ISAAC TAUAEFA & RYAN CRAMER | Jesus & Jiu-Jitsu (Ep. 830)

0:00 [Music]

0:20 This is Undaunted Life of Man's Podcast.

0:24 I'm your host Kyle Thompson. Let's get into it.

0:26 Brian Kramer and Isaac, Tua Efe. How are y'all doing? I feel like I have to say it like that every time.

0:31 Tua Efe. How did I say it?

0:34 Tua Efe. Way more accurate than most people do, so I appreciate everyone.

0:38 I feel like I'm doing the Haka every time I say your name, which is not like an actual thing.

0:42 I like to greet him with it, like, "Hey, let me just get to see you."

0:47 There we go. People look at us really funny at church when we do things like that to each other.

0:51 You should make a Jesus and jiu-jitsu shirt that has the pronunciation of your name on it.

0:55 Yeah. Just for no reason.

0:57 I thought you were going to say, like, a Paulinee Simoan tribal or something, which, but I like that.

1:01 That's fine.

1:02 Tribal? We, I know that those are for armbands for red nicks, like that.

1:05 Those are armband tattoos, but no, we got the crew from Jesus and jiu-jitsu up in the studio.

1:10 Yeah, man.

1:11 Hey, I've been telling you guys, every time I travel now, I wear my Jesus and jiu-jitsu shirt.

1:15 I wear the black one with the white on it, and I've gotten more comments in the airport.

1:19 Like, I had a pilot. I know it wasn't a pilot.

1:21 I made him in a pilot. He just goes, "Oh, nice shirt."

1:24 And then he asked me something about jiu-jitsu.

1:26 He didn't really know what it was, but he's like, "Hey, I know the Lord as well."

1:29 And it's just like he gives someone a, it may as well say, "Ask me about Jesus on the front."

1:33 Yeah, right, right.

1:34 But you get people that talk about it all the time, so that was that kind of like the point

1:37 behind the subtle marketing and the very, very straightforward marketing?

1:41 Yeah, no subtlety there.

1:43 No, so, so, along with the founders of the ministry, so JP, Danal, Stephen Little, Josh Schausberg,

1:49 a bunch of other guys to help me out.

1:51 Right, we all work together in the very beginning to get this thing going.

1:54 And it was some of their idea to have Jesus be really big on the top jiu-jitsu,

1:59 be really small, and it be kind of an emphasis on what's important in the whole thing.

2:03 But man, from the beginning, it's been a massive, like, it just draws eyes.

2:09 And like you said, in the airport or Costco or at the gas station or whatever.

2:13 I mean, I get people all the time to come up and say the same thing like,

2:16 "Dude, that's cool. What's that about?"

2:18 My favorite question is how do those two things go together?

2:21 That's my favorite one.

2:22 Hey, I forget who said it because I would love to give them credit.

2:24 But they were, and this should be a tagline for you guys, but it was like,

2:27 choke them out and then pray for you.

2:29 I was just like, yeah.

2:30 That's how you can explain it, how those two things weave in together.

2:33 That's right.

2:34 That's how we approach getting people closer to Jesus is like pure humility first.

2:38 Yeah.

2:39 And then as we, as we wake them up, yeah, like, "Oh, here, let me tell you about the gospel."

2:43 Bring it, bring your death, near-death experience always brings people closer to the Lord.

2:46 Yeah, they kind of like come back to and they're just like, "Oh, wow, okay."

2:49 Yeah, Jesus, let's talk about what Jesus felt.

2:51 But just to back up even a little bit, like for you guys,

2:55 how long ago did y'all start Jesus and Jiu-Jitsu?

2:57 How long ago was this the thing?

2:59 It was about three years ago.

3:00 Okay.

3:01 Yeah.

3:01 And so what was kind of the impetus behind starting something like that,

3:04 and then we should probably talk about your Jiu-Jitsu journeys as well.

3:07 But it's like, because again, there's plenty of guys that are Christians that do Jiu-Jitsu,

3:11 but there's nothing formal.

3:12 Right.

3:13 So like, you know, we'll work our way to today to kind of like what you guys are doing,

3:17 but like what was even the reason behind getting launched?

3:20 Yeah.

3:21 So we went, I started training with Rafael for Amiga Barbosa at Double Five Jiu-Jitsu,

3:28 and he's phenomenal, 13-time world champion, Masters World Champion,

3:32 and became really good friends with guys that were training at the gym.

3:35 Kramer was there at the gym.

3:36 We became friends a little bit later, but you know, those guys that I mentioned earlier,

3:41 we all went to a men's ministry, like a retreat together called Pursuit,

3:46 run by a ministry called Walking in Truth,

3:49 and had an amazing experience where we felt close.

3:52 Like really, we really felt bonded through that weekend.

3:55 It was a weekend of just like no technology leaning into the Lord,

3:58 doing hard spiritual work.

4:00 And I would encourage people to go check them out.

4:02 But we ended up at the end of that.

4:04 We were like, how do we bring this same Christian fellowship into the Jiu-Jitsu community?

4:07 Because it's lacking that depth of Christian fellowship.

4:10 People are close in Jiu-Jitsu, and you know that.

4:13 People are close in Jiu-Jitsu, but they're lacking that depth of Christian fellowship.

4:18 And so we're like, how do we bring this 4 million?

4:20 So we're like, we need to start.

4:22 So we actually went through the process of making an actual 501(c)(3) and incorporation

4:28 and all that so that we could be legit and be serious about getting it going.

4:32 And so that's what started it.

4:34 And then Kramer joined later on as there was a lot of day-to-day responsibility stuff.

4:39 And but he had gotten saved really at one of these events at walking in truth pursuit,

4:45 pursuit for truth.

4:46 And then really, I mean, you know, he's a black belt and we trained together.

4:51 And so he really started, we started leaning in together.

4:53 And yeah, and in the broader group, you know, the board members really supported Kramer

4:59 coming along with Lucas as well.

5:00 You met Lucas on our podcast.

5:02 But yeah, man.

5:03 So that's kind of how it got started and got off the ground.

5:05 But the intention was to bring this fellowship in.

5:08 And then as we dug in deeper, it was like there's a huge opportunity for evangelism

5:12 and discipleship in Jesus and jiu-jitsu.

5:14 And so, I mean, what attracted you to this whole thing?

5:18 Because you know, again, you have jiu-jitsu as a hobby.

5:21 And then you're a Christian now and you're trying to figure out how those things work together.

5:23 But then like formalizing that is still a unique thing.

5:26 Yeah.

5:27 I mean, so I've trained jiu-jitsu now for 16 and a half years.

5:30 Got my black belt about three years ago from Formiga.

5:35 And I got made himself so undeniably known through friends in the jiu-jitsu space, right?

5:41 Like they didn't know what I was going through in my life.

5:44 But it was the three other founders of jiu-jitsu that reached out to me on October 4th of 2022

5:50 inviting me to a men's freedom ministry event.

5:53 I'm like, they didn't know that my life was falling apart.

5:56 Because everything on the outside was like, oh, yeah, he's got it all put together.

5:59 He's in shape.

6:00 He's a black belt, you know, married kids, all these things.

6:03 I didn't know that I was on the verge of divorce and, you know, dealing with porn addiction

6:06 and all these other things.

6:07 But God put me on their heart.

6:09 I didn't know him from Adam.

6:10 It was so informal like of a friendship at the time that they didn't have my cell phone number.

6:15 I got an Instagram message from these three guys inviting me to this event.

6:18 I was like, I got to do it.

6:20 And God made himself just so known to me on that event.

6:23 I got saved on November the 19th of 2022.

6:27 Isaac was there for that.

6:31 And, you know, so I saw how there was folks in the Jewish community that kind of brought

6:36 me back to Jesus.

6:37 We'll get more into testimonies and stuff later, I'm sure, but I just I just wanted to be a

6:43 part of it.

6:44 I was like, what can I do to help, you know?

6:46 And so for several months, just kind of played like an advisor role to Isaac, and he was

6:50 like, that was the guy that he would call just to talk to and talk about new initiatives

6:55 from the ministry and stuff and then kind of stepped in a more formal role this year.

6:59 Because I just felt called to do it.

7:00 Like, I love Jiu Jitsu and now I also love Jesus far more than I do Jiu Jitsu.

7:04 And if I can help be the bridge between the Jiu Jitsu community and getting those people

7:10 to God's kingdom, like send me, let's go.

7:13 That's one of the things about this table.

7:16 I feel like when people get into studio, you know, we like, I don't come prepared like

7:21 these are my notes guys.

7:22 Yeah.

7:23 You can see that right there on the camera.

7:24 There's nothing on there.

7:25 But I'm just curious for you because I made the statement before Ryan that there are some

7:30 guys I know that are just monsters.

7:32 They're black belts in Jiu Jitsu, but they're white belt husbands.

7:35 They're white belt fathers.

7:36 They're white belt, you know, business owners, that type of thing, and you can't crush it

7:41 in all areas.

7:42 You just can't.

7:43 Not for real.

7:44 You can do it on Instagram, but you can't like do it for real.

7:46 But like for you, what was it?

7:48 Because there's plenty of people that have, you know, are on the road to divorce or have

7:52 been divorced or have a pornography addiction, all those types of things.

7:54 And it's just like, man, just the hand I was dealt, especially if you don't have a Christian

7:57 worldview, especially if you don't even believe in God, we're just highly evolved chimps that

8:00 figured out language, pants, and fire.

8:02 And so why does it matter if, you know, one champ does something bad to another champ?

8:05 But I'm just wondering for you, like at that event in November of 2022, and we don't have

8:11 to get into the theological logistics of, okay, did you make a decision or did the Holy

8:15 Spirit hold you down and get your will and make you become a Christian?

8:17 But like what was it about where you got to and the road to get there to make you say,

8:23 to make you surrender in all, you know, senses of the word?

8:27 I think to that point, like I had just done everything else to try to fix my own broken

8:31 ness unsuccessfully, and it was coping mechanism after coping mechanism, and then realized

8:37 that there's no other way for me to deal with the things that I'm dealing with than to give

8:41 my life to Christ.

8:42 I dealt with perfectionism most of my life.

8:45 And so, you know, did you grow up around church?

8:47 I did.

8:48 Yeah.

8:49 Yeah.

8:50 I mean, you know, grew up there was worship music played in our home.

8:51 You know, dad read us Bible stories from like an encyclopedia type set.

8:54 Um, you know, you did all the vacation, Bible school stuff and, you know, to take words

8:58 from, from Matt Chandler, um, I was a nominal Christian at best, you know, if someone asked

9:02 if I was Christian, I was that.

9:04 But you know, I also thought that if I couldn't be the perfect Christian, then I wasn't going

9:07 to be one at all.

9:08 I think that the gospel, as it was presented to me as a kid, kind of growing up in Southwest

9:13 Texas, um, you know, Southern Baptist Bible belt, like Helen damnation, you know, it was

9:18 just a bunch of rules and I just had a rebellious spirit and so didn't want that at all.

9:22 Like, I didn't know that, you know, being a Christian was more so about my own individual

9:26 relationship with the Lord, I just thought it was a bunch of rules and I wasn't much

9:29 of a rule follower.

9:30 And so for, you know, 30 plus years I ran from the Lord until there was nowhere to run.

9:35 Um, except to, except to him.

9:38 Yeah.

9:39 Yeah.

9:40 Yeah.

9:41 And so, I mean, that was it for me.

9:42 And it was a drastic shift in just my mindset and being proud of who I am and who God made

9:46 me to be instead of faking my fruits, like actually trying to live them out, um, in a

9:53 true genuine way, because I knew enough about, you know, growing up in the church, you know

9:57 what the fruits are, like, you know what a Christian should be right and like, what are

10:01 the godly attributes and especially in a public setting, I was really good at doing

10:05 that.

10:06 I think my fruits my whole life, um, but there's also certain giftings that I think God had

10:10 given me that I was ashamed of, um, oh, you talk to much or, you know, you shouldn't care

10:15 so much about what people think and to an extent, I don't anymore.

10:19 Like I really just want to live my life through him, um, and glorify him and everything that

10:24 I do.

10:25 And it's the really, the group of friends that I've associated myself with now and that

10:29 I'm brothers with since, you know, for the last three years that now when you have friendships

10:34 forged in your relationship with Christ together, they're so different than the previous friendships

10:38 I had in my life.

10:39 Oh, and just think about the testimony that you're going to have of all the pain and

10:44 all the bad decisions and all the stuff that happened when you were a non believer, but

10:47 also you became a black belt.

10:48 Your entire Jiu Jitsu journey was as a non believer.

10:50 Whereas for me, I started my Jiu Jitsu journey at 30 as a believer.

10:54 And so I'm seeing all the core laries for me as I'm going through the process now, you

10:58 know, eight years in or something like that.

10:59 So like Isaac, for you, I don't, I've never really heard your testimony as well.

11:03 Like kind of how, like what brought you to Christ and, you know, much less in the ministry.

11:07 Yeah.

11:08 So I grew up, um, you know, the power team.

11:12 Oh, yeah.

11:13 So my dad was on the original power team.

11:15 So my dad was the big Samoan, uh, like bend and frying hands and breaking handcuffs,

11:22 bending, you know, uh, phone books, slamming his head through concrete.

11:27 So, uh, when I was a little kid, my dad was, uh, my dad was like not a good dude, um, in,

11:34 in, like in the strongest sense where he was, uh, he was a gangster, like he was in, he

11:39 was in a gang, he was incarcerated for assault and, you know, felony, granddad, my dad,

11:46 my dad was born in American Samoa and then moved to Hawaii when he was young.

11:50 And so kind of grew up, like in poverty there, um, Hawaii is like paradise, but there are

11:55 parts of it that are really bad.

11:56 People really don't understand how like the further you get away from the coast, it gets

11:59 dark.

12:00 Yeah.

12:01 And there are, there's like massive disparity between people that are wealthy and people

12:03 that are struggling.

12:04 And my dad was in that struggling group group in government housing, one of 12 siblings.

12:10 Um, and they just, yeah, they didn't have money.

12:12 And so it was like way easier to kind of dive into that life of crime.

12:15 And so that was my dad's testimony.

12:17 And so I was probably two years old when my dad who was a construction worker and doing

12:22 drugs and, you know, uh, living a life of crime, um, had actually encountered, encountered

12:28 Jesus for real, um, the short version there is my mom had prayed for him to come to Bible

12:34 study for a long time.

12:35 Every Wednesday she'd invite him to go and he would say no.

12:38 And then, uh, he'd go play basketball at the rec center with, you know, there'd be like

12:41 a hundred dudes that they're running games all night and he went up one night.

12:45 She invited him.

12:46 He said, no, he went up to play basketball.

12:48 There was no one there except for the, um, the janitor and he's like, Hey, so where is

12:53 everybody?

12:54 You know, no one's here.

12:55 Is it a holiday or something?

12:56 No, no one showed up.

12:57 So my dad leaves and he's like at this intersection, he could go right to go home or go left to

13:00 the bank building where they had the Bible study upstairs.

13:04 And he just said he sat at that light for a long time and felt for some reason that he

13:08 needed to go to the Bible study, which is like counter to everything in him.

13:12 Yeah.

13:13 And he goes and he walks in the back door and the version that I've heard from people who

13:16 were there at the time is that they were like weeping, praying for my dad to come to know

13:21 Christ and he walks through the back door while they're praying for him.

13:24 So it's like kind of an undeniable thing.

13:25 So my dad gets radically saved.

13:28 He turns away from that life, but he's still immersed in that, like all his, everybody

13:32 else, all his brothers and cousins, everybody's there shortly after that, someone from the

13:36 power team comes out to do a crusade in Hawaii.

13:40 They call up, they always do this.

13:41 I call the biggest guy in the room to come try the baseball bat to prove that it's real.

13:45 They can't break it ever.

13:46 And then they give it back to the guy, guy snaps it.

13:48 Well, I call my dad up.

13:50 My dad snaps it like right away and they're like, okay, well, thanks buddy.

13:55 You know, well, come see me after the program, so he starts asking him about his faith and

13:59 he's like, yeah, no, I'm a new believer and the guy's like, man, well, you should come

14:02 out to Texas.

14:03 We're based in Texas.

14:04 Come check us out.

14:05 We'd love to get to know your story and you know, your walk.

14:07 And so because my dad's like a massive dude, you know, and he was starting the power lift

14:11 and like my dad bench over 600 pounds.

14:13 He's a freak.

14:14 Well, so he comes out to, comes out to Texas and ends up, uh, they're like, we would really

14:20 love to, to like, you know, walk with you, disciple you and get you in the ministry.

14:24 Like you'd be great to evangelize.

14:26 And so we moved from Hawaii.

14:27 I was probably five or six years old to Texas to Irving is where they were based.

14:32 And so I grew up around that.

