Scott Howell - Red Dot Fitness / Iron Sights Podcast

In this episode, Chris and Ike from Big Tex Ordnance sit down with Scott Howell, owner of Red Dot Fitness gym and host of the Iron Sights Podcast. Scott shares his fitness and business background, how he pivoted his gym during the COVID-19 pandemic, and his journey into firearms training and the 2A community. The guys discuss building customer relationships, meeting people at events like TTPOA, and making genuine connections in the industry.

You can find out more about Scott, Red Dot Fitness and the Iron Sights Podcast at the links below!

https://www.reddotfitness.net/

https://ironsightspodcast.com/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBrNdLjeZHSgdxDcIze_rdQ

https://www.instagram.com/ironsightspodcast/?hl=en

As always you can find out more about Big Tex Ordnance at Bigtexordnance.com! 


Episode Highlights:
00:00:00 - Intro and meeting Scott Howell at TTPOA 2024
00:02:00 - How Chris and Ike started the Big Tex Ordnance podcast  
00:07:00 - Scott's background and starting the Iron Sights podcast
00:14:00 - Origin of the name "Red Dot Fitness"
00:21:00 - Scott as a gun owner prior to 2020 and civil unrest in San Jose 
00:36:00 - Getting into firearms training and the 2A community
00:42:00 - Impact of COVID shutdowns on Scott's gym business
00:48:00 - Pivoting Red Dot Fitness during the pandemic
00:51:00 - Building customer relationships and getting feedback  
00:56:00 - Where to find Iron Sights Podcast and Red Dot Fitness online
01:00:00 - Connecting with people in the industry like Kyle Defoor
01:02:00 - Being open and reaching out to people you want to connect with

Find out more about Big Tex Ordnance at bigtexordnance.com

Transcript

0:00

So if you can picture like plate glass window, Jim's behind me, right? Uh, I have some seating in the front area, kind of like a lounge area and above the windows, there's a TV there. So I clicked the TV on and kind of watch the news and, you know, get an idea of what was going on. I put one of the pistols on the table and the coffee table right there in the front window, and I just sat there and watched, made eye contact with every. I'm just gonna say any dirtbag, you know, that's walking by acting a fool. I mean, there were other people out there that, let's just say, were quote unquote peaceful protesting. But there were plenty of dudes that weren't. And I just, I just couldn't, I sat there and just wanted to be a deterrent. And it, it dawned on me very quickly while I was there like, what the f am I doing here? You guys, how's that? Oh, that's good. I um, Yeah, no, I don't, I don't anticipate any of that stuff. You guys should be fun. I love what you guys do and how you guys handle yourselves. Uh, this should be, this should be fun. And you y'all met at a California range day, right? Y'all did a little. Well, it was, it was a brief interview. I had planned to cut some content and try to put it together. like with some of the stuff that was going on at the, with CRW. And I usually, I, I, the plan was to really use that for like next year to tease the next event. Some things are happening with that event and I'm not quite sure how that's going to go down this year. So I didn't, we didn't actually put it out of it and put the time into that part of it. But yeah, that's where we met, met Ike and his wife and think. Ian was out there. Ian? Ian. Ian. Yeah. Ian was there. Ian was there. Yeah. And, and camera guy. We're not, we still can't take Yeah, we don't, we don't say his name. We don't talk about camera guy. Yeah. We, we just refer to him as camera guy. We just started calling. We, we started refer to him as camera guy and then we realized like, Hey, he has a name. We could probably call him by his name, but it's too far in, so we just call him Camera guy. Yeah. We're too far in. I even That's great. Like, uh, that's great. Everybody at Big Techs is a packer. That's one of the things like everybody can pack packages. That I can pack. I can pack. Everybody can pack. Yep. And so we, we instigate or we instigated, we implemented some new changes to where we're using more electronic stuff in the packing process and you have to log into it. And so I went to log in and he's like, what's my login? And I was like, it's camera guy. He's like, seriously. And I was like, dude, you don't make the rules. You haven't, you've got to make it through that year period before we actually start calling you by. I mean, like we didn't bring him here. I mean, he's obviously not needed that much. Okay. It's funny. He's gonna be watching this and he's like, what's going on? Hey, can you edit this for me? But anyway, dude, thanks for you. Thanks for your time today. Oh, I'm happy to be here. I'm so, so honored to be here with you guys. I love what you guys are doing. I love big techs and, um, I'm always down to have good conversation with good dudes. So thanks for having me. Yeah, definitely. So we're here at TTPOA 2024, um, We're sitting down here day one of the vendor show, I guess they had range day yesterday and day one of vendor. So we got Scott here. Um, sit down, talking to him. We got Chris, I'm Ike. Ian is not here right now. He's downstairs. We're going to stay busy. He's got it. He's got to actually do some work. It's busy down there. Yeah, there's a lot of people. I was. I'm really impressed and it's, it's a different kind of feel. Uh, yeah, it's real busy down there. Is this your first, first TTPOA? Yeah, it's getting, it's gotten bigger every year. So like in like last year was, was pretty dang big and I'm surprised that they've made it even bigger. You know, I was asking a lot of questions about that, just kind of how they're doing that and how they're growing it. I think it's turning into a little bit more of a business than, you know, just kind of a show, if you will, where people kind of show up. And I, I would anticipate it getting much bigger, uh, in terms of, you know, The organizational structure, I think they've done quite a bit from what I've been told again, my first time. But, uh, so far I'm impressed. Uh, it's really, it's really smooth down there and a lot of good conversations. Also, I like the fact that it's like big enough for people to actually get through it and get and talk and have conversations with people without being 10 people deep at a table, which is like important for you guys for sure. Yeah. Yeah. They're in it. The only time it gets crazy down there is when they start doing the glass breaking demos. Yeah. And then it gets loud. What does that happen? Like they're scheduled, you'll know, you'll hear it and you're like, what the heck? There's like this one booth that like has like, uh, yeah, like they do glass breaking demos and you'll, the first time you hear it, the fuck was that? And you're looking around and then like, it happens again, like an hour later. I, so I haven't seen any of that. One of the things that really tripped me out actually like in a creepy way are those mechanical dogs. Yeah. Yeah. Like those robot dogs. Yeah. I mean, the dude walked it right over to me. It has like an arm and a hand on it, you know, or whatever, with an articulating arm, he handed me some patches. I got the whole thing on video and I sent it to CC and she's, she's like, that is creepy. I'm here with the thing will roll over. Like it, it's wild. Like that, that kind of tripped me out, but I'll have to stand by for the glass breaking. I've seen how they treat those Boston dynamic dogs where they're all kicking them and knocking them over and hitting them with sticks. Those things you're going to remember one day. That's why I still got a ton. It's creepy. That's why I still got a bunch of eight, five, five stashed at the house. You need to still pin a trader on there, but yeah, dude, once again, thanks. Um, you're here with, so I'm out, I'm out here with Jake Labhart and Jake Labhart is the owner of in extremist performance. And, uh, he and I have been, you know, behind the scenes, been working on some projects together that, uh, I am very, very excited about. And, um, so I'm down here hanging out with Jake who is on the board for the TTPOA. And so I'm hanging out with Jake and his team of instructors that are going to be instructing some classes here, uh, this weekend, specifically on Saturday and Sunday. So they'll be out there on the range doing the things they do. And, and that whole company has really been the way we got connected was through the podcast, which I'm sure we'll talk about, but he comes from the world of human performance and, uh, he's really made a name from, for himself, kind of bridging the human performance, the moving with the moving. The shooting, which are two different things. Um, when you, when you break them down fundamentally, but when put together and you have, you know, solid fundamentals and a solid understanding of how to increase performance on both ends, he's really been impressing some people, including myself and a lot of other people. And I think there's some opportunity there. So we've been, we've been chatting quite a bit and that's what we're here doing this weekend is I'm just kind of getting a feel for, for what he's doing and maybe making some connections with some people to, to do our stuff. So that's what