Forest Acres, Fitness & Finding Community in Columbia, SC with Jason Brunson

What’s it really like to live in Columbia, South Carolina and why do so many people end up staying?

In this episode of The Soda Citizen Podcast: Local Life in Columbia, SC, Brad Allen and Mary Lane Sloan sit down with Jason Brunson, owner and head coach of Arena Athletic Club, to talk about life in Forest Acres, building community, family life, fitness, and the everyday lifestyle that makes Columbia feel more like a big town than a big city. 

Jason shares his journey from small-town South Carolina to opening a successful fitness business in Columbia, what makes Arena Athletic Club different, and how the city has evolved over the years.

The conversation also dives into:

• Living in Forest Acres and Columbia neighborhoods
 • Family-friendly parks and local favorites
 • Columbia’s fitness and wellness culture
 • Why Columbia is easy to navigate and easy to love
 • Restaurants, green spaces, and community life
 • What Columbia may still be missing — and what makes it special today
 • Why so many people leave Columbia… and eventually come back 

Whether you're considering moving to Columbia, SC, already call the Midlands home, or simply love learning about the people shaping our community, this episode offers an honest local perspective on life in the Capital City.

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Transcript

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All right, y'all. Welcome back to the Soda Citizen podcast. It's very formal every time, Mary Lane. But we're going to talk about all things Columbia. Um, but first, we do have our uh community guide out. So if you look down the show notes or if you want to DM us and you're thinking about moving to Columbia, Sky would just put this thing. Or you already live here. True, true. We just put this awesome thing together that uh we'd love to send you. So make sure you do that and uh we'll get it to you. But right now we're gonna be talking with Jason Brunson, who's a good buddy of ours, and he's the owner and he calls himself the head coach uh at Arena Athletic Club, which doesn't look like it, but I'm a member of. And uh but Jason knows like everybody and he knows what's going on, so I think he'd be a good guest uh to do that. You know everybody. We do know everybody. He's like the Kevin Bacon of Columbia. Ooh. You gonna do that? No, no response. So yeah, let's start out, Jason. Um I know you're not from Columbia originally, but how did you Why are you here? Yeah, how'd you make your way to Columbia? And also, like you've got a business, like why start a business in Columbia? Yeah. Uh way to Columbia was the way out of Manning, South Carolina, I guess you'd say. Columbia was as close as I could get. Um but uh came over here to college, stayed. The the gym was never a thought. I was working in the you know, some of the local schools, and uh got to where I really didn't want to hear from parents anymore. I understood. I decided I was I'd flip a script and have them come pay me to hear me. Yeah. That's how the personal training started. Well, actually, I probably should have you start with that, like, because we know what your gym's like, but like w just kind of describe your gym, um, like what it's what it's about, how your your concept behind it, and like I mean, I don't want to do it injustice, so I figure I'll let you do it. Um, that's a good question. Uh, pretty much a lot of money in marketing, and we still haven't got it quite figured out, but so just save the money now. Yeah. And um I always tell people we're about a mile radius. We are not a kind of come as you are. We don't come as you are, we'll meet you there. We're not a huge weight loss gym. We're a lifestyle gym. Um there's something you want to get better at. There's something it could be getting out of the bed, it could be golf, it could be tennis, it could be hiking, it could be anything. Just want to make that a little bit better. But most of all, stay a little more pain-free, be able to exercise at a higher level than you would do on your own. Yeah. Um that's kind of the fitness routine. We are quick to tell people what we aren't. Yeah. And what we aren't is that we're not a huge weight loss. We are strengthened, and really what we're evolving to is like an anti-aging gym. Um, you're 40 and you're above, and move better, feel better and stronger. Yeah. It's funny because I got to your gym via Mary Lane. Because I remember I was in New York for actually a couple years, could be three years, four years ago now, and we're just feeling like shit. I was like, hey, what's that? What was that trainer you go to? And I had just come off knee surgery, and I remember like your phone call because I was in New York and you're like, How much weight you want to lose? Because I'm not gonna help you lose a whole lot. But you also helped me rehab my knee, and then you took me through a whole process of like core. Like