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Rodrigo Lopes - Perseverance and Patience on 'The Path' Fighting through pain - on and off the mats. Examples of how calculated risks can lead to unimaginable opportunities. Why patience and consistency are critical to longevity in Jiu-Jitsu.
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Rodrigo Lopes - Perseverance and Patience on 'The Path' Fighting through pain - on and off the mats. Examples of how calculated risks can lead to unimaginable opportunities. Why patience and consistency are critical to longevity in Jiu-Jitsu.
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This episode of the BJJ Executive Podcast focuses on the value of coaching in jiu-jitsu. The host, Dave Krull, emphasizes that coaching is important regardless of one's skill level or age in the sport. He introduces his own coach, Rodrigo Lopez, who is highly respected and experienced in jiu-jitsu. They discuss recent trips to Florida and California, as well as upcoming seminars and events. Rodrigo expresses his passion for coaching and the impact his older brother has had on his own coaching journey. Overall, the episode emphasizes the importance of coaching and the support it provides in the jiu-jitsu community. Welcome to the BJJ Executive Podcast, Episode 3. I'm your host, Dave Krull, and if you are a repeat listener, then of course, welcome back and obviously very thankful to have you as a part of this journey and if this is your first time, then one of the cool things about podcasting is that the spectrum of time means something different to everybody and what is your today is probably a little bit different from my today, but I think you're hitting it at the perfect time. Thinking about the objective a little bit, and I'm kind of excited about today's discussion because I see this podcast as kind of a preservation tool and it doesn't matter if you are, it doesn't matter where you're at in the journey. It doesn't matter if you're a white belt and maybe you're a year in and you just can't make it out of those metaphorical shark tanks like I've talked about before. I've shared a little bit about my story. It doesn't matter if you're a 40 plus year old purple belt that might have taken a little bit of time off and the voices in your head are, will my cardio be there and will my body hold up and will my timing stay? And of course, the answer to all those questions was no. And it also doesn't matter if you're a little more senior, if you're a brown belt or even a newly minted black belt and the likelihood of you quitting jujitsu at this point is probably very low, but you're on a platform now and you're expected to have the answers and sometimes it's a lonely road. And so once again, this is all about optimism and offering some encouragement. And I like to think of this in the path of longevity as a supplement to longevity in jujitsu. And so one of the fun things about preparing for these podcasts has been trying to find a way to connect the dots and who we have on and what kind of information we need to extract and how that could be the most useful to you. And the words that kept coming to my mind as I got ready for this over the last week or so has been the value of coaching. And honestly, I don't even understand why people are so hesitant to this sometimes. And sometimes it goes back to like your work and maybe you've got like a corporate coach or an executive coach or a life coach mentors in your workplace or even sometimes consultants that come into your workplace to talk about finance or leadership or whatever the case may be. And so often and maybe this is a male problem, I don't know, maybe it's a female problem, maybe it's across the board, maybe it's only me actually, but it's easy to resist. And when I think about some of the values of coaching, I think about the leadership, maybe some shared values, some subject matter expertise for sure. And when you connect that into jujitsu, it's magnified and it's something that I've noticed in my life for sure. And so what better way to kind of talk about that a little bit than to introduce you to one of my coaches and this person 100 percent would be considered a subject matter expert. And if you've been in this game long enough, you realize that there are definitely levels in this game and this is a high level black belt for sure. I'd be naive to think that I know enough about to say that we 100 percent share all of the same values, but some of the values that I do recognize in this individual is a high level of respect, both up and down the chain. He's always respectful to the people above him, always respectful to the people below him. He has a high standard. He helps raise the standard around and then a consummate leader in the academy, a command presence beyond his years. One of the right hand men of his brother down in Brazil, Tatu Escobar, who's one of the co-founders of the Double Five affiliation. And then now after relocating to the United States a couple of years ago, which I can't wait to get into, the right hand man of Rafael Formiga, who was on in a prior episode and has now started his own academy under the Double Five flag. One of my friends and certainly one of the people that has helped reignite jujitsu in my life, and I can't thank him enough for it. My coach and one of the main professors at Double Five, Rodrigo Lopez. Rodrigo, what's up, my man? Dude, we've been trying to get this on for a while. Yeah, it's hard because I'm busy and you're busy. It's hard to make it work, but we made it. We made it, dude. I think we need to get I think we need to lobby Formiga to get you an administrative assistant. Yeah, I wish. A secretary. It's hard, but I wish. It's less work, I guess. I know. I've been working a lot. You're a dentist packed, man. Yeah, but I love doing what I do, you know. That's why I'm here. Yeah. When I don't remember when we first started talking about this, but it was probably it was probably around Thanksgiving, but you were headed down to Florida, I think. Maybe a little vacation action. You've been in California for the last couple of weeks or a couple of weeks ago. Anyway, that was the last week before I opened my gym. I went to Disney with Bruno, my son, my wife and my mom to come to visit me from Brazil. That is awesome, dude. You've literally hit coast to coast. You've been down on the East Coast and the South Cancel much further than that. And I drove was insane. Dude, I remember talking to you about that. You said we were talking in the gym and you and you said that it wasn't just me. So it wasn't just totally a misunderstanding on my side, but we thought you were driving to California and you're like, you're like, yeah, I'm going to be there in one day. And I remember I think it might have been Justin that was with me. We're like, I think it was Mark. Oh, it was Mark. I was like, both of you are staring at the map. Good luck. Yeah. Like, have fun in your day trip. But you're going to Florida, which is not that bad. That's awesome, dude. Dude, Disney is a freaking, it's exhausting. You need a black belt in humanity to make it through. It's exhausting. It was worse. I came back like even more tired. Yeah, but it was amazing. It's worth it, man. We see your kids, you know, how much fun they have when, uh, thank God for my wife, man, because she's the one that set up all that stuff when my kids were little and we took, um, we took our kids and, you know, obviously the one that's about to graduate, my younger one, you know, he was three or four years old and he had this goofy hat on. And at the end of the day, they did the, they did the parade. I don't know if they do that still, but like all the characters come out and stuff and him and goofy, like locked eyes and then his, his face just like melted, you know? And I'm like, Oh, okay. I get it. I see why we're suffering. It's a long drive. What about, um, what about California? Uh, California. But what I mean, like two weeks ago, right? You guys were out there. Oh, I didn't even know you were talking about the know your words. Yeah, it was amazing. You know me, I will do my best to, to coach and be there present for those who are fighting because known as a passionate coach. Maybe I understand, you know, their, what they're passing through, what, what are their feelings, you know? Um, and I know it's complicated if you have nobody on your side, it's even worse. So I try to do my very best to, to be there to support them. You know, I know, I know the athletes. I personally, I get so closer and I kind of know what I need to do to make them feel better. And I really think I, I, I can help them, you know, and without that, without me there, it's, it's, I feel so bad to not be there. You know, when, when I see them losing, I was like, bro, if maybe if I was there, it could be different. So I hate this feeling about maybe if, what if, if I was there, so I need to be there because if I lose, if they lose, right, I lose as well. So if they lose, but I'm there, okay. I did my best. They did their best. It's fine. It happens, right? It's a lonely road, man. Yeah. You know how it works. So I do my best to be there always as possible. Yeah. Your brother, um, your brother obviously was there. It was good. I didn't know he was coming up from Brazil, man. I love him. He's going to be here until January 7th. Is he going to do any seminars or anything? So we're going to do my grand opening right on January 7th. Okay. Yeah. It's everybody welcome, by the way. That's awesome. Yeah, everybody should come. We got to talk a lot more about that. So we're going to do like a big seminar on me, for me and my brother, Roberta, Daisy and Monique. So three black belts, three female black belts and three male black belts, you know, all world medalists, world champions. So I think that's going to be cool. That is awesome. And the most important, free seminar. That is awesome. Yeah. I love when your brother comes up, man. I didn't know he was coming, but obviously, um, he's been in the gym and then we saw all the pictures of him meddling and stuff at worlds. And, and, uh, and so he's got this way about him