Thank you for checking out The Community Conversation, brought to you by Prototype Training Systems, home of CrossFit Prototype. The Community Conversation highlights a different member of the Prototype Community each week and allows them to tell their story, share their life experience, and communicate their perspective on all things fitness.
We’ve all listened to podcasts and watched YouTube videos that highlight some of the world’s greatest leaders and visionaries. We believe we have some AMAZING people at Prototype and we want you to get to know them! (Check out our last episode here!)
I want to introduce our 15th guest, the one and only Jay Chung. Jay has been part of the Prototype community before its inception, he and his wife Debbie are true OG members, as a matter of fact, they used to own Sapporo Korean BBQ which is right next door to Prototype, now they own Seoul Kitchen in Westford, MA. Jay and Deb have two awesome kids, Sam and Ben, the family recently got a puppy who I heard is eating everything in sight and what else can I say, except Jay Chung is the man and I’m so pumped to have him on The Community Conversation today.
So, click the link below to watch this Community Conversation on our YouTube page! You can also check out The Community Conversation on all major streaming platforms including Spotify! Don’t forget to subscribe!
Michael Collette 0:02
Hey everyone, thank you for tuning in to the community conversation brought to you by protect train systems home of crosser prototype. The community conversation highlights a different member of the perfect community each week, and allows them to tell their story, share their life experience and communicate their perspective on all things fitness. So we’ve all listen to podcasts and watch YouTube videos I highlight some of the world’s greatest leaders and visionaries. We really we have some amazing people right here a prototype and we want you to get to know them. So to that end, I want to introduce you to our 15th Guest the one and only Jay Chung Jay has been part of the prototype community for actually before its inception. him and his wife Debbie are true Oh g members a matter of fact, these own Sapporo Korean barbecue which is right next door to prototype. Now they own soul kitchen in Westford, mass, J and dead have two awesome kids, Sam and Ben, their family recently also got a puppy who I heard has been eating everything in sight. And, you know, I don’t know what else to say except Jay Chung is the man and I’m so pumped to have him on the community conversation. So thank you, Jay.
Jay Chung 1:05
Oh, thanks for having me. Man. I’ve been enjoying watching all the interviews. From Collin to everyone else, really. So it’s been a pleasure watching. I’m glad to be on.
Michael Collette 1:17
Yeah, man. So a lot of people know you, Jay. But not everyone knows you. So why don’t you give everyone a little context and background, your story. And I mentioned your restaurant owner, family man while you talk about anything you want to talk about?
Jay Chung 1:35
Yeah, absolutely. So I’ve known no new bike for quite some time. We’ve owned Sapporo, which is right next door to the gym. We sold in 2019 August. But I think we had owned it for 12 years, or 13 years or so. And I remember when the gym was opening, we were friends even before that. So it’s, it’s crazy to see, you know, people talk about it a lot. It’s crazy to see the I don’t know how long the gyms even been open now seven, seven years or whatever it is. So the, you know, the opening to this machine at this point. run by Mike Collette and, and all the other great coaches over there. It’s been a real awesome thing to see. I’ve learned personally a lot from you just from just friends stuff, business stuff. And anything in between. We don’t own Sapporo anymore. We own on other week, open soul kitchen, which is our restaurant now. In beginning of 2014. So it’s gonna be what, seven years or so. And yeah, we’ve been owning that’s where we are right now. We just own one restaurant. We’ve been doing really well. We love We love Westford, which is about 3030 minutes from here. It’s one of those towns, nobody knows where it is, unless you live there live close to it. It’s basically 495 straight North all the way 30 minutes except 32. If anyone wants to know, it’s not that far. So, you know, people people are like, where is it near New Hampshire. That’s not all the way up there. So we’ve done that for seven years. We’ve we’ve owned support for 13 years, obviously, we sold that and now. Another Mike owns it. So yeah, that’s that’s where we stand today.
Michael Collette 3:29
There’s a lot of different directions I can go with this conversation. The first one and I’m just curious if you know the answer. You and I first met when? And how. And why don’t you tell everyone what our name of our group was called.
