He Risked It All and Built the Most Upscale Gym in Carmel

Once I like kind of saw it all, that was it. We're doing this. This is like cool and unique and easy and a great community. What do you want to do with your gym? I go, well, it's not my gym. It's our gym.

What does it mean to you to build a wellness studio that is a staple of of caramel from South Bend to Evansville and everywhere in between. This is Get In, the show focused on the Hoosier State and the incredible stories happening here today. I'm Nate Spangle, founder of Get Indiana, and I will be your host for today's conversation. If you're into great country music, good vibes, and an atmosphere that just screams summer, then you need to check out the Red, White, and Brown Music Fest. It's going down August 23rd at Historic League Stadium in Huntingburg, and we're going to be out there. This just isn't any venue.

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Grab yours now and we will see you down in Huntingburg. My guest today is Jedi Ozamir, founder of Oswell Fitness, a wellness studio in Carmel, built under a retractable dome, an idea that was originally dreamed up by his dad to keep the family pool open longer. You may also notice for those watching at home, we are standing today. This is our first ever standing room only episode of Get In. Jim is the son of Turkish immigrants, a father of four, and a guy who's lived through housing crashes, Hollywood additions, and even a tornado that recently tooured through Caramel and and did some work on the gym up there. I'm excited to get into learning the history of the dome, like kind of like a salarium looking thing up along the Monan there.

Where that technology came from, learn about your story and insane life experiences you've had thus far. Jimi, welcome to the show. Hey Nate Spangle, hello. How's it going, bud? Thanks for having me, dude. Appreciate it.

Congrats on all your success. Thank you. We're making it happen day by day. I'm excited about this one. First thing, as a typical gym owner comes in and says, "Hey, man. You mind if we uh if we stand up for this?"

I use my arms a lot. People will say like, "Hey, this is my move." So, I like I don't want to hit myself, you know? I love it. I'm here for We're going to get that. We're like as as the time it's 125 in the afternoon, a little after lunch standing session.

I'm here for it. Obviously, if anyone has seen the Oswell up in uh like a south part of Caramel, is that where you guys like I Yeah. I don't know if it's south or you know, it's east of It's like south of Midtown just a little bit right along the Monan. You've definitely I mean walked right in. For sure you walk it. If you walk just south of Midtown, uh north of the bridge on Caramel Drive, that's where it's it's right there.

Yeah. And I mean it is I I've recently started attending classes there. It's an awesome experience. There's an interesting piece of family history that goes into this. I think when most people see it, they think of, oh, this is like a luxury bougie caramel gym, which it I mean, honest, if we're calling it a spade of spades, it is a very luxury experience. I would say like you walk in and I like really I feel it's put together, but it's not I think some people compare like if you've gone to a gym like in LA or in in any of the East, West Coast, places like that, you're like, "Oh, I want to be approachable."

It's approachable for sure. I walk in though and it's just like it's not your, you know, back of the strip mall, you know, barbell club. I I tried to make it a little bit nicer, a little intentional in how I designed it and how the flow. I've been to lots of gyms. I'm 53, so I've done a lot and I've been to a lot of places and I like every time I would go to a place. I'm the one of those I can make this better.

I think this would be better here. What if we put the And so that's kind of like my whole flow of the whole gym. When you walk through it, literally every turn I'm like, well, why would we turn left here? We this like that. Every part of the gym is like that. So when you walk in and you feel like you see the black walls and I had architects and people tell me and you know hey there should be this color should be that there should be these kind of glass doors and this and that like okay I mean most of that stuff I took the advice of professionals.

Yeah. But for the flow I knew what I wanted because I knew what Nate Spangle would want. Right. I mean and it is just uh it's got a great aesthetic like from the moment I walked in the first class. I mean just like well put together and it's like I think the word that I was looking for as you were explain intentional. Yeah.

Intentional, right? It's like you have recovery and and it provides a lot of different stuff, right? From cold from cold plunge to sauna or to red light sauna to studios to group fitness to turf out on the Monan Trail. Like there's a lot of cool stuff there. Was the goal always, you know what, I want to open a gym. That's my life goal to do this.

Definitely not. Uh that was not I'm not going to say it the bingo card, but like that wasn't there, right? It wasn't what I wanted to do. I keep I tell people that I kind of just got bullied into it by the universe. It feels like I had this idea. I was working out with Braden.

Braden's a guy that I do personal training with before any of this. I was a working at an accounting firm doing business development. So, you know, I would tra I traveled a lot. Three million miles in my life and I would go to you know when Wait, three million mile. You have traveled 3 million miles. Yeah.

Yeah. domestically and not even like not not cheat like I've gone to Turkey a couple times but when I was in my heyday I was traveling two or three times a week most of the year you know really like getting after business development for DC million mile wow what level were you on like your all the highest level of all the you know I was the triple diamond ex you know I was diamond on on Delta for 10 years and I was 1k on United for 10 years and then you know So, I'm a million. I have 1. 7 on Delta. Southwest, they don't really count it, but I have a lot on them as well. Yeah, I just had a lot.

And it, you know, it's it and then CO came and all that stopped. And uh to answer your question, how did I like get to this point? So, I'm traveling to all these places and I would go to San Francisco like we do the the cold towels, right? That you see, right? Okay. Right.

Was it like is it tea tree or eucalyptus? It's eucalyptus. A little like you finish your workout, get a little eucalyptus, cold towel. Well, that whole thing literally was me working out at a Marriott and during a conference and I went downstairs and there was a little fridge and I opened the fridge and I'm like this is like probably in 2015. I like if I open a gym I'm doing that. So that was kind of like like those little things that I kept taking from places.

What are some of the other that is a really unique I remember the first one. Oh my it was a Monday morning. I went to the 6 a. m. class and at the end like let's say it's 6:55. Yeah.

Lights go down. Music the whole playlist changes. Yeah, we're bringing around cold to health and I'm like I am not in Kansas anymore and but it was like an awesome experience and I was like this is cool. These are parts of the intentional pieces you know the music when you listen when you're in there and you hear the music and you hear it from like cuz it was hard with the music in that gym because it was a warehouse. It used to be Williams Comfort Air. So I bought the old Williams Comfort Air building, tore down the front and then scraped the warehouse out and then made it what it is now.

But when you play music in there it was hard. like it was echoing and like you'd be in that corner couldn't hear it in that corn I'd come to the gym um in the first couple months and literally on a Saturday when I didn't have my kids go in there and stand over here and stand over here and I would take three four classes a day sometimes and like sit in different spots and make sure that literally no matter where you were in the gym you could hear the music equally right so it was like those things that I just kept chipping away like I still do I mean I'm chipping away at everything all the time yeah So, music, the cold eucalyptus towels. Are there other like little pieces that you picked up from? The schedule, the software when you walk in, you know, I you know, the the way we roll the towels. I did a Google it went to Pinterest or I went to to uh you know, Tik Tok. I said, "Show me how to roll a towel efficiently."

And it's and it looks nice. That's why the towels are all rolled in where they are. You know, we got to the point in the in during the first three, four months, we had a laundry room that we just put together probably half the size of this room. And I was like, you know, we only had a hundred members and I'm like, man, this laundry room is not going to work. Like eventually I'm going to have 300 members and like this is just not gonna So got rid of that, switched the spot in the in the uh we we used to store weights, closed the wall off, and we just we just kept adapting. And that's I mean, honestly, we're still doing that now, right?

We're still adapting to to what the members needs are right now. Well, I think that a big piece of actually agreeing and and the universe bullying you into opening this gym was including this awesome piece of family legacy. Sure. Correct. With the dome. Yeah.

Yeah. Do you call it a dome? Yeah. Yeah, it's a dome. That's what I call it. Okay.

I I can't remember. I was like, is it a salarium? Is it a dome? Is it like Well, it's retract. You haven't seen it. Have you been there when it's opened?

I haven't been there when it's open. Okay. Yeah. Cuz it was cold and then the tornado. Yeah. So, my dad is is immigrant.

Turkish immigrant. My mom mom and dad are both Turkish immigrants. My dad was 19. He was in Europe for a couple years in Canada for a couple years. Then landed in Chicago. Worked there.

Went back when he was 27. Went back. Met my mom 15. Two weeks later they got married. Two weeks later they moved here. So my mom and dad were 15 and 27.

Still together today. We got three brother, me and my brother and my sister. And so your mom moved across the world at the age of 15. Didn't know language. Didn't know how to drive. Me at 16.

My brother at 18, my sister at 20, living in Hammond, Indiana doing doing life. My dad's an entrepreneur. Starts a machine shop. Kills it there. Sold it. Said and then, you know, now we're in 80 1982 1983.

