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We cover the sport of CrossFit from all angles. We talk with athletes, coaches and celebrities that compete and surround in the sport of CrossFit at all levels. We also bring you Breaking News, Human Interest Stories and report on the Methodology of CrossFit. We also use the methodology to make ourselves the fittest we can be.
This is the time in the NFL season
where all the teams are going,
who are we?
What's our identity?
What do we lean on in the tough
times?
Did the WFP ever figure out their
identity?
We'll talk about that next.
I love the chase and the hunt and
I set the pace when I'm running.
I always take what I want and I
always give it one hundred.
Don't need a bank, no I'm funded.
Play the game like it's nothing.
I'm always thankful for something.
Don't take for granted, stay humble.
Now wake up!
It's time to look at the enemy.
Look in the mirror if he is no
friend to me.
It's not working out,
maybe it's the chemistry.
It's time to break up so I can
make a better me.
It's lunch time!
what's going on everybody train olive in
the house cory leonard joseph ramirez and
vicky what's going on everybody good to
see you it is a monday monday cyber
monday after thanksgiving back to work i'm
back to work for the first time since
wednesday afternoon um what's up andrew
sten jonathan ortega um yeah so back at
it today um
kind of getting back into the groove.
So anyway,
Good that you all are here.
Don't forget, speaking of Cyber Monday,
Thirdsy, our sponsor,
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Tomorrow night, ten p.m., it ends.
Thank you guys for all of that.
All right.
First thing is first.
One thing I saw yesterday that was really
funny is, oh, Jonathan Ortega,
why are you buying on Cyber Monday?
What am I buying?
The thing I just bought was Paper Street
Coffee running their hundred and fifty
dollar gift cards for fifty bucks.
You can't beat that every year.
I dive into that.
That is the coffee I drink all year
round.
And he doesn't need I don't even spot.
He's not even a sponsor.
I just love Paper Street Coffee.
I love Gabe.
I jump into the Cyber Monday deal every
year to get the hundred and fifty dollar
gift card for fifty bucks.
Can't beat it.
So.
Corey Leonard,
I'm about to get that paper straight
coffee fifty four one fifty.
It's the best deal out there, man.
If you drink that coffee,
you've got to got to get that.
Amazon has too many mics for sixty six
bucks.
I did buy a new hard drive.
I go through portable hard drives like
crazy.
And so just...
I bought a new hard drive,
a new case for those,
and it also is a case that holds
all my SD cards.
So I got that.
I have a set of Rode mics.
Jonathan, that's what I use.
They still work great.
So that's awesome.
Corey Leonard,
his third seat is on the way.
The DJI mics.
I heard DJI.
I hear they're great.
I splurged on some Rode ones a couple
years ago.
They work great for me.
And they work with all my equipment.
So I'm good with those.
But I heard the DJI mics are just
much easier to use.
So maybe when these ones go bad,
I'll go with those.
And DJI.
David Reed, I'll read this,
but I don't want to.
Big shout out to them Buckeyes.
Also, big shout out to Penn State,
who became bowl eligible in a season that
we did not think that was going to
be possible.
And they get to actually play on and
play in a bowl game.
And I'm just excited about that.
um jonathan mine broke so i got new
dgi yeah i think that's what i'll go
to once mine go down because i've heard
such good things about the pairing and all
of that so i'll probably switch over to
those so anyway with that um fun thing
terry says go bucks man i get enough
of that living here in columbus i don't
need any more of that on my show
I'm going to start banning Buckeye talk on
here.
Uh,
first thing I wanted to talk about is,
uh, I gotta get to it.
Here we go.
So I don't know if you guys saw
this on the barbell spin and this came
out last night, the barbell spin post.
Whoops.
Sorry.
There we go.
The barbell spin posted the news that
Daniel Brandon had withdrawn from the WFP
at seven thirty p.m.
One hour later,
CrossFit on their workout of the day
posted a picture of Daniel Brandon at the
games.
And spin put out, is this a coincidence?
And so I DM spin back and I
was like.
if this is CrossFit trolling,
then we've got the right people back in
charge and we're going in the right
direction.
And I love, God, I hope they're trolling.
