Two-Brain Radio: Adrian Bozman

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Sean: 00:00 – Hi everybody and welcome to another edition of Two-Brain Radio with Sean Woodland. Today I talk with one of the OGs of CrossFit, Adrian Bozman. First, as an entrepreneur, it can be hard to know where to start. That’s where “Founder, Farmer, Tinker, Thief” by Chris Cooper comes in. As reader and gym owner Shawn Rider says, quote, “If you are thinking about starting a business, just started a business or have had a business open for a while, this book is a must-read to show you the path to the successful life.” End quote. “Founder, Farmer, Tinker Thief” is on Amazon now. Adrian Bozman is one of the few people in the world of CrossFit who is best known by his nickname, Boz. He has been around the sport and the training methodology for nearly 15 years. Boz has been a member of the L1 seminar staff and currently serves as one of the head judges at the CrossFit Games. We talk about how he initially got involved with CrossFit, what it’s like dealing with some of the more interesting questions he fields from athletes during competition and some of his memorable moments from his time on the L1 staff. Thanks for listening everyone. Boz, thanks for doing this man. How you been?

Boz: 01:18 – I’ve been pretty OK, Sean. Thank you for having me. I’m really touched that you would think of me.

Sean: 01:22 – Well, it’s my pleasure. I know you got some great stories to tell and you’re one of these guys that I think people who regardless of when they got involved in CrossFit, you’ve always been there. How did you find CrossFit?

Boz: 01:34 – Well I was lucky enough to be living in the Bay Area in the early 2000s. And I was working as a personal trainer at the time and this is like 2004 probably. And my wife had gone out of town. And I just stumbled across the website when I was at home on the computer and started dabbling with some of the workouts. And, you know, in San Francisco at the time where I lived, it was about an hour to get down to the original Santa Cruz gym. And so I did that a couple of times. I just went there and I remember doing a workout with Nicole. It was dumbbell thrusters and 400-meter runs or something like that. And it was just terrible. And yeah, I mean it was just one of those things where it literally came across my plate, just cyber surfing as they used to call it. And I didn’t look back, you know, that was it really.

Sean: 02:33 – What was it about it that hooked you?

Boz: 02:36 – You know, I think that for me the appeal has always been—fitness as a landscape, I think is just littered with all sorts of trash. Oh man. I’m sorry. There’s a truck coming. Is that too noisy?

Sean: 02:51 – It’s not a problem.

Boz: 02:52 – OK, perfect. Fitness as a landscape I think has always been just like wasteland. Just snake oil and waste-of-time programs and everybody trying to be a derivative of something that actually worked at some point generations ago. And CrossFit to me really at its essence was a stripping away of just the useless bloat that fitness had become. And I thought that was really cool. It was like, oh, well who are the fastest athletes? Well, track and field people, let’s do some of that. OK, well who are the strongest athletes? Powerlifters; let’s do some of that. Who’s got the best body control? Gymnastics, let’s do some of that. And I thought the utility of that was great and I still do. And I guess philosophically that is still what resonates to me the most, is cutting away the stuff that really doesn’t need to be there.

Sean: 03:50 – You mentioned that you were working as a physical trainer—or personal trainer, but what was your athletic background prior to getting involved in CrossFit?

Boz: 03:59 – You know, honestly I wasn’t that much of an athlete. I was active growing up, but I didn’t play a lot of sports in a, like a real, I dunno, what’s the word? Like I wasn’t an athlete on teams or anything like that. Like when I was much younger, my parents—I did soccer and like T-ball and stuff like that, but certainly nothing in middle school and high school. But I was really active, you know, where I grew up we were 10 minutes from the beach and 30 minutes from a ski hill. So my brother and I were always hiking and skiing and mountain biking and kayaking and rock climbing and stuff like that. So a lot of individual pursuits, but nothing really serious. I did a lot of gymnastics as a kid. But again, that didn’t last. I did that for like five or six years through my preteens and like middle teens I guess. And then not much. I mean, I was a band kid. That was my real deal. For real. I went to university to study music. That was my path in life at that time.