that's about. And then I ran into you last night at the, at the bar, we'll call it circle bar, Texas. Ran into you. I was like, Hey, are you doing podcasts? You're like, no, I was like, can you do ours? And you're like, well, yeah, sure. So I'm honored to be here. Of course. Like any invite from you guys. I'm down anytime. And so speaking or speaking of the podcast, when did you start that? How many episodes are you in? Are you up to now? Oh man. So I came, uh, ill prepared. So I think we are like right around, um, We're over, I think we're over to like, we're at two 20 or something like that. All in. Yeah. Um, I started that thing back in 2021. Um, and it kind of really started to take off in 22 when I, when we started bringing more of like the second amendment stuff, the preparedness shooting. Um, Combative stuff into the game, which was kind of part of my journey and I was just sharing it, but it had started specifically with, with health and wellness and fitness. And, and I, that's the world I come from. I've been in the fitness business for over 25 years, specifically like on the personal training, human performance, strength and conditioning side. And, uh, I live in California. Uh, 2020 came rolling through. Yeah, the gym was shut down, uh, along with. Many, many other businesses, which to some people listening to this, it'd be like, you know, that's ridiculous. I agree. Totally ridiculous. You know, you could have done something different. Trust me. We did everything we possibly could. And we were really challenged. My business was closed for a year. Um, like, like by order, your business will be closed. We weren't, we were still trying to operate and do stuff. And I needed like, My business is closed. I don't have people coming. That's bad right off the bat. Right. So we started to put together some online products and programs like many other people did. And I needed like, cause I had nothing, which is a huge pivot, right. Just trying to figure that out. And then I needed to then like market that. Um, podcasting was something that kind of been in the back of my head. People try to encourage me to do, but I had nothing but time at that point. And fortunately, yeah. And so I started the podcast to try and spread the word about our, our brand. Um, and then it evolved kind of to what it is now. So it's. Half health and wellness and fitness. Um, and then the other half we dropped two episodes a week. The other half is, um, is more specifically related to kind of all things, training, preparedness, um, self reliance and all the things that encompasses was just certainly a lot of what you guys do and, you know, working with, with and supplying armed citizens as well as law enforcement with stuff. Um, I'm just trying to provide them with information too. And, um, not just on the health and wellness side, like bringing cool conversations with interesting people that are doing cool things in the, in the, in the space, which is very large and trying to spread that message, um, and largely because I was challenged to find the good messaging when I started, um, kind of in this end of things. And I was, It's spending 25 years in the fitness business and all the frigging messed up information that exists and continues to be perpetuated there. Like I saw some similarities and I thought, Hey man, I might be able to do this. Yeah. Like you think the gun industry is bad with bad information. I can't imagine how the fitness is terrible. Like it's like there's, There's gotta be so much crap out there. I mean, it's, it's awful. I mean, anybody that spent any time there knows that there, but at the same time, awful comes with good, there's this, there's more good information than there is awful information. It's just like, what ends up being projecting what do you see the most of it? Yeah. I mean, if you had to draw some, some parallels, like the fitness business, firearms business, um, like it's just weird, but then, you know, you start going like, The modern medical industrial complex, pharmaceutical complex, you know, and those intertwined, but take the firearms piece out when you go fitness, health fitness, because those are kind of two different things. And then there's all the subcategories like supplements, nutrition, you know, like it gets wild, right? And then that's totally intertwined with medical and pharmaceutical stuff at the end of the day. It's messed up. It's really messed up, but I've, I've learned a lot about it or a lot from it. Um, And, uh, so when I kind of started talking about, you know, these other things, you know, that I was interested in, I recognize what, where, where people were getting lost and the rabbit holes they could dive themselves into. And, um, and I also recognize that there were people out there in the, say the firearm space, if you will, that's training equipment, um, you know, Firearms themselves or whatever. It's, it's the same type of stuff, right? Yeah. So how do you give people, how do you cut through all that garbage and kind of give them the truth or the solid messages? And that just started with talking with people like you guys. And it's like, I wonder if other people would be interested in listening to these conversations. Cause I'm extracting a ton of value from this. And there are good people providing a good message. So the rest is history. That's how this got started. You know, we were, Like, I think your Steve Fisher came by the shop one day and we just talked in the back in the warehouse for like an hour and a half, just like bullshitting. And Chris was like, man, we should, this would be really cool if we just hit the record button. Like I enjoyed the conversation for within, for an hour and a half with Steve. I enjoyed it. I love Steve to death. You know, every time I see him cool talking, hanging out, but I didn't, I didn't, we didn't accomplish anything. Anything. When we need to be, we need every minute that I'm working needs to be doing something. And yeah, we were building a relationship, hanging out with our friends. And when I got done, I was like, man, Steve just gave us a ton of information. I bet other people would like a cool story. And then like the next day I'm like, Hey, Ike, look what I got in my cart. And you're like, Can you slim that down a little bit? Yeah, we can slim that down a little bit. And we started with a GoPro, my cell phone and one camera. And then after doing that for like three or four episodes, proof of concept, I was like, Hey dude, I can't edit these. We got to do something different. Uh, but I, you know, One question I've got for you, did you start off as the iron sites podcast? So I started off as red dot fitness and that's the gym. So the gym is, is, is personalized health and fitness services. So you name it, we sort of do it. If somebody comes in and wants to get fit or wants to get healthier or just wants to look, feel, and sort of perform better, if you will, like we have. A team of people that that that do that or that work with those people to do that. So every reason employees, um, these are like professional coaches that make a living doing that. It's they're not a bunch of hobbyists. Some of them are current students. That's part of the business and so forth. But it started there and I've been prior to that, you know, prior to owning my own business, Red Dot, which I, you know, my, my partner in life and partner in current CC is, um, obviously a huge part of prior to that. I worked in the. In the, in the fitness world to kind of commercial and corporate fitness stuff. And so, uh, that's where that, that's where that started. So it was Red Dot Fitness and then Iron Sights was sort of just a spin off of that. Um, when, once the podcast started. So how'd you get the name Red Dot Fitness? Where did that come about? So this, this goes way back. So again. Long history in the, in the, in the business, but also just in, in the, the genre. So I was doing a lot of multi-sport training at one point. So like triathlon was a thing, uh, for me for a while. Like I was into bodybuilding and power lifting heavy. And then I made a complete switch. I was gonna say those are like two. Yeah, that's, it's totally different.. The, the way that happened was, was like gotten to a certain point where I was like, if I wanna be competitive, I have to reach a certain weight. I was working towards that weight. I had gotten married at the time, this was, uh, you know. Previous life, I'm out hiking. We're actually at the Grand Canyon. I'm like 265 pounds. And at that point, strong as an ox and, you know, putting on a ton of weight, dude, we were hiked, we only went out like a mile and a half and I was dying. Knees are hurting, you know, like I'm like, dude, this sucks. Like, what is wrong with me? Um, and then, you know, just kind of dawned on me, like I'm carrying too much weight, like, um, um, my body is being challenged just to do the things that I love to do. And so anyways, I was like, So I immediately switched gears and like spent the next like four or five years kind of taking muscle off my body to be able to do this stuff. But the question is, is like, where did it come from? So I'm training with this multi sport group who'd asked me to be a coach, like kind of with them. And we were training all these