Episode 25 | Host: Joe Rouse | Guest: Marshall Ray

🔥 Why This Episode Matters

Every entrepreneur says they want growth. Few are willing to build the discipline required to sustain it.

In this conversation, Joe Rouse sits down with Marshall Ray to talk about what it actually takes to build a fitness brand from the ground up — not just through hustle, but through standards. As business owners, we often focus on marketing, revenue, and expansion. But the real foundation is discipline — personal and organizational.

This episode is timely because too many entrepreneurs are chasing momentum without structure. Marshall makes it clear: if your personal standards are inconsistent, your business culture will be too.

🎧 Listen to the Episode

👤 Meet the Host & Guest

• Joe Rouse — Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn | Profile

  Joe Rouse is a Brotherhood Beyond Business leader and host known for direct, practical conversations around entrepreneurship, accountability, and personal responsibility. As owner of Breakaway Fitness & Performance, Joe challenges men to build strong companies without sacrificing faith, family, and integrity.

• Marshall Ray — Instagram | LinkedIn | Profile

  Marshall Ray is the founder of Faster Fitness, a performance-driven gym brand focused on building disciplined athletes and leaders. Through structured programming and high standards, he helps clients pursue strength, resilience, and long-term growth — inside and outside the gym.

• About Faster Fitness — Website | Facebook

  Faster Fitness is a performance-driven training facility focused on helping individuals build strength, resilience, and long-term physical capacity. Founded by Marshall Ray, the gym emphasizes disciplined programming, structured progression, and a results-first mindset rather than quick fixes or trends.

📌 What You’ll Learn in This Episode

• Why discipline is the foundation of scalable growth

• How personal standards shape company culture

• What it really takes to grow a gym in a competitive market

• The connection between leadership consistency and team buy-in

• Why shortcuts eventually cost you more

• How to balance performance, family, and long-term business health

• The role of accountability in sustained success

🧩 Episode Summary

Joe and Marshall dive straight into the reality of building Faster Fitness. Marshall shares how growth didn’t come from flashy tactics or overnight wins, but from daily discipline — the kind that doesn’t show up on social media.

They unpack how personal habits bleed into business standards. If you cut corners in your own life, your team will mirror that. But when a leader holds the line — in workouts, operations, and expectations — culture begins to solidify.

Marshall explains how Faster Fitness was built around structure. Clear programming. Clear expectations. Clear accountability. The same principles that build strong athletes also build strong businesses.

Throughout the conversation, the theme is consistent: leadership starts with ownership. You can’t demand discipline from your team if you don’t embody it yourself. That’s Brotherhood at its core — sharpening each other through higher standards.

🕒 Episode Timestamps

[00:00] Intro & why discipline matters
[05:12] Building Faster Fitness from the ground up
[12:40] Personal standards vs. business standards
[21:05] Culture, team leadership, and accountability
[32:18] Scaling without losing structure
[44:07] Balancing family, fitness, and entrepreneurship
[55:30] Final thoughts on leadership and ownership

💡 Quote Highlight

“Your business will only rise to the level of discipline you’re willing to live by.”

🚀 Next Steps

👉 Download our Your Circle is Your Ceiling eBook

👉 Learn more about Our Method

📚 Resources & Links

• Follow BBB on: Website | Instagram | YouTube | X | Facebook | Buzzsprout Podcasts

• Watch the full episode on YouTube

• Want to listen to future episodes: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Buzzsprout

🚀Full Transcript

Joe Rouse (00:01.907)

All right, welcome back to the Brotherhood Beyond Business podcast. Today I'm pumped. I've got Marshall Ray on here. I've known Marshall Ray for several years. Marshall Ray is, first off, he is a husband, father. He's a father of two, son and daughter. Marshall has, we're going to talk about it a little bit, probably several dealings in real estate that he and his wife tag team, as far as I understand, and that Marshall has been a gym owner of Faster Fitness for 14 years now. And we've, I've been,

privileged enough to know Marshall long enough that I know how his life and his focus has changed. Just like mine, it's like this, right? Not necessarily up and down, but it's just, I don't know, you could almost allude to like a pinball machine or something. Sometimes if you look back at your life and you're like, it was headed this direction, it was like boom, and it went this way. And it's just interesting to think about. So we're gonna dive into all that stuff today and everybody's gonna learn about Marshall. I'm excited to have this conversation because I enjoy doing this because we get to catch up.

Marshall Ray (00:43.246)

That's fair to say. That's fair to say.

Joe Rouse (00:59.613)

Marshall, thanks for coming on, man. Thanks for spending some time with me today.

Marshall Ray (01:03.064)

Joe, you're my man. Nothing but love and respect and one of my favorite people in the world and I'm extremely excited just to hang out, catch up and, you know, learn a thing or two from each other, man. Every conversation I grow from, so looking forward to it.

Joe Rouse (01:17.269)

Cool. All right, so we met through business coaching. I guess now it would be maybe 10 years ago, something like that, right? Like, cause when did your business open? What year? So it was 12? 12, so mine was 13. So we probably met like fifth. I always tell you, I've told this story on like two different podcasts. The way I got included in business coaching in that organization was I signed up for a 30 day trial. And if you didn't cancel, you got locked into 12 months. I forgot to cancel. So then I...

Marshall Ray (01:21.538)

Yes, sir.

Marshall Ray (01:26.659)

Yeah.

January 2012.

Marshall Ray (01:34.894)

2015 National.

Joe Rouse (01:46.355)

So then I looked at it and I was like, all right, it's game time. How am I going to do this? I'm going for it. So that was where I saw live meetings. I told Nick that the other day, he thought it was hilarious. But so I remember looking and saying, all right, they have live meetings every quarter. This is a new concept to me, getting in a room with other business owners, learning from them and asking questions. I have no idea what to expect. And I got into that room and I remember I was hooked after that, but the way that Nick puts it, so Nick is the guy that ran the meetings for us.

Marshall Ray (01:49.43)

I will do it.

Marshall Ray (01:55.863)

Yeah.

Joe Rouse (02:16.757)

is that that was one of the heaviest hitting rooms that they ever had, at least at that point, without having a separate mastermind group. And I take that to heart because I was in that room, but Marsha was in that room. Mark Greenwood, I believe, was in that first meeting. And then there was, there was another guy who's like a chef now and he does something totally different, but he was part of like a PT and fitness business. Will Savoy was there that time. I remember, I mean, I Izzy was in it.

Marshall Ray (02:41.432)

Yep. Yep.

Marshall Ray (02:46.574)

There's some talent in the room.

Joe Rouse (02:46.921)

But it was, yeah, it was, and it was, I mean, I don't know, was that your first meeting?

Marshall Ray (02:53.454)

That was my first in-person meeting. Our first in-person meeting was the same one.

Joe Rouse (02:55.155)

Yeah, so was for me too, so let me.

