Transcription

• Speaker #0

  we'll open it we're live by the way oh so welcome my friend i'm here i exist in this chair right now yeah this is this is rob this is mcdojo life 2.0 this is part two round two round two my friend well you know what it was and it was super cool what we did with chris over at rain 702 and it's just i you I was a fan of your content before that. And now like we've become friends and we talk, right. Thank you. And so I've with the way that, and we've talked about this direction I've taken. This thing now is less episodes with better guests.

• Speaker #1

  Okay. I dig that. Right. I dig that. Yeah.

• Speaker #0

  I really now like one or two episodes a month and, but with people that just, I adore, you know, and that we could just have really good conversations and we capture it on video.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, well, like I was chopping up before we started, but the last one that you did with Mackenzie Dern is actually really good. Thank you. Yeah, I really liked it. She's a very charismatic individual. She's wonderful. Yeah, great human.

• Speaker #0

  She is one of the happiest slash most lethal people I've ever met in my entire life.

• Speaker #1

  I mean, especially out here in Vegas. I mean, you got, we were just talking about this too, like it's the fight capital of the world. So it's pretty handy that you can have access to somebody like that. who just exists in this space. You know,

• Speaker #0

  it's it's interesting to be a podcaster here is great because now it's all my guests are friends or referrals from friends,

• Speaker #1

  which is great.

• Speaker #0

  Let's say, hey, I've got a buddy of the podcast. If you're in Vegas, give Jeff a call and then there's a very good chance they come on.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, I got lucky with one because I'm out here for shot show. Me and Sarah were trying to figure out like for Bestie, the self-defense company. We were trying to figure out how I could work together with her. And so we're doing a 10 minute podcast, 10 questions, 10 minutes. That's it. We're calling the hot seat. And so I'm just rapid fire, 10 questions, 10 minutes, get out the seat next person.

• Speaker #0

  And I love it. And you've got some amazing people coming on. Yeah,

• Speaker #1

  I got very, very lucky to have some really nice friends. And so when I see them, some of them actually were out here in Vegas and they're super fascinating. And so I'll try to refer them over here. I think some of them are amazing, dude, like PJ overt flow. He's like this incredible professional video game player. And for some reason, every time I go out of country, he just happens to be there. I've been like five times, five times I've been out of country and he just appears. I was in the Dominican Republic back in the day and I was like at an all inclusive resort, Dominican Republic for karate combat, which is a different issue at this time. But when I went there, I just walked around the corner and there he is like. How the hell did you get to that? Like, and I don't even think karate combat brought him out. I think he just happened to be there.

• Speaker #0

  Isn't that funny?

• Speaker #1

  Yeah.

• Speaker #0

  What's like the most random time? I have a couple of those where you've been somewhere like thousands of miles away from home and ran into someone that you knew.

• Speaker #1

  Oh, man, that's tough. You know, I think it happens more when I'm out of state. It's like I know so many more people here in the States than I, you know, I really do overseas. these but. Yeah, I think it's happened in the States or that Dominican Republic story is probably the one. Is that funny? It just appears. I'm like, how the hell did you get here? It was like a magic show.

• Speaker #0

  What the hell?

• Speaker #1

  Yeah.

• Speaker #0

  So getting back to the pod you're going to be doing at SHOT Show, do you have the questions already done ahead of time?

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, I'm going to do the questions ahead of time. They're going to vary. I'm going to have a couple of questions that are a little more standard just because I'm curious of everyone's answer, especially like, you know, Bestie Defense is a female run company. And... They're definitely lean into the female audience, which is great because it's a pepper spray company. And so because of that, I wanted to lean into guests who had significant others or guests who were women and that we could have those conversations and just be like, you know what? Like, I think that, you know, self-defense is an important thing. Most of the people I'm interviewing are from a self-defense or firearms background. Why not have them on the show? And let's have a legitimate, quick conversation about what self-defense is to them. Um, cause it's different to everybody. Everybody's got different. There's always that guy online, right? Who's like, I just shoot them. Like you just go to jail. That's a stupid answer for it. You can't just shoot everybody. Like you get caught up in traffic. Oh, I should shoot them. Like, what do you, you have Sam and he's Sam. It's wrong with you.

• Speaker #0

  It's interesting that, and I, I do want to talk about Betsy defense too. Just, and I wasn't going to, I didn't tell Sarah this, but I do want to get into that because I do want to do some clips.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah. Oh, I got you. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. Oh, of course.

• Speaker #0

  Because I love her. Like she's great. Yeah, she's a great human. I am all about being a dad of a stepdaughter and a daughter. I am so pro woman-owned businesses, woman entrepreneurs. Women who just get out there and in the face of a bunch of no's every single day go, fuck you, I'm going to make this happen. And she's doing that. Her and I talked this week and I'm like, god damn it, kiddo. Good for you.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, I mean, she got like several patents. Like, I don't have a damn patent. You know, she got several patents. You know, she was able to build a company from the ground up out of nowhere and like enhance something that hadn't been touched. since its conception like i've never seen pepper spray actually be modified in a way that was better you i've seen them try to you see a lot of companies who try to make pepper spray they'll like we want to make it for women and they just turn the packaging pink yeah because that's what all women want they just want pink shit all the goddamn no they don't like um you know this is a very thoughtful thing like i pressure tested it so i got to show you the did i show you this no yeah we pressure it like legit pressure tested it so you I wanted to put it through the ringer. And, you know, I was very honest when I did that. I was like, if it sucks, I will have to say it sucks. Like my entire career is based off of something's bullshit. I will say it's bullshit. And so wound up pressure testing it. And it's got like a, it's like a three in one personal protection device. So it's like kind of like a more of a teardrop shape instead of the round shape, you know, because like in duress, you pull out your pepper spray, like. Knowing where the nozzle is on a completely round thing is very hard. I've seen videos online of people even pepper spraying themselves, which is wild because they're in duress and they just hit the button and it's a squeeze and it happens. And so it's got like an impact device on the bottom of it. So it's like a wedge and it was like designed by an aerospace engineer, which is even more insane. So like so that impact or, you know, after you hit somebody with pepper spray, it's going to take. I don't know. Like for me, at least it was 10 seconds or so before it actually started to put me in a position of duress where I was like, hey, you got it. I'm done. But if I had 10 seconds, that's a long time in a fight. So if I got a hold of somebody in 10 seconds, I don't need to see you anymore. I can just start raining down on you and like because now I'm also hurt. So now I'm going to feel the need to hurt you even worse because now I'm in pain and I know I have a limited span. So the impact device... Once I put my hands on somebody and they start stabbing me with that, probably going to wind up letting go. It's not going to feel good. Or if you're in a place that's confined, let's say you have to pull out pepper spray in your car like an Uber driver. Well, if I pepper spray in this car, we're all getting it, like, which sucks. But if I stab you with this thing, it's less than lethal. I don't necessarily have to put myself in that position or an elevator or a tight space, whatever that tight space may be.

• Speaker #0

  So it's a very interesting concept.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah. And the personal protection device, like As soon as you deploy the pepper spray, there's three different formulas. It's also on like a two-year subscription service. So like every time because pepper spray runs out. Like it expires. So when your pepper spray expires, you just get sent another one. It just automatically gets sent to you, and you just replace it, which is great. And then, of course, an alarm goes off. So as soon as you pepper spray somebody, an alarm goes off in your hand to alert people that something's happened.

