August 25, 2023 • 32 mins
Embrace the thrill of the fight and the grit of entrepreneurship as we welcome the extraordinary Ryan Diaz, a former MMA fighter turned business gladiator. This episode promises an immersive experience into the mind of a man who has conquered not just opponents in the ring, but also the challenges of the business world.
In our invigorating chat, Ryan shares his inspiring journey from the world of MMA fighting to the fast-paced realm of entrepreneurship. He reveals the inherent similarities between the two and the importance of consistency, discipline, and self-care in both arenas. Gain valuable insights as he discusses the significance of developing a close-knit relationship with employees and his experiences in helping others succeed in their own ventures. Ryan unearths the reality of enterprise, from taking on new hires to making substantial investments, and how he went the extra mile for his team - even to the extent of providing visas and accommodations.
But it's not all rosy in the business world. Lean in as Ryan recounts the challenging aspects of entrepreneurship: handling tardy employees, dealing with competitors, and the importance of safeguarding your business. He highlights the value of having robust paperwork for employees to protect the enterprise from potential threats. This episode offers a gritty, unfiltered perspective of the realities of running a business, and how the lessons learned in the ring can be applied to entrepreneurship. Let's step into the ring with Ryan and uncover the champion within you!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello and welcome to Underdogs, bootstrapers and Game
Changers.
This is the real side ofbusiness.
This isn't Shark Tank.
This isn't.
I Got a Million Dollars tostart my first business.
This is for those of you thatare starting with nothing and
using business to change theirstars, motivating people who
disrupted industry standards.
I think back to the younger mewho first started in business.
(00:23):
I felt like business was beyondmy station.
That was for the guy with therich dad and all the connections
.
But I was wrong.
It's for the person that wantsit.
My aim with this podcast is totake away some of the imaginary
roadblocks that are out therefor you.
I want to help more underdogs,because underdogs are truly who
change the world.
(00:44):
One last thing before we jumpinto episode one.
This is part of our content forgood initiative, much like
bully this and redefining heroes.
All the proceeds from themonetization of this podcast
will go to charitable causes.
So join us for episode one withRyan Diaz, as we talk about the
other side of employment thatnever is talked about.
(01:04):
So our first guest is going tobe Ryan Diaz, and I want to give
you a little background on Ryanso you understand how his
journey developed into thebusiness world.
Originally, ryan was a KOTCBantam Weight World Champion, an
AFC Bantam Weight WorldChampion, hook and Shoot North
American Champion, two-time PNWChampion, fearless MMA Champion,
(01:28):
canadian Muay Thai Champion,intercontinental Muay Thai
Champion, adcc Veteran and over50 professional fights all over
the world.
So, understanding Ryan'sbackground and his passion for
martial arts, which started at13 years old, you can understand
.
The next step for a lot offighters is to give that passion
back, and I remember having adiscussion with Ryan and he once
(01:51):
told me that he hoped to be thecoach he never had.
So enter the MMA gyms that Ryanstarted including.
He started DCS Combat Sports inVancouver, as well as being a
partner here in local Arizonaarea with the lab.
Today we're going to talk toRyan about his journey through
(02:15):
business so you out there in theaudience can understand a
little bit more.
Hey, ryan, welcome.
Thank you so much for having meTyler.
Yeah, absolutely.
And Ryan and I just so you guysknow as the audience we've been
personal friends for a longtime and I think what he's done
with his gyms has been amazing,totally welcoming community in
(02:35):
the MMA world, and a lot ofpeople don't know that the MMA
community is amazing communitywith beautiful people that are
not just what do you want to belike?
Speaker 2 (02:46):
What's the common perception that most people
think of?
Speaker 1 (02:49):
MMA people, but really they're amazing human
beings Like.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
I always tell people this you meet the richest guys
in the world, the toughest guysin the world.
The richest guy doesn't have totell you he's rich, he doesn't
have to act like he's therichest guy, he's just is rich.
Same with tough guys they don'tneed to go walk around, act
like they're tough or, you know,tell you they're tough.
They're just tough, yeah, youknow.
(03:12):
And so like outside of likedoing their job, like for
fighters, outside of fighting,like you don't have to be this
mean person.
Like you can be a human being,a normal person.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Oh, absolutely, and I can speak firsthand.
So one of the first things Ialways tell new entrepreneurs
when I'm talking to them is likewhat's your workout routine?
What is your stress reliever?
Because you're going to needone, and for me it's been MMA
and lifting weights.
I needed it.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Well, even just for any successful business person
like I, read a lot Totally, likeobviously number one, you got
to read, yeah, got to sleep.
Yeah, eat healthy.
You got to exercise Totally,you know.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
I mean, that's what's funny is like so people have to
do that for a fight, right, andyou also have to do it for
business.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Yeah, you have to be prepared, just like you were
prepared for the ring in a lotof ways for your business, like
you have to, like you have totake care of yourself, like you
have to be in top physical andtop mental shape.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
You know you were around fighting before, like the
UFC, like phenomenon andeverything else.
I think one question that wouldbe super interesting for people
before we like walk on the waythat you started your business
is like what's harder Businessowner or professional fighter?
Speaker 2 (04:23):
So I always tell everyone one of the biggest
differences between my life asbeing a fighter and being a
business owner when I fought,everything was about me my diet,
my training, my sleep, oh, myinjury, oh you know.
Oh, I got to do this, I got todo that.
It was all about me.
Then, when it became to the gym, it's almost everyone but you.
(04:45):
But you have to do the thingsthat we talked about, cause if
not like they always talk aboutthis on an airplane how can you
help someone unless you helpyourself first?
So like, if if you are abusiness owner and you're not in
a good place and you'rewhatever you're doing say you
own a retail store how are yougoing to be able to sell
somebody something when you'renot even happy about the thing
(05:07):
that you have on your own?
Speaker 1 (05:09):
It's imperative to knowing that and you know, like
you're first.
So this is one of my and you'rethe same way you know, and so
we're going to.
I want this discussion to kindof center around employees,
because that is the hardest partof business, you know.
And then the other thing is,like the world tells.
The world tells this story oflike all business owners are
awful, nobody cares, causeyou've got the Amazons and
(05:30):
things out there that aremistreating their employees, but
we never talk about the smallbusiness world, you know, and
where a lot of us, these peopleare family to us.
You know like these people areclose to us, we work with them
every day.
If you have to fire somebody,you have to look that person in
the eye and fire them.
They're not just a number.
Hey, so-and-so, go get ridabout 50 people today.
You know it's not the same wayin the business world, and
(05:52):
that's one thing.
That's so hard.
But, like back to what you'resaying around, you have to make
the business the priority,because one thing I did quite
often is I would care aboutthese employees so much and they
wouldn't care about thebusiness and I'd give them
another chance and anotherchance and another chance.
You and I remember, yeah, andwhat I realized, you know,
looking backwards, becausebusiness is a learning process,
(06:12):
right?
What I realized lookingbackwards is that was not fair
to my good people, the peoplethat were always there.
That was not.
You have to.
You owe it to the business.
You have to take care of thebusiness and the business needs
to take care of the good people,right?
So if you're taking care of thebad people, then that is
punishing your business and thegood people.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Well, what is the number one job of a business
owner Is to take care and watchout for the business.
Sure, so there's gonna be timeswhen owner has to make a bad
decision and people might lookat hard decision like hard
decision.
Yes, sorry, hard decision, andto many people's eyes that might
be the wrong one.
Yeah, but you people don'trealize that that business owner
(06:54):
is actually doing the bestthing for the business.
Yeah, you know, it's just likebeing a parent.
Sometimes you, you know, hey,you can't smoke, and then the
kid doesn't understand why hecan't smoke.
You know, but like yo, I'm,you're not allowed.
Yeah, you know.
Okay, that was a terribleexcuse.
Like example, but like eatingMcDonald's.
You know some parents like, hey, no, you are not going to
McDonald's.
Yeah, you know, like, andthey're doing that for the best
(07:16):
of their kid.
Yeah, like you know, maybethat's not the best example, but
this is an example I've got onefor you show up on time.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Yes.
People like, oh, it won'tmatter if I'm a couple minutes
late.
It's like well, yeah, it does,because you know now we're
behind on what's going on forthe day.