And my dad's like, I want to get a pool for the backyard up in Crown Point. That's where I'm from. Crown Point, Lake County. Go Bulldogs, baby. Yeah. I went to Lake Central.

So, all right. That's my man. So, uh, we go there and my dad's like, "I'm gonna get a pool, but I'm not going to put I'm not gonna buy a pool unless I can put a a cover over it." And we're all like, "Yeah, whatever. That's great. We're never going to get a pool."

Next thing you know, 1984, the porta dome is what it was used to be called, the porta dome. Put this dome up. Every frame was a metal frame and in between it was a vinyl was a vinyl that could collapse. And so, it would basically collapse to half its size. And that was the first dome that we ever had. And then he just built this himself.

He built it himself. Like just like did he like make you help him in the backyard or he just built this thing? Oh, he had, you know, it's aluminum extrusion. So, he had to go take it and get it machined and like all these things that we wouldn't, you know, it doesn't like go to Lowe's and get, you know, a bunch of lumber and put it together. How hard was it to retract it? It was hard because it was the first, you know, it was V1, right?

I mean, like, but like you would get in there and the tracks had like it was covered and there was dirt in it. So, when the dirt got in there, it was hard to But like I tinker. I call it tinkering. Yeah. My dad just tinkered this thing to where, you know, like every dome that's out there now where they're they're doing 15 20 million a year in sales. My brother runs it up in uh Crown Point doing them all over the world.

Uh yeah, literally all over the world. Every one of them is basically a fingerprint. It's a it's its own thing. And and this is all done in Indiana. Just so you know, this is another thing from Indiana. 100% of it.

What What's it called? Dino Dome. Dino Dome. Yeah. Yeah. And these are like retractable dome roofs.

Were we the only house or pool in Indiana that had Of course we were the only one there. You could swim in the in the winter. Everyone was freaking out like, "Hey, go to Gemini's house. We can swim in the winter. We could swim. It's December.

We could swim." Yeah, for sure. We get like dive off of diving boards. It was high enough, right? It's high like the dome is right now. That's badass.

It was awesome. Yeah. Okay. So, your dad is tinkering. So, he does that, right? And now, you know, he wants us He want I'm not the engineering type and whatnot.

He wanted me to take the business. I didn't want to do that. My brother ended up actually doing that. This thing has evolved and evolved. 40 years of evolution. And well, when did he make that a company versus just like I want a dome in my backyard.

He made it pretty much immediately. And you know, of course, like just like anyone, you have to like supplement with the real job with the, you know, the dream. Um, like I'm sure you've done here a little bit and like now and then you get to the point where like, okay, well, let's go. And that's what he'd ended up doing. You know, it went it was it was bad in like the early 90s like not really doing great. Um, and I didn't know how he was going to make it, but he's, you know, my mom and dad both made sure we went to IU, went to our schools.

I went to IU, my brother went to Purdue. And, uh, my sister is saying the house divided. Exactly. Yeah. He does. I don't know how we make it.

But, so my brother will took it over. He was a nuclear engineer. And then, my dad said, "Do you want to take this over?" And then we tried to come together and I'm like, "Guys, I want us to still meet at Thanksgiving, right?" Like, this wasn't going to work. Anyway, when I'm working in my job and I I moved into a house where they had a pool when I had started having kids and all that, my dad go and I lived on guys.

This was this is relevant because he goes, "Let's put a pool here." I go, "Dad, I live on Guist. The the star of the show is the lake. I can't put this on the lake, right?" Like, but I really wanted to have the dome. Because I'm definitely proud of it, but I couldn't do it at that point.

So, fast forward to, you know, here I am with the idea for a gym. And the idea for the gym wasn't about the dome. It was more about combining workouts with recovery, right? So, that's kind of where it like all started, right? I'm 50 years old, 49 years old. I'm working out with my trainer and I'm sore, so I'm going from him.

I'm going to this place and then I want to do cardio and he doesn't do cardio, so I go from this place to that place and so I'm like, why is this all so fragmented? So, bring it all together. So, fine. But I have ideas all the time. Like, who cares about the idea, right? Who car tuna?

I want to make tuna mayonnaise and feed it to the fish, right? Like from night shift, right? So, like I'm not doing that. My old neighbor Anderson calls me. He goes, "Hey, that Walgreens at 96 in Allisonville is for sale. You remember that Walgreens?

It was on that weird the Michigan left corner." Okay. It was on the on the north on the northwest corner. And so it was up for auction. I'm like, that started the ball rolling, right? Like, oh, I'll go look at it.

It's pretty cheap. I could probably do that. And you had been telling your friends about wanting to start a gym and bring all this together? Not re I just talked about like I would talk about any idea. They knew that I always had ideas like hey this is another idea I had. So I go into that and I didn't get it which was fine but then it got the ball rolling.

I called my broker Ralph and took me he gave me to assistant Laura. We went to we started I started looking at places and I ended up at where I am now which was the old Williams I mean it was it was you know it's a it was literally Williams comfor the trucks were back into the back garage. Those garage doors were there right? Those were garage doors that that the trucks would back into and and uh and load up their trucks for the day to go to your house to fix your HVAC. So, I'm looking at this. I'm like, "Okay, well, this where I can put the dome I can put the dome right I can lean it against the building.

I put the dome right here." My dad I would love it. It would be great. What once I like kind of saw it all that was it was happening. You're like, "We got to make this happen. We're doing this."

So, like what's the And what's the first step at that point? Like I mean, you're you got to get the building. You're 49, right? At that point it's in 2021. Yeah. I'm I'm turning 50 that year, right?

And it's like, yeah, this is the perfect time to quit my job and start a gym. Well, I mean, look, I worked at DoZ for 30 for 28 plus years. Dozing firm, Dolby Okconor, and Zeleleski. Okay. So, it I started there when I was I was a seventh employee in 1993. Did internship, started there, worked there my whole life.

Um, and mostly did business development. It's an accounting firm. We specialize in afford They specialize in affordable housing. So in 2020, I became the CEO in January of 2020 of Doz. Yes. So me and 12 Partners bought Doz January of 2020.

So two months before Yeah. Yeah. everything happens. So that happens and then that was pretty that was that was pretty traumatic, right? like it my my so my life before that at doz was traveling and taking clients to dinners and kissing babies and all that and then I flip it to no travel and now you're going to run the firm you're going to make really you're going to make decisions that no one has made before right so that was hard so that was pretty traumatic and I was like okay this is probably going to end relatively soon and so I kind of like we kind of like planned it out and to the point where So how quick did you know that you're like hey this is not what I want to do well there was lots of ups and downs and and probably by the following year once like once we kind of settled into where we knew CO was coming to an end um and I started coming up with other ideas I I just think we just came up we we were just on two different tracks and my head was like definitely was starting to really like turn on the gym right so especially when I got when I was able to make the offer on this building like this was the other thing I'm like I'm in Midtown Caramel right this this building is like perfect like you know my location is perfect right and So, I'm like looking at this thing and we'll see if they take this number and they and they did.

I'm like, "Holy cow, we'll see if my bank will do it." Like my banker's like, "Oh, let's do it." I'm like, "Oh, like like this is what I mean by bullying, right?" Like, and then so there's no way they're going to say yes to this. It's like that the no way they're going to say yes to this five, 6, 10, 12, 15 times. I'm like, I'll take it some of a lot of this stuff as a compliment.

They were betting on me a little bit at the end of the day. And I was betting on me too because I literally all my chips, okay, my 401k, all this stuff that like I went to my broker. I go, "Hey, man. This is what I'm doing. I'm putting it all in." Just kind of like my dad did, you know, 40 years before that process just started, you know, like then.

So, you buy the building, you hire an architect, you start making the plans, and then you just start going, "Okay, what can we do?" I like I've never built I've never even built a house. I've remodeled a house. I said, "Let's take this kitchen and open up the well so we can see the lake, you know, but that's that's the extent of my construction." Um, and I've never dealt with permits or city of Caramel, like they have their things that they want. Hey, we want 15 trees.

I'm like, well, I can't afford it. Like, that's not our problem. Like, oh, that's how this works, right? Like, wait, they said they wanted 15 trees. Well, they wanted landscaping of some sort, right? You know, they say we want this kind of landscaping.

There is no chance I could survive with an office in Caramel. It was a very difficult process, but like look, Caramel is great because of what it I mean, you know, the roundabouts and this and that. They they've done a good job. Is it difficult? Yes, it's difficult, but like that's the price you pay to have something like Midtown Caramel for sure. 100%.

