Welcome to the Growing Our Future podcast. In this show, the Texas FFA Foundation will take on a journey of exploration into agricultural science, education, leadership development and insights from subject matter experts and sponsors who provide the fuel to make dreams come true. Here's your host, Aaron Alejandro.
Speaker 2:Well, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, or whenever you're tuning in to the Growing Our Future podcast, I tell you we just enjoy bringing this podcast to you because we get these great guests that we bring on subject matter experts that are willing to share their insights, their experience, their expertise. And today is no different. This one's a unique one. This one I think you're really going to enjoy because I'm going to tell you, when our paths crossed, i was so intrigued by what he said, how he said it, and I thought I want to hang around with this guy. And so today y'all are going to get to meet a friend of mine, but he's also a great businessman. He's a very accomplished martial artist and a warrior great American. This is my friend and y'all are going to get to knowing. This is Tuhan Harley Elmore. Tuhan, thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 3:Well, thank you very much for having me. It's an honor.
Speaker 2:Well, we're glad to have you.
Speaker 2:So we're going to talk about a lot of different stuff and I'm going to have to unpack a lot of different things, a history but we're going to do it in a way where it's going to make sense to the audience and everybody, hopefully, walks away with something.
Speaker 2:By the way, the whole purpose of these podcasts, you know, i think, about the quote that they attribute to Abraham Lincoln, and Lincoln said that the philosophy of the schoolroom in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next. So I always believe that if we want to know what the future is, we got to grow it. Well, how do you grow the future? You got to plant seeds in the minds of young people so that they can grow to be great Americans and great leaders in our communities, and so that's what the podcast is about. And so today we're going to hopefully have you share some seeds of greatness that somebody's going to be able to plant and do good things with their lives. So, as we start, i like to start every podcast with a question, and that is this two on what?
Speaker 3:are you grateful for today.
Speaker 3:Wow, yeah, that's a great question. I would say that I mean there's so many things, but I think one of the things that really stands out in my life, when I think about what I'm grateful for, is really more like who I'm grateful for. You know, the people that are in my life, the tribe that we've been able to build here as part of our organization and how close we've become, and, of course, that's allowed us to have such a, you know, greater reach and far more, far stronger input into the community, into the world, than I would have ever been able to do myself. So I think it's the tribe, the people.
Speaker 2:That was good. No one's ever put it that way before, but you're spot on. I mean I couldn't agree with you more. I mean I'm grateful for my family, my friends, like the people that I'm grateful for.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean you know things come and go, opportunities come and go, businesses come and go, but people, you know investing in those people and then in return, they invest in you and you reach a mindset and a philosophy that where everybody kind of comes together to accomplish, you know, greater things than anyone of us could have. I mean that's a super powerful thing And I think it's the best force multiplier we can have is to invest in other people. So, yeah, that's that's what I'm most grateful for.
Speaker 2:Well, one of the one of the quotes we use around here. You're going to hear it again at the end of this show, but one of the things that we say is the essence of leadership is to plant trees into who shades. You may never sit.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's what we're going to do. We're going to plant some trees, that's it. That's the old, that's the old. that's what it's all about, right? So let's, let's talk about that. So there's a lot here to cover, but give us a little bit of your background. I know you didn't just fall into this seat and into this title called to Han. That doesn't just happen. There had to be a journey and a pathway that led you to where you're at, and I believe that along that pathway, the FFA played a little bit of part in that. but just kind of take us on a journey and share your story of how you got to where you're at today.
Speaker 3:Well, you said we only have a few minutes. What I will say is I grew up in a small town in rural Arkansas and where I was raised on, you know, my grandfather's farm. It was a, you know, diminishing farm. at that point They weren't really working in as much but but, you know, i hauled hay and, you know, fed the pigs and the chickens and all that good stuff. But from there I got interested in martial arts. You know Bruce Lee, you know, had had been a big craze when I was real little And you know so I was interested in that And I was really interested in martial arts as a way to be able to stand it for myself and and my loved ones, you know. So I started practicing in my grandfather's hay barn, you know, you know, pushed everything to the side and hung an old sack full of old clothes and wore my leather work gloves for, you know, working on the farm as as bag gloves, and and that's what I did. I started in a hay barn working, working lessons.
Speaker 3:But I eventually did get into formal martial arts training and continued that path. You know, met some local martial artists there in Arkansas, trained with them, became a black belt, you know, in the mid 80s really enjoyed those arts And those great mentors meant so much to me. They were. They were the ones who kept me from derailing too far right or left, kept me up, gave me a focus, you know, helped me to find that that there's a path of consistent. You know growth rather than being stagnant and and you know, getting into, you know alcohol and you know the other things that teenagers can get into.
