Sevan Matossian (00:03):
Bam. We’re live one minute late. Good morning. Hey Brooke. What’s up, Brooke Aikens. What’s up? What happened to Alexis Raptors? I don’t know. I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you. She will be rescheduled. I guess. Today is Labor Day. Is that what today is? I don’t really do holidays. I’ve never really done holidays. I don’t know why. I don’t do holidays. I like holidays. I just dunno which one I’m doing. Good morning, Chris G. Hey, Chris Feld. Where’s my tinfoil hat? Oh shit, there’s my coffee. I stayed up until 1230 last night. Too late. Too late. I am still trying to put the studio together. Just in here, screwing around, setting up cameras, getting stuff to work. Kenneth Dela. Hey, reporting to duty. Reporting for duty. Reporting for Judy Thomas Stroud. Good morning.
(01:06):
Great picture, Ken. Good morning. I started following Ken Walters a couple days ago. You know what got me? He told me in the dms that he’s a card collector and he told me about this giant card collection he had and I was like, you know what? Why don’t I follow? This guy could learn something. Megan, good morning working today while everyone else is out of the office. Let’s get down to business. Okay, let’s do it. Someone in the comments wrote on YouTube, let me see. Lemme go over here. Lemme check it out. Where is that comment?
(01:49):
Give me once. It was some chick named Jen. Oh shit. Did she erase the comment already? That would be amazing. Give me one second here. Oh wow. Maybe she erased it already. God, that’s crazy. Basically what she said is that the show is anti-capitalism and spewed antisemitic to hate anti-Jewish hate. And it’s basically what’s wrong with this country. And I started thinking about that. I was like, how would anyone think that this show is anti-Semitic? And then I just started thinking and thinking and then I realized this show is a place where if you’re tired of just all the fucking rules, there’s this Rumi saying, meet me out in the field beyond a right and wrong. You guys know the poet Rumi, the drunk poet, meet me out in the field of beyond right and wrong. I’m paraphrasing and I started realizing if you walked into this show and you didn’t know it was like a freedom zone. I could totally see how you would think that. I could totally see how you would think that I finally got it. These are people, this is not the show to bring your baggage to. This is not. And this person’s clearly just trapped in their head. They hear shit. They’re not listening to the real show and they’ve just come here. It’s like the person who looks around who’s a thief and all they see are purses. They walk all the way through Disneyland. They don’t see one ride.
(03:32):
My wife’s Jewish and my kids are Jewish and my stepmom is Jewish. And I was raised with a lot of doing the Jewish holidays and shit. I got extra presents and lit candles and went to weddings where dudes and the dudes and the chicks were separated. Shit like that. I’m not really anything, not even Christian, although I want to be. I just dunno how you get in the club. So yeah, exactly. Thief, luggage, thief. And then Taylor Self, the thumb, once you think he’s the thumb, you always just see a thumb. It was remarkable to me at first how she saw that. And then this person says some notoriously crazy shit in the comments on YouTube. But I thought that’s what’s crazy about this show. And that’s why some people struggle with it from the outside when they peek in because this is the free zone. None of that shit matters anymore. We’re not bringing the bullshit narrative from the, I dunno what you call it from the Matrix that everyone’s trying to hold together for fucking dear life. Be offended by this word. Don’t be offended by that word.
(04:53):
Someone sent me an Instagram post and it’s of this chick with these fucking, this insane body and these huge tits and she’s all tan and stuff and she’s wearing a cowboy hat with the bikini and like a still frame of her. And then it’s a reel and the still frame goes away. And then it’s a bunch of pictures of her and her sister, what I think is her sister with Down syndrome. And then at the end it says, be careful of what words you use. The R word means something and it’s like you would, I don’t even know. You would have to read into it, right? We know why some words offend people.
