Steve Jolly, Black Belt, Minister, Non-Profit Founder - Beyond the Belt #28 - Beyond the Belt

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:47):
Hey Steve, thanks for being here.
Hey, thanks Eric.
Glad to be here.
What was it like for you to get your black belt?
Well, I was training for a long time and uh it was a uh Well, when I the day I got it wasa Saturday my my I earned my black belt with two other training partners my family came my

(01:11):
Neighbor my neighbor came who's a photographer and so he was there He wanted to getpictures.
He's a longtime judo guy.
And so he came and wanted to be a part of that He's actually the guy that invited me tostart training jujitsu.
And so
He wanted to be there and uh it was a good day.
We uh had a seminar.

(01:33):
They used it, they call it Black Belt Camp and put on a weekend seminar.
And at the end of the seminar, uh like I said, my two training partners and I received ourblack belts.
that was it.
Like, did you feel like you were ready?
Did you, were you like, it's about time?
Like, what was your mindset at that moment?

(01:56):
well maybe some people do feel that way, but absolutely not.
uh I think like probably with every belt, you're not sure if you're ready and you're not,uh maybe not looking forward to the next step isn't the right word, but like you feel like
maybe now you're a target and people are expecting more out of you than what you thinkyou're able to provide and improve.

(02:19):
uh
It was good.
I love my brown belt.
I love that phase of training.
I was excited for my black belt.
but I think I was nervous after getting it in the first day back in the gym, excited to bethere with my black belt, but like, okay, how's this going to go?
What's the expectations of me and my abilities now?

(02:42):
And so, but definitely a good thing for sure.
feel like you earned it right away, like after you had it, after that first day back, ordid it feel like, I needed a few months, weeks, years to grow into it?
I still, I feel like I'm still growing into it honestly.
I was thinking about it ah just this last week about, you people always say, or you seethe memes or things on Instagram and like you have all these phases and then when you get

(03:10):
to black belt, that's really when your journey begins.
And so I'm still learning, still practicing, uh trying out new things.
And so ah you definitely don't arrive when you get to your black belt.
still a student and still learning and as you age and you get injured or you becomehealthier or more athletic through your training, I think you're able to attempt or add

(03:40):
things to your game.
And so I'm still doing that even today, even this week.
You said your friend who did Judo got you to your first Jiujitsu class.
What was his tactic there?
Was he just like, hey, I want to show you how to wear pajamas and throw people around ordid you...
uh
um, he grew up, I live along the border and he grew up in Mexico and his dad was a judoguy.

(04:04):
So he's been doing judo for 50 plus years.
And when my kids were little, we took them to the local Taekwondo gym and trained.
And for him, that was like the worst to see his neighbor take his kids to Taekwondo.
And so he always gave us a hard time while, uh, we were doing that.
And so he just kept.
going and going in it.

(04:25):
And then the gym where I train at opened and he was the judo coach there.
And so he invited us to the grand opening.
um For my son, honestly, my son was going into middle school, sixth grade, and we werelike, okay, we want you to do more than just play Xbox.
And so we took him down there for the first time and I sat on the side for a couple ofweeks, watched him learning.

(04:51):
training and I was just that's when I started I was like I can't sit here and just watchthis anymore I wanted to get on the mat so that was good
were you when that happened?
40s, early 40s, 42, 43, something like that.
Maybe 41.
I don't remember now, honestly.
I mean, I'm 43 and I don't know how I would feel walking onto the mat for the first timeat that age.

(05:15):
The nice thing, at least at this gym, is a brand new gym.
uh So a lot of people were new.
There were a lot of white belts starting.
I still, there's a picture of me on the mat, like I don't know if it was my first orsecond class, laying on my back trying not to throw up.
was not in the best of shape at the time.
But yeah, I mean, it's great.

(05:35):
Again, it's a good learning experience.
I think we forget after being on the mats how long, hard it is for someone to walk in thefirst day.
On Thursday at class, there was a young lady that came and super nervous, mat full, andher first day on the mat, just like, what is going on?
Like, it's going to be a little uncomfortable this first night.

(05:58):
You're going to be closer to a lot of people than you're used to.
uh But it's good.
I think it's good for us to be able to have that experience time and again, that new.
feeling being a little bit nervous, uncomfortable.
uh
have anything that you like to tell people when it's their first time on the mat or peoplethat you haven't that they haven't stepped on in the mat yet to kind of make the

(06:22):
transition or the first day easier?
Um, I mean, I do, I do try to remind them that, um, that we we've all been there for sure.
And I tell, and like I said, with that young, with that young lady that was there, she'snot, I don't know how old she was honestly, but probably young mom age maybe.
And, um, trying to let her know that I get it.

(06:45):
It's uncomfortable.
like, I'm going to put you in my guard.
I'm to be on side control on top and on mount and you're going to do the same to me.
And so just letting her know like,
Acknowledging the fact that it's uncomfortable I think ah is good and then for people justlike in getting interested or they have questions about jujitsu, I think uh Just letting

(07:07):
them know.
Hey for me at least at my gym.
I'm trained at a lot of other gyms is that um We're all just at our gym in particular isolder guys families.
We all have work We all got to get up the next day.
We're not gonna try to kill each other
A little bit and then, we got to get up the next day and go to work.
And, and, so I try to let them know that, you know, we're here, we want you to havesuccess.

(07:31):
So we're not going to like smash you the first night, but get, let you get comfortable.
Yeah, yeah, I do.
Yeah.
eh
You started in your early 40s, like what do you do differently 10, 15 years later?
And just in terms of training, like how do you treat your body?
How do you manage recovery?

(07:52):
That's like a thing that I think about a lot as I'm getting older.
Um, I still, mean, I still obviously the, I think, I think one of the things that'saddictive about it is just the rolling and the contact.
And, and so I still, I try not to avoid, uh, too many roles, but I'm careful.
I'm still careful about who I train with.

(08:14):
Uh, I'm, I, I was telling, uh, one of my students yesterday, I was like, you're going totap all the time.
If, and if you don't, you're going to get hurt.
And so honestly, I, if someone's got an arm bar, I don't.
I accept it, lower belt, higher belt, ah I accept that they got there and I don't wait forthem to crank on my arm before I'll tap.

(08:37):
I'll say you got it, tap and let's start over and just keep training again.
Mostly it's making sure that I'm not being stupid and um just protecting myself because Iwant to keep training.
I don't want to get hurt and...
and miss days on the mat.
And the other side of it is I take a lot of Advil, honestly, every day I take Advil.

(08:58):
My body is a mess.
Not from Jiu-Jitsu only, just from a life of playing sports.
My first surgery was at 16.
And so I take Advil every day.
It was a knee surgery from soccer or football playing in middle school.
So I tore a meniscus early.

(09:18):
Okay.
I mean, the way they can repair those now is just very different than it was back then.
was butchered.
It was a mess.
I was not good.
It's hurt since 16 basically because of that.
They basically cut out almost the whole thing.
yeah.
Yeah, there's nothing.

(09:39):
All the surgeons when they see my knees now, they're just like, when are we going toreplace them?
So I've just been putting it off, honestly.
They need, they both of them need to be replaced.
um When you trained when you were in your earlier belts, were you also kind of, yeah, yougot it, you got it, or were you like, know, was your ego in the way a little bit as a

(10:02):
lower belt?
I don't know if I ever I mean, I think everybody has a little bit of ego, but um Becausewe all want to win we always want we all want to tap somebody and we don't want to admit
that we got caught so but I

(10:23):
I don't feel like I never, I ever, I didn't have to prove myself.
was, I'm already 43.
What am I?
I was training against, along the border here, I trained against border patrol guys.
have an army, Fort Bliss is here.
So I'm training with big, young, strong guys.
Yeah.
And so, uh, you know, yeah.
So, you know, the people that I'm around and so those are the people I'm training with.

(10:46):
So I've got to tap early.
My first injury was, uh,
was uh someone he had trained, like I said, it was an early gym, but this person, I don'tknow if he was trained somewhere else.
I didn't know I was in danger.
He had an Americana and he cranked on it, ripped my shoulder.
And from then on I was like, oh, I need to tap.

(11:07):
So I was ready from then on.
The only other time that I got surprised like that was someone from another gym came andbefore they were teaching us.
uh
ankle locks, wherever he came from, they had taught him.
so, opened my guard, he grabbed onto my foot and started cranking on it.
I was like, oh crap.

(11:31):
no, yeah.
Yeah.
Especially when you don't know, I didn't really even know what was happening yet.
So it was still early enough that it surprised me.
But no, I've never had a problem with tapping.
That's,
The only reason why I feel like I still can train as hard as I do now, so.

(11:52):
I also don't really, I don't have an ego about it.
Like whenever, somebody gets me in something, I'm actually okay.
I don't care if they're a white belt.
I don't care if they're a black belt.
Like usually I'm just there to have fun anyway.
And for me personally, I don't need to tap somebody to have a good time.
can, somebody could get something super sneaky on me and I can even see it coming a littlebit.