Jay Chung 3:51
So I used to see you training people at BSC, but I never like I don’t think I ever spoke to you. And then through Mike Scott and Jesse, we created then Eddie new and bunch of other people we created this a basically networking group, right? We’re in a group called team soju. Which is, which is now I think about it like beyond childish. teams. soju was soju is a is is the number one spirit in the world that most people don’t know here. Number one spirit meaning by volume. It’s a Korean drink. It’s about anywhere between 15 to 18% alcohol, so it’s not that strong, but people absolutely crush it in Korea. Therefore, that’s why it’s the number one spirit by volume sold in the world.
Michael Collette 4:47
So encouraging. Our group was named that because we would just get together and
Jay Chung 4:52
we would just drink and it wasn’t the greatest networking group but it was definitely the funnest. So we were just like drink and talk over each other i think like you know i think about it probably like at least three quarter quarter of us i had a dd or adhd so it was really not bad you
Michael Collette 5:10
know we still do yeah
Jay Chung 5:12
yeah there was nothing that we accomplished when eight of us or whatever sat together and talk it was i mean it was a hell of fun but it was fun that epic party well yeah it was it was that’s how we got to know each other and became friends and obviously we’ve known each other for a long time after that
Michael Collette 5:31
we’re neighbors working out going to sapporo all that stuff and yeah and then you open up seoul in 2014 now you guys that are listening that might not know jay chung he’s one of the hardest working people i’ve ever met in my entire life and he’s done and i shouldn’t just say him i’m sure he would also give that credit to deb and his team but you guys have done an incredible job navigating all the crazy stuff with 2020 and COVID especially owning a restaurant i mean me owning a gym you owning a restaurant i don’t know what two other industries might have been more impacted i’m sure there are but we yeah that’s pretty hard and you you done just a phenomenal phenomenal job can you just talk about how you just were so successful in navigating 2020
Jay Chung 6:23
yeah i think i think when we narrow it down you’re the gym your business prototype or any gym business should be about people right and the restaurants should be about people as well and i think you take that to heart and i think you you know it’s a people business and to run it day to day you have to love relationships that you have with people and you one can clearly see that in you that anyone that talks to you at the gym or wherever and i think that was our strength really without even knowing it getting through COVID was the relationship that we had with our clients slash gas slash customers we really i mean there was a lot of unknowns when this first hit in march of 2020 when the governor first shut down all restaurants and made it all takeout so we were like just like every other restaurant out there we’re like oh we closing are we going to be able to make it through this what are we going to do and then we just went to take out and it was it was really i think our strength points now i look back on it i think what soul kitchen is really good at is adjusting on the fly people talk while leaders like you know your whatever definition of a leader is whatever qualities a leader should have you know whether it’s a people person or visionary i don’t think i’m a really great visionary what i think i do well which helped me through COVID was just shifting and adjusting and this may sound weird it was kind of fun shifting and adjusting i like to work on the fly i like when there’s pressure and i like i like when i just gotta get things done so you know while i was doing it i don’t think you know at first it was just more out of panic but then you know as we progress through summer it’s things started to cut open this is summer 2020 we’re like okay you know we can we’ve navigated through this for a number of months now and i think we can continue to navigate really well the one thing we have to do is i think you did really well was just to gain that trust from people to know that we have great intentions for people and i think people see the genuineness of that if it’s fake i think people can see right through that too if you’re just doing it for the sake of doing it for marketing purposes people are gonna see right through that but things that we did was really like i remember when it first happened remember like toilet paper was where it was crazy but give you an interesting story it was impossible to find toilet paper at a grocery store but how restaurants ordered toilet paper we order from restaurant vendors like cisco and stuff like that so when we ordered toilet paper it would come in like our 100 per case 150 per case but that wasn’t broken down to sell to grocery stores so you have these restaurants suppliers that are overloaded with these toilet papers because all the restaurants are shut down they’re not buying so we would just buy them and like hey toilet papers fairly cheap so it was crazy to think that giving toilet paper to people you know would make them so appreciative so you know we have we had a great online ordering system which really really helped a lot. If you look at the restaurant stats right now, like takeout has increased X number online in order and has increased X number. So they would they had the ability just to add some of that toilet paper onto their cart for free. And it cost us very little things like that really helped. I don’t know if you remember, it seems like a long time ago, but it’s really not groceries were kind of hard to come by, like people thought like, people first of all, didn’t want out didn’t want to go out to grocery stores. This is before like, when people thought touch was everything, you touch something dive COVID Now we know the air and stuff like that. So we we went as far as to just give simple groceries to people like red bananas, a is just a basic essentials, we weren’t filling the bag with like crazy stuff. But that really helped a lot.