Sean: 05:14 – Interesting. So you mentioned that you got to go to that original CrossFit Santa Cruz and you mentioned Nicole Carroll and some of the OGs of CrossFit. What was it like throwing down with them at the beginning of this whole thing?

Boz: 05:29 – You know, at the time I wasn’t really throwing down with them. It was show up and Nicole was coaching a class, so you just took the class that she was coaching, or Annie, or you know, whoever. So throwing down with them, that didn’t happen till much later and man, I tell you, it was like everybody else at that point, they were and still are, I mean, they’re such specimens and just a testament to what I think the high end of the program can deliver. That it was almost unthinkable that you’d like work out with them. You know, that’s obviously my own mental buildup or whatever. But yeah, there wasn’t much working out with them at that point that, that came later.

Sean: 06:15 – How did you come to get involved with the L1 staff?

Boz: 06:19 – So I ended up working at San Francisco CrossFit. I started there in 2006 shortly after I did my Level 1. I did my Level 1 in February, 2006. And Kelly at the time was part of the seminar staff, Kelly Starrett, and they were looking for more people to start helping out with that and they were growing the team. And, honestly I think it was through him that he recommended that I give it a shot and then also recommended to the CrossFit team at that point that I’d be a good fit. So they brought me out and, you know, I guess I didn’t screw it up too badly. They kept asking me back and eventually they said, hey, we’re gonna pay you to show up. And I was like, OK, great.

Sean: 07:06 – Those seminars were like, I mean, that’s like 12 years ago. I mean, that’s at the very beginning, what were those seminars like at that point?

Boz: 07:16 – You know, at that point they were different. There was a lot of people, I mean we would have a hundred people at a seminar at some of them. And there was a lot of staff too because we were trying to build the team, you know, so there was a lot of people that would come back through and help out. So it was different and the material was there as far as like the same movements and the same basic ideas, but it just wasn’t polished yet, you know, like it hadn’t been refined to what it is now, so it was just a little bit more raw. I guess if you had to describe it.

Sean: 07:53 – Part of that life is you’re on the road basically every weekend, you go into a different city, sometimes different countries. What was it like kind of living out of a suitcase for that long?

Boz: 08:02 – Oh man. I mean it was great. I spent a decade and I was on the road three to four days a week for most of that 10 years. And I loved it. I think as far as an opportunity, it’s like, man, I went to so many places and met so many people that I’d never get the chance to do otherwise. That was awesome. You know, there’s the—Houston looks the same as a hotel in Switzerland and being bounced around time zones like that can be tough, but man, I wouldn’t have traded that experience. You know, if I had to go back and do it all again, the one thing that I’m realizing that I didn’t do very well was balance my own hobbies and pursuits. When I really started traveling hardcore, I didn’t do a lot other than that, which is OK, but if I had to do it all over again, that’s what I would wan
t myself to do. You know, I had a couple of hobbies that I kind of stopped pursuing just because I wasn’t around and I didn’t have the discipline to keep it up when I was around. So if I had to change one thing, that’s what I would do. But overall, man, that was, I mean, that was an awesome experience.

Sean: 09:16 – What makes those seminars so special?

Boz: 09:21 – I think it’s a combination of things. I think the instructors are awesome. I mean to a T every single one of those people is just phenomenal and positive and has a ton of experience. And I think what really separates it is that they genuinely want everybody in that group to get the information that they have and to do well with it. And I think that that translates really well. You know, as a culture, I think the Level 1 staff does an awesome job of prioritizing that. It’s like, well, you can teach the technical aspects of how to coach somebody to nearly anyone you want, but the intangibles of actually caring that somebody succeeds, actually putting other people in front of yourself, you know, those kind of character traits I think are harder to develop in some people. And so prioritizing that I think is what really makes a difference. And then, you know, on top of that, the participants—at least, you know, the seminars that I did, which was a lot, sometimes they’d be a little nervous or they’d have some trepidation coming in, but once you broke the ice, the willingness that people had in that environment to put themselves out there and to do something that maybe wasn’t comfortable or they weren’t very good at, kind of knowing that they would be guided along the way, like it would always impress me how willing people were to do that, you know. Cause it’s not easy. It’s not easy to step into an environment where you know it’s going to be difficult and you know that you probably aren’t at the top of the game and yet still do it. You know? That’s just not easy.

