Using Gym Management Software to Do More of What You Love & Run Your Gym Easier w/ Shane Mount

Josh Peacock: Welcome to the Gym Heroes podcast. I’m your host Josh Peacock. Today’s show is brought to you by Gymdesk, the easiest gym management software you’ll ever use. Take payments, create marketing automations, track attendance, and much more. To try the software out free, go to gymdesk.com. No credit card or painful sales call required.

Our hero today is Shane Mount, a veteran BJJ coach in the Robson Moura Association and multi-time successful gym owner. Shane is one of the earliest customers of our GymDesk gym management software. And he tells us how it has totally changed the way he does business and made his life massively easier. We also talk about how he got into podcasting and tournament hosting as a way to give back to the martial arts. Without further ado, Shane Mount.

Alright, well, welcome to the Gym Heroes podcast. So, if you could tell us who you are and kind of going to your martial arts background first, so the audience knows about you.

Shane Mount: Sure. First thanks for having me. It’s really cool to be able to get out here and connect with Gymdesk as a podcast.

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: My name is Shane Mount. I am a lifelong martial arts dork. I have been training for… I’m at that age now where I have to think of how old I am. So, I started training when I was around probably 4. So, it started with judo for me. And through the course of the years, I became a judo Black Belt. I was 19 when I started doing Jiu-Jitsu. And so, that was 18 years ago, still doing the math there. Yeah, just grappling fascinates me. And I did the karate thing, and then it got into kickboxing like every guy in their 20s who thought they were going to be an MMA fighter. And I’ve done MMA. I’ve trained MMA fighters and all that. But the older I get, the least that interests me. And the more the intricacies of Jiu-Jitsu just never ending. So, that’s pretty much where I’m at.

Josh Peacock: Cool. So, you’re basically a lifelong grappler with, a little bit of karate in there.

Shane Mount: Yeah. Jiu-Jitsu, Judo, as long as I remember. I wrestled in high school. I think for anyone listening, it’s important to point out that when I say I wrestled, I was on the team because I was the only guy who could make 103 pounds. I wasn’t good, but I was there.

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: I was pressed. So, yeah, if it’s grappling, it usually interests me.

Josh Peacock: Sweet. That’s cool. I’m almost the opposite. So, I’ve done Jiu-Jitsu on and off for several years now. But before that, it was just like straight Taekwondo, karate kickboxing, all the way up until pretty recently. But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve really just focused now on just like the grappling of it and not getting hit in the head.

Shane Mount: Yeah, it’s weird. Like, when you’re 20, getting hit is cool and you laugh it off and you touch gloves. And like now, if I get hit, that ruins my week. I’m like, “Oh, that’s not good.”

Josh Peacock: Yeah, yeah. I just don’t need brain injuries.

Shane Mount: No, probably have enough already.

Josh Peacock: Yeah. So, that’s cool. So, now you have a gym, I think I recall from listening to some of your other podcasts you’ve done before that you’ve had more than one before. Maybe I got that wrong. But what led you to start a gym? I mean, I guess, I mean, your lifelong martial arts, but like, when did that epiphany happen for you?

Shane Mount: Man, honestly… sorry, bad on the sinus infection thing, so I probably sound terrible, but…

Josh Peacock: Not, it’s all good.

Shane Mount: So, I was in the military for a little bit. And then I did the law enforcement thing for a little bit. And it wasn’t like fulfilling. I felt like I was meant to do something else. And my instructor at the time, I was with a different organization, was like, “Man, why don’t you teach? Like, you teach the kids class, you teach the beginners class, you’re fantastic. We get great reviews. The days you’re not there, people complain. Why don’t you do this for a living?” And that had never crossed my mind. Like, Jiu-Jitsu was something that I did at the end of my duty day or whatever. So, I said, “Sure. Let’s give it a shot and see.” And I did that for a little bit. And then it was eventually time to step out and do my own thing.

The organization I was with was very… it was the Gracie Baja. It’s not a giant secret. But it was very, if you know anything about Jiu-Jitsu associations, like they’re very regimented like in the curriculum they want done. And I didn’t have the freedom to teach Jiu-Jitsu how I wanted to do it. And not there’s anything wrong with how they dot it, but I have different ideas which come from a lifetime of judo and whatever else.

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: I started to really develop my own little system. And I’m not like on the Danaher level or anything. But I have ideas that sometimes are different than a lot of other instructors. The order in which I want to teach things. And I was like, “You know what? I’m just going to do this. I’m going to go for it. And if it sucks and it doesn’t work out, there’s always a variety of jobs I can get.” And I’m young enough, I was still in my mid late 20s, I was like, “I can do something else if this doesn’t work.” And it worked.

And then I met, so my instructor now for the last 15 years, whatever is 8-time Black Belt World Champion Robson Moura, who’s one of the most fantastic human beings I’ve ever met in my life for much more than an instructor. I tease him all the time, he’s my little big brother. Because if you’ve ever seen a picture of me and him, it’s not the same.

Josh Peacock: I saw a video of him, some dude came in his academy or something.

Shane Mount: Oh yeah.

Josh Peacock: And he, yeah, toyed with him. I was like, “This dude, how’s he doing this?”

Shane Mount: Okay. So, that video, that’s amazing that people bring that up still. Because so Robson knew that it was being recorded.

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: Like, as an instructor, you get this stuff all the time. Like, “I just want to test the instructor or whatever.” And Robson is the nicest guy ever. But even like, finally, he had probably had enough, I wasn’t there for that. But after it had been up for a day or 2, he wanted it taken down. So, the original post was from someone from our association, he was like, “You know what? Let’s take that down. It’s not a good look for Jiu-Jitsu, or whatever. Like we don’t…” it almost seemed like some sort of stage thing or whatever. And he’s just such a cool, humble guy that he’s like, “I don’t need to show myself in that light.” By then, the video had went viral, though. It was already out there. If you notice, if you find it now, it’s never coming from arm source or whatever. That’s just not him. Like, if you have a conversation with him, he doesn’t even mention winning championships or worlds or whatever. If he does, he does it in like a very casual joke about like, “Oh, man, I wish I would have won like 2 more times just to round it out.”

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: He’s just very humble. And it’s so refreshing to be around someone like that in a sport that’s surrounded by so many huge personalities. Like, he’s very approachable and normal. And I think that was what made it, “This is where I’m going to stay. And this is how I’m going to run my school and how I’m going to treat my students.”

Josh Peacock: That’s cool.

Shane Mount: Yeah.

Josh Peacock: So, did you actually run more than one gym? I don’t know if I missed that part.

Shane Mount: Yeah, I have. So, I have this problem where every couple years, I decide like, “Hey, things are going really well for me, let’s make it harder and just up and move to a new place I’ve never been in start over.” And so, I’ve run a Academy in Florida. I’ve run one in Maryland. I ran a successful one in California. And now I’ve been here in Boise, Idaho, for coming up on 6 years. The other teammates in RMU, they just kind of joke around and like, “If there was an award for opening more RMU new schools than anyone, Shane would get it every year.” So, yeah, that’s kind of my…

Josh Peacock: Yeah. Well, I mean, you have a good track record of success. That’s nothing to be down on. Do you sell those off to like other people that they ended up coming in? Or you just let them die?

Shane Mount: usually, whoever the highest ranking is at the time, I kind of like pass that on.

Josh Peacock: Okay.

Shane Mount: So, like, and over the years, not all of them have made it. Or like, for good example, the guys that I was training in Maryland, which was my hometown of Baltimore, they were like, “Hey, we loved Jiu-Jitsu, but we don’t want to do this without you. Like, we don’t want to be in charge. We don’t…” So, I introduced them to some guys from the Daily Association, and they ended up as a group like folding our school up and then they rolled over there. And it’s cool now because I’m seeing like on Facebook, and one of my former students has just got his black belt the other day. So, like, they didn’t quit Jiu-Jitsu, but they’re like, “If you’re not here, we don’t want to try to keep up this act without you. We’re going to go,” which was great. Like, they’re still training. The guys in Florida, the same thing. California, California school, unfortunately went down just due to COVID. They couldn’t rebound.

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: California had it hard. Like, we were closed for like 2 months. And when I say we were closed, I mean, we covered the windows, like no one really cared.

Josh Peacock: Right.

Shane Mount: But just the California guys just weren’t really able to rebound.

Josh Peacock: Yeah, yeah, it was a mix. I heard that some people were still kind of rolling behind closed doors. And some people, they were literally just shut down. They wouldn’t let their students come. And it was just, yeah, there’s a lot of place. There’s probably all over the United States, there’s hundreds and hundreds of martial art schools that are just destroyed from it and aren’t coming back.

Shane Mount: And no matter what your opinion about COVID is, whether it’s real or hoax or pro-vax or not, none of that matters. What took a real hit was communities. And I had to think of how many people who use Jiu-Jitsu as a form of like therapy, or they deal with some sort of depression or substance or anything, and that’s been taken from them. And then these same people are now being shut in alone, or like sitting next to that liquor cabinet that they’ve been able to avoid for the last 6 months or a year or whatever, because they were doing something healthy and positive. And now they’re like, “Well, I’m going to stay home and watch the end of Netflix.” And I really, I wonder what the long-term effects of this are going to be. And it’s not just us as martial arts, we think that we have the best thing in the world, and we do. But all the other people who are involved in CrossFit, or yoga or any of these other…

Josh Peacock: Gym remedies.

Shane Mount: Yeah, and like I mentioned that because GymDesk supports so many of these great communities like that software can be used by anyone. So, it was I’m just really curious, like, I wonder how many lives are less than because of the pandemic now?

Josh Peacock: Yeah, it’s a question that was never asked by any public officials, any health officials. The question was not asked enough by people talking about the shutdowns is that children are affected by it. Adults that really had good things going for them, they had routines that were really healthy for them just totally destroyed, things that they relied upon for their mental health. And yeah, I think that there’s probably, I suspect that there will be more deaths from drug overdose and suicide as a result of the lockdowns than there will be from COVID-19. Now COVID-19 is not going to go away. It’s like a flu virus. So, the death toll from that is going to go up over the years. But as far as the timeline of lockdowns, there will be more deaths, I think. And we’re not going to hear about it for a while, but we’ll probably hear about it a couple years. Somebody will go back and things will have cooled down. And it’ll be okay to say, “Actually, this many people died from it that had nothing…” even the one of the scariest one is cancer not being diagnosed.

