david: [00:00:00] and I say it all the time that my bodily, my, my goals far outweigh my bodily pains. You know, my goals far outweigh my bodily pains and my goals are to be a good human. I have three kids downstairs, um, my wife, uh, my business and, and to be a good human and to be the proper person in these environments and.
I guess to be a martial artist, to be a Jiujitsu guy, um, to be, uh, to have some Jean Jacques qualities, that's so important to me. And the only way I can achieve that is by continuing to train.
Riley: , Welcome to the show today. I have David Dunn, the man himself.
Um, [00:01:00] are, we're friends from the internet and we've become friends since then, um, in person. But, uh, he's introduced me to tuna fishing and to some juujitsu legends. And, uh, uh, David is a, a fifth degree Black bell, is that correct?
david: Yes, sir.
Riley: Under,
david: degree. Yes, sir.
Riley: Machado. Um, and we're gonna talk today about
david: I'm losing you.
Riley: of stuff David's done.
Um, when you
david: I think we lost connection
Riley: oh, we've lost connection,
david: there. You're there, you're, you're back.
Riley: Sometimes in this things will look a little funny, but then they'll, the actual recording,
david: okay. No problem. I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll talk through it. No, no problem.
Riley: Okay. Um, David is a fifth degree black belt under the legend, John Jacque Machado, um, in, in Brazilian Juujitsu. And, uh, he was, he was there in the early days when Juujitsu first came to the United States.
Um, David's also a businessman. He's an avid, uh, he deep sea tuna fisher, just again, an actor. Crap. The accolades just go on and on and on. So, David, welcome to the show, man.
david: Hey, thanks for having me. Appreciate it. Good to see you as always.
Riley: Yeah, dude. we were commenting off air, but David's got this hoodie on that he's wearing, and he gave me one of those, a very similar one, but the original, uh, early model that he, he made. Um, so I have one, I should have brought it in here and showed you guys, but it's pretty awesome. I get to support that thing here periodically.
But uh, what's been going on since we talked last?[00:02:00]
david: Man, just, uh, doing, doing what I do with three young kids and, uh, the, the business and training and just keeping myself busy. You know, life isn't easy in Southern California because, uh, costs are so high, I guess, like they are anywhere else, but it keeps me active and keeps me busy. I work long days, you know, I love my job, I love what I do.
I love the people I interact with, so I don't really consider it work, but I get up early and, and go hard and. Nine o'clock in bed and back up the next day at 5:00 AM and, and go again. And, uh, you know, I'm blessed to be turning 60 years old this year and still in physically proper shape. And, um, I feel good, I feel blessed.
And it's all from Jiujitsu. You know, jiujitsu gave me literally everything I have. I, my relationship with you is because of Jiujitsu. My relationship with my best friends is 'cause of, because of Juujitsu. And, uh, I'm just blessed that I found the sport as early as I did and was able to, [00:03:00] um, you know, be part of the upbringing of the sport and, uh, still carry the flag today of John Jas Machado.
So I feel very blessed.
Riley: I wanna talk about that as we get going on. But, um, but first talk about David. Man, who are you? Where'd you come from? What was life like as a kid?
david: Uh, you know, I grew up in a place called Brooklyn, Michigan, uh, Southern Central Michigan. I grew up on a farm, a small farm, 35 acres. We had a. Pigs and chickens and horses and uh, you know, I was a farm boy. I grew up on the farm. I always had a, a desire to be an athlete. I played baseball and basketball and ran track in high school and, you know, I was athletic and I was active, but it was, it was on the farm, you know, there was, uh, the focus wasn't there like it is today, like you have with your son, like I have with my kids.
Um, it was just kind of go shoot from the hip and do as you do. Um, and so I, I was an athlete, but, uh, you know, hung out on the farm and shot guns and, and [00:04:00] chased deer through the fields and cow tipped and, you know, did, did what you do as a, as a kid in the middle of the country in the, in the seventies and the eighties.
You know, it was a, it was a fun time. And, uh, I've been in Los Angeles now 33 years and I can't lie to tell you I missed. The country, you know, I miss the, the, the bonfires and the, and the open space and no, no crowds. And I definitely miss that. And, uh, maybe one day I'll get back to it. But for the meantime, I have kids here in Los Angeles doing their thing, and I have my business here still, and my wife has a, a few more years to work before she's capable of retiring.
So in the meantime, we'll continue to push in Juujitsu and, uh, and, and do life here as, uh, as it is. But yeah, my, uh, my upbringing was in a place called Brooklyn, Michigan, just just south of Jackson, Michigan. Um, Brooklyn, Michigan. Famous for Michigan International Speedway. Um, I believe the [00:05:00] fastest racetrack in the United States.
Um. I don't know what those Indy cars do on the straightaways, but I would guess they're pushing 280 or 300 miles an hour. Uh, that was my first job as a kid, was working at the racetrack for, uh, Elias Brothers Big Boy, and I did catering at the racetrack. And, um, I think I started working at the racetrack when I was about 15 and worked, worked with the Big Boy and the catering stuff all through high school and even into part of co After I graduated college, I actually had a job at one of the big boys for a short period of time.
Not a big boy, but I was a manager at the, uh, restaurant in the Pontiac Silver Dome, which was run and owned by the Elias Brothers, uh, big Boy Chain. So, um, what I started at 15, I guess I, when I finished college, my first job was still with that same group, so,
Riley: Super cool.
david: Mm-hmm.
Riley: we're gonna go into kinda your, your business career, what that looks like. And then, uh, but I do want
david: Okay.
Riley: really [00:06:00] brought you into Juujitsu. You know, you said you were an athlete, but you mentioned more team sports and, and, uh, now, now you get introduced to this thing called jiujitsu, and I wonder what that backstory looks like.
david: Know, I started, uh, a TA TaeKwonDo at 17 when I went to, uh, moved to East Lansing, Michigan, where Michigan State University is. Um, I started a TA TaeKwonDo there I was 17 years old. I trained in the a TA system for a extremely short period of time. I mean, maybe a year or so. And then I switched over and started training on campus with a club, a club group.
Um, le in was my instructor, who's still my friend today was my roommate in college. Um, and Le in was the head instructor there. And he was kind of the Cobra Kai of Michigan State University at the time. And had that, uh, had an attitude or had a, had a. Had an image of having an edge and, and ready to fight.
And I thought that was cool. And looking back, it probably wasn't [00:07:00] what I thought it was then because I came from the farm. So we were, you know, we were, we were swinging sticks at each other. That was about how we took care of business. And now I'm in a formal fight environment, if you would. And, um, yeah, that was it.
It was on the campus of Michigan State University where I learned after I did the A TA TaeKwonDo, went to the campus of Michigan State University and the club sport there and trained with leash in and TaeKwonDo for probably four years or so all through college. And, uh, that was my. Flavor for the martial arts or my de real desire or love for the martial arts came with TaeKwonDo.
Uh, I left TaeKwonDo, or when I finished college, I stopped training in TaeKwonDo. Maybe I trained till I was 22 or 23 and took about a two or three, three or four year break after college. And, uh, came to, came to Los Angeles, moved to Orange County, uh, Huntington Beach, California. And I continued to train there.
But my recollection of [00:08:00] training in Orange County in the early days, 92, 93, was I was shadow boxing in my backyard, um, near the beach. I would jump rope each day and look at myself in the mirror and thought I was cute and thought I was, uh, thought I was rocky. Um, and that was in Huntington Beach, like I said, about 93 or so, 94.
Uh, and then I came north from Huntington Beach to Los Angeles, uh, 1994 and opened my first school, opened my school that I have now, uh, June of 95, I would say. In about August of 1994, I crossed paths with a got no, we started training because we were watching the UFCs. We had the UFCs on the half inch or one inch VHS tapes or whatever those things were.
And we would plop those in and watch the motion on the, on the screen from the UFC, and then we would try to mimic it. Um, [00:09:00] my roommate at the time was a guy by the name of Steve Cardenas. Um, Steve Cardena was the Red Power Ranger. Um, still travels with the Comic-Con today and does his, his deal with Comic-Con.
Um, and still my friend, but Steve was my roommate and we turned our. Uh, kitchen area into a mixed martial arts into a cage. You know, we, we cleared the, uh, we cleared the table out of the, out of the dining area and we had a 10 by 10 area that we fought in. Um, we would, we would literally just swing at each other and try to leg lock and foot lock each other and arm lock, and we had no idea what in the hell we were doing, but we were trying to mimic Royce Gracie, you know, we all thought we were Royce, we thought we were gonna be Royce.
We, we just, we were in awe of the whole thing. And so there was really nowhere to train. So we just took it on ourselves. I would say that was in, uh, August of 94 when we started doing that. And I can recall. Leaving, or [00:10:00] when I left, moved out of Steve's apartment who was living with Steve Cardena. And when I moved out, there was blood six feet up the wall.
The carpets were red, there was nothing in the dining area. But we had spent hours and hours and hours until two in the morning. Uh, you know, I can recall starting at six or seven at night and having cocktails and literally fighting through the night and, you know, one after another. And that was just, that was the way we learned.
And it wasn't juujitsu, it was no holds barred. NHB, we had NHB stickers and that's what it was. And so we'd, we'd just go hard and really not have any technical method or any way of. Learning the technique. Then we got a hold of, uh, the ion, Gracie, Greg Kuku, VHS tape, and we had, I don't know, two or three of those, uh, VHS tapes and we just played those.
I didn't have tv, I didn't have, uh, I didn't have, uh, cable, so I would literally just plop this half h [00:11:00] half inch VHS tape in and put it on replay. And it would play on my TV 15 hours a day. If I was home. It would play nonstop. And I would literally just watch in repetition, Greg Kuku and Ho and Gracie and their standing, most of it, standing self-defense stuff.
And, uh, that's what we did. And we just took those techniques and, and drilled them in our, I guess at that time I was close to opening a school or it opened a school and we would just drill those techniques and cross our fingers that we were getting it right. We didn't really have an instructor or anybody that knew Jiujitsu.
We were just trying to learn. Um, we were the ultimate, uh, the ultimate, uh, uh, goofballs, you know, having no, no guidance in just trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together. Uh, we opened my first school, Steve and I, Steve Cardenas and I opened a school together, uh, June of 1995. And I would say about.
Just a couple weeks after we had opened that school, a guy by the name of Mike Ortiz came [00:12:00] in. Mike Ortiz, uh, was a blue belt at the time, but he was a unicorn because no one else had a blue belt. Um, we didn't know anybody who understood jiujitsu, but we put jiujitsu on our sign on the window. We put Jiujitsu because we thought we understood jiujitsu because we'd been fighting in the living room for six months.
So we figured we could put it on our sign. Uh, truth be told, we didn't even have mats. We had a wooden floor and we had two fold out, two by four mats that we put together. And we literally held class on two, two foot by four foot mats, and we would have eight or 10 of us circle around these two mats, and we would train on those two mats.
Um, and that was our Juujitsu class. And, uh, shortly after I opened, Mike Ortiz came in. He had the blue belt. Um, and then he came in and actually started teaching class or kind of leading us in Juujitsu and giving us principles and concepts. If my recollection was right, he was holding out a little bit 'cause he didn't want to [00:13:00] give up the Brazilian secrets in 1995 'cause they were all considered secrets at that point.
And, uh, so on occasion we'd get a little technique from him and be able to implement that into the game or into the training on that specific day. Um, we were holding tournaments. I think we, we opened in June of 95 and we probably had our first Jiujitsu tournament in September of 95. You know, so as soon as we opened we were like, ah, let's, let's have a tournament.
So we opened our doors and had a tournament and we had. Quite a, uh, quite a turnout for the time in which we were dealing with because nobody really did juujitsu. Um, they knew the word because if you were a martial artist, you watched the UFC or you watched replays of the UFC, so you were certainly conscious of it.
But we didn't know what we were doing. And, uh, we put together a tournament and Oleg Tar Tar off showed up at the tournament and we thought we had died and gone straight to heaven. When Oleg [00:14:00] Tar Tarof walked in the room, he was the champ. He was the contender, he was the man. And Oleg came in and he came in and we were in complete awe.
I, like I said, I thought we had all died and gone to heaven, and Ola came in and fell asleep.
Riley: No
david: the entire tournament. He did.
I don't if he watched a match or two, I'd be shocked. I just remember looking over in the corner and he was laying there, saw logs in the corner and was, uh, completely unimpressed with what we had.
But we were impressed that he was there. That was all that mattered us is we had a couple matches and, and, uh, and he was there and it was exciting to have him there. Uh, that was in, uh, I would say September or so, a couple months after we opened, we threw that first tournament. Mike Ortiz had come in, showed us a, a little bit of juujitsu and helped us kind of get our feet on the ground with some, some juujitsu, maybe with some terminology or some basic understanding.