I hope they're trolling.
Because if they're trolling,
that means they're getting some confidence
back and that they are the league to
follow.
And they're trolling the other league
saying,
Yeah, checkmate.
I really feel like if CrossFit is truly
trolling the WFP, we are winning.
And I hope to God,
because there's nothing wrong with a
little bit of pettiness,
just a little bit.
You don't want it to get to full-blown
cockiness again,
but a little bit of pettiness is pretty
damn cool.
And I hope and I pray to God
that they are just being a little bit
petty saying, hey,
she competed at our finals.
Here's a picture of it.
Just saying.
I would really,
really love it if they were trolling and
being that petty.
anxious to hear your thoughts is it too
petty is it something they shouldn't be
doing or are you fine with them trolling
the wfp if in fact that's what they're
doing and i can't imagine they're not it
is it would be too wild of a
coincidence to not be trolling but i'm
truly excited to see what your guys's
thoughts are and do you think that this
is heading in the right direction
because this is the kind of stuff that
will bring eyes to the sites, to the,
um, to the socials, to all,
they need to do the little things to
bring eyeballs back to all of their
accounts.
And I hope that's what they're doing.
So throw your thoughts in the chat.
Uh,
Dylan Loewen.
I dig the thumbnail.
I do too.
It came out really well.
It's a picture I took of Ariel at
the games this year.
I asked chat GPT to make it a
comic book sell,
and I thought it came out awesome.
I'll send you the picture standalone after
the show, Dylan.
So there is that.
What else do we got on tap?
One more thing before we get into the
WFP and their identity.
And that is... I... I said...
last night maybe and also in a chat
this morning that maribel was retiring and
then came out of retirement to accept the
bid to wfp i read the translation because
she made a post yesterday in spanish i
had it translated i don't know if she
edited it since then or if the translation
was just off but i do want to
clear this up because she was not retiring
um
Here's her post with the translation on
Instagram.
And it says, we're back on track.
I'm going to try to blow this up
more.
Here we go.
We're back on track and this time big
at the World Fitness Project final in
Copenhagen.
And yes,
it caught me by surprise just like you
a few days ago,
but I couldn't resist this invitation so
close to home because this one is at
least in Europe.
It's been a complicated few months with
everything that happened to me and I
wasn't planning on competing anymore this
year.
When I initially translated this,
it said I wasn't planning on competing
anymore and that this year was not there.
So that's where I got messed up.
And that's where I thought she was
retiring.
He or she was just done for the
season.
And people have reached out to me and
said that I messed up.
So I wanted to face up to that
and that bit there.
But this was originally posted in Spanish.
I had it translated and made a mistake
there.
So there is that.
Now,
the next thing I wanted to talk about
is, you know, I'm a big football fan.
Everybody knows that.
I'm a big Chicago Bears fan.
And all weekend,
the Bears are riding this high of going
into Philadelphia and smacking
Philadelphia in the mouth.
And they did that by...
Their offensive line completely dominating
the Philadelphia Eagles defensive line and
pushing them off the ball,
giving their running backs plenty of
running space before they ever made
contact with anybody.
And everybody's saying the bears know
their identity.
Now their identity is with this big,
strong offensive line,
moving people off the ball.
And because they know who they are and
a team like the Eagles are don't,
they don't know who they are.
They don't know if they're a passing team
or a running team or whatever,
that the bears are a dangerous team to
play because they know who they are.
They know their identity.
And what made me think about this in
the CrossFit space is I think that
CrossFit is moving back in a direction
where they're moving back towards what
their identity has always been.
We're talking about forging elite fitness.
We have Pukie the Clown back.
We may be trolling the WFP online and
CrossFit knows who they are and they know
they're the biggest show in town and they
know what their strengths are.
I think what happened with the WFP is
Lazar died and they said,
we're going to capitalize this.
We're going to make a new league and
we're going to make it the way that
everybody has said they wanted it for
years.
And to get athletes to come over to
their league,
they told them whatever they wanted to
hear to get them to sign on the
dotted line with a contract.
The problem is
They did this to start a league because
of a tragedy that happened at the CrossFit
Games.
