Sevan Matossian (00:00):
She’ll probably be pretty. Um, short. 40 minutes. You got 40 minutes. Awesome. You’re awesome. Thank you. Bam. We’re live. Zia Zia, what’s your last name?
Zia Rohrbaugh (00:12):
Rba.
Sevan Matossian (00:13):
Rba?
Zia Rohrbaugh (00:14):
Yes.
Sevan Matossian (00:15):
I pronounce it right.
Zia Rohrbaugh (00:17):
You did.
Sevan Matossian (00:18):
Hey, is she, um, how’s her connection, uh, Mr. Souza for you? It’s fine for me right now. Okay, good. Good for you too, Caleb, guys. Hi. Thank you everyone, uh, for joining us. Uh, I heard about, um, uh, I hadn’t, we had an affiliate series where we had an affiliate on, uh, once a week for a long time, and we let it lapse. It’s kind of weird. We let it officially lapse, but we were still having affiliates on. I felt like, uh, pretty regularly, right? I mean, every time you have Rich on it’s an affiliate owner or who We had, um, a handful of other people on who ended up also being affiliate owners. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And then a couple days ago I heard that there was a, um, west Coast affiliate gathering.
Zia Rohrbaugh (01:00):
There was,
Sevan Matossian (01:01):
There was. Of West Coast. Okay. And I hadn’t, and I kind of hadn’t heard of really too many affiliate gatherings. Basically, I just had a flashback to what we used to do in Montana. And so I, uh, through a mutual friend, I, I actually know Zia from the past, we’ll get into that in a second, but through a mutual friend there, I was like, Hey, do you know anyone who was there? And they said, oh, yeah. Uh, there’s a, a long time successful gym, um, in Southern California called CrossFit Counterculture, which of course I’ve been to half dozen times in my life. And, um, and the owner was up there and I was like, holy shit. Okay. So here we are. Before I ask you about, um, uh, the trip to Portland where the affiliate gathering was, uh, cross the counterculture. How, how many years you guys been around?
Zia Rohrbaugh (01:40):
14 years.
Sevan Matossian (01:42):
You guys must be in the, okay. God, I wanna say, I was gonna say top 100 for sure. Top 1001st gyms, right? I think
Zia Rohrbaugh (01:50):
First 1000. Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (01:53):
And now as time evolves and people, you know, gym cycle through, you gotta be getting down probably. I’m guessing you’re closer to one than you are to a thousand. I’m guessing you’re under 500 even.
Zia Rohrbaugh (02:03):
I mean, I would hope so. I would think so. Yeah. Um, unfortunately, but yeah. Rocking and rolling down here in SoCal.
Sevan Matossian (02:10):
You’re Zia, how old are you?
Zia Rohrbaugh (02:12):
I am 40 years old.
Sevan Matossian (02:14):
Are you kidding me? Yeah. You look so young. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. I’m gonna say something completely crazy. You look like you could pass, like do you get carded? <laugh>?
Zia Rohrbaugh (02:24):
Yeah,
Sevan Matossian (02:25):
<laugh>. Yeah.
Zia Rohrbaugh (02:27):
When I was 12, so,
Sevan Matossian (02:28):
Yeah. I was gonna say I’d card the shit outta you. You do not. Wow. That’s nuts.
Zia Rohrbaugh (02:33):
Well, I appreciate that <laugh>.
Sevan Matossian (02:34):
Yeah. For a And, um, and how did you find CrossFit?
Zia Rohrbaugh (02:38):
I found CrossFit out of college, um, kind of going to the gym, you know, by myself now doing team sports and kind like this is it. Um, I had some injuries back from college years, um, sports. And my orthopedic surgeon actually was like, you should be really strong, or you’re going to be in a of pain with the type of injuries you have.
Sevan Matossian (03:01):
What did you have? What was your injury?
Zia Rohrbaugh (03:03):
Um, I have a ruptured L four and five SS one, and they have like noted a little stenosis, and so he was like, you need to be really strong, or you were going to be, I was getting epidurals that at the age of 26. And he actually was like, there’s this thing called CrossFit and that would be really good for you. I do it, you should do it. And I’m just so fortunate to find back in 2007, whoa. A doctor that was like, you should do this. And, um, I haven’t had an epidural since.
