Sevan Matossian (00:01):
Bam we’re live. You know what I was thinking, Susan, what if we just like, we’re live on the air right now, but then we just hide ourselves and <laugh>
Mattew Souza (00:15):
Good. One
Sevan Matossian (00:17):
Never, uh, I used to have his friend and we would drive in his, uh, pickup truck and there would be three of us sitting in the front three dudes on a bench seat and the dude on the right, so that the two dudes in the middle were like sitting right next to each other. The dude on the right would put his head down really low, like in the other dude’s lap and then honk the horn. So it just looked like two dudes just sitting next to, and, and he was the strong, the guy who would do that was the strongest one of all of us. So we couldn’t stop him. He’d just be holding the whole horn down. Yeah. All that stuff. Yeah. There just be me. Cuddl up with some guy driving a fucking, oh, you know, do you know, uh, do you know this cat? Uh, Brandon, Brandon Waddell?
Randy Vest (01:07):
Uh, yeah, he, uh, he’s he’s from my hometown.
Sevan Matossian (01:10):
Oh, that’s cool. That’s
Randy Vest (01:13):
Really cool. So, um, if, if a, uh, a guy comes across Tyler Cox, uh, just ignore everything. He says,
Sevan Matossian (01:21):
That must be your good buddy. Who’s here. Interesting roast.
Randy Vest (01:25):
Yeah. He’s uh, he’s one of my coaches at the, at the box.
Sevan Matossian (01:31):
Uh, are you, are you at your house?
Randy Vest (01:33):
Yes, it’d be a little too loud right now at the box. They got a 9:00 AM going.
Sevan Matossian (01:39):
Gotcha. And, and, and what city are you in?
Randy Vest (01:42):
Uh, per Arkansas, Arkansas. So north Northeast corner of Arkansas.
Sevan Matossian (01:48):
It’s like, um, for California’s Arkansas’s like an imaginary place. It’s like a far, far away <laugh>. Is it like that for people in Arkansas, too? California’s just like a far, far away like land. Uh,
Randy Vest (02:01):
I don’t know. I mean, I’m in to California quite a few times. Um, not my choice.
Sevan Matossian (02:07):
<laugh>. Is that when you, were you, when you were in the military, is that when you came to California?
Randy Vest (02:14):
Yeah. Yeah. I’m, I’m still in, but yeah, I’ve been, uh, I’ve been out there, uh, three times.
Sevan Matossian (02:20):
Randy. You’re still in,
Randy Vest (02:22):
Yeah. I hit 20 years in, uh, April. I been here.
Sevan Matossian (02:26):
Wow. Nice.
Randy Vest (02:28):
Can’t you tell?
Sevan Matossian (02:30):
No, I can’t here. No, I can’t tell. Oh shit. Okay. I was wondering for a second, if you and Caleb were the same for the same person, but you’re not, we both have both of you on the screen the same time. All right. Just checking. Sure. Share.
Mattew Souza (02:46):
Perfect.
Randy Vest (02:48):
<laugh>
Sevan Matossian (02:49):
Uh, Kayla, I sent the notes over. Hey, so, so your dad was in for you think you’re gonna make it to 37, like your pops?
Randy Vest (02:59):
Um, I don’t think so.
Sevan Matossian (03:02):
How, how did you make, how did your dad make it to 37 years? What do you, you go in when you’re 20 and you stay in until you’re 57? Is that the deal or?
Randy Vest (03:10):
Um, so he was, uh, he went through ROTC program, uh, at the university of Conway, Arkansas and commissioned, uh, he commissioned as an officer there. So he was a national guard, uh, for his entire, uh, 37 years.
Sevan Matossian (03:26):
Wow. And you started his national guard?
Randy Vest (03:31):
Yes. So I, I was national guard for, um, well, I still am, but I’m, what’s called AGR. Uh, so I’m, full-time national guard now. So I’ve been doing, I’ve been doing that a little over three years. Um, but the majority of my career, I was, uh, just national guard, uh, what they call, uh, the weekend warriors.
Sevan Matossian (03:54):
Uh, is that where that term comes from? That’s a national guard term weekend warriors, is it?
Randy Vest (03:58):
Yeah. Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (03:59):
Oh, I didn’t even know that. Wow.
Randy Vest (04:01):
The weekend warriors or the, some people call it the, uh, the fake army, the active duty guys.
