#555 – CrossFit Dynasty, Affiliate Series Ep. 3 | Hunter McIntyre

Sevan Matossian (00:02):

And bam, just like that. We’re live.

Sherman Merricks (00:05):

Cool.

Sevan Matossian (00:09):

Hey, I was, I had this, this guest talk. Hi Goodman.

Sherman Merricks (00:14):

I can’t hear you. Let me see. Hold on.

Sevan Matossian (00:17):

That’s my favorite kind of guest.

Sherman Merricks (00:19):

Oh,

Sevan Matossian (00:20):

I’ll get my coffee while you can’t hear me

Sherman Merricks (00:23):

There. There we go. I got it. Uh, we’re good. We’re good. We’re good.

Sevan Matossian (00:29):

Uh, I had this, uh, good to see you, dude.

Sherman Merricks (00:31):

Good to see you, right.

Sevan Matossian (00:33):

It’s uh, it’s always, it’s it’s always weird to like, know these people and then you see ’em like every six months or a year, and then you’re like, oh, they are real

Sherman Merricks (00:40):

<laugh> I know exactly. Yeah,

Sevan Matossian (00:41):

They are real it it’s it’s the, um, our world is so different with, uh, digital technology. Can you imagine, like a hundred years ago, you might not see someone for fucking 20 years, and even though I might not see you for 20 years in person, I can still get to see you every day. It’s

Sherman Merricks (00:56):

A trend. I, it is definitely, uh, I mean, you know how it is definitely strange with, with digital tech and then like you see all these people and then you may meet someone for the first time in real life, but it feels like I already know this dude we’ve been talking for years now.

Sevan Matossian (01:13):

Right. Um, my dad told me about this. Um, my dad, uh, is 82 and he grew up in this village, um, in Lebanon and, and there was, you know, they didn’t have toilets or electricity or phones or any of that shit. And, and they, he lived in a, uh, 10 by 10 foot concrete, um, home, uh, you know, no running water, no electricity. And the whole family was in there, the nine brothers and sisters and, and the, and the mom and dad just crazy. Right. Just hardcore different kind of living than were used to. And he said that they had relatives that were a few miles away. And so if you wanted to go see those relatives, the whole family would just start walking there. <laugh> and, and, and, and he, but he also said like nine outta 10 times, you run into them while they were coming to your house. But there was no one you couldn’t call. You couldn’t make plans. You couldn’t like,

Sherman Merricks (02:03):

Oh man,

Sevan Matossian (02:04):

Now I can text you. Hey, I’m five minutes from your house. Hey, I’m three minutes from your house. Hey, I’m at your front door. Hey, I’m at the store. You want me to pick something up?

Sherman Merricks (02:11):

Exactly.

Sevan Matossian (02:13):

I, I would rather have had both experiences than only this one. I’m I’m I’m I’m glad I was born in 1972.

Sherman Merricks (02:20):

See, I was born in 83, so

Sevan Matossian (02:22):

<laugh> but, but I mean, you, you still know the world before. Um, I mean, there was a time when you were born, there were only three, three channels.

Sherman Merricks (02:30):

Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I mean, there was a time once you leave the house, I mean, no one can get in contact with you.

Sevan Matossian (02:35):

It’s just, yeah. Like AAA was God, do you remember that? Oh, I have a AAA card. If my car breaks down, you don’t even see cars broken down anymore.

Sherman Merricks (02:43):

No, you don’t. You don’t, you don’t. Nope. <laugh>

Sevan Matossian (02:48):

You met, do you remember that? There’d be like a hill by your house somewhere and you’d be like, yep. I know some, you know, there’s gonna be someone on the side of the road with their hood open just on, on any hill anywhere

Sherman Merricks (02:58):

<laugh> yep.

Sevan Matossian (03:00):

Steam coming out. Some lady who has no business taken off the fucking radiator cap.

Sherman Merricks (03:04):

Yeah. Or me. Yeah.

