 Ladies and gentlemen, so I'm back with another video. We're inside their street barbell, and I think it feels like a building. I think before it felt like a warehouse, and even when it was a gym or when we rented it, it felt like a warehouse, and it is. It's rafters, it's walls, it's a warehouse, but now I'm in my socks. Like it feels like a warehouse. Like I feel like I get, I don't want to, but I feel like I get laid down, and I'm not gonna die or get dirty or stain's done because again, we're just leasing this thing. We're trying to make it pretty. We're trying to make it ours. We're trying to add some style. We're trying to add a little oomph to it. We went with the stained concrete. A lot of people are still asking questions, like why didn't you just add more layers of concrete? Like that's thousands and thousands of dollars to a building that I do not own. So it just doesn't make sense. What I want to do is make it our vibe, but upgrading the building just doesn't make sense when you're leasing it, right? Like if you're leasing an apartment or a house, you'll add your pictures and maybe some desks, so maybe you'll paint, but you're not gonna put on a whole new bathroom or take out the shower and put in new tile. Like that's not your job. That's what you do when you own a place and you want to renovate and build it up. So although we are renovating this thing pretty deeply, we're doing it on a budget, one for our own budget, but two again, because layering this whole thing would probably cost 15 to 20 grand. And we just spent a couple grand in a lot of hours of work to get this dye in. So it's not gonna be perfect, but it's gonna be pretty. And it really matches the vibe. I think what we're going at, it brings out the rafters pretty good because there's some brown tones, some orange tones, some red tones. The gray is obviously very flat and neutral. The wood on the back, so we're going for that industrial vibe. And I think we hit it pretty good, but before we hop into the video today, we're gonna talk about what many. And I guess I say I call it my biggest failure because I don't talk about it a lot. And I used to be ashamed of it for multiple reasons, which we'll dig into. And this sounds like heebie-jeebie guru stuff. I don't believe in failures either necessarily. I do, I am so more scared of the future than I do look on my past. And I know that's different humans issues on what they do. I tend to be anxious and look at the future and worry rather than look at the past and be sad. And I don't regret, again, it sounds like guru stuff, but I don't really believe in it. I don't look back there as much. I have issues personally looking to the future, but we'll get into that another day with another therapist. So if you have blonde hair, if you have brunette hair, burgundy, amber hair, please give this video a thumbs up. If you have dark black hair, please give this video a thumbs up. And if you happen to be a strawberry blonde, one of my redheaded brothers and sisters, please give this video a thumbs up. If by any chance you live in a rural, metro, or county-like city, be sure to give this thing a thumbs up. If you have a mother, a father, maybe a grandmother, aunt, uncle, cousin in your life, please give the thing a thumbs up. If you have access to internet, give this thing a thumbs up. Let's dive into the video. So the history of Silent Mike, the history of Mike Farr, played basketball until I was 18, 19 years old, played in junior college a little bit. I was gonna look and walk on to D1. Meanwhile, I began coaching, assistant coaching at the varsity level where I had played. So I stopped playing on a junior college team and I was still getting in shape to go play, hopefully go walk on at a D2 or D1 school. And so I started going back to my high school to work out. And I went to every practice just because it was open, good gym. And there was a couple of good players, shout out to my boy, little Chris, who was a really good player at the time. I think he actually ended up leading the state in scoring, obviously he's younger than me. Three, three, four years younger, but he was like a sophomore or junior then, I guess I coached him his whole high school career. But point is I had some good people to work out with. And then my head coach was like, yeah man, why don't you just coach with us? And that was a huge commitment. The travel, the prep, every practice, all that stuff probably turned in about 40 hour work weeks for no money. But I love basketball and I was gonna be there anyways. And I didn't really have a job at the time. Again, I was just taking some classes. So I hopped into that. Coaching was something I kind of was already used to. I was the captain of my team for three years, varsity level. I worked out my first strength and conditioning coach. I worked out with him since I was in like eighth grade. So this one I started to be in high school. We would train in small groups, football