Sevan Matossian (00:03):
Hey, I am more live. Good morning, aj. Good morning, Chris. Good morning. It’s like romper room, standing room only. Oh geez. Countdown to the expiration of Gigi’s, non-compete. How hard is it to change your name in your picture? Can you just do that as many times as you want, like five times a day? Or do you have to start a new account every time you have an alias? An alias. All the shows go to Rumble, but I’m too lazy to spend the 15 seconds it takes to make them go live there every morning. But as soon as they’re done, they go there. So later. What’s up? I saw your post. Alright, fine. Hold on. I got my pen here. And racial stereotypes because of use later I’m removing because I had put under there under black men, I had put afraid of birds. I’m removing that. Okay. For you. Only for you black men. It’s right under like fat women. I’m keeping that and I’m crossing out afraid of birds. Fine. You win. Okay, cool. Alright, that fucking executive order. I saw your comment. I’m feeling alpha, my ca hormones. Yeah, me too dude. Yesterday ladies and gentlemen, since you care so much, I got a stand. No, I didn’t get a stand yesterday. I fasted.
(01:37):
That was the first time I fasted. Since I’ve been on carnivore for 32 or 36 hours, I still haven’t eaten anything. Just my black coffee. Just my black coffee. My paper street coffee. Dude, some of you made a killing on that paper Street deal for Black Friday, huh? Paper Street Coffee. Don’t spell out street use code word savon. Oh, I’m using that voice that my son says is the fake me today. We have Greg Glassman coming on, he should be here any second. He confirmed at 5:32 AM he said yes. Lemme see. We are live. I wonder because I’m doing all the shows an hour early, so I’m wondering maybe if he doesn’t know. Yeah, clickbait isn’t that. Isn’t that K Ka? Isn’t that K? Isn’t that crazy? Cay, when people think it’s like clickbait, I’m like, Danielle, Brandon’s coming on the show and she doesn’t show and people are like, that’s clickbait. I’m unfollowing like fuck you dude. How about dude, I’m so sorry she didn’t show up. It sucks for you. It sucks to be you. All of a sudden it’s my fault. That’s, that’s the difference between cool people and not cool people. Something like that happens to, if I see something like that happen to you, I don’t blame you. A quick, hi Caleb.
Caleb Beaver (03:14):
Good morning
Sevan Matossian (03:15):
Hijack. The quick
(03:23):
Difference between a cool person and a not cool person is the kind of person who says, and this is just, you can tell if someone’s asleep or not. Let’s say this example I always use, but someone’s smoking a cigarette and they’re like, dude, you shouldn’t smoke. And if they say to you, Hey, but you smoke right away, you know that person’s asleep who caress. Stay focused on the subject. Don’t drag the other person into it. It’s kind of a cousin of ad hominin. Stay focused on the subject. Don’t attack the person, don’t worry about the person. Stay focused at getting it the truth. Hey, has that jacket got any? Hi Greg. Has that jacket got any caulking or anything crazy on it yet? Caleb, any dirt or nails situated
Caleb Beaver (04:00):
Today? I got some yesterday. I got some fiberglass and stealing stuff on it.
Sevan Matossian (04:06):
You think you treat that jacket worse because it’s 50% off at North Face? You think you’re less kind to it?
Caleb Beaver (04:12):
No, I think I treat a $50 jacket the same. I treat a $200 jacket. Alright, it’s all the same.
Sevan Matossian (04:18):
Hi Greg.
Greg Glassman (04:21):
Good morning to both of you.
Sevan Matossian (04:25):
I saw that jacket Caleb was wearing like three days ago on the show. He debuted it and I immediately knew it was on the 50 cent racket. North face. I could tell because that doesn’t look like a popular pattern. So I was just asking if he treats and he’s doing a remodel on a house he just bought in Omaha. And so I was asking if he wears that, if he treats it worse since it was 50% off. He says no,
Greg Glassman (04:49):
Caleb, Joe
Caleb Beaver (04:52):
Westerland.
Greg Glassman (04:53):
Yeah.
Caleb Beaver (04:54):
Yeah. I think he used to own across at Omaha, correct?
Greg Glassman (04:57):
Yes sir. Yes.
