Bobby Hicks | Audio-Visual Artist, Kettlebell Sport competitor (part 1)

Welcome to the platform podcast where we talk to coaches athletes experts and real people to learn about their approaches to training, nutrition, mindset and much more. I'm your host Jordan Kunde-Wright founder and head coach of the Twin Cities kettlebell club. And I'm on a mission to help others build sustainable healthy lifestyles. My guest this week is Bobby Hicks. He is an audio visual artist, a competitive kettlebell sport athlete and my friend. And in this episode, we get into his background a little bit about how to make better social media content. We nerd out on some camera stuff and talk about how he ended up getting into kettlebell sport as well as a little bit of my background of how I got into coaching. So I want to take a moment to say thank you for listening to this podcast. I am very, very grateful. If you haven't already, please be sure to leave a rating and review of the platform podcast in your app of choice and support my work by supporting our sponsors whose affiliate links you'll find in the episode notes. And if you want to step onto the platform and compete in kettlebell sport, please reach out to me. I help athletes of all levels reach their goals without wasting time using my integrated coaching approach. You can follow me on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube at twincities kettlebell club or email me at twincities kettlebell club at gmail.com. Now without further ado, let's step onto the platform with Bobby Hicks. Alright, welcome into this week's episode of the platform podcast. I am very excited to welcome in my guest and my friend Bobby Hicks, also known as this fellow on Instagram. I am this fellow on Instagram. He is a visual artist, a kettlebell lifter and just a damn good looking specimen of a man, if I do say so myself, because I'm looking at him on my webcam right now. Bobby, thanks for coming on, brother. Thanks for having me, man. Yeah, I actually like people don't know this, but I had to put clothes back on just before we actually did this. I am not wearing pants, you know, which is, you know, something you probably didn't need to know, but now you can't stop thinking about. I'll just wait, give me a minute and we'll get we'll get some together and that way. It's very free free. We are actually recording this on video to just in case we decide to upload it to a YouTube channel later, but, you know, we got to get those likes and clicks somehow. So, so actually speaking, speaking of which like you are, I know you hate the term, you are a social media influencer. I think would be you're officially an influencer. I don't know what's the threshold like what how many followers do you have to have before they consider you an influencer? So I mean, like off camera like you and I've talked about this for just like I genuinely kind of like feel so just uncomfortable with that word because it's one of those things where it's like. Anybody can be an influencer and it's like I'm not down crediting you're like someone's someone like wanting to be that you know or like aspiring to be something. But, you know, it's like when people ask me what I do, like the last thing I ever say is, yeah, an influencer, you know, like no, I'm a fucking I'm a photographer. You know, it's like I'll say I'll say like the I mean it was funny too is I tell people of a photographer, but I actually do more video and stuff than anything else, you know. That's why I said visual artists because your medium is audio visual like it's not just photography, but like you are a good photographer no doubt. But you do a ton of video stuff and like you spent like a ridiculous like 12 hours to make like a five hour cookie video with your with your cute niece niece and nephew just a couple of weeks ago, which was. Which was, which was fantastic, by the way, like I love that so tell tell people that aren't familiar or don't follow you like what what that what that video was for and like labor intensive. It is to actually make that and why it was so labor intensive. So I'll talk about that. I'll even back pedal just to touch more just to kind of like put full perspective and things. So in general, like to put a little hat and what I do I work with an agency they're called socialite. My girlfriend works with another agency called digital bread architects or DBA and both rivals is it like the shark the sharks and the jets do you guys have like snap fights in the in the living room. Not not in the living room like but it's so funny because like those two agencies really do fucking hate. It's not awesome because it's like we basically like work together to star crossed lovers. Yeah, yeah. But it's like a general basis of like what I do, you know each of us, you know are represented by particular agents. These agents will have like PR teams and people to come to them saying here we have x budget. We would like to have some person work with this product. You know, so let's say like Phillips sonic care, for example, like I just started posting some stuff from that. And so they come they're just like, who do you got in your roster? Hicks could be good for this and you know my agents really love me. They've been amazing people and like they've kind of pushed me and so I'm able to actually get a lot of these really great jobs where I have to create essentially ads, you know I have to pick like I'm a one man band, you know with it like the help of my girlfriend occasionally. Yeah, you're like beyond a triple threat like you're I don't know how you're like a six tool player, I guess would be the analogy if we go in the sports direction right like you. You do the photos, you do the video, you do the audio, you do the editing, you do the lighting, you're the you're the model, like do you write the script to like I don't know, like how much is that. Yeah, so so soup to nuts, man, like you're like a one man like like a mogul here. In the video world, some people like to call out a shredder, you know because like you're like a predator it's like you're producer and editor like you know you write it all directed. Yeah, it's like one of those things where you know they have a scope of work they come to us there's like this is exactly what we want you know but we want you to have your own creative like your license so there's like there'll be specific things like you need these certain hashtags or you need to you know like we need. We need X amount of assets so like three videos and four sets of stories and each story is three you know three slides and you got to do all these different things and the thing I think people don't realize as well as the fact that it's like I usually like I usually have about a week to do a lot of the stuff and especially you know with some of these gigs where they're just. Alexa's getting saucy right now. And shut her up. Don't I can say if you ever watch shits Creek don't ever watch shits Creek with your Alexa on because one of the main characters name is Alexis and every time he's like oh my god Alexis and Alexa like answers my TV and then my device it because I have an Alexa TV and you know Lexi in my in my living room and they're like fighting. It becomes this death loop of Alexa's talking to each other it's terrible. One quick thing i'm wondering like how badly because like i'm fighting the safe focus right i'm wondering how badly our ADHD is just going to like let this fucking go don't fight it man just don't fight it. But yeah so long a short you know it's like I work with brands I get to make commercials and I love what I do it's been it's one of the things where it takes a lot of time to do it really well. And you know going back to what you said you know like what makes a person in a quote influencer content creator you know like visual artist you whatever you want to call it. It depends who you talk to because some people say that it's like that's how many followers you have I think that's that's a horrible metric you know because it's all about engagement right. It's all about engagement you want you like anybody can collect followers but like getting people that actually respond to what you're saying. And like then then you're actually connecting with people right like if they're actually responding and they're actually commenting they're engaging in conversation like that's that's real like that's real like otherwise it's just fluff right like that's my that's my thought like. I can go get some gym sharks and i'm sure i'll get a at least six likes you know i'll double tap that. But it's like it's one of those things for at the end of the day you know it's exactly how you put it where it's just about the engagement like the the audience you're able to kind of create you know and and kind of keep them on because it's like you know. When we go to a channel you know whether it's me listening to your podcast or going to watch somebody else's stuff you know it's like we're doing this to live vicariously in some element you know and it's like I do this for a fucking living and I. And like I am all about other people's stuff because it's one of the things for that's just part for the course you know it's like we are invested in social media to invest in other people you know and be closer and connected. And so when you can actually find somebody that not only has the ability to captivate an audience but at the same time you know might be able to possibly introduce like a one or two percent conversion to that audience you know that's a very powerful thing. And so what a lot of people don't realize is that some of the most like some of the best content creators you know influencers really want to come they are what have been kind of deemed as like micro influencers and I just I think like when you start to get into like the meta analysis of like the genre like the nomenclature of these stupid fucking titles it gets really hairy because at the end of the day it's