Episode 43: Passion Meets Purpose: A Black Belt BJJ Academy Owner's Journey Beyond The Mats

In this inspiring interview, Sam Snow , Owner of Alliance BJJ in Keller, shares his journey of resilience, the transformative power of jiu-jitsu, and his community initiatives like Mat Mission and Dad Squad. Discover how strategic pivoting and community service can create meaningful impact in personal and professional life.

key topics

• Sam Snow's career path and resilience story
• The role of jiu-jitsu in personal growth and community building
• The founding and mission of Map Mission and Dad Squad
• The importance of community, support networks, and giving back
• Strategies for balancing entrepreneurship, family, and community service
• "Endurance and consistency are key to success"
• "Surround yourself with people who believe in you"
• "Giving back creates a meaningful life"

Check out Sam’s Info here:

BJJ Academy:

http://www.alliancejjkeller.com/

Mat Mission:

http://www.thematmission.org/

Roll The World:

http://www.rolltheworldbjj.com/

https://www.facebook.com/share/17EBAzW6KK/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:06

Welcome to the Career Jitsu podcast, where we connect the art of jiu-jitsu with your career. Our mission is to empower and inspire you with engaging conversations and valuable insights from people just like you who benefit from the shared relationship between your workplace and the art of jujitsu, leading you to a more fulfilling and successful life. Welcome to the Career Jitsu Podcast. It is your favorite hosts, Frank DiMilio and Jason Patterson, here with you to give you some amazing content today. Today's guest proves to you, our listeners, that your passion and your profession do not have to be separate. Because the gentleman we have today is Sam Snow. He's from Dallas Fort Worth, Texas, the great state of Texas. This is our first time uh having somebody from the great state of Texas. So we're excited about that. He is a BJJ Academy owner. Um he's a third degree black belt. He's been training jujitsu for about 20 years, which is uh nice to hear because that's exactly how long that I've been training. So we kind of have that in common. He has learned also not just about being a BJJ Academy owner, but the information he's gonna give us, our listeners, today, is gonna be amazing because he's been able to connect his strengths of jujitsu into his professional life as well. He's grew up as an entrepreneur, so he has an entrepreneur mindset, which is great. And he started a nonprofit organization that he's gonna talk about called Map Mission. He also is a founder of an organization called Dad Squad, which is really interesting. I can't wait for him to talk about that. And he also is a partner in a group called Roll the World, which organizes BJJ events and training camps. So we'll have a chance to talk about that as well. So there is so much valuable content for our listeners today, Frank. So stay tuned to the whole podcast.

SPEAKER_01 2:03

Thank you, Sam, for having this day with us today. Yeah, Sam, thanks so much for uh giving us your time here. And Jason and I are absolutely fired up to hear about your story. And our listeners are gonna really, it's kind of like a movie. He's got some some great things he accomplished, and he's and he's fallen hard and he's gotten back up and he's shown some great resilience. So without further ado, Sam, I'd like to just start this out with tell us about your career path, the highs, the lows, and where you are now.

SPEAKER_00 2:35

Man, I don't know if I can live up to all that, but thanks guys. Thanks for having me over here. It's good to be on. Frank the Tank. I like it. Old school. That's a great movie. Let's go. Let's go. Oh, yeah. Thank you guys. Uh yeah, I've been a little bit all over the place in my life. Um, about to be 40, but had two academies now. I'm my second second go-around on the jiu-jitsu academy side. Uh, took a couple year hiatus. I was doing sales uh for uh a company called Deluxe Merchant Services. I was doing roofing, doing some stuff like that. I even ventured into Gracie Barra to help teach there uh down the street from where my academy is now. Uh and yeah, I had an academy before, had a bad investor, all the all of us, all the instructors we decided to to leave. And it was an academy I founded. That was that was kind of uh, yeah, it was a tough time in my life. Didn't know if I was ever gonna open an academy again. Didn't really want to. I was really kind of burnt on it. And I guess my wife is really the one that inspired me. She's like, You're born to do this, it's your calling. And I think you know, Jason, it's like you just get you get a chance to like meet so many people and especially kids, you get it just to make such a big impact on their lives. It's really, it's truly rewarding. So I wouldn't have it any other way. I'm glad to be back in the saddle on running an academy.

SPEAKER_01 3:47

So well, congratulations for that. And can you just tell our listeners where your school is? So and the name of your school and where it is. So if they are interested in dropping in and checking out some classes, sure.

