Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / Conor Murphy's Big Night Fitness: Transforming Nightclubs into Wellness Spaces

Transcript

Conor Murphy's Big Night Fitness: Transforming Nightclubs into Wellness Spaces · The Inspired Stories Podcast

0:04
Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast,
0:08
where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from
0:11
their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome
0:14
adversity. My name is Anthony Kotaspodi and
0:16
today's guest is Connor Murphy, managing partner of Big Night
0:20
Fitness at Big Night Entertainment Group.
0:23
Connor helps bring high energy workouts to nightlife venues,
0:26
allowing anyone to experience the excitement of fitness
0:29
classes enhanced by incredible sound and lighting.
0:33
Big Night Fitness is on a mission to make exercise fun and
0:36
accessible by merging professional grade instruction
0:40
with the atmosphere of a nightclub.
0:42
Launched in 2021, Big Night Fitness soon gained attention
0:46
for converting close clubs into dynamic pop up gyms throughout
0:49
Boston. Under his leadership, the
0:52
company has expanded rapidly, hosting everything from hit
0:54
classes to specialized dance and cycling sessions.
0:58
Connor is a certified CrossFit trainer, firefighter, and many
1:03
other things that we're going to hear about today.
1:06
And he spent over 7 years at Reebok where he honed leadership
1:09
and coaching skills. Now before we get into all that
1:12
good stuff, today's episode is brought to you by my company,
1:14
Add Back Benefits Agency, where we offer very specific and
1:18
unique employee benefits that are both great for your team and
1:21
fiscally optimized for your bottom line.
1:24
Imagine being able to give your restaurant employees free access
1:27
to doctors, therapists, and prescription medications.
1:30
And here's the fun part, the program actually puts more money
1:34
into your employees pockets and the companies too.
1:39
One recent client was able to increase net profits by $900 per
1:42
employee per year. Results vary for each company
1:45
and some organizations may not be eligible.
1:48
To find out if your company qualifies, contact us today at
1:50
AD back benefits.com. All right, back to our guest
1:54
today, managing partner, Big Night Fitness, Connor Murphy.
1:57
Thanks for making the time to Share your story today.
2:00
Appreciate you having me on. OK, so Connor, let's go back
2:03
early days. What first sparked your interest
2:05
in fitness? You know, my parents were really
2:09
involved in fitness in different ways than I am now.
2:12
But both my parents were bodybuilders when I was born.
2:15
And so the discipline of of fitness and training to be a
2:18
better athlete at a young age was instilled upon me from my
2:22
parents being a younger, smaller, skinnier kid growing
2:27
up, realizing that, you know, the only advantage I was going
2:30
to have later in sports was going to be discipline and
2:33
training was really what kind of caught my passion.
2:37
It wasn't just like, hey, I want to be fit for nothing or fit for
2:40
life. It was I need to be the best of
2:41
these sports. And this was the only way that I
2:43
really had control over it rather than, you know, you're
2:46
playing a sport against someone else.
2:47
You can't control how fit they are, but you can control, you
2:50
know, how good you are at your at your respective sport and
2:52
training. So I think that's probably where
2:53
it started at a young age from my parents.
2:55
OK. Did you spend some time in the
2:57
Navy? I did, Yep.
2:59
Yeah, I enlisted right out of high school.
3:04
That was another big part of it, you know, training to be in Navy
3:07
Special Warfare, which is something, it was a, it was a
3:10
huge challenge. It was something I always wanted
3:12
to do. So the training aspect really
3:15
got highlighted during that training and then afterwards as
3:17
well. How did that experience, plus,
3:22
you know, all of that rigidity, that structure of physical
3:26
fitness from your youth kind of play into the way that you
3:30
approach leadership today? Well, I'll tell you one thing.
3:34
The rigidity of training was very different from how I grew
3:39
up. In high school, I was kind of a
3:41
hellraiser for my parents. About the only thing I did right
3:46
was stay focused on the gym. But always wanting to make my
3:49
friends laugh, always getting into trouble, usually on the
3:52
innocent side of things, but sometimes I probably should have
3:56
thought twice before some of my actions.
3:58
So I think the, the Navy was actually really what I needed
4:01
rather than trying to go to college to play sports.
4:04
It was having that rigid structure.
4:06
And then once I was able to translate what I was doing in
4:09
training to everyday aspects of life.
4:11
I think most of the modalities that I that I preach and that I
4:17
that I live my life by in business have come from training
4:20
and discipline from either the military or from a from an
4:24
actual physical fitness aspect. And you spent seven years at
4:29
Reebok as a team leader. What did that role entail?
4:33
So I actually think it might have been been closer to 10
4:36
years. I originally, because I was
4:38
competing in CrossFit, I got sponsored by Reebok and then
4:42
after six months they had asked for me to come coach at their
4:46
headquarters in Canton, MA, which is just South of Boston.
4:50
And I started off just as a coach, then went into a manager
4:53
position and team leader, and then actually the head of the
4:55
whole gym. So kind of the health and
4:58
Wellness of Reebok. And that was one of those things
5:01
where I probably got into roles before I was mature enough to be
5:05
there and kind of learn the lesson the hard way of what it
5:08
took to get to that point. But I think that from a
5:11
management side of things, when all of a sudden the people that
5:15
are your peers are now looking to you for expertise and
5:18
management, you have to be a little bit more professional.
5:22
And that's where I kind of learned.
5:23
I've always been a big I'm not going to ask you to do anything
5:26
that I haven't done. And I think getting climbing
5:29
that ladder in a natural, organic way was a good way to do
5:33
it where anyone that I was asking them to do something, it
5:37
wasn't something I wasn't either currently doing or have done
5:40
before or wasn't willing to do. So can you give us a specific
5:45
story, an example of when you were not mature enough for the
5:48
role that you were put into? Oh yeah.
5:51
Now I got a good one for this. So I was a trainer, right?
5:56
I was just a coach. I was a full time coach.
5:58
They like to bring athletes in there.
5:59
We would compete for the Reebok team at the CrossFit Games and
6:04
all of a sudden my, my, the people in charge of me.
6:07
So Austin Malliolo, who was the head of gym for a long time, and
6:11
then Denise Thomas. Incredible leaders, incredible
6:13
managers. They were unavailable for this
6:17
big, they call it a retailer summit.
6:19
So in Las Vegas they would have every retailer that Reebok had
6:23
globally come in. They would all fly in and we
6:26
would have all of the retail, anything that we are going to be
6:28
selling for whatever the following year or two years
6:31
products were. They would come pick out what
6:33
they wanted for their specific markets and they would run this
6:36
this big fitness event. And when I say big fitness
6:40
event, I mean five groups of 250 different people that were all
6:43
retailers. So we had, you know, 1000 plus
6:47
people that were coming through this fitness event.
6:51
And instead of just me being a coach, coaching my portion of
6:53
it, I was actually in charge of the whole thing.
6:56
So there were celebrity trainers from all different aspects, from
6:59
running, from Pilates, from CrossFit, from everything.
7:03
And, and my job and role was to, was to be in charge of it and
7:07
run it and make sure everything went smoothly.
7:09
And I like to, I like to have a good time with, with my friends
7:14
and family. And the night before that event,
7:18
one of the, one of the heads, I, I think it was the VP of, I
7:23
think maybe the whole business. We went to the UFC fight and I
7:27
told my boss at the time, Austin Malliola, I was like, I'm not
7:31
going to have a drink until, you know, after this event is all
7:34
set. And, you know, I'd, I'd played
7:36
the role, you know, these P of these trainers that I look up
7:39
to, we're now looking up to me to have everything set.
7:42
So I was playing all the roles, making sure everyone was all
7:44
set. We went to the UFC game or the
7:46
UFC match and this VP was like, hey, you're going to have a
7:50
drink with me. And so I said, OK.
7:52
And the next thing you know, we're at the blackjack tables
7:54
with the CEO, the president of Reebok, and we went to a
8:00
nightclub where this is kind of where like the celebrity
8:04
training aspect comes into it. And one of the DJs that was
8:06
playing there, I knew from just training experience.