people and it was a very big community of people. And it got to a point where we had to go to like a local park and we had this box van and it was full of spin bikes. And, um, You know, and then they would bring out some weights and stuff, but it was next to a pool, like a public pool. So we'd go through all these workouts, like a full day, we'd be out there, we'd do this like once a month. And so I had, whenever, we all had kind of stations that we would handle, and there was this one guy in one of these stations. These, uh, these groups, it was like, dude, he goes, you need to relax. Like a super intense. He's like, it's like every time I come to your section or your session, I feel like I have a, like a red dot on my forehead, like, like the laser he was previous military, um, and so nobody else really got that, but I did. He's like, like, like you're trying to kill me every time. And I kind of, the whole class got a chuckle out of it. I kind of got a chuckle out of stuck with me. It was like. Well, yeah, that's exactly what I'm doing in a sense. Like, I want you to be that focused and I want to be that focused. And that might sound a little cheesy to people, but that was the thing. It was like, when you, whenever you're doing this, whenever you're doing this thing that you're doing, you know, you should be, there should be an unwavering focus on what it is that you should be doing during that time. Once this is done, go do whatever. And you should have that same relationship. The coach should have that relationship with the client and the client should have the relationship with the coach within reason, but it kind of stuck. And I kind of thought at the time I was working for somebody else. It was like. That might be a cool name for the business. And that's, this is before, this is before red people, the red dots people know now, or it just wasn't the same then. Well, I mean, we're going back to like, I mean, You had a cogs. I think that's what people had. I mean, that's, this is back in 2006 or seven, we're going way back. So anyway, that's where it started. And so then I just, it stuck. And then the iron sights thing was just a play on that. Yeah. You got a little spin off. Yeah. Just old school meets new school, because that's kind of how I approach. Um, fitness. Like there's a lot of. Fundamental old stuff. That's never going to change. We've constantly figured out a way we people constantly trying to figure out ways to change that. And they ultimately mess it up. Um, and then there's technology that comes in and there's, there's new things that we learn or nuance to the, to the things that make it better. And so some of that is like being open to new, new things and, um, and exploring those things and experimenting with those things to find out if they work or they don't work, or maybe they work for you, but they don't work for somebody else kind of thing. So that's how that came up. Yeah, I found you, I think YouTube suggested it, um, from just, just posting our podcast. And then I started watching yours cause I liked your camerawork and your lighting and, uh, your after dark. Are you still doing the after darks? Yeah. So those are the Friday episodes that deal with us dudes. Yeah. And so like the, uh, I saw that I was, and I started watching it for the editing and I was like, started listening to it. And I was like. Okay, cool. And I followed you on Instagram and I think you messaged me back on, on Instagram or you messaged me like, thanks for the follow. Love you guys. And I'm like, what do you mean? Love you guys. You don't know who I am. And they're like, I've ordered from you. I'm like, okay, that's just a cool little, little ecosystem there. And then, uh, talk to you at shot show, actually in person for the first time this year. And, uh, it was just cool to see, uh, You know, you were at shot last year recording, we were at shot recording and almost like one dude left your podcast and came to do our podcast and it was cool to see how those meshed, but how you, you know, I've went and watched, uh, some of the fitness ones, I know it doesn't look like it, but I'm, I'm interested in it and I need to get back to where I was at one point in time, but then, um, You've got so much knowledge on that side, especially, uh, CeCe, right? She's in there just dropping, dropping knowledge and like watching stuff on like fueled workout as opposed to like starved workout or whatever, whatever the proper terminology for that is. And I'm like, man, for 20 years, I haven't ate before. I'm like, okay, what is it? Like if I eat before run, like what, what happens? I'm like, Oh, well. It's a lot better. I feel a lot better afterwards, but the, the information y'all do is really good on it. That's, um, I really appreciate that. Uh, I think we were talking about this maybe a little bit last night, or maybe it was today when I saw you briefly before here, but. It's really tough to get feedback, you know, on that stuff, like how much of what you put out really reaches people unless you have those conversations. And so like when people give me their time or they, you know, they, they message me or they see me or I see them or whatever, I, I do my best to try and give them feedback and thank them, you know, for the time that they give, because like, you can see a download, you can see a follow, you can see all that stuff, but it also, it goes back to the relationship building and, um, That, that is really how iron sites got to where it is, was the relationship building piece. So I don't want to get too far on a tangent here, but going back to the fitness piece, that's really what kind of triggered some things for me. Um, in terms of what I could bring to this, this culture or this community that exists, uh, when I kind of transitioned into, you know, talking about this during the 2020 to 2030. Two time periods. A lot of weird shit was happening, right? We were all dealing with it, but living in California was dealing with a little different level and I started training and that's how I, obviously I needed equipment, that's how I found out about big techs ultimately. Right. And I started ordering from you guys, but, um, The point of that was, is I was going out to the range, or I was going out to training sessions, or I was going, whether it was at the range, or doing something, you know, medical related, or, you know, whatever, homestead type stuff, whatever it happened to be, I was running into people, invariably, and you guys know how this is, like if you go anywhere and people find out that you work for big techs, you know, or you are big techs, That's where the conversation is going every time. So when they find out like, Oh, you know, you're in a, you're a gym owner, you know, you've been in the training game for a while. That's where the conversation goes. And to your point, like I just, I was watching people consume products or buy things or buy into things, or just ask questions about stuff. I'm like. Man, it's just really kind of weird where the disconnect lies. And I feel like, okay, maybe I can provide some type of help from the health fitness nutrition side of things to this group of people who are more like minded, you know, than a lot of the clients that we have in our gym, you know, to me that I find sometimes difficult to have conversations with, even in kind of where I live, like I'm an alien there. Like if I show up, so I have a 12 year old stepdaughter. If I show up to a school event, like just showing up, like I'm just a different dude than most people in the Silicon Valley. Right. And if anybody listening to this lives, there'll be like, yeah, I feel you, bro. Yeah. Like, like having conversations. Um, this again, a little bit of a tangent, but having a conversation like stuff that they're talking about, like, I just can't relate to and I don't want to, you know, kind of thing. So I would go out to the thing Like, it's not that I don't want to help that, that clientele. That is not what I'm saying. So any of my clients are listening to this, like, or a member is like, that's not what I'm saying. I'm just saying, if you know me, you know me and you know where that could be a challenge. So if I was going out and people were asking me, like, I was like, Hey man, I can really help these guys. And I like hanging out. I would have a beer with these dudes too, you know, so that, that, that's kind of what inspired me to, to get a little bit more involved and then ultimately look for a way to give back to the community from that I was getting so much from. Which, which has been the journey, which has been the whole, the whole thing. Yeah, it's funny. We, I picked this off of Ike though. Like whenever I go to like an event or anything that like, I don't know, like go with my wife to something right. Where I don't know, it's not my crowd. Right. I asked him one time, I was like, what do you tell people, man? Like, cause I don't want to sit there and talk about big tics. I don't want everybody to know I'm the gun guy in the crowd. Cause I'm going to ask, to ask. Answer stupid fucking questions. Everyone's like, Oh, yeah, I used to have a Ruger 10 20 or like, cool, bro. Man, that's awesome, dude. I'm happy for you. I don't want to talk about it. There's a reason I don't want to