Sevan Matossian (00:00):
Bam we’re live just like that. Miss kil. Hi,
Lauren Kalil (00:07):
Here we are. It looks like you guys are ready to bend the knee.
Sevan Matossian (00:11):
Oh yes, absolutely. Who, who is the who’s more nervous? Me. The listeners are all my boyfriends.
Lauren Kalil (00:21):
Ooh,
Sevan Matossian (00:22):
My
Lauren Kalil (00:22):
Boyfriend. I think you’re the most nervous.
Sevan Matossian (00:23):
I’m definitely nervous, but I’m telling you, my boyfriends are nervous. My boyfriends, my, my, my, my, uh, hair of men. They don’t want me talking to Lauren kil.
Lauren Kalil (00:37):
Like they wanna keep me in the dark
Sevan Matossian (00:39):
<laugh> they want, they wanna be, they wanna be my favorite. <laugh> dang. You’re busy.
Lauren Kalil (00:46):
Yeah. You’re busy. It’s been, it’s been a crazy month. Holy crap.
Sevan Matossian (00:52):
Do, do you have an official role? What, what are you doing over there at morning chocolate video? It’s like all of a sudden it’s just ramped up and it’s like, there’s, there’s multiple videos coming today and you’re just, you’re interviewing everyone and anything. And I’m just like, holy cow.
Lauren Kalil (01:05):
Yeah. So I manage their whole YouTube page. So I, you know, schedule guest, I, you know, bounce topic ideas off of, you know, a small staff that we have that has weekly meetings. Um, Patrick Clark, he’s one of, um, like the photographers and writers that works over there too. He kind of helps me get in contact with some people he’s just been in the space longer. So when it comes to like networking and stuff, he’s really helped, you know, get my name out there, get contacts, things like that. But I, I try to produce some kind of video content at least five times a week. But obviously like during semi-finals, that was, that was very different. <laugh>
Sevan Matossian (01:45):
Has, has it always been like that or did you just decide? Okay. Um, is there room for, uh, there’s this term entrepreneurship? Do you know that term? I just learned it. Do you know that term
Lauren Kalil (02:01):
Entrepreneurship? Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (02:02):
Or
Lauren Kalil (02:03):
Entrepreneurship?
Sevan Matossian (02:04):
Entrepreneurship. It’s like when there’s entrepreneurs in a business, like, so when CrossFit started, it was all entrepreneurs, meaning like Greg hired people and then basically you were allowed to do whatever you wanted and people would just work their ass, not whatever you wanted. Like you weren’t allowed, like, if you were in the media department, you didn’t go run over to the training department, but you’d be hired into the media department. And they would be like, Hey, we need content. And so people would just, is it kind of like that you’re like just taking the bull by the horns and running with it, like, Hey yeah. Good job Lauren. And then you’re like, okay, so you’re kind of an entrepreneur within morning. CHAA
Lauren Kalil (02:34):
Sure. Yeah. I guess you could say that because before I was doing a lot of like, um, of like the written content, I was, you know, more or less just, um, a contract worker, just writing articles, coming up with topics, chasing those leads, interviewing people. And then it was after the games that just for whatever reason, um, I was talking to again, uh, Patrick who works for morning chalk up and he was, Hey, I think that you could do something with like this YouTube page, just with your broadcast experience. And I was like, oh, like, I don’t really know that I wanna like go back to like all of that on camera stuff. I kinda like stepped away from that and was, you know, washed my hands of it. But, um, then I started doing it. I got the itch again, and then I did it for a couple of months. And then I basically went to, you know, my boss at morning chalk up and was like, Hey, I think that we can like make this bigger than, than what it has been and what it is right now. So that’s when conversations started rolling kind of around like the waza new year, time.
