I Am Me
Celebrating people and their passions because nobody can do it like you can.
I love that everyone has a story that is unique to them. Our journeys are all different, but we can still learn so much from one another. I am grateful that through my own journey as an actor I have had the opportunity to meet so many incredible people.
On my podcast you will get to hear their stories. This podcast is for the dreamers and the inspired. For the people who love people and are completely uninterested in living life by the status quo. Every person is unique to who they are. So look in the mirror and say it loud:
I AM ME!!!
I Am Me
I Am Caleb Holland - Tracing His Martial Arts Journey, Achieving Professional Success, and the Future of Iron Wolf Academy
On this episode, Caleb Holland sits down with me to discuss the exciting journey of entrepreneurial venture, particularly in the realm of martial arts. We highlight the importance of tangible results and the need for a "trust but verify" mentality. We discuss personal expression in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and business, and how recognizing one's self-worth is paramount. Finally, we explore the future of Caleb's Iron Wolf Academy, discuss potential expansion, rebranding, and Caleb's personal ambition to compete in the ADCC trials.
Welcome to.
Speaker 1:I Am Me podcast. I'm your host, liz Bachman, and on this podcast, I want to celebrate you for being you. I'm super excited to sit down with my guests each week and talk about their journey, their experiences and where they came from. So, without further ado, let's dive into this week's episode. Hey everybody, welcome back to I Am Me. Today I am here with Caleb Holland. He is a really, really talented martial artist. He also owns a martial arts academy and he teaches, he competes, and I just wanted to talk to him about kind of how he turned his passion into a career. He is also my brother-in-law, so that's also very exciting that I get to sit down and talk with him today. So how are you doing, caleb?
Speaker 2:Doing real good. Thanks for letting me come home and talk.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm excited to talk to you today. So, kind of kicking it off, what are, I don't know, all your credentials or belts that you have when it comes to martial arts? So I know you have your black belt in Jujitsu and your black belt in Pingsudo. What other art forms do you have or do you practice?
Speaker 2:So in 2001, I met a gentleman by the name of Max Andrews and he had started a style called Nihokempo Jujitsu Roo, so it's like a Japanese Jujitsu system, and through him I started learning Judo, japanese Jujitsu, shodokan karate and a sword art called Nihokai Kenjitsu, and it's one of those things where I didn't understand the certification process of like traditional Japanese martial arts, because most of the ones I had done at that time were Korean with Tonsudo, because I had done that since 1996. And so he invited me to train with him, and through the next decade and a half decade, I trained with him, learning the Japanese style of things. He took me past away in 2013. And when he did, he left his art to me, so I went from like a black belt to a fifth degree black belt in one go, because when you inherit a system, you get the highest ranking in it that you do before you have to test according to him with his style. So we did that.
Speaker 2:I'm someone who likes to have their credentials in order, and so one of the things I'd like to work on over the next little bit in my training is kind of going back and filling in the holes that I have from first to fifth degree, which I think Brazilian Jujitsu is doing really well.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of older stuff like that that just I don't teach it or anything, because it's kind of a watered down version of what I think karate and Jujitsu and things used to be, and so some of the stuff he taught us I don't teach on purpose. I think Brazilian Jujitsu and the way everyone uses it is efficiently filling in the holes. So we'd love to see a merge kind of happen between Japanese Jujitsu and Brazilian Jujitsu a little bit and the authenticity and the high caliber of training and detail-edness in moves Be able to switch from just Brazilian Jujitsu and grappling to the traditional styles kind of go back and everybody look at the original, where do these come from and how have we made them better, since we have more technology and can study things really well now. So yeah, so I met him and got certified in Japanese Jujitsu through him and Judo as well as a black belt, and then I teach us the sword art that he taught me as well.
Speaker 1:So did he come up with that art form? Or is he just one of the people who was teaching Japanese?
Speaker 2:He came up with that art form, he trained under some other guys who had been certified through Japanese guys, and when he was one of their higher ranks in their system we'll say he was a sixth or seventh in their system he was like hey, I want to add in a few of these things. And they were like yeah, cool, but you have to call it your own thing. And so he came up with his own system of how to do things and that's what I ended up learning.
