Go All 1N Podcast
Go All 1N Podcast: All 1N. Every Day. No Excuses.
Hosted by a driven blue-collar entrepreneur, Jake Fine and a Notre Dame football alumnus and NFL veteran turned business leader, Braxston Cave, this podcast is for those who know the value of hard work, resilience, and going all in on what matters most. From the RV factory floor to the football field and beyond, we uncover the stories, strategies, and mindsets of those who hustle to turn challenges into opportunities and dreams into reality.
Powered by the Be Better Brand, each episode delivers authentic conversations, actionable insights, and inspiring guests who prove that greatness is built, not given.
Subscribe now and join us as we GO ALL 1N—because better is always possible.
Go All 1N Podcast
Relentless Pursuit Ft. Nick Urankar Part 1
Ep. 72 Relentless Pursuit Ft. Nick Urankar
The journey to excellence is rarely a smooth path, and few people embody this truth more powerfully than Nick Urankar. In this captivating conversation, Nick takes us through his evolution from a kid bouncing between schools to becoming an elite CrossFit competitor and successful gym owner.
Nick's philosophy on progress cuts straight to the heart of why many people abandon their goals: "I don't believe there's such thing as a plateau. I just think the next step's a lot harder." This profound insight frames his entire approach to challenges. While most see slowdowns as dead ends, Nick recognizes them as transitions to more demanding phases that require greater focus and determination.
Growing up primarily in early school care and Boys and Girls Clubs while his single mother worked, Nick developed resilience early. His athletic journey took him from soccer to football (despite his initial fear of being yelled at), through college sports, and eventually to CrossFit—which he initially dismissed as "aerobics." What followed was a decade-long competitive career marked by extraordinary commitment. Training in his basement during his children's naps, working out in dress shoes in office closets, and eventually qualifying for the CrossFit Games multiple times, Nick refused to let life circumstances become excuses.
The most compelling aspects of Nick's story revolve around how he transformed negativity into fuel. When falsely accused of using performance-enhancing drugs, rather than becoming bitter, he channeled that experience into renewed determination. Similarly, his father's constant predictions that life changes would end his athletic pursuits became the very reason he refused to quit. In a touching twist, when his father finally acknowledged his accomplishments years later, their relationship transformed completely.
As a gym owner and coach, Nick has developed a leadership philosophy centered on empowering those who doubt themselves. His approach celebrates everyone's contribution, particularly those who finish last, creating an environment where improvement matters more than comparison. This perspective reflects his belief that "if you are at the bottom, you're in the right group"—because that's where the greatest growth happens.
Whether you're facing obstacles in fitness, business, relationships, or personal growth, Nick's story offers a masterclass in turning setbacks into stepping stones. Listen now and discover how an unwavering commitment to your goals can transform not just your achievements, but your entire approach to life's challenges.
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When talking in comparison, I like to always try to relate it back, to focus on myself and how I do. That is the thing. Braxton's heard me say this. I'm pretty sure where I know when I look back, because the hardest thing that we don't do is look back enough. And one of the things that I would say to a lot of people is like, I don't believe that there's such thing as a plateau. I just think the next step's a lot harder. I think we're so used to starting something and moving so fast that when it slows down, we think we've plateaued, when it's just that the reason why people start to fail is they look and they see that the step is an inch. It's an inch and they stare at the inch. And they stare at it and they can't figure out why they can't get the inch. And then I say, turn around and they're like but look, this is all I am like turn around, look how far you've come. And I say that because I look back and my best days now don't even exist.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to the Go All In podcast. I'm Jake Fine and I'm Braxton Cave. In today's episode, we finally are bringing to the table a very special guest. Finally are bringing to the table a very special guest. We talked about this one in the last episode and we are extremely excited to have Mr Nick Urankar yeah, I got it right Joining us today and we're going to walk through his story. You know where he's been growing up, some of the really cool things that he's been able to accomplish in his life, both athletically, as a husband, as a father and as an entrepreneur. And so, nick, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1:Thank you guys for having me. I didn't know, I was the first one, first guest, first one. That's pretty cool yeah.
Speaker 2:So obviously I've got an opportunity to get to know. You become friends run in the same circle, but for those that maybe don't know, you become friends run in the same circle, but for those that maybe don't know, you give us a breakdown of your story.
Speaker 1:Oh man, my story. I guess where do I start? When I was like born I was actually. I was born in Cleveland, ohio.
Speaker 1:When I was one we moved to Florida, lived there until I was about eight, moved up to Indiana, valparaiso, which is not far from here, and shortly after we moved here my parents divorced. And that actually plays a big role in kind of my growing up, because I had a single mom and there was three of us at that time and I basically grew up in early school care. So my mom, the job that she had, they found out she was a single mom of three kids and they're like hey, I think she worked at like a mechanics place and she was their secretary like come in early, stay late. So we would get dropped off at school at 5, 30 in the morning, which you know sucks as a kid, but you don't really remember that because you start playing at five and you're like whatever, and we'd stay after and it was called kids stop and then we'd stay30, and then it shut down. So they would take us in a bus, more like a van. My siblings, we'd go to Boys and Girls Club and that's basically where I was raised. So I'd stay at the Boys and Girls Club, which, as a kid, you're just playing all day. So I went to eight different schools growing up.
