[00:00:00]
Riley: Okay. My friends, this is man, kind of a long term business colleague of mine, mark Maxfield. Mark is the owner and CEO of the. The cottages assisted living. uh, he, he's also got these [00:01:00] other cool things in common with me as we're not just both business owners, but we're also Juujitsu guys and just athletes for life. So, um, yeah. Mark, welcome to the show, man. I,
Mark: Thanks. Appreciate it.
Riley: so talk to us about, uh, about life, man. About what, what things looked like with you as a kid. 'cause I wanna, I want to progress from, uh know, I don't wanna start where we are today. I want to what, what formed Mark Maxfield into the, the businessman and the athlete and the go-getter that you are today?
Mark: Boy, that's a deep question. That's taking me way back, isn't it? Um, well, I was born right here in Boise. I'm 56 years old. Born in 1969 in Boise, Idaho. Of course, Idaho was a lot different back then. Um, live in different parts of the state. Oldest is seven kids, so I kind of have whatever forming that does to a person.
I was a big brother of five girls and one boy. Thank goodness I was the oldest 'cause every one of my sisters are [00:02:00] killers, so I was at least able to take care of myself somewhat. My poor brother is sandwiched in the middle there. Um, a good childhood mother and father, dad worked. Um, mom stayed in the home, you know, taught piano lessons, made homemade bread, just a typical, whatever that means.
Typical rural American upbringing. Uh, I have no complaints. Good, you know, strong religious background. Um,
yeah.
Riley: you grow up Boise?
Mark: No, grew up until the sixth grade in eastern Idaho. Um, in 1976, actually when the Teton Dam broke, it took our house and flood us. Yeah, it was in, I remember that day, Saturday, 1976 and took our house. We were camping on the hill to get away from it and watched the water come in and take the house. I mentioned that just because one of the real poignant memories of my [00:03:00] life.
I've been seven. You know, you don't remember a lot of things from seven. I remember that. I kind of stayed in a new house for a while and until eventually we moved to the Boise area in Meridian,
and I've been in
Riley: wow
Mark: Meridian
until I graduated high school, and then I went to other places, but eventually moved my family back to Idaho.
Uh, when we started the, the company, the colleges.
Riley: to that Teton Dam story, my uncle was on a motorcycle coming down that road the day that broke and they, they were following him down. He didn't know it until later, but the, all the, you know, he found out just basically by at the times he was there in the clock, but they were following him down, evacuating everybody.
And yeah, he had missed that narrowly right.
Mark: That was a big deal at the time. It displaced a lot of people
farmland.
Riley: for That's scary. That's scary. Well, I'm glad you guys got [00:04:00] evacuated. Didn't have to. Did you have any, I don't remember. I, that was the year I was born. But was there, uh, any lives lost in that?
Mark: Question. Um. I wanna say there was, because on a Saturday, the only reason we made it out, 'cause it was a rare day that my dad went to work at the office, listened to the radio, heard about it, he comes screeching in the driveway, we're outsize playing. We threw everything in the truck and, and left immediately.
If we'd been home, we'd been outsize working or playing. We may not have heard the, the warning as early as, as we did. I dunno, that's a good question. I might have to go back and research that, but I wanna say that there were some losses because on a Saturday, so people weren't as tuned in and connected to, um, you know, what was going on in the news at that time.
Riley: man, that's a, that's a freaky thing. So, okay, so you go from [00:05:00] eastern Idaho over to the Boise area and you, how long after the, the dam broke was that I.
Mark: Uh, let's see, when I was 11, so about four, about four years.
Riley: And did you, um, into the kind of the business aspect of it? Was that something that as a, as a child, were you pretty attracted to, to business ownership and entrepreneurship?
Mark: Honestly, no. I was a normal, normal kid. Grew up. Um, I worked on a dairy bucking hay. Uh, I liked muscle cars. I was heavily into Boy Scouts shooting my 22, just here. I don't average typical rural, redneck life. I, I, I was happy, um, didn't really think much about business ownership until later when I had the opportunity, which we'll probably get into.
But yeah, I, I worked [00:06:00] up, grew up working on a dairy,
you know.
Riley: Dang farmers are always tough. I remember I had a buddy who's the strongest handshake I ever felt was a dairy farmer, and I thought, holy crap man.
Mark: They, they handle a lot of hay bales and I've probably thrown a million hay bales in my life, which has helped my own physical development. Um, as an adult. I get teased in the jujitsu, actually got this strong farm. Strong farm. Strong is a different kind of strong than weight, strong, so on told.
Riley: that, and you know, you can't tell it on camera, but you're a pretty, pretty big guy. How tall are you? Yeah Yeah. And, uh, we're gonna talk about a little bit more as, as it goes on, but you, you were a bodybuilder for a while, so between farm strength and weightlifting strength, yeah, you're uh, gotta be a handful on the mats for sure.
Mark: I always have to have something going on, some sort of challenge physically, uh, mentally, of course, and professionally, but [00:07:00] you know, whether I was bodybuilding, I, there's a period of time when I played football as an adult, semi-pro football, and then some bodybuilding
and then, you know, now do.
Riley: man cause that's, that's new to me.
Mark: Yeah, I would think I was in my early forties and I'm starting to feel AIDS kind of creep in. I'm like, dang it, you know, what am I gonna do? I heard about this team. I said, I'm just gonna go do it. And I went and had, had fun, got knocked around a little bit, but again, I'm, I'm a large guy still physically active and it was just an opportunity to kind of relive some things from the youth and just do something you wouldn't ordinarily do.