Yeah, and did we not work out together? Didn't you? I remember, was that the first meeting? You threw out there, you were talking.

Marshall Ray (03:05.454)

I can't remember that was the first or second time, second meeting, but like I vividly remember like doing deadlifts together and like, you know, hitting the YMCA or whatever it was that we did. You know, I remember that in Louisville, a hundred percent. Yeah.

Joe Rouse (03:10.441)

Yeah.

Joe Rouse (03:14.078)

Uh-huh.

Joe Rouse (03:17.651)

I remember like we barely knew each other. were like, I don't know what everybody's doing. I'm going to deadlift after this. And I was like, I'll go with you. Yeah, I love to deadlift. Let's go deadlift. That's what we did.

Marshall Ray (03:22.318)

I love that move. that was a great time. That was a, yeah, definitely one of those pivotal moments and was so valuable as a business owner and just to create the support and inspiration and whatnot. So you know what I mean?

Joe Rouse (03:28.563)

Yeah, life's crazy.

Joe Rouse (03:40.787)

Yeah, like how impactful was that first meeting, being in a room with people advising us and around other business owners that are all in the same business. Like, yeah, dude, was, knew I was in that room and I was like, my gosh, I need to be in more of these. know I'm, I'm where I belong. Everybody's talking about the same things. We're all dealing with being lonely at the top, stuff like that. Like it was so impactful. So you had had your business, let's talk about you. You had had your business for

Marshall Ray (03:49.358)

to New killing. Yeah.

Marshall Ray (04:01.39)

For sure, for sure.

Joe Rouse (04:08.317)

like a couple years at that point, but before you open faster fitness, what were you doing?

Marshall Ray (04:13.56)

So I got my personal training certification. I was actually studying for my senior year of high school. I got it right after I graduated. so in September of 2004 is when I started personal training like originally at Lake Valley. I was, to answer your question directly, I was a one-on-one like personal trainer for eight years at different, at three different gyms over that course of time.

Joe Rouse (04:36.383)

Mm-hmm.

Joe Rouse (04:40.957)

What changed? What happened? Why did you want to open your own gym?

or your own business in general, right? That's the conversation, but it just happens to be a gym.

Marshall Ray (04:48.125)

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I remember just, I fell in love because I was a finance major in marketing finance. And, I thought I was going to be like dealing stocks and stuff like that. And like helping people with the retirement plans and whatnot. And obviously like there's a passion about that too. But when you graduate in 08, was like in your, you know, that just happened. That was a bad window.

Joe Rouse (05:09.893)

yeah. Uh-huh.

Marshall Ray (05:12.828)

there are people with 25 years experience that are like this out, you know, just got like, like fired. So it wasn't the best job market timing on my behalf, but, but really like completely independent of that. I just remember, you know, working with, with several clients and getting just like amazing results with them and like just changing their life and just the impact that it made. it is, you know, how does it fish hooks you, right? You can't help but be obsessed with it and, and feel like it's your purpose and your calling.

Joe Rouse (05:34.41)

Mm-hmm.

Marshall Ray (05:39.47)

And I remember at the last gym that I was at, I was charging like 85 a session and you know, I'm working with clients three days a week and it was a little more affluent kind of crowd, which was nice. But I was really, really limited and I was like, you know, I was limited. It was limited the number of people I could work with, right? I was like, this is a better way here. And obviously got really deep in science and, and just understanding what is the best results. I mean, you know, to think back, that was 2010, 2011 verse

today or even five years ago, science evolved so much, but I just knew there was a better way. And so I was like, you know, I wanted to do have some personal training, but I want to start my own gym and give people an opportunity to get like world-class training at a reasonable, affordable rate, you know? And so that's where the concept of group personal training was born. But Dave, one till now could not look any different as you, I'm sure would agree with your own program.

Joe Rouse (06:23.061)

Mm-hmm.

Joe Rouse (06:33.555)

Yeah, man. So you've had two buildings, right? Like you started in one, and I you moved years ago to the second one. Over time, you've grown what each session would hold, right? You didn't originally start out with as many people in a session, right? What did it originally like paint a picture from the start?

Marshall Ray (06:42.158)

Yes, sir.

Marshall Ray (06:52.364)

Yeah. It was like, it was like, yeah. Well, the overall simplification, was like 16 people max, like four stations, four people. And then, you know, we just kind of made a couple of changes. It was like a three, you know, three station, blah, blah, blah. We we changed a series of things. So then 16 became, 18, which became 20, I think at some point, but now we're at 24 session max for our strength days and 30 session, 30 people max for our, metabolic conditioning days.

Joe Rouse (07:21.855)

Cool, so how big is the facility you have now?

Marshall Ray (07:24.558)

5900 square foot.

Joe Rouse (07:26.207)

How big, do remember how big the first one was?

Marshall Ray (07:28.206)

1400.

Joe Rouse (07:30.067)

What a difference, dude. I actually didn't know it was that big of a... I remember seeing some old pictures of you coaching somebody to yellow squat rack in that first one.

Marshall Ray (07:37.144)

Huge. Yeah. It was like wavy floor and stuff like that. You know what he means? Like, like it was, it was like GPS didn't find you, like find us. So like I had a call. If you had their initial like, like coaching session, you know, I had to basically like, I Hey, just call me and, and let me know. you know, like whenever you get close and like, see the guy waving over here, like, yeah, look to the right. That's me. You know, like I keep you not every single time. Like I had to do it. So

Joe Rouse (07:40.98)

Yeah.

Joe Rouse (08:00.128)

Yeah.

Marshall Ray (08:03.566)

Humble beginnings for sure, but yeah, we're blessed to be in a beautiful facility and have a great community now for sure.

Joe Rouse (08:12.351)

So let's say it's back when you move from the smaller facility to the bigger facility. What was that, like 16, 17? I feel it. Okay. What is your grand vision for faster fitness at that point?

Marshall Ray (08:19.182)

at the end of 2015.

Marshall Ray (08:27.982)

At that point, I wanted to have four locations, three to four locations, I don't know. And obviously have an amazing base community, group personal training and semi-private personal training were always our go-to programs that we ran at separate areas. And I just kind of wanted to have, again, just good presence with ways to say it, and it was just kind of laid out.

three locations would be theoretically feasible was my thought process at the time. I thought it'd be kind of cool. I had the number of a thousand members in my mind. I'm like, this would be so cool to have a thousand members, you know, across all like, yeah, exactly. You remember seeing that number. You remember hearing me say it out loud, but that was the goal. And it was a 10 year goal, you know, but that was a goal.

Joe Rouse (09:07.475)

I remember that number.

Joe Rouse (09:16.821)

And you were crushing then too, like you had more members, your revenue was higher. Like, yeah, you were killing it. mean, I remember everybody was kind of on the up.

Marshall Ray (09:24.686)

My 2016 year was ridiculous. Yeah, we increased like, we basically almost doubled like in our 2016 year. It was like nuts. Yeah.

