Ian Smith: $15,000 a Day Fines?! How One Gym Destroyed the COVID Narrative | DSH #1617

Summary

Digital Social Hour – Episode Summary

Episode: Ian Smith: $15,000 a Day Fines?! How One Gym Destroyed the COVID Narrative (DSH #1617)
Date: November 14, 2025
Host: Sean Kelly
Guest: Ian Smith

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Sean Kelly interviews Ian Smith, the former co-owner of Atilis Gym in New Jersey, who made headlines for refusing to comply with COVID-19 shutdown orders. Ian recounts his contentious battle with state and local authorities, discusses the consequences of government overreach, and reflects on his journey from small business owner to political activist. The conversation covers media manipulation, grassroots activism, the nature of political parties, the challenges of running for office, community resilience, and the dangers—and necessity—of skepticism in today’s world.

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Key Discussion Points

1. The COVID-19 Battle and Government Overreach

• Ian recounts the timeline of his gym's defiance of COVID shutdowns:
  • Initially shut down out of caution, but reopened in May 2020 due to suspicions over the pandemic response ([01:39]).
  • The reopening escalated from local township conflict to a state-level legal battle, at one point involving “75% of the state’s legal power” ([02:25]).
  • State imposed daily fines: $15,497.76 per day, totaling to hundreds of thousands of dollars in judgments directly seized from their bank account ([04:23]).
• Smith frames the government response as wasteful and vindictive:

  "No matter how hard they punished us, there was enough people behind us to support us that they just... looked crazy… There was no support for what they were doing." – Ian Smith ([03:00])

2. Movement Building and Media Influence

• Ian describes how social media and alternative platforms were critical in rallying support ([07:29]):
  • Before the incident, his Instagram was a standard fitness account.
  • Posting a candid video explaining their decision, he caught attention—especially after an interview with Tucker Carlson:

    "It was just sort of a me sitting in front of the camera saying, this is who we are... a couple days later, I got a phone call from Tucker Carlson, and that kind of threw a big can of gas on the fire." – Ian Smith ([07:38])

  • The Tucker Carlson appearance brought national visibility and grassroots backing that helped the gym withstand government pressure and inspired others.

3. The Dark Side of Politics – Running for Congress

• After COVID, Ian ran for Congress as a Republican, hoping to affect change from within ([09:45]):
  • Faced active resistance from the Republican Party, who favored their own candidate—“I had to run against the Republican Party...and got to see just kind of like the belly of the beast, how much money really influences how these things work.” – Ian Smith ([12:35])
  • Discussed the behind-the-scenes role of political consultants who prioritize money over values ([13:31]).
  • Outspent 10-to-1, most opponent funding came from political sources, while his was from grassroots donors ([14:51]).
  • Disillusioned by how “malleable” career politicians are deliberately funneled through the system, unanchored by genuine principles ([16:00]).

4. Media Manipulation and Psychological Warfare

• Smith draws parallels between the COVID media blitz and other modern crises ([25:58], [26:16]):
  • Claims the “propaganda machine” employs the same tactics for COVID, BLM, the Ukraine war, and the Gaza conflict:

    "The same propaganda machine brought you the BLM movement. It brought you the Ukrainian war. It has brought you the conflict in Gaza. It's the same levers being pulled." – Ian Smith ([26:49])

• Both Smith and Kelly warn of algorithmic manipulation and co-option of new media:
  • Podcasts once grassroots, now mainstream alternatives like Daily Wire are similarly captured and gatekept by powerful interests ([29:31]).
  • True independent media is under financial and political pressure ([30:04]).

5. The Need for Individual and Community Accountability

• Ian emphasizes personal responsibility as the starting point for change ([19:48]):
  • Reliance on government solutions is problematic. Instead, individuals should act locally, improve self and surroundings before turning to governments ([20:01], [23:09]).
  • On actionable grassroots change:

    “The more accountability you take for yourself, especially, and then your family and your community... instead of always expecting people to fix the problems.” – Ian Smith ([20:01])

  • Hosts agree that political and cultural renewal starts with “voting with your dollars,” supporting small businesses and local communities ([44:47]).

6. Skepticism and Critical Thinking

• Smith urges skepticism as a civic virtue ([23:51], [24:00]):

  "Strong, independent people are much harder to influence and control and manipulate than weak, lazy, stupid ones." – Ian Smith ([23:51])

  • He encourages questioning news, politicians, and even educational systems as safeguards against mass manipulation:

    "Anytime a politician talks, you should doubt what he says—especially in politics and especially in the media." – Ian Smith ([25:08])

7. Opposition to Foreign Aid and Focus on Domestic Issues

• When asked about U.S. foreign aid, Ian is unequivocal ([35:41]):

  "None of it. Until further notice. We have far too many issues of our own to be focusing on." – Ian Smith ([35:42])

  • Calls for a radical reduction or halt on foreign aid until domestic issues—like education, health care, drugs—are remedied.
  • Critiques the way foreign aid funds can circle back into American politics, influencing policy in favor of foreign governments ([37:41]).

8. Economic Squeeze and Corporate Power

• The conversation shifts to economic struggles facing the middle class, accelerated by COVID ([41:46]):
  • Observes the wage stagnation, inflation, and the loss of small businesses, with Smith recalling a “third of all businesses never reopened nationally” ([41:46]).
  • Kelly and Smith discuss how personal buying habits can either strengthen or erode local economies:

    "When every store that you have...is all some big corporate structure, that money doesn't come back into your communities." – Ian Smith ([43:17])

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• On Government Punishment:

  "They fined us $15,497.76 per day... It's like burned into my head." – Ian Smith ([04:23])

• On Political Parties:

  "If COVID didn't radicalize me to dislike the way our government is run, running for Congress definitely did." – Ian Smith ([11:41])

• On Media & Propaganda:

  "It's all the same mechanism, just a different flavor... Call it psychological warfare—it's a psyop." – Ian Smith ([28:00])

• On Skepticism:

  "Strong, independent people are much harder to influence and control and manipulate than weak, lazy, stupid ones." – Ian Smith ([23:51])

• On Community Action:

  "You have to go out of your way to support what you believe in...do you care where your dollar goes at the end of the day?" – Ian Smith ([44:23])

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Noteworthy Timestamps

• Government Campaigns & Covid Media – [00:00]
• Escalation of Legal Battle, State Involvement – [01:39]
• $15K-A-Day Fines & Their Impact – [04:23]
• Social Media Movement Starts – [07:29]
• Running for Congress & Systemic Corruption – [09:45], [12:35]
• Political Consultants & Party Machinery – [13:31], [14:51]
• Psychological Manipulation, Media, and Propaganda – [25:58], [26:16], [28:00]
• Personal Responsibility & Community Renewal – [19:48], [44:47]
• Foreign Aid: “None of it” – [35:41]
• Economic Pressure, Middle Class Squeeze – [41:46]
• Small Business vs. Corporate Consolidation – [43:17]
• Supporting Local Economies/Farmers Markets – [44:20]

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Episode Tone & Style

The conversation is candid, combative, and occasionally conspiratorial, with Smith and Kelly often mirroring the rhetoric and skepticism common on independent media. The tone is conversational and at times introspective, though both men frequently shift to polemic or rallying language when discussing government actions, media manipulation, and the necessity of community action.