Speaker 3:And then eventually I got a job opportunity with a guy named Terry Gibson to work in his academy in Tulsa, oklahoma, and that got me the opportunity to meet the world-class level of martial artists. So guys like Dan Inosanto, who was Bruce Lee's best friend and protege and inherited Bruce Lee's system when Bruce Lee died, got to meet him. And Master Chi and Herman Sawanda and all these great legends at the time You know we were in the 90s, it was a great time because some of the best martial artists of all time were traveling around doing seminars and we had a facility there and we had them in on a regular basis And so I got to train with them and get certified with them and all that. So I had a continuing, a great sense of mentor, mentorship with those guys And then eventually I got into a martial art called Syoc Kali, which is the art where I received the rank of Tuhan, which is master instructor, and with them, with Monituan Chris Syox guidance and mentorship, got to work with a team called Syoc Tactical Group, which was the team we formed the training military special forces, primarily Army and Navy, and then eventually working with different teams and units in the State Department.
Speaker 3:So along the way in the early 90s sorry, late 90s I met and we started Warriors Way Mars Larts here in Wichita Falls And that's been what. We just celebrated our 23rd anniversary of being open here in Wichita Falls And we've been very fortunate to have trained and taught over 10,000 members in that time. So trying our best to be a good, good, positive, you know, addition to the community and give back and train the next generation 23 years.
Speaker 3:That's crazy, isn't it?
Speaker 2:Well, what's crazy is, on a personal note, you know we're going to do this interview from the perspectives of the FFA and Harley Elmore, but you know he and I both kind of started our careers at the same time. He started with Warriors Way about the same time I started the Texas FFA Foundation, and so we've had a lot of discussions about watching both of our careers and this paralleling path that we've been on of growth And you know, there I think there's some elements there that I think are worth sharing. I know that the folks around me hear me say on a regular basis if you want to be the best, train with the best, and a lot of that came from your tutelage, in other words, as a, as the head of our school, a martial arts instruction. That was always your philosophy, Your your philosophy was never bring in the black belt of somebody. Your philosophy was who is the best out there. That's who I want to come to the school and teach.
Speaker 3:Is that? yeah, absolutely. You know, i mean not that there's anything wrong with studying with, you know, your local black belt at the wire or whatever. But you know, i realized that martial arts was going to be my vehicle to personal success, personal mastery, all that. And I realized that fairly early in life. This is me in the early nineties, when I got the opportunity to work with Mr Gibson in his school. That gave me the opportunity to meet those world class guys. And so now, all of a sudden, they had the power to be able to pick and choose which one of those masters and grandmasters And you know, not just some guy who studied that art, but actually the current master, grandmaster of that system, the head of that system.
Speaker 3:And I realized that that was going to be my college degree. Right, this is my, this is my vocational school, right here. And you know there's Ivy Leagues in universities and I believe that if you look at a vocation that you could, you could say that this is the Ivy League of martial arts training, training with people of that caliber. And so, yeah, absolutely, and we're blessed to be alive in this time when you have access to them, right, without having to travel to Indonesia without having to travel to the Philippines or where it is. Wherever it is Thailand.
Speaker 3:You know America and, of course, the commerce of America brings a lot of them to the United States, where you know a martial arts master in Indonesia might get paid in tobacco and chickens. You know he can come to America and get paid in real money and then go back and share that with his community and his village in Indonesia and make a huge change, which is what my instructor, hermann Swindon, did. So, yeah, so I was really blessed to be there in that window and be able to take advantage of that and build a pedigree, and so that's why I believe that it's so important who you train with and that you are specifically targeting what it is that's going to make you better as a martial artist And what's your degree? What are you going to build your degree?
Speaker 2:in. So you really said a lot here. So let me tell you one reason I like doing these interviews because number one, if listeners are listening, you're going to find these little nuggets of gold and what folks share in their testimony. So a lot of times I don't have to ask specifics. If you'll just listen, there's gold in somebody's testimony and you've already just shared some, by the way. So one of the things that I heard loud and clear was you had somebody that kind of mentored you And, as a result of that mentorship, they taught you about professional networking.
Speaker 3:Yes, absolutely, i mean.
Speaker 3:Yeah, i mean you know, i realized that if I got certified by this instructor, that that got me the opportunity, everybody would recognize that and honor that rank and say, oh well, you're with him.