I never thought about the core, but now that uh we've focused on core strength and mobilities, I'm getting older, like back and all that. And I see 20-year-olds in there and I see 70-year-olds in the gym, and you're right, they're all kind of focused on different things, but it kind of meshes. Yeah. So it all comes back down to a lifestyle. We want to be able to take your lifestyle up a little bit. And we're also not the you get the hardcore worker out of people like your former CrossFitters or your people who are you really into that. Now, don't sell yourself short. Because those intense workouts, I mean, one thing I always appreciated, I'm kind of in a phase of life where I'm lucky if I can do yoga in my own den right now, but one day I will be back in your gym. But one thing I really appreciated as a a working parent or just a parent is you don't waste any time. Like you can get in and out of your gym and get a really good workout in 30 minutes. Yeah. Yeah, I think if you were to watch the individuals from 5 a.m. to let's say 8 30 before drop-off parents get there. One of the things I think what we've turned into, what I've always done personally, just didn't know I was doing it, is we take the stress out of workout. Um we deal with a lot of individuals who own companies or they're in a high stress type of job occupation. And I think it's our job that they come in and don't think about working out and they're gone. So we they sh you should never have to think about your workout with us. Um and we should take that stressful part out of your day. And also we should make that as stress-free as possible before you get into the real stress. Yeah. Or come out of the stress. Um, we have doctors come in from being on call. Um, but usually high stress individuals, and we want to take that part of the stress out of the day. Yeah. Well, I like about it is one side is you and some other times of the day is other trainers, but like do one-on-one personal training, like working on certain stuff. But then you've got the, I'm gonna call it the class side, but that's probably not the right terminology, where you work through three different circuits within 45 minutes. And like Mary Lane, the one this morning, the last one, it it it did kick my eyes. I was gonna say, don't sell yourself short because some of those workouts are really tough. And we're in there with women and men, like it's not just like a meathead gym, but it's also not like, you know, we're not doing Pilates either. No offense, we're not gonna do Pilates. Maybe I think the what we've built for our what would traditionally be returned as, you know, group is a small group in our world. We have a very unique format where you can start five people every 15 minutes, and that allows us to be very flexible. To the, you know, and it all started when we got I got so swamped, I was by myself. I had one or two trainers helping me that were kind of becoming full-time. Carpool would always screw it up. Yeah, and that's obviously a big part of our morning. Um, then I would say finally said, if you're gonna come, come 15 minutes late. If you're gonna come early, come 15 minutes early and quit in the middle. And then I kind of built the the the three 15 minute sections around that thought. And then when we built the new building, every the whole building was laid out around that thought. So it's all I guess it's proprietary, um, but it's it's thought out, but there was also some RD that was going on as we were opening the building. Yeah. Well, I was like telling me he's got the who's who gym. Like you go in there and it's it's everybody, every walk of life. Well, actually, it's not every walk of life, it's usually high highly successful people in there. And I go 530, so it's a little bit different, I'm sure, than 830. But uh yeah, 530 is out, especially when it's 18 degrees out. But that was when the highly successful people went. Oh, oh, well, that's true too. It is. But all right, so gym aside, you opened up this gym because you used to be on Millwood and you had a couple other thoughts and locations that you were thinking about. So what's it what tell me about Forest Acres? People want to know about obviously if they're here, they want to know about your gym, so sell that. But also, how is it to have a business in Forest Acres? Have you liked it? What is what's what's the thing? Well, I s when I first started in the fitness, it was on Forest Acres. Oh, okay. As a personal trainer at what was Gold's in 08. Yeah. Um and I remember when I was going to move away from the gyms, there's two, like I was going to move my own. I didn't think I'd get off of Forest Acres. Yeah. I was like, I'm gonna lose so many clients just because I moved off of Forest Forest Drive. I didn't, and then I moved back to Forest Drive ten years later. I didn't then either. But there's a very fine line of like five lights. Yeah. Uh there's parts of Columbia that's five minutes away that I never