[CFMS SERIES] Daniel Chaffey: Unpacking CrossFit’s Evolution and Affiliate Success (EP. 039)

The CrossFit Podcast

CrossFit LLC

Health & Fitness

4.3 • 757 Ratings

🗓️ 29 September 2025

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This marks the second episode of a special CrossFit Podcast collaboration with the CrossFit Medical Society.

This week, we welcome Daniel Chaffey, a longtime leader in the CrossFit space. He owns CrossFit Louvre in Paris, one of Europe’s most established affiliates with over 3,100 members across three locations.

He also founded the major European competition, The French Throwdown, and Operating With Excellence, a workshop platform dedicated to helping affiliate owners build thriving businesses.

In this conversation, host Jocelyn Rylee dives into the essentials of CrossFit affiliates with Daniel: leadership, hospitality, and community. Chaffey, known for never mincing words, shares point-blank perspectives on everything from the future of CrossFit to the responsibility of affiliates in shaping that future.

Topics Covered

The role of leadership in affiliate success and sustainability
The difference between service and hospitality in gyms
Building and maintaining community in CrossFit
CrossFit’s role in health across generations
Optimism, anxiety, and the future direction of CrossFit
The importance of education and HQ’s role in supporting affiliates

Resources Mentioned

Jordan Peterson/Peterson Academy (leadership courses)
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (applied to member experience)
CrossFit Level 1 and Level 2 Courses
Affiliate gatherings/events (e.g., Banff, Canadian Affiliate Gathering)

Community Highlight

Saxon Panchik is having a full-circle moment.

With six CrossFit Games appearances, he’s now putting more energy into giving back to the community that built him.

His message:

Get into an affiliate and be active.
Uplift those around you.
Keep each other accountable.

“It is life-changing. We all have things we wish we knew when starting our fitness journey. Take a minute to share that with someone just beginning.”

Know someone you think deserves to be highlighted? Nominate them here.

Share Your Thoughts: Email us [podcasts@crossfit.com] or complete our survey here.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Well, Chaffee, what are you fired up about these days?
0:04.0	Ah, the future.
0:06.0	The future. What about the future gets you fired up right now?
0:09.0	Well, everybody knows there's going to be change coming.
0:12.0	Yeah.
0:13.0	That's the nature of the current ownership.
0:16.0	And I'm fired up because I see the present,
0:19.0	and the present's a starting point for the future.
0:21.6	And being here after a tough ride and seeing the people here, seeing the sentiment, the amount of love that there is,
0:34.6	not just for the methodology, but also for the brand right for me
0:40.2	that they're not necessarily the same thing and the way the games brings those two
0:45.6	together I'm very optimistic about the future the game is rigged and not in your favor.
0:58.6	You've been sold the idea that health insurance has your back, but you're not a person to that.
1:03.5	You're a number, a stat.
1:05.8	It was never about your health.
1:07.6	It's about their profit margins.
1:09.5	But there's another way.
1:12.1	It's community care. A health care system powered by the same values that may crossfit more than just a workout.
1:16.6	A community that helps each other, covers each other, and rises together through sickness
1:21.6	and life's most unexpected challenges. It's time to rethink health care to stop relying on the system that's failed us.
1:28.7	They sell sick care.
1:29.8	We power health.
	...

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