Sevan Matossian (03:08):

Uh, you are looking at Sherman, uh, Merricks with a, with an S owner of, um, dynasty CrossFit, but that’s kind of, is, is that old news to you now? You’ve moved on last time I talked to you, you were running a marketing company, right?

Sherman Merricks (03:21):

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I still, uh, I still own the gym, so it’s not really old, old thing. Um, I don’t coach in the gym, uh, but I still own the gym still involved in the gym. Uh, but I also own lasso framework marketing. Primarily we primarily work with, um, you know, affiliates, not necessarily, I shouldn’t say affiliates, not necessarily CrossFit affiliates. We that’s most of our clientele, but we work with small studio type gyms and we help them with their paid social media marketing. Um, but for us of all, like, we’re not the whole, uh, you know, 30 members in 30 days stuff. That’s really not us. We’re not gonna, you know, we don’t promise that we’re gonna save someone business. You know, if this is the last shot, we really don’t work with Jims like that. But, um, but yeah, we help Jims grow basically to get out there in front of, you know, more people.

Sevan Matossian (04:15):

How, how long have you owned dynasty Sherman?

Sherman Merricks (04:18):

Uh, since what? 2011. So about 10, 11 years. Something like that. Yeah.

Sevan Matossian (04:28):

And how has your impression, and this question might be too broad, feel free to fucking land in, on any little timeframe. How has your impression of what you were running changed? Like does an affiliate change like a kid, like you get a kid home and it’s just like keep feces off of them and keep ’em fed, you know? Yeah. And, and then now when they’re 12, like I saw your sons as tall as your wife taller than your wife now, now it’s like, okay, keep them focused and away from cigarettes, you know what I mean? Like, does that happen? Does the affiliate change like that too?

Sherman Merricks (05:02):

Um, I, I think so. Um, my affiliate,

Sevan Matossian (05:08):

Like it’s like an example would be like, get new clients versus now it’s keep clients workouts super fit versus now maybe stay healthy and not injured or, or just some shit like that.

Sherman Merricks (05:19):

Exactly. That’s the biggest thing. Right? When we first, when I first started, when I personally first started CrossFit, what 13, 14 years ago, it was basically us, you know, being online I’m in Florida. So being on Eastern time at we’re jumping on me and my buddies trying to call each other, we’re looking at what the workout of the day is. And then we’re like, Hey, we’ll meet you tomorrow at three o’clock we’re gonna do, whatever’s written, you know, five by five back, what, all right, we gotta go heavy. We’re gonna hang out for an hour or so and do it. Um, now, you know, and when I was working out back then it was all about performance, right? That’s the only thing that matter. Didn’t matter how you look, no one cared about, can you, how heavy can you look? How fast can you go?

Sherman Merricks (05:58):

Now? It’s totally about, um, you know, I shouldn’t say totally. It’s really about, Hey, I’m trying to lose weight. I’m trying to feel better. You know, uh, you know, I’ve never done this. I want to do that. So it’s a totally different clientele. Now. I always tell people back when we first started, it was sort of like fight club. Right. You know, talk about it. If you show up and you survive, you can join. If you don’t survive, I guess you can’t join now. Like we’ve, we’ve definitely changed things dramatically. Right. Um, when folks are coming in, we have tons of different type of people, tons of overweight people, you know, moms that have dads that have never worked out before walking into our affiliate for the first time, you know, and that just wouldn’t happen 11 years ago. Like it just wasn’t

Sevan Matossian (06:43):

H how old are you now?

Sherman Merricks (06:46):

I’m

Sevan Matossian (06:47):

39, 39 39. And so you opened your affiliate when you were 28, which, which for a man is kind of his prime.

Sherman Merricks (06:53):

Yeah.

Sevan Matossian (06:54):

His peak physical. Uh, and so that would make sense also that that’s where you were at and that’s where the business was at.

Sherman Merricks (07:02):

Yep, yep, exactly. Exactly.