like you know you can give a Kardashian you know a show. You know a shoe or something like that to where and you can give somebody that has 20,000 followers and they they might have better conversion I know so many people that that are extremely popular and they couldn't sell their own their own clothing line to save their life. And you know it's just because I think this is me personally as well I think that like when you kind of hit a certain a certain level you know of like your followers and stuff like this your audience actually starts to disengage they start to feel that like they're you're not relatable now unless you have been able to kind of like maintain this for a really really really long time. And so for me personally like I think you again like I like to become friends with people you know it's like I actively talk to the people that I follow on a regular basis you know and it's like that's just how I operate. But when people start getting too big and like you it takes longer for them to actually see your messages or this and that that's a big problem that a lot of people run into but they don't factor this in so they keep putting up the same bullshit that they were doing before like shooting something with an iPhone. And you know the problem that I have with that is not that you're shooting with an iPhone but it's not entirely it's the fact that if you are getting paid you know if you're getting paid money and it doesn't matter if it's 50 bucks or if you're doing it for you know like 50,000 bucks you know depending on what the campaign is you know it's like the problem that I kind of see a lot of places is that it's like there's not an equal balance of of like attention and. And I don't know just like a willingness to kind of like put everything in so going back to what you would initially said yeah like I made a cute video with my girlfriend it was for Easter and we planned this out just to the release it pre Easter and it was just kind of like a fun take on retro cooking recipe. And this is a concept that we'd actually had for about like a year or so we just finally were able to execute it because the time is just impossible to catch but yeah we made like a fun retro recipe based out of like an old cookbook from like 1957 or so. And it was about bunny biscuits and we had our niece and nephew come in and we dressed up like as if we were in the 1950s and then I spent that full day setting in my camera all the lighting all the key all the grip and camera gear that you can imagine. To make a three minute video and I was telling you about I spent about 12 to 15 hours just editing that video, but it did really well and it's like it did well not because it's the best video in the world it did really well because. It was something fun and relatable that I think people were looking for and at the same time just kind of coincidently happened to fall around a time when like one a vision came out. Yeah, there was definitely some some good some good good timing there, but so I watched that and I wonder how many people think that that's that those are your kids like a lot of people I was wondering about that the best part about that actually is like fun little side tangent so Roxy is like the niece and writers the nephew right and like when Roxy was she's she's a teenager now I'm like the worst. Uncle in the world because I was forget ages like I still think I'm 22 so it's like I just hit 36 you look like you're 22 so I hate you because you still have all the hair I got you on the beard I mean I definitely got you on the beard but like you know I would trade the luscious beard for a head of hair like you have like a thousand times over so well it's it's the funniest thing because it's like her entire life people have always joked around and say that like that like people would be like oh my god she looks exactly like you you know and I would just be like I'm in no way for you know but like her dad he and I both have like very similar features and it's just the most awkward thing because you know this but if you guys don't know this listening like I just moved from New York City I was living in New York for about 15 years and so when like Roxy writer and like her mom would like come up to visit us in New York you know I'd have the kids with me and stuff would be going around doing stuff and all the time this people would be like your children are so beautiful and I'm just like we are not related and it will still awkward so the running joke in our family is that it's like you know Bobby does not have kids because it's like you can't just say it then that's how it happened I still like tease them on a regular daily basis just being like you're the best daughter in the world you're the best daughter I never had I never had so it's like it's a half truth you it's like no they're not like they're not my kids but it's like they're basically so now it's another question it's just like just like mom mom or dad or mom mother-in-law father-in-law does anybody does anybody be like uh hey you know you guys would have some cute kids just looking how great you are with kids like does that does that happen no you it's like so my girlfriend Kiko and I we've always had kind of like a very unorthodox relationship to what maybe other people are used to you know it's like we've been together for uh I'd say about 15 years we've known each other you've been together as long as my wife and I yeah yeah we've known each other for almost 20 you know I mean like at least 18 years you know been best friends um and you're at the tip you're at the tipping point now where it's like you're you're getting close to the point where it's like I've now known you more than half of my life and now it's like it's just going to like my the portion of my life since you came into it is now going to be longer than the portion before you and that that's kind of crazy like that's crazy tipping point that happens just the other day when we're talking about something uh like like a throwback memory and I was just like oh my god that literally is like almost like half of my life you know and but it's a it's a great feeling though yeah it's uh it's one of the things we're like we've had a very unusual relationship in the sense that we've been together this long and we're not married we don't really like we we love kids but we don't want kids of our own we love our niece and nephew you know it's like I highly recommend if you don't want them don't have one because they are a lot of work yeah I love I love my kids and I can't imagine um if I didn't want them like like I haven't a deal with all their bullshit you know and it's like you know the like I haven't seen before it's like you know we we I barely have time to do my chores or at the house you it's like like on a regular basis you know we are constantly taking photographs and you know in the past when when there wasn't a global pandemic you know we were actually traveling and driving like two hours out of the out of New York to go to New Jersey and take photographs somewhere and we get back and like midnight or something our entire entire life is based around our work and in a way that that is very unusual and almost like uh unnerving too a lot of people because you know they are like you're 36 like you're doing shit that you did when you were like 26 that's not okay in your 30s and I think people just kind of like forget about the fact that it's just like this is what we do for a living and we are so happy with what we do people have a really hard time understand artists I really I really think that's I think that's a really like because what you do is is you know is an artistic creative career path and it's something that people that do not come from an artistic background really don't understand like I have a I have a friend in Chicago who's a who's a professional musician and he's not like famous or anything like that but he like he makes his living as a musician and people think that it's like a hobby and it's like yeah it's like no I I work like 50 60 hours a week being a fucking musician like this isn't like just because I've been playing music my whole life doesn't mean it's like a hobby like and just because it like just just because you played in a cover band and college like we're not the same thing like this is like I study this in college this is how I pay my bills like I work I work my ass off doing this like this is not like a casual thing like this is a serious career path you know but people for whatever reason they associate like if it's artistic that it's like oh it's something you can dabble in so it's not not a serious thing and I think the conversation is actually I mean especially over the last it's like year and a half you know but like I think the conversation is actually beginning to be a little clearer for people you know it's like with lockdown and everything that's been happening over the last like year and change you know people have been looking toward again quote influencers or you know content creators more than I think ever before because we are so desperate and me included like I am desperate for human connection human interaction and you know I mean like when I swim the the lockdown started in New York you know I was trying to stay creative but in a way that was different because I couldn't get out and travel or I couldn't get out and like you go into the city or go out of the city and take photos and so I was doing like a daily Instagram live every single day you know I did it I did it for months and if I missed a day people would actually like write back to me like what are you okay yeah that's something happened it's from being sad or something you know I'm just like I had to get the Johnny got a shoot the like you know and it was one of those things where it became like not only cathartic but at the same time just like I'm opening you know like I never really would go out of my way to actually talk most