(12:13):
And then I'd be like, wow, I wonder where this is going.
And then I'll let them have it, see if I can work out.
And if I can't, I just tap it.
I'm like, that was so cool.
And then I'm like quite happy about the whole interaction.
Yeah, yeah.
I love telling people, was like, that was awesome.
And I go, I know, I know we're like a weird cult culture place, excited that someone justchoked me, but, um, but it's exciting.

(12:34):
And honestly, I've from, from when I started, when I got my blue belt, my coach asked meto, help with the kids class.
So I'm always tapping, like I'm letting a kid work an arm bar.
I'm letting a kid work a choke.
And so I'm always tapping and just, it's part of what I've always, well, since blue belt,at least I'll always.
part of my game is just letting people work and learn and tap.

(12:56):
Do you think that teaching kids change the way that you approach jujitsu itself or justthe way you teach or like any, did working with kids on the sport help you?
For sure, think they are like if like I also worked in local schools and growing up likeyou say, you can help someone else learn, you're proving that you know the technique first

(13:20):
of all, also it reinforces uh your ability and your knowledge of the particular techniqueand so it helps you out.
My coach, I still remember this when I was a boy, he said, I notice a difference in yourability.
after you've been working with the kids program for a couple of months.
I you start to focus like when you're an adult or anybody and you're just in class takingthe class learning, you're doing the technique and you're just copying.

(13:48):
But when you have to turn around and actually teach someone else that you start to thinkabout details, I know you're not putting your hand in the right spot.
Here, let me help you move your hand here.
Put your neck here or whatever.
And I think that really does help you solidify your game.
make sure you really do know the technique better.
So for sure.
kids mostly because I'm not like, I don't dislike kids, but it's just like not really athing.

(14:13):
I taught kids a little bit when I was teaching like MMA many years ago, but not really injujitsu.
But uh do you teach kids dramatically differently than adults?
Cause I know oftentimes adults it's, here's the move, go for it.
But with kids, do you focus more on concepts?
Do you focus more on outcomes?
Like, is there a different style that you use?

(14:35):
For me with the kids I try to break it down into fewer steps uh Not going for maybe themax.
I know people say some people say less but I try to ah Keep it to three or four Steps in arow and if it's more than that then I'll try to combine two together And make it one step

(14:58):
so that they can learn it so that uh
And we can talk about this later, but I have a lot of kids in my classes and so I have.
That's why I asked actually, uh usually kids classes are 10, 15 people and I know you'vegot a lot of kids.
We can talk about it now if you want to.
Yeah, so I've got, uh sometimes I'll have upwards almost 40 kids in a class.

(15:23):
And so when I first started, it was just me teaching.
I remember there was one day I had 36 kids and me, and that's from five to 11 year olds.
And so it was a little bit of chaos, um but for sure.
So I have to make it simple enough so that, you know, it gives me time to make it aroundthe room to help.

(15:45):
uh teach the kids, make sure if they have any questions that they're getting it correctly,putting their foot or their hand in the right spot on the hip or over the back or around
their neck or whatever.
uh for sure, uh definitely less.
that many kids in one room?
Because even when I have like 45 adults and I'm the only instructor, like 45, 50, that'schallenging, but it's doable.

(16:07):
I don't know how you do that with kids.
it's definitely, ah we work a lot on discipline, honestly, with my kids.
My kids are good.
When people come and they, they come to my, they visit, uh, they see my, they, they'relike, Oh, I'm shocked.
If you show up early, it's kind of like a play area.
So a lot of my kids, uh, show up early.

(16:30):
I'll have some kids with me eight hours a day.
They, I'll go pick them up.
They'll spend all day with me.
So the, mat room, if
when there's not classes going on is like a play area sometimes.
And so when you show up early, it kind of looks like chaos and these kids are out ofcontrol.
Once I tell them, hey, it's time to get your Gi on, line up, they'll sit.

(16:50):
We'll even practice like cross your legs, hands on your knees, close your eyes, work onyour breathing, teaching them how to have a little bit more self-control.
I had almost 60 kids in there in October, in March, I think.
silent, sitting around the room, quiet, hands on their knees, eyes closed.

(17:11):
And so it doesn't happen automatically.
You know, when there's a new kid that shows up, because he's just like off the walls andcan't sit still, everyone's standing, he's on the floor, everyone's sitting, he's standing
up.
uh It takes a few weeks, just like with anybody to learn the culture and learnexpectations.
uh But it's definitely awesome to see that part of martial arts is.

(17:35):
awesome for kids just to learn discipline, self-control, respect.
I remember when I was young doing taekwondo, like you had brought your kids, ah they hadus at the beginning of every class on your knees, cross your arms, cross your hands on
your thighs, place your hands on your thighs rather, like everybody deep breath.

(17:58):
And I remember that like doing that at the beginning of every class.
uh
What's interesting, you know, it's funny.
I thought about this a few months ago, right before I teach every class, I actually dothat.
I get down, I get on my knees, I sit on my heels, I put my hands on my thighs and I take adeep breath.
And I didn't realize what somebody was making fun of me for it.

(18:19):
Like one of the other students, they were like, coach, always do that right before class.
And then I was like, I don't, I do know why I do that.
And then I explained to them why, that it was like a thing from the Taekwondo when I was,
seven, eight, five, six years old and it stuck with me.
there's, still habits I have.
I, thing with Taekwondo.

(18:39):
My kids started, I joined with them.
And so I was doing the adult Taekwondo class, but at our particular gym there, you bowedwhen you entered the building, you bowed when you entered the mat and you bowed when you
got off the mat.
When you shook hands, Mike, uh, I don't know what we called him in Sensei probably inTaekwondo, when he shook hands, he would always shake hands.

(18:59):
He have one behind his back and he'd bow.
as he shook your hand and that is something and you say, sir, and those types of thingsstill stick with me today.
I shake hands uh and unconsciously I'm bowing like to there's a little grandma that bringsher granddaughter to class and when I shake her hand, I still like bow when I shake her

(19:20):
hand and say good morning just out of habit from I was saying I trained for three years, Ithink they're three years of bowing my head and saying, yes, sir.
Yes, ma'am.
It's just and honestly, that's part of
uh What drew me to this when I saw this in my kids like hey, this is awesome they'relearning self-respect, respect for their elders, respect for each other and that's and

(19:45):
like I said we can talk about it, but that's where my dream of actually providing martialarts to kids started was with the taekwondo.
I got injured like I said my knees I couldn't do the kicks and the jumps anymore after Igot hurt.
uh
But that's what I was thinking back then was, hey man, this stuff is good.
if everyone knows schools are expensive, like to train monthly fees can be costly forfamilies.

(20:11):
And there's lots of kids that can't afford to participate in martial arts uh because ofthe costs.
I was like, that's, I go, there's lots of kids that need this, that just can't afford it.
They need to learn the discipline in their respect.
And back then it was the kicks and the punches and all that.
That's great.
It's just the avenue for teaching all of the other characteristics that we want to see inthe kids.

(20:34):
Then later when I got to...
What's that?
Is that why you started Rio Bravo?
So Rio Bravo, I mean the dream started back when I did Taekwondo.
I got injured, I had to stop, my kids kept doing Taekwondo and life went on.
And then when I started Jiu Jiujitsu, that dream or that idea came back.

(20:55):
Hey, you know, this is, I forgot like how much, how powerful a martial art can be forpeople in general, but kids for sure.
And so that's how the, that's what
reignited the idea and what's eventually became Rio Bravo.
We'll come back to that in like one second, but when you say powerful, what do you thinkabout when you think martial arts is powerful?

(21:22):
Like, what's your definition of that?
uh I'm not talking about like strength or an amazing kick or punch.
think it...
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I think probably the most powerful, one of the most powerful things about a martial artistlearning self-control.
Knowing yourself, knowing when you feel like you're in a situation, maybe a tensesituation and you feel like this uh energy or anger or frustration building up.

(21:53):
and being able to control it, recognize it and control it.
I think that's powerful.
And especially for kids, especially for the things that we see going on today and kids nothaving the ability to control their emotions and what that ends up leading to.
One of my friends says, little kids, little problems, big kids, big problems.
When kids don't grow up and they stay kids forever, the little problems that were littlebefore become huge and life altering problems.

(22:22):
um And so a martial art, whether it's taekwondo or jiujitsu or anything, I think it'spowerful because it teaches kids how to have that self-control awareness.
They can identify when things aren't right and then learn to control it and have a betteroutcome.
I think that's what's powerful about it.

(22:44):
I think that's a really beautiful explanation.
I had a sensei when I was younger who, I get into him another time, but he used to havethis speech he would give at the end of class and I will shortcut it greatly, but it was
basically, uh everybody should know how to do five things in life, which is uh read,write, uh do math, defend themselves, uh swim and defend themselves.

