Mike Diaz: [00:00:00] But also like we went into it without like a real backup plan. If it felt we were get, we were gonna make it work. Yeah. Right. And I see that a lot. I see a lot of times, you know, guys will go out and they'll be like working their full-time job and the juujitsu on the side and that's great.
It's like a safety net, right? Like if you fall, you're, you, you're able to be caught. But, um, I don't know. There's something to say for like, when you don't have a safety net, you're going to make it work.
Riley: Generally some are sometime between 90 and 90 minutes and two hours [00:01:00] is what these end up, but we'll see where it takes us. So feel free to elaborate on things. Do, is that, do you guys have enough, a window for that time-wise? I've lost your audio now. Holy cow. I wonder what? No, the air microphone or speakers.
Mike Diaz: Okay, lemme,
Riley: Hey,
Mike Diaz: Hey, I just saw you mute and come back. Yeah, I'm looking now. I've got an Echo audio. Uh, MacBook is it now? Let me see.
Riley: Let me, I, it sounded good now. Yeah, I started echoing there for a second. I just turned echo cancellation off and back on and seems to have done it. Can you
Mike Diaz: Yes, we can hear you. I.
Riley: Okay. Okay. Tip your camera down Once more. We're starting to ride then we should be [00:02:00] good. Yeah, that's great. That'll work. So.
Mike Diaz: Okay.
Riley: Okay. You guys ready?
Mike Diaz: Ready?
Riley: All right. Today I've got Mike and Ramona Diaz from Park City Jiujitsu and great city of Park City, Utah. And, uh, we met at a retreat that these guys put on once a year where it's a, it's a weekend long jiujitsu camp and we're part of a, a jiujitsu association together under Pedro Sauer. And, and, uh, Mike is fifth degree black belt.
Is that correct?
Mike Diaz: Yes, sir. Fifth degree.
Riley: And Ramona has trained in the past, currently not, but is, uh, is the mastermind behind running their academy. And I, I'm, I invited these guys on here today because I've come across their students and I've trained with some other students and the culture they've built in their business, it's just, it's amazing.
And, and that's not something that exists everywhere. And so, Ramona, welcome to the show, you
Mike Diaz: Thank you. Thanks. Thanks for having us.
Riley: Yeah, man, it's so my pleasure. [00:03:00] Um, well talk to us, tell, tell me who you guys are, where you came from, and I'd like to hear from both of you. Like what, what's, where'd you grow up? What life looked like as a kid?
Mike Diaz: Well, you want me to go first? Yeah, you go first. So, um, I grew up in Utah, in here, in here in Salt Lake. And um, man, I did martial arts when I was really young. Bunch of different martial arts. And then I went in the Marine Corps when I was 19. And, um, uh, I had a, my, I had a my daughter when I, while I was in the Marine Corps.
And so when I got out I wanted to figure out a good place to raise her. So I thought I'd come back to Utah. And when I came back to Utah Master, so I happened to be here in Utah, so I got super lucky. So I was able to start training with him back here where I grew up. So yeah, most of my life all had, I've been in Utah.
I grew up in Utah.
Riley: how about you, Ramona?
Mike Diaz: Pardon?
Riley: How about you?
Mike Diaz: Oh, I [00:04:00] said I grew up in Utah County down in Provo. And I'm a Utah County girl and went to school down there, went to BYU and I met Pedro through my brother Dave Pedro. And Dave, um, Pedro met Dave when he first came to the US and um, they were friends and then Pedro was always trying to get me to bring my kids.
I was newly divorced to Jiujitsu and I used to tell him I didn't like karate 'cause I didn't know what it was. And so, um, he finally got me to come in and I brought my kids in there and my kids all trained. And I met Mike there. He was a teacher for Pedro teaching the kids program. And that's kind
Riley: Your brother Dave, what's, what's his last name?
Mike Diaz: de Joa.
Riley: your Okay.
Mike Diaz: Yeah.
Riley: was, I was thinking a, a different Dave that I knew from down there, but No, nevermind.
Mike Diaz: Yeah. And Dave trained a long time ago in the early days with Pedro and um, I mean they were, when I first met Pedro, he had a ponytail, [00:05:00] so it was a long time.
Riley: a did.
Mike Diaz: Yeah, it was right towards Mr. Utah fight. It's like early nineties.
Riley: Oh man.
Mike Diaz: Yeah,
Riley: Yeah, that was a while back.
Mike Diaz: Long time ago.
Riley: So did you, did you start training with him? Uh, Mike? Was that where your beginning of your jiu-jitsu.
Mike Diaz: Poor Juujitsu. Yeah. I started, I've been with Pedro the whole time. White belt all the way to black belt. So super fortunate. Super lucky you know, that I came, saw and that he happened to be here. 'cause at that time in the country there was only a few places to train Jiujitsu. And so, and I knew that I wanted to train Jiujitsu.
And it was so funny because I thought it was everywhere. I thought like, you could just look in the phone book and find it. And, um, it did, it was for me. I was able to find it, you know, just, just by chance that he happened to be here of all places.
Riley: Not a wild thing. I think we take that for granted sometimes, you know, and I, it really hit me when Keith passed away, right? That, what did I have right in front of me? You know? And, and [00:06:00] you growing up through your juujitsu journey with Pedro, one of the magicians of the sport, right? One of the best guys ever.
Mike Diaz: Yeah, I was thinking,
Riley: that right in your hometown and probably didn't know it, you
Mike Diaz: yeah, and I was thinking about that last night. Like I, because he, he was just here, he did a seminar at my school, um, a couple nights ago. Yeah. Tuesday night, a couple nights ago. And I was thinking about that. It's like, you know, at that time in the country, nobody really saw Juujitsu.
Right. And we had the best right there in front of us, but we didn't even know really. Like, we knew how good he was, you know, from everything we heard about him. And then when we saw on the mat, we were like, yeah, he's phenomenal. He is great and all this. But I don't know, at least for myself, if I truly realized what we had, because.
It wasn't everywhere in America. We hadn't seen it before. And the fact that we had him on the mat was pretty amazing, you know,
Riley: Yeah. How long was he there?[00:07:00]
Mike Diaz: until oh six, I think is when he left Thousand six left. Yeah. And I think he came, but early nineties, he was, I don't know what year he got here, the early nineties to oh six. Yeah. But Mike was lucky to have 10 years of training with them. Yeah.
Riley: Oh, that's so incredible. Yeah, for real. That's incredible. So, okay, Provo and Salt Lake are on opposite sides of the hill, right? it, is it okay for people on opposite sides of that hill to date? I mean, you guys obviously got together, but
Mike Diaz: Oh, I was harassed endlessly, you know, coming from Utah County. But, um, I grew up down there and then I lived in Draper and then, um, park City, um, when we, when we started that school up there. But, um, yeah. Two different worlds
Riley: I love
Mike Diaz: for sure. We came, we came from two different worlds. Two, but isn't that what Juujitsu is?
Like? All these people from different walks of life, they meet up on the mat and they all have that in [00:08:00] common and they all see eye to eye. So that was Juujitsu working right there.
Riley: I love it. It crossed that divide of Provo to
Mike Diaz: Yeah, for sure.
Riley: aren't from there. They don't realize there's kind of that hill and it's like, yeah, it's, that's the other side of the tracks, man.
Mike Diaz: Yeah.
Riley: I love it. So the, start training with, with Pedro and then at what, what year did you guys start your school
Mike Diaz: Well, 2010 officially we were getting everything ready in 2009 and you know, getting the leases and building out and so we officially opened in 2010.
Riley: and what did you do before that?
Mike Diaz: Me, Ramona, you.
Riley: Yeah,
Mike Diaz: Me, I did it
Riley: let's start with you, Mike. Yeah.
Mike Diaz: well, I was a contractor, so I had a contracting company and we did pretty good. Like we started really small. And um, and the only reason I [00:09:00] started the, the construction company is just so I could train jiujitsu whenever I wanted. 'cause like when I had a full-time job,
Riley: love it.
Mike Diaz: you know, I wasn't making very much money.
And all my friends would go compete and travel or whatever, and I just couldn't take the time off. You know, I was a single dad, I just couldn't take a lot of time off. And so I thought, well man, I'll just start my own construction company, something small, and then I can train when I want. If I need time off, I'll take time off.
And so we started really small and then it kind of grew into a pretty successful business. It did pretty well. Um, but then when, um, the economy crashed in like oh eight. I think around then, um, we had to hit the brakes really hard and everything got super ugly. Like relationships were just not well in the company.
And, um, so I said, man, I'm done. I'm gonna go open up a jujitsu school. And so, and that was, you know, a couple years later and then me and Mona went up to Park City and started that venture venture, which was so [00:10:00] tough, really tough. I went from, you know, the, the construction company doing pretty well and making a decent living to man, like struggling for a lot of years, trying to get the gym up and going, but it was way worth it.
Yeah, it was worth it. Sure.
Riley: What's, um, so you don't know this about me, but I was in construction during that crash too, man, and,
Mike Diaz: Yeah.
Riley: closed my company. I actually ended up in a chapter 11 bankruptcy. Lost everything I own. I had to start over, you know?
Mike Diaz: So tough.
Riley: I was 32, 33 at the time. Yeah, man, it was a scary time. It was a scary time for sure.
But the lessons I learned there, man, were. Oh my gosh. I, there were some things, I learned a lot of what not to dos,
Mike Diaz: Right.
Riley: but I also learned a lot of lessons. I wouldn't, would never wanna go back to that experience, but I would never trade it either. Right.
Mike Diaz: Yeah. Right. For sure.
Riley: And when you guys, you talk about that kind of income change and the downturn of the construction company, [00:11:00] did you have a time there? I guess the question is a time there where you kinda had the wind knocked outta you when things were, didn't, maybe some lack of confidence, you know, you're going into that
Mike Diaz: I think we were so motivated to, to do it and make it work that. We didn't really get the wind knocked by us. We had really hard times, but we were so determined that we were gonna make it work that we, we like just kept going and going and going through some really, really tough times in the beginning.
Like we thought there's no jiujitsu in Park City in the area, and people are just gonna be standing in line to come in, you know? And no, like back then people didn't know what Jiujitsu was and they were coming in, they were thinking it was karate. And then we would build up some students and then they would be like, okay, goodbye.
We'll see you in the, you know, it summer we were leaving, we'll come back in the winter and we lose all our students, you know? And so it was always,
Riley: that's something I didn't [00:12:00] think of. Yeah.
Mike Diaz: yeah, it Park City's a different, a resort town is a different market. Probably the worst market. They, yeah. They go and start a school in, especially when the medium a like is 50 years old, you know?
You know, so it's, it was very different when we opened Lehigh. Um, the Lee location, which we didn't wanna open 'cause it was so tough to do. Park City. We were like, no, no. You know. So, um, but I think like sometimes I think we were kind of dumb in the beginning that we're like, no matter what, we're gonna make it work.
I always say she's like super determined to just keep going. I'm just too dumb to know when to quit.
Riley: That's a good pair. That's a good match. I love it.
Mike Diaz: Yeah.
Riley: No, I think that's cool. 'cause those, those can be, uh, we'll talk about it, I guess. What, from the time you opened the doors to the time you had a, a viable student base that was paying the bills and paying, you know, you were able to eat, how long did that take you?
Mike Diaz: Three years at least. [00:13:00] Yeah, that was longer than, yeah. Yeah. I mean, I mean, it was closer to five years actually, so we built up it, it was hard. We changed locations a couple times, um, and we were paying top, top rent. We had working capital when we first opened, and we thought, this is gonna be great, you know, and we can use a little here and there.
