Quest for Success
The Quest for Success Podcast is the ultimate destination for those seeking inspiration and motivation to achieve their goals. Join gym owner and trainer Zac Aguilar and athletic director Blain Smothermon as they share the remarkable stories of individuals who are on their own unique quests for success. Through in-depth interviews and engaging conversations, you'll learn about the challenges and triumphs that have shaped their journeys, and gain valuable insights to help you on your own path to success. Tune in to the Quest for Success Podcast and discover the strategies, tips, and mindsets that can help you unlock your full potential.
Quest for Success
Mauricio Mejia | BJJ Black Belt and Muay Thai Kickboxing Instructor: Unveiling the Power of Jiu-Jitsu in Personal Development and Community Building
Ever feel like you're stuck in a rut and need some fresh and invigorating inspiration? Join us as we sit down with the exceptional martial artist and instructor, Mauricio Mejia, who not only holds a black belt in Jiu Jitsu but has honed his skills in the disciplines of Jiu-Jitsu, Muay Thai, and kickboxing. Together, we trace the lineage of the black belt, celebrate the growth of the Elite Team, and engage in a lively debate about the top three greatest martial artists of all time.
As the conversation flows, we venture into the astounding potential nestled within small towns like Porterville. Reflecting on the positive influence martial arts has, we delve into the personal growth and confidence it unlocks. Mauricio, with his unique teaching style, uses a constraint-led approach, which has revolutionized the way his students understand and embrace the art of Jiu-Jitsu.
Get ready to be inspired as we explore the myriad benefits of joining a Jiu-Jitsu gym. From building character and focus, to fostering willpower and confidence, we discuss why this form of martial art is capturing mainstream attention. Mauricio shares his insights on teaching, the importance of making positive first impressions, and the power of parental support in a child's martial arts journey. We end our discussion by considering the possibilities of spurring community growth in Porteville, emphasizing the importance of investing in our children. Join us, as we unearth the power of martial arts, its influence on personal development, and the ability it holds to shape a community.
Quest for Success Links | https://linktr.ee/questforsuccess
Alright, ladies and gentlemen, episode four of the Quest for Success podcast, season two. We have a special guest today and this guy is a black belt and jiu-jitsu Muay Thai instructor, kickboxing instructor, jiu-jitsu instructor and he owned the elite team in Portoville. And this guy, I've known him for quite a few years now and we actually did a podcast a couple years ago. Never released it, so we got some hidden gems in that. But maybe someday down the road I don't know he's shaking his head and said no but anyways, super blessed to have him on.
Speaker 1:Marie Shomihia, thank you for taking the time to be with us today. We're excited about this one. It's been a long time coming and excited to kick it off today.
Speaker 2:No, thank you guys. I've been very much looking forward to sitting down with you guys, meeting Zach. Let's get this going.
Speaker 1:Let's do it. Yeah, excited. You ready to kick off the mental minutes, zach?
Speaker 3:Let's kick off the mental minutes like always man. So we're gonna kick off with the mental minute with question number one. I'm kind of gonna go off script. Why did you call your gym elite?
Speaker 2:Oh, how funny. Now this is gonna be a hard ass minute, all right, so it was just natural. I went up to my instructor, who founded the elite team of schools in Vaisalia, and he has a school that's 30, 45 minutes west in LeMore and Hanford. It's in Hanford now and I just threw it out there one day. Hey, can I open a school 30, 45 minutes east? And he's all like yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 2:So I'm like, okay, can I use the elite team name? And he said yeah, for sure. So that's how I went about it. It's just a branch off my instructor's school.
Speaker 1:Nice how many elite teams are there now?
Speaker 2:Okay, so we have man, monterey, wisconsin, tulare, portable Ridley, where we are, we do Hanford already I can't even think of. I'm sure I'm missing one or two, but about over five, six.
Speaker 3:It's a household name, man.
Speaker 1:It's getting it started as just one gym. Obviously, the original one was in Vaisalia. Yeah, that was okay. And who was the guy that started it all? That's my instructor, tom Knox. Tom Knox, and that's who you got your black belt from, right, that's right. And who did he get his black belt from?
Speaker 2:He got it from Clever Luciano. He has a school in Huntington Beach and. I was fortunate enough to train with him as well, but I found my opening to move back, so I moved back and just went under his his wing ever since.
Speaker 1:Rest his history yeah it's always like the history of the lineage of, obviously, of the black belts, and who did he get it from? Who did he get it from?
Speaker 1:How cool it always relates back, you know, to you know Gracie's or one of the one of the household names, so awesome. So next question we, there's always debates greatest of all times, right, and I'll let you kind of reframe this how you want to take it. But who do you believe are, like, the top three greatest martial artists of all time? It doesn't matter the, the exact discipline, necessarily, but who do you believe are the top three greatest martial artists of all time?
Speaker 2:This one's difficult but, like, I'll just stick around with, like, the ones that influence me and one might not even be an actual martial artist, but number one, like in MMA. For me it was Anderson Silva. He was just at the time when I started watching MMA. He was the one that was doing Jujitsu, he was doing Muay Thai. Everything he did was at a black belt level. He was even wrestling. He was doing everything, um, at a high level. Then it was George St Pierre who, like I really love to hate George St Pierre because at the time, uh, he would be deemed as boring. Now I'm so fascinated I I catch myself studying him, uh, more now than I ever did before um, just guilty pleasures in terms of MMA, anderson.
Speaker 2:Anderson, I mean sorry I already said that uh, naked and ideas they're just like people's chance for sure, like I can't get enough of them, like I love any interview with them, I don't care what they say, how it could be so bad and I'm, I'm all for it. Um, in the Jujitsu world there's Roger Gracie, yeah, um. Gordon Ryan, he, uh, there's like there's some youngsters too. Man, there's like these young guys too, and even from our own gym, like Josh's Narrows, uh. Then we have these up-and-comer brown belt Owen, uh. Then we have another who's actually a portable native and you should see him on the Jujitsu scene pretty soon. His name's Sam Hosey. Um, his dad is probably one of the pioneering black belts in portable that no one knows about. But if there's somebody that had a black belt here first, it was definitely, uh, uh, sam's dad. His name's Ron. So I guess, and just to narrow it down, those are like some of the ones I find pretty great right now, at the moment.
Speaker 2:But you know I always add switch and yeah flip around.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, some of those, I mean GSP. At the time he was like, even if you hated him, you wanted to see him lose. Like his, his craft was incredible. Like the, the details that he put into not just Jujitsu but wrestling and striking and Muay Thai. Like the attention to detail with him was absolutely incredible. And now his attention to like the nutrition stuff.
Speaker 2:Like he was ahead of his time with nutrition and recovery and ice baths and all those types of, you know, recovery and just being disciplined in that so, um, gsp now does a training system that, uh, bj Penn was doing about 15 years ago now, like 10, 15 years ago now, and it's so funny. It's like a sports science life system where they're on like gymnastic balls and like flat this and pull workouts. It's not actually like traditional weightlifting and it's just so funny because BJ Penn, during his tear that got him back into that uh championship form, was when he was doing these workouts. And then he's now see, gsp went to start doing these workouts after he got his ACL tear and it's just you're, you're 100, right, he was always trying to do something different or better or innovate and I kind of like I gravitate towards that because I mean I'm sure you do too like especially with like I see the.
Speaker 2:I look around here and I look at the gym and I'm like these are not just your standard racks, you know. These are like complex rigs that, um are meant for more than just your basic squats, you know.
Speaker 1:So I'm sure you guys are gravitate towards innovators as well, you know 100 yeah, great way to put it games always change you, man, you just it's your, it's your job to keep up 100 exactly
Speaker 3:100 so I'm gonna keep my question about the business. So this is going to be like a two in one okay so what is your favorite thing about being a gym owner and a instructor?
Speaker 2:okay about being a gym owner? Nothing, sincerely nothing. I want to be on the mats for my students and training partners. I, man, the only thing about being an instructor is the fact that I have students and training partners like seeing them evolve and progress.
Speaker 2:And, oh my god, like I didn't understand I the goals I have now. I didn't even I would have never imagined I would have when I first thought I wanted a school. So about the business owner, being administrator, being a marketer, being a I don't know making ends meet, don't like nothing about it right now. And this kind of goes out of line with like. My family probably hates me for this because I tell them all the time I have really successful friends that they're they're cool with it, but I'm I'm just like maybe it's just I'm self-conscious about it, but I do not want to be a great business owner right now. I want to focus on my craft of being a better instructor for my students and that's where most of my energy goes.
Speaker 2:And I mean not to drag out this question, but because of COVID I got to see that if I made it through that really tough time business wise, I could focus on my craft and that really gave me more of an empowerment to just focus on craft. And to me, the places led me has been really rewarding. So that's what's been great about being an instructor the reward I get when seeing people progress, seeing that the things I wanted are actually coming to the reality. Like I want people to get good at the skills, but I also want to take the underlying things and then use them somewhere else. You know, make sense like the hard work and discipline. Can you take that off the mat and work at your school, work, and so far it's going on pretty well. So those are like my favorite things about being an instructor. Cancel out that business owner part, you know. Yeah, I hope someone buys me out and just hires me to teach and so forth, you know.
Speaker 1:But I mean, like those are kind of sacrifices that you make, right because I think Zach had also mentioned something very similar on the last episode with Rudy is like, yeah, being an administrator and having to operate a, a business, every day, the financial part of it, the marketing, all that stuff, it's a yes, you got to do that, but you're doing it for a reason to allow kids, youth, to allow people to have a place, and not just a place, but a successful, thriving, probably you know best in town type of place to come train at right. Yeah, so you make those sacrifices and you kind of suck it up to be able to provide that and and the the results that come away from that yeah, exactly, so so where are you on that?
Speaker 2:because do you need more bodies or do you need a better quality body? Are you just looking for anyone and that's just the business? And like when you're training someone, let's say someone comes to you, do you what do you want? Do you get to pick them? Do you need them or do they need you? And I know it sounds a little bit aggressive towards, like, the general people listening, but sometimes we have to constrain our time and that means training the people we work with so right. What are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 3:so I have been very, very fortunate enough to be able to train the top student athletes in our town, the ones that have the opportunity to come and see me. It's been nothing but a fun, adventurous ride with them. But, to answer your question, I can't just train anybody because I don't do one-on-one training, I do group training, so that puts my that sometimes ties my hand behind my back when ever I get somebody who's just wanting to learn like it's a very fresh newbie and I can't. I don't have any groups for those student athletes because I'm going to be putting them in the lines then with these people who they're the starters on their team, they're the valley, you know players and you know they're breaking records and stuff. So it's gonna be hard for them to learn when they're because don't get me wrong though, because that, as as as parents, we would love our kids to be associated around the top tier people, because then they could feed off of it right.
Speaker 3:But it's a little bit different whenever they're coming into a setting like this, because they're paying, they're paying hard, like hard-earned money, and they want to make sure that when they're paying and their kid is seeing me, every single minute matters.
Speaker 3:Every single session matters, month after month, day after day, week after week. So what I tell people whenever they come in it's like, okay, what's the history? What sports does he or she play and have they ever been in a weight room? And if they can, at least give me two out of the three, I usually find a different trainer that could cater to them better than what I can with the groups that they have, because I don't want to take away from the clients that I have right now and I don't want to take away from them either. I want everybody to come in here to be able to win, day in and day out, and if I can't do that, then I'm doing this for selfish reasons and that's the that that will never be a problem, because I won't let it be a problem. So that's the way I kind of go about my business whenever I get people that come into my gym looking for, uh, student athlete training and stuff like that none I relate.
Speaker 2:I like that you also have a good criteria to the kind of funnel people in that you need and I'm glad you have a place to send the people that will eventually get there because I mean, obviously people will get there and the hardest part about jujitsu is starting someone from scratch.
