Do you remember a time in your life where you had to let go of something so that you could step into a more authentic version of yourself?
So often we cling to ideas, identities, and other labels that we have outgrown. When we finally give ourselves permission to shed the cramped skin, we are met with possibilities we could have never imagined. Matt Rose shares his journey transitioning from his time playing collegiate football to entering the world of CrossFit and becoming a successful entrepreneur and community builder.
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Matt Rose 0:00
One thing that we naturally do when we have conversation, we're thinking about the next thing we're about to say without actually hearing someone. And it's something it's like any muscle, you have to flex it, you have to practice it. But in order to give someone their space, you have to create space. And if that space is filled with words, you're not actually listening.
Stuart Murray 0:32
Welcome to episode number six of the connected movement podcast. I'm your host, Steve Murray. Are you disillusioned with our old outdated systems and stories? Are you tired of the growing polarization in society? So am I my aim is to engage in and unpack conversations with people from all walks of life as a means of CO creating a way forward for humanity. Today's guest is Matt Rose. Matt is a coach, a gym and yoga studio owner and a dog dad living in Moncton, New Brunswick. He's a former student athlete where he found his passion for fitness. Matt is on a mission to develop a community of fit healthy humans on a path to a longer more enjoyable life. To enjoy life we must have movement and without movement, there is no life. Being so passionate about fitness has allowed Matt to pursue a career in competitive functional fitness, and pass along the information he has developed anyone willing to listen and to better themselves. I really hope you enjoy this episode. And before we dive in a thank you to our sponsor, Karen Phytoplankton. Many daily discomforts are the result of malnourishment and you may be malnourished. If you crash in the afternoon, you have digestive issues, you get lots of headaches, have trouble sleeping, you have muscle or joint pain, have trouble concentrating and so on. The good news is the right supplementation can help with this. I've personally benefited from using Karen Phytoplankton, which has helped me find more energy in the afternoons and beat that crash. You can find Karen Phytoplankton products at Costco locations or online at the Karen project.ca. Without further ado, let's dive in.
We met over a decade ago playing football at Mount Allison. It's been a while man. Gosh, yeah. So I'm wondering what what brought you into the realm of football in the first place? And were you playing other sports as well like throughout your life?
Matt Rose 2:47
Yeah, I mean, I played everything growing up from soccer, lacrosse, I was actually I mean, mostly focused on hockey. I was a very undersized child until late actually early in my 20s. But I was undersized. I just didn't make sense for me to be on a football team. Although I found like my passion was football. But I was mostly just like, pushed into the hockey realm. I mean, feel like any kid growing up on the east coast of Canada, it's like, you're gonna do hockey at some point in your life unless you have like some parents that are involved in different sports. So basically started out in hockey, dabbled in football. And then after high school, I still undersized but I tried to go into like the junior hockey realm. And that was not a good path for me. It was it's a rough, rough sport. And I just was like, You know what, I'm gonna get football shot. I was taller. I played some quarterback in high school. And I was like, I'm gonna reach out to some of my friends with the high school so Tyler Nadal nails, like, I want to give this football thing a try. And so I was playing up here in Monkton on a senior team, I guess. And I just was not not enough for me. So I wanted a little bit more contacted Tyler and Manny at the time was not doing any kind of tryouts. So like, yeah, come give it a shot. And I was already at Mouni at that point. So I was taking classes full course load, and my intention was school I was it. And then football kind of just like trickled down and slowly took over the the student life of my career. And then next thing you know, I was trying out for quarterback and then pushed over to receiver and didn't start from there.
Stuart Murray 4:41
Wow. First of all, I find it hard to believe that you say you are undersized, even having seen you when you came into football because you're small by any means then and you know, knowing you now, undersized is not a word that comes to mind for me.
Matt Rose 4:58
I show people pictures of what I was like even my first year or second year university, and they don't even believe that that's me. And that's how much I've kind of like grown since even a decade ago when we met kind of thing. So I was a six foot two, six foot three, 160-170 pound quarterback coming into a league, I had no business being in, and I had to do some changes, but like, the whole way, I had people like showing me, you know, how to train how to eat, bulk up a little bit because the the League of football like CIS is a lot bigger than what people think it is. You got some you got some big football players out on that field. I basically had to make the choice, like, either strengthen up and bulk up or don't play.
Stuart Murray 5:49
Yeah, oh, yeah, there's, there's full grown men out there. I mean, you know, as a little 18 year old or 19 year old, you got these ideas of being a star on the on the field and your high school stuff. And then you go playing with like 2627 year olds, and in some cases,
Matt Rose 6:07
especially league when you and I are in there, in even before us a little bit like they were grown men, they were in their 20s, like late 20s, you know, because they hadn't, like my first season was when they brought in the rule that you had to play five seasons within seven. Before then they only had like you had like five years of eligibility. So you could play at any point in your life as long as you were in school. So you know, I like the this mu dynasty of football players. And I'm stepping out onto this field with guys who are 10 years older than me. And I'm like, they're physically more fit than I am. They just they've been in the league a lot longer than I am. It's just it was a an awakening.
Stuart Murray 6:51
Yeah, a rude awakening. And some Yeah, in some ways. I'm curious that I know. We work extremely hard, you know that, as you mentioned, alluded to that football kind of taking over. We were putting in 20 to 30 hours, sometimes a week in football, in addition to being a student at Mount Allison, how were you able to balance football balance, academics balance having some degree of a social life.
Matt Rose 7:22
So first, like when I first got to Mount A, because I wasn't on the team, like classes were easy classes were good, I could go study, I could spend hours at the library and not worry, spend all nights even studying writing papers. So my first, I would say two years at Mount A were a little bit easier. But then as you get into that first team, the starting positions, things start to get a little bit more real. You have to be at those meetings, you have to be at the practice, you have to go to therapy to get your body tuned up, you still have to work out so there's hours and hours and hours on top of what what you even think like it's not just show up on Saturday, perform go home, like it's even your Saturdays traveling, you know, we don't play any teams that are close. So you're traveling for two hours. Or if you're going to Quebec, you're doing a 10 hour drive. So it eats up most of your life. But like to be honest, by the end of my career, like school took a toll, a big toll. And it's one of the reasons why I couldn't progress into my football life is because I didn't pay attention to that schooling, I started getting in my mind that football was the end result. And I could go further with football. And then slowly slowly, I started seeing those like that GPA just slowly drop down into a position where it actually bumped me out of eligibility. So my last season it was it was purely based on my academics. That's why I wasn't able to finish up my last season, which is unfortunate because we were coming off to two semi finals to head to the venue cup. And then in my last season just I was focused on football and that was it. And then next thing you know, you don't have football anymore. Wow. Yeah. So it was it was a tough pill to kind of swallow, but it kind of makes you think that like, you can't put all of your eggs in one basket, in a sense, like, I still need to perform as an academic student, not just an athlete, and I've been built most of my life to focus on athletics, not intentionally but that's just how I kind of put it on myself was athletics was the only thing I was good at. But you know, hindsight now and like it was actually the schooling that I needed to focus on in order to be so Is that successful athletes? So
Stuart Murray 10:02
that's interesting. I, I hear a lot of that kind of language used in, even in the world of like investing, right? It's like, oh, yeah, we need to diversify, don't have all your eggs in one basket, because, you know, that's highly risky. Why, you know, what, what have you what kind of value Have you pulled out of, of that idea of taking care of these different aspects of our, of your life?
