October 5, 2022 • 48 mins
Warriors, Fall in!
It’s time for formation…
Today, I’m joined with a fellow Brazilian Jiu Jitsu practitioner, who also served in the United States Marines Corps and like me, today’s guest spent some combat time in Iraq.
Today’s guest now owns his own gym just outside of Chicago in Elmhurst, Illinois. Over the time he’s been involved with BJJ, our guest today has also secured MMA (Mixed Martial Art) victories with a record of 7-0.
I had the opportunity to know and train with our guest when I also trained BJJ in Chicago at The Uflacker Academy, when he was just a purple belt, climbing the ranks and making a name for himself.
I am very proud to have Professor Anthony Ferro on today’s podcast to talk about his time in the Marines, his Combat experiences, his career transition out of the military which involved some PTSD and how the martial arts industry helped him discover more to life.
Connect with Anthony on IG:
https://www.instagram.com/sickness81/
Connect with Ferro Academy BJJ:
https://www.instagram.com/ferroacademybjj6612/
Ferro Academy BJJ Main Website:
https://ferroacademybjj.com
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KP (00:00):
This episode is powered by ACT NOW Education, go to
(00:03):
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resources and opportunities foractive duty, veterans, military
spouses and children.
Anthony Ferro (00:19):
Transition was rough it was rough. Just you
didn't think. I blanked I, Ihad a new job. I was going in
customers homes, gettingdisrespected. I'm like What the
hell's going on like, this isn'tthe world I'm used to.
KP (00:42):
Warriors fall in, it's time for formation. Today I'm joined
with a fellow Brazilian JiuJitsu practitioner, who also
served in the United StatesMarine Corps. And just like me,
today's guests spent some timein combat while in Iraq. Today's
guest now owns his own gym,outside of Chicago, in Elmhurst,
Illinois.
(01:03):
Over time, he's been involvedwith BJJ, also known as
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, our guesttoday also secured mixed martial
art victories with a record of7-0. I had the opportunity to
know and train with our guestwhen I also trained Brazilian
Jiu Jitsu in Chicago at theUFlacker Academy, when he was
just a purple belt, looking toclimb the ranks and make a name
(01:25):
for himself. So I'm very proudto have Professor Anthony Ferro
on today's podcast to talk abouthis time in the Marine Corps,
his combat experiences and hiscareer transition out of the
military, which involves somePTSD. And he also learned how
the mixed martial arts communitycould help them better discover
more to life. Professor Ferro,it is an absolute honor to have
(01:48):
you on the Morning Formationpodcast.
Anthony Ferro (01:50):
Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for having me.
Appreciate it.
KP (01:53):
Dude, it's hard to believe that it's been over 10 years
since I trained there inChicago. Brazilian Ju Jitsu.
Time just flies so fast. And Iwant to give a shout out to
Professor Christian Uflackerbecause I know he's kind of
brought you along right andhelped you.
Anthony Ferro (02:11):
I've been there ever since. I've been there
since Oh, good lord. Oh, nine.
Yeah. That's a long time. Yeah,it's a long time. I try to stay.
You know, he's a good guy. Stayloyal. And yeah, it's been a
long year since we trainedtogether. Wow, that's loud. I
(02:31):
know. Right? He has a purplebelt. That was awful. Just
scrappy. I didn't know anything.
KP (02:41):
I tell you what man, I was very impressed with that school.
Very impressed with the Academy.
The folks that train there. Iknow. There was a lot of law
enforcement that train there aswell. A lot of military folks
that train there. So it was avery, it still is a very
impressive Academy. And it'sgreat to see that you had grown
your own school as well outthere in Elmhurst, Illinois and
understand you're starting yoursecond school. Is that right?
Anthony Ferro (03:02):
Yeah, well, I still my first school, but we
moved I've moved into my thirdlocation. I've been open for
years, but this is a thirdlocation already. Just three
bigger. We've outgrown everygym, and that's a good problem
to have. But it's also stress,and you gotta move into new
places.
KP (03:21):
Hey man. Yeah, it's, it's growing. It's growing. And
you're actually changing a lotof lives. I think that's
incredible, man. So let's getinto it. Man. Let's talk about,
you know, where are you? Whereare you from Anthony. And why
did you decide to join theMarine Corps all over all other
branches?
Anthony Ferro (03:37):
So I'm from Elsa, Palos Heights, south suburbs of
Chicago. Why I went in theMarines instead was because I
was going. I wasn't headed inthe best direction after I did
like a year of college gave up.
And just, you know, I didn'treally have any hobbies. Jujitsu
(03:58):
wasn't around at the time. Iloved martial arts. I was taking
Hapkido, but it's not nearly thesame type of workout and stuff
like that. I chose the Marinesbecause I wanted the toughest
one. I wanted the hardest one Iwanted to change my whole life
around. And I did it I did. ButI wanted the challenge. I wanted
(04:24):
to I needed to change.
KP (04:31):
So did was the military, familiar territory for you and
your family? Or was you kind ofan outlier?
Anthony Ferro (04:39):
Yeah, nobody, nobody that I know of served. I
think I had maybe a cousinserved long time ago or
something. I don't remember butno nobody served. It was. It's
very foreign for all of us isvery different. Very different.
KP (04:58):
Right. So you, you have a lot lot of courage, first of
all, to just walk into the darkand join the military. Having no
one else to kind of relate towhat you're about to go through.
You leave and you go active dutyMarines. Where's your first duty
station?
Anthony Ferro (05:15):
Lejeune, that was my only duty station. I, I
trained on the West Coast,though. And but they they
shipped me off to East Coast,Lejeune. The whole time there.
KP (05:28):
All right. And so how many years did you do in the Marine
Corps and talk to us about yourfirst deployment into combat.
Anthony Ferro (05:39):
for I did four active, four inactive, so just
eight total that we'd have todo. I went to Iraq in 05 and 06.
So two years out of the fouryears I've been in. So I was
deployed more than I was on, onbase. We, I was in the fleet for
(06:00):
about five or six months, beforewe shipped out. So we spent a
lot of that time training. I wasmotor T. So we you know, we did,
learned as much about trucks aswe could, how to drive and stuff
like that. But then we went toIraq in February to September,
(06:22):
and our station was in Fallujah.
And the war of Fallujah was in,I want to say, 05, late, 04 to
05. So we got there right afterthe grunts and everybody just
tore that place up. It was veryviolent. I mean, you could tell
(06:43):
when they were leaving this.
They had brand new camis. Andthey just looked like I mean,
they lost. You could tell theylost a lot of people and were
tired and just done. But yeah,then we are stuck Fallujah there
for seven months.
And I somehow became the leadmachine gunner of the convoys in
front of my lieutenant. And it'sa lot of crazy stuff. Crazy
(07:07):
stuff. happened that that sevenmonths, but we got I got there
somehow. I got out of theresomehow. So it was a lot. It was
seven months straight ofGroundhog Day. You know, you
wake up, do the same exactthing. You don't see clouds in
the sky. It's just hot. And it'sjust that's it. You're just hot
(07:33):
for 24 hours for about sixmonths. Seven months. That was
just hot.
KP (07:41):
Yeah, fill you man. I was I was located up in Mosul, Iraq in
2004-2005. And my cousin was oneof the black Blackwater guys
that was actually ambushed andwas drugged through the streets.
His name's Wesley Barthelona. SoFallujah is fairly near and dear
to my heart. And some of thethings that happened there as
(08:03):
well. I was there right aroundthe same time as you. So in
convoy, I was a transportationofficer. So convoy was something
I was very, very familiar with.
Now, when you deployed, how oldwere you? And what rank were
you?
Anthony Ferro (08:16):
I was older. I mean, when I deployed I was 23.
When I went in the Marines, Iwas 22. So I was kind of older
than a lot of 18 year olds,right after high school. I was
2020. Yeah, 23 23 on my firstdeployment, so I was a lance. I
(08:37):
got out of boot camp as a PFCbecause of my I got the college
credits for because I wanted to,I did not want to be a private
after I wanted to. Like if I wasgoing for this, I knew this was
gonna be my life or not. It wasgonna direct me towards my life.
So you can't mess up in themilitary. You gotta. I wanted as
much rank as I can get. I did myresearch before I went in, and
(09:02):
that's all good. But yeah, so Iwas a lance corporal.
KP (09:09):
It's fairly, it's still fairly young, 23 years old, your
first deployment and how manydeployments did you do total?
Anthony Ferro (09:14):
To two back to back. We were back home for
three months and then we wentright back.
KP (09:23):
In a second time, still, Fallujah
Anthony Ferro (09:26):
says this was tq.
can't pronounce it but we callthe tq. And then it was really
roughly that sent to Ramadi fora month for like a mission, a
secret mission with the army.
That was bad. It was Ramadi wasnot good at that time. Ramadi
(09:49):
was never good, but it was roughat that time. But we you know,
we were there ready.
That's all we knew. We didn'tknow anything else. Right? You
didn't have time to get used tobeing home in a civilian world
again, we were just right backin the desert, in the sand.
Doing what we did three monthsprior for seven months. All
(10:13):
right, attitudes were completelydifferent to the second time we
were just, you know, we knew italready. A lot of our
lieutenants and stuff that wastheir first time over there, and
we're like, hey, we know whatcombat is, like, easy to write.
So we were like, you know, we'rebelligerent we were is, it's
(10:35):
more, or whatever your time.
Right.
KP (10:40):
And so did you get an opportunity to talk to anyone
that was actually in Iraq inthat area before they went in
and, and cleaned out Fallujah?
Anthony Ferro (10:51):
No.