Joe Rouse (09:29.46)

Yeah.

Joe Rouse (09:37.782)

So think about, so tell me about that. Let's, if you can remember it, like when you just about double in business, like that's almost double the amount of people you got to hire more staff. You got to look at your systems. Did anything, that's significant. That's huge. I mean, that doesn't happen anymore. I don't know how that would happen anymore. We don't have any new marketing platforms that everybody just jumps on. You know what I mean? It wasn't, but what broke? Like what did you have to fix? What was something that you,

Marshall Ray (09:47.852)

It wasn't quite double. It was probably like 80%, but like it was, it was a significant increase. Yeah. No. my God. No.

Joe Rouse (10:06.473)

felt like you were unprepared for that much growth or was it just steady enough to where you were and did you have the foresight to just fix the systems that needed to be fixed?

Marshall Ray (10:14.774)

God, no, I thought everything was like, it's always gonna be like this. There's only one path, there's not another option. But you don't know what the problems are sometimes until they come your way. So.

Joe Rouse (10:26.825)

Mm-hmm.

Marshall Ray (10:30.818)

Basically, could repeat your question one more time. Sorry. Make sure I give you the best.

Joe Rouse (10:34.581)

So like what specifically when you have that much growth, a lot of businesses and really people don't know how to handle it. All right, you had coaching, which helps a lot. But there's still people who might have coaching, might be entrepreneurs that like growth is a bad thing for them. really like growth is probably, people don't talk about it much. I heard it phrased this way the other day. Like growth is one of the hardest parts of business, even though it sounds great in theory. But growth means if you want to

maintain the growth that you've had, right? Like you want to get here and at least level off, you have to have the people and the systems in place to be able to serve whatever it is, the number of people or number of product support, whatever it is. And if you grew by 80 % in a year at a gym, that's a lot of people to serve, right? Like people who are needy, who might not be happy, who might not be getting results, who might not be showing up. So all of that to preface, like, do you remember any specific things breaking?

systems-wise or something that overwhelmed you or that you had to really go for or had to fix.

Marshall Ray (11:38.998)

To be honest, there's not really any one thing per se at that time. Because I was really like more cognizant and put more emphasis on like capacity probably than I then some other people like because in my mind I was like, I want to have three locations. I want this to run without me. So I just worked the way the math back. I'm like, all right, well, how big was sessions have to be how big x, y and z.

But to that point, were a lot, I'm oversimplifying, so a lot of little steps. Like you asked about like, what was your model? And without getting too granular of like, how many stations or how many of this or this? like basically every year or sometimes six months, you know, we'll just like make some new splash, like investment to make it, to take the next step, take the next step, take the next step. And that kind of helped us to kind of get through that time. But honestly, nothing really was breaking in 2016. Like we were, I,

to oversimplify, we were kind of trending a little bit and we just kind of rode that wave. like, we were really, we were a great program and it was really unique. you know, between like, like a lot of basically everything marketing wise just kind of worked, you know, you know I mean? And like, so whenever the Wednesday you're back, like, like things just kind of grow quick. But, you know, there's ebbs and flows in business. So again, that's only one part of the story. You know what I mean?

Joe Rouse (12:47.721)

Yeah, Yep.

Joe Rouse (13:00.309)

You told me something one time that I never forgot about logistics. I don't know if you remember the quote exactly, because I have trouble remembering the quote. I feel like it was from a book. But it was about, was something like, don't, ah, was something like managers, I don't know, focus on, I don't know, number of members or something, but leaders focus on logistics. And that kind of came through right there in what you were talking about, right? Like the logistics of how do I continue to offer a consistently high experience, high level experience.

to 80 % more people, or let's say we grew 10 % this month, 10 % the next month, right? You were like, you looked at your numbers, reverse engineered, and then that gives you an idea of where to aim, right? But then you're like, all right, well, we need this much equipment, we need this many spaces for people, coach maybe needs to have a microphone now, all that stuff. That was a lesson I learned from you that led to me really dialing in that part of the experience.

Marshall Ray (13:45.442)

Yep. Yep.

Marshall Ray (13:53.134)

Thank you. And I've learned many from you as well, my friend.

Joe Rouse (13:55.956)

Yeah. All right. So big growth 2016, thinking you're going to, your goal is to have a thousand people at once, right? Between three to four locations working, impacting the lives of a thousand people. COVID happens. What starts to change or does anything change? Or maybe it your kids. what?

Marshall Ray (14:13.486)

Yeah, think I think I might have misspoke. want to start me cut you off and I want to make sure to hear your question. I might be I might be incorrect on which year 2016 was a good growth year, but I think 2019 was the year that we grew like, yeah. So so to your point, what happened COVID happens, right? Here's what I remember. I remember being at 365 members.

Joe Rouse (14:20.554)

We're

Joe Rouse (14:28.501)

I remember 400 plus members that year. That's what I remember from you.

Joe Rouse (14:35.283)

Mm-hmm.

Joe Rouse (14:41.631)

Mm-hmm.

Marshall Ray (14:42.03)

or maybe 362 members for sure. It was, was like 360 or more members. And I remember I trained every other Wednesday night, which is our Metcon sessions at that time. Um, and I remember telling our members literally 10 days, seven days before COVID hit me and being like, Hey guys, uh, I'm sad to say today's my last day training because I have to start working on, on our, our hope and goal or a big picture vision of having a second location. I swear to God, I said, it's where members

seven days later that happened, right? So I remember it went from 360 down to like 250. Right? Yeah, because we were, I mean, like everybody, we were closed for three months, right? But then also just the ripple effect, some people not feeling comfortable. And then, honestly, we had a really tough time trying to juggle, you know, like, do you do the math? Do you not do that? And so we kind of tried to be a little bit cautious. And but like, like we basically were just trying to like, like,

Joe Rouse (15:13.951)

Yeah.

Joe Rouse (15:20.511)

Like during COVID.

Joe Rouse (15:41.961)

survive right.

Marshall Ray (15:42.062)

You try to use neutral, survive, right? You know I'm saying? And just get through it and like just basically piss as few people off as possible. And what if it was just impossible? But, but you know what I mean? Like just trying to find that sweet spot, you will. So, so dips down to like 250 and then 2021 was a great year. We surged back up and got up to about 310 members. I want to say for sure about 300, which was fantastic. And we were thrilled with that.

Joe Rouse (15:48.821)

Yes, yep. I do.

Marshall Ray (16:12.186)

and then, over the course of the next couple of years, our membership has actually like just dropped down kind of subtly the last couple of years. and last year was a good year and we grew like 15%, which is really good. But I mean, we're, you know, we kind of hover in like the two 15 range now, but I sat back last summer and I was looking at, at all the different aspects of the business. And I was like, basically one, like what is profitable, what is not. And also just like, like,

Joe Rouse (16:21.907)

Mm-hmm.

