How To Move Forward Amidst Adversity: Find A Bettter Way With Michael Johnson

Welcome to beyond you'd why Podcast, where we go beyond just talking about your why and actually help you discover and then live your why. You see, we believe that knowing your why, that driving force behind every decision you make and every action you take, is the essential first step to really knowing yourself. It allows you to move forward faster and have a bigger impact. If you're already a fan of the show, then you know that every week we talk about one of the nine whys and then we introduce you to somebody with that why so you can see how their why has played out in their life. This show will be more powerful for you if you've already discovered your why. If you still need to do that, head over to whyinstitute.com and discover your why today. It'll only take you about five minutes. Now let's meet today's guest.

Welcome to beyond you'd why Podcast, where we go beyond just talking about your why and actually helping you discover and then live your why. So if you're a regular listener, you know that every week we talk about one of the nine whys and then we bring on somebody with that why so you can see how their why has played out in their life. And so this week we're going to be talking about the why of better way. So if this is your why, then you are the ultimate innovator and you are constantly seeking ways to do everything better. You find yourself wanting to improve virtually anything by finding a way to make it better. You also desire to share your improvements with the world. You constantly ask yourself questions like what if we tried this differently? What if we did this another way? How can we make this better? You contribute to the world with better processes and systems while operating under the motto am often pleased but never satisfied. You are excellent at associating, which means that you are adept at taking ideas or systems from one industry or discipline and applying them to another, always with the ultimate goal of improving something. And so today I have got a great guest for you. He is a perfect example of this Starting in the martial arts world at 2 years old, Michael Johnson continues to grow his knowledge and career in combatives. He opened Shockwave defense in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 2002, which combined experiences that yielded life, conviction, behavioral psychology, and multiple black belt rankings into his interpretation of defense called bellicoseology, the study of militant martial and warfare ways. He holds a BA in Criminology from the University of New Mexico and is the Honorary Squadron commander for the.

512Th Rescue Squadron at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Johnson has done bodyguard work for celebrities such as Zbit Exhibit and was the primary deadly force combatives instructor for the Florida Department of Corrections and their special teams. His instruction has reached over 19,000 officers in the Department of Correction and has trained multiple officers from other agencies as well as the Silver City Police Department in New Mexico. He is a certified NRA firearm instructor and a professional lecturer through the New Mexico Department of Public Safety. He teaches domestically and abroad including Taiwan and the Yokata AFB in Tokyo, Japan where he trained the 459th Air Lift Squadron. How to defend themselves and their aircraft should a hostile actor try to take over the aircraft. His tried and tested skills have been tested against underground full contact fighters and he has over 55 full contact stick weapon fights. He continues to train the public as well as law enforcement and military personnel in how to function in resistant environments. Additionally, he and his team produce films in judgmental training software scenarios to aid first responders in dealing with violent individuals in shoot and no shoot scenarios. Michael, welcome to the podcast.

So it's Yokota Air Force Base in the celebrity was exhibit and yeah, exhibit, you know, it's all right. It's probably not your kind of music.

So.

You know, as I did that, I'm making sure that I trying to make sure that I say everything correctly and of course I did. I didn't want to say anything totally wrong, but then of course I did. So sorry about that.

It's okay. You know, nothing yesterday matters today, you know, and so at the end of the day, the historic aren't as important as what we're doing now and probably need to update a few of those items anyway to some of the stuff we're doing now. So glad to be on your podcast.

I'm looking forward to this and I've been looking forward to this for a long time because you've got a very fascinating story and what you're doing now intrigues a lot of people, especially CEOs, that are wanting to figure out how to protect themselves. Before we get into that, let's kind of go back through your life. Let's bring everybody, tell everybody a little bit about you so they know who they're talking to or listening to. So go back into your childhood, tell us a little bit about where you came from and how you got into the martial arts and that whole story. So let's start back there.