And then it was right after that that I went to [00:15:00] Hickson Gracie's and signed up, uh, Hickson at the time. If I had to put. A date a month and a date a year. On that, I would say I signed up at Hicks and Gracie School in October of 95, was when I first signed up at. Hickson Gracie Academy. Uh, at the time, Hickson had no, no money and was teaching, was subletting from a, a karate school in West Los Angeles.
So he had a eight o'clock class in the morning. I would leave my house at like six 15 to get to the eight o'clock class because I had to go up and over the hill from, from where I live, through the San Fernando Valley up and over the hill into West la. And so it was at least an hour and a half drive. Um, and I could recall leaving my house super early, six 15 in the morning, six 30 in the morning to get to that class.
Uh, like I said, Hixson was, uh, subletting from a karate school, so we were literally walking into a karate school. They had some mats on the floor and we trained there. Uh, I [00:16:00] believe Hixson had the gym, had the availability for the school was 8:00 AM and 8:00 PM I could be wrong in those times, but my recollection was it was a super early class, and it was a super late class because the karate school occupied the, uh, the mats, uh, the other times.
So I went to, uh, west Los Angeles and started training with SSON again, late 95, mid 95. Started training with sson. Really fell in love with the process there. There was, when I. Had a structured class, Luis Klau was teaching the classes. Um, he has a coral belt currently in Maui, Hawaii. He has a school. He was teaching the classes there.
Um, and so I had a, a, a formal class to participate in a structured room. And that was incredible to me because prior to that, all I had was VHS tapes. You know, I was watching Greg Kuku and Ho and Gracie, and then the limited amount of jiu-jitsu that, uh, Mike Ortiz was bringing to [00:17:00] us. Um, it just wasn't enough.
And then when I got there, I just, I fell in love with the process. I got my ass kicked. Like I had never had my ass kicked before. It was a very, it was a hard group of guys at the time because. The UFC had just happened. The first two or three UFCs had happened. And so there was this, you know, cock strong attitude of the, of the guys who were there, who had blue belts.
I don't recall anybody really having a purple belt. Maybe Chris Sounders, Chris Saunders had a purple belt at the time. But that was, I think, the only recollection I have of a, of a rank higher than purple belt, uh, higher than blue belt of an American at that time. So there were, you know, 10, 15 blue belts at the time, but maybe only one purple belt.
And then the remainder of the class was the, was, uh, the instructors or people who were coming in to visit, um, from Brazil and you'd see a black belt or whatever. But for the most part there [00:18:00] were, you know, a handful of blue belts and white belts and. It was a hard environment. Um, the Brazilians weren't so interested in giving you their information, so you, you know, when, when SSON would be talking on the sideline or Luis would be speaking in Portuguese to the one of the guys, you'd, you'd quit training and, and look over and try to, try to grasp some of the concepts of what they were teaching because at that time, I believe there was still like some holdback on what we were going to give.
Um, knowing no. For what reason? I'm unsure, but they had no interest in just divulging all this information to us. Um, true or not? I have no idea. But, um, you know, in my early days there was a rumor that Royce Gracie said he would never give a white man a black belt. Um, so, you know, we were, we were climbing a mountain that had no, no peak.
Um, this mountain went to heaven and we just, we jumped on and we started climbing. And I knew at the [00:19:00] time that I was gaining a power. Um, I'm not sure if I knew I was gaining a superpower, but I knew I was gaining a power and I knew I was participating in something that was going to make me a better person because I knew it was going to make me stronger, not stronger physically.
Riley: one of the things
david: Go ahead.
Riley: that juujitsu audience members to understand is went from watching videos on crappy VHS tapes to training with the best in the world. And I mean, what a contrast that was. Dude can, and you're, you're talking about, you know, these, these guys who didn't wanna divulge all the secrets who were beating the crap outta you, probably for fun because they could, just how, how rough that training environment would've been, but how cool it would've been to be there for that.
david: Extremely cool. Extremely cool because we knew, we knew that what we were involved [00:20:00] with was going to manifest into something bigger we never could have imagined, because at the time, you know, John McCain was trying to stop the UFC from happening with all he had at every uh, level. So we never imagined we could have.
You know, fights on TV and not pay for it or, you know, the UFC in Anaheim, that was not even a pilot, the White House for crying out loud. You know, that was never even a, a consideration or a thought. All we were trying to do at the time was learn a little bit about the fight game. Um, at that time, the training was extremely self-defense based.
I would say 85 to 90% of the techniques that we learned when I was there were self-defense based. And if the technique wasn't self-defense based or if it was a. Brazilian jujitsu technique done on the ground. They always said if the guy is punching, if the guy is punching. So there was the, there was the [00:21:00] situation where the guy was not throwing strikes and then there was the situation where he was, and when the sit person wasn't throwing strikes, this was option A when the person was throwing strikes or was, was trying to progress and, and, and strike on you, then this was what you did.
And so that was always part of the teaching. And I can't lie, I miss that, I miss the self-defense aspect of it. I know the, the world loves sport jiujitsu and they love. You know, seeing the 10,000 ways you can make a guy tap with a guyon, that's a little bit of fantasy when it comes to mixed martial arts because it doesn't work that way.
Um, is it applicable? Absolutely. Uh, sport juujitsu guys, to me, you know, there's a, this thing about the sport juujitsu guys not being tough. Um, I'm, I'm interested in you showing me how you can beat up one of these world-class sport juujitsu guys. I'm very interested because, uh, I can't imagine that would ever be the case that.
Some guy could, in a boxer, could intrude on one of these sport [00:22:00] juujitsu guys at the high level because if one of those guys get ahold of you, you're, you're gonna be a bowl of spaghetti extremely fast. Um, but back in the day it was very self-defense oriented. And, and I loved that. I was attracted to it.
When I started teaching, you know, I was teaching, as soon as I started at hi, we were already teaching. So as soon as I started at Hickson's, I was bringing those techniques back to my school and immediately implementing them into, to my students. So we were also, again, all about if the guys mounted any striking, you have to do this now that those conversations are pretty much non-existent in the, in the jiujitsu world, that what do we do if the guy is striking?
You'd have to be in a mixed martial arts class more so for that to happen. But that was my. Greatest recollections or the, the unique part of back then was, is that Hixson was fighting, that Royce was fighting that the guys who came in from the outside, we'd have these guys come in who were getting [00:23:00] ready to fight for the UFC or had fought in the UFC and, and they were just complete animals.
They didn't, they weren't friendly to you. It wasn't a, you know, it wasn't a, you're my buddy thing back then, it was a, it was, there was some, some ego and some girth to it. So these guys were, the, the crowd was aggressive. It was a different energy. Um, and uh, yeah, that was kind of my, my first early days, my first exposure to the Brazilians and the proper methods.
Uh, was at, was at Hixson School and it is quite a memory. Um, I'm in West LA you know, on rare occasion, but when I'm there, I drive by that location. I go outta my way to, uh, drive past that location. Um, just east of the, just east of the 10 freeway. And the location was so obscure. There was no sign on the road.
You never knew there's just a little alleyway in this road and you drove down, up and over a little hill and then down [00:24:00] back to the back door. And then there was this karate school hidden in the back basement of this, uh, location. And that was where we, uh, that was where we, uh, did our training. So that's, uh, sorry, my family just walked in.
I'm gonna switch locations. So that was kind of, uh, how that all went down. I apologize for having to move.
Riley: I just wrote it down. We're good to go.
david: I'll find a different location here.
All.
Riley: love to you, uh, address how to put it into words here. The humble beginnings, man. 'cause you know, you're talking about, again, Hicks and Gracie, you're talking to some of these names of these guys that you trained with back then.
Everybody was, you know, he was just starting in the us He had just just come into the US then. And so, like you said, he was broke and have any money, had to train in a karate school. He was kind of piggybacking off that. Um, and you've, you had the same experience. You know, you kind of come from, from and then you, you get into a little TaeKwonDo and then you start this jiujitsu thing, but you're, you're seeing SSON from the beginning and then you're starting a school.
And so, you know, business owners, there's a lot of business owners listen to this podcast. And that's, that's one of the things i we all have in common, right? Is we're starting from this [00:25:00] place of, you know, humble beginnings of this. Uh, uh, we have nothing. And so we're kind of winging it. And I, I, I want you to talk about that part of your journey, man.
And just how know, whether it's jiujitsu, whether it's business, you're kind of making it up as you go, right?
david: A hundred percent. We, we had no choice. I knew that when I opened my school, that I wanted my school to be a Juujitsu school, but there was no drive for Jiujitsu. There was really no emphasis anywhere on Juujitsu. So we just did what we thought was best. And, uh, we certainly struggled when we opened. I, I, we didn't have any money.
I didn't have any money. Um, like I said, we were training on two, two by four mats that were used that we've outgrow together, and that was our training surface. So. Um, you know, but those are, looking back, those are the greatest. That's, those are the greatest parts of my journey, you know, those early days and, and being able to participate, uh, in class with Hixson teaching class when [00:26:00] Hixson wasn't a known name, was not the grandfather of the sport, um, didn't have the, any notoriety at all.
Um, you know, so it was neat to, to be there back in that day and, and be part of that, and then, uh, be able to turn it into my own business. I had my 30 year anniversary of owning my school, uh, June, 1st of June of, of 2025 was my 30 year anniversary of owning my school. So it's been quite a journey and, uh, lots of good times, lots of amazing memories.
Um, the people that I've met, you know, having been involved in the beginning, it was so small that you had access to everybody. So if it was, uh, you know. Everybody came through Jean Jacquess when I finally made my way from Jean Jacquess. I'm not sure exactly when I went from Jean Jacquess or from Hixson to Jean Jacquess, but I competed at, uh, blue Belt in early 97.[00:27:00]
I, I was a, I competed at Blue Belt in early 97 as a John student, but when I transferred over and started training with Jean Jacques, uh, it was just amazing because everybody in the sport would come through and train with Jean Jacques because Jean Jacques had a, not the legacy he has now, but he was in the process of building his own legacy.
So it just, you know, Rico Rodriguez, UFC champion trained there and, uh, BJ Penn came multiple times and I was fortunate enough to have a bunch of interactions with him in the early, early days and when he was, I'm not sure if he was the champ at the time or had already been the, probably already been the champ and was kind of.
Back in that phase, but it was, uh, certainly special times back in those early days. Certainly very special times.
Riley: That's when you're doing it for just the love of doing it right, and it's, uh, there's no glory in it.
david: There was no rewards. The, the reward was, is you had a sore back and you were pretty certain you could take a guy down in the street if you had to. Other than that, there was, there was no real [00:28:00] re real rewards. Um, we loved wearing our, our Hicks and Gracie shirts, our Jean Jacquess shirts. We loved our, our tapout gear.
You know, tap out Tapout gear back in the day meant you could fight. Um, so we would, we would always have our tapout gear and, uh, and uh, and, and wear that with pride. You know, that was, that was certainly a thing back then, was wearing that Tapout shirt or that Tapout hoodie and, and knowing you knew what it meant, whether the people that you crossed paths with knew or not, you knew wearing that shirt that you had that had a little bit of power in you.
So we, uh, we definitely took that, took advantage of that feeling.
So.
Riley: of that cauliflower ear. Right? who know,
david: Yeah, abs. Absolutely. The, the Tap hu shirt was the, was the cauliflower ear of 1994.
Riley: Yeah. So you, uh, in that journey somewhere, ran across Chuck Norris, got to do some training with him.[00:29:00]
david: Oh man. You know, I opened my school with Steve Cardenas. We opened in June of 95. Shortly after, just a few months after I, I left my partnership with Steve and opened my own school in, uh, canyon Country, California, which was across town from where I was with Steve. And so I opened my school in Canyon Country and the first person who signed his kid up at my new location was a guy called Aaron Norris.
And Aaron Norris signed the paper and. Wrote his name down and said he was employed by CBS for 25 years, and I didn't put it together that he was the executive producer of Walker, Texas Ranger. So the very first student that I ever signed up when I had my own academy and, and didn't have a partner was Aaron Norris.
Aaron Norris. Tyler Norris. Um, happy birthday. Tyler. I sent you a message. I hope you saw it. Uh, I sent, I signed up Tyler Norris. Uh, he was about an 8-year-old kid at the time. And, and I remember saying to Steve Cardenas. [00:30:00] Man, Aaron, actually, Steve Cardena said to me after he saw the Telus about you form the registration form that Aaron had filled out.
He said, oh, Aaron Norris, that's Chuck's brother's name. And I go, oh, that's cool. And I took it and I put it in the file and didn't think anything of it. And about four months later I was having a conversation with Aaron Norris and I was like, well, you should come train with me sometime. And he said, ah, you know, if I was gonna train Jiujitsu, I'd probably train with John.
