Whiskey & Wisdom

DON'T Stop Looking for an Adventure w/ Casey Fitcakes

March 29, 2023 Whiskey & Wisdom Episode 61
Whiskey & Wisdom
DON'T Stop Looking for an Adventure w/ Casey Fitcakes
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Show Notes Transcript

This week we bring on @caseyfitcakes ! Casey is a fitness influencer who traveled to North Carolina all the way from Oregon in a rental car with 2 dogs in the back seat. In this episode we talk about the journey across the country, how Casey got into fitness, and why she decided to get outside of her comfort zone and do something no one ever thought she'd be brave enough to do!

This week we tried Peak Cocktails, the drink for athletes that don't drink.

Where to Find Casey:
@caseyfitcakes
curveyinthirty.com

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How to find us:
Whiskey & Wisdom: @whiskey.and.wisdom
Chris Kellum: @ctkellum
LinkedIn: Christopher Kellum
Tyler Yaw: @tyler_yaw_
LinkedIn: Tyler Yaw

Chris:

Welcome back everybody. This week you have me as always, Chris Kellum and my constant co-host Tyler, y'all. This week we bring on a woman that I literally just met like 15 minutes ago, But here she has a really amazing social media presence,

Tyler:

which we wouldn't have known about without my wife letting me know about you and finding you on TikTok and everything too. But yeah, you had an amazing story. So we wanted to bring you on.

Casey:

Thank you. Yeah. I'm Casey and I'm from Oregon and Really? Yeah.

Chris:

Is there anything good in Oregon?

Casey:

Yeah. Hiking, beer, lots of things. You only, well, I'm sold You don't have to pump your gas.

Tyler:

That's all I need to know. it's like

Chris:

New Jersey. Okay. I was like, is that, I did see that like an article where they were like, oh, we're gonna stop forcing, giving people jobs to pump gas and I. then you're taking away people's shops. Mm-hmm. Anyways, that's a long, that's a whole nother story. But Casey is a woman, lady person who works out a lot and is in peak physique or getting towards that. So we were given, sent. Tried randomly,

Tyler:

We have, we have PE cocktails in front of us right now, And what they're claimed to fame is, is they are a drink for athletes that don't drink. Yes. And since we brought Casey on, she has Decided to abstain from drinking, which is probably for better for most of us And so that's why we decided to bring these on too. We're actually just full disclosure, we're thinking about bringing them on as a an affiliate, but we wanna make sure that they taste good and that our guests like them and everything too. Cuz if we're gonna have'em in the studio when we tell you to buy'em, we wanna know if they taste good. And the best way to do that is a blind taste. So here we are. You'll find out if you hear more about peak cocktails or not. Yes. There is no alcohol in these. And the first one we're trying today is the blood orange spritz with ginger and bitters. Mm-hmm make sure you read what's underneath cuz the other one has jalapenos and I didn't know that one. I tried that one originally, but it's gonna be a blind taste test for Chris and Casey

Chris:

So well here we go. Let's check this out. Cheer. Cheers. Cheers. Cheer.

Tyler:

Get you.

Casey:

Yeah, it's good. It has good flavor.

Tyler:

Mm-hmm. I like this one much better than the other one that I had the other day. Mm-hmm.

Chris:

But you don't like spicy stuff. That's true.

Casey:

Yeah. I think that would be, I don't know. I expected it to be more like carbonated. Yeah.

Chris:

And it catches you. Yeah. So the other flavor is a passion fruit margarita. Mm-hmm. Which is why it has jalapeno spicy margarita. And I mean, I'm sure my wife would love it, but yeah, I'm not a spicy person.

Tyler:

Yeah. I was spicy pretty good though. I could, I could drink this. Yeah. And I guess there's, there's quite a bit of good stuff in here for you too. So at the top of it, it says super foods, zero proof. Of course. Neutropic neutropics adaptogens. and it helps with recovery. Sleep keeps you calm and good for social settings. Yes,

Chris:

there's an, there is Ashwaganda. Mm, I just like to say the word

Tyler:

Ashwaganda is pretty good for energy, so,

Casey:

oh. and stress, right?

Chris:

Yeah, that's right. Oh, I just, I've seen it when I used to watch TikTok off the time I'm just kidding.

Tyler:

Like it's all over TikTok, But before we get started here, we do wanna shout out sway Creative, which is helping us up our social media game. Cuz not everyone can be as amazing as Casey is on social media and gain the following that she does on her own. So we have to bring in a pretty amazing. Firm to help us do that. So look up Sway Creative. They are helping us kind of build out our social media presence and our marketing and why we look good now. Yes,

Chris:

they make life so much easier

Tyler:

and oh my goodness, that is the best part. out of all of it, not having to edit our own stuff now is. So highly recommend checking those guys out.

Chris:

Chris, so No, there you go. I mean, it makes sense. We talked the other week about like trading time for money. Mm-hmm. and like, what is gonna make the most sense for your life? I'm like, do you want to spend more money or to have more time? And yes, the answer is I will spend a little bit of money to have some free time. What I know Ms. Casey ever spends a lot of her time in the gym, I. and that's just because I saw like half a Instagram photo that Tyler posted. But Casey, tell us a little bit more about yourself.

Casey:

Yeah, so, I started working out, well, I was always like an athlete through high school and then. You know, when you're doing sports, like you don't really learn anything in the gym. Mm-hmm. And so college hit and I was like I'm no longer an athlete since I only did sports in high school. So I learned how to work out in the gym and back in the day, this was like 2013 Instagram and you know, TikTok, all of that, like there was no workouts. You couldn't just, nowadays you can find whatever you want. So I had to Google things and try and figure out what to do in the gym and it. It was hard and uncomfortable and I feel like there's kind of this stigma where it's like the gym working out is like for guys, and especially back then too, not a lot of girls were like weightlifting. We had like the dumbbells and we were in the room by ourselves, like trying to hide from everybody And so when I, my threw my journey, like trying to learn how to work out and what works best for me I decided that I wanted to help other women because it is scary. Yeah, I started my fitness business in 20, like 18, 20 19. And I've been, you know, helping women ever since. I run it full-time and I do like online workouts and I record like the workout videos and stuff, so fitness has been a big part of my life and it's really led me to some amazing things and to a career. And so now I help other.