Speaker 1:Finally, my family moved out to the country. I was actually a big soccer player. I was like obsessed with soccer and I think I was good enough to go to, uh, play for team usa. That was what. I think. There was no mls at that time. I don't believe. I doubt that that's true, but I can always pretend I was a kid.
Speaker 1:I was probably 13, moved to the country and I remember my stepdad hated my mom had just got remarried and my stepdad hated soccer. And we moved to the country and he's like well, now you got to play football and I was scared of football because people yell at you. I was like I saw people getting yelled at and started playing football and what was funny was I happened to go to a game and it was halftime and the one friend I had met at that school had been there maybe two months. He's like hey, come out on, come out on the field. And I was like I bet I can kick that. And they just set the ball down and I kicked it and I remember everybody was watching me and this was probably eighth grade and I remember they came over like coaches and they were like who are you? And they basically I played football then and we started kicking field goals and PATs and I was punting and I hated kicking, loved playing, but it was like I didn't have to think about it.
Speaker 1:So I went through high school and, honestly, I was super quiet. My nickname in high school was later this is like senior year was the Best, and my brother used to always tell me he's like you know, they're making fun of you when they say that. And I was like that's kind of a nickname, you know. But the reason for the nickname wasn't that I like thought I was the best, even though, like I think, if you're an athlete, you kind of do right, you're, you're always pushing for that.
Speaker 1:But it was more so that when somebody would do something, I would immediately try it and most of the time would try to do it better, and guys would be like, of course, nick just did that, like ah, so that kind of carried on, went on to play football in college, was a receiver and a kicker, and after my sophomore year, basically we got a new coach and he was like I see your next year name says KP, that's it. So my last two years I just played football or just kicked playing so, which was actually nice to save my body a little bit, because I'd actually broke my back when I was 18, kind of recovered from it, didn't really know it was my L5.
Speaker 1:And then I redid it my junior year in college to the point of I was like I can't do any more lifting when I'm done playing. I was about 210 when it happened. When I graduated I was about 190 pounds, kind of stopped lifting and when I graduated I had just met my well at the time my wife now, but my girlfriend who became fiance, and I started training her and I had trained people for a while just literally in the gyms like for fun and helped her get into better shape. You know we got to really connect through that. And then when I graduated I was like, sweet, now I can like find a new challenge and that challenge was I'm going to run a hundred miles. It was the Western States 100. If you, if anybody knows, there's a guy called Dean Karnazes and he ran 50 marathons in 50 days and he wanted a belt buckle.
Speaker 1:And I, like, I want a belt buckle and if you finish the western states 100 in under 24 hours, you get a belt buckle. You don't get money, you don't get anything. Nothing I ever did was for the money. It was literally like I want to prove something to me and I signed up for a half marathon that was six months out from when I was like I'm going all in on this stuff. I ran my half marathon, which was a 13.1 mile loop, and then there was a marathon which I thought I probably should wait, build up, and you basically did it again. And I remember at the end of my half marathon, as I was churning, I was like how are they doing that again Like this is ridiculous.
Speaker 2:I've been there, I've been there.
Speaker 1:I finished my half marathon and I looked at my wife and I was like I don't care about the buckle, I'm never running any farther than that again in my life. And I remember I was so sore and I just kept signing up for half marathons and I probably ran seven or eight of them and a buddy of mine was like dude, you've got to stop that, like you're not a runner. And it was a high school, it was a quarterback at our high school and he was at college with me. We had worked out all the time and kind of trained, and he basically was like, dude, you need to check out this thing called CrossFit. And I was like no, that's aerobics, not doing it. And finally he's like, no, serious, check it out. I'm like, fine, I will. And then that's where, kind of all that starts. So that's my quick boom.
Speaker 2:That's amazing missed a lot in there. But yeah, he said.
Speaker 1:He said it's aerobics yeah, do you haven't heard that? I said it was aerobics. I was like I'm not doing it. I haven't heard that in a while.
Speaker 2:Yeah so let's back up real quick. So I I love the story of how you and chelsea met so you gotta, you gotta, tell this story, okay?
Speaker 1:so in in college I uh, I had a lot of girlfriends. When I say girlfriends I literally mean like girl friends but I also liked a lot of different girls that weren't my girlfriends. It was just like you know what was really cool about my time when I was kind of Facebook came out and it was only for schools, so you could just be walking and then all of a sudden see a girl and walk over and be like oh hi, my name's Nick and they're like my name's Sarah and I'm like nice to meet. You Walk away. I'm like Sarah, you walk away. I'm like sarah, sarah, sarah, sarah, sarah and I go home and you go online, you type in sarah and it's only girls in your school and what, there's 50 sarahs. So I'm like that's the sarah. Hey, didn't I run into you in the parking lot?
Speaker 2:yeah, we're having a party.
Speaker 1:You should come over so eventually my girlfriends were like nick, you need to like stop, come on like dial it back a little bit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you need to get, you need to like get a girl.
Speaker 1:And they were like we've got the perfect girl for you. There's another one who you're too much alike, we think you'd clash, but like we've got this girl. So we had a party at my house and we were like the football house Door knocks. I get a text like hey, they're on their way. I answer the door and there's these two girls standing there and one of them is this girl whose name is actually Sarah Not the same one in my fictitious story, which wasn't really fictitious, I guess and I shake her hand.
