S03E90 HOW TO CRUSH CROSSFIT S03E91 CROSSFIT BISON IS HOSTING THE 23.2 LIVE ANNOUNCEMENT!

Dave and Sam welcome back co-owner of Crossfit Bison, Chris Tafaro @christafaro. Following the 23.1 Live Announcement in Madrid, Crossfit announced that the 23.2 Announcement was coming to the Garden State. Our home, Crossfit Bison @crossfitbison, will welcome the worldwide audience in addition to @crossfitgames athletes @pvellner and @roman_khrennikov . We dive into some of the details like why it had to be kept secret for three months, why this has so much meaning to them and the community, and what they're looking forward to the most.

Live Announcements bring some extra meaning to the Crossfit Open and Bison is honored to play a key role in it.

@crossfittraining @crossfit @crossfitgames #crossfit #sports #exercise #health #movement #crossfitcoach #agoq #clean #fitness #ItAllStartsHere #CrossFitOpen #CrossFit #CrossFitCommunity @CrossFitAffiliates #supportyourlocalbox #crossfitaffiliate #personalizedfitness

S03E91 CROSSFIT BISON 23 POINT 2 WORLDWIDE OPEN ANNOUNCEMENT

[00:00:00] David Syvertsen: All right. Welcome back to the Herd Fit Podcast. I'm Coach David Sarton here with my co-host, Dr. And coach Sam Rhee. And just like this time last year, our guest for today is my co-owner with my business partner of Crossett Bison of.

Almost 10 years now, or I guess we could say 10 years. We just have been in business for nine. Chris Tafaro, welcome back. All right, thanks a lot. Excited. Last time we had ta ta on, this was actually a really good, listen. I did this at some point in the fall. I think I went back and listened to all of 'em.

We, we did a four-part series on the history of our gym and it. Enlightening for all three of us, but a lot of people listening either from bison or outside, just of how the place went from zero to what it is now. And with that, we have Tafaro on to, I guess this is by now already out there in the public, but we're going to discuss probably the coolest thing.

That we've ever gotten to do as CrossFit box owners. And we are going, going to be hosting the 23.2 live announcement on this upcoming Thursday afternoon. And it is just an unbelievable, like almost pinch yourself type feeling that we can't wait to talk about. Give some background information on Bat taf.

We did it, bro. I know,

[00:01:18] Chris Tafaro: man. I can. I can't believe it. And then it almost doesn't seem so at this point when you guys are listening to this, everybody knows, but right now only our coaches and owners know. Yep. So it's still eating me up to not be able to tell people. Yep. It will seem a lot more real. Yeah.

This time next week.

[00:01:36] David Syvertsen: This is, it's, that's funny. I mean, I think the. The funny part about this is we actually did have, we're not allowed to tell anyone, and we've known this since early November. This whole process started in November, weeks before Thanksgiving. That's to give you a timeline and it's a, it's a really cool thing, like imagine holding a secret that everyone would get excited about, that you're just not allowed to share with people and.

you know, we are in the back room of the gym right now hoping that no one has their ear to the door. , I feel like, I

[00:02:04] Chris Tafaro: feel like I'm scared to talk about it too loud. You know, I just,

[00:02:07] David Syvertsen: you know, so yeah. We'll get into some of that stuff, but Sam, I want to get your opening thoughts on, because you know, Chris and I, we, I, I think it's easy for us to say that, and Ash, this is like a very personal thing for us.

We've actually been wanting to do this for years, and we've sent messages and emails, never heard anything back. , and obviously it's personal, but I think it's personal to you guys too. The coaches and the community is personal. What, what are your first thoughts when you first found out about the announcement?

What was like your initial like, wait, what?

[00:02:37] Sam Rhee: That was at our coach's dinner where you guys took us out and. It, it was a thunderbolt. It was literally as if lightning had hit all the coaches. I could not believe it. And I know that a lot of people out there, by the time they hear this, will have felt the same way.

And I think it's because the community is so invested in the gym's success, and I think that that's one of the reasons why this means so much. Mm-hmm. , it's because it, it's. Chris and Dave's success, it's our success. Yep. And, and I, I think we all feel that way so strongly that we're so happy because of it.

Yep. It was a, it was a community effort. Mm-hmm. , there's no doubt about it. Yep.

[00:03:17] David Syvertsen: Including Vivian for tagging CrossFit games, telling that we should be hosting a houseman . I, I, I will say

[00:03:23] Sam Rhee: it there, I don't know how much longer this could have been held. We all signed legal non-disclosure agreements, right, in order to, to prevent leakage and, and telling and having people find out.

But I will say I, the, the first thing I thought of, Thinking of you guys starting this, this business when you did, what, nine, 10 years ago? Mm-hmm. and to where it is now, and it, it, it's so staggering to me. I, I don't think I've ever known anyone who's been able to accomplish so much in their. Line of business the way you guys have.

This is the most tremendous success I've ever seen, and, and I have to congratulate you guys because it wasn't just a single ex. You brought everyone along for the ride. Mm-hmm. and I love that more than anything else.

[00:04:09] Chris Tafaro: Wow. It. I mean, I think me, me and David, we never, like, we don't really reflect ever. I think we just like always feel like we're, we're happy when things happen and we, but we always feel like we don't want that to be it.

Like that's not gonna be like our highlight, like, we're gonna keep going. So we don't really like, get complacent about it. It's just it, but that's very, very nice compliment, man. Like that. I mean, I. like, I wanna say. Really? Do you really feel that way? ? Yeah. But thank you.

[00:04:37] David Syvertsen: I mean, yeah, no, it, it's all, it's it's humble beginnings.

Yeah. I was painting the walls at the first gym, you know, putting the rig together, even though we didn't know how to, rolling out the floors. Like that's where it all started. Right. And to see where it is right now, it's awesome. But it's also, we know that you know, you can't take your foot off the gas yet.

But it is, it is important for us to reflect like this, whether it's on this podcast or just Yeah. On our ride home by ourselves. , this was something that is just not realistic for many. All right. Yeah. For a lot of reasons and it has nothing to do with how good or how bad they ran the business. Like, yeah, I'll get into some of the stuff like, your gym needs to be a certain size and have a certain layout for this.