In my early forties.
Riley: And now let's, uh, let's back up again. 'cause you, you went from. The college years, I think that's when you were down in Utah and trained with Pedro Sauer. Is that correct?
Mark: Yeah. So back up real quick. [00:08:00] After high school I did some college. I served a two year, uh, mission for my church. Came back, uh. Got married to my wife and at that time I was working, uh, for the state of Idaho. Um, and I worked there. And then I applied for the SWAT team and I, I made the SWAT team so we would handle cell extractions, you know, escapes or parolee violations.
We'd go kick in their trailer door and drag guys out of there. And you know, when you're in your mid twenties. That sounds like a lot of fun. Got a lot of good training. Did some SWAT competitions across the country and had a lot of fun. After a while the wife gets tired of, you know, the cuts and bruises and whose blood is this on your uniform?
that I'm washing out, I don't know whose it is, you know, and bless her heart talk, doing something else. So that's when we moved down to Utah as a social worker. [00:09:00] Um, ran group homes for delinquent boys. And then placed them in different proctor homes, like foster care homes until they graduated the system.
Either went to adult system for they didn't get their stuff together or turned their life around, which is, which was the plan, and then, you know, went back to society. I did that for about nine years.
Riley: that's, uh, that's pretty wild. Again, that's something I didn't know about you either. Um. So nine years.
of that. And then what, what originally took you The Jiujitsu route?
Mark: UFC 1 You know, you hear about this ultimate fighting championship. Of course, me and my buddy's like, oh yeah, we're all into that. You had to pay for the, what was it? Pay-per-view back then. We all get to someone's house. They had the lineup of fighters and Royce Gracie, who we now, who we know won to fight.
He was the least likely. You look at this guy, smaller, uh, little Brazilian guy [00:10:00] as compared to the other. Jacked up. Jacked up dudes. You know, we all picked up favorites. And when he won, we're like,
what is this stuff?
Riley: Yeah
Mark: What is this magic? This Jiu Jitsu And there was no Google.
94? When was that?
Three.
So we go to the yellow pages, right? And look for, oh, just right here. What do you know? There's a class right here in or Utah. And so we go, we all, we go in there, you know, what are we, mid to late twenties? They'll think we're all that right. And meet this little Brazilian guy. The name of Pedro Auer, um, didn't mean anything to us.
One of the, I think one of the earlier black belts to.
if I remember correctly, from Brazil.
Riley: what order he came in, but.
Mark: Yeah. And I don't know how he ended up in or Utah, about places, but there he was. And so we go in there, we wanna see what this is about, and he [00:11:00] says, you come on. You come on in. You know, in that real Brazilian accident, like he put one arm in his belt because one arm strap to his belt, and then he cleaned up on every one of us.
Succession and that's when I knew, okay, this stuff is special. This, this guy was, he weigh 145, maybe 150 pounds, I, I don't know, somewhere around there. And we're all over 200 ex football players, wrestlers. I was ex swat. I'd received some training. We thought we were ba and maybe by the standards of the time we were, which as you know, means nothing to have accomplished.
Brazilian Jujitsu
artist, he cleaned us up. I got out my checkbook on the spot and signed up
Riley: long did you train with him directly? I.
Mark: couple years. Um, he talked me into signing up for the Utah um Jujitsu tournament at the [00:12:00] time I won the White Belt Heavyweight Championship. He gave me my blue belt on the spot, right on the podium, and back then when you'd get a belt, they'd take him, he'd, he'd flip you
over his shoulder,
Riley: he would
Mark: went down,
Uhhuh.
That was, that was how he gave belts back then. Threw me, wrapped the blue belt around my waist. And um, of course I was very proud, really cool moment. And then I don't know why I did the typical blue belt thing. I let life get in the way. I was still finishing college. I had a child, I was trying to build my career and I just kind of, for some reason stopped going until fast forward 25 years later, I signed up again here in Boise, Idaho.
But, um, that's, so I got my blue ballot from Pedro Sour, uh, you know, very famous, accomplished Jujitsu fellow and Big was, but I'm [00:13:00] very proud of that. Very proud to say. That I got my blue belt from Pedro Sauer,
Riley: that
Mark: and it really,
Riley: question was did
Mark: yeah,
Riley: time
you had in front of you?
Mark: No,
Riley: I
Mark: we hadn't really heard of the Gracie's except for hoist. Gracie winning. We didn't know that he was a younger brother of other Gracie's who were, I think better and bigger and probably better fighters than he was at the time. They picked the younger brother to go represent their art. And didn't know that meant anything to us.
'cause all we knew was Pedro at the time and we just knew that he was special just 'cause we knew him personally.
Riley: Yeah. What a, what a cool opportunity. You know, you, you know, I'm a brown belt under Pedro, but I haven't got a chance to train directly with him. I'm a, trained under Keith Owen.
Before he
Mark: And
he
rest in peace.
Riley: uh, yeah Pedro is our, he's kinda my juujitsu [00:14:00] grandpa.
Oh
Mark: Right.
Yeah. And since, since I've come to Boise, I've found another very accomplished
lineage as well.
Riley: about
Mark: And then we, well, I, I, I suspect we'll talk, you wanna do that now? So fast forward 25 years, I'm leaving work one day and I look over in a little dusko park and I see a sign. Juujitsu, I think, ah, I thought back then my time.