Matt Rose 10:27
Yeah, so I say put egg, don't put your eggs in one basket, not meaning the sense that like, you're gonna fail at something and you shouldn't meaning like, you should make sure that all aspects of your life are covered. I use this analogy, like, imagine that you're given this pitcher of water. And then each cup that you have around you, is things in your life, whether it's academics, family, job, or career, and you only get so much water, you only get so much energy. And so you start pouring into those cups. And so you know how much water you're using for each one of those cups. And if you overfill those cups, other things are going to start to fall apart. And that's whether it's family career, whatever it is, the idea is to kind of spread that water out evenly, to make sure that that's what you're focusing on. Or say you don't really care about a career, maybe you want to be that athlete, you want to pour more water into it, just know that that cup is going to be empty. And so for me, I wish my water was kind of spread out a little bit more into my academics. So not so much like having eggs in one basket, like you're gonna fail, because you're gonna fail at stuff. I don't look back and think I failed at that, that's, you know, it's a failure in my life, it was just an opportunity to figure out like, you know, if you don't have your ducks in a row, you're just gonna, you have to figure something else out. So like, I walked away from that being not upset. I'm sure I was upset in the moment. But it was it was definitely a good learning, a learning curve, because I was able to step out and be like, You know what, even if you do fail, you can still move forward. And so for me a while at like, I really had find my identity after football to was like, what do you do now? So yeah, basically, just making sure that anything I do in life, I'm pouring enough energy into it that it doesn't fall to the wayside. And so for today, like for me, a lot of it is business, but a lot of it is family. And a lot of its relationships, too. And I can't lose out on those relationships, just because I'm pouring all of my water into, like right now, my business or my career in CrossFit as an athlete. So I just don't want to be doing the same mistake that I did 10 years ago.
Stuart Murray 13:08
Well, I've got so many questions for you. I want to go back. Before we go forward. Sure. The you mentioned something earlier, I think we live in a world where we have short attention spans, and we are soft, people are soft. And we are seeking comfort and convenience. And we want that quick and easy fix to everything. And you mentioned something there that really hit home to me is like the idea of preparation in practice, like, wasn't just about showing up for the game. Right? And so you put in 20 plus hours surrounding that game for every single week to show up. Why, why is that so important? Because I think that for me has become a metaphor for life. And yeah, I think a lot of athletes might, you know, would agree, but why do you think that preparation and practice is so important for all of our life?
Matt Rose 14:10
I think that like the small sliver of attention that we get, especially on game day, I mean, it might be three hours of some Saturday or Friday or a Sunday, but that small sliver doesn't equate to the hours and hours of preparation that we have to do leading up to it. I think that's one of the reasons why I fell in love with football. Most other sports, especially hockey or baseball, it's back to back to back games. And for me football. It was weeks of preparation leading up to such a small timing of showing up in front of a crowd. You know, that's where the lights were on. That's where, you know the competition was real. But what people don't see is the two hour meetings that we have every single day the Getting taped every single day to make sure your body is set up, you know, stretching, warming up practicing learning, it's so much behind the scenes, that we kind of just take it for granted that oh, they just show up on game day. And that's it. It's the same in the NFL. We only see them on Sunday or Monday or whatever. But they have. So like, their job is dedicated to the sport. So they spend hours and hours a day, just like any of us do. If even if we work in an office, you spend hours and hours a day working on their craft. So then they show up on game day, they're ready. Just same thing with business. You know, a lot of the stuff that we do is behind the scenes, you don't see it, like businesses running consistently throughout the day. But it's the big moments when the lights are on, that's when you're prepared for and even right now we're setting up for a competition in June. And no one knows what's going on between now and June 25. But the preparation and the work for those two days is extensive. And we try to do that because we want to make sure that when that date comes up, we're ready. We're prepared for it. But any of our athletes are only going to see those two days. But it's our job to make an experience.
Stuart Murray 16:19
I love that. I think there's something so much to that too, because like life can throw you into a tailspin so fast. Yeah, right. And it's like, okay, well, yeah, I can find my grounding. When things are easy. Be that in relationships, be that in business, be that in sports, like, Sure, no problem. Like when that's a perfect pass, when things are aligned, and the business is flowing. But all of a sudden, like you get this storm coming through. It's like, Wow, can I can I stay grounded here? Did I prepare for this now? Yeah, right, that yeah, that is key, you
Matt Rose 16:55
You can prepare as much as you want. You can prepare, like every single day like I can, for the next two months prepare for this competition is going to happen in June. And then on game day, something completely out of my control just comes and sideswipes, us, and we're not ready for it. But then it's about I mean, the biggest thing that we talk about is controlling what we can control. So we can't control on the game day that we have three outdoor events out of six, and it rains or thunderstorms or pours like what are you doing to make sure that as you're rolling with it, you still create an experience. And just going back like, I know, we talk a lot about sports and about business. But even social media, we only see these like small little slivers of what people's life is, like, you know, we see like the highlight reel, which is basically what we see on Saturday, or, in my case, right now the competition, we only see that sliver of that like lights and that fame. And I find social media is a lot like that, you get that quick post and all those legs, and then it's done, you don't see what that person was doing before, after or day to day stuff. There's a lot of prep that goes even into little things like that. So it's, it's really cool to see that like, I really don't like the lights on, I actually prefer like, the progress. I prefer the behind the scenes stuff. So like on game day, when that competition hits, it's just going to be sitting back and being like, let's see how it rolls kind of thing. So
Stuart Murray 18:33
yeah, that's amazing at like, we still can never control the outcome. And so the best thing we can do is just like, set ourselves up for that and then roll with it, right? It's like, okay, well, why am I gonna get trapped in this expectation? Did I do the best I could? Did I prepare the best I could for this? Because, like you said, like, some things are just out of our control. And you mentioned social media, too. Do you think there's a danger? In the way our culture is evolving? Like this is a pretty new experiment, right? Like what social media launched in in the late 2000s. And so we're just over a decade into this weird social experiment where people are putting snippets of the best part of their lives up. Do you think there's a danger in that, that we perhaps have been fully integrated socially?
Matt Rose 19:22
Yeah, I think that it creates this false narrative of what we're doing day to day, and then that false narrative kind of like translates into how we perceive our own day to day, especially like, the CrossFit world for me. You have people posting their big lifts, their PRs, their achievements, and all this and if I, if I take that back onto my own training, and why I'm not hitting all these PRs or these milestones, or I can really look at my training and think that I'm not doing enough or I'm not doing On the right things are not progressing fast enough. And that automatically puts a negative spin on everything I've been doing for the last 10 years. Right? Even though, if I look back the last 10 years, my progress has been significant. Maybe not on the level of some other people. But if I go back to when I first picked up CrossFit, I'm a much different athletes than when I was back then. And I think that we can get consumed with all the flashy lights. And like I said, the false the false narrative that it's not always perfect.