KP (10:52):
So I did like when I was in Missoula, there was a couple of
guys that were from the fromfrom at second. There are a
couple of first lieutenant saidthat were there the year prior
to Fallujah getting gettingtaken over by us and they said
it was a completely differentworld back then they would
actually go out into town andsoft skin Humvees and make local
(11:13):
purchases.
And when I was there, you know,same time as you like, there was
no way in hell, you would gooutside the wire. Without you
know, sandbags on the floor,ghetto metal on the side of your
vehicles, or eventually we gotthe level three tar deck stuff.
Yeah, the Oshkosh stuff, butit's, it's pretty wild. I felt
(11:35):
like every year, every year thatwent by Iraq would change. It
would it wouldn't be the same asit was a year before. Did you
experience the same the secondtime you went to Iraq?
Anthony Ferro (11:52):
And it's hard to even remember, it was just, we
were in different areas. Yeah,but still, like, we were still
getting more the same. And ifnot more, the longer we stayed
there. You know, they were sickof us being there. You know, so
(12:14):
to me, not really, because Ithink it was just such a quick
transition. It was, it was thesame. It was three, four months.
So it was the same bull shitthat it was before. It was, you
know, not the best. Not the besttimes there. It was ugly. A lot
of times.
KP (12:35):
So you come back from your second deployment, and you get
out of the Marines. Shortlythereafter, that what was that
transition? Like? Did youalready know what you were going
to be doing? Like when you gotout of uniform?
Anthony Ferro (12:47):
Yeah, my brother in law. Luckily, he worked for
Comcast cable company. And Imoved back to Illinois, two
months later at a job interview.
And I was I was hired on spot.
So I had that stress. I waslike, Oh, hell yeah, I got a
job. What is this an awful job.
And I was in the awful state ofmind without knowing.
(13:10):
And I did that awfulness forclose to eight years. And it was
having my PTSD really bad. Andat the time, I didn't know I had
PTSD, for I refuse to believeit. That I had PTSD. The
transition was rough. It wasrough. Just you didn't think you
(13:31):
just blank Saturday, I had a newjob. I was going in customers
homes get disrespected. And I'mlike, What the hell's going on?
Like, this isn't the world I'mused to. Like I'm like, Do you
know where I just been? Like, ifI don't want to be like that,
but at the time, I was like,these people are screaming at me
(13:52):
because of a cable line. I'mlike, I just should I should
have been dead 50 times like,you really complaining about a
cable line like this or likethat. Transition. stuff for me
was tough. Yeah.
KP (14:10):
And I can tell you that I don't know if you felt the same
way. But when I transitionedout, I just wanted to be left
alone. Like I wanted to get out.
I wanted to check all the blocksand just not go through any of
the any of the out processingstuff at all. And I feel the way
that you felt when I came backfrom Iraq, and I had people who
were sitting back here watchingTV telling me what was going on
and telling me what it was like.
Anthony Ferro (14:35):
That's the best when they say, you know, like,
what's in Iraq while you went toIraq? What's in Iraq? Right? I'm
like, all because you read itonline. Okay. I mean, I wasn't
there anything. So a lot, a lotof ignorance and I wasn't used
to it. And times 1000 But what Igot out, but I never realized
(15:03):
that I had a lot of people hateme because that was in the
military. I didn't know peopleactually thought that upper,
like hated people in themilitary, because they think
we're all killers and stufflike, wow, you don't know, you
don't know anything aboutanything.
KP (15:17):
Right. Right. And, you know, that's one of the main reasons I
started this podcast was becauseanytime I ever heard about
military veterans, or what, youknow, veterans are doing, I
always heard about the drugaddict or the alcoholic, or it
was it's not the guys that areout there, like you that are
building businesses, changinglives, it's always about the
negative stuff, man. And, andso, you know, I got tired of
(15:40):
hearing it, I get tired ofhearing it, because I know
there's a lot of guys out herethat are killing it and are
making it and are overcoming allthe obstacles between these two
different cultures of thecivilian world versus the
military world.
Right. And so, you know, Ireally appreciate guys like you
that are just so courageous,strong, brave, you know, you're
out there changing. Anyone thatyou've trained over the years,
(16:03):
Anthony, you know, you'veliterally positively changed
their life and having trainedjiu jitsu for the last 11 years
or so, man, it's, that's how Ihave felt about it. And I have a
lot of respect for what you dospecifically. So at what point
though, you know, you took aAkito back in the day, at what
point did you find yourself backon the mats again, and what were
(16:23):
you doing?
Anthony Ferro (16:24):
So I know exactly where I was at. I was getting
into I loved watching UFC, Iloved watching pride. That's
when pride was getting huge Ilove favorite fighter was Chuck
Liddell, that I rememberwatching him in Iraq knockout,
Bob blue, I think twice. Justgetting it was so involved in
(16:44):
I'm like, Man, I would love tolike try something like this. I
always wanted to do jujitsu,because I'm always crazy,
though. I just was before. Thiswas like being the beginning of
the military where I wasstudying jujitsu, like reading
books, on the Gracies.
But I couldn't afford jujitsu.
That's when I just startedcoming around right before I
joined the military. Only schoolwas in like the city. And it was
(17:07):
like, I couldn't do that. I wasso young, I didn't have the
money. So after my firstdeployment, again, we didn't
have much time to transition.
But after the second deployment,I knew my mental health was
getting kind of weird. And youknow, we would lift it didn't
matter if we got no sleep. Wewent to the gym right away to
(17:29):
get that anger out. I waslifting a ton of weight. And
that's why I'm probably hurt.
Because I lifted so much heavyweight for being so small. But
you know, that's what we did.
You know, that's about all wehad to do is fun and
recreational. So with about whenwe went to Ramady, like I
brought up earlier, when theygot stationed out there, they
had a gym with Mats. And Irebirth reservists at the time.
(17:54):
And we had about 10 reservistand my platoon was on trips. But
we had a blue belt, which waslike the almighty blue belt. So
to have like blue belts, he waslike God, I'm like, Oh my God,
you're a blue belt, like how? Sowe went to the gym, we just he
started showing us a few armbars and triangles.
(18:17):
And he's like, I go grapple withthis marine. And I remember I
didn't know what the hell it wasand that instantly I get a
triangle on the guy and I justafter that I freaked out like I
love that I choke somebody outmy legs after learning jujitsu
for like 15 minutes, because Ithink reading all the books,
helps having long legs. And theguy that I triangle actually
(18:41):
lives in Illinois. And hethere's a Marine, he lives in
Illinois, and he's one of mybuddies. It's funny, but he was
the first guy got strangled byme. Yeah, that was in Ramadi and
after that, I was at my meetwhen I got back home, signed up
at the closest to more of aanimais school. And that was a
(19:03):
time and Brian Stan was comingup in the WEC. The cap cap was
Captain like I read his book,Marine Captain, he's into a lot,
a lot of shit. Yeah. You know,
KP (19:19):
he's a Silver Star recipient isn't he
Anthony Ferro (19:22):
he's been through a lot.But I saw how he trained.
And he would talk to me, youknow, as a person because he was
officer so it's weird to seethem outside of work. But he had
no one to train with. So youwould just see all these big
Marines come in there and try tobeat this guy up and he would
(19:43):
just knock their heads off asthough he that's how he was
training and getting the WEC andthen he got out and then he went
in the UFC after that, butthat's where I started.
And I was good at kids. Istarted doing some stand up and
it just took a while. I've beenthrough so much of getting my
butt kicked in the beginning,like in tears because I would
(20:06):
just get my ass beat sparringbecause I never did it something
like that before. I got collarchoke because the guy was
laughing at me as I was gettingcollar choke at a girl choke the
shit out of me unconscious.
Oh, yeah. Like clapping,shouting that made it awesome.
(20:26):
So yeah, that was my beginningof my jujitsu journey. And I, I
remember going every day, I justhad to show up once. And that
was it. I went every day. Andthe longest time from that day
that I've taken off to jitsu wasprobably from my knee surgery.
Last year, I took off probably,like six weeks straight.
(20:49):
Possibly. I've had blood clotswhere I cant train for three
months, but I still did kind of,and Christian did drag me off
the mats. Because he's like,Stop, you're trying too hard. If
you get hit in the head, youknow, blah, blah, blah. I love
that I'm obsessed with it.
Because it's so good for mentalhealth. And it's never ending in
(21:14):
self defense is always thebiggest thing, right? I mean, we
all should know that. But is mymental health. Right? Now I just
like helping people, like Ilove. There's a lot a lot of
people that could go far in thisfloor and they could do far in
their lives. It's just, you haveto get through it. This sport
(21:36):
can take you there, I reallycan. It's just not easy. takes
dedication.
KP (21:42):
Yeah, and it's a it's very family oriented man, I remember
when I was training there, andmost gyms that I've been to, has
had that that format, and thatoverall environment where you
develop a family and I know atthe Aflac Academy, and I'm sure
it's the same thing at youracademy as well, where you you
literally become a family, youguys trained together and you
(22:02):
fight together, you competetogether.
You know. So I think that thatthere's a lot to be said about
that as well. And I can tell youthat personally, I'm the same
boat as you man, whenever I wasin a dark place, I would just
find the gym and train. Becauseyou have to you have two
choices, right, you can go tothe bar and go to the pubs or go
to the clubs and drink or youcan go find some exercise
(22:25):
somewhere and find somecamaraderie, which is what we're
used to in the military. And youcan find that on the mats, man.
And so you know, I've beenmeaning to get you on the show
for a while.
And I'm really happy that I gotyou on the show. Because a lot
of things you're saying Iresonate with, I totally
understand where you're comingfrom with that. And I just want
to back it up real quick. Andtalk about some of the failures
(22:48):
that you had while you're inuniform. And I think it's
important because a lot of folksthink that you have to be
perfect that you have to beperfect. To be a success, you
have to be perfect. And in myopinion, I've had a lot of
failures myself and had toovercome obstacles and pick
myself back up again and dustmyself off and and keep going.
