EP56, One Year Of Reps

This is the Season 1 finale. 56 episodes. One full year of weekly drops. Well over 2,000 downloads across every platform. And today Matt closes the chapter and sets the stage for what's next.

This one is part celebration, part reflection, part promise. It's also the episode for anyone who has been sitting on something. A business idea. A creative project. A book they want to write. A goal they've been circling. A lift they keep scaling out of. Matt makes the case that you do not need to be good at it on day one. You need to be willing to do the reps.

A year ago, this podcast was an empty bar. Today, it's something real. Not because of talent or gear or a head start, but because of consistency. The same principle that builds bodies builds anything.

Questions this episode answers:

• What does consistency actually look like over a year?
• How do you start a podcast, a business, or any new skill from zero?
• What is the "1% better every day" philosophy in practice?
• Why does showing up matter more than talent or gear?
• Why is the empty bar harder than a heavy back squat?
• How do you build something when you don't know what you're doing?
• What's next for the Unstoppable by Design podcast?
• Why take a break between podcast seasons?

In this episode, we reflect on:

• Where This Started: A microphone, four episodes in the bank, and basically zero idea what podcasting actually was. Why the early episodes are still up, and why that gap between Episode 1 and now is the whole point.
• The Podcast Was A Lift: The barbell metaphor that runs the whole episode. Why showing up when the lift feels bad is exactly how it stops feeling bad. The connection between learning a snatch and learning anything new.
• What Showing Up Built: Over 2,000 downloads. Members using the show to understand the why behind what we program. A growing reference library on YouTube. And every single one of those downloads happened because the podcast existed in the first place.
• The Lesson for Anyone Sitting on Something: Public reps. Ugly reps. Reps where you cringe at the playback. Why 1% better every day is not glamorous and not viral, and why that's exactly why it works.
• What's Coming in Season 2: Same podcast, sharper focus. Still audio only. Possibly a new intro track. The big shift: more interviews, more members sharing their real stories, more coaches breaking down what they actually know, more voices from the broader Lakes Region community.

A Message to Supporters

To everyone who has supported this show, thank you. Real thank you. Because Season 2 is taking a break, Matt is turning the support feature off during the downtime. It comes back when Season 2 launches this fall. No automatic re-enrollment. We start fresh together when the show returns.

The Back Catalog Lives On

Every episode is available on our YouTube channel for reference any time. Pull up Episode 49 on goal setting. Pull up Episode 50 on RPE. Pull up the Olympic Lifts series (Episodes 52-55) before your next snatch day. It's all there. It's all yours.

Season 2 launches this fall. We'll see you then.

Until then. Be well. Be Unstoppable.

Transcript

Season Finale Kickoff

Matt 0:16

Let's go! Welcome to Unstoppable by Design, where we talk all things fitness, mindset, and what it truly means to be unstoppable inside and outside the gym. This is a special one. This is the season one finale. 56 episodes, one full year of weekly drops, well over 2,000 downloads across every platform as I'm sitting here recording this. And today we're closing the chapter and recalibrating for what comes next. So stay with me to the end. This one's part celebration, part reflection, part promise. If you've ever been on the fence about something or anything, this is the episode I want you to hear. So I want to take you back to the beginning. A year ago, launched this podcast with four episodes in the bank, basically zero idea of what I was doing. I knew nothing about sound quality. I didn't know what certain things meant. I didn't know

Starting With No Clue

Matt 1:16

what a noise floor was, I didn't know what gear I actually needed, didn't know what a pop filter was, didn't know what type of microphone to use, what platform to host on, or even how to export a file the right way. What I knew was that education is one of the pillars that we do at Juggernaut Fitness. I had something to say, I had a microphone, so I hit record. The early episodes are still up, they're findable. Anyone can go listen to episode one right now, and if you do, you'll hear it. The sound is a little different, the pacing's a little different, the confidence is different. I'm not hiding that. I'm proud of it. Because that gap between episode one and the episode you're listening to right now, that gap is exactly what a year of reps looks like. So here's what I'm what I'm trying to say. This podcast has been a lift, right? I want and I don't want you to think like a heavy lift, like, oh, a daunting task. I want you to think like something like a back squat or a deadlift or let's say a clean or a snatch, like a complicated lift.