Shane Mount: Yeah.

Josh Peacock: Just because people weren’t… and there’s other lethal diseases that probably are been under diagnosed. But that’s one of the scariest ones is just people afraid to go to the doctor or just couldn’t go to the doctor, lost a job or something. And then all of a sudden, they’ve got cancer. And all these people just up and died because they didn’t get diagnosed quick enough. I think that’s definitely that’s going to be a problem that’s going to be in the public discourse, I think, probably in a couple of years.

Shane Mount: Yeah. I thought about that were like the myths or the lack of diagnosis. The one that kept me up the most was, because years ago, I had a student who was being… what’s the word? He was just being physically abused.

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: And I would notice when this kid would come to class if like if I would go to like ruffle his hair or like give him a high 5, he would flinch and jump. And I was like, “What’s going on with you?” And I’m thinking like, how many kids were stuck inside with someone that was harming them, either physically, emotionally, sexually, without that place to go, and without professor, sensei, or coach or whatever to confide in? That kid ended up talking to me and a whole thing happened, and police were involved and yada, yada. But like how many people or abused spouses or things who Jiu-Jitsu was the outlet? Or I’m just curious long term, but…

Josh Peacock: Yeah, I think there are…

Shane Mount: [inaudible] brain works.

Josh Peacock: Yeah, I think there are numbers on that out now. And child and domestic abuse just like skyrocketed. It’s out of control. Probably coming down now since things are opening up. But a year ago, probably, from I remember seeing an article on that specifically from somewhere like New York Times or something. And I can definitely, I’m certain that it skyrocketed. And it’s very sad to say, but you should shut everything down from working normally, those are the sort of hidden consequences of that. There’s not only do you can’t get away, there’s just no support structure. There’s no way to get out either.

Shane Mount: Well, there’s the upside too. I mean, like, I don’t know how many of my friends are having babies right now. But if I look at the timeline, I went backwards and like, “Oh, that’s what you guys did.”

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: Like, everyone’s having a kid right now.

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: Or like dodged that bullet.

Josh Peacock: Yeah. Everyone at church all of a sudden was having children and baptizing them. That was funny. And a lot of moms that had their kids at school most of the kids’ lives all of a sudden realize, “Hey, I actually really enjoy having them home and teaching them and being with them.”

Shane Mount: Right.

Josh Peacock: So, some families have been made stronger because of it.

Shane Mount: And it’s so to try to bring it back to Jiu-Jitsu, because I’m terrible at tangents. But like, one of the things that that we were doing as a school was I didn’t want to ask my members to pay for something I wasn’t providing. So, I wasn’t like, “Hey, I’m just not going to bill you guys.” However, my members were so close that they’re like, “Well, Professor, like you got to eat too. And we don’t want to see the school get close forever.” So, pretty much everyone who was a member at my school continued to pay their dues, minus the people who lost their jobs because they want to be like bartenders or servers or service industry workers. So, everyone continued to pay. And then GynDesk rolled out the Zoom integration and the ability to upload videos and curriculums and do remote learning. And I’m sitting here thinking, okay, so in my free time, I’m an audio/video do work. And I like cameras and all that. I set up all the studio lighting and multiple angles, and I was teaching on Zoom 3, 4 hours a night. And I wasn’t the only one. I saw other instructors doing this.

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: And then, so this may have really like left its mark on Jiu-Jitsu, where I think digital learning is becoming more and more accessible and acceptable to supplement what you’re getting within sight of your academy, or the exchange of information was even higher. So, it’s interesting to see how that will affect Jiu-Jitsu in a year, 2 years, 3 years. I’ve seen these little videos of kids who are 4 or 5 on home mats, and they’re doing some really incredible stuff, and it’s like, man, would that have even happened if dad’s a purple belt or brown belt, and suddenly he’s just home all day, so he’s like, “You know what? I’m going to start teaching my kids Jiu-Jitsu.” Like, this could have maybe propelled Jiu-Jitsu forward. So, it’ll be interesting to see what the effects are.

Josh Peacock: Yeah. I think that online training has become destigmatized, I guess. There’s obviously there’s some obvious problems with it in terms of, “Do you have a partner? How’s the intensity of your roles going?” and all that kind of stuff. But feedback, things like that. But I have a friend who he already had kind of an online training business going on, but it exploded during that time. And I think it’s almost a full-time income by now. But he also worked for a school to at the same time, so he was teaching. It’s a little bit easier to teach. So, he just teaches taekwondo, so sport taekwondo. So, he can do a lot of like more calisthenics stuff. And then then like go into like forms and stuff that you could more likely do solo, or if you have like…

Shane Mount: [inaudible] resource because think about, so you’re a lifetime like taekwondo, karate guy.

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: And I did all those too. And I remember like, being a child, so this was pre-YouTube, because I’m old, and I’m going in the backyard, I’m going over these katas and like trying and I’m like, “God, I really wish there was just like, I could watch someone.”

Josh Peacock: Reference, yeah.

Shane Mount: Right. So, like, what we’ve done is we’ve taken this… there was always an issue, and then we had video pre-COVID. However, this was the only way to train for some people. And will those people make that still a part of their day-to-day routine, like, “Okay, this is my instructor, and I can watch exactly how he wants it done, and it’s like i can have him with me all the time,”? For something like kata, or… that’s an amazing resource. And hopefully, when all the dojos, and schools reopened, they continue to create that content, and the students continue to use it as a supplement to training.

Josh Peacock: Yeah. It’s been an ongoing problem, even in like, just from a content marketing perspective, but like from an engaging your current students perspective, a martial arts instructor or school owner will open up a Facebook account, open up a YouTube account, and they’ll post like one video. And then…

Shane Mount: Guilty.

Josh Peacock: Me too. And they just won’t keep up with stuff. And you do want to have touch… you want to attract… I mean, the biggest thing monetarily is to attract people to your school. But keeping a student is really, really valuable. And in some cases, it can be more valuable. And keeping people engaged, you want to keep their mind engaged on what it is that you offer them. You want to make those contact points outside of the school. You don’t want them to forget about you while they’re gone. So, being able to produce stuff that they can see that shows up on YouTube, they get an alert, or they’re just scrolling on Facebook and, “Here’s such and such martial arts release a new video for you to watch.” Instructors, I think some instructors, they weren’t able to adapt. And I don’t blame about like teaching on Zoom. I don’t like doing that stuff either, but they just weren’t able to make content. So, some of the structures that made it kind of realized, “Oh, hey, I can systemize this. I can get into cadence. It’s not quite as hard as it seems to be. And my business is going to do better if I produce content like this on the regular.”

Shane Mount: And I don’t love doing that stuff, which is why like we don’t have the YouTube channel. And I didn’t even fully utilize all of the great features of the GymDesk had. But… because I’d rather be on the mat. I’d rather have…

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: There’s an energy. But like you said, if you get on this thing, it almost becomes a full-time job. And I’m noticing that like, there are some larger academies where they have like a full-time social media content manager. Or like, if you watch like the AOJ, the Mendes, I’m probably like, one of their biggest fans. I’m a big fanboy of anything Guilherme Mendes does. So, if you watch their instructional is not… it was really brilliant how they didn’t set up time to record. They recorded the instruction that was already happening in the class.

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: So, it just requires grab one of your students, show them how the camera works, show them where to be and how to set a white balance, and then some very basic things, and then just do what you do anyway. And I keep saying, “I’m going to do that. I’m going to do that,” and I never do.

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: But [inaudible] do it, because not only do you capture the authenticity of the instruction in the original explanation, because sometimes on like an instructional DVD like, Jiu-Jitsu Fanatics is great, Jiu-Jitsu X, these are all great. But when someone knows they’re making an instructional, they don’t have the same like dialogue, or maybe the same explanation. It’s more like Step A, Step B, Step C.

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: So, I thought that was super brilliant how they were recording their classes. And the crazy thing is, they had been doing that for a couple of years before the pandemic. So, when everyone shut down, they were just like, “Hey, AOJ, membership is free to our members, and then discounted to everyone else.” So, that was really cool, because they had years’ worth of content already ready, because it’s just the classes they already teach.

Josh Peacock: Yeah, that’s an excellent content strategy. Gary Vaynerchuk does something like that, or he has for years where he just has people recording him all the time. And so, there’s bits of his conversation.

Shane Mount:

[inaudible]

Josh Peacock: Yeah, I wouldn’t like that either. But I don’t know, whatever. That’s his thing, I guess. I wouldn’t do it either. But yeah, you get bits and pieces of nuggets from organic conversation throughout the day, and they just cut it up. And then his podcast was literally just he would get on the phone with somebody or have somebody, then they would just talk for like an hour. But yeah, that’s a great content strategy. Another person who did that really well I think was Marcelo Garcia. A lot of his instructional videos are just him teaching in a regular class. It’s not set up. It’s not like BJJ Fanatics. It’s just him. And he’s such a like good teacher. This is tangential, but he speaks English as like a second language, and he’s just… it’s unfair how clear it is when he teaches.

Shane Mount: Yeah.

Josh Peacock: I spent a long time trying to develop, maybe he did too. But yeah, he’s… that was really good. And he makes probably a lot of money off of that. A lot of people sign up for MG online. And it’s just good quality video shot on him teaching class, and then it’s edited up really nice. So, and that… if they can get somebody on like M&N.

Shane Mount: Yeah. I think MG In Action was like 2009 or 2010. I think it’s been around that long. Because I remember being at the [inaudible] in like 2010, and there was like an MG In Action booth set up, like and he was really there.

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: [inaudible] political thing. But I think he was looking at one of the first to really get out there. So, 1, online content for over a decade. And 2, it’s Marcelo Garcia. I mean, he’s arguably in the greatest-of-all-time list. You got a couple names that are up there, and his is in it. So, yeah, that was great.

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: I think I had a couple times. I’d subscribe for a while. And then you forget and that’s like that gym membership you don’t use, we just didn’t really remember because you see it on your credit card statement, “I should log back in.” I don’t have one now, because I’m like 100%, AOJ online. And I think that’s a fantastic service.

Josh Peacock: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, a lot of these are actually really, really good. And they’re underrated because what people don’t realize is like with MG In Action, I think Josh Witzke, I think that’s one of the guys he’s worked with. He’s like a big chess guy, very big on learning. He wrote a great book called ‘The Art of Learning’. He basically did like taxonomized everything that was being placed on there so that you can search it really, really easily.