people when they would first listen to it they would be like holy fucking you know like I didn't realize what you sounded like you know because I am that guy by the way that like every single time I make a phone call to place in order for like a pizza or something it's like it's ma'am yeah they'll be ready in about 35 40 minutes okay thank you and I'm just like thank you you know it's like it doesn't matter what I do it's like I so people I don't know I get it I have the I have the the the range the vocal range so that there are times when I'll I'll be like no this is a serious conversation and I'm gonna I'm gonna take it serious you know but then I get excited and I'm like I showed you the idiot circus boy and I go up like two octaves and people are like oh my god Jordan's really excited about something clearly when Jordan's excited he puts the pop mic in front of the microphone extra close just make sure yeah exactly but yeah man you know I don't know it's like that that's kind of the gist of what I do you know I'm a nerd this spends most of his time in money on kettlebells and and camera equipment and there's nothing wrong with that don't don't don't ever go change for for anybody there's two very expensive hobbies see kettlebell really doesn't have to be expensive the problem is is when you go full on down the rabbit hole with it it's like anything else like you you could literally get by with like one bell or two bells and like a yoga mat and that's all you fucking need and you could you could stay in shape for as long as you want right so long as the weight is appropriate for you are like you got an adjustable kettlebell where you could you could change the weights like you could literally just have one bell and like two square feet and like that would be all you need for the rest of your life or like we're like oh I need I need I need them in two kilo increments in matching pairs of and I need a platform and I need shoes and I need actually I need custom shoes because these ones these ones don't quite fit my feet that's a whole other saga that that you can love that saga that I'm serving from the observing from the sideline I'm now on my I've tried on now five pairs of Olympic lifters trying to find six including the ones I bought an eBay and sent to you because I still wear those all for my feet I wear those every side now because it's like my Ramila's were all I wore for years and it was just like this is the first and only pair of lifters I've ever worn I love them I'm gonna stick with it and then you said me the doughins and I was just like oh my god what have I been doing people like I actually wear like the kind of like nerdy like Vivo barefoot like it just never clicked for you the idea of like finding a wide toe lifter yeah so now it's like I can't I can't even imagine going back to this and try to it's like it's like it's like my obsession now like I'm I'm going to go day on the quest to take down the windmill here like I'm I'm I'm trying to find a like wide a lifter wide enough for my hobbit feet you know but it's whatever it you know but it's funny because like anything like it's what does anything like when you're when you're passionate about a thing like running is a super cheap hobby like but if you're passionate about it then you're like you're like oh I want the heart rate monitor and I want the and I want the nice running shoes and I want the nice running shorts and I want the nice running shirt like like you can you know and then you start going to marathons or what I like it's just you end up spending money on what you're passionate about so like you know cameras on the other hand, that's like, there is a pretty high barrier of entry there to start getting into quality camera equipment. Even like a Sony that's going to be decent, SLR is going to be 700, 800 bucks. There's a pretty high barrier of entry there when you start talking camera equipment and then you start talking lighting and that's the thing that gets really tough about it is that people will write to me on a regular basis. That's why I try to be transparent, I try to show a little behind the scenes of what I'm using and XY and Z, but I get people writing to me on a regular basis being like, hi, I'm such and such and I want to make content that looks like yours. What kind of camera should I buy? And the first thing I tell them is just like you can literally make this look great with any camera with your phone. You don't need to have the expensive lighting, you know, you have to understand how lighting works. I was even talking to Roxy, my niece about this where the thing is amazing about her is that like she is that that generational cohort where it's like the more that she learns about this right now, the more prepared she's going to be because she actually wants to do this. She wants to be like my like my my girlfriend Kiko, her aunt. And so we're just like, we will fucking mentor you and we will turn you into like a fucking legend. And so we're just giving her like the rundown master course and like showing her how to set up. She's like a young Russian kettlebell. Except she's a young young American social media mobile TV. Yeah, she's going to crush it. But it's one of the things where I was trying to explain to her is just like, you see this light right here and it's like this brand new aperture 300d that I bought in Mark II. And it's like, it's like I didn't understand anything you said other than aperture. That was the only thing I got. It's basically like it's a light that I and I'm going to butcher the pricing. But it's like I think the light itself right is is 1500 dollars right just just for the light and like the the the tools to power it right and it's a massive case for it. And I think it's like 1500 dollars might even be like a little bit more you know, but that on its own is just an incredibly powerful spotlight. It's a giant fucking flashlight you know, and that's all it is. But mimics natural sunlight right. And it's like that even that that's kind of like a loaded question because it's like what maybe like if you help me I can I could go down to long rabbit hole just like lighting if you guys have any questions you go to my Instagram page and made a bunch of Instagram videos about lighting by the way. You should really put that on a YouTube channel and monetize that shit. I don't know if anybody you know anybody that can help that like I just like but anyway it's like I was explained to him like you see this light and it has a big soft box like light dome on it you know and I was just like if I take this off right and I was just like this is just a giant flashlight. And I was just like what a lot of people don't understand is that you don't need to have this massive soft box that I have on this to still get good light you know because in some cases you're not going to have that or you're not going to have the space like how do you make this work. So I was teaching you how to kind of like get similar looks without having this like $400 $500 soft box you know because again it's like this is all life experiences I've spent less like decade buying kit using it realizing I didn't need that you know realizing what I needed this instead you know it's like there's been so much money that I've like invested and then lost and then kind of worked around yeah I've been I've been like slowly I've been slowly accumulating things to like start upping my social media content creation and stuff and like I've been really and you've been very helpful with that by the way but but but say but okay so we'll just say say you're like you know a mediocre kettlebell coach from you know I don't know somewhere with like 834 followers asking for a friend you know what would you hear your top what would your top tips be for for somebody you know to to make better content you know we'll say with Instagram we'll just I'll give you because I know I know it varies from platform to platform and stuff but like just say you're focused on Instagram and you you want to make good content for Instagram like what would be your top three tips by the way the asking for a friend series is like my favorite thing so I mean okay so going back you know top three things like the most important thing is is just like with kettlebell stuff it's just patience you know it's like there is no there's no like button or or like hack that you can do that is going to instantly kind of like upgrade your ink there's no filter that can make this like you look that's that's what I'm here of course there's a filter like that but I'm not going to tell you that it's not going to tell you that that's the fourth one and I can only have three for three you know but it's like you know so the first thing I think people should understand is that it's just like there is no there is no magic button that you can just push to be good at this it's patience and I think that if you can actually teach yourself which again kind of in a way tiny into kettlebell and stuff it's like if you can actually teach yourself just patience you know that's going to translate into everything in your life you know it's going to help you with your long cycle it's going to help you with your breathing and it's going to help you with your social media because in order to actually succeed you have to basically like a lot of continuity you know you have to be like as consistent as possible so either like posting on a regular basis posting I don't want to say the same thing but just like things to have a cohesion to them and and I think what also is usually lacking from a lot of people's stuff is is kind of like a lack of personality you know I mean like you know you you have this this ability to write out a caption and it doesn't have to be fucking you know like having a way but it's like I think that if you're able to actually take a little bit of time and just kind of like personalize something you know and just kind of let people connect with