My goodness... Henry's story is AMAZING!!!  I've known Henry well for about 2.5 years now and didn't know about the majority of what we talked about.  Towards the beginning of the interview, we actually figure out why his father decided to name him "Henry".

Growing up as the youngest of 7 (a traditional size for an Irish family he claims), Henry excelled early in his career.  Many of you know that Henry currently works for Microsoft, but what you may not know is that lengthy path he traveled to get there!  We dive into the complete history of his working career including careers in catering, real estate, and fabrication.  (I know what you're thinking, "how the heck did he end up in one of the biggest tech companies in the world?!"  You're going to enjoy his story big time!)

Him and his family (Kyra, Robyn, Charlie, and Giorgia) moved to Natick from Ireland in December of 2015 because of Henry's work.  They saw it as a great opportunity to start a new life where they already had some close friends established around the Boston area.

Henry was introduced to CrossFit from his neighbor (and current Firewall member), Dave Howell (whose interview you can find here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dave-howell-episode-12-path-to-his-wife-3-children/id1448103429?i=1000433248208).  Be sure to stick around to the end of the interview as you'll discover why Henry despises burpees more than anything else in the world.  It's actually a much more rational reason than I thought.

Thank you so much, Henry, for taking the time to sit down and let us in on the history of your life!  You've had a fascinating past, present, and I'm sure your future will be just as interesting and fun!  We appreciate the spirit and energy you bring to class everyday.  We're so happy you moved to the States ;)

Brace yourselves folks!  Kim came prepared with answers to questions we've asked all our members who have been on the show, lending some awesome tips at the end of the interview.

Early on, Kim describes the change in culture from Jamaica Plain to Norwell when her family moved when she was 10.  After school, she pursued her business degree with a tract of marketing at Boston College.

After a little background information leading up to her first job post-college, Kim dives into the history of her work career and what she does with her current company - Car Gurus.

About half way through the podcast, Kim gives us the back story on how her and her husband, Dave, fell in love!
*Quick side note: I incorrectly described Bumble.  I was thinking of the app Grinder.

For those of you who don't know, Kim is a die hard fitness fanatic!  She started taking her health and fitness more seriously during college, which led to many different fitness paths for her.  Her fitness fervor was sparked by the aspiration to complete a full marathon while she was at BC.  One area we forgot to get into was her experience with a body building competition she did a year ago.  When you see Kim, be sure to ask her all about her body building career!

Make sure to stick around until the end of the podcast as Kim gives some amazing advice for beginners to follow.

Thank you so much Kim for taking the time to record this interview with us!  We know you and Dave are going to be incredible parents, and cannot wait to meet the newest Firewall baby next month!

Born and raised in Natick, Kerry is the head our the Firewall Kids Fitness program and the most recent Firewall adult coach too!  She's much more than just a fitness coach though.  She has her toes dipped in a couple different fields including real estate and a company named Beauty Counter.  On top of all that, she's an incredibly caring mom who will do anything for her family.

Originally, graduating from high school, she thought she was going to pursue a career in criminal justice.  She had one specific experience her senior year of college that completely changed the scope of her life.  She later got into the marketing world and is now contemplating going back to school for nursing!

Kerry is a self-proclaimed "cool mom" who loves spending weekends in the summer up on her family cottage in Alton, New Hampshire teaching her kids how to do all the water sports such as water skiing and knee boarding.

She also runs through the challenge she faced during her pregnancy of her two twins who are currently 10 years old (Maddy and William).

About half way through the interview, Kerry describes the personality traits of each of her 3 kids and predicts where she thinks all three of her kids will end up in a career 15 years from now.

At the end of the interview, Kerry goes into how she started coaching kids fitness classes (it wasn't at our gym).  She goes on to describe why she fell in love with it and continues to inspire the current children in the Firewall Kids Fitness program.

Thank you so much for your time, KP!  We were so happy to get the chance to sit down with you and learn so much about your life and past.  We're also so incredibly fortunate to have you on the adult Firewall team!