• Speaker #0

  I love that this is going to turn into a commercial for a female pepper spray and it's you doing all the talking you're like the spokes model of well like i genuinely like it's a great product like uh and i'm a i'm usually no bullshit when it comes to stuff so like when it came to like this product i tested it we went through uh we

• Speaker #1

  got a bunch of meat like slabs of meat and i went to go stab one time in each slab of meat with one stab while i was sitting so no leverage nothing and i put holes in all these pieces of meat and we got a rack of ribs. And so I hit. the rack of ribs and actually chipped bone off the ribs. And that was without me standing and turning my hips and moving my body. It was just me arming it. Went through a coconut and fun fact, coconut has the same density as a human skull. So if you can go through a coconut and go through somebody else. Yeah, exactly. So pretty cool shit.

• Speaker #0

  It's it's, it's very cool. Yeah, it's very cool. I, I, I want to talk to you about, and this is something that Rogan talked about this with on his podcast that. I mean, I'm 56 and have gotten, you know, in a couple of tussles when I was younger. I think we all go through that phase. When you got in a fight back in like the 80s, 90s, like a bar fight, the odds on the other person knowing martial arts was pretty low. Like, I remember a buddy of mine who's a really tough, Frank Ambrosia. Shout out to Frank Ambrosia, one of the toughest guys ever that I went to St. John Fisher College with in Rochester, New York. I mean,

• Speaker #1

  hopefully he didn't commit any crimes. You're like, his name is. Yeah, no, He lives at.

• Speaker #0

  He's good. He's good. But it was. But he would always tell me, Fargo, the only person I'm ever afraid of is a wrestler. He always would be afraid of wrestlers because he said, once they got you on the ground, it's game over. It's game over. Right. Nowadays. There's kids in mixed martial arts, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, from almost out of the womb. And so when you're going into, by the time it's fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh grade, and they're starting to develop like now, you hit puberty, and you're starting to get some muscle on you when you get into junior high school and ninth grade high school, and there's a good chance. You fuck with somebody. You could be fucking with the wrong guy or girl.

• Speaker #1

  And, you know, I think that's the evolution. I think we've been in a renaissance of martial arts since like 1993, which is when the UFC started. And I think we had this conversation last time I was on. It's like the beautiful thing that martial arts has evolved to where it is now. And, you know, there's a movie. It's called Starship Troopers. It's like a shitty movie. But I love that movie. I love that movie. And if you go back and watch the movie, it's like campy, but like serious and it like switches back and forth. But there's a thing in that movie that I always picked up on right when I saw it the first time was that all the humans in that movie are slightly evolved. Right. When they're having their football scene and the guys like he does like a somersault over people. Like when they get into a fist fight, the guy like picks the guy up over his head and it's like everybody's slightly evolved. And I think that's what they were trying to do in the movie is to portray that us and the future. our bodies would probably be somewhat evolved from what it is now. And you can see like Guinness World Records consistently being broken as time goes on. That's like we figure out how to take our tear of our bodies better. We figure out from people who were there before, like, oh, this guy did it this way. Well, if I modify it just a little bit, I can hit an extra yard. And then that becomes five and five years and so on. Well, it's the same thing with like fighting. You know, somebody came before you, which is literally what the word sensei means. the one who came before. So they came before you and they made a bunch of mistakes, but they also did a bunch of stuff right. So by the time you become a student, you go, I ain't doing that shit, but that stuff's good. So I'm going to do that. And then you evolve it. And so I think that that's where we're seeing like people and especially in school. I mean, you're getting these like five year olds who are absolute animals, but that's because we've been able to tighten up our our teaching. We've been able to understand how to make people better. You know, we understand things like CTE better than we used to. understand. how to make our training safer and more efficient, you know? So you'll get like, if you go on YouTube, there's just so many kids who are just like 30 year old animals. It's like, how are you five? Like you're a moving, like a grown man. That is terrifying. When you become 18, if your knees are still good, you're probably going to mess up everybody in the room. You know,

• Speaker #0

  it's, it's something when I was talking with McKenzie, we had a great, a great conversation about, I said to me, I go, I've never practiced jujitsu. I've watched a lot of it. It's, but it's like you're playing chess. Right. And it's like you're playing chess with somebody else's body with leverage and angles and pressure points. What that has to do with the evolution of a young child's mind to help them become a better person because you're being physically active. You're challenging yourself and you're thinking three, four or five steps ahead of the actual move you're trying to apply or in defense of the move being applied to you.

• Speaker #1

  While the person who you're rolling around with is also trying to do the same thing to you. It's weird because like when you when you do jujitsu, especially like when you're doing like live training, every time you get into a sparring session with another human being or rolling. But every time you're you're having a sparring session, even if you're with the same person, the likelihood that you are going to put your hand in the exact same spot and they put their hand in the exact same spot, you're going to have the exact same role. It's like little to not right. And at high levels, you'll put yourself in those positions on purpose. You'll be like, OK, I know I want to get to here. But I'm here, so how do I always end up here? And you'll practice that, right? But ultimately, every time, it's like a Rubik's Cube that is completely different every time. And it also is trying to kill you.

• Speaker #0

  There's something I want to pivot a little bit. We'll get into your content that you put out.

• Speaker #1

  I got you.

• Speaker #0

  We'll get into that. But I want to focus now on what schools, if any, are out there that are like McJojo life, seal of approval. Like good housekeeping, man. You're like, if you go into this school, it's never 100%. Yeah. But there's a much higher chance that the instructors are, you know, they're good. Like they've been put, they've been, before we talked about like the whole thing with kids. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. With adults and there's no, you know, association or anything that vets these, that vets these instructors. Who, who is it? What? What martial arts academies or brands do you personally recommend?

• Speaker #1

  And I'm, well, before I get into that, I want to double down on what I said before, because that was hilarious. And like me and you were texting back and forth about it. And you were like, do you want me to take it down? I was like, no, fuck them. They're wrong. They're just wrong. Because I said, and I will say it again for anybody who did not hear it louder in the back. There is no regulatory body in the United States that will tell you what you can and cannot do when you open a martial arts studio in the United States. There is no requirement whatsoever. Anyone can Google this. It is very easy to do, right? And if you don't take the time to Google it, that's on you. You will look very foolish when we talk in the comment sections. I promise you there's no regulatory body at all whatsoever to open a martial arts studio in the United States. There's no regulations. You don't need background checks, CPR, first aid. You do nothing. You don't even need to know martial arts, right? Now, if you're going to go into a sport of boxing, you might need to go through USA boxing. If you're going to the sport of USA wrestling, you might go through USA wrestling and so on. None of that is required to open a martial arts studio. And then there are people who also had the, well, if you're going to open a martial arts studio, you're probably going to coach. You can. You can just go coach. Who said you had to put your people into a like? Well, he's a wrestling coach. So it's probably going to put people into wrestling. Maybe not. Maybe he's claiming to be an MMA guru and he just puts his people into an amateur fight, which anyone can do. Like, but the issue isn't them going into the sport. The issue is the people who are not going into the sport. The issue is the people who are going in, who have extreme backgrounds that have done horrific things. No one's done any checking on them. And then all of a sudden they turn around and they do something bad. To an adult or a child sexually. And they've already done that to other people. And they have a track record of it. And no you cannot predict the future. There's no way to predict the future. I can't go you know this guy's got a clean background. He's never going to rape. Like he might. I don't know. I know right now he hasn't. So if I had to look on two people's backgrounds. And go this guy has raped people. And this guy hasn't. I'm probably going to the non-rapey guy.