So, so the next step was the whole process, building a building, collecting the money, getting the financing it, and shuffling the cards and when to cash this out. And like at this whole time, I I don't think the style of fitness existed in Indiana or at least in Indianapolis where it was like all this in one. More of that luxury feel. I mean, I've been to a decent. It's kind of like a what I imagine Equinox. Equinox, right?

Like that's kind of the vibe 100%. 100%. There's been lots of people that said, "Hey, this is like Equinox." I'm like, "Okay, thank you. That's a great compliment." Yeah.

I mean, that's like one of the nicest 100% gyms in across the country. There's a reason there's so many locations. Exactly. They they do they know what they're doing uh real estate development wise and that's really what they are a real estate development company and putting you know the nice gyms in there. Yeah. To support it.

So like I'm not reinventing the pushup, right? Like it's really not about I'm really just hosting parties every day if I really want to like break it down. It's like I just really want a really nice culture, a community somewhere. You come in, you don't feel like, you know, I have we have some Colts players there that are like Colts players, right? Like and then and then we have like 83 year old people like working out and there's really no like dissemination between the two. Like nobody really cares.

Like we're just there with I like you, you like me, you're running fast, I'm running slow and I don't really care, right? Like there's a lot of that. Like it's just easy. And I'm a big efficiency guy. That's the other part of it, right? So there's a there's a business piece of this that I am very like much in tune with, right?

Like we're doing things and we're not we're not we're not gonna do the I'm not gonna say, "Oh, it's fine." like like like something's not going right. You're like, "Ah, it's fine. We're not going to we don't have to do that." I'm like, "No, no, no. We're we're doing it, bro."

Like like like, "Well, it's going to cost." I go, "Well, it's not really about the cost. It's like, does it make sense or does it not make sense?" Yeah. I would say uh like the wow factor is definitely very real where you like walk in and you're like, "Wow, this is very intentional. It's put together and it's not just like the back of the strip mall gym where you just like I don't know like rusty dumbbells or whatever like and there's like a there's a there's a benefit to a grit factory like there's some there's some charm to those places there's a look those places work as well why because they have they have a community they have people like it's fine like I built my place and I want you know I had I started from literally zero members and so while I was building it from that perspective I'm like okay me and Sarah Sarah's Rogers helped me build this um from scratch.

She been a trainer in many places and we both had been to many gyms. So, we knew as we're going through, okay, we won't we don't want that or that's Oasis Space like that like part of it is like, well, let's not do too much. You know, the the gym that you see today that you've been to, you were there yesterday was not the design or what it is when we first opened, right? Really? Yeah. What are the biggest changes?

For example, the treadmills. None of those treadmills were there, right? And none of those mirrors were there either. I didn't put the treadmills in to begin with because I'm like we don't need treadmills. We got the stairs. We can run around.

We can run around the building. We got plenty of places to run. And then it just kind of like you just kind of felt I did have two I had two treadmills and they were kind of set aside and everyone was always flocking to them and I'm just like I got to stop fighting this. We need the treadmills. So we got the treadmills. Little things that we change all the time.

I just keep forgetting what they are. We're gonna we're getting ready to put a Pilates studio in upstairs. Yeah. Um reformer studio. Right. So, the cycle room, well, the studio room, which is if you're walking through the if you come out of the locker rooms and walk to the the main gym to the left there's a studio and then the right is the yoga.

Okay, that studio room was the spin spin room. So, we started with spin wasn't working. Now, it probably wasn't working for a couple reasons because Pelaton had taken its strangle hold on all the cyclists. We're not super cyclists, right? We're not like the, you know, riding on Florida road in in Fortville cyclists and we didn't have that many members yet. So we weren't filling and those kind of classes you need to fill you need to have like the whole class full the energy is like you know five people aren't going to make a a great spin class.

Yeah. So we converted it to a bar class and now we just opened that uh two weeks ago. So I mean it's been like an evolving process too. What I love is that you take the best pieces of all the places that you've been like and and incorporate that into this. That's exactly what I want to do. Right.

Yeah. I I felt like it what was happening was the box gyms were or gyms were taking boxing. Okay, we're monetizing boxing. We're going to go take 2,000 square feet and it's only going to be boxing. Okay, cool. Or we're only going to do running.

Yeah, you're going to get bored with that. Well, that's what I was getting, right? And I was just like, okay, well, this isn't sustainable, right? So then it's and it's like the class pass model is like a lot going on. You're different places. It's like I just want it to be easy.

On top of that with red light or sauna or cold plunge or you know with the compression. Have you done the you've done the compression? Right. So you're sitting in that room. It's really nice. Like some people are like everyone does compression.

You don't need to do compression. Like that that's not like you can't sell that. I go well yeah I can I can sell it if it's like a nice room. It's dim free coffee. Like you can chill. Like that's probably one of our best you most used.

I mean everything is really used a lot actually. Um, but like what's easy too, right? Like I remember I sat in there and I met that's where I met Randy for the first time and Oh, now he's on Carson. He had Carson Carson was on the bar last week. Like I I I uh validated like being a member on like that interaction alone. I was like cuz because when there is something that's cool and unique and easy and a great community, it's going to attract the people that you want to work out with, spend time around.

But Nate's mangle, I don't want to hang my head on cool and vibby and like disco or whatever you want to call it, right? I'm 53. I say disco. I really want it to be more like this we're in this together kind of thing, right? The tornado really showed me that, right? I want it to be easy, not only from the workout perspective, but from the hey Nate, what's going on?

How was your who did you have on this week? You're you're breaking down uh I feel like a lot of people's perspective of what they probably see from the outside looking in because from the outside looking in you walk in it's like a this is an Instagrammable gym. Yeah. And it is very I mean it's beautiful. Well yeah we do that on purpose. very Instagrammable gym, but once you walk through the door, I will say like meeting people like I know I knew a few members and I have continued to meet more members and it is like not necessarily the superficial LA gym that's Instagrammable that you think about that you see on all over social media.

It is a true community of good people that do want to hang out and like say what's up and how's a family, how's a wife, had the kids. I mean, that's what I like basically have navigated my life through. That's how I motivated myself when I was working at Doz. I would travel the country and I had a community of people in the affordable housing industry, right? I went to conferences. I went to the same conferences all the time and I saw the same people and we were doing good things.

We were providing affordable housing. We were part of the we were part of the puzzle providing affordable housing for the country. Like Indiana is a big hotbed of of developers that do this all over the country. Did I do it for that? Yes. But more so I I like these people, right?

And so I don't go to my my place. I love my place. really lucky to be able to go there and really hang out with my friends all day. I get I see Lindsay and Randy and Clint and Aaron and Nate and Jack and Claire and you know I mean I I have nicknames for all these people, right? I mean I they're my friends. I care about them, right?

I see people walk through the door and I already know something's up and I'll go, "Hey, what's up?" And I'll be like, "I know something's up. I'm not going to say anything, but just so you know, I see it." And so then I'll and they'll you'll see them later and they're like one person I can just give you an example I can say who it is tears and she looked at me I go hey it's cool and I brought her a tissue and and I just left and I that's it but I see it I love these people. You won't last long if you don't love everyone, right? You don't have to love me.

You don't have to love We're not disrespecting our space here. Like, this is our space. Earlier today, someone asked me, um, what do you want to do with your gym? I go, well, it's not my gym. It's our gym. For example, the tornado that happened and wiped out the dome.

All the contents in the dome area are toast. The bikes, there's probably $150,000 worth of stuff in there. I told uh, you know, Claire, Jack's wife, Claire, she's our marketing person. I go, "Hey, I want to do like a form or I want to do some kind of focus group that says,"Hey, what do we want in the dome area now? We got a chance to reset. Do we want bikes again?

Do we want this? Do we want that? You want to be clear? I don't know. Let's all have let's let's put together a group and let's talk about what we want here because we have a chance to reset." Some people have had subs.

We're not going to do that. U I don't really not that I'm not trying to say. I don't remember what they said. I can't remember what it was, but like what are the options? like, oh, to do in the gym, to do in the dome. We put so much stuff in there that it's kind of the lanes are kind of It's tight.

It's tight. Well, now it's not going to be as tight. We can probably get another lane of people to run running up and down. So, probably less is more and probably get more efficient again. Use use the walls more for weights or get smaller. Uh, you know, we have those sled pulls and pushes.

Get something smaller so we can put like three or four rows of those. Just stuff like that. And like looking for stuff. I go to the conferences that so you can see what's coming up. I love that stuff, right? Like walker like that's how I saw the red light bed and I met the guy who Yeah.