talk about it, but it's like, man, like. Yeah. So we're like, tell them, tell me, tell people, uh, it kind of changes lately. The go to has been like, uh, like we've, uh, either flashlights. We sell flashlights in medical gear or logistics. That's the story. Yeah. Flashlights. People are like, oh, flashlights. Okay, cool. Boring. Yeah, exactly. But every once in a while, somebody be like, what type of flashlight? I'd be like, really bright, 300 flashlights. And they're like, Like, wait, what do you use a 300 or every once in a while, somebody like, aren't you so and so? Yeah. Yeah. Or who you work for? Or my, my kid's like, Oh, daddy sells guns. Oh, come on. Yeah, the kids are always like, mommy works on guns. Yeah. I have the fitness cover. I can always go to like, so when sometimes people introduce me as, oh, he's got this podcast, right? What's the podcast about? And it's a complicated, a little, it's complex for somebody who doesn't. You know, play in either of those worlds. But I always have the fitness coming up. We own it, you know, gym owners, you know, we just start there. And then, Oh, what kind of gym is it? Is it like a CrossFit gym or you got to go down that path. But the question is that it's ultimately like, how far is this going to go? And then they ask you a question. Like, I don't know if you guys run into this, like they ask you more of like a technical question. Which obviously has many layers to it where you have to then qualify. All right, before I answer this question, I have to ask them about 10 more questions to find out what level of knowledge they have on whatever it is they're asking you, whether it's a firearm or some type of piece of equipment, it's the same in fitness. So, you know, so I heard about fasted cardio, which is kind of fasted versus fed cardio, which I think is what you're alluding to before. I'm like, dude, this is, you want to go there with me? Like I will, I will corner you in the corner of this kitchen, right. And somebody's house party or whatever. And I will bore the hell out of you just so you leave me alone. You know, kind of thing. That's interesting. I feel you like it's, it's work all the time. It's really hard to avoid that. Yeah. Yeah. And here it's like, the nice part about it is like, I haven't really had, I've had work conversations, but I'll see dudes that I haven't seen in a while. And it's like, how's your family? How's your kids? How's, how's Johnny? You know, we're talking about totally different stuff and not about this cause it's, it's the community that we're in and nobody wants to talk about work outside of whatever happens. That very specific thing, you know, with business that they may be. Need to know that they may need to know and that you need to get handled with them. That is what, that was one of the most rewarding parts about my entry into the space was, it was also the most frustrating part at the beginning and trying to, to strike up interesting conversations. And really I was just trying to learn. I was very curious, but I was also trying to learn practically. Um, And that started with, like, the instruction piece. I, the equipment piece was very overwhelming. Like, there's just so much of it, right? And like, what's the right thing for this? And, you know, is this the cool stuff or is it not the cool stuff? Like, I don't want to look like an idiot. There's that piece too. And again, I could relate back to fitness a little bit. So I, I knew how to ask the right questions, at least seemingly I did. And I, I feel pretty confident that I was asking the right questions. It was the experiences I was having. In the question, answering and asking and the answer getting that was creating just more curious about this is kind of a funky culture. Like, this is, this is interesting, but to your point, like how we got connected, right? Just ultimately in person that that came from personal recommendations from someone. I can tell you exactly who it was. Joe Dawson's the guy who said, I should talk to you guys. Um, and we're going to be hanging out with Joe and I'll see Joe on Thursday. Is that right? Yeah. Joe, Joe's, Joe's a good friend now and, and, and I, and I, I really appreciate, uh, him as a person and what he's doing, I think in the space and he'd be the first to tell you, he says, I get it. Not everybody, you know, I'm not for everybody and I'm the same. So I get that too. But what I, what I, to the point of this is, is the, the, the connection points and just like good people generally hang out with other really good people or want to do business, um, with other good people. And I'm a businessman at the end of the day too. But, and there is such thing as good people doing good business, um, that care about their customers, which is something I was very impressed by with what big text was able to handle in the time that they were handling it. Like that stood out to me as a business owner going, look, this is important. Like getting. Getting the right price point. That's important to having stock. That's important to like having the right stuff is the right, um, you know, um, skew numbers is important too. But for me, like, I want to know who I'm getting my shit from. Right. Right. And so when it's somebody that I trust and I really respect says. You, you should, you should check these guys out. And I'm like, cool. I'm already getting my stuff from them. I already had a sense of this, right? I already had a sense of this, right? So you just confirmed what my gut. You know, my head was telling me, so I kind of go, I usually go like gut, head, heart type of thing. Yeah. That's the, the order of, of, that I, that I go through that's those relationships are what stands. So going back to like the community thing, when I go downstairs, that's what ends up happening is like, I get connected. Hey, I want you to meet this guy over here because, you know, it's all rooted in that generally speaking, because I didn't come into this. With any skin in the game or any other reason than to, I just wanted to learn and then ultimately share what I learned. Like I, I'm not going to make any money at TTPOA. Like I'm not here to do business, you know, like immediately. My, my thing is like, I'm in the business of people. And so the getting it to your point, like how your kids, you know, what's going on? I saw your wife downstairs. He was like, Hey, it's good to see you again. You know, whatever. I don't know what you had on the table. Cause I wasn't paying attention. I'll be honest. I don't know. I just came to see you guys. So anyways, I think that's probably the coolest part about what we do is like being able to all the relationships that we've made, you know, cause like we like to do business with good people, you know, like, you know, we can sell a lot of different stuff, but like, we like selling the stuff that our friends make and that their friends are involved with. And like, you know, it's, I think that's one of the biggest benefits for me is like just the people that I've met, like all, pretty much all of my adult friends that I didn't know in high school. Are within are from this industry, you know, like, I mean, like some of the, like my legit friends, I'm like, we're lucky enough to be able to do business with them. So I think that's pretty cool. Yeah, it creates, yeah, it creates a higher level of responsibility, I think, to doing a good job too. And I think, you know, when you're connected like that, like, cause you would let somebody down or, you know, you would never treat anybody, you know, Poorly, you know, you're treating people how you would want to be treated the golden rule kind of thing It's interesting how that's not how everybody operates and I don't know why they would yeah, I really don't except for well I do know it's one thing two things. It's either money or ego But yeah, again, it's just been like the connection of, of the humans to the humans, which it's no surprise that when you get that generally their business practices match up and the quality of what they do within that business is usually matches up. It's been cool. Charlie, my, my six year old. And one day she asked me, me and my wife were sitting there at dinner or something and she's like, mommy, who's your best friend at work? And my wife like, I don't, what do you mean? I don't. I don't work with my best friend, you know, daddy's my best friend or something like that. She's like, no, who's your best friend. And why don't you work with him? Cause daddy works with Mr. Ian and that's daddy's best friend. And I'm like, okay, all right. Okay. I get it. And it's, and it's true. Like, We work, we're all, I was friends with Ike before he ever said, Hey dude, I need you to do this for me. Or, Hey, can you do this for me? Uh, or, Hey, come to work with me because it's 2020 and, and, and shit might just get real, right? And then to go look at that and to be able to keep it at the level that we have, uh, and it's a whole nother, that's a whole nother podcast, but to go back to something that you said. Were you a gun owner prior to 2020? Yes. Yes. So. The transition for me was more into becoming more of a responsible gun owner and to train. Um, and the way that happened, I, you know, the old, the old saying, like I grew up around guns, people