(23:08):
So would you mind talking aboutsome of those failures that you
had, and how you found thestrength to overcome and was was
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu part ofthat.
Anthony Ferro (23:17):
I at the end, I don't know if I looked at it as
Or I could stop and just quit.
But the military doesn't want tothat doing jujitsu about
failure, because at that time, Ihad maybe eight months left. And
I was I wasn't thinking of thatat the time. But I felt like the
whole my whole military career.
I failed so many times just fromthe beginning. Because I didn't
(23:39):
have that experience of knowinganyone that was in the military.
I never, Ilost my dad or I hadnobody is showing me all this
manly stuff. I get thrown in theMarine Corps. And I'm failing at
making a ton so I'm failing atshooting properly. You know, I
found a lot of shit. But all Icould do and I kind of tell
do that. I mean, you can justyou're not going to get far
(24:01):
people listen jujitsu, your allI could do is just keep going
and try to get better.
after that keeps you out. You'rejust a turd. You know what I
mean? But I failed a lot in myattitude. I would say I always
(24:26):
had something to say I alwaysspoke up which was a good thing
but it was also a bad thing. SoI had to work on how I would say
stuff especially coming from thecivilian world and how I talk to
people it just so yeah, it wasjust a lot of failure. A lot of
the stuff that I just couldn'tdo that a lot of these these
(24:49):
kids were doing. I was like whycan't I do that? I can't even
put that in properly.
I just changed his tire wronglike I'm sure people know were
to change tires 20 times betterthan I did when they went in,
you know, so I felt like Ifailed a lot. Until I hit like
(25:10):
Corporal as when I was like,Okay, it's time to, I have to
take a more of a leadershiprole. Anyway, I tried to his
lance corporal too, but So yeah,that's, uh, I failed at adapting
at first, you know, but all youcan do is keep going. And that's
(25:31):
it. And that's what I did. Ijust kept working on it. And I
guess all that failure to end itgood was doing you did too. So I
didn't feel like such a failure.
And going through twodeployments, I don't know, I
don't even know how I felt likeif you're supposed to feel
anything. I'm trying to, like,if I felt like I was ending, I
(25:51):
was a failure at that point. Butyou know, that's all we kind of
knew, I didn't really knowanything else at that point. But
we'll just keep doing them.
Yeah,
KP (26:06):
so you lost your dad at a young age. So you grew up, sort
of having to figure out on yourown how to become a man. And
then you join the Marines. Andthat's diving into the deep end
in itself, I'm sure boot campwas a complete slap in the face
for you. And, and, yet, it takesa lot of courage, man, it takes
(26:30):
a lot of courage to do, what youdid, and the things you're
talking about right now, are,are things that have to do with,
you know, cutting your teeth inlife. And I really believe that
there's no better place than themilitary to do that, to cut your
teeth and, and learn, getmentored by others. Fail, get
back up again. And it's funny,because today, I was working
(26:52):
with a 26 year old, young man,and we were doing push ups.
And you know, even at my age of42 years old, I can still do you
know, 55 push ups in like aminute, right? And, you know,
that's just how we are, I think,because, and this kid I was
working with didn't quiteunderstand, like, the idea of
(27:13):
clearing the bar. And like,everyday, get up, like, knock
out as many pushups as you canbefore you go to the restroom.
Like, that's what I do. Andthat's what most of us in the
military do. Right? And I reallyfeel like people who serve
people who serve get it, youknow, overcome the odds, pushing
yourself beyond your boundaries,and things like that. And that's
(27:35):
something that it sounds like,definitely, you learned how to
do and that's why it was sort ofan easy transition for you to
get onto the mats and starttraining and pushing yourself.
And you sort of found a familythere. And I know you were
training with Professor KrishnaFlocker for years, but at what
point Anthony did you decidethat it was time to open your
(27:57):
own gym.
Anthony Ferro (27:58):
So after the whole Comcast thing, it was like
seven, eight years in and I wasgoing through a divorce at the
time, I was in school full time,I was working full time, and I
was still fighting MMA. So I wasdoing I juggle, and my life was
chaotic. I had no time. Butthat's I kept myself so busy. I
(28:20):
had to I just had to keep myselfbusy. Because once I stopped
being busy, you have all thosethoughts coming in and all of
that stuff. So at the end ofthat, I was starting to get out
of contact. I couldn't take thecontagion anymore, just and then
(28:44):
the PTSD started likeoverflowing and I started
actually seeing like therapistsand stuff like that. So I just
was like I'm done with Comcast.
So I got called a someone I usedto know a long time ago that
would run gyms and they're like,do you want to be a trainer at
like a UFC gym? I was like, hellyeah, it's awesome UFC gym. And
(29:08):
you know, you think of the moneyand how sad it is how much money
you made, but But you have tostart you have to start
somewhere holy cow and I had todo something.
And I'm like, I try this and seehow I go. I mean, I was a brown
belt at the time. So I didn'teven teach jujitsu there I was
just a kickboxing guy and and Iran it like boot camp and I
(29:31):
killed so many people in goodways. They loved me there.
Because I related so much withall you want to lose weight. I
got to Oh, you want to get inshape. I got to trust me. I know
how to get your asses in shape.
And I was very intense and Istill am Thursday. And a lot of
it has to do with the military.
A lot of the kids don't not havethe drive that we had. Not Not
(29:53):
at all. So, once I started daysto finally started I asked to
teach jujitsu is like six, sevenmonths and I was like, I should
probably teach jujitsu. I'mproblem though.
So we just started doing knojiAnd all of a sudden I just
(30:13):
started getting like a fewpeople that started really
liking it and they stopped doingkickboxing a little bit. A lot
of jujitsu. Like a month laterthe classes are growing and
growing. I'm like, What the hellso now we're getting regulars.
Like in my jujitsu classes, westarted like twice a week, and
three times a week. So I thinkwe're doing jujitsu for almost
(30:35):
six seven months and me I wantedto start a GI program everyone's
like not we're not going to dobe relaxed gonna do you know,
this is UFC gym.
We're, we're on MMA fightershere. You you have a fighters
you're not supposed to trainthem McGee, which is such
horseshit, by the way. Becausemany times you all your world
(30:58):
champions, train them up untiltheir fights, but again, you get
I don't know what today'sgeneration, what they're
watching or what they'rethinking, but But yeah, so
that's how the jujitsu guyswere, we were changing the damn
knees still.
We would do all of that stuff.
So when I started the GI programthere, everyone was talking
(31:24):
like, okay, it's not gonna work.
And like the first class, wehad, like, 789 10 people or
something. And I was like, Holyshit, people bought these belts.
Because I'm thinking Promotions.
I'm thinking future. Like thebelt. Yes, it goes around your
waist.
But that belt shows it's adegree. It's like a college
(31:44):
degree, right? Because they'rethere forever. Like, if you're
not doing D, sorry, I don't buythe whole belt things. That's
what jujitsu is Brazilianjujitsu for a reason you put in
1012 years, you're gonna beyou're gonna know a lot of
knowledge that you don't have tobe a world champion.
You don't have any of that. Youjust have to know how to be a
(32:06):
good teacher, if that's what youwant to do. And I started with
loving teaching and seeing mystudents compete from a UFC gym
and beating people from legitschools. I'm like, maybe I do
know what I'm talking about.
And, and I didn't at the time,compared to what I know now. I
mean, I'm, I'm gonna say thisand three years from now. But I
(32:27):
grew to about 20,30 people willcome into my classes. I had a
student be like, hey, I'll giveyou this much money. Open your
school. I believe in you. Let'sdo it. And I had no money we
jumped. And that was it. Youknow, it sucked that I had to
take people away from that gym.
But you know, they I still havemost of them that came with me
(32:48):
four years ago with me to thisday. Wow. They're still with my
Oh, geez. I call them.
KP (32:58):
That's some dedication, for sure, man. And, you know, over
the years, who are some of thefolks that you've had the
opportunities to train with? Andthe reason I asked that is
because I remember being a brandnew blue belt. Professor
Uflacker gave me my blue belt.
And I remember watching youguys, and it was kind of
(33:19):
mesmerizing to see you guys justspar each other because you guys
are preparing for fights andeverything. Man, you guys were
killing each other. Who are someof the folks that you've had the
liberty to train with man overthe years?
Anthony Ferro (33:30):
Oh, man, I you know, to this day, I wish some
of my I wish some of the MMAfighters would change the way we
train. You don't see that a lotanymore. We would do you would
see us you saw us beat theliving daylights out of each
other 6, 5 minute rounds.
It didn't matter if you were proor amateur. You're doing six
five minute rounds. So me. I gotto train with Krishna and
(33:53):
slacker which was awful when hewas training for fights. To be
trained with a few of the BBSCarson BB back in the day, who
was a decent pro fighter RobMalagasy. He was he made it in
the pro ranks. He doesn't fightanymore. Gideon Ray Who is man,
(34:17):
he got me ready for my fightswas amazing. Very talented.
KP (34:23):
What what makes the Ferro Academy different than other
schools in the Greater Chicagoarea? In your opinion?
Anthony Ferro (34:33):
If you give me 100% You're gonna I'm giving you
100% So that's my, my jobanyway, is to make you good at
jujitsu to make you happy. Ijust talked to a class today I
might have think about it as isI want you guys to love it as I
wish I could get you guys tolove it as much as I do. Like
(34:53):
I'm obsessed with. Obviously,that's not going to happen.