you in a way that is going to really help I don't know just like people feel a little more related to you rather than just kind of like I kind of like it ties to what you're saying early right like like the Kardashians are or whatever they're you know they have their they have their massive following but how how much of what they put the out there is their authentic self like you know and whereas like the the micro influencers you were talking about like people feel legitimately connected to them because they because they don't have two million followers they have two thousand followers and they put out content that reflects who they really are as person and they show like portions of their real life yeah and then kind of like the tricks from that is basically like when you learn those bits like when you learn the patience when you learn how to actually like authentically express who you are you know on your social media then it kind of turns into the third bit where it's just like then it's just practice yeah it's continuity authenticity patience but it's like with that kind of like continuity you're going to just get better you know so I should have said top five because now we're getting nine things and now we're getting now we're getting now we're getting into now we're getting into the stuff that I really want though because it's like I know those things but what about what about the technical parts of it to make quality so so let's let's assume because it's just like practice in kettlebells right there's quality practice in their shit practice so so what are the quality what are the quality things that you should be practicing what are the fundamentals that people should be practicing to put out good content because there's so much shit content on social media and it drives me crazy I'm trying I'm trying really hard not to be a contributor to that but I get really self conscious about well you know you know I've actually talked about this so you know like one I a really important one that I actually like to always mention is lighting you know and like you you went out and even like picked up a light that I kind of recommended you know and it's not just getting a light you know it's understanding how to use that light so the number one most important thing that I I tell everybody um for whatever it is they're doing is to just like if you have an hour of free time you should be spending that hour like educating yourself on this this like whether it's photography or video like as much as possible like you you should be I think that's and that's how the only way I've ever learned anything I never went to school for this you know I never had you know even like the way it kind of got started was Kiko needed me to like take her pictures and stuff and I didn't understand how to do it and so I just had to get out there just like she would try to teach me it just didn't make sense and it's like I just one day decided I needed to invest my time and just learn it and then practice it and so especially with like lighting or with a camera you know it's like you have to study and understand lighting and there's fucking YouTube University like how I did it just watch videos or just like different types of lighting and then the more you understand this stuff the more you understand oh I don't actually need to spend you know like $2,000 like Bobby did because he's a fucking idiot you know like to get this effect and so when people writes me they're just like what should I get I'm like you should get this like you know like this particular light on Amazon it's very inexpensive it's a very excellent light we have a set of these you know like I recommend these through and through take it and bounce it off the ceiling you know and then you'll actually get like a really nice soft diffuse light that's coming down then maybe have a little light behind you you know introduce depth you know so it's like it's kind of like a it's like you're usually like yes but you know it's like it depends you like there is no quick answer for it so I'd say study everything you can when it comes to lighting depth is a big thing like I just mentioned so kind of like understanding how to shape the light how to introduce light behind the person to kind of make it look better not like this fucking room right here find out I was gonna be a video that it probably would have well we don't have we don't have it on a YouTube channel yet it's it's really just so that you and I don't talk to each other quite as much because I can actually see when your lips are moving that makes it helpful and I just like looking at you man you're just like you're a handsome man I just I just want to like just rub you cheek but my my son loves to rub my head especially when it's freshly shorn it's a little long right now but he wants to rub it when it's like prickly I don't know why and then with cameras again you're going back it's like with cameras like there is no magic camera and the thing that's really tough about cameras especially now is the fact that like every six months you have a new iteration of that same camera that you just spent money on and so the trouble is like you know the when you kind of get into like a like a bit of a gear head you know like all you want to do is just get like the next new camera and and I used to really be like that used to be obsessed with just kind of like I can't wait to get the new Sony as such and such and like I'm gonna wait like six more months before this drops and at some it is like we all are kind of guilty of this you know but it's like at some point you kind of step back and you realize like the patterns you know and you realize that what they are doing is the same thing that like you know I'm doing just like trying to promote something that you know get people to want to buy it and hype it up and that's it like I usually actually believe in the brands that I do work with and some capacity so I'm not trying to be that shallow that's the idea is that it's like it's just a marketing you know and so I would suggest that it's like what the best thing you could do if you're looking into getting a camera sorry is make sure that you're investing in a particular brand and family so if you are going so stay stay with Canon or stay with Sony stay so you learn that so you learn that stack you learn the settings because the settings within a stack of cameras right tends to stay the same but if you go from like Canon to Sony like you're like oh I really love this Sony and then you switch to a Canon because the new one looks awesome you might have to relearn like a ton of the settings right like which I'm doing right now it's like I'm saying stay with your system to the cycle right now I've been the process do what I do what I say not what I do I'm literally the process right now after being like a Sony user for like nearly a decade yeah I'm getting ready to actually sell all of my Sony stuff because Kiko really likes to look at the Canon which we used to always have so I've always had Canon gear but I haven't used a Canon in forever so I'm going to be relearning it but at the end of the day the important thing is that when you understand how to use a camera properly you can really kind of walk into any camera and I mean like I could I could make a point and shoot look you know amazing and that's not using auto that's the next step don't ever use auto anything auto I mean like unless you unless you're just like going for like a webcast or something just like basic it's like I personally think that the sooner that you can actually understand you know like how you talk about your triangle of awareness you know it's like yeah the three pillars you know it's like there's the exact same thing with cameras you know you have your your shutter speed your f-stop and your ISO the sooner that you begin to understand how those three work with each other that's when all of the sudden the power really kind of comes in and you know it's like you'll have those really beautiful shallow depth of field shots you know or you'll have like that really cool dreamy kind of like dragged motion blur you know you know and some cameras operate things better than others and if you just take a little time to understand it then you're going to be in a good place that's 45 minutes of me talking about cameras I love it man I actually was I actually was in the photography club in high school so I actually learned to shoot with an old-fashioned film 35 mil and like I could develop my own rolls of film and then we would get to go to the darker man develop our own shots and I would actually shot pictures at like at sporting events and stuff and that was like that's a lot of fun because you're our you are forced to learn you're forced to learn you know about about shutter speed and you know the important the f-stop and the ISO and you know aperture and a lot of things and how to and but the thing that I and this is going to make me sound all this shit but I was like the these kids nowadays don't understand how expensive it was to take a bad photo because now all they got to do is just delete it off their memory card they didn't have to go develop the roll of film then go to the dark room and then develop the photo only to be like damn it it's blurry like an action was expensive do like that was not a cheap hobby like any stretch of the imagination thanks for tuning into this episode of the platform podcast we'll get back to the interview shortly if you're a loyal listener you know that I don't typically do interludes but I wanted to take this opportunity to share some exciting updates the date is set for the first annual twin cities kettlebell open on October 23rd we will be hosting at the athlete lab here in beautiful little Canada Minnesota right in the heart of the twin cities and we've already started to line up some great sponsors bellevator from Dennis Vasiliv has given two belts for us to give away our friend