Speaker 2:Actually getting someone to try a class is probably the hardest part, and it's gotten to a point where, yeah, I do have to be more of the business owner, because my students need more training partners, more bodies, right, and in order for me to get more advanced students, I need more new students, and in order for me to get you know it, just it's this cycle.
Speaker 3:It's a revolving door, yeah, and, but the cool thing is, though, and do you have other instructors in your facility?
Speaker 2:um, right now it's mostly me, like 90% me in case like I need a leave for a tournament and I have other people that come and stuff in, but somebody you trust right and seeing that's the cool thing too.
Speaker 3:It's like if I ever get somebody and I and it comes to that particular time where they're like, hey, it's probably going to be the best thing for you to see this trainer instead. I don't like my trainers are freaking, amazing, dude, like they give a quality, freaking service. So it is never, ever hard for me to give a student athlete to one of my trainers because I know they're going to be well taken care of. So it's. I don't lose sleep over, I don't overthink it. I'm be like boom, all right, this is going to be the best business decision, not only for the gym but for you and the trainer. Everybody's going to win, because that's what it's all about, man.
Speaker 2:Everybody's got to win, no and do and one of the things that really excites me for like what I'm doing is I built it where someone will survive and thrive Like. It's not a sink or swim situation. I want them to thrive Like there is no point, but they have to bring their end to the table.
Speaker 3:Yeah, for all that type of stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if they bring their end to their table, then let's go. We're gonna really have some thriving students and I feel that's what's been like the success so far. Like we're killing it right now, thank God, and I'm grateful for it. I'm grateful for this little town, like, believe it or not, like this town is so like I don't even know how to articulate it. It's such a joy for me to be in this town and I know you guys have like are from here, right, you guys are.
Speaker 3:I grew up. I was born, I grew up in Strathmore, but I mean PortaVille's basically home, yeah yeah, portaville's home, yeah, okay, so what's going up in Strathmore?
Speaker 2:It's literally like down the street.
Speaker 3:Well, like the school. So I went to school in elementary. I went to Strathmore Elementary, strathmore Middle School and it wasn't until high school I came over here to PortaVille and then businesses and friendships and all that stuff just came over here and it is a big difference. To be honest with you. You know what I mean, and not in any way to where it's like it's just smaller. I mean it's only a five minute drive. But you go five minutes and I mean population's like 6,000, you know, when you drive five minutes this way, you go to PortaVille and it's 60,000. So there's three high schools over here.
Speaker 3:I mean there is some difference. But you know where I grew up, like I was telling you guys before the podcast. I mean I open the door and I see orange trees left, right, front mountain hill like I'm not living in a neighborhood or anything like that. So that did play a big role in who I am today. You know what I mean, but there's a difference.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I mean, like it's going back to and we kind of had a conversation about this before the podcast is this town has so much to offer, so much to give, and you guys see this in your own ownership of your own gyms, right. And it's one of the things that irks me the most is when someone says something negative about the town or so I wanna get out of here, okay. Well, I think all three of us have actually lived and moved away. We had kind of talked about and, zach, you'd lived in Orange County, san Diego, and then you were born and grew up in Los Angeles, right, and then, before I, moved back.
Speaker 2:I was living in Huntington Beach, so Orange County.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So when we kind of talk about that and people talk about, oh, I can't stand it. You are a product of your environment and whatever that is for you, you're gonna be successful wherever you're at or you're not. And so if you're not doing the right things here, what makes you think you're gonna go do that somewhere else, right? So it's like you make the best of your situation wherever that's at and if that's in PortaVille, like there's so much to give, there's so many people that can help you out here, and that you can have some opportunities if you create those opportunities. But I think sometimes it takes for people to go move away to realize how fortunate and appreciative they I guess need to be or can be about this place. So it always kind of irks me when people say something about that. It's like, well, go move away. But more times than not people end up coming back and they'll say the same thing.
Speaker 2:No, and then I have to be that guy. But that's one of the benefits that you get to. That no one talks about is you'll go to a mat room and you'll train with someone, but I could be training with a business owner that could just give me that one tip. That's gonna help. I could now make a friend with this one guy that's just generously ready to help you and you can make these connections being absolutely having no social circle, probably having social issues in general, talking to people.
Speaker 2:I know COVID really messed people up where now they have issues talking to people. They actually get anxiety when they're around people, but you go in there and you just get a bunch of different people from all walks of life and that's like one of the most awesome hidden benefits of training in a place like Jujitsu, Cause now you could link up with some of your heroes. Eventually, at some point you could be traveling to Texas and you might run into the goat podcaster, and so that's like one of the cool things. And that's what goes back to what you're saying. You make it what you can and also I mean you find the places where you could congregate with other like-minded people and you go from there. I mean that could be anywhere here in Portaville or down in big cities.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, no, you create your opportunities. I'm a firm believer in that you could. You know people will send their kids here, there or like you know they're not good enough to. But it's like if you, if you're good enough, you're gonna find opportunities and you're gonna create opportunities.
Speaker 2:Dude, I think it's a benefit to be from a small town, because it's a little messed up, because, yes, a lot of us would have to. We'll have some advantages being in a bigger city. That has, you know, more money flowing through it, more opportunities, let's just say, in some other sport, you know. But if you're from a small town and you're making noise, that means you're undeniable and that's a perk. And, like, a small town doesn't have the distractions that the big city does, and that's also a perk. And while people are like, oh, there's not enough to do, I don't know, you could flip it and realize that that's not a bad thing, you know.
Speaker 1:Not a bad thing.
Speaker 2:Not having a having too many options is a pretty messed up constraint, especially in this day and age where you'll see on social media someone that is trying to figure out where they're gonna go with their career and then someone is making a lot of money down in here and like you know where all these opportunities and you're in this small town.
Speaker 2:You could actually take the time to perfect one or two things you know. Yeah, and that's exciting, that's really cool to me. That's like a massive benefit for me, especially being here in Porto Bill, 100%. Where did you grow up? I'm from LA, so I moved back. I moved here my freshman year in like 2004 and I moved back in 2008.
Speaker 2:Big adjustment, yes, because I go from a predominantly African American, mexican environment to, oh my God, look at these like angelic looking little white people here and you're like, damn like, and yeah, it was just weird. And then you go yeah, your own culture is different here.
Speaker 1:Sure.
Speaker 2:And you're like. So it was a little bit of adjustment and then moving back, I had to move for, you know, personal reasons and made the best of it, but somehow I found my way back and I'm all for it. I'm grateful to be here. I feel like it was kind of like meant to be Meant to be.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Sure.
Speaker 1:So you grew up in LA, so what was kind of your childhood like? And I mean, eventually you're gonna move here, move back and kind of end up back here in Porto Bill but what did that whole kind of childhood like look like for you? What was the kind of dynamic?
Speaker 2:All right, I want to compare and contrast with you guys, because we come from a generation where we're the last ones that could connect with the old generation and we're the ones that could connect with me.
Speaker 3:One pretty fluidly, you know.
Speaker 2:We could be pretty fluid. And I want to know about your guys, is upbringing being from a small town, because it was wild Like we talk about this and it's like, wow, that happened, like we went through that that's crazy, you know, like we didn't even have our man voices yet. We had like really high pitched voices and we're saying stuff that we shouldn't have been saying. We were doing stuff we shouldn't have been doing and that's because that was the environment I was in. So I'm thinking like let's just go into middle school. Middle school I was always a big, a big fat kid, you know, and like you either know how to like roast somebody, like make fun of somebody, or like you know how to fight. And if you're good at roasting somebody, you better know how to fight. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I just find it so funny. A few months ago we went to paintball with my brother. It was his birthday and he had my cousin and he brought his friends and I was all like, hey, are you guys related? And they got so offended because they weren't they. I was all like you guys look like twins. How are you guys not related? So first of all, they were already trying to talk about how we're going to get in there. I'm going to get blasted by paintball by these guys and I'm like man, you definitely are LA LA USD products, because you asked the wrong question. Now we're getting, we're getting jumped in the bathrooms or we're getting jumped out to school.
Speaker 2:And that's what I felt like a lot of like growing up was like how do you avoid a fight, how do you like dude, how do you be a nerd while you're trying to be grown? You know, and yeah, cause I remember I had to sneak my my Harry Potter reading in my homeroom class because, yeah, you don't, you're gangster outside. You know, you're a man, you do all these things. Also, you got to keep in mind that everybody watches blood in, blood out. All these, all these movies, yeah yeah. What's the soft one?
Speaker 2:a standing deliver right, the math one, and you're like that's what I'm gonna see in high school and you're like I am not ready for that, you know, you're like dude, I do not look like this grown man. And yeah, you go to high school and everyone's like imposing and you're just still a boy. And then you're, you come here and you're like whoa, you don't have to like freak out about that, you don't have to like fight every day. Like it was, it was different, like that. It was like I don't have to be so defensive and guarded. When you moved to Porterville, yeah, keep in mind, I still got like approach by people and like, yeah, it was weird because I'm from LA and I guess you know that's not, that's a no, no.
Speaker 1:So I mean, in LA, every day you're kind of having to, you know, hold your own a little bit and, you know, be aware of your surroundings, obviously, but you like, may have to protect. You got to protect yourself and and also kind of maybe not show. Not show that you're vulnerable either, because they'll take advantage of right away.
Speaker 2:And you're a. You're a kid. So, I'm like do you guys have that? Did you guys have that?
Speaker 1:I don't remember having that Like. I remember being a middle school. I hated middle school and definitely grew up probably insecure. I was small, small skinny kid how to speech impediment growing up got teased a little bit with that type of stuff here and there, but I don't remember it being like having to like hold my ground every day by that, by any means in flight or anything like that. You know, teased here and there, but definitely not like an LA environment like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah that's also like it's weird. Saying it Like right now. I'm thinking about him like dude. That's really weird. That's the first thing. I think you try to articulate it as some stranger or someone that's never heard that side of you and it's just really really funny. And I'm thinking back. I'm like dude, me and a friend of mine he got.
Speaker 2:He would always get picked off for being light skin.
Speaker 2:So he was African American.
Speaker 2:Because he was light skin and colored eyes, he was already weaker and like it's just, you know, I'm sure you guys see memes on that but then we would meet up, we went to the swap me and you buy these like barely sold on boxing gloves and we would go to the back of his house or like the back yard and we were just basically sparring just to like find ways to get tougher and better at fighting. So whenever we needed it we'll be ready. You know, and I remember I'm like that's like kind of how it first started for like the coaching thing, it was like you go watch the Mexican news or when you vision news or the mundo news and every sport segment had a replay of a boxing match. So we were just replicating how that boxer landed that one punch in the backyard. It was really, really funny and it got to a point where we were holding our own, we were confident, and then we didn't get picked on because we were confident and holding on and it just became a funny little thing like that.
Speaker 2:So it was just really funny to just go back there really quick and we're like I see these kids now and I'm like oh, right. They're doing good now. Like they're like I don't know if it's for better or for worse, but like like I wouldn't want some of my students to go through what I went through, you know for sure. Yeah, so I don't, and I don't have kids, so like right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's amazing what confidence will do for you. Huh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I think confidence is huge, man. I think that is a very, very big deal for kids nowadays, you know, and part of it is just them knowing who they are, which is obviously going to come later on. You know through experiences and certain situations and learning what, who they want to be around, what they want to be and things like that. But, like you know, right away, when you walk into a room and you're waiting for somebody to like say it's a meeting or say you're going to a different gym, right, and that person walks, you know, walks in with a sense of like pride and confidence in them, like you're, like they got your respect, like before they even say anything, but you have that, you feel their energy and you sense that vibe from them. You're like, ok, this guy is a real deal man. But then again, quite the opposite is, somebody walks in, you know they're real hesitant, they're real shy, they're like, oh shoot, you know this is this. I don't know about this one.
