Episode 800

In this very special episode, Jeremy and Andrew are joined by the whistlekick family for the podcast's 800th episode!

Episode 800

In this very special episode, Jeremy and Andrew is joined by the whistlekick family for the podcast's 800th episode! Jeremy starts by looking back at the very first episode and how it got to the 800th. Also, hear from our friends and guests who’ve helped whistlekick through the years. Listen to learn more!

After listening to the episode it would be exciting for us to know your thoughts about it.

Andrew Adams:

Jeremy, we're gonna start out with just you and I. We, when I say we, I mean whistlekick we, not me.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Yeah.

Andrew Adams: 

When the show first started out…

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Will we.

Andrew Adams: 

The royal we. When this podcast started out, it was just you.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

It was just me.

Andrew Adams: 

It was just you interviewing a person. Do you remember who that person was? Do you remember episode one? Episode number one?

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Episode one was my old friend Huzon Alexander.

Andrew Adams: 

That's right. So…

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Thank you for confirming.

Andrew Adams: 

Well, letting all the audience know. Yep, Jeremy remembered.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

He does remember.

Andrew Adams: 

So that very first episode, it was just you and Huzon. What was going through your head at that point?

Jeremy Lesniak: 

What have I gotten myself into? Can I actually pull this off? Can I actually figure out how to interview stuff, people? Can I put together a show that people are gonna watch or at that point listen to? Is it going to be worth the time? You know, it was a lot of concern. A lot of fear.

Andrew Adams: 

Yeah.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Because at the time that we were doing this, you know, whistlekick at that point was simply a sparring gear company and I was struggling to get the word out. And so I had this massive list. I've talked about this a little bit before. I had this massive excel sheet, and I still have it somewhere, and it was all of the ideas, what are all the things we could do to advance the company? And it was like 75 things. And so I came up with my own scoring system. Time, money, and impact. And I rated all of the things. I suspected that having a podcast would be the top option cause it was gonna take some time and a little bit of money and potentially could have a massive impact. And when I worked it through the numbers, absolutely that was the case. And so we did it. But of course, when you do a thing, you don't know how it's gonna go. We've talked about this a little bit before that I was not the original intended host for the show. And because at the time, I was a very shy person. The idea of being public wasn't something that I was comfortable with. The idea of being the face of anything was not something I was comfortable with. And I mean obviously, a lot has changed, but I had to step up.

Andrew Adams: 

Yep, yep. And you know, you have talked about you were not initially going to be the host. I think most of the people watching or listening would agree they're glad that you are because you do a phenomenal job.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Thank you.

Andrew Adams: 

The number of times that we hear a guest say, oh, that was a very good question or you know, I've never thought that like that was really good. That happens a lot. And that's because you are listening with intent and you bring a lot of insight to your interviews. And so that's…

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Oh, thank you.

Andrew Adams: 

That's really good. And so we as the audience get to benefit from that, so thank you.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

So I've been very public I don't research you know, and that surprises guests a lot. And it started cause I didn't have the time. I was like okay, I'm gonna have this person on for a show that is gonna be listened to by, at the time you know, 50 people. How many hours can I justify putting in on top of the recording and the editing and the publishing and all that, am I really gonna put in half a day researching this person?

Andrew Adams: 

Yeah. Yep.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

And the answer was no. But what I found, because I also listened to a lot of podcasts, by not researching it put me more on the same page with the audience.

Andrew Adams: 

Yeah.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

And I realized that the thing that drove me nuts about some podcasts was as a listener, I felt like I wasn't in on the joke, so to speak, that I didn't have the information that the host and the guest if it was that kind of a show, had time in before me, you know? And I wasn't able to hang and to go along on the ride with them. And so what started out as not having time actually turned into my style.

Andrew Adams: 

Yeah. Well, and it allows you to knock in with any sort of agenda cause you have no idea.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Exactly.

Andrew Adams: 

And occasionally you do, you may know the guest ahead of time.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Yep.

