Good Neighbor Podcast: Cooper City
Bringing Together Local Businesses & Neighbors of Cooper City
Good Neighbor Podcast: Cooper City
EP #307: Renzo Gracie Jiu Jitsu of Cooper City with Allan and Lauren Cazal
What happens when passion meets purpose through unimaginable adversity? Allan and Lauren Cazal, the husband-wife team behind Renzo Gracie Jiu-Jitsu of Cooper City, take us on an emotional journey through their love for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and how it became their anchor during life's most challenging moments.
The Cazals pull back the curtain on what Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu truly is—a grappling martial art focused on technique rather than brute strength, making it uniquely accessible to everyone regardless of size or physical ability. "Jiu-jitsu makes men realize they're not as strong as they think, and women realize they're more capable than they believe," Lauren explains, highlighting how the sport creates an environment where egos must be left at the door.
Their story takes a profound turn as they share how they opened their academy just days after experiencing the stillbirth of their son Leo at 39 weeks. Instead of allowing tragedy to derail their dreams, they channeled their grief into purpose, opening their doors on February 3rd with a commemorative sign that reads: "We roll here in his honor." Their vulnerability in sharing this journey reveals the healing power of community and how the Cooper City residents wrapped their arms around them during their darkest hour.
Whether you're considering martial arts for yourself or your children, curious about the origins of BJJ, or simply drawn to stories of human resilience, this episode delivers powerful insights on building strength both on and off the mats. As Allan reminds us, "The best time to try jiu-jitsu is when you're 8, and then yesterday"—so what are you waiting for?
Visit Renzo Gracie Jiu-Jitsu in Timberlake Plaza, follow them on social media, visit their website www.renzograciecoopercity.com, or call 305-349-3815 to discover how this martial art might transform your life too.
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Jeremy Wolf.
Speaker 2:Hello, hello, friends, family, great community, mighty universe. We are back for another episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast. I'm your host, of course, jeremy Wolf. So question for everybody have you ever been intrigued by jujitsu? If you have, we got you, because today we're sitting down with Alan. It's a husband and wife team. I'm excited to get into this. We have Alan and Lauren Cazal, who both live right here in Cooper City and they own Renzo Gracie Jiu-Jitsu of Cooper City. So right down in your backyard, you have no more excuses If you've been looking into Jiu-Jitsu. Now is the time. Guys, thanks for joining us today.
Speaker 3:Thanks for having us, thanks for having us Excited to be here.
Speaker 2:Pleasure is all ours, okay. So, unless you've been living under a rock, you've heard jujitsu before, and most people have ideas of what that is. But why don't we start there? Tell everybody a little bit about jujitsu and then we'll get into your business specifically, yeah, most definitely so.
Speaker 4:Jujitsu is a martial art specifically focused on grappling, controlling an opponent and subduing them using submission, for example, some strangulations or some joint manipulation locks. So the whole idea is to position your body in a strong and controlling hold to control or dominate another opponent. So it's great for self-defense. It's a great fun activity. It's a physical and mental battle, so it's great fun activity.
Speaker 2:It's a physical and mental battle, so it's fun. Yeah, I, I've heard that jiu-jitsu is incredibly, incredibly humbling. Like, like people can get into, get get onto the uh, onto the mat for the first time and think they're like big and bad and tough, and then somebody like you're considerably less sizable and I can take them down and treat and throw, throw, throw you down like a rag doll and put you in a hole where you're like, oh my God, yeah, so I've heard that about it, which is what intrigues me, I've witnessed my wife beat up and humble a lot of big, strong men, all due to technique.