Speaker 3:That means you have quality of character, work ethic, you have some skills, some potential, and so then it was much easier to get certified or get to at least train with the next martial arts instructor. And for people who don't understand, martial arts is a little bit like college in the sense that you can get your degree in English and become a specialist in English, and martial artists is a very, very much the same way. You can specialize in one particular area And I found that learning, mastering several of those things, several of those different subjects, really makes you a more well rounded martial artist and helps you understand the complexity of violence, interpersonal violence as a whole. So you can't do that with one instructor. You have to study and get the viewpoints of all these different specialists and use that to each one of them to catapult you to the next step in your career, next step in your understanding and in your skill sets and that sort of thing, your professional network.
Speaker 2:Well, you said something else just then, too, that I think people need to take note of, and that if I'm a high school student and I'm looking down the road, or I'm a college student, i'm looking down the road and I'm thinking for a career opportunity, a lot of times it's who you're associated with. So it's like, well, i may not know, i may not know Jeff, but I know Aaron. Well, i don't know Jeff, but I know this guy named Harley Elmore. So all of a sudden, by virtue of your professional networks, you become a little more credible In the eyes of somebody that might be looking for an opportunity.
Speaker 3:Yes, absolutely, and so is exactly what I built Warriors Way International on my organization was that, now that I have this certifications and these relationships, one of my primary values to my students is providing them access to those instructors, to my instructors Someone they might not ever get the chance to meet on their own or train with on their own. Now it's my job to put them in front of my instructors and provide their access so that they can get the same benefit that I've got, because the more, the more people I can sit in front of a man so that they can say, yep, i learned this straight from Dan and Asante, let's see, i heard it straight from his mouth to my ears, right, so the more of those we can get eventually, when we no longer have the amazing resource of that particular individual. At least we had a lot of people who were there and witnessed and heard the testimony and saw the skill and learned the philosophy, and so networking really does become that, and I realized that that's my role is to provide that, to facilitate it.
Speaker 3:Absolutely Yeah, absolutely Yeah, but more people in front of them.
Speaker 2:And you do this by the last reason why I like you, because you just have this natural bent to doing this. But I remember Chandler, my oldest one. It was bring your daddy to school day, what does your daddy do? And I'm thinking well geez, i live in Wichita Falls. We got NATO pilots and doctors and lawyers and really cool jobs. And then we got Chandler's daddy. He's a professional beggar, he raises money.
Speaker 2:And I'm like how in the world am I going to explain to those fourth graders what I do? And I remember I went up to the board and I drew a little bitty door And I asked those fourth graders I said how many you could get through that door? And they said nah. And then I drew a really big door And I said now how many of you could get through that door? And they said yes, sir. I said that's what I do. I make doors bigger.
Speaker 2:And when I look at what you've done through the martial arts and through your career, and then as a small business owner, as somebody who wants to mentor kids, that's what you've done. Think about it. You've made that door bigger. Think how many people you've gotten through that door as a result of this vision of possibility and stewardship, and I think that's an important component too that you've mentioned, that sometimes we fail to recognize in that stewardship You've taken very seriously the gifts that others have shared with you, the opportunities, the techniques, the knowledge that they've poured into you, and you've said, hey, listen, i've got to be a steward of that And I've got to share that appropriately. So stewardship is a big part of what you've done.
Speaker 3:Yeah, i mean, that's why we have the instructor's pictures on the wall, right. So that's why we make sure that everybody knows who that came from, what culture, you know, we give good attribution to where those lessons came from, the men who carried those lessons, because you know we're talking about them, we're talking about martial arts. There were times when people's very survival counted on their skill And in the martial world, and there was times when, you know, those things that got handed down to the next generation were based on whether that failed or succeeded, and so we want to be honorable, to honor those people. So honor, you know, the instructors who gave it to us, and then also honor our own fathers, right, our own people, who invested in us and raised us so that we can be good examples, you know, of you know, good contributing members of society.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, you got to keep those lessons alive, But that's what teaching is all about. Right Is carrying on to the next generation all those insanely valuable lessons that built not just the people but the society in it, So the next generation can be even better examples of it.
Speaker 2:Well and I will say this, having had the opportunity to be there myself When we think about your, your careers, our careers television, we've been there. Movies we've been there presidents, elected officials, athletes When you think about the incredible path that you've been exposed to and I've been exposed to, we were very fortunate. And I think the one thing that I also appreciate about some of the humble beginnings that you started with, much like myself, is, i think we value and appreciate what we've been given And we were grateful for it and we want to share it that way. And the other thing that I wanted to mention about the people that you brought in is I've got to witness firsthand their character. These are notable names, not just domestically, these are international brands. I mean, these are martial artists that have incredible international brands.
