Today we’d like to introduce you to Chase Long.
Hi Chase, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was raised by a single mother in north-central West Virginia, a small town called Buckhannon. Coming up without a father can be difficult, my mother put me in sports year-round to keep me out of trouble and provide structure. Through athletics, I found confidence, community, and mentors. My mother instilled in me a strong work ethic, if you take on a job always see it through and do your best work. Coaches and mentors along the way taught me the importance of discipline. Both my work ethic and discipline paved the way for me to be successful in college, not only athletically but academically.
I graduated from Ohio Valley University in 2015 with a Bachelor’s in Marketing, a 3.9 GPA, and credits as a 2 time National Qualifier for the NCAA Division College Wrestling Championship.
I knew in college that I wanted to work in marketing in a field that I was passionate about, something to do with athletics, fashion, or music. However, upon graduation I found myself struggling to find an entry-level marketing job in one of those fields in West Virginia. I was fortunate enough to earn a role as an account executive for a local NBC news affiliate, selling television commercials and digital ads to local businesses. I learned a lot and the job kept the lights, but it wasn’t exactly what I had in mind when I was grinding in college.
In late 2015 I discovered CrossFit at a local gym in West Virginia, Ronin Fitness. I quickly fell in love with the sport and the community there, I found my replacement for wrestling and competing. I started training seriously for CrossFit in early 2016. By the summer of 2016, I took Runner-Up at the West Virginia State CrossFit Championship. Around that same time a close friend I made at Ronin Fitness asked me what I wanted to do with my life professionally, I told him that I wanted to be in sports marketing, I then listed a couple of companies that I thought were doing incredible work FloSports, Nike, Onnit, and Complex. That friend happened to have an old college roommate that was working for FloSports. I sent my resume to that contact, luckily got the interview for a position as a content marketing coordinator working for FloElite, a branch of FloSports covering CrossFit, Olympic Weightlifting, and Strongman events. I hit it off with everyone during the interview process and was offered the job. In February of 2017, I made the move to Austin, Texas to start my new career.
During my time at FloElite, I leveled up my professional game significantly. FloSports at that time was in full bootstrap start-up mode, things moved fast and the work was constant. I found myself working early hours and late shifts just to get everything for that day done. I wore many hats that I would argue don’t fall under the “content marketing coordinator” role but I had fun doing those tasks and like I said, it all helped level me up. Within 8 months, I was working on three other branches within FloSports. I also was fortunate enough to join the Scale As Needed podcast, a podcast about CrossFit occasionally, but more so about movies and TV shows.
In 2018 my competitive CrossFit career really took off and I earned a spot on CrossFit Jääkarhu’s Regionals Team. While working full time at FloSports I was also pulling double and triple workout training days to prepare. We finished CrossFit Regionals in 8th place, just 3 spots shy from qualifying for the world championships, the CrossFit Games.
Unfortunately, the Monday before I competed at CrossFit Regionals, FloSports underwent a massive restructuring that involved them pulling back their investment in the FloElite branch. I was let go. Thankfully, I was fully focused on competing and wasn’t too emotionally shook or downtrodden by the news.
After Regionals, I spent the summer of 2018 applying and hustling to find a new job. After several interviews, I was offered a job at Nutrabolt, the parent company of sports nutrition brands, Cellucor and Xtend. I spent the next two years working on the social media team, developing strategies for follower growth and producing content for the family of brands at Nutrabolt. In late 2020 I was promoted at Nutrabolt and started really expanding my reach and abilities within the company. I work on the brand strategy, influencer and athlete management, as well production and content creation. I love my current role as I find myself able to pull levers to get passion projects executed. One of my favorite things I get to do is work with our team of athletes and ambassadors to tell unique stories on social. For instance, this past February I was fortunate enough to lead a social project for Black History Month where each week across all three of our brands we were able to spotlight one of our African American athletes and give them our brand platforms to talk about whatever matters to them. It was really well received and I felt like it really stood out within the sports nutrition space.
I’m still actively training for and pursuing competing at the CrossFit Games on a team. Generally, if I’m not working or spending time with my family, I’m training. Due to the pandemic, I started training full-time with my girlfriend Linda Saucedo in our garage gym. We’re fortunate enough to have a lot of equipment and haven’t had to adjust our training much. With everything slowly returning to somewhat normal, I’m looking forward to going back to CrossFit Jaakarhu and training full-time there again.
I feel like I’m just now hitting my stride in my career at Nutrabolt, there are a lot of fun and exciting things on the horizon that we have been working on internally for a while and I am pumped and proud for those projects to finally see the light of day! Be sure to follow @C4Energy, @Cellucor, and @Xtend on Instagram to see some of the awesome things I’m referring to here!
Outside of work and training, I’m still regularly on the Scale As Needed podcast, which you can find under ArmenHammerTV on all podcast services, I’ve also partnered with a fitness gear company called Virus Intl. I love the quality of Virus’ workout clothing and am fortunate enough that they have agreed to donate 10% of any sale I make while promoting their gear to the West Virginia Black Heritage Festival. The WVBHF is a small festival in North-Central West Virginia that provides scholarships to youths in West Virginia. I wanted to give back to this festival after they took a chance on me in high school and awarded me the title of Black Heritage Festival Junior King and a scholarship for college. I’m hoping to find more opportunities like this to give back to the Austin community in the future.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It certainly has not been a smooth road, but I’m a big believer in “a smooth sea never made a skilled sailor.”
In high school, my mother suffered from severe spinal stenosis and essentially lost the ability to drive, walk, or travel easily due to losing the feeling in her legs.
In my sophomore year of college, my uncle Greg Murphy, who I was very close to and had basically served as my father figure through middle and high school passed away from very aggressive stage 4 cancer.
My father never played a huge role in my life and that made things difficult when I was younger I suppose. We were also very poor growing up, I remember getting vouchers from the state for back to school clothing and supply shopping, having to be content with handy down or second-hand athletics equipment, and generally being looked down on because we didn’t have the quality clothing, gear, or toys. All of that I feel just gave me a good perspective on life. It blows my mind how far I’ve come from those times.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I work for Nutabolt the parent company of Cellucor, C4 Energy, and Xtend. I where many hats for the company. I work on social media strategy, partnerships, and content production. I pride myself on my ability to get things done, no matter how crazy or impossible they seem, if there’s a challenge or task, I’m up for it.
At Nutrabolt, I like to think I’m known for my positive outlook and willingness to jump in wherever I’m needed.
Currently what I’m most proud of has been the recent growth and expansion of our brand athlete and ambassador roster. And more specifically the diversity represented within that roster. Growing up as a mix child, half black half white, in a predominately white area of the country I find representation to be extremely important. And I’m proud to say that there’s strong representation across the board in our ambassador roster – My hope is that we have a brand that any child can look at see a version of themselves represented.
The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
Yes, 100%. I now have a better understanding of just how important routine and process can be. I learned to be more vigilant with the feelings of others and to try and always be understanding and caring because we truly have no real idea how each of us deals with a given situation.
The biggest takeaway was to not take the day-to-day for granted. For example, going to the gym, going into the office, hanging out at a friend’s house. Those things no matter how mundane they seem are special and we should cherish those simple activities.
Contact Info:
- Email: heychase504@gmail.com
- Website: https://www.chase504.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chase504/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Chase504/videos
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/c4energy/