Tyler:

Nice. So what was the catalyst to kind of get you back into that then? Because just from a little bit that I've, I've heard about you and that I've seen too. It seemed like there was, there was a a disconnect there for a little bit. Yeah. And then kind of got back into the passion of it.

Casey:

Yeah. So I, I'm a huge like, mental health advocate because Yeah. I've kind of struggled. I've had like my fair share of times where it's like I would drink a lot and just kind of like, Just be down in the dumps. Mm-hmm. And with drinking, I would eat like crap. And so I would start gaining weight and then I'd feel awful. And just overall, like my quality of life was super awful. So I just decided, you know, I'm just going to literally just do one thing at a time, like one step forward. And so my first step was, okay, just make working out like consistent. And then everything else kind of just falls into. That's amazing.

Chris:

So as we like to go backwards before we go forward, You said you were an athlete in high school? Mm-hmm. What did you do? Were you a cheerleader? No.

Casey:

I was a gymnast and I was gonna be a cheerleader but I only liked the tumbling part, so I was a swimmer ever since I was like eight years old. I was on the swim team, and so in high school I swam at 5:00 AM before class and then after class, so Oh, wow.

Chris:

Yeah. In the natatorium. Is that what it's called? Yeah. Is that another

Tyler:

favorite

Casey:

word? No, we didn't have a pool at our, at our school. Oh yeah.

Chris:

High five Don't worry. I didn't either. Everyone looks and I'm like, Tyler's bougie. He had an E auditorium at his school. Yeah. I'm like, but we grew up at the beach so that we're at sea level. Yeah. And said, you're from Oregon. Yeah. Yeah. So it's kind of hard to. Pool.

Casey:

Yeah, an excess. My high school was in the middle of nowhere, like people would like leave for lunch at other high schools, I guess, but not for us. you had to bring a lunch

Tyler:

And you're from Oregon originally, right? Yes. So what brought you all the way to North Carolina? And then also tell us a story about how you got all the way over here. Oh goodness.

Casey:

Yeah, so I guess it kind of goes back to like my business, like building my fitness business. Like I, when I became a personal trainer, I was like, oh, I'm gonna train in the gym. Mm-hmm. because I wanted to be like in person with people. Mm-hmm. And then I quickly realized that, you know, we were just talking about like trading time for money. I was like, holy smokes, I cannot be at the gym all day long. And then, I wanted to charge people more, but just so I can make my bills right. But I didn't necessarily wanna charge them more cuz I wanted to make fitness affordable for people. So I took it online and then I realized that I had Freedom running an online business. And I finally got into a place where it was just everything was flowing really well and I was making good money. And so, my dream ever since I was like 16 years old was to just take off and my parents. you know those like fun Barbie Jeeps that kids have? Yeah. Yes. I was not allowed to have one because my parents were like, we'll never see Casey again. She's gonna at like five years old. They're like, she's gonna take off And that's basically what I did. So, Yeah, like literally this time last year, February, I decided I'm going to move. I was like, my lease is gonna end. And I'm just, I'm gonna take off. I don't know where I don't know how but I'm just gonna do it. So my lease ended in August and. I it was like really expensive to buy a u-Haul and drive that. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. because I was like, I know, I wanna just try and get as far away from Oregon as possible. Like, why not? Let's just go for it. Yeah.

Chris:

but within the

Casey:

US Yeah. Yeah. Well, I have my dogs and it would just be like, complicated, like trying to go anywhere else, so. Okay. I was like, I'm just gonna drive and see, see what I like. I actually had a couple places and I kind of like. just put'em in a hat and I was like, okay, let's see, which place I grab. And then I'd look on TikTok and be like, okay, is this town because you, you can Google things, but like it's super biased. Like, yeah, of course I would look up Best Beach towns in Oregon and it was like Newport and it was awful. I was like, I would never live there. This is not a good place. So I just figured that would be the same for anywhere else. So, I would look at places on TikTok and it was super cool cause it was like mini vlogs, like I could literally like see everything. And so, I thought I wanted to live in Wyoming, in Casper, Wyoming. Ugh. And then, yeah, no And then I stayed there when I was driving through and I, I could not leave fast enough.

Tyler:

Just kidding. One

Chris:

of my friends literally just moved back, like she moved to Casper cuz like her family was out there. What are the odds? I mean, there's a lot of oil and a lot of, like, Casper had a, like prior to Covid, they were building, like, there was a huge, like, Hey, there's a lot of oil. We need people to come live here. So there were, there's a lot of developments growing. So like she was like, Hey, let's move out here. Go see my family. Mm-hmm. And then she was like Yeah, there's nothing here that's,

Casey:

yeah. Yeah. It was kind of weird. So I was like, all right, well I guess I'll go to North Carolina and I didn't have a That was my second option. Oh, okay. Why

Tyler:

don't you to North Carolina. Okay.

Chris:

Before you go there, how many options did you

Casey:

pick? I had a couple. So, so couples, No. Okay. So Wyoming Texas, but I just knew too many people moving to Texas and for some reason I was like, I wanna go where I know absolutely nobody like, okay. Yeah. I was like, it'd be super fun to like not be able to run into anybody right now. yes. But in Texas, I felt like so many people were going there that. I'd probably end up near someone. So, Texas I did, but kind of not. And then Tennessee was a huge one. And then Florida I kind of thought about, but everybody was like, don't go to Florida Hurricanes. Well, I ended up in a place It literally gets flooded. completely flooded.

Tyler:

Yeah. O bx on a bad, bad rain

Casey:

day. it's a little terrifying. And then North Carolina.

Chris:

So, so random. So how

Tyler:

was the drive from rambling to North

Casey:

Carolina? It was,

Tyler:

What

Chris:

did, what did you drive?

Casey:

Okay. Yes. So that this is the fun thing. Oh yeah. So I sold literally everything I owned mm-hmm. but like three garbage bags full of clothes, which Oh wow. Is still to this day. I moved in August. That's still all that I own. Okay. I had a, like an old Jeep Liberty and there for like six months. There was just problem after problem. And so my dad was like, there's no way you're driving that. And I was like, I mean, it was a Jeep Liberty. Yeah, yeah.