14:33 And so I knew the Bible and I grew up in a house with my, like, with a dad that was

14:38 radically saved, but, um, like obviously, just like many people that grew up in church,

14:43 I just didn't make it their own until for me, it was like until college, like I was 12 years

14:49 old when I, when I recognized the weight of my sin, I felt it for the first time.

14:53 And I was on the bus, had a shirt that said the wages of sin is death, Roman 623 and on

14:58 the back said, uh, but the gift of God is salvation is, uh, the gift of God is salvation

15:04 in Jesus Christ.

15:05 And so, um, this kid is asking me about my shirt and I'm like, explain, I'm like preaching

15:10 the gospel to him.

15:11 And like, man, as I'm saying it out of my own mouth, I'm like, I'm hearing it for the first

15:17 time with like spiritual ears, like my soul is hearing the truth that I'm saying.

15:21 And I understand it and just like start crying while I'm talking to this kid on the bus.

15:25 Get off, go talk to my dad, say, I don't know what I need to do, but I want to be saved,

15:29 you know.

15:30 So I say, I pray in my own words that, that, uh, that I was a sinner, I needed him as my

15:36 savior.

15:37 I asked him to be my savior and my Lord and I surrendered my life to Jesus that day, but

15:42 I didn't recognize, I didn't understand like the full weight of that until I was a lot

15:46 older.

15:47 So college was when I really messed up storms came, played division one football broke my

15:50 leg during a football game.

15:53 Medical red shirted my junior year, tried to come back my senior season, totally destroyed

15:57 me, started like falling into all of the comforts of the world that I kind of fill that void.

16:04 Cause I never had a real test until that time.

16:07 And so, um, yeah, God just like showed me my sin, showed me that the foundation of my

16:13 faith up to that point was kind of just shifting sand was just a basis of sand and the storm

16:19 came, the storm of this career ending injury, um, I had nothing, no basis of faith that

16:25 remained after that.

16:26 And so, uh, had a really awesome mentor, a pastor, this little old dude, little old

16:32 pastor Mike Woods in a El Paso, Texas, probably close to 70 years old, probably 140 pounds.

16:38 So can what, but he, when he talked to me, he talked to me like he was 10 feet tall and

16:42 he just looked right into my soul and would ask me questions that like, would it make

16:45 anybody cringe, you know, about your sin, about like living as a testimony, amen.

16:49 So that's what kind of started bringing me back to the path.

16:51 And so, yeah, it was a long journey, um, said, get my life to Christ at 12 years old, but

16:57 didn't really understand it until it was probably 24, you know, hey guys, real quick.

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19:07 So it's an interesting dynamic between the two of you because you come to Christ as a

19:11 youngin, but you kind of go through what I've called delayed sanctification to where you

19:16 just kind of lived on the largesse of the decision and then didn't really hit the skids

19:22 until you hit some resistance or turbulence in your life.

19:25 And for you, there was really kind of no regard for it.

19:28 You probably were living where did you grow up?

19:30 I grew up in Sonora out in Southwest Texas.

19:33 Okay.

19:34 And so like what I've deemed country music theology, which is basically like believe in

19:37 God.

19:38 I was baptized when I was a kid.

19:39 You know, I listened to 90s country music and when I bought a boat, Republican.

19:42 So you know, God's pro all that stuff.

19:44 So I get to go to heaven, right?

19:46 And so you come into Christ much later in life, right?

19:50 Your brain's fully developed like you are, you're an expert, well, a few too many shots

19:57 to the head.

19:58 So you're, your brain's fully developed and you are fully aware of yourself, like at

20:03 your age, right?

20:04 You're aware of where you're lacking, the things that you are good at, the things that

20:08 are going to be areas of struggle, like there's no question, right?

20:11 Whereas for you, you're developing as a Christian at the same time as you're developing as

20:15 a man and then you get hit in the face by reality in your early 20s, right?

20:19 And so I mean, it's just kind of one of those things like when God brings, you know, people

20:23 together and brings different men together of disparate things, like there's a lot people

20:28 can learn just from having like different testimonies.

20:30 Bro, 100% he and like he was talking about, you know, I'd call him asking for his perspective

20:35 on stuff.

20:36 He's a couple of years older than me, but he has so much experience in areas that I don't.

20:39 And man, we were like, you know, he's become one of my best friends in the world, but

20:42 I've always leaned on him and he's just like the perfect compliment to that.

20:46 And we've been able to help each other in that way.

20:48 And he was way far ahead of me in Jiu Jitsu too when we first met.

20:51 And so now we're like, he would always help me with that too.

20:53 So we're just really, you know, built on each other.

20:55 So it's discipleship, Jiu Jitsu back and forth.

20:58 Yeah.

20:59 And Isaac, somebody, I remember meeting him for the first time just thinking like, I want

21:02 to be friends with this guy, you know, I mean, did the way he carried himself, he was obviously

21:06 a gentle giant, which he love.

21:08 I haven't experienced a gentle part yet, but keep going.

21:11 You'll get there.

21:12 And so gentle, so gentle and athletic and not fair at the same time.

21:17 Isaac was just somebody like, I mean, I want to be friends with this guy, but I was so afraid

21:22 of like hanging out with Christian men, right.

21:26 I didn't want to get exposed.

21:28 So I strategically planned my friendships or my meetups around the type of men people

21:34 were, right?

21:35 And it was like, I was normally in, in a, the, the more comfortable setting was for me to

21:39 be with a group of guys that were like dealing with the same stuff that I was dealing with,

21:42 right?

21:43 And like we just get together and talk crap about our wives and, and get drunk and smoke

21:46 weed and do all these things that, you know, that's what we did together.

21:50 And as I started immersing myself more in this culture of things, I think, you know,

21:55 kind of piggybacking on, on your podcast with us, you talked about when you were 15, right?

22:01 This fork in the road of I can either be godly or, or I can be tough.

22:06 And I didn't know a lot of like godly tough men growing up, right?

22:10 Similar to you.

22:11 And we've, we've talked about that before.

22:13 And so it was just like so baffling and eye opening to me that you have these men like

22:19 Isaac, like JP Denil, like Steven Little, like Josh Shaw's burger, Anthony crons, all

22:24 these guys that had gone to pursue and I just saw like the love, like the true, like easy

22:27 to love nature that they had, but then they were also tough as hell.

22:34 I hadn't been around that before.

22:36 And so I kind of got the tough part out of the way, but I didn't understand the godly

22:41 part.

22:42 And I didn't know that you could be both.

22:43 Right.

22:44 So Isaac was kind of like, I don't know, the first example of that to me of like, guys,

22:49 he's easy.

22:50 He's hard to kill, but he's so easy to love.

22:53 And he's definitely equipped to lead like, I want to be around this guy, I want to learn

22:56 more from this guy.

22:57 And so he's been as much of a mentor and disciple to me as anybody over the last three years.

23:05 And it's helped me along, you know, along the way, and you're right.

23:06 Our stories are so different.

23:07 Like, I think where, you know, the value that I can bring to a lot of people is, is more

23:12 so in my struggle, more so in, in my testimony, in the dark things and the times and the stupid

23:18 stuff that I've done to create that relatability while also now trying to learn God's word.

23:23 Right.

23:24 This guy studied it for most of his life.

23:27 He's kind of who I go to to like, Hey, break this down for me, you know, like help me understand

23:31 this a little bit more.

23:33 But you know, ultimately, I think we're a fun team, yeah, can offer different perspectives

23:40 on, on life and then, you know, Jiu Jitsu is really just the catalyst, right?

23:44 And it's like, we all enjoy doing it.

23:46 And it's so nice to see what God is doing in the Jiu Jitsu community and that we have

23:50 been humbled enough to put in, you know, where he's put us in positions to help bring people

23:55 to his kingdom through the sport of Jiu Jitsu.

23:58 It's baffling.

23:59 If you told me 16 and a half years ago that I'd ever be involved in a ministry around

24:03 the sport of Jiu Jitsu, I'd tell you you're crazy.

24:05 Like there's no chance.

24:06 Yeah, I'll still be training Jiu Jitsu, but and I'm going to be a Christian, like, no.

24:10 I didn't see that.

24:12 The cool thing about what you guys have done with, even with your divergent stories is it's

24:18 trying to live out the lion for them, lamb with them aspect, right?

24:22 And I think Jiu Jitsu is one of those things that help guys deal with that.

24:25 Cause what would I tell people all the time and like, I'm a walking billboard for gospel

24:29 of Jesus Christ, Christian metal, red meat, Jiu Jitsu, like though, those are the things

24:32 where, you know, every single conversation is going to come back to one of those four

24:35 things, if not all of them.

24:37 And ultimately most people don't really reckon with it, how a hobby could affect their life

24:45 spiritually, mentally and physically, right?

24:47 And so, cause I've heard all the excuses to why someone can't train and why they shouldn't

24:51 train and all those different things.

24:53 But then when somebody does start training and whatever the switch is gets flipped.

24:59 So for some people, it's like, Oh, they got an ego problem.

25:01 And all of a sudden that gets exposed.

25:03 And then they have to reckon with that.

25:04 It's like, okay, I'm either going to have to walk back in cause we've had some guys that

25:07 played in the NFL come to our gym, get smashed by a small Jiu Jitsu fighter that's not in

25:14 particularly good shape.

25:15 And then that moment's like, okay, I'm either going to walk out of here and pretend like

25:18 that never happened and not tell anyone about it or I'm going to figure out what's going

25:22 on here.

25:24 Or they get in and they get, you know, overpowered and they realize I'm a little weak or, you

25:29 know, they, you know, aren't as flexible as they, they used to be or what they thought

25:33 they were.

25:34 I got some to work on here or their cardio is not really where it should be.

25:37 You know, their cardio tap in, which is not ever an acceptable form of tapping for the

25:41 record.

25:42 But like it exposes so many things about you that is applicable everywhere else.

25:47 And cause, you know, I give people crap that golf and, you know, do all these other different

25:50 hobbies.

25:51 And it's like, I have so little time, like in my schedule with the business and the two

25:56 podcasts and the five year old and the three year old, and like all the things, I have

25:59 to have things that are transferable skills that I'm developing have to be transferable.

26:03 So like the time I take to be in shape and to lift and all that, that's transferable

26:06 to the rest of my life.

26:08 I can't transfer the skill set of chipping a ball into the green from 150 yards away.

26:12 Like I, that's like, okay, like that's only transferable to another golf course, right?

26:16 Whereas, you know, being confident in your physicality and your ability to protect yourself,

26:21 protect others.

26:22 It's just something that gets exposed and there are people that can just walk out and, you

26:28 know, make a basket or, you know, throw a football and like, yes, you can get better

26:32 at it.

26:33 But nobody just walks out on a Jiu Jitsu mat and just does it well the first time.

26:37 Nobody accidentally triangles somebody after double legging them, like it just doesn't

26:40 ever happen.

26:41 And so it's just like, it's a, well, I guess for you guys, like what, what got y'all into

26:44 Jiu Jitsu?

26:45 Cause you obviously had a football background.

26:46 Like what was your athletic background?

26:48 Oh my gosh.

26:49 Golf golf golf.

26:50 Golf golf.

26:51 I said it.

26:52 That's why I said it.

26:53 I wanted to bring it in.

26:54 Straight.

26:55 I hate.

26:56 I said athletic.

26:57 Yeah.

26:58 Right.

26:59 That's a cute little game.

27:00 No, I didn't have, I mean, look, I grew up playing all the sports.

27:02 You know, baseball, football golf is a sport.

27:07 Ran cross country.

27:08 So I've always been very physically active.

27:12 But I was the small guy too.

27:14 I was the run to the litter, man.

27:15 I mean, my, my nickname in high school was slick because I was the last one of all my

27:19 friends that he puberty.

27:20 You know what I mean?

27:21 Like I was the little guy, graduated high school, like five, six, 115 pounds.

27:25 So we actually, we talked about this recently that like Jiu Jitsu for you was humbling.

27:31 Like your first experience at Machado is like getting rolled up by a guy that was half

27:34 your size and you're like, I'm going to dominate this dude.

27:37 And then he smoked you.

27:38 Yeah.

27:39 You needed that.

27:40 I mean, for me, Jiu Jitsu, like I was used to kind of getting my butt whooped.

27:42 Yeah.

27:43 Right.

27:44 So Jiu Jitsu was more empowering because then you learn how to like get out of things.

27:47 Like if anybody was to come sit on my chest and like bang on my shirt, I'm going to give

27:50 me into a get couldn't do anything about it.

27:52 And so for the first time in my life, I found something that was somewhat empowering for

27:56 me physically.

27:57 Like I could go bang golf balls all day and hit the dry hit in my drive a long way.

28:02 And that that was like a sense of like, I don't know, macho in at least the group of

28:08 people that I had at that world.

28:10 Yeah.

28:11 Yeah.

28:12 And that was like a massive event.

28:13 Yeah.

28:14 Yeah.

28:15 Yeah.

28:16 Yeah.

28:17 But Jiu Jitsu is empowering for me.

28:18 And so when I started training, it's like it opened up this new sense of confidence about

28:21 myself that I didn't have.

28:23 And I got a whole lot more self-aware and self-confident through this board of Jiu Jitsu.

28:27 I turned to confidence.

28:28 Oh, absolutely.

28:29 Yeah.

28:30 There's no, there's no faking that.

28:31 Like I mentioned before faking my fruits, you can't fake anything in Jiu Jitsu.

28:33 Like it's exposed right away.

28:35 So in addition to it being empowering to me, there was this cute girl working at the front

28:40 desk of Octagon MMA when I joined a manager.

28:46 So that was part of the reason for me joining the gym too is because I like the girl that

28:49 was working the front desk.

28:50 My wife was in her, you know, last semester nursing school, you know, hanging out with

28:54 a bunch of MMA people and, and, and I met her and really dove into that relationship

29:00 and also into the sport of Jiu Jitsu.

29:01 And I haven't really looked back since on either of those.

29:05 So yeah.

29:06 Jiu Jitsu was weird.

29:07 So what age did you start?

29:08 Twenty six.

29:09 Twenty six.

29:10 Okay.

29:11 And then when did you get it?

29:12 Well, dude, I started at 30.

29:13 I remember like before I got started, I was probably 28 or 29 and like I was kind of circling

29:18 the wagons on starting with Jiu Jitsu and I just didn't really know.

29:21 Like, where do I go?

29:22 What do I do?

29:23 Well, Jocko was on Twitter and he was like sitting at the airport or something.

29:26 He's like, all right.

29:27 I got some, some time of year, let's do Q and A. And I tweeted out and I said, what age

29:30 is too late to start doing Jiu Jitsu?

29:33 If black belt is your goal?

29:35 Again, a silly question for a lot of different reasons.

29:37 But again, I don't really know.

29:39 And his response was one word, death.

29:42 I was like, Oh, okay, because I'm like on 30 and I'm, you know, you know, you kind of

29:47 already feel old because you're 30 and like, you know, 30 year olds when I was a kid, like

29:51 they were basically elderly.

29:52 And so like, you know, starting at 30, I was like, Oh my gosh, but I mean, after a few

29:56 years of training, I'm like, what if I'd started when I was 18, like, can you imagine

30:00 like what I would be like?

30:01 I just turned 39, like if I had been training for the, you know, basically half my life

30:05 or whatever.

30:06 But so what, what age or I guess what, what got you into Jiu Jitsu, you said your first

30:10 experience was at Machado.

30:11 No, no.

30:12 So my first, well, it was actually in Hawaii, I was leading worship at a church in Hawaii

30:15 in 2015.

30:16 And you can sing too.

30:17 Yeah.

30:18 Is there anything this dude can't do, what do you mean, not anymore?

30:21 Well, I have soft tissue damage from like asthma medicine over years and stuff is strongly

30:27 a little words.

30:28 Oh my God, just a little bit, we need your little guitar.

30:32 You could probably play the little.

30:33 Yeah.

30:34 Okay.

30:35 Yeah.

30:36 But, uh, so I was in Hawaii at the time and, and I was leading worship at this church and

30:39 my supervisor at the church was like, uh, he was a brown belt.

30:42 He'd been training for 11, 10 years, something like that.

30:45 And he was about, you know, I was like 25.

30:49 He was 42.

30:51 I was 280, he was 180 pounds and like, he, he would always invite me to come train.

30:57 Like I think he'd be great.

30:58 I think he would love it.

30:59 Like you'd find fulfillment and he was just all, you know, he was right about everything.

31:02 But he's like, I teach these guys at my house on a Wednesday nights come hang out.

31:07 So I finally went to go hang out and I wasn't being, I'm telling you this was not coming

31:10 from, I mean, now I can see there's probably pride in it, but I had this idea of myself

31:15 as like, I was a division one football player.

31:18 I, you know, I know like a detackle.

31:21 Yeah.

31:22 Nose guard.

31:23 You know, I said the bench record of my Utep, it's still there.

31:25 I was like, I, I think this guy will be at least be impressed.

31:28 Like I could back flip over this guy if I want to.