But that is my goal. My goal isto make Everyone know what to do
on the streets, to keep mypolice officers safe on the
streets and know what to do keepthe veterans safe mentally. But
I could only do it if you put inthe work. You know, but that's,
(35:14):
that's kind of how I'm differentin the Academy because I push, I
push, but it's good forcompetitors. And it's good for
we have an 87 year old man thatcomes to class twice a week.
Well, yeah, it doesn't matter,you know? So that's what's
different. Now, I don'tsugarcoat stuff.
KP (35:38):
Yeah, I think a lot of that goes back to your upbringing as
well, you know, you lost yourfather at a very young age.
Think about how many young folksare at your academy, that you're
leaving an impression uponteaching them the things that
you had to learn.
You're by yourself joining themilitary, you're teaching them
I'm sure you have a lot ofteenagers that are that are
(35:58):
showing up and a lot of parentsthat are hobbyists, as well
been? And I think maybe some ofthe things that you do, and the
reasons why you run it, the waythat you do is sort of because
of the way you were brought upand how you had to learn things
on your own right?
Anthony Ferro (36:12):
Yeah, no, absolutely. No, I. Yeah, a lot
of people have been people tolearn, and I want them to get
something when they're there.
They're supporting me, I gottasupport, I got to do my job.
I've got to work, teaching, Igot to work hard.
KP (36:30):
Yeah, I really miss Chicago and having academies like like
yours and reflectors. And I tellyou what that was the beginning
of my training was when I wasthere in Chicago. And since
then, I really haven'texperienced another Academy,
similar to what ProfessorUflacker ran, and I haven't
(36:53):
experienced the same type oftraining family that that he had
there as well with folks likeyou. So I, at some point in
time, and I'd like to stop byand drop in. And, you know,
bring bring my GI so
Anthony Ferro (37:08):
I love it. I love when people come to visit, and
train. I love doing seminars, Ijust want people to learn, I
want to teach, I want to keepgetting better, and I have to
get better to get you better.
KP (37:24):
Everything. Everything is so exciting for you. And I
remember, you know, when I trainthere in Chicago, it was a very
formidable time for me,specifically, and for you and
your academy. What do you havecoming over the horizon? What
what's in store for youcompetition wise or what's in
store for, for your business?
Anthony Ferro (37:45):
I, I'm trying to build the kids classes, which is
doing a very good job. My goalis to add more classes to teach
like an MMA class just likestriking once a week with with
the jujitsu, because a lot of usdon't know what to do when
they're stuck on our backs andstreets scenario, How to Block a
(38:08):
Punch type stuff. I'm just I'mjust trying to grow. I'm just
trying to grow me as far ascompeting. I think I'm gonna do
two more this year. I've beencompeting almost twice a month
since January. I'm tired. I justlove it.
But I think I'm taking aNovember December off to try to
(38:31):
look at some seminars. So I'llstill be traveling. Hopefully, I
got a seminar set in California,actually, for November,
December. It turns SoCal. So I'mjust working on the specifics
yet. So I'll know more when thatcomes out.
So I have one lined up so far.
And then next year, I want to Iwant to try to get it on Pan
(38:52):
Am's I want to get it tonationals in the world. And
let's see what I could do.
Against the big the big leagues.
I mean, you know, same thing,same thing I did this year, but
I'm going to add a few more bigevents in there. And I want some
of my students to be on thepodiums at these big events,
(39:13):
because I believe I can teachany of them to make it up there.
Because I believe in my jujitsuand I believe in my teaching at
this point, because I nonstopstudy,
KP (39:25):
even scheduling this this interview man, like you had so
much going on. I appreciate youbeing so flexible and and we're
doing this at night, and I justgot done teaching your classes,
man. So you also mentioned too,that you're planning on writing
a book.
Anthony Ferro (39:41):
Yes. So I've been wanting to do this for a while.
I'm in the middle of doing like,I'm getting all my thoughts
down. I'm getting I'm going frommy childhood to where I'm at
now. So that's something to lookout for. Probably in the next
six months.
(40:01):
Something should be coming outsoon. And I've had an
interesting life. But it's moreof it's more of just helping
people because I don't wantpeople, good people to suffer
like I can get. I suffered a lotsilent suffered. And I don't
want people to silence suffer.
I've been where I was living inbasements and my car, and stuff
like that. So and, you know, tohave a strong positive mindset.
(40:26):
Don't be weak minded. And like Isaid, I'm very brutally honest,
if someone's being lazy, I'mgoing to tell them, they're
being lazy. And I'm like, if youdon't do anything about it,
life's not going to be easier.
It really isn't. I believe inthe hard work. And that's,
that's all I tried to throw onthe people and don't use your
(40:46):
mental health as an excuse meusing PTSD is, I can't do that.
I can't train. I can't do thatif PTSD no using it. Don't take
advantage. Use it to fuel you.
Right. You know, and that's whatI'm trying. I'm trying to tell
(41:10):
people because I see a lot ofthe younger people, they don't
understand it yet. You know, I'mnot saying they don't struggle.
But at the same time, we came upin different times.
KP (41:23):
Yeah, I mean, you, you overcame a lot yourself. You had
to figure it out on your own.
And now you are sort of a fatherfigure for a lot of the folks,
the teens that train with youright now who may not who may
have the same situation as whatyou had growing up. So that's,
that's tremendous in itself. Um,what do you think you'd be
today? If you didn't have MMA orBrazilian jujitsu in your life?
Anthony Ferro (41:47):
I don't think I don't know. I always don't think
I'd be here. I don't know. Iwasn't in a good place. I can't
really imagine my life withoutit. So I don't think anything
good would be out of it. I'dprobably just be working a dead
end job and not be happy. But Ijust I couldn't do that. I can't
(42:12):
even I can't even see. Becausemy, you know, I was I was in
baseball, beginning of my life.
And then I had to do I just feelworthless if I don't do
something. I wouldn't, Icouldn't not do it. Right. So I
don't know. I don't know whereI'd be. Maybe Id be
(42:33):
psychiatrists.
KP (42:37):
You know, man, it's, it's sort of a hook in itself. I
mean, I did a session thismorning with some folks from
work, we got on the mats, and werolled around and some no Gi.
And afterwards, man, I feel somuch better. I mean, so much
better, I can start my day feelreally strong, more awake, more
(42:57):
alive, starting out my day likethat, and the guys that I
trained with and have atremendous amount of respect for
them.
So I really wanted to underlineyour story in your background,
because of how importantBrazilian Jiu Jitsu and mixed
martial arts has been for meover the years when I was in my
(43:18):
darkest hour, how it saved mefrom getting into that, that
mental potential PTSD,depression stage. It kept me out
of there. And I've had friends,friends for life that I've met
on the mats, man and with anyoneout there, you know, I know that
you have started a YouTubechannel and you're on some
(43:41):
social media platforms, butanyone out there any listeners
who might, who might bestruggling to find themselves or
would need some advice, youknow, what, what advice would
you like to provide them that wedidn't mentioned here on the
show so far?
Anthony Ferro (43:57):
You just no matter what you go through, you
have got to go through. Likethere's always gonna be light at
the end of the tunnel. You couldhave a bad day or you could have
a bad week. You could have a badmonth. But you can bet you can
complain, that's fine. I do it.
I'm xiety gets bad all the time.
But you know what, eventuallyyou understand why you're going
(44:18):
through it. And you just have todo it.
Don't say you're gonna dosomething. Just do it and things
fall into place. I guess thebiggest thing we get out of it,
trust, trust yourself.
Believe in yourself a littlebit. You're gonna be hard on
yourself, but believe inyourself. You have to believe in
(44:39):
yourself who's gonna believe inyourself. No one's gonna believe
in you. You have to believe inyourself. So that's something
that people need to get. No,that's what I did. I started my
YouTube to get awareness out forveterans an hour I do weekly
videos for jujitsu, but I stillknow podcasts like this So I
(45:00):
like putting up on my YouTubebecause it's a different change
and people need to hear thisstuff and if it helps one person
out of 100 or helped one person,yeah.
KP (45:11):
Well said well said and speaking of which, if anyone out
there is seeking to connect withyou, what's the best way for
them to find you? Like whatsocial media platforms? Are you
on?
Anthony Ferro (45:22):
Instagram I'm on mainly it's sickness81. My
YouTube is Sickness Ferro. Oh,and on Facebook, just my name
Anthony. S-I-K-N_E-S-S Ferro, onFacebook. But usually Instagram.
That's how I built my business.
A lot of it as a social media.
(45:47):
It's that easy. I'm constantlyon my phone. And then people are
like, Oh, you're no, I'mconstantly posting stuff. I got
a shout my sponsors out becausethey help.
You gotta help out everybodythat helps you out. And I have
so much help that I help try tohelp help 50 People at night. So
my day doesn't even like I know,it's I don't know what time it
(46:09):
is. It's 1136 here, I still havea lot of stuff. I gotta, I gotta
do tonight.
Now a lot of stuff I gotta do Igotta prepare videos I got to do
you know, you're constantly yougot to respond to emails, you
got to respond to texts, you gotpeople, you got to keep it, you
got to keep up. You know, socialmedia is huge, if used in a
(46:33):
positive way. And I use thatplatform to get some of my
stress out. When I get annoyedby something I see on the news
to help get it out. But it'smainly for for jujitsu, and, you
know, awareness. Awareness ishuge. You know, people don't
(46:54):
know certain things until youmight read something someone has
to say, say, and, like facts,you got to understand the facts.
And that's a lot of people don'tknow facts anymore. It's just
like hearsay. I believe insocial media was a good thing,
too.