And we just blew through it. We, we paid to teach jujitsu for years and then I was doing like other jobs on the side. I was working for a design company in Park City and doing like, just whatever, and then coming in the evenings and working. And so we didn't really get paid for probably closer to 2015.
Really where we had, you know, okay, now there's some money, but we were in the red, the solid red for three years, you know? And that's why I'm saying like, we, I think now if something was that tough with everything, we'd be like, okay, we're done. But back then we were just like, we're not giving up. Yeah. You know?
But [00:14:00] you know, the thing is, is that, you know, in the beginning we probably only had a couple students, and one of our first students that came in is now one of my, is my first black belt that I promoted outta that school.
Riley: Oh,
Mike Diaz: you know, he was there at the very beginning. And then, um, you know, shortly after that, the second black belt that I promoted, he showed up.
So we had two students that were committed. Right. And so a lot of times when me and Mona were like, man, this is hard. Is it worth it? Should we keep going? We were like, well, hell, we got these two guys, you know, just two guys. And then maybe a couple more would come in and we'd be like, well, we gotta keep the doors open for them.
And I think that's kind of where that culture started getting built, you know, because we were so committed to the people that were committed to us, and we were gonna make sure that these guys had a place to train, you know, a place to do juujitsu in Park City. So even though those years were tough, like we were committed to those guys and it grew so organically too.[00:15:00]
It did like, and that's the thing that really created that family. It was like people bringing like other people in, because we were on, like we got invited to Park City TV and did some things and none of that really brought people in. What brought people in were our students like, okay,
Ramona: Just the, the culture of the people that came in. And so it started building more like a family than a business.
And, um, we like had some students came, come in that actually really, um, they really enjoyed the culture at the community and they were like on our side to keep it going too. And so we had people then like wanting to help us and so it, it was great.
We built, we built a family from the ground up and we still have some of those original students with us still. That are, you know, like Keith came in there at that point and Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, definitely when we needed some help, some people stepped up and helped us stay up there. They were really good [00:16:00] people.
They wa they saw the value of Jiujitsu in Park City and they wanted to keep it up there. So super grateful for those guys. Yeah,
Riley: That's
Mike Diaz: yeah.
Riley: Now the Keith, you're talking about
Mike Diaz: yeah, one of our, one our students, one of our black belts too. Barnhart. Yeah. So he's, he was like, he was the third black belt that I promoted up in Park City. So those guys that came in, came around, you know, at the very beginning, stuck with us all the way through.
Yeah. Stayed, which is sometimes rare
Riley: That's amazing
Mike Diaz: jitsu because people come and go like, it's like that revolving door, right? Yeah,
Riley: Yeah. Yeah, talk about that. 'cause that's a, that's its own challenge, right?
Mike Diaz: is.
Riley: We, we call it the blue belt blues in the, in the industry, but
Mike Diaz: Yeah.
Riley: it's
Mike Diaz: It is. And and the funny thing is, is you get these people that are like so committed and they think that they're just gonna be a black belt in like a couple years and they get their blue belt and they're done and they're gone.
Riley: Yeah.
Mike Diaz: You know? And they, or the, you know, [00:17:00] blue is the new, black is what I call it, where the get their blue belt and they know everything there is to know, you know, they're trying to teach all the other students, you know, so just one of the.
Riley: That's a funny, that's a funny thing. 'cause we, remember after I started, so I had grappled for a few years doing like a Gracie Garage situation. Know we were just me and some buddies watching Gracie combative tapes and um. So that was my introduction to Juujitsu. But when I started with Keith, I remember a guy who started right around the same time, within the same week as I did, and he, he said one night we're sitting there and we're all sweaty and just, you know that happy time right after you are rolling and all just sitting around talking and he says, I'm gonna die on these mats.
You know, like, I'm staying this, I'm just here now, permanent. And yeah, guy was gone in six months.
Mike Diaz: Yeah,
Riley: It was, he was done.
Mike Diaz: we used to sometimes take bets when guys would come in. We'd be like, yeah, he's gonna last six months. [00:18:00] Oh, he's gonna last two months. You know? I don't think you can ever tell though you can't because like we have some people that come in that really know athletic ability and they. You know, you just don't know.
And all of a sudden they're, they've stuck around the longest and they're the best on the mat. Yeah. So I can never tell. I don't know. And then the biggest guy in the world looks mean and tough. You know, you think, oh my God, this guy will be here forever and he is gone in a few months. So I, I can never tell.
Yeah, yeah,
Riley: Yeah, I was gonna ask you if you could, but Yeah, I, I haven't been able to figure that out either. 'cause I, I watch students come and go and I'm like, some of 'em, I think, oh, this guy's gonna stick. And then he just doesn't, you know, it's like some of these guys have natural athletic
Mike Diaz: yeah. The most unlikely person will be the person that's there and just plugs through it, puts their nose to the grindstone, comes every, you know, comes every few days, comes a few times a week and stays. And then the other one that comes in that thinks they should be good within a month. We had a guy ask Mike if he could [00:19:00] teach him to fight real fast, and he thought that within a month that he was gonna be a fighter, you know,
Riley: Yeah. I can talk real fast if you want me to, but that's about as good as I'm gonna do is teaching you
Mike Diaz: Run, run.
Riley: No, it's a, it's a, it's a definitely a long-term thing and it, it parallels business, right? Because you, you got a lot to learn when you, like you guys said it was three to five years before you really had a, an, a genuine income from, uh, from this, the school. did you have Ramon, you mentioned having a side job, you know, during that time and working during the day and then coming in in the evening. There's that, that big the dip, you know, I dunno if you've ever read that book called The Dip, but it's talks about that time from when you start to the time when you're making a living and, uh, yeah. Do do you have any advice or strategy you'd give people for, for weathering that storm?
Mike Diaz: You know, it's so different too. [00:20:00] Like you just have to, you just have to ride that wave and see where it takes you. Um, but you always have to have, I always think you have to have a backup plan. I do. I think you have to have something else that you can do something on the side, something that you can add.
I mean, we've, we've done it all. We had a bar studio in there for a little while because one of our black belts, his wife had a bar program, and so we added that in. I mean, we've, we've done, we've done it all, you know? Yeah. But I think that.
Riley: Oh man.
Mike Diaz: There was no other, like, like the backup plan was to like add to the academy, right?
Like, how can we make the academy successful? But also like we went into it without like a real backup plan. If it felt we were get, we were gonna make it work. Yeah. Right. And I see that a lot. I see a lot of times, you know, guys will go out and they'll be like working their full-time job and the juujitsu on the side and that's great.
It's like a safety net, right? Like if you fall, you're, you, you're able to be caught. But, um, I don't know. [00:21:00] There's something to say for like, when you don't have a safety net, you're going to make it work. Yeah. And that's kind of where
Riley: Yeah.
Mike Diaz: at. I was, I was doing things on the side, um, in the day while he was running it.
And then in the evening I was coming in and, and my kids were still younger and in school and I, um, yeah, like my, there was a lot of sacrifice that took place. Yeah, there was a lot. Yeah. But if you think about it, jiujitsu in itself has a lot of sacrifice. Like if you're going to do juujitsu, you're there has, there comes a sacrifice to it.
You know, like if you want to get really good, you know, in the evenings you're on the mat, you're doing it. And so I think no matter what, that sacrifice has to take place and, you know, creating that gym, there was a lot of sacrifice that we had to do just to keep it going. Yeah. You know?
Riley: Yeah. We, we joked about it off air. Right. But about everybody thinking they're gonna start a school and just sit around, teach Juujitsu all the time. And Ramona, you mentioned? I kind of thought we were gonna open the doors and people would just show up.
Mike Diaz: Yeah, we did. We really did. Because we were,
Riley: yeah.
Mike Diaz: [00:22:00] there's no jujitsu in Park City, he, any of those areas and you know, everyone's just gonna be coming to to it. And we bought all these gis and had everything ready and then people were like, yeah, just few people here and there and coming in and one lady told, what did she say to us?
She told us it was violent. And I was like, what? Yeah, and we, I mean, it was just, and Park City's a different market for sure, you know, and we just thought it's such an athletic, healthy community that people are gonna be lining up. And then it, it wasn't like that, but I mean, now Jujitsu's, you know, so wildly known that people are coming in and it's gotten, now, there's a couple other schools up there too, and it's grown.
That area's grown quite a bit, so the market's changed, but we, we broke ground for that, you know?
Riley: Yeah, you guys are the pioneers
Mike Diaz: Yeah.
Riley: What, um, what kind of things did you do when it was, when it, 'cause you mentioned the bar program. What? [00:23:00] What was that? Actually, I,
Mike Diaz: Just like, you know, the women's bar, like, like Pure Bar and. Do you know what that is? So it looked like
Riley: maybe I
Mike Diaz: Alley Bar and we, one of our black belts are friends, um, that had a house up there trained with Mike, his wife had a program and they, they talked about, um, adding it. So we did add it to one of the locations for a little while and ran that at different times.
And, um, we did, uh, I'm trying to think, and Mike, Mike got certified in Gymnastica Natural from Alvaro Romano. And so we started doing a lot of Gymnastica, which is great. I mean, and that, that is for people that do jiujitsu or don't do Jiujitsu. And so we used to do that for a long time and he still does
Riley: That's kind of like
Mike Diaz: have separate classes until, what did they say?
It's yoga for Tough people. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.
Riley: I love it. What else did you guys do? What other kind of things you get because you added just Gymnastica and I I've heard of schools adding [00:24:00] coffee shops. I've heard 'em adding, adding yoga, uh, so they can fill up different slots in the day.
Mike Diaz: Yeah, we wanted to do a coffee shop initially. Well, that problem with that was remember that, uh, park City. Park City has this, um, rule where if, depending on what you have impact Yeah. Impact thing where depending on what type of business you have, they charge you these astronomical fees. And if we, I think they would've charged us like $20,000 off the bat just to be able to have coffee in there.
Yeah. So
Riley: Really?
Mike Diaz: rid of that even though we had bought coffee machines and stuff and just had it at our first location for just our customers because, um, we were in evening, uh, mostly in the evening, so we didn't get hit with those impact fees. Mm-hmm.
Riley: Hmm. Yeah. Was there, was there other, you guys ever do anything like rent out slots in the day to other types of martial arts or any of that [00:25:00] kinda stuff?
Mike Diaz: You know, I think that at the end of the day we realized that you have to stick at what, stick to what you're good at. You know, like those other times when we added stuff, like, I don't think it was really our gig. It wasn't like, it wasn't what we were there to do and it it, you know, and it changed our community a little bit.
Yeah. And I, I had people coming in that like, we didn't necessarily want in our community, you know what I mean? So we just even like, hey, we're just, we're a jiujitsu, you know, so
Riley: Yeah, no, that's, it's funny because if people aren't in the martial arts culture, they don't know how many weirdos there are in it. know? We get, we get all the no touch knockout guys who wanna come in and sometimes we get, yeah, I just give some weird ducks, man. I.
Mike Diaz: for sure.
Riley: Tell, tell me that. Have you experienced that?
Have you had people drop in that are crazy?
Mike Diaz: Yeah, you know, park City was weird when we first went up there. We got a lot of people that came into town that thought that maybe it was Utah [00:26:00] and Park City, that the Juujitsu wasn't very good. And it's like, man, Pedro had been here for like, you know, 20 years.
Riley: Yeah.
