Chris Duffin - Kabuki Strength & The Unconventional Executive

[00:00:02] Hey everybody, welcome to the Future of Fitness, a top rated fitness industry podcast for over

[00:00:08] two years and running. It is 2021 and I am your host Eric Malzone. I have the absolute

[00:00:15] pleasure of talking to entrepreneurs, innovators and cutting edge technology experts within

[00:00:21] the fast paced industries of fitness, wellness and health sciences. Stop by Future of Fitness

[00:00:26] .co to subscribe and learn more. When you do what you love, running, racing or simply enjoying

[00:00:36] the great outdoors, you want to do it for life. Inside Tracker can help. Inside Tracker was

[00:00:42] founded in 2009 by leading scientists in aging, genetics and biometrics. Using their patented

[00:00:48] algorithm, Inside Tracker analyzes your body's data to provide you with a clear picture of

[00:00:54] what's going on inside you while offering highly personalized science back recommendations

[00:00:59] for positive diet and lifestyle changes. Okay, time for straight talk. It's time that each

[00:01:07] single one of us takes responsibility for our own health. Personally giving them results

[00:01:12] my Inside Tracker DNA and blood tests, I now have a clear and simple game plan to lower

[00:01:17] my cholesterol and stave off my family's genetic history of heart disease. The best

[00:01:22] part is that the plan doesn't include any kind of pharmaceuticals. Just personalized nutrition

[00:01:27] and natural supplementation. Possibly my favorite feature of Inside Tracker is the

[00:01:32] inner age score, a singular metric that shows me how my biological age compares to my chronological

[00:01:38] age. They just gamify longevity. It's crazy cool. For a limited time you can get 25%

[00:01:44] off the entire inside tracker store. Just go to inside tracker dot com forward slash

[00:01:50] future. The wait, there is more. If you're a coach, trainer, registered dietitian or any

[00:01:58] other health and wellness practitioner, you can now leverage Inside Tracker services to help your

[00:02:02] clients perform better than they ever have. And you can offer them discounts while you earn

[00:02:08] revenue. Inside Tracker Pro is your gateway to offering your clients inside tracker, the

[00:02:14] science backed ultra personalized performance platform, trust by elite athletes and top

[00:02:19] coaches. Just go to inside tracker dot com forward slash future to get more information and enjoy

[00:02:26] deep, deep discounts that is inside tracker dot com forward slash future. This episode of the

[00:02:41] Future Fitness is brought to you by our good friends at the brand X method. Kids deserve our

[00:02:47] best period full stop. Brand X has dedicated themselves to doing what is best for kids for

[00:02:53] over two decades. Here's the facts. All major pediatric organizations agree that youth, strength

[00:03:01] and conditioning and fitness programs must be specifically designed for children and coached

[00:03:07] by those specifically educated in working with children. This seems like a no brainer.

[00:03:13] Successful programs come from educated coaches who have all the tools to best serve

[00:03:19] youth. Brand X offers unequaled ongoing support through ever growing relative content delivered

[00:03:26] monthly, plus the mountains of information leveraging their 20 plus years of experience.

[00:03:32] As the developers of the original kids functional fitness program certification with over 100

[00:03:38] state and national record holders and recognize the world's leaders in youth fitness,

[00:03:43] brand X not only offers the fully digital take at your own pace professional youth coaches

[00:03:49] certification, but has recently added to their suite of custom education products to best serve

[00:03:55] educators and parents as well because kids deserve our best. So whether you are a gym owner, coach,

[00:04:02] educator, parent or simply anyone who cares for the future of our children, brand X is offering

[00:04:07] a 20% discount on all digital education products for a limited time. Go visit the brand X method

[00:04:15] dot com forward slash future to get your code today. Again, that is the brand X method dot

[00:04:22] com forward slash future and claim your code. Please go check out our wonderful sponsors.

[00:04:35] And if you get value out of this show, I asked you to do three things. Please go subscribe,

[00:04:40] give us a favorable rating and share this episode on social media or wherever you like to go chat

[00:04:46] with friends. I am your host Eric Malzone and once again, welcome to the future of fitness.

[00:04:54] Oh, we're live Chris Duffin. Welcome to the future of fitness.

[00:04:58] Thanks man. Looking forward to talking today. I am I was excited just to have you as a guest

[00:05:04] and then just as we are discussing like, you know, what we're actually going to go over

[00:05:08] in your vision for what you're doing. I'm even five times more excited now to talk to him and you

[00:05:13] are man, you are a fascinating cat like the things you do all the stuff you do. I mean,

[00:05:18] not only use strength icon and we'll get into the record holder and everything you've done from

[00:05:23] a performance standpoint, but you're also an author. You are an entrepreneur. You're

[00:05:31] whatever you're an inventor. I noticed a little bit through your Instagram feed. You got a

[00:05:34] little bit of steampunk in you as well. I don't know if that's true or not,

[00:05:39] but maybe you have a modern Renaissance man. You know,

[00:05:44] I consider myself it took a long time because my background is engineering and business, right? So

[00:05:49] and I ran automotive aerospace companies doing turnaround stuff and managing engineering teams,

[00:05:55] operations, all that sort of stuff. And I grew up among artists and I'm like,

[00:06:00] I'm not the artist in the bunch. And finally, one day I realized that's actually how I function.

