Learn What It Really Takes to Run a Jiu-Jitsu Academy

Lightly edited for readability. Speaker labels are omitted because the source recording is not diarised; quotes attributed elsewhere on this page were verified against context.

Music Baseball bat, swingin' too This game's what you wanna do Better up, dug your phone Now you see I'm goin' home Oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh-oh Oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh-oh Break my heart, it's in two This ain't what you wanna do Better be three quarters Behind every gym, there's a story, a mission, a spark of passion that started it all. This is Gymdesk Originals Real owners, real struggles, and the communities they built from the ground up What's up, everybody? Hello from Las Vegas, Nevada I'm here at Roll Society Jiujitsu Where they have all kinds of different programs I think today I'm gonna be doing a half judo, half jiu-jitsu Can't wait to check it out, let's go Hi my name is Joey, I'm one of the owners here at Roll Society Jiujitsu Academy If you're looking for jiu-jitsu for kids, teens, or adults, come on down We offer jiu-jitsu and judo for all age groups, four and above So come on down and give us a try and you won't regret it We offer jiu-jitsu and judo for all ages groups,

three and above We offer jiu-jitsu and judo for all ages groups, three and above We offer jiu-jitsu and judo for all ages groups, three and above We offer jiu-jitsu and judo for all ages groups, three and above We offer jiu-jitsu and judo for all ages groups, three and above We offer jiu-jitsu and judo for all ages groups, three and above Professor Santos Nice to see you, sir Yeah, nice to see you Thank you for having us here today or having me today I had a good judo session today The school has,

I guess, evolved over time And the first time I came here was probably like six months ago, seven months ago We did just jiu-jitsu and then today we had some judo, which is great So tell me about the programs that we have here at Roll Society So we teach traditional jiu-jitsu from the Gilo Recy style back in Brazil when he first started it We try to stick to the roots cores We did start a new judo program so that some of our students can pick up some stand-up skills Helps for the tournaments,

helps with the self-defense It all marries together beautifully For jiu-jitsu, it's obviously primarily focused on the ground game So my expertise is all on the ground Professor Wayne comes in, helps share his knowledge for judo It's everybody's technique on their feet Working, balance, comes together beautifully It's a great program That's awesome And so how long have you been part of Roll Society? So I started here with Roll Society about two months ago Me and Joey met up I was teaching before friends and family at my garage basically with my setup Joey had a school here I needed an instructor He said, hey, I heard you're an instructor without a school On a school without an instructor Maybe we can get together and help each other out So we saw what we could do for each other Took his family that he still had Took my family that I still had Brought us together And started some good stuff here now Yeah,

that's awesome So I told Joey this before I actually kind of have a similar background I have a little garage, dojo I have a black belt Taekwondo I trained in some judo and jiu-jitsu And it's fun I don't do it for money I was just doing it because I loved it And I still do it So you got this offer to be part of a studio And be part of Roll Society How does it make you feel? You're like You know, I love teaching So a long time ago My professors I've had the blessing of learning Under many brilliant black belts Over the last 13, 14, 15 years They taught me a long time ago Some guys are great at competing Some guys are great at rolling on the mat And some people are great at teaching And just because you're a great competitor Doesn't mean you're a great teacher Just because you're a great teacher Doesn't mean you're a great competitor And that's the beauty of jiu-jitsu There's something there for everybody Whether you're kids,

seniors, adults You know, you might be doing this for fun For exercise Maybe you want to be the next MMA fighter Maybe you're just having a midlife crisis And just getting old like we are You know, maybe get some exercise there But there's something there for everybody I found my passion in sharing knowledge So that's why I started teaching at home in the garage When I got my black belt The biggest joy I had was sharing with people The love of the art I was taught from my original professors A true love of the art of jiu-jitsu And if I can instill that in my students And I see them love it Then watch their journeys grow That's what I love That's awesome So tell us about your martial arts

journey Like your background When you started That kind of thing You know, I was like a lot of people Like probably like you Like most people I was a working dad Full-time job I was getting old I was mid-30s And said, you know, I need to do something With my life You know, get some exercise I can't run I have no cardio My knees are shot But I wanted to do something And obviously like a bunch of us guys Were watching MMA We've probably been watching UFC Since,

you know, it started back in the day We were wrestling with our friends And, you know, in the grass And I said, you know, I want to do something But MMA was a little rough Kickboxing was a little rough You know, I went and looked at a kickboxing school I went and looked at a taekwondo school The honest answer I didn't want to get punched in the face But jujitsu offered this beautiful little in-between Where it was serious enough Where the live grappling The live sparring Gave it a nice little sense of realism It wasn't too far of a step from wrestling Because I wrestled a lot in junior high,