Nikolai Poochlove from Seattle kettlebell club is providing his new made in the USA pro kettlebells for competitors to try out and use on the platform sanctioned by the IKO additional sponsors include barefoot athletics and Gospari nutrition and if you have ideas or connections to other interested sponsors please reach out to me and please don't forget go register for the event on our website twin cities kettlebell club.com and now let's get back to the interview yeah I took photo in high school as well I got like the old manultas and it's like you're taking these photos and it was like the difference it was in high school you know it's like it was kind of a class and so you're just like doing it for whatever but at the end of the day you know like you were very very grateful when you have a good photo because you were taking the time to actually put it in the larger and put it in the mix and like the chemicals and you're waiting like eight minutes you know or more to like finally see like what your what your photo looks like and then just like fucking you know like I put my thumb in front of it or you know yeah like exactly like I used to have it's just like I can't tell you like when I'm taking photos like I like my girlfriend calls me one take it's because I'm just like I'll take a photo be like yeah that's it I'm good you know like I love that and she is the opposite which will take like 800 photographs yeah and yeah I just like I think I think they like my my approach and things is kind of coming stemming from that that when high school or just like that that moment though like for as painful as it was to get when I was like when it was like your thumb was in front of it or it was blurry or something or like but when you get that one where you're like this turned out exactly as I envisioned it in my like it framed it perfectly like I had it set right and you like you see it kind of like in the chemical start revealing it and you're like you're like you're like okay cool and then you like you actually pick it up and you're like oh fuck I got a great photo here like that's like such a cool like this or only rewarding experience I take a great photo and just like look at myself in the mirror be like I am fucking Ansel Adams by the way if you guys are still too young that's it that's a brilliant photographer that you should look at the best the best landscape photographer of all time but I love yeah love Ansel Adams all right so now we'll give you we'll pivot away from away from photography nerding out and and we'll nerd out on kettlebells a little bit because that's that's why that's why the people come is to nerd out on kettlebells oh so so how did you actually get into kettlebells and how like how did that happen you know it's actually extra funny because like I listen to the podcast quite a bit and I oftentimes think about this like if the hypothetical question were to be asked me and I was like man it's always so hard to really dig back and remember you know I tried really hard recently to think about it when we made this and this this session but so basically what I can remember right is so about I'd say about like maybe like 10 years ago I was getting really into I had a friend that was like really kind of running and stuff and then we go jogging everyone so well and then he got into Spartan Racing and so we did Spartan Racing other and I was fucking hooked you know I just fell in love with like optical course racing and stuff and then through that you just kind of started jumping into like all sorts of weird primal techniques of training and like I met this guy that who's like a trainer and he came to a park and he let me like train with him one day and he brought with him a tiny little kettlebell and I mean tiny in the sense I think it was maybe like 25 pounds but at that time that was that was huge for me you know because I don't know it was like I was a much much smaller person you haven't seen this but I used to be like an absolute stick you know and so it's like I kind of discovered the kettlebell just in some way through like optical course racing but I didn't really know what to do with it you know I'd see it like in a gym everyone so I like at the YMCA some Brooklyn and stuff like this and so I do like the normal things like swings and you know like doing it really bad too like what I'm looking back and I'm just like man good job Hicks you know and you know like I guess like fast forwarding you know I um I kept seeing this guy Brian Fisher who I was I was falling on Instagram he was like a little CrossFit guy there's loud personality he's like a podcast host he's kind of funny but he's just like very loud personality and he was talking about kettlebell kings a lot in his feed you know and it's like hashtag influence right there you know it's like I see this guy and and you know it's like there's this dude there's just a fucking brick you know like his abs are bigger than his face and and he's just like I do 50 you know 50 heavy swings every day and stuff you can get fit just like this and so I mean I was a whole clan and sinker and so I went to their website looking at some of the comments you know and like like the things that they're sharing and there's this guy and I feel terrible because I haven't spoken to him so long that forgot his name I reached out to him because he was like a pretty like he's kind of like what I guess like you probably see a lot now it's just like doing the flows and like the heavy like exercises but yeah he seemed like a really dope guy and I asked him I was just like hey so I think I'm gonna actually like pull the trigger and pick up some of these kettlebell kings but I got a question do I get the cast iron you know or do I get these competition bells you know it's like competition ones are colorful that's kind of fun you know but like what's the difference you know and he was not a sport athlete but he kind of gave me the breakdown he was like personally they're more expensive but I would actually recommend that you get competition bells and so I did and he was like maybe start with two 16s and I was like fuck now I got two yellow bells because that's just that's rebellious enough and so in the process like I uh they I just pulled the trigger and pulled the purchase them right after they arrived it was on their on their Instagram account and my like one of my best friends like one who you interviewed at the finale of episode season one yeah um one Peugeot like shout out one you know he um they they had re-grammed a video of his and so I was just like oh wait a minute that looks really familiar and it was Brooklyn athletic club and it was down the street not not terribly far and I knew the I knew the facility I didn't go there often but I had just gone there like days before with a friend and uh so I reached out to him and I was like hey I see that you're in Brooklyn you know and um you know it's like you seem to be really into the kettlebell stuff and I was just like you want to hang out and like lift I meant as a friend you know um or like as like a person like hang out with we had never spoken he was like yeah sure what's your address I meet up with you and inadvertently he ended up becoming my coach you know and it's like with that even knowing anything about kettlebell sport uh I knew nothing about kettlebell sport he's got me you know doing long cycle you know with these two 18 kilo bells and you know like every person you know it's like my ego is through the room from just like yeah of course I could do this I still didn't know anything about it and he was just like okay so I'm gonna say the timer and I want you to do is many cleaning jerks as you can in three minutes and I'm blown away I'm just like he went three minutes of this and so he basically in like you talked about like your 24 kilo like five minute death experience yeah I was I was every time you say that like I laugh out loud because I'm just like man I was so so humbled for three minutes with like an 18 kilo bell and it's like looking like want want to care of you by setting the timer for three minutes my my my manager Matt was a marine so he was like oh you think you can make the 10 here's your here's your 224s I'll say you know we'll go the full 10 minutes let's see it yeah and so it was one of the things where it's just like I kind of got hooked though you know it's like it was something that I fell in love with just because it without being like I mean I'm not trying to sound condescending or cocky or anything but it's just like my girlfriend jokes that she's like you know yeah like you have so much moxie that like you you can you can do anything that you actually want to do because you just don't know that you can't do it or should I do it like I think you even talked about this with like children athletes how they're just like how like they they don't know that they're not supposed to lift X amount of weight and so they just do it because no one's told them they shouldn't do this and so I do almost anything that I do really well because I'm just like I see it I know how to do it I see it I'm just gonna fucking execute it and it's like this was occasion where I was like I can see it I kind of do this and I failed so badly and so I fell in love with that I fell in love with the idea that there was something that I actually had to like work toward and it reminded me a lot of photography in a way where it's just like something that I sucked at so badly at first but I wanted to be good at and and I feel like things like that for me are really really special because because again like I ADHD to like the nth power it's like it takes very little to actually distract me from what I'm doing and so you know my girlfriend laughs because I often have a tendency to kind of like gravitate jump on something go full tilt into it and then it's like you know six months later I'm just like no no no interest you know like and you know they're a collection