players, basketball players, et cetera. And the older guys would start to lead the warmups or help out the younger guys. So I was kind of in like a leadership coaching rule position there also in the gym. And then in the basketball court, and then on the teams I was on being a point guard, it was just kind of a role I took. And it was kind of part of my personality in a way to kind of lead. So all that started to line up. So I started coaching that high school basketball team for probably three years or so. As I got more into strength and conditioning, I probably was now 21, 22 years old. And basically decided that college wasn't what I was going to do. And my parents kind of gave me an ultimatum and a chance like, all right, you got to go back to school full time. If you're not going to play basketball, you got to figure that out. Or we all pay for a personal training certificate. Did a bunch of research there on what path I might take or where I even start. For those that don't know, being like a collegiate or professional level, strength and conditioning. Well, something that sounds really cool, but you start to look at the salaries, the hustle and bustle and the headaches, let alone the fact that you need a CSCS at most organizations. And to get a CSCS certification of strength and conditioning, you need to have a degree. And I absolutely hated college. So that kind of ex-naid that out. So I went the Nazem route, not sponsored, not affiliated anymore, but that's a really good certificate to get a good base of knowledge. Meanwhile, I was already doing all my research and talking to people and emailing people and reading everything I could. Plus the experience of already coaching people underneath my strength and conditioning coach. But that's a good base to get your foot in the door to work at a gym. And the best way, in my opinion, to be the best at anything, combination of skill that you just kind of have, experience doing it over time, with a variety of obstacles. And in this case, a variety of clients. And then constantly refining your knowledge and learning, whether that be from mentors, books, certificates, teachers, whatever. I was still taking a couple of junior college courses and I started taking some personal training stuff. It wasn't necessarily strength and conditioning, it was more training on the side of rehab, prehab, sideline injury stuff. So, taping ankles, handling small injuries, getting people to the hospital, knowing different anatomy, stuff like that. And that's when we can dig into it another day, kind of my history of, I guess, starting businesses or trying to make money. And I never thought about it as a businessman or that I have an entrepreneurial spirit, but looking back at it now, I'm almost 32, I've started a lot of businesses and to me it's just kind of what makes sense. Like, all right, I do this, people pay this much for this. I think I can do it better at this price and I have this built-in audience or I have this built-in thing. So, with coaching, it's made the same thing. I was like, all right, I'm working with these guys basketball-wise, I have like, and I was helping the JV level. So, even helping the girls' varsity level. So I was like, all right, 60 athletes that I coach and that trust me and that I help weekly for four years now, I'm really into strength and conditioning. I have a really good base in basketball and now strength for about three or four years. I had been doing that kind of stuff. Maybe I just opened a gym. What if I rent a small space, get one squat rack, some dumbbells, and I started calculating numbers and I was like, all right, what if I charge each client whatever the number was? I don't remember, 100 bucks, et cetera, et cetera. This makes sense. So, my dad was really good at making connections and networking in a sense. And my dad, I think, was the first one to teach me that, and he didn't teach me it, I just observed it. Kind of the levels of friendship or networking and who you hold close to your heart and how you can be genuine, although things can be transactional. I think that's something really missing in today's world. So many people are so transactional and so selfish. Like, I'm only doing this video with Connor because I just need his footage. Like, well, if you guys know, Connor fucking lives with me. I guess it doesn't work that way in my world. And a lot of people do and it feels, that's not how I want to live life. That's not how I want to live life. I don't want Connor to show up with this little cute hat on his backpack, his camera, and then just leave. Like, that just feels weird. I don't want just some dude to show up and film me. So from an early age, I felt that. And so, long story short, my dad had a really good friend who's a family friend. Like, we would go on Christmas Day to his house and deliver him cookies just for 10 minutes, just say what's up and leave. And he owned basically a whole block of