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Final Takeaways

• Ian Smith’s story is emblematic of broader debates around personal liberty, government authority, media truth, and the vitality of local communities.
• The episode doubles as both cautionary tale and call to action: be skeptical, get involved locally, and build resilient communities that can withstand political and economic turbulence.
• Listeners are left with the challenge not to drift into cynicism, but to become assertive, self-reliant, and engaged citizens.

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Where to Find Ian Smith:

• Instagram & X (Twitter): @iansmithfitness ([46:01])

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For listeners seeking a discussion that challenges establishment narratives, explores personal courage in the face of authority, and ties local action to national consequence, this episode is essential.

Transcript

[Ian Smith]

If you really take a look at like that whole propaganda system that brought you Covid, that same propaganda machine brought you the BLM movement, brought you the Ukrainian war, the conflict in Gaza, all these levers were pulled. You get the mainstream media involved, sort of like the psychological things that torturing people, like the death counters in the corner. And then the major corporations were involved and there was whole media campaigns out of nowhere. Millions and billions of dollars being spent to convince you to stay at home.

[Podcast Host]

Home.

[Ian Smith]

And they're pulling all these emotional levers and people fall for it, and they get people to just believe whatever they're being told, no matter what.

[Podcast Host]

All right, guys, Fellow New Jersey. And we got Ian Smith here. Let's go, baby.

[Ian Smith]

What's up, man?

[Podcast Host]

Jersey represent.

[Ian Smith]

Jersey represent. How are you?

[Podcast Host]

Good, man. You've been there your whole life?

[Ian Smith]

Most of it. Most of it. I'm in Florida now. I lived in Arizona for a little bit, but Most of the 40 years I've been around.

[Podcast Host]

Oh, so you moved to Florida?

[Ian Smith]

Yeah, moved to Florida about two years ago.

[Podcast Host]

Because of all that Covid stuff that happened with your gym.

[Ian Smith]

Well, after, after all of it, I kind of just wanted to change. You know, we. We made it through, thankfully. And I had just had my son and my mom lived in Florida and didn't really have anything holding me down anymore, so I decided to pick up and start over in Florida.

[Podcast Host]

I mean, I don't blame you, man. They did you dirty media attacking you. You put in all your money into that gym and you couldn't even run it.

[Ian Smith]

Yeah, yeah, it was. It was an interesting couple of years to say the very least. You know, and I always love Jersey, but the way that it's run, you know, going through all that, seeing not only myself, but how people were treated during COVID and yeah, sort of their lives were disregarded. Left a pretty sour taste in my mouth.

[Podcast Host]

Was it the state attacking you? Was it the county? Was it the township?

[Ian Smith]

So we, we reopened about two months to the day that the original closures came around. You know, we. We closed down first. We didn't want to, but we didn't really know enough to confidently stay open. You know, the last thing we wanted to do was hurt anybody, but we were highly suspicious. So we reopened in May of 2020. And first it was the. Just the. The township itself, you know, and we were very open about it. You know, I went on Tucker Carlson a week before we opened, so everybody knew. The governor knew we were going to open up. We were willing to negotiate. You know, we Said, here's our terms, here's how we're opening, and we're going to keep people safe. Let's talk about it. And nobody wanted to. So we said, okay. So it was originally the township, and then it became the county, and then it eventually became pretty much 75 of the state's legal power.

[Podcast Host]

Damn.

[Ian Smith]

At one time, yeah, there's five. There's 12 attorney generals in the state of New Jersey, if I'm correct. And, you know, during sort of the height of the absurdity, 75 of them were assigned to. They were working our case.

[Podcast Host]

That's nuts, because I'd imagine there was other gyms doing what you did.

[Ian Smith]

Well, there was just other things in general, too. I mean, there's still crime and, you know, actual things that they should be monitoring and tending to. And they were focusing, you know, almost all of their attention on us, which.

[Podcast Host]

Seems like a negative roi because they're not going to get any money out of you.

[Ian Smith]

It did. And that's. That's eventually sort of how we won. We were. And there's still stuff ongoing, too. So it's still. Yeah, there's still, you know, sort of unresolved state issues and stuff like that. It's come pretty much to a halt at this point, which is how these legal battle work. You know, when you. When they come after you, they come at you really hard. I mean, there would be times where we get calls from our lawyers and they'd be like, you have court today? They'd be like, when? They'd be like, in an hour.

[Podcast Host]

What?

[Ian Smith]

You know, but then when you go and the dust settles and you're going to. To take legal action against the state for. For some sort of remedy, you know, it's three months for this and six months for this. So, yeah, there is still stuff going on, but when I say one, I mean, they back off. The goal for us was just to stay open. And everything that they did, they. It was just shooting themselves in the foot over and over again to the point where there was a negative roi. No matter how hard they punished us, there was enough people behind us to support us that they just. They looked crazy, you know, because now we're two years into covet and they're still fining us $15,000 a day and doing all these absurd things. And everybody at that point was. Pretty much had moved on, and Governor Murphy still wouldn't. Still wouldn't let it go. So, you know, eventually they. That's when they started to back off because there was just. There was no support for what they were doing, you know, even among their own, really.

[Podcast Host]

15K a day. So that totaled into the millions, I'd imagine.

[Ian Smith]

Yeah. So what they did is that was a court order from a judge, you know, because there were no tangible punishments for violating the governor's orders. Excuse me. And they got a court. A court order, and that's where all the tangible punishments came from. And. And one of the punishments was a fine of 15,497 dol and 76 cents per day. I think I got that number right. It's like burned into my head.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah, that's 100k a week.