Speaker 2:And whether it is Guru Dan and Asanto, whether it was the late Grand Master Tony Samara, whether it was, you know, tuon, chris Sayak, you know I appreciate the fact that you brought them to Wichita Falls, that I had the opportunity to not only stand in their presence, actually at moments, got to train with them And my son got to try. I never forget William excuse me, chandler with Guru Dan one time And that's pretty special. I'm sitting there as a dad going my son's getting a private lesson from Guru Dan and Asanto. Oh my gosh, but it was their character. I want to say something about this. It was their character.
Speaker 2:Guru Dan would come up and he'd say how's Abigail doing? How's Chandler doing Tuon? Chris Sayak always asked me about my family. Grand Master Samara asked me about my mom. They were people of character. It wasn't just this. I want to teach you this really good move here, this technique They did, by the way. It was really good, but they taught us something other than they taught us the full spectrum of being a warrior And to be a complete warrior. I think you got to have a heart.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, i mean. Well, i mean without a heart. I mean, what are you really fighting for, right? So you know that's what directs, you know who and what you're fighting for. Without that, you're a mercenary. But you know, you're absolutely right.
Speaker 3:I mean, i have met, you know, guys who I consider to be technically amazing martial artists, but they didn't have the character that I really wanted to be associated with.
Speaker 3:And realizing that that's part of my pedigree, right, that when I take accept a rank or an instructor ship under someone that now I'm tied to them forever And their personality and, you know, character really stand up in my opinion even more than the martial skill. So I met lots of guys along the way who are very competent and really mastered the physical side of martial arts, but their character wasn't someone that I wanted to be, you know, tied to for the rest of my life, and so so I chose not to accept instructor certifications from some of those people And just outright didn't chose not to train with many of them because of that. You know, i don't care how good you are, if you're a jerk and you treat people terribly and you're selfish and you're arrogant and all those other things, who wants to spend time with you. I mean, there's plenty of other great, amazing people out there with great character of you know, and amazing martial arts systems. So, no, why waste my time with those people?
Speaker 2:There's another nugget of gold right there. Be always aware of who you tie your brand to. Yeah, because you're going to be associated with that brand when you do that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, And I, of course, in those early days I had no brand, So I knew that building my brand was going to be building my brand on the legacy of those men, And you know, then you're attached to this guy who's always causing problems or controversy or gossiping, And you know all that. I mean who wants to be attached to that. How are you going to build anything that's got any solid structure off of that, Right? So it's better to go with people with real character. There's some real, real longevity to that.
Speaker 2:I was talking to a bunch of kids this summer and I told them I said tell me about your business. And they looked at me and saying got a business. I said, yeah, you did it. It's you. Tell me about your business. What time do you, what time is your business open? What kind of customer service does your business deliver? What's your brand known for? And when you were building your business? you're asking all of those questions as to who you're going to tie your brand to.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely Absolutely, and we still do that today.
Speaker 2:So just real quick, i want to make sure I also give everybody a little bit of a reference point here of why I value this man, his wisdom, his friendship, his mentorship. But let's go back in time to where we met. Tuhan at the time was working at a very large nightclub facility here as their bouncer And we I was ahead of a nonprofit that actually worked with them for a team that program And I was working in the bootcamp. And I'll never forget it, never forget this I was working in the bootcamp and the bootcamp kids were telling me about fighting. They said, you know, we got to fight, we got to fight. And I said, no, no, there's other options. And I remember, just on a whim, calling Harley Elmore and I said, hey, listen, would you just come talk to these guys, these kids, and tell them there's another option besides fighting? And if you want to do a little demonstration, do a little demonstration. And he comes in and he's talking to these at risk kids about decision making And I'm sitting there just listening. I'm going, oh my gosh, i believe everything this guy's saying. This is the exact philosophies that I believe, and so I thought, okay, well, i kind of like what this guy believes, but then he does a demonstration And I thought now that was really cool. So I think I need to sign my sign up for that. And I remember asking if they had a kids program And I remember watching. My son, chandler, was one of the first of two kids, i think, in the whole program And obviously he worked his way up to a black belt and Abigail and William and even Liam my grandson's even been in this program, but without going down the path of personal growth. I witnessed something that I want to share with you and what you're doing.
Speaker 2:When I worked with at risk kids, we used to talk about the criminal career ladder And you follow the path of a criminal career ladder. Well, what happens? Well, you take 10 kids that get in trouble at school for the first time. They get sent in school suspension. What do they sit around and talk about? What they did, how they did it and what they're going to do. What are they building? Well, they're building skills. Then they take those skills into juvenile detention.