Sean: 11:03 – Every, L1 staff member that I’ve ever talked to has some sort of crazy story about something that happened during a seminar. Zach Forrest told me about a time where he lost his pants. What’s the weirdest thing that ever happened to you while working one of those seminars?

Boz: 11:16 – Oh my God. One of the weirdest things that ever happened to me. Oh, God. I remember once, early on when we didn’t have a lot of international staff, I had just gotten back from Australia, so I spent a weekend in Sydney, Australia. And that trip is always rough cause from the West Coast where I live in California, you leave on Wednesday, you get there Friday morning, you miss a day overnight on the flight. And then we would leave Monday morning and get back at the same time of day that you departed. So it was like this weird time travel. And so I just got back to San Francisco, we didn’t have a lot of international staff and somebody had dropped out of a gig in Copenhagen and I get a call from Dave Castro on Tuesday morning saying, “Hey, can you hop on a flight tomorrow morning and go to Copenhagen?” And I was like, ah, yeah, sure. Whatever the team needs. So I remember just, you know, I at the time didn’t believe that jet lag had that much of an effect on me, I was like I’ve beat this, I’ve traveled enough that it doesn’t affect me, but man, I was so loopy. I barely remember that trip. It was, I think it took me a week when I got home to figure out what time frame I was on. So that was weird. It’s not that much of like a—certainly not losing my pants. Oh, I got another good one. Austin Malleolo and I, the first time that we ever did a seminar in Moscow, Russia, he and I went to a Russian bathhouse and our translator left us there because he had to go catch his flight home. So it was just me and Austin naked in a Russian sauna with a bunch of battled Russian guys.

Sean: 13:00 – What can go wrong?

Boz: 13:00 – Yeah, exactly.

Sean: 13:04 – We’ll be back with more from Adrian Bozman after this.

Chris: 13:07 – Hello my friends. It is Chris Cooper here. Since 2009 I have been writing daily blog posts, producing podcasts, videos, all kinds of stuff on social media with one mission in mind: to make gyms profitable. I came to that mission because I was an unprofitable gym owner. It almost ruined my finances and almost ruined my career, my marriage, everything. And since that day, since I made my recovery, I have wanted to help other gym owners become profitable, too. It’s part of my mission to the world because if you’re profitable, you’ll be here changing lives of thousands of your clients for the next 30 years. I think together we can have a tremendous impact. When we started mentorship, I did every single call myself. I was doing up to a thousand free calls a year and I was doing 10 calls with people who signed up for our early mentorship program, but the Incubator has been updated and improved a dozen times since then. Now the Incubator is really the sum of all of our experiences with over 800 gyms worldwide. In the Two-Brain mentorship program, we can now learn from everybody. We can collate data, we can see what’s working where and when and what the new gold standards are as they emerge. When somebody has a great idea, we can test it objectively and say, “Will this work for everyone or will it work for people on the West Coast or on the East Coast?” We can do that with little things like Facebook ads. We can also do that with operations and opening times and playbooks. All the questions that you have about the gym, we can answer them with data and with proof now. That’s the Incubator. It’s more than what I wrote about. It’s more than my experience. It is the best standard in the fitness industry, period. And I hope to see you in there.

Sean: 14:49 – Well, most people know you from the judging side of CrossFit and the CrossFit Games. How did you get involved in that?

Boz: 14:55 – That was really just an extension of what I was doing on the seminar team. So I started working seminars in 2007, the Games in 2007 were just kind of, you know, a small gathering as most people know. And I remember when Dave was talking about it and my wife and I had something else going on at the time and we’re like, yeah, we’re not going to go. And it was just like an inconsequential, “maybe if they do it again.” So fast forward a year and you know, it’s got a little bit more traction and Dave’s like, hey, we’re doing the Games again. Can you come help out? And it was like, yeah, sure. So I showed up in 2008 and he had me run the deadlift-burpee workout because at that Games there were three events on the first day and you as an athlete, it was just on you to do those three workouts at some point during the day. They had heat start times and you just showed up and if there was room in the heat, you could just walk on and do it. Anyway, so I ran that deadlift workout all day and by the end of the weekend, Dave was calling me his head judge and then we ran with it. So it really was just a kind of a natural extension of being part of the seminar team and being willing to take the responsibility when it was given. Nothing more than that.