We have a schedule to keep youknow like you need to show up on
time.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Well.
So that's the problem.
That's the thing a lot ofpeople don't understand,
especially being a businessowner.
Yeah, you have like, and thenthis is a business podcast it.
They have to understand that noone will care as much about
your business as you, and that'sjust the number one thing.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
And beyond that, I would tell business owners or
want to be business owners youhave to.
Nobody's gonna care about it asmuch as you.
That's absolutely.
But also, you need to remindyourself you have to.
This is your number onepriority, because this is what
feeds everybody.
Right?
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Yes, so well, and then you talk about employees,
because the number one, like inwork me and my staff, like my
management staff I've beentalking about this a lot is you
have to hire the right people,yeah, and in whether you take
the time and you do the extraduring the hiring process, that
is one of the most importantthings.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
It's imperative because you'll get Nice human
beings like us that don't lovefiring people right it's a
really hard thing for me to firepeople, because then I start
thinking about their families,they start thinking about them
having to go get another job,all these things right.
It's a really hard thing tofire.
Sorry, I just want to finish,because nobody talks about the
kind-hearted business person inthe world, the one that, like,
(08:40):
loves their people.
Right, you know, and what Iwould.
I would implore you to think ofwhen you, when you think about
the employees that aren't takingcare of you, is you still owe
it to everybody else at thatplace?
Speaker 2 (08:52):
well, for me like I, like I, I, I, my employees, I
got so many.
I got anywhere between 1570.
That's instructors, front deskstaff, like cleaners, whatever.
Yeah, the thing is even for me.
What I've done is I've alwayslike I've talked to you about
this before is that you know Ihad I learned one of the best
(09:13):
lines I've ever learned in mylife and it was because somebody
, when I was younger, helped meso much.
He helped me make, help me makemoney, and he was a lot older
than me and you know I and hehelped me get along or help me
succeed.
Yeah, and then I asked themyears later, asked them why did
you help me?
You didn't need to.
And he said, ryan, you know whyis because it's lonely at the
(09:34):
top.
Yeah, you want to bring yourbrothers and sisters with you?
Yeah, and that stuck with mefor a long time.
So a lot of my employees what Ido too, is like say, for example
, I've taken on, like I've takenpeople I've probably done at
least six where I've I broughtthem into the country, got them
visas, got them PRs, let themeven stay, like, stay with me
(09:56):
for free, lodging free, and Itake care of them as much as I
possibly can like.
Even last week I took one of mytie guys to his first hockey
game ever.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
He's so happy for it.
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
You know, like, and then we do with these things
where.
And then what I look at too isthat you know they bring their
families like, say, for example,I have a few tie guys where
they bring their families over.
Yeah, you know, and like, Iwant to do something good for
people, I want to do that, youknow.
And then you talk about and wejust said it right there you got
to find good employees and youknow it's hard because you want
(10:28):
to be this nice person and like,you did it, yeah, but then
things is at the same time, youhave to do what's best for the
business, yeah, and then at thesame time, it's like you got to
make these tough choices anddoing these tough things, and
sometimes, being as a businessowner, you don't get to be the
the cool and nice guy.
You know what I mean?
No, and so it's hard, you know.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Well and I actually kind of digress for my original
point when I was getting to thatit's like you, as a
kind-hearted person, need to vetmore, right?
Because you're you knowyourself, right?
I mean, I'm speaking for myselfand I know you're similar to me
Because we know each other sowell.
But it's like we need to vetpeople even more because we're
gonna have a hard, hard timemaking that decision to let them
go.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Well, so I'm dealing with this situation like this
right now yeah, I brought, Ibrought an individual from
Thailand over.
Yeah, let him stay at my housefor free, I let him.
I Got him visas, we paid forhis visas to come into the
country.
Yeah, it got to the point whereeven we got his family into the
country.
(11:27):
Yeah, you know, like I even didlittle things, I let, like I
let even his family or him, usedmy address so he, his children,
you know how school works.
Yeah, it's all about where youlive.
Yep, so I let him use myaddress so his children can go
to the best school in Vancouver.
Yeah, and then when you vet,like you think, okay, hey, you
know what these people like.
Hey, this is your friend, youdo whatever you can for them.
(11:49):
Yeah and then you know, you givethem a job, you give them
opportunities and everything.
And then even, like you know,you talk about vetting and then
all of a sudden, out of nowhere,they you know, everyone.
This is one thing about lifeand people in general is
everyone has to always thinkabout them Self like it's just
natural, sure, you know?
I mean, everyone wants to watchout for them Self.
Yeah, but so.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
I wouldn't say everybody does that.
I know you and I don't do thatman.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
I have seen and I've heard the stories.
Like you are very gent, a verykind person and very caring,
like I Appreciate man, some ofthe things that the stories that
you've told me before, like,it's insane, like.
But back to employees.
It's like I know what thishappened to you, like.
And then all of a sudden youhave an employee that starts
thinking more about himself Then, and then they start to see
(12:36):
things that aren't there, likeoh yeah, like, oh, this person's
making so much money and butthey don't see the behind the
scenes things where it's like yo, it isn't like that.
Like we're working hard, we'reborrowing all this money.
Like we're selling, like my momhad to sell her house.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
They'll continue.
They only see variable stuff,they only see the variable cost.
Right?
Oh, we sell a membership for$200.
Let's say, yeah, and we knowour cost on that is 50 bucks.
So they're like oh, he's making150 bucks each time.
You know what?
They forget fixed cost.
Yes, we have to have anoverhead, we have to have lights
, we have to have everything.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Well, even the investments, yeah, the initial
investment to put the money in.
And that one thing that peopledon't ever think about and this
is what every business ownerneeds to remember is that you,
you have taken a risk Totally,because now you have opened this
business and you're taking thisrisk, and not only that is your
time.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Yeah, all the liabilities are on yes you know.
Not only that, but after youlike sell it down the road, then
like you have some liabilitiesthere potentially you know the,
the liabilities you know, andthe time and the heartache and
everything else you're puttinginto and probably not taking
salary In the first couple years.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
You know and then just even like so back to the
story was that this individualnow he's he went behind my back
After he applied, after knowingthat he was gonna get a PR in
the country.
Yeah, he went behind my backand started plotting and and and
did this and started planningon opening his own gym Yep, a
mile away.
Yeah, you know, violating anon-compete, a non-silence,
(14:03):
non-disclosure, and the thing isis that I'm learning, is that
which really sucks for businessowners is that the law actually
goes behind the employee morethan the employer.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Oh yeah, especially when they're in the business,
absolutely.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Well, and that's insane, because then now this
individual goes around it's andthen makes lies and makes
because I'm a business owner andyou know, all of a sudden, now
we got these big facilities,everyone forgets that I'm a
human being.
Yeah, everyone forgets that.
Hey, you know what I gotfeelings, and they don't see the
hard work that you know that wehave to do.
For example, like you know, wetalked about this before, but,
(14:37):
like, part of my job is to putup fires every day.
Yeah, and we're constantlydealing with all these things,
but I'm not gonna let everyoneknow because, like, that's not
what you're supposed to do andyou don't do a business like
that.
Yeah, you don't let anyone knowthe problems that you're having
.
You want to create a positiveenvironment in your business.
So then what happened now is hegoes, and then I find out, and
then all of a sudden, he goesand opens a mile away.
(14:59):
He puts a sob story out thatsays oh yeah, you know, ryan
didn't pay me enough.
I worked so much from.
I did this, I did that.
He cut my pay.
But in reality, the thing was,is that you talked about this,
you got to come to work.
Yeah, you know, this individualmissed 82 days of work in one
year.
Yeah you know, like, what do youwant me to do?
(15:20):
I can't pay somebody thatdoesn't come to work.
Sure, you know.
And then just when you own andthat's why you talk about
vetting employees yeah, he'sbecause you want good employees.
You don't want somebody likehim who shows up or gives us a
call 20 minutes before a shiftand say, hey, I can't come in
today.
Yeah, you know.
And then all of a sudden, likeyou're in a bad spot, yeah,
(15:41):
we're terrible.
And then it makes it worse ison social media.
That night you see him out outto dinner.