Stuart Murray 20:37
How do you insulate yourself from that? How do you remind yourself or ground yourself back,
Matt Rose 20:45
just knowing that I really gotta take like an internal focus, and see and really just examine my progress, and not compare it to others. That's the biggest thing. I can still compare my like, I have a training group. And we have we meet almost every single day and comparing myself to them in terms of where I should be. That's okay, I like that, because it gives me a little bit more competition. But I still need to look back on my weaknesses and stuff that I need to focus on and work on that stuff. Because if not, I'm just going to be chasing the tail of other competitors trying to follow suit. And that's not going to work for me because I need to focus on what I need to do, not what they're doing.
Stuart Murray 21:30
I love that. So what's your what's been the role of sport in your life, like how is sports and the practice and the playing of sports in your life shaped you or helped guide you into who you are?
Matt Rose 21:44
Well, you like the biggest sports is really just been for me, like the team aspect. I've been able to be a part of a lot of teams, I've been a part of groups. And I feel like take taking away the whole athletic side of sports, this the connections that you create, within teams. And if I go back to football playing at Mount A, the connections that I have with those players, I'm sure you have the same thing. Like that's the biggest thing, move it with move forward with, like, right now we're sitting in front of each other. And 10 years ago, if you told us that we'd be on a podcast together and probably looked at each other, like, You're crazy. But it's those connections that we create that 10 years down the road, you can bring those back up. So sports as an athletics, I've made my body awful, like I hurt every single day. But it's the connections that we take. And that goes through team sports, individual sports, you make those incredible connections, and they are what help you move forward in life.
Stuart Murray 23:03
It's so true, a it's just this reminder, like, we're not an island, you know, who are who would we get ourselves to think we could get anywhere, this idea of like hyper individualism in these western societies in particular that we have. It's such a illusion. And the reality is that we are interdependent upon one another if we want to be the best version of ourselves, and the best to create the best environments that we need to work together.
Matt Rose 23:31
Absolutely. That's... owning a business for the last two years. The one thing I can take away from it is the connections is the bridges that we create between one another because you always need something, you always need something to help you out to move forward. So if I burn bridges, or if I lose connections, because something somebody doesn't believe in the same thing I believe in or whatnot, if I lose that connection, and I need that, one thing that that person has to progress my company, it's not going to work, I'm going to have to go find a new relationship or set up a new connection with somebody when I could have just kept that connection alive. And so I can't tell you the amount of times that I lean on other people to help me with something. It's every single day. And if I am not somebody that can connect well with others, or stay in touch, it's just it's gonna fizzle out.
Stuart Murray 24:39
So true. I want to get into the business stuff and even how you shifted out of football. But before we do I, I've noticed something about you and particularly in reconnecting with you. The decade later. I've noticed that in football, football in particular, is that a sport where there's a lot of machismo, there's a lot of testosterone Lovato bravado, which I, you know, it fires up this super primitive side of me, I love it. But at the same time, it can veer off on to this hyper masculinity idea where, you know, it can create an environment where men are not even necessarily comfortable in and of themselves. And I've noticed that in talking with you that you're, you're somebody who you seem like you, you stand in your truth really well, and you hold amazing eye contact, and you'll, you'll lean in for a hug, and you show up, you're clearly a man who has sat with his emotions and, and works to be better. And I'm wondering if there was challenges in that with football? Or how you've been able to move through that? Because it's very apparent that you are you in touch with yourself?
Matt Rose 25:56
Yeah, I'm not sure if, when that happened. But at some point, you kind of during football, like you said, it's the machonis. And you kind of have to have a degree of that to run out onto a field and run headfirst into something else, you kind of need that confidence. And you need to lean on your teammates. And it's the whole rah rah heading out onto the field kind of thing. But, you know, the dust is settled and the whistle is blown. You need to have conversations. And I think that being open to those conversations has really changed the way that I think about myself. I've also had really cool experience, learning through some companies that I've worked for. I also have a really good connection with friends and teammates, like a group of individuals that we graduated together, we started together, but we're not afraid to talk. And I think I'm fortunate in a way because a lot of people don't get that opportunity. But over time, you just learned to have conversations and connect with people. And then you sort of lose that machonis, where you're just not listening anymore. And so for me, I've just evolved into listening to what anyone has to say. And kind of making sure that the connection is genuine, not just fake that I'm here. I'm here with ears open, but my mind isn't open. So I'm not really sure when that happened, to be honest. I mean, I worked for a company like Lululemon and they helped me a lot to pay attention to others. And so I guess that's a good starting point for me is, if I think back to how everything's kind of evolved, but I mean, I also I, like I grew up with a mother who loved to talk about stuff like that my connection with her is like, I can talk to her about anything. So it was never like off the table. If something's bothering you. You could I could literally go and talk to her about that. So maybe that's fostered throughout the years. But yeah, it's, it's, it's been a journey to try and eliminate that football stigma that I'm just some, I guess, I mean, for lack of a better word, the meathead that doesn't listen or care kind of thing.
Stuart Murray 28:40
Shout out to loving moms.
Matt Rose 28:42
Yeah, exactly.
Stuart Murray 28:45
Yeah. Well, that's beautiful. It's very apparent and how you show up. Because I'm hyper observant of those things. And how you show up, you create a really wonderful container for people to feel heard. And for people to feel respected. At least I really noticed that. And I'm curious, you mentioned listening quite a few times. How do you how do you listen to yourself? And how do you listen to others? Are there tools or tips or tricks that that you do to be able to show up in that space?
Matt Rose 29:17
So I'll start with the easiest one listening to others. And it's not easy for a lot of people. But one thing that we naturally do when we have conversation, we're thinking about the next thing we're about to say without actually hearing someone. And it's something it's like any muscle, you have to flex it, you have to practice it, but in order to give someone their space, you have to create space. And if that space is filled with words, you're not actually listening. So the act of listening is is the most important connection to anyone. And that goes for strangers on the street. It goes for Best Friends fan way, you need to be able to have conversations and absorb what they say. If not, it's like that saying it goes one year out the other, right? So in between conversations and needs to be sort of that thought process so that you're hearing them, and then they understand that you're hearing them, not just focusing on the next thing to say. So connecting with other people has been a lot easier for me, in that sense, because I've left space open. Yeah.
Stuart Murray 30:36
Yeah, it's amazing. There's almost like a reciprocity or a resonance that's created. I love that in order to hold space, we must create space. That's incredible man. And I couldn't agree more, because we're constantly almost in this state of fight or flight in this world that we're in, it's so fast paced. We're constantly in our sympathetic nervous system, and just to meet people who look you in the eye who are breathing and connected with themselves. And it's like, okay, I don't need to have my walls up here. No, and then all of a sudden, you're, you're that person that's like, oh, they hurt me on that, even if it's trivial thing, I feel hurt, okay, my walk and, oh, I feel hurt, okay, my walk and lower. And it's this reciprocal process that allows for these deeper connections.
Matt Rose 31:30
And that's where you start to find the real connection and the real conversations. So a lot of the time, and I don't know, if it's something that I just have, but you can feel fake conversation, you can feel where it's forced, and you can feel that that person isn't holding the same space that I am. So we always have that, you know, we see somebody in line at the grocery store. And it's somebody that we saw back in university, or you know, in another life or something. And so we have these small little talks. But if we actually just genuinely connect with that person, even if it's for two seconds, it can mean so much, because now that person is understands that you're genuinely interested, even if it is a small little interaction, and then they will give that back to you. So it's more of a real connection, and real conversation that we have. That really just makes a difference.
