In this episode of Wodify Insider, we sit down with Jason Ackerman (CF-L4)—co-founder of Best Hour of Their Day, four-time CrossFit affiliate owner—for a conversation that’s nostalgic, inspiring, and just flat out fun.
We cover:
– Jason’s early days in CrossFit (spoiler: he hosted sectionals in a parking lot)
– Coaching stories from Albany CrossFit to present day
– The summer Reganne was rejected by both Wodify and Best Hour 🥲
– The inspiration behind AffiliateCon—and why you need to be there
– What Beatles song to play if you want your kids to become fans
Ready to level up your coaching, community, and business?
Join us at AffiliateCon – October 24–26 in Dallas, TX.
https://besthouroftheirday.ticketspice.com/affiliatecon?t=Wodify
– Learn from speakers like Jason Khalipa, Kelly Starrett, EC Synkowski, and more
– Participate in exclusive workshops
– Connect with hundreds of other affiliate owners, coaches, and CrossFit enthusiasts
Use code WODIFY for $100 off your ticket
Register now (before it sells out)
Like, comment, and subscribe for more episodes.
And if you also guessed “Yellow Submarine”… you might be able to get a job for Best Hour
All right, we’re back on the Wattified podcast. I’m your host, Jason. Oh, I forgot. I’m sorry. I forgot to hang out. Actually, Jason, this works because I’m I’m supposed to ask you what your title, how you’d like to be introduced. So, since you’re taking the reigns here, I think you should introduce yourself. Well, my name is Jason Ari. I title. I don’t know. Like I’m just I’m surprised that Fern is still letting me work for best hours. I don’t know my title. Uh I think it’s owner. It’s definitely owner and then beyond that I don’t know. Whatever. Pinch hitter. I just do all things. Podcast guest. Very good. Pinch hitter, designated hitter, you know, pinch runner, all the stuff. All the stuff. Well, thank you for being here, Jason. We’re happy to have you. Oh, I’m glad to be here. Made a little midday espresso. Nice. I love it. Yeah. My favorite my favorite thing to do, no joke, well, when it comes to work is be on podcast, host a podcast with coffee in my hand. So, I’m happy right now. You’re in your zone, man. Well, thank you so much for being here, man. We have some uh we got a whole rundown here. But before we get to said rundown, I actually have to I have to thank you, Jason. And I have I’m interested. I have to thank you for my co-host. Oh. Uh cuz we’re going to take you back to the I believe it was the summer of 2022. Long time ago. Yes. A young Reagan with stars in her eyes, the world in her back. Anything was possible at this age. Almost anything. Almost. It was a rock to me. She applied for an internship, an internship with Best Hour. And unfortunately at that time she was told, “No, Reagan, be gone with you.” That’s what it was said actually. the exact verbiage that Marcus uses when denying an internship. So, full disclosure, I had no idea. I mean, I found out years later, but it was I think I might have even been at GAS recently. I think I met you a time or two before that. I was like, that was the girl that interned or tried to intern. And and I will say this to give uh Reagan a little bit of, you know, kudos. Marcus was like, “I really wanted to hire her.” I don’t remember in what who we wound up hiring or what role it was, but I remember him saying like it was so close. It was it was good. I was rejected by Best Hour and Wifi all in the same summer. Um I persevered. I said, “Wify, please have me. I will do good work.” And they, you know, let me work for them eventually. So, and how is your internship going? Are you still interning? you know, they actually wanted to pay me. So, when you guys pay anybody, so that’s good. That’s a good start. But you know what? You know, here’s I’ll give you a firm belief in my life. All right. You want to dive in? I think so. Both my wife and I have tattoos. I have more on my arm than her, but it says all for good. I learned this way, you know, 25 years ago. I was at a yoga training and the yoga teacher, you know, said, “Hey, it’s all for good.” Like anything that happens, good will come of it. So here you are. You’re thriving in this waterf. I mean, let truth be told, every time I see her, she says, “Hey, I’m out of here. You just tell me when.” But you know what? It’s all good. Very good. Well, she looked she I went I saw you at uh the games. What’s this? What’s the CEO’s name again? Brendan. Brendan. You were walking with Brendan and she gave me like a help me help me. Yeah. I was like, “No, it is funny though because I I I’ve talked about it with Marcus when I’ve seen him at events and I’m like, you know, it it all worked out the way it was supposed to be. I still I’m so grateful to get to see you guys at events and do things together and I am still a huge fan of you guys.” And I was telling Corey earlier, I started listening to uh you and Fern’s podcast when it was just you two arguing for an hour. Like there was still very much there’s a little more structure now, I think. But there were some episodes where I’m like, “Okay, I really feel like I know these people because I just listened to them.” That was that was like Katie, who you’ve met, too, when she we met her in person for the first time and she was like, “Oh, you’re the people. This is who you are.” I was like, “Hey, Katie, it’s hard to fake it for five years when you’re recording all the time.” So, yes, this is who we are. How’s Carol? She’s great. She’s thriving. She plays lots of pickle ball. She’s you guys really helped her, you know, get the gym to a place where she background for those who don’t know, my mom owns an affiliate just outside of Tampa, Florida, and she did mentorship with Best Hour of Their Day, their affiliate mentor program. So, she’s she’s thriving. Of course, I had uh she had Jason Arian and Jason Fernandez bobbleheads at her right next to her kitchen table for like two years until Where are they now? In the bedroom. They’ve moved to the bedroom. We’ve already we’ve already made this joke, but I think I think one of the Funny. Always funny that one of the heads may have uh malfunctioned and off. But but is is Carol old enough to play pickle ball? I thought you have to be a little older. You’re not into pickle ball yet. Every No, to be fair. Like it’s I’ve played quite a bit. It’s actually a lot of fun. It’s so much fun. You just have to be athletic enough. It’s the perfect sport for anybody. I do have a tennis background. Like I played pretty competitively and immediately I was like the best pickle