Yeah, so I think what I would do is in pre framing this is to say, you know, as you said, my, my why is better way and the how and the what I think are also significant factors in this, right? So my how is through simplification and to simplify. And then the ultimate thing there is to make sense, right? Because I need to make sense out of things. So what I'll do in, in that being said is I'll talk about the nine pillars that really kind of shifted my life from when I was a kid until now, and how these events, they don't happen to you, they happen for you. And if you understand a lot of elements and things such as, you know, like, I think the why is an important aspect here because you'll go, oh, well, this makes sense, right? This is why. This is, this is why. So, you know, I'll get, I'll get started with this mindset of what I train executive warriors. And as you know, I have a few different products. One for men who are recovering from dealing with harsh environments and life changing events that have taken place. Anything from a harsh business decision or a family upset, a death in the family, to dealing with infidelity, anything of any of those lines that they might be facing, how to handle that mentally, but then also how to channel that in a positive way through being able to protect themselves and their families. And this whole concept is about awakening the warrior within you and you using what you have to get what you want. So I'll start with the very first element. There's these different pillars and the first one was the darkness. And I remember when I was younger, I was a child, obviously my bassinet and the moon used to terrify me. And so one of the things that I recall was my dad hated hearing us cry at night. So he would actually take me out of my bassinet and put me in the closet. And so I guess it made it quieter, you know, so from that standpoint of me being in there, I was terrified I'd be crying. And of course, you know, it was harder. And then, you know, he'd come back here, me crying and whack my rear end and fricking leave again. So sitting in the darkness was one of the first powers that I think really kind of supercharged my development and understanding both the criminal mind and also understanding how to utilize things that we're afraid of. See, most people are afraid of the darkness until you learn how to use it. So again, first element here, it's what you start with. It's not what happens to you, it's what happens for you. The next event that I think was a big part for me was the Blade. And you know this about me, I think it was about five years old, I had a knife to my throat. Person was telling me they're going to kill me and stuff my body, actually I think their exact phrase, but they're going to slit my throat and stuff my body behind a television. So my parents couldn't find me. And that shifted the way that obviously I looked at fear and the way that I looked at violence. And when you're so helpless and so small, when you don't have power to defend yourself in a situation like that. So that's going to change the way you look at everything that you do as you get older to be able to protect yourself and to defend yourself. Right. Your tactics are going to be very different. And again, like a lot of people look at these events, oh my goodness, that's so horrible. I remember one guy, he wanted to do like this documentary on my life and he goes, most people go through one thing. He's like, you went through a whole bunch. We could do like 10 documentaries on you. And he almost said it was unbelievable that all these things happen. And I said, you know, I guess I can see that. But it's all documented, you can go find it. And the unique thing about when horrible things, what other people consider horrible things happen to you, they're not happening to you, they're happening for you. Because it's going to help shape you in to a motivation and into a drive that's going to shift the way you think, how you ask yourself questions, what your why is, etc. Right. These all help form who you are. After the blade, I'd say it was the next one was the brokenness I had dealt with and it seems kind of mild compared to the other events, but my dog had died and she was my best friend because as a kid I lived in the east mountains. I didn't really have anybody to talk to. So my parents would go, go outside and play with a dog. And so that dog was my best friend. And when it died and I realized that I did not have any power to bring this animal back and I lost my best friend. You learn how to control the controllables. That's a tough, that's a tough situation to deal with. And inside of that, that kind of then you know, went on and my parents got divorced and they had this horrible divorce and they both went separate ways. And that obviously added to that area where you can't control the controllables. So next big thing that I think was a huge impact in my Life was the lawsuit. The first person that ever sued me was my mother. And that was such a unique situation, right as she was upset, she was upset because I was in a situation where I was leaving the business. And she, you know, she just, she handled things differently. You know, her fight with life, her fight with everybody around her, you know, she. She didn't deal with things real well on, on aspects like that. It was like, you're wronging me. I'm going to go after you and I'm going to destroy you. I'm going to do everything to you that I did to your dad, to you, the divorce, et cetera, et cetera. And so on that court stand, there were a lot of elements inside of there, Gary, that like in my head I was like, this is ridiculous, this is crazy. But what you end up doing from that is if your own mother will sue you, anyone will sue you. So from that point forward, everything was in writing, right? So you again, leveraging it and using it to make it something bigger. After that, I was homeless and I was living in my car. I ended up finishing college and moved out to Florida. Wanted to experience Florida. I'd never been there. Probably wasn't the best judgment decision, moving out there and ended up living out of my car and in and out of motel sixes. And it was in that point that I understood this concept of the yes, right. It didn't matter how many no's I got, it was the yeses that mattered. I ended up finally getting a job. I got 150 square foot apartment. It was able to start building this company I'd worked on before I left called Shockwave Defense. And I was building it on a nice chest, my laptop, and a beach chair that was sinking in the center and it was cutting off the circulation of my legs. So I couldn't sit down for longer than five or six minutes. And eventually ended up putting like a board across there so I could try and sit on the board. And then I don't have a whole lot of fat on me, so my rear end was going numb. And it was just such a crazy, crazy time in my life. I had an air mattress that I bought from, I think Walmart or something like that at the time. And you'd fill it up at night and in the morning you were on the floor. So it was a huge emotional challenge. So you kind of sat down and you're like, oh, okay. And you start realizing who's who. People that I thought were good people that were going to help me didn't help me and. And the people that were supposed to be bad people reached out their hands and their kindness and were like, hey, I'll help you if I can and do more than just offer me, you know, I'll pray for you. I came back from that, moved out here to Albuquerque, back out to Albuquerque and started opening my school. My best friend at the time that I had had since I met him when I was probably 6 and he was 5. And this guy and I grew up together and probably saw each other at least four or five times a week every single day throughout our lives since he was 6. And I was debating whether or not I was going to put this in here because, I mean, it's such a. It was such a painful memory for me. He helped me build my school, stayed up all night. And then all of a sudden, as I'm launching my school and you know how it is launching a business, like, you're putting all your energy into it. It's 24 hours a day now. I hear from him for about a week, and his dad calls me, or his girlfriend called me first, and she goes, hey, have you heard from Kyle? I said, no, you know, I haven't heard from him. And I just figured he was ignoring her because I, you know, she was a nice person, but I kind of figured he was probably just blowing her off. And then his mom called, and I was like, no, I haven't heard from him. And then his dad called, and that's when I got concerned. And it was all, like, in a matter of a day. And they're like, can you go to his house and see if there's this black box? And apparently his mom had bought him a.22 for Christmas, and that was gone. And so we started this rescue search for him, and we ended up finding him up in the Jemez Mountains. He went up to the mountains and killed himself for whatever reasons are unknown to me. And his poor mother, she was so devastated by it. She was like, how can you be his best friend and not know that he would kill himself? And obviously, that put an additional level of stress on me. And I was like, you know, I don't know, you know, like, of course I felt bad. You know, you're his best friend. And then she was like, well, if you didn't know, then you must have done it. And I was like, oh, my goodness, this is horrible, right? Like, so not only did I just lose my best friend, but now this person is trying to cope in their own way of being able to figure it Out. And so they blame me. And of course, you know, that obviously, you know, is a standard suicide. Everybody that was there from the PJs, because they had to call in the PJs because I guess the place he was in the mountains to the law enforcement, they're like, this is a standard suicide. And the officers apologized to me. They said, I'm so sorry. She's just searching for answers. And I'm. I'm like, wow, that was devastating.

Yeah.

So, I mean, if you can imagine that you now have lost your best friend and this other person is. Is trying to point the finger at you or anyone else that they can make sense out of after that, you know, I was like, okay, this sucks. And you keep going, right? Like, you never give up. You just keep moving forward. And then I got in a car, I started riding motorcycles and was into that for a little while, and I got hit by a car head on. On my motorcycle flew off. On all accounts, I probably should have been killed from it, but I got up and walked away. And I remember hearing this very powerful and authoritative voice. When she hit me head on, I said, it's not your time to guard your head. Well, that message was, there is a time. And, you know, it sounded like great advice. So, of course I covered up, right. I'm flying. And I don't know if you've ever experienced having your flesh ripped off your body sliding across the asphalt, but it sucks. And it teaches you a lot of pain tolerance. And every time, as a warrior that feel pain, that's your new pain threshold. And it happens the same in business, right? When you go through something horrible, you're like, everything now is compared against that. So now everything that was compared against, you know, getting hit or punched or kicked, now all of a sudden, you know, it's compared against hitting, getting hit by a car because this girl wanted to update her Facebook or whatever.

