Episode 660 - Mr. Brian Doucette
Mr. Brian Doucette is a Martial Arts Practitioner and host of the Everyday Martial Artist Podcast.
You can also get a good student out of a bad instructor. Even a good instructor can put out a bad student sometimes, unfortunately. Because they train with the same person with the same thoughts and philosophy can be a complete polar opposite instructors and people.
Mr. Brian Doucette - Episode 660
As for so many people in the 1980’s, there is this one moment in the decade that defined their childhood. When Karate Kid was released in 1984, Mr. Brian Doucette gravitated towards Martial Arts when he saw himself on Daniel LaRusso. Mr. Brian Doucette is the host and creator of the Everyday Martial Artist Podcast and it was conceptualized as early as the 1990’s. Having been working in a local radio station, Mr. Doucette has always tried to produce a Martial Arts show on the radio but he was always turned down. Years later, due to the internet, Everyday Martial Artist Podcast was born.
In this episode, Mr. Brian Doucette tells his journey to the Martial Arts and the creation of his podcast. Listen and join the conversation!
Show Notes
You may check and listen to Mr. Brian Doucette’s Everyday Martial Artist Podcast at everydaymartialartist.com
Show Transcript
You can read the transcript below.
Jeremy Lesniak:
What's going on everybody? Welcome. This is whistlekick Martial Arts Radio Episode 660. My guest today, Mr. Brian Doucette, you don't know me, I'm Jeremy Lesniak. I'm your host for the show. Founder here at whistlekick, where everything we do is in support of the traditional martial arts. If you want to know more about what we do go to whistlekick.com, it's our online home, it's also the easiest place to check out our products. Yep, we make and sell stuff. And if you use the code, PODCAST15 you're going to get 15% off. Anything you can find in there from shirt or a hoodie or protective equipment, or maybe a uniform or a training program. A mug, we have mugs, lots of cool stuff. Now, if you want to go deeper on this, or any episode of the website, we break that out separately, whistlekickmartialartsradio.com is where you want to go for that, because we bring you two episodes each week, and they get their own pages. And it's just it's a lot of stuff. So, we spread it out, split it out, probably a better way to say it. But the goal of the show is well is to connect martial artists with each other to educate you through all the things that we've got going on, and to entertain you. And of course, this show is a big part of all three of those things. It's kind of the, the focal point of where we devote resources.
And if you want to support the work that we do support this show, you know, we could go the public broadcasting route and just beat you over the head for a couple of weeks a year. But we don't do that. Really, I'm just going to rattle off a few things you can do. You can make a purchase, you could share an episode, you could follow us on social media, you could tell a friend or training partner about us, you could grab a book on Amazon review on Facebook, or Spotify, or Apple podcasts or Google or pretty much anywhere else you could imagine. Or you could support us on Patreon patreon.com/whistlekick, it's a place where we post exclusive content, and you can get access to at least some of it for as little as $2 a month. Some of it is gated, the more you are willing to give us the more we're going to get back exclusive audio exclusive video book drafts, tons and tons and tons of good stuff going on over on Patreon. Thank you to all the Patreon contributors.
About a month ago I had the pleasure of speaking with Bryan Doucette for his podcast everyday martial artist. We became acquainted because he submitted a show for martial arts podcast.com And I went hey, seemed like a cool guy. Let's chat. And so, we chatted a little bit and he was like, come on my show. And I was like, okay, come on my show. Okay. And so, what you get to hear today is him coming on whistlekick Martial Arts Radio. Great talk, as you might expect of two people with a lot in common. And I really appreciate this guy. I think we're going to be friends. I hope so. So here we go. Hey, Brian. Welcome to whistle kick martial arts Radio.
Brian Doucette:
Thank you, sir. It's great to be here.
Jeremy Lesniak:
It's great to have you here. You know, we were turning the tables. You did this to me. A month ago. Was it that long ago?
Brian Doucette:
Yeah. It was probably about a month ago. Maybe three weeks?
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah. And you got to hear me ramble. And now I get to hear you ramble.
Brian Doucette:
That'd be fun. I like to ramble.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah, just about any other context. Like if we didn't have that time in suggesting that I rambled and now you're going to ramble might be offensive. But you know, we've got that time. And so, I know it's talking to offend you. And, you know, we do some very similar things. So, I'm kind of kind of pumped about what's going on.
Brian Doucette:
I can tell you pretty much nothing happens.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Nothing?
Brian Doucette:
Oh, that's that pretty much.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You know, if we didn't have this, like family friendly, kind of. We tried to keep on the show. I would try so hard right now. Are you at all a South Park fan?
Brian Doucette:
I used to be. I haven't watched in a while but I used to never miss an episode.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I think it's the first Halloween episode. Okay. They create a machine. No, it's I think it's the first Christmas episode. They're trying to come up with a nondenominational non-offensive. Christmas, non-Christmas Pageant. Yes, that's right. And so, they build a machine to track the offensiveness of words. Do you remember this part?
Brian Doucette:
I do, actually. Yes.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Well, I'm not going any further with this. If you in the audience, if you know what I'm talking about. You're probably laughing right now. Because they're trying, they're like, let's string all these offensive words together. That's what I would do. If this was a different kind of show. I would appreciate the challenge. It is a family friendly show. We try to keep it PG-ish. So, we're not going to go there. We're going to go just about everywhere else. Anywhere you want to take. Remember that? Oh, this may be the one episode that never ends. You got to get him a patreon to hear this one, folks. I'm just kidding. How did you get started? There? There's the easy, simple, boring question. We got to get out of it. What's your origin story?
Brian Doucette:
So, you're in martial arts are in podcasting.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Martial arts, I know, we'll get to the podcast part. Martial arts blends into everything with life, right. But let's, you know, let's put a pin in, in the map of your life. And we'll start from there and spider out.
Brian Doucette:
So, I grew up in the 70s and 80s. And I loved watching the Saturday, the Kung Fu theater, Bruce Lee movies, the Kung Fu TV show, all that stuff. And that was something I never thought I could do. Never in my life thought, you know, these guys are amazing athletes and, I was the kid who wasn't an athlete, I got picked on a lot. And kind of the turning point for me. As for so many people who grew up in the 80s was June of 1984. When I grew up a movie buff, I, you know, that's not much else to do in my hometown, the town of 7000 people in central Minnesota. If a movie came up, all my friends were lining up to go to it. And June of 1984, was the premiere of The Karate Kid. And me and my friends went to that. And I was so enthralled and just fell in love with that movie. But the key point of that was as we were walking out of the movie theater, a local martial arts school was standing in the lobby handing out free 30-Day Pass. It's brilliant. Yeah. And I took the pass and kind of looked at it and as I'm walking, you know, this is Daniel kid can do it. Maybe I possibly can. I'm going to do these free 30 days. And yeah, that I think that opening was on a Friday night that Monday night, I went to my first Tang Soo Do class with a master instructor, Bill Nelson. It was in a dance school above the local police department. That was kind of my beginning in martial arts.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Wow. Yeah. What was it? What was it about the film? Right, like, I mean, that's a perfect storm, you know, age wise, culture wise. The school handing out flyers in the lobby, which, by the way, if anybody out there has a martial art school, and you're not capitalizing on Cobra Kai, I've said it a number of times. Like that's, that's your shot right now. Don't ignore it. I mean, what was it about the film?