And you know, that, that it's not, this is not the marker for success, but it is cool. I tell people all the time, it's. You don't get to decide when your success hits, but you will decide if it hits. And we wanted this six years ago, five years ago, four years ago, three years ago, two years ago, one year ago.

And it finally came and it's I want to get into some of the backstory of, of how this happened. But we are days away. from telling our community about this. And some are already speculating. I heard . Oh yeah. But we have, like, we have a video drummed up. We have an email ready to go and it's going to be a very intense 10 days after we tell them it's gonna be probably the most intense 10 days we've ever had at the gym because also it's the kickoff of the open and all that kind of stuff.

But I. Looking forward to that the most. I was actually, I couldn't wait to tell the coaches because I know you guys would like understand it and you guys were so excited about it. But I'm also equally pumped to tell the community and just see the reactions and see, like Sam said, it's all of their success too.

Like they contribute to this and it's something they could be proud of, proud to be a part of.

[00:06:17] Chris Tafaro: For sure. I mean, I was sitting right next to you at the, when we told you and, and Mike and I could feel I could just feel like your, like, excitement, you know, like it was it, it is all of you guys too.

And someone did say to me that night like, you guys should be really proud. And I was like, well, you should be proud. like you, you work, you work here. You know, like you sh it's your, it's just as much you as it is us too. But

[00:06:38] Sam Rhee: man, one of the things I wanted to say is, is that you guys, the reason why I love that they chose you guys or us really is because I personally feel.

You guys do it the right way. Mm-hmm. , you guys never did this just so that you could get an open announcement. It was that you wanted to build a big community and you wanted recognition for your community. It wasn't that you guys wanted it for yourselves. You were like, we have a really big community. We do it the right way.

We do it the way. And I, I believe that, I believe you guys do it the way CrossFit was meant to be done. Mm-hmm. , and I want, I wanted, and we all wanted CrossFit to be able to recognize the people out there that are doing it the way it should be done. That's how I felt. And the fact that they recognize you guys means every affiliate out there that does it the right.

Should take heart in it that they, they themselves, regardless of how much recognition they get or, or whether they're big enough or something like this, they're doing it. They should be doing it the right way. They should truly believe that, you know, CrossFit is the prescription for health. You can help real people out there meaningfully in terms of changing their lives, building community.

And you guys have done exactly that. Mm-hmm. . And that's why I feel. It's not just like, oh, look at CrossFit bison, it's, look at these affiliates Right. Who do

[00:08:04] David Syvertsen: it the right way. Mm-hmm. . Right. We've, we've been listening to Don Fall a lot lately. Yeah, right. And just like all the podcasts and he's doing a great job getting himself out there and, Everything he wants CrossFit to turn into.

It really just comes, it stems from doing CrossFit the right way. Whether it's your programming, whether it's how you run your affiliate, your coaching, your staffing, building your community before your business. Right? And again, like Sam said, it's not. Look at us guys, it's just like, Hey, it can be done. You want to inspire other gyms.

There's a lot of other gym owners right now that are just starting out. I'm talking to one in North Carolina right now and it's hard. He's going through exactly what we went through to a tee, and you keep your foot on the gas, not by trying harder, but ju just trusting the product, trusting the methodology, trusting the community, and just keeping pouring yourself back into it and good things will come your way.

You have to know that. So I think we're on the, on the same page. . Let's get into, some of you guys are like what's an open announcement? . I wanna get into just some of the history behind the open announcements, some of our personal recollections on them. Like, I remember watching these, I remember watching the first one in 2013.

That's when I was like really drinking the Kool-Aid for the first time. It was my second open. And in 2013, the first open live announcement was held at CrossFit Vitality in Concord, North Carolina. And this was the workout that. It was a 17, 17 minute workout of burpees and snatches. Rep scheme changed throughout the workout, but the snatches eventually got really, really heavy at the end.

And it was Scott Prick first. Dan Bailey, and I'm looking at a still shot. Of these guys doing the workout in their nanos, no knee sleeves. Adrian Bosman has hair down to his nipples on this one. Decent judge. They small, they're doing the workout on the turf. They're not nearly as big as they are now. And that was the first one.

And I remember watching it was like watching a sporting event. Like gladiators in the middle of this floor, just getting thrashed by a workout. And then you knew that you were going to do this workout the next morning When I worked out in the morning at Crossett Hoboken back then, that was like, wow, you know, the bar's been set by the best in the world.

And that was the first open announcement. And since then, basically from 2000 to 2018, There was an announcement for every single workout, and Dave Castro was always there and he always had a dramatic, borderline annoying, but I loved it. Way of delivering the workout to the community. And then you had two games athletes at some of the.

Best, most historic locations in CrossFit. They've also done 'em at Rogue headquarters, US Air Force Bases. The ranch where the original CrossFit games were even one in a CrossFit Athlete's Garage gym. So they did, they constantly just sporadically put these locations throughout the world with the top games athletes in the world.

We all were glued to the tv. I remember old bison on Thursday nights because they used to be Thursday nights at 8:00 PM We would, instead of do the eight 15 class together, we'd have 30 people huddled around my little laptop in the gym and we would watch what the announcement was, and it was, it was always invigorating.

It was always fun to watch some personal recollections on watching some of these announcement guys. ,

[00:11:13] Chris Tafaro: I realized right away that like, they make it look really easy. , you know, you might, you and then, you know, our phones start ringing, right? Like I, my tech, the techs start blowing up with members like, do I scale this?

Do I, you know, now this was a little before that though, but once, once we're at bison, this is the way it would happen and. They were way even more off than like us. Like I'm thinking, okay, you know, add five minutes to that. For me it's more like double it and then add some and, and you might have to scale it.

And, and I think people don't realize, you realize how important a coach is because people really don't know themselves when it comes to this stuff. , I remember telling do, I'm like, you're not gonna make it to the, the third round. You're gonna be sucking wind in your little, in your leprechaun socks.

Like, because I'm like you, you've misjudged it again. You know, like, but he is a friend, so I can say that stuff. But yeah, no, that's what it is. It's like they make it look really easy, like the 10, like the seven minutes. Mm-hmm. of the thrusters, burpees one or whatever. Yep. Yep. I mean, I judged a guy. It took 45 minutes.

