Mindset, Surviving Cancer & Finding Clarity In Life | Jason Yerrington

What's up, guys? Welcome to the Zen Hard Podcast. This one is amazing. We are interviewing Jason Yarrington. He's the founder of Ohana, which is one of the biggest martial arts studios in the country. Two-time world champion, cancer survivor, tons of wisdom. Honestly, one of my favorite episodes. It's a longer one. I hope you guys enjoy. Dude, I was excited to interview you and then I— someone was telling me you're, you're into biohacking and peptides, and I was like, oh, I'm even more interested.

Get ready.

Did y'all do anything this morning? I do.

I take like 6 different peptides.

What kind do you take?

Uh, so I do, uh, Ceylon C-Max as like nasal for your brain. I do a blend of CJC, ipamorelin, and tesamorelin for like growth hormone.

That's the legit—

tesamorelin is the best one. Yeah, after years of trying to figure this out and Talking to people, I found out that's the best one.

Yeah, I agree. I've done all of them. Testo is the best one.

And then I do an NAD+ as well.

So are you doing like a little like a belly injection?

Yeah, on everything except for the C-Max and Solanc.

I got some stories for y'all.

Let's go.

So first off, so every morning I wake up, I do about 45 minutes to an hour like in an infrared sauna. Then I do like 2, 2 on a bad day. That's like my normal, but like it depends. It If I'm really feeling like, you know, Viking-ish, I'll do a bunch of dips in the cold plunge. So I keep it right at like 44 degrees.

Yeah, I got one too.

And I'll go in there and then I'll just kind of shiver for a little bit and then I get back in. So two of them is kind of like what I feel like really wakes me up and I'm like, okay, let's go conquer this day. Right now on the peptides, I'm only doing, uh, uh, uh, BPC-157 and thymosin beta-4. Um, I kind of try to— the Tessa, like I, I, I'll do like a good solid like 3 months.

Yeah, same.

And then I'll do like a month off, just kind of like get a baseline. Yeah, I'll start it again. Uh, but NAD is something I love. But let me tell you how I found NAD. Yeah, but I have a lot of really cool stories like this. But, uh, so my dad's a doctor, he owns, uh, Flourish Wellness Center, right? And so whenever I find really cool stuff, I'm like, I send it to him.

Yeah.

So like 8 years ago, I was like, Dad, this stuff. NAD, I gotta get it. Yeah, let's jump on it. This is— I sent him all those articles, clinical studies.

What a great resource to have.

Yeah. And he's like, well, because I'm also like that nagging flea, he doesn't really look at it initially. I gotta get like 4 other people that he respects to like send him the same stuff. And then all of a sudden he's like, hey Jason, have you heard about— they know that. I know, 2 months ago. Yeah, like I was all about that.

Yeah.

So I saw this video of Ben Greenfield shooting himself up with a, a cc of NAD. Yeah, it's like, well, if he could do it, I could do it. Yeah, so, but let's do 2cc, right? Let's go just a little bit more. Have y'all ever done a push of NAD?

Like, I did it through the IV drip.

So, like, how long did it take you?

20 minutes.

How did it feel?

Like you're dying.

Okay, yeah, I did— mine took 2 hours. I— but I did like 1,000 milligrams.

It's about 20 to 20, uh, 20 to 25 minutes because, because he told me the faster it goes, the more you feel like you're dying.

Yes. Yeah, yeah.

So I, I took 2ccs and, uh, straight injections. Hold on. So like, so like the, like my brother-in-law who's a nurse, and we're trying to feel each other out, right? We don't really know how much he should trust me, how much I should trust him. So I just like, hey, just push the whole thing in there. And he was like, you sure? I was like, yeah, just do it. And so sure enough, he just goes, and, uh, yeah, that was a crazy ride.

Tell me about that ride.

So my eyes rolled in the back, like So I had done it before with like a CC, and so I kind of knew to expect like, hey, this is gonna be crazy. And on that one, like, you know, you feel like your stomach is being like torn into—

Chest is like tight.

Chest is like an 800-pound person sitting on your chest, right? Like everything's on fire. And like you start to sweat a little bit. Okay, imagine that, but like that was the, it's scary but cool, right? You're not like jumping on an airplane, but you know you have a like a, all right, I'm just gonna pull it.

You know it's good.

It's gonna be over in a little bit, it's all right. It went so bad to where I couldn't see anything. So the eyes rolled in the back of my head. I literally couldn't move and I couldn't speak. So I wanted to say help, but I couldn't say help. I couldn't. And so I was like, and so the fear of like, this is it. I'm gonna, I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die. A cardiac arrest right now. This is going down. And I legit started freaking out when I finally came to. Like, I couldn't even tell you anything else about what it felt because it was just a serious panic. So like when I kind of came to and I could see again, I felt the chest, I felt the things, all the other stuff, but my shirt was drenched.

Wow.

I had to take it off and I had to put another shirt on because— and even my pants too, like it just started pouring.

How long do you think this process was from when you— like that feeling?

You gotta ask Eric.

Yeah, you don't know.

I have no idea.

How many milligrams is like in a cc?

So I, I think it's, uh, I think it's 100 milligrams per cc, right?

I, I don't know the measurements.

So I, I did— if I don't— I don't know either. I should probably like have that down a little bit better. Yeah, but I think it especially depends on the concentration too, the NAD.

Yeah, right.

So like if it's, you know, 1 per 100 milligrams, you know, sometimes it's right, 1 is actually 20 milligrams. I don't know. Yeah, I'd have to talk to them.

I gotta look at that too because I do the NAD injection every day. Yeah, into my stomach, but I don't know how much I'm taking. It doesn't make me feel that way. When you do the drip— when I do the drip, it makes me feel that that chest tightening. But the day after I did my first NAD, I felt amazing. I woke up like— usually I wake up, I'm a little groggy, it takes me like 30 minutes. If I get in the cold plunge, I'm good. The day after I took the NAD, I felt like clear as can be.

Oh man, things smell good, you see things like a little more vibrant version of myself. Yes, 100%. And that's exactly— I don't know if it was because I felt like I was blessed to be alive, you know, like after that one.

You might have just detoxed yourself too, like, with all that sweat.

No, everything was—

sauna session. I don't know if it was 5 minutes or 50 minutes, like I have no idea. Well, sometimes after like a— I get sick or I get like something, I feel great afterwards. I feel like my body just releases a whole bunch of either stress I've been holding on to or toxins. You might have just let go of a whole bunch of stuff you were holding on to.

Well, and I get apparently 8 months later, I guess the Washington Redskins were like lining people up and doing pushes before the game.

Yeah.

And I guess someone had a cardiac arrest.

Get out of here.

Too fast. So they had to like simmer it down and then start putting like regulations on time. So that's why, like, supposedly there's a like a drip that's kind of a little more acceptable.

That's— yeah, the drip is what is the new norm now. Yes. And you're supposed to do a loading phase. Yes, I did a load. I bought like a 4-pack. I had to go 4 days in a row and get 500mg a day. And then it's like once a month after that.

Oh, yeah. It's a maintenance dose now.

Yeah. Yeah. So you're saying NFL players do this before games and they perform better right after they take it?

That was what the, the, the anecdotal data was, right? Oh, there's no like actual like blood test right now, pre and post-game, where it's like, hey, here's what your, your CRP is and, you know, here's where we're at afterwards, right?

Yeah.

But, um, you know what, I did do that stuff. I would do like a panel, like, and just, you know, looking at inflammatory markers.

Yeah.

Because I always struggle with autoimmune disorders and stuff like that. So 7 days later, my CRP levels were always reduced by like 30 to 40%.

Oh wow.

Compared to what it was before. So you know, beyond just the, you know, the cellular—

like, what markers do you look at to see your, your kind of inflammatory levels?

It's just your CRP. You're like, that's kind of like your, you know, your overall, like, how's your, how's your blood looking, how's your inflammatory— what is CRP?

What is that measuring? Like, I don't know what that is. I do blood work every quarter, but—

so this is definitely a doctor's son moment. Yeah. To where, like, you sit in, you listen to all the, like, the things. And so I can say acronyms and things like that, you know. I know why they do it. Yeah. I don't know what it stands for.

You know what the numbers are good or not?

Yeah. Yeah.

Okay, this is a good value, this is a bad value.

But —like, as far as— I just know that that's their, like, baseline, uh, like, precursor, like, entry level, like, hey, let's see what the inflammatory markers are in someone's body.

Dude, the blood work— so, you know, you're taking all this stuff. I take all these supplements, and I, I take quarterly blood work, and I got my testosterone back, and it was, it was really high. It was like 950, but my free test was, was like only 100 or something like that. And it was crazy. And I work with a longevity doctor we were trying to figure out— my estrogen levels were super low, and that's not a good thing as a guy. You want to have certain levels. And we ended up finding out I was taking this thing called Mitopure, which is like a mitochondria supplement, and there's something in it that drops your estrogen levels. And with the estrogen dropping, it makes your free test drop as well. But that was like 1 out of like, you know, 12 things I was taking a day. And without the blood work, I would never have known that. I could have just went on for, you know, for years taking these supplements and not knowing that.

Have you ever seen some of those companies that will send you just like every quarter, they'll send you stuff and you just, you pull the blood itself and send it in so you don't have to go into a doc? Because that's one of the big obstacles I think nowadays.

How do you take your blood yourself?

Uh, you literally just, you drain it like it's like a little prick. It's like an insulin syringe. Okay. Okay. But they get enough to do like the basic markers. Oh really? You're not—

I gotta go into a lab every month. No, every quarter.

This is awesome. I, I forgot the name of the company. I was just looking at the box like last week. They send you this little box, you prick it, and you just squeeze it into this little, uh, paper thing. Yeah. And you send it in, they tell you your inflammatory markers, that's, uh, your glucose levels. Okay. All this different stuff to like kind of like check, you know, heart attack, you know, like testosterone, you know, all the different things that most people like kind of don't pay attention to because they'll get on TRT therapy but then they won't get their quarterly blood work, right? Yeah. You know, and then all of a sudden they need to do a blood dump but they're not really paying attention and Now you have a stroke victim or a potential heart attack victim walking around.

Yeah, it's— that's scary.

I took— I got a test that was called a biological age test. Yeah, and it was crazy actually. And I'm not saying this as a brag. Yeah, I'm not bringing this up because I want to brag. No, I came back as 19. Hey, good job, bro. Yeah, I'm 33. Yeah, man, give me a fist bump on that, dude. But the thing is, the problem is that I don't know what is the main driver, right? I do like the sauna, cold plunge every day, the BioCharger, the PEMF mat, the supplements, the peptides, cardio, you know, weight training. I don't know what like the 80/20 is. I don't know what's giving me the biggest benefit. So people ask like, you know, what should I do to get this lower age? I don't really know. I'm not sure. And there's so many different things.

I don't think there's a cookie cutter. I think you have to figure out the formula that works for you. What PEMF blanket do you use?

Uh, it's called a HigherDOSE.

It's a mat. No, I know exactly what you're talking about. Yeah, that is infrared too, right?

It's got infrared and it's got, uh, it's like crystals and stuff on it as well. I bought that a long time ago, but I use more than the PEMF mat. I use something called a biocharger.

Have you seen that? That's the, like, the electronic, like, energy field that you kind of step into? Yeah, I've never used it.

So you— it's like probably this big and it sits on a table, and when you sit next to it, if you hold a light bulb in your hand—

the one that Dustin tried that with, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, he was telling me about that.

So the light bulb will light up?

The light bulb lights up because the electric— and, and the coolest thing is if you hold my hand and you stand over there and I stand near it You hold the light bulb, the light bulb will light up in your hands. Electric goes through us. And the idea is that it emits electricity at different frequencies. Right. And like, have you ever seen an opera singer sing into a glass and shatter the glass? Like everything has a resonance frequency. Correct. Whether you want to create or you want to destroy a virus or a disease or a parasite, you can get a resonance frequency. So they have like 1,100 different recipes, they call them, on the BioCharger. So if you want to kill parasites or whatever it is, you sit in front of it and it vibrates the electricity at a certain frequency. Now, I don't know if it actually does anything because, you know, I— I got you, man. Hard to test. But it is a cool centerpiece in my room regardless because it looks cool when you light it up.

My wife was the same. So we have a thing called a Beamer.

Yeah, I've heard of that.

So we have that little thing. I lay on it like every day. Yeah, especially at night. Right. I maybe do it in the morning, but it just from my schedule that works. But it's one of those things to where like you have to believe that it's working sometimes because you don't really know. Yeah, I feel it. But I wholeheartedly believe. But then I got my wife, who's my favorite pessimist. She's just like, that's, that's not working.

Yeah, that does nothing. But dude, just, just laying there and breathing and being still is a great thing to do. And, and sometimes you need an excuse to do that. Like, I sit in front of the BioCharger 15 minutes, I do like a few rounds of breathwork, meditate for 5-10 minutes. Even if I didn't sit in front of the BioCharger, it's a great practice to do that.