Joe Rouse (16:40.277)

huh.

Marshall Ray (16:41.814)

in terms of distress and and and how it like from a coverage standpoint, finding talent and like, and whatnot. And I was ironic because we, know, Mike McCallewitz, right? The pumpkin plan kind of thing. And I kept coming back to like our personal training program caused so much more stress than it was worth. And I went back and looked the last five years over the course of that time, it literally made like, like 1000 bucks over five years, you know, because we have good, good year. I mean, like

Joe Rouse (17:04.041)

Woof, yeah.

Marshall Ray (17:07.446)

depending on how you look at it, right? But we had to replace somebody every single year. And so, and that's super long onboarding and it was hard to be like the faster fitness way. So I closed it down. And so, I mean, there's an opportunity, but I'll say, just know this wasn't the right move at that time. So close that down. We just focused on group training now. And since then, our focus is really,

Joe Rouse (17:13.822)

Mm-hmm.

Marshall Ray (17:30.158)

it's improved, right? And so that's a catalyst, because we're not worrying about covering and doing all this extra stuff, we can just focus on delivering what we're best at for our clients. I think that's part of the reason why why we've grown, you know, so

Joe Rouse (17:42.974)

Yeah, dude. Yeah. think I'd be interested to know how many, I mean, I look at, industry data, like two brain business puts out industry data from like over 6,000 to it used to be 10,000. think Jim's depends on how many answer, guess. And they get some pretty good data, but I would, I would say my gym has like, we were never that high in numbers, but we did get higher than ever at the same like time period. And it's been steadily, the number of people has been steadily decreasing over the last few years, but

the revenue hasn't necessarily decreased, which has been really, that's just because so many people were on old low prices, and like we'd be losing those, and now people are on higher prices and stuff, more marketable, what were worth type prices. But it is interesting to hear you talk about that flow, because ours, I think ours has been very, very similar to that. Go ahead.

Marshall Ray (18:13.485)

Nice.

Marshall Ray (18:17.987)

sure.

Marshall Ray (18:30.978)

Yeah.

I think you're speaking to like macro trends, right? Like what is going on in society. And I thought about like, whenever student loans payments were suddenly like, I do again, like how many people have student loan payments? So all of a sudden like, hey, you know, I've to pay 400 bucks a month for this or, you know, like myself, we had to move and our first interest rate was 8 % a couple of years ago, which now we're down to 6%, but like, I think that's...

Joe Rouse (18:51.625)

Yeah.

Marshall Ray (19:02.894)

literally the top 20 % of interest rates on houses of anybody in the country, you know, and so how many people are in the position, you know, so there's those macro trends, but as you know, I'm a big firm believer in the extreme ownership model and, really just learning from everything. So I think there's a lot of things that we made mistakes on and again, to clarify 21, 22, we were going up 23, 24, we went down. And last year we went back up like 15 or so percent.

Joe Rouse (19:09.673)

Yeah, like at the hut, yeah.

Joe Rouse (19:31.081)

Mm-hmm.

Marshall Ray (19:31.726)

but it should have been 20 % but clerical stuff. but somewhere in that range, but we're on the right track again. And we're continuing to evolve and trying to do new things that and just continue to renovate. And that's one thing I think in hindsight, I just expected things to continue like, oh, you know, this is good enough or like, you know, just expecting that the status quo would be enough and that it wasn't. if you're not continuing to just rethink what

Joe Rouse (19:53.525)

Mm-hmm.

Marshall Ray (20:00.876)

what is the next best thing and how can I implement that and provide that value for our members, for our experience or whatever it is. I think it can catch up with you because you won't stay the best if you're not thinking that way. You know what I mean?

Joe Rouse (20:15.133)

Yeah, and it's hard to, I think that's very important and it's hard, you have to be able to, I think this comes with like experience. You have to be able to tell the difference between chasing a shiny object or effectively, and I think you've done a good job with this because I always, we've just discussed equipment changes and adding a microphone to your coat, right? Like stuff over the years, like knowing the difference between chasing a shiny object, like just new equipment or.

you know, adding equipment or something to whatever the business is that's going to improve the experience for your clients. And it's also, you can potentially, you could say innovate or keep up with trends without abandoning your values for whatever they are for your business.

Marshall Ray (21:00.738)

Yeah, your core like program and what you're basically what you're trying to do with your members, right? You know, if you're not trying to be like hard to go too extreme with a cardio or too stream with with whatever direction is of the fitness, you know, format that you're trying to provide for clients. So I pick it up exactly put down.

Joe Rouse (21:20.115)

Yeah, I mean, yeah, like we can shift gears, but we can do it without abandoning what we do best. And it keeps it interesting. I think it applies to all business, like generally, right? Like you just, you're finding ways to survive, but you have to innovate. Like a good example that I learned the other day was like, know, Peloton like took off during COVID, mainly because of equipment and the service. they, people stopped buying the equipment, they were selling the equipment, but people really love their instructors and the experience of the instructors and things. So they learned that.

Marshall Ray (21:26.539)

Absolutely.

Joe Rouse (21:49.385)

they got a new CEO and they basically pivoted to focusing on just selling the service itself. They innovated, they changed.

Marshall Ray (21:55.566)

the distribution model. Yeah. Yeah. Which has a higher, which has a higher like, you know, like multiple anyway, verse like just selling equipment, but I mean, which was smart, but they also plummeted like 70 or 80%. So

Joe Rouse (22:03.796)

Mm-hmm.

Joe Rouse (22:08.861)

Yeah, people stop sinking money into them too, right? Like it was very in line with, like you could even look at CrossFit as a whole. And if you look at the line of growth financially and when people were investing chunks of money into these businesses, like CrossFit in general and Pelotons was very, very similar. Like almost the same when you put them side by side. Yeah, it's really, really interesting. I guess it's a common life cycle for a lot of new businesses when money's being injected and growth is fast.

Marshall Ray (22:26.839)

Really?

That's crazy. It's crazy.

Joe Rouse (22:36.403)

and then it starts to change and then only the best ones really survive after that money stops being injected into it. Or you get a great leader, like you get Peloton, they shifted, right? They changed the way they were doing things. So speaking of changing things, like go from wanting three or four locations with your business to when did you have your son? Your daughter was first, excuse me. So that was roughly six years.

Marshall Ray (22:41.74)

Yeah, absolutely.

Marshall Ray (22:46.156)

Absolutely.

Marshall Ray (23:01.358)

Yes, he was September 2019, he was 2021.