warehouses. And this is very relevant to these times. That exact street, it's less than a mile away from where Untamed Strength is. Alan Thrall, for those that don't know, grew up very close to me. We never met each other until, you know, 2015 or so. But we're the same age. He grew up in a very similar suburb to me. And where his gym is right now, I owned a gym over 10 years ago, right down the street. I called it Competitive Strength. I called it Competitive Edge Sports Academy. And my thought was strength and conditioning, even in basketball, even in 2009, 2010, when I started coming up with this idea, was still kind of new. Like Michael Jordan lifting weights in 1995, 1996, was like such, it was like a world-changing thing. You only lifted weights if you were a football player. That was it. So then baseball, obviously with the steroid era, basketball, things of that nature, started to become much more common, knowing that you'd be a better athlete if you were a little bit stronger. You'd be a little bit more durable. You'd be able to handle a little bit more work. Your work capacity would go up by lifting weights. And I knew that naturally. I was luckily, I'm kind of built kind of stocky, but even as a basketball player, I never got injured. I never had any issues. And that's because my dad got me a really good strength and conditioning coach in eighth grade. I was very, very lucky to have a good one that taught me a lot about my body, mechanics, and got me in shape because I'm only five-nine, you know? And I played at a very high level of basketball considering I'm only five-nine. I did put in a ton of work on the basketball court, but a lot I had to do with my durability, my toughness, and being prepared. I just had to prepare harder than the guy who was six-two with the same skills I had. The idea came up and I decided to make an announcement. I had started working at a commercial gym nearby and I was training kind of everyday clients. And that was cool, again, to get a variety of experience to become a better coach. My goal was just to be the best coach I could. So I started coaching, quote-unquote, soccer moms, the elderly, regular people that wanted to lose weight, some younger guys that wanted to gain muscle, some people that never played sports didn't really know where they fit. I taught them how to squat bench dead, how to get in shape, how to warm up, how to eat. And then I started working on this warehouse on the side. It was 800 square foot. I started searching Craigslist like an absolute maniac. And back in the day, I don't know if you guys know, but CrossFit and Rogue Fitness really evolutionized what home gyms were, having solid equipment. And in 2010, that just wasn't even a thing. I don't even know if Rogue was a company then. CrossFit was really just invented in 2006, 2007. It didn't really get popular until like 12, 13, 14. And I'm opening a gym in 2009, 2010. So it was very difficult to find equipment. A lot of it was either garbage like Walmart stuff or insanely expensive commercial stuff. And those may be passed down and used, but it's still so fricking expensive. So talking to my dad's friend, one of my best friends owns a warehouse, I just toured that, talked to him about kind of renting one. Went to my dad's best friend, checked it out. And he was obviously a friend, so he gave me a month-to-month lease. You know, me being, I don't even know. I don't even know if I was 21. I think I was 20. I didn't know what I was doing. And I said, yeah, dude, let's do it. So I invested, I did have a business partner. And one of the things in business you learn is it's more fun, it kind of obviously distributes responsibilities and efforts when you have a business partner. But something I've learned now, by starting, failing, succeeding, in multiple, multiple businesses over the last 12 years, who you surround yourself is everything. And that's obviously the slogan here at Third Street Barbell is good company. And that can go as deep or as shallow as you want. Very least good company is enjoying life and having fun with your friends and being around people you want. It can be scaled all the way down to the business level. Being with like-minded individuals that aren't selfish, that have the same goals, the same aspirations, the same work ethic and the same unselfish drive that you have. And that's something that it has taken me 32 years to learn. And it takes daily, weekly, monthly looks at yourself, I think, being introspective and also adjusting who's around you. It's okay to let go of relationships, but to analyze what, how, and who you're doing it with is very important. So I did grab a business partner at the time who seemed to have the same drive as me in the beginning. Again, hours upon hours of researching what an LLC was, what I had to do legally, how to file, how to book, keep, how to find the equipment I could afford because basically the only money I had was from previous