[Ian Smith]

Yeah. And. And we were gym. I mean, we were a gym who at the time wasn't charging anyway, because when we reopened, we said, hey, we're just reopening.

[Podcast Host]

You know, you can charge a membership.

[Ian Smith]

No, no, no, because, you know, as much as it was about the survival and. And, you know, about the idea that we do have a right to work and all these things, it was about the principle. You know what? We didn't open just because we wanted to make money. We. We open because we have a right to do that, but everybody has a right to that, and people have a right to come to the gym and be healthy.

[Podcast Host]

So.

[Ian Smith]

Yeah, so we didn't charge. We weren't charging for two years.

[Podcast Host]

That's not.

[Ian Smith]

We ran off of donations, and people bought apparel and stuff like that and were really good to us. Yes. So they were trying to find us 15,000 per day. They. They didn't take all of it. They would have to go in front of the court each time and say, hey, here are the days, you know, now we want to collect on them. So they did it. They did it a couple of times to the tune of like $200,000 plus. Wow. Still a lot of money. But, yeah, they had the. They had the, you know, the reserve in there for several million.

[Podcast Host]

That is nuts. Did they have judgment on you or. They just had it like, they.

[Ian Smith]

They got a judgment for the, you know, the 200 or so thousand that they just. And they took that money right from our bank account. They just pulled it right out.

[Podcast Host]

That is nuts. I can't believe that, dude.

[Ian Smith]

Yeah, yeah, it was. It opened my eyes to a lot of the issues that we have with government overreach sort of, you know, not just on the left, but on the right, because they weren't there to help us either.

[Podcast Host]

Did Bradley Martin reach out to you when this was happening?

[Ian Smith]

Yeah, I spoke with Bradley a couple of times. There was There was a lot of us gym owners. You know, there were a lot of businesses all around the country who defied, you know, Covid. And in some places, they were. They met. They met. You know, they. There was little resistance. There might have been no resistance, you know, but gyms. There were a lot of gyms that really kind of were. Were on the forefront of that, but we were all in different places, you know, so we couldn't really help each other beyond, you know, in California, what Bradley Martin was facing at his gym in la, or what my buddy Lou, who owns Metro Flex, who was another gym owner, was facing was different than what we were battling in New Jersey. Right. For over there, it was the health department that was really kind of coming in, and the government would be using different government organizations to hurt them in different ways. With us, we were tied up in the courts, but yeah, yeah, we talked a couple times on the phone. I mean, if anything, it was just good to talk to somebody else who was kind of like, you know, it's. People were very supportive, but it's good to talk to somebody who's really going through the same thing, you know? Yeah, no, it basically is, man. Like, calling each other and just like, what, dude? What are we gonna do?

[Podcast Host]

Get fine today.

[Ian Smith]

Yeah, brainstorm. Exactly. And it was like, all right, man, keep your head up. Like, let me know if you need anything.

[Podcast Host]

I'll.

[Ian Smith]

I'll repost your posts. That's. That's really all we could do.

[Podcast Host]

So, I guess, yeah, the one benefit is you started a movement, a social media movement, right?

[Ian Smith]

Yeah, it. It happened sort of unexpectedly.

[Podcast Host]

You were pretty low key before that.

[Ian Smith]

Yeah, I just had a, you know, sort of a regular fitness Instagram, you know, maybe a couple thousand followers. And then I guess it was right message at the right time, really. You know, I. I put out that video a week before we started, or we were going to open, and it was just sort of a me sitting in front of the camera saying, this is who we are. This is what we're going to do. This is why we believe it's right, and this is how we're going to keep people safe, you know, and on. And a couple days later, I got a phone call from Tucker Carlson, and that kind of threw a big can of gas on the fire.

[Podcast Host]

You still have Fox at the time, right?

[Ian Smith]

Yeah, yeah. So he had me on the show, and that was a huge initial surge of people. And then as it went on, you know, people just had interest in the story. You know, we wouldn't have been able to do what we did because there was a lot of other businesses who tried and sort of got stomped out. We just had the social firepower behind us, you know, just. Just a stroke of luck, you know, And I owe a lot of that, for sure, to. To that initial interview on Tucker Carlson.

[Podcast Host]

Nice shout out to Tucker, man. He makes a lot of really important stories.

[Ian Smith]

Yeah, yeah, it's. You know, he's. He's not always like the first to the story, but he's usually the. One of the bigger names that reaches audiences sort of outside of the fringe. You know, he reaches a lot more of a mainstream audience, and, you know, he did that. And, you know, at the time, it was still wildly unpopular to. To oppose Covet. We were only two months in, you know.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah. That is early.

[Ian Smith]

If you had an opinion about COVID that wasn't the official narrative. You were. You were a grandmother killer, and you were, you know, you were a danger to society and all of these things. So I give him a lot of credit for. For putting us on.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah, you were super early because it lasted two years. Right, so.

[Ian Smith]

Yeah. Yeah. In places like Jersey, for sure.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah.

[Ian Smith]

You know, not everywhere, but all j.

[Podcast Host]

Most of the Democratic states, I noticed.

[Ian Smith]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host]

A little longer in those. Yeah.

[Ian Smith]

It became a political issue, and it really wasn't. It was a. You know, for us, it was an issue of right or wrong.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah.

[Ian Smith]

You know, but we got. Certainly got more support from the right than the left. But as time went on, that definitely changed, I think.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah. So it caused you to be more outspoken about politics, and now you're really speaking out on all the corruption you see. Right.

[Ian Smith]

Yeah. You know, on the back end of COVID I. I ran for Congress and, you know, I found myself at the end of. Of COVID you know, when things were starting to settle down, you know, and it was like we were winning.

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[Ian Smith]

Or, you know, whatever you want to call it. I just, I couldn't no longer turn a blind eye to what I was seeing, you know, because it became my life. You know, I wasn't really. I've always been aware of politics, but not. Not to the degree that I was. Yeah. You know, seeing it kind of from the inside, especially running for Congress has just made me very outspoken.

[Podcast Host]

How eye opening was that experience? Because I'm assuming you're going against people that are raising a ton of money from owners and your kind of grassroots movement. Right. Raising money from friends and family. So you were. You felt like the underdog.

