So if I want to be a little nicer to Keith, I can just move that up a little bit there. Alright, we're only going to introduce your strength 20%. So when he could no longer get this line, his real-time force output, into the green zone as dictated by his strength today, we cut the workout. Okay, so you're going to see this spike, and you're going to see Keith competing against himself in real-time. So this is about 25%. We'll do two repetitions and then let's look like what you did, and go from there.  So you see his real-time workout output compared to what he's done previously. Two, one, hinge like you're dead lifting.  You see he creeps back into it because he's on the eccentric. His number's moving up higher and higher and higher right there. Lean back and forth. Fast, fast, fast.  He's running after. He's still in the green zone. Two and one right there. Lean back and do it. Spike right eccentric because you're going to go higher the second time because that's what it does for Keith. Just a little higher. There we go. Right there. One more full range rep. See he's having trouble getting back up into it. You can see that in real-time. Last negative. Hang on to it. Drag it up, Keith. Approach it. Approach it. Get to it. Get to it. And we'll talk. Good. So you can see you bring the camera back closer to whatever angle you need. He's peeking. He's peeking by the third rep. He barely creeped into that. So the fourth rep, if this was one of my clients, I'd call it because I know I wouldn't make it to the green zone again. Welcome to the 21 Convention Podcast. My name is Steve Maeda and I'm your host for today's episode. Today we got Mark Alexander. He is a fitness expert, an entrepreneur, a true visionary. And what's so important about this podcast is we combine them all. And it truly represents what the 21 Convention is all about, being the ideal man and expressing it to the world. Now, Mark founded a fishing exercise which started out in Austin, Texas and has since spread throughout. But you may have heard of that because Keith Norris and Skylar Tanner are also rooted out of there. They're 21 Convention speaker alumni at multiple conventions. Now Mark also is the CEO of something that we get into in great depth in this podcast, which is ARX Fit. It's an amazing tool for man working out, getting more muscle and getting more bang for your buck. And we will get very, very deep into that piece of technology. Now, if this is your first time checking out what we got going on at the 21 Convention, subscribe to our channels, whether you're listening to this on iTunes, whether you're watching this on YouTube, leave a comment, subscribe, get involved with what we're doing. We love to hear about you. We personally get back to every single comment that's put out there. And of course, if you want to take it a step further, go to the21convention.com and see what we've got going on there. Hey, here we are with Mark Alexander. What is going on, man? I'm doing all right. How about you, Steve? Doing fabulous. We're both actually in Austin, Texas, which is very cool, the epicenter of everything, which is like making life change. But what we want to talk about are a couple of things. Now, number one, as we had conversations about a little bit earlier, you founded a company called Efficient Exercise in Austin, where I have worked out at and is amazing. Skyler, we've interviewed. Keith obviously is a big part of the convention. But also ARX Fit, which if people do not know about, man, they need to know about. In fact, God, I've been thinking about since just a few days ago, we were at one of Mark's facilities. And that machine is phenomenal. And there's only been amazing improvements since. But also, you're a part of the Paleo FX as well. Correct. So, man, what's the best definition and introduction that you could give yourself? Because you have so many things. Yeah. Well, I mean, I like to have a lot going on. I kind of, you know, people ask me what I do. I guess I usually say a health and wellness entrepreneur, because I like to get things up and going, get the right people in place, right teams in place, and then kind of get the hell out of the way. There are times when I recognize that, yeah, maybe I could be doing this or that, but I've tried to, and not perfectly by any means, but tried to be aware enough of when I'm needed and when I'm not. And you brought up Efficient Exercise. I founded that February of 2001. So almost, well, probably by the time this air is 14 years ago, which sounds kind of wild in some ways. But, you know, of course, it was just me and starting it out. And now I've got a great team. You mentioned Skyler Tanner, another 21 convention speaker, Keith Norris. They're both business partners in Efficient Exercise with me now. And they really run the show a lot more than I do. I mean, of course, we're there and, you know, we keep things moving forward and I kind of monitor growth and things. But, you know, they're really the dudes, if you will, in that business, much more than me. I'm way more behind the scenes in that business. And then, you know, selfishly, it kind of always being an efficiency fanatic. I thought, well, surely there are better tools for the job in that particular business. And so, through each old friends and Skyler being one of them, I was able to connect with an inventor, Randy Renfleisch. And Randy and I have been working on what is the technology known as ARX, or Adaptive Resistance Exercise, for a good handful of years now. And, yeah, just now we were at the state where we're about ready to launch it into a production mode. So we've been kind of making it, doing beta testing, do a lot of research and development over these last five years. And we're at a great place right now to where, yeah, I've got a few more gray hairs right now, but it's well worth it because I think this tool is phenomenal. And it will, you know, once people experience it and understand it and get their hands on it, they really understand it and help a lot more. Man, I got to actually this, I got to get to some entrepreneurship questions for you. I wasn't even thinking about asking, but so many guys that are into the 21 convention and such a huge part of it is business. I mean, if we're going to have independence, if we're going to be the best version of ourselves, you have tremendous experience in this in very different ways. But, man, let's start off about fitness stuff because, you know, it's something that's really been on my mind a lot. When I, the first time I ever set foot in an efficient exercise, it was a smaller area and, you know, Keith was there, you were there, Anthony Johnson was actually working out. And, you know, I actually had maybe just started working out from the age 16 to 30, you know, nothing, just nothing and a whole lot of abuse that went in there too. But, you know, I saw him work out and he nearly passed out.  All he did was, I think maybe a leg, yeah, it was a leg press because he said his legs were sore for like a week and some pull-ups and maybe, you know, something else. Some kind of press, I think, I don't remember exactly, but yeah, it was very simple though. And it was the one of the earlier versions of the ARX machines and I was like, oh my God, I got to check this out. And I think within nine months, I was working out with you guys and with your team. And, you know, I've never felt that strong. I could say a lot about the ARX.  That all being said, man, what is health to you? This pursuit that you've been going after, trying to perfect in an efficient way, built a business that's, you know, gone 14 years at excellence. And when I talk about excellence, I mean, world-world class, what is this thing that we're going for? What is health? Yeah, well, I think it has to be sustainable. That's probably one of the first things that comes to mind. So, you know, we heard for, are we always here, is, well, I don't have time to work out. I don't have time to exercise. Well, no, we've taken that excuse off the table now. We've condensed and truncated what you need from exercise for health. And let's get that right. It's for health.  And whatever it is your pursuit is, you have to do that. But the nuts and bolts of the exercise and the proper resistance training is fairly simple. A lot of gurus want to tell you, it's got to be this and this. You've got to split the routine. You know, it's like, well, that can work. But we've tried to really keep it simple and keep it sustainable. And if you really don't do that, it's not going to last very long. And so our big tenants with efficient exercise and with ARX as well is safe, effective and efficient. We've got to always meet those. We give our trainers some liberty under what they might do for a particular client's goals. But at the end of the day, we want it to always be safe, effective and efficient. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then, man, what makes it different? Because there's so many different, you know, I mean, I've worked out that I can vouch for it. And I know people that have worked out with you guys and gotten very specific results. But what makes your model different?   What makes you guys so unique? Because there's tons of people giving you fitness advice that, you know, it's sold as unique. Yeah, well, I think it's kind of a team player approach, setting egos aside, learning from each other, and leveraging high quality talent. I mean, I think that we have a lot of high quality talent on the team. And people that are, you know, there are a lot of people that they can own their own health and fitness journey pretty well, but they're not good teachers. And we don't want those people. We want people that not only walk the walk themselves and own their own health, but then can convey that to other people. So that's a big quality we look for. Sometimes, even at the expense of experience, we take people on because we see that willingness. We see that, you know, drive, if you will. Hey, maybe they haven't trained a day in their life. Sometimes we still take them on and then empower them with the right tools. So ARX is kind of the cornerstone, if you will, of a lot of our programming. And because it allows a person, really, it doesn't matter so much. It does, but it limits, I guess, the impact of experience, if you will, in terms of the practitioner side, the trainer side, you can deliver a high-quality workout without, you know, it's literally the push of a button, but it's a little more than that, but again, it's not much more than that. So the Software Helps Guide keeps everybody accountable, shows the progress, and again, it is kind of quite literally pushing buttons to make sure that everything's going properly. Man, and to speak on behalf of the ARX, from my understanding, because it's very hard for people to, I mean, it's easy to, it's very simple, but for people to realize the benefits of this, I worked out on it, I believe, and man, maybe in 2010 or 11. Probably so, yeah. And it was pretty unreal. So what this does is it can do all sorts of different exercises, squats, well, leg presses, you know, like a chest press, a flat pull down, you know, many different movements, and I think now they're even a wider range of that, but it has a positive and negative, and currently you can control the speed of that, and I believe you could when I worked out on it, but it goes at one pace. Yeah, yeah, so I mean, if you want me to describe it, and again, you're right, it does take a little bit of doing sometimes to properly describe it, but it is this man versus machine phenomenon. We know the machine is going to win, but we can manipulate those variables and see on the software that, you know, hey, we can see exactly what is going on during that set at any given time, even really down to microseconds. So the adaptive nature of it is that there's a motor, computer-controlled motorized resistance that's dictating, you know, kind of the show there, if you will, and the performance of the set is displayed and stored in the software. So in other words, yes, the speed is, it's not technically the same all the time because we purposely program