How much fun. I had always thought about Juujitsu through the years. One of these days. One of these days, right? And I, I drive by, I see that sign, I'm like, mark, it's time, it's time. Pulled in. Met, um, Alexandre pave, known as Gigi again, didn't know who he was, didn't know how special his lineage is. Um, you know, he's, he's a black belt under Jack a who was under Halls Gracie, one of the few, one of eight.[00:15:00]
And Gigi's, a well accomplished, um, black belt champion. He is a coral belt now, signed up, liked him, signed up, and started my jujitsu journey again. First I remember first day of class. I'm sitting there holding my white belt. I'm holding my blue belt thinking I don't deserve to wear this blue belt. It's been 25 years.
And I'm looking at it and he sees me, no, mark, you own the blue belt on Pedro. You gotta wear it. I said, I probably don't have the skillset. It didn't matter. It came back quickly. I, I learned quicker and you know, a lot more things even though I've been gone that long. A lot of the techniques stick with you and they will the rest of.
Riley: Yeah, it's interesting to, to stay totally sharp. You've gotta train all the time, but you can have a pretty high level of.
skill, even with big gaps in training, right?
Mark: You never forget guard retention. You never forget how to do an arm bar. You know, you never forget. A cross collar to your technique [00:16:00] may need to refine, but those are skills that you've learned that the general public just don't have.
Riley: Yeah, man. Um, you talk about collar chokes. Do you, do you get much in the weeds on the jiujitsu ba debate on gee or no? Gee,
Mark: Primarily train. Gee. But one day a week we train. No, gee. And I enjoy it because it makes me, it's just different.
Yeah.
Grips are gone.
You have to learn more. Arm drags, learn how to take the back more.
Just a lot of it's just different and I.
Riley: this stint, um, since you started training again, how long has that been since you jumped back into Jiujitsu? I. Yeah. Dang man. [00:17:00] And what belt are you now
Mark: So I'm forthright purple. Um, real close to my brown. Probably would've had it by now, but he's holding me back for the World Masters, um, competition this August.
You know,
every advantage I can get,
Riley: that's that man. When, when you said that's happened to when I.
Mark: uh, end of August. The world.
It's masters and so 40 and above world, um, competition
Las Vegas.
Riley: Shoot
Mark: And I've signed up, I've signed up for my class and age and, and wait, and I'm gonna go give it my best and, and have fun. Gigi asked me to ask me to go and I said absolutely.
Riley: man. have to, I'll have to get exact dates from that from you later. 'cause I, wouldn't mind trying to make it down there and watch that in person. That'd be cool. [00:18:00] I, uh, dang. That's exciting, man. Well, so let's, um, let's pivot a little bit from Jiujitsu and let's, let's talk about. I think we mentioned earlier, early in the podcast that you had a, a stint with bodybuilding also. What, what made that happen? What, what was the, the motivation.
Mark: Again, it's meeting mentors and people who have done bigger and better things than me in that. Sport. I was, I've always been a lifelong lifter. Just go to the gym, the standard power three moves, bench, squat, deadlift. And I go primarily. And then I met a guy Craig, to a very accomplished bodybuilder who's since passed.
Um, he kind of said, Hey, let me show you some things. So I signed up and let him be my trainer. And some point he's like, Hey, why don't you. Strain for a competition, you know, [00:19:00] and I'm like, what the heck? I'm always, I don't know. My wife wonders what's wrong with me, but I'm always training or preparing for something big versus the competition or an event, and it kind of keeps me sharp.
Of course, it gets the nerves a little bit. Anytime you're preparing for competitions, there's some nerves. Um. People interpret that as fear. I interpret it as excitement. You know, it's the same hormone, A hormone for fear is the same hormone for excitement. It's just how you perceive it, your perception. So those kind of things always get me kind of excited and he grip brought me out a plan.
Most of it is the eating part, because you gotta get lean and of course the lifting. And so I did several competitions. Through my mid forties, mid to late forties with pretty good success. Had a third place, couple of second place, never took the top podium, uh, which, which is fine. I got in the best shape of my life.
[00:20:00] Uh, you know, at least, you know, at least how you look on the bodybuilding podium,
and.
Riley: no there for a
you were looking, looking pretty monstrous and.
I, only saw you a couple times during that, that phase, but Yeah, it was pretty impressive.
Mark: Yeah, I'm, I'm smaller now. I, I don't do the heavy lifting. I still lift, but now my goal is juujitsu shape, which means more flexible, a little more agile, a little quicker. I'm still two 50 pounds, um, muscular, but I'm lean, I'm leaner than I used to be when I was in the heavy power lifting. And just trying to stay healthy.
Now at 56, it's not about how much you can squat. I don't care anymore. To be honest. I don't even squat anymore. I do different things.
Riley: what weight did you get up to when you were in the peak of your bodybuilding?
Mark: At my biggest, my largest, I was 295 pounds, and then I would cut way down to [00:21:00] lean like about the same. I am now about 2 45.
I had
a lot more muscle and just kind of shred the fat. So now I'm just kind of a, a normal two 50.
Riley: don't know if I'd ever call you normal man.
Mark: I've never been accused of being normal, that's for sure. But.
Riley: so these goals so you, uh, jiujitsu goals, that's, it's, it's one of those things for, for folks that don't know the journey to a jiujitsu black belt, you know, it's somewhere between 10 and 15 years typically. So that's a, it's a long-term goal. Um Bodybuilding is something that, uh, know, that can be a lifelong pursuit also. How long did you do that for?
Mark: Well, I've been a lifelong lifter just for, just for aesthetics. I, I wanted to be big. I've always been big, big and muscular. Um, but as far as actual training with a purpose, you [00:22:00] know, training with a, a date or an event in mind, I did that for probably on and off for eight to 10 years in my forties. And then when I, then when I get 50, that's when I kind of, you know, what I'm, I'm gonna shift focus to again, be able to move better was always hurt.