31:31 And he, he like just calmly pulled me into his clothes guard and I was like pushing on

31:36 him and he comordered me and I was like, what the, and then he triangleed me and then he

31:40 on barbed me and he comordered me again and this time I thought, Oh, I'm not going to

31:45 let him put it behind my back.

31:46 I'm going to like, I'm going to muscle it forward.

31:48 And so I started muscling forward and I felt this like hot, searing pain in my forearm

31:52 ended up tearing something there.

31:54 Yeah.

31:55 And so I tapped for the fourth time in three minutes and I was like, I couldn't breathe.

32:00 He wasn't even sweating and he wasn't even out of breath at all.

32:03 And I was like, how are you?

32:05 How did you do that?

32:06 Like you completely destroyed me.

32:08 I felt helpless, I weigh a hundred pounds more than you.

32:11 I could throw you through the ceiling if I wanted to, but I couldn't do anything to you.

32:15 Yeah.

32:16 And so just like you said, you, you get this fork in the road where you're like, okay,

32:21 that was embarrassing.

32:22 I never want that to happen again.

32:23 I'm out of here or that was embarrassing and everyone to happen again.

32:26 I want to learn what you know.

32:27 That was awesome.

32:28 And so I took that route and I was like, I'm really interested in this now plus I destroyed

32:33 my knee and I couldn't run anymore.

32:34 And I wanted to do something competitive, parallel thing was kind of off the table because

32:40 of my knee, because there's no, you know, totally bone on bone, destroyed the cartilage femur.

32:46 And so Jiu Jitsu was like, oh, you can get great cardio, but you're not running all over

32:49 the place.

32:50 Like, okay, this is awesome.

32:51 So that's what got me into it.

32:53 Then he told me why move to Texas shortly after that move back to Texas.

32:58 And he's like, bro, if you're going to move back to the Dallas area, you should go train

33:00 at Carlos Machados, so I would drive like 50 minutes down to Carlos is on Midway.

33:06 And man, it was amazing.

33:07 So I trained there for a year.

33:09 And yeah, I mean, of course, first day got rolled up and again by small guys.

33:14 I got was it all ghee?

33:16 It was all ghee.

33:17 Yeah, I got smothered by a dude, this big purple belt, which is probably six, five, like 270.

33:22 And he just like moved to North South and just like put his chest right on my face.

33:25 And I was like, I'm dying.

33:27 I'm dying.

33:28 It was my second day.

33:29 And he's kind of like giggling.

33:30 I'm like, what?

33:31 He's like, you don't do that.

33:32 That's not a move.

33:33 I'm like, what?

33:34 Like, bro, but I was going to die.

33:35 He was like, no, you're not going to die a couple of months later.

33:38 I remember like kind of having that moment of realization that like I'm making progress

33:42 because you don't feel like it at all.

33:43 I'm just hammered every day.

33:45 And same guy, same position.

33:48 And I remember being in the same position and not thinking I'm dying, thinking about

33:53 a way to get out of this and frame and make it turn my head a little bit and breathe.

33:57 And I caught myself in the moment, like, bro, it's working, like there is, there is progress

34:01 in this, like three months ago, you were in the same spot and you thought you were going

34:04 to die.

34:05 And so it was cool.

34:06 Dude, my favorite, you all know Tyler Murrow.

34:08 So shout out Tyler Murrow, Scott City, Jiu Jitsu, Midwest City.

34:10 He's trained a lot in Texas, Marcus Edelante, and I think he's come over for Megas and so.

34:17 So for the first, when I started, Tyler was a purple belt when I started and we're about

34:21 the same size.

34:22 So he's, you know, maybe an inch taller than me, maybe 10 or 15 pounds bigger than me, but

34:25 we were essentially the same size.

34:27 And so he kind of gravitated towards me and this other guy, cause we were, he kind of,

34:30 I guess he looked at us as like, well, there's a body that I could do things on that's going

34:33 to be roughly the size of the people I'll be competing with.

34:35 And so, you know, I drilled and trained with him a bunch in this first few years.

34:39 And I, and it was either right before I got my blue belt or right after I got my blue

34:42 belt.

34:43 I just have a bad practice.

34:44 I don't know if I talked about this on Yale show or not, but it's one of my favorite

34:46 Tyler Murrow stories, aside from him, very, very rudely taking a water break while we

34:51 were still rolling and reaching off and getting into the drink of water and setting it down

34:55 the whole time.

34:56 I'm trying to escape.

34:57 But I'm, I had a horrible practice, right?

34:59 I just got smashed by everybody.

35:01 Nothing I tried worked.

35:02 And it was one of those practices where the black belt shows you how to do the move.

35:05 You try the move once you go, well, that doesn't work.

35:07 You know, like that's, you know, the state of mind I was in, right?

35:10 And so I'm brooding in the locker room as I'm changing and I'm just, I'm just brooding

35:14 or whatever.

35:15 And Tyler who's very quiet and somewhat unassuming, he kind of walks in and he goes, Hey, Kyle,

35:21 what's going on?

35:22 And I'm like, Oh, that bad practice and nothing I was doing was working and just, gosh, don't

35:26 know if I'm getting better and blah, blah.

35:28 And he goes, Hey, what would you do to the Kyle from six months ago if you rolled with

35:34 him?

35:35 I'm like, what?

35:36 He's like, no, seriously, like, what would you do to you from six months ago?

35:39 I was like, I'd kill that guy.

35:40 Yeah.

35:41 He goes and shut up.

35:42 Yeah.

35:43 He goes, we're all getting better.

35:44 Yeah.

35:45 He's like, you've gotten a lot better over the last six months, but you're going against a

35:47 bunch of dudes that have also gotten a lot better over the last six months.

35:50 True.

35:51 Yeah.

35:52 Like, you know, buck up, butter cup, like life's tough.

35:54 Get a helmet.

35:55 It was good.

35:56 Just kind of one of those moments to where it's just like, okay, that kind of put things

35:57 in her perspective.

35:58 And y'all know this being a double five, but being at the forge, you feel like you suck

36:02 until you roll with someone from another academy.

36:05 100%.

36:06 Oh, no.

36:07 Yeah.

36:08 Cause like I've, I've walked into places in Texas and Utah and Louisiana and I'll roll

36:11 with people that are supposed to be on my level according to belts and, you know, the whole,

36:16 you know, system that they have set in place and all that and you're just like, Oh, no,

36:20 like at this person were at my school, they would be the person at that bell where everyone

36:24 was just kind of like, yeah, he's not really at that bell.

36:27 And like, at the forwards, they don't really do lifetime achievement belts, right?

36:30 Oh, you've been trained here for about eight years.

36:32 That's probably about time we give you your purple belt.

36:33 I guess it's not really something that happens.

36:35 But yeah, it's just like all those life lessons that you get just from getting into something.

36:40 But I mean, here's the thing for you guys, athletes, you know, working, you know, well

36:48 at a job, married kids and all that, why didn't you quit during the blue belt blues?

36:53 Cause I've seen people get their blue belt and then they don't train anymore.

36:56 Cause they're like, okay, I got my blue belt, which is the gap between blue and purples,

37:00 probably the longest, but white to blue should probably be the second longest I would think.

37:04 But then you also have people, I know a lot of friends, I got their purple belts and basically

37:07 stop training.

37:08 Yeah.

37:09 Cause they're like, ah, you know, I'm good enough.

37:10 Ain't nobody who put me in a street fight kind of a thing.

37:12 I'm over the blue belt blues.

37:13 Right.

37:14 Someone's going to accuse me that.

37:15 Yeah.

37:16 So you got your brown belt.

37:17 You've been a black belt for three years and so you've got, or you're technically second

37:20 degree, right?

37:21 I'll be first degree this year.

37:22 Okay.

37:23 First degree and like a month or two.

37:24 Yeah.

37:25 So first degree black belt.

37:26 So why, why not just stop?

37:27 Cause I've heard all the reasons why people trained for a year or two or five.

37:31 Yep.

37:32 And then we're just like, yeah, good enough.

37:33 Yeah.

37:34 What's a, what's a.

37:37 Why not stop?

37:38 Have you ever even thought about it?

37:40 Why you didn't stop?

37:41 Was it just like?

37:42 No, it's funny.

37:43 I've stopped a couple of times, man.

37:44 And almost religiously, for the first couple of years, so 2009 through 2011, kind of had

37:50 a falling out on my coach, stepped off the mats for a couple of years, stepped back on

37:54 the mats, was on the mats for like another six months, got my purple belt, was upset

37:59 and like my ego got in the way of that and didn't think I deserved it.

38:02 So I quit training Jiu Jitsu because I thought it was just like a gift of a belt just because

38:06 I beat up the other blue belt, said, I mean, I should be a purple belt.

38:09 So I stepped away from it again.

38:11 And it's when I moved to Tokyo for a job in January of 2018, I hadn't trained in a

38:17 couple of years.

38:19 But I knew that Jiu Jitsu was a place that I could probably make friends because if you

38:22 know anything about the Japanese business culture, there's no like 30 something-year-old

38:25 execs in Japan, right?

38:27 Yeah.

38:28 But I'm over there working in this position and had no like common ground with any of

38:34 the guys that I was working with at all.

38:35 It's like I need Jiu Jitsu to make me kill, make some friends.

38:38 And so I did.

38:39 And Jiu Jitsu was like very much about the community that I needed.

38:42 And then once I got a brown belt, I was like, I can't quit now.

38:45 Like I just have to keep going.

38:47 For me, it was always just like I needed that community, you know, and Jiu Jitsu provided

38:51 that to me and provided the doing hard things.

38:54 I've had a chip on my shoulder athletically for probably most of my life, like being the

38:58 small guy, you know, like I was going to out hustle everybody and everything.

39:01 And so in Jiu Jitsu, I kind of got good fast because of just like that attitude about it.

39:08 Like I will out try most of the people that I train with.

39:14 Not as much now.

39:15 I think I kind of chill out sometimes.

39:17 Well, no, like you're bringing up something interesting because I know some guys, I remember

39:22 I was a white belt rolling with a purple belt that was about my size.

39:25 And we were in a round where we were, I think we were doing five minute rounds and he had

39:30 about four and a half minutes worth of cardio and I had five plus.

39:35 And so I just wore him out, not knowing anything, but I just wore out certain positions to where

39:40 I got the better of them toward the end of the round.

39:43 So I think scoring wise, I still would have lost the round or whatever.

39:46 But I remember because he was a really quiet guy, like veteran, and he posted on Facebook

39:52 layer that day, he's like, it is so awesome to go into a class and to get out worked by

39:58 a white belt and he tagged me in it and he was like basically giving me my flowers a

40:02 little bit.

40:03 It's my boy Aldo.

40:04 It was like, yeah, man, I got out worked.

40:06 And so I kind of got exposed a little bit.

40:08 I thought I could kind of rest in my purple belchness, right?

40:12 But I just kind of got exposed a little bit.

40:14 But I mean, that's the thing about Jiu Jitsu, like belts are not magical.

40:17 They are dying pieces of fabric, right?

40:19 That are woven together that you put around a, you know, pair of danger pajamas, like they

40:23 didn't mean anything.

40:25 And if you go in there with an ego, like I remember we have a guy or Jim, his name is

40:29 Ethan.

40:30 I think he's going to be a world champion someday.

40:32 He just kind of has, he just has that, that attitude and work ethic and the personality

40:36 for it.

40:38 And I'm in purple belt.

40:40 He's a white belt.

40:41 I take his back and I get lazy because I was a white belt, so I just cross my ankles.

40:45 While I've got his back, he immediately throws a leg up and like, you know, he starts cranking

40:50 on the ankle.

40:51 And I've got a decision to make, okay?

40:54 I can tap and, you know, tap to a white belt as a purple belt, which should not happen,

40:58 especially when I got like 30 pounds on him and all that type of thing.

41:01 Or I can limp out of here.

41:02 Right?

41:03 Cause he had it.

41:04 I was, I was dead to rights, right?

41:05 I could have not tapped.

41:06 And I eventually, you know, get something snapped, something, whatever.

41:08 So I tap immediately.

41:09 I smile and I go, damn, you got me.

41:11 I got lazy.

41:12 Didn't I?

41:13 And he didn't know what to say.

41:14 Really?

41:15 Cause he was good.

41:16 Even as a white belt.

41:17 Yeah.

41:18 But that's just, those are the lessons you learn.

41:19 Cause if that had happened at white belt, I'm probably limping out of there.

41:21 Oh, dude.

41:22 Cause the ego would not have let me tap.

41:23 You know what I mean?

41:24 Yeah.

41:25 And so you just kind of get to learn that by anybody.

41:26 And for you, like, why not stop at some point because you can be like, you can always say

41:31 I was a D one football player.

41:32 Hey, I used to bench a whole lot or hey, you know, I'm still athletic or whatever.

41:35 But you can get to a certain position to where you're like, Oh, I'm good, you know, whatever

41:39 else I can learn.

41:40 I can make up with with size and tan, I guess.

41:43 Yes.

41:44 Yeah.

41:45 And great looks.

41:46 Oh, I didn't say that.

41:47 I just said size and tan.

41:48 I'm saying that.

41:49 Oh, you're adding that.

41:50 I'm not.

41:51 It's my table.

41:52 Too high.

41:53 I make the list about your views.

41:54 Well, yeah.

41:55 Everybody was that I think, well, I think maybe, I don't know, it's just being honest,

41:59 but also football.

42:00 I think just being in a locker room with a bunch of other dudes that you're always competing

42:03 to try to be the best person.

42:05 You like get to where you're brutally honest with yourself because you're constantly like

42:10 that dude could take my spot that dude could take my spot, you know.

42:13 And so being being like brutally honest about your own capability and ability makes you like

42:20 that's one of the reasons why I didn't stop at bluebell because I just knew I wasn't the

42:23 best and I knew that if I kind of like rested in my laurels and I'm going to be, I'm going

42:28 to be in a position in a couple months where everybody that I train with right now is way

42:32 better than me because I, I chilled.

42:35 The other thing was David, he's sitting off camera and he was my coach for eight years.

42:38 I'm one of my best friends, but he would he would like he was good about hitting me

42:43 up.

42:44 Hey, bro, I'm going to pick you up.

42:46 Let's go to let's go to open man at star in Carrollton, like a bunch of crazy black

42:51 wrestlers and let's go over here.

42:54 We're going to drop in at this school and like we would just go like dojo storm places

42:58 and you know, just test ourselves against a bunch of people when we did competitions

43:01 and we would go to comp training all the time.

43:03 That's how we met Tyler Murrow.

43:04 Yeah.

43:05 We go to comp training at Marcus until on today's every Tuesday and then all those guys and

43:08 Mark says we'll come over to four megas on Thursday and we just gotten the habit of that.

43:12 And once I just got in the groove of it, I started to become like I, I didn't feel right

43:18 unless I was kind of in that environment.

43:20 You know, just felt like these are my people.

43:22 This is what I do.

43:23 I'm a jiu-jitsu guy.

43:25 And I guess that just felt it just felt weird to like leaving on the on the back burner.

43:30 I didn't ever have I took breaks.

43:32 It was only because I was forced to through injury or my son was born six weeks early

43:37 when I was a white belt.

43:38 I had to take nine months off like and when I got back to it, it was like I don't have

43:43 unless I'm forced to take a break.

43:44 I don't want to take one.

43:45 Well, we were literally before y'all got here.

43:46 I was talking to Ryan because because of travel and sickness, I've been off the mats

43:49 for like two weeks.

43:50 Yeah.

43:51 Yeah.

43:52 And I'm sitting here.

43:53 We're supposed to be going in tomorrow and enrolling people on.

43:55 I'm sitting here like, do I remember how to jiu-jitsu because I just don't, which you

43:59 once you get in there, you warm up and you're like, all right, I have to do all these things.

44:01 But the thing about the jiu-jitsu journey as well that I've noticed, because again, looking

44:05 back, you know, looking at Brown Belt and kind of looking back and when I started and

44:08 when I thought I was good at at the time and kind of what I've seen myself develop,

44:13 I remember feeling entitled to my blue belt when I got it.

44:16 Yeah.

44:17 Right.

44:18 Like, oh, I was probably this, you know, I've probably been this for a while.

44:20 Yeah.

44:21 And then I remember a couple of weeks before Purple Belt, someone asked me, hey, Kyle, do

44:25 you think you'll be getting your, because some schools don't do stripes and in my school

44:28 at the time, the stripe system was kind of random, right?

44:31 So like I had four stripes on my white when I got my blue, but I had one stripe on my blue

44:35 when I tested for Purple, right?

44:37 So I literally told someone, I was like, dude, I'm closer to white belt than I am to Purple

44:41 Belt.

44:42 And then we get to promotion night and everyone's supposed to show up for promotion night because

44:44 even if you're not getting promoted, you need to help with the, you know, the gauntlet.

44:49 And they call my name for promotion.