8:10
And we had gone back to this nightclub, Hakasan, that Reebok
8:13
had rented out previous to the UFC fight.
8:17
But now it's nightlife. It's probably two or three in
8:19
the morning and I'm with the CEO of Reebok.
8:22
I'm with the president of Reebok going in there.
8:24
And he was like, Hey, we have these stamps.
8:26
We rented out this place beforehand.
8:28
And the door guys are like, hey, you can't, you can't come in
8:31
with T-shirt with, with tennis shoes on.
8:34
And so he's like, hey, I rented this whole place out or
8:37
whatever. And some guys walked in that
8:39
were wearing similar attire to us.
8:41
And he's like, well, why are they able to go in and we're
8:43
not. And they were like, they're on
8:45
the DJ list. So we don't have anything to do
8:48
with that. And I was like, Oh my gosh,
8:50
earlier that day, the person who was DJing there was like, hey,
8:53
I'll throw you on the list, Come say hi to me.
8:55
And I was like, hey, I'm actually on that list.
8:57
And they're like, no, you're not.
8:59
I was like, I am Conor Murphy. And they look at it and they're
9:02
like, show me an ID that says Conor Murphy and you guys can
9:04
come in here and show them my ID.
9:06
And they were like, all right, you're in.
9:09
And from that aspect, you know the president of the company is
9:12
you're. Looking pretty cool.
9:13
Yo, yeah. And that was like, I was the
9:15
coolest. That's the coolest I've ever
9:17
been. And the, and the the president
9:19
is like, how can you get us in here and me not I've, you know,
9:22
drinks are on me tonight and we're going out and we're in.
9:24
We're in the DJ booth with the DJ.
9:27
And Jon Jones, who got back his title is in there.
9:30
We're all having drinks together.
9:31
He was a previous Reebok athlete.
9:33
So everyone's having a good time in.
9:35
About 5:30 AM we leave and I'm going back to my room and I'm,
9:42
I'm, I'm being somewhat responsible.
9:44
Like I, I wasn't, you know, I, I remember everything and, and
9:48
being like, all right, I'm keeping an eye on my watch.
9:51
Send a message to all the trainers at 6:00 AM that, you
9:54
know, hope everyone's up. Everyone had a great night.
9:56
Here's where you're going to meet.
9:57
And I was supposed to go to the venue early.
10:00
The team I was going to go to the venue with, they had an
10:02
issue the night before. So they were already gone.
10:04
So they messaged me. Hey, just come with the trainers
10:06
at 7:00 AM. OK, Sounds good.
10:10
So it's, you know, maybe 6:00 AM at this point in time, I'm back
10:13
in my room, set an alarm on my phone for for 6:45.
10:18
That didn't happen. And so I wake up at 8:30.
10:23
I have about 70 missed calls on my phone.
10:27
Ends up one of the other, you know, senior leadership team of
10:31
Reebok had to step into my role. Felt really silly about it.
10:35
I think everyone anything went off pretty well without any
10:38
major issues. But you know, I had to spend the
10:40
rest of the morning, I woke up just in an absolute panic like
10:44
this. There's no way this is
10:45
happening. I tried to get to the venue.
10:48
The cab driver didn't know where to drop me off at the event was
10:50
already over and I had to go talk to every single leader that
10:54
saw me as this like Reebok athlete, kind of fun party guy
10:57
that was supposed to be in this professional setting and be
11:00
like, hey, I dropped the ball. I messed up on this and I had to
11:02
just like own all of these mistakes.
11:05
Denise and Austin were so disappointed that this was like
11:07
the one shot for me to prove that I'm not just this.
11:10
I can be in another scenario. But I somehow survived that
11:14
event. I think by failing fast, I think
11:17
by not making excuses. Hey, I was out with these guys
11:20
the night before. It was you.
11:21
Just owned it. You're like, this is on me.
11:24
I didn't need to tell everyone the story of who I was out with
11:26
and then put blame on someone else.
11:28
It was like it was my responsibility to be there.
11:31
I made every choice in that night and I messed up.
11:35
And that was one of those ones where it was.
11:38
That's stuck with you. I'm guessing that's probably
11:40
affected how you've made other decisions going forward.
11:43
For sure. And, and listen, I can talk
11:45
about this now as if it was kind of a funny event, but I was in a
11:49
panic. I was, I was talking to the
11:51
travel team being like, all right, you got to send me home
11:54
early. I got to find another job.
11:56
I'm working for the CrossFit training team so I can focus on
11:58
that and then work at another gym.
12:00
And I mean, I was panicked and it was, it was so embarrassing,
12:05
No. They kept you.
12:06
Nope. They kept me and they kind of
12:09
laughed it off. They gave me that year in 2015
12:12
what they call the Lindsay Lohan Award.
12:14
I don't know if there's like a trademark to that or if I'm
12:17
going to get in trouble for saying that.
12:18
But in Las Vegas, NV in 2015 at the Reebok Retailer Summit, I
12:22
got the Lindsay Lohan Award, which I was not proud of at the
12:26
time. But now seeing it as such a big
12:28
learning lesson for me as someone who wasn't necessarily
12:32
the most professional person to realize that, hey, in these
12:35
settings, you've got to be able to lock in and not be the
12:40
person. If you want to be at this level,
12:42
you can't act as the person as everyone sees you at.
12:46
And you know, if I would have made it that morning, maybe been
12:50
a little bit hungover and everything went off, it was only
12:53
a matter of time before I was going to learn that lesson in
12:56
the future. You think you needed to fall on
12:58
your face like this? 100.
13:00
Percent, whether it was that time or something that would
13:02
have happened in the future. Well, if I wouldn't have learned
13:05
it then, and I realized that I got away with this.
13:07
I was the cool guy. Everyone looked up to me for
13:09
that. What's going to stop me from
13:10
doing that in the future? And then just keep going down
13:13
that rabbit hole until it happens where the event doesn't
13:16
go off. Well, I don't show up in the
13:18
event doesn't happen. And Reebok looks like a joke in
13:20
front of their global retailers. Yeah, OK, so where did the idea
13:26
to start Big Night Fitness come from?
13:30
So with the celebrity training side of things, I had a couple
13:34
of DJs that I OK. Well, hang on, let's back up.
13:36
How did you get into celebrity training?
13:38
So I always tell this story when people ask.
13:41
I have a friend, his name is Mike Finn.
13:43
He is a tour manager and he was working with kind of hardcore
13:48
punk rock, smaller, smaller bands and then worked his way up
13:53
to an artist named Dylan Francis and before that I would send him
13:58
some programming. He's from Natick, MA, so we
14:01
would work out. We became friends and once he
14:03
started training Dylan, he introduced us.
14:07
We went out on the road, nothing for training, just to kind of
14:10
hang out. And then at another tour we went
14:13
out and we all did a workout outside of the tour bus.
14:16
And Dylan came out at that point in time and was kind of making
14:19
fun of us for, you know, doing CrossFit workouts.
14:23
And I was nervous, but I was like, hey Dylan, like if you
14:25
want to do a workout, we can do like a quick 10 minute body
14:28
weight workout. I promise you'll feel better
14:29
afterwards. And I think on the spot he was
14:33
just like, OK. And so we went into one of the
14:36
green rooms. I put him through a quick little
14:38
workout, worked on his squat position, just air squats and
14:40
burpees. 7 minutes later he found himself out of breath
14:44
laying on his back being like what the heck happened?
14:47
Day later he was like I'm sore but I feel great.
14:51
You know, I'm paying these trainers in LA to train me for
14:53
two hours and I've never felt like that before in a 7 minute
14:56
workout. I've never felt better about a
14:57
squat. My knees don't hurt.
14:59
And that's how I got into the music industry.
15:03
And even though it's just one artist, you know, you can't, you
15:08
can't market yourself as a celebrity trainer.
15:10
You can't just say, hey, guys, I'm A Celebrity trainer and
15:12
trainers go and celebrities go, all right, well, I'll come train
15:15
with you then. You know, it's, it's all word of
15:17
mouth. It's being a trusted source in
15:19
the industry. And so with Dylan, he was such
15:22
an is such, I mean, a good friend of mine and such an
15:24
awesome guy that when he would see results, he would post about
15:28
it on his social media. Other artists would reach out to
15:30
him. And, you know, I would get cold
15:33
calls from artists being like, hey, I'm in this Boston area.