high school So it just added the submissions to it But it's funny what you don't know So, you know, like most of us guys We walk in there the first day as a white belt You got some years of wrestling on your experience And you're like, ah, this is going to be easy Then you get your ass handed to you By some 14-year-old kid, you know With a green belt on And you're like, what the hell? So it's a beautiful eye-opening thing My professors told me They love the analogy of chess This is like body chess Yeah And right now we're just learning How to move our bodies Once we get the black belt It doesn't mean you're a master It just means you learn how to play the game Now you need to go play the game You know, so that was a beautiful thing So my journey started a long time ago Working a full-time job Trying to raise my kids It's a tough journey for most people Having that balance Dragging yourself into class It's a tough journey for all of us It took me 13 years to complete my journey I got my black belt under Mika Sapiria He runs all the grace and might The

schools here in town Great black belt Great lineage He instilled a lot of core beliefs in us It's not just about being a badass on the mat It's about being a good person in real life But sharing all that knowledge with my kids I was able to share with my kids at home Friends and family It's a beautiful journey And we're always students It's the only thing that you realize in the beginning We're white belts And we're racing to get our blue belt We're racing to get our purple belt And then you realize there's no purpose to the race Because the race never ends There literally is no end to the journey So even now as a black belt I'm still a student I'm still learning I'm still learning judo

from my friend Who's teaching judo here I still go back to my main school Take some classes, seminars here and there The journey never ends And the beautiful thing about knowledge You never know everything there is to know There's always more And jiu-jitsu is constantly evolving As you've probably known I've seen jiu-jitsu evolve in the last 10 years And what it was 10-15 years ago And what it is now Slightly different But still beautiful Still core I love sticking to the basics Core jiu-jitsu Teach all the guys all the good stuff And then we play around Have fun Throw together We make each other stronger Yeah That's the beauty of it all Yeah,

it's a very interesting perspective And it's probably super obvious For all of those people Who have reached the black belt level Probably even purple level And brown levels and all But as a white belt guy Who's been off and on for a long time For me, my experience Has always been like You go to a class You practice something You do it a little bit Then you kind of forget it And you don't remember how to apply it But recently Since I've been getting back into it's all kind of coming together A little bit better for me Where I'm starting to piece it And I'm like,

oh yeah And I'm like, oh I think I can build a foundation But I still have so many You know, it's just like And then you say Now at the black belt level You're just getting started in the game And you still have even more levels to go It's like, this thing never ends This doesn't, no Yeah I like to use the analogy with my students We're putting together a gymsaw puzzle Yeah But I threw all the pieces in a plastic bag And I didn't tell you what the picture looked like And I dumped all the pieces out on the floor And said,

good luck Yeah You know, and right now In the beginning as white belts You just put the edges of the puzzle together Right You get the blue belt You're separating your colors Your sky's blue Your grass is green By the time you get the purple belt You can kind of sit back And you see the puzzle now There's still a lot of missing pieces But you can see the picture You know, the picture's not complete Aren't you missing pieces? You get the purple And now you're filling in one of those pieces You get the black Okay, great You have your puzzle together Then your friend turns around and says Okay, there's a hundred more puzzles back there Yeah Pick a new puzzle It doesn't end The beauty of the journey In learning all these things For those who already are into it's like, you know You kind of get addicted to it, right?

Yes You can get into this thing You're like, wow, that's cool And it also feels like I don't know You kind of said something about it And then we Like if I'm stressed at work I go in there And I'm rolling It's like I'm not thinking about anything So I just don't want to get choked So it allows you to focus Focus On that moment And just don't die, right? Like there's an element of that But I'm used to it So someone coming in off the street, right?

They want to try this They're interested Like what do you hope to Instill in them When they're walking in the door So that they can Become part of this journey? You know, the honest answer Is everybody's going to be treated Slightly different Is what you're going to expect Out of a kid Versus what you expect Out of a teenager What you expect out of an adult At the kid levels They got to have fun You know, if the kids Aren't having fun Because they don't want to say The kids aren't picking To come to jiu-jitsu It's their parents Saying them up It's their parents saying Hey, I saw this on TV I want my kid to be a badass This is going to be good for you know The kids are walking in here Kind of like You know, do I really want to be here?

So my goal with the kids Let them have fun Let them feel interactive You know, try not to Correct them too much It'll all come with time All the perfection of the move The position, the technique It'll all improve over time And the vision with the kids Have fun Have them involved Have them working Understanding how their bodies move Getting them comfortable With their body With their weight distribution With their balance You know, it all starts there with them Teenagers Same idea But then we can think A little more serious With the teenagers They're a little smarter They catch on a little quicker They're going to try a little harder But the same concept You can't push them too hard Don't want to discourage them Don't want them to feel