Sevan Matossian (07:06):

I think Greg knew in 2003, um, or in 2000, whenever that CrossFit was for everyone, but, but the, but the original videos we got, because, you know, they would only release a video once a week or whatever. We were lucky if we got pictures, I guess it made sense. They always showed us the biggest and brightest peacock in the yard. So we saw Josh Everett. Yep. Annie Sakamoto, Greg Ahmanson. And then, and then it wasn’t until like every few months then you’d see like some old dude jumping over like a 70 year old dude jumping over a, a bar and you’d do kinda like, yay. Cool. Okay. Cause we want more Greg Gomon.

Sherman Merricks (07:41):

Yep. Uh, I agree. And like, it’s funny, right? That you mentioned, uh, Josh Everett, cuz uh, we go back and forth all the time now on social media cuz he’s really into that. No debt life. Like I am so, uh, like

Sevan Matossian (07:54):

It was he’s really into what, say it again,

Sherman Merricks (07:56):

Um, you know, like the no debt life, you know, nothing.

Sevan Matossian (07:59):

Oh, right, right, right.

Sherman Merricks (08:01):

So we really into that. So we, we sort of connected a couple years ago and you know, it was sort of surreal for me because that was the original him, Robinson, those guy, they was the original. And I was just like, now I can’t believe this dude is talking to me. Now we go back and forth. And, but people that, you know, like I’m always surprised most people that I talk to now that haven’t been around long, like they don’t even know who Sakamoto is. They don’t know about Chris clever. They don’t know. I’m just like, you guys don’t know, like the <laugh> like, that’s the, like that was sort of that what started everything, you know, I would’ve never been a competitor and all that without really watching those guys and girls do that incredible stuff.

Sevan Matossian (08:41):

Did you have dreams to go to the games when you were 28?

Sherman Merricks (08:44):

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Um, so I went to regionals in 2014. Um, and then when I went to regionals for me, um, just the way I’m wired, it was like, it was great experience. Um, but it was, but it was hard work, man. It was a ton of hard work. Um, and I’m a team player. I grew up playing basketball. So the working out alone for multiple hours per day, for couple years in a row, I didn’t like it. So when I went to regionals, um, I was toward the bottom of the pack and I was just like, yeah, this isn’t like this isn’t for me. Right. Like not this, like not this level of competing. Right. Like not this level of competing. So, um, yeah. So, uh, I went to regionals, did some, you know, did some of those big competitions, but I was just like, this isn’t for me. So I only went to regionals once. And that was the last time I actually did a competition in 2014. <laugh>

Sevan Matossian (09:45):

A, a and you, you actually opened the brick and mortar location in 2011, like that was your first

Sherman Merricks (09:53):

Y yeah. Yeah. So we started off in my garage and then some people complaining, we got kicked out of the garage, so then I

Sevan Matossian (10:01):

Had to go, okay. I remember,

Sherman Merricks (10:02):

So then I had to go lease a space, a little small, um, space somewhere. So it was our first brick and mortar about 2011. Yeah. Yep.

Sevan Matossian (10:10):

What, what year was the first year you got a client that, um, that, that, that basically needed help with everything and by everything, I mean even the, uh, what was the first year? Oh God. And if you change more, what was the first year you got a scared client? Like, I’m guessing most of the people, most of us who did CrossFit, we like jumped in and we were so excited. Yeah. But, but at some point, right, you have to get a client where someone’s like dragging their mom there. Right. Or, yeah. Your neighbor comes over and they’re scared even to do an air squat.

Sherman Merricks (10:45):

Yeah. I, I would say probably a coup. So I was in my first little space that I rented for about a couple years. So I would say probably about a year and a half before that happened, because when we first started, right. Like people would come in and they weren’t afraid. And they were so tough that we, we would put ’em through like a baseline workout and they would crush ’em, but they were so prideful. They wanted to be in so bad that they would leave the gym and drive down the road and throw up on side of the road when they wouldn’t throw up in front of me. Right. They were like, no, I can do this, but I would say, or

Sevan Matossian (11:15):

They’d be, they’d be sore for a month.