Speaker 1:I was like hi, I'm Nick, we're supposed to meet. And then her friend next to her I say hi, I'm Nick, and her name's Chelsea. And I say it's nice to meet you. And she has an empty wine glass in her hand. So I said do you like wine? She was like I do and I was like I've got something for you. So I walk her into the kitchen, pour a glass of wine. She takes and she's like thank you. She takes a sip and she goes. Oh my gosh, that's disgusting. And I said I thought it was bad. It's been sitting there for six months. I just needed somebody to try it and she didn't bat an eye. We just kept talking.
Speaker 1:Sarah was the girl I was supposed to meet. This chelsea girl was actually a girl that I was a year older than her my fresh, her freshman year, my sophomore year. We had to eat in the sorority area and you have like this little blending period where the sorority girls are eating when you're eating and I remember she walked by and I asked like who's that? And somebody was like oh, I don't worry about her, like you know, like whatever, like it's like okay, that was it, but it. But I just remember being like she was like the first girl that I saw and I was like she caught my eye.
Speaker 1:And then, six months later, I'm walking through a cafeteria and a buddy of mine on the football team's like you're in car. He said it like that, like you're in car, you're in car. And I was like what's up? And he's like hey, like yeah, and he turns, looking a different direction, and goes hey, you, you think he's hot and it's chelsea eating like 10 seats down from this guy. And I look at her and she's like he's okay. And I was like all right, there, I'll see you later. And I walk away. Six months later that happens at my house. She doesn't remember the two prior of, obviously, the time where I was staring at her wondering who she was, or the other one, but I knew who she was when she was standing at my door and it was that girl and that was a girl that I wanted and from that moment on we figured it out, figured it out.
Speaker 2:It's amazing, Before we jump into some of where your life journey is taking you tell us a little bit about family life.
Speaker 1:Oh man, I'm so blessed family-wise. It did not go as planned. I don't think anybody's family ever goes as planned. But we got married young. Um I uh, right after graduation is when I proposed and she was like, okay, I want to have a fall wedding, let's wait a year and a half. Well, if you know my wife, that year and a half turned into like six months. So it was like, well, if we have a fall wedding. So it was like, well, if we have a fall wedding, we can do it sooner if we do it now.
Speaker 1:So we got married and she ended up going for like a regular exam and found out they were like you probably can't have kids, and that kind of freaked her out to where she was like can we try, please, please. And I'm like we just got married like six months into being married. I don't think this is what we want to do. I'm not ready. No. And then the next six months into being married, I don't think this is what we want to do. I'm not ready, no, and then the next night she's like crying and I was like, all right, I thought about it, we can try once. However, if it works, we can't take it back.
Speaker 1:Uh, this isn't, like you know, practice like we're taking a shot and uh, we tried once and we had my daughter jada, and that was crazy to be as young as we were having, uh, because she's 15 now and having a daughter and I was really busy at this time.
Speaker 1:So, like I for her first probably two or three I wasn't like around how I would want to be. I was trying to figure out what I was going to do then building a business and, um, just so focused on that. And then we had my second, who's now uh, 11, she'll be 12. They're three and a half years apart and when she was born I had much more flexibility, so I actually got to spend the first two or three years raising her. She would get dropped off to me and I would be with her all day. So we had these like Thursday days where my Thursdays were my rest days and I would try not to have to do anything and we would just watch movies. Like she would sit on my lap and we would just watch movies all day. And then I don't remember what year it was, but I was always fearful of the day when she would just get up off my lap and she got up and I was like no, we don't do that, we watch, we watch TV, and that was the end of the TV.
Speaker 1:But I but for me, probably the last 10 years I've got to the whole time my daughters have been in school. I've got to spend almost every moment with them, get to take them to school, pick them up, drop them off. My 15-year-old just rode a bus for the first time because last week my wife and I just went for two days to Chicago and just spent days together and went to a concert and she had to ride the bus with a friend. But we travel a ton my wife and I like obviously, like any relationship, you have to work at it, uh, and I always say relationships aren't 50 50 but they will. If a good relationship over an extended period of time will work out 50 50. Um, how it is for you it looks different for everybody else, but there always has to be 100% and sometimes I've given 100 because she's had nothing to give and vice versa.
Speaker 1:So I think that for my wife and I, that is something that I pride myself in is I will never quit. And then, with my girls, I pride myself is that I will always be there. I'll always be what I can give them, whether it's what they need. I struggle at that because I give them what I can and I'm learning how to be the best that I can, but I always want them to know that, as their father, that they've seen that life doesn't end with kids. Life doesn't end at any point, that you can always be doing something at any time. So I think for us and my family, it's like so important to me that I've been able to get to a point that I'm living a life that I'm super proud of, and I would hope that all three of them, if they're in this room, they'd be like giving me a big hug right now, because they would just love to hear that.
Speaker 2:Well, they're going to see it. So let's talk about, let's jump into where you kind of left off in your journey. So there was a moment, you know, you tried CrossFit and then you're like I'm kind of good at this, yeah, well, no, or there had to be a moment at some point. So well.