Sevan Matossian (03:36):
Do you remember the doctor’s name?
Zia Rohrbaugh (03:37):
I wish I did. I, I’ve tried to look, but it was literally, you know, 17 years ago. But it was back in Maryland. It was in Baltimore, Maryland. I know that. And I looked up a CrossFit in the area and joined one right away and loved it and moved to California and now I’m doing this. Never looked back.
Sevan Matossian (04:00):
Um, when you, do you know the injuries that hurt your back? Like, did you fall off of something or?
Zia Rohrbaugh (04:05):
Honestly, no, it was bad. Strength and conditioning, coaching from Okay. School, middle or high school, college, you know, just not necessarily doing things properly. Most likely.
Sevan Matossian (04:16):
My story is very similar. I was hurt except I didn’t have anyone tell me that, but I was hurting my back four times a year doing like dumb shit. Like, like sit on a toilet and my back goes out. And then, and then I started doing CrossFit and my back started only going out once a year and it was also doing dumb shit, but it was like doing too heavy of deadlifts or stuff. And people would say to you, well, you hurt yourself CrossFitting. And I’d be like, dude, I used to hurt myself four times a year, taking a deuce. Now I hurt myself once a year and I know what, I know what I did wrong.
Zia Rohrbaugh (04:41):
Right? Yeah. Same thing
Sevan Matossian (04:44):
And all that shit where they tell you not to carry stuff in the frontal plane if you have a bad back. It was like, if, if I wouldn’t have had the CrossFit methodology to tell me, dude, you gotta carry stuff in your frontal plane to fucking make your core strong, I’d be screwed.
Zia Rohrbaugh (04:54):
Yeah, a hundred percent. It’s changed.
Sevan Matossian (04:57):
Mel, same experience for you?
Zia Rohrbaugh (04:58):
Same. Yeah. I mean, it was a rough road at first, like getting strong, realizing what I can and can’t do my limitations, but, and then, you know, I’d have, you know, those younger years where I’m like, well, I can do that. Oh, I should put more weight on the bar and I would have a setback here and there. But honestly it’s a non-issue now. My, I never had.
Sevan Matossian (05:18):
And you were at the 2007 CrossFit games?
Zia Rohrbaugh (05:21):
I was.
Sevan Matossian (05:22):
How
Zia Rohrbaugh (05:23):
I didn’t compete. I just watched.
Sevan Matossian (05:25):
Yeah. Well, what’s crazy is there were more competitors there than there were spectators. That’s even more rare. <laugh>. Tell me how you ended up there. That’s nuts. Pardon me?
Zia Rohrbaugh (05:35):
Life is prescribed. I was there selling t-shirts.
Sevan Matossian (05:38):
All, all, and you were all Wow. Already. And how many vendors were at that games?
Zia Rohrbaugh (05:44):
Not very many. I think three, maybe four.
Sevan Matossian (05:49):
Crazy. You drove up to the ranch, where did you sleep?
Zia Rohrbaugh (05:54):
I can’t remember.
Sevan Matossian (05:55):
There. In a tent or you in the truck? No. You got a hotel somewhere in Yeah.
Zia Rohrbaugh (05:59):
Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (06:00):
In Watsonville. Crazy. By the way, this is, um, Matt Souza. He’s one of your fellow, uh, California affiliate owners. He owns, uh, CrossFit Livermore.
Zia Rohrbaugh (06:08):
Yeah. Hello. Hi.
Sevan Matossian (06:10):
Good to meet you. And, um, and so you are, you’re doing, you, you get introduced and, and do you remember the first affiliate you went into that the surgeon told you to go to?
Zia Rohrbaugh (06:19):
I went to CrossFit Frederick in Maryland.
Sevan Matossian (06:21):
Okay. And, and it was, uh, love at first sight. It was successful. Yeah.
Zia Rohrbaugh (06:26):
Oh my gosh. Yeah. I was all in right away. Like, this is, you know, from playing team sports, going into this, this was so much more fun. And I was all in right away and did it full like every day, all day, any chance I got. And then when I decided to move to California, I immediately started looking for a gym and got, you know, I was in right when life is prescribed was starting and counterculture was just a baby. And right away I was like, this is what I wanna do. I’m quitting my job and this is what I’m doing.