knock on that all the time, but you either did or you didn't. Right. So that's like a, you know, That's not like a, okay, well, what does that mean? What kind of a gun owner are you? For me, like there were guns in the house. I got my first rifle when I was 10 years old. You know, my dad, you know, my, my family, the extended family, you know, was in agriculture and they, you know, they hunted and had guns for protecting their livestock and their, their, their ranch lands and farms and things like that. So. I grew up around guns, and so I already had, I always had them. And for, there was a short period of my life where I trained a little bit more. I'd go to the local indoor pistol range or, you know, we'd go out and we'd kind of mess around with the rifles or the shotguns. But, you know, I'd done a little bit of training. Again, just walking back, we had, we'd been shut down for a year. The city was, Just kind of deteriorating very, very fast at a lot of different levels. Like a lot of major metropolitan areas where the Bay Area is an interesting place in terms of the micro environments, as well as the larger environment and how they cross over. And my, my business is right downtown and, uh, it was in an up, sort of an up and coming area or is, was, was an up and coming area and it was deteriorating very quick, so. And I lived two blocks from there at the time in a, in a townhome, which is awesome. No, we're San Jose. So we're just at the bottom of the bay, right? And so when people like people like to geographically, you have the bay and people know about San Francisco. It's just at the tip of the peninsula and the bridge that goes across and you start getting up into Northern California. Oakland's directly east of that on the other side of the bay and San Jose is directly at the bottom. So it's South. So, um, yeah. It's, it's an interesting area. And then we're kind of surrounded by a bowl of mountains. Right. And so everything is very, uh, concentrated in the, in the, in that, that bowl there. Uh, the point of that is, is like when crime happens and things like that, people can very easily come down or come in from other areas, do a crime and be right back to their place, like 50 miles north of us to San Francisco, 50 miles north of us up the other side is Oakland, and then you have all the things in between that are squeezed in between. We were seeing a lot of stuff happening. Um, it was very frustrating and challenging for me where there were safety concerns, um, it was also very frustrated and angry about what was going on just sort of in general, but then the events with George Floyd happened, um, in June of that year. And so I was sitting on the couch with my. Two daughters and, and, and CC, and we're just watching the news happen and what was going on at city hall, which is just two miles down the same street. I was, I'm on the businesses on. And I want to be really clear about this. Like the things that were happening in San Jose didn't look nothing like what they were happening, like in Minnesota or in other, some other major metropolitan areas. But it was my city and it was, well, there were some things happening, um, I mean, that close like, like, you know, a couple of miles away from the miles you could hear. I could look out my window and see the helicopter helicopters circling around, keeping an eye on what was happening. And, um, you know, it, as they all start, it's a gathering of people. Weirdly, there's pallets of bricks and rocks dropped off on corners. Like what the hell is that? Like you're seeing stuff, but you're not really registering because it's very early in the process. Some weird shit happening. Well, very quickly when things got out of hand, when things started getting lit on fire and windows started breaking and things like that, the law enforcement, local law enforcement agencies handled it pretty decisively. I'm grateful to them. They took a lot of heat for the things that they did. Now they did it, but they broke that shit up real fast. Um, and what that did was it spread everybody out and they started pushing them down the street without now it's headed right towards our business. So I'm sitting there and I'm watching it and I'm going. Man, within minutes, there's going to be big crowds of people down in front of my business. Now, we'd already been shut down for months. Um, we're watching our bank accounts drain, like we're looking at a bankruptcy. You know, I had employees that I could not pay any aid that we got from the government at that point in any level, like from like grants, whatever, I was going straight back to our employees. Like they weren't working. They hadn't. But so they couldn't put food on their table and we were struggling ourselves. So I was just, I was looking at the, looking at this going, there's no way I'm going to let somebody come through and destroy whatever we have left. Um, big plate glass windows out in front, like right on the major Boulevard, like we're a target, man. Oh yeah. Sit and duck and nobody else is down there. Everybody else had kind of abandoned their businesses too. Um, yeah. So I packed up, the gun question is this, I packed up what I had, which was a couple of pistols, right? Um, the little ammo I had, um, a little food, and um, a couple beers, into a backpack, and I, and I walked down to the studio, and I camped out in my front lobby, um, so if you can picture, like, plate glass window, Jim's behind me, right? Uh, I have some seating in the front area, kind of like a lounge area, and a There's a TV there. So I clicked the TV on to kind of watch the news and, you know, get an idea of what was going on. I put one of the pistols on the table on the coffee table right there in the front window. And I just sat there and watched and made eye contact with every, I'm just going to say any dirt bag, you know, that's walking by acting a fool. I mean, there were other people out there that let's just say we're quote unquote peaceful protesting, but there were plenty of dudes that weren't. And I just. I just couldn't, I sat there and just wanted to be a deterrent and it, it dawned on me very quickly while I was there like, what the fuck am I doing here? Like, what happens if, like, what would I do? Like, and how would I get out of here if I needed to? And by the way, I just left my family at home, which is two blocks from here. Like, what the hell was I thinking? Like, is, um, did I leave them with anything? I just took. What I had out of the house. I mean, all these things start going through your head. I mean, it doesn't register at the time. You're kind of panicked, like you're in this situation. And anyway, that's where things changed for me because as soon as that stuff was over and I was down there for about three days, uh, watching kind of all this stuff kind of unfolded and it never got crazy. It never got crazy. Thank God. Thank God. You know, but at the same time, I feel like I probably was a deterrent at some level because plenty of my, the fellow business owners down there had, you know, things broken, stolen, whatever. It was weird. Like two days after that, now they're putting plywood up on their windows. I'm like, you guys missed the show. Like this has already happened. And so all this is registering for me. I'm like, I got to train. I've got to be, Better at this. Cause I am woefully underprepared no matter, no matter what I know physically, no matter any preparations I've done at the house for earthquakes and things like that, like it didn't set me up well for this, so I needed to dig deeper. And that's when I started to study and learn and this journey kind of started for me. That's how the transition happened. That's super cool. I mean, it's not, it's not super cool, but like there were a lot of people in 2020 and 2021 that got into that, that bought a gun and it's probably not been shot since, or whether it was even shot, you know, they, they bought the ammo. They bought the gun or they bought 500 rounds of ammo and helped cause the ammo shortage. Right? And then all these people, new gun owners. And then I know everybody that owns a gun doesn't go out and train. I know that. And so there's, but there's still that small percentage that you're a part of that entered into the community and started that journey because of the catalyst of those events. In that sense, I, I, I, A lot of good came out of it. Um, and, and I recognize that right away, just in kind of the training that I was doing and who I was training with. Cause I mean, again, where we are, it's, it's an underground community, you know, kind of any way, uh, again, we're aliens, I'm an alien there. So finding that tribe, right? Like who are we going to train? Who are these people? And then ultimately getting there and recognizing like, I mean, I'm not that weird, like, I'm not that different. There are people out here that are really trying to be better. And learning from them, what did they try, where they failed, you know, where were they successful, what equipment were they, were they using, what decisions were they making about the training they were doing or the, the, the, the, the process that they were going through in order to correct the situation, the same situation I kind of found myself in, but in their