ball player at the gym. Like forget it. Yeah. Yeah. No, it’s fun. Yeah, she’s doing great. Um, and I will say another thing just back to best hour that I really needed at the time of your like early episodes were that I was listening to all of the like gym business podcasts trying to figure out at 20 years old how to help these affiliate owners run a better business. But nobody was talking about the culture side and that was a huge piece that I feel like you guys really tapped into early on which was like problems with coaches that one member that’s a pain in the ass, you know, kind of draining you that hour in a class. You guys really did a good job of talking about the things that a lot of people feel isolated with. Um but yeah, that that was one of my favorite parts about listening to you guys. Well, no. And it’s interesting you say that because just yesterday I was having a conversation with a friend. She’s not a client, but uh she trains jiu-jitsu with me and she owns a gym in Boulder, Colorado. And she’s like, “Can I just sit down with you for a minute?” And you know, so we sit down. Her name is Mon’nique. She’s awesome. And she’s like essentially I wouldn’t say she’s like venting or like those aren’t the right words, but she was like she has no one to talk to about this. Yeah. And so she talks to me about it and I was like, “Hey, this is like so normal what you’re going through, right?” Every I had this conversation three times this morning, right? And she was just like, “Really?” And just for an affiliate owner to hear, “Oh, what I’m going through is normal kind of like reframes everything.” Like it’s like it it would be like doing a CrossFit workout for the first time and be like, “My heart rate’s up. I’m sweating. Like what’s going on? This isn’t right.” And then you’re like, everyone is experiencing this, right? You’re like, oh, once you look at it, like I’m supposed to be experiencing this, it completely, it’s like parenthood, right? Like we have two, we have a four-year-old and a 2-year-old. And for a long time, it’s like, you know, it’s just my wife and I and the kids. It was especially like in the beginning when it was like the pandemic. So, I go I I’m I’m I do a lot of the activities with my daughter. Like I really enjoy that time with her. So, we’re at gymnastics and I’ve been going for like a year. This dad, I see him all the time and that like you see a lot of the same people in the town. This dad rolls in, his only the mom has been taking his daughter for like the year I’ve been here. This dad rolls in within, no joke, three minutes, full sweat, dripping sweat, like he was doing CrossFit in a sauna, sweaty, like melting down. What’s going on? And I look at him, I’m like, “Bro, you’re fine.” Like none of these kids are paying attention. They’re all just they’re three. like they’re they’re they’re pooping on each other, like they’re doing the thing, like don’t worry about it. And he like just to see that like he didn’t stop sweating for the record, but he was like, “Oh, like it’s okay if they don’t they’re like three like they’re not going to be doing levers and muscleups.” Yeah. So anyway, yeah, I’m glad I’m glad to hear that help. And that’s that’s truly why we started the podcast, like bringing it back around like because no one was talking about that stuff. No, they weren’t. And you guys did a really good thing by keeping it so specific to affiliates. That’s another really unique thing about what you guys do is you only work with affiliates right now. And that is very specific. Although there’s a lot of commonalities between different businesses in the fitness industry, CrossFit is really a beast of its own. And it’s it’s good to have people who genuinely understand the dynamics of that business and the you know people who go to them. Well, yeah. And it’s for good reason. I mean, one, it’s all we know, right? Like if we try to I I will say there’s any small business, there’s a tremendous amount of overlap, right? From budgets to leadership, etc. But yeah, CrossFit is a unique business. It’s all we know and and to be quite honest, it’s all we care about, right? We’re like, “Hey, we’re going to coach gas stations. I’m not really passionate about, you know, gas. I know I need it, but you know, interesting story on that. I’m going to open my first CrossFit affiliate in 2007. My aunt is like super bougie, super wealthy, worked for like major corporations like American Express, Food and Wine, etc. And I’m like, reach out to her for advice. I’m like, “Hey, uh, I’m going to open this gym thing. It’s called CrossFit, etc.” I’m thinking about, at the time, I think I was charging like 80 bucks a month. And she was like, “Don’t do that. what you need to do is charge a low amount and get a lot of people to join and not come in. And I was like, “No, you’re explaining global gym model. I’m trying to be different.” And she’s like, “Not a good idea.” Blah, blah, blah. You know, and here she was far more business acumen than I had at the time. I was like, “No, I’m going to do it this way.” You know, and then here we are, you know, 20 years later. I I was right about that. it. That was one of the things that came up when I was when I was researching for an interview, Jason, just how long you’ve been in the CrossFit space. And I was actually talking to a colleague of ours, John, here at Wattify, who is actually employee number one at the company. So, he’s been with Wattify like 14 years now. What’s the founder’s name again? Remind me. Amit is our founder. Amit, that’s right. By the way, shout out to Amit. He let Fern Marcus crash at his awesome place in Denver when we were in town years ago. It’s cool. Smart dude. But that’s cool. They have John. I call him Johnny, but yeah, go on. But, uh, I was telling him that we were going to be talking and he’s like, “Ask him about the following.” So, here you go. Here we go. Johnny, let’s hear it. Uh, back in the day you hosted sectionals, which I was today years old when I heard that term applied to anything other than couches. But you hosted sectionals in your parking lot. Yes. Is then this predated regionals. Tell us about that. How the hell did that come about? So 2007 I opened Albany CrossFit and the games had just happened. The CrossFit games first one was in 2007 were OPT1. Uh there was three events. There was a CrossFit total, a 5K run and a hopper event which they redid. They called the 2007 years later was like row push jerk pull-up, right? So, I’m open the years going by and there there wasn’t competition