And I was like, John, who? And he's like, John Machado. And I'm like, how do you know John Machado? And he goes, oh well he something, something down there in Texas. And I go, are you Chuck Norris's brother? And his wife said to me, he is, and you shouldn't say anything to anybody. And so I ran inside. I said, see that lady out there?
See that guy out there? That's Chuck Norris's brother.
Riley: immediately just went and told everybody, huh?
[00:31:00]
david: Iran told everybody, ah, I couldn't hold it, didn't he? I was from Brooklyn, Michigan. I was from a cornfield. I didn't know that there was a guy called Aaron Norris that would po potentially come into my school. And so I was super excited to have that relationship or have that, uh, have Aaron Norris sign his kid up at my school.
And Aaron had owned countless martial arts schools with [00:32:00] his brother through the years. And so he was a good ally of mine. Uh, still is a ally of mine, but was a, was a, a gigantic ally of mine in the beginning. Um, when no one else supported me. When I had no energy behind my name, Aaron Norris told people that I was, I was a, a great human and a great martial artist and they should support me.
And he brought me people and really helped me get my business going and introduced me to people who became PE key people in my life. Um, and that was through Aaron Norris and that was a. My, uh, connection then of course to his brother. Um, I was teaching his son for maybe six months. A short period of time I was involved in a, a hokey pokey karate organization.
'cause I had just opened and I needed one. Um, and that organization kind of fell to pot when the owner of the master instructor of that organization got in some legal trouble. So I, I distanced myself from that organization. Aaron Norris [00:33:00] came into my school. I said, you know, I just to let you know, um, I'm gonna make some changes.
And I thought it was important that he knew because he was my most important client at the time. And so I said, Hey, this thing is important that you know, that I'm, I'm in the middle of some changes right now. I'm not sure exactly what I'm gonna do, but I'm, I'm switching organizations and I'm gonna, I'm gonna switch some things around.
And he said, oh. You know, I think it'll work out for you. Um, you know, you're, you're in a good spot and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And that's all he did. And he shook my hand and walked out the door and I was like, that's cool. You know, it's cool that I have his support. I didn't think anything of it. And it must have been two days later, he walked in and he said, I just want you to know that my brother has invited you to join his organization.
Riley: wow.
david: at the time, I don't know if, I don't know if, uh, it's happened since, but he, he said to me, he said, my brother has invited you to join the organization. And I want you to know that nobody has ever been invited to join the organization, that people apply to join the organization. And he has invited you personally to join.[00:34:00]
And I'll be honest with you, it gives me chills right now because I know how fortunate I was to have a guy by the name of Aaron Norris sign his kid up at my school and not by the name of Aaron Morris. 'cause it wouldn't help so much. But Aaron Norris had some clout and Aaron Norris. Turned into just my greatest ally, a huge supporter of me, um, and, and went on to support me for years and years and years.
I trained his son for many years, eight or 10 years. And, uh, like I said, he introduced me to, to some key people in my life that allowed me to become who I've, who I've become. So, my, uh, introduction to Mr. Norris was because I was training his nephew, um, and I trained his nephew for, like I said, for many years.
And Mr. Norris made me do the typical process of becoming a black belt in his system. If I recall, it took me about two years of training. I was driving to Redondo Beach an hour every Sunday, [00:35:00] driving down there and participating in class, uh, with, uh, one of his senior students. And that was what, uh, then allowed me to get the black belt and the Chuck Norris system, wave the flag of the Chuck Norris system, and then, and then progress from there.
Riley: It's so amazing, man. You've
david: Excuse me.
Riley: of Los Angeles, right, you've had a lot of opportunity, but, but really you're,
david: Very, fortunate.
Riley: is what, what, I've seen and what I've observed.
david: Well, I think that, I think that the most important part is that we stay neutral. And there are so many people in the martial arts world, so many people in life and in business who, who wanna put up barriers and want to, you know, and I, I, I don't care what your political affiliation is, I don't care. You know, your, your marital status or your, those things don't matter to me.
I, I'm interested in you being a good person, and if you're a good person to me, I'm gonna be a good [00:36:00] person to you with everything I have. And I believe that's what's allowed me to have valuable relationships with some people who, um. Seem very distant to have distant to have that relationship with, but staying neutral and not jumping on one side and, and having strong opinions and it is benefited me in my business career.
And I do everything I can. I try hard to, uh, to stay neutral. I've had my moments, of course, being in Los Angeles and having the government shut me down and play games with me. I, I had my moments on social media where I voiced an opinion pretty, pretty loud and pretty bold, but for the most part, just staying neutral and, and, and staying in my lane.
And that's been very beneficial to me. And, and, yeah,
Riley: Man. So how did the, the transition to, uh, your, uh, promotions come in under Jean Jacques Machado?
david: in the recent past.
Riley: we're [00:37:00]
david: In the recent past,
well.
Riley: uh, in Jiujitsu came through Jean Jock? Everyone.
david: I have a, my blue belt came in early 97 and my fifth degree black belt came three years ago, two, two or three years ago. I don't, two years ago I got my fifth degree. But I've gotten every single rank I've gotten in Jiujitsu from Jean Jacques. So, um, yeah, all my, all my ranks have come from Jean Jacques.
I was the original affiliate school of all the, all the Machado brothers. So of the five brothers, and I would say early 98, I was paying Jean Jacques. I dunno if I was paying Jean Jacques or paying the brothers, but I was paying to use the name Machado Juujitsu in 1998. I still have the banner hanging in my shed at my academy that's got the old school, uh, green and yellow logo, [00:38:00] the Machado Juujitsu logo, and it says.
Dallas, Recita, New York, Santa Clarita. Um, and those were the four of four schools in the United States that were run under the Machado banner. And I had one of 'em, and I was the original guy. I think I paid Jean Jacques a couple hundred bucks a month to use the logo and to use the name. I don't think it helped me.
But again, I was just looking for some clout in the industry because that in, in my field, because that's who I was, that's who I wanted to be. Um, and Jean Jacques allowed me to use that logo. So I did. Um, back to the question that you, you asked a minute or two ago. I was the original affiliate, but then had some challenges along the way with Jean Jacquess.
So I have been in and out of my affiliation with Jean Jacquess twice, uh, about one year ago. Exactly. One year ago I rejoined. I put the logo back on my academy, stopped using a, a different name that I was using and started [00:39:00] using the Jean Jacques name. So, um, this is where I belong. Jean Jacques Machado Jiujitsu is who I am.
Um, and the greatest, the greatest part of my journey overall is the fact that Jean Jacques loves me, and Jean Jacques has allowed me to be part of the affiliation again after he and I've had some personal challenges or business challenges through the years, um, that he allowed me to come back and be part of the organization.
Um. I'm blessed. You know, I'm absolutely blessed. Like I said, these are, these are people at Jean Jacquess I've trained with for 30 years. Um, many people there I've trained with for 30 years, and they're my, my closest of friends, um, people I absolutely love. You know, Mark Armstrong, Felicia o uh, Jay Sabalos. Um, these are fifth degree black belts, and we were all white belts together.
Um, and here we are, how many years later, and now we have all these stripes on our belts and all these bodily panes to go with it. And, uh, you know, I'm, I'm fortunate, so [00:40:00] fortunate that this was my path.
Riley: Two, two things I
david: I think.
Riley: type here for a sec 'cause I wanna make sure and get both of these, but one of the things was that reconciliation man, you know, you, you said you and Jean Jacques kind of butted heads a bit there for a while and maybe more than once, but you guys. It's not like that relationship ended and now you can't stand each other, you know, you mended that. And so between the two of you that out, man, what, what did that look like and what, what, what can you give the audience as far as just, gosh, mending fences? Man, I.
david: I'm gonna tell you that the greatest stress I had in my life for three years was my relationship with Jean Jacques. Um, I had a period of time where I stressed every single day, and I'm not sure how much of this I exposed to Jean Jacques 14 months ago when we had the conversation about me rejoining the organization.
But I had an anxiety that I could never explain because here's the most [00:41:00] important male in my life outside of family, and I have a challenged relationship with him. Um, I didn't have, you know, it was a, it was the older brother relationship where we had, we definitely had love for each other, but he wasn't scared of letting me know that he wasn't happy with some of my actions, I guess.
Um, I never. I never countered any of the energies. I had people say things to me that I don't think they needed to be said or shouldn't have been said about what he thought of me or my actions, and I accepted it. You know what I mean? I didn't, I didn't buy into it too deeply. I didn't have a conversation with anybody about it.
I just stayed the course and told myself every single day for three years, Jean Jacques is my jiujitsu instructor and there's nothing more I need from him other than for him to teach me Jiujitsu and if he wants to support me on social media, if he wants [00:42:00] to, uh, show me love on the outside if he want, whatever those things that, that doesn't matter.
Those things don't matter. What matters is is that I am staying true to my path. I'm staying true to my instructor, and there is, there are no flaws in that. Uh, and I believe as a martial artist, as a student, as a student, martial artist with an instructor who outranks me in the art that I love, I have to be loyal to him and I have to be giving to his desires.
And if his desires are outside the box, then maybe I, I'll walk away. But if, if he's staying inside the box and not shunning me or charging me more or whatever the elements are, then he's my jiu-jitsu instructor. And, but honestly, three years, a heavy stress in my life for three straight years over the fact that my jiujitsu instructor, the person that was so important to me, there was a barrier and there was definitely a barrier.
And, uh. It was, uh, probably one of the hardest [00:43:00] conversations I've ever had in my life. Uh, to go to Jean Jacques after having been an affiliate twice before and going to him and saying, John, jock, I need you. Um, I I need you. I, I, I'm, I'm not premier Martial Arts. I am not a striker by trade. I am a Juujitsu guy and I want Jiujitsu on my sign, and I use Jay Zabolo as a, as a mediator in the middle of it to kinda set up the situation because I didn't wanna go to Jean Jacques and have him.
Turn me down or tell me that I told you you would never be an affiliate again. And so that was my biggest fear, was to go to him and say, Jean Jacques, I wanna be affiliate and have him just say no. Um, so I went to Jay Sabalos and was like, Jay, this is my situation and this is where I'm at. And, um, I know there's been some, some tension in the past, but, um, I, I wanna be an affiliate.
I want to wave the Jean Jacques flag. And, um, warms my heart at the [00:44:00] highest level that when I went to see him and, and talk to him about it, I had an expectation. Um, and my expectation was, is that he was gonna give me a three out of 10. And when I sat down with him, he gave me a 33 out of 10 and tears flowed down my face and.
You know, I was, I was, uh, blessed again to know that he would allow me to come back and be his affiliate and hearing what he had to say to me after having had so much tension or so much pain in my heart for three years over my relationship with Jean Jacques. And now to sit down with him in his office and have him expose what he really thought of me.
And, uh, man, I, I tears flowed down my face and all I could do was hug him and, and tell him thank you for the kind words, the, the support for 30 years, 31 years of constant support, um, 30 [00:45:00] years of constant support. And, uh, man, he's, he's such an ally to me and such a friend to me. I tell him. On the regular, how much I love him and send him direct messages and make sure he knows that I have that true appreciation for him.
Because I didn't, I, I, I didn't, you know, Santa Clarita didn't have to be on this shirt, but he allowed me to do that after, after tensions. Um, and like I said, I think the most important thing in business when we have tensions or we have fallouts or we have miscommunications, is just stay, stay true to who it is you are.
And don't get caught up in the nonsense because the nonsense is gonna drive you further left or further right? Whether where you could have just stayed straight and stayed, stayed, uh, you know, cool with everybody. And that's really what I tried to do, even when the tensions were high or when I felt tensions were high.
Whether he felt it or not, I had no idea. Um, but I did [00:46:00] hear some things through some other people, um, whether he sat 'em or not, whether. Doesn't matter. Um, but at the time it hurt me and I just, like I said, tried to stay true to the fact that Jean Jacquess was my jujitsu instructor. He wasn't my brother. He wasn't my
Riley: I
david: Go ahead.
Riley: what you
but I have a, I have a, question. Um,
david: He just, you know, that I just had to, I just had to keep in mind, like I said, he's my juujitsu instructor. There's nothing more that I have from him other than to go learn jiujitsu from him. And one day when things work out, I'll get a stripe on my belt or I'll, you know, just stay true to it and, and stay focused on Jiujitsu.
And that's what I really tried to do. That's what I really tried to do,
Riley: you had, you mentioned it twice in the, in that last session there where you, you mentioned how other people said. That he said, you know, basically it's
david: Right,
right.
Riley: in [00:47:00] my, in my businesses, I, with employees, I will define gossip as any complaint, horizontal or below. You can only take complaints up.