Tyler:

Oh, you're gonna make Jennifer mad. That's what she had.

Casey:

I loved mine, but they said that it was it stands for just exchange every part. And that's Yes, very true. That's literally what we did. So my dad actually ended up buying it off of me because he's retired and worked on it so much. He's like, this is kind of fun. I'll take it. I was like, all right, cool. Great. And then I was gonna buy a new car before I left, but I just assumed, or I didn't know where I wanted to go and I was gonna be driving a lot. So I got a rental car. It wasn't that expensive. And if anything happened to it, it was completely covered. And I'm just get a new car's. So figured that'd be better than breaking down somewhere. And then, yeah, coughing out more money. So, I still don't have a car. I don't own a car right now. I've been trying. I try to buy one, but you know, I'm living on an island and everything's rusted over there, so. Mm-hmm.

Chris:

there's so many questions later.

Casey:

Oh, no, I, I have questions for myself. like nothing. I live very on the fly, like nothing is figured out, but it's working. So, yeah, so I got a rental car loaded up what I could, I have two dogs. They're, luckily they're pretty small. They're like medium sized. They're blue healers. Yeah, so like 50 pound dogs. And they're great in the car. And so we just took off driving and basically I would drive as far as I could until I got tired and then find a cheap motel. There's lots of like$40 motels that I would not recommend, but it worked. Yeah. I mean, you

Chris:

had dogs, so people aren't

Casey:

gonna Yeah, yeah. No, they're, they're my guard dog, so it worked out Good. Smart Yeah. Good stuff.

Chris:

Yeah. So did you stop in Tennessee and you were like, no, don't like this, and then just kept going in North Carolina?

Casey:

Yeah, basically I was stopping in all the places that, aside from Texas, I didn't go down that far. Right. But I was just stopping everywhere trying to see and like writing down places. If I drove through, I was like, oh, this town is cute. Like I have a, my whole like notes app just full of like random places cuz I didn't know, like if I was gonna stay in North Carolina. I dunno, just kind of still just traveling around. I have no idea where I'm gonna end up in two months. So,

Chris:

Interesting. So wait, do you have a lease in

Casey:

North Carolina? Yeah, for two more months.

Chris:

are you okay? Okay. So going to to the mini questions? Yes. First off, are you saying in like, like a long-term rental?

Casey:

So, yeah, so I. I, I stayed in the Airbnb for a little bit in Wilmington cuz I thought I was gonna live here. And then I was just searching on Craigslist for anything and it popped up, it was like Avon, fully furnished rental on the beach for$1,500 and everything's included. I was like, this sounds like a scam, but I'm applying to everything at this point because my Airbnb's ending and I can't find another place and I don't have a car. Yeah. So I'm like, oh no. Okay. I texted this guy and then he FaceTimes me and the whole time I'm like, this is a scam. This is a scam. But I got nowhere else to go, so I guess I'll just drive to this island that's six hours away. no rental cars. I couldn't like find a rental car. I couldn't find anything to drive over there because there's literally nothing on this island. So I couldn't drop off a rental car. So I got a U. A studio. The only thing they had available, cuz it was literally, he was like, you can come move in literally tomorrow morning. Oh. I was like, perfect. My Airbnb is up so I'll do that. So all I could find was this studio sized U-Haul for my three bags of clothes. Let me tell you, that was not fun driving over all those bridges too. I was sure. Oh my gosh. So yeah, I'm driving the whole time I. I think this is a scam, but I have this U-Haul for three days, so worst case scenario, I can sleep in the back of it.

Chris:

Yeah. That is worst. On worst

Casey:

case, Actually, no, it was like kind of the buzz case, like but

Chris:

I'm like my head, I'm like, Nope. If I get in the back of a U-haul, that thing's never opening up. Like I would get trapped inside of it.

Casey:

Oh, I didn't even think about

Chris:

that. I think of

Casey:

worst, worst case, but I would have my phone, so I.

Tyler:

Yeah. Be like, Hey, someone come and

Casey:

break me outta this. You just stay on Instagram. Like, hi guys. I think I'm parked over here. But yeah, so he cuz Outer Banks is a super big, like, touristy spot, but it's a ghost town from like September to May. Yeah. And they weren't kidding, kidding. Like the only thing open right now is food. Oh wow. That's, I walk around Ace hardware for fun. So my, my lease is from, I moved there in September and it's until May. And then he rents out his place short term for tourist June through August. Yeah. So he's like, yeah, you can stay here and it's fully furnished. So that was kind of the, the big selling point, cuz I didn't have. but now I, I don't know where I'm going in May. So

Tyler:

do you like Wilmington? Like have you enjoyed Wilmington when you do visit

Casey:

down here? Yeah. Yeah. It's fun. There's a lot more going on here.

Chris:

Yeah. I mean, you're an Avon. Yeah.

Casey:

There's nothing going on No.

Chris:

So it's always funny, like I love North Carolina, but it's also one of. States that is very deceptive because it is so long. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Like you're like, oh, it took six hours. I'm like, it shouldn't be that far, but you have to go over all the bridges and the way to get up to it cuz you're like almost to

Casey:

Virginia, right? Yeah. I'm one further down. Oh,

Chris:

you're just stuck in a weird Yeah.

Tyler:

Yeah. You have to like get, I'm like go up to get down

Casey:

literally in the water. Like if you look on the map, I'm just like hanging in there. Like I look to the right and it's water and I look to the left. It's water.

Chris:

Oh yeah. I

Casey:

couldn't live there. It, it, it was actually really scary driving over there. I was like, what is this? And then the h like, hurricane season hit and everybody's panicking and I'm like, I don't know anybody here. I don't have a car, so if I have to evacuate, like what am I gonna do? and people, I started like talking to locals and they're like, oh, we don't evacuate. Like my house is on these highs. Stilts, like, they're like, just stay in your house, you'll be fine. Mm-hmm. Like, okay.

Chris:

Yep. put floaties on your dog so they can go to the bathroom in the water.

Casey:

And Yeah. That was, that was hard. They didn't like that. Oh, it has flooded. My whole like, under the house is flooded and like, you have to park your cars and like higher ground. Mm-hmm. it's, it's a lot different than Oregon

Tyler:

I can imagine.