jobs, which was, I was a musician for a while, got paid a little bit. I did some DJing and then me and my best friend Chris detailed cars. So we drive to my dad's work, pick up his co-workers' cars, drive them to my house while they are at work, detail them and then drive them back. We had a full service car detailing. And so I had some money, but I don't know if you guys have seen other videos here on YouTube or even our past videos talking about how much money we've already spent in this gym. I had a budget about eight grand to do everything. And that's a couple months rent and fill out 800 square foot of equipment. Long story short, I did it. I had no marketing. I had no idea how to market. The only audience I had was the group of athletes that I had already coached at the school. So I started inviting them in. I started coaching them for free. I started coaching my parents' friends and co-workers that I would obviously charge a little bit. And I would coach kids for free two, four weeks until they could convince or I could convince their parents that it was worth their while and to pay me. A lot of the kids couldn't get their parents to drive them to my place. And so I would go to class in the morning like nine to 12. I'd go to the gym. I'd clean it and work out myself. I'd grab lunch. I'd probably go home, do a little bit of homework. And then three o'clock ran around. And for probably two years, I would drive back to the school, pick up like four kids in my dad's car. Or it might've been my GTI at the time. I don't remember what car I had, but I don't think they fit. So I think I had to borrow my dad's car and pick up the four kids, drive them to my gym, train them for an hour, hour and a half. And then their parents would pick them up from there. I probably had maybe like two or three groups of three to four people and then one or two personal clients there. Meanwhile, I began working full-time at the commercial gym I was at. So I was selling gym memberships and cleaning the gym at the commercial gym and then training people as much as I could. Basically, the money that I was making at the commercial gym turned into the money that was paying rent at this personal training gym, a competitive edge sports academy that I was running. And obviously, if you wanna run a company and make a business, you need to make some money. At least be able to cover your overhead and then you need to make money to live. So I was coaching high school basketball, I was going to school part-time, I was trying to run a personal training facility. Meanwhile, working full-time, opening, running a gym, I wasn't a manager or anything, but I was selling gym memberships and personal training at the same gym, which was juggling a lot. And that's just kind of, I think, what's been inside of me. People always say work smarter, not harder. And I was trying to do both, but I just didn't know what to do. I was 20 years old and I felt like my business partner didn't show up in the ways I needed, in terms of marketing, in terms of even coaching people. I ended up being at the gym for about two or three years and training these athletes and he was nowhere to be found. And that goes back to maybe what the biggest failure was is me being vocal enough with my business partners, with my friends, with myself, and having confidence in myself that I could have just done it by myself. So basically, even though our names were attached to the thing, I ran the company for two or three years. Couple of the main group of kids I started coaching, I ended up going to college. I had another second group that was a little bit younger, sophomores and juniors come in, it was a lot of fun, but it just wasn't viable and I felt like I was spinning my wheels. Meanwhile, coaching high school basketball is about a 40 hour or more commitment a week if you take and travel time to games and you're making, I made, I don't know, $400 a month off of that, off of 100 and whatever, 20 hours of work. I was 21, 22 at the time and I'm like, man, I'm still broke. I'm working like three 30 hour jobs and trying to run my company and the company just wasn't growing. I just didn't have enough. That was the same year that I joined Super Training Gym. I walked through these gates back here and again I was like, all right, something's gotta change. I'm on this hamster wheel now, right? And that's what I'm trying to avoid my whole life. I don't wanna be normal. I wanna be different. I wanna be recognized for being different. I wanna put in the effort and have the skill and talent to be different so then the world recognizes it. I don't wanna be recognized just to be recognized. I want to earn this. So how do I earn this? And I've talked about a chip on my shoulder my whole life and multiple podcasts and things and that started really making me upset, anxiously, restlessly upset. So I was like, well, what do I do? Okay, I heard about this gym. I joined this gym thinking