KP (47:12):
Yeah, you are, man, you're you're killing it. And I highly
appreciate, you know, talking toveterans like you who are out
there, overcome the obstacles,no excuses. You're out there and
not just making it for yourself,but you're also bringing
everyone else up to by havingyour academy and, you know,
being a mentor for so many folksout there. So, thank you for the
(47:33):
time. I know it's extremely latefor you, but thank you for the
time and the flexibility forhaving this interview. I
appreciate it Professor Ferroand then for everyone else out
there. Thank you for tuning in.
As always, I want you to staytuned, stay focused, and stay
motivated. Warriors Fall Out.
This episode is powered by ACT NOW Education, go to
(00:03):
www.actnoweducation.com for freecomprehensive educational
resources and opportunities foractive duty, veterans, military
spouses and children.
Anthony Ferro (00:19):
Transition was rough it was rough. Just you
didn't think. I blanked I, Ihad a new job. I was going in
customers homes, gettingdisrespected. I'm like What the
hell's going on like, this isn'tthe world I'm used to.
KP (00:42):
Warriors fall in, it's time for formation. Today I'm joined
with a fellow Brazilian JiuJitsu practitioner, who also
served in the United StatesMarine Corps. And just like me,
today's guests spent some timein combat while in Iraq. Today's
guest now owns his own gym,outside of Chicago, in Elmhurst,
Illinois.
(01:03):
Over time, he's been involvedwith BJJ, also known as
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, our guesttoday also secured mixed martial
art victories with a record of7-0. I had the opportunity to
know and train with our guestwhen I also trained Brazilian
Jiu Jitsu in Chicago at theUFlacker Academy, when he was
just a purple belt, looking toclimb the ranks and make a name
(01:25):
for himself. So I'm very proudto have Professor Anthony Ferro
on today's podcast to talk abouthis time in the Marine Corps,
his combat experiences and hiscareer transition out of the
military, which involves somePTSD. And he also learned how
the mixed martial arts communitycould help them better discover
more to life. Professor Ferro,it is an absolute honor to have
(01:48):
you on the Morning Formationpodcast.
Anthony Ferro (01:50):
Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for having me.
Appreciate it.
KP (01:53):
Dude, it's hard to believe that it's been over 10 years
since I trained there inChicago. Brazilian Ju Jitsu.
Time just flies so fast. And Iwant to give a shout out to
Professor Christian Uflackerbecause I know he's kind of
brought you along right andhelped you.
Anthony Ferro (02:11):
I've been there ever since. I've been there
since Oh, good lord. Oh, nine.
Yeah. That's a long time. Yeah,it's a long time. I try to stay.
You know, he's a good guy. Stayloyal. And yeah, it's been a
long year since we trainedtogether. Wow, that's loud. I
(02:31):
know. Right? He has a purplebelt. That was awful. Just
scrappy. I didn't know anything.
KP (02:41):
I tell you what man, I was very impressed with that school.
Very impressed with the Academy.
The folks that train there. Iknow. There was a lot of law
enforcement that train there aswell. A lot of military folks
that train there. So it was avery, it still is a very
impressive Academy. And it'sgreat to see that you had grown
your own school as well outthere in Elmhurst, Illinois and
understand you're starting yoursecond school. Is that right?
Anthony Ferro (03:02):
Yeah, well, I still my first school, but we
moved I've moved into my thirdlocation. I've been open for
years, but this is a thirdlocation already. Just three
bigger. We've outgrown everygym, and that's a good problem
to have. But it's also stress,and you gotta move into new
places.
KP (03:21):
Hey man. Yeah, it's, it's growing. It's growing. And
you're actually changing a lotof lives. I think that's
incredible, man. So let's getinto it. Man. Let's talk about,
you know, where are you? Whereare you from Anthony. And why
did you decide to join theMarine Corps all over all other
branches?
Anthony Ferro (03:37):
So I'm from Elsa, Palos Heights, south suburbs of
Chicago. Why I went in theMarines instead was because I
was going. I wasn't headed inthe best direction after I did
like a year of college gave up.
And just, you know, I didn'treally have any hobbies. Jujitsu
(03:58):
wasn't around at the time. Iloved martial arts. I was taking
Hapkido, but it's not nearly thesame type of workout and stuff
like that. I chose the Marinesbecause I wanted the toughest
one. I wanted the hardest one Iwanted to change my whole life
around. And I did it I did. ButI wanted the challenge. I wanted
(04:24):
to I needed to change.
KP (04:31):
So did was the military, familiar territory for you and
your family? Or was you kind ofan outlier?
Anthony Ferro (04:39):
Yeah, nobody, nobody that I know of served. I
think I had maybe a cousinserved long time ago or
something. I don't remember butno nobody served. It was. It's
very foreign for all of us isvery different. Very different.
KP (04:58):
Right. So you, you have a lot lot of courage, first of
all, to just walk into the darkand join the military. Having no
one else to kind of relate towhat you're about to go through.
You leave and you go active dutyMarines. Where's your first duty
station?
Anthony Ferro (05:15):
Lejeune, that was my only duty station. I, I
trained on the West Coast,though. And but they they
shipped me off to East Coast,Lejeune. The whole time there.
KP (05:28):
All right. And so how many years did you do in the Marine
Corps and talk to us about yourfirst deployment into combat.
Anthony Ferro (05:39):
for I did four active, four inactive, so just
eight total that we'd have todo. I went to Iraq in 05 and 06.
So two years out of the fouryears I've been in. So I was
deployed more than I was on, onbase. We, I was in the fleet for
(06:00):
about five or six months, beforewe shipped out. So we spent a
lot of that time training. I wasmotor T. So we you know, we did,
learned as much about trucks aswe could, how to drive and stuff
like that. But then we went toIraq in February to September,
(06:22):
and our station was in Fallujah.
And the war of Fallujah was in,I want to say, 05, late, 04 to
05. So we got there right afterthe grunts and everybody just
tore that place up. It was veryviolent. I mean, you could tell
(06:43):
when they were leaving this.
They had brand new camis. Andthey just looked like I mean,
they lost. You could tell theylost a lot of people and were
tired and just done. But yeah,then we are stuck Fallujah there
for seven months.
And I somehow became the leadmachine gunner of the convoys in
front of my lieutenant. And it'sa lot of crazy stuff. Crazy
(07:07):
stuff. happened that that sevenmonths, but we got I got there
somehow. I got out of theresomehow. So it was a lot. It was
seven months straight ofGroundhog Day. You know, you
wake up, do the same exactthing. You don't see clouds in
the sky. It's just hot. And it'sjust that's it. You're just hot
(07:33):
for 24 hours for about sixmonths. Seven months. That was
just hot.
KP (07:41):
Yeah, fill you man. I was I was located up in Mosul, Iraq in
2004-2005. And my cousin was oneof the black Blackwater guys
that was actually ambushed andwas drugged through the streets.
His name's Wesley Barthelona. SoFallujah is fairly near and dear
to my heart. And some of thethings that happened there as
(08:03):
well. I was there right aroundthe same time as you. So in
convoy, I was a transportationofficer. So convoy was something
I was very, very familiar with.
Now, when you deployed, how oldwere you? And what rank were
you?
Anthony Ferro (08:16):
I was older. I mean, when I deployed I was 23.
When I went in the Marines, Iwas 22. So I was kind of older
than a lot of 18 year olds,right after high school. I was
2020. Yeah, 23 23 on my firstdeployment, so I was a lance. I
(08:37):
got out of boot camp as a PFCbecause of my I got the college
credits for because I wanted to,I did not want to be a private
after I wanted to. Like if I wasgoing for this, I knew this was
gonna be my life or not. It wasgonna direct me towards my life.
So you can't mess up in themilitary. You gotta. I wanted as
much rank as I can get. I did myresearch before I went in, and
(09:02):
that's all good. But yeah, so Iwas a lance corporal.
KP (09:09):
It's fairly, it's still fairly young, 23 years old, your
first deployment and how manydeployments did you do total?
Anthony Ferro (09:14):
To two back to back. We were back home for
three months and then we wentright back.
KP (09:23):
In a second time, still, Fallujah
Anthony Ferro (09:26):
says this was tq.
can't pronounce it but we callthe tq. And then it was really
roughly that sent to Ramadi fora month for like a mission, a
secret mission with the army.
That was bad. It was Ramadi wasnot good at that time. Ramadi
(09:49):
was never good, but it was roughat that time. But we you know,
we were there ready.
That's all we knew. We didn'tknow anything else. Right? You
didn't have time to get used tobeing home in a civilian world
again, we were just right backin the desert, in the sand.
Doing what we did three monthsprior for seven months. All
(10:13):
right, attitudes were completelydifferent to the second time we
were just, you know, we knew italready. A lot of our
lieutenants and stuff that wastheir first time over there, and
we're like, hey, we know whatcombat is, like, easy to write.
So we were like, you know, we'rebelligerent we were is, it's
(10:35):
more, or whatever your time.
Right.
KP (10:40):
And so did you get an opportunity to talk to anyone
that was actually in Iraq inthat area before they went in
and, and cleaned out Fallujah?
Anthony Ferro (10:51):
No.
KP (10:52):
So I did like when I was in Missoula, there was a couple of
guys that were from the fromfrom at second. There are a
couple of first lieutenant saidthat were there the year prior
to Fallujah getting gettingtaken over by us and they said
it was a completely differentworld back then they would
actually go out into town andsoft skin Humvees and make local
(11:13):
purchases.
And when I was there, you know,same time as you like, there was
no way in hell, you would gooutside the wire. Without you
know, sandbags on the floor,ghetto metal on the side of your
vehicles, or eventually we gotthe level three tar deck stuff.