cause he's kind of like this. He's got this OG style, you know, where he stands a little bit behind you, you know, and he just kind of passes the message on. Yeah. I love it, dude. It's awesome. It's good, great, good presence, you know, just kind of spirit up in the gym. I feel great with him, you know, behind me, uh, everything I do or who I am, it's kind of, he has a touch, you know, he, he did his job. And now my brother's getting older, you know, so he's kind of not losing, but you know, at worst, you know, he's getting older. So it's passion. Yeah. His passion is, it's, it's getting like, it's weaker, you know, it's not the same than when he was my age. So, yeah, it's getting tired, but I'm here, you know, and he, he made me be here. He created me. He, he taught me everything I know as a coach and has an athlete. So of course, not everything, I need to figure out a lot of things by myself, you know, but he guided me through and I'm here and I am who I am, like with the skills and as a coach, like I said, as a leader and a hundred percent, he has a B part of it. That's awesome, man. He was kind of a legend leading up to it because you would talk about him a lot. And then for me, you would talk about him a lot. He would talk about my training, my main guy down in Brazil, and you would talk about your brother down in Brazil and whatnot. And I remember when he first came in and he did a, he did a D-PAP part night. Yeah, he had some, it was freaking awesome, man. And I've talked about this before, like in my own, the way I learned anyway, especially big concepts like that is like somebody kind of puts a seat in, you know, and it just takes, I don't just learn like, oh, here's, here's, here's this move, you know, like, it's like a concept and that's how I learned. And so he was the one that really had first started kind of putting that in. Yeah, man, for sure. And, um, you know, um, so anyway, and like I said before, you can always just tell he's got a really good, good presence. So it's awesome to see him. And then all the other crew that came up with him and all the other people get engaged and freaking all kinds of stuff, dude. What a trip, man. Yeah. It was amazing. He, and this time he brought Roberta, one of my best friends. Really? Yeah. Back to Brazil. You guys grew up together? So she started training. I saw everything, you know, and some while ago, back in time, having a girl on the mat was not something very often, right? Oh, really? So when she, she started training, she was, I don't know, she was 16, something like that. She was a girl and I was dating already. So she always, uh, we were connected like as, uh, brothers, you know? Okay. Yeah. So I see her like as a big, uh, sister. That's awesome. You know? So yeah, she's now, she's younger. She's, I think she's 21. I'm 28. She's much younger. Okay. So good for her, man. Yeah. So my brother, she was as, as a daughter, right. And I see her like as a big sister, you know? So we have a very good connection and we were like super happy she made it. She were, she, she, she won the world championship. That's amazing, man. Less than two weeks ago, right? In the Nogi awards. And she got promoted to the black belt, super bowl deserter. Yeah. That is awesome. What an honor that must be. It was cool. Like, and then my brother, my brother was the one who like. She, he made her white to black belt. So that's, it's a legit work. No, you didn't like take, because most of the, the gym, like, like, I don't want to say any names, but most of the gyms, the good gyms, the good, um, teams. Right. The most famous, they take natural light already. Like with good skills, like a blue bell, like orange bell, green bell. Yeah. They had the, all the base, the work is done. You just need to sharpen. Right. But my brother did this. So it's white to black belt. It's, it's crazy. That's super cool. Yeah. It, you can say usual because literally a hundred percent, your hand is a hundred percent. So your work, nobody helped. I mean, a lot of people helped you, but it's your work. No. So it's, that's the best thing I want to, that's the feeling. I don't have the white to black bell, but I will. Dude, you've got it. You've got a couple. I mean, and again, we'll, we got to get into this at some point, but you've got a couple that are even kids taken from the very beginning and man, the future is so freaking bright, dude. I cannot wait to see some of that stuff. But for me, it was saying the same thing. Like, you know, it's, it's like an honor or a pleasure, you know, or a mix to be able to see somebody that goes from, you know, the most basic to, you know, become a little bit more advanced. That's something I don't have yet. That's awesome, man. Dude, that's super cool. Um, so I guess getting into it just a little bit, I mean, I know so little about your story, I mean, we, one of the cool things about the jujitsu journey is we like insert into each other's lives at different points. You know, you've met me as a 40 year old guy that, you know, my kids are older, you know, somebody else knows me as a guy that would had babies, you know, and like, I'm, I know you as this guy that lives in Texas, but I know you grew up in Brazil and, and, you know, obviously we've talked a little bit about your background, but I mean, you've got one of the more unique upbringings, I guess, because you came up with some champions and, uh, what was it like? I mean, how'd you get into jujitsu and what was it like growing up in Brazil? Um, so, um, how is that jujitsu? It's got a crazy story, right? Um, my brother was the one who initiated everything, right? My brother's my master and he started training jujitsu. I think he was around maybe 15, something like that. Um, but, uh, nothing crazy. He started training, started to really focus after losing one of my brothers. You know, my brother, Bruno passed away some while ago, like 20 years ago. Yeah. So 23, I was five years old, man. I had no idea. So yes, it was crazy. I was super young, but after that, my brother got in a deep depression and jujitsu was the only thing that saved him. No, he, he dropped the law school. Uh, yes, he was about to finish. He quit, uh, his passion only doing jujitsu because it was the only thing that really kept him on the path, you know, kept him from insanity. He was, you can imagine my mom, my brother, all my family, I was younger than I didn't have an idea what was going on, but, and then he starts training and he starts taking serious, starts competing, starts training every day, he starts to double, he starts doing two, three classes a day. He used to sleep on the mats, you know, because it was the only thing that really, well, it was his passion at the time, you know, he didn't have anything else and then my mom was a tolerant against, because jujitsu back in the day was like, was not cool, was troublemaker sports, you know, those guys would like to want to find the street. So what was the, what was the name of the Gracie Beach Boys or something? Yeah, the Beach Boys. Yeah. The Street Boys, you know, those guys like started with back in the Gracie's you know, so they, they used to fight on the street, you know, and it was not really well seen, but, so my mom was tolerant against, but she started seeing that that's the only thing my brother want to do it, okay, let's do it. And she helped him, she opened the space, she gave my brother and Formiga, they were like blue or purple, some mat pieces, you know. That's crazy, man. Yeah, crazy. And they started teaching. I can't even imagine that. And from there, like with those small pieces of mat, you know, they start growing and having like a little, a little group and they moved and they start teaching a gym, you know, a lifting gym, a very, very famous lifting gym in Brazil. Is this in Rio or? Rio, yeah. And they were like, okay, we're growing. They start like making other time, morning, night, they start like splitting themselves, like to teach and that's it. And they start doing, my brother starts bringing me to this classes, you know, introducing me to Jiu-Jitsu. I was young and then I, sometimes I used to go, sometimes not, you know. Yeah, of course. Didn't have the passion yet. Yeah. I was super young, but with time I really started to focus when I was 11, something like that, as a yellow belt. And then since then, I remember as a yellow belt, I started competing, blue belt, but nothing serious was not, it was not something that really drives me, you know, like, like him. Yeah. And, but I remember when I was purple belt, he put me to teach. He moved, he opened his own gym. You're 16, 17. Yeah. I was, as a purple, I was 18, 18. Okay. Yeah. Okay. I was 17, 18 and I was purple belt. And then he opened his own gym, was not big gym, small gym. And then, okay, now we need the kid's professor. I can be, I'm busy, you know, I don't have the, I don't have the, the, the drive to teach kids. Kids are different, man. Everybody says that too. Okay. Let's try, let's try. And then he had one more student, Domenico. Okay. The same belt, the same graduation than me, same age. And we were really close. We were friends and we were like, okay, let's try. And me and him, we start teaching kids. And when we saw, we had like 70 kids. Really? It was fast. Dang. It's crazy. That's a big class. One class, 70 kids? Yeah. No. And then we need, okay, we need two classes because it's been ridiculous. We cannot teach 30, 40 kids in the same class. Dude, I couldn't handle it. You know, it was crazy. And we had a small, small place. Yeah. And then when we saw, we had like a hundred kids with two classes, you know, and well, okay, it's working. We're there. But I was studying at a time, law school as well. Really? Yeah. I was, I was a year about to finish. No kidding. And then I knew Monique, you know, my wife and I met Monique and then Monique got pregnant and I was on that phase of my life that I need to make choices, right? I was like, okay, if I go for the school, I will, I will probably finish, graduate it, but I'm not time enough to make money. You know, I don't have this time. I'm against the clock. Yeah. Monique is pregnant. How are you