Oh, like you know how, likeit's hurtful.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Well, and that's what I really want to get across,
because the common perception,like I said in the beginning of
the episode, is All businessowners are ruthless.
All business owner they they'llget the big corporations and
what they do to employees.
That is not the small businessworld.
Well, small business world isfamily and this is really hard
and, honestly, you I know you'rethe same way as me this hurts
on a different level than we'relosing the business.
(16:09):
This is like, yes, it's.
It's like getting in.
It's like a member of yourfamily cheating on you, your
wife cheating Well that's funnythat you talk about we're.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
For some reason, people don't look at us like a
small business, no more.
No, because because I've all ofa sudden I got a thousand plus
students or a couple thousandand then plus these.
You know it was we at thebeginning of our of the new gym.
We advertise this as amulti-million dollar facility,
but the people don't understandhow that gets calculated.
Yeah, the building is worthmulti-millions.
(16:40):
Yeah, but we had to mortgage itand then we have partners on
the building to buy thisbuilding.
It's not like we just had sixmillion dollars or ten million
dollars and threw it into thisthing.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Well, you know, and it's like you and I talked to
like have been talked beforeabout how DCS started in the
garage.
Yes, it's like I started mybusiness the same way.
You know, I lived off fiftydollars a week.
We didn't even have hot waterto do dishes with or anything
like that.
Our stove was a little toasteroven, you know.
But then you get a couplelocations and you know you have
clients like the WWE and youknow things, or you for the UFC
(17:12):
fighters and stuff, and thenthey figure, you know like, oh,
they've got it.
You know, yeah, and when?
Really, honestly, for me, I canonly speak for me my employees
always made better wages than me.
You know, it's like so likeyou're taking care of them more
than you're taking care ofyourself.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
I'll never forget the beginning days when we didn't
know if anyone was gonna comeand show up to class, we didn't
know if we were gonna havecustomers.
We had to sit, stand out frontof our gym hand out flyers
because we wanted people to come.
Yeah, you know.
And then there was a time whereI like, we find like we never
had private lessons beforebecause no one knew us.
(17:46):
Yeah, then finally we startedgetting like, I started getting
private clients.
Yeah, opposed to not justhaving Students in class.
Sure, and there was a point intime where we didn't have enough
money, where I had to do extraPrivates to make sure that my
staff gets paid.
Yeah, you know, and the thingis that nobody hears about that
stuff right?
Speaker 1 (18:03):
No, they.
They see now that you're howmany years in business now eight
now yeah.
Yeah, years in business.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
They see the glorious thing that you're doing now and
that you're doing all thecoaching, all the UFC fighters
you know, and the ring, and thatand that goes to show like, you
know what they this perception,but then people forget the
little things like hey, you knowwhat I have feelings and it
hurts, yeah, like, what reallyhurts more than anything is like
you do so much for people.
And this was what was a crazything is that we confronted him,
(18:31):
me and one of my managersconfronted him and asked him
like, hey, like, and he'ssitting there telling about
everything he's done for us, andI go hey, I knew you were gonna
sit here and tell me everythingthat you did, but you forget
what we did for you.
And you know what he said to me.
He goes what did you do for me?
I couldn't believe.
I'm like your family's herebecause of us, you know, and
it's just it's sad.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
You know we have to get to, uh, we need to talk
about paperwork.
So the audience understands, um, at some point.
But I was watching a show overthe Easter weekend.
It's just called Outlast, yeah,and I didn't expect to like it.
But it's all these, like thepeople that they drop off in um,
uh, laska, right, and theywould have to be on a team to
win, and they don't give themany food or anything really,
they just have to survive andthey're on these teams or
(19:13):
whatever.
And you're watching thispsychology fold out, right, and
these people are.
I don't want to ruin it foreverybody, but these people are,
like, doing horrible things.
Like at one point I'm sorry, Ihave to spill this out they
steal somebody's sleeping bags,right, you can die out there if
you're sleeping.
Bags are sold just so they canwin this game, right.
But you know, in their minds itbecame everybody else's fault,
(19:34):
right?
Yeah, they came up with reasonsto hate them, and that's what I
find in life too.
It's like people will come upwith reasons to hate you so they
can do bad things to you.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Well, that's the well that didn't.
People lost their humanity,yeah, and that's sad is because
they, like you just said, it'slike they start to think like,
hey, I have to do this tosurvive.
So you know, what Is it?
You or me kind of thing?
Yeah, but he's got it.
I can take this because he'sgot it, and that's that.
That man, I can't believe.
You just said that because thatwas one of the things he said
to me.
No, I know I've been through ithe goes, he goes to me goes hey,
(20:05):
you have, like, because hestarted poaching, or like he
signed a non-compete,non-solicit, non-disclosure, yep
, and part of the non-solicit isnot to take members from our
gym, yeah.
And then I talked to him aboutlike hey, you're stealing
students from our gym and heonly says to me is like, you
have so many you shouldn't care,yeah, and I'm like yo man,
that's stealing, stealing isstealing, no matter what.
(20:26):
You can't do that Like youdon't remember the things that
we went through to get here, toget these students.
We went through hell.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
And we can only tell.
Like we only have so much time.
We can only tell a small partof the story for probably all
you did do for him.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
And.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
I know because I've been in the same boat and I
wasn't smart enough to have thepaperwork you had the very first
go around.
So my employees talk aboutshowing up late.
They would show up late.
These two guys made friends inmy business, you know, and then
it was very small, we didn'thave very many employees in the
first while, right, and so itreally impacted the business and
they would show up hours late,you know, and sometimes so I
(21:01):
switched the company hours.
You know me, I'm up at threeo'clock in the morning.
You're crazy the best thing forme would be have the place open
at four o'clock in the morning.
Yeah, I'd clean the wholebusiness before they would get
there, waiting for them to getthere, excited for them to get
there.
They walk in half on over, youknow, and like like kids, right.
But I switched the office hours.
It still can't make it, youknow.
And then one day they finallytold me well, what are you going
(21:23):
to do?
We're late.
Like well, you can't be late.
You know it's disrespectful andwe need the business to run, is
like well, what are you goingto do about it?
You can't work without us.
And they went and they openedtheir own business.
We went on to open.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Well, that's why you talk about you know paperwork.
Yeah, they got it like you gota outline, and this is one.
They were my closest competitor,well, so this is the crazy
thing is that you think they'reyour friends and this and that
and as family and as um atbusiness advice to any business
owner out there, you got to doeverything by the book and
everything paper trails ofeverything.
(21:53):
So, when it comes to employees,you got to have an employee
contract yes.
Got to outline wages yeah, gotto outline hours.
You got to have a policy abouttardiness yes, and it's like
this guy here he missed 82 daysof work in any normal job.
He gets fired.
But, because he's my friend hedoesn't.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
You know, and that's the main difference between
small and see, these people weremy.
I didn't know them before theycame to work to me, but they
became family, right, and that'swhat people don't realize.
And if you're new out there tobusiness, this sounds like if
you're in business for a whileand you've been in big business,
then it's like sounds silly toyou.
But if you're new to business,you're like why would I need
paperwork?
My buddies are the ones I'mgoing to hire and it's even more
(22:33):
important with your buddies.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
Well then, that's, that's why it's more important
than with your buddies, becausethen that way it's clear,
clarified, right off the get go.
Sure, you know, and it's sadbecause you just don't know
people sometimes, and out ofnowhere, people will change
their mentalities and, like whatwe talked about and then you
just talked about your show is.
Then, all of a sudden, peoplestarted thinking of survival,
yeah, and they think that theyhave to do these terrible things
(22:54):
.
No, they make up things.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
Just survive.
Yeah, they make up things.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Like even like my guy is trying to say that, hey, I
got to do this, or support myfamily, yeah.
Well, the thing is that peopleforget is like yo, like I have
50 employees, yeah.
Like now if you take, yeah, andthen if you take people, and
then I have to cut salaries, howcan you tell me that one life
is more important than the other, kind of thing?
You know what?
Speaker 1 (23:16):
I mean.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
It's not and it's just like your survival story,
right?
Yeah, so it's hard.
You got to.
You got to make sure that youhave the right like.
That's why we talk about thisand you talk to any big business
out there or any business.
It's always about youremployees.
You have to vet them properly.