(05:39):
We know about the words that are waiting for little Jewish babies and little black babies when they’re born to be offended by their whole life. We know that there’s words here on the planet just waiting for them to fucking follow them around their whole life. That there’s all these people who enforce that rule that people are offended by those. I get it, but does anyone ever think for a minute, Hey, maybe we should set people free from that. It doesn’t have to be that way. If I take an ax and swing it at your arm, a hundred out of a hundred times, it chops your arm off. There’s nothing you can do. There’s nothing you can do.
(06:21):
And in the same way, I could call you a name by a word that’s supposed to offend you a hundred out of a hundred times. And it’s always your choice whether to offend you or not. It is not your choice when the act hits your arm, whether to be injured or not. Or if it is, I haven’t reached that level. Jake Chapman. I don’t care what table. I don’t care what chair I sit at at the dinner table. I just want to be at the table. Others want to be the only chair at the table. Others don’t want to eat at the table, whatever. I’m hungry,
(07:04):
Mad. If you want to know how to get in the Christian club, it’s really simple. Not easy, but simple. I knew it. I knew, I knew you were out there. Mr. Marv, like I said, my wife’s Jewish and I have three sons and I guess the way the shit works is that if your mom’s Jewish, you’re Jewish. And we’re in Newport Beach and they got a couple tchotchke shops and my son, my wife goes, Hey, I told Avi I we could buy him a necklace at one of the tchotchke shops when he woke up this morning or something.
(07:43):
So they go to the tchotchke shop and I think I was fucking around on the podcast or something or talking on the phone and they come back and he’s wearing a necklace with a cross on it. And I go, Hey dude, you can’t have that. He goes, why? I go, you’re a Jew. I don’t think you can do that. He goes, no, I’m Christian too. I was like, alright. He won just like that. I just thought it was funny that the Jew boy went and got across. And now dude, I’ve been showing him the A team. Do you guys know a lot of, you might not even know what the A team is. Let me show you this picture. There’s a guy in the A team named BA Baras. Stop showing my kids. I have a D V D player in my van. Yes, A D V D player. And I would play Transformers in there for them. Sometimes the cartoon, because I watched it as a kid and then they got a non-binary robot. And I’m like, you’re done with that show. But there’s a show called the A Team and I bought the box set
(08:51):
Ba barrack. I’m not going to have a good picture of ’em. Him. Let me show you this picture. I’ll post a picture of my son. I don’t know if you can see how well you see this jewelry, but you see all that jewelry he’s wearing. He was also Mr. T, like in Rocky three or something. My son wants to do that, so I got him already one gold chain. It’s made of plastic. But what’s funny is the one thing that he really is fixated on is that cross with the emerald in it. He’s like, Hey, I need that cross with the emerald. I was like, alright, fine. We’ll hook that shit up.
(09:31):
Lavon Judaism ended with the birth of our Lord. Oh, I didn’t know Judaism ended. That’s cool. He was a Jew too. Jake Chapman. I’m not a Christian. I know what the cross symbolizes. I live my life like a Christian. I believe there was a God. I believe there was a God. Yeah, that’s good. I try to do that too. But lick says we’re still missing everything. I am. The way the truth and the life Saber clocking in late are hour. Hour. Humble. Apologies. That was a tough one for me as a kid. Can you do that? Hour and r hour and r a r e and o u r hour.
(10:26):
Still my words are just all scrambled in my head sometimes, but not beknownst to me. I don’t think they’re scrambled. Yesterday I asked my wife, I’m like, how do you spell repertoire? And then she said it three or four different ways out loud. And then she spelled it for me. And then I realized, oh, the reason why I can’t spell that word is, I don’t even know how to say it. I was missing a R in there or something. Like library. It’s got that extra R in there. I say library like the word lie and bury, but it’s library. There’s an R in there.