Stuart Murray 32:28
Yeah, and it's this world, again, that world of fast pace, it's, we're short on those things, like, go out to supper, go to cafes, and you'll always catch people on their phones. And so like you said it, like maybe that one, that one minute or that 30 seconds of an exchange, like might seem trivial to you. But maybe we've left them with another piece of presents, or maybe it's shifted our day, so that the next person we see, you know, we're, we're more present. And we're out of that sympathetic state ourselves, because we watch somebody take a breath, because somebody else looked us in the eye when we were feeling down or vulnerable, like, the amount of times that I get that and like, shit, that's, that's beautiful. Humans are beautiful.
Matt Rose 33:15
Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. And you don't know what other people are going through, right? You can't understand what's that person, especially in those short interactions, you can't guess that that person's having the best day of their life, you can't tell that they're having the worst day of their life. But having that connection might be the difference to change that might make it better. And so why would we leave that to guessing or a fake conversation where we tip the hat and walk by kind of thing, so
Stuart Murray 33:48
that's beautiful. I'd like to take that with me that that remembrance into my into my day to day is because I know when that thought of what you just verbalize becomes something that I that I do know to be true. And I remember and I act in accordance. I'm not only a better person for myself, but I can show up better for other people. And that's the kind of world I want to live in.
Matt Rose 34:12
Right? Yeah, same.
Stuart Murray 34:14
Awesome. That's beautiful. So identity after football, that playing sports your whole life and being part of this team doing all these things how what was that identity shift like I imagine for you, as it was for me was was quite a challenge to navigate through being this athlete, especially at a at a high level, to shifting into a new stage in your life. What was that like for you?
Matt Rose 34:44
So naturally, the I guess that stage after football is trying to find your identity, because you've had I guess that identity made for you for the last however many years you've been playing that sport And that, for me, I guess is like the TSN turning points when I found CrossFit. And I didn't know at the time when I found CrossFit that it would be my identity. I knew it was something I enjoyed, but it was kind of at the time, something I did for fun, and not something I did for me. And so when I left football, I had this gap of, I guess I needed to be physical, I needed to push myself in order to not think about, I guess, the leaving in football and being unsuccessful. And so when I found CrossFit, for real, I think it was like 2015 2016, fitness was really just starting to become part of my life. Which is funny, because before university to get me into a gym was like, it would be like pulling teeth, and then 2015 2016 hits. And now I'm moving into a gym, become a personal trainer. And then I start like, I started shifting towards that CrossFit world being like, Okay, this is what I want to be a part of. So my identity started slowly fostering into no longer the meathead that plays football, but now the the trainer or the coach, which I find a lot of, you know, sports players, they, they shift towards that because they're familiar with it. But that's kind of evolved into kind of like a health and wellness versus a, I need to get better for sport. So yeah, I think that would be where my path kind of led me down to where I am now.
Stuart Murray 36:48
How has CrossFit shifted your relationship to movement and to your body.
Matt Rose 36:55
I mean, I've been I was geared for five years that you performed, like you were in the gym to perform, you were in the gym to succeed on the field. And so I was fortunate that when I came into football, I had a really good teacher of CrossFit. He's probably one of the most decorated CrossFit coaches in Canada. And he's been doing it the longest, as far as I know, in Eastern Canada, so he's really, he just knew how to move. And so he taught me that moving isn't specifically related to performance, but for wellness. So CrossFit became, you know, we do stuff so that every day makes it a little bit easier. So that when we pick something up, we don't order back, so that when we sit down on everything, like a chair, we're safe as we do it. And that's just the physical aspect of it. There's an entirely mental side of CrossFit that most people don't even realize, because of the community because of, you know, we're changing our, our ways, or our movement patterns. And we're kind of I mean, that's why we get the whole culty the whole cult I guess we'd people just think that because we are such a strong community, we have different views of what fitness is. It's kind of scary.
Stuart Murray 38:28
Could you touch more on that mental emotional side?
Matt Rose 38:32
Yeah. So I guess like when I left football, I needed something to I needed a community. I didn't know what that community was, I had the football community. And that was fun. And that was some of the best years of my life. And I needed to find that again. So every day when you step into a CrossFit gym, you are in a class and you are moving the same way as somebody next to you is the same as going into a yoga class or into a studio, you kind of move as one. So you start to forget about something or you change your perspective on how your day went, because you're able to come in and sweat and release some endorphins. And now you start to feel a bit better. So for me, like, moving into CrossFit kind of gave me reassurance that I had a path, and I had something like, this is what you can keep doing. Even if you don't do anything as far as career wise, you have something that makes you happy. And that's where like the mental side for me started like I was especially leaving football, I was in a good mental state. And then now moving with CrossFit, it's like I have something to look forward to. I can go sweat, I can go, you know, do the same stuff that we did on the football field, but now I'm in a CrossFit gym and I'm with people who think the same way who move the same way and have the same goals. So we kind of just like create a really awesome community. Whether they're competitive or not,
Stuart Murray 40:03
I'm curious to hear. It's this is something I meditate a lot on. And I'm curious to hear your take, like, what is community? And what are an individual's responsibility to community?
Matt Rose 40:17
Yeah, that's a good question. What is community? It's definitely a group of individuals that have like minded goals. Whether that's CrossFit, whether that's politics, whether it doesn't matter what it is, but the community has to have like minded goals, we'd have to agree on everything. But we kind of have to have this bartering system where it's, I believe in this thing, and you don't have to believe in it, but you kind of have to respect it. And same thing, vice versa, I might not believe in what you say, but I respect it. And we slowly move forward, working together, whether whatever that goal is, so you can in communities can be as small as you know, your neighborhood, or as big as countries or whatever. Right. So as long as we just have this, like exchange of ideas that help each other, I think that's a community. So,
Stuart Murray 41:21
I mean, obviously, you kind of alluded to that there's going to be many times where, where people within communities disagree. And we've seen that a lot in the last couple of years in particular, and I think that polarization has grown and what personal qualities have helped you deal with conflict and change even in your own communities?
Matt Rose 41:43
So like, basically, if we have, so what do you mean by that?
Stuart Murray 41:47
So say there's disagreements, be that be that in your CrossFit community, be that in your business community, be that in the larger community that you're a part of?
Matt Rose 41:58
Yeah, so I mean, like you said, we've, we've ran into that a lot disagreement, everybody kind of disagrees on everything. And I think, as far as like owning business, you will find disagreement and everything. Not everybody agrees with everything, and you can't please everyone. But the idea is that you listen. And that goes back to what we first talked about, it's the listening. That's the I understand you. And even if I don't agree with you, I understand that that's where your perspective is, I understand that, you know, that's something that you believe in. And so for us, especially at like true reflection, we try to open up forums as much as possible. Because as business owners, if we think that we have the one direction, we're totally wrong, if we think that we're leading the ship, we're wrong. And what we need to do is out of all of our members, we need to be able to listen, and we need to be able to implement things that connect it, the majority, but not forget about the minority either. Because there's no right answer to everything. But as long as we're trying. And as long as we're showing that we're listening and showing that we're trying, that makes a big difference. If someone has a perspective on something, and they say this could be changed. It's not like a no, no, no, you're wrong. It's a, well, I'm actually going to take in what you say and maybe implement it, maybe it fails. But I'm not going to be afraid to fail just because someone gave me their perspective on something, I'm going to look it over, I'm going to acknowledge it, and then I'm going to give you a reason why or why not I'm going to use it. So I think that's the biggest thing is just listen to what people have to say.