Sevan Matossian (03:34):
Yeah. You’re, you’re murdering it. And, uh, maybe it’s just me, but are you getting looser too? Not only looser. Like, are you coming more like off the script and like, I mean, look at some of these titles. I’m like, how, how am I gonna compete with these guys? Um, start of a new dynasty dynasty? Um, will there be another Matt Fraser is Sarah pastor prime. Um, what happens to teams if rich, when, if rich phoning dies? Um, I edited that one a little bit. <laugh> um,
Lauren Kalil (04:03):
<laugh> I was like, I dunno that that’s our title
Sevan Matossian (04:06):
Are, are, are you getting, um, so are you like a, are you like a duck? You’ve shaken it off and you’re like, you’re going for it. Like, you’re just like, man, I’m fly. I’m flying north.
Lauren Kalil (04:17):
Well, you know, it’s, it’s interesting because this space is so wildly different than what I’m used to from local television news. So, I mean, while journalism and, you know, interviewing people is kind of all the same skills, figuring out like the content and what really, um, like speaks to the audience is much different. So finding my groove and figuring out, okay, like what works, what doesn’t work, what do people actually wanna see is, you know, it’s all been a learning process. I’m sure. Like when you started this like a decade ago, it was, you know, okay, let’s try this. Does it work? Doesn’t it work? What do people want?
Sevan Matossian (04:58):
It was God, I, I wish I was that thoughtful.
Lauren Kalil (05:02):
<laugh>
Sevan Matossian (05:03):
I wish I was that thoughtful. I was just like, oh my God, I hope I don’t ask this. Oh shit. I’m actually asking this <laugh> here. Here’s
Lauren Kalil (05:10):
Sometimes it happens.
Sevan Matossian (05:11):
<laugh> here’s what I mean. Um, um, so Christ Shaw’s been in, been interviewed by a thousand people and yesterday that a clip came out and he’s like blown away by what you asked. And not only is he blown away by what you asked, but you’re asking something that seems like it’s so far off the script and like, like you’re present for the conversation. And I just don’t feel like you see that in a lot of, um, journalism, like there is a, you know what I mean? Like, uh, uh, 60 minutes will do a piece and they want to show how this car manufacturer is polluting the river next to them. And they’re like determined to show that. Whereas I don’t do that. I’m just like, I, I kind of do that, but my thing is, I just wanna go deeper with someone. I don’t care where we do it. We’re talking about tampons or being a vegetarian or whatever. If we can go deeper into a subject I’m I’m content.
Lauren Kalil (06:03):
Yeah. Well, and I think, I feel like you’ve started journalism.
Sevan Matossian (06:05):
I say that again.
Lauren Kalil (06:07):
I think that’s what makes good journalism is. You have like a skeleton of the questions you wanna ask and you kind of have an idea of where it might go, but you let the person you’re interviewing kind of just like lead where, where it takes. And I mean, you’re, I’m sure you’re always asking follow up questions on the fly, whether they’re scripted right. Or not, or they just are based on the conversation,
Sevan Matossian (06:26):
But you couldn’t do that at your last job. You didn’t have the, there wasn’t even the time really. Right?
Lauren Kalil (06:31):
Yeah. Especially because like with news, like there’s not really these extended stories. You have a minute and a half to compile a story, get your point across. Yeah. Try to show both sides. And that’s it. If it’s a minute 36, those six seconds are getting cut.
Sevan Matossian (06:51):
Um, like, like the story you did there, there’s a story in your, um, real, by the way, you’ve done so much stuff. It’s nuts. Do you know how many news pieces you’ve done?
Lauren Kalil (07:01):
I’ve I have no idea.
Sevan Matossian (07:03):
<laugh> it? It was that five days a week too. Or was that six or seven days a week? What were those jobs? Just so people know what I’m talking about. Yeah. She worked at NBC three, CBS five, um, C w six, uh, something, uh, NY central and Fox 11. And I may have missed some, I, there was a channel seven in there I saw too.