You got to make sure you hirethem properly and get the right
people.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
And take care of them .
Obviously.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Well, the good one.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Well, I mean, you take care of everybody and you
hope you get good employees, butyou have to.
The good employees will affect,or the bad employees will
affect your good employeesbecause they're like, why are
you giving so and so anotherchance?
Look how hard I'm working.
You know, you really got tothink.
That's what I came down toeventually, is it was selfish
not to think enough about thegood employees.
Right, you have to think aboutthe amazing employees working so
hard that that's impacting them.
(23:57):
The bad ones, it's not youhaving a heart for whether they.
You said it right.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
You have to make sure that the good employees are
taken care of.
But you have to understandsomething A bad employee is like
a virus yeah, it spreads.
So, like you know my employeethat I had, he created a bad
work environment where he wasshowing up like he wasn't
showing up to work, so otherpeople started to think, oh,
he's not.
And then when, even when he wasin class, he was more about you
(24:22):
know, the social aspect,talking to people and on his
phone.
And, like he's my friend, he'snot supposed to be on his phone
during class, but I don't know.
Well, I've told them a milliontimes and then what?
And then all of a sudden,because of that, now everyone
else tried to do it.
So that's what it is, you know.
But back to the whole thing isjust like yeah, it's very
hurtful.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
There's.
There's information out there,but there is no true book you
can follow on every bit of thisstuff.
In fact, I want to say that itwas my lesson learned, my lesson
, my first lesson learned waswhat led to the paperwork.
And then we started doingpaperwork on all our employees
and I'm 99% sure I was the onethat told you to make sure you
have paperwork before youstarted your business.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
It's just hard though , too, because, like we just
talked about now, the law isn'ton the employer side, it's on
the employee side, and whatmakes it harder is that when an
employee is disgruntled, likenowadays especially nowadays,
where people are empowered andare entitled they become a
victim.
Yeah, and then now, because whoright now looks like you know
who's who has a better off theythink that I'm better off Yet he
(25:19):
plays a victim, says that, oh,he wasn't paid enough, oh, he
did so much, and yet you don'tlook at it from the other side,
where it's like oh man, webrought him here to help us and
we brought him here we, we spentall this money to get him here,
we've done all this stuff forhim, like, even like little
thing, like my mom gave him afree car, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Well, I think I don't think people would realize most
of the time if the employee wasan amazing employee too.
I didn't buy the best in them.
If they said, tyler, I want tobe my own, get that 100%.
I am the first one standingthere to invest in them, to help
them.
And how much easier is thatbusiness road going to be for
them now.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
So that's so funny that you do that.
I would never stop anyone fromopening their own gym.
And the thing is is thatthere's a right way and a wrong
way to do things.
And the funny thing was when wefound out, we had to talk with
them and we said hey, why don'tyou just, why don't you stick to
your non-compete and open fivemiles away and guess what?
We'll help you, we'll give youclients, we'll help promote you,
(26:18):
we'll give you even all ourtrade secrets and everything.
And yet he didn't want to dothat because his business plan
was to steal.
He even said it to me.
He said to steal 10% of ourstudents.
Yeah, and in his words, youhave so many.
Yeah, you don't.
You know, you shouldn't care.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
Well, and you know, at the end of the day you can go
after him because it saidpaperwork, but that's a bigger
pain in the ass.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
And it's hard.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
You'll have to make really decisions there whether
to let it go.
I usually think you know thatwinning the war is more
important than winning thebattle.
In the past I've had a lot ofemployees go out and open
businesses on me.
Those guys that I mentionedbecame my closest competitors
and in the end they didn't endup stinging me much at all.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
You know, we went on, we continued to grow the number
one thing that you learningfrom this and this is going to
be a good advice to any businessowner out there is you focus on
yourself.
You know, like I'm not, a lotof people are like, oh, is he
mad?
I'm not mad, I'm hurt, yeah youknow, even more hurtful than
that is that he put a sob storyout and there were members that
I had at my school that had beenwith us six, five, six years
(27:21):
and they they want, everyonewants the bad guy and everyone
wants a good guy.
So now, all of a sudden, I gotput as a bad guy and they didn't
even ask me my side of thestory.
So you know, it's great that wetalk about this, because no
one's heard my side.
Everyone just and what's reallyhurtful is everyone just
assumed that he was the victimand that he was the one that got
wronged.
Yet no one ever looks at thebusiness owner as a human being,
(27:45):
no more, you know.
And then everyone forgets thatI have feelings too, and I'm so
hurt, Like I'm hurt from him.
I'm hurt from a lot of people,not only because they believed
him, but I can see that peoplewant to take us down and it's
like why?
What did we ever do?
Like I'm a hard, like I workedso hard for what we do?
Like we, I work 16 hours a day,seven days a week.
(28:08):
You know, I don't drive noFerraris or nothing like that.
I don't try to show off moneyLike I don't.
And then the other thing is isthat people don't understand?
Is that it's so hard for us?
My mom put her house for saleso we could keep this thing
going, and then now he'sstealing from all of this.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
You know, I know it's a hard story to go through and
you know, I wish we had way moretime to tell it too.
But I mean, I think what I wouldreally like to get across is,
like there is this and I knowI've said a couple of times in
the episode like there is thiscommon perception that business
owners are ruthless.
And I think I mean I hear yourstory, I know who you are too
and I know the way this kind ofstuff went down.
You cared about somebody, youget them involved with them and
(28:48):
then in the end, you know theydon't care about you as much.
You know, and so, and so beaware of that, as you know,
you're not going to be that asbusiness owners or soon to be
business owners out there is,like there is those of us in the
world that our businesses areour family, you know, and we
make actually bad businessdecisions because we care about
them.
You know, if you were justmaking business decisions all
the way along, it'd be prettyeasy, right, you know, but when
(29:11):
you actually and that's theperception, that's not doesn't
get told at all for the smallbusiness people we care about
our people, their family, wefeel responsible and know that
we're the reasons they put foodon their table Right.
If that ends tomorrow, you feelfor that person and so well,
the hardest part is when you'rea business owner.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
You have, when you're at the business, what are you
doing?
Yeah, running the businessTotally.
You don't have time to go spend10 minutes, uh, socializing
with this person, then thatperson, then that person yeah,
you know what I mean.
So people don't get to see theperson that you really are.
No, you know, and they don't manbehind the curtain at that
point, and then all of a sudden,you become the man or whatever
(29:49):
you would they want to call it,you know.
And then all of a sudden,you're just this corporate
business.
Yeah, you become a corporation.
You're not a human being, nomore.
And then all of a sudden, it'slike you know, people just want
to take you down and I don'tunderstand that.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
I mean, I, I can speak for this and vouch for
this, and unfortunately we'verun out of time today, you know,
and so we could maybe haveanother discussion around it.
But you run a family place asfar as I'm concerned, and that
means the students, theemployees, you know, I've seen
it from the outside and I thinkyou do an incredible job for the
community.
Thank you so much.
You know, cliff and I do aseries on bullying, you know,
and so, like we've talked aboutbullying before, you've given
(30:23):
tremendous insight.
He's actually on an episode ofour podcast.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Yeah, make sure you guys check that out.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
Yeah and uh and it's really important.
It's not just a fight, jim, youknow, it's a community changer.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
Well, it is like for us, like I know there's not a
time, but we do things to thecommunity, like we talked about
this on that episode.
I don't like I'm not thatperson that wants to show off
what I've done, but we do freewomen's self-defense courses.
We do anti-bullying seminarsfor free for kids.
We have a kids, a youth karmaclass where youth troubled or
troubled youths are there totrain for free because we want
(30:53):
them off the street.
We have kids parents that bringtheir kids in and be like, hey,
we need, they need martial arts.
And I'm like, hey, bring themin, they don't have to pay.
We but I don't advertise this.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
No, I know you're doing incredible work and you
know, um, we should get back youon a different show, you know,
and we'll talk about a differentjourney Today.
I hope that we got across toeverybody out there there that I
really want to beat thismisconception that all business
people are heartless and wedon't care about our people.
We absolutely care about ourpeople and, in fact, um, you
know, employees are the hardestpart of business Hands down.
