After only two years, it seems that most people have all but forgotten the destruction that the Covid-19 lockdowns caused to all, especially small businesses. Ian Smith is the owner of Atilis Gym. During the lockdowns, Smith refused to close his doors and the found himself the target of multiple lawsuits and government organizations.Show more Today, Ian joins Elijah to tell his story...
________________________________________________________________
I'm now fully INDEPENDENT so JOIN the mission at https://elijahschaffer.locals.com/ You won't regret it!
________________________________________________________________
⇩ SUPPORT THE SPONSORS ⇩
NOOTOPIA: Nootopia was created to help high achievers like you break through barriers and achieve more faster than they thought humanly possible. This is the LIMITLESS pill you are missing in your life! I use them to increase my productivity, crush it in my career, and you can get the same results or better. Go to https://nootopia.com/offensive for 25% their entire store right now. You won't regret it!
________________________________________________________________
⇩ FOLLOW IAN ⇩
INSTA: https://www.instagram.com/iansmithfit...
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/iansmithfitness
________________________________________________________________
Slightly Offens*ve Merch: https://slightlyoffensive.com/shop/
________________________________________________________________
DOWNLOAD AUDIO PODCAST & GIVE A 5 STAR RATING!:
APPLE: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...
SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/7jbVobn...
(also available Google Podcasts & wherever else podcasts are streamed)
_________________________________________________________________
⇩ SOCIAL MEDIA ⇩
➤ INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/slightlyoff...
➤ TWITTER: https://twitter.com/ElijahSchaffer
➤ FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/officialslig...
_________________________________________________________________ Show less
I have been so worried about you over the last couple of years, and it's amazing to see you doing so well because you have been hit from every single front when it comes to being attacked, not only being called a killer, a murderer, a serial killer, but they went after your family.
They went after your business, your ability to provide for your family, and even the money you already made.
They went after your bank accounts with fine after fine.
And yet, here you are, excited, happy about life.
You've got a schedule.
You haven't killed yourself.
What's the secret?
Because people have gone through less and they've done much worse to themselves.
But like the way that you're handling this, I mean, this is a model approach.
You know, I've always been an easy target for people to criticize.
You know, when I was younger, as the internet found out on site my business and people needed a reason to attack me, you know, I've done plenty of stuff that makes people want to criticize me.
So I've gotten used to it through the years.
This by far, opening the gym and becoming a notable figure was a little bit different of experience.
But you get used to it over time.
You realize that, you know, most of these people who come at you, especially the ones on the internet, it's all smoke and mirrors.
And as far as the government coming at you, you know, it's not my first time I've been in trouble.
And I look at it as a small sacrifice.
You know, we did something that we thought was right.
We were looking around back in 2020 when all these businesses were closed and these lockdowns were like widely accepted by people.
And we said, this isn't right.
And we knew we were going to get punished for it.
We didn't know what we were stepping into exactly, but we knew that we would be punished.
And the way that we looked at it was, you know, it's a small sacrifice to pay.
There's people who give their life for this country and have for decades and generations.
And if I got to deal with the cops harassing me and, you know, Twitter being upset with me and the government taking some of my money to stand up for what's right, I think that's a small price to pay for making sure that this country stays intact.
Yeah.
And I like how you say too that the internet isn't real and these people are not real, because I think that's what the media gives an illusion of, right?
Because they have, you know, millions of people or hundreds of thousands of people.
And quite frankly, and I've been at the center of many of controversies throughout my life.
People can just say whatever the hell they want about you.
And truly, truly, what they're looking for is they're looking to demoralize you.
And I think that, you know, when I saw that, what people said about your gym, I kind of want to break the silence here.
They said that you were murdering people, that you were a serial killer.
How many people ended up dying at your gym from COVID during the pandemic?
So we stopped counting.
We were counting visits to the gym.
We had our own contact tracing system.
We counted all the way up, I think, to over half a million visits.
We were close to 600,000 visits, and there wasn't one recorded even outbreak linked to the gym, let alone a fatality of any kind.
So, yeah, and I don't think what we knew, of course, all along.
You know, people came and the only thing that happened was people were happy and smiling and living their lives as they should be allowed to.
But yeah, they said that, especially in the beginning, people were calling us, threatening us, leaving bad reviews, writing nasty letters, sending threats saying that they were going to come burn the gym down, saying that they were going to come hurt our family just for opening the gym because they were 100% sure that we were going to kill people.
And to this day, still nobody.
Well, I was going to say what's remarkable is, I saw this article from you, and it says the co-owner of Atlas Gym from Fox Business says, despite the New Jersey government seizing his company's funds amid a coronavirus restrictions battle, they're going to continue to fight by any means necessary.
And it quotes you saying, Frank and I are prepared to fight this until the very end.
And I got to ask you, has this ended, or where are you at in your fight against these restrictions that they're now trying to shove under the rug and pretend like they never happened?
So, you know, we knew going into this thing that it was going to be like a 12-round fight.
You know, anytime you take on something big, like, you know, big money, corporation, government, these people will willingly do knowing that in order for you to even remotely have the possibility of any type of vindication, that you are going to have to fight a very long and very, very costly battle.