SPEAKER_00 4:01

Alliance Jiu Jitsu Keller. So we're in the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex. Yeah, always welcome. Anybody's always welcome to drop in. And we we have people drop in all the time. It's a pretty big hub for the the airport, uh, for pilots and for different people. So we have like a good amount of people that kind of like regularly visit, regularly drop in across train that we see, uh see on a regular basis. That's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01 4:20

And for our listeners, we will have a link to that school in our just look below and click on the link if you're interested in more information in that. So, Sam, can you tell us a little bit about how you so 20 years you've been practicing jujitsu, what got you interested in it and what was your first experience like? And then how did you develop from that point?

SPEAKER_00 4:43

Uh well, originally was was trying to get into Muay Thai, just watching Ultimate Fighter. So, like a lot of people, I think UFC and Ultimate Fighter kind of got me in. Kind of got me interested. Um, and then I ended up getting really into jujitsu. Um and then I did some amateur MMA. We had I was on like an MMA team um back in the day. We were real small academy with uh a purple belt was teaching at the time. So um yeah, I did some MA, did through MMA, I was able to do you know the Muay Thai that I was looking for, some Greco-Roman wrestling type of stuff, freestyle wrestling type of stuff. So my little brother did judo before I even started in jiu-jitsu, so I was able to go do some judo. Um and yeah, I just fell in love with jujitsu.

SPEAKER_01 5:30

When you went to a jiu-jitsu gym, were you already did you already know some things from your previous trainings or was it hard for you? No difficult.

SPEAKER_00 5:40

I I was like, I'm I'm like six feet tall, but I was like 150 pounds at the time. Like I was like a string being super super small compared to a lot of the guys. So I think I was only able to stick with it, like bounce back from injury and be able to train in the manner that I did because of like my youth. I was like 19. I think if I would have started at like 40, I wouldn't have made it. It's we it was very unstructured. It was very like a open mat type of training. Like there was no, you know, uniform. Yeah, it was it was a little bit like that. Like we had some dojo brawls as well. Some of the guys would get into it. Uh it was, yeah, it was pretty un. It wasn't like the C today where you know it's like Jason's remind where it's like very nice. You come in, it's like very about much about the client's experience. Nah, it wasn't like that. It was like a hallway in a karate dojo, like a Kenpo karate place. Um, and the jujitsu guys were like the rag tag, like come after the coming in after all the classes, like that's the time we got to train at like eight, eight thirty at night till till 10, 10:30 at midnight, you know, we would train.

SPEAKER_02 6:42

Yeah, definitely the training in the early, in the early 2000s, the training BJJ gyms were a lot different than they are now, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_01 6:49

Yeah, just for our listeners, don't do not be scared about that. That is not the way jujitsu is today. That's old school, badass, right? But if you go into a gym, most gyms today, you're treated as a guest and everybody wants you to stay. And it's a much more loving, it's a much more loving environment now than it used to be, right?

SPEAKER_00 7:09

Yeah, and the methodology and just the whole structure and the you know the business side of things. It's an actual business with, you know, SOPs and methodologies and you know, staff and everything. You know, it's we we really want people to stay, obviously for the business side of things. Obviously, but we love jujitsu, right? Like we want people to enjoy it and stay for the long haul, not get injured like I did like the first week. I think the only reason I ended up sticking with it because I got a free month. I and even then, I don't know why. I did not like it. I wasn't good. Like to answer your question, I was getting my my ass kicked and I was getting chewed up by these 220-pound guys wearing wife beaters on the on the shirt.

SPEAKER_01 7:46

Wife feeders.

SPEAKER_00 7:48

We didn't even have uniforms, we just like t-shirt, like it was like whatever you whatever you have. You know, you just go into class. Some people had old ghys, not many though. It's pretty well.

SPEAKER_01 7:56

Damn, memories, huh? Do you do you do are you still in touch with any of those people? Do you still know any of them from the back in the day?

SPEAKER_00 8:05

Oh, yeah. We my the instructor at the time, he's mainly driving. He drives 18 wheelers, so he's mainly he's not teaching much anymore. I don't think he's teaching at all. But a lot of the guys for sure, like on the MMA team, we you still keep in touch. That's good. One of them's one of them's teaching also full-time.

SPEAKER_01 8:21

Yeah, it's it's a community, right? It's always a community, the bonds you form there. So can you tell us how in this journey you decided to become the creator of this Matt mission? Tell us a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_00 8:34