Chris:

You don't have a car.

Casey:

So, yeah. So I didn't have that issue.

Chris:

Because you are a workout influencer is what I'll call it. Is that what you call it? That works. Where do you work out? Yeah. So

Casey:

because there ain't nothing out there, Yeah. There, there is a little gym. There's not much there, but it is like two minutes from my house, so I get to walk there and that, that's super fun. But I actually, so my whole thing is that I do at-home workouts. Ah, okay. So, when Covid hit, I created my own dumb. So I have all these like bright pink dumbbells. I used to sell them for my clients and just anybody who wanted them. And so I have those and I do my own workouts at home typically, but I also lead like live workouts. No, fabulous. Yeah. But I can also walk to the gym. There's just not a lot there.

Tyler:

tell us a little bit more about kind of how you do those live workouts and kind of how you built that community around

Casey:

you. Yeah. So I do it in a Facebook group and honestly it's word of mouth. Okay. I, as of right now, I'm not like running any Facebook ads. I've tried to, but I always just waste money. I feel like and it's always like my clients who see it, they're like, oh, I saw your Facebook ad. I'm like, that's cool, but you weren't supposed, supposed to reach more people. So it's just. Word of mouth. People telling their friends telling their moms like, I have, it's, I mean, anybody can do my workouts, but it is more my niche is woman. And so, I have, you know, a lot of moms in there and it's just been super fun doing the live workouts. They're only 30 minutes. My program has actually called Kirby in 30 mm-hmm. cause all the workouts I teach are 30 minutes and all you need is a pair of dumbbells. Ah,

Tyler:

okay. So not like 30 years.

Casey:

No I am almost 30, so I guess that could work. I

Chris:

mean, we would never ask our mother sought us correctly. So one, do you sell, do you still sell dumbbells?

Casey:

No. I have thought about doing it. I didn't know how the whole like shipping process and buying is so confusing and so I got like 500 hairs of dumbbells shipped Oh wow. To my house, and I was, no, it was crazy. So it wasn't supposed to be there for a couple days and it was like nine o'clock at night and I was like, I really want some ice cream. So go to the store. and I come back and there's just pallets of dumbbells just sitting at my garage, oh no and it starts raining. And I was like, what? And so I had to like carry them all in and then I had to keep going to the post office. And the guy was just like, what are you selling like these, because these boxes, like people would buy, I had heavy. Yeah. 15 pound pears. 10 and five. And I did a bum bundle so people would buy all three. And I'm like, oh, seriously, And I'm like spending 30 bucks on shipping. I'm like, I don't know what I'm doing, so I wanna do it again. But I think maybe workout bands, I can put those in an envelope. Right?

Chris:

Something a little bit more inconspicuous in,

Tyler:

we teach you how to do drop shipping.

Casey:

Yes, I've heard about that. So maybe if there's, I mean, I sold them. I just don't know if that's something I would continue to sell or,

Tyler:

okay. Yeah, those were on hell of a workout. Just bring all of the dumbbells into

Casey:

your house. Oh yeah. All of them in the house. And then, yeah, the post office runs right?

Chris:

Oh, I feel so bad. But I don't I just sit back and I'm like, you know, that's actually kind of funny. So you stayed in Wilmington? Mm-hmm.

Casey:

for like a week.

Chris:

I'm so sad. It was only a week. So sad. What was your favorite thing to do here?

Casey:

I really didn't do anything here, It was pouring down rain and I had no car. I, I got an Airbnb in like the middle of like things cuz I was like, oh, perfect, I can walk. No. Mm-hmm. It was like downpour, Oh no. What is

Tyler:

happening? Worst week? I thought you had Wilmington. Yeah.

Casey:

But yeah, and I didn't really realize that it would be my last trip to Starbucks. There's no Starbucks over in outer banks. Yeah. So I could see that outside.

Chris:

Yeah. Guess what? Before you go home you can pick up

Casey:

Starbucks, Oh, I'm I'm definitely gonna Starbucks.

Chris:

I would suggest Port City Java, but that's just me being preferential. Okay. Yeah, port

Tyler:

City Java is like the Starbucks

Casey:

of Wilington. Yeah. Yeah. I do like coffee shops, like just going. I actually, I brought my laptop. That's probably what I'll do tomorrow. Just find a coffee shop and get some work

Chris:

done. Yeah. I know on the beach there's workshop, you go downtown. What is, isn't there a. Drop

Tyler:

a dog. Yes. Hmm. Yeah. So did you have the dogs? You should bring'em down there. Can

Casey:

you actually bring them in there? Uhhuh. Oh, that's cool. Yeah,

Tyler:

the owner usually has his dog in there. Oh, that's

Casey:

super awesome.

Chris:

Yeah. I love that. It's in the cotton exchange. Yep. So it's like an very antique style building. Nice. And people just, you can walk around up and down the street

Casey:

and see that's, that's kind of why I'm leaning towards moving here because. that's what I want. Like there's really nothing in outer banks. Like, it's fun. It's very, everybody is just very like close-knit. Mm-hmm. And I love that. Hmm. And I've met some really amazing people, but I just, I, my whole thing of moving was to get out my comfort zone. And I feel like I'm very much in my comfort zone because I just sit at home. Right. And there's nothing to do. Which is, it's nice. Sometimes you do need to like isolate yourself and focus on yourself. That's been huge for me this year. But I'm ready to get out and do things and meet people.

Chris:

Will definitely move back here. Yeah. There's a bunch of, there's there's a place to do it. I mean, Wilmington is adding so many condos and apartments, which is painful to see cause I've lived here my whole life. But it gives you plenty of opportunities to meet new people. Yeah. You are probably the second person I've met from Portland area. Me, and I call it Portland area because mm-hmm. no one really knows anything in Oregon besides Portland. No. Yeah. What's the capital?

Casey:

Salem, which is right next to Portland.

Chris:

It's like, why is Raleigh the capital of North Carolina? It should be Charlotte. Let's be wrong. Should be now.

