Sevan Matossian (00:00):
Yesterday, set this up in Ran Greg Graham. We’re live. Hey. Hey.
Leon (00:04):
Hello.
Sevan Matossian (00:05):
I’m so happy this works.
Kristen (00:07):
True <laugh>, same.
Sevan Matossian (00:10):
Oh, you guys sound great. I, um, I, I thought it would be cool to drive to Arizona yesterday from California
Kristen (00:17):
Super Bowl.
Leon (00:18):
No, it’s great.
Sevan Matossian (00:19):
I’m actually in, um, uh, Greg’s doing some sort of, um, event here, broken science event, but it is right. I mean, they have the Super Bowl here, and then they have some great crazy golf tournament thing here. Wow. But I basically left my house like at three 30 in the morning and then got here like at six in the evening, and then I thought, and then set up my podcast system and then ran out of the house and took my kids swimming to his house to go swimming. And then I came back and I’m like, oh my goodness. It’s time. And by the way, thank you for switching the time. Of course. I was not prepared for Arizona switching. It’s, um,
Kristen (00:48):
Oh, that’s okay. We, we totally understand. Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (00:51):
<laugh>. Um, where, where are you guys? You’re in New York,
Kristen (00:54):
Hudson, New York. Yep. Yep.
Sevan Matossian (00:55):
And, and where is that? Hudson’s
Leon (00:59):
Literate, south of Albany.
Sevan Matossian (01:01):
Sorry, one more time.
Leon (01:02):
About 45 minutes south of Albany, New York, the Capitol.
Sevan Matossian (01:05):
Okay. We’re in the
Kristen (01:06):
Catskills, Catskill Mountain area. Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (01:09):
Yeah. So you’re in the country?
Leon (01:11):
Oh yeah. We live, we live on dirt road, so
Sevan Matossian (01:14):
<laugh>. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Good, good. And so you, like, you see animals and stuff every day, like cow, like if you drive around, you see cows and fields and things like that, that as city folk don’t see,
Leon (01:23):
We had a bobcat walking around our house the other day, so, yeah.
Sevan Matossian (01:27):
Oh, what do you do when that happens?
Leon (01:29):
Uh, I grab my gun.
Sevan Matossian (01:31):
<laugh>. They’re little though, right? They’re little, but they could take out a dog. Uh,
Leon (01:35):
They’re about the size of a small dog. Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (01:38):
And, and, um, do you have kid Oh, you have an older kid? Kid?
Kristen (01:41):
Uh, two. Two. Two. Older, uh, 20 and 17.
Sevan Matossian (01:44):
Okay. So nothing the Bobcat would take away with it? No,
Kristen (01:47):
No, no, no, no. Just our cats, unfortunately. Yeah. Yep.
Sevan Matossian (01:49):
Oh, right. And I guess a bobcat could take away a, uh, a, a baby.
Kristen (01:55):
I, I,
Leon (01:56):
Yeah. I mean, if you leave your baby outside, that’s kind of irresponsible, but Sure.
Kristen (01:59):
<laugh>
Sevan Matossian (02:00):
This Well, yeah. I’ve been known to do that.
Kristen (02:03):
<laugh>,
Sevan Matossian (02:05):
Free range, baby.
Kristen (02:07):
<laugh> <laugh>.
Sevan Matossian (02:08):
And you guys are the owners of, um, lumberjack, uh, athletics, which is also home of, uh, CrossFit. Luke is the way you guys work,
Leon (02:15):
Correct? Correct.
Sevan Matossian (02:16):
I I love your Instagram account, by the way.
Leon (02:18):
Thank
Kristen (02:18):
You. Oh, thank you. Thank you so much. Very
Leon (02:19):
Cool.
Sevan Matossian (02:20):
Yeah, I see it and I’m like, okay, that’s a cool place. That’s the kind of place I’d wanna work out. I, I dug through it and I’m like, these are cool people. Looks like everyone has fun. Looks like a pretty like free, welcoming environment.
Kristen (02:30):
Absolutely.
Leon (02:31):
Yeah. Everybody’s welcome to come in anytime they want.
Kristen (02:34):
We actually just opened our second location over in Massachusetts as well. Yep.
Sevan Matossian (02:38):
How far is that?
Leon (02:40):
30 minutes.
Kristen (02:41):
It’s not too far. 30 minutes from Jim to Jim.
Sevan Matossian (02:45):
God, my geography’s so poor. When I think of 45 minutes from Albany, I don’t think anywhere near, um, Massachusetts.