Yeah, so through I was going through my divorce in like 2019, right before COVID. So that's where Rule of the World came from. I had a student that was like really into videography and telling stories, and we were really into the creative side of the art side of jujitsu, the culture. So we, you know, we I was a little bit more free because I, you know, was getting newly single and was able to travel. And we would, you know, we we interviewed John Donegher, we interviewed um a bunch of guys, and like we shot, you know, those pro like Kastae was one of the ones that we shot and and interviewed. So we yeah, we just kind of like we're doing it as like a just pure passion, pure fun, love of the art kind of thing. So Royal of the World was really like a originally it was like a like a magazine, almost like an online magazine kind of thing. And today we still we still do it. It's kind of morphed into more of a like live events kind of thing. So we do camps, we do like a camp every year, um, and we do custom apparel for academies that need it, stuff like that, uniforms and rash cards stuff. But yeah, so out of that kind of birth came in a little bit. One of the reasons why the Map Mission was formed is because of that. Uh, we were meeting, you know, big network of people, meeting people, seeing kind of needs in the community. There's a lot of lot of people that can't afford jujitsu these days. It's very expensive. So it's really birthed out of actually me as a gym owner and sponsoring people myself, right? Out of my pocket. And you know, eventually you can't really only do so much. You know, we you have I have kids, I have mouths to feed, you know, I got five kids so of my own. So it's like you can't, the business has to has to survive and you can't just take, take, take all of it all the time. So um, and then I have so many gym owner friends, and it's it's really like to support the gym owners to give them more, more resources and be able to make a big impact. So I really believe like the gym owners are making the biggest difference as in their communities. They're having the biggest impacts on the kids. They're the ones teaching, they're the ones interacting with the families, the parents, and knowing what the kids need, knowing what their struggles are. So if we can support the gym owners by providing scholarships, you know, paying for some of the kids' memberships instead of just academy doing it, you know, out of the goodness of the of the heart, we're actually able to provide some support for those people so the gyms don't go away. The gyms need to be need to stick around. Those academies are like a hub, you know. It's a hub of of goodness that is really making a big impact on the community.

SPEAKER_01 10:52

So yeah, Jason, it's the the name is escaping me. The individual that grew up in the Bronx in the uh God was like a yes.

SPEAKER_02 11:02

Rolando.

SPEAKER_01 11:03

Rolando. Just an example. I don't know if you've seen that episode, but somebody who grew up in a drug-infested environment and his family was involved in drugs, and he found the jujitsu gym and made some friends there. So he had his thug friends and his jujitsu friends, and his jujitsu friends eventually said, Come on, just keep practicing, let's keep going. And now the guy owns his own gym and he's cleaned up his life. And it's uh so what you're doing there, we've we've actually seen on this program. You give a youth who might be in a rougher situation and a harsher environment, you give a youth that opportunity to learn jujitsu and the discipline and the friends you make and the community can absolutely turn around somebody's life.

SPEAKER_00 11:49

Yeah, we only know only only us as particular practitioners, I think, know how powerful that is. How powerful, like just giving someone jujitsu, how powerful that can be. Like it changed my life, it can change anybody's life, and it's the trajectory of your life, you know. We have in my academy right now, we had like three foster kids and they got they actually got taken out, like rescued from their house from like the Texas Rangers were involved, right? They got they were their parents were drug addicts, and it was just a terrible. They'd never been to school. 10, 12, 13-year-old kids never been to school. And they're in school now making A's and B's. And they're and they're, you know, luckily we got to we got to meet them, we got to know who they were, and we're able to like, hey, bring them into the academy. Hey, jujitsu will be great for them, you know. Let's try it out. And sure enough, you know, they're doing amazing. Now one of them's on the wrestling team, they're, you know, doing well. I think she made state wrest as, you know, made it to state wrestling, district champion, first year wrestling, you know, with only like a few months of jujitsu. It's like these kids are it's cool because they don't have anything else. You know, they don't have, they have so much struggle, they have so much hardship. They find something so beautiful, they find something they love and really like they really like excel, you know, they excel and they take to it in a way that maybe kids that have, you know, I have everything going for me, they don't really appreciate stuff uh the same way.

SPEAKER_02 13:11

Yeah, I feel like when you have you have almost when you almost have too many opportunities, you don't appreciate it as much, you know. You know, serving underprivileged kids that don't have much and giving them an opportunity like that to flourish. I notice in my school a lot of times the kids that work the hardest are the ones that come from nothing. So it because they learn to appreciate it. It's it's almost in a sense like all they have. So they put everything into it.

SPEAKER_01 13:34

Yeah, and Jason, also it's a place where everybody's rooting for you. Not everybody has a place at home where people are rooting for them and building them up. And when these kids come into our gyms, everybody's like, oh man, you're doing great. You're building this up. You went on, you're gonna go on a competition. I respect that's so good for you. And then we all come together, especially for the youths. And that is something special, even more special than just the physical that you get from it. You get a a almost a family of people that care about you.

SPEAKER_00 14:09

Yeah, I mean, it's like been model, it's been modeled so much from even just from the Brazilians, like like Leandro Lo was from a project, you know, the Meow Brothers, so many people, Hibamar, they're all from these projects, you know, like Cicero Casa probably saw. And those are the kids, those are the kids, it's really a big majority of them are the ones that get to that status where they're I guess high-level athletes that are just hungry and unattacked. It's so often, more often than not, it's those those kids with those backgrounds that come from nothing. So super cool that they're able to do that here in the US. So that's one thing I want to see happen, you know. I'm gonna be able to foster that.