[00:06:04] Like I go out and I start creating what's in my mind. I don't have this vision, but I don't

[00:06:09] have all the details worked out and I just start creating these like things that be a entire

[00:06:15] vehicle from scratch new products and actually businesses. So and to me, like entrepreneurship

[00:06:23] has become the ultimate expression of art in my opinion in this day and age, because it is how you

[00:06:30] can look at the current world right now and where you think it's going and what needs to happen.

[00:06:38] And then what are your values or your company's values? And how are you going to impact the

[00:06:44] world with that in creating this future vision, but doing it today, right? And so

[00:06:52] that is such a huge if we think about that from an artistic perspective, a huge way that we can

[00:06:58] express our vision, our values within the world today. And so to me, that's why it becomes the

[00:07:05] ultimate expression of art. And so anyway, kind of a little bit of a tangential to the thing.

[00:07:12] But that's so yeah, they I guess the steampunk stuff is like me, I just go out and make wild

[00:07:18] stuff from time to time. And that's the Genesis my engineering team, my engineering manager jokes.

[00:07:24] He's like, my job is to interpret your crazy, you know, napkins or whatever it is you hand

[00:07:30] me and actually turn it into real usable shit. Excuse the language, but

[00:07:35] you know, that's that that's actually my job is being the Duffin interpreter.

[00:07:42] Yeah, it's amazing. And for people, if you follow Chris on it's mad scientist Duffin, right? Is that

[00:07:48] your handle on Instagram? It's really cool to it's I really enjoyed it. I'm not on Instagram

[00:07:53] very much, but you tend to be popped up when I anyway, it's cool. I try to be really just

[00:07:59] authentic myself on there and it kind of throws people off a lot of times because

[00:08:05] you know, I'm I've got ADHD, I'm bipolar like whatever, you know, it's just like, I don't comb

[00:08:10] my hair. I wearing what I you know, I just like I don't look the social media influencer

[00:08:18] look or type at all. And that's that's okay. It's just me doing my thing and

[00:08:23] and that's the way I am. And you know, but it's funny the amount of people that will get

[00:08:27] on I can't believe you need to get your haircut. You need to do this like like,

[00:08:32] I don't know why bothers you so much like, yeah, yeah. I mean, that's that's time for that it

[00:08:39] doesn't it doesn't fit into my my brain or my life I forget. Yeah, I mean, you're a busy guy.

[00:08:43] There's stains on my shirt from lunch. I don't know like, oh well.

[00:08:49] You doing your own thing. I think that's, you know, a nice summation of your life, right? I

[00:08:55] mean, if and for people who don't know, I really want to get into the meat of what we're

[00:08:59] going to discuss today, which is your vision for Kabuki and, you know, cohesive system within the

[00:09:04] coaching and fitness and health industry. I think it's really powerful. But for those of you people

[00:09:09] who may not be familiar with everything that you've done, right in your life. And I mean,

[00:09:14] you've already lived four lives, I feel like in your lifetime. You're the kind of person I

[00:09:21] hear all these things you've done. You make me feel lazy, dude. Feel lazy. So give us

[00:09:26] someone your background from, you know, strength icon to athlete to business owner get all the goods.

[00:09:31] Yeah. Yeah. So, well, we could start forward and then go a little back so that people can maybe see

[00:09:39] the arc of how far things have come, which will get into like my bestselling book, which is

[00:09:45] an autobiography The Eagle in the Dragon, which by the way, you can get the first half up

[00:09:49] for free on my site, chrisduffen.com or chrisduffen.com. It's like muffin, but with a D by the

[00:09:54] way, pretty easy to find. But I give it away for free. Anyway, hey, it's easy to remember. Come on.

[00:10:02] It is. I love it. Yeah. I'm a cow zone with an M. There you go. So makes it so easy. I don't have

[00:10:09] to spell it out. Now, so yeah, a lot of people follow because they see like the straight icon piece

[00:10:17] or let's start there. So I was a number one ranked powerlifter for eight years straight,

[00:10:23] kind of walked away from that around the time I started founded Kabuki Strength and then Barefoot

[00:10:29] and Bill Fast and decided I just wanted to do what I wanted to do. You know, I set all time

[00:10:34] world records. I've been number one in the world. I'm like, I want to do something. I want to

[00:10:38] demonstrate the absolute maximum inability to manage spinal mechanics. And I want to do

[00:10:46] something just over the top that people just don't think is possible. So it's part

[00:10:51] inspiration. It's part walking the walk and showing people the methodology that we teach

[00:10:57] and that, you know, a person that has had back problems to a point where I had to learn to

[00:11:02] walk again in my past that I could overcome that and do something crazy, something grand.

[00:11:07] And I talented grand goals. It took five years. But I became the only person that's

[00:11:14] both both squatted 1000 pounds and dead lifted 1000 pounds. And I did them both for reps

[00:11:21] just to make sure that there's no quite like, ah, it's not quite locked out. It's not whatever. No,

[00:11:26] I did both of them for for three reps. Well, they had left I didn't lock out the third rep,

[00:11:31] but you know, I got two clean ones. So it's a lot of people know that then they don't know,

[00:11:38] Oh, hey, the other side, like I me my team, you know, we speak at physical therapy

[00:11:45] colleges. We speak at chiropractic colleges. We speak at, you know, very elite symposiums of,

[00:11:51] you know, the best and the best like actually my advisory board on Kabuki strength.

[00:11:56] Challenge anybody to find somebody better within our industry. We've got the leading spine

[00:12:01] biomechanist, you know, the person that brought one of the fundamental development

[00:12:06] of kinesiology practices to the United States. We've got arguably the best physical

[00:12:10] therapists in the world, one of the best orthopedic surgeons in the world.