Shane Mount: Yes, that’s the one thing. The MG In Action interface was fantastic. Like, if you had a specific position, daily Hiva and then like top or bottom, or like AOJ could release sometimes I spend… it’s almost like Netflix where I take longer looking for something to watch than watching something. So, yeah, that was, the MG In Action interface was fantastic. And sometimes like it almost like you see something great like that and you’re like, “Man, what’s the point of even trying. Like, I’m not going to do it better than Marcela does. And there’s no way I’m going to have that like whole interface.” But…

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: Yeah, and he talks about his grappler’s guide, which I’ve never used, but there are a lot of…

Josh Peacock: I haven’t either.

Shane Mount: A lot of guys on there, like I’m super interested in their content. And I just never… I don’t know, there’s so much information out there now. And then with Jiu-Jitsu X, Jiu-Jitsu X I think has the highest production quality of any… I don’t if you watch any of their stuff, but that…

Josh Peacock: is that Kenan’s thing?

Shane Mount: Yeah.

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: And everything that comes out of there is like cinematic lighting and like it’s just, “Whoa, this is crazy.” And the prices are incredibly low and they’re constantly doing sales. And I got put onto that one by my students, like, “Hey, Professor, did you see this?” I was like, “I shared it and give me your phone.” And I would watch it, I’m like, “I’m going to buy that when I get home.” So, like, it’s just the Jiu-Jitsu is, like you said earlier, there’s YouTube and all this stuff, it’s never going to be an instructor. It doesn’t tell you like, “Hey, Shane, your grip is off by a half inch. Or you need a little bit more because…” like, it’ll never do that. But I think there’s a certain point where you’ve been involved in Jiu-Jitsu long enough where you understand like conceptual Jiu-Jitsu, that you’re able to now learn from other sources that would have been like Greek to you as a white belt. Like, I don’t think any white belt should run out there and they get AOJ online account. I think that’s bad. Let’s not… like stick to what…

Josh Peacock: Stick to your instructor.

Shane Mount: Right. And then get that understanding and maybe get that blue belt. The one thing I do tell every student who signs up at my school is like, “Hey, welcome to the team. Go home, get on Amazon, buy ‘Jiu-Jitsu University’, the Saulo Ribeir book.” Like…

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: “Buy it. Read the first chapter like 4 times. Put it away. Put it on the shelf. If you ever feel lost, just read the first chapter again.” The rest of the book is just basic instructional. But the first chapter, that survival chapter…

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: … I think it’s probably some of the best text that’s ever been written about Jiu-Jitsu, and they’re supposed to be doing a second one. And so, Kevin, the author is actually a friend of mine. And he gives me these little like tidbits here and now, “Hey, we’re going to do it. We’re going to… like, alright, we’ll do it already. I’ve been waiting.” The other one was the Andre Galvao, ‘Drill to Win’. That was probably one of the… I put that like number 2 best Jiu-Jitsu book of all time. And if you can find a copy now, it’s like 250 bucks. That’s just what it is.

Josh Peacock: I don’t have that one. I have ‘Jiu-Jitsu University’ though. It’s very good.

Shane Mount: If you can find someone who’s crazy enough to lend you their copy of ‘Drill to Win’, get it and then I shouldn’t say this, but PDF scan all the pages or something…

Josh Peacock: Copy, Xerox machine.

Shane Mount: Like this book is incredible. And every day is a different drill. There’s 365 drills. And they’re not techniques, they’re just solo things. And during the closure, I’ll be honest, I was just going right out of that book sometimes on camera, sometimes just in my own, but like that ‘Drill to Win’ book, that was pivotal in my maintaining any type of Jiu-Jitsu skill whatsoever.

Josh Peacock: Yeah, that’s another thing about content. If you want to produce content for that, you don’t have to make it up yourself. You can use whatever it is you’re listening to, whatever it is you’re watching. And like that’s really great. Like, you took this book out, and you were teaching people these solo drills from a book that you actually can buy. So, like, yeah, it’s not like everyone could just buy it and not pay you money. It’s like people couldn’t find it. So, you’re taking that, you’re teaching it too. But yeah, you can use other people’s content and put your own spin on it.

Shane Mount: Absolutely.

Josh Peacock: It’s a great way to approach it.

Shane Mount: That’s the beauty because there’s different grips for everything. There’s like you may like a thumb down grip on something and I may prefer 4 fingers. And then you have your reasons why. And I have my reasons why. And like anyone who, who says like, for example, “Oh, Shane’s not making his own content,” not that I make any content, but no one’s making their own content.

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: We can get really into, and I can tell you like Elio Gracie didn’t create his own content. This is all Judo that’s been really well marketed and switched into something else.

Josh Peacock: True.

Shane Mount: And if you really dive deep and like Drysdale’s open guard project or closing or whatever it was, or you look into like Kosen Judo, like you’ll find pictures, black and white pictures of dudes with short pants putting daily Hiva hooks in with like this… none of this is new. The fact that someone put their name on a technique like, “This is the daily Hiva guard,” no, it’s been a thing well before that. So, nothing is original with grappling and metal… I take that back. Like, Kenan and some of these guys doing some of the lapel stuff, but I don’t know. It’s almost seems crazy to think that somebody somewhere didn’t do that first.

Josh Peacock: Yeah, yeah.

Shane Mount: We’re all just re mixing. Like, who’s that guy in the 90s and 2000s who couldn’t make his own rap songs? Puff Daddy. Like, we’re all just like re… everything is a remix or whatever. And that’s cool because new things develop that way. And that’s why Jiu-Jitsu is crazy because there is no end. It’s going to keep going. It’s going to… like a couple years ago, everyone’s like, “Oh my god, Berimbau is new greatest thing.” And I remember going to Professor Robson and being like, “Hey, man, did you see like this new Berimbau stuff?” And he shakes his head at me, he’s like, “My guy, we were doing that years ago. Like back then, we didn’t call it that. We called it…” and I don’t remember what he said. But like, that’s the thing, there’s no original content. If you if you want to get a book out and make videos off the book, do it. Just don’t quote it word for word, and don’t say that it’s, “I developed this system.” Say, “Hey this is something I learned.”

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: Like just if everyone just be honest, and just kind of relax a little bit.

Josh Peacock: Right.

Shane Mount: All these Instagram reels, like no one came up with that drill. Somebody saw somebody else do it, and they’re like, “Oh, I’m going to do it. I’m going to use a different song.” And like, “Okay, no big deal.”

Josh Peacock: Yeah, just enjoy the content. It’s not that big of a deal. It’s like even with the coach and Judo thing, I know there’s some Judo people are kind of… they just have like a thing going on where there’s like, “It’s not [inaudible] Judo.” And it is funny, because like with the Kosen Judo thing, I have a theory that they developed concurrently, Jiu-Jitsu and Kosen. Just because I didn’t feel like there’s probably a lot of people that Kosen that were going back and forth between Brazil. But Jiu-Jitsu definitely didn’t invent those things. Because if you have a Judo in a more ground based environment, all that stuff is going to emerge, because everybody’s looking for an advantage. Everybody’s looking for crafty ways to get around different body types and strength and speed and flexibility and things like that. If you just give a real set and let people go, everything’s going to happen. Like it’s just going to…

Shane Mount: Like, I’m a perfect example of… so, my school, it’s rain, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and Judo. I 100% acknowledge the judo roots of everything I do. And they’re a huge part, because so what the average person is a white belt for like a year, year and a half in Jiu-Jitsu school. I was a white belt for 4 months from my first trial class to the day I got my blue belt, 4 months.

Josh Peacock: Wow.

Shane Mount: During that time, I competed like 3 times. And it’s not that I was super white belt. It’s that on my first day of Jiu-Jitsu, I was already second day in Judo black belt.

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: So, soon as the match hits the floor… and the people that I trained with growing up were very interested in Ne-waza. So, like triangles, this wasn’t new. I was like, “Okay, you’re doing the same thing, but you’re doing a little different.” I think that the Judo Ne-waza is maybe a little bit more like hurried or forced, or…

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: So, the transitions in the Jiu-Jitsu may be a little smoother, or there might be like longer strings of things. But so, I adapted really, really quick. And I like you say, I got the blue belt like right away, unheard of. And then I stayed at blue belt for a very long time.

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: I was a blue belt for like 4 years. And then I’m like, “How did I go for months to 4 years?” But like my instructor at the time was like, “Dude, we had to. Your head was so big. And every time you went to one of these tournaments, you killed everybody. Like, you were going to quit. If we wouldn’t gave you a blue belt, you would have been, ‘Man, I have nothing to learn here.’” As soon as I put that blue belt on, people started like hammering on me. Purple belts and the brown belts before were like, “Alright, we’re going to turn it up a notch.” Sorry, if you’re hearing airplanes. There’s an airfield right down the street.

Josh Peacock: Yeah, no worries. You probably heard my family in the background. I’m actually in Florida. The pre-vacation, I’m working the first couple of days, but then I’m on vacation, but, yeah, no worries.

Shane Mount: Where are you?

Josh Peacock: Melbourne.

Shane Mount: Okay. Yeah. So, my first school ever was about 15, 20 minutes from you in Merritt Island.

Josh Peacock: No. No way.

Shane Mount: Yeah, that’s where I had my first academy.

Josh Peacock: I know Merritt Island. Yeah.

Shane Mount: Yeah. Okay, so right across from Merritt Island High School, if you walk out the front door, there’s this tiny strip mall, that’s where my school was. Yep.

Josh Peacock: Nice.

Shane Mount: Yeah. I love it down there. I miss it all the time, except for like love bug season and hurricane season. But yeah, that’s wild like that. Like I know that area very well.

Josh Peacock: Yeah. Sorry, I was distracted.

Shane Mount: No, I’m king of the tangent too. This is why probably no one listens to our podcast. But I forgot what we were talking about before that, but… oh, yeah, that’s the translation. So, yeah, I think for anyone to think that any of this stuff is new is crazy. Like I have a young man at my school. Ooh, I’m getting old, I start to say things like ‘young man’. He’s like 21.