[00:12:11] David Syvertsen: Yep. Without, that was the first open workout ever without a cap. Yeah, it was a four time workout. It was 21, 18 59, 12 9 63 of thrusters, bar facing burpees, no cap. And I remember when Castro said the, he had, you know, this is like what the announcements used to be, the villain of CrossFit. He would say he had the watch in front of the camera and he goes, the clock will not save you This.

Throws it off the camera and says, no Cat. And we had people, it took 'em a half hour to do the workout. Yeah, yeah, yeah. For sure. Sam, some personal recollections on watching the announcements, these were

[00:12:41] Sam Rhee: probably one of the best things that CrossFit had ever done. Yeah. And the fact that they had these high level athletes that you saw do the workout before you did the workout.

Right. That, that just makes it so special. I mean, when you're watching Froning Frazier, David's daughter versus Sigmund's daughter. Like how could you not get excited about doing the workout after watching these people throw it out? Yeah. Yeah. I mean that, and Dave Castro was the maestro about presenting these.

It was really sad after 2018 when Covid, you know, when Covid hit and, and things really shut down. It really wasn't the same until probably last year, I would say. Yep. When they started really sort of gearing up for these open announcements. Yep. And I feel very excited that we're part of that new. Phase where we're going back to these, you know, really dramatic, amazing throwdowns with people and as, as great as it was to, to have at a rogue headquarters or at the farm, or, or, or cor, you know, corporate headquarters.

Like doing it at an affiliate. Yeah.

[00:13:42] David Syvertsen: always made it special. Yeah. Yeah. So in 2018, this is when the sport side started to really change. They started taking away regionals and they had the sanctions. Right. And then you had the sanctions. They were the ones that in charge of hosting these announcements.

Which is weird to me. And if you remember back to that time span, they would have three or four announcements going on at once. Different languages. And they were, no, no offense, they were not professionally done, if you remember like they were getting the workouts wrong, they were stuttering. Like this is a huge production.

Bigger than I ever thought. And we can get into that a little bit, but I remember when we, they started doing it that way, people actually had less juice. They're like, this suck. There. This isn't like a centralized announcement that we could all watch. It's professionally done and it gets us pumped to do the workout.

We were like watching these announcements. Bad English couldn't really, the sound quality was not there. The lighting quality was not there, and in some cases we didn't even know what the workout was, like the graphics weren't on there. There's a lot that goes into this, right? And. I remember back in that time and then Covid hit, so like you had multiple years where, and this is where the open registrations started to go down, and I think there's multiple reasons behind that, but I do think part of it was the announcements were not professionally done and it kind of gave this like feel that, eh, it's not that big of a deal.

And I believe the comeback of the announce. was partially spurred by the fact that they do a lot for the open, for the lot of the camaraderie, the intensity, the, the togetherness of, of all this. Like I, I think a lot of new CrossFitters don't understand how in this we are together. You know, it doesn't matter how good or how bad you are, CrossFit at the end of the day, like, it, it just doesn't matter.

We're all doing it together. Like that's the fun part about it. And I think you get that feel in the open announcements. And one thing they started to do is they had the games athletes do their. And then after they have scaled athletes or even RX athletes that are just not games athletes do the workout too.

And it starts to show like, oh, you know what? Like that's what I look like when I workout. That's my score. I rest more than I work in all these workouts. Right. And it get, I think they did a really good job of how they brought back, now they went to CrossFit headquarters. 2021 and they were really restricted because of Covid about announcements, and that was still, you know, a pretty sensitive time.

But like Sam said, last year, 2022 is when they really started to. You know, get the affiliates back involved. And I think it's really important for CrossFit to get real affiliates. Not someone like Mayhem, no offense to them. It's just, you know, it's like a it that's a different field type affiliate than Hendersonville, which hosted uh, hosted the 21 point 22.3 last year.

And, and bison, right? Like start from the ground up. Don't have a celebrity in the gym. Right. And I think. Everyone watching now it gets back to that, that roots, that roots CrossFit feeling. Yeah. So, let's just now that we kind of have that background information out for you guys to, to hear let's get into how this actually happened at Bison, because now again, this is all public knowledge now.

And this timeline, it started in early November. I think for the past four or five years, I've reached out to CrossFit and said, Hey, I would like to, we would like to host an announcement. Here's my reason why. Even, and I remember getting somewhat close when the sanctions were close the sanctions were running the open announcements.

Do you guys remember the Asbury Park Fit Games? Yeah. They were going to the Asbury Park Summer games, they were gonna be a sanctional for the games.

[00:17:16] Sam Rhee: What was the reason you gave them why Byers should

[00:17:19] David Syvertsen: hold an open announcement? Well, like, you know, just trying to say like, we're cool. Well, that we'd take it seriously.

We would get a lot of people to show up. We would add intensity to it. My most recent. Requests have been, Hey, if you guys want to push this this thing being done as an affiliate, right? Our affiliate, we actually put thought, effort, energy into trying to finish a top, the full roster leaderboard every year.

And two of the past three years, we finished number one in the United States and I think number five in the world. And that leaderboard has nothing to do with how good your athletes are. Maybe a little bit. It's more about getting everyone to do it and stay involved for all three weeks. And, well, our, our slogan from 2020 was my favorite.

It was every rep counts. And that means if you are a new person that can't do anything other than a PVC pipe, your reps. If you're an RX athlete that just finishes first in the gym every time your reps count, but we're all doing it together, and I think that's a big part that some gyms miss out on. The open is not for competitors, it's for everybody.

And I was trying to sell to them like, Hey, this is what we do. You can use this gym. Like, Hey, bison finishes a top of the full roster. Let's go get them guys. Get all your members to sign up and go try to beat them. You won't. But I want people. understand how much that can do for your gym in terms of getting people signed up for the open.

What are your thoughts on that?

[00:18:40] Chris Tafaro: Yeah I think that we, it before the affiliate leader board was a thing You know, like at the, at the Asbury Park games and stuff, it was kind of just like, you didn't, we didn't really think it would, would ever happen. Right. It was kind of just like, we'll plant the seed or whatever, but then the affiliate leaderboard give it put us kind of in the spotlight, you know, cuz that, that helped our chances a lot.