(11:01):
Listen, listen. That’s not true. That’s not true. That’s not true. That garage is not 20, 20 feet and that ramp is 16 and that ramps offset from the garage. I appreciate your trying to fuck with me. Don’t worry. There’ll be more. Hey, I was sitting here and I just got up and then I walked by that box of balls and I just did it. I’m a gifted. I’m one of the most coordinated dorks ever. It’s crazy. Nothing I do looks weird. When the first time I ever did cross, I went to my L one, and this is 2006 or oh seven. Greg was doing all the lectures. I think Nicole did the nutrition lecture. And when we were doing the air squats, Nicole came over and said, Hey, you might have one of the best air squats I’ve ever seen. And then she called Greg over and Greg shit on it. But it’s just the way it is. Daniel, hi, checking in on the way to the gym, fine. Check in licks. Other religions contain kernels of truth, like a pebble creating ripples from a slush.
(12:29):
Matt Burns. Is that one Dave called you a pussy? God, if it wasn’t that one, it was one the next weekend. Yeah, it was that one. It was that one. It was that one. He didn’t call me directly a pussy, but he said, for those of you who don’t know the story, Dave was one of the instructors at my level one or one of the people who moved the chairs around and told people when to stand up and eat and all that shit. And when basically we were doing Fran and the level one and he sets up all the bars, and I remember watching him and a couple other guys set up all the bars and he says to the whole class, and the level one was massive, right? There were over a hundred people there. And he said, okay, we’re going to do this in groups. We have 95 pound bars over here for men and 65 pound bars over here for women in pussies. I was like,
Matt (13:18):
Wow.
Sevan Matossian (13:19):
And of course I was offended. Of course I was offended. Of course. I was offended. Stupid. What a waste. What a waste. That’s what I mean. I’ve been there. I know what it’s like to be offended by just to bring your shit everywhere and be offended by it. I’ve been there. I’ve been there. Alexis rap, us Texas last night. Like I said, it’s a holiday. Her gym is only open for a small window this morning. Oh, there he is. Holy cow. Her gym is only open for, we do have a guest. Surprise guest. Her gym is only open for a small window today, so she had to train instead of come on the show. She was extremely, extremely apologetic. I think I’m going to need something. Oops. I think I’m going to need some notes here for a second. Hold on. We have Matt Hindle Decker on deck. Let me see. I know I have, there it is. There’s the email. I told poor Matt that I didn’t receive his email, but I actually did. Good morning.
Matt (14:41):
Good morning.
Sevan Matossian (14:42):
Hey guys.
Matt (14:43):
Hey, how are
Sevan Matossian (14:44):
You? Hey, Debbie. Debbie, we’ve never met, right? No. Hi. Good morning. Nice to meet you Sev. Hi. Nice to
Matt (14:49):
Finally meet you.
Debbie (14:51):
Feel like an icon around here.
Sevan Matossian (14:52):
Oh good. Thank you.
Matt (14:54):
Yeah, that’s right.
Sevan Matossian (14:56):
Look at that gym.
Matt (14:58):
Yeah, we just finished with class. Just wrapped up our 9:00 AM and got some people kind of lingering, hanging out, doing some extra stuff.
Sevan Matossian (15:06):
Yeah, that is Purdy. And what’s the name of the gym? CrossFit Cave Cross
Matt (15:09):
Crave. Crave. C R I V E,
Sevan Matossian (15:11):
CrossFit Crave. Oh, I was just telling people that I leave the letter R out like in repertoire and I call library Library instead of library. And look at me. I just turned you into CrossFit Cave. Yeah,
Matt (15:21):
Cave Crave.
Sevan Matossian (15:23):
Thank you for helping me prove my point.
Matt (15:26):
There you go, man.
Sevan Matossian (15:28):
Debbie, you are Refresh me. I know that you guys have this amazing program. When Matt was on the show, you guys have this amazing program where youth, when they go to see a judge for some sort of something that they did that violated the policies of our civilization, they get an option through your program to either go to juvenile hall or maybe fulfill some requirements that require them to come to the CrossFit gym and work out. And you guys, you and Matt started this program and now, I dunno if this is the right word, proliferated all over the state of Ohio and to other states. Am I remembering right? Yes.