Speaker 1:And I think it's important, like almost no one's confident when they first start out, you become confident by repetition, by doing it, and then like knowing, like oh yeah, I've done that before, I know I could do that. So you continue gaining that confidence by doing and by becoming better and by repetition.
Speaker 3:And I think that's the thing that may, because I'm like you, I don't like being a business owner. But I think if I had to find something that made me appreciated, is the fact that I didn't know what I was doing. So it challenged me, it made me go out and be something that I never thought I would ever be, and that challenge that it presented in front of me I took both reins. I was like all right, let's, let's, let's do this. Let's see what I could do, let's see what I could learn, let's see who I need to talk to to make sure that I can make this place be what I would like it to be. And I think if I, like I said, if I had to find a silver lining between a gym owner and a trainer, that would be.
Speaker 3:It is just the challenge that it presented, you know, within myself, because I like to compete. I don't play sports anymore. You know I'm not going to go out and I can't get on a college baseball team. That you know I'm. I just can't. And plus, time is not on my side. You know, I wish there was another hour in a day. So when the business came around and they presented that challenge I that that was like OK, this is my competition. Now you know, this is my competition.
Speaker 2:And I could see that happening for me later down the line where the business will become my game or something to replace. But I, the way I look at it, is like this Look, I am in in this little phase where I'm just gathering information. I'm not even ready to be a teacher, you know, and I don't know if I ever will be, but I'm going to be working towards getting out of this phase into the phase where I am the guide. Ok, and now, even though I am there now, I still feel like there is so much to work on and there's so much to learn, because if I stop now, I could just see the regression start to creep up and skill abandonment and all these things started to perish. And I want to just enjoy. It's an apprentice face, apprentice face.
Speaker 2:If you guys ever read the book Mastery by Robert Green he talks about there's a printer apprentice face and it's like five to 10 years. I feel like it will be longer now since there are so many distractions but I want to get through that phase and then, after that phase, I see what I do with it and I hope by then I at least gather enough knowledge for myself to at least be able to replicate someone like myself, because it's not like I'm really like, believe it or not. I'm trying to do it different than what, like other schools are doing it the only and I'm not trying to be biased, but I was just talking to my instructor about it yesterday because I hope he doesn't think I'm trying to go against what he does but and he actually supports me pretty well. But I'm trying to switch it up where it's not the same because I don't want what I'm doing to be a quota personality thing. I don't want people to go just because they like how I do something. I want to be recognized because I have the skills, not because of who I am or what I did. I wish I'm not never known at all. I just want my skills to be good. I want my skills to do the talking, my students to do the talking, my results to do the talking. So I'm enjoying learning as much as possible during this without having to say, hey, I'm gonna focus on, you know, saying I'm the master this and that. But besides my instructor school, I can't see any other school, especially in the area, that is doing anything to innovate okay, that are generating the results that he has. Okay, I think in the Valley he has the biggest program in the Valley for Jujitsu, with the most decorated awards and in students and I think in terms of just volume of students I think I'm coming in at least top three. So I credit it to just focusing on the craft Later I'll focus on that part of the game, but dude, it's just so exciting. Honestly, if we probably don't have enough battery life into the stuff, I would love to share what I'm coming up with, like the way I was like teaching.
Speaker 2:I just started teaching differently in general on April, where the old way was you go and I can't find the overlaps. But maybe you guys can help me with some overlaps as your respected sports, because I have them out of the field. My son of. Well, I don't even know what your sport does to overlap it, but in my sport you go in. You go in, learn a lesson, and you get told, hey, this is the lesson. And then you get told, all right, now with what you learn, try it out. And so I'm seeing competition and I'm seeing competitions and competitions. I'm going to competitions.
Speaker 2:Why is this not working? Why is the way I coach in the mat room not the same as when we go and compete. Why can't I teach fighting the way I understand fighting? Why does it have to be this way? And so I started switching up where it's more. I think the bigger sports have it. Now I think baseball has more constraint-lit approach, and that's where it has been changing for me. Right now, actually, I'm having a scaling issue because of this new method. They're everyone's playing Jiu-Jitsu every day. You literally could go with no experience. By the end of one practice, you should know what the main rules of the game is, whereas the old way was you have a guy that's telling you a million details of how to do this one move and then, all right, good luck if you can't do it. And then, because I'm guilty of this, you get bashed for not picking up all that information and it's like there was just something within me, an intuition.
Speaker 2:I'm so grateful somebody came and dropped it on my head. Thank God, he threw it in a dream or wherever. He'd give it to me at where it was. Like that's not it. That is not it. That's not gonna innovate, that's not gonna progress. That's just you doing what you think it's better than it's, no different than what you're supposed to.
Speaker 1:So you're trying to simplify the whole process.
Speaker 2:Not only simplify, but explain what the process is.
Speaker 1:Like a lot of these people Helping them understand the process.
Speaker 2:Believe it or not, a lot of these guys don't even know how to tell you what Jiu-Jitsu is. Number one that teach Jiu-Jitsu. Number two can let you play the game with Jiu-Jitsu all right, they just wanna show you moves and techniques. Now, moves and techniques are helpful in all, but how are they helpful if you don't even know what the game is? It's like, okay, hey, swing as hard as you can, hit that ball as hard as you can, but what if you run that way? And it's like, wow, what a waste. That's how Jiu-Jitsu is taught. It's like do this and then you do it. You do it right, but then you did the rest of the game wrong and it's all like no, you have to get these people to play the game.
Speaker 2:And that's where it's getting super exciting, especially here in Portable, and especially because it's a minute group of people trying to coach it in this way and I may end up going back the old ways. Who knows, I don't know, but it's innovating for sure. It's getting super exciting, like it's getting to a point where I'm like I can't wait for you two to go do a class, because you guys are athletes, smart athletes. The thing with Jiu-Jitsu was the weaker, smaller guy can now leverage the bigger, stronger guy, and it's true. But what's happening now is we're getting athletes Jiu-Jitsu is growing so big. We're getting athletes in the sport and they look phenomenal. You know, they're actually the nerds. Us, the nerds, are getting bashed by these athletes and that's like really cool to see because it's like it wasn't just-.
Speaker 3:It's evolving.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but it was because where the focus is set to and that's a big thing like wherever you wanna be successful at, I think wherever your focus is at is how successful you're gonna be. If it's focused off on too many things probably not gonna like hit nothing. If it's focused on the wrong things, that's where it gets pretty dangerous and messed up, but once you know where to set your focus, it's just you and time and progress and everything will happen, you know.
Speaker 2:But focus to me is like the real life superpower. If we could just stay focused and dude. Maybe it's just a projection of myself. If I could be more focused, I know I would be better. But I see it as a superpower because it's finite. It like runs out, like in the day you only have so much If you have so many things. That's why, again, the business owner, like back burner, I'll just focus on the crap and it's all my energy goes to it and maybe it's for better, for worse. But in the long run I'm just seeing so many better official things, especially with my students, and that's one thing. Like on marketing, I know I could do it, I just don't want to do it. Yet I'm at a good scale where I just bring, drip them in little by little.
Speaker 3:so I can build them.
Speaker 2:I could spend time. I do not wanna be spread out within my own math space and, like I said, I can't wait for you two to go try out a class, because it's gonna be pretty fun Like it's gonna be exciting for me to share what I'm working on here in Portable.
Speaker 1:Yeah for sure. So going back, you kind of talked about picking up the boxing gloves because of the environment you grew up in, so I'm assuming that's kind of how you got that was the foundation of why you started pursuing something in like combat right, concombatative sports and whatnot. So when you start kind of going through that, when were you first introduced to not just introduced, but having the want and drive to compete and learn martial arts?
Speaker 2:To learn martial arts. So to me it wasn't even like a I don't know where you would describe him, as I would describe him as a martial artist, but I mean, over time he's been more of a movie actor, but to me, the one that actually inspired me to like, hey, you have to train something as Jackie Chan, you know.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You would see this guy and even just on a logical sense when you watch, like Jackie Chan movie that's an older one they were doing stuff on film. It wasn't like they could just grab a camera and delete and let's just start again. They would have to pull a cartilage out and do it again. If you see the old films, they had to choreograph so many crazy things and nail it on film and that, to me, was just so fascinating I don't like. And then you try replicating it in real life and it's not even close. It's like what the like. So he's super human, you know.
Speaker 2:In your mind, he's like super human and you're like what is happening and you're watching someone at a really high level do something at a high level. And I know it's just for entertainment, but that, to me, gravitated to me, that to me, and to me it was like his foundation was martial arts. That's what did it. So martial arts, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Competition came later because I guess maybe I have it in me to just want to compete. Compete, yeah, but just in general I wanted to just be a martial artist because that was cool.
Speaker 1:So you're watching Jackie Chan and being inspired by just the nature that he brings right On the movie screen, but when was the first time you actually began to take it serious and maybe start training?
Speaker 2:So it was actually here in PortaVille. I was doing my own boxing training here and there whenever I could get in an LA. But then I moved to PortaVille and I went to go get a haircut somewhere and they were like, hey, you should come out, we do MMA at this gym, you know, and it was this little warehouse building. And then I go in there and I met my first coach and one of the greatest guys ever, and he just takes me in, lets me train, and I was like, hey, I don't work. I like my dad barely could bring me. You know how much is it? He goes hey, help me clean the mats and you're golden. And then after that, you know, we came up with agreements.
Speaker 2:You were in high school at this time, yeah, Okay, and there was like talks that there was like small amateur where you could do fights before you're 18, but and there's pancreation fights, but then you would have to travel and you would have to get cars, so it just everything seemed so impossible back then, you know, and then I was training, since like what does your parents think of the whole fighting Jiu Jitsu and everything, as you're learning it and trying to get involved in it?
Speaker 3:Were they supportive of it? They were disconnected.
Speaker 2:They had their own responsibilities, so they're disconnected. They just knew that at least I was in out there, you know doing dress and everything.
Speaker 3:Yeah, just on the streets, yeah, right.
Speaker 2:And they didn't understand why I wanted to keep going every day too. And actually, now that you bring that up, I wonder like, wow, I have the same conversation with my students parents. They don't understand what my kid wants to keep going every day.
Speaker 3:Every day, Every day they're like. Can you tell?
Speaker 2:them. They need to take a rest. I have to actively tell students to just chill out for a little bit Chill out yeah. Rest is important, you know. So yeah, so I'm doing learning in the little gym and like it was my senior year, I was 17 still when I graduate it and I got a fight right after I graduated, but I had to lie about my age. There's a whole thing, but I got my first.
Speaker 1:So you said you're 18. Yeah, okay, this guy's doing his own movie right here.
Speaker 3:He's got his own movie going on.
Speaker 2:I got paid under the table because I was wrong. Yeah, Like I'm all stoked for it. Then I had more fights and I had a pretty good career. But then life hit me where I went to try out for the ultimate fighter and I was not old enough. I was like 18 and you needed to be 21 because there's like alcohol in the house. And then there was another house that was ran somehow by using the tap out name. There's a brand.
Speaker 1:Yeah, tap out and never tap out.
Speaker 2:And there was another house that you could go to, but then that just looked shady, you know, I don't know if it was legit or not. But then life hit me and it was like, hey, you have to go, you have responsibilities, people are depending on you, you have to help your mom. You got to grow up, you got to go to LA and sell oranges, you know, and that's what even got us here in Puerto Rico in the first place was oranges, because we would sort our stuff here and then we would take it down to LA and wholesale it or retail it. And I had to go take over the little shop in LA and I got disconnected from training. I always tried to find it. Then I started training in downtown with Eddie Bravo at 10 planning. He had it right there in downtown LA there was just a weird training with Eddie down there.
Speaker 2:There was all kinds of hitters right there.
Speaker 1:All kinds of who else was in the gym with them.