slower and smoother starts and stops so there's no jerking of the loading. And so that's by design. It's also by design that we've designed the machines around large compound exercises. So leg press, squats, deadlifts, pull-downs, various angles of pressing. In other words, you don't have to do a whole lot of exercises if you do the big compound movers. And so I know a lot of listeners probably know Body by Science and Doug McGuff is kind of big five. So there's some similarities, if you will, to that in that, you know, besides maybe the exception of we like to add a hinge movement, like a deadlifting type of movement, there's really not a whole lot of difference in terms of what our exercise prescription is versus say like a big five type of routine. And then again, the motor is going to win, the machine is going to win, but we can go at all-out effort, 100% effort at all times if we want. That's what we like to show people. And what it also does is it takes advantage of the fact if you draw out a strength curve. Again, I'll try to back up here. And as we're lowering a weight, like a barbell bench press, we can handle more force or exert more force than we can when we're trying to lift it off our chest. And again, I'll just use that example as a common one that a lot of people know. So in a gravity-based system, we have to select a weight that we can continue to get out of the sticking point or the weakest link, if you will, in that exercise, and that's a linear progression. So let's say that's 135 pounds. And if we were to select that, even though maybe we could have lowered 250 pounds, well, we didn't get to take advantage of that because you don't have these little elves running around trying to shed plates and then throw them back on and you just can't do it. You can get closer with something like a chain or a band or a nautilus cam, for example. All those are great ways to get towards that angle, but then it doesn't take an account limb lengths. It doesn't take an account individuality, fatigue, rate of fatigue. So a lot of host of factors that we're capitalizing on the fact that it is truly adaptive as the set goes on and it doesn't matter who it is. So somebody like Keith, who a lot of people might know, I mean, for a calc of a guy, he can sit down and then, you know, his mom could sit down quite literally and there would be no setting changes. It's going to adapt to Keith or his mom or whoever else gets on and you don't have to make any setting changes, which is pretty cool from a client density, as we call it, you know, getting more people in per hour, if you will. You don't have to slow people through so quickly because you don't have to do a whole lot of setup, you know, get on, go. Yeah, and actually, let me tell you about my first experience working out at a fish and exercise. Same thing happened to me.  But, you know, it took my body to get used to working out in that way. Let me actually tell you about the benefits that I have because this is kind of the most important thing that I think with ARX that is so key.   And I was stuck in a position and, you know, I'd been in this position many other times and I pressed and it was, I don't know how long, but maybe it was 10 seconds, you know, which is a long time of exerting your muscles. And I just remember I had full strength and throughout the entire, you know, press of my arm, nothing has done that for me, nothing ever. I've worked out with plenty of amazing guys that I could say great things that are unique in their awesome ways, you know, doing, you know, like working on the negatives, going slower, adding weight on the negatives, using chains, anything like that. Nothing compares to that enduring constant, you know, it's not just, it's actually breathing, you know, while exerting my full force and well, maybe not my full force, but my body was used to it. Managing that sort of workload and strength. I've never felt anything like that, that has replicated, man, that's come close to it. So that is extremely unique. And the other thing is, man, I actually forget the sets and the, you know, different workout that I did, but man, it was like 20 minutes. And I think I would do maybe five, at most five reps of whatever I was doing. And after the third one, I was dead. I mean, after the third one, it was like, it was just going through the motions if there was anything after that. Well, and even our experience has shown kind of what we like to prescribe, if you will, insets and in-rep schemes on ARX. And you know, you say 2010, 2011, I mean, we've had a few years under our belt to kind of know what works well. And so we've even been able to grow and kind of experience, well, maybe that's too much. Okay, now maybe we back it up or maybe we do two shorter sets and go chase and another cool thing about software is if you do a first set, you could go into a second set and try to beat yourself, either that being the same day or a subsequent workout. Yeah, yeah. And when I was working out on the machines, it didn't have that awesome graph. There was something else that you could watch, but it's also very hard to concentrate when you are, I mean, guys, if you do not like the amount of force you're doing because like, like you said, if I'm, you know, have a 70 pound dumbbell and I'm doing a press on it, I'm going to stress myself, but there's probably somewhere in that motion where I could take 100 pounds or 120 pounds. So on this machine, you will be doing that. You know, it's like, and you could actually see where you're doing that. It's hard for me to watch in real time because it's so insane, but afterwards you can look at it. Matt, what are some of the results that you get for people because you have a wide range of clientele, you know, from people just trying to get in shape, getting back in shape to athletes. Yeah. What are those results? Yeah, well, and I'll just back up real quickly just so you kind of know our audience, if you will, and know who we serve primarily. I mean, there are some athletes that we serve and athletes are great. You say jump, they say hi, and they're a great population to work with, but they don't always pay the bills. And I know a lot of trainers don't like to hear that. So we really aim to serve, I guess, more of the 80-20 rule or more of the masses, people that don't have time, people that are busy. Usually it's a working professional or a mom or whatever it be. And our demographics usually about 35 to 55. Of course we have outliers, but just kind of the working professional, if you will. And so with that crowd, what we see is that people get phenomenally stronger, no doubt. And then again, you know, as much as I love exercise and love, you know, what it does for you, if you don't have a clean diet, you're not going to probably have the results that you want to see. A lot of people and probably these listeners, you know, you want to get ripped, you want to get strong. Well, a lot of the, you know, the ads are made in the kitchen, not in the gym, you know. So you've got to do your work. And it's not even work. It's just living a lifestyle again, kind of going back to sustainability. You've got to find what works. I mean, you can go through peaks and valleys as long as you, with your strength, with your health, or directionally always trying to go up and to the right. Kind of like the stock market. Just try to follow that trend. You're going to have ups and downs. Everybody does. But, you know, as long as you can manage those falling off the cliffs, you can keep climbing back up. So, man, that's interesting because when I worked out with you guys and whatever it was 2011, I believe it was then, you know, I was working out a lot. I mean, a lot.   And I guess it depends on your body type and all sorts of different factors. But I was doing a lot of stuff on top of that. And when I dexascanned myself, which was a little bit later, I think I was no longer with you guys. And part of the reason for that was, like, I had a massive travel schedule and, you know, life comes up and all that sort of stuff. But when I dexascanned myself, I was 22% body fat. Now, I was in shape. I mean, I was in shape by any means that you would measure fitness and what I could do. But still, you know, all that fat. And I did a podcast with Keith, talked to me into going full bore paleo. I was probably going like 80, 20, or 70, or 30. To me, that's not enough.  And for you guys, if you're measuring with calipers, you might be going 22%. That's huge. If you're going dexascanned, it's a little bit different of a, just stay consistent with whatever you're measuring on. But dexascanned is very, very accurate. You know, there's arguably one other measurement that might be a little bit more. But it is. Yeah. I mean, it's become the gold standard and kind of academia and research. And I'd definitely say if you have access to a dexascan, oftentimes, well, there are businesses now that are based around dexascans. Yeah. But a lot of times, at least I see it, is that universities offer it for some type of fee. So I would just say and encourage listeners that that is the gold standard. If you have access to one, if you're in a college town, university town, you probably have access to one. You just need to check it out. And yeah, just be consistent with it because it's a little bit of a humbler because there's a lot of visceral fat and other things that calipers do not pick up. Dexascan picks up everything. And so you're usually higher on a dexascan than you are on some of the other methods. And I think, you know, I got down to about 14% and that was ripped, man. Yeah. In my mind, shredded. 14% on a dexascan. Yeah, it's like a 7% on a, you know, a caliper kind of reading area. I mean, it's, yeah, it's, yeah, it's ripped. Yeah. But okay, so this brings us back to something else and like I'm trying to wrap my head around this. I talked to you guys a little bit about it, but I am really infatuated and I think this is a big part of the 21 convention, getting back to what we are made to be, what we were born to be. Yeah.  You know, it's just these crazy minds of people that are driving forward. What is, you know, how does that fit into what you guys are doing? Because yeah, you're running a business. You have all this awesome efficiency, this high technology, but I think for you, the standard is a little bit beyond that. When I bring up, you know, born to be in what your body's meant to be and born to be healthy, what does that mean? What is our natural state of health? Yeah. Well, I think unfortunately we're far from it. If you say what we're born to be, you can look back at a great book called Manthropology. It's M-A-N, you know, we can see that, I mean, and I'm just saying this as, again, the Dexascan is a humbler. We're probably as strong as some females back then.  You know, it's just, we have kind of digressed, if you will, in our health and especially our strength. And that's unfortunate. Now we can, you know, even if we're dealt a bad genetic hand, we can reverse some of that. So don't get discouraged. I just want to, you know, kind of give perspective that you said, are we close to where we're born to be? And I think the answer there is no, but we can make strides, you know, back towards it.  Our whiteboard sessions that we have every Monday are just a lot of fun. And it does look like a beautiful mind in our war room, if you will, sometimes where we just have all sorts of ideas.  