EP 005 | Growth Under Pressure: From Rio’s favelas to world-class BJJ mentor: resilience, faith, and leadership — with Roan “Jucão” Carneiro

Eric sits down with his Brazilian jiu-jitsu coach, Roan, a former UFC fighter turned head instructor, to talk about grit that’s forged on the mats and carried into business and life. From getting smashed by older training partners in Rio to building a thriving kids program in Alpharetta, he shares how consistency, faith, and community turn dark seasons into growth—and why “pressure makes diamonds.”

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🌟 Highlights

• “Pressure makes diamonds”: turning losses into lessons
• Growing up near the favelas and finding confidence through jiu-jitsu
• Consistency over motivation—show up even when you’re sore
• Coaching kids 3–5: patience, play, and preparing them for life
• Word-of-mouth > ads: why character compounds lifetime value
• Faith under fire: Psalms, three fights in one night, and winning anyway
• Parenting & leadership parallels: protect less, prepare more

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⏱️ Timestamps / Chapters

‍ 00:00 — Intro & Roan’s journey from Rio to UFC to head coach
04:40 — Getting “smashed,” showing up, and the compounding effect of consistency
08:05 — Dark seasons: losing parents young, choosing resilience over excuses
12:05 — Life in/near the favelas: community, joy, and perspective
14:10 — Why he built a 3–5 year-old program (and how patience is trained)
18:30 — Designing classes for focus, fun, and life skills (not just medals)
21:40 — Bullying to boundary-setting: how BJJ changes timid kids
24:55 — Transferring mat confidence to boardrooms and tough conversations
28:10 — “Pressure makes diamonds”: CEOs, faking it vs. building it
30:05 — Competing with Eric: preparation, family support, and first medals
32:20 — Attendance > excuses: show up, drill, or watch—just be there
34:20 — Pain and progress for over-40s: why growth always costs something
35:15 — Growth Under Pressure moment: faith, Psalms, and winning a 3-fight night
41:00 — Building the gym organically: culture > headcount, referrals > ads
43:20 — Retention, LTV, and why the “right” students/clients stay longer
44:35 — God’s role: guidance in low points, courage in hostile arenas
50:10 — Finish the sentence: “A man under pressure should always… make diamonds.”
51:10 — Wrap & part two teaser

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Transcript

Eric: [00:00:00] What's up coach? Welcome to the podcast. How's it going?

Coach: Thank you, man, for the invitation. I feel, feel good, Eric, to be here with you. You know, I'm excited. There's unique moments. Good. Let's talk.

Eric: Let's do it. I'm excited. This is gonna be a fun episode. So definitely. You've been everywhere. You've been a a Brazilian jujitsu head coach.

Eric: You've been a UFC fighter. You've even acted in some. In some movies, uh, very impressed by your background. You've, you know, international world renowned coach, but you started in Rio, you started, you know, as a kid in Rio. Take us back there. Uh, how did you get to becoming a champion UFC fighter, you know, MMA fighter and now.

Eric: Coaching some of the best athletes in the world.

Coach: Yeah, Eric, like, take, take back. It's like, make me think in a lot of memories. You know? Um, when I started, uh, was just, you know, try to find something to defend myself, [00:01:00] you know, and use the juujitsu. Uh, at the time, juujitsu started to be a, a hot martial arts.

Coach: Like, no, not a lot of people know much about Juujitsu. Back then was, uh, kung fu, you know, uh, Muai for a kickboxing for junk clove on them. Juujitsu was not very popular at the time. Mm-hmm. You know, and I have a few friends actually one, one, uh, very good friend of my dad, which is like, talk about how Jiujitsu was, how about Grace family?

Coach: We talk about 1980s, you know, I was 10 years, 10, 11 years old. And actually my brother, my young brother start juujitsu first than me. You know? And I was always curious to, you know, how that, how, how, how was it? And few times, like after my brother trained for like a few months, you know, I start to get a, uh, he start to get advantage of me, you know, with [00:02:00] the brother fights, you know, not anything crazy, but like, we played to fight, you know, and his one time he choked me out.

Coach: I was like, oh my God, what is that man? And then I try again, and he took me down. I was like, damn, I need to check. What is this? You know, I cannot have a, I cannot let my own brother keep him, beat me up, hit my house, you know? And I follow him and, and the coach like invited me to training, you know? And I, there I never stop, you know?

Coach: Um, this is like, make me be more confident, you know? And. I start to be very, very confident actually, you know, and Rio in Brazil specifically is very rough place, especially my neighborhood. Like

Eric: take us back. There

Coach: was jungle man, you know, kids like are older than me and they bully me like a hard, hard, you know, at the time, uh, jujitsu classes was not divided by kids and adults was all together.

Coach: [00:03:00] And I just like, uh. Stay resilient, you know, like, man, I can. And, and I remember back then, like a lot of dudes like pretty much woke my ass. Mm-hmm. I'm sorry, the words No, no, it's fine. Is mash me and I was like going home crying, but I was, keep going, keep going, keep going. And then more jujitsu go into my life.

Coach: I start to feel the, the benefit, you know. To deal with, like, uh, their diversity in life, you know, make more calm, make way more confident, and I start to compete, you know, and I keep it going, compete in jiujitsu. My, my love grand grandmother, like was the one who always helped me to like, you know, uh, set up my meals to go to the tournaments.

Coach: You know, I remember was a few tournaments, was not close to my house. I have to take a train and a, I mean, bus and train to go to the tournament. It was my [00:04:00] routine every. Two and three months, you know, and compete and compete and win and loss and learn and win, win loss learning. I'm start to be like a, you know, get in my rank, progress, you know, become a, a, a child for teenager, teenager for adults, and man, and then I start, man, my only thing was just get better every day.

