips over again, second

00:41:32.300 place. Uh, the following year, I just, I trained like shit all year. I ate like shit. I slept like

00:41:39.840 shit. Like I just took it for granted. I was like, Oh, I'm showing up. I'm going to win, you know?

00:41:44.760 And, uh, it came literally, it came down to the last workout. Uh, the guy, I think he was in first

00:41:51.520 place going into the final or I was, it doesn't matter. We were separated by two points and one

00:41:56.600 spot. If you're in the top three is each spot, six points. Okay. So it literally came down to

00:42:04.060 between this other guy and I, whoever wins this last workout wins, wins the whole thing. Um,

00:42:11.680 so I had a incredibly disappointing event. You know, I just flopped and he had a great event.

00:42:18.060 He can't like, he had a great weekend and, um, and yeah, you know, people that you thought were

00:42:26.880 your friends are talking shit on social media, like unbelievable. The things that people say

00:42:33.440 when they're not face to face with you. And, but, but the reaction you have, it's still just as

00:42:38.820 hurtful as if you saw them face to face, except you can't fight them. So, so I mean, it put me into

00:42:46.960 a dark place for a couple months. Um, I didn't go to the gym. I didn't train. I didn't know if I

00:42:51.300 wanted to continue doing the sport, anything. And, uh, and it, it drove me to just sit down with

00:42:59.080 a pen and paper. Like I was sad, depressed, whatever you want to call it. And just write

00:43:04.380 out, all right, why am I sad? Why am I depressed? Why is this bugging me? And, and you go through

00:43:11.560 and you, once you keep asking why, why, why you get down to your core values of what makes

00:43:18.580 you tick. And, um, and it was from that, that I got like the motivation to go back in. And, uh,

00:43:26.900 you know, I just realized like, fuck what anyone says, you know, in the grand scheme of things,

00:43:32.440 how many people are there in your life that you actually care about? Right. Yeah. A handful.

00:43:37.700 Yeah. Maybe 10, maybe or so. Yeah. Right. Like for me, it's like, if that, you know, um,

00:43:44.820 you know, I say 10, cause I've got four kids, you know, so I'm like halfway, I'm halfway to that

00:43:50.300 mark just with my kids alone. Yeah, exactly. And so once you realize who is actually important to

00:43:56.920 you, um, you know, what values actually drive you, you know, all that stuff, it puts a lot,

00:44:04.360 makes things very simple. Um, and, and on that list was like, what do I care what people on social

00:44:12.140 media think? Like if you're not there with me in the trenches, don't expect a hug when I'm

00:44:18.160 celebrating, you know, all like one thing I realized in that time was never have I seen a

00:44:25.040 negative comment on social media, opened up their profile and thought, wow, this person looks really

00:44:30.200 successful. I'm really inspired by this individual. Yeah. Not a single in, in all the years I'm on there.

00:44:37.200 It's still holds true. Nine, nine percent of the time it's a private account and the other percent

00:44:42.480 it's like, wow, this dude is a loser. And you know, it's, you know, you hear the same, like hurt

00:44:48.560 people, hurt people, you know, um, nobody that is working on themselves or, you know, working towards

00:44:55.380 anything is taking the time to knock someone else down. Right. Never. That's never the case. It's

00:45:00.640 always someone that's down. It's like the, uh, what's the, the crabs in the crabs in the bucket.

00:45:07.040 Right. Yeah. Right. It's that's, it holds true every time. Um, so yeah, you know, I, once I realized

00:45:16.120 how much that helped me, um, sitting down with a pen and paper years ago, uh, that's like a staple

00:45:22.860 in my life. Now there are notepads all over this house. There are pens all over, you know, whether it's,

00:45:29.840 you know, just to write down the days to do list. Um, super simple shit. You know, you get that

00:45:36.060 hit of dopamine when you cross it off. It feels good. Um, no doubt. But then, you know, I just

00:45:42.640 wake up some days and it's like, Oh, I'm just like gloomy for some reason. We'll sit down with a pen

00:45:46.440 and paper or break that shit down, you know? Um, and you just put everything back to your values.

00:45:52.100 And once you have a set of rules for your life, you know, making decisions becomes very easy.

00:45:57.520 What are some of the, what are some of the values that you've identified? And I like what you just

00:46:02.100 said there too, is like the, here are the rules I live by. So like, what are some of those values

00:46:05.320 and rules that you have? So, so right now my, mine are very simple. Um, and it's, I'm, I'm,

00:46:15.260 I'm actually like in the process to kind of working through them because I set mine up,

00:46:20.820 uh, like late 2015. Okay. And so it was right after that loss. And I just told myself like,

00:46:28.480 this isn't going to be my story. I'm for the next year, every decision I make is going to be based

00:46:37.000 off if it's going to help my performance to win the games. So it was everything you do in life.