Negative about anything And they get enough of that In the real world And I know a lot of these parents You know, they want to see Their kids doing awesome On day one And no one's going to Perfect anything on the first day Everything is a growth stage You get the adults in here Kind of depends on what they're after You know, you get some adults Coming in here They want to be the tough guy You know, they're seeing the MMA fights They want to be the tough guy Okay,

great That's what you want out of it You get the dentist Who's in here Who's just, you know Looking for some cardio Looking for some fun Looking for something to do After, you know This long day at work It's a nice little distraction Nice little mental breath There is something to be said It's not just physical This is as much a mental gift As it's physical So like as you minister You can't think about Your problems of the day You can't think about your bills You know,

yeah Your rent is due But you're not thinking about that When the guy's knocking on coffee Choking you out, you know So it's a beautiful Little stressful What do you see as the vision here? Like what do you guys hope to achieve Here in the next Like six to twelve months? You know There's lots of jiu-jitsu schools in town There's lots of jiu-jitsu schools Around the country It became really popular It's a beautiful thing We love sharing the art We love sharing the knowledge You know I like to think that I have a motto here Learn something new Have fun Don't get hurt You can do those three things You can come in here Learn something new Have fun And go home and not get hurt It's a great day It's a great day And we will grow with that I can share that love That my professors gave me Of jiu-jitsu And I can share that love With my students And have them Fall in love With the sport With the martial art And they're going to go share it With their

kids And they're going to share it With their family And they're going to share it With their friends And that's the beauty Of how we all grow together You'll go to a tournament And you're fighting the guy Across the man And you've probably seen this These guys are trying to kill each other As soon as that match is over You'll see the biggest hug You'll see the most respect Because there's a community there's a love in the art And even one minute We might be trying to But the next minute We're going to shake hands And be proud of each other For that effort that we put in And it is the effort That will yield its own rewards over time We want to try to grow Get some more

students in here Get the judo program started Going good for everybody And just have some fun You know I'd rather see everybody Have fun Learn together Grow together That's the environment We're trying to achieve here And your children How many children do you have? I got two Two? They're both here They're both here I was going to ask you Yeah, they're both here But again Same concept as I mentioned before When I started When I got my black belt And I was teaching friends and family In my garage I didn't force my kids to come And I didn't say Hey, you kids You got to come down And do training with me every day No I let them come and have fun When they want to Hey, dad I want to go play Okay, come on Let's go play Never serious My kids are now Nine and eleven Okay And now they want to get into it So now I got to school Now they're coming down here But now they're having fun with it Now it's not something That

they're being forced to do Now it's not like Every Tuesday and Thursday You guys got to come to class No, now it's like Hey, dad Can I come to class? Yeah Yeah, come on down You know That's what I wanted to see I wanted them You wanted them to come from inside Instead of you like dragging them in Yes And that's again Back to the thing with the kids Who come in here I don't want to force anything out of them I want them to find that love I want to see them smile I want to see them go home And be like Hey, I had fun I want to go back tomorrow That's what's going to keep them Coming back as adults Yeah,

for sure That's what's going to make it A forever sport Have you had any I know it's only been around two months But have you had any Like really cool stories Of like kids who come in here And they were like shy And they're like Kind of breaking out of their shells Or you know Anything like that You know On a side conversation Like I said I do this for fun I still have a day job I work in an office I work, you know 9,

10, 11 hours a day Come here and do this afterwards There was a time I wanted to be a teacher I went into college I took all the classes To go be an elementary school teacher And sadly They don't get paid very well Which is the reason why I stopped pursuing that career But it's an interesting concept That sadly In today's educational system They have to force the kids through Whether the kids are ready or not So you're going to have Half these kids who are ready Half these kids aren't Yeah But the curriculum Has to keep going You can't slow down For the kids who need it And you can't speed up For the kids who are ahead You have to follow this program And the kids just kind

of go through it And I hated that Thinking of myself As a teacher in a school So when I got to teach here The beauty right now Of us being small I can dictate a lot of the classes To the individuals who are here You know The most exciting thing I saw Was a three-year-old Who signed up last week Who listens Tries and works harder Than half of the Frickin' teenagers I have Yeah And it's a beautiful thing to see You know We have a 13-year-old Who has this natural talent It's like watching A young Michael Jordan Yeah You know Like you can see The innate talent In some of these kids And it's like Oh my god You As an adult You're gonna be Ten times better than me

You know You're just a kid right now But to see That natural skill That natural ability Come out of these kids That's a beautiful thing To see That like just Makes me want to come back And do this again Because when you see Them picking it up When you see them Loving it When you see them Applying it That's the joy of it all It's cool to hear you say You know You're basically doing this For fun You have a full-time job Right And you're Nine to five Or whatever Right We did a survey And it was I don't remember The exact percentage It was like 70 to 80% Of all of You know Our customers Whatever they're doing Could be a martial art place Could be a regular gym

They do it Because of the passion That they want to share This knowledge Yes And it's such a cool thing To be That's what I do It's like I feel like What we're doing With our software And our technology Is to help people Express that passion Right Getting people inside Their four walls In this case On the mat So you can You know You can present that So it's really cool To hear that Do you want to share What you do In the You know In your professional life Oh I work at an Architectural firm Okay So here in Vegas There's obviously A lot of construction That goes on So I work for An architectural firm By the name of KGA We've done casinos Police stations Schools All that stuff