Speaker 2:So Josh Barnett would go there. I don't know if you remember Josh Barnett.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Josh Barnett.
Speaker 2:He would be running a wrestling class there. There's. I mean Kathy Long. She was one of the pioneering female kickboxers and she's actually from Bakersfield and she was teaching classes there. I guess all the stars would go visit, since the Staple Center was right there. Every time they would have an event. All the UFC stars would be training there and doing all the interviews around the Rousey. It's just like so many.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean 10th planet. Eddie Bravo blew that up and I think they have. I don't know. They have gyps all over the world now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and during that time that I was there like my final time with him there was when he had a very famous match with one of the Gracie's it was like a rematch and he won that one. That's a while. He won the second one, Gracie was a. Heuler, that's Heuler. Yeah, they had one before and Eddie Bravo submitted them, or I forgot how he won.
Speaker 2:Man it's been a long time. So then from there I moved to Huntington and I was training under my instructors, instructor Clever, and that's how I kind of the talk was like hey, are you going to reignite your MMA career? Let's do it. We got you a fight in Brazil. You could go out and you'll be on television. It's like it's it's local to Brazil but it has a lot of viewers. This could be your place to get your your stuff, going back and from there straight to the UFC.
Speaker 2:And then everything kept falling through and my life was not in a good place during that time. Like I was obese, trying to get back down to a good way to fight. It was just not it. So during the whole time with that I was that I was prepping for a fight, I kept ranking up in jiu-jitsu and I made it up to a blue belt with Clever and it's white, blue, purple, brown and and black that's how the belt system goes and I made it a blue belt and nothing was happening.
Speaker 2:I just kept training and I was just hopping back from Huntington to Vaisalia, just driving everywhere every weekend, getting different training, different places in Orange County. That's where you could train with. Like that was like became like the Mecca. You have like BJ Penn training at Ruka whenever he's in the States. You have Michael Bisping, Kings MMA, you the who's who you're training with Everybody. Anderson Silva has a nice little facility down there. Oh man, you have all these great places to train. So like I got separated from training here. I started my fight career here, but then when I moved away, I was just a fly on the wall on these amazing training camps.
Speaker 1:And you're still working the packing houses and all that stuff at this time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Okay, I was finding time, finding ways to, and it was rough, because the market starts at 12am, like you don't start like a day at eight in the morning. The market starts deliver. You could start delivering to the market at 12 midnight and then you finish delivering by like four in the morning, but then you got to go back and like bill everybody at 10 in the morning. Then you got to come do it. It was just wild. But yeah, and all that time I was finding my ways into being the fly Again, like I said, being the fly on the wall on like amazing training sessions with these incredible people. I got, I gather, not a knowledge, and I'm grateful for it, because that's probably why I didn't think my instructor was going to say hey, yeah, go ahead, start a school. I thought he was going to be like oh, like you have a dream too Good, good for you, but maybe one day, you know, and he was like no, yeah it's fine, he goes.
Speaker 2:I don't know if portable would take off just because you hear him by solo. You just hear everyone capping on portable or whatever. But try it out, see what happens and how many years in business are you now? It was a couple of weeks ago, it was five years, so you're five years in yeah, cool.
Speaker 2:And it's just booming now with like. It's starting to grow. It is completely new, like for people that are listening, like jujitsu if you don't know it's an actual sport. People are starting to get paid for it. You don't not have to get punched in the face. It is a skill that takes time, though, and, being in portable, you could get really great at jujitsu and you could make somebody for you can make something for yourself doing jujitsu. You don't no longer have to go with the MMA route, and that's exciting and that's what I'm been focusing on growing, and this means I have to invest back onto the students. This means I have to grow sponsorship funds so they could go keep competing. This means that you know we have to find creative recruiting tactics for certain students. You know, and the parents don't know what it is. They just know it's like okay, it's good for their self-defense, or they seen it in the UFC. Okay, they can narrow it down to that.
Speaker 2:But then, once they get immersed into the sport, you have these parents that are like in it. They understand that they're growing with it and without them this doesn't continue. You know Right.
Speaker 1:Why do you think so? Right now, in the last probably five or 10 years, jujitsu particularly has grown, I mean, probably more than any other martial arts right, and it's blew up. You have celebrities doing it, you have, you know, all kinds of people like, you know, joe Rogan. I feel like Joe Rogan is like a huge recruiter, always getting different people. You got different people doing it and you have guys like Mikey Musimichi how do you say this? Musimichi? Yeah, yeah, musimichi.
Speaker 2:Like these guys that look like a nerd right, like dude.
Speaker 1:This dude wouldn't do nothing to me, but he'll go destroy anyone in the world. So what is it that's making you think that you're going to do? What is it that's made jujitsu so popular in recent years, the last decade? Right, yeah, I know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, want to see how that's not just a fake sport it's really kind of yeah, it's not really that people don't know, jeannienyt, my opinion on it is school sprouted out everywhere. Then Jiu Jitsu now has stars and figures to look up to. And then some of these stars are not active competitors or just recreational people like the Joe Rogans. So you have all these people, you know, throwing word of mouth everywhere about it and I feel that was in the accessibility there is now. So you put it together you could almost have a Jiu Jitsu school and be fine, but I mean that's not the way to go about it. But that's why it's like taking off, because it's way more accessible now.
Speaker 2:Back then, like even 10 years ago, you couldn't like finding a black belt that you could work on. There was just Tom. You know it was just Tom, and then a few, select few others, but then it was just like very niche, very niche down, you know, and it's still a niche sport. It's still very niche down, but now it's hitting mainstream because we have so many stars and so many figures and there's just so many eyes on it now and we're seeing that through many lenses, through it's saved my life self-defense, mma, recreational, you know, like the only other thing that's growing crazier than Jiu. Jitsu is like pickleball, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm sure you guys seen like pickleball. And I know it's like not even the same thing, but like it's like that's the only thing, because pickleball just sprout out of nowhere and like you hear about everybody doing pickleball and it's like Jiu Jitsu and pickleball are really fighting it out right now to see who's?
Speaker 1:gonna take it up to them. They're gonna throw a little fight.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're gonna see who's gonna get more of the mainstream audience, you know.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Money's up pickleball because nobody's fighting, but yeah.
Speaker 3:So for your gym, do you kind of have like a motto that you have you know what I mean Like a phrase that you try to like sink into the students, or something like that? Do you have like, I guess, like a slogan or something like that?
Speaker 2:No, just because it all that evolves, all that changes. But I do want them to always know that the focus and their work, their effort and them trying, really trying is it's just like the general themes the focus. You gotta work on your focus. You gotta be able to sit still and focus. I get it, you were at school, but here comes another hour. You gotta train your focus. And if there's one that I catch myself saying over and over is train your focus, but that it's something that I'm gonna like, that's a slogan now.
Speaker 3:No.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just yeah. So I mean, you were briefly, you were kind of talking about the different reasons, but what would you tell people, whether it's parents, whether it's youth or just people, younger people that why should they join Jiu Jitsu? Why should they come into your gym and learn kickboxing and learn these different martial arts? Sell it to them.
Speaker 2:Ah man, I hate selling stuff too. It's like do it if you want to like honestly, but why should they do it Right?
Speaker 2:So it's just what's within someone, like everything is arbitrary, but like someone, at the very least it's just come see for yourself that you had it within you. Like you know you have some people know like that they could be good at a martial art. They just probably are skeptical or reluctant to try. You know there's so many factors, but Jiu Jitsu is just like on the surface. It's great for self-defense, learn how to leverage somebody, learn physics with another human being that leads you to controlling someone for the purpose of a, the strangulation or breaking the limb. But that also results into like, hey, maybe I just hold someone down to help comes. Maybe if, like I always picture, like my students who I never want them under a bully and they not know what to do. Okay, so number one for, like the parents that have kids, you never want the kid to experience that feeling of having someone on top of you and not knowing what to do. Okay, Because that is just a very disempowering feeling yeah.
Speaker 2:It sets you in a place and I feel like that just kind of sets things off in like the wrong direction. For an adult. It's just there's a second win that you're looking for and this is Jiu Jitsu, and kickboxing and the martial arts are usually a place for you to get a second win. Yeah, you're not gonna go and be a the grand star or something, but maybe Jiu Jitsu offers, you know, master weight classes that you could become someone that you know. So there's the striking arts, all those kickboxing, but do this to enhance yourself Like.
Speaker 2:I personally want people that train these martial arts or train with me, to harmoniously improve their personal life. So not just their skills and striking or strangling somebody, but also like, is it developing your characters or developing your willpower, your focus, your confidence? Like this is you brought this up earlier with confidence. Let's not diminish it. Like me, I feel like I was getting by with a lot of delusional, fake confidence and I was doing fine. Now that I actually have something to grab on and stand on, like that, that makes me feel good about it. You know, that makes me like and I want that for everyone you know.
Speaker 3:People tell you to fake it, tell you make it. I don't like that, yeah no, I don't. I really don't like when people say fake it, tell you, make it. I have a. I don't think that is. I think there might be a better way to say it, but to me definitely that is not something that.
Speaker 2:Cause what are we saying there? Like, do podcasting, be confident podcasting until you do it enough. Where you are confident podcasting, like is that? Like where we're trying to reframe? Cause that's kind of what it is. Cause there are some people are like I don't know, I see like sales who have no idea what they're selling. They're just really confident and delusional and are selling snake oil. You know, right, you know we don't want that. We want someone that knows they can stand firmly on something.
Speaker 1:Right, and that believes in what they're doing and what they're selling, and you know what they're creating as well.
Speaker 3:Well, that's exactly why you have a business, because you believe everything that you say. You say everything with confidence, right? I'm assuming you don't fake it, right?
Speaker 2:I have major imposter syndrome, like horrible. Like it is especially with this new method where I realized I was an imposter and oh man, this is controversial because, like, you shouldn't say that, because then you're talking about like 90% of the industry, you know, but to me there was just not a connection. But now that I am like guided towards a better direction, yeah, I could say things Like I could tell you all the work I put in and that makes me confident. I did so much work. There is so, like when you're saying when you see someone for the first time and they're confident, yeah, like honestly, you need to win the interview on site on the first two seconds of what that interaction is with you and whether you know your shit. I'm sorry, I phone.
Speaker 1:You're good.
Speaker 2:Finally we fun, finally we fumble, huh.
Speaker 1:I think you did at the beginning too. No, no, no, it's counting, no, it's counting so like yeah, I mean maybe I don't, I won't win those.
Speaker 2:first, though, that first engagement, maybe I'll soften you up on the second engagement, but like I will know my stuff, I know that that's what I'm focused on. That's what I'll sacrifice a lot of my personal time with family, friends, my wife, whoever to make sure I know myself Cause no one is. If there's one thing for sure no one's gonna catch me lacking on something. That was a dilemma that I was completely having. And imposter syndrome, and plus imposter syndrome where you're not enough. I have to sell it back to myself like, hey, look at your work, look at your result. If you're lacking on something, what are you lacking on? And let's fix it. And hopefully my students get that too.
Speaker 3:You're like walking on eggshells, basically, you know what I mean. And one wrong move and that's it. People aren't dumb, you know what I mean. When they're out there, they're trying to find a trainer, they're trying to find a place for them to feel comfortable at. They're guards up, you know what I mean. Like they are not just going in a target to buy back groceries for home. They, like this is the way. So when you're training a kid, right, they, okay, tell me if I'm right or wrong. Okay, the majority of your kids, how many of them are coming to you confidently and how much of them are being there because mom and dad want them to be there? Like what I mean by confidently?
Speaker 2:like, okay, no, I know exactly what you're saying. And like, oh man, this is why I'm so grateful what I do I have. I can't think of one kid right now that let's do a whole spectrum. I can't think of one kid right now that, to answer your question, that it doesn't wanna be there.