[00:12:13] Like these are people backing what we do because we specialize in

[00:12:16] improving human function. And we do that through both coaching and education,

[00:12:22] as well as equipment and bringing things to market to allow for individualization,

[00:12:27] to allow joints to get in the right positions to take the negative stresses off and for

[00:12:31] things to happen on the body, the width they should, and be able to accommodate for

[00:12:36] the individuality of lever links, mobility restrictions, and to do all that rapidly.

[00:12:41] And then my other brands, Barefoot Athletics, Foot Mechanics is really important.

[00:12:46] There wasn't anything on the market that really was working right in my opinion.

[00:12:52] And so we brought, you know, barefoot shoes to the market and soon it's gonna be barefoot boots.

[00:12:59] And that's with a bear. You'll understand that in a minute when I get to imagine bears,

[00:13:05] running around in the woods, yeah, we'll get there. So and then what I do from supplementation

[00:13:10] through build fast formula. So we work. So a lot of people, you know, like, oh, okay, you,

[00:13:17] yeah, okay, all right, you're not just a meathead to do this stuff. And, you know,

[00:13:23] we work with 90% of all professional sports teams in North America. So like 29 of 30 major

[00:13:28] league baseball teams. So you can understand I'm not over speaking when I, when I throw

[00:13:33] these numbers out, 600 plus colleges, every major school you can think of the Olympic training,

[00:13:40] let's go all over the place. Right? People in the know use our stuff because it is the absolute best

[00:13:46] for allowing an improved training effect while reducing risk, potential for injury risk.

[00:13:55] And that allows you to train more frequently, higher volumes, which allows you to get better

[00:13:59] results. Huh, interesting. Now the backstory is so before that I actually I mentioned engineering

[00:14:07] and business and running companies and all that, but let's roll this all the way back.

[00:14:11] I started my life growing up homeless in the wilderness. So we're talking Northern California

[00:14:20] in a very difficult environment. This is up in the, I can't remember what triangle they call it,

[00:14:28] but if you watch the documentary series, Murder Mountain, I lived about 50 miles from there,

[00:14:34] three hours because it's like so windy and remote out there. And dealt with some pretty crazy stuff.

[00:14:42] So talking six years old being taught how to capture and handle live rattlesnakes because we're

[00:14:47] you know just living in the woods and there's rattlesnake dens around. Like I don't know

[00:14:50] how to do this. And we've got beams lashed up into the trees and that's where we sleep

[00:14:54] at night and take a shower. A lot of times growing up all the way through high school,

[00:14:59] there's times like you know it's filling up jugs in the stream and setting them out on a rock during

[00:15:03] this to heat up so you can dump it over your head at the later in the afternoon or heating up some

[00:15:09] water on the wood stove and stepping out the back of a shack and dumping it over your head

[00:15:14] with snow on the ground to so you're not made fun of at school because of at least the

[00:15:19] smelling part but you know maybe because your toes are sticking out of your shoes or

[00:15:23] your clothes are falling off but lived a pretty harsh life and in the northern California time,

[00:15:29] very early time we're talking about dealing with and this is why I reference murder

[00:15:33] mountains. So if you watch that you'll see tons of stuff about people disappearing,

[00:15:39] people dying, human trafficking, drug trafficking, drug abuse, all this stuff like

[00:15:46] murderers like I grew up in this environment and this happened to me and my family and around me

[00:15:52] and I detailed that out those experiences in the book and it's a lot of trauma you know it's a

[00:15:58] lot of stuff and so we got taken by the state for a while, parents got us back and we ended

[00:16:05] up in Oregon kind of out in the eastern and parents got out of the drug trade

[00:16:10] to you know make sure that they didn't lose us again but you know we started mining and

[00:16:15] doing other stuff so that they could you know live this life that they wanted you know outside of

[00:16:19] society it was a choice and I ended up uh I got a full right academic scholarship to go to college

[00:16:29] I ended up during college things got way worse at home when I left because I was I was always there

[00:16:35] I was the one taking care of my younger siblings had three younger sisters, a younger brother

[00:16:39] and I was the one you know doing that while they were out growing crops or mining or I was

[00:16:43] helping with mining or what like I was a big part of the older brother that basically took care of

[00:16:49] things and when I left it got really bad and so I took custody of my three younger sisters

[00:16:54] and started raising them when I was going through school for my dual engineering degree

[00:17:00] as I continued and I worked full time through that and as I continued you know advancing

[00:17:06] getting my MBA pushing my career forward and so I went from being this you know quiet kid

[00:17:14] that uh wasn't very socialized and you know running around the mountains with bears and stuff

[00:17:20] I ended up being coming a corporate leader and I was you know hired to come in and turn

[00:17:25] around companies prep them for sale all sorts of stuff and that was uh that was a pretty crazy

[00:17:31] wild scope of things and then in 2015 I sat back and I went I am not doing what I meant to do in this

[00:17:41] world and parts of it I am parts of it you know I owned a gym on the side by the way during the

[00:17:48] corporate time and was training that's when I was training and was ranked number one in the world

[00:17:53] and set in all-time world records and I was like I am meant to do more and I really want

[00:17:59] to help people live a better quality of life I want people to to achieve more than they think is

[00:18:04] possible I want and I was doing that through the leadership you know that's that's how you turn

[00:18:09] around companies it's not like some crazy reorg strategy and but yeah of course you work

[00:18:15] those tools but it's really one person at a time game you know changing people changes