Speaker 1:So I think like everything sometimes. So everybody always says, right, go after what you're passionate about, what you change. And I think that I wouldn't say, go after what you're passionate about. It's what gives you energy, like, what's the thing that, like when you're doing something else you can't stop thinking about right, they're cut. What's the thing that you wake up at 3am in the morning, excited and you're like how, why is this on my mind? And it, and it's just that consistency of it's, almost like there's something speaking to you for something more. And what ended up happening for me was I finally watched the video, but that friend came over to my house and brought a vhs. I believe it was a vhs, could have been dvd, we'll call vhs, that'd be cooler. Um, and it was. It was called every second counts the 2008 crossfit games, and he played it for me and I was like this exists, this is what you were talking about why didn't you say that?
Speaker 1:and he's like I was trying and this is the guy that had like all the underground stuff He'd like send you this like he was the Ocho, you know, espn the Ocho right.
Speaker 1:It's like everybody knows Mike, nobody knows that was that guy. He was the guy giving you the magazine. And uh, I basically looked up how do you start? Like I didn't get a handbook. He wasn't like, he was just like do this. I'm like what is it looks like it's kind of I don't even know what the stuff is. So I looked up and said, do this workout called fran. So I was like, all right, I can do that. It's basically pull-ups and thrusters, which I'd never really done a thruster, but I'm like it's a squat and a press. I've done those.
Speaker 1:And I went in my basement, used like a p90x bar and an old school like thin bar with the spin on ends, and I went like it was like 95 pounds and I went heavier because I'm like 95 pounds, it's not heavy. I think I went like 103. I'm like it's nothing Right. And I did the workout and I read that like two minutes and 30 seconds was like really good. And I was like, well then, I'm obviously going to be the best, so we're going to do this. And I was like, well then, I'm obviously going to be the best, so we're going to do this. And I did it in six minutes and 47 seconds and I was like I couldn't feel my chest. I'd never felt like that in my entire life.
Speaker 1:I crawled up the stairs and my wife was eight months pregnant with our first when I decided like, and I looked at her and I said that was legit, I'm all in, like, I'm going all. And I looked at her and I said that was legit, I'm all in, like, I'm going all in and all in to like, just be the best at it. This is 2009. End of 2009. So at this point, so basically, when people tell me like well, what if you have kids? What if you have this stuff?
Speaker 1:I started this with my wife eight months pregnant, to then immediately kind of off on a tangent. She said she didn't want to go back to work. I was trying to open up a business. I had to quit that. I had to then hustle to find a job that paid enough money to support a family that I was not prepared to have to do. While trying to compete, I ended up shaving my head so that I didn't have to shower. After I would work out at lunch I wouldn't eat. I would eat on the like. I would literally train every. I would go into the one room that we had that there was no cameras and I would work out and I would come out like okay, guys, People still are like like.
Speaker 1:There were times I'd have people be like come in here, what's on the wall? Why is it black? And it was my dress shoes.
Speaker 1:Doing handstand pushups on the wall, my dress shoes doing handstand push-ups on the wall, the rubber marks and I'd be like and like, I'm like, oh, I can claim that, but nobody knew what was happening in that room so I'd have stuff in my car. Well, the first competition I ever did was in 2010 and it was at the arnold classic, which actually just happened, and it was called. Called it was basically, if anybody knows CrossFit, there's a process to qualify and the first step is now called the Open, but before it was called sectionals and you anybody could sign up and in our sectional it was like six states or something like that and there was 183 people that went and top 20 moved on to the next round. So I was all right, I'm gonna do this, go in there in the first event. I watch people go and I remember thinking they're cheating, they're not doing this right, they were doing toes to bar and they were doing other things and like all these movements, I'm like they're cheating, like they're, they're doing weird movements, they're moving their bodies all funky. This doesn't, this isn't right, and the reason why I said that was I didn't know what they were doing. So to me that's wrong and I go and basically get my butt kicked.
Speaker 1:And I went there with my wife's dad, scott, my father-in-law. He was big into bodybuilding, like growing up, so he wanted to go. And I remember we got in the car and he said to me those guys were so good, they were like amazing, like that one guy and this guy and that guy and I'm just sitting there like because I didn't get top 20, I didn't qualify, and I'm just like again, like feeling devastated and he's just going on and on and on and I look at him and I go I'm gonna beat all of. And he just kind of looked at me and he, like you're not that good. And I remember I just literally went all in and again, I'm working a lot, got a new baby, but there's this tunnel vision of this is what I'm going to do. And I remember it'd be nine o'clock at night and I'd be at the bottom of the stairs and Chelsea be at the top of the stairs and she'd be just upset Like what are you doing? And I'm like I'll quit. You want me to quit, but I can't like, I can't stop. I every waking moment of me is like I have to do this.
Speaker 1:In the middle of that year year there was a competition that came up that was coming up in january, so this happened in like march. So january the following year there was competition and a bunch of the names of the guys that were on that list at that competition that basically destroyed me were on it and I signed up and I went to it and I won. And that was the first time people started saying like hey, you're actually really good. And I had never done anything, like I'd never been out in public. I went from like this whatever to just I'm gonna do everything I possibly can and I just learned how to move. And I think when, when it comes to movement, I think people misinterpret things and they think that there's a way to do something, but in reality there are progressions to do something in a in a different way. So, like, every movement essentially has this sister or brother, this other side of it, and this, this step up. So when I teach things, it's like this is step a, step b, step c, d, e, and these all progress on each other and you can choose to go as high as you want with it. You don't have to go past a and that's totally fine, but a is just the beginning, so I learned everything I possibly could and in 2011 so the year after I qualified for the crossfit games, I went back to that competition.