going to work? Yeah. And then I make the choice to quit the school and focus a hundred percent on Jiu Jitsu. How old are you at this time? Maybe 21, something like that. 20? I was 20. Yes. I was about to maybe get promoted to Brown Belt at the time. I think it was Brown Belt. I was, I was 20 when Monique was pregnant. I was 20 years old. And then, okay. From there, I started like really taking like serious. That's my job. That's what I do full time. Yes. And when I got promoted to Black Belt, uh, I received the offer to move to USA and then the game starts to... That's, that's where it all started. Yeah. And then the, the things are okay. Now the things are serious, I'm by myself. Yeah. You know, dude, when it like, we had kind of a similar story there because, you know, my, my older son, I mean, I'm 44 and my older son's 23, you know, so, so do the math. And, and, uh, I had him at a very early age and it lit a fire under me, man. Like, I think that that kind of like, it was a wake up call. Like it's time to, it's time to focus. Like I would love to spend five years goofing around or something like that. That's exactly what I mean. We got to go. We got to go. And I would like that until even now, man. I'm like... I had no option, right? You had no option. Dude, this is the way it is. If you don't grow up... If you have an option, you can do it bad. Yeah. You know, a lot of people do, you know, that's not the right decision. Yeah. It's freaking hassle. That's awesome, man. I didn't, uh, I never really did the math, but that makes, that makes sense. What was the, what was the discussion like to come to the States? Um, so the Brazil is amazing, right? Brazil is an amazing place. It's pretty, um, but it's, it's been crazy. It's dangerous now. Yeah. I've heard, we were talking about that a little before, right? Like it's, it's dangerous. Um, and it's not somewhere I want to raise my son. No. So... It's a shame because it's freaking beautiful, man. Yeah. It is a shame. And I think the state you're from, I mean, it's like, so like forest and rain. I mean, the pictures I've seen have been amazing. No, it's amazing. It's the best place to go visiting, you know? Yeah. No, no. I don't know. Maybe not. No, if you know the right, like, if you know the right way, I never got robbed. I never, nothing never happened. Nothing bad happened with me. Nothing ever, you know, you just gotta know where you're going, with who you're going, what time you're going, those, those kinds of things, you know, but, and then I was like, okay, um, we want to move. My wife, uh, was a reporter, uh, journalist, right? Yeah. Journalist. No kidding. So, uh, sports journalist. Okay. All sports. Like kind of off, you know, the channel off, but she was from Wuhu. Okay. It's a smaller one back in Brazil. Uh, she used to, to work with, um, skateboarders, uh, surfers, you know? Yeah. Only sports. And then she could, is still working with that in here in USA. Yeah. Then I'll actually, it would be amazing because she'll be closer to everything. Like this, you know? Yeah. And then she was like, Rodrigo, we need to move here. It's not, we're never going to make money. Jiu-Jitsu is not really appreciated here. It's hard to, to make money in Brazil with Jiu-Jitsu. That's crazy to me. My brother has like a gym with 200, I think 220 students now, but it took like 15 years. Really? To get it built up. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it looks like an amazing gym. No, it is. But we're talking something, it's 15 years. I don't have even a year, you know, it's crazy. I'm against the clock. I cannot be here. Yeah. I need you to do something. I need to take risks. No, I need to do something now. And that was when. João, uh, Gabriel Rocha, back in time, he was one of the co-partners of the team. He invited me to teach at his place. This is in Dallas? Here in Dallas, right? And now his alliance is João. Okay. Yeah. Uh, but he was double five and then he invited me to teach. Okay. I was like, bro, it's now or never. Yeah. I get to take it. Everybody like kind of, uh, my brother told me to not go. My brother said, it's, it's not a good call. No, you should, you should not go. Wait. I was like, brother. Were you teaching at his school at the time? Yeah, I was. Yeah. But I was making, my mom always helped me. It was making good money, but not enough. Yeah. Not enough. Yeah. It's hard to see a future. Yeah. I was being dependent off my mom forever. Yeah. Nobody wants that. Of course not, man. It's not, that's not a good strategy. It might not even work forever either. You know, you know, right? Exactly. So it's, I'll take the risk because if I don't move now, I might not move ever. Yeah. And if it doesn't work, I'll figure it out. Like I always did. Yeah. No, I will make it work. And then I did, uh, for safety reasons, Brazil was not safe for opportunity, for money reasons, I had a lot of excuse, you know, um, did you speak English? I mean, how'd you, I was, I was, I speak English already, but was not, was not so, uh, I mean, it's getting better. The note is not perfect. You got a perfect Texas accent now. It's getting there, but at the time was good. You got some good influences around you here. Thank you. So at that time was enough to teach. Yeah. I had a pretty decent English, you know, I, I knew the position that I would make. Yeah. I was there to make it work. You know, there's almost a mystique too, that comes with it. People expect to be able to, you know, hear a little Brazilian in there and stuff, you know, so it's pretty decent, you know, because I used to do seminars already with my brother. Uh, we were, we were coming back from Israel. So, yeah, like some months ago, it's not a short trip. No, no. We went to fight Europeans, you know, and then we went to Israel first. So we were speaking only English, doing seminars. So it was something, it was not something new for me. You know, I was, I was getting used to it. So it was not like a crazy deal about the English. The English was not scaring me. What was scaring me was the fact that I was by myself. Yeah. No, why? Because I came just by myself first. Yeah. No wife, no son. Did you go to Texas? I mean, yeah, I was not going to bring them. Oh yeah. But it's crazy because like when someone called me to Texas, like, dude, should I have a car or a horse? Like what? Of course you don't know, man. It's freaking far away. It's crazy. Like Texas, they were like, whoa, wait, you're going to have a farm? Like you're going to get a head back? You know, you're going to have a horse? Dude, no, it's a big place. Dude, people, like Googling, you know. You, you, you can teach your, your, your classes in English and feel comfortable. But I think that people underestimate the challenge of a move and like you didn't get a chance to meet my wife cause she's in Tokyo right now, but she moved here when she was 25 years old or something like that, man. And I always, I never really fully appreciated it until recently, but you're leaving your family behind. You're, you have a new language that you need to speak, not in Jiu Jitsu, but you have to go to the freaking grocery store. You have to go to the doctor. My partner now is American, right? So it's full-time English, but it's something I'm, it doesn't bother me anymore. You know, it's something really, it's getting comfortable, you know, with time. You feel good. You feel, I mean, dude, the cool thing about America is that you can show up on Tuesday and by Wednesday, you're basically American. You know what I mean? Like you, everything hugs you. Yeah, it is. I mean, for hustlers, right? You can sit in a corner and cry, but for hustlers, you can freaking get it done. Yeah. So I really feel home. I feel blessed to be here. You know, I have amazing people by my side. I'm blessed. A lot of opportunities. It's, I, I've, I'm having an amazing time and now things are changing. Yeah. They're starting to take off a little bit. Well, let's talk about a little bit of the change. I mean, I want to talk a little bit about, um, we'll, we'll go out of order some, but you've recently kind of kicked off into your own venture and I saw, I knew you were doing this, but like there've been these moments and I, I, I talked about this with for me to where one of the coolest things about jujitsu for me in the last two years has been that it stopped becoming such a, it's a, it's a very personal thing, of course. I think it is for everybody, but it stopped being all about me. And I started realizing there's this bigger ecosystem and there's this bigger picture and I watched you, I was sitting right in front of you when for me, you got promoted when the deco and Alexi came to the Academy and I remember watching you dude, and you were freaking, this was your story. This was like your, your lifeblood, you know? And it, it, it was touching. I mean, I know it sounds like it was just another day, but for me it was a big deal. No, it is a big deal. And now you've got your own Academy and that was probably a part of a bigger plan too. I mean, yeah, a hundred percent. So that's everybody's dream, right? That's my dream. Since I started, it's open my own gym, having my own story, uh, making students white to black belt. That's another dream, you know, it's soon. Yeah. Now when, when, when you've got, I mean, you've obviously been teaching for years when you have some new students show up and obviously like part of this podcast is like, how do we keep people motivated? How do we get them from kind of one cliff to the next cliff? What do you tell the new white belt that walks in? I mean, you're, you're about to, I mean, your Academy is open. You have your official grand opening in January. You, you're going to have a whole fresh influx of students. I mean, what do you want them to know before they get started? Yeah. I think the most important thing they, everybody, even who already is on the path, no, it's patience. Yeah. No, I think patience is something very important. What we do is not something easy. It might change your life. Look, you're now, you're like making podcasts. You're like, you know what I mean? If only I could figure out