of unicycles in your garage I'm looking I'm looking to sell those I was into that a few months ago one of this big unicycle juggling face kind of you know it's like like like I'm going through a random things like during the pandemic you know I'm still actually learning Russian I've just taken a little time off but like I'm still actively learning Russian but I was like hardcore to that you know like while pandemic also like during the lockdown New York I was so invested in learning real estate like I was gonna get a real estate license all this stuff and it's so light I learned a lot but it's like the passion of that is gone you know and but I had taken time off of doing kettlebell sport and gone into running with full tilt and a running for like months and it was awful it was terrible I was doing 10 miles every day that we was joining like in different events for like my friends would be like how is friend um run a hundred miles in a month of May you know and it's like I would knock out 50 miles in the first five days you know it's like I'm an intense dude you know but I can relate I can relate and sometimes like kind of going back and psych so I thought I love it the fact that this was something that I was not very good at and one is just such a gracious and kind and incredible like person but also just like one of the most knowledgeable humans I've ever met my life you know and he not only gave me this this really wonderful like gift of learning kettlebell sport I mean it's changed my life you know it's like it truly is made me I think a better person it's made me more patient it's made me more athletic and it's actually given me the desire to like help others you know outside of just camera stuff like I'm training my sister in law right now I'm training you know shout out to Amanda shout out to Amanda you know it's just like she's picking up long cycle like a beast right now and because of that I've invested in two brand new sets of eight and 12 kilo bells so my garage is getting a little fuller as we speak you know that um and so one you know with like he with unbeknownst to me who's like great I'll see you like I'll see you I'll see you next week and that'll be 250 okay you know it's like I just started paying him and he became my coach six months later if that you know it's like when I think November so um he was just like yeah you're gonna be competing at the the Brooklyn Athletic Club competition then putting together you're gonna do 10 minutes of long cycle with the uh 20s you know and all I have are eighties um he's like you can do 10 minutes at those and uh I mean man it was no no sorry I apologize backtrack he wanted me to do 10 minutes I was like I can't do 10 minutes I did five minutes and that was still terrible but I got through it and that was my first experience with like the community you know outside that I was just one kind of coming to my basement like game in my apartment building and just watching you like me arguing you yeah yeah and just like awkwardly just like kind of like trying to correct little things you know and then you know it's like I show up at this event and like there's so many people that I would see at like the the aka events and things like this during uh you know the Arnold so the US nationals and the East Coast and stuff and it's like I became very good friends with a lot of these people immediately you know it's like fell off the plant and and going back also I didn't know that you should only do or not only but like most people do one event and so I'd sign up also for a 10 minute snatch I'm not very good at it's nasty yeah this I did that yeah my first event I signed up for all three no two 10 minutes yeah 10 minutes I I was I thought I was a triathlete well before I understood how hard it was to be a triathlete but it was really it was really just like fucking I'm training for this I'm getting my money's worth like I'm putting down my 50 bucks I'm getting my money's worth out of this I signed up for all three of that's like an idiot and you know what's so funny about it is and it's like you'd probably do better than than you would know even just because it's like now we overthink everything in the way you know it's like no I it was a disaster it was terrible it was it was there I like I was okay I was okay at long cycle and I was okay at snatch because I trained like I trained long cycle and if you train long cycle with some intensity like your snatch will be okay because there's a lot of the same fundamentals and it's only one bell so you can kind of fake it tell you make it but I had no expectation for snatch but like I thought I'm like oh I jerk is part of long cycle so I'll be fine I didn't in my head do the math and be like no you're doing twice as many reps and it's only of that one specific movement so the localized suffering is going to crush you like I just had no I had no I had no I didn't know what I didn't know so like jerk fucking destroyed me like jerk was terrible like I think I think I did like six more jerk reps than I ended up doing long cycle reps because I was just like I had no I had no ability for that for that localized suffering for that long I had no rack I had no like I was yeah it was terrible I feel like I feel like in a daily basis like we're all still constantly saying that we have no rack and they're all still working on it because it's like that's like the curse of you know this sport is that like you'll never actually reach like a sense of completion or like feeling good about it you're just like it's just another day of trying to figure out how I'm not fucking this up as much you know well I was just talking to I was just talking to Dennis by a chat and I was like I was like 151 reps in seven minutes on the on the on the jerk with the double 24s like that's like that's pretty good and he's like yeah I'm trying you know by Athalon is hard so so I I shared this with Cam you know like in Canada and I said it to him and I was just like just did you see this and he was just like yeah no big fucking deal this guy just did my life PR in a seven minute time frame with heavier weights you know it's just a hundred and fifty one reps like I I loved that as a death he's the kindest person that I've never met he's well he should be here in October so I think you get it you'll get a chance that you'll get a chance to meet him he's yeah he's a great he's a great dude so I'm very I'm very excited to see what I hope I hope you I hope he competes in October because I I love what I love watching Dennis compete because it's it's I mean it's like watching a thoroughbred run it's watching some but it's watching somebody do what they were meant to do right like they're like I love I love seeing that expression of somebody like expressing their talent and doing the thing that it's like it seems clear to the rest of us like this is what you were put on the planet I love watching you do it you know you know it's so funny it's like and I feel like you you've kind of like gently articulated this with some other people in the past but like you know the thing that I I I understand why I'm kind of a sport is maybe not like the most popular thing to watch and stuff but it's it's especially less popular like when it's less interesting when you're actually watching Dennis if you don't understand the sport because it's like when you're watching kind of a sport like the way that you try to explain it to people is like yeah it's a 10 minute set you're not allowed to set things down the suffering is intense and people are just like intrigued like huh global suffering the heavy weight I can't say that down there's a lot of grit you know but when you see somebody like Dennis Facilif who is doing you know like 90 to 100 repetitions in long cycle with 32 kilo bells or or or like whatever he's using whatever he feels like that day okay and he makes it look so effortless not only does it make it look like the weight because like and Joe Daniels talked about this where it's just like people can't relate to the weights because the style like a barbell you know it's not like a it's not like a crossfit gym where you just like all the big they got three big fat plates on there so that's a really heavy one you know like you look at a kettlebell and you just see a color they're all uniform in size we have no idea and so when you see Dennis that's one thing that's one thing hard style actually has gone for it right like the bells get bit like as far as like like social media appeal right since we're we're coming full circle right when you see a guy like you know like rhino strength from Chicago when he's when he's doing when he's doing when he's flipping when he's flipping a 92 kilo bell you can tell it's a 92 kilo bell because it's fucking massive and you're like Jesus how heavy is that right you get some of that that old school old school Russian strong man kind of thing where you're like you can tell that it's super heavy weight because of how big an awkward shaped it is and everything but like a guy can be you know can be doing that with a 40 kilo competition bell and doing doubles and it doesn't look any different than if he's like other than their their white and they're not yellow right yeah so big bell that he's doing you know yeah if I if I tried to do it Rhino strength is doing I'd have to wear my brown pants that day just strange shit myself you know yeah he's yeah he's his feet of strength are very very impressive but yeah but yeah that's kind of like how that's my you know like nuanced little story of how I got into kettlebells and how I got into sport um I mean like things have evolved a little bit you know since I'm actually able to network and meet other people um you know and and you know through the kind of like two to live just one like you know he gave me these these opportunities to like join these these different competitions he kind of got me bit by the bug and now like I'm actually the one