Sevan Matossian (06:59):
And that was a, that was a wild gym. That was a cool gym, right? Uh, young people, people, the coaches sleeping in the gym there, training during the day. Weird. They posting weird videos like laying out mouse. But this is like way before like the Milk Boys and shit. Those guys were already like laying out mouse traps and like trying to do burpees and mouse traps and crazy shit.
Zia Rohrbaugh (07:18):
Right. So walking through the mouse traps. Yeah. Yeah. Fish oil challenge. Yep. Yep.
Sevan Matossian (07:22):
What was the fish oil challenge? I just remember those guys were way ahead of their time. <laugh>.
Zia Rohrbaugh (07:26):
Um, they would do a shot of fish oil and then a hundred double lenders and then whoever made it the longest <laugh>. Yeah. There was crazy stuff in the beginning, like
Sevan Matossian (07:34):
Deucing themselves without dropping a deuce,
Zia Rohrbaugh (07:37):
Uh, without puking. That was, I think that was
Sevan Matossian (07:39):
<crosstalk>. Oh, puking. All right. <laugh>. Did you ever do either any of those Fish oil challenge or the mouse trap?
Zia Rohrbaugh (07:46):
Nope. No. Nope. I was an observer during those ridiculous times. I am sad to report nobody is currently living in our gym.
Sevan Matossian (07:54):
Oh, that is sad. Uh, Zia I believe is Swedish for mine.
Zia Rohrbaugh (07:59):
It is.
Sevan Matossian (08:00):
Oh, I thought that was just some guy hitting on you. Yeah, <laugh> it just making <laugh>. I thought that was just a, just a line. Uh, okay. And then, um, and then, so basically you, you, you show up there as a client and quickly decide you wanna become a coach, and at some point you take your L one. Yep. Immediately.
Zia Rohrbaugh (08:20):
And when, first thing I did when North California.
Sevan Matossian (08:23):
And what year was that?
Zia Rohrbaugh (08:24):
2009.
Sevan Matossian (08:26):
Okay. So, so just a year or two after, basically Greg had kind of relinquished the throne. Do you remember who your L one, um, coaches were?
Zia Rohrbaugh (08:34):
Uh, Nadia, Rory, um, I can’t remember the others. Todd was, it was at U S D when Stefan was Oh, down there.
Sevan Matossian (08:49):
Wow.
Zia Rohrbaugh (08:50):
And there was no test.
Sevan Matossian (08:52):
Of course not. Test is ridiculous. <laugh>. Hey, uh, that’s crazy. Lineage. Uh, Nadia, affiliate owner, uh, Rory over obviously over at, at Mayhem. And, uh, Todd, uh, big shot at the games, developed the kids program there and, uh, big shot in the training department and in the games. Crazy. And they were your L one instructors
Zia Rohrbaugh (09:12):
And Castro and Greg were there, but they weren’t teaching it. They were just kind of hanging out.
Sevan Matossian (09:18):
Did Castro say anything crazy? Like, like, you know, like, like he said at mine. Anything crazy? Don’t be
Zia Rohrbaugh (09:24):
Nervous. I don’t think he spoke at all. Yeah, he was the guy in the corner. I think he was truly just observing. I remember being very nervous. He was there, excited to meet him, but I don’t think he spoke at all. I don’t think either of them did, honestly. I’m
Sevan Matossian (09:35):
Still ner I’m still nervous hearing that he was there. Go ahead. Susa. Go ahead. I said interns don’t speak <laugh>. Oh, he’s just intern then. Yeah. Yeah.
Zia Rohrbaugh (09:43):
I think he was, uh, I think he was judging. He was, I think he was watching the, the
Sevan Matossian (09:47):
Crew that assessing them. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. How about Nicole? Was she there? Mm-hmm. No. No. And um, and, and, and you’d already been doing CrossFit for two years. It obviously saved your, uh, your back, uh, changed the quality of your life. And then you, and then, and then, so you take that and what did you think of the L one at the time? Did it still blow you away or were you like, nah, no. Oh yeah.
Zia Rohrbaugh (10:10):
I was such still like a new baby CrossFitter, especially going from the East coast where it was still really new. And the translation of how different it was on the west coast, I was all in. I was so pumped on it. Um, I loved it. And then when I found out I had to take it again because they enforced the test, I was like, great, this is gonna be awesome. Um, so back then, yeah, I thought it was the greatest thing ever.