Caleb Beaver (04:59):
Yep. Yeah, I think he’s going to teach our L one in January. My dad, myself and my wife are all going to take it.
Greg Glassman (05:07):
Wow, that’s exciting. That’s super cool.
Caleb Beaver (05:11):
Yeah, he is a nice guy. He was at the last L one that I took when he owned Omaha. He was just there just watching.
Sevan Matossian (05:20):
Who did he sell it to?
Caleb Beaver (05:22):
Stacy.
Sevan Matossian (05:23):
Oh, so she’s the sole owner?
Caleb Beaver (05:25):
I think so, yeah. Her and her husband Dustin,
Sevan Matossian (05:33):
They’re not allowed to, they have a no selling CEO shirts policy at their events.
Caleb Beaver (05:39):
Yeah, that’s what I’ve heard.
Sevan Matossian (05:40):
No Stevon podcast gear sold at Stacey Tovar events.
Caleb Beaver (05:44):
Yeah. Don’t want to rust any feathers, I guess.
Sevan Matossian (05:48):
Yeah. The guy who prints my shirts wanted to show up at one of their events. They were having a competition or event at their gym and they were told that they could, but because of their affiliation with hq, they weren’t allowed to sell a shirt like this. No plan B.
Greg Glassman (06:06):
Oh, I see.
Sevan Matossian (06:13):
Oh my goodness. Hey, I got a funny story for you, Greg.
Greg Glassman (06:19):
Let’s hear it.
Sevan Matossian (06:20):
So there’s this dude out there, Zach Lander, a few months ago. He made a hit piece on you and he’s pulled it down since. And there’s this other girl named, I think her name’s Bethany Robinson, but she goes by Sporty Beth and she made a video that’s called The Most Toxic Man in CrossFit. And I know this is going to break your heart, but it’s me, Greg, it’s a,
Greg Glassman (06:47):
It had to be me, you or Dave.
Sevan Matossian (06:49):
And it’s the most popular video by 25 X that she’s ever made, right? Yeah. And she’s done things like change the speed of my voice and cut shit. And she’s used some, she’s been very liberal with her edits. She makes anyway all nasally. So they’re represented by an agent who is also the agent of Buttery Bros and Craig Richie and a whole gang of people. But this Tea Lander guy, and this is Sporty Beth Girl, are both represented
Greg Glassman (07:24):
By the, and they represent Buttery Boys for the lube?
Sevan Matossian (07:29):
No, no. Well, I don’t know if it’s a separate agreement on the lube. I assume that they represent them like video wise. So if BSI wanted to sponsor a buddy Buttery Bros episode, you would go through their agent, this guy James Neely,
Greg Glassman (07:46):
And then they’d do what? Shoot it.
Sevan Matossian (07:49):
They would just be like, Hey, we’re going to the BSI event. And then they would show up there and make some footage there and then you would pay James a thousand dollars and they’d give buttery Bros 500 and he’d keep 500.
Greg Glassman (08:00):
I see. And this is the kind of thing where they’re weighing in on it and announcing and explaining what I’m seeing.
Sevan Matossian (08:09):
And so he, he’s got 20 people in the influencers you would say in the CrossFit space anyway, for the last few months. He’s been telling people that they shouldn’t associate with me. And so I’ve been talking about him on the show being like, Hey dude, I made a killing at the games financially with all my sponsors and all your clients are complaining that they took a hit at the games. They couldn’t get sponsors this year. Anyway, I find it interesting. But anyway, he’s really upset that I’m talking about him on this show, even though I don’t say anything bad about him. I’m just talking about him factual things. He’s really upset that I’m talking about him on the show. Although he has no problem representing people who make a living slandering me and you when they’ve never even met us. You know what I mean? Find it. He’s completely freaking out. He’s terrified. He’s lost his shit and it’s like, Hey dude, do you associate with people who slander us and not only associate you make a living off of people who slander us who’ve never met me or Greg, and then now you’re pissed off that I’m talking about you. It’s crazy. It’s crazy.
Greg Glassman (09:14):
Do you have a requirement you have to meet someone to not like ’em?