But then we also like to come back to the science and the research and say, well, does that work? And we have a great balance in chemistry right now. And I'm just, you know, I'm thankful that we've got that going. And, you know, something like payload effects, for example, is a great opportunity for people to check out, what is this ancestral idea, this ancestral lifestyle? It's not literally going back to the cave and the spear. Although, you know, there's some goodness, if you will, to being out in nature and things like that. But it's checking out, what are the practical steps, if you want to get back to what you're saying born to be? What are some practical steps, kind of where the rubber meets the road of trying to get back there? And it basically relates to kind of a nutrient dense whole foods diet. Some call it paleo, but again, there's even derivatives of that. I don't like to get stuck in the minutia. And then also, you know, some type of exertion that relates to resistance training. And again, if you have the right tools or great tools, perfect. But you can still do it with body weight and with other lesser means and lower tech tools, if that's all you have access to. Yeah, man. I mean, it's interesting, you brought up that, let's say females, man, over 10,000 years ago, that were growing up in kind of a tribal culture or society or even tribal cultures now, that their strength capacity is more than, would you say the average man or even guys who work out in the gym? Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I'd have to go back and look at some of the, that book as I referenced, but I think that an average female then is stronger than an average man now. I will definitely say that. Yeah. It's a low average. But you know, that's interesting because like, you know, I think with a lot of stuff with paleo and a lot of stuff with, you know, as we're getting into this and even in your niche of efficient exercise, we get so caught up in the efficiency and we don't get back into what it was really meant to do. So I see a lot of guys in the exercise or fitness industry, it's almost like we're getting so efficient that we miss the point and, you know, we almost get obsessive with like all this sort of stuff and we, you know, get more stressed out. Yeah, yeah. You know, I haven't heard you talk too much, but man, when I hear Skyler and Keith and, you know, really what's coming out of stuff, the paleo effects and everything really coming out of your camp, it's all sharing this message that we have to be like entirely, you know, healthy in a way. And I remember asking Keith years ago, years ago, I mean, at least three years ago, you know, what is, what is stress? He's like, man, the body, you know, from what we know now, you know, give real humble answers like from what we know now, we believe that stress is anything that is stress.  And when your nervous system is thrown off, you're not thinking the same. Your speed isn't the same. Everything about you is taken down to a different expression, I guess you could say. And that's where a lot of us are functioning on, which is a bummer. Yeah, yeah. Well, yeah, I mean, anything, exercise is a stress in and of itself. Right. It's a stress that, if done properly, produces a better result. But nonetheless, it's a stressor to the body and a lot of people don't like to think about that. Now, conversely, you're absolutely right. There's some kind of, you know, high-intensity training advocates, which nuts and bolts of high-intensity training has great premises. It's directionally accurate. Don't get me wrong. But there are people that will take that to the extreme, just like a paleo diet. For example, they can take that to an extreme, where, you know, it's not about working out for 10 minutes a week in the right way.  You should be doing some other things.  And again, what this type of workout has done for me personally is, you know, it's allowed me to be an entrepreneur. It's allowed me to be a family man. It's allowed me to do so many more things, because I mean, I just have to be honest. I don't love the weight room like I used to. And that's okay. I mean, I still, obviously, I'm very invested in it and invested into developing the right tools. But it just doesn't quite do it for me, you know, if you will, like I used to. That's totally okay. But I'm excited, if you will, by other things. And so I think we have to discover that. And to me, the exercise done properly is this kind of springboard, if you will, and the lifestyle of kind of like a paleo-ancestral diet lifestyle.  It gives you more energy, more strength, more endurance, kind of everything, really. If you're doing it, it's going to propel you, if you will, to be a better man, a better person. And actually, I mean, I'll say for myself, really in 2012, the conclusion that I came to was before then, you know, God, I can't do the math in 37 now. So three years ago, I was 34, right? So from 30 to 34, I was working out, trying to do everything, you know, doing whatever. It started out with like the Bill Phillips book. And you know, for the time, that was awesome.  And actually now I love looking at him because he was such a great marketer for that book. I mean, Jesus. My God, you look at that thing, it's like the best copyrighting ever. But man, you know, and that helped me out. And then there were other different things, doing like, plyometric stuff, doing running, whatever, and just trying to find my niche within it. And as soon as I switched the diet, you know, and you think better, and there's so much that I could talk about my experience with that. But the main thing was, was that I no longer had to chase an image of health. It wasn't really about like my body. It was kind of accepting. It was like, well, I'm this and this is really how I think I'm supposed to be. So let's try and maintain that and use that as a little bit. Yeah, and you mentioned marketing and that just kind of sparked something in me. It always does. Yeah, yeah, it's always, you know, it's unfortunate. I'm not sure there are many other industries other than the world of fitness. And you can probably come up with some examples, but that marketing is so powerful. In other words, it can be away from the science. It can be away from what actually works over, you know, again, in a sustainable way. But it's so powerful that people, you know, pick up on it and that's what they do. And the fitness world almost like no other has these trends. And it just cycles through, cycles through. And if you've been around long enough, you quickly see there's nothing new under the sun. It's like, this is just another version of what came out in 1989.  And so that's one of the struggles that we have is, you know, you know, I don't think anyone on our team is naturally like a good marketer. So, you know, things like this do help though, to just kind of get the message out and hopefully spread a good, you know, a good word of, hey, you know, check out what is going on because, you know, I think it's a different enough approach where, where again, I know some of the listeners probably already somewhat adopt a high intensity training lifestyle and a paleo lifestyle because Anthony's been kind of, you know, sending that message out for a while now. But, but I, but I think that unfortunately we're still, especially in the health and fitness world just smashed by all these like awful trends, awful gadgets and people still believe that crap, which just baffles me sometimes. Well, you know, I think what's interesting or the probably one of the coolest things is what I've seen with you guys because like I said, the first time I saw was in 2009 or 2012. And you know, just seeing the company grow, seeing the skill set grow, man, you've always had great trainers around you, but man, it's just, it's more and it's more obvious. So it's weird, you know, to measure yourself by the outside world and any industry that can get exploited much like health and fitness, you know, into have a progression is, is really that natural flow. And man, that's the other thing too, is like when we, you know, hey, maybe we should talk about the entrepreneurship because what has kept you, when did that bug get set off in you?  No, no, yeah. And again, don't get me wrong. I'm a pretty laid back guy and it's hard to really see me, you know, fluctuate emotions very much.  I grew up with string training literally all around me. My dad and I had a, you know, kind of worked together and we got a lot of help. But we had a garage, I shouldn't say garage, it was actually a physical wood structure, like a barn that we converted into a gym when I was growing up. So that was my playground quite literally. And that was the first, if you want to call it zen like moment, but like I'm slightly introverted, you know, I'm kind of right in the middle between introvert extrovert, but what energizes you as an introvert is being alone. And that time in the gym and my formative years of growing up in the backyard gym is really what just kind of did it for me. I'm like, wow, this is, there's something special here.  But it really didn't even matter. Like it didn't matter about a blue ribbon or whatever. It was just that time really was special. And so, you know, then there was a lot of me that just was like, well, yeah, athletes do this all the time, but like, can the normal guy do this? Can the normal person do this? So there was that fuel of like, how do you bring this to just kind of regular guy? And so, you know, I went to University of Texas. I've been here in Austin ever since. It's a hard place to leave. You probably can vouch for that. And add many years of debauchery and, you know, a lot of fun here.  And looking back, a lot of it was actually business skill development. In 97, they took a big turn towards let's make this a business. They trademarked their logo at UT. They did a lot of things that are very business oriented, which looking back was great experience for me, just kind of being around some of that. And what was frustrating was seeing what was going on in the weight room. I just, I was a little frustrated. I don't have to, you know, go into great detail, but I just knew that, you know, working for athletes or with athletes is fun in some ways, but it wasn't fulfilling. And I think the fulfillment didn't come because one, I have that kind of entrepreneurial bug, if you will, and a university is a bureaucratic environment, which I can't stand. And then two, the people that you're serving, if you will, I don't know, maybe they're just not appreciative enough of kind of what their genetic hand is in life.  Sure. And that's okay. But it's like the people that don't have a great genetic hand or might have some kind of debilitation or something along those lines, those people are really fun to work with. And we work with, I mean, I think it's 75 to 80% of the people that come into Efficient Exercise have something, as we call it, some level of brokenness, rotator cuff, knee, back, hip, whatever it is. They have something going on. So in Austin, that is one of the ways we're kind of known is, hey, we can work around kind of whatever your issue is. So I think going into the entrepreneurial side is I knew I couldn't stand, you know, being in a bureaucracy, if you will, and being in that type of everything takes forever to make change. So I started, looking back, I'm kind of laughing at myself. I was basically using the UT facilities in an illegal way. I'll say that now. I was training people in the facilities that weren't a part of the UT system. So anyway, put it out there. Come get me. But I was doing that and realized this is more what I wanted to do. I wanted to help people that were outside of the athletics sphere, if you will. And so, started up my first place in Northwest Austin. And I still live right around it. But anyway, it was very small, very humble beginnings, if you will. And like you said, none of our places are that giant. It's not, think big box gym, and it's kind of antithesis of that. We're way, way different than that. We're much smaller. We're, you know, trying to make it a more personal approach. And that was one of the fires for starting the way that we did is, I felt like there's so many people that probably hate the gym. Well, why not come see a business like us? So, yeah. Well, you know, that was the, man, gosh, Anthony will kill me, but the guy that started Nautilus, his whole approach. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.  And he was like, no, man, we could have machines that are safe, that anybody can do in an air conditioned environment so that everybody could have health. But you guys are taking it a step further. And I think that's interesting because in your business model, you're kind of like a boutique of. Yeah. I guess you will. I mean, Arthur Jones was definitely an influence in my world as well. And just a real quick backtracking. My father, who is an internist, went to school with Ellington Darden. They were high school classmates. And so. That guy's a personality. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So he was one of Arthur's right-hand men, you know, Jim Flanagan, there were several of them. So I kind of knew about all that stuff, but I was in a smaller town in Texas and there was not an Nautilus gym. One finally did come and my eyes were wide open. I was like, wow. So this is what I've been hearing about. This is kind of the experience, if you will. So that definitely played into my formative years. I went from backyard gym to that. I think they, again, business owners and gym owners oftentimes are dunces when it comes to business, but I think it failed at some point. And so then we had to, I had to scrap around for where I was going to work out after that. But no, I mean, you hit the nail on the head with some guy that saw something and did something right in many ways. You know, he was directionally accurate. Again, I'll say that. I mean, now we know some of the research and some of the things that he was speculating might not have been entirely correct, but that's okay. For his time, he was definitely an innovator. And really, since that time, I haven't seen a whole hell of a lot come out that's very innovative in our world. Yeah, yeah. And so you guys, I mean, one of your business models for efficient exercise was to make, I mean, it has this feel that it is very clinical, extremely personal and very high tech. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I think the clinical, I mean, we want to be clinical, but not come off so stark, if you will. Right. Yeah. Like Ken Hutchins really drove home, you know, kind of this clinical approach to exercise. And I was super so certified back when. And again, I always try to see the good in a lot of systems, a lot of people, whatever. And there was some good in that. I mean, he was a systematic guy, maybe to a fault in some ways, but he still drove home. A lot of these kind of exercise is medicine type of principles that we still try to implement, but yet we don't have to do it in a white lab code under fluorescence.   And that's one of the ways that we've thrived as well. I feel like our people are good.  And if you can't talk to people, you're probably not going to have much success as an efficient exercise trainer. So, yeah. Man, this is a, you know, when I went to the last 21 convention that was in 2014. Yeah. A lot of the guys there, this was a huge thing. We're focusing on business, how to set it up, how to structure it. And you have found progressive people.  I mean, PaleoFX is on the map of, I mean, it's just such a huge event. Yeah, which quick plug. I mean, definitely check it out, paleofex.com and look at the event in April in Austin. It's so worth it. It's, again, it's one of those things until you experience it, you don't really know kind of how great it is. Right. Yeah. Sorry for interjecting. How is it that you found such great people? Because, man, I mean, that is just, that makes your job so much easier. Oh, yeah. An entrepreneur that's extremely different. Yeah. I mean, I can kind of go back to key people in the business sphere that I've found. Skyler, I had done an internship when I was at the University of Texas when I decided to finally get my act together and finish up. After withdrawing for a bit and getting back into school, I was out in the Scottsdale area and Skyler was a high school student out there at that time. And, and so when Skyler was out there, I don't remember exactly how it went, but it was, he was like the youngest super slow certified trainer at the time. I think he was 17. He'd probably be able to correct me. I don't know. Maybe he was a senior. I can't remember. But I was like, hey, man, just take me through a workout. And I knew like, hey, this kid has something. Like, like I just saw it right then. I was like, hey, you know, I'll take a mental note of that. And I knew I was going to be starting a business and everything. And so, so I, at some point reached back out to him and was like, hey, man, do you want a job? I'm opening up a new place. It's got your name on it. And he visited Austin and kind of the rest was history there. So he's been with me, I think coming up on 11 years now. So it's, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then with Keith, there was another manager that I had at the time. And it was one of those, I get the rug pulled out from under you experiences, but one of those like silver lining was way better than, than I would have expected getting Keith cause he was looking to move back to central Texas to get out of corporate pharmaceutical world, which, you know, I don't know if you know much about his story, but kind of went into that thinking he was going to help people and realized, oh, this is not the path to help people. And so it just, it was just a timing thing that Skyler was the connector there. And I was talking to Keith through online stuff. And said, you know, look, I just lost a manager. You'd be a perfect fit. You want to come down and check it out. He did and he's, he's been here ever since. So really, I mean, there are some, I don't know if you want to just say just kind of serendipitous, if you will, to, to having people that become at the right time.  And recognize kind of the flow, whatever you want to call it of, why is this person in my life? Why is that per, you know, and try to, try to always kind of ask those questions. Like, well, it's not like every person you meet. And in my opinion, it's going to be the next person to work together or partner up with. But again, you know, there's, there's just kind of these, these things that happen that sometimes if you're open to it, you can realize, well, maybe that should be pursued or maybe that should be pursued. So, and again, I don't know if that's taught as much as experienced, if you will. I mean, you can tell people that, but then you have to go out and kind of experience it and kind of integrate it yourself. So, man, you know, I think what's unique about your take on this is that you've cultivated, not just two, but multiple like really excellent, you know, guys who help out in your business, but also they've progressed to do their own things and you've let that. Whereas most businesses will then brand that and try and own it and only intellectual property. So, where does that come from? Was that learned or is that just an ideal that you? Yeah. I mean, yeah, I mean, that's a good question. I mean, I think in a lot of ways, like I said, I do try to see the good in people. And, and, you know, I've learned the hard way in other times with other people around me that like, you know, I've been burned, been burned a lot of times. And that's, that's probably from me trying to see the good in people and then I get taken advantage of. And so, I've also learned that I do need some people around me sometimes to kind of protect that. One of them just being, hey, I've got an attorney sister. So she, she helps kind of set some boundaries for me and is always trying to keep up with the next thing that I've got going on. So, but, but again, it's not like, you know, by any cost, I want to avoid legal stuff. Although, yeah, I mean, in business, I've been a part of that. And you just, it's kind of one of those things you just, you get through. But, but I think that, to your point, I think you just, you try to empower people more than limit them. And, and I think you're right.  This is my world. I've created it. When this new guy's coming in, he's not going to do anything that is not under my control. And it's like, well, you're just limiting yourself in the possibilities there by limiting the people that have strengths and skills. So, I mean, I always try to look for like, you know, the top two or three things that I have to do in this particular business. And then everything else kind of gets funneled off to somebody else. And of course, in startup world, you're doing everything. But if you can quickly, in a sense, fire yourself, you're doing the right thing. Man, that is easier said than done. A whole bunch of great, you know, taking it back to Keith's old blog, but that's a whole bunch of great theory, but putting it into practice is man, like, you know, that is, that is really, really difficult.  But, man, that's freaking crazy.  And that was quick.  And then you're like, all right, this ARX thing, let's do this. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we kind of purposely knew internally that we had some growth going on as great stuff. But one of the biggest hurdles we have is how do we teach other people to do what we do? And so we knew that if we develop these tools and take our time and develop ARX properly, that's going to help propel this growth, if you will, and this expansion of being able to implement proper exercise kind of literally around the world. And so, you know, it was a methodical process and painstaking at times. And, you know, I'm kind of a sprinter versus a marathon runner. So it's been a challenge for me.  So we're doing things that we all enjoy and we all are moving forward in doing this. But yeah, it can be challenging and it's just, you know, I guess kind of keeping with entrepreneurial spirit is just, you know, I just want to encourage people if they've got this passion, just work hard at it and be, you've got to be methodical, but you've also got to, you know, kind of be enduring if you will. Like it's not going to be easy. And if you don't have, it's kind of like you got it or you don't. I think athletes are kind of this way. If you kind of have that drive and determination, you'll, you'll get through it. And then if you don't, you know, maybe you need to look elsewhere for, for other things. Sometimes you got to say no. So yeah. Man. Yeah. Now entrepreneurship, I think it's just such a great thing. One, we live in a country in a society where we can do it very easily.  I have my own expression of my body.  Yeah. Yeah. Stop, stop trying to, to fit that. You know, you can look at it for a point of reference when you don't have one. But entrepreneurship, just like diet and fitness, you got to find your own expression and what that is. But man, when you bounce, I mean, look, man, I've never really seen a guy do what you do that, you know, I've been in contact with that has been really trained up these guys to their own independent expression and allowed them to do it. You know, yeah, rather than trying to rebrand or marketed or have this kind of scarcity mentality that is, man, huge around the fitness industry. Yeah. Massive. Yeah.  And I just got to keep brokering these deals. I got to keep kind of allowing these to get out there because it's different enough and unique enough that it, you know, again, it's way beyond my own personal expression. It's way beyond me. So I'm just trying to do what I can to, again, you know, kind of a personal motto is get out of the way. I have to remind myself of that quite often where, again, if I'm, I can be in the way by doing, you know, things that are good on the outside. It's like, yeah, you're doing this, you're doing that, but it's like, well, if I'm limiting kind of the propelling of the overall growth, then I need to get out of the way. Man, you know, this concept of firing yourself or getting out of the way. What are some, if you can, I know, kind of like, well, hey, it's a podcast, but I'm just, you know, I'm attacking you with this question, but man, what are some of the things that lead up to that? Like what, how do you strategize, you know, to get that to happen? Yeah. Well, I mean, you know, let's talk about like finances, for example, you know, people, they do still have to, at the end of the day, think wisely about what you're spending money on and know that you have to spend money to make money. And I think that, you know, it's not, don't be scared of spending money, but you have to be calculated with those risks. And so I think that, you know, you have to do, you know, still start with a plan. You can't just, you know, go ahead and be like, I'm going to do this, I love it, and not have a plan. So you still have to have a plan, to get wrenches thrown at them and quickly change that plan and quickly adapt. And so I think that that's really one of the key factors, if you will, for success in business or in life in general, is just adapt to change as quickly as you can.  