[00:18:21] changes culture changes company and I got the recording out of that and I got coaching in the

[00:18:26] evening but I wanted to do so much more and I was producing content just for free online because

[00:18:31] that's so frustrated with the fitness industry and I'm like I just I'd walk into the gym and I'd film

[00:18:36] a video of like hey guys come around I got something to talk about today and I'd post up these potato

[00:18:42] phone videos back you know starting in 2007 or so on YouTube and then got more and more

[00:18:48] after 2010 or so I'd be putting this up but I had a big follower base and I started writing

[00:18:53] for you know a bunch of uh online sites just covering really basic stuff that people needed to

[00:18:59] know and that I saw wrong and I'm like this is what I need to do like I'm getting messages from people

[00:19:07] around the world telling them I've changed their life I've gotten them out of pain I've done

[00:19:11] and I do short article pieces about my life never anything anywhere close to what I did

[00:19:16] with my book and same thing it was just like I'm like this is where I need to go

[00:19:20] and I don't have time like I have right now in my life my kids are getting a little older

[00:19:27] so I've got they're going to be getting involved in sports I've got my training I want to be the

[00:19:32] best in the world I've got my hobbies you know I was building equipment for the gym building

[00:19:38] you know off-road vehicles I love that stuff I've got my job I've got

[00:19:44] what's what's gonna give and that's the job so I'm gonna make everything else fall into my work

[00:19:51] that's what I'm gonna do and that's what I did so I uh yeah I walked away from walked away

[00:19:59] from everything I'm like I want to live life with passion I want to chase the things I want

[00:20:04] to make the world a better place through the the skills and abilities that I have and I should

[00:20:11] note I was doing like clinical continuing education at the time as well that's how I got to know a lot

[00:20:16] of these other figures and developing the methodology and approach that we have for

[00:20:21] assessments and how we manage and things under all the principles that then created the products

[00:20:27] at Kabuki strength and so on so um so there's a lot of stuff that happened over those years

[00:20:33] but 2015 I walked away from everything uh I well you know we're talking to business owners on here but

[00:20:43] so uh yeah so what that means is I had a high paying career I was sought after for what I did

[00:20:49] I had a couple homes I had a massive retirement I had a house with a white picket fence wife

[00:20:54] with two kids I was you know a number one ranked athlete in the world is powerlifting

[00:21:00] so what did I do I quit powerlifting I quit my job I sold my homes I took out my entire

[00:21:14] retirement and and and leveraged it I took on millions of dollars in personal debt

[00:21:21] I asked my wife for a divorce and that's what I did in 2015 2016

[00:21:28] because I wanted passion in all aspects of my life and uh so since then I built the globally

[00:21:36] recognized brand I started uh which is a you know an eight figure and growing brand

[00:21:44] I started two other businesses that hit seven figures in their first like 18 months

[00:21:50] I started exhibition lifting so instead of just doing what I really want to do

[00:21:56] which will be the subject of a movie that comes out next year I wrote a best-selling autobiography

[00:22:00] I got remarried to the love of my life and I have three kids my my ex-wife has a house uh

[00:22:07] just four minutes away we bought her a home over there and um and uh amazing family life really

[00:22:14] good relationship with the ex and uh the kids and families it's all like I have so much more

[00:22:20] time for my family than I did before because everything that I do is encompassed in my work

[00:22:28] my training I do it my work my creative outlets are at work my my people that that share the same

[00:22:36] values and want to do the same thing in the world all came to work for me uh and so everything

[00:22:43] all becomes this and I work harder than I've ever worked in my life but I have probably four

[00:22:49] maybe even five more hours a day with my family than I used to you know drop it off the kids before

[00:22:54] they were barely awake uh work in this hard ass you know top level executive job then racing from

[00:23:01] there to go to the gym to come home you know pushing the limits of being late have dinner

[00:23:06] put the kids to bed you know that was that was that was my life and uh so I work a lot harder

[00:23:13] now but I have more of the things like I I know I'm going on I'm speaking for a long time here

[00:23:23] but this is great but but this is this is what I encourage people to do like I'm a business

[00:23:31] side or wherever is chasing things through what I call extremes like people tell you to find

[00:23:36] work life balance and find blah blah balance balance balance and I and I I agree with

[00:23:43] finding balance but I don't agree with it through moderation if you really want to make change and

[00:23:49] do things in the world you can find balance through chasing extremes balance by the extremes this is

[00:23:57] you want to squat a thousand pounds I want you to do it I want you to go into the gym

[00:24:02] and squat with absolute freaking perfection no you chase the miniscule list and people

[00:24:10] you know minute of deviation and try to limit it people go I need to do body weight or just the

[00:24:15] bar or maybe a plate gotta get it perfect it's like no no no you you can't because to find perfection

[00:24:20] you have to find where you break so you have to push the extremes of of breaking so you know

[00:24:25] what to fix but if I say I want you to put every last ounce of effort into this squat you

[00:24:32] walk away with there is nothing left and people go oh well forms to the wind just like it's

[00:24:38] gonna look like crap you're just gonna be all up like it's you know all in right and no you can't

[00:24:46] achieve the absolute maximum in your output if you've got leaks if you've got ability just a

[00:24:53] slightest bit of fraction of movement try squatting a thousand one pounds for three and having

[00:24:57] something like that's going to destroy you the training for it's going to destroy you you

[00:25:01] have to be chasing every little tiny thing for years to perfect that and then in the center you

[00:25:10] find balance and you find balance in a manner that is beautiful something that you never thought was