[Ian Smith]

Yeah. So if. If Covet didn't radicalize me to dislike the way our government is run, running for Congress definitely did. You know, it was just. I came into it certainly overestimating my own abilities. You know, we had this movement, so it was like, oh, we can just transfer this right into running for Congress. And the idea was, I know we're going to meet a lot of opposition, but I was able to shine a light on the injustices of COVID So potentially I can do the same thing, you know, in Congress and show people what it's like and also, you know, just be a good example. Because the reason. One of the reasons politics is so messed up is good people don't run because it's a nasty world. It's hard. It's a huge sacrifice. And, you know, other than the satisfaction of a good job, if you do it right, it's not a, you know, a massive career move or, or anything like that.

[Podcast Host]

Right.

[Ian Smith]

These people make it that. But so I ran with that intention and I ran as a Republican and yeah, faced tremendous opposition from the Republican Party, really, because they had already had their guy that they wanted to run. You know, they're always an election cycle ahead or two and, and somebody was up to run and they would not support me, even though a huge amount of people did. So we. That was our enemy. You know, we had to run against the Republican Party, you know, in, in the Republican primary. And I just got to see just kind of like the belly of the beast, how much money really influences you know how these things work. You know, how the. How the candidates even get in front of people in the first place. The selection process, you know, it's just. There's a lot of people behind the scenes that are making money, fueling both sides.

[Podcast Host]

Yep.

[Ian Smith]

You know, a lot of the political operatives and the campaign managers and stuff, they'll work for anybody. They don't. They don't really have values. They're. They're happy to work with one guy, and they'll. They'll run for the opposite team, the next. The next one.

[Podcast Host]

That's wild.

[Ian Smith]

Yeah. Which is crazy. You know, and I get it. It's a business, but it's. Maybe it shouldn't be, you know.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah. Like you're gonna help someone. Shouldn't be the same party every election.

[Ian Smith]

Yeah.

[Sponsor Announcer]

My opinion.

[Ian Smith]

Yeah. If you. And, yeah, if you want to. If you want that to be your business as a, you know, a political consultant or whatever it is, then maybe you should just have some values that you always align with instead of.

[Podcast Host]

Right.

[Ian Smith]

You know, just going to the highest bidder because then that, you know, it incentivizes bad money to come into the situation.

[Podcast Host]

Right. They value money over their. Their morals.

[Ian Smith]

Yeah, yeah. And that's. That goes for the politicians as well. But you see it when you run that there's so many people behind the scenes who just, again, who influence even. You know, a lot of people don't. They're not paying attention until it's time to go to the ballot box, you know, for the final vote. But there's a lot that happens along the way there, and people are. You know, the general public's not as in tune with that as they should be, but it's not really a super open process. You know, the people that run the GOP and the dnc, they. They want to get their guy through the primary, and they're going to do that because they have far more money than any regular person does. You know, we got outspent 10 to 1.

[Podcast Host]

Holy shit.

[Ian Smith]

You know, and that's. Most of the money that came from him was political money.

[Podcast Host]

Right.

[Ian Smith]

You know, most of the money that came from me was regular donors. Like. Yeah, I called some. You know, I did some calls. The whole thing that you have to do and you call people who donate frequently, but, you know, I didn't get any big checks from any political lobbies or anything like that. And that's. That's what wins the elections at the end of the day.

[Podcast Host]

Money's one part of it, plus the checks, who they're coming from. They have power in other areas other than money too.

[Ian Smith]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Just the simple connections and stuff like that. And just being able to walk into a meeting and get endorsed because you're the person that the party has chosen as, you know, their, their guy who's running in the primary. So that guy's getting 10 times the amount of airtime as you and opportunities. And you have to do that all yourself, which is fine, but it's like everybody should have to be on a level playing field.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah. It makes you really wonder how many of these positions are predetermined.

[Ian Smith]

Yeah, yeah. It, it raises that question for anybody with common sense. You know, you start to, you start to look at it as a big picture. And you said, you know, how organic is this really?

[Podcast Host]

So. Which is scary. These people are running the country.

[Ian Smith]

Yeah, yeah. And you know, it attracts, it attracts a certain type of person for the most part. There's a lot of people who go into politics and who do want to do good. Most of them don't make it. They don't either. They get in and they're sort of stopped at every corner or, you know, they just, they can't break in. You know, it's very hard. They don't have the bankroll. The average person's not going to be able to self finance. The average person doesn't have the reach on social media and they don't have the access to the databases of voters with emails that they can blast and all that stuff. So they make it very hard. And then the people that they do get in, they look for people who are very malleable. Right. Who typically don't have success outside of politics. You know, these aren't people that have, are wildly successful in their own right. They haven't really built anything of their own. They probably went to law school, which is an accomplishment. And then they got into the political world and eventually they became an ideal candidate and they candidate and they put them in a couple of positions and then all of a sudden it's, yeah, we want you to be a congressman in New Jersey or whatever it is, and we're going to sort of back you and you know, you're just going to agree to the standard GOP talking points, you know, and if you deviate from them, then you're not our guy. Crazy man. And, and the next time you run or when you get elected, you know, you might have different positions all of a sudden than what you ran on.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah.

[Ian Smith]

You know, it's all coming because now you have this debt to these people, and these people get in these positions. These. Wouldn't even call them weak. I, I think malleable is a better word. Get into these positions and it's, hey, you know, now I'm Congressman, now I have this, this power, and now I kind of want to keep it. I like this life. So I'll lie a little bit and I'll vote the wrong way, even though I shouldn't, you know, and I'll, I'll turn my back on my voters because my voters didn't donate that much money to me anyway. You know, you watch how some of these people talk to their voters when they have issues. You know, I remember watching a clip of Dan Crenshaw, right. This was a couple years ago, and he sort of like snapped at this, at this woman because she had a different opinion than him, you know, and, and that's, that's your voter base. And if, if you snap at them, you'll never see, you'll never see Dan Crenshaw snap@ Halliburton CEO or Lockheed Martin CEO. You know. Yeah, they don't have that same attitude. And you could just tell, you know, from, from stuff like that, from interactions where they can't deal with criticism that's well deserved. But they'll, they'll never talk back to the CEOs or the lobbyists or anything like that, because they know their place.

[Podcast Host]

Yup. Follow the money. I wonder how long it's been like.