Lauren Kalil (07:22):
Yeah. So I worked in, um, Illinois, which covered Illinois, Missouri and Iowa, the tri-state then I worked in green bay, Wisconsin. Um, which sometimes like, uh, covered a little more than just Wisconsin. And then most recently I worked, um, in local news kind of close to my hometown in upstate New York. So that was like five days a week. But I mean, the hours you’re working, they range and it depends like you’re kind of always on call for breaking news. Like if something huge happens, we’re understaffed, it’s all hands on deck. I would work every weekend. So our staff would always be understaffed <laugh>. Um, and you would literally be doing everybody’s job. I would be going out, um, getting my own interviews, uh, photographing or getting video of everything I need. Then going back, editing, writing, producing, um, then getting ready in time to like, be on camera, deliver the news, putting stories on the web. Like sometimes I think people don’t realize like how many different jobs one person is doing when, when you’re in the news. So, I mean, burnout is, is high. And right now you’re obviously seeing a lot of people getting out of local TV for, I mean, so many different reasons.
Sevan Matossian (08:35):
Um, the number of pages of notes I have is how nervous I am.
Lauren Kalil (08:38):
He has a Bible
Sevan Matossian (08:39):
And anything, anything over two pages means nervous, but only three only three. Like, I think the record was seven. One time. I say seven is like, when you know, your notes are gonna fuck you.
Lauren Kalil (08:50):
<laugh> I kind of like that. You have, um, uh, paper notes though. I always just have like a word document on my computer or Google notes.
Sevan Matossian (08:58):
I keep it up there too. But then I have to look over here and I can’t fake that. I’m actually paying attention to what you’re saying.
Lauren Kalil (09:05):
<laugh> fair fair.
Sevan Matossian (09:08):
So, so you, so you, so you, you, you were busy. Do you know that’m how, how did you get that first job? How, how do you, how do you, um, you just walk in and you’re like, Hey, I wanna be on TV and do news. How do you get that first job? Wait, you did an internship at the golf channel.
Lauren Kalil (09:26):
Yeah. That was so much fun. I was about, is that the first
Sevan Matossian (09:29):
Do that? Is that the first gig?
Lauren Kalil (09:31):
So I, I interned with them and then I interned with the pan, the Dan Patrick show.
Sevan Matossian (09:37):
Okay. So
Lauren Kalil (09:38):
Those were kinda the
Sevan Matossian (09:39):
Two that’s this big sports show.
Lauren Kalil (09:41):
Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (09:42):
Wow.
Lauren Kalil (09:44):
Yeah. So I did that, um, you know, I went to college for sports, journalism, broadcast, journalism, and then you create a reel. So all of like the little highlights that you go out and shoot yourself a view on camera, and then you pretty much send that in your resume to anyone and anyone that will take you. So I mean, applying to jobs, I applied to over 200 places just to see who would take me.
Sevan Matossian (10:09):
Wow.
Lauren Kalil (10:10):
And then you get your foot in the door. And like, from there, it becomes a little bit easier, but I mean, you literally have to be willing to pack your bags and move wherever the job is.
Sevan Matossian (10:18):
Is this guy still doing his gig? The Dan Patrick show. Yeah.
Lauren Kalil (10:21):
Oh yeah.
Sevan Matossian (10:22):
Did you learn a lot there?
Lauren Kalil (10:24):
Um, yes. So I did it with them. It was super bowl week when they were in New York city. I’m trying to think that was maybe 20 14, 20 13 around that time. Um, yeah. I, I mean, mostly of what you’re doing, you’re getting them coffee. You are like bringing the guests in. You are kind of working as a coordinator for them or basically anything that they need. And then when there’s downtime, that’s when, you know, they gave me the opportunity to interview them, get myself on camera with them, those little things that I could then add to my highlight reel that I would send out to TV stations
Sevan Matossian (11:00):
And in 2014. So you’re interning at the Dan Patrick show, but you’re also on the, uh, sacred heart dance team.
Lauren Kalil (11:06):
Oh yeah.