Coach: I don't have the pretention to be what I am today. You know, I never thought to. I mean, live in United States or compete around the world. It was just like, I was just take one day at a time, be resilient, because I think the hard challenge was be the gene every day and get smashed every day, you know? And I was just think like one day.

Coach: All those guys who smash me, I'm going to smash all them. And I did. And you did. That's pretty much, man. Yeah.

Eric: You know, on this podcast, we talk business and [00:05:00] it's, and it's nice to have you here because you can also show how consistency and failure mm-hmm. Applies to everything that you do. So, you know, how do you feel that, you know, talk to me a little bit more about consistency, how important it is.

Eric: To show up every day. Yeah. Even when, you know, you may not be feeling well, you wanna stay in bed or wake up and have a coffee and lay on the couch.

Coach: Yeah. Like, you know, on, on that journey, I have a. A lot, a lot of competitions, right. And in Brazilian Juujitsu, Nogi and MMA as well, you know, and sometimes like, you know, um, I was man killed at the training, the practice, but my performance was not very well want to compete.

Coach: You know, it, that happened with, uh, jujitsu and that happened like a few times with, uh, uh, MMA as well. But I think that the beauty of the thing, it's like it doesn't matter what happened, you have it to [00:06:00] keep him going. You know, I think you, from the bad, from the bad, like moments I have at the end was my best thing to help me to deal my diversity.

Coach: 'cause I lost like, and then like if you. If you're not, like for example, you go to computer jitsu and then you know the result what you respect, you don't get it, and you are like relaxed, you know, and okay with the result. That's, I think that's what you need to do something different, you know? But every time I go there, don't get the result what I want.

Coach: Make me go to the gym and. Train way more hard and fix all those mistakes and try to be better and better and better. You know? I think that's why, you know, juujitsu helped me on, on my personal life, on my business, you know, teach me a lot, you know how to deal with those. I'm not, I'm not caught this loss I [00:07:00] call just learnings.

Coach: You know? You learn with everything. And that I believe, like if I don't have those experience, I do not be the guy where I'm today. You know? That's so important. Yeah.

Eric: Well, everyone has a different method of overcoming those failures or those losses or those teachings, right? Mm-hmm. Was there something that you would always do?

Eric: Like We have, we have a client and a, a business partner of mine who he won't even sleep on his bed. If he does something wrong, he'll sleep on the floor, he'll stay up all night. You know, there are some people that they just, they flip a switch and there's certain things that get them. To the other side.

Eric: Right. Was there something that you would always do?

Coach: You know, I think I, I feel like this Eric, like, like, again, like those advers is never gonna stay forever. You know, it's up to you to overcome or stay there and keeping crying, complain and give excuse. [00:08:00] You know, I have a multiple example, like how life knocked me down.

Coach: You know, put me very, very down.

Coach: Mm-hmm.

Coach: And I just like, you know, make me very upset. And I just think with myself, like, I'm gonna stay here on the ground crying, or I'm gonna bounce back and keep going. You know, like one of the, one of the, I mean, I, I, it's a very few people know that personal thing. You know, it, I probably wanna open for that for, on the podcast, like one time, like life, knock me vetted.

Coach: Down when I lost my mom, you know, and, and between my grandmother and my mom was a difference with two months. Right. And the day when my mom passed was, uh, mother's Day. So on Mother's Day, me and my brother was, uh, was, you know, deal with the loss. Right. How old were you? I was 20 something, [00:09:00] my early twenties.

Coach: Right. And I was like, damn, you know, me and my brother was at the house like crying, crying. Then I stopped crying and he keep on crying. And then I look at the freezer. I saw a lot of bills, right? And then I look at him and I look at the bills and I look and took, think about my life, and I'm like, Hey brother, stop.

Coach: And he look at me like, what? I said, man, let's stop crying, man. Life going on. Look at the bills in the freezer, bro. We need to keep going man. Come on, let's go man. You know? 'cause I was older and, uh, I, I feel like I would give him a motivation to keep going, you know? And again, that could put me on like in bad, bad shape, like very depressed.

Coach: But I took the adversity to be strong as I can, you know? And I believe that bad diversity making me like be what I am today, I think it's nothing is worse in your life. [00:10:00] Then you lost one, one of your, uh, family relate. And, and especially at the moment, like, you know, at the time, like every, everyone was celebrated Mother's Day.

Coach: I, I lost my mom, you know, me and my brother. So, and today I, I talk about this, like, I have a very, um, I'm strong to talk about this and not be emotional. Yeah. Because I feel like, uh, this making me feel strong, you know what I mean? And, and, and be what I am today.

Eric: Wow. Not everyone can go through that. Yeah.

Eric: And bounce back. But it's just something to say, get up. You know? You get knocked down, get back up, get out there and prepare yourself. Yeah. Right? Mm-hmm. Because the world's not gonna prepare you. I always tell the kids like, I can't baby you. I can't pick you up. 'cause the world's not gonna pick you up a hundred percent and give you that love.

Eric: A hundred percent.

Coach: Yeah.

Eric: And the financial responsibility comes fast. Exactly.

Coach: Yep. Wow. And that, that teaching me like, [00:11:00] uh, uh, I was very premature, you know, very early on my age to be very responsible to all those situations, you know, uh, deal with all bills. My, my parents left, you know, like house, you know, um.

Coach: All, all, all, all kind of stuff. And this is a third world country? Yes. It was rough.

Eric: How was your

Coach: neighborhood?

Eric: Was it very

Coach: rough? Was it favelas was close to favela, you know, I was leaving like on the street, like down the, the favelas on, on top. Mm-hmm. But, you know, and my house was not exactly the under the favela, but uh, I used stay in the favela all the time.

