S03E92 INTERVIEW WITH CROSSFIT CEO DON FAUL

Special guest @donfaul CEO of @crossfit joins us today in an incredibly wide ranging and frank discussion of the company's goals for the future. Don discusses with Dave and Sam whether the methodology of CrossFit needs to be refined, how to reach the ambitious goal of 30 million athletes by 2030, how to improve the quality of affiliates and athlete experiences, as well as potential new partners in marketing CrossFit.

How will CrossFit HQ rank affiliates on their website? Could we see a comprehensive CrossFit app on our phones in the future? Which professional sports and athletes would you love to see partnering with CrossFit?

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

S03E92 INTERVIEW WITH CROSSFIT CEO DON FAUL

[00:00:00] David Syvertsen: All right. Welcome back to the Herd Fit Podcast. I'm Coach David Syvertsen here with my co-host, Dr. and coach Sam Rhee, and we have gone RX Plus with our guest list today. We have the CEO of CrossFit, Inc. Don Faul and fellow Bergen County native. Don, thank you so much for spending your time with us this morning.

[00:00:18] Don Faul: Well, thank you guys for having me. I am super fired up to be here.

[00:00:21] David Syvertsen: We are recording this the morning of the live 23.2 announcement at CrossFit Bison, and it's been a pinch me week. I don't think I've slept in about five to 10 days. However, I've been on adrenaline like I've never been before, and this is a part of it.

Being able to sit down with Don and just talk shop with him. Um, Sam and I did a lot of, uh, research and, uh, preparation for this, listening to all the podcasts that you've been on. A, to make sure we don't get too repetitive, but b, to get a feel. And I've listened to all of them probably twice, maybe three times.

Some of them. Wow. I'm sorry. And I think one of the biggest takeaways I have and why I'm most excited is this is the most excited I've ever been, um, in regard to leadership at CrossFit since I've been involved. So we're really looking forward to this conversation. Sam, let's intro our special guest here.

[00:01:08] Sam Rhee: Yes. So Don Faul is the CEO of CrossFit, since August, 2022, so last year. You graduated from United States Naval Academy with a BS in Systems Engineering. Went to Stanford University Business School, got your MBA, and then since then you worked at Google, as manager of online sales and operations. At Facebook, VP of online operations. At Pinterest as head of operations, and then a startup called, Athos, which created, um, surface electromyography wearable body suits. That's right. Uh, and then, you've been a board member at Nuru International, which is a nonprofit, which helps farmers fight extreme poverty and climate change in Africa for a long time. That was for your entire career, it sounds like?

[00:01:52] Don Faul: Yeah, it's been about 12, 13 years.

[00:01:53] Sam Rhee: Yeah. And then so since August you've been the head of CrossFit LLC.

[00:01:58] Don Faul: That's right. And a and a in there, a six year stint in the Marines.

[00:02:01] Sam Rhee: Oh, oh yes. It's all good. A little support.

[00:02:04] Don Faul: I'm old, so there's a lot to cover, so.

[00:02:08] David Syvertsen: Yeah, that's, that's, that's, uh, quite, quite the, the history that you have underneath you. And you could see why CrossFit, the decisions, decision makers decided to bring you on and and lead the shop. What have been, what have the first few months been like in your position?

[00:02:22] Don Faul: Uh, it's been exhilarating. A little bit overwhelming in, in a great way. Um, you know, honestly, kind of lots of pinch me moments. Right. You know, as you mentioned, uh, this, this was, this is the dream job for me. Wow. You know, incredible.

I've always had, you know, growing up, uh, always had a real passion for sports and, and, uh, athletics and fitness and, uh, you know, I discovered CrossFit about nine years ago now, and it, it's had a huge impact on my life. So to have the opportunity to, to be a part of this team and community in a, in a more formal sort of way, it's been amazing.

Um, it's been great. I've gotten a chance, you know, my, my biggest priority when I started was just trying to get out and meet people. Mm-hmm. So, spend time with our team, spend time with the community, ask a lot of questions, trying to, you know, make sure that it wasn't coming in with, with any preconceived notions.

So, That had a really good foundation that, that I could build on, we could build on in terms of what we focused on. So it's been, uh, it's been phenomenal.

[00:03:18] David Syvertsen: That's awesome. Great to hear. You are, you have been in the trenches, as you said, you've been CrossFitting for nine years, and I think that's very important.

Um, I, I think it's important for an owner of a gym to CrossFit. I think it's important for a coach, but even the guys at the top, um, we actually just got done doing a workout with you and Austin and a couple of our coaches here at Bison and it's, you know, in a sense where we meet you at dinner last night, naturally, I'm a little intimidated, right?

You're the CEO of CrossFit. I know you probably don't want to hear that, but it is, you're just in that position, right? But the second you come into a box and the box was like, it's a disaster right now with the, how many things are, um, all over the place for the, for the production today. But it's a special and unique business and feel that when the CEO of CrossFit, the top dog. 3 2 1 go, we're CrossFitters for those 15 minutes.

There is no CEO, there is no coach. And that's something that we really practice here at the gym is no one is better than the other. No one's lower than the other. Once that 3 2 1 goes, we are all the same.

[00:04:12] Sam Rhee: Did you judge his form?

[00:04:13] David Syvertsen: What?

[00:04:13] Sam Rhee: Did you judge his form?

[00:04:14] David Syvertsen: No, but I did beat him.

[00:04:16] Don Faul: He destroyed me. There's no question about that.

I'll tell you what, this, this job has been very humbling on on that fence. I like working at technology companies, working out with, uh, with engineers is a lot better on my ego. Um, no, you're, you're a hundred percent right. It's one of the things I love about this community and, and, and to me there's a little.

Uh, of, of that essence, um, you know, that I experienced in the Marine Corps as well. Mm-hmm. , you know, it's something really similar and really special. You know, we, I used to say you could sit next to a Marine who served in World War II and you had an instant connection. Yeah. And that's awesome. I think the same thing is true in our community.

You know, I've gotten a chance to, over the last six months, travel and meet, gosh, hundreds of affiliates now. Thousands probably. Wow. Um, uh, in the US and, and around the world as well. And you can walk into a box in Sao Paul. And that connection's there. Yep. Mm-hmm. in 30 seconds, you're getting after it, you're sweating together.