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: He’s a State champion wrestler. He’s a phenomenal athlete. And his journey from white belt to blue belt wasn’t very long neither. And some people were like, “Why?” And I’m like, “Because look at him. He understands connection. He understands pressure. He’s got amazing work ethic when it comes to drilling. He’s very coachable. He knows how to listen. And when he goes to compete, he doesn’t have the same jitters and the anxiety and the things that most new white belts have, because he’s literally been wrestling since he was 3 years old.” When I talked to him, he said, “I got my first wrestling shoes out 3.” So, if wrestling had a rank system, this guy would be a third, fourth degree black belt.

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: So, it was easy translation for him. It was learning some nuances, learning some different terminology, getting comfortable with some concepts that he wasn’t before, like being on his back. Like, in the beginning, just wrestle up but, if he had any type of guard, it was like, sweet to the top or wrestle up.

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: But he since developed that too. And the same thing, and one of his teammates from high school joined with him. And that guy’s older brother, who was like my top student, they were all just from a great wrestling program and they were slaughtering white belt divisions. They had to go blue. And then in the blue, I’m seeing them embrace Jiu-Jitsu. And you’re seeing this really, really cool fusion between they all love to go for the 2. These boys won’t pull guard no matter what I tell them. Like, they’re fighting for the 2. But then then it’s amazing because they got their own styles. One’s really into like reverse daily Hiva. The other one’s like a half guard wizard. It’s just seeing the fusion. And at the end of the day, I start to sit back and I’m like, “Man, grappling is grappling. If you want to call it Jiu-Jitsu, cool.”

Josh Peacock: Yes.

Shane Mount: “You want to call it grappling Jiu-Jitsu, great. You want to call it Samba, call whatever. Grappling is grappling and it is the most natural form of combat.” If you watch 2 animals fight on National Geographic, very few animals strike each other. Most of them attach and try to roll each other up or whatever.

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: Like, this is how we’re designed to fight. If you look down your hands right now, there’s tiny little bones, they’re fragile. They’re not war clubs. Like, we shouldn’t be swinging these things that people. Like, grappling it’s the true natural way of combat.

Josh Peacock: It’s also like the oldest unarmed martial art in existence. Like, the it’s like the primordial martial artists wrestling. Every culture has a wrestling ruleset that’s well known.

Shane Mount: Yeah, I was just on Gym Tricks podcast the other day and My White belt, and that came up. And I don’t think that episode has been released yet. But My White belt is a fantastic account to follow on Instagram if you’re new, a lot of motivational stuff. But we were talking about that, and I remember seeing the Mongolian national Jiu-Jitsu team at the World Championships, and they didn’t have anyone who was above a purple belt. But when you start talking to them, because I’ll talk to anybody, every one of them was a Judo black belt. And every one of them grew up with Mongolian wrestling. And I’m like, “Okay, I’m intrigued. Tell me more.” And that led to me going home and like doing a bunch of research, and like, “Man, Mongolian wrestling is like back in Great Wall China time.”

Josh Peacock: Right.

Shane Mount: “Like, these guys like getting after, and they got their own like rule set.” And it was really intriguing. And then I go down these rabbit holes of like Senegalese wrestling in Africa. And like it’s just like, you’re right, every culture, every culture has some form of wrestling. It’s just, it’s amazing. And as a karate black belt, and all, I still think grappling is the most efficient form of combat out there. And people will disagree. And there’s always that person who’s like… I remember. So, I used to do the MMA thing and had a boxing coach, and he was training me. And one day, I was just having a bad session, and I was in my 20s and I had a bad attitude sometimes. And I remember messing up whatever drill he wanted me to work. And on the break, he was like, “Man, you’ll get it,” and I was like, “Well, if I could just grab you, you’d get it.” And he was like, “Alright, tough guy, like grab me.” And he put his gloves on, and I said, “Can I take my gloves off. I don’t want to hit you, I just want to be able to use my hands.” And he threw a couple shots, and I ate a few, but I got close enough to clench him, take him down, and do what I wanted. It was like UFC 1.

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: Like, yeah, and after that, he was like, Man, that was cool, and he became a student of mine. And he’s still a Jiu-Jitsu guy to this day. I mean, he loves boxing, and he’s like absolutely with the proper distance and all, like this guy’s do it. Like he could kill a man with his hands. But the Jiu-Jitsu guy, and as he approaches his 40s, he’s like, “Yeah, I would like to be able to know more.” Because you could take the baddest Olympic taekwondo guy or world champion kind of like, soon as someone wrapped them up, it takes them down.

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: It’s like, “Oh.”

Josh Peacock: That’s kind of how I got into Jiu-Jitsu is I thought it was dumb. And I thought all that was dumb. And then I was like, “Yeah, taekwondo, karate, kickboxing, that’s the way to go.” And then I just some kid at a camp, wasn’t even a good wrestler at all, wasn’t even good, he was sloppy. He just took me down, and then I couldn’t get up.

Shane Mount: Yeah.

Josh Peacock: So, I was like, “Okay, never mind.”

Shane Mount: And it’s weird when that happens because you’re like, “Man, it’s all been a lie.” And it’s not a lie. And I hate to see guys from ‘traditional martial arts’, and I do the air quotes, ‘traditional martial arts’…

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: … come over to Jiu-Jitsu and then suddenly start bagging on where they came from.

Josh Peacock: Right.

Shane Mount: We have to see the value. Like, I have 1 student who is a fourth or fifth street taekwondo black belt, used to own a ATA franchise. He’s really good at what he does. And I’m like, “Man, don’t bag on your past like that. You’ve got an incredible range of motion in your hips. Your balance is perfect. You are a fantastic student. Like, is your attention to detail and how you… we all got something from those things.” And to this day, I’ll use his name because… to this day, if I’m like a couple feet away from Andy and that’s where the altercation starts, he will kill me. He will jump, spin, kick, my head will come off, that will be the… I have to get a hold of him. So, like I hate to see people discount any martial art.

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: I’m more like the Bruce Lee thing, like, “Reject what is useless. Keep was of use.” There’s something good in every style out there. And the older you get, you’re like, “Man, it’s just fighting. That’s all,” or, “It’s just martial arts,” that’s a better explanation. But like it’s just martial arts, it’s just this thing. And you should learn all of it. If you want to box for a little bit, box for a little bit. Learn how to tuck your chin and how to make a fist. Like there’s a value to every style, except for 1, but I’m not going to say which 1 because I don’t want to tank your podcast.

Josh Peacock: You can say it on my other podcast. There’s 3. I have 3. But…

Shane Mount: There’s a few, it’s like, “Man, you’re going to get somebody killed.” My big thing is all the like the Jason Bourne stuff, where we’re taking regular run of the mills people in a suburban shopping center and we’re like, “Hey, we’re going to take this gun.” I’m like, “No, if you’ve got a gun, you can have my iPhone, my car, whatever.” Let’s not build this false sense of confidence. And the number 1 question I always get from like new Jiu-Jitsu students is like, “What if there’s more than 1 attacker?” I’m like, “Tie your shoes really tight and run.” Because only in the movies this gently or you know IP Man fight a roomful of people. That’s just not real.

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: Even if you’re Hoist Gracie and you pull guard or whatever, like now you’ve got people stomping on your head. There’s no 1 martial arts style that’s going to be this 1 size fits all t-shirt for every aspect of your life.

Josh Peacock: Yeah, there isn’t a style that does multiple attackers well. People think that there’s a couple of names though come out, and they are not, 100% not designed for multiple attackers. I think the best thing you do is actually boxing’s pretty good. If you stay mobile and keep the guys lined up, you can create an opportunity to escape. But you’re not knocking all the guys down and leaving that room with them all there. You’re finding a way to escape. Like, you’re managing the damage. You’re not conquering the enemy. Yeah, you’re just not… yeah, exactly. I totally agree with that. But you’d mentioned earlier, we were talking about how technology has affected the way people were teaching over COVID, and how it might permanently affect things going forward. As I understand, you were one of the earlier people that came on to the GymDesk platform. And for the listeners, the Gym Heroes is the podcast of GymDesk. So, I’m curious, actually, what got you sold on GymDesk, because I’m sure that you used some software before that?

Shane Mount: Absolutely. Am I supposed to say their names, or are we going to be nice?

Josh Peacock: Let’s be careful and be nice.

Shane Mount: I used some of the big ones that were synonymous with like Karate and Taekwondo schools that they had features built in that were specific for that. And so, that didn’t really help me out. I used some that were designed for you got a yoga center or whatever, and like nothing really checked all the boxes. Most of them had a ridiculous monthly fee. The learning curve would be terrible. Like, “Hey, we’re going to set you up for this online orientation.” And I remember I used 1… I almost did it. I almost said the name. I used one, and they sent me like this 72-page PDF. And I’m running a business, I don’t have time to take a college course on [inaudible]. Or just very unintuitive features. And so, a friend of mine, this is another Jiu-Jitsu black belt, he runs HONU Jiu-Jitsu in San Diego. His name is Brandon Guptill. He’s been a GymDesk guy longer… it was Martial Arts on Rails when we came on.

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: Like it’s rebranded. So, in fact, I have to force myself to say the right thing on my podcast when I’m… I was like, “Oh, yeah, Martial Arts on…” and, my co-host would like kick me under the desk, “No, it’s GymDesk now,” I’m like, “Oh, yeah.” So, Brandon had been around since it was martial arts on rails. And I noticed he had the website, because Brandon doesn’t do any web design stuff. That’s not him. Brandon is Jiu-Jitsu Yoda, and that’s what Brandon does. And like, “Man, your website’s actually pretty good, man. Like, I didn’t expect that from you,” as I’m teasing him. He’s like, “I didn’t. I entered in some basic information, and it built it for me.” And I was like, “No kidding.” So, I’m looking at it. So, sidenote, I do web design and graphic design on the side, in addition to Jiu-Jitsu.

Josh Peacock: Cool, yeah.

Shane Mount: So, I went to his website to be critical and to be a jerk, and I was like, “This is actually pretty good.” And it checks all the boxes, it has everything. And I saw, like the little Martial Arts on Rails logo like in the bottom, and I was like, I clicked, went to the website, this was still early stages. And so, the website wasn’t overly informative at that point. Plus, anybody can make anything look like anything when it’s an advertisement.