Coach: Same, same friends community. I was, yeah. So it was like favela, favelas, you know, like. They have those, like, uh, every weekends they have some parties on those favelas, right. They call, uh, B funky. Mm-hmm. And me and my friends always go on those favelas just kind of celebrate, you know? And, and it is, was one way to, uh, escape from the reality of the life.

Coach: You know, Rio. Mm-hmm. [00:12:00] You know, but it was fun, was secure. People think favela was like a danger, but it's not. It's danger when, like, when some situations happen, like when the, the, um, the police like go there and try to, uh. Like conflict with the drug dealers have drug dealers over there, of course, but, uh, man, if you go in those, if you go in the favela during the week, you see it's the, like a safe place in the world.

Coach: You know? I bring my son, he's like, daddy, I never could imagine favela was so cool. You know, people so nice here. Everybody know you. Everybody talk to you. Mm-hmm. Everybody's happy, man. How they can be happy, you know, with don't have nothing. I say, man, that's. Life, bro. You know, they don't, you see where they, where they, their life's supposed to be.

Coach: They don't have nothing, but they're so happy. You know? And favela is the one that happiest in the world.

Eric: I feel like those are the happiest people. Yeah. They the ones that have the least because they just, the little bit that they get is enough to satisfy them. Exactly,

Coach: yes. Like I feel like they don't worry too much about, uh.

Coach: Baby. Yeah. [00:13:00] Yeah.

Eric: That's a big, that's a big burden. You know, and

Coach: sometimes you have a bills and you kinda like stretch yourself and then your family have a, to, you know, have a budget to buy things and buy a house and your business and then you start to get your life like a crazy, I think the fact they don't have all that make they feel like.

Coach: You know, whatever I call

Eric: that first world problems. Yeah. Which is, is ridiculous. Yeah. Yeah. So in all this, and you're also a, you know, a coach for the kids. That's, that's when I got started, you know, and I, I've been training with you for about a year and a half. You've been, you've changed my life. And I also, you know, help you out with the kids.

Eric: I don't, I wouldn't say coach, but No, you do. You do. Yes. You know, I see a lot of patience and I, you know, for me, patience is key with. Not just the kids, but getting knocked down, you gotta have the patience to keep getting back up. Right. You know? 'cause some people could say, Hey, be consistent, but after a hundred times of getting knocked down Right.

Eric: They might just [00:14:00] take it. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So how do, where does that, where does the patience come from and how can you. You know, how can people be more patient? Yeah. You

Coach: know, Eric, like, uh, let's start, let's go back where, uh, when I have the plan to open the gin here in Alpharetta, right? Mm-hmm. So I had my gin in Atlanta.

Coach: My other one is in spring. It's like MM Agin, like it's a lot of people. They have a kids class, but it was not that big. You know, it's still there. And, uh. My plan was to be close to my family once, second, you know, be because it was brutal for me. Go to Atlanta twice. Back and forth Drive. Yeah, like one hour ago, one hour back.

Coach: Twice. Then I said, need to open gym off right away. I can be close to my house and be close, more consistent with my family, with my kids. Then I open this gym, right? And uh, and I start with, uh, with the kids program and usually most the gym, the kids, uh. Start [00:15:00] doing Juujitsu with five years old. But for some reason I received a lot of leads with kids with three years old.

Eric: That's how we came to you because the other ones wouldn't start right at three. Oh, see that? And Ali was three, so we needed to get, yeah.

Coach: And I received one and I remember like one of the first one or two I say no, and then I got another one. And May, may maybe I got a you and a, uh, you with Ali. I think I got a Kiara.

Coach: You know, and I start like, and I say, you know what? I'm gonna, I want to see if I can make the challenge, like I want to build up a program for three to five years old. You know, I'm glad like you come in my life too, because like, you know, and we had a, we, we train every new right? We like, man, I one year.

Coach: And in you be part of my life too, you know, my, my routine, right. Every, every time I go teach the police department and then I go teach in my gym and most of the time [00:16:00] was me and you. Mm-hmm. Right? And we teach the kids after. Right. But I start to like, because it's like, uh. Some parents don't understand.

Coach: Some parents, like they bring the kids with three years old and they expect the kid to be a Rice Gracie or be a Rhonda Rossey. You know, some parents, they have to understand at their age, the first, the. The lack of focus and attention is very limited. It's like a couple seconds. Right? And for the strike, the kid is just like one noise in the wall.

Coach: They not watching you anymore. Right. Plus they don't have a coordination. They don't build the coordination with it. They don't build the athleticism already. Just took time, right? But it's been fantastic so far. You know, I'm so in love with the kids, what I have right now. I mean your son, and I'm glad like you come and help me because sometimes I feel like [00:17:00] overwhelmed with like a bunch of kids, you know?

Coach: But, uh, I feel I start to understand the kids, you know, and to make a words too, Eric, like, you there, you, you are there every week with me. Is the, is the fact like, uh. Your gene is open to everybody, right? It's not like a no difference and social difference, color, race, religion, not anything. Yeah. But we had kids with a different culture, like one.

Coach: One family is from one country, another family is from another country, which is makes sometimes hard for them get together. Yeah. Right. But, uh, I find the balance to make everybody understand there we not are different. The language where we talk there is juujitsu. Mm-hmm. Right. And I built the class for only 30 minutes because I feel.

Coach: Kids at their age, if you teach them more than [00:18:00] 30 minutes, they don't have a, they don't, they don't have a focus enough, you know. But most of the time I do 40, yeah. 45, you know. But I love it. I love it. It's, uh, very pleasure to me to see a kid like, uh, uh, learn moves, you know, spoke more. You know, be more, uh, relaxed when we, they interact with the other kids, right?