44:50 I was like, oh, no, no, I was tear.

44:54 I was like, no, I'm not that like I can't.

44:56 There's no way, but there's no time to really think about it.

44:59 And a couple of weeks before that, I had, you pop my rib.

45:02 Yep.

45:03 And so like I basically could only sit in bottom half guard and like protect my, my midsection.

45:08 I couldn't shoot.

45:09 I couldn't throw like, I couldn't really sweep anybody.

45:12 So it was basically survival for a couple of hours.

45:14 Yep.

45:15 And I'll remember this, you know, Tyler Murrow is getting all this flowers on this particular

45:18 thing.

45:19 Typically, you know, they'll line all the people up that have gone through promo night and

45:22 then they'll start with the blues and work all the way up to the black belts and whatever.

45:26 And so, you know, they call your name.

45:29 You go up and everyone's clapping while the main professor is, you know, putting on your

45:32 belt or whatever.

45:33 And then they, and then they send you back and they give you another clap or whatever.

45:37 Why come up there?

45:38 You know, I get my clap and, you know, as I'm getting my belt tied around me, Tyler does

45:41 a little speech and he goes, you know, some of the long lines, I'll show you the video.

45:45 I stuck out on my phone, but it's like, you know, I just, I love training with Kyle.

45:47 He always gets in here.

45:49 He always gets after it.

45:50 He's always super, super competitive and has a good attitude and all that.

45:53 And because I didn't tell him when my ribs were messed up, right?

45:55 The black belts knew, but I didn't tell him when my ribs were all completely jacked and

45:58 he goes, and he got in here tonight and he's scrapped and his ribs are all mushed up and

46:01 all that type of thing.

46:02 And he still got in here and like earned his belt.

46:04 And I just, man, I love this guy.

46:06 I'm proud of him.

46:07 And I was just kind of like, he loves me, like, you know, I just kind of like had that feeling,

46:11 but you learn so much about yourself because now you get your purple belt and you know

46:16 what you thought about purple belts when you started.

46:18 Yep.

46:19 That's like purple belt was a billion miles away.

46:21 Yeah.

46:22 You know what I mean?

46:23 And then now you are one.

46:24 And then I know a lot of friends that stopped at purple belt.

46:27 Then when I got my brown belt, I was like, Oh, no, this is a disaster, right?

46:31 Because the imposter syndrome seemingly only grows, right?

46:36 Because now with every belt, there's the reverence you get from other people on the

46:39 map, but also the expectation.

46:42 And then you got that collegiate wrestler white belt, right?

46:45 That sees that piece of bread dyed fabric on your waist and is like, I'm going to get

46:49 this one, right?

46:51 You know, or that, you know, overzealous blue belt competitive guy and all that.

46:54 He's like, okay, this guy's got a couple stripes on his brown belt.

46:56 He's about to get my IBJJF finals competition round or something like that.

47:01 But it's just, that's the thing about Jiu Jitsu is it's constantly a check.

47:05 Yeah.

47:06 And you never arrive.

47:07 Like one of our guys, Steve Jones, who's kind of my main professor now, I trained with

47:10 him more than just about anybody, he got his black belt and then started learning leg

47:15 lock stuff.

47:16 Yeah.

47:17 So he was a black belt.

47:18 I've been training for over a decade.

47:20 And then Austin Morris came to our academy during 2020 COVID as a brown belt, but a leg

47:25 lock specialist.

47:26 And now all of a sudden, all of our black belts are going backwards.

47:30 And you know, Steve was like, look, when I got my black belt, I felt like I was a white

47:34 belt again, which doesn't make sense to somebody outside.

47:36 Imagine a CEO that just gets the job of CEO and he's like, I feel like an intern again,

47:40 like that wouldn't make any sense, right?

47:42 But that's just one of the things that you don't really understand unless you get into

47:46 the Jiu Jitsu journey, because at every step of the way, you can kind of see those milestones

47:51 behind you.

47:52 Yeah.

47:53 I mean, yeah, there's, and there's such a parallel to like, there's such a parallel to

47:58 to fade to I'm seeing like this is, this is new to me that I'm seeing like the how and

48:03 Matt talks about all the time.

48:04 Matt Chandler, our good friend or pastor, he's always, he does talk about how many parallels

48:10 there are and how it's, it's something that's unique in it's in how many ties there are

48:15 to Jiu Jitsu, I mean, to faith.

48:18 But I'm seeing it in like, as I start to lead more stuff, like I'm discipling more people.

48:23 I mean, how, you know, like dominion, many like you are, you're one on one with people.

48:28 That's a different.

48:30 I also teach Jiu Jitsu now, like I've been teach, I taught Jiu Jitsu for years with David and

48:34 then I started teaching for four megah recently, once a week on Wednesdays and it like you

48:39 get leveled up to something new and you all of a sudden you feel like brand new again.

48:43 Yeah.

48:44 Same thing with discipleship.

48:45 Someone's looking to you for like, hey, you know, how do you, how do you interpret this

48:48 or what do you do when you come up against this or what does the Bible say about this?

48:51 It's like you're putting a new position and it does kind of feel like imposter, imposter

48:56 syndrome a little bit.

48:57 But I think the way to alleviate that over time is like you get more comfortable in the belt

49:03 that you're in.

49:04 I feel, you know, you've been, how long have you been in Brown Belt now, but a year and

49:09 a half?

49:10 Yeah.

49:11 Okay.

49:12 So it's, I think, I think we're probably the same.

49:13 Yeah.

49:14 And I'm, I feel okay here, I'm starting to feel okay here.

49:18 I don't like that we're this close to black belt.

49:20 No, I do feel comfortable as a brown belt like I'm cool.

49:23 Right.

49:24 It's terrifying.

49:25 Yeah.

49:26 I'm like, well, I'm just like really comfortable in my brown belt, but like I didn't feel that

49:29 day one and it's cool to see like, but just as I've grown in my knowledge of that and

49:33 started to be like, no, I am, I am this and I can, I can show that I have this amount

49:37 of skill and, and then I've settled into that.

49:40 But I think that, man, just, just the parallel again, as you ratchet up, there's just always

49:45 this starting over thing.

49:46 Well, let's look at the Christian life.

49:48 So I, you know, I, I picked this up from somebody else, but it's like, it's not how many years

49:52 you've been a Christian.

49:53 It's how many hours.

49:54 And so the more hours you've been a Christian, the more depraved you realize you are and

49:59 the more sweet the gospel is, right?

50:01 He's just like, holy cow, God sent his son to this planet to die for me.

50:07 This wretched, black-hearted, horrible, selfish center, like, and so you understand it more,

50:13 but like with Jiu Jitsu, people get more humble at each belt, which seems, yeah, and you have

50:20 your outlier guys that get their black belts and they love to talk about it.

50:23 Yeah.

50:24 Like, but most guys, like the baddest dudes at our gym are the least assuming, right?

50:28 Yep.

50:29 So here's the thing, it helps that a tiger has stripes, right?

50:33 Because that's like nature signal of like, hey, I could kill you.

50:37 That's what cauliflower is, right?

50:38 That is like our way of saying like, hey, you don't get this from doing your taxes.

50:41 You had to go through some stuff to get these cauliflower ears, but the baddest dudes are

50:45 a gym.

50:46 Don't have cauliflower.

50:47 They don't have crooked noses.

50:48 Like they don't have neck tattoos.

50:49 They don't like, they're not the ones at the bars poking people in the chest.

50:52 Like saying, hey, do you want to test yourself?

50:54 You're like, it's none of that.

50:55 These are the guys that would be the least likely to fight.

50:58 Yep.

50:59 If you do, they're going to finish it, right?

51:01 And also they would be the guys that even in the fight, they would be the guy that would

51:05 be calm enough to choke someone out and to lay their head down softly on the concrete.

51:10 Yeah.

51:11 I suppose you just dump on them on the ground.

51:12 Yep.

51:13 And people don't really understand that.

51:14 No.

51:15 That, hey, how can you get more and more experience and exposure?

51:19 How can you get better and better at this thing and not grow in your ego?

51:23 I think it's because you constantly get your butt whipped.

51:26 Yep.

51:27 My name's not Gordon Ryan or Andre Galvalle.

51:29 It's like, okay, because those guys could go years without getting tapped, right?

51:33 When's the last time John Jones got tapped, right?

51:35 I mean, you know, realistically, right.

51:38 But for everybody else, for all of us mere mortals, we're going to walk into a room one

51:42 day at whatever level we're at and we're just going to be the nail, right?

51:45 I have classes where I walk out being like, yeah, I am God's gift to this sport.

51:49 Man, aren't they so lucky that I started doing this and there's other nights where I'm like,

51:53 I want to pretend like the last two hours of my life was not real because people saw

51:57 me.

51:58 I was definitely there.

51:59 But nothing jujitsu related happened.

52:01 It didn't happen from me.

52:02 It happened to me the entire time, you know, you know, I've been mad.

52:05 It's crazy.

52:06 I think you can do something this long and still get your butt whooped like, well, you must

52:09 not be very good.

52:10 No, you understand the quality of the training partners we have.

52:13 It's like, yeah, I mean, for me, it can make me look like a white belt some days.

52:16 Yeah.

52:17 It's just awful.

52:18 Like what am I doing?

52:19 But the levels are so preposterous.

52:21 Oh, yeah.

52:22 And that's the deal.

52:23 Like once you get a black belt, like my first black belt competition was just a handful

52:26 of months after I got my black belt.

52:27 I signed up for, I think it was IBJJF, Waco.

52:33 First guy in, right, like hadn't been a black belt before.

52:36 So I was the lowest ranked black belt competitor in my division.

52:38 This was like master's two, master's three heavyweight.

52:43 And I pulled the number one seed, first match, well, he used to train with the guy.

52:48 So I knew a little bit about his game, big, tall, like long, like six, five, like huge

52:53 heavyweight.

52:54 But I took him down, I passed his guard, and I won on points.

52:58 Okay, cool.

52:59 So then now there's a little bit of swagger going into the next couple matches, right?

53:02 So when the next match and then in the finals, loss be a ref decision, no points, no advantages.

53:08 We literally just sat there, like jerk on each other's ghee for five minutes, whatever.

53:14 And after that match, guys, you know, comes up, shakes my hand and say, Hey, man, great

53:18 match.

53:19 So how long have you been a black belt?

53:20 It's like, I'll just like a couple of months.

53:21 He's like, dude.

53:22 It's awesome.

53:23 What about you?

53:24 It's like 14 years.

53:25 Oh, okay.

53:26 Yeah.

53:27 But you know, like, that's where like you feel like you're starting over a black belt

53:32 because you are.

53:33 Now you're in a pool of black belts that have done this for ever and especially in getting

53:39 into it later in life, like, you know, at 43 years old, I've been a black belt three

53:43 years, you know, there's guys that I was compete against that have been a black belt

53:46 for 20 years.

53:49 And there are levels to this game and it is humbling when you get to roll with one of

53:53 those guys.

53:54 Right.

53:55 But it just makes you keep showing up.

53:56 Like how is that not motivating to you?

53:57 If you've gotten this far and know that like you can also help bring up the next generation

54:01 of people too.

54:02 That's where jujitsu change so much for me, especially like later brown belt, black belt

54:05 days.

54:06 It's like, I enjoy, I enjoy the training.

54:08 I enjoy going hard with my buddies.

54:09 You know, there's guys that, you know, you can slap hands like that we're going to war

54:13 to Nick, Isaac, you know, Anthony Crohn's for me.

54:16 Yeah.

54:17 Like there's guys that I know, okay, like I'm going to bring it.

54:19 I got to be in shape.

54:20 They're in shape.

54:21 We're going to go hard with each other.

54:22 Other than that, it's like, it's really just nurturing the other guys in the gym.

54:26 And so like my purpose for jujitsu is change so much.

54:28 It's not about me.

54:29 And I don't know if it, I think it was for a good period of time.

54:32 It was more about me and like, you know, I would probably like, maybe keep tally marks

54:36 in the car of who you beat, who I tapped out and how many times I tapped versus tapping

54:41 people out and stuff.

54:42 And then that, that changed.

54:43 And especially as like you're leaning into these young guys in the, in the, in our gym

54:48 now, like I'm really just more about helping people.

54:51 Like it's, it's not uncommon to see both of us sitting on the mat after training in the

54:54 morning, like helping guys for a long time.

54:56 Yeah.

54:57 Like just like we're there for another hour or something.

54:58 Yeah.

54:59 Just like here, let me help you.

55:00 Let me help you.

55:01 Yep.

55:02 So when you want to share that, that knowledge, like so the, the half car pass I showed you

55:06 on the floor, I, before we got in here, there, there's a few things like there's a half guard

55:09 pass.

55:10 I have a mount escape.

55:11 I have, I have some, uh, some open guard passes.

55:14 I have some things that like are just my bread and butter and I'll see someone struggling

55:18 in a particular position and then I'll be like, let me give you this gift.

55:22 Yeah.

55:23 Like let me give you at your white belt, something I wish someone had given me a white belt because

55:27 there were certain positions.

55:28 So like full guard, right?

55:29 So you know, you're in a guy's full guard.

55:31 Most people are like, okay, they're grabbing the pants.

55:33 They're scooching out this way.

55:35 They're trying to push the hip into the triangle as they push away and all their, their legs

55:39 are just supposed to come apart unless they're a freak beast or a, you know, a strong person

55:43 or, you know, just a very experienced person.

55:45 And then they just like recenter and then, okay, I'm just going to do it again.

55:48 Then recenter and then you start trying to dig your elbows into their thighs as a jerk

55:51 and all that.

55:52 And it just doesn't work.

55:53 And like I'm five years into training.

55:54 I got my purple belt and someone, one of my coaches goes, Hey, how about you just stand

55:58 up?

55:59 Hey, stand up.

56:01 So now I'm standing up and I'm letting gravity help help them kind of shake down and okay.

56:05 Now I'm splitting my legs out in an athletics and so now I'm pushing out.

56:08 Now the guard's done and to be able to, oh my gosh, why didn't y'all show us that when

56:13 I had been training for five months as opposed to five years and the gift that you can give

56:18 to somebody?

56:19 Like I remember there was a guy, oh, it was during our last promo thing.

56:23 He was getting his blue belt.

56:25 And I remember a couple months before I had showed him my open guard pass, right?

56:28 Cause it's a quick thing that awesome more showed me, you know, where you're kind of pivoting

56:31 on the leg and going around and he did it during like during promo night or so.

56:36 I think it was promo night.

56:37 It may have been just regular price.

56:38 It doesn't really matter.

56:39 And I'm watching from the sideline and I felt like a proud father.

56:42 I'm like, cause I watched him do it and he did it perfectly.

56:45 The timing was perfect and all that and he hadn't been training for very long.

56:48 And it's just like, man, you, you can just give these gifts of knowledge to people that

56:53 are like, and again, at the end of the day, it's just jujitsu.

56:58 But for, for these people, if this is like kind of your main hobby, it's just like, man,

57:01 you are practicing, like you're practicing going to actual battle with people that want

57:05 what's best for you.

57:06 Like you're, you're not trying to get one over on anybody like, you know, there's another

57:10 brown belt.

57:11 He wrestled it.

57:12 And then as he's, you know, Edmund PD, SWAT, like he's, he's a great dude.

57:17 Every time because we're in, we're in Steve's class.

57:18 He calls out the matches.

57:20 We don't make eye contact and be like, yeah, you want to go?

57:22 Like he calls out the matches.

57:23 Okay.

57:24 You go with him.

57:25 I like when we will do that for me.

57:26 It does it every day.

57:27 And this is Dylan and I's reaction whenever a professor says, all right, Dylan and Kyle,

57:31 we both go.

57:32 Yeah.

57:33 And yet because the majority of the time, six minutes goes by, it is zero to zero and we're

57:38 both completely exhausted because I spams take downs on him, didn't work.

57:42 He spam take downs on me, didn't work.

57:45 We both got into a scramble where no points, no points, no points, scramble, scramble.

57:49 We both end up on our feet still zero, zero, but that's the thing is like, you need those

57:55 rounds, right?

57:56 Cause it's good to get that white belt that you can just kind of like play with and like,

57:59 I want to see if I can do this.

58:00 And, you know, I want to see if I can like tap them to pressure, let's mother's milk this

58:04 person so we can get out of here like, but you know, you kind of get exposure to those

58:07 different, different things.

58:09 And I mean, again, the lessons are just all over the place.

58:11 It's amazing.

58:12 And like you mentioned this earlier, but like the opportunity to like that guy that got

58:16 you with the cross legs, you know, and the, the ego, it's there, there's an opportunity

58:20 for the ego.

58:21 You're like, I'm, I'm going to like keep a straight base.

58:23 I'm going to let him hurt my ankle and then I'm going to not let him know that he almost

58:26 got it.

58:27 And I'm going to leave.

58:28 I've done it before.