Leon (02:52):
So the way, uh, Albany sits, um, if you actually look at, if you come down south, it starts touch on the border of Massachusetts. Like, uh, the Berkshires, Catskills and Berkshires are close to one another. Okay. Uh, so it’s not that far of, uh, you can hop into Massachusetts from us right now. We could be in Massachusetts in like 20 minutes. Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (03:14):
Yeah. Okay. Now that, uh, Caleb, what are the cat, cat? What do you, how do you say the word cat? Cat skills. Cat skills, Bobcat cat skills with a Gill G or skill skills. Like they got skills. You
Kristen (03:24):
Have you the cat skill mountains, correct? Yep.
Sevan Matossian (03:27):
Cat Skill. Okay. It’s a mountain range. Yeah. What’s the highest peak there?
Leon (03:30):
Do you know that? Oh gosh. Uh, it’s high. We, we have a bunch of snowboarding, mountain and ski mountains around us. That’s how, you know, so that’s, that’s kind of gives you an idea of what, what kind of mountains we’re dealing with here. Um, a lot of, uh, ski resorts and stuff like that. So I think, uh, I don’t actually, can’t even give you an honest answer about that. It’s pretty, pretty tall mountain range though.
Kristen (03:49):
I genuinely don’t know
Sevan Matossian (03:50):
Either. Okay. Here goes more of my ignorance. And that, those are the Appalachian Mountains.
Leon (03:54):
Uh,
Kristen (03:55):
They do, they connect at some point. I genuinely don’t know. The,
Caleb Beaver (03:58):
I think the Catskill, the Catskills are a little bit more east. The Appalachian Mountains are more like, actually more south here.
Kristen (04:08):
Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (04:09):
What’s where? Chevon’s pronunciation or Seve’s Geography? <laugh>. They’re indefinitely in, um, competition with, uh, one another <laugh>. And, uh, you guys are born and raised, raised east folk, east coast, uh, folks,
Leon (04:23):
Correct? Yep. I was born in, uh, Boston and Kristen was born right here in Hudson, New York.
Sevan Matossian (04:29):
And so you kind of went for you that’s the country, huh? Ha.
Leon (04:33):
Well, I grew up south of Boston, uh, in Fall River or Dayton area, so it’s a little, it was when I was there, it was more country. It’s definitely developed a lot more now. Um, but I moved up here when I was like 11 into the Catskill. So I, I grew up in the country
Sevan Matossian (04:49):
And, uh, it, it seems like the kind of place you move if like you’re in a witness, um, uh, protection program.
Leon (04:54):
Uh, yeah.
Kristen (04:55):
That’s pretty accurate. Yeah. I can see that. We say that to people all the time. Why did you come here? Yeah. Um, but Hudson itself has grown tremendously over the last 20 years. It used to be sort of a ghost town when I was a kid. And now it’s sort of like, um, like a little soho, honestly, like there Oh, a lot of New York City people here now. It’s, yeah, it’s been changed tremendously. Like
Leon (05:16):
You could take the train and be in the city in two hours. Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (05:19):
So it’s a second home. It’s becoming a second home place. Oh
Leon (05:22):
Yeah. Oh yeah. Some of em, well actually since Covid, a lot of people have moved up here outta the city. So now it’s first home. So
Sevan Matossian (05:28):
What’s the population?
Kristen (05:30):
Oh
Leon (05:30):
Man. Our county has about 60,000 in it.
Sevan Matossian (05:34):
The county?
Leon (05:35):
Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (05:36):
Okay. So it’s, it is pod Yes.
Kristen (05:38):
Yeah, very much.
Sevan Matossian (05:40):
Uh, like school, um, classrooms, like with like multiple grades in it. Like the whole, like when you went to school, uh, Kristen, like, you were in there like K through six, were all in the same classroom. Like small, like that, like 20, no,
Kristen (05:51):
Not that small, but I only had like 90 people in my graduating class.
Leon (05:54):
The school I went to was like that. Yeah,
Kristen (05:57):
He
Sevan Matossian (05:57):
Was, it was Okay. Like a, like a one room school.
Leon (06:00):
Uh, yeah, we call him, uh, um, central school. So like a, a bunch of towns would go there and it would be like a one through 12, uh, like a K through 12 situation. So like everybody goes to the same school basically. Eventually it’s separated, but it’s not like, uh, it was like that for a while.
Sevan Matossian (06:15):
How, how long have you had, um, uh, lumberjack athletics? The CrossFit Loop location?
Leon (06:20):
We just hit five years, uh, January 2nd. We’re
Kristen (06:23):
Starting our fifth year. Fifth
Leon (06:24):
Year
Kristen (06:25):
<laugh>. Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (06:26):
Was it already a gym?