[00:25:16] possible before and that's balanced by the extremes and if you do that the beautiful thing of that

[00:25:22] is also it's going to make you forced to drop the shit that don't matter in life away

[00:25:27] I want to go back to some of I mean there's so many questions I want to ask about this and

[00:25:34] there's you know I talked to a lot of entrepreneurs and talk to a lot of people in business and

[00:25:38] one of the quotes that comes out when I'm listening to you is like entrepreneurship is

[00:25:42] is doing what other people won't so you can live a life that other people can't right and you kind

[00:25:47] of made a decision in 2015 to just you know I think there's a bunch of different camps too

[00:25:52] there's the burn the boats go all in folks right I feel like you drift into that you may even lead

[00:25:59] that camp or you have like the more you know I guess the the more pragmatic approach of like well

[00:26:06] I'm going to work two jobs for a while you know start my business and then as it goes when it's

[00:26:11] it's ready I'll go all in right where do you sit on that spectrum as an entrepreneur yeah yeah so

[00:26:19] there is something to be said for the burn the bridges and that's like if we look at my early

[00:26:24] childhood that's how I had to succeed people are like how'd you get out of that I'm like I had no

[00:26:29] like I didn't have a couch to go home to if I you know things didn't work in school in fact I

[00:26:33] was giving money at home that's why I quit contacting home and that's why things fell

[00:26:37] apart and I had to jump back in so but I really temper that because so many people do not

[00:26:47] understand why they want to do the things that they want or what why they want the things that

[00:26:52] they want and if you're out there trying to chase fame money you know these other the you know these

[00:27:00] those type of things you know the entrepreneur hustle stuff that they're always trying to uh

[00:27:06] call it entrepreneur porn uh hustle porn sorry hustle porn that's the stuff if you're out

[00:27:10] there chasing the hustle porn like you know I need my fancy car I need my jet I'm going to

[00:27:15] get there just grind grind grind go all in that's not enough it truly has to be something

[00:27:22] because you're going to suffer you're going to suffer hard there's going to be periods where you

[00:27:28] everybody around you is questioning you and you're questioning yourself wait for me you know I'm

[00:27:34] sitting there super highly successful individual in so many regards I'm living in an apartment

[00:27:40] I've lost everything that I own you know the business isn't quite taken off yet I don't know

[00:27:45] what's going to happen I'm selling like my my remnants of stuff that I had stored in my garage

[00:27:50] on eBay and Craigslist trying to make ends meet so I can you know have food for the family to pay

[00:27:55] going God I don't want this to get to the point where you know we're living the way that I

[00:28:00] live growing up like I can't let my kids go through this that those times are going to come

[00:28:06] the stress the hardship like owning a business is not for you you know somebody comes up to me and

[00:28:12] says hey I'm thinking about starting a business what advice do you have for me I'm going to trade

[00:28:18] up say don't don't and if you can't overcome that then there you got a big problem so I have no

[00:28:25] problem saying that because you're going to have a whole lot more problems if you need if you

[00:28:30] need for me to say yes go you know to get behind you and pump you up and you know throw

[00:28:35] up some motivational quotes and motivational memes for you every day to keep you going

[00:28:41] you're going to fail you need a lot more you need to know why you're doing this and the impact that

[00:28:46] you want to have you need to understand your values and what you're trying to do and it is not

[00:28:50] business is not about making money money is the vehicle about which we make change in the world

[00:28:58] okay and so yes you have to make money to be successful to pay the people that are

[00:29:04] going to be part of the team making this stuff happen and and to be successful and continue that

[00:29:10] that on you need to have a successful business but that's the medium I think I'm stealing a bit

[00:29:16] of Simon Sinek here but I've been preaching this before before he was posting anything about that

[00:29:23] and so that is that's that's a big piece for people to understand and so if you're

[00:29:30] going to burn the bridges you better damn well know why because it's going to be hard all right

[00:29:37] the first several years I didn't have to do that it took a couple years before it grew

[00:29:40] to the scope so when I did it was kind of a transition because I it was me and that it

[00:29:47] was two employees and and so on so it wasn't until you know we started growing into the

[00:29:53] the millions of dollars and having to really take out you know the the amount of risk that we had to

[00:30:01] the staff the equipment the buying millions of dollars worth of machines and you know tons of

[00:30:07] real estate and all this sort of stuff that uh it started getting to to that point you know more

[00:30:12] about two years in but that is uh so I guess I did a little bit of both because I didn't

[00:30:20] want my family to compromise but we ended up doing so for I guess a little bit of time

[00:30:27] so so I don't have an answer other than if you want to burn bridges you better damn well

[00:30:33] make sure it's more than more than your ego more than your physical wants more than you're trying

[00:30:40] to impress people more than you're trying to win more than you try and to accumulate fancy

[00:30:45] nice things and money that's great chris and I want to circle it back now because you know

[00:30:52] you're what motivated you through all this I know you have a you have a vision why you started

[00:30:56] I mean we were talking about recording again you have a you had a 10-year vision when you

[00:31:00] started kabuki right you knew where I was going you're about halfway through that now

[00:31:05] explain that vision you know the I believe the term you use was a cohesive system

[00:31:11] right and walk us through what you're thinking and where you're on on that journey

[00:31:14] and what's left well I can't share all of it sure hard but is uh is I would I'm working on

[00:31:24] creating a cohesive ecosystem of not just you know the physical gym the products that we use

[00:31:31] being products that match the principles around what we believe in for for human movement

[00:31:38] and loading right and and then that that uh that methodology that approach for being able to manage