Coach: And some parents, they don't understand. But, uh, the environment, what they have right now, the, the environment, what they have, the gym right now is prepare the kids for life. Right? I wish some parents understand that because you might gonna see a kid hit another kid, punch another kid inside the class.

Coach: That's something I don't tolerate it. I always try to. Punish them mm-hmm. To do some like type of like, uh, timeout or something. Like therefore they understand that's not correct and they might make [00:19:00] some other parents who have the kids like, you know, get punched, you know, in the head or get a choke, you know, and cry.

Coach: But they have to understand this. You are prepare your kid for life, you know? Just think about it, like imagine your kids is on the middle school, high school and they never have an environment, right, and you throw him on, on one high school, middle school, and that situation happen over there. One kid go and punch them, right?

Coach: I'm a hundred percent sure. 90, 95% of your kids if the situation happened. They want to be prepared. They know they will know how to deal themself. Yeah. You know, I feel as a parent like you once, the better for your kids. You wanna protect them, but sometimes they're overprotect. You know, this is not good in my opinion.

Coach: Right. Because you're not going to be with your kids forever. You know? And I think some point they need to learn how to defend [00:20:00] theyself without have a mom and dad around to like, Hey, don't do that with my my son. Don't do that with my daughter, you know? So, and I think jujitsu and the way we are doing the class right now, it's the, it's the best way, you know?

Coach: That's making me motivate, that's making me like, make them learn every, you know, you repeat those same moves. Yes. It, that's most important. It's like one spine, Eric. Like the, for the first time I have kids compete and every kid's, like four kids, they all kids got a first place. Mm-hmm. Right. But at this system, you know, I believe in my system.

Coach: I believe in Carson Grace lineage, you know, and I think with the lineage, with the, the environment, with the, the principal positions, like you keep it repeat over and over and over. They can save your life forever. Yeah. Competing and fighting if you

Eric: need that, that backstory, by the way, is, is crazy. And we've talked about it before [00:21:00] with, so you know.

Eric: I'm there beside you. So I see the kids day in and day out and I see some come in that are just, uh, maybe the word is hopeless, right? Where most pe most places they go to, they wouldn't survive. But seeing how we've been able to keep those same kids, you know, you probably know who I'm talking about.

Eric: Mm-hmm. And then they are rolling on, on Wednesday. I saw this same kid. Right? Rolling. Literally, hey, they try and move, okay, that didn't work. And they're doing kind of this flow. Yes, it is starting to make sense. You know, I don't know if I told you this, but Ollie was getting pushed around kind of bullying a little bit by this kid, and after a couple months in your class, he immediately went to that kid and just like shut him down.

Eric: Yes. And that kid was like, oh. Uh

Coach: huh. I can't do that. Yes. That's type of thing Eric, like, make me, make me so, so happy. You know, a kid coming and they kind of very [00:22:00] shy, you know, they're not confident enough. And then where, I mean, daily basis, like we keep in drilling and training, they have fun. You know, it's another thing too, the class have to be fun.

Coach: I cannot be like a. The kid have to be kid. They not be there. They, they, they, I want you to understand like there is the place they feel pleasure to be. If you keep in, go hard with the kids and try them, they gonna burn out. Mm-hmm. You know, like a few years, they're not going to, they don't want to be there, you know, uh, and heard those type of things.

Coach: Like you see Ali get there very shy, and now he. Deal.

Coach: against the aggressive, the other kid, Kiara, for example, I remember when, uh, her daddy bring her, she was not even three years yet, that she was using diapers, you know? Crazy. She was so scared to get inside the mat. You know? It was, I mean, most of the time those kids at the age, they got very scared.

Coach: Mm-hmm. They see a bunch of kids with GI and those kids who was already in the [00:23:00] class, they feel there is the habitat, like they. They keep like a go wild, you know? And the all kids come and they see their kids with GH and they like, oh my god. You know, they feel a little bit intimidating, you know, first thing I want to let them feel.

Coach: It's the places for everybody, right? And see things, uh, uh, like kids, like improve, like Ali, like Kiara. Uh, let me, uh, Mike, Mike, you know, and all the, you know, they make me. You guys have no understand, like how happy I feel. Yeah. You know, especially

Eric: for someone like him that's kind, uh, arrived, that's more of an introvert.

Eric: He's calm, he's very kind, soul, very calm. Yeah.

Coach: He don't talk too much. You know,

Eric: and this kind of applies to, to business as well. Mm-hmm. 'cause you get employees that you're like, ah, I don't know. Like I, maybe I should just fire them, bring someone else on. Or maybe I could just play to their strengths, their personality.

Eric: Yeah. You know? Mm-hmm. Like. Uh, [00:24:00] that's a big part of being patient, right? Yeah.

Coach: I think you, jujitsu help on that. Like make you, make you feel you are capable to do things right. The, the, the thing you just told me about Ollie, just think about it. He, he's get there, you know, and this kid like keeping, pushing him, like handle him all the time.

Coach: And then one day he's like, okay, let me believe in myself. Yeah. And he's like, whoa. You know, just imagine this is the first time, pretty much like a very first time in his life. He do something to like, uh, break all the doubts and fears they have in his mind, right? Because he have a ghost in his mind. Oh, that kid, he's strong than me.

Coach: He can kill me, or he can do this, and then he's like, mm-hmm. You know, that impact is gonna help. In life. Yeah. You know, I'm sure he might going to have some situations where he going to have a a, a business meeting Right. With the big [00:25:00] president, just like a poetically, like try to give example with this like c like, you know, like a bad asio and he's a aire and whatever, and he, he might gonna have his opportunity to show his work and.

Coach: Most of the time, the opportunity is like not gonna take too long, right? Mm-hmm. You're gonna have the very short time, and I believe that thing he learned in Juujitsu is gonna make him come down and look at the C. Like, come on man, you're the co. But I'm Ali, man, you know? Yeah. Come on, let me talk to you about this.