Brian Doucette:
When I was 10 years old. Like I said, I was kind of like the I got picked on. I was like, Daniel, I got bullied as a kid was wasn't super popular. I was into computers and stuff. Which, you know, there's a whole another part of my life because one of the one of the other movies just to give you a little hint of that kind of changed my life was Wargames I was really into computers and stuff. And I was kind of like the nerd in the 80s. I got picked on a lot. And it was it was that argument, just the, you know, the self-defense and the physical fitness part of it. And, and, unfortunately, it was only able to do it for about a year and my parents can afford to keep sending me I think part of it was a financial partner was they probably thought it was a phase, and I wouldn't stick with them. And I found out to my mom, and she to this day regrets because my mom actually joined martial arts in her 40s and got her black belt. So, she regrets not letting you keep going back then. So, I mean, when that the film does, I mean it was just doing is one of the perfect movies out there. It's just, it's one that I rewatch at least once a year. And not just because Cobra Kai came up every year probably since I got on DVD. And before that VHS I rewatch it at least once a year.
It's one of the first movies that in Star Wars with the two movies I was so looking forward to showing him my kids. And when I had kids, I'm like, yeah, a bunch of other movies. I've shown them to what those two are my kids are going to love Star Wars. They're going to love Karate Kid. And they all do. They've all watched them all and stuff. And it's just it's a great movie as a family movie, the acting in it. [00:08:56-00:09:00] was my first Sensei, he really was just an amazing character. Obviously, just everyone in there, they all played the parts perfectly. Dart and the played the evil bad guy, hard ass mean, brutal karate instructor perfectly. And I make it to that a little later by I had an instructor kind of like that, that actually, later on in life that drew me to hate martial arts to a point. So yeah, it just had all the elements. It's just one of my all-time favorite movies. I'll never get sick of it. I just watched it again a few years back, and then I heard Cobra Kai was coming out on YouTube right and I went to watch it again. Thanks very excited. I'm watching all three of them again before I watch this stuff.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And so, we both watched it on YouTube read we were there before flex before it was cool. Oh, yeah, you know, karate kids a great example of something that is greater than the sum of its parts, you know, you, you spoke complimentary of the acting, and outside of Pat Morita. I would not speak complimentary the act or the writing, or, you know, have really just about any particular element of that movie and yet, I love that movie.
Brian Doucette:
Yeah. And I'm speaking that as my 10-year-old, so obviously when I go back, I mean, yes, the movie holds up. But I mean, compared to, you know, like some Academy Award winner. You know, that Morita was nominated and stuff, but I mean, it was. Yeah, he was definitely the best character in there. But yeah, I mean, compared to what I would consider an amazing movie now acting wise yet. It doesn't even come close. But it's just for a 10-year-old kid. It had everything I needed. I think I probably saw it four or five times in the theater, which, you know, back then probably cost 50 cents apiece. And guessing back in the 80s. But yeah, and I don't think it was until the second or third movie came up where I actually realized that, you know, [00:11:05-00:11:06] wasn't a teenager when he made it.
Jeremy Lesniak:
No, he was like, what? 30?
Brian Doucette:
Yeah, I think he was 27 or 28. When he made karate gets three, if I remember correctly. So yeah, he wasn't mid 20. They before to like 2324 25, or whatever it was. But yeah. So at the end, he still holds on to it. Yeah, I mean, once you know it, you can tell obviously, yeah. But if no one would have said anything. No one would have realized they might not have thought he was 16. But I don't think anyone would have thought he was in his mid 20s when that movie came out, so yeah, it's like I said, it's just one of those things. I never get sick of watching. I could probably watch it once a week and won't get sick of it.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Alright, so karate kid gets you into you said tank pseudo. And you plug along there for how long?
Brian Doucette:
About a year, about a year before? My parents couldn't afford it. I think I ended up scamming that free month. I think I probably went about six months before he realized I hadn't paid for lessons. I just kept turning. I had a bunch of the free passes. And I kept turning him in. And I don't think his assistant realize you couldn't use more than one. So yeah, I kind of did that. I was 10. Yeah, it says about a year. And then that would have been about ‘85. And at the time, that was you know, there wasn't anything else I found that was the only martial arts school in my town and, and with my parents are willing to pay for it. I went to I went to only and I went, I got books, I started my black belt magazine, Ninja magazine, Kung Fu ills, any magazine, I could find a certain body and went to the library got every book I could find on martial arts, started reading biographies on martial artists. And then of course, you know, after that movie, you know, the boom hit with Seagal and Van Damme and all those guys, and I got even more into it. And it wasn't until it was 1990 when I was going to turn 16, I had made the plan. The school I was training at wasn't there anymore. And at the time there I don't think there was any other schools in my town. I made the decision that I wanted to learn to still do it. I have a job now so I can pay for it myself. But the closest school when I was 30 miles away, because I was like that was a pretty small town, a town of 7000 people in the middle of nowhere Minnesota. And I found a shotokan school about 30 miles away. And I made the decision the day I turned 16 I was late my license.
I was going to start grabbing the lessons and the day before I turned 16 was in high school gym class January 23 1990 playing kickball and someone, I was running for home base and someone threw the ball at my feet and tripped me and I my knee bent about 45 degrees around direction and completely shattered my lateral meniscus. Yeah. Everything I talked about it; I can feel the pain. And back then they went in the scope they need to check it out and back then the technology that it was they wouldn't rebuild me as I'm someone that young. You had to wait till you're stopped growing. So basically, they said when you're about 19 or 20 We're going to go on and rebuild your knee and tell them you will be able to do nothing physical can't do a physical therapy. You've got crutches, or a knee brace doing anything but no more gym class, no martial arts, whatever. And I'm like, okay, whenever I don't trust doctors, so I went to physical therapy and started just working out extra and get my knee strong and about six months to a year later than my junior high school. I just put my knee brace on and started going to show the podium talking to my doctor. So yeah, I never trust a doctor. So, but it was rough. I mean, there were times when you'd go out and I'd be on the ground and pains. I couldn't do it. As hardcore I didn't even get to advance, I think I only got to about a second belt and should gone just because there was a lot when I'm injured my knee I go back to Physical Therapy and stuff.
And that went off and on for about a year to a year and a half, until I left my hometown for college and moved up to Morehead Minnesota, where no one has ever heard of, but it's across the river from Fargo, North Dakota. And when I was signing up for college classes at Morehead State University, one of the first classes I saw was taekwondo. So actually, the first college class I signed up for, I'm like, I don't need the biology who needs this? I signed up for Taekwondo, and then whatever required classes they had to, and by then my knee had actually gotten into decent shape. You know, I still hadn't even gone back to that doctor even talked about getting ready to rebuild. And still to this day, have not had a rebuilt. But wow, yeah, I know, I know. But I started taekwondo three nights a week. And I also found there's three colleges up in this area. And I found another local college that had a aikido instructor. It wasn't an actual class. And he wasn't a black belt. I think he was second to believe. But he basically just taught it for fun for his own his own to keep training and keep draining. But it was 10 bucks a month for five days a week, every morning at 7am. So, for, for about six to eight months, I woke up every morning at 7am. We got thrown around before I went to class and learned how to fall properly and how to roll properly. And it just got to the point where my schedule and being college kids can have a seven the morning was not the thing I wanted to do at the time. So, I ended up stopping that. But I did stick with taekwondo. And with that instructor for about two years.