Speaker 3:They say, jujitsu makes men realize they're not as strong as they are, and women they're a lot more capable than they think they are. So we totally agree with that. We always say there's no ego in jujitsu. You got to leave your ego at the door, because if not you won't survive. It's definitely a very humbling sport, but in the best way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my entire my evolution in life. I'm at 45 years old right now. Like the older I get, the more humble I get, just naturally without the jujitsu. But I definitely want to check it out for sure. So, so, and also, if you've heard of jujitsu, if you've followed anything I know for me the first I heard of it was the first UFC fight back. I don't even know, I was like 12 years old. It's going back what, 30, 30. Yeah, 93. So that was like where it was actually hoist. Gracie, I believe, was in that competition. I remember watching as this tiny little guy took them. They had no like weight classes at the time. There was like sumo, 600 pound people versus these. It was craziness. And I remember watching him just take everybody down and I was like, wow, this is fascinating. So tell us a little bit about the jujitsu. The Gracie family Cause I know you hear it everywhere nowadays right Started to tell us about that, that kind of of course.
Speaker 4:yeah, if we could speak, we'd be in good shape. Yeah, yeah. So so it starts with um. I mean, it kind of goes back a little bit to the ancient samurai era, so when the samurai would would fight on the battlefield. If they lost their weapon they'd have to still keep going. So they would practice a little combination of judo and they would use their opponents uh, so let's say they lost their weapon, so they would still have to fight. So they would try to take their opponents down to the ground, try to break their arm or disarm them any way they could, so that they could continue fighting. And obviously, once that era started to end, there there was less combat, less need for samurai. They didn't want those arts to die, so they started to practice them as martial arts and that's when they started to set rules around them and turn it into judo, which was take them down to the ground and control them.
Speaker 4:And then from there the sport of jiu-jitsu started to grow. So there was this Japanese judo guy named Yutsu Maeda and he traveled around the world spreading judo. He ended up in Brazil teaching the Gracie family. So he started to teach Carlos Gracie and Helio Gracie. And it was a little difficult for the Brazilians to learn it because they weren't as stocky as the Japanese. So for the Japanese it was a lot easier for them to perform takedowns and these submission holds from standing, but it was a little tougher for the Brazilians. So they found out that if they're able to take their opponents to the ground and control them on the ground, that they had much, much more success because they can pin them between their body weight and the earth so they're not going anywhere. And then they can apply these arm locks, choke holds and submissions to end a fight. And, as you saw in UFC 1, that's what Hoist Gracie did Take down these big opponents, control them and submit and win the fight.
Speaker 2:So jiu-jitsu actually originated from the Gracie family, if I understand that correctly.
Speaker 4:Yeah, there's a little bit of a back and forth right. Because the idea is like has jiu-jitsu always been around? There's Japanese jiu-jitsu. Did it evolve from judo? So there's a little bit of controversy of where exactly it started, but you can say that the Brazilians invented Brazilian jiu-jitsu, which is what the world knows now as BJJ, bjj.
Speaker 3:Really spread it throughout the entire world. Honestly, they're responsible for that is the Gracie family, so Henzo Gracie specifically, so the Gracie family is huge. They all had a ton of kids and so they all kind of spread all over the country and really the world and establishing. So there's a lot of different franchise lineages, but we are part of the Henzo Gracie family. Our professor, stan Beck, who gave Alan his black belt, got his black belt from Henzo himself. So that's the lineage that we follow is the Henzo Gracie lineage.
Speaker 4:And Henzo was a legend, is a legend. He was one of the best I know. Well, the very first schools that came from Brazil were called Gracie Barra, so he was the prodigy child of Gracie Barra. From there he went on his own to open up his Henzo Gracie Cities Sorry, henzo Gracie Academies and that's where we are today. So there was a whole bunch of Gracie families, very big, and there's a lot of cousins and a lot of brothers. So essentially it stemmed from then and spread out to the world.
Speaker 2:So how did we get here today? In your journey, obviously, husband and wife team, you mentioned Black Belt. Clearly you've been training for quite some time. Let's dig into your journey that led you to open up this business right here in Cooper City. We're so happy to have you here in town. Yeah, definitely I mean.
