 Next question is from Nicky the Vizsla. How did you guys get connected to Start Mind Pump? Do you remember what Sal used to say? We've not talked about the story a long time. Do you remember what Sal used to say all the time, every single time? Swipe right. Yeah, the tender. I missed that joke. I remember, I think Doug finally said something. I swiped left. I think you should tell that story different because you share that every time. That's not what happened. I'm gonna bring it back though because you hadn't said it in such a long time. We didn't see each other on Grindr or whatever. I picked this question because we haven't talked about it in a long time. We have a large new audience, especially on YouTube. They ask this question quite a bit in the comments. It kind of goes way back, but it really started because back in the day, I managed gyms, I worked for a very large fitness company, probably considered a high performer, and you would always hear about other high performers in the company. It was a large company. This was 24 Fitness, and in those days, I think the company had like 300 or 400 locations. And you knew about the other high performers by name, the people that would be mentioned. And I would occasionally hear Adam's name being brought up. He was a fitness manager and he was one of the top ones in the company. You were also in the same, not district, but the same region. And so I'd hear your name pop up here, but that was about it. Nothing else. But then as the years went on, it was very strange. I would have people come up to me who knew Adam, and I remember the first time this happened, it actually happened with a trainer that worked for me. His name was Amber. You know who she is. And she comes up to me and she goes, have you ever met Adam Schaefer? I'm like, no. I think I know who he is. I think I've heard of him. Oh, you guys need to work together. You guys should meet. Oh my God, you guys will work great together. It was a weird thing to say because I never knew him, but I said, okay, well anyway, this happened maybe five more times with five other people. It happened with Jason, it happened with Larry, and a couple other random people. So his name stuck in my head because of that. It's a very strange thing to hear from anybody. Oh, you got to meet this person. You guys should work together. Very strange, right? So anyway, fast forward years later, I had my private personal training, kind of health and wellness studio. And at the time I was really doing lots of research into the medicinal effects of marijuana. I had a family member that had cancer and I was trying to help them and help alleviate some of the issues with the chemotherapy and that kind of stuff. And on Facebook I saw that Adam was on there, and this is when Adam, you had the cannabis clubs. And so I've been like, oh, let me ask him some questions. I was doing lots of research. So I messaged him through Messenger on Facebook. I don't even know if it was Messenger back then, but I messaged him. And then him and I talked about marijuana, strains and cannabinoids and stuff like that. And I thought that was kind of cool. Like, oh, we have kind of similar background. That was rare back then too, by the way. I think that's a point. Nobody in fitness. Yeah. You were the first person that I met that I respected in the fitness space that I thought was very intelligent and then also was kind of pro-cannabis. It was kind of taboo in our space. Yeah. And that was it, right? That's kind of ended there. And then I met Doug. And Doug actually came into my gym and offered me as his trainer. And long story short, he had back problems, was referred to me by a chiropractor. And I trained him and I trained Doug. Doug was not inexperienced. Doug was actually very experienced, very knowledgeable, probably one of the most knowledgeable clients I'd ever worked with in fitness because it had been a passion since he was a kid. But I had flipped a lot of what he had known on its head and he came to me and I said, I'm only going to train you twice a week. That's all we're going to do. Let's start with that. And I remember your reaction was like, just twice a week, like, do I need to do more to build muscle? I said, no, no, let's start with that. We're going to do full body. We're going to focus on these basic exercises. We're not going to train to failure, all the stuff we talk about on the podcast. And as I was training Doug, his body was just, and Doug literally thought he was a hard gainer. He's like, I'm a hard gainer. I don't build muscle. Well, if you know Doug now, you know he's not a hard gainer. You know he's got, he's a really strong guy. And he responded very well. And he came to me probably six months or a year into this and he, he came to me once and he goes, you know what Sally goes, if you ever have something that you want to try to sell online, let me know, because I could put it together for you. I think it would work really well. I like the way you present things and you communicate fitness. And that stuck with me. And I thought, God, you know, I've always wanted to write a book. This is what I wanted to do. I wanted to write a book, but I went home and thought about it. And one day I was up late and I'm reading these studies. And I, this is when I created MAPS anabolic. And I bring it to Doug and I said, this is the program I think I want to sell. But I want to test it on people. I'm going to test some of these theories on you, on other clients. I'm going to send it to other trainers. Doug took it, took it and created this online platform. And he talked me into doing, you know, instructional videos, which I had no intention of ever doing. I never had been in front of a camera doing that stuff. So I did it. And we did this huge sales video and this, all