So, it was through my sophomore, most of my sophomore year of college, but he's the one I kind of reference and called John Kreese. He's the one who all he cared about was competition. All he cared about was winning. Didn't care for students that hurt didn't provide safety gear. So, we don't have it. We get hurt, and literally drove me to hate martial arts drove me to the point where I was going to quit completely. I just it was not fun anymore. That's not what I want to do, I think was a green belt in traditional taekwondo. And I was going to quit I was going to after the end of that semester, I'm going to get my grade I was I quit and one of the red belts who, to this day, I thank him, I was lucky enough to actually track him down. Thank God for social media. I tracked them down on Facebook. After almost 30 years, I hadn't spoken to him since about 1994 or ‘95 Maybe. And I tracked him down and decide just wanted to thank you. Because he said, there's another instructor in town, who I think you'll really like. You should go check this out. And he told me the name of the school and told me it was and I call the school and find out when the classes were instead, I want to come watch one I'm not sure and kind of told him what was going on and stuff and he invited me to come watch and I still remember vividly that first class I went and sat down.
There were six adult classes in class that night. Three of them were sitting with their back against the wall, the lake stretched out in front of them with their pant legs rolled up and their partners are leaning over them with a bow staff rolling it on their shins. Really have this look of pain. And I'm like, what? Why am I here? I'm going to call this guy back. This guy said what are you doing to me, but I luckily and stayed and watched the rest of the class and talk to the instructor. And I've actually been with that instructor since 19, March of 1994 for traditional taekwondo. And I got through that myself a few months later. And I actually interviewed him on my podcast, my, traditionally when I was recovering. If I taught like I did in the 90s, I'd have no students. And he said, If I talk about my instructor did in the 80s, I'd probably be in jail.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah, it's changed a lot. And anybody anybody's been training for, you know, 30/40 plus years knows what we're talking about. And then, you know, once in a while we get the, the older folks on who were training in the 50s or 60s, and, and they, they look at our comments about the 80s. And they just, you know, shake their head. You guys don't even know you don't even know what inappropriate training it's like, we're like we're bragging about this suffering that we went through that it's somehow, I guess you can make an argument for it, but I think we can make a lot of arguments against it.
Brian Doucette:
Oh, yeah. Who had it worse? Battle scars? Yeah, yeah. No, but yeah, it was just luckily, he was just what I was looking for in a martial arts instructor. He was my Miyagi. Basically. He completely what does that mean? To me, he's, I've trained in a lot of styles over the years. Into that time, I moved to California to train in American Kempo and I've dabbled in judo and some boxing and stuff and, and he's the best instructor I've ever had. He's a true martial artist, you know? for the right reasons, he doesn't do it for the money. You know, he brings the real-world lessons into class. You know, he's, he's I've never seen an instructor that good with kids in my life. He's just amazing with kids. And all three of my kids went through him as gods or junior black belts or him and, you know, just give one example, one of the things he does, when it's getting close to testing time for kids, he'll send home a sheet of paper for the parents that has two questions on it with yes or no answers. It says, my child's been doing well in school, yes or no. And my child been respectful at home, yes or no, if either one of them was a no, the kid doesn't test. And he's had many times more parents. So, he's like, some parents will lie just because, you know, they want their kid to get that belt. And he has to tell the parents, he's like, you need to be honest that kids need to learn this.
A lot of kids, they miss out that test, and it's hard. One of the first time my kid cried was when he didn't get a test one time, because I checked my one sheet and he was not happy about it. So, it's things like that. He does it for the right reasons. Now, he's one who doesn't do contracts. He does not believe in them. He's one of the first instructors in this entire area that actually hosted an Open tournament and might have other schools and other styles instead of just the Federation. And I actually got him blacklisted from the Federation. He was part of and stuff because he was inviting other schools to its tournament. You know, yeah, how dare you. I know he doesn't get just doesn't get involved in the political parties. So, at the end, the sad part was, is that him and that first Taekwondo instructor have trained with the same person. So, it's tight. It's like, yeah, they always you know, the most of your best student about instructor well, even a good concert instructor can provide a, you know, put out a bad student sometimes, unfortunately. Because they train with the same person with the same thoughts and philosophies and completely polar opposite instructors and people so. Okay. One of the things I really liked about him is he didn't the one the first question I asked him was this uh, do you force competition? He kind of laughed, he’s like, no, if you want to do it, I'll encourage it, we'll train for it. But I would never force it because my first instructor forced me to enter tournaments, which I had no interest in doing. That's not why I got involved martial arts and stuff.
And yeah, that's he's like, I would never force a student. He's like, if you do it, that's great. I'll support you. Our students do well in tournaments. But you don't have to. So yeah, yeah, it was it was it was actually kind of funny because I was taking at the old instructor, I was taking it for a credit through college, I couldn't just quit and started this new school. So actually, trained him both for about a month. And I have actually got my next belt at my new school. And we'll still one lower belts, with the other one, too. I've been training the other one more. And I remember when he found out it was I accidentally, had grabbed the bag, but had my other belt in when I went to college. And I think he saw that he like he's pretty much hated me ever since.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You know, I'm never going to understand that attitude, this idea that someone finding a better experience training in another school is somehow wrong. You know, if you're, you know, you mentioned the school that you found that you felt the instructor was training for the right reasons. You know, what, in my mind, the Right Reasons are sharing knowledge. And it's rooted in a desire to help people progress as martial artists. And if you truly want someone to grow and progress should not extend to their ability to find instructor better than you.
Brian Doucette:
100%
Jeremy Lesniak:
It should. Of course, we know it doesn't always.
Brian Doucette:
It's up to us to bring in other instructors from other styles. We train in judo and jujitsu, we train in boxing, we know different things like that we blended in. Whereas the other instructor when he found that was taking Aikido trend to forbid me from taking Aikido threaten to fail me. Fail me from a college class because I'm taking another martial art you actually wonder the Dean about it. Like yeah, no, you can't do that. But he threatened to. So yes.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Oh, yeah. That's so ridiculous. I know. That's, I'm sorry. I'm glad you kept going.
Brian Doucette:
I'm glad I did. I'm glad I found that other instructor and sat through the terror of both sat on the shins.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Now, you've mentioned your podcast, you know, obviously as we get deeper and we'll talk about that, but I want to go back because the podcast is really the fusion of two to mind knowledge, two loves of your life martial arts and radio. And we've already progressed past the point where I know you started in radio. So, can you tell us how that happened?