The next big. Next big thing that happened after that. And. And if you need me to pause here, let me know. But I'm pointing these things out, these nine pillars, because I think for a lot of people, they would think, man, I would give up by now. I'd be done. But you got to ask yourself, what's your why? Why do you continue going? Why do you keep fighting? So now I end up in a situation where I have this woman that I fall in love with, and I have a child with her, and she. I find out six months after my daughter's born that she's cheating on me with not one, but Multiple men. And, I mean, Gary was devastating. It was one of those things that you sit down and you're like, dude, what the F. Right? It was just one of those things where you're just like, really? This is horrible. And that in itself, I think, was, for me, out of all the events up to that point, probably the hardest I'd ever been through. Because there's a thing inside of you as a warrior that you're used to fighting the external, but when the enemy's from within and it hurts so bad that you can't figure out how to conquer that enemy, it starts to, like, tear you apart. It starts to break down your mind, and it's not something you can run from. It's kind of like food poisoning. You just got to let it pass, right? You wake up in the middle of the night with these horrible dreams, etc. I mean, it was. It was. It was a rough experience. And then now, eight, nine years later, dealing with the judicial system of a family law system, as I was telling you earlier, I mean, it is such an asinine concept that makes zero sense. So you go through these different events, and you end up realizing that every single one of them is a gift. Not one of these things happened to me. They happened for me. And as I was thinking, you know, I went through all these different events as I was getting ready for our chat on your podcast, and I thought, you know, I only want to pick the ones that I think were really impactful in my life because I had a bunch of other stuff that. That went on. And it's. The point is that at the end of the day, understanding who you are and why you do what you do is what's going to give you the drive to keep pushing forward. Now, the Lord has blessed me, and I make no qualms about it. Without God, I would not be here. I've had a very interesting life, and I've had a life that at times, although I use it for good now, while I was going through it, it sucked, right? Like, none of these events were like, oh, let's do that again. I was like, f. That this sucks. I'm trying to modify my language and stuff for your podcast here. I don't know what your. What your audience is used to hearing, but when you sit down and you look at all these different variances that happen, each one of these elements are gifts from above, allow you to be stronger. Yeah.

Let me ask you something on that, Michael. When did you realize that these happened for you instead of to you? What. How old were you? What was it that made you realize that distinction? Because that's a huge distinction, I think.

You know, I'll be honest with you, Gary. I was at a. I was trying to get my mind focused, especially as a young man. And I'd say, honestly, probably not until I was in my 30s, because in my 20s, I was just like, dude, what the hell?

You sit down. You're like, God either really loves me or he hates my guts. Like, why does this stuff keep happening? Can you just let me die already? You know, because you go through all these different events, and you're like, why is all of this happening to me? And I think what the moment for me was. I had different clients that I would work with, and they were at the brink of losing it. They're like, I'm ready to end it. And because of all of these different variances that I got to go through, I could give them multiple different answers to their problem, a very temporary problem that they were about to make a permanent answer to and be able to pull them out of that arena. And it was then that I started realizing, I'd say probably mid to probably my late 20s, early 30s, that I realized God's allowing this to happen because of a prayer that I made when I was a child. And I had forgotten about it up until that point. And I asked him, because I remember watching, you know, starting out as martial artists and experiencing the things that happened to me when I was a kid or happened for me, I should say. I remember one time I was watching the evening news, and this woman had been brutally. Brutally attacked. And I remember going to my room and I prayed, and I got on my knees and I said, God, if you could allow. Because I. I can't always be there, but if you could let these things happen to me instead of them, I'm willing to take it on. And I think at that age, I don't. I did not understand fully what I was asking. Yeah. But the Lord blessed me with answering my prayer, because now I can pretty much talk to anybody who's going through anything and sit down with them and give them a different perspective from a different lens that helps them overcome those moments of fear and of pain. See, if you. It's all about your focus. There's over 2 billion bits of information trying to get into your head at any given moment. So the way that the mind works and the consciousness works and emotion has a tendency to. To, like, the conscious has a tendency to chase emotion. So when you sit down and you Start understanding that consciousness and emotion are not one in the same, that you can separate the two of them. Then you can start understanding what you're going to choose to focus on. And when you start choosing what you're going to focus on, you'll actually be able to see what makes sense to you instead of the elements of what is being just presented to you, Right? Whatever you give your attention to, that owns your mind, it owns your heart, it owns your soul. If it owns your mind, it owns you. So what you have to do is control the three things. And this will help you go into the unknown with confidence. Because life is such a unique world, right? Like, I mean, you cannot, you control, you can control the controllables, but outside of that, you can't control anything else. And I remember one time is a good reference for this one guy was like, hey, a guy over there, do you think you could take him if he was like trying to hurt your daughter? And I said, yeah. He goes, yeah, but you don't know anything about him. I said, I really don't care. I don't need to know anything about him. What I know is about me and I'm willing to die to protect my daughter. And I hope even if he wins, he can enjoy his victory with one freaking eye because he's leaving here with an ass kicking, right? So, like you're. It's about what you focus on. It's about what your mind is on. So the first counter offensive that you use when you're dealing with all these different scenarios are the three V's and the three Vs that give you power and that you have to learn to control because they are your controllables. Because as creatures made in the image of our maker, we are given the power to give meaning. You can't. People say I can control my thoughts. No, you can't, right already. You've been through one of my courses, Gary. How quickly can I live between that space between your ears? Instant, right? Like if, if I want to get in your head, I'll be in your head. Your job as a warrior is to guard the gate of your mind and control the vision, the voice and the visceral. Now the vision is the media playing out in your head in the meaning that you're giving that. And the voice is the talking. What is being said? Do you tell yourself every single day when you walk past the mirror? Man, my, my rear end looks horrible. My waistline is disgusting. Oh my goodness, look at my eyes. Look at those bags under my eyes. I look like A oh, my goodness, my breath. My breath smells like a bag lady's rectum. Like, you have to be able to.

