Sevan Matossian (00:00):
Five. My, my, my, did you see my Instagram account got suspended again? <laugh>
Mattew Souza (00:05):
I know it was that, uh, it was that the song in the head. That’s what did it
Sevan Matossian (00:10):
<laugh> I, yeah, I, I don’t even post on it anymore.
Mattew Souza (00:12):
I Don know.
Sevan Matossian (00:13):
I handed that over to our social media gal.
Mattew Souza (00:16):
Hey, do you think people are reporting it?
Sevan Matossian (00:19):
I don’t know what’s going on. It’s it’s it’s it’s so, it’s so weird, especially there’s like, uh, you know, someone with a massive, massive following reached out to us yesterday. Massive biggest would be the biggest guess we’ve ever had on the show. Uh, close, CLO, close,
Mattew Souza (00:41):
Real close. If
Sevan Matossian (00:42):
Not the, yeah. Bigger than anyone in the CrossFit space. That’s for sure. Yeah. Dwarf them 10 X and uh, they reached out and they said, Hey, I wanna come on your show. And we said, yeah. And then they just volunteered up it’s because we’re not, um, as what was the word they used
Mattew Souza (01:01):
Blacklisted
Sevan Matossian (01:03):
Is, was that it? They said we’re not, it was, I mean, it was cool that they were so transparent and just offered that up. Oh yeah. Yeah. You’re less black. You’re less. I said, oh my God, thank you so much. Great to hear from you. And he said, yeah, uh, I’ve always wanted to come on, but you’re less blacklisted now. So I was just like, wow. Um, speaking of blacklisted. Oh,
Mattew Souza (01:27):
Shit. Top secret.
Sevan Matossian (01:29):
Yeah. I don’t know if I was supposed to do that.
Mattew Souza (01:30):
He was frozen.
Sevan Matossian (01:32):
Yeah. Looked like they were getting dressed in a dressing room or something. <laugh> um, I didn’t know. You could have long hair at that job.
Sevan Matossian (01:43):
Yeah, it’s weird. Uh, I, I started getting a little sentimental this morning when I was getting dressed. I was looking in my closet and I saw, um, uh, um, Gabe from, um, paper street. Coffee has sent me a bunch of shirts and I, and I just tried to get sentimental, but just how cool it is that he sponsors the show. Mm-hmm <affirmative> for those of you who don’t know, all of our sponsors are just completely organic. They’re just people like you. It’s just people it’s really, this is, this is how I take it. They, they like the show and they don’t want the voice to go away. They don’t want the angle that we take. They don’t want the playfulness even. And one of ’em do like really doesn’t even agree. I think with a lot of what, what our political views are. They’re not even political views, by the way. Like, I don’t think it’s political to not want your schools to be sexualized. I don’t think that’s political. Political is, um, uh, my lo me being extra nice to, um, uh, rich, because I want him to come on the show. That’s political <laugh> you know what I mean? Political is like, um, me being afraid, I fucked up the Hailey Adams podcast so bad that she won’t come on again. So I send her flowers, that’s political
Mattew Souza (03:03):
And a nice gesture.
Sevan Matossian (03:04):
Yeah. Um, uh,
Sevan Matossian (03:08):
But, but, but just having, having beliefs and ideas, those aren’t, I don’t think that’s political that’s about anyway. I, I just, I was, so I was so thankful for Gabe. He’s a dude, he’s a successful business, man. He, as a hobby, he opened up a coffee shop. Um, he went out on a limb and said, Hey, I wanna support the show. I’ll give you guys money and I’ll send you guys free coffee and let’s just play. And the same thing was true with, with, uh, uh, California hormones, CA hormones.com. Um, it’s a listener who, and it’s just cool. And, uh, and we got, um, uh, Darren, uh, what’s the new Darren Darren Coughlin guy who’s been around forever. Uh, one if speaking about OGs, um, out of Australia, um, used to train, uh, pit Malone, uh, hardcore OG CrossFit athlete herself. He has started a, a resource, a super duper valuable resource to, um, uh, trainers, athletes, uh, gym owners, uh, anyone who’s interested in health and fitness. Um, what was the name of the newsletter? Just, it just started. It’s not a newsletter. I don’t even know what to call it.