SPEAKER_02 14:44

It's like your it's like your passion served your the purpose, you know? Your passion for jujitsu, you you you now have found a way to have more of a purpose, a bigger, a bigger purpose, you know. Um, and I think that's really admirable for our listeners to take that, take away from that.

SPEAKER_01 15:03

And not only a purpose for kids, but for adults, because you have this program, the dad squad. Tell us a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_00 15:11

Yes, one small correction. You also I didn't found it, so I'm just I'm just kind of like I had some friends that founded it, and I just came coming alongside them and helping, kind of helping them because I believe in the cause.

SPEAKER_01 15:21

So I believe and I align with the is that them talking about or the dad squad?

SPEAKER_00 15:24

So the Map Mission I did I was one of the founders, the dad squad. I'm just I'm just uh just one of the guys helping out, helping the cause. Um I do have like kind of like an organizational leadership role over this area that I'm in, but they're all over the Metroplex and they're expanding like all over the country. Uh but yeah, I really believe in the cause because it's it's the goal, the goal, the mission is to bring um bring dads, bring men in general out of isolation, kind of into community and and where we can, where they can get support, where they can be vulnerable, where they can get have community, have brotherhood. And what that the goal for that is obviously to help them specifically, but when you help and you reach the men, then the families change. Then the families get the benefit of that. Because really the family is the first the first line of defense for the families, is the first line of provision, everything, and coverage and um the health of the family is is really hinges on the on the father. So um, so that's kind of like the mission of the dad squad. So there's like over 20 events a week, usually. There's meet their meetups, there's coffee, there's like meals, different, different type of hangouts that they do all over the Metroplex here in Dallas Fort Worth. So it's it's been super cool to see. We hosted one like family potluck at the academy as well. It's really good for networking as well as a business owner. That's one of the main reasons. Selfishly, like I gotta get my business, you know, in the black. New academy. We gotta get off the ground, get that momentum going. Takes a lot of work. So really wanted to let, you know, engage with everybody in the community, let them know that they have a place that they want, they can take their kids, they have a place they can come and learn and train. And for for a divorce, divorced dads or recently divorced guys, jujitsu is amazing. I think jujitsu is they should turn to jujitsu. If you get nothing else from this podcast, if you know any divorced, yes, tell them to go find the jiu-jitsu academy because it's like the most cathartic and therapeutic thing they can do with themselves. Going through such a tough time, you know, going through one of the hardest things they've been called the do-to and last.

SPEAKER_01 17:23

And the other thing that plays so nicely into your mission, into the mission of the dad squad to get dads out of isolation because of the bonds of the the very quickly forming bonds that you make in jiu-jitsu with the people you roll with, it happens very fast that you make good connections and great friends. And you know, there's always events people get together, barbecues, and so when you're trying to get somebody out of isolation, if they just practice jujitsu, they're definitely no longer in isolation.

SPEAKER_00 17:57

Yeah. I mean, I mean it's a it's cool too. Like you could you could be isolated if you choose to be, maybe, and like you could still be weird and come in and not get to know anyone. But you have the opportunity at least. You have the opportunity to make friends, and you have the opportunity to like your guard gets let down so much when you're when you're putting yourself through that, right? That experience that we're all you know, you're the hammer, you're the nail, and like you're just it's it's really cool because whether or not you're having a good day on the maths or a bad day on the maths, like everyone's guard comes down after 20 minutes of training. You know, who's when are y'all more when is everybody more talkative? They everybody's showing up, everybody's kind of quiet, you know, to be in a training, like, oh, we're sore, we're tired, whatever. But once you like finish the training, you can't get anyone out of the academy, right? Everybody's sitting around talking. I'm looking at my watch, like, man, guys, like I'm trying to get home to my kids. Like, I need to get home. You know, I'm cleaning the mats. I get the leaf blower, you know, about to try to leaf blow the purse, people off the mats. And I'm trying to try to blow all the hair together. That's a good technique, Jason.

SPEAKER_01 18:57

You gotta you gotta pick that one up. Yeah, I'll try that.

SPEAKER_00 19:00

I like that. So, you know, like that's where they they they get the they have the community, they have the like the social lubricant. It's almost like they had a couple beers and they want to just talk and be vulnerable with each other, engage with each other, laugh, whatever, joke around. But the guards come down with juitsu, you know, like it's they just want people people connect, you know.