I may have taken that one too far.

Yes.

You have to be able to get your mind wrapped into a different direction of what's going on between, like, that internal dialogue, what's happening there? Are you controlling yourself? Are you in control? Are you separating your consciousness from the emotion, from the insecurity? And then there's different things that will trigger these things. For example, a lot of the men that I work with and I coach on dealing with infidelity, that, like, they have this visceral response. They'll see a car drive by that reminds them of something that was going on in that event, and it'll immediately put pictures in their mind and an internal dialogue that starts recidivating and going through and actually building this loop. Right? We all have this loop. And if we stay in that loop and keep playing, it'll suck the life right out of you. It'll pull the energy away from your soul, away from your productivity, away from your business. And that's the hardest part about, you know, controlling all of these things. These events, when you're in them, they're rough. And when you learn how to separate the consciousness from the emotion, it's like standing in the eye of the hurricane. The exterior is moving with tremendous force and power, but in the center, it's calm. And today when I was telling you some of the stuff and I was like, you know, I was annoyed about it, you said, how do you keep calm? Because you exercise through these things about being that even if it's a speck of dust in the eye of the hurricane because there was more coming, but you learn how to fight through it. And I think that, you know, when we look at the why, for example, the mindset behind that, there is so much leverage if you can understand what it is that your purpose is. Right? When I was a kid, my mom used to tell me, if you walk this earth, you haven't changed this world and made it better, then you should have never been born. And I believe that. And that's part of what I train the men that I coach and I work with. Obviously we have female students as well, but I have a group specifically that I work with, with men. And I call it this, the. The Phoenix Rising because it's about them living a 2k life. You know, most of Christ's works were done in three years. We're talking about them 2,000 years later. Have the last three years of your life been worth living or talking about for the next 2000.

Yeah. How did you learn all this? So take us through, you know, as if I was listening to this right now. And I know this door, the path that you've been on, and it's a fascinating path, and there's a lot of, you know, spikes and valleys. How did you learn what you're sharing? Where. Who was your mentor for what you're sharing with us?

God.

You know, like, people, they try to say, oh, was there somebody else? One of those things I prayed when I was on my knees as I said, father. I don't have a father. I need you to be my father. I don't know how to be a man. I don't know how to be a dad. I don't know how to be a father. Will you teach me? And he's the one that gifted me the discernment, the wisdom, the articulation, the ability to understand it and translate it into a way that people can understand in a way that is clear and has that clarity. So the only way I can say it in. In truth. And even when we were doing the underground fights, a lot of the tactics we'd start studying, and then all of a sudden, I'd have this dream of this amazing concept, and I'd go use it, and I'd be beating people with this concept that they had never seen. They're like, where'd you learn that? And they wanted to hear, like, some cool Filipino or Asian guy's name. I'm like, dude, I dreamt about it last night. Like, God has gifted me with. There's. There's levels where he's spoken to me in dreams. He's given me these insights and these. These wisdoms. And I'm not trying to say, oh, you know, look, I'm floating above everybody else. I. I don't feel that. What I do feel is that the credit is to him, because I would have never gathered this knowledge on my own. There was nobody to teach it right. I didn't have people around me to teach that knowledge. Even my. You know, when I. You know, one of the events I left out. But it was. Was fascinating. Like, when my mom was trying to raise us by herself growing up, she had so much opposition coming against her, and then she got to a point where she was like, you know, I want to date. And then she married this guy that was a whack job, and he kept threatening to kill us all in our sleep, right? So, like, I'm. I'm 140 pounds. This dude's 6 foot 5, 6 foot 6. He's 240. And I used to have to physically fight this guy almost every other weekend. The. The one that kept me safe and the one that gave me the insights of articulation and understanding was Elohim. And so it may not be the answer that the audience is looking for, but it's the only answer I have to give them. You know, God gave me the insight to articulate this, to understand it, to have a discerning eye, to see it. The vision, the voice, the visceral. You know, as I. As I was going into meditation, I was like, what are the things that really mess with us in our reality? And this is what came to me.

Let's go back a little bit, because I don't know that the audience understands how you got into martial art yourself and where you took it and how it's shaped you for what you're doing now.

So initially, you know, my grandfather started in the arts back in the 20s. His, you know, ironically, I think his life was probably similar to mine in a lot of aspects. His mother, so his dad took off when him and his sister were really young. And then when his dad took off, his mom saw that and she took off. So at like the age of 12 or 13, he started raising himself and his older sister and Samuel Johnson. Like, I mean, the guy is such a stud. Like, in my mind, when people say, like, if you really respect somebody, who would that somebody be? It's him. Because he followed this path that he felt the Lord paved for him. He quit school and he started taking care of his sister in him at, like the age of 12 or 13. The martial arts was the only good for himself. And being a black man back in the 20s and 30s, that was not a good time to be a black dude, right? So he had to deal with a ton of oppression, and he had to deal with all sorts of levels of resistance, but he kept a roof over his head, over his sister's head. And then he ended up meeting my grandmother, who had. He had already had my dad. And he jumped into that scenario and then took on that family as his own. And he started training my dad at a very early age, as I understand it, from when he was 11. And then he got his first black belt when he was like 16, 17 years old. Loved the martial arts, continued pursuing it, and at the time, the biggest craze was this episode called the Green Hornet. And my dad flew out to Seattle, go train under a guy named James Lee. And James brought in a guest speaker that evening who announced his presence by kicking the heavy bag and shaking the whole building. And my dad turns around and Bruce Lee standing there. So he ends up walking over. And a lot of people don't understand this. Bruce Lee is a giant now, but while he was alive, it was until after he died that his name and his reputation really, really got huge. Back then it was kind of like, it's the Green Hornet. It was kind of like a B rated movie, if you will. And so people didn't really understand the power of how talented that man was. But my dad, with his experience in martial arts, he looked at Bruce and he's like, man, this guy's phenomenal. And I think at the time, my dad had seven black belts in different martial arts and then went to spar with Bruce Lee and he beat the hell out of him. Bruce beat the hell out of my dad. And you got to understand, my dad was a bodybuilder also. So he's a very talented guy, very muscular, healthy, strong, and this small Asian guy That weighs about 140 pounds soaking wet. Five foot seven, just whoops it.