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: So, I just called my friend, I said, “Dude, don’t be asked me. Is this good?” He’s like, “I pay $60 a month at the time,” or whatever it was,” and he said, “And it’s fantastic. And the guy who owns it is a Jiu-Jitsu guy. And if I have a problem, I call him, and he answers or he calls me back.” And I was like, “That’s what I want. I want a product that’s actually being used by people like us or who was created by people like us, who understand what we need. And I want help. I don’t want a 72-page PDF, or a series of YouTube videos, like, ‘Oh, for the next 12 hours, learning how to use the software you paid for,’ I just want help. And he connected me, and I think I signed up. He got some sort of referral thing or whatever. And I logged in. And the fact that it was web based was amazing, because I could, anywhere from any time, like I could handle some sort of work function on my phone if it was an emergency or something needed to be done.

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: I could sign people up remotely at events or things. We went to a tablet only in our school for the longest time. I was able to get rid of like square point of sale and those things, because the point of sale was just good. And it just keeps getting better and better with the appointment scheduling, and like just all these features. I swear, it’s like once a month, I get an email, “Hey, these are the new features,” and I keep waiting for the like, “And by the way, we’re going to charge you more,” and it never happens. It never comes. Like I see more value and I’m paying… I don’t even know what I pay anymore. It’s been so long. I don’t look at it. But I know that it is probably half of what I paid for other services that did not do any of the things that GymDesk does.

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: And you need to pay more money for integrations to do those things.

Josh Peacock: Right, or to unlock them.

Shane Mount: Yeah. Or the like, “Hey, get our software and then also get a MailChimp account,” and like, “Man, I can do all my mass emailing through GymDesk so easy.” And just little things. Like, I think the one add on I have the GymDesk is the ability to send text messages. And we’re talking I think that’s like 2 bucks, or I don’t I don’t want to misquote, but it’s nothing, I spend more on a cup of coffee on my way to train 6am that I pay for that feature. And we’re in Idaho, so we get winter and snow and sometimes there’s a closings or whatever. And like I can just type my text message, click Send All and everyone gets it. And I’m not trying to track people down. Because it used to be, “Alright, make sure you make a Facebook post that the gym is closed today. Make sure you make an Instagram post. Make sure you send out like this,” because you’re trying to cover all your bases. Now, every member is required to have a phone number on file with me. I know that they’re all going to get this text. Whether they read it or not, that’s on them. But I can say I did my part and I sent out the, “Hey, don’t come, we’re close today.”

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: We actually had a fire sprinkler system malfunction. I came in one day and there’s just water everywhere, I’m like, “Oh, this is so bad.” I used that feature, and it got to everyone. And yeah, I don’t think I had a single person show up that day. And then the very next day, it was cleaned up and the pipe was replaced, and, “Hey, we’re back on. Sorry for that.” And I sent it out the same way. And that alone was worth it to me to not have to make 100 and some phone calls, or it was just great done. The features that you get are fantastic. I will never switch. I will never do anything else. At this point, I don’t want to learn anything else. I haven’t even learned everything that GymDesk has to offer. They’re still features to this day where I’m like, “Oh, that must be new.” And then I’m on little tech support, and I’m like, “Dude, that’s been there for 5 years.” I’m like…

Josh Peacock: “Oops,” yeah.

Shane Mount: I don’t even fully utilize it the way that it could be and should be used.

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: I can’t say enough about it. I plug it nonstop on our podcast. My podcast is not as… well, was. We just ended it. But it’s not as like politically correct. And the language wasn’t as always like work safe. So, I would tell people, just simple things like, if you own a martial art school and you don’t use GymDesk, I don’t know what you’re doing with your life, and I don’t think you take your business very seriously. And that’s usually say vulgar than that. But it’s true. If you are not investing in the infrastructure of your business. And investing doesn’t always mean spending the most money. Because there’s certainly more expensive software. But if you didn’t do your due diligence and see what features it has to offer, what are you even doing? And the big thing is the tech support. I have never went more than 12 hours, even on weekends without even getting a reply, like, “Hey, we’re out of office. We’ll get back to you first thing Monday morning,” or something. Like, I’m not going to make this unrealistic claim that like I’ve got the owner on speed dial, and I call him and wake him up at night. But everybody always gets back to me with either the answer I need, or a realistic, “Hey, we’re not quite sure. We’re going to work on this. And we’re going to get right back to you.” And then they get back to me. And it’s usually something I did, because I’m in there moving things around that I shouldn’t be. But it’s usually a user error and not the software.

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: So, yeah, I can’t say enough about the software. And the ability to focus on the teaching again and not… so, yesterday was the first of the month, right? So, that used to be a really stressful time for a school owner.

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: Like, who’s accounts didn’t bill, this that the other, cancels. I’ve got people auto scheduled to cancel, people auto scheduled to start. And I just woke up yesterday and I got an email and you have X amount of payments processed, “Hey, these didn’t go through,” so, you know who you need to like, kind of not hassle, but, “Hey, something happened with your card.” And then you can, “Here’s a link. Oh, you got a new card last month? No problem. Here’s a link. Update it on your own.” Like, it just makes my life so much easier. Not that my life is hard, but it makes it better in every aspect. And as a school owner, when you can just almost have a turnkey… that’s why I love GymDesk is great. The old title, Martial Arts on Rails, it was fitting for me. Because it’s like once I had this thing going, it was like I just put this train on the tracks and it just went. And it didn’t require anything of me.

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: Someone new or, okay, you don’t want to do this anymore, remove them. It was truly that easy. My business was on rails. So, I always thought, “Hey, that’s really clever.” But GymDesk is way easier for me to say.

Josh Peacock: Yeah, and easier to explain too.

Shane Mount: Yeah. I would talk to people and be like, “You don’t use MAOR?” and sometimes they’ll be, “Like MOAR? Did I do it in the right order?” So, GymDesk is fantastic. And the new logo looks really good too.

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: But it does. It just truly… I know every software says they revolutionize and streamline your business, but this one does. Because I’ve used all the other ones, and they actually added work. I was like, “Oh, I need to sit for an hour today with this software,” and I don’t. Like, I’ve already looked off camera just that GymDesk on my phone just like, “Oh, what do I have today for trial appointments and all?” Like, just it’s always right there, and it’s so easy for me. There is no better management software for your school. And I don’t care if you’re karate, taekwondo, yoga, whatever. It can be (what’s the word?) like curtailed to your use. Yeah, I think it’s the best one out there.

Josh Peacock: Yeah, that’s… wow, what a shining review. I appreciate that, man. I used some other stuff too, because I used to teach taekwondo. And I’ve worked in martial arts schools as well. And I think I know the one you’re talking about. But there are a couple of them. But yeah, very expensive. They just do so much stuff that just, I don’t know, they try to diversify into other markets. They have all these like, features that are not… they’re like wait there too. It’s like opening up an Excel spreadsheet and like not knowing what to do. Like, “Hey, I just need to do these 3 things. These are the 3 things I need to do. I don’t want to go through 4 YouTube videos, each 30 minutes long to figure out how to do all this stuff. I just need something that is like a rail,” right?

Shane Mount: Right, yeah.

Josh Peacock: It’s there. It’s ready to go. And it’s super, it’s easy to put together. And I ended up using is, you know it’s GymDesk, but at the time, it was also Martial Arts on Rails, towards the end of when I was teaching. And I kind of transitioned into away from working in martial arts. And it was like, I was like, “Man, I wish I had this like a year and half ago.” Because I went through like 2… dude, in 1 year, like a year, maybe a little more than a year, I probably went through like 3… yeah, 3 things.

Shane Mount: Same thing. And I’ll say their names because I’m not going to trash why. But like I was on like okay, Rainmaker, that was the 72-page PDF. So, Rainmaker, and I was like, “Oh, man, I can’t do this.” And then the very first one ever was Champions Way, because every martial arts school in the world uses Champions way.

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: And I’m like, “Yeah, I don’t need all these features. And I don’t want to pay that per triple digit price tag.” And then a friend of mine was running at a CrossFit box, and he’s like, “You gotta use…” why am I drawing a blank right now? Zen Planner, I think was the one.

Josh Peacock: Zen Planner, yeah.

Shane Mount: I was on there real briefly, and I’m like, “Man, this is cool for you. This has no martial arts specific like…” And so, I was at the end of the rope. And what I was doing was Square had just created the ability to do recurring invoices. So, I had entered all of my customers into Square and set up recurring invoices, and that was it. It would just bill, so it would do that. But then I had no information on them. Not a birthday, no attendance tracking, no anything. And some of the, “Hey, I need to cancel,” and I couldn’t schedule that cancel out. Or I’d be like trying to prorate with a calculator, or like just all of these things that signing up a new student, the actual enrollment portion should take you 5 minutes or less. The rest of the time with your appointment or your consultation, or however you run your school should be building rapport and letting them know what they can expect here and what you can offer. You’re showing them the facility, including a private lesson or a trial class. It shouldn’t feel like you’re buying a house with, “Sign here, and do that, and fill this out.”

Josh Peacock: Yeah, yeah.

Shane Mount: And so, with Martial Arts on… GymDesk. Man, I’m so pre-programmed.

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: I’m so sorry. So, if you come take a trial class with me, as soon as you get there, like, “Hey, great to meet you,” I’m just going to hand you an iPad. Because right there is the visitor form, which has the waiver embedded. You’re going to do all that and you’re going to hand it back to me, and we’re going to go train. And then afterwards, we’re going to do our normal, like, “What did you like, didn’t like?” discuss membership and pricing. Your information is already there from the visitor form, the waiver is already signed. At that point, all I need from you is a form of payment and an enrollment form that you’ll sign, which you don’t even have to do right now. I tell my people, like, “Go home. Take a shower. It’ll be in your email. Just sign up for you come to class again.” Like, it’s so easy. Sometimes when people come in, they’re like, “Oh, I wanted to sign up through your website or whatever, but I forgot,” I’m like, “Cool, grab your smartphone, pull my website up, and you can do it right there. You can fill out the whole waiver and everything.” Especially after the COVID things, people weren’t really excited to touch community devices again. I’m like, “You’ve got one in your hand.” Which I still think it’s funny. You don’t want to touch the community device, but you want to come in and touch the community in a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu school. But we’ll leave that alone. I’m not going to…

Josh Peacock: Yeah, yeah.