But they avoided saying that.
Instead of saying who they are and owning
who they are, they skirted around that.
And then they came out with these
catchphrases and these...
analogies that really they didn't believe
in or they didn't even um so by
the athlete for the athlete for the
athlete by the athlete whatever it is
nobody believed that at WFP nobody
believed that they could let the athletes
run the show
But they told them what they wanted to
hear to get them to sign on the
dotted line.
Because they felt if they could get a
roster full of the top athletes in the
world,
they could compete with the CrossFit
Games.
But they never said they were competing
with the CrossFit Games.
So they never let people know what their
identity was.
Everything was what you wanted to hear to
get you to watch.
Everything was to get you to sign on
the dotted line.
Whatever you wanted to hear.
And that's where they made the mistake
because they didn't even believe what they
were saying.
I don't think the people behind WFP are
bad people.
They just don't know how to run a
business or run an organization because
you have to have something that you
believe in and that you push forward.
Go back and watch the interviews of Greg
Glassman in like oh nine and eleven and
twelve.
He knew what CrossFit was.
He knew what he wanted to accomplish.
There was no doubt in anybody's mind what
Greg Glassman was doing and why he did
it.
And he explained it to a tee every
opportunity he got.
When you look at the WFP,
they've never sat down and told you what
their identity is.
They thought just by bringing in the big
names, they could bring in eyeballs,
and it didn't happen.
Every time someone hears a rumor or pushes
a rumor and hears it,
they say it's a smear campaign against
them,
and then it turns out that the rumor's
true.
And then they're backstepping.
Everything is just... It's just...
And I see it in the comments.
Vicky's saying it was a word salad from
the beginning.
I don't know if word salad is the
right way to put it.
I think they just had empty promises.
Because it was saying whatever you wanted
to hear to get you to buy in.
But then when you went to watch the
show or you went to see what they
were doing or you saw their posts and
you saw that none of the promises were
coming true.
And then those promises become hollow and
more hollow and more hollow.
And as the season goes on,
now we're at the finals and the promises
are so hollow that
And the money is so negligible to some
of these athletes that it's not even worth
their time anymore.
It's not even worth their time.
They may be pissed at what CrossFit is
doing.
They may not like some of the things
that CrossFit is doing,
but the fact of the matter is they
have the best season.
They have the best competition at the
games and they give out the most glory
at the end for winning.
And that is just known.
It is not a promise.
It is not something they hope to give
you.
It is if you win the games,
you are going to get the glory for
winning the games.
You are going to get the eyeballs on
you for winning the games.
All that is fact.
Flat out fact.
It's not a promise.
It's not an empty promise.
It's what you're getting.
And maybe this is an unpopular take,
and it's in the safest environment that
there is.
Yes, they had an accident,
but go watch other competitions compared
to the CrossFit Games.
Look how stable everything is around
there.
The logistics of everything in general are
so far above everywhere else.
So far above everywhere else.
Yes, an accident happened.
And yes, they needed to investigate.
And they needed to do those things so
it never happens again.
But it is the safest place where these
competitions take place.
It is the place where you're going to
get the most eyeballs on you.
It is the place you're going to get
the most exposure.
And it's the place that's going to make
you a star.
They're losing the big names as fast as
they sign them.
Big names want to be in the big
show.
That's the games.
I think it's more than that, Larry.
I think it's when you're fed all these
promises and as it moves forward,
those promises start to ring hollow.
Your faith in that organization and your
faith for them to do anything for you
is lost because it's all empty.
When you go to an event like this
and they're promising you all these
eyeballs and you see a fourth of the
crowd full,
there has to be no confidence in that.
It looks like a local comp in the
stands.
Uh, Vicky says, yeah, but Scott,
it's all about transparency.
She said, sarcastically,
that's my biggest issue.
Nothing has been transparent until a leak
is confirmed.
Even then sometimes they aren't bothers
me.
Um, okay.
Is that about the WFP?
Are you talking about the CrossFit?
Jake,
it's why the Olympics is the biggest show
on earth.
Legacy.
Yes.
Yes.