Mike Diaz: And, um, so they would come in and they, they thought they, they, I don't know, they, I don't know what they thought they were gonna do, but they would come in and go at us.
We, you know, we'd have a bunch of weird drop-ins. But the other thing they didn't realize is that they were coming into 7,000 feet. Right.
Riley: Yeah.
Mike Diaz: The guys would come in and train and even if they were pretty tough, they were only gonna be tough for like, maybe, you know, five minutes if that. And then, but we've had, I mean, other than that, like we've had some characters, but you know how juujitsu is, it kind of weeds out people, you know?
So it kind of filters everybody. So, um, we kind of let Juujitsu do its job, you know?
Riley: We had a guy come into the school recently and he, he just, he was a drop in and he came in and did the intro class and then sat on the sideline afterwards, um, and told us he was the re reincarnated Jesus. And he was, [00:27:00] it was a wild deal. We're sitting there like, I don't know what to do if we should just choke you out and take you outside so you're not in here anymore.
'cause he was so weird and just crazy weird. Like almost volatile. You didn't see, you kind of didn't wanna say the wrong thing 'cause you're pretty sure this guy was gonna, we're gonna set him off, you know? And
Mike Diaz: Yeah.
Riley: Yeah. That, gosh, that was about six months ago. That guy was nuts.
Mike Diaz: Yeah,
Riley: You never get those ones.
Mike Diaz: we, well, not really like that. We haven't had any crazy crazies like that. Not really just, yeah, I mean, kind of where we're at too, you know, up in Park City, like super, it's more tourists, you know, that are coming into town
Riley: Yeah.
Mike Diaz: Lehigh, you would think maybe a little bit more, you know, but nothing, nothing too bad that I can remember.
Just guys that want to come in and kind of show that they're tough, you know, you
Riley: Yeah.
Mike Diaz: Yeah. Yeah.
Riley: Yeah. Well, we'll talk about that a little bit. So we, we um, we kind of joked about, you [00:28:00] know, everyone thinks they're gonna start a, a juujitsu school and just sit around, teach Juujitsu, and it's gonna be kumbaya. But what else goes on in a jiujitsu school? What, what, tell us about the business side, and this is.
Mike Diaz: I, I think you have to be so committed to riding that wave no matter where it takes you to do it. Like, um, I know there's people that are like, oh man, you know, I love Juujitsu and I wanna make money doing what I love. And they think they're gonna walk in and, and people are gonna hand them money and they're just gonna be rich.
And it's like, for starters, juujitsu schools aren't like, extremely profitable anyway. Right. Especially for the amount of time and work you put into it. Um, and I think that, that, that's a huge misconception. And like the other thing too is especially when you open a school like Mike was teaching every single class, like all day long, every day.
And, um, then we were, when we added Gymnastica to it, he was doing those. And, um, it, it's just a, it's [00:29:00] taxing on you, you know? Well, I think too, like what kind of, uh, gym do you wanna have? Like that's, that's the other thing, you know, like, you know, our, our academy isn't for everybody, you know, and if you want a school that you're just concerned about your numbers, like how many people do you have on the mat?
And, you know, that's great. Like your pocketbook will probably be doing pretty well. But if, you know, if you're a school that like, really wants to have that tight culture, um, a family kind of feel to it, that's a different academy. So it's kind of like, yeah, what kind of school do you want to have? You know, what, what's the product that you want to put out?
You know, that's different from acade to academies. Yeah. And I think,
Riley: Yeah. And that's, go ahead and
Mike Diaz: I was just gonna say that I think the school kind of reflects like the black belt a lot too. The culture of it is set from the black belt, you know? And so I always tell people too, when they're, when they're [00:30:00] looking to find a school, you need to go in and check 'em out.
'cause they, they can be completely different. You know, the culture, the vibe.
Riley: Yeah.
Mike Diaz: You go in there and you see everyone hurt sitting on the side saying, if that's the kind of school you want, go in, you know?
Riley: Yeah. That's a, we could do an entire episode on that, right?
Mike Diaz: Yeah, for sure.
Riley: people healthy and, Culture is something. That's one of the reasons I wanted to talk to you guys because again, I've, I mentioned at the beginning, but I've talked to your students and I've trained with some of them. I, I trained with, uh, you know, Mike G here up at, in Florida, right.
And
Mike Diaz: Yeah.
Riley: was a fun training partner and I could tell between him, uh, Danny Ocon, you know, I've got to train with him up there at the, at the camp a bit. There's, it was a real similar vibe to, to our school. And it was just fun 'cause we're immediately hit it off as, as friendly and, and we're kind of buds after that, you know?
And it's, uh, that's [00:31:00] not everywhere. And I want you to talk about how you've intentionally built a good culture because your guys will talk about it. I don't know if you know that, but they talk, they talk about the family aspect of it, and they talk about how they just fit in, man. They've got this tight little, little group there.
And
Mike Diaz: Ooh.
Riley: I don't know if you know that, but that's what's what they're saying behind the
Mike Diaz: Mm-hmm.
Riley: So.
Mike Diaz: we, we do know that for sure because it's like we don't do contracts. We started in Park City, China, and then we decided we don't want people there being forced to be there doing anything like that. We just go month to month. And, um, it's like we know when somebody's gonna fit in. We can kind of tell, and there's not a specific type of person, you know what I mean?
It's just like if they're able to mesh with everyone else, and if they're respectful and they're like, kind and whatever. 'cause we have, we have vastly different people in there that end up being best friends that never in the normal world would probably even meet or hang out. Right. One of our [00:32:00] guys, um, he said that somebody told him when he was starting that he eventually wouldn't even be hanging out with anybody but Jiujitsu people.
That was Patrick, I think. And he said that, um, he said that he was like, no, that's not true. And he goes, now all I do is hang out with my Jiujitsu friends. Like, it just builds like that completely different community. Right. You know, but it, it's not easy either. Yeah. It's really not easy to do because, you know, like, man, people are like, man, Mike, you watch these new guys that come in like a hawk.
And I'm like, well, I wanna protect what I have. You know, like we get, we'll get black belts that'll come in from out of town and they'll be like, oh man, I wanna teach at your school. And I'm like, no. It's like, man, you come be a student for a few years and you know, show that you're committed to this academy and show that you know, you're.
That you're part of the academy and that you're here for the academy. You know? And a lot of times, like some of my students are like, man, Mike, like you were a little, little hard on that guy. And it's like, no, I'm not being hard on that guy. I'm [00:33:00] just protecting everything that we built here. And a lot of times the students don't see that.
You know? And so it, it's, it's not easy all the time. Like, you know, we could just let anybody come in that we want, but that would change the environment of our school. Yeah. You know? Yeah.
Riley: Yeah. Having those, those kind of guardrails around that. Around that. And can you, is there, are there things that you, that you have in mind when you, when you gain a new student and you're, you're wanting to see how they fit in, what, what are you looking for?
Mike Diaz: Like white belt or, or
Riley: Sure. Well, I mean, any student really, but,
Mike Diaz: it's,
Riley: um,
Mike Diaz: weird. Like.
Riley: really
Mike Diaz: Tribe. It's like your tribe when somebody comes in. Like, we've literally had somebody come in immediately, immediately feels like family, Phil. They blend, they, you know, and they're com they're our student. Like he put a black belt on somebody that came to us as a purple belt, [00:34:00] um, Nick.
Yeah. And like, man, he was, he fit him right away. Right away. One of our guys, you know, and then, then there's other people that come in and they just, they just don't, I don't even know what it is. Yeah, they just don't. Yeah. Match. Here's the other thing too, like if you build the culture from the top down, it'll filter through your academy.
So that's what's so great about Park City. Like I said, we had the two black belts that started with me, right? So now everybody that comes in, they set the tone, like the two black belts there. They've been there, they're teaching classes. They set the tone and people will start falling into line. Right? And the fact that though they were homegrown.
They know exactly the vibe of the school, what it's supposed to be and how it feels. If I brought somebody in that wasn't homegrown and they were in the academy, it would change. So Park City's really lucky that way. The fact that it was so hard to build the fact that we only had a few guys, but they've stuck with us now.
Everybody that comes [00:35:00] in, they kind of see how things work. Yeah. You know, they're holding down the culture of the school. And we, Lehigh was a little, Lehigh is a little different. Yeah. Because I haven't been in Lehigh long enough to really create to, to help any guys get to black belt yet. But there's some brown belts there and they're setting the tone of the culture, so I think that's super important.
But we, we have had black belts that have fit in that. Yeah. Yeah. Like, we're not saying that any black belt, we've had black belts that come in. Yeah. And they are great, and they like fit into the community. They're respectful. They don't try to come in and change your school and tell you what they did in their school and or still students and Yeah.
Or do things like that. Yeah. We, we have had, um, black belts come in that, that train with us and are part of the academy. Like, and we had one come in that, like I said, like Mike, the, the first time he met him, he's like, man, I like that guy. Good dude. And he trained with us for a few years and Black belt from a, I don't even know where his name, Steve?
No. Uh, Steve's one of them, but, uh, mark. Oh, mark, yeah. McCandless, um, [00:36:00] oh, mark. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So, um, so it's just a person I think, you know, I, I don't even know how to explain it. You know how it's just, you fit together in that
Riley: Feel it.
Mike Diaz: and people, the other thing too is, um, in the community, everybody is always there trying to help.
Each other and we do a ton of networking in there. Like, you know, referring somebody, if somebody loses their job, we're like trying to help them or connect them to somebody that we know that that does, you know, has something in their business that can help 'em. And so I feel like we're huge in networking.
Riley: Yeah, and that's something that does have to come from the top, right? You guys are obviously working on that and making those connections and you know, it's, it is amazing to me sometimes, so I have, you'll have kind of a loaner student, right? You have somebody who, they're there and they're, they're consistent, but they never, I don't know how to describe it. I, there's one guy I can think in particular, he's been at our school [00:37:00] for way longer than I have, but he's just not like, I don't know his vibe's there, but he is just not, he never hangs out with anybody outside of the school, right? It's, he's there and he is not, and
Mike Diaz: Yeah.
Riley: it makes me wonder once in a while, keeps those people from attaching to, and building friendships in the school,
Mike Diaz: I,
Riley: you know?
Do you guys have any of those students that are.
Mike Diaz: I think that like a lot of times, you know, we'll get guys from other academies that come in and, you know, if they're there to be part of our academy, it shows right away. If they're only there for themselves. Like, they're like, man, I want to go over there and train with these guys. I hear they have tough guys.
I just wanna go and train. They're, they're only there for themselves. And, and that shows, you can tell when somebody's only there for themselves or there for the team. And, you know, I don't, I don't, I don't really care for guys that only care about themself. You know, like you have to be part of the team.
You wanna [00:38:00] help the team grow. And I think that shows a lot, you know, when people come in and, and jujitsu is something where the barriers are broken down so early. It's not like, because you are, it's contact and, and you get that, you know, of camaraderie right away. So if somebody's not doing that, it's like, why?
You know, why are they not? Do they, maybe it is selfishness where they're in there just wanting to work on themselves and they don't care about their teammates, you know?
Riley: Yeah. Yeah, that could be definitely part of what goes on behind the scenes. But yeah, I wonder that sometimes because I can, I can, I can only think of a couple. Most, most people really bond, right? You get through battles together and you're kneeling on somebody's face enough times they, you get close to 'em.
You know, there's this, that, that part of it. But, um, let's talk about this. What, what makes a good student? Like what if you, if you had [00:39:00] to, if you had to define what a student was and what, what a good student is, how would you, how would you put that?