Coach: This. They want to make this show. Like, oh my God, man, who's that kid? You know? Yeah. It's the same thing. If you change, hypothetically, you change, the C is gonna be the other kid to try to bully him. Mm-hmm. You know what I mean? Yeah. And this is a helpful life. And some parents, like I, I guarantee, because I have examples of that, you know?

Coach: And. Man, what do you think? I mean, watch now is like UFC and Jujitsu's very [00:26:00] popular right now. And what do you think? Like Marcus looking back, he's very like, uh, like into in Juujitsu and he's in UFC all the time, you know, he stretch, be in shape, man. Just think about his life, man. I'm a hundred percent sure his life was all about like, read stood, read stood be crazy.

Coach: I'm not, he never spent time to. Do anything else besides like, uh, Stu Studying, studying, studying and studying. Right. Yeah. Now he discovered Juujitsu Man, ask, I mean, we never gonna ask him, but if there's one a question I would love to ask him. I say, man, why you love Juujitsu? Why love martial arts so much?

Coach: And I know that it's because this,

Eric: yeah.

Coach: You know,

Eric: it, it gives you the defense for your mental, not just your body. Mm-hmm. But also. How to think. And if you think of it, every CEO was in that, in that seat. At one point they were, they were on their back or they had everything stacked against them at one point.

Eric: Right. [00:27:00] So that CEO may be a, a hard ass right now, but he may have been timid before and. Typically you have to fake it till you make it, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Or you have to, your confidence has to be bigger than your intelligence. Yes.

Coach: I, that's one of, that's, you know, if I have the opportunity, Eric, that's one of that's few questions I would like ask Marcus Zuckerberg.

Coach: Uh. Tom Brady. Mm-hmm. I mean, he's an actor. I, I met him the movie when I did the Warrior Uhhuh, but, uh, at the time I did not have a lot of time to spoke with him. Frank Gillo, the, the guy who I spoke was Frank Gillo, but a business guys like Marcus Zuckerberg and few others who do juujitsu. Now that, uh, that's the one of question I would like to ask now, like, man, you know, what Jiji impact your life?

Coach: Why, why you, you are so into Jiujitsu, why you like JIT so much? I'm a hundred percent sure the answer's gonna be because man, I was get bullied [00:28:00] and I was like, uh, you know, very fragile, very like weak. And when I start training, I start to understand more about my body. I start to handle guys big than me.

Coach: Yeah. And he probably like took that to, you know, handle his business and do better and better. I, I believe so.

Eric: I not only does it help you in the streets, right, someone attacks you, you know, you, you can just walk around knowing that, hey, the typical, even, even if you're a blue belt, the typical or even, you know, uh, six months in, you can defend yourself against someone that's never done wrestling or jujitsu or any type of MMA.

Eric: But I think for, for me, speaking on my experience with Brazilian jujitsu and working with you, which may be different with another coach, is that. I get knocked down every day in jujitsu and in business. Yeah, I can, I can apply that now, like I can, I can pick the phone up and [00:29:00] call a client that is pissed off at me or an employee that is having a really hard time and I can talk to them.

Eric: Yeah. And say, look. You're gonna wake up tomorrow and it's gonna be totally different. Yes. The sun's gonna be shining. Yeah.

Coach: Yeah. I'm sure you, you just also teach you a lot of the things for your business as well, right? So many, yeah. And yeah. And, and another thing I want to, I want to talk to about this leg legacy we had, we create an operator, like have you every morning, believe you know, my.

Coach: In my, you know, my knowledge, you believe in my class, believe in my gin. And then you go and compete, right? The BGJF like open. That's my, that's my goal. Yeah. Just first thing I saw here, look here, Liberty. And I saw the medal here. Yep. You know, that's making me like, uh, making me happy to, and, and believe I am doing something right.

Coach: Right. Because not only may we keeping, how many times was me and you at the gym, you know, your resilience, Eric, like making me like, you know, sometimes I [00:30:00] was so exhausted, like I barely asleep, and then I have to go to the police department and have a stressful day. And then I go to gym 12. And you was there?

Coach: Mm-hmm. What's up? Good morning, coach. I was like, Hey, Eric, let's do it. And making me like, don't, don't make like a pleasure to be there. Make him like, wow, man, let me deliver the guy, man. The guy. Look. I can be, I can give like 5% for him because man, look, I wanna make his time worth, you know, man, I wanna give my best to him.

Coach: I'm gonna teach man my best, the best thing. I wanna make him understand, like my knowledge and look what we get, man. You just compete for the first time. Compete against guy who was already competing like a few tournaments before. Mm-hmm. And, uh, I'm not one, I'm not going to lie to you. I was kinda, I, I, I knew would, you would do good, but I'm not that the way you did it.

Coach: Mm-hmm. You know, you crush everybody. And this guy having the final, like, he actually trained with one guy who I used to compete back the days. Yeah. Right. And I was [00:31:00] like, damn man. It was the easy, easy match you had. In the final. Yeah, like you took the guy down Mount, passed the guard, you know, and arm bar in the end.

Coach: You know those things and have your family there. Have all your watch, you compete, have your wife there. Those things make me so happy, man. You know, that make me my, my time worth, you know. Because this is those type of memories we are gonna stick forever. I know. You know, it doesn't matter. We are all gonna get old and, uh, worry and after 10 years we are going to talk about this tournament, you know, gonna, what the matter.

Coach: And then all the memories going back in your mind, and we're gonna talk about this. I know. You know, so that's, and, and that's and that point of my life. You know, Eric, that's the most important thing to me right now. Do you feel

Eric: like you can relate a lot to me when you see someone else that has a fam a wife, kids working and then still shows up to Juujitsu and you can kind of, we can put each other in, in each other's shoes,

Coach: right?