Leon (06:28):
No,
Kristen (06:28):
No.
Sevan Matossian (06:29):
Started from scratch. From
Kristen (06:31):
Scratch.
Leon (06:31):
Yeah. We are our, we are in our second location, uh, cuz we outgrew our first one pretty quick. And, uh, again, with Covid, all that stuff, we decided to get out of the spot that we were in and find a bigger location cause we needed it. So.
Sevan Matossian (06:45):
And, uh, Kristen, you’re, you’re a nurse.
Kristen (06:48):
I’m a nurse practitioner.
Sevan Matossian (06:50):
What, what’s the difference between a nurse and a nurse practitioner?
Kristen (06:53):
So, a nurse practitioner is similar to a doctor like I practice. I’m a family medicine provider, so, um, I’ve been a nurse practitioner for two years. It’s the basic, the highest end of nursing, if you will. Um, and actually getting ready to open my own practice right. In lumberjack.
Sevan Matossian (07:10):
Oh, wow. Awesome. Uh, do, do you do, uh, house calls or they come to you?
Kristen (07:15):
Um, mostly they come to me. I am willing to do house calls, but I don’t really have that, that option where I work for somebody right now trying to get out of that pretty quickly. So then I’m And,
Sevan Matossian (07:26):
And Leon’s full-time at the gym?
Leon (07:29):
Yes sir.
Sevan Matossian (07:30):
Wow. You guys are doing it. Holy cow.
Kristen (07:32):
It’s a lot of work. <laugh> people have no appreciation for what it takes to just run an affiliate, much less, try to do a million other things and open a second one. So
Sevan Matossian (07:42):
Y yeah. Why the, um, why the second one was it all, was it a failing gym and you guys are taking over? Or,
Leon (07:48):
Uh, well, not that I wanna keep springing this up, but Covid basically shut the gym down. That was in, so the gym is actually in, uh, Sheffield, uh, Massachusetts, which is the town over from Great Barrington and Great Barrington. They had a huge community and Covid shut ’em down. So when we were, uh, kind of getting things back up and running here, a couple of the athletes that were, uh, from Great Barrington started coming over cuz it’s not that far of a drive. And, uh, they liked what we were doing and they were like, Hey, we think that you would do great over here. And we were like, well, all right, let’s do it. Let’s get over there, let’s get the community back. Cause they had like 120 plus members over there at one time. And then the, there’s just no gym. There was nothing, not even like a Planet Fitness or anything for ’em to go to. So we were like, all right, let’s get after it. Let’s do it.
Sevan Matossian (08:31):
Um, uh, and and how has, is it actually opened its doors?
Leon (08:36):
Yes. Yeah. We’ve been, uh, open for about a month and a half-ish right now.
Sevan Matossian (08:41):
Oh, you guys are wild. Crazy. Very much. Are you having, are you having trouble finding coaches?
Leon (08:48):
No.
Kristen (08:48):
<laugh>. Okay. Well, that’s interesting. We were, yeah. Um, good coaches, right. Um, but, you know, something happened, nothing, you know, in another gym near us and we were able to land a very experienced L two coach. Um, that was, it was like literally perfect timing. Yeah. Um, so he’s, um, in our Hudson location and, um, our actual, we have another, uh, woman that’s a partner of ours. Um, she is a, uh, recently just became a partner of ours and she’s running the Sheffield location. Um, and Leon’s sort of the up here watching everyone
Sevan Matossian (09:24):
Type of thing. I I, I’m hearing this theme from affiliate owners and it’s just, it’s just anecdotal, but that they’re having trouble finding trainers and that the trainers that they do have, even the trainers that they love, that they have, they’ve had for a long time don’t care about the gym as much as their clients care about the gym. And that’s really an interesting way to put it, right? Because you could have a gym, uh, uh, uh, um, a coach who really, really cares about the gym, but if more than 50% of the gym owners care more, it becomes outta balance. There’s like a rela there’s a relativity piece. And I know that just because of my kids, I take my kids to coaches and I want the, like, so, uh, we were, uh, our kids play tennis and we were leaving for two weeks, and my wife felt really uncomfortable telling our tennis coach that we were leaving for two weeks.
(10:14):
And the reason why is because we know the coach cares. Oh. And we, like, you wanna feel that way. You want it to feel awkward when you tell your kids’ coach that you’re leaving for two weeks. Yeah. Because, you know, the coach isn’t gonna like it like that. At least that’s the relationship I want, because then I know the coach cares more than I do. Like I, I want the coach. And so it’s, do you have any thoughts on that about finding, I mean, it, it’s asking a lot about a coach. It’s asking a lot, uh, from a coach. It’s, it’s not like it pays, you know, $200,000 a year. Yes. In other jobs, you could get a job at Safeway and, and, and Care, but like who’s, but still turn it off when you go home. I mean, you’re really asking, you’re asking for a coach to be emotionally, physically, mentally, spiritually, all just all in, I mean, it’s, it’s it, right? It’s a PE people job.