own way, and in that sense, it was super valuable. And, I mean. Let's be honest, a lot of people benefited from it. Um, and, and, and I mean by some in a not so good way and others in a very good way. And like, do I wish those things hadn't happened? Yeah, I could have learned, I could have avoided, you know, the whole business shutdown and stuff and learned a lot of lessons. Otherwise I would have much rather been like, look, just let me figure out how to get through this than to tell me what I can't do. Um, you know, tell me what I can do. But, uh, the, the, the, The drive for people to get better was like a cool thing for me. It was like, God, these people are out here really learning. And that even, that even included like law enforcement or like they're recognizing, man, I got to get better. Um, because this is getting, it's getting pretty spicy out here. And so I was in front of a lot of law enforcement officers, even firefighters and first responders and that whole community. And that's how I started to get connected was just through the. But I need to be better at training. And then of course, all the other things come with that. Like, what about the equipment? And then people are trying to sell you a night vision and shit like that. Night vision. Do I need this? Like I should learn about this because everybody's saying I need it. Like, do I need this superpower that you can buy this? Yeah, it's a superpower. Still not in that game. Yeah. I'm still not in that game. That's an expensive game to be in. I haven't gotten there yet. So where, and you can, you can tell me to, to delete this or don't ask, or I don't want to talk about it. Oh, no, we'll do that. Where. Where are you? Have you recovered from 2020? Nope. You are still. The, the gym business will never. So the model that we have is, is about community. So we spent 10 years, we started up as, or I started that business in 2010. Um, and I started in 550 square feet. It was just a room. Yeah. Like that's what you do. Like, and that started. By the previous to that for 10 years, I worked for a very large fitness company and I very lucrative job paid me really well. Um, and ultimately there was a time to leave that as they were going to be going through a bankruptcy and the things were getting ugly. I'd already taken like a pay cut, you know, like a 30 percent haircut, like overnight kind of thing. So. I was like, okay, the dream of owning my own business was something I always wanted to do anyways, you know, it was like, okay, I got to do this. It's now or never. And so I stepped out of that. And the point of this is, is I had zero clients. Like I started fresh from scratch, renting space as a trainer from somebody, um, coming from running a major company, company's personal training program. And, um, It took me 10 years, took us CC and I 10 years to build this business and we expanded our little 500 square foot spot until like 1000 and we knocked out another wall and I made it 1800. And then we were, we actually, there was a tried and failed studio down the street. We went in and took that over and started a group training program there and whatever. And, um, This was a very organic boot, you know, bootstrapped process and it started its relationship building and, you know, word of mouth and taking care of people. And finally there was a time for us to like, look, if we really want to do what and do the things that we know we can do, we're going to need more space to do it. We're going to need more people to do it with. And we couldn't do that. We busted the seams out of our own spot. So we rented or we move from basically 2000 square feet to 6, 000 square feet. This was only this was in 17. This is only a couple years before we were just coming out of that, dude We were staring on the barrel of 2020 go we fucking made it. Yeah, like we're good We're gonna be out of the red this year. It's gonna be gravy from this point for all we have to do is not fuck this up and So never your knees cut off dude punched in the side of the head like I've never been and I've been hit hard Several times in my life in a few different ways literally and figuratively Never saw that coming. And so what happened was, um, a good deal of our folks, you know, our members are within the tech industry somewhere. And like, I can walk out the front door of our place and I could walk to Apple. You know, I could walk to Adobe. I could throw a rock and hit eBay and Google. And so those are, those, those employ. Thousands and thousands and thousands of people. And then there's all the other smaller businesses that support those businesses. Right. Those thousands and those are our clients. Those are our members. And that's a little up and coming area that we had moved into in downtown was soaking up a lot of that. Cause we're just nowhere else for people to go. So brand new high rise apartment buildings going up all the things, the Whole Foods goes in the cross the street. You know, when that happens, you're in a good spot. Yeah. The rent's going up and we'd gotten in just at the right time where we had negotiated, like again, coming into 2020. All the hard work, all the decisions, all the negotiations, and the pain, finally coming through. Well, when they shut the, the, the country down, they also shut those businesses down. And they said, you don't have to come to work anymore. And all those people that were living in those apartments or whatever, like, hold on. I don't have to live, you know, for four, for, you know, 4, 000 a month in a 1, 000 square foot apartment. I can live wherever and still make the same amount of money? Later, dude. And they, they're gone and they're never coming back. Um, and so to, to the, the question is, is like, those were our members. That was 10 years of building and we lost 85 percent of our clientele. They just moved away. um, And there's where families in there. Long, longstanding families are like, I can't live in this place anymore. Like this is ridiculous. Like I can't, I can't deal with this. So there's a lot of that too, but there's, a lot of those places still haven't fully gone back to work, and at the, in the, Well, and like what you're seeing, a lot of people are experiencing if they're living in a major metropolitan area, all the policies, you know, that had changed, you know, the politics that have been influenced and then the finance that comes along with that or the misappropriation of my mind of finance has all caught up and it's decades away from turning back around. So we've just been surviving. To build those kinds of relationships back, right. In the time that we needed to build them back. Yeah, it's just tough to do. So we're, we're, we're doing our thing again. We've done a lot of things. We've we're, we're, we're okay, but it's not like it was. And it's not like I was making a million bucks before. Yeah. Like I said, we were just getting like to that point where like all the planning was, Hey, look, it, it, it. We're trying to provide a service to the community employment to people that want to try to make a career in the health and fitness industry. And, um, you know, at the same time, earn a living and then build something that we could maybe expand, sell, um, or turn over to, to somebody. And it's, it was far from that. Now it's far from that now. And so have y'all pivoted and what are y'all doing now? Like what's what's red dot fitness doing now? Fundamentally, it's the same. Right. Fundamentally, uh, going, it's, it's the same things we were doing before. It's trying to provide services to people. So, you know, people looking from the outside, what does it look like? What is it? What is it like? If you walk in, it doesn't look like a gym, like a, like a 24 hour fitness room. Really? You guys have lifetimes down here, you know, where it's got all the equipment for people, swipe their card, come in, work out, go home. Ours is very much a hands on type of process. So you're either working in a small group. You know, a training environment, like maybe eight to 10 people, like in a class where a coach has got, it's very organized, got your, their hands on you during that class or you're in a personal training environment, right? So it's either one to maybe three people. We call it semi private. So people are coming in and all day long. And then we have the things to help with that nutrition coaching. We do some specific assessments. We've done some, some, uh, like lab testing, but we've done all kinds of stuff and we have that available to us. Fundamentally, it's all still the same thing to, to pivot that we've tried to go more online with this, you know, and so we have like, we had to build out an infrastructure to be able to provide that. That same type of service to people, you know, online, which is where everybody went. Every gym owner did that. Yeah. You know, at that time, I mean, like what, what other option do you have? You don't, you don't, you don't. So that's where, and, and there's so much evolution in that business because it was so concentrated, you know, everybody was doing that. So at the same time, it got very saturated. So how you do that, um, is very different. And so for, for us, like you can either try to appeal to the masses. Yeah. Which is whatever most other people