Sevan Matossian (09:19):
No. No, but if I’m going to make money off of them, no, I don’t. But if you’re going to make money from slandering people, then you should be able to open to some sort of reciprocation talking back. You know what I mean? He wants to be left alone because he’s their agent. You know what I mean? He’s not the guy that sells you the fentanyl, he just makes it so he wants complete autonomy from the deaths. I don’t think it works like that. Talk shit about me make money off of people slandering me. And so you get to be talked about on the show.
Greg Glassman (09:58):
It seems like that would be the goal.
Sevan Matossian (10:00):
Right? That’s what I was also thinking. I was actually thinking that also like, Hey dude, you should be happy you’re being talked about on the show seems, and I warned him like four or five months ago, Hey, can you please stop telling people not to associate with me? I don’t like that. So here we are.
Greg Glassman (10:16):
That’s not the adaptive guy.
Sevan Matossian (10:19):
No, no, no, no. This is just some your typical agent. You know what I mean?
Greg Glassman (10:26):
Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (10:28):
This guy’s European got the fancy English accent and just a taker. Take, take, take, take, take. Yeah. See, look good or bad, se talking about James Neely has made him more relevant than he’s ever been. Yeah, exactly.
Greg Glassman (10:46):
That makes sense.
Sevan Matossian (10:48):
Squid pro quo. When people freak out over the truth, that’s how you know they need to keep talking.
Greg Glassman (10:58):
Yeah. It’s the reaction to things in the public health space that we just put someone in touch with.
Sevan Matossian (11:11):
Oh, oh. One of our adaptive athletes is very angry at you already jeopardize Nelson. Don’t lump us up with him like that, Greg. He’s joking.
Greg Glassman (11:21):
Yeah. I don’t know that he represents anyone.
Sevan Matossian (11:24):
Yeah, he just takes their money. I was thinking about getting, I was thinking about getting into the agent space now just to compete with them, let ’em know how it’s done.
Greg Glassman (11:36):
I
Greg Glassman (11:39):
Here’s the thing about that. All that space.
Sevan Matossian (11:42):
Yeah, tell me, mentor me.
Greg Glassman (11:45):
Every fucking sponsor is soon to be disappointed, whether it’s Reebok, Progenics, the jump rope fuckers, and it doesn’t matter who it’s, it starts great. They fully expect it because they’re on the banner at the games and because they can pay rich or whomever to hold up to hold a jar some shit and claim you’re eating it, that it’s going to make your company rich and nothing like that happens. And so each of these Reebok had a persistent vision of making each of the affiliates a point of distribution, a point of sale. And I was loud and clear about that right from the beginning that no such thing would ever happen, but
Sevan Matossian (12:41):
Basically turn them into Foot Lockers is what you’re saying. It would be an easy way to,
Greg Glassman (12:46):
And whereas the numbers were good for me, they weren’t exciting to them. I mean they needed it, but what we’re doing, we’re probably not supposed to say, but it was good revenue, a lot of swag moved.
Sevan Matossian (13:02):
There are people that influence, if you were to hold up some electrolytes that you take and you were like, Hey, I take I fast once a week and I take these, if Greg Glassman would do that, there’d be a spike in sales. Rich wore out, was the first person to wear a mouthpiece in CrossFit, and those people reached out to him and now they give him a bit of every sale and it skyrocketed the sales. But I do a hundred percent agree with you that the agent, that 99% of the things, they give more money than they get on the return the sponsor and they get disappointed that it becomes a clout thing. The people I know who sponsored athletes, they said that they’re not needle movers. It just, they thought it was a nice thing to do or a good thing to do, or it would help their brand and it did not,
Greg Glassman (13:48):
Hey, listen, here’s my perspective on it. I’m like, what the fuck do you want me to do? It’s that experience over and over and over again with all of them. All of them. I’m not going to stand here and tell everyone, you got to making commercials for you. I’m not going to tell ’em you have to wear these shoes. I’m not even willing to say they’re the best shoes in the world. Although I think the nano two was, I mean my wearing it is the evidence.
Sevan Matossian (14:17):
Right.
Greg Glassman (14:19):
And in terms of the people that you trust in endorsements, the people we trust are the ones that don’t do endorsements.
Sevan Matossian (14:26):
Right. Hey, do you recognize this guy? Look at his name. I can’t believe if I recognize saw him before you. That would be crazy. I think we know this guy. I could be totally wrong. You knew his dad. Is that him?