The Reps Make The Lift

Matt 2:25

When somebody walks into juggernaut for the first time and we put a barbell in their hands, they don't know what they're doing. The bar feels weird, the setup feels wrong, the first rep is ugly. We just spent four episodes talking about Olympic lifting and how an empty bar can feel harder than a heavy back squat. Because your body's being asked to do something it doesn't know how to do yet. That was me with this microphone a year ago. You don't know how to do a movement when you start. You do the reps, you figure it out in real time, you let a coach point out what you can't see yourself doing, and I used many of you, our listeners, to be my coach. I would ask for feedback. What'd you think of the episode? Any critiques for me? And you gave it, and I appreciate that. You stop trying to muscle through it and you start practicing the position. You show up even when the lift feels bad, especially when it feels bad. And that's exactly what I've done with this podcast. We tried video, some of it worked, some of it didn't. We tried different platforms, we tested different episode formats, we did short clips, long clips, solo episodes like this one, structured deep dives, rifts off the top of our heads. We messed around the same way we mess around with programming in the gym. We scaled, we swapped, and we found what works. And here we are at rep 56, and the lift looks completely different than it did at rep one. That's not magic, that's not luck, it's definitely not talent. That's showing up. Like I said earlier, we're well over 2,000 downloads, and that's not a small number. That's real people in real cars or on real walks in real workouts, listening to the stuff and using it. Think about what that actually means. Members who used

2,000 Downloads And A Library

Matt 4:17

episodes to understand the why behind what we program, friends and family who got to see Juggernaut and the community from the outside. Strangers who found us because we kept showing up long enough for the algorithm to notice. A reference library. Anyone in our community can now search RPE or goal setting or Olympic lifts and find an episode with the answer. That's the mission. That is exactly the education pillar we set out to serve. And the best part is this material doesn't go anywhere. Every episode lives on through our YouTube channel. You can go back to it anytime. We've got episodes on testing, on RPE, on pull-ups, on nutrition, on how we program and pull up stuff on Olympic lifts for the past four weeks. It's all there, it's all yours to find. But here's the part I really want you to hear. Every single one of those downloads happened because this podcast existed in the first place. Because we just showed up. There's a lesson in there for anyone who's listening who's been sitting on something. Maybe it's a business idea, maybe a creative project, a book you want to write, a goal you've been circling, a lift you keep scaling out of. You do not need to be good at it on day one. You just need to be willing to do the reps. Public reps, ugly reps, reps where you cringe at the playback, reps where you hear your own voice and you want to delete the file, or reps where you're sure nobody is listening, you do them anyways. And that's what 1% better every day actually looks like. It's not glamorous, it's not viral, it's it's one rep, then the next, then the next, and one day you look back and you've built something. You can do anything you want to do, you just have to start. That's the whole thing. So why are we ending season one? A few reasons. The first is that consistency without recalibration just becomes a grind. It's like insanity. Same principle as training. You don't program five months of max effort lifts without some sort of delo. The body breaks,

Why Season One Ends

Matt 6:22

the brain breaks, and the content suffers. And I want season two to be sharper, not just longer. The second is that I've learned things across these 56 episodes that I want to apply, not just stack on top of the existing format. I want to slow down, refine the approach, come back with something better. Here's what I can tell you about season two. We're coming back this fall. It's gonna be the same podcast, sharper focused, like I said, still audio only. Maybe a new intro track to mark the chapter change. I know that might break some hearts, but here's what's actually different. Season two is gonna lean harder into the people behind this community.

What Changes In Season Two

Matt 6:59

More interviews, members of Juggernaut sharing their real stories, people from the broader Lakes region community doing meaningful work, or our coaches breaking down things that they know. Less of me on the mic alone, more voices in the room. I want season two to feel like sitting in on conversations that change how you think. Real knowledge, real stories, just real humans. The kind of stuff that you can't get from script. But I want to address one thing directly to everyone who supported this show. I want to say thank you. A real thank you. You've helped me see what's possible with podcasting. You've encouraged me. Because we're going on a break, I'm turning the support feature off in the downtime during the seasons. It

Gratitude And Support Pause

Matt 7:42

just feels right on my end. I don't want to take support for the content I'm not actively producing. That's not how I want to run this. So when season two launches this fall, the support feature will come back and it'll be available if you want to re-enroll into it. We can start fresh together then. But in the meantime, in between there, we're going to turn it off. If we're not producing something in that downtime, it doesn't feel right. But if you've ever rated the show, left a review, sent a question, shared an episode with somebody, or sent me a message, or even told me that you listened on your commute, played an episode for your spouse or your team, you have no idea how much that meant. Every single one of those kept me going. Every one. So here's what I want you to leave with. A year ago, this podcast was an empty bar. Today, it's something real. Not because I'm talented, I'm far from it. Not because I had a head start, not because the gear was good, this is a $60 mic. Because I showed

Start Now Then Keep Showing Up

Matt 8:40

up week after week and I did the reps. None of it was perfect, all of it was in real time. You can do that with anything in your life. The thing you've been putting off, the lift you keep scaling out of, the goal you set out loud once, and then quietly let go of the business you've almost started. You don't need a perfect plan, you don't need the right gear, you don't need to feel ready, you just need to start, and then you need to keep showing up. That's it. I'll see you in the fall, and until next time, be well. Be unstoppable.