And so I think that there are people that, you know, have a really hard time with change.   And you just have to accept it and embrace it. And sometimes again, that change can, can again just be the propellant to something bigger and better. So. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, man, for guys who are like young entrepreneurs who are looking to this, man, this was amazing. There were guys, I mean, I don't know when you started your business, but for me to even think about business really before God 30 or 28, it was, it was kind of impossible for me because my brain was just going so many different directions. Yeah. Now there's these kids. Yeah. And I want to say you guys are kids, but they're successful and they stay successful, which is really crazy. Yeah.  Yeah. And, man, what would you say are some tips for those guys who are looking to start their own business?  And I think that, you know, we all have our place, I think with Generation X right now, you know, we've lived long enough to know that you've got these kids, as we would call them, that are coming up. I think the biggest advice I'd give to the millennials or, hell, I don't even know what the younger generation is, is, don't, don't carry out that sense of entitlement. Like, you know, there is a little bit of old school work hard that still, that still is valuable. So don't get me wrong there. And like, and sometimes for some people, life comes easy. Hey, that's great for them. But a lot of people that have been successful have had to go through obstacles and overcome things. But to their credit and to their advantage, you know, we, we didn't grow up with the internet and all this stuff that they have just grown up with and don't know any different. There's huge power in getting kind of your message, whatever that be, out there. And I think that's the key to success on a lot of those people is, is leverage this technology that's out there to, to be of good. Technology is going to continue to evolve and come out faster than any time ever in history. And, you know, just use this, the technology that is going to be of use and be valuable, because sometimes technology is not. And so, I think it's kind of maybe generation X, we've learned to be able to kind of ebb and flow some of that. So like, even though the phone is always around and we could always be doing stuff, I think sometimes you have to be, you know, aware enough to put that, put it down, you know, stop it. I try to, and I'm, I'm criticized by some of the ones that are very strict on off schedule. And I'm not saying I'm perfect about it. When I'm off, I don't, I can't contribute to the business or to whatever it is.  And I think, again, trying to give credit where credit is due, some of those millennials have that on off already kind of ingrained more than maybe what we grew up with. And so, what you're good at and again, leverage that technology because a business, even efficient exercise to start up is not an expensive business, but it's not an inexpensive business either. And there are so many businesses now that have really changed kind of what a quote business is. And so, I think, you know, really the advent of the internet blogs, you know, YouTube, everything that is out there that can be valuable has changed the way these people can do business. So, as Generation X, I think we can learn from them sometimes like, oh, that's how you're doing this. Oh, that's how you're, you know, so, and then to those guys, I think they just need to maybe look to kind of our generation to say, you know, these guys have put in probably more hard work than us. They've lived a little longer, kind of more as the guidance and the wisdom, if you will, along that path because they just, you know, haven't had enough life experience sometimes to know man, I mean, personally, I still don't trust anybody in business wise that hasn't lost everything yet, you know, because that's, I mean, I mean, that's when the true expression comes out. I mean, we see that in so many different ways of life and yadda yadda yadda, but, man, I think one thing where technology we have to be careful of is like diet and fitness. I mean, the more technological we became as a species, the more screwed up we got. Now, our life spans went longer. Yeah. But, it did the quality of life. Yeah. Yeah. And I think, you know, one area that I think is going to evolve and impact health and fitness in a huge way pretty soon, and it already is, is the biometric data. And one reason we've created ARX, for example, the way that we've done is we hope to be pioneers on the resistance training side of biometric data. There's a lot of, you know, Fitbit, Nike, I think even Apples jumped in this game of kind of tracking, you know, a sort of pedometer type of stuff, heart rate and all that. Heart rate variability is another one. So, my question is now what? Okay, we have all this data and now what? So I think that's the question to be answered in the next several years is we're starting to kind of, you know, call it biohack or call it just find out information about ourselves. What are we going to do with it? And I don't think we really have all the answers yet, but that's the way to leverage this technology and this knowledge and this data to our advantage and, you know, things that we, like you said, there's definitely some lifestyle factors that are hurting us. We know that. But how do we tap into what we can do to improve our overall health and well-being? Man, it's so amazing.  You know, there's so many little things that we thought were helping us as we were growing up that were, causing so many problems. And, you know, I'm sure there's a long list of other things, but I really feel, I really feel, this is what I like. Actually, what you guys bring an interesting mix, it's very unique, is that high technology, high technology, but also, you know, I mean, I don't want to put words in your guys' mouth, but it seems that the standard really is your, you know, got what we evolved to be and going back to that nature. You know, just even reading certain articles and publications and articles with Skyler and Keith, you know, just going back to a community, what's going to make us socially happy and that's just a very cool thing. Yeah, I mean, and Keith has said this, I'll just quote him, leveraging modern technology to achieve ancestral wellness. So, so, you know, again, use technology when it's valuable because, you know, cavemen didn't have ARX or cavemen didn't have some of these tools. And so that does mean it's like exercise. So, I don't think that's a bad thing. And then I think what that does is allow us to use our mind more instead of just survival mode like a caveman, for example, is progression and evolving because, you know, there's huge potential if we put our minds to the right things. Yeah. No, man. Yeah, very cool. You know, one last kind of thought that I want to get back towards is, you know, getting into this podcast. Yeah. You know, see you, is that one of your main things? Yeah. What is some, you know, advice that you could give to somebody that, you know, is trying to sort through all the health and fitness stuff out there because there's so much and they, you know, man, like me when I was 30, I hadn't worked out, didn't know what to do. You know, and I just finally shut up and listened to a friend and said, all right, I'm going to get this book and do it. Yeah. And then I found other stuff and there, but what is something that a guy, man, just, you know, trying to find everything and, you know, is trying to find a ground zero or a point of reference and fitness, where can he go? Well, I mean, if it, if it glitters, probably run away, you know, like, so keep it, keep it simple. Again, we've designed kind of what we do around resistance or strength training work. So I think if you're going to exercise, knock out your proper resistance training first and foremost and design that around the kind of, we call it push-pull drive. I mean, we try to keep things really simple. What's a push? Well, anything that kind of drives force away from your body, you know, flat bench type of press, overhead press, incline press, decline press, dips, anything along those lines. So we have push-pull drive. So the pull, some type of chaining motion or pull down or rowing motion, okay, do that. And then drive, that can be something like a leg press, or a squat, or a deadlift, or a squat lift, or a trap bar deadlift, something like that. Just find, you know, if you would look at kind of my workout routines and even to a certain degree Keith's or Skyler's, I mean, Skyler has a little more variety, but fairly boring and simple. Like it doesn't have to be like, well, he did, you know, one arm, this, no, I mean, that's for fun if you want to do that. But just the basics are what you want to start on the food side of things is I would say I would look for nutrient-dense foods that give you high-quality protein and fat.  They can make you gain some weight, which is sometimes good weight and some genetics and sometimes bad weight for other people. So just recognize kind of what they do. And so again, keep it simple, keep it safe, effective, efficient and, again, look for those nutrient-dense whole foods that are going to fuel your body and your mind for the long haul for kind of a sustainable approach, if you will.   Well, but it's kind of like brushing your teeth. If you just say, so, same thing with exercise. If you just commit to keep consistent with it, it, you know, improvement starts to happen. Yeah, yeah. Man, yeah, cool stuff. You know, so what I hear is like a, something strength wise, strength, brain-wise. And definitely like look at that diet. Yeah. Man. And it also, you know, again, then kind of on the other stuff, let's call it movement that's still integral, but just find what you like to do instead of trying to make some, some activity, like exercise in and of itself.  So if it's, if it's time on the map, go do that. If it's time riding the bike, go do that. But it's, it's finding whatever, that's a little more individual and, you know, don't try to prescribe that. Try to have fun with that. Cool. Man, awesome. Where can people find out about you and all the different stuff that you have, ARX efficient exercise, Mark Alexander. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, yeah, so, so our bricks and mortar training business, efficient exercise, kind of, our 14 year old baby now, efficientexercise.com. Our, our resistance training technology we developed is ARX, ARXfit.com. Again, co-founder of Paleo FX, the largest paleo gathering in the, in the free world. That's at paleofx.com. And so yeah, you can, you can check us out and all the social media channels as well and in and above all of those. So, yeah. Good stuff, man. Hey, we got to talk again and surely I think we will just as, you know, I'm local and I'm sure I'll be talking to Skyler and Keith, you know. Yeah, we want to get you back in again. So yeah. No, man. Yeah, I got, I got a plan. But yeah, totally, man. It's working out like, talking. It's been good. All right. We'll see you, Steve. Yeah, later. Thank you guys so much for watching. You know how much we love to do this stuff and broadcasting out this beautiful message to the world of, man, how we can get into a better version of ourselves. That's what the 21 Convention is all about. And of course, go to the 21convention.com. Get involved with us there. If you like what you see, sign up on our newsletter, you know, talk to the different guys that are involved with our conventions. And of course, on this YouTube channel, there's a lot of interaction. And that's really why we do it. All right. Thank you so much for joining us. And let's talk soon.