Shane Mount: But every trial we get scheduled, I can send them back a link, they fill out the waiver. And it gives me a chance to start a dialogue ahead of time. So, “Hey, if you have any questions or anything for your visit, you can email here. You can call here. Or do you want to schedule a call and we can talk about what your experience is going to be like?” I’m starting part of, I hate to say sales process because that sounds terrible, but I’m starting part of my new relationship with this person before they ever come into the academy. And that was made possible through the online booking, which I integrated into my own website.

Josh Peacock: Yeah, yeah.

Shane Mount: I think it’s great. It has changed the way I do business. And really, it’s just let me go back to doing martial arts, business and not business-business.

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: It’s like having an employee.

Josh Peacock: That’s what the people that really get into teaching to teach, not necessary… of course, they want to make a living, but they’re not in it for money. They want to be able to live by teaching and just teach. And this software, makes it almost, like it’s not obtrusive. It kind of blends in the background. It does his job really, really well. And you don’t have to go through 4 or 5 different software solutions and try to hack it all together and manage it manually or pay some money.

Shane Mount: No MailChimp, No Constant Contact. I’m not using anything else. I don’t even use like… I know some schools use like WhatsApp and aal. Like, you can text my school. Text it.

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: It’ll go through GymDesk, it’ll come to my phone, it’ll be in my email, at which point I can choose to text you back or I can reply to that email which you will still receive as a text. I thought that was the greatest thing ever. Because nobody picks up a phone anymore. Everyone wants to text. So, just the features and for what you pay, I can’t… I’m still waiting for the price to go up. And when it does, I’m not even going to complain. Sooner or later, it has to. Everything goes up, right?

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: But just what you get is… and like anyone who’s listening to this, I want to be 100% transparent. I thought I was just on yet another Jiu-Jitsu podcast. I didn’t know this was the podcast for GymDesk. I would have said this stuff anyway, because I say it on mine all the time. Like it is the software you should be using. And if you’re listening to this podcast and you own a school, take the trial. Like, if it sucks, you didn’t lose anything.

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: But I guarantee it’s cheaper than what you’re paying for. I guarantee.

Josh Peacock: Yeah. The trial’s free. You don’t have to get on a sales call. I had done like 2 or 3 of those. You don’t have to get on a sales call with somebody just show you everything and ask you questions and try to sell.

Shane Mount: Right.

Josh Peacock: You just… you don’t have to put your credit card or anything. Just go, just try it out, look around, see what’s going on. You can put in contacts and stuff like that. And then, if you want to do it, do it. If you don’t want to do it, no problem. Nobody’s going to give you grief about it. Like it’s the best.

Shane Mount: Yeah. I love every time I think I have some great idea, because I’ve been using the software for so long and I’ve been in contact with the owner, I’m like, “Hey, do you guys ever think you should add this?” and he’ll just reply, like, “Shane, we’ve had that. Like, here’s a link,” and I’m like, “Oh.” Like, you guys have truly covered all the bases. And yeah, there’s just there’s nothing. As a business owner I want. There’s some things that I’ve been told that are coming, and I don’t know if I’m allowed to say them on here. But when those couple of things happen, I’m going to be like super stoked all in. Like, yeah, I’m real ready. But it’s the coolest thing. And the last thing I’ll say about that is it let me just be a teacher again. And that is worth… I would have paid 3 times as much to get that back. So, that that was it. That’s the sales pitch from me.

Josh Peacock: That’s a good one. I’m sol. You sold me again. So, let’s pivot a little bit. You had a podcast. You said you shut it down. But you are going to be working with another production company.

Shane Mount: yes.

Josh Peacock: And working on a pod and podcasts are them. What got you into podcasting? I’m always curious about that.

Shane Mount: The lockdown, being shut inside.

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: And if you’re still listening at this point, I don’t know how long we’ve been on here, I like to talk. And my mom is telling me, “You love the sound of your own voice.” As a kid, I used to carry this tape recorder thing around and just talk into it and then play it back. So, I’ll talk to anybody anywhere, anytime about anything. And I’m very opinionated and I have a lot to say. So, my girlfriend’s like, “Man, you should do one of these Jiu-Jitsu podcasts because all you do is complain about how most of them suck.” And I really believe most of the Jiu-Jitsu podcasts, they almost suck. They read as like, “Well, this week in Jiu-Jitsu, so and so disrespected so and so on Twitter. Gordon Ryan’s hair is currently this color.” And I’m like, “I don’t care.” Like, I wanted to have some sort of space where new students like could ask a question from a black belt and not be berated or just mistreated. Or there are certain instructors who are like, “Hey, that’s a private lesson,” like, “Man, that’s not.”

It should be… so, Judo culture, I think shaped how I think about things. Where like if you walk into a Judo academy and you’re or white… a Judo dojo, excuse me. If you’re a white belt, you’re supposed to ask a black belt to train. And in Jiu-Jitsu culture, it’s a little backwards like, “Oh, no, don’t ask the black belts to train. Like, they got to ask you.” I don’t agree with that at all. It is every black belt’s responsibility to bestow whatever knowledge and experience you have on everyone underneath of you. That is your job. Like I said, I have some very unpopular opinions about Jiu-Jitsu stuff.

I was on… I can’t remember. It was a different podcast. And I was telling someone like they had an issue with bowing onto the mat and bowing to an instructor. And I said, “Spin that around though. You guys are bowing to an instructor, he’s also bowing to you showing his appreciation for your trust and your time. You could have spent your time anywhere. For your attentiveness.” Or it’s a mutual bow. Not, “People bow to my feet, and I stand there with my hands on my hips.” Like, I’m also grateful to have students. Because without this, my dream wouldn’t be possible, right? So, I wanted a podcast where, yes, I’m a black belt, but I’m also just a dude top. Like, I do the same dorky things every other guy does. And I wanted to just be able to like relate and talk to people. And so, it was my girlfriend and I, and she’s a Jiu-Jitsu student, which makes for an interesting dynamic because I’m her instructor. And it is not easy sometimes. Sometimes it’s difficult for me… not talking about her, but sometimes difficult for her to separate our relationship…

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: … from student-teacher relationship or certain things where I’m like, “Hey, that’s not right. Do it again,” could be taken personally. And then later that evening…

Josh Peacock: It’s going to cascade.

Shane Mount: “You’re not talking to me,” like, “Well, you didn’t have to talk to me that way.” That’s my her voice. I’m going to pay for that, because she’s going to listen to this. That’s okay. But that was where the podcast was going. And we’re like, “You know what? We bet we’re not the only people in this type of situation that trains with a significant other, or that has real questions.” We’re both in our 30s. She’s starting this in her 30s and was a single mom when she came into it. So, like, we had real world issues, like, “Hey, how often should I train?” or like, “Hey, I don’t bounce back like the 21-year-olds do. My shoulder hurts, or this hurts.” So, like we just wanted a real podcast where we could have real dialect. And that was it. That was the idea. I didn’t want to cover the IBJJF worlds like results. Nobody cares. I wanted to talk about like, “Hey, we tried these detergents on these and they suck. Maybe you should try this one.” Or, “Hey, this is just good etiquette. Do these things, not those things.” Or we had a lot of people writing with questions. And one of the most common questions was like, “Hey, I’m going to quit. Like, talk me out of it.” And we were able to answer people’s questions and put them out there. And I really hope we stopped at least 1 person from quitting Jiu-Jitsu.

I’m not going to be naive and think that we got someone to do Jiu-Jitsu, because why would you be listening to a jitsu podcast if you don’t? So, I don’t think we’ve recruited anyone. Joe Rogan’s the guy for that. As a school owner, more people have come in, and I always ask, “What made you want to do this?” after they sign up, and it’s usually, “Oh, I heard Joe Rogan,” or, “I head Jocko Willink,” or, “I heard Anthony Bourdain used to do Jiu-Jitsu or Paul Walker.” Like, it’s really the celebrities are the ones who are pumping people into our doors. It’s not… years ago, when I was a young, stupid school owner, Gracie Magazine was like, “Hey, for $1,200, we’ll put your information to your school and the magazine.” And I was like, “Yes.” And I paid the $1,200. And then later, I’m like, “Wait a minute, if you’re flipping through the back of a Gracie Magazine, you already do Jiu-Jitsu, and you’re probably happy with where you are.”

Josh Peacock: Yep.

Shane Mount: So, at best, that might drop me a couple, this might net me a couple of drop ins from a traveling businessperson who’s just looking for an academy where they’re currently at.

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: So, what a wasted marketing thing that was. And what I never intended was for my podcast to help my school…

Josh Peacock: Okay.

Shane Mount: … to be like some sort of ad or whatever. In fact, like we call our podcast the Dojo Storm, it’s just because we thought it was funny. It had nothing to do with Dojo storming anyone. It was just us being goofballs. And then I’ve got my Academy Range Jiu-Jitsu. And then I’m part of the Robson Moura Nations United RMU Association. And I try to keep these things very separate, because I have different opinions and things then Professor Robson has. And I don’t speak for him, and I don’t speak for the team, so I didn’t make this podcast about that. And I say things on this podcast that I probably wouldn’t say in a class environment, because I can. You get a different version of me at work. But when I’m just having fun and just talking to Jiu-Jitsu people, as you and I would like at a barbecue or anywhere else, you get a little bit more of my darker sense of humor, or sometimes my language, which is not always the best. But you get like a more real genuine experience.

And that’s what we want with our podcast. It was like sitting down with a couple of Jiu-Jitsu buddies, who maybe have just been doing it a little longer than you, and who were able to answer your questions. And it was a lot of fun for us. The problem is, with me running the school, and then with her full-time job, she has a child, she’s also training, she’s actively competing a lot right now, and then just regular domestic stuff, it started to like slip through the cracks. And I would be like, “Hey, we got to do a podcast,” and there would be like this, to her, that 90 minutes just seemed like, “I can’t do that right now. I don’t have time for that right now.”

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: So, what we just decided was like, “You know what? Let’s focus on the things that are more important.” And I’m not going to say Dojo Storm is done forever. I’m not going to take it down. The episodes that are out there, they’re out there. They’re on Spotify, and you can find them. And yes, some of them are pretty old. But there’s good information. So, you just go to Dojo Storm on Spotify or Apple podcasts. Plug for a podcast, it’s no longer active. But I want to leave that stuff out there, because the whole point was to help people. And by taking it down, who am I helping? So, leave those questions answers out there. Actually, we have 1 episode that has not been uploaded, that is like a month or 2 old. And like I just need to put it up, because it was a full Q&A episode. And there’s some really good questions were asked. So, maybe I’ll actually not be lazy when I get off of this one, upload that one.