Speaker 2:Well, now we've got kids from middle schools and high schools from all over the county. What do they sit around and talk about? What they did, how they did it, what they're gonna do And are their skills getting better? Well, heck yeah. How do we know their skills are getting better? Well, because now they've broke the law And anybody that breaks the law is looking over their shoulders. And if you don't believe me, look at your. How many people look at their speedometer when they pass a cop on the road? Anybody that breaks the law is looking over their shoulder. So your skills have gotta get better. And what do they do? Well, then they end up in Texas Youth Commission, which is basically prison for kids. Now we got middle schoolers and high schoolers from 254 counties, from the Texas Bandando to the Rio Grande Valley, from East Texas to El Paso, and what do they all? sit around and talk about What they did, how they did it, what they're gonna do until we graduate them To the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, where, at a cost of about $60,000 a year per inmate, we get to take care of them.
Speaker 2:I think to myself how much better would our world be If that kid went into an ag classroom for the first time and they looked around and they said wow, how'd you do that? I think I wanna try that. And then they went to a district FFA meeting and they saw a different set of people And they, oh wow, look at there's. How did you do that? I think I wanna try that. And then they go to an area or a state meeting and their skill set just becomes a little bit different. But I watch my children go through the ranks of white belt and yellow belt and orange belt And it's the same path. The kids come together and they say what'd?
Speaker 2:you do. How'd you do that? I think I wanna do that, and it's another positive pathway to skill development. And I believe that in life you do the only thing you know how to do. Unless you learn something new, you're bound to default to the only thing you know. Yep, and so I would say to you and your team in Warriors Way International we appreciate what you're doing for the kids because you're putting them on a positive skill set development, but you're given that life skill of learning how to look around, learning how to ask for help, learning how to say help me, do this. Encouraging one another, correcting one another. Where it's not the instructor doing it, it's their peer group.
Speaker 3:Right. Right, That's a big thing for us is the instructor's often on a pedestal right And so? and sometimes kids just don't get the message, they just don't relate to that. And so I was like, very early I was very lucky to have a couple of girls in our program named Alana and Vashni, And I would put them in charge. New kids would come in and I'm like, okay, I need you to be their big sister and just show them around and show them how to wear a stand and all that stuff. And those students just picked that up and said, sure, I got that. And they knew how to be big sisters because they weren't in their own families.
Speaker 3:And I found, wow, that's a really good formula, So it's something we use today. Hey, just take that kind of be a good big brother, help him out, make him feel welcome, show him where to stand, what to do. And, of course, years later, peer tutoring becomes a big deal in the public education stuff And I was like, well, that's nice to get that confirmation that other people also find that useful. But yeah, the many different methods of installing those lessons and building the character and helping reinforce those qualities that we want to reinforce, And then, of course, avoiding the qualities and the character that we want to get rid of. Whether it's me or it's the classmates, it's just the same process. It just comes from a lot of different angles, So it reinforces all those different lessons.
Speaker 2:Well, I just we appreciate. I think we appreciate the fact that y'all set a structure up And again, just like this podcast, again, I want people to listen because it's not the structure of the podcast, It's what happens inside of it. Yeah, That the real growth comes from.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So one more thing here. I meant there's a couple more things I want to cover, but legacy a lot of times, traditions and legacy, i think, are really important. Tom Ziegler is on the foundation board and he says we're all gonna leave a legacy. We're either gonna leave it by design or by default, but everybody's gonna leave one. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3:That's great, we got to figure out what it's gonna look like.
Speaker 2:And two on Psyok. I think we talked about life as a breath Sometimes with an inhale ends with an exhale. So we got to think about that. Along life's path, Who are we gonna invest in? Who do we want to associate with, Who do we want to be involved with? Is this building me up or is it tearing me down? Is it positive, Is it negative? Is it building a legacy, Or? I think these are all things that we all wrestle with and that we all need to be aware of, But we got to have people that come along the way, that come alongside of us, that are willing to make us better. Now you've got a very large martial arts school in Wichita Falls, Texas, and you've got an international footprint with instructors all around the world. Just out of curiosity, I don't think everybody in the world comes to Warriors Way.
Speaker 2:No not everybody in the world, no, So somebody's got to say I think I'm gonna sign up. It's just like craft scrambles. I tell my kids all the time life's a lot like a calf scramble. There's a lot of people that never even signed up.
Speaker 3:No, that's true, absolutely true. You got to sign up.