Leon (11:00):
Yeah. Um, so we’re actually really fortunate that we don’t have that issue. Our coaches are a hundred percent bought into what we do, um,
Sevan Matossian (11:07):
Which is what save people’s lives. What, what, what, what,
Leon (11:10):
What is, yeah. I mean, we, we are the traditional CrossFit gym, right? We’ve had people lose a hundred pounds. We’ve gotten people off diabetes medicine. We’ve gotten people to do things. They thought like, Hey, I was never gonna be able to do that again. Right? Like, I got a blown out knee, I’ll never swab again. Uh, I was in a bad car accident, I’ll never do this. And it’s like, we’ve, bro, we had a guy who, uh, literally had his heart explode and, uh, was basically like fucked for the rest of his life. And, uh, now we got him moving his body again and living on his own and, and doing the things that you should be able to do as a human being. Right? Um, and that’s all because of the coaches that we have. Also, um, the reason why I even wanted to open up a gym was to create opportunity for coaches, because I’ve been doing this for 13 years now, and I had definitely been, uh, underappreciated in some gyms as far as, you know, fi financially and stuff like that. So I was, uh, very much into, you know, we’re gonna open this gym to create an opportunity for coaches to make a living and, uh, have more of a buy-in.
Sevan Matossian (12:08):
Uh, where did you work, uh, before, where did you coach before CrossFit?
Leon (12:11):
Uh, I helped start one of the gyms that’s in Hudson right now. Uh, railroad CrossFit. And I left there, uh, then I went up to Albany and I coached at a gym called CrossFit of Vita, uh, for two years. And then I was just, you know, let’s go open up our own stuff. We can, I can do this, uh, Kristen and I can do this. So,
Sevan Matossian (12:30):
So you were always a CrossFit coach?
Leon (12:33):
Uh, not always. Uh, I’ve, I was in construction beforehand, and then I was in the military for a brief stint, uh, United States Coast Guard. And then, uh, when I came out, I kind of fell back into like, some bad old habits, drugs, drinking, stuff like that. And CrossFit actually pulled me outta that shit, um, pretty quick. And that became my new addiction. And then, uh, yeah, here we are 13 years later.
Sevan Matossian (12:54):
Uh, I, I guess what I meant by, um, always a CrossFit coach, meaning you didn’t work at like Planet Fitness or you weren’t No,
Leon (13:01):
No,
Sevan Matossian (13:01):
No, no. Your coaching career in fitness and health started with as a CrossFit coach,
Leon (13:05):
Correct? Yep. 2011.
Sevan Matossian (13:07):
And did you get kicked out of the Coast Guard?
Leon (13:10):
Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (13:10):
Yep. Oh, good, good. Times four, four drugs and at four drugs and alcohol.
Leon (13:14):
Yes, sir.
Sevan Matossian (13:15):
Yep. Oh, wow. Uh, can you tell us what happened?
Leon (13:18):
Uh, yeah. Just being a shithead, you know, uh, I was too young. We were, uh, you know, just partying all the time. Easy job. And, uh, yeah, just one day ended up, uh, we were out and I was, uh, sleepwalking out on a, on a boat. And, uh, when you do that, that’s kind of a no-go, uh, in the Coast Guard. So I had to go and, uh, see a, like a psychiatrist with inside of the group. And then you take a drug test, and then the drug test pop boom, coast Guard doesn’t need you like that. Like, uh, yeah. Yeah. They don’t care about you like that, right? I think Caleb can, uh, attest to that, right? Absolutely. They don’t give a shit. Actually, the first thing they told me when I left, they were like, Hey, you can go join the army if you want, they’ll take you right now. And I was like, I’m good, <laugh>. Uh, I’ll get outta here. Thanks. Um, they would take you too. Yeah. They, they were like, Hey, you could absolutely shift right over to the Army and they’ll take you like in a heartbeat. And I was like, I’m good. Thanks.
Sevan Matossian (14:10):
Wow. Wow. Hey, that’s crazy. The sleepwalking thing.
Leon (14:15):
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It’s something I guess I did back then because I didn’t put stress out during, when I was awake, so it came out, it manifested through sleep, so, yeah.