15:36
I want to train, but what happened was he was in town and
15:41
he was playing at one of these big night Entertainment Group
15:43
venues, the Grand, and it's about a mile like 1.2 miles from
15:50
from the Reebok headquarters in Seaport.
15:51
The headquarters had moved from Canton into Seaport.
15:54
And he came by and worked out with me before going to his like
15:57
pre show dinner with all the big night guys, played his show.
16:01
And then a little bit later an artist, Steve Aoki came into
16:07
town kind of the same concept had and you heard of me from
16:10
Dylan and he reached out about training.
16:14
And so when Randy Greenstein, one of the Co owners of big
16:17
night Entertainment Group, messaged Steve saying, hey,
16:20
we're going to do dinner at Empire, which is one of their
16:23
kind of Asian cuisines, high end restaurant venues in Boston.
16:29
It's like, hey, we're going to do dinner at Empire at 10 and
16:31
then we're going to do the show. And Aoki says, OK, cool, I'm
16:35
just going to train with my guy at Reebok before heading in.
16:38
And this was the second time Randy had heard about it.
16:40
And so he's like, who's this guy at Reebok?
16:43
And it's these were the two guys, but there was, I didn't
16:45
train a whole slew of people like it just happened a chance
16:48
to be these two guys. So he came down, we worked out
16:52
and we ended up working out a deal that I got about $10,000 of
16:56
pro mat from the store. So the, the headquarters store
17:00
was right next to the gym. So we would put together this,
17:04
this one pager that was sent from big night to all artists
17:08
saying, hey, if you want to get a free outfit from the store and
17:10
private training from this trainer, you know, you can
17:13
utilize this service. So now they're reaching out to
17:16
people for me, because it, it creates this Wellness and health
17:20
aspect of a hospitality company that may not and definitely at
17:25
the time wasn't there before and people were taking advantage of
17:29
it. So they would come in, get an
17:31
outfit, we would work out and then they'd be like, you got to
17:35
come to the show, come to dinner with us.
17:36
And that's when I think I'd do well is where you can sit down
17:39
and have conversations with people and, you know, not be so
17:42
quick to talk and tell your story, but really listen to
17:45
their stories and create these genuine relationships where
17:48
they're going to reach out to other people that are coming to
17:50
Boston. Hey, you got to meet up with
17:52
this guy, You got to train with this guy.
17:54
And that's kind of the start of Randy and I's relationship.
17:58
Who then had conversations with his business partner, the other
18:01
owner of Big Night Entertainment Group, which is Ed Kane, and
18:05
during the pandemic. Sorry, sorry to interrupt you.
18:10
I I want to paint a picture for folks Big night Entertainment
18:13
Group. This is a bigger umbrella.
18:15
Can you describe it for folks What what it is?
18:17
Yeah, so Big Night Entertainment Group is the largest nightlife
18:20
and hospitality group in the Northeast area, from restaurants
18:24
to nightclubs. I think at one point in time
18:26
there were 18 restaurant and nightlife venues and then they
18:30
started card Vault, which is like, you know, you get these
18:34
sports trading cards, sports memorabilia.
18:37
Tom Brady just recently bought into it.
18:39
We're now they're card vault by Tom Brady.
18:40
There's now eight of those stores, along with all of the
18:43
aspects of restaurants from arcade, you know, Dave and
18:48
Buster style places to world class nightclubs.
18:51
And big night has a so like a, you know, a bunch of different
18:56
kind of things that go under the big night umbrella.
18:58
And what my aspect is now is I just run the health and Wellness
19:01
side of that. So with the support of this just
19:04
monster company. So health and Wellness with
19:08
restaurants and nightclubs, it's, it seems a little
19:14
disjointed, kind of tie it together for me.
19:17
Well, I think that opinion is why it was so perfect, right?
19:22
It's a, it's a huge gap in the industry.
19:25
But it would make sense where if all people are pushing are, you
19:30
know, overconsumption of food and drinking should probably be
19:35
paired with some aspect of health and Wellness, especially
19:38
for the artists that are touring day in and day out, traveling
19:42
around. I mean, your shelf life is only
19:43
going to be so long if you're not taking care of yourself.
19:46
And so from a health and Wellness perspective, I was
19:49
like, this is necessary. From the nightlife perspective,
19:52
they were like, I don't think people are really going to be
19:53
into it. And once we were able to merge
19:56
those two, it then brought an aspect to Big Night
19:59
Entertainment Group that no other hospitality company had.
20:03
So before we talk about how you merge these two ideas, can you
20:06
explain how it is that there's so many celebrities kind of in
20:11
the mix and that there's a mailing list with these
20:13
celebrities? So big night Entertainment
20:16
Group, they they book artists for their nightclubs, from hip
20:22
hop artists to DJs to even people doing after parties that
20:26
are just celebrities that are going to go there and people
20:28
will go because of that reason. Now on that they also sign
20:33
artists, there's people that they market and promote and they
20:36
do booking for a bunch of different venues all around the
20:39
US. So they have contacts with these
20:41
people and they are trusted sources where if they send A1
20:44
pager out to someone who's coming into town saying you
20:47
know, what is your rider, which is like what food, drinks and
20:51
water do you want at the venue? Where do you want to go to
20:54
dinner? What are the accommodations you
20:56
need? Now added in there was if you
20:58
care about this health and Wellness aspect, we have someone
21:01
for you as well that is complimentary on your visit to
21:04
Boston through Big Night Entertainment Group.
21:06
And what was the time period where this all started to
21:09
happen? This was before COVID.
21:11
Yes, this is end of 2017, beginning of 2018.
21:16
OK, so going into COVID, you've got a little bit of momentum
21:19
with this, right? You're starting to get some
21:22
clients, you're starting to get some recognition, some
21:24
notoriety. Some of these celebrities, some
21:27
of these musicians are saying, yeah, like, I want to work out
21:30
with Connor. Let's do that.
21:32
I think it started really when, you know, I had some people
21:36
through big night that were coming to train with me in
21:38
Boston, but Dylan hired me to be his trainer on tour.
21:43
So we had AUS Bus tour with another artist.
21:46
And when I went on this tour, you know, Dylan wasn't like a
21:50
like a huge drinker, wasn't partying every night, but did
21:53
like to drink. And during this tour, he's like,
21:56
hey, if I'm going to be paying you to be on the road with me, I
21:58
want to be all in. Like you manage my sleep
22:01
schedule, you manage what I eat when I wake up.
22:03
You manage a training, you do all that stuff.
22:05
And there were times when he wouldn't even go into the
22:08
catering room. I would just go make his plate
22:11
for him and bring it back. So he wasn't going to be
22:13
distracted with, you know, the desserts or what the necessary
22:16
components of it that are, you know, feeding all of the, you
22:19
know, the stagehands that are there who are aren't going to
22:21
eat, you know, the chicken and broccoli that that is on like
22:25
the, you know, the little side table in there.
22:28
So that was that was a big piece of it.
22:31
And when he posted his results, like before and after photos,
22:34
shirt off about going into tour and then afterwards, that's when
22:39
other art, you know, he has millions and millions of
22:40
followers and a lot of them being other celebrities.
22:44
That's when they took note to wow, this is this is how touring
22:48
can be. Didn't drink the entire tour,
22:52
maybe drank a couple of times during the year afterwards.
22:56
And after our second tour together where he decided to do
22:59
the same thing, he realized he felt better, his creative was
23:03
better, his relationships are better, every aspect of his life
23:06
was better without drinking that.
23:09
Now I think he's been sober for 3 1/2 years.
23:13
And so people seeing that is where the momentum was coming
23:16
from, where I was getting DMS on social media, phone calls, text
23:21
messages from people coming into town, whether it's from a big
23:24
night venue or not, you know, they were now seeing this guy
23:29
knows the world of, you know, artists.
23:34
You can't just, you know, any trainer can give someone a
23:36
workout so hard that they can't walk for a week.