Sevan Matossian (11:08):
Crazy
Lauren Kalil (11:08):
Too DT. It was a great time. <laugh>
Sevan Matossian (11:11):
Um, is that a private university? Sacred heart? Yes. Yep. Is it, uh, is it, is it some religious university? It’s like some based in some,
Lauren Kalil (11:20):
Uh, yeah, it’s a Catholic university, but um, I mean, you only, it was liberal arts. So you were required to take, you know, one religious course, basically any type of religion that you wanted to,
Sevan Matossian (11:32):
Could you pull that YouTube up? Uh, SU
Lauren Kalil (11:36):
<laugh> oh God.
Sevan Matossian (11:37):
It, so they, they did a, they did a documentary on like a three and a half minute documentary and you got a little, you got a line in there. You haven’t even changed that much.
Lauren Kalil (11:47):
Oh my gosh. This is old. <laugh> you really dug deep for this Sivan. I’m impressed.
Sevan Matossian (11:54):
Yeah. I was pretty happy when I found this. I’m not gonna lie.
Mattew Souza (11:56):
<laugh>
Sevan Matossian (11:58):
Uh, and, and if you play a little bit, I think, um, you play like 20 seconds. We can hear. So this is like a three minute 22 second documentary on the sacred hearts, uh, dance team, which is the college that, um, uh, Lauren went to. And in what state is this in?
Lauren Kalil (12:11):
<laugh> Connecticut.
Sevan Matossian (12:13):
Okay. And you’re not in this picture, are you?
Lauren Kalil (12:15):
No, I’m not. I wonder where I was actually. I’m not sure. It’s lot of setting abroad that year.
Sevan Matossian (12:21):
It’s a lot of women on this team.
Lauren Kalil (12:23):
Oh yeah. There’s only women on this dance team. No,
Sevan Matossian (12:26):
But I don’t mean just women. I just mean there’s a lot. There’s like the whole school is on it.
Lauren Kalil (12:33):
Um, yeah, our dancing was pretty big. I think the biggest year had about 50 of us. And every year we like go down to Daytona beach for, uh, dancing nationals. That’s where like, if, if you guys are familiar, probably not, but maybe the Netflix series cheer. No. <laugh> any takers. Okay. Yeah. So
Mattew Souza (12:55):
I know what you’re talking about. I know what you’re talking
Lauren Kalil (12:57):
About. Yeah. So like dancing of the cheerleading teams go down. Yeah. See, come on Matt. Yeah. Yeah. I knew you knew <laugh>
Sevan Matossian (13:05):
Um, hit, play, hit play. And I think, I think Lauren has a talking part right here.
Lauren Kalil (13:10):
I don’t shop and help each other out.
Lauren Kalil (13:12):
Do you have people pushing you and always trying support you being like, come on, we’re almost there. We’re gonna get through it. It’s really great. Cause it’s like you have 40 other sisters for you.
Lauren Kalil (13:21):
The dance team typically practices three times a week. <laugh>
Sevan Matossian (13:25):
How
Lauren Kalil (13:26):
My God that’s so cringe.
Sevan Matossian (13:28):
How are you doing that? You look adorable. How are you doing that? You’re doing the Dan Patrick show. And were you the student body president?
Lauren Kalil (13:36):
I was
Sevan Matossian (13:37):
What is going on?
Mattew Souza (13:38):
Damn. <laugh>
Lauren Kalil (13:41):
Yeah. I’ve, I’ve always been busy. Like my, my job’ now this is nothing uncharacteristic for me. I love to, you know, set goals and I love to achieve different accomplishments and, you know, do as accomplish as much as I can in my life.
Sevan Matossian (13:59):
Are you nice?
Lauren Kalil (14:01):
<laugh> I, I think so. Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (14:04):
<laugh> um, there’s there’s I feel like a lot of people in, in the journalism space, aren’t nice people they’re bullies.
Lauren Kalil (14:10):
Um, I would say that’s true. I would say that you
Sevan Matossian (14:12):
Or wouldn’t.