Speaker 3:That doesn't want to be there.
Speaker 2:That I am aware because I will actively go and talk to their parents and be like they need a break or they need to try something else. They obviously don't vibe with me. I'll have these hard conversations with parents just because it affects the whole dynamic and I can't think of one right now, whether like there is or not, I mean that's.
Speaker 3:I mean and that's huge, that's massive.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean.
Speaker 3:Because, like I'm sure, you have had a kid, though, that did not want to be in your facility at one point. Maybe you got him to turn around, maybe you didn't. You just lost the kid. You know, and we take that very, very hard. You know what I mean, because we get kids at a young age sometimes, and God forbid we ruin the experience for them and they're scarred from it from life.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean, dude there is, like some of my best students right now, that I'm like thank you for enduring me, like thanks for dealing with me all this time, because I was not light on you at all Right. At all. How are you still here? Is beyond me. And there's dude. I'm like I'm getting like stoked on there. I could literally put names to faces and everything I'm like dude, thanks for dealing with me, thanks for sticking around.
Speaker 2:There is the other ones that if I wasn't never gonna win them over, I was never gonna win.
Speaker 2:And I have to be okay with that, but I do remember there's the somewhere. I'm like I catch myself sometimes sending text messages to some students, some like great athletes I had, and I'm like it's because of the way I was doing things at a time that your kid was can you bring them back to me so I could give it another shot? And sometimes I do, sometimes I don't, and that's the name of the game. But yes, like exactly on what you were saying, like there are some I don't, but right now I really am. Man, you guys could go on social media and see all these kids post their content Like why, I mean their parents run their page and that's good, but like they post a lot of content of them, training of them to they inspire the shit out of me. Dude, Like I am. Like I just signed up to a tournament. I did horribly at this tournament, you know, and just because they put me in there, I wasn't even sure if I was gonna make it. I have so many injuries from my early MMA days that I'm like, dude, I didn't even know if I was gonna be able to walk into the tournament. My back was shot out, my knee, oh my God. And I go over there and I don't do bad. I've been out of the.
Speaker 2:I opened the school as a purple belt. By the way, I didn't even have a black belt. I opened the school as a purple and that's all I focused on was coaching, making sure I got results from my students, Cause if there was one thing I was not gonna lack was results. Like I was not gonna hustle nobody into coming to train with me. I was not gonna be lacking because I wasn't a black belt. I kept working at it. And so now I go into a black belt and we're going. I'm a master's one. This means that all the great adult black belts are not gonna compete in master's one cause they hit 30 years old. You know, and I didn't do bad. I honestly just not being so hard on myself. I didn't do too bad for someone who could barely get his own training in Cause, like you just saying earlier, like you would want to be in there with them too, right, Right. But there was like, if I did have that extra hour in a day, I know where I would have allocated it at you know, Right.
Speaker 2:If I would have had this a couple of extra people to work with on even the side I would have felt like I'd done better. And nonetheless, though, like I got out there because of them, like and I'm so grateful for them for getting me out there, for letting me feel that, for letting me know what I need for myself so I could give it back to them, and it's just continued this ball going, you know. So yeah, like I know, I derailed from everything.
Speaker 2:It's just since the excitement into like, how, like yeah, there's probably some kids that don't want to be there and I feel bad because they shouldn't be there. If they don't want to, because that shouldn't be their experience with these great things, is because I was so difficult or I was a certain way that they should like the sunshine's for everybody. There's another school that could articulate or be kinder to them. They should. That's my issue too. Like it's just a personality thing and it's because I'm my own worst enemy. It's because I am like okay, I want a certain thing, a certain way, where I'm not gonna waste time trying to convince somebody, and that's probably the flaw in its own, and I'll work on it over time.
Speaker 2:But right now I am so grateful for every single one that's there, and I have had ones where I'm like, wow, like this one just kind of doesn't fit in. I don't know how to tune it. I'll talk to parents, see if they can help me and maybe they stay or like they change or they work through it or they just kind of take a break, and I've had that. They take breaks and they'll come back later and that's also been very helpful. But, yeah, I'm super grateful for every single one of them, people, I could tell you like stories, like I could tell you stories on every like individuals and you'll be like, oh, like. Why are you telling me this? It's because it like jolts me up, like these kids are insane and I don't know what it is. Especially in this town, I'm getting a lot of the most amazing female athletes coming into the mat. Like I know these people are just gonna be amazing and everything, and most, a lot of them are young ladies and I'm like this is really cool, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:This is insane. Like these girls and I've always said it girls are smarter at combat sports than men, but that's why we got this type of biology. That made us strong because you know, and it goes even historical you, like Aries, was the God of War, but you'd be wise to go to war after consulting Athena. She was a true God of War. So I see that in the mat room. That's also kind of cool Gremes and bronze.
Speaker 3:Yeah His brains and bronze.
Speaker 1:You might want to bring that mic just a little bit closer. Oh, sorry about that. There you go.
Speaker 3:That's awesome though, man. I could relate with you with everything you just said, like you know, especially when you said, man, it's like you had students where you tore into them, you know, and you're like, shoot, you go home and you're like, man, maybe that wasn't the best way to do it, but they come back tomorrow and they keep coming back and they keep coming and they keep coming and eventually they take off into a place where you know, there was one individual and I won't mention any names, but there was one when you see them right, like you're seeing them right now right and I was hard, I was very hard on this individual.
Speaker 3:You know, because you build relationships, you know what I mean. I don't know if do you do individual training?
Speaker 2:Not too much, it's not my favorite. Yeah, you do the classes and the groups and stuff like that.
Speaker 3:And neither do I. Right. I do small groups and things like that. But you know I look back. You know I don't train this individual anymore, but you know I questioned it at times where I was like, oh man, maybe I shouldn't have said that, maybe I shouldn't have done that, maybe we could have. You know, I could have presented it in a different way because it goes, our jobs do some at one point or another go beyond the mat, they go beyond the weights. You know what I mean, because if we get an individual and you could tell me I'm wrong, they had bad days before they even step into our facility. You know what I mean.
Speaker 3:And it's our jobs to make sure that they could hear what we have to present to them. You know, because sometimes I'm guilty for it. I become a little robotic. You know what I mean, and I just expect them to come in with a good attitude, to be open-minded and all these type of things. But then I'm getting a little bit more mature. You know a little bit more experience realizing that's just not gonna happen, that's not reality. You know what I mean.
Speaker 3:And each student you gotta have a different tongue. You know the overall basics of what you're teaching. It can be real general, but when you're trying to get very specific, each person's gonna hear it a little bit different and it's up to us as instructors to make sure that we find that type of way. So, to go back to about this individual, you know what I mean. As I sit here now and listen to you, like I just I'm so grateful, not for the student, but for the parent, because they're kids. They're kids, you know what I mean, and it's where they're coming from that allowed them to be who they are, so open-minded and not so hard on themselves whenever they get constructive criticism. So although, yes, I am having that interaction with that individual, I'm really having it with their parents. You know what I mean, but the parents aren't there, if you get what I'm trying to say.
Speaker 2:So I gotta ask you this, and I don't know if it's like, I don't know how weird it gets, but this is like stuff that I ponder a lot. You ever see healing within a family because of their kids working the way they're working?
Speaker 3:Oh, absolutely their work ethic, yeah.
Speaker 2:I don't know if that makes sense, but like I get it. I see a lot of families restoring themselves. I don't know if I'm getting an emotion on it, but like that's really cool because I literally see families who were set on a certain way and it's because of their like, the determination, the perseverance of their kids, constantly on the mat on the tournaments, out of tournaments that I'm starting to see, that break any negative cycle that one may perceive Right, right, and it's like dude, a little physical.
Speaker 3:No, I'm saying what you know. It's a team effort, man, and it starts at the top. It starts at the top because parents gotta make a ton of sacrifices the time, the finances, the strats you know what I mean Like they are the workhorses that I don't feel that get enough credit.
Speaker 2:No, and I'm glad you're bringing them up, because I probably would have gone the whole whatever time here just talking about individual students. But, like dude, it's not without parents for sure. And like I've had issues with students' behaviors, you know it's common, especially in a mat space where a lot of these little kids have big personalities already you know and you're like dealing with like little superstars already You're like whoa, this one's clashing with this superstar you know two sons can orbit the same Earth.
Speaker 2:That's crazy. And then parents are so hard on themselves too sometimes and I'm like dude, you guys do so much. You guys are much better parents than I. I look to you guys and if I ever get blessed with the opportunity to be a parent, then I could take some from you guys For sure. But you guys are the ones that are tired. You guys have to work through the stress. You guys have to. You guys got the bills, you guys got the budgets, you guys got everything and bring them to practice and find time for yourselves and do like, and some parents are doing it by themselves.
Speaker 2:And, like my mom, was doing it by themselves and it's like, yeah, man, I'm glad you brought them up, because I could also put faces to some of the parents that I sincerely admire, like for so many things, like whether they're regaining their health, whether they're changing careers, while still being a full-time parent, dude, there's a superhero type level to that that.
Speaker 1:I just I don't think I could do it Honestly like I don't.
Speaker 2:I'm scared of, like the idea of just carrying a baby around, let alone these parents that are doing it every day with the weight of the world on them, you know. So, yeah, man, I'm glad you brought them up?
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, I brought them up because we're talking about you, were talking about, like, the some of the star ones that you have, the students, and not even the star ones, just the ones that go in there, they check in, they check out every single week with you. They aren't getting there by themselves and when you get those students that are just like, dude, yes, it's 4 am and you're here, yes, thank you, it's because Apple didn't fall far from the tree.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean.
Speaker 3:It's not until older that Apple might roll a little farther from the tree, because they get a little bit more independent. They might fall around in the wrong crowd, and so the parents lose a little bit of their grips with them. But man, there's just times where I just look at them and I'm like, can I? I want to have a conversation with your parents. You know what I mean. Is this a reflection on you guys' parents?
Speaker 2:It's like your guys' parents were just as supportive, or were they not there? Were they too busy working? Were your guys' parents out on?
Speaker 1:this I mean. So I'll kind of talk about my mom. She was she's like the greatest, hardest, one of the hardest working people I've ever met. She's owned her own business for like 30 years childcare business and she would make sure we had everything we need was at every you know, games and practices. And then my dad worked in law enforcement and he worked nights. So he did that. He sacrificed his night so he could take us to school because my mom was working. So he would work nights, only sleep by four hours every day. When he got home in the morning he would take us to school, he would pick us up, take us to practice. He would go to every game because my mom was working during the day, but they would go to everything. So I mean I was super blessed to have amazing parents. I mean there was times though, like my dad, he and I've embodied that same mindset at the time. Like man, sometimes I didn't like my dad.
Speaker 1:Like he just was always on me, always on us, right, cause he knew what we were capable of, he knew what we could do and nothing was ever. He was never satisfied. You couldn't, you could not do anything to satisfy him and he was not the type he's not gonna pat you on the back, never gonna. I mean he does now in adulthood now, but back then it was like what do I gotta do to get a pat on the back? And he knew it was very intentional, why he did it. And I'm the same way now and at the time you're like damn, I hate this.
Speaker 1:But you look back and now you appreciate it and like that's the same level of expectation I have now for myself for athletes, for you know whoever I'm surrounded with, and then that's also in everything that we do right, whether it's projects with Zach and I do my own education or my work. That's the same thing, and I think I've talked about it's like I'm not gonna celebrate, I'm not gonna pat myself on the back for expectations for something I should do, and that's how my dad was. So, yeah, I was blessed with amazing parents and they pushed us and they knew how to push the right buttons. And they weren't perfect no one is but I was very blessed, yeah.
Speaker 3:That's. This is a hard topic, man. It's a hard topic for me. You know it's a yeah man. I'll probably get a little emotional with this one, but give me a second.
Speaker 2:You're good you're good.