What is Are there any big like innovations that are coming out that you're like, "Hey, we want to get one of these." I mean, you have the hyper bear chamber that's like pretty Yeah, it's great, right? It's not the uh medical grade one. It's a one that you can use and and serve yourself. You sit in there and it's the best sleep of your life. And there's definitely a difference after you you hang out.

Have you done eight hours in it? No, eight hours. What do you think, Tom Brady? No, I didn't 8 hours. I didn't know. It's like an hour.

You said to get a sleep like I didn't know if you like nap. Well, you're not at 53 yet. You're not We nap at this age now. Well, I didn't know if you like ever like one time I went into the gym and you're like, you know what? I'm just going to like sleep in here tonight. No, no, not that.

I And I might do that, but I a thousand% did like I didn't have my kids, my girlfriend was gone uh like working or something and I'm like I I had the afternoon to myself. It was a it was like, you know, gym was closed. I'm like I was in there. It was nice. Siesta. Okay.

All right. Right. The Hyperbear chamber. That's That's fun. Uh I do want to get in. So you talk about turmoil and like a little bit of uh adversity, right?

Like the dome getting obviously like destroyed. Yeah. Yeah. Is adversity. It's not your f and and being CEO during co also adversity. Not also your first battle with adversity.

If you think about uh what was it 2009? Yeah. I you know like in 2009 I'm 15 years into my career. I made good money. I'm investing in houses you know like like anyone else. like I'm buying rental houses.

Get into a um groove with a a home builder that sold me uh model homes. So they the deal is they'll sell you the model home, you buy it from them, they rent it from you for a year and then you keep it and you can you know. So it's like you get in a good neighborhood like in in 2008 n that's when everyone everyone wanted to buy everything, right? So home builder model homes. So a home builder is in a neighborhood that has 400 houses they're trying to sell, right? They have five or six model homes in the front of their neighborhood.

They want those off their books. They sell it to Nate and then I'm the developer. I'm gonna rent it from you now for a year. So cool. I don't have to do anything, right? As the And you just have these empty houses.

Well, but the developer is taking care of them. Yeah. And renting them and paying the taxes and the insurance and I'm getting a, you know, a rip of, I don't know, 10% or whatever. But it's great. It's all on me now. I own it.

And in 2009, this home builder went out of business and I owned 14 15 of their houses in three states with I had two investors with me and I was in charge of the whole thing. My friend called me up. He goes, "Hey, we're going out of business. Get to the houses and get all the model home furniture that's in the house cuz it was good f, you know, those model homes had the nicest stuff." I hired a moving truck, drove to South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida, Indiana, get got all the furniture. You just packing up the I am.

I packed up all the stuff. I had just moved into my house and guys, and I had a big yard sale. I put all the furniture on the in the yard and sold like $20,000. So, it it mitigated some of the loss. But either way, I mean, $20,000 on 14 homes is not like not getting crazy right now. Some of the houses didn't have furniture in it and some of them had to be converted into it was a very stressful process.

Okay. So, what ended up happening? Converted all those houses and then no one was buying houses. No one's getting loans. That was the whole big short thing. And so I had to rent them and you had to, you know, and renting took a minute as well because everyone's had so many options.

And you gota like property manage. I have to property manage them. I did it all. Right. Like there's one in states. So you just go like, "Okay, Nate seems like a good guy.

I'll rent it to him." Cool. Go to, you know, Orangeberg and go to, you know, Fort Mill in Charlotte, just south of Charlotte in South Carolina. All these places. Just show like Yeah, just show up at the keys under the mat. that yourself.

I had a I had a realtor there which was fine but then you got them in there and that was that and I did probably three years of like navigating that and then the market started turning and I was able to unload them one by one by one but there was a time when someone said why don't you just give it back to the bank. I'm like no that's not how you do this. You know like that's that wasn't what I was going to do. Well yeah that that would be like quitting. That'd be quitting. That would be it wouldn't be right to the bank.

It isn't the bank's fault. I'm the one that took the risk. Right. So I'm like I ain't doing that. Well, like you're saying, why don't you just default on your mortgage or whatever on this house? Give it back to the bank, you know?

Yeah. And it's like then you stick them. They're used to it. They got all the whole market's in a crisis. Like, yeah. Yeah.

And I think that's like the uh the entrepreneurial spirit, right? Is like, hey, even if you get yourself out over your skis a little bit, how do you find the plan and just start making it happen? Even if it means driving around the country collecting furniture. 100%. And listen, when I was doing getting financing for this for the gym, my bank was like there was a moment where like, hey man, like he's never run a room. What are we doing here?

He doesn't know what he's doing. And like and my banker was like, look, he's going to figure it out. I can promise you that. I got a nice building, right? I own the building. So like worst case scenario, the building defaults and we, you know, the gym doesn't do well and but we have a nice building on the Monan, right?

Yeah. And like how do you feel about or think about worst cases where it's like you're in that meeting and you're talking to and it's like well you take this risk you're 50 at the time when you kind of like make the decision to go in on this gym. Yep. And it's like well worst case scenario I own a remodeled building on the the Monan and you maybe you get out of the gym business you become a landlord 100%. That was my worst case scenario to them. And I got an SBA loan.

So they had they're they're a little bit less in the game, right? SBA is a Small Business Administration. They have part of the loan and they're in second place. So first place is the bank and it's 50% loan to value. Like, hey, we're good no matter what. We're going to get our money back.

Combining all those nuances and then but most importantly, they like they believed in me and they're like, he ain't he he won't do this to us unless it's out of his control. Hey Hoosiers, let me tell you about Keller and Keller, a respected Indiana based law firm that's here for all of us from Evansville up to South Bend. They've been serving Hoosiers since 1936, and they really know what it means to fight for the community. These guys have recovered over $1 billion for their clients. Yes, that's billion with a B. That's a serious track record of getting results.

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Now, let's get back into the episode. Yeah. And like I think that that is the piece about reputation that really matter, especially in a town like Indianapolis where it's like if you build a reputation that you follow through on your word and you get stuff done and you'll take care of people's anything. Yes. Like good stuff will happen to you or opportunities will be open. It It was scary though.

I gonna lie. It was scary. It was money was pouring out and no money's coming in and you're like, it's not like you like like you can't sell 300 gym memberships to a gym that's not open. You can't. You I didn't. I still haven't.

Right. We came in 10 members when we opened the doors, right? And we, you know, like me and my closest nine friends. I mean, that's what I'm like talking about. like you know and like there were times oh I'll join like hey thank you but I'm not going to make it if you just joined right like I got to this has got to be attractive to the masses I got to be doing something right in order for people to be coming here and so so far I mean I think it's been doing pretty well like how long has you have you been open for December of 23 so 15 16 months yeah coming up on a year and a half over 200 members now you know and varying different like the the key to the business model is not the membership of just like working out. It's when you come through and you can do red light or you can do the other stuff, right?

That turns and then like what I really was striving for was a okay, you're going to come in, you're going to at 6:00 a. m. you're going to work out, you're going to go do a cold plunge, you're going to do a sauna or you're going to do a red light and you're going to be then you're going to shower and you can be out of out the door by 7:30. Like you've done everything. Like you've literally have done everything. That was like my goal.

Lots of people are doing exactly that. Yeah. I mean, lots of people like Jack comes over in the afternoons at two. There's a lot of people that just come over in the because the afternoons are quiet no matter what. If we have a thousand members, the afternoons are going to be quiet. They come over there.

It's pretty quiet there. Like he sits there. He gets He's got a two o'clock Zoom call. Okay. He's in that dark room. He's got his headphones on.

No one's really in there bothering him. I just bought these phone booths. You know what I'm talking about? these soundproof phone booths where you can like sit in there and like have a true h truly have a meeting and not be distracted by the music that's playing either in the gym or the classes or in the overhead. I'm I just want people to leave their happier parents, co-workers, spouses, like I just want them to be and I see it. I I I I have friends I never had before.

Like right these are these are I have so many people that are there now that have never been there before and I didn't know them before this. They're not doing me any favor. No one's doing me any favors here, right? Like I take my role with their two hours of the two hours of the day some people are spending there, right? That's a every day, right? Some people are there doing their whole routine and like I take a lot of pride in that and I take it seriously.

I don't want them leaving their I want their experience to be super consistent. And I mean it's like it is a vibe like you can come in, get your workout, hit the this that the other on recovery. you I brought my laptop there. I like chilled one day like I go over lunch like I did a workout and then you know I answered some emails but I don't want to be defined by it being a vibe, right? I wanted to be defined by like no no I left there and I do feel more like ready to do whatever I have to do next. That's really like it is viby 100%.