Around town Sadly I'm not An architect I'm a document Control specialist So I keep track Of files I have the blessing Of having a desk job So that's the saving grace That I'm not working Construction out in The 110 degree Vegas weather I get to sit I get to sit Inside an office Behind a computer Behind a desk I've been at my company For 20 years They were great Through my jiu-jitsu journey There was a time When I was still a student I was training I was going to classes During my lunch hour So classes were You know 12 to 2 or something But I would take A long lunch And I'd come back From my lunch And I'd be sweating And I'd have a busted arm I'm limping on

my knee I'm limping over my computer But my work Was always very supportive They gave me the extra time They didn't nag me When I showed up late Or you know Any of that kind of stuff So they were Really great about it And even now What I'm doing now Because my company Is aware obviously That I'm now Starting to run My own business And again They're very supportive They're like you know As long as you're still Getting your job done We wish you success And so Great people Surround yourself With great people in life You'll grow And that's what we love To do here Surround ourselves With some great people Great Well thank you so much No sir Thank you for sharing Your time with us Yeah Hopefully you

enjoyed Your lesson today I did I had a great time Again you're welcome Come back anytime Everyone Come back and join us Anytime Great class Come check it out Thank you sir Awesome Thank you very much Nice to see you again Thanks for stopping by Yeah It's been six months Since I first Stopped by here That's it Yeah It seems like it's longer Yeah so I think it was February Something like that February or March So a little bit of changes That have gone on Yes definitely Had some changes Had a great class today I did judo We did some Introductory warm ups Just reminding me a lot Of some of the stuff That we used to do Or I used to do Way back when Good workout right Good

workout Yeah really good workout I was just I felt a little Embarrassed I was like Putting puddles Everywhere Everywhere I'm walking So but no It was a great class We'd love to start By introducing you To everybody Love to know A little bit About your background You know like Where you from And your Martial art background That'd be Really good to know My name is Joey First of all I'm from Long Beach California originally I left to the military The army Specifically when I was 18 I did a little Over six years I was a grunt I'm sure if you were In the military You probably know What that is So it wasn't Pencil pusher Or anything like that I got hired Outside a federal Government job With U.S.

Marshals I did that for about 16, 17 years Throughout that time I actually went To ground zero 9-11 I was there For about 30 days Went to Hurricane Katrina Did that for About three weeks Did some other Details for like Higher profile trials Like Aaron Brotherhood And Fabio Chola In Florida And stuff like that It was a good Experience for All around Time came And I ended up Medically retiring I didn't know What to do I did hop keto For about 12 years Secondary black belt Hop keto But I had a 20 year hiatus So when I moved Here in 08 In Las Vegas There was no place The couple places That were Closed down So I was Kind of limbo I did taquando A little bit But really didn't

Care for it And just Kind of roaming Around I guess And just Didn't really do Anything I always wanted To do jiu-jitsu And try it But you know Just people On top of you Sweating I just Didn't really Just didn't Want to try it yet When I finally Got the nerve To try it COVID happened And every place Showed it down So I had to Wait until afterwards So there was This Gracie Baja Jiu-jitsu academy That opened down The street from me Like five minutes There was no excuse So I walked in Gave it a try Went with a buddy Of mine Did about three days Loved it I just I felt so helpless I was like You know what It's like one of Those things I was like Okay

I had no idea Younger guy Woman Whatever A kid Just was Taking advantage of me I was like Dude I gotta learn this My buddy did it too Only two days And he's like Dude I can't do this I quit He was like It was so hard So that was my First exposure To jiu-jitsu And from there I ended up Moving somewhere else I met somebody else And trained with them We opened the school together It didn't quite work out He ended up Having some personal issues And moving back To Brazil I ended up Rebranding From that Jiu-jitsu academy To a role society I met somebody else Through my chiropractor And we gave it a trial For about a couple weeks We hit it off really good And so we've

been open For about two or three months now I think Close to three months It's a good relationship We both understand each other It's his dream I'm just along for the journey And I love jiu-jitsu I see the value in it My kids do it I have a nine-year-old And a four-year-old Girls So I want them Learn to defend themselves Not be a victim And you know They don't have to be A bully Or beat up anybody But I want them Not to be afraid Of you know Fighting Or anybody That comes at them So the confidence level I do see value in this I do enjoy jiu-jitsu It's kind of taking a toll I mean I do this About four or five days a week And then I do