• Speaker #0

  I'm going with less rapey all day long. Yeah, I'm just going to pick. Unless it's date night with Brandy. Then we can talk about it.

• Speaker #1

  That's called Tuesday. But yeah, it's dumbfounding. And there was a gentleman on there, and I have no ill will towards him, but he was talking about not wanting background checks. And I don't understand the logic. Like, what's the logic of being transparent with your consumer? With you saying, hey, look. When this guy was 18 years old, he's an instructor. He went out and he molested a child. That was when he was 18. So like, is it still cool that he teaches your kid? Almost every parent is going to go. Absolutely not. I'm not going to put him there. If you feel you have to hide that, you know, you're doing wrong. What are you hiding? If you're afraid of background checks and people would be like, well, what about government regulations? If you, if everyone got together. And we said, you know what? We should probably all do background checks. You wouldn't hear me talking about it now. The problem is that no one does do that. And by no one, I mean the masses. There'll be people out there like before who go, well, I had to do it for my that's your studio. It's a good studio. Good. That's how it should be. But that still doesn't stop the guy from opening a studio who does have a background. And it would be just as simple as transparent background checks. And if there's anybody out there who does not want the public to know and be aware that there is a sex offender in a martial arts studio, shame on you. Shame on you. Like, in my opinion, you're a piece of shit human being. If you think it's okay for us to go, you know what? Background checks aren't going to stop everybody, so we should just never do them. That's dumb. That's the stupidest shit I've ever heard. Like, and that I just dumbfounded when I hear people talk about this shit or like. the comment section thing was mind-blowing no you do need regular like you do have to have background no the fuck you don't like dear google when do you ever need background checks to open a martial arts studio oh you fucking don't like you don't the the absolute level of retardation that

• Speaker #0

  came into the comment section on that stuff i and when we were texting about it oh yeah laughing her asses off about it.

• Speaker #1

  I thought it was great. But it was also really sad. It was funny. Because, like, they're heckling me, and, like, I go, and I'd be like, look it up. Like, just look it up. Tell me where it says ever. Because I've been doing this for 28 years as well, and people look at me, they go, that's a nerdy dude. He's never trained a day in his life. What are you talking about? I've trained all over the world. I literally trained all the time. And, like, yeah, I might not. Like, if we look at Daniel Cormier, we wouldn't be like, that's the peak perfection of a man. Like, that was a heavyweight champion. What are we talking about? Like, look at Fedor. He looks like a dude who was drinking vodka right before the fight. You think he gave a shit if you cared what he looked like? Like at the end of the day, what we really need to look at is really the ethics of people who think that we should not do background checks on people who are around children. That's what it all boils down to.

• Speaker #0

  I agree. And I'll double down on that. Reverse engineer it.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah.

• Speaker #0

  And think of all those people that came into the comments saying that background checks don't need to happen.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah.

• Speaker #0

  It gives even more credence to me that there needs to be a better job of educating the public. Yes. Because they don't know.

• Speaker #1

  Simply don't know. And like we, you know, we started Academy Safe. So Academy Safe is a third party. And I will say this right now. And it's important for people to know. I don't give a shit if you use Academy Safe. I I don't fucking care. I started Academy Safe because it's a third party organization that we can actually say, hey, these people, even though they're not required to do these things, have done them. And we can show the public this person did their background check. This person got CPR certified. This person's safe sport certified. Like we can say that those people did those things. You don't have to do that. You don't have to do any of that through us. Don't do it. If you don't want to fuck me, who cares? Who gives a shit what I have to say, right? But go get background checks anyway. Get them on your own. Go get safe sport certified on your own. Require it of your people, because if that stuff was not as rampant, I wouldn't have to do stories several times a week about it happening all the time. And like there are a lot of people who do have blinders on and go, well, it never happened to me. I've never heard of that. That's because you don't you're not that's not what you do for a living. I do that for a living. I go out and I find these stories of people who do wrong in our industry, and I make sure the public is aware of that. up. I just I'm a little dumbfounded when people don't care about the safety of others because they think they're good. Like if, for instance, if you yourself go out and you don't drink and drive, do you think it's OK for other people to drink and drive? So if we pull people over, we should like willy nilly that guy. We could we could test because I'm pretty sure he's drunk, but we're not going to. I'm going to assume everybody on the road is great because I'm good. Like that's not how this works. It's not reality. And when something goes unchecked for long enough, it becomes status quo. And that's what I'm terrified of. I'm terrified that that lackadaisical lack of caring, like really true lack of caring is what people are going to start assuming is the martial arts industry. And it's going to be based off of a lot of people turning the wrong way and going, you know what? That guy did it. Not us. We're good. Oh, that guy did it too. It's the equivalent of like, let's say we're all hanging out in the pool, right? It's me, you, right? We're chilling, getting a scan, you know? got a Mai Tai having a great time then all of a sudden somebody walks over to the edge of the pool right and everybody's in the pool there's karate is in the pool Akito's in the pool even though he's got floaties on but we still let him in you know Taekwondo's hanging out doing flippies in the pool and everybody's having a great jujitsu's doing all kinds of fun stuff everybody's having a blast and here comes the rapist on the edge of the pool he just starts pissing into the pool and everybody goes you know what that guy's pissing the pool but hey we're not so we're good So we just ignore that guy. Well, what happens when another guy comes up and now he goes, oh, I could do that. Then they do it and they do it and they do it. Eventually, if you're saying you'll get out the goddamn pool and then what's left? We just left them to take our space because we just didn't care enough. We wanted to argue some stupid ass. I don't want the government regulating it. What? You don't want the government regulating it the way they do all child care. If you do child care, you usually have to have a background check except martial arts. How is that sane? You know?

• Speaker #0

  You left out Tai Chi's doing aqua aerobics.

• Speaker #1

  They're in there real slow. It's going to take them a while to get out of the pool.

• Speaker #0

  With the floaties on their wrists.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, but they're going to be in great shape in their 90s. Oh,

• Speaker #0

  please, please. So back to my original question. What martial arts brands do you support and endorse?