You go in the locker room I got a smell that's pumped in. I bought you we did a scent that we have shipped in every so it's coming through the system. was just telling my buddy Kade, I was like, "You walk in and it just smells like nice after shave." Like just smells like success. Like I'm about to crush this workout. Like truthfully, like and anyone that disagons, by the way.

I'm not a sponsor. Yeah. No, no, no, no. Not yet. Right. No.

I walk in and I'm just like, "Holy." I'm like ready to like It's 6. It's 5:50 when I walk in there and I'm like I'm ready to just process was intentional, right? I walked into, me and Sarah walked into a Studio 3 up in Chicago and I walk in, I go, "You smell, it smells nice in here." Like, "What are you doing?" Like, "We got to figure that out."

Like, "What do you think about that?" Like, you know, we would go on trips over and over while we're in the middle of our architectural design stage. I'm like, "We should do that." Like, and then next thing she comes, this is what it takes to do that, you know? So, here's the bill. Yeah.

Exactly. It was pretty pretty steep. So, I mean, like, as things have been going, you're almost two or or almost a year and a half in. How would you say things have gone this far? What are next steps? Like, what's coming down the pipeline for Aswell?

The reformer studio that we're working on is next. People have asked me, do I want to do another one? I mean, I have four kids, 11, 13, 15, 17, and they're doing all the things. Go Trojans, baby. Yeah. Yep.

Chitaard and Royals, St. Simon. Um, so and I'm just I want to make sure I'm there for them because um, you know, when I was with Doz I was traveling a lot and that and I was still balancing that out. I was with them 50% of the time. So I was taking care of my part and but I like being home like I I you know so doing another one in another city. If I did another one maybe in Fischers or or Zensville or something.

It's if if it made sense if the if the property made sense I would I would maybe it has to be the right like this was the right property right on the Mona. you walked by and the dome fit perfectly and you know just everything just kind of fell into place. Like I'm not going to I'm not going to do it in a strip mall. I just No offense to strip malls. I'm fine with that. Like you know for me it's not me.

No offense to strip malls. Yeah. It's just not that I don't want to do that. I don't want to add that headache. So well and it's like how many members can you get up to with one location? We get creative with our times and we can probably get to three 400 but I don't want it to be even more than that, right?

Like I want it to be loose. Like right now the 6 ams are like packed but that's because of the tornado too or we had to reduce our capacity but like so I really want to just make sure that you can get into all the classes that you don't feel like you're on top of each other. There is nothing worse than if you go to like book a class to like get your day started and then you can't get into it. And I'm like and so I think it's good if you're on top of your stuff. That's my this is my job. Yeah.

Right. This is my job to make sure that you can get into classes. like this is going to be I I don't want to lose someone because like well I'm running 6 a. m. and I can't get into it. Like okay, I get it.

And you know like this is the kind of the clock that's ticking with the dome right now is like I got to get this thing done and replaced because I've lost 40% of my capacity and like really probably 50 now because now you can do if we take out some of that stuff and like get smart with our uh our spacing. I you know we can probably fit 40 people in there and Chris can run a class or you know Katie can run a class with all 50 people in there now and or Max. I don't know if you've taken his class either. Uh yeah and it's it is interesting that every morning with a different trainer is a different vibe. Well, especially with those three they're definitely three different people, right? It's like uh I think I went to Max and I felt like I was back like working out for football again.

100%. Well, he's I mean Yeah. Hello. How's it going right now? Yeah, he's great. I love Max, dude.

Good dude. Good dude. Yeah. Um, okay. So, obviously continuing to add more studio and like keep going to conferences and all that fun stuff. What does it mean to you to be like to build the gym to build the wellness studio that is a staple of of Caramel?

I don't know if we're a staple of Caramel, but like Oh, dude, come on. If you're thinking like if you're think again, I say this with love and respect. Love and respect. But it's like when you think of Midtown Carmel, you think of nice, elegant, fancy places. As far as gym go, gyms go. I mean, Ael is nice, fancy, and elegant.

And I love it. Like, I'm I go. Yeah. Right. But it's like if there was a gym that was caramel, it would be your gym. And that's part of the underwriting, too, right?

Like, oh, if anyone's going to do this gym, it's going to be in Caramel. I'm not trying to deny that. I I appreciate the uh, you know, the compliment. Again, I take it I take it seriously. I don't look at anyone as a Pro Bowl football player or as a stay-at-home mom. I look at everyone as like, "Hey, we all got our stuff that we're going through right now and I'm here to help you make it better."

Oh, I gotta really kiss their ass or I got to do that, you know, because they're this person. 12 trees. You got to have your You got 14. I got trees. Yeah. Yeah.

Right. Yeah. Yeah. Um, no, I'm happy. I want to be a good neighbor. I mean, we we, you know, Carmel's been really great since this whole thing happened.

They've been coming to, you know, they've been talking to me about, uh, you know, do I need anything? And like, you know, the mayor came by and Sue was a buyup. She was really great. And uh and Joel the fire chief and Nick, they've been they've been great. Like I'm not, you know, like they get it. They get it.

What's been your proudest moment thus far of owning as well? I'm proud of like getting through the hardest parts. I think not that there aren't hard parts to still come, but like there are moments you're having, no this is going to work or I'm going to have to run away for it, right? Like there were moments there for sure that I was just like this is going to be tough. And you have to like balance like do I go spend who knows what on a scent, you know, or like like actually making it as intentional as it should be and as as intentional as it is. Like balancing that has to be hard.

Nate Spangle, here's the thing. There was a moment during the process, the heavy spending process where I had to just put the spreadsheet away, right? I couldn't sit there and like do ROIs on every single thing because so much of the ROI was just no. Collectively, it's going to all work together, right? The scent works with the color works with the blue and I got the the name and this like it all works together. And so I just had to follow a lot of it was following my gut honestly.

Like most of that stuff was just following my gut. um the Oswell name even right like was like a very like organic thing that came about doing my CEO thing and the whole at doz Lauren uh great person she was awesome during that whole thing I go hey and you know I just told her everything I tell everyone hey I'm thinking about opening this gym like are you out of your mind you can't open a gym right now like she was very like are you crazy right like one of those people the next day she goes hey if you decide to open this gym not that I'm saying I'm advocating for but if you you should call it Oswell. I go, "Holy cow, that's a really good idea." Like that's a great name. So cool. Fast forward to I hired a branding company, do the branding like all this.

I go and and part of the branding package is they do uh Matt Namy Matt. Matt, I want to plug for them is names. They come up with names. I go, "Hey, I want you to do your thing. You guys are creatives and you guys are great, but I just want you to when you do when you consider the names, just this is one of them, Oswell." And they did their thing.

They came back. They had all these weird really like really like very LA or what were the names? Oh, I don't know. I wish I had them with me but like you know it was like crunching abs you know or like it was something just crazy elevate your experience something like that. You know just very like the wellness lab. Exactly.

Stuff like that. Right. They go but we really kind of like Oswell and that was really it like they got the stamp from you know like we got we got the stamp from the professionals in my mind. So I I knew that too in my gut when she said it my gut feeling. So when I go through all the things that I'm doing in the gym whether you know repaint the child care how big should the child care be you know I'm like I wanted to make sure the b there's a b you haven't been in the child care but the childcare room is pretty big there's a TV in there you know the TV thing was like I didn't want to put TVs anywhere in the building right and then we're in the middle of the of construction I go there probably needs to be a TV in here right so like that right wait there no there's no TVs in the building no TVs that are like for the gym like if you're in the sauna there's no TV in there's no in the compression room.

There's none in the train area. I didn't know. Yeah. I If there was going to be one, it would be in the compression area probably where you're just And I'm not going to do that cuz we're just chilling and that's too excuse me, that's be too bright, you know? Right. So, I I just kept following my gut.

Like, there's a bathroom in I I remember this. I remember I was taking my kids to a gym and they had to go to the bathroom and they had to leave the bathroom to go to the locker room. All right. So, I was like, "Okay, wait a minute." Like, I would see that like, "Where's my kid? I can't leave because I got to watch all these kids and I got to keep my eye on this because like you have a kid in the bathroom.

So I knew right away one of the things I want to do in the childcare room is make sure there's a bathroom in there so that the person taking care of the kids can take care of the kids. Yeah. Right. So those little things like I think show up in the totality of the whole gym, right? All those little things I think and that's really like I mean just paying attention to the details. Yeah.

I love it, man. I think that uh that you're doing great stuff. Uh, I'm excited to see. I mean, especially as we get into summer and the dome gets fixed. Like, it's really nice. Oh, yeah.