Josh Peacock: Yeah, do it.

Shane Mount: But so, then the other idea that we have going right now is, those of you who are heavy on it. diagram or maybe are familiar with Choke Lab. So, choke lab does a lot of great content sharing of competition footage, instructional stuff. And then they are an incredible brand. And I am not an owner. I have no vested interest. I’m just the guy who owns it is my closest friend within our association. So, he’s a Robson Moura black belt as well. He’s like also like an older brother. He’s a little older. We have all types of great conversations, and not just Jiu-Jitsu. And him and I got to spit ball. And he’s got a lot to say, I got a lot to say. Him and I just spend hours on the phone just talking. One day, I was like, “Man someone would probably just really like to listen to our conversation, because we talked about all the things.”

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: And I was like, “You know what? Let’s do that.” Like, and he was like, “Yeah, okay, we’ll do it.” And then I’m like, “Let’s do it in conjunction with your brand, with your thing.” So, the concept for Choke Lab Radio was born. We’ve got some heat. Joseph Manuel, that’s who I’ve been talking about, he is way more connected with like the Jiu-Jitsu who’s who. He’s been around the sport for so long. And like, it is wild, we’re at a tournament, like Felipe Andrew walks by, and Joseph just starts talking to him, and like he knows him. And I’m like, “That’s Felipe Andrew,” and he’s, “Yeah, I know him. We shot an instructional video or this,” and I’m like, “What it’s like to be in your world.” So, I was like, “Okay, let’s do that then. Like, I’m the techie dork. I know how to set all this up, and I like to talk. And you know a lot of people.” And then plus, he’s also a lifelong martial artist, so he’s got a whole different background of things. He was heavy into the boxing. And like we have very different perspectives and very different opinions on certain things, but we find a way to not like argue. And like he said, he’s my closest friend in the team. So, we’re like, “Man, this would be really interesting.” And you have 2 black belts who are there to give you maybe different viewpoints.

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: And so, like that’s the idea behind it. And then trying to bridge the gap and bring on some of the bigger name guys. But the idea will be, not to do what other podcasts do when they have like a Jiu-Jitsu celebrity on. We want to talk about, “What does this guy do day to day? Or like what how do you manage the stress or the balance? Or before you were able to feed yourself with Jiu-Jitsu,” like the [inaudible] story of him being a baker. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard any of that.

Josh Peacock: No, I haven’t. Yeah.

Shane Mount: My man was a baker, like a full on like worked in a bakery early in the morning. And like…

Josh Peacock: Putting the bread in the oven.

Shane Mount: He was doing like these crazy cakes and stuff. And that stuff intrigues me, because at the end of the day, every Jiu-Jitsu person you know is still a person. And maybe sometimes, we put like Jiu-Jitsu people like on this weird pedestal. Or like if you saw like a Andre Galvao at McDonald’s, you’d be like, “Oh, my god, get a picture. I can’t believe he’s here.” Like, Andre Galvao is allowed to like McDonald’s. Like, maybe not every day, but that might be a 1 day a month or whatever. And I would like to use this new project to kind of like humanize some of these guys and see, like, “Hey, what are you really into? Are you a big video game nerd? Cool. Like, what’s your gamertag? People want to play with you,” or whatever it is.

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: So, that’s the project. We’re slow rolling it because Joseph runs a school. I run a school. He’s in Jersey. I have found myself in Idaho for the last 6 years. And so, the time difference makes things hard. And they’re trying to get a… even just linking up with you today, like, for anyone listening, I was like, 3 hours late, because I didn’t adjust for the time difference. I was supposed to connect much earlier. So, it makes it difficult to work on a project with someone across the country, right? But we’re working on that. And then obviously, the Choke Lab website is out there. I’m terrible at this. I think it’s just chokelab.com And then there’s some really…

Josh Peacock: Yeah, I think it is. Yeah.

Shane Mount: Yeah, like you can download some great stuff. We talked about instructionals. There’s some fantastic instructionals on there too. And he’s continuing to do them. The Gear is fantastic. I’m a big Kingz Gi guy. And the only thing you’ll find in my closet that’s not Kingz is usually Progress or Maeda, and those were like Kingz subsidiaries. But now the Choke Lab stuff is starting to like [inaudible] it’s good quality stuff. And I like the fit. And you can support a friend in in their space, you should. And so, yeah, that’s it. There was no like big secrets or anything. It’s something new. It’s coming. Joseph is way more active on social media than I am. So, probably spearhead that. And he’s really great at content creation and interaction. Joseph is like super approachable. And so, that’ll be a cool thing for him. And I just get to talk more, like I’m important.

Josh Peacock: Yeah. It’s always fun to talk to have a discussion. Yeah, that’s cool. Did you guys have…? It’s what I’m gathering here from listening to that is that you’re really just trying to help people connect in a different way to the Jiu-Jitsu community. Or is there any other goals other than that, or is that just what you want to do?

Shane Mount: Joseph was out here a couple weeks ago for the Boise Open, and him and I got a chance to… we don’t see each other as much as we used to, because I have now moved to the opposite coast. So, one of the things that like stuck with me that he was saying was like his goal is to add to Jiu-Jitsu, to improve the value of Jiu-Jitsu. And not just on the map. And so, when I got to thinking about this podcast and this project, I was like, “Hey, dude, you remember what you said about like, ‘Let’s add to Jiu-Jitsu,’? That’s what this podcast should be. We should add Jiu-Jitsu. And whether that be answering someone’s question, or maybe allowing someone to speak up or kind of voice a concern or something they wouldn’t be comfortable saying amongst their team, or their instructor, for whatever reason, just giving someone an outlet or being get another resource.” And that was the beauty of tying with Choke Lab, like because you have great instructional stuff, plus, you share all types of competition footage. And then being able to put like, some dialogue behind that.

And like just being… we’re not here to sell anything. Like, Choke Lab already sells stuff. And even, that’s the one thing I admire about him so much, is he’s like, “Man, if the if I sell 1 belt or 1 gi a month, I’m happy.” Like, he’s like, “That’s not how I made my money. Like, I have my school when I do my best for my students. Like, I just made gear that I wanted to wear myself, and then my friend started to want to wear.” And it was very like, true grassroots. It wasn’t like he was sitting around going, “Man, I really need to get on this like this gi grind game, and I’m going to be the next Show Your Role.” That’s the one that I love the one he says, he’s like, “I’m not trying to be next Tommy or Show Your Role, or like this will never be my primary thing. My primary thing is being on the mat and sharing my Jiu-Jitsu.” And then he even found a way to do that through the Choke Lab instructional stuff. And sometimes it’s behind the camera. And sometimes he’s in front of the camera.

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: And like it just sounds weird, but like I said, he’s my best friend, but like he’s got a beautiful mind. And in the thing with a beautiful mind is sometimes someone just has to talk to them and poke them and push the right buttons to get them to talk and to say. And him and I have these fantastic conversations all the time, and no one benefits except us. And I’m like, “This is how we can improve Jiu-Jitsu. Like, it’s a small thing, but it’s something that we can do. And I’ve already got all the equipment from the other podcast. And all it’s going to cost us as time. And we’ve already got a website and hosting. You’ve got a fan base. I’ve got a fan base. Let’s unite the clans and see what happens. We don’t know what’s going to happen. The whole thing could tank. People might not like us together. The dynamic might not be there. Who knows? But like, we don’t know ‘til we try. And so, let’s just do it, and it’d be fun.

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: [inaudible] sucks, him and I will just keep having great phone conversations, and you guys can’t listen then, whatever.

Josh Peacock: Yeah, I got a buddy that’s just… that’s funny, I have a buddy just like that. And we’ve had so many… we’re like, “Man, we gotta record when we have these conversations.”

Shane Mount: yes.

Josh Peacock: Just have hours and hours and hours of conversations. And we did record one. And it was like 3 hours long. I haven’t released it yet on my other podcasts. And it just was forever. I’m going to have to cut it down. It’s just so, so long. But yeah, that’s awesome. Sounds like you have some chemistry. I think people are going to be wanting to listen in on that, for sure.

Shane Mount: Hopefully.

Josh Peacock: Yeah. I don’t… do you still have some time, or are we still…?

Shane Mount: Yeah, I’m good for a while.

Josh Peacock: Okay.

Shane Mount: I think. Yes.

Josh Peacock: Alright. So, well, my last topic will be this competition project you’ve got going on, tell me about that. What’s the litmus behind it, what’s… or the catalysts rather? Yeah, let’s start there.

Shane Mount: So, yeah, it’s funny, because so you and I have a mutual friend. And I don’t know [inaudible] he’s like your coworker or your boss, or I don’t know how.

Josh Peacock: Boss.

Shane Mount: Okay. So, he had mentioned like, “Hey, Shane was going to do this tournament.” And because I had contacted him, like, “Hey, is there any ability to use Martial Arts on Rails to be the actual…” sort, GymDesk. I swear I’ll get it right.

Josh Peacock: GymDesk.

Shane Mount: So, after so many years…

Josh Peacock: Yeah, I know.

Shane Mount: Like, I totally apologize. But, “Was there any way to utilize the software to do something like what Smooth Comp does?” Because again, I don’t want another account. I don’t want another… and I’ve seen how truly like on rails, this thing I don’t even have any other way to describe it is, if they could do like tournament hosting and bracketing and registration, if they can handle that the way they handle my business, I think that’s one of the number 1 things that stops people from getting involved in organizing a tournament is the administrative. What a nightmare. That many competitors, that many, getting their information, generating brackets, just waivers. Waivers for a small tournament has 4 to 500 competitors, right?

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: So, like, just getting that, collecting that that data, like, “Man, this is something that maybe GymDesk could do.” So, I contacted him, and it was like, “Okay, not at this time, but like that’s something that potentially on the table.” Great. And then I started really looking at I hate… ‘hate’ is a strong word. I strongly dislike almost 1 to 2 aspects of almost every tournament I see that comes around. And again, unpopular opinion, I really enjoy the IBJJF. I do. I think it’s a great organization. I like the rule set, which I know a lot of black belts do not. I like the rule set. I think it’s very safe, but still allows Jiu-Jitsu to be entertaining to watch. I’m not a big nogi guy. I Don’t like seeing double guard pools and a bunch of like the honey hold and all the foot stuff. Like that doesn’t excite me. I want to see 2 guys like go at it and fight for the grips, fight for the takedown, insist on the guard pass. And so, I like the IBJJF. And I know that they had criticism for a lot of allowing things like the double guard pull. But every year, they released updates. They try to make it more user friendly… or more spectator friendly, sorry.