23:39
Like, you don't have to be a good trainer to do that.
23:41
And I feel like too often people are like, this trainer's the
23:44
best. Like, they crush you in
23:46
workouts. It's like, OK, great.
23:47
It doesn't take a lot to do that.
23:50
You know, I could have someone do 1000 air squats and they're
23:52
not going to be able to walk for a week.
23:54
But can you give someone a workout that gets all the
23:58
benefits of fitness, but also allows them to play on stage
24:01
that night with a little bit more energy and allows them to
24:04
train the following day? So that's when you become the
24:07
trusted source in there of not just, hey, here's some, you
24:10
know, a hole trainer who's going to crush you into the ground,
24:13
but hey, here's someone who can actually take care of you.
24:16
And you can really change someone's life with one meal and
24:20
one workout. And I truly believe that they're
24:22
not going to get, you know, you're not going to go from 280
24:25
lbs to 190 lbs after one meal and one workout.
24:29
But what you can do is you can start now a habit of I'm feeling
24:33
better. This is how I got there.
24:36
So I'm going to continue doing this.
24:38
And for most people. That first step in creating a
24:41
new habit that's so important, that's what you mean by it can
24:43
change somebody's life because it starts them on the right
24:45
path. Right.
24:46
And, and most people's problems come from if I were to just kind
24:52
of blindly throw a dart at a board would be overconsumption
24:57
of liquid process and refined carbohydrates.
24:59
They're so readily available. It it, it just does a number to
25:02
your body. We talked about hyperinsulinemia
25:05
and the deadly quartet of upper body obesity,
25:08
hypertriglyceridemia, you know, hypertension, all of these
25:11
different things that are stemming from your response to
25:14
eating all these crappy foods. And so by definition, the cure
25:19
to something would be, you know, the elimination of a root cause.
25:24
If by one meal you're not eating over processed carbohydrates and
25:27
you're no longer sedentary by moving, well now you've
25:30
eliminated the root cause of what your issue is.
25:32
So if you can continue doing that, that's a cure for whatever
25:35
issues that you have going on. Now it's obviously not as simple
25:38
as that and the discipline and consistency comes into it, but
25:42
if it happens for one person now the validity of it is there and
25:47
now it's just, am I able to do this?
25:49
Yeah. I mean, I think for any
25:51
business, the best form of marketing, the most effective is
25:54
word of mouth. And you had that, but you had it
25:58
on a large scale because this musician had a ton of followers
26:03
and he's just posting real stuff that happened with you, right?
26:06
So, yeah, you've got some legitimacy, some credibility
26:10
very early on. OK.
26:13
Is it a good time in the story to hop ahead to what happened in
26:16
COVID or we going to be missing something important if we do
26:18
that? No, we can go into that.
26:20
But one thing I want to note on this, too, is that I don't know
26:24
how swearing goes in your podcast.
26:26
I'm trying not to swear on this, but you know, I don't want to be
26:30
labeled as this. Hey, Connor's a celebrity
26:32
trainer. Like, I think that's like the
26:34
worst and most cringy title to have because I'm not a celebrity
26:38
trainer. I'll train anyone willing to
26:40
train. The cool part about doing it for
26:43
someone with a large following, which I guess would somehow be a
26:47
definition of a celebrity, is that reach.
26:51
I take just as much pride and I have just as much happiness
26:54
training. You know my buddy Trevor who
26:56
just recently lost 100 lbs since starting to train with me.
27:00
I take more pride in that then maybe helping someone get a
27:04
little bit fitter. That's a celebrity.
27:05
However, when they post about it, that then gives that right
27:10
to so many more people, the outreach to so many people, and
27:14
it's not going to be with me. It's going to be with someone
27:17
else to seek out something where, hey, Diplo cares about
27:20
health and Wellness. He was out there training with
27:22
this guy. Maybe I can look into it.
27:23
I love his music and I love training, but if he's doing
27:26
this, maybe I can do that too. That's the cool part about the
27:29
celebrity side of things. Not so that I get a post on
27:32
Instagram. So I get more followers and and
27:34
I get notoriety to the kids back home that are like, oh, Connor's
27:38
made it like that's stupid. I just want to get out there and
27:40
say that first before we go. Into it, Yeah.
27:43
OK. I appreciate you throwing that
27:44
out there. OK, So what happened in COVID?
27:48
So in COVID, as we all know, probably different aspects of
27:51
the world, there were different things.
27:53
But we had big night Entertainment Group had a kind
27:57
of a huge loss because of with they weren't allowed to open and
28:04
the restaurants they had to go through new guidelines every
28:06
week because of all these different, you know, things that
28:10
were going on. The nightclubs were closed
28:12
because they weren't serving food.
28:13
So they couldn't have big gatherings of people.
28:16
Now on that, as well as the fitness studios, especially
28:19
these boutique fitness studios, they're struggling because they
28:22
have to have, you know, they're either closed down or they have
28:25
to have 12 feet on each side of social distancing so people
28:29
didn't get sick. And like, these are businesses
28:31
that that don't have anything to fall back on.
28:34
It's like their clientele and who they were helping, you know,
28:37
that was, that was their business.
28:40
And as we know, and I think everyone can agree on the people
28:42
who were, you know, in the best position to fight COVID were
28:46
healthy people. So if we can then add in this
28:49
aspect of health and Wellness or sorry, we're, we're removing
28:53
this aspect of health and Wellness from them.
28:55
It's it's a negative on on both sides of it.
28:58
So Randy and Ed had this idea, Hey, we have this gym or we, we
29:03
have this, we have these nightclubs that are empty and
29:06
these gyms that can't open. What if we allow them to utilize
29:09
the space, utilize the sound system to, you know, put their
29:13
spin bikes in there and, and run these classes.
29:15
And that was the first part of it too.
29:17
And I think that's what really encapsulates like club training
29:22
is that if you've been to kind of these cycle beat spin classes
29:25
from Soul Cycle to Handlebar to, you know, any of these high
29:30
level spin classes, they try to make their studios a nightclub,
29:34
you know, loud music, lights, it's this electric atmosphere.
29:38
However, they're not going to spend $14 million on a sound
29:41
system because there's no ROI in it.
29:43
They're not selling alcohol, you know, bottle service in an
29:47
experience where they can, you know, sell a bottle of $30
29:50
Tito's for $400.00. And when they're able to be
29:54
brought into that atmosphere, the world changed.
29:58
People were like, this is this is incredible.
30:00
And the trainers, they feel like they're these celebrities.
30:03
They're going to be on stage and sharing the stage with all of
30:06
their favorite singers who are who are creating the songs that
30:10
they're putting on their playlist to have these spin
30:12
classes and then. Were were the musicians part of
30:15
the classes or just their music was part of the classes?
30:18
Well, at the time their music was a part of the classes.
30:21
You know, it's like, so Dylan Francis, who I'm training is
30:24
probably on any known spin strike spin instructor.
30:28
They know who he is because his songs are on the playlist.
30:31
And we have now from there had these guest appearances of DJs
30:36
showing up to do these classes, which has been awesome.
30:38
But that's what kind of stemmed, hey, during these down times
30:41
when big night opened back up and people were allowed back in
30:44
clubs during these down times. Well, why can't we have this
30:48
going on? Why can't we add this in when
30:51
the nightclubs closed on a Tuesday night?
30:53
And that's kind of what created the next side of the business
30:55
where Big Night Fitness turned into maybe it's not just the
30:59
celebrity training that we have to offer, but maybe we can
31:02
highlight fitness instructors in the same way we highlight
31:05
artists, athletes, you know, these celebrities that are
31:08
coming into town. And is it just in the evenings
31:12
or you know, I mean you get a lot of downtime during the day.
31:15
Obviously a nightclubs not open during the day is is there a
31:18
market for utilizing the space for fitness classes during the
31:21
day too? Oh yeah, we've done sunrise yoga
31:24
classes, we've done Pilates classes in the afternoon.
31:27
There's, you know, charity event at 10:00 and then at noon we
31:32
open up one of the bar venues and people will go there and get
31:34
some post drink cocktails. And it, it really just brings in
31:38
a community of people. And to be honest with you,
31:41
anyone who's been in the nightlife scene, they're
31:43
probably thinking to themselves right now like that's not going
31:46
to move the needle for a for a nightclub.