Lauren Kalil (14:13):
I, I wouldn’t. Okay. I would say that like, some of the people I met in television were some of like the nicest, most genuine people, but you do get like that group of people that is in local TV, just because they wanna see their face on camera. And they’re very like Prisy and like, uh, I gotta get my nails done. Gotta have my hair so perfect. And that’s just like, not me. So <laugh>
Sevan Matossian (14:36):
By there, there there’s like there’re beyond. I feel like, so this is the characteristic. I is one of the thoughts I have about journalists there.
Lauren Kalil (14:44):
Wait, but not you’re a journalist.
Sevan Matossian (14:46):
Say that again?
Lauren Kalil (14:47):
Aren’t you a journalist?
Sevan Matossian (14:48):
No, I’m a comedian. <laugh>
Lauren Kalil (14:50):
<laugh>
Sevan Matossian (14:53):
There, there’s a, there’s a, okay. <laugh> over assertiveness to them and over persistence to them. Um, they lack boundaries and there’s an entitlement to them. Like what, like, like they’ll call you and ask for something. And even though you’ll say, I don’t wanna share it then the next day, like, Hey, are you gonna give that to me? And there just seems to be like this really? I don’t know. And I don’t know nearly as many journalists as you know, but I, but just people in this, in this field in general, I feel, um, maybe it’s insecurity, but it, but it comes across as like deep arrogance, like, like for, even at, even at the, even at the CrossFit games, when you’re lined up in the media pit, there’s people who will get outta your way, if they’re not getting the shot and there’s other people like who think that they’re, they’re somehow entitled. And even when I was the director of media over there, people would like bully, try to bully me. I’d be like, wow, you, you were, yeah, you’re nuts. I think
Lauren Kalil (15:46):
It’s, I think it’s tough because I don’t know that like those emotions come from people trying to be a bully, but more like, if I wanna get the best shot, I have to be aggressive and I have to put myself first and stand my ground. And again, like it comes to personality traits. Like I would say, depending on the situation, I tend to be a little bit more passive. I’m not gonna like push somebody out of the way to get what I want. Um, I’m gonna try to like, almost like kill people with kindness and try to like build bridges, make relationships, and use that as my edge. But, um, and, and maybe that’s why I never got to where I wanted to in journalism, because I was not willing to go and knock on somebody’s door after their 11 month baby was shot and killed for an interview. Like that’s a boundary that I’m not willing to cross. And some people are,
Sevan Matossian (16:39):
Yeah, that, that’s interesting. When I would speak to Brian, I’d be like, Hey, have you spoken to this athlete yet? And he would be like, no, it’s at the event. And I’m like, who gives a shit? Go talk to him. <laugh> but, but, but he had that boundary, you know, like he wanted to give them space.
Lauren Kalil (16:50):
Yeah. It it’s hard. It’s definitely a balancing act. Like I wanna be respectful, but you also have a job to do so kind of maneuvering that. Um, I mean just comes with time and also a little bit of personality.
Sevan Matossian (17:02):
Yeah. And, um, speaking to arrogance, I would just tell myself, I would tell Brian, just tell them that they’re lucky they get to talk to you. Just, that should be your mantra. They’re lucky they get to talk to me. Um, when you came, when you, when you come from something like television, that is, uh, um, there’s a, a script, a process, a method, and you come over to something like, um, morning Chalkup is, is morning. Chalkup more free. Is it, is it less? I, well, I think of it as I think of all the people in this space as being more, um, uh, malleable, more fluid, more the ability to do more things. Did, were you, if that’s true, um, were you okay with that? Or did that make you feel uncomfortable?
Lauren Kalil (17:50):
I mean, I come, I like my life to be very like routine and, and structured. That’s like why I can accomplish as much as I can because I’m very organized. I’m very, uh, almost like military, like, but I’ve never been in the military. I did do ROTC in high school, but that’s it
Sevan Matossian (18:08):
<laugh> how long did you do that?
Lauren Kalil (18:10):
Um, uh, freshman, sophomore, junior and senior year in, in high school.
Sevan Matossian (18:15):
Okay. Yeah. I I’m gonna come back to that. That’s that’s a trip that you did that.