anywhere. Like, I say this and I say like I know I humble brag a lot and and I’m also like hyperbolic, but I truly threw the first ever noncross food games competition in 2008 and I remember reaching out to Dave Castro who I had met at my level one. I was like, “Hey, I want to do this thing.” He kind of gave me his blessing. I think we called it like the East Coast CrossFit challenge or something. Um, but we essentially mimicked the first CrossFit games. It was a 5K run. Like I hired a crew to put it on. Uh, we did a CrossFit Total where I worked with a guy named Mark Ripto who was a big deal back in the day. Shout out Starting Strength. Yeah, Starting Strength. Hip. Hip. And um, we did like a hopper event. I didn’t have enough pull-up space, so we couldn’t do pull-ups. We did like thrusters, sumo del. It’s all on my the old my old YouTube channel Albony CrossFit. If you go on YouTube, there’s like old old videos there. And I don’t remember like even if we judged it. Like I couldn’t the 5K was chipped. The total there was obviously a judge. I don’t remember if we did judge the the hopper. It was rep counting at best. But anyway, I did that. Castro gets word of it. And then I want to say it was nine two 2009 or 10. The first year they were like, “Hey, you’re going to have to qualify to make the games. he reached out to me and obviously other people in the in the country because I wasn’t the only one, you know, there was like northeast, southeast, etc. and asked us to host it. So that’s how I I want to say this too. I want to say year one was like regional to the games. Then the second year was actually sectional to regional to the games. It was like multi-steps. I don’t remember the exact order of that but essentially the answer is because I had done a competition he then reached out to me to run it and I you know he teamed me up with like someone like David Asoro who by the way will be at affiliate con became a good friend of mine and there you know I don’t remember I know a guy named Andy Rehost I remember from California there was a couple Canadians like we we all had like our little section hence sectionals there you go it’s uh also fun fact uh Back in the day, I used to do a Mac uh excuse me, a Mark riptoe impression. I was called Mac crippletoe and instead of the low bar squat, I did the lower bar squat where I’d basically just put it on like my like my hips basically. I think we did the uh sumo trap bar deadlift. That was our variation. I like it. And then we did the the wide grip decline bench press. That was our big three. Are we Tory? Are we finally getting the truth behind your back pain? Uh, listen, if I had listened to Mark a little earlier in my life, perhaps it wouldn’t have said back pain. But, uh, yeah, I traveled with Rip for about a year. Um, he’s he’s a national treasure. Yeah, it was before Starting Strength. It was I mean, it wasn’t before the book, but it was before he had like now he’s got like a starting strength seminar, but it was essentially like we would just It was the most unhealthy year of my life. Um, and I partied quite a bit in college, but it was like, you know, basically whiskey and staying up all night. The rule was if you were on staff, you had to show up with a flask filled with alcohol. It was crazy. It was essentially It was nuts. I was like, I can’t keep doing this. Uh, I I I’ve got to take a break. I uh instead of starting strength, we called my program ending week. Ending. Yeah. But hey, to this day, I love me a good low bar back squat. Oh, yeah. Nothing beats it. So, jumping into actually before we do, I did have one last thing. You mentioned Albany CrossFit. Is this from Johnny as well? This This is but uh Reagan was also present for what I’m about to mention as well. You recently guest coached for us. So, thank you very much for doing that. Oh, and by the way, shout out. I gave my wife my Lululemon fanny pack. Excellent. I was like, she doesn’t know I got it for free. She doesn’t know you guys gave it to me. I was like, hey, I picked this up for you at the gates. You guys lifesavers and my daughter loves Every time I see you guys, I grab those kettle bell. Oh yeah, she’s got a collection of them, but she loves them. They’re crowd favorites. Thank you guys for letting me coach there. What was it like? I mean, how long had it been since Was that the question? Was that where we were going with this? I think so. You know, so you saw Albany CrossFit. You’re seeing what it became, but I mean, you you know the room I coached in, right? the big room, the big space with the rig and everything. It’s hard to imagine, but that was three separate spaces, right? That was three raet ball courts. Yeah, I saw those. I saw the ones that are still standing while we were there. They’re not big. No, they’re 800 square feet. They’re 20 by 40. I mean, now there was a garage door there as well, so it’s like bright. It was like a dungeon, right? So, it it I was there when that happened, but I would say like I got back there. I hadn’t been there in like 10 years. certainly hadn’t coached in a while and I was it was you know it was it was a little surreal. I’m like, I’m I don’t know what I’m supposed to be feeling in there, right? Um I’ve been gone so long. Um and it’s changed. Like the rig has moved. There’s garage doors. The paint’s a different color. But you know, once I got coaching, you know, I immediately lost my voice for the record. Oh no. I hadn’t coached in so long. Like I didn’t I like lost my coaching voice. I’m like giving a whiteboard brief and like there’s 30 people. It’s loud. I’m like immediately can’t talk. Interesting story. So, I’m coaching that class and I didn’t really know anyone there. You know, they’re all dropins. There’s like Virtuosity was there, I want to say, and then a couple other, you know, affiliates representing uh T1, Kevin and Jen. But these two girls come up to me class. And I was like, they look like sisters. Like, these two look like sisters. And they look at me, they go, do you know who we are? And like I’m like started racking my brain. Like they look at like young girls and like I was like oh my god Sarah and Nicole and they were like yeah I was how old are you? And they were like 28. I was like you were two when I met you. Their mom used to come to like my spin class in that building. Oh my god. And I was like oh my god you’re this is the moment in your life when you feel old. I was like this is it right here. But these two two-year-olds are twin girls. They were so much fun when they were through their toddlerhood and then adolescence and then I moved and I had seen them in like 10 years but I was like I was you guys are like married and have jobs now and I was like it’s crazy. Yeah, that’s a lot. That’s a big change to kind of like walk into and it’s a different dynamic because you’re not there for a regular class. Um Oh yeah, but we did Fran. It was fantastic. I had my buddy Max Isaac helping me out and Yeah, dude. That one guy, I think his name was Jason, I want to say, from Cross of Virtuosity. 