Mattew Souza (04:18):
No, it’s a collection of articles and education for, um, coaches on mindset, um, training, helping other people train nutrition. It’s called masters of coaching.online masters of coaching.online. Yep.
Sevan Matossian (04:31):
Masters of coaching.online. That’s a, that’s a, that’s a instead of.com it’s dot online.
Mattew Souza (04:40):
Yeah. Out of Australia.
Sevan Matossian (04:43):
Hmm. I didn’t even know that was one. I thought it had to be three letters.
Mattew Souza (04:48):
Me too.
Sevan Matossian (04:51):
So
Sevan Matossian (04:54):
How did the most, you probably know, but I’ll just give you a quick, uh, story on the origin of this show. This is the first of 52 shows we’re going to do where we talk to affiliates, and I’m not sure how I’m gonna choose the affiliates, but, um, or how the affiliates are gonna choose us. But basically, I, I, I wanna pick people who aren’t the usual suspects. We, we, there are affiliates that just keep getting pushed up to the front and I don’t have a problem with that. I love those guys. Some of those guys are just so dope, so dope. Like, like, uh, Craig Howard, thank God we have people like him. I mean, that is like, and I’ll give you an example of, thank God why we have Craig Howard during the, um, he was the, um, I don’t know what you call him, but he, he was the affiliate liaison or the country rep or the state rep for California.
Sevan Matossian (05:44):
And when they did the shutdowns here, um, he played along for a second. And when it was encroaching on his business and, and the health and wellness of his clients, he pushed back and he pushed back. And, um, it didn’t align with what, um, HQ wanted, uh, the affiliates to, um, be in line with, uh, their policy and their politics. That’s the correct use of the politics. HQ was playing politics. And, and instead of, and they told, uh, Craig, Hey, you need to shut down or you’re gonna lose your position as a country liaison or state liaison. And he said, Nope, sorry, take my job away. And, and, and they needed that. And, and, and I, and I will pat HQ on the back for that. They let him stay an affiliate and they still stay close to him. They’re not even afraid of him.
Sevan Matossian (06:29):
They still have a great relationship. So that, that shows some like crazy level of maturity from HQ. And it pains me to say anything nice about them, but it’s fucking amazing. I mean, they’re awesome for that good on them and good on for Craig, for standing his, uh, guideline. That’s like just MIS mature discourse. So I, I, I know that there’s people like Chris, uh, out there and I, and I just flippantly said, Hey, there’s, there’s, Jim’s in the middle of this country, the United States of America. And if you don’t, oh, Chris, do you have a YouTube channel open? Maybe. No. Nope. Okay.
Chris Doster (07:02):
Can you hear
Sevan Matossian (07:03):
Me? Yep. I hear you great. There, there, a lot of you are in different countries that can’t even imagine the vastness of this fucking country. It is so fucking big. And, um, so, so when people, you know, chime in from like Denmark or the Netherlands or the UK or France, or just any of those countries, and you start applying some of the, your thoughts or ways to this country, you can’t even imagine what it’s like, what Chris and I aren’t even, we might as well be in different countries. Everything is different in Iowa, culturally, E E every. So, so I said, Hey, there’s people in the middle of this country who have spent every single penny. And I think it’s probably the vast majority of affiliates around the world to stay open. And those of those affiliates who are moms and dads who need to put food on their table to feed their kids, they’re all in no plan B
Chris Doster (07:56):
Right on brother
Sevan Matossian (07:58):
And H and the people who work at HQ need to really realize that and think about that, that every single one of their actions, especially the, the massive egos, they have some of the massive egos over there, all those decisions they make about themselves instead of the affiliates, um, um, people, people are being hurt. And I, and then all of a sudden, Chris said, Hey, he reached out to me. I’m that affiliate in Iowa. I have kids.