Sevan Matossian (04:08):
And that’s that, term’s kind of been co-opted by just anyone who only like, just a dude’s 40 pounds overweight, who goes hard playing flag football on Sundays now, right? Yeah.
Mattew Souza (04:17):
That’s what I thought you like goes on a boat on the weekends.
Sevan Matossian (04:19):
Yeah. That’s what the it’s kind of been taken as that.
Randy Vest (04:23):
Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (04:24):
Or, or so does CrossFit have any weekend warrior? Do you have any, any fucking crazy fucking clients that just come in once every two weeks and just go hard and fucking soar and then you don’t see ’em for two weeks, like a guy who comes in two or three times a month.
Randy Vest (04:37):
I mean, I’ve had before. I mean, just like comes in and will like completely break himself off.
Sevan Matossian (04:43):
Yeah.
Randy Vest (04:44):
Uh, try to hit like RX. Yeah. And then like, you don’t, you don’t seem for like two weeks.
Sevan Matossian (04:49):
Yeah. <laugh> yeah.
Mattew Souza (04:52):
There’s always,
Randy Vest (04:53):
I think every box has, like, we could sit here and talk about characters in the box and every box has the same personalities.
Mattew Souza (05:01):
That’s true.
Sevan Matossian (05:03):
Oh my God. I finally made it early to alive. Ellen. Hi. Hi. What are you holding onto there? Ellen? What are you hiding from us? What are you holding onto? She’s
Mattew Souza (05:13):
Got like a modeling photo for that icon. Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (05:17):
Randy, uh, vest. You own, um, CrossFit.
Randy Vest (05:27):
Kal.
Sevan Matossian (05:27):
Say it again.
Randy Vest (05:29):
Kal.
Sevan Matossian (05:30):
Kal. Is that the name is town.
Randy Vest (05:33):
It’s not just the name of the affiliate.
Sevan Matossian (05:36):
And what’s it mean? How’d you come with that name?
Randy Vest (05:38):
Oh, man, that was, that was a struggle with HQ. Right. So I, uh, I affiliated in 2013.
Sevan Matossian (05:47):
Oh yeah. Remember when your application came in? I reviewed it.
Mattew Souza (05:50):
<laugh> what do you mean? <laugh> OK,
Randy Vest (05:53):
So I, so I can blame you, right?
Sevan Matossian (05:55):
Oh, hell yeah.
Randy Vest (05:58):
Uh, so, so you had to, you had to submit like three, uh, three affiliate names, right? Uh, back when I affiliated, it kind of reminded me of when I was going through, uh, officer candid school, when I had to select my top three branches. And,
Sevan Matossian (06:14):
Oh, that’s like, when you apply to college, now you have to pick your top three genders. <laugh> I I’m feeling, I, I just want people, the younger people to be able to relate to you. Okay. I get it. The identities. Yeah. It would, you have to pick your top three genders and see which ones are not chosen. You get that one. Okay. Go on. So you wanted to pick your top, I’m just trying to relate to your story, Randy.
Randy Vest (06:32):
So, um, so yeah, I was, I picked, um, I picked my three and the, the first one was just, uh, CrossFit NEA, which just was basic, like Northeast Arkansas.
Sevan Matossian (06:45):
I like it. I like it.
Randy Vest (06:47):
And so, so they, they, they kick back with that and they’re like, that’s too broad. You can’t, you can’t do that covers too broad in an area. So then, uh, my second one was, uh, CrossFit Ridge because we’re our city or our town’s on, uh, Crowley’s Ridge.
Sevan Matossian (07:06):
Okay.
Randy Vest (07:06):
And they’re like, well, there’s a CrossFit Ridge avenue in Pennsylvania. I was like, that’s in Pennsylvania. What’s it matter? <laugh> right. Um,
Sevan Matossian (07:17):
I, I like it. It’s like at Duke’s a hazard episode. Oh. We live on top of Crowley’s Ridge. I jumped Crowley’s Ridge into Camaro in 1987 was on first guy to do it.
Randy Vest (07:28):
We knew that in side by side, not Camaros.