Speaker 1:That's cool. So would you say with martial arts in general. That's kind of how it has evolved, is people learn and then kind of start thinking, oh, I want to add this in and, or I want to change this or I think this would work better. And then it because we have so many different art forms and I know a lot of them are rooted in different cultures, but I feel like there's also a crossover and they evolve.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, definitely. You're actually seeing that happen, like within Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and the grappling systems. Right now there's so, there's Brazilian. For the long time there was Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and then, now that it's been here in America for 20 plus years, you're seeing a lot of Americans say, well, the rules are ABC. We don't like those, we don't want to do it that way, because XYZ is more efficient, and so they nicks whatever is the traditional thing to do. That's been done for years and they're like well, why don't we just go ahead and for one like go ahead and teach our white belts heel hooks. That's a, that's a.
Speaker 2:One of the forefront examples right now is like old school, traditional Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Schools don't teach leg locks to their white, blue and purple belts. They don't even let them use them. Sometimes, and I feel like over the past five years, with the popularity ADCC has gotten and a lot of the higher level tournaments and things that people have seen, they've been exposed to leg locks and that was like the, the thing everyone used. We were one of the schools that was like hey, we're just going to go ahead and learn this stuff and start using it.
Speaker 2:So, you've got a couple schools that are saying well, now we're kind of evolving Brazilian Jiu Jitsu into this thing that looks like a completely different animal, even though it looks very. It looks similar. But the strategy the meta is the term they use it's very wrestling and leg locks based and still has all the traditional submissions and things that you see in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. But they're calling it American Jiu Jitsu because there's just no formalities behind, like the kinds of moves you teach, as long as someone understands the fundamentals.
Speaker 2:Right, like it happens with all martial arts. They go through a phase of it's this way. Somebody says, well, I think we could do it better if we did this or didn't do this, and so they do their own thing and change it a little bit, and that just naturally happens.
Speaker 1:Well, I imagine martial arts is a hard thing. It's a sport but it's probably a hard thing to evolve because it's also rooted so deeply in people's cultures. And then you also have that it is an art form, so you have the aspect of it at the sport, but then you have this rich cultural art aspect of it that a lot of times is rooted in tradition and when you reach a place where, hey, the tradition isn't necessarily serving us in terms of learning it anymore, that's got to be kind of hard for that change to happen, and maybe a little slower than you would see it, because I don't feel like any other sports, maybe dance would have strong roots in culture.
Speaker 1:I know they're not the same thing, but dance has a rich historical and cultural background so that would be the only sport I could really think of that as it evolves. But you don't really have the traditions component of dance, so I don't know if there's a question in there. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Like you, have a lot of different international cultures that have their. All cultures have their own form of combat. You know, the way I explain it to students is if you think of fighting and combat and even grappling with its own, but if you think of fighting and combat as a tree, how to do that efficiently, how to do it with the best results, how to do it one-on-one, army versus an Army, nation versus a nation, whatever it is, combat is a tree that we're all looking at and some people are. You know, they're trying to sit under the tree and use it and climb around it and explore it, and then other people are. This is how I relate like some styles, not to put any style down, but there are styles that are, I think, watered down a lot.
Speaker 2:I'm not gonna name any because there's plenty of people I respect who train them and I don't wanna put them down but there's styles that I believe are really far away from the tree, looking at it with a pair of binoculars and like, oh, I think that's an oak tree. Oh, no, it looks like a pine tree. Oh, it's a tree. We understand it's a tree. Like a punch to the face is a punch to the face. But then we could use boxing as an example.
Speaker 2:There's boxing schools where it's like people are doing that and they're looking at it from a long distance. They think they know that it's a tree. And then there's people who are climbing up in the tree and they're like, no, this is a red oak tree and this red oak tree produces, you know, whatever fruit it produces. So you could look at martial arts as kind of individual trees like that. And then the it's kind of on the teacher, it's on the culture, it's also on the students to determine how far away they are from the tree and whether they're in the tree, kind of climbing around it and exploring it. I don't like martial arts theory. I like hey, I'm 180 pounds. This worked on a guy who's 300 pounds. I'm gonna teach it to everybody, you know. Or.
Speaker 2:I like you know, I fought a guy and I used this combination of techniques and it led to a knockout. Cool, let's drill that combination of techniques. So there's experience there that needs to happen. But there's also the training of movements that, if you take it too far into theoretically, this could happen. Sometimes I think people drift too far away from the tree to do that and it's. I don't like teaching that way, and I know a lot of people who based their whole curriculum on that and I don't think that's right.