Know your shoulder hurts when you're benching 400 pounds all the time. When you're squatting 500 pounds and dead lifting 600 pounds,
hurts.
Riley: Yeah
Mark: but you like, that's, that's what you push through to do it anyway. I, I feel better now and I lift more, more smart and with different focus.
Riley: uh, in your peer group of guys your age who aren't athletes, they walk around hurting all the time too, don't they?
Mark: Choose your hurt from being lazy, laying in your chair
and drinking your sodas
right, and you're, you're overweight, or the type of hurt you get from little fatigue [00:23:00] or maybe hurting an elbow in Jiujitsu or that kind of thing. Which one do you want? I, I prefer the healthy one where I'm healing up some bruises from training hard and jujitsu.
Riley: I think about that a lot. Where guys in my peer group, I'm 48 this year, and I, uh. I've got friends that are down with knee issues and back problems and all these things, and yet they're not, they're not athletic. So I'm like, well, if I'm gonna hurt anyways, I might as well have fun doing it.
Mark: Yeah, exactly.
Riley: talk to me about these goals. I have a, a a bit of a different question regarding goals and that sort of a thing, but have you. One of the reasons I picked Jiujitsu as a, as a hobby was because it would take so long. So I'll give you a little background on that. Prior to Jiujitsu, I was in the endurance, uh, you know, running, triathlon, those, those kind of sports. [00:24:00] And I would find that I would set a date train like crazy for that event. I do the event, and then the next day there was just this crash, like a, a letdown. Um, did you experience that with any of the stuff you've done? I.
Mark: Um, Jitsu. Know the bodybuilding. Yes. Because you, you're so strict, so disciplined. You go to the event and you put on your tan. You really look the best you've ever looked. Get up there, do your best, take your ribbon, whatever it is. And then the next day you're like, okay, well I can't wait to get a milkshake or a il, you know, or something that you've just put off for a year.
And then you do. And then you have to, you have that moment of reality, okay, what am I gonna do? You know, I gonna go back to a normal physique, whatever that means, or am I going to continue this? I chose to kind of continue. You have a little bit of a period where you get back to normalization because when you get that lean, [00:25:00] it's, it's not sustainable, right?
Try to take, it's perfect. And so I, I would have to take a couple weeks, kind, normalized, and then, and then my trainer. Like, okay, now what, what do you wanna do? Let's, let's put some sizes back on. Let's change your routine. You start lifting heavier again. Maybe pick another competition out a year or whatever.
And I did that for during that time period until I decided just to, no more competitions, just kind of get some normalization. And then all not long after that is when I found Juujitsu. And nice thing about Jiujitsu is, you're right, it is at least a minimum 10 year process. And my goal right now is to get my black belt before I'm 60.
That's, that's all I think about. Not everything I think about, but it's really forefront in my physical goals. And there's no [00:26:00] peaks and valleys just a long, slow climb up the hill. You have ups and downs where maybe you take some time off for vacation, but really it's a, it's progression several times a week, whatever your routine is, you're constantly getting better.
And some days you're the hammer. Some days you're the nail, you know? Well, as I do.
Riley: yeah, that's, um, the, the ups and downs. I asked, do you know who Brandon mcc? Catherine is,
Mark: I don't recall that name. No.
Riley: the founder Series. He's a degree black belt under, uh, Eddie Bravo. He's 10th planet guy. , I, I was talking to him one day about that let down, 'cause you, you mentioned wanting to get your black belt by the time he turned 60. Um My, uh, my goal is to get mine by the time I turned 50 and I was, I was supposed to test for my black belt back in April, but I ended up getting pneumonia in January, and I'm still not a hundred [00:27:00] percent after that. It was a pretty, pretty rough sickness, and so I haven't been able to do that. at, I'll be 49 this December, you know, so I'm, I'm feeling that pressure that coming up going, man, I, I'd like to get that done. It's not the end of the world if it doesn't. But that, that being said, I, uh, as I was talking to Brandon, I was asking him about that, that let down, you hit your black belt, and he, he said he went through about a year and a half of almost a depression after that because he was striving for that goal so hard for so long. You know, it's a decade or, you know, 12 years, I think he said it took him and crap, man, I, I, I started wondering that. I'm like, man, will I have that let down? And that, you know.
[00:28:00]
Mark: I think about that sometimes My, probably my biggest regret is I didn't stick with Jiujitsu in that time off. You know, I'd be a multi stripe black belt by now and now if I get my black belt at 60, and it doesn't matter where you go as long you continue to train. I'll never be a coral belt unless I keep training in my nineties and who does that?
You know? So I have to be okay with black belt and then figure out my journey after that. You know, at some point you start wrestling, you start training with those [00:29:00] 20 somethings and 30 somethings black belt or not. You need to be careful, uh, that you don't hurt yourself and just kind of find, I need to find my status quo, what that looks like as a black belt in my, as a man in my sixties, and just kind of find, I don't know, I, I've thought about that.
Not worried about it, but I know it's something I'll need them. Come to terms with a reconcile, what that looks like going forward.
I'll always have a key.
Riley: that's an when you're, when you're discussing what that, what that looks like
to
be
Mark: Yeah.