Speaker 2:You got to sign up, you got to show up, yeah, and you got to work. You got to chase that calf, and if you catch it, then the work begins Right right And the fun starts. All of a sudden you go to Warriors Way and you say, okay, I think I'm gonna sign up.
Speaker 3:Right, well, that is the beginning of it. Right, you got to Keep going, keep going. Yeah, you got to jump on that. You got to say I think that there are some things that I personally could improve on, or things that my children could improve on. I'm gonna put them in a pathway to try and give them the opportunities to do that. And so the very first thing is just, you know, walk in the door, take a look.
Speaker 3:People ask me all the time how do I know this is a good school or not? I'm like, well, go in, listen to what they have to say and then watch what they actually do and make sure they match right, make sure what they're actually doing, meaning the behavior of the students on the floor, of the instructors on the floor, the material they're teaching doesn't match what they said they were going to do. If you look at their high ranking students, you go. Well, is that, what are those the qualities that I want my students, my son, to have, or that I want to have? And if they do embody those things and those things are synced up what they say and what they do then that's probably a great place to train, and I think that those things are far more important than style or, you know, martial arts style, where there's just striking base or grappling base. I don't think those things are as relevant as that right, what they really are. And so, the more we can bring people into that pathway, i don't think that there's a better and of course, you know, i realize that there's some other options out there, but I'm obviously a huge fan of the martial arts being a phenomenal pathway to personal mastery. It makes you, you know, i teach that there are only five things worth training right, and that is fear, frustration, fatigue, pain and doubt. And so you need those are the things that hold us back in life and limit us and our business opportunities, limit us in our relationships, in our personal growth, our health, all the things is those five things. And so we need a vehicle where we can stress and inoculate ourselves to those things.
Speaker 3:And small doses face a little fear. Small doses deal with a little fatigue, deal with a little frustration, deal with a little bit of pain and a little bit of self-doubt, and then overcome that challenge. And then a little bit more and overcome that challenge and a little bit more and overcome that challenge. And martial arts at its core is martial. So I believe that the real number one fear people in the world isn't public speaking or snakes or anything like that silly of us. I think it's really interpersonal violence.
Speaker 3:And so when you put people in a situation where, hey, that guy right there is gonna try and punch you in your nose, try not to let that happen, right, well, there's fear and anxiety and self-doubt, and then probably a little bit of pain, and but then you overcome that, you get to where you can stop him from doing that, and so it's a very real thing. You can't lie to them and they're not lying. They can't lie to themselves. You either were able to stop that or you weren't. And so you have to work through this very real problems and inoculate yourself. And then when you find that where you can do those things that going on a podcast or speaking in front of people or standing up for what you believe in or standing up for someone that you love are much easier because you've built that character, personal mastery and overcome those things so that it's not holding you back internally.
Speaker 2:Well, that's it.
Speaker 3:I don't have to say anything else.
Speaker 2:That's okay. That's okay In terms of legacy. I wanna share something There's, if anybody ever comes to my office in Austin Texas. There's a lot of stuff in my office And as you walk around that office you're gonna see a lot of history. There's a signed autograph poster of Guru Dan and Asano in my office, pretty proud of that. There's an Ironwood headhunter You would like, by the way, in my office in Austin Texas. But if you'll look over next to my window you'll find an Eskrima stick. It's got some black electric tape on the end And it's got the initials HE and black ink on the tip.
Speaker 2:And I remember one time we were in class and we were training pretty hard that day And you know Eskrima uses baton, rattan sticks and the techniques because of its speed, its accuracy. So there's a lot of things that you learn by using this tool. And I remember we had a good day of training that day and I remember we were walking out of the class and you said, here, take this. And I said, what's this? And he said, well, it's my stick. And I said, well, that's yours. I said I don't need your stick, that's your stick. And, by the way, we pay for those. Those are kind of a necessary tool in our training.
Speaker 2:But I'll never forget that day when you said you know, as an instructor my job is to be looking at my students and to share with them one day and to say that you've done a good job. And I remember the day that you gave me your stick Probably not a big deal to you, it was huge deal to me. And so that sticks in my office in Austin, texas And I get to tell that story when people say what's this? So I'm glad you like, i'm glad you asked, because there's a lot behind the scenes. It's like a kid holding up a taking a picture with a steer or a heifer or a pig or a sheep or a goat. You see the picture but you don't necessarily know all that went in behind that that made that possible.
Speaker 3:Yeah, all the people standing just outside that photo that made that possible.
Speaker 2:So you were in FFA. You mentioned earlier that you had a little part of Montary, a little part of your procedure, that you you learned some leadership skills in FFA.