So he asked him, he said, hey, what are you doing after class? He goes, well, I'm flying back to Seattle. I'll be there tomorrow. My dad said, so will I. And he quit his job and he went to Seattle or not Seattle. He left and went back to the Chinatown school in California and started training under Bruce. Bruce from like 67 to 69. I started training when I was about 2 years old. I should. Well, let me pause there. After Bruce died. Yeah. So Bruce Lee was my dad's best man at his first wedding with my sister's mother. And long story short, he was like, you should probably just jump into movies with me. And my dad's like, nah, I don't feel right doing that. He's trying to talk him out of it. And as I understand. And my dad went ahead and I guess they had kind of like a part of time where they weren't talking as much. And then Bruce dies. My dad then flies out to China to go train with Bruce Lee's instructor, IP Man. But by the time he got there yet, man had died. And so he trained with his son, IP Chung. And when they came back, there are all these martial arts schools that had popped up all over the place after Bruce had died because his name was like wildfire, you know, Just swept the nation. And every place you looked, there was a kung fu school or the pronunciation of the Southern and the northern pronounced it differently. So some guys will say gong fu versus kung fu, but they're both pronounced kung fu because in Chinese, the K makes a hard sound. That's. I digress. But, you know, in this scenario, that's when they moved to New Mexico. And then I started doing my training at the age of two, and I started my daughter at the age of three in the defense. So what we did is we went from studying the basics all the way to trying to figure out what the simplification was. Because I remember my first fight in eighth grade. The guy that I got in a fight with freaking plastered me because I was trying to do all these stupid martial arts moves, and he was like, smack. He knocked me out cold. And I remember my buddy, one of the last things I heard as I was going out, he's all, hey, he got you good, the passing out. And then when I came to you, I was like, where is he? And they're like, dude, he left. He wrote a book. He has a novel, right? Like, you were out for a minute. And that really shifted the way I looked at martial arts, because most martial arts is. You know, it sounds like blasphemy to say this, but it's garbage. Like, 95% of the stuff is nonsense. It's that 4 or 5% that works in real time in resistant environments against multiple opponents, against weapon conditions, and fighting inside of vehicles, that it actually works well. Right. And so that was, I think, that. That initiation of where I started looking at it differently. And after I started doing the underground fights, obviously I was, you know, decades later, started doing the underground fights. Then some people started seeing those on YouTube and paying attention. And then we. We flew out to. We trained the 512 Rescue Squadron out here, and then we flew out to Japan and trained the 459th Airlift Squadron. And then from there, the Ecuadorian Special forces heard about us and so went out to go train the Ecuadorian special Forces in Quito and got to work with their. Their defense minister's bodyguards and meet the people at their version of the Pentagon, which was super cool. And then from there, we went to South Africa and trained the tactical response team. And it's just been taking off ever since. It's been a huge blessing.

So what was it like for you? I asked you this when you and I have talked before, but I think it'd be fascinating for people to. To hear, because most of us will never experience a, you know, a fight room or a fight club. And so what is it like going into a fight club. And how does it work and what did you experience and why did you do it?

I think initially I did it because I was pissed, right? Like I just found out that my kid's mom was cheating on me. And I was having some serious issues handling my, my temper, right, Because I was just like, it's such a devastating thing to find out about. So I. Ironically, there were two events, and the second event where this guy, and it's not my personality, right? Like I'm not the guy that gets pissed because you flipped me off in traffic or whatever, but this guy cut me off and flipped me off and I started crawling out the vehicle after him. And I'm sitting there with one of my instructors and he's all, so dude, it seems like you've got some anger issues. And I'm like, what? He's all, listen, let's probably channel that the correct way. There's a group I know about, you can go in there and they fight with sticks and chains and microwaves and bullwhips. You can fight with whatever you want. You can fight 2, 1, 2, 3 on 3, 5 on 5, whatever you want. And there's no rules and no judges and no refs and you won't go to prison. And I was like, I'm in, sign me up. And I went in and I was training for it. Like when I first watched the videos of these other guys doing it, I was like, man, you guys are idiots. You guys are sitting in there beating the hell out of each other with sticks and all these other weapons. I thought, well, you know, I'll do one to get this kind of thing out of me and, and deal with it. And then friggin 60 fights later, I'm still doing it. There's something anthropologic like I think for a male, specifically about hitting another human being with a stick. It feels very natural. And I know that sounds kind of crazy, but once, once I did it for the first time. I remember that night after, after the fights, I went to bed and there is no Ambien on the planet that will give you a peaceful night's sleep, like fighting a human being. And as the Lord would have it, the guy, the very first guy that I fought looked exactly like the guy that my ex cheated on me with. And it was just like, I was like, thank you, God. I just went out there and I didn't care if I won or lost, I just want to beat his ass, you know, So I fought him. And then that night when I, when I went to bed like I slept like a baby. I don't even think I moved that night. So the, the psychology of going into it, I think is a lot, if you're going to compare it, to be honest, I think a lot of it's like the fears you have in running a business for the people that aren't fighters. Yeah, right. Because there's a level of, there's a serious level of fear. There's a serious level of, is this going to work and if it doesn't work, what's going to happen? Right? Am I going to lose everything? Am I going to die? Am I going to not be able to provide for my family? And it forces you to face your fears and fight through them. Because pain is temporary, but your reputation will outlive your flesh. Right? So when you get into that mindset where you go, no, I'm going all the way and I'm playing all out, that is the only way to live, Right. If you want to leave a name, if you want to actually live a life we're talking about for 2,000 years, you can't go into it halfway. You can't go into it and go, you know, I, I just don't want to get hurt. Like, f that. If I get hurt, that's cool. Just give me a cool story, right? So you have to, you've got to really get into that mindset of how are you going to get to that next level and how are you going to build your psychology and your heart in your mind so that you can lift the people around you up? Because all this stuff is fine and dandy, but it's not about your own glory. Right. And I'm not saying it to try and sound poetic. I'm not saying it to try and sound, you know, sometimes you'll hear religious people go, you know, it's not about my glory, but God's as they sit there and try and get their own glory. It's, it's really what this boils down to is energy is a constant, can't be created or destroyed. So what talks about you when you leave this earth, your absence has to be your presence. And that's based on the lives you touched while you were on this earth. The frequency you put in other people through the energy. That's what glorifies God's name, is your ability to keep pushing through the pain, keep driving through all the adversity, and then still have the frequency to smile and the energy to smile. That when you tell people about the horrendous things that have happened to you. You're doing it with a smile on your face, and people are like, oh, my goodness. Weren't you scared? Yeah, dude, I thought I was gonna die. It was terrifying. But here we are. You want some more cream in your coffee, right? Like, you got. You gotta get that mindset when you just move to that next level. And I've been very blessed where even through these things, I've had some really awesome and amazing mentors in my life that the Lord has given me, and he's given me wisdom, but I've also noticed that he's given me people in my life that have helped me. And Steve Maestas was one of those. He's a good friend of mine, mutual friend of both of ours. When I was first training on my first school, I was teaching out of a storage container, and I ran an ad in a Thrifty Nickel, and Steve Maestas found it and came down and trained. I didn't know the guy was as powerful as he was as a. As a person and also in business. And then, you know, he came in and played along, and I started looking at the cars. He was showing up to class, and I'm like, dude, what are you doing? And how do I do it?