the stuff. And we had all the stuff together. And I said, I want more opinions on what we're doing. And then I remembered Adam said, you know what? Adam, people have been telling me to work with him forever. He's obviously a high performer, smart guy. He's in fitness. And he definitely came across as very blunt and honest back then, which was a very accurate, you know, just assessment. That hasn't changed. Yeah. And so I figured if it sucked, he would tell me and I appreciate that. So I sent it to him and then Adam called me on the phone and then invited me to his house. And then we all sat down and met. And literally that's how my impulse started. We all sat down and met. And from the gates, literally as soon as we sat down, it was nonstop conversation about the fitness industry, the misdirection of it, all the crap that's in it, how we communicate fitness and health, you know, why we would want to do podcasting because there were low barriers to enter and nobody would tell us what to do. We didn't have to sell a product just to, you know, mention what we wanted to. We could say whatever we wanted. And so literally that's how we started. And then I remember telling him, you know, Doug, my partner, he's got recording equipment because this was a hobby of Doug's. I think we could do this. And we literally started it, I think, like the next week. I think it was the next weekend that Doug said, hey, I've got the stuff. We could just try it and see what happens. And we started it in your house, literally recorded it. And I think it was at the kitchen table or the counter. And Doug put up the camera and that was the first mind pump episode and that was it. One memory that comes to mind was when we launched the podcast, I think we dropped, how many episodes did we drop at first? Was it five or? At least three. Was it three? Yeah. We dropped the episodes. I'm training my clients. Remember, all of us had our day jobs or whatever. And I'll never forget, I had my phone in my pocket and it's just buzzing like crazy. And I look at my phone and it's Adam and I put him to voicemail, put it back in my pocket. Starts buzzing again. Pull it out. It's Adam again, voicemail. This happened like three or four times. I was with a client. I'm like, shit, man. So I tell my client, hold on one second, I got to get this call. It's obviously important. I go outside and Adam's like, bro, go to iTunes right now. I'm like, okay. And he goes, check new and notable. So I go to the section and we were right there and listed as a new and notable. And I was like, oh, shit. I think we have something. So it was really, really good time with that. One more cool thing to add, I think that it's unique to the four-way partnership is that Justin, I think God, I don't remember what year it was. Justin, maybe 06. Would you go out of your way from college? Yeah. Yeah, somewhere around there. Yeah. So Justin, I got him fresh out of college with his kines to come work for me as a trainer. And we just, we connected so well because we are actually really different. Like he had a lot of success as a trainer for the opposite reasons that I did. I would say that the areas that I was weaker in as a trainer, I found those were his strengths. And so we made just a really good team together and he quickly became my right-hand man, assistant at the clubs. I transferred to another club and took him with me. And we went on to do some really great things in those places. And then we went our separate ways. He left the company, went on to do his own thing privately. And I went on to Marijuana to do my own thing. But always remained in contact, just checking up on each other. And he was always like, wanting to do something with me. He's like, come on, we should do this. And I'm like, ah, I'm digging this male. I'll pull him back into fitness, dude. I knew I would at some point. Yeah. He was always coming down and pitching me on the new idea that he wanted to do. And I'd say, yeah, I like that. Just keep it closer. Yeah. He would always be showing up and telling me this stuff. Well, we used to crush. I mean, the environment was nothing like I'd ever been in in terms of like, you know, having a job. It was like just constant fun. But I mean, we put numbers out there that like the company hadn't seen. And it was just like the culture that was created and just working with Adam was always like, really super fun. And it was like, but we got after it, you know? And it was, it was, it was remnant of when I was on a really, you know, a championship team. It was very similar to that. I had that same dynamic. And so I guess that, I think I just always wanted to, you know, bring that back and figure out a way that we could like, you know, resurface that somehow. So I was just like, Adam, what are you doing? You know, we're going to get back to this or what, you know? And ironically, we eventually did, right? But what, you know, what ended up happening was about two and a half years or so, somewhere around their give or take, I got, I got tired of marijuana. And I've shared this story before where I had reached this, this financial goal that I always had. And I was actually really unhappy. I just had deep pockets, but I had relationships falling apart. The girl I was dating had just cheated on me, which had never happened to me before. My life with my, my relationship with my family was in disarray. I was in the worst shape of my life. So I was really like unhappy. I didn't like, I no longer liked what I was doing. And I missed fitness. And at that same time, Justin had this like fitness app idea. And I had been kind of toying around with something similar that I wanted to do. And so, you know, he would always be hitting with these ideas. I was like, you know what, let's go have coffee. I want to