There is that common understanding ethos. Mm-hmm. that is so unique and so special that I don't think you can truly understand as an outsider Yeah. Until you're really a part of it. So, um, yeah. I, you know, couldn't agree more and I think it's one of the things that's really special about our community.

[00:05:16] David Syvertsen: Great. So just kind of like diving into some of the CrossFit methodology, because you obviously know the brand, you know, the workout program is, is the actual methodology and the curriculum, is it fundamentally complete? You know, when you're talking about the, the seminar staff and, you know, are, are there things, I mean I still read old CrossFit journal articles.

Mm-hmm. Are they dated? Sure. But it's amazing how many of them still ring true. But things evolve and now we're probably 20 years into the business. Really. Some of these journals go back 20 years almost. Do you think that's complete? Do you think it needs to be built off of, or is it some Hey, it is so efficient the way it is. We just need to refine it.

[00:05:54] Don Faul: Well, I think one of the things that is, I think, really special about CrossFit is how it is so principally grounded and, and, and derived. Mm-hmm. . Um, it is, you know, I stumbled upon, you know, I've been doing CrossFit for a while. I did my, I didn't do my L1 until about 5, 5, 6 months ago. Uh, but at my last company we were working on really understanding how our technology could best align with how the human body actually works, right?

And I went searching for, you know, a, a, uh, documentation, uh, a definition of fitness, et cetera. And CrossFit, you know, was the only place where I could find it. You know, uh, Glassman used to talk about this, still talks about this all the time. Uh, the level one manual is, um, you know, and again, a lot of the journal articles that are part of that are just, um, so incredibly well articulated.

And one of the things that I think is really unique that gets at this question is that, that, that the whole foundation for CrossFit is that we're empirically driven, right? Mm-hmm. , this isn't a random set of exercises. This is derived from how the, the, the human body, how our energy systems work, and fundamentally what drives the best results.

Right? So, are we done? No. Are we pretty close? We are closer than anyone else. Yes. Without question. But I think we need to, to continue to remind ourselves that we should be constantly stress testing the methodology and looking for opportunities, uh, for us to drive better results.

[00:07:10] Sam Rhee: Do you or the seminar staff foresee any evolutions, can you tell us like what you might want to do with the methodology at this point?

[00:07:18] Don Faul: So, I, you know, I don't think there's anything in the short term that I see. It's, and I wouldn't expect, you know, we're not gonna see wild changes here, right? Um, I think there is, I think there is a little bit of tension in, um you know, really thinking about how do we best apply the methodology for, um, you know, different, different gyms, different communities have different styles and preferences.

Yes. Mm-hmm. , and, and, and that's why I think, you know, uh, for us, our affiliate community and coaches are so fundamentally important because they can apply the foundation of our methodology and apply it in a way that best meets the needs of their community, meets them where they are. Mm-hmm. Um, and so I think for us, a lot of what we're trying to do now actually is.

Really elevate what's happening across the community. So if we're talking to a coach in one particular area, has who, who is struggling in particular type of issue. I guarantee there's another affiliate owner or coach who has experienced that and figuring it out. And we're trying to do a better job of connecting members of our community so they can share with each other what they're seeing.

[00:08:15] David Syvertsen: Right. Great. Thank you. Yeah, I mean, I, I've taken, we've both taken Hinshaw's Aerobic Capacity seminar. Um, we've both kind of had side discussions of will there ever be more nutritional guidance within CrossFit? Right. Because I mean, even dating back to the old school CrossFit Journal articles, they always do stress that nutrition is the foundation of everything.

Yep. Could, when you go into a CrossFit gym, no matter where, most of the case, most of the times it is workout based. Um, and is there any thought in putting a little bit more nutrition certification type programs into, you know, the big picture?

[00:08:52] Don Faul: Yeah, so I, I think there's a big opportunity for, uh, an increased focus in, in a lot of gyms on nutrition.

Yeah. And I think we definitely play a role there. I think what you'll see from us, one of our big priorities this year is investing more in uh, educational resources. Mm-hmm. . So we have, you know, I think it's one of the strengths of our team, um, and one of the foundations of our community is the work that we do through the level one, level two, et cetera.

Um, what we're really trying to focus on is on top of those increasing the number of smaller format education. So on top of a, you know, maybe a two day level, one or or two day level two, having a, ongoing stream of content you can access on an ongoing basis across a variety, variety of different domains.

Nutrition, I think being one of them. Mm-hmm. I think you'll see both us do more of that. So you'll see an increase in the volume of content and educational content, and we're really trying to focus on elevating partners in the ecosystem who are doing exceptional work. So, uh, on, on the nutrition front, we have partners in the, in the APN, the affiliate partner network who we work with, who are doing an exceptional job building, helping affiliate owners understand, how do you build a great nutrition program that you can layer on to what you're already doing in the box to accelerate results for your members? Right. And again, I see our job as, as helping make those resources more easily accessible.

[00:10:07] David Syvertsen: All right, so next, I wanna dive into, this is something I'm really kind of selfishly into and I really want to get some of the feedback on is the HQ and affiliate relationship.

Mm-hmm. . So we've been affiliated, we are now in year. and you know, we're on the day of Thank you. And we are on probably the biggest day of our gym's history today. We can't wait for it. Um, but what we've heard you mention on previous podcasts raising the floor mm-hmm for affiliates. Mm-hmm. And just like as athletes, we never, in our gym, we always tell people you're no better or worse than any athlete in the gym.

Um, and I say this with affiliates, you're not better or worse than any affiliate out there. What can you do though, for all of us to understand whether you think you're on either side of that spectrum? How can a gym raise the floor? Their floor?

[00:10:52] Don Faul: Yeah. I think, I think one of the biggest ways is through increased, um, uh, education.

So, so I think, you know, again, having gotten a chance to get out and talk to a lot of affiliate owners, a lot of, a lot of coaches there are, um, and again, I'll come back to, I think we play a really big role in this. There are a lot of affiliate owners who I talk to are, um, who are, are, you know, as you guys know, running an affiliate is an enormous amount.

it is, uh, it is, uh, a huge investment. Talk to a lot of affiliate owners who are, uh, don't have the time and cycles for an increased focus in education for themselves or for their coaching staff. Mm-hmm. And so, um, part of our job is helping them create the time and space for that. Mm-hmm. so you, you may have heard me talk a little bit about weren't starting to invest more in the business side of running an affiliate mm-hmm.

and we think that's essential because that enables everything else. Mm-hmm. , right? If you can run a really strong, sustainable business as an affiliate owner, You have the time and the resources to invest in building great exceptional coaches. And I think if, if there's one thing I would point at that can have the biggest impact, it's that constant focus on refining your craft as a coach.