Speaker 3:So kind of similar with that my mom was. She supported my dad with everything. And before I get into this, I want people to know, and I want my dad and my mom to know if they're listening is I love them to death. They're my people. And so I had a rough one with my dad, but, you know, can I be in the same room with him now? Yes, is he an amazing grandfather? Yes, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3:You want to talk about how it was for us, you know, growing up and having that relationship with you know, with parents and sports and this, and that, like me and my dad man, we like it became very, very difficult to enjoy sports. And so, to the point to where it created a scar as I got older, to where, you know, shoot, I mean, there were probably years where I, you know, me and my dad would be in the same room and we couldn't say more than a word to each other because it was just emotional trauma. And he, where I'm trying to go with this is that my dad was very hard, he was hard on me and back then I mean, maybe, like Blaine said, it was different times. It was definitely different times, you know, because now we live in a time where the last person parents yelling at is their own kid. They're looking for somebody else, you know. They're blaming an umpire, they're blaming the teacher, they're blaming the coach, they're doing every other thing. That wasn't the, that was not the issue for me and my dad. My dad's coming at me like a fricking raging bullet, so, but it also those times and those experience, so I'm grateful for it because it made me who I am today. Yeah, you know, and so you.
Speaker 3:I see these parents, you know, and I mean that get along so well with their kids and if there's one thing like that I want people to hear at least for me on this podcast is that your kid, your student, your athlete, will touch the freaking stars if you just support them, if you just love them. That doesn't mean you got to be their best friend, that doesn't mean you got to hold their hand, that doesn't mean any of those type of things. But if you could just walk with them in the direction that they need to be walked with, and not in front of them, not behind them, side by side with them, watch out, because they're going to reach not only a potential, but they will reach their fullest potential with your 100% support behind them, and so I'm trying to be better for my own son. You know what I mean, and not I'm trying to break a generational curse, I guess, so to say.
Speaker 2:Again, thanks for bringing it up because, see, I see, like even you bringing it up, look the healing you know, the healing and it's like I don't mean to be like soft or sensitive or romantic about it, but like we go through stuff you know. And this is wild and sometimes we don't give each other or ourselves enough grace sometimes, and that could be for better, for worse. Some people give too much grace, but like it's just, it's nice to hear, like some type of redemption there you know, we're like.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, it's like Blaine said earlier. You know what I mean. Like till this day again, I love my dad and he loves me. And the thing is it's like my dad never patted me on the back, he never said I'm pregnant. Till this day too, if my dad was to be out somewhere else in public he would say man, look my son's doing this like easy. But face to face it's like dang man. What I gotta do? I gotta build another gym, you know. But Do you guys have siblings? We have, I have siblings, I have a.
Speaker 2:Can you guys articulate that same way with them?
Speaker 3:Well, the thing is is I'm the black sheep man. I'll admit it right now I'm the black. I'm the only. This tattoo on my my arm is based on mine and my dad's relationship. I'm out. I don't wanna get into the story.
Speaker 2:I was gonna. I love asking about tattoos. I really love asking people about their tattoos because number one they have a really nice story to them. Number two they should they have. Some people have guts where they could just get one at random. I don't have that type of commitment.
Speaker 3:So I love hearing about people's tattoos, but yeah, you're saying Well, I'm gonna tell you right now. Anybody who tells you that tattoos don't hurt man, they're lying to you.
Speaker 2:They're lying to you right now.
Speaker 3:So if and when that day does come, you decide to get some ink of your own man, just be ready for it, that's all.
Speaker 2:I'll be like I didn't like Batman that much You're like. Oh no, why did this?
Speaker 3:But to go back to by brothers, I have an older brother, younger brother and a sister. When I say I'm the black sheep, I'm the black sheep by my choices. You know what I mean. Like I'm the only self-employed one in my family. I'm the only one in my family with tattoos, but can you?
Speaker 2:say to like your brother or sister, hey, bro, I love you. Or you're doing amazing.
Speaker 3:My, yeah, absolutely. Like I don't have a type of a family where we call each other we need to see each other every day, like no, my sister lives down south, my brother is in Bakersfield, my little brother's in Passport, like we're not living in the same area. My brother's got a family, my sister's got a family, my little brother, he's just became a CHP, like he's. Everybody is just doing their thing. You know, they're growing, they're evolving, and when we have a birthday party, let's get together and celebrate it. You know, when it's Christmas around, what are we doing? You know that type of thing. But do I love them? Oh, to heaven and earth, I love all my brothers and sisters, without a doubt. Yeah, cause.
Speaker 2:I see, like what you were saying earlier, where face I could talk about my brother's left and right and highlight them so much and how much I look up to them even though they're younger, but in real life I probably can't get too word out.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's very interesting.
Speaker 3:It's true, you know. I think I mean those are some of the best relationships. I feel like the people I talk to most are my business mentors. You know my business partners, probably because we're all like kind of on similar paths. You know we got similar personalities and we got goals that are similar in this and that. But other than that man, I'm kind of an introvert, believe it or not.
Speaker 2:No, I am too. Everyone thinks I'm like I'll go in everything. No, that's a character and he needs to be put away.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like after this podcast, man, we're gonna pack up, I'm going home, I'm going home.
Speaker 1:You know what I?
Speaker 3:mean, how about you and your brothers and sisters?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean I have two, so I have an older brother, younger sister. We're all two years apart, so, and like I'm close with, I got some close with both of them, was always really close. My sister, we would bump heads but we had that like brotherly, sisterly love and she actually still like we've lived together down south a couple of times. She, you know, she lives with me right now as well. So, yeah, no, and she was involved in athletics and but she so like me, like I could always take the criticism well, and you, like my dad, you could beat me down and like I'm still gonna go round the wall and do what I gotta do, right, and my sister being of, I don't know if it's just female, whatever it was, you know, obviously females have more emotions and she was not, she couldn't, she was not quite the same, and she played volleyball, played softball growing up, all the way through high school as well, and she kind of needed to be kind of do her thing. The pushing her and stuff like that just didn't work. And then like it did the opposite, like she would, she would hate it, and so I think she would. Just she was self-driven and she still is and she still has that same work ethic that I do. But she didn't need. She probably didn't need that like pushing, but she also probably couldn't take it either.
Speaker 1:My older brother was kind of he did never play sports. Really he kind of does his thing and he was yeah, he wasn't like he's just a little different, like he's kind of more of the. He's got tattoos, kind of definitely a little more on the outcast type as well than me and my sister, which is not a bad thing, negative thing at all. It's just he is that type where I don't have any tattoos, my sister doesn't, one more clean cut like that where it's he does. He also works in law enforcement, like my dad did. Me and my sister are both educators. So different paths. We all grew up in the same house but totally different personalities, completely different how we were able to accept, accept different things like criticism or being pushed and, like my brother, just kind of did his thing Like he did. It wasn't involved in sports, he was played, he was kind of a musician, artist, things like that, but totally different yeah.
Speaker 2:Now you guys. Just so you know, I stalked the hell out of you guys on Instagram. I'm a major supporter from afar. Thank you, like I like what you did this past year at Bird and Middle. I appreciate you. I appreciate you for bringing me in. That was also cool. Had me do the self-defense empowerment class Nice there you go. That's cool, I appreciate that.
Speaker 2:I love seeing what you've done here and especially the community work. If there's one thing that I kind of like, maybe a ounce of regret, is that I can't seem to rip myself apart from to do some more stuff for the community, because this town has it all. It's just it needs more. You guys to like, inspire a little bit more of it, you know, but how can you guys do everything when you guys are committed to your tasks? You know your daily day to day. You know, and, like I said, I admire all you, the stuff you guys do, and I hope that maybe we could collaborate later in the future and do something for this town.
Speaker 2:But is there anything that you guys see this town is needing or just as a guilty pleasure have? You know, I would love to see that through your guys' lens, because I could say something, but mine isn't what people are saying, like more restaurants and more things to do. To me it's just maybe, you know, it might just be like a couple road fixes or something, because I find it nice here as it is. But is there anything you guys perceive that could enhance our little town as well?
Speaker 3:Man, I think you know we are often. We often hear things right. Man, porteville has nothing, porteville is boring, it needs more, it needs to be more and do more. Well, you know what All those more require money.
Speaker 3:And what is the one thing that maybe not okay, not everybody, but because I'm guilty of it too, I squeak when I walk, like it's hard for me to pull a dollar out of my pocket. You know what I mean. But at the same time, though, it's necessary if I want to be sitting in this gym, so in order for us as a town and a community, to grow and not say it's boring, and not say it's this and like you got to spend a little bit. You know, because if you want a beautiful and again I'm talking about like businesses and stuff like that, you're talking about Barnes and Nobles and the Sprouts and all these type of things Like those aren't cheap. You know what I mean Like those things aren't cheap.
Speaker 3:So it's like, whenever I hear people talk about Portaville, what is the number one thing that's on their radar? In and out, everybody wants an in and out in Portaville, right. In and out is not a free thing to build in Portaville, you know. It's not like it's a hole in the wall, it's a major franchise. You know what I mean. And if it was to get built in Portaville, I think it would have extreme success.
Speaker 2:Sure, you can pull that right out.
Speaker 3:It would have extreme success. But how does that evolve your child? Where does your child grow from? In and out?
Speaker 3:Now you're talking about maybe and correct me if I'm wrong like you're talking about, how does Portaville build within the community as far as like centers and maybe sports complexes and things like this and things like that? These are my two things. We gotta be willing to spend some money. We do to have the finer things, to have the finer things. You gotta be willing to spend some money, period, like what.
Speaker 3:Well, if it was up to me, because we have a lot of space here, I mean, there's a lot of land. There's a lot of land in Portaville. You know what I mean. But what is usually being built on that land? Homes.
Speaker 3:Yeah, if there's one thing Portaville is great at doing, is building homes. In my opinion, you know what I mean Like, it's an easy thing for the city to do Boom, let's get some homes, and the moment it's done, it passes the desk. We got homes coming up and that's great, it's really great. You know what I mean. But again, if we are specifically talking about the youth and how they could be more taken care of, so to say, we gotta do a better job as far as playgrounds. We gotta do a better job as far as sports complexes and things like this. You know, what's pretty cool is we actually are right here down the road I don't know if you heard about it. They're gonna be renovating this little I shouldn't say little, it's pretty big. They're gonna be putting soccer fields out here. They're gonna be putting in a water like some sort of water attraction right here and things like that. Like that's huge, that's a big thing.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean?
Speaker 3:It's a big step and we need more necessary steps like that to get our youth involved, and not only involved, but evolving. You know what I mean, because if you go to Vicelia or just down the road, you have nice parks, you have nice, what do you call them? Trails, the run, you know around neighborhoods, friendly ones, you know you don't gotta worry about anything once you know the sun goes down and stuff like that. Like to me, we need to do more things for our awesome town that we need to do more things when the sun goes down. We need to create more things like that when the sun goes down. We need more things where we could get involved in whenever the sun goes out. That's my personal opinion. We don't got enough. I mean, what do you do when the sun goes down?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree, that's a good one and it's a good one that's probably like. What I capitalize on is the fact that you could train when the sun goes down.
Speaker 3:You know, you got a business, you turn on the lights and you could go forever, you know. But then you're going back to the financial part of it. Not everybody can afford you, although we might think we have an affordable price. But not everybody can afford it.
Speaker 2:No, and dude, that is like, and the little balance board that I walk on is I charge way lower than anybody and like a premium. Jujitsu seems to be like something like a premium and I tend to, you know, I just want everybody to have the opportunity to do it, but how do we do it when we got to pay taxes and lights and bills, and so it's like there's. So I do say that's like one of the things again that you have to sacrifice this money in order to get good at something. And I mean, yeah, and some people still won't be able to afford it. You know, and like, in order for me to grow it over time, I would have to create opportunities for sponsorships and other.
