Five, four, three, two, one. So this is our very first official iFAST podcast. It's been eleven years. We decided we're going to actually have a conversation between the two of us. People probably think that we spend all of our time together, but we don't. We were like two ships passing in the night because of our schedules, but I was literally thinking that same phrase at the same time. It is kind of funny. And obviously we talk and communicate, but I think that eleven years in we've obviously made a lot of mistakes and we've done some really good things, and we can bring value to other people. That was my intent with putting this together. We start with our story because a lot of people have a misperception as to how you would start a business like this. They see where we are eleven years into it and have no idea. Nobody knew who we were. People knew who you were. You had a very big following at T-Nation for a really long time. You got associated with Eric, then you put out Magnificent Mobility. Then I came along into this foray. When did you move down?

11 years in the making. 11 years in. 14 if you count how long we've known each other.

We decided we're actually going to have a conversation between the two of us. People probably think that we spend all of our time together, but we don't. We're like two ships passing in the night because of how our schedules work. I was literally thinking that same phrase at the same time, which is funny. We talk and communicate, but eleven years in, we've made a lot of mistakes and done some really good things. Now we can bring value to other people, which was my intent with putting this together. We start with our story because many people have a misperception about how to start a business like this. They see where we are 11 years in but have no idea where we began. Nobody knew who we were initially. People knew who you were because you had a big following at T-Nation and were associated with Eric. You released Magnificent Mobility, then I came into this. I'm not sure when you moved down.

We met in 2005. Was it 2005? We released Magnificent Mobility in 2006. And that's when you were like, oh, I think we need more upper body stuff in there.

Right, right. So we did the inside-out upper body warmup. But see, that's not a nice thing. That's just sort of like how you and I started working together. Yes. So tell them what you were doing, because you were working your ass off basically.

Yeah, so essentially what I did to get down here was because I was working in Fort Wayne and wasn't loving anything about Fort Wayne, if we're being honest. I decided that I had to get out of that situation and get closer to my friends and my wife's family, so we moved down here. I started working at home, and a lot of people don't know this, but this shows how desperate I was: the first client I took, we were living in Pendleton at the time in my in-laws' place as our condo was being prepared. I had to take my first client at 4:55 a.m. at Wolf Run.

I grew up in the Fort Wayne area.

Yes, I know, sorry man. But I got down here, and I just knew I had to get out of that situation and get closer to my friends and my wife's family, so we moved down here and started working at home. And a lot of people don't know, but this is how desperate I was: the first client that I took, we were living in Pendleton at the time. We were living with Jess's parents as our condo got ready, and I had to take my first client at 4:55 a.m. at Wolf Run.

And Wolf Run? Yes. So that's the entire extreme. So for people that don't know, Pendleton is like the extreme northeast. It's even outside of Indianapolis.

Yes.

And Wolf Run is at the extreme northwest.

Yes.

Out in the boonie.

Yes. I was up at 3:45 in the morning. Yes. Out the door at 4:15 to 4:20 to get to that first client at 4:55. That's tough. Yes. So that's how desperate I wanted to get out of there. Right. So yeah, that was like three years though. Like, luckily I didn't train that early, but I trained 6 a.m. clients for three years straight.

Did you do the split shift kind of thing?

Yeah, you always get the early and the late, right? So, but the cool thing about the middle of the day was like that's when I did the side hustle. Like that's when I was writing articles or creating products and you know, just generating content before generating content was such a thing. Right. Pre kiddos. Yes.

Pre kiddos. That's kind of a big deal too. We'll eventually talk about how that works.

Yes.

So that's and then as we evolved as a partnership, it just became like you sort of hit critical mass. And I was training people out of my house. So I had to build a house in a suburb of Indy and I built an 1100 square foot gym, which you had been in. It's the best gym in Westfield, Indiana. Right. And working out of there and I sort of hit that impasse too because what I was doing is I was working in the clinic.

Yes.

And I was training people out of my house. So I had to build a house in a suburb of Indy and I built an 1100 square foot gym, which you had been in. It's the best gym in Westfield, Indiana. And working out of there and I sort of hit that impasse too because what I was doing is working in the clinic. Then at nighttime I would come home and train clients and then I had a day off in the middle of the week where I would train clients all day, and then I would train clients on Saturdays. So literally I was doing this six days a week for 16 years.

Yes.

And then at nighttime I would come home and train clients and then I had a day off in the middle of the week where I would train clients all day, and then I would train clients on Saturdays. So literally I was doing this six days a week for 16 years.

That's crazy.

Well, it's a lot of reps though. So think about that. It's like, yeah, you hate every minute of that. Getting up at 6 AM on a Saturday morning is a really horrible thing to do for 16 years. But you certainly get a lot of reps, and you get a lot of learning. Talk about paying your dues, kind of a thing. Yes. And it's always about the reps as long as they're good reps and you're paying attention. Absolutely. And so we sort of hit a critical mass at the same time when we started having this conversation. It's like, you know what, we gotta do something.

Yeah. I remember March of 2008. We were sitting in your office upstairs above the best gym in Westfield and just knew, like, look, I was tired of driving around. I still love the content creation piece and I wanted to keep that, but I also knew like this was not a sustainable lifestyle for me and I don't think it was for you either. And I just clearly remember us thinking to ourselves like, yeah, maybe we're wrong, but like, I feel like we're pretty good at this and we could be successful working together. Right? And so yeah, I think about a week later we found somebody and started looking around.

Yeah.

We were sitting in your office upstairs above the best gym in Westfield and just knew like, look, I was tired of driving around. I still love the content creation piece and I wanted to keep that, but I also knew like this was not a sustainable lifestyle for me, and I don't think it was for you either. And I just clearly remember us thinking to ourselves like, yeah, maybe we're wrong, but like, I feel like we're pretty good at this and we could be successful working together. Right? And so yeah, I think about a week later we found somebody and started looking around.

Literally, yeah. And we looked at a bunch of places and then we found the Home Fry Fast 1.0, which is literally in the same building that we're in right now at the extreme opposite end and about half the size. And tell the story of what it actually is.

So it actually was before we moved in. This is awesome. So imagine a 2200 square foot rectangle, right? And it's very deep, kind of narrow, but in the front it was unique because mostly it's just like open space at the back, but at the front it's like this very distinct like office area and it looks professional. And so we walk in there, but there's like these like cut off like closed circuit cameras. Like what's going on here? And the landlord is like, oh yeah, this used to be an underground casino. So until they got raided and kicked out. So our luck.