Yeah, the Oshkosh stuff, butit's, it's pretty wild. I felt
(11:35):
like every year, every year thatwent by Iraq would change. It
would it wouldn't be the same asit was a year before. Did you
experience the same the secondtime you went to Iraq?
Anthony Ferro (11:52):
And it's hard to even remember, it was just, we
were in different areas. Yeah,but still, like, we were still
getting more the same. And ifnot more, the longer we stayed
there. You know, they were sickof us being there. You know, so
(12:14):
to me, not really, because Ithink it was just such a quick
transition. It was, it was thesame. It was three, four months.
So it was the same bull shitthat it was before. It was, you
know, not the best. Not the besttimes there. It was ugly. A lot
of times.
KP (12:35):
So you come back from your second deployment, and you get
out of the Marines. Shortlythereafter, that what was that
transition? Like? Did youalready know what you were going
to be doing? Like when you gotout of uniform?
Anthony Ferro (12:47):
Yeah, my brother in law. Luckily, he worked for
Comcast cable company. And Imoved back to Illinois, two
months later at a job interview.
And I was I was hired on spot.
So I had that stress. I waslike, Oh, hell yeah, I got a
job. What is this an awful job.
And I was in the awful state ofmind without knowing.
(13:10):
And I did that awfulness forclose to eight years. And it was
having my PTSD really bad. Andat the time, I didn't know I had
PTSD, for I refuse to believeit. That I had PTSD. The
transition was rough. It wasrough. Just you didn't think you
(13:31):
just blank Saturday, I had a newjob. I was going in customers
homes get disrespected. And I'mlike, What the hell's going on?
Like, this isn't the world I'mused to. Like I'm like, Do you
know where I just been? Like, ifI don't want to be like that,
but at the time, I was like,these people are screaming at me
(13:52):
because of a cable line. I'mlike, I just should I should
have been dead 50 times like,you really complaining about a
cable line like this or likethat. Transition. stuff for me
was tough. Yeah.
KP (14:10):
And I can tell you that I don't know if you felt the same
way. But when I transitionedout, I just wanted to be left
alone. Like I wanted to get out.
I wanted to check all the blocksand just not go through any of
the any of the out processingstuff at all. And I feel the way
that you felt when I came backfrom Iraq, and I had people who
were sitting back here watchingTV telling me what was going on
and telling me what it was like.
Anthony Ferro (14:35):
That's the best when they say, you know, like,
what's in Iraq while you went toIraq? What's in Iraq? Right? I'm
like, all because you read itonline. Okay. I mean, I wasn't
there anything. So a lot, a lotof ignorance and I wasn't used
to it. And times 1000 But what Igot out, but I never realized
(15:03):
that I had a lot of people hateme because that was in the
military. I didn't know peopleactually thought that upper,
like hated people in themilitary, because they think
we're all killers and stufflike, wow, you don't know, you
don't know anything aboutanything.
KP (15:17):
Right. Right. And, you know, that's one of the main reasons I
started this podcast was becauseanytime I ever heard about
military veterans, or what, youknow, veterans are doing, I
always heard about the drugaddict or the alcoholic, or it
was it's not the guys that areout there, like you that are
building businesses, changinglives, it's always about the
negative stuff, man. And, andso, you know, I got tired of
(15:40):
hearing it, I get tired ofhearing it, because I know
there's a lot of guys out herethat are killing it and are
making it and are overcoming allthe obstacles between these two
different cultures of thecivilian world versus the
military world.
Right. And so, you know, Ireally appreciate guys like you
that are just so courageous,strong, brave, you know, you're
out there changing. Anyone thatyou've trained over the years,
(16:03):
Anthony, you know, you'veliterally positively changed
their life and having trainedjiu jitsu for the last 11 years
or so, man, it's, that's how Ihave felt about it. And I have a
lot of respect for what you dospecifically. So at what point
though, you know, you took aAkito back in the day, at what
point did you find yourself backon the mats again, and what were
(16:23):
you doing?
Anthony Ferro (16:24):
So I know exactly where I was at. I was getting
into I loved watching UFC, Iloved watching pride. That's
when pride was getting huge Ilove favorite fighter was Chuck
Liddell, that I rememberwatching him in Iraq knockout,
Bob blue, I think twice. Justgetting it was so involved in
(16:44):
I'm like, Man, I would love tolike try something like this. I
always wanted to do jujitsu,because I'm always crazy,
though. I just was before. Thiswas like being the beginning of
the military where I wasstudying jujitsu, like reading
books, on the Gracies.
But I couldn't afford jujitsu.
That's when I just startedcoming around right before I
joined the military. Only schoolwas in like the city. And it was
(17:07):
like, I couldn't do that. I wasso young, I didn't have the
money. So after my firstdeployment, again, we didn't
have much time to transition.
But after the second deployment,I knew my mental health was
getting kind of weird. And youknow, we would lift it didn't
matter if we got no sleep. Wewent to the gym right away to
(17:29):
get that anger out. I waslifting a ton of weight. And
that's why I'm probably hurt.
Because I lifted so much heavyweight for being so small. But
you know, that's what we did.
You know, that's about all wehad to do is fun and
recreational. So with about whenwe went to Ramady, like I
brought up earlier, when theygot stationed out there, they
had a gym with Mats. And Irebirth reservists at the time.
(17:54):
And we had about 10 reservistand my platoon was on trips. But
we had a blue belt, which waslike the almighty blue belt. So
to have like blue belts, he waslike God, I'm like, Oh my God,
you're a blue belt, like how? Sowe went to the gym, we just he
started showing us a few armbars and triangles.
(18:17):
And he's like, I go grapple withthis marine. And I remember I
didn't know what the hell it wasand that instantly I get a
triangle on the guy and I justafter that I freaked out like I
love that I choke somebody outmy legs after learning jujitsu
for like 15 minutes, because Ithink reading all the books,
helps having long legs. And theguy that I triangle actually
(18:41):
lives in Illinois. And hethere's a Marine, he lives in
Illinois, and he's one of mybuddies. It's funny, but he was
the first guy got strangled byme. Yeah, that was in Ramadi and
after that, I was at my meetwhen I got back home, signed up
at the closest to more of aanimais school. And that was a
(19:03):
time and Brian Stan was comingup in the WEC. The cap cap was
Captain like I read his book,Marine Captain, he's into a lot,
a lot of shit. Yeah. You know,
KP (19:19):
he's a Silver Star recipient isn't he
Anthony Ferro (19:22):
he's been through a lot.But I saw how he trained.
And he would talk to me, youknow, as a person because he was
officer so it's weird to seethem outside of work. But he had
no one to train with. So youwould just see all these big
Marines come in there and try tobeat this guy up and he would
(19:43):
just knock their heads off asthough he that's how he was
training and getting the WEC andthen he got out and then he went
in the UFC after that, butthat's where I started.
And I was good at kids. Istarted doing some stand up and
it just took a while. I've beenthrough so much of getting my
butt kicked in the beginning,like in tears because I would
(20:06):
just get my ass beat sparringbecause I never did it something
like that before. I got collarchoke because the guy was
laughing at me as I was gettingcollar choke at a girl choke the
shit out of me unconscious.
Oh, yeah. Like clapping,shouting that made it awesome.
(20:26):
So yeah, that was my beginningof my jujitsu journey. And I, I
remember going every day, I justhad to show up once. And that
was it. I went every day. Andthe longest time from that day
that I've taken off to jitsu wasprobably from my knee surgery.
Last year, I took off probably,like six weeks straight.
(20:49):
Possibly. I've had blood clotswhere I cant train for three
months, but I still did kind of,and Christian did drag me off
the mats. Because he's like,Stop, you're trying too hard. If
you get hit in the head, youknow, blah, blah, blah. I love
that I'm obsessed with it.
Because it's so good for mentalhealth. And it's never ending in
(21:14):
self defense is always thebiggest thing, right? I mean, we
all should know that. But is mymental health. Right? Now I just
like helping people, like Ilove. There's a lot a lot of
people that could go far in thisfloor and they could do far in
their lives. It's just, you haveto get through it. This sport
(21:36):
can take you there, I reallycan. It's just not easy. takes
dedication.
KP (21:42):
Yeah, and it's a it's very family oriented man, I remember
when I was training there, andmost gyms that I've been to, has
had that that format, and thatoverall environment where you
develop a family and I know atthe Aflac Academy, and I'm sure
it's the same thing at youracademy as well, where you you
literally become a family, youguys trained together and you
(22:02):
fight together, you competetogether.
You know. So I think that thatthere's a lot to be said about
that as well. And I can tell youthat personally, I'm the same
boat as you man, whenever I wasin a dark place, I would just
find the gym and train. Becauseyou have to you have two
choices, right, you can go tothe bar and go to the pubs or go
to the clubs and drink or youcan go find some exercise
(22:25):
somewhere and find somecamaraderie, which is what we're
used to in the military. And youcan find that on the mats, man.
And so you know, I've beenmeaning to get you on the show
for a while.
And I'm really happy that I gotyou on the show. Because a lot
of things you're saying Iresonate with, I totally
understand where you're comingfrom with that. And I just want
to back it up real quick. Andtalk about some of the failures
(22:48):
that you had while you're inuniform. And I think it's
important because a lot of folksthink that you have to be
perfect that you have to beperfect. To be a success, you
have to be perfect. And in myopinion, I've had a lot of
failures myself and had toovercome obstacles and pick
myself back up again and dustmyself off and and keep going.
(23:08):
So would you mind talking aboutsome of those failures that you
had, and how you found thestrength to overcome and was was
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu part ofthat.
Anthony Ferro (23:17):
I at the end, I don't know if I looked at it as
Or I could stop and just quit.