Greg Glassman (14:50):
Who are you talking?
Sevan Matossian (14:52):
San Diego. They rode motorcycles. Him and his dad were cool as shit. They would help at the office. Is that the dude? Him and his buddy would come around. You really like this kid? He made his own motorcycle. It was a squirrely one had the little tiny handlebars. His dad looked like he fell out of a motorcycle game. God.
Greg Glassman (15:18):
And you’re showing this guy his picture. You don’t even know if it’s a dude.
Sevan Matossian (15:22):
No, but he’ll tell us in a second. He’ll tell us in a second. I wonder if it’s him. Cody, do we know you back in the San Diego days?
Greg Glassman (15:32):
San Diego. Oh yeah. Oh, Maggie knows the name. Rich Melton.
Sevan Matossian (15:37):
Yeah. What’s that guy’s? Yeah. And he got a gun there. Yeah, I picture that dude as a gun. What’s that guy’s last name? Lemme see his last name. Oh, incorrect. Not me. Shit. Damn. Alright, fine. But you kind of see it right? With the mustache and that avant gar hat and shit.
Greg Glassman (15:58):
He’s the one had the jeans he hadn’t washed in a year or something.
Sevan Matossian (16:01):
Yeah, that kid was cool, right? He was nice. They were gentlemen.
Greg Glassman (16:05):
He was a trip.
Sevan Matossian (16:06):
Yeah.
Greg Glassman (16:09):
I couldn’t figure out who you were talking about.
Sevan Matossian (16:13):
Yeah, that guy was like a handyman and he could also bury bodies in the backyard probably. Hey,
Greg Glassman (16:21):
Remember we rented that super nice house and then ripped out the entertainment built in entertainment center. The car pitting and repainted remodeled the house.
Sevan Matossian (16:33):
Is that the one that you rented from the South Africans? Yeah. That was great. And then you upgraded their house and moved out
Greg Glassman (16:44):
Years later. But she came in and saw the work we had done, helped herself to the house and then loaded my refrigerator with Jewish delectables
Sevan Matossian (16:55):
As a thank you.
Greg Glassman (16:56):
Yeah. Wow. Dude. They saw all their furniture in the driveway and torn into pieces in the carpeting. How’s that look for a new tenant? They had this entertainment center built in attached to the wall covering the windows. Remember?
Sevan Matossian (17:16):
Yeah. Why would you do that?
Greg Glassman (17:19):
It was insanity, so I just fixed it.
Sevan Matossian (17:22):
Well, there’s south. That’s
Greg Glassman (17:24):
How we met Rhett Rich by the way.
Sevan Matossian (17:28):
Why? He took the shit away, the garbage away.
Greg Glassman (17:32):
He and the carpeting guy did other workforce between the two of them. They could carpenter anything, so they demolished and rebuilt a reasonable living room. Remember they had the fireplace semi covered.
Sevan Matossian (17:47):
It was, Hey, do you remember this time that me, you and Haley tried to lift a 200 pound candle onto Yeah, I do. It was 10 feet over the fireplace and Haley almost got killed.
Greg Glassman (18:01):
Yeah, this is like me and his fucking crazy guy from Wyoming trying to put the buffalo head up on the fireplace in Idaho.
Sevan Matossian (18:12):
Oh really? You did that too? How much did that thing weigh?
Greg Glassman (18:14):
I told him this is the stupidest thing I’ve done in a forever
Sevan Matossian (18:18):
Dumber than the candle. The candle was crazy.
Greg Glassman (18:20):
It was very similar.
Sevan Matossian (18:22):
Oh my God.
Greg Glassman (18:24):
Large heavy object overhead with unstable footing and a rickety ass. This was a roping pulley system. I improvised,
Sevan Matossian (18:36):
I don’t think when me and you and Haley did that too. I don’t think one of us was sober. That was like an 11:00 PM idea. Hey, this candle needs to go up there. Oh, bring out the ladder. Holy shit. Holy shit. Oh, we did it and the candle didn’t fall. I was thinking all the people we had working at hq, everyone was a diehard. They didn’t like pretty much 99% people were diehards. They didn’t compartmentalize their life. So no one was like, okay, it’s five o’clock, I’m going home. You know what I mean? And on the weekends they weren’t like, okay, I’m going to my shuttle board event. It was like everyone there was CrossFit, CrossFit, CrossFit.