Tyler:

Random question. Mm-hmm. have you actually watched Outer Banks on Netflix? Oh

Casey:

yes. it's my favorite show and everybody on the island hates it, I'm sure. Of course. And which I don't know why. It's just a good show regardless. And I'm not gonna lie, this is gonna sound so dumb, but I didn't even know there was like a real place called Outer Banks. Oh really? So I literally got here and I was looking on the maps. I was like, where is this place? And I was like, oh wow. Literally an island like Yeah, I'm in the water. Okay.

Tyler:

Yeah, they're probably mad too cuz they filmed it in what? Charleston?

Casey:

Yeah. Yeah. But I've also heard some people talk about how, you know it really brought a lot of people over there too. Oh yeah. Mm-hmm. and that's what the locals like. It's crazy to see like, During the off season, they don't have a way to make money. Mm-hmm. I mean, there's things to do. Restaurants, some restaurants are still open, but really they bank on the tourists coming in the busy season. And then if they make enough money, they're able to just chill out for the rest of the season. So really, a lot of people don't like the tourists, but that's the tourists are funding their lives, making money. Yeah.

Tyler:

So tell us a little bit more about how you're able to. gain kind of more notoriety on like TikTok and stuff, cuz like, that's how my wife like, found out about you and everything too.

Casey:

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I love TikTok. That's definitely my favorite platform. I have the most followers on Instagram, but mm-hmm. I feel like TikTok, I can just be myself and you just get a wider reach of people. Yeah. So I've just been, you know, I post everything Instagram, I feel like I have to. Just workouts, like, oh, okay, that's my niche is workouts, so I'm only gonna post about working out. But for TikTok it's like I'm talking about mental health. I'm showing people what I do in a day, what I'm eating, and just talking, just saying whatever comes to mind. Yeah. And people love it. And it's. It's fun. So, yeah, I just, I got on there and I was tagging Wilmington, and it's crazy because TikTok, and I think Instagram kind of does this, but I see it way more on TikTok, that when you tag a place and you are in the area, you're gonna see those tos. Oh, okay. And so I just kept tagging, like Wilmington, even before I moved there. Mm-hmm. I was like, Tagg. that place just so people saw my stuff. And hopefully I could find some friends And it worked. It worked. Yeah. That's why I'm here, so That's cool. That's awesome.

Chris:

I didn't realize that. Yeah, we have that weird thing where we suck at social media which is why we've had to link up somebody else to help us out a little bit. But yeah, I'm, I'm so proud of you. Thank you. Because it's a lot of. I would say perseverance. Mm-hmm. I guess cuz it's, I feel like you post some things and they're like really high and then the next one's like, oh yeah. Yeah. Does that ever affect your mental, I know you said something about mental health earlier. Yeah,

Casey:

so it used to I used to compare myself a lot to other people, especially other trainers. I'm like, wait, they got so many more views. It looks like they're doing way better. They're posting more client testimon, you know, all of this stuff. And I. Trying for a while, I would like try and copy them. I would be like, okay, I'm gonna make a post like that. Or I would like create a caption kind of similar to theirs. Mm-hmm. because I was like, it went well for them. And then I realized that I needed to be myself. I needed to be authentic. I couldn't just try and fit in with everybody else. So I actually, this was back in, I think like 2019. When I was like a couple months into really doing my business, I was like, I'm gonna unfollow everybody, and I literally unfollowed everybody. I had zero people I was following and that caused some issues. Some people were actually upset. They're like, mm-hmm you just wanna have like a fan base, like you don't wanna build connection and follow people. I was like, no, it's not that at all. Like I'm still seeing people's stuff. It's just I had to block out all of the noise and literal. Have tunnel vision to like, who's Casey? Like, who do I wanna be online? Who do I wanna like attract and stuff? And so now I really don't pay attention to my, it's hard because as a business owner, everyone's like, pay attention to your numbers. But I don't, yeah. I'm like, if this post is gonna do good, like it's gonna reach the right people, even if it's just one person and maybe they don't comment, maybe they don't, you know, buy from me or anything at the moment. But if I can help. and if it can just reach one person, then I'm happy.

Tyler:

Nice. That's really interesting too, just because I'm a very analytic mm-hmm. type of guy. I'm a financial advisor. It's in my, oh yeah. It's my blood. Yep. It's an underst. Yeah, That's a good point. But when people say talk, like focus on your numbers, kind of like what you said, what I've noticed now is a lot of people are aged, right? Mm-hmm. is, they're like, oh, make sure like you're getting all of these followers, or make sure you're getting all of these views, or whatever the case may. And I'm like, it's very different from like, make sure your top line or your bottom line are high. Yeah. When it comes to dollars. Mm-hmm. So you want your dollars to be high, but you don't necessarily need your followers to be high as long as you have the right ones. Yeah. So that was something that it took a while, like for us to get like. Involved with too, cuz we were like, oh, like, I mean, we're not getting the views like that. Mm-hmm. Joe Rogan's getting, or like something crazy, right? Yes. He was like, well first of all it's never gonna happen. And second of all, like we're primarily focused on the southeast North Carolina and the northern part of Myrtle Beach. Yeah. So, of course we're not gonna have the reach of. a famous person that's reaching out to the world. Yeah. And like, okay, so our main base is here, so we're getting a large percentage mm-hmm. of the people that listen to the podcasts in that area. Yeah. So it's just kind of understanding the numbers of who, the quality of who you're reaching as opposed to the quantity. Pay attention more to the quantity of your bottom line, more so than, than the number of people.

Casey:

Yeah. Yeah. And to touch on that too something I. I say this to my clients all the time, but I love thinking about it too. It's like you can't compare your day one to someone's day 100. Yeah, no, you, you mentioned like, we would never be like Joe Rogan. He had to start somewhere. Too True. You know? Yeah. So, yeah. I

Tyler:

appreciate that.

Chris:

Well, and his start was like, I remember Joe Rogan from Fear Factor. So it's, it's not like us, who's our first start. People who walked in the store, people we've worked with. Mm-hmm. which is a lot smaller Window. Joe Rogan hit like 10 to 20 million people from Fear Factor. Yeah. And then he transitioned to something else and then he transitioned to something else. So like you said, like you just can't compare, even your day one to someone else's day one is gonna be different. Yeah. Because like my day one, like we did 75 hard mm-hmm. in the fall. Mm-hmm. my day one next to my wife's day one is gonna look different. Mm-hmm. my day 75 is different than hers because I did a different style of workout versus what she did. We did a totally different thing than what Tyler did to like, I feel like your statement and just enforcing that. Just kind of reminding people. Yeah. Even if you're all the same, like if you're all women, you're all like in the same age bracket. Don't just compare yourself to other people. You are who you are. Yeah.