are trying to do. And some people are really doing that. And unfortunately the masses generally are going to gravitate towards the least expensive thing on the menu. Well, we were the highest ticket item on the menu in our, you know, in our, in our area, and we knew that, but we also knew. That's that we, we were over providing, you know, based on what we were priced at and people got that and they were also paying for it. But to try to give that kind of value digitally, that's been, that was really tough. So, um, it kind of, you kind of start this process of, well, I need to give out a lot of free information to get people to gain trust and, and understand what we do is different. And, you know, fundamentally it's, It's a gym dude, like people lift weights, they get sweaty, you know, whatever else. It's how we help people, um, that we had to get out there, go back to the podcast. That's what the podcast was about. So that was part of the pivot. Um, then the other thing was just trying to connect with people, um, that were like minded so that we, cause everybody was struggling. So I was trying to connect with other gyms, other, you know, business owners in the, in that industry, if you will, to try to tell the story so that we could leverage one another For in bringing the message to people so we could drive more attention to things. So that's, that's really how it's been. The podcast has been sort of an add on to that, like the podcast or the, the gym sponsors, all the podcasts. So we talk about. Fitness and health. We talk about our programs and we, you know, we try to, we pitch the programs there, you know, when we came without trying to kill people with selling and pulling them all the time facts, just like you guys do, you know, it's like, let's have a cool conversation. If you like what you heard and you like us, maybe you want to buy our products, you know, kind of from, from, from red dot fitness. Yeah. Dot com. Yeah. No, uh, you go to RDF train online. com. So it's red office, but RDF train online. com. There you go. There's that plug. There's that shameless plug. Yeah. But you know, we were talking that last night downstairs and uh, if you're listening, the gentleman who commented on our Facebook group is going to know who he is, but he's talking about, Hey, I've listened to, you know, I listened to you six months. I've listened to every episode. I listened to X episode six times and I just placed my first order from y'all and I got stickers and I got a constitution and it really did come as fast as y'all talk about online. I love you guys. And I'm like, cool, but like, so six months, that's, you know, yep. 36 episodes or whatever it is, right? Like that's a long process of, you know, building that no like trust with somebody, but you know, I really hope we've got you as a customer for life now, you know, cause we put the time in, but it's not. An hour long commercial, we talk about the stuff, but it's about the relationship and the person behind it. Yeah. I think what you get there too, is if you do what you said, like fundamentally, like you're not going to piss anybody off by talking about your business. Like they're going to expect you to do that. And I think people want to be sold. You know, at some level, like most people want to be sold. They just don't want to be sold every day, all day, like stuff. Right. So tell me what the special is. Tell me what the deal is. Tell me how to get the discount code or whatever. I don't mind you doing that. Just don't do it 18 times in the podcast or have a hour podcast for 15 minutes of it is just dropping those ads, but yeah, it's about the people that building that, that thing takes a long time. It's interesting what you're talking about. It took six months to even get that kind of feedback. That's one of the challenging things about the podcast and running an online business is getting that feedback. I've been in the people business where I have those very intimate. Conversations like people tell you things as a personal trainer, you meet with them two times a week, you're dealing with their health issues, their kid issues, their marital issues, or all that stuff. Really easy to kind of get a gauge on where your client is, what they're getting, what they're not getting. And also very easy to just get immediate feedback. Hey, how'd that go for you? You know, what am I doing? Well, how can I help you more of that kind of stuff? But in the digital space, totally different. It's so it's. Like I'll say it's very hard. Some people make, you just know how to do it. Right. I don't know, man. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. It's hard. So unless somebody says that directly to you, or, you know, again, like you get like that comment, like in an email or something like that, it's really hard to know how much you, you reach people and what they get from that, like how many years did you work at another job before you went full time big while you were already full time big tech, but when you went all in. I think I spent 10 years in my previous career. Yeah. And then like in that role, I was already, I was already hired by you working for you. I don't know if I was full time yet. I might've just transitioned full time when you made the transition. Yeah. I mean, you already had five full time employees working for you of 21. When I, when I walked away. Yeah, for my, my, my, my real job, whatever, yeah, whatever that means. Yeah. Yeah. And so like, I mean, it's, it's a journey that's just building the business, not building a relationship online with your customers and that, that does, if you're listening out there and you're the competition, that's, I mean, that's maybe why they order from us and not you is because they have that relationship. And it's something that we work very hard. To maintain and go places where, you know, most people, most people won't, or it's not going, are we going to get new customers from TTPOA? Yes. How do you measure that? Yeah. How do you measure it? Symposium every year we go there. Everybody knows who we are. There's not a person at symposium that doesn't know who big Texas, but we go there to see that dude. We see every year. At symposium and we're like, Hey dude, what's up? Nice to see you. So important. I, you know, keeping your finger on the pulse, but also respecting the customer where the, where the customer is. I mean, meeting and respecting them where they are. Like, you know, that, that human touch goes so far. Again, you just come back to the fitness business. Like I've worked at major bigs box situations. When I, when I left the last company, we had 450 of them. Like across the country and actually globally, there was part in other country, I've had as many as 150 clubs I've been directly responsible for. Right. And the, the most impact I ever made was going out to those clubs being on the ground. And that's what I like doing the best. Even if I was kind of a fixer, like the shit's fucked up, man, you got to go fix it. Okay. You know, send me in there and it was really. Where does that start? It doesn't start by peeling back all the numbers and the books and you know, like your sales process is messed up or whatever. It's like understanding who the people are and how they work. You will get way more mileage out of that and you'll get a customer for life. And to your point, like that one person that took you six months to get like in the digital space or in any, any sales thing, any product you're trying to sell, you'll hear people that in the business, you'll hear like, what's the customer lifetime value, right? The CLV on everything. Yeah. Look, there's a way to calculate that, but you have to get it started first to ever even be able to get next to collecting those metrics to understand. And, and it's going to have to start with building a. An audience of people that trust you and really treat them really well to then slowly kind of organically expand it. I mean, you could do it through different digital stuff, paying for ads or paying for follows or whatever else. But I think people have learned that lesson. I think the people that ended up making it in the long, we would never be here. Red dot fitness would be closed if. We didn't, hadn't done that from the, from the get go. We were just able to layer some things on, you know, um, to help us keep going. Most of them, most of my gym owner friends are, they're gone. They're out of business. They're, they're working some other job for in some other place right now, working for somebody else. Cause they couldn't, they couldn't make it through. I'm not saying this cause they were running a poor business. I'm just saying, I probably had a head start on them. With regard to building those relationships to be able to go back to everything from a gym member to another business owner, I could call to find out, Hey, how are you doing this? How are you creating this? You know, the success, you know, all that kind of stuff. So it's a, I dunno, maybe getting off, off, off, off, uh, off topic here, but hey, off topic is on topic , so appreciate what we're all about. But, but yeah, getting those people, getting that, that customer take, taking six months, you just talked about it takes a long time to build that relationship. And