31:48
But now when you're getting people that probably weren't
31:51
going to go to a nightclub to begin with, now feel like
31:54
they're a part of this community and they realize, especially on
31:56
big nights and who, you know, they're not cutting costs to to
32:00
make a venue less expensive. They are unbelievable.
32:04
They are beautiful, they are clean.
32:05
Most people think, oh, this nightclub would be a disaster if
32:08
you saw it with the lights on. Like it's not a pretty sight.
32:11
Well, that's not how big night runs things.
32:13
Big night Entertainment Group. So we're able to run classes
32:17
morning, noon, evenings, you know, obviously not on Friday or
32:21
Saturday night. It's not going to rival a, you
32:24
know, a, a, a nightclub night. But yeah, at any point in time
32:27
of the day, whenever we feel like there's a need or whenever
32:30
an instructor or a company says, hey, we want to try this out
32:33
then. And we were able to throw a
32:35
bunch of stuff at a wall and see what stuck.
32:37
And the good and bad part of it of it was that most of it stuck.
32:41
It's like, hey, people want to have this stuff, you know, they
32:43
don't want to have a gym membership to a nightclub, but
32:46
they want these community events, they want an experience,
32:48
which is what we're giving people with nightclub.
32:50
So what with the nightclub? But why can't we give it to them
32:53
from a fitness aspect as well? And So what does it look like
32:56
today? What has it evolved to end of
32:59
2025 as we're recording this? Oh well, how much more time do
33:03
we have left in this thing? It's so we're still running the
33:06
events we've done them now expanded outside of just big
33:10
night venues to we have outdoor venues, we do indoor classes, we
33:14
do charity events. On that side of it, we have a
33:16
gym, which is where I'm at right now in Charlestown, MA, right
33:19
across the bridge from one of our, our world renowned
33:23
nightlife venues called Big Night Live.
33:24
And in this gym is where we have, you know, we have a sauna
33:29
here. We have a cold tub, which is why
33:30
I'm still kind of shaking probably from the first half of
33:32
this interview. Not because I'm nervous because
33:34
I just spent way too much time in that thing where we train
33:38
people and then we allow people to.
33:40
We have a bunch of different instructors that run their
33:42
classes. You know, if they're a trainer
33:43
at an Equinox, they can't run these big events with their
33:46
clients at their gym. But if they want to come down
33:49
here and we have equipment, there's, you know, pull up rigs,
33:52
we have all sorts of concept 2 machines, everything you'd need
33:54
in the gym. We have these at this big space.
33:57
So it expanded from just nightclubs to now more equipment
34:01
based fitness. We do on demand videos for, you
34:06
know, Encore Boston Harbor. It's a five star resort.
34:08
It's a win Encore casino that's right across the water.
34:12
We do all the on demand fitness for them.
34:14
So if you go into a room and you click fitness, you can have four
34:18
different trainers that do these 10 minute or less workout videos
34:21
in room for people that want to move a little bit, but may not
34:24
be, you know, the ones that are going to get up early and go
34:27
down to the gym. We've expanded to fitness
34:31
retreats where if there's a yoga instructor who has a good
34:35
following, we have partnerships with Celebration Travel, which
34:39
is a sister company of destination weddings.
34:42
And through big night we can host these large fitness
34:45
retreats where people are going down.
34:47
They want to be around like minded people.
34:49
You know this experience where they're going down, they do yoga
34:52
in the morning. And then there's all these
34:53
extravagant things, whether you're hiking through a
34:56
rainforest, doing zip lines, going on a boat cruise, doing
34:59
all sorts of stuff. Now at properties out of the
35:02
United States, there's probably a few more things that, you
35:05
know, we may, may haven't touched on with run clubs and,
35:08
and all sorts of different stuff.
35:10
But really anything, anything that people want to do that can
35:13
create and enhance the community, that's what we're,
35:15
that's what we're about. Anything you can do to create
35:19
enhanced community around fitness?
35:21
Correct with Big Night Fitness. Now I have to give credit where
35:24
credit is due that Ed and Randy do the same thing with Big Night
35:29
Entertainment Group. They do anything to create and
35:32
build this community around nightclubs, around restaurants,
35:36
around every different aspect of it.
35:38
And I think it comes from, you know, our creative director,
35:41
this guy Scott, he understands that it's not a one time thing.
35:45
You don't want everyone to come to your venues once and have a
35:48
great time. You want to give them a reason
35:49
to come back. And that comes from community,
35:51
that comes from being around like minded people.
35:55
And if people want fitness and not partying and we should have
35:58
a fitness aspect, or if people want to follow skateboarding,
36:02
then we should be able to highlight them as skateboarders
36:04
or as you know, any that you name the category.
36:07
So they run, they run all that big stuff.
36:10
This health and Wellness aspects just a small part of Big Night
36:13
Entertainment Group, but it's everything from what I do in Big
36:16
Night Fitness. How do they or you go about
36:21
creating that community? Like I hear what you're saying
36:23
on the fitness side of things and it's sort of the fitness
36:26
thread that brings people together, right?
36:29
I want to get more fit. I'm already fit.
36:30
I want to stay fit. That's part of my identity.
36:33
So we bring those people together in a really amazing
36:36
venue where the sound is pumping and, you know, lights are going
36:40
and like, you know, something you can't get in a typical gym.
36:42
But I'm curious maybe how they do that on the, the restaurant
36:46
and the, the club side of things.
36:48
Like to me, community is like there's a common thread between
36:54
everyone. How are they establishing that
36:56
that threat? I think maybe is the root of the
36:58
question I'm trying to get at. Yeah, and I think it, it
37:01
probably differs depending on the area you're going into.
37:05
But, you know, if I were to ask you if you wanted to get a
37:10
college community to come do different events, what would
37:14
that look like? You know, I'd reach out to a
37:15
college student to to ask them what it would look like.
37:18
But if I were to ask you, you know, in in your college days,
37:23
what would have been the drawing force where you were like, Oh,
37:26
I'm definitely going to do this. Would it be, Hey, someone said
37:29
this is a college event or did the coolest person, you know,
37:33
the guy who was or the guy or girl who was like in depth with
37:37
it. They loved the college.
37:38
They were a part of it. They were a part of everything
37:40
from academic to sports and all of that stuff.
37:43
They knew what was going on and said they were probably the one
37:47
who you were like, oh, if this person's doing it, then we need
37:50
to do that. That's what Big Night does
37:52
really well as they find those people and they're able to
37:55
highlight them to say, hey, what would you like to see here?
37:59
What would be the event? Not saying, hey, we need to have
38:01
all the answers. They have their ear to the
38:03
ground on what communities are out there.
38:06
Find the right people, highlight them, make them have it, be
38:11
authentic and genuine to what they want.
38:13
And then that's what's going to bring the other people in the
38:15
community. And you can do that with any
38:18
community you want. It's just a matter of it has to
38:20
be genuine and you have to be willing to listen to the people
38:23
and not have all the answers, but listen to the people who are
38:26
those trusted sources. If it's fashion, you want the
38:29
people who are into fashion, not the people who say, hey, I'm a
38:32
creative director, I did well at this, so I'm going to do all
38:35
these other categories. Who are the people and who are
38:37
the heroes that can bring that authentic experience there?
38:41
And that's how you create a community.
38:43
It's just a matter of finding that and being able to give away
38:45
a little bit of power. That's cool.
38:52
Are you aware of anybody else that is kind of merging these
38:55
two worlds of fitness and nightlife?
38:59
You had other peers, other models that you can learn from?
39:03
Or is this completely new? I mean, I'm, I'm not going to
39:10
sit here and say everything that we've done, I've created.
39:14
I'm a big fan of having someone you look up to and beg, borrow
39:17
and steal from them, you know, give them credit for when credit
39:22
is due. But I think that since we've
39:25
done this, we've seen a lot of stuff in the Boston area.