Joe Rouse (23:04.925)

Okay. So yeah, so that was close together too. That was two of them very close together. I mean, I guess that's how my second, my two or my two young ones were. did anything. I mean, I remember still, we were still in a group together when your daughter was, was born and growing. And I remember having a conversation. I remember you, I feel like you teared up a little bit one time talking about her. We were having a conversation at Pamela's gym, which is very easy to do because if anybody's not a girl dad, like it's like falling in love again, the same

in a similar way to how you did with your wife. Like I look in my daughter's eyes and like, can't even think. Like I just stare into her eyes. It's not the same with my son. My son, like, I'm gonna pick you up and I'm gonna throw you and you're gonna love it. You know what mean? And you feel good. But with her, man, it's different.

Marshall Ray (23:41.293)

yeah. Yeah.

Marshall Ray (23:49.89)

Yeah, for sure. She owns my heart without question.

Joe Rouse (23:52.628)

Yeah, dude. did you change once your kids came? Did your vision change at all at that time?

Marshall Ray (24:00.166)

It definitely did, but it wasn't like exclusively or now see it's a percentage, right? Partially because my family and lifestyle. but, also it was just presented right there, right? I guess whenever you have kids, it's just an instant priority shift, right? And, and family first, obviously we're, we're so blessed with the opportunity to serve our members and our community and to make an impact.

you know, in so many ways that we don't even see in a day to day basis. Like, you know, this person got a new job because they met somebody here and boom, boom, boom, boom. I hear stories of that, like not all the time, but I hear them throughout the year. And it's like so amazing to hear stuff like that. But I just kind of started realizing this simplicity, like you can't just be the hustler. And not only does me, but my team also, right? I had some, some amazing great friends and still do that.

Joe Rouse (24:31.957)

Mm.

Marshall Ray (24:53.474)

you know, work and we just made it happen. Right? Like we, you know, if there was covers, we just, we just came in, made it happen, things like that. But then as you know, now you have two kids and like, my general manager actually today is just welcome a second baby boy in the world. And you know, like in our team is just evolving and whatnot. And, you know, we need to be able to be great fathers and mothers first, right? But also make this kind of fit our lifestyle. So just kind of finding the sweet spot from those things, but

Joe Rouse (25:08.147)

Alright on.

Joe Rouse (25:18.314)

Mm-hmm.

Marshall Ray (25:22.842)

Honestly, a couple of things that kind of led to me the decision of not wanting multiple locations. One, to be completely honest with you, objectively speaking, I felt like the business opportunity wasn't quite as strong. if our marketing suddenly took major turns where it just like, hey, I want to triple my ad spend here, here, here, and it's just, I get triple the results, then that'd be great. here, newsflash has never happened, right? Yeah.

Joe Rouse (25:48.777)

This doesn't work anymore like that. No.

Marshall Ray (25:51.68)

Well, you can do it to a degree, but there's leveling points and I've tested it and there's a certain there's this invisible line where you're literally just burning everything above that line. And so

Joe Rouse (25:59.349)

The algorithms have changed, right? Like they want to find a way to spend your money like as fast as possible.

Marshall Ray (26:03.906)

Yeah, absolutely. So and so from a business standpoint, I recognize it wasn't just the best opportunity, but

The thought that that that kind of came into my mind, it really made me completely change my thought on originally wanting, you know, three locations of faster fitness, which partially was because I wanted my team to have growth as well. And I wanted to make an impact all throughout St. Louis. I wanted people I believe, then I still do, and our mission so strongly and the value that is provided from our program, I wanted to so many people to experience it. But then I just kind of recognize like, you know,

more is better, right? If we just had one amazing location in this super tight community, where everybody just knows each other and it's just a fun environment, that's so special. And I think that's what is best for me and our team moving forward, right? But I mean, again, I'll never say never, but at this point in time, it's not something that I'm actively considering. Now we're in future.

Joe Rouse (27:07.711)

think it's great that you figured that out without having a second location first or without, you know what I mean? I learned a lot of lessons having a second location and really just from the stress at home standpoint and what it brings. Shoot though, you still had at one point as many members at one location as I had at two locations. So you probably learned a lot from that just serving that many people as you were still managing.

Marshall Ray (27:15.118)

You

Joe Rouse (27:37.513)

you're still heavily in the business then, mean, at least there every day. But it's cool that you were wise enough to make that decision, but also never say never, I understand, like I don't know that we're able to say never as entrepreneurs like at all. Like that's not how we roll usually.

Marshall Ray (27:54.604)

Yeah, well, I I wouldn't be objective, right? Because it can look different ways than what you're thinking about. Because I've had friends of mine be like, dude, I like I literally could help you franchise. And I'm like, I mean, I'm not doing it. But if you want to do it, you know, but at the same time, though, it's easy to make that ask. And like, what does that actually look like? You know, so I don't know, just, I think just think about what is what is the sweet spot there. And then there's also other opportunities and other things that you can spend your time on to, you know, like, like

Joe Rouse (28:06.504)

Yeah, yeah

Joe Rouse (28:23.284)

The Big Return.

Marshall Ray (28:24.608)

Yeah, yeah, exactly. know, so and empower my team to continue to to to crush and own it and to provide the value for all of our members and experience and just enjoy the ride, you know, so it's not just about growth. You get what I'm saying?

Joe Rouse (28:39.913)

I do, I understand wholeheartedly what you're saying. It's not just about growth. And I learned that through that second location I had and I closed it and like I met some great people there. were starting to build a stronger community, but I personally just didn't hold people accountable the way I should have there. I needed to be there more. And I just decided that that wasn't where I was at in my life. And I have learned the exact lesson that you're talking about. Like it's not always about growth. And you're not like letting yourself down by saying that. it's...

I mean, my God, children bring so much enjoyment into your life. I mean, the ability to be able to like, could, we homeschool our kids. Like I can homeschool my kids because we have the lifestyle to do so. I used to be able to go pick my kids up when they went to school, right? and imagine the audacity to complain about something like that. Like when there's so many people who can't do that, like it's, we've been fortunate, but we've also put in the work.

to get the lifestyle that we have now. Like we understand when you're dealt whatever hands you're dealt, whether it's through people having to wear masks or not, or them fighting over it, whatever it is, like we're gonna find a way to make this work because we're the providers for, know, we're providing for our family. Like we've got something above us and bigger than us. It's interesting you talk about some of the multiple location thought process was also to create opportunity for your staff.

Marshall Ray (29:54.318)

Well said, brother.

Marshall Ray (30:03.441)

for sure.

Joe Rouse (30:04.083)

Because this is a burden I don't know everybody understands. It's a privilege and an opportunity, but it is a heavy one. because first, yeah.

Marshall Ray (30:11.79)

Oh, for sure. If you like really, if you really care about your staff, like you really care about them, you to some degree, I'm not saying it motivates you more than but I mean, it's it's it's right there as much as like, I it's good. But like, because you want to them to grow and then and honestly, there's an expectation. Like if you were to get a job in this sales company or this or that, like they people expect growth because again, we're all

Joe Rouse (30:23.185)

It really is.