Sean: 16:12 – So obviously that role has evolved over the past 11, 12 years. What are your responsibilities now when you show up in Madison as a head judge?

Boz: 16:22 – So now, you know, the Games are big enough that we have to divide the judging into teams. It’s just impossible with scheduling for one group of judges and one series of head judges to run the individual, team and age group divisions. There’s just no way that we could do that. So I think it was around 2012 or 13 we started delegating that out. So we have myself as the head judge of the individuals and then Chuck Carswell and Todd Widman for the teams. And then Eric O’Connor for the last few years has been a heading up the age groupers. So my responsibilities are to organize the judging on site and you know, obviously make sure the events are running on time and efficiently, handle any appeals on site, things like that. And in the lead up to that, you know, I helped to revise some of
the events with Dave. I write up all the standards and the briefings and that’s the bulk of it.

Sean: 17:26 – You mentioned briefings and one of my favorite things to do is when I was ever in an event that you were the head judge, as media, we got to go to the judges’ briefings. We were encouraged to do it so we knew what the standards were. And you get some very interesting questions sometimes and I love the way you handle them. What are some of the more bizarre questions that you’ve gotten from athletes over the years?

Boz: 17:49 – Oh, man. And I’ll tell you, man, handling those questions has been an evolution. I feel like I’ve mellowed out a little bit over the years. I used to be a little more hardline, but I realized that maybe that’s not the best way to approach that. I’d like to think that I’m more approachable these days. But anyway, yeah, we’ve had some real good ones. I remember your favorite I think is a great one, with the sandbag. The second time we did the sandbag moving event in the Colosseum at Carson.

Sean: 18:19 – This is 2015.

Boz: 18:19 – Yes. And there was a final bag that had to—there was no rules, effectively, it was like you just have to get the bags to the other side of the stadium. It’s up to you how you want to do it, with the exception that the red bag, it’s the only one red bag, has to be the last one on the pile at the end of the workout. And oh man, there were so—I won’t name the guilty, but there were so many questions about, “Well how are we going to know the red bag from the other bags? And will the red bag be marked?” And oh man, I was losing my mind.

Sean: 18:47 – It’s red.

Boz: 18:56-  I don’t know how much more clear we can make this one.

Sean: 19:00 – I think one of my favorites was it was at the Meridian Regional, it was a team event, and they were asking you something about how you would move the Worm and you finally just said, “I would suggest teamwork.”

Boz: 19:09 – Oh man. Yeah. Yeah. It’s funny because people would tell me like hey, that was really, you know, funny or good answer, whatever. And half the time I wouldn’t even remember what I said, it was just off the cuff, you know. So anyway. And I remember one time we did, what was the year that Chan took second?

Sean: 19:31 – It was 2012.

Boz: 19:31 – 2012. OK. I remember that, we did an event on the old track at Carson and it was a rope climb.

Sean: 19:42 – The rope sled.

Boz: 19:42 – Yeah. Sled push. That was one of my all-time favorite events, I love that event. And some competitors did not love that event.

Sean: 19:48 – Some competitors did not understand the standard on the rope climb either.

Boz: 19:54 – Yes, exactly. All you fans at home, you can go back and watch that on YouTube and figure it out. But Matt dominated that workout, which was fun to see. And I remember in the briefing, there was an athlete that was like, we’d finished everything, no questions. We’re about to leave. And we get this creeper hand that goes up in the back like, OK, final question. What is it? And it was, I can’t remember exactly, but I’ll paraphrase. It was basically “How will we know when to stop pushing the sled?” My initial reaction in my head was like, man, I should have just said, “Oh crap, I can’t believe we forgot to mark the field.” You know, pretend to panic and tell somebody to go like draw some lines on the field. Of course the field will be marked, you know. Just keep going until you get tired, I don’t know.

Sean: 20:48 – I don’t know how you have the patience to deal with some of that, but you do a great job. How does somebody become a good judge?