SPEAKER_02 19:19

Yeah, it's like another purpose-driven process, right? Like you're you're you're adding this to your all the things that you have going on, you're multitasking a lot of different things, and it just sounds like you have really found a way to find purpose in a lot of different things. And having this dad squad is a great purpose. I mean, I've been through a divorce myself. So just by you talking and hearing you talking about how one can find jujitsu and it can change their life, I 100% agree with that. I didn't find I found jujitsu before my divorce, but you know, I definitely agree with that 100%.

SPEAKER_00 19:52

Yeah, same here. Like, but it helped me through through that, I think a lot more than I realized if I think about it. You really need that therapy, those the you need like the Matt calls you in a different way. Like I I think at the time of my divorce, I was like actually not training as much. Like I was so used to this being that was my profession, that was my life for so long for over a decade, that it was like fresh for me all of a sudden. I was like, man, I really like actually want to go to the math. I want to go there. And I didn't even go to my own academy. I went to like some faraway academy with someone that invited me. I was like, I just want to go and train. I don't want to go have the capacity that it's like my job. I want to go in the capacity that I get to enjoy jujitsu and I I need it to be my therapy.

SPEAKER_01 20:32

Right. It's your it's kind of like it's kind of like our like our last guest said it's your time to develop you because you're always dealing with life stresses, you're always responsible for other people. And when you get on the mats, it's your time to enrich you, to focus on you, to focus on your game, and obviously your partner as well. But it's you're shielded from everything else that's been bothering you all day, right? It's a therapy.

SPEAKER_00 20:58

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 20:59

So one of the things that I saw from the notes of you talking to Jason, I thought you I thought this was very cool. You said jujitsu is a balance of confidence and humility. Can you talk a little bit about that? Do my best.

SPEAKER_00 21:13

Yeah, I think I think if you do this long enough, you know, you do it long enough, even if you were good at the beginning and you kind of came in with like all these natural attributes and athleticism. You do it long enough. You get old enough where you get enough mileage on your body from jujitsu. You really realize that you know you're not always gonna be the badass, you know. You can't just be the confident mind all the time. But so you get that humility, right? Eventually. Um, but everybody gets the confidence from it. Like you go, you get you just feel more confident, right? Like you're not gonna at least one on one, generally 90% of the population, there's not gonna be some guy that's like intimidating you too much that like or like, you know, messing with you and that doesn't know you, that you know. So there's like some confidence, right? Some double confidence. Like, no, I know if I have to, like, I can defend myself. I can at least survive, you know. Multiplication more than likely. Yeah, there's definitely both aspects. Like it does give you the confidence, but it gives you that dose of humility. You know, you hit the mats with enough. I have a I have a couple students that are like in their early 20s, you know, that are getting really good. I've been training a couple years. It's like I'm almost 40 now before you see it. It's like that age difference, double, I've doubled the a their age now. It really starts to like take a toll, especially if I I was on the mat every day and maybe sometimes twice that week. My body's just so broken down, and then I gotta go, I gotta train with this bull in the China Cabinet kind of guy. Like just gonna jump, just jump all over you, you know. Like, and you're just like, oh, and you're like having to deal with, and as they get better, as the students get better, like you're like, man, I really my job is actually to teach them to kick my ass. Yeah. Teach them how to beat me, how to, how to pass, how to break my game, you know, how to beat me.

unknown 22:53

Right.

SPEAKER_01 22:55

The better you do, you're yeah, no good deed goes unpunished in jujitsu.

SPEAKER_00 23:00

Yeah. By purple belt, they need to be, they're 20 years younger than me. By purple belt, they need to be like really put in an army sometimes, you know, especially if they have a good night when I'm having all the sun, not such a good night. They need to be they need to be coming close if not submitting me or tapping me out if I'm doing my job wise.

SPEAKER_02 23:16

Right.

SPEAKER_00 23:18

Am I right?

SPEAKER_02 23:19

Yeah, definitely. Uh it's good to it's good for us to get pushed too, you know. Like as academy owners, we're teaching so much. I mean, we're making sure everybody else is taken care of, you know? Um, and it's hard to find the time to take care of ourselves too and make sure that we're training and and doing what we need to do to keep growing as well. So 100% agree with that, Sam. I really like how you I want to just kind of get back to talking a little bit about how you used like this strategic pivoting in your business where you were able to kind of like piggyback on your strengths. And I really I was wondering if you can kind of talk to our listeners a little bit about how you or what you did or how you came up with these ideas to kind of piggyback things because you started, you know, your academy, and then you started realizing I can help my academy by using these other skills that I have. Um so you develop that map, the map missions, um, you developed the dad squad or helped run the dad squad, um, and even the role of the world as well. So there's like three things right there that you incorporated into your abilities to build your business and your entrepreneurship, you know? And I think that's really admirable. So can you talk a little bit more about how you kind of like meshed those ideas together to help you continue to piggyback and pivot and grow?