Stuart Murray 43:56
Well, that there is such a humility that Undertows so much of what you just said there to to be able to show up and not need to be right. Yet to be able to, again, you know, to be able to hold space, we must create that space. And so we need to be at least okay with ourselves, okay with being challenged, okay, with being wrong, okay, with admitting that we're learning and that we're growing and that we're flawed, fallible humans.
Matt Rose 44:27
The Exactly, we like we, the amount of stuff we do right in a day versus the amount of stuff that we do wrong in a day greatly is greatly outweighed. Because if you think you're going day to day doing everything, right, you have a very skewed view of the world. Okay. So for me, at no point do I think that this is the direction that has to happen. You know, I have to listen, I have to hold space, like you said, for anybody that has their own opinion. And I might not agree with some of the things that's being said. But it doesn't mean I shouldn't listen, it doesn't mean I shouldn't acknowledge it. And, you know, there's been times where I have acknowledged it, but like, you know what, that's actually not going to work. Because of this. However, I do appreciate the feedback. So
Stuart Murray 45:21
that's nice, too. Just to find that balance, right. It's like, okay, well, you're not a pushover either. Yes, you know, there's there's boundaries, there has to be in holding space, there still needs to be a container to hold that.
Matt Rose 45:36
Yep. And it's important. Yeah. However, if you don't listen, and you consistently not listen, you're gonna miss that one thing that changes everything. And if you're, if you are, listen, even if you're acknowledging someone and saying, Yeah, but this works, yeah, but this doesn't work, you might miss out on that one idea that somebody brings to the table, that initially you think now this is gonna work. And then if you do put it into effect it it drastically changes things. So I think that people are failing or afraid to listen and afraid to fail. So they want to make their own direction. They don't want to. They don't want to fail based on someone else's opinion.
Stuart Murray 46:24
Why do you think that is?
Matt Rose 46:27
It's it's a fear of failing. It's absolutely a fear of failing. And so if I believe that this is the one thing if I believe that this is the direction that we should go in, and you tell me that there's a different direction, I am going to initially put up my walls and be like, poof, I don't think so. But maybe that direction is a little bit better than the one I'm currently on. And you got to sort of review it. And, and be afraid to take that necessarily, and not be afraid to just kind of like veer off on that path. Maybe it doesn't work. But it's just as easy to pop back onto that path when it doesn't. And now, you know, for sure that that's what didn't work.
Stuart Murray 47:17
Yeah. Isn't that the truth? It's, I think, you know, that fear will start to become less have less of a grip on us, the more we can humble ourselves, the more we can learn to listen. Because you do find those moments where it's like, wow, I'm glad I slowed down and heard what this other person said, because it did transform from something about the business or something about how I'm living my life. Right? Yeah.
Matt Rose 47:46
Yeah. There's just that one little one little information that like, could help you in so many ways. And if you're not open to it, you're not gonna get it? Mm hmm. Yeah,
Stuart Murray 48:00
totally. So starting a business man, that's, that's a whole new venture, you become part of the CrossFit community, you had really given to you and then all of a sudden, you decided to shift like what triggered you wanting to start a business?
Matt Rose 48:19
It's honestly, I had this vision in my mind of what a gym should be, or should look like. And it was years of just picturing what that kind of look like for real. And then it's like the story of how true reflection came together. There was a group of us in Miami competing, we didn't really even know each other. We're basically competing on a team, like we knew each other a little bit. But we'd never spent a whole lot of time together. And now we're in Miami, sharing an Airbnb, and having these conversations about, you know, I'd like to see this or, you know, we had common kind of just like, what could be better about our CrossFit community? And not saying that across the community was bad at that time, but what could we do to progress it? And we kind of had these common views was like, Oh, you agree with this, you agree with this? And then we brought it home. And it was like, Well, what do we do? Like how do we implement this into our cross community and it didn't take long. There's some good connections that we had between the three of us three of us owners, we had some good connections and next thing you know, the ball is rolling. And I don't think there was a defining moment where I was like, Okay, I'm opening a business it was a this is an opportunity and we need to take it we need to roll with it. And crazy enough, it was my gosh, months into 2019 when pandemic could we is fresh. So we had just decided, like we have to this is the timing. And this is what we need to get what needs to happen in order for us to open?
Stuart Murray 50:08
Like 2020?
Matt Rose 50:10
2020. Sorry, yeah. 2020. Yeah. So we just been in the thick of it, like we left Miami as Miami would start becoming a hotbed for the pandemic. So we were leaving, and getting back home. And it was like, everything was shutting down, we couldn't even work out in gyms, we're basically like, stuck to garages. So that's where more conversations started happening happening. And it was like, okay, and we start seeing, we started seeing buildings, and then ball was rolling even faster. So it was kind of not a defining moment, but it was more just like, You got to either hop on or miss this train. And if you don't hop on, its, you're going to lose the vision that you had across the gym, or it's gonna get a little bit harder. So
Stuart Murray 51:01
yeah, and you guys have created an incredible space, you did bring a little slice of that Miami Beach five, back up here, because it's, it's an epic spot, like I am inspired just being in space, like, it makes me want to move, it makes me feel vibrant. i It's, you've done a phenomenal job on the physical space alone.
Matt Rose 51:24
So what we I always had this vision that I would own a gym on a beach. I lived on a beach for several years, and I just had this vision that you can open up the garage doors, and there's palm trees and sand and the ocean. And so bringing that back to Miami, bringing it back from Miami competing in the heat. You know, we were staying in the Wynwood District, which is basically the art district of Miami. And it's beautiful there. So when we come back, I had what I had always thought I'd own as a gym, basically curated from this trip. And now it's like, Well, why don't we have it here. I know, we live on the east coast of Canada, and it's cold. Eight out of the 12 months of the year. But that doesn't mean we can't have a tropical looking business. Like, let's have palm trees. Let's have a big mural. Like, let's create that warmth that you get from being in a sunny destination here so that when it is cold, you have that space to come into and it's warm and it's comfortable. And you can come in and sweat.
Stuart Murray 52:24
Yeah, it's amazing. We do need a beach volleyball court and some more palm trees.
Matt Rose 52:29
I agree. Yes. There's been talks about a beach volleyball court. So no shit. That was super fun.
Stuart Murray 52:36
That would be amazing. Then get some infrared saunas. I guess you've already got that side going on the yoa
Matt Rose 52:43
on the yoga side. Yeah, we just need some taller ceilings, and we're good.
Stuart Murray 52:46
We're golden. Amazing. Yeah, yeah. So what are some of the key principles and values that guide a guide true fitness.