Riley: on a
black belt but then realize that you're, you're getting on it, especially in jiujitsu years. Right. Uh and what that, what that role looks like, because, you know, the knowledge we have in our head is, is super high level at that point, but. man. You got these young guys with the physical, ath athletic abilities that could still give you trouble on the mat and you know there is a reconciliation. Yeah, [00:30:00]
Mark: They see a guy still reasonably fit with a black dough. They would love nothing more than the, you know, even if they just get, get you mounted or, you know, get a sweep on you. And so
losing your ego
Riley: Yeah
Mark: and being, being okay with your own capabilities. At the time, I'm not there yet. I'm still, I'm still able to hang because of my farm strength and my old man's strength that they tell me
and technique and.
Riley: in half No, I, uh. Funny story. I had a, a guy drop into our school here, uh, it is probably been six months ago, eight months ago, but he was a four strike purple belt. Um, big guy. Not quite as tall as you, but, and not as, not as as you are. Not quite that, but he's just an athlete, you know, six foot one. Strong young guy in his twenties and for whatever reason as a drop in, he decided he wanted to take, take on the instructor that night. Who happened to be me [00:31:00] And man, this kid just went ham and I'm, I'm sitting here trying to keep my ego down, just like, okay, not gonna be able to keep up with this dude athletically. So I'm gonna have to technique him. I finally waited my turn and I was, you know, I was pulled guard playing the bottom position. I finally swept him. And as I'm climbing up mountain, I'm getting him into a, a bad position. I keep seeing these arms exposed, but it, I'm like, man, I don't know if I want to take one of those arms quite yet 'cause I'm gonna end up on the ding bottom again. And so I just made him suffer up right until the clock. And I pulled that arm bar right at the last five seconds just to, we, if we did reset, it didn't have to be on bottom.
Mark: Yeah, I thought you gonna say maybe you got the Americana, because that's one people, the
see coming.
Riley: No no was a, ended up being pretty fun deal and he was cool afterwards, but it was, uh, it was one of those man kind of drop in challenge matches as, as close as I've ever been to that we weren't punching each other [00:32:00] in the face, but it
was intense
Mark: Yeah. Nobody really likes those guys. If they sign up, they learn real quick though, how to be cool, how to train with your partners and just kind of keep things. We're not here to kill each other. And that's actually something I've had to overcome. The other way I, you know, I'm a social guy. If you go to class every day, you get to know these guys and they're your friends.
And if anything I go, I go too soft and don't take advantage of opportunities that present itself. And I went to, and I was instructed of that when I went to a camp. It was a five day camp in California, the Redwood Mountains of Haja Gracie. Course well, well known what, 10 time World Champ, or some very famous, you know, he's a, he's a goat, he consizered one of the grace of all time sport.
And so I thought, here's an opportunity to go. I was praying the class and I even got a role with him a [00:33:00] little bit. Of course we know the outcome of that. Um, and he is like, mark, you know, why are you rolling so soft? You know? Well, I am one of the bigger guys, you know, I'm trying to be cool, you know, I don't wanna.
I don't wanna hurt or any of my training partner. He is all Then you don't wanna do jiujitsu. Like, what do you mean? I said, if you're just gonna go soft and not taking advantage of things that put itself, then maybe, maybe Jujitsu's not for you. I don't think he really meant that. I think he was trying to teach me a lesson and that hit me.
I'm like, oh, okay. You know? Yes, it's cool to be nice and not hurt people, but jujitsu is a. Physical sport, it's a combative sport and we're here to learn from each other and I'm not doing myself a favor or my training partner a favor if I have give too many gimmies. So I've tried to turn up a little bit notch since then.
It is powerful.
Riley: hurting people and. You know, being spazzy and going too hard,
but
Mark: Absolutely. [00:34:00]
Riley: you want to
in a real way. Right, And so, yeah, you get ahold of somebody's collar, you're gonna choke him with it, but you don't have to beat him on the ground with it. You know, it's not like you have to, it's rip the poor guy.
Mark: Right, right.
Riley: Well let's,
pivot from jujitsu and, and, uh, get into. Your business. So you're the owner, CEO of the Cottage's Assisted living. And is that the actual title of the The Business
Mark: It
senior
living and we do assisted living and memory care. Yeah.
Riley: and we've worked together in a different capacity. We actually met through my mobile oil change business.
And in
your company trucks, what? Gosh,
that's been what years ago? Probably at least 10.
Mark: you So
good. Been a while. Yeah.
Riley: been so, uh, I started working with the cottages in the, the lube business, [00:35:00] were, you played a different role then. Your, your father was CEO at the time, correct.
Mark: He was. So, he and I started the company in 2001. Well, let's real quick. I was in Utah. I was a social worker. He called me one day, Hey son, do you wanna come back home to Idaho? So, and, and do some assisted living with me. I said, well, that sounds pretty good. What's that? You know, at that time I didn't know what assisted living was.
There really wasn't a lot of them. It was a thing, but no one really knew a lot about it. He goes, well, we're gonna take care of people like grandpa, and my grandfather and I were very close. He died at a hundred years of age, slipped and fell, broke his neck in a nursing home. And I always knew that he would've enjoyed something different from that.
And I'm not here to back on nursing homes. If you need to be at 'em, they're pretty good. But if you don't need to be in nursing home, you don't wanna be there. You don't wanna be skilled nursing. He would've done well and thrived in assisted living his small town. So I said, yeah, amen. Picked up my family, move back home [00:36:00] to Idaho and we built our very first facility on grandpa's land in Idaho.
And so since then, that has been my driving force to make a home, make a a, a business where grandpa would've thrived and done well. And so, so we, we did that. Dad retired in 2017, I think. Bought him out. So then I became the CEO and owner, and since then I've continued to build some, now we're up to, we have 20 homes throughout southwest Idaho.