You compound any of the things— do you— have you guys heard of the photobiomodulation stuff that they have out there, like the Juve lights or any of that stuff?

I know a little bit about that, the red light therapy. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So you ever add any of that to like when you're sitting in front of your BioCharger, just add— no, I've done the Novathor though at, uh, at Crysis. Those where you lay down on the— yeah, those are cool. NovaCore, is it called? I don't know, it's something like that.

Yeah, yeah, it's like $150,000 machine.

Yeah, it's like—

it looks like a tanning— it looks like a tanning— okay, okay, dude, you lay in it and when I get out of that thing I'm like super vascular. I feel like all my blood is circulated. I feel I sweat a little bit, but I feel amazing after that thing.

Oh, I'm a huge fan. And there's a ton of clinical studies on photobiomodulation, so there's a lot of data to back it up with like blood work and all stuff like that. But yeah, but again, one of the issues with biohacking is finding ways to compound these, these deals because to stack it— like Jared might have like 2.5 hours of time to like put that in every morning, but the normal human, you know, like they're, they're not working with that type of time. So, you know, if you're going to do a 30-minute sauna, can you add like a PMF blanket in there? Yeah, can you add red light?

And that way you're getting 3 therapies at one.

Yeah, then finish it up and then go in there. That's kind of my next— because if, if someone could design a product, right, this is a little— my little deal, right? Yeah. And be able to combine all these therapies into one. Yeah. And save someone like 2.5 hours every single day. Yeah. Now we're talking about—

imagine that. Imagine you make a little sauna that's got the red light and it's got a cold plunge in it, and you could just dip right in it. It's just one unit, costs 10 grand, you got a 40-minute practice every day. Yeah, you extend your life years.

I mean, probably 25, 30 years, right? I mean, the sauna is supposed to be something, one of the best things to decrease the heart risk or like cardiac arrest and stuff like that. I mean, it's pretty—

I just got a new sauna actually. So I have— I had the infrared sauna. Okay, I have the infrared sauna still, but I just got a traditional like barrel sauna that gets up to like 220. Do those look cool too? Yeah, I have them both in my backyard now, and the cold plunge. I've been using the hot one just because it's like a blast. I can get in there for like 8 minutes and just get crazy. Now my pool is like 50 degrees, so I'll just— I'll swim laps in there, you know. Yeah, Tomas taught me how to swim because we were, uh, we're doing a tri— well, I don't know, I know how to swim, okay? I know how to like survive in the water, but you teach me how to actually—

to do like lap swimming, you know, to swim in open water. It's a different— it's a different animal.

I showed up to the gym and Tomas had, uh, such a good friend, he got me like a swimsuit, the goggles, the, you know, everything I needed, a bag. He's like, here's everything you need. Tucked in a lifetime. And we learned— but dude, swimming laps in a cold pool, I think, is, is better than a cold plunge, in my opinion.

Oh man, I agree. Yeah, because you're moving, you're doing it. It's amazing. Yeah, that's my favorite thing. It stops the heat shield from being able to develop.

Exactly. Yep. Yeah, because dude, when I would go on the cold plunge, I would unplug it so there's no circulation, so that, so that my body— I'm like, just be still. If you don't move, it's not that cold.

It's funny you say that, right?

That's cheating.

Alex is crazy. Alex Jared is a freaking, like, uh, he's an all-star when it comes to cold plunges, you know. Like, I'm pretty good, he's, he's awesome. Yeah. And he always wants to get in the cold plunge together. I'm like, bro, that's not cool. Like, yeah, every time he was like, I was kind of thinking we would just, you know, jump in together. I'm like, no, bro, like, I don't want to touch you. Like, I'm freezing. Like, get away from me. Like, I do not want to be in a barrel of ice with you, with another person in close proximity. Like, that's— we're cool, but we're not that cool. And but he'll do that kind of stuff. Yeah. Yeah, I'm definitely— I'm not on that level. The cold plunge.

You said you did your first cold experience recently. Yeah.

Where, you know, I would do— I had a pool in my house and I would do it every once in a while. I would get in to like my knees and I'd be like, okay, I'll go a little bit further. And that was it because I run, I run a lot. Okay. And so just the other day I did sauna for 20 minutes and I was at Lifetime. And so I walked out to the pool and I go, I'm just going to get in through it. I'm going to get in. If this dude is doing 3 minutes, I can do 2. So I set my timer and I climbed in there and I felt the best that I felt after a workout. Like unbelievable, you know what I mean? So yeah, I ran and swam and then I did that.

Fun statistic that I read is that when you do like cocaine, for example, it raises your dopamine levels like 10 times. Yeah. A cold plunge does the same thing, but it lasts like 8 hours. Yeah. So as opposed to like doing some cocaine and then, you know, getting a horrible habit and then coming down and thinking, ah, whatever. It's way better. It's way better. Yeah, you got 9 hours.

Let's go. 8 hours. Yeah, that's crazy. I felt amazing though. I did feel really good, and I did— I'd done 2 workouts. Have you ever tried—

oh, you know, a lot of people kind of assume to just do it after. Yeah. Have you ever tried to do it before?

Oh, I did sauna one time before, but like a before a workout. I did sauna, but not like that combination.

Okay, right. Especially for a runner. All right, you would imagine that you're all stiff and all that, but it's not. You just don't feel any of the pain. See, I might have to do that.

All your inflammation. Yeah, exactly, dude. We had a flight one day at 5 in the morning, so we had to leave for the airport at like 3:30. And me and my wife made a deal. We said we're gonna go in the cold plunge right when we wake up at 2:30 in the morning. That was the hardest thing I've ever done. We were— we woke up in the middle of REM sleep, like, oh, oh God, no. And we walked down, we put on some robes, we walked down. It was cold outside. Open this thing, it was 38 degrees. Oh, and I'm like, nah, but I— but I— what I did is I recorded a video on Instagram, my story beforehand, So I made a public announcement, we're going in this thing in the morning, because I knew I wouldn't do it otherwise. So you held yourself accountable and we went in. Yeah, and it would— I mean, honestly changed my whole day. Yeah, I went to the airport feeling great. Everyone else was there like, you know, man, I want to check my bags, whatever. I'm like, let's go.

Do you have a cold plunge? I do. At your house or at both?

At the house, right? Yeah. Okay. At first it was at Ohana, but no one was using it, so I was like, you know what, I'm just taking this home. Yeah, I'll use it every day. Why do I have to come here to use it? So now like it's It's in the house that we're renting because we're building, but yeah, so it's kind of like not in the right place, but dude, it works, you know? That's cool.

So you had it at Ohana and people weren't using it?

No, I had to force people. Really? Yeah, we'd have like the 2 or 3 guys, but then it would like— they'd do like 2 weeks real solid, and then I'd be the only person that would be doing it every day. Yeah. So eventually I was like, well, this is becoming an obstacle. I don't want it to become— it was supposed to be a benefit for everyone. Yeah. But, and I think it's one of those things too where people have seasons to where they're like, they're willing to do tough shit Yeah, you know, like they build themselves up every morning. I, I, I was made to do tough shit. I was made to do tough shit. I was next, you know, I'm in the ice, I'm doing tough stuff. Okay, let's go, right? Yeah, you know, but if I don't have that little mantra, I'll go in there and I'll be like, no, today is good, you know, like, uh, yeah, I did this on, I feel hot, it's good, I did more than most people do, I'm fine, right? Yeah, that's the trap. I gotta talk myself through it the whole time every day until I'm actually in it. It's never easy, right? There's no— it doesn't matter.

It's never easy. People think like once you get to a certain level, whether it's in fitness or entrepreneurship, you know, it's just, oh yeah, he figured it out, it's easy for him. No, it actually gets harder every single day. I fight the demons. I think, yeah, it does get harder.

Success makes it harder. Yeah, yeah. Because you, you know, it's just like the whole, like, jiu-jitsu, right? So there are complicated techniques and there are basic techniques, right? But the— once you get to a certain level of the basic the, the level of mastery that it takes to really become a master at that is almost more difficult than it is to learn a complicated technique, right? But yeah, most people don't want to do that level because they have a certain amount of success, and that success is like, oh well, we're good, yeah, on to the next, on to the next. And then you get a guy that's like, you know, 2 inches deep and 10 miles wide.

You, you just said something, said we're good, right? I just learned something recently. I went to UPW, Tony Robbins event, and, and reinforced some things. That was cool. Oh, I was amazing. I got a personal invite, so I got to sit with like all the celebrities and billionaires and stuff. It was really cool.

I was next to the Liver King.

Liver King? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Liver King. Really? Yeah. We became boys. I had dinner with him and his family. We ate a bunch of meat and bacon and stuff. That's awesome, man. It was really cool. But yeah, Tony was saying, you know, maybe, you know, 40, 50 years ago, you did a good job at work. You did a good job with your family. You got good results, right? You did an excellent job, you get excellent results. But these days, if you do a poor job, you get poor results. If you do a good job, you get poor results. If you do an excellent job, you get good results. Mm-hmm. But if you do an outstanding job, that's where you get all the rewards. And to jump from good to excellent, it's a big jump. Yeah. But the jump from excellent to outstanding, it's only a few more inches. But that's where the Olympian gold medalists that everyone remembers They're a millisecond faster, right? Second, third, fourth place— people, people don't even remember fourth place. Second and third, nobody remembers unless you're in the race, right? First place, you're a hero, a national hero, and you're 0.1 second faster than the guy who's not a national hero. It's a little jump to get from excellent to outstanding. I know that's probably what it's like in jiu-jitsu to master, right? To get from— you go into a tournament, you were a world champion, right? 2-time, yeah, 2-time world champion. And the guy after you, second place, I don't remember his name.

Yeah, I don't remember.

And you're probably just a little bit better, right?

Uh, on those days, you know, it's hard. Styles make fights. Well, positions in jiu-jitsu really like can determine, like, so like that might have felt like I was way better than him at that moment, but you put us in a different position, right, I might not have felt that way, right? You know, so that at that moment, the rhythm of the fight, I was able to like control it in a scenario where I was able to steer it to where I felt way better than him. Yeah, that's where like feelings sometimes aren't really like as honest, like, you know, indicator of how much better you were, right, than someone, right? You know, that fight that I was talking about in the finals, like, there was no way that guy in any way, shape, or form was going to beat me that day. Yeah, because for whatever reason You know, his— what he initiated, I was, I was really ahead of. And the rhythm of the fight then was mine. I never gave it back.

Do you think he felt the same way going into it? Like, there's no way this guy's gonna beat me?

I think you kind of have to. Like, you know, I will say this, like, you don't feel anything until— the guys that don't feel anything until the moment is the best. Because if you can empty yourself, which is a really— which the ice helps with. Yeah, right.

There's no thinking of anything but that moment when you're in there.

And that process is really like the pre-tournament jitters. Yeah. It's like you get into this bullpen and you're like, is it that guy? Is it that guy?

Your mind is racing. It's thinking about the future. It's coming up with all the bad scenarios.

All of a sudden your butt's a little tight, but you got to go to the bathroom 8 times. Yeah. You know, it's all those little, like, you know, real responses that happen to your body before you go. It's kind of the same thing with the ice, but being able to empty all those and let all those go Yeah, until the moment. And then next, you know, then all of a sudden your brain is— is you're surrendering to it too. Yeah. Because if you're in your conscious mind, you're too slow. Yeah. So you have to not even be unconscious, but be like subconscious mind. Yeah. And then, you know, just like you're super conscious, and then you're kind of in the moment, and then you become aware of like, oh, I'm winning. Yeah. Oh, this is cool. And then all of a sudden you have an emotional yes. Yeah. And then there's no way, you know, you're done. Yeah, it's over, right? That was a big mistake, bro. Like, yeah, you know, you're never coming back now. Yeah.

So like we waste so much energy being not in the moment. I agree. And if you can have all your power in the moment, you— I mean, there's— you're exponentially better. You get in that flow state. Yeah, right. Like everyone's been in the flow state where they just feel like answers come to them, ideas come to them. They're just in it. But most people are very rarely in the flow state unless it's like game time. But if you can get in that flow state every day, life can change very quickly. Yeah, I just want—

I saw like Have y'all ever heard of a guy named Scott Sonnen?

I have not.