Debbie (16:06):
So we’re working with gyms and governments in about probably 15 states and a couple in Canada to do some kind of variation of that.
Sevan Matossian (16:15):
And can you sum that up for me, like a real generic version? I remember Matt was on here and he said it a real generic version of what that looks like, like boy steals car. And walk me through the steps of some generic imaginary case and how they end up at a CrossFit gym. Yep,
Debbie (16:30):
Absolutely. So depending on where they’re at, when a youth goes to court, it may be court ordered or it could be a choice of a horrible community service or attend a CrossFit class. But what it does is it becomes part of their rehabilitation. So we know every CrossFitter knows what movement can do for your mental health, but there’s a huge component of what community can do for your mental health and rehabilitation. So we have the perfect mix for what these kids need so that they find a sense of belonging and community. And then when they are dismissed from probation, they can stay within the CrossFit community and they’re less likely to re-offend. So we’re decreasing crime within the communities as well.
Sevan Matossian (17:12):
And I remember Matt, from you being on here, two of the many very important components of the program, and now I’m just showing off, is the probation officers also have to take the CrossFit classes with the kids so that there’s this bonding there and that this is significantly more successful than any other type of exercise instead of go to jail program because of that community piece. And you’ve received crazy affirmation of that from judges and probation officers.
Debbie (17:45):
So to foster that community relationship and that mentor relationship, the probation staff works out with the kids. The kids also get to invite other people. So if they want to invite their teachers, principals, things like that, they can come in as well providing that mentorship. And another key component is all the coaches who participate in this, they take a mental health trauma course that we’ve written with a local psychologist to equip coaches on how to coach anyone. 70% of people have some kind of trauma. So we equip them to meet your athletes where they’re at even better, but also pull them through if they’re suffering from some kind of secondary trauma when they come through the door or loud music re-triggers a situation that they were in, something like that. We make sure the coaches are not just equipped in coaching movement, but equipped in coaching people.
Sevan Matossian (18:32):
And what’s probably really fascinating about your program also is this, people think that they go to the pound and they save a dog, and that the LADA dog, they’ve changed this dog’s life and they’ve done something. The truth is that at least 50% of the benefactor is the person who gets the dog. And I bet you it’s the exact same way like that. I bet you these probation officers, these police officers, these people who are invited in have these crazy healing moments themselves where they’re like, holy smokes, you think this program’s for the kids, but really at the same time, it’s this massive if not equally learning experience for the participants who are supposedly helping. Right? They’re also getting help, right?
Debbie (19:15):
That’s right. And so are the coaches. It’s incredibly for all of our coaches as well in the community and our other athletes, our athletes become bonded with these kids and become mentors. And pretty soon they become employers for these kids and mentors out in the community and job references and things like that for ’em.
Sevan Matossian (19:32):
And correct me if I’m wrong, you are the admin component or the logistics component of this program. Are you the one who feels, tell me exactly what you do. Yes. And is it changing all the time? It sounds like since I last talked to you guys, the program has exploded.
Debbie (19:49):
Yes. Exploded would be an understatement. Right. And the cool thing about it is that the main idea is we provide a community for these kids and the probation staff to work out together where the coaches have been educated. But beyond that, it is very adaptable, just like a CrossFit class. So in some areas a judge says absolutely, they’re court ordered in other areas, they’re not going to court order it. In some areas probation staff says, yes, we want to work out with the kids. Some areas they don’t have the staffing. So we work with the community to provide mentors. So we make it work wherever. We just have to dig into it a little bit.