The very first one being in Emmett Idaho, which is where I live now. I moved my family to Emmett Idaho to remind me of what Meridian was like in the eighties, you know, uh, at the time, what, when I grew up.
Riley: man. And so you took over as CEO in 2017, you said? Yeah. What does, what does that look like? Is that's, um, I. Just what does your, your, your day to day [00:37:00] look like in that role?
Mark: For years, I was heavily involved in operations in the weeds. Probably the one of the best things I did as a, as a business owner. Was hire a company presizent. I was CEO and presizent, which means I thought and felt I had to do it all and I had a lot of good team members and some good people work with me.
That helped me. No, not one person could do it all in anything and, but I knew that I needed to get outta the weeds so I can focus on the most important things to me, culture and growth. So I hired a company presizent. She'd been Jamie, who'd been with me for years, already empowered her, get out of her way.
She's doing a great job, doing a better job than I did, frankly, as presizent, you know, and the operator. So now I focus on growth culture of my company. She handles the day to day, and we're both happier.
Riley: about that. So you're, when you say you [00:38:00] focus on growth and culture, what, what does that, what does that look like? Help me out.
Mark: Well. Culture. I'm obsessed with the culture of my company.
That, that's culture is, you know,
what it, what it feels like to work at a place. You, there's a lot of people, they quit high paying jobs because they hate going to work every day, hate their boss, hate their coworkers, don't like what they do. But if you want people to stick around, they like, man, I love this place.
We work together. It feels good. My supervisor, my boss, my owner, whatever, they value me. I have employees been with me for 5, 10, 15. I have a caregiver that's been with me here 20 years. Everyone in my office on my C-suite have been with me at least 10 years. So when you have longevity like that, they handle their business.
You don't have to worry about their loyalty. You don't have to worry about if they're doing the right thing. They're doing [00:39:00] the right thing, not because they're getting paid to, because they want to. Like burnout happens when you realize you're working on someone else's project. This Is their baby. They're on the bus.
This is their baby. They take pride in their job. My job, stay their way.
Riley: that. Be, uh, a little bit more because that, um. To delegate something. Most business owners, I, I would say most is accurate, struggle with that. Micromanaging not staying out of their way. So have you had any hard knock lessons that that taught you that.
Mark: Yeah. Good.
Possibly or negative hard knock, not lessons. I've kind of learned that by trial and error. You know, I'll realize and I, I'm busy, I just can't do this. Would you do this for me? Absolutely. They've been ready a long time and frankly just been waiting for the opportunity. And then they do it [00:40:00] and you're like, wow, that was nice.
I had time to do something else. I didn't have to worry about this and stress about it. And guess what? They took care of it. And if I was honest with myself, they did just as good or maybe even better than what I would've done. I'm like, this is pretty nice. Let's try it again and again. Now with this person, before, you know it you're sitting back working on your business instead of working in it.
That's the phrase we've heard. And what do you know? Your business is more profitable. It grows. And now instead a business like this, you have one like this, it's just as easy. To operate a business this size as it is this size. If you have good team members, that love what they do and they have the power to do that.
My job is hold 'em accountable, but not really 'cause they hold themselves accountable and I don't know, I don't, I can't over emphasize how important it's have a great culture and empower your people, get
outta their way.
Riley: Man you that I do not wanna [00:41:00] pass. You said they had been ready for a long time. And I think that's the key probably to this whole thing, is you delegate to people who are ready, who can then, as you said, do it better than you did it, at least as well, but probably better, right? Because they're more focused, they don't have all the other stuff to think about.
They have that, that, that, uh, thing.
[00:42:00]
Mark: they were hired for a specific skillset. As an owner, you have to be good at all of it, which means you're o, which means you're okay. You're good at some of them. Okay. At the rest. Well, if you hire a chief marketing officer, a. They're good at that. What gonna, whatcha gonna stick around and tell them what to do for, they're better at you.
You know, you set the direction, the vision, they understand it and.
Riley: Yeah. I tell my guys all the time, my job is to provide you with the tools you need to do what you do, and then you work the magic and do that. Oh, man. You said some beautiful things in there
that's
Mark: I, I've had a, well, thank you. I've had a long time, a lot of mistakes to learn how, what makes beautiful music in [00:43:00] business and starting to get it figured out now, which is why we're more profitable, we've ever been growing. I'm able to focus on other avenues, other business opportunities that have been been a lot of fun.
Riley: who, uh, who do you think has influenced you the most in your life?
Mark: Yeah, good question. I learned a lot from my dad. Of course. He was always in business. He was good at that. He was good at saying, Hey, this is what you need to go do. Go do it. Um, I could come to anytime, ask questions, and he'd help me without judgment. And that's important when someone comes to you, maybe they made a mistake.
You don't say what's wrong with you. You know, you sit down with him, okay, what did we learn? Not what did you do wrong? What did we learn here and what do we do differently? So he was good at that. I've done a lot of reading. I, I read, I got a whole,
these books right here I've been [00:44:00] reading and different things.
Um.
Riley: the most influential book you've ever read, and that's something you'd recommend to everybody?
Mark: Gosh, how do I narrow that down? I don't wanna get this too far off topic, but
first would be the scriptures.
Riley: Sure
Mark: Holy scriptures. Um, but as far as business book,
I'm reading this one right now, currently.
Pardon my language.