see, personally. Like Rosewood's a whole different world. Um but Forest Acres in itself is a unique, you know, it's very, it's very tight. It's a it's part of a big town when you kind of look at Columbia. Columbia is not it's the biggest city I've ever lived in, but it's still not a huge city. It's a really big town. And I always think I was thinking about this just the other day about why are this PBL, these little leagues, so crazy. Like why we don't have time for that. Why are they so crazy? Like, why is it because it is different than some of the lot of little leagues and stuff I've seen around, but it's because we're a capital city, you have so many people come back to raise their families here. Right. So all of a sudden, all the dads that played against all the other dads, they're all in the same thing coming up. So it it I and then the moms are, you know, it's just whole tight-knit community. And I I started thinking about that's you're coaching against a dad, you played against it, could be your former friend, and all kinds of stuff. It kind of made sense because everybody still comes back to Columbia for the most part because it hasn't gotten you could still come and live in the same neighborhood that you grew up in. Yeah. Yeah. Where a lot of cities, especially capital cities, you can't do that. Yeah. Well, they say about forest acres, like you live here, you move away, but you're probably gonna come back. Like that's what I've heard a lot. You haven't heard that one? Yeah. Oh. I didn't make it up. That's a true thing. Oh, okay. I believe we should be able to do that. It's town apart. City apart. There you go. Yeah. Can we talk about how Arcadia Lake says they have seven lakes? I've never been able to count that many lakes in Arcadia Lakes. Well, let's talk about let's talk about the definition of a lake in the start. Right, yes. If you have to be big, it's not a lake. Columbia's, I mean, a bunch of big ponds. I live on a pond. They call it a laurel. Ponds in your front yard. I drove by the other day. Yeah. Yeah, that's bullshit. So back to Forest Acres. Go ahead. Well, I was gonna say, as somebody who lives in the area and somebody who is a business owner in the area, we get asked all the time when people are moving here, like, where should I go to eat? Like, where should I go to shop? Like, what should I do? So, since that's your neck of the woods, if somebody was crafting, I don't know, the perfect Saturday in Forest Acres, what would you tell them to do? I think Forest Acres isn't about that. I think it's just chilling. I think that you don't have to worry about for me, I got I would have a hard time answering your question. Okay. Because I don't even go to the grocery store. But if I want to get around on a Saturday, it's an easy get around. Yeah. And you're still right there in the city, you can go just outside of Forest Acres to get into all of it that you want to get into it. I do think I don't think I know Forest Acres is evolving, we're starting to get a lot more um, you know, the mall and stuff's coming up. We're starting to all the other stuff, things are getting developed. Well, let's make it bigger to just like Columbia, like on a Saturday. If you had friends coming to visit you in Columbia after a nice workout, where would you take them we would probably go to the Divine Street area or either maybe now Main Street area? You can walk both of those areas. Those are easy walkable. There's still grass places around. Um I'm in that transition phase where I want to answer your question, but I really don't know because my four-year-old dictates that. So do you take her in public? Yeah. Okay. We do. Um where are some of those family-friendly places you would take her? Usually in a wide open grass area so she can't disturb others. Have you been to Finley Park? Yes, Finley Park. Uh the park over here off of Trinum Road. Um Mays Park. Mays Park. Brand new. Uh-huh. Yeah. Well, it's been there, but they just redid it. Redid it. Yeah, it's beautiful. It's so many families there all the time. All the time. That's what I like about Forest Acres is the parks are are quiet parks. I mean, the kids are allowed, but like they don't allow like festivals and stuff like that. Like we've tried to do movie nights there and like can't do it. So like they put a Forest Acres puts a lot of time and energy into the parks. And there's probably five or six good ones in Forest Acres. They're redoing Citadel now. Are they? So yeah, I mean, they're doing a good job, but there you don't have to worry about a lot of craziness going on. If the four year old got hungry, where would you take her to eat? We will always find ourselves at like four or five restaurants, it seems like. Okay. Usually back streets. Yes. Um it's just it's good, it's consistent. Yep. They've got a nice outdoor area if the foyer needs to be a little bit more. If it's crowded, you might not find a parking spot, but you're not gonna park that far away. Yeah. You can