You know, it was just things that we had, I mean, we weren’t, we were open limited hours, because no one’s doing takeout at 10 o’clock at night anyways. So everyone was working essentially a little bit less hours. So we were just doing things to keep ourselves busy, but also really helped the community. And I think that really helped us. But in addition to that, you obviously got to know what you’re doing and your food has to be good. And your business has to be good and all those other factors. But I think if you’re doing all those things really well. And on top of that, you get that personal touch and the community that’s behind you that I really think during this COVID I think that’s really a home run for a lot of people, a lot of businesses out there, you guys absolutely crushed it, I
Michael Collette 11:37
didn’t know about the toilet paper thing. I know you guys did the meal kits, or maybe still do the meal kits, the drinks to go, you’ve changed a lot of things with your business as a result of COVID. You know, on our end, it’s like the virtual component is something that’s going to stay like we see tremendous value to it helps more people allows us to extend our reach, and that aligns with our values and what we do. What are you guys doing with what you’ve done that’s going to continue going forward as things gonna move into or transition to more of a new normal here in Massachusetts?
Jay Chung 12:14
Yeah, so the one thing that will won’t go away in the near term is the increased takeout. So we transitioned immediately to curbside once this happened, because people don’t want to come into the restaurant and pick it up. So you know, even now, people either park at the five curbside spots or call and Friday side is we have people out there just going out to cars. So we make it like really easy and seamless on top of that online ordering. So there’s zero. It’s really weird, but people prefer the zero contact, you know, like before is like, Oh, we want the service. We want the contact, but now it’s like takeout, the minimal to contact, the better for majority of people out there. So we try to provide that. I don’t think takeouts going anywhere. If you look at all the stats out there, you know, we look at Starbucks out there. They were never really a big player in the drive thru game. Now they they’re becoming and even Chipotle is dipping into that game as well. I think majority of their stores are opening, they’re looking to make it a drive thru. So the big players are saying that the takeout is not going anywhere. We have certainly seen from our standpoint, takeouts not going anywhere and give you like even 2020 when we had outdoor dining in the summer I think it was probably still have our 40% takeout obviously in the winter. But when people can’t sit outside, it was like, you know, anywhere between 40 and 60% takeout? Wow, give you an idea of comparison, before that. Pre pandemic, our takeout business was probably 10% or less. Wow,
Michael Collette 13:53
I did not know that
Jay Chung 13:55
gives you a little bit of an idea of where takeout stands. And I think that’s true for a lot of restaurants out there. The restaurants that I do feel really bad for is the restaurants that aren’t designed for takeout. And I’ll give you a perfect example of that. If you own a high end Steakhouse. Let’s say it’s a $55 steak. Yeah, maybe couple people will do that state to go but not many people are doing it to go so you know, it’s all about wine and dine and dine in for those steak houses. And everybody knows when you go to a steak house not just for the steak, you want the wine, you want the service, you know you want the sides you want it’s the whole nine yards, right? So those restaurants suffered a lot, although they’re coming back now with obviously vaccination and all the other stuff that’s that’s playing a factor. But the takeout really saved us. I think we were in the right situation. The right time for we had a lot of things that other restaurants maybe didn’t have the ability to do takeout we were already doing takeout fairly well. You know, our food is fast. So we were able to do that transition into more takeout relatively, more easily than, than other restaurants. In the summertime, we have the space to put a big tent up. So and we already had outdoor dining. And I’m sure you knew in 2020 outdoor dining was where it’s at, you know, I used to say, outdoor dining in New England, is almost insignificant, especially in the suburbs, because there’s mosquitoes number one, do you think you want to sit outdoors but the window of of temperature is only from 75 to 85 degrees, if it gets higher above, higher than 85, you think you’ll be comfortable, but you’re gonna be too hot. If it gets below 75, you think you’ll be comfortable, but you’re sitting there too, you’re too cold. But now that the window has, I don’t know, which we say like 50 to, whatever, 100 degrees 80 to 100 degrees, yeah,
Michael Collette 15:55
100%, it doesn’t matter, put on an extra coat or take off an extra layer.