Matt (20:25):
So her role in this whole piece of responsibility, and we’ve kind of morphed into a much larger component with CrossFit Mayhem and what we’re doing with Rich and that group. But Debbie’s role in this is to join the judicial side. So work inside of the judicial system to say, okay, who are my contacts? Is it a probation officer, chief probation officer? Is it the judge? Is it in Arizona’s case was the Arizona Supreme Court? So she works directly with the judicial side to say, okay, we have a CrossFit affiliate that wants to take on a program. And she’ll be that link between the judge or the court system and the CrossFit affiliate to make sure that they’re together. And then she facilitates all of the meetings to make sure everything’s comfortable. And then typically, once the program’s up and running, then we allow the affiliate to run the program just like they would run a normal class. But then we go beyond that with making sure that they can do their audits, because every year you’re going to be audited. It’s a government program, it’s government funded, so you got to go through that audit process. Debbie links the gyms together. You can talk about that.
Debbie (21:38):
Yeah. So one of the additive components I guess that we left out for affiliates is you get paid to do this. So it is funded through the court. So every one of those kids that comes to your gym, you get your standard membership rate. And that goes directly to the affiliate. That does not go to Matt and I for helping this. It’s just like your membership rate. And it comes day in, day out, day over. So we still had this going because we did Zoom classes, probation with our ation kids, but just as affiliate owners need to come together as business owners, they need to come together in this program as well. So our new component that we’re adding is kind of, we don’t have a term yet for it, but it’ll be a subscription where every month or twice a month, we will have meetings where all of the gym owners can get on and we can talk about what’s going well, or Hey, I had this great idea, help me implement it or work with me with our audit coming up or probation staff and then carrying over that mindset piece. Because so much of CrossFit is that mental game. How do you walk away from a fail on a deadlift, take a deep breath, walk back and do it, and do that deadlift successful and get a new pr? How do you do that at home when you want to walk out and never walk back? We got to teach these kids coping skills and CrossFit can do that. And so with that, we have monthly support that’ll come in to plate it, to make sure all the coaches feel ready for that.
Sevan Matossian (23:04):
When Matt was on the show, you’re the only guest I’ve ever had on here where after the show I was feeling a little, I dunno if jealous is the word or envious, because it was so obvious. Your life has crazy purpose, Matt. I was tripping. I was like, fuck this dude’s. Life has crazy purpose and I recommend anyone who wants to know the origins of this program and why this program formed to go back and watch that podcast. Matt Hindle Decker. Am I pronouncing that right, Matt? Yep.
Matt (23:30):
Yes, sir.
Sevan Matossian (23:31):
And you’ll see that this program was 30 years in the making that Matt had to walk a maybe longer 40 years in the making. Matt had to do a really, really long fucking journey for this project to grow. This seed took a long to germinate and it finally germinated. And I do want to emphasize this, although I don’t think Debbie and Matt will, this is a moneymaking opportunity now for people who have their, I don’t like to use the word heart, for people who feel like this is their calling and their purpose and that your path has brought you here. This is a great opportunity. I remember one of the first times I spoke to Chris Cooper of Two Brain Business, he told me that he had a program at his gym for autistic kids up in Canada. And after talking to him for 20 minutes, he’s like, yeah, and I make a lot of money doing this program, but that wasn’t the reason he did it. But it’s a tremendous fulfilling opportunity for CrossFit gyms and you can contact Matt or Debbie and get that information and move forward. And this deserves a whole hour, but I want to make sure we talk about this. This is Matt and I were, let’s see if I can open this without showing all my emails. How do I do that?
(24:46):
I don’t know. Here we go. So there’s an event. Tell me about this event. It says nine 11 Climb Department of Public Safety. It looks like you guys are getting even more in bed with, I guess the people who help run civilization.