Speaker 1:I didn't win it, I got third qualified or actually sorry. They had the Open so I beat most of those guys, went to the regionals, which was where I didn't qualify, got third and qualified for the CrossFit Games in 2011. And I remember that was when there was no social media and I walked out and by the time I got to my car I had like 10 or 15 sponsors already emailing me, trying to like sign me, and I remember being like dang, I just went from a nobody walking out, having my father-in-law talk about all those other guys to like I've got this thing around my neck and I made it and it felt easy. That was the hard part. That was the part that I think that's when everything changed. So what most people don't know is that, yes, I qualified in 2011, but in 2012, I missed it by one point.
Speaker 1:In 2013, I went in not feeling shoulder and and basically I kind of crapped the bed, got like 10th and didn't qualify. 2014, I got like sixth or seventh, didn't qualify, and I remember I had to have a conversation. My wife was like why are you doing this? Like you, yeah, you made in 2011, but like it's all. You're going to 2015. Like you're putting in all this work, you're sacrificing all this time, and like you're not doing it. And that was hard, because the only person that really ever believed in me was her. Like anybody that was in my life, nobody thought, unless you came to my gym which at this point, I had gyms they came and like, yeah, because they looked at me as 2011 and you're really good and people know who you are. But family friends before, like people didn't understand what I was doing. And the truth is like I didn't care Because it wasn't about anything other than I want to be the best, wasn't about anything other than I want to be the best.
Speaker 1:In 2015 hit and my wife was basically like we need to make a change. And I and she's like you can't be doing this, like you're doing it. And we basically came up with a plan and I said all right, give me five days a week. She's like how long do you need? I said give me five hours every day for five days a week. If I don't use that time, I don't get that time. She's like okay.
Speaker 1:So we scheduled it out. I said if there's extra time I can use it, but ultimately, like I can't be doing this longer than that 25 hours in the week so we scheduled it out and I got very diligent with maximizing my time. Five hours to train sounds like a lot for a lot of people, but I was in the gym before that eight, nine hours and I was using that time and we got to the. Basically I qualified to the final stage again and I'm doing really, really well. And there's a third event which traditionally that third event was always the event. It's like a little longer grinder and I think I got like 28th place and it dropped me to like 12th place, let's say, or 10th place.
Speaker 1:Like basically where she's like. I remember she said I had to run across the street and take a shot. And she came over and I remember I was sitting outside and she walked over and she said all the right things. I couldn't tell you what she said, honestly, she could, but it was basically like go out there and just win. And it was that I remember the next event. I told her I was like this is what I have to do and then if I do that and I win the it was a two-parter and I said, if I do well on this and I win the second part, I can do this. Still. She's like then just go do that. And I went out.
Speaker 1:I did really well in the first part and it was like a there's video online of this whole entire process, like there's this awesome video. But there basically was like a 60 second window after the first part where your shoulders were shot and then we had to do a max snatch and if you don't know what a snatch is, look it up. But basically you had two attempts. You had to just choose a weight and you had 20 seconds to hit it and then you had about 90 seconds between other people going and then then you had one more shot and it was your top weight and I practiced. The most weight I had ever hit in practice was 265 pounds.
Speaker 1:But I kept failing it in practice and right before I went on the floor it got said that somebody hit a world record of 290 on that event and I remember being like there's no way I can win. I couldn't even hit 265 in practice. What the heck. So I walk out and I remember I see my wife she's screaming, crowds going crazy and I put just put 265 pounds on the bar and I happened to throw out too much weight and there was two and a halves and I was getting ready to go. I just threw the two and a halves on, which is 270. And I hit it and I remember being like, oh my gosh, like I nailed that and I took off the weight and I added to be at 285. Well, those two and a halves were just sitting there and I was like I mean, might as well.
Speaker 2:Can't leave them out there.
Speaker 1:And I just remember being like if I do this it's 100 points, I tie for first. I still get first put the weight on and it showed it and I remember my wife was like she's like I was freaking out and I nailed it. And I remember when I stood up like there's a 360 video of it and it was like that moment where you can just see like that was the change and I got all the way up to seventh and I had to be top five but there was a huge gap and the next day was an event six actually sorry, I was like in 10th or 12th there's still two more events and that night they did this this TV show show, and they were basically like they said I was out, I was too many points behind. No one's ever came back from that many points. And the next event I got like third place, the final event. I remember I was walking around and there was guys in front of me. You ever, you ever hear the term like there's blood in the water.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:I walked over to my wife and I said there's blood in the water. I'm going to win this. She was like what do you mean? I'm like they're all scared.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:Like all of them. And I was like all I have to do is go out there and perform. And the next event was a sprint and I went out and I'm. The next event was a sprint and I went out and I won it. And I remember I turned around and this was an event where, like, you started all the other side of the floor and you had to do a bunch of stuff and then it was like lift heavy weights really fast and I could do that and I finished in the guys I had to be we're all still at the beginning which meant that all the other heats had beat them. And I remember I put my arms on my head and I jumped all the way to like third or something and I qualified again.