Mm-hmm. that, that, you know, chasing virtuosity. Mm-hmm. , recognizing that you can always get better. I think that is probably the single most important thing.

[00:12:04] Sam Rhee: One of the thing, and I see what you've done with the affiliates partner network. The Affiliate Roundtable, affiliate playbook, CAP programming, trying to help give more options for affiliates.

And everything that you've done or have talked about has really emphasized, like you said, improving the quality, the overall quality of affiliates. And to me it's like doctors, if you were to get your shoulder surgery done somewhere. Mm-hmm. And someone said, Hey, listen, uh, I'm gonna go, go get my shoulder surgery. And they said, where are you going? And you're like, um, just the nearest doctor. Like, I Googled it and it's like, he's right here, or she's right there and I'm gonna just go. You'd be like, wait a second. Maybe you need to like, do a little background research, and it would be the same thing for a box right now.

Where are you gonna go? CrossFit? Um, there's five boxes, but there's one right here. And then you might be like, hmm, maybe or maybe not, depending on a lot of different factors in, in different areas.

So, I can understand why you would want to increase the quality of all the affiliates, but it's also, it also means that to a certain degree, some affiliates might worry, is HQ going to have a stronger hand in determining the success of affiliates?

Mm-hmm. . And so if you try to read between the lines for some of these podcasts for sure, um, you are encouraging affiliates with both a carrot and a stick. Mm-hmm. you want to give them more, uh, programming options, more educational opportunities. And if they don't to a certain degree, because you're looking at metrics for these affiliates, you're going to say, well you might not be featured as prominently, like when you Google a place, or not Google, but you go to the website and you say, CrossFit in Bergen County.

Mm-hmm. And you have suggested that the ones that have met certain educational requirements or have done more in terms of working to improve themselves might be listed a little bit higher.

[00:13:54] Don Faul: That's right. Yeah. And I think, you know, in, in, in thinking about that, I think we are very much focused on, um, look, at the end of the day for us, when we think about why this matters and who we serve, it's our community.

Mm-hmm. right? It's the men and women who are walking in the front door, an affiliate who um, you know, are looking for something that we know can change their life. So our job is to create, I think, as a community, when I say our, this is all of us is, is to create the best possible experience and reach as many people as we can.

Mm-hmm. And the most powerful thing we have to do that is world-class affiliates. Mm-hmm. Is making sure when they walk in the front door, they're gonna have a life changing experience. And what we want to do is reward, we wanna make it really, um, to, to create that exceptional experience. And we want to direct members to the best affiliates mm-hmm.

Who are gonna have the biggest impact. Right. And, and, you know, coach Glassman used to say Right? Like, um, the market rewards excellence. Yes. And that is a, I think, a really positive thing in our community. Yeah. We should, right, the best, you know, you know, I think the, the, the best gyms, the best coaches are gonna be intrinsically motivated to get better and exceptional.

And that benefits all of us. And if we can rise the tide, we're gonna reach more. Uh, and again, when I think about what we're gonna use, it's really gonna try to focus on, on using those, those carrots. How do we reward the folks who are doing an exceptional job?

[00:15:09] David Syvertsen: Yeah. I mean, competition breeds success.

That's right. I mean, we see that on the small level here at the gym. You know, we have a very fit gym and it's because, it's not because of the programming or coaching, it's because there's a lot of fit people in here that are competitive with each other. Totally. And I like to tie that to business too.

And I mean, even now, I mean another shout out to CrossFit Waldwick for allowing our entire membership to work out there this week. That is something that I think five or six years ago I would've been afraid to do, and for the reason of, for selfish reasons and not thinking about the memberships is, oh my God, my people are gonna go there and they're gonna like that gym better.

But I think what it does, is it bonded us together. CrossFit Waldwick and I and, and Chris, and had a lot of good conversations and we're helping them out. They're helping us out. But also what it does, I've been there multiple times this week and I'm like getting a few ideas from the layout of their floor.

Mm-hmm. , I'm like, you know what? I think our gym experience could be better if we had this. Right? And I've talked to them about some of our stuff, like with programming and, and running classes and all that kind of stuff. So I, I like the idea. Like what he said, competition breeds success. And I think being on your toes like that should bring out the best effort in, in everything.

[00:16:13] Sam Rhee: I would say if I was a new affiliate, there would be some concerns I would have in terms of, again, I always look at boxes and physicians sort of similar in some ways. Mm-hmm. That, I am passionate about medicine. Mm-hmm. But when I went into business for myself, I knew very little about the business side of running a small business and it was very painful, mm-hmm. to get those lessons. I know Dave, when you started, you had the passion for the box, but your business acumen was like, yeah. And your passion were like here. Like there was a huge disconnect. Yes. Over time it got there. Mm-hmm. And HQ has never emphasized profitability. Mm-hmm. Business acumen.

Mm-hmm. Doing, you know, smart business principles. Yep. And this is the first time I've ever heard, you're talking to Jason Khalipa, who runs an extraordinarily successful group of affi- mm-hmm, now re-affiliated.. Yep. Um, your home box, for a while, right? Yep, that's right. What happens at this point if you lose either struggling affiliates or affiliates who just don't, they didn't get to that curve of learning yet for the business stuff.

What if I'm struggling somewhere right now and I'm like, oh, you know, I just don't have that knowledge or I refuse to maybe they don't even want to.

[00:17:23] Don Faul: Yeah. You know, look, I think, you know, first for folks, one of the things that's always been, um, you know, really unique and special about the community is, is our affiliate owners are independent business owners and entrepreneurs.

And, and, you know, they make, they run their business. They, they, they make their decisions. I think that is part, a huge part of why we've been so successful and we've seen such incredible innovation within our community. So if there are affiliate owners out there who are not interested, that's their decision.

That's their call. Um, what I will say to the folks who are struggling looking is they're, they're, we will be doing, we are doing more now than we ever have. If you are struggling, we have invested heavily in our team. We've invested heavily in partnerships with other folks in the community, um, to provide you resources, uh, to, to, to, to help, uh, tackle those challenges.

On the business side, um, uh, you know, as I've mentioned, that is one of our biggest areas of focus this year because I think there's one of the biggest challenges when we look across the affiliate community. There are too many affiliates who are getting by on passion alone. Right? The passion's essential.