(31:25):
There is no harder part ofbusiness than employees, and
when you're, when your love forthem gets in the involved too,
makes it even harder if you'renot a ruthless business person.
So, um, so I hope that helpedyou today.
Um, Ryan, thank you for comingin.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
You know, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Uh, check him out.
Dcs in Vancouver, the lab herein uh Arizona, you can watch him
quite often.
Uh, he's in the corner and useUFC fights.
Um, great, all around guy.
Uh and uh yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
Thank you so much, Tyler.
We'll get you back again.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
We'll talk about a different subject.
Thank you All.
Right, thank you all for tuningin.
We'll get back to a differentsubject next go round.
Thank you for joining.
Hello and welcome to Underdogs, bootstrapers and Game
Changers.
This is the real side ofbusiness.
This isn't Shark Tank.
This isn't.
I Got a Million Dollars tostart my first business.
This is for those of you thatare starting with nothing and
using business to change theirstars, motivating people who
disrupted industry standards.
I think back to the younger mewho first started in business.
(00:23):
I felt like business was beyondmy station.
That was for the guy with therich dad and all the connections
.
But I was wrong.
It's for the person that wantsit.
My aim with this podcast is totake away some of the imaginary
roadblocks that are out therefor you.
I want to help more underdogs,because underdogs are truly who
change the world.
(00:44):
One last thing before we jumpinto episode one.
This is part of our content forgood initiative, much like
bully this and redefining heroes.
All the proceeds from themonetization of this podcast
will go to charitable causes.
So join us for episode one withRyan Diaz, as we talk about the
other side of employment thatnever is talked about.
(01:04):
So our first guest is going tobe Ryan Diaz, and I want to give
you a little background on Ryanso you understand how his
journey developed into thebusiness world.
Originally, ryan was a KOTCBantam Weight World Champion, an
AFC Bantam Weight WorldChampion, hook and Shoot North
American Champion, two-time PNWChampion, fearless MMA Champion,
(01:28):
canadian Muay Thai Champion,intercontinental Muay Thai
Champion, adcc Veteran and over50 professional fights all over
the world.
So, understanding Ryan'sbackground and his passion for
martial arts, which started at13 years old, you can understand
.
The next step for a lot offighters is to give that passion
back, and I remember having adiscussion with Ryan and he once
(01:51):
told me that he hoped to be thecoach he never had.
So enter the MMA gyms that Ryanstarted including.
He started DCS Combat Sports inVancouver, as well as being a
partner here in local Arizonaarea with the lab.
Today we're going to talk toRyan about his journey through
(02:15):
business so you out there in theaudience can understand a
little bit more.
Hey, ryan, welcome.
Thank you so much for having meTyler.
Yeah, absolutely.
And Ryan and I just so you guysknow as the audience we've been
personal friends for a longtime and I think what he's done
with his gyms has been amazing,totally welcoming community in
(02:35):
the MMA world, and a lot ofpeople don't know that the MMA
community is amazing communitywith beautiful people that are
not just what do you want to belike?
Speaker 2 (02:46):
What's the common perception that most people
think of?
Speaker 1 (02:49):
MMA people, but really they're amazing human
beings Like.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
I always tell people this you meet the richest guys
in the world, the toughest guysin the world.
The richest guy doesn't have totell you he's rich, he doesn't
have to act like he's therichest guy, he's just is rich.
Same with tough guys they don'tneed to go walk around, act
like they're tough or, you know,tell you they're tough.
They're just tough, yeah, youknow.
(03:12):
And so like outside of likedoing their job, like for
fighters, outside of fighting,like you don't have to be this
mean person.
Like you can be a human being,a normal person.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Oh, absolutely, and I can speak firsthand.
So one of the first things Ialways tell new entrepreneurs
when I'm talking to them is likewhat's your workout routine?
What is your stress reliever?
Because you're going to needone, and for me it's been MMA
and lifting weights.
I needed it.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Well, even just for any successful business person
like I, read a lot Totally, likeobviously number one, you got
to read, yeah, got to sleep.
Yeah, eat healthy.
You got to exercise Totally,you know.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
I mean, that's what's funny is like so people have to
do that for a fight, right, andyou also have to do it for
business.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Yeah, you have to be prepared, just like you were
prepared for the ring in a lotof ways for your business, like
you have to, like you have totake care of yourself, like you
have to be in top physical andtop mental shape.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
You know you were around fighting before, like the
UFC, like phenomenon andeverything else.
I think one question that wouldbe super interesting for people
before we like walk on the waythat you started your business
is like what's harder Businessowner or professional fighter?
Speaker 2 (04:23):
So I always tell everyone one of the biggest
differences between my life asbeing a fighter and being a
business owner when I fought,everything was about me my diet,
my training, my sleep, oh, myinjury, oh you know.
Oh, I got to do this, I got todo that.
It was all about me.
Then, when it became to the gym, it's almost everyone but you.
(04:45):
But you have to do the thingsthat we talked about, cause if
not like they always talk aboutthis on an airplane how can you
help someone unless you helpyourself first?
So like, if if you are abusiness owner and you're not in
a good place and you'rewhatever you're doing say you
own a retail store how are yougoing to be able to sell
somebody something when you'renot even happy about the thing
(05:07):
that you have on your own?
Speaker 1 (05:09):
It's imperative to knowing that and you know, like
you're first.
So this is one of my and you'rethe same way you know, and so
we're going to.
I want this discussion to kindof center around employees,
because that is the hardest partof business, you know.
And then the other thing is,like the world tells.
The world tells this story oflike all business owners are
awful, nobody cares, causeyou've got the Amazons and
(05:30):
things out there that aremistreating their employees, but
we never talk about the smallbusiness world, you know, and
where a lot of us, these peopleare family to us.
You know like these people areclose to us, we work with them
every day.
If you have to fire somebody,you have to look that person in
the eye and fire them.
They're not just a number.
Hey, so-and-so, go get ridabout 50 people today.
You know it's not the same wayin the business world, and
(05:52):
that's one thing.
That's so hard.
But, like back to what you'resaying around, you have to make
the business the priority,because one thing I did quite
often is I would care aboutthese employees so much and they
wouldn't care about thebusiness and I'd give them
another chance and anotherchance and another chance.
You and I remember, yeah, andwhat I realized, you know,
looking backwards, becausebusiness is a learning process,
(06:12):
right?
What I realized lookingbackwards is that was not fair
to my good people, the peoplethat were always there.
That was not.
You have to.
You owe it to the business.
You have to take care of thebusiness and the business needs
to take care of the good people,right?
So if you're taking care of thebad people, then that is
punishing your business and thegood people.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Well, what is the number one job of a business
owner Is to take care and watchout for the business.
Sure, so there's gonna be timeswhen owner has to make a bad
decision and people might lookat hard decision like hard
decision.
Yes, sorry, hard decision, andto many people's eyes that might
be the wrong one.
Yeah, but you people don'trealize that that business owner
(06:54):
is actually doing the bestthing for the business.
Yeah, you know, it's just likebeing a parent.
Sometimes you, you know, hey,you can't smoke, and then the
kid doesn't understand why hecan't smoke.
You know, but like yo, I'm,you're not allowed.
Yeah, you know.
Okay, that was a terribleexcuse.
Like example, but like eatingMcDonald's.
You know some parents like, hey, no, you are not going to
McDonald's.
Yeah, you know, like, andthey're doing that for the best
(07:16):
of their kid.
Yeah, like you know, maybethat's not the best example, but
this is an example I've got onefor you show up on time.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Yes.
People like, oh, it won'tmatter if I'm a couple minutes
late.
It's like well, yeah, it does,because you know now we're
behind on what's going on forthe day.
We have a schedule to keep youknow like you need to show up on
time.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Well.
So that's the problem.
That's the thing a lot ofpeople don't understand,
especially being a businessowner.
Yeah, you have like, and thenthis is a business podcast it.
They have to understand that noone will care as much about
your business as you, and that'sjust the number one thing.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
And beyond that, I would tell business owners or
want to be business owners youhave to.
Nobody's gonna care about it asmuch as you.
That's absolutely.
But also, you need to remindyourself you have to.
This is your number onepriority, because this is what
feeds everybody.
Right?