Speaker 2:And once again we go back into like the cycle the other privileged, more privileged people helping the other than it goes. It's been good just to form that type of community that boosts somebody else up, not just their own, and that's great. But yeah, you're going back into just what the city needs, definitely the after dark stuff. I just look at it that way, I would just like to see it, because what you have here is no, it's not a small thing, it's not to be diminished.
Speaker 2:What you did here is marvelous. It's a pretty beautiful gym in an elegant building, a nice part of town. So you already did a piece of your own, you know, and like, maybe ultimately that's where I get to, where I have a nicer facility that reflects the students and their training, you know, but that will come with time and I'm confident and certain that we will get there At some point. I just be patient and just keep showing up. But what you've done here is nice. What you do as an educator has been nice, thank you. So I'd love to see you guys as more thought into the rest of the town. Me personally is just with what we. I always go with what we have like optimize what we have and it's usually like get creative with it, especially when money, money is a constraint always.
Speaker 3:Money you can have, yeah, always will.
Speaker 2:A billion dollars is still wouldn't be enough for this town.
Speaker 3:you know 100%. Oh, without a doubt, you know it. To me it's, yeah, it's the money, but it's the managing being efficient.
Speaker 1:Being efficient.
Speaker 3:The managing is what's most important. You know what I mean. Like you could build it, but if you can't properly manage it, it's gonna crumble, it'll fall, it'll fall, and that's no different than sports. Like an organization, you know what I mean you can have all the money in the world, but if you don't have a good coach, you don't have a good GM, you don't have like, it's just gonna crumble.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think it's. It all goes back to people too. We talk about money and facilities, which I think we could always they could. Those things could always be better. It's like continuing to find quality coaching coaches and people involved in athletics and in these different individual or individual programs, because I think that's one of the hardest things is finding quality coaches, because there's a lot of people that are great coaches but they don't do it for certain reasons Either they're too busy or, because of some, have stepped away, for maybe their kids aren't playing anymore or they're parents. We talked earlier about parents. Today, instead of holding their kids accountable, instead we'll blame coaches, they'll blame officials instead of reflecting. So I think that's one reason why you don't see some of the coaches that would coach and not all of them. But I'm saying that is one of the things like you could always find coaches and stuff like that. So I think that's one thing that just getting those quality coaches to coach and continue coaching and giving them the support to coach as well.
Speaker 2:All right, so I'll just go into the delusional.
Speaker 2:I like how these new generation ses words, the Lulu, is such a funny word and there's so many memes on it and I crack up on it, but I'm like that's such a funny way to interpret what goes up in my head most of the time. But one of the delusional aspects is, if I could work on this far enough, I could start bringing people that come travel here to train and that brings money into the economy here, instead of the people coming from out of town to give it to a casino or a corporate business and the money spent at my school goes and gets spent in the rest of the town and hopefully we could get more people coming in to spend money here. And luckily we are in a nice area where people could travel and go see nice things. We are neighboring very nice things and that's what I'm hoping to do Like, maybe overly ambitious, maybe I'm not the one, but that's kind of what I would like to do In terms of, like, the coaching.
Speaker 2:I would just because I've always said that if I were to go back into strictly MMA and that would probably happen later in life when I have more people helping me that I would go back into mixed martial arts. I also see, because I see a revival happening here in the Valley again and that I would love to just specialize and maybe bringing in the next female athlete and I'm not just opposed to like a male athlete, but I feel like I would niche down to just help the build up a women athlete, just because that's a niche in its own. It seems to be building more and more in MMA as time goes on and in jujitsu.
Speaker 2:So, when it comes to an individual level, I would probably niche down to trying to bring up the next female MMA or jujitsu star, building up a good quality training program where people could come into town to train here and then we'll go from there. But hopefully and I know you're doing your part, I know he's doing his part In terms of the people, this is like that's really to me. Being an introvert, I didn't realize the power that people would have for me. To me, being away from people is actually in my favor, me not being around people. But then I think of all the times of having that one friend that helped, having been around this people that helped. And in Puerto Rico it is the people. Like, we may not have stuff to do, but the people here are great, and investing into them in some type of way would be one of the ways that I would like to tackle that aspect. Because, yeah, when we were initially talking about your people wanting to leave here, it's like nah, baby, you need to stay here.
Speaker 2:And we need to just set you on your lane. And you guys had these parents that were like nope, you guys had the trend that they were harder on you. But I catch myself and, dude, it makes me cringe because I get asked for advice. I'm like dude, I don't even have kids, like. That's probably why I get away with some stuff with the kids and the parents, because I don't have that filter where I'm like oh, I'm their parent too, you know, like it has to be this way.
Speaker 2:I don't have that. But they ask me like what do you think on this? I'm like they wanna stop Jiu-Jitsu because they wanna go try out other things and I'm like, fair enough, just make sure you keep them on one thing. If they're little, keep them on one thing, for even if they try other things, keep them on one thing.
Speaker 3:It goes back to your focus.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because then they're gonna go and they're gonna. You've seen it. I'm sure you guys seen this with teammates, athletes, students, all the people you deal with, where you'll have people that'll get exceptional so fast, but then just stay there. Yeah, they plateau. Yeah, it's not even that they plateau, it's that they're just comfortable being there because they got there so good and they're doing good where, like now, they can hop around and always come back.
Speaker 2:But they need to see themselves here. You know, they need to see themselves farther than they, and it's not because they got to try other things, it's because someone kept them, forcing them to get farther in that area. And again, it does go to focus, but it goes back into like, maybe this is just a projection, this is what I tell parents. Who was more likely? I'm just projecting what I would have wanted if I was growing up. But I wish somebody kept me training, not me, because I was always thinking, oh, if I could always come back to training, go try something else, and no, I should have just kept at it, for better, for worse. I mean, luckily it went out my way. But that's also the reason why I know, like, stick to something, force them to stick to something, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so did you wanna. No, no, no no, Okay, I had some things. So currently at Elite Team Portaville, what classes do you guys kind of offer?
Speaker 2:Where can kind of people Right now I'm just specialized in separating into Jujitsu and the buzzword is kickboxing, because more people know what kickboxing is than Muay Thai.
Speaker 2:Maybe, I think that I'll start switching around. It's just Muay Thai, where we clinch, we throw elbows, knees, all of it. It's not just kickboxing, where you just box and kick, no clinching, but I call it kickboxing For kids and adults. The kids program has evolved into an MMA program where they learn how to kickbox but they also learn how to strike, with the advantage of taking them to the floor. And this evolved into that because a kid will more than likely deal with somebody at a school. So instead of getting in a physical exchange, they could just negate, you know, a combative situation by taking them down and knowing how to handle themselves.
Speaker 2:This is just how I wanted to overlap the strikers into jujitsu and the jujitsu students into striking. That way they could be well rounded and Better prepared whenever they were to be, if they were to deal with some type of bully situations. So I had the emergence of having a Overlapped the two classes. So the kickbox, the kids kickboxing class, has become a kids MMA class. That way it allows the person that will never do jujitsu to still know how to handle their own, whether they're at the schoolyard or somewhere you know.
Speaker 2:And then we have the kids jujitsu program. Who's who's starting to grow into this phenom of a very great competitive Team, especially from our little town nice.
Speaker 1:It's awesome, yeah, kids and adults, yeah yeah, I mean With that, where I mean you guys have built a really cool community over there. I see you guys on Instagram and think and all these social media, so you have like a cool little family community. I feel like Anytime you guys doing something and I got to go, you're busy, but I went to your guys event.
Speaker 2:Thanks for going to that. Yeah, I was in a bit of a day and mine there's.
Speaker 1:It was freakin packed in there. There's so many people, so that was cool. But every time you guys do something like that, you have a cool little community atmosphere, a little family atmosphere that you guys have built. So it's cool to see no man.
Speaker 2:Thank you again. Thank you for going for that. Like me, I didn't know. I never know who's gonna show up. I always under shoot, like I'm thinking about two of my friends will show. Yeah, my brother might creep up, but I had people I didn't know sitting on the mat. They were like doing this hot in here. I'm like I know, lady, this is how we get it done up in here.
Speaker 2:This is this is how we get real work done here. Welcome to the experience. They're like Like a for real. They're like yep, I'm like, this is not for the weekend. I actually that lady actually signed up for.
Speaker 3:Nice.
Speaker 2:My kid had it too easy but yeah, dude, it was packed water. One thing like in terms of small businesses we had vendors Like go and sell your stuff. Like dude, if you make, I hope it was just worth your time. People are like dude we sold out. My wife was like hey, we had Too many waivers signed, like I ran out of copies. Usually we had this the first year we did it and we had over 700 people show up throughout the day and then this time around, maybe not, maybe close, maybe over. I had no idea.
Speaker 3:I was busy the whole time, I couldn't even help count, or nothing. Successful event. That's a huge reflection on you, though, man. It really is. You know what I mean. Like you, you're, you're doing a very good thing down there, and people want to be a part of that, you know, and that's that is Something that has been made through sacrifices, experiences and things like that, and so, like Blaine said, man, thank you for being and doing that for our community man. It's a huge deal.
Speaker 2:I'm nothing without the students and like you brought up and I'm glad again he brought it up, because we can't like I don't lose students, I lose parents. And dude, if I wish I could put so many, I wish a Million dollars wouldn't be enough, I would put lazy boys. For all these parents, I would pray the shit out of them if I could. You know, maybe the outcome.
Speaker 2:But yeah, shout out the parents for sure really esteem every single one of them that's in our training room right now, past, present and hopefully in the future. And yeah, I know guys, and thank you guys. I'm. I'm honestly nobody. I am like an idiot, just trying to be less of an idiot every day. I swear to God, I'm dense like, and I could only talk about this and I only want to talk about this, and that's For better, for worse. I don't know and I don't know how I have friends. I don't know how they deal with me. I'm so grateful for all my friends.
Speaker 2:I'm grateful for you guys, even though we barely put it, because that's the energy. You are working hard. You are working hard right on grateful. You guys created a platform for people here in this area to come and share their story with you guys, and I will say this again on record you guys should do more of just you guys. I love hearing your guys's opinions. I love hearing your guys's story. I love hearing your backstory. I gotta know about that your new tattoo on your leg.
Speaker 3:Well, that shit is loud, but cool.
Speaker 3:So man, no, it's like you know, you, what you just said. You don't know how you have friends. I know you have friends, but To me, I always, I always wrap it up in one little simple word you have people that that enjoy your presence. Because you're consistent, you don't change. This is who you are and if you accept me, awesome, let's be friends, let's be best friends. You know what I mean. Let's, let's talk about whatever it is that you guys are gonna talk to, but to me, that's why people Hang around me at least because they know what they're gonna get a sarcastic asshole, oh I gotta go to. But they know, you know, and it, whatever type of personality you have outside the mat, on the mat, whatever it is, it's consistent, isn't it? So they never have to guess, they never have to wonder, they never have to have any doubt who they're gonna be meeting. You know today, tomorrow or the next day. So that's that's the way I look at it.
Speaker 2:No, it's just so funny. I'm like dude, like I'm, I'm so easy going and informal and like I'll have students be like thank you for coaching me today. I'm like, do not be thanking me, Just do your work Like we're good, you know. And then I'll have the same student give me some mad attitude off the mat and just like Roasting me and I'm like dude.
Speaker 3:Why are?
Speaker 2:you roasting me and then. But I was like on the mat. I Know what I'm, I know what the fuck I'm doing. All right, I'll have the mat. You could tell you could tear me down, I don't care. Like off the mat.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know right.
Speaker 2:You teach me. You know I'm ready to learn from you, and in whatever avenue, and that's that's kind of how I Enjoy it with like the relationships I have with people. They actually are the ones teaching me.