He goes, listen, I'll coach you, but here's how this is going to go. And he gave me some insights, and I appreciated that. You know, I mean, he's a very giving human being, and that's, you know, in my. In my opinion, one of the coolest. You know, he's just a great dude, and that was a blessing. And he gives back a ton to his community. So that being said, like, going into a fight and then understanding the business aspects, they're very similar in that. And then the other thing is learning how to turn it on and turn it off, right? Because you can't just walk around pissed off all the time. And when you have a reputation like our school in our facility does, everybody wants to fight you. You know, And I. And I saw this in school when I was a kid. Kids think if they could beat me up, they could beat up Bruce Lee, because my dad trained under him, right? So everybody and their brother want to kick the hell out of me, right? Like, it was a. It was an interesting childhood, and not much has changed in that aspect. You know, I walk by somebody, like, I don't like that guy. I'm like, dude, I don't even know you.

Do you want to fight me? Okay, all right, cool. I guess that's weird, you know, But I don't know if that answers your question, but that would be. Well, kind of my answer.

Yeah. Kind of describe for everybody that's never going to be there. What is a fight club? Where do they host these things? Is it like a house? Is it like. Like, what the heck is it? And then what are you. What are you going through? Take us into your mind as you were going that first time to this fight club, not knowing what the hell you got yourself into. And then what did you see and what were you feeling? And then what happened?

Yeah, so I would say so. I've been skydiving, and I don't know if you've ever been skydiving, but the moment that you let go of the plane, you feel this, like, baptized in fire, like, all these chemicals are rushing through your body. And it's a mixture between that and standing on the high dive for the first time and getting ready to jump, Right? So there was. There was a ton of this anxiety and fear and concern, you know? And then I had martial artists that were friends of mine forever, and they're like, don't fight these guys. They're gonna try and maim you. And I was like, well, dude, kind of, what's the point? Like, what are we doing here? The whole reason we're doing this is so that if somebody's trying to maim us, it works. I'd rather find out now in this controlled environment than find out, like, when I'm around my daughter or something. Right? So it. It was a totally different mindset walking in there. And they're hosted everywhere, right? Like, we have our own group. We fought in another guy's group, and that one was in a martial arts school. But sometimes they're done under bridges, Sometimes they're done in warehouses. Sometimes they're done in freaking parks. I mean, I fought in all sorts of different places, and it's. It's something that you go into with the ideology that you don't want. You want to do the level best that you can to not permanently injure that person for the rest of their life. But make no doubt we're there to hurt each other inside of that environment. And it's. There's a brotherhood to it, though, right? Like, you. You get in and you're like, my job is to push you as hard as I can. But I will tell you, as I've done this more, I'm not trying to break people the way that I was when I first started. When I first started, I just I didn't care if I could wreck you, I'd wreck you. Because I had a lot of anger on my heart, you know? So as I sat down and I started getting past that, I realized this is more to, like, help men channel. And there's girls that will fight in these things, too, but it's more to help men channel that aggression that built up angst in that concern. Because I get a lot of guys that go, man, I always want to be in the military, but I instead I became a dentist or I became a whatever. And they did what everybody told them to do versus what their heart led them to. And this gives them a channel where they can actually execute that and exercise it out. And so, I mean, obviously that's one aspect of. Of the many experiences that I've done in life. So I want everybody to think, oh, this guy just fights in underground fights. Well, that's part of it. But I mean, I've also had, like, I've had an amazing life. I used to have a pet cobra because I was afraid of cobras. So I wanted to learn how to handle this thing. And if it had bit me, I would have died in eight minutes, right? It was eight minutes from bite to death. Because as neurotoxins, she was beautiful. I named her Halo. And she was this albino monocle. So she had this silky smooth pink and white skin, and she was just very pissy, right? So I eventually got rid of her because she kept trying to bite me. And I had, like four people have dreams that she bit me and I died. And I was like, that's probably a sign, right?

So.