But the military doesn't want tothat doing jujitsu about
failure, because at that time, Ihad maybe eight months left. And
I was I wasn't thinking of thatat the time. But I felt like the
whole my whole military career.
I failed so many times just fromthe beginning. Because I didn't
(23:39):
have that experience of knowinganyone that was in the military.
I never, Ilost my dad or I hadnobody is showing me all this
manly stuff. I get thrown in theMarine Corps. And I'm failing at
making a ton so I'm failing atshooting properly. You know, I
found a lot of shit. But all Icould do and I kind of tell
do that. I mean, you can justyou're not going to get far
(24:01):
people listen jujitsu, your allI could do is just keep going
and try to get better.
after that keeps you out. You'rejust a turd. You know what I
mean? But I failed a lot in myattitude. I would say I always
(24:26):
had something to say I alwaysspoke up which was a good thing
but it was also a bad thing. SoI had to work on how I would say
stuff especially coming from thecivilian world and how I talk to
people it just so yeah, it wasjust a lot of failure. A lot of
the stuff that I just couldn'tdo that a lot of these these
(24:49):
kids were doing. I was like whycan't I do that? I can't even
put that in properly.
I just changed his tire wronglike I'm sure people know were
to change tires 20 times betterthan I did when they went in,
you know, so I felt like Ifailed a lot. Until I hit like
(25:10):
Corporal as when I was like,Okay, it's time to, I have to
take a more of a leadershiprole. Anyway, I tried to his
lance corporal too, but So yeah,that's, uh, I failed at adapting
at first, you know, but all youcan do is keep going. And that's
(25:31):
it. And that's what I did. Ijust kept working on it. And I
guess all that failure to end itgood was doing you did too. So I
didn't feel like such a failure.
And going through twodeployments, I don't know, I
don't even know how I felt likeif you're supposed to feel
anything. I'm trying to, like,if I felt like I was ending, I
(25:51):
was a failure at that point. Butyou know, that's all we kind of
knew, I didn't really knowanything else at that point. But
we'll just keep doing them.
Yeah,
KP (26:06):
so you lost your dad at a young age. So you grew up, sort
of having to figure out on yourown how to become a man. And
then you join the Marines. Andthat's diving into the deep end
in itself, I'm sure boot campwas a complete slap in the face
for you. And, and, yet, it takesa lot of courage, man, it takes
(26:30):
a lot of courage to do, what youdid, and the things you're
talking about right now, are,are things that have to do with,
you know, cutting your teeth inlife. And I really believe that
there's no better place than themilitary to do that, to cut your
teeth and, and learn, getmentored by others. Fail, get
back up again. And it's funny,because today, I was working
(26:52):
with a 26 year old, young man,and we were doing push ups.
And you know, even at my age of42 years old, I can still do you
know, 55 push ups in like aminute, right? And, you know,
that's just how we are, I think,because, and this kid I was
working with didn't quiteunderstand, like, the idea of
(27:13):
clearing the bar. And like,everyday, get up, like, knock
out as many pushups as you canbefore you go to the restroom.
Like, that's what I do. Andthat's what most of us in the
military do. Right? And I reallyfeel like people who serve
people who serve get it, youknow, overcome the odds, pushing
yourself beyond your boundaries,and things like that. And that's
(27:35):
something that it sounds like,definitely, you learned how to
do and that's why it was sort ofan easy transition for you to
get onto the mats and starttraining and pushing yourself.
And you sort of found a familythere. And I know you were
training with Professor KrishnaFlocker for years, but at what
point Anthony did you decidethat it was time to open your
(27:57):
own gym.
Anthony Ferro (27:58):
So after the whole Comcast thing, it was like
seven, eight years in and I wasgoing through a divorce at the
time, I was in school full time,I was working full time, and I
was still fighting MMA. So I wasdoing I juggle, and my life was
chaotic. I had no time. Butthat's I kept myself so busy. I
(28:20):
had to I just had to keep myselfbusy. Because once I stopped
being busy, you have all thosethoughts coming in and all of
that stuff. So at the end ofthat, I was starting to get out
of contact. I couldn't take thecontagion anymore, just and then
(28:44):
the PTSD started likeoverflowing and I started
actually seeing like therapistsand stuff like that. So I just
was like I'm done with Comcast.
So I got called a someone I usedto know a long time ago that
would run gyms and they're like,do you want to be a trainer at
like a UFC gym? I was like, hellyeah, it's awesome UFC gym. And
(29:08):
you know, you think of the moneyand how sad it is how much money
you made, but But you have tostart you have to start
somewhere holy cow and I had todo something.
And I'm like, I try this and seehow I go. I mean, I was a brown
belt at the time. So I didn'teven teach jujitsu there I was
just a kickboxing guy and and Iran it like boot camp and I
(29:31):
killed so many people in goodways. They loved me there.
Because I related so much withall you want to lose weight. I
got to Oh, you want to get inshape. I got to trust me. I know
how to get your asses in shape.
And I was very intense and Istill am Thursday. And a lot of
it has to do with the military.
A lot of the kids don't not havethe drive that we had. Not Not
(29:53):
at all. So, once I started daysto finally started I asked to
teach jujitsu is like six, sevenmonths and I was like, I should
probably teach jujitsu. I'mproblem though.
So we just started doing knojiAnd all of a sudden I just
(30:13):
started getting like a fewpeople that started really
liking it and they stopped doingkickboxing a little bit. A lot
of jujitsu. Like a month laterthe classes are growing and
growing. I'm like, What the hellso now we're getting regulars.
Like in my jujitsu classes, westarted like twice a week, and
three times a week. So I thinkwe're doing jujitsu for almost
(30:35):
six seven months and me I wantedto start a GI program everyone's
like not we're not going to dobe relaxed gonna do you know,
this is UFC gym.
We're, we're on MMA fightershere. You you have a fighters
you're not supposed to trainthem McGee, which is such
horseshit, by the way. Becausemany times you all your world
(30:58):
champions, train them up untiltheir fights, but again, you get
I don't know what today'sgeneration, what they're
watching or what they'rethinking, but But yeah, so
that's how the jujitsu guyswere, we were changing the damn
knees still.
We would do all of that stuff.
So when I started the GI programthere, everyone was talking
(31:24):
like, okay, it's not gonna work.
And like the first class, wehad, like, 789 10 people or
something. And I was like, Holyshit, people bought these belts.
Because I'm thinking Promotions.
I'm thinking future. Like thebelt. Yes, it goes around your
waist.
But that belt shows it's adegree. It's like a college
(31:44):
degree, right? Because they'rethere forever. Like, if you're
not doing D, sorry, I don't buythe whole belt things. That's
what jujitsu is Brazilianjujitsu for a reason you put in
1012 years, you're gonna beyou're gonna know a lot of
knowledge that you don't have tobe a world champion.
You don't have any of that. Youjust have to know how to be a
(32:06):
good teacher, if that's what youwant to do. And I started with
loving teaching and seeing mystudents compete from a UFC gym
and beating people from legitschools. I'm like, maybe I do
know what I'm talking about.
And, and I didn't at the time,compared to what I know now. I
mean, I'm, I'm gonna say thisand three years from now. But I
(32:27):
grew to about 20,30 people willcome into my classes. I had a
student be like, hey, I'll giveyou this much money. Open your
school. I believe in you. Let'sdo it. And I had no money we
jumped. And that was it. Youknow, it sucked that I had to
take people away from that gym.
But you know, they I still havemost of them that came with me
(32:48):
four years ago with me to thisday. Wow. They're still with my
Oh, geez. I call them.
KP (32:58):
That's some dedication, for sure, man. And, you know, over
the years, who are some of thefolks that you've had the
opportunities to train with? Andthe reason I asked that is
because I remember being a brandnew blue belt. Professor
Uflacker gave me my blue belt.
And I remember watching youguys, and it was kind of
(33:19):
mesmerizing to see you guys justspar each other because you guys
are preparing for fights andeverything. Man, you guys were
killing each other. Who are someof the folks that you've had the
liberty to train with man overthe years?
Anthony Ferro (33:30):
Oh, man, I you know, to this day, I wish some
of my I wish some of the MMAfighters would change the way we
train. You don't see that a lotanymore. We would do you would
see us you saw us beat theliving daylights out of each
other 6, 5 minute rounds.
It didn't matter if you were proor amateur. You're doing six
five minute rounds. So me. I gotto train with Krishna and
(33:53):
slacker which was awful when hewas training for fights. To be
trained with a few of the BBSCarson BB back in the day, who
was a decent pro fighter RobMalagasy. He was he made it in
the pro ranks. He doesn't fightanymore. Gideon Ray Who is man,
(34:17):
he got me ready for my fightswas amazing. Very talented.
KP (34:23):
What what makes the Ferro Academy different than other
schools in the Greater Chicagoarea? In your opinion?
Anthony Ferro (34:33):
If you give me 100% You're gonna I'm giving you
100% So that's my, my jobanyway, is to make you good at
jujitsu to make you happy. Ijust talked to a class today I
might have think about it as isI want you guys to love it as I
wish I could get you guys tolove it as much as I do. Like
(34:53):
I'm obsessed with. Obviously,that's not going to happen.
But that is my goal. My goal isto make Everyone know what to do
on the streets, to keep mypolice officers safe on the
streets and know what to do keepthe veterans safe mentally. But
I could only do it if you put inthe work. You know, but that's,
(35:14):
that's kind of how I'm differentin the Academy because I push, I
push, but it's good forcompetitors. And it's good for
we have an 87 year old man thatcomes to class twice a week.
Well, yeah, it doesn't matter,you know? So that's what's
different. Now, I don'tsugarcoat stuff.