It is our secret weapon. It's what we have that I would argue no other fitness community has. Um, but it's, it's not enough. You need the passion plus being able to build a really strong, sustainable business. And historically, we have left most affiliate owners on their own to get up that learning curve. You gotta figure it out over X years and, and, you know, if you're fortunate, get past a, a series of early mistakes.

We want to help, you know, new affiliate owners avoid a lot of those mistakes. And what's really cool is in conversations I'm having with so many affiliate owners, the number of, of successful, savvy business owners who, who are raising their hand and saying, we'd love to help. I'd love to be a mentor.

Mm-hmm. Um, I've talked to affiliate owners who will run internship programs for new affiliate owners who they'll hang out in their gym for six months before they go start their own affiliate. Wow, that's incredible. Yeah, so we're really trying to lean into more of those types of efforts.

[00:19:11] David Syvertsen: Power of the community, man. It really, it can do big things, you know, sometimes the answer's right in front of your face, just like that. Yeah, exactly. Now what are, what are two things before we move on to just like the, the company and the vision, what are two things affiliates can do today to help change CrossFit for the better?

[00:19:29] Don Faul: Uh, two, so two things. Um, the first is, uh, you know, it's, we, we addressed this, uh, we've been talking about this at, um, some of our affiliate summit. So the first is, I'd say is, is just that constant reminder of continuing to chase virtuosity. Just bringing, and most affiliates do this mm-hmm, but walking in the front door of your gym every day.

The best affiliate owners walk in every day and they're like, we can get better at that. Mm-hmm. We can get better at that. And, and continuously chasing that. Second thing, I think, is really lean into the community. Mm-hmm. Remember, you're not, I know. You know, and talking to affiliate owners, it can be a really hard and lonely job.

It can feel competitive by virtue of you're running a business. Mm-hmm. . But we have this incredibly powerful asset in our community that can elevate everyone and, and I would say, for a lot of affiliated owners who I talk to have been successful, they think about their role now as paying it forward. I've benefited so much from this. I love this community. I want to, I feel like I have a responsibility to give back.

[00:20:23] David Syvertsen: Amen. Yeah. All right. Now, the, the vision that you have as the leader and the CEO of CrossFit, okay. Where, where's your starting point? Like if, if, like, I know you've said this on a few different podcasts, but I'd like to maybe just get the conversation going with that.

Mm-hmm. What is your, your long-term vision? We could talk metrics, couple of those we have, um, written down, we'll talk about it a little bit later, but what is like the starting point of the vision? You have for CrossFit?

[00:20:51] Don Faul: Yeah. For, you know, I think what's incredibly special about CrossFit, this is something we all know is that CrossFit, it changes lives. I mean, you know, how many conversations have you had with people? Have you seen walk in the front door of your gym and whose life is forever changed in sometimes small ways and sometimes like really significant, meaningful ways. And so I think we have something that, um, we know can have an enormous impact on individuals.

It can have a huge impact on communities. I think over time it has the, the potential, and this will sound a little grandiose to have an impact on a societal level as well. Hmm. You know, if we zoom out and look at where we are right now as a society, we are less healthy than ever. Um, physical fitness, mental health after two years of COVID. Depression, anxiety at, at are at all time highs.

Uh, if you look at the us, 70% of adults are are obese or overweight. 35% are kids who are obese and, and overweight. And the trends are moving in a bad direction. Right. And unfortunately, increasingly what we hear, um, uh, as the solution is drugs. Um, you know, and, and again, there is a time and place for that mm-hmm.

But, but we are struggling with a lot of lifestyle related issues. Absolutely. That are having a massive impact on society. And I think we have something here that has the opportunity to have a profound impact on reversing a lot of those trends. So that's where I start. Mm-hmm. I start, we have something now that, that we know works, we know can be the antidote and the answer to so many of those challenges.

Um, and so, uh, you know, our true north, as we've talked about, our vision is reaching as many people as we can. Mm-hmm. With this magical thing that is CrossFit, that has obvious benefits in fitness, but less obvious benefits around, uh, the, a sense of belonging and importance and community that the world really needs right now.

And so, again, that may, may sound a little pie in the sky, but, but we really believe it and, and, uh, so, you know, we've got some of the specials, you know, set your sights high.

[00:22:44] David Syvertsen: Yeah, I mean, I get that feeling when I listen to you, talk to you and a lot of the staff that's even here with us this week, is you truly believe in what you're saying and you're not.

It's not a template answer, and we know it comes from the heart and we know that, you know it works, right? It's worked on to this scale to this point, and you've talked about really, really growing to this. Do you have any fear or hesitation in there's, in my eyes, from my outsider's perspective, there is some old school CrossFitters, and some new school. Mm-hmm. . And they have a lot of old school CrossFitters, whether they're athletes, affiliate owners, coaches, friends of mine. Right. They're very set in their ways and they don't think we should have sponsors like Chipotle. Mm-hmm. they don't, or Monster Energy, that kind of stuff. Right.

Where, how do you mesh the two together? That's one of the things I've always been most fascinated, and I've always said this to Sam, I think that's the biggest challenge of a new CEO, is the people that took CrossFit off the ground are not necessarily the right people to take it to the next level. Yeah. And, and where do you stand with that? Do you have any thoughts on that?

[00:23:43] Don Faul: I, you know, first I'd say I think this, um, this dynamic is, is I think, really common in a lot of organizations early on. Okay. When you go, you know, for me, you know, my experience, um, you know, it's been a bunch of years working in technology and you know, I can remember at Facebook I joined at about 300 employees when it was Wow. a majority of college kids in the US. That was it. Wow. And we had to figure out, hey, how do we get beyond that? And that required a real meaningful shift in, in the organization. And so, um, you know, the way we showed up, the way we worked together, what we focused on evolved.

Now, we didn't lose what made Facebook special really on. The, that core, essential DNA, our, our vision and mission never changed. You can go back and look at the way that, that Mark would write about it. The, the, the vision was exactly the same. Mm-hmm. Uh, but it required us to really think about how do we evolve in cons-, you know, in alignment with our, our principles to get there.

I think the same is true as us and you know, literally my first, my first week was at the Games. The number of people who talked about old school. The old school, like to me, there is no old school, new school. There is CrossFit. Mm-hmm. There is our community. And when I actually get down and talk to people, um, and ask people, do you think we can reach more people?