Jonathan Ortega,
I'm still staying on the fact that nobody
wants to spend Christmas competing or
stuck in Sweden.
Vicky clarifies it's WFB.
Yeah, I think that's a part of it.
But I think that if you believed in
what you were doing,
you would make that sacrifice.
NBA players play on Christmas.
NFL players play on Christmas.
They do it because they believe in the
organization that surrounds them.
And nobody believes in what the WFP is
doing for them anymore.
And so the juice is not worth the
squeeze.
They are not willing to go on Christmas
because they're not getting anything out
of it anymore.
Um...
When the cost is higher than the price,
most people get hesitant.
I went to the Olympics means more than
I won the world championships.
Not saying it should, but it does.
Yeah, I agree.
I agree, Jake.
I agree.
Great, Scott.
That's silly.
Those players play for the money.
I think that is a cop-out to say
that about professional athletes.
To put your body through what they go
through in a year,
it has to be more than about the
money.
And if you're just playing for the money,
you're probably going to suck and your
team's probably going to suck.
have to play for the love of the
game if you're not playing for the love
of the game and you're not putting
everything you can into it then you're
gonna see um subpar results uh jake has
an olympic wife bias yeah i would too
but growing up as a swimmer like the
olympics were everything um
You know, when I,
when you have those dreams as a kid
that maybe someday you can hit the big,
you never said,
I want to be a world champion.
Now,
I did have the dream of making it
to the nationals and competing at
nationals to compete here in the States.
But then the next dream isn't world
championship.
It's definitely Olympics in those sports.
And I've talked to Carolyn.
Back when there was no pro women's hockey
league,
the dream was the Olympic hockey team in
Canada.
And that's the only thing that mattered
back then.
Larry Young,
WFP doesn't realize it has opened the door
for CrossFit to reintroduce itself.
I think it can be a big open
year.
I think the open is going to be
much bigger than it was last year.
I think I've said on here that I
think a twenty five percent increase is
not out of the realm of possibility.
I think it's actually more likely that
there will be a twenty five percent
increase in open signups this year.
Um, and I'm excited to see those signups.
I hope that happens.
Jake says open.
Twenty six will be the biggest yet.
I don't know if I can go that
far.
Um,
what was twenty eighteen like four hundred
thousand four hundred four fifty somewhere
in there.
I'd like to see that.
That'd be awesome.
Corey Leonard, I looked it up yesterday.
Last year we had two hundred thirty three
K.
I think this year we will smash that
number.
I I think we I think I think
we get over three hundred K this year.
Jake says in twenty eighteen people signed
up because their affiliates told them to.
That's possible.
Um, uh, grace, I hope that's true.
And this is just one person's experience,
but all the CrossFit gyms near me are
struggling with membership.
That's crazy.
Cause I, uh, here in Columbus,
that is not the case.
Um, all the CrossFit gyms are doing very,
very well.
Um,
CrossFit Polaris is killing it.
My friend's gym in Powell is killing it.
My old gym in Dublin,
Ohio is killing it.
But I think a lot of the bad
gyms have been weeded out during this
whole time.
So maybe that's where I'm not seeing it
is some of the gyms have closed and
maybe they should have closed.
Maybe it's back to the strong survive,
and we have the best with what's left,
and their memberships are doing very,
very well.
Jenny says,
yeah i would i would love that i
i hope it's over three hundred grand i
think i think that's a good goal to
have and maybe like larry larry says we'll
get to three fifty um
think bringing quarterfinals back is a
huge step because i know a lot of
people that that was their goal their goal
was to be top twenty five percent it
was a reachable doable goal and um i
i think that getting rid of rid of
that actually lost us a lot of people
um
Valenz media.
It's hard to convince people to sign up
at last year at my affiliate.
Yeah.
Last year was,
I was trying to get people to sign
up at Polaris and it wasn't happening.
Um,
I would talk to people and they just,
it just was a blah year.
And I, and they,
these are people don't even like watch the
games and then the players programs,
the open anyway.
So you're doing the workout.
They just, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's,
it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's,
it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's,
it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's,
it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's,
it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's,
it's, it's,
Okay.
Struggling Jim should be the first people
convincing their members to sign up.
