No one, exactly. This is pre-Slack, pre-WhatsApp, pre all the things, pre-Instagram. I created this group on Facebook. We ended up having one event at SOLAS — rest in peace — that had like 140 people show up. If you can imagine…We all worked out at the same time down there in the basement. We made it happen. It was beautiful. It was amazing.
It became this thing. Over the years, that happens to like 2011 to 2015 or so. I was like, “We got to do more what we’re doing.” We charged people to come eventually. We’re donating that money to different organizations, creating T-shirts and doing some really cool stuff.
It was never really a thing. I was still running brick [inaudible 6:22] berries. I still had a full-time or more than full-time job and then tried this thing on the side.
Then around 2017, I was like, “If this is going to be something bigger than it is and if I’m going to give it my proper attention, it means it could be my full-time job.” I was like, “But we also have to figure out how to make money.” What are we doing? We’re just giving away everything. We would bring in 25,30 grand a year, but we would be giving it out to worthy people.
That’s no way to make a… [laughs] I can’t live on nothing. I planned to make it a nonprofit. The whole idea behind the OUTWOD to becoming nonprofit was we were giving our money out to different groups of people and different people in need.
I was like, “There’s no one that we’re bringing into our fold. Everyone we’re serving right now is already doing fitness and already at a CrossFit gym or already doing something for themselves. How do we create something, like what is it that we can create that brings people to us, like shares the gift of fitness, and health and wellness to other people who don’t have it right now?”
That’s where the nonprofit got its start. We have a program now that’s now part of many programs. The initial program is…Let’s call it an accountability program. It’s a scholarship, but its still an accountability thing where people apply.
We give them a gym membership. We get a nutritionist. They get clothes. They get shoes. They get food. They have to go to the gym three days a week. They have to check in with their gym owner. It’s like, “We’re not giving you five grand. We’re providing you a bunch of tools. You have to use the tools or move on.”
That was the initial start of it. It’s just grown. Again, I don’t have a background in nonprofits. I don’t have…like the Summer Gym, with a publicist. Then I built gyms and [laughs] trained. Then I built more gyms, and I trained. Then I have this thing. It’s 10 years this year. It’s just so wild to me that we’re here. We’re doing it. We have full-time staff now.
We have boards and committees and all these things that are this big family that we’ve built that’s just here for the community. It’s so dope. I love it. [laughs]