Speaker 1:You have people who are not necessarily showing up to even compete. They're just wanting one to do this. As you know, exercise community, they enjoy it. But also you want to walk away with some self defense or something useful that you can use out in the real world, not letting all the perfect pieces fall in a row. You know that's not gonna serve you in any type of real life threatening situation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean there's not a lot of other places you can go and like I mean I don't know about soccer, but it's it. Or basketball, even football. Like you can't learn that sport and then turn it right into a marketable skill after you become proficient at it. You know you either keep playing football or you coach football, or you don't, and that's it.
Speaker 2:And that percentage wise tends to lead to people who did football and they quit, and then they look back in the glory days oh, when I did football, I did blah, blah, blah, and I don't think a martial artist ever quits being a martial artist unless they make that choice. So people who say, well, when I was 25, I could do blah, blah, blah, they could still do that thing that they're saying they could continue training if they continue training.
Speaker 1:So that's a great way to look at it.
Speaker 2:Well, and there's different people who have different goals with it, like you were saying, and it's, I think it depends on the you know the person, and whether they want to compete or they want to just get in shape, but they all come away with that marketable skill of being able to, if taught right, adequately defend themselves and then teach others, if they want to, how to do that, or they can just keep it to themselves and be that guy that you know, a girl that everybody kind of relies on for protection somewhat, and just gain confidence and give confidence to others, you know.
Speaker 1:So you, primarily, if you compete, you do jiu-jitsu. Now right, you don't do things to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm getting ready to test in October for my next level in Tongsidow and there are Nick and my coach is his name's Dave. He's making us actually do a master's tournament, which it'll be the first time I've done a Tongsidow competition to like actually try to win since 2004. Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:That was the last competition I did. I won the international the association we were with at the time. Back then I was a third degree. I won the national championship in that organization. Back then it was like a you go competing for events, you accumulate points through those events, they add them all together whoever has the most wins, type of thing. So yeah, that was my last like serious Tongsidow tournament where I was doing my forms and sparring and stuff every day, all day, Like I do jiu-jitsu now.
Speaker 2:And so, yeah, jiu-jitsu kind of filled that void and it's. I love it. I love jiu-jitsu. It's a healthy, mentally and physically healthy martial art. It's really, really good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's so many things around jiu-jitsu that well, brazilian jiu-jitsu Like I was looking up, I was getting into breath work and I think I told you this, and the first thing that came up in regards to breath work was breath work in relation to BJJ, like in order to and it was just a YouTube video, but it was the first thing that came up about it. And then the guy was just talking about how BJJ and breath work, how they work so well together and how they show importance. But it's a great if you're trying to get into breath work. It's a great sport to get into, to also learn how to use breath work, and so I thought that was interesting, that that was one of the first things that came up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's because it involves so many this is something that Jance was telling me because it involves so many different kinds of energy systems. If you don't learn the aspect of breathing, if you don't get that down in the first little bit, then you're just always tired during your rounds, and so that's why it is so important to learn how to breathe. But it also it's the same in relating to like how to calm yourself down when a stressful situation is going on and how to breathe through that. It's the same, Like it's identical as far as I know.
Speaker 1:So martial artists, you see so in terms of becoming a professional in this sport, can people really make a living off of it as a professional? Because you have UFC fighters or boxers where there is a level where you're starting to make money off?
Speaker 1:of your competition, whereas with not just Brazilian jiu-jitsu, I would say martial arts in general, just different forms in terms of Tengsudo, judo, anyone that I can like think of off the top of my head, I don't feel like you see people necessarily making a living from just being, you know, the winner of their tournament, right? So how do they, how do people like? So you you created your own business and you teach it, and then you also still compete and your students compete and stuff like that. So is there, I guess, a level of success that one could achieve as a professional in competition, or they would be able to support themselves, or is there always something else you kind of have to do to supplement that?
Speaker 2:I think it's a little bit of both, or a lot of sessions, actually a lot of both, the number one way, in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu at least, because that's my like field, I don't, I don't know about like professional karate, like karate competitions where they go do forms for the Olympics. Now, I can't.