Mike Diaz: I think that, you know, someone that comes in, um, just wants to learn, right? They start off slow, they wanna learn, they wanna be part of the community. Um, when you're, if they wanna be like, good at Jiujitsu, they're, they're always trying the moves that you've taught. You know, um, you see a lot of guys, you come in and you teach a move and goes out the window.
They're not trying to figure it out, right? So I just think someone that comes in that's super humble, that wants to learn, they, they, they try to learn it as a craft, not like a physical outlet, you know? And I think that makes a really good student and then somebody that, that is part of the community, you know, that's loyal to the school.
Yeah, I think like just being open to something new. And it's interesting 'cause we have some people that are really high, high level in what they do for a [00:40:00] living and they come into Jiujitsu and they're white belts. And some people, some people you can tell, struggle with that, but some of these guys that are great in their business, they come in and they're white belts and they, they, they're open, they're asking questions or, and I think that's a great student, like somebody that knows, you know, like where, where their strength is and where their strength isn't.
And you know, they're not in an operating room, operating, they're on the jujitsu mat. So, you know. Yeah. The ego's not so big. Yeah. The ego's and, and there's a lot of people like that, that we have in, in the school that, that's really cool I think. 'cause they come in there and they're just willing to learn.
Riley: Yeah, that's, uh,
Mike Diaz: Yeah.
Riley: willing to ask questions. Right? I always love that when they'll. Take you aside after class, like, Hey man, I tried this thing but I'm missing something 'cause it's not working. Rather than the guy who goes, moves bull crap, the thing you taught me doesn't work. You know? It's two [00:41:00] different aspects of
Mike Diaz: Yeah. Or what about this?
Riley: guy's
Mike Diaz: What about this? What about this when you're trying to teach, right? Yeah,
Riley: oh, I love that so much. When they're like, so how do I stop it? Well, how about you figure it out first and then we'll show you how to stop
Mike Diaz: yeah,
Riley: let's just, let's just start by learning the move of the day. How's
Mike Diaz: yeah.
Riley: Yeah.
Mike Diaz: Yep.
Riley: Oh, I love it, man. I love it. So on the flip side, what makes a good coach?
Mike Diaz: Well, I think like, um, and I, I kind of, I'm on the other side of the mat, right? So I get a watch and I've seen some of the best, the best coaches and instructors. I truly believe that I have seen it, and it's. It's the ability to connect one time, you know, with your, with your students or the people you're teaching.
That ability and the ability to break it down in a way that people can understand it, you know? And I see wildly different, um, [00:42:00] ways that people teach, but they're just phenomenal, you know? And then I see really good tough jujitsu guys that are competitors and they're not, you know, and I'm not saying anybody, but I've seen it and I'm like, that, that made no sense.
They're not a great instructor or coach. And I think those are two different things too. And instructor
Riley: Yes.
Mike Diaz: coach, right? Those are two completely different things there.
Riley: Uh, talk more about that. What, talk about the difference. 'cause I, I've had that conversation with other people on this podcast and separating those two things out, I, I wanna, I wanna hear it.
Mike Diaz: Well, I think if you get both of them, you're extremely lucky, right? You get a great coach and you get a great instructor because some people's strength is in coaching someone else. But, um, I mean, what do you think? I think a great coach knows his athlete. I mean, you have to know your athlete and you have to have a connection to your athlete.
If you don't, then there's nothing the coach can do. [00:43:00] And the, and that connection can be broke really easily, really easily. And once it's broke, there's no coming back, you know? So you just have to know your, know, your athlete and have a good connection to him, and that, that's what I think a good coach is.
Riley: When you say, once it's broke, there's no coming back, what do, what do you mean? Mike? Do you have a. Like an example of that or an experience with
Mike Diaz: I do.
Yeah. I, you know, I always look at it like, you know, like, um, you know, I have a, my kids program's really competitive program and I have a lot of really competitive kids and I've been fortunate enough to coach some really, really great kids. Right. Um, but sometimes, you know, like a parent can break that bond pretty easily with a coach.
And the coach's job isn't to be a parent. Right. And a parent's job isn't to be a coach. And once the, the, once it's broke, it's really, really hard [00:44:00] for the coach to be able to influence his, his competitor anymore. It is really, really hard, you know, and you never want to cross those lines. Like, you know, you don't wanna blur, like a parent's role is the parent.
It's supposed to be, you know, the most, the valuable role ever. You know, and the, the coach isn't trying to take over that at all, you know, but once they're, they're become the, the line's kind of broke, it's really hard to gain that back. And it's hard for a coach to be able to, to do anything for that, for that athlete again, you know, once that's broke.
And so, um, it's a fine line. I don't think coaches have a lot. I think that, um, the trust of the athlete is the biggest thing. If they trust their coach and they trust the, what they say, I think that the athlete will do anything for the coach. But once that's broke, it's really hard to get back. Right. And so, and, and
Riley: Now when.
Mike Diaz: go ahead.
Riley: Go ahead.
Mike Diaz: I just think that, that that's where like the coaches have to walk a fine [00:45:00] line and really know their athlete. Like know when to push 'em, know how hard to push 'em, know when to back off, you know, and know how and, and know their, like, know what makes them thrive. Like there's, there's athletes I can be like, Hey, it's time to work right now, it's time to go.
And they're like, yes sir, I'll go. But then there's some that I can't talk to like that, to, I'm like, Hey man, come on, let's, you know, let's get this together. Like, you're doing great, you're doing great, but you have to know your athlete. 'cause if not,
Riley: Yeah.
Mike Diaz: work.
Riley: Oh, I think that's a, that's a big deal. Um, yeah. 'cause there are, like you said, I know it with my kids, right.
Mike Diaz: Yeah.
Riley: I look at her cross side and there's tears and she's fixing behavior. Right? My middle son, I gotta choke him out to get in there. New stuff. He's, he's just that kind of a personality, right?
I have to be so direct with him. Um, they, they're so different in their age or, or their, their personalities, you know, with how they receive correction.
Mike Diaz: Yeah. [00:46:00] And that's why I think like
Riley: to,
Mike Diaz: the coaching, like you really have to get to know the person that you're coaching, right? Um,
Riley: Mm-hmm.
Mike Diaz: 'cause it's, it's really strange to us when we're somewhere and somebody's like, Hey, can Mike coach me? And Mike's like, I know the mo, but you don't know what that person's good at.
You don't know their strengths, their weaknesses and stuff. And that's what develops in the academy with a coach, right? With your,
Riley: Yeah.
Mike Diaz: like the ability to know that you put 'em in this position, they're not going to do well. You know, you're gonna move them to what their, what their strengths are. So I think that's really important and that's why like that time in on the mat especially too with the kids, like I always tell the parents, um.
When they go to competition, I'm like, you know, you can go there and cheer, but do not, do not coach your kids. 'cause you are gonna, your kids out there. And the voice we want 'em to listen to is who's ever coaching them? Their coach Mike or one of the other coaches, do not scream, moves to them [00:47:00] that, that really, they confuses the kids.
Right. They hear my parents' voice. They know. And so, um, I think that's really important in coaching. Yeah.
Riley: I'd love to hear you say that. 'cause I, but I, I want to know can be touchy sometimes when you tell a parent to not coach. Right. some of those, some of those parents that I've seen it and they just like, well, what do you can't tell me what to do, you know, it's my kid. So how do you, how do you cross that
Mike Diaz: I, I did it yesterday.
Riley: little boundary there and gracefully?
Mike Diaz: So in our school we have rules and one of the rules is there's no coaching off the mat. Like, unless you're on mat, you do not coach no cheering for your kid either. Yeah. In the, in the academy. In the, in the academy. Yeah. Not, not at a company.
Riley: Yeah.
Mike Diaz: But, so we have some written rules that say that, that say, you know, and, and we go up to the parents, so they learn it in our academy, that if you are not out there on the mat helping the kids, you're not coaching, [00:48:00] you know, and even somebody that has trained, they don't coach from the side of the mat.
And so parents know that early on. And we have had parents get upset and we're just like, you know, I had, I had this guy, and he's only been in the academy a few times, and his kids, his kids trained and he starts yelling in Portuguese to his kids off the side of the mat and all the parents turn and look 'cause they know.
And, and I went over to, and I'm like, Hey, just letting you know we don't do that. You know, and I'm like, because it's chaos. I've been in, in academies where the parents are all screaming and the kids can't hear the coach. You know, so we, we handle it really directly. And so, like I said, not everybody, if people don't like it, then that's not the right place for them.
And it's so good for the kids to know their coach's voice because, you know, if you go to a competition and everybody's screaming and yelling, and if, if the coach can yell out to the kid, Hey, put your arm over the shoulder, or whatever, and the kid is so used to hearing that voice, man, the, the, [00:49:00] or not even the kid, the athlete will respond to it, you know?
So it's just really good training, you know.
Riley: You know, it's funny you bring that voice part up. 'cause I, when I had been training in about six months, you know, I did my first competition the guy that I was, I kind of viewed as my coach. had never heard him in the training room raise his voice. And so he was yelling from the sideline in a, you know, yelling voice and I didn't recognize it. And so I'm out there like, why won't he even tell me what to do? I'm kind of getting stuck here. And I was so frustrated. And then I watched the video later and I can hear him, but it's, he's yelling. So I'd never heard his voice at that level. So I didn't, I didn't recognize it under stress.
Mike Diaz: Right?
Riley: And so, talk about that.
Do you, do you, uh, have you experienced that Mark.
[00:50:00]
Mike Diaz: Um, no, because like the, the kids, like my, like I, I go back to the kids. Like even with my adults, they just, the kids are coached way different. Like the kids' program's completely different. Um, but they, they all know my voice. So even no [00:51:00] matter what, like I, it's always the same, you know? And the adults too.
And the adults are the same. Like, whatcha doing it? It won't, it won't change, you know, but, but it's so important. Like we had, we had a kid that came to us, or he's an actual adult, but he came from another academy and, um. He never really had a coach from that academy. And he goes, man, it was so nice to actually have a coach out there while I was competing.
You know, it's just a different view, right? Like, we're on the outside looking like he's in the middle of it. And he's like, I could hear your voice the whole time. And I knew like, as long as like, you know, I kind of followed what you were saying, I could get the win. And he did. And, um, so I just, I don't, I don't really have a problem with, with like, they know my voice so well and they kind of know kind of how I coach and what I'm gonna say.
So usually it's pretty, pretty spot on, you know? Yeah.
Riley: That's awesome.
Mike Diaz: Yeah.
Riley: Talk about, um, any business, if [00:52:00] we're smart, we will occasionally have to fire a bad client. We gotta tell people it's not, not the place for them. And you, you've mentioned that a couple times, Ramona, that sometimes it's just not the right
Mike Diaz: And he is uncomfortable. Like one experience like you right away. We had a lady come in and she brought her, her kids, and they were older. They weren't little, little kids, but they almost refused to participate in as the kids were going through. And they were like fist bumping at the end and doing it. Her, her kids would not do that.
They, they wouldn't, um, interact with the other kids like that. Um, they, she came down and told me that we were gonna have to do some things different for her kids because her kids weren't used to this and they weren't used to that. And I was just like, you know, she came and I didn't say anything and I thought, okay, she's not gonna like our program and she's just not gonna come back.
Well, she called and said she wanted to sign up and I just told her [00:53:00] that. I said, I think the kids would eventually be fine in there, but I don't think you're gonna allow them to be that way. So it's probably not a good fit. And she was not happy, but it was, it, I told her.