Sevan Matossian (10:35):
Did you do Fran on your first one?
Zia Rohrbaugh (10:37):
Yeah, they did. Fran on my second one too.
Sevan Matossian (10:41):
They need to bring that back. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. They need to figure yes. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Yes. There’s always, there just needs to be like, okay, 10 people are gonna fall off the pull up bar every year. Just bring it back. It, it’s just 10. Replace it. Hey. It just shows how successful the program is. We just have so many people coming through. Um, and then, uh, and, and then have you ever strayed in your 14 years? Is is a long time? Never. Never. No. You’ve never been like, okay, I’m switching to something else.
Zia Rohrbaugh (11:11):
No, I, this our, my affiliate has been CrossFit tried and true from day one. Always has been. Always will be.
Sevan Matossian (11:21):
And, uh, is is, is it the same location?
Zia Rohrbaugh (11:24):
Same location for now?
Sevan Matossian (11:27):
You’re thinking about moving.
Zia Rohrbaugh (11:28):
I’m outgrowing it. I’m gonna, in the process of moving or trying to Got it. Find,
Sevan Matossian (11:34):
God, I’d love to hear that. Are you the sole owner?
Zia Rohrbaugh (11:37):
No, the, um, Alex, my business partner is still involved.
Sevan Matossian (11:41):
Okay. So the two of you own it. And is it the most successful it’s ever been in the 14 years?
Zia Rohrbaugh (11:47):
Oh yeah, for sure.
Sevan Matossian (11:49):
Holy shit. What do you attribute that to? Especially like in an alien economy where like, people are like, Hey, I’m gonna cut off my SiriusXM, I’m gonna cut off my gym membership. I’m like,
Zia Rohrbaugh (12:00):
Yeah, I, two main things. One, I feel like, I mean, COVID was like a breaking point for a lot of, um, a lot of all businesses actually. Not just CrossFits, but those who were running it like a business and those who are running it like a club. And we’ve always very much run our gym like a business, which has allowed us to help more people. And we have a very strong community as a result of that. So I have a business background. I’m very big into business, and I brought that to the table. And Alex does all the programming. We do our own programming always have, always will be. Um, so we feel like we have something unique to other affiliates. Um, that’s our product that we’re selling. So the combination of those two things, I think is just a winning combination.
Sevan Matossian (12:48):
What’s the distinction between club and business?
Zia Rohrbaugh (12:51):
A club is like something you invite your friends to, to hang out and, you know, maybe make a little bit of money. And a business is running for profit. This is my passion. And, but it’s a business. I run it for money. I chose CrossFit because I love it, and that’s what I wanna do. But first and foremost, it is a business. It feeds me, it supports me, and I run it as such.
Sevan Matossian (13:12):
And you know that the pe being that it was a orthopedic surgeon who sent you to a gym, you know, the power of what you’re wielding and you know, this kind of, you need to take it serious. Meaning there’s other surgeons now, and I’m assuming you have surgeons also who are members at your gym. You, there are other surgeons now recommending that people like you come to your gym and then now you need to be in their care. And so it, it’s, it’s,
Zia Rohrbaugh (13:39):
It’s a, it’s a job and, and it should be taken seriously. And, you know,
Sevan Matossian (13:44):
That’s, did you have to wake up to that? Was it not always like that? Did you go through a transition where you’re like, oh, this is just fun and like, oh, oh, shit. Like I, I need to like,
Zia Rohrbaugh (13:51):
And I feel like at first there was a lot of fun involved, and it was like, I was fortunate too where like CrossFit was very new when we opened our gym. So there was no expectation when, when people would walk in the door of what they should see, how it should look, what it’s, you know, what they’re gonna do when they get here. So we kind of defined a little bit what their expectation was. And so at first, I don’t feel like it was as defined as it is for me now, but very quickly, um, you know, I think it went that way just with before when there was a lot of CrossFits in our area, that we had to really set expectations and goals and treat them like they’re giving us money. We have to treat them with that professionalism. Um, so yeah, I think we did that almost from the beginning. I mean, the first few years were a little, you know, rocky as far as figuring it out, but we figured it out pretty quick.