walk to it, you don't have to worry about much. It's the zoo. Oh, zoo's easier than I thought it was gonna be. Yeah, I just thought the zoo, you know, you come over here, it's an hour to get here. I thought it was a full day thing. Yeah, I didn't realize you'd go to the zoo for two hours. Yeah, yeah. I mean you could spend the whole day there if you wanted to, but yeah. I always had this idea it was a full day thing. And then we went for two hours and it was fun. Yeah. Went back a couple times. Zoo is a big deal. Like you actually go and enjoy it. Yeah, the scene tickets aren't that expensive. Yeah. No, it's they've and it's it's really nice. Uh I'm always surprised at how nice it is. Yeah. You make your daughter one run wind sprints up the other side of the botanical garden, get her really kind of worn out. We will do whatever we gotta do. Uh her mother will have her account knock out five burpees in the heart. Run, touch the tree, whatever it takes. Whatever it takes. We will do what we gotta do. The zoo is perfect for four-year-olds. Perfect. Actually, airports. As soon as you get off the airplane, just let them go. Like we'd just have a run around. Maybe just our airport. You're one of those parents. Yeah. You see that back around that thing? See if you can beat it back around here. Right, right, right. Yeah. So you you used to live over in the Cottontown area, which I don't think we don't spend a lot of time talking about, but like that's obviously changed a whole lot. And that, I mean, what was that like? What part of what what part of not what part of town, but that part of town? Like, what was it like to live over there? What did you enjoy about it? Clearly, he didn't, he left. Well that we we redid that house. It was a 1920s house, and we redid it from stud out. Don't ever do that in the first year of your marriage, especially married to a project manager, man. I'm like, good Lord. Yeah. Yeah. And I think I'm a project manager. That was probably the worst part. Okay. Um that's when we thought everything that is there now would be there quicker, but the pandemic just pushed all that back. Uh like history and stuff. Yeah, we when we bought in Cottontown, the baseball stadium had just been put up. Gotcha. And we had just big visions, like walking there, which you can do now. Yeah. It was it's a really cool little place. Uh as we were, I still don't know how we ended up in the house we ended up. It was like a five-hour decision. It was. I don't know. I was just like, I was not sure. I forgot now. Talk about the one you're in now. Yeah. It was like a five-hour decision. Like, we were at Cotton Town, we were happy. Marilyn calls us. They called me. We were like, let's just go look. Let's go look. That's right. Yeah. Famous last words. We just hadn't even been in our house. We just argued over for a year for less than nine months. And we love where we're at now. We would have loved where we were there, but we absolutely um you've got a nice little treasure where you are. Yes. We hit everything kind of, it was all timing. When I walked in, we were about to walk into a house on the other side of that pond. Yeah. And Maryland got a message, and it was during the pandemic, strict rules, don't go in, we got offer. So we didn't. And she sent us a text message. I was really bummed out because we just did this, yeah, all this work to this house. And I was like, I can't, I'm not downgrading. Right. This is a brand new, basically a brand new house. And what I'm gonna have to move to from a price standpoint really isn't, I mean, it's almost downgraded in a way. And then quickly did the math in my head of like square footage. I hadn't even walked much through the past the stairwell. I said, I want this. I just in my head, I said, uh, $147 square foot. This we'll make this work. Yeah. And you have. And um, I think they had, I don't know, does I don't know if homes typically go on the market at 12, but it went on a at 12 on a Saturday. Not typical, and I realize I think those people were quite assholes, to be honest with you. They ruined my weekends. But um I just it just kind of happened. Because we were getting ready to be done for the day, and it hit, and I was like, hey. So we went to, so Kim and I, Mary Lane said, let me go put this contract in or something, some kind of realtor talk. Kimberly and I went to Bad Daddy's, had meal, drank some beers, and met her, and I saw it for about five minutes, and we put an offer in, and Mary Lane sent us cheers, emoji, and said, I said, damn, this is going faster than I expected. But it was at right at August of 2020, so it's kind of when things were really before I got it. And I had just enough knowledge to say go over asking a little bit. Yeah, it wasn't even much, I think it was like just like 10. Yeah. But I had enough knowledge to say, do that, or like I want to say they had four offers in four hours or something like that. Yeah, especially on that house. We actually went to a listing point in that house with another agent and we actually didn't get it. That's they listed someone else. But yeah, that was a good house. Yeah, you gotta see it now. Yeah, you don't want to. But yeah, so what surprised you about moving to Forest Acres? You started a family, like what what's the what's the good parts about it? To be right off the the main block of a capital city, right? We're in legislation, we're gonna have more traffic and all that kind of stuff. North Trinum, or on the side I live with Trinum, it is still very bankers' hours. 