Sevan Matossian (14:24):
Is, are tho is that the root of sleepwalking? Is that like a sign of like, uh, I
Leon (14:28):
Wasn’t, something’s
Sevan Matossian (14:29):
Like, something’s wrong with you. Like, do, do people who sleepwalk is that like, Hey, you need to learn how to express some shit during the day when you’re awake. It was, is he’s not a pretty strong correlate, like, I’m just saying in general, you know what I mean? Like, um, like, like, uh, people who cut themselves like, like something happened to you, you know what I mean? Yeah. There’s a correlate. Or like, kids who are acting out, right? Like all of a sudden you wanna put a hole in your fucking ear, or you wanna start getting like, like everyone we know who’s covered in tattoos and, and becomes an ultramarathon runner probably had a meth habit. Like it’s just a safe guess. You’re at the, you know, 80%. Is there a, is there something like that sleepwalks, all that. Like, you know what I mean? Like, your dad hits you with the belt for five years and you’re like, now I sleepwalk. You know what I mean? I
Leon (15:08):
Definitely didn’t have that, but, uh, I mean, I’m covered in tattoos as well too, so, uh,
Sevan Matossian (15:11):
Oh, and are you an ultra runner and did you have a meth problem?
Leon (15:14):
Uh, no meth problems. Uh, no ultra running either. Uh, but, uh, I am a good runner, so maybe, uh, maybe there’s a correlate there.
Sevan Matossian (15:22):
And, and I, I’m saying that half joking, but it’s, it’s pretty common, uh, in California. Like, you just, I mean, just that, um, just that ultra runner who, who comes from a, a, a methamphetamine habit and now they’re covered in tattoos. You’re not, you’re, I’ve, you have a lot of tattoos, you’re not totally covered yet. You, you still have
Leon (15:40):
No, I need space.
Kristen (15:41):
Yeah. He’s got lots of
Leon (15:42):
Space. I
Sevan Matossian (15:42):
Got some space. Yeah. Yeah. And you have time and you’re young enough that you could pick up a meth habit, although I, I think maybe you’ve crossed that threshold.
Leon (15:49):
Yeah. I’m like, I’m hoping that doesn’t happen. <laugh>,
Sevan Matossian (15:52):
<laugh>, did you, did you quit that? Did you quit, um, the drugs and alcohol because, or, or, or taper them because it just, you loved CrossFit so much and it, the two, because that’s why I quit smoking. I found CrossFit at 34, and I’m like, dude, these, it’s not that I wanted to quit smoking. I’m just like, Hey, these two aren’t working together.
Leon (16:08):
Yeah. I was just, uh, so the guy that I actually helped, uh, start the original gym in Hudson, uh, he actually got me into it. And, uh, I realized that I couldn’t do both, right? Like, you can’t do this and also be, you know, partying and doing all these things. And, uh, so, um, I really wanted to get my shit together because, you know, it’s, that was not the best, uh, time in my life to get kicked out of something that, uh, you know, my fa my father was very proud of me for going to the Coast Guard. He was a merchant Marine. Um, so
Sevan Matossian (16:38):
Yeah. Oh, yeah. That must have sucked facing your friends and family.
Leon (16:40):
Yeah, you know, I, I’m, I’m lucky that I have good people in me. Like, Hey dude, you fucked up. Oh, well move on. Um, so, you know, I was very, but you know, I didn’t, it didn’t sit well with me, so I wanted to change that habit. And, uh, so the only way I thought I could change it was to work on fitness, right? I was a, a wrestler in school, so I already kind of had like a, a decent background as far as like, Hey, I know how to, you know, get into shape and stuff like that. Um, and uh, yeah, when I found CrossFit, I was like, this is similar to wrestling. It’s high output, it’s, you know, it’s get after it stuff. It’s, the community’s very similar. It’s also a, an individual sport, but has a community around it similar to wrestling. So I fell right into it. Um, and then I was like, Hey, you know what, let’s just go full tilt into this, and here we are.
Sevan Matossian (17:24):
Uh, Trish, the series Rocks. Well done. Keep saving the world, Leon and Kristen. Oh,
Leon (17:28):
Awesome.
Kristen (17:29):
Thank you, Chris. Thank
Sevan Matossian (17:29):
You. Are you guys, um, there’s this, um, I, i, would you, were you guys ever go through any hippie stuff as kids or any hippie stuff in, in your life?
