Matt O’Keefe is President of Loud & Live Sports, the event organizers behind major CrossFit Sanctionals including Wodapalooza and The Granite Games. He’s also agent to CrossFit superstars including Mat Fraser, Tia-Clair Toomey, Brent Fikowski, Patrick Vellner, Katrin Davidsdottir, and more. We sit down to talk about his unlikely origins in the space, the challenges of moving the fitness events space forward, and why so much of what he does is built on close personal friendships.
Learn more about the work Matt is doing to help the CrossFit community during COVID-19 at United in Movement.
In this episode of the BarBend Podcast, BarBend’s David Thomas Tao talks to Matt O’Keefe about:
- The origins of Loud & Live Sports(1:57)
- Managing top athletes and major CrossFit Sanctionals events
- How Matt became one of the lead organizers behind Wodapalooza (5:19)
- The unique atmosphere surrounding Wodapalooza and how it’s become a Miami institution (9:30)
- Is there anything missing from the CrossFit community events space? (12:30)
- “You have to be a level of delusional” (15:50)
- Matt’s early involvement in athlete management with Mat Fraser and beyond (19:05)
- Word of mouth marketing for athlete management (21:50)
- The “Jerry Maguire” school of athlete management (26:00)
- “It’s one person, one conversation at a time” (28:35)
- Where competitive CrossFit can and will still grow (30:30)
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