Speaker 4:it all started when I was a kid. My parents called me Bam Bam because I had too much energy and I was crazy. So they put me in all sorts of martial arts. I did karate, taekwondo, aikido, but when I was 17, I found jujitsu and I just fell in love with it and I was like, wow, this is actually the real thing. No spite against any other martial arts, but this one just seems very more applicable in real life because most fights end up grabbing each other and that's where jujitsu thrives. So I was sorry when I was 17 and just never stopped that was about 15 years ago and just fell in love with with the art and always had the aspirations of of opening a gym. I remember that, that we met at the academy and, and well, I'm getting a little ahead of myself. So that's, that was my journey. On getting my black belt, uh, go ahead and tell yours, so I've been training for almost 10 years.
Speaker 3:I'm a brown belt in the sport. Um, I started training down in miami and moved up here to um the uh davy area um prior um, and then I started, I shifted gyms over to our old academy and, uh, I met Alan on the mats and that's how uh we met and uh, our life has really just been very much focused on jiu-jitsu, where our wedding had jiu-jitsu themed everything uh he proposed to me at our old uh gym um.
Speaker 3:so we were very much a jiu-jitsu family, um, and it was always our dream to open up a gym together. We've seen firsthand how jujitsu can change people's lives and we really wanted to bring that to our community now that we are in Cooper City. So that's really the long story short.
Speaker 2:Love it. So, prior to opening the gym, were your backgrounds in terms of your professional careers? Were they in a similar space? Did you run a business before? Tell us a little bit about your journey, your professional journeys that led you to. If it was your first business you opened, I guess, the entrepreneurial leap, as they say.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I've always had that entrepreneurial spirit. I remember when I was a kid I was living in Venezuela I would walk over to the mall, buy some lollipops in bulk and then go to school and sell them and I was like that's a cool way to make money. So I always had that nature in me. I did a couple of dropshipping business during the pandemic, but we worked in corporate and this has just been our dream. Business during the pandemic, but we've worked in corporate and this has just been our dream. But I do come from a sales background. She comes from a marketing background. Turns out, those skills are very applicable when it comes to running a business, and not just jujitsu but any business. So not just knowing how to teach and train jujitsu, it's everything that surrounds the business that actually turns out to help us.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we always say that our professional background has helped so much. We coached for many years at our old gym as well, so we had the, you know, besides training, we also had the coaching background. But the professional side of things like Alan said, he's in sales, I'm in marketing, and so that has been really a great, great, great skill set to bring to the business now that we are running it ourselves, as well as just the general professional background that we have, I mean how to talk to customers, how to draft emails, how to, you know, just represent your company as a whole. I mean we've been doing that for years in our own, you know, professional sense, so it's been a great way to just bring that over to the gym.
Speaker 4:Now, did we know what we're doing?
Speaker 2:No, we figured it out. Do we ever know what we're doing? Come?
Speaker 4:on, guys. You know the things that you don't know getting permits, working with the city, working with contract just every day, something new that you have to overcome. But that's a nice thing of being a husband and wife duo that we can work together, bounce ideas off each other and keep pushing forward.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, and I know it's an interesting dynamic. The husband and wife team. I know when I used to work with my wife way back when, we were like the yin and the yang, right, we each handled different things and it was really, really a great compliment for the business. And it's great that you had that background in sales and marketing, because a lot of people they do what they do. If you're a plumber, you're a good plumber and you decide to open a business and now, all of a sudden, not only do you have to be a good plumber, right, you have to be a good HR person, be a good marketer, be a good all these different things and it can be very, very challenging, which is why so many businesses out there, you know, open and then they don't make it the long run. You know it's a tough, tough grind.
Speaker 4:Luckily, the jujitsu community is absolutely amazing. We've had so many mentors our previous gym owner, our sensei, stan Beck, and Santos and Adrian. All these people have helped us out a whole bunch, so shout out to them. We're not alone here.
Speaker 3:So we have a lot of guidance which has helped us incredibly the moment we decided to open the gym. I mean it's incredible the jujitsu community how strong it is. Everyone has different backgrounds, everyone comes from different professions. I mean we had so many people helping us along the way that really we wouldn't be here without that support.
Speaker 2:It's wonderful to have such a great support system because you can really lean on them when things might not be working. You can go to them, sit down, they'll tell you what does work. And now, is this a franchise model, model, the business, or how does it work?