that's pestering him to be like your mother fucker are you actually setting out for this because like you we are going you know right I don't have his registration the registration link link is live as Bobby came to test because he did register for the competition so that's probably the first person to do it yeah you were the first person to use the actual one with the integrated pay link you were not the first person to register but well I mean to be fair I didn't say like six months ago and you were just like I think I'm gonna have a competition which is like I'm in yeah yeah you were you were you were the you were the second one to say I mean I was the first one but it's just because of when I decided I was doing it it was actually because you said you were in I was like all right I kind of need to make this happen I think I think like my favorite thing about your podcast because I mean like you know for every episode that you release I've probably listened to it at least like ten times and and I joke about this my girlfriend because like when I'm when I'm here uh by myself or or in the car or something like this you know she's like oh great you know I can hear the kettlebells like in the videos you're watching or like this nerd chat that you're listening to like you dorks you know and I'm just like you know the thing I love about it so much is that it's like I feel like I'm hanging out with my friends you know and it's the closest that I mean it's like I I know word for word with a lot of people are going to say and it never gets old you know and I actively just kind of keep going back and one you're an excellent host I really just truly love this and what you say you know it's like I loved the uh like the new fat blast series you know like I'm looking forward to hearing more of these yeah I've got yeah I've got another one of those coming I gotta I gotta update people and how that's going you know but it's it's one of the things for like and I mean we can even attest this is like I feel like I've introduced you to like at least three people that have actually been on your podcast you know but it's like I know so many of them I mean Carter is your very first uh interviewer you know or interviewer I guess you know and it's like he and I are pretty tight yeah I met him uh at the end of the actually the beginning of uh at the end of 2019 going in in 2020 we went you know traveled together with Juan um to the Arnold's and it's just like uh Doug even said you it's just like there is no better brotherly love than seeing Carter Barry and Juan Pijo together and it is the truest thing I've ever said yeah I keep very few things my phone like photo wise yeah very few like photos and videos and some of like the fondest memories I have were actually from that trip you know it just like with Monica Carter and and you know it's like I just feel like the more I actually get to listen to like you chat with these people the closer I feel to everybody and so I don't know I love it oh thank you very much that that does that means a lot to me um and it's it's been uh this is what you you learned Russian uh or started learning Russian I made a podcast that's what I did with my quarantine it's like I wouldn't fall on down this this uh this rabbit hole and uh it's it's funny my my my friend Tom who I've known since third grade uh was the one he'd been telling me for a long time uh that he's like dude you need to make a podcast he's like you need to make a podcast I think you'd be great at you'd be great at he's like every time I listen to Joe Rogan's podcast I'm like god he like that's the kind of shit that Jordan says like he's like he's like he's like you need to do like I'm not Joe Rogan by any stretch but uh you know it's uh it was just funny because he kept pushing me to do it like for years and finally I was like I think I'm gonna do it I think I'm gonna finally gonna gonna do it and uh and now I I finally have have done it and now it's like I know 40 something episodes in which is which is crazy and hopefully hopefully many more to come you know the best thing about like how you did it though and this kind of ties back again to the what we'd spoken do at the beginning you know that I didn't really touch on but you know it's like I think what a lot of people have is uh when they have an idea of something that they want to do they they are just like okay I'm gonna do this but then they have to order their special cameras or their microphones or they have to get that light and they have to do this and that and they have to they have to like invest in their their their webcam or all these other thing whatever might be you know and um what I really appreciated about what you did when you started this was you just started it you just went at it you know it's like I think can I can I wrong like the episode you did with one was that just a phone call in your car yeah yeah yeah because he made the point of talking about he heard the kettlebells rolling around in the backseat of your car and I heard that too throughout the whole thing and I was just like this is amazing and that's the one thing that I try to explain to everybody is that it's like you you can't get so tied up and fixated on like what could go wrong before you've even stepped foot out of the field you know yeah it's like you can't you can speak that it's our human nature is it mean like it's our lizard brain saying don't do this it's scary it's nerve-wracking you shouldn't do this you know and it's that impostor syndrome that you've talked about in the past and it's it's one of the things where I just really loved that like you went into it and you developed an audience you found your voice and as you were discovering these things that's when you kind of oh you know I've found like this uh this mic that I use to use for singing and let me see if I can actually spend six dollars to get like a cable to plug this in and make it sound a little bit better oh you know I got a pot mic also or x-pine z and like you're you're progressively peace-mealing your system your setup because at the end of the day the sound is the most important but only for that aesthetic at the end of the day the story is actually the most important and like that's something that you always did have and I'm really glad that you didn't just wait to actually get like the microphone the lighting the the way for the fans to come in because that's not how a fucking works you know so if you guys are starting doing something just start and just work on perfecting that just like if you haven't started doing kettlebell sport just start yeah get some good chest and reach out to Jordan because he's going to coach you if you'd like it is true I love I love coaching it is I if I if I if I if I spent as much time thinking about anything else I would probably be very very good at that thing but okay can I actually ask you a question yeah of course because I know that you know I want to be respectful of your time you know but because I mean like I don't sleep so you can talk to me all day but I actually I actually wanted to know because I don't really know if you've touched on this enough or in detail but I wanted to like how did you get into um coaching you know it's like how did you decide to start twin cities kettlebell club how did you actually like what was the process for you to get your your people your your tribe you know because that's something that I've wanted to know about yeah that's that's a great question um so I've always so I've always coached um I shouldn't say oh like I as long as as long as I can as long as I've been in the in the personal training space so you know I I I was I was working for a fortunate 500 company here in the twin cities actually back in the day um and I like had just gotten a big promotion like I was really excited about it and like had beat out like in a hundred internal candidates and like super excited about it I was like moving into learning and development which was kind of like you know doing corporate education corporate coaching you know so you know I've always kind of had a coaching type of personality and I was really excited about that and then like six months into that job I got laid off because I was the newest person in the department and so then I was like I was like fuck at that at that time I had I had I had I had started my journey of losing a bunch of weight so I was I was really overweight out of got after college and I had started my journey um because my wife and I were you know she was my fiance at the time and I was like I'm not gonna be fat at my wedding so I had started losing weight um and I was really and I was actually working part time at a supplement store um you know as a as a way to save money for the wedding and then that became my full-time job when I got laid off so I was like spending 40 hours a week 50 hours a week it was like clerks except I was the only one in the store and so during that time I got my nasm CPT and then I went and worked at lifetime fitness and then got introduced to kettlebells there and like immediately it was like like I gravitated to kettlebells and then I you know opened my own gym here in the Twin Cities and you know that that uh didn't go well and then I ended up having to I ended up having to sell that uh to my business partner and moving back into my parents basement which was especially awesome when you're you know uh I had cashed out I had cashed out my employee stock to open that gym and stuff and it was uh it was a terrible terrible thing but throughout all of that even even even when I went back into my corporate life and everything I still kept I still kept doing kettlebells on my own and then I still kept I still kept working with people like just one two three four people at a time I I kept I kept coaching I kept doing personal training because I was I was just it was like that fire that never died there was always kind of yeah there was always