[Ian Smith]

This, you know, as far as I've been paying attention, you know, and I think it's just, I think it's continuing to get, you know, far worse. You know, this has been. And you talk to guys like, you know, Nick Fuentes, you had Nick Fuentes on, and they have a lot more political knowledge of, like, the ins and outs and the details. So it has been going on for quite a long time. But, you know, you can keep following it back like this isn't anything new. And it's no different under Biden. It's no different really under Trump. It's no different under Obama. Wasn't really a whole lot different under Bush. You know, a lot of the, A lot of the things that most Americans don't really want keep happening. You know, your dollar keeps getting less valuable, you keep sending money overseas. You know, we keep winding up in these forever wars. Our educational system continues to be in decline. People struggle every day with money. We have a homeless issue, we have a drug issue. And these guys can't seem to solve it, no matter who's in charge? You know, we've had all these issues for 20, 30, you know, or more years, and they can always seem to get elected, but they can never seem. No matter how long they're in power, they can't seem to fix the system. You know, one just breaks it, and then one kind of breaks it in another way.

[Podcast Host]

Makes you wonder if the government's even capable of fixing these issues or if we should just take more accountability as a community.

[Ian Smith]

I think that's absolutely part of it. You know, you can dislike the government all you want, and you can disagree with what they want, but if you really, I think, want to change it, it starts. It absolutely starts with yourself as an individual.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah, I agree.

[Ian Smith]

You know, Covid really exposed how sort of reliant people are on outside forces, you know, from everything to where they get their paycheck to. To how they run their lives, you know, and I think the more accountability you take for yourself, especially, and then your family and your community, maybe focus that energy inward and then outward, instead of always expecting people to fix the problems. You know, like I said, one of what I say, just drug issues. We have a drug issue, you know, in almost every community in America. We can't expect the government to fix it entirely. Right. Even if you do have the right people, there's a certain amount of community aspect that has to come in and a cultural aspect that has to come in. That's one of the things with. That drives me crazy about the abortion thing. You have people that are so against it, and that's fine. I'm not in support of abortion either. But maybe focus your time and energy teaching people about why life is so valuable and getting into those communities and volunteering at your churches where there are efforts to. To show young women that that's not the best choice and that there are other options and that they can do this and that, you know, every child is a miracle, you know, so, yeah, we should have the government involved, and we should have. You know, we should make sure the government's doing its job, but we have to be doing ours as well. And I think that's a huge part that a lot of people miss.

[Podcast Host]

Absolutely. A lot of people just blame the government for everything.

[Ian Smith]

Yeah, yeah. And.

[Podcast Host]

Or they.

[Ian Smith]

They want to celebrate every victory, you know, as. As the government. Oh, the government did this, the government did that.

[Podcast Host]

At the end of the day, we have so much control, honestly, like, obviously, there's going to be some scenarios where the government has a lot of influence on your life, but for the most part, I feel like no matter who's present, you and I will find a way to make some money or whatever.

[Ian Smith]

You know, you have to, you know, you can be upset with the system. Right. And not. And, and have your criticisms of it, but checking out of it entirely and just expecting it to, to take care of you is not the way that you're going to fix it.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah.

[Ian Smith]

You know, you've gotta, you've got to learn how to, to thrive, even under circumstances that may not be the best.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah. And based off what you're saying right now, I don't even know if the government's fixable at this point. You know what I mean? Like, if I'm being honest.

[Ian Smith]

No, it's, it's a, it's a huge issue and it's an extremely complicated one. And there's a lot of bad actors and there's a lot of just bad information in general, you know, and it's very hard to kind of pinpoint where this is all coming from and, you know, where you could, you know, cut the proverbial head off of the, you know, the snake or whatever, but it, it's extremely complicated, you know, but I think the biggest step is for people to start, you know, stepping into that, that place of power for themselves and taking responsibility for their own lives. And, and once you have better footing, you know, you're, you're better able to, to change or to, to act on the world. You know, if you're, if you're dead broke, you know, and you're living paycheck to paycheck, you don't really have the bandwidth to, to change the world around you. You can barely, you know, provide for yourself. And the same thing goes for your health or anything like that.

[Podcast Host]

Right. So your advice for people watching would be take care of yourself first, and then.

[Ian Smith]

Yeah, you have to and, and, and sort of learn what's going on, you know, and understand that politics is a very ugly and confusing place. On purpose.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah.

[Ian Smith]

You know, we were warned of this kind of stuff by our founding fathers. You know, one of the biggest threats to democracy is stupidity, you know, like, and, and bad actors know that, you know, you know, so maybe turn off, like, the garbage that you watch and, you know, you can start with small stuff, but strong, independent people are much harder to influence and control and manipulate than weak, lazy, stupid ones.

[Podcast Host]

Right. Because the pandemic wouldn't have worked if we were smarter. Yeah. You know what I mean? If the average person was smart.

[Ian Smith]

Yeah. Or if the average person was at least a little bit more skeptical.

[Podcast Host]

Right?

[Ian Smith]

You know, at the very least, like, I don't consider myself, you know, wildly intelligent. I think I'm fairly intelligent. But, you know, I'm, I'm skeptical.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah.

[Ian Smith]

Skeptical of anybody and anything. Not because I don't like those things, but because it serves my interest to doubt what you're saying before I believe it. You know, if you told me that you had a million dollar business idea and all I had to do was sign on the dotted line, you know, I'd probably want to ask you some questions first. And I probably would start from the position where I don't believe you and maybe work my way towards it instead of just accepting what you hear and then having to like, decondition yourself, you know, and saw that stuff with the pandemic, like we saw it. I remember very early, like in February and in January when you had heard like the whispers of coronavirus. And I remember being kind of freaked out, but it was like, okay, what is this? You know, and through a series of questions, I couldn't find the answer to where I should be scared for my life, you know, and you apply that same sort of idea to, to anything. Anytime a politician talks, you should doubt what he says.

[Podcast Host]

Especially in politics.

[Ian Smith]

Yeah, especially in politics and especially in the media. You know, if you're, you know, you're watching your nightly news, which, sure, you should watch the news, you should be in touch, but you should at least question the stories that are being shown to you, you know, not just accept it. That's how we wind up with, you know, I don't know if you remember the great toilet paper shortage of, of 2020.

[Podcast Host]

Crazy.

[Ian Smith]

And it's like, man, people just didn't do any. Like they'll, everybody's so emotional and they'll just automatically jump onto something that's a, you know, that's a big problem. And I think you're seeing a lot of, of change in that regard. I think people are starting to get a lot more well positioned for themselves and especially mentally sort of doubting things a lot more.

[Podcast Host]

I agree. I don't think another pandemic would work at this point.