Speaker 2:I can't speak to that because I don't know. As far as like sponsorships and stuff, I'm sure they get plenty of sponsorships because karate and taekwondo, muay Thai, boxing and judo are all Olympic sports. So if somebody's good and they can get enough sponsorships, then yeah, they can. They can live off that. They can live off competition. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is nowhere near that. Right now the highest paid professional competitor is Gordon Ryan and he just competes. He trains at an academy that somebody else owns and runs, but he competes and makes money through competition. But there's not a lot of competitions that pay enough to like make it like they're not getting paid millions of dollars like a boxer right.
Speaker 1:Right right.
Speaker 2:But there's enough money in teaching it that most what happens with most Jiu-Jitsu guys is they either teach on a online digital platform like BJJ Fanatics or something and that supplements or makes a lot of the money for them. And the greater level of competition that they go to and compete in, the more notoriety and the more popularity they gain. So they like he's known as the number one. He's like for us in Jiu-Jitsu. A lot of people kind of look at him as the Michael Jordan of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He's the one who's made it get into the UFC Fight Pass for ADCC, for Nogi. He's the one who's kind of been the forerunner for making competition Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu become a livelihood for some people. But even if you think about like he doesn't have when he does matches, he doesn't make for one match. He doesn't make more than I don't know. Maybe one match is like I don't know 40,000, 50,000 dollars.
Speaker 2:It's not the kind of pay you see in the UFC now and that you see in boxing especially Boxing boxers are paid like high level boxers are paid very, very well for their competition without having to go teach. So what most people do is they do what I've done where they open a school, they gain enough students to make a living from it, and then that's their also their way to keep training so that one day they can compete at a high level and have those other subsidiary areas of income. If that's the goal, what I'm also finding, as someone who owns a school and cares a lot about their students, doing both, is very, very hard, and one will lack if the other one doesn't. So, like when I'm really focused on competition and I'm training hard and getting ready to compete in a match or something, the business not falls behind, but has a. You know, there's no balance there.
Speaker 1:You only have so much energy and attention that you can commit in a 24 hour day.
Speaker 2:Right, exactly, so if there's a focus on one, then the other one's going to fall behind a little bit, like our business is doing really good right now. Competition wise. I would love to step into a competition right now, but I physically would make it through like one or two matches where I might have. I could have five or ten matches in a day, maybe more, and would need to be in shape for that. I mean, I say that I probably do okay and I would still do it, but it's just not where I the standard I hold for myself. I don't feel like I'm prepared enough to do a competition. I've got plenty of other friends who'd be like oh, you're good enough, you could just go in and compete. But I'm for where I want to be before I compete. In the preparation I want to put myself through. I just not there because we've been focusing on the business. But that's so that there can be a better balance between family business competition and not having one waxer weighing when the others are more important.
Speaker 1:I think also it's important to recognize that there are ways for you to pursue your passion that don't because you could have easily said, gone and got a different job, didn't create your own company and maybe use that job to try and support paying you to go and compete if that's what you want to do. But I think there's something to be said for the fact that you loved this sport. You know both Tangsudom, bjj, brazilian Jujutsu those are kind of your two primary and you loved it to a point that you created a business to keep you around your passion and I mean and then I also the community that you built, which kind of is perfect. In regards to my next question, how did creating your business come around, like, come about for you? When did you make that decision? Hey, I want to branch out on my own and create my own community.
Speaker 2:No, I've always wanted to do martial arts. My goal would be, by the time I'm in my 40s or 50s, to be known as one of the best martial artists or most well rounded martial artists in the world, just because of what all I have been exposed to and done. And the biggest thing about all martial artists if they keep the attitude of being a student at all times and they can go anywhere they want to go Like that's I think that's one key, key thing that martial arts teaches that a lot of other things don't is that you're always a student. Like I might be the top guy in the room, there's always going to be another guy. I can learn something from who whether it's one of my students or it's a visitor, or it's me going to another school I'll always be able to learn a different way to do something that I've always done a certain way, and I think if you have that mindset in all things, including opening a business or running, you know doing something that you're passionate about. I think that I think that that's a huge mindset to have.
Speaker 2:We so we in July of 2014. We started, or I started Caleb's martial arts and fitness LLC, and then we morphed it to doing business as Iron Wolf Academy. The Iron Wolf Academy was a name that the people who owned the Academy before I did one of the partners one of the business partners to help me come up with it. They actually bought the rights to it and all that, and then I bought the business from them, created my own LLC and legally bought the rights to use that name is for my lifetime. So I was in college, I was a senior and was doing horrible at college and so technically I'm a college dropout, which I'm okay with. I might go back and finish sometime. I might not. I don't know. I really like what I do.