(23:11):
And I think that is like a really good
basic set of things and I used to listen to that and think that's good, but it feels likeit's missing something and it took me years to figure out what and I think the last thing
is sort of the thing you just said.
Like when I thought about it, I came up with uh meditate or focus.

(23:32):
Like I never really had the right singular term for it, but self-control orself-discipline is just as good as like focus or meditate and I think that giving people
that thing
whether they get it as a kid or as an adult is like a wonderful gift to try to givesomebody is the ability to have that self-control or power as you called it.

(23:53):
Absolutely.
For sure.
For sure.
And you can see it.
Like I said, when I said those new kids will show up, they have no self-control andthey're off the walls.
And then you can look down as the kids in their ranks as you look down the line, we lineup.
I know schools do it differently.
We line up and then before we bow in, as you move down the line and I tell my kids, hey,go, you guys, you've been here training with me two or three or four years.

(24:21):
You guys need to be the example.
And so I can tell my little kids, look down there, see how they're sitting, see howthey're not screwing around or goofing off.
So I, you can definitely tell someone that's been there training for a number of years orsomeone that's just there a couple of days or a couple of weeks.
And so I think that's, it's powerful.
And I tell them, I tell my kids all the time, go, your teachers, your schools should knowthat you're a part of Rio Bravo based on your behavior, based on how you're acting in the

(24:49):
classroom.
Um, they are, at least they should notice a difference.
Maybe they don't know that.
that you're part of our program, but they should notice a difference in your behaviorversus the rest of the kids in the classroom.
That's a great motivator.
I remember the same thing when I was a kid.
They were like, your teachers in school should know you do martial arts by how well youbehave and how well you control yourself.

(25:10):
And I remember hearing that repetitively when I was younger.
So tell me about Rio Bravo.
Like what is it?
uh Why did you start it?
This kind of a thing.
Okay.
So like I said, um, but it started back.
The idea of providing martial arts started back when we were doing taekwondo and I saw theeffects of it with my, on my kids.

(25:30):
And I, and so at that time I actually talked to my sensei and asked him about it.
And you know, I was asking about downtown El Paso.
there anything down there for them?
And then I got hurt.
And so I had to stop jumping around and kicking bags and,
and let my kids continue.

(25:50):
I went on work, everything started jujitsu and the idea came back up.
And so I talked to my professor about it.
think I was probably a blue belt at that time.
Um, and he was like, you know what?
I think that's awesome.
He goes, but you need to at least wait until you're a purple belt.
People are not going to respect you as a professor or other people.

(26:12):
Like people, community where I'm working, they wouldn't know the difference.
But other people who train jiujitsu are going to go, what's a blue belt doing, being thelead professor.
And so I said, okay, that's, you know, that's good advice.
And so I just kept training and that the idea and the dream was still in my head.
it, but it took until I got to Brown Belt.

(26:35):
Um, it was, uh, the pandemic.
Uh, I just, had another knee injury.
Uh,
surgery that got infected and had a second surgery to fix the infection and was like Ithought I was done with jujitsu and um Couldn't bear weight for a couple of months, you

(26:58):
know Couldn't bathe myself couldn't change change my clothes.
It was a mess It was a really bad situation.
And so I was like kind of depressed.
Honestly, I thought I'm gonna I can't do jujitsu anymore.
I might lose this um And so and then I was like
And once I realized after physical therapy or as in the middle of physical therapy, once Irealized that I was going to be able to continue training at some point, I was like, you

(27:25):
know, I've got to do this.
so I go, so I quit my job.
Well, I talked to my wife first.
quit.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Can't do that without talking to your wife or shouldn't anyways.
Um, you know, the pandemic, my knee injury as 50.
something 51, I think at that time or no 49 at that time.

(27:50):
What the hell was I?
So it was around there.
Yeah.
And, um, I said, I need to do this.
And so talked to my wife, talked to my boss, started the steps of starting nonprofit RioBravo.
Um, and, and stepped away from my job.
And so Rio Bravo is a nonprofit.
Uh, I live along the border El Paso borders.

(28:11):
See, uh, what is, uh, Mexico.
And I wanted to provide, like we talked about, the cost is prohibitive to a lot of peopleto participate in martial arts.
And so I wanted to provide a place for jiujitsu for kids.
And so I talked to some of my friends across the border and talked to them about, what doyou think about me starting a jiujitsu program in Mexico?

(28:37):
And they were like, okay, let's do it.
And so.
I've made a list of things and I was like, okay, I need to do this, this, this, and this.
And whenever I hit a barrier and I can't go any further, then I guess we're not going todo it.
But every door continued to open, every permit, nonprofit status, everything fell intoplace.

(28:58):
And um it was March of 21.
I started walking the neighborhood.
I partner with two different churches down there.
And so I started walking the neighborhood around.
Uh, the first church where we started the program and just knocked on doors and introducedmyself, um, said, Hey, I'm going to start a jujitsu, uh, program and I want to invite your

(29:23):
kids.
And they're like, Kung Fu.
I'm like, no, not Kung Fu, jujitsu.
And so the second time I went to walk, I brought a tablet with me with some videos so thatI could explain and show them what jujitsu was.
Yeah.
And, um, and that's how we started.
And.
So how big was the program when you started it?

(29:43):
Like what was your first class size?
we had 29 kids.
That is an impressive starting point.
Yeah.
So, and, and, you know, so then we had to get, I started all in Gis and there's a reasonwhy I chose Gi originally.
Um, but yeah, I just started knocking on doors, inviting family members and, and, uh,

(30:06):
the reason?
Don't like, leave me hanging.
So, um, like in a lot of places, like if you go to schools, a lot of times they'll haveuniforms and sometimes it's because of the mixed population.
And so, uh, some people can't afford the good clothes or the nice clothes or the niceshoes or whatever.
And so I didn't want, uh, that to be an issue.

(30:27):
And so I wanted everybody to, who came, everyone got a Gi and they stepped on the mat.
Everyone looked the same.
Everyone got a belt.
Everyone had a Gi.
So when they stepped on the mat, they stepped on his equals.
Um, and so that was.
smart.
that was important to me.
uh And we have kids from all ranges.
And so I didn't want to have any of those issues happen.

(30:49):
So how did you feel walking around Juarez going from place to, you know, house to house?
Cause I've been to Juarez admittedly quite a few years ago and it was not the mostcomfortable feeling walking around there.
So I've spent, um since graduating from college, I've been along the border and a lot ofthat time I've been across the border.

(31:11):
And so as far as being there, it wasn't terrible.
Juarez had a few bad years as the most dangerous city in the world.
A lot of cartel activity.
um
unfortunately for me when I was there was one of those years where it was ranked up there.
so, um, because I've been along the border all this time and even in El Paso, uh, I'm justcomfortable being the minority.

(31:39):
And so, um, in, in Anapra where we actually are, so Juarez is a huge city, close to 2million people.
Anapra where we have our program is kind of like a suburb, uh, maybe 25,000 people there.
Um, and, uh,
It's a little bit separated from Juarez.

(31:59):
So, honestly, I was comfortable with any new adventure, a little nervous, knocking on thatfirst door, wondering.
At that point, I still didn't even know if it was gonna be successful.
It was just an idea, a dream I had, and I was like, okay, God, here we are.
I'm gonna start.

(32:19):
Let's see what happens.
And so I just knocked on doors.
The first door.
I knocked on the mom.
She was, her name's Fanny.
goes, oh, she had three kids.
That's great.
She's the one that said Kung Fu and I was like, not Kung Fu, Jiu Jiujitsu.
But she taught Zumba or liked Zumba.
And she was like, I could go tell my lady, my mom friends about it.

(32:42):
And I was like, no, no, no, no, no, let's just, let's not.
I kind of like being under the radar a little bit.
I didn't want everyone to know what we were doing.
And so I said, but if your three kids come, that's awesome.
And so then I just went door to door and the door and.
The first time I didn't, I just walked around that first block and that's all the kidsthat I invited.

(33:05):
so those kids, some of the kids from the church and families from the church participated.
And like I said, there was 29 that first day and it was awesome.
get your initial round of funding for this?
Like where did the donations come from or where did the money come from?
So I just, um, once I got through the nonprofits, like getting approved as a nonprofit andall that, then I sent out letters to just to family and friends.

(33:36):
And so honestly, um, that's still all our funding.
I don't have any grants.
I don't have any government help.
It's all just personal friends, contacts, some of my training partners.
and, and that's where, that's where it still all comes from.
We have monthly donors that
give every month.