Hapkido On Saturdays So busy body Wow Yeah That's great So the body Is not as young As it used to be So I'm hanging on there So I can't do anymore But yeah That's pretty good man That's five days a week You're training Just about Yeah Just about Wow Taking a toll though I can feel it Sometimes I can barely Roll out of bed You know So I'm keeping up with it I think I got to kind of like You know Slack a little bit though Yeah Move back a little bit Yeah Give yourself a little time To remember Right Exactly I just don't know How to do it Yeah So that Man There's so much to unpack there Maybe Hapkido That's a good thing You know I have some

familiarity Because of the Taekwondo Relationship But for those people Out there Who don't know What Hapkido is Can you tell us A little bit A background on that It's a traditional Korean martial art Different than Taekwondo It's mostly like Joint locks You know They do have some submissions But it's mostly like Misconception It's not like The Japanese Aikido Where you use momentum And harmony In the face You know And you kind of use them It's a lot of Bone breaking If you will And if you need to Joint locks Submissions Using people's Articulation of their body And stuff like that To use against them And basically That's pretty much Some kicks You know A little striking Here and there But that's pretty much The gist of it So Is it

Military art Is that kind of Where it started You know I believe It originated Originally from Japan It was taught To some Koreans Some you know And some Korean masters That went back to Korea And they changed it around You know Obviously just like Any other martial art To fit them And then they end up Rebranding it To you know Their needs But you know Every martial art Originates from somewhere But yes It's a traditional Korean martial art That they use In the military In Korea And so Is there applicability Of what you do there When you're on the mat Doing jiu jitsu Or not really Because they're more You know Break your fingers Or something Yeah it's not really Maybe the wrist locks And you know And heel hooks

And stuff like that You can use The applicability For that But I mean Other than that There's really No ground fighting Or it's more Like a stand up game And stuff like that So got it Jiu jitsu is kind of Like one of those things That's very on its own You know If you're asking me It's not identical I don't think it's Like anything Of similarities To be honest with you Yeah Except for the wrist locks You know But got it How about Let's go back to Time in the military Last time we spoke I think you told me You were a military Police MP Yes I was A 19 death Cav scout Which is recon And then I was A military police officer So Recon means you go out

And you're Like deployed to I guess Do reconnaissance Yes So you go in groups Of probably four or five You go out there And you do recon You radio back You know You're on your own That kind of thing So It was You know It was I didn't go to I went into the military After a desert storm And got out Before Afghanistan Unfortunately They never called me back I had two years inactive So when 9-11 hit I'm surprised But I don't know if I was lucky Or you know However you want to look at it though But I never got called back So Yeah But regardless Thank you for your service Thank you Appreciate you So you finish that Then you become a federal Federal air marshal No Okay

The misconception of that is that the federal air marshals Are FAA FAA Yes Which is different A U.S. marshal Oh U.S. marshal Yes That's You know If you ever watched The Fugitive With Tommy Lee Jones Okay Yeah The older crowd I guess would know What that is You know So basically You work with the courts But Department of Justice You basically You track down fugitives You take prisoners To court You know You guard You know Judges Juries Court families Stuff like that Sometimes you know I call over glorified bailiffs You know So to speak But you know We have our place Everywhere we go Okay And you did that for how long?

I did it for about 16, 17 years Okay So you did that for a while Yes Okay Got it Cool So then While you're doing this You were also training Hapkido at that time? Yes I started training Hapkido When I was in High school And then Before that I was Taekwondo For a little bit But didn't really care for it Honestly Wasn't into the kicks I started in high school I kept with it All throughout When I was in the military I did a little judo In the military But I had a fracture On my foot And I quit But I stayed with Hapkido So it was about 12 years off and on And then My stops I would do Hapkido At different places And it wasn't until I actually Moved to Salt Lake City On my last stop Before I moved to Vegas That I trained with Master Kim For about Five or six years Before I transferred here And it was pretty much

Where I Got a lot of the training Fortunately He passed away He had a heart attack Back in 2015 So obviously I don't keep In touch with them So Yeah Let's talk about What inspired you I know you had mentioned You were looking For something to do You had fallen in love With Jiu Jitsu You were at Gracie Baja Yes And then you said Hi You know what I want to do My own thing Open up my own school You said you found Someone you know You wanted to partner with And you guys Went into business And you started this place That's when I had Visited you Six months ago So changes happened You know You're going through Building something And then You have like A key part of your

business Right Is your partner In teaching the classes And all that And he has to go back For whatever reason What are you thinking Through all this I mean It must be super stressful Well First off I never really thought About opening a school Or getting in business You know As far as Opening a Jiu Jitsu school It was kind of a leisure thing You know Oh I want to learn I want to You know I want to train And I want to see How far I can go with that The opportunity came When my last partner Was just kind of like Was soliciting Hey you know what I want to open a school One day You know Maybe if anybody's interested You know Maybe we do partnership Or this

and that And of course There was some other people Interested But you know Obviously everything Takes money So you know Here Oh I have this money I have this money But it's not enough I had enough money To get it going Didn't want to have A lot of hands in the pot So I was like Look if we're going to do this We're going to be partners It's going to be 50-50 Right And he was like Oh you know I'm not sure But then he didn't You know I think he came back I was like Okay let's do this Right So we opened a school together Like I said Never ventured to do Something like this But I value Jiu-jitsu And I value the training And I love it So