And that's, that's the rule. And if, if anything you say causes another person to their, their view of me or someone else in the company, uh, causes their opinion of them to diminish, that's gossip. And I fire 'em for it, you know? And, and so question to you is, having experienced this man, like you said, you didn't know what Jean Jocks was really thinking, 'cause you heard it from other people, but then that caused something in you, man, that, that was like painful and you dealt with for a long time. But then you go to Jean Jocks and he goes, he goes, no man, everything's cool. I give you, as you said, the 33
david: Well, I, I think that, I think that that was, that was. A few years of, of smoothing out, you know what I mean? Um, uh, there was a [00:48:00] specific in incident that I, I'll prefer to not talk about, but there was a specific incident that I believe allowed me to re mend my relationship with Jean Jacques. Um, you know, a situation happened and that situation I think made Jean Jacques have a little bit of, uh, turned his head towards me, like, Hey, hey, hey.
And, uh, I think that was the beginning of healing. Um, and it was maybe six months after that incident, um, that I asked him to be his affiliate and then maybe four months, but that moment or that situation where there was some healing took place. It was right then that I started saying to myself, I need to go ask him to be an affiliate again.
I need to put this logo back on my sign. I need, you know, I John Jacque, John Jacque Jiujitsu is who I am, John Jacque Machado. Juujitsu is who I am. Why can't I fly that flag? So it was that mending that happened because of another [00:49:00] person that had then allowed me or gave me a little more comfort in going to Jean Jacques and saying, Hey, you know, I wanna be an affiliate again.
Riley: I love it, man. 'cause you're, you're talking about how, yeah, you heard this, there was some hurts involved, but then you went to the correct people, you know, um, you went to Jay and you, you as an intermediary and kind of. You just stayed the course. Dude, I'm so impressed with that. How, how you, you didn't let these things continue to, you didn't continue to have that speculative talk where you're beating, beating him up.
You, were reconciling it for years, you know, before you finally came to that place with like, okay, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna sit here and, and dwell on this thing. I'm gonna go to him and we're gonna get this thing sorted out. think that's cool as crap.
david: Uh, you know, overcoming that obstacle with a, with a, a guy like Jean Jacques isn't easy. Um, it's very [00:50:00] uncomfortable to, to sit down with Jean Jacques to talk about anything business oriented be maybe not just Jean Jacques, but my JUUJITSU instructor and Jean Jacques is Brazilian. I'm not. Um, and the thought process is a little different.
So I think anytime you're dealing with those elements, it's, it's challenging. And I, I stepped into an environment that was. Uh, I guess in my mind, potentially hostile. And, you know, the, the beauty of it is it ironed out, it worked out. And Jean Jacques is my brother and Jean Jacques answers my calls and answers my texts and supports me in, in everything that I do.
So I'm, I'm very fortunate that that's the way it worked out. But I, I, I think that the key here, if there's somebody listening, just stay, stay good with people. Don't, don't burn the bridge because you don't know. You know, there were times when I was like, I need to go train somewhere else. I need to go train somewhere where I have.
Support at the highest level from the top [00:51:00] guy. And like I said, there was no, there was no reason for me to think I didn't have the support from Jean Jacques, but there was a little, there, there was definitely a little tension at the time. And, um, you know, do I go train with this person or do I go train with this person or do I just stay true to the fact that if I want my students to be loyal to me, I have to wave the flag of loyalty.
There's no way I can, you know, get mad at a guy or be disappointed with somebody for going and training at a gym across town if I just did the same thing, um, whether my excuse was legit or whether my situation, uh, warranted that action. Um, it's, it's, it's the wrong thing to do and, uh, I am so. So happy that today when I'm letting my students have it, that I can talk about loyalty.
Um, when you've paid a guy 30 years, 12, 12, 12 months, a year for 30 continuous years to the cost of a hundred thousand dollars, um, you know, I can, I can, I can let you have it about loyalty and tell you how the truth of it. so[00:52:00]
um, that to me is so important that I have that loyalty still.
Riley: You said something else there just now that, uh. It hits home with me. And that's that when you're letting your students have it, you know, because Jean Jock has probably let you have it at times. And sometimes, you know, we have a leader in our life and they give us the truth, that truth can sting man. And uh, then we have to contend with it, right? There's that whole, gosh, I'm mad,
david: Absolutely.
Riley: I
but time I think we start to realize that crap. Some, sometimes those things that sting are, are the truth and, uh, we can grow if we just listen to it.
david: He's a real master. You know, Jean Jacques is not a master of Juujitsu. Jean Jacques's a master of his energy. Jean Jacques's a master of his life. And you know, now I look back at the way things went down and, and it is perfect. That was God's plan.
God's plan was that I struggled. God's plan was that I didn't get things the day I thought I should get it.
You know, I, I I had to [00:53:00] wait. I waited. I, I don't know. It must've, I must've been two years past my due date for my fifth stripe on my black belt. It was a long time, long time to the point it was driving me nuts. Um. All I could do is stay true to the course, not mention it and just keep training because it wasn't gonna help, wasn't gonna help going to John, go to John Jokin, ask him when I'm gonna get promoted.
I don't think that's gonna help much. So, you know, just stay true to the course. And, and, and here I am, uh, you know, next week mark's 22 years at Black Belt, uh, 31 years of juujitsu training, 31 plus years of Juujitsu training. And almost every one of those years with Jean Jacques. And, uh, not much more I can ask for, truly not much more I can ask for as far as what my path was as a professional or as a businessman or as an athlete.
Um, you know, it's a spectacular path with a spectacular person, with spectacular people, with a legacy that comes outta Jean Jacquess. That's, you know, we had the best academy in the nation from [00:54:00] 1998 to 2004. You know, that was the place to train. 2005. That was the place to train. We had 50 people on the mat every, every.
12, 12 o'clock class, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 40 or 50 people on the mat at noon, um, 15, 18 black belts at noon. Um, just a, just a powerhouse of a class and, uh, that all the, the entire energy was nothing more than Jean Jacques, you know, Jean Jacques showing an energy that made us all so attracted to it that we just wanted it, I wanted, I wanted Jean Jacques's energy.
I wanted Jean Jacques's calm. I wanted Jean Jacques's prowess on the mat. I wanted his communication ability. I want, you know, one of the most. Amazing recollections I have of Jean Jacques was, is we were trying to put together a film and Jean Jacques was gonna play in the film that I wrote. No Rules. Uh, Jean Jacques was gonna play the number one bad [00:55:00] guy.
So Jean Jacques and No Rules was ultimately Randy Coture played the role, but Jean Jacques, we scheduled Jean Jacques to play that role. So we're, we trained one day and we're done training. And this is, like I said, 19 2004. We shot the film, uh, I'd say 2003. We were putting things together for pre-production. And I can remember sitting in Jean Jacques's office in 2003 after training.
We finished training at one 30 and Jean Jacques fought the copy machine for at least 50 minutes. The copy machine would not copy the copy machine. Everything said it was in line to do what it was supposed to do, but we couldn't make a copy and we're trying to copy a 93 page script. And Jean Jacques tried, I would say, for 50 minutes to make the copy machine work.
And he never one time showed any frustration whatsoever. He sat there as calm as he could be for 50 straight minutes after training, before [00:56:00] lunch hungry, and never showed an emotion. Just stayed as straight as an arrow. David, I don't, I don't know why this isn't working. And I'm like, dude, I'm gonna smash the thing I don't know about human.
I'm already take this thing and throw it over the, throw it over the ledge. And he just stayed as calm as he could be. And that was such a, such an amazing lesson for me to watch. This man at 30 years old. I don't know how old he was. Maybe we were 30, uh, with his, with his, his daughter who was very challenged.
Um. And to see him just stay in that state of peace and calm and stay centered was one of the greatest lessons I've ever had from him. Um, to watch him stay that calm under so much pressure, then it was simple pressure. But, uh, you know, 99.9% of the people I know would've started cursing about minute, about minute three, and then cursed all the way through, whether you got it done or not, uh, you know, you would've cursed all the way through.
And he just never showed an emotion. [00:57:00] And that to me was such an amazing, amazing recollection of who he was to see him operate at that level and just like nothing was wrong. And that's who Jean Jacques is. Um, Jean Jacques had some. Jean Jacques went through a divorce, uh, maybe three years ago or four years ago, and I remember talking him in the middle of it and he was calm.
He was, he was not flustered by it. I'm sure he was hurt, but there was no show of being flustered. There was no show. He just stayed on center and calm. And I was like, damn, I need that in my life. I need that trust in the energies that surround me, that it's gonna be okay. And that's really the energy that Jean Jacques has is it's gonna be okay.
And it's, it's special, it's a special energy
and I've done everything I can to, to take that on in my own life.
Riley: it's so cool to me that you said that's one of the most valuable lessons you ever took from your juujitsu instructor was a totally non juujitsu related thing. Right? It's the patience and under [00:58:00] stress and not, not not losing it. Uh. Yeah, man, I, I think of my, my jujitsu instructor and I, you and I have talked about it in the past, but you know, he passed away in 2022, but there's that thing he told me one time and I was just, I was over training, man.
I was, I was working hard. I was working 12 hour days and I'd come in before work and then I'd come in after work and I was doing these two aday, and, and at one point he noticed something in me and he. He's, he's like, dude, you to get off the mat and go home and get some sleep. you're screwing this up so bad that you're, uh, I can see it in you.
And, and at that moment, he was my coach and he was, he was loyal friend. And now it made me mad. I was like, what do you mean go home? Like I'm, I wanna be here. And I said, can I, can I sit on the sideline and watch? And he says, no, man, you, you can't, you need to leave the gym. You're going home and come back a different day and we're going to, we'll get this thing put together.
And, [00:59:00] and, uh, sure enough, man, I went home, had a good night's sleep, came back a couple days later, could do the move that I was struggling with so hard. it was that lesson that was sort of, it was juujitsu related, but that was a coach man. That was a guy challenging me, saying, Hey, you're not ready right now and you need to, you need to take care of these other things first. man, it was, again, it was something I had to contend with. And it, it. It ticked me off at the time, uh, I saw the value of it later and then, you know, I try to, try to now take that and use that toward my, my employees or my kids, or, you know, guys I coach and now, you know, it's, it's beautiful stuff.
david: I think, I think the most, some of the, the, I think the most amazing lessons that we get from jiujitsu aren't necessarily things that we see in the moment or don't agree with in the moment. And then when the time passes, you're like, damn, that was spot on. That was spot on, that the timing was perfect. You know, I talked about my fifth degree black belt and I don't know the exact timeframe on, uh, [01:00:00] how, you know, based on the I-B-J-J-F timeframes.
Um, maybe I was 18 months, 20 months, 22 months past due for that rank. And then as soon as I got promoted, I was like, it was perfect. Absolutely perfect. Couldn't have been done better. You know, it taught me, I, I, I took myself back when I was in that phase of, am I ever gonna get promoted again? What did I do wrong?
Should I be doing something different? I can't train any harder. I'm, I'm doing everything I can. Um, it, it was, it was, when I did get promoted, it just all made sense. And I tell my students that today that I promoted a guy two hours ago. I gave my student a purple belt. And I'm sure that student who'd been with me for five and a half years has watched a couple of other people get promoted and was, why am I not getting promoted?
I can tap that guy out. I can tap that guy out. And then today he's probably sail, or today when he gets to work and settles in and he'll be like, oh, that was perfect timing. That was absolutely how it was supposed to happen.
And I think that that's [01:01:00] one of the great lessons that we have in Juujitsu is to know that somebody, somebody else is in charge and we have to sit there and accept, accept what they see and say, because that they're your instructor.
You know,
Riley: they see things you don't see. Right? They have a different big
david: a hundred percent. A hundred percent. And I see different things that than my students see, you know, I, I, I, I promote based on things that the student may not think I'm promoting on. Um, but, uh, we, we see those things as instructors, and I'm glad that my instructor saw that in me and allowed me to maximize my potential and understands how to properly manipulate my mind, if you will, so that I can maximize my potential
Riley: Oh, gimme an example. What is something that you would look for in a student? Because guys, this, this applies to employees and businesses too, right? Sometimes a promotion
david: Yeah.
Riley: is may not. I really understand at the [01:02:00] time.
[01:03:00]
david: You know, I, I, I, my, the number one thing for me in a promotion of a student is sacrifice. I wanna know that you sacrificed at the level I did. Like I said, I drove an hour and a half one way to train at Hixson Gracie's Academy in 1995 or whatever, 95. I drove an hour and a half, one direction. I sat still, that was a 30 mile commute that took me an hour and a half.
I sat still, I drove four miles an hour up and over the hill for years. Um, so you know, that, that to me, that to me, I, I lost my train, train of thought there. Ri I don't know where we're going with that.