Sevan Matossian (07:31):
All right. My bad
Randy Vest (07:32):
<laugh> uh, man, I don’t even remember what the third one was, but they were all three like rejected. So I was like, all right. So then I kind of started looking at, uh, some other affiliate names, uh, like at my L one, I went to my L one in, uh, Texas. And, uh, Matt Chan was one of the, uh, the seminar staff. And, um, so I started kinda looking at those names and I was like, well, it doesn’t have to be relate to a geographical location. Uh, so I kind of just started Googling some stuff, uh, tried to relate it to, uh, I guess life and how we, how we liked to battle chronic disease in the, inside the affiliate. Uh, so I, I saw the, uh, the word Al and some people will say it’s pronounced Catal or Kaha, but you know what, it’s my field. I’ll pronounce it however I want to.
Sevan Matossian (08:31):
Yeah.
Randy Vest (08:32):
So, so it, so it’s kinda it’s
Sevan Matossian (08:35):
And what’s it mean? And what’s it mean?
Randy Vest (08:37):
It means, uh, ruler, ruler of the battlefield.
Sevan Matossian (08:40):
Oh, wow. Okay.
Randy Vest (08:43):
Okay. So I sent that up and they’re like, that works. I was like, all right, I’m tired of trying to find a name. So we’re going with that
Sevan Matossian (08:48):
One. Oh, you got Dan on here already. Let’s see what you said about Dan Dawn. Dawn, Dawn, sorry, Dawn crosscheck. Cathal uh, for those of you don’t know, um, I’m looking at the CrossFit Cathal, uh, Instagram account. Now this is Randy’s Instagram account and he has posted a picture of the handsome new CEO of CrossFit, uh, Dawn fall, but not forced handsome, not like back street boy, over the top. Handsome, just rugged, handsome. I’m throwing the towel when the seas got rough, the rest of us, whether the storm and a society full of crew members be a captain. Awesome. I love it. Well said.
Randy Vest (09:23):
Yeah, that’s a,
Sevan Matossian (09:25):
I wonder if there’s a CrossFit him or, or a CrossFit her,
Randy Vest (09:32):
I bet we could find it on Google.
Sevan Matossian (09:34):
Al is a common given name in Ireland spelled, uh, the same in both the Irish and English languages. The name is derived from two cell, uh, Celtic elements, uh, battle and, uh, rule, battle ruler. Do you ever do, do you like the name or are you glad you chose it?
Randy Vest (09:54):
Yeah, I like, I like it. I like, uh, it’s really simple and flows off the tongue, so we always say CFC, so it’s really easy.
Sevan Matossian (10:04):
Yeah. Like,
Randy Vest (10:05):
But it gets, it gets mispronounced a lot, but that’s okay.
Sevan Matossian (10:07):
I’ll probably mispronounce it a few times. Um, Caleb on the top of the notes there, it says, uh, start show with this. Will you play this? This is, I saw this this morning, um, uh, from, uh, this is Stefan Roe. Are you familiar with who S Stephan Roe is Randy?
Randy Vest (10:26):
Uh, I’m not
Sevan Matossian (10:27):
Been around forever. One of the most knowledgeable people in the CrossFit space. Uh, I think he, I wanna say he was the strength coach at the university of San Diego, big, big, uh, fancy school. I, he, I think he was the L one on the L one team, then a strength, uh, strength coach, maybe even with the seals too. I don’t mean to misspeak. And, uh, and then, uh, CrossFit was lucky enough to get him back, but I saw this today and I was like, wow, this is, this is some old school shit he’s doing right here. This, he he’s kind of like picked up the mantle of, uh, this is like a Greg Glassman thing to say, okay, go ahead, action.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
Kind, a CrossFit affiliate. If you wanna do CrossFit, if you want to dramatically transform your health and fitness, find a CrossFit affiliate in your area and walk through that front door and they will change your life. And you will, you will look back in, in a few days and say, this was the best decision I ever made.
Sevan Matossian (11:19):
It’s funny. He says, you’ll look back in a few days and it’s still understated. Like he’s so strong and he’s so adamant about it. And everything he’s saying is true, but isn’t it crazy that it, it really is that easy, right? Someone can just come into CrossFit Al and their fucking whole life can just start getting better. Like from the second they walk in, like when they walk out that day, their life’s gonna be better.
Randy Vest (11:42):
Yeah. And I mean, we, we still do it today. Um, you know, and we’re in a, we’re in a small, I mean, a small town, 30,000 people, um, some people call it like a hamburger town. Have you ever heard
Sevan Matossian (11:55):
That? No.