Jay Chung 16:00
Like we had in the winter, we still have outdoor tables out there with with heat lamps, and I remember was like 20 degrees or 10 degrees when they were still like a table sitting out there. Like, kudos to them. You know?
Michael Collette 16:14
Is it interesting that people will sacrifice comfort for experience now? Before that they wouldn’t? Because the lack of experience that they have, and I can attest to that, because I would do the exact same thing to go sit at a restaurant outside. I don’t care. I’ll put on an extra coat or Yeah, why not? Because you miss you miss that. Something not to get off topic here. But something that a lot of people don’t know about you is not only do you have your restaurant, but you also have a nonprofit organization as well eat to give. Can you talk a little bit about that, Jay, like what inspired you to to create you to give How does it work?
Jay Chung 16:54
Yeah, so he to give was a charity that we created, I want to say, a little over two years ago. So basically, the idea was that our restaurants we owned, support them to so our restaurants and other participating restaurants would pick a couple items on the menu, where if, if a customer bought one of those items, they would donate $1 to our charity, and then our charity would distribute that money 100% of it, there’s no cost. We don’t i don’t you know, the charity 100% of money donated to charity goes to 100% to other charities as well. So dot that dollar would go to the food banks, some soup kitchens that we have affiliations with, and lo some in western as well. So all local stuff. And the dollar represents what it costs to what an average cost in Massachusetts it is to feed someone a hot meal. That’s really that cheap to give a homeless person or people think oh, homeless people are the only people that are need but food, people that are hungry, or go the hunger problem goes way beyond homelessness. There’s so many people in this country that are hungry that live in affluent towns like Westboro, and we just don’t know that it’s kind of embarrassing for someone to admit that. And when we started doing that, it was a problem but not a COVID hit. It became I don’t know exactly to what percentage but when I talked to we have a relationship with the local food bank, as well as the western one Western ones actually located on in Shrewsbury. And they have both the directors of both have told me and they’ve shared with many other people that since the day I’ve been there, which in some of those cases has been decades, and people have told me since the depression, which is crazy. They’ve never seen the food bank this busy or just food, raw food problems being that severe. So it’s one of those problems like people I feel like it doesn’t get noticed a lot. And I feel like a problem that can be solved almost 100% if if a bunch of smart people got together and enough people cared, I think it can be solved I’m not gonna say easily, but it certainly easier than like solving the the environmental problems in the world for example. So, the solution is is is definitely there.
Michael Collette 19:51
So how many restaurants are participating in this now?
Jay Chung 19:54
So we had anywhere between or four to five restaurants since COVID it is just, it’s just mine. So not understandable. It’s tough to ask a restaurant that is already not doing well, to ask them to donate X number of dollars per month. And just to give you an idea that it’s not, it’s not little money from for most restaurants. So for my restaurant we give, we pick two items beaten up, as well as the tacos, which is our
Michael Collette 20:26
number one or like so good. So we give the I’m starving now, by the way, with the tacos,
Jay Chung 20:33
we get an average between about 1600 to two grants. Wow. And that’s not that’s not easy. That’s not, that’s hard to ask someone to do that, especially when they’re going through them. I totally get that. But again, this is this is soul kitchens, charity. And we’ve been blessed and fortunate that in 2020, and so far in 2021, we’ve done really well, we’ve done well, and you know, in different ways, not the ways that we’re used to take out outdoor all that other stuff, even meal kits that you you mentioned, but we’ve done well nonetheless. And for us to be able to give is a real blessing.