Riley: Yeah.
Mike Diaz: This is not gonna be a good relationship.
You're not gonna be happy and we're not gonna be happy 'cause we are not changing our program to accommodate your two kids' behavior. This is how it is. And we've had all kinds of kids, I mean, we've literally had thousands of kids in there and they all, you know, they all do it. We put the bar high and the kids do great.
But when you have a parent, that's so, that's such a helicopter parent. You know, my kid doesn't do this and he's not gonna do this. It's, it's just not the place. And so I, we've done it a couple times. Even with adults too. Yeah, adults too. Adults too. Yeah. So, you know, if there's a bad apple, you know, you don't want it ruining your academy.
And we've had to deal with that. Yeah. We've, we've had, um. I had one guy [00:54:00] that was complaining about every single little thing and emailing like it was ridiculous. And I just said, well, um, you're not happy here, so this is probably not a good place for you. And he said, well, I haven't decided that yet. And I said, well, I just did.
Riley: I just did.
Mike Diaz: I just made the decision for you, so, you know.
Riley: that's good. 'cause recognizing that early Mike, you had mentioned before you used the phrase, I, I wanna protect what I have. Right. And that's what that is. You know, you'll get the, the review on the Google where they'll say, well, bad service. They didn't, they just told me to go away. Well, yeah, we did. 'cause you're one of those, right? It's that's okay to do. I think that's not only okay, but encouraged, right?
Mike Diaz: Yeah.
Riley: culture's hard to build. It's hard to build and so yeah. I love it. I love it. Um, student conflict. Have you ever had just two students that just, just butted heads?
Mike Diaz: [00:55:00] When with the kids, Mike handles it super directly and he puts those kids together. I always tell, like when,
Riley: nice.
Mike Diaz: when a parent says to me, my son doesn't like so and so, they're like, and I'm like, oh, I'm gonna tell you, if you tell Mike that's exactly who your son's gonna be put with. So either you sit back and let it work out.
And so, 'cause he does that and the kids are great 'cause the kids work it out, you know, the kids do. Um, and with adults, well it's kind of cool, like, I think, I'm glad you asked the question 'cause it made me realize something too, because like I, we do that with this, the kids like we're putting together, but you know, all my adults, they all train together.
Like, like when we train at night, there's no individual groups. Nobody just picks a couple people to train with. Like we, we call it a racetrack and we all get in line. So eventually you all are gonna meet up with each other and you're gonna have to learn how to get along. At least get over it. Yeah. Get over it.
And [00:56:00] so,
Riley: Mm-hmm.
Mike Diaz: know, the fact that they, like, even if they don't get along, they're gonna be looking at each other in the eye, you know? And they're gonna have to do it, you know? And I, we've never really had a huge conflict. Yeah. We've never had anybody that really hates another person. Like, they'll be like, oh, this person drives me crazy, you know?
Yeah. Yeah. But it, it's like that they, everybody kind of puts up, you know, um. And there's people that you know, every, and there's people in there that are trying to help someone else and they'll be like, great, it's my turn. But there's, there hasn't been anybody that has hated each other. Mm-hmm. And I think that like, that's what builds a really great, like a strong team, is that the highest belt all the way down to the lowest.
They all work together and they all interact at some point on the mat, you know? So, um, I think that's probably one of the bigger reasons that hasn't happened. But I think, I think also too, because we do handle it early. Like things early, like something's going on and there's a [00:57:00] problem. And I mean, we, we had it happen.
We had it happen not too long ago where people are like, man, this is happening and this person's doing this, and this person's taking over the class and this person's coaching and doing that. And like, we handle it. We're like trying to handle it, being like, Hey, it's not appropriate. You know, you're not, you're not the instructor in there, whatever.
And if somebody doesn't like it, they leave and it's like, okay, it's not the place for you, you know, if you can't, if you can't be respectful and be a team player, then yeah. You know, move along. There's another, there's schools out there that do things so different than us that, you know, work better for different types of personalities, you know.
Riley: yeah, yeah. I get, you know, I, whole reason I'm asking all these questions is because, you know, again, I tell you, I, I interview and our audience is full of business owners, right? sometimes that's a hard thing to do. You get this customer that's just not a fit. And to tell them, [00:58:00] sorry, we're, we're not the place. For you. It's so challenging. 'cause it also means there's some income gonna go away. Right. you just have to, because in the long run you'll run all your good people off if you let some bad apples in, right?
Mike Diaz: Exactly. Exactly. And it kind of sets a standard too, where the other students know that, like, know that you're gonna protect the community, protect them too. Like, you know, if you have some rogue student that's going in there and just like trying to pound on like the newer belts or things like that, and the standard is set like we protect our students, you know, um, then everybody knows, everybody knows what's gonna happen.
If, if you are not the other students that have been there know that like, yeah, this isn't gonna fly in here, you know?
Riley: Yeah. You ever get those people, they're just like, Hey, you shouldn't do that. Ramona's going to,
Mike Diaz: Yeah.
Riley: you don't want to tick her off. it. it. [00:59:00] We had this guy come in one time, and I remember, this is gonna take me to the mat enforcer conversation, right? But, um, we had a guy come in that was a former NFL player and he was huge 320 pound world class athlete, right? he came in, he was a really cool guy for a few months, and then all of a sudden one night he just came in and he was in the mood.
And he, he had told one of the, one of our purple belts, um, that he was gonna tap an upper belt tonight, no matter what it took. And I remember thinking this guy probably could just by picking me up, slam me through a wall, right? 'cause he is that kind of a, a gorilla, you know? It's, and I thought as I, I went to grapple with him.
I didn't know this conversation had taken place. And this guy, when he grabbed a hold of me, he, he was, I could tell there was an intent to hurt me. It wasn't, wasn't a. A happy role. It wasn't, there was no playfulness to it at all. [01:00:00] And, and fortunately, skill level wise, I was able to defend myself through that.
But that was the end of it for me. And I, I actually, in hindsight, I, I put a choke on this guy that wasn't exactly right 'cause he tucked his chin down, but I went right across his teeth with my, you know, our wrist. And it was, ended up being much more ornery than I wanted to be. Um, then we stopped rolling.
I called the match off. I said, we're done. You know, we're, you're not gonna do this in, in, in the class here. And he left and never did come back. We didn't even have to have a conversation about it. We just, I ended that match. And I, but again, it takes me back to this Matt and Forster thing. I didn't like that.
You know, I'm a, a brown belt at the time when this was happening and I didn't like it and put in that position for one. Um, but two, that guy at that point had become untrustworthy to me. I would've recommended that he not be at our school anymore. [01:01:00] have you experienced that?
Mike Diaz: For sure a lot. Yeah. I mean you do, you get, we get it with drop-ins a lot too. I try to vet 'em too, like when somebody calls, um, where do you train? You know, what are you wanting to do? And like 90% of 'em are, um, great, amazing, respectful. And then you get the ones that are like, you know, I don't like a gee and I just wanna come in and bang.
And I wanted, you know, it's like, well go somewhere else. You know? We can, we try to do it that way when they first 'cause, 'cause we're trying to protect our students, you know, it's a drop in. They're not a, a student base or just, I mean, somebody that, like Mike keeps a really good eye on, especially new students as they start to roll.
And he doesn't let anybody roll with like women or white belt until he's seen what their energy and how they move. So he put, he takes 'em or gives.
Riley: Good call.
Mike Diaz: You have, you have to have a black belt on the mat that, that will hold the mat no [01:02:00] matter what. You know what I mean? If somebody comes in like that, like we had a guy, God, it was so crazy.
It was me. And um, I had another black belt there named Mark, good friend of mine, tough guy. Um, and this guy comes in and his ears are blown out. And I'm like, man, have you trained? And he's like, no, I never trained. And I'm like, okay. And then we're doing moves and he's like trying to teach the guy the move.
And I'm like, man, did you wrestle at all or what's going on? And he's like, no man, I'm, I'm, I'm new. And I'm like, okay. And um, then it came time for us to train and I wasn't gonna let him train 'cause he lied to me. I knew he was lying. And I'm like, you're, you're, I'm not letting you train today. And I, and he goes, why?
And I go, 'cause you're lying to me. I go, I know that you, you've done something. And he goes, well, I had a couple MMA fights. And I'm like, what the heck? And then he started getting like, really huffy, like he was not stable at all. [01:03:00] And me and Mark were looking at, and I kind of wanted to be like, okay, yeah, you can train with me and Mark, but we had students in there.
It, it wasn't, you know, that kind of deal. And Mark goes, don't worry Mike. And he's like, I'll take care of him. And Mark took him out into the office and was like, Hey man, you can't act like that in here. So, you know, we keep a really good eye, but it's important that you have somebody on the map that can, you know, know what to look for.
And if something happens, kind of deal with it and diffuse it, you know? Yeah.
Riley: Yeah. And, and if I hear you right, it's not in a, so for those of you who are listening, when we say mat and enforcer, that's this kind of thing that happens in the ju the Juujitsu world, where there's always this one tough dude that if someone comes in like this, this rogue drop in or something, he's the guy who's gonna put the whooping on him. But it's better, in my opinion, that that's not what happens. It's more like your guy taking him to the office and saying, Hey man,
Mike Diaz: And you.
Riley: I'm gonna deescalate this whole thing. We're gonna send you on your way and you know,
Mike Diaz: Yeah,
Riley: get rid of him [01:04:00] before there's a physical altercation, right?
Mike Diaz: I think you can tell, like right, you can tell ahead of time. Like even like a, like a, you know, like, you know, I've had like really great guy like that haven't trained jiu jitsu. Really great wrestlers come that come in and like, man.
Riley: Mm-hmm.
Mike Diaz: Be super tough, but you can tell if they're like, not gonna be nice or cool, you know, they, they can be as tough as they want, but they're still respectful and nice.
But then we've had guys that came in that, that you could tell right away that wasn't gonna happen, you know? And so we just deal with it early, you know, and I always tell my instructors, really watch, watch the guy and see, you know, when we do our warmups, I tell all my guys, watch how they warm up. You know, you're gonna know if a guy knows anything, by the way, he warms up, you know, the guy says he's never trained before and he's elbow escaping down the mat really?
Well. You're like, okay, he's trained before, you know, like
Riley: Yeah.
Mike Diaz: you can tell. So, um, yeah, I just think that you need the mat enforcers, you need somebody if [01:05:00] something goes wrong, to really to deal with it. Um, but also your mat enforcers should be wise enough to watch and make sure that, you know, how the guys accurate,
Riley: right.
Mike Diaz: their mental state is.
Riley: That's
Mike Diaz: Yeah. And, and most people, like I had a guy that called and I, you know, I was asking him a bunch of questions where he trained and everything, and he, he was really great. And I, I just said to him, I said, I, um, and he, he, what did he say? He said something and I said, well, you know, um, our obligation is to protect our students.
So I wanna know what your intent is and, and what your, you know, you wanna come in, you wanna take class, you wanna train? Are you coming in here because you're getting ready for the worlds and you wanna like go, you know, at somebody, tell us what you're doing. You know, so, yeah. And, and
Riley: Yeah. Yeah. For
Mike Diaz: we have people that call and say, Hey, I am getting ready for a tournament.
And I'm like, great. This is a good night for you to come in, come in, tell the guys there that you're doing that and, and whatever. But, you know, don't come in there and like, try and beat up a bunch of students for [01:06:00] your ego, you know? But I, I think Mona is right, like Mona, like.