Riley: you're looking for to promote a cus uh, a student.
david: Oh, so, you know, I, I know the sacrifice that I made when I was driving up and over that hill and paying $250 a month to [01:04:00] train in 1995. Um, I know the sacrifice that I was making. And so when I look at my students today, um, you know, if I have a, a student who doesn't have kids who, who works 40 hours a week and he's showing up 15 minutes late for class mm-hmm.
I don't know. That's probably not, probably not gonna help the cause. Um, you know, if you're, if you're, uh, a, a, a father of two and your wife doesn't work and you're coming into class on time, you're there four days a week and I know how hard it is for you to get out of the house. I'm definitely making some mental notes that you're going up and beyond the call because your wife is bitching at you to be at home and you're telling her that your sanity needs to go to jiu-Jitsu.
And so I know the sacrifice that you made to be there is great. And, um, those are. Those are probably my favorite students ever, are those guys who just are a hundred percent committed. And, you know, they'll wake up at [01:05:00] four 30 in the morning and run a jackhammer all day. They get off work at five o'clock and at six 30 they're in the gym.
It's like you ran a jackhammer all day. Your sacrifice is absolutely phenomenal. You know, you went home, you could have showered and jumped in bed and you showered and put your gee on. And I have a lot of respect for those guys. I've had, you know, studio workers who come in after long days at the studios, studio workers can work 14 and 16 hour days and it's not normal.
And have these guys work 14 hour days and walk in, you know, straight from the job and I'm gonna get my train in before I go home. It's like, wow. You know, your, your, your sacrifice is incredible and that needs to be rewarded. Um, certainly not prematurely. But I'm recognizing that sacrifice more than I'm recognizing anything else.
As an instructor, I'm recognizing sacrifice
and like I said, I know how I sacrifice how, how much I sacrificed to make it work
so.
Riley: really nicely into another question I had for you. 'cause you had mentioned, [01:06:00] um, Jay and well, and, and a few of the names I didn't know, but some of the fifth degrees that are, were you were white belts with, right. That. When you're talking about something that you've been involved with for 30 years, 31 years, you said how many people gave up early and are no longer training. Right. How many people have you seen over those years would you estimate?
david: Nobody that started before me is still there. I'm, I'm, I'm the, I'm the last standing guy. Uh, Scott. Uh, Scott. Scott. Scott Scott, Jean Jacquess, uh, fifth degree Black Belt. Scott, I believe I'm blank for his last name. Scott, uh, probably started at Jean Jacquess a minute before me. We can't really put the exact, you know, date we started on, but, um, outside of Scott, uh, who got his fifth degree black belt the same day I did, [01:07:00] nobody's, I've seen everybody pass.
Um, I am Jean Jacquess longest running student, and I hold the fifth degree black belt, which is his highest ranking in-house student. So, you know, I've seen a lot of people come and go and I've seen a lot of people's dreams go down the drain. You know, I've seen people who are, you know, not just in the training environment at Jean Jacquess, excuse me, but.
In my own academy, and I have these people come in who they change their life in six months of training or eight or 10 months or a year of training. They eat better, they sleep better, they communicate better, the relationship's better. You know, they got a promotion at their job. Everything's go. They gave up alcohol.
They have so many things going their direction, and then they quit. And when they quit, what I say is the minute you walk off the mat is the minute you lose your power. I do believe, I truly do believe that jiujitsu is a superpower, and I believe that I have that superpower, but I also know that the day I walk off the mat and I quit, I, my [01:08:00] superpower is no longer part of me.
That, that, that my 31 years, if I, if my train that I had this morning is my last training session of my life tomorrow, I don't have my same power. I don't have the same calm, I don't have the same focus, I don't have the same relationships with my friends. My friends don't have the same respect for me, and the list goes on and on and on.
So for me, it's the most important thing I have is that Jean Jacques told me probably 1997 or 1998, get better in juujitsu. You'll get better in life. And those words to me ring in my ear weekly, if not multiple times a week. I hear those words that Jean Jacquess said, and he only said that to me once. I don't think I've ever heard him say it again.
If I have, I, I don't recall directly, but he did say, and he said it directly to me, that if you get better in Jiujitsu, you'll get better in life. And that was so important to me to continue to better myself in life. And, and, and [01:09:00] Jiujitsu was my platform. You know, jiujitsu was my outlet and the me the method at which I could use to get better and.
What an amazing run. I mean, look it, I'm here with you. I took you tuna fishing, you caught a couple big tuna, and I wouldn't have had that without my juujitsu. This guy out fished me. I'm pissed. Everybody out. Fished me that day. I took eight people fishing. We were gone for two days. This guy catches two fish that are 80 pounds a piece, and I got a little football the next day.
Didn't even catch one that night. I had to wait till the next afternoon and finally caught a football at four in the afternoon, and he's sitting on 200 pounds of fish.
Everybody on the boat had the fish but me that day.
Riley: was, but mine were 40, 40 and 50 pounds. They weren't 80,
david: Yeah,
Riley: it
david: was that was 80 compared to mine. 'cause my, uh, yeah, I have a great video. I have a great video of you pulling your fish in. I have a great video of you pulling that fish and, uh, my buddy Pat shot the video and was talking you through it and, uh, what a, what a spectacular [01:10:00] experience that was. Huh?
Catching, catching tuna in the middle of the night. A hundred miles offshore when the rest of the world is sleeping.
Riley: such a cool experience, man. I, uh, yeah, highlight of my, my year for sure. Going and doing that with you guys and,
david: We're going, we're going May. We're going May 17th. You wanna go?
Riley: be available then. I'm gonna be down in Texas at an event,
david: I didn't want you. I didn't want you to go anyway. We're going May 17th, man.
Riley: I, do wanna make another one of
david: May 17th. All right. Well, the following year you can join us.
Riley: because I, I, I want, I want you to give on this pushing through thing. 'cause I mean, you've, you've done a lot of other things in that 30 years that you've been, been in this juujitsu journey, but you've always kept that as constant. And dude, you guys can't see it. David's wearing a hoodie, but he said he is turning 60 this year and Dave still has abs man. And so, talk about this, just consistency and what give, give us some advice on staying consistent.[01:11:00]
david: You know the, I think the biggest. Challenge that I hear from other people is that it's hard to get there. It's hard to get my body hurts my mind, you know, my mine too. Mine too. I just, I, my approach to juujitsu always goes back to what I just said, get better in juujitsu, get better in life. And that's all I want, man.
That's, I, I, I struggle with myself as a human. Maybe just like everybody else. Struggles with theirselves on, on being the good person, on being a good husband, on being a good father, on being a good businessman about having proper communication, all those things. And to me, I know I operate better today because I trained this morning.
Did I train hard this morning? No. I trained with my, my female black belt, who's 50 years old, and I trained with her for 20 minutes. But I know I felt better because of that train. And I, I, I continue to push myself. [01:12:00] Whether I feel like it or not. Um, my personal routine is six days a week. I am on the mat no matter what, six days a week I train through, I.
A headache. I train through tired. I've always trained through sore. I train through my injuries. In the 31 years that I have in Juujitsu, I've never taken a break longer than seven days. Um, somebody said to me yesterday, don't you feel better when you take a month off? And I was like, oh man. I know I would feel better if I took a month off, but I think I would struggle so bad as a human that I'm not interested.
Um, and I say it all the time that my bodily, my, my goals far outweigh my bodily pains. You know, my goals far outweigh my bodily pains and my goals are to be a good human. I have three kids downstairs, um, my wife, uh, my business and, and to be a good human and to be the proper person in these environments and.
I guess to [01:13:00] be a martial artist, to be a Jiujitsu guy, um, to be, uh, to have some Jean Jacques qualities, that's so important to me. And the only way I can achieve that is by continuing to train. I know that if I stop training, my growth changes. And, um, you know, I, I'm, I'm very conscious of the physical me going back to what you said a minute ago.
I'm very conscious of the physical me. I'm conscious of what I eat, what I drink. Um, no alcohol in my life. Uh, I was drinking many years ago when I started Jiujitsu, and it was just a big crutch in the process. Um, so I haven't had a, a, a beer in 10 years. Um, but it allows me to continue to get on the mat every day and push because I don't have that negative feeling from a Saturday night on Monday or a Sunday afternoon on Monday.
I don't have that negative feeling. Allows me to go in and push and, uh, still stay at my physical best. Um, I am, I'm. It's important to me to be at my [01:14:00] physical best. I believe that my physical best allows me to carry the flag a little higher in my emotional being. And I think everybody feels that way. And I think it's probably why most people are addicted to Jiujitsu is, um, it allows you to have that calm and have you be better on the outside and be better with your kids and your wife and your business.
And, um, so many challenging energies in our world today. And Jiujitsu kind of neutralizes those energies and keeps things real and keeps things true. So,
You.
know, that's, that's my approach.
Riley: a lot. I, I, you said something in there about you trained through headaches and you trained through injuries, and I imagine, tell me because I, again, I want your advice on this. I want, I want you to give the audience some advice. When you're training with a headache, a jiujitsu, especially, man, you're getting crushed by another person or you're training with an injury.
How did you, how did you do that? Because you're not training at full capacity. What? What does that look like?[01:15:00]
david: Um, you know, my approach to this has always been I'm getting on the mat, getting on the mat. I didn't wanna train today. I didn't want anything to do with training today. My wife called me and said, we have an issue with my daughter and blah, blah, blah, blah. And I said, I'm training, you know, that was all I said, I'm training, I gotta stay here.
I'm training. And like I said, I didn't train hard, but I put myself through the motions. And I believe that's why I'm in the shape that I'm in at 60 years old is because that I refuse to quit at 59. I refuse to quit. I refuse to take a break, and I'm serious about the process that. Around jujitsu, about the amount of water I drink.
Thank God for salt electrolytes. I knew I was dehydrated. And this isn't a cell on a product by any means, but that is the only product I've ever taken in my entire life on a consistent basis is the, is the salts that you make. And they've done wonders for me for keeping my, uh, hydration, um, and, and keeping myself healthy.
But what the water I drink, the salt [01:16:00] intake, proper foods, high protein, low fat, low sugar, no alcohol. And when you put those things together, you fuel the body pretty well and you're able to push through a lot of those things that, um, maybe you weren't able to push through if you were eating a bunch of, you know, fried foods and nasty foods and, and drinking sodas and, you know, that stuff just works against you.
I think when you're 25, your diet doesn't matter. I watch my 14-year-old son eat, and then he goes and plays basketball at a high level. I'm like, how in the heck can you do that? For me, I need a pro. I need proper foods. You know, I can't have a Pop-Tart and go train, that's just not gonna work. Um, so I need some eggs and some proper protein and some, um, some good fuel in my body.
So that's kind of the, the most important elements there.
Riley: you're, uh, if you're training with a specific. How do you adapt? Okay. This is for, this is for athletes. This is for, you know, people trying to achieve anything, right? Sometimes, man, we walk with a limp. We got something going on and, and how do [01:17:00] you adjust your training?
david: you know, I always have simply trained around my injuries. I have arthritis in my wrist right now. I can't pick up a, I can't pick up a skillet with my left hand. There's no way in the world I could grab a skillet and pick it up with my left hand because the arthritis in my wrist is so bad and my thumb, my wrist.
It's terrible. Um, I wrapped my wrist, as you know, six weeks ago. I trained hard on a Friday. Um, six weeks ago I got done training. I went to the mall and then my entire left arm was numb. Not from, not from nerves, but from the pain that was, uh, coming out of my wrist from the arthritis and thinking that I could still push through.
And I went to, like I said, I, my whole arm was numb for two or three hours. Uh, that was six weeks ago. I haven't played on top for more than 60 seconds in six weeks. Um, only playing guard, not framing with my left hand, only using my left hand and, and making adjustments as [01:18:00] necessary. Um, maybe I'll get some stem cell.
Maybe I'll find a, a proper cure and I can, and get back to using that wrist one day. But, um, I laugh with my students and talk about, man, I'm gonna have a good guard when this is over.
You know, the guard's gonna improve because can't play on top.
Riley: thing you just said, man, you know, and, and for our non jiujitsu friends here to say he has a good guard, that means he's getting good at playing on the bottom and, and keeping people, keeping a defensive posture. Um. being injured, not being able to take the top position and fight from the top.
So sometimes what you're saying it sounds like is the consistency of just being on the mat. Even if you're in a disadvantageous position, you can hone the skill of that disadvantageous position.
david: A hundred percent. I, I, I was telling my students the other day, they were asking about my wrist. We were talking about injuries, and I said to my student the other day that my butterfly guard was a right-sided sweep. My right leg was the hooking leg for a [01:19:00] butterfly sweep. I hurt my knee 28 years ago. I only do butterfly sweeps to the left side.