Kristen (17:42):
I mean, I’m Christian’s a hippie. I’m kind of a hippie now. I, I mean my whole life I’m just, I have that kind of personality. I don’t really enjoy time type of thing. Like, I don’t like being told I have to be somewhere at a certain time or I have to stay there because you’re, that part of the reason why I wanna have my own practice. Cuz I don’t want somebody telling me I have to be here at this time and here at this time, and I have to see this many patients and just much to, of a free of a spirit for that. Yeah. Um, this is why I never went into the service actually <laugh>. I wanted to go into the, into the military when I graduated from high school. I thought, um, and I, my dad was a Marine fought in Vietnam, and he, somebody had to sign off on me because I was 17, and he wouldn’t do it. He said, absolutely not. He said, I, you, I love you, but you would not make it through bootcamp because you do not listen and you can’t tell somebody, uh, no or fuck off, basically, if you don’t like what they have to say to you. And, you know, I’m grateful that he kind of did that because it’s just not who I am.
Sevan Matossian (18:45):
Um, uh, this is a, uh, Caleb, this one’s for you. Every time I see Be’s bearded pie hole, I want to hump it.
Kristen (18:53):
<laugh>.
Sevan Matossian (18:54):
<laugh>. Nice. Okay. That’s, that’s one of the most crass things I’ve ever seen in the comments, but I think it’s like affectionate. I think it’s like endear. It’s supposed to be endearing. I think
Kristen (19:01):
So too. Sure. Yeah. <laugh> Yeah. Go with that.
Sevan Matossian (19:05):
On other shows, we have another term for that, a phrase for that. But, uh, yeah. Okay. Or, or crate or cite. All right. I’m not sure cite means cut it or no,
Kristen (19:14):
Nah,
Sevan Matossian (19:15):
Nah, no. That, no, no.
Kristen (19:17):
You wanna know what that means? You’d
Sevan Matossian (19:18):
Rather scissor, trust me. All right. I’ll Google it later. I’ll Google it later. I’ll Google later. Take the scissor <laugh> appropriate. The reason why I ask is because, you know, in your profile, Kristin, it says like, um, uh, holistic, uh, uh, I think it says holistic nurse practitioner, correct? Yes. And when I think of the word holistic, I think it, I right away think, okay, this person believes that the body can heal itself. That you could make lifestyle changes and you can surround yourself with like, uh, clean air, clean food, clean movement, nice people. Um, you also had reduced stress. I think we’ve had some really, we, we had that guy Chris Wark, who cured himself of stage four colon cancer. And although he was like a hardcore vegan, he goes, really? I just wanna talk about stress. Yes. If you can remove stress outta your life, dude, you’ll be, and um, and we actually had Don Fallon also who, whose wife had.
(20:07):
He said his wife had cancer, and he focused on that too. That’s the CEO O of CrossFit. He focused on the fact that his, he wanted to remove stress out of his wife’s, um, life. And yet it, it’s interesting, you, um, you, uh, your dad was a Marine mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, you’ve also, uh, married this guy. It’s weird. There’s this, there’s the, we have them in Santa Cruz too. There’s this weird kind of like, um, I, I don’t wanna know if you, I want to call them a conservative hippie, but Oh, that’s hundred percent what? She’s That’s me. Yeah. Okay. Okay. <laugh>. Because, because I was a hardcore hippie too. <laugh>, and I still wanna be a hippie. I enjoy a lot of the tenants of hippie. I, I don’t feel the need to put chemicals on my body. I wanna walk around barefoot. But my, my clan has abandoned me. My clan, my, yeah. They don’t want to, um, they don’t want to accept everyone. They like, love is with my clan. Like originally I thought love was the way, and my clan doesn’t wanna love everyone anymore. No. I don’t know. I don’t know what happened to ’em in the last couple years, but they want to, and they got scared of stuff. They don’t believe the body can heal itself. Yeah. I mean, and I don’t, I don’t know what happened to them. I do, but, uh, okay, go ahead,
Kristen (21:21):
<laugh>. Um,
Sevan Matossian (21:22):
So, so that resonates with you cuz when I saw your profile, I’m like, oh, this is, I think Kristen might be my people like this, this might be,
Kristen (21:29):
I am very much your people. We actually spoke a lot, um, on Instagram during the, the pandemic, um, beginning of the times of the pandemic, um, because I was definitely one of the people right from get go who didn’t buy into the bullshit.
Sevan Matossian (21:45):
Yeah. Um,
Kristen (21:46):
For two weeks, I, we, when we first shut down and we wouldn’t even shut down, like every gym around us was shutting down saying, you need to do you, we should all do the right thing. And both of us were like, yeah, no, we’re not shutting down.
Sevan Matossian (21:59):
Like even that’s a manipulative w manipulative phrase. Right. That’s kind of lazy. Intellectually do the right thing. Yeah. Sorry, can you explain? And it doesn’t mean this. Yeah. Who are you? Yeah. Right. It doesn’t mean anything. Right.