Michael Collette 21:15
That’s awesome, man. I love that. Obviously, I’ve known about your charity, and everything was so great. Always. I’m obviously biased, but and I understand COVID but I’ve always said like, why wouldn’t restaurants do that? They can make a huge impact, you know, pick one meal on their menu, donate a buck, and help a lot of underserved community. So if you’re listening to this, you own a restaurant, you should get on the eat again. And if you’re listening to this, you know, any restaurants you should be hounding them about getting I need to give because it can help a lot of people. I can I can take this a bunch of different ways. I got another question for you. which you probably are prepared to answer which I’m curious to hear your answer. To anyone out there that might be listening that might be thinking about ever opening up a business, specifically a restaurant, Jay, what would be one of you? I’m not gonna say your one piece of advice. But what would be a piece of advice you might you might give someone? Because the restaurant industry is one of the hardest industries to get into and be part of,
Jay Chung 22:21
I would say don’t do it.
Michael Collette 22:25
I had a feeling you’re gonna say that. Why would you? know,
Jay Chung 22:30
I mean, it really depends on the person. I think people are more educated about what it is more educated than before. As to how, how it is to open a restaurant and what it’s like, and people will know the cost and return on investment and all that. So people have a better idea then I would say like 10 years ago, I would have like, people I make like a I don’t know, my mom makes a great lasagna. Well, I was thinking about like, you know, family friends coming over we make lasagna and wait. You’re out of your fucking I mean,
Michael Collette 23:06
sorry. Just straight up lasagna business. Not even Italian food, just lasagna?
Jay Chung 23:11
Yeah. Like it’ll be like, Oh, you know, like I wanna so um, buddy of mine, Greg wood. She you also know that owns volturno as well.
Michael Collette 23:20
Volturno, Yeah, that’s another good spot.
Jay Chung 23:22
So this, this woman, very intelligent woman. She’s, she’s a doctor. So it’s not like she’s, you know, she she doesn’t know anything. She’s She’s a very, very respected doctor. She says like, Oh, you know, I love the art of coffee, coffee. I love drinking coffee. I’m really into coffee. I want to open a coffee shop. And then like Greg and I both looked at each other, like, you want to go first you want to go? And I was like, Oh, we got like three in the morning every day. You want to serve the same coffee. You want to have people say your coffee sucks. It’s just you want to do the same thing over and over? Do you want? Do you want employees screwing up your product and having you having to not scream at them but to teach them to make it the right way in a very patient way. But not only that, to do it over and over again like that for like 17 times and they still don’t make it just just little things like that. And she was kind of laughing she got it I get it. But I’m like it’s it’s it’s a lot of money. And I think the returns you get are are smaller for for what you put in, give you an idea. A restaurant I mean, it all depends but 4000 square feet 5000 square feet restaurant, let’s say not Boston because Boston gets even crazier. Could be up to $1,000,000.02 million dollars million and a half easy to build
Michael Collette 24:44
startup costs build from the ground up or an existing location and outfit for a rescue depends.
Jay Chung 24:50
Probably some sort of existing thing there for you to just clean up and you know, make it yours. And think about them. amount of money you put in and the amount of sales you have to get per year. And they say in the restaurant business, if you’re making 10% profit, you’re doing okay. Below 10%, you should watch your numbers, anything above 10% you’re doing really, really well. If you hit him, if you’re hitting 15%, you’re hitting home run. So people, people imagine like, Oh, you know, you just sold that meal for like, $30. Like you, you sell like, five of those, you’re gonna make like, $150 I’m like, No, you sell five of those, you’re gonna make like $15 because just made three bucks out of one meal that you sold 330 dollars. So all that hard work and you made $15 you want to do it over and over again. So that’s, that’s where the numbers one a lot of people, but I think I think the people I know that do it. Well, just like anything else. Treat it like a business first. And then kind of mean, you definitely do have to have passion, or at least an interest. You have to love either the food aspect or the people aspect. Hopefully both. But I think you have to treat it like a business and you have to be a very business minded person that’s also knows about food or service are both. You can’t just be a numbers guy either sitting behind the computer and just, I don’t know, crunching stuff. So you just kind of have to know enough about everything. finances, marketing, cooking, surveying all that stuff.