00:46:44.560 There's, there's a side that's going to take you away from a better performance and a side that's

00:46:50.160 going to go, Oh shit. Uh, a side that's going to make, take you closer to getting on top of the

00:46:54.640 podium. And so for an entire year, like I had to, I had to say no to some stuff that I really wanted

00:47:01.240 to do, you know, like, you know, bet my best friend's bachelor party. And I was like, Nope,

00:47:06.040 can't go. I'm sorry. Um, you know, moving out of my parents' house, I was like, Nope,

00:47:12.200 I have a home gym set up here. I have zero responsibilities here. I can dedicate all my

00:47:16.900 time and energy. If I live here to training instead of having to worry about rent or whatever it was.

00:47:23.700 Um, and, and so I went from losing the games to after a full year of training like that,

00:47:31.640 uh, I won the games by the largest margin of victory ever. Um, and that was 2016, right?

00:47:38.200 Yeah. So 2016 was my first year winning it. And it was after 26. I went, Oh shit. Okay. I like

00:47:45.080 what that year produced. Let's do it again. Yeah. Let's do it again. And so, you know,

00:47:51.680 I've won the games four times in a row now, and I never thought my CrossFit career would last this

00:47:57.440 long. I didn't know, uh, that it would turn into a full-time gig. Um, and so now it's like,

00:48:05.140 all right, well, you know, I have a fiance now we have our own house, like all this stuff. So now

00:48:09.660 it's like, okay, well I need to start shifting some stuff because right now my life is incredibly

00:48:14.920 selfish. It's like, we don't travel unless it's for like my sponsorships or competition, anything

00:48:20.560 like that. You know, like Sam, my fiance wants kids. And for years now I've been like, Nope,

00:48:27.440 no kids. Like, not like if there's a chance that it's going to interrupt my sleep, not happening,

00:48:34.420 you know? So we're getting to the point of my career now where it's like, okay, I'm not just

00:48:40.080 competing for myself. You know, there's other people in my life that I don't want to be a total

00:48:46.060 selfish person for. Um, so, you know, kind of going through and reevaluating those, but

00:48:51.220 better help people in my life that, you know, I've had these conversations with, um, and, you know,

00:48:57.640 even like finances, you know, talking to a buddy that very well accomplished in his place of business.

00:49:04.240 And, you know, I'm kind of asking him like, what are your rules? What, you know, he has all his

00:49:08.200 tiers of like family first business second, like all these things. And he's like, I take 15% of my income

00:49:15.840 and I spend it on luxuries or just like non-essentials that are just a smile, you know,

00:49:23.540 whether it's family vacations or like buying a boat for the family, all that stuff. And I remember he

00:49:29.140 asked me, he was like, well, how much do you spend on, on these like perishables? I was like,

00:49:35.140 none. Like I spend zero, you know, it's because for me, it's like, I'm competing. I want the best

00:49:42.180 performance. And I'm building this nest egg because I thought I would still have to go get a

00:49:46.900 nine to five job after my CrossFit career. So I was like, I'm going to go without today so I can

00:49:51.500 have more tomorrow that when I enter into the job field, I can, you know, maybe not have a mortgage

00:49:57.440 or, you know, I don't have student loans, whatever it is, I can start a leg up on, on the rest of the

00:50:03.080 norm. Um, but so all these situations have changed. Like, no, I'm never sitting behind a desk. I'm not

00:50:09.380 getting a nine to five. Um, you know, what, whatever it is. So I'm in the process of kind

00:50:16.160 of re going through and trying to figure out the values and the rules to live by. Um, but like for

00:50:22.620 me, it's, they, they are pretty simple. You know, I don't like extravagant luxuries. You know, I've

00:50:29.340 realized that I never want to drive a Lamborghini or a Ferrari. No, I've done that. It's just not for

00:50:36.620 me. You know, I like having just a truck and a motorcycle and I'm good. You know, I never want

00:50:42.660 the 4,000 square foot house or 10,000 square foot house. That's not for me. I've, I've spent time

00:50:48.220 in them. Like my house right now, it's like 2,200 and it's way too fucking big. I want smaller, you

00:50:55.060 know, it's living by like, there's all these external signs of success, success that other

00:51:02.020 people set. And you know, you can fall into that trap so easy, but it's like, no, that's not what,

00:51:08.600 that's not what turns my crank. Um, well, I think that goes back to what you said first too, of like

00:51:13.240 self-sufficiency and, and, and being reliant upon only you is like, we think that these extravagant

00:51:19.140 things, the cars, the house, the whatever is what is freeing. But man, I think there's just as many

00:51:25.020 chains that come with that stuff as anything else, probably more so with that stuff. And you free

00:51:29.100 yourself from that beautiful headache. Yeah. Beautiful headache. Yeah. Good point. That's

00:51:33.760 a great way to put it. Now I do have friends that, you know, their lives revolve around their cars,

00:51:39.120 you know, their, they own automotive shops, their, their mechanics, whatever it is. And that's what

00:51:44.480 they geek out over. Yeah. And it's like, you do you like, I've, I've had friends that have a hundred

00:51:49.340 thousand dollars cars and their monthly rent for like a single bedroom apartments, 500. And like,