Instagram, maybe there's hope for me. It's something that changed people's lives. Yeah. Like, uh, healthy physically, right. The mindset, everything in my, in my click, something that you never thought about it. No. So everything I always tell them is being patient, trust me, trust me process and what I'm doing and be, be patient, you know, and also of course, patience and constant, right? You gotta, you gotta have consciousness. Yeah. Consistency. Yeah. So you gotta come as much as you can. Of course, people work, you know, people, uh, have family, kids that we all know that I got it, you know? Uh, but you gotta, you gotta come. Yeah. Nobody will work for you. Yeah. It's something that's very, of course we'll have a team, we'll have a coach, we'll have, we'll have the whole group, but it's individual, like you gotta work by yourself, you know, my, my work, my, my blood will not make you improve. You gotta, you gotta put your butt on the mat and sweat. Yeah, man. Dude, Jiu Jitsu is the ultimate sharing a martial art as well. I mean, like it's, we're all kind of on a shared journey, but you also have to share your body. I mean, like you, even if it isn't for you, I mean, getting there for somebody else, you're somebody's favorite training partner. Exactly. Exactly. A hundred percent. So I think those two consistency and, uh, patience are very, very crucial on the way. Dude, you, you gave a nice speech after, um, after you got back from California and we had two brand new black belts. We had your brother standing there. We had you who had just flown in the night before from California, other side of the country. And you basically said like, look where we are. We're right back on the mat, you know, like, you know, great. We got the medal and now it's time to start again. That's what champions are made, right? That's what I'm talking about. The consistency, they just, they just became world champions. Like they're the best of the world on their division. And Monday they were back. They fought Saturday and Sunday and Monday after flying after like, it's crazy. We're all so tired. I was walking Saturday and Sunday back and forth. I was sore too. I mean, you know, and I would, we were all back on Monday on the mat, you know, to fix, to improve. And the most important, we were there to motivate you all, you know, to show you guys how it has to be done, how it works. Lead from the front. Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes you have a bad night and we were talking about this a little bit and I didn't totally elaborate, but like last night, dude, I got killed. I shouldn't have even gone. It was like, that's the most important. Yeah, it is. And that's what I remember thinking. Humble night. That's a night to improve. Straight up. Yeah, seriously humbling. You know, everybody, it was just not my night, you know, I was trying new things and then sometimes trying regular things and, you know, just, you know, but that's where I'm going to be at lunchtime today. Yeah. I know that. We all do. Exactly. So, you know, a little bit about my, my journey and, and I think that there's a lot of people that are kind of in this and I've watched people over the last couple of years, we've even had a couple of black belts that I know hadn't trained in a long time and then decided, Hey, look, I'm going to come back and they're not, they're not there anymore. When you, when you get somebody that comes in and I'm sure there's going to be people in Richardson and out in the area where you're at, they're going to be like, cool, there's a high level black belt that teach into my area. I'm going to get my belt back out and I'm going to go train. What do you think the key is to keep somebody like me, for example, how do you keep somebody who's got some experience on the mats when they come back from time off or whatever the case may be? It's a, it's tough, man. I mean, it is tough. I know people don't want to kind of pass through the process again. Right. You don't want to feel the pressure. Yeah. I did my whole life. And I did it again. It's, I know. So I think we, at the end of, we got back to patients, you know, like I told you, everything runs around patients and consistency. And we got back again on that. Be patient, you know, we will get back. Well, the same thing I was telling you, be patient. They, uh, we're going to get back in track. It's about time. It's time. Just be patient, calm every day, as much as you can try things out, get frustrated, get smashed. It's all part of the process. You know, you got to be humble. You got to have consistency and you need to be patient. You know, it's, it's, don't always, it's the same speech I tell everybody. It's always the same. Be patient, trust the process. Just be patient. Things will work out. Just, just come. Yeah. You've got a good way as a, as a coach. And, and honestly, man, like you've, uh, and, and it's not just me, because I've talked to other people about this as well. Everybody's got their kind of, um, what would the word be? Like, like their style, I guess. Like, you know, like for me, cause like the broker, you know, he's, he's, you can always count on him to be very supportive. You're not always like that. Sometimes you're like, dude, you know, like, you know, me enough that you're like, Dave, that was, that was not good. You need to fix that. You know, sometimes you're like, dude, great job. You know, like, you know, when I need it and that's part of the coaching relationship. I'm a little bit more intense. I used to be like my brother, my brother now is super chill, like for me, but he used to be exactly like me. I'm a copy, you know, no joke. My brother was like super intense. If you're 15 minutes late, you can go back home. You're not doing this. I respect that. So it's like, yeah. He used to say like, yes, he used to say, am I, am I late? You know, am I late here? Do I ever be late for classes? If I'm late, who going to teach you guys? Yeah. You know, I'm never late. So why are you guys late? I have family. I have kids. I have all the excuses guys have. Why? I cannot be late and you guys can. Yeah. So at least on the pro training, he always was like, that's your job. Like mine, I teach you, you guys learn. So that's a different job, but it's still your work. You got to be here on time because I'm never late. So I learned exactly what everything is. But it used to be like this. If you want me to lay 10 pushups, if you're two minutes late, 20 pushups, if you're three minutes late, 30 pushups. And that's how it goes. And like, sometimes 150 pushups and people like, dude, and they learn. Yeah. You're going to do one time. Just once. You need once, one time you learn. Well, dude, if you're, I mean, to your point on being a pro, I mean, like, look, I'm a pro at my job. And if you don't come to work on time, you might make it back the next day. I mean, like sometimes that's what happens. And so exactly, dude, there's a funny story and that people might take this the wrong way, which would be ridiculous because, but you, um, you know, back to kind of like some of the way that you will coach me, we were doing, I don't remember, there was a competition going on. We were trained for a competition. It was noon class. And, um, you know how sometimes we'll like put people in a groups of five or something like that. And you always have the person in the middle, you know, and I was stuck in like this, we, you, for me, it was training because I think he was competing and you were the one that were pairing people up. And, uh, I got stuck where there was like three groups left and I didn't, it was one was white belts or something. One was little people and like, it just wouldn't work. And then you looked over and the last group was for me, go, uh, Ian. And you go, you looked at me and you go, welcome to hell. You will be murdered. But I took it, I took it as a challenge. I'm like, cool, man. Rodrigo's got some confidence in me. You know, he wouldn't do it otherwise. And so you build this relationship over time. And, and if you are a purple belt or whatever, you're just getting back in and embrace the relationship with your coach, man. Give a little bit, get a little bit. I mean, I don't, I don't care. I actually, I love it, man. I love it. I can just put my, I'm a, I'm kind of a knuckle dragger in that regard. Like I can just put my head down. I don't get offended by anything. I mean, some people, maybe they're a little thin skinned and I just like, okay, cool. Like that was obviously not good enough. You know, I got to do it a little bit better. And then eventually, eventually a little better, you know, not, not work with white belts, blue belts. It's work with sharks, right? Yeah. American shark tank. When you were coming up, did you, did you ever have any periods where you either felt like you would like, like leveled up big time or that you on the other side, maybe just didn't feel like you were ever going to get better. Yeah. I mean, so when I first moved here, my first months were really, really intense. Were, was really hard. I was getting settled in and I was without my family, you know, my son was three years old, two years old, just turned three. And then I would miss him like crazy. It was crazy. No, it was crazy. And it was a different language, different culture. I was sleeping on the, on the TV room, you know, uh, by myself, I used to cry a lot, you know, and I was not training really well, you know, it was, it was cold. I was not feeling home, not yet, you know? So everything matters when you're talking about, um, at high level training, you know, you gotta be perfect. It has to be perfect. It needs to be a nice place. It needs to be with people you like. You need to feel good. So, and I was not there yet. The first months were really hard. Uh, I was feeling like I was not improving at all in any points, like money, technique, technique, uh, technically. And, um, I was feeling bad. And when my wife moved, um, I was trying to make things work and try to let her see things that were not happening. You know, like I was trying to look good. I was trying to feel good, but she knows me. Yeah. She knew, she