Be sure to stay tuned until the end to hear some "bloopers"!

This week's podcast is a solo act - no interview.  This is a 10 minute clip of Bucky talking about first experiences.

The hope of this episode is to give you a little bit of a nudge to give you the courage to try something new for the first time this week.  The only way to grow is to try new things no matter how uncomfortable they might be.  Everything you've ever done in life, you did for the first time once.  Whether it's your first job, driving a car, or trying out CrossFit, everything you try always has a starting point.  Don't let the fear of starting overcome something great that might come a few months or years down the line.

Take the leap of faith today and try something for the first time!  We hope you enjoyed this little episode.  Please share this with a friend who might find this little nugget useful!

You are in for a treat on this one team!  We can't thank Pat enough for taking the time to take us on his life's journey.  He is a constant learner who has found the silver lining in every situation life has thrown at him.

We get into a pretty deep topic early on in this way involving his brother's passing at an early age.  Pat goes on to say how his brother has and still does make an incredible impact in his life.

Pat has lived around Holliston his whole life.  Growing up in Milford most of his life, he graduated from Marian High School with a passion to pursue a professional career as a hockey player.  Pat tells us his story of his aspirations to play in the NHL.  His self awareness led him to know when enough was enough and to move on from the sport professionally.

Pat had a very interesting journey after he ditched his NHL dream.  He give us a thorough run down of his career path immediately after hanging up the skates all the way up to present day.

Another topic we dive into is how he found CrossFit, which also led to meeting his wife (and Firewall coach) Kerry!  He actually found CrossFit because he was lacking the competitive hockey edge he thrived off of his whole life.  From his hockey career, he has had a plague of knee injuries that CrossFit has greatly helped maintain and develop the surrounding muscles to sustain nearly pain free knees.

Hopefully this 45 minute interview was enough to give you a glimpse of Pat's past.  You can really tell towards the end how much CrossFit means to him and why he's so passionate about fitness!  Thanks again Pat for coming on, we'll have to do it again!

We started out with the original goal of keeping this interview within 30 minutes, BUT as many of you know, both Mark and myself like to talk.  We apologize for this extending 10 minutes past the original intended time span.

As you'll find out early on, Mark is originally form Wichita, Kansas.  Eventually him and his wife (Amy, who is also a Firewall member) moved out to Colorado for her job.  Eventually, her job presented her two option: California or Massachusetts.  Through much discussion, the Mirandas decided to take their talents to Holliston, Massachusetts, thank goodness!!

We dive into how Amy and Mark met along with some of the difficulties they faced including living states apart from one another for 2 full years while being married.

Mark's real estate roots eventually led him to become a real estate photographer.  One of Mark's greatest talents is the ability to learn... ANYTHING!  With us living in the Information Age, Mark has been able to teach himself countless things including photography, PhotoShop, home fixes, and much more!

He actually started CrossFit at another gym that was located about 45 minutes from his house!  He knew he had to make a change, so he decided to deal with the distance and took action.  After completing his 6-week fitness challenge, he didn't want to continue to commute over an hour to get to the gym and back.  He got word from his barber about there being a CrossFit gym in Holliston (which led him to us). 

Mark dives into his first interactions at our gym and how he has made a lot of friends through the community!  Eventually, the Firewall community engrossed him so much to the point that he had to get Amy involved.  After a trip to J&M Diner, she made the decision to give it a shot!

Towards the end of the interview, we talked about how/why we teamed up with Mark to start Project Resolve where Mark blogs a couple times a week about his 6 month fitness journey (currently half way through).  This challenge his given Mark a set goal and has posed as a huge motivator to keep him coming in the gym and focusing on his nutrition.

Keep up with Mark's 6 month fitness journey here! https://www.project-resolve.com/

Thank you so much for coming on the podcast Mark!  We're going to have to have you back to solely talk about the story of your hip.  We hope you enjoyed the interview as much as we did recording it!

Originating from western Massachusetts, Mike found his way over to Holliston because of family and work after an incredible upbringing in Chicopee!