Speaker 1:The students are the ones teaching me, but I as cliche as that sounds I literally learned so much for them, I believe you know, what's funny is like when we're kids we look up like adults and we think they have it all figured out Right, like remember, like I remember being young, like you look up certain people, man, like they got it all figured out killing it.
Speaker 1:Huh, killing it. Yeah, like you always trust, like they know exactly what they're doing, perfect. And then we, we become adults and you realize like, oh yeah, they didn't have shit figured out, we don't have shit figured out. No one really knows exactly what they're doing all the time and everyone's dealing with shit. So it's like yeah, like you know, it's like no, no one's perfect, everyone's got their shit. They're dealing with.
Speaker 3:It's so true man it's so true, it like and if there's one thing I'm very grateful for is that people can't read minds, because my mind is just yeah, it's like Like them, because it's crazy, dude, the moment you wake up, there's not a second that goes by, there's not a thought running through you. You know what I mean. The moment your eyes is like boom, thought, thought, thought, thought. Anxiety, stress, happiness, sadness, all this type of stuff is just constantly revolving within yourself and it's like, oh man.
Speaker 2:I just got like the most informal diagnosis for ADD, or she said ADD and I'll just take her word for it because she's a therapist, but she was all like, oh, I'm not ADD like you, and I was like I've always had an intuition, but I never care to go find out. You know she goes yeah, so yeah, good luck with that.
Speaker 1:We have that plus, look at this plus you know yeah, so hence, why did you guys see that I Reposted on my story? I think it's yesterday.
Speaker 3:It's not overthinking, or you said you're a fill attacked the guy was like it was a comedian.
Speaker 1:He says don't, don't ever tell an overthinker they're overthinking, like. And he said something like we know and now we're kind of insulted that you know, you think we didn't think that we were overthinking.
Speaker 2:Do, like that was spot-on all along, like there were so many layers to that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we know we're overthinking it dude for reals.
Speaker 2:If you know like it's on, you shut up, like, tell me like.
Speaker 1:Now, yeah, now, now we're overthinking it more. Since you said we're overthinking it, yeah, I know like hey, don't overthink it, I just want to talk about it, we'll talk about it like no Cut the mic. The people like when you're pissed off, they tell you to calm down, like don't tell me to come down.
Speaker 3:Like that's last thing you want to tell somebody. You need to calm down, you need to relax. You need to relax.
Speaker 2:I have, so don't tell me to relax so much success. The escalating people were like, though, they'll be like really aggro, they'll be really in it, and I'm like Like I'll catch on to whatever they're saying. Well, this is the last time. Like, better get this away from me. I'm like what Should be away from you. And like this person like I just match him, you know, mm-hmm. And then from there we de-escalate.
Speaker 2:Yeah and I find that actually very fun. The de-escalation tactic and that's like dude, like forget all martial arts. If you could learn how to de-escalate somebody that feels they need to fight you, yeah, you're, you're, you're gonna be better than than anyone that?
Speaker 3:knows, you know yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, whatever said that's crazy.
Speaker 2:Like dude, I oh my god, I don't know, even though we should even say this, but like dude, I get accused of being gay so much lately because I'm like, damn you bad, look at these boots. And I'll just start doing that. And people, because I guess as guys would be. So, like You're new, I'm new, what do you want from me? Like, maybe maybe we're defensive against other guys. I have no idea I'm like that. Just because I'm introverted, I'm like, oh, I need to feel a little bit more comfortable. Like, are you my type of people? Are you sensitive? If you're sensitive, I don't know, we're gonna click, you know that type of thing. But sometimes I'll disarm you with, like you know, just pointing out things and just amplifying it with a little bit to change the tone.
Speaker 2:Okay, and I mean it too. Like like these boots are fire, you know Pretty loud, I like it, but yeah, I can't do it, but how dope?
Speaker 3:Trying to break the ice, trying to make a situation awkward, make someone comfortable. At the same time, you might make it.
Speaker 2:If I catch it, I think, if I can't see awkward moment.
Speaker 3:I'll make it more awkward just because I can't help myself right now, and then you're going home over thinking every single thing that you.
Speaker 2:Okay, we are the same. I fucking transcribe dish. I'm like run the minutes. All right, here we go. Damn dude, you really said this shit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, then. Yeah, you're over thinking about something you said to somebody like wonder what they thought about that.
Speaker 2:Oh, you know, like did they judge me the next day? You guys are back. They forgave me.
Speaker 1:Thank God they're here you know, they probably think I'm a big, the biggest, more on ever like oh, they came back today.
Speaker 2:I like their spot. I'm like dude, why are they still here? I like, why are they like? I have some brilliant, brilliant students, professors at university, at schools, doctors, high, these high status academic Professions and I Don't know why. They deal with me honestly, like why do I get what you were saying, but I still like I'm like no, like I don't know what it is, but I'm grateful they deal with me. I I love to bounce ideas off of them. It feels like I get like a little bit of free schooling from there, like a hack it, you know, but yeah but yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, maybe because they just want to break from what they're dealing with on a daily basis. You know what I mean the same same thing, same routine, same situation, same people, and so when they come into your facility, it's like a breath of fresh air for them. You know what I mean. It's different, so that's I mean. That's the way I see it and I look at it. You know what I mean because it's it's like a Whenever kids they they come and see me, I mean I've been told this, I lost count, zach, you're, you're a 40 year old, trapped in a 30 year old's body, but you act like you're 15 and You're basically two of one. And I'm like well, should I take that as a compliment or should I be Upset about that? And they're just like no, I'm just pointing it out to you, okay.
Speaker 2:Well, I got any similar fucking diagnosis? You know what I mean because oh, but you're still 18 and it's weird.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and also, but you, but you act like you're. You barely even know how to, you know, carry yourself in public.
Speaker 2:So, and I'm gonna, do this because I get away with stuff like I'm sorry. Like if I somebody would have checked me early, I would have like deviated back onto a like a proper, more silver is type of tone. But since somebody let me roast them long enough and they do nothing about it, I'll just keep roasting you like I'm sorry, it works though, man, like I said, you got something that's working for you.
Speaker 3:You know what I mean and I correct me if I'm wrong, but I see it going nothing but up. You know what I mean. Like God willing, it goes nothing but up.
Speaker 2:Yeah right, just on that, like I don't care for me being like anything, I, the students and everything. I don't want people going for me because of me. I'm not. I don't it's not to make it so like exaggerated, but I don't. Worship is a thing and that shouldn't be your coaches. You know, if anything, you're better off, you know I.
Speaker 2:Finding ideals to follow and gravitate towards, but not towards an idol, ideals over idols, I feel is like the theme here and I would rather like you know better myself as well. So, like, in terms of personality, I know I'm rough around the edges and I know how I could probably work things better, but then I I hope to like right now you said it does go nothing but up Whether I'm there or not. Hopefully, you know, because I, as long as I could contribute on my end on the coaching, I don't mind being on the back end or or more Detach, but not, and I think, I think you know what it's like. They need you, they need you like they don't need, like they don't need you, just your training session. They need that extra five minutes after chopping it up with you, you know, and if we could kind of manage that, cool, because sometimes it's like it's difficult, you know, you know like you don't want to let you know I don't. I don't want to let them down anymore just because my personality is being funny or a certainty and I catch myself.
Speaker 2:I have so many like good students and I hear them repeat my language Patterns, like I'll say a phrase I'll use or something I'm like, oh, no, and I'm like talking to a person. I'm so sorry, like they, yeah, I'm so sorry. They just said that because I used to tell the common theme for coaching that I would have that would help me in a general, broad sense was Someone will work harder to avoid, you know, getting like discipline rather than for a compliment. So that alone allowed me to be like, see a technique and be like that is gross and and people who would? I, it doesn't matter who I talked to, it just kind of got the rest of the room like Self-conscious of what they were doing back into like whether. So when I was hearing the kids say to another kid I'm like, oh, no, like, and it doesn't even come off the same. It doesn't come off like, you know, sarcastic or nothing, it just came out as like you are on conflict, you know like oh no, please don't.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, that doesn't my bad. Like parents, they're like, no, they just got it from you. I'm like no, we got to fix that. So now, now, like I get a very self-conscious about it, like like what I'm saying and all that. So that's why I always wonder, like why these, like why I'm so fortunate, like I just can't believe it's me, like that's, that's the root of it. I can't believe it's happening to me.
Speaker 1:You know, cool that yeah yeah, so where can people follow you that don't necessarily already follow your instagrams, all your social medias?
Speaker 2:I am on uh elite team portable on instagram and facebook and I am under real maricio majia on instagram. That's my personal account. You guys can message me about whatever. I post a lot of funny memes just because I don't like posting myself um.
Speaker 3:Honestly.
Speaker 2:I want someone to hop on social media and just talk a little bit of shit to me and like let's have that, let's roast each other.
Speaker 1:You know, let's connect that way. You find a lot of that on twitter.
Speaker 2:Oh, do you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't have twitter.
Speaker 2:I just got a twitter the other day.
Speaker 1:I know, but people get after each other on there Really.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there you go man.
Speaker 2:Twitter is dark.
Speaker 3:That's why you can't do this podcast to hear that right there dark.
Speaker 2:No, I, I know how twitter is, but I've had like nothing but like positive Well some people people, but people attract, you know stuff, so I have, uh, connected with, like some of my favorite authors on twitter, I connected with some coaches, um, I connected with professors that I admire from afar.
Speaker 1:You'll find what you're looking for basically. Like no I see like celebrities will get into little beefs on twitter and start talking shit to each other. Hey, uh, all these basketball players be going out on twitter.
Speaker 2:Hey bro, who, who's uh, who's uh building off success gonna uh. Who's this? Who's main street athletics gonna main athletics. Gonna get on beef with.
Speaker 1:Let's get on beef with somebody you know we don't want to be In my help in my help, you know. We'll start beef with uh, elite team. Oh yeah, let's do it. Hey, after the podcast, let's get this shit started, all right cool, cool.
Speaker 2:Hey guys sincerely it's pleasure. Thank you being around you guys. Thanks for everything you guys do. Thanks for, uh, some of you. Thanks for you coaching some of my students. Thanks for you Handling some of my students at school. For sure, shout out to you guys the parents again. Thank you guys for having me shout out portobello. In the neighboring areas, these towns are walking dope. Sorry for cussing.
Speaker 3:No, I mean, you know, you nailed it right there, man. It's like, uh, life's a team effort, man, and it's it's always nice to know when you got some people on your side that have just similar personalities and mindsets, you know we don't need to talk dude.
Speaker 2:You know, moment you need like anything you fucking reach out youtube lane like yada, we don't. We ain't even that close and I know you guys have hundreds of people ready to lift arms for you guys. You guys reach out for whenever, whenever you guys can have a key to the gym, you guys could go hide out, whenever Everyone's looking for you, because I know, I know y'all be lucked by somebody, by somebody every single time. So yeah, you guys have me whatever you guys need for sure man Appreciate it.
Speaker 3:Yeah appreciate you Thank you for making the time to come down and chit chat with us, man. Thank you for sharing the stories, sharing the knowledge, sharing the laughs, all this type of stuff, man. So Just to recap, the man you know portaville. Come find a man. He's, he's, he's the real deal. Parents, students, everybody Go knocking on his door. You won't regret it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 100%, if you are, you know, wanting to get yourself, your Child, into jiu-jitsu or kickboxing or, you know, learn some self-defense stuff. Check out maricio, with elite team Best in the business, best in the area, best in the valley.
Speaker 2:Come, come find him. Thank you, thank you guys. Yeah, thank you, yeah I might have to do it again.
Speaker 1:Because I know there's a lot of stuff we didn't get to. But cool man yeah we don't want to put a four-hour jocco podcast out.
Speaker 2:Because no one might listen. Yeah, thank you. All right, I appreciate it. See you guys.