Yeah. Right. And then, like you said, there's. , there's a lot. There's, there's only so much you can do as a gym. You can be a great gym. Things have to fall your way though to get the announcement. Like they have to decide that they want to do it in the northeast this time, right? Yeah, it very well could be.

And when in, in the year that if they decide to do it in the Northeast and we're only our second year in business, they're not coming to us. Right. Yeah. They wanna find an established gym. So it happens that we're in our 10th year. Right. You know, they wanna do it in the Northeast. We have the physical space for it.

We're, we've just, we're coming off fresh wind. Good affiliate leaderboard scores. So all that fell into place. Like we can only do what we do here, but you know, that we got Yeah. Lucky

[00:19:37] David Syvertsen: when I Yeah, definitely got lucky. And you know that CrossFit is, you know, it's on their dime. Right? When I, when I talked to the people from Asbury Park summer games years ago, pre Covid and saying like, Hey, you know, I can put you in touch with Rory McKiernan.

But like, Hey, just so you know, it's gonna cost you 10 to $20,000, or you're gonna have to find your own sponsors. And I was like, okay. Like that's just not my thing. I don't have any relationships like that. Yeah. And I remember thinking, okay, this is just not gonna happen. And then Covid hit, so. You know, basically the long story short is we reached out to them.

We used the contact that we talked to from the CrossFit Northeast affiliate manager names

[00:20:09] Chris Tafaro: Danielle. Yeah. Danielle Williams. She, she got us in the right direction this year. Yeah. I was talking to her and then we asked how can we, how, who's in charge of getting us our banner? Yeah. , you know, it says like, yeah, we won the affiliate.

Yeah. And it was like chill out, dude. Like we got something better than a banner. You know?

[00:20:23] David Syvertsen: Yeah. So she, she definitely hooked us up with the right people at CrossFit. And the funniest thing is, We have been wanting this for a long time. Sent them a message in early November. About a week later, she, Danielle hooked us up with someone from CrossFit that just said, Hey, this is the person that might be able to give you an answer.

My first call with them was, Hey, we've been looking at you guys for a few months. We were going to reach out to you this week and ask you if you guys would be interested in hosting an announcement. So just the irony behind that. I remember listening to that for the first time because it wasn't just, oh, can you do it for us?

Can you come here and do it? They were about to ask us to host one of the announcements this year. So that, that's the funny slash ironic part to this. What were they looking at? Our Instagram. So they, they would check our Instagram out, not necessarily like, what is your Instagram? Like your gym, there's a layout, and I'll get into some of the specifics.

Like you need to have a very specific layout that our gym is kind of. almost not big enough. And I look at our gym like it's a big gym, but the ceiling heights for the light towers that they have, the width of the gym, considering you're gonna have a lot of people surrounding the rig, they want a very specific look on camera with people behind left, right?

And then you have to get into your parking situation, your bathroom situation. And here's something that people, I guess by the time this is coming out, they might not even know this yet, there's two huge. As gym owners to this, number one, they have to take our entire rig out of the ground. So our rig is bolted into the ground like with 87 different bolts.

They have to take every single one of them out. They have to saw them out of the ground because those are not bolts you can just suck out and they have to put the rig somewhere. We're gonna have figure out next week. And then they have to put their own personal rig. Let that sit for a second. They have to come in Sunday of 23.1 in the afternoon.

They'll spend the entire day taking rig out, and I might have a little heart attack when that happens. Oh man. I know. And then the next part, this is where I guess, yes, everyone, everyone should know this by now because the email will go out. We have to shut our gym down Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.

during the open, and that was, that was the first thing that I remember hearing on that initial Zoom call where I was like, this might not be, this might not be for us. And he did say there are a lot of gyms out there that they've used in the past. That's one of the advantages they had. They have two rooms, so at the very least, you know, even if they have an open gym room, they have something where the members can come and.

I want to hear both of your thoughts on that because, and you could be completely honest about it at some point, Chris had the best line when we talked about this. He goes, this is probably gonna be one of the coolest experiences we ever have, but we're never gonna wanna do this again. . Yeah. And I think that's part of, part of what it's, what do you mean by that, Chris?

[00:23:09] Chris Tafaro: I, I mean, I am guessing whenever there's a project this big that there is gonna be, it's, it's, it's gonna be crazy. It's gonna be a mess like this. We be running around like, we're gonna be busy doing things for helping out like them to get set up. I think it's just, and our, our members are gonna be hitting us up a lot for you know, just with questions and everything and where are we gonna work out and how am I gonna do this?

And I think that, you know, I think it's just gonna be like a relief when it's over. But like I've seen movie sets, like one of my friends, like, had a, a movie set at his house one time for like a, a special HBO was doing. Man, they just uproot your stuff, like, you know, and I think that our, our baby here, our gym is gonna be like, you know, we have to just let it go and like let them do their thing.

But that's gonna be tough, I think. But like, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it'll be smooth. I, I don't, who knows? Yeah. I'm just excited for

[00:23:57] David Syvertsen: it. Yeah. Sam, what are your thoughts on that? As, as a member, as a coach, you know, You know how busy our gym is on a day-to-day basis. Like I have numbers, like we have about 60 to 65% of our gym works out every day.

And I, again, we're gonna get into what our plan is because if anyone's ever gonna be in our shoes, I'd like to help you guys out with that. But Sam, what are your initial thoughts on that?

[00:24:18] Sam Rhee: Not working out for three or four days, like part of me.

[00:24:22] David Syvertsen: That's great. not a problem. I think I can do that. I'll, I'll make that sacrifice.

Yeah. But on

[00:24:28] Sam Rhee: the other hand, I understand we have a lot of people. Fitness is honestly more, I was just talking to someone in open gym and I was like, are you deloading? Are you getting ready for the open? And they're like, no, I'm just gonna work out every day. And it's another workout for me. Yeah. Yeah.