Chris Doster (08:21):
Yeah. Literally I’m like 60 minutes from Des Moines, Iowa, which was the name of the town you mentioned. And I was like, Hey, that’s me.
Sevan Matossian (08:30):
You’re talking about, he even sounds different. He even has a different accent than me. He’s even got a different accent than me.
Chris Doster (08:36):
Yes. Yes. If you go farther south, they talk a little bit slower. The farther south you get. But yes, most people from where you’re at would think I have an accent. Yep.
Sevan Matossian (08:48):
<laugh> yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, where were you born? Chris?
Chris Doster (08:51):
I was born in Claire, Iowa. My mom and dad, uh, had me and my brother and sister at home. They were hippies and they did the home birth thing. And yeah, I was born in Claire, Iowa, which is even smaller than Creston, Iowa, which that’s where I’m at now in my gym today. That’s a town of 7,500. So yeah. I don’t know if there’s any affiliates in a town smaller than ours. I challenge you to find one that’s in town smaller than 7,500, but we’ve bus.
Sevan Matossian (09:23):
Tell me the name
Chris Doster (09:25):
And
Sevan Matossian (09:25):
Tell me the name again. Creston. Iowa.
Chris Doster (09:27):
Yeah. Creston Iowa.
Sevan Matossian (09:29):
Yeah. I wanna
Chris Doster (09:32):
On the affiliate finder. It’ll come up. Creston Canada before up before Creston, Iowa comes up.
Sevan Matossian (09:41):
Wow. You really? Yes.
Chris Doster (09:42):
On the affiliate map, we’ve been in Philly shit years.
Sevan Matossian (09:47):
Oh man. You really are out there.
Chris Doster (09:50):
Y L stands for transcender limits
Sevan Matossian (09:53):
Transcender and, uh, we’ll get into that. You are, um, you’re quite away from the, uh, beach
Chris Doster (10:00):
<laugh> yeah. <laugh> it’s a bit of a drive. Hey, you can say that from a real beach. We’re a long ways away. Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (10:09):
Will you punch in, um, uh, SU really quick? How far that is from your affiliate? How many if, if we wanted to drive door to door.
Chris Doster (10:16):
Okay. Are you in California? You’re affiliate. Yeah. Bay. Yeah. Okay. I thought so.
Sevan Matossian (10:22):
It’s about, it’s probably like $3 million in gas.
Chris Doster (10:25):
<laugh>
Sevan Matossian (10:26):
If you were in and that’s, if you were in a Prius,
Chris Doster (10:29):
But yeah, we’re, I’m swimming against the current. I’m not a dead salmon out here.
Sevan Matossian (10:35):
Good on you. Good on you.
Chris Doster (10:37):
You remember all those words that come outta your mouth all the time.
Sevan Matossian (10:40):
<laugh> I remember those. I remember those. I was beating up, uh, the rock in LeBron when I used that metaphor.
Chris Doster (10:45):
Yes. I, I liked it. You’re right. Everybody likes LeBron. Cuz he goes with the flow.
Sevan Matossian (10:52):
I’m
Chris Doster (10:52):
The flow in Southwest Iowa dude. I’m I am not a dead salmon.
Sevan Matossian (10:57):
1,830 miles. That piece of land you’re looking at. Just so you guys know the United States of America. I think it’s 3.2 million square miles. As opposed to the Netherlands, I think is like 16,000 square miles. It really makes a difference because just culturally, you have to know everything is so different. The people are so different. The stuff you see on the news is not accurate at all. Cuz you can’t, you can’t pigeonhole this place. It’s a, it’s as silly as saying that there showing one white person in Kenya and saying that there’s white people who live the it’s a white country. It’s it’s just ridiculous. But we all do CrossFit and you can go into, and you can’t go into Chris’s gym and it will be the exact same, um, um, life saving, um, skills and fun and community that you’ll learn in. Uh, Matt SU’s 1800 miles away.