00:51:54.640 they could not be happier. And it's like, that's fucking awesome. You found your thing,

00:52:00.240 go do it. Right. Um, for me, like I, I couldn't care like of, you know, if I have a sports car in

00:52:10.420 the driveway, like that's not my thing. Yeah. Um, I imagine your rules have to change too, as,

00:52:17.460 as you become, uh, more well-known, more recognized, because I imagine the demands for

00:52:24.620 your time and your attention and energy grow. And so having those boundaries in place is probably

00:52:29.140 even more crucial than it was five years ago. Yeah. So, so I actually had a really interesting,

00:52:35.400 um, last month I had, um, I had some serious talks with a friend of mine and he does very well for

00:52:41.880 himself. Um, and, you know, kind of talking about, you know, if you're always chasing money,

00:52:48.620 then, you know, you can get lost in it. You know, you can sell your soul and, and make that money.

00:52:54.980 But what's it for, you know, if you're on the road doing these gigs, doing these shows,

00:53:00.360 competition, whatever it is, well, then you're never going to enjoy the life that you built.

00:53:05.580 And, um, and so, you know, I fell into that trap big time. If there was a competition,

00:53:10.380 even if I was in my like off season and there's a competition for, you know, 10 grand, 20 grand,

00:53:15.960 you know, we've had competitions in the off season that are up to like a hundred and it's like

00:53:21.540 a hundred grand. Like there's not much, there's, yeah, that's a big, there's not much I won't do

00:53:26.720 for three days to have the chance of winning a hundred. So, you know, it's, it was just always

00:53:32.560 chasing, chasing, chasing. Um, and so like talking to my buddy, he, he takes, I think it was like from

00:53:47.700 December to April off the grid. Really? And, um, and I was, I was like, like off, off, like no matter

00:53:56.700 what. And he's like, no matter what. And he said, he's like, I got offers to do this show.

00:54:02.700 And it was like $500,000 to do the show. And he's like, nope, February, not really. And I'm like,

00:54:11.100 how, like, how can you say no to that? And he's like, dude, he's like, I hit my number,

00:54:17.260 like in terms of like what he has in the savings account. And he's like, yeah, would a half million

00:54:22.760 be awesome? Fuck yeah. But it's not worth my happiness, my peace of mind. Otherwise,

00:54:28.720 what am I doing this for? I do it because I love it. Um, so, you know, having that put a big

00:54:36.180 realization in my head of like, oh man, I need to start, I need to start doing some stuff for me.

00:54:41.480 You know, I hit my number. I'm good. I'm financially good. So now it's like, all right,

00:54:47.620 well now I need to start actually enjoying this, you know, doing some stuff for me, being better for

00:54:52.140 the people around me rather than just more money, more money, more money. You know, it's,

00:54:57.160 I had a mentor. He used, he used to say that he called it FU money, that he had enough money set

00:55:02.640 aside. Two and a half million dollars. You buy, you buy a small house with 25 year shingles. You

00:55:08.620 buy a cheap piece of shit car and you say, fuck you. Yep, exactly. So he was all about that. And I

00:55:14.680 bought into that theory and man, I tell you, it's powerful because then you're not, you're not at the

00:55:18.680 mercy of having to do things you don't want to. You're not at the mercy of other people's

00:55:22.080 expectations of you. You're not. And look, I've done things where I'm like, this sucks. I don't want to

00:55:26.700 be doing this, but you already committed to doing it. Or there's some money involved

00:55:30.180 and you're just miserable, man. I just don't want to live like that at all.

00:55:34.700 Yeah. I mean, and that's, so, I mean, that's what I've, I, I, that's, that's what I've chased

00:55:41.520 for years of, you know, I thought money, I don't want to say like, I thought money could buy happiness.

00:55:49.140 Um, but I thought money would make everything better. And then, but now what I've realized is

00:55:57.140 that money gives you the option of freedom. You don't have to do, you don't have to work for a

00:56:05.460 shitty boss. You don't have to, you have the freedom to do what you want. Right. And, um,

00:56:11.880 you know, for me, it's, it's so easy. Like when you're broke saying like, Oh, I don't want,

00:56:19.280 I don't want that big house. But now like you have a bank full and you're like, no, like I choose to

00:56:27.360 live this simple life. Yeah. And you know, that that's the boat that I finally put myself in of

00:56:33.280 like, I know I'll work until the day I die. I do not do well with idle hands. I hate not having a

00:56:41.740 project on the go, but now I get to choose what project I get to work on. I don't have to go

00:56:49.040 work the minimum wage job and listen and get slapped around. You know, it's like, no, I have

00:56:55.220 the freedom to go do whatever I want. If a project looks interesting, then I can jump in with both feet.

00:57:00.460 Um, but it's not dependent on a paycheck. And, and especially for me right now, like, you know,

00:57:05.960 I still work with sponsors. I have, you know, uh, an amazing group of people around me that help.

00:57:12.420 And for me, it helps me because I don't have to sign with the new sponsor, uh, for the paycheck.