39:28
I actually just worked out with a friend, Darren, who started
39:31
what's called Ritual in Boston and they have an outdoor venue
39:34
called Park City. And every Saturday he now
39:38
manages other people that can go train, you know, at this outdoor
39:43
bar. But in the mornings they do a
39:46
big workout class and then everyone hangs out.
39:48
They have cold tubs from Sweat House.
39:49
They have all of these different fitness brands that come around
39:52
and, and do that. I think it's, I think it's
39:55
something that was needed and probably done on a small scale.
39:58
But now when people understand and see the community aspect of
40:01
it, I think it's spreading a lot.
40:02
And I still take ideas from other people that have come to
40:05
my events and done their own. But as far as seeing other
40:11
people do it, I think people have done it really well.
40:15
You know, believe it or not, Zumba, they used to do these
40:19
cruises so they would charter an entire cruise ship about people
40:23
who probably would never go on a cruise, but they loved Zumba.
40:27
And when you have so many people that can then create that
40:30
community, we kind of copied that.
40:32
And then 2019, myself, my old boss from Reebok, Austin, and
40:39
another guy who was a, I can't remember what he did for a
40:45
living, but very, very successful.
40:47
We started a company called Wad on the Waves and we did the
40:50
first ever CrossFit cruise. And that came from stealing
40:54
ideas from Zumba, saying, hey, there's a community of these
40:56
people. There's a community of CrossFit
40:58
people that would probably never go on a cruise ship, but what if
41:01
it was all their friends? What if in the morning, instead
41:04
of these, you know, drinking activities, we had, you know,
41:07
pull up rigs on the pool deck. We had concept 2 rowers instead
41:11
of, you know, lounge chairs on the on the helicopter pad.
41:14
We had sandbags and do all these different workouts and have
41:17
seminars on fitness, but also bring the aspect of, you know,
41:21
partying and hanging out with your friends.
41:22
What's really cool about a cruise?
41:24
So we, you know, kind of learned from other people doing that and
41:26
we ran a couple cruises. Unfortunately, COVID was not
41:31
very friendly to our to our second, a full cruise ship
41:36
charter where they actually ended up cancelling all cruises.
41:40
So it wasn't able to go out. But after the first one, it was,
41:42
it was an incredible experience. And I think I've learned a lot
41:44
from that from, you know, Chris Browser, who is the CEO of the
41:48
company who came to Austin and I saying I have this idea, but I'm
41:52
not the fitness guy, but I know how business works and I can
41:55
afford to charter an entire cruise ship.
41:57
So you guys run the fitness side of it and we'll get people to go
42:01
on it. So I guess yeah, there's there's
42:05
stuff to learn anywhere of any community, but I've learned a
42:07
lot from that to bring into what Big Night Fitness is.
42:10
Connor, it sounds like you've got your hands in a whole bunch
42:14
of different things. We haven't even talked about how
42:17
you're a firefighter. There might be other things
42:19
we've missed as well. How do you manage all these
42:23
different things going on? I think I I mentioned it with
42:29
what the other guys at Big Night do, what Ed and Randy do really
42:32
well, which is finding someone who's really passionate about
42:37
something and allow them to run with it.
42:40
And something I really, really struggled with was delegating
42:43
tasks because I knew how I wanted something done.
42:47
And for the most part I wasn't very good with systems, so I was
42:50
the only one to do it. Now, if I'm the only one to do
42:53
something, it's impossible for me to do more than one thing at
42:56
a time. So the biggest piece for me has
42:59
been being able to delegate tasks, being able to find
43:02
someone who's passionate about it and maybe giving them
43:05
something before they were ready for it as what happened to me.
43:10
Not expecting things to go poorly, but expecting people to
43:13
develop and learn from their mistakes rather than, you know,
43:17
me not allowing them to make mistakes because I stepped in
43:19
because I need it done this way. So I think having trust and
43:23
having a great team and just managing expectations about what
43:27
someone wants and how they can get there, it's really having a
43:31
A-Team behind it. I wouldn't be able to do really
43:34
any of these things if it wasn't for one, the team that trusts me
43:37
to do this and then for me to take that trust and experience
43:40
and do that with my team. What's the future of Big Night
43:45
Fitness look like? Where are you guys going?
43:48
Oh boy. Well, this facility we're in
43:50
now, we are. We're finalizing A partnership
43:53
deal with another affiliate or gym, but we're actually going to
43:58
turn this into a public affiliate.
44:00
So instead of it just being, you know, me and my friends and
44:03
different people in town for big night, we're going to give
44:05
everyone that same level of care and training to open this as a
44:10
small gym. We're going to continue to
44:12
expand on our on our digital platform with a couple of
44:17
different partnerships we have from the on demand side of
44:20
things. And whether that be, you know,
44:22
in room hotels, people working out or, you know, getting people
44:27
the right knowledge and basis to warm up for activities, whether
44:30
it be on a, you know, a ski mountain or before going on a
44:33
long run, or to get a general person from sitting on the couch
44:38
to running a 5K. And we have a whole creative
44:41
team that is unbelievable with photo and video that supports
44:45
all the stuff and fitness. So I think expanding those is a
44:48
big piece of it. And then also allowing support
44:51
for other people that want to do the same thing, you know, for
44:55
other nightclub areas, for different nightlife groups and
44:57
say, Hey, how, how are you doing this?
44:59
And then you know, now it's. Like a Consulting Group where
45:02
you sort of help them set up their own system.
45:04
Yeah, absolutely. Instead of being like, oh, don't
45:06
take our ideas like, hey, no one has a trademark on fitness.
45:10
People can work out anywhere they want.
45:12
And instead of fighting against what I think is an incredible
45:15
idea, which came from Ed and Randy, they were the ones who
45:18
grabbed me because we had worked together to say, hey, we want to
45:21
do this thing and help other people do the same.
45:24
And I think just continuing to grow the community and still
45:29
have a little, a small percentage of it open for new
45:32
ideas. And what if the best of Big
45:35
Night Fitness hasn't even shown up yet?
45:39
That is, that is the daily goal of every entrepreneur, that the
45:45
best has not happened yet. That's what gets us out of bed,
45:48
right? Yeah.
45:50
And it's if you're not open to that, if you're so single
45:53
focused on one thing, you might miss something.
45:56
But if I've learned anything from Ed and Randy, it's said,
46:00
you know, sometimes something works really well on one day,
46:03
and sometimes you have to completely pivot and figure out
46:05
something else. But if they weren't able to do
46:08
that, did miss out on this, you know, enormous opportunity of
46:14
this card vault, which they started during the pandemic
46:17
doing these like card vault breaks where, you know, I didn't
46:21
think people even traded sports cards anymore.
46:23
But it's a billion dollar business.
46:25
And when they started doing that because they had recording
46:27
studios and they had people that were passionate about it.
46:30
And now the managing partner for that is, you know, in charge of
46:34
this multi $1,000,000 company that they started because this
46:37
guy was passionate about it. And there was an opportunity.
46:40
If they just stuck with nightlife and restaurants, there
46:42
would have been this would not have been on their table.
46:45
And now it's a huge part of the business.
46:47
And it just goes to show that you know, you have to, you have
46:50
to be confident in what you're doing, but humble enough to know
46:53
that you don't know everything. So in the store, in the parts of
46:58
your story that we've talked about today so far, Connor,
47:01
there there've been ups and downs, mostly UPS like what
47:03
Mostly what we've talked about so far is how a lot of things
47:06
have worked really well. I'd like to kind of flip that
47:10
around and talk about something that didn't work so well.
47:13
A real big challenge that you had to overcome in your life,
47:16
how you got through that and what you learned.
47:18
Oh man, there's a lot of them, that's for sure.
47:22
You know, even even in Big Night Fitness, you know, the only
47:26
reason why I know people don't want a gym membership to a
47:29
nightclub is because we had weekly class offerings at a
47:31
nightclub and they started off really odd and then it kind of
47:34
tailed off. It lost its lust because it's
47:37
only cool when it's cool rather than, you know, and when you're
47:41
fighting to have four or five people show up to your class
47:43
when 100 people showed up three weeks prior, you're like, well,
47:46
what's the issue here? So seeing that being able to
47:48
remove class from the schedule is a tough thing.