I thought it was like Hey you know what It's great It's like opening a gym And you like to bodybuild Or you like to go You know lift weights What's Can't be any perfect Right So I opened a school With him And it's going great He has a lot of You know A lot of knowledge And training But unfortunately Personal issues Started coming up He's from Brazil Originally It's just The toll of everything That was coming up And you know Just The personal issues You know It just Came to an end And it was like One of those things I think I was kind of Planning for it Because you know You can see the signs You know It happened a little quicker Than I had hoped for But our

business Relationship ended I don't think suddenly It was kind of Like one of the scenes Like I said It was happening And he ended up Going back to Brazil And I had to solicit Somebody else That was interested Because I had I had the business here I had everything already You know Set up And I just needed To find somebody That was going to be the face Now if I was a black belt Would I do it on my own? No It's too much for one person I think you know My business partner Right now agrees So It's a good relationship In the fact that He runs the mats He's the black belt He loves teaching And he loves Doing everything Outside of it On the other end I do the managerial stuff I pay the bills I make sure Everything's caught up I make sure that We have everything That we need So we bring those Two sides together And it just works out So we have A good understanding I think that It's going to go A lot further Than my last partner Unfortunately And I hope This is something That just goes You know Further And I'm glad That it's my partner's dream And I'm just here To ride the coattails

And hopefully We both succeed At something And maybe one day If I My body doesn't break down I can make a black belt But other than that I'm just enjoying the ride That's awesome So thank you for sharing All that And I'm sure Other people out there I actually know Of a few schools Who've kind of gone through A similar experience Where it didn't work out And you know Recovering You keep going With that persistence Is an important thing Obviously As someone who's gone through And done the things That you have done In your life I think you probably You have that in you're now Sort of resetting I think Coach Or Professor Santos Has been with you For two months Three months Three months Yeah Sort of in your

eyes As you think about What the next six months Twelve months How are you thinking About that You're kind of Restarting Almost right Yeah the restarts It was kind of hard though But I do have to Pat myself on the back though Because I think Most people would be like Okay The face of the business Is kind of gone What am I going to do I got to find somebody Right I was just lucky enough To have You know Somebody in mind Already Well a couple people in mind But this one actually Was on the top of my mind That actually worked out I was just very fortunate And lucky And blessed That it was something That he was interested Professor Santos And he wanted also And he understands Like

you know What it takes Because you know To try to open a business Because we were discussing it And the fact that like You know It takes a lot of effort A lot of money A lot of you know Man hours And stuff like that Something like I said I couldn't do on my own And would I want to do on my own Probably not So the good thing about that Is that he came up With the passion That I actually envy He loves teaching He loves doing everything But the manager He doesn't care for Obviously You know The background Which I don't mind doing That's my forte So I do MVM And I do admire him Because his teaching style Is phenomenal First of all And he's very Very

attentive To everybody Meaning that He's on the mat He makes sure Everybody's safe He makes sure Everybody learns details He makes sure He goes over everything Specifically Meticulously Just everything So his teaching style Is It's top notch And I can appreciate that Because if anybody That's done martial arts before And had Gone to different gyms Or different dojos Or different schools They probably can tell you Look I've been to places Where like Some teachers are good Some teachers aren't good You know And that's really What I think Sets a lot of The academies apart Are the teaching Aspects and abilities Of your teacher And how they grasp And how they Keep people involved You know Students involved Because if you don't Have a good teaching style Or you don't have

A good teaching plan Or you know Curriculum Or anything like that You're not going to You're not going to Retain or you're not Going to obtain Any students to stay Or you know Leave Yeah You know We talked a little bit About this I mentioned We did judo today That's really cool That you're doing that Right Because I go to A lot of schools Where it's just You know I train also You know Personally In a jiu-jitsu place And that's all they do Which is great Because they're great at it But that top game Is always kind of missing You know You see all the memes On like Instagram But I was like Oh pull guard Pull guard Everyone just You know It's that joke So having mixing Mixing it

up with judo I think it's a really good idea For you know Jiu-jitsu place Just to get that Well-rounded experience How did you find A judo black belt That wanted it So professor Santos Had a friend And a partner That actually Went to You know Jiu-jitsu school With him Gracie And They both Pretty much got Their black belts Almost the same time So they were friends And Professor Wayne Just happened to Also do judo At the same time Because he wanted To perfect his You know Take down So Which I've seen some videos Of professor Wayne Which he was phenomenal Back in the day As a competitor And He's right You want to learn Your takedowns And that's what He did judo for At any rate Professor Santos Knew professor