00:57:19.540 Right. You know, where you can make a good choice about it. Exactly. Like now I can, I'm in a spot

00:57:24.920 where I can afford to only promote a product that I believe in, that I would buy myself.

00:57:30.460 You know, that was one, one thing that was pretty changing a couple of years ago was I heard,

00:57:35.060 I forget what book it was in, but it was like, like rules of a salesman. And it was like,

00:57:41.180 don't sell a product that you would not buy yourself. And, and now when I'm telling someone

00:57:47.760 about like, Oh, you know, I use, I use a fair gun and it's like, yeah, I use it every day. If I wasn't

00:57:54.400 sponsored by him, I would still be using it every single day. So I feel good about sharing

00:57:59.960 this information with other people. You know, I don't feel like I'm trying to scam someone

00:58:03.300 into buying my shit. Well, and you're just living in integrity too. I mean, and you got to consider

00:58:08.460 like, where else does that spill over? Whether you're in integrity or you're out of integrity,

00:58:12.740 it's spilling over into other facets of your life. How you do anything is how you do everything.

00:58:16.760 Right. Right. And it's like, like, I don't lie. That's just one thing that, you know, I realized

00:58:23.600 probably too late in life that, you know, you sleep better. Like a clean conscience

00:58:29.380 is the best way to sleep at night. You know, if you say something, mean it, and then you feel good

00:58:36.500 about it. You know, it's like, if someone doesn't agree with you, you, you don't get upset about it.

00:58:41.660 Right. You know, usually when someone calls you out on something, you get super defensive

00:58:45.420 because it wasn't the truth. You know, you're not honest or, you know, like it wasn't like

00:58:51.440 lining up with your morals. You did something out of character and now you're being defensive about

00:58:55.820 it. Um, that was one thing that like, yeah, it sucks. Like if you fucked up and you have to tell

00:59:03.520 someone like, Hey man, I fucked up, you know, instead of passing it off to like the rookie or

00:59:08.080 something. Um, it sucks in the moment, but damn, do you feel better down the road? Yeah. And you

00:59:14.920 do it again. Cause you exactly, exactly. Um, you know, it sounds so corny of just like,

00:59:20.340 yeah, I don't lie. That's just something I don't do. And it's like, yeah, everyone says that, but

00:59:25.600 yeah, I mean, that's it. But go back to that rule of life. Yeah. That rule of life. Right.

00:59:31.140 How do you, uh, how do you deal with, cause again, I'm, I'm going back like, okay, so go back four

00:59:36.180 years. Nobody knows you, right? Four or five years. Nobody knows you. There's no expectation of you.

00:59:40.640 Like, I know you, you come from a competitive background. Your parents weren't, were Olympians,

00:59:44.820 weren't they? Yeah. Yeah. My parents were, uh, Paris figure skater. They went to the 76 Olympics.

00:59:50.340 I didn't know that until I just started, you know, just getting prepared for this conversation. I was

00:59:54.360 like, Oh yeah, that, well, that makes sense. You know, a lot of this drive probably comes from that.

00:59:58.320 Um, so you probably had a whole lot. So I actually, actually about that. Never nothing. I've,

01:00:04.120 I've never seen them skate. Really? Um, you know, like if like we had a field trip when in like

01:00:09.980 third grade, they would, they would put on their skates and be chaperones, but I never saw them

01:00:15.740 compete. I never saw them do anything in the figure skating world. Interesting. Yeah. They,

01:00:21.380 they finished up their careers and they were just like, okay, that chapter of our life is done.

01:00:25.920 My mom went to medical school. Um, my dad was a stay at home dad my whole life. Um,

01:00:30.680 yeah, you know, that's interesting. I would never, a lot of it came like directly from you seeing that

01:00:37.480 or being involved in that to some capacity. That's interesting. Nothing. Um, you know,

01:00:41.680 they, they never required us to do sports. The rule was we had to do something after school. Um,

01:00:48.040 so whether it be art, music, sport, something, like we weren't allowed to come home and just sit on the

01:00:54.860 couch. Right. And, and the only other rule is that if we signed up for something, we had to

01:01:00.240 fulfill our commitment. So, you know, like I know my brother and I, we, we both tried gymnastics

01:01:06.120 and it was like the day I came home, I was like, daddy, I don't like gymnastics. I don't want to go.

01:01:12.880 He was like, okay, well you, you signed up, finish up the season for the rest of the month or whatever.