Michael Collette 26:29
To be well rounded. You got to know all this stuff.
Jay Chung 26:31
Yeah, yeah. So I always like to joke that not that I’m great, or I’m not but like, what’s, what’s the saying? I’m a master of none. But I forget how that goes. But
Michael Collette 26:41
I know you’re saying I don’t know, either. But
Jay Chung 26:44
a lot of things. I don’t know, Master anything.
Michael Collette 26:48
So, Jay, you’re a successful restauranteur. And you’ve recently got into this endurance kick. And you ran a marathon recently. Well, maybe not too recently. Now. It’s kind of been a few months. Yeah. We climbed up. We did the presidential traverse. Now a lot of people that are listening, I know that we climbed all those mountains. That was hard.
Jay Chung 27:14
Much harder.
Michael Collette 27:15
Yeah. Why don’t you talk about that? I would love to hear your perspective because we have kind of a funny story. And plus, we’ll send it to Jesse afterwards that he can hear it too.
Jay Chung 27:21
Yes to Jesse’s let’s just say he wasn’t being honest.
Michael Collette 27:25
For you guys that don’t know. By the way. Jesse Dimmick. Shout out Jesse demick. He is one of our buddies that we mentioned earlier that we started that networking group with became a friend as part of a prototype physical therapy assistant was a coach a prototype and ended up moving back to Vermont. So that’s where he is now as a physical therapy assistant is funny. You mentioned coffee him and his wife Aaron just opened up a coffee roasting business and I actually just dropped off some coffee for me which is fantastic. things called victory. Coffee Roasters
Jay Chung 28:05
something kingdom.
Michael Collette 28:07
Oh Kingdom sign up victory kingdom. Yeah, kingdom. Sorry. Yeah, it’s actually really, really good coffee. So Jesse puts this basically puts this trip together for all of us to go and meet up and climb all the the mountains out there presidential traverse and I had no idea we were doing. We went to soul kitchen before that the night before, ate and drank a ton. And I think woke up at 3am. So we were not physically prepared. But Jay, you tell the story.
Jay Chung 28:40
I’m still traumatized. Would you bring that up? It just brings up good and bad. More bad. So thank thank God, by the way that Leah was training me for the marathon that summer because a marathon was going to happen. A little bit like a few weeks after the hike, right? So I was like, you know, like I was probably in the best indoor shape of my life. So thank God for that at least because I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. There was a group text going back and forth. And I remember Jesse saying over and over again, overpack because you don’t know what Washington is going to be like, you don’t know what the you know when to get up to the top of the mountain. You don’t know what that’s going to be like. Oh, there’s 10 Mountains you you. You climb. I had never done any of them. Me either. I climbed watch you set once you do,
Michael Collette 29:34
which is so different. It’s not the same.
Jay Chung 29:36
Oh, I know. It’s Yeah. So when I think of like a hike, I think of like, Oh, just like a stroll. You see birds chirping?
Michael Collette 29:44
Yeah, a lot.
Jay Chung 29:46
Yeah, it was. It was intense. As soon as we got there three in the morning we had these like lamps on I’m like, I’m immediately huffing and puffing. It’s like it’s it’s steep. It was like this. And I remember I had the most gear on because I was told to bring to come prepare. And I was obviously the smallest guy there with the most amount of gear. So I’m climbing this and I’m immediately panicking. And I remember
Michael Collette 30:19
the turnoff, man, you were with the fast guys.
Jay Chung 30:21
Yeah, they were like hardcore dudes. They were like this one guy had done like the what’s that Hawaiian triathlon thing. The Iron Man, Iron Man, but he had done the Iron Man and a couple of them were like, endurance athletes. And there’s me, dude, we
Michael Collette 30:37
had a fanny pack on you have any other gear? Nothing? No, no, no, I’m shorts. We were in like pants and leggings and jackets. And we had like 50 pounds of gear with snacks and all this stuff.
Jay Chung 30:47
And I remember panicking. I remember like, so you. So just give us a story. Mike and and Shawn and couple of weeks other people calling? Yeah, we we split up because I was I don’t know why I was with these guys. So we lost you guys. By the third mountain. I was looking for an exit plan. I think it was a second mountain or third mountain. I was like, how do I how do I make the stop? Like how do I go back down? How do I so I’m like I’m panicking. I don’t know what to do. And all sudden I met you guys and I was like, Oh my goodness.