Sherman Merricks (11:17):

Yeah. So I would say probably about a year and a half, some folks start coming in that needed to, Hey, like I’m terrified of this, but I’ve seen some results. Like, can I do this? It’s like, yeah, you can. And then we have to figure out how to really scale it way down and all of that stuff, you know, that’s when I would say, so probably about 20 13, 20 12, 20 13, when we started really just seeing people, just looking for different things. But they were, they were few and far between though. Like, it’s not like now. Right. It’s not like now, but back then, you know, some of what pop, I wanna say around that time, we had someone that did, like, we helped someone lose about 80, 90 pounds, you know?

Sevan Matossian (11:58):

Wow.

Sherman Merricks (11:59):

A couple years in or so this dude was like, he started personal training with me. And the only thing that we would do for his hour is walk. That’s it. That’s all we did. Like we would walk, we didn’t work out. We didn’t, we walked four an hour. I was like, man, like we can do a little

Sevan Matossian (12:14):

Bit more. Hey. And, and how did, how did you handle that? Did you, were you tripping? Were you like, fuck this isn’t right. I should be doing more for him or I wish were doing some, were you tripping? How did you know to do that?

Sherman Merricks (12:24):

Yeah. So in the beginning, like when I met him, he was like, I don’t want to be embarrassed. Right. He like, I don’t wanna be embarrassed. I was like, all right. I was like, no problem. I was like, well, we’re gonna do personal training. So it’ll just be me and you. So you’re not gonna be embarrassed. Um, I was like, well, we’ll start off slow. I was like, what are you doing for fitness? He I’m not doing anything. I was like, all, I was like, we’re gonna start off real. Well, I was like, we’ll start off. Probably just walking, man, maybe doing some dumbbell stuff. Maybe he was like, whatever you say, like I trust you. And um, yeah. I mean, if I’m being honest in the beginning, it was a little weird, right. Dude’s paying 75, $80 an hour for me to go on a walk with him. Right. But he wasn’t gonna do it by himself. And he knew that.

Sevan Matossian (13:05):

Right. I knew that.

Sherman Merricks (13:06):

So he was just walking talk <laugh> and then, you know, slowly started adding stuff and all of that. So yeah, it was pretty cool, but yeah, it was sort of terrific, you know,

Sevan Matossian (13:16):

Hey, um, when, when my, when my, my kid takes piano and, and the teacher’s like 50 bucks for a half hour or something. And now that I think about it in the early days, the first year he took piano, I’m like, that’s $50 because it’s just, it’s like, he’s teaching a five year old. Like, and now that he’s seven, he gets so much more for that. And he is been playing piano for two years. He gets so much more for that 50 bucks.

Sherman Merricks (13:41):

Yeah.

Sevan Matossian (13:42):

Yeah. But in the, the <laugh> in the early days, it’s like after half hour, he still doesn’t know where to put his hands, let alone play a fucking note.

Sherman Merricks (13:50):

Yep.

Sevan Matossian (13:51):

Well, and so, and so I guess it’s like that. And is that guy, what did that guy, did that guy leave you when he left you? Could he do a pull up?

Sherman Merricks (13:58):

No, no, no, no. He still bigger guy. He hung around for, he hung around for a couple, few years or so. Um, he just ended up stopping him because of work and blah, blah, blah. Um, and yeah, I still have contact with him, but I don’t think he’s, I know he’s not working out. Like he used to be and all of that stuff, but he couldn’t do a pull up, but he could, but, but he could actually run. He could actually do things, you know, he could actually do things. So it was a drastic, different drastic.

Sevan Matossian (14:26):

I mean, if you te if you teach a, if a, if a 60 year old gets a pull up man or woman for the first time in their life, their whole life has changed.

Sherman Merricks (14:34):

Oh my gosh. Whole entire life. And

Sevan Matossian (14:38):

Yeah.