SPEAKER_00 24:40

Well, yeah, I wouldn't say I don't, I wouldn't say it was like my in intention to have all this stuff, but they do really mesh well. I wouldn't be here without other people. I wouldn't be like, I would have been successful without other people. And I think once you realize that, you realize like you don't really I don't really care to have like this story where, oh, I it was all me, you know. I did this all myself. I built all this stuff myself. So I think once you if you if you can humble yourself and and not care that you did it all yourself, you get to a place where you're you realize actually, you know, good fortune, you know, blessings, other people believing in you, like that gets you a lot further. And you what you know, so yeah, Frank, you talk about that a lot, how important relationships are, right?

SPEAKER_01 25:22

Absolutely. Um there's a book by Keith Farazzi called Never Eat Alone. And in his book, he talks about the power of your network, the power of people around you. And he the theme of the entire book is nobody does it alone. You're only as good as your team. And, you know, Sam, you were just saying earlier in this, early in this interview that the first time things fell apart for you, you got your inspiration. I don't know if you said from your wife that gave you the inspiration, like, listen, this is something you love. So you fell apart here. Let's give it another shot. And that inspiration was a spark that ignited you to actually take the risk, go again, this time a little bit smarter, and make it happen.

SPEAKER_00 26:08

Yeah. I mean, if it weren't for her, I wouldn't be doing it. And I'd kind of, I'd pretty much given up on it, at least for them. I would say maybe, maybe years down the road. I don't know. I probably I just got burned so bad, right? Like I learned so many mistakes, I had so many mistakes because it was in my early 20s that I opened the academy first place. And you know, going into debt and being an entrepreneur is not easy. People, people want to open a gym, they think it's easy, they think they're just gonna show up and teach jujitsu to people that are there, you know, that are eager to learn from them, but that's not how it works. You know, like it's there's just so many, so many things you gotta balance and different roles and learning. There's just a never-ending learning curve with with running your own academy. Um, but yeah, I would say definitely my my wife inspired me to uh to give it another go.

SPEAKER_02 26:55

Yeah, that endurance, right? It takes a like, you know, we talk a lot about in our podcast about how, you know, that whole uh 1% better everyday concept in jujitsu, that popular um saying there. Um, and just continuing to move the needle, you know, is is important. And, you know, just being able to move the needle in different ways, even if it's not just in one source. Like as an entrepreneur, you like to try to, I mean, business-wise, financially, you want to try to find different sources of income if you can. And, you know, it's great that you're able to be creative and and find different ways too. So I think that's awesome. Keeping keeping moving the needle in different directions. It's not always moving the needle in the same direction. Sometimes it's moving the needle in different directions too.

SPEAKER_00 27:42

Yeah, and I mean there's the rule of the world and the management is pure, pure, pure passion, you know, passion projects. I don't really make any money off of them. And and I really have thought, and maybe I shouldn't say this, I've thought many times about giving up on those. And it is like you have a bandwidth, you only have so much bandwidth for for the time in the day, right? But I'm glad that just like I didn't give up in jujitsu, I'm glad that I I made it to Black Belt. Uh that's one thing I do try to put in like students' ears and kids' ears early on, is like, if you want to make it, you kind of have to commit. You know, kind of like marriage, like, and for better or for worse, I'm gonna commit and I'm gonna stick it out. Because man, jujitsu can be rough. It can take a lot from you. You get you get a certain number of injuries, you like, man, you it just it's uh it's a grind, like you said, that endurance. I think it's it's a huge parallel. Huge parallel, like you're saying, Jason, like an entrepreneur and a jiu-jitsu journey to make it the black belt when you have, especially if you have a family, these guys that have de very demanding careers and they come in at night and sacrifice time with their kids. Like, it's no joke. It's and being an entrepreneur is similar. Like, you're gonna be staying up late, you're gonna stay up, you're gonna be stressed for days on end to try to accomplish something. You're gonna always feel behind the eight ball, you're gonna have all these things that you need to know you need to do. And so I, you know, the pressure can be pretty crazy. Financially is the main thing. Like, you're not, you're not, you're doing, you're working for at least probably 12 months for free. Yeah, or actually you're you're paying to work, you're paying, you're putting your own money, you know, so that you can go and and work your ass off more than full time.

SPEAKER_02 29:17

You know, yeah, you and but you learned that perseverance through jujitsu, you know, you kept at it with jujitsu and that kind of taught you that principle in life, you know, and you're able to apply it to different things. What is harder? I got a question for you, Sam. So, what what is harder earning your black belt or building a profitable academy? That's a tough one, huh?