So that's one element of the. The many aspects that I. That I have gone through in my life. But I think, you know, going into a fight club is like, again, you know, it's mix all the things that you have of the unknown into one pot and then walk up with confidence. That's what going into a fight club is like. So if you can imagine taking everything that you're afraid of, both physically and emotionally, people are going to embarrass you. You're going to, you know, because there's a huge imposter syndrome. You know, when you go into something like that, you're like, dude, these guys are going to beat my ass, and then, like, pull my underwear over my head and tell everybody, like, there's this fear that, that you're just going to go out and these people are going to school you. And part of that fear, you know, like, courage, in order for courage to exist, fear has to be present. And so my fighting, like, guys would come out afterwards, like, oh, my goodness. I've never seen anybody move like that. What's your secret? I'm like, I don't like pain. Like, I was like, my studio is, I don't want to lose. I don't want to get hurt. So I was fighting so hard and so fast and giving it everything I had because I knew what it was like to lose from that guy that broke my nose in eighth grade. And that was the greatest gift anybody ever gave me was him breaking my face. Because after that, I was like, dude, that sucked. I look like a raccoon for like three months. Eyes were black. You know, my nose is all smashed into my face. I was like, yeah, you know, thank you. Because that gave me the motivation and drive that I was like, if somebody wants to beat me again, they better pack a lunch. Right? Because I'm. I'm going to go all out. And it's that. That element that I think you need in business also is learning how to thrive and function in the unknown with confidence. That is such a hard world to live in. You know what I mean?

Yeah.

Because we get so caught up. We get so caught up in the, oh, I got to know what's going on. Well, tell me what you know that's going on in the world right now. You don't have a freaking clue. Everything you're being taught or fed is like some agendized propaganda, right? So here's what I do know. I know God's in control. I know no matter what anybody does, I'm going to do whatever it takes to make sure my family, my brothers and my. My friends are taken care of. I don't even know what's going on on everything else, because that can suck all my energy out. But I know me, I'll keep going no matter what. And if you want to beat me, you better freaking pack a lunch because I'm going to come at you with everything I've got. And that's that mindset that I think you get from fighting. That is essential for business. And the more tools you have in your tool belt, the better. You are at Warcraft, right? And having. Knowing your why. And I'll be honest with you, this is why I was willing to come on today and chat with you. I think that that is a huge weapon against the enemy because the enemy may not know their why, but if you know your why, you can be the enemy to the enemy and they'll try and Leverage it against you. They'll try and come against you and, like, get under your skin. They'll try and mess with your business. They'll try and screw with everything that you've got going on. You're like, well, I know I'm doing what I'm doing. I know what motivates me, and I'm hungry. Right. And I think that that's a. That's a powerful thing to have in your back pocket.

So for the audience, I took. I spent some time with Michael, and I did your urban defense and concealed carry. And so I went into that thinking, you know, I'm fairly athletic. I was. Did a lot of sports. I'm in good shape still. I have weights. I do this, I do that. I'll probably be pretty good at this. And then. And then I walked into your class, and I think you probably could have killed me as many times as you wanted, as fast as you wanted. And I had, like, no say in it. I had no recourse at all. I mean, it's just whatever was going to happen, I couldn't defend myself. And I thought I should be right. What, in the beginning? In the beginning, yeah.

And at the end, you felt very confident in being able to do that. Right. And here's the thing. As men, right? Like, we have this. This ignorant perspective. Or like, I got a penis, so I know how to fight. That has zero credibility anywhere. Right. Like, every time you talk about doing a combatives course or a defense class, they go, oh, I'm going to send girls to that because I'm a guy. And I mean, it's the dumbest thing. And as men, I think that's part of our insecurity. But there's very few men that are willing to actually go do it like you did and then go, oh, yeah, so I actually don't know what I'm doing, but I do now. And that's why you were there. Right? Like, if I sucked and you could beat me up, then you should probably be teaching the class, not me.

You going through that. We deliberately looked at what your weaknesses were.

Yeah.

And we capitalized on them. And then if you notice your wife had certain weaknesses, and we just changed and we worked on what her weaknesses were, and that's really what a good instructor should always do. They shouldn't be there kicking the hell out of the students. Their objective and their. Their mission is to make the students think that they're getting the hell kicked out of them because it is so demanding for them. But that instructor could go up 9, 10 more levels.

Right.

And that was the objective. And I think you actually did the two day defense immersive training as well, did you not?

Yeah, I think that's where we would.

Kidnap you in the end.

Yes. And we, you, you did scenarios where we were being carjacked. You did scenarios where somebody comes into your house and. And these are not like video game kind of things. This is an actual car there that you're carjacked in and what will you do? Or an actual house there that someone you know. How do you clear your house? And what I found really fascinating was how wrong my perception was of even something as simple as how far away someone can be from you and still get to you before you can do anything to them. That was fascinating.

It's not your world, right? Like, I mean, you don't know these things until you experience them. And we're really blessed at Shockwave because we have an amazing cadre, right. We've got Dr. De la Garza, we've got Instructor King. I've got another guy that was from Seal Team 8 and Seal Team Things 3 and 8, 3 and 5, Shane Hyatt. I mean, amazing guy. And he comes in and he'll talk about mindset. And him and I co designed a knife together. We're bringing instructors from South Africa. We brought Ed Calderon out at one point for him to do this escape and evasion training. I mean, he's a fascinating person as well. Like, we're really blessed to have such a unique group of people to help expose everyday civilians to these things so that they don't die. Because see, the enemy knows you don't know. And then in that, that moment when you're like, no, I got enough space, I'm good. And then they're on top of you and you can't get your gun out. That's where you realize, maybe I should learn some hand to hand stuff. Maybe I should learn some nice stuff. You know, when I trained the Department of Corrections, we had, I want to say there was 40 guys in that, probably closer to 30 guys in that class. And we did an exercise with these electric knives. We'll run at you and, you know, zap you with the knives. And we had a drill. Their job was to pull the gun out and they didn't know if I put a malfunction in the weapon or not. And I was probably 40 something feet away. I killed every single one of those guys in that mock scenario with the exception of one that did what I told him to. I said don't focus on your gun and fight me. And so he pulled the gun out. It didn't work, and he blasted me in the face, which sucked at the time, but it was super awesome to see that he listened, right? Like, I got hit. I was so proud. My bell was ringing. I'm like, yeah, yeah. I freaking listened.