Chris Doster (11:49):
Hell yeah. I can’t even express how much fun has been listening to you. Uh, since I, I have to give a shout out to Hiller. You see, I got his shirt back
Sevan Matossian (12:00):
There as a, I know disgust me disgusted me <laugh>
Chris Doster (12:04):
I ordered one of your shirts just so you know, I gotta have that splash, the new splash one, the CEO splash shirt that you put out. Um, but no Hiller, the first time I tuned into your show live was the one that Hiller, I think it was the first time you had Hiller on
Sevan Matossian (12:22):
That’s. Why I’m friends with him to try to get some of his listeners
Chris Doster (12:24):
<laugh> <laugh> and yeah, that’s what happened. Like I was, I kind of got reeled in on his stuff and some of those videos, he was putting up of people just not reaching standards and you know, he was, he was old school. Yeah. And I could tell he loved CrossFit and he cared and he wanted people to do better. And I’m like, mm-hmm <affirmative> yeah. I agree with this guy. Hell yeah, because I like to, yeah. I’m known as a rep Nazi around here as far as holding the standard, obviously, you know, not everybody, I have a 72 year old lady that comes here. That’s had a kidney and liver transplant, severely limited range of motion. She can’t get a full depth squat, but you know, she does what she can obviously. But as far as like in the open and some of these quarter finals and all that stuff, I was like, yeah, why are these people getting away with not, I, I made a big deal out of, after I started watching Hiller. We have these basketball hoops in our gym. Right. It’s an old school building.
Sevan Matossian (13:27):
Yeah. That’s a Beau. That’s a beautiful building by the way.
Chris Doster (13:29):
Yeah. That’s a little stage. We did a facelift and yeah, they’re I’m I have the computer on the old stage where they did school plays. Can I turn it around and
Sevan Matossian (13:41):
Yeah, sure. Hey, so you’re in a schoolhouse so that there’s a school all around you. There’s other buildings around you classrooms and
Chris Doster (13:47):
Oh no, it’s not. It’s the, yeah, they don’t have class here anymore. It’s they moved the, the actual school across town. They built a new building. This one was built in like 1970 or something.
Sevan Matossian (13:59):
But I mean the original classrooms are still there.
Chris Doster (14:01):
Oh yeah. Yeah. We used another classrooms down the hall for like fundamentals and personal training, but
Sevan Matossian (14:08):
This what other businesses are in there. What else? What, who do you share it with?
Chris Doster (14:11):
So this building is actually owned by a church. They bought it from the city for like $10,000 several years by 10 years ago.
Sevan Matossian (14:21):
Don’t you wanna own something like that? SU wouldn’t that be awesome to own a school elementary school? Holy
Chris Doster (14:26):
Shit. Yeah, it’d be super awesome. I’ve tried to buy it from the landlord because the rent I’ve paid. I’ve definitely paid for the building several times over. But uh, I hear that. So when I went to open a gym in Creston, uh, I did an, the newspaper did an article on me and I hadn’t found a spot yet a physical location. And the quote in the paper they put was if I don’t have, have a place by June 1st, we’re gonna start having classes at the park.
Sevan Matossian (14:56):
This is in 2014,
Chris Doster (14:57):
That was in 2014. And the, the landlord, the guy that owned the building, the pastor of the church called me and said, Hey, I got a building. And I went and talked to him and then, you know, signed a lease right away and got in here. And ever since then, it’s been a great place for us. It’s perfect for CrossFit, gym, tall ceilings. We can do 20 foot rope climbs if we go all the way to the top. But we go to the rafters, which is 15 feet. And
Sevan Matossian (15:22):
You got any people from the congregation at your church, I mean at your gym, from the church at your gym,
Chris Doster (15:26):
We have had lots of people from the church. Uh, the pastor and his wife came for quite a few years. They’re
Sevan Matossian (15:33):
Not first. Oh, that’s awesome.