It is the best tool we have for
retention.
Great point.
Freida, you're in Europe, correct, Freida?
Sadly,
I've heard some affiliates de-affiliating
against their members' wishes.
I know that that has happened in the
states where affiliates have deaffiliated
and people then have left those to go
to a CrossFit affiliate.
Frida is in Sweden.
I think Europe has taken the Lazar thing
way harder than it's being taken in the
states.
I have no empirical evidence to prove that
other than just kind of the way things
have been flowing,
but that's kind of where I am.
Okay, we already did that one.
The open needs to give people that reason
to do the open because that makes people
want to get in an affiliate.
Yeah,
but I think the affiliate owners are the
big catalyst behind that.
The biggest influence are gym owners and
coaches.
Their passion is reflected by their
members.
Three new members staying for a year pays
for the affiliation fee.
My gym has an affiliate inside of but
also offers boot camp type classes and
yoga.
Yoga and boot camp classes have a wait
list.
Sometimes evening,
weekday CrossFit classes get canceled
because they are empty.
where are you located?
And I, and I like Jeremy's response.
Uh, what are your owners doing about it?
Is it their prior is your owner's
priority,
the other classes and not CrossFit?
Is that why people are going to those?
Because that's where their priority lies.
Is it, do there,
are they giving the same effort at the
CrossFit classes?
I mean, if I'm a, if I'm,
walking into a gym and I notice that
this class that I'm in is,
is kind of like an afterthought.
Of course you're, I'm going to leave.
So you're in Pittsburgh, huh?
That's usually a really strong area.
They have a pretty strong media presence,
podcasts, Black Friday deals, etc.
I don't think you get retention through a
Black Friday deal,
but podcasts is a good way.
If members join since twenty twenty,
they probably don't have the same
connection to the open.
It's up to the owners to make them
care.
Yeah, my old gym did the...
We split the gym into teams and made
the open a competition.
And then we have a big party afterwards
where we would have a barbecue or a
cookout or...
go to a venue and have like a
big group dinner together.
And they would hand out awards for like
MVP, most improved.
And they would hand out the trophy to
the team that won the open competition.
The open became the biggest thing in that
gym every year.
And it became the priority of that gym
to have this big community event following
the open.
and we would have a hundred and fifty
people signed up for the open every single
year minimum because of that a lot of
people in my crossfit just do crossfit
because they like the group class setting
but they don't care about the methodology
sport they don't care about the open
I do think it's on the affiliates to
make it matter.
Larry, that's why I keep bringing it up.
We need to push the open,
but I agree.
The old open had a lot of jazz
around it.
Um, Vicki with only a few years in,
I can honestly say that I have a
connection to the open and the season more
because of the podcast than my gym.
That's sad.
That's really sad.
Um, I'll say.
It's weird.
Polaris was owned by Christy
Aramo-O'Connell.
When she was competing,
the Open actually had less push from them
because it was the beginning of her
season.
Now, people would go watch her,
and people would kind of compete around
it,
and all the classes on Fridays were the
Open workout.
But when she sold the gym,
the new owners made it into a bigger
event for the community because it wasn't
just about the one athlete in the gym.
And this is not to dog on Christie
or anything like that.
This was just about how it was there.
And she would have friends come in that
were also games athletes to compete with
her and to compete against her.
And that became more the viewable
experience than it was the community.
But I think that now that she has
sold the gym and the new owners have
taken over,
that has changed dramatically into now
it's more about the community.
And it just shows how the affiliate owner
themselves can change the dynamic of what
the open is for their specific gym.
Yeah.
We even have a leaderboard for the gym,
but the only people who sign up for
that are people that sign up for the
open.
My old gym, Shred CrossFit in Dublin,
Ohio, they made the open a priority.
It was, I kid you not,
like almost the entire gym signed up for
the Open.
You were split into four or five teams.
You all had a different color.
They would make up shirts for each color
with something representing that year's
Open.
And you would wear your shirt to represent
your team.
People would come cheer you on because
they were your teammates.
It was crazy because they prioritized it
that way.
They didn't just put up a leaderboard.