[00:31:48] an individual training and look at that across creating multiple people's training and being

[00:31:53] able to analyze you know what we're doing both from a subjective the art of coaching as well as

[00:31:58] the objective measures such as bar speed hrv the ways that we can tap into uh and see and

[00:32:05] how we're managing what's working in what's not and where we're potentiating risk looking at all those

[00:32:11] things all that working together as well as the clinical aspect so you know there's a

[00:32:19] neurocentric approach as a partner of mine he's actually mentioned in my book Dr. Philip Snell

[00:32:24] is what we'll be using is a is a clinical adjunct for a methodology in neuro uh looking

[00:32:31] at problems through a neurological lens to assess whether it's a fascial based approach

[00:32:35] versus a movement based approach and then the whole goal is to get people back to loaded movement

[00:32:41] everybody in here is all around getting us to loaded movement because that's where we adapt

[00:32:46] that's where change happens right and then creating that environment where the coach

[00:32:52] and the clinician are actually talking they're speaking the same language they're trained in

[00:32:56] the same same same process but basically reinventing the gym from the entirety this whole gym so every

[00:33:03] all our products every one of them is a subset of creating this new vision of a gym we have our

[00:33:10] coaching and education already and continuing education platform it's always growing and we

[00:33:15] walk through we've got three different levels of seminars the neurocentric approach will

[00:33:19] kind of tie in on the clinical and then you know we do this here but uh you know

[00:33:24] creating a virtual model of how the coach and clinician can uh can interact obviously

[00:33:29] you've got some uh some HIPAA compliance and other stuff to work through well whatever

[00:33:34] but to create this entire cohesive ecosystem that is usable and scalable where everything

[00:33:41] is working together and they're all different inputs into it to pull people in whether it's

[00:33:46] you know a 60 year old grandmother that's never touched a weight in her life and is

[00:33:50] coming to see because she can't pick up her her grandkid because of back pain and yeah we walk

[00:33:56] through some correctives and we do some other stuff and then we introduce her hey guess what

[00:34:00] now we actually got to get a little bit stronger in these positions and learn how to

[00:34:04] you know now we've got the awareness and we've got the appropriate stuff we've got all this

[00:34:08] stuff going but now we've actually got to load this and actually create some change and then

[00:34:12] feel during that end of the training environment and and this back and forth

[00:34:16] like it's so so much of the communication is broken you know we've got we've got clinicians

[00:34:23] that don't know anything about what the coach is doing the coach is not doing all this stuff

[00:34:27] is broken to equipment designers that our engineers working over here that don't have

[00:34:31] even a gym to test this like it's all like all of it needs to fit together and work

[00:34:37] together right and then we've got people creating all this app-based software to analyze

[00:34:42] and manage you know manage different databases and different you know technology inputs and

[00:34:49] they don't they're not may not be a sports science background and understand what the coach but the

[00:34:54] coach isn't uh the coach again is not a person that's gonna he's not a database developer

[00:35:00] he's not a like and all this stuff needs to work together to be able to be clean

[00:35:06] and be able to provide the tools necessary to make the you know make training a positive

[00:35:12] experience to leave people with a better quality of life because at the end of the day training

[00:35:18] should not be something that ever leaves you broken and it has a lot in the past and

[00:35:25] training develops resilience of body and that is something that is important for us

[00:35:31] living a better quality of life now you also need to have resilience of body mind and soul

[00:35:36] which is you know why I write you know my books and other stuff uh books I say books because I got

[00:35:41] another one coming out but uh those are those those three things you know in life we need to have

[00:35:49] challenge we need to have stress we need to have stuff that scares us and puts us off of our

[00:35:53] off of our off of our seat you know on the edge of our seat because those things are what bring

[00:35:59] about adaptation there is no life without adaptation so finding comfort finding an easy

[00:36:08] the easy path is is what is the path towards that and so but within that we need to move

[00:36:15] better we need to feel better we need to have the tools and the knowledge to be able to use it

[00:36:21] because if you don't you know it can end up being something that is traumatic it could

[00:36:27] it could be something that causes injury it could be lots of different things if we don't have the

[00:36:33] right tools and education I find when people have a vision like this they're initiating change that

[00:36:42] there's generally like a point in time like a specific problem that you noticed or something

[00:36:47] that was bugging you right that you kind of set out maybe and maybe I'm making this up in my

[00:36:52] mind or maybe this really happened to you but you kind of focus on something and then that

[00:36:56] drew your attention then you started to see the bigger picture of like how it's all not working

[00:37:00] when you're visualizing this ecosystem and kind of putting this vision into place what was

[00:37:06] what was like some of the you know some of the problems that you were really honing on I mean

[00:37:10] you mentioned a bunch of them right I mean the communication between the the you know

[00:37:15] health and medical practitioner and the coach or gym owner is huge right there's no

[00:37:19] common language there but what were some of the bigger problems you're really focusing on

[00:37:24] this is back when I was a highly competitive athlete I was building the gym I was seeing

[00:37:30] problems with the equipment so I was basically remaking most everything that was in the gym this

[00:37:37] is about 12 13ish years ago and I started I was known for having very clean technique visually

[00:37:47] and I started getting injuries and then I started getting surgeries and I never had any

[00:37:51] and then it just kept going from one area to the body to another is this shoulder

[00:37:56] it was a groin it was a detached pec it was a broken elbow it was and I keep going in

[00:38:03] and I would get people just pointing to the specific problem like there's got to be