Sherman Merricks (14:39):

I mean, that’s why I think it’s so impressive when we see those masters athletes at the games, right. The, the stuff that they do. And I’m just like, man, there’s there’s 20 year olds in my gyms that, that can’t do pullups and muscle up and squat, their body weighting, these

Sevan Matossian (14:57):

Sherman. I remember getting my first pull up with more, um, detail than, uh, losing my virginity. And I lost my virginity sober to my girlfriend of three years as, as the, you know, at 18. Yeah. But, but I re but, but I don’t really remember it so good. Um, but I remember being a 24 year old man in, in the backyard with some of my friends and one of my friends te finally like getting me to do a pull up. I couldn’t fucking believe it changed my life. My whole perception of myself changed.

Sherman Merricks (15:32):

Yeah. I believe <laugh>. I believe

Sevan Matossian (15:35):

You, you walk around, you walk around for 23 years, um, uh, thinking you’re less than other men, but you kind of start to embody it and you don’t think, you know what I mean? I’m not like, oh, I’m less than Sherman, but the day I get that pull up and you can do a pull up. I realize, oh, I had been walking around with that mindset. Yeah. That I was a, I was a less man than you because I couldn’t do it. Even though I didn’t really know it.

Sherman Merricks (15:58):

No, like, uh, like the first, my buddy that introduced me, um, my buddy that introduced me to CrossFit. I remember the first time I went to his house, he invited me, oh, I didn’t know. It was CrossFit back then. He was like, Hey, we gotta out. And I don’t know what workout we did. But he had like a, he had like a heavy kettlebell, I would say it’s probably 53 pounds. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. And I remember he was swinging that thing and I’m not exaggerated. I went over and picked it up. Mm-hmm <affirmative> like, there’s no way I can swing. Like, how could, like, how can he swing this? Right.

Sevan Matossian (16:30):

Like, yeah. Like it would throw you across the room. You’re like that doesn’t the physics of that don’t even make sense.

Sherman Merricks (16:36):

Exactly. Exactly, exactly. Exactly. I was thinking like, man, he do like this dude, here’s a rock star. He’s a, you know, he’s older than I am. How can he do this? I can’t do it. And then he was, you know, he would just say, give it time. You’ll pass me. Give it time. Trust me. And sure enough, you know? Yeah.

Sevan Matossian (16:53):

How, how on on, is it hard? How would you rate, um, uh, running a gym, keeping a gym open for more than 10 years. Is it hard? It is hard.

Sherman Merricks (17:06):

Hard. I, I tell everyone it’s

Sevan Matossian (17:08):

Why do you still do it? If I’m gonna ask you that afterwards, tell me, okay, it’s hard. Why is it hard?

Sherman Merricks (17:12):

It’s hard because most of us that start off, we don’t understand. We didn’t have a business background. Right? So we get into it for all the right reasons. But with all the wrong understanding, you know, we don’t understand profit and margin. You have to make money from, this is if this is your sole thing. So like something that I did to sort of light a fire up under me years ago is that my wife went on maternity leave with our second child. When she did that, I quit my job. And I was like, Hey, we’re gonna give this a shot. I think we can make it worse.

Sevan Matossian (17:48):

Your wife’s on maternity, leaving. You quit your job.

Sherman Merricks (17:50):

Exactly. I was like, I’m quit because that’ll light a fire in front of me. Like, we don’t have any like fallback plan. Right? Like I

Sevan Matossian (18:00):

Can’t come

Sherman Merricks (18:01):

And say, Hey, we need $10,000 to get us old for this is it. So like, I remember that specifically. And you know, the reason is so hard because so many of us just really don’t understand what it takes to grow a business. Um, the amount of dedication it takes on the front end to really build something special. Right. To build that foundation. I mean, you like in our fitness, right? Like everyone thinks like, oh, like I see whoever do this workout. I should be able to do it, but they don’t look at all the, that work they’ve done to get that foundation. And I, I don’t think many of us understand the amount of works. It takes to, uh, build a strong foundation to build a great business. Like I really don’t

Sevan Matossian (18:43):