Sevan Matossian (14:44):
Is that my phone doing that? Yeah,
Zia Rohrbaugh (14:45):
It’s my computer. Oh,
Sevan Matossian (14:47):
Sorry. Okay. It’s no big deal. It’s, I don’t care if it’s you, it doesn’t bug me, but I just want to, if it’s mine, I I, I can turn it off. And then, um, did you have a business mentor? Did you have someone who helped you
Zia Rohrbaugh (15:00):
Business-wise? Um, you know, honestly, I would lean on other affiliate owners that were older than me. I would, um, talk a lot to, you know, Craig has been somebody that I talk to a
Sevan Matossian (15:14):
Lot. Howard, Howard, the Pleasanton guy, yeah. Mm-hmm.
Zia Rohrbaugh (15:17):
<affirmative>, um, CJ and I opened our gyms close to one another, and he’s been
Sevan Matossian (15:22):
<crosstalk>, Invictus, CJ Martin. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Wow. Okay.
Zia Rohrbaugh (15:25):
He’s somebody that, you know, I’ve talked to and I just try to get on the phone with as many other affiliate owners as I can throughout the way. I’ve never hired like a official firm or anybody to help me with that. But before this I was, I did accounting for Outback Steakhouse, so I have a little bit of a accounting background that helped me a little bit with the business side of things.
Sevan Matossian (15:50):
Um, hold on. I, I’m not sure if I’m gonna fight with this guy or not. Uh, <laugh>, uh, I don’t know how I should take this. Uh, extra sloppy, uh, 1999 affiliate content is your best stuff. Step sevy. Well, tomorrow I’m gonna have a show at 7:00 AM about how Covid is a bio weapon. So maybe you should wait until you watch that. Okay. Sorry. Uh, back to on subject. Um, uh, so you’re, you’re affiliated with, um, some OGs too. You’re, you’re entrenched. I mean, I’m trying to think of like, I, when I think of OGs of California and I feel bad if I leave, I’m gonna leave people out. But I think of, um, uh, who’s the guy? I think of Craig Howard, obviously. I think of cj, I think of the guy at Dogtown. Who’s that? Uh, dunk. Um, dusty, dusty Highland. Yep. Yeah. Dusty Highland. Um, uh, ma Max, um, Mormont. Oh, we had Max on? Yep. Yeah, just a couple weeks ago. Okay. So you’re, so you got your, you got your kind of your crew, you, you there, there’s the, you’ve been around and you know, you guys can share war stories. And, um, when you say you’re about to outgrow your, uh, space, what does that look like? How do you know, like when you look around, you’re like, uhoh, what do you see? No parking or
Zia Rohrbaugh (17:04):
Well, I live in Southern California, so there’s never parking <laugh>. Okay, fine. Um, but uh, but aren’t
Sevan Matossian (17:09):
You, you’re in a pretty good spot. Isn’t there like a five guys in a big parking lot over there by you where people can park like a huge, or No? We
Zia Rohrbaugh (17:15):
Do have a good over, I mean, I, I, I joke, but for San Diego, we have a pretty good parking situation.
Sevan Matossian (17:20):
Okay. Okay.
Zia Rohrbaugh (17:21):
So it’s not the, it’s not the best. It gets pretty crazy, but when I get, I see that, like when we have 20, 25 people in a class and I can’t, I can only add so many classes a day. We’re already running 10 classes a day, we’re running out of time to run classes and we can only, you know, get creative with programming for so long. So I would say by the end of our lease this time, I would like to be in a new one.
Sevan Matossian (17:46):
Okay.
Zia Rohrbaugh (17:48):
Yeah. That’s our masters, that’s our, uh, 60 and up class, or six 50, the
Sevan Matossian (17:53):
Class. Okay. So if you have that many, okay. I, I, okay, got it. Just too many people, it’s just crowded, like people are, it’s just too many people and that’s how, you know
Zia Rohrbaugh (18:03):
And that class. Yeah. Too many people and not enough. Like usually if you’re like, oh, this class is getting full, we’ll add another one behind it. And, you know, I don’t wanna start having to alter my programming to the point where people aren’t getting as good of a product because I’m like, look, there’s 25 people in this class, so we’re not gonna use barbells anymore. Or, you know, something like that. The older folks, we kept that class just for safety, so they’re always gonna be fine. But the traditional classes get pretty big.