Greg Glassman (19:28):
That was the toxic environment. Se come when you want, leave when you want, do what you want,
Sevan Matossian (19:35):
Create what you want.
Greg Glassman (19:36):
Everyone was known by their work product, not the number of hours their car spent outside the parking lot where I could see it from my office when I was in.
Sevan Matossian (19:46):
Wow. Good point. Everyone was known by their work product. Yes. And what was so good about that is because a match on the affiliate, because you’re not going to own an affiliate and have a compartmentalized life if you own an affiliate, you’re 24, 7, 3, 6 5, CrossFit gym owner. It’s who you are. It’s like you had a kid.
Greg Glassman (20:04):
This is why the second, third, and fourth gym, unless you have a remarkable talent and that talent has to be a capacity to reproduce yourself, not run a gym, but reproduce yourself until you have that talent. And if you do, what we see is the second gym isn’t, is 20% 30% less than the first one was and the third is to another 20, 30% less than the second one was.
Sevan Matossian (20:29):
Right. And impossible to clone yourself. Right? No one’s going to care as much as you, nobody. No way. It’s
Greg Glassman (20:34):
Tough. It’s tough.
Sevan Matossian (20:38):
And so I was thinking about that
Greg Glassman (20:39):
And what do we see in that? What do we see in that? A trail of disgruntled ex-friend and partners. That’s just how it played out. I mean, there was a reason we did no more commercial gym affiliates and two things.
Sevan Matossian (21:04):
Whatcha talking about? Those are the ones that are inside or Planet Fitness, that kind of stuff. Yeah. Okay.
Greg Glassman (21:09):
Specifically goals. First of all, because of the phenomenon, we had to make the affiliates, the licensee of record to be the L one certificate holder. And so that we were dealing with in collecting fees, we were dealing with the person that had been to the seminar and was doing the training. And so that when his owner backer master, I don’t care what the fuck it was, came forward and said, actually, this is my gym. We would be, actually, it’s not in our eyes. And he can go across the street into an open field and take those members with them and we’ll still see that as CrossFit, Verdugo Hills or whatever the hell it was. Is that making sense?
Sevan Matossian (22:01):
Yeah, totally, totally. Mickey M 3 1 7. Greg treated his employees so damn well. Mickey, Mickey, Mickey.
Greg Glassman (22:10):
You know what I did? I treated everyone the way I would want to be treated. I provided the atmosphere in which I would thrive. Did thrive. Yeah. It was a good setup. I mean, it might’ve been fuck working for me, but it was just better than anyone else. People are seeing that
Sevan Matossian (22:35):
There’s this, you get a guy who has, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to get this all out. You get a guy who has his inside thoughts and his outward expression aligned and you have a really cool person. You see alignment in there. You get a guy, let’s say who his inside thoughts and his outside in the way, he expresses himself mixed up. And you get a guy that’s fucked up. Let’s use homosexuality. You’re gay, but you’re fronting as a straight man, you’re tortured soul, right? Your shit’s not aligned. You’re hiding something all the time. You can’t be set free or you’re a really arrogant fucking person, but on the inside you think you’re the greatest ever, but you try to pretend like you’re humble. We’ve met those people. It’s like, dude, just say it like Travis, you think you’re the greatest ever.
(23:23):
We get it and it’s cool. It comes out. There’s an alignment there, and I maybe think that that’s what authenticity is. I know it’s fuzzy talk and you’re not necessarily always a big fan of fuzzy talk, but I think that’s what’s going on. Probably one of the things over at CrossFit HQ is you have 13,000 people or however many gyms they have who are completely all in, and then you have a leadership team that maybe just can’t be right. And I’m not blaming them at all on that, but I was just thinking about that. It’s not there 24 7, right? It’s a job to them. It is not a job to an affiliate owner, right? There is a distinction between your, it’s like if you farmed for food, for food that your family has to eat, you’re more than just a guy. My garden doesn’t depend on my family’s survival, but if it did, things change dramatically in my gardening. And it’s like that the affiliate owners are running their garden for their own survival and the people at that, you just can’t possibly get there. They’re at a disadvantage, but not for you because for you it was your baby. Do you get what I mean?