Randy Vest (11:57):
Yeah. So, yeah, it’s a
Sevan Matossian (11:59):
Small town. When I think of a hamburger, I think of that thing on websites in the upper right hand corner, you know, those three lines. Yeah. <laugh> or I think of a vagina when a woman’s pregnant, it gets all swollen. Like only yummy, like a yummy Hamburg, you know, like a yummy hamburger I think of in and out, just a big old hamburger in
Randy Vest (12:14):
And out. Right.
Sevan Matossian (12:17):
I’m different. But I do like hamburgers regardless. Okay. But I never heard the term hamburger town, just a bunch of pregnant. Women’s a place where people come and stop to eat hamburgers. I’m gonna guess.
Randy Vest (12:36):
Yeah, just small town.
Sevan Matossian (12:38):
Okay.
Randy Vest (12:39):
It’s one of those Arkansas terms,
Sevan Matossian (12:42):
But there are, there are people who come in and how many people at your affiliate?
Randy Vest (12:47):
Uh, we’ve got roughly about 130 to 135.
Sevan Matossian (12:51):
Wow, nice. And, uh, and probably everyone in the town knows about it.
Randy Vest (12:59):
Um, I don’t think so. I mean, for the most part, it’s hard to miss if you’re driving, uh, south heading out of town. Uh, but as far as knowing about it, uh, knowing it’s there, uh, yes, I would say so, but, uh, knowing what we do, not everybody knows.
Sevan Matossian (13:20):
I bet you, someone learns every day. You have any dramatic stories out of there that like, holy cow, this person turned their whole life around.
Randy Vest (13:29):
Uh, yeah. I have a, I have a few, uh, one, um, one is, uh, he’s a member. He moved to, uh, Mississippi, uh, a few years back. But, uh, we were, uh, we used to have a, a foundation’s class where they just, we, we scheduled it, uh, three days a week. And, uh, so his wife stopped in and signed him up. Uh, and he didn’t know about it <laugh> so he just, uh, he showed up, uh, for our first foundations, uh, that week. And he said, I think I’m in the right place. Um, my wife signed me up for this CrossFit stuff. I was like, yeah, you’re in the right place. So, um, so he was like, um, almost full blown, uh, type two diabetic. Uh, it was on meds and, and I it’s been so long. I can’t remember, uh, the amount of the meds he was on, but, uh, he, uh, he started with us.
Randy Vest (14:32):
Uh, we took him through the foundations. Uh, he was in his fifties, uh, and he, uh, he continued to come, you know, three days a week and then he upped it, uh, to where he could handle, you know, four to five. Uh, so he went back, I think he went back after it started for a six month, uh, checkup. And, uh, his doctor asked him, he said, what, uh, would it be changed? And he was like, uh, I started doing this thing called CrossFit. My wife signed me up for it. And he said, keep going. He said, you are, uh, these numbers are the lowest that I’ve seen since I’ve had you. So he,
Sevan Matossian (15:13):
What he meant to say, those are the lowest numbers he’s seen in Arkansas.
Randy Vest (15:16):
<laugh> yeah, yeah, no kidding. But, uh, yeah, he almost, I mean, completely came off his meds almost a hundred percent. Um, just by walking through our doors.
Sevan Matossian (15:30):
It’s that’s a crazy story that his wife signed him up. Mm-hmm
Randy Vest (15:33):
<affirmative> yeah, yeah. Wouldn’t know what it was.
Sevan Matossian (15:37):
So how I wonder what happened and his wife didn’t go to the gym
Randy Vest (15:42):
Mm-hmm I saw her like, when she walked in, uh, to sign him up mm-hmm <affirmative> and then that was it. I mean, she would come to like our, our, uh, you know, Christmas parties, things like that. But
Sevan Matossian (15:57):
When you have, when you have clients like that, do you try to recruit them too? When you see at the Christmas party, you’re like, come on, Janet bill, did it come on? Let’s let’s go tune here. Yeah, of course. Right. Yeah.
Randy Vest (16:08):
Yeah. Look what we did. Look what we did for your husband. Like get in here.
Sevan Matossian (16:11):
Hey, I’d love to hear her story. I like why she did that. I wonder if like, she was just like going through YouTube, she saw some old video that said, Hey, CrossFit will save your, can save your life. And she’s like, well, shit, my husband needs his life saved. And she signed up. I wonder what the, the origin story is to that. Do you know?
Randy Vest (16:27):
I, I don’t, she probably told me, but I forgot. Cause it’s been so long ago and I a terrible memory.
Sevan Matossian (16:33):
It’s it’s it’s CRA I mean, that takes balls to sign someone up for CrossFit.