Boz: 20:56 – I think it’s a real balance between being able to take direction and uptake new direction quickly, because things change, especially at the Games, it’s a very dynamic environment. And you know, things change, plans change. And so being willing to rehearse something, have that ready to go and then modify it at the last second, no questions asked, I think is important. So that kind of flexibility. And then at the same time knowing what things are non-negotiable. So you know, for example, the standard of a squat is always going to be a squat. It’s always going to be hips below parallel and stand all the way up. And so, you know, there’s those certain hard-line things that you have to just be unyielding about, so that kind of combination of flexibility but being rigid when it counts. And to take an even bigger step back, I really think that, you know, sometimes athletes and spectators—and it’s fun to kind of play into this persona, but they get the idea that we’re there to like, no-rep people or, you know, play the bad guy, and that’s not it at all, you know. I really try to stress to my team that what we’re there to do is create an even playing field so that these guys can display the incredible abilities that they have. You know, that’s all it is. I want as good a show as it can be and I want the athletes to come out and be able to like, wow everybody with what they can do. And the only way that that’s going to happen is if there’s an even playing field. And so that’s really it, is understanding why we’re there I think is huge. So that’s kind of a philosophy I guess. The nuts and bolts is that I think you have to be very familiar with the standard cadre of CrossFit movements. You know, you have to understand what a squat looks like. You have to understand what an overhead position looks like. You have to understand the basic gymnastics movements that are going to show up again and again and again. You know, if you’re still uncertain of those things, well that’s the—

Sean: 23:00 – You mentioned this a little bit, but how do you deal with the fact that judging is a pretty thankless job and people only notice you guys when they perceive that you have made a mistake?

Boz: 23:12 – Yeah, it can be. But you know, I will say on the other end of that, that we are really lucky, in my opinion. The athletes that we have at the Regionals, the Games, the Open, I dunno, I think it goes back to that whole CrossFit being a weeder. It’s so hard that if your integrity is not great, like you’re just not gonna pursue it long term for the most part. And as an extension of that, the athletes that we get, I can think almost to a T, they’re so gracious, you know, and easy to work with. And yeah, emotions run high from time to time. And I get that, you know, like that makes sense. It’s athletics. It is emotional. It should be. And so honestly, I really haven’t had that many problems with athletes in that regard. And I guess that’s really the mindset that I try to keep and instill in my team again, is that, hey, look, heat of the moment things get tense, but at the end of the day, we’re all part of this community and we should all be respectful of that. And it doesn’t matter what shirt you’re wearing at the end of the day, like we are doing this for larger motives than the spectacle of the sport, you know, and I think that’s always been true.

Sean: 24:32 – How did Ro vs Boz get started?

Boz: 24:36 – Oh man, that was when we first started doing the Open. I think it was no more storied than Rory was like, “Hey, you want to do it together?” And I was like, “Yeah, you’re on.” And then we just did. And so every year that the Open has happened, we’ve had a little friendly competition. And then when they started doing the announcements, I remember the first one we did was just outside of Charlotte, North Carolina. And the equipment was still set up. Dan Bailey and who else was there? It wasn’t Rich. Dan and somebody else had just done the workout.

Sean: 25:15 – Was this the one in the garage.

Boz: 25:17 – What’s that?

Sean: 25:17 – Was that the one in the garage?

Boz: 25:18 – No, this was several years before that. It was—it doesn’t matter. Yeah, the equipment was still set up and the production was all tearing down. Like the cameras were, you know, kind of getting ready to be shut off. People were leaving and there was only like 10 people left and Rory’s like, “Hey, the
equipment’s still out. You want to just like get this done?” And I was like, “Hell yeah, let’s do it so we don’t have to worry about it tomorrow.” So we did. And I think there was at that point, you know, 10 people drinking beer yelling at us and heckling us and us stumbling through the workout as the everyman does. And we were like, oh, we should try to do this as often as we can, you know, just get it done after the event’s over. And then that happened for a little while. And then one day somebody came up to us and was like, “Hey, we’re going to keep the cameras rolling.” And we were like, “What? That’s a terrible idea, what are you talking about?” And so they did and then eventually it got to the point where you guys would call it, which was, oh man.