KP (35:38):
Yeah, I think a lot of that goes back to your upbringing as
well, you know, you lost yourfather at a very young age.
Think about how many young folksare at your academy, that you're
leaving an impression uponteaching them the things that
you had to learn.
You're by yourself joining themilitary, you're teaching them
I'm sure you have a lot ofteenagers that are that are
(35:58):
showing up and a lot of parentsthat are hobbyists, as well
been? And I think maybe some ofthe things that you do, and the
reasons why you run it, the waythat you do is sort of because
of the way you were brought upand how you had to learn things
on your own right?
Anthony Ferro (36:12):
Yeah, no, absolutely. No, I. Yeah, a lot
of people have been people tolearn, and I want them to get
something when they're there.
They're supporting me, I gottasupport, I got to do my job.
I've got to work, teaching, Igot to work hard.
KP (36:30):
Yeah, I really miss Chicago and having academies like like
yours and reflectors. And I tellyou what that was the beginning
of my training was when I wasthere in Chicago. And since
then, I really haven'texperienced another Academy,
similar to what ProfessorUflacker ran, and I haven't
(36:53):
experienced the same type oftraining family that that he had
there as well with folks likeyou. So I, at some point in
time, and I'd like to stop byand drop in. And, you know,
bring bring my GI so
Anthony Ferro (37:08):
I love it. I love when people come to visit, and
train. I love doing seminars, Ijust want people to learn, I
want to teach, I want to keepgetting better, and I have to
get better to get you better.
KP (37:24):
Everything. Everything is so exciting for you. And I
remember, you know, when I trainthere in Chicago, it was a very
formidable time for me,specifically, and for you and
your academy. What do you havecoming over the horizon? What
what's in store for youcompetition wise or what's in
store for, for your business?
Anthony Ferro (37:45):
I, I'm trying to build the kids classes, which is
doing a very good job. My goalis to add more classes to teach
like an MMA class just likestriking once a week with with
the jujitsu, because a lot of usdon't know what to do when
they're stuck on our backs andstreets scenario, How to Block a
(38:08):
Punch type stuff. I'm just I'mjust trying to grow. I'm just
trying to grow me as far ascompeting. I think I'm gonna do
two more this year. I've beencompeting almost twice a month
since January. I'm tired. I justlove it.
But I think I'm taking aNovember December off to try to
(38:31):
look at some seminars. So I'llstill be traveling. Hopefully, I
got a seminar set in California,actually, for November,
December. It turns SoCal. So I'mjust working on the specifics
yet. So I'll know more when thatcomes out.
So I have one lined up so far.
And then next year, I want to Iwant to try to get it on Pan
(38:52):
Am's I want to get it tonationals in the world. And
let's see what I could do.
Against the big the big leagues.
I mean, you know, same thing,same thing I did this year, but
I'm going to add a few more bigevents in there. And I want some
of my students to be on thepodiums at these big events,
(39:13):
because I believe I can teachany of them to make it up there.
Because I believe in my jujitsuand I believe in my teaching at
this point, because I nonstopstudy,
KP (39:25):
even scheduling this this interview man, like you had so
much going on. I appreciate youbeing so flexible and and we're
doing this at night, and I justgot done teaching your classes,
man. So you also mentioned too,that you're planning on writing
a book.
Anthony Ferro (39:41):
Yes. So I've been wanting to do this for a while.
I'm in the middle of doing like,I'm getting all my thoughts
down. I'm getting I'm going frommy childhood to where I'm at
now. So that's something to lookout for. Probably in the next
six months.
(40:01):
Something should be coming outsoon. And I've had an
interesting life. But it's moreof it's more of just helping
people because I don't wantpeople, good people to suffer
like I can get. I suffered a lotsilent suffered. And I don't
want people to silence suffer.
I've been where I was living inbasements and my car, and stuff
like that. So and, you know, tohave a strong positive mindset.
(40:26):
Don't be weak minded. And like Isaid, I'm very brutally honest,
if someone's being lazy, I'mgoing to tell them, they're
being lazy. And I'm like, if youdon't do anything about it,
life's not going to be easier.
It really isn't. I believe inthe hard work. And that's,
that's all I tried to throw onthe people and don't use your
(40:46):
mental health as an excuse meusing PTSD is, I can't do that.
I can't train. I can't do thatif PTSD no using it. Don't take
advantage. Use it to fuel you.
Right. You know, and that's whatI'm trying. I'm trying to tell
(41:10):
people because I see a lot ofthe younger people, they don't
understand it yet. You know, I'mnot saying they don't struggle.
But at the same time, we came upin different times.
KP (41:23):
Yeah, I mean, you, you overcame a lot yourself. You had
to figure it out on your own.
And now you are sort of a fatherfigure for a lot of the folks,
the teens that train with youright now who may not who may
have the same situation as whatyou had growing up. So that's,
that's tremendous in itself. Um,what do you think you'd be
today? If you didn't have MMA orBrazilian jujitsu in your life?
Anthony Ferro (41:47):
I don't think I don't know. I always don't think
I'd be here. I don't know. Iwasn't in a good place. I can't
really imagine my life withoutit. So I don't think anything
good would be out of it. I'dprobably just be working a dead
end job and not be happy. But Ijust I couldn't do that. I can't
(42:12):
even I can't even see. Becausemy, you know, I was I was in
baseball, beginning of my life.
And then I had to do I just feelworthless if I don't do
something. I wouldn't, Icouldn't not do it. Right. So I
don't know. I don't know whereI'd be. Maybe Id be
(42:33):
psychiatrists.
KP (42:37):
You know, man, it's, it's sort of a hook in itself. I
mean, I did a session thismorning with some folks from
work, we got on the mats, and werolled around and some no Gi.
And afterwards, man, I feel somuch better. I mean, so much
better, I can start my day feelreally strong, more awake, more
(42:57):
alive, starting out my day likethat, and the guys that I
trained with and have atremendous amount of respect for
them.
So I really wanted to underlineyour story in your background,
because of how importantBrazilian Jiu Jitsu and mixed
martial arts has been for meover the years when I was in my
(43:18):
darkest hour, how it saved mefrom getting into that, that
mental potential PTSD,depression stage. It kept me out
of there. And I've had friends,friends for life that I've met
on the mats, man and with anyoneout there, you know, I know that
you have started a YouTubechannel and you're on some
(43:41):
social media platforms, butanyone out there any listeners
who might, who might bestruggling to find themselves or
would need some advice, youknow, what, what advice would
you like to provide them that wedidn't mentioned here on the
show so far?
Anthony Ferro (43:57):
You just no matter what you go through, you
have got to go through. Likethere's always gonna be light at
the end of the tunnel. You couldhave a bad day or you could have
a bad week. You could have a badmonth. But you can bet you can
complain, that's fine. I do it.
I'm xiety gets bad all the time.
But you know what, eventuallyyou understand why you're going
(44:18):
through it. And you just have todo it.
Don't say you're gonna dosomething. Just do it and things
fall into place. I guess thebiggest thing we get out of it,
trust, trust yourself.
Believe in yourself a littlebit. You're gonna be hard on
yourself, but believe inyourself. You have to believe in
(44:39):
yourself who's gonna believe inyourself. No one's gonna believe
in you. You have to believe inyourself. So that's something
that people need to get. No,that's what I did. I started my
YouTube to get awareness out forveterans an hour I do weekly
videos for jujitsu, but I stillknow podcasts like this So I
(45:00):
like putting up on my YouTubebecause it's a different change
and people need to hear thisstuff and if it helps one person
out of 100 or helped one person,yeah.
KP (45:11):
Well said well said and speaking of which, if anyone out
there is seeking to connect withyou, what's the best way for
them to find you? Like whatsocial media platforms? Are you
on?
Anthony Ferro (45:22):
Instagram I'm on mainly it's sickness81. My
YouTube is Sickness Ferro. Oh,and on Facebook, just my name
Anthony. S-I-K-N_E-S-S Ferro, onFacebook. But usually Instagram.
That's how I built my business.
A lot of it as a social media.
(45:47):
It's that easy. I'm constantlyon my phone. And then people are
like, Oh, you're no, I'mconstantly posting stuff. I got
a shout my sponsors out becausethey help.
You gotta help out everybodythat helps you out. And I have
so much help that I help try tohelp help 50 People at night. So
my day doesn't even like I know,it's I don't know what time it
(46:09):
is. It's 1136 here, I still havea lot of stuff. I gotta, I gotta
do tonight.
Now a lot of stuff I gotta do Igotta prepare videos I got to do
you know, you're constantly yougot to respond to emails, you
got to respond to texts, you gotpeople, you got to keep it, you
got to keep up. You know, socialmedia is huge, if used in a
(46:33):
positive way. And I use thatplatform to get some of my
stress out. When I get annoyedby something I see on the news
to help get it out. But it'smainly for for jujitsu, and, you
know, awareness. Awareness ishuge. You know, people don't
(46:54):
know certain things until youmight read something someone has
to say, say, and, like facts,you got to understand the facts.
And that's a lot of people don'tknow facts anymore. It's just
like hearsay. I believe insocial media was a good thing,
too.
KP (47:12):
Yeah, you are, man, you're you're killing it. And I highly
appreciate, you know, talking toveterans like you who are out
there, overcome the obstacles,no excuses. You're out there and
not just making it for yourself,but you're also bringing
everyone else up to by havingyour academy and, you know,
being a mentor for so many folksout there. So, thank you for the
(47:33):
time. I know it's extremely latefor you, but thank you for the
time and the flexibility forhaving this interview. I
appreciate it Professor Ferroand then for everyone else out
there. Thank you for tuning in.
As always, I want you to staytuned, stay focused, and stay
motivated. Warriors Fall Out.
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