Tyler:

and the different goals too. Yep. Yeah. So what's I guess best way to put it, what's your next goal that you're kind of working towards right now?

Casey:

Ooh, that's a good one. I have a lot, but I think right now my biggest goal is I wanna get into like public speaking. Mm-hmm. being on podcasts doing YouTube. I kind of did like this huge life audit and business audit. Yeah. I was like, okay, I've hit some goals. I'm super excited. I felt kind of like burnt out almost. Like, okay. It was like I'm doing all these fun things, but I'm not feeling like entirely fulfilled. Yeah. So I was like, okay, so what do I really wanna do? Like social media's fun, I can be on there all day, but I wanna do something like larger scale. Mm-hmm. And so, shifting, I actually kind of cut off a. Couple of things that I was working on and just was like, okay, you've wanted to do this for years, like Yeah. So, I'm gonna be like reaching out to more podcasts and I actually low key started recording some podcast episodes before I moved. Oh yeah. That maybe one day I'll, I'll start editing and set up my own podcast. But yeah, so, and I'm also posting on YouTube. So we'll see where Nice. Those things lead me.

Tyler:

Shameless plug. We own Cargo District recording studio, so if you wanna ever record When you moved to Wilmington.

Casey:

Nice. When I moved to Wilmington.

Tyler:

Yes.

Chris:

I mean, there's a public transit stop like right across the street. We True. Got you. And I think that's smart, like knowing what you've tried and you're like, well, I did try this, eh. maybe now's not the time. Mm-hmm. I feel like that's how people have relationships too. Like, oh, this could be, this would be the perfect person, at a different time in my life. And I'm like, okay, cool. But everything happens for a reason.

Casey:

Yes. That has been my motto. Everything happens for a reason.

Tyler:

Kind of going along those same, that same route to the favorite question that Jennifer always asked me when I get home every day. what's your high point and low point of the day? So over the last year, from traveling all the way here across the country, what would you say your high point would be and what would your low point be?

Casey:

I think they would be the same thing. It sounds a little weird, so, oh, wow. Going off of that, everything happens for a reason, you know? I am the type A person. I have to have a plan. Yeah. I have to have everything mapped out. And my friends were terrified. My dad was terrified when I was like, I'm moving. I have no idea where I'm going. I don't know what I'm doing. They're like, are you okay? Like, this is not you. Like, I'm, I'm scared for you. And I was like, yeah, but I just, I wanna learn to let go. Mm. And. So I think that would be a high point, but also almost a low point in the sense of like, I don't know. Like it's hard, like not having a plan and then feeling kind of unorganized. And there was a lot of times where I was doubting myself. Mm-hmm. especially when I was staying in these like sketchy hotels, I was like, it was super fun driving. But then at the end of the day, it's like when you're all alone Yeah. And you have no idea where you're going. If you're gonna make friends, is it gonna be good? Am I gonna make it? So I was really doubting myself. So I would feel like.

Tyler:

At, at what point did you notice that? Like, was it when you hit Wyoming and you were in there? Or was it like way before that or way after that?

Casey:

It was two hours from

Tyler:

my house. What? I, I could understand that. Yeah,

Casey:

no. So I talked about how I got a rental car in case I broke down. Will that rental car broke down. Oh, no. of course. Two hours. I was driving. To bend, which is, it's over a pass. It's in the mountains. And I noticed the car wasn't accelerating. Oh, oh no, this isn't right, And then the check engine came on, and then it, there was something wrong with the transmission. So at that point I was way behind schedule. My first hotel that I stayed in was in like four hours away from my. And so I was like, is this a sign that I should go back? Like, is this gonna work out? Gosh, yeah. So I, I kind of had a little bit of a breakdown there, but like, literally my car broke down. And mentally Yes.

Chris:

Oh no. I, I had a friend we drove from like just outside of la mm-hmm. And we were supposed to drive from LA all the way to like northern pa. And I had exactly five days. and I got all the way to Cleveland and I was like, okay. We're, I was like, yeah, I can't go any further. But like halfway through the trip, we were sitting there in the middle of nowhere, like in the Midwest. I'm like, why is her car acting real funny? And we pull over and it looks, she had a, it was like drive rotted tires. Oh. So we drove all the way from California to like Nebraska. On like two dry rod of tires. And they were like, every time you hit 60, the whole car was just wobbling. Oh. And I'm like, I just thought that's how our car rode. I was like, all right, cool, whatever. And I drove mo like 20 of 24 hours. That's scary of us. Like on the road. And I'm like, I just, I was like, all right, I'm going. And it was a little, mind you, I'm six two and some change and we were driving in like. It wasn't a Prius, it was like a really, it was like a Prius type hatchback. Mm-hmm. And I'm like, this is the smallest vehicle I ever want to sit in and we'll never do it again. And I was like, are you sure we shouldn't just like pack all this shit up and just send it Yeah. I understand that. The stress of one turn back

Casey:

around. Yeah. And it's not fun when you break. No, I can

Tyler:

imagine. Especially stressful. You're by

Casey:

yourself. Yeah. And it was like 90 degrees and I had my dogs mm-hmm. and they're like, okay, well here. And I packed the car full. I had to, I literally was pa playing some like Tetris with the stuff that I had, and then all of a sudden I had a new car and I had to move everything over and Oh yeah, it was, but it worked out.

Chris:

So I'm the king of random questions. Mm-hmm. Okay. What. Did you listen to On the Road Trip?

Casey:

Ooh, crime Junkie. The podcast. I love it. Yes. The whole entire time. I'm not kidding. I listened to every episode. Yes.