Riley: Hold it up a little
Mark: So no asshole, you
Riley: you go. What's,
what's that
Mark: know. Why are we tolerating assholes in our company? We know who they are. They're the boss. What people work for you? People just don't get along with anybody you know, they're not happy. Not making people around 'em happy. Get rid of 'em. But probably my number one book, pardon me for real quick
Riley: [00:45:00] Nice.
that I
Mark: leadership.
Riley: There
you go
Mark: Mike Staver
leadership isn't for cowards. It isn't because you have to learn how to do and say the hard things and the right things. And I actually teach a class, um, once a month on this book. I bring in all my future leaders and they have to read this book with me, and we go through the things. I promote from within all of my C-Suite people and mid management people started at the bottom working for me 10, 15 years ago, working nights, scrubbing, toilets, whatever needed to be done.
And then over time they proved themselves and they worked away up from there. You can hire a hot shop from outsize and I've done that sometimes. I've never had as much success as when I find someone entry level and we grow together, I help them and they grow. This right across this wall right [00:46:00] here is my Chief Operations Officer.
She started working nights, having toilets, giving showers, toileting, elderly people, and now 14 years later, she's my COO
and doing a great job. Yeah.
Riley: Well I hear you because you're, you're talking about, you know, you bring somebody in from the outsize, maybe they have a great track record for some other company, but they, they haven't learned your culture for 10 years. Right. So they, they bring something different, which changes the culture, which may not be desirable.
I.
Mark: Yeah, absolutely.
Riley: quick question here. The, the name of this podcast is The Goer In Your Salt Podcast. What comes to mind when you hear that phrase? Goer your salt.
Mark: You have to be a certain age, I think, to understand what that, where that phrase comes from. Back in the day or, or in other countries, people would work for a chunk of salt, right? Because of the value of it. [00:47:00] So go earn your salt. You go in a full day hard work, and you get your reward, which is salt. I can't remember if it's in another country or not.
But salt had great value in some cultures. So when you go earn your salt, you go earn your due. Not just your paycheck, but your respect, your skills, and. There's really a lot to that. As soon as I learned of that to be named your, your supplement, I'm like, oh my heck is he thinking. I've thought a lot about it and it's just a very interesting name, so I would love to hear your perspective on it.
I'm sure you have your own reasons, but.
Riley: just it, man. I, I thought it was, you know, partly, it's kind of a cute phrase that we've all heard our whole lives, like, yeah, that guy's not worth his salt. You know, just he's some schlub that's just not bringing any value. Right. I. Tho those guys who do man. And you, you'd hear the old timers especially say that, you know that man, that man's worth his salt. [00:48:00] That that just resonated with me, not just from the supplement perspective. I mean, in fact very little from the supplement perspective, but.
it's like some people get after it and get things done and are attack life? And some people just kind of ride the wave and do what? What comes natural. And I've always been really attracted to people who are achievers that, that want more, that are, are driven by that, you know, that motivation.
They always have a goal in front of them. You know, that's, that's why I thought of you for this, because as long as I've known you, there's always been something there you're shooting for. I, uh, yeah, man. And that, that's what it is to me. Um, what, what advice would you give. Listeners of this podcast that would help them to earn their salt,
Mark: Get over yourself. Just you need to have, [00:49:00] you need to have some, some pride to hold yourself up and realize you're gonna work hard. Lose your ego, get humble. There's people you can learn from. Watch people that are already doing it. Can't be afraid to put in work. For my, my generation and for my upbringing, I wasn't afraid to work.
I didn't feel like I'd been mistreated. That's all there was. You just got up, you go work, you eat your little sack lunch that you brought with you and you'd get back at it. We didn't know what PT was or vacation time or sick time. That wasn't such a thing. You just. Worked hard and I, I sadly, those are abilities and skills that I feel are being lost today.
I don't wanna get too far off on kids these days, you know? Um, but, but that's a whole nother podcast. But just, you can't be afraid. Get out there. Go earn your salt. Work hard, drop your ego. Learn from those that [00:50:00] have been there. Take your lick. Say this, do that just All right. Internalize it. Think about it.
Yeah, I could have done this differently, or, no, I'm fine. And keep going. You'll wake up one day, 20, 30 years later and realize, you look around you, you have a nice family, you have a, you have a business, you have some things to really be proud of. And, uh, still you keep your pride in check and you keep going.
Riley: just arrived. Right.
Mark: I, I can't imagine. What that looks like, where I'll sit back and go, I'm done. All right. That's probably the day I'll die. And I, I probably wouldn't want to, wouldn't want to die. I'm never, always have a goal. Right now it's my black belt. And then, you know, at 56 I'm started thinking about what retirement looks like.
So does that means sell my business? Does that mean sell employees? Does it mean step out of this role and just sit on the board? Hire a CEO. I [00:51:00] don't know yet. That's kind of on my short list of things,
things I want to do. I always have something.
Riley: planning that stuff now that that succession plan is, uh, that can take a while to implement, so
For
Mark: Yeah. Right now my goal is, my goal is to win Masters seven at the uh, world Masters Jiujitsu competition.
Riley: see you do that, man. That'd be amazing.
Mark: Absolutely. I.
Riley: Yeah Can we switch with some lighter questions? Mostly just for fun. Okay. Tell your favorite pastime outsize of, uh, what we've talked about outsize of Juujitsu
Mark: Cars drag racing.
Riley: I have not yet got to see the Camaro. Well, you actually have two Camaros, don't you?
Mark: I the one I drive every day, it's a newer A 20 sport one. I bought this, I think my last year of high [00:52:00] school in 1969, which now is a pretty cool car. Back then, it was just a used car. They got paid 1500
bucks for it. You know,
I've, yeah, I've kept it.