He's old school, but he's kind of like sold out a little corporate America, but that was a big part of his stuff. So you have Pavel on one side of fitness, right, who's all about like, you know, strength and power and tension and tight. And then you had Sonnen on the other side, and they were both in Russia. Scott was an American guy, but he had a horrible accident, was kind of like paralyzed from the waist down, but he rehabbed himself back through just flowing. Right, so paralyzed. Yeah, basically, right? Like, so like he basically like took his little spine injury and just started working on like body flows. Wow. Okay, I can't do this, but if I do, I'm just gonna flow. I'm just gonna like keep my body moving, you know, motion is lotion kind of idea. And eventually over time kind of rehabbed himself and then kind of combated, went to Russia, became a samba world champion. And so like, yeah, yeah. Yeah. And he was already, he was a sambo competitor, but then after the injury came back and became a sambo world champion. So the, there's a story, it's kind of crazy. Pavel's whole kettlebell, like, which I love Pavel, right? I'm, I, I think there's gotta be a balance between power and flow, right? Mm-hmm. Tension and non-tension, right? The ability to kind of like be the bridge for tension and, and the ability to stop tension. Well, Pavel, there's a, there's a, a rumor or a story, I don't know how true it is, that they both met at a fitness workshop in Russia. And so Pavel was like, oh, you little American, who is this? You don't know real power. And Sanh was like, no, I do. Like, you know, like I just transfer the energy, you know, like I don't have to create the energy. No, you don't know. He's like, well, how about this? Pavel was like, I punch you, you still stand, you get to punch me, you know? And he was like, you go first though, right? So yeah, so Sanh hit him right in the chest. He gets all tight and strong and he's like, okay, no problem. And my Russian accent's horrible, right? I actually don't know why I'm doing that. I'm like, why are you doing this?

That's the story. Yeah.

So then Pavel punches him and he just kind of receives it, kind of like a very escrima vibe, right? And Pavel just, um, and walked away, right? So both of them kind of like agreed to disagree. But, you know, I think that's where jiu-jitsu is cool, is because you'll have guys that are not powerful enough to beat a big guy. You know, you look at some of these dudes, like Gordon Ryan's a powerful guy, but he has a good balance between flow and power. And then you look at like Mike Musumeci, right, like who has no power, but yet is fluid enough and mentally processing at a level that like most people can't even do. So they can't even handle his flow, and he gets into his positions and finishes guys before they're ever there. You know, I think that's what's really cool about jiu-jitsu is there's space for both styles of thinking. Yeah. And the ones that can blend them both is why I think you see Gordon Ryan like excelling at a level that no one else is killing everybody.

How do you take the power and flow kind of concept from sports into life? Hmm.

Oh man, dude. I mean, I'm sure you've had things in business and things to where there's things that are just out of your control. and you've just got to figure out how to make lemonade every day. 100%. Really? Every day. But then there's other things that you're 100% in control of and you make sure that they happen. And so it's not also that you're having to pivot, right? Yeah. So again, that's just life. Okay, let's take a marriage, a good marriage, right? Like, you know, my wife and I have been married for, geez, 15 years. Yeah. Our 15th wedding anniversary. And I could be wrong. Congratulations. Thank you very much, Thomas. Yeah. But like, If I approach that from a power standpoint, right? Yeah, you're done. Do what I say because I'm the husband. Da da da da da. And the reality here of how I have to die to my wife, right? And be able to pivot, be flexible, flow, do everything else. But in the same scenario, she's also going to be able to hear me and understand my wants, my desires, the thoughts, and the marriage of those two concepts, right?

You know, that's huge. That's good stuff.

It's so important. And then a lot of days, our ability just to be able to hear. A lot of times it's not even that you're right, it's just they want to be validated for their emotion. Yep. Again, if I'm coming at it from a power standpoint, how well am I actually hearing the concerns that she's got? And if all she's wanting to know that, hey, I hear you. Oh, I got it. And then she all of a sudden hears me a little bit better. Yeah. She's awesome. She's way better than me. She's my upgrade, right? Like I always say all the time, she's the wife that I never deserved, but I got. Yeah. She's pretty awesome. But to your point, I think you see it more in relationships than you see like anywhere else.

Yeah, that's, that's great advice. I mean, a lot of people, especially younger people, maybe people listening that haven't been in relationships yet, I don't think they realize that it's, it's its own union that grows through time. They think of it like, what's my benefit from it? What's their benefit from it? And they look at it as a form of separation, but it's actually a union. You're really one. Your family is one. Like, I'm starting to feel that now. I just had a son, 6 months old. And it's awesome. First of all, it's amazing. It's the best. But it's like my— I don't feel like me anymore. I feel like I am one with my family. We're one unit. Yeah. And there's nothing that could separate us. It used to be, you know, I grew up with a single mom, only child. I never had like marriage and family in my blueprint of like the natural next step. I was always like, how can I gain the most? But now I look at it as a— it's a union and we're growing. You know, we put more into the family now and the family blossoms into something more beautiful than you could have imagined it from your own perspective.

I think that's beautiful. Congratulations on the son. That's pretty crazy, right?

Yeah. Yeah, it's, it's— I can't even— yeah, they've got no words. No words. I never— everyone said that before I had a son, I was gonna be the best thing in the world, and I conceptually understood it. When I experienced it, a thousand times more powerful. Yeah.

Can you think of anything else in your life that changed your perspective on life in an instant other than like, you know, you're going to the hospital, you're doing it, but then all of a sudden the baby's born, you're like Man, life changes.

Yeah, dude, we had a crazy labor actually. So we were doing a home birth.

That's crazy.

We had— yeah, we had it all.

She had the doula come and everything, the midwife.

We had the birthing tub and the, you know, we planned on like having him come into the world, like be in our bed, have the dogs there, peace. Yes, you know, no hospital lights, no beeping, no frantic energy. Let's bring him into a peaceful, beautiful world. And, uh, 3 days into labor, every 5 minutes my wife's con— we were up for 60 hours and the, the— she wouldn't get past 9 centimeters. So we're like, let's call it quits, let's go to the hospital, let's get you an epidural. We didn't sleep for 60 hours. I was up for 60 hours with her the whole time, breathing every contraction. Went to the hospital. Intense. We got to the hospital, she got some pain meds so she could take a nap. Right when she got that, the baby's heart rate dropped quickly, and I'm like panicking. And now I'm like 60 hours of no sleep, right? So my energy is super low. All the negative thoughts are, are like— it's unbelievable how, how much pressure and stress and anxiety. It's the most I've ever had, the worst I've ever felt. Went in to get an emergency C-section. They go cut into my wife and she— the anesthesia is not working, so she feels it. She's screaming. They got to put her out right when they're pulling out the baby. It's like a scene out of a movie.

I'm like I'm like, do you want me to stay with you or go to him?

And she's like, go to him. She's out. And I'm like, is she alive? Is she not? And now my baby comes into the world. I'm 60-something hours on no sleep, and I'm just like, oh my God. And, you know, 15 minutes later was the most love I've ever felt in my life when she woke back up. And we— so it went from the most pain in my life ever to the most love in my life ever in 15 minutes, which was the craziest human experience I've ever had.

Yeah, that's a crucible if I've ever heard one.

It was insane. And we got to the, to the suite, you know, we, we ended up, we didn't want our family to come in for a week. We wanted a week by ourselves, but I'm like, yo, you guys got to fly in. We need some help. And the next day I was like, I felt like Santa Claus. I went to this, I went to like the Gucci store. I bought my mom, my mother-in-law, my sister-in-law, my wife. I'm buying everyone gifts. I'm like, it was the most love I'd ever felt in my life the next day, but it was extremely painful and extremely scary. Going through that. Uh, but she gets deeper.

Tell them it only gets deeper. Yeah, that's true.

How many, how many kids do you have?

I have 3. Yeah, 3 girls. Ari, Lila, and Jalen. Jalen's my little monster. Lila is my little like Miss Priss cheerleader. Ari's our volleyball stud, right? Nice thing. Nice. Um, but man, you know, I can't— so all girls, all girls, bro. Yeah, yeah. Wow. That's why we have 3. We tried, we tried, we tried, bro. But like I honestly wouldn't have it any other way, you know, like having the girls. Now, like, I have like, uh, 4 academies full of boys that I'll call my own.

So it's kind of crazy. That's beautiful.

I have too many boys, to be honest. That's right. Yeah. And the fighters are all like little children too. So the, like, adults that—

yeah, a lot of people that look up to you as a leader, as a father figure. Yeah. I mean, Dustin always, every time he talks about you, he's got so much respect. You, you have some kind of presence in your in your academies that, you know, people really look up to you, man.

We really go— I mean, I appreciate it, Jared. Dustin's an amazing man. He says some really cool stuff, but it just goes back to leadership training, you know, like, you know, our academy, you know, well, one, I, I, you know, kids do— it's crazy. There are certain moments that will define a person and the choices they make from that on the future that they have, right? They can allow the circumstances to dictate their outcome, or like, you know, they go and make it happen. And I had a choice to do either go medical school or do what I love. And when Megan was pregnant with Ari, you know, it was a choice. I remember being up there in Round Rock being like, what do we do? I'm like, man, I don't know. 2 in the morning I went up there. I was like, hey, I'm going back. She's like, where you going? I was like, I'm gonna work on our business plan. I gotta go figure this out. Right. And you know, like the other moment was when she was born. It was like, man, I gotta go. I gotta, we gotta figure this out. I gotta go. I gotta do this. You know? And so now all of a sudden you, you, you move forward. 2 other kids later, you know, 4 more academies, more on the way, guys there. But none of that really would've happened if there hadn't been that crucible moment to make a choice. Cuz you're kind of just floating with the waves.

Was the choice from within you or did you feel like it came from something outside of you or something bigger than you?

I think it was always building inside of me, but there's, you, you struggle with like, you know, what does society say you should do? You know, like go to college, get a good job. You know, like I was going, go be a medical doctor. I was accepted at Southwestern Medical School. Let's go do that over there. Follow in Dad's footsteps. You know, like the way was kind of paved, but yeah, but is that really your choice or is it really what you're doing? And then when it came time to like, if I'm going to invest in failure, let's invest in failure to something that I love, something I want to do. And that's what I want to do.

Do you think it started as like, you know, going the route that you love versus going the route that like made sense to society? It was like your intuition versus your mind. And then you were able to tap into the intuition and then make sense of it. Like, do you think there was a separation there?

Uh, yeah. So in other words, you're saying that the mind was kind of in control when I was younger, and then like, but there was an intuition that was kind of pressing. Yeah. But I would always push it down and be like, it doesn't make sense. There's no way that could work. There's no way that's gonna be feasible for like—

I just feel like most people don't recognize their intuition. I agree. They push it away or they numb it with something else. Yeah. You know, and just, and just go with their mind, and their mind controls their life. Yeah.

I mean, without lack of being able to communicate in a better way. That's what I was doing from the age of like 8, because at 8 years old I was like, dude, I want to be a— I want to be— I want to have a gym. Really? And my mom and dad were like, no, that's the worst thing in the world. That's a horrible life. Yeah. No, you're gonna— you're gonna be a doctor or a lawyer or something like that. You know, you're smart, Jason. Don't sell yourself short. No, guys, that's what I really want to do. No, let's not talk about that anymore, right? Yeah. So then fast forward, right? So then, you know, at a young age you're nurtured into push that down, right? Don't listen to that, right? Yeah. And so then you walk through life and there's certain things that like are obvious tells that like, hey, he's really good at communicating. Hey, he was— he's kinesthetically very intelligent. Yeah. You know, like those are things that have nurtured at a younger age. Maybe I would have like walked into that, that future a little earlier. Yeah.

But it wasn't until like a crucible towards like, oh shit, we really got to make a choice. Oh my gosh.

But so, so knowing your story, so was this after you had finished your basketball career? Like you had after Incarnate Word? Yes. Was this right after that period? Yes, sir. Now, when you thought gym, was it like the basketball side of the gym, or was it— were you already thinking jiu-jitsu? Because jiu-jitsu didn't come into your life until after college, right? After, uh, your, uh, your, your basketball career.

After. So I was done with my eligibility, trying to figure out what to do, um, you know, now looking at taking the MCATs, figuring out that next step, and just kind of like blindly following where it was. Yeah. Um, And then started fighting. And, you know, that's a crazy story.

That's a cool story. You got to share that story. All right, that's a cool story.

So basically, yeah, I hated my basketball coach, Coach Grushkin. You know, God bless him if he's ever listening to this, but he was a horrible man. Horrible man. You know, like, um, anything I did was wrong, anything I didn't do was wrong. And, you know, it was just crazy. So I would print up photos of his face you know, and I would— I went and bought those little Wavemaster things. Yeah, I didn't know what the heck I was doing, but it felt better to hit his face. Yeah, that makes sense. And so I got in trouble for a noise thing, and somehow people talk— so some janitors found out that, um, that, uh, that I was hitting a boxing bag. And so like, you fight? You know, they were speaking Spanish, but I know— me no habla español. Like, oh, come to this address, we fight. Okay, all right. So like, okay, I went there and made $100 for my first fight in the back alley of Culebra, you know. It was kind of like a— like, I— so this was like a fight club or something? Yeah, yeah, basically, right? They just show up, people were filming it and stuff like that, and yeah, it was pretty crazy, you know. Hit this guy's head on the back of a concrete thing until he said uncle and it was done, you know.