Speaker 3:so not necessarily well, kind of, in a sense yeah, it's a franchise model where they franchise out them yeah, so you do need to have a connection to, uh, so for us, henzo, so we do have that connection to henzo. You can't just come off the street and say, you know, you want to open a henzo gracie's pajamas. You have to have that connection directly to him, which we do. As I mentioned, alan got his black belt from someone that got his black belt from Henzo himself. So so that's the first step. And then, yeah, we we do essentially pay a fee to the Henzo family themselves to to keep the name, but they have been incredible to work with Henzo and his daughter Cora working really closely with them.
Speaker 2:Very cool. So one of the reasons why we do this show, aside from getting to know local businesses and the owners, is also about education. A lot of people clearly have misconceptions and misunderstandings about various industries out there. Like I said, I know a little bit about jujitsu. What are some of the biggest misunderstandings or myths or misconceptions that folks typically have about jujitsu?
Speaker 4:Yeah, it could be intimidating. It's a contact sport, so a lot of people think that they're going to walk into a gym and then get beat up or tossed around and get hurt, but that's really not the case. Jiu-jitsu people are one of the most friendliest people you'll meet. This is a place that we, for example for us, we focus on safety, on having fun, on leaving your ego at the door, like Lauren said. So it's a place that you're going to come learn. We want to build you up, not break you down. So you're going to come learn. We want to build you up, not break you down. So you're going to come. You're going to have fun. Of course, like any sport, there's always a risk of injury, but we do our best to mitigate that. You know it starts from the top down, so we tell everyone to have fun, enjoy yourselves. We're not competing for the world title here. We're learning how to defend ourselves, so you're not going to get.
Speaker 3:With safety and controlled environment, you'll be okay, and we take care of our training partners and we. That's a big value of ours is, you know, we, we want to take care of each other in order to help ourselves grow as well. Right, so that's a big aspect of it and that's a big part of our culture. Is that safety piece of it? Because we understand it is intimidating if you've never trained before, or if you're bringing your child to come train, you obviously want to make sure that they are in a safe place. So that's really the biggest focus for us is safety first, making sure that we're respecting each other and taking care of our training partners.
Speaker 2:Yeah, speaking of child, I'm going to have to make this a family affair and come in and bring at least one of my kids. I think they're ready to.
Speaker 3:It's a great we find that we have a lot of parents that train with their kids. Whether the kids are younger and they do the kids class, or even if they're in their teens and they want to train alongside with their parents, that's also a really great opportunity. We find it's a really great way to bond with your child and share. You know, in this day and age where you know your kid is glued to a screen all the time, it's a really great way to get them off the screen and really find something to bond with your child that is also going to benefit them significantly in the long run.
Speaker 3:I always love, love, love to see you know when people bring in their teenage daughters, for example, or young daughters, because by the time you know if they're starting at 12, 13 years old by the time you send, if they're starting at 12 13 years old by the time you send them off to college you don't have to worry about them um.
Speaker 3:You know, they can handle themselves exactly, exactly and obviously same goes with boys, but obviously as a as a female myself, I am really adamant about that, bringing that, that that safe space to women as well yeah, 100.
Speaker 2:I know, I know my son he was. He was on a cobra kai kick recently and he got into the whole karate and I had this conversation with him. I was like you've got to do jujitsu and it doesn't have the same glamour as the karate right, the kicks and the punches and the movements. And I was trying to explain to him but I've never done it so I don't know. But I've heard about it and I was trying to explain all this to him and just like you're coming to this thing, yeah, the best way to do it You're going to be blown away.
Speaker 3:And you know the UFC I mean the UFC just rolled out UFC BJJ, which is going to really bring even more attention to jiu-jitsu as a whole. I mean UFC has grown significantly and also the people, celebrities there's so many celebrities now that are talking about jiu-jitsu and how they train and how it's, you know, really benefited for them as well. So the sport of Jiu Jitsu is really just growing and we're so excited to see all of the positive momentum that is there for it.