(33:56):
my one of my board members, not my neighbor who's a judo guy, another guy who's he's aformer army ah was a judo black belt.
He's my secretary on my board.
uh He bought because he does long time judo guy he loves martial arts he bought our mats.
ah So it's just that's how it's been with my friends and contacts other church there's

(34:22):
think we have three churches that support us.
But mostly individuals.
That's where most of our funding comes from.
That's really great.
It's nice to know that things like that still happen, because most of the time you hearthe news and everything's horrible and this battle and whatever, but to know that you're

(34:44):
fully supported and functional with a good program from friends and family is like quiteheartening to hear.
Yeah, it's awesome.
Honestly, it's awesome.
It's awesome to have that much support.
The first, my professor's sister trains.
And when we started, she put a post, she's in a women's Facebook group or something, ajujitsu women group.

(35:10):
She mentioned it.
A gym from Georgia, I think, sent us 20 Gis
Like they told their kids program, hey, this group starting in Mexico, free jiujitsu forthe kids.
And you know, it's just like shoes, kids outgrow their Gis super fast.

(35:30):
And so they have all these Gis sitting around and this, got two huge boxes of Gis and thatwas our first, that's where all our Gis came from, that these kids were wearing.
And so, and I have not bought one ghee in four years for my kids.
uh Every child.
Every person, every kid has one guy at least and some of my more consistent kids have twoGis, two or three Gis that I let them that let them take care of.

(35:57):
so we took, we went to.
read about uh Rio Bravo on the website is that you focus on literacy.
um Where, I mean, no judgment, obviously that's a wonderful thing, but where does thatcome in as a function of martial arts?
Like.
so that's completely separate.

(36:17):
I think, I think just speaking broadly, I think Rio Bravo would be more than just Jiujitsusomeday.
When we started, like I said, we were in the middle of pandemic.
And so if you can think about how schools were for kids back then in Anapra, it wasterrible.
Like kids were on cell phones trying to watch a video or getting their homework texted tothem.

(36:37):
And so, um like I said, I worked in the schools previously and one of
My main role is working literacy and math for Spanish speaking kids.
And so that's when I was little, I couldn't read.
I was in tutoring in fourth grade.
I struggled a lot with reading.
So literacy has been something that's been important to me for a long time.

(36:59):
And so then I worked for eight years in a local elementary school where a lot of kids cameover.
Their uh main language was Spanish.
They're coming into El Paso.
They're having to learn English.
but we're still teaching them in Spanish.
And so I took time doing that.
So when I went across the border and started working, we started with the jujitsu.

(37:22):
And so when we started, we had like a little attendance cards in there in a little filefolder with ABCD all the way through.
And I could watch the kids and I go find your card, take out your card and set it in theother box.
And when they couldn't find their name,
because they didn't know their letters.
I was like, we need to work on literacy with some of these kids.

(37:45):
And so one of my boys was a second grader.
Um, he knew four vowels in second grade and we're in the middle of pandemic or towards theend of the pandemic.
And I was like, we need to fix this.
And so on off days of jujitsu training, I would go get him and we'd work on literacy.
So I just created a little program for literacy, like first learning your letters.

(38:09):
Then you learn your sight words and then slowly get to reading.
And so we took him, it wasn't a, uh, an intelligence.
was just a lack of quality teaching.
And so within a few months, we had all of his letters.
had about a hundred sight words done and then started reading.
And now, now he's great.

(38:30):
He's still part of our program.
No issues.
Uh, reads awesome.
And it's great.
so that happened with a number of kids.
Right now we don't do any literacy.
uh I think it's still, there are still some kids that need it.
I don't have any more bandwidth.
have, I'm across the border teaching jiujitsu five days a week.

(38:52):
Someday, I hope, it's a need.
Like you said, what your sensei said, you need to know how to read.
ah There's still kids that need that.
And so.
looks like for you in the Rio Bravo project, like five years down the road, 10 years downthe road, you want to have uh sections of it that are martial arts, but also sections that

(39:15):
are literacy, sections that are uh basic mathematics or operational stuff, like day-to-daystuff?
I think, yeah, I think it will.
I I love the jujitsu.
I love the martial art part of it.
And I get to train five days a week.
I get to teach jujitsu something I love and to see how it changes kids' lives that way.

(39:37):
And honestly, like I said, I pick up kids in the morning and they'll spend, they'll bethere all day with me.
So I am fully invested in their lives, 100%.
So I just don't have time to do any literacy.
If I did, if I had another 24 hours a day, I would definitely do it.
so, um but for sure, I would love for it to be a comprehensive program um that covered allof the important areas of kids' lives.

(40:07):
We do meals.
mean, part of our program is, and this is the amazing thing about the funding, like youasked about, not only do we do all the jujitsu and pay bills,
cleaning, you know, everything that goes into keeping a gym.
We provide meals after every single class for all of the kids and all of that is funded umfrom from donors outside.

(40:29):
And so and we hire we have I have six moms in the community that work for us.
Three that are cooks and then two that wash Gis and then one that helps oversee all ofthat.
um So we provide like I said, so some of our kids, you know, they don't have the need forthe food.
Some of them
They'll come to class and go, Profi, I'm hungry.

(40:50):
um And so I'll give them a snack, get them through class, and then they can go eat lunchafter class.
so um for sure, definitely would love it to be comprehensive, hit all of that key areas sothat the kids grow up have uh opportunities opened up for them.
uh Just because I'm curious, because I guess the way I worded the question was a littlebit like specific.

(41:14):
Do you also look at this as successes like having multiple locations or do you want it tojust stick to one location with more capabilities of like maybe literacy or math or
something?
So we have two gyms.
I work with two churches down there.

(41:34):
So I do classes on different days at the different locations.
And I could start up, like I told, I've told people before, I could open 10 gyms tomorrowand have them full if I had the ability to cover the classes.
So yes, for sure I want to have other, other areas where we're doing jiujitsu.
And then if, if like, I was sharing with my son, my son's a art major.

(41:58):
I was like, you and your, your
classmates need to come down and do an art camp for me, for these kids.
Cause some kids, just like in the States or just like anywhere, some people jujitsu, theyget in there one time, they sweat, they're like, this is not for me.
uh But they might be an artist.
And so we can provide another avenue to give kids confidence.
Hey, I can really excel at art or whatever the area might be.

(42:24):
uh So I would love to have more areas.
that provide uh the world is trying to get the kids.
And so if we can provide a powerful again, or a safe, powerful place for them to have anoutlet that's positive for them, I'm all for it for sure.

(42:48):
That sounds fantastic.
That's why I was curious because the way you were talking about it was hard for me todistill as this one location, is that your dream?
Do you just want one bigger location or do you really want to have this broken out andhave many of them and have more, not just volunteers, but people that you can support in
the community and really give them jobs and purpose.

(43:11):
so, and it's interesting.
When I started, I thought, man, there's gonna be more people that wanna be a part of thisand that come down.
I'm a person of faith, so I thought, oh, there's gotta be other Christians out there thattrain jiujitsu that just, they don't feel like they can do anything.
All they like to do is jiujitsu.
I'm like, hey, here's a place for you to serve.
um And um that just hasn't panned out that way.

(43:34):
And so I thought I would have other people come on that we would be, that would open thedoor for other areas to provide gyms and training for kids.
Because that didn't happen.
Um, I start, I changed my focus.
think that might still happen.
That's fine, but I've changed my focus.
so some of my older teens are training up as junior coaches.

(43:54):
And so I have a young woman who's a blue belt and another, he's an 18 year old who's ablue belt.
Um, they helped me every,
class with the little kids.
And so they come two hours early, we train with the little kids, they stay after and thenthey get their training in.
And so they're both going into university this in the next couple of weeks and havealready talked to them about, you have to, want you to finish school, but I want you to

(44:25):
keep training.
And when you're done, if you're open to it, we'll find funding to provide you this careerpath.
And we can open another gym and you can be, you can either stay here and be a coach withthe kids, or we can go find another partner and location and go open another gym for you
to lead there.
so, that's kind of where it's a little bit slower than I thought it would be, but that'sfine.

(44:49):
I mean, I'm not ready, honestly, to explode.
Um, our systems are getting better, but we're still working on, on things.
m these kids are these, and I want the right people.
That's the thing, you know, you.
I had like, there was one guy that wanted to volunteer.
He's, I love Jiujitsu.
I want to come down.
And so we went out to lunch and like, tell me about you.
He goes, well, I hate kids.

(45:10):
I'm like, you're probably not the guy to come.
I love that you love Jiujitsu, but you kind of have to like kids if you're going to spendyour day with them.
And so,
Were you glad that your coach told you to like, I'm only asking because you just weretelling me you have blue belts teaching for you.
Are you glad that you waited like far beyond blue belt to even though it wascircumstantial?

(45:31):
And would you give the same advice to blue belts to wait?
I think so.
I think it's wise.
think one of the things that we like, we've had very, like we've had a bloody nose orminor, like, you know, they didn't tap and they hurt their elbow getting an arm bar.
But in four and a half years, we've had basically zero injuries.