235 Fran. Oh my gosh. Yeah. So, it was really cool. Like, as we were doing, I’m like, this is so cool. Like, I wanted to bring it old school. We did Fran, we did Roxan for the warm-up. And it was really cool like to see like, oh, in in 2025, like a 235 Fran happens in a class. It’s crazy. You know, like back in the day it was like five minutes and you’re elite, right? And this guy’s half that. And there were a couple people in the class who had never done it, right? So they they watching. Yeah. It was cool. It’s awesome. Giving them a taste of 2008. That’s it. That’s it. It’s like still to this day if someone says you’re doing Fran, I get nervous. Oh yeah. Always. Well, Jason, let’s uh let’s dive into Affiliate Con, man. Let’s get into the meat and potatoes here. So with the sort of the origin of the event and how it came together, you guys had been doing some meetups, right? Some affiliate summits. We Yeah, we did the summits for the last few years. CrossFit was putting them on and we would, you know, show up there. Firm would give some amazing uh lectures and presentations. I would as well as Marcus. And then this year we did a little world tour. It was a really, you know, nationwide tour, I would say. Uh where’ we go? We went to Atlanta, Portland. Uh we got a stop in DC coming and then Denver uh before it’s all all done. But you know we wanted to do something one place you know one time where it was you know for everyone and it’s like a a rally for the for the OGs for the for the true believers in CrossFit you know owners coaches athletes you know a place where we can all gather and really feel old school. So that’s where Affiliate Con came from. You know, there’s debate. There’s debate out there as to who originally came up with the idea of Affiliate Con. Some say Fern, I say me, but you know, it’s uh it’s happening nonetheless. H how long had this been in the plans? Is this something you guys had had as sort of an aspiration or a goal for the company for a while? I would say yes. It’s always been something we’ve talked about. We wanted to do this big event and it was just right timing, you know. no different than we would tell an affiliate focus on the main thing which for us was to Reagan’s point coaching affiliates and making them better. But as the team grew and Fern Marcus and I, my other two partners, Fern, Jason Fernandez, Marcus Gerie and I gained some bandwidth back and some time back in our lives, we were able to work on some other things, you know, and this being one and no different than the reason we started Best Hour. We have this passion and desire to help affiliates. How can we continue to further drive that? As you’ve seen in things like the games, it’s just being around other CrossFitters is is motivating in and of itself. Um, but getting around them in an environment designed to drive this whole thing forward is going to be, you know, crazy. And you guys have a stacked speaker lineup. You have some really cool people coming. I’m going to list off a few. You got Chris Henshaw, Kelly Starret, Nicole Christensen, EC Sankowski, Matt Torres, Brute Strength, Jason Kipa, Jason Talipa. Yep. Uh I mentioned who did you who’ you say? Christy Novak Mayhem. Yep. From Mayhem’s going to be there representing. I mean, yeah, the list goes on. Max Isaac, Joel Cochran, Jason Fernandez, all from the best hour team. But yeah, uh Nicole Coin from Healthy Steps and and then great partners like you, right? are going to be there. Wattify um is is going to be representing. So, yeah, it’s it’s just, you know, there there hasn’t been anything specifically designed for everyone in CrossFit. You go to the games and yes, there was the coaches conference this year, but it was ahead of the time, right? Meaning, you know, Wednesday, Thursday, and then there’s the games for athletes. There’s not something where it’s the people you mentioned, Reagan, whether you’re an owner, a coach, or a member, Hinchaw is going to teach you something. Yeah. Right. Whether you’re an owner, a coach, or a member, you’re going to learn from Kelly Stretet with mobility or EC Sowski. It was, you know, I was on with EC earlier, and she’s like, you know, why would uh an athlete go to this? I was like, well, correct me if I’m wrong, but they should eat right, too, right? If you’re a member, not just owners. And it’s like, oh yeah, this is for everyone selfishly. Like, I’m going to learn. I’m going to listen to the Kipa. I’m not going to listen to Fern for the record. Like I’m not going to listen to this, but everybody else I’m going to listen to and and learn. Fern will get dumber. You go listen to Fern Billy Madison style. We are all now dumber for having listened to you talk. I’m not getting in the middle of this, but good idea. Good idea. But yeah, it’s definitely definitely a really solid speaker lineup and some people that you don’t really get to see in person speaking, which I think is really really cool. Um, and so you guys are opening this up to athletes as well as like coaches and affiliates. Oh, anyone should be there. Awesome. Anyone if you, like I said, if you do CrossFit and you want to. So, one example would be Hingshaw Friday before registration is running a Hierrox style workout, right? So, if you’re interested in like the Hierrox thing that’s going on now, which by the way, spoiler alert, CrossFit gets you better for Hierrox. But if you feel like I need to do high rocks to get better at hierros, hing’s got you covered. And then he’s going to go through a whole, his presentation is going to be like how to be better at your, you know, splits and all this. Um, but yeah, if you’re, you know, Matt Torres, I mean, there’s no Matt’s a great friend. I used to go to his box in Florida in Naples. I joke because everyone sees Matt now where it’s like two years in a row, fittest um, fittest male. He had three of the top four men, right? It was uh Hopper, Ricky Gerrard came in second, but then um Sprag and Don came in third and fourth. So, no one is programming better than Matt. Like, that is just