Right against the Monan. It's nice. It's um I know as we kind of wrap up, I have some fun questions. This is this is the fun side. The popularity of Cold Plunge, the popularity of Red Light, like all that stuff is like rapidly increasing. Where did you get into that?

And like how did that get on your radar? It was on my radar just because I'm old and I needed to like like recover. I was doing IVs and I could see that was helping me. What what stuck with me on the recovery side, like I didn't know enough about red light or inflammation until all this, but I think that the big one for me was not big one was clearly this works because I've seen those black and white pictures from the 70s with those football players in these steel cans sitting in in you know recovering in the cold plunge. I'm like in a cold tub. So I'm like well certainly that works because they did that all the time.

I really wanted to get some of those pictures with the football players with the handlebar mustaches sitting in there after the after a game. Anyway, so that kind of like started the process and then I just started digging more and then I found Neoscience out in LA and I really like that guy Robin and he knows what he's doing so I just kept buying his stuff. I go to the conferences and I'd see there's just lots of gimmicks right now. I started doing the the um cryo chamber where so like basically a refrigerator. I'd walk in there and I'd do like I was going to do I was gonna add that the big You know what I'm talking about. Yeah.

Yeah. I've I've done one at the recovery room maybe. Yeah. Do you see any difference where you have to wear those little like socks for your extremities? Uh I don't know. Like I I don't know if I feel any like I think that a decent chunk of it is I my brain like convinces myself that I feel better.

I went into it like five or six times all over the country. I'm like it's cold. That was that. I was definitely that. And then I didn't like like when you do but have you done a cold plunge before? Yeah.

And then you walk if you're ever hung over a little a little like three minute hole punch. I walk out of there like holy I'm a new man. Yeah. Yeah. It's legit. Like you definitely like you're feeling that there's no like moogify there.

Right. It's a legit science. There's some science there. I think that I just wanted to make sure I didn't like overflow. I bought this weird thing that had like I don't know if it's still in the gym right now, but it's it's got two handles and it's got all like uh it's like one of those you remember those if you're in a taxi cab and the cab drivers would have that those bead things that they'd sit on. It would like kind of like massage your back.

You know what I'm talking about? So they have one of I have one of those and it like spins and it's cool but it's totally gimmicky, right? Like it's a gimmick. Like I saw one that's like a mat that you lay down. It's supposed to be like the pins like the needles that you put into like it's supposed to be. Okay.

Yeah. And I don't know if that's like there's a lot of these that are all over Instagram. Grounding mats like you know I like where you plug them into like you could like plug them in and put it on your bed and you put Yeah, exactly. I Okay. I don't know. I just My my buddy Austin, he's actually a listener.

He swears by like walks outside barefoot every day. Yeah. I think there's math to it. I think there's legit legitimacy to it. Yeah. You know, but as far as the equipment goes and how I got into it, it's more of the business side of like which ones are going to work and then Yeah.

I love the like the actual sauna versus the infrared the wet sauna where we pour the water. Yeah. Those are hot. Oh yeah. Like I think I'm still a member at the JCC specifically for like Sundays when I go and it's like you just it is toasty. Yeah.

Yeah. And it's like I walk out of there like holy smokes I just lost like 10 pounds. Right. So we had the infrared. Yeah. That digs deeper.

I I mean I don't there's benefits to both. So yeah, I mean there's like a bunch of science that's interesting, but it's like everything you put in your gym is like you you're it's your job to be the researcher to like pro like to be like, "Hey, I believe in cold plunge or I believe in green light, the red light, and the pink light, and they all do different things and chat GPT it." And you know, that's I've chat GPT my way through this whole gym. I It's so great. I love it. Uh we do have to talk about one fun thing.

Yeah. Come on. Almost career in television. Yeah. Yeah. How did this How did this work out?

So, I was working at Doz. I was doing my normal accounting thing and uh Christmas of 95. I So, busy season is a real thing. You know, we're accountants January to March, nothing but accounting. I told my guy that I was working for, Sean Oconor. I said, "Hey, here's a deal.

I'm going to move after busy season. I'm going to move to LA. I'm going to move to LA. I'm going to become an actor." He knew I did plays while I was, you know, Wait, really? You had like always like done plays?

Yeah. Done plays up at Lake Central. I did all the plays up at Lake Central when I was in high school and um I did, you know, I played basketball and I did the plays. I told and I did a play when I came down here. I was on improv. I did improv.

I was at comedy sports for a minute and all that stuff. So I told him, I'm going to leave. I'm not going to leave you hanging behind. I'm going to do the work I need to do, but then when we slow down, I'm going to leave. And he goes, "How about you move to LA and we'll still" And I was just dabbling in business development. So I had been successful cold calling and doing that.

And so he goes, "How about you go to LA and you cold call and then during the day and then you can audition at night or or however you want to do it." I'm like, "So you're going to pay me to All right." So that was what I did. I moved to LA in April of 96 and I started auditioning over and over and over and over again. And so to the point where I got on Seinfeld, I got on Ellen, I got on Melrose Place. You like actually like like what was your role in Seinfeld?

I was an extra. No, just get everyone. I wasn't the Snoop Nazi. Everyone thinks I was a soup Nazi. I wasn't that. But I was an extra, but I was uh in Manhand, the episode Manhand.

So, if you want to Google Morning Train Seinfeld, you'll see me. I'm in a black vest and a blue shirt. U you'll see black vest, blue shirt. So, Kramer, as you know, he's got a real job, but he's not getting paid for it. Just with him on the train like like he's going to work. Did you have a goatee?

I had a goatee, man. That was that was a thing back in LA, you know, and the vest, the whole thing. Look at that side profile. So hot. Look at me, man. Like we'll put that one in the uh in the show notes.

So that scene I did six times. Okay. So So I did it three times with like in that we see Kramer coming in on the train. He's doing his thing. I did it three times coming on with him. Okay.

The first time I came on with him, he flings back like is in Kramer way and he was in my arms like this. Okay. And they were in the camera was like like like this like he was you know he was doing and then they said hey you in a blue shirt come the other direction which was this. And so then I went three direction like where we're going again. So I did three with and three again. I was like so then like I don't know.

So you're waiting for the episode to come out. All my friends and I'm telling them this story like hey I mean I am going to be front and center. This is it. This is it. I'm going to be done with accounting man. They come out and all you do is see me like you see my back of my head and you see like the little bald spot I have back there.

Like I didn't know I had a bald spot back there. Like so. So yeah, that was pretty fun. That was on Ellen. How many How many auditions did it take for you to nail like to get that to nail that extra scene? No, that was pretty e being an extra is pretty easy to get.

What? And like what is that like a couple hundred bucks? 80 bucks I think I got. I was there for 18 hours. It was the manhand episode. So 18 hours?

Yeah. 18 hours all day at the stu studio city Radford which is uh they kept you there for 18 hours and gave you 80 bucks they feed you? Yes, they fed me there for sure. Yep. They they have to do all that. And so what time did you get there at?

700 a. m. and I was there till like 1:00 in the morning. Something like that, bro. No jam. Yeah.

So, we sat in the audience and we watched uh if you see the manhands episode, the scene where Jerry's dating the lady with manhands and they're showing and she cracks a lobster with her own hand like not without and I saw all that happen. So it was fun to watch all that and like you know people like why didn't you stay like when I when I left I came up with an idea for a play that I produced in Chicago and so when I came up with the idea um which was a sitcom on stage and do in um commercials in between the uh between scenes like just like a sitcom on stage that's I so I tried to get sponsors I not I tried I got sponsors for the show I produced this play up in Chicago where I did a play it was like a 30 and every week it would change and there would be commercials in between and commercials would subsidize the show. So, it's all very entrepreneurial, right? It's all very, you know, Wait, how long did the show run for?

It ran for two weeks. Chicago sometimes said, "This stinks." No way. We wrote Yeah. Yeah. It was I mean, and it probably did stink.

We wrote it, directed it. I I paid for all of it. Um, we had eight people in the cast. I mean, you know, we probably Well, you got you got two weeks you were doing like So, like it would break a scene and you'd be like, "This is brought to you by our friends at Oswwell Wellness Studio. come in for a pump. Yeah.

And then back to the show back now back to you and two weeks within the newspaper wrote that you guys think it was like what are they these guys think they're doing bringing in commercials and Yeah. because we had real commercials like we had a a HR like a staffing s like I cold called these people and gamekeepers the bar. I don't know if you remember I mean if they remember g but it was like they paid me 2500 bucks to be on stage each like back then you know in 97. That's kind of sick. Yeah. Yeah.