[Ian Smith]

No, no, it wouldn't. You know, unless it were something that were actually, you know, actually harmful.

[Podcast Host]

Right.

[Ian Smith]

Instead of, you know, the, the flu. But no, I don't think that it would because people learn that lesson. What they need to do now is apply that same lesson and see the other propaganda that's, that they're now falling for.

[Podcast Host]

That's where my head goes it's like, all right, what's next? Because they tried that. What's going to be the next iteration?

[Ian Smith]

You know, and it's always, you know, if, if you really take a look at like that, that whole propaganda system, like the, the system that brought you Covid as an example. Not to continue to harp on Covid, but, you know, there's all these levers were pulled. You know, you get the mainstream media involved, you know, you get all of sort of like the psychological things that were torturing people, like the death counters in the corner and then the major corporations were, you know, involved and there was whole media campaigns out of nowhere. Millions and billions of dollars being spent to convince you to stay at home.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah.

[Ian Smith]

And all of this. And they're pulling all these emotional levers and, and people fall for it and some people didn't. And you know, the rest of the people finally understood what it was. But that same propaganda machine brought you the BLM movement. That same propaganda machine brought you the Ukrainian war. That same propaganda machine has brought you the conflict in Gaza. It's the same, it's the same levers being pulled and they're just, they, they pull at people's sort of heartstrings and they, they find little emotional hooks and they get people to just believe whatever they're being told, no matter what.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah, they're phenomenal at that.

[Ian Smith]

Yeah, you got to give it to them, honestly. Oh, it's a, I mean, they're, they're, it's excellent. You know, it's, you have to give credit where it's due because it works. It's a well funded machine. They've been, you know, mass media has been around and this stuff has been studied, you know, all of this has been studied by your government for years, years and years. You know, they understand the psychology behind what brings you the evening news and the psychology behind what they teach your kids in school and the psychology behind, you know, social pressures and all of these things and they're just pulling different levers. It's all this, it's the same mechanism, just, you know, it's a different flavor and a different sort of emotional. Call it psychological warfare. Really. It's, you know, it's a psyop.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah. They got it down to the T. From the frequency of the music you listen to, to the news, to social media. They are programming and controlling wherever they can. Right.

[Ian Smith]

Yeah. I mean, it's, and it's in your hand all the time. It's in your, your phone. You know, your phone could be an amazing tool, but it can also be a weapon, you know, pointed directly at you.

[Podcast Host]

100.

[Ian Smith]

You think what, what you're being shown on your algorithm remotely organic. You know, you've, you've got a lot of, a lot of thinking to do.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah. And my fear is, as someone in alternative media is that they're gonna really infiltrate that next.

[Ian Smith]

I think to a degree, they, they certainly have.

[Podcast Host]

You know, we've already seen little glimpses of it. Yeah. With certain shows and stuff.

[Ian Smith]

Well, you know, podcasts started as a, as a very grassroots thing and it became very powerful overnight.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah.

[Ian Smith]

You know, especially during the last five years. You know, the, the fact that people can get their voices out relatively quickly and people can have open discussions and you don't have to have media credentials and you don't have to, you know, have some multi million dollar studio. You know, you can just set up a camera and start talking. You know, a lot of people started their podcast just zooming the, that very quickly, sort of surpassed traditional media. So they would absolutely jump on it. And I think that they have, they do it politically. You look either the right or the left. You look at a lot of these influencers on either side.

[Podcast Host]

Yep.

[Ian Smith]

You know, and their podcasts have sponsors and stuff like that. And hey, if you don't, you don't play the game that your political party wants you to and you don't sort of stay at least in line with what they want, you know, you'll, you won't monetize your podcast. They'll, they'll shadow ban you. They'll do all sorts of things to sort of keep your voice down. Yeah, but it's super easy for them to set up a podcast that, with hosts that they like. You know, the entire Daily Wire is that. Yeah, you know, that's pretty much. They all look like organic podcasts, but that's like a multi million dollar operation. I mean, it's probably more than that.

[Podcast Host]

Eight figures a year.

[Ian Smith]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm sure I underestimated that. You know, so, yeah, a lot of those seem very authentic and genuine, but, you know, it's coming from another big company and independent media, I think is really, really important for people to, to, if you're going to do that, to stay as independent as possible. And you have to be financially, you know, able to provide for yourself outside of, you know, the traditional route. If you especially go with the political ones.

[Podcast Host]

It's tough, dude. If I didn't have money coming into this, I honestly don't think I would have been able to pull it off.

[Ian Smith]

Well, it's time consuming. You know, you put a lot of time and effort into it, you know, and you don't need to. To get rich podcasting and, you know, exercising your free speech, but you do have to be able to provide family to some degree or another, you know, so it does. It makes it very, very hard to do. And I. I noticed that a lot because I got pulled into the conservative world.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah.

[Ian Smith]

You know, for. For the better part of two years, I was the golden boy of the. Of the gop, you know, before I started speaking out against the vaccine. That was sort of my first breaking of rank, you know, and then the Ukrainian war and whatever and all the other ones. But, you know, it's hard to. To be in that world and to just like. Just like politics itself, you know, you're not going to get an invitation to Turning Point usa, where there's thousands and thousands of young people who could be exposed to your message if you're not in line with what Turning Point deems acceptable. You know, so it's. It's interesting.

[Podcast Host]

I would say Daily Wire is worse than Turning Point, in my opinion.

[Ian Smith]

Yeah. Yeah, I would say so, because Charlie.

[Podcast Host]

Did have a debate at the last. I'll defend him here. Charlie did have a debate at the last Student Action Summit event. It was Dave Smith versus some guy. Josh Hammer.

[Ian Smith]

Yeah, yeah, I saw parts of it.

[Podcast Host]

So I'll give him that. You know, I will.

[Ian Smith]

Yeah. And, you know, Turning Point, as an organization, I believe that they have really good intentions in a lot of ways, and I've. I've been to their events and stuff like that, and I appreciate at least having people of opposing views not be shunned.

[Podcast Host]

Right.