Speaker 3:I, like I said, grew up in rural Arkansas And so I got to participate in FFA and and I learned that, wow, who knew that there was a structured way to have a conversation and a meeting and to to even argue a point, an opposing point? I thought, growing up in Arkansas, where I grew up in, i thought you just yelled louder. Whoever yelled loudest won the argument. That was it Or or ran the conversation. So for me to to realize that there was a civilized way of doing that was pretty surprising. And then also, at that early in my life, to realize that I haven't even grown up on farms I'd worked on dairy farms and you know all that stuff But to realize that there is a very distinct difference between the grades of a product, whether it's the cow or the calf or the milk or the cheese, like there's a grading process And one is definitely different and better than another, and that that has that set standards that everyone around the world can count on. And that hadn't even occurred to me, even though I grew up on a farm. And so, yeah, i learned a lot about that. You know, about the brotherhood of the blue jacket, you know, and what that meant and walking around wearing that with pride in my community and letting other people see that and being a part of that. You know I remember it as a kid, watching my uncles wear it And then, of course, when I wore it, recognizing that oh I'm, i'm now a part of that. That was a big deal. Great mentors, you know very down to earth. I could talk to them about anything, ask questions.
Speaker 3:My FFA one of the people who helped me in FFA also helped me with math. I was failing math miserably And after ag class because we had ag class after ag class would keep me over for an extra 30 minutes. Let it send everybody else home but hold me at the end of the day for 30 minutes and make me work on my math. And it just goes to show what character that those people had and how much they were willing to invest in their students And that even a little. You know, guy with no money and you know poor education that those guys were willing to pour into me and invest into me in the hopes that someday I'd be a valuable member of society. So thanks to all those guys who helped me with that. Thank you Wow.
Speaker 2:Here we go again. So you're saying that in the FFA you saw these opportunities to move up, you saw these opportunities to improve, that the recognitions changed as you moved up the food chain. I remember Organsway. I remember when I started I had to wear this red shirt and I really wasn't keen on that red shirt. By the way, i just let you know, i had to wear that red shirt And if I could become part of the black belt club I could wear a black shirt. So all of a sudden, my goal was I got to get it ranked, i got to move up the food chain so that I could get that black shirt.
Speaker 3:So yeah, and with that black shirt came more responsibility and also access to more information, higher levels of training, all that stuff.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, i loved every minute of it. You know we're not on here to talk about the martial arts, but I will tell you that 22 years ago I had the pleasure of walking into that school and I cherish all of the memories, all of the relationships to this day, even to this day. It's not all physical training but it is mental training, and so we still do a lot together And I just want to tell you thank you, thank you for being a mentor, a colleague, an instructor and my friend Real quick, just because I want people to really appreciate a to Han there's not a lot of to Hans and a martial arts in the world Can you kind of put some perspective real quick on the title that you hold?
Speaker 3:Yeah, my instructor came up with a title you know, back when he was a young teenager came up with the title it's from a traditional Filipino term And you know it really is the highest level of rank in our system And he'd been around so long that now other martial arts systems have also adopted that title. But he was the first to use it back in the day. And really what it means is we have feeders, we have feeders and receivers right And a receiver. We all know receivers are friends who you know lost his job again or down on his luck again, his car broke down again. Life just seems to happen to him right.
Speaker 3:Well, the opposite of that is a feeder, someone who is actively in charge of their role in their life and and plotting that course and having and feeding the direction through logical and organized planning and logical thought, order of thought driven by the fire of passion, our emotional order of thought to lay out a course and a pathway so that we can achieve the things we're looking for in our life. And so when I got promoted to Tuon and you're right, there's only a handful that got promoted to Tuon in my instructor's life And I said, you know, i thank him again for his trust and his mentors, his trust in me and his mentorship to me. And I said what does exactly? what's the process, what's the criteria? Because there's no unknown standards, unknown time standards, unknown skill standards, it's all unknown right. And and he said first a man becomes a Tuon and then he gets promoted to one, and I, you know, i thought that was pretty profound, wow.
Speaker 2:I got to write that down. That is really good.
Speaker 3:And what? what he's saying is that if you really do become the feeder of your life, if you really do manage your life, your family, your organization, you create a world in which you are dictating the flow of information and things like that, then you really have become that example And then you get acknowledged for that.