Sevan Matossian (18:31):
Um, that’s a, that’s a beautiful gym. Uh, great doors, great colors, great pull up bars, great floors. Would you open a second location or, or, um, new spot or,
Zia Rohrbaugh (18:43):
I mean, I would be open to that, but I would love to move this gym like across the street in like a 10,000 square foot facility with like all the bells and whistles. But as we’re looking for a space that might end up having to be it, but I think one bigger location would be my primary. How much square
Sevan Matossian (18:59):
Feet square footage is this one?
Zia Rohrbaugh (19:01):
This one is 6,000 square feet. What you’re looking at, we have two separate rooms. That room is, uh, 3,500 square feet.
Sevan Matossian (19:12):
Yeah. That’s beautiful. Wow. Great shot. Oh, you got like an upstairs loft, so you can just sit up there and judge. That’s awesome. Yeah. Is that a mirror down there or That’s an opening into another room. That’s an
Zia Rohrbaugh (19:21):
Opening into another room, which we use. Oh shit. Kids class. It keeps them from running into the street. We use it for open gym, um, overflow on the bigger classes.
Sevan Matossian (19:31):
Wow. Congratulations. You, that place is dope. Yeah, it looks amazing. That’s the kind of place you look forward to going to. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>.
Zia Rohrbaugh (19:37):
I would like to think so. Yeah. It’s my favorite place to be,
Sevan Matossian (19:40):
Uh, YOA Jennings. Always love hearing from other affiliates. Thank you, Alana. Okay. And then so, uh, flash forward to when do you find out about this affiliate gathering and, and what’s your first, um, uh, response? What’s your first thoughts? Like, do they, does CrossFit HQ send you an email? How do you find out about a west? It’s a West Coast affiliate gathering, right?
Zia Rohrbaugh (20:01):
West Coast affiliate gathering. So they’re, all, the affiliates are broken up into regions now. And we are part of the West coast, obviously region. And so Katie Hogan, who is our West Coast rep, emails us regularly, um, content, you know, helpful things, articles we do once a month calls, zoom calls together. And then we have twice a year, uh, an affiliate gathering or a regional affiliate gathering. And so, um,
Sevan Matossian (20:30):
Once a year, did you say? Once a year, sorry. Twice a year. Twice a year.
Zia Rohrbaugh (20:34):
Yeah. And it’s kind of a lot like Montana, it’s more, it’s structured. It’s a day, it’s all day. And they have different people come and speak each time. And we basically get to sit and talk to other affiliate and there’s always topics and they’re great. I love any opportunity to talk to other affiliate owners, new and old. I think it’s the best thing. And I love how much we’re getting to do that nowadays. Um, so I don’t care where they are. I’ll fly anywhere to go talk to, to do those. They’re so fun.
Sevan Matossian (21:06):
Yeah. That’s crazy that you’re saying that too. So that was gonna be my next question. It’s not a drag. You’re not like, oh fuck, I’m gonna go there and it’s gonna be just a bitch session from affiliates. It’s like, you’re looking forward to it. You’re gonna go there, it’s gonna be fun, there’s gonna be cool people. It’s gonna be your people.
Zia Rohrbaugh (21:19):
Yeah. Oh yeah. It’s, it’s great. I’ve, one of them was local, which was nice. And when this one was up in Portland, I didn’t hesitate. I mean, I will go anywhere. They’re, they’re a great time. They make a a they make it fun and there’s usually content there that will benefit you. And this last one had a ton of good content. Um, they’re doing a lot of new stuff with h you know, home office and, um, it’s nice to hear what it is. ’cause sometimes a lot of times we don’t really know what’s going on in the big picture and the, the backend of it. And we were fortunate enough to have, um, Dawn, the c e o come and speak to this one. So we got a lot of insight of what CrossFit’s been doing and what they’re gonna do in Q four and things that are coming and a little bit of why, um, things are going the way they’re going. And that’s something that we’ve never had in CrossFit, right? Affiliate owners are just like, blindly follow us. And of course we do ’cause we believe in it. But he spent a lot of time explaining the nitty gritty of what they are doing with crossfit.com and their initiatives and where they’re putting their money. And for once I feel like I walked away and I was like, okay, cool. I’m super pumped about what CrossFit’s doing.