58:29 It's a bad idea.

58:30 Yeah.

58:31 Don't do that.

58:32 Now the other day I had a similar experience.

58:33 It's really tall, kind of crazy blue belt, sometimes it's super competitive, strong.

58:36 He just goes like super hard right off the bat, six 30 in the morning, you know, like

58:41 barely waking up and he like pulls to single leg X, like, you know, and he's tall and it's

58:47 good.

58:48 And I could feel like I've stepped back and I could feel like, Oh man, all right.

58:51 And so I peel it and I could just like bump straight to mount.

58:54 But I'm like, Oh no, he's pretty good at this and I'm going to see if I can kind of stay

58:58 here.

58:59 So I'm playing a little game by myself.

59:00 He doesn't know.

59:01 He just thinks I'm not passing you a single leg and I keep peeling the heel off.

59:05 And then eventually he gets a hold of my other leg and I'm like, Oh, now I'm actually in

59:07 trouble because he's about to sweep me and he swept me and then I held both of his pant

59:11 legs so he couldn't move.

59:13 But I was tempted to just be like kind of irritated that he swept me and then and just

59:17 like keep that, you know, keep it to the grave, put it on.

59:20 Yeah.

59:21 But afterward I was like, it was cool because I was like, Hey, dude, your, your single leg

59:25 X is awesome.

59:26 Like you're super good at that.

59:28 You're a blue belt.

59:29 That's something that's formative and that's going to be something that sticks with you the

59:31 rest of your journey.

59:32 You're going to be really like when you're a black belt and you're doing this, people

59:36 are going to be asking you to show to teach you that portion of your game because I can

59:40 already tell that that's them.

59:42 And I didn't.

59:43 It felt really good after I was done saying that to him at first.

59:45 I was just like, I don't want this guy to know I even like I even struggled with this

59:48 single like X and the sweep was like whatever.

59:51 But the other side of that is terrible because you will have upper belts that are about to

59:56 get something done to him by lower belt and they'll be like, Hey, wait, wait, wait, wait.

59:59 If you'll just your grip a little bit up this way, blah, blah, blah, it's like, no, bro,

1:00:03 you take it.

1:00:04 Like they got you just acknowledge it.

1:00:06 Yeah.

1:00:07 And because, you know, I had, there was recently there's some blue belt that did some sort

1:00:11 of weird, if something weird where I didn't really recognize what was happening with my

1:00:15 shoulder.

1:00:16 So I just tapped and I got mad like, and it was like, it was a quick like, I can't believe

1:00:21 that just happened.

1:00:22 It was frustrating.

1:00:23 It was shocking.

1:00:24 But then like within 10 seconds, I'm like, Hey man, that was really slick.

1:00:27 Yeah.

1:00:28 Yeah.

1:00:29 You can either ask, what is that?

1:00:30 You're getting an opportunity to learn.

1:00:31 But it's like, dude, that was so slick.

1:00:32 And do you know what that probably been to that, that guy, you know, to learn from, you

1:00:36 know, to have someone with that, you know, do you even just a higher belt?

1:00:39 Yeah.

1:00:40 Say, Hey, that was really good.

1:00:41 Cause then when I roll with white belts, like at some point during the round, I need

1:00:45 to let them know.

1:00:46 Yeah.

1:00:47 So I either let them know from the beginning and then I will let them work the rest of the

1:00:49 time or I'll let them work and then I'll just let them know in the last minute or so.

1:00:53 Right.

1:00:54 Like if they actually legit get something, I will typically laugh and be like, dude,

1:00:58 you legit got that.

1:00:59 Like I did, cause they don't know if they're, you're letting them work or doing it because

1:01:03 I was always the thing.

1:01:04 Like I would roll with someone and I could tell they were going like 60% and it was just

1:01:07 so infuriating.

1:01:08 Um, but like I would tell some, dude, no, I was defending that.

1:01:10 I have no idea.

1:01:11 You're about to throw that up.

1:01:12 Yeah.

1:01:13 Like nice job.

1:01:14 You know, and I don't know if this, this is probably on the nose, but man, I, again,

1:01:17 just a parallel that I'm seeing personally as I disciple people, I see the opportunity

1:01:21 for like there, maybe off on some, like, like they're expressing their understanding of

1:01:27 something theologically.

1:01:28 And I think that they're off, uh, but there's a Pete, there's an element of it that I think

1:01:32 is like, Hey, that's actually really good reasoning.

1:01:35 Like you, you, you cited the right verse, but that, but the way that you were interpreting

1:01:39 and actually can lead to a kind of a dangerous thing.

1:01:41 So here's where we go.

1:01:42 But like acknowledging that there was a, there was good in it.

1:01:45 And I think that is really encouraging for anybody, whether it's their fake turning or

1:01:49 it's due to just to know, man, at least I was on the right track or at least I'm headed

1:01:52 in the right direction.

1:01:53 I'm doing a couple of things right.

1:01:55 And that's so encouraging.

1:01:56 And I think that's important for everybody to remember that, like, dude, you, you have

1:01:58 such an opportunity to encourage a person with five seconds worth of effort, five seconds

1:02:03 worth of talking to them.

1:02:04 And don't withhold.

1:02:05 No, don't withhold.

1:02:06 There's no, yeah, there's no benefit to that.

1:02:09 In fact, it's amazing.

1:02:10 You feel amazing.

1:02:11 I mean, even if you did it to be selfish, which of course not, but you're going to feel great

1:02:15 encouraging somebody, watching them walk away, being built up and feeling like, you know,

1:02:20 and maybe that puts them wind in their sails for the next couple of days, you know, or

1:02:23 or gave them the motivation they need.

1:02:25 They were having that day you were having when you were like in the locker room.

1:02:28 And then Tyler Murrow says something to you and if, you know what, man, that makes me

1:02:31 feel good.

1:02:32 And I'm going to come back again and I'm going to get after it.

1:02:34 Yeah.

1:02:35 Part of it's just expectation management for people.

1:02:38 So every now and then I'll get into around with, you know, I'll get paired up with a white

1:02:41 belt and this is a white belt that wants to be chatty, like they want to ask what I'm

1:02:46 doing the entire time.

1:02:47 Yeah.

1:02:48 And I just have to be like, not why we're rolling.

1:02:50 Yeah.

1:02:51 Like, so if I sell them all that, they'll be like, Hey, can you show me I got there?

1:02:54 It's like time is going.

1:02:55 Let's keep going.

1:02:56 And so it's just like, you're kind of setting the tone for them and it's not because you're

1:02:59 being a jerk.

1:03:00 It's because like, this is how you learn, like, because that's the other thing about

1:03:05 Jiu Jitsu.

1:03:06 You don't realize you're getting better.

1:03:07 Yeah.

1:03:08 If people could lift and knock it stronger, nobody would lift.

1:03:12 Yeah.

1:03:13 Nobody lifts for fun.

1:03:14 Right.

1:03:15 No.

1:03:16 I don't, I don't lift for fun.

1:03:17 I live because I either get to maintain or grow in my strength.

1:03:18 Right.

1:03:19 That's why everyone lives.

1:03:20 But Jiu Jitsu is something where you may go years without really realizing am I better?

1:03:26 Right.

1:03:27 And so because I'm looking at my game right now and I'm comparing it to my blue bell game,

1:03:31 because my, you know, my all the way through purple bell, everything I did was predicated

1:03:34 on the takedown.

1:03:36 But, you know, just turned 39 this year, have had some neck issues and things like that.

1:03:41 And so it's like, I feel like I can always, excuse me, I feel like an, I can always dust

1:03:46 off the double leg if I needed it, but now it's like, what if I'm not going to be shooting

1:03:50 a double leg?

1:03:51 What are my other options?

1:03:52 Okay.

1:03:53 What are some other singles?

1:03:54 What are some other throws?

1:03:55 What are some other things that I can do?

1:03:56 What are some things I can do to stymie the other person so much that they're going to

1:03:59 pull?

1:04:00 Yeah.

1:04:01 Because there's very few people that once they pull that the advantages to them.

1:04:04 Yeah.

1:04:05 So, you know, you start moving around and kind of giving like a little bit of a, a little

1:04:09 bit of deference to the game and all that.

1:04:11 But you know, again, it's still good to, to be able to learn from different people and

1:04:15 get into those, those different positions.

1:04:16 Yeah.

1:04:17 But for you guys, like, I'm so, like, with Jesus and Jiu Jitsu.

1:04:21 So I've been to a couple of y'all's events.

1:04:24 And so the way they're, they're structured, well, I'm actually just curious about how it

1:04:28 even got to what it is now, because I only know like what it is now, because I forgot

1:04:31 how we, we got connected, but I think, I think it was Matt was speaking at for Migas for

1:04:37 something.

1:04:38 And so Matt and I had become friends, Matt Chandler.

1:04:39 So he's like, Hey, you should come down here for this event.

1:04:41 I'm speaking at.

1:04:42 And so I go down there and I meet, I meet you guys and I meet some of the other guys.

1:04:47 And it's like, okay, you got a whole bunch of people there, they're there for Fermiga,

1:04:51 but then, you know, Matt or some pastor, somebody will get up, get their testimony, give some

1:04:55 sort of a little bit of a speech or whatever.

1:04:58 And then, you know, it's just kind of open mat rolling, was that kind of the idea from

1:05:02 the beginning about what, what this was going to be or did it just kind of, and other where

1:05:06 the, the mission of the ministry is to build community and fellowship around Jesus and

1:05:10 world-class Jiu Jitsu.

1:05:12 And so it started with, you know, live events, um, three years ago.

1:05:16 Yeah.

1:05:17 Right.

1:05:18 And then it was your idea that say, no, we need a podcast to, to disciple the people,

1:05:21 but I don't know, like talk the process of how we do the events.

1:05:26 Yes.

1:05:27 So the events are really, I mean, that's our evangelism portion.

1:05:30 We're like trying to reach as many people as possible.

1:05:32 So we are purposeful about bringing in the biggest people that we can get ahold of, uh,

1:05:38 to draw an audience.

1:05:39 And then when they're there, I mean, they know what they're getting.

1:05:41 Like it's not like you're showing up for this thing and then you're getting a timeshare

1:05:44 pitch, you know, it's like, you're going to a Jesus and Jiu Jitsu event, get the Jiu Jitsu

1:05:49 upfront.

1:05:50 You got to learn from Bouchecha for free.

1:05:53 There's a 15 or 20 minute sermon on the backside, which the last one was that you came to was

1:05:57 Matt Chandler.

1:05:58 Again, when he was then and we touch him and we touch you and amazing 400, 500 people

1:06:02 in the building, like just amazing group of people.

1:06:04 But that's, that's the, that's a piece of what we do.

1:06:08 That's like the forward facing like, Hey, let's go to the community.

1:06:12 Let's pull these guys in and people who are far from God, people who are not willing to

1:06:15 go to church all the way, Matt, Matt says that they are, they will never darken the door

1:06:19 of a church, but they'll step foot on a mat.

1:06:22 And so we use Jiu Jitsu as a bridge, as a tool for the gospel and we just get in proximity.

1:06:28 So come for the amazing Jiu Jitsu, be an earshot of the message, we share the gospel, maybe

1:06:33 it will land on their heart, maybe it will find fertile soil and it will grow.

1:06:38 And then we train after, and that way they always know like there's an element of that.

1:06:41 Most people love that part of getting to like go to an open mat or, or a seminars, they look

1:06:46 forward to the roles afterward.

1:06:48 And in this case, there's always world class, uh, Jiu Jitsu players there after, um, whether

1:06:54 it was the guy that taught her just all his friends that showed up that are black belts

1:06:57 and they get to train with all these different people.

1:06:59 So that's, that's the big draw of what we do with the podcast started shortly after as

1:07:03 specifically as a discipleship tool, because there's a lot of people that weren't, I realized

1:07:08 early on like, cool, we're reaching people, but there's the real work starts when it's

1:07:13 like walking with them.

1:07:15 When I saw this in my dad's ministry, like my dad was with the power team and then power

1:07:19 team had some moral failings in their leadership.

1:07:22 A couple of those guys left and started team impact.

1:07:24 My dad was one of those founders and they were very, they knew we're going to come in

1:07:29 town.

1:07:30 People are going to come see us.

1:07:31 We're going to get to share the gospel with them and then we leave town.

1:07:34 Like that's not a good model for people to do the long term work.

1:07:38 So we need to make sure that we, we don't leave them just like their hearts open, leave

1:07:43 their hearts raw, so that what they do is they're very purposeful about getting connected

1:07:47 with a local church so that they can continue that fellowship, that discipleship.

1:07:51 So that was kind of the podcast part of what we do.

1:07:55 And then now we have like content, you know, I mean, devotional book, discipleship curriculums

1:07:59 coming out.

1:08:00 So yeah, that's, that's kind of how we're set up and why we wear a heart is evangelism

1:08:04 discipleship.

1:08:05 Hey guys, real quick.

1:08:06 So I remember back in high school, I was training with these guys and they all got superjacked,

1:08:10 but they were training and using these supplements that they were buying online and a lot of

1:08:14 them had crazy side effects.

1:08:16 These were not good things.

1:08:17 There's no telling what all was in these supplements.

1:08:19 And so I've always kind of been scared about what supplements I'm going to put in my body.

1:08:23 And I decided when I do start taking supplements, I want to make sure I'm using products that

1:08:28 are certifiably clean and also using only high quality ingredients.

1:08:33 And that's why I want to remind you guys that I have started taking and that we are partnered

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1:08:39 So Jocko Fuel is Jocko Willing's American based supplement company.

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1:08:44 And what are some of my favorite products that they make?

1:08:46 They make a lot of whey protein powder.

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1:08:57 Also, they make the cleanest energy drinks that I've ever found.

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1:09:51 But similar to whenever I go and speak places, I always tell the staff or the elders or whoever

1:09:56 I'm like, Hey, y'all need to be ready.

1:09:58 And they're like, they're thinking like for me to come in and town.

1:10:01 I'm like, no, for the moment I leave because again, my style is burning down and walk away.

1:10:07 And the thing is, is because I don't live here, like I don't live in this town.

1:10:10 I don't, I don't live in Wherever's,ville, Ohio, like it's just, you know, I'm going

1:10:13 to come in.

1:10:14 I'm going to do my thing.

1:10:15 And then I get to leave.

1:10:16 So discipleship is not my process.

1:10:18 Yeah.

1:10:19 Like, and if somebody is saved by the Holy Spirit that night or something like that, like discipleship

1:10:25 should start immediately.

1:10:26 Y'all need to have a plan in place for that, right?

1:10:28 Because whenever I got saved, I didn't have anyone to cycle me, but I'm highly conscientious.

1:10:31 So I go to the salt seller, Christian bookstore and Edmund, or I'm a lot in Oklahoma right

1:10:36 next to Hastings.

1:10:37 And I go by the most extreme teen looking Bible possible and I just start reading, right?

1:10:40 And so, which can be dangerous if you don't know what you're doing, right?

1:10:44 And so I think that that's a helpful thing to kind of have that in your mindset.

1:10:47 Because it'd be one thing, because we talked about this when we were hanging out down in

1:10:50 Dallas last time with Matt, it's like, okay, you're not going to maybe have a bigger seminar

1:10:54 than Butchestra and Matt Chandler, right?

1:10:56 The combo there, that's probably the high watermark.

1:10:59 Yeah.

1:11:00 That doesn't mean you shouldn't shoot for something bigger than that, but it's like, is the point

1:11:03 to have events?

1:11:05 Is it to go on tour and do some Jesus and Jesus events like, okay, go to Atos and San Diego

1:11:11 and then pop in somewhere in Austin and then head up to origin up in Maine and okay, maybe

1:11:16 that's a point.

1:11:17 But if the goal is discipleship, everything has to look and feel different.

1:11:21 Yeah.

1:11:22 But you still have to have the event that kind of drives people to the content, right?

1:11:26 Which will help them on their sanctification journeys as well.

1:11:28 That's right.

1:11:29 So, but I mean, again, was that the plan from the beginning to do it this way or has it

1:11:32 just kind of emerged as y'all have continued to work through it.

1:11:36 Yeah.

1:11:37 So in the beginning, it was really like, I think trying to figure out what it was going

1:11:39 to be.

1:11:40 And it was like, well, we want to reach as many people as possible with the gospel.

1:11:43 So let's put together these events.

1:11:45 We did the events then quickly after we realized the need for discipleship, people are like,

1:11:49 this is cool.

1:11:50 But I want more.

1:11:51 I want to walk with some of these guys.

1:11:52 I've met a bunch of people in the community.

1:11:54 Now there's kind of a place you've carved out, you like, we, we, we stake the claim.

1:11:59 We like stuck our flag in the ground as like, this is a place where believers can be, can

1:12:03 like be bold about their faith in Jiu-Jitsu wasn't really like that before, especially

1:12:07 in our area.