So you won your first fight?

Yeah, I did. Yeah. It was pretty crazy. Like, definitely. But it was— I would say it was a win. But there's times where you win the competition, but you lose the war. Like, it was definitely moments where I felt like I lost that battle. I won the competition just because of like a freak-out, animalistic, like, ah-ha, you know? And then like— and that's a scary moment to where you're like, man, that really could have gone wrong. Wow. Right? Let's figure out a better way to do that. So then I Google a thing and found this gym that was in Crossroads Mall. Go in there and I was like, dude, this is not what I'm looking for. Talk to this guy named Chip Thornburg and he was like, hey, you know, sign up on the dotted line. No, I don't want to, I don't want to do what they're doing. No offense what they're doing, I don't even want to say it online, but it's like, that's not fighting. Yeah, he's like, no, no, like later there's another guy comes in and they do fighting. I was like, okay, well sign me up for that. I think I offended Chip, so he gave me two forms of, uh, to fill out. Being a young kid, I didn't read any of them, I just, I signed Sign. And then he took my picture. Well, this one was a professional license application for the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulations. Didn't read that. And this one was their, their agreement for fees and dues. So they then posted my photo up into a website to where then I came back that night, did my first class, was realized that I don't know, like 135-pound men were like breaking my arms. I was freaking out. Yeah. So like I would lift them up like a deadlift.

'Cause you were 6'3" and how heavy were you at the time?

I was probably about 190, 195 pounds, right?

Yeah, you were a brick house. I mean, you were—

I was playing ball. I was in shape. And you're an athlete. You're a college athlete. It's what you do. And you don't like to lose. Nothing. So you just try hard, right? But I knew none of the building blocks to how to be successful at that platform. So I remember this one time, I had a man, I threw his head through. He was hanging onto my arm. So his legs are here. I was lifting up and I didn't— I couldn't see what I was doing because his legs were over my head and his shoulder and head went through the sheetrock wall. And they were like, man, chill the fuck out, Conan. So then my name was Conan the Barbarian for like the first like, you know, that's awesome, Jason. Well, I'm back at home, right? And I'm, you know, licking my wounds, eating some protein, chilling, sitting there. And I get a phone call. I forget the guy's name, but he was just like, hey, is this Jason Yarrington? Yes, Jason Yarrington. Hey, you know, this is a promoter, blah, blah, blah. Hey, would you like to fight Kel Grady in the main event in Waco, Texas in 2 weeks? I'm like, you look like a really tough guy on the— How'd you get on the website? Da, da, da. You're fixed up there. You're licensed in the state of Texas. Oh, yeah, well, do you wanna fight him or not? Well, yeah, I'll fight him. Yeah, sign me up. Yeah, okay. That's so crazy. It is crazy. I do this now for a living. If you came in and you told me this, I would've told you, get the hell out of here.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, you gotta go.

You're not doing that, right? Um, but so I go back in there and they're like, what? I was like, listen guys, I didn't put my name out there. You guys obviously did it for me. I gave him my name. I'm still gonna go. I'm gonna do it because I gave him my word. So are y'all gonna come with me at least? Yeah, they did. You know, we went up there. I didn't have a mouthpiece, didn't have a cup, didn't even know what those things were for really. Did you have anybody in your corner? No, those guys came, those guys came, right? But as we're driving after the weigh-ins— the weigh-ins were the coolest part of the whole thing. It's at Hooters, you know, like, you know, everyone's paying attention to you. It's really cool. You know, it's a great time. I was like, felt like a celebrity. This is what it's about. You know, like, this is awesome. And then we go to the thing and they're like, hey, do you have your cup? No. Yeah. You need one of those? Like, yeah, you can't compete without a cup. I was like, oh, you can just borrow mine. Okay. All right, cool. Sure. Appreciate it. Right. They're like, what about mouthpiece? No, I, uh, do they give those to you? I was like, no, they don't give those to you. So we went to Walmart and we bought a double-sided mouthpiece. Have you ever seen those?

They don't make them really anymore, but you got to put them in the pot, both sides though.

It's not just the kind of here. No, it's terrible. And you got to bite into it, right? Keep your mouth closed. This side is formed and this side's formed, and there's a little like a space in between that kind of has— acts like a cushion. Yeah, but if you don't bite, it keeps your mouth open. So anyway, I'm starting to make an excuse for why I got knocked out. But like, that's why I believe my mouth was still open, right? That's right. That's right. Not to give him the fact that I've only trained for like 2 and a half weeks. And you know, now I'm going with this guy, main event Waco, Texas. First fight of that night though, a guy named Jason Palacios who ends up going to the IFL, had a very successful career and now has a school in North Carolina. He's a really good dude. I had a lot of respect for him. He was really good. He kicked my ass, right? Like— That's the dude you fought? No, no. Oh. He got head kicked. Have y'all ever heard an actual head kick? Like live? In person? Never live, no. It's like a bat hitting like a wall. It's a horrible— it's like— like it's a horrible sound. Yeah. When it actually hits. Scary. Yeah. And it was very scary.

You heard that right before your fight?

So they had a horrible set. They had this little plexiglass window. Yeah. And this like crappy wall that you could hear stuff. I heard it through that. The door was closed and I was watching through like kind of like in the back watching and I just watched him collapse. I was like, oh my gosh, is he dead? Is this okay? It was normal. And they were like— and everyone just looked at me and they went back to normal. And I was like, oh man, oh, now I gotta go out there. Now I'm scared, you know? My balls have legitimately jumped into my body and like, I don't know where they are.

I don't need for the company.

I don't even know if I can find them, you know? Like, you guys sure you want me to go out there? Like, are we doing this now? So what year was this? Oh my gosh, it was a long time ago, man. I don't know now. So, okay, so this is probably like 2005, 2006, because you started Ohana in what year? 2009. Okay, so 5 years later you showed Ohana.

So this is 2005.

Okay, keep going. So legitimately, I go out there, it's crazy, you know. He looks very warm, he looks like he knows what he's doing. I'm just like, let's just get through this and get it done, but let's not be a little— let's not be a little bia. Let's figure this out, right?

Yeah, yeah.

So tackle him. Like, if you— if I could walk you guys— well, no, I want to walk you through it real quick. Have you ever watched WWE? Yeah, of course, because that's really all I knew before that, you know. So I ran in him, and have you ever seen when they like, they push him up against the ropes and then they push him against the other ropes and they go—

yes. So wait, that's not real?

Well, it didn't happen. I pushed him into the ropes, and when he came back, I just grabbed him and his momentum came and I flipped him. It was like a legit WWE move. I wouldn't say it was legit, you know, but it worked, you know. And I am now on top of you.

The real question is, I have to ask, is this real? I tried to find this fight.

So is it not recorded on YouTube? So it was taken off, edited for some kind of like content purposes. So it's either the audio that was used on the highlight— you don't remember they used to do that? Like, hey, this has been removed because either the artist or whatever. So it— there is a recording. Okay, I showed it to my wife, and then like literally like 2 weeks later she went to go look it up and she was like, babe, what happened to the video? Did you take it down? Because I wanted to show some of my friends. And I was like, well, let me look, you know, because I totally showed everyone. Yeah, that was kind of cool. It's like, hey, look at the scene where I got knocked out. Yeah, because so the next morning when I woke up, I had a MySpace message and it was from this guy, Kale Grady's little brother, and he was like My brother kicked your ass, you know? And literally it was a highlight video with like a screamo artist, like some kind of rock. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it was just our fight over and over, the knockout happening over and over. How'd you get knocked out?

Yeah, kick or a punch? Oh, it was a punch.

So like, we were on the ground. I mounted him fairly easy. I kind of had a natural affinity for the ground. Okay, man. Right. Yeah. I wasn't the best striker, but I was a decent little wrestler. Don't really know why. Interesting idea, but had a little natural affinity for just figuring out like some of the knots and problems and it was like chess. So I kind of like— so I mounted him fairly quickly. He was a guy who's been training for a lot longer than me and started punching him and couldn't figure out how to make him harder. You know, like it didn't seem like it was bothering him that much, you know, but I'm getting really tired.

Yeah. So he's fully on his back. He's fully on his back.

He's shelled up and I'm I'm going crazy for about a minute. They still haven't stopped the fight. I'm like, why haven't they stopped the fight? You know, like, come on, this is— obviously I'm winning. Yeah. We now make our way to where I'm still mounted, he's moving, I'm moving with him. We're under the fence, we're underneath the ropes, we're in a boxing ring. Oh wow. He's underneath the ropes. I don't know what to do, so I just jump up like this and I stick my head through the ropes and I'm hitting too. I'm legitimately exhausted. The ref comes over, uh, Mark Kalloy was the ref. I'll never forget it. I don't really like him that much anymore. Yeah, but he's a good guy. He's a good ref, but he made a horrible choice. Yeah, but anyway, he stands us back up and in my head I was— that was such a like moment in that fight that I was like, are you kidding me?

Like what? Yeah, in no other nor no normal circumstances they would do that.

Well, I also don't know. Yeah, does that make sense? Yeah, like where I'm at in that moment, I don't know, but that was like earth-shattering. I am so— I'm winning, this is good. Let's just keep him here. As long as they stay here, yeah, I'm all right. Yeah, wait, what do you mean?

Wait, what? Stand back up now. No, this is— and you're exhausted, right?

I literally don't even know if my mouthpiece is still in my mouth. Yeah. All right, so then I'm like, well, just rinse and repeat. Let's do it again. Yeah, yeah, tackle. The guy wasn't having any of that. So as soon as I came in, he kneed me right here, and I just remember being like— and I stood up right for the thing, and a left hook landed, and I fell. He jumps on, on, on me, and you can— this is what you see in the video over and over. He cups the back of my head very lovingly 1, 2, 3, 4. And each time he did this, my legs go like this. Oh, I was so out. They're stiff as boards. So like, and this, you can see this very well in the video, like when you watch it. And it's just a scream. And, uh, and you were out? I was— I don't remember any of that. Like, that's why I like the videos, because it's a very weird thing to see something that you don't ever remember yourself doing. Like, imagine watching a video of you sleepwalking and being like, oh my gosh, yeah, it's very weird. It's like a space in your brain that you'll never ever get back, ever. When did you—

when did you stop remembering? Like, after the first hit?

Uh, so I do not remember anything past this. The chest kick? Yeah, I don't— this hurt, but I have no recollection of that actually landing. Ah, so like, for like 2 weeks, this side of my jaw was like really, really sore. Yeah. Um, and this side of my face was all swollen. Because so this is the one that knocked my jaw, went like weird. But when he cuffed me, he was hitting me this side of my face like non-stop. So this part was just like this, swollen for like 4 or 5 days. Eventually it went down, but it hurt to talk because of my left side of my jaw. So the MySpace message was crazy. So like I would show that to people being like, hey, hey, you wanna know why I train? This is why. Like, yeah, I'm— this is not gonna be my story. So it was like my— I would wake up and I would watch that before I do my breakfast. How old was that kid that reached out to you on MySpace? He's probably like 8 or 9 years old. It was not an old kid. It was like, my brother kicked your ass. Rawr! You know, like— That is so funny. Yeah, it is now. It was definitely not funny then.

So I'm thinking at the time, though, like, you— I mean, you're a college athlete. You're like— you get kind of thrown into this world. But in the podcast that I heard before, You were like, "I love this." Yeah. How do you go from that, getting that feeling of getting beat like that, and then you go, "Oh, I love this"?

Because as an athlete, high school, you kind of fall in love with the challenge, make the team, impress the scouts, do that stuff. But it's always the next challenge, the next challenge. But then you go to college, okay, now you kind of get into this fraternity. You know, it's you guys versus the world, basically. And you're going through this life, and these tight bonds that are formed, and then all of a sudden you're done. Yeah. And you're just supposed to finish school and go find a job? You know, like, no, what's the next challenge? What's the next on the edge of life, right? So it was like, well, okay, I guess this is it. And it delivered, right? Like, all of a sudden I've got this real challenge that, like, is connected to my identity and how I see myself as a person. It's like That can't be it. Oh, I love that. Now all of a sudden I have purpose, I have an identity, I have something to where like I'm climbing, I'm not gonna settle. And so that was a big motivating factor for like every— it was involved in every action I did. For basketball, like ever since I was like 11, 12 years old, I had to make 1,000 shots a day.

1,000 shots a day. You would physically go, I'm gonna go make 1,000 shots every day.

1,000 shots a day. You do 100. By the time you were 11? 11. You do 100 here, 100 here, 100 here, 100 here, 100 here. You do that twice, you got 1,000 shots. Wow. You just break it down, right? Okay, well, just do it. So like in high school lunch, people go, no, I just use those rebounders. Yeah, I would do it in 25 minutes. That's impressive. 25 minutes, you just do it. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And you just get really, really good at it, you know.