knew she was, I was bad. I was getting depression. Um, and I was actually getting a lot of injuries. I never get injured. It's really hard. You know, I, I got a lot of injuries in the rib, my rib pop. I, I, I ripped my, my, my hamstring muscle, which I was like, dude, what's going on? And it's, it's so everything on my head, you know, because I never got injured with tougher training back in Brazil with like 20 world champions in the same room. And I never got injured, never. And I was like, dude, it's, it's not cool. So I was working in a place that I was not feeling good, you know, with, um, self-training and a place of, I mean, place, what it means, the room where I was training and in other country, you know, other language, other culture without my family. So everything was hard, you know? And then what happened? Quarantine, boom, COVID. Yeah. Like, dude, okay, what am I doing here? And, you know, you start, you start questioning yourself, like, should I, should I come back? What I'm doing here? Yeah. Money was super tight, you know, we, we were not making money at all. And then we started like, you know what? No, I moved. I'm here. I initiated process. I'm not going to give up. And then we start to do again, patience and consistency, right? Yeah. I started working as a food delivery, me and my wife. Really? Yeah. We start to alternate because we have Bruno and I had three persons in my home during quarantine and we had no money and I had three more persons. They were, they were coming to compete and they got stuck here in the USA. Oh my God. They closed everything out. And they just couldn't get, couldn't get a flight back. Couldn't get out. It was everything shut down. Was everything closed? Yeah. So we start, um, doing, uh, food delivery during the day and during night, all day, 24 hours. You know, like we're just alternating to try to make money. We actually made a good money because I think during COVID. Everybody was doing it. Yeah. You could, you could get anything to bring laundry soap. And I mean, people wanted it. So everybody was like ordering grocery store, you know, food was huge. So we, we made it, we made it work, you know, but it was tough. It was very tough. Very tough. After I moved, after I started working with Formiga and I moved closer to Formiga, I think I was like, okay, now I'm feeling home. And that was when things start to work. Something clicked, you know, like, Whoa, wait, I'm, I'm, I'm there. You know, I'm home now. I'm getting there. And then things start to change. But the first year, first year and a half year, it was tough. It was very tough. Yeah. I used to cry a lot. I'm a, you know, me, I'm a tough person. I don't usually cry. I think that's probably what you're, what you're known for. I'm usually don't cry. I'm very like, I try to be as tough as I can, but I was bad. I was feeling so, so weak, you know, vulnerable. There's a difference there. And people, people kind of connect Jiu Jitsu. That Jiu Jitsu is one thing, right? But then there's this whole life element that goes with it, man. And it was not connected. Easy to disconnect. It was not connected. It was, I was getting a deep depression. You know, if my wife noticed, she's like, Rodrigo, you need help. You need psychological help. She was talking to my mom. My mom is Vera. Vera, Rodrigo is not good. I never seen him like that. He's training really bad. He's getting injured. He's, he's getting fat. I was terrible. You know, I was, I was like, you know what, whatever. I was not there. It was a tough time, man. 2020 was a whole lot of people. But we found ourselves again. Yeah. Now, when did it, when did it click, man? When did it kind of come back and come back? When I moved to here, to Formigas, close to Formigas, you know, started working for Formigas and then moved to Farm Mound. I was, I was living in Irving. Okay. Uh, not in a good place. Uh, and then I moved to Farm Mound, which is a good place. I know. Yeah. Dude, you're, you're at home now, man. That's where to be. Exactly. So I feel great now. So that was when things clicked and I was like, okay, cool. Yeah. We're going to make it work. When you were a younger trainer, um, like when you were blue belt, purple belt or something like that, like you've been training for 20 years. I mean, like there's not every, it doesn't go in a straight line, you know? Did you notice like periods where you were, um, you know, where, where, I don't know, from blue to purple or something like that, where suddenly like a year's worth of training kind of came, came together at once or something like that. Um, when I noticed that, because like I said before, um, I, I started really taking this serious when I was a purple belt to brown belt. So I think as a brown belt, things started to really like, okay, it was worth it, like all the sweat, all the, the work I put on it's, and I started to make a result as a brown belt. Then I'll start fighting high level. My last year as a brown belt, my first two years of brown belt was tough. We're tough, bad, because I was training hard as a brown belt. And I never competed in my, I mean, I used to compete, but really not very often, you know, it was bad. Uh, and then I said, okay, I'll, I'm, I'm a fighter now. I'm a competitor, but it was a brown belt. So things are deep and brown belt, you know, brown belt division. And I, I struggled for one and a half, two years. And the last year was good. It was a good year. I had some accomplishments, you know, I had some good metals, good bottoms, uh, and didn't want to become black belt, my first year was okay. Like, I was like, okay, it will be tough. I noticed things will be different, you know, but, and then I moved and then I'm like, okay, I started training because now I'm living Jiu-Jitsu full time. Right. Like even on my break, I have open mats on my gym. Sunday, Saturday, usually I'm coaching, fighting, or refereeing or everything. Or coaching, refereeing, and fighting, you know, that's very usual. So I heard a story about you picking up at, at a fight to win, I think it was. And just like you were there and they asked, we need another fighter and you just went and put your gi on and, and, and got in a guy from Oklahoma told me about that totally separate, totally unrelated, but we were talking about where we train and I said, I'm down in Dallas and he's like, I met a guy down there to fight to win that's at double five and he just picked his gi up and they needed an extra guy and he opt in. Oh yeah. We were always ready. Like, I don't care. I don't need to go away. I don't, if we need a fighter, I'll be there, you know, I'm always training hard every day. Uh, it's, I don't have different days. I'm always, you know, me, I'm always training hard. Saturday, Sunday, all day, all week I'm training, I'm lifting. So I have no off, I don't have off season, you know? So I'm ready whenever, if you want to fight now, if you want to fight tomorrow, I'll be, you know, I'm there. That's awesome. You know, I'm always ready. When you've, when you're, when your students start to line up and obviously, or even at double five at Highland village, when, you know, I don't even know how your feet are connected to your body anymore, because I've seen you like every time I, you, you, you got like, um, somebody landed on your Achilles or somebody gets you in a good move or whatnot, like on the podium, last time you had a big ice pack on, you fight through the injuries, obviously, but there's points in time when it's hard to fight through and you need to do something different. What do you tell your students? I mean, you've seen me in bandages and, you know, crying on the side, like, uh, you know, wanting sympathy. It's crazy. Um, when we are high level athletes, uh, we need to deal with that, right? We need to go through some injuries, like sometimes not big deals and that was bad ones. Uh, so a month ago I was training and I had my Achilles pointing up and someone landed on my Achilles and I have video. It's, I cannot even watch it. Yeah. I was there. I don't know how I didn't break it. Uh, so, and then, uh, two weeks after I started training slowly, you know, but it was not feeling good, very, very off balance, very uncomfortable. And then I, I was like, you know, I will, I'm going to compete. My, my students are going to compete. I need to be there for them. I need to support them. I need to lead by the front, right? I gotta get a fight. So what excuse I will have to not fight if my students are going to fight. So let's go, let's do it. And then during the open class, uh, semifinals, I won my division. I won two mats on the open class right in the third fight. Um, I was winning the fight and the guy shoot my foot, my foot, the bad foot last 30 seconds, everything he had, he was losing. So it was last shot. Yeah. So he almost, definitely, he almost broke my foot again, you know, and then he tore my ligament, the ligament of my foot. It was, of course was weak already, you know, it was very bad already. So, but I was fighting, so it happens, not his fault, you know, but now I'm dealing with that and I'm getting back in training, uh, what I will, what I will try to tell people that does not live the life I live is be careful, take care of your body, you know, you need, you need a body, especially if you don't work with that. Don't like, I will never let you move and you cross this line. Like the David line, you know, um, it's not worth it, you know, sometimes it's not even worth it for me sometimes, but I gotta do, I need to do, I have no much options, you know, I would never let my students fight without me, you know, so sometimes I put my students, I put Jiu Jitsu in front of my body and it's not something I would advise, it's not something I would advise you to do. You know, I will pay for this later. I'm resting, you know, I have two lower back discs. Um, my, yeah, my body's broken. I have some, my injuries on my shoulder, on my knee, on my foot. And I would never really heal it. Every time I go to JB, the chiropractor, you're like, dude, dude, you got to stop. He always does that, he always tells you that, but exactly. Like, look, I know you're