Two-Brain Radio: The Morning Chalk Up With Justin LoFranco

In this episode of Two-Brain Radio, Sean speaks with the founder of The Morning Chalk Up, Justin LoFranco.

Justin started the daily newsletter in 2016, and over the last four years it has become part of every CrossFitter’s morning ritual—the newsletter now boasts 85 thousand subscribers worldwide.

Sean and Justin talk about how his life working in the government helped prepare him for his current endeavor, how he was able to build the Morning Chalk Up into its current state and what the future of the site looks like as we get deeper into the 2020 CrossFit Games season.

Links:

Morning Chalk Up
"Founder, Farmer, Tinker, Thief"
"Two-Brain Business"
"Two-Brain Business 2.0"
"Help First"
Free Tools

Timeline:

1:13 – Introduction to Justin LoFranco.

3:58 – Before the Morning Chalk-Up: A career in politics.

6:06 – Why Justin left politics.

7:51 – Finding, forgetting and rediscovering CrossFit.

6:55 – Training in the basement of the U.S. House of Representatives.

10:13 – How a daily political newsletter inspired the Morning Chalk Up.

12:40 – Launching the Morning Chalk Up with no money or staff.

15:57 – Determining the newsletter’s direction and audience.

20:29 – Hitting “go” and building a subscriber base.

22:59 – How Facebook advertising helped get subscribers.

25:13 – Filling the vacuum left by CrossFit Inc. media.

27:52 – How years of due diligence prepared LoFranco and staff to take on new opportunities.

29:32 – From a one-man-band to a growing staff.

32:48 – Just because you can do something yourself doesn’t mean you shouldn’t hire someone else to do it.

33:45 – Dominating the written market and slowly expanding into other mediums.

35:37 – The future of the Morning Chalk Up.