47:52
You know, the wad on the WAVES cruise was amazing, but in 2020
47:57
when the pandemic shut it down and, you know, there's this
48:00
whole issue of we had all this stuff planned, we had a year's
48:03
worth of this plan, and now it's gone, you know, and it still
48:06
hasn't come back yet. Maybe I don't figure that as a
48:08
loss, but I think why I'm able to adapt and deal with this
48:12
stuff so much is from my experience in the Navy.
48:15
And we had touched on it just a little bit about going into Navy
48:18
Special warfare. It's a, it's a, it's a tough
48:21
training pipeline. You have to be 100% committed to
48:23
this. And as a 17, you know, 18 year
48:26
old making this decision that this is what you're going to do
48:28
with your life. You know, I had, I had some
48:32
issues with my right elbow that presented issues and with combat
48:35
diving. And if you don't have a jump
48:38
dive physical, you can't operate in special operations.
48:41
So after years of, you know, training in a pipeline to have
48:44
it come back after you've achieved this goal that you
48:48
thought was what you're going to do the rest of your life.
48:51
You know, I, I had a surgery and then went into a dive office and
48:54
essentially the, the dive officers were like, Hey, you're,
48:56
you're not cleared. You are not going to be cleared
48:59
to dive ever again. And without that, you know,
49:02
imagine now you're telling this to a 20 year old that committed
49:05
their whole life for this job. And now I can't do this job
49:08
anymore. You know, what am I going to do?
49:11
I wasn't going to go to college. Everything was, was for this my
49:15
high school. I would, I would be that kid in
49:17
class to say, what do I have to do to pass this class?
49:19
It's the only thing that you know, it's the only thing that
49:22
counts is that I passed. I didn't care about grades or
49:24
scores or anything about that. I cared about, you know, being a
49:27
Navy SEAL and operating and doing that job.
49:29
And I was going to do it the rest of my life.
49:30
And then when that was taken away, it's like, but I, I did
49:35
all this to get there. Why, you know, why can't I, you
49:38
know, what's the purpose? And I, when outside the Navy, I
49:41
got civilian opinions to try to clear me and go against the
49:45
Navy. And, you know, when when I ended
49:48
up reluctantly saying, hey, you know, there's nothing I can do
49:51
here. I got out of the Navy and I
49:54
thought the world owed me something.
49:55
I had such a negative attitude that, you know, I wanted people
49:58
to feel bad for me that I did all this stuff.
50:00
I accomplished the impossible. And now here I am, you know that
50:05
it's all taken away from me and I met, I met a guy, Chris Irwin.
50:10
I had actually moved to the Virgin Islands and I moved there
50:13
not because I had this gym. I just dream of starting a
50:16
CrossFit affiliate, the first one in the Virgin Islands, and
50:18
having all this awesome stuff happened that happened
50:20
afterwards because I didn't really give myself very many
50:24
other options. I was like, well, I have friends
50:25
down here, you know, I'll just go drink beers and be a
50:28
bartender somewhere and then just kind of waste my life away.
50:32
I met this guy, Chris Irwin, who was a he'd just gotten off of
50:36
active duty after 14 years in the SEAL Teams.
50:39
He had, He had worked himself up to the highest level, which from
50:43
the SEAL Teams you can screen to go into what's called Devgrew or
50:46
SEAL Team Developmental Group, also known as SEAL Team 6.
50:50
And he had just come off active duty.
50:52
He took a job down there with this, this kind of sales job,
50:55
offered him a ton of money, moved his family down to the
50:57
Virgin Islands, and they loved CrossFit too, and ended up
51:01
coming across him. We actually had an interesting
51:03
meeting our first time from me being this guy who wanted people
51:07
to feel sorry for him, and then meeting someone who did the job
51:11
from the top down and didn't expect anything from the world.
51:15
It was just a job for him and he was like a silent mentor for me
51:19
because he never told me what to do.
51:21
He never told me not to feel sorry for myself, never told me
51:24
any of this stuff. But the way that he lived his
51:27
life and seeing what he had been through and how he still looks
51:31
at the world was something I wanted to emulate.
51:35
So it wasn't really until that time that I started turning
51:37
things around like, Hey, you still have a lot of stuff going
51:40
for you. Like it's not over yet just
51:42
because that you put all your eggs into one basket and it
51:44
didn't work out. It's not over.
51:46
And and you're not going to be that person who feels sorry for
51:48
you the rest of your life. And I had some friends that they
51:51
kind of stuck by my side and not in the not in the hey, man, we
51:55
support you no matter what. But when I moved to Saint Thomas
51:58
that were like, hey, man, you're, you're worth more than
52:00
what you're saying to go be some like bartender.
52:03
And actually, I had one friend, Marino that, you know, I was
52:07
having a going away party and he was the only one who came up to
52:09
me. And he was like, Hey, I don't
52:11
think this is the right move for you.
52:13
You're you're you're meant for a whole lot more than this.
52:16
And I don't want to hear from you unless you're doing
52:18
something worth telling me. I don't want to hear about a
52:21
crazy night you had getting drinks or going to do XYZI Don't
52:24
want to hear about that because I think it's it's bullshit.
52:27
I think that when you're finally doing something where you're
52:30
following a career and a passion to live up to your potential,
52:33
that's what I want to hear from you.
52:35
And it was humbling to hear from someone who I thought was my
52:37
friend. And at the time you're like,
52:39
that's a rude thing to say. But that was one of those times
52:42
when I was like, he was right. And I, I try to look back, you
52:46
know, if I, I always want to be in a place where I look back a
52:49
year from now and I think, man, I would have never believed I'd
52:52
be in this spot. And it doesn't always have to
52:54
be, doesn't always have to be from a financial standpoint or
52:57
from a business standpoint, but even a mental standpoint of who
53:01
I want to be. And, you know, there's always
53:03
struggles that have come in and out of that.
53:05
But I think that by having everything you wanted taken away
53:08
from you and then finding a, a way to win, finding a, a will to
53:12
succeed anyways was the biggest and best thing that's ever
53:15
happened to me. As much as, you know, if you
53:17
were to go back and say, Hey, you can, the rest of this life
53:20
isn't going to be here, but you can, you know, operate in the
53:22
teams. Still not sure I'd go, Hey, I
53:25
want this other life. I'd be like, Oh, that's still
53:26
what I wanted to do. But if it's not there, there's
53:29
no, you can't dwell on it. You can't, you know, some things
53:31
are out of your control and you fight hard for it, but there's
53:35
always another opportunity. And that goes from from every
53:38
aspect of you know, from if you're a, if you're homeless, if
53:42
you are a drug addict, if you are create a business, invest a
53:45
bunch of money, have your friends invest a bunch of stuff
53:47
and it doesn't work out for you. It's like it's not over and it
53:51
can be a failure, but it can also be a learning experience
53:53
where you can be, you know, now 36 year old and think I've done
53:58
everything I wanted to in life and more and I'm still living it
54:01
and I'm still curious as to what's next.
54:05
So there's some fun stuff to unpack in that.
54:07
I appreciate you sharing all of it.
54:08
You know, the first part of what you talked about to me is
54:14
something we've talked about a lot on this show.
54:16
You went through an identity crisis, right?
54:19
Like your identity was tied up and you're going to be a Navy
54:22
SEAL. That's what you, that's
54:24
everything that you were working towards, all the fitness.
54:27
I just want to pass this class in school.
54:28
I don't care, But I, I just need to get from here to the Navy so
54:31
I can become a SEAL. And then when that's taken away,
54:35
all those years of your identity being tied up in something that,
54:39
that, that rug is ripped out from underneath you and, and,
54:42
and you feel lost, discombobulated.
54:45
Like I knew where I fit into the world, my place in all of this
54:49
before and and now it's taken away from me and I I'm just
54:53
like, my head doesn't doesn't feel right anymore.
54:57
And what I think was really cool about, you know, your experience
55:01
there in the Virgin Islands, was this this Navy SEAL that you met
55:05
who became. I think.
55:06
I think the words that you used were a silent mentor.
55:10
And as you said that, I'm like, I don't have any idea what that
55:13
means. I know what a silent partner is,
55:15
but, and I thought this is really cool.