(45:55):
And so I think time on the mat helps me see things that a blue belt might not see beforeit happens.
And so as far as keeping my kids safe, I can say, Hey, watch, you know,
you're going to hurt your neck if you don't like as they start to stack and pass the kidand they're cranking on their neck.
so um I think that's, I think for, while I don't think that's why he told me that he wasthinking more of outside people looking in and saying, who are you to be teaching for me?

(46:22):
That's been probably the most important result of that is being able to take, make sure mykids are safe when they're training.
And so my blue belts, they love our kids.
uh
but I don't know that they're looking for those types of things yet.
I will say time on the mat is very important.
Like I've caught a lot of near injuries just like looking around the room at a full roomand being like, that's not good.

(46:49):
And then running over and people just like, why'd you stop us?
It's like, well, here's this thing.
They're like, yeah, we didn't know about that.
I'm like, I know you didn't know about that.
That's why we're here as coaches sometimes.
Yeah.
Tapping across the room for that person before they get hurt.
Yeah, for sure.
Yeah, the most common one I feel like I see is somebody just trying to bowl someone overwhen they're on their knees and you're like, that's gonna blow your knees out.

(47:13):
Like nobody do that.
And then I have to, you know, bring everyone back in and show them how to fold their footunder and roll over their feet just to be safe.
And it's like the number of times I've taught that or how to not blow someone's knee outduring the lockdown, just cause I see it all over.
uh I'm getting stressed out just thinking about it right now.

(47:34):
I'm starting to sweat a little bit.
When did you start Jiujitsu?
Sorry.
started a couple of different times.
I officially started jiujitsu probably about 15 years ago.
But I was an all-American wrestler back in university and I also...

(47:59):
had a bunch of other teammates that did jiu jitsu.
And so they would like come show me a move like during wrestling.
And so I was getting like side, you know, side lessons a little bit, but it was, you know,very, very basic because it was like the late nineties, early two thousands.
And then I like kind of started again when I was a personal trainer, but with, one of myfriends who we, but it was like a couple of months.

(48:22):
And then I stopped.
I really only started like for real about 15 years ago, not even maybe 14 years ago now.
Okay, awesome.
uh I think I wasn't ready for enjoying the slow systematic nature of jujitsu back then.
was still like wrestling, you know, like just the, just a different feel, I think.

(48:46):
I love it.
And I love being able to help when new people come in.
I know some people don't like, they're like, I'm here to roll.
I'm here to train.
I don't want to help.
I love helping new people get on the mat and feel comfortable and learn their firstAmericana or how to pass the guard or, know, just, and just their eyes open up to like
what they can do that they never thought that they could do.

(49:09):
It's
That's literally my favorite thing about teaching.
Like I've gotten to the point with my jiujitsu where like I know that I'm not going to bethe best grappler.
I'm not bad, but it's, know, like there are other brown belts and purple belts, frankly,that are better than I am.
And I'm okay with that, but I really love teaching and imparting knowledge and watchingpeople.

(49:32):
I teach in the mornings, like I teach the 8 a.m.
crew most of the time that these are, you know, parents, people who have to go to workright afterwards and.
So I get to see people who this is the time in their day that they're focused onthemselves before they go focus on the rest of the world.
And so for them to walk in and have a little bit more self-confidence when they leave, tobe excited that they did something with their bodies that they didn't know their bodies

(49:57):
could do, to be like, my God, that thing you showed me, coach, it worked, and I was ableto submit this person.
And then they walk out with their head high and have a good day.
That's for me why I teach now.
And I wouldn't have been like that 10 years ago.
15 years ago.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Awesome.
That's so cool.
I want to talk about, off camera we talked about, have such a crazy resume of things thatyou've done in your life.

(50:24):
And I want to talk about a whole bunch of them, how did you get into doing clean waterwork in Fiji?
What brought you out there?
Yeah.
there's a little bit of a journey to get there.
there's one particular relationship that kind of got me there.
when I was in college, I worked across the border in Tijuana.

(50:46):
And that was with a ministry that built houses for families that were in bad situations,lived in pallet and cardboard houses.
And so I, as a college student for two summers, I went down and spent my summers, ledgroups to build homes.
On one of those trips, I met a guy named Darrell, who was a youth pastor in Phoenix,Arizona.

(51:08):
And we just made it, built a friendship out of that.
Saw him on and off over the years.
And then a number of years later, he was, like I said, he was a youth pastor in Phoenix,but then he ended up working with the organization, Building Homes, and he led that
organization.

(51:28):
So we ended up being coworkers for a couple of years.
And then I left that organization and did a couple of other things.
And I started working with a church.
And one of the things that I was responsible for was community involvement.
And one of the target areas that we wanted to be involved with was clean water.
And so we were gonna go um dig a well somewhere.

(51:52):
I can't remember what was now.
But something happened in that particular country where we were gonna go, they shut downtravel to that country and so our trip got canceled.
Well, Darryl in the meantime over those years had started a nonprofit called Give CleanWater and was working in Fiji.
And so our trip got canceled.

(52:12):
I'm like, hey, Darryl, is there any chance we can partner with you?
And so a small team of five of us jumped on a plane, went to Fiji.
and spent a week down there providing, installing clean water filters for families allover Fiji.
That's honestly how it started.
um So started that, that was one week trip.

(52:38):
Then I had some other contacts in South America and I said, hey, called one of them.
go, what's the water situation?
He was in Ecuador.
What's the water situation in Ecuador?
And he's like, it's terrible.
I said, can we come down and test some water?
So I grabbed another friend.
flew to Ecuador.
spent a week down there, took 10 of these filters down and went around to all thesedifferent communities and tested water and took the results home.

(53:05):
Found out that, you know, all the water is bad.
He was right.
Uh, while we were there, we demonstrated, had the 10 of the filters we demonstrated ineach location.
Said, Hey, what do you guys think?
Is this something that you would use if we came back?
And he said, yeah.
Um, so for the next six years, we would take a trip down and spend a week in thecommunity, wherever these in a different, again, it was partnering with churches and we

(53:30):
would walk the streets and just knock on every single door in the community and provide afilter for the family, install it, teach them how to use it, teach them how to clean it,
and then go on to the next house.
Um, so that was just one week a year.
Um,
And then it was like 90, no, not 95, aging myself, 2014.

(53:57):
I called Darrell back.
was kind of looking for something new to do.
And I said, Hey, if anything happens to come up, I would love to be able to work with youguys.
And they had happened to just get a grant for a huge quantity of filters.
And they said, you know, we really need someone to help manage the distribution of thesefilters.
And so that's when I started working with GiveCleanWater and working in Fiji.

(54:19):
And so I spent five years working with GiveCleanWater in Fiji, uh installing thousands offilters all over the island of Fiji doing clean water.
How does like clean water, this is a stupid question, but I'm gonna ask anyway.
How does clean water or water scarcity be a problem on an island like Fiji?

(54:46):
So, I mean, salt water is the big issue around the island, obviously.
I mean, there are things that exist now to make that water potable.
m But um in Fiji, there's just lots of dirty water.
The rivers, bacteria, bacteria is the biggest issue for most of the water down there.

(55:09):
so even sometimes the wells are contaminated.
drill and get to clean water, then it gets, you know, there's cattle or whatever.
And then the water source ends up being contaminated.
So the filters that we use are called Sawyer filters and you can get them online.
The army uses them also camping.

(55:29):
Everybody uses them now.
Um, they get down to 0.1 microns of, uh, they w I think, I think, don't quote me.
I'm not a doctor or scientist, but I think,
E.
coli is the smallest bacteria that affects us as humans and these filter out even beyondthat.
And so you can walk up, install one of these filters and a family can be drinking purifiedwater within five minutes.

(55:57):
Can you just give like a general walkthrough of how the filter roughly works?
I get that you're not a scientist, but just like, you keep saying installing, so I'mwondering what goes into installing.
So, uh, the filter is the size of, let me see.
So I've got a coffee cup.
Okay.
So it, the filter, actual filter is a little bit smaller than this.

(56:18):
It's round.
And the way we did it there in Fiji is you'll have two buckets.
You'll have a dirty water bucket, a tube coming out of that bucket connecting to thefilter, and then a clean water bucket on the other side.
So you can go any water source down there, river, contaminated well.
You can take a mud puddle, put it in the dirty water bucket and feed it through the filterinside the filter.

(56:45):
From what I understand, the technology comes from dialysis and it's little, like micro orsmall, but like hair, like follicles that are porous.
So the water goes in.
The pores are 0.1 microns in size.
so only clean water can, it keeps all of the bacteria inside the filter and clean watercomes out on the other side.