When, um, I just drove my van down to Los Angeles. I bought my van in 2016. Let’s say it’s a min minivan. Yeah. Well my, well, my wife had the twins. Um, and uh, if my wife, if, if my van was a business, no, like it is so fucking dirty. It smells bad inside. It’s so dirty. There’s, there’s just shoes everywhere. There’s no matter every day. It’s like, I have to walk over to it with the trash can and throw stuff away. Whether it’s wipes or a rapper of something or stick the dog chewed up in there, or like a toy they broke or there’s just, it’s just nonstop. Right? Yeah. I don’t know that place. Um, if it were a business, it would’ve failed. Yeah. Like, like no one would want, no one would want to, no one would ever wants to ride in my, no one wants to ride in my van except my kids. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. Like it, it barely, it’s only good for driving dirty kids around in. It has no, but, but your business can’t be like that. You can’t buy it brand new. Like you could lose a client the one day you take off from cleaning, your bathroom could be the day the client goes in there and, and stops in that and cancels the membership cuz of something you sees in there doesn’t like, right. There’s no,

Sherman Merricks (19:57):

Yeah.

Sevan Matossian (19:57):

You’re in a bad mood and you and you, and you’re rude to a client you don’t even mean to be. And they’re like, fuck you, I’m gone,

Sherman Merricks (20:03):

Done, done,

Sevan Matossian (20:05):

Done. And you don’t even know. And you don’t even know you’re rude. It’s because like someone yelled at you on the way to work

Sherman Merricks (20:09):

Done. And you know, people, you know, like this is a,

Sevan Matossian (20:12):

And they’re never like, oh, Sherman’s probably just having a bad day. They’re like, fuck him. I pay him 200 bucks a month. Fuck that dude. He didn’t, he didn’t say hi to me.

Sherman Merricks (20:19):

I mean,

Sevan Matossian (20:20):

Right.

Sherman Merricks (20:21):

That’s the way it is. I mean, this is a people business, right? Like this is not like these, these affiliates, aren’t like, you know, opening up a gas station or whatever. Right? Like you dealing with the people. So like you, you know, like you say, if you, you come in there and tell someone to shut up, cuz you’re having a bad, they like shut up and leave me alone. They’re not paying you for another month. Right. Like they’re done. Right. Like you’re not gonna right. But on the flip side you can go to whole foods and cashier or bag could be rude to you. You go, you may report ’em but you’re gonna come back to whole foods.

Sevan Matossian (20:53):

Oh, you’re coming back for sure. Yes.

Sherman Merricks (20:55):

Yeah. Right. So

Sevan Matossian (20:57):

They’re rude to you a hundred times and you’re still like, and then you’re trying to be nice to them. Isn’t that crazy? When you go to a restaurant, I feel like 50% of the time when I’m dealing with, um, uh, people who are in the service industry, I have to win them over. Like I’m sitting at a table, I have the money, but I’m trying to be nice. I’m trying to engage you. I’m trying to be nice to you more than you’re trying to be nice to me. So you don’t spit my food when it should be. You trying to get a tip from me.

Sherman Merricks (21:21):

Listen. There’s so it’s funny you say that. Cause that’s one of my big things. Um, I don’t mind paying folks. I don’t mind tipping folks and stuff, but when I’m paying you, you work for me. Like my wife and I were building a custom home right now I building a home, blah, blah, blah. And like, we go into this thing and like, I’m like, I love the, I, I love the builders we’re working with and all of that. But they work for me. So my wife, she be like, I want this. And I’m like, I be like, yeah, tell ’em, well, I don’t wanna know. Hey, like we’re spending way too much money. They work for us. Like they work for us. And same thing you’re saying like, when I go to a restaurant, I want topnotch service because I’m paying you. Like, you’re not paying me to be here.

Sherman Merricks (22:00):

If you don’t wanna be here, that’s fine. Hey, give me like, find me someone else that’s gonna serve me. Um, that’s gonna serve me correctly. I’m I’m paying like I’m paying. Yeah. Yeah. But so many people that are afraid to say like, you know, there’s so many people that wouldn’t say that like, well, you can’t say that they’re they, they have to act better because you’re paying them. Yes I can. I’m paying them like, right. Like that’s how it works. Like you work, you are working for me. So I’m going to pay you appropriately based on your service. So you, you better make sure it’s right.