No. You know, it switched my game altogether because I couldn't, I'm a butterfly guard guy. I'm a Jean Jacquess student. Jean Jacques's a butterfly guard guy. I play butterfly guard. My butterfly guard was loaded with the right leg ready to sweep you to your right. Four years, five years, I hurt my knee. I couldn't sweep to the right anymore.
And now I'm way more comfortable using my left leg as my power leg to throw the guy over because the injury forced me to change my approach. But I think if, and probably like yourself or any long-term juujitsu guy injuries will tell you which direction you have to go. You can, you can stop training because that injury, or I'm gonna take a month off, or you can make adjustments.
Then I've always found it better for me to make adjustments and, and train around the injuries versus, uh, stopping and starting to fight with my kids or, or, you [01:20:00] know, having road rages. Mm-hmm. Because I wasn't on the mat that day.
. No road rage, but uh, I won't kick the neighbor's dog.
Riley: Helps keep sane. I think
david: Right.
Riley: big overlook thing uh, just exercise in general, right? Is the, um. calming that comes with it, the, I think it's good for your nerves, man. I think it just kind of gets that staleness out of us and doesn't even
david: You know, it would. The day, the days that I don't exercise are the days that don't move. I, I just feel different, you know, and I, I, I have life when I train, when I get up, I, I prefer to train in the morning because I think it opens us up and, uh, gives us that energy early. I prefer to train in the morning.
I don't very often train after. After 12 noon and I just feel good through the day. You know, you wake up strong and you, you feel better and, but it is so good for you. I think that the, my, I realized during COVID potentially what my attraction to Juujitsu was. And I don't know if anybody in the. Jiujitsu world feels this way [01:21:00] other than me, but I, when, when COVID came and they told me I couldn't have contact with anybody, I didn't train for a few days and I don't ever take breaks.
And so in those four or five days that I didn't train, I really started feeling empty and. I found my way back to the mat on day four or five. We trained right out here in my backyard with a guy who was brave enough to do it on day four or five, and I never looked back after that, but I realized when they told me, or when we had that six month period of time where we weren't supposed to have contact with anybody or keep that six foot distance.
It made me realize the value of Juujitsu unique to any other ath athletic activity is, is that when I hug my kids, I feel good. When I hug my wife, I feel good. When I see my friends at the mall and I give 'em a hug, I feel good. We're in the most a. Contact oriented environment you could be in. And we're in that environment for an hour.
And I think that body contact is such a positive exchange of [01:22:00] energy that there's nothing that can match it. You know, if you're wrestling, you're in the same, if you're playing judo potentially. But jiujitsu we're, we're body to body. And there's such a value in that exchange of good energy. And I think at COVID it was an.
Really came to my attention that it was that contact that I, I don't get anywhere else. And, you know, yeah, I hug my kid and my wife, but we're not in con I don't hug my kids for an hour. Um, but you know, and I think it's part of the reason we have, uh, a good attraction or a good feeling towards people. I trained with you.
We didn't know each other. We train. We have a great exchange of energy. You gimme your good, I give you my good man. There's a connection there. And, and you keep that and you feel that it's, you know, you're not pumping iron and looking across the gym and giving a guy a peace sign. You're having a, a physical battle with somebody.
And, uh, you know, it's a guy walked into my school, uh, four weeks ago, uh, to sign up Peter Guerrero, and he walked in and, [01:23:00] uh, he said, oh, hey, my name's Peter. And we shook hands and I looked at him and I went. I know you and he goes, I do know you from about 18 years ago. And I'm Exactly, we trained. We trained, and he's exactly, we trained one time, 18.
And I remember, you know, had I saw that guy at the mall or, you know, crossed paths with him, but I trained with him. I had a, a physical exchange with him and that physical exchange stays with him. And as soon as I caught eyes with him, I'm like, I know this guy. I don't, you know, never. Talk to him. I don't think, never had a conversation with him.
We slapped hands. We had a great interaction and that stays with you. And he was shocked that I remembered him, um, as I was at that school visiting as a black belt, and he was a, a new student at the time. Um, but uh, you know, that's a couple of the things that I've seen over the course of time where I've come to the realization over time that are so valuable.
You know, that contact, I think is, is second to none. The contact that we have with people on that exchange of energy.
Riley: well, I think we get that from a lot of places, right? 'cause I, I definitely hear what you're saying about Jiujitsu, but I felt it [01:24:00] too, like if we're, um, like a couple of the guys that work with me and employees of mine, Man, sometimes we're going through the battle together, man. And, and that you see that with soldiers and stuff too, right?
Those guys who have fought together and you're just in the thick of it. And man, it helps you just link arms and it's like, man, we're, we're a team now. And there's something about
david: Mm-hmm.
Riley: powerful.
david: Yeah.
Riley: Yeah.
david: I, I found, I, I work a little bit in the stunt community and I find that in the community when I. Was reintroduced and started doing some work a few years back. I realized the connection that those guys have because it's very unique, like Juujitsu, when you and I train, it's a life or death thing where, you know, your life is in my hands and mine's in yours.
And the same is very true in that stunt industry. But then that's why these guys are so close, because there's so much at stake and there's so much love for the fact that you're there for me and I'm gonna be there for you and, and like you said. But yeah, I think that's a, a unique part of it.
Riley: it.
kind of [01:25:00] boils down to what you're saying. It sounds like it's trust, right? If you've got a hold of my
david: It is a hundred percent.
Riley: I tap, you know,
david: I hope so.
Riley: a
david: Mm-hmm.
Riley: the
david: There's a lot. Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Riley: spot.
You
david: Mm-hmm.
The guy that started you on fire is gonna put you out
Riley: That's
david: important. Mm-hmm.
Riley: Yeah. And I think Jiujitsu does that for sure. But yeah, I, uh, I wanna switch gears here, man. 'cause you, a businessman too, and I think this is probably because we're Juujitsu guys, we're talking about Jiujitsu a lot. But I wanna talk to you, I want to kind pick your business mind here a little bit. Um, you started your school 30 years. 30 years, 25 years ago. years ago. I said, um, okay. 30. When you started that, you, you had mentioned several times that you had these, you know, hardwood floor, then a, just a tiny little mat space. I want you to speak to that if you would. Just that, um, you're starting [01:26:00] out, it's easy to. It's easy to want to start out too big. Right. You know, we see at times people will, will go out and they wanna start a handyman service and they'll buy a a hundred thousand dollars pickup truck to go do that with. And I just cringe, man. I'm just like, oh dude, you, you're gonna fail because you, you went too big too fast. You know, you overextended the amount of income you're gonna be able to produce there for a while. So could you speak to that a little bit?
david: I think there's nothing, you know, I heard it early on in my day was that there's nothing better than a growing business. You know, nothing greater than a business that's growing. And if you open a karate school and you're 150,000 deep. It's gonna be hard, you know, you're gonna have to catch up to that.
I'm not saying you can't, 'cause many people do, but you know, I, I think that there's great value in, in, in starting small and allowing that growth to happen over time. So you don't pinch yourself. You know, you know, you're a businessman, you're a successful businessman, and I'm sure that's the way you did it, because if you do it in [01:27:00] any other way, you're chasing the cat.
You're chasing the, that big initial investment. I, I like the conservative approach to what I do. I have a, a, a fairly small academy, 2300 square feet. It's not big, it's not fancy, uh, but it's easy to maintain. It's easy to make the mortgage and, and keep it going. You know, I'm not, I'm not struggling to make that happen in any way, shape or form.
I pay $2,300 a month in Los Angeles. And I own the property. So, you know, that's a, that's, that's a win. But I won in that respect because I played so conservatively. I didn't go out and I've never had a big fancy place. I like very conservative. My rent has always been low. Now that I own my mortgage is low, and it, it, it keeps it easier.
Makes it so much easier. You know, I think that so many people died in COVID because during COVID, because their rents were so high. You know, they got a $6,000 rent, a $7,000 rent. Now you gotta maintain that when you don't have an income or your income got slashed by 60%, it's [01:28:00] impossible. Impossible.
Riley: And sometimes in business we never know when that slash is coming. Right. Some COVID is a prime example of that. You know,
david: I'm, I'm ready. I'm ready for it at any moment. That's why I live so conservatively because I'm scared to death. I've always said I'm scared. I live in fear. In my business, my business mind. I live in fear 'cause I don't know what tomorrow brings. I'm self-employed, you know, I drive conservative vehicles.
I've always driven, I've never spent more than $20,000 on a car in my life because I'm gonna be conservative. You know, I'm not gonna go out and extend myself to the point where I can't make it. If everything goes south tomorrow, you know, I might go out and uh, do something funny tonight and the whole town knows about it and my whole school quits.
I don't know. You never know what's gonna happen. So it is New Year's Eve. I get cra, I get, I get crazy on New Year's. You know I get crazy bed by nine 15, you know?
Riley: comes out here, it'll be a couple months from now probably when it, when it actually airs. But we're recording on New Year's Eve here. So
david: Yes, sir.
Riley: the
david: Here we are.[01:29:00]
We're all fired up.
Riley: mentioned, um, my friend Jeremy that came down there with me when we came to the jean jock thing. Um, the, that seminar Jeremy mentioned that he'd had a talk with you and he has since, uh, he, he moved to Texas and he opened up a, a Juujitsu school of his own. he, he has cited things you said to him several times about this, you know, starting small, starting conservative, working your way into it. And, and, uh, I don't know if you know that, man, I just, I, I kinda wanted to just tell you,
david: I didn't know that. No, that's great.
Riley: a month into the school right now and, you know, and he's in those beginning pains of, know, hoping students show up and, you know, getting, getting it going.
But uh,
david: Good for him. In what city is that?
Riley: White House, Texas. Yeah, I actually
david: Sounds like a cornfield to me. I said it sounds like a cornfield to me.[01:30:00]
Riley: I don't know much about White House myself, but it's outside of Tyler. Just a little outside of Tyler, kinda between
david: Okay.
Riley: So it's about an hour and a half. I, I take it from Dallas, but he's on a
david: My wife said, oh, nice, nice. Now I'll take a look at it.
Riley: have you, have you have you look, 'cause he, like I said, he's mentioned to you a few times on there. Um, when you're, when you're doing this stuff, you, you mentioned stunts and, and you've been on, you've been on the Yellowstone series, you've been on the, uh, you did some filming last fall for the, the 1923 series last fall or last spring?
I think it was actually last spring, wasn't it?
david: It's about a year ago. It's about one year now.
Riley: Stunts, man, it blows my mind because when I first met you and you, you and I were having this conversation about some of the things you've done. I'm like, how can one human have done so many things? Right? made your own movie, the No, no Rules. It's called you've, [01:31:00] uh, you've been in these other larger productions, you're around that world a lot. Um, what was the transition of that? Like, how, how'd you get involved?
[01:32:00]
david: You know, I moved to Los Angeles to partake, to be, to try to do some film work or some, some acting work, actually. And that's how I, when I wrote, uh, co-wrote the script, no Rules. It was the first mixed martial arts film ever made with Jerry Anderson. Um, we wrote that with the. With the intention of me playing the character and being a, an avenue for myself.
'cause I had been out auditioning and hadn't really put anything together. I did a film called Orga Smo was, uh, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the South Park creator. So I, I played a role in their film called Orga Smo. Um, that was my first, uh, victory I guess in the auditioning, uh, process. And had about a week or 10 days on, on, uh, on orgasm.
That was a great experience. I fell in love with the pro process and Aaron Norris, um, who I spoke of earlier, Aaron Norris, told me that if I wanted to succeed in Hollywood, I needed to own something. [01:33:00] So that was when I started writing. I immediately started writing with Jerry Anderson and we wrote the script, no Rules, and that was written for me.
And then, um. Aaron Norris's close friend, Michael De Lorenzo stepped up and, uh, found the money for us and became the executive producer, and we produced that film. Um, so that was, it was a lot of years of auditioning and taking acting classes and, um, trying to break into that industry. Um, truth be told, once I was in as an actor, I didn't have, I didn't have the passion.
I thought I might, you know, I. I played the lead character in the movie. No Rules. It was just, it was written for me. It was me, we wrote me. Um, so, um, I got to play myself, I guess, essentially in a film. And it was fun and it was exciting. We raised. I believe the initial budget was $350,000 if I was gonna play the lead character.
And then the first day of filming Dan Fry, uh, Dan Fry, [01:34:00] uh uh, Matt Lindland, all these, every famous guy in the sport showed up. D Gene LaBelle, all these guys showed up our first day of filming at the Santa Cita Studios. I think just to see what was going on. And I don't know if they were all Randy Couture's friends or how everybody ended up there.
Dan Henderson ended up hanging out on set with us for the, almost the entire shoot, um, because these guys had nothing going on at the time because MMA hadn't really made, its made its mark and here we were shooting a film, so they all wanted to be part of it. And uh, so that was exciting. You know, we brought the, brought the crowd over and had had the big energy behind us.
