The Ageless Warrior Lab
Dave Meyer | Host, Ageless Warrior Lab podcast | President & Co-founder of Food System Innovations and Humane American Animal Foundation
Join BJJ coral belt, Gang of Eight and Dirty Dozen member Dave Meyer as we draw wisdom from Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and the martial arts and explore how it applies to your life, success in business, and your long-term health.
Dave Meyer is a pioneering American Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) practitioner, and accomplished non-profit founder and Philanthropist. He is an eleven-time world champion in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and is the current world champion in his age/weight division in the no-gi format.
Dave co-founded and served as CEO of Adopt-a-Pet.com for two decades, turning it into the world's largest nonprofit homeless pet adoption website and helping save millions of animals, before its acquisition by Mars Inc.
Today, Dave leads Humane America Animal Foundation and Food System Innovations, working on farm animal welfare and a healthy and sustainable food system. He frequently advises U.S. lawmakers on these issues, and has raised and deployed over $160 million in philanthropic capital as part of his work in the nonprofit space.
In his athletic career, Dave has risen to the highest ranks of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. He earned his black belt from Rigan Machado in 1996 and ranked among the first Americans ("the Dirty Dozen") to do so. He was the first American to medal at the black belt level at the BJJ World Championships in Brazil in 1998. Dave is one of just several Americans to achieve the rank of coral belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, a group now referred to as the “Gang of Eight”. He continues to compete at the world championship level, winning world championship titles in his age division.
As a martial artist and instructor, he taught at UCLA, Steven Seagal's Tenshin Dojo, and developed a globally used grappling curriculum with John Will, including customized material for Chuck Norris's UFAF association. He has written several books on Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, including "Training for Competition: Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Submission Grappling".
Meyer also played a critical role in post-Katrina animal rescue, co-authored books pet care, and co-founded a Haiti orphanage for children with HIV, exemplifying a lifetime of impactful leadership in both martial arts and philanthropy.
Dave resides in the San Francisco Bay Area, and continues to coach BJJ athletes and compete at the world championship level. He is the President & Co-Founder of Humane America Animal Foundation and Food System Innovations, of which the Ageless Warrior Lab is a project.
The Ageless Warrior Lab
David Mitchell on No-Gi BJJ, Ankle Locks & Balancing a Career with Elite Competition | Ep. 27
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
In this episode, I sit down with David Mitchell, a BJJ black belt and one of the most dangerous submission artists in Masters competition today. David is ranked #1 in the world for Master 2 No-Gi by IBJJF, has won around 85% of his matches with a 90% submission rate, and recently released his instructional "Ankle Locks Don't Work, and Other Lies" with BJJ Fanatics. Beyond the mats, David spent a decade at Google in finance and learning development before launching his own venture, MMA Fight Advisor, which uses data analytics to provide sports betting insights for UFC fights.
We discuss what makes teaching such a powerful tool for improving your own jujitsu, the differences between gi and no-gi training and why both matter, and David's philosophy of thriving in chaos by finding "hidden harmonies" in scrambles. David shares his approach to building a complete BJJ game, why you should never wait for the "perfect time" to compete, and how learning to learn might be more valuable than any specific technique.
We also dive into the challenges of balancing elite-level competition with a demanding career and family life, navigating autoimmune disease and health issues while still performing at the highest level, and why jumping into the deep end—whether in jujitsu or business—accelerates skill acquisition. David opens up about his "few-shot learning" approach, the importance of leading with empathy as an instructor, and how the skills developed through martial arts—problem-solving, resilience, and incremental progress—translate directly to success in business, relationships, and personal growth.
Whether you're a BJJ practitioner looking to sharpen your submission game, a competitor seeking insights on performance under pressure, or someone interested in how high achievers balance multiple demanding pursuits, this conversation delivers actionable wisdom, honest insights about overcoming obstacles, and inspiration to keep showing up even when conditions aren't perfect.
Find Dave Mitchell on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dmitch442/?hl=en
Keep up to date with David and his wife, Lauren, through their link tree:
https://linktr.ee/TeamChaosJiuJitsu
MMA Fight Advisor YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@MMAFightAdvisor
MMA Fight Advisor on Instagram: nstagram.com/mmafightadvisor/
Team Chaos Jiu Jitsu YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@TeamChaosJiuJitsu
Team Chaos Jiu Jitsu on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@teamchaosjiujitsu
Team Chaos Jiu Jitsu on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/TeamChaosJiuJitsu
Ankle Locks Don't Work (And Other Lies): https://bjjfanatics.com/products/ankle-locks-dont-work-and-other-lies-by-david-mitchell?srsltid=AfmBOorC7BBBoDc9LkkwKszcxou5z3iIb8oZScj5khGc8qaI-jpv1js1
Music:
“Disambiguation” by Robel Borja https://open.spotify.com/artist/7j0DUZ79z4edeLkU2H1UoJ?si=eISl0YfaQ-yLThljs48j5A
This episode was directed and presented by Dave Meyer, editor & coproducer by Ryan Turner, producer & marketing Robbie Lockie, music kindly provided by Robel Borja.