Speaker 2:Absolutely so. Just opened basically this year, both coming from corporate America. Obviously it's been I'm sure it's been a wild journey thus far. It's been, I'm sure it's been a wild journey thus far. What would you say was one of the biggest challenges in kind of going out on your own and starting that entrepreneurial, entrepreneurial journey?
Speaker 3:And on the other side of that, what's been one of the most the biggest rewards thus far. Yes, I can take that we started building up the gym, or we started the idea of the gym and doing the research and everything last year around July. We were very newly pregnant at the time and so the entire process of building out the gym was me being extremely pregnant I was nine months pregnant on the ground, staple gunning mats to the-.
Speaker 4:Trying to keep her.
Speaker 3:She's a hustler I can't just watch, so I got to contribute. I had him yelling at me to stop, but you know we were. Yeah, it was, it was our pregnancy was a big part of, you know, of building the gym.
Speaker 2:Your baby wasn't born with a black belt, was it?
Speaker 3:So that's what everyone always said. We were due end of january, um, and it was. We knew it was going to be a tight squeeze of how we were gonna, you know, have the baby and then, you know, launch the gym. We knew it was going to be very tight around that same time frame. What we didn't expect was that our baby would be stillborn at um 39 weeks and and so we lost our baby, leo, thank you, on January 22nd of this year, and it was totally unexpected. It was a perfect pregnancy. There was no signs at all for any lost moms or lost parents listening. He died of a true knot in his umbilical cord. So it was a total freak accident and unexpected.
Speaker 3:The day after we delivered him, we were still in the hospital. We got confirmation that we were approved by the city to open and I remember looking at Alan in the hospital and being like how are we going to do this? This is like the hardest moment of our entire lives. And now we have to open a business and run a business. And, yeah, it was incredibly challenging.
Speaker 3:We gave ourselves one week to grieve because we had no choice. We had to open. You know, we had rent to pay, bills to pay and we had to open. Um, you know, we had rent to pay, bills to pay and we had to get the ball rolling um. So we, we, we pushed it and we opened on february 3rd, um, and it was incredibly challenging, as you can imagine. Um, we really just had to put on a strong face and just survive and push forward. Um, just survived and pushed forward um, and it has brought us significantly closer um. And yeah, going back to the jiu-jitsu community, I mean the moment you know that our friends, that we let our friends know about what happened, I mean set up a food train for us meal train.
Speaker 3:We had flowers every day coming to the house. We we had food being dropped off.
Speaker 4:We had candles, people coming over.
Speaker 3:And just the wind chime, everything Like. I mean, people were just.
Speaker 4:They showed up.
Speaker 3:It was. The support was absolutely incredible and we really would not be here without the support of that community, from our family and our friends. And, yeah, so you. So we're pushing through. By no means are we over it.
Speaker 3:Obviously, it's only been about six months or we're still grieving every day, but the gym has been such a blessing for us in that sense because it has given us something to focus on and move forward with and help build in our baby's honor. His name was Leo Gracie and this gym is for him. So we've got a sign on the wall that says we roll here in his honor. And, yeah, definitely it was a challenging start and I'm sure 10 years from now, we're going to look at each other and say I have no idea how we did that. I still don't believe. I still can't believe how we're doing it. But, um, you know, the kids classes have been extremely therapeutic for us. Teaching the kids and just that energy they're, they're just such so great to have, um, and seeing them grow on the mats as well, has been so much fun for us and something we really look forward to, and it's been good for us.
Speaker 4:It's given us a genuine appreciation for life, see how delicate life can be. So now, when you ever see those kiddos just like, it's a blessing just to have them here. That could be taken for granted, but helping them out has been absolutely amazing. These kids are adorable. They're so smart. So we may have lost one, but we gained many, many more kids. So we're giving back to them in honor of Leo.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for sharing that and being vulnerable. I know that that will be helpful for people because it reminds you of whatever you're going through right now, whatever struggles, whatever. Whatever you're dealing with, that seems like the end of the world. That seems like you can't get through it. Uh, with hindsight, looking back, like it really does just make us stronger when you push through these things. Um and and really thanks for sharing that story and I'm truly sorry for what happened and yeah, yep.