And it's costly financially, emotionally.
You know, it takes a toll on your family.
And they know that.
They know that they can drag you through the courts for as long as they want and they have the wallet to do it.
You know, so we knew we knew that this was going to be long once we got into it.
And we wound up in five different courts.
We were in state court for a contempt of court order.
We had about 90 municipal charges.
We were in state court against the township after they revoked our business license.
And, you know, when we opened, we weren't charging members.
It wasn't about making the money.
It was about the point.
And before they reopened gyms, one week before they reopened, they took our business license.
So they took the ability for us to be able to provide once they opened gyms as a way to punish us.
So we wound up in five different courts, three state courts, a municipal court, and a federal court.
And today, there are still some litigations ongoing for the appeal of the fines.
And these things just drag on.
You know, it's 30 days for a motion.
It's 30 days for a reply, 30 days for a brief, 30 days for the judge to look at it, 30 days for the date to get set.
And next thing you know, you're four to six months between court dates, you know, just kind of with the bill going up.
So the most important thing is that in May of 2020, right as I was running for Congress, the township, which was probably the most important legal battle of all, because the township was the one that took our business license.
We sued them and lost them and lost over and over and over again.
And eventually the mayor contacted our attorneys and basically said, how long are these guys going to keep this up for?
And our attorneys said, as long as they have to until they get their business license back.
And one week later, our business licenses came in the mail.
So it was apparent that the township could no longer justify the cost to the taxpayers.
You know, it costs $30,000 or so every time you go to court.
And I don't think that they could justify that expense anymore.
I don't think it's something that they wanted to do in the first place.
I think it was pressure from Murphy because it was such a hasty decision.
They just sent us a letter and said, hey, come to this meeting next week.
We're going to talk about your business license.
And they just took it.
It was one of those hasty decisions in the middle of coronavirus where people were just listening to the people above them.
I don't think the people, the town council, as much as I disagree with what they did, I don't think they really meant it.
These guys are just following orders.
So their hearts aren't in the fight.
So we got the business license back in May.
We resumed normal business operations.
That was a huge relief because for two years, we ran off of donations and contributions and t-shirt sales.
You know, and that's an incredible thing.
People were so generous to us over and over and over again.
Not only did we were we able to pay our normal overhead, but the increased cost of business with all of the safety protocols and the cleaning and all the stuff that we did, as well as well over a $500,000, you know, I think we were at about $650,000 in legal fees altogether.
We were able to afford all that and people allowed us to do that.
But it's nice to be able to get back to business and actually just charge customers and like normal business for once in two and a half years.
Right.
And I think what's the crazy part is they took your money though out of your account while you were in the middle of the process.
People do not understand when people want, when the, when, when there are individuals set out to destroy other individuals, they will go to very nasty lengths to do that.
And it's disgusting.
But the government has a length they can go to that's further than most people, which is this eminent domain legal acquisition that one day you can wake up and your money can be gone.
And a good example of that is Nick Fuentes.
People can think what they want, but one day that guy woke up, 500 grand of his money was gone because they said he was a terrorist.
No, no evidence, nothing like that.
And in America, that shouldn't be the case.
You can have bad humor.
You should be able to have your gym open.
You might get into a fight, but taking your money is a sign that we want you to starve.
How did you survive that?
I mean, I know you mentioned that the t-shirts and stuff, but it's like they went into your account and took your money because you didn't want to follow COVID restrictions that you knew were unscientific.
While this interview is inspiring, I got to remind you guys that not only is your body important to keep in shape and to maximize, but many of us know no matter how in shape we get, we feel that lethargy in the middle of the day, or you have those long hours at work.
You're getting older, you just don't have the energy that you would want.
Maybe you're a college student or a stay-at-home mom and you just get exhausted by the teaching, the learning, the repetition, which is why you've got to learn how to unlock the full potential of your brain with nootropics from nootopia.com slash offensive.
Guys, nootropics are a non-addictive, non-prescription way to get energy, to get focus, and also even sometimes to calm yourself down if you're jittery.
Nothing else can do this for you in the way that nootropics can help you.
I got to tell you, I use their upbeat.
It is amazing.
It gives you the energy, like you're drinking coffee with the focus of Adderall, without the addiction, without the jitters.
And guys, it could get you through so much of the day, girls too.
Check out nootopia.com/slash offensive, n-o-ot-t-op-p-ia-a.com slash o-f-f-e-n-s-i-v-e for 25% off right now on the Christmas sale.
Remember, these advertisers are so amazing.
They help the show continue.
They keep the show on the air and they want to keep your brain running at 110%.
Let's say even 150%.
Check out what nootropics can do for you, including the Xaminer juice.
I highly recommend.
Get their sampler box.
Get whatever you need.
Unlock your potential.
Get it for your friends and your family.
It makes a great Christmas grift.
Gift Newtopia.com slash offensive right now.
N-O-O-T-O-PI-A.com slash offensive.
I said Nutopia, I mean Christmas Grift, and it's true, because maybe you need to grift for Christmas because you don't know your family members that well and you don't know anybody and you're not sure what to get them.
Get them a better brain.
Just grift off this ad and get them a better brain at newtopia.com slash offensive.