[00:38:07] this larger scale piece and that's when I started that's actually when I met Dr. Philip Snell

[00:38:14] and he he asked me questions instead of like telling me and and then we started he's like I don't

[00:38:22] have an answer he's like I've never lifted weights like you he's like are you willing to explore this

[00:38:27] with me and so he started suggesting some classes and so I started down that path and they were

[00:38:34] more training related stuff and then I started diving deeper and I said like no I'm taking

[00:38:38] the clinical stuff and so I started diving into that moving through that through the years and

[00:38:42] we started playing with these approaches and this was more of a holistic approach to looking at the

[00:38:48] body and how it moves based on pretty heavy and developmental kinesiology this is a DNS work out

[00:38:55] of the Prague School of Medicine is one of the foundational pieces but ended up kind of growing

[00:39:01] well outside of that and then that started influencing how I viewed the equipment that

[00:39:07] I was already making as well and seeing the deficits and seeing it with a different eye

[00:39:12] and and then you know I started integrating working with him and like people in my development

[00:39:19] process and taking uh in my preparatory like how do I get prepared for these big feats and how do I

[00:39:25] refine things and get them better so I don't get an injury and and so anyway I didn't have

[00:39:31] the full vision in 2015 when I launched the businesses I was just making all the things

[00:39:37] that provided value to me the educational pieces the equipment the and I and I start getting in

[00:39:43] and and finally I'm like wait all the stuff is I started figuring out what I was doing

[00:39:52] which was finding this environment that had taken me decades to be able to

[00:39:56] to find the right resources and connect the dots and put this stuff together but then see the

[00:40:00] gaps that was out there and education equipment and I happen to be a unique person that could

[00:40:05] make change to those because that's my background is manufacturing and engineering as well

[00:40:11] systems development this is I have a very unique look and skill set when I came to this

[00:40:18] but also a high level athlete right and so this really eclectic mixture of background

[00:40:26] of information that I and skills that I have added to this mix I I could start refining it sooner

[00:40:32] and like making it into something that an individual owner you know gym owner in a certain environment

[00:40:38] they they usually end up creating a something you know this great connection to to clinicians

[00:40:43] and other pieces they build this environment but they don't have the ability to build all

[00:40:47] the stuff that I'm talking about like let's match the equipment let's develop the uh let's develop

[00:40:51] the systems and let's develop like all these other things because yeah we have a massive database

[00:40:57] that we use with all of our clients every client has a different training program but every program

[00:41:03] is developed in the same manner but it has the ability to show the coach what's working

[00:41:08] and what's not based on the scientific principles of training and how to refine that for the

[00:41:11] individual lifter for what's working anyway how we assess movements and uh and we have a very

[00:41:18] we we have a very in-depth system for managing that stuff and so that's I got to this point and

[00:41:29] I'm like ah this is what I'm doing and I need to take that a step further and I need to go

[00:41:34] much further than what people see right now and I that's the plan I'm not going to articulate

[00:41:38] but I want to bring this around the world and but we just have a lot of work yet to do

[00:41:43] in finalizing the gym and the clinical practice integration and and those those components to

[00:41:49] it so I actually started developing before I knew what I was developing but it started from me facing a

[00:41:55] lot of injuries and surgeries and stuff like that um you know 10-12 years ago yeah sure Scotch

[00:42:02] and your own itch for sure um one of the things that was when I was poking around uh and and trying

[00:42:07] to be that to lift more than weights than anybody's that were lifted yeah yeah you learn

[00:42:12] really fast in that you know yeah I bet uh when I was poking around I was kind of looking at your

[00:42:17] different profiles and um you know preparing for this one of the things that stuck out is that you

[00:42:22] have uh on your LinkedIn profile you have yourself listed as an unconventional executive uh I was

[00:42:29] really stuck out to me I was like I want to ask Chris about that what does that mean exactly

[00:42:33] what is an unconventional executive I mean I can there's obviously people are listening right

[00:42:37] now you're unconventional you went from feral child to you know what you are now which is so many things

[00:42:45] but what does that mean to you when you write that out um I don't fit the mold I'm going to

[00:42:52] you know strike out just based on what I believe and feel and not necessarily

[00:42:58] what's expected you know I'm sitting here I walk around I you know I'm an executive that

[00:43:03] wears shorts to work I might not be wearing shoes around the office um I might you might find me

[00:43:09] you know out welding on a monster truck out back I've got this four wheel steering beast uh

[00:43:14] or in the parking lot you know tearing up this uh giant other thing I've got or I might be prototyping

[00:43:21] a bar uh who knows or I might just be in the gym lifting weights and doing something crazy

[00:43:27] you know drinking some whiskey and lifting some heavy weights and my you know my hair is a mess

[00:43:32] like it's just it's not fit in the mold um because I'm after something else I'm not after

[00:43:44] to meet expectations in that role I'm after making some change and I'm very passionate

[00:43:54] about making that happen and that is where my that is where my focus is so yes the unconventional

[00:44:02] executive uh so actually my next book is going to be titled create shit do shit live beyond the extremes

[00:44:15] the unconventional executives guide to business and life and then my I'm watching a podcast with

[00:44:20] my business partner who is quite unconventional as well shortly Mr. Rudy Cadlep and it is uh it's

[00:44:29] the unconventional executives podcast and so I'm really excited for that coming up and we've got some

[00:44:37] really incredible gifts and conversation paths that we uh plan on taking with uh with this so

[00:44:44] um yeah yeah that uh I had no idea that that question would tap into a vein that included