Chris Doster (15:35):
Coming to CrossFit. But I think we have at least a few of the members from the church that come here. Um, but
Sevan Matossian (15:44):
Chris, Chris, how old are you?
Chris Doster (15:46):
I am 48. Trying to catch up with you.
Sevan Matossian (15:49):
Yeah, I’ll I’ll, I’ll stop for a second and let you catch up. Um, where were you, where were you born?
Chris Doster (15:55):
So Claire, Iowa, that small town. And then, yeah, I ended up moving down to this neck of the woods.
Sevan Matossian (16:03):
And um, do you have siblings?
Chris Doster (16:05):
I do. I have one brother and one sister. They’re just one year and two years younger than me.
Sevan Matossian (16:12):
Oh, close family. So close in age.
Chris Doster (16:14):
Yeah, absolutely. My brother’s an art professor up at university of Wisconsin lacrosse and my sister, uh, lives over in Iowa city and works for a radio station there. Yep.
Sevan Matossian (16:26):
Oh, well that’s good. That, that that’s uh, that’s good. You never want, I mean, every time I ask about people’s family, I never know what to expect, whether it’s so-and-so diet or so-and-so’s in jail, that’s the killer <laugh>
Chris Doster (16:38):
Overall, still doing good. I’m the only one that kind of went off the straight off the path for a while and yeah, CrossFit. I, I found myself before I found CrossFit, but, but CrossFit really helped me channel my inner, I don’t know, inner demons into something positive.
Sevan Matossian (17:00):
Um, and as a kid, did you play sports?
Chris Doster (17:02):
I did. Yep. I was, I was into basketball. Baseball was my best sport and I cross country. Uh, that’s about it.
Sevan Matossian (17:13):
Yeah. Cross country. Okay. And this is the reason why I asked that I listened to your story. I dug around and although CrossFit has played a huge role in your life and in your recovery and in your ability to give back to, uh, the humans on your fellow humans on planet earth, there was something that you had already instilled in you. Yeah. And that was your desire to use fitness as a distraction and as a healing tool to get away from drugs and alcohol. Absolutely. And so if, and, and it was, it was that, that you already had that led you to the, um, the cliche role that tons of addicts, um, do, which is awesome. They start running.
Chris Doster (17:57):
Yep.
Sevan Matossian (17:58):
Um, and, and then, and then you found, and then you found CrossFit and led you to business. So can I wanna go back to that a little bit to your youth and how, and talk about how your parents gave you that, did your parents insist, did your mom and dad insist that you do, uh, sports as a kid?
Chris Doster (18:14):
Um, well, yeah, we were, they were into sports for sure. And they, my mom was a pretty good athlete. My dad was a good athlete. We played sports together when we
Sevan Matossian (18:23):
Were even there, even there, you know, like, so like I did, I don’t even know about if my parents were good athletes.
Chris Doster (18:29):
Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (18:30):
Because I just, they’re just two people who worked and put food on the table. So even you had a good enough relationship to know that your parents were good athletes. I hope my kids can say that about me. Right. Yeah. My dad liked to work out a lot, you know? Okay, sorry, go on.
Chris Doster (18:43):
Yeah, no, I mean, my dad left us when I was pretty young, but my mom and some and uncle and a grandpa, they were pivotal and they were all, we were, you know, typical Midwestern family liked to watch baseball and football and basketball together and then play. Like, I would literally beg my sister and brother and uncles to come out and play basketball with me or baseball. I was always into playing sports when I was a kid, but they didn’t really stress exercising. I, I kind of got that. I read a book when I was in sixth or seventh grade and I just remember doing pushups and sit-ups at night every night thinking that was cool. And then I was, I could tell it was making me stronger. Pretty sure. I was trying to get laid in seventh grade and I thought more pushups
Sevan Matossian (19:28):
Late, or just maybe like one girl talk to you. Like I just wanted, yeah. I, I didn’t have goals like that. I was just like, well,
Chris Doster (19:36):
Someone talk to me. Yeah. Right. I had, no, I wouldn’t have known what to do if said, Hey, <laugh>,
Sevan Matossian (19:42):
Isn’t it weird. We didn’t even know what to do now that now that’s why kids can’t get phones. Kids now know what to do with girls when I was a sixth grader. It’s like, if they would, if someone, if one of them would just like bump into me in the hallway, I’ll fucking be stoked.