SPEAKER_00 29:36

Yeah, that's a good question. I think the academy might be harder. I think the academy might be harder. Especially, I mean, it depends on the black belt, right? Like and here you're getting it from. Obviously, you could probably just money burger it, just pay somebody that that needs this visa or something and get your black belt. Um, wait, Jay, wait, hold on a second, Jason.

SPEAKER_01 29:53

Can I can I pay for mine? I did not know this was an option. What am I doing working so hard?

SPEAKER_02 29:59

I'll make sure you pay more than anyone else that earns it. I'll die. So so building Jason's prices.

unknown 30:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:06

Well, I'm sure Sam wouldn't mind selling one. Let's let's bid let's start a bidding process right here. I'll start it at $500. Who's in?

SPEAKER_02 30:14

Yeah, you mentioned purple belt, Sam. Frank just got his purple belt. So um I think Frank wants to get down there to Dallas Fort Worth and and uh push you a little bit too. What he does though, Sam, is he makes sure that when he rolls with you, he makes sure that he let he gets the best position possible where he's like sinking the choke in really deep where it's like 90% there before you're allowed to move.

SPEAKER_01 30:38

Yeah. It's called strategy, right? When we do redist resistance frills, and like, okay, get the person's back. Well, I'm locking it in. I'm gonna use that opportunity, right? Because you work smarter, not harder. Always.

SPEAKER_00 30:52

I've been doing it lately. I've been doing that lately in the academy. I've been like, I'll I'll run the training and I'm making the guys do all this positional training, all this stuff first, and then I'll jump in there. Now is my chance. Now I can go at my own. I don't have to be going at this 20-year-old speed, you know, world championship final match.

SPEAKER_01 31:13

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 31:13

I can go in at one other warm up one speed.

SPEAKER_01 31:17

One other tip because you know, as we get older, one of my strategies, jujitsu strategies, that works all the time. So we do five-minute rolls, and all I do before the roll, slap and bump, and you just say, well, is let me just and you tie your, you gotta tie retie your knot, tuck in your ghee, burn off 20 seconds right there, helps the cardio, helps the gas tank. That's a freebie from me to you.

SPEAKER_00 31:41

Yeah, you can also like psychologically kind of manipulate the situation a bit, right? Like, oh man, my back's really sore. I didn't sleep very good last night. Yeah, if I start on top, so I could draw it.

SPEAKER_01 31:53

That's it. Oh, yeah, 100%. You always tell, you always tell your partner, let's go light, my back hurts, let's go light. And go light unless you get a dominant position. If you get that dominant position, you crush them without mercy. But if they get on top, no, no, we're just going light, you talk it out, right? All the cheap, dirty tricks that old people try to use.

SPEAKER_00 32:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:20

That would be good, right? You would be we get you would kill it. You're you would kill it in that podcast. It would go viral.

SPEAKER_01 32:25

I am I am the worst training partner ever, I'll admit it. But we have fun, we definitely have fun, and that's what matters. So, Jason, I have lots of notes here for what time is it? Um I think it's tap out time where we tap out and we bundle up some of the great golden nuggets we get from our interview here with Sam. And I have lots of notes. I probably won't be able to say everything I have here, but I'll try to call out the things that I found most profound. And let's start out with the power of inspiration and the power of having a network of people around you who are rooting for you and who are on your side. That cannot be understated. Sam, we're talking to you right now, and we wouldn't be having you on the show if when you're at your lowest point at the trough, you didn't have somebody there to say, Come on, man, you got this. Let's do this again. And that was the spark that you needed. So please remember that tell me who your people are, and I'll tell you who you are. You have to surround yourself with people who believe in you, who support you, and you do the same for them, right? It's a symbiotic relationship. The second thing, and I think the major overarching theme here, and something that I think you represent and reflect very well, Sam, is to give back as much as you can. And, you know, in your specific example, the Matt Mission, also the dad squad thing you're doing, the roll the world, you're doing a lot in your community. And I think that's what makes you a great person. In the end, when you're on your deathbed and you look back, I think that's those are the things you're gonna be the happiest about, and you have lived your life also serving mankind. And that's just such an important thing. Um a great thing that we talked about from the other side of this is community, and BJJ gives you that community of people who care about you. And when you're talking about the the dad squad and getting men out of isolation and men who are going through a difficult time, the BJJ not only becomes their therapy, because when you're doing BJJ, you really can't think about much more than let me grab that wrist, let me try to, let me try to shift my hips, let me try to release some pressure. You are in the moment, and it is the best. Every guest we've had on this show, and I don't know how many have we had, Jason? How many shows are we? What number are we on now? 40. We're like episode 42 or something like that right now. 42. If you listen to the 42 episodes we have, every practitioner has said this is a form of therapy. And you use the word very well, Sam, catharsis. It's a catharsis for people to just work, physically work out their problems. And then it gives you a community afterwards to talk with. It's almost like you're having a beer with your buddy, but you don't need the beer because you're like, you just rolled. Gives you that same social lubricant. Another great point that you brought up is the confidence that you get from jujitsu, the the double dose of humility and confidence wrapped in one, which allows you not to be arrogant, but not to be meek, right? It gives you that nice blend of, yeah, I got my ass kicked three times on the mats. I learned, I accept that. But I also know if I'm ever really attacked, I've got a lot of weapons, I've got a lot of defense, I've got a lot of offense, and that makes me feel comfortable. So I think that's a great way that you put that together and you articulated that. And then the last one, maybe the most important one, and the most applicable for every single listener out there, you talked about endurance, the grind, the consistency, the 1% every day, the moving the needle, and that it's not an epiphany. It doesn't happen all at once. It's a slow grind that if you commit yourself to it, you're gonna find success. And that not only applied to your business, which you're proving right now, not only to your jujitsu and getting your black belt, but to any endeavor that you undertake in life. That is the principal ingredient for your success. And you're just living proof of that. So damn, you gave us a lot to think about, a lot to inspire us, and we are very grateful for that.