[00:44:53] your new book and your podcast that was I struck I was just lucky on that one I think yeah that's

[00:44:59] pretty great um one other question for you uh because you've talked about not meeting other

[00:45:08] people's expectations and I found this I'm just wondering do you have a personal definition of

[00:45:14] success like something that you've kind of boiled down to one or two sentences where you're like

[00:45:19] okay if that that's my my north star right that's my guiding light that's what I'm shooting for do

[00:45:25] you have something like that in your life well there's uh there's two different pieces to that so

[00:45:31] the north star isn't success so I do have that north star defined but a north star is what it is

[00:45:42] which you can never get there so if you define that as success you are never going to

[00:45:46] have success a north star guides every step that you take so that every day you're closer than you

[00:45:53] were yesterday and so it ensures that you're moving in that direction and that you're taking

[00:45:58] action and every day getting closer but you're never going to get there so success for me

[00:46:06] is living that life it is living the things and the values that you want to do and be and that is

[00:46:18] that is where I believe I live um and I do what I want to do in the world and I am making the

[00:46:28] change and leaving the legacy that I want to leave I am showing my kids that they can

[00:46:34] change and form the world around them in whatever way it is that they want to through my actions not

[00:46:40] just my words but they get to see every day it's a crazy thing to have your job be being yourself

[00:46:56] in my job title um yeah I think that was pretty good my job title yeah a lot of people think I'm

[00:47:03] CEO or president or something like that I'm like no those are other people yeah I have no reports

[00:47:10] I have no technical authority outside of uh my my ownership state my job title is chief visionary

[00:47:19] because that is what I do and I describe that at the outset about what an entrepreneur is and how it's

[00:47:30] yeah it's great man that's a way to circle it back to and man I um I could ask you questions all day

[00:47:36] and dig into these little I mean there's so many little avenues that we could have gone down or

[00:47:40] rabbit holes with you we could have gone down even farther but I do want to respect your time because

[00:47:45] it's valuable man you're uh you got a lot going on I'm you know maybe in another podcast

[00:47:49] gonna ask you what you do for downtime if you have any but uh tell us about all the like

[00:47:54] you mentioned you know book podcast movie did I hear movie in there yep um your kabuki all the

[00:48:01] things where do you where do you want people to go online to find out more about you and

[00:48:05] everything you're up to yeah so well the easiest I put this together just this last week uh on my

[00:48:11] personal website Chris Duffin and what is that it's like muffin but with a d right uh go to

[00:48:18] chrisduffin.com and sign up for the email list on there you know there'll be a prompt to do so

[00:48:24] you'll get emailed the first half of my eagle and dragon book the eagle for free there's also a link

[00:48:30] for a free audible download if you don't have an audible account you can get it and one other

[00:48:35] book for free by signing up on there which is cool um but you know it is it's not entirely free

[00:48:41] right um but I don't have control over audible so um it is a great program so that's why I have

[00:48:47] that one on there but it also has links to kabuki strength build fast and barefoot but when you sign

[00:48:53] up for that email list you're going to get also disc exclusive discount codes to all those and

[00:48:57] some exclusive educational content that i'm coming out uh uh some insider about when the next book

[00:49:04] is coming out as well as some of the tools that come along with the book will be on there as well

[00:49:10] links to all my social media or you can just go to those independently and what do you do

[00:49:14] you get on that platform and you type in chris doffin like muffin but with a d and i'll pop up okay

[00:49:21] instagram and blue and facebook or there'll be a little blue check that's how you can identify me

[00:49:26] and linkedin is the other area so those are the three areas that uh sorry I can't I have not

[00:49:32] been able to figure out the 140 characters uh so no twitter much I am on there but I'm not

[00:49:39] um so but that's the that's the easiest way to uh to find those or you just type my name into

[00:49:46] google too you guys are smart you're listening to this on the device that accesses all that stuff

[00:49:51] people want to try to get to a way too complicated trying to spell out their avatar names or all

[00:49:56] that nonsense like yeah that's it but I did compile it all there and give you a bunch

[00:50:01] of great freebies and stuff right there on my site so of course be awesome if you buy the

[00:50:05] book that'd be cool too um but uh if you just want to check it out that's cool by me too awesome

[00:50:13] chris man um wow great stories great insights great vision uh you know you're just you're one of

[00:50:23] those people I can just feel your authenticity through the microphone uh it's pretty impressive and

[00:50:29] yeah so thanks for coming on thanks for spending an hour with me in the audience and

[00:50:32] it's been an absolute pleasure ladies and gentlemen Chris Duffin thanks Eric it's been fun

[00:50:38] hey wait don't leave yet this is your host Eric Malzone and I hope you enjoyed this episode of

[00:50:44] future of feminist if you did I'm gonna ask you to do three simple things it takes under five

[00:50:50] minutes and it goes such a long way we really appreciate it number one please subscribe

[00:50:55] to our show wherever you listen to it itunes spotify castbox whatever it may be number two

[00:51:00] please leave us a favorable review number three share put on social media talk about it to your

[00:51:07] friend send it in a text message whatever it may be please share this episode because we put a lot

[00:51:12] of work into and we want to make sure that as many people are getting value out of it as possible

[00:51:17] lastly if you'd like to learn more get in touch with me simply go to the future of fitness.co

[00:51:23] you can subscribe to our newsletter there or you can simply get in touch with me as I love

[00:51:27] to hear from our listeners so thank you so much this is Eric Malzone and this is the future of

[00:51:33] fitness have a great day