that, okay, all the very least, learn more around more lifters, more like-minded people that I can learn more about coaching and I'll translate that and figure out where to go from there. Fast forward 10 years later, I learned a lot. I learned a lot from both those situations and going back to why maybe I was like embarrassed of the gym is I just didn't think, I didn't wanna be like judged. I was like, all right, I'm new to coaching. And although you have to start somewhere. Everyone's new to coaching. I was like, I don't want the world to know I'm running my own facility and then these people think I'm weak or dumb. And that's my ego speaking at the age 21. Like if I'm the biggest squatter in the room, I can't be the best trainer in the room. And that's just what the fitness industry was at the time. And hopefully by now, either still some of that floating around, but a lot of people know that the most jacked guy isn't the best coach. The most jacked guy isn't the strongest guy. The most jacked guy isn't the smartest guy. The most jacked guy doesn't necessarily mean that they have the most to offer a team, an individual or a gym, but it just happens to be a little bit in the meathead world that that's still the norm. Long story short, I had to close the gym, put a bunch of equipment around parents backyard, sell someone Craig's list. I worked at the commercial gym part time for maybe three more years. I had a couple of clients. Meanwhile, I had a quick coaching high school basketball and I had been at this gym for about six months before I hit up Mark. And I just basically sent him a text when I said, hey, I know you have this company Slingshot. And because I had only really run one legitimate business, I had started a bunch of little projects when I was in high school, but they weren't like legitimate businesses. I didn't know level of business or what was going on. I just hit him up, said, hey, I know you have Slingshot. I'm quitting coaching high school basketball. I don't have a job. Do you need an employee? And I guess in some senses, the rest of my career is online. The podcast started maybe eight months after that. The power cast at the time with Jim McD. I was featured in YouTube around similar times that I started asking for a job at Slingshot. And that's when I started beginning to use the skills that I learned from my father inherently or observably to network. I saw Omar, Esau, I saw Bart Kwan. I saw these people online. I was like, man, these guys are very similar to me. They seem to be hungry. They seem to want to prove something, but not for their ego. They want to earn this respect. They want to do something they love and work really hard at it. How can I connect with them? So I started emailing, Instagramming. I started being more consistent in allowing my work ethic that I had in basketball and lifting to translate into my life, right? And it sounds dumb, but like, all right, I'm going to make an Instagram post a day for five years, and I did that. I'm going to make, you know, I'm going to read an article a day on Strength and Aditioning for five years, and I did that. I'm going to listen to a podcast a week on Strength and Conditioning and Nutrition for five years, and I did that. So you start to do these consistent things, right? As simple as you want to get better at squats, squat two to three times a week for five years, you're going to be a good squatter. Will you be a world record holder? That depends on a lot of factors. Luck, the other factors in your life, genetics, but will you be way better than you are right now? You will. And so I allowed those things to start to entrench themselves in my everyday life. And I got away from that a little bit in my mid-20s. Things come up, obviously life comes up. My father passed and I had a lot of issues to deal with everyday life, and I still have those issues, right? We have stress, we have bills, we got to paint the floor. How do I continue to build these habits? But that's why I'm excited to build this place, is that I'll allow myself and my team to build routines that allow us to be successful. So, ended up closing that gym, working a slingshot. The rest is history. And here we are. Again, respecting tradition, while trying to evolve the game, trying to evolve the culture with Third Street Barbells. So, someone had asked, tell about your gym, talk about your gym, I've never talked about it anywhere in full detail. So there's majority of the full story. Leave your comments below, questions, concerns. I'll try to answer them either there or in upcoming videos as we're vlogging along this thing. We got to seal this floor right now. I've already been hanging here too long. I appreciate you. New videos twice a week. Twitch.tv slash Salamac2Ks. 50% facts, brand new podcasts every Wednesday. And check out 3sb.co for updates on the gym. Follow us, Third Street Barbell, the number three RD Street Barbell on Instagram. Salamac2K.