Kristen (22:08):
Yeah. And that’s how we fell. And like both of us are pretty, um, what’s the word? Unwavering individuals. So you can’t really bully either of us, which works out really well. So it was a lot of us against our colleagues in the area. Nothing negative. Great human beings. They just bought into the fear, right? So I’m like, all right, I’ll take this seriously for a minute. When everything got shut down, I’m an educated woman. I’ve been, I’ve been in medicine for 20 years at that point, and I was careful. And then I started to think, this doesn’t make any fucking sense. None of it. And I just kept telling him, I’m like, this is bullshit. We’re done.
Sevan Matossian (22:46):
And can you tell me some of the first things you saw that didn’t make sense? Like you’re like, wait, that doesn’t make sense. Like, like, like people like dusting off their food, their packages that came from Amazon, stuff like that.
Kristen (22:55):
Exactly. They’re just, it’s not how any of it worked. Like you’re telling me that this is a disease, an airborne, an airborne virus, which it is. And, but you, you got people like wiping off their food with chemicals, like just let’s add more bullshit to it. Um, we’re telling people that they have all these symptoms to stay home, but we’re freaking them out telling, if you have this, you have this, you have this, but stay home. Um, and I couldn’t, liquor stores are open and gyms are closed, right? Yeah. Right, right. Dispensaries can stay open grocery.
Sevan Matossian (23:29):
How come everyone on that boat didn’t die? That was also, I spoke to a bunch of doctors who were like, Hey man, that boat off the coast of Japan was the perfect test.
Kristen (23:37):
Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (23:38):
Perfect science experiment. Like, scientists couldn’t ask for a better experiment and look what happened there.
Kristen (23:43):
It was just like, and
Leon (23:44):
When they start canceling doctors of like, you know, high degrees and stuff like that, and that, you know, you’re getting blocked on social media. It just becomes this big, uh,
Sevan Matossian (23:54):
Suspect. You got suspect.
Leon (23:55):
Yeah, exactly. Yes.
Kristen (23:57):
Very, very quickly. Um, and then we started being very vocal about it, which irritated lots of people in our lives, um, saying that basic, telling us that, you know, you’re gonna end up having to shut down. You’re gonna lose your, your clients, your,
Leon (24:11):
You’re bad leaders. You, you know, you’re not taking this serious. You’re gonna get people sick. You’re gonna get people hurt. You know, and I mean, none of that happened, but
Kristen (24:19):
We just stayed the course. Um, and we got tired of, of hearing, you know, sta zoom was, the Zoom classes were bullshit. We opened up our house, we’re like, we told our our community, our athletes Come, come here, come come to our house. Work out at our house. Yep. And they did.
Leon (24:37):
I built a rig in our driveway and, uh, we had classes outside in our driveway.
Sevan Matossian (24:42):
Uh, Bailey Dena, um, do other healthcare workers that work with you? Uh, Kristen and Leon think the same. I’m a nurse and I’d say it’s about 50 50.
Kristen (24:51):
Yeah. I, I would agree with that. Um, in my practice, I am one of, I see there’s five docs and four nurse practitioners. Um, we actually were wearing masks up until about when was that?
Leon (25:04):
Uh, three
Kristen (25:05):
Months ago or so. I just stopped. I’m like, I’m not doing this anymore. This is stupid. And everybody in the office was like, what do we do? What do we do? I’m like, I don’t really care what anybody does. I’m done. Yeah. I, and so we had this big thing.
Sevan Matossian (25:19):
I like that. I like that.
Kristen (25:20):
Yeah. And
Leon (25:21):
What happens, she does that a lot, by the way. She changes it a lot. She doesn’t like something, it usually stops.
Sevan Matossian (25:26):
I don’t, I don’t care. Leon, if you want hot sauce or not on this lasagna, I’m putting hot sauce on it. Yeah,
Leon (25:31):
Exactly.
Kristen (25:31):
But what happened was our whole office adopted the practice of no masks, because I proved to them how ridiculous we were being. Right. Um, but I’d say that I might be the only provider in my, in my practice who, um, feels the way I feel. They’re, you know, they’re all vaccinated. I’m not. Um, and I don’t encourage that for my patients. In fact, my patients who ask me like, should I get the booster? No, I mean, I, I got there a little late before they could all they, a lot of them are already,
Sevan Matossian (26:06):
Can you say that in, in this state? I don’t think you can say that in California. No.
Kristen (26:09):
Really?