Do you think we, we should try to reach more people? The answer is usually universally, yes. There are very few, few people who will say, no, we should literally lock down the size of the community right now. Yeah. We're selling our soul if we reach more people. Um, if I ask a follow up question then, do you think there are things that need to evolve if we're gonna reach more people, most people would also say yes.

Okay, now the next question is, Where do we need to, um, uh, you know, where is it essential for us to stay true to who we are and where are are the, the, the areas where we do have some degrees to freedom, uh, degrees of freedom. And I think this is where, where the essential elements is. Okay. So, so for us, what we've tried to work really hard on is really defining and articulating what our core principles.

What is CrossFit? Who are we? Mm-hmm. What do we believe in? What are the foundational set of principles we will never waiver from? Um, Nicole Carroll led this for us, so we did some work in defining that. It was extraordinary work. Now we can use that to both communicate externally and internally. Look, this is our, our, um, these are the principles that will guide what we do.

Um, every partnership we do will be viewed through this lens. We've turned away a ton of partnerships that would've been financially very lucrative for us because they didn't align with our principles. And moving forward, I think, um, that'll continue to be, um, the means by which we ensure we can say to every member of our community, we are gonna stay true to who we are no matter what.

And I have an enormous amount of confidence. That we can do that and reach a ton more people. Now we're gonna have to be open-minded. Yes. If you're just against change in any form, sorry, you're not gonna be happy with how things evolve. Got it. Um, so, and, and we gotta have the courage. We're gonna make some mistakes.

We at HQ have to have the courage to be willing to make some changes. Mm-hmm. . Um, and then our responsibility is to communicate why we're doing it, um, in alignment with those principles.

[00:26:39] Sam Rhee: Could you describe your leadership style a little bit? Because I see two sides of it on, you, you've talked about being in service as a leader, service to your organization, to the people that you work with.

But then on the tech side, you also see these CEOs like a Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg, who have an incredibly powerful role in pulling others into their vision. What is this iPhone thing? I don't even know what this thing is. Mm-hmm. , like, it's stupid. Why don't we just make something like a Blackberry? Or, you know, Mark Zuckerberg, like how can we reach billions of people? What? That's crazy. Mm-hmm. So is your style or goal to literally have that vision and pull everyone around you to get there? Or are you like team efforting everyone, to sort of get there for you?

[00:27:26] Don Faul: You know, I'd say, um, you know, I, I'll certainly say like I came into this role with, with opinions and a point of view on, on what, what the future could look like for us.

Um, but there is no, like, I, I will never say my vision. Mm-hmm. , this is our vision and. Um, you know, I believe really strongly my role is to create the condition where, um, our incredible team and incredible commu, incredible community, um, can rally around a vision that they all believe in. Not because I've said it's the right one, but because they believe in an intrinsically that it lights something inside of them that gets them excited to come into work every single day and work really long hours because that future is so exciting and so motivated, and they believe it at their core.

Part of that is, uh, I think a huge part of my job is being able to articulate that. The storytelling element of it, being able to communicate and convey. This is where you look at a Steve Jobs, where he was genius, his ability to story tell and paint a picture of the future. Um, and so yes, that's an essential part of my job, but, really, I view my role is putting our team and our community in a, in a position where we can all run together at one vision of the future that we are collectively excited about. Um, and, and partner to get there.

[00:28:37] David Syvertsen: So you, you've thrown out the number 20 to 30 million by the year. 2030. 30 million. 30 million by the year, by the year 2030. Yeah. That. And I love, I love aggressive goals, right? Um, since 2012, I've been trying to make the Games and I've never gotten close, but I keep saying, we're gonna try to go. I hope he's more successful than you.

Um, but it's, it's, that is an incredibly high number. And I don't know even if some of our listeners understand how big of a number that is from where we currently stand. Sam did a little bit of research on this, but currently Planet Fitness is the largest gym in the USA. With 16 million, 16 million, um, very expensive to franchise.

You know, there's a 1.5 to 5 million dollars to start up. Peloton, about 5 million users. Um, right now, CrossFit, correct me if I'm wrong, currently about two to 3 million athletes and it's 15,000 affiliates. Are we a little lower than that? A little lower than that. Okay. 12. Uh, about 13 and change. Okay. So, yeah, so you're talking about a very significant percentage increase.

Mm-hmm. , how, how realistic. is that goal to hit by 2030?

[00:29:40] Don Faul: Mm-hmm, do you know 10 people who don't cross, do CrossFit today? I do. Who could benefit from it? Do you? Absolutely. Yeah. Does everyone of your members Absolutely. Okay. In the US alone could get there. Okay. Wow. And now remember, we're a global company. We have. Wow.

Love it. Very few. We have very few gyms in China right now. We, we can find 30 million people in China? Oh yeah. Who would benefit from it? Hell yeah. So, um, now is it gonna be easy? Absolutely not. Yeah. But when I think about, you know, if we look at this through a business lens, our addressable market, is hundreds of millions of people around the world, maybe billions if you're arguing.

Now we have some, we have some obstacles, like how do we get there? And that's where we, we are focused first. I think our biggest obstacle is, uh, is in the, is in some of the misperceptions that exist around, um, who CrossFit is for. Okay. Uh, is it dangerous? Um, do I have to be exceptionally fit before you can get a shot?

It's too intense. We all know that's not the case. Right? And you can walk, I'm sure I could walk into any one of your workouts here and see young people, old people, fit people, people who are just starting in their journey. Um, and, but if you're sitting on the couch at home, um, and you've heard about it from your friends who talked about CrossFit all the time because he or she loves it, you may have a misperception.

So that's, that's number one. I think when we solve that, and we're working on that right now, right. Um, I think that'll accelerate growth in a really meaningful sort of way for us. Um, the second is, um, we have too many places around the world that don't have a local affiliate. So we are the, the largest network of gyms yet, um, if you zoom out and look at a map, there's a lot of dark where there, there isn't the light of a CrossFit affiliate yet. And so there's a ton of work. Our highest areas for growth right now are Western Europe. Um, Asia Korea's blowing up right now for us, so we have an enormous opportunity to, to um, continue to grow the affiliate community to reach more people.

Third piece I'd say is, you know, something we gotta think about. Um, I think increasingly we are seeing people who are either, um, doing CrossFit from home or doing a little bit of a hybrid. So maybe a couple days a week in affiliate, a couple days a week at home. Yeah. I don't know that we do a great job yet supporting those members of the community mm-hmm.