SPEAKER_02 37:01

Thank you. Glad that one thing, one other thing that we forgot to mention is that Sam has children. I don't know if I don't know if you mind us mentioning about your personal life a little bit, but you have children, right, Sam? Yeah, I got yes, five children, right? Five kids, yeah. Oh, you did mention that, okay.

SPEAKER_00 37:16

Lined family, three of my own, two stepkids. So yeah, we have two under two right now, so we're in that stage. It's a tough stage.

SPEAKER_02 37:22

I know we didn't really talk much about this in in this episode, but I can say how admired I am by the fact that you can multitask like that and balance not just your academy and the other things you have going on, but also the things that you have in your personal life because that's a lot of responsibilities for sure.

SPEAKER_00 37:39

Great people, man. I have great people around me. Super, super grateful for that. Yeah, I mean, like you mentioned, Frank, it's I think it's important for people to realize, to recognize when there's when you have someone in your life that's that's always in your corner, that's supporting you, like you're saying that. But I think it's equally important to recognize that and not take that for granted and not let not tarnish those relationships and you know, not lose that, lose those people, right? I mean, people bounce around a lot of times at academies, they bounce around a lot. But if you find yourself in an academy that and they're really rooting for you, they're really like in your corner, I think that's super valuable. That's more valuable than you know, you don't want to give that up, you don't want to brand bridges.

SPEAKER_02 38:17

Yeah, Frank talked about you know, just being able to give, you know, like you you've been able to give, and that by giving you get back. You know, when you treat people well, you'll be treated well too.

SPEAKER_01 38:28

Yes, yes, thus that's the phrase givers gain, right? That's uh a networking phrase that givers gain. The more you give, the more you get back. And there, you know, I personally believe in karma. I think when you give, you get. And not only the not always the way you want to get, but you always do get for sure. You're in business, successfully in business for a year and a half. You're growing. We want to continue to see that grow. So a shout out just one more time, the name of your your gym and where you are, one more time for our listeners.

SPEAKER_00 39:05

It's Alliance Jiu-Jitsu Keller. Uh, we're in Keller, Texas. DFW Metropolites. Yeah, definitely stop by if you if you want to drop in and roll. We have it's the it's the HQ for Roll the World as well. So we get, you know, we do different events, we do fundraisers there for the Matt Mission. We do the camp. We did the camp there last year, and we'll do it there again this year in July, July 24th through 26th. So at annual camp. That's gonna be great.

SPEAKER_02 39:28

Any people that know Sam, anybody who is part of his school, please share the podcast, share this episode. Um, it tells his story, which is great because I think getting his story out in his in his community will be great for him and for everybody else that's a part of his community too. So, so uh so please, please share, share, share. Comment absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 39:51

Yes, yes, absolutely share. And uh like to shout out to our listeners. We have listeners all over the place, all over the United States, all over the world. It's so exciting to see our listenership. Every time we look, Jason, we see another country in there. We see the numbers going up, and it's such a wonderful thing. So thanks for our listeners. We love you, we appreciate you. And please make sure that you share this, drop some hearts, drop some comments, and keep us motivated. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_02 40:21

All right.

SPEAKER_01 40:22

Thank you, Sam. Thank you guys. Appreciate it. All right, have a good one.

SPEAKER_02 40:26

Peace out. Well, there you have it. As we wrap up today's episode, let's take a moment to reflect on the powerful connections we've explored between the art of jujitsu and your career. In your workplace and in jiu-jitsu, you learn to adapt and navigate challenges. So remember that persistence and the courage to embrace the lessons you learned are the keys to your growth both on the map and in your career.