Sevan Matossian (26:10):
I don’t think so. I don’t, I don’t. I I think that, um, I think a law passed in California that if you go against, if a doctor goes against what’s the, the state, this is crazy. I can’t believe I’m saying this out loud, that if you go against the state guidelines mm-hmm. <affirmative> that you, that you can lose your, uh, your license. I think Newsom passed that. I think our governor passed that. Which is nuts that you can’t get a second opinion from a doctor anymore.
Leon (26:33):
Yeah. Well, our state is only, uh, is second to your state. Your state is far worse than ours. But, uh, so we don’t, I don’t think we have anything like that. Actually, they just removed all the medical mandates for, uh, medical personnel, so they don’t have to do that shit anymore.
Sevan Matossian (26:47):
Were you working illegally, Kristen, since you weren’t back? No,
Kristen (26:50):
I’m in a private practice. Oh, okay. So if you have less than a hundred employees, it wasn’t required. Okay. Um, and I was very clear, if that’s what you require, I’m out. Like, I don’t care. Um, and that’s just how I feel. Like if, so, you know, somebody has to take a stand. Somebody has to do it. Right. Somebody has to say no. And I’ve always been the, if not, if not me, who, if not now, when, like, let’s, I’m done. You know? What,
Sevan Matossian (27:17):
If you would’ve lost your job, who would’ve put food on the table for your kids, your two kids? We
Kristen (27:21):
Would’ve figured it out. Who would’ve figured it out? I like, I just, I know that it would’ve, we, we, when we first opened lumberjack, that’s all we did. Like I wasn’t, we, I stopped everything and we focused on lumberjack and we lived in those means. And I’d go back to living in those means, if that’s what it meant. It wasn’t.
Sevan Matossian (27:39):
I, I wanna ask you what that means in one second. What means? Yeah. Uh, uh, Zachary, uh, cadets daily CrossFit tip. I watched the Five Buckets of Death video and didn’t buy into the bullshit yet. Insane, amazing video.
Leon (27:48):
That’s perfect. Yeah. Actually, that’s one of the first things that we watched. And when I watched that with Greg, I’m a huge, you know, I’m a huge Classman fan. Yeah. From the very beginning, um, uh, everything that went down with that was complete bullshit, but that’s a different story. Um, but yeah, that five buckets of death, uh, was like a real eye-opening experience for me. And I, that’s when I was like, fuck it, I’m done. Like this is, he just explained it in the simplest way possible.
Sevan Matossian (28:11):
I totally, I’m gonna get us back on subject here, but, um, I did an interview recently with, uh, one of Greg’s, uh, business partners in Broken Science. And she was talking, she came on the podcast and she was talking about, um, how she’s writing a book. And she recently, someone wrote in the comments, Hey, are you still gonna write the book? And is it gonna be a tell-all? And she said, yeah. And then someone in the comments goes, make sure you don’t just say, tell the good stuff. Make sure you tell the bad stuff. And when people, and I put, and I wrote back to them like, what, like the stuff we did with your mom <laugh>. And it’s like, dude, just, and it’s of course it’s a private account. Trolling. Yeah. And it’s like, Hey dude, just say what you mean. Like, you’re just such a pussy. Like, just say what you mean. Like, I, it, it, it this seed planting of, of negativity and of meanness. It’s just such cowardice. Absolutely. Uh, Jacqueline Robinson driving to work, but I cannot say how happy this combo is making me way to go. Oh, thank you. Thanks
(29:06):
<laugh>. Hey, Jacqueline, were we DMing this morning? Were you the one who was, um, uh, DMing with, uh, Steven Crowder and he was afraid of CrossFit? Who, who, who is someone was DMing me and saying Crowder was scared of CrossFit, saying it wasn’t, it wasn’t sustainable. It’s like, dude, my mom does it and she’s almost 80. She’s been born for 10 years. What are you talking about?
Kristen (29:23):
My mom does it too. And she’s 74, so it’s definitely sustainable.
Sevan Matossian (29:27):
<laugh> uh, SevOne pretending that the interview wasn’t a big deal. It wasn’t a big deal. There’s no, this,
Kristen (29:32):
That was a great interview,
Sevan Matossian (29:34):
Savon. Thank you. Yeah, she was, she was easy. It, she was easy. Well, I
Kristen (29:38):
Mean, I think the conversation just flowed so easily for both of, I mean, how is it not hard? You know, coach Glassman is an amazing human being who basically laid everything on the line for what we’re all doing right now. And the, the way that he was treated was so fucked up that I want, like, like I wanna line up the people who.
The above transcript is generated using AI technology and therefore may contain errors.
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