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Yes, so well, and then you talk about employees,
because the number one, like inwork me and my staff, like my
management staff I've beentalking about this a lot is you
have to hire the right people,yeah, and in whether you take
the time and you do the extraduring the hiring process, that
is one of the most importantthings.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
It's imperative because you'll get Nice human
beings like us that don't lovefiring people right it's a
really hard thing for me to firepeople, because then I start
thinking about their families,they start thinking about them
having to go get another job,all these things right.
It's a really hard thing tofire.
Sorry, I just want to finish,because nobody talks about the
kind-hearted business person inthe world, the one that, like,
(08:40):
loves their people.
Right, you know, and what Iwould.
I would implore you to think ofwhen you, when you think about
the employees that aren't takingcare of you, is you still owe
it to everybody else at thatplace?
Speaker 2 (08:52):
well, for me like I, like I, I, I, my employees, I
got so many.
I got anywhere between 1570.
That's instructors, front deskstaff, like cleaners, whatever.
Yeah, the thing is even for me.
What I've done is I've alwayslike I've talked to you about
this before is that you know Ihad I learned one of the best
(09:13):
lines I've ever learned in mylife and it was because somebody
, when I was younger, helped meso much.
He helped me make, help me makemoney, and he was a lot older
than me and you know I and hehelped me get along or help me
succeed.
Yeah, and then I asked themyears later, asked them why did
you help me?
You didn't need to.
And he said, ryan, you know whyis because it's lonely at the
(09:34):
top.
Yeah, you want to bring yourbrothers and sisters with you?
Yeah, and that stuck with mefor a long time.
So a lot of my employees what Ido too, is like say, for example
, I've taken on, like I've takenpeople I've probably done at
least six where I've I broughtthem into the country, got them
visas, got them PRs, let themeven stay, like, stay with me
(09:56):
for free, lodging free, and Itake care of them as much as I
possibly can like.
Even last week I took one of mytie guys to his first hockey
game ever.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
He's so happy for it.
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
You know, like, and then we do with these things
where.
And then what I look at too isthat you know they bring their
families like, say, for example,I have a few tie guys where
they bring their families over.
Yeah, you know, and like, Iwant to do something good for
people, I want to do that, youknow.
And then you talk about and wejust said it right there you got
to find good employees and youknow it's hard because you want
(10:28):
to be this nice person and like,you did it, yeah, but then
things is at the same time, youhave to do what's best for the
business, yeah, and then at thesame time, it's like you got to
make these tough choices anddoing these tough things, and
sometimes, being as a businessowner, you don't get to be the
the cool and nice guy.
You know what I mean?
No, and so it's hard, you know.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Well and I actually kind of digress for my original
point when I was getting to thatit's like you, as a
kind-hearted person, need to vetmore, right?
Because you're you knowyourself, right?
I mean, I'm speaking for myselfand I know you're similar to me
Because we know each other sowell.
But it's like we need to vetpeople even more because we're
gonna have a hard, hard timemaking that decision to let them
go.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Well, so I'm dealing with this situation like this
right now yeah, I brought, Ibrought an individual from
Thailand over.
Yeah, let him stay at my housefor free, I let him.
I Got him visas, we paid forhis visas to come into the
country.
Yeah, it got to the point whereeven we got his family into the
country.
(11:27):
Yeah, you know, like I even didlittle things, I let, like I
let even his family or him, usedmy address so he, his children,
you know how school works.
Yeah, it's all about where youlive.
Yep, so I let him use myaddress so his children can go
to the best school in Vancouver.
Yeah, and then when you vet,like you think, okay, hey, you
know what these people like.
Hey, this is your friend, youdo whatever you can for them.
(11:49):
Yeah and then you know, you givethem a job, you give them
opportunities and everything.
And then even, like you know,you talk about vetting and then
all of a sudden, out of nowhere,they you know, everyone.
This is one thing about lifeand people in general is
everyone has to always thinkabout them Self like it's just
natural, sure, you know?
I mean, everyone wants to watchout for them Self.
Yeah, but so.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
I wouldn't say everybody does that.
I know you and I don't do thatman.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
I have seen and I've heard the stories.
Like you are very gent, a verykind person and very caring,
like I Appreciate man, some ofthe things that the stories that
you've told me before, like,it's insane, like.
But back to employees.
It's like I know what thishappened to you, like.
And then all of a sudden youhave an employee that starts
thinking more about himself Then, and then they start to see
(12:36):
things that aren't there, likeoh yeah, like, oh, this person's
making so much money and butthey don't see the behind the
scenes things where it's like yo, it isn't like that.
Like we're working hard, we'reborrowing all this money.
Like we're selling, like my momhad to sell her house.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
They'll continue.
They only see variable stuff,they only see the variable cost.
Right?
Oh, we sell a membership for$200.
Let's say, yeah, and we knowour cost on that is 50 bucks.
So they're like oh, he's making150 bucks each time.
You know what?
They forget fixed cost.
Yes, we have to have anoverhead, we have to have lights
, we have to have everything.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Well, even the investments, yeah, the initial
investment to put the money in.
And that one thing that peopledon't ever think about and this
is what every business ownerneeds to remember is that you,
you have taken a risk Totally,because now you have opened this
business and you're taking thisrisk, and not only that is your
time.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Yeah, all the liabilities are on yes you know.
Not only that, but after youlike sell it down the road, then
like you have some liabilitiesthere potentially you know the,
the liabilities you know, andthe time and the heartache and
everything else you're puttinginto and probably not taking
salary In the first couple years.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
You know and then just even like so back to the
story was that this individualnow he's he went behind my back
After he applied, after knowingthat he was gonna get a PR in
the country.
Yeah, he went behind my backand started plotting and and and
did this and started planningon opening his own gym Yep, a
mile away.
Yeah, you know, violating anon-compete, a non-silence,
(14:03):
non-disclosure, and the thing isis that I'm learning, is that
which really sucks for businessowners is that the law actually
goes behind the employee morethan the employer.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Oh yeah, especially when they're in the business,
absolutely.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Well, and that's insane, because then now this
individual goes around it's andthen makes lies and makes
because I'm a business owner andyou know, all of a sudden, now
we got these big facilities,everyone forgets that I'm a
human being.
Yeah, everyone forgets that.
Hey, you know what I gotfeelings, and they don't see the
hard work that you know that wehave to do.
For example, like you know, wetalked about this before, but,
(14:37):
like, part of my job is to putup fires every day.
Yeah, and we're constantlydealing with all these things,
but I'm not gonna let everyoneknow because, like, that's not
what you're supposed to do andyou don't do a business like
that.
Yeah, you don't let anyone knowthe problems that you're having
.
You want to create a positiveenvironment in your business.
So then what happened now is hegoes, and then I find out, and
then all of a sudden, he goesand opens a mile away.
(14:59):
He puts a sob story out thatsays oh yeah, you know, ryan
didn't pay me enough.
I worked so much from.
I did this, I did that.
He cut my pay.
But in reality, the thing was,is that you talked about this,
you got to come to work.
Yeah, you know, this individualmissed 82 days of work in one
year.
Yeah you know, like, what do youwant me to do?
(15:20):
I can't pay somebody thatdoesn't come to work.
Sure, you know.
And then just when you own andthat's why you talk about
vetting employees yeah, he'sbecause you want good employees.
You don't want somebody likehim who shows up or gives us a
call 20 minutes before a shiftand say, hey, I can't come in
today.
Yeah, you know.
And then all of a sudden, likeyou're in a bad spot, yeah,
(15:41):
we're terrible.
And then it makes it worse ison social media.
That night you see him out outto dinner.
Oh, like you know how, likeit's hurtful.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Well, and that's what I really want to get across,
because the common perception,like I said in the beginning of
the episode, is All businessowners are ruthless.
All business owner they they'llget the big corporations and
what they do to employees.
That is not the small businessworld.
Well, small business world isfamily and this is really hard
and, honestly, you I know you'rethe same way as me this hurts
on a different level than we'relosing the business.
(16:09):
This is like, yes, it's.
It's like getting in.
It's like a member of yourfamily cheating on you, your
wife cheating Well that's funnythat you talk about we're.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
For some reason, people don't look at us like a
small business, no more.
No, because because I've all ofa sudden I got a thousand plus
students or a couple thousandand then plus these.