Greg Glassman (24:33):
Yeah. There was no one in our structure that was watching the money stream and rubbing their hands together, except maybe for Brian. Everyone else was pretty much busy at a task. And can you operate that way with the VC ownership? You can’t. You,
Sevan Matossian (25:08):
Yeah. And I’m not saying that as a negative thing either or a positive thing. It just is what it is. And so there’s going to be huge cultural shift. There’s going to be things that just have to change. I’m just finally, after all these years starting to really understand the implications, like the facets and the nuances. Maybe they’re not even nuances. Maybe there are things that are just separated like this podcast, I would do it whether I was under any circumstance, if I was sick, missing an arm, anything. I’m doing it. I have to. It’s my survival.
Greg Glassman (25:38):
If I were hired and paid miraculous sums of money to run the ship again, I would have to turn it down. I have no sense of how it could be done to a financial, I can’t imagine obliging the fiduciary obligation and keeping my values, my interests.
Sevan Matossian (26:08):
Well, theoretically
Greg Glassman (26:11):
You’d have to break the back of the structure. There’s few things that could be more deforming of the culture than to go from an encouraged revolutionary to a point of presence where I’m wondering why the fuck I can’t make you a point of sale and what have you done for me lately? And I look at the money stream and it’s not enough. So what do you do? You turn affiliates, pay me more If that’s not a culture shift.
Sevan Matossian (26:44):
Well, theoretically, if none of the affiliates affiliate and everyone pays their $1,500, Dawn did an interview where he said basically the investors are looking for a 20% return. So let’s say they want 40 million a year. That might get ’em to the 50 yard line of what they want. And then you have to wonder how much if that 1500 does change the culture, although I’m getting loads and loads of dms and techs from people who have small 60 to 90 person gyms who are kind of tripping. But even if a thousand gyms de affiliate Greg and they raise that price there and then they raise, let’s say the L one a thousand dollars next year, don’t you think that that would be a success on their part? I mean, they could still run this thing and squeeze it for the money that they want out of it. I shouldn’t use the word squeeze. That sounds negative. Make the money back on their investment, which isn’t a bad thing, right?
Greg Glassman (27:37):
There are going to be affiliates out there that are going to ask, how is it that you’re doing less and charging more? Why is that? Well,
Sevan Matossian (27:53):
Then they’re going to fall back on
Greg Glassman (27:54):
Inflation. Why has there been this 50% shift? What for supplies a 50% shift in the value equation for my affiliation taking me from 3000 or how about 500 to 4,500
Sevan Matossian (28:11):
Or how about zero? There are probably a hundred gyms that were grandfathered in. I’m making that up. I don’t know. But a hundred gyms or 200 gyms that were grandfathered in at zero, I’m guessing. Matter of fact, one that was at zero, who has 200 members reached out to me yesterday and said, they’re done. It’s very successful. Jim. Expensive Jim. Yeah. That’s
Greg Glassman (28:34):
Interesting. It’s not the 4,500 and Thomas Stroud inflation.
Sevan Matossian (28:46):
I buy the inflation argument. This guy’s saying he doesn’t buy the inflation argument.
Greg Glassman (28:50):
I don’t. I don’t.
Sevan Matossian (28:51):
Why not, Greg? They haven’t raised the fees in 11 years, or you didn’t raise the fees in 11 years. Shit’s gotten expensive under this country. Seriously. CrossFit eating needs better market.
Greg Glassman (29:13):
Know what I want to hear from Bill Henneger about inflation eating at his costs, affecting his business, affecting his top and bottom line? Of course it does.
Sevan Matossian (29:28):
The
Greg Glassman (29:28):
Price is still their business in the law firms. I’m not buying it so much now, let me tell you. Everyone loves to use inflation to raise a rate if you can. It’s a kind of a fun thing to do. And there are people, the restaurant for a fact, anything that’s delivered to you gets caught up in this transportation cycle where the cost of oil and inflation and everything is a huge factor, right?
The above transcript is generated using AI technology and therefore may contain errors.
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