Chris:

Listen. In like 30 hours, they

Casey:

probably, no, I feel like so I had never listened to Crime Junkie. Yes. When I listened to podcasts, I would just like, on a day-to-day basis, would do more like business or like self-improvement podcasts. Okay. And because I feel like with Crime Junkie, you really have to sit there. They're like telling a story. Mm-hmm. So I just never focused. But when you're just driving and I always take the back roads, so there was literally nothing.

Tyler:

Out there probably made it more scary. I'm sorry. I'm a subscription member to Crime Junkie, so That's amazing. Yeah. Yeah. And then Hi, one of his other bus friends is a huge Crime junkie fan too. So anytime we're together, we're always talking Crime Junkie.

Casey:

It's so good. I just find out there's there's this one called Counter Clock on a mm-hmm. murder that happened in Kill Devil Hills. Yep. And I, I've been listening to that one. I had no. Yeah, that, that was a

Tyler:

good one. There's actually two seasons of it. Oh, Sorry,

Casey:

We'll, I'll have something to listen to on my drive.com.

Chris:

Yep. I mean, if you get bored of the Whiskey and Wisdom podcast, Right. always selfless plugs. Yeah. But because we were talking about like next steps and mm-hmm. things. Mm-hmm. like I said, I go backwards to go forward. Yeah. What for you would be considered success?

Casey:

Mm. I feel like such a good question. I know, right? I've always thought like it would be hitting like these money targets, you know, like making all this money, but really I think it's having freedom. Mm-hmm. And so I wouldn't say like I've hit the success, but I would feel. Like I'm doing pretty good. Like I feel being able to just like take off like that feels so good. And so to me, I guess like success would be freedom, but So do you feel successful currently? Yeah. I mean from from where I started, definitely. Okay.

Tyler:

There's gonna be two questions off of this one, but do you ever see yourself going back to Oregon or have you just enjoyed. Being free range

Casey:

Yeah. I'm absolutely not. Going back to Oregon.

Chris:

I don't blame you except to see my family.

Casey:

No, I actually, I was just on the phone with my dad and I was like, should I come back to Oregon? And him and I and my brother's there too. And we all love each other. We talk all the time. Yeah. But we're the kind of people that. We'll get together. They literally live 10 minutes from me and we would hang out for like five minutes and it's like, okay. Oh yeah, okay. Bye. I was like, so I would literally drive all the way to Oregon just to hang out for 10 minutes and then leave like, okay, fair enough. Love. I love everybody in Oregon. If you're listening,

Tyler:

we kind of talked about this before too, but your, so your lease is coming up mm-hmm. So is, is that causing anxiety for you as well too? Oh

Casey:

yeah. Yes. Yeah, that's also what I was talking on the phone to my dad. He really, he always tells me like, this too shall pass and mm-hmm. he just really keeps me centered. And so I was, I called him and I was like, dad, I'm panicking. Like I, I'm back in my position again and. It's not exciting anymore because before it was like, oh, I can't wait to get outta Oregon. Like, this is gonna be all new. And now it's like, it's almost like exhausting. Mm-hmm. like, like I, I wanted, this whole time I wanted to keep adventuring and so it was like super exciting. I kept saying like, I'm not staying here, like I'm gonna keep going. And now I'm like, I don't wanna move again. Like, this is, yeah. Right. You know, moving is not fun and trying to find a place. Like I said, I, I made some really awesome friends. Actually, this is so crazy, but the girl across the street from me who's renting from the same guy she's from Oregon originally. Mm-hmm. and she's a personal trainer. Oh wow. What are the odd to that? But she lived in Tennessee. She moved from Tennessee. Oh, okay. And so we literally hang out every day and That's cool. So it's gonna be kind of hard knowing. like, have you ever been in a moment and you're like, this is amazing, but I know I'm gonna miss this moment so much. Mm-hmm. that it's. You're almost sick of the moment cause you're like, this is too good. Like now it's gonna be gone. Right. That's how the last couple months have been like being on the beach and being near everybody. So yeah, I'm definitely freaking out. I have no idea where I'm gonna go, but it's definitely not back to Oregon

Tyler:

So you're looking forward to something that you can. Kind of call like a, like a home roots for a little bit. Just like, not necessarily like settle forever, right? But just for like, all right, let me just settle for a couple years, like kind of get my feedback under me. Is that kind of what you're looking for?

Casey:

Yeah. I'm not sure because I've never felt. like I've found like a home. Mm-hmm. Even when I lived in Oregon, I was moving every single year. I've lived in probably like 14 different places now. Yeah. And whether it's, you know, different apartment, different roommates, whatever. So I've never really stayed in one place, even if I was in the same city. Right. So that kind of, it feels weird. Like I don't. I mean, all my friends are buying houses and they're like, when are you gonna buy a house? I'm like, I don't know where I could stay long enough to, yeah, right. Own a house. Like that's why I wanted to live the van life, cuz then I could just take off whenever and if something felt right, then I could stay for a little bit. But so I don't know.

Chris:

See, what you do is you find a really nice accountant. And no, I don't know anybody at the present moment. But you can, you use one so then you can retrofit a van so you can live in it, you rat it off cuz that's where your living space is, but you're also work in it.

Casey:

So that was my plan. I was gonna say Kirby 30 hits the road and I was gonna do workouts, my live workouts on the side of the road from my van. I had this whole business plan. It was like, it's gonna love it, be perfect. But that didn't work out. That goes back to everything happens for a reason. I realized that I don't think I really wanna live on the side of the road in a van by myself, even though I have my dogs. It's still kind of scary and isolating again. Andrew,

Chris:

you take back roads so if you take the wrong turn, you can end up in a movie.

Casey:

I was good as I, I'm pretty sure I watched that movie and it was not good.

Tyler:

Do you have the next city planned out in your mind that you would hope to go to? Or is that just that kinda up in the air too? Yeah,

Casey:

Yeah. So first I think I should find a car.

Tyler:

That's probably good. Yeah, good plan.

Casey:

But I am leaning more towards Wilmington just because that was the original plan and my landlord did say that I could come back in September if I wanted to stay again. But that kind of goes back to the whole. I, I think being isolated on this little island was good for the time being, but now I feel like I'm ready to get out there and be somewhere else. Yeah. So we'll see. I would

Chris:

say Wilmington Shalot north Myrtle Beach. Yeah. Random places that are like Wilmington and North Myrtle Beach have like a busyness about them. Whereas Shalot is like a small town, but they're still, they still have a gas station. They still have a gym.