talk about some things. And so when we first met up, I was like, I was in a position at that time to be able to kind of financially support our idea. And I was like, all right, you kind of run this. I'll be the finance, the finances behind this. And let's see what we could do. So we started with the intention of building an app. And then my goal was, Justin was going to build all the technical stuff. And then I was to go get the audience. And so I instantly turned on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, like the next day up into that point, I didn't have any of those. And the sole intention of starting all those platforms up were to gain an audience, to build an audience of people. So we had people to potentially sell this app to. And that was real. And we were in the thick of that when you guys had already built maps and when we all got together. So it just seemed like great synergy. And the crazy part about this, we all went into business without even laying out like who was going to get what money, like if Sal and Doug sold this program through maps, would it be our money too? Or your money? Or if we sold this app, would it be our money? There was a lot of respect. Yeah. The irony is like what we were actually doing back then, we still do on a lot of levels too. So there's a whole page devoted to exercises and descriptions. And we were creating all that kind of stuff that you see in our maps programs. Now, Sal had come up with the concepts that were very unique. That people haven't focused on the real main things that get you success. And so it was like, oh yeah, you figured that part out. And it just became this total synergistic contribution. I liked Justin obviously right away. He's very likable. But I know I had to win him over, I think. Early on. Early on. He's like, who's this flashy fast talker? I'm a tough one, dude. Especially if you got verbal skills like you do. I actually liked you more for that. Because I know that's who you are. You're going to be who you are. And if somebody has to win you over, which was... Yeah, it was a really interesting dynamic to see four serial entrepreneurs, all leaders in their own right come together. And with no real organization or business plan be able to come together on something. And then it just... I mean, that's why I'm the one who... Or we all do believe this way, right? I just believe some things were meant to be. And I think we broke all the rules as far as how you start a business. I don't think we did anything the way you were supposed to. It was one moment, at least for me specifically. I've said this before. I haven't said in a while, but for me that was really pivotal. And it was one... We had another partner when we first started Mind Pump that we were going to do this with. And we recorded, I don't know, 12 episodes, filmed them, edited them. Remember, we were new with this. So this was like a big deal. It was hard work. We had this nice backlog or bank, I should say, of episodes ready to launch. And this partner of ours who had the largest social media following, by the way, Adam had a small following at the time. I think he had like 20,000 followers. Not even. It was only like 10 back then. Yeah, and this other person had something like... I don't remember what, it was 100 or 70 or something like that. So we were relying on this person's social media following. And he comes out and he was sponsored by a supplement company. And I think he sent some of the episodes to the supplement company. And because we were so honest and raw and whatever, they said, I don't think it's a good idea. Super raw. That you work with these guys. And so he dropped out. He dropped out through text. Hey, guys, can't do this. We had to scrap 12 episodes. And I remember, I literally remember the day I had my phone in my hand fully prepared to get on the phone and motivate Adam, Justin, and Doug to continue with Mind Pump. Because I thought for sure they'd want to stop. And I'm like, no, I got to get them motivated. And I'd get on the phone and before I could say anything, it was either Adam or Justin that was like, fuck it, we're going to make new episodes and do it ourselves. And I remember hearing, before I could even get a word out, and it gives me the chills because I was like, oh, shit, this is going to be good. These guys are the guys that I think I want to work with. And this is going to be pretty awesome. And there's been more stuff that's happened since then. Yeah, but to that point, that is probably... That's the root of it all, though. Yeah, because when you think of, when I explained this to people, there was no doubt that none of us, none of us thought we were good at this. Like, nobody was like, nobody was like, oh, I'm so good. Like, we're going to be great. And it was like, the thing that we all had in common and that we had built in all of our previous years of experience in building other businesses was that we're probably going to suck. We're probably going to fail a lot. And you know what? Like, let's just outwork everybody. Let's do it a lot. Let's do it a lot. And let's get back up and just... And so when back then, it was advised you do like one episode a week and start slow, and we came out the gauge just, let's see how much we can put out there because we knew that the reps were... This is where we were going to get better. Like, we knew we were terrible, but we could get better if we just poured everything into this and just kept going and kept going. And really that's a testament to how this thing was built was, by no means do I think that any of us were talented in this arena at all, but we knew that. We were very well aware of that going into it. We were all willing to just be sucky for a while. That's the key right there. And we less suck now.