You know it was we at thebeginning of our of the new gym.
We advertise this as amulti-million dollar facility,
but the people don't understandhow that gets calculated.
Yeah, the building is worthmulti-millions.
(16:40):
Yeah, but we had to mortgage itand then we have partners on
the building to buy thisbuilding.
It's not like we just had sixmillion dollars or ten million
dollars and threw it into thisthing.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Well, you know, and it's like you and I talked to
like have been talked beforeabout how DCS started in the
garage.
Yes, it's like I started mybusiness the same way.
You know, I lived off fiftydollars a week.
We didn't even have hot waterto do dishes with or anything
like that.
Our stove was a little toasteroven, you know.
But then you get a couplelocations and you know you have
clients like the WWE and youknow things, or you for the UFC
(17:12):
fighters and stuff, and thenthey figure, you know like, oh,
they've got it.
You know, yeah, and when?
Really, honestly, for me, I canonly speak for me my employees
always made better wages than me.
You know, it's like so likeyou're taking care of them more
than you're taking care ofyourself.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
I'll never forget the beginning days when we didn't
know if anyone was gonna comeand show up to class, we didn't
know if we were gonna havecustomers.
We had to sit, stand out frontof our gym hand out flyers
because we wanted people to come.
Yeah, you know.
And then there was a time whereI like, we find like we never
had private lessons beforebecause no one knew us.
(17:46):
Yeah, then finally we startedgetting like, I started getting
private clients.
Yeah, opposed to not justhaving Students in class.
Sure, and there was a point intime where we didn't have enough
money, where I had to do extraPrivates to make sure that my
staff gets paid.
Yeah, you know, and the thingis that nobody hears about that
stuff right?
Speaker 1 (18:03):
No, they.
They see now that you're howmany years in business now eight
now yeah.
Yeah, years in business.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
They see the glorious thing that you're doing now and
that you're doing all thecoaching, all the UFC fighters
you know, and the ring, and thatand that goes to show like, you
know what they this perception,but then people forget the
little things like hey, you knowwhat I have feelings and it
hurts, yeah, like, what reallyhurts more than anything is like
you do so much for people.
And this was what was a crazything is that we confronted him,
(18:31):
me and one of my managersconfronted him and asked him
like, hey, like, and he'ssitting there telling about
everything he's done for us, andI go hey, I knew you were gonna
sit here and tell me everythingthat you did, but you forget
what we did for you.
And you know what he said to me.
He goes what did you do for me?
I couldn't believe.
I'm like your family's herebecause of us, you know, and
it's just it's sad.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
You know we have to get to, uh, we need to talk
about paperwork.
So the audience understands, um, at some point.
But I was watching a show overthe Easter weekend.
It's just called Outlast, yeah,and I didn't expect to like it.
But it's all these, like thepeople that they drop off in um,
uh, laska, right, and theywould have to be on a team to
win, and they don't give themany food or anything really,
they just have to survive andthey're on these teams or
(19:13):
whatever.
And you're watching thispsychology fold out, right, and
these people are.
I don't want to ruin it foreverybody, but these people are,
like, doing horrible things.
Like at one point I'm sorry, Ihave to spill this out they
steal somebody's sleeping bags,right, you can die out there if
you're sleeping.
Bags are sold just so they canwin this game, right.
But you know, in their minds itbecame everybody else's fault,
(19:34):
right?
Yeah, they came up with reasonsto hate them, and that's what I
find in life too.
It's like people will come upwith reasons to hate you so they
can do bad things to you.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Well, that's the well that didn't.
People lost their humanity,yeah, and that's sad is because
they, like you just said, it'slike they start to think like,
hey, I have to do this tosurvive.
So you know, what Is it?
You or me kind of thing?
Yeah, but he's got it.
I can take this because he'sgot it, and that's that.
That man, I can't believe.
You just said that because thatwas one of the things he said
to me.
No, I know I've been through ithe goes, he goes to me goes hey,
(20:05):
you have, like, because hestarted poaching, or like he
signed a non-compete,non-solicit, non-disclosure, yep
, and part of the non-solicit isnot to take members from our
gym, yeah.
And then I talked to him aboutlike hey, you're stealing
students from our gym and heonly says to me is like, you
have so many you shouldn't care,yeah, and I'm like yo man,
that's stealing, stealing isstealing, no matter what.
(20:26):
You can't do that Like youdon't remember the things that
we went through to get here, toget these students.
We went through hell.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
And we can only tell.
Like we only have so much time.
We can only tell a small partof the story for probably all
you did do for him.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
And.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
I know because I've been in the same boat and I
wasn't smart enough to have thepaperwork you had the very first
go around.
So my employees talk aboutshowing up late.
They would show up late.
These two guys made friends inmy business, you know, and then
it was very small, we didn'thave very many employees in the
first while, right, and so itreally impacted the business and
they would show up hours late,you know, and sometimes so I
(21:01):
switched the company hours.
You know me, I'm up at threeo'clock in the morning.
You're crazy the best thing forme would be have the place open
at four o'clock in the morning.
Yeah, I'd clean the wholebusiness before they would get
there, waiting for them to getthere, excited for them to get
there.
They walk in half on over, youknow, and like like kids, right.
But I switched the office hours.
It still can't make it, youknow.
And then one day they finallytold me well, what are you going
(21:23):
to do?
We're late.
Like well, you can't be late.
You know it's disrespectful andwe need the business to run, is
like well, what are you goingto do about it?
You can't work without us.
And they went and they openedtheir own business.
We went on to open.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Well, that's why you talk about you know paperwork.
Yeah, they got it like you gota outline, and this is one.
They were my closest competitor,well, so this is the crazy
thing is that you think they'reyour friends and this and that
and as family and as um atbusiness advice to any business
owner out there, you got to doeverything by the book and
everything paper trails ofeverything.
(21:53):
So, when it comes to employees,you got to have an employee
contract yes.
Got to outline wages yeah, gotto outline hours.
You got to have a policy abouttardiness yes, and it's like
this guy here he missed 82 daysof work in any normal job.
He gets fired.
But, because he's my friend hedoesn't.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
You know, and that's the main difference between
small and see, these people weremy.
I didn't know them before theycame to work to me, but they
became family, right, and that'swhat people don't realize.
And if you're new out there tobusiness, this sounds like if
you're in business for a whileand you've been in big business,
then it's like sounds silly toyou.
But if you're new to business,you're like why would I need
paperwork?
My buddies are the ones I'mgoing to hire and it's even more
(22:33):
important with your buddies.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
Well then, that's, that's why it's more important
than with your buddies, becausethen that way it's clear,
clarified, right off the get go.
Sure, you know, and it's sadbecause you just don't know
people sometimes, and out ofnowhere, people will change
their mentalities and, like whatwe talked about and then you
just talked about your show is.
Then, all of a sudden, peoplestarted thinking of survival,
yeah, and they think that theyhave to do these terrible things
(22:54):
.
No, they make up things.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
Just survive.
Yeah, they make up things.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Like even like my guy is trying to say that, hey, I
got to do this, or support myfamily, yeah.
Well, the thing is that peopleforget is like yo, like I have
50 employees, yeah.
Like now if you take, yeah, andthen if you take people, and
then I have to cut salaries, howcan you tell me that one life
is more important than the other, kind of thing?
You know what?
Speaker 1 (23:16):
I mean.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
It's not and it's just like your survival story,
right?
Yeah, so it's hard.
You got to.
You got to make sure that youhave the right like.
That's why we talk about thisand you talk to any big business
out there or any business.
It's always about youremployees.
You have to vet them properly.
You got to make sure you hirethem properly and get the right
people.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
And take care of them .
Obviously.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Well, the good one.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Well, I mean, you take care of everybody and you
hope you get good employees, butyou have to.
The good employees will affect,or the bad employees will
affect your good employeesbecause they're like, why are
you giving so and so anotherchance?
Look how hard I'm working.
You know, you really got tothink.
That's what I came down toeventually, is it was selfish
not to think enough about thegood employees.
Right, you have to think aboutthe amazing employees working so
hard that that's impacting them.
(23:57):
The bad ones, it's not youhaving a heart for whether they.