Wayne Who was interested In teaching classes also But he's also Why don't we just If I can teach Some judo classes Maybe we can instill that And we'll see what The interest level is Right And it was great It was this great idea By professor Santos To bring him in And give it a trial And it's So far it's been A good hit We're doing it on Fridays As soon as we get More traction We'll probably Do a little bit more So when I did My first competition I might have Known like Three takedowns Yeah And guess what It didn't really work And I'm kind of stuck And you're pretty much Either guard pulling Or you're kind of Pushing each other right Yeah So I know The value of Judo

takedowns Which I'm just Learning myself But I think A lot of people Like as you saw In the class today Was actually A pretty good turnout Yeah And everybody enjoyed it But there's so much That can be done With judo Your takedowns Like I mean If you look at Like a competition It's like the standard game It's like okay What are we going to do here Are we going to pull guard Or are we just going to We're going to sit down And pull you into me Or are we going to Stand up and dance Right Yeah Yeah so professor Santos New professor Wayne He knew judo So he's a black belt in judo Also And a one strike Black belt in jiu-jitsu He was interested And we've been Pretty

much cruising Since then Maybe bridging into Something like Outside of the space here And Vegas Long Beach How did that happen? You know You grew up there And how did you end up here? So I grew up in Long Beach, California As soon as I graduated High school I left the military When I was 18 And I pretty much Just had a couple months For summer vacation I went to basic training I never thought I'd be in the military But I did it anyways The best thing I ever did College money All that good stuff You know Paid for training And all that stuff From 18 to 24 When I was in the military I ended up Applying for a job With U.S.

Marshals I got hired on With the U.S. Marshals I started on Scranton, Pennsylvania Transferred Salt Lake On a promotion And then I was going to try To go back to L.A. Like Santa Ana But I didn't want To go to the L.A. office So like You know It's like chaotic Three hour drive From Long Beach What not So I transferred To I tried to transfer Which I ended up Getting to Las Vegas Which is about Four hours away Right Give or take But it's close enough But far enough Right To be away So That's how I ended up Coming here So And then I Just pretty much Implanted myself here My wife is born And raised here My kids You know Are born and raised here So I really don't miss California To be honest with you Every time I go back I just don't miss I don't know about you But I don't miss it at all Yeah You know No offense to California Because that's where I'm born and raised Bay Area

Not as much Because I just Maybe it's because I spent You know Gosh It's been over 50% of my life On this planet Was there You know Southern California And San Diego I really liked But I was only there For a short amount of time So I do like Southern California San Diego Los Angeles Just the traffic Well here's the thing About that though Is everyone's like Oh man California's so great How come you don't Want to live there Visiting is one thing Yeah You know what I mean And then living there Is another thing You don't want to like Work to live You know And visiting is like Oh I see the great things I see the tourist spots I don't have to work And then you leave Right

Yeah Now you live there All the time You think you know You're going to have fun The whole time Probably not Yeah That's what I don't miss The traffic The people It's just so crowded The cost of living It's ridiculous You know Yeah So it's like How do you want To live your life Right Yeah So not only that I always tell people Like my family My sister Or my friends If you've never lived Or if you've never Left California To live anywhere else You really don't know Any different You know So my sister Will never move Or my mom Will never move From California Because they don't Know any different I left when I was 18 in the military I've seen other places I've been to the south I've

been to the east coast I've been here I've been north I've seen it I know there's other things Outside of California I know there's a better life Outside of California Potentially right Yeah So I don't really care To go back Let's talk about How you found us You know I remember Talking about this before But I'd love You know If we don't have That buddy still So yeah How I found you So when I started At Gracie Baja They used something similar Or Gymdesk itself I'm not sure To be honest with you I know I was familiar With it from You know Signing in Paying you know My tuition Doing the profile Stuff like that And when I opened The school here I had to find Something that can You

know Do our billing Do our memberships Do just everything That I didn't want To do on paper Obviously Like the old school Days right And plus you know New technology That's what people Are looking for So I looked you guys up I found it I did a little tutorial I kind of I kind of Was kind of You know Semi familiar with You know Obviously The customer aspect Of it obviously And I did the trial It seemed like It was easy enough Some of it was A learning curve That I'm still Learning right now Somewhat But it was easy enough To try to figure out On my own Or correct the mistakes Or you know Correct the mistakes I end up Just you know Paying the fee And sticking with

you guys And I haven't regretted Since then How's been the experience With you know Interacting with the company You know Like you reach out To support Sometimes here and there For that In the beginning It was a little rocky But what I like about Gymdesk and you guys Is that You guys value feedback So I've given you Some feedback Since then Everything you know Pretty much has been Taken care of You guys taking care of me I like you guys I mean you guys Get to me in a timely manner You guys actually Went above and beyond Specifically you Thank you guys have taken care of me Very well To the point like I you know Will Will look for anywhere else Obviously so Unknownly that Hey you come and