1:12:08 I mean, it's a lot of people who personally have a belief, some Bible studies here and

1:12:11 there, but it wasn't really like a, and he's been doing Jiu-Jitsu a lot longer than me,

1:12:15 but you know, it's kind of been traditionally a dark place.

1:12:17 Yeah.

1:12:18 Jiu-Jitsu gyms are not that conducive to it unless you're purposeful.

1:12:21 So we're like, let's be bold in these places.

1:12:24 But again, they wanted to walk in community with people and we realized, I realized the

1:12:27 need right, right early on.

1:12:29 And so all, I mean, especially all the founding guys, we're like disciples, it needs to happen

1:12:33 next, but it was just kind of figuring out how to do it that was difficult and we're still

1:12:37 working on it.

1:12:38 Yeah.

1:12:39 We've gotten a few things wrong and we'll probably continue to, right?

1:12:41 I mean, this is, yes, it's a 50123 nonprofit, but it's a, you know, you know, I like talking

1:12:46 about things that go wrong.

1:12:47 Yeah.

1:12:48 Are you open to talking about some of the mistakes or missteps?

1:12:50 Yeah.

1:12:51 Yeah.

1:12:52 Of course.

1:12:53 I'll stay again.

1:12:54 Hmm.

1:12:55 What do we start?

1:12:56 And then at this point, three years as an organization, three years in.

1:12:59 So what are some of the things to where it's like looking back, like, oh, that one, that

1:13:04 one, wasn't it?

1:13:05 Let's let's name names too.

1:13:07 Let's throw people under the bus like, you know, I like making people uncomfortable.

1:13:10 So actually people will learn from our mistakes.

1:13:14 Yeah.

1:13:15 Yeah.

1:13:16 So I think something that we're trying to overcome present day is that the Jesus and

1:13:19 Jiu Jitsu is not just a double five thing.

1:13:21 Yeah.

1:13:22 Right.

1:13:23 Because most of us train at double five or have some sort of affiliation to double five.

1:13:29 Many of our instructors early on, where we were getting them from that pool because they

1:13:33 were supportive.

1:13:34 Yeah.

1:13:35 Yeah.

1:13:36 So I think a mistake was like almost making Jesus and Jiu Jitsu somewhat exclusive, even

1:13:40 though it wasn't, right?

1:13:41 Like it wasn't exclusive and that wasn't the intent, but just a byproduct of who we were

1:13:45 picking to do seminars and who had, you know, was, was able to donate their time.

1:13:49 It turned into like, Oh, man, this is just double five.

1:13:53 Yeah.

1:13:54 Right?

1:13:55 Yeah.

1:13:56 And so did the, which it could be worse.

1:13:57 Yeah.

1:13:58 For sure.

1:13:59 Yeah.

1:14:00 Yeah.

1:14:01 But I think that, you know, that was something that we're trying to pivot from now.

1:14:02 And we had some opportunities when we were at Jiu Jitsu, calling it Vegas, just what a

1:14:05 month ago now, to where people realize that, Oh, Jesus and Jiu Jitsu isn't just a double

1:14:11 five thing.

1:14:12 Like this is more of a kingdom initiative not, and that goes beyond any affiliation, like

1:14:17 our affiliation is to Christ.

1:14:19 And so it was cool to see folks like Josh Hinger and Fermiga, who are rivals and, you

1:14:26 know, competing against each other to be the best master's athletes in the world, spending

1:14:32 time together at the Jesus and Jiu Jitsu booth.

1:14:34 And I think that was the Jiu Jitsu community was able to see that in that, Oh, this isn't

1:14:39 just, this isn't just a Fermiga thing.

1:14:41 These aren't just Fermiga's guys like, no, absolutely not.

1:14:43 Like we are for everyone, like it is, it is inclusive.

1:14:46 And so I think we're on the verge of like overcoming that, especially as we're bringing

1:14:51 in and getting building stronger relationships with folks that kind of run those other affiliations,

1:14:56 right?

1:14:57 Your Atos, your, you know, Gracie Baja, we did a great on the mat with Anasio Nato recently,

1:15:03 which is kind of a new initiative we're, we're pushing out there to kind of gives us a more

1:15:07 raw setting to go, we'll pop in with the film crew, like us, we'll go train with them.

1:15:12 And then we just interview them on the mat.

1:15:13 We're kind of like on the mat style podcast, just getting really raw with books, like you're

1:15:17 in your face, laying on the mat, you're, you know, drenched in sweat.

1:15:21 And that opportunity that we had with Anasio Nato who owns Gracie Baja McKinney, he's looking

1:15:26 to open up a new location soon, very well known in the space.

1:15:30 Great believer, just great man of God, about to be a father with twins.

1:15:34 So congratulations to him, shout out to him.

1:15:36 But you know how Gracie Baja is in there, like they're a little closed.

1:15:41 Yeah.

1:15:42 Right.

1:15:43 And so something that I thought was a big deal that we kind of brushed off that day was

1:15:50 that we were the first people to step on his mats that weren't wearing Gracie Baja Geez.

1:15:54 Okay.

1:15:55 Right.

1:15:56 And if you've been around the sport long enough to know, you know that Gracie Baja is the

1:15:59 big deal that you, you were a uniform.

1:16:00 That's right.

1:16:01 It's a uniform.

1:16:02 And that doesn't happen.

1:16:03 And I dropped into a Gracie and I don't own a white ghee, much less Gracie Baja.

1:16:07 So yeah, that's right.

1:16:08 Yeah.

1:16:09 So, but Anasio made it a point to bring that up to say, Oh brother, you're the first guy,

1:16:15 not in, you know, Dave, Dave was with us.

1:16:18 Dave got to train as well.

1:16:19 And he's a killer, by the way, not, yeah, not only Dave, but not technically exists because

1:16:23 he's not on camera.

1:16:24 Yeah.

1:16:25 So, yeah.

1:16:26 He's a Rodriguez.

1:16:27 So it, but it was, it was really cool just to see that like in that moment, we were there

1:16:32 to just talk about Jesus.

1:16:34 It wasn't as much about jujitsu, but it's talk about like the, the common ground between

1:16:38 us was obviously our love for jujitsu, but ultimately our love for Jesus.

1:16:42 And then when I'm beyond any affiliation, beyond any school, beyond anything, no, we're

1:16:47 going to talk about our love for Jesus period.

1:16:50 And the more that the ministry is getting out there now and like really getting legs

1:16:53 in the, in the jujitsu space, I think people were starting to realize that it's not just

1:16:56 a thing.

1:16:57 You mentioned wearing your shirts, you know, at the airport and, you know, they're conversation

1:17:02 starters.

1:17:03 We call that in the wild.

1:17:04 Yeah.

1:17:05 Like seeing the jujitsu.

1:17:06 Oh, there's someone in the airport like I didn't know the guy.

1:17:08 And so for, for a good period of time, like if we saw somebody out in public wearing something

1:17:14 of our above the ministry, he's like, we knew that person.

1:17:17 Yeah.

1:17:18 Right.

1:17:19 But after Vegas, it's like, you know, we're there with three, we were there three days,

1:17:23 I guess.

1:17:24 Yeah.

1:17:25 Yeah.

1:17:26 By day three, there was Jesus and jujitsu stuff in the stand everywhere in the stand.

1:17:29 It's like flags.

1:17:30 It's like, okay, this, this is, this is where it's at.

1:17:33 And so really just a short answer to your question.

1:17:36 Uh, no, I mean, that's, no, that's helpful because you, you kind of gives me a sense

1:17:41 of like what, what it took to kind of get to where you go, cause you don't, you can't

1:17:44 know that it was a mistake or a misstep or, and you look back and I'm like, Oh, why did

1:17:48 I believe that's?

1:17:49 Cause that's what the info you had at the time.

1:17:50 Yeah.

1:17:51 You made the call.

1:17:52 You thought it was right.

1:17:53 Yeah.

1:17:54 And then, you know, looking back on it, you would have, you know, stepped a little different.

1:17:55 Yeah.

1:17:56 Who cares?

1:17:57 Yeah.

1:17:58 Um, I'll share another shortcoming, uh, with you, which was, uh, that we, so early on, there

1:18:02 was a ton of people that were reaching out like, this is cool.

1:18:05 I want to, how do we be a part of this thing?

1:18:07 I want to be a part of this.

1:18:09 Um, I, I run a Bible study at my school, can I call it Jesus in Jiu Jitsu?

1:18:14 And in the beginning, it was kind of like, I, I felt like it was a selfish thing.

1:18:17 I'm not trying to be, um, exclusive with the, the ministry part of this at all.

1:18:21 Um, and so it was kind of like loose in the beginning, but then quickly I made a mistake.

1:18:26 I realized there was a guy that, you know, I talked to that was like, I'm going to lead

1:18:29 this Bible study.

1:18:30 I'm going to kind of recall at this.

1:18:31 And I was meeting with him and I thought that that kind of having a personal relationship

1:18:34 with him would be enough to kind of justify setting him loose, but then talking to him

1:18:39 a couple of times in after he had already been leading a Bible state was like, oh, oh,

1:18:43 his theology is crazy.

1:18:45 Like this is not healthy and if he's leading the whole group of people, we definitely can't

1:18:50 have our name on this because it's not even in alignment with our statement of faith that

1:18:53 we put out that I wrote and put on the website.

1:18:56 And so, um, in wisdom, like, so the Bible says that in a multitude of counselors, they're

1:19:01 safety and man, I've taken that to heart with Jesus in Jiu Jitsu.

1:19:03 I have a wide variety of wise counselors who are never afraid to tell me the truth, like

1:19:10 they will hurt my feelings to tell me the truth.

1:19:13 Um, and I've surrounded myself with all the Matt Chandler's, one of them, um, and a bunch

1:19:18 of other really awesome dudes to kind of just say his name, he's sitting in Kyle Thompson.

1:19:23 He has been invited to us.

1:19:25 We learned a lot.

1:19:26 Actually, we made some changes after our last time we spent together just kind of like in

1:19:29 how we're thinking about certain things, but, uh, but that's the whole thing.

1:19:33 I'm surrounding myself continuing with wise people and, and varying opinion, like different

1:19:37 opinions and perspectives.

1:19:38 And it's helped inform us.

1:19:39 But wise counsel said, Hey, if they're going to be representing the ministry, we really,

1:19:43 like we have to, it's not that we're trying to control every little piece of this, but

1:19:47 you have to be guarded and who is able to represent your name.

1:19:50 Yeah.

1:19:51 Like there's not people out there teaching wacky stuff that say they're with the undaunted

1:19:55 life ministry and podcast, um, and you have to control that.

1:19:59 And so the way that we figured we the best way to do that was to give people something

1:20:04 that was in alignment with our statement of faith, theologically very sound well written,

1:20:08 professionally written.

1:20:09 And so that's why we're working hard on our discipleship curriculum.

1:20:12 It's going to come out.

1:20:13 So we have a, our first semester of discipleship curriculum will come out.

1:20:16 I think we're aiming for like maybe six weeks from now, um, but we're, we're going to have,

1:20:20 we hit, we're recording the video portion of it.

1:20:22 So it's going to be a video that accompanies it.

1:20:24 And then there's going to be host, the host will have a leader guide for discussions.

1:20:29 And it's an eight week course, go through these different, eight different topics.

1:20:33 And then, um, there'll be a four week break and there's another eight weeks.

1:20:36 So it's four eight week semesters, uh, and again, the first semesters coming out pretty

1:20:41 soon.

1:20:42 Um, and that's the best way we knew to like, now we're equipping these people with stuff

1:20:47 that we trust.

1:20:49 And those leader guides are going to be leading discussions, those leaders are going to be

1:20:52 leading discussions that we are there in alignment with what we believe, um, to be

1:20:58 the gospel.

1:20:59 What we, what we mean when we say the gospel and, um, and it is in alignment with our

1:21:04 statement of faith.

1:21:05 So.

1:21:06 Yeah.

1:21:07 I wanted to, um, I, were you bringing up some of the guides or something in there?

1:21:09 Yeah.

1:21:10 I was going to bring up the, the eight topics that we got, because I, I was going to ask

1:21:13 kind of what's the next iteration.

1:21:14 So let's, let's hear them out.

1:21:15 Yeah.

1:21:16 Let me just a moment.

1:21:17 Yeah.

1:21:18 As you're bringing that up, Ryan, like I think that the one of the things that's important

1:21:20 is I could ask all the time, like, Hey, Kyle, what's the next big thing for on a life?

1:21:26 Like what's, what's the three to five year plan?

1:21:28 What's the big goal?

1:21:29 I don't know if we talked about this when we were chilling on the back porch at Matt's

1:21:32 house or not, but I was literally like, guys, I'm trying to make the next right move.

1:21:36 Yeah.

1:21:37 The next right move, because I am a content creator.

1:21:40 And so that's on Don life man's podcast and that's a daily blade.

1:21:43 And so inherent in that is not like a massive plan because a year and a half ago dominion

1:21:48 didn't exist.

1:21:49 Right.

1:21:50 The, the idea that I would be coaching, you know, men and kind of a small group setting

1:21:53 or a one on one setting, like that didn't exist.

1:21:56 And so it's like, let's let the marketplace continue to float us in terms of people agreeing

1:22:01 with the message and wanting more of it.

1:22:03 Right.

1:22:04 And then how do we tangibly deliver that in a way that's conducive to people having an

1:22:08 overall difference and change?

1:22:10 And so you got them up, Ryan?

1:22:12 Yeah, I do.

1:22:13 I do.

1:22:14 So the first session is going to be on personal holiness and sanctification.

1:22:19 You put a little jujitsu flavor terminology one of these right so that is a guard retention.

1:22:23 Okay.

1:22:24 Which lesson is Baron Bolo?

1:22:25 Who's that?

1:22:26 Whenever things go horribly wrong?

1:22:27 That's less than nine.

1:22:28 Okay.

1:22:29 Yeah.

1:22:30 Less than nine.

1:22:31 TV doing that.

1:22:32 Yeah.

1:22:33 Let's see.

1:22:34 Session two is character and discipline or technique growing in the foundations of faith.

1:22:39 We've got three three marriage is the flow rolling is what we call that.

1:22:46 Yeah.

1:22:47 We take, right?

1:22:49 I caught a submission.

1:22:50 I'm going to knock.

1:22:51 I could envy right now on our argument.

1:22:53 I'm not.

1:22:54 That's right.

1:22:55 Yeah.

1:22:56 I'm going to let that go.

1:22:57 Session four is a fatherhood and parenthood.

1:22:58 Professor and coach.

1:22:59 Type deal five work in finance or pressure passing grinded like that.

1:23:06 Right.

1:23:07 Yeah.

1:23:08 Six theology as doxology that submission seven evangelism and apologetics grip fighting.

1:23:16 Right.

1:23:17 Mentorship and building community.

1:23:18 That's mat culture.

1:23:20 We've got, I mean, full on script.

1:23:22 It's very Texas you get to because there's no takedowns.

1:23:25 Like none whatsoever.

1:23:26 Well, you can put that in with apologetics and just with the grip players over there.

1:23:30 Yeah.

1:23:31 Yeah.

1:23:32 Great fighting man.

1:23:33 Okay.

1:23:34 Whatever.

1:23:35 I like that.

1:23:36 No, I love that y'all are breaking it down that way.

1:23:37 But like, so where did the idea come from to do to do that?

1:23:40 Because again, you do events events are sexy and they're cool and you get to take a lot

1:23:43 of videos and stuff like that.

1:23:45 And like, that's the thing is like church camp is, it's big and the revival, the tent

1:23:49 revivals, like it's big and you know, you got all the production and the smoking bomb

1:23:52 and all that stuff.

1:23:53 Sanctification and discipleship is super boring.

1:23:55 Oh, man.

1:23:56 Way less sexy for sure.

1:23:57 Right.

1:23:58 Right.

1:23:59 That's the, that's, but that's where you get good.

1:24:00 It's not competing and getting a medal.

1:24:01 It's all those, you know, six AM jiu-jitsu classes.

1:24:04 Thousand percent.

1:24:05 So that it came.

1:24:06 It was born out of that.

1:24:07 We want to give people something that is that that's long lasting.

1:24:10 That's like evergreen that helps them grow in their faith that grow deep roots in the

1:24:15 jiu-jitsu community.

1:24:16 Because again, our target audience are people who, the people we are, we are after, that

1:24:21 God has tasked us with reaching are the men that will not step foot in a church.

1:24:26 Yeah.

1:24:27 But will go to a jiu-jitsu event.

1:24:29 They will plug into maybe a group of men that says, dude, hey, you know, on this day,

1:24:34 like we meet together, we hang out.

1:24:35 We've seen the fruit of that just we started a Bible study on Tuesday after our Tuesday

1:24:39 morning class.

1:24:40 Yeah, it's wild.

1:24:41 Yeah.

1:24:42 Like, and that's grown.