it isn't about, like, there's things that go into that, but that's how I found you guys. Like, again, like, and when I saw the podcast come out, I go, that is some status smart. That is smart because most people wouldn't think like that. It's like, how do I, you know, how do I get another ad out there? That's going to drive this much versus putting in work, starting with GoPros and iPhones and stuff like that and testing new things, which is a lot of work. I know how much work goes into this. So. So they'll love what you guys have done. Thank you. Thank you. And, uh, so tell everybody that's listening where, where they can find your podcast and where they can find out more information about you. Yeah, we're all on the, we're on the basic stuff. So the podcast is iron sites podcast. You can find it on an Apple, Spotify, and, um, of course on YouTube, it's just iron sites podcast on YouTube. Uh, however you consume it, which I find it interesting. There's a, there's a crowd that listens to it and there's a crowd that likes to watch it when we were talking about that last night. Yeah. Um, so yeah, you'll find us on, on, on both, both places there or on all those spots there. The gym is red.fitness. It's red.fitness.net is the main site. But if you go to rd f train online.com, um, you'll, you'll learn all about the things that we do, both kind of in-House and in person. And then online, uh, there's a bunch of stuff there. That's the best place to go get us. And we're also on Instagram, red Fitness on Instagram. Follow there. And then, uh. This is a few weeks out, but like, uh, I remember the podcast I sent out on email. So Ruben Alvarez, yeah, he's going to be at our, at our, uh, range on tomorrow. Yeah. He's, he's teaching a class this weekend doing the combatants class. Yeah. He's doing it, doing it. It's the second one, but I shared his interview. Via email when we post it up that way. I'll be like, okay, here's the content. Here's the dude Ruben's amazing. Here you go Yeah, he one of the hardest working dudes in the in the business. I don't know how he's doing. He's full time SWAT, right? He's been doing the firearms instruction through paradox training forever is his company paradox He's been working with Craig and ship works for for He literally every weekend when he's not on the job, he's doing something and he's still managing to put out the content. He's still managing to stay positive. He's such a good human. Um, I've sunk, I haven't, because he lives in Florida and logistically we're so far away, I haven't been able to train with him yet. I had, there was a chance I might've been able to get in there over shot show. He was in Vegas teaching a class on that Saturday, but I couldn't get in until Sunday, so I wasn't able to, so I'm jealous. You guys are gonna get to hang out with Ru. I hope, I hope to have him on the show on. If we can get them in on Monday, we might have to do a show on Sunday if you're available, but like, it's, it's. The we've, we've crossed paths and it's every time, every time he's there, it's like he was there for a black Friday. He was there for, uh, Thanksgiving weekend. And I was like, dude, I can't, you're not seeing me. Why? Well, I'm like 22 hours that day. You know, I'm, I'm working all day, all night. That time. And then now he's coming. He's like, what time would it be? What time would you be back from DTP away? I'm like, man, we're just going cross paths again. It's interesting. Like the podcast podcast thing. So you talk about Reuben and you, you putting out the stuff on him on him, which I really appreciate. But, um, one of the, the podcasts that was very influential for me was the one you guys do with Kyle, the four. Um, and, um, As a result, I was able to, like, I reached out to Kyle. I was like, this guy, there's so much this guy has to offer to this. It's one of my favorite, favorite episodes. Um, and through just a weird kind of events in the universe, kind of moon, sun and stars lining up, we were able to connect out in Virginia when I was out there last, but, uh, like hearing him and you guys interviewing, I was like, Dudes can get in front of call the floor for a podcast. I had no idea like he would even do that for folks and in such a giving dude. Like I was really shocked. Like, cause he's from kind of the old school, the old YouTube videos and whatever else. And he's, he's fairly quiet on Instagram. He kind of does his thing. Cause I feel like he, I think he feels like he has to do it. Probably does. Yeah. But like you guys, that was a huge inspiration for me to finally make that happen. I can't even remember. If we, if, if Chris had his contact and I got his contact info from Chris, because one of our, uh, ex employees, he, he'd trained with him enough to be like, you know, contact, you know, no, I emailed him, I got on his email. I went and got on, on his website and just emailed you. Oh, emailed him. I said, Hey, I took your class at X next date. I know you're going to be here combined to the podcast. Give me a call. And he's just like, Oh, All right, dude. Yeah, it's cool. Cool. So I think that's the coolest part. Cool. The coolest part about this is just, at the end of the day, like, and this is what I realized when I started on the journey and the podcast was, these are just dudes. Yeah. Like we're all just dudes. We're all trying to do stuff. And, and, uh, if you just reach out and you're just a dude, just do it. Reach out and try to have a conversation with something like, just like we've been having today, you'd be really surprised what you find out. Don't build anybody up into something that they aren't, you know, or, or whatever, because you see in this way on social media or whatever. But I really encourage people if I've learned anything, uh, it's that there's no, there really is no reason why you shouldn't be able to reach out to somebody. Like you see a dude, you have a question for him. Put together a well formulated question, but oftentimes like what I learned works really well in creating these relationships and you mentioned it was just letting people know that you appreciate them, you know, like for no other reason than that. Don't, don't do any thing with expectation. Like they're going to, you're going to have this long conversation with them after telling them, thank you. But like, if somebody gives you a follow, like, it's like, Hey, do I love you guys? Like, that's awesome. I just got followed by. Or, you know, I just got a comment from the big text guys that meant a lot to me. I was like, dude, this is awesome. And so I just let them know, I think that's awesome. Thank you. You'd be surprised how far that goes with people versus like, which shoes are those that you're wearing in the, you know, on the range on that day or, or whatever, like what gun should I buy for CQB? Yeah. Like think about that. So for anybody, maybe, you know, people pay attention. Take a listen to that. I am very open. So with people and encourage people, maybe this is last plug I can put in. If people have questions or whatever, like it's about podcasting or the people that I've met or, you know, making connection, you can reach out to me. I'm going to hit you back. It might take me a while sometimes to get through there, but just like you go super open to combos, like if you hit me, I'm going to, I'm going to return your message. So, well, thanks dude. Thanks for returning the message. Yeah. Hell yeah. I appreciate it. Thanks for hitting me up last night. I'm stoked to be here. This is such a cool trip. I looked at you at the bar. It's like, yeah. Hey, you're on your, on your, you're being a nerd in the back, right? You're just working on it. I was like, you're editing a podcast and you're like, which is, which is weird. Cause I was like, I was head down and I turned around and I didn't recognize him at first. I was like, dude, what, like, I know, I know this dude, but you trim the beard or they had a hat on or something. It took like two and a half years. That's what it was. Cause I only saw you a couple of months, couple of months back and whatever that was in January. So, yeah. Thanks for stopping me. Thanks for having me up guys. Thrilled to have you on. Yeah. This has been, this has been a ton of fun. And, uh, Yeah. I mean, we have to return the favor sometime and get you, get you guys on and, and, uh, and talk about the business and talk about how you're doing it. And in your stories, I have, I know a little bit about, about it. Cause I talked to Ike, uh, uh, end of last year, kind of went through that a little bit, but so impressed by, by how this company has come together and what it's doing, given the totality of all the things that are going on in the industry and how you guys continue to do it. And it's, I'm not surprised. But I'm still really impressed. So anyways, just love to have you guys on and talk through your story. Yeah, for sure. Let's do it. Thank you. Thank you. And for those of you watching, listening, downloading, whatever you're doing, or if you've made it here, you've listened. So, or watch for anyway, thank you. We appreciate it. Check out Scott's podcast, check out red dot fitness, and, uh, let us know if you've got any questions in the comments. We appreciate your time and we'll see you around.