data, right? I mean, you’d argue like Shane’s clearly crushing it with Tia, but I mean, you want to learn about programming and I I I joke with Matt, everyone’s like, “Oh, how’d you come out of nowhere?” The dude used to be sat down at North Neighbors CrossFit for hours every day programming for people like me who had no business doing it to get better at programming. So getting to learn from him is is is super cool. That’s awesome. Yeah, we got Brute Strength launching on our workout marketplace on Monday. Oh, sweet. Well, like I said, you know, they CrossFit’s always said this that we wrap up the what is fitness lecture at every level one around the world with until you come up with something better, this is the best programming out there, right? They’re talking general fitness, which is CrossFit, right? Like if you want to go rollerblading down I90 or whatever is in Florida, I forget the highway. You know, 22 backwards against traffic and you show up at the games, pass the urine test and win. Well, I’ll be rollerblading right next to you, right? But until then, CrossFit’s working. And I’ll say the same thing for Matt Torres. Like, it’s undoubtedly it’s undeniable what he’s doing is working. So, come learn. And so I’m sure you guys have you guys always have I feel like very tactical things for affiliate owners at your events. Even when you guys were at the HSN summit earlier this year, you guys did the um affiliate hot seat. Um what kind of stuff like that do you guys have planned for this? Well, I mean just just showing up there’s going to be as we’ve talked about I mean every day like 10 opportunities to see different speakers. There’s going to be two keynotes per day. So, Khalipa, Fern, Henshaw, and Kelly Storetta are our keynotes, right? And they’re going to be given one hour. They’re the only ones presenting at the at that time, but then throughout the rest of the day, there’s four speakers in any given spot. Most are going each day, so you’ll get the opportunity to see them, you know. But if you want to learn from Nicole Christensen or David Assori about affiliate ownership, if that’s your jam is, you know, Corey, we were talking earlier about music and Warren Haynes. The way I’ve tried to organize this is like a music festival. Like pick your stage like who do you you want to go see jam bands with me? Cool. You want to go see EDM with Reagan because she’s a millennial, go over there, right? But you know, you get a tent. You don’t actually get a stage for the record. Like you get the rave tents. I was at Woodstock 999, right? Like you get the Teds. I’ll go to see the Chili Peppers over here on the main stage. Boy, we we do a whole podcast on Woodstock 999. I left before the for the record. Okay. Okay, fair enough. Dude, we You watch those documentaries about it? I think there’s one on Netflix. It’s exactly what There’s like no water. It was like we’re starving. We’re like dirty. I was with my girlfriend at the time, a bunch of college friends. We’re like, “Let’s just let’s get out of here.” And then we get back to Alb, New York. We drove from Rome to Albany. And uh you know, we didn’t know about the news. It wasn’t like there’s internet back then. It was like they’re fired. My parents are calling me like, “Are you had these fires?” We’re like, “No, we’re home. We’re good.” You know, but the most important question, did you see the Limb Biscuit set? Saw Limb Biscuit. I believe I s correct me if I’m wrong. I remember when like I want to say like Dave Limbiscuit Rage. Yeah, what a lineup, dude. That was my first ever Dave and I remember he’s playing like 4:45 in the afternoon. There’s a you could probably catch the set out there still was like twostep um you know great set list and that was like the catalyst for me falling in love with Dave and I see him close to a hundred times at this point. Well, another fun fact for you, Jason. I was once forcibly removed from a Dave Matthews concert for finding my way up to the stage and demanding that they play Call Me Maybe. Oh, that’s a uh that’s that’s not a Dave song for the record. I want to say who’s that? Who’s that? I don’t know. Some some very young YouTube sensation. Yeah. No, but I mean I’ve seen Warren Haynes and D I was at the Central Park concert. Oh, go watch Cortez the Killer into Jimmy thing all time. All time, man. I I heard an interview with Warren Haynes recent recently. I think it was on the U Bert Chryser podcast, a random pairing, but he was talking about that Cortez uh song and it’s I listen to that that and that Jimmy thing because they do a little um for what it’s worth Buffalo Springfield in there and uh nice. It’s one of my favorites. Yeah, I love that one. Sorry if we’re talking about good music and you’re used to, you know, Sorry, I’m like on the cusp of Gen Z and I’m just in this really weird music taste land. What What year were you in high school? Uh, I graduated in 2015. Oh, yeah. I don’t even know. Okay. I think Reagan just listens to computer noises. Yeah, you listen to like 8bit, whatever. Like Cody Cody’s probably like your age maybe. Uh, and he listen like weird nonsense. I I feel like I have a weird taste of like my parents which is most people my parents tasted music and then like all of the 90s 2000s rap hiphop. All right. So you might be a young soul. Yeah. I was telling somewhere this week and I was saying like we are further removed. So, think about this. 2025, my daughter is further removed from Guns and Roses, right, that I grew up with than I was from the Beatles when I was like, wow, that’s it’s like cuz cuz I was at like an appointment and there was like classic rock, but it was like Guns and Roses. I was like, this is classic rock. Like, this is crazy. It It’s uh It’s funny because you say that the the Cortez the Killer recording. I watch that all the time and I’m pretty sure the number one comment upvoted is I almost forgot to watch this today. Yeah, it’s such a so good. I was super close. It was general admission Central Park, you know, I was living in Albany. Uh went in for that. It was like a benefit. I forget for what. And uh yeah, my my good friends Howie and Jen, you know, now married like 20 years and I were there and we got super close to the stage and such a great such a great uh set list. And this is how everyone’s gonna be talking about affiliate con 20 years from now. You saw you saw Jason Fernandez’s keynote at Affiliate Con 2025. I was on so many drugs. It was so good. Like that’s Yes, that’s the goal. I mean, I’m I’m super proud that this is our first year in the