Brian Doucette:
Yep, so it was just a random thing. I mean, it was kind of funny. Yeah. That was 15 years old. And I had a friend that had just got hired at a local radio station. They basically were hiring. You know, they call them babysitters, but basically a board someone to run the board during like sporting events and stuff like that. He's like, “Hey, bro, come on, [0:25:19- 00:25:29]. And convoy is like you like talking on radio, like you get to. He's like, “Well, no, but it's a cool job”. And at the time, it was the best paying job in town for teenagers. I think back then the minimum wage is at 335 an hour, and this was a job to pay $4 an hour. So, wow, I know, rich dude, I remember that will pay for my martial arts lesson. So, I won't say I just want to apply it and got it. And it was actually kind of funny because my sister who was a few years older than me. She was certainly her first year of college. That September. I started in September of 1989, with a radio station. She was just starting her freshman year of college to go for sports journalism, and mass communications and radio. So of course, being the wonderful little brother. He says, guess where I got a job? You're going to college radio, and I just got hired. I was bragging to my big sister. She's like, whatever. The first she loved that. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. So yeah, it was just it was a pretty easy job. And except initially, they didn't let us talk on the air. But a lot of us, we'd sneak stuff in if we knew it was like a weekend when the boss was out of town.
We'd sneak in like a weather thing or something like that. And we do weather and I had that job all through high school. And college radio when I got the college campus radio show and I like the college radio thing because they thought you play anything. So, like my show was a combination of I go from, like Elvis and Buddy Holly into like Run DMC and Def Leppard on the same set. Nice. That's, yeah, my mom board. Yeah, my range of music and people listening and stuff. And it was just something I kept doing. And I did radio full time for about a year and almost went bankrupt, because radio doesn't pay well. But it was about 97. I moved back from California after I moved out there for American capital, and then came back here when I got to get married. And then I first had the idea of doing a martial art talk show, I actually pitched it to my stage manager, like, hey, this is this could be cool. Like, at the time, I think we had like 15 martial arts schools in the area. I'm like, this would be really cool. I could talk to local instructors, or whatever. And this, this new thing UFC is going on, we could talk about that and whatever it was, and no work like okay, fine. You know, a few years later, I was another station. Hey, has this cool idea? Know what work? I think I pitched it. For five stations. It just kept getting kept being told no. You know, no one thought it would work at one of the stations that back in the bows and talk station I worked out as probably about 2009-2010.
I actually went out talk to about at the time now we had like 30 Local martial arts schools, I want to talk to probably everyone in the instructors that hey, I want to do this. I had five sponsors lined up. And 15 guests lined up and went to the stage. And I said here, here we go. This is going to be a successful show. I have all this music and everything. No, it won't fit into our stations. Like you're turning now money from sponsors, because you don't think it'll fit. So yeah, I kind of put it on the backburner. A few years prior to that, I got into doing voiceover and started focusing on that instead of radio. And then this podcasting thing started coming becoming big. looks kind of cool. I could maybe do that at some point. And so I had the idea in the back of my head that I wanted to do it. And then when the pandemic hit, I'm like, this is a perfect time I'm going to do and I started reaching out to as many contacts as I listen to you for a podcast and you'd like to be a guest I just started reaching out and prerecording interviews and getting snail bought the website. And I think I had 20 or 22 interviews prerecorded before I launched the show.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Wow. More than I had. I had like four
Brian Doucette:
Hmm, I'm kind of a perfectionist like that, because I used to do also produce a syndicated radio show. And about what oh, that was actually an acapella radio show. And oh, cool. Yeah. But I ran into trouble one time where I got sick. I was only doing like one or two at a time ahead. And I got sick for three weeks and couldn't get them into episode on time. So, they dropped to show my lesson and actually, yeah, have another podcast I have an acapella podcast. It's completely different for my life. But I do that. And for that one, I had this much shorter episode than interviews on this just music, and I had free five episodes done before I launched. Those are like on average anywhere from nine to about 15-minute episodes. So, it's you know, three songs and I just intro to the songs and boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. So that was a lot easier to that's why by the martial art, my initial plan was to get 15 done. I'll have years done. Now the undertaking much longer than I thought. So, I went with 22. Yeah, yeah, I think it just was episode 32 came out last week. So cool. So, it's going, going well, I'm getting some good guests and tells you good stories, but it was just for me, it was always a way to blend the two things I love on your production. I love talking to people have always been about that. I love doing interviews and I always say I love martial art.
So, it was a smart way to blend them all. And I've had good feedback I've been the initial thing was I was going to go into the interview like my old instructors and people that I knew or people that I trained with. And I started looking and I had some contacts with some well-known people. And maybe they'll say yes, I reached out to a few people I interact with on Facebook, and then I've met in real life. And more often than not, they said, yes. So, I'm like I started before the show got done, I kind of changed it. I was like it's you know, as my intro says, it's like some of the guests you've heard of, and many you may not have. So, it's kind of a mixture. You know, people who are diehard martial artists have probably heard of a lot more of the guests. Whereas other people probably haven't, you know, some people are tuning in to listen to one specific interview, and hopefully they'll tune in to other ones. But yeah, it's been nice. I've, you know, local instructors in different parts of the country that I've talked to and local marshals I've done people have on movies and TV shows, and people have trained with Bruce Lee back in the day. So, it's yeah, it's been fun. Every time I think I'm like God, I'm running out of gas and on someone recommend like five or six more, and I'll reach out and they'll say yes, so. Yeah, I love it. It's a lot of fun. It does take a lot of work as you know.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I do. Yeah, I do. But it is a lot of fun. And, you know, once you get rolling and for me, actually, I don't want to say this yet. I want to get you to talk about it before I smashed my own opinions on your episode of our show. How has you your time doing your show talking to these people impacted your training perspective on martial arts, etc.?
Brian Doucette:
The question I don't know if it's necessarily impacted my training other than motivating me to do it more. You know, it's the knee injury still bothers me. So, it's sometimes it's tough to get going. And I've taken breaks I've taken sometimes a couple years off. That was when all my kids were going it was much easier for me to go. And then as the kids got busier and got involved in other things, it was a little harder to go running them around different sports activities and theater activities and different things and Boy Scouts and everything. So, you know, there's times where I'll take breaks off. And they give me an example I originally tested for my black belt in November of 1996. I actually came back from California, just to test the night before Thanksgiving. And I didn't pass I missed three things as I move back to California, but back to American Kempo. And then I came back here and got married and come back to my retest. And then life got in the way we got married, we bought a house, we got different jobs, we have kids. Fast forward 10 years, I finally went back and hard I went back a little bit every now and then I'd go back for like six months, I go back for a year when my kids were doing it. But finally in 2006 on back, I'm like I'm finally doing this as a year. And I worked my butt off for like six months, I trained about six to seven days a week, four hours a day, whenever I possibly could. And finally got my black belt. You know, after 10 years, you know, and then I got great into it right after that started.