• Speaker #1

  I don't look at it that way. I truly don't. And I wish it was that easy, right? Let's say I said art. Let's say the brand is art. Let's say it's jujitsu. And I go, jujitsu is where you need to put your kid. Again, it's unregulated. So if I said jujitsu and your kid gets raped, do you really give a shit that he's really good at doing a triangle choke on somebody? Do you care that he's more efficient as a street fighter if he's already getting harmed inside his facility? Or let's say this, let's say that jujitsu instructor or wrestling coach or any martial art, right? Just naming the ones that most people are aware of are effective. Let's say it's a Muay Thai coach and let's say he's abusive. Like I did. Three or four stories, I think, last year of kids who were murdered by their martial arts instructors during class with parents in attendance, which is insane to me. One was a sumo instructor or not sumo. I apologize. Sambo instructor, not the same. And he was mad at his students and on camera, like swept his students so hard that one of them landed on their neck, broke his neck and died. OK, so what? He did Muay Thai. So we just think Muay Thai is on the pedestal. No. We need to look at the individuals and the instructors and we need to pay attention to them. It doesn't matter what art they do. Would you give two shits if the piano teacher that was teaching your kid didn't have a clean background check? Wouldn't that bother you? But we don't even look at martial arts like that. And so like, or let's say it's a franchise. Let's say, again, I say it's a certain franchise. Let's say it's a, some people are against Gracie Baja or some people are for Karate America or against it, right? Everybody's got their thing. Or let's say it's 10th Planet because most people are like, oh, 10th Planet is legit. Again, what happens if that instructor is a lifelong criminal and he just steals your money and closes the gym? Would you give a shit that he taught you good jujitsu? Like you just got defrauded. Like, There are certain things that are much more important in our life than being able to fight another human being well. And if you're in fistfights all the time, you might want to go to a therapist. Learning how to fight is good, but learning how to fight is exactly identical to learning how to swim. Hear me out. They're the equivalent of importance. If I get tossed into the deep end of a pool and I don't know how to swim, what happens to me? I die. If I get tossed into the deep end of a real fistfight on the street and I don't know how to fight, I could. possibly die right now some people get lucky right i get tossed in the deep end maybe i get lucky to get to the edge some people do maybe you get tossed into a fight maybe you did okay right now you might not even your confidence might be through the roof right but like ultimately they're the importance of they're just as important because do i need to know how to swim right now no there's no water i would be a i would be weird if i just started swimming my way to the bathroom right now you'd be like what the fuck are you doing why don't you just walk like because i swim like i'd be like what about fighting Do I fight all the time? If you do, you're an asshole. Like training is not the same, right? So if you're constantly getting into fistfights as a human being, you need to look inside and go, why am I doing this? So do I need to know how to fight right now? No, that would be weird. And I get charged with assault and then you'd beat me up and I'm fragile. I bruise like a peach. You know what I'm saying? So like, like a peach. So like when it comes down to it, knowing how to swim and knowing how to be efficient at violence are equal importance because if you don't know how to do them when you need them. you will die what and correct me if i'm wrong and i want you to but also side note you don't need to know how to do those things all the time you need them when you need them heard yeah heard what what troubles me as a parent is

• Speaker #0

  that and maybe you can like i said correct me if i'm wrong but you can't even say with confidence to say you know what jeff gracie jujitsu in huntington beach california they've got a couple schools there 10 out of 10. They vet their instructors. They do criminal background checks. They do everything. You can't say that, though, can you?

• Speaker #1

  No, because ultimately it also boils down to a lot of factors, right? What do you want out of this as a student?

• Speaker #0

  Oh, by the way, I'm not like, and I'm going to get shit for that where I just said, I'm not picking on Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. It's just the first one that came to mind. I don't know if they're in fucking Huntington Beach.

• Speaker #1

  you know the one that i like is probably steve's all you can eat chinese buffet and kung fu emporium you come for the kung fu but damn it you stay for the egg rolls so you know that's they're out there i'm telling you but you know when you go to a martial arts facility and when you go you have to set yourself goals so like let's say again let's say your goal is you want to become a professional boxer. And that is your goal. I would not recommend a jujitsu gym for you because that's not your goal. Let's say your goal is to lose 30 pounds to get a gastric bypass surgery. So that way you can get the gastric sleeve or bypass, right? When the doctor tells you that and you go to a martial arts facility and they're pushing you towards competition and you're constantly getting hurt. I'm not saying that that's what the case is for everybody, right? You might go to competition. You might lose that weight, but maybe that makes you not want to train because your goal wasn't anything for competition. It's not what you want. And if the coach is constantly pushing you that way, maybe that pushes you away from wanting to be there. And something that's not put on a pedestal that I think is a really important one we keep forgetting in martial arts is do you like it? Do you like it? Is it fun? Like who gives a shit if you were effective, if you absolutely are miserable when you go? How bad would that be? Like, yeah, I can kill a grown man with my hands. I fucking hate every second of it. I'm there four or five times a week. I don't like my life. please kill me. Like, what's the point? Like, would the world be better if Beethoven decided to take karate?

• Speaker #0

  No, he did the thing that gave him passion and meaning and made him feel better. And he made an impact on the world. So if we force people down these holes and say, you have to do this. Oh, you take karate. That's bullshit. How is that beneficial to them and not just your ego? That makes you feel good because you believe you have the right answer for this complete stranger you've never met. You know, and a lot of people online love to do that shit. You know, it's fascinating.

• Speaker #1

  My son is 10 and is just... The funniest, nicest kid. He's just an empath, and he's just a good person. When he was seven or eight, I said, hey, do you want to try jiu-jitsu? There's a Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy right near our house. He says, yeah, I'll try it. He did it for about six months, and then he started to say, dad, I don't want to do this anymore. And of course, Gen X dad pushed through it, honey, you'll be fine. Let's go. Come on, let's go. I'm the one that would take him and all that and the whole thing. Then one day he gets off the bus before I'm picking him up, but I've got his gi and we're ready to go, and he's crying.

• Speaker #0

  Okay.

• Speaker #1

  He's sobbing, Rob. And I'm like, what's wrong? He goes, dad, I really don't want to do jujitsu anymore. And I said, okay, we're done. We're done. But life lesson to him, I go, but you're going to go in with me.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah.

• Speaker #1

  We're going to tell them why. Yeah. Because the woman that runs it here in Henderson, they're fantastic. They're fantastic. Love that. Love to hear that. And so I wanted to teach him the life lesson of if you're going to end something, you need to respectfully tell them.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah. That's a great lesson to learn. And let them know. The beautiful thing about that is, isn't that a beautiful lesson for martial arts in itself? Is being able to stand up for yourself and go through a confrontation that really isn't going to be as bad as you thought it was going to be because you prepared yourself for that. And that's a beautiful lesson.

• Speaker #1

  Thank you. It was something that, again, I would try to be a better dad. And so we went in and it's a husband and wife that run it. And the husband's the one that's the instructor and the wife. She's a badass, too. I probably know. No doubt. But she loved Jack and was like, I'm so sorry. That's okay. Like we're here if ever you want to come back. Love that. And so I just, it's, but it's, it was gut wrenching for me because I grew up playing football and lacrosse. And I mean, this is back, but back in the eighties when you just didn't care and there was no CTE and you just, you know, my God, he just went and kicked ass with no, with no caution, caution to the wind, you know, no, no fear of anything. But it's, I, it's hard as a parent. Because after we've talked now, it's like there's no regulatory body. Sorry for martial arts, you know, as a whole in the United States. So there's no real due diligence you can do as a parent unless you're getting the names of all the employees and cross referencing a defender list.

• Speaker #0

  All I really do is just ask it. I think if we Start to educate the consumer, which the martial arts is very convoluted in that way. Like if you go to one martial arts studio, it's a professor. Go to another. It's Sifu. Go to another. It's coach. Go to another. It's sensei. Right. And so like the average consumer walks in and they there's what thousands of different martial arts around the world. Which one's right for me? I want to try martial arts. Why do you want to try martial arts? Like we we keep pushing people towards this like you have to know it. I think. that certain people have to know it. I think that it's smart to know it. I think that if you're going to go through life, I think it's important to learn how to swim. I think that if you are living in a landlocked area in the middle of nowhere with no swimming pools and no possible way of drowning, maybe you don't need to learn how to swim. But like life, we don't get to dictate and pick and choose who, when, why, and how we fight another human being. All we can do is exist. and hope it doesn't happen. So I think people do a disservice to themselves by not at least learning some. But at the end of the day, if that's not for you, that's your choice as an individual. And that's OK. Do the thing that makes you happy. I mean, shit, I could die of an aneurysm right now. And I would be so pissed if my last moments were like, fuck, I really wish I didn't come to karate dead. You know, like, how bad would that suck? Like, go do the thing that makes you happy. It's true. If some... douche hole on the fucking internet goes well you don't know what you're talking about then fuck you like that's how you're spending your time like I get to talk to a good friend and we get to have a conversation and if other people want to listen to that that's cool you know but if they come in and they chime in with some bullshit I'm available I go live all the time anytime someone talks shit to me I'm like hey we can go live and we can have a conversation about this I'd love to hear your point of view and it's always crickets