Sevan Matossian (22:33):

And you worked hard for that money.

Sherman Merricks (22:35):

Exactly. Exactly.

Sevan Matossian (22:38):

So, yeah. Um, I I’ll I’ll I remember one time, uh, Greg told me, he said, um, money is human energy. So like, I, you pay me 50 bucks and I use my human energy to teach your kid how to play basketball.

Sherman Merricks (22:53):

Yeah.

Sevan Matossian (22:54):

And that’s why, that’s why stealing from people. So gnarly. Cuz you’re stealing a little bit of their you’re stealing their it’s like a video game. You’re stealing their energy or like you, you break someone’s car window and, and, and um, uh, yesterday Mike, one of my kids lost a, a ring that he had and it was $16. He had bought it at like some beach store. And of course it killed me when he bought it. Yeah. Like what a fucking waste of money for this. But, but I’m just like biting inside of my cheeks being like, Hey, I, I remember what it’s like to be a kid. Like, just be cool. And I told him, I said, Hey, I wouldn’t take that ring to the beach. It’s gonna fall off. You’re gonna lose in the sand. Of course he loses it and he’s crying. And I, and I, and as much as I’m trying to just be like, I’m so sorry you lost the ring. That’s a tough break. That’s what happens with objects. They come and go in your life. I also explained to ’em like, Hey dude, that’s um, that’s 16, one hour workouts. You did. Cuz he, if he works out, I give him a dollar.

Sherman Merricks (23:47):

Got you.

Sevan Matossian (23:48):

And it’s like that’s 16, 16, 1 hour workouts. You just

Sherman Merricks (23:53):

Yeah.

Sevan Matossian (23:56):

Gone. What do you think? Um, do, uh, CrossFit, what do you think about what’s going on? Um, did you worry about the mothership very much at all? They got a new CEO. Have you? He he’s done some interviews.

Sherman Merricks (24:07):

I haven’t, I haven’t even been keeping up with it if

Sevan Matossian (24:11):

I’m being honest. No, not at all.

Sherman Merricks (24:12):

Not at all. Like I’ll like I’ll, I’ll tune in a little bit of what couple people are saying, but what’s going on at HQ has so little to do as far as on the ground in the gym. Right. Like, so I just don’t waste my, like I just don’t have the time or energy to waste on that. Um, yeah. So I just don’t right.

Sevan Matossian (24:37):

Do you think it’s misplaced energy for, for all affiliates to worry about it? Do you think it, I don’t

Sherman Merricks (24:42):

Like I do not. I, I don’t think necessarily for all affiliates. Like my thing is, um, first of all, I still miss Glassman. I wanna meet Glassman. I’ve never met him, but like I think that some of that, you know, some of what Glassman brought to the table, like he let us understand that, Hey, you could really like stand up for what you believe in. And like, it’s okay if everyone doesn’t agree with it, it’s fine. There’s other options out there. Um, now I feel like we’re sort of turning to the, we have to make everyone happy and everyone has to agree with it or, you know, or just don’t say anything about it. Um, but some of these affiliates, right? Like if this is your primary income, this is your primary. Like if the fill it model were to shut down today, right. No more CrossFit is gone.

Sherman Merricks (25:36):

Uh, I don’t lose one second of sleep. Right. I don’t. But there are some people, even guys that have Uber successful, cause they may have two, three affiliate, its with three, 400 people. Um, you know, if the fill it model shuts down a gym, gym’s that big won’t be hurt that much. But there’s a lot of gyms if CrossFit shuts down, right. Like that throws a big ranch in their future projections. Right. Because um, they feel that people are coming to them specifically for CrossFit. Right. Like I, like, I do think there are some people that come to me specifically, specifically because my gym is called dynasty CrossFit. But I also think there are some people that don’t come to me specifically because my gym is dynasty CrossFit. Right. Um, but yeah, I, yeah, no, I just don’t keep up with that. I don’t like, I, I don’t keep up with any of