So and it just didn't hit. It just didn't hit. Yeah. But but so you know when I left to tell him when my I was telling a bunch of friends I had an agent and like are you crazy? You have to stay. You're about to make it.

You're not make it but you're about to like get your SAG card and this and that. I'm like ah this it wasn't for me. LA just wasn't for me. Yeah. And you got on Ellen too. I was on Ellen that was in front of a live studio audience.

So that was felt a little bit better. What did you do there? Just an extra. She was this is another like I was just in the library. She had a she she was a she owned a bookstore and I was in the bookstore. It was nothing crazy.

From Melro's place, you know, that was Melro's place. That was good. Come on. So, how long were you out in LA for? A year. 96.

April to April. How old were you? 26. 27. 20. 25.

And then back to Chicago. Back to Chicago in 97. And then that um failed. And then 90 after 90 October 9, I went back came back here. And the whole time you were also doing accounting. The whole time I was getting a paycheck from Doz.

Yeah. Hey, there you go. I mean, I parlayed it. Yeah. I mean, I was feel like some people think that they have to like quit everything and go into entrepreneurship at 21 or they're unsuccessful. A lot of the people that go out and do LA stuff, right?

You don't want a backup or you're not going to make it. That's kind of like the thought process like don't have a back. I kind of had a backup. So, there's some argument that I probably like, you know. Yeah. If you really had to like figure out what was where your next meal was going to come from, you would have just been a little bit more of a starving artist.

Yeah, for sure. I think that the really the thing that comes through is that I just didn't find my people out there, if that makes it. I wasn't a partyier. I didn't like do I wasn't going to kiss ass. I wasn't, you know, everybody that want that met that I met was from somewhere else, which was fine. And then you felt that like what can you do for me kind of like it just never felt like Yeah.

like authentic. It just didn't feel good. So I was just like, ah, this is not for me. Not Midwest people. Yeah. Sometimes it be like that.

Yep. Um, okay. As we as we continue, uh, what's the gear? What what's the brand that you're rocking when you're working out? Lulu. I got the Vioris.

I got the Dude, I've been on Viori lately. They're so nice. Right. What about legends? Have you done legend yet? No, it's Legend.

Oh, you just It's hard to explain. It just feels like snow. You just feel ripped in it like like they do right now. Like Max like Max. No one's going to look like Max. Max.

Yeah. When you think about wellness, what are some of the biggest misconceptions maybe that people think when it comes to owning a gym or just their wellness in general? We've had a lot of people just say that it's just kind of hocus pocus, which I can't I I get it. you know, like Red Light for sure is one of those like I don't know because it's a it's a long game. It's just kind of like you run a marathon. You can't you're not gonna, you know, take a lap around the building and go, "Okay, I think I'm ready to go for Sunday."

Right? It's a long it's a long play. What's the long play? Like what is red light? The biggest benefit is reduces inflammation. And so it takes a while for you to reduce your inflammation because you're going out, you're you know, and I'm not the scientist.

I don't want to like you know start a whole thing but like bottom line is inflammation reduction is the one of the biggest things that we're doing in the gym sauna cold plunge red light that's the biggest thing that's that that causes a lot of most of the problems I don't want to like get into like the science I don't know it as well I just know that that's the biggest piece of this is that I'm a sucker for all I just be like I'll like watch a few videos and be like yeah I'm in like I did the 72-hour fast Oh you did okay I heard this very I was how hard was that the first 12 hours for easy. That part's I I can accidentally fast for 24 hours. Yeah. Like I can do that pretty much no problem. It was going to sleep uh night too. So I did it Sunday night.

So I had dinner at 5:00 p. m. Sunday and then so Monday at 5 like not too bad to get there. Going to sleep hungry is never fun. And then I was very dialed Tuesday morning. So, I wake up Tuesday and I'm going for like hours 40 to 48, maybe somewhere in there.

And I'm dialed. I've like never been sharper at work. I'm getting done. It's awesome. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Then going to bed Tuesday night. I woke up and I tried to run Wednesday morning. No way. And I'm like I made it a like I usually run like six or seven miles and I'm like a mile in and I'm like, dude, I don't feel right. Like the human body has.

Then it was I felt like primal by noon on Wednesday cuz I still had to go to 5:00 p. m. or whatever. I felt primal. I was like I would I would do some crazy stuff for a hamburger right now. And then I got to like 5:00 p.

m. and I was like, "Okay, I'm going to eat light, reintroduce food back to my system." Gorge, dude. Could not. It's like, "What did you eat?" Uh, so I had a work event that night.

Uh, this was like, so this would have been like a year and a half, two years ago. I had a work event. Open taco bar. I went back like seven times. I was like, "Just one taco." And I was like I seven tacos.

So then how long did the effects last for like 72? So you ate and then there were probably Did you feel like Oh, I feel terrible afterwards. Oh, you did? Okay. Well, I mean like I felt good during it and then like the next day but like I just gorged myself after 72. I had water so I did water and black coffee.

That was all I had. So I was just like crushing it. But the thing I had seen where something to do again this is like the Dana White Joe Rogan kind of like I had seen some videos clips or whatever about like your weakest most susceptible cells to cancer or like again this is not medical advice or anything. I kind of just I kind of just did it cuz I thought it was a cool challenge. But I did hear that if you fast like every year or so do a 72-hour plus one that it like helps kind of reset your system and clean out some weak cells. I have several members that have said like it's definitely worth doing, you know, like a fiveday.

We've done a couple, me and like 10 of us have done like the uh Equal Life one, I think, which just shakes in the morning. Like you do a shake and then you don't eat until the next day or I can't remember all the but it's basically salad based. You know, you can like but you got to go like 24 hours with like nothing, right? For you have to go a period of time like like guys, I'm hangry right now. I don't I don't even want I don't want to work out. challenge.

I want anything, right? So, no, it's And if you're like the one that gets like motivated by challenges, like Sure. like the adversity. I love some manufactured adversity. Like, I just go crazy for it. Whether it's like I did the full Monanon, which is like 31 miles.

Oh, you did? I've ran that. Ultra. Yeah. I love that stuff. So, I did a full Iron Man two years ago.

And did you do the 262 mile and two and a half mile swim, 110 mile bike, and full marathon? And you have to get it done like within what 12 hours. I think it's 17 hours is like the or no maybe 18 hours is the cut off. I think we were like 14. What part of the country did you I was down by Houston. Okay.

It was the Woodlands. So just north of of Houston. Uh it was the bikes was horrible. It was 80 miles of the 110 was on a toll road. So it was 20 out 20 back. 20 out 20.

So imagine just like riding 60 60. Well, they had it closed down, which was nice. Okay. But it's like imagine riding like basically from like where Benford turns into 69. Yes. Like riding that up towards like Muny Anderson, 20 m out, 20 m back.

20 m out, 20 m back. That was so boring. I mean, I'm my kids. I have three kids that are JD are type 1 diabetics. You have three kids? Three kids that are type 1 diabetics.

Yeah. How'd that work out? first kid 14 years ago just with the standard peeing and I I listen to Nicole Pence's same thing right the peeing and the drinking water and then 12 years later and my 15-year-old now 15-year-old got it like it was like what in the world I mean when she got it we tested our other two my 13-year-old now did didn't have the gene but my 11-year-old did and they said he's in stage two and he's qualified for this drug infusion that was approved two months ago to prolong it. So he's technically type one, but he doesn't have the his A1C is still in the range where he doesn't need insulin. So anyway, but at some point he will. Exactly.

At some point that's why he's technically type one. He was the first kid in Indiana to get this infusion. So you Yeah. So anyway, we're talking about the bikes. I did 100 mile bike rides for JDRF and I did one in New Mexico, Santa Fe. I mean, and describe like 40° and it was 102 miles and like these hit like I was pedaling and not moving.

One of those moves like this is the worst of wind and the I'm like it's mile 54 at that. I was I can I could see it right now. Mile 54. I'm like this is I am done. Get and go come on we're going to the next 10 miles you know like just 10 miles at a time. Yes.

Exactly. Dude, dude, I just remember that smug bastard saying the turnaround's right there. I was like, "Where's right there?" Like, "What is right there?" Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Right. They were just messing with us. Oh god. And you just got to like drop it down one mile. I just got to make it the next mile, the next mile, the next mile.

It sucks. But the best kind of suck. The first time I did it, I was like, I'm not we're going to probably, you know, in your head you're like because you've done it, I assume, but you obviously did it the first time and you're like, what am I expecting after this? I'm like, this is, you know, I'm going to be done the next I should probably not fly the next day. I probably fly two days after. I So, the first time I did it up in Wisconsin with my friend Greg, we went to the Coldplay concert that night.