Tyler:

No. Shalot gas station get station. Shats getting pretty big now. They have a brewery. Ooh. Yeah, they do. It's, it's actually one of my favorite breweries. I mean, you don't

Casey:

drink, but I do love breweries though. They have

Tyler:

good food. It's a good vibe. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. They actually have an amazing

Chris:

Like actual lemonade or drunken lemonade? No, like an

Casey:

actual lemonade. Do they make like the lemonade there?

Tyler:

Yeah, I think we were there. Oh, that's cool. Oh,

Chris:

I'm so jealous. Yeah. The Starling will randomly, when they do painkillers, they'll just like, oh, hey, we use oranges all week. So now we get to squeeze them during the summertime, and then I show up in the middle of winter. I'm like, Hey, do you have any juice? And I'm like, no, no. Everything they use is fresh. And I'm like, mm. That's awesome. I love that flavor.

Tyler:

So we are starting to come up on our time, so we do have a couple more questions. Yeah. The next question would be, if you were to tell your younger self one thing, what would.

Casey:

Ooh. It would just be to basically keep my head down and just keep working hard. Mm-hmm. I feel like sometimes you, you're doing all this hard work and I tell my clients this all the time, right? You guys did the 75 hard. I'm sure you kind of witnessed this too, but you keep working and then we want. That satisfaction like immediately. Right? Right. It's like, where's the results? I've been doing this for two weeks, like, what is happening So just keeping my head down and just working hard and knowing like it's gonna pay off one way or another.

Tyler:

Nice. So the next thing said, you mentioned possibly coming back to Wilmington. Mm-hmm. So probably what, 80% of our listeners are definitely from Wilmington or around the area or so. And what we ask a lot of business owners that come onto the podcast is, what can the community do for you? So if you were to come to Wilmington, what would you be looking for? What would you like? What's a good first step that our community could help

Casey:

you with? I love that. I'm not sure I'm really bad at asking for help

Tyler:

that that's how this question got brought up on our podcast is we actually had a woman who, if you wanna get connected in Wilmington, should be really good. Her name's Catherine Bruner and. what she said is a lot of business owners and a lot of people that are very like gung ho, are very bad for asking for help. Mm-hmm. and celebrating their own successes. Yeah. So that's kind of why we ask these questions, right? Is like, what, to kind of put your, get yourself outta your comfort zone, right? Mm-hmm. and like, what can we do for you?

Casey:

Yeah. I would say probably connecting with more business owners. Yeah. That's been something I really wanna do. I don't really know any business owners, like in person. Mm-hmm. So just trying to connect with more like-minded people. And like I said, I really wanna get into public speaking. I think I wanna start with like going to high schools or even middle schools. Yeah. And talking about how working out can help with your mental health. Cause like I said, I'm a big mental health advocate.

Tyler:

Mm-hmm. So that's actually one of my 20, 23 goals too, is starting to speak publicly in high schools. That's awesome. So yeah, there could be some synergy there. Yeah. But Chris is telling me, no, no. Chris is

Chris:

shaking his head nose and Chris is public speaking, is sitting on the podcast without a video.

Tyler:

We're eventually on video form, so get used to it But to go along with that, what we were talking about off air when you were walking in as your friend, one of your friends in Oregon had a women's co-working place. Yeah. We can get you set up with one of the owners and a bunch of people that go to one of the women's co-working places here too, if you're interested. That would be

Casey:

amazing. It's called Elevate. Nice. Yeah, that'd be great.

Chris:

Sorry, my brain was going through My brain literally is like my questions. This is why we need a video

Tyler:

on you. Cause we need to see your facial

Chris:

expressions. I would curtail a lot of my video facial expressions. So cuz we're near the end. Mm-hmm. how can people find you on social media?

Casey:

On literally every platform you can think. I'm Casey Fit Cakes, and I have a website,

Chris:

Casey With a K or a C? A C.

Casey:

Okay. Yeah,

Tyler:

It'll be in the show

Chris:

notes. Sorry, I had to laugh at

Casey:

And then my website is Kirby and thirty.com. That's where I talk about all my programs. And so if you want 30 minute workouts, I run live boot camps that are super fun. And then I have a 12 week program. Oh,

Tyler:

nice.

Chris:

Sorry, I was laughing because there was a, an episode I was listening to the other day was, and the girl's name was Lean Beef Patty I love that. She's, she also obviously works out. That's awesome.

Tyler:

So Jennifer and I always talk to each other about our friends and handle for him I'm just like, where, where is this going? Yeah, sorry. So where did the, the handle come from?

Casey:

So when I started working out one of my friends was like, dang, okay, fit Cakes, It just kind of stuck. And so my, my business name, like my LLC, is actually Fit Cakes Fitness. Oh, that's great. And then I don't, people just kept saying like, Casey Fit Cakes. People call me Fit Cakes. Yeah. It, it is just kind of a little funny thing. Like my logo is like a little cupcake with the dumbbells

Tyler:

That's awesome. Yeah.

Chris:

Nice. I love it. So yeah, everybody. Check her out. We'll have all of our info in the show notes in case you're like me or Tyler who can't spell things very eat well, we'll make sure to edit it out. But Casey Fit Cakes, thank you for coming on

Casey:

here. Yeah, thanks for having me

Tyler:

guys. Sure. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much for taking the

Chris:

trip down here. So real talk, what did you think about this cocktail, the peak cocktail? Yeah, I really

Casey:

liked. I don't think I would like the passion fruit one with the jalapeno. I kind of wanted it to be a little more carbonated, just cuz I like carbonated stuff, but I think it's really good. I got some soda water. Yeah. I feel like mixing it with the soda water would be for me, I would like it a little bit more. Okay. Interesting. But it's definitely something I would drink. Especially with having more like benefits in it and not just wasted calories.

Chris:

Right. Yes. My favorite thing in the. Wasted calories but yes. Thank you everybody for listening this week. You'll find us on every social media source as well as podcast platform. Check us out, leave us a five star review if you can. If you got any questions or don't have anything nice to say, don't say nothing at all, Cheers. Cheers.

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