Lauren Kalil (18:19):
Okay. <laugh> um, but yeah, it’s much more freeing to be with morning chalk up because it’s, I mean, it’s obviously structured, but when you think of like a news organization and like the big company that owns you, there’s so many like rules and regulations and like training and like you’re really confined to certain boundaries where now I have so much more freedom and creativity, freedom to kind of do what I want, obviously like with the help and guidance of others, but there’s, there’s definitely more room for growth in that area.
Sevan Matossian (19:00):
Do, do you get feedback, um, at the morning? Chalkup
Lauren Kalil (19:04):
Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (19:05):
And did you get feedback when you were at the new shows?
Lauren Kalil (19:11):
Yes. But not the type of feedback that you would think,
Sevan Matossian (19:15):
Meaning?
Lauren Kalil (19:17):
Um, <laugh> so the it’s interesting. I never really got feedback on my like performance delivery, et cetera. It was really always feedback on my appearance and how I could look more relatable to viewers.
Sevan Matossian (19:35):
Oh, wow. Um, you had, um, and, and listen, if you wanna, someone wants to go to war with me. I’ll go to war with you in the YouTube comments.
Lauren Kalil (19:45):
I’m ready.
Sevan Matossian (19:46):
Fuck someone up way to start it. Go. Let’s go. <laugh> um, I just, I hate it. Whenever I ask women about their outfits, people are like, you never ask men that I’ll be like, go fuck yourself. I’ll ask men about their outfits all day long. Um, well you had a lot of outfits.
Lauren Kalil (20:01):
Oh, I still have a lot of outfits. What do you do with all of that? Do you have a
Sevan Matossian (20:04):
Lot of, do you have to pay for those? It’s a small fortune? What your, your outfits?
Lauren Kalil (20:08):
Um, so eventually I got a stipend, but my first, you know, three to four years, it was yeah. All out of my own pocket.
Sevan Matossian (20:16):
I watched a bunch of reels. If you go to, um, Lauren kil YouTube station, there are these nine minute reels that are just super dense with stories. It’s actually really cool to see. And there’s like a bunch of those. And I, and I’m like, okay, I’m gonna find the same outfit. <laugh> I mean, even your hair change was a lot. Yeah. I couldn’t, I couldn’t find the same outfit.
Lauren Kalil (20:34):
Yeah. People notice when you wear the same outfit, it’s so weird.
Sevan Matossian (20:38):
And, uh, and you’re not supposed to do that.
Lauren Kalil (20:40):
I mean, obviously they expect you to, but it’s like, try not to wear the same thing for a month, but then like you talk to your coor, who’s a guy and he’s like, I have five ties and that’s it.
Sevan Matossian (20:50):
Right, right. I only wanna wear this shirt. I only wanna wear this shirt. I’m so bummed when it’s not clean. Great shirt. Thank you. <laugh> so they, they wanted you to look, um, relatable me, meaning just the way you did your makeup and your hair and the way you stood or,
Lauren Kalil (21:09):
Oh, no, like, okay. So a couple things. So in our contracts, there’s a whole section on, um, appearance and it goes into like, you cannot cut your hair, change your hair, like do anything to like your hair tattoos, um, earrings without approval from basically like five different people from corporate. Um, but then it goes on to say that you also cannot fluctuate within 10 pounds,
Sevan Matossian (21:37):
Your weight.
Lauren Kalil (21:38):
Wow. So yeah, your weight.
Sevan Matossian (21:39):
Wow. Wow. Wow.
Lauren Kalil (21:41):
Um, I never had any conversations about that, luckily, but there was this constant debate about my fricking arms that I had to cover them up. They were too muscular. I had one guy that would literally call me every Saturday night after my newscast. And tell me, I’m gonna find your steroids dealer. I know that you’re doping. Like you must be a transgender. You have two dicks. Apparently not just one was enough. Like I have two holy shit. Like, yeah. He would just constantly harass me and I’m like, yep. Mm-hmm <affirmative> okay. Let me know when you find this person, like, yeah. So then management was like, you know, we’re getting emails like about your arms, that like, it’s not professional and mind you, it’s not like my boobs were ever hanging out. Like, no,
Mattew Souza (22:30):
That not fine.