Riley: Yeah.
Mike Diaz: that initial phone call when Mona vets 'em, I mean, she's dealing with a lot of it right there, you know, before they even get on the mat.
So I think having someone good, you know, uh, you know, in the office or whoever's answering the phone, vetting people, I think is huge. And it's really cool too. Like, it's interesting, like the highest level belts are usually the most respectful, you know, and when you're talking to 'em and everything, and like sometimes I, I'll ask, I'll be like, what belt are you and oh, black belt?
And I'm like, oh, okay. Like, you know what, what's your uniform policy? You know, what's this? What's that? Is it okay if I come and, you know, is it okay if I participate? Like all of these questions, you know, and we, we get so many drop-ins in Park City just 'cause we're a resort town, so we're used to that. But you can just tell.
The level of respect. And as a matter of fact, we got a guy calling and he said he was a black belt, but he was a [01:07:00] quarrel belt. You know, he's such a nice guy, so respectful. I didn't know who he was my, but like, you know, just the, the humility is there and then you get people that, like, I actually had this one black belt call and say I'm a black belt so I don't pay.
I'm like, you're not our black belt. So, you know, somebody says that
Riley: Yeah.
Mike Diaz: like, you wanna come, you pay.
Riley: Yeah.
Mike Diaz: Yeah. Most black belts would,
Riley: No, you had mentioned that earlier about, just say that again, Mike.
Mike Diaz: and most black belts would never say that. Most don't. But we have had just a couple, like, just with that ego, you know, so,
Riley: Weirdest thing. Yeah, no, you, you had mentioned earlier when a, when a student's like, well, my old school didn't do
Mike Diaz: yeah.
Riley: It's like, well, that was your old school. That's, so that's,
Mike Diaz: Yeah,
Riley: you're not there. You're here. And yeah. I love it. I love it. Um, can we move on to some lighter questions?[01:08:00]
Mike Diaz: sure.
Riley: So you guys, you guys have been, uh. Yeah. Full disclosure, you guys are, uh, a dealer for salty electrolytes, and so you've seen these t-shirts. I think you guys actually have one of
Mike Diaz: Yeah. Yeah.
Riley: that says, go in your salt
Mike Diaz: I love it. Yeah. I wear it all the time.
Riley: Nice. Well, I named the podcast The Go In Your Salt podcast. Right? And when you, when you hear that phrase go in your salt, what does that mean to each of you?
Mike Diaz: Hard work. I love it. I love it. Yeah. Go put the work in. Mm-hmm. Go put the work in. Go earn it. I love it.
Riley: Yeah, I love the, I love the, uh, the image of that. 'cause again, we see it all the time 'cause we're in this juujitsu world, right? But that's where it came from. I don't know if you know that, but this, there was a, a, the guy I had on the very first episode of this podcast, his name's Albert and, uh, Albert, one day after training, he's, he's sweating and we're just, you know, [01:09:00] I think Danny O'Connor said, you call it the starry-eyed time.
You like when you're just sitting on the sidelines and you're done with, with the rolls for the day, you're dead tired. And he said, man, I sure earned my salt today. And that was, that was in the very beginning. We hadn't even gone to market with salty electrolytes yet. And he said that one morning and I was like, dude, I own that. I'm taking that phrase. And that's where this all came from. So it was kind of a fun story that it came from the mats, right? That's, uh, um, favorite pastime outside of Juujitsu. What do you guys like to do?
Mike Diaz: I, I love the mountains. I do, I like walking. I like hiking. I, I'm out in the, in whenever I can be out. I love the mountains, so that's kind of what I like to do. Yeah. I'm always playing a guitar, trying to play guitar. Yeah, that's what I like.
Riley: you have guitar vibes, man.
Mike Diaz: Oh,
Riley: you have that kind of chilled out. Like I could, I [01:10:00] could just picture you sitting around playing
Mike Diaz: oh, thank you. Appreciate
Riley: That's
Mike Diaz: it. Yeah. We all need something off the mats, right? Like, we need, we need something
Riley: I think
Mike Diaz: we need to do, you know, like I, I love jiujitsu, you know, it's my life. It's everything I do, but there's just that time when I can get away and do something completely different. Like I really enjoy.
Yeah.
Riley: yeah, yeah. I like, I'm with you Mona. I like the mountains. I like, the trail run. I like my mountain
Mike Diaz: Yeah.
Riley: yeah. Yeah. Having those other things is a good thing to do. 'cause I, I think, and you guys know this, you know, you can, you can pour so much of your brain power into creating a lesson plan or creating the next business idea or the next, you know, you're gonna teach in the next class.
That it's, yeah. You need something off the, to unplug. Right, right.
Mike Diaz: Something more creative too, like just that, that stimulates a different area of your brain, right?
Riley: Yeah, agree. A hundred percent agree. And [01:11:00] sometimes it's that quiet time, right. You mentioned going up in the mountains, it's like, sometimes I just like to sit there and do nothing a minute. Let let the brain just calm
Mike Diaz: Yeah, for sure.
Riley: Let's, it's beautiful. Your favorite band.
Mike Diaz: Go ahead. Me? Yeah. I, I'm, I like all kinds of music. I really do. And I love classical music. Um, Sue asked us that, somebody asked us, um. Alex did. Oh yeah. What types of music? And like, and I like opera too. I do. Um, I don't know if I have a favorite. I don't think I have. I mean, I, I like so much. I'm always showing Mike, oh, I love this.
This is my new favorite and this is my new favorite, you know, so I don't, I don't think I have a favorite, favorite band. So you do Ever since I was, ever since I was a kid. Like I, I just like love Black Sabbaths. So I'm a Black sa,[01:12:00]
Riley: Yeah.
Mike Diaz: Sabbath metalhead. Right.
Riley: Yeah. No, I love it. 'cause I, you know, Mon Mona, you talked about classical music, right? And I, I, uh. My son and I, there's a classical radio station here in town, and when we go driving out somewhere, we'll be cruising across out in the country doing something. We'll turn that station on, and then we sit and talk to each other about what the music is saying, like what's happening in the, in the movie scene, this fake movie scene.
But you can, there's so much emotion in, in classical
Mike Diaz: Beautiful.
Riley: like, you can feel the, the scenario almost that's going on
Mike Diaz: Yeah, for sure.
Riley: that always
Mike Diaz: For I, I mean, I think that too. I love it. And then like, I don't know, and I think Andrew Lloyd Weber's phenomenal with like his op, the different operas he does. I'm, I'm kind of out there right now. I'm just like, but I do, I think he's like so beautiful and like, uh, Andre Bocelli. I mean, I love that kind of stuff.
That's, that's me. That's the stuff that I can just listen to over and over and over and never get tired of, you know? [01:13:00] So.
Riley: Yeah. Yeah. It's fun. That's fun stuff. Okay. Something quirky about you that people don't know.
Mike Diaz: About him lots. No, DC quirky.
Riley: Oh my gosh.
Mike Diaz: We have to say it by each other or, oh, okay.
Riley: I kind of want you to now, I, I figured if you don't, if you don't speak up and be honest, Mike Ramona's gonna tell us. So
Mike Diaz: Oh, Mona loves her dog more than anything in the whole world. But I love that dog too. Like, yeah, like that's her, the dog. I,
Riley: kind of
Mike Diaz: that's her angel. Yeah. The dog. I did not want. Yeah. Just, uh, I do.
Riley: what kind of dog is
Mike Diaz: It's a Siberian husky. He's sitting right next to you.
Riley: Oh,
Mike Diaz: beautiful. Like amazing, amazing animal. Yeah. But she treats this dog better than anything.
My children will tell you. I tell my kids that he's my favorite child now.
Riley: Gosh.
Mike Diaz: Yeah.
Riley: How many kids do you guys [01:14:00] have?
Mike Diaz: I have four and Mike has two.
Riley: Wow,
Mike Diaz: girls.
Riley: man. All
Mike Diaz: All girls. Yeah. That's crazy.
Riley: Dang. the dog gets better treatment than the, than the girls do, huh?
Mike Diaz: Well, I mean, my girls are grown now, but like Yeah, he, I baby him. I did not baby my girls. My girls like, you know, he, I baby him. He is, his food is special food that comes frozen and you know, Mike teases,
Riley: I love it.
Mike Diaz: but,
Riley: Okay. You, you, you've gotta expose Mike now with something quirky about him that people dunno
Mike Diaz: so, you know, Mike is, so this is the thing I, I don't know if it's quirky, but like Mike has so many layers to him, like an onion. He is, and I mean like so many interesting. They make you cry. Yes.
Riley: that he makes you cry.
Mike Diaz: For sure every time you pull it. Hair. No. But he has so many unique, interesting [01:15:00] interests. Like, um, I mean, his music taste, like, I thought he was a metalhead when I met him, and I'm like, Hey, I'm so not a metalhead.
You know? But he, he likes all kinds of music. He likes all kinds of, um, all kinds of movies, all kinds of books. Like he is like a huge, vast interest is, which what I love, because I do, so we can go, I mean, he'll go see things with me that I don't think he would normally, like he's done something he doesn't like, but he like, we like a lot of the same things and just, uh, I've dragged him to Tony Robbins, I've dragged him to Peru.
I've dragged him all over. He's always willing to go, always gain. Yeah, because I'm always like, I'm always like, oh, I wanna do this and I wanna do this. And, and Mike. It always comes along. So he's, I mean, people wouldn't, I think people don't realize like the amount of things he's done, his interests, his music, all those things.
So he's a,[01:16:00]
Riley: Yeah, that
Mike Diaz: a man of,
Riley: What did you do in Peru? I'm curious about Peru. That there's some, there's some neat things down there I'd like to experience.
Mike Diaz: um, we went on a retreat down there, um, back in 2018. 2018 or 19, um, in, outside of a keto summer. Little thing we did, we did an ayahuasca trip with a
Riley: Oh,
Mike Diaz: group. So,
Riley: how was that? I've heard about it, but
Mike Diaz: uh,
Riley: Sounds
Mike Diaz: it was, it was really the people, you have to be very, very careful, like who you go with, what you do and really check it out. And it took me a year to find it.
It was good. Um, and like it was, it was good for the point we were in our lives, but. Like, I don't, I wouldn't do it again. Um, but we did it four times. We did the whole thing. It was really, it was beautiful. Really interesting. Really cool. Just another part of our journey, you know, but it was definitely,
Riley: Yeah, I hear some interesting stories with that, but[01:17:00]
Mike Diaz: yeah, for another podcast
Riley: of like,
Mike Diaz: part,
Riley: yeah, soldiers and PTSD, though, that's, that's a big deal with them, right? That's kinda becoming like a, a more recognized treatment.
Mike Diaz: it is, [01:18:00] I, I truly believe though, that you have to have the right person with the right experience and like, you know, a vast amount of knowledge in it. Not somebody that just is like, Hey, I went and did it. Now I'm doing it myself. And you know what I mean? Like, I think we had a guy that was a fourth generation shaman, didn't speak English, you know, it was really cool.
So it's just another different world.
Riley: Yeah, for sure, for sure. Okay. Your favorite food.
Mike Diaz: Mexican food. I love Mexican food. Chips and sauce.
Riley: to beat.
Mike Diaz: It's hard to be, yeah,
Riley: How about you, Mike?
Mike Diaz: I'll go with a good steak and glass of wine like all the time.
Riley: Hmm?
Mike Diaz: Mm-hmm.