Matt Rose 52:57
So just being resilient. And so the biggest thing that we've learned over the last two years, we kind of talked about it like you're not going to get it right the first time. But the resiliency and honest owning a business over the last few years is what makes her break. It's rolling with the punches. It's, I picture us as the business stepping up to the plate and the baseball game. And the world is the pitcher. And we have no idea what pitches headed our way, the only thing we can do is prepare to swing. And we can go based off what we see. So when life throws the curveball, we basically just have to focus and swing as hard as we can, and hopefully make a home run maybe, maybe we maybe we miss and we strike out. But with true fitness that was I mean, it's one of our core values is resiliency, it's not so much in a physical aspect of like being tough. But knowing that when you get knocked down, you can get back up, you can move forward, even in the toughest of times, like during a pandemic. And we were hit with three, four lock downs and open in the first two years. So how do we as a business, overcome that. And it's knowing that this might be the worst thing we ever have to deal with. And we try to make the best of it. So when we get knocked down and we get locked down. We figure out options we roll with it. We make sure that our members are happy. We understand where they're at in terms of their mental health and we check in with them and we make sure that as we move forward, we're moving all in the same direction. In and that was our biggest thing was just making sure that no matter what came down the pipe, we were willing to work with it. It was hard. Yeah,
Stuart Murray 55:01
no doubt it changed every single day. I mean, I couldn't imagine being a small business, especially trying to start one in the midst of all that is, is wild, so props to you. But how, how? When I walk in that space, I see people, I see people together, I see people hanging out talking, supporting one another in the gym space, you then you've got this big communal open area, and pictures and personalized aspects. What do you do to foster that vibrant community amongst the members.
Matt Rose 55:40
It's, it's a result of having art like that CrossFit community, that cross the community supports each other, we have a greater goal than just coming up coming in and putting in times or putting up weight, we have support networks, we have basically 16 athletes every hour of the day, working together for the same common goal, which is wellness, which is health, which is knowing at 6570 75, we're going to be healthier as we get through these classes, so the community aspect is basically fostered by itself, you create a space that people feel comfortable sitting in, they have come, they're comfortable talking to the person next to them. And it's no longer a space for competition, but it's a space for progress. It's a space to further our life further our connection with each other. So it's not about I want to beat you in a workout. Now. It's like I want to move with you, I want to hear what you have to say I want to hear what your day is like. And the connection just slowly grows. And we have hours in the day like those time slots, those people become very tight knit group, doesn't matter if you're that high powered CEO or whatever that job is you could be completely unemployed. And now you are both coming into the same hour of the day doing the same thing, and sweating and moving through the same workout. So kind of eliminates any kind of advert not adversity, but like walls, people will automatically put up if they met each other in the street.
Stuart Murray 57:27
That's, I think that is something so important. And it was a shift that I noticed having emerged from this more competitive, I must win at all costs kind of thing to, like from moving from competition to collective thriving. It's like it's not just about what's best for me, it's about what's best for us. And how do I show up in a way that not only benefits me and makes me a better competitor to a better athlete, a better human? But how do I show up in a way that benefits everybody? And I think we live in a world that teaches us that there's a built in scarcity, and built in separation. And I think being a part of these kinds of communities, we can realize that no, we are an island, we we are on this journey together. And more for you doesn't mean less for me. In fact, that's quite the opposite. And I'm sure you must have been noticing that in the CrossFit community and in creating a business that's now creating a space for others.
Matt Rose 58:37
Yeah, it's kind of cool to see those relationships grow. Because now you have it's a we have this board out on the front where everyone puts their business cards, and you walk in and I mean, I've been a coach for years, and I couldn't tell you what most of my athletes do as a job. Because that's just not really something that we talk about. When we come in, we talk about other things like life stuff, or we talk about workouts, we talk about, you know, other things and what do you do? And that's the first thing you ask anybody when you meet them, like what do you do? But in CrossFit? I don't know. And it's not because they don't have connections with these athletes is because I'm more focused on who that person is, and not what they do. So it's funny, you go through the business cards, you're like, oh, my gosh, I didn't know this person sold real estate. I didn't know this person did this. And the next scene are like, Hey, I'm redoing my kitchen. And you are a great painter. Can you come paint, my whatever. And so those connections start to grow. And it's like, at first they met you as the person and now I figured out who you are not I found out what you do. And then I figured out the person after that. So it's kind of cool because you come in and you shed that skin of your job and your title, and then we get to know the true you Do and after that is okay, you can actually, you can do something for me or I can do something for you and the connection is a little bit more genuine.
Stuart Murray 1:00:10
I've noticed, I know, you're not just speaking about that, because I know, in our conversations I've been perpetually blown away. As a business owner, you're not, you really don't cling to that narrative of scarcity, like you've mentioned, to me multiple times, in a one on one conversation, and you've mentioned it, and acted accordingly. That it's like, no, I know, we can give away things we can give away, this we can do. And you're very open and liberal with what you're willing and able to share. And I, that resonates really deeply with my philosophy and understanding of the world, because I do believe in abundance and a residence that we can create. And I think that's amazing that you hold that space, in the business that you're creating.
Matt Rose 1:01:05
I'm I am blown away by how some people are just in this scarcity. They're scared to lose what they own, or what they have, or their money. And it's, it's an obvious fear that we all have, it's just ingrained in us. And that's not something that we can, you know, completely get out of our system. Because if somebody walked in your house today and said, I want everything that you own, you're going to fight for it. However, when it comes to moving as a community, when it comes to growing that community, sometimes it takes a little bit of just allowing faith in someone that I can give you something. And in return, maybe later on down the road, it works out in my favor. And not in the sense where I'm being greedy, but like maybe I gave you I introduced you to a space, it changes your life. And all it took was a free month, a free month of coming to our space that might change your perspective on on yoga on CrossFit. And now you've found somebody that literally wants to spend every single day in your space. And that is rewarding, right there that somebody can find that space and find that like, those walls that they feel comfortable in. And at first, does it cost money? Yeah, that person takes up space in the business, but that's okay. It will come back. Because next thing you know, that person owns business over here, and you're doing an event and they say, I actually want to sponsor you in this business, because you were so grateful to me and helping me find the space, that that bridge, that bridge of connection comes back the other way. And so that's such an important part of just knowing that people are generally not out to take advantage of you. Some are, and that's fine. But I'm going to take that chance. And I want to make sure that that person knows that I trust them. And I want to give them something that they've never experienced before.
Stuart Murray 1:03:09
Bro, I've got goosebumps hearing that. I fundamentally resonate with with that at such a deep level. And I when I see that in you, I've felt that multiple times. And I'm like, the world needs more of this. And I bow down to the beauty of what you stand for and what you do. And in that because I think it's powerful. I think it's powerful. And it has ripples beyond even the interaction of that one person you give the free month to, because then there's somebody else who observes that and says yeah, that's that is how I want to live my life. And it's the reminder for, for me, of how I want to shape up, step up and to lean into the abundant mindset because again, look more for somebody else does not mean less for me, we live on a planet that is is fruitful and abundant. And there is so much air for all of us. And yeah, the more we give and the more we trust, the more we can put trust out there. If we create a container of trust and reflect that we trust how we treat somebody is often how they will show up. really truly is
Matt Rose 1:04:26
absolutely. And like I I've just I feel so confident in the community that we have. I feel so confident in the business that we create it the gym, the studio, that as soon as someone walks into that door, they are going to feel that and they're gonna feel the community and everyone that we have, whether it's members of the gym, members of the studio, they are so open and welcome that when that person walks in, they also have Trust. So you're automatically absorbed into this community that is welcoming. And that's a big thing too. So you've created not only that trust in that individual when they came years ago, or a year ago, whatever. Now they're doing the same thing when that person walks in, because you've already set the standard, this is me trusting you, they trust that person walking in with the same walls that they had when they walked in. And so now you bring you come into this community of just people that are here for each other, and they're willing to do something or, you know, pass on something to this person, because you've already you've set that from the get go.