Coach: Yeah. You know, [00:32:00] actually I have a few guys like in, in the same kind of, uh, that's right spot. You have, like we have a David, you

Eric: have a champion?

Coach: Yes. We had a, we had a few guys over there. But Eric, for Be Resilient is not for everybody. You know? It's not for everybody. I, I even don't want to talk, but I have a guy, he show up at the gym maybe for one, two weeks and he left.

Coach: And then he, every time, like once a while, he message me and he's like, oh man, I want to train. I wanna come back. And one time he got me so mad because he's like. He saw your, uh, I mean the pictures, like in videos we post on, on the jujitsu Instagram, it's like, yeah.

Oh man, you know, um, I

want to

be

Coach: what he say.

Coach: Yeah. Um, uh, I want to, I want to be like the guy you protect, like he mentioned you like, like, uh, you are my project. Oh, I want to, oh, project. Yeah. I [00:33:00] want to, uh, be this, uh, I want to be better than the guy who, like a protege. Yeah, the protege like. Man, what? Talk about, man, you know, this guy, all your students are your privileges, bro.

Coach: Yes. I mean, man, we no difference here. The class

Eric: the other night had like 10, 15 people,

Coach: you know, as a man, I treat everybody equally, man, you know, and I, but I, I witnessed, I have those type of experience, like multiple times Eric, like, they try to, uh, uh, use there as excuse for. You know, just showing up,

bro.

Show up like you do, man.

Coach: Every, every noon you do Monday, Wednesday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, they have boom, boom, boom from boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Yeah. Sometimes you come in even it's class too. Yep. Man,

Eric: it could happen even if, even if I'm in pain. The back hurts, bro. The knee hurts. That's all.

Eric: You can still drill. You can still learn.

Coach: That's all man. Be at the gym. Watch. Even

Eric: if, yeah, even if you don't even do it like, hey, you're, you just got a surgery?

Coach: Yeah, go sit. But at then, like you are in your house, like I [00:34:00] eat like a, uh, junk food and, you know, and my, uh, uh, drink alcohol and my, uh, I don't know, smoke weed or whatever the case may be.

Coach: And. I mean, you are in this spot because you want, man, you know, uh, I'm not going to tell you like going the gym is going to be, uh, all pleasure. You know, you're going to have some sacrifice. You might gonna feel your muscle, especially for, uh, over forties, right? Yeah. You might gonna, you know, gonna hurt your, your body a little bit.

Coach: But man, if you believe in the process, I'm sure, you know, I'm guarantee at the end it's going to be very worth, you know? Yeah. So.

Eric: Yeah. And I mean, there's no growth without pain. No. Ever. No. It's not possible. No. Alright. I want to ask you a couple questions. Go ahead. Um, obviously most great things take time.

Eric: Mm-hmm. You have to show up day in and day out. One thing that we ask all of all of our guests here on the [00:35:00] podcast is, what was that growth under pressure moment for you? That time when it was dark, you weren't sure if you were gonna wake up the next day, or you weren't sure if you could pay your bills?

Eric: Or you were gonna win a fight? Yeah. Take us back. Take us back to a dark moment for you and how you overcame that.

Coach: Yeah. You know, Eric, I, I, I think like now I am, I took those the way you call dark moment and motivation, you know, and I feel like every time I have those dark moments, uh, I try to, okay, so I'm here.

Coach: Download. So what I have to do to overcome, right. The bad weather, it's not stay there forever. You know, the sum always come up. That's my mantra. Mm-hmm. It's, I have this situation now is bad. You know everything. No, don't go right the [00:36:00] way you expect. I keep my faith in Jesus. Keep my faith in God. And what I need to do to do better, you know, what I need to do to overcome this bad situation.

Coach: This like, uh, dark moments, you know, it just took, sometimes took a little bit longer, but sometimes go, go out of quickly and then boom, there's nothing better than you overcome those bad situations. Right.

Yeah.

Coach: And I would say my dark moment where, uh, was when I lost my mother. Mm-hmm. You know, and my grandfa, my grandmother.

Coach: The loss of my parents in general. Yeah, right. My, my daddy, I lost him when I was 12 and he was my big support at the time. I was very connect with them. And after that, my mom was hard to raise like two boys, you know, me and my, my brother and she start to struggle with things too, you know, and. I just was in a juujitsu coming in my life in the right time, like right.

Coach: Uh, [00:37:00] right after lost my dad, juujitsu coming in my life and I was using Juujitsu to forget the pain. Mm-hmm. You know, every time I was sad they go to the gym and like, uh, you know, I was feeling pain to get a choke, to get a people, you know, pop my arms, forget people take me down, you know? But. And I feel like, yeah, jujitsu helped me on those dark moments.

Coach: Like, and that's my mantra. Every time you ha you are in the bad weather, the sum will always come up. It doesn't matter what.

Eric: I think that's really important and I appreciate you sharing that with me in, in our viewers. You are welcome, man. I think that's so important to see that, hey, a dark moment for one person.

Eric: Can be totally different for another and to lose, you know, you know, your caretakers, all of them. Yeah.

Coach: You know, I feel, you know, uh, very depends what, what you feel is your dark moment. Right. What you feel is bad for you, [00:38:00] like personally, for myself, nothing is worse than you lost your parents. I mean, you, you, you, you, like, you wake up and then you're not gonna see your dad anymore.

Coach: You wake up and not see your mom, your grandmother, people who really love you, really take care of you. I think it's nothing worse than that, right? And then you're gonna face all those problems like financial, like. You know, maybe one. One, you try to do one business or you invest money on this and then it's not the way you thought.