Lauren Kalil (22:31):
Right. Literal. And so like, I didn’t experiment where I wore something that was like, not crazy, but like a little more risky, low cleavage. But my arms were covered cricket. Nobody complained. But when my arms are out, it’s like the, the world is ending. <laugh>
Sevan Matossian (22:46):
Holy shit. So weird. Hey, can you imagine watching someone on TV and the colossal effort, it would take to go over to your computer or pick up your phone?
Lauren Kalil (22:58):
Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (22:59):
Find an email, find an email address and P it out. I’m trying to think what I mean. I see the craziest shit every single day and I don’t complain. I mean, bat shit, crazy stuff. <laugh>
Mattew Souza (23:09):
So absurd.
Lauren Kalil (23:10):
Yeah. Yeah. Wild. So then they were like, you know, you’re, you’re not married. So you’re unrelatable in that sense. You don’t have kids. So you’re unrelatable in that sense. Oh shit. This is crazy. And then you’re fit. And the average news viewer is not fit. So literally, like <laugh> nothing about me was like the mold that they wanted a local TV person to be.
Sevan Matossian (23:35):
It’s interesting how people, um, re recalibrate too. Cuz I remember coming to CrossFit and thinking not anything bad about the women, but I just remember thinking the women were muscular and within a now I never think that thought.
Lauren Kalil (23:50):
Right. It’s just normal.
Sevan Matossian (23:51):
I’ve never seen. Yeah. And I never like, oh, she’s really muscular or they’re just bodies. It’s just a pile of bodies now.
Lauren Kalil (23:59):
<laugh>
Sevan Matossian (24:00):
It’s a trip. Yeah.
Lauren Kalil (24:02):
Which it’s fine. I mean, everything worked out the way. It should. It, you know, it stings at first when somebody is like, you’re unrelatable cuz your arms are muscular, but <laugh> in. Okay. Like there could be worse things, I suppose.
Sevan Matossian (24:14):
<laugh> um, what do, what do you, the steroids, um, uh, comment made me think of Andrew Hiller. What do you do? You know, Andrew Hiller, have you met him?
Lauren Kalil (24:23):
I’ve never personally met him, but I mean, if somebody doesn’t know who he is, you must be living under a rock I suppose.
Sevan Matossian (24:30):
Oh. Or maybe it’s I think some of us just live kind of in a little bit of an echo chamber, like there’s a small group of us. He said something on one of his videos the other day he said there’s 300,000 people who sign up for the open and that, and you know, in, in relation he was talking about how many subscribers he had. And I was like, yeah, it’s kind, we’re really, really small fish talking to just a really, um, oh yeah. A really aggressive is not the right word involves initiated. We we’re a small group of people, but the people we talk to are really initiated and invested. And so it feels like we’re talking to like hundreds of thousands. <laugh> right.
Lauren Kalil (25:09):
We’re our own little community.
Sevan Matossian (25:12):
Um, have you ever been asked to do the, the stuff at the games where you interview the athletes afterwards?
Lauren Kalil (25:17):
No.
Sevan Matossian (25:18):
No. Would you do that?
Lauren Kalil (25:20):
Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (25:22):
You’d be good at it. Do you feel for those people, those people get so much criticism in the comments. Do you ever watch the, the chat, those people get destroyed?
Lauren Kalil (25:30):
<laugh> I try to and they’re
Sevan Matossian (25:32):
In a tough,
Lauren Kalil (25:32):
A lot of comments I look at <laugh> yeah.
Sevan Matossian (25:35):
They’re in a tough position. They have like one minute.
Lauren Kalil (25:38):
Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (25:39):
And the athletes are totally disheveled and the comments are just like, that’s it ask question. And it’s like, no one’s ever like really at work. I mean they get destroyed. No one has any, any like, love for them.