[Ian Smith]

You know, at the very least, you know, you don't have to agree with them. But, you know, I watched the debate between Nick Fuentes and Dinesh. I thought that was an exceptional example of how people with opposing ideas can come together in a productive way to have really important discussions about something that is extremely relevant to all of our lives, whether we. You know, no matter how much you care or don't care about the Middle east, your money goes there, and a lot of it does, you know, and I think that's an important discussion to be had. And so many opposing views can. It's all about just attacking each other. And I think Dinesh and Nick did just a fantastic job of laying out their ideas in a way where the audience. Because that's what it's about. It's not about the two Guys sitting across from the table, you know, debating. It's about the people that are listening, the audience hearing maybe new information, maybe hearing opposing viewpoints that they weren't aware of and then coming to a, coming to a place where at the very least there's an understanding of why the other person feels this way.

[Podcast Host]

Right.

[Ian Smith]

And at the same time, reciprocal. They understand why you feel this way. And there may be some common ground, you know, there, there can be some common ground between two completely different, you know, the, in, in that case, the pro Israel and the, in the anti Israel position in terms of, you know, foreign aid and stuff like that. And you know, to, to both of their credit, Dinesh said afterwards that he agrees with Nick on a lot of things and he thinks that, you know, maybe that there shouldn't not be any US foreign aid, but that it should be much stricter in terms of, you know, what we get out of it as Americans and how it's used and things like that. And I think something like that is what you need a lot more of.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah, that was a great debate. Who would have thought Alex Jones would be a good moderator?

[Ian Smith]

Yeah, yeah, I was, you know, I was, I was very, very pleasantly surprised.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah, well done to those two gentlemen.

[Ian Smith]

Same thing goes with Dave, Dave Smith at Turning Point, you know, and Charlie having him on.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah, I thought Charlie was fair, honestly, as a matter, because obviously we know his stance on the Israel stuff, but he seemed to be pretty neutral on that debate.

[Ian Smith]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host]

So respect for that.

[Ian Smith]

Well, we're not going to get anywhere. And you see this with the right and the left especially. But you know, now a lot of these debates are happening on the right, within the right, but we've, we're not getting any closer to figuring out how to steer the ship with the way that the right and the left interact with each other. Because it's all about like scoring points.

[Podcast Host]

Right.

[Ian Smith]

And that has only driven the two sides further apart to the point where you, you develop this extremism on both sides. That is so absurd that it's a laughable position.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah.

[Ian Smith]

And that's not, you know, that's not what this country was founded on. This, this country wasn't founded on extremism. It was founded on principles of justice and liberty and focusing on our God given rights, you know, and obviously we have to protect that. So there has to be some sort of rules and stuff like that. But you don't have to have the government ban everything that you don't like and have the government step in, in every debate. You know, there's. If. If more people could have discussions, even just on a personal level, like what Nick and Dinesh did. I think that a lot of the issues that we have would at the very least come from a full boil to, you know, maybe just some warm water.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah, yeah. There was a lot they agreed on, like you said. Yeah. Where do you. Where do you stand on the whole foreign aid stuff? What do you think the best approach there moving forward is?

[Ian Smith]

None of it.

[Podcast Host]

None at all.

[Ian Smith]

None of it. Until further notice. We have far too many issues of our own to be focusing on. And. And also, the way that the entire thing works right now is completely broken. You know, if we're going to be helping other countries, which I'm not against, you know, if we really are the most prosperous, great nation in the world, first and foremost, we should actually be it. You know, we shouldn't be trailing in an education at embarrassing levels. You know, we shouldn't have this embarrassing healthcare system. We shouldn't have, you know, the epidemic, the drug epidemics that we have, all this stuff. So focus on ourselves first. And honestly, a lot of this stuff won't really take that long to clean up. You know, if government started really putting an honest effort into fixing problems, I think the community outreach would be huge, and I think a lot of the problems would. Would be corrected very easily. And then if you want to focus on foreign aid, then we can talk about how we disperse money around the world. Yeah, but there has to be certain expectations. And I agree with Dinesh on this. You know, if there's going to be money that gets sent, it's very clear what it's going to. Which in the case of the Middle east, it's not. And it's not just Israel, but Israel is a probably the best example of we just send money, and there's really no terms on what we. What we get out of it or how they use it, you know, and. And you see, again, especially with Israel, a lot of that money gets funneled right back into our political system in order to. To put people in office that are wildly pro Israel, which isn't a. That should not be a super strong front of the ticket position for any American politician. All of the American issues should be before that. That should be very low on the list if you do feel that way. And I think foreign aid, like I said, it just. It really needs to just kind of be completely halted and reworked.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah.

[Ian Smith]

Scaled back tremendously and. And regulated and more carefully watched over so the American people really understand what their money goes to. Because again, it's not just the Israel thing, you know, the stuff that the USAID stuff found. It's absolutely absurd. You know, funding whatever it is, funding gender studies in, you know, in the, in the mountains of Tibet or what. You know, it's completely ludicrous. And everybody knows that that money's not really doing this. Yeah. You know, so I would, I would kill the entire program until further notice and just revisit it after we get our stuff in order.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah. All this stuff getting exposed. Like, I, I never liked paying taxes in the past, but it just made it even worse, dude. Like, now I know it's for sure not.

[Ian Smith]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host]

Going anywhere productive. Which before I kind of thought about it, I guess, and I was like, I'm never seeing this again. But now it's even worse.

[Ian Smith]

I think a lot of people are kind of coming to that same conclusion, whether or not they're very politically minded or not. You know, it's not easy to, to make it these days. And people are wondering why 40 of the money that they make is just going away. And then, you know, no matter what it is, it's, it's almost never a good thing. And people are starting to realize that, like, oh, I can't get ahead because I make $70,000 a year, but I only bring home 40, you know, and my community still sucks. You know, my roads are still crap, there's still crime in my neighborhood. Where, where's all this money going? And then they, you know, they look to Congress and you see, oh, $400 billion goes here. And, you know, oh, we left weapons in Iraq or Afghanistan. It was $13 trillion or billion dollars, whatever it is. And it just gets absurd to the point where it's like even, even somebody who really doesn't want to pay attention is forced to eventually.

[Podcast Host]

Absolutely. I remember growing up, like, making six figures a year was like the goal.

[Ian Smith]

The first year I made six figures, I thought I was rich.

[Podcast Host]

Right.

[Ian Smith]

Like, I felt rich.

[Podcast Host]

I used to be rich.

[Ian Smith]

Yeah. I mean, I, I had zero monetary concerns whatsoever. You know, I didn't really even have to pay attention to what I was making because there was just enough.

[Podcast Host]

Right.

[Ian Smith]

And within a couple of years that, that six figures didn't feel so comfortable anymore.