Stuart Murray 1:05:42
These are the microcosms of the more beautiful world that that I know is possible in my heart. And if we want to shift the world it is it's just showing up, it's showing up at the gym, it's showing up wherever we do, because that does have a profound influence. And just what you are creating the space that you have created and continue to cultivate, is making this world a more beautiful place. And it's cool to be a part of that. And to witness that on. Even on mice.
Matt Rose 1:06:10
It's like, it's such an incredible feeling to walk into a gym or the studio and see like happy faces, people are there because they want to be classes are just packed with people that are so incredibly content to be in that space that they are spending hours in that space there. They're not just coming for the class, they're staying after for the conversations with coming before to meet their friend and have coffee or to hang out. And now like, I mean, it's just four walls, but you've created a space that people feel comfortable in. And that's such a rewarding feeling.
Stuart Murray 1:06:54
What kind of challenges like what have been some of the biggest challenges you faced in creating this business and creating the space?
Matt Rose 1:07:04
Ouuuff that's a good one. Basically, just always knowing that you're not going to make everyone happy. And for a lot of a lot of our space, there's obviously people have, you know, they, they don't like this. So you don't like that, and you want to make everyone happy. But I think one of the challenges is that you can't make everyone happy. And so we get involved with these conversations, it's like this needs to change this need to change and you start to snowball, and they're like, everything's going wrong. And now I need to change everything and everything's just you know, you're not moving in the right direction. However, you need to kind of like take a step back, and evaluate why you're thinking this, and then kind of make the necessary changes so that you're not just constantly thinking that you're doing something wrong. And I think that like some days, I'll just, I'll stay up at night just being like, oh, man, this is bad. This is bad. This is bad. And it's like, you know, and it's actually really good. You know, you owning a business is very scary. But it doesn't have to be not all the time. But I think that would be the biggest challenge is like, what keeps you up at night that you're trying to change and evolve and move forward. It's like, you can't do it too fast. You can't do it too slow. So as long as you're just slowly progressing. You'll be successful.
Stuart Murray 1:08:41
I think, you know, that desire to make everybody happy exists not only in the business, but also in our, in our personal lives. We want you to please and we want to feel like we're good enough. Like we're worthy. We want the business to be successful. We want to be perceived as successful. And I think you've touched on that, but like, Do you have tips? For somebody running a business? When there were they're struggling with that, or somebody in their personal lives who find themselves constantly wanting to please?
Matt Rose 1:09:11
Yeah, just, I guess a lot of just self reflection. Why am I doing this? You know, ask yourself, Am I doing this to please others? Or am I doing this? Because I know it's right. Or am I? Am I changing the way that I believe because I think others think that I have to think this way? Or is it because I actually believe in something, but also having a good connection with others where you can chat where you can talk with them. You know, soundboards are so important. So talking listening back and forth, like how many times a you and I have conversations and we're just bouncing stuff off of each other right? Or like important people in your life that you can just sit down and be like, This is frustrating me so much and then they just sit there and they listen and then they bounce back ideas back And then next thing you know, you're like, I guess it wasn't that bad in the first place. So listening and talking are the two biggest things that I would give advice for use. If you are just stuck in your own head all the time, you're most likely creating a situation that is worse than it actually is. And you're making these assumptions that probably don't even exist, because now we've just created our own narrative of what's going on. And we haven't let it out. I guess it's that burden that we hold on to ourself that like, this is just bad. It's worse, it's getting worse than that just snowballs, it's worse. And then next, you know, we talk to somebody and it's like, well, actually, that's not even. nobody even thinks that way. No one's even. It's not even what you think it is. And then they bounce something back to you. And you're like, oh, my gosh, and then that weight is just lifted.
Stuart Murray 1:10:56
I think that that I could probably listen to that and integrate that on a daily basis. I think that's probably one of my most self deprecating ideas. Just like the the mind, wherever there's any, any aspect of doubt whatsoever, the mind just goes a mile a minute, my mind in particular, just goes to try and fill in every single gap and make a story and like, I'm sure that 99.9% of those stories are a load of horseshit.
Matt Rose 1:11:26
Are fabricated. Exactly, yes. And so we do this over and over again. And if we haven't practiced any kind of active listening, and we haven't practiced talking, we're not going to let that out. And that's something that like, again, I said earlier, is a muscle that you need to kind of flex you need to work, it's the bouncing back and forth between conversation, and we're not used to that we will literally just have that internalized and never, never be able to figure it out.
Stuart Murray 1:12:00
Yeah, and that listening, like, I think with continued trust, and continuing to feel heard, we can be more and more honest. Because there there is a degree of like radical honesty, if we really want to move towards what is true. You know, like, true truth can be really a convoluted idea to move towards, but like, the more I believe, the more we can genuinely listen to one another. And the more we can be honest with ourselves and be honest with one another, we will step closer towards truth.
Matt Rose 1:12:35
Absolutely. It's those real conversations that we need to have. It's not the fluffy, you know, we make stuff up or it's like, no, this isn't like, you're fine. It's like, no, it's sometimes you need to have the real conversations. And that's where that highway of communication we need to have going back and forth, where somebody who you're communicating with also practices on conversation, and now that they'll actually give you an honest answer. You know, we don't want to fluff up the world. We don't want to fluff up our answers. And so that conversation, the real conversations need to happen. It's not just, you know, we're trying to make someone feel better. It's like, no, we want to have, I mean, they suck. They're never fun. But it's the real conversations that actually change things they make you think a little bit different. And sometimes they clear up conflict, so much easier. So much easier.
Stuart Murray 1:13:33
So much easier, right? Because because again, it's like, oh, you know, you might kind of dance lightly around it and think you're doing this service, but like we're highly intuitive individuals, we're highly intuitive species that has just become hyper socialized. And so we are still going to know that there's something if there's an energy that's off, or, you know, somebody's still holding this story about how I'm going because they weren't fully honest with me, because they felt like they wanted to keep me safe or protect something, I'm going to know that. I'm going to feel that at some part of my being. And so I'm still going to be running with all of these stories. And so even in the end, like nobody's benefiting from any of that. It's not a service by lightly fluffing around and doing these things like, yeah, you want to make them maybe feel better, but the real thing is like you want to make them better. I want to be I want to be a better human being. Yeah. Yeah.
Matt Rose 1:14:31
And once those real conversation happens, that's where change happens. And sometimes, you know, we have conversations with people that never actually get to that point. Some people, you know, significant people in our life, whether it's like, good or bad, we don't have those conversations and then it boils up and then we push it under the rug, and then the rug starts to get a little bit taller, and we it just keeps growing and growing and growing. Just festering, and next you know, we have that real conversation. And it's just a lot comes up and a lot of not so good conversation comes up, or maybe it's good conversation, and then that pressure is just released. And now the, like the true change and kind of healing or moving forward starts to happen.