The Army presents The Big Picture, an official report produced for the armed forces and the American people. Independence Hall, Philadelphia, Seat of American Freedom, Shrine of Liberty, and Inspiration for Generations of American Patriots. This is a report on one segment of patriotic Americans whose deeds of valor have chartered a course of freedom uninterrupted for over 200 years. The 111th Infantry Regiment, with headquarters almost within the shadows of Independence Hall. This is an honorary company of the 111th, the Franklin Foot Guard, taking up a formation on Independence Square. The Franklin Foot Guard is a unique military organization reflecting through its actions and bearing the sentiment of the entire regiment as it pays its respects here to Benjamin Franklin, its founder and original benefactor. Mr. Franklin was even responsible for the flag the company carries. The silent manual of arms being executed is a salute to all of the gallant heroes of the 111th since Franklin's day, who have bought freedom for our country during wars by paying with their lives. Also, a re-enactment will take place here shortly, commemorating an act of an officer of the regiment for which Benjamin Franklin was partly responsible. It was a milestone on the road to American freedom. The history books record it as follows. On a warm sunshine Monday morning, July the 8th, 1776, Colonel John Nixon read and proclaimed to a great concourse of people the Declaration of Independence publicly for the first time. And so it was that they have befell to this regiment the honor of proclaiming to the world our declared freedom. Over the years since that time in 1776, the 111th Infantry has never lost sight of its primary objective, the defense of those declared freedoms. Here is a tableau with unmistakable meaning, the blending of the brick and mortar of Independence Hall with the sinews and determination of one of America's ever ready fighting forces. And now here is Sergeant Stuart Queen, host for the big picture. The regimental colors are symbolic of the fine and honorable traditions of the Franklin Foot Guard and the 111th Infantry Regiment, a military organization with a record that reaches back into the time of Benjamin Franklin's younger days. As a matter of fact, Benjamin Franklin was the founder of a unit of militia called the Associators in November 1747. And the same unit has continued through 212 years and is now known as the 111th Infantry. Today the 111th is the largest non-divisional National Guard organization in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is understandable that the regimental insignia incorporated its founder, Benjamin Franklin. Here is an enlarged replica of the regimental insignia, affectionately called the Banny by members of the 111th. There is one incident of unusual importance in the history of the 111th which created a tradition of lasting significance. It happened in 1763 when Franklin's Associators were being besieged by the combined French and Indian forces in the vicinity of Pittsburgh at that time called Fort Pitt. Since our country was then a crown colony of Great Britain, one of the regiments of the Royal Highlanders called the Black Watch were stationed in the colonies. The Black Watch rushed to the assistance of the Associators. The tide of battle was turned and the attacking forces repelled. Here is the regimental insignia of the famous Black Watch. Since that historic incident back in 1763, the predecessors of the 111th and the Black Watch have maintained a close and friendly association through 196 years. Each year the 111th Infantry in Philadelphia reserves a vacant chair during the annual ceremonial mass in honor of the Black Watch regiment. This past year, as in previous years, invitations have been extended to the Black Watch to attend as honored guests the 111th ceremonial mass. Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, Colonel-in-Chief of the Royal Highlander's Black Watch regiment, replied to the invitation and sent her best wishes. Along with a claymore, the ceremonial sword of the Black Watch has a gift and token of affection to the 111th. Elements of the Black Watch regiment in Canada accepted this past year's invitation to attend a weekend of festivities and the ceremonial mass of the 111th in Philadelphia. And the two international military organizations were reunited, once again to renew their bond of friendship which has existed since they fought side by side 196 years ago. Our Canadian friends and neighbors from north of the border descended on Philadelphia for two days of parades, ceremonies, and good fun during a warm September weekend. Some elements of the Black Watch arrived at Philadelphia's International Airport where the 111th Franklin Foot Guard greeted them. It was indeed a meeting of two international military organizations, each greeting the other with mutual respect and comradeship. Representing the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania National Guard, Colonel Thomas R. White Jr., commanding officer of the 111th Infantry Regiment, reviewed the Canadian troops with Major Darcy McGovern, commanding officer of the Canadian Black Watch Captain's Guard. Here is a sight not to be missed. Kilted soldiers dressed formally in the plaid tradition of their progenitors, the Black Watch Royal Highland Regiment with a record of battle honors and achievements without peer. Then an informal session followed when the Canadian and American troops introduced themselves and as with soldiers all over the world, each had a great deal to say about his own outfit, yet each wanted to learn more about the other. Some would call this a bull session, but whatever it's called, it is a means by which soldiers get to know each other in a hurry. All infantrymen are interested in the weapons of others. A bayonet is fixed on a Canadian rifle under the watchful eyes of an American sergeant. The city of brotherly love was treated to a parade by the Black Watch Captain's Guard led by the pipes and drums. A concert was given for the local citizenry. Difficult sword dance was executed with assurance and finesse by our Canadian friends. Philadelphia will long remember the concert and pageantry presented by the Black Watch at Rayburn Plaza. With a musical salute to the city concluded, the Canadian troops moved out to prepare for the evening's festivity. In Philadelphia's famed Union League, the 111th Infantry Regiment was host to the Black Watch during the ceremonial mess. This formal occasion highlighted the year's activities of the 111th and distinguished guests and speakers were present. Here the Founder's Flag, sometimes called the Franklin Flag, is marched in to be placed to the rear of the regimental commander. Then some toasts were proposed. Toast to the President of the United States, to the President. One of the distinguished speakers of the ceremonial mess was the Adjutant General of the National Guard of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Major General Anthony J. Drexel Biddle. Colonel White, Secretary Roddick, Mayor Dilworth, Colonel Wood, General Baker, Admiral McLean, Colonel Allen, Colonel Cook, Mr. Counsel General, women in the services, members of the Black Watch, guardsmen of the 111th Infantry Regiment, distinguished guests and ladies and gentlemen. Now it's my distinct pleasure and privilege to convey to you, Colonel Wood, and to your fellow members in the Black Watch, a message of very warm greetings from the Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Then General Biddle emphasized how fortunate both Canada and the United States are to have created societies capable of producing such fine military traditions as the Black Watch and the 111th. The 111th Regimental Commander, Colonel White, next introduced another distinguished guest speaker, the Canadian Assistant Military Attache in Washington, D.C., Colonel John B. Allen. The friendship, which has been displayed by these two great regiments, is an indication of the larger close relationship which exists between all members of the Commonwealth and the United States of America. I think a very good example of this marvelous relationship is here in North America, where we have an international boundary of over 5,000 miles between the United States of America and Canada, not a single gunner of force, truly a remarkable feat that exists nowhere else in the world. General Allen, speaking on behalf of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, Colonel-in-Chief of the Black Watch Royal Highland Regiment, and