(57:11):
So you can go to the dirtiest Brown.
So, know, along here, Rio Bravo is so Rio Grande is the river between us and Mexico inSpanish is Rio Bravo de Norte.
And so my daughter did an experiment with her school.
We went down and took the water out of the Rio Grande, which is nasty.
brown, horrible water.
it looks, and so we'll even, when we're doing demonstrations, we'll throw dirt in thewater to make it even worse.

(57:38):
It'll go through the filter and it'll come out crystal clear and you can drink it rightthere and not worry about any kind of infection or bacteria or anything.
fresh water.
doesn't like desalinate or anything.
It does not desalinate.
So yeah, that's another whole nother level of technology, but most of the world has accessto some sort of water, just not clean water.

(58:00):
And so we did, we did when we did the installations, we did at the time of installation,we did, uh we had uh a group of questions that we would ask about health, age, missed
school, missed work, uh diarrhea, cough, all sorts of questions.
Two weeks later, we would revisit, uh make sure that they're cleaning it correctly.

(58:25):
If they clean it, it will last years and years.
I don't know what they guarantee on it now, but a number of years.
uh Do the same questions and then again, three weeks later, do another set of questionsand alleviate almost within, week, installation to week two, health issues gone, immediate

(58:46):
change, uh safe.
So now they're not having to pay for water.
They're not missing school.
They're not missing work.
So everything is affected by clean water.
So it's amazing.
That's gotta feel really good for you, having done that for years.
Yeah.
So, and we, and we have maps like we saw every house, every, where every single filter hadbeen installed.

(59:08):
We have all the data on it.
Um, I mean, this, this particular filter, they're using it for nonprofits are using itaround the world now.
Changing, think Liberia, there's a, there's a few countries now that have completelyevery, every family has had, has a clean water filter.
And so alleviating, imagine the impact of one family or now you have a whole communitythat has no more illness because of waterborne disease.

(59:36):
Amazing.
Changed lives.
Yeah.
So pretty crazy.
all that was because you were building houses with a guy?
Yeah, yeah, that's all that's how that started.
And so yeah, and they're still working.
There's lots of little island countries down there in Fiji.
And so they're still out there working.
But that's kind of how my life, you know, as a college student, I was a mess as a collegestudent, came, went down.

(01:00:01):
What's that?
What does I was a mess as a college student mean?
I mean, I've party scene living my life for me kind of a thing.
so I got on a plane, went to Mexico and changed the direction of my life and uh have justbeen working and serving in different things.
And every piece of this has led to what I'm doing now.

(01:00:24):
And so in Mexico.
change to...
Because usually when people are partying, there's like a moment where they're like, youknow, this is not something I can continue.
Did you have that moment?
uh I remember I've told my personal kids and I've told my team kids across the border thisum kind of hoping to encourage them not to as they're entering that phase of life.

(01:00:50):
Like I was a pretty good kid, pretty decent.
I was a teenager, we screwed around a lot and everything, pretty decent kid until I wentoff to college and just messed around and partied a lot.
I remember one day sitting
there was a party going on behind me inside the house and I was sitting on the curb outfront just going, this is not working.

(01:01:13):
And so, mean, I know this isn't about faith or anything, but at that point I was like,okay, God, I'm choosing.
There's a poem, Two Roads, what's it called?
Road Not Taken by Robert Frost, Two Roads Diversion in Yellowwood.
so, the...
And then there's a verse in the Bible, Matthew 6:33, says, seek first the kingdom of God.

(01:01:38):
And so I was sitting on the, on the, the curb, probably not sober and just like, this isnot working for me.
And, and so I said, okay, I'm giving it all to you.
I don't know what this means at this point, but I'm done with that life and I'm choosingthis life.
And then that's, that's when I decided to go to Mexico.

(01:02:00):
That's when I just.
changed everything in my life.
I wouldn't be here today.
religious at this point and then just decided you were going to give your life to God oryou were religious and you had kind of strayed and you're like, you know what, need, okay,
well, I mean, yeah, but you haven't strayed if you weren't there to begin with sort of athing.

(01:02:23):
Yeah.
So no, I grew up, um, my mom took us, my, myself and my brothers to church from, wasadopted six days old and from at eight days I was in church and grew up.
I knew how I should be living.
Um, yeah, but, and, and did pretty good for most of my life.

(01:02:43):
Uh, got to college, spread my wings and chose it, tried a different life for a while.
And.
wasn't having much success in that.
was, like I said, was a mess.
um And got to that point, got to the point where I was like, hey, like I said, this is notworking and made a change.

(01:03:03):
a little bit more of that, because I'm curious.
You got on the plane, headed to Mexico, and you were to do what at that point?
At that point, I just wanted to go and help people.
I had a beer on the way down on the plane, um got there.

(01:03:27):
There's one picture of when I got to Mexico, so it was a summer internship program andthere was five people.
When I arrived, there was five of us as summer college age interns.
And the first...
couple of weeks is all training and like how to, how to first as a group and then how tolead teams to build homes.
So the first week was getting to know each other, how to do conflict resolution and worktogether as a team.

(01:03:51):
Second week was how to build a house at the end of the second week.
They took a picture of us in front of the house that we built together.
There was those four.
then there was me, sorry, I'm looking at my fingers.
There was those four.
And then there was me uh looking.
I didn't see this picture until the end of the summer, but even at that point, I didn'treally want to be a part of that.

(01:04:13):
I wanted to be a part of helping people.
so, but over the course of that uh summer, it opened my eyes a little bit to, um not alittle bit, a lot, to that there's more to faith and Jesus and a life of following Him
than just sitting in a pew on Sunday mornings.

(01:04:35):
um
And I didn't, I don't know that I fully understood that before spending a summerdedicating all of my energy to giving to other people.
And so that's, that's the, where the impact and that's, that's where my life was off.
on this side, was partying, drinking everything that went on with that.

(01:04:58):
And then the dramatic shift into focusing on others and serving others.
And that's where my.
That's where my life has been since, for 30 plus years, always looking for a way to serveother people.
And that's where Rio Bravo came from, honestly.
giving, I give, like I said, I quit my job, I raise funds, I spend my full, my whole lifeis dedicated to serving the kids across the border.

(01:05:26):
I think that's wonderful.
I mean, I'm not personally religious, although I have been to church and temple many,many, many times over the years.
was sent to military school and I was in church twice a week as a Jew.
And then I went and I was bar mitzvahed as a kid.
Religion never resonated with me, but service, I've always taken a slightly differentapproach to it, but I love the idea of service.

(01:05:51):
And I do that through coaching.
I do that through teaching.
um It's interesting to hear that you kind of went one way and were like, nope, nope, thisisn't for me.
And then you went back and were like, this is what I need to be doing with myself.
And like, it felt right.
What's interesting to me though, is that it felt, you're saying something that is quitedifficult to do on the whole, is what part of what felt right.

(01:06:21):
just magically going and learning to build houses.
And then being like, yeah, this is the kind of...
That's like going two, three steps up of difficulty.
uh How did you feel doing something so difficult to figure out that this is something youlike to do?
As far as building houses, guess growing up in a different area, my dad, we were outside,we were always messing around or building or building forts or working.

(01:06:55):
Like my dad, if his car broke down, I still remember this, we had a little Toyota Corollastation wagon.
Instead of taking it to the mechanic, he crawled underneath there and figured out how tochange his clutch.
And so we were a part of that.
And so he would say, like, I wasn't under there changing the clutch, but I would behanding in the tools.

(01:07:15):
I was involved.
He was working on his motorcycle.
We'd be involved.
He had a big shop.
had a wood lathe.
Back in, okay.
So when I was in middle school, I don't know that this exists anymore.
We had wood shop and metal shop and.
school, that's where I learned woodworking, was a little bit at home and then a wholebunch at school.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And so I think part of it was, uh, while he didn't teach me how to build a house, hetaught me not to be afraid to get my hands dirty and learn something new.

(01:07:47):
And so I couldn't have done it on my own.
I, there was obviously an organization there that taught us how to go through all of thesteps.
once I learned that, I mean, there's a, there's a building manual.
We followed it step by step.
The houses weren't like U S.
level houses, but so they were basic enough for teams to come down and spend a weekworking.

(01:08:09):
And so we would go through the manual.
But again, at that point, my role changed more from building the house to leading theteam.
So part of it is just like now I'm like coaching, like when I coach, I don't get to trainas much, but I'm there teaching the kids how to do the technique.

(01:08:31):
And then when I was there in Mexico building houses, I was teaching a kid how to saw, likehe never touched a saw before how to hammer, which side of the hammer to hit the nail
with, you know, so, um, it was all about coaching back then too.
That sounds like you found your calling a little bit there.
Is that when you went into the ministry or was that like you went from just to follow thepath a little bit, you went from that to ministry to clean water?

(01:09:01):
So um when I went to college initially, I wanted to do biology outdoors.
So I grew up fishing, uh camping with my dad and my family, with my high school friends.
And so when I got to college, was like, this is what I want to do, wildlife biology.
But I was terrible at science.
I couldn't pass the classes.
I tried twice.