01:01:18.840 You have to finish the month. And when you're there, like you can't, you have to give it your

01:01:22.760 all. Um, you know, same thing with soccer, T-ball. And it was just like the day we said, like,

01:01:29.080 I don't want to do this anymore though. Okay. Like finish out your commitment and then we'll

01:01:33.480 try in the next thing. So, you know, I, I did, I did band, I did pottery when I was young,

01:01:40.720 soccer, T-ball, all these different things. And it was just, it didn't interest me. Um,

01:01:46.220 and so moved on. Um, you know, I ended up in the sports world, you know, I played football. I did

01:01:51.240 weightlifting all through high school. Uh, my brother was into like theater, uh, band,

01:01:56.900 all that stuff, you know, completely unrelated to anything my parents had done or anything

01:02:02.560 that was of their interests, but super, super supportive. They were there for everything,

01:02:08.400 every band concert, every game, everything. Um, the, I think the trades I got from my parents

01:02:15.620 were my mom is probably the hardest worker I've ever seen on like to a fault was just worked

01:02:24.940 her ass off. Um, you know, even when it wasn't, you know, she wasn't getting paid for the hours

01:02:31.720 every Saturday, she's at the dining room table and had all the paperwork out. She's doing notes and

01:02:36.900 calls and, um, and it was just like the job wasn't done until the job is done. And yeah,

01:02:44.180 she didn't enjoy working on the weekends, but if she had to, she did. And then, and then from my dad

01:02:49.920 was the performer side, you know, uh, if there were people watching, uh, like he always talked

01:02:56.820 about when he skated, even if there was just the janitor in the stands, he would perform.

01:03:02.440 He could turn it on like that.

01:03:03.880 Yeah. He would, he could turn it on. He was a competitor. You know, he loved the competition,

01:03:08.700 hated training. My mom, my mom was the one that put the work in when no one was looking.

01:03:13.440 Uh, and my dad was the performer. So I luckily I think I got, you got, you got a little bit of

01:03:19.700 both. Yeah. Yeah. I think you got to have, I mean, obviously the training is important,

01:03:23.700 but I think you have to have that performance side in that you got to have the competitive edge

01:03:27.760 and especially in like a, like a socially driven entertainment type environment that we are in

01:03:34.260 this world. Like you have to be able to show that off. Yeah. People are sitting and their eyes are

01:03:38.420 on you. Right. Um, you know, I've trained with people that I've said like that person could be

01:03:44.080 world champion, but they crack when people are watching, you know, like there's, I've, I've seen

01:03:49.940 all the time. Like I've trained with people. I'm like, how the, how the fuck are you not beating me

01:03:53.680 when it comes to competition? And then whatever it is, you know, they get frazzled by, by the ref or

01:03:59.720 the competitors next to them are just people watching. Right. And they just shut down me on the other

01:04:05.620 hand. Like my, all my times get faster when other people see you, when you're around just in

01:04:13.480 competition. Oh yeah. Um, yeah. Isn't that amazing that, that variable, I was going to say simple

01:04:20.520 variable. I don't think it's simple or small, but, but that variable, like I even think it in my

01:04:25.100 context, I mean, obviously I'm not performing to that degree the way that you are, but, um, I was out

01:04:30.840 running this afternoon and I noticed I was running cause I was tracking it. I was running a little bit

01:04:34.560 slower than I did three days ago. Well, three days ago I was with my son and I was like, even just

01:04:40.860 my son, my oldest son watching me and being there, I was pushing just a little bit harder.

01:04:45.440 That variable changed it. So interesting to me, nothing else changed. That was the only thing

01:04:49.660 that changed. Maybe I got some more sleep that day. I don't know, but nothing really significant

01:04:54.480 changed. Yeah. I mean, it's some, some people just perform differently under different

01:05:00.380 circumstances. I know for me, like if some people it's how you train it too. You know, if you know,

01:05:07.960 you don't do well, like for me, um, the one lift that we have to perform a lot, you know, it's one

01:05:14.000 of the two Olympic lifts is the snatch and it's very technical, super, super little bit of room for

01:05:21.340 error. Right. The barbell goes, yeah. Yeah. The bar goes right from the ground straight to overhead.

01:05:27.280 Your hands are super wide. And it's like, if that bar's off by a quarter inch, you're missing a lift.

01:05:32.480 It'll go forward or something. Yeah. And I realized that when, when someone is in front of me,

01:05:39.980 I have a very hard time performing a lift. You know, uh, it just throws me off. I don't know what

01:05:45.280 it changes, but it changes something. And now, so I've trained with people that have the same issue.

01:05:51.060 And so now anytime that they're lifting, they lift facing the wall. They lift where no one can

01:05:57.800 walk in front of them. They, they only lift when no one else is in the gym so that they can hit their

01:06:02.520 list. Me, I went, well, I'm not good at snatching when someone's watching me. So I bring someone into

01:06:09.460 training with me and I say, and I say, you sit right there, make eye contact with me. You're sitting

01:06:15.020 two feet in front of me. We're making eye contact through the entire lift. Um, I've had people come

01:06:21.580 in with like kettlebells and it's like in competition, people got cowbells and kettlebell or

01:06:28.700 yeah, cowbells and people are cheering and there's no rule on like an Olympic weightlifting meet. It's

01:06:35.420 like proper etiquette for it to be silent. Like golf, right? You gotta be quiet and everything else.