Because I think that’s what’s wrong with Jiu-Jitsu right now, is if you took someone who didn’t train and you took them to the worlds, for them to get as excited about it as you are, they would have to understand. So, and Jiu-Jitsu is really tough to understand.

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: I mean, we’ve had guys who have been doing it forever, and they still don’t understand. So, I thought to myself, “If I could create a tournament and take a rule set that’s pretty much universally recognized in this make some…” I would probably… not probably, I fully intend to do away with penalty points and advantage points. Because I have had to explain that so many times to my own students. And sometimes in my own explanation, I just stop and I’m like, “That wouldn’t even make sense to a 5-year-old. So, why…?” Like, “Well, you almost swept the guy. So, we’re going to give you this little partial point that doesn’t add up to anything. But if you tie, then it matters.” Like, it’s just not logical. So, I love how the IBJJF format runs. I think it’s fantastic. The standards on gi checking for size and just kind of trying to, I think that’s great. When you see the other smaller tournaments, Naga, US Grappling, Grapplers’ Quest. There’s the one that I absolutely loathe and I’m completely anti… why am I drawing a blank right now too? Grappling Industries, there’s traveling everywhere.

Josh Peacock: Mm-hmm.

Shane Mount: The rule set and all… and it’s fine for other people. I don’t like seeing blue belts to hold in the bar, and I’m like, “It’s a bit early.” Like, that’s a great power you have when you start messing with people’s knees. And at the end of the day…

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: … everyone’s got to go to work tomorrow. So, maybe on a Saturday, getting knee barred real hard and not being able to go home.

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: So, I just tried to create a tournament that is accessible for everyone that I liked the organization. I’m more or less following the IBJJF guidelines on most everything. Even I love how you don’t have to be there all day where like some tournaments like, “Oh, weigh in is at 8:30. Your match is at 4:30.” That’s terrible. Be there an hour before. Get your gi inspected. Make your weight. I think like a federation membership is a great idea. Everyone’s like, “Oh, that’s just another cash grab.” No, that allows me to keep people, 1, engaged. And I have a membership, an annual card and whatever, so I better do more than 1 tournament, right? So, that’s going to help keep people going.

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: And then if you use that money properly to invest, and this is the big thing, in proper training of referees. Because local tournaments, they always they jump on Facebook or whatever, and like, “Hey, we need purple belts and above who want to referee. Come an hour early. We’ll go over the rules with you. We’ll pay $20 an hour.” I have seen so many bad referees. And it’s not that they’re bad humans, it’s they haven’t been trained. Where the IBJJF has a standardized course and an exam, and like you have to pass this thing.

Josh Peacock: Right.

Shane Mount: Because you’re playing with people’s experience. Like, you’re paying 100, 120 bucks or some places 75 bucks to compete. I think of this for the kids. You get a kid out there, it’s their first term and ever, they’re already nervous and scared and excited and all these things, and you’re given up the wrong points or the wrong whatever, or you allow something unsafe to happen, you may have just ruined Jiu-Jitsu for a human’s entire life. They may never do this again.

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: So, it’s a huge responsibility to be a referee. I think you should know the rules inside and out. Be able to recite them. Be able to show examples of them. And it’s so that would be my number 1 focus. Everyone can complain about tournament pricing and this and that. My focus would be referees. 100% educated referees, not, “Come an hour before the event.” I’ve been some grappling industries where they make an announcement, “Hey, does anyone in the crowd want to referee?” and I’m like, “What just happened.” Like…

Josh Peacock: Wow.

Shane Mount: Right. So, and I understand they’re doing the best they can with what they have. It’s a traveling tournament. But I feel like there’s a certain level of responsibility when you run a promotion to provide clean mats, educated referees, and an orderly system. You have to be respectful everyone’s time. You can’t have a family there all day. I remember when my girlfriend was competing and she had to bring her daughter with her. Her daughter was 4 at the time. And she’s got her kid there all day, because their division is supposed to be a 1:00 and doesn’t really kick off ‘til 5. That’s a really long time to have a small child. I mean, we’ve run out of battery on the iPad. We ran out of snacks. We like… that’s tough. And then that starts to put pressure on the competitor, like, “Oh, man, my kid is unhappy. And I just need to get this thing done.”

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: Like, we just need to turn it that really focuses on the athlete and not the financial bottom line. And look anything if you run your school, and you just try to find the best product and service the money will come. It will come. But if you do like a cash grab tournament, like, “Hey, we’re going to sign up 500 people and 75 bucks, we’re going to grab these yahoos out of the crowd for 20 bucks an hour. We’re going to give them all a t shirt that says referee,” those people may not come back. You may see less and less. But if you put on a good tournament, you put on a good tournament 1 time, people will be skeptic, “Maybe that was a fluke.” You run that experience back and you give them the same or more value the second time around, “Okay, we’re on to something.” Run 3 or 4 tournaments like that, you’re a legend in whatever your local area is. Even if you ran them quarterly, people will be preregistering months in advance. They will be excited. There’ll be telling other schools. School owners are not the best at communicating with each other. We all kind of like…

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: … have these little weird rivalries. Or maybe we won’t come right out and say we don’t like each other or whatever, but… or there’s ones you do like. If I know about a tournament that’s well run, I’m going to tell another school like, “Hey, you sending your guys or your girls? Like, I’ll see you there. We’ll see you there.” Then maybe even that friendly rivalry comes back. If this Turman organization has like a top academy award. That always interests me the Pans or whatever to see that team trophy, to see 2 or 3 black belts holding that up. Or like you might actually start to get more of that in smaller communities, and not just Los Angeles, not just… where… did they just have Pans? It was somewhere in Florida. What was it? I want to say Kissimmee, but I don’t think it was Kissimmee. Either way.

Josh Peacock: Yeah, I can’t remember now.

Shane Mount: So, you always get like the Chicago open, the Houston open the New York open. There’s no reason that production quality can’t come to smaller places. Like here in Boise, Idaho, we had a Boise open. And it was a great experience. And I think Jiu-Jitsu is growing here at a rapid rate. When I first got here, there were 3 schools, me and 2 others. Now, there are so many schools, like I can’t even… like we can sustain a real tournament, and people will compete. And if you run it correctly, especially for children, you will get lifelong customers. And ‘profit’ is not a dirty word in any business. If you treat people well and you give them exactly what you say you’re going to give them and/or more, they will continue to support whatever your venture is, and they’ll be happy about it, you’ll profit and everyone will win. And I just haven’t seen a tournament run that way yet. And I know it sounds really like a beautiful fairy tale, but that’s what I’m aspiring to do.

And rather than just launch it half-cocked, this has been in the works for over 2 years. And I’m still working on it, and it’s going to happen. And somebody may listen to this podcast and hear all my ideas and whatever, and they may pull the trigger before me. And I’m going to say, “Great.” Because the more quality tournaments they are, even if we all had the exact same format, you want to rip my ideal off, go for it. I will send you my entire business plan in a PDF so that Jiu-Jitsu improves. And that’s the one thing that that I got from Joseph, “How can I improve Jiu-Jitsu while I’m here?” And that’s all I really am trying to do. Sorry, I keep losing you. Sorry.

Josh Peacock: Okay. You can hear me?

Shane Mount: Yeah, I can hear you. So, my screen goes black, so I can see you and then I can’t.

Josh Peacock: Oh.

Shane Mount: Which is probably a user error, but…

Josh Peacock: Yeah, that sounds awesome. That’s there need to be more people, I think, innovating in the tournament space. But yeah, dude…

Shane Mount: [inaudible] ideas out there too that like, just more conversations like this. Because maybe you’ve had a good experience or a bad experience, and I need to hear about both. I need to get that data to put the best product out.

Josh Peacock: Absolutely. Alright, man, it’s been a little… this is going to be a long episode. So, I’m going to go ahead and ask you where people can find you and let you go.

Shane Mount: So, I am kind of a hermit and rather elusive. But you can, if you’re an Instagram person, I don’t even know my… it’s Reign R e i g n (similar to the energy drink) Reign Jiu-Jitsu, Boise. That is my academy. I don’t have a personal account. I don’t do that. I used to, and it just felt like it was too much to keep up with. And I’d rather focus on one thing. So, Reign Jiu-Jitsu, Boise on Instagram. We’re on Facebook too, I think. Not super active. The podcast which we talked about, which is no longer up, or its up, but we’re not producing new episodes, that was on Instagram as well. And that was just the Dojo or just Dojo Storm podcast. And give it a follow, because at any time, when she wants to do an episode, we’re going to do one, because I’m always down. So, we might just release them at random. It may not be a schedule.

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: And then right now the biggest thing I’m working on is just working with Choke Lab to get this thing out. And while we don’t have any social media presence for the podcast, I would say check out Choke Lab directly. And that’s just Choke_Lab on Instagram. And check them out. And if you were to give my academy and follow that, that’s cool, too. And if you have something you want to say or, “Man, you were really annoying. Hope you never go back on there again,” send it to me. Send on my DMs, it’s fine. I can take it. So, that’s really it. I think my school’s website is Reign Jiu-Jitsu, Boise. But there’s nothing on there really except for like a schedule. And it’s not the most. It’s always web designers who have the worst websites for themselves. I do great work for other people. My own stuff is just basic.

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: But yeah, hopefully get that podcast going, and yeah, I’m easy to find. So, and my name, which no one really believes. So, yeah, Mount is really my last name, Shane Mount. Like, that’s…

Josh Peacock: Yeah.

Shane Mount: So, you can just… you can find me. I’m out there. I didn’t change it when I became a Jiu-Jitsu guy. It’s just this strange, awkward last name that’s just fitting.

Josh Peacock: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, cool. Alright. Well, thanks for coming on. We’ll have to do it again.

Josh Peacock: Yeah, yeah. Thanks for having me. It’s been great. Sorry for the delay. I’ll learn to read a clock better next time.

Shane Mount: No worries.

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