kind of an ember there um and then in Chicago I I found a gym I found a gym when we lived in Chicago that that had a really good culture and one of my friends one of my friends worked there and I went and talked to the owner I was like hey would would you be cool if I if I coach kettlebell here if I started teaching kettlebell he's like yeah we don't have anybody that teaches kettlebell here so I started teaching kettlebell classes there and there were more like fitness based classes but it was teaching it to like teaching it to like rugby players and stuff like that and then um and then I met I met Sarah I met Sarah for narrow um who was uh a triathlete who had had a knee injury uh like a triathlon athlete who had had who had had a knee injury and so she couldn't really run anymore or at least at that time she couldn't she couldn't really run and so she was a member at that gym and and uh I was certified in kettlebell sport but I didn't coach anybody in kettlebell sport at that at that time like I nobody was really interested in and I was doing it personally um and and Sarah was like what is this kettlebell sport thing that you do and I was like oh I told her about it and and she was like it's like yeah I was like I'm happy to teach you if you like if you'd like to try it and she's like yeah I think I'd be interested we can we can do we can do that next session right and and so taught her and we were just doing one ballot at first and like you know taking her through some like the Larry Federico's protocols like like like put her through the pentathlon and some some different stuff and we're showing her some different stuff and I was like my eyes got big when I saw Sarah like I don't know if you've ever seen Sarah lift but Sarah is a fucking beast Sarah uh within within a couple of years Sarah was a world record holder like she had the engine you know from being a tri- from being a triathlete so she had the engine and swimmer swimmers can suffer like anybody that can swim can suffer and especially if you can swim open water you know so she already had the cardio and she was already strong and she she already had the capacity for suffering and she's a competitive person so she had like and she she had all of the $1 boxes yeah and she's got the perfectionistic tendencies to like she can do the repetitive thing over and over and over again to to really learn the technique and everything and honestly like she got to a point at that point I was still I was still fairly new like she was my first kettlebell sport athlete that I ever coached and she got to a point pretty quickly where I was like I was like I'm not the right coach for you at this point like I was like so I actually handed I actually recommended that she that she go work with Mike Salazar from from Evo fit and and he's the one who took her to like I'm I don't want to take credit for for for her achievements like because she she and Mike she and Mike worked together and she could take a little bit you could take a little bit she I would I heard what it was yeah well like I always say I'm the one again I'm the one who got her hooked like that's what that's what I got I got her hooked you know but you're like the dad that takes his kid fishing and he ties the knot like around the hug and then the sun catches the biggest fishing it's like motherfucker you know I tied that knot for you I knew like I knew and I told her I was like you're going to be great in the sport like you were going to be awesome at this sport so so that kind of and that for me was like so Sarah like seeing Sarah go on and and do all that she did like planted the seed for me of like okay I do really love this sport like and I love coaching and so I continued coaching I continued coaching kettlebell sport and then when we moved from Chicago to the Twin Cities my wife and I I was like yeah at this point I'd been doing kettlebell sport consistently for at least at over five years I'd been doing it like it was all I did for training like it was all basically all I did I still dabble with barbell stuff and stuff but it's always an ad junk to improve my performance in kettlebell sport right so like I was like at this point I'm like all in on the kettlebell sport thing and like I was I was part of the the Windy City kettlebell club you know with Mike Salazar and Sarah and and Linda heep and you know all the great lifters there the Emily a whole bunch of great lifters came out of there you know and so I was part of that community and I was loved it and I had a you know I so I had a passion for it and when I moved up here I was like there is no kettlebell sport team up here you know and I I was just like I'm gonna start one and at that point I was just I was just like no I'm going I'm going all in on on starting my own kettlebell sport team and even if it's just me showing up at this gym so I reached out to Kate at the athlete lab and I was you know I pitched her on how I could build a community of of lifters here in the in the Twin Cities and and she was like cool like have at it like let's do it she because she's all about building community and so she supported me gave me a space to you know to train out of and make you know Greg Anderson up here and he's he's the OG original member of the Twin Cities kettlebell club he's still still still with us but he hit CMS I got him to CMS and snatch within like six months you know but he came in with a great background because he was a hard stug guy for a long time and he does like you know rock walks you know doing doing all nasal breathing and like he's he's got a martial arts background and so so it was just a matter of teaching him kettlebell sport and then building his conditioning up to to be able to do to do the specific adaptation but you know now since covid it's been it's been crazy because I like we went online and rather than teaching at a physical location I was like I'm going to teach online and I'm going to use zoom and I started having I started having people so once you remove that geographic barrier and since everybody was at home too like so yeah like nobody can go to the gym everybody's at home and so that it's kind of a timing thing but like the geographic barrier was eliminated and then it just it just kind of snowballed from there and now we've got you know like 20 people on the team and it's yes it's going it's going awesome like I'm I love it and I'm a systems guy too so like I have kind of I have a I have a I have a system that I that I use for for training people and it's it works it works really well and I love it and it's been it's been our own little tribe too you know which has been fantastic we've got a cool it's it's fun coming on to those zoom those zoom meetings every time and like I'm like I still have a little bit of the imposter so I'm like well nobody's can nobody's going to show up today it's just going to be it's just going to be me and then like so the first person goes on yeah somebody showed up and then like and then like three more people go to like a cool like five more people and it's like oh before and on I've got like you know 10 12 14 people and I like those days I'm like oh my god this is this is overwhelming it's awesome but you know one of the things I think like that is really important to kind of talk about with that is that it's like it's not just you as a coach that has that imposter syndrome kind of feeling where it's just like you're afraid that you're going to put something out and not have enough people there you know like you know especially unlike that last video that I told you I'd made you with like with the kids and everything you know even like my girlfriend is like now look don't be upset if it doesn't really pick up or anything like this and like this is one of the few times where I kind of like really had like this mental kind of like this state or I just wasn't really like precious about it I was just like I was just so proud of what I had made you know because like I spent so much time just making this actually look and match like old reference 50s videos that I've watched it was awesome I spent hours just yeah I spent hours just watching these videos just so I could understand like the dialect of how the transcondental accent was and like how the cadence and all these other things so it's like when when I ascended execute it like that that was something where I wasn't really normally upset about it like I would be but I worded that poorly like normally I would be kind of like nervous about posting something because like there's this expectation where it's just like I put so much work into what I do just like you do with your clients and it's one of the things for like normally I would just be like very very nervous and then all of a sudden you realize like oh okay it's actually picking up it's gonna be okay but even still like you I've been doing this for years and it's like I still kind of get like that that little bit of anxiety like my girlfriend same thing like she's way more successful than me and she said and it's like she will work on something and she and I put more time into like a single photograph or a single video that most people probably put into like a week of their normal job you know but it's like we are always bombarded with the sense of anxiety that is not going to be worth what we invested in it you know and it's like I think that's an interesting thing. Thanks for listening to this episode of the platform podcast I'm Jordan Kunde-Wright we'll reconnect for part two of my interview with Bobby Hicks next week. Please don't forget to register for the Twin Cities kettlebell open on our website Twin Cities kettlebellclub.com and if you have a question or a suggestion please email me at Twin Cities kettlebellclub at gmail.com don't forget to follow us on social media at Twin Cities kettlebell club and if you want to step onto the platform and compete in kettlebell sport please reach out to me until next time