Sean: 26:23 – That was a blast.

Boz: 26:26 – Easily the most stressful part of my year, right there. God.

Sean: 26:30 – Why do you think that became as popular as it did? I, you know, I don’t know. I think it’s because the Open can always lull you into a false sense of security. Like I will catch myself, I remember distinctly at the event we did with Vellner and Fikowski in 2017, it was like dumbbell snatches, burpees, and I watched them do it and it was like a dumbbell is not that heavy and there’s not that many reps. Seems like they didn’t slow down. I think I’m just going to like not break it up. You know, I convinced myself that that was a reasonable strategy. And then of course, halfway through Round 1, I’m like, “Oh my God. This is terrible.” And so, you know, I have to laugh at myself because I’ve been doing this for how many years, and I still convince myself that, oh, I can hang, you know, oh, it shouldn’t be that bad. And then you’d start going and you’re like, ugh, this is completely different. So you know, I think it just speaks to that everyman thing, you know, like Rory and I are fit, I’m very happy with my level of fitness, you know, but I’m not anywhere close to the top of the food chain. So, you know, I think it just brings things back down to reality a little bit.

Sean: 27:48 – No, I think you’re 100% right. We would watch those workouts and then we’d say, OK, well that doesn’t look that bad. Then you guys would do them. And I would tell people how fit you and Ro are. It’s like, yeah, this is the way that this is going to look, and those guys are probably better than you. So it definitely gives people a good perspective. You guys got to have some fun with it too. You put together some videos that you know, promoted it. What was it like getting to do that?

Boz: 28:09 – Oh, that was super fun. I mean that was just like an off-the-cuff thing where Rory was like, hey, we should do some promotional work. It was like, all right. And then we just took a day and did that. And I mean that was a blast.

Sean: 28:21 – They had you getting slapped in the stomach and they had Ro get slapped in the face. What was the most fun part about being able to do that for you?

Boz: 28:31 – Oh, I think just being able to have goofy ideas and run with it. It’s like, you know, it’s one of those things where it’s like, how often do you have the opportunity where you’re like, oh, that would be totally ridiculous. And then you actually do it.

Sean: 28:46 – Yeah, those were super entertaining. How are you maintaining your fitness nowadays?

Boz: 28:51 – Well, I still am doing CrossFit four days, five days a week, depending on the week. I started doing Jujitsu at the beginning of this year, so that’s been kicking my butt and very humbling. But I love it and it’s been great. So that’s kinda it; a mixture of those two things. I have a garage gym and we affiliated actually recently, well I guess a year ago now. And we have a group of people that comes over a couple times a week and, you know, we don’t charge anything. It’s just if you happen to be around, stop by, and so I’ll jump in with those guys. And that’s been a blast. So, yeah, really, it’s just same old, same old.

Sean: 29:39 – What’s the best part about working out in your own garage?

Boz: 29:44 – Oh man. It’s open 24/7 and you get to pick the music.

Sean: 29:47 – That can often be problematic, I know.

Boz: 29:52 – Oh man. Yeah, I think that’s probably the best part. And you know, I think it’s just fun because it doesn’t have to be anything but what it is. And what I mean by that is like, I worked in affiliates for years and it was great, but your time when you’re working and managing an affiliate, it’s often not your own. And so when you’re there working out, you’re still kind of on call. And if members come in and they want to talk to you about something or you know, like, they take priority, as they should. And so I think having a space that you can just tune everything else out and it’s just yours for that time, however much time you can squeeze out of it, I think it’s super valuable. And I mean, I would encourage everybody to have some sort of space that they can do that. And you know, when I lived in San Francisco for forever, I didn’t have space, I didn’t have a garage. And so for the longest time I would just have like a couple of kettlebells in my kitchen and door-jam pull-up bar, and I would do workouts in my kitchen all the time. You know, I would do kettlebell snatches and burpees or strict pull-ups and push-ups or whatever. And even just that, where it’s like nobody’s looking, it doesn’t matter what the end state is, but it’s just honest work. I think it’s super important.

Sean: 31:09 – What now do you want to sort of accomplish with your fitness moving forward? You mentioned that you’re doing Jujitsu. What would you like to layer onto that?