Speaker 1:Well, you're, yeah, you're very successful. I would consider you very successful, yeah, and I feel like your success just grows, which is really exciting to watch and to see. Just from the time that I've known you like moving to a bigger studio. Your classes are much larger than they were in the beginning, like just in the word. How long have I known you now Since?
Speaker 2:2017.
Speaker 1:But yeah, it's just been really exciting Like you've grown so much and I would consider you incredibly successful where you are even now. But I think you'll just grow more and more. So I mean, I, yeah, I, I a college dropout. I'm just kind of like, yeah, there's people who are college dropouts, people who are high school dropouts. I think it just depends on your vision, your goals and how much work you're putting into it. Those titles don't really right you know necessarily guarantee you anything.
Speaker 2:Right. Well, I say I mean I say it jokingly because it's I mean, college for some people is very much needed for their field, and other people, like I don't want a doctor that hasn't gone to college to do work on me, that's, but yeah, that's for sure. But somebody who has gone to Jiu Jitsu college, you know they, they can be successful in what they do without a degree, as long as they maybe, you know, learn from someone who's who's got a business that's running well. And that's the great thing about Christian is he has results, both this this long list of of actual Jiu Jitsu accomplishments that are huge, but he also has this long list of business accomplishments that are huge as well. And like, at one time I think he had an academy that was 10,000 square feet, and this is all pre COVID. I want to say he was 500 plus students I don't know exactly what number, but he had at his academy training throughout the week, 500 people, throughout the month, 500 people, and that's a that's a lot of people to be able to communicate with, manage, teach, all that kind of stuff through all the different programs that they had, and that's it's just. To be able to be under somebody like that is a huge, huge honor.
Speaker 2:But I think anybody who has, who they're passionate about something, they've definitely got to find the the holes that they have and fill them in so they gain experience. And they, if they really want to be successful with something, they're passionate. Because you can. You can be passionate about something and keep learning it and training it and doing it, whatever, and not grow it as a business. But if you definitely want to use it as a business, you want to take the time to learn to do it smart, so that people are like, oh yeah, that that person's legit or that person runs a successful business or whatever it is Versus. Oh, they're just really passionate about it and they just, you know, they do it all the time because they're obsessed. Well, yeah, yeah, but how successful are they? You know they might be obsessed and that's great, but what have they done with it? You know what legacy are they going to leave behind? What are they going to? What are they doing right now? How are they? How are they growing? Things like that. That's what I look for now.
Speaker 2:Instead of kind of that trust, but verify, instead of just trusting what someone says about something, I always try to go to what? Okay, what's their, what's their rap sheet? What are they? What have they done? Do they have facts behind them that back up what they're saying? They're saying to do? You know, right, and people look for that authenticity of someone practicing what they preach. You know, people look for that and they respect it and I think, I think that's that's something that the the martial arts community and fitness community in general. But because we, we technically fall under, like the fitness business, the fitness community, I would say, like you want to, you don't need to follow someone just because they have a six pack or a really cool Instagram profile. You know, you want to see their results yeah, you get into that trouble too.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And then on the flip side of that point, you want to. You don't want to follow someone who has a lot of head knowledge but doesn't put it into practice. You know, there's, there's, there's both those sides of the coins of well, this guy's ripped jacked, he must be doing something right. We could just be working out every so often and be roiding up and not eating anything. You know and that's not experienced. But then you have the other side of the person who might, they might, be a great trainer, they might be a good, and this happens in martial arts all the time. There might be a great teacher and a great coach, but they are out of shape. They are not able to perform, not able to. That's why I want to keep competing, even into my like old age. Eventually is I, don't I?
Speaker 2:don't want to expect my students to do something I still can't, and that's, that's not a standard for anybody else.
Speaker 2:That's my own standard. But like if I tell a student, hey, do a 360 hook kick? Well, first question they're going to ask me is, okay, show me. And that I want to be able to show them that you know. And if, if somebody doesn't ask me that, then I'll be like, hey, do you want to see it? You know, and so I have a lot of respect for people who they. They have that side of the coin, down of both the head knowledge of they've educated themselves, they've done the homework on things, but they also put the physical work in to show the results of what they've, that they practice, what they preach, you know.