Which is fine. And, and, and I thought about that and I said, that's great actually. Mm-hmm. , the open should. In a lot of ways just be another workout. Right. So, you're right, it is, as gym owners, it, it does mean a lot to not displace your members mm-hmm. to, to make sure that their experience is not thrown over just for the glitz, glamor, and Exactly.

Publicity.

[00:25:00] David Syvertsen: That's one thing I have fear for that crossed open,

[00:25:02] Sam Rhee: Announcement might do for you. Yep. And I applaud you guys

[00:25:06] David Syvertsen: for, for thinking about that. For sure. Yeah. I mean, I want to give a, an example, right? Our Zen planner, our software. Registration process for that people use to sign up for classes, right.

It's funny, but it's not. The five and 6:00 AM classes are like ruthless, like the, they, they fill up very quickly and you're only allowed to sign up 12 hours prior to class. Twice in the past two weeks. The servers from Zen Planner no negative pr though we'd like Zen Planner. They're great. Yes.

they went down right at that time. So people at 5:00 AM 5:00 PM are trying to sign up for the 5:00 AM the next day and nobody can, and everyone's fear is that they're gonna get shut out. And our, my phone, both of those time, I would, I think no less than 20 text messages, Facebook messages about, oh my God, I can't get in, can you get me in?

They freak out when they can't go to the gym. Yeah, and this is where there's a mental component to these people. I think everybody in the gym will either one of two things be fine if they don't work out, or they'll be better. If they don't work out leading up to the workout, I mean, that they'll be better or they, they're not gonna get worse if they don't work out.

But that's, they, a lot of them are like, Hey, that's not why I'm here. I'm here for the mental component, and if I'm not allowed to go to the gym. Mm-hmm. So that's where my mind started to go immediately. Yeah. And this is what we're gonna do if you ever are in this position. All right. We are going to send our members, and I wanna give a huge shout out to CrossFit Wald.

They're a gym a few miles from here. Beautiful gym, awesome staff. They follow mayhem programming. I think it's the nicest gym in the area. I just like, I, it's a beautiful space. I love it. I always go there every time I go there. It's just an awesome space and I really like the people there. The coaches are really qual high quality and they are going to let our members go and work out with their classes as much as they want, and it's gonna be on us.

I'm gonna take on a lot of the like, Hey, I. either we'll send coaches there to help out, not to coach, but to help out if we have 20 of our athletes show up. Right. But also just we'll have foot on feet on the ground there to just help wherever's needed. But the fact that they're opening up their gym for us is without asking for anything in return, is unbelievably CrossFit to me.

Yep. And I think that's something Don Fall talks about that I don't think all affiliate owners do a good job of. , you know, competing business. Yes, competing business. We, they could lose members to us. We could lose members to them. I know that for a fact. Right. . But if you really truly believe in the CrossFit brand and you are confident in your own product, that shouldn't really be a thought of the part of the thought process.

And they didn't even hesitate. They're like, dude, whatever you need, whatever we can give you. So I wanna give a huge shout out to CrossFit waldwick for that. What do you guys think about that?

[00:27:48] Chris Tafaro: Can you mind if I go, go? Well, a couple things. I don't think, well, thank you first of all to CrossFit waldwick.

That that is awesome. But I don't think, I think that our members. I, I honestly feel that they're gonna be so excited about hearing that we're gonna host open announcement, that they're gonna understand a hundred percent that for three days or four days, they're not gonna be able to work out. Or, or they're gonna have to go somewhere else.

They might be a little bit inconvenient, but I think that it's that important to them because, . What I am most excited for about this whole thing is that like all of our members have always really like praised us, right? Like they, they think bison's great. They sell bison to their friends, family, spouses.

So many people have recommended us, you know, like they, this might be the only CrossFit gym that they've ever been to. So I do, they really know, are we really that great? Right? But now we're getting recognition. The big guy, the boss, right? CrossFit headquarters. I think that this reassures them that what they're selling to their friends and what they're coming to every day is an awesome place.

You know, it's not just like us talking and the coaches, it's, it's now it's like, No, this is an awesome place. And they do do it right. You know? And I think that that alone is like justification, you know, for their commitment to us and they know they're in the right place. Mm-hmm. . So I think that like all that combined, they're gonna totally understand and the fact that we even went to like Waldwick and have an option for them.

Mm-hmm. , I think that You know, they'll understand this once in a lifetime opportunity. Yeah. You know? Yep.

[00:29:15] David Syvertsen: Sam,

[00:29:16] Sam Rhee: I think it shows you the strength of CrossFit gyms in North Jersey. Honestly. I've been to a bunch of 'em. I've dropped in on a couple. I feel like a lot of the gyms in North Jersey are very high quality.

CrossFit Wick being one of them. Mm-hmm. . I just talked to someone who left our gym. They moved down to Montclair and they're at a different CrossFit gym and, and talked about their programming and what they do there. We're not competing against each other in that sense. Mm-hmm. , we can't. A thousand members per gym.

Like that's just like, and New Jersey's so dense you, you could literally have probably another 50% or 60% more gyms. Mm-hmm. and all of them would do fine in North Jersey. Right. What you're looking for is to compete against. The global gyms, the people that don't know what they're looking for in terms of fitness.

Yeah. Like we are in it together. Mm-hmm. , it's hard sometimes to see that. Yep. But I also see that myself personally, I, I often think of CrossFit gyms like, like doctors, like I'm a plastic surgeon. Right. And I am technically competing against other plastic surgeons, but I'm not really, we're competing against everyone else who.

TR is trying to do plastic surgery and they don't know what the f they're doing mm-hmm. . Right. Okay. And most of the cro plastic surgeons in the area, not all, but most do it. Great. I am colleagues and friends with many of them, and we know what we're doing is fine. And there's, and we're not suffering in Perkin County in terms of Right.

Of our business. So, so when I look at other CrossFit gyms in the area, and I. . When I see how well a lot of these North Jersey gyms are doing, they sh, I hope that when they look at what we do, they're looking at us, not like, well, they suck. They got this open announcement. Right. It's just. , we are all doing it, right?

Yeah. They're like us. Yeah, we're like them. Yep. And

[00:31:08] David Syvertsen: we are in it together. Yep. No, I love that it sound, it sounds like in some ways corny, but it's so true and I think, I actually believe this is going to be the future of CrossFit. I get, you know, every CrossFit affiliates owner where it's nightmares that there's another one that opens up down the street Right.