Riley: Oh, both sound really good. Both sound really good. Haven't actually been, had Mexican food in the a month or two. Now that I'm thinking about that. We need to go do that. I think actually did. Yes, we did. We had some in Florida when we were down there for the, uh, Jeff Kerns [01:19:00] thing. That was pretty decent little place we went to.
Um, okay. Scariest moment of your life.
Mike Diaz: Ayahuasca,
Riley: No, we're back to that again.
Mike Diaz: uh, truth, I mean, truthfully. Uh, the scariest moment of my life, um, was when my daughter was sick and I, and she got, they came in and told me she had cancer, and that was probably the bleakest, darkest, scariest moment that I remember, because I'm pretty resilient to everything. But that really knocked me down for a bit.
So that's probably my scariest moment.
Riley: my gosh. Yeah. I can't imagine that. Yeah. Hearing that word in conjunction with your child is
Mike Diaz: Yeah. And, and too, like in the place I was at in my life, my life, you know, I was like, happy go lucky, everything's great. And then that was, that was kind of a, and that was a whole different world, you know, going [01:20:00] through all that. So, yeah.
Riley: geez. Yeah, I imagine. How about you, Mike?
Mike Diaz: Yeah. I don't know. Scariest moment. Um. I don't know. Probably like something to do with my daughter too. Like any time, any I hear anything with her or something. I'm trying to think. Um, the scariest moment. Yeah. I don't know. I, I, it's, it's hard for me to kind of pick out, you know, I think I've been pretty fortunate in my life.
Super grateful for everything. Um, you know, when I lost my parents, that's pretty hard, you know? But I don't know if I can pick just one thing like that.
Riley: Yeah. No, that's fair man. I know. Gosh. Well, it almost always has to do with that. I, Jeff Kerr, I don't know if you happen to listen to his episode when he was on here, but he is his scariest moment. Question was, it's pretty intense, [01:21:00] man. That guy,
Mike Diaz: Was it
Riley: he had a bad car
Mike Diaz: Oh, a car accident? Yeah. Yeah.
Riley: Yeah. Yeah. Or he, he broke both arms and an ankle or something, so he couldn't walk, but he also couldn't really crawl, but he was, yeah, he was, he needed to.
'cause he was, it was cold and he was freezing to death out there and
Mike Diaz: Yeah.
Riley: down in the pit. Had to kind of crawl up out to get somebody's attention. And he was bleeding quite. Yeah. It was a big deal. He busted his face up pretty bad. And,
Mike Diaz: Well,
Riley: um, yeah, it was a, worth a listen if you've never asked or never heard, heard that story
Mike Diaz: yeah. I don't think
Riley: Yeah. It's
Mike Diaz: to ask him. I know, but Jeff's the guy that comes through everything. Like there's nobody, uh, man. Yeah, Jeff. Yeah, for sure.
Riley: Yeah. Love that guy, man. Love that guy. So, okay. is the best advice you've ever received?
Mike Diaz: For me, it came from my dad that [01:22:00] told me that you can't, that you have to learn to depend on, depend on yourself. That you can't depend on somebody else to do things for you, to make yourself happy to do anything that, that, that lies with you. And he told me that when I was young and when I was in college, and he just said, you never know what's gonna happen.
You know, you could lose, you could be married, have kids, lose your husband. Have to, you always have to be able to depend on yourself to be able to take care of yourself and do that. And I truly believe that that's some of the best advice. I mean, it was, it was, it's harsh advice when you think about it, but it's good advice.
Riley: It is funny. The guy I had on yesterday, I interviewed a, a friend of mine yesterday and he said almost the same thing. He said, you know, he. You can't depend on other people. You have to, you have to make your own way, and no one's coming to save
Mike Diaz: Yeah,
Riley: how about you, Mike?
Mike Diaz: it was. It was from my dad, but he didn't really say it. He kind of just showed it [01:23:00] and he taught me it. And it was just like. You know, anything you want, you have to work for it. Like you have to work every day for it. Like you have to, you, you can't just say you want it and kind of do it. You have to do it.
You have to just go for it, practice it every day, or work for it every day if you want to be good at something. And he showed me that, you know, as a young kid. And, um, it's kind of stuck with me my whole life and everything that I, I try to do or anything I really want, I, I just go into it with that kind of attitude and that I think that's the most valuable thing that he ever taught me.
Riley: Yeah. It's kind of go back to when you started the school, right? It's just like, yeah, we're gonna make this
Mike Diaz: Yeah.
Riley: We're gonna put the time and the effort into making it happen.
Mike Diaz: Yeah.
Riley: Yeah. That's beautiful. Okay. What is some advice you would give other people?
Mike Diaz: In, uh, just life advice or.
Riley: Like, uh, let's, let's say someone who [01:24:00] is, who is, um, you know, I'm thinking back to, you know, again, you guys starting your, your juujitsu school, your, your business journey. You got somebody who's just beginning their business journey or their fitness journey, whatever happens to be, you
Mike Diaz: I, I think you have to,
Riley: but they
Mike Diaz: why? I think you have to know what your why is, like why are you doing this? Like, what is it? And dig down deep, like what is it that you want? Oh, I want money. Is that really what you want? You know, is it, is it
Riley: Hmm.
Mike Diaz: life you're trying to provide for your family? And when you find your why, it's what drives you to, you know, to go through all the things that are difficult.
So, I know, I think people a lot of times see something and go, I really, really want that. You know, it looks cool, whatever, but they don't really want it. You know, they, they look at something and like, if you're opening a gym or a business, you have to know why, because it's, it's not always easy. Sometimes it, sometimes it gets easy.
Things are easy, but it's never stays easy. It's always up and down. It's, it's always a. [01:25:00] Uh, it's always a road that you're traveling and you never know what you're gonna hit into. Right.
Riley: That line you just said, it's always up and down. Right? It's, it's, it might be easy for a minute, but it's not easy always. And just realizing that's part of the process, I think that's a big deal. That's a big deal.
Mike Diaz: But, you know, some of our
Riley: said.
Mike Diaz: times, like Mike and I were talking were through the hardest times, like when we were really, really struggling. Like those, those were actually really good times. Like those were the times where you're like, you have, you're goal focused, you're both doing that, and you don't have time to worry about, you know, the other things, the journey.
Yeah. I mean, what do they say? You have a thousand problems until you have one like a health problem, and then you only have one problem, you know? And when we were all so focused building our, our, uh, gym, that's, we, that's all we, you know, kind of focused on. And we, we enjoyed that some really great times back then.
Yep.
Riley: so cool. [01:26:00] How about you, Mike?
Mike Diaz: Man, I think, um, do what you love, do what you're passionate about, and do it because you love it and do it because you're passionate about it. And, uh, success will come. Everything else will come. But man, just whatever it is, a lot of people say, I don't know what I love. Well, just find a little passion, find a little something that you're interested in, and do it just because of that and sink everything into it, and then man, success will come, you know, or whatever your ver you know, version of success.
You know, I started training Juujitsu because I just loved martial arts. I was passionate about it. And man, it's been so good to me. Like I've traveled around the world. I've done a lot of things, all because of that little spark of passion that I had in something. So that's the best advice I could give someone.
And it's funny, like he was saying
Riley: that's
Mike Diaz: that, and it reminded me like one thing that he says a lot, which I don't know if he realizes he does, um, [01:27:00] like during a fight too with the kids, he'll mm-hmm. They'll be doing, he'll say, how bad do you want it? And we actually have it. I think somebody caught it in that, a video on our website and you can hear 'em saying, how bad do you want it when they're in there fighting?
And if you want it enough, you'll make it happen. Yeah. I mean it's, it's all on how bad do you really want it, you know? Yeah.
Riley: Yeah, we kinda alluded to that earlier. Um, kinda back to something you just said too was do you really
Mike Diaz: Yeah.
Riley: Because if you do, yeah. And sometimes we think we want things, then we find out later, it's like, man, this isn't, this isn't, doesn't feel like I thought it would feel at all. At
Mike Diaz: I really didn't know what that entail, and that's not what I know.
Riley: I always think that about the Juujitsu black belt, you know, it takes so long to get there you gotta really want it 'cause it's gonna be a decade or, or more. So you better really want that crap. 'cause Yeah, you're gonna put up with a lot, a lot of stuff in the way [01:28:00] there. So, um, okay. What's on your, something on your bucket list that you wanna, you want to do before the end?
Mike Diaz: Hmm, go ahead. I, you know, on my bucket list, I've done a few of the things that I've wanted to do, and a lot of them are like traveling and visiting places. I've never seen the Northern Lights, and that's, that's on my list. And another thing that's on my list that I'm actually gonna do, um, I always wanted to, you know, I grew up and I had horses and my daughter had, uh, I got a horse from my daughter when she was little, my oldest.
And she rode like all the way growing up. And so we're gonna go to a ranch up in Edmonton and spend a week and ride horses and kind of do ranch life. And that's something I always kind of wanted to do. So that's another thing. But I also wanna see the Northern Lights, so I'm hoping I can get that when we're up there too.
So that's on my bucket list.
Riley: Yeah. I've never seen those either. And they happen, they happen here in Boy Lake. We'll see 'em. They're, they're there, [01:29:00] but I've just never it right or the weather be right for me to
Mike Diaz: Oh, I wanna see the full beautiful Northern Lights that, you know.
Riley: the big ones, yeah, I.
Mike Diaz: Yeah, that's, that's something I really wanna see.
Riley: That'd be awesome.
Mike Diaz: Yeah. I don't know man. I'm, I'm kind of different like that. Like I don't think like bucket list like that. Um, I do have a lot more that I want to do with Juujitsu. That I want to do before I can't do it any, you know, anymore before I kick the bucket or whatever.
So I really, like I said, I wanna, um, you know, work hard to achieve some of those goals. Um, and the same with, you know, like playing music. Like I, I want to see how far I can, I can go with that, you know? Um, so I just wanna keep putting that effort in and just see if I can, you know, just see how far I can go, you know?
Riley: When you say jiujitsu goals, so I wanna put this into perspective for people. So you're a fifth degree black belt. It [01:30:00] takes, you know, somewhere between 10 and 15 years to get to black belt then those degrees come very slowly after that. And so. How many years of juujitsu has it taken you to get to that fifth degree?
Mike Diaz: I started in 97, so
Riley: Yeah.
Mike Diaz: So What's that? 30, so 29, 30 years. 30 years, yeah. Yeah.
Riley: So,
Mike Diaz: On the mat.
Riley: Okay. So, this puts this into perspective, I had a conversation with a couple of guys this morning. So in my, in my day class, we had three white belts in there. And, and you know, these guys are just starting. And their question for me was, now that you're a black belt and you know, all this stuff, what do you do from here?
And I'm, I'm just shaking my head like, do I know all this stuff? Oh my gosh, man, I'm, no, I don't know this stuff. So when you say you have Juujitsu goals, you've been doing this for 30 years, I mean, what else is there to learn, Mike?
Mike Diaz: Well, I think I'm just barely starting to learn. Like [01:31:00] that's, that's the crazy part. Like I truly believe that. I know a lot of people say that, say that like after you get your black belts when you really learn, but I truly believe that I'm actually learning now more than ever. Um, but when you think about it, like think about the masters, right?
Like the guys that have the coral belt. Like so many things had to happen for them to get to that coral belt. Like, and one of the main things is like a higher power had to allow them time and health and everything to get there. And then their passion had to stay consistent to stay on the mat, even when they weren't as tough as they, you know, that at one point they were the toughest, meanest, black belts probably on the mat, but then they were getting older, right?