Stuart Murray 1:15:17
Yeah, yeah. And like, we want realness in our lives and in our relationships and life short. So the more we can lean into that and do that work, the more we'll get out of life, period. Absolutely. Yeah. I'm curious, you mentioned that I really liked that water pitcher analogy with the cups around. Yep. And now you're at a point where, you know, you're you're competing, you're running a business, you're, you've got the family stuff going on, you've got a lot on your plate? And how do you maintain balance? Or how do you
Matt Rose 1:15:59
I guess there's like, there's no perfect answers that one, because you can only fill the cup so much, right? I mean, I, we, I wish we could all just make bigger pictures, and that we have more water and more time in the day. But that's just not the reality of it. So we go through constant change of what those cups are, whether they change from family, to business, to careers, to whatever they always are ever changing. But knowing that if I'm going to put all this water into my CrossFit career, being an athlete, that I will have all these other cups that suffer. Knowing that, if that's what I'm pouring it into, I can slowly kind of push it around a little bit more to know that I'm getting more family time. And, you know, whatever matters most to me is getting enough time and energy. Now, if I'm somebody that I don't necessarily care if I'm a good family person, I don't care if my career is I'm at the top of my career, I really just want to be good at playing video games and be successful playing video games. But know that when you fill that cup, that's all the water you get. And so if you can understand that, you will be able to know that you're like, you know, that's why you careers is falling apart. Maybe you need to take more water from this picture and put it into that cup. Right?
Stuart Murray 1:17:34
Yeah. And I think that's probably a bit of the product of the world that we're in to is like, we're, we're in a world where it's, it's so fast. It's so digital, it's so global, it's like, almost either consciously or subconsciously, kind of conditions us to think that we could have everything all of the time. And it's just not, it's just not the reality. Right? It's so there is opportunity cost, there are trade offs to be had. And we can't do it all. And so I think there's so much value in that, right? It's like, there is only so much water. And so where do we want to pour the water of attention? Where are we going to direct that? Because it's I can't do everything all the time, but I can do something with deliberate attention. And attention.
Matt Rose 1:18:27
Yeah, yeah. Good thing, too, is looking at it from a micro macro level, not just like, in terms of like how our entire life is moving right now. So like I said, family career, whatever, but bring it down into the micro level of day to day, right? If you break it down into day to day cups, now you have a little bit more understanding versus like that bigger picture. So now I can sort of take my day cup and start filling smaller cups in terms of like, am I going to spend all day working on my business? Am I going to spend all day working out? Or can I spread it out evenly a little bit better? Of all the cups that makes sense to me. So maybe more of a micro view of what our cups look like versus that macro? You know, what my life is like this year or years or 10 years or overall kind of thing like that. So more that we can narrow our vision and bring it down and kind of make small adjustments. I think that could ease the mind of pouring all of your water into one cup.
Stuart Murray 1:19:39
I think that's brilliant. I'm picturing those little. Now. I'm like on these microcapsules, little fluoride. Yes. Yeah, that's where I'm at. I think that's a brilliant tip right? Because when we project ourselves, you know you've got your 10 year plan or your your lifelong ideas or these things, it becomes overwhelming and it almost is rigid. Is to a level of impact. Like, it's just impractical to apply, right? It's like, okay, well, what do I need to do tomorrow? What do I need to do today? Today? Right? Why? Because that's all I can do. Yep.
Matt Rose 1:20:15
And it's the only thing you can control because you cannot control what happens tomorrow. And you cannot control what happens yesterday. You can plan for it. But usually the universe has different plans for you.
Stuart Murray 1:20:28
It sure does, doesn't it? I've got one last question for you. But before we do, I'd love to know what let the listeners know where people can find out more about true fitness.
Matt Rose 1:20:42
So we're basically on most social media platforms. So like, we have our Facebook page, true reflection training, we have true yoga, we're on Instagram, and we haven't ventured into the other newer social media platforms. But if even if you look us up on Google, we have websites out there. For any information, we try to bridge that gap between someone wanting to try us out versus, you know, just saying, Come Come see what it is. So we have a lot of information on there that people can find, if they are interested in in giving us a try.
Stuart Murray 1:21:23
Awesome. And I'll make sure to have the the website and the social media handles linked in the show notes. So we can direct anybody to there. And I highly recommend it. It's an incredible space. And you guys are doing amazing to create a holistic space for movement. And you and I have rift many times about the value of healing the body, so that we can heal the deeper layers of ourselves. And you guys are doing phenomenal work to create a multimodal space that, that people can find all different ways to move their body that that will relate for them. And you guys are rocking it. So I'd recommend anybody to go and check it out for sure. Yeah, man. And so last question, what is your big vision to help see humanity move forward?
Matt Rose 1:22:20
Nice, nicely loaded question there. As far as what we're trying to do, and I tell everybody that walks through our doors for the first time, that our idea of what we're trying to have kind of accomplish a true reflection training or true yoga is to, like you said that holistic health and wellness, we want to make sure that, you know, in 50 years or less, that we're pushing off that nursing home just a little bit longer. And so it's not just about movement, it's about preparing ourselves for when we can no longer move. And if we can make sure we're pushing that needle a little bit forward, we might be able to squeeze out, you know, that extra year, that extra couple years before we get into a situation where we need assisted living or something like that. So the more that we can take care of ourselves now. And work on the micro level. It's when that macro end of the road, we look back and we say we actually took care of ourselves quite a bit. We moved well, we took care of her, you know, our bodies, our minds, everything, that we're no longer in a situation where we have someone else that takes care of us. So for us, it's all about the longevity of what we're doing, not just the class day to day stuff that we're so stuck in right now. It was hopefully, that even if one person can look down the road, you know, down the road, look back and say you know what, I'm so glad I did that, because it afforded me a little bit more time with my family, you know, more, more time with my loved ones that it was worth all of the sweat, the tears, the blood, whatever. And I'm very appreciative of it.
Stuart Murray 1:24:21
That's beautiful, man. I love it. You are an inspiring human. You're doing incredible work. And thank you so much with each with each passing year. I'm more and more grateful to be connected with you and to see how you're growing, how you're shifting how you're shaping community, and I'm blessed to call your brother's really
Matt Rose 1:24:40
glad we got to connect because it's it's it was a connection that I know both of us wouldn't have been able to proceed. But I'm glad that it it's we've we've crossed paths once again because I know that we've had lots of great conversations about you know what Both of us are doing in our life. And it's kind of like one of those sounding boards that we can kind of talk to each other about ideas and even some random stuff, which is so fun. Totally man.
Stuart Murray 1:25:10
And it's, you know, now we're collaborating and doing stuff together. So who knows what the next podcast will be and what the future holds.
Matt Rose 1:25:18
Yes, exactly. I love that. All right, brother.
Stuart Murray 1:25:21
Thanks so much.
Matt Rose 1:25:22
All right, no problem. Thank you very much.
Stuart Murray 1:25:31
I hope you enjoyed this episode of the connected movement podcast with my former teammate and dear friend, Matt Rose. Once again, a big thank you to our sponsor, Karen Phytoplankton. You can subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you listen to your podcasts. And you can also find me on Facebook and YouTube at the connected movement. Thanks again and see you next Monday.