And so we need to really think about how do we connect them. You know, we definitely believe the, the best manifestation of CrossFit is in an affiliate. But if you can't access an affiliate, we wanna make it available as well. Got it. Because we think it can be powerful. And then the final piece I'd say is, um, there are some socioeconomic blockers as well.

Mm-hmm. , right? So if the average, you know, uh, monthly membership for a CrossFit gym in the US is somewhere between $150, $160, there's a lot of people for whom that completely rules it out. Absolutely. And so I think we gotta really think hard about how do we make it available to those folks. I, you could argue, and maybe it's, it's, it's, the case is so clear, you don't even need to argue it.

Those are the communities that need it the most. Yep. Those are the communities that are struggling with nutrition issues, who are not getting access to physical fitness and whose life is really meaningfully impacted. So I think we solve those issues, whew, we have an enormous opportunity.

[00:32:32] David Syvertsen: I mean, I love your initial answer that challenged me so much.

He's like, do you know 10 people that don't CrossFit? I'm like, probably know 300.

[00:32:37] Sam Rhee: Yeah. But dude.

[00:32:37] David Syvertsen: That challenges me.

[00:32:39] Sam Rhee: I can't get my dad to CrossFit. How am I gonna get 10 other people to CrossFit? Like it's a challenge.

[00:32:44] Don Faul: I agree. I can't get my dad either. And I've been working on it. Yeah. And I keep sending him videos like, here's this 92 year old woman from like, what's your excuse,

Um, but, but I think like we, we both know, I know my dad, you know, my dad is in his late seventies now. and I, I, this might be the point at his life where he would benefit most from CrossFit. Yes. Right? Yeah. And so just getting him over the hump that, you know, I view that as a, a big challenge and opportunity for us.

Absolutely. We gotta figure it out.

[00:33:11] Sam Rhee: Where do you see, okay, if that's your 2030 goal, how about 2025? Can you hit a 20, like a two year goal for us?

[00:33:18] Don Faul: So we haven't set these yet. I'd say, you know, we are, um, you know, as we thought about getting to where we want to be in 2030, um, you know, we'd say the largest fourth for, uh, force for health and performance globally.

Um, there's kind of three big steps for us the first year, uh, first year, year and a half for us. So, so in the short term focus, um, we're focused on, on a few different things. One, it's really for us building the muscle of growth. So we historically CrossFit benefited from organic viral growth. Yep. Right. People love the experience.

They walk out to tell people about it. That we need to continue to, to make sure that we accelerate that. And, and that's where the in gym experience is, is the most powerful way to do it. But we also need to figure out how we reach other audiences. And so we're building that muscle internally. So a lot of work on media.

You've probably seen, if you've seen the Magic of CrossFit campaign. So good. Yeah. Team's done exceptional work on that. We're doing a lot of work around search engine optimization, um, internet marketing, leveraging our social channels. We're looking at partnerships not through the lens of, of just financial relationships, but also how do we partner with folks who can expand our audience mm-hmm so that we can get CrossFit in front of more people. So that's priority number one. Priority two is, is really on building strong affiliates. And that's essential for us. That is the foundation for everything. Priority three is building stronger coaches. So le- uh, raising the level of quality, uh, primarily through education.

And then the fourth is for us building a really strong sustainable business. So for HQ in the same way an affiliate. If an affiliate wants to impact a lot of lives, you have to build a strong, sustainable business. The same is true for us. And so, um, two years out, for the two years out, we will have a really strong, repeatable, measurable engine of growth.

Okay? We understand how to reach your dad and my dad. We are how to we understand, uh, if you look at the state of the brand in two years, I think it will be a much more approachable one. Okay. It'll still resonate with the early members of our community. Mm-hmm. But we'll see more and more people walk in the front door, less intimidated by the experience.

I think on the affiliate side, you'll see an increase in the number of affiliates, but more importantly, we are focused on what we want to increase is uh, the, the, uh, take home earnings for the average affiliate. Got it. Meaningful increase in take home earnings. So figuring out how we support them in that.

Um, and then on the education front, shifting from, I'd say today, if I had to characterize, uh, our education, which again, I think is excellent, it's primarily oriented around I do my L1, I do my L2, I get to L3. It's maybe I do it once a year, once every couple of years. We wanna shift that paradigm to education is something you're doing every day.

[00:35:48] David Syvertsen: Okay. I love that. That's awesome. Now, data collection, you know, especially with your background, um, it's something that you are probably a little bit more adept to doing than, than someone that doesn't have a technology background. Um, the goal of achieving 30 million people by 2030, that's gonna require a lot of analysis and data to come in and to break it down and, and to organize it and, and make decisions off of it.

Um, how much data are you collecting from affiliates? Very little today. Okay, because I was gonna say, is that something that is gonna be part of this process, you know, um, in terms of, again, mentoring other gyms, or is that more on the affiliates themselves to seek the data from other affiliates?

[00:36:28] Don Faul: So, you know, in the long run, if I think about for us being able to realize any of our goals, this, this data. So when we think about, um, you know, when we talk about data, it's, it's really grounded in what I would say that data represents is helping us understand what's happening in our community so we can better serve it and support it. Right? So where are we growing?

Where aren't we growing? Which affiliates are, are, are the most successful? Which affiliates are struggling? Right now we can't answer that question. Our team knows it anecdotally because they talk to 'em, but we should be able to identify hey, which new affiliates in their first 90 days are struggling?

Because we know there are an essential set of steps. Which affiliates are opening at break even? We don't know that. Okay. Um, and so for us, we've got to figure out how do we get a better understanding of our ecosystem so that we can both build and deliver products and services at the right time to, to the right members of our community to help them be success.

Now how we get there is the big question. Yeah. How? So, um, there, there are some things that we've been working on recently where we've asked affiliates if they're willing to raise their hand and volunteer it and, and a bunch of affiliates have. And so we said, here's why we want it. Here's what we're asking for, here's how we'll help you.

[00:37:33] David Syvertsen: Are you talking about like your books and all that? Every, everything like to open up everything to you guys?

[00:37:37] Don Faul: Um, and uh, it's, uh, it depends on the scenario, but in some cases, yes. Okay. Like, hey, we'd love to understand, we're trying to work on really helping affiliates understand how to run a better business. To do that, we need to better understanding, information.