Marshall Ray (30:36.216)

through social media, through just the expectations of 2026, like grows, grows, grows, grows. Like we're not growing, dying. You know, like, well, you know, so there's some of that motivation as well. But ultimately, you just want what's best for them. You want them to make more money. You want them to have a better lifestyle. You want them to live their dream life and to be a part of something huge that they're super proud of. But yeah, that was definitely one of the main motivating factors, honestly.

Joe Rouse (30:42.899)

Mm-hmm. Yeah. I know what you mean.

Joe Rouse (31:03.443)

When it feeds, I hate to say this, it feeds into you or it feeds into me too. Like when you have a staff that is bought into what you're doing and they want to make more money doing it for you, not just make more money, but like they just want to see it grow and blossom and be a part of that. It's so rewarding and it's like in our business specifically, it's not always the easiest business to provide multiple full-time opportunities to other people if we're still significantly.

like bringing an income home from the business, right? Like you've got to really push, you have to find ways and it's, you're wanting to provide the lifestyle for your family and kids, even when spouses work, it's still on, for most men, it's still our main focus is providing and protecting. And then now you're like, well, I've got, I have that wing and now I've got another wing of people who I have, I'm in charge of providing for too. And for some reason, I care almost just as much about providing a lifestyle for them as I do my own family, just kind of in a different way.

And it's a thing to deal with, right? And it leads to us having thoughts of, if I just have more locations and they could go work here and they could work here, or they could become the manager there. And it's like, you gotta have the right people in your corner to help guide you with that stuff. Or be very objective and numbers-based like you are, I guess, too.

Marshall Ray (32:14.839)

Right, absolutely.

Well, mean, ultimately, I could not agree more of what you're saying, but the quote unquote solution that I came up with was if we just become the healthiest business possible, I can take care of the people that are here now and continue to progress that it just may look a little bit different. like now, like, you know, my general commander is my best friends and, you know, we've adjusted his hour to and.

pay X, Y, and Z and all of his things to make sure that his lifestyle is great, you know, and that he's happy with it. And so, you, but when you have the respect and, and, like love for each other, but I feel like part of it is also almost like not a team, you know, let's say imagine like sports team in high school or whatever it is. And like, you're getting down together, you're pushing together, like, like, you know, you're going to battle together per se. Like, like you want, you want each other to win so bad, like both individually, but also as a team.

So there's a lot of layers to it, I mean, again, that's one of most rewarding parts of what we do. We call it the Faster Family, but really our staff is like family for sure.

Joe Rouse (33:27.259)

my gosh. it's become, I feel like we used to, said that for years about, about BFP, like for whatever reason with members and staff. And then now it's, it's never been more true than it is now. Like, don't, and I don't know if that's an age related thing, like, or a season of life, or if it's because of, maybe it's a season of how long we've owned our businesses. Cause we're very similar times in owning our businesses. all right. So kind of gone through that, talked about where you're at with Faster Fitness now, but you, you and your

Tell me more about what you and Savannah do as far as real estate goes.

Marshall Ray (34:02.156)

Yeah. So she's a pharmacist and, and continues to practice and loves that. And basically flip houses also. So, and it's looked different ways. I mean, I would probably go through all the chapters there, but that's looked different ways. And she actually initially like was the one that really took the reins and, and, and, and started with multiple houses. I think she flipped like

12 houses or more, probably a little more than that, like on her own, completely just in, you know, like, helped a very, very, very little bit, like making sure, basically just making sure that like financially things just kind of like came together. But she did like 99 % of it. Obviously she wasn't like doing the work. She had contractors doing the work, but like from finding the houses and designing it and yeah, exactly. And I mean, she ran the show, you know, but then.

Joe Rouse (34:28.629)

Yeah.

Joe Rouse (34:48.223)

She was a decision maker.

Marshall Ray (34:54.486)

I got excited and got into it, did one new build, was great learning. Yeah, I did a full knockdown, new build, like 3,800 square foot, six bed, five bath. It was a lot of fun, learned a tremendous amount, but it was like an 18, 20 month project, so very long timeline, but I learned again, tremendous amount. since then, and she did a new build also, and since then, we, you

Joe Rouse (34:58.837)

Not a flip, a new build.

Joe Rouse (35:06.698)

Okay.

Marshall Ray (35:21.856)

have just shifted exclusively to just like doing house flips, which it oversimplifies the waters are down basically, but you know, we're completely renovating and making these houses beautiful, making them sound strong houses and it'll last for a long time. And it's definitely something very rewarding and very fun. And it's a great compliment to faster honestly.

Joe Rouse (35:42.784)

Yeah, I mean, you guys are like a power team, man. It's great to be able to do things with your wife too, especially once you figure out the right way to do them and to communicate. It took me a long time to figure out the best way for Melody and I to work together. And she just, over the years, wanted to be more and more involved with BFP. we found ways to do that. Yeah.

Marshall Ray (35:57.262)

It's been really cool from the outside to watch, you know, because for a long time it wasn't the case, but you know, like now she's seemingly just like thriving, which is great.

Joe Rouse (36:05.129)

Yeah, mean, generally her videos are going to do better than mine, right? Like her ads and things are going to do better. And she loves the nutrition coaching. She's already had a heart for it because she was a nurse. She's very compassionate and she was primarily working in endocrinology, which was heavily, heavily nutritional education based work anyway. So it's been a good transition for her and it allows us to do some growing together. Like I'm sure when Savannah, you had to, I don't know, go learn from somebody, go to a conference or something, right? You go to these things together as opposed to

Marshall Ray (36:19.903)

yeah, right.

Joe Rouse (36:34.591)

and you're both learning, you're both elevating each other like together, it's like a different ball game.

Marshall Ray (36:40.344)

Yeah, for sure. You bond on a different wavelength and there's an understanding. Like I feel like since she's become like entrepreneurial in the sense of like, like starting to flip houses verse for sure before and she said this multiple times like I understand now like how it's hard to turn off. Like I understand, like I understand you more now. You know what I mean? And like why you are the way you are, do the things you do or whatever. And it's really been great for our relationships. And there's been some challenges in the way I'm not, I'm

Joe Rouse (37:00.115)

Yeah. huh.

Marshall Ray (37:09.486)

I'm not gonna worry about that. And to be honest, we're still figuring out like what's the sweet spot of things like that. But, you know, basically, you know, just find it, hey, this is is what you do best is what I do best. And let's let's just do that kind of thing. Yeah, so

Joe Rouse (37:09.545)

There always is. Yeah.

Joe Rouse (37:24.373)

Let's do that. Let's do that. Let's talk about it every now and then. Right? Like, so you guys flip, you don't own any rental properties.