I started training right away for my second degree. And same thing life got in the way kids got annoying other things, kids got older kids got involved in more activities. And it just got kind of pushed back on the same thing. I'll go back for three months here. I'll go back for six months here. And just it's I actually went back and almost opened my own school five years ago. My instructors are trying to get me to open my own school since I was a red belt. He's actually offered me as a red belt offered me one of his schools. And I had to turn it down just because of everything else. And I finally said yes, about five years ago, and about two weeks into getting everything figured out and location and everything. I re injured my knee. And I just I took that as a sign I told my structure like I just don't think I can. Like it's you know, and I was on crutches for a while. And orthopedic surgeon, you know, who was kind of funny was actually a former Black Belt, former taekwondo school from back in the 90s that I used to train with. He was like, you've never had your knee rebuilt and you've been doing all this time and I'm like, yeah, what's the bad news? And he actually said he goes, if you can get off crutches within a week, you did not have to have surgery. I can get off crutches today. He's like no, you can honestly get off crutches for the week. Buddy goes off in about five days. But he's innovating, said, if you seriously injured again, we have to have a very important conversation because you cannot put off the surgery forever. So yeah, it's just it's the doing this, it has gotten me back into it.
It's not some of the interviews with some of the local martial artists actually did look in their schools, some of the in-person ones and anytime I step into a dojo or dojang, or whatever it just it gets me motivated and stuff and, and my full-time job, my instructor moved his martial arts school book two years ago, and he moved it. It's about a two-minute drive from my full-time job. So, I'll go there on my lunch break and just take a half hour and hit the heavy bag and practice my pattern and just stretch stretching. I used to hate stretching, and that's probably my favorite thing to do. I feel so good. It's, it's, it's funny how our priorities change. As we age, I'll spend a half hour stretching sometimes I know like, Man, I feel so good. So yeah, that's a big part of it is just putting it back in my head front and center and making you want to go back and do it. Certainly, everyone, people have similar stories. You know, one of one of my guests had same thing, she had done it as a kid, and then came back to it like 20 years later as an adult because she was dealing with some depression and stuff. And she liked that I got back into it. Because of that, you know, I've had similar things. The time I get into it again, recently, my daughter went through some of that. And it was her decision to come back.
She was like, I think that will help my mental health. So, she wanted to go back into that. So, it was her choice to go back in and I went with her and my instructor's patient, he knows he knows about the knee, and he's not going to push me to do anything that's going to injure me. He loves having someone there with my knowledge, my background that can help him. And one thing I've always loved doing. Like you mentioned earlier, sharing knowledge, one thing I love doing, and I've always done it ever since ever since I started getting me a key to our school like 1995. If a student is struggling, if a student wants us to extort before a tournament before a test, I will offer to go in there on a morning on a weekend. And I might start to like make sure you charge them. I've never charged them. Honestly, I've never taken a dime. I knew it because it first of all, it helps me as much as it helps them. But I'll go in with, you know, parents and their kids and help them get ready. They're having trouble breaking up board. Just to me, it's my duty as a black belt to help them. And I always love doing that.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And it's like, let me poke at that. Why is it your duty? I'm not saying they disagree.
Brian Doucette:
Um, I just think when you get to that level, I mean, for me personally, you know, I'm sure it's different every school, but like one thing is that like at our school, when you get to lock belt, you no longer pay for lessons. So, to me, if I'm not paying him for lessons anymore, but I still get to go to class, I still get to translate. And I should be giving something back. You know, my instructor is not the kind that will require it. He will never force someone say you need to come helps each class; you need to do this. But I've always felt I need to. It's like he's giving me this, I need to give something back. And I've always felt that way. And I wish more students would feel that way personally. But yeah, it's just something like and like I said it also it's just it helps me. It helps me more than it helps them. It really does. I honestly believe that. But I love doing. I love teaching. That's why.
Deep down I always thought I'd open a martial arts school. And who knows, I mean, maybe I still could, I don't know. But like I said, life keeps getting in the way and stuff. But I just, I love teaching. I love sharing the knowledge. I love that my kids are doing it. And I got to do that with them and stuff. And all three of my kids were great instructors, too. They, they got to help each class, I think they saw how much I enjoyed doing it. And I've had a lot. I think on average, when I go back to class, and I meet new students, and I see them struggling, on average, I'll probably tell every year 10 to 12 students say here's my number, here's my email, if you want to go in and practice, I will gladly come in quietly.
And I'll tell 10 people a year, and on average, one or two of them will take you up on it. They just Why do you think that is? I honestly don't know. Because I'm not going to help them. I'm not going to ask why did you call me like whatever. Then I'll watch them like they'll task to like, you know, and they'll and they'll not pass like, offer still stands. Yeah, I'm not going to push it but like, offers hands if you want to wrap this up, we'll gladly help you before you retest. And sometimes the second time around, they'll do it sometimes not. But I honestly don't know why. I think some people maybe are maybe intimidated with like a one-on-one lesson. But to me the one-on-one lessons are the best I've ever had. And there's times where over the years where, you know, we didn't have as many students as we do now with a school and a joke or class on a Friday in the summer. I was the only one there. And other people would be like, oh crap, it's going to be hard. And I'd be like, oh, great, private lesson for 90 minutes.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I love it.
Brian Doucette:
Yeah, I love that. So that's some of my favorite software's like this past June. We had a Friday in June where we had 36 or 37 adult students in a class on a Friday night. Which is actually the same biggest one I've ever seen personally, like the biggest kids' class I've ever seen as well. 34/35 on the adult ones like 37. But that's not average, obviously. And usually in the summer that's usually in the summer, you'll see maybe five to seven on a Friday night the summer. But yeah, Friday, Friday night stuff anyway. Yeah, I think we had 15/20 black belts, and like, you know, 15 or so colored belts. It was crazy, but it was fun. It was a lot of fun. I love doing it. Yeah, it's just something that hopefully will be burned. I obviously realized won't be able to do traditional taekwondo forever. That's one thing I you know; people take them to the Olympics. Not quite. There are so many different types of Taekwondo. There are so many different styles. And its tech, there's probably, I don't even know how many. But it's yes, we do the sport part of it. But even like the sport stuff we do compared to the Olympics. I don't think I've ever seen a puncher on an Olympic Taekwondo in my life.
Jeremy Lesniak:
No, no, because it's incredibly my understanding is it's very hard to score. Yeah, it can't punch to the head.
Brian Doucette:
Yeah, and ours, you know, it's hard to score, but the ones who do it. You mean, you can usually tell? Because it'll knock them down? You know, it'll be a solid punch, you know, I think I can count on one hand, the number times I've seen a punch score, but you don't have to throw punch justice, or you can use to set up other stuff. I mean, they literally just have their hands hanging down in the throwing kids nonstop. Or do we know? That's one thing art, you know, my instructor and his instructor always stress? You know, it's, you know, taking those 50% kicks, 50% punches. It's not just me almost we've all taken those 90% kicks, not style wiki. Online forums, when people start ripping out Taekwondo, it's like, well, you've never seen real traditional taekwondo. You don't know what you're talking about. It's not the Olympic stuff. This is the stuff that the, you know, the Korean Tiger rocks used in the war, the Special Forces and stuff. That's the stuff the use of their military. It's effective, and it works.