And. And he did what he was supposed to do. And that's. That's the goal of the training is. Is that's the goal of life. Learn to move through adversity with ease, to the best of your ability, and to keep pushing. And it's not about your ego, because it's like, looks, right? They'll fade. Your ego at some point is going to fade. What is the legacy you're leaving on this earth for future generations to talk about? And the martial arts is the weirdest industry, right? Like, martial artists drive me insane. They remind me of Star wars nerds, right? They sit down and like, do you think it Bruce Lee would go over there and fight off ma with this weapon? He can win. And then if you die, who would win this? I don't care about any of this. All I care about is can Gary Sanchez protect his wife when some crackhead is coming after them, right? Like, it's what works in real time and getting caught up in the nuances of what system works better. I mean, it's like. It's like the amateur argument of.45 caliber versus 9. You know, amateurs argue caliber, professionals argue shot placement, right? If I shoot you in the face, it doesn't matter what I shoot you with, right? It's gonna suck. So that. That mindset of understanding how to really get honed in and really get deliberate, that's going to take you to a different level in your love life. That's going to take you to a different level inside of your combatives. That's going to take you to a different level in your business. A lot of the men I coach, they're like, I don't know what to do with my wife. You know, she's upse with me. I'm like, did you win her heart? Did you conquer her? Today you say you're a warrior. Did you conquer her? You conquer that woman in the bedroom, you conquer that woman in the kitchen. You conquer that woman inside of the living room. You conquer that woman. Like, you've got to rewin her heart every single day. Or she's some other douchebag out there on Facebook is trying to trust me, right? He's sitting there going, oh, girl, you're so hot. I love your filtered photos. Right. And then she's sitting there in her mind going, I'm going to replace my man. Right. Like, you both have to fight to rewind each other's hearts. Life is a struggle, but the more comfortable you can get being uncomfortable, the more successful you'll be in life.

I love it.

I mean, does that make sense?

So, Michael, the last question I want to ask you is what is the best piece of advice you've ever been given or the best piece of advice you've ever given?

That's a real simple question, Gary.

Thanks. Yeah.

I think, you know, something that sits with me probably the most is if you weren't afraid of failing, what would you attempt? If you knew fear, like, wasn't an option, what would you do? And although I understand that fear is a necessity in life and it's important, I think too many people waste the energy of their ability in the day on what they're afraid of instead of just facing what they fear. Because if you allow other people's beliefs to become your reality, you will end up always being what they say you are instead of what God made you to be. And if you can learn to be a full version of who you were born to become on this earth, you'd be living a life worth talking about for 2,000 years. Right. So what would you do without fear? If it was impossible to fail, what would you attempt? And that's probably. If I said there was one piece of information, one piece of insight, I would more likely than not say it was that awesome.

Awesome. So if there are people, Michael, that want to connect with you, want to bring you in to work with them or find out more about what you're doing, what's the best way for them to connect with you?

Text the word Y w h y to 505-437-4029 and we'll know that you're coming from.

Gary's podcast here, and we'll give you guys a special gift. And what I recommend doing is starting off on a call, and if it's something that you're serious about and you want to actually grow your mind and get past limitations and conquer some kind of challenge in life, definitely jump on a call with us. If you're. If you're not there, like, you don't have a major challenge going on, I would tell people I'm probably not the guy for you. But if you have a major challenge that you want to conquer and overcome, then and only then, jump on a call. With us. And when you Text Y to 505-437-4029, you'll end up being in a position where you'll actually get access. And we'll jump on a discovery with you and we'll figure out if we're a good fit for each other. And then after that, and I'm very transparent, if you like what we do and it's seems to match you, we have some options that we can enroll you in. But we make every student that wants to train with us go through basic training first.

What's included in basic training? What is that?

So basic training is going to. We call the program Dauntless. It's how to overcome fear. So it's not only going to be from a mindset exercise of how to grow yourself and make yourself stronger with daily routines, weekly routines and monthly routines, but also how to grow yourself from a combative standpoint with what we call the theoretical minimum of defense. So if you're familiar with physics, there's concepts concept called the theoretical minimum of physics. And if you understand those basics, you can do all of physics. If you understand these basics we're going to teach you in Dauntless, you can do all combatives hand in hand, right. If you look at every single system on the planet, all of them are made up of about anywhere from top 15 moves and then there's just variances and spins off and they go. This is an advanced move. No, it's not. You just put the other moves together, right? So once you understand the three ways to shut down the human being, the timers, the switches, the mechanics, and then you start to actually understand the fundamentals and the environments that TMOD is what you'll learn inside of Fearless and inside of the basic training.

I love it. Well, Michael, thank you so much for being here. It's been awesome to connect and hear your story and listen to how you have taken that and transition that into something that helps so many people. So thank you for being here and I look forward to staying in touch as we go on our journeys.

Thank you for having me, Gary, and thank you for what you do for the community with the why I think it's an awesome tool to have in the tool belt and anybody that gets a chance to do that, if you guys have not, you should definitely activate on that and you should also send it out to your friends. If you care about people, living a purposeful life is an important thing to have. That's an important element of living each day with power. So if you guys know anybody that can use the why? I would. You know, I fully endorse it. I think you guys should definitely send it to your friends and get them involved. Thanks for having me, Gary.

Appreciate it. Michael.

I really hope you enjoyed today's episode and that through today's guest, you heard how important it is to know your why and how impactful it can be in your life and the lives of those around you. Be sure to head over to whyinstitute.com and discover your why today. Remember, the more you know about yourself, the more you'll know about others. I'm Dr. Gary Sanchez, and I'll see you on the next episode.