In the film, um, we ended up, after the first day, it was just a spectacular day because we had so much energy from the core of the sport that we ended up spending, I don't know, eight or nine, 900,000 bucks on the film. By the time it was over, it never got released because in the final scene we used an octagon and, uh, we were the Guinea pigs that used an octagon in the final scene.
We were [01:35:00] ready for release, got the letter from. Um, saying that we couldn't release the film because of the octagon and the final scene.
Cross beds with Joe Rogan because Joe trained at, at, uh, Jean Jacquess at the time. I crossed paths with Joe and Joe said, oh, I heard you're having trouble with the release of your movie because you got some legal papers from Zfa. And I said, yeah, we're fricking broken hearted right now. And he said, well, I'll, I'll.
I tell you, I'll go to bat for you and I'm gonna go talk to, to Dana. And we were, we were celebrating. We're like, dude, Joe Rogan's going to bat for us. You can't fail. Right? We win 'cause Joe's going to bat. And Joe's, Joe's words were, you know, I do a lot for them and I'm on Howard Stern and I'm spreading the word of.
Mixed martial arts. So, you know, it, it, he made it seem like he had, he might have had a little favor from him. And so then Joe went to bat with, uh, with the Zooa and I can remember my phone ringing and, uh, Joe [01:36:00] going, oh, uh, yeah, it's uh, Joe Rogan. Just wanna let you know that, uh, Dana said nothing he can do.
So we never released the film. So I, we got, you know, we had these, this emotional rollercoaster and then at the end we were like, Joe's going to bat for us. We're gonna be sitting front row at the UMC Ha. David didn't care. David didn't care. Zooa didn't care. So we had a, we had a octagon in the final scene.
There was no way around it. We did try to do some. CGI and some fancy stuff to make it look like it wasn't the Octagon, but there was no way around it. So the film never released. You can see it on YouTube. No rules of the movie, the entire film's there. So if you've got an hour and a half, you wanna, uh, never get back.
You can go watch, uh, go watch no rules on, uh, on YouTube. It's a, it's a, it's a pretty classic. There's some, there's some, there's some big mixed martial arts names in there. You know, early, early on when there was no energy behind the sport. And it was, it was neat to have them all there and have them show up to want to be part of it.
So, yeah,[01:37:00]
Riley: No,
david: that, and then that, you know,
Riley: no, you're talking. Go for it.
david: No, go ahead.
Riley: I was gonna say that, you know, to talk about that, uh, that kind of heartbreak that comes when you know you've got this thing you've worked on so hard and then there's, there's some detail you overlooked and it to fail, you know, and you're going, crap, that could have been
david: It, it, it took, I think it would've been a $5,000 investment to an attorney to do research on the script to make sure there were no infringements and $5,000 wasn't spent. That's my recollection. I could be wrong, but I think that was about what went down was they should have spent a few bucks to make sure there were no infringements and there was an assumption that everything was fine, but Zfa doesn't look at, using an octagon is fine.
But ironically, Aaron Norris said to me, we used an octagon in my movie and we called it the Octagon. So. Who you know. Ha ha. Because Mr. Chuck [01:38:00] had a, Mr. Norris had a movie called The Octagon, and, and that was all shot in an eight sided cage. So Aaron was all fired up. Mr. Norris, Aaron Norris was fired up when Zooa came at us.
'cause he, oh, they can't do that 'cause we already did it. So,
Riley: Well, you know, no one pushes Chuck Norris around, so there's that.
david: no
No sir. Never once. Ah.
Riley: Speaking of Chuck Norris jokes, do you have a favorite Chuck Norris joke?
david: I.
have no Chuck Norris jokes, but I tell you, I will tell you this. I stood on stage one time, uh, in Las Vegas, and I had the microphone in my hand in front of about 1200 people, and I did three Chuck Norris jokes with Mr. Norris standing next to me.
Riley: cool. I've
david: I, I was scared. I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie, I was scared going in. I was scared going in. I said, I gotta do this,
I gotta do it. So I did. I, I don't know. I don't know. But I, [01:39:00] I made him laugh with all three of 'em. And on the third one, I remember looking over at him and he kind of gave me the ha ha, that was a good one.
Ha ha. So, yeah.
Riley: dude, I, I think those interviews with him talking about those jokes, it, it cracks me up. 'cause he's, you know, he's obviously just kind of, um, honored by them, but they're, they're
david: Well, I think a rich, he to, he told my mother once, uh, he told my mother once, many years ago that he wasn't a fan of it. And my mom has told me many times the story in return, of course. 'cause she loves the fact that she got her moments with Mr. Norris. But she said, yeah, he told me, I, I, I wasn't a fan of that.
I'm not a fan of this. I, I don't want this to happen. I'm trying to make it stop. And then a couple years later, he's like. I'm on board. There's nothing I can do. I, I am the strongest man in the world, so yeah.
Riley: burning, man. It's still still going. I
david: That's classic. No, it's classic
It. Mm-hmm.
Riley: Developed quite the Instagram following, and we're [01:40:00] gonna put your Instagram stuff in the, in the description below the, these clips in the, in the full episode. But talk about that a little bit. You've, pretty simplified as you stay pretty focused on content, but it's, it's quick juujitsu technique without much showmanship, man. You just, you stick it out there and you've gained a heck of a
david: Thank you. Thank you.
Uh, you know, I didn't have Instagram. Everybody was on Instagram and I was on Facebook and I didn't even have Instagram. And one day I started an Instagram account and I never did anything with it. And I don't know what happened, but I, I post, I started. Posting two or three videos of my kids on there.
Then I posted a technical video and I always had the attitude as my, nobody wants to see my technique. It was, honestly, my attitude is I'm not gonna post technical videos online because I don't think anybody wants to see what I do. And so one day I. [01:41:00] Posted a technical video and my friend, uh, Greg, uh, Greg Hamilton in Texas sent me a direct message and said, you should try doing a reel.
And I was like, well, what's a reel? And he said, oh, it says reel there. So he said, watch how many likes you get, or watch how many comments you get if. Post a reel, and it must have been shortly after the reels had become a thing on Instagram. I don't believe it had been a year, I believe it had been a, a pretty short period of time.
And he said, oh, try posting a reel. So the next day I went to work and I posted a reel and I got a hundred likes. And so I was like, oh, that was pretty cool. Uh, you know, maybe I can build a little local following office. So the next day I shot another video and I got. 200 likes because I had gained a handful of followers from the first one.
And so the next day I went in and so then, and I believe it was about the fourth video that I posted as a reel, had [01:42:00] I, I don't know the exact numbers, but a thousand likes and, and 300 shares, or 200 shares, or 300 shares, and I was like, holy crap. I'm blown away at this and, and maybe. Eight or 10 videos in one went viral, and then my following just went, you know, I was getting 2,500 followers.
I was getting 2,500 new followers a day, and I honestly think I would have a half million followers. I have 144,000 right now. I think I would have a half million followers if I didn't shut. Instagram off on my phone because when I shut Instagram off on my phone, they threw me out of their system. So I was getting fed to everybody to follow this guy, follow this guy because I was, had my moment of being hot.
And uh, then I got so pissed off 'cause my phone would ring 2,500 times a day. 'cause every time somebody followed me, I go. And so I shut Instagram off on my phone and they took my blue check away and they threw me out. [01:43:00] And I went from 2,500 followers a day to minus 400, minus 300. So my following just went straight down.
And, but uh, that was kind of the, the process of it. Um, video nine or 10 had a little viral effect, and then I just started throwing content up there. And I, I, when I started, my desire was to get. Views. So I made them short because I thought I could make money if I get a lot of views. So I didn't want to say, hi, my name is, and this is what you do.
I just wanted to do it fast, so they were forced to watch it over and over and over. Or a guy like yourself who had at that time, maybe a blue belt in Juujitsu and you see my content, a purple belt in Jiujitsu. You don't wanna know my name and you don't wanna know anything about me. You just wanna see something cool that might fit into my game.
And so that's what I did, was started feeding this two and three, four second clips without any. Conversation in it and it took off and, you know, I was [01:44:00] fortunate to get a good following and, you know, the true blessing of it is today is that's where all my students come from. 'cause they're local and I can advertise on that page that's got a, a following and, you know, I, I look like I've, I look like I've done my diligence.
If you go to my Instagram page, and if you don't know me and you see that, you know, I'm the guy down the street, it has, looks like it has some great value. I might have. Something to give them a value. So the Instagram thing has been fun. It's been a pain. Um, you know, there's stages of growth in that too, because you're dealing with people who hate you and, and, and think you suck.
And you know, you gotta, I wasn't used to that. I wasn't used to everybody, anybody telling me I sucked. And, uh, so now I, I, I entertain by the people that tell me I suck and you know what? It, whatever. So, but it's fun. It's a, it's a fun, uh. Fun space for me, it's really helped my own jiujitsu growth because I have to be creative.
You know, I can't go on there and do an arm bar from the Guard the way we've been doing it since 93. [01:45:00] I have to come up with something more. So it's been fun. Um, you know, on my creative weeks I have some, I come up with some great content, you know, I'll watch a video and. And then make a branch off of somebody else's video.
I've never really stolen a technique from anybody, but I'll create a branch off something I saw. And that's, you know, in my creative week, weeks, I have fun and I really enjoy it. I'm in a creative week right now. Thanks for asking. But, uh, you know, there's weeks where I like, this sucks. I was like, this sucks.
I don't wanna do this. I don't want to be creative. I don't wanna deal with the camera. I just wanna teach class and train. And, but, uh. It's been a fun process. It's, it's been great for the business. My guys like it, you know, it's fun. Socially, I go places and they'll see my juujitsu shirt, and then we'll talk and they'll be like, Hey, I, I follow you, I follow you.
It's happened, you know, numerous times I see somebody in public and they know my material. So that's been fun. Been super fun. And it's taken off on Facebook recently too. You know, in the last year, year and a half, Facebook has started reels and that's, [01:46:00] I've got a, a good. Good following, going over there too, which I'm sure ultimately helps for my business.
And that's really my focus is, is that, you know, the popularity thing, yay. But you know, if it can feed you some business, it's also what it's about, you know?
Riley: Dave, you mentioned two or three things. Now, you know, one, one. Starting jujitsu. Um, two going, you know, coming from the farm to Los Angeles to be, get into the acting world. And then this Instagram thing, all of those were, they had a hump, right? There was a bump there where you're just having to kind of wing it, just explore your way into it and figure it out as you go.
And what, what could you tell people about that, that, that exploration, that sucking at something at first and
david: know, I think, I think that a guy I. Follow called Ron Sell, created a system called Spark. Spark Management's a member management system for the, for the, for business owners. For school owners. [01:47:00] It's a, a, a management system for the schools. And he said it the other day, he said, I started a, a system to manage karate schools.
'cause I didn't know what I was doing, but his head was down and he was focused and he was gonna do it. And you know, I'm a martial artist. I really live a lot martial arts lifestyle. Um. But I also really try to implement that warrior mentality in anything I do. You know, I'm not interested in. Doing something halfway.
I'm gonna catch tuna. I wanna catch the biggest tuna in the ocean. I'm not interested in sitting at shore and fishing the kelp, ies, and catching bass. I'm not interested in even setting that for a second. I want to, I want to go and try to be good at it, not try to be good at it, but try to be the best I can be at it.
And I think that's, uh, a mistake that so many people make in business. And I, you know, you're a businessman and you. Help people or give people suggestions, and you think that they're gonna go home and run on that suggestion and three weeks later they haven't moved and you're like, [01:48:00] okay, I'm not, I'm not gonna waste my time there anymore because obviously not, you're not gonna move on it.
And I just, I'm. Have an attitude or have always had that attitude. If I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna put my head down and I'm gonna go for it. And if it doesn't work and I choose to turn away, then no problem at all. But if I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna do it all in. And that was really the approach with, you know, everything in my life that's been a success.
And there was a hump and there was no guarantees and. Like Ron sell. I didn't know how to write a movie. Um, I bought a book and I followed the structure of Rocky and Jerry Anderson, my partner and I, neither of one of us had written in Britain a movie. Um, but we just followed the structure of Rocky and then wrote our story based on a common structure of a, uh, hero based movie, if you will.
And. There we had it and we didn't know what we were doing, but we sold it. So made a movie, you know, showed up the first day and had trucks and people and you know, all that energy. But that was only [01:49:00] because we decided we were gonna do it and we put our chin down and went forward. But I think that's the most important aspect of any business or any pursuit, whether it's juujitsu like yourself or your, your oil business or what, you know, any pursuit we have, if you go into it wholeheartedly, head down.