not going to stop, but that's my word. I got to tell it that you need to stop. Okay. Can I go now? Yeah. A hundred percent. Every time I go in there, there's three or four people from our gym. So he has, but I'm looking for some advice. He knows how it works. No, I, I'm not going to stop, you know, but I know we're going to pay this later, but that's why you ain't got to pay to be successful, successful, you know, you see like, just an example, you see like Ron Coleman, that guy does not even walk, not anymore, but he was eight times, you know, eight times champion on his sport, you know, and what he loves, it was worth it. I think he will do everything again, if you ask him, you know, he barely walks now, but if you ask him, I'm putting money on that. He will do everything again, you know, and I will do too. I think that, I think that for a lot of people like injuries, I mean, look, you know, like you said, I mean, you're a professional athlete and the examples you're talking about, I mean, are guys that do this for a living. If, I mean, for somebody that doesn't have that, either that passion or that opportunity, sometimes the injury is what ends things, you know, even if it's just like, Hey, look, I just need three months. You just never come back. Do you, do you want your students? I mean, if you get injured and I talked about this in, in, in the past too. And I think we've talked about this privately, but like, what can you do? I mean, when, when you're, when you're injured, how do you want your students at North South to, to, to, to, to be when they're inevitably, you're going to get hit at some point. Something's going to happen. It's just going to happen. So he knows what it is. There's some, there's some lines, right? We never, I never want any students to quit. Yeah. Not because of money, because I believe on, on what, where they want to be, what they want to do. So I never want them to quit, but we have the, the safer line, right? You have the, that's the healthy line. And what I think is my, it's, if you're not an athlete, if you don't live this life, it's, it's the most important thing. So what I will do, if like being an athlete myself, what I do, it's, for example, I didn't have my foot for some, some weeks, so what I was doing, I was playing guard because it could get myself, my balance was terrible. You know, I could be on my foot. So I was playing guard. So I do what I got to do. I do what I can do. Yeah. So if my students, depending on age, physically stage, you know, that depend a lot of things, you know, if it was like, I have some athletes, you know, already, uh, they're younger, they're kids. But if, if it's them, uh, I will tell them to rest because they're young. They'll recover fast. Yeah. No. Do you want them on the mat? I mean, do you want them? I want them present. Can they come watch? Yeah. Maybe doing technique. You got to do what it can. Yeah. You know, all that you got kind of, I cannot roll. I cannot fight. It's okay. Do technique. Yeah. Watch the technique. Do it. Do warmup. If you can do some drills, don't, don't, don't just stay away because when you come back, you're going to feel like, like you said, you're going to feel like you need to reset. Yeah. Or you might not come back. That's, that's even worse. That's even worse. It's such an ego thing too. It's like, man, I got behind. I was, I was matching those guys. Now they're going to match me. So you don't want it. That's so hard, man. So I would always advise to not quit, not quit, stay here, do whatever you can do. Do you know? And, but if, if it's bad, sometimes it's really bad. So you got to respect your body and that's in the first place. Always. It's safe. It's right. You got to respect your healthy. I don't want nobody taking injuries, like taking serious things because of Jiu Jitsu. So, you know, if you don't, if you don't need it, you know, I don't think like nobody ever told me. Um, I never had this conversation with anybody really, but I, I, I just kind of did it on my own and it worked out really well. But like, if I get, if I get banged up a little bit, like if my knees tweaked or my shoulders off a little bit, dude, I go tell for me. And he watches out for me on the mat, you know, like even sometimes he's like, dude, just sit out today, you know? I mean, I like, I want, dude, I want to make it 10 more years, more than more than that. I hope. And I'm not going to, if I like try to keep up with this Navy SEAL next to me, you know, that's 25. I mean, dude, seriously, you know, like one of the guys last night, he's a white belt. Sometimes you just need a little break. Sometimes you just need like a week off. It's not going to kill you. Yeah. It's also, it's valuable too. I mean, I, maybe it's just me. I don't know. Maybe this is different for you and how you came up and maybe it's different for other people too. But like, I get so much out of watching. I mean, I really do. I learned so much. It just sucks. That's the problem. You have like now, things are so different than those. You have like a lot of videos online, a lot of different addicts now. You can buy videos, you can watch, you can learn from home. It is crazy. Now I'm literally watching, you have a dummy here. I'm my little dummy. Yeah, exactly. You have a lot of ways to keep it up, to not let things really fall apart. Right? I have a lot of students with mats at home, with dummy, with TV. And bro, go train. You know, if you cannot row, try to make it work. You wanted this, you wanted this to make it work. So it's up to you. Or like I said, my sweat will not make you improve. No, I will help you, but you gotta do it by yourself. Do that grappling dummy. So kind of on the topic of like being able to watch somebody else spar. So I started videoing myself with that little grab. So we're looking at this little grappling dummy I've got here in this studio. Um, and you're going to be proud of me. I've started working on Barren Bolo and, and I mean like who would have thought? Right. But I need it. I need to warm up. So when I watch it, when I first started noticing it was on that long step move, you know, and I've been trying to do it on another side and for me, he's been working with me on it and I know what he looks like. And then I know what I think I look like. And then I videoed it and I'm like, dude, I don't look like that at all. I'm like, man, I am so far away from, but like watching somebody else, it is freaking helpful, dude. You know what it looks like when it works, then you could start applying it to your own body. When I'm teaching privates, I always tell my students to record the privates. You gotta record it, you gotta record it, you gotta watch at home, you gotta stud. It's, it's important, you know, you gotta, you gotta always be, do whatever you can do and watching videos and learning at home, it's important. It's in your mind, do you think you're looking at like one thing and then you watch yourself and you're like, Oh my God, it looks so goofy, right? Oh man, that's terrible, dude. My hips never touched the ground. And you know, in my mind, I'm thinking about how some, some professional did it. Switching gears just a little bit here. So, and I think you're a great example of this. You, you, you, your days are full. I mean, your days are straight up full. You've got early mornings, you've got late nights. I've, I've, we've been in the gym at the same time, ironically in the past. I mean, you've got privates all throughout the day. You've got locations all over the place. I mean, dude, we were talking before we started. I mean, Monique last night was, I think in Argyle and then she shows up in Highland Village halfway through the class to work with some other female practitioners individually, you know, you guys are like this all day long. I mean, how do you fit in? How do you, what's behind the scenes? I mean, how do you fit all this stuff in and what do people not understand? The hardest thing, right? Like I was talking to you like earlier, um, we're, we know all the excuse. We can make all the excuse. I have family. I have dog, I have son. I have house, right? I have, we have all work all day, everybody else. We're normal people, right? But what people like don't see it's the family work, like everybody, I think everybody has the, those things, you know, uh, we always try to me now Bruno's is on break, right? But during school it's complicated trying to make work class and we've got to go home super quick, shower and take, pick him up at school. Like I'm going to pick him up when he keeps making lunch and then after shower and we go and we're not at the time we're not working together. So we're going to get out two cars. And when you're going to teach somewhere, you're going to teach somewhere else. Don't know. And Bruno sometimes go with Monica. Bruno sometimes go with me and Bruno want to train, you know, it's complicated. So, and then after we come back home, we've got a dinner, put Bruno to walk to shower again, put in Bruno to brush his teeth, eat up, you know, how it works, right? And have a dog. We've got to walk with the dog. Yes. It's insane, but we, we love what to do, right? Sometimes we need to go doctor because we are always broke. So we need to make work with JB as well, you know, to visit JB. So it's, we got to lift, right? We're athletes. So we need to find some time to lift it during the, during the day. Uh, now I'm lifting every day, but usually I lift like twice, three times a week, but it's, it's tough, you know, it's tough, but it's worth it. And during our break, let's say like that, during weekends, we got to train, we got to coach, we got to fight, we get a ref competition. I mean, yeah. So we don't have a real break. Sometimes weekends are tougher than week. Think about like, I remember, um, um, the last one for me, it was on, you know, whatever it was a couple of weeks ago, we had just come back from Waco. That was an, a traveling tournament. It was an all weekend event and the day was freaking, I don't know whatever time it started at eight at four in place, you know, like at somebody else's location and then all night long, man, you know what