Yeah. Information where they're at. So, um, looking at things like growth. So one of the things that we're, we're working on this year, as I mentioned, is ultimately we want to get people to crossfit.com. From crossfit.com, uh, to your website to walk in the front door. Got it. To be able to evaluate that, we need to know when they walk in the front door and actually, uh, start a new membership.

Got it. We can't evaluate that today. So those are the types of things we're looking at to think about how do we. Optimally, how do we build products and services that are valuable for you that you choose to use as an affiliate owner or. that through that usage gives us access to information that we can use to better serve and support.

[00:38:26] Sam Rhee: I would think as a tech person, if I wanted to do that, I would create an app. I would have every affiliate use it and, and make it incredibly useful for them. So, and then you could track what they're doing with it. Have every athlete use that app, and then suddenly it's just like Facebook or Instagram.

You have an incredible amount, isn't that what the tech industry is? It's about, it's not the product. The products are the users? Now you suddenly have all, like, wouldn't you want to know as CrossFit HQ, the age of every athlete, how often they're working out, they're logging, you know, if they're using it to log their workouts, if they're using it to record, um, affiliate, you know, if it's useful for the affiliate manager. Like, isn't that ultimately the goal of HQ is to be able to have something like that where you could just do it painlessly?

[00:39:11] Don Faul: That's a good idea. I like that. Yeah? Uh, yeah, that's one way of getting there for sure. Okay. And uh, yeah, absolutely. You can imagine, you know, today every member of our community is opening an app. Yeah, right? Absolutely. To, to, to register for a class, to see what the workout is, to track the results. And in doing so, there's some really interesting and valuable data and again, that's important cuz I think in knowing that we can deliver better experiences. Think about having, you know, if we had all of that, we'd have one of the, the largest and, and most valuable sets of data and understanding how to improve mm-hmm, health at scale for us to be able to go tell that story. Mm-hmm. Like we know it to be true. Mm-hmm. We know the impact CrossFit has. Right. But to be able to have the data and tell that story broadly in the. Uh, could be pretty compelling.

[00:39:57] David Syvertsen: And, and that could be business and even just the performance of the athletes.

Like, you know, oh no, there's benefits for the athletes, right? Hundred percent. Yeah. Like if we have a, a, an app where you are logging your score for every single time, and, and we're still old school here. I don't use the word old, old school, but we still write down everyone's name and, uh, workout score on our whiteboard.

Love it every single day. Love it. You know, should I evolve with the times and say, start to get this into an app? Will people do that on their own? I think there's actual human connection and writing someone's names down and, and that's kind of a big reason why we tie to, um, we're tied to each other over the years and that's how we know a lot of people's names.

We write them down every single day. Mm-hmm. . But how much of that can help the programming side? Is, Hey, these things are a little too heavy. This is not hitting a certain stimulus. We need to avoid these moving patterns. Um, injury, injury data collection would help out a lot. Right? A hundred percent. That would be, that would be, yeah.

[00:40:48] Don Faul: You can imagine like, it, it's relatively nontrivial for us to be able to, um, if you know what the workout is for the day, if we know that I have a shoulder injury, being able to tell me before I show up with the scale's gonna be. Yeah. Right, right. Super simple and the coach knows. Mm-hmm. You can imagine the coach know I'm walking in if I'm dropping into a new gym, um, it's already taken care of. Right, right.

[00:41:07] Sam Rhee: Uh, what, what issues do you have? Shoulder, knee, and then boom, the, the scaled workout for you comes up. Exactly. I would say there are two things with this. One is, um, I don't know how many of the, I will say old school people, are, it, it's, it's about privacy issues basically. Yeah. And, and I think 10 or 15 years ago, this would've been much more of an issue.

But at this point in our culture and society, I don't honestly think if your benefit is that, if the benefit outweighs that, and if you, if you trust CrossFit HQ, I would be willing, I mean, I, I know how much data I'm giving to a lot of companies every day by accessing all of these social media apps. Um, I know that there are gonna be some issues dealing with that controversy about that.

Mm-hmm. , but I feel like that's really one of the biggest ways CrossFit HQ can survive, grow, and make themselves hit 30 million by, because I know my children, I know what they use, I know how they consume media and for, for all users. Like it would be so incredibly helpful. The helpfulness of it outweighs, I mean, would equal my trust in CrossFit, basically.

[00:42:23] Don Faul: Yeah. And, and, um, I think that's really well said. And I, I think for us, there's two things that we keep in mind as it relates to this one. Um, you know, we, we have to continue every single day to earn the trust of our. In, in how we show up in the decisions that we make, that's essential. Um, and two, um, if we're gonna do this, we need to build experiences that deliver incredibly obvious and overwhelming value.

It's, it is a no-brainer. Mm-hmm. . And so if we do that really well, Then we earn the right to better understand our community, and if we better understand our community, we can better serve them. The other side I'd say is, this is already happening today. If you're using a membership management, if you're tracking your results, absolutely you are given a third party, a bunch of this data, right?

Uh, and again, you're doing it for that same reason because you see the value that you get from it. Mm-hmm. .

[00:43:10] David Syvertsen: All right. So, so the, the last thing we have here is just about the brand and, uh, you've mentioned branding relationships with partners that are synergistic in nature. Right. Would that include potential partners like the NFL or other professional sport leagues?

[00:43:24] Don Faul: Potentially. Yeah. You know, I think we, um, actually one of, you know, our, our title sponsor No Bull, um, has done a deal with, with the NFL, the, the Combine next week. Sponsoring the Combine. Exactly. Very awesome. So cool. Yeah. Super cool. Again, when I think about this, you know, we've asked our partnership team now to really think about, again, they play a really big role in, um, helping support our financial goals.

Uh, but just as important, it's about, um, shaping, uh, strengthening our brand and reaching new audiences. And so when we think through that lens, how do we reach more people who might be a great fit for CrossFit? Um, I think athletes in other domains who are fans of other sports who are training for other sports, it's a total home run for us. You know, I grew up playing sports. I, I'd be embarrassed to describe like, my strength and conditioning routine in high school. I was doing the dumbest stuff ever in college. I was doing like, um, body building, like type stuff. Oh yeah. Bicep, bicep curls. Lots of pre preacher curls, like the dumbest stuff ever.

