Freestyle Connection Founder
Carl Paoli
New York Times bestselling author, former elite gymnast, and performance coach. Founder of Freestyle Connection.
I help performance companies earn the trust that marketing can't buy.
The Short Version
I spent 20 years learning one thing: the body never lies. A disorganized body produces a disorganized life. The most direct path to inner development runs through physical practice.
That conviction runs through everything I do. The book, the coaching, the advisory work, the writing. It has never changed.
Today I work as a concierge performance coach for founders, executives, and their families on the San Francisco Peninsula. I also partner with performance companies as a trusted advisor and equity holder, building the credibility that marketing cannot manufacture.
What I Have Built
Coached Annie Thorisdottir to back-to-back CrossFit Games Championships in 2011 and 2012. She was the first woman in history to win consecutive titles.
Managed four Team USA Breaking athletes to the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Wrote Free+Style: Maximize Sport and Life Performance with Four Basic Movements (Victory Belt, 2014). New York Times bestseller. Translated into German, Korean, and Chinese.
Created GymnasticsWOD, the most visited gymnastics resource in functional fitness for several years running. Scaled to 50+ seminars annually and $395,000 in peak revenue with zero paid acquisition.
Co-authored the CrossFit Level 3 and Level 4 certification curriculum. Leading gymnastics movement contributor to the CrossFit Journal for several consecutive years.
Built a cross-platform audience of 218,000+ followers across YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and X. Zero paid media. Ever.
Equity Partnerships
Strike MVMNT. Strategic advisor and equity holder since 2014. Built the founding partnership network and established the brand's first anchor in the CrossFit community.
PushPress. Founding brand ambassador and equity holder. Contributed to the early legitimacy that helped the company scale to a $100M valuation and 3,500+ gym clients.
The Framework
Everything I teach comes back to three words: Position, Movement, Purpose. It started as a way to teach a handstand. It turned out to be a way to teach anything.
Position is where you are. Your body in space. Your beliefs, your assumptions, the shape you are in before you move.
Movement is change. Action. What happens when you leave the position you were in.
Purpose is why it matters. The function. The thing the movement is for.
The same framework that teaches a muscle-up teaches a founder how to lead under pressure. That is not a metaphor. It is the same operating system applied in two different domains.
The Writing
The Way of One is my weekly essay on Substack. On becoming fully human in a world that keeps asking you to be less.
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