Speaker 1:Now the whole point of that story is to get to this. After I qualified, the number one question I got from every single person my mom, everybody was so are you done now? And I said I would say this to everybody you think I spent four years trying to do this, to quit now, just to qualify, to qualify Like. And what's crazy is I didn't qualify in 16 or 17,. But then I qualified in 18 and did my best did in 19,. One did in 20. And I look at it and I'm like I qualified in 11 and had a mediocre, if not, in my opinion, below average, till 2018. Took me seven years to figure it out and when I figured it out, it was like that that 2018 to 2020, that made me understand I, I, I deserved it so 19 was your year.
Speaker 2:You wanted, all right, yep 19. And so what? What would you say was different that year?
Speaker 1:I think 2018 really showed me like I felt like I was the best. I had been up to that in 2018. And I was like, wow, I'm like really good. So I think that it was more the mental, the mental shift Like in 2017, I I was really really good too, but I got hurt. Um, I would have qualified that year, I I believe. Now you know I can say whatever I want. Um, I believe that. But I hurt my peck in that year. I got um.
Speaker 1:The head of CrossFit basically wrote a book that year and he in the book said that he thought I was taking PEDs and I faked an injury so that I wouldn't test positive. However, they tested me like three times before and then that moment during the competition, they pulled me out, like after I had said I was hurt and they tested me and I remember being like are they testing? Why are they testing me? Because they think I'm faking. Why would I do this? And then other athletes kind of said we think he's faking. Guys that were my friends who wouldn't even look me in the. So then I said, all right, I'm for sure doing this thing. So that lights a fire. The next year I. The next year in 2018, I came back and I qualified and they that year I got tested. Every month I was blood tested. I remember I'd get calls and people would be like again I walked in to compete, I got tested the whole time and I remember we had the first event getting announced and the head of CrossFit.
Speaker 1:I'm walking out and he taps me on the shoulder and he's like hey, come over here, pulls me in a room and he sticks his hand out and he says we're good, right? I said no, we're not good. And he was like he pulls his hand back and he's like no, we're like, you're not gonna make, you're not gonna do anything. Stupid, are you? You're not gonna make a scene. He's like this is the biggest event we have. You can't make a scene. And I was like you owe me a public apology. And he was. He started laughing and he's like I can't. He's like we're good, right. I was like we're not good. You, you owe me a public apology. Again, we're in a back room. There's nobody here. We're getting ready to go out and like get fitted for stuff. And we kind of ended at that. Walk out and I'm riding a bike and he comes up next to me and he's like hey, yeah, let's do one of the camera guys, get a picture of us. Get a picture of us. He's like let's race, so I just take off.
Speaker 1:He's like no no, no, you're going too fast. You're going too fast, slow down. And there's a picture of him and I, and I'm right in front of like what, what is this is his way of being like and he ended up pleading it. But what's crazy is after he made, he made a post when he thought I was faking it and said nikki rankar does this thing after tearing his pec which I didn't tear my pec but ultimately makes this comment and my wife goes on and comments and says way to support your athletes, and he deletes the post, so it doesn't exist anymore.
Speaker 2:But Somewhere it does. I'm sure you can find something else.
Speaker 1:But again, that's like the process of like people quit so easily. And Again, that's like the process of like people quit so easily. And that's where I think passion is great, but like there's something else inside of people that if I would have never, ever done it, I would have not changed a thing, because it wasn't about qualifying, it wasn't about winning, it was that I couldn't not do it. It didn't matter what you said to me, I couldn't not do it. The winner, when I first started, got $2,500. And then it up to $25,000, and I was like what I'm like? Well, I'm going to work a regular job and do this anyway. And then I grew with the sport. So throughout that process, obviously things changed. There was a lot more money that got brought in, but again, I just there was this thing inside. So to your like 2018, really that him saying that game changer.
Speaker 2:So what point did you go from doing a lot of your training downstairs in the basement to transitioning over to the gym?
Speaker 1:so I did all of my training from 2000 all the way from till 2012. So in 2012, um march, I opened up my gym. So after I qualified for the crossfit games, I was actually sitting. So reebok signed me after I qualified and don hasselbeck at the time was like I don't know if he was ceo or what which matt hasselbeck's dad, super awesome guy. Well, I'm sitting with him and the games just ended, I think in 2011, and he's. This is when, like rich froning was getting ready to open up his gym. He's like why is he calling it Mayhem? Why isn't he calling it like Froning? Why isn't he using his brand? And he's like somebody needs to make their gym their brand. And my wife looked at me and she's like, hey, why don't we use this CrossFit stuff somehow? Cause I and tie it into like a gym, cause you want to open up a gym. So we call, we named it crossfit 061, which was my crossfit games number from 2011. It was 61, but they put a zero in front because of all the divisions and whatnot. So in 2012, opened that up and started training there.