Andrew Adams: 

But for the most part, you don't.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

But I pretend I don't, right? I try to think if there are things that I know about them, if the audience is gonna need that context, we'll still talk about it. I don't gloss over it. And I think if there's something that I have that makes me a skilled interviewer, it's the fact that it's, I don't care what I have to think in the context. It's not my episode. It's the guest episode.

Andrew Adams: 

Yeah.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

And so I shut the heck up. I mean, that's really, that's the, if you listen to martial arts radio when I interview someone, you listen to most interviews, that's the big difference is. I shut up…

Andrew Adams: 

Yeah.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

And I let the guest talk. and we've talked about this a little bit before, I think we have to move on, but I'll say this one thing. If you all listen to the show, quite often there will be points where I'm talking, and then the guest talks and they think that they're passing the ball back to me, but I know that there's more that they want to say or should say and so I shut up.

Andrew Adams: 

Yeah.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

And I create, see? It was right when you said it. I create that…

Andrew Adams: 

That talk.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Discomfort in the silence and someone will be willing to fill it. If I'm not gonna fill it, it's the guest. And in that moment, when the guest fills that space, they're not censoring themselves. And that's my big strategy. My big strategy, right? That's all I've got. I've got, my whole philosophy as an interviewer is I don't talk. Right.

Andrew Adams: 

You're [06:11.0]. Got it.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

But it works.

Andrew Adams: 

Yeah. And you know, you're not the only one that does that sort of thing you know, Brian Doucette, actually commented that he does little research on his guests, which, so, you know, it's a good way to go.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Brian's show Everyday Martial Artist.

Andrew Adams: 

That's right.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

He does a wonderful show. Would encourage folks to check out what he does.

Andrew Adams: 

In the really early days, it was just you. You did everything. It was…

Jeremy Lesniak: 

I did.

Andrew Adams: 

whistlekick Martial Arts Radio was a one-man show. What was that like?

Jeremy Lesniak: 

I realized how much I hated audio editing. It is not enjoyable. I can still do it and once in a while, we'll put things out like, we haven't done any little while, but they're on my agenda. Do some more quick hits. You know, those like kind of 6o second things like those are me, you know. I still have the skills. And I did a fine job, Julius does a much better job and I'm glad that we have him and I'm glad that I don't have to edit. And I'm glad that his standards for audio quality are much higher than mine ever were.

Andrew Adams: 

Which leads perfectly into, it was a one-man show for a while and then you realized, I don't want to do this all alone and Julius is the first person that we're gonna chat about really quickly. We'll segue into the next part of our episode here, talk about how Julius and how you got connected with him and what he does.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Julius was the first person that I brought on. And you know, he lives internationally and I hired him through a website, you know. I was like this is what I need. I need somebody to edit this podcast and put together a transcript and you know, handle all the backend stuff. Basically, I just wanted to hand somebody my notes from the episode and the raw audio and have them put it together. And I'd put together, you know, I had a format, right? Like there was intro and there was outro, and I had to record those and you know, that had to be spliced. But it's easy to forget that back in those early days, I paused a lot. There was a lot of, let me think about where I want to go from here, you know. Any guest from the first probably 50, maybe even a hundred episodes, it doesn't happen very often now, but I would say, okay, gimme a second while I think about how I want to transition. I rarely do that now.

Andrew Adams: 

Yeah.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

But there was a lot of work.

Andrew Adams: 

How long was it before you brought Julius on board? Do you remember how long you had been doing it by yourself?

Jeremy Lesniak: 

A year or two?

Andrew Adams: 

Okay.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Because we're just about eight years now and he's been with us for six. If I'm remembering correctly.

Andrew Adams: 

Yeah. he does.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

And he does a phenomenal job. You know, I never have to question the quality of his work, which I absolutely love. And he's given a lot of suggestions and he's become part of the team, you know, and I'm really thankful for him, you know. and I love that we're able to give somebody work that has been impactful in their life and it gives him a lot of flexibility with his life, you know, I'm not gonna tell his story.