Boz: 31:17 – You know, just keep it going. I don’t have a lot of hard goals. I never have. I just want to continue to do the things that I do, indefinitely. And you know, getting back to one of your earlier questions about what attracted me to CrossFit in the first place, I really think that the sense of physical freedom is important to me. You know, so for example, I don’t have a lot of hard pursuits. I don’t have a lot of hard physical goals. But if my friends say, “Hey, we’re taking a mountain climbing trip, we’re going to go do Mount Rainier, do you want to come with us?” And you know, I’m like, “Yeah, I can do that.” Sure, you might need to train for it and get prepared and all those things that you should do, but I don’t have to worry is this going to be physically possible for me? So just being able to hang onto that as long as I can, that’s the goal. And it always has been for me. You know, I’ll be 36 in a couple of weeks and honestly, you know, physically I don’t feel any different than I did when I was in my twenties and I just want to keep that going as long as I can.

Sean: 32:25 – You’ve been able to travel the world and have a front-row seat to the CrossFit Games, you know, for the past 11 years. What’s been the best part about your CrossFit journey?

Boz: 32:35 – You know, I think just the network of people that have been drawn this thing. And I mean, man, it’s uncountable the number of people, quality people, that I’ve met that have become my close friends, that you know, I’ve been able to share life with. I never would’ve guessed that as a byproduct of being into working out that that would have been possible. And even today, you know, like the landscape obviously at HQ has changed and the Games have changed. And you know, there’s been a lot differing opinions about that and that’s fine, but at the end of the day, it’s like the people that are there—I don’t think any of that’s changed my relationship with them. And I think that that’s a real testament to the quality of people that are there and the power of this thing no matter what shape it ends up taking, you know, so to me, that’s really what it’s all about. And maybe that’s cliche, but man, you know, if you had asked me in the early 2000s when I started stumbling into this stuff and said, “Hey, where do you think this is going to go? Do you see yourself being one of the figureheads of a sport that grows out of this? And bein
g somebody who’s developed staff that teaches this stuff worldwide?” And you know, I would have been like, you’re crazy. Like, what are you talking about? This is just something I like to do. So I don’t know, man. Maybe that’s just getting older and being able to look back at something that you’ve stuck with for a long time. But yeah, it’s been pretty incredible to see the reach.

Sean: 34:15 – And you mentioned that you are a figurehead now of this sport and you helped build it. When you look back on that whole process, what are you most proud of?

Boz: 34:24 – Oh man. That’s a good question. I have a hard time with that. I have a hard time acknowledging my piece, and I have a hard time, I dunno, yeah, that’s a tough question for me. I would have to give that some serious thought. I guess that despite how big things have gotten, I would like to think that it’s still accessible and the people at the core of it are still the same people that they’ve been. You know, like, I’d like to think at least that if you see me around at an event, like, yeah, come say hi, come hang out. Like I want to talk to you. I’m the same person that I was when I was in my early twenties just getting into this stuff. I’m proud of that, but, you know, at the end of the day, it’s like volunteer, staffer, experienced coach, affiliate owner, there’s just an even playing field, I think. And I dunno what that is. It’s just, again, I think it comes back to the hard reality of you’re going to be humbled at some point. It’s going to be hard for everybody and therefore everybody’s on the same playing field, you know? And I think keeping that culture is—I’m proud of that.

Sean: 35:43 – Well Boz, I appreciate you taking the time doing this, man. It’s always a pleasure to talk to you and hear some great stories, and I wish you the best of luck moving forward.

Boz: 35:49 – Big thanks to Adrian Bozman for taking the time to talk with me. If you want to follow him on social media, you can find him on Instagram. He is @apbozman. Are you a stressed business owner who’s working too much and still struggling to make a profit? Do you want to grow your venture and reach the next level? Two-Brain Business is here to help with a free 60-minute call. This is not a sales pitch; it’s just an opportunity for you to get real, actionable advice from an expert who’s built a successful business. For one-on-one guidance on how to take your business to the next level, book your Free Help call today at twobrainbusiness.com. Thanks for listening everybody. We’ll see you next time.

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