Lauren Kalil (25:50):
It’s too bad. But I mean, it’s like any internet trolls, like they’re complaining about the person doing their job, but they’ve never done that job before. So they have no idea.
Sevan Matossian (26:01):
Right. I, um, my comments are usually pretty nice. There’s just a few, like, people make fun of like my nose, other than that. It’s um,
Lauren Kalil (26:10):
Do you still get criticism for that? For
Sevan Matossian (26:12):
Those, but I ask for it. I it’s it’s, that’s probably to be all fair. Um, I, uh, I asked for it, uh, I, um, what, what do you think of it? What Andrew’s doing his, his sort of like talk to the camera. I mean, he’s kind of found his own niche in the community. He talks to the camera. Oh sure. He’s he’s um, critiquing the judging that the athletes, um, performances B basically he’s he’s like he’s anointed himself kind of like the judge <laugh> <laugh> right. I mean, that’s what he is doing. He’s just judge going around judging everyone. Not, not based on their, their looks or the size of their arms, but based on their criteria for keeping the rules in place that allow the function, the, the, the competitions to function with integrity.
Lauren Kalil (26:55):
Well, I really think what he did is interesting because before him, nobody else was doing that. Nobody was, you know, calling people out or like bringing to light how many issues there are with, you know, standards judging. So I think that him like taking this moment to, I mean, he’s gained so many people and like, I mean, you go to any CrossFit box right now, you ask, Hey, have you seen Andrew Hiller’s video? Most people that are like in touch and watch these shows have seen Andrew Hiller and know who he is. Um, and I think like what he’s doing brings a lot of topics to light that I think maybe have been like untalked about for too long.
Sevan Matossian (27:35):
I, um, he, he recently made a video of, uh, Brooke Wells, um, doing the rope climb and he, um, he says, I think the video says, um, Brooke Wells has too much power. That’s the title of the video. And so there’s an insinuation there that she was allowed to clamp her legs on the rope because of who she is. But in the video, he doesn’t say that in the video, he makes it clear that, um, it, that the judge didn’t see it or something. He says the opposite. I don’t know. I just, sometimes I, I, I can’t tell, I can’t tell if it’s, um, maybe we’re just in the early phases of it, but sometimes I just think it’s not the conclusions that he draws. And a lot of people do this, that the conclusion, like he, he thinks there’s like some sort of collusion at the top. Like Brooke Wells gets away with stuff because the referees are intimidated by her or the event organizers want her to go onto the games. Like he goes beyond just being like, Hey, that, that girl cheated it.
Lauren Kalil (28:36):
I think it’s an interesting conversation because
Sevan Matossian (28:39):
You couldn’t do that at the morning. Chalkup
Lauren Kalil (28:41):
Uh, no, because I’m not Andrew Hiller is Andrew Hiller, right? I’m Lauren Kail representing morning, chalk up. Yeah, you
Sevan Matossian (28:49):
That’s, but now she clamped her legs on the rope, but you couldn’t be like, and they let her get away with it<laugh> unless they told me, but, but he can do that.
Lauren Kalil (28:57):
Right. And, and I think like, that’s what people should notice the difference of. And, and this is not like a criticism to him because I think that there’s room for him in the space to do what he’s doing. And again, he’s brought up so many, um, topics that I think, um, can hopefully create change or make the sport continue to move in the right direction. But he’s not held to the same standards as a media company when it comes to fact checking and making sure that like you do your due diligence and, um, like get all sides of the story before you just put videos out. And again, like, I, I love what he is doing. I watch his videos, but that’s why he can have such, imediacy getting some of these topics out because he doesn’t need to go through like an editorial staff. Um, and sometimes like even a legal team, for instance.
Sevan Matossian (29:48):
Yeah. A legal team. Mm <laugh>. That’s when that’s, when
Lauren Kalil (29:53):
What’s that grunt. Oh, that
Sevan Matossian (29:55):
That’s when you know, you’ve made it, when you, when you have to, when your stuff has to go through a legal team, he.
The above transcript is generated using AI technology and therefore may contain errors.
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