Speaker 1:So and I love what you said too, because all this stuff applies to anything really outside. It doesn't have to just be martial arts, it's anyone, anyone starting a business. And I was going to ask you one of my questions what would your advice be to anyone wanting to start their own business or pursue their passions to a point of turning it into a career? But I think everything you just said answered it. You know, I really think that that answered that question.
Speaker 2:I was just going to say. The only thing to add to that is this is something I do, I know I do and I have to work on still is trusting again, trusting without verifying. I'm a very. If somebody tells me to do ABC and I don't know them very well, I've gotten better at saying Okay, I need to. I need to look more into that before I make a decision on it.
Speaker 2:Versus like well, actually, before meeting your sister, I would have just done if someone had a position of authority over me, I would have just done whatever they said, and I think my attitude about that has shifted. So if somebody wants to take something they're passionate about, this is so they don't get burned out, and so they don't get burned by someone they would, no matter what. Someone who has a high caliber, you know a rap list or is just getting started, whatever it might be always, always, always, trust, but verify, say, hey, I appreciate what you told me, I'm gonna look more into that, you know, and then use it to the best of their ability for what they need it for. And if it's not, if it's seriously not something they should do, then they need to be able to say, no, I'm not gonna do that, you know. I think that's something we've gotten better at, and it's definitely been.
Speaker 2:One of the things that's helped our business grow is cutting out some of the things that we don't need. That was just too much. So sometimes less is more, you know, and so it's been. That's one of the things I think to add on to that with what I said previously is make sure, no matter who tells you to do something, like how to run your business or anything. Always trust, but verify and then come back to is this really what I wanna do and how I wanna do it, and if it's not, then just don't do it. Do it the way you want to, you know.
Speaker 1:Right, and I think it's so interesting to that sometimes. Well, first let me say my sister, jordan, who Kayla was mentioning his wife, who he mentioned a second ago she's got a great bullshit detector and it's something that I that did not. I don't know where that came from for Joe, but it did not get poured into my gene cup or whatever. I don't know if it was through her life experience or, but I'm glad that that's rubbed off on you because I really think it is such a great thing. Jordan is just so good about you know this doesn't work for me.
Speaker 1:so why am I gonna do that? Why would I do that, whereas I get so concerned with making sure the other person is happy? And so I'm grateful that that's rubbed off for you, because I definitely think and she does it with a level of grace and class that it's not that she doesn't care about people, but it's that she also really recognizes her own values and self-worth and isn't gonna sacrifice those to make somebody else happy. And so, which is something I'm working on, but I'm glad to hear that.
Speaker 1:That sounds like that's rubbed off on you through dating her and now being married to her, because I feel like it's the greatest skill.
Speaker 2:I think most of the things, most of the big changes we made in the business. She told me I should make those changes in the business and then a coach would tell me, hey, you should make these changes. And I'd tell her, hey, christian said we should do this, and she's like I told you she'd do that three months ago or I told you she'd do that a month ago. I was like, yeah, yeah, and I should have listened and I didn't. I have to apologize about it because she is forward thinking and, like you said, has a BS detector that is very high level BS detector.
Speaker 2:Yes, very good, but you're right she does it with grace, and she does it with kindness and or she does it with firmness that a lot of the world needs of just saying I'm doing that, sorry, nope, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah she's great at. Yeah, it's something I'm low key envious of that. I'm trying, I try to watch her and she's like why don't you just not do that, like you don't want to do that, or just send the text. And I also, you know, normally around dating or something I'll like you know you were in the car that one time where I was trying to like make this super nice text and she was like just tell them you don't want to see them again.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:But anyway. But what I was going to say is in regards to everything you were talking about with business is if somebody gives you advice and it did work for them, but you look at it and you're like, no, I don't want to do that, that's the other thing. Is one the trust and verify. Verify what they've said, verify that they can back up what they're telling you to do, but also recognize that what works for them might not work for you, and that's okay. Right, exactly.
Speaker 2:I mean that goes into martial arts again, like there's there's moves that I don't do, that my coach does beautifully, because I just don't do them. And in some moves he does and I'm like, wow, I think I could actually take that and do it better than you, you know, and he's like go for it.