• Speaker #1

  I love how approachable you are Because that's like, at the end of the day, the ones that run and hide after they give their opinion. There's something going on where you, you, you double down where, I mean, you've got a monster audience online. You get in and mix it up in the comments. You are replying to people. You're going on lives just to say, Hey, come on, talk to me.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah. Right. Absolutely. A hundred percent. Like, and it's not a vindictive thing. I, I believe a couple of things. One, my audience is what helps me pay my bills. They pay my bills. Like they're the reason I have sponsors. They're the reason I get to do this for a living. Like I love my audience. I don't give a shit if they love me because at the end of the day, my audience is still paying my bills. If some guy goes online and says, you're a piece of shit, you just helped me. That's one more comment that goes into the algorithm that becomes a number. And then the more numbers pop up, the more people can actually hear my message. And the more people who might actually give a damn about kids safety might actually go, maybe we should ask for some background checks. Maybe I should go. You know what? I didn't know that my martial arts studio might not do background check maybe i should ask do you guys do background checks you don't well now you have to make a decision as an adult parent is that what you want for your child or as a woman who may have come out uh or had issues in the past of another grown human being molesting them in some way even as an adult do you want to put yourself into that situation again when it's kind of a hotbed for it i mean there's people in jiu-jitsu right now being looked at. Like people literally fleeing for sexual assault. Like there are a lot of cases of this. I mean, there are even cases of martial arts instructors paying severance pays to rapists and helping them leave the country. And still existing today. And no one seems to give a fuck because they're good at jujitsu. And I love martial arts. And I know when I speak, I think a lot of people might get the impression that I don't love martial arts, that I'm against it, that I think it's all bad. Absolutely not. Martial arts is a beautiful thing. It can help people in so many different ways. It's a great outlet, but it's not everyone's outlet. And that's okay. Like, do you care that Jeff Gordon, when he's in NASCAR, doesn't know how to fight? You don't give a shit. Why? Because he's good at the thing he does. You know, like let the people do what they want to do. And to what you were talking about earlier, I think it's a wonderful thing that you allowed your child to make a decision. That's what we have to do as adults. As an adult, when you don't want to do some shit, you just don't do it. And then there'll be people out there like, you got to push yourself. Like why? I'm going to, I'm eventually going to die. Like, why wouldn't I want to be happy? And like, will, will I reach like everybody's like cyclical, right? So you're going to wind up going through like these ebbs and flows in your life. Maybe you did have a bad spat with food, bad relationship. Maybe you did gain the weight. Maybe you did lose the weight on your own accord, but you know what, what didn't probably help you. Was some random stranger online calling you a piece of shit human being? I guarantee you that probably wasn't the catalyst for you to want to make a change. It was probably something that you felt was right for you. And it's the same with anything. Do you want to learn how to fight? Go for it. I hope that you go to an environment that is nurturing and allows you to feel loved and feel great when you train and want to train. Because that's what makes you better. Not a coach beating the fuck out of you. It's not somebody calling you a piece of shit. It's not somebody saying that you need to try harder. What it is is somebody gave you a feeling that you love and you want to feel that again. So you chase it. You train and practice on your own. You do the extra hours. You work a little extra hard because there's a feeling you're chasing that makes you feel good. And like, look at champions. You think champions win like titles and go, I hate my life so much. They might because they might be doing some shit they might be good at, but not like, like, and why do we do it? Because somebody else pressured you. Fuck. them like do what makes you happy how old are you

• Speaker #1

  40 god damn i'm old you're yet please i have t-shirts older than you you uh i i i wish i had that insight when i was 40 because most people don't you know i i didn't get it until i met my wife like and that was three years ago like to to be at a point where if i'm like because i'm gen x keep pushing through pushing through she's like Stop. What are you doing? give yourself grace stop it right and so for you more people need to hear that it's okay not to push through something i think we get so preconditioned by people that say i gotta grind but grind i don't want to grind anything like except my wife that's it at my age i grind something i'm gonna break a fucking hip please i don't want to grow i don't want i don't want my work, my social life, my play. to be a grind. Yeah. Right. Like I, I've started about a month ago. I walked four and a half miles, six days a week.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah.

• Speaker #1

  I love it. I was talking to Sarah two days ago. Yeah. Like, I talk to my friends. I listen to podcasts. It's wonderful. And it's the joy of living in Las Vegas. You can do it year round. Yeah. Right?

• Speaker #0

  It's nice.

• Speaker #1

  So I love that. But it's not a grind. I'm not like, oh, I'm going to go for a fucking walk today. Fuck you, Jeff. The day that becomes a grind, I'm done. I'll find something else to do.

• Speaker #0

  Well, I mean, our life has so many things that we can accomplish. There's so many things that we could do. Like, I think that if you're a person who wants to do that because, you know, at the end of that, there's going to be a result that's going to equal a feeling that you want to do that. Right. Like, you know, you're going to college and you're trying to chase a doctorate. Yeah, there's going to be days that you're going to grind. You're making a conscious decision. Absolutely. Trying to get to the end goal. But a lot of people are just grinding for the sake of fucking doing it because they think that's what they need to do. Do the thing that makes you happy. Like you like maybe it's a hippie fucking thing. funny enough I'm not liberal at all, but like maybe it's a hippie way to think. But at the end of the day, like I think our happiness is much more important than someone else's opinion of how we should be happy. You know what?

• Speaker #1

  And you look at social media now where that's where, you know, kids are looking at other people that it's fake. What they're what those people are. You're the Lamborghinis usually rented, y'all. Just so you know.

• Speaker #0

  Dude. So I just moved to L.A. So glad you said this shit. So I just moved to L.A. And I moved out and I've been working on my documentary and like just living life. And I if you go down Rodeo, right, go down Rodeo Drive. You will see the most beautiful cars, right? Like these Lamborghinis and Porsches and Mercedes lined up. And every time I walk down there, there is somebody taking a picture of someone else's car. Every time there's always somebody doing that. The Internet is a. playland it's not real it's it's a it's a thing that avatar no one puts their worst fucking photo a lot of people don't even put their real photo some people put memes like it's just it's a it's a fantasy and like it's not real a lot of the comments are bots there's a lot of that too i've seen like i think it's a dump like i'm i i get what people are looking for is that perception but like that's that's faker than that's about as fake as it gets Yeah. Like if you had to buy your followers, do you think that that fake bots buying a T-shirt from you and helping you pay your bill? Do you think that a sponsor is not going to want to look at your analytics and go, let me see what these really are? Like every sponsor I've ever had ever wants a return on investment. And if you bought a bunch of bots and then you go to a sponsor and you're like, hey, I have all of these followers. And now you're committing fraud, in my opinion. You just lied to people who are going to pay you money and you cannot provide the service you said you'd provide. That's horseshit.

• Speaker #1

  There are so many people that are I've outed people. I'm open about that. That's my thing that I do sometimes. We talked about this too. We have that there's podcasters. There are coaches or influencers that come off by saying that they have four, five, six, ten million followers. But you look at their reels. and they have 245 views.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah.