Coach: Right? And then, and then you start to think this is your dark moment. No, it's not your dark moment. I'm sure if you work and if you do things right, that dark moment, the investment, you did it. Mm-hmm. You can overcome and maybe move to. Play the investment, bounce back. Oh, for sure. That's for sure. You know, and there's a lot of facts too, is like the, the, the time of the, the, the economy, you know, the time of the, the way you know, the place you [00:39:00] live, you know, the politics and stuff, you know, all that.

Coach: I just, you think you need to be patient and believe in the process If you, if you believe the thing you're doing is right. And you, and you have a God in your side and think everything's, everything's gonna happen. You

Eric: know? That's amazing. 'cause you could have, you could have first said, Hey, my dark moment was when I lost this fight, or, you know, I lost a, a member of my gym.

Eric: Yeah. But it's, it's so much deeper than that.

Coach: Yeah. I feel like. You know, and I honestly, like, I feel like he, I mean, if I lost a member of my gym, I feel like this, he not deserve to be with me. Yeah. You know? And, uh, I wish him the best and life keep going, you know, and more. Young people, more new students gonna come look at the relationship we have in one year.

Coach: Man, that's like, yeah. You know, that's amazing. You know, and I believe more guys like you is gonna come. More kids like Ali, more kids like Kiara, more kids like Mike is [00:40:00] gonna come. And we keep on growing,

Eric: you know? I mean, this is your business. It's already thriving. You have Yeah. Uh, two kids groups. You have the key and the, and the nogi and your business has already been made.

Coach: And, and uh, and the funny thing, you know, Eric, like. Uh, it's beautiful right now and how I did it for Make the Family in Ji Dish, Reta was organic. I invest in Google ads maybe two or three times. Mm-hmm. You know, everything I did, it was mouth to mouth like you bring your friends. 'cause I feel like this Eric, like.

Coach: The good people we had around us is gonna attract and bring good people to us, right? Mm-hmm. Not feel me wrong, I really accept like, uh, have a, uh, advertise Google ads, you know, and, and pay for leads and this and that, but that's the thing. You cannot filter, it's gonna come in a lot of people in your gym, you know?

Coach: And I already have that on my other business, on my other gym. [00:41:00] Which number is very important, right? Uh, I not say I don't like to make money. It is important to have a lot of students, but this one is very particular in Munich for me. You know, I want to have a good people around myself. Mm-hmm. You know, and I don't care if I have.

Coach: Like 1000 students, you know, those 1000 students bringing me like $1 million. Right. But I, I'm not gonna have a piece, you know that one, I mean, 1000 students, like 950 students is like, uh, not good person, you know? Yeah, I know. Evaluate if they're good enough, but they feel the energy inside my gym. You know, if you fit, great.

Coach: If not. It's all good. No problem.

Eric: There's some metrics we use in the business world, like, you know, retention, you know, client, customer retention, employee retention, and then lifetime value. So there's like, you know, the lifetime value of one person that you are trying to get is mul, is multiplied [00:42:00] much, much bigger than someone that you would get from a Google ad or cold.

Eric: Right? Right. Because mm-hmm. Someone that is by word of mouth, right? That is a good person, a good heart knows where you're coming from. They may be a, a 12 to three, 12 months, a 36 month mm-hmm. Person versus a three month. Yeah. Right. And that's, that's not what you want. Yeah. Um, tell me real quick,

Coach: sorry, go ahead.

Coach: No, yeah, just I feel, I feel like that, I like the, the, the, the, the knowledge you have for your business. Like, it's kind of like the same, you know, I feel like. We have a true, I feel for myself. Of course, the world is got a modern, you know, and new things coming, right? But we, those new things that, the modern things coming because we have, uh, people on the past who make the path for us, make, make the foundation.

Coach: Yes. So, and I, I believe in the old foundation, right back the days, we don't have a social media. We don't have a this, we don't have a that, and we still have a. You know, [00:43:00] planes of like academies and, and, and full of people, right? Yep. What they advertise like flyers and mouth to mouth.

Eric: You know what's crazy?

Eric: So we have employees that we get from word of mouth. They're the best employees. We put some ads for, for new people. Mm-hmm. And we can't find anyone Good. You see, and it's the same thing with clients and like there are some amazing clients that come in through, you know, through cold outreach. Right. But the really good ones are the ones that were referred to us by good people.

Eric: Eric's the same in my gym.

Coach: Yeah, same on your gym. I say my gym. Your gym. Same thing Jun. Yeah. You know, uh, all the good people is re it's, they can. Refer for the other good people. Referral. Referral. Yeah. You know, and uh, that's what I think, man, and see, man, you, you give me, you gimme some lights that. I'm doing something right.

Coach: You gotta just keep on that path. Mm-hmm.

Eric: Yeah. So real quick, we got a couple minutes, we gotta get to class.

Coach: We can do the second part. Yeah, no

Eric: problem. [00:44:00] Uh, so let's just wrap up with maybe two questions. How has God been impactful in your life?

Coach: Oh, man. Is everything. Everything. Eric. I, I think, like if I don't have, uh, God in my life, I would still be on those dark moments.

Coach: You, you said. Before. Yeah. You know, and he, he definitely give him delight in so many situations. Man, I, you know, it's, it's very hard man to talk about the, those things, you know, in very short time of mm-hmm. 'cause so many, so many, so many situations, Eric, so many situations. I'm going to tell one time I was doing, uh, I was, uh, I was kick off UFC, like I, I lost when.

Coach: Uh, split decision in Atlanta, UFC kicked me out and I was doing some fights outside, you know, to maybe come back to [00:45:00] UFC. Right. And then, um, I did in one fight, and then I had this tournament, like three fights in one night.  