1:24:43 The gamer and I and Will and then two other guys that own this, this, like health clinic,

1:24:49 and we would meet in their lobby, just have coffee and talk about the Bible.

1:24:52 And then those two guys gave their life to the Lord, got baptized and matched church.

1:24:56 Yeah.

1:24:57 Yeah.

1:24:58 Yeah.

1:24:59 And then that group is grown.

1:25:00 Actually, a bunch of them were hanging out with us when we went to Matt's house.

1:25:01 Yeah.

1:25:02 Because the next day that one of them got baptized.

1:25:03 That was right.

1:25:04 Yeah.

1:25:05 Yeah.

1:25:06 And it's just like grown.

1:25:07 That group is grown because it's like, it's attracted.

1:25:08 They're doing, you know, the village says deep work in community over time.

1:25:14 That's discipleship.

1:25:15 And so that's what we're doing in that group.

1:25:17 And it's so attracted because people are like, it's so easy to invite people to that.

1:25:20 Hey, man, there's a bunch of us that get together right after this.

1:25:23 We go have coffee, talk about life where we're working through a book right now.

1:25:26 Like we would love to have you come through and no pressure.

1:25:28 And they're always like, yeah, I'll go check that out.

1:25:30 And then we get into like another guy and we got 25 dudes.

1:25:32 We don't even have enough room in the lobby, man.

1:25:34 But that's a tiny little, that's a tiny little example of what we're trying to do with the

1:25:40 discipleship curriculum.

1:25:41 It was born out of a need to or a desire to like equip these people.

1:25:45 So Jesus and Juditsu can't be in every city, like we can't have events in every city, in

1:25:51 every state all the time.

1:25:52 But a lot of people think that that's what the ministry is.

1:25:55 And I'm like, dude, Juditsu is like, Juditsu is cool.

1:25:58 Jesus is way cooler, way more important than all of that.

1:26:01 Let's give you that piece of it.

1:26:02 So we're now we're making curriculum to equip people, those people in those communities,

1:26:07 like you at the forge, you know, those men and women that you train with way better than

1:26:13 we could ever when we came in for one day and spoke, like you said, you go and you burn

1:26:16 it down, you leave.

1:26:17 Yeah.

1:26:18 Those people are going to do the work there because they walked in community with those

1:26:21 people for years.

1:26:22 They know their, they know their spouse's names.

1:26:24 They know the sickness or the illness that they recently got over or their parent that

1:26:29 passed away.

1:26:30 They know all of those things.

1:26:31 We're not trying to be that for those people.

1:26:34 We want to equip the people who are already in their life with content that they're not

1:26:37 having to like write a sermon every single week to minister to the people in their community.

1:26:41 Hey, let's give you some really solid, well written stuff.

1:26:45 That's theologically rich to minister to the people in your life.

1:26:49 So how much control do you have or influenced you have on the people that are leading these

1:26:54 groups after you get the content in their hands?

1:26:57 Well, because we haven't launched it yet, well, my plan is to be able to do a quarterly

1:27:04 zoom call with the hosts of those things that we have a touch point with them.

1:27:08 They also will have.

1:27:09 I mean, there won't be, I mean, there might be dozens and dozens because it's open to

1:27:12 the whole world.

1:27:13 There's people in Brazil and Canada and, um, and Japan, Philippines, Japan that want to

1:27:18 do it, um, but they'll have my contact.

1:27:21 I would love to have touch points once a quarter with these people face to face car, you know,

1:27:25 zoom call.

1:27:26 I'm a close eye on those Canadians.

1:27:27 All right.

1:27:28 So we don't know what they're saying.

1:27:29 Yeah.

1:27:30 I know like there are times.

1:27:31 Yeah.

1:27:32 They're all rolling around and they're maple syrup and all that kind of stuff up there.

1:27:35 But no, like, cause that's the other thing about it is, you know, there's always this

1:27:39 concept of what have you done for me lately.

1:27:40 So it's like you, you'll watch a show.

1:27:42 You'll binge watch season one of a show that took two years to make, right, to, to ride

1:27:48 and to film and to edit and do all that kind of stuff.

1:27:50 And then you're like, who wouldn't season two coming out to you to have a stupid, like

1:27:54 so we, so we get entitled to it.

1:27:56 But you guys, I have already, you know, had to start thinking about this, I would assume

1:28:00 we don't even have the curriculum launch launch yet.

1:28:03 Well, what's after that?

1:28:04 Right?

1:28:05 Because, you know, as soon as I wrote the first devotional, which the first thing I ever

1:28:08 did for Don of Life, man's podcast, or just on Don of Life in general, was a 21 day devotional

1:28:13 on the U version Bible app.

1:28:14 And then people would get done with that and they're like, you version two was like, Hey,

1:28:18 when are we getting another one?

1:28:19 Yep.

1:28:20 And then, you know, the podcast, obviously it's like, okay, well, just wait a couple of days

1:28:22 and we'll have something else out for you or Daily Blade is every day, but like.

1:28:25 So what's, I guess that that next thing, like, let's, let's say, yeah, let's say, okay,

1:28:30 you really, let's say you approve concept, right?

1:28:32 Because you said there's going to be four semesters total of this all eight week chunks.

1:28:36 Yeah.

1:28:37 So it technically, you know, gets you a year, if you think about it, depending on the breaks

1:28:40 that guy.

1:28:41 32 weeks plus breaks in between, yeah.

1:28:44 So you give someone a year and then what, because you all know the question's coming,

1:28:48 right?

1:28:49 And so we haven't even launched that first one yet.

1:28:50 Yeah.

1:28:51 So this is the thought for how this is iterated into the future because a podcast, like what

1:28:58 I do, like it's a new, it's the same voice giving you new information every few days,

1:29:03 right?

1:29:04 And so with what y'all are doing, like, you don't want to say, well, y'all can start

1:29:07 back over with, with week one.

1:29:09 Now some people will do that and they'll get a lot of value out of it.

1:29:12 So the small group goes through out of heart and then they did such a good job and loved

1:29:16 it so much.

1:29:17 They're going to take a couple of weeks off and then they're going to start back over in

1:29:18 the intro chapter.

1:29:19 Right.

1:29:20 So they're going to look like even after that.

1:29:21 Yeah.

1:29:22 I think, I mean, so we just came out with, we also came out with volume one of a devotional's

1:29:26 book, right?

1:29:27 Weekly devotional.

1:29:28 He actually grabbed that devotional look.

1:29:30 It's over there in that, in that box.

1:29:32 I want to show it on screen.

1:29:33 It's on, it's on one of those boxes right there.

1:29:35 I think I tossed in that one that's open right there.

1:29:37 I just wanted an excuse to get you on screen.

1:29:39 So you're going to have to come all the way around here and hand it to me.

1:29:41 It's funny because David's actually on the cover of the devotional team.

1:29:45 Come all the way around.

1:29:46 Smile.

1:29:47 You have to smile.

1:29:48 All three cameras.

1:29:49 Guys, this is Ryan Rodriguez.

1:29:50 Hey, it's Roger.

1:29:51 Blackfish.

1:29:52 Blackfish.

1:29:53 All right.

1:29:54 Get off camera.

1:29:55 Get out of here.

1:29:56 We don't anybody get all offended or whatever.

1:29:57 So this is it.

1:29:58 This is what you're talking about.

1:29:59 The weekly devotional's here.

1:30:00 So boom, guys, check that out.

1:30:01 Bam.

1:30:02 Isn't that awesome?

1:30:03 And so if somebody wanted to get this, by the way, how can they get their hands on this?

1:30:04 Yeah.

1:30:05 Our website.

1:30:06 Okay.

1:30:07 So that you have it on Amazon.

1:30:08 Don't buy it on Amazon.

1:30:09 Buy it on our website.

1:30:10 Jesus and jiujitsu.

1:30:11 USA.com.

1:30:12 And it's jujitsu.

1:30:13 J-I-U.

1:30:14 J-I-T-S-U.

1:30:15 Not jujiw.

1:30:16 Not j-U.

1:30:17 J-I-U-Jitsu, USA.com.

1:30:21 And you can find this.

1:30:22 So this is a weekly devotional.

1:30:24 It's got six months of devotional's if you're doing weekly.

1:30:26 You can burn through them too.

1:30:27 Yeah.

1:30:28 Has lines in here.

1:30:29 But these are really, again, really well written.

1:30:31 This is not some chat GPT thing that was thrown together.

1:30:34 These are written by Sterling Archer, who's a really seasoned, he's written a lot of discipleship

1:30:39 curriculums for different organizations.

1:30:41 He's written books for pastors.

1:30:44 Solid dude.

1:30:45 Can you tell me which pastors?

1:30:46 Yeah.

1:30:47 And the NDA's.

1:30:48 Go ahead.

1:30:49 But he met with us for months.

1:30:52 And Lucas, before he dove into how we wanted to do our curriculum.

1:30:57 And this, he listened to our podcast and he pulled a bunch of ideas from the podcast.

1:31:01 And then at the very back, there's actually a podcast guide that shows, like it's a reference

1:31:05 for the episode guide.

1:31:07 So if you're like, oh, this is cool.

1:31:09 How do I hear more about this topic?

1:31:11 We'll go to this episode of our podcast, Jesus and jiujitsu podcast and listen to it.

1:31:15 So we'll continue to expand upon both the devotional curriculum as well as the weekly

1:31:23 devotional is volume two, three, four, so on and so forth.

1:31:25 But you know, like, this is maybe a pipe dream for me, but jiujitsu is only getting more

1:31:32 and more popular.

1:31:33 Yeah.

1:31:34 I mean, we know that with CGI and UFC, BJJ, we are going to start tailoring a few more

1:31:39 of our events toward the no-give community, which you probably like to hear, you know,

1:31:42 more wrestling stuff.

1:31:43 Cause they're different, like they are, I think, you know, 16 years ago, a bunch of dang autistic

1:31:48 leg lockers.

1:31:49 Yeah.

1:31:50 Yeah.

1:31:51 Yeah.

1:31:52 Well, there's plenty of them out there.

1:31:53 Yeah.

1:31:54 So 16 years ago, I mean, people trained no-ghee.

1:31:55 Yes.

1:31:56 But it was also just like a seasonal thing, or you just took your ghee top off and that

1:31:59 was no-ghee.

1:32:00 But now they're two completely different in some places, the two completely different

1:32:05 communities.

1:32:06 Yeah.

1:32:07 Really.

1:32:08 Different communities, different sports.

1:32:09 More weed in the no-ghee culture.

1:32:10 Yeah.

1:32:11 Yeah.

1:32:12 Sure.

1:32:13 Yeah.

1:32:14 Shut up.

1:32:15 Tip plan.

1:32:16 Yeah.

1:32:17 Yeah.

1:32:18 But we see that as just, as an opportunity for another community, like there, cause it's

1:32:22 not just jujitsu.

1:32:23 Like no-ghee and ghee are different now.

1:32:24 And so for us to- One off of a barrier to entry, all jokes aside, the barrier to entry

1:32:27 for no-ghee is incredibly low low.

1:32:29 So like tomorrow when we're taking the Dominion guys through a little seminar, only one of

1:32:33 those guys has ever done jujitsu before.

1:32:34 It's purple bell.

1:32:35 Yeah.

1:32:36 But for some of these other guys, if it's like, hey, come to jujitsu and it's like, hey,

1:32:38 bring a ghee.

1:32:39 Yeah.

1:32:40 Like who's got that?

1:32:41 I don't know why.

1:32:42 Yeah.

1:32:43 No, no academy has enough like trial geez for trial class guys, if a couple of dozen

1:32:47 people show up.

1:32:48 Yeah.

1:32:49 But I think any community needs jujitsu, but the no-ghee community, especially if I could

1:32:52 call them out, is probably more in need of Jesus than the ghee, not to compare the two.

1:32:59 But that's just what I'm doing now.

1:33:01 Yeah.

1:33:02 Because they're the ones that would probably become Pentecostals anyway.

1:33:03 So we gotta be careful.

1:33:04 Yeah.

1:33:05 Well, I mean, by and large, it's like, it's kind of a younger crowd.

1:33:07 Yeah.

1:33:08 They're a little more rowdy and like, man, they like, dude, that's fun and exciting and

1:33:12 weird.

1:33:13 We made a purposeful, like we're making an effort to reach those dudes, but really it's

1:33:16 going to take people who are attractive in that space, like, which actually is amazing.

1:33:20 And he's, you know, super decorated in the ghee.

1:33:24 He's also prolific in no-ghee as well, ADCC, you know, but he's not current right now.

1:33:29 He's he's in the UFC, which is correct in MMA.

1:33:32 But like, you know, that whole crowd that like, CJI guys, so we were working on that

1:33:37 right now.

1:33:38 Like, November 1st, in the DFW area that we're bringing, Carlos Henryk, who just won

1:33:43 UFC BJJ.

1:33:44 He's the lightweight champ.

1:33:46 Yeah.

1:33:47 Yeah.

1:33:48 I mean, he's really well known and there's a lot of excitement and momentum behind him.

1:33:53 And so he's agreed to come out and teach a seminar for us.

1:33:56 Yeah.

1:33:57 So Taylor and some of our content and events to reach different communities within Jujitsu.

1:34:02 But also, I mean, again, pipe dream for me, like, I'm thinking Jesus and Jujitsu retreats

1:34:06 and the competitions and stuff that are really, and like, just imagine several hundred competitors

1:34:11 on a mat.

1:34:12 And like, before you kick off the whole competition, there's this huge worship session, you know,

1:34:16 and like everybody just praising the Lord together and then going to go scrap.

1:34:19 And like, I envision that one day.

1:34:21 I think we're, you know, still pretty far from it, but I mean, Lord willing, that's where

1:34:25 we'll take this thing.

1:34:27 So do we have it totally written out on paper?

1:34:28 I mean, if we had a vision board, we'd probably be pretty similar in what's on that board.

1:34:32 But right now, it's just kind of getting through these short-term initiatives.

1:34:35 And then like when we'll start talking about like, what's what's next?

1:34:37 What's next?

1:34:38 Yeah.

1:34:39 When you got to say sensitive to the Holy Spirit, because like, even like at the Daily Blade,

1:34:42 like that, I didn't have the whiteboard over there full of ideas.

1:34:45 And one of them was like, Hey, you know, a daily devotional for like normal dudes, not,

1:34:50 you know, a feminine dudes, like that was just like, I was looking for something for me.

1:34:54 Couldn't find it.

1:34:56 Called Joby.

1:34:57 And was like, Hey, Joby Martin, pastor guy, do you want to do this daily devotional thing?

1:35:00 That's, you know, five minutes, like locker room style, like, Hey, we're on our way to

1:35:05 safety meeting.

1:35:06 You're on the way to the gym.

1:35:07 And the guy doesn't have time for an hour long sermon.

1:35:09 He's got time for five minutes.

1:35:10 And he's like, yeah, that's easiest.

1:35:11 Yes.

1:35:12 You could have given like, you know, absolutely.

1:35:13 I'll do a week, you do a week and then we'll get guests here and there.

1:35:16 It was just out of a need.

1:35:18 And so that's one thing that if you all plan out the next 10 years, you're going to have

1:35:21 to say no to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, you're going to say no to the community in

1:35:25 certain ways that they need to be moved as, as opposed to just like, let's make sure we

1:35:30 do the next right thing as conscientiously and as high quality as possible.

1:35:33 Cause that's the, here's the other thing, inside the Christian world, right?

1:35:37 So there are people that will go watch a Christian movie that's garbage, but they'll be like,

1:35:40 but we need to support them because they're making, uh, they're making Jesus, making

1:35:44 yourself like that.

1:35:45 Same thing with the music or, or anything like that.

1:35:48 It's like, no, like we need to make the highest.

1:35:51 We should be the best employees.

1:35:52 We should be the most creative individuals.

1:35:54 We should have the most high quality writing because let's say people love Jiu Jitsu and

1:35:57 they love Jesus and they like you guys, they decide, I'm going to buy this thing and it's

1:36:01 garbage.

1:36:02 Okay.

1:36:03 They're going to do a couple of weeks of this and they're going to be like, okay, that

1:36:05 was a complete waste of my time.

1:36:06 They're going to toss it on the shelf or in the garbage.

1:36:09 So you don't want that.

1:36:10 You want to make sure you're constantly putting out high quality stuff.

1:36:13 Same thing with your events.

1:36:15 If your events are hard to find where they are, hard to get signed up for, hard to RSVP.

1:36:19 Like when you get there, it's like chickens with their heads cut off and like, Oh, you

1:36:22 know, we got merged, but it's only an extra small and triple extra large.

1:36:26 And like, and, and you come to a thing and you leave going.

1:36:29 That probably wasn't worth my time as opposed to leaving going like, man, they, they thought

1:36:33 out of everything.

1:36:34 Yeah.

1:36:35 Like we had, we had Jocko goes to drink on the way out the door.

1:36:37 Like we, we had our merchant own like parking square it away.