• Speaker #1

  What? What, But somehow, some way, they have sponsors. Like, that part I don't get, but again, whatever. I just do my thing, and it is what it is, and I'm au naturel, full Monty. I don't pay for a thing. My audience is like you. My audience is my audience, and that's it. Some do great, some don't. don't give a shit is what it is i care about having good conversations and if the audience comes in and likes it and grows great if they don't okay fine give a fuck but it is something that nowadays with kids are looking at you know these air quotes influencers yeah that it's someone that's in their mid-20s that's had a ton of plastic surgery done already and she's getting her photo taken in front of somebody else's Bugatti on Rodeo Drive. acting like oh going out for you know jimmy choo is calling you know give me a fucking break and i think that there's starting to be a backlash to that that kids are smart like i my my stepdaughter my daughter they're smart and they know what's going on and a lot of times like yep they're still on tiktok and looking at all their shit but also there's times that they're like i'm done with the phone. I'm done. I'm going to go do other things.

• Speaker #0

  I mean, I think that the pendulum swings both ways, you know, like interesting enough. I was talking about this the other day with somebody and we were talking about how the new generation doesn't really seem to go out and drink. It's like an odd thing.

• Speaker #1

  Yep.

• Speaker #0

  Like I, if I go to like a bar, right, I look around, I'm like, I thought, I thought when I turned 40, I was going to be the old guy at the bar. I was going to be like, oh fuck, I'm the old guy at the bar. I'm hanging out. I was looking around like all these motherfuckers are 40. Like there's not a 20 year old, 21, 22 year old in this bar. Like you go to clubs and stuff like that. There's still a club culture, but it's like not the same. It has, it's shifted. Like, it's weird. Like even like, again, nod back to LA. But like when I went out there, like when I was younger, I heard like sunset was like that was the strip. You were going to go out and have a good time. It's vacant. Like it's wild.

• Speaker #1

  I want to ask you a question. Pull us a little bit closer to you, by the way. Thank you. Thank you. When you were 17 years old. Yes. And if you got invited to a birthday party for another 17 year old, what was going on at that party? Was anybody drinking at that party? Right. Yeah. Was anybody smoking weed at that party?

• Speaker #0

  Oh, yeah.

• Speaker #1

  Was anybody maybe diddling something in a bedroom? That was going down. Right? Right? Same. Same. My stepdaughter's birthday was two weeks ago, right? Yeah. And she's a theater kid, theater tech kid. Okay. She's really like, that's her. I love that she's passionate about it. She runs the lights and the sound.

• Speaker #0

  You're doing that. That's where the money is. Dude,

• Speaker #1

  from your lips to God's ears. I mean,

• Speaker #0

  we're literally in a studio right now. Like, that could.

• Speaker #1

  translate and you can make money and she loves it and she's probably go to college for it and that'll be her career yeah like her mom and i are tickled for her for that and her mom and i've talked about this she had her birthday party at our house had about 20 kids come over right and like my kids are there my 10 year old is there he's in the pictures that's hilarious they're just like singing songs they're doing karaoke but like we got costco pizzas and uh coke zero and And... And Brandy puts out a veggie tray. And we go upstairs and we're watching TV. I came downstairs a couple times. Nothing. They're just having fun.

• Speaker #0

  What if that's not how it went down? What if every time you went upstairs, it was just like, all right, he's gone. Bring out the cocaine. Outcomes, yeah.

• Speaker #1

  Hookers and blow. And then all of a sudden you're like.

• Speaker #0

  Where did the midget come from? And like you come downstairs and all of a sudden they just know how to pick it up real fast.

• Speaker #1

  I didn't know. I didn't know an elbow could go there. What? What are you doing with Twister? What's going on?

• Speaker #0

  Is that your name?

• Speaker #1

  I don't understand that. Get out of there, kids. It was. And it's, you know, I used to. I was a rager as a kid. Their mom was a rager as a kid. And so we're dying. We're upstairs in bed watching TV, laughing our asses off because you could hear them throughout the house. Like they're playing hide and go seek. Right. Like just harmless stuff. But to get back to your point, kids don't to drinking and drugs isn't a thing anymore. For better or for worse, it's just not a thing anymore with the generation.

• Speaker #0

  It's a very cool to see like the pendulum just swinging back the other way, you know, and, you know, there is a time where people there will always be people who want to go out and party and do drugs and drink. And that's always going to be a thing. That's there's always going to be people who are not trying to raw dog life. Right. They just want to, they, I need a little escapism. I need a good feeling. One of the cases that's never going to change, but it's kind of cool to see. Like they even, whenever you, I'm not sure if you ever watched that movie, 21 jump street, the remake.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah.

• Speaker #0

  And like, they wind up going back to school and they're used to what we're used to. And then they wind up going in and everybody's like, oh man, I don't eat meat. Like, why are you picking on that kid? That's not nice. Like, like what? All true. Yeah.

• Speaker #1

  It's all true. It is. Nowadays, kids are much more empathetic. I was raised, the bully's coming. What are you going to do when the bully shows up? Now it's like there are really bullying is like you're like sent off to Alcatraz if you bully somebody in school.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, it's wild. Like I've seen some videos like there's a guy who's really good to follow. His name's Tom DeBlas and Tom DeBlas is a jujitsu black belt. He's also the guy who runs the jujitsu. side of one championship. Like he puts out videos all the time. And what he'll do is like, if there are videos of kids, like who are bullying other kids, he'll find the kid who was bullied. Like he will post the video. Right. And so he'll find the kid who was bullied and he's like, Hey, this video, this kid, if anybody knows who this kid is, get them in contact. I want to talk to them or their parents. And almost every time he'll, he's got a good, solid following. They'll find that person. And then he'll wind up helping them get pro bono jujitsu. Oh,

• Speaker #1

  I love that.

• Speaker #0

  And like, he'll go and like, he helps these kids. beautiful thing i absolutely love it and like it does go to show like when people look online and you look at things in context kids are going to do stupid things because they're children and they don't know any better but those lessons of hey you filmed this so that way you can harm another human being and you thought that was going to work out well for you it seems like society is starting to take a like another look at that and go you kind of a dick like why would you do that to another human being like this doesn't make you a good person and so like now the world knows forever that you did a really shitty thing it's not going to help you look good you're not going to get cool points for that what a wonderful thing for like what

• Speaker #1

  if more people did that you know more more influencers you know with a solid following were like when they saw something like that took the time out to reach out or have someone reach out to that person and go, Hey. I'm going to take care of you. I'm going to pay for your like a vetted facility that I know of in your neighborhood or whatever. I'll call and vet them. And I'm going to pay in perpetuity for whatever you want it, you know, for you to go there and train. Oh, my God. Like, talk about paying it forward. I'd rather do that than, you know, give money to a homeless shelter. Sorry, homeless. But it's just like to me, that is more again. Because being a dad, it's like... with your kids man it's just like geez with the world getting the way it is it's get with ai everything else and you just try to do you try to do better you try to do better and it is something that we walk a very fine line though because you don't want to enable them and coddle them to where they think oh well mom and dad are going to take care of us forever and ever and ever yeah You know, that's that's the tough part, which gives even more credence to martial arts is just such a one on one thing.