Chris Doster (19:56):
In seventh grade, I did have a girlfriend for a week or two. And
Sevan Matossian (20:01):
Did you hold her hands? Did you hold her hand?
Chris Doster (20:03):
He held hands walking to the lunchroom. I remember it. And I was just like, I don’t know what to do. Do next. This is too much pressure. I got break up.
Sevan Matossian (20:11):
<laugh> oh yeah. I’m outta. This is too good. I don’t deserve this
Chris Doster (20:13):
Shit. This is movie too fast for me. <laugh>
Sevan Matossian (20:17):
Where did your, where did your dad go? Why did your dad leave?
Chris Doster (20:20):
He was an alcoholic and he kind of just traveled all over the country. He hitch, hiked and ended up in Florida for a while. He would show back up periodically.
Sevan Matossian (20:30):
What was his drink?
Chris Doster (20:32):
Uh, vodka is what he kind of, when he went, when he was on a hard bender, he would go to the straight vodka, mad dog, 20, 20 ever heard of that stuff. Oh shit. <laugh> yeah.
Sevan Matossian (20:43):
<laugh> that was that a, is that a malt liquor? Is that like a, was that like, Mickey’s
Chris Doster (20:47):
They call it a, it’s kind of like a wine. It’s a cheap wine, but it’s higher alcohol, you know, it’s cheap content. They
Sevan Matossian (20:54):
Had different flavors. There’s all the it’s basically made for addicts.
Chris Doster (20:58):
Yes, absolutely. Thunderbird. You’ve heard of Thunderbird haven’t you? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. It’s kind of the, yeah. When you mad dog, 20, 20 addict and drunk.
Sevan Matossian (21:08):
And now, and now, and now Pete kids are drinking kombucha kombuchas. Yeah,
Chris Doster (21:13):
Exactly.
Sevan Matossian (21:14):
Did you, did you, what kind of, um, drunk was your dad? Was he violent? Was he loving? Was he,
Chris Doster (21:18):
He was actually not violent at all. He was, I mean, he was little thank times because I remember being in the car with them and he was driving when he was swerving. And we like, I mean, scared kind of scared for our life as pretty young kids at times. But you know, my mom made sure I just remember that happening a couple times. And she was basically like, Hey, you can’t be around your kids anymore when you’re drinking, because you’re putting ’em in danger. And eventually they split ways for good. And we moved to the big city of Des Moines, Iowa when I was in eighth grade.
Sevan Matossian (21:54):
Um, was that hard on you? Did you love your dad? Is, is that, is that like a whole fuck, this sucks.
Chris Doster (22:00):
I did. I loved him and I, I tried to look at the, the good things. He, he gave me when he was around and he was sober. He died a couple years ago from drinking.
Sevan Matossian (22:13):
Yeah. Liver, the liver kicked out,
Chris Doster (22:15):
Uh, pancrea OUS. And I’m not even quite sure what all gave out. You know, he was alone in his apartment. It was kind of sad, but
Sevan Matossian (22:24):
Kids, kids love their dad. There’s there’s not very many people who like, you’ll be taking a shit on the toilet and your kids will come in and just talk to you. Like, they don’t give a shit. That’s like true love. You know what I mean? Like my kids don’t care. Like I’ll be taking a shit and they all three come in there and telling me like the stuff that they need. I’m like, yo, I’m taking a shit. They’re like, wait, fuck. Like it stinks in here. They’re like, yeah, you’re cool. We like you. I’m like, fuck, this is, yeah.