01:06:40.760 Yeah. Well, I mean, in that situation, if someone decides to blow an air horn right at the critical

01:06:45.900 moment, your referee isn't like, okay, yeah, you get to do that. That person was a jerk. No,

01:06:51.960 it's like, nope, that person fucked you up. That means you fucked up. Yeah. Um, so I practice that,

01:06:57.360 you know, I put someone in front of me to try to throw me off. I give someone a noise making device

01:07:02.060 to try to throw me off so I can practice that, you know, you hope for the best plan for the worst.

01:07:06.740 Um, and so I think it's just a lot of strategy of how people are implementing these weaknesses

01:07:13.300 into their training. Right. Yeah. I like that. That actually ties into something I was going to

01:07:17.940 ask earlier about dealing with. Um, and I think we kind of went off on a tangent a little bit,

01:07:21.880 which is fine. It was a good tangent to go on, but, uh, internal pressure, which it seems like you

01:07:27.680 place a lot of that on yourself. Like I'm internally motivated. I want to succeed. I want to compete.

01:07:31.980 How do you deal with the increasing external pressure? Cause four years ago, nobody knows

01:07:38.520 who you are. It's all on you now. Everybody knows who you are. And if you don't perform,

01:07:44.580 it's like, well, what the hell? Like, yeah, there's just so much more expectation. How do you deal with

01:07:49.040 that? So, I mean, it's, I mean, it's so glaringly obvious, like every comment, there's no comment

01:07:56.540 on like social media or any write-ups of like, who's going to win the games this year. It's always

01:08:02.960 who's going to beat Fraser. Right. And it's like, why is that the headline? You know, it's not like

01:08:09.920 I'm coming in at an advantage. It's not like we accumulate points throughout the season and I'm

01:08:14.680 coming in with a huge lead. Anything. It doesn't matter how high you qualify going into the competition.

01:08:19.520 We all start on a blank slate. So we're all equals. I'm like, what the fuck are people

01:08:26.480 looking at me for? Like, like who's going to be that guy? You know? Um, right. Why can't that be

01:08:32.520 the headline? Yeah. Um, yeah. You know, I think it's just something that comes with time, comes with

01:08:37.180 practice, just like anything else. Like if, if you're born with the ability to just not listen or

01:08:42.440 not care what other people are saying, like that's a gift. Right. Um, but you know, for me,

01:08:48.560 it was one of those things that I had to consciously set up a rule in my life of, okay,

01:08:52.640 these are the people that I care about their opinion, everyone else, like who gives a shit.

01:09:01.080 So, you know, like, and especially when the chatter starts getting louder and louder,

01:09:04.380 when you get closer and closer to a competition, you know, I, I like I'll delete social media off

01:09:10.220 my phone. Really? Just like, it's not important. You know, like in the off season, I enjoy social

01:09:16.040 media. I stay in contact with a lot of friends. I get to show off projects I'm working on or

01:09:20.460 whatever it is. Well, just even your responsiveness with, with getting with me, I was like, I'll just

01:09:24.560 shoot him an instant. And you got back, like, Oh, I didn't actually expect that we'd connect like

01:09:28.220 that, but cool. Yeah. Um, so, you know, it's opportunities like this. I have, I have a handful

01:09:35.540 of friends that are, there'll be lifelong friends that I've met off Instagram, you know? Um, uh,

01:09:44.760 yeah. I mean, it's, it's just like anything else. It's a practice trait. Um, you know,

01:09:50.840 you realize that, all right, who gives a shit with that person thinks who gives a shit with

01:09:56.900 that person says. And, and, you know, you start realizing that no matter what you do,

01:10:02.000 someone's going to try to tear you down. You know, I've posted stuff that it's like,

01:10:07.200 I'm not claiming anything. I'm not saying like, this is a good product, bad product,

01:10:12.440 nothing. Like, I'm not saying this is the right way to do it. I'm not saying that's the wrong way

01:10:17.220 to do it. I just said like having a nice picnic with my girlfriend, you know, and there mark my

01:10:24.760 words, there will be someone that's like, you're a piece of shit. Right. Dumb. Right. Like,

01:10:30.520 how are you, are you serious at a picnic? Yeah. Yeah. Um, uh, yeah. And, you know, and then on top,

01:10:41.440 it's like success is the best revenge. You know, uh, I, I found, I found a board that said that

01:10:47.820 I hung it in my gym and I fucking love that. You know, if someone I've had so many people blatantly

01:10:54.580 go out of their way to try to knock me down and ruin my career and you just kind of, okay,

01:11:01.800 yeah, good. Bring it on. And in two years time, you're going to talk about the time that,

01:11:06.420 that you knew me, you know? Uh, and it's just like, I'm going to make myself so fucking successful

01:11:13.220 and so dominant that it's just like the, it's the biggest fuck you that I can give. Yeah. Is that

01:11:19.700 is giving someone making it blatantly aware that you mean so little to me that my career didn't

01:11:28.680 skip a beat by you trying to tear me down. Yeah. Um, and it's like some, some of the stuff that

01:11:35.180 people have done, I mean, in the moment, yeah, it did tear me down. It hurts a lot. Of course,

01:11:41.060 man. And then, but you look a couple, like, you know, once you pick yourself up or, you know,

01:11:47.060 your significant other picks you up and it's like, tells you it's okay. And you get back to work.