acting on behalf of all ranks of the Black Watch, presented the Claymore, the Scottish ceremonial sword, to the Honorable George H. Roderick, Assistant Secretary of the Army, guest of the 111th at the ceremonial mess. Mr. Roderick accepted the Claymore on behalf of the United States Army and all members of the 111th. Then Mr. Roderick expressed his appreciation and thanks to all ranks of the Black Watch. In this Scottish Claymore, I see an interesting analogy. In its construction as a two-edged sword, the Claymore can be said to be symbolic of the fighting forces of our two countries, Canada and the United States. Each force, like an edge of the sword, is capable of inflicting separate damage upon our enemies. But like the Claymore, these fighting forces are wielded together operationally by single direction. Thus we in the United States and Canada, along with Great Britain and our other allies, have joined forces in NATO and are, with unity of purpose, directing our efforts in a common cause which is the defense of freedom, with knowledge then of the great symbolism and tradition associated with the Scottish Claymore and with awareness of the deep significance of the expression of friendship on behalf of all ranks of the Black Watch, I turn over this Claymore to the commanding officer of the 111th infantry. As a part of the formalities of the ceremonial mess, the adjutant of the regiment reads the honors to commemorate the outstanding military accomplishments of the 111th. These honors include 14 campaign streamers starting with the Revolutionary War and continuing through World War II. During the Revolutionary War, the predecessors of the 111th distinguished themselves at Trenton, Princeton and Valley Fort, the regiment fought with honor. During the Civil War, the regiment engaged in a whole host of historic battles, Antietam, Peninsular, Manassas, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Virginia, 1863, Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor and Petersburg, all battles which helped preserve the Union but cost heavily in casualties for the regiment. After the turn of the century, the regiment was sent down to participate in the Mexican punitive expedition in 1916. Well John J. Blackjack Pershing was in command of the expedition. One found the regiment with the American Expeditionary Forces in France, winning many campaign streamers and battle honors. Champagne, Muse Argonne, the 111th participated in three major campaigns, utilizing the newly developed amphibious warfare, starting with Macon Island in the central Pacific. This was the start of savage jungle fighting for what turned out to be an island-hopping war for the regiment. Next, Quajolaine Island in the Eastern Mandates, where a determined enemy had to be rooted out of solid coral. The final campaign of the 111th was on Peleu, an island in the western Pacific. In the haze of battle, the regiment fought and won its final victory of World War II for the nation. Fourteen campaign streamers, twenty-three distinguished battle honors from five wars, all of which proudly hang with the flag of the 111th Infantry Regiment. At the ceremonial mess, taps are sounded, enlasting honor of those of the 111th who have died in battle. In the 111th Armory, a dance was held honoring the members of the Black Watch, a happy occasion for the citizen soldiers of two nations. The next morning, members of the Black Watch and the 111th Franklin Foot Guard were invited to attend non-sectarian services held in one of Philadelphia's oldest churches, the Old Pine Street Church, founded in 1768. In the afternoon, the first Canadian Big Four professional football game ever played south of the border was staged in Philadelphia's municipal stadium. The Hamilton Tiger Cats and the Ottawa Rough Riders clashed in a charity classic which benefited both the Children's Hospital and the Rehabilitation Center of Philadelphia. Half time of the football game, the band and the Franklin Foot Guard of the 111th put on a demonstration of precision marching. Officers of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police who had participated in the weekend of festivities passed in review, and the captain's guard of the Black Watch presented military pageantry and review, faced each other, with the commanding officers prepared to exchange gifts. Colonel White, regimental commander of the 111th, presented to the Black Watch Regiment a gavel made from wood of the White House that was burned during the War of 1812. Colonel William A. Wood Jr., commanding officer, Third Battalion Black Watch, presented the McTeer Dirk, a dagger type weapon, to the 111th Infantry Regiment. The end of festivities with the distinguished Canadian guests served a useful purpose. The event is over now, and the 111th has the continuing responsibility of keeping battle trained. This hallowed ground is Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, where the 111th engages in a combat simulated maneuver. Here at the First Battalion Command Post, Colonel Glenn J. Dorman, battalion commander, checks last minute details of the maneuver forces before the attack begins. Canadian communications equipment coordinates the entire exercise, and then the attack commences. Every effort is directed here toward a realistic training period. Blank ammunition is used. Casualties are simulated to test the speed and efficiency of the corpsman. This type of training may one day prevent in combat the loss of a leg or an arm or a life. And so it is. The citizen soldiers of Philadelphia and surrounding vicinity who make up the 111th Infantry Regiment of the Pennsylvania National Guard keep combat trained by sacrificing their weekends and evenings and by dedicating their efforts to training on behalf of the nation's defense. Near that same afternoon at Valley Forge, elements of the regiment passed in review for the many visitors and for the reviewing party. Colonel White, regimental commander, General Biddle, Pennsylvania National Guard. Colonel Franklin P. Haller retired former commanding officer of the 111th and General Arthur D. Kemp, Pennsylvania National Guard. The occasion of this review was to commemorate the 181st anniversary of this same regiment setting up winter headquarters on this same Valley Forge terrain during the Revolutionary War. Valley Forge or the Argonne, Gettysburg or Quagelaine Island, the 111th Infantry has proved to the nation that it is ever ready to take up arms in defense of our declared freedoms. You have just seen the story of a tradition and a regiment, typical and representative of many similar National Guard and U.S. Army Reserve organizations throughout our country. The 111th has a long and distinguished record of service. Through the years, it has been made up of officers and men who are dedicated civilian soldiers, voluntarily contributing their spare time to military training in the interests of the preparedness of our country. And if necessary, the defense of your community. Now this is Sergeant Stuart Queen, your host for the Big Picture. The Big Picture is an official report for the armed forces and the American people. Produced by the Army Pictorial Center, presented by the Department of the Army in cooperation with this station.


How do I hide my prosthetic leg underneath clothes when I don't want someone to know that I have one? I don't. So this was a very intentional choice that I made when I lost my leg. It was insanely uncomfortable adjusting to having everyone notice me everywhere that I went. I definitely could use like baggy jeans or pants or something like that to hide the fact that I was wearing a prosthetic leg, but for me, this is not something that I ever wanted to have to think about hiding or being ashamed of, even in the moments that I felt uncomfortable with it. So personally, I just felt like hiding it would create and feed into that and it wasn't something I wanted to have to work to overcome years later. So I just faced it head on and 99.99% of the time you can always see my leg when I'm wearing it. I also feel like it's given me an opportunity to have good conversations with people when they ask questions. The vast majority of the time, I'm okay if someone's asking me about it. So if I can use that as a moment to decrease stigma or make things less uncomfortable for someone else in the future, I want to do it. There are a lot of reasons why someone might not want people to know that they're wearing a prosthetic leg and wherever someone is with that is completely valid and okay, this is just my story.