You said it right.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
You have to make sure that the good employees are
taken care of.
But you have to understandsomething A bad employee is like
a virus yeah, it spreads.
So, like you know my employeethat I had, he created a bad
work environment where he wasshowing up like he wasn't
showing up to work, so otherpeople started to think, oh,
he's not.
And then when, even when he wasin class, he was more about you
(24:22):
know, the social aspect,talking to people and on his
phone.
And, like he's my friend, he'snot supposed to be on his phone
during class, but I don't know.
Well, I've told them a milliontimes and then what?
And then all of a sudden,because of that, now everyone
else tried to do it.
So that's what it is, you know.
But back to the whole thing isjust like yeah, it's very
hurtful.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
There's.
There's information out there,but there is no true book you
can follow on every bit of thisstuff.
In fact, I want to say that itwas my lesson learned, my lesson
, my first lesson learned waswhat led to the paperwork.
And then we started doingpaperwork on all our employees
and I'm 99% sure I was the onethat told you to make sure you
have paperwork before youstarted your business.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
It's just hard though , too, because, like we just
talked about now, the law isn'ton the employer side, it's on
the employee side, and whatmakes it harder is that when an
employee is disgruntled, likenowadays especially nowadays,
where people are empowered andare entitled they become a
victim.
Yeah, and then now, because whoright now looks like you know
who's who has a better off theythink that I'm better off Yet he
(25:19):
plays a victim, says that, oh,he wasn't paid enough, oh, he
did so much, and yet you don'tlook at it from the other side,
where it's like oh man, webrought him here to help us and
we brought him here we, we spentall this money to get him here,
we've done all this stuff forhim, like, even like little
thing, like my mom gave him afree car, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Well, I think I don't think people would realize most
of the time if the employee wasan amazing employee too.
I didn't buy the best in them.
If they said, tyler, I want tobe my own, get that 100%.
I am the first one standingthere to invest in them, to help
them.
And how much easier is thatbusiness road going to be for
them now.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
So that's so funny that you do that.
I would never stop anyone fromopening their own gym.
And the thing is is thatthere's a right way and a wrong
way to do things.
And the funny thing was when wefound out, we had to talk with
them and we said hey, why don'tyou just, why don't you stick to
your non-compete and open fivemiles away and guess what?
We'll help you, we'll give youclients, we'll help promote you,
(26:18):
we'll give you even all ourtrade secrets and everything.
And yet he didn't want to dothat because his business plan
was to steal.
He even said it to me.
He said to steal 10% of ourstudents.
Yeah, and in his words, youhave so many.
Yeah, you don't.
You know, you shouldn't care.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
Well, and you know, at the end of the day you can go
after him because it saidpaperwork, but that's a bigger
pain in the ass.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
And it's hard.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
You'll have to make really decisions there whether
to let it go.
I usually think you know thatwinning the war is more
important than winning thebattle.
In the past I've had a lot ofemployees go out and open
businesses on me.
Those guys that I mentionedbecame my closest competitors
and in the end they didn't endup stinging me much at all.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
You know, we went on, we continued to grow the number
one thing that you learningfrom this and this is going to
be a good advice to any businessowner out there is you focus on
yourself.
You know, like I'm not, a lotof people are like, oh, is he
mad?
I'm not mad, I'm hurt, yeah youknow, even more hurtful than
that is that he put a sob storyout and there were members that
I had at my school that had beenwith us six, five, six years
(27:21):
and they they want, everyonewants the bad guy and everyone
wants a good guy.
So now, all of a sudden, I gotput as a bad guy and they didn't
even ask me my side of thestory.
So you know, it's great that wetalk about this, because no
one's heard my side.
Everyone just and what's reallyhurtful is everyone just
assumed that he was the victimand that he was the one that got
wronged.
Yet no one ever looks at thebusiness owner as a human being,
(27:45):
no more, you know.
And then everyone forgets thatI have feelings too, and I'm so
hurt, Like I'm hurt from him.
I'm hurt from a lot of people,not only because they believed
him, but I can see that peoplewant to take us down and it's
like why?
What did we ever do?
Like I'm a hard, like I workedso hard for what we do?
Like we, I work 16 hours a day,seven days a week.
(28:08):
You know, I don't drive noFerraris or nothing like that.
I don't try to show off moneyLike I don't.
And then the other thing is isthat people don't understand?
Is that it's so hard for us?
My mom put her house for saleso we could keep this thing
going, and then now he'sstealing from all of this.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
You know, I know it's a hard story to go through and
you know, I wish we had way moretime to tell it too.
But I mean, I think what I wouldreally like to get across is,
like there is this and I knowI've said a couple of times in
the episode like there is thiscommon perception that business
owners are ruthless.
And I think I mean I hear yourstory, I know who you are too
and I know the way this kind ofstuff went down.
You cared about somebody, youget them involved with them and
(28:48):
then in the end, you know theydon't care about you as much.
You know, and so, and so beaware of that, as you know,
you're not going to be that asbusiness owners or soon to be
business owners out there is,like there is those of us in the
world that our businesses areour family, you know, and we
make actually bad businessdecisions because we care about
them.
You know, if you were justmaking business decisions all
the way along, it'd be prettyeasy, right, you know, but when
(29:11):
you actually and that's theperception, that's not doesn't
get told at all for the smallbusiness people we care about
our people, their family, wefeel responsible and know that
we're the reasons they put foodon their table Right.
If that ends tomorrow, you feelfor that person and so well,
the hardest part is when you'rea business owner.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
You have, when you're at the business, what are you
doing?
Yeah, running the businessTotally.
You don't have time to go spend10 minutes, uh, socializing
with this person, then thatperson, then that person yeah,
you know what I mean.
So people don't get to see theperson that you really are.
No, you know, and they don't manbehind the curtain at that
point, and then all of a sudden,you become the man or whatever
(29:49):
you would they want to call it,you know.
And then all of a sudden,you're just this corporate
business.
Yeah, you become a corporation.
You're not a human being, nomore.
And then all of a sudden, it'slike you know, people just want
to take you down and I don'tunderstand that.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
I mean, I, I can speak for this and vouch for
this, and unfortunately we'verun out of time today, you know,
and so we could maybe haveanother discussion around it.
But you run a family place asfar as I'm concerned, and that
means the students, theemployees, you know, I've seen
it from the outside and I thinkyou do an incredible job for the
community.
Thank you so much.
You know, cliff and I do aseries on bullying, you know,
and so, like we've talked aboutbullying before, you've given
(30:23):
tremendous insight.
He's actually on an episode ofour podcast.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Yeah, make sure you guys check that out.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
Yeah and uh and it's really important.
It's not just a fight, jim, youknow, it's a community changer.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
Well, it is like for us, like I know there's not a
time, but we do things to thecommunity, like we talked about
this on that episode.
I don't like I'm not thatperson that wants to show off
what I've done, but we do freewomen's self-defense courses.
We do anti-bullying seminarsfor free for kids.
We have a kids, a youth karmaclass where youth troubled or
troubled youths are there totrain for free because we want
(30:53):
them off the street.
We have kids parents that bringtheir kids in and be like, hey,
we need, they need martial arts.
And I'm like, hey, bring themin, they don't have to pay.
We but I don't advertise this.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
No, I know you're doing incredible work and you
know, um, we should get back youon a different show, you know,
and we'll talk about a differentjourney Today.
I hope that we got across toeverybody out there there that I
really want to beat thismisconception that all business
people are heartless and wedon't care about our people.
We absolutely care about ourpeople and, in fact, um, you
know, employees are the hardestpart of business Hands down.
(31:25):
There is no harder part ofbusiness than employees, and
when you're, when your love forthem gets in the involved too,
makes it even harder if you'renot a ruthless business person.
So, um, so I hope that helpedyou today.
Um, Ryan, thank you for comingin.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
You know, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Uh, check him out.
Dcs in Vancouver, the lab herein uh Arizona, you can watch him
quite often.
Uh, he's in the corner and useUFC fights.
Um, great, all around guy.
Uh and uh yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
Thank you so much, Tyler.
We'll get you back again.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
We'll talk about a different subject.
Thank you All.
Right, thank you all for tuningin.
We'll get back to a differentsubject next go round.
Thank you for joining.
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