Chris Doster (22:45):
I think that’s so cool, man. I’ve seen a little bit of your relationship with your kids. One of ’em is a skateboarder,
Sevan Matossian (22:50):
Right? Yeah. All of them. All of them. All of ’em. Yeah.
Chris Doster (22:53):
I got a son, two sons, one of them’s really into skateboarding. And
Sevan Matossian (22:57):
So when you lose your dad, it sucks.
Chris Doster (23:01):
Yeah. I mean, I’ve had to do some work around that to make sure I don’t let that haunt me as an adult, but I have. And it’s, it’s all good. I know he is. I know he is rooting for me somewhere. Yeah. I’m not a Christian so to speak, but I still like to believe him and my grandpa and my uncle, some real strong, positive male role models that have passed on or up there somewhere saying Chris you’re doing great.
Sevan Matossian (23:28):
And, and grandpa too.
Chris Doster (23:31):
Yeah. Grandpa was a drinker. He wasn’t a, I don’t, he wasn’t like my dad. I mean, I think he was fairly healthy in that respect, but I know he was with his drinking. He was a hard working dude and instilled a lot of good things in me. Honestly, he was, he was more of a father figure than my dad was.
Sevan Matossian (23:51):
I remember what’s something good. What’s something good. Yeah. Tell me what. Yeah.
Chris Doster (23:55):
I was 19 years old totaled the first car that I ever bought with my own money, ran into a bridge, drunk, totaled the car. Somehow walked out of the car. Dang. Not unscathed. Went to jail for DUI and oh, spent,
Sevan Matossian (24:11):
How did they catch you? How did they catch you?
Chris Doster (24:13):
I was kind of, well, I was walking around the outside of the car and pretty dazed, almost in a blackout honestly. And, uh, cops and some friend of mine showed up. I don’t know how they <laugh> were there. It was like one or two in the morning, but went to jail, got out, kind of was dodging my mom for a while. Cause I didn’t wanna tell her what happened. And when I came back home, my grandpa was there sitting at the kitchen table. He didn’t live with us. He lived ways away and he’d traveled up there. My mom called and I was like, oh shit, I’m in for it. I was probably actually I was 18. It was the summer after I graduated and, and to make a long story short, he just said, son, some people can handle the sauce. And some people can’t handle the sauce. You’re one of the ones that can’t handle the sauce. <laugh> wow. And I was like,
Sevan Matossian (25:06):
I had some old school talking.
Chris Doster (25:08):
Yeah. <laugh> and I wish I would’ve listened to him, but it took me another about 10 years to, to realize that I needed to give up all the drinking and the drugs and, and start exercising.
Sevan Matossian (25:22):
And what, what drugs did you do?
Chris Doster (25:24):
Everything. Everything. I never injected heroin. I guess that’s the one thing it’s hard to find in the Midwest. <laugh>
Sevan Matossian (25:35):
And this was in, um, 1999, 2000, right? The turn of the century.
Chris Doster (25:41):
Yeah, around then I fi I got clean and sober for good. In 2003, 2004, when my oldest son was about two years old and I’ve had soul custody of him and raised him on my own. That’s been, he’s been my hero dude. Like he’s been the miracle in my life that I was like, okay, I need to grow the fuck up. He doesn’t have a mom. His mom’s been out of his life since he was two. If he’s only got one parent, that one parent better be a pretty good parent.
Sevan Matossian (26:11):
Yeah. Mm-hmm
Chris Doster (26:12):
<affirmative> so
Sevan Matossian (26:13):
Honestly, what, what year did you, what year was he born?
Chris Doster (26:15):
He was born in 2001 in Kansas. I was down in Topeka, Kansas. The worst town you’d ever wanna live in <laugh>
Sevan Matossian (26:23):
So at that point you’re uh, 20 you’re. 26.