Speaker 2:You know, I think that's one of the greatest things about Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is it can become a very personal, personable martial art where you don't you don't have to do everything. My job as a coach is to teach everything and then be honest with my students and say, hey, I, and when I'm rolling with you guys, I'm not going to do it this way, but this is a way that I think would work. And if you like it cool, use it. If you don't like it cool, don't use it. And just to be authentic and say it that way, which a lot, of, a lot of coaches in martial arts, all martial arts, don't do that they're like this is a front kick. You always do the front kick this way, you always do the punch this way, blah, blah, blah. It's like, yeah, yeah, you should, because there are principles there that you know everyone needs to follow. But even in in a punch, whereas a lot of uniformity and a lot of people doing it the same way, every person's body's built different, so even down to like range and timing, it could be millimeters or centimeters off. My punch compared to your punch, my punch compared to Jordan's, my punch compared to Muhammad Ali's or somebody who's a lot taller or a lot shorter, their punch, the range even in punches, can be personal. In the timing and how they execute it can be personal.
Speaker 2:And that's I think I'm finding out now is a great thing about martial arts. And it leads back to the beginning of our conversation of why there are so many different kinds of styles. Why there are so many different. It's just because people well, the greatest, I think the greatest way is explained is martial arts is military or combative show of expression, right, so we don't all paint the same painting when we do art. Some people have abstract art which I don't understand. Some people might look at Brazilian Jiu Jitsu that way and be like, wow, that's really weird especially some of the no-gi stuff we do.
Speaker 2:And then some people are like oh, it's boxing, it's very. You know, there's six punches, boom, and it's just. I understand these six punches and I make them work from everywhere. And again it gets into that with business as well. Just, you know, you can really, in the world we live in, we can do what we want, how we want, and then take advice from other people when it did work, if it didn't work, cool, and kind of do our own thing and be creators of something. And I think the level of understanding of that is what makes martial arts so beautiful as a sport hobby. Whatever you wanna consider it, you know.
Speaker 1:No, I really like that. I also like how passionate. I know you're passionate about it, but it's just fun to hear people when they get excited about you know what they're talking about. Okay, kind of. The last question I have for you, just wrapping up the interview, is where do you see Iron Wolf Academy in the next five years? What's kind of your big thing that you wanna do in terms of growth or your next big goal for the Academy?
Speaker 2:We just rebranded our logo, so that was one big step. Jordan did a lot of awesome work on that. She just took us from 1990s martial arts look to a more modern look, which I was really excited about and really appreciated that. She pushed us to do that, and it's really neat having like a teammate to do these things with, because for so long I've done it by myself and never would have done that, because I like my old logo and I'm selfish. And so she was like, no, we should do this. And I'm, I think, even more selfish about this new one because I'm like well, I don't ever wanna change it again.
Speaker 2:It looks so good, you know, yeah, but so in five years the what was first step we went through the rebranding. The next step is gonna be expansion of our gym. I don't know what that looks like. It could be a few things. It could be merging with Jants and being in the same building as him. It could be having our own standalone building in its own area, buying our own property, renting a spot out of there to other people while we can grow and expand and eventually just kick people out and take over the whole building.
Speaker 1:Gotcha.
Speaker 2:I say kick out gently, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, help them grow their business.
Speaker 2:Yeah, help them grow their business and when they get too big for our spot, kick them out. We'll just move into it, you know, but own the building. There you go. That's kind of that's. I like that because it gives me control of the business a lot more than renting from someone else. So that's more where I'm leaning, and I like it. It also allows us to change things when we want and not have to ask permission.
Speaker 1:Gotcha yeah.
Speaker 2:So that's kind of the first. Next big step is expansion and that somewhere in there get back into competition myself and gain a world title. I've got some guys. Well, jance is gonna go compete at the ADCC trials and first time any of us have been, so it'll be like kind of the step in to see what that atmosphere is like. A lot of my friends have gone, so next year I'm planning to go do that the ADCC trials and just get in there.
Speaker 2:If we get it if we meddle, then we might go to the trials, you know, or we might go to ADCC Cool, If not cool.
Speaker 1:Just kind of step back into that. What is ADCC?
Speaker 2:So sorry. Adcc is the Abu Dhabi Combat Club. It is the Olympics of grappling. It's like the tournament of tournaments that everyone. You can't get it. You can't register and go to ADCC.