Or next to them and competes. And I think you're not looking at it from a strong enough perspective that. If you have more strong, good quality CrossFits in the area, it's only going to help you because again, like Sam said, we can't fit that many more people. I know other gyms are gonna have a cap. You might need other gyms because no matter what, if there's a lot of high quality CrossFits in this area, and I say this area, let's say a 20 mile radius, there are going to be people that eventually be like, you know what?

That was a really cool experience, but this one's closer to my home. I want to go. You know, like I don't think people really realize how much that matters. Like people need to have a certain location with how busy they are, their kids that, let's say one opens up two towns away, they crush it. But someone from Midland Park tried it out there.

They loved it, but it's too far. Oh, there's another one in Midland Park and that's where you want to see more gyms and you, and you know, when Don Fall says he wants CrossFit to go from two to 3 million to 20 to 30 million people, think about that percentage. , you need a lot of high quality CrossFits and I think we can help each other out.

So shout out to Waldwick for doing that for us. And I told them, and we will make sure, we'll get them back. Yeah, we will help them out in a lot of ways coming up. Cool. So, we have, let's see, this is the fun part. Okay. The experience. I want each of us to pick maybe one or two things that you are looking forward to the.

All right. This could be, we know the athletes and again, we yeah, we can say, we can say it on there. Now we're allowed to. Yeah. Let's Chris, you, you, you say who, who are the athletes? Is that, don't I can't say the second guy's last name, . That

[00:33:01] Chris Tafaro: don't. It's Patrick Vener and Romanoff. Koff. Yes.

Koff. Yeah. And we're, that's, that's, that's a big type event, right. So, that's who's coming here. That's amazing. . Yeah. What we had to secure spaces for them to work out. We also, we have recommended like restaurants and stuff like that. Yep, yep. The fact that. I don't know. We're gonna get to, you know, we're gonna get to meet these guys, like, we're kind of gonna be their host Yep.

For a week. Mm-hmm. and, and, and a lot of the staff of CrossFit. Right. So including the c e o. Yeah.

[00:33:32] David Syvertsen: Yep. The CEO will be here. Yep. And yeah, Adrian Bosman. Like, that's guy that's just like, he's just been around forever. He'll be here. And I'm sure there will be a lot of Sean Woodland, chase Ingram. Yes. A lot of these guys that are just people that we've been listening to.

It's almost like you're just meeting people that have been on tv, like almost like TV friends your entire life. They're gonna be at our gym. And like Chris said,

[00:33:52] Chris Tafaro: that's that like, yeah, personal, like that, that to me is gonna be so cool that like, They are, are gonna know what B they're gonna know CrossFit, bison.

I mean Yeah. Everyone in the, in the, in the CrossFit world is gonna know what cross and that's overwhelming. Like that's crazy to me. It is. Yeah. Just the

[00:34:07] David Syvertsen: handshakes, the physical handshakes, interactions you're gonna have. Like

[00:34:09] Chris Tafaro: Boz, he did my level one. Same thing. I know he's gonna be here. Right? Yeah. Yeah.

And then, you know, the fact that we're gonna get to know these guys and they're gonna. , they're actually gonna remember us this time. Probably a little bit like, you know, it's like, yeah, it's crazy.

[00:34:21] David Syvertsen: Yeah. Sam, what are you looking forward to the most? Well, I just found

[00:34:25] Sam Rhee: out literally right before the podcast you guys told me that it was Venner and Koff, and I can't believe how amazing that.

Matchup is going to be, yeah. I've watched both of them. And you've seen them throw down over the past year and it is so waza. Mm-hmm. effing amazing. Yeah. Yeah. So when you think about this, this is an epic matchup. Mm-hmm. like epic if you're into the, into the sport of CrossFit. Mm-hmm. , I can't imagine two.

tightened.

[00:34:52] David Syvertsen: Yeah. This is like, this is like Eagles chiefs. This is like a Super Bowl tight matchup. Like this is the

[00:34:56] Sam Rhee: biggest like head-to-head matchup that I could imagine. Mm-hmm. for an open announcement. Yeah. And, and you know, there are certain open announcements that just kind of resonate year after year after year.

You, you go back and you watch the Froning Frazier mm-hmm. or like you said, the, the, that Bailey Panik one in 2013. Yeah. And this one I think is gonna be for the ages. So, so that part of it, I'm, I'm so stoked about as a fan. Yeah. You know, Meeting all of these people in CrossFit is, is sort of weird because you have a connection.

You don't have a connection. Like you saw them at your L one, you, you know who they are. Yeah. You saw Sean Woodland at legends, right? Yeah. Mm-hmm. when he was announcing and, and so, so I'm happy to really meet everyone. I, I, I feel like this is nice because affiliates and HQ should have a closer relationship.

My relationship with CrossFit is through you guys. Mm-hmm. , it's never been, hq. Right. And for me to actually sort of see that connection up close and personal, it's gonna be a little weird. Yeah. But I think that that also cements the fact that we as affiliates do have close affiliations. I mean, closer than we know with, with hq.

Mm-hmm. . And, and, and I hope that this also ushers in. interaction. We've always been like, oh yeah, those guys don't know anything about what's going on with the boots on the ground. Mm-hmm. , you know, they're up in their HQ over in California or Colorado, they don't know what's going on in New Jersey. Yep. And the fact that we can, they can actually see what it is that affiliates are doing.

They were in Hendersonville last year. Mm-hmm. , they're in bison. I really hope that this helps them sort of see and underst. us. Yeah. Like, and that's what I want the most is, you know, I mean, yeah. Is it great to meet them? Yes. Yeah. But what I really want them to see is like, what is it like day to day in an affiliate where you're dealing with like, , the truck smells at 5:00 AM or Yeah.

You know, like the heat, the heat at 5:00 AM Right. Like trying to pack 30 into a class. Like, you know, I, I feel like that will help them become better at reaching out to all of the affiliates and making, making everyone better. Yeah. Yeah. No,

[00:37:03] Chris Tafaro: exactly. We

[00:37:04] David Syvertsen: got a lot of

[00:37:04] Sam Rhee: experience that we can, we can,

[00:37:05] David Syvertsen: that they might see Absolut.