Speaker 2:Well, that's really good. It really was a special guy. He was amazing, amazing. And again I mean this this is what's tough about this podcast, because there's so many great memories, so many great stories. The very first Tuon Chris Cyok seminar that I went to I love to tell the story I thought at the end of it I thought I don't want to be a part of this. This is over the top, it is a little too much for me, a little too graphic, a little over the top. But I remember at the very end he set us all down and we all sat on the mat and he started telling us family stories about the techniques that we just learned and the family and members that were lost by not having that skill set at that moment of that technique. And all of a sudden it became very personal to me that this wasn't just some made up system, this was something special, it was family and he's willing to share it. And I thought, okay, i want to be a part of this.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, he really, more than anyone I've ever met, taps into the warrior culture and the warrior ethos And the idea that, well, first and foremost, we have to teach you how to stay alive, right, so you need to be able to actually physically defend yourself. That base skill level is critical. If you can't do that, then just any old guy can grab you by the throat, slam you up against the wall and take everything that you have and everything you ever will have. So the goal is to be able to survive long enough to become a member of society, a productive member of society, and so skills, real functional skill is critical. And then, once you get to where you can do that, then you learn.
Speaker 3:The whole idea of behind being a warrior is that now that you can stand up for yourself, you can stand up for the people that you love, the people around you and the things in which you believe. If you can't defend whether it's by verbal argument or physical manifestation of those things to be able to defend your family, yourself and the things you believe, then you just get overrun by other people, other people who can, and so the warriors are an absolutely essential part of our culture and of each one of us or each one of our personalities. We live in a society where the physical aspects of being a warrior aren't as necessary in most times, but the mindset and the belief system of being a warrior, of standing up for yourself, fighting for what you believe, fighting for a cause, fighting for a business, fighting for your family, fighting for your country all those things are super critical. And where else are you gonna get them? That's just not something that's taught in our society today.
Speaker 3:In fact, in many places it's considered to be negative to do those things, and that's something that we have to get people, i think, to really own is that warrior ethos and say yes, no, i believe this And I think that it's worth fighting for and I'm willing to do that. Well, it's much easier if you have a plan. It's much easier if you have training I mean willing. This is part of it, but you really need a plan and some preparation and some experience before you do it. Then you have far greater likelihood of success. When you go to battle, whether it's court battle or business meeting or any of the other things that we endure in life, those are all battles.
Speaker 2:By the way, a lot of the techniques that he just shared to unjust shared are the very techniques I use when I prepare a proposal, when I prepare to go into pitch for the Texas FFA, when I think about advocating for our program. They're all based on those very things that he just said. So, listen, we've got to jump off. I cannot believe this is the longest podcast we've ever recorded. It doesn't seem like it, but it's just because there's so much good material here. We might have to do a version too, a part two, of this, and do it getting the nitty gritty some more.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'd love to. We can dive into some of those things.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate it. We do wrap up every podcast with a fun question, so you do get one last question.
Speaker 1:All right.
Speaker 2:That question is what is the best concert you've ever been to?
Speaker 3:Well, I would have to say my very first concert was George Straits' Cowboy Rides Away concert, when he was gonna retire.
Speaker 1:That was my very first concert. Not something.
Speaker 3:I did So that was pretty impressive, but I would say that and people are gonna laugh the very best concert I've ever been to was Adele. I figured that, yeah, yeah, and the reason was is because my wife is a huge fan of Adele and I gave it to her as her birthday present. And even right now I have multiple screens. One of the screens the screen to my left is us dressed up, getting ready to go to that concert. Wow, that's the photo on the screen at the moment And watching her get to sing the songs along with Adele and watching the impact of her being there and being able to give her that gift of that. I don't think I'll ever be able to overcome that. Who was on stage is irrelevant. What it did for my wife was amazing and worth every penny. So for all you guys out there, whether you like her or not, take your wife to see Adele, because it blows her socks off.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's great. I remember that, by the way. I remember the post, i remember following it and I knew it was a home run. So good job. Yeah, that's awesome. Well, listen. Thank you again for joining us, for all the people that are tuned in. Thank you for joining us for the Growing Our Future podcast. As we say over and over again, if you wanna know what the future is, grow it. Well, how do you grow it? You gotta plant the seeds, you gotta put in the work, you gotta harvest it and then you gotta share it with somebody else. And that's what this podcast is about planting seeds of greatness. Thank you all for joining us until our pass cross again. Everybody, be safe, go out and do something extraordinary for somebody else and make this world a better place to live, work and raise our kids. Everybody, be good.
Speaker 1:We hope you've enjoyed this episode of the Growing Our Future podcast. This show is sponsored by the Texas FFA Foundation, whose mission is to strengthen agricultural science education so students can develop their potential for personal growth, career success and leadership in a global marketplace. Learn more at mytexasffaorg.