Michael Collette 31:19
It was serendipitous. We went up the week you guys got up the first mountain was Adams. I forget which one?
Jay Chung 31:25
Yeah, I forget all the presidents
Michael Collette 31:26
of there before us. We came up after you guys. Then we went up the second one. And we went around the backside which apparently was faster, but was more vertical. So we were like literally climbing rocks. And we got up there. And we saw Jesse and those guys and then you came up just slightly after. And it was like you saw God.
Jay Chung 31:49
Oh God, cuz I was I was literally the last one. Like I was I was trailing so far behind from them that I started panicking. I’m like, I’ve lost my core group. Now I’m losing this other elite group. What do I What do I like? Do I climb back down? Do I like my car’s not parked there. So I’m trying to think of ways in my head to get back to where I am. But on
Michael Collette 32:14
the way out work. Our cars weren’t even near that where we went in.
Jay Chung 32:18
Yeah, we caught up. I caught up with you. 14 hours later we we finished that was the hardest, hardest day of my life.
Michael Collette 32:27
Was it really?
Jay Chung 32:28
Yeah,
Michael Collette 32:29
harder than the marathon, you ran a marathon man.
Jay Chung 32:31
It’s so much harder than the marathon.
Michael Collette 32:33
Really?
Jay Chung 32:34
Not even a comparison. I hate to say that because I’m trying to make you think, gosh,
Michael Collette 32:37
maybe I should run a marathon then.
Jay Chung 32:40
Because marathon you’re like, I don’t know if it was like because you know what you’re getting yourself into, you know exactly how many miles It is, yeah. Know, the route you’re running. This is just the elevation and the steepness that you just don’t know. And it’s so much longer and just, I don’t know, it was just painful. I don’t know how else I could explain it just painful.
Michael Collette 33:00
What’s the next endurance event you’re going to do?
Jay Chung 33:04
Not for a while.
Michael Collette 33:04
What’s the next thing you got planned?
Jay Chung 33:07
Working out prototype, you know, trying to gain muscle now.
Michael Collette 33:11
Right, man? You’re going to join us now that we’re putting this on the internet, you’re going to join us for our erg. athalon that we’re trying to do at the end of the year.
Jay Chung 33:20
Oh, yeah, that’s right. Yeah, I’ll join you for that.
Michael Collette 33:22
So it’s a marathon row. Yeah. 40 42,000 something
Jay Chung 33:30
I can’t Row. Forget it, then.
Michael Collette 33:32
Then it’s 100 100k bike earn. And then a 20k skier all in the one after the another.
Jay Chung 33:45
It’s the same. I wrote the other alarm. About a week and a half. Two weeks ago. Brian was there. I think I wrote like 500 meters. Can I try to do another 500 I just quit after like, like,
Michael Collette 34:00
like, I’m done. I’m done. I’m done. I hate rowing. rowing. I like I love rowing. I’m just saying from your perspective, and I hate it.
Jay Chung 34:07
I guess I haven’t done it in a while. Just it’s
Michael Collette 34:10
Yeah. Jay Chung, I have some some Spitfire questions for you. Yeah. Okay. One favorite movie, TV show of all time, and what are you currently binge watching right now.
Jay Chung 34:32
Think breaking bad for me was my favorite show. binge watching something that no one’s probably watching. It’s called it’s on Netflix called a colony. It’s about it’s about this family. They live in LA. They are crazy. They basically aliens have like taken over the world and they’ve put in humans and colonies with walls all around and Humans don’t know this, but they’re basically trying to kill off the human population.
Michael Collette 35:07
I know it sounds terrifying. Sounds terrifying.
Jay Chung 35:09
Well, it’s about a family that has to go through that and it’s pretty sure favorite movie. Oof, that’s tough man. Donny Donnie Brasco.
Michael Collette 35:20
Well Donnie brasco. Yeah, I don’t even remember the last time I watched that movie. I might have to watch that.