Jeremy Lesniak:
But let's talk about that for a second. Because like me, have the opportunity to talk to a variety of martial artists about a variety of subjects. And we all know that casting aspersions, you know, is that the phrase I'm looking for, like to poke at other at other arts, and be very reductionist and find a thing that they don't like about it? And thus, dismiss all of it. Yep. You know, so the example you gave with formerly WTF? Olympic style, whatever you want to call it, taekwondo? Oh, well, look at what they do in the Olympics. So that must mean that absolutely everything that they do is completely irrelevant. Yeah. Why do we do that?
Brian Doucette:
I don't know. I really don't. I wish I did. But as I said, the only thing I can think of is that, because of like, on the Olympics, and because it's on TV, that's what people see. You know, unless they're going and looking for it on YouTube, or it's like that, you know, they're the only thing they've ever seen is what they've seen on TV. And most people don't take the time to go in and look at a school, especially if they already have a preconceived notion about it. Right for me, I still make it a point of a new martial art school opens in my town. I go in, I introduce myself, I welcome them. I talked to him, even before it to the podcast, I would always do that. Like, you know, hey, just you know, if you ever want to cross train, if you ever want to come in and like you come to our class on might, we'll come to yours, whatever and make that offer and most people are really cool and open about it. Now, we used to do a couple of years. It's been a while since we've done this, but me and another gentleman. He did it one year without me and then he met me and I helped him for like two or three years now we'll used to do this open martial arts seminar. It originally was fine as a one-day thing. And when I got involved, we kind of grew it to a two-day event for like two years in a row. But we basically invite as many styles as we could we reached out to different instructors from around the Midwest. And we had two full days, we got the one is our biggest year we had to take one though we had shorter con we had Aikido, we had jujitsu, we had judo. We had Shaolin Kempo. American Kempo, we had, like 15 Different styles, MMA, kickboxing, regular boxing, and that's all they got.
They each got anywhere from one to two hours as much as they want. And they basically teach whoever was coming. I think it was like 10 or 15 bucks to come for the whole weekend. He could go to as many of the seminars as he wanted. And yeah, it was awesome. And the guy who was doing it with me just decided he wanted to go a different direction and didn't want my help anymore. And I don't think it happens anymore. But it was so much fun just going in and sharing that knowledge and seeing the different styles and stuff and all the instructors were very open and welcoming to people and realizing you know; we may not get any students out of this but they get to at least see what our hearts about. We had a Japanese idol demonstration which was beautiful. We have some great sportsmanship and stuff. I think we did some [00:45:03-00:45:11]. Yeah, that was kind of cool. We did that. And we actually used to do. An instructor does a big open tournament every year. Now it's taken on grappling. But the first few years he had it, it was actually taped onto a bug group, which was kind of cool. Seeing that and see actually bullied competition, which is kind of cool. But yeah, it's just to me, it's just lack of knowledge. People, you know, they make up their mind, and nothing's going to change it. Unfortunately, anyone who's on social media and those people that are like that about any topic you can think of, and make up your mind. And that's it. But it's with martial arts. I mean, one, as you remember, from my show, all the questions they asked is, you know, tips you give someone looking for a school, it's like almost everyone, I asked that to get as many schools as you can talk to different instructors wants different classes, talk to different students, you know, don't just go away when other people say, make your own decision.
visit as many as you can. Anyone who asked me that, and I probably get asked that question once a week from people that I work with, or people that I know, are friends of friends, like, what should I look for? And I'll usually get my list of 15 schools that said, go watch a class and each one of these schools take a free class, and each one of these schools talk to these instructors. And obviously, I always I'm a little biased. And so, there's certain ones I'll maybe put above the other, but it kind of depends on what they're looking for and stuff. But yeah, it's just the take on all things. Probably and unfortunately, there are some bad schools offer that give styles never clean. There's no such thing as a bad style. There may be some bad systems, there may be some bad instructors and students and stuff. But I mean, yeah, I take that back. There's, I'm trying to remember, there's one style they used to be taught when I was taking taekwondo. In college, there was another style on campus at the time, we had two styles. And this style actually got kicked off campus. Because of what they were doing. If I remember correctly, it was it was called Joku Thai. If you know much about that, I had never heard of it. I never heard of it. Tell me more about it one of my friends took it. And one of the things he had to do, I think it was for his green belt test. And a sit down like a horse-riding stance. And like doing these, like secret breathing techniques, and get kicked in the groin 10 times. Changing facial expression, special breathing or whatever. And I'm like, and then he did, he went through this and did it and then got his Green Belt, then he could a week later, he quit afterwards. He quit before if I was going to quit. Yeah, School found what they were doing. So, I'm like, hey, that's the style I wouldn't recommend to someone.
Jeremy Lesniak:
But the question is, is that a mandatory implementation? Yeah, who knows? In that style? You know, I've never heard of it. So, I can't say, but I like the way that you said it. You know, yeah, there are bad instructors. I agree. There really aren't any bad styles. Just like there isn't bad food. There's food that can be prepared poorly. There's food that you can eat too much of or too little of or, you know, the classic you had a glass of orange juice and forgotten when brushed your teeth. Right brushing your teeth is good. Orange juice is pretty tasty but you know it's not a good idea.
Brian Doucette:
I just got this shirt and I hate that.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah, nobody likes everyone. Right? And so, I kind of look at martial arts in that way you know, I've known terrible instructors from just about every martial art that I that I've experienced that I've known wonderful instructors you know, it's about the person people are different people range there's far more range and in the quality of human beings and the quality of martial arts technique.
Brian Doucette:
Agree. 100% agree to that. Yeah, it's like me personally, I think it's something I think everyone should try something in martial arts at some point their life. And I honestly think that if everyone did that, and tried with the right instructor, they probably stick with it. But unfortunately, some people like I said, some people have like my hometown right now. There's one martial arts school in my hometown, where I used to live this one martial arts school, that's it. Whereas up here where I am now, there's 30 to 35 within 40-mile radius. That's crazy. Probably half of those are probably take one down. To be honest, I'm not getting there as well. I mean, we have we have Shotokan, we have MMA, we have boxing, we have kickboxing. We have Okinawan karate, Aikido, judo, so it's a very well mixture and stuff. And there's probably sometimes I have nothing, you know, and unfortunately a lot of people don't have that option but It's an important thing and I wish more people would do it. I think a lot of people are afraid to join as adults, because obviously, it's, it used to be funny. If you think back and talk to instructors like the 50s 60s 70s. They never taught kids; it was only adults. And that there was a boom, I think, because of movies like Karate Kid, Ninja Turtles, Mortal Kombat, where suddenly there's more kids than anything. I think a lot of adults are maybe intimidated and don't want to join as an adult, most adult classes are a lot smarter kid's classes. And in any karate school you go to, I would say.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah, it rarely, we bumped into a guest on the show, who mentioned that their adult program is stronger than their youth program. Right. But really, I think we, as an industry bear the blame on that, because of our collective messaging. You know, we speak to these personality traits that we do so in a paternal a parental way. You know, learn self-discipline, and respect and do better at your homework and all these things. And it's very clear from the messaging where we're talking about children, when, really the messaging should be paying adults. We know you're intimidated to do this, but it actually would be really good for you. So, you should do it. And then as they get in there, then we can teach them about the benefits for their children.