Andrew Adams: 

Sure.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

But you know a little bit, we've talked about what goes on with him. I'm not gonna, you know, put his story out there publicly cause I didn't ask him if he was okay with that. But he's a member of the team and there are times, Andrew, when you and I record and we'll just kind of say, you know, we'll talk to him like through the episode. It's like, oh, Julius take that part out, or whatever so.

Andrew Adams: 

Or even just do fun things before-after the episode like, hey Julius, watch this.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

There are ridiculous things that none of you have ever seen that Julius gets to see.

Andrew Adams: 

So yeah, that's right.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Again, right? It's value. There's my favorite word. Try to give value to him.

Andrew Adams: 

So, for a long time, it was just the two of you. And then, at this point in the show, I feel like Jeremy, this is your life. So I'm gonna bring somebody on and we're gonna talk to them and it's the next person that you brought onto the team. And so let's see if I do this right. I think I hit this button and then all of a sudden.

Lessy Trail: 

Hi guys.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Hey, Lessy.

Andrew Adams: 

We are joined by Lessy. How are you?

Lessy Trail: 

I'm doing well. How about you guys?

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Great. Great.

Andrew Adams: 

So Lessy, you are a name that was mentioned fairly often for a long time when you were involved with the show. But there may be people now that maybe got involved recently that might not know who you are. So, I would love for you to tell us how you got connected to whistlekick and what you did. And then I'm gonna, Jeremy I'm gonna ask you to…

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Sure.

Andrew Adams: 

Comment a little bit.

Lessy Trail: 

Certainly. So, Jeremy and I knew each other a little bit from martial arts events in the area. We had met at various tournaments and that, [10:57] you know, acquainted for, is there someone who would like to get involved with the show? I realized I need some help with this and I was like, oh yeah, I get to some artists and you know, interact with all these cool people, sign me up. So, it sort of grew from there. And I started out just to helping suggest guests, helping reach out to guests. The first guest I booked was I believe Adrian Paul from Highlander, that I think the first guest I booked on the show. So that was early 2019, I think. And so I would sort of, you know, hear about someone people would suggest guests to me, I would, you know, hear the names. I would go, hey, that's an interesting style of martial arts. I'd like to learn more about that who's somebody that practices that? That kind of thing. And it kind of you know, it kind of grew from that and it was a ton of fun.

Andrew Adams: 

Jeremy, what did it help or what did it mean to you to have Lessy a part of the team now and be able to take some of that burden off of you?

Jeremy Lesniak: 

It was something that I hadn't realized quite as much beforehand. I didn't realize how much time I was spending getting guests onto the show. And I had zero awareness, thanks Robin. I had zero awareness, hi Nathan, without intent that I was biased, right? My connections were primarily to karate and Taekwondo practitioners. And so if you look at when Lessy came on, you can, there's two very marked differences in who came on after. The first is we started seeing more grappling cause that's something that she's been passionate about for a long time. And then secondly, we had more women come on. And that was something, you know, we've never had a quota on the show. It's always been, you know, let's, we want variety, right? And Andrew, you and I have talked about this, there's no rule here, but you know, if we look at our guests and it's, you know, just a string of guys. Just as if we looked at our guests and it was a string of women or a string of karate practitioners, you know, we're looking for variety. And it was something that had you not been part of the show Lessy, I don't know when that would've happened because I, you know, I'm not aware of my own biases. And the show took a huge step forward and upward because of not just those things, but many things that you implemented the show became professional when you became part of it.

Lessy Trail: 

Well, thank you. I really appreciate that. It's awesome. I've stepped back from helping out with the show now, but I still consider myself sort of part of the whistlekick family. Still friends with everybody and kind of suggest guests here and there. I'll be like, oh, hey, I heard about this person. You should maybe talk to them. That kind of thing. So I still like to kind of chip in where I can because it's such a great team and it's a lovely community of martial artists from so many different styles and backgrounds. And you kind of, you know, the really cool part of it is that you see all these people who are on the surface so different, you know, they'd make, you know, different styles of martial arts, different backgrounds, different places, but they all have those commonalities, those traits that you find uniquely in martial artists. Well, maybe not uniquely, but commonly in martial artists. And that's kind of, you know, it builds this great community. And that's you know, the best part of it for me is just all these cool people, all these have been a wonderful experience and something I'm very happy to have been involved in and continue on various levels to still be somewhat involved.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Well, I know you set the bar high for Andrew and he's worked hard to..