01:11:51.240 Oh, there's no better feeling. There's no better fuck you than just, than just crushing.

01:11:57.560 Um, I, I hear a little bit of like chip on your shoulder, not to the degree that it's like unhealthy

01:12:02.840 or anything, but like, I hear that a little bit in this conversation. And I've heard that with a lot

01:12:07.640 of people. Do you agree? Well, I don't know. Maybe you're disagreeing with me here. The way that you're.

01:12:13.400 So maybe in some ways, uh, I really try not to because, you know, resentment is a hot burner fuel

01:12:22.300 that short lived. Um, what I really strive for is to hear that stuff or see that stuff that someone

01:12:32.920 trying to be negative or just whatever, you know, they're just saying their part. Um, and just

01:12:38.540 literally pay it no mind and just ignore it and just keep chugging. And, you know, I, I look at the,

01:12:46.100 the phrase that like success is the best revenge. I've heard, I've posted that before and people are

01:12:49.960 like, well, isn't like just brushing it off the best revenge. And it's like, no, you're missing the

01:12:54.220 point. Yeah, exactly. It's giving them no attention and just, I have my goals and I'm going to keep

01:13:00.640 working towards my goals. You know, um, you know, yeah, shit gets in the way and it's like,

01:13:07.880 okay, like that's a situation that sucks, but I can't change it. So how do I approach it now?

01:13:14.940 Yeah. Um, that's that, uh, serenity prayer, right? You've got that tattooed on your arm,

01:13:19.140 don't you? The serenity prayer tattooed on your arm. Yep. Oh yeah. That's what you're talking about

01:13:22.920 now. Yeah. That's a common occurrence. That's a common phrase. Uh, it gets said, said in my head

01:13:28.680 multiple, multiple times. Is that right? Is that how, that's how you calm yourself down?

01:13:33.740 Um, or center yourself maybe is a better way to say it. I don't know. A lot of times I use it to

01:13:38.300 hype myself up. Is that right? Of, you know, something comes up in the day where it's like,

01:13:42.840 it's not going to be enjoyable. You know, things aren't going as planned or whatever it is. And it's

01:13:47.780 like, okay, well, what, what do I have control over? All right. I have control over the effort that I put

01:13:54.420 into this. So, you know, like any workout, you know, I, I see workouts every day that I'm like,

01:13:58.320 this is going to suck. This is going to hurt. Um, and, and I realized like, all right, I don't

01:14:05.240 have control over that. You know, I don't have control over the movements that came up. I don't

01:14:08.840 have control over the people I'm competing against. I have control over the effort that I put in. I

01:14:13.840 have control over if I listened to the pain that my body's screaming at me. And like, what I have

01:14:21.880 control over is how proud I am of myself at the end of the day. Um, so, you know, the serenity

01:14:28.360 prayer helps me through some tough times of, you know, when things are seeming hopeless and, you

01:14:33.440 know, it kind of puts you at ease. And then other times when you're getting ready to tackle

01:14:38.260 a big, big task, it makes you focus on our, what are the things I have control over? Right. And,

01:14:45.360 you know, how am I going to attack the best of my abilities? Um, and so it gives you that,

01:14:50.340 that thing to focus on. Um, so that even when there's like a video arcade going on,

01:14:55.200 on in your peripheral, it's like, Nope, this is the task I'm focused on. Fuck everything

01:15:02.420 else. I'm doing this. Hmm. It's cool, man. I dig it. Well, Hey Matt, I want to be respectful

01:15:07.580 of your time and your day off. I want to let you get to your things that you've got to take

01:15:10.840 care of. Uh, I do want to ask you a couple of questions. The first one I told you a little

01:15:14.440 bit about it is, uh, what does it mean to be a man? Oh man, I told you I was going to

01:15:21.760 start back to this one. Yeah. Yeah. I've been thinking about it this whole time. Um, I think,

01:15:27.000 I think there's a lot of aspects to it. And, you know, like when I think of like, what does it mean

01:15:32.260 to be a man? You know, you ask a million people, you're going to get a million different definitions.

01:15:36.760 Um, I think when, when I'm asked, what does it mean to be a man? I look at how do I want

01:15:44.380 to be seen? Um, and you know, it's, there's so many different aspects to it. I think the,

01:15:51.560 a big one is being consistent. You know, you have, you're consistent in your values. You're

01:15:57.280 consistent in your personality. You're consistent in your reactions to the different situations.

01:16:01.820 Like when I want all of my friends to know, if they say a joke, they know my sense of humor.