Brian Doucette:
Right? That's a great point. Yeah. I don't want one cool thing my instructor does, is, you know, a lot of schools do like bring a friend to class day bring a friend to class, he actually will do it in the kid's classes. I mean, once a year, he does bring your parent to Class Day.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I love it. Yeah. How does that go?
Brian Doucette:
It's kind of cool. The parents oftentimes are very talking about intimidated. Yeah, they're used to being in charge and stuff at home and stuff in here, the kids no more than that. So, there's like the kids, and he usually has the kid teach the parents some of the stuff. So, it's kind of reversing that role a little bit. And I'd say on average, maybe after that, if maybe 10 parents show up for class, three or four might actually sign up for classes, and one or two might stick with it. But it was one or two that do usually stick with it. So, and there's also somewhere else, they'll join at the same time, like, hey, if my kids going to do it, I'm going to do it, you know, things like that. Obviously, the parents and kids in the same class, that's not a normal thing. I see kids. They are, as you know, they're taught differently. You teach kids differently than you teach adults and stuff. But it's, it's just one way to get him in the door, obviously.
Jeremy Lesniak:
So, let's talk a little bit more about your show. Yeah. So, you've given us some ideas about what you do and how long you've been doing it? Where can they find yourself.
Brian Doucette:
So, it should be on all the podcast apps for the most part, and most of the popular ones, it's the show's called Everyday Martial Artists. They can go directly to the website, everyday martial artists calm. And then once they get there, click on all of us. I think the first most recent four episodes are on the homepage. But if you click on all episodes, you can scroll down and get to all of them. Like I said, it's every Thursday. I know I've been having issues with for some reason, Apple and Google have been taking a long time to release the episodes like other apps will release them. Within a couple hours, we'll be dropping the episode, where Apple and Google are taking 12 to 15 hours, those episodes to come out. So, I would highly recommend if you have another app, try that one first. Or go directly to the website to lesson. But it's every Thursday. And its episode 32 came out last week, technically as 33 episodes, the first episode.
Most people if you know much about podcasting, it when you first launch the show, it takes a little while to get the episodes to all the apps. So, I did an intro episode, basically, and meet the host. And I had a friend of mine, who was also in radio, but also a martial artist. He interviewed me on the first episode. And that one I kind of put out there and let that sit up there for two or three weeks just to get all the apps that I started releasing my interviews. So So yeah, there's 33 episodes with episode 32 of the most recent one. And then this coming on today. I don't know when this will air but by the time this airs, and the next one should be out and that's actually a fun one. That's Michael Matsuda was the president and founder of the martial arts History Museum in Los Angeles, so
Jeremy Lesniak:
Oh, nice. Yeah, I love what they're doing. Yeah.
Brian Doucette:
We also do flip things fast, most things, everything. I've had, like I said it's quite a range. I've had people who fought in the UFC, I have friends who fought in the UFC number two, if people are big, UFC fans, and Maria de Mars, who a lot of people may know may not know Ronda Rousey is mom, who in her own right, five-time national judo champ CEO of multiple companies is an amazing woman. That was that was a really good interview. A lot of fun. Games a mile. I don't mean we talked about a little bit who was one of Bruce Lee's original students in Seattle, unfortunately passed away this year. As far as I know, I was his last interview So I definitely recommend going out and listen to that one. And I mentioned you know, my acapella podcast and my alcohol radio show and stuff. And one person I had that I put out, I have another whole online profile because in radio I used a different name for this podcast I decided to use my real name because that's how I'm known to most martial artists but in radio I actually use a named Brian Michaels. So, in the pot in the pocket hello world knows Brian Michael. So, on my acapella world, I put out there hey, my friends out here martial artists, and any kids of the 80s or 90s that remember the show where in the world is Carmen Sandiego.
Yeah, you know what time it is do a Rockefeller. So, the base for acapella named Carl, who's a good friend of mine, found out how to study martial arts wants to his life. And so, he was actually one of my first guests. It was a great conversation, and just know that's a different part of his life that most people don't know about. Yeah, so I love it. Yeah. And Perez, Olympic gold medalist, people like that. And some people are motivational speakers as some improv comedians. And so, he said, it's a very nice mixture of some Hollywood stunt people. Adrian Paul was a recent guest when it was all about your show and stuff. And so yeah, it's really fun, I enjoy it. I go back and listen to my first four or five episodes. And wish I could read. Don't do that. I know that I interviewed him a year ago, before the six, eight months before the show launched, before I really had a handle on how I was going to do it. They're still good. They're good interviews. But I definitely had a better handle on how I was going to thing and how things were going to flow and how things are going to sound.
So, they definitely got better after those first two episodes, but they're still fun to listen to. But I just enjoyed it. It's a lot of fun. So far, all guests. I've really enjoyed it. And I think they're having fun with it. Some more good ones coming up. Yeah, I think your episode. I'm not sure when this one will air on your show. But I think your episode should be up and about. About a month from when we're talking about. It'll be right about the same time. Okay, how funny is that? Cool? Yeah, I think there's four or five more episodes like this for people have used about five weeks from now when your episode drops off.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Which if I'm doing my math, right, this is going to come out the Monday after? Because you said Thursday. So yeah, yours will be out the Monday after mine. Oh, how fun is that? We didn't even plan. Good, beautiful Friday.
Brian Doucette:
Hopefully not thought to take the time to fully edit those. So, I got about two more edited than I have. I got about six more I have to edit. But I love it. I understand. And that's the thing. I do everything myself. That's the one thing is I do I do. And I as you know, my background in radio, audio production. I'm kind of a perfectionist. So, I mean, one hour interview, I'll spend three to five hours policy on that episode and making that sound I know. I don't have to spend that much time on it. But I've also had so many compliments on the audio quality of my podcast. So yeah, now that doesn't mean I don't want to stop doing that.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I understand. So, I love what you're doing. You're doing you're doing great, great stuff. I've said it from day one. I don't care what show you listen to as long as it's the show you like the most I don't care if it's our show. If it's if somebody you know, listens to this episode, and they're like, I'm going to check out Brian show and you listen. Sorry, Jeremy, I like Brian show better do it. Because if you find a show that you like better, as far as I'm concerned, it's more likely to keep you training. And that's the goal. Right? The goal, this show is not the be all end all. The goal is not that you listen, it's not about numbers. It's about the wider martial arts community. Right. And that's why we do things like you know, we were initially introduced because of martial arts podcast.com. Yep. And that's why we put the resources we do into that site. Because I want people to have the support the lifestyle elements, that they can derive that support and further their joy in martial arts
Brian Doucette:
That I think most podcast listeners listen to more than one podcast anyway. They do. I probably have. I subscribed to about 60. I don't listen to every episode of every one of those, you know, pick and choose. But there's probably about 10 that I listen to every episode. You know, and I've actually, you have one more episode than me. I've gone back because I certainly wasn't new a few so far. Because I've gone back and started listening to the beginning. I'm trying. Oh, don't do that. Whether I'll get through all 600 plus, who knows? I love doing when I'm driving the car. I used to be a talk radio guy because I worked in radio. And I honestly don't know the last time I had AM/FM on my car pretty much when I'm driving now. I listen to podcasts, either podcast or music. Alternate between because, well I just like cars sometimes she does like listening to podcasts. No, I'll flip on like Spotify. Something bad or whatever. But yeah, I mean, there's so many podcasts out there. And it's an important medium early is it's come a long way since 2006. That's for sure. Compared to what it used to be. Yeah, I mean, it's the shows slowly growing. I mean, obviously, I got to figure out that Google Apple issue, for one thing.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Try releasing, you know, try bumping it up, you know, an hour or two earlier. Really? There. Yeah, there may be, you know, there are so many podcasts now that it is possible that they are prioritizing things, you know, because there's got to be some way of handling, you know, stuff as it comes in. Yeah. So, if you're releasing at the same time as everyone else, that could be it. Okay. And it's easy enough to try.