Where did that discipline come from? Because at 11 or 12, for a kid. I'm thinking Jared Goetz, right? Like, I'm thinking an 11, 12-year-old kid to have that level of discipline. Did someone tell you to make 1,000 shots, or were you just wired that way as a young kid?

There was a guy named Roderick Anderson and Ben Simmons. So when I was a kid, I got going to these camps and stuff like that, and they were coaches at one of these camps. And then we developed a relationship afterwards. And Roderick, he, you know, played in the league, you know, was a point guard at University of Texas. Played a stint in the league and then went overseas. And I was just kind of coaching people. And he always challenged me. It was like, you know, you can be a dog. Everyone's a dog, right? But you gotta do something different to separate you from the dogs. And I was like, oh, well tell me, what do I do? He's like, make 1,000 shots a day. You make 1,000 shots a day, you'd be different. So I was like, well, I wanna be different.

So that's a belief you got real early on in life. Yes, sir. Yeah.

And you know, I was really, I was really blessed, you know, to be able to be involved and have some of those relationships cultivated. Because, you know, if you don't have the resources that my dad did to be able to sow into me and my dreams and my visions and my passions, I don't think that discipline would have been cultivated because I wouldn't have been in those relationships to be even shown that this is what it takes. Yeah. You know, like, if I'm just an 11-year-old kid, 12-year-old kid that's going to play pickup or anything else, I would have thought maybe that's enough, right? I wouldn't have seen, you know, then all of a sudden— and when I was a kid, my mom— this is a great story. Y'all gonna love this. Yeah. So I'm failing, I'm in basketball, it's like 4th, 5th grade, right? Again, 11, 12 years old, right? Yeah. And this is why like I was probably allowed to have some of these relationships. My mom at church, I'm failing, I'm getting kicked off the team, not really responding well to their discipline. They don't understand why. Why is he failing his classes? What are we doing? Why is he not talking to us? So she's freaking out. She knows I love basketball. She's at church one day. She just walks up to the tallest black man that she can find. That's horrible. My mom is not racist, but she definitely made a racist action. Like, "He must play basketball. He's tall. My son will probably look up to him. Maybe he can talk to him." So she doesn't even know this guy's name. "Hey, will you please just spend some time with my son? He's failing. We don't know what to do." She starts crying. He's like, "Listen, listen. I'll take your son to lunch. You okay with that?" Yeah, sure. I'm playing Smear the Queer out in the parking lot. I'm 11 or 12 years old. This Range Rover pulls up on the grass. On the grass, right? This gigantic, tall, 6-foot-8 black man comes out and he's like, Jason, it's me. Wanna go have some barbecue? Sure. I get in the car with him and we go barbecue. I never once talked to my parents.

The parents never said, hey, someone's gonna call.

No one was like, hey, you're gonna go with this guy today. Hey, this is this guy's name. I was just like, cool. Yeah, I like barbecue. Let's go. So we get there and he was like, hey, I just want to let you know, your parents, you know, they came up to me, said your family. I'm like, oh, they did? Yeah. I say, hey, I just want you to know I play basketball with Spurs. My name's Monty Williams. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Are you kidding me? I swear. He was like, and this is the coolest thing about it. That's crazy. So Monty, like—

I know who that is. He's a great guy. Yeah. He lived here for years. Years. Yeah.

Took me to his house after that. Got to hang out with him, play basketball with him. Wow. Hung out with them. Then was like, "Hey, come over anytime." His wife at the time was Ingrid. They didn't have any kids yet. And so, man, I hung out there until like 9, 10 o'clock that night. So he was like, "Hey, we gotta, your parents called." Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's time to go home. We had to have school on Monday, so it was cool, right? Was there. So I was like, "Can I come back over on Monday?" He's like, "Yeah. Hey, how about come with me to practice?" I was like, "Really?" He's like, "Yeah, as long as you do better in your grades, you can come with me to practice." Wow. What the heck? So went to practice. Met all the guys, played horse with them, like, you know, like the Spurs. Oh yeah, 100%.

Yeah, this is when he was on the team. Yeah, yeah.

Um, you know, Bud was a coach there. Um, uh, Mike was not a coach yet. I'm trying to remember some of the other guys. Uh, I don't remember the guy who was in charge of the ball boys now, but that relationship ended up me becoming a full-time ball boy. Okay, for the Spurs. Wow. So I would go when I didn't have school, I would be able to go to their practices. I had like 4 or 5 tickets to every game. This was back in the day when they're at the Alamodome. Yeah. But again, those are the guys who were showing me what it took, what it was necessary, diet, eating. And so I started kind of like measuring myself against what they were doing.

And so it's a whole different level.

And then that's when Ben and Roderick. And so it was like, okay, well like I'm gonna work, these guys are gonna be my personal coaches. They're my shooting coach. Cuz that's what they had. Yeah, they had a shooting coach, they had handles coach, they had a post coach, you know, like the position coach. So I started doing that, you know, like, and trying to act like those guys, right? So proximity is power.

I mean, being around that at that age. Yeah.

How cool is it though? My mom walked in, of all people, Monty Williams.

She must have felt something. She must have been like, she knows he was a Spur.

Did she even know? She had no idea. No idea.

None at that moment. But then we found out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You didn't even know.

No. You didn't know who Monty Williams was.

No. Monty, that's Monty. She was like, "Really? Well, that's good." Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sure. Dude, Ingrid would show up when she was pregnant with Lael. She would show up at my school. When I was in high school is when she was pregnant with Lael. I was a sophomore in high school and she'd be like, "Jason, you're this baby's daddy. You get over here right now. Don't be talking to them girls." Ingrid was awesome, man. You know, like, she unfortunately is no longer with us. She passed. Yeah, she passed. Sad. It was really sad. Yeah. But Monty's a great guy, but he was a mentor of mine. Still is. We don't talk nearly as much now, you know. He's got his sons, his daughters, you know, like, uh, they're doing their thing. But his, um, Ingrid's mom and dad, we're still really close with them. And so we still go to church with them all the time and connect and stuff like that. But, uh, but no, that was a huge mentor. But I was talking about like crazy connections and stuff like that that happened in life. And so like, that was very similar to like stuff with jiu-jitsu. It just kind of like started going and, you know, like there was a level of discipline and a thing that I was unwilling to accept because, okay, I accomplished what I wanted to accomplish in basketball. Now it was like, okay, not letting that be my story in this and going along the lines that developed a passion and it changed my life. It changed the way I viewed, you know, obstacles, adversity, and everything else. And it was something that when it came time to choose, what are you going to do with your life? I wanted to share that message with other people.

Yeah. You think the lessons you learned from those people you had proximity to when you were younger, they were a certain type of leader to you. Yeah. So you've been able to take that leadership and that energy and pass it on to the, you know, the people that now look up to you.

Monty is a very loving, servant-minded leader.

That's the best way to be. Yeah.

He walks it out. You see it. He's very well respected from all circles in the NBA. And it's because he's a no-nonsense, tell you the truth, in love, but he'll tell you the truth. You know, it'll be kind of confrontational, but you know when you walk away that he told you because he loves you kind of guy. And, you know, like, this definitely made its way into, like, who I am as a person.

Yeah, 100%. So cool. That's cool you get to pass it on to so many. How many people now are part of Ohana?

Oh, so at 4 locations, like, at HQ, we have, like, around 3,400 members. Oh wow. Wow. At West, you have close to about 1,500. Westwood right now has, I think it's like 320. Brooks is looking around like 600. So all in all, you know, somewhere around like 5,000 people. That's amazing.

The cool thing is like, if you can leave a little bit of impact on that many different people, you can— they interact with other people, those people interact. You can actually make a big change just by being an example for people.

That's the goal with the Powerful Word of the Month, is just to do like a 1 or 2% change on the people that we directly connect with. Yeah, say that again.

The power—

what we do, a Powerful Word of the Month.

Powerful Word of the Month. Okay.

Yeah, our academy, we want to be— people come to us and like, say, you come in, you're like, hey, I want to like know how to punch better, kick better, choke better, maybe some self-defense. Yeah, maybe you have dreams of becoming a fighter. Maybe it's for you, it's just a hobby, so you want weight, kind of like change up your workout or whatever it is. But what you don't know is when you come in, we're going to try to change you from the inside out. We're going to add all those things, but there's going to be a character development piece and a leadership thing that we bring to it. I love it. That other academies don't take enough time. And one of the reasons is, okay, if I was going to talk to you right now, like, we don't have enough of a relationship. We're building one right now with this conversation, but we haven't walked. When someone is like, we're at two different places in life. If you turn around and call me out or criticize me, even in a loving way, it's gonna fall on deaf ears. I'm not fertile ground for you yet. You can't sow those seeds. The only way to do it is if we walk a little bit around this track, right? Let's walk side by side, right? And the way you walk, the way I walk, all of a sudden there's gonna be like a trust, a relationship is built, and then now that ground's much more, let's pour some seed. Because now I know you're gonna water it, right? So you have a vested interest in me because the relationship that we've done, that only really comes like from utter vulnerability, meaning sincere acceptance. And like, when you walk with someone, there's gonna be moments in your walk through your stumble and you fail. There's a vulnerability that comes with that. And if I'm willing to show my mess with you, not just the Instagram-worthy stuff, right? I got to be able to— that's going to be the level of intimacy. Now, your response to that is going to depend on whether or not intimacy is actually going to actually happen, and then our relationship moves forward. Yeah, whether we like it or not, on the mat you're stripped bare. When you come on the mat, whatever preconceived notions you have about reality— mine happened horribly, right? Like, like, I was shown to not know what I did. And that, like, not knowing— yeah, you look really dumb, you know, like, on the mat. And you're vulnerable at that moment. Someone's gonna rip your arm, and you have to trust them when you tap. Yeah, but they stop. Well, that's the first thing of trust, you know? Like, okay, all of a sudden you take my back and you could legitimately kill me, but you don't. Yeah, yeah. All of a sudden there's like, thank you.

That ground is getting fertilized.

Exactly. And, and it happens little by little. So now if you— if these gyms don't like actually pour good seed into that ground, like, the reality of eventually— this is just the natural order of what we do— they're going to create their next competitor. Yeah. Because eventually, if I walk with you for 10, 12 years but I haven't put the seeds in that are going to like create a greater intimate connection from us walking forward and the trust that you really have my best interests in mind, so I should maybe partner up with you, right? Now all of a sudden, by the time I'm purple, brown, or black, if that hasn't happened, I'm just going to branch off and go do my own thing because I love this. And now you've got a new competitor.

Yeah, and that's the difference between opening a gym and starting a movement, correct?

100%. Yeah. And that's what we want to do. We want to change people. We want to do this movement to where the investment in failure on the mat is met with sincere acceptance. And all of a sudden, man, we've got a bunch of people that are trying to reach their full potential.

So the cool thing is, well, first of all, vulnerability is power. Yeah, 100%. And it's power because you get to actually have an impact on people because you open that— I like the fertile ground analogy. I've never thought of it that way before. I think it's really interesting. Like, there's a lot of people online that have big social media followings. Maybe they have like millions of followers, but they've never fertilize the ground with those people, right? I'd rather have 5,000 people with fertile grounds than millions of followers that don't really know me. One would say your impact is greater.

It is greater. I agree.

You can have an impact on them. They can have an impact on people that they have fertile grounds with outside of that circle. Those people can have an impact on the people outside of them. So if you never have that first seed that you can plant, you can't really have much of an impact at all. For sure.

And then how do you get through? Like, if I was an Instagram influencer, How would I create the vulnerability, right? Like, if I'm showing a lifestyle that everyone else wants, right, right, who are the people that are following me are going to share, you know, their mess?

I, I find it like tough for me to share my— you know, there's a lot of parts about my life that are challenging and hard, but when you're online and there's people looking at you, judging, it's, it's— yeah, you feel the fear of judgment. You feel the fear of what other— what are they going to think? Are they going to stop looking up? They're going to like start looking down on me? Talk about me. I think people feel that throughout their lives regularly. But once you can tap into the vulnerability and you could be open with people, and you see it always leads down a better path— agree— the fear blocks you from doing it, right? But if you can push the fear aside and be vulnerable, the relationships that you foster through that are extremely powerful and more long-lasting.

You know, the crazy thing is that I believe that when people see you fail, your following will be tenfold. Compared to when you just show what people want. Yeah, right. When you actually share like, hey, like, okay, like knee over toes guy, right? It's a really good example. It's like, hey, here are the surgeries I went through. Here's how messed up I was. Yeah. And I bet you if he injured himself today, he would document it. Yep. He would show everyone because then everyone would be like, okay, let's watch, right? Let's see what happens. Yeah. And then all of a sudden his product is going to sell a whole lot more and change people's lives. You know, a really good example of someone who's not just trying to say, hey, this will help you jump higher, this will do this better. Yeah, perfect example.

Yeah, I always watch his videos because he's so genuine. Exactly. Yeah, it comes over. Yeah. Yeah. And now you can connect to 40-something years old, whatever. It's awesome.