When he graduated high school, he initially started out commuting to Western New England on a path towards a career in pharmacy because he saw the $$$.  He eventually discovered that pharmacy was definitely not his calling.  He took a turn and decided to pursue a career in computer science.  After his freshman year, he transferred to UMass Amherst where he was able to enjoy the full college experience.  Once Mike finished college, he continued with his college summer job at circuit city working as a car audio installation specialist.  Eventually, MathWorks reached out to him about a job, and then he proudly illustrates how he has moved up within the company over the past 13 years.

Later on we talk about how he met his wife, Kyla, through his cousin who was close friends with Kyla in high school and through college.  Kyla expressed interest in Mike during their high school years, but unfortunately Mike was taken at the time and had to respectfully decline.  Ultimately, the timing worked out where they were able to finally get together over a spring break during college.  Everything happens for a reason!

Currently Mike lives with his wife (and Firewall member) Kyla, his two daughters Lily and Lexi, 1 dog - Daisy the beagle, and 4 chickens, which he explains WHY he originally got the chickens.  As you'll find out at the end of the interview, in the maybe not so distant future, Mike's number of pets could exponentially increase - and trust me, you'll never guess as to why... (Hint: buzz buzz)

As a kid, Mike always played soccer.  However as an adult, he fell in love with the sport of hockey!  Mike parallels his hockey league with CrossFit meaning people of all different skill levels are playing with each other side by side with endless amounts of support.

Be sure to listen the whole way through as Mike absolutely crushes our questions for him at the end!

Thank you so much for coming on the show Mike!  We greatly appreciated your transparency, honesty, and enthusiasm.  Although there was a ton of his life story we didn't even graze over, we hope many were able to get a good idea of Mike's past, present and future. 

Born, raised, and still living in Holliston, Mel has created an incredible family and highly successful yoga studio from scratch!

Like many CrossFit gyms, Mel actually started her path towards opening up a yoga studio by teaching others in her house.  A few years later, she was able to open up The Yoga Exchange right on Exchange Street in downtown Holliston.  Although the name originated from the street it was on, Mel says it has developed into much more than that - the process of "exchanging" relates quite well to yoga itself!

Her love of yoga actually started out when she was pregnant with her first child.  She used the practice as a pre-natal exercise which sparked her interest.

Mel was kind enough to dive into the full development and creation of The Yoga Exchange in our conversation.  The doors opened on January 3, 2015.  I might be a bit biased given my position, but it's always so interesting to hear a small business owner's back story as to how their business started.

Mel attests to the growth of her business mainly from word of mouth!  Being extremely humble she'll never admit this, but her students have fallen in love with the community, vibe, and culture she has created within her walls.

I found the most interesting part of this interview to be how much ground work she put in to give herself the confidence to open up her own studio.  As you'll hear, The Yoga Exchange didn't just happen over night.  She has put in over 1,000 hours of training.  Talk about walking the walk!

Currently, Mel is hosting her own yoga life style and training where she is developing active yogis into yoga teachers!

If you're interested in finding more out about The Yoga Exchange, click on the link here to visit her website and sign up for a class! http://www.theyogaexchangeholliston.com/

Thank you for taking the time, Mel, to go through your past, present, and future.  You have created an amazing community at your studio, and it's no surprise given your personality and student first approach.  

We are so excited to release our first ever panel on the show!  We sat down with Kyla Carvalho, Dave Menapace, and Brian Bowman to talk about a bunch of different topics.

The goal of this episode was to give our listeners helpful suggestions on the topics you'll see below.  We hope you pulled at least one thing away from this interview that you'll be able to travel to within the next few weeks or over the summer!

Please let us know what you thought about this episode!  Below is a summary of all the answers our generous guests gave us.