So we had the e-ink booth here at SID Display Week. Hello, welcome to our booth here at Display Week 2018. We're highlighting a couple different applications this year. Flexible displays. So we showed this to you last year. It's a foldable display that you might be using for an eReader application or an eNote application. But now you can write on it. But now this year we have the added writing capabilities. Nice. So it's kind of like a six inch eReader that opens up into a huge 10-12 inch. So this is a 10.3 flexible display. But yes, you could consider it a dual screen in a sense except that the magic of it is it is one. No scene. Nice. Very fast updates. You have very fast, very great digitizers right now on your readers, right? Yes, we do. We've had a few improvements over the last few years. Like for example right here, it's also really, really smooth to do some writing. And if I open the notes, I forgot where it is. There's some Chinese right here. But there's some really fast notes. Yeah, so this is the remarkable device here. A lot of people have commented about how quick the update time is. It's also pressure sensitive. So the harder that you push, the thicker that the line becomes. And the Onyx device here is also an eNote. That's another app. Yeah, I can't. We need to change it into English. And then the notes is this one. I forget you own one of these, so you play with it all the time. Yeah. But it's still confusing when it's Chinese. All right. So how's it possible that the digitizers, the eInk are so well integrated? There's a lot of work going into that, right? There's a lot of work. So we spend a lot of time working with the electrical engineers, the software engineers and optimizing the speed of both the eInk and the electronics and the hardware systems behind it. That is marvelous. And it's one of those. And some of these are really light. Yeah, so this is also using a flexible display. That is in 13.3, but you can see it's very lightweight, very durable. This is the second generation right now, no? This one is, yes. And here's music. So this is a music stand. It's going to revolutionize the music industry, right? Yeah, so this is also a device where you can highlight different sections that you want to make notations on. And the beauty of it is for a musician that's in an orchestra, you know, they're really sensitive to distracting the audience. So there's no bright light that emits from it, like if you used an iPad in the orchestra. And it's just like paper. It's just like paper. That's the beauty of the technology. And here the show, you're showing the most advanced color. So this year we're showing advancements in our color, ePaper. So it's a very, very saturated color. Is it as good as going into the museum, out of the gallery? So it depends on what kind of art you're talking about. But our color gamut has improved over the years. We've spent a lot of time working on optimizing the pigments, optimizing the electronics and the waveform. So this year we're showing 32 inch. And you can see they actually have a slight curve to them. So they're actually slightly bent. This is very small bezel. Yes, very, very small. 32 inch, kind of like square. So the top ones are the 13.3 inches and in the middle are the 32. Nice. So soon enough maybe 13.3 is this size, right? So perhaps at some point soon there will be some devices that could be color. Could be one day. Although we're certainly starting with those in the signage applications to begin with. Where you'd like to have full color signage, maybe advertising. Advertising, wayfinding, transportation signage, any of those. And certainly we have shown them at CES with a variety of artwork on them.  And if we look up, there's a big ink up there. So those are autonomous tiles. So last year we did an installation at the San Diego airport. This is a similar technology but a slightly different form factor. So they are solar powered. They are autonomous. They can talk to each other or be an independently run operation. And they can update through a network or something. Yes.  And again, no power wires are required. And you can see they're very thin and they slightly wave as things get a little bit... Is it a 42 inch or what is this? It's not a problem. All right. So very long displays. And up here, this is a creativity on display. Is that your slogan? So that is what E-Ink tries to enable for all of our customers that you can put your creativity on display. Let's see your watch. You have a really cool watch. Yes. So this is the Sony FES watch. You don't have enough hands to take it off. Great. It has a variety of different patterns that you can program into it. It tells time. You can put designs on it. So it's been a very popular... Available in Japan? Yes. So the whole band will change. And you can pick the designs that you might want to have on a regular basis. Maybe we can put this back over there. Sure. Okay. You're comparing a new space. Nice to see you. Nice to be here. So what are you talking about right here in collaboration with Flex Terra? These are OTFTs, organic TFT-based displays. So a little bit different than the traditional ones that we've had in some of the other e-reader applications or e-note applications. So they are a more durable way of making the TFT so that we can have less defects in it over time. You can flex though. You can show it flex a little bit. This one I'm not allowed to touch. Then there's one that shows all the way around here. So this is like a bracelet application. So you can see different messaging on it. Nice. So OTFT, so you don't need to do what's called a silicon? Yes. So it is an alternative to that. So it is an organic-based TFT instead. And so this, how soon is it going to work? How soon is it going to be available? I'm not sure of our exact commercialization product, project timelines for it. But we have already been working with some customers and integrating it into some products. And what is the speed to updating? So it's... It's similar to all of our other products. And the view of visibility, the contrast, all are similar? It's all similar, yep. It's just a different... It's just a different back plane. All right. And is it the same? This is the same as the one we were just writing on earlier. So in these little guys over here, these are shelf types. But the beauty of them are battery-less. So you can charge them on their little home station. And then when you take them off, there's no power being consumed, so no battery. Nice. And they get their charge when you put them back and update the image. So it's kind of like an RFID power? Is it similar to that? Yes. And this is... A flexible... Yeah, so this is the back plane that is in these devices. And so this is... We're right here. Some of the demo is with plastic logic. So this is a bracelet here. You could imagine using it as a method of checking in for a train ticket, right? You could be able to scan different items as you walk through train stations or have a designer on it. They're also showing some other card products here. It's playing cartoon. Is it like animated? It is. Because you can update so fast that it's good enough for cartoons. You can. One of the beauties of E-Ink is that we only use power to change an image. So if you're going to run video on it you lose some of your power savings that you would have if you just had it in a traditional reading application, but certainly as possible. And this is a credit card? Yes. You can see the display right in there. And there's some buttons you can click that does stuff. I do not know if this one updates. Okay. That's cool. I'd love to have that in my credit card. Yes. We need to talk with American Express for some of the companies. It would be great. I'll be here. We jump in here. Hi. Can you show us some of those proxies right here? So these are shelf labels. So with two different partners we have several of them but this is with display data. And this is with JDI. So they have a long strip. They sell it in the black, red, and black, white, yellow. And this... This is very what's called visible from far away in the store. It is, yeah. Definitely attracts attention. And display data has a variety of different sizes that they make available for retailers depending on what kind of signs they're looking for. It's very red and very yellow. Yes, it is. So which part of this just make an update? Like all of it? All the text and everything? Yep, the entire thing can update. But it has to be yellow down here and black up there or it could be... Nope, it could be whatever... These are all the same panel. Well, the yellows are all the same, just slightly different size. The image can be whatever you choose. All right. And here's another digital signage. Yeah, so this is a battery-powered digital sign. It's using one of our 32-inch products with a CFA on it. So you could see it's a little bit more bright than if we go through a full color with ACP. But there's still some colors here? Yeah, so it's using a color filter. The color filter mode, right? Which is the previous way you were doing colors, right? Correct, yeah. But now you have this new way which is no color filter. Correct, yep. Those are four pigments in each micro-cuff or capsule. Let's walk behind it right here. This is... There's still going on this huge installation. So this is just a representation of the installation at the San Diego International Airport at the Car Rental Center. I'm going to see that on Saturday. I'm going there. Excellent. So there's 2100 panels across the building. They're similar to the one that we saw up in the sky over there. They're solar-powered. They're autonomous. They're updated through a Wi-Fi network that actually is here in the trees. Whoa. So those are just literally stuck on the wall with adhesive. No powers at all. The trees are the Wi-Fi hotspot. Yes. These are really cool. The Visionect devices. Yeah, so they've introduced a new product line that's 13 inches. They call it their place and play. So again, it's similar to the Joan devices where you have a magnetic holder. You just slap them up on the wall. They connect with your scheduling system or your content management system. And the images and the content will update throughout the day, whatever you choose to put on them. Nice. Let's check out one of the other smart watches that's over here. This is available worldwide, right? Yeah. So this is a very nice ProSense GPS watch. Very clear display. So the battery life is long.  The display itself will last quite a long time, but GPS will run the battery down quite a bit. And so E-Ink should be the display of choice for smart watchmakers, right? Definitely offers some clear advantages for people depending on what they're looking to receive on their smart watch. I think it looks clearer than my memory LCD. I would agree. So I'd love to see a whole bunch more. It would be great if this beautiful Sony watch was available worldwide. It's very Japanese. Just buy it on their website. It's just a Japanese website. Great. So another interesting demo on this table is this, which is an LTS smart patch. So this is a method of distributing medication for individuals that gives them a display that tells them when they need to replace the patch. So this one in particular was for Parkinson's patients. Pretty good. And often they do not actually push the patch hard enough to apply it and get the medication to come through. So this will tell them push harder. Is this for cartoons? Yeah, so this is an E-Manga. So it's another firm in Japan that's selling this. So when you buy this, you get 200 or 300, the entire series, essentially, is in there. The neat thing about this is they've actually made it to look like a book. But when you open it up, it's actually an e-reader. There's no more pages in there, right? Nope. Nice. And this is the the uniform? This is the uniform. The latest one, right? Yes. You have multiple displays. Yeah. You can actually bring a flash and LCD. That's a cool case. So these are some very high-resolution displays from JDI, if you can see through that. So 600 PPI and 400 PPI. So demonstrating the power that you could go very high-resolution with E-Manga. Right now, most, the candle had the OASIS's 300 PPI, but you could see you could go much higher if you would like. 600 means four times more or something, I guess. Maybe. And so this is the SID display week. And did you see this back here? So this is a tiled 442 inch tiled display. Yeah. So it's a great way to increase the size of the digital signage that you're using with the tiled application. Nice. And it's a small bezel. And you got four times 42 inch. So I'm sure there's a thousand people watching this video that like to have this. They'd like to implement this for all kinds of projects. So it's fully mass-produced, fully ready. We do have a partner that is selling it. Yeah. You can find more information on the website. And hopefully it's affordable. Somewhat affordable. But sometimes the digital signage market, it doesn't matter if it costs thousands and thousands, right? Because it's... Well, they often offset their costs through advertising. So they rent advertising space on them. This is... First application is in a digital signage. Yeah. So it's not really intended for your home usage. Yeah. It's only dry. Nice. It's changing. Do you want to display me an auto? No.