55:18
This is a guy that wasn't telling you things directly.
55:21
He was just a living example of the way to carry yourself
55:26
through the world. And when I heard you say that,
55:28
I'd be curious to, you know, hear from listeners how it hit
55:32
them. But I'm like, you know, I can
55:34
take that into my life, like, so many times, whether it's with my
55:38
kids or my, you know, my employees, whatever it is, I am
55:43
like, you know, wagging my finger.
55:45
This is the way that you should do it.
55:47
I've been through this before. Let me just show you the way and
55:50
do do exactly as I tell you to. But there's so, so much power
55:55
and being able to, like your friend, just be the living
55:58
example of the way to carry yourself through the world.
56:03
Yeah, it's, it was at the time, I didn't really realize it until
56:08
spending a little bit more time away from him.
56:10
And I was like, I, I act in the way that he did that he didn't,
56:15
you know, he wasn't consciously being like, do this or do that.
56:17
And and that was even over the last couple of years, I tried to
56:22
think of things as who do I look up to the most and what
56:27
qualities and traits do they have and how can I be more like
56:31
them? And, you know, I'm not a mental
56:33
health expert, but, you know, I was working with a woman from
56:37
the VA on just some mental health stuff.
56:39
It wasn't that I was like in this huge rut, but something
56:42
where I'm like, I still want to improve.
56:45
She gave me the sheets from this like ACT program ACT.
56:48
It's an acronym for something that I don't know, but it
56:51
essentially had this list of categories and it said list how
56:55
you feel from 1:00 to 10:00 on the importance of it.
56:59
Family, friends, business, morals, religion, all of this
57:04
stuff that's down there. And you circle where you want
57:07
that to be, where you want your care or effort level to be.
57:11
The next piece of paper was the exact same sheet of paper.
57:15
And it was circle how you feel like you've done at each one of
57:19
these categories this week. And it's like, oh man, I, I put
57:23
family up here or, you know, reaching out and I haven't done
57:26
anything about that. And, and the closer you can get
57:30
and it doesn't matter where they need to be.
57:32
It doesn't matter the first sheet.
57:33
It doesn't matter if you're like, Hey, I just don't have a
57:36
lot of care for my family, but I want to spend time with my
57:38
friends or any of that. I truly believe the closer those
57:41
two sheets can be to matching up, the happier you're going to
57:45
be. It's intention and then putting
57:48
behavior behind the intention. And when I saw where I was
57:53
acting relative to the people that I've most looked up to,
57:57
like, like my dad, for instance, was like, well, that's not
58:01
really who I want to be. But if I really looked at it
58:04
from a objective standpoint, not just where I wanted things to
58:07
be, but where I was putting effort, I wasn't there.
58:11
And when I started making those changes, I can tell you right
58:15
now I'm the happiest I've ever been in my entire life.
58:17
And it's because I'm just behaving in the same way that I
58:21
want to behave. I'm seeing myself as the of what
58:25
I want to see myself rather than, you know, putting all
58:29
these, you know, all these different categories as family
58:32
attend and all this stuff and then not acting in that way.
58:34
But my intention was to have that.
58:36
So I think that's just a huge part of it.
58:38
And when you when you meet people like that, it's like,
58:41
find out what they're doing, do what they're doing.
58:44
What's your superpower, Connor? Gosh, my superpower is not
58:51
having a superpower. It's trying to believe that I
58:53
have one. No, I don't know.
58:55
I think probably empathy would be my superpower.
58:58
It's from from putting all my eggs in one basket and failing
59:03
and realizing that, you know, everyone else is going through
59:07
something. Everyone else has certain things
59:10
that they struggle with, whether they are celebrity or whether
59:13
they're, you know, someone who were, you know, pulling up on a
59:16
medical call from a drug overdose.
59:19
It's, it's the empathy that you can't always judge someone from
59:24
where they're at in a moment. And I'm still an emotional guy.
59:28
Like I'd cry at kids movies. I, I think that, I think that
59:33
the, the more you can, you can try to find where someone is
59:37
coming from, just the, the happier you're going to be in
59:40
life or you're going to go through the life just pissed off
59:42
all the time because people aren't acting the same way that
59:45
you are or they're not, They don't believe the same things
59:47
that you do. So I think just being able to
59:50
get along with people and see that not other people's opinions
59:53
are evil, even if they're completely different than yours.
59:56
You know, there's, there's probably some common ground to
59:58
have and being able to kind of swallow your pride a little bit
1:00:02
to get to understand where that is.
1:00:04
Is something that's definitely improved my life, but I wish I I
1:00:09
wish I could teleport. That'd be that'd be ideal.
1:00:12
If I could, if I could have any superpower, I would teleport.
1:00:14
Teleportation. OK, well is that going to go on
1:00:18
your list of here's my goal of where I want to be?
1:00:21
And then ask yourself the question, what have you done to
1:00:23
move towards that goal? I've watched Back to the Future
1:00:26
a bunch of times, so I'm on the right path.
1:00:30
I like it. I've just got one more question
1:00:32
for you today, Connor. But before I ask it, I want to
1:00:34
knock out a few things. First of all, if you want to get
1:00:36
in touch with Connor Murphy, there are a few options for you
1:00:40
here. Website bignightfitness.com.
1:00:44
His personal e-mail address is connorandthatswithonenconor@bignight.com,
1:00:51
connor@bignight.com. You can find them on socials at
1:00:57
Big Night Fitness and Connor, do I have your personal one here
1:01:00
correct? Is there AT in in there or did I
1:01:02
mistype that? OK, so it's.
1:01:04
Yeah, that's my middle initial. Connor T Murphy at Connor T
1:01:07
Murphy. And remember that's Connor with
1:01:09
one and at Connor T Murphy. And we'll have links.
1:01:13
Excuse me, All that in the show notes for folks.
1:01:15
Also, as a reminder, if you want to get more employees access to
1:01:19
benefits that won't hurt them financially and carries a
1:01:23
financial upside for the company, reach out to add back
1:01:26
benefits.com. Finally, if you'll take just a
1:01:28
moment to leave us a comment or review on your favorite podcast
1:01:32
app, we will be forever grateful to you.
1:01:34
All right, last question for you, Connor, you and I reconnect
1:01:37
one year from today and you're celebrating something big.
1:01:40
What's that big thing you hope to be celebrating one year from
1:01:43
now? Well, I think it'll be a couple
1:01:46
of things. 1st is that, you know, with this contract about
1:01:51
opening this gym up to being an affiliate, I don't, I don't care
1:01:55
the, the revenue or, or how big or how many members we have.
1:01:59
I want to be celebrating the, the changes that people have
1:02:01
made, the success stories of the people in the gym, as well as
1:02:06
just continued career. You know, I'm, I'm relatively
1:02:09
early as a Boston firefighter. So just by learning the job and
1:02:13
finding confidence in that. But yeah, I think, I think it's
1:02:20
just, I think the biggest thing that I would like to have if we
1:02:24
were to meet in the year would be the same curiosity to want to
1:02:30
continue doing things that maybe I don't know anything about, to
1:02:33
continue to be open to. Maybe I don't have the idea.
1:02:36
Maybe this gym in a year, it actually turns into something
1:02:39
that that I never thought possible.
1:02:42
But one thing that I never want to do in my life is lose
1:02:44
curiosity. I love that Connor T Murphy from
1:02:50
Big Night Fitness. I want to be the first to thank
1:02:52
you for sharing both your time and your story with us today.
1:02:55
I really appreciate it. I appreciate you having me on
1:02:57
here and again, I know I, I try not to say I don't like to talk
1:03:01
about myself, but here we go again of, of, you know, an hour
1:03:05
plus of me doing it. So thank you for the opportunity
1:03:07
to that. And hopefully the story helped
1:03:09
someone else to realize that there's always more.
1:03:13
There's always more. Whether you're, whether you're
1:03:15
happy or you're sad, there's there's always something that
1:03:17
you can do and just keep going. 100%, folks, that's a wrap on
1:03:22
another episode of the Inspired Stories podcast.
1:03:24
Thanks for learning with us today.