Meet Matt Bahen

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Matt Bahen a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Matt, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?

I like to make the joke that my autobiography will be titled, “Well, THAT Didn’t Happen!” Funny, but true. Growing up in the 80s, I remember seeing “Top Gun” and immediately deciding I was gonna go to the US Naval Academy and fly fighter jets for the Navy. Well, that didn’t happen. I ended up go through the Virginia Military Institute where I did receive a 3-year ROTC scholarship with the Navy but by then I had the thought that I would just serve 4 to 6 years, get out, and use my Civil Engineering degree. Well, that didn’t happen. I ended up being selected for the Explosive Ordnance Disposal diver/Special Operations officer pipeline where I truly found my calling. My wife and I married between Dive School and EOD School and we looked forward to starting a family after enjoying our married life for a few years. Soon after graduating EOD school 9/11 happened and we got REALLY busy and it’s hard to start a family when we weren’t together that much for several years. Following one of my longest deployments, I made the decision to transition to the US Navy Reserves and thought I was gonna become a firefighter. Well…you guessed it…that didn’t happen. My wife got a job offer in Richmond (we were living in VA Beach at the time) and I was working as a government contractor when the housing market crashed (2008) so we found ourselves living apart, still no kids. During this time I had found CrossFit and was missing the camaraderie I experienced in the active duty Navy EOD world and began to find that in a CrossFit gym. Eventually, my wife said to me, “people will pay you to coach them you know” and I embarked on my CrossFit coaching career that felt like I had found a rare second calling with my work.

However, we still didn’t have any children nor were we successful in several fertility attempts. In early 2014 we decided we would look at adoption and embarked on the journey to becoming adoptive parents. In October of 2014 we got a call on a Monday asking us if we would be able to foster an infant child, we said yes, and less than 24-hours later we had a 6-DAY old baby placed with us. Long story full of ups and downs, our adoption was finalized 15-months after our son was born. But from that first moment of meeting my son in the hospital room, I knew what my purpose was: to be the best father and husband I could be, for as LONG as I could be.

I incorporate that goal into my business where I’ve discovered that everyday folks will thrive in a group fitness setting with the right coaching. Most people really want to improve their fitness because the know it’s important, they just don’t’ know exactly what to do. That’s where me and my coaches come into the picture. And guess what? THAT means I get to help them be the best father, mother, husband, wife, brother, sister, aunt, co-worker or whatever title is the most important to them for as long as they can be. That’s pretty awesome.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

Everybody knows they should be “fit” but most don’t know how to get there. Well, until CrossFit came on the scene in the early 2000s even the fitness “gurus” struggled to define the word fitness. CrossFit’s definition of fitness is, “your work capacity expressed across broad time and modal domains.”

To me that means if you are fit, you should be able to do whatever it is you want to do, as much of it as you would like to do, for however long you want to do, for the rest of your life.

Know what other word that is a good definition for? Health.

CrossFit coaches are healthcare coaches and that is what my business focuses on every day with every member. I’ve discovered that everyday folks will thrive in a group fitness setting with the right coaching. With their ability to “do more work” they find they are healthier, happier, and excited to take on the rest of their day outside of the gym. To me that means that even if I’m only coaching a small group of members, I can make a HUGE impact to the community at large when fitter and healthier Moms, Dads, Husbands, Wives, Partners, Brothers, Sisters, Grandparents, or however they identify walk out the doors just 1% better than they were yesterday. That’s pretty awesome.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

That is a great question and one I’ve always found difficult to answer for myself. If I had to choose, looking back I would say:

1) Listening more than I talk – While most folks walk into a gym with the standard “I want to lose 10 lbs,” I’ve found that by listening to what they REALLY want (to be a better role model, to break an unhealthy cycle, to get off medications, to feel better in their skin) that helps keep them accountable and disciplined in their approach to fitness and the guidance from a coach helps illuminate that path for them.

2) Ask more questions – This kind of goes hand in hand with #1 but I’ve learned so much by simply asking “Tell me more about that?” Whether it’s related to their health or fitness goals, or about their job, or whatever, people want to be heard and understood and when you ask them questions about themselves and not make it about yourself there is so much to learn about a person.

3) Never stop learning – I love learning about all sorts of things. It can be a double-edged sword because learning without action is wasteful. Never stop learning is easy in the sense that I’ve found the more I learn, I realize the more I do NOT know, and hopefully I keep learning new things and experiencing new teachings for the rest of my life.

Tell us what your ideal client would be like?

To me, an ideal client is somebody who is coachable.

What does coachable mean to me?

You are coachable if you are willing to leave your ego at the door, recognize that you’ve hired a coach to help you solve a problem that you are struggling with and they have the experience you don’t, listen to what they say, ASK really good questions, and take the feedback you are offered.

Sounds simple, right? Haha, it can be but not everybody I’ve met has been in a place where they are coachable…yet!

Another answer to this question would fall into the category of what kind of client am I passionate about helping?

I’m passionate about being a Dad and believe that is THE MOST important title I’ve ever had the privilege of holding. Dads need to be strong; physically, emotionally, spiritually, and relationship wise. An amazing thing I’ve found is the simple fact of making a Dad physically stronger in the gym will almost certainly make him stronger in ALL the other ways as well. Don’t get me wrong, it won’t fix everything for them but there is something magical that happens when anybody gets healthier and stronger, but I especially love seeing Dads improve their whole lives with just 1-hour a day in the gym.

Give me a coachable Dad and I know that together we will absolutely make this world a better place to live in. Guaranteed!

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Austin Dunevant and S3E CrossFit

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