About Us
Meet The Founders
What began as a personal way to test themselves and break routine became Challenging Challenges. James and Matt discovered a personal growth system that pushed their physical and mental limits while strengthening their relationships. It became a way of life worth sharing.
James Welch
Co-Founder
“If you want to get better at anything, you have to do better than your best.”
Matt Frey
Co-Founder
“When’s the last time your life depended on your preparation? Bet you’d study your ass off for that exam.”
Our Story
James and Matt met in the early 2000s through college basketball in Vancouver, Washington. James was a coach. Matt was a player. From the start, there was mutual respect. Matt respected James’s discipline, steadiness, and leadership. James respected Matt’s work ethic, energy, and hunger to grow. What started on the court quickly became something more.
That bond deepened when James welcomed Matt into his family’s appraisal business, a business built over two generations. It was more than a job. It was trust. It was belief. Before that, Matt was just living. After that, he had direction, purpose, and a brotherhood that changed his life.
– James and Matt
From there, life moved fast. Careers grew. Families were built. Responsibilities piled up. But through all of it, they kept pushing each other. At work and outside of it, they created games, competitions, and personal growth challenges to break up the grind and stay sharp. Some were ridiculous. Some were brutal. All of them made life feel bigger, funnier, more challenging, and more alive. What started as friendship and competition became a way of living.
They kept learning too. Books. Podcasts. Conversations. Ideas that challenged the way they thought and lived. Then they put those ideas to the test through physical challenges, mental discipline, and shared experiences that pushed them past comfort and routine.
That is how Challenging Challenges was born. Not from theory. Not from hype. From two regular guys with careers, families, and responsibilities who believed life was meant to be lived with more intention, more courage, and more fire.
This self-help book is the result of nearly two decades of friendship, trust, discipline, and real-world testing. It is for people who are grateful for their lives but know they are capable of more. People who do not want empty motivation. People who want something real.
Because that has always been the point. You do not have to be extraordinary to live beyond ordinary. You just have to be willing to challenge yourself.
Meet James & Matt
Two regular guys with extraordinary commitment to personal growth
About James
James built his life around discipline, goals, and the constant drive to test himself through physical, mental, and social challenges. For more than twenty years, he and longtime friend Matt Frey tested themselves through a wide range of experiences, some planned, some improvised, and those experiences eventually became the backbone of Challenging Challenges. What started as two friends seeing how far they could push their limits grew into a movement built on consistency, accountability, and the belief that anyone can change their life when they decide to challenge themselves. He is serious about growth, but not serious all the time, and the laughs along the way have mattered just as much as the lessons.
Raised in Vancouver, Washington, James has spent three decades in the real estate appraisal world, though the job has never defined him. His purpose is centered on his son and showing him what it looks like to become the strongest version of himself. He is deeply grateful for his wife, Justine, whose support, encouragement, and sense of humor have meant everything along the way, and he is thankful for the foundation his parents gave him and for the close relationship he shares with his sister. Fitness and health have always been part of James’s life, not for appearance, but for longevity and for the ability to keep showing up year after year for the people who depend on him. He believes a life beyond ordinary is not something you find. It is something you build through action, structure, and the willingness to push past your own limits.
The message he brings to this book is simple: the blueprint is here, the work is real, and the results are earned. The challenges in this book are for anyone willing to commit, regardless of age, background, or starting point. Challenging Challenges is built for people who want more from life and are ready to prove it to themselves, and James is committed to growing that message as far as it can reach.
About Matt
Matt Frey grew up inside the chaos and competition of a family of ten, sharing every win and loss with his twin brother, a built-in rival who sharpened his drive from day one. Born in Raleigh and raised across North Carolina and Washington, Matt learned early that nothing meaningful comes without struggle. Getting cut from the high school basketball team twice became a defining moment, pushing him to earn a college basketball roster spot as a walk-on and later compete at the semi-pro level. Resistance didn’t stop him, it shaped him.
After college, Matt trained under James in the appraisal world, becoming a certified appraiser in Oregon and Washington and building a career grounded in integrity, consistency, and hard work. But the title was never the whole story. Matt has always been wired for challenge, physical growth, mental discipline, and personal development. From childhood games with his brothers to the structured tests he and James built in adulthood, pushing limits became part of his identity.
At the foundation of Matt’s life is his wife, Hayley, his anchor, truth-teller, and source of unwavering honesty. Together, they raise their sons, Hudson and Owen, who are at the heart of Matt’s purpose. Every challenge he takes on, every standard he holds, is shaped by his commitment to being a leader in his home, someone his boys can look to as an example of resilience, humility, and a life rooted in their Christian faith. Matt’s mission as a father is simple: show them what it means to never give up, stand firm in who you are, and live with purpose.
Challenging Challenges grew from decades of shared experiments, failures, breakthroughs, and hard-earned lessons between Matt and James. Matt believes personal growth happens through small, consistent steps, a willingness to face discomfort, and a commitment to purpose over comfort. His message to readers is clear: you are capable of far more than you think, and the path to a life beyond ordinary begins with choosing to start.