Lessy Trail: 

Andrew is awesome.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

He is. He is doing a great job. And you did a great job, but you know what, I've gotta say, you had the harder job because there was nobody. All the things that you had to figure out, he just got to do what you were doing.

Andrew Adams: 

Yeah, it was definitely easier for me, Lessy cause you put a lot of stuff already in place. And so when I came on board, you made it incredibly easy for me to just step in and I can't imagine how difficult it must have been for you to not have had that. So, thank you very much for all you've done for whistlekick and you mentioned it already, you are absolutely still a part of the whistlekick family.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

For sure.

Andrew Adams: 

This podcast would not be where it is today without you.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Wholeheartedly agree.

Andrew Adams: 

Awesome. Well, Lessy, thank you for coming on.

Lessy Trail: 

Thank you so much, guys.

Andrew Adams: 

Awesome. Alright, so we're gonna let you go. Let's see. How do I do this?

Lessy Trail: 

Thank you.

Andrew Adams: 

Bye. All right. So, yeah, that was cool. That was really fun. Jeff Curry says, when did you realize that you needed people because your guests started to have people due to their fame?

Jeremy Lesniak: 

The two weren't connected. I think I understand why Jeff's asking the question in that way, and it wasn't connected. It was, you know, once, you know what I realized, okay, so, you know, bringing Julius on was kind of necessary and it really helped the show move forward. And I had, I don't remember all the details. I'm sure I could track back, but I think bringing Lessy on was, I think this would be a good thing. And some of it was because I realized that going after bigger guests meant more work.

Andrew Adams:

Yeah.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

And I didn't have the time, right? And once I realized, okay, by offloading things on my plate so someone can focus on them, can do a good job, can invest their energy into it, things get better. Uh, that was actually a massive transition, not just for the show, but for the company.

Andrew Adams: 

Awesome. Alright, so you continued Lessy as a, you know, helping get guests. She's your kind of booking manager. And then, I'm gonna add to the stream the next person, our next guest to chat with, which is Mr. Chris Rickard.

Chris Rickard: 

Hey guys!

Jeremy Lesniak: 

How's it going, man?

Chris Rickard: 

Oh, 800. 800.

Andrew Adams: 

800!

Jeremy Lesniak: 

It's like the sequel to 300.

Andrew Adams: 

And then so.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

You know, they survived that one. The odds are a little less in their favor. A little more in their favor. There we go.

Andrew Adams: 

So Chris, welcome and it's great to have you back on the show cause you've been here before. It's not like your first time here.

Chris Rickard: 

Yeah. Third time's a charm.

Andrew Adams: 

That's right. Right. Talk a little bit about how you got connected to the show and you're still currently working for whistlekick, so talk a little bit about how you got connected and what is it that you do here.

Chris Rickard: 

So way back in 2017, my five-year-old daughter finally said hey, I want to do martial arts. And I was like, yes. And at that point, my wife said that I could get back into martial arts as well cause she knew how big of a role it had played for me back when I was living in the state of Maryland. And I've been listening to podcasts since long, long time ago. And I found a whistlekick there in 2017 and I started listening. And every once in a while, I would shoot Jeremy an email in response to something that was on. And then on one episode, I think it might have actually been a first cup episode, Jeremy said, if we had unlimited funding for whistlekick as a company, what would you do? And I was like, okay, well shot 'em in email. It was like, here's the idea, you're going to actually interview everybody in person. None of this Skype, none of this Zoom, none of the way that we're used to doing it, you get to interview them in person. And then when the interview's over, you get to do a training with them where they teach you one thing that is sort of their signature thing or something they love and that got me a phone call where it was like, hey, can we talk about this? And we made a go of something along those veins and it didn't peer out or didn