Randy Vest (16:38):
<laugh> yeah.
Sevan Matossian (16:39):
Like what if she would’ve signed your husband up for ballet? Here’s your, here’s your shoes.
Randy Vest (16:47):
Yeah, but he, uh, his name was, we called him, uh, Warren G so right.
Sevan Matossian (16:58):
I like it. Perfect. Yeah. You, you have two kids, Randy?
Randy Vest (17:03):
Uh, yeah. Two step kids.
Sevan Matossian (17:05):
Teenagers?
Randy Vest (17:07):
Yes. Cannon and Kenley.
Sevan Matossian (17:10):
How old are they?
Randy Vest (17:12):
Uh, 14. I may have messed up. I may be 13. My wife’s probably listening right now. And shaking.
Sevan Matossian (17:18):
Are they, are they twins?
Randy Vest (17:19):
<laugh> yeah. Yeah. They’re twins. Don’t they look alike?
Sevan Matossian (17:23):
I can’t tell everyone looks. Yeah, you guys, you guys all look alike <laugh> and then, and then they’re step kids racist. How, how is, how is that, um, uh, living with teenagers, do they go to the gym?
Randy Vest (17:36):
Uh, cannon does, uh, he’s. He’s been going for a couple years now. Uh, so he, he loves baseball and, uh, he’s, he’s pretty salty at it too. Um, and then Kinley is just a naturally gifted, uh, track athlete. So she’s fast. Uh, but she’s not, she’s not faster than me, so I don’t care. What, uh, <laugh> what they say
Sevan Matossian (18:00):
Soon buddy soon. Yeah,
Randy Vest (18:02):
She probably actually is, but I won’t say that to her.
Sevan Matossian (18:05):
And, and you played a, a high school football, baseball track and field. You did it all.
Randy Vest (18:12):
Yes. Except basketball. I, uh, I stopped playing basketball at, uh, seventh grade because that’s when I stopped growing probably
Sevan Matossian (18:20):
<laugh>. And, uh, and tell me how, tell me how your paths crossed with, uh, CrossFit.
Randy Vest (18:29):
Oh, man. Uh, it was really in Afghanistan or right before we, we left or deployed Afghanistan,
Sevan Matossian (18:38):
Um, 2009.
Randy Vest (18:42):
Yes. So we were there, um, we actually got in country, uh, at the end of 2009 and spent the majority of 2010, uh, over there. Uh, so I was somewhat introduced to it, uh, before, before we left. So we were training, uh, stateside and our, our armory, uh, was on campus of Arkansas state university, which, uh, was co-located with their ROTC program. And the, uh, the professor of military science there, uh, then was, uh, Lieutenant Colonel, Jeff Helms. And, uh, he loved CrossFit and he always had his, uh, cadets out there in the morning doing, uh, physical training and they were being, doing, they would do CrossFit. So I got a little bit experience. Uh, the end just kinda I’d see them training. And, uh, then actually when I got, uh, overseas, we, uh, we got out on a, a fob just west of Candahar city. And there was, uh, there was about 200, 200 of us there and we had a little gym that was like a tent. So it had like, you know, some functional training equipment, like some nasty kettle bells, um, some like beat up wall balls and like a dip station and pull up bars. And then the, uh,
Sevan Matossian (20:10):
Thank you ke toward operating base. So, so when you say fob and it says forward operating base that’s, um, something that’s closer to the that’s a base close to the danger.
Randy Vest (20:22):
Yes. Correct. So we’re every, every individual on there was, uh, we were running combat missions daily.
Sevan Matossian (20:28):
Okay. Okay. Wow. So,
Randy Vest (20:31):
Um, but my, uh, my communications, then he was our communications, uh, NCO non-commissioned officer. Uh, and, and he was doing, uh, just some CrossFit stuff over at that little, uh, makeshift gym. And, uh, I saw him kind of walking back from it, uh, one evening when I got off mission and he was just like dirty and sweaty and I mean, he just, he looked like he’d like been crawling through the, the desert sand. And I was like, what you doing? He’s I was doing CrossFit over here and try it out with you. And so the next, the next day I went over there and I went with him and, uh, we, uh, we hit a main site workout and, uh, I think had some kettle bells and like some dips and pullups and then, oh, man, the rest is history. So
Sevan Matossian (21:21):
Addicted right away. Did it. And we’re like, oh shit, I need this.