I mean? You got to kill a day, 9am to 6, 7pm. Especially if we did good at the tournament. So it took place on both days. So we got to be to the end of the tournament to take the trophies. Yeah, that's awesome, man. Well, Hey, like that's worth, that's worth a late night, I guess. Yeah, that's a good, that's a world-class problem right there. I do think people don't really understand that sometimes because. You know, you're living your normal life. You're living your daily life. You go to work, you do your family stuff or whatever, and then you show up to jujitsu. It's this happy moment in the day and you've got like the relationship with Rodrigo, like it's my one hour, you know what I mean? But you don't see the full spectrum of like, Hey, you got to get up at 5am to kind of, it's tough, but it's something we really love. It's a lot of people say that like, Oh, we love what I do, but I don't know if they do. I don't either. I don't know what I do either. Yeah, I know. But I love what I do. You know, sometimes it's exhausting and sometimes I'm tired, sometimes I'm broken, but I keep doing the now and most of the times I don't need to do it, but I still do it, you know, like traveling to California, I didn't need it, you know, I mean, like if I would doubt me, but I won't, I'm not going to feel good. I'm not going to just put my head on my pillow and, Oh, okay. They're fighting down me. No, bro. You're going to be so bad, you know? So it's something I got to do by myself. I think it's important. I think that's part of the lesson for students as well, is that man, like there's, there's a mutual energy that needs to go into this. You know, it's not only the instructor and the professor's responsibility to make this good training, you know? Like, I think that we've got a really good crew and obviously I'm biased, you know, but like, just think about the morning class, like we're trying to build that culture. We want to give it back to you guys too, you know, you're getting up, you're teaching us, man. We want that freaking energy to be up there because it's hard to teach a bunch of sleepy heads, you know? I mean, you, you know, that's the way it should be. That's the way it should be. Um, let's talk about north south a little bit. So you've, this is, I mean, was this a part of the big plan? I mean, it was this, when you moved, when you took the big leap to come to the States, was this a part of the plan or is this just, Well, always it was the plan, the main plan, but I didn't plan like that, right? Things kind of happened quick. Um, I had this family with one of my main students, the, the twins, right? Jared and Jonathan. Yeah. That's kind of what I was talking about earlier. Like, you want to talk about from beginning to end. Yeah. Again, now are kind of my main athletes, national champions, Pan American champions, they, they kind of accomplish everything a kid can accomplish on their divisions, you know, how old are they now? They're 14. Jesus, you know, um, yeah, they're getting good fast. And I love watching you guys. So we have a very good relationship. They're kind of kids that are kind of my brothers, my little brothers, you know, and we really are super cool together. They're part of that. I mean, they're a fixture in the gym too. Yes. And I've been teaching price for them for three years, two years and a half, you know, we're working private twice a week, three and a half. So pretty intense. It's a lot of time expand. And the parents, Joe and Daniel, we became a family, right? They helped me a lot. Uh, we always hang in together, barbecue. Like we always together because the boys are going to compete always. And they always take me, pay my flight to go coaching them. And things start to grow and be intense, more intense because the kids start to give results. Yeah. They're like, wait, whoa, they're getting good. They're winning everything. They're winning everything. They're, they're having fun. They love what they do. Yeah. You can tell, you know, and I had a bad experience, uh, last year. Uh, when I got fired without any warning, any notice, you know, uh, the guy just called me, how'd you go? You're fired. Uh, I've needed anymore. I'm like, whoa, wait, that's not cool. You know, I was like, bro, you could just, that's fine. That's business. I understand that. But you could just let me know a little bit earlier, right? I have a kid, I have a wife, you know, I have family, bro. That's, that's not something a nice person would do. Yeah. That's no, that's not the way. And I, I, I was desperate because now I have just half job. I, I, I economically, I can't make work with that, you know? And Danny, I do like, you know, I would really go, let's open a gym. I was like, what? Oh yeah, let's open a gym. Why not? Why not? I want to make a business for the boys. I want to have something for them when they grow. We love you. We know your work. You're amazing. What do you do? Well, why not? We'll have the money. Let's do it. And in three months, the gym was open. I was like, whoa, crazy, man. Yeah, it was crazy. And it was so fast. Like, you know, click, everything was there. I, I remember walking on the, on the room, on the building and like, I don't know. You think they're going to look like, they're going to be cool. Yeah. We cannot have, no, it was like, everything was like a trash. And then in three, four months, everything was built. And it was like, whoa, transformed. Yeah. If you watch my gym now, it's, it's a dream gym. I, I have no words to express my gratitude for them. You know, it's amazing. We're, we're not done yet. We're not finished yet. We have some little stuff to do, right? Like little details, but it's working. We're teaching class already. The gym is open. It's amazing. It's something that I never, never thought about it, how it goes. No, how I was, I was thinking about Jimmy would open a gym with my brother. My, my brother is in Brazil. He has his own gym. So he's kind of stuck, you know? So like, why not taking this opportunity to know? What is North South? Is it a, is there a symbolism? Brazil is South and USA is North. That's pretty basic. I mean, and in the Jiu Jitsu. Yeah. So, and also my partners and myself, we're like North and South, you know, here in America. So, so I was like, Ooh, why not? North South looks good, you know? And also it's a Jiu Jitsu position. Oh yeah, it's perfect, man. It's a Jiu Jitsu position. So I love it. You can't have the vision for the, for the open space. You know, somebody has to do that, but you've got the vision for the brand, I guess. That's awesome. Yeah, it was cool. It was really, really nice, you know, and things are going good. Yeah. So you guys are up and running and I mean, you're up and running right now and I've heard like, I haven't been able to make it out yet, but I've heard just amazing things, man. I mean, everybody's just gone out there and said, it's a freaking really nice place. And, uh, the kids are teaching kids class. Um, so are there a big part of it anyway? They're helping me in all the classes. They're with me learning all day, you know, they're on, on the way, on the process, you know? Uh, I wanted them with me as much as they can, you know, as much as they can support, because it's very stressful for them now, you know, a lot of, a lot of pressure. But at least for the kids class, for the adults class, they're by my side, they're watching, learning, and they're, they're improving fast. They're improving fast. They're going to be good for them. Even for, uh, competition wise is good to sharpen the technique. Teaching is a good point of learning as well. The, um, I was talking to Joe just a little bit about it. Um, Joe's a great guy. I mean, is he going to do any teaching or anything? Or is he going to, is Joe is, uh, it's support, right? He, if I need him, it's the, I hopefully Joe, you know, we have my wife, I have the boys from the boys are blue belts. So I want to have the boys kind of more into it. Um, but, uh, now we have other dream, right? What's open other gym soon next year. Really? Yeah. No kidding. Any, uh, any preliminary, uh, we'll have no location yet, but, um, we just need to see how it goes. This gym, hopefully we're going to grow fast and the plan is opening a new one next year. Okay, man. That's just something to stay tuned for. We might have to have a conversation here pretty soon. That's awesome, dude. Um, Joe leveled up, man. Dude, he, he, I hadn't, it's so funny because you don't, you don't. Um, when I first started training in Highland village, he had just came up from, I think knee surgery or something like that. Maybe it was his back. I don't remember, but he had been out for a while and he's a lot lighter than I am, man. He was fun to train with. Cause he'll, he's just strong, cold, humble, you know, but then we trained, um, man, it was not too long after he got his brown belt. And he's doing all these new lapel things. I sound like dude. Yeah. He leveled up. It was really technical. Yeah. Yeah. We used to do some privates. We're going to get back in privates now, next month. We're talking about it already. You gotta, he wants to improve a little bit more, you know, we always make it work. What is, so what's the future look like at North South? I mean, if you could fast forward 10 years into the future, man, is the product the same, or are you going to focus on, is it going to be, be the best Jiu Jitsu school out there? Do you guys expand things a little bit? I mean, what does it look like? Um, so, well, the plan is focused, uh, on kids, teens, you know, like 12 to 16 years old. Uh, when I make like an army. Yeah. Okay. No, I mean, everything, those two are the good start for the army. That's for sure. So, and I think, uh, well, so we want to focus on girls. I think it's something that's not women's specific. Yeah. Yeah. The women's class, we're going to start January with some extra classes, morning classes, female classes, you know, when you can start teaching full time. Yeah. And we want to make, grow this, the kids program and the girls, which two, two hard things to make it work. Yeah. So we want to be different. Especially