(Listed in order of responses) 

Favorite Local Restaurant
Kyla: Yama Zakura in Northborough
Dave: Juniper in Wellesley and Anthony's on the Green in Holliston
Bowman: John Stone's in Ashland and Columbus Club (in the basement) in Framingham

Favorite Boston Restaurant
Bowman: Carmelina's on Hanover Street in the North End
Dave: Barcelona in Brookline
Kyla: Sweet Greens in Harvard Square
**Dave's two honorable mentions: Veggie Galaxy in Cambridge and FoMu in Allston

Favorite Dessert
Kyla: Uhlman's in Westborough (and chocolate souffle at Yama Zakura)
Dave: Agreed with Kyla
Bowman: Agree with Kyla

Favorite Appetizers
Dave: Nosh and Grog in Medfield and Temazcal in Framingham 
Kyla: Temazcal in Framingham
Bowman: Noodle City in Ashland
**Shout out to Jared Bartels from Dave for his amazing wings

Favorite Pizza Places
Kyla: Corner Market in Holliston and Two Guys Pizza in Springfield
Dave: Mangia in Holliston (R.I.P.)
Bowman: Gianni's in Framingham (north side) and Santarpio's in East Boston

Favorite Places to Go in the Cape
Bowman: The Lobster Trap in Bourne for food and Cohasset for vacation
Dave: Dennis/Dennisport
Kyla: South Yarmouth and Dennis/Corporation Beach
**Shout out to Dave's recent Cape Cod purchase Sunny Days Cottage!!

Favorite Netflix Show
Kyla: Jane the Virgin and Vampire Diaries
Dave: Breaking Bad and Medal of Honor
Bowman: Ozark and Rock Climbing Documentaries

Favorite Movie in the Past 5(ish) Years
Dave: Gangs of New York
Kyla: Hacksaw Ridge
Bowman: Agreed with Kyla

Favorite Local Outdoor Spots
Kyla: Brentwood Conservation Land in Holliston and Woods Trails off of Adams Street in Holliston
Bowman: Purgatory Chaos in Worcester, Hopkinton State Park, Ashland Reservoir, Callahan State Park in Framingham
Dave: Holliston Rail Trail

Favorite (Long) Weekend Getaways
Kyla: Getaway in Epsom New Hampshire
Dave: Portland, Maine and North Conway, New Hampshire (with the wife), and Saco River in Maine (with the boys)
Bowman: The Cape and Mount Washington

Favorite Nearby Entertainment Facility
Kyla: Kimball Farms in Westford
Bowman: N/A
Dave: N/A

Most Recommended Show to See in Boston
Dave: Improv Boston in the North End and Aziz Ansari
Kyla: The Wang Theater in Boston
Bowman: N/A

Thank you again Bowman, Kyla, and Dave for coming on the show!!

Getting the opportunity to sit down and talk with Connor was such a treat.  Although he was reluctant to the idea originally, he was such a great sport during the interview.

As many of you may know, Connor is currently in a PhD program for Doctorate degree in Marine Biology from UMass Boston.  Connor tells us exactly how he started out on this path.  He was influenced very early in his undergraduate college career.  Although he didn't enjoy his original college choice of UConn, he ended up transferring to his home state school of URI where he completed his undergraduate degree.

He informs us of what the focus of his thesis was as well as how that carried over into his dissertation that he currently has in the works.  Get ready to learn a lot about fish that you probably never knew or thought you'd ever know!

Outside of his schooling, Connor engaged to his fiancee at the end of 2017.  They're currently set to get married June 15th (just a month and a half away)!  We do end up talking about how him and Cassie got together, how he proposed, and what their plans are for the future!

Another side of Connor we talk about is how he started with CrossFit.  Interestingly enough, he started out doing CrossFit for a full 3 years before ever stepping foot into an actual CrossFit gym or having a coach watch him. His story was genuinely fascinating considering how great his form is.  He also discusses why he fell in love with the CrossFit community and how he found parallels in teaching with CrossFit and his career path.

If you've had Connor as a coach before, you'll definitely learn something in these 37 minutes that you didn't know about him.  We hope you enjoy the interview as much as we did recording it!

Connor, thanks for taking the time to let the good people of Firewall get a glimpse of your past, present and future!  We're so fortunate to have you as one of our coaches.  Keep on letting the good times roll!