Sevan Matossian (22:36):
No shit. You walked away from their pumped.
Zia Rohrbaugh (22:38):
Yeah, I was super excited. ’cause there’s some things, like I walked into it with this whole push to get everybody L three certified, and I’m like, oh, this is a money grab. And I walked away from
Sevan Matossian (22:49):
It. Wait, wait, wait. Give you, you walked in there thinking that wanted,
Zia Rohrbaugh (22:53):
I walked into it like, they’re really pushing the l the certifications, right? Now’s
Sevan Matossian (22:57):
Revenue.
Zia Rohrbaugh (22:58):
Okay. And then I walked out of that with kind of a different view of that. Like, okay, no, I get why they’re doing this. The, the whole idea that they’re, they’re really pushing every CrossFit you go into has an excellent staff and that everybody walks away from CrossFit trying it saying, well, that might not have been for me, but they know what they’re doing. I really respect that craft. And he asked us all, like, who feels confident in that right now? That no matter where we drop in in the United States, that that level of competence is happening. And it kind of put things into perspective. So focusing on coaching, focusing on making every affiliate better, will benefit all of us as a whole. And I to hear that perspective and the amount of time and effort they’re putting into it at home office, um, really opened my eye and it was great. And that’s what I wanted to hear, honestly. Like I’m on board. I totally get it.
Sevan Matossian (24:00):
There’s always this, this voice out there that’s like, Hey, reduce the barrier of entry or increase the barrier of entry to open an affiliate, make it an L two, make it an L three, make it that you have to be a coach at some gym for five years. And there’s always this feeling of like, but that’s not, first of all, that’s not how anything’s done. That’s not how cops are done. Lawyers, surgeons. But what you’re saying Go ahead. Just go ahead. I I won’t, they’re
Zia Rohrbaugh (24:20):
Not doing that. They’re just urging us as affiliate owners to invest more in our coaching and Yeah. Like continuing education and never settling and really pushing that, you know, virtuosity and, um, in our staff, not just us as business owners. And that that will create a better outlook on CrossFit help, you know, with some of those Oh, CrossFit interests.
Sevan Matossian (24:48):
Yeah. It’s, it’s kind of, um, uh, um, the, the whole Kennedy thing, don’t ask what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country. Don’t, if every affiliate toes their weight gets their L two, gets their L three, then CrossFit doesn’t have to lay down some law saying you have to get it. And then the, the brand value of everyone’s affiliate rises simultaneously. The ch Right. Exactly.
Zia Rohrbaugh (25:08):
Yeah. He broke down all of that. And that’s, they’re putting into main site. They said they got 30 before
Sevan Matossian (25:15):
We go there, but before we go there, I’m gonna ask you, okay, I’ll make a note. I’m gonna ask you on mean, say this is, this is really interesting. This takes a lot of balls for Don to do. Yep. Right? He’s the new c e o. He comes into this click, everyone’s clicky, everyone’s talking, and yet he has to try to tell you, um, make yourselves better, even though we know you’re already fucking the best in the industry. So, and so he has to overcome that ego obstacle that he’s of the people he’s talking to. And then on top of that, he has to get past all the affiliates being like, oh, you’re just trying to make money off of us. So he earned your respect. Yeah. He, he disarmed you for thinking it’s just a money grab. And you heard the message for what it was like, Hey dude, this is a win-win everyone. Susan, are you buying this?
Mattew Souza (25:58):
Yeah, a hundred percent.
Sevan Matossian (25:59):
Yeah.
Mattew Souza (26:00):
Yeah, absolutely. I think that’s how it should be incentivized. And I think that the, the differentiator between CrossFit and all the other like, like things is the education piece is the L one, the L two, the L three, the L four. And I love the fact that they’re pushing that and I think they should have incentivized affiliate owners with other things that would help push them and their coaches into, um, the courses.
Sevan Matossian (26:20):
Gimme an example of something he said in regards to that. Can, can you anything pop off the top of your head Zia, in, in regards to up upping your, uh, your amount of training or your, or your knowledge?