What I'm looking forward to the, the most really, I mean, I'm like to echo these guys watching Vener and Roman being a fan of the sport and trying to like relate to much better athletes, but trying to be like, just watch them do a workout in person and be like, all right. What are the reps permanent?

Like what is their approach? Are they unbroken? All that stuff, like, I would love to just kind of break that down in real time and, but after the live announcement, we have two bison athletes that are going to be taking on 23.2 on the same floor, on the same live feed with, with a lot of people watching and.

it's going to be Kathleen Stanton and Joel Trailer. Yes. And I I don't wanna spoil why, but they're, they have a story to tell both of them respectively, and it's going to be shared and. I was so stoked because I was asked to try to find people that have a good story in terms of what Crossett wants to share and put a lot of thought into it.

Ash helped me out with, with Joel and reached out to them, and a, they have to be available for two days straight. They're both professionals, right? It's, it's hard to take days off, right? They're both available, they're both willing, and they're both gonna get some free noble stuff. So , that, that's a big cool.

But I, I'm really looking forward to watching them do the workout and just being there for them. That will be a, a nerve-wracking experience. They're both like, kind of laughing about it, but I know it, I would be nervous if, if you're on a camera like that right after Ner and Roman and you don't know what the workout is.

Yeah, you don't know what the workout. So I'm really looking forward to just seeing how they respond and just having our entire bison community be stimulated by this. Yeah, I think it's going to just give life, not that we need it right now, like our, our place is so juiced up during the open, but I always think it's important for to have certain things throughout the year that really just.

Increase the energy in the gym because at the end of the day, it can get monotonous, right? Same classes, same people, same music, same coach. You know, like to have something like this, it could just like wake shock everyone and just see the energy.

[00:39:05] Chris Tafaro: You know, how you get like rejuvenated when you go to like, you just did your your er.

Right? Like the Me too. Like every time I do one of those, I'm rejuvenated a little bit. You know, like you learn some new stuff, like things you can coach. This is gonna be like that for everybody. Absolutely. Yeah. And like, you know, I'm glad that they get to be part of this thing. Yeah. Like they deserve to.

Yeah. .

[00:39:22] David Syvertsen: So to wrap this up what, what does this mean for our future? Just the gym, the community? I, I would like to just maybe just keep that open-ended for the next like five, 10 minutes and then we, we could wrap it up. But what do you guys think this could do? And like, I don't want to get too, like, businessy, like, I don't think it's gonna like, skyrocket our business or anything like that.

Like, you know, , but what, what is, what can this do for our future, whether it's individually as athletes, as a gym, what, what do you guys think about that?

[00:39:50] Chris Tafaro: You know, financially, I don't think it's gonna do anything. I think it's just, you know, the people that are live more than five miles in one direction, straight line out are, are it, are not coming.

Yeah. To, to work out here. You know, merchandise sales possibly. But I think that most importantly, , the the, we're in like a new level. Like we're gonna have, like these new friends, these new people we've met. Mm-hmm. , like a lot of people are gonna know us. You gotta treat people differently, like vendors call and like, you don't wanna just be like, don't call me anymore.

Right. It's, it's like now people know your fa they, they're gonna know us a little bit more, so we have. , you gotta play like, more of a political role in things when you're answering questions and just, but I think, I don't know. It's not gonna change me. It's not like I feel like, oh man, we did it. We won.

I mean, it's a work in progress, just like fitness, right? Mm-hmm. , you can win the games and then if you don't do anything, you're, you're, you'll be diabetic two years later, you know? Right. You have to always keep. Moving, and I think this is a great, you guys have been doing a great job, like awesome work so far.

But like, you know, we're just gonna keep going, right? Yeah. I mean, that's what, I don't know how much it's gonna change things. Yeah. What about,

[00:40:51] David Syvertsen: what do you think, Sam? Yeah,

[00:40:52] Sam Rhee: you're right. I was just thinking. It's not like someone can watch this open announcement down in Cape May and be like, oh man, I'm gonna come join CrossFit bison.

Yeah. Like, that's not happening, right. Financially you're right. I'm not sure if it will impact anything. Yeah. It's great to have that spotlight. I, I, you know, it's great to have, to be able to represent CrossFit, the brand. There are a lot of well-known CrossFit boxes out there that time and time again.

Represented the brand of CrossFit, like Santa Clara or Diablo, or, or Roots or anyone that you always keep seeing. Mm-hmm. , the CrossFit hq, sort of, you know, work with or talk about. Right? Yeah. And, and you would assume that these are. or, or now, NC Fitz Rea affiliated, for example. Right, exactly. Yeah. So you would think that these are affiliates that are holding up the standard.

You would look to them and maybe reach out to them and talk to them as owners and say, Hey, listen, what are you guys doing? Mm-hmm. , what's going on here? And so I would. Say, maybe your influence might grow, because I would say a lot if I was in North Carolina or in Ohio and I said, oh, look at these guys, and you know, they're kind of like me.

Mm-hmm. , like the way they started and what they're doing. Like maybe I'll just reach out and like try talking to you guys Yeah, yeah. About stuff. Yeah. Like, I feel like your influence might grow that way. Mm-hmm. , Certainly as a community we're way proud of what is going on. I think the next week, I mean that week of 23.2 is going to be a very, very, very special week.

Mm-hmm. With a lot of memories. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Other than that, I'm not sure. Yeah. Like, I think we're just gonna have to see what happens,

[00:42:27] David Syvertsen: I suppose. Yeah. Yeah. I, I think that both you guys touched on it, and one thing Chris said earlier is like, I think it. Validate what bison is to some of the members, right?

Some people like us, but they've never been to another gym, right? And some, and we always feel like we're constantly trying to sell this place we have since before we opened, and I don't think that'll ever stop, but it does. You know, when you get some outside validation, it helps kind of just either strengthen the brand slash just reinforce the idea that, Hey, I promised guys like you might not always like us, me, programming music, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

We're doing it. As long as you stick with it, like you're gonna see good results. And I also, I've always tried to tie coaching and owning to trying to be an athlete and just get to the highest level I can. It's, I'm looking forward to, this could be considered like the peak, like this will be the highest point of our gym to this point when this happens.