Marshall Ray (37:33.858)

Yeah, we do. We own one. We had three. We sold two. I think single family rentals are definitely, you they can be a great opportunity or, you know, if it's, if it's apartment complexes and things like that, I there's definitely great opportunity. It just, again, what the season you're in, the chapter you're in. Honestly, I'm just, my mindset is just like the group training only. I'm like, I want to just focus on, on, on getting great and getting more efficient and more successful at renovating.

these beautiful homes and and being better at that and then because it sounds we definitely have multiple extra strategies, know, we could be there's different things that we can do in real estate. And I want to get too much into it. But basically, we have options. But I try to pull that trigger and kind of foot narrow my focus a little bit because the honestly one of biggest problems with real estate is there's too many options. You can do this or this or this or this or it just is there's too many options that are readily available and everybody's

got like a deal for you and like most of them were, yeah, I mean, well, you know, an agent's like, I got this, I got this off market house. It's so good. And then, that are like, you would absolutely lose, like you could pretty easily lose a lot of money flipping houses, right? So people are like, honestly, I'm flipping houses. like, good luck.

Joe Rouse (38:33.201)

It's trendy, I mean.

Joe Rouse (38:37.428)

real.

Joe Rouse (38:45.909)

Mm-hmm.

Joe Rouse (38:52.221)

It's the same way with like if someone was like, hey, I want to start a gym. You'd be like, are you sure? Let me tell you about it.

Marshall Ray (38:56.758)

Yeah, yeah, maybe. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. But no, it's a great opportunity. love it for sure.

Joe Rouse (39:02.117)

How much have you guys gotten from the first flip to now? Like, did it take a lot longer on the first one than it does now? Like, have you gotten that much more efficient? Like, when you're flipping a house, and that's not necessarily to sell it, but let's say like to bring it to market.

Marshall Ray (39:15.247)

Marshall Ray (39:20.812)

Yeah, I mean, it's, it's, it's an ebb and flow, right? Because we've changed over certain contractors and, sometimes you have to go with a cheaper guy for this project or the more expensive, but faster guy here or who's better at scheduling. So much of flipping is about sequence. So, you know, we've, we've turned over houses, we're good, but not great at it. Right. And I think there's a lot of opportunity for improvement. like, you know, we've, we've done some in, in like four weeks, we've done some, or one in four weeks, we've done,

a few in like 12 weeks, but usually about 16 weeks is kind of like the average. Some more, we have a big one we're working on right now that'll be like a six month project, it's a 4,000 square foot house. it takes three times longer than the house that's 1200 square foot, you know what I mean? But there's more to it than that. It doesn't have to take that long, but there's...

Joe Rouse (40:02.709)

Big house.

Joe Rouse (40:09.45)

Mm-hmm.

Joe Rouse (40:17.125)

What is, what's, maybe you don't want to share this, but I'm gonna ask it anyway. What with faster fitness, is there an exit strategy in mind there at all that you've thought about? Or do you just happen to your, was your birthday in March also? Were you, You were very close to me. I feel like we had close birthdays, but maybe you were, were you a little younger than me? How old are you?

Marshall Ray (40:34.126)

Yeah, I watch your team. Good man, he's hot.

Marshall Ray (40:41.23)

Born 86, so I'm 39, about 340.

Joe Rouse (40:42.741)

So you're, yeah, so you're about to turn 40. Yeah. So I just hit that last year. Yeah. So, you know, it's a different, I started thinking about a lot of things differently, right around this time. Like I mostly only think about how I'm going to provide wealth for my kids one day, like after I pass. But now there's this point where you're kind of in this decade where, at least for us specifically, and I know this happens to some people, I don't know what y'all's position is, but we essentially, you,

Marshall Ray (40:45.848)

Sir.

Joe Rouse (41:11.049)

become responsible for the generation after you and potentially responsible for the generation before you. So like mother-in-law lives with us, fully independent, but she lives with us. father-in-law has, we've recently been helping with his care. And then I've got my dad and step mother and then stepdad and mother. So I don't know, you we'll see where they go at some point, right? They're a little younger. So it's like lots of different thoughts who never.

Marshall Ray (41:13.422)

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Marshall Ray (41:27.854)

Great to hear.

Marshall Ray (41:38.574)

sandwich right, sandwich generation, they call it.

Joe Rouse (41:41.243)

Yeah, yeah, dude. Like, I don't know. So as you're as you're heading through things and you've got faster fitness, like what's what are you what are you thinking about these days? Like anything changed? I mean, where's your head at?

Marshall Ray (41:52.0)

A lot's changed, but I guess to answer your first question, do I have an extra strategy with faster fitness? And the answer is, I honestly have never had an extra strategy. And I have in the sense of I want to be where theoretically is a transferable business, whether it would be somebody else who can carry on the torch or my children or somebody one day. Of course, like you want like,

Joe Rouse (42:16.895)

You don't want to just die. With you.

Marshall Ray (42:18.06)

Yeah, like, like, like, I don't feel like it's that successful business if you don't set it up to be able to be transferred where somebody else could pass on a torch theoretically because like if if again, going back to the conversation before what if I hit in a car wreck tomorrow, I want my general manager to be taken care of. I want my members to be taken care of my staff all them you know, so my family obviously, I want them to to I would want them to be able to carry on right? It would look a little different. But yeah.

But like I really truly have like no aspirations of like selling or anything like that at all. So I'm obviously what it can look like over time would change. But I mean, I've trained more in the last three months than I have in the previous five years before that. And I've actually loved it. I've absolutely loved it. And it's been amazing. And like, you know, it I've seen coaches at 55 years old out there ripping it. And I'm like, I'm going to be killing it at 55, you know?

Joe Rouse (43:12.885)

I'm gonna be that guy, yeah, right on dude, that's cool.

Marshall Ray (43:14.658)

I just signed an art senior lease with a five year option. I mean, we're not going anywhere. but so that was part one of your question, but part two was I want to be healthy business, obviously, and to fit everybody's lifestyle properly, because I deserve what my employees deserve as well. My family does. But what was the second part of your question? If you don't mind repeating them.

Joe Rouse (43:18.43)

Okay.

Joe Rouse (43:33.769)

Like just, mean, what's on your mind? Maybe this is just me, but it's like, just feel like my thoughts, my focus, my priorities change as I got closer to this age and just realizing where I'm at, what I need to be prepared for. There's other things I need to potentially be prepared for. Like I talked about before generation, before kids and parents.

Has anything changed for you as a dude, as a father and an entrepreneur? Has your priority changed? Has your focus changed at all? Or just kind of what you're thinking about as you get into this age?

Marshall Ray (44:15.598)

Man, it's to directly answer that. feel like if anything, my vision has gotten more gray, whereas before I was more like, oh, I can't do this or I can't, like, I don't want to work on this or this or that. I feel like I'm more flexible now, right? Then in my thought process, like the quality over quantity, like Mark Greenberg presented a while back with family, you know, whereas before, let give you good example. Whereas before I felt like,

Joe Rouse (44:31.967)

Uh-huh.