lineup there. The partners like you guys, like again, um, you know, Fern and I, we joke around a lot that we are just complete opposites in all aspects of life. And we’ve really dug into our leadership styles and and and and geniuses. We do an assessment called the working genius. We do our values. We do our KBY. And um, my working genius is invention and galvanize, right? So it’s kind of like here’s an idea. I’ll get the troops rallied and then I don’t want to do any work and you know so Fern you know with Affiliate Con was like Acriman go get some people to talk. That was it. And that’s my type of instruction. He knows me. It’s like don’t give me a checklist. Don’t give me a spreadsheet. GTFP as Fern would say get to the effing point and let’s go. And you know it was really cool to see who we can get. And like I’ve had lots of lifts from Fern and Cody and other people on the team, but this is just the first year. So when this blows up, you know, the people that are going to want to come, we’re going to be like, “Hey, you weren’t with us in 2025 like Wattifi was. You know, Amit and Brendan and Johnny and Reagan and Corey, right? Like they’re they’re the original affiliate conads.” Yep. Breaking ground. Jason, is there a particular presentation that even if it’s just, you know, something you personally are interested in, is there one that you have circled, like I’m really looking forward to this one in particular? I can tell you this. I’m not looking forward to Ferns, but if I was going to give you one that I was looking forward I I actually just had Kipa on the podcast like right before this, you know, Kipa and I think we’re just at a very similar season in life where it’s like his daughter’s a lot older. she just went to high school. But we talk a lot about, you know, men and making sure we connect with each other. I think that’s a lost art uh in there, but also like the idea of like doing hard things and and affiliate ownership is hard like we um you know spoke about earlier. So, I’m really excited to to see Jason talk and on that podcast we he’s going to run a special event. So, within his company, uh, he’s got, you know, NorCal or he’s got, um, NC Fit, he’s got Train Hard, but he does this 45day challenge, and one of the tests he runs is this burpee emom. So, let me ask you guys this. I ask you guys a question. So, he does this burpee e-om. It’s 15 burpees on the minute for as long as you can. Okay. So, I’ve given you no other information. Corey, how many minutes can you sustain that? Man, I’m going to be conservative because it has been a minute. I haven’t done a proper burpee probably since updowns in football practice. All right. So, I’m going to say 15 minutes. Okay. So, you’re wrong. But Reagan, what do you got? Yeah. I was going to say like three to five. Reagan, you’re an actual doing CrossFit, right? I mean, and now now you’re breathing better, too, right Reagan? Yes. Yes. I got my deviated septum fixed working out again. I know when I saw you weren’t ready to work out yet. I have one more week before I can actually work out if that. So you’ll see this those that are listening to this, they can check out our podcast, but organically it came up. You know, I would like to say like Khalip is a friend. We’ve talked in the past. We do jiu-jitsu, but but he does this test and and and just so you understand, Corey, he said most people don’t make three minutes, right? Like five is the minimum threshold of you can move, right? 10 is like a good barrier and then like 15 and like Kip is like his long-term goal is 30. So, we’re talking about this. I asked Christian um our our marketing director, he also said 15 and it became a joke that he’s insane, but we’re we’re Christian and I are having a little friendly competition. You two are welcome to join. It’s going to be Reagan, you have a week, but it’s going to be first go, what score do you get? Okay, set the baseline, right? set your baseline. Who wins that? And then first one to actually achieve 15 minutes, but we’re also Khalifa said he’s going to run this for everyone. We’re going to have the largest group ever to do it in one place at Affiliate Con. And we’re going to give out some prizes, best score, whoever lasts the longest, but also some other prizes like simply show up and give it your best, right? Because we want to make sure, you know, it’s not just rewarding the fittest, it’s rewarding those that have left their comfort zone and, you know, are willing to give it a try. So, hey, maybe Wattify wants to get in on that. Oh, yeah. Maybe a little fanny pack action. Oh, yeah. Fanny pack to the winner. I think we can. By the way, that Lululemon hoodie is legit, too. Yeah. And Corey’s going. So, we can test Cory’s 15 live. Yeah. Cory, Mr. 15, put your put your grippies where your mouth is over there. Oh, man. All the low bar backspots in the world aren’t going to help you with uh without listen I’ve been running ending week for a long time. It’s uh you know endurance different uh different animal but uh I will do I will do my best. I will participate. Well yeah let’s get the how about this. Let’s get the um let’s put that as a I don’t know what your relationship is with Kipa so I don’t want to all good. He’s in there. Why don’t you put that test in there in Wattify so we can easily do it. Maybe we can label it 2025 affiliate comm burpee test. So like people we can all see each other’s a leaderboard if you will. Okay guys, you talk to who you gonna talk to about that? Brendan and me, Johnny. Who do you have to go to? Hey guys, company call. We have this new idea. Yeah, should be should be pretty simple to to make that happen. Clear your schedule. We know you’re busy, but you’re going to want to hear about this one. I I definitely think you’re going to have some people from the team jumping in on that. I will give them the forewarning, but I, you know, CrossFitters love to go to a summit and just sweaty up a conference room floor. Yeah. I mean, no better time to do it, right? Like, we’re going to be on the road. You could do burpees anywhere. Oh, and caveat, you don’t even have to jump. You just have to stand up. Okay. All right. Obviously, chest to the deck, stand up. So, and I I’ll give you guys if you’re listening to this, go listen to our podcast because Khalipa dropped a ton of knowledge, but the one big takeaway was you you want to keep your heart rate low. You’re not trying to do them in 30 seconds and rest. He said he actually said 47 seconds is the sweet spot. That 15 second, 13 second recovery. You