But just like being an athlete, if you get to a point of accomplishment like, oh, I made it, I won something, or I qualified for something. How, what you do from there. Can, it did take so much about your future, like, it's like you don't want to get to that high and all of a sudden take your foot off the gas and just go back down.

It's like you want to be, you wanna stay at that high and I think that's what I'm really looking forward to the most. It's gonna actually, I think it's gonna challenge. Yeah, the two of us more that we might need to clean some things up. Yeah. Because we're gonna be in the spotlight and people might be watching and we can't just be like, oh, hosted the announcement.

It's like, all right, what are we gonna do? What? How are we gonna go from here? Like, what do we, there's a lot of things that you do as an athlete, as a coach, as an owner, that you might not know why you're doing it for the last six years. Like there's so many things you. over and over and over again that you probably don't need to do.

It's like a, not a big deal, but it's like, ah, like I'm just gonna do it because I feel like it's the right thing to do. It eventually leads to this mm-hmm. , and I'm looking forward to like, what is the next thing that we pursue? Maybe it's another super space, like we, we move again and we, we really go for it and try to, But all these little things, it can kind of catapult us to, Hey, I like this feeling right now of accomplishment.

You know, I don't like the feeling of being here at Sunday night at eight 30, cleaning the floor, but I like the feeling of what it eventually led to, and that's, that's what I think it could do for us. It's kind of keeps us hungry for what is the next step, which we might not even know what it is yet.

Right. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Are, do we have any closing thoughts for anyone? Well, remember, remember this is going live a few days before the announcement actually occurs, but after everyone knows, I

[00:44:51] Sam Rhee: just want to thank everyone that. We had to basically lie and deny and not say anything about, for a long time he was legal.

Yeah. Like, I mean, and I, it was a legal thing. Yeah. I really wish that, you know, we could have, I mean, I almost didn't wanna know because it's just so hard in general to not tell people's stuff. That's so exciting and awesome. I understand that. Yeah. And so if anyone felt like, hey, they didn't tell.

Thank you for your patience. These guys had to do it that way and, and I only had to keep the secret for like, what, A month. Maybe you guys had to keep it for like three months. It's insane. I don't even know how you guys did that. I know. And

[00:45:28] David Syvertsen: you just have to try to forget about it best you

[00:45:30] Sam Rhee: can. And I think you know it, this is really a celebration of our community, I think of.

Every single athlete that I see, every day that I coach, every time I work out with someone, you know, I just did open gym and two other people are just like, Hey, I'll do that workout with you. And they just stepped up like, thanks, Reno and Mike. Like, those are the kind of things that make, that's why that's, it's not.

Like, it's not the

[00:45:52] David Syvertsen: announcement that's not,

[00:45:53] Sam Rhee: it's, that's good. That's what makes it special. And, and so this is a celebration of everybody who steps foot in our gym, who puts their effort forward. Like,

[00:46:01] David Syvertsen: that's what this is about. Absolutely.

[00:46:03] Chris Tafaro: Yeah. Good word. Sam. Yeah. Oh, one more thing. I mean, I mean, Dave, we were at the we knew at the holiday party.

The holiday party at the season re's house. Not so there, there's a video and you know, people are tearing up my, my wife's tearing up, you know, keep it season. Everyone's so, you know, so thankful to us and saying the nicest things and like, All I wanted to do. I remember saying to Dave, I'm like, I want to grab the microphone and just be like, we're

You know? It was killing me not to. I'm looking at Dave's glass of tequila and I'm thinking he might snap and like do it, but like if we couldn't, and like that would just be, I wanted to, to tell them for them. It's like when you have someone a really good present to give them and like you really want to give it to them.

That would've been such a cool thing to do, but like, I hope it's the way, the way they hear it, I hope it's that impact,

[00:46:52] David Syvertsen: you know? Yeah, yeah. They you know, CrossFit gets dibs on announcing this, and so we actually have to wait till after they put it on their Instagram, but we have something queued up that's gonna be sent out like the second they post it.

That's why I'm refreshing my phone all the time now. And just so that most of the people from our community will hear it from us. Like, I don't want 18 people hearing it once, like by surfing on their Instagram. I want them to hear it from us. But yeah, I don't have the greatest reputation with holding a secret.

I, I blew something at a holiday party when I was drunk about four years ago, about the fact that we were moving to a new space because that is the feel you want, you want to be like, guess what guys Like. Because like Sam said, I can't stress enough. It's like it's for all of us and it's because of all of us.

Yeah. And I think that's the best way to do it in person. But I understand and respect why CrossFit, you know, wants, needs to do it their way. They have a lot of good reasoning behind that. So now that it's out in the open guys thank you so much that everyone that's been involved, and if you've ever stepped foot in this place, you're involved in.

And I hope you guys know that from the bottom of our heart, and it's gonna be a crazy, crazy week, but we're never gonna get to experience this again. I don't think so. Let's just embrace it all. Does it even seem real

[00:47:55] Sam Rhee: right now? I'm still thinking like 23.1 Madrid, 23.2,

[00:47:59] David Syvertsen: Midland Point, New

[00:48:00] Chris Tafaro: Jersey Park. No, I'm like, it's still I'm, it may not happen.

It's one of, it's like, I still think it's like not, it's, it's, it's not official, you know,

[00:48:07] David Syvertsen: whatever. Yeah. We're gonna get, we're gonna get a four foot blizzard of snow a day before and it's all gonna be canceled. No. It, it, it doesn't seem real and it won't seem real until they take the rig out. I think that's when, you know, that's when it's gonna get real.

So, but we'll be there for you guys every step of the way the whole week. For those that need to work out. We're gonna take care of you. We already have it lined up. You got a home, home workouts for everybody too. Home workouts for everyone. And we could all go to Sam's House at 5:00 AM and work out in the garage.

yeah, shoot me a DM and we'll go from there. All right, thanks guys. We'll see you this week. Thank you so

[00:48:37] Chris Tafaro: much.