And he was on Joe Rogan.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because of the person he is, dude.

He was on Joe Rogan and it was an amazing interview. That's cool.

Really cool interview because even Joe Rogan seems to be the type of person who's open and vulnerable. Oh yeah. And that's why he has such a strong relationship. Even if you don't know Joe Rogan, I feel like I'm friends with Joe Rogan. I'm like, I'll be like, he's like my boy in my head.

Yeah, yeah. If you saw him, you'd want to hang out.

I'd already want to be his friend for sure.

Joe's hands are so small.

Really? Interesting.

You met him? Yes. Like, well, because like at the UFC, there's always things, so it's not like we've sat down and been like, hey, what's up, bro? But it's like, hey, good luck, guys. And I remember I was just like, yeah, huh, like I thought they would be a little bigger because you see these guys on TV or whatever else and you're like, okay. And you have a vision of what it's like. And then when you actually see him, you're like, man, he's actually kind of tiny.

Yeah. Like, like when you met me today, I was like, man, you're really big. Bigger than you. Yeah.

I was not expecting that. I'm like, whoa, look how tall Jared is.

Why does everyone think I'm— when they meet me on Zoom, they always think I'm like a small, short guy.

I need a bigger computer, bro.

That's what it is. Computer.

You need more screens. No, I like it. It's good. You mentioned this, um, you know, one of the things you mentioned, because of the, because of the family you built with Ohana, it's— I mean, to have that many, y'all have to be one of the largest in the world. Like, I don't know anybody that would probably be close. Is there— are there any that are even close to that number?

No. So that's— so there's— that's so like on a business side. Yeah, on the business side. But, but on, on, on affiliation and team side. Yeah. We are not the largest. Okay. I got you. Gracie Baja has a worldwide organization to where you got to understand these guys are funneling people from a third world country out of the favelas that need an opportunity. They find Americans that are looking for a financial opportunity. They partner them. They come in, see if they're a good fit. Start a school. And so they have a franchise deal. Got it. But when you look at those individual numbers of those schools of what they're able to do and what they're not able to do, no one's on par. Post-COVID numbers, we're in the top 0.2% of the martial arts industry on the financial numbers we do, the size of our academies. Right now we're building a 37,000-square-foot facility. I know, I heard that.

Yeah. Are you taking over the Krav Maga?

No, but he's a cool dude, man. Yeah. He actually helped us get into the— what's his name right now? I can't think of it. He's a good guy. Okay. A lot of people say some negative things about him, but he reached out to us and he helped us negotiate the Brook Hollow location. Okay. Came in and we assumed the lease from the UFC gym. But right across the street from where they would be. Yeah. So 1644 Blanco, you see where that construction is going on right now? Yeah. Yes. So you have like H-E-B, Lowe's, Hill Country Interior Designs.

Yes.

And then right next to them, there's a bunch of clearing and stuff like that.

Yes. That's where it's going to be. Yeah, that's a killer.

So we have about 8.5 acres right there. That's like an L-shaped plot.

How big is your, your, your main location now? 10,000. 10,000? Wow, it's going to be almost 4 times that size. It's a big location.

It's a big location. Wow. It's 2 stories, like a little mezzanine. We're going to have a bunch of shows there, some MMA fights, Muay Thai fights. Wow, pro things.

Almost like a little Apex. Oh, killer.

That'll be pretty cool. Wait till you see the, the $250,000 sign that we're putting on 1604 with like photos of people choking each other out and all kinds of stuff like that.

It's gonna be really cool. That's killer. Is it like a digital sign where you can like change things on?

Yeah. Yeah. That's killer. But we have to, I mean like that's one of the best marketing pieces that like 1604 is crazy. Yeah. I mean there's traffic, traffic. And one of the things we, we bought that because we looked at the, the, they're changing where the off-ramp is for Blanco, you know, cuz they need to add another one for that. Hiebner, uh, you know how when you go— yes. Oh, so they're adding another one and they're moving this one up a little bit. Okay. So where that exit comes is right to our facility. When's that going to be done? I think we have another year and a half, 2 years before it's done. Wow. Okay. With the city, but they're moving a lot faster than their projections. I've been really impressed. I'm really happy to see the amount of work that they're doing on the highway. Yeah.

But now you mentioned, I mean, obviously having 4 locations, I mean, that's amazing, right? But you mentioned something in, in one of the interviews. You, you, you talked about the 3 C's, right? And as far as like development of your team, the competency, character, and connection. And I get this sense, you know, like, and Jared knows this too, like the connection piece with your team, with, with, with, with your clients, it's probably one of the biggest. It's one of the most important. Talk a bit about that and how you're able to develop that within even with your team and the leadership?

So the 3 C's we do every day. So like, you know, in y'all's businesses, how many times do you guys meet with your staff on a weekly basis?

Well, with the whole staff, I do once a month. Once a month.

I do once a week. I do every day. Okay. So every day we do staff training and that's basically— we'll all work out together. Well, Dustin does the strength conditioning for us and he volunteers his time. Oh, wow. It's a beautiful thing. We're very thankful for that. But all the staff comes in, we all bleed together, and then we just beat each other up. So there's the competency. Okay. I need to make sure that our guys are performing at a certain level. Right. Well, then that time every day makes the opportunity for connection. Right. 100%. After every session, there's a 5 to 10 minute character development session that we do. Okay. Okay. So we're like, whatever the powerful of the month is right now, it's grace. Okay, so for Grace, you know, take you guys through it real quick. Our first week we focused on forgiveness and mercy. You know, everyone talks about grace as being something that someone doesn't deserve. So what are the building blocks of being able to give someone something they don't deserve? Yeah, we start there, right? But before I can give it to you, I got to be able to forgive and have mercy for myself. So we start there. What is— what's an unresolved issue that you're holding on to? Yeah, maybe you haven't forgiven yourself, that maybe you're not having mercy for. Maybe there's a technique that just like, man, you're so pissed off, or maybe there's a guy that you're avoiding now, that you haven't done it, but forgive yourself for avoiding him. Forgive yourself for not being successful with it, right? So we go through these things, and we make on-the-mat analogies, and then we make off-the-mat analogies, the way we go. Well, then the next week is, okay, well, in order to be able to walk in grace and have a culture of grace, you have to create an environment of compassion. That's hard to do if like, you know, you've had a bad day, you do this, a student's not being able to do what you want to do, at what point are you now not acting out of compassion and now you're acting in frustration, right?

Yeah.

And it's such a comp— I mean, jiu-jitsu is, is competitive. I mean, it's— you're rolling on the mat. It's a competitive sport. But I only beat you because I love you, right?

Like, if, if I didn't love you, like, I probably wouldn't even roll with you, right? Like, I'm investing in you and I'm gonna honor you by giving you the best that I got. Yeah, because I don't— I don't— because look, if I don't, you walk out there, are you more prepared? No, right? So feeling better and being better are two totally different things. Yeah, you can come to this academy, you can feel better, right? But you won't be better. But because I love you, I'm going to make you be better. So because I love you, I'm going to come on, whoop your ass.

Wow, that's a great way to look at it.

And again, me whooping your ass is going to create a vulnerability, right? And at the end of it, you're going to feel love, you're going to feel sincere acceptance and some validation of some things you did good, some areas you need to work on, and some encouragement afterwards. And then we go on to the next. Yeah, right. So it's embedded in every single thing that we do, right? The connection piece is imperative because it's part of our mission statement, right? We've got to be able to develop long-lasting relationships. If we're not seeking and trying to do that, it's hard. My staff has to be a replication of who I am. You know, I'm only one man, and in a gym or a community setting, there's going to be a ceiling to what that reach can be. Yeah. But if I can, to his point, be exponential, right? Get 10 people to buy in, and we meet every day for 2 hours. 2 hours. But there's gonna be a carryover here. You guys are passionate, you guys want to get better. Here, I have the keys. I'm gonna help you with your competency. Yeah, so you get better half guard, takedowns, here's your ankle locks, all this stuff like that. And in the middle of it, I'm gonna connect with you guys. I'm gonna find out what issues you're going through, what you're not. You know, that's a long time to be able to have those short 5 to— hey, how you doing today? You okay? No, you're not feeling good? 'Okay, you lost your job, your wife's struggling, you're having car issues.' You know, we find little solutions when those things— those guys feel cared about, they know they're connected to a greater whole. And then the character development piece, right? So after compassion, right, then we go to humility. It's the bridge that grace is going to be able to walk across, right? After that, it's patience, and after that, it's service, right? So like each week we have like, you know, just these little mat chats, and these mat chats are focused on breaking up on a gross concept into little minor concepts that they can chew on, they can do. And then it's their responsibility now, cuz they're leading classes, they pass this on to the students. The students.

I think it's so important to build an organization for people to feel like they're getting more out of it than a paycheck. Obviously way more. Like when I say I meet with my team once a month, I mean like that's for the whole organization, you know, 75 people. But I meet with my leadership team every day. Yeah. And I'm always Sensing people's energy like, you know, something going wrong in your personal life. Did you go through a breakup? And I spend more time on the personal stuff with our leadership team than I do on the business stuff. And it's, it's that relationship and the bringing each other up. People start to associate being part of this organization as growing, as contributing, as receiving and giving love. So it becomes a part of their life that they wouldn't want to replace with something else.

You're touching on something that's important because at a certain point in someone's life, once their monetary value has been met, right, and it's not rich, right, just met, adequate, right, then what matters more is what you just talked about, right? Their growth of their life, their character, the value that they feel that they're perceiving is beyond just the number on their paycheck. Because once their basic needs are met, like what other areas of their life are being fulfilled. And if you're not meeting those and you're only focusing on the dollar amount, you're going to have a high turnover rate.

Yeah. And in, in, in, especially in like today's business world, there's so many freelancers, people you can get on Upwork and you just look at dollars, how many dollars per hour, dollars for this outcome. But anyone that I know that has a great organization, whether it's in a gym business like yourself, in a tech company, those relationships at the top that you foster and grow together with, they, you know, anyone I know that has a great organization, has those kind of values. Yeah, I think it's really important to understand that too. People look at dollar signs, they look at the, the top line of what can I get this done for, and they don't focus on the relationship. That's why most people fail. I agree.

Most businesses fail. Yeah. Yep.

Most businesses fail because of that. Yep.

Yeah, because they feel like a commodity as opposed to a person. Yeah, right.

But it's people are doing it. It's all about the people. I agree. It's all about the people. Do you, do you think that—

I mean, obviously you you didn't learn this all in the first year, right? Like, I would imagine this was— this is an evolution to where you are today, right? It's an evolution. I was horrible. I want to know about Jason in the beginning when you opened Ohana, right? Like, tell me those— I mean, like, the hardship, you know, going through that, getting the space. Like, because I know this is an evolution that's, you know, even in my business, I'm in the publication business. And those first few years are just like painful, you know. So talk a little bit about that because I think people who know you and they see the success of Ohana, they don't know. It's like they see the iceberg, they're just, they're seeing all the success, but they don't know all of what you went through in the beginning. And you don't have to touch on all of it, but just some of the big pain points.

Well, I didn't even know how to ask people for money, right? That's just, I knew for their membership. Yeah, I knew how to beat people up. I I was pretty good at that. You know, like I had some accolades pretty much anywhere I walked through the door, like it was gonna be, you know, fight club, right? Right. And then I was still gonna— that's part of my nature. I was gonna love them, I was gonna pour on them. But then that next piece to be like, okay, well, Tomas, you know, you know, we're gonna sign you up for a 6-month membership. Your dues are— what would you like to pay? Yeah. You know, how do you feel? Like, oh, you know what, let's just talk about this next week. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Come a little bit more I want to show you the value. I want to do upfront, right? So what would end up happening is because like in the beginning, uh, I was, and I kind of get the vibe from Jared too. I'm a very, I'm an energy guy, you know, like if I feel a certain way, that's going to dictate a lot. So I'm very plugged into like my gut. Yes. I feel it's a good thing, it's a bad thing. Well, I would struggle. I would tell this guy really needs this, right? But like, man, can he afford $50? Yeah, man. And when I start the financial conversation, it would change, and that energy change would mess with me. Yeah, yeah. And you didn't want that. This is a, a sanctified— this is like a church. This is like a holy place right here for me. Yeah. And now all of a sudden I'm like, you know what, uh, so what I would do is I'd have an envelope every third Thursday. Hey guys, you know, it's that time, you know, if anything, you know, if you guys get gained anything this month or anything, or you find it within yourselves to maybe give a donation. You know, like, I'm gonna pass. In fact, I'm just gonna put it right here before you walk out.

We don't need to talk about it anymore.