And so their path had to stay there and they had to like learn to train and stay healthy and all these things just to get there. You know, that's a huge achievement in itself. Probably the biggest one, right? Like when I look at those, [01:32:00] I'm truly amazed and, you know, if life can allow me health and you know, the amount of time it takes to get there, what a great accomplishment.
You know, I would love to, I would see that at some point in my life. You know? Um, it's not the thing that I'm. Working for like that I think about and go for like, um, you know, I still wanna see what I can do on the mat, you know, as I get older I can't do it the way I used to when I was younger. I wanna see if I can still be proficient and still do my craft as I get older.
So those, those are kind of things that I think about. 'cause you know, I never wanna like, like I want to be, you know, 60 some 70 years old and still be on the mat and still be able to be proficient at what I do. You know, so those
Riley: Yeah,
Mike Diaz: pretty big goals for me. I think the cool thing that people don't realize is that there's levels upon levels of black belts.
Yeah. And I mean, it's as vast as a white belt to a [01:33:00] black belt in, in skill.
Riley: Right.
Mike Diaz: Like sometimes when we brought like, I mean like Pedro for instance, like man, just phenomenal, phenomenal knowledge base. And, and I don't think people sometimes understand that till they've, I don't know, till, I think they've gotten into jut jujitsu for a few years to kind of be able to see that and then like, man, I mean we had Marc Stawski out here, phenomenal, phenomenal person, phenomenal, um, master also.
And so when people are like, oh, black belt is a black belt, no, black belts are not always equal, you know,
Riley: that's right.
Mike Diaz: you know.
Riley: That was so funny 'cause I, I told this kid this morning. Oh, go ahead. I didn't
Mike Diaz: No, no, no. I was just gonna say, it's a like, the cool thing is, is like I've heard a lot of people when they get their black belt go, I feel like I just started over. And it's the truth. You
Riley: Yeah,
Mike Diaz: Yeah.
Riley: yeah. I, guy. I, I am that guy. So this kid this morning, he goes, he goes. Can anyone beat you? 'cause I, I [01:34:00] just don't understand what's, what you're doing to me here. And I, and I just get laughing. I'm like, yeah, man, there's guys out there that treat me like a child. Like I, there's nothing I can do to them. So yes, they, uh, there's, there's levels to this game,
Mike Diaz: Yeah. The never ending journey.
Riley: it
Mike Diaz: Right. It just keeps going.
Riley: never
Mike Diaz: Yep.
Riley: Yeah. Yeah. And that's a, that's a metaphor for so much in life, right? You know, no matter what business you're in, you're always learning. And, you know, you, you, slow down necessarily in that youthful, um, kind of go, go, go.
But you add so much knowledge to the picture that all of a sudden you can be in your fifties and sixties and still be as effective as a younger person, but you do it different, you know, and that can be, again, juujitsu, something physical, or it can be just some business related,
Mike Diaz: Yeah.
Riley: uh,
Mike Diaz: And I think you can't ever get too comfortable, right? Like you can't get too comfortable. And I think Juujitsu teaches us that all the time. Like we're never at a place where like we feel like we're so comfortable in what [01:35:00] we do. Like there's always somebody better. There's always situations that come up that you have to navigate in their heart.
So you never really truly get complacent, you know, if you're on the mat. And I think that's the same with everything. Like you can't get too comfortable where you get complacent, right? And I think the mat teaches us that more than anything, you know?
Riley: Yeah, it's great. Great for sure. Okay, each of you real quick. Favorite book?
Mike Diaz: So it's my, I like to read, I love to read, but my favorite book is, um, a children's book. And I actually bought it for my kids not too long ago. And it's, um, for Christmas one year, and it's the Little Black Pony. So
Riley: Hmm?
Mike Diaz: I love that book. I don't even think you knew that. Did you? Even Big Red? Yeah. [01:36:00] Yeah. I used to read those when I was a kid and I, I love it.
But that's mine. Very childish. Hm.
Riley: Is there a lesson in there that you've, you've learned or is it more of a
Mike Diaz: Well,
Riley: uh,
Mike Diaz: you know, actually the story, I mean, I love the story. This girl grows up with a little back pony and, um, she loves this horse and then she gets this bigger horse, big red and the horse, uh, the little black horse thinks he's worthless and, 'cause she's starting to ride the big, you know, beautiful one.
And he, and in the end she ends up falling into this lake and the little black pony's the only one that can go onto it. 'cause he weighs enough to get her out. You know, it's just, I don't know. I always liked that I bought it for my kids. I, I like, you know, children's books that had like little lessons in there.
So that was mine.
Riley: That's awesome. It's awesome, Mike.
Mike Diaz: Man, I was panicking. I was like, God, what is it gonna be? And then she's saying [01:37:00] Children's books and all I can think of is, oh, the places you'll go, like The Doctor One. And I do love that book. So, but
Riley: Oh my gosh.
Mike Diaz: sorry, I know it should be like the Power of Now or Atomic Habits or something.
Riley: Yeah. So I love it. Oh, I love that so much. You, you're the first two to pick children's books that I've had on here. So uh, I love it. 'cause everyone else wants to pick the, you know, some kind of a business book or something. That was that guy yesterday that I talked to that was, uh, a book that a guy wrote during Auschwitz, his time there in the concentration camp and stuff.
Mike Diaz: Oh yeah. I love
Riley: yeah.
Mike Diaz: that upstairs. Um, I, I mean, I, I do, I love books, so I like to read, you know, and, and then I love as a man think it, that's another one I really, really like. But like, truly like in the end, like I, I [01:38:00] remember like there's certain childhood books that I really like. You know,
Riley: Yeah. Yeah. All right, you guys. So what is next? What, what, what are you gonna do from here? You got future business plans or future life plans? That's coming up.
Mike Diaz: we've got the camp coming up, the train high camp. Um, and the super fights are always really fun. You, you know, putting together those matches that we do. And then, um, Mike, we filmed, uh, the end of last year. A course that we're doing called The Longevity Blueprint, um, kind of like a lot of the knowledge that Mike has attained over the years.
Riley: you, you filmed it when
Mike Diaz: We filmed it at the end of last year. We kind of worked on it over last year, and it, it's called the Longevity Blueprint. And it's different than like normal jujitsu courses. I mean, there's juujitsu in it and stuff, but it's a lot of concepts, a lot of just life lessons and, and things that Mike has learned along the way. And so that's what we're working on [01:39:00] right now. We haven't quite finished it. We've got the filming done, we're putting it together, and that's kind of a project that we're working on right now.
Riley: sounds really interesting.
Mike Diaz: yeah, yeah, yeah. So how, how the mat lessons translate into life and business. Into life and, and, and into business for sure.
Riley: Yeah. So you guys, this little conversation we're having about the parallels of business in the mat. In the mat, uh, yeah. This has been rattling around in your head for a while, hasn't it?
Mike Diaz: For sure. For sure. And I mean like a lot of the concepts like negotiation, which is super important in business, it's like the mat is always a constant negotiation. what you
Riley: Yep.
Mike Diaz: get, and, and so we kind of just put it together and we've just gotta get it, you know, out there.
Riley: Yeah, that's cool. Will you, um, make sure and send me a link to that so I can put it in the description. So, so people, um, the camp also, 'cause I'd love to see if we can send some, some folks up there that your camp is amazing. I[01:40:00]
Mike Diaz: Are you coming to the
Riley: say that again. Yeah. I plan on it. Yeah. I'd love to do the same thing as we did last year, if we could.
Mike Diaz: Yeah.
Riley: Um, I really enjoyed it. I, I thought, I don't know if I told you I got sick after I came back home. Did I tell you that?
Mike Diaz: No. Oh, that.
Riley: No. I got this thing they call it, um, high altitude decompression syndrome
Mike Diaz: Yeah, some people,
Riley: and I didn't know it was a thing, but I guess it's the, it's like the bends,
Mike Diaz: mm-hmm.
Riley: but it's backwards 'cause you know, you come down.
But yeah, I didn't know that was a thing. And I, I got home and I was like, oh, I'm gonna breathe so good when I get back to town. I'm gonna feel great after training up there. And I get back to town and I can barely straighten my arms and legs and my hips and everything's super stiff. And I got where I, I couldn't breathe at all.
I was really struggling for about a week after I got back, a week to 10 days.
Mike Diaz: the first person I've heard have that because, and I do know that that can happen, but it's usually, I mean, it's usually the opposite. But what's so interesting about the altitude [01:41:00] is like you can be a phenomenal athlete and it can affect you, or you can be like a, a 90-year-old woman and it does not affect you. Like it, it,
Riley: Right.
Mike Diaz: who knows. But it definitely comes into play up there. And, um, I, I don't notice the altitude. You, we've been there so.
Riley: Well, what I thought was funny is you, because you had mentioned that earlier, Mike, how you get people that kind of drop in and they don't realize they're 7,000 feet and they, you know, walking around town, you don't really notice it, but you start doing something that requires breathing and you notice it.
But I noticed the guys, um, kind of day two when we were up there, everyone was limping. Did you notice that?
Mike Diaz: I
Riley: Do you notice how many of the guys are limping? 'cause their calves are hurt. There's this thing that happens with that. Do they get sore calves? Have you ever heard of that? Did you.
Mike Diaz: Just like cramping up maybe. Is that what it is?
Riley: No, it's like, it feels like you, I blamed it on when I got there.
'cause we went downtown and we were climbing all those [01:42:00] stairs that you guys have and they got these massive staircases, like 200, 300 stairs long. And yeah, so we, my son and I went and climbed up the biggest one. We wanted to find the biggest one, see what it was. So I thought it was that, but then I'm noticing all these guys that are walking up the stairs there to the mats in the hotel and they're all limping.
And I'm like, what's going on with you? Like, I don't know, man, my calves are killing me today. And it was so many people that I got laughing about it because it was, you know, it was probably, you know, 20% of the guys that come walking in there were, their calves are all lit. And I guess that's an altitude thing.
Mike Diaz: I didn't know this either. That's, and I just always tell
Riley: Yeah.
Mike Diaz: I was telling everyone to go over and do the salt things because that's the most important. Like just water's not gonna stay. You have to have
Riley: Yeah.
Mike Diaz: salt in there, electrolytes to
Riley: Yeah, for sure
Mike Diaz: altitude.
Riley: this year you should have me remind them. I'll go up and talk to 'em about what hydration altitude means [01:43:00] and we can make that a thing. So that, 'cause I, I do think that's important. I think that was part of the thing. But, but like I said, I myself was, I was really struggling with the calves. I was like, man, this is, this is different.
And then, like I said, when I come home and I got that and then I, I started talking to people and it turns out there's like 10 people I know who have experienced that. And I'd never heard of it in my life. I'm 49 years old and I've never even heard of that. It's wild. A buddy of mine was over in, they were in Wyoming training and on their way home he got it, but he got it so bad that he could barely get out of the car.
And then he got sick to his stomach and, and uh, they had to pull over several times for that. 'cause he was, he was so sick from the altitude.
Mike Diaz: Wow.
Riley: It's crazy. Yeah. Like I said, I'd never even heard of it, but it's a thing. , I wanna say thank you, you guys. I, this has been a, just a pleasure getting to know you a little better, finding out who you are, what you got going on, and it's pretty impressive thing you've built up there.
Mike Diaz: Thanks for having us. Yeah, it was great to talk to you.
Riley: Yeah. Go earn your salt, you [01:44:00] two.