01:16:10.240 It doesn't change from day to day based on my mood. You know, when, when they ask me for a favor,

01:16:15.860 it's not one day I'm going to drop everything and show it and be the best friend. And then another day

01:16:21.760 be like, all right, man, yeah, just throw me 20 bucks for guests and I'll do it. You know,

01:16:25.280 being consistent, um, being loyal, you know, uh, like I, when, when I look at myself, I want to be

01:16:35.460 someone that I want to be friends with. Um, so I try to project those values that I have

01:16:41.700 back onto myself, you know? Um, yeah, I think it's, you know, just even keeled,

01:16:49.300 you know, not flying off the handle. Um, you know, just being good to the people that are good

01:16:55.400 to you or supporting the people that are in your life. Um, yeah, I think, I think the big one is

01:17:01.580 being consistent. You know, you have your set of values and you stick to them. I like it, man.

01:17:06.600 I dig it for sure. Well, cool. Well, how do we connect with you for like the few people who maybe

01:17:10.140 aren't already connected or know where to find you? Where do they go to connect?

01:17:12.940 Yeah. Um, I mean, Facebook page, Twitter, I, I have those, but you know, the one that,

01:17:19.880 the one that I maintain and, you know, watch closely is, uh, my Instagram. It's, uh, Matthew

01:17:25.640 Fraz, Matthew with one T F R A S. Um, but yeah, I mean, there's lots of YouTube videos, you know,

01:17:34.480 most of my competitions are streamed online on YouTube. So everything is out there, isn't it?

01:17:38.960 Yeah. All the world to see for better or worse. It's all out there. Yeah. Yeah. A couple,

01:17:42.560 a couple of documentaries on Netflix, the whole fittest series. Um, the newest one that just

01:17:48.540 came out, it's on iTunes and Amazon. Um, I'm sure it'll be coming to Netflix at some point,

01:17:54.620 but yeah, I'm sure. Yeah. It's a fun one of last year's games. We're going to sync everything up.

01:17:58.940 So the guys don't know where to go, but Hey man, I appreciate you. I really, I know your time is

01:18:02.760 valuable. Uh, you get a lot of demands and calls for it. So I really appreciate you taking some time

01:18:08.200 with us today. I've been inspired over the past several years by watching what you do and it's

01:18:11.380 real honor to have a conversation. Yeah. Yeah. I appreciate you asking me to come on. You know,

01:18:14.540 this is, uh, you know, most of the stuff I do is directly CrossFit related. So this is a nice

01:18:20.300 change of pace, good and great conversation. Hope, I hope I really hope I didn't ramble too much,

01:18:25.780 but, uh, no man, it was a great conversation. And I know the guys that are listening right now are

01:18:29.700 just going to get a ton of value from what you share. So, so one, one thing I want to ask is what,

01:18:33.460 what's your definition of a man? Yeah, that that's a question I get occasionally. I've thought a lot

01:18:37.780 about it. And I have the luxury of having heard, you know, hundreds of men at this point. Yeah.

01:18:42.100 Tell me. Um, but ultimately I believe to be a man means that you're, you're capable and proficient

01:18:50.140 of protecting yourself and your loved ones, providing for those people and leading yourself and others.

01:18:57.220 Well, I like it. It's, it's, uh, it's refined over years. Yeah. It would be like, you know,

01:19:04.740 it'd be like you trying to teach me the perfect form on a snatch, you know, you're like, what's

01:19:08.640 your problem? You just do it. You know, it's like, well, yeah, you've also done it 10,000 times,

01:19:13.120 right? So it's the same, it's the same concept. That's awesome. All right, brother. Well,

01:19:17.880 I appreciate you and, uh, looking forward to, uh, staying connected and then watching your,

01:19:22.180 your journey over the next several years as well. Absolutely. Thanks, man.

01:19:26.660 Gentlemen, there you go. My conversation with the one and only Matt Fraser. I hope that you enjoyed

01:19:30.640 that conversation again, like I said earlier, as much as I enjoyed having it,

01:19:33.940 uh, he's a very humble down to earth guy. Obviously there's a lot up in the air right

01:19:38.280 now, uh, regarding CrossFit and his future and what he's going to do. So make sure you

01:19:43.640 connect with him, connect with me on the socials, Instagram primarily, uh, and let us know what

01:19:48.940 you thought about the show and the conversation and how you'll be using the information to improve

01:19:53.680 your life. That's what this is about. It's not just about consuming the information. It's

01:19:58.020 about taking it, using it as fuel and, uh, going out into the world and applying it and becoming

01:20:05.320 a more effective father, husband, business owner, community leader, brother, mentor, coach,

01:20:10.640 however you're showing up. All right, guys. Uh, also check out warrior poet society network.

01:20:15.780 You can do that at order of man.com slash WPSN and check out the iron council order of man.com

01:20:22.680 slash iron council guys. We'll be back tomorrow for our ask me anything, but until then go out

01:20:28.540 there, take action and become a man. You are meant to be. Thank you for listening to the order of man

01:20:33.480 podcast. You're ready to take charge of your life and be more of the man you were meant to be.

01:20:38.240 We invite you to join the order at order of man.com.

Order of Man - June 09, 2020

MAT FRASER ｜ Becoming the Fittest Man on Earth

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