6 30 and after is to be as busy as it could possibly be, you know, during the day. It's families get home. Or if they're not they're at the parks or something, like in the ball fields or something, and then they get back to the house. Yeah. It's still very I think that's one of the things that surprised me the most was how like dead the road goes. Yeah. Especially Trentum, to be so busy. And uh in our little because we have so many trees and stuff, you have to really sit to try to hear the road, even yeah, even though it's up there's a big road, like three houses off. But it's it's still quiet. We live in the same area, and it if my office wasn't on Millwood, like, dude, I would never have to leave like a two-mile radius. Like, I'm kind of envious of you because like, yeah, you we've got the grocery store mechas right there, right? We've got the Trader Joe's and the Lowest Foods and the Public's and the Earth Fairs, and um we don't have to go anywhere. There's good restaurants. My wife and I went to date night on Monday. We went to Trentum Plaza. If I gotta get some new leggings, I go to Lululemon, right? I gotta get looking at it. You wear leggings for sure, girl. We're getting ready for spring break. No, I don't wear leggings. I got two girls that dance and they do. Okay, but all that to be said, like you don't have to leave. Doctors are right there, everything. I don't. It's like a nine degree, it's like nine degrees three times a day. Up to the light, down, like two miles three times a day. And um, not many same people go to work at 3:30 morning, but there's many, many times I don't ever see a car. Many times. Um, just and again, that's very odd to be right inside the capital city. And uh also sandwiched between one of the biggest bases and then SEC University. Yeah. And that when we're talking about marketing, that's one of the hardest things. We have so much transient traffic, it you get picked up by that the uh the basin. Um it's still a big town. It is. Um and like the I mean, even the police department, just from like when I go to the gym at 5 30, like I'll still see three cops just lined up down four strive. They're just hanging out with their light, like they have their lights on, they're just watching what's going on. Oh, that's true, too. But one of the things that you'll see at gyms, this is all over, is they know it like a not my gym so much, or not say uh people are gonna go in for an hour. Right. They're not gonna come out. So that's what the cops do. They actually do a really good job of just patrolling the parking lots thinking that people we're against the wooded lots and stuff. The the Forest Acres cops do a really good job of we don't have to ask them. Yeah, they know it's a because if I came out of one of your workouts, I would I wouldn't be able to offend anybody off. Like, I can't run, I can't lift anything. Here you go. You talking about the uh grocery stores. I'm always amazed at how like this isn't a knock on like bars or restaurants or anything. Like our Lowe's grocery store, it's got locals. Yeah, I'm always surprised at like how many people are there at the for trivia nights, and like that was it trips me out because like you drink a beer while going around there, and like I've had people ask me, like, hey, let's go get a beer. I'm like, cool, where do you want to go? Like, let's go to Lowe's Foods. I'm like, okay, like the beer den. I'm like, I don't know what that is. They like it. They like it. Uh no, the other thing I see a lot of I don't do it as much anymore. Me and a lot of other people at that time would always buy their meals that day. Never prepare. I always felt like I saw the same 100 people or whatever in the grocery store. In lunch. Just or no, just that night. Just picking up dinner. Yeah. Oh. You go home and be unprepared. Yep. I would have pegged you for a meal prepper, no? No. He preps breakfast. If I could bring coffee, that'd be great. My wife does it. All right, so being the the most popular guy in Forestakers, um, what do you feel like Forest Acres or even bigger, the city of Columbia, like what do you think like it's missing? What do you think like the big stuff is that would make life a little bit easier here in the whole capital city? I think it's probably there when it comes to like the variety restaurants. Yeah. Especially from the family aspect. But I I know there are some things already in the works that are