Speaker 4:We don't want to hide from it. We want to honor him, speak about him and share his memory and bring him forward with us. He helped build that gym with us. So we honor him every day. We show up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, awesome. So I know you mentioned you live right here in Cooper City. How long have you lived in Cooper for?
Speaker 3:We moved here about two years ago now, so we came from Davie, so we weren't too far away. But you know the Cooper City community, we talk to each other Amazing we say this every day. I mean we love the Cooper City community. We every day. I mean we love the Cooper city community. We live in Timberlake as well, so very close to the gym, and I mean we couldn't say better things about Cooper city. It's a small town feel, but you know everyone. Everyone just takes care of one another.
Speaker 4:It's awesome. We have no nothing negative to say about it, and the gym has given us an opportunity to be part of the community. So it's we.
Speaker 3:yeah, we walk we'll, it's funny We'll. We're walking and someone will, you know, be like oh, you guys own the gym. We have no idea even who. They're not even members but, they, they, they know who we are. You know or um?
Speaker 4:you know our students will be at.
Speaker 3:Publix and someone will say something to us and we're like we don't know who you are. But thank you, we appreciate the support you know. So it's been so great. It's been really really great.
Speaker 2:I love it. We are all about supporting local businesses and you tick all the boxes not only a local business, but you also live here in the community, so let our listeners know how they can support you. What's the best way to find out more information? Maybe share your location, your contact information, let everyone know how to connect.
Speaker 3:Yeah, for sure. So we are located off of Griffin Road and Pine Island, in Timberlake Plaza. We are again. We're Henzo Gracie Jiu Jitsu, cooper City, and our website, if you're interested for more information, is wwwHenzoGracyJiuJitsu or sorry, henzogracycoopercitycom. You can also find us on Instagram and Facebook as well, and then we have our. If you are interested in texting or calling 305-349-3815. If you would like to get more information, or just show up or just walk on in, just walk on in baby, let's go.
Speaker 2:Are you open seven days, monday through Saturday. Monday through Saturday, yep and we what hours? In case anybody is in the neighborhood they want to drop in.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. So Tuesday, Thursdays we're there a little bit earlier, from like 6 to 8 am, and then later on in the day around 4 to 8 pm and day around 4 to 8 pm, and then that's Tuesday, Thursdays. And then Monday through Friday we're there basically 4.30 to 8 pm.
Speaker 4:And then Saturday we have a class, and Saturday, mornings.
Speaker 3:We'll be there until about noon.
Speaker 2:Okay, if you need the hours go check the website. That's a little. We'll drop a link in the description to all of your contact information.
Speaker 3:Perfect. And then we also, regarding the kids' classes we have kids' classes and adult classes. Kids as young as six at the moment will be adding more classes in the future for those younger children, and then as well adults of all levels and abilities. So you're never too old. We always say the best time to try jujitsu is when you're eight, and then yesterday. So we've got someone as old as 63 that trains with us. He's super consistent, strong, blue belt. There's no excuse. Anyone of any age can train jujitsu.
Speaker 2:Very cool, all right. Well, everyone now, if you've been thinking about checking jujitsu out and you live here locally now, you have absolutely no excuses. Get your butt down to see them, let's go. All right, guys, it was a pleasure getting the opportunity to meet you. It's always nice connecting with other members of the community, especially when they own a business in the community, so we're happy to have Jan and support you. Thanks for joining us, thanks for having us been great.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much. See you guys soon. See you on and support you. Thanks for joining us.
Speaker 2:Thanks for having us. It's been great. Thank you so much. See you guys soon. See you on the mats. Yeah, everyone, take care and have a lovely day.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast Cooper City. To nominate your favorite local business to be featured on the show, go to GNPCooperCitycom. That's GNPCooperercitycom. That's gnpcoopercitycom, or call 954-231-3170.