Ready to win, you're gonna win. Stay the course. You know, jujitsu didn't offer me anything. I tell my kids all the time, I tell my kids all the time. I have three athletic kids. I have two kids that play travel basketball. My daughter is a, is a class basketball player, and I tell her all the time, my, my, my stock matured five years ago.
I've been doing this for 30, 32 years, 31 years and four or five years ago, my energy finally. Came out and yeah, I, I had some success along the way, but now it's like, okay, I have a, a place that the Instagram page, which [01:50:00] gives me an energy worldwide, uh. It's priceless. Absolutely priceless what I can do, because I stayed true to or focused on the martial arts and then found a way to implement that onto social media.
But you know, you have the followers I have on Instagram, it, you know, I don't make a lot of money off it. I have months where I've made a, a, a decent amount of money. Um, but, uh. You know, I get products what I want, you know, if I want a product, I can get a product. And that to me is just as valuable as money because I can, I have sponsors, you know, I have people that give me product for the return of, of show, and, uh, that's a beautiful thing to me.
You know, it's a beautiful thing. So I think the most important thing is that when, when we're. In pursuit of something that you believe in it and you keep your chin down and you go, and if you do, there's success. Success is available for us. Success is available for us. You're not [01:51:00] successful because you're relaxed, you're successful because every day you have a desire.
Every day you have a, a mission and you're on vacation, but you're sending text messages to work. You're, you know, you're, you're getting married, but that morning you're still, you're still hitting the text to make sure, you know, things are in line at work and. You know, that's a, that's a a, the way you do one thing is the way you do everything.
And I love that, that phrase, and I try to do one thing the way I do everything or not do it at all, you know.
Riley: stuff.
david: Well, thanks.
Riley: to hearted stuff?
david: Absolutely.
Riley: Um, this is called the Go Earn Your Salt Podcast. And when you hear that term go wearing your salt, what does it mean to you?
david: It means I gotta train hard. That's it. That's it. Go earn your salt. Is, is you gotta put your chin down and you gotta do what I just said. You gotta train hard. You know, it's easy to, it's easy to have a, a sore knee or a sore [01:52:00] elbow and, and, and miss the training session. But, um, you know, you gotta earn, you're gonna earn what you have and what you, you know, your, your belt is what you, your belt is your effort over time and, and, you know, earning your salt is, uh.
Going after it, you know, chin down and going after it.
Riley: Well said. your favorite pastime outside of Jiujitsu. We've talked a bit about tuna fishing. I suppose that's it for you, isn't it?
david: I mean, I love my kids. I can sit on the edge of a basketball court for days and watch my kids play basketball. Like I'm, I'm calm, only a few places on this earth, um, at sea on the mat, watching my kids play basketball. I turn my phone off, I put my phone away, and I just sit there and, and enjoy the process of watching my kids do what they do.
Um, trying to implement some of the things that I've learned through the years and help them become stronger and [01:53:00] better in their games. Um, and they're, they're my 16-year-old and my 14-year-old are amazingly committed athletes who are willing to train four and five hours a day and. Not hesitate and do it in repetition.
So to me that's a win. You know, they, uh, they go out and push themselves and, and I can share with them some of the things that I've done through the years and things that I've pushed through and challenges I've had. So when they're in those challenges of injuries or, or, or, or slump or whatever it might be, we can push through it, you know.
Riley: Oh, that's good, man. Tell me this. What, uh, what's your, your. Favorite band. I know you know a lot of people in bands. In fact, you introduced me to some. Um, but your, your favorite band of all time.
david: Uh, you know, if I had to turn some music on and light up the backyard on a Sunday morning, it would probably be Metallica.
I, uh, I [01:54:00] was, I, I, my greatest musical experience of my life was, uh, the movie. Release party for Orga was at. The Playboy Mansion. And so I got to see Metallica play at the Playboy mansion on a Sunday morning with 150 people there.
And they played, they played for, they played for an hour on Sunday morning at the Playboy Mansion. I was there with my high school friend, Keith Sini. And uh, we got to, you know, you could jump on stage with 'em, but didn't even know it was, it was, it was incredible. And I was not a Metallica fan at the time.
I knew the name. That's all it was to me, was a name I think at the time. But I walked away from there. A Metallica fan. I thought it was just absolutely incredible. And yeah, we, I can turn some Metallica up super loud.
Riley: man. That is way cool. what's something quirky about you that people don't know?[01:55:00]
david: Nothing. Nothing.
Uh, define quirky.
Riley: that's, uh, maybe just a little habit or a. Hobby or something that people don't know about you? You got a bottle cap
david: You know.
Riley: or something
david: No, no, not at all. I'm a minimalist. Um, I have about this many clothes in my closet. I wear this hoodie about six days a week. Uh, I just started wearing shoes maybe a year, a year and a half ago. 'cause my kids were so into basketball on this Nike thing, so I had to buy a handful of Nikes. But yeah, I, I'm a minimalist.
I have very little stuff in my closet. I have nothing in the garage. I don't even have tools in the garage. I'm such a minimalist. I tell people I'm the only tool in my garage. Um, I have, uh, you know, [01:56:00] I have 15 fishing poles and 15 fishing reels and some clothes. It's really all I have. My backyard is. Got a couple chairs in it, and that's about it.
You know, I live a pretty, uh, pretty conservative minimalist martial arts lifestyle. I have a great garden. I start my garden. I cleared my garden off a couple days ago. Um, and, uh, probably this weekend or next weekend, I'll get everything out and start my seeds to have my, uh, garden all from seeds this year.
Majority of it, almost all of it from seeds, so, yeah.
Nothing really quirky. I'm pretty, uh, I'm pretty square and live inside the box.
Riley: is a quirk, man. That's a perfect example. Perfect example.
david: Good.
Riley: What's, your favorite
david: Tough question. Uh, you know, if you could pull a blue fin tuna from the sea and stick it in the cooler for about two hours, and pull that out at 37 degrees and gimme some sushi. I'm gonna call that God's food.[01:57:00]
Did we make, did we have sushi straight from the ocean When we fished?
Huh? We pull that day of same day.
Riley: you, man,
david: get much better.
Riley: It and I've enjoyed it much less after it was frozen it was. It's,
david: less. Now, I know you said you like that rockfish, but the rockfish, if you're eating tacos, that rockfish taco is some good stuff. And I know you sent me a, a text message or two text message or two with some rockfish tacos on there. I wanted to drive to Boise. Yeah, I'm, I don't, I don't, I don't eat rockfish tacos 'cause I don't make 'em Well, but man, I know we had, we caught a lot of rockfish that trip because we had had, uh, limits to tuna.
So we had so many rockfish too. I know you took those home.
Riley: Rob was out there just catching, catching rockfish. He didn't, he didn't realize at one point, that the rest of us were over there catching tuna. He thought we were all catching rockfish. He wasn't paying attention, so he was just fishing for rockfish off the bottom
david: Oh, he was on the [01:58:00] bottom when we were. Oh razor. Rob, I, I still got a bone to pick with that guy. Unfortunately, he will beat both of us up. But, uh, remember, remember in the middle of the night he, he stole my, he stole my new setup and dropped my rig down and caught two tuna. Well, I was looking for my, I'm like, where'd my, where'd my pole go?
Where'd my setup go? And he's pulling his, he's pulling his second tuna up as I'm looking for my setup that he took. So I still got a bone to pick with him. He knows, he knows I'm mad at him.
Riley: idea.
david: you were too busy. You were too busy pulling fish. I know. I reme. I have the video. I didn't catch any, I already went over that.
I don't wanna talk about that anymore.
Riley: if you could go back, what's some advice you'd give your younger self?
david: I dunno, put money in the market earlier. [01:59:00] Buy some Bitcoin at 25 cents. You know, I don't know. I, I don't, I, I, I, I, the decisions I made, I made because. I was living life, you know, I came to Los Angeles, I got a, got a bachelor's degree. I was 23 or 24. Uh, had normal, you know, had professional jobs in Michigan for a couple years after I graduated college, and I came west.
To have fun. I came west to enjoy life. I came west to not wear shoes and live the California lifestyle, and I wasn't concerned with money and I wasn't concerned with, I wasn't concerned with having a good time, and I had a good time, you know, I enjoyed what was here and, and took advantage of it and surfed and, and fished and, and did the things associated with living in Southern California.
So. I'm not sure if I have any specific advice other than maybe put some money in the market earlier. So, you know, if I'd have, if I'd have spent, put a hundred bucks a week [02:00:00] in the market, I'd have more money than I do now.
I didn't,
Riley: huh?
david: uh,
it doesn't compound as fast when you're in as fifties.
Riley: doubt. No doubt. That is good advice though, man. Invest early. Invest often just like tapping, right?
david: A hundred percent.
A hundred percent.
Riley: an item on your bucket list? Something you wanna do before? Cash it all in.
david: You know, um, uh, being that I'm 60. Next year in 2026. You know, I just, um, I'm, I'm an avid fisherman and I'm gonna do some fishing and some fun places around the world. You know, I don't have a specific spot. I, I have some specific spots I want to go, uh, ROS Island as about three or 400 miles south of the border here in.
Uh, 300, three or 400 miles south of the California border. Um, is [02:01:00] Ros Island some of the best yellow tail fishing in the world? That's probably my first thing on that list. Um, first place I'll go. My buddy Jeremy McCone and I are talking about going there potentially next year and, uh, pat going with us.
But, uh, yeah, you know, fishing, I think ultimately will be. The what I would like to do as I age or get older and, you know, the kids are outta the house and I have some time and, uh, freedom. Um, and I'll take you with me, but I know you gotta work a lot more years than me 'cause you're not quite 60 yet.
You're rich though though. You put all your money away. You did that in value. You bought Bitcoin at 25 cents, so.
Riley: I wish,
david: Mm-hmm.
Riley: is a isn't it? But uh, yeah.
david: Well, it's not cheap in Boise anymore either.
Boise's not cheap. Wait, I saw him. I saw him go.
Riley: man. One
david: Mm-hmm.
Riley: gonna get you that's what we're gonna do. That's uh
david: I gotta come watch a football game next year. Watch my buddy Jerry Reer kick the [02:02:00] ball.
Riley: You better call me when you
david: Yeah, my buddy's, he's, he's still up there, so I think he's got one more year. So I'll make it up there to see you.
Riley: favorite book?
david: Uh. You know, I wouldn't say I have a favorite book right now. I listen to a lot of audio, audio tape stuff, and right now I'm, I'm on Napoleon Hill.
Um,
Riley: Me
david: really? I love that guy. I love that guy. I studied him in college. I can't remember if we were listening to, I, we must have listened to audio tapes of him in college in my sales class or in one of my business classes because I know the guy's voice so well from back then.
But I also believe I was re We read, I read some of his books in college. Um, and then maybe. Maybe a month ago, um, I was like that Napoleon Hill guy from college. That was some good stuff. And so I punched him up and I got to hear his, uh, his quirky little voice and, uh, um, but he's got such a, an incredible [02:03:00] message for a message that was sent a hundred years ago.
Like, how can, how can you be so in touch with what's going on today? A hundred years ago, it was incredible, incredible. That guy had a, that guy had something special. He really did.
Riley: I love reading old books. Um, you know, from 17, 18, 19, there's some Charles Dickens stuff. Um. Because you realize that the problems we have today and all the political bull crap we have, and the just the social inks and the things that, that happen our society today, they were happening back then too, man.
And, and it makes you feel a little more comfortable that, you
david: Absolutely.
Riley: the world's falling apart. I think everybody's always thought it was falling apart and it's
david: Yeah, yeah,
Riley: it's more the same. And I love it. I love it.
david: yeah.
Riley: man. Well, listen, tell us
david: Awesome.
Riley: can be
david: Uh, David Dunn is my, uh, Facebook and, uh, David [02:04:00] Dunn underscore Juujitsu on Instagram. David Dunn under Jiujitsu on Instagram. Correct. I have a jujitsu content there. Uh. Only Jiujitsu content. Uh, pretty simple, but, uh, it looks like that right there. Come visit me, David Dun jiujitsu, and uh, I'd love to have you and, uh, potentially help you a little bit and, uh, I appreciate you.
Always good to see you, Mr. Salty. Always. You were in my, you were in my phone is salty Riley, so it's always good to see you and uh, I look forward to fishing with you again sometime soon,
since you can't fish with us in, in May. We'll.
Mm-hmm.
Riley: Yep. That's awesome. It's been a pleasure having you on, man. I know it's been kind
david: Alright brother.
Riley: you down, but
david: Yeah, we've been, we've been, I'm, I'm, I'm, uh, I'm here today. We're done.
We got through it, We got through it.
Riley: you for coming on and
david: Pleasure. Good to have you. [02:05:00] Good to see you. Alright. Enjoy your day. Happy New Year to you, brother.
Riley: Hey, you too, man.