Speaker 1:I still trained at home quite a bit because of my kids. When they'd go to bed I'd work out, they would nap. I'd work out like, literally, when people like I don't have time, I'm like, no, you have time, you just want your time. And to me it was like I couldn't waste my time and I was with my kids all the time, but it was just like intermittently, oh, I got five minutes, I got something I can do in five minutes and, yeah, I would work out. Then, starting 2012 on, was predominantly the gym man, yeah.
Speaker 1:And in 2012 to 2014, I don't know how I competed. I literally was sleep deprived. I didn't. I don't know, I have no idea how I did it. And again, I didn't qualify 12, 13, 14. Makes sense? It didn't make sense to me. But I like I was in the gym from 4 30 in the morning until 8 30 to 9 30 at night, every single night and training intermittently. It'd be like coaching, doing this stuff. Okay, I'm gonna work out for 20 minutes. If I'd be talking to somebody too long, I'd be like, oh so jittery, like you're wasting my time. Sorry, if anybody thinks of, if I'd be talking to somebody too long, I'd be like, oh so jittery, like you're wasting my time.
Speaker 2:Sorry if anybody thinks of that, it wasn't you. I love you, but I got to go, yeah. So I mean you brought up a lot of, you know, obstacles, challenges, failures along the way. The incident of basically being called out for the PEDs or cheating was the kind of the light bulb moment that just lit that fire. Or do you have another defining moment that you would say that kind of?
Speaker 1:pushed you to. I think there are moments that elevate you. I wouldn't say I'd say that there was this. There was this early fire that was just so bright but so young. I like didn't really know like the strongest, brightest, but like burned everything and that got fine-tuned and I think for a long time I really used everyone thinking I was going to fail, and didn't say much, got real quiet and, truthfully, there would just be. If I didn't get enough of that, I probably lost some purpose in in the in like that flame. But in 2018, and probably a little bit, yeah, 2017 I think that that fire was like strong and purposeful, like I learned that I have to figure out how to be steps ahead of everybody.
Speaker 1:It's not just about being fit. I got to learn things others don't know. So I started doing much more research on like, like gymnasts and specific movement patterns that would. That wasn't about, wasn't about fitness. So one thing I say a lot is that, like crossfit people be like oh, it's the fittest on earth. I don't believe it's the fittest on earth. I believe it's a test of training methodology. I believe that what you can find out through the crossfit games is that you can have thousands of people and then narrow it down to 40, who can get very similar results, doing completely different things, never having done something, and then very, all completed, very similar. So to me, when I what I, when I realized that it's about training methodology, I realized that my training in my preparation and my programming and how I was doing it had to improve. So I learned how to move faster and stuff that people didn't know how I just learned.
Speaker 1:If you've ever watched videos probably pre-2018, nobody fell down a rope. Go online and watch like legless rope climbs or watch regular rope climbs Everybody would climb up the rope and they would essentially try to get down fast. I learned. I watched one person who was a gymnast and knew how to climb, fall and I learned how to fall before everybody knew and it just churned out that in that 2015 year, as much as people can be like, oh dude, there was an event that I knew how to fall off the rope and it was 27 rope climbs and I knew how to fall every single time.
Speaker 1:Now you know what happens when you lose your mind and you can't think and you can't see because you're so deep in what you're doing. Like I ripped, my fingers got ripped. I remember I got done with the workout and they had to like stop the next heat. And I was like what are they doing? Like they're removing a rope, like why they're like it's all bloodied up and stuff, and I was like what? I didn't even know it was me. Look up, I'm like, oh, it was me. They had to take my rope down because it was just red. But it was that stuff, like those little things where that's not fitness, that's that's just like being a step ahead. So I think in most things, a lot of people it's like hard work, hard work, hard work and it's like smarter works with hard work. So I don't know if I'd answered it.
Speaker 2:I can get off on, but tangents yeah, no, I think a lot of times there's maybe not one pivotal moment. It's like you said, it's a series of moments that compile.
Speaker 1:There's one person I would say. My dad was the person that I was always like whatever you say, I'm proving you wrong. And he was the one that was like you know, you get married, you're're not gonna be able to work out anymore. You know, when you buy a house, you're not gonna be able to work out anymore. You know, when you have a kid, you're not gonna be able to work out anymore. You know this you're not gonna be able to do that. You know it was. Everything was just like. Whenever a new life change would happen, he would always explain to me how now my life had to change and uh, did your dad work out?
Speaker 2:No, ever. No, no, I didn't know if maybe he did at one point and then those were his excuses. No, my dad was not.
Speaker 1:So my dad, when my my dad was not really around, when my mom, when, when my parents were married, and then when my mom, when him and my mom separated, he basically left. He went back to Cleveland, which we were in valpo at the time. He went to cleveland, um, and we would see him like in the summer for like a week. You know, he'd come pick us up occasionally and he always hated it. We'd hear about it, how he had to drive and, um, so he was just like the thing he had to do, yeah, and he was just always, always, it was just very negative, um, somebody. I was just like that's not who I'm going to be. So growing up, you think that? So, when they say like, well, this is who you're going to be now, it's like I'm going to actually be the opposite. And fortunately, the stuff he said was all the things I didn't want and yeah, so for him and the crazy thing is in 2021, he called me. It may be 2020. He called me and basically said I'm sorry.