Speaker 2:Two years prior to the actual ADCC competition. They do trials in Europe, asia, south America and they do two of them in the US, one on the East Coast and one on the West Coast. If you meddle at the trials and I think it's, it may be just the gold medalists. I can't remember. I need to look this up and make sure I have it down. But I know if you win at trials you get invited to go to ADCC and compete and that's so. It's like you fight all the guys who want to get to the top and then they take the top and they just take the foam off and bring it into the actual ADCC event and that's where all the best guys compete. And then they have like a bunch of superfights in certain weight classes and then they have a big superfight of the absolutes. So right now Gordon Ryan's the guy who won last year or two years ago and he how often is it?
Speaker 2:Andre Gouvalle. It's every two years, so you get it's where like so the IBJJF, which is the International Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Federation, their tournaments. If we go to the world championships this year, next year I would have to compete again to keep my world title right. Adcc you compete, you get it for two years, you get paid, you get a lot of sponsorships. It's just a much more prestigious tournament to compete in and everyone all the good grapplers want to go compete at it. So everyone, right now especially, is working really hard to go to trials and compete, and it's just one we're new to. We haven't ever been. We should have, we should have probably gone in the past, but I I'll probably. I want to go next year.
Speaker 2:We've got a lot of people from Georgia that are friends of mine in other schools. That's actually one of the cool things about tournaments outside of your own state that are like world level tournaments A lot of the people from the same state. If you're friends, they kind of hang out together at the tournaments. My first world championship Nogi tournament that I went to was the 2018 Nogi Pan's I think Nogi Pan Ams and it's where Gordon Ryan got like slapped around a bunch by a guy named Cyborg. I was there. It was awesome. It was one of the coolest events I've ever been to. But everybody from Georgia kind of all hangs out together and it's like your, your own state's team kind of. I was bummed because I didn't have an actual team that I went with, I just went by myself. So I would encourage anyone in Brazil and Jiu Jitsu if you ever want to go compete at a big tournament like that, have a team to go with.
Speaker 2:Don't go lone wolf. It's not fun. It is fun. It is fun. It's just from the competition standpoint. It's. It can be hard. So go with the team, go with some friends and you're going to hear a lot of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu guys talk about how their team did this, their team did that. Man, we all do Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. It's one of the. It's one of the most well, for some schools it's one of the most welcoming communities that there is.
Speaker 2:As far as I've experienced with most schools the schools that are toxic in that area you don't really hang around anyways and they don't normally allow you to hang out with them, so it's not really that big a deal but, the, the schools that like like me, and the guys from Megalodon hang out at tournaments, the guys from X3, the guys from some of the guys from SBG we'll all hang around and chat and drill together If we need to at big tournaments like that, just because we know each other. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So yeah that's.
Speaker 2:That's the one of the big events we want to go to is ADCC. So somewhere in the next five years have a an ADCC competition under my belt. Whether it's a medal there or not, just go, you know, multiple years.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And then compete at Masters Worlds, the, the world's championships, pan Am's, a lot of the big tournaments. Try to get into them again. Instead of the local ones, do the local ones as like a, like a warmup kind of Um and then my students want to go do the local ones, cause they don't have to fly to California or Las Vegas or something.
Speaker 2:So anybody who's like, hey, I want to do the one in Swanee and Swanee, Georgia, Um called New breed, at the Swanee Sports Academy. If they're like, hey, I want to go do that. I try to go coach them, Um, and they they usually gain a lot of great experience from that, Like a it's it's. The tournaments are funny because you learn 100% what not to do or what to do better, and so the next week after a tournament they come in and train. They already have been processing how they messed up or how well they did in their mind, and they are already much more of a challenge the week after a tournament, which is that's always fun too. So so yeah, that's kind of five year goals, Um, with the academy, Um. So yeah, that's kind of that's, that's forward thinking, kind of what we're looking at. There's going to be a lot of fun stuff in there as well, you know, with family and different things too. So we'll see, see what all, what all happens in five years.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you so much, Caleb. I had such a good time talking to you today. Um, I will mention Jance. Uh, me and Caleb talked about him a few times. He is our trainer, um, and then he also takes Jiu-Jitsu from Caleb. See if I can get him on here to talk to him on IME also because he's got he's a business owner as well. Really cool guy, um. Anyway, yeah, thank you so much. Thank you everyone for listening. I hope some people uh took something away from this. They enjoyed it. They learned something. Maybe they didn't know. If you can rate and review this podcast, I would really appreciate. It Helps me keep doing what I am doing. And thank you again, caleb. That's a lot to sit down and talk to you and everybody else. I will see you in the next one.