1:36:40 So it's just a different ball game.

1:36:41 Yeah.

1:36:42 And that's, I think now that we're, we've been kind of catapulted into somewhat of a

1:36:46 limelight amongst, you know, the, the jujitsu community that like, yeah, the quality of

1:36:50 everything that we do matters so much.

1:36:52 Yeah.

1:36:53 And that's where we're just trying to raise the bar on, on what we do.

1:36:55 I mean, it's been time here in your podcast to you.

1:36:57 You look around like this is, yeah, incredible.

1:36:59 This is incredible.

1:37:00 Right.

1:37:01 So how can we produce things at the same level of quality that people come to expect from

1:37:06 something that they're going to listen to or watch on YouTube?

1:37:08 Like our content, everything that we produce, our content, our apparel that is the biggest

1:37:13 money maker for our, for our ministry, right?

1:37:15 The biggest revenue generator is, is our apparel.

1:37:17 Yeah.

1:37:18 And you can buy all that on, on the website at the USA.com go to shop.

1:37:24 And we're going to continue to like evolve the apparel as well.

1:37:27 More of a lifestyle, you know, type brand.

1:37:30 But it'll all be like, yeah, it'll all be super quality.

1:37:33 We want quality and everything that we produce because it's not just bootstrapped anymore.

1:37:38 Like we are legitimate.

1:37:40 Which people are cool with that at the beginning.

1:37:42 Yeah.

1:37:43 But eventually it's like, so it's kind of like origin.

1:37:44 Like you guys have a, some affiliation with the origin, you know, we're just on immersion

1:37:47 campus, stuff like that.

1:37:48 And so very early on, if you ordered one of the first origin gees and you had to wait

1:37:52 a few months and all that, you didn't care.

1:37:53 Yeah.

1:37:54 Because you believed in the story.

1:37:55 Right.

1:37:56 You believed in the mission.

1:37:57 Which was made in America, put together by American hands and like all the things right.

1:38:02 But now if it takes you six months to get a pair of jeans or, you know, four months for

1:38:06 a pair of boots or, you know, five months or a gear or something like that, that's just

1:38:10 not going to work.

1:38:11 Yeah.

1:38:12 So eventually it's like, Hey, I love you.

1:38:13 But damn, dude, if I'm going to pay a premium for this, like it's got to be aces.

1:38:17 I'm the same.

1:38:18 So that's what it was in the beginning.

1:38:19 I was like, I knew that merch was going to be the way.

1:38:22 So the ministry, I wanted to be sustainable, meaning like we were, we had something, we

1:38:26 had a product that we could give out that was earning us money.

1:38:29 So we weren't dependent on our donations.

1:38:31 Donations can be icing on the cake, but I want the cake to be taken care of and what

1:38:35 we were doing was merchandise.

1:38:36 But in the beginning, it was me putting an order in with a shop 40 minutes away, driving

1:38:41 picking up the things, folding shirts, putting them in, sitting at my desk, printing it out

1:38:45 and then waiting in line at USPS to give it to, to put them in.

1:38:48 I was doing like 50 orders a week by myself, my boxes stacked to the ceiling of my house.

1:38:53 I knew that it sucked and it took a long time, it was exciting because I knew that people

1:38:57 were like catching on, this is cool, but it was, it was a, it was tough.

1:39:03 But I knew that it was temporary, but I also knew that the money was going to be, we could,

1:39:07 we could, with more money, we could start, okay, now we can start doing content, we can start

1:39:10 paying videographers, we can start buying more, whatever, you know?

1:39:14 And so that's what we did.

1:39:15 And now we have a full on operation, Dave and Robin, Michael, incredible at what they do.

1:39:21 They're our merch managers of shipping and fulfillment, inventory management, everything

1:39:28 in professionals, like top notch professionals, husband and wife, they run our shop out of

1:39:32 their house.

1:39:33 They have a room, like a big, you know, big room upstairs, they use as a media room and

1:39:37 it's like a racks and racks of stuff and they're pros.

1:39:40 I mean, Robin came from that background, a professional background in logistics management

1:39:44 for shipping, pharmaceutical stuff.

1:39:47 And so now we have that, but God has just brought the right people around and every,

1:39:51 we're just kind of like climbing up in quality in every area of what we do and I'm really

1:39:54 excited about that.

1:39:55 Yeah, he continues to show his favor on the ministry just by the people that he puts in

1:39:59 front of us.

1:40:00 It's like undeniable, like Sterling Archer is another, I mean, just in the great example

1:40:03 of incredible.

1:40:04 Yeah.

1:40:05 Hey, we got, he got connected, started listening to our podcast was like, Hey, guys, how can

1:40:08 I help?

1:40:09 Yeah.

1:40:10 Here's what, here's what my skill sets are.

1:40:11 Oh, great.

1:40:12 We have a need for that.

1:40:13 And then, yeah, yeah.

1:40:14 I mean, it's been great to even just watch from the first time I met, met you guys to

1:40:19 seeing kind of what you're doing now because, I mean, curriculum is like a real, like this

1:40:23 is, this is a kind of an I mean it thing.

1:40:25 Right.

1:40:26 Exactly.

1:40:27 Doing a course, doing a book for somebody because I've been asked to do this.

1:40:30 Yes.

1:40:31 I, because when people ask me like, cause they, they see all the stuff we put out, they're

1:40:34 like, Oh my, you just, you might have a bunch of people, but how many of my staff members

1:40:37 did y'all meet on the way up here today?

1:40:38 Yeah.

1:40:39 Yeah.

1:40:40 None.

1:40:41 Me.

1:40:42 You're looking at them, right?

1:40:43 So I turned all this stuff on.

1:40:44 Like I got this and shout out to land in my editor around Jacksonville.

1:40:45 But like that's it.

1:40:46 It's like my focus is on content.

1:40:48 And so, cause I, you know, I talked to these business people and they're like, God, do

1:40:51 you realize how much money you're leaving on the table by not doing this or not focusing

1:40:55 on a merch?

1:40:56 Because every time we do merch, people buy a ton of it, but I'm basically the one taking

1:41:01 us with the one time we had a different group do our fulfillment for us.

1:41:04 We sold a butt ton of hoodies, like, and we lost almost a grant, like on these hoodies.

1:41:09 And I was like, look, marketing, you know, if you are in the black at all, that's a good

1:41:14 thing.

1:41:15 Yes.

1:41:16 Because you, you want people walking around wearing your stuff, but you can't be losing money.

1:41:18 You can't over fist, like every time you sell something, you're in the red.

1:41:22 And so, but part of it is just because my focus is content because I was put on this

1:41:26 planet to equipment, to push back darkness, not to put t-shirts on their backs, but it

1:41:30 putting t-shirts on someone's back, causing them to ask a question.

1:41:33 Like, you know, my hats, my hats don't have any words on it.

1:41:35 It's just my logo.

1:41:36 People be like, Oh, that's a cool logo.

1:41:38 What's that?

1:41:39 And if someone's wearing my hat, they don't, they know who it is.

1:41:41 Like they, they, it's not an accident.

1:41:44 And you know, my, my marketing is fairly subtle.

1:41:46 It's undaunted.

1:41:47 I mean, I don't even know what that means.

1:41:49 And I'm the one that came up with it.

1:41:50 But like Jesus and Jiu-Jitsu, it's like straight on, like this is, this is kind of what it

1:41:54 is.

1:41:55 It's my favorite text from you.

1:41:56 Like, Hey, good job on the subtle, the subtlety hits us up in the group message with that.

1:42:03 It's such a joke.

1:42:04 So subtle.

1:42:05 I'm not jokes.

1:42:06 I'm serious all the time.

1:42:07 But like the thing about it is, is like imagine if y'all had tried to come up with something

1:42:10 like more creative, right?

1:42:12 It's not creative.

1:42:13 Jesus and Jiu-Jitsu.

1:42:14 No.

1:42:15 It's just perfect, right?

1:42:16 Yeah.

1:42:17 I was listening, undaunted.

1:42:18 But guess what?

1:42:19 Undaunted.com is taken by some Polaroid photographer that hasn't updated his, you know, website

1:42:23 in about 20 years.

1:42:24 And so I looked at, you know, go daddy and like undaunted dot life was available.

1:42:28 I was like, ah, no one's ever going to go this website anyway.

1:42:31 Buy that one.

1:42:32 And now I'm dealing with, you know, sending out stuff via MailChimp and it doesn't go

1:42:35 to someone's inbox because it's a dot life and not a dot com.

1:42:37 So you know, you have your issues.

1:42:38 Joby's church is called the church of 11 22, the dumbest church name in the history of

1:42:42 church names.

1:42:43 But at the time, they didn't think it was going to be a thing and now it's like an actual

1:42:45 thing.

1:42:46 You know, for you guys, I just want to, you know, let the audience know, how could they

1:42:49 support you guys like if people want to get involved, if they want their academy or something

1:42:55 like that to, to, I don't know, host you guys or start one of the groups.

1:42:59 I just kind of let people know how they can get involved.

1:43:02 So so we have an aggressive goal.

1:43:04 Next year, I don't know if we're going to get there, but man, our team is working to

1:43:08 make sure it happens.

1:43:09 And I'm team, I'm just giving them a shout out because I so appreciate them.

1:43:12 Norma Engel, she was the director of operations for Jiu-Jitsu World League.

1:43:16 Now she's helping us on operations with, with Jesus in Jiu-Jitsu, Robin and Dave.

1:43:20 I just shared about them, Lucas Pinkard, one of, one of our VPs, he's a senior pastor

1:43:25 of a church and just great, amazing friend and friend in the ministry, Kramer.

1:43:31 And so these guys, we're trying to make and Tyler Smith are creative director and David

1:43:35 Rodriguez who's sitting over there, our videographer.

1:43:38 And so anyway, we're, we're working together on aggressive goal for next year.

1:43:42 We want to do 12 events.

1:43:43 We want to do one event a month, six in, in state and six out of state.

1:43:48 And so we're trying to make that happen.

1:43:51 That's going to be as Texas, by the way, guys, yeah, Texas, six in Texas.

1:43:55 You can include Oklahoma and Louisiana and that's close enough.

1:43:58 You can drive to a BMW, you know, but we want to do six out of state.

1:44:02 So it's going to take a lot of organizing and planning.

1:44:05 We have a few of these schools, big schools lined up, you know, we're really pushing to

1:44:09 try to get with Atos, um, Josh Hanger was like, have you ever met?

1:44:12 Gavao was like, no, he goes, you want to?

1:44:14 I'm like, yeah.

1:44:15 So he FaceTime's in and he's like, Hey, Professor, this is Isaac.

1:44:18 It's Kramer.

1:44:19 This is Jesus.

1:44:19 And you did to like, check it out.

1:44:21 And he's like, dude, I love this.

1:44:22 This is awesome.

1:44:23 And then, you know, he gave me my jujitsu nickname.

1:44:24 Did he?

1:44:25 Which did I ever tell you?

1:44:26 That's no, no, no, no loser.

1:44:27 I thought he was brought to the forge.

1:44:30 Uh, but I'd been training like six months.

1:44:32 Yeah.

1:44:32 It was a white belt and he was brought in.

1:44:34 And I don't know, but I'm like, I need to, I need to just go to all the different seminars

1:44:39 or whatever.

1:44:39 So they bring him in.

1:44:39 And then at the end of the seminar, he just starts calling people out to come

1:44:43 roll with him, right?

1:44:44 And so he, you know, calls out this person calls out that person.

1:44:46 And then he points to me, he goes big, white belt, come here.

1:44:49 And so I come out there and like for whatever reason, my hair was a little longer

1:44:52 at the time out of the haircut in a while.

1:44:54 My beard was a little unkempt.

1:44:55 And, you know, I'm after two hour seminar and he goes, Oh, Viking.

1:44:58 Like you look like a Viking.

1:44:59 Yes.

1:45:00 And so the name just stuck and he will just call me Viking forever.

1:45:03 But it's like that's, that's actually pretty cool for like, I don't know how

1:45:06 many time at all champion that guy is to get my jujitsu.

1:45:09 One of you said it, it, it sticks.

1:45:11 So yeah, guys, I am a Viking.

1:45:12 It is official.

1:45:13 Gao Bao told me, but it's the space time it with him.

1:45:16 And yeah, yeah, without toes.

1:45:17 Yeah.

1:45:17 So that's one of the places we're aiming to get in, you know, in the new year,

1:45:21 the Wagner roaches out and he's a huge supporter of our ministry.

1:45:24 Um, he walked out at ADCC.

1:45:27 No, yeah.

1:45:28 Yeah.

1:45:28 ADCC last year holding our flag.

1:45:30 Yeah.

1:45:30 And then on his tooth recently.

1:45:32 Yeah, he was too with rest of us.

1:45:33 Yeah.

1:45:33 And as he was leaving CJI in the airport, where Rock and Jesus

1:45:37 introduced you shirts and the airport, him and his wife.

1:45:39 Um, and so yeah, anyway, so we're looking ahead to next year.

1:45:42 So, you know, we're getting, we're getting those schools lined up.

1:45:45 One of the ways that people can help, if they want to get us there, obviously,

1:45:49 we need, we need big space and we need, um, support.

1:45:52 So people, people that brought us to other states in the past have helped us

1:45:56 with fundraising.

1:45:57 They talked to different businesses, they talked to churches and said, this, we

1:46:01 want to bring this ministry here.

1:46:02 And so they helped get some, uh, some of our travel for our crew, uh, logistics

1:46:08 covered ahead of time before we got there.

1:46:09 Uh, so that's one of the ways people can help.

1:46:11 But really, I mean, low hanging fruit for support is, uh, to check out, uh, I

1:46:16 mean, to become a monthly donor, I mean, we can, you know, five bucks a month.

1:46:20 There's people out there that, you know, a thousand bucks is nothing to them.

1:46:23 That would be a lot to us, you know, we could do a ton with that.

1:46:27 And so sponsoring events, sponsoring podcast episodes, becoming a monthly

1:46:32 contributor, uh, yeah, we also have people that are just like, right, big,

1:46:35 sometimes we'll write a big check.

1:46:37 Hey, I feel like God's calling me to do this.

1:46:39 Here you go.

1:46:39 You know, and so, uh, those are all the ways I think that you could support us,

1:46:43 but really mean buying merch, tell people about our, our, our content's only

1:46:46 going to improve as well, you know, so like share, follow us on our social

1:46:49 media channels at, uh, Jesus and Jiu Jitsu underscore USA is our Instagram handle.

1:46:53 We kind of find everything about us there, um, our podcast, the, the Jesus

1:46:58 and Jiu Jitsu podcasts is on YouTube, Spotify, Apple, Apple plate, you know,

1:47:02 Apple podcast and all that too.

1:47:04 So those are just ways to get more exposure for the ministry.

1:47:07 And if like, you know, if you had nothing to give, just like your support

1:47:09 and listening to what we have to say, if you find value in it, great.

1:47:12 Or we could always, we always love prayer too.

1:47:14 Yeah.

1:47:14 And just just pray for us and pray for God's blessing, uh, over this, over this

1:47:19 ministry, um, over us, over our families.

1:47:21 And, you know, pray that we're able to keep doing what we're doing right now.

1:47:25 And that's, you know, try to grow God's kingdom through the sport of Jiu Jitsu.

1:47:28 Awesome.

1:47:28 Well, Ryan, Isaac, I'm so glad y'all are able to come up to the studio and I'm

1:47:32 happy, uh, to know that you guys are going to be well, you got, you got a role,

1:47:35 but that you're going to be with us tomorrow as we, uh, disabuse some people

1:47:39 of their previous notions about how much they're able to fight.

1:47:42 And so it's always fun to watch people get red pill.

1:47:45 So I appreciate y'all, uh, come up here and be a part of it.

1:47:47 Absolutely.

1:47:47 Amen. Our honor man, thank you so much for having us. Thank you for listening to this

1:47:51 podcast. Wherever you're listening to this, please subscribe, rate, and leave us a

1:47:54 positive five star review.

1:47:55 If you want me to come speak live at your event or on your podcast, shoot me an

1:47:58 email to info at undonton.life.

1:48:01 That's I N F O at undonton.life.

1:48:03 Follow us on Instagram and like us on Facebook and check out our website for

1:48:06 everything else, including how to donate to keep more content like this coming your

1:48:09 way.

1:48:09 Just go to www dot undonton.life.

1:48:12 And as always, we want to thank the band.

1:48:13 Holy name for allowing us to use their music for our content.

1:48:16 The music on this podcast is our song Perpetua, which is off their self-titled

1:48:20 debut album on Face Down Records.

1:48:21 The links are in the description.

1:48:23 I'm your host, Kyle Thompson.

1:48:25 Remember, keep pushing back darkness, keep forging spiritual, mental and

1:48:30 physical resilience.

1:48:31 Keep seeking the lion of Judah.

1:48:46 Yeah.