Speaker 1:He's like I've been wrong every single time and this is a guy that forgets. Yesterday he said something was stupid. So a lot of times I'm like he's just saying I don't even know if he means it, but like I'm pretending like this matters. But he apologized for like everything and he ended up saying I mean, this is a conversation, this is one of those conversations you like remember forever. And he was just like whatever you touch turns to gold and whatever you decide to do from here on out, I want to be involved in it. And and whatever you decide to do from here on out, I want to be involved in it. And my fire went out. I stopped competing. Literally. People were like you're so good and I'm like I don't want it anymore, and he became my best friend.
Speaker 1:He's the person that I'll call first friend.
Speaker 1:He's the only person that I can that I believe, minus my wife and that I can tell him my true successes, like I can call him and be in my wife's and be like shit, like this, or like this is what I, this is what my business just did, or this is what like, and tell him things, and he doesn't think I'm just gloating or trying to because he he's like dude, that's awesome, like that's awesome. And it's one person, because there's very few people that you can call. I was never able to praise myself for qualifying or doing well and in in crossfit or really in anything, and I've had to try to overcome that. But he's the one person, the person that I hated and didn't want anything to be involved with, that wanted to do everything opposite of. He's the one person that I can call and tell him things and don't have to feel judged so that's a crazy like full story. So the one person that truly did that was him. He lit the fire and kept it burning and everybody else just threw logs on.
Speaker 2:And gasoline. Oh yeah, let's transition a little bit to like having the gyms doing, you know, coaching, impacting people's lives. Um, you know what's give us like your, what's your philosophy on leadership and your style and your, you know, working with people oh man, so opening up the gyms?
Speaker 1:I didn't know what I was doing at all. Fortunately, I, and I think for a lot of people, sometimes you just got to talk about what it is that you really want, like where your passions are. Again, it's not not to have passions, but like where your passion is, where your energy is, what you want to do, and just like speak it. And I would say I want to open a gym, I'm going to open a gym, I'm going to open a gym. And fortunately I said it around enough people that a woman who I was helping said like you're the best, Like I've worked with a lot of people, I've had a lot of people help me, like you're amazing, I want to help you open a gym. And I was like, oh my gosh, and this is when my wife is at home with our youngest she's you, you know, two years old, two and a half and I'm like I'm trying to make sure that we're good.
Speaker 1:I can't just like throw everything into a gym and she's like well, we want to invest in helping you. So they basically put up the collateral um for me to be able to open the gym and fortunately, a lot of people kind of knew who I was. So I started off with a decent kind of member size and what I fell in love with that I didn't know that I was going to was taking somebody who didn't believe and flipping it and flipping it. And I think a lot of times for me, like when it comes to leadership, you know, cause obviously you can, when we talk leadership, a lot of times we're talking, you know, leading a team, whether that's at work or sports, um, but leading people who don't even know that there's a place they're trying to go, like example, is like I would take in 15 new people and most of the time there's somebody that takes up the energy in the room or there's a person that you're like ah, that person's not coming back, there's going to, there's you.
Speaker 1:You just have to understand the dynamics of this team. So we would be together for like four weeks. You just have to understand the dynamics of this team. So we would be together for like four weeks. And one of the things that I loved and I still use this in context all the time is when I would first thing, I would say to a group I'd be like all right, here's the thing. You're all scared that you're going to be last. You're all scared that you're going to be the one that everyone's waiting for, everybody's looking at. But here's our rule If you are the last one, when you finish you say you're welcome and everybody else says thank you, because nobody cares that it's you, they're just happy, it's not them.
Speaker 1:So, just so you know, if you are that person, nobody cares, like we're literally all here for you. So we finish every workout and the last person would say you're welcome and they'd be like thank you, and it just made that person always came back. And I think that so many times we compare to where we think we should be and you hear it all the time and it's well, it's just you, right, it's you versus you. It's you versus you. How do you get somebody to realize that that's actually what it is? And the analogy I would use all the time and I would talk to this in groups, because I think story says a lot, especially in leadership, when you're like leading a team, like having stories and things that people connect with, a vision, and normally that comes through something deeper than just like here's why, and what I would tell people is all right, you think that you think that it's like all these people you're comparing yourselves to. All right, how about this? Let's use me as an example.
Speaker 1:I'm going to go to a little local competition. Okay, I'm going to do six workouts. I win every single workout and I get first place and everybody praises me and every single person comes over and they're like you're amazing, oh my gosh, you won. And I'm like I am, you're right. And then six months later I go to the CrossFit Games and they happen to program the exact same six workouts that I just did six months ago. And I go there and I do them all way better than I did six months ago. But I get dead last. Everyone's going to walk up to me and say what happened? How did you not win? And I'm going to say I beat myself by so much. They were just better than me. And that's okay.
Speaker 1:I can either be the big fish in a small little pond or a small fish in a big pond, and I think people would always rather be a big fish in a small pond and never find out. But I grow so much more out there. I grow and those people pull you. So if you get in a group and you are at the bottom, you're in the right group. And that's the part where I think in leadership. I think if people have to be led, it's up to the leader to find out how. And if you can pull that bottom person up, what's the problem? There's a new one. There's always going to be somebody down at the bottom. So how can you to me it's always how do you make the person at the bottom see their value and want to move up somewhere, and the person at the top you want to teach? How do you get them down and pull the people from the bottom up? No,