Jay Chung 35:26
I love I love mafia movies. I love movies like God. I mean, everyone’s gonna say guys.
Michael Collette 35:31
Good fellas.
Jay Chung 35:32
Oh, this is awesome. Donnie Brasco for me was
Michael Collette 35:36
Have you eve watched Sopranos
Jay Chung 35:38
Of course. I haven’t watched all the episodes but I’ve seen it here and there.
Michael Collette 35:42
You’re going to binge watch a show that is like the show to watch.
Jay Chung 35:48
I never had HBO so all those shows like Game of Thrones. Sopranos I miss now HBO has got the best shows me I try to watch Game of Thrones. I watched the first two and I was like,
Michael Collette 35:57
You got it. You gotta like it’s like the first five. It’s one of those slow like, adapting ones
Jay Chung 36:02
five before it starts moving?
Michael Collette 36:04
Well, no, it like, because of the context and like complexity and all the character building. There’s a lot of character building. So you got to like, give it a few. But like once the first awesome thing happens. You’re like, Okay, this is awesome. And then you’re like you’re fully invested in but I am right there with you. It took it takes a few more than two. Maybe three. I’ll try to stick it but Sopranos you have to you have to watch. Yeah. And I heard that they were supposed to come out in 2020 with a with like a movie.
Jay Chung 36:36
His son was supposed to play.
Michael Collette 36:38
Yeah, I think they still are. I think they’re planning on releasing it in 2021. So I’m like pumped to see that. Yeah. Favorite musician, band artist of all time.
Jay Chung 36:48
I’m like 90s kid, so I grew up loving like alternative music. So Pearl Jam was Is it for me? But I listened to all types. Pearl Jam. I used to listen to a lot of Believe it or not like a lot of Metallica. What else? You know? these days? I don’t really listen to like new music anymore.
Michael Collette 37:14
Me either. Pearl Jam. Have you been to a show?
Jay Chung 37:17
I have not. I’ve been to a Metallica show.
Michael Collette 37:21
The last Pearl Jam concert that I went to. Well, I wanted to buy remember one at Fenway and then one at the garden. I remember Eddie Vetter. Drinking like four bottles of wine during the concert. And you can put like the empty bottles really on the stage.
Jay Chung 37:41
Wow. Dude, he’s like,
Michael Collette 37:43
by the end of like the show he they finished the yellow lead better. Yeah, it was just vowels. I mean, all you could hear.
Jay Chung 37:50
It doesn’t really enunciate that much anyways. No, you can play it off.
Michael Collette 37:54
Yeah, exactly. Alright, last question. What’s your favorite thing to do when you’re not working? working out? What’s your favorite thing to do? What’s your hobby number one hobby.
Jay Chung 38:09
Um, recently, it’s become I have more and more of and I’m sure a lot of other people too, to travel and I wish I travel more. And I’ve Debbie and I have vowed to travel more. As soon as this kind of subsides a little bit but we I just love going on vacations. And I different vacations a little bit. She’s more of like, resort type of person and which I don’t mind. But I love I love seeing new cultures. I especially love. Like if we go somewhere like that’s the one thing I have to have is good food. Like I can’t go to a place where it’s known for crappy food. So that’s the one thing I always look for. I think it’s kind of going off topic but New Orleans, in my opinion in America, at least that I’ve been to as is the best food city in the States. I love I love West Coast. I love like Southern California love that area. So we try to visit there at least once a year we didn’t last year for obvious reasons. But yeah, we just love traveling
Michael Collette 39:21
was the next place. You guys are going are you have anything planned.
Jay Chung 39:25
We had a quick Cancun trip plan, but I don’t think that’s going to go through. So we heard about all these freak stories when you come back and you test. If you test positive. We’re just gonna hold you and some of it is false.
Michael Collette 39:42
What in Mexico they hold you?
Jay Chung 39:45
Yeah, so the US now needs to travel guidelines in
Yeah, well, no, you have to test negative feedback. Yeah. Then you have to say in the resort, if you test positive Hmm. And then I don’t know like I don’t want to be in a resort but not able to go out for 10 days.