(01:09:21):
I was like, OK, maybe this isn't for me.
I like to be out there, but I don't know how these things are working.
um So I went to Mexico.
loved my time in Mexico, came back to college, switched my major, switched it toelementary education, loved working with kids in Mexico, came back, switched it to
elementary education with a minor in Hispanic studies.

(01:09:43):
And so the idea at that point was I was going to come back and teach.
But after my second summer, I talked to my supervisor down there.
I was like, you know what, I love this.
I've really enjoyed my summers and I'd like to come back and be a part of this full timeafter I graduate." And he was like, so we had like little quick five minute interview.

(01:10:09):
oh What are your strengths?
What are your weaknesses?
La la.
was like, I guess I'm serious.
It was less than five minutes.
He was like, okay, let us know when you can come down.
And so I went back to school, met with my guidance counselor, said, how fast can Igraduate?
And she said, well, what'd do this summer?
And I said, I spent the summer in Mexico.
She goes, write me a paper.

(01:10:31):
I went home, wrote a paper about my experience.
She goes, here's three credits, came up with some class, gave me three credits for thatclass.
I don't know.
I finished three months early, graduated, and basically got on, packed my car and drove toSan Diego and started working across the border.
So, and that's kind of where my fundraising started.
And so some of my support has been from relationships that I've had.

(01:10:54):
from 30 years ago, in the same way that I to raise support now for Rio Bravo, I had toraise my salary back then to work across the border.
They are a nonprofit, they are a ministry.
All of their funding came from individuals.
They didn't have money to pay me to live, so I had to raise all my money.

(01:11:14):
And so that's where ministry, like I said, I had no desire to stand in church and preach.
uh
stand in front of people and do any of that.
But the idea of blessing and serving your neighbor, that resonated with me.
And so I would have never chosen ministry if I knew that I had to go and preach.

(01:11:34):
But to be able to do it in this way, I was like, yeah, I'm in on this.
And so that's where it started.
between like ministry and I guess for lack of a better way of phrasing it like a chaplain,right?
Like is it somewhat similar in that it's you're not really standing up there preaching butyou're out there supporting or is that not the right approximation?

(01:12:00):
Like a chaplain in the military, you mean?
Yeah, that's what I was thinking of as you were sort of saying, describing.
I think the role, it probably depends on where you are.
Like in a hospital, there's chaplains and they're doing a lot of grief counseling.
So they're there at people's worst times.
So they're there more for counsel.
I think in the military, there are chaplains that do preach.

(01:12:23):
They have a role at the chapel on post.
But I think again, ah like, I think military families are like,
all families, then also have some unique challenges as well with families being separatedwhile people are off serving.
And so I think they do counseling in that way as well.

(01:12:43):
Chaplains do chaplains could you could be called a pastor or a preacher or a minister,think, and serve in some similar roles.
But I think chaplains sometimes get put into a specific situation where they serve.
Sometimes it's just a title, sometimes I think it's the role that they're particularlyserving.

(01:13:04):
But for you, the distinction is getting to focus exclusively on serving, giving back, andI guess for lack of a better way, saying it's supporting.
I don't know that I would call myself a pastor.
do pastor like I shepherd, I guide, I work with people and some people call me pastor.

(01:13:26):
Like there's one old, like that little grandma, she'll call me pastor.
I'm like, very few people call me pastor.
All the kids call me Profi, like teacher.
um
I live my life as a missionary, meaning I go across the border to serve in another cultureand I live off the support of other people.
um And um maybe a minister is a better word.

(01:13:51):
about ministry work?
Is that, uh you know, people think it's mostly about faith and you look at it as faithbeing a support structure, but really it's about serving?
I ministry definitely, you go and you serve and you go and minister to people.
um

(01:14:11):
trying to wrap my head around the distinction about how you define it and how maybe othersmight get it wrong.
That's a good question.
definitely, my work for me is definitely a ministry.
I'm at the same time I'm going to serve these kids.
My life, and I think that's the life of, that's the role of nonprofits is to serve acommunity.

(01:14:35):
That particular community has this need.
That's what they go, that's mission is to go and serve.
Mine is, I own a nonprofit ministry.
And so.
My role is to go and serve this community.
Right now I'm doing it in um using jujitsu as a way to serve these kids.

(01:14:56):
At a particular time it was literacy, maybe it will be again someday.
um But.
I don't know if I'm answering your question.
uh
places.
It was just curiosity, right?
It's just like, you know, sometimes definitions are difficult for people to, you know, getpast.
And so just knowing how you see it might change someone's view if they like the way youtalk about things and think about things.

(01:15:23):
And they might be like, Steve's approach is quite a bit less preachy.
I could get behind this.
You know, so just knowing how you think about it.
yeah, I think a lot of times, and I've talked to my kids about this too, like a lot ofpeople have issues with church or faith in general.
um Sometimes it's, sometimes it's misguided, sometimes it's not, right?

(01:15:49):
but I, and so sometimes the way I word it is I'm a follower of Jesus.
And so Jesus, when he was here,
And you read through the stories in the Bible of Jesus's interactions with people.
He loved them.
He cured them.
He took time for them and he served them.
And so as a, as a follower of his, I want to do what he did.

(01:16:13):
And so when I'm with the kids or even with their families, so, so like I said, I'm fullyinvolved in these kids' lives.
I've gone to, I've been next to their moms when they died of cancer.
I've prayed with them when they're struggling.
I've been to funerals of suicides of parents of my kids.

(01:16:33):
So I'm, I'm trying, and if you read scripture, if you read the Bible, that's where Jesuswas too.
He was his, he was there when a brother died.
He was there when people were hungry.
uh He was there serving them and loving on them.
And I think that's when people, if they can look at the way he lived, it's a little easierto go,

(01:16:58):
That makes more sense than whatever such and such person did or what I saw on the news.
It would be like if I held...
I would be upset if someone looked at me and said, well, that Jiujitsu guy did that acrossthe world.
I can't be a Jiujitsu guy.
I can't believe you're a Jiujitsu guy because of what so-and-so did.

(01:17:18):
I don't think that would be fair.
So I try to live my life as, you know, this is what Jesus did.
I follow Jesus.
I know there are people that have done horrible things in the name of church or Bible orJesus.
I'm reading scripture looking at what how he lived and trying to live that way.
And if you look at my life, I hope I hope some people looked at my life, they go, oh, thatmakes more sense or that makes sense.

(01:17:45):
Maybe not more sense, but that makes sense.
He's living the way he says he follows Jesus and he's living trying to live like Jesus.
That's what I would hope people saw of my work.
I mean, everything we've talked about so far really points to, know, minus a little bit ofpartying here and there, which I think is great life experience.
Everything points to living a life of service.

(01:18:07):
How much of this...
some of my supporters from those days are from those days.
they have seen the change over the years.
eh
that's great, because not everybody lives that life their whole life.
And so once they turn it around or make a change, if they do, they, you know, thoselifelong relationships can turn into valuable support structures.

(01:18:32):
I'm just curious how much of the religious stuff makes it into the...
Rio Bravo side of things.
Like is there a religious or faith-based component to it or that's just if it's relevantfor the particular individual or individuals?
It is something, it's not like the kids have no obligation.

(01:18:53):
They can come and solely train.
uh One of the things that one of the kids do as part of, know, like in Jiu Jiujitsu, asyou rank up, you get your stripes.
So our kids will also memorize scripture.
One of the scriptures they memorize is that one that I said earlier about Matthew 6:33, uhseek first the kingdom.
And so one of the things, there's a Psalm, it's called one 18, it's Psalm 118:24, it says,

(01:19:19):
See I can do it in English.
uh This is the day the Lord has made.
We will rejoice and be glad in it.
And so I tell the kids, I go, we're here and we're training.
um If we're not having a good time, like this is supposed to be a good day.
It's supposed to be a joyful day.
We're supposed to celebrate.
If you're here and we're, and your Profi, your coach is grumpy and upset and crankybecause he didn't sleep enough.

(01:19:45):
I go, you can call me out.
We're supposed to be having a good day today.
This is the day that God's given us.
We should enjoy it and have a good day.
And so it does.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We go through all of the, we go through respect, we go through gratitude, we go throughdiscipline.
do, we do have lessons after usually one class a week.
We'll do a five minute as they're lined up or we'll sit on the mats and we'll talk aboutthose things.

(01:20:10):
so, but kids do memorize scripture, uh, as a part of the program.
And so, uh,
So yeah, it definitely plays a role.
like I said earlier, I'm not religious, but if people are operating with good intentionand in a healthy way, I don't have any issue with it.
And especially, I think it's great that you're teaching kids gratitude.