know, I don’t know if Jordan’s going to this event, but he uh used to work for Fit Aid before he started working at Wattifi. And so, he traveled a ton. He had a hundred burpee rule when he got to his hotel. That’s cool. He would like walk in, do his 100 burpees, and he’s like, I’ve fitnessed for today. Yeah. You know, especially like we traveling that much time zones. I do the same thing like Cody, you you’ve met Cody a couple times, right, Reagan? Where he knows like Acriman’s going to go find a grocery store, he’s going to get food, he’s going to work out, and then I get him. But like I got to get into my routine. You got to take care of yourself. You do. All right. Well, I’m so excited. Um, I wish I could be there this year. You’re not coming. Fortunately, I double booked myself before. What do you have? What’s more important? I’m running my first marathon. So, the take care of yourself first. I had to give myself when there’s roads in Dallas, Texas. I’m doing the Marine Corps Marathon in DC that weekend. But I will have all the FOMO. Very cool. So, this is your first marathon? first marathon because why did you sign up for a marathon? Uh well, I was traveling a lot and for the same reason you just said I could walk out any door and run. So, it was just simple and I I like a I like a goal. So, I’ve done CrossFit now for 13 years and I wanted myself that like cried and laid on the floor the first time I ever ran three miles to uh be proven wrong. So, what’s your goal? Uh I was my goal is to run a sub4 so just like uh under a 10 minute average but I’ve now taken a month off to recover. So you’ll be fresh. I mean you got what three months you’re fit. You’re good. Yeah. That’s what’s what’s your training look like? Because you know in in my experience seriously people you know it’s like you don’t need to run a ton. You do your CrossFit, you get maybe one longest run in a week, six to 10 miles. you know, maybe you hit a 13 by the end and you’re good to go. What are you doing? Yeah, I’m doing interval work like sprint work on Mondays. I think Wednesdays or Thursdays are my slow uh zone 2, which I have no zone 2 capacity. I’ve crossfitter since, you know, I was 12, so my heart rate just immediately goes to 185 and can sit there for a while. And then my long runs are on on Saturdays. So yeah, running three times a week and then doing functional a lot of lifting and um mostly lifting on my off days. I love it. Hold on. Let me Fern’s calling. Hey, can we move affiliate con? Okay, sorry. I tried I tried to I was you know you hold on. It’s the intern. The girl that tried to intern. Yeah, right. Not it’s Reagan. It’s Reagan. All right. No, they said no. So you said no. But you know what? Next year, next year. Is Carol coming? She is. She’s going. Oh, sweet. Yeah. All right. Very cool. Plant City. Yeah. I mean, like we’ve said, whether you’re an owner, a coach, a member, I mean, hey, if you’re running a marathon, there’s no better person to learn from than Chris Henshaw by Yeah. My wife’s running a half midepptember, the Boulderthon it’s called. So, yeah. Okay. Totally familiar with women training for long runs right now. Yeah. I don’t know. But we’ll see. It’ll probably be a one and done. But yeah, I will I will miss being there. But I know it’s gonna be it’s gonna be an awesome event. I can’t wait to hear all about it. You’ll crush it. You’ll crush your marathon. I’m going to do my best. Jason, I’m going to share everything. But everyone, just so you know, Affiliate Con is happening October 26th. It’s the same Hey, it’s the same weekend as the DC Marathon, everybody. But but we tried to schedule around all the big events in the country, but we missed that one. Also, if you’re still listening, use the code wattify. Use the code wattify, all caps, to save $100 off affiliate con. I’m sure we’ll get you guys the link and uh everything else in there. Yep. 100%. Are you Are you going to bring that guitar and play? Maybe we get a little uh maybe we get a little drum circle. Fireside fireside. Before we wrap this up, Cy, can you take us out with a song? Uh you know, if I had the proper setup, I could. If you had an acoustic guitar. Oh, there happens to be one. Listen, that that that’s a whole new level of pressure, Jason. I’m not ready for that. Look, come on. Do a little a little solo. What’s your favorite Dave song, Corey? My favorite Dave Matthews song is Tripping Billies. Classic Under the Table and Dreaming, right? Yep. I like that one. I like uh one of the first songs I learned to play on the guitar was um was uh not Tripping Billies. That actually is uh is insanely hard. Um but uh is uh twostep playing twostep on his acoustic guitar like the the part that like Boyd plays like the intro like well not it’s not Boyd anymore but Yeah. And it’s just and also too just like the chords are super easy. It’s like a really good easy uh uh intro like beginner strum chord song. Yeah. I mean to give you an idea of my level of guitar playing like I can’t play any Dave. Like his his stuff is super challenging right? I’m all all chords. I I I played enough to trick females in college to think I know how to play guitar. I’m gonna give you a cheat code, Jason. I’m gonna give you a cheat code. Yeah, Blackbird. Learn how to play Blackbird. It sounds hard, but it’s actually pretty easy. If you get that, it’s the ultimate party song. You’re good to go. I love the Beatles. And a big win in my life recently was getting my four-year-old, my daughter, to think the Beatles was good music in the car. Cuz up until now, I mean, I’m gonna throw this out there. Moana is fantastic. If you are into like kids music, Moana is is actually like there are times you don’t have kids, right, Reagan? No, but I I know all the Disney stuff. But like, you know, you have your phone, which is super crazy because your my a four-year-old’s like, “It’s on your phone, Dad.” Like, this wasn’t real when we’re children, right? Or she’ll be like, “Go on YouTube.” I’m like, “You’re four. How do you know this?” But anyway, like sometimes like the most recent thing you were playing will automatically connect to your car. So, there are times like no kids in the car and I’m not even realizing it, but I’ve like 30 minutes listen to, you know, Moana or Frozen. But, um, I was like, man, she has a handful of real songs. I got her like hooked on a feeling. You guys know hooked on. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, for some reason she loves Can’t Stop by the Chili Peppers. But I was like, “Hey, do you want to hear a really cool band?” She was like, “Yeah.” I was like, “The Beatles.” Okay. So, let me ask you guys this. Are you guys Beatles fans? Um, huge fans. Okay. Okay. Pop quiz. Oh god, I’ll fail. There’s a right answer to this. It’s, you know, it’s it’s subjective, but there’s a right answer. You want to get a four-year-old girl into the Beatles. Okay. What song do you play? Fouryear-old. And how about this? Anybody listening in the comments, drop the song they’d play. I’m going to give the right answer, but I’m interested to hear. Man, I’m just thinking like whimsical. Like, I’m not thinking like Don’t go there. Like, you got to really think like what’s going to get a four-year-old into it’s, you know, it’s not going to be like uh the white album, right? It’s not going to be Helder Skelter. So, think about what what it might be. Are you googling Are you googling Beatles songs for kids? Yeah, I’m I’m I didn’t know if I had a different name, but I know my answer. Okay, I’m I’m anxious to hear because this is you you’ve thrown me off guard with that statement. Oblad. Oo. Hey, I’m going to give you this. That’s wrong. But I did try that. I did try that as well. Reagan, do you want I know you’re only like 20, so what’s your Have you heard of the Beatles? I’ I’ve heard I’m I’ve heard of them, but I was only thinking Yellow Submarine because it’s like a You got it. You got it. That’s crazy. That was it. That was the answer. Very like like a beat. Yeah, that was it. That’s so cool. You got it. Yeah. Yellow Submarine. The other song that she’s totally into is Twist and Shout. But no, I’ve listened to Yellow Submarine more in the last month than I’ve listened to, you know, the Beatles in my entire life. But uh she loves it. But that’s the song, Reagan. Nice job. Thank you. Thank you. Well, speaking of your children, we promised you get you out in 45 minutes. You could go pick them up. I forgot all about them. But thank you so much. This was a really good time and big full circle moment from having you you and Fern in my headphones to I’m gonna tell you and I want to throw this out there. Hey, whenever Wattifi is paying you, we will give you less and ask you to work more hours and with less benefits. But if you’re into that, there’s a job for you. Okay. All right. I’m going to table that. Thank you. Thank you for indirectly staffing our show, Jason. We very much appreciate it. You got it. Well, Corey, I’m excited to see you at Affiliate Con. For all the listeners, use that code. Reagan, you’re going to crush your marathon. Sub4 for sure. Um, we’ll all be thinking about you while we’re learning, while we’re doing burpees, you know, while we’re doing all the things, while we’re getting people to use Wattify, which we didn’t even speak about all the cool things you guys have, but there’s a Best Hour dashboard over at Wify.deed. And if you, you know, Best Hour and you want to uh, you know, see some of the metrics that we tell our clients to use and you want to improve your business, right? from total classes and average class attendance to people that haven’t been to your gym in the last seven days to upcoming birthdays and anniversaries, recent PRs, attendance milestones, new members from the month, average length of engagement, average revenue per member. It’s all on the Wifi dashboard. The Wii and we have best hour automations now. So, if uh you got too much on your plate, you’re trying to implement all the things Best Hour is trying to get you to do and you need to make a little bit few things a little easier, we’ve got new member nurture. Um I think we’ve got milestones. So, a lot of good stuff in there based off of y’all’s Anybody at Affiliate Con, come over to our desk. We can show you all this fun stuff. You can have those squishy kettle bells. Oh, yeah. So, get your squishy kettle bell for your kids winner or one we’ll give out a fanny pack. I think we could we can commit to a fanny pack. I think we can commit to a fanny pack. Hey, some good swag. Yeah. Cool. So, yeah, have some stuff there and and yeah, for the for the burpee, we’ll get some stuff going. But, uh, no, we appreciate all you guys do for for our clients. You know, uh, back in the day, like we talked about, I was using checks and PayPal, right? And, you know, I I was a big Wify user right before I sold my gyms. I was using Watify. So I I know the value there cuz I eventually I went from PayPal to MindBody which was just a mess, right? It was like a complete mess. Um but when Spotify came out, it was very cool because it was like, “Oh, this is for me, right?” Like my body was a lot about yoga and other things and there was no one doing it for the CrossFitters and I think you guys, you know, there might have been a couple others around the same time, but you know, no different than we were designed for CrossFit affiliates in our company. So were you. So it’s it’s really cool to be partnered. We, you know, Fern and I don’t we don’t look past the fact that like we did this thing and we get to partner with some of the people that we looked up to and admire. So you guys are one of them. So although we’re not hiring you guys, we do appreciate you guys. Well, thank you, Jason. I’ll leave you with one last thing. Uh you’re you’re still an affiliate owner, Best Hour CrossFit, I believe, on a different podcast. I heard you said you guys are at two members right now. two members. But like I said, my wife’s doing this running nonsense, so I’m probably going to kick her out. So, we’re down to just one. I’m going to give you some words of encouragement. I think if you try hard and apply yourself, I think you can boost membership by 50% this year. I think you can do it. You got to get those kids going Don’t let anybody in the house. But, uh, yes, it’s right it’s right next door. It’s my uh it’s my basement over there. And shout out to one of our other partners for Affiliate Con, Rep Fitness. They actually uh hooked me up with a sweet rig. My buddy John I don’t know if you guys met him at any of the tour stops or but he’s an awesome dude. He’ll be at Affiliate Con also. Awesome. Thank you so much, Jason. Really appreciate your time, man. Yellow submarine Reagan, that was impressive. Yellow submarine. That was so I never get stuff right. I’m so excited. I’m tell you what, you go sub four, you do all the things. Nothing will ever impress me more than the fact that you guessed yellow supper. Thank you. I’m pretty happy with that, too. All right, I got to go get these Rugrats. Thank you, guys. Thanks, Jason. Have a good one. Take care, Jason.