• Speaker #0

  It's funny. Bring up the family thing. My mom, I do podcasts like usually like a couple of weeks. Right. So somebody will bite me. I'll go on. I'll do this. And so I did one the other day and the subject came up with me fighting in bars when I was 15. And I wish I did. I fought in nightclub bars when I was 15 for what was called patron boxing. And I think we talked about this on the last episode a little bit. And so anyway, I did the podcast about that. And the subject came up. Well, how the hell were you able to do that? And the guy who ran the promotion just basically said, you need to get your mom to sign this waiver. And my mom signed the waiver. And they were like, oh, my God, your mom signed the waiver. And the way that they said it, my mom watches every one of these, by the way, she watches every podcast I've ever been on. She's super supportive lady. But at the end of the hat. They were like, how could she do that? And she was like, they think I'm a bad mom. I'm like, fuck them. Like, mom, which she hates the F word. Sorry. But I was like, mom, relax. Like I if you didn't allow me to do that as a kid and let go of the reins and trust the people I was around who took care of me, trust the environment, trust that I would make the right decisions. Right. And me learning those lessons on my own. I wouldn't be able to now do the job that I do, call out rapists and frauds and pedophiles. I would have not gone down the same path. And so because she took the time to let go just enough, like she didn't let go. She was, you know, she was protective lady, but just enough to allow me to have those experiences. It took me down a path of something that I absolutely love. And that's, I've been doing the shit now for 28 years. April will be 29 years of my life. I've been in the martial arts industry. That's because she gave me a path and allowed me the freedom to move within it. And if I would have made a mistake, I know there'd be an I told you so. And then I would have liked getting ripped up. And then but she was still been there and still supported me. But at the same time, there would have been different boundaries drawn if I would have made a mistake. But I guess I don't have any kids. But I'm assuming that's what parenting is, is just figuring out what boundaries to remove and what boundaries to add. And you're doing the best you fucking can. Amen. And you

• Speaker #1

  praying that you don't fuck it up but there's no way to know well you're you're yes but you're gonna fuck it up yeah like it is as a parent i fuck up all the time but i'm very open with my kids when i do i'm the first one to apologize and they go hey i'm not perfect i'm so sorry i messed up this is what i did wrong and i often will check in with my kids and go what can i do better what can i do better as a dad as your dad um please tell me yeah i i i want i it's the only way I need You can get all the five-star Google reviews in the world. That's nice. I get more from that one star. He's an asshole. He didn't do this. He didn't do this. This was wrong, whatever. You'll learn more from the constructive criticism. That's growth, right? I want to get into what are what if there's any martial arts

• Speaker #0

  facilities on your radar right now that are like you need to fucking stay away from these places well it's not a facility right now um there are facilities out there and like to i like to do my stories before i name them because i like to make sure i don't get sued absolutely um but I guess I got two for you. I got an organization and I got a martial arts studio. So I talked about this before on the last time, but now we're moving forward and he doesn't know this yet. And I pray he sees this because it's going to be gold if he does. Do I have chapstick on me?

• Speaker #1

  You're fine.

• Speaker #0

  Okay, good. Because it was like a clobber trap. Like I ate some of it just now and it's a thing going on.

• Speaker #1

  As my grandmother would say, you're pretty as a picture. Just fine, Rob. You're good.

• Speaker #0

  Why? Thank you. By the way,

• Speaker #1

  bro code, I would tell you.

• Speaker #0

  Oh, thank you. I'm like talking with a big piece of chapstick.

• Speaker #1

  I got you.

• Speaker #0

  But yeah, so like the the the school right now, I got sued. I talked to you about this last time for calling out a registered sex offender and the studio that hired him. And again, Megan's law dictates that the the pedophile needed to disclose that he was a registered sex offender to his place of employee or volunteer. So he. And apparently, according to the owner, didn't do that, which is a complete lie. So then I put out a story and then the guy puts out a story back saying that everything I said was a lie, even though I put out everything with the receipts. So I put out another story to fire back even more lies that he told, which, again, provided a bunch of receipts for that. So then he sues me. Defamation of character saying I was some type of a business competing with his business. I don't remember exactly what that one was. And then the last one was invasion of privacy. So none of none of which is true. So I go ahead and start defending that. It took two years of being completely innocent, took about I want to think it was probably one hundred thousand dollars to defend myself. And we never went to court like we wind up doing like a summary judgment demur and wind up like getting two out of three causes of action tossed out. And then we wind up, he winds up quitting because he couldn't afford a lawyer. And then he had to pay my lawyer because of anti-slap laws. So it's like, he just got, he got railroaded for what he did, but it still cost me a lot of money to defend. So we got all of our funding and we talked about this before the, the mics were rolling, but I got all my funding for the documentary, like two weeks after I moved to LA, which was not that long ago. And, you know, we got a fantastic team. One of our executive producers, his name is Paul Geller. Paul Geller is a... monster of a litigation attorney. He is good. He's damn good. And he got another litigation attorney to come on board as an EP as well. I don't remember his last name. I'm sorry, Chris. I'm sorry. Hopefully it's not a hundred thousand dollar mistake for getting his last name, but like Paul and Chris came on board as EPs, Jocko Willink came on board as an EP, which is a huge name in the industry. And then we got another silent EP to come on board. So we were able to gather all of our funding. And so now a part of like a, now that we had funding, we were like, well, we have X amount of dollars. How do we spend that on the movie we want to make? And the movie we want to make is about fake martial artists and cults and frauds in the industry. And I was like, you know, a lot of people were telling us when we were talking about distribution, they were like, we really like it. Is there any way that you could have, you have anything modern like going on right now? I was like, there's a ton of things. They were like, well, people right now really enjoy cults, watching about cults and learning about cults, and people really enjoy. true crime like things that are going on that have legitimate cases and so i was like i looked through the paperwork of the lawsuit even after i won and i was like oh my god he perjured himself i found straight up things in the documents that he sent over he said that he knew a very specific time and location of when he found out the guy was a registered sex offender he marked it in the thing and he said he kicked him out right after that never allowed him back on the facility well while i was going through that lawsuit a parent reached out to me with a photo of the child of the pedophile reached out showed me a photo and a time stamp of him teaching a year after he says he was kicked out of the facility and i was like well he clearly lied on a court document that's not very smart and so now we are going to go back after him within the next couple weeks i'm going to be getting the paperwork done I'm going to give him the subpoena myself. I'm going to walk into his studio, metaglasses in hand and go here. you've been served. And, it's, for frivolous litigation. He sued me specifically to get me to stop speaking about the fact that he himself hired a registered sex offender. He tried to bleed me and the stipulations will be very, very simple. You can close your doors. You can then. Release a public statement stating the reason you closed your doors was because you hired a registered sex offender knowingly did so. And then I'm done. I will not pursue the remaining balance of what I am owed for the frivolous litigation. Or we can go to court. And then what I can do is I can take him and then we can go to a deposition. And then we go to deposition. We can start talking about all the reasons why he hired a registered sex offender. We can pull out all the facts and the evidence and see what he has to say there. And then past that, then we can go into discovery. And when we go into discovery, that legally allows us the ability to go into his records, go into the things of those conversations that he had specifically with Gary. And pull out all those little nuggets of him knowing. And then go to court. And then rip his ass up in court. Because I already won two out of three calls of action before. Those are already proven to be frivolous. So I'm going to at least get that money. And then he dismissed it afterwards when he couldn't afford a lawyer anymore. So I am so excited to get that on camera. It's finally nice to be able to go after somebody who literally hired a sex offender. Knowingly did so. And then tried to make it seem like they were innocent all while running a martial arts studio still today and putting other children in harm's way. It's great. It's great. It's a slam dunk. So that'll be a portion of the film. Yeah.

• Speaker #1

  What's the timeline for the documentary?

• Speaker #0

  We're looking to film. I actually filmed Tuesday. So sorry. I got a cramp.

• Speaker #1

  You're right.