[Podcast Host]

And you factor in inflation. Yeah. 100k a year, maybe when I was a kid would be like 150 a year. Yeah, like.

[Ian Smith]

Oh, absolutely.

[Podcast Host]

Like something like that, you know?

[Ian Smith]

Yeah. And it's, it's everywhere and it's, it's, it touches people. No Matter what. Whether you're buying a house, whether you're buying groceries, whether you're paying rent, whether you're trying to get a new car. I mean, like, most people pay, like, more than when I first got my car. You know, I'm, I'm 30. I'm about to be 39. When I first got my car, like an expensive car payment was like 350amonth. Damn, I wish, you know, I, I remember like my, you know, like a buddy of mine got like a nice Acura at the time, and it was like 350amonth. Like now you can't get a Honda Civic for 350amonth, you know, so you can't. Eventually everybody's gonna see it because it's just, you know, it's just everywhere.

[Podcast Host]

I just saw Tucker interview. Yeah, it's nuts, dude. I forget who he was interviewing, but the guest said 78 of people don't pay their credit cards on time right now. Yeah.

[Ian Smith]

Oh, it's. When you start looking at those numbers, it's, you know, it's clearly a bubble and there's clearly going to be a major correction at some point. You know, we saw it in 2008 with the housing crisis. You've seen pops up in different ways. You know, there's probably another housing crisis on the, on the horizon somewhere. I'm no real estate expert, but, you know, I can, I can see it. And the same thing with credit card. I mean, that's a really scary thing when almost 80% of the population is so financially strapped that they are just putting off their credit card. I mean, I've never paid my credit card.

[Podcast Host]

Dude, the interest on that is nuts. 2% a month?

[Ian Smith]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host]

Like, that's 24 a year.

[Ian Smith]

I can't fathom that, you know, but I wasn't. Thankfully, I, I learned that lesson early. I had one credit card one time when I was younger, and it was like 500 limit and it took me forever to pay off off. And I learned my lesson. But the fact that 80 of the population is living within somewhere of that is. Is pretty alarming, man.

[Podcast Host]

Middle class going to be wiped out.

[Ian Smith]

Yeah. And that's, you know, you saw that happening before, but Covid was a huge example of that, where the, the middle class just took the punishment on that and they handed out all that hush money for everybody to kind of shut up and be quiet and keep them distracted. And then on the other side of it, you know, nobody really thought about all the money that they were spending. You know, when Trump signed The CARES act, that was trillions of dollars that we just injected into. Like, of course your money's going to be right. You know, that's how it works. But nobody thought of that at the time. And that was really, I think, a huge jump to squeezing the middle class like, really hard. You know, you had, I think it was a third of all the businesses that shut down, never reopened nationally, something like that. And small businesses, you know, that was. That was really where I got my start and, you know, where a lot of the compassion came from in the beginning, because I've been a small or I was a small business owner my whole life, you know, so I understood the benefit of having, you know, entrepreneurship in and around your community where people are finding ways to make money for themselves and adding value to the community that's not corporatized. And you see less and less and less of that.

[Podcast Host]

That.

[Ian Smith]

And that's a bad thing. You know, when every store that you have for, like a choice to eat or shop or do, this is all some big corporate structure, that money doesn't come back into your communities. You know, you go to a local restaurant, a locally owned restaurant, and you go there and you buy food. You're putting money directly into your community.

[Podcast Host]

Right.

[Ian Smith]

That money doesn't go up the corporate ladder somewhere and pay stock dividends to somebody. That money pays the staff who all live in the community, who will all in turn spend money in the community. It pays the owners. You know, it provides jobs, all these things. And then you get this corporate takeover where now most people work for corporations and that money. Yeah, it goes into their pockets, you know, as a family. But, you know, they're going to shop at, you know, a corporate grocery store and they eat at corporate restaurants and they, you know, they have their Netflix subscription. Like, none of that money ever makes it right back into the community. And I think that's one of the most important things with small business and entrepreneurship is the money stays local. And that's how communities die. You know, when people stop spending money in their community and. And just, you know, it just all gets sort of siphoned out to shareholders and CEOs and corporate bonuses and, you know, they're not. They're not reinvesting into your. Into your local New Jersey community.

[Podcast Host]

Nope.

[Ian Smith]

You know, we certainly were, and all the small businesses that we knew were.

[Podcast Host]

And that's why I go to farmers markets.

[Ian Smith]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host]

Whatever city I'm in, I'll stop in, you know, support the local farmers.

[Ian Smith]

Goes right back to what you said earlier. People Taking personal responsibility. You know, you have to go out of your way to support what you believe in. You know, it's much easier to stop at Whole Foods right here than it is to. To drive 15 minutes to a farmer's market to get your stuff. But, you know, do you care where your dollar goes at the end of the day?

[Podcast Host]

Absolutely. We got to vote with our dollars at this point because I don't think anything else going to work. Right.

[Ian Smith]

No, you know, I think that's a huge part of it. Yeah. You know, you. You vote with your dollars and you really. You vote with your time and your energy. You know, you support those people. You go out to their events. One of the. One of the reasons I love where I live, I live in St. Augustine.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah.

[Ian Smith]

And there's a lot of small business. It's a flourishing small business area. And it's awesome because these people really care about the community, and they do events in the community and they give to charity in the community. So knowing that I buy my coffee shop or my coffee from the local coffee shop versus a Starbucks, it's still a $5 cup of coffee either way. You know, I know that I'm voting with my dollars. I'm also voting with my time and my, you know, my energy, because I'm there to support them when I. When I go and tag them, you know, occasionally, you know, I'm pointing to them and I'm doing the things that I can on a personal level to make sure that they succeed because they do the same for me.

[Podcast Host]

I love that.

[Ian Smith]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah. That's something that's been lost in major.

[Ian Smith]

Cities, unfortunately, that community aspect, especially in major cities, especially. I would say that. Yeah. You know, and it's. But it's something that's very reversible.

[Podcast Host]

Very, very. I think so. Yeah. I think we can reverse that for sure. Ian, it's been cool, man. I know you got to get on Jake's show, but where could people find you?

[Ian Smith]

You can find me on Instagram and on X at Ian Smith Fitness.

[Podcast Host]

Awesome. Check them out, guys. Thanks for coming on, man.

[Ian Smith]

Absolutely, brother. My pleasure.

[Podcast Host]

See you.

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[Podcast Host]

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