You know, I think now about, gosh, for a, for a high school athlete, CrossFit would be a, is an extraordinary strength and conditioning foundation that is gonna make you more resilient, that's gonna help you perform better in the field. How do we reach those kids partnerships with organizations like the NFL, et cetera, showing we've, there's a bunch of NFL athletes um, that are doing CrossFit.

[00:44:39] David Syvertsen: Absolutely. A of, and a lot of pro baseball players too. Bryce Harper always, I always look into some of the stuff that he does. I mean, is he at a CrossFit WOD class? No, but it is a lot of the same modalities and movements that we do here.

[00:44:50] Sam Rhee: I thought one of the best commercials was the Ladder Nutrition with, uh, Steph Chung and LeBron James. Like I saw that, and that synergy was so amazing. Amazing. And I was like, if CrossFit leverages any of that, we will explode in terms of visibility. Mm-hmm. Explode.

[00:45:07] David Syvertsen: Yep. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, are, are there, so F45 has done this with like Mark Walberg where they, you can, you could tell they purposely get some celebrities in, is that without talking shade, anyone is, you won't do that.

I was gonna say. That was awful. I know that's, that's kind of, I don't want to turn, use the term sellout, but it, it's not real to me. It wasn't organic. And people can pick up on that.

[00:45:29] Don Faul: Yeah. Look, the, the one thing that our community will throw up on as they should, is anything that comes across as inauthentic and it, and it, it would be, for us, undermine our most important asset, which is our brand.

Yes. And our brand. We don't have to make shit up. Yeah. It just works. This works so well and there are millions of people who do it and love it. Mm-hmm. , our marketing is, you know, it's funny, we have this conversation internally. Our team hates using the word marketing and I get it. Um, their point is marketing is when you're trying to sell something, we don't have to do that.

Mm-hmm. We don't have to create, hire actors and create fake stories. Yeah. You have, we just need to bring a camera into a local affiliate. Um, show what's happening there and get in front of more people.

[00:46:07] David Syvertsen: Example would be today, I mean, anyone that's gonna be watching the announcement today. Uh, Joel and Kathleen, the two athletes that are from our gym are taking on 23.2 before the games athletes, they were with media yesterday.

They both have very serious, uh, emotional stories to share. That's gonna be, they're gonna both be highlighted today and that is what we want to hear. We want to relate to this stuff, and I think that's gonna be, I think you guys are doing a great job with that. And I think that's where, that's where the person sitting on the couch is actually gonna say, oh, I could do this too, or that inspires me to go.

[00:46:35] Sam Rhee: Do you do anything specific in terms of gender? Because I know. It's really cool how, how equal or even more there are in terms of women participating in CrossFit? That's right. So how do you guys approach that in terms of thinking about growing the market?

[00:46:50] Don Faul: Yeah. You know, I, so I've got three little girls. Mm-hmm. . Um, and one of the things that makes me most proud about CrossFit is that, you know, women are on the exact same, um, playing field. They're doing the exact same events, doing the same workouts, same prize money, same. You know, you look at the, the, you know, Tia and, and being the, the, the most successful athlete in our sport.

Mm-hmm. . It's an incredible and amazing thing. Um, and the cool thing is we don't have to do anything artificial here either. Right. We just tell the story. Yeah. Like, half our community is women and, and, um, and it's such an incredible thing. So, um, I'm trying not to be the, the insanely obsessive dad and force my kids in the CrossFit so that they hate it forever, but there's a little bit of minor encouragement in it.

So making them watch, uh, uh, reruns, the CrossFit Games from back in the day.

[00:47:37] David Syvertsen: All right. Well, last thing here. I mean, we we're hours away from 23.2 being announced here at CrossFit and, uh, at CrossFit Bison. And again, we're gonna thank you for coming here and just the rest of the staff here. It's been a really impressive operation from start to finish.

Um, what are you, uh, hoping 23.2 is gonna bring us?

[00:47:53] Don Faul: Geez, I'm hoping not wall walks . Um, and I don't know, it's funny, I was already nervous about this because I'm like, when I found out that you guys were hosting right, I was like, ah, geez, I grew up two miles from there. The cons-, I can already hear the conspiracy theories.

I'm like, new, new CEO picks. I had nothing to do with it. I promise. . So I'm hoping for, I think I'd be excited to see some double unders. Okay. I'd be okay with that. Okay. Um, I'd like to see some sort of barbell movements. Yeah. Cool. I can do everything, I can't, I've got a jacked up shoulders, so I can't do, uh, overhead squats or snatches.

Okay. But some cleans would be super fun. Okay. Yeah. Um, yeah, so we'll see. What about you guys?

[00:48:30] David Syvertsen: I, I think we're gonna be transporting back and f-, transporting back and forth a little bit, whether it's gonna be shuttle runs, lunges, some sort of back and forth and, uh, I think the rig is up there just for show.

I don't think we're gonna be using it this week.

[00:48:40] Don Faul: Ooh, yeah. I like that theory. Yep.

[00:48:43] Sam Rhee: Uh, all I know is Boz yesterday said whatever the workout after the workout's released, I think people will have strong feelings. Oh, I love it. I didn't know what that meant, but I'm a little scared now.

[00:48:53] Don Faul: That is, that's good.

Wow. That's, well, that's exciting.

[00:48:56] David Syvertsen: Yeah. All right. Well, thanks again, Don, for, for coming on. Really appreciate your time. I know it's limited and, um, we're, we're stoked to have you here. We're honored and humbled to have you guys here too. Just, uh, kind of representing CrossFit here at, uh, uh, CrossFit gym that's been just trying to do CrossFit the right way for nine years now. We're in year 10 and we, we hope to be on the ascent with you guys.

Cause like I said at the start of the show, I've never been this excited about leadership at CrossFit and it means a lot. That, um, A, I mean, you're here B, that it's a lot easier to get in contact with you guys and just get some feedback and to see that there's actual, a real plan to support everyone involved.

So I really mean that.

[00:49:33] Don Faul: Well, thanks for that. And, and we'll keep hustling. Yeah. And, and, uh, you know, I know our team is really motivated to do that, and also to say huge thank you to you guys. Mm-hmm. You should be incredibly proud of what you built. Mm-hmm, um, you know, you guys got the Open because of this incredible community.

Mm-hmm. That we are super proud and feel really fortunate to be able to lift up on, on a global stage. Yeah. Uh, that is an incredible thing you should be incredibly proud of.

[00:49:56] David Syvertsen: Thank you, sir. Yep. All right. Thanks guys. We'll see you next week.