“I ventured into advertising out of this publication,” he said. “Advertisers with the magazine wanted the same look and feel for their ads, that roughness, that urban look.”

Soon Baron was running his own advertising agency, with as many as 40 staff members at one point, serving as creative director. Things were going great, business was booming, and then the world around him literally fell apart.

In 2008 Iceland’s private banking sector crumbled, which The Economist said was the largest banking collapse any country had seen in economic history. Baron said it was just as bad as it sounds.

“When you have 40 employees working for you, and there is talk of the ATMs stop giving out money, talk that they just froze everyone’s accounts, no one could take out money. It was really scary and everyone freaked out including me.”

Baron and his crew luckily found themselves snatched up by the oddest of employers. The English-language Icelandic children’s television show LazyTown, which is centred around a young girl who moves to a new town to live with her uncle, took most of Baron’s employees and himself on in 2009. Baron would end up working for five years as the show’s head of design, then in 2014 started another ad agency, Maurar (the Icelandic word for “ants”).

Before long Baron was working with both Gudmundsson (known as BKG to CrossFit fans) and Sigmundsdottir, who quickly transformed into one of the sport’s most recognisable figures. He’d done work with other athletes previously, including Iceland’s national football team, UFC fighter Gunni Nelson and Thor Bjornsson, most famously known as “The Mountain” from Game of Thrones. Baron, who is a powerlifter himself, had found his niche in a country known for producing an overabundance of athletic prowess.

“I have always been fascinated by talent,” he said. “On top of that I am a huge sports fan so it is maybe not a pure coincidence that I started looking to work with athletes. Helping them build their social media, facilitating PR opportunities and spotting clever marketing opportunities.”

Baron was still at the ad agency he created, but soon found himself drifting away from the corporate side and into working closely with the athletes. Soon Baron found CrossFit as a new venture where he could essentially make up the rules as he went. Right now he also represents Roman Khrennikov, Gabriela Migala, Cedric Lapointe, Emma Lawson, Kristof Horvath, Joshua Al-Chamaa, Sola Sigurdardottir and Gina De Lucia, as well as working regularly with another 20 CrossFit athletes on a part-time basis.

“Because it is such a new sport with CrossFit, the tracks haven’t been fully moulded. There is still so much wiggle room in how to approach things and how to do things. I would assume in sports like the NFL and golf, things have just been moulded into one certain way that you do things, or you just don't get to participate. But in sports like CrossFit there is still so much room for creativity.”

Before the pandemic wiped the CrossFit competition slate clean, Baron was a regular at competitions across the planet, travelling with his athletes and helping them manage media, fans, and everything that comes with being a professional competitor. While he’s covered in tattoos and could pass for a hulking bodyguard, he has proven himself over the years to be one of the sport’s most cerebral and forward-thinking minds.

Baron says the idea is to mould his approach to the athlete, not have it done the other way around, and there is no detail too small to handle. He now runs a boutique management agency called Bakland, putting his skills when it comes to helping athletes to full use.

“My approach is that I work with everyone in a different way. The needs are different between people and in due time I usually figure out how to best work with each one. My primary role is always to negotiate deals and assist the athlete in fulfilling the duties of each contract, but then I do all kinds of other s*** too. I just do what needs to be done.”