I go, I feel great. Let's go to Coldplay, you know? So, it was like it was, you know, it just depends. And I mean, hydration, depends on all that stuff, right? Because then get if if you get your uh I feel like nutrition matters so much on all that. Like if you don't get your nutrition dialed, it it could even turn like a small run.

Like a like a 5K can suck if you don't have the right nutrition. 100%. All right. I I love I love side tangents. It's so fun to me. Uh but we do have our same three questions that we ask to everyone who comes on the show.

First one, what's something the world needs to know about Indiana? We have a lot of professionals in central Indiana that that focus on affordable housing. Ka, doz KD, Pedcore. We are one of the top producing states for affordable housing across the country. So, I think it's pretty cool. Like there there's a lot of us professionals that in the in central Indiana that know a lot about tax credits and and how to develop a uh affordable housing project because it's a there's a lot to it.

There's a lot to it. See, that that is truly the first time I've ever heard that one. Yeah. Well, good. All right. Next.

Props to them. Props to them. What part of town do you live in? Are you Carmel? Caramel. Yeah.

Caramel. And Jim's in Carmel. Uh, other than Fischers for So when you're hanging out on the north side of Indie or anywhere, what is a hidden gem in Indiana? I don't know if you've been coming to the gym when the coffee guys been there. Eli. Eli.

He comes to the gym. He said because we've done this several times where we have events and we bring coffee guy in. We had a coffee guy um set for a couple months ago. He canceled and Eli was in Bailey's inbox and he called he came in on a whim and like he is incredible. Okay. So, like you're gonna ask me the next question, which is who what person should I be watch?

This kid watches. Oh, yeah. 100%. This kid, Eli, who I love, so talented. You could just fe like Bailey and I were talking about him the other day because we were bra like this guy, why does he want to work with this is incredible? Let's get as much as we can from him.

Right. And like she goes she goes if I could buy stock in him, I would buy it. Like this is this is the kind of kid like your guy from the uh the the the excavator guy, right? Yeah. Okay. So, that is who I think Eli is.

He's just I think he's like 25, 26. I'm not positive, but he's a young kid. He's got a half a million Tik Tok followers. No way. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I'm telling you, bro, you've got to check him out. And the coffee he makes, right? He doesn't want tips. He doesn't want tips. Like, he he's got a system.

He's at Oswell every Thursday and Friday. And he comes in and he's like he's like, "Hey, bro." I go, "Hey, bro." I buy a a coffee from him and he doesn't have a tip on there. I go, "Why?" He's like, "I don't want tips."

And I go, "I already like this guy." You know, you don't you don't have the uh you know, I was gonna ask you a few questions. You know, like we don't have that going on, right? Like drives me nuts. Oh my gosh. It's like the most random I'm just buying trash bags.

I got a tip on a trash bag. You flip it over at Walmart and it's like I just going to ask you a few questions. So, yeah. Yeah. So, Eli's coffee is a hidden gem. And Eli himself is I think someone that's going to really do a lot of things.

Is this Eli Walker? Eli. Yeah. I'm following him now. Uh I didn't uh Eli vate your morning. I love that bio.

That's great. Uh well, you know what? We need Eli, my man. Yeah, we're going to send this to him. I need you Thursday and Fridays, maybe Mondays as 7 a. m.

We are ch starting that this week, I think. 7 a. m. Yep. 7 a. m.

Tell him this. I'll prepay. Yep. That's why we're going to work on that whole system. A quarters by quarter. I'll prepay for a quarter's worth of car.

Like, and I just want it to be like I don't even need to bring my wallet in. It's like, "Hey, you've already paid. You've got your latte." I like that, though. Who else did I talk to? I talked to There was a few of us Monday morning that were like, "Hey, man.

Just like swipe my card for, let's say, it's like $7 times 4 $28 a month." Yeah. Yep. Right. I got you. Sign me in.

I'm in. I'm there. That makes sense. And we'll make that. This is the kind of stuff that I'm serious. Like I I've already said like, "Hey, you like cuz we get a pre-order and he doesn't want to make it too soon because he doesn't want it to sit while you're, you know, like."

So there's a science there like to make sure you could almost like you could almost like tap it in with your software where it's like it knows that Nate's going to be there tomorrow morning and it's like hey I'm walking out at 7 a. m. I'm at 7:02 I just like and put but the and maybe maybe in your maybe when you sign up for the class it show you put on the side there you know. Yeah. And then you can turn cafe latte it's going to ask you a few questions. No we're not asking any question.

No tips. No questions asked. There we go. I love it man. I have a question for you. Yes sir.

What is your karaoke song? That's an excellent question and I've actually been thinking about it a lot lately. I don't know why. Why have you been thinking about it? I don't know why I've been thinking a lot. Well, we were at Wild Beaver not too long ago.

Do they have it there? Uh, Wild Beaver downtown. Yeah. And I like wanted to blow the roof off the place. I did Save a Horse Ride a Cowboy. It was good, not great.

A good night. Great. I've been thinking about what would really blow people's minds. Yeah. Yeah. I know one in the in the car.

I've been practicing. Go. Uh, Lose Yourself by Eminem. And I feel like if you can come on there and do the entire is that do you know are sweaty knees weak arms are heavy there's vomit on a sweater already mom spaghetti he's nervous but on the surface he looks here's the thing you've got to be like you got to be able to like you know you can't just like mom's sweaty woman you got to be like you got to be feeling it you got you and you've got to add like a a little yeah pos like uh for say horse ride a cowboy it's like riding up and down broad I said riding up and down Meridian which is like right there Indiana girls say yeah it's like there you got you got to you feel it when you're doing it right if you're a performer you got to be a performer you're I mean I assume you were a performer I mean you were looking at me like I was like crazy because I did plays I assume you did something like that I did some showire I see the jazz hands dude I can't sing if I could sing I would be a country music star I love the funny thing about singing okay I play guitar and I played late if I'm singing with a microphone and no guitar I sound not good but some reason when you get the guitar it just sounds different like so maybe that's what I need to like I need to spend more time learning I've been taking some classes I've been like trying to learn like I picked the bass I played some drums I played piano like I think I want to just start picking up music I love it I think it's so fun it is a good it is a good like break from life because you can't you pick the phone up and all that what's your karaoke song 30 years ago doz we're at San Diego we're working we get down we're go to this place called the crazy burrow in Carl'sbad first time doing the song I do Angel in the centerfold and it and you do that part in the song like you know you it kills time now you've got to make sure that the the the audience is right you know you can't you can't people it's like when they play friends and polices before 11 p.

m. You can't for that. Yeah. So, my point is like like you do it once well and then you're with that same girl, hey man, go join the dinner boy. It was really good, man. I'm like, hey man, like the lights are up.

It's closing time. I'm not going to do it now, right? And then you're like, I'm feeling it here. I'm going to go tell them right now. And like you give them a hundred bucks or whatever. And some of those dueling pianos too, you can also get a really good like if you get a good dueling piano that's into it and they see that you know what you're doing.

Hey, trust me. I I'm a performer. I got this. I got I love it. That's a good one. That's a really good one.

Uh, I love it, man. Thanks so much for coming. Thank you for having me, bro. Yeah, dude. Appreciate you. I want to thank all my people that helped during the tornado.

I was on a cruise. I just want to say thanks to Randy and Jeff and Grace who was killer that day. I was literally I found out about it and I was in the middle of the Gulf. I mean, I couldn't do anything about it. And so, they came in, they moved all the stuff that needed to be moved. And uh, you know, and Brian Price, he's a new member.

All these guys came in, they were like, we got I got so many messages. I just want to thank everyone and I appreciate everyone's patience during the whole thing, too. Thanks. Uh, I love it. True community. You're building something great there.

Final thing, if people want to find you, the gym, learn more information. How can they do that? Oswwellfitness. com at oswwellfitness on uh Instagram and you know, g ozirwellitness. com. Download that app.

You get one class free. Yes, sir. Download that app. And a recovery. Hey, there we go. All right.

Appreciate you, man. We'll talk soon. All right. See you. Bye. Thank you for listening to this episode of Get In.

If you like what you heard, make sure you leave us a review wherever you listen to podcast. This show is made possible by our friends up at Sweetwater. Whether you're looking to start a podcast or take your content to the next level, click the link in the description to see all my gear recommendations at sweetwater. com. If you want a behind-the-scenes look at everything we're doing across the state, make sure you follow me on Instagram and Tik Tok, Nate Spangle. Thank you so much for listening and being part of what makes the Who's Your State great.

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