Coach: The guy tried to create the, the, you know, like kind of old school stuff and then like, okay.

Coach: You know, first of all was the last one to be, choose from those brackets. What? Eight guys, one 70 was in Oklahoma and I did the first fight, like I was eight badass guys. You know, I did the first fight and I won, but I feel like my body was not really hydrate. You know, if my, my muscle was like a teeth, you know, I have a man, thank you so much.

Coach: I thank God all the time to have a Lima's brother, um, on my side, the Geo Douglas, right? Mm-hmm. And I was the backstage and I was like, uh, confirmed that I would not come back to do the fi, same final and the final. I say, man, you know what? I, I already win one fight, you know, for my record gonna be good, you know, and I might need some few more fights to my UFC.

Coach: Choose me again. [00:46:00] And they keep me pushing me, man.

No, man, you're gonna have to go, man. You know, you have to go, man. Have you go, no. Come on. You go, let's go man.

Coach: And they are the guy who, the, the kids who I was training, you know, it's very. Close relationship because they, at the time there was coach me. Coach the coach, you know, and then like, man, I cannot give the, the, how can I say, man?

Coach: The, the disappointed. The disappointed. I cannot disappoint those kids, man. Yeah. You know, but at the same time my body was like, you know, man, my, and, and then I, if I go and, and. I fight, am I going to, to loss because I not feel my body's right. You know?
Yeah.

Coach: And they keep pushing me, push me, push me, push me.

Coach: And then I said, man, hold on a man. Let me, okay, hold on. And, and it was a, a, uh, a combo of feelings, right? And this, uh, I was excited. I was. [00:47:00] Uh, uh, confident that I could. At the same time I was doubled, but my body was not feeling right. I was mad with them to push me, to push me on the mat, but at the same time was thankful for that too, you know?

Coach: And then I, I put my headphone and I start to listen. Um, is one of Brazilian guys his best, is a older reporter, and he, uh, his voice is very loud, you know, very unique voice. And he do the, the. The Psalms. Mm-hmm. And the bible ver uh, version, uh, um, verse verse. The, they're all Psalms, right? And, uh, I put, and uh, I said, man, let me pray.

Coach: You know, let me listen the, the, the Psalms here and, uh, and his voice come in my mind. And, uh, the verse was, uh. That you can, uh, if you, if you got, if you have a God in your side, you can do things, you can do anything you want. You can do all things through me. You can do all things to them. Yeah. And I keep listening the whole thing and that this [00:48:00] coming down and he and I keep listening to his voice, right?

Coach: And I keep, and he keeping, and I keep, listen, this give me like a power. And then I look at the guys, I say, Hey, uh uh, the guy for the promotion, oh, you gonna fight or not, you gonna fight or not? And I say, yes, I will. And I guess what? I won, you won the whole thing. I won, you beat the next guy and the final I, the next guy, then I'm gonna beat the next guy.

Coach: I say, man, how is my, you know? And then I did the final and then I beat the guy. And was, that's just one thing, like a God was important. You know, I can, I can give like multiple, you know, and, and times and, and with those. Kids like Diego and Douglas Lima too and uh, their career. We pretty much do everything together.

Coach: Like Diego wanted the ultimate fight twice. Douglas Lima become a Beto champion and before we got the Beto champion, we fight local, we fight in in one small promotion Canada. Man, everything [00:49:00] was met. God man. I remember one time me and Douglas, Douglas on his fight, he was fight for the belt and he fight the local guy in Ed Mountain, right.

Coach: Was only God and us against the whole cow, the whole stadium. Right. But it was not the only guys tried to cheers against us. You know, the guy was type of gangster and the friend, the friends was type of gangster too. They really tried to intimidate us. Right. Wow. And I remember Douglas got inside the ring, right?

Coach: And then when he came his walk, walk out, walk, walking song was, I put off for my city, like a Uhhuh, a rapper? Yeah. Jay-Z I put off for my city, man, they still go down, you know? And um, I just like, I talked to Douglas, said, man, do man. We have a God bro. We got a God. We got a God man. Don't worry man. It's gonna be all night Now guess what?

Coach: Was his night. He's shy, [00:50:00] you know, and he shoots down the whole arena. Wow. You know, it's, I mean, that's type of things like a god's. When you have a God in your side, man, you, you don't need to be scared for anything, man. I believe

Eric: it. I believe it. Well, this was great. This was really good. We're gonna go hit class.

Eric: Uh, what? Okay. I want you to answer just one thing for me, please, man, keep

Coach: going. I'm, I'm, I'm feel so relaxed here, man. We, uh, it's so bad that I have to finish, but we can do the second part if you want. We'll do another one. Yeah. I just

Eric: want you to fill in the gap of this sentence. Uhhuh a man under pressure should always is.

Coach: Yeah. You know, on, on the capitalism world, right. Uh. Pressure make diamonds.

Eric: So a man under pressure should always make diamonds. Oh,

Coach: yes. Uh, I don't know. Uh, I think it's even in, uh, in English in America, they have that too. Uh, the, the, the bad C the bad, uh, the good [00:51:00] Sea doesn't make a good Mariner. Right.

Coach: Sailor. Sailor. A good sailor. Yes. A good sailor, right? A, a bad. Ocean. I mean, a good ocean doesn't make a good cellar. Mm. Right. And Portuguese said, uh,

Eric: so it's like a bad seed. Doesn't make a a, a farmer like a farmer.

Coach: I feel like if you have a comfortable zone all the time, you are not gonna be successful. Awesome. Well, this was fun. Until next time,

Eric: let's run it back.

Coach: Appreciate it, man. Thank you, Eric. Yes. That's a good one. Thank you guys. Appreciate it.

Coach: That's a wrap. Yeah.

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