(01:20:33):
I don't bring gratitude in that way to uh class, but I always, after I'm teaching, at theend of class right before, because I bow and shake everyone's hand as well, like.
To me, that's part of the respect.
I always thank them for their time and attention because to me, I'm very grateful thatthey give that to me because like that's the finite things that we have.

(01:20:55):
We have finite amounts of time.
We have finite amounts of attention.
And I'm always very appreciative of everyone who's willing to give it to me.
So if I have 50 people in my class, I say, thank you for your time and attention.
Then I go and shake every one of their hands and bow and I appreciate it.
So showing gratitude, I think is a wonderful lesson to give people.
eh Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Absolutely.
need it.
And I tell them we've talked about that maybe last week.

(01:21:18):
We talked about, you know, being grateful.
go, not all of us have the biggest, like I said, we work in Anapra.
go, you might not live in the biggest house in Anapra, but if you have a house, you needto be grateful.
And your parents, we talked about being grateful.
I think we were talking about blessing.
was like, your parents work every day.
Why do they go to work?
So you can be here with me.

(01:21:38):
They're out working so you can be here.
You go home and you have a bed or you have a roof over your head, you need to be gratefulfor that because they've blessed you by the work that they've done.
um so, I think it's, sometimes we get caught up in our own stuff so much that we don'tlook around and realize what we should be grateful for.

(01:22:01):
Yeah, you travel across the border, you've been to Fiji, you've traveled and visited otherplaces.
How has that changed your view of the world?
It's very difficult to have a consistent view of the world when you've seen that manythings and seen that difficulty of life.

(01:22:26):
Yeah, so I've most of my time has been obviously most of my times in Mexico But my travelsother than Fiji have all been South America and Guatemala.
So Central America and South America um And all of those have just come through a contactum My first like I said in Ecuador my friend Marcelo I met him he's Chilean so

(01:22:54):
been to Chile to visit him when he went back home.
He was in Ecuador in February and he has cancer.
He's on his third round of cancer.
And so I was like, uh, I need to make it to Ecuador to go see him.
Uh, I didn't know, I don't know if it's going to go away for good or what, but, he gotpermission from his doctor to leave Chile, uh, and he was in Ecuador for a retreat.

(01:23:18):
And so I went down there while I was there.
I met
another guy from Colombia and he has a church in Colombia and a team from Brazil hadrecently been there and while they were there they put on a little jujitsu clinic and a
group small group of kids started training jujitsu at their church he knows nothing aboutit but there's a 21 year old 22 year old who kind of took the lead has he was a white belt

(01:23:47):
he watches YouTube videos and this pastor was like hey can you he was
Marcelo Giovanni told me that you trained jiujitsu.
Could you would you consider coming down?
And so I took some of my kids down.
We were down there last month For a week and did some training with the kids and coachinguh And so it's just that's how I mean all of these things I meet this person They they

(01:24:11):
invite me to go here.
They invite me to go here and invite me to go here.
So I've been to all these different countries uh My perspective on the world based on mytravels, I think
I think that I, what I've seen is there, there are some similarities all around the world.
We all struggle with the same, same things.

(01:24:33):
We all have uh things that we need that we don't have access to, at least in the, in theparts of the, here's the thing when I travel.
So like when I built, house building, I went to Cancun for 10 days to build houses in theoutskirts of Cancun.
Most people in Cancun, they stay at the hotels and they're on the beach.
I spent 10 days in Cancun.

(01:24:54):
I never saw the beach.
They go, the taxi's out front, time to go to the airport.
was like, I should probably go see the beach.
I walked out into the sand and walked back out and got in the taxi and went home.
That's my experience around the world.
I never, very rarely ever spend time in the resort areas.
When I was in Fiji, I wasn't in the resorts.
I was in the mountains with the families.

(01:25:17):
so...
uh
ask though, because these places that you talk about, you're seeing in many ways the, Ihesitate to phrase it like this, but you're seeing some of the horrors of the world and
that must give you a perspective or a view on the world that's slightly different thansomebody who goes to Cancun, goes to Fiji, goes to, know.

(01:25:40):
So I was just sort of curious like how that changed your view of life.
I mean, I think it probably gives me more hope in the world.
Obviously, like you said, there are some situations that are difficult for that I've seen.
However, the people are amazing and loving and accepting.

(01:26:03):
you walk into almost any home in the world, you walk into a home.
They're probably better at hospitality than we are, at least in the States.
uh You walk in and they're ready to serve you whatever it is.
whether it's a tea or coffee and some cookies.
They wanna sit down, they wanna spend time with you, hear your story, talk to you.

(01:26:25):
uh And you can be, I was in Fiji and this lady had two cinder blocks, firewood and washeating water for coffee.
And then half of the wall was gone, like her home was open to nature.
But she was there ready for us to have coffee with her despite her situation.

(01:26:49):
And I think that's probably the most important thing that these people are people they'rein.
have value regardless of their economic status.
And so everybody has hopes.
They have dreams for their kids, their families, um just like, just like we do.
And, um and so if you can humble yourself enough to sit down and

(01:27:11):
See the person and not the situation that they're in I think you'll have an amazingexperience and an amazing conversation and and a friend and You can connect on that same
level and say, know, I'm just as flawed as anybody else in this world I'm not better thanthis person just because I have a finished house They still have a husband a wife a mom

(01:27:35):
and dad and kids and they want to provide a meal for them and
Man, we can connect on those things.
oh And that's what I think, that's probably what we need to do most, more of.
All the Cancun, all the beach, all the drinks, all the drinking, all that, that's all.
was really beautifully articulated, Steve, just talking about how to connect with people.

(01:28:00):
The next thing I was gonna ask was if you had any piece of advice that you wish everyoneknew, but man, you just delivered something really beautiful about how we're all human.
Yeah, it's true.
I'm fully aware, like I've shared a little bit of my story, there's a lot more, but if I'maware of my flaws, then I can sit down with anybody, and I think that's important.

(01:28:31):
m What are you excited for in the future?
Um, so I've got, uh, I have two kids.
have my son and my son's graduating, um, from college this year, next year, very soongoing to grad school.
my daughter has two kids just had her second grandson, two weeks old grandchild, second,he's two, two weeks old now.

(01:28:56):
Uh, my granddaughter love.
Yeah, thank you.
Love them both.
I love, uh, being able to see them and, and play with them.
And so, um,
looking forward to watching them grow up.
I do love Rio Bravo.
I love what I do.
I feel like at 54, I finally found a place that I don't look forward to retiring from.

(01:29:19):
I know I won't be able to train forever, but I look forward to seeing my current studentsgrow up and hopefully be part of our team and not just receive coaching, but turn around
and be coaches.
That's one of the things I love about Jiu Jiujitsu.
is man, if I can learn Americana, I can turn around.
I might not be able to teach it perfectly, but I can turn around and teach someone thatknows nothing, something.

(01:29:45):
And so I'm hoping that what I'm investing into these kids and teens as they grow up, thatthey'll be able to turn around and invest that into other kids moving forward down the
future.
so I'm not looking forward to retirement, honestly.
would be bored to death if I was sitting in a chair.

(01:30:07):
so just hope to continue to serve and hopefully continue to be healthy and be able totrain and enjoy what I'm doing.
That sounds really good.
feel like it doesn't sound like retirement's gonna be something on your list anyway.

(01:30:27):
It sounds like you could keep giving quite a bit of yourself to this, even if you're notshowing the moves yourself.
Yeah, I hope so.
I hope so.
So if somebody wants to get in touch with you, uh Steven Jolly on Instagram, uh Rio BravoProject on Instagram, RioBravoProject.com, and if somebody wants to donate, and I'll put

(01:30:52):
all of this stuff in the show notes, if somebody wants to donate, RioProject.com slashgive, right?
RioBravo, RioBravoProject.com slash give, correct?
Yeah.
there anything else that you'd like to like to have people know?
I mean, yeah, they can honestly, yeah, if they want to follow us, that would be great onthat.

(01:31:12):
Facebook is the same name.
And we could always use more support.
We're always trying to improve our food program and uh expand at some point.
We'll be expanding to a third location, I hope soon.
um And we'll need more funding to help cover the new batch of kids that we work with.
yeah, connect with me online.

(01:31:34):
And I'd love to hear from you.
uh We don't have a lot of volunteers come down, but if it's something you're interestedin, for sure we can talk about that.
And uh it's not super easy always to get here, but we're open to having people participatewith us and at least share our content and get the word out about what we're doing.
Awesome.
I'm really glad we got a chance to talk today, Steve.

(01:31:54):
It was really good getting to know you and I wish you all the luck in the world with theRio Bravo project.
Thanks, Eric.
Awesome talking to you too.
Have a great day.
You too.

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Steve Jolly, Black Belt, Minister, Non-Profit Founder - Beyond the Belt #28

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Steve Jolly, Black Belt, Minister, Non-Profit Founder - Beyond the Belt #28