coming. But like the the the the back streets or the home teams and it could be just us that we get so pigeonholed on the ones, but sure. The lack of I won't say lack again. We'll we're comfortable so we go where we're at, but the family feel kind of restaurants. It's not not Applebee. Whatever, whatever, just not like a franchise change. At some point. I didn't thought about that. Um but I do think that that's changing. But there's restaurants all over the place that main street and stuff that I never get to get to. Yeah. But overall, Columbia's got a little bit of everything that you want to find. I'm always amazed, like you'll see the Facebook why are they doing that shit? Yeah. Um Frisbee Golf or whatever that's called. I think it's called D they get offend they get offended. My brother in law does. It's called Disc golf. It's not frisbee golf. But if you want to piss 'em off, call it frisbee golf. I love that. Be sure to put your number in the show notes so people can All the hate mail to you. So if you could wave a magic wand, like if money wasn't an issue, and like any you could bring anything to Colombia. It could be professional sports, it could be a water park, it could be a grocery store. Like if you could bring anything to Columbia, what would you bring? We're gonna manifest it today. I wouldn't. You wouldn't bring anything. No one must have been. Maybe maybe just smoother roads, but I think it's gotten just uh just enough of everything that I want. Okay. It's again it's a big town. I couldn't live in a Charlotte. Yeah. I couldn't do that commute even even though Harborst is out there. But you can still get there pretty quickly. 20 minutes. Yeah. You can get to the lake pretty quickly, even though it feels like it's a long time. Yeah. You can get there in 30 minutes. Yeah, yeah. So you still have all the stuff here. I think it's got just a good touch of everything I need. And I can be needy. I'm just um there's enough, and you know the other parts are my wife and daughter go to the library a lot. A very interactive, like not the the one with Thomas Cooper in Forest Acres or the one down the room. The one in Forest Acres right now, but they've been to the other one. Um was telling me my wife, she's the woodworking, she's even said they have a huge woodworking shop there now, like with all up-to-date state-of-the-art equipment in the library. I'm gonna confess something. Uh oh. I've never been in that library. Oh Jesus. I've been for 25 years. You went for an ID? Uh passport. Oh, really? You can do that in the library? No. Is that connected to the connected to the uh post office? Post office is a big thing. No, it is not connected. I was like, I don't know. Do you mean somebody in the back of the library to get a passport? Yeah, we're gonna verify that. Because Kim said it was there, I believe it was there. Um, we're gonna have a field trip on the next episode of Citizen and go to the library. We actually should do that. I've never been there. It looks pretty. Yeah. You been there? Yeah. A lot? A lot. Not so much recently because my kids are not as little. But when I mean, you know, back in my day when you had to write a project, there was no internet. You had to go to the library and like read the books and like write the notes. That's true. Um, so I spent a lot of time there in high school. Um, and then when I had kids, you know, they've got a great kids. I mean, I still have kids, but when they were little, right? Um, you know, they take we'd go to the kids section because it's amazing. Yeah. So now they got the phones with the internet, they don't need the library. So speaking of like, I've been in the fitness industry with the youth side of things for now teenage on down for I don't know, close to 20 years. And one of the things we have here, when I'm in masterminds all over the country, and they're saying you got to get these families in nine months' deals, and there's none of that here. You can't do that in the southeast in particular. Our biggest competition is green grass. Yeah. And there's still plenty of green grass around us and fields around us to get to for kids to play at, where you know, colder weather climates are not, where in other places are or the uh gym owners from other parts of the US that were there, they're they can do that and get their clients on three months, six months, nine months with the kids because they don't have the green grass competition. Well, what a blessing that we've got green grass competition. Huh? That's a blessing, I think. No, I think no, I think that's what I was saying is like what you were thinking, it's so easy to get away from your house and just go to a green grass like green grass and go play. Go uh go play or do whatever. And we have these parks, but there's still plenty of things to just go do in the find grass and yeah. Have fun. Roll around in it. Roll around in it? Is that what you're gonna do? Cartwheels? Yes. Take them out of Finley Park. Although