Sevan Matossian (26:27):

That. Okay. Um, is, is that a, um, more, um, seasoned business approach that you have you think? I,

Sherman Merricks (26:34):

I think so. I think so. I think so like this, this probably the man, like I’ve never been, um, like I missed the games this year when I say missed the games. Um, I didn’t watch it. Um, I like, I didn’t watch one second of it. Not, not, and not because I necessarily didn’t want to. Um, but as my anniversary, my wife and I, we were on vacation in the Caribbean and it sort of flipped my mind.

Sevan Matossian (27:00):

Oh, by the way, that looked really nice.

Sherman Merricks (27:03):

Yeah. Yeah. No, we had a great time, but like I wasn’t. So when I went

Sevan Matossian (27:07):

There, went to, you, went to sorry to interrupt. You went to Dominican Republic,

Sherman Merricks (27:10):

Correct? Correct.

Sevan Matossian (27:11):

Yeah.

Sherman Merricks (27:11):

Dominican Republic. So when I was

Sevan Matossian (27:13):

Go bring back to that. Yeah.

Sherman Merricks (27:14):

Like, so when I went there, my wife had her phone. When I had my phone, I sort of left my phone in the room most of the time. So like she would tell me, oh, the games are wrong. But then when we get busy, I just didn’t watch it. And I remember there was a time man that I wouldn’t miss one second of it. I mean, I would watch freaking every event in the world. So my love for CrossFit hasn’t necessarily changed. I still love CrossFit a lot, but it’s different. And I hate to use word love. I mean, it’s just different, right? Like I’m just not, I’m definitely not as go. You know, like I know some people, like we had a drop in the other day, she like, did you watch the games? I was like, I didn’t. And I was on vacation. She was like, I don’t have been watching on vacation. I’m just like not watching the games on vacation with my wife. I’m on vacation with my wife. I’m not worried about the games. Um, even though they were beautiful thing I imagine and all of that, but yeah, it is. But I think that comes with, like you said, seasoned, you’ve been in it for long enough. You understand there’s gonna be other competitions. There’ll be games next year and the following year and blah, blah blah. So yeah.

Sevan Matossian (28:17):

Hey, Hey, I watched the entire games and yesterday I was at the beach, uh, at sunset and there was a, there was a, a sign out in the middle of the beach. Like I forget what it said. It said like surf lessons or something. And it was probably like 40 feet from me. And I said, Hey, I wanna see, I wanna see you three boys run around that, sign over there and run back to me 3, 2, 1 go. And my kids raced that race was more interesting to me than any fucking games event I saw. Yeah. By a thousand I was more engaged. I was like, oh shit, they’re shoving and pushing. Oh, like I don’t think people. Yeah, it it’s. Um, I, uh, it’s interesting. I watched every second of the games, uh, of the individual, but I, I, if, if it wasn’t, um, if there wasn’t something in it for me directly, I wouldn’t, I have no, I have no interest in watching it for leisure. It’s it’s the same reason why people ask me, what would you ever? I would never go to the games and just watch them either as a fan, as a fan. Yeah. There’s no fucking way. I, I have to have a job around it.

Sherman Merricks (29:19):

Yeah. Well hopefully you get a job back around it

Sevan Matossian (29:22):

<laugh> no, no, no, no. I’m good.

Sevan Matossian (29:27): I’m good. And, and I like, and I like what I’m doing, I’m I’m on, I’m on the, um, I’m on the cutting edge again of the technology and the way we’re covering the games. It was basically what I did is I just sat here like this Sherman in front of my computer. And then I had dudes there on the ground with cell phones. Yeah. And we would basically just report what was going on there live. But I, but it was more interesting to talk to the people yeah. Than, than to actually watch the games. Talk to talk to the, talk to the athletes. And you, how many kids do you have? Three, three kids. Three. And uh, and, and I have this picture right here.

The above transcript is generated using AI technology and therefore may contain errors.

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