women, man. That's tough. Yeah. So we want to be different, you know, we want to make things different and see, let's see how it goes. Yeah. It's hard to get, like, I think people sometimes forget about that, man. It could be a intimidating place. If you're a, you know, a woman practitioner, you might not care, but you don't know what other people think or whatnot. So to have a program that's focused on that, it's valuable. A hundred percent. It's, I think it's important for the girls to feel comfortable, you know, it's, it's, it's so hard for, I think for the girls to deal with that, you know, most of the girls don't feel comfortable rolling with other men, you know, and a lot of girls are training because they don't want to be close to other men, you know? So I try, we try always to, to understand that those situations and make everybody comfortable, you know, I think having some girls classes, that's a good point for, to make, like, the girls feel more comfortable, feel more relaxed, you know, because, yeah, I understand that. I do too, man. Yeah. Hard enough for guys. Yes. You know, with all these problems around the girl, like bullying, even bullying, like, um, this, uh, sexual problems, you know, those aggressions, sexual aggression, you know, that life is tough. Like it's, it's pretty violent sometimes. So you're going to get them ready. I don't think if you had, I mean, if you have a women's program, even if they get the first couple classes, like it's sometimes, I mean, we've been training jujitsu for a long time, you know? And so if somebody grabs you, you don't think much about it, you know, it's not a shock, but if you've, if nobody has ever come to you. And like wrap their arms around you or something like that, or if you've never fallen down, it's kind of like when you take somebody that's brand new to jujitsu, like in the kids class, even, and nobody's ever pushed them before or something. And they almost want to cry, you know, like, they're like, oh my God, that's violent, you know, but to just be used to that and get a little bit of accustomed to it, then, I mean, that, that alone is, could be a lifesaver. A hundred percent, a hundred percent, you know, because that, the fact they're going to work a lot, those techniques to protect themselves, I think they, when they really need it, they will do it without even thinking, you know, like, wait, I just, I just saved myself, you know, and that's the point. But I'm not, I don't want to like any water. I don't want any like superhero. I just want to give them some, some basic skills, some survival skills, you know, to, to be able to deal with that if they need to, hopefully they don't need it. You know, that's the point. Hopefully they never need it, but it, it, it's better knowing what to do, having the skills, the survival skills and don't need it, then you don't have it because you don't want to need it, and then you need it and what are you going to do? So, yeah, when you need it, it'll be too late, you know, so better, you know, something and don't need it, then need it and being lost. Well, who knows, man, maybe, I mean, we're talking about women's self-defense, but I mean, you could easily end up in the competition class, too. You could get addicted to this and it ends up being something that, yeah, I mean, you promoted two to black bells on the podium, two high-level female competitors, you know, yeah, I'm afraid to do, statistically unusual, I think is the terminology. So, what's next for you, man? You're out there actively competing, I mean, I see you working out constantly, you're making a run. Yeah, I see Rodrigo competing a little bit less, focus more on local tournaments to make the gym grow, you know, to expand the brand. Yeah, it's a tough balance. Yes, and you guys are going to see Rodrigo more active as a coach, even more, you know, full-time coaching and if I have to make a decision, I will always option the coaching decision, at least for the next year, you know. Yeah, it's tough to be in two places at the same time, man. Yes, and I want to make it work, so I will give my 100% for my students next year, you know, and compete a little bit less, but not out of the competition, because you know how it works. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's tough. You know, so I will compete more locals and be 100% focused on coaching my students. That's awesome, man, I can't wait to see it. Make me some champions. I love it, man, I don't doubt it one single bit. We talked about this before, I feel like I have a white belt in social media, so how do people get in touch with you, how do people find you, what other closing thoughts do you have for everybody? Yeah, so it's hard, social media is hard, right, it's a good weapon, but it's hard to really know what to do. I need a private. Yeah, me too. I'm not that guy. Dude. My wife is better, like I said, she was a journalist back in the day. I got my kids, man, tell them. They're laughing at me. My kid is better than me, she edits videos, you know, she's good with that. But I think the most important, what I would try to do on my social media, my Instagram, like Facebook, I try to make posts that will make something different for you, will touch you some way, you know. I used to post like self-defense videos, warm-up videos, drill videos, something that's going to help you somehow, you know, even like, that was crazy. This week, I saw three different gyms doing the same warm-up I was doing, I posted. I posted a video of my son, Bruno. I saw that, yeah, dude, that went like viral, man. It was crazy, man, I got kicked out. So my son was doing those drills, warm-up. I do every Thursday at my gym, yeah, the drills, warm-up. And I did a game that day, the tic-tac-toe game, warm-up, you know, with beanbags. And this week, I saw three gyms doing the same warm-up. Dude, that's cool, man, it gets you out there. No, it's amazing, that's what I wanted. Another kid is positively impacted, yeah. Exactly, help them somehow, like, whoa, that's cool. It's amazing. And I need to make more posts. Some people even text me, Rodrigo or my wife, you guys got to post more about that. We love this warm-up, we love these games, you know, that's the feedback I want. That's everything I do. It's for this, not to be successful, not to be like famous. No, it's to help people, you know. And the fact this week, I saw three different gyms doing the same things I do, like, whoa. That's so cool, dude. It's working, you know. Dude, why didn't Bruno go through that obstacle course? I mean, you had the ladder of doom, I guess is what you call it. And then we had, you know, the little ladders to hop over and stuff like that. That was freaking cool, man. He looks like he has fun when he's out there. No, he does. I love seeing your son out there, man. He's like a natural on the mats, dude. It's great. You know, he's bowing and all respectful and stuff. I think the secret is not putting pressure on him, you know. I try not to put pressure on him at all. Little kid, too. Sometimes he doesn't want to roll. Okay, cool. Now I need him because I just opened a gym. So I kind of need him for the little kid. So it's good having someone, like, who I trust more, who I can talk with a different way, you know, that can help me. So I kind of using him, not using him, but having him with me all day now, every day, you know. He's learning and helping me a lot. But I assume, hopefully soon, I don't need him as much as I need now. I will let him have this break, you know. Like, let him chill, let him rest. I'm not the kind of person, I don't want him, like, feeling it's not Monday, it's hard for him to train. Never. That's not the point. You're at LopezTattoo, is that your Instagram? It's LopezTattoo. LopezTattoo, yeah. So that's where you can find Rodrigo. And then, of course, we've got Double Five Highland Village, where he's at a lot. But now you're probably going to see him a lot more at North South and Richardson, Texas, which is just north of Dallas. Good for visitors to come out. Bro, come on. Please, everybody's welcome. I still need to make it out there, you know. I need to do it before. Richardson. Yeah, of course, man. Well, so Richardson, Texas, at LopezTattoo. Any final thoughts before we go and hit the mats of justice over in a noon class? So, again, first of all, thank you for the opportunity. It's always amazing to share. Thank you, man. A huge favor for me, believe me. Trust me. Share some love, share some knowledge, trying to help people make some difference, right? That's the point. I want to make some difference. And, again, I would like to have people be patient, you know, trusting your professor, what they say, what they do. They know what they're doing. They might know what they're doing, you know. Hopefully, they do. And you've got to trust them. You've got to be patient and consistent. Do your work, you know. I love it. Don't wait for someone to do their work if you're not doing yours. Yeah. So, make your best every single day and make a difference. That's what I'm doing here. I love it, man. I think you said it best. And then going back to the original script here is that this is a journey. And you heard the advice from Rodrigo, which is be patient. And you've got to show up. Nobody can put the work in for you. And if you feel like this is kind of coming to an end, then hang in there for one more day and remember that advice that persistence pays off. Consistency is key. And you just got to be patient. And just for me to you, Rodrigo, man, you have really made a big impact. And I mean it, brother. Thank you. You've, you know, we've got a big age gap between the two of you. But I look up to you a lot, especially the way that you show up. You set a good example. You always keep the bar high. And you found the trick to kind of keep me pushing. And I am truly thankful for the impact you've had on my life and on my jujitsu for sure, man. So, thank you as always. Thank you, my brother. It's a pleasure. That's what I want to do forever. That's awesome, man. Well, I'm glad to hear it. I'm looking forward to it. And to everybody else that's out there, we are out.