Yeah, I'm gonna be like, hey, let's turn the music up. Like, let's get back to going. Yeah. And, uh, it was horrible. It was horrible. It was horrible. It was horrible. It was horrible. You know, at the time, we didn't have money for space and have anything. So, you know, I asked my dad if we could just take the little physical rehab center that they had and just at like 6 o'clock just move all the machines off to the side, put some puzzle mats. So we didn't look professional and didn't have anything. I had my eyeball on this little space. I went one day and I was like, "Hey, listen, you haven't leased that space in 7 years. I'll just give you a percentage of whatever we bring in." And he was like, "Great." I was like, "How about 20%? Is that good?" He's like, "Sounds great." So then when I sent him my receivables, $150. Was he upset? This guy's name was Clay Epstein. He was a Jewish guy. Oh my God. He didn't really pay a whole lot of attention to his real estate because his dad had just died and he took over a cabinetry business that was very successful in Laredo. So it was the right time. Yeah, I had done that a year and a half earlier when his dad was still alive. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm sorry, we can't do that. You're gonna have to show me your P&Ls and all that stuff like that. Yeah, but because he was so— and he never really even responded to anything, right? Like, you know, so we went for years and eventually I ended up going to some actually karate schools, right? So they would have these masterminds. And a student of mine used to have some schools in Cali. He's like, hey, you know, Jay, are you okay? I was like, no, we're good. What are you talking about? He's like, well, this probably can't be paying the bills. So why don't you touch base with this lady? Her name is Penny Pitasi. She runs a mastermind here. I went there and I hated everything they said because it was going to change me. It was a business.

Yes, it was the business part of it.

It triggered that feeling you didn't want to have.

And, and I was a white belt of it. I didn't understand it, and I was so worried that it was going to ruin this beautiful thing that we had, right? Yeah. And so I fought it for years, and eventually, like, because of, of necessity, started changing and, and started to grow a little bit of courage. Yeah. And started to slowly evolve. Yeah. And The little successes led to, okay, let's risk a little more. I have a little more courage now. That was actually pretty good, to where then you start going, you start going, and then one gym successful, it's like, oh, well, you know it all now. Let's do it again. Then you realize you don't know jack, and you get into a lot of problems and a lot of issues.

You led with authenticity, which people can feel. I think having that lack of experience with billing and with finance and not wanting to go there may have actually played in your favor, because people probably feel your authenticity.

I want to stick with you. Definitely for building the community. Right. But not for like helping my wife and I out with like—

not for paying bills. Yeah. But the community may not have ever built if you were always, you know, and we lost some people, right?

We lost some people when that changed. But that to, to your point, those people were never really bought in. Yes. Right. The ones that really did buy in, they stayed. And then whatever price tag that put, it was already— it was already gained. Their business was gained. Right. I just didn't know how to close that door. Yeah. You know, it's like an open-ended conversation. It never really ends. Or a confrontation that you're never gonna put a period to, right? That's kind of like what life was in the beginning.

Yeah, maybe if you started doing the cold plunges a little earlier, you could have built up the resilience to go and, uh, probably, you know, I wish I had started all that stuff a long time ago.

Yeah, but, you know, so, you know, went so far, you know, health issues, all kinds of craziness.

On health issues, I did want to dive into that. You are a cancer survivor, right? Yeah, yeah, really?

Yeah. Colon. Yeah, I did not know that. Yeah, like in 2009 when we started this stuff, um, I, I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease. So I had an autoimmune, and no family history, no issues. It's basically like anywhere from your bottom of your colon tract, like the lowest end, all the way to your, your mouth, to where anywhere it— the immune system will start to attack and create ulcers and, and issues to where you'll either start bleeding out your mouth or start leaving out your ass. Oh wow. Yeah. So I didn't realize really what was going on, but when I was like having like 27, you know, bloody stools and not really able to eat or anything, we went to the doc. Um, they did like, I think it was 27 biopsies on that first one. Yeah. And they diagnosed me with Crohn's. It was, it was, wasn't looking too good. Yeah. You know, uh, started doing these alternative therapies, you know, go, seemed to kind of get it under control. You know, 2 or 3 years, I have another really bad flare. But now they're like, oh, well, now it's just colitis. The difference between Crohn's and colitis is now it's just primarily focused on the bottom part of your colon. Okay, right. So like, it's not the entire tract from the colon all the way up to your mouth, right?

You're better off with colitis than Crohn's?

Well, you know, like, I don't know if better off is probably— it's just a different problem. Okay, right. Like, there's different therapies, there's different ideas, you know, like, because if it's really concentrated, the level of like how much is going, well, deteriorate and the potential for cancer increases if it's a focused area. Oh, right. Okay. So like when you develop colitis, you kind of have a 3 to 4 year term if you don't get it under control to where like the potential for cancer increases. Turns into cancer. Okay. Yeah. So about 2 more deals and then, man, in 2014. Yeah. Tailing like mid part of 2014, they were like, oh, it's diverticulitis. And then they went in, went to the thing, and they were like, oh, it's not diverticulitis, you have a tumor growing in your colon. Wow. You know, like, we want to take the colon out. Well, you can't do that. I can't do a bag. Yeah, I got to roll with guys like Trevor, Dustin. They're not going to do that if I have a pile of crap carrying around with me. Yeah. So, um, so we didn't do that. So we elected instead to do the chemo route and everything else. Wow. Um, that was in '14. So that was when I started chemo Tail end of '14 and did for the entire year of 2015. Damn. Wow.

And this is with the IV. You're kind of sitting in there. Yeah. OK.

Well, at first it was IV. Yeah. But then I was unable to drink water or eat food. It got so bad to where there was a disconnect. So like, I was going so much that any time I had a reaction, if something touched my mouth, I would have a psychological response that would say, you got to go to the restroom. So it was like anxious anxiety, and then the spasm— those muscles were so like overworked. Yeah, that any trigger, boom, and I would bleed. And so like the doctor was like, hey, let's just stop eating and drinking. Let's hook you up to a PICC line. That'll be good for your chemo treatments and everything else like that, you know. And that way you'll get your nutrients through the bag. Have you guys ever heard of a TPN bag? No. It's horrible. It smells. You wear this little backpack and it's disgusting, and they have this little thing that hooks it to the port that goes right this way that connects to your heart. Yeah. So they connected it to my heart, and when they did, I was like, man, this doesn't feel right. They're like, oh, you're just being weird. I was like, no, it doesn't feel right. And they're like, no, it'll go away in a couple days. Never went away. Yeah. But I just kind of grinned and beared it. Um, we'll go to the gym. Like, um, when you're going through something like cancer or some kind of like life-altering disease, there are certain things that are anchors that you kind of hold to, whether it's family Maybe it's your job, maybe it's like a hobby running, to where like, as long as I don't have to give that up, right? Like, yeah, I can go through this. Yeah. Well, so for me, you know, Ohana was one of my anchors. And so like, if, if I had gone to Ohana and I didn't train, I would have felt worthless and like a piece of shit. Yeah. So I would go every day and I would still train. And you know, they're not the cleanest people. Yeah. Neither the mats, right? Like there's a level of bacteria that everyone has that when we're like sweating on each other and wrestling and doing all that stuff. Well, that stuff was right there, right? Right. So I— they would clean it once a week. Well, when I was— I said, that's probably not enough, can we do two? We could pay extra. So they would come, they would come in there and like right after a session they would undo everything and clean it up and all that stuff. Well, eventually it got infected, but we didn't know it got infected. So that bacteria traveled and just had a port right to my heart. Oh my gosh. So going to chemo, feeling like crap, really hating my life. Across the board. You know, there were moments to where— and, and this is also why I believe that my wife— the, the hurdles that we've had to go through life have been kind of crazy, right? And this is one of the biggest ones. Well, this is not one of the best moments between my wife and I. We probably weren't like on the best terms at this moment. She was probably annoyed with me because I would come home and I would have these rolling fevers from the chemo and, you know, just really not be up for anything. And she was really my nurse and my provider. Yeah, for so much stuff Anyway, this day I went in, went to the restroom. I was not really feeling that great, sat down, and all of a sudden— y'all remember the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge? Of course. Well, that's what it felt like. Out of nowhere, I was like, all of a sudden everything was freezing and it was very, very cold, and I couldn't move my hands, my legs, or anything. And I just fell over. She thought I was being silly. She thought I was just joking. Yeah. Well, what had happened at that moment, we think, is that eventually the the bacteria had eaten through my heart and it just kind of like boom. And that bacteria was now proliferating through my body. And so, um, I couldn't move, like I was going septic and we didn't know that. Oh, Jesus, I was talking like this. I couldn't really get my jaw to move. And I was like, I don't know. She was like, did you take your Tylenol? I don't know, I can't really move. Oh, you'll be fine. You know, like, that's where we were at when we were downstairs. Getting upstairs was like one of the most difficult things. I'm like crawling, and I'm— it's so hard to move your body when this is going. It's like something's not right. Yeah. So Megan saw that and she was like, man, you need to call your dad, you need to go to the hospital. Like, no, no, because we would call my dad a lot. Yeah. And so I don't want to call my dad unless it's an actual emergency. This is just a rolling fever, because when you're going, you get used to these kind of like episodes. Yeah, you're feeling shit, there's no real answer, whatever. Whatever, laying there. She can't go to sleep. I now am not able to talk. I'm not able to like move my hands. It was just getting— world was getting colder and colder and colder. She calls, they come, they pick me up, they take me, you know, like I'm virtually dying in the hospital. They're like, oh my gosh, he's crazy, I'm coding. They're like coming in, boom, boom, you know, like it's a crazy little circus for a little bit. I spent about a week and a half in the ICU after that, and after that I was just like, man, screw all the doctors. I'm done doing this stuff. Like, I'm not listening to any of them. Yeah, you know, I almost just died. Yeah, I don't want to do this anymore. So we stopped. We stopped all the chemo, we stopped all that stuff, and we just did a juice fast for another 90 days. Seriously? Wow. Came back in 3 months after that, they said you're cancer-free.

90 days juice fast. Cancer-free. How long had you been—

you've been doing chemo for a year?

Over a year. Wow. So you— what were you using for juice? Just like vegetables, fruits?

We just went to, uh, we went to like— I forget which juice place that we went. They're no longer there. Earth, I think it was.

You just ordered juices? No, we just—

hey, like, just give me this, this, this, and this. And then, um, there was a girl, she's no longer here with us, I think she died. Yeah, um, or she's struggling. She was kind of in the same boat. She had a couple recipes, so she was like, do these, these, these, these, and these. Yeah. And so Megan started juicing those, and whenever we couldn't, we complement with those. Yeah. But I hadn't touched anything to my lips for over 90 days because the TPN. Wow. So like, I was psychologically ready to not eat food. Yeah, I was already kind of like— if you've ever done a autophagy water fast, there's a moment where you kind of like, okay, This is cool. Yeah, right. And then there's a limit.

You're like, yeah, this is done. It messes with your mind.

Yeah, I need something, right? Yeah. So I was at a point because I was still getting calories through TPN, so the psychological component of not eating was conquered. Yeah, because the first couple weeks of TPN is like, give me something. Like, yeah, I— no, you're good, you have enough calories. No, I need something. No, you can't have anything, Jason. Right. No, no, just give me something. No, that's gonna mess up your formula with your bag. All right, well, they mess with the formula, you get all bloated, your face is all— then they change your formula, then you don't eat, and they're like, oh, you're not getting enough. So there was like this— so I had to overcome the psychological standpoint of just the TPN bag, of not being able to eat anything. Yeah, well, what I already conquered— so the time I'm doing juice, man, I'm like, this is heaven. Yeah, I get to actually put something in my mouth and eat. So the juice fast was like one of the easiest things I've ever done.

Did you start feeling better? How long after you started the juice fast? Did you— within a month. Really? Yeah. Wow, within a month. That's crazy.

And, uh, like, uh, little by little, um, you know, like, um, we did some other alternative therapies to kind of like control the anxiety and stuff like that to stop going to the restroom. Yeah, because I just needed to stop going to the restroom. Yeah, if I could give that thing a little bit of rest and then allow my body to heal itself and take care of it. But the crazy thing is, is like, why didn't the docs like give me an option like that? Mm, not in their system. No, it's not. And that's a concern that like we have. How much did that treatment cost?

The chemo, the, the, the other thing you had?

I mean, I don't have health insurance anymore because I don't support the system. It's a system. I don't like it. And like, it's just when you look at the EOBs that we were getting, it's insane. Yeah, it's insane. And then you would call and you're like, hey, well, is that— are we responsible for that? Like, no, no, no, but 30% of that you have to do. And you're like, but why? I thought, I thought, oh, well, the insurance is not going to cover these other things. Yeah, it's just a constant negotiation for your health.

So the problem is like the doctors want to do well. Oh, it's really part of the system. They're part, they're part of it. And like modern medicine is a blessing in many different ways, but it saves so many people's lives, right? Heal yourself. There's so many other things you should do first.

Hence now the bio— so like that's what started me on the whole, we gotta do this differently. Yeah, I'm not gonna subscribe to this way of thinking.