Marshall Ray (44:45.23)

there was a part of me that felt like if I didn't spend all day and just give like my 110 % to my children all day on Saturday and Sunday, then like I was doing them a disservice to some degree, right? And now it's like, well, you know, there's other things that got to get done too. You know, like, like if you like, obviously, you know, we want to make sure they're happy and are taken care of and X, and Z. But, but just, just making sure that like all the priorities are taken care of and being a little more flexible. So I might miss

Joe Rouse (45:02.153)

Yep. Yeah.

Marshall Ray (45:14.798)

My kids have swim tonight, but my wife can take them. We don't both have to take them. Where's before? I'm there. I'm like, of course, I gotta be there. So I'm being more flexible in terms of that. But I guess partially probably to your point is I'm playing both short and long game, making sure that our needs are met in the short term between me my wife. Obviously it's not just me. She works and is mom of the year. She's incredible.

thinking like long-term, like how are we going to make sure that they have the lifestyle and that we're able to retire and stuff like that. But to be honest with you, to directly answer, I feel like my, I'm thinking more short-term now than I have in several years. And I'm just thinking, how can I add as much value as possible to our clients at the gym? How can I just focus on the next most important thing, you know, for real estate improvement or

Joe Rouse (45:54.485)

Mm-hmm.

Marshall Ray (46:11.138)

whatever it may be. obviously you have to be aware of things like that, but I'm not thinking about three year goals. I'm just not, I mean, I'm aware of it. I want to make sure that there's alignment, but like, I'm just not thinking about it. I'm like, I'm just like so focused on the quarter or the most important objective to make sure that we're on the right trajectory and path with whatever, you know, whether it's your family, business, or your career, whatever that may be, if that makes sense.

Joe Rouse (46:36.231)

Yeah, I would say I'm 100 % with you outside of worrying more than I ever have about the future of my kids or like if I get dementia one day and I have to go in a nursing home, like how should I start buying insurance to potentially have something like that? Right? Like those are thoughts I never ever had ever, but now it's a thought it's there, but I would, I would be, I love the word more. I like that you said gray, but also flexible because I

Marshall Ray (46:51.542)

Right? Right.

Joe Rouse (47:05.481)

Maybe because we kind of came up the same, I don't know. But I'm very similar to that now. And even the business mentoring I get now, I would say is more like that. It's not so much rocks, bigger rocks, you know, working towards this five year. It's not. They even like scaled back a little bit on the annual review type situation this year because they found that people just weren't staying in alignment with it, that they were coaching, even though they were trying to coach them to it. And I was like, wait, what are you doing?

I gotta have my annual plan. Like I still love doing that. But yeah, it's, I think I could align exactly with what you said or I could relate exactly to what you said, right? And it potentially, it might even thinking that way, like allow you to be more in the moment with, you know, just being thankful. Like people talk about like, I wish I knew the good old days when they're happening or whatever, but like, I feel like I can almost recognize those sometimes.

Marshall Ray (47:37.556)

for sure.

Marshall Ray (48:04.365)

Absolutely.

Joe Rouse (48:04.869)

technically, cause we have control over that, also like being more mindful of like, know how much joy it brings me to like lay on the floor with my kids and wrestle with them. And I'm not going to allow the thought of that client that just quit on me or is mad at me or whatever, to affect this. Like as I'm laying here playing with my kids, like it's just not, I don't know, maybe priorities change, I guess a little bit too.

Marshall Ray (48:26.337)

Absolutely.

Marshall Ray (48:31.404)

Yeah, well, and to your point presence, especially with your family in those family time, those opportunities you have in your family, like presence is the secret. That's the answer. Like if you're just fully present, you're going to give them everything that you have and they're going to give it back. those are like the magic moments that you're going to make with them, that you're going to look back on and be like, that was, that was the best. When I reflect back on the four and six years with my children, I was fully present in all those moments. And of course, if it's like,

Joe Rouse (48:56.511)

Mm-hmm.

Marshall Ray (49:00.55)

a trip or something like that is very easy to be fully present because like there isn't other distractions. You're just so just enamored with the environment and whatever you're doing like Disney will. know you're a big Disney fan. We went there and went to Disney Cruise and other things like that. You know, obviously that's an easy way to kind of get in that mindset. But to your point with intention, you can do it every single day.

Joe Rouse (49:12.935)

yeah.

Joe Rouse (49:24.713)

You really can. Like, we just got like 10 to 12 inches of snow here, which is doesn't happen. It doesn't happen. Right. Like, and it snowed really hard all through the night and it started during the day. But like now I have this new memory of my kids. My kids were out on the trampoline when it was snowing and they were jumping and it was like little ice balls, like little sleet and stuff. And I was like, this is boring, man. When other places are getting the snow, like when's this going to come? And you saw it start to change a little bit. And Melody and I were working out together in the garage. So we were like, we were kind of just.

uh, vibing like we were just having a good time. It was a good workout, flirting and stuff and, uh, looking out the window, seeing the snow change. And I remember we came inside, we got done working out and my kids were outside and I saw it change completely to like regular snow. And we got a good snow last year that lasted for a week or two because the ground froze and all that. But, um, I looked out there and my kids and I'm like, what do y'all think? And they were just like, it's snowing and like little thing. It's the coolest. It's so

Marshall Ray (50:18.049)

Joe Rouse (50:23.059)

Their experiences matter so much. Like their pure, unfiltered joy brings me joy than probably most things in life at this point.

Marshall Ray (50:25.55)

Absolutely.

Marshall Ray (50:33.672)

yeah, yeah, more than honestly, for me personally, it's like more than anything, right? But obviously it can't be the only thing you do. And we have to do all this work and all this other stuff to be able to have those special moments. yeah, again, when those opportunities there, just be fully there, which of course we all have room for improvement, right? So I got that figured out. But that definitely something that I think we all could work and do a better job of.

Joe Rouse (50:38.506)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Joe Rouse (50:58.569)

Yeah. Well, Marshall, dude, I appreciate your time, This has been a good time. Great catching up. It great learning some new things about you. Cause I've been wanting to ask you about the real estate stuff for while. Cause he's never really gotten to talk about that. To hear the family's doing great. And I love just hearing what you're doing with Faster Fitness. Cause we used to talk about that stuff daily for years. So great to catch up on that too, man.

Marshall Ray (51:03.085)

Yeah.

Marshall Ray (51:10.7)

Yeah.

Marshall Ray (51:20.025)

yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, definitely more to talk about it later conversation between the two of us. you know, I just to learn from each other and continue to grow. man, it's always an honor, always, always so much fun to hang out and, you know, hopefully they're added some value for somebody here. But I enjoyed myself and always love hanging out, brother.

Joe Rouse (51:41.097)

Yeah, dude, definitely. Thank you.

Marshall Ray (51:43.054)

Thanks, Blur. Take care.

Joe Rouse (51:44.565)

Let me just hit.