Randy Vest (21:25):
Oh yeah. I mean, it, it wasn’t like any, it wasn’t like any other training that I’d ever done. You know, I, I, I was your typical, I did your, uh, your, your standard power lifts. Uh, and then I, I incorporated some, uh, speed work, uh, in my training. I had to go out and do sprints, um, long slow distance, but, uh, nothing like that.
Sevan Matossian (21:48):
You already knew had a deadlift when you came to CrossFit. You already had, you’d done that before.
Randy Vest (21:54):
Yes.
Sevan Matossian (21:54):
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I, I think that most of us who came during, during, you know, with the herd that I came with, hadn’t done that maybe I’m wrong, but I know a lot of us hadn’t right. I mean, we were like strictly the group that I came from were, um, lap, pull down machine bench, press, um, you know, tricep, extensions cables. I mean, even, even when I used to go to the global gym, I was like one of the only people who did uh pullups likeactually pullups like the pullup bar was always empty at, at, at, you know, golds or 24 hour fitness or wherever I went.
Randy Vest (22:26):
Yeah. Uh, so when I
Sevan Matossian (22:27):
Got, I’d never seen a kettlebell or rope or rings, fuck that. So what are those?
Randy Vest (22:32):
Yeah. Uh, when I got back, I got, uh, me and a, a friend. Well, I actually met him in like a global gym, uh, down in the town I was living in at the time. It’s like 20 minutes south of us. Uh, I was going to this gym and, uh, I saw him doing the main site workout across the gym. And I went up, kind of started talking to him. And so we started doing the main site workout together in here. And they, they like, I don’t wanna say they kicked us out, but they’re like, Hey man, you can’t be doing handstand, walks down the indoor track. <laugh>
Sevan Matossian (23:06):
Yeah. Yeah. You
Randy Vest (23:06):
Can’t do, you can’t do handstand pushups, like, you know, but,
Sevan Matossian (23:12):
Uh, it’s weird when you’re at a gym and you’re told you can’t do stuff and to you, it seems totally. We weren’t. Uh, I used to work out at the university of California, Berkeley gym, overhead squats were no, no deadlifts were a no, no wall balls were a no, no, they had all this shit. You know, all the Olympic lifts were a no, no, it’s
Mattew Souza (23:27):
Berkeley surprised they had a gym at
Sevan Matossian (23:28):
All. I, well, and it was crazy cuz it was a beautiful gym, but tons of rooms. But, and I did drop a, uh, I, I did drop a overhead squat of 1 75 from the, from the top one time was doing like some max effort on that. Was it
Randy Vest (23:41):
Metal plates or what did
Sevan Matossian (23:42):
They, uh, I think they were not metal, but you know what I mean? They were rubber, but like the metal
Randy Vest (23:48):
Not rubber
Sevan Matossian (23:48):
Casing. Yeah. The one, yeah. The ones where you host to hold the, the sides to move the 40 fives around. Yeah. The, they have the grips. Yeah. Um, and, and, and actually now that I think about it, I, I think I actually maybe had a safety bar down at the bottom, so it didn’t hit the ground, but it was still fucking chaos. I mean, it was chaotic when it
Randy Vest (24:06):
<laugh>,
Sevan Matossian (24:06):
When it went and you know, you’re kind of proud as a CrossFitter you’re kind of proud, you know what I mean? <laugh> I think I was going, I did 10 and I went for 11 and, uh, and it fell and I was like, I didn’t care. I was kind of like proud. I went to failure, which is kind of different right. Than, than other gym activities.
Randy Vest (24:24):
Yeah. Very different.
Sevan Matossian (24:28):
Oh, and, and so you, you you’re, did you have, what was your job, um, before you owned the CrossFit gym, what did you do besides, uh, being the national guard?
Randy Vest (24:37):
I was trying to finish school and they kept pulling me out and deploying me. So it took, uh, I took seven years to get my undergrad. Lots of people go to school for seven years. Right.
Sevan Matossian (24:50):
I, I think I was gonna say I did. I can’t remember now if I did seven or 10, it wasn’t deployments that stopped me though. It was girls marijuana, Frisbee, ecstasy, and Frisbee. Yeah. In Natty light.