Brian Doucette:
Yeah, because right now I'm doing just after bed like trouble five midnight, every...
Jeremy Lesniak:
I wouldn't think that's the problem then. But, you know, maybe try make it a couple hours later, I just kick it around a little bit.
Brian Doucette:
Like, I'll try something somebody listeners will. Some people will only listen on wonderful. Like, there's like, there's some podcasts, I used to listen to that one exclusive to like one thing, though, only on Spotify. I don't listen to them anymore. Because I, I personally don't like listening to podcasts on Spotify, myself. I have other podcast apps I enjoy. And if I can't get the show on there, I'm unfortunately not going to listen to it, even though is one of my favorite shows. So, I think there's two podcasts now that I just don't listen to anymore because they weren't exclusive. Yeah, I'm sure it's not all about the money. Unfortunately.
Jeremy Lesniak:
We're all trying to make a buck here somewhere along the way.
Brian Doucette:
Yeah. But I would hope that if that offer came to me that I wouldn't do it, even for the money. I mean, I just I've never been a fan of inclusivity and stuff like that. So
Jeremy Lesniak:
Spotify comes to you, and they say, you know, we're going to give you we're going to give you the next Joe Rogan deal. You know, 60-100 million over 10 years with whoever, you know, depending on who you believe. But it's got to be on our platform exclusively. You're saying no to that. I'll go on record right now. I'm not saying no today.
Brian Doucette:
I honestly hope I could I really hope I could. I mean, it's funny. I'd like to make some money with this. But I didn't start the show to get rich. And I would hope if they're that interested, then other people would be too. So, that's a great point. Yeah, I would hope I couldn't say no, I really would. Who knows? I mean, when someone's dangling that in front. Yeah. Who knows what you're actually going to do? Yeah, it's, I've just never been a fan of God for stuff like that. So that's kind of the end kind of goes back to my instructors. And you can only train me. You can't train anywhere else. Maybe. Maybe that's part of it, you know, in Spotify, like John Kreese or something.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Spotify is this John Kreese a podcast platform ago. You heard it here.
Brian Doucette:
Put on a t shirt.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Spotify. The beauty of our guests does not necessarily represent the views of whistlekick, and staff. All right. Well, Everyday Martial Artist, everydaymartialartist.com, right.
Brian Doucette:
Yes, correct.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay, so folks, I hope you do check out Brian's show because he's doing some great stuff. And you know, if you like the show, there's a really good chance that you like that show as well. And if anyone wants to say, interviewer.
Brian Doucette:
I'm open to suggestions that people want to suggest certain guests, you can email me at everydaymartialartist@gmail.com. And just send me an email and say, hey, you should have this person or, hey, my instructor has this really good looking for people with good stories, different backgrounds, you know, as many different styles as I can, it doesn't all have to be celebrities. I guess I've got a handful most recently, but it's a nice mixture. So, you know, just people with good stories to tell that like, like talking and telling their story and talking about martial arts and martial arts, movies and whatever else we talked about.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Nice. Well, time to wrap up shop here. So final words, you know, your last bits to the folks listening? What do you want to tell them?
Brian Doucette:
I would just say, I said earlier, I think everyone should give it a try. If you're sitting here, you're thinking, you know, me and my kids do it, but I'm too old, whatever. My mom joined in her 40s and got her black belts. The whole reason she did it is because she came to a demonstration we were doing at a local fair. And one of our students was 83 years old and testing for her red belt. And my mom saw her and she's like, I'm signing up tomorrow. So, it's don't let age scare you. You know, there's I think there's a martial art school there for everyone. Yes, you can do virtual stuff, but I personally don't think you can do virtual unless you have a background in it. Initially. It's hard to learn from scratch, because you have to have someone giving you feedback and telling you what you're doing right. But I just think try it. Even if it's just for a month. You know, most schools will give a free two weeks Now, if they don't, who's not against you try it for free without walking into something. Maybe walk away from that one for the most part. But I mean, most schools are willing to give some kind of intro lesson or beginner thing, just give it a shot and try it. Try as many as you can. And I honestly, most people who try it, like something about it, whether you're going for physical fitness, whether you're going for self-defense, whether you want to get into competition, maybe you want to learn to break boards, or bricks or something like that, but it's learned weapons. That's another part of it. But I just think everyone should try it. And I like is that hopefully it's something I'll be doing the rest of my life, maybe not the same style, but I want to be involved in it for as long as I possibly can.
Jeremy Lesniak:
There are times when I talk to other martial arts podcasters, where I feel like I'm talking to myself in a sense, if you think about it, the very personality qualities, the attributes that make us who we are someone to get involved in martial arts. Well, you know, we already have a lot in common, we talk about that on the show a lot for someone to start a podcast, that means they have something in common with other people having podcasts. Well, what about martial arts podcasters. There aren't that many of us. And I found that most of them are really amazing people and I appreciate their friendship and their support and love when we get to collaborate this episode, not an exception. So, Brian, thank you look forward to building a friendship getting to know more about you and collaborating in other ways. Down the line.
Thanks for your time, listeners. Go to whistlekickmartialartsradio.com. Check out the show notes for this episode. Check out Brian's website everydaymartialartist.com, follow our social media at whistlekick. If you want to support us in the work that we're doing, remember, there's tons of stuff you can do, like, buy a book on Amazon, tell somebody else about what's going on. Or of course, the Patreon patreon.com/whistlekick. Don't forget, we've got training programs. The whistlekickforce program is an equipment free at home. Incredibly effective strength and power development program that is going to integrate amazingly well with your martial arts training. If you want to learn more about that and the fact that it's way less expensive than you would probably think it is. Go to whistlekickprograms.com, you can read more about it. Grab the FLEX program while you're over there. It's completely free. If there's something that you want other than that, well you're going to have to go to whistlekick.com for that, but don't forget there's a code PODCAST15, if you've got feedback for you know, topics guests. Did we get some right, did we get something wrong? I want to know. Email me Jeremy@whistlekick.com. That's it. So, until next time, train hard, smile. And have a great day.