Riley: That's
Mark: I, I'm working on working on restoring it, you know, getting it brought up to modern day standards and I have another car that I'm working on. I wanna. Starts actually racing at Firebird Race way out here, and I've been a few times
and raced.
Riley: what what
Mark: It's an old, when you hear it, you won't think it's cool, but I'm trying to build a Gasser Gasser, the drag car that they built in the
sixties
specific for drag racing?
Riley: lifted on the front
Yep,
Mark: yep. It's for, for transfer people. Don't build them anymore. Kind of forg. 63
Riley: Shoot, test drove a St. [00:53:00] Studebaker lark. Uh, it was a, it would've been a sedan, gosh, back in the nineties that a cousin of mine was looking at. She kind of thought it was cool and I told her she shouldn't buy it 'cause it was too much maintenance for her. But I.
Mark: there. There's nothing cool about at, but if you, you can make look.
Riley: that's amazing, man. All right, so if you, uh, if you, if you sit down at a restaurant with a hamburger and they put the veggies on the bottom of the patty, is that acceptable to you?
Mark: No, the foundation of any good burger, and I don't get the bun by the way. It's a big old, massive patty. Light pink in the middle, and everything else goes on top. The onion, tomatoes, two eggs over medium, well, bacon and avocado a. And maybe a little lettuce wrapped, but that's, that's how it's done. And if not, I send it back,
Riley: back,
man.
go on
Mark: get it outta here.
What a, what a question.[00:54:00]
I'm such a calm, easygoing guy. It's very rare. And I got on my fight out, me in the penitentiary, on the SWAT team. You know, I gotta exercise any amount of aggression I. Certainly in the morning. So it's very rare and, and I'm a large, intimidating guy. Normally just a, just a look or a not today buddy is all it takes.
I don't, I.
Riley: Uh, it's funny 'cause people think all, all the time, if you're training juujitsu you're fighting all the time. And so they ask me, I get asked this a lot. Do, do you ever, are you ever tempted to get in a fight? And I'm like, there's not a, no, not even a little bit man. Um, I.
know how deceiving people can be and how, you know, I, I fight enough people where skinniest, nerdiest looking dude could, could just tear you apart if he's the wrong guy, you know?
Mark: The odds are you would clean up in any fight,
but you [00:55:00] know
Riley: there's
Mark: that you just don't know.
Yeah.
Riley: I've times And I I think, yeah. Yeah. Like I said, the odds are definitely in my favor, but not all, all in my favor. So,
um I
Mark: And I don't wanna fight anybody. I will have to, but if I'm trying to protect myself or a family member from a really bad dude, obviously it's on, but I, I just can't imagine a scenario where I'd wanna fight. It's not worth the parking spot. It's not worth, you know, someone, someone bumping in the hall, just be like, Hey.
Buddy, it's just
Riley: Yeah
Mark: I've dropped my ego now. I don't care about that anymore.
Riley: Uh, scariest moment of your life. I.
Mark: Um, had a couple close calls when I was with swat. Some pretty bad dudes. Um, had a car wreck that was pretty [00:56:00] bad.
Um.
Riley: about
Mark: I don't, I don't think about 'em just going too fast on a road that was full of water and hydroplane and off I go.
know? But, uh,
no, no, I, no, I, I did a few rolls, um, walked away without a scratch.
Riley: you gotta see the, did it slow down? Do You get that slow motion feeling as you're going over?
Mark: You do as you're, as you're. You're like, I guess this is it. I hope my family's okay. I hope I've lived a good life. Right? And you're like, and you're waiting for it. Oh, not yet. Not yet. Stop. I guess. I guess I'm okay.
Lord. Right.
Riley: Yeah man. tell me this. What's, uh, what's next? What's a, what's a bucket list item you have? You mentioned getting your [00:57:00] black belt already. Do you have anything else on the horizon of. Things you want to achieve or do
Mark: They're all worldly things. Restore my old Camaro, finish my.
I'm a grandfather now. Spend more time with my grandsons. Um, continue to work on relationship with my wife. I've been married 33 years next month. And for those you, for those of you that are married, you know that it, it doesn't get easier. It, it does in some ways, but you're married to a woman and who under who knows what they're about anyway, right?
I didn't mean that. If she's watching this. No, it's, it's, it's incredible. But just she changes. We changed. So always working on your marriage relationships, trying to grow my business and started a couple new businesses, trying to get them going. [00:58:00] As soon as you, as soon as you run out of goals or run out of things to work on, that's when you get sick and die.
I see it all the time. The guy retires, he goes to the lazy boy. Dew it two years,
that's not gonna be me.
Riley: Oh that's see that way too often? Um, okay man. So. , Where can you be found? Where can the cottages be found on social media? Where, where are you on there too?
Mark: Very, a very robust, um, LinkedIn account. I'm on there and then, yeah, we're in Google. We have Facebook.
Riley: We'll stick uh, links in the, in the bio.
Mark: you.
Riley: yeah definitely like you guys to be, be visible on there. All right, my friend. I, uh, I told you now we're at 58 and a half minutes right now, and I wanna respect your time. I know you're a busy dude, so, uh, yeah, it was, it was great to speak with you, mark. [00:59:00]
Mark: This has been an honor and a pleasure. It's really, and you've asked some very, um, thought provoking questions, so it is been good. I, I really appreciate being like this, and we need to, we need to see each other face to face sometime soon. It's been a while.
Riley: So, mark, go in your salt, sir.
Mark: So.