Chris Doster (26:27):
Yep. Yeah. And he came along and that kind of changed the trajectory of my life. I’d say
Sevan Matossian (26:35):
When you were 18 and you, and you had get in that accident, is that the first time that you, um, have a run in with the, the, the law?
Chris Doster (26:42):
No,
Sevan Matossian (26:43):
No,
Chris Doster (26:43):
That was probably the sixth or seventh time. I <laugh>, that was shake nothing like a DUI like that, but I, yeah, the, the police knew me well in Johnston, Iowa, where I grew up.
Sevan Matossian (26:56):
Uh, did you ever do any time?
Chris Doster (26:59):
No hard, no. 10 day sentence for my second DUI, long enough to realize that jail will break a man’s spirit.
Sevan Matossian (27:07):
Yeah. 10 days. Yep. That’s that’s a good little taste. That’s a good little taste. And, and when you say that, so alcohol, cocaine, speed, um, uh, marijuana was marijuana just like nonstop. Like that was just the baseline, like wake up and smoke or
Chris Doster (27:21):
When, yeah, up to probably 27, 28. And then when I really got hooked on some opiates and hard and harder stuff, marijuana didn’t make me feel as good as it used to. It kind of made me paranoid and yeah. So
Sevan Matossian (27:36):
That’s why I quit smoking weed made me paranoid. And, and how about nicotine? Did you fuck with nicotine?
Chris Doster (27:41):
I did. That was a real bitch to quit. I actually held onto that habit, chewing tobacco and some cigarettes after I got off all the drugs and it took me another year or two to finally I was going to school. I went back to college for health and human performance. And here I was chewing tobacco and I’m like, damn, I’m a hypocrite trying to learn how to get healthy and help other people be healthy. And, and you’re doing something that most likely will give you cancer.
Sevan Matossian (28:06):
God though nicotine is so fucking nice.
Chris Doster (28:09):
<laugh> I went back and forth so many times on that. Me
Sevan Matossian (28:13):
Too. Me too. Yeah. I, I, I was smoking clothes, uh, in, uh, in, um, American spirits, like a pack a day and then crossing came into my life and it was like, fuck, like these two, I, I, I just wanted to be better at CrossFit. And I knew this other thing was holding me back <laugh> you know what I mean? And it was, it wasn’t like, even that I wanted to quit, it was just like, Hey, I’m not gonna get better at this. If I don’t quit this
Chris Doster (28:35):
That’s back when you were pursuing the games or what?
Sevan Matossian (28:38):
No, I was never pursuing the games. I was just pursuing, not being a tub of shit. Like I just wanted one girl to ti tell it never happened, but I just wanted someone, one person to be like, you have a nice body, just one <laugh>
Chris Doster (28:50):
I feel you.
Sevan Matossian (28:52):
I feel you.
Sevan Matossian (28:54):
So, so you’re, um, tell me about how you met and, and I heard you say this in the, in, in, in the, in the interview you did with the fucking great Mike Warton, by the way. Yeah. That is a huge sign. That CrossFit HQ, God, Chris, Cooper’s gonna hate me for this. You could ask anyone in the CrossFit space, anyone who’s the greatest CrossFit employee who ever lived. And Mike Orton’s on the top 10 list. How they have not hired him, he will save your entire fucking company. Ask Nicole Carroll. She knows. Ask Dave Castro, ask James Hobart, ask, ask to Molly, ask anyone, ask someone who hates my guts, ask someone who loves me. Mike Workington you need to offer him. I don’t know, three 50 a year. Just steal him from fucking, um, Chris <laugh> put him him in charge of everything forward facing at CrossFit HQ. He, one of Chris Cooper is no dummy. Well, Chris Cooper too. Well, they should just get him and make him the CEO. But if I’m the investor, that’s what I do. If I got 50 million in this company or a hundred million or 200 million, I, I make Chris Cooper, Dave castor, or Nicole, Carol, the CEO save.
The above transcript is generated using AI technology and therefore may contain errors.
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