Finley Park has that really cool hill that you can like. Here's my idea. I got a business idea. We go buy cardboard and we sell it at the top of the hill. We can make a killing. They don't give cardboard away there, do they? I think so. They give it away there? I think they just have a stat. Well, people Yeah, I think it's free use. I think we should get like labeled. Fresh cardboard, yeah. No, a little group. Put a little survey in the show notes and you let us know how much you pay for cardboard. Uh-huh. Right. Um, all right, Jason. So if you didn't live in uh the Forest Acres area, you had to live somewhere in the Midlands area, where would you move to and why? I'd probably go back to Cottontown. Quiet. And it's still close, it's still connected. Yeah. You're not too far away from everything. I would like to say the lake, but that's the it's far. Not yet. Not yet. I I like to buy my houses where I don't have to go far. Yeah. No, I don't that's the that's the cool part about Columbia is you literally, it's pretty it's dense enough that you have enough stuff around you, but it's also sparse enough that you feel like you have a little bit of space. And I remember back in college, one of my uh sociology professors were saying, like, to be like a super efficient uh country, like we have to have like five times the size of the population. Almost like New York City, where you can walk down one block and get your dry cleaner, get your groceries, like that's when you get super efficient. But obviously that's not what we want here. But I think within a mile radius of most places, you can get everything you need in Columbia, but not feel like you have we're still a driving community, I guess. But it's just not that dense. Our walkability rating is not flooded. Yeah, for sure. It's hot. Oh, for sure. Yeah. Um but also if you needed the big city fix, we're not far. You can get to Charlotte and get to Greenville, you can get to Charleston, you get to Atlanta, all in a day, you know. So Yeah, you you're two hours, Columbia's two hours from literally. Everything the beach, the mountains, Charlotte, big city, four hours from Atlanta. The one wants to go there though. Yeah. Um the lady that runs the Vista Guild, Abby, she was saying that the Vista really needs a boutique gym. Yeah, she was. I know you love second gym locations. I've got a lot of people I can send her away. Okay. A lot of gym owners. She's looking. She said they need it. Building connections here. That's what we're doing. I'm all about helping young gym owners, so I'll help them out. Well, they need one in the Vista. And then if you can help me, I'm trying to go on a petition to get a pro football team here in Colombia. I just made that up on the last podcast, but we're going with it now. Okay. So if you don't know anybody, all right. So, last question. And it's it's gonna be one of those things that, you know, only people in Colombia know. So what do you wish people knew about Columbia if they were moving here? We get people that literally throw a dart on a board and go, I'm gonna move there. Or I've heard things about Columbia, never been here and they move. What do you hope those people would know? I think the once you're inside of Columbia, the the easy the easiness of it. Yeah. My family, my brother who and all of us who are on the countryside a couple hours so away, they like I think they see I feel like you can see Columbia kind of kind of when you're coming up on it. Yeah, true. And automatically it's like it's gonna be busy, the traffic's gonna be terrible. It's not, it's really easy. Yeah, once you get inside of Columbia. And it's not easy, hard to get into Columbia. Yeah, but the the Monday through Friday is very easy to access everything you want. And that's going out of your five-mile radius that you would have to go to. I think that's why it's the perfect size area for me. Uh it's big enough that we're not on a you know, elect center or whatever. Um but it's also not too big. Yeah. Especially inside of it. Yep. Have everything you want in your daily route. I always try and cut through. Even I'm going down to my house from like 26, I'll go through the city because like I don't get stuck on interstate. Like, I can still get there. It might take four minutes longer, but like I can still get there without getting stuck in traffic, especially if there's like a wreck or whatever. So all right, we're gonna put all your stuff for arena in the show notes and stuff like that so they can sign up and go get uh classes and whatever their uh skill level is. Obviously, there's there's something for everybody. But thanks for taking the time to do this. I know uh you you uh do a lot for the community, you have a lot of people that do stuff in the community. So thanks for taking time to do this and um making me a little bit scary. Not too much weight, just a little bit of weight. He's helping me take off. Yeah. Thank you all for having me. Yeah, thanks for being here.