Zia Rohrbaugh (26:31):
I mean, he said that he CrossFit is going to start offering more coaching programs, mentorship programs for affiliate owners to get their coaches where they need to be to help affiliate owners with that. There is a mentorship program for coaching now to help coaches become better. And it’s not just on the affiliate owner. Now CrossFit is helping us with that, which is huge. It’s not just saying, this is the new standard, do it, but we’re gonna help you and this is how we’re gonna help you do it. So we’re, you know, the newer affiliates, like they’re not on their own anymore. They have people to turn to to help them where they feel like they need help, which is huge.
Sevan Matossian (27:14):
Um, who, who else was there? Uh,
Zia Rohrbaugh (27:17):
Um, uh, best Hour was there. Um, the nutrition, um, seminar was there.
Sevan Matossian (27:27):
Uh, who, uh, who runs the affiliate department now?
Zia Rohrbaugh (27:31):
Who runs the affiliate department? Yeah. Um, well we had
Sevan Matossian (27:34):
Austin. Yeah. Was Austin Mallilo
Zia Rohrbaugh (27:36):
There? Austin was there. He
Sevan Matossian (27:37):
Austin was there. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So Austin, Dawn and Katie. Yeah. And, uh, and the Best Hour, that’s Jason Ackerman Best
Zia Rohrbaugh (27:44):
Hour. Was there,
Sevan Matossian (27:45):
What was he doing there? Isn’t he a competitor to the, um, he is
Zia Rohrbaugh (27:48):
Actually on the affiliate portal now as a, um, partner of CrossFit to help CrossFits with their, okay.
Sevan Matossian (27:58):
And, and we had some lady who went through his program on the show. She talked about his his program, right? Didn’t we from the east coast or something? Oh, uh, what was that? Susana?
Mattew Souza (28:06):
Um, yeah, shit. The seen. But yeah, we did, uh, um, Trish.
Sevan Matossian (28:11):
Trish, like, like a month ago. Yeah.
Mattew Souza (28:13):
Mm-hmm.
Sevan Matossian (28:13):
<affirmative>. God, that program sounds intense. Mm-hmm.
Mattew Souza (28:16):
<affirmative> <laugh> remember? She was like, I would go home and cry and shit
Sevan Matossian (28:19):
Like that. Yeah. I don’t want anyone looking at my life like that. Yeah. No, no, no. Crevice of my life. No facet. Okay. Uh, so, so that was good. And, um, before I, I want to talk about what he said about Main Site, um, but what about, um, was there, were there, was there those, those meetings can often turn into bitch sessions? Did did anyone try to ambush dawn or try to bitch him and he bitch at him and he kind of had to nip it in the bud?
Zia Rohrbaugh (28:42):
No, I, I mean, he was super, he was super professional and positive about everything. People had questions for him and he had answers, genuine answers for everybody’s concerns or questions that they had. But the amount of information that we were given on the topics was very thorough. So there’s a little bit of questions, but no real pushback because like I said, there’s a lot of great information that was given.
Sevan Matossian (29:08):
How many affiliates were there?
Zia Rohrbaugh (29:09):
There’s 120.
Sevan Matossian (29:11):
Holy shit.
Mattew Souza (29:12):
Wow. Great turn again. That’s awesome.
Zia Rohrbaugh (29:15):
Wow. It’s a big region.
Mattew Souza (29:17):
Yeah. We had about that same number at, at ours here in north, in the northern California one.
Sevan Matossian (29:21):
Yeah. Uh, and, and Katie’s amazing. Been around forever. Great. Awesome. Yeah. Uh, one of the last, um, uh, the last two L ones I filmed when I was trying to save my job. She was the instructor there and she was, I just, she blows me away.
Mattew Souza (29:35):
She’s incredible. Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (29:36):
Yeah. She’s incredible. Wow. So she got the whole west coast.
Zia Rohrbaugh (29:40):
Yeah.
Mattew Souza (29:40):
Huge for her. And she’s killing it like a rockstar.
Zia Rohrbaugh (29:44):
Yeah, she’s great. And she’s a resource that we all have on a weekly and daily basis to email or text her if we have any questions or we need help with anything. Like they put the right people in place to help affiliates more regularly, then I’ve ever seen.
The above transcript is generated using AI technology and therefore may contain errors.
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