Visit the school You're very personable We still keep in contact When you're gone Which is Goes Dude it's awesome It's awesome When you can keep in contact With the CEO And you still be friends And if I got a problem Maybe you know I try not to bother you as much But you know what It just means the world It really does Because you know I could sit there And be like Oh can I need some help And then 48 hours To a week later I don't hear anything Or something like that I get a response Just about right away And I do appreciate that And I appreciate that You guys helped me out With the website And you guys kind of like You know Understood my situation And you

guys did everything That you could To help me rebound From my last you know Business To the new business I appreciate that I appreciate that I appreciate that Very much Yeah We're honored To be here To help And I'm glad you're here And you're now We're all society And you know We're going to start all over But it's okay You know what Sometimes you know You learn from your mistakes Or you learn from Past ventures And you just move on From there And you don't make The same mistakes again Right Yeah So good or bad But still You know Any features That you really like In the product That you're like Oh I use this all the time Or you know Anything stick out like that I know you guys

Are fixing the website Making it easier It wasn't very easy For me to do it But I'm glad That you actually Had somebody help me do it I do like the Interaction though The website has Itself Straight to Gymdesk So I don't have to do A third party Hyperlinks or anything like that It just goes automatically It's tied in automatically I like How you guys are easy To do the billing Have the credit cards in And then you get to You know One thing I will say though Is that maybe If you guys have A little bit more of A credit card Authorizations or something Rather than the three I think you have on there But regardless I do I think I believe We go through Authorize.net Which makes it

Totally easy It just like When I called Authorize.net And hooked it up Everything is just seamless I don't have to worry about Like you know Hey you know what I'm putting this credit card through I have to wait This, and this It goes automatic You know I don't have It's like It goes from point A To point C Instead of like Okay A Gotta go to B Gotta go to C Gotta go to D Before it comes back around To my bank account If that makes any sense Yep So everything just runs smoothly I know my customers They love the aspect of The Gymdesk app They can download that They can keep track of their memberships You know Their belts Yep They can keep track of their information They can

do the credit card information They can see their invoices They can see the messaging It's just great on that aspect I like the aspect that Where I really have A lot of control Of the dashboard I can do a lot of stuff My own Some of the stuff It's a learning curve But once you get the hang of it's pretty easy Yeah And a couple things The website Where you build it You know It's all included Right Yes That's the beauty of it The subscription Includes the website Which is awesome And we're releasing Some new updates To make it even easier To make those changes So that's going to be And I love like how you Some of the feedback I've given you That you have taken it Based on

the website And stuff like that I do appreciate it FYI to people That are listening to this That you guys do value feedback Which is great Because it's not on deaf ears Yeah And one thing I can say That we had some feedback on That Joey was Especially I'll say It wasn't the first time I heard it For those people Who don't know So I've been on board now CEO for How many months now What month are we in? September I'm almost a year Not quite But I'm here to Basically build A lot of the customer Facing roles That we just didn't have And you had feedback From me about Six months ago Hey it'd be great If I could call in And I'm like Yeah I agree I would love to have that I just need to Build a business Around it And the time is now We're actually Recruiting right now So that people Will be able to call in Since you opened that door I will say this though About you know Six,

seven, eight months ago When we first met Yeah That was something That was kind of A turnoff Is that If I had any issues Like I said It was a learning curve I had an issue I had to message in And you probably Wouldn't hear from somebody For 24 to 48 hours And if it was an urgent matter That you need your business To run on something That wasn't feasible I'm glad you listened to that feedback And I mean Even a chat line Or like a phone Would have been Especially a business like yours Yeah Would be phenomenal You know And I'm glad you're working on that Yeah yeah And I mean The reality is Just like any business As we're growing Which is great And we just need a

staff That's what we have been doing And yeah I mean We have a chat now Online chat My opinion It's like Well if I'm in your shoes Because I have been in your shoes I own restaurants And if my POS goes down It is a nightmare Exactly And I need to pick up the phone And talk to somebody In real time Yeah And so I have that energy too Or experience So it puts it into like Well I want to drive towards that It just takes a little time To get there But yeah Sometimes that's a deal breaker right Yeah for sure So But I'm glad I'm glad I'll be able to You know Tell you soon Hey man We're there Call us anytime I got your personal number So

I'll be messaging you a lot Just kidding That's great man Yeah man This has been great I'm happy to be here I mean I only met you like Twice But we've talked several times Oh yeah We keep in touch though Which is a great thing I appreciate you And I appreciate you Like keeping in touch And if I send you a message Or vice versa We always answer So that's always a good thing Yeah And you know We keep this relationship cordial So it's not like We're bonding the shit Out of each other right Yeah But anyways With me more so right But at any rate I appreciate When I do If I can't get a hold of somebody Or if I do send you a message To help me

out right away That you actually You're on top of it I do appreciate that Alright man Well thank you so much No thank you I appreciate you I appreciate your business And I appreciate you And I appreciate everybody That works with you So it's been a great experience That's the reason why I'll stay with Jim Desk Thank you so much You come back right I am I will be I'll be here Alright thanks sir Maybe tomorrow Yes sir I'll be here I'll be here I'll be here I'll be here I'll be here