• Speaker #0

  My damn leg. So we start filming on Tuesday. We have a very specific opening that we're looking for. Um, which will involve like all the people who've endorsed McDoja life over the years. Like it's, it's a very cool, the director had a very good vision of what he wanted. Great.

• Speaker #1

  I love that for you.

• Speaker #0

  We had so many, like, I mean, Kelly Slater, the surfer helped us raise some money. I mean, Johnny Knoxville and Jeff Tremaine over at Dickhouse, the jackass guys, they sat down and even heard us pitch. They took the time out of their day to even hear the pitch if they wanted to be under their umbrella. And they were so supportive and always have been. you I mean, hell, like Chris Pontius is over at the Dickhouse, you know, party boy. Yeah. You know, him and his wife, like mostly his wife. But they're so supportive, so supportive. Like, it's very cool to see people of that level. Jocko, you know, like, you know, we've had Tom Segura, you know, Joe Rogan. All of these people have been very vocally supportive of what I do. And so we want to get like a bunch of clips of all of them just talking about how it affected them and why it's important. And then hopefully once that happens, that'll start a good solid foundation to go. Look, these people, these successful people who really do give a shit, who do train martial arts, who are out there in the public eye, they give a shit. So just listen to what I have to say. And if you don't like it, then you don't like it. And there's nothing I can do about that. And that's OK. You gave it the shot. But they took the time to listen. They took the time to support what I do. And they have a very. How do I put it? Their opinion matters to a lot of people. And I think that that will hold weight to say, look, there's an important thing that is missing in our industry. Maybe we should try to fix it. And if we can do that shit, I did my job. I mean, if I can get like one person to, you know, like not have to deal with an instructor who did something they shouldn't be doing or, you know, we can help a kid get some pro bono martial arts lessons because they care. Like we can really create an environment that is healthy and it doesn't water anything down. Doesn't want anything now. You could still go box. You can still go kick box. We just do it with less rapists. I don't think that's much to ask. You know,

• Speaker #1

  it's really cool. It's it's you're welcome. I'm I'm a I'm a big fan of just the universe and how things work out sometimes. And I'm glad that we become friends.

• Speaker #0

  I mean, you're dope. I appreciate you let me back on the show. This is awesome. Yeah.

• Speaker #1

  You know, was. There is an open seat for you anytime you want to.

• Speaker #0

  Appreciate that.

• Speaker #1

  To commit. If you've got something going on that you want to promote, that you want to get off your chest, whatever, you will always have a respected, unfiltered area to do that. Yeah. I think just in closing, I just think the world needs more of you.

• Speaker #0

  I don't know about that.

• Speaker #1

  And what's going on. Give yourself some grace. It's true.

• Speaker #0

  It's true. I appreciate that.

• Speaker #1

  And I just think that. We all need to just do a little bit better the way the world is right now. It's just things are fucking bananas. And it starts with one person just doing right and doing good. And that's what you're doing, man. And don't get me wrong.

• Speaker #0

  Like, I am no saint. Like, I like weed. I like to drink like a fish. I like to go out and have a good time. Like, I am no saint whatsoever. But I just think that when you see something and you don't do something about it. To me, you're an accomplice to that thing. And like we can't fix the world's problem. I'm not trying to fix the world's problems. I don't know shit about fuck. I don't know so many things. Right. But I do know martial arts. I do know the industry and I know that it's flawed. Is that a bad thing? No, it's not a bad thing. We're everything. It's got a little flaw. It's can we try to fix it? And if we're not trying, are we really trying to make it better? And why aren't we trying to make it better? If that's the case, is there a reason that we ignore the simple? fact you know i don't think we need to i i think that if everybody just takes the time in the martial arts industry to look back and go can we fix this and make it better then we will fix it and make it better We will. That's it. And if we just sit around and we go, well, nothing we can do about it, then nothing will happen. And I think that's a disservice to our students. I think it's a disservice to ourselves as martial artists to sit back and go, you know what? Our job is to protect people, except for the ones who don't train with me and don't think like me and don't train the martial art that I train. Fuck those guys. But everybody who trains with me, that we those are the ones I protect. Like, did you background check your coach? I don't need to background check my coach. So you really don't give a fuck about protecting people like you should background check them. And then when they clear, cool. And if they did some shit that you can justify or you could talk about and just be like, look, this guy, when he was 18 years old, he got a salt and battery charge. He's 55 years old. He has no other things on his goddamn record that no one's. I don't think most people are going to give a shit. But if you have somebody who's done something that horrendous, like. really bad and then they turn around you should allow the opportunity for being clear and honest to your consumer to get give them the opportunity to say no and if they say no they have the right to do so because they at least are on a truthful conversation with you you

• Speaker #1

  know i love it thank you my friend thank you this has been fantastic yeah thank you the best you're the best man um is there anything else we haven't talked about do you want to talk about i'm trying to think

• Speaker #0

  Man, everything right now is like all about the documentary. It's been five years, five years. I mean, it's insane how long it's taken to actually get here because you hear a lot of people over the years go, man, I really love this idea. That sounds great. You're like, cool. You want to invest? Not for me. You know, it's like, well, how cool was it? Why don't you just tell me the truth? Like, you know what? I like it. I'm not investing, but maybe I'll get somebody who is because maybe I know a guy who knows a guy. And like, that's basically what it became is us just keep. I walk up every day to try to find investors and then used to hear no, like, but they don't say no, no. And Hollywood sounds more like, man, this is great. We think what you got here is gold. You know what you really need to do? We need to have another meeting at about six to months to a year. And then when that happens, we're not going to actually speak to you. What we're going to do is not answer your email. And then, this conversation meant nothing and we wasted all of our times. That's what it really is. And you do that shit over and over. over and over again and eventually you just figure out like you know what fuck you like i'll do it myself i will figure out a way to do it myself and you just keep going down the road of no and then eventually you find somebody who's like you know what i will and that's all it took that's all it took for us was to hear five years of no and then the person we thought would never in a million years invest in our shit jocko willing comes along and goes you know what i'll do it It was weird. It was like so surreal. We're sitting in this meeting as we thought was going to be a 30 minute meeting because he's a busy dude. We sat in his conference area. He's got a podcast studio like this. So we sit in his podcast area and we're having this conference two and a half hours go by and we thought we were only getting 30 minutes and we're just shooting the shit like me and you were shooting the shit now having a great time talking about fake martial arts talking about frauds talking about what we had already filmed on the shitty budget that we had at that time and then on the way out. the direct i love my director and he's very justified in what he said but i just disagreed he was like all right what we're gonna do give him a little bit of time give him a little space we'll come back and we'll ask him i'm like fuck that i drove my ass three hours up here we had our meeting i'm gonna ask him right now if it's something he wants to do i don't know i was like i'm doing it so i turned around i was like hey man is this something you want to be a part of and he just shook my hand and he said i can't pay for the whole thing he goes but i will help we shook hands and he is stuck to his word for i mean shit When he did that, I think that was two, almost three years ago now. He shook my hand, looked me in the eye, and he has stuck to his word with every no we've had. He was like, just let me know when you get the funding. Let me know when you film. He never wavered. He never moved. He was still been with us to create. And because of that, we got our other investors years later. And those investors now are hyped up. And now we can actually film and make a movie. And then all those motherfuckers in the comment sections are about to learn that. No. You don't need anything in the martial arts industry to start a school. You do not. It's insane.

• Speaker #1

  Thank you, my friend.

• Speaker #0

  Thank you.

• Speaker #1

  This has been awesome.