America Peals

Mahalo! (Warm regards, readers!)

Lots to talk about today. As you may note on the right hand side of my blog there is a badge for Life as RX’d.

A few months back I contacted Life as Rx’d because I flat out am a design whore. As Oscar Wilde once said, You would be a fool to not judge a book my its cover. I heart Life as Rx’d t shirts and asked Marcus Dedina (CF coach and media guru for CF Oahu) if I could do some social media work in exchange for t-shirts because bartering is the way this girl operates. A snobby reason that I like Life as Rx’d shirts is that their grammar is tight. No run off clauses with inappropriate verbs and designs of horses’ heads with flames shooting out of the skull.

[THAT BEING SAID IF YOU NEED SOCIAL MEDIA, DIGITAL STRATEGY, BLOG DESIGN/DEVELOPMENT and YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO OFFER, HIT ME UP on Facebook]

So, because I am so ferociously busy living in my parents basement (i.e. my mother’s sewing room) and working freelance Social Media gigs, Marcus and I played phone tag for approximately 3 months. Even, though I went to Wellesley and Harvard, I am a little retarded. I could never figure out the time difference between Hawaii and Boston. I also do not know how  change the clock in my car.

Marcus is originally from Northwest Indiana. He was a top wakeboarder having skimmed Lake Michigan and waters of Orlando,Florida where he went to college.  Then like most bad ass CrossFitters I have met, life became different really quickly. 5 years ago with out a buck in his pocket, Marcus moved up out the Windy City and accepted a designing gig in Maui, Hawaii.

Though, the design gig didn’t pan out, Marcus remained in Hawaii. Marcus started his own small web biz for a year. In terms of fitness, Marcus was hitting 24 Hour Fitness and getting bored quickly.

Feeling  burnt out from his weight lifting workouts, Marcus headed outdoors and started to build a repertoire of functional movements that served as his work out. One day in the park, a woman came up to Marcus and told him about a class they held outdoors on Saturday mornings and said he should join. Marcus attended. And, a CrossFit gym was born. Now, the two guys who started the gym Bryant Powers, a navy seal and Craig Cates. They didn’t know that much about CrossFit at that time but enough to know that it worked and was addictive. Guess what? Yep, they started out in a garage. And, I forgot what happened to the initial woman who invited Marcus…a siren?

I asked Marcus how he remembered his first CF workout. Marcus,” I could not complete Fran with 95 lbs.” Five years later, Marcus’ PR for Fran is 2:47.

CrossFit Oahu started as a 2000 sq ft box and now reigns in a 6000 sq ft space.

Now, what is interesting about Marcus is how he created a user platform specifically designed for CrossFit affiliates. His sense of entrepreneurship seems to only have intensified as more and more CrossFit affiliates are stepping up and wanting to have a greater media presence, particularly when it comes to videos and being to able to compete in the social media sphere were more and more biz is taking place.

Marcus and a team of two designers are responsible for the tightest CF designs out there. I was surprised at how successful the t shirt venture was because traditionally  t shirt businesses are a dime a dozen especially given the emergence of Threadless, user generated tees,  and my favorite, Kosher Ham t shirts. Marcus also did Brian MacKenzie’s, CrossFit Endurance.

I should have some pretty sweet discounts for you all next week.