Matt (25:05):
Yeah, straight out of the governor’s office. So this event kind of started before Memorial Day. So we have obviously established relationships inside of the governor’s office with Governor DeWine, director Andy Wilson, who’s the director of public safety, the directors of both the adult criminal system and the juvenile criminal system. So they often call us to say, Hey, we’ve got this great idea, but we want to promote health and wellness throughout the state, but we’re really not sure how to handle that. We’re really not sure how to do that. So before Memorial Day director Wilson called and said, Hey, I’ve got this idea. I want to promote the State Highway patrol and show that the community supports them, but I also want to promote physical health and wellness. And he’s a CrossFitter. He belongs to a CrossFit gym in Urbana called Gro. And he’s like, how do we facilitate that?
(26:03):
How do we get more people involved with fitness? And I said, well, what if we do Memorial Day Murph? What if we do Murph and we do it for the academy, the Ohio State Patrol Academy. There’s about 50 cadets or so that go through the Academy three times a year. He’s like, Hey, that’s a great idea. Let’s do that. We started working with the state highway patrol and come up with the Memorial Day Murph, which we opened up to all men and women. There’s 16 or 1700 men and women in the state highway patrol across Ohio to join us either at a gym or at home or join the cadets at. We went to Rogue and partnered with Rogue to do a Murf event, which was hugely successful.
(26:50):
It was amazing. Rogue loved it. They had a great time there. There’s a lot of good media piece that came out of that, off of rogue’s. You go to rogue’s Instagram back in that memorial timeframe, there’s a little piece that they did. And then the State Highway Patrol released a video, which was really kind of cool. So after that event, we sat down with Director Wilson and the governor’s office, and they said, okay, we want, this was great, but we want this to be much larger. We want to involve all first responders across the state of Ohio. So every fire office, every police station, every E m s group dispatchers, federal employees. So if you’re federal marshal, how do we do that? So Debbie’s like, Hey, what if we do an event around nine 11? Because obviously there’s a lot of events going on around nine 11. The thought was, what if we try to collectively bring first responders into a situation where they can visit a CrossFit gym, maybe something they’d never done before, and do a Memorial Day workout. And of course, the governor was like, yeah, director Wilson’s like, perfect. Let’s do that. Right. Go ahead.
Debbie (28:06):
Not a Memorial Day workout. Sorry.
Matt (28:08):
Oh, I’m sorry. A nine 11. Yeah, nine 11.
Debbie (28:09):
So we decided, and Kenneth had it right in the comments, we needed something that you really didn’t need equipment for, and we didn’t want it around Memorial Day because first responders are already working, so they can’t be pulled to do a workout. We didn’t want to do Veterans Day because we did.
Sevan Matossian (28:24):
Well, Memorial Day is a big party week, and so everyone’s busy. Okay, okay.
Debbie (28:28):
Yes, everyone’s busy. So that’s why we chose nine 11.
Matt (28:30):
Yeah, we chose nine 11. Sorry,
Sevan Matossian (28:31):
That was, people aren’t drinking beer. People aren’t drinking beer at the lake on nine 11.
Matt (28:36):
Not here.
Sevan Matossian (28:36):
Not yet. Not
Matt (28:38):
Yet. We got a lake right across the street here, but they’re not drinking on nine 11.
Sevan Matossian (28:42):
And then, so this event, this is the first. So is it too late? Let’s say I own a gym in Maine and I want to participate in this. Is it too late? No. No. Okay.
Matt (28:54):
No. So the goal here was they wanted to create an event where if I was in Cleveland, Ohio or in a small town in Ohio, I could go somewhere collectively with other members of my first responder group, whether you’re a firefighter or a police officer, that I could get together with a larger group and do a workout. So that’s why this nine 11 climb was kind of created. And as you can see there, the state has sent this out to, I don’t know how many thousands of people, every fire office, police office, e m s staff, any public servant, received email with this flyer saying, Hey, we’re going to do this memorial event. We’re going to livestream. The Ohio channel is going to livestream, and at 7:00 AM they’re going to livestream the remarks and there’s going to be speakers that will talk, and then we’re going to cut to the workout. If you want to do this.
The above transcript is generated using AI technology and therefore may contain errors.
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