Randy Vest (25:02):
Um, so I, I worked through college for, uh, I just had a, a little job with an industrial supplier. I was a delivery driver, so I was just driving all over, uh, industrial park, uh, delivering parts to big factories. Um, and then after that, uh, you know, after I graduated, I fi I finally got back when I got back from my Afghanistan. Uh, I had 19 hours, uh, left to graduate and I was like, ah, I gotta get done with school. Cause I’m tired of going. So I got, uh, I got my undergrad out of the way and I, uh, I was, I started working for the guard. Uh it’s uh, it’s full time, but you’re not like permanent. So now it’s called, uh, I think it’s called full-time national guard. Operational support.
Sevan Matossian (25:57):
Hey, do, do they, do they ask you to do that? Cuz you’re capable. Are they like, okay, we, this guy Randy’s like overachiever or were you like, okay, I’m gonna apply for this job or were people like saw, Hey, we need to keep this guy close.
Randy Vest (26:08):
No, so it just depends. Uh, I mean it, it can vary. So we had, uh, we had another unit that was getting spun up to deploy. Uh, so they, uh, they’ll hire on additional help. Uh they’re they’re kind, they’re called project officers. So they, uh, they brought me on, it was for about a year. Uh, I was working, uh, working as a project officer for our engineer battalion, uh, and at the same time, uh, two good buddies of mine, they were in the process of, uh, standing up, uh, CrossFit, natural state down in Jonesboro.
Sevan Matossian (26:41):
Okay.
Randy Vest (26:43):
So, uh, that’s uh, that’s who I went to Texas with to get my, my level one. Uh, and we, we got in a tornado on the trip down to Texas. This is kinda crazy,
Sevan Matossian (26:55):
Uh, guys that don’t, uh, let Randy flee that happens to everyone in Arkansas. Uh, every third day you go out, he’s like trying to make it like, it’s a big deal. It’s only big deal to us.
Randy Vest (27:06):
We, we got in one going to Nashville too, or Franklin, we went to a CrossFit mobility cert and on the way back we got into a tornado <laugh>
Sevan Matossian (27:14):
Fucking nuts.
Randy Vest (27:16):
But, uh, no, I was working, uh, working the project officer and then, uh, you know, also helping them coach in the morning and then the afternoon. And um, then, uh, the, the, the funding for the project officer position, you, they kind of fund it quarterly. So you, you know, like three months out if you’re, uh, gonna continue on orders or not. Uh, so they they’re coming to the end of, uh, end of the year and the, the unit was getting ready to head out. So kind of saw the riding on the wall. And, uh, so I started looking at opening up my own affiliate, uh, at that time.
Sevan Matossian (27:58):
What year was that again?
Randy Vest (28:01):
So they opened, uh, CrossFit, natural state opened in 2011. So since, and then I, uh, I worked 2000, 11, 12, uh, and then, um, after I graduated, uh, kind of in between jobs, this is kind of funny, but I started doing, uh, personal training at 10 fitness, but I had a huge sticker on the back of my truck at the time that said CrossFit, natural state. So I would pull into 10 fitness to meet, uh, meet my clients. And I would be like, kind of looks weird, you know, CrossFit, natural state trucks sitting the underneath the 10 fitness sign. And, um, you know, the, the people I would train, I mean, what kind of workouts do you think we would do?
Sevan Matossian (28:50):
<laugh> uh, is that where you met your wife?
Randy Vest (28:53):
Uh, no, I didn’t meet her till I opened my affiliate.
Sevan Matossian (28:57):
Uh, for those of you who aren’t familiar with the United States of America, uh, they and them are over here in Francisco and, uh, he is over here on the red dot
Sevan Matossian (29:07):
<laugh>. And so this is San, uh, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Albuquerque, uh, Austin down here. And then all the way over here is Jonesboro. And then as you come up, he’s, I guess he’s closer to the east coast on the west coast. And then you come over here and it’s the, um, Eastern side of the United States. So he’s, he’s right in the middle. It’s a total, it’s a, it might as well be a different, we might as well be in different countries. It’s a totally different, uh, lifestyle, a good one, a good one, a healthy one is, is, is your town a good place to raise kids?
Randy Vest (29:38):
It is, um, you know, it’s big enough good people. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s big enough to, uh, I guess you could call it a city over here in the Midwest. You guys probably wouldn’t but um,
Sevan Matossian (29:50):
Where’s how close is the closest apple store to you?
Randy Vest (29:54):
Uh, Memphis.
Sevan Matossian (29:56): How far is that shit like a state over damn, no.
The above transcript is generated using AI technology and therefore may contain errors.
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