It was an active philosophy of the gym
owner to make that time of year special.
and to make it bigger than just this
thing that,
and I say bigger than this worldwide
thing, but in our gym,
most of the people did not even care
about the rest of the world.
They cared about beating the people in the
gym.
It was,
they made this internal thing so huge that
everybody participated.
Jeremy,
I do not know what Christy's doing now
at all.
I think she's just trying to live her
best life.
I think she's moved.
But even though I went to her gym,
it's not like we hung out and stuff
like that.
It also just seems like a trend in
fitness right now.
Cardio, lightweight,
high-volume training is hot right now.
My gym has a lot of young people,
and those are the type of classes they
are interested in.
But I think when you look at all
those other types of fitness,
and we kind of started this whole
conversation on this,
is what is your identity?
I think,
and it was said in the chat,
like the people like High Rocks,
I don't think they have an identity.
They don't have what CrossFit has.
CrossFit knows who it is,
and we're getting back to that.
We're getting back to the roots of that.
I don't think High Rocks has that.
WFP definitely doesn't have that.
They don't know who they are.
They don't know where to lean when times
are tough.
We have finally figured out for the first
time since twenty twenty where we can lean
when times get tough.
We're not fully there.
And there's all these questions with a
sale or new ownership,
but we're at least the people there are
trying to get us back to the roots
of what CrossFit is.
Vicki, we do a big Saturday thing,
but now I know not that not a
lot of people register, et cetera,
and no one makes a big deal about
it.
That's the problem.
The owners at my old gym made a
big deal about it.
It was talked about for six weeks prior
to the open.
It wasn't an afterthought.
It wasn't just a scheduling thing.
It was, Hey, we're going to make t-shirts.
We're going to have a draft.
We're going to make cool things for
everybody.
It is.
This is our Christmas at our affiliate.
The open is our Christmas,
and we're going to make everybody feel
special.
It was more than an afterthought.
It can't just be we're going to schedule
some time on a Saturday.
It's got to be bigger than that if
you want it to grow.
Jeremy, who has worse online grammar,
Ken or Larry?
I don't know.
I'm a big guy.
I'm glad.
Like if I'm not at a laptop,
I try not to chat because my big
fingers do not do well on a phone.
These stories are why in the past I've
shied away from other fitness trends
coming into the CrossFit gyms.
If the owners aren't doing a good job
prioritizing CrossFit,
that other trend will take over.
Amen, brother.
Larry admits that he's probably the worst
grammar.
So back on, just to make,
just to sum this up, right?
We talked about the identity, right?
Knowing who you are,
knowing what you're good at,
and knowing how to lean into what you're
good at is what is going to make
you successful.
The WFP comes into the world based on
a fact that someone died at the CrossFit
Games and they wanted to compete against
CrossFit,
yet they would not admit that that is
what they wanted to do.
So their true identity was,
we want to take down CrossFit.
We want to compete with CrossFit.
Yet, because they were afraid to say it,
they couldn't make that their identity.
And because they couldn't make that their
identity,
they had to promise things that they could
not fulfill.
And because they could not fulfill on
those promises,
then we've gone into this spiral where
nothing is working for them.
They can't even get out of their own
way because they would not lean into the
identity of who they are and what they
wanted to be because they were afraid to
say it.
And because they were afraid to say it,
we're where we are today.
But we're going to get a season two.
We have two big sponsors giving millions
of dollars to them.
Adidas and Red Bull threw money at them.
It's enough to get them another season.
Let's see if they can be self-aware.
Let's see if they can make the changes
that they need to make.
But if they continue to try to go
down this route,
they're not going to have anybody show up
at all.
Unless they make it a reality show.
That's the only way out.
That's my take.
With that, guys,
I got to get back to work.
It is Cyber Monday.
Take advantage of all the deals out there,
especially that ThirdZ deal at ThirdZ.com
backslash Jazzy and get free shipping on
the deals that they are running until ten
p.m.
tomorrow night.
With that, love you all.
Thank you so much for the great
conversation.
Sign up for the open as soon as
it's available.
Let's crush last year's numbers and I will
see you all next time on Lunch with
the Clydesdale.
Bye, guys.