Let's start. Is the colitis and Crohn's gone as well?

Uh, you know, so I would like to think so.

Or do you just— it's like, how do you give it a definition? Like, you might have some symptoms, you might not. It's like, yeah, it's not always just black and white. Like, you have this or you don't have this, right?

You know, like, I— at this point now, I call it like my ability to mitigate and handle stress. Yeah. Like, I don't really call it— I don't want to label it an autoimmune disorder, right? I feel like it gives it power, right? Right. And then you start walking through a label.

Exactly, you become it.

So I have these inflammatory responses, like right now I'm having one on my knee, like that big old thing is flared up. Yeah. So, but we just kind of go through like our stuff and we make our way through it.

It's just part of you, it is.

You just work with it. Yeah, you walk like, evolve and figure out why, and it goes away.

That's powerful. It's like so many people label themselves as they have this thing, and with mental health too, right? I have anxiety, I have OCD, I have— yeah. And it's like, what is all this? Like, anxiety is just your, your mind trying to work out a problem that doesn't feel comfortable. Well, it's really a bad thing if you have it though, and you are that person, then your life's going to become that.

Exactly.

But there's a lot of things you can do to work with it.

It's crazy, people don't understand how much they're a willing participant in, you know, like, yeah, if you knew that you were a willing participant in your demise, wouldn't you want to stop? Yeah, that's, yeah, it's so true.

No, no, powerful.

Yeah, the medicine here needs to change. You know, like, that's one thing I love about my pops is that, you know, he, he was heavy allopathic early. Yeah. But when he saw— before me, he started to become more DO-specific and less MD-specific. He still feels that there's time for MD. Yes. And there's a baseline of DO that should be in every person's treatment plan. And when this fails, you, you supplement with this, but don't, don't just make this the baseline. Yeah. If you start ADD, okay, well, let's, let's, let's try— let's make sure you're not mineral deficient, right?

You know, let's get up a little higher, go for a walk. What's your activity level, right?

Hey, let's work on these things first before we just subscribe your Ritalin and Adderall.

And the symptom— here's a solution to the symptom.

Yeah, let's not do a Band-Aid, right? Because you're going to come back and I'm going to make money off you and it's going to be really good.

Well, and then something else is going to come up and you're just going to put another Band-Aid, another Band-Aid until you can't function. Exactly.

Imagine if I treated fighters that way.

Yeah, right. You don't get to that. We would never have any winners, right?

Hey, listen, I would intentionally be hoping they lose so they come back to me for the answer. Yeah. You know, like, now I was a guy with a busted nose, a broken orbital bone, a dislocated shoulder, and he's like, how— what are we gonna do next time? Oh, well, not that, but listen, we'll figure it out for the next time. You know, that's right. Not okay.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's amazing what happens if you just simply stop eating processed foods. If you simply— yeah, whether you're vegan or carnivore, just eat grass-fed, grass-finished beef, vegetables that are organic. That's pretty much what we eat at home now.

Raw, fresh, and very— yeah, raw, fresh, and varied. You stay to those three, like, lanes, you're going to be healthier than 90% of everybody. Raw dairy? I don't do raw dairy, right?

Like, I've been doing raw dairy. Really? Yeah.

What's that like?

We, uh, pick up some milk from the farm every, every week and to be honest. It's just— it's bad when you pasteurize milk. You get rid of all the nutrients and all the benefits. Yes. I mean, they say it's dangerous, there could be diseases in it, but if it's fresh, if it's coming from a good farm, you're fine. Well, some of those— one out of a million—

some of those things, some of those diseases are really good for your gut though. Yeah. You know, it's like the whole idea of a probiotic. Yeah, right. So you're getting that through your milk.

Exactly. Yeah. And I've been— I've been drinking a lot of it.

It's like kefir and stuff like that. It's kind of the same concept. Yeah. Yeah. I had some gut issues.

I, you know, I take a GI map test there's some stuff going on there. I've been doing the raw dairy, I feel great. That's great, but it's banned. You can't buy it at the supermarket, you can't go to Whole Foods and get bought. Actually, they have a loophole. You can get raw dairy, but they call it dog food. Stop it. It's in the human aisle, but it says like for pets.

Yeah, really? I believe there's rules.

There's a system that has— it makes sense as to why you could make sense of it, but the real reasons why are not— yeah, of course you see them as financial.

Our ability to like just be good problem solvers, I mean like Okay, if you have a hypothesis, okay, well, there should be pasteurized dairy and no— okay, what's the fruit of that? And when you look at the fruit of that over the last 100 years, right? Like, where are we healthier now? Right. Because of some of our, like, food pyramid schemes, right? Not even close.

I mean, there was a— there was one study that said, uh, Lucky Charms are healthier than steak.

It's crazy. It's crazy. Has more nutritional value. I think I saw—

you can find one nutrient that might be higher are in Lucky Charms than steak, but Lucky Charms are not healthier than steak. No. But they can publish it, they can make sense of it, and they can tell the masses it, and only certain people question it, 'cause people like their system to follow.

I mean, but this is—

They like to trust the system.

This is what kind of got us into where the political stuff kind of comes in too. I mean, like, it's the beginning of a control. Do you believe it started in the food regulation, or do you feel like it started in the educational regulation? Because at some point, right, we start becoming these willing participants, these followers, these sheep, right? To where it's like, oh, well, the FDA said so, or I guess again, so we don't question, we don't challenge unless you have a personal experience that leads you down a different path.

Then you get labeled. Exactly. You get labeled as a conspiracy theorist, right? Yeah, he's crazy. You show up to Thanksgiving and you don't want to, you know, you're offing that whole pot. Yeah, you're crazy, bro. You know, everyone eats it. Okay, well, what is it?

Why does Jared have to come? Jesus.

Yeah, you got to bring in organic stuffing.

Well, the cool thing is that you got a platform to be able to share with people, connect with people, and, and help people understand these types of things. I'm sure you can bring that to your community. I think it's our duty as, as humans to learn, grow, question, and be real with people.

The hardest thing is the discernment of like, when is that ground ready, right? Because not everyone that comes in is ready for a political, religious, or like, you know, educational food conversation, right? You know, they have— you have to find them when they're in their moment that they're struggling, right? So I always start with peptides first. Yeah, those are easy to be interested in because a guy like, you know, tears his shoulder. Hey man, before you go do the surgery, yeah, right, let's just try the Wolverine stack, see if that helps. Yeah. Okay. No, I'll send them some stuff of like Achilles tendons being regrown, of like, uh, whatever this tendon forgot reattaching, just with like the injections and the peptides. Yeah. And they'll be blown away. And I'm like, hey, this is the—

I ain't heard any of that. That's the easy way to convince someone. It's like, do you want to get surgery? Do you want to try this this first. Just try this first. Yeah, okay, fine.

It's a cheap man's stem cells is what I always tell them, right? Yeah, it's not as expensive as stem cells, which I've had up and down my spine, right? Yeah, which is awesome. But like, man, for like, you know, under $200, yeah, I can try this. Let's go. That's an easy entry point.

Yeah.

And then when they go, they're like, oh, that's really cool. Hey man, well, let's also try a cold plunge, you know? Have you ever tried that before? Yeah, it's the entry—

it's the— exactly. Yeah, yeah. I annoy a lot of my friends and family because I'm like so are on the other side of the spectrum. Yeah, they're like, they think I'm crazy.

Well, you are a little bit.

I'm a little bit crazy.

We all have to be just a tiny bit to go down this path, you know.

But my, my biological age test makes me confident. You should be. And the 19-year-old, it makes me feel like, okay, I'm doing the right thing.

Who— where'd you get that test from?

It's called True Diagnostics or something. My longevity doctor, the first thing we did with them was take that. Okay. But I had been doing all this stuff for years. Okay. Yeah, so cool, Jason. Great conversation. It was fun. Thank you. We talked about a lot. I would love to just kind of wrap up with a message that you have for society. You know, a lot of people that listen to this are young men, young women trying to figure out life. Maybe they're, you know, they've been in the system, they've been, you know, being— using their minds to figure out where they want to go in life, but they realize that there's something else they can do, or they want to change, or they want to learn. They want to take some of these tools tools or tactics or habits that you've shared today and apply it to their own lives? What's a holistic kind of piece of advice you'd like to leave with people?

I did a— man, my brain is going through like 4 or 5 different things. I think probably the one that would be the most like readily available, instead of doing like Power 4 of the Month or even concepts there, you know, I did, I did a, a video a long time ago I gotta find that again. And it was, uh, like the core concept of A Modern Warrior. In this day and age, so many people believe that they have to be ready before they do something, right? But the reality is this is not readiness, it's willingness. And so if people are listening, it's really like, how willing are you to start? And really the question is, how willing are you to fail? Yeah, that's Because whatever you're going to start, whether it's a new health or a new gym deal or, you know, something, there's got to be an understanding that it's not going to go great, right? So are you willing to go through that? You know, like, you don't wait until you're ready because it's going to take forever. And so, like, you know, with, with fighters, no fighter ever goes into that cage, that octagon, that mat 100%, you know. And if the thought process is, oh well, Conor has to be 100%, or Alex, or you know, Ray, Will, whatever the guy's name is, you, you're really misunderstanding. The camp tears you down so bad. You're taking probably about 4 cool entries into that deal where we were talking about Alex before the knee injury was a huge deal. But well, there's also the shoulder and there was the wrist too, you know, like, yeah. But the reality is, are you willing to put it all on the line? Are you willing to risk what it is? And when people are talking about their health, a lot of people aren't willing. No, they're not willing to risk it. So instead they prefer the comfort and safety of like, This guy knows what he's talking about. He went to go get educated. He's got an MD by his name. So the reality is, is whatever people are like on the precipice of is really getting to the point where they're just willing to just take that first step.

Yeah. You know, you're never ready. You're never ready for anything. It's true. Never ready for any new venture. You're never ready for any new thing to try. You're never 100% ready for anything. Never. But you do need to be willing.

And the other thing is, I would just walk with grace. You know, that's our powerful word this month, right? Like, just walk with it. I know it's hard, it's not easy, but it starts first and foremost with having forgiveness for yourself, having mercy for yourself, then you can extend it to others. You know, creating a sphere of compassion that you walk through. Have your emotions, have your feelings, do your stuff, but be compassionate. But it's important to know where that line— like Thanksgiving, right? How do you extend grace to people and not become a punching bag? Right? Like, if you're the one that, like, you know, your mom or whatever, she always is crazy, and it kind of tends to be maybe a little bit on the abusive side, or maybe it's your uncle, maybe it's your grandpa, who knows, right? It's making sure that you extend grace. The fact that you showed up, that's grace, right? You know, that's forgiveness for the last time, right? I'm gonna show this time we're gonna walk with compassion, but here's the line, right? And you can say that with love, right? Hey, love you, bro, but we're gonna head out. Y'all have a happy Thanksgiving. You know, it's wonderful seeing you guys, and you leave, right? And then being able to have a bridge of humility on which that can be extended and going back and forth. If I never share my failings with those people, if I'm only showing my best, right, it's hard to be humble, right? Everyone's going to think, oh, he's prideful, he's ego, and everything else like that. Then having the patience to walk that out. So, you know, I don't know.

Imagine a world where everyone walked with grace.

Dude, that would be crazy. No, let's not even talk about a world. Let's talk about a 5% increase from where we're at right now. 5% would be just on social media, right? Like, just on those things, right? If someone put an opinion out there you didn't agree with, would you give them grace, or do you have to correct them at that moment in time? Yeah. You know, if someone chose to wear a mask, could you give them— could you give them grace? Yeah. If someone chose not to, could you give them grace?

It's so simple, yet it's like we have these knee-jerk reactions to judge people and assume they're a certain way. You don't know anything about them. Almost every time you judge someone and then you get to meet them, it changes what you It changes. I've done that so many times. I've judged someone and I've— look at this, this guy wearing a mask, you know, he's overweight, blah blah blah. And it's like, you learn a little bit about— they, they had a hard story, they went through a lot, they're a human.

Yeah. Every fight that happens, what happens afterwards? Everything, whether it's jiu-jitsu, MMA, Muay Thai, what do you see afterwards at the end of the match?

What happens? They're okay. Hug it out.

Hug it out. Yeah. Both of them have a new perspective of the other guy, right? So whatever judgments were there, whatever, for 6 months he was thinking about doing to that guy and harboring some ill will towards that, it's gone. It's immediately gone. And all of a sudden there's a much more gracious atmosphere.

Well, Jason, I want to thank you for being vulnerable, sharing everything, sharing these lessons and these messages. I think it's super important for us as humans to do this with each other.

And thank you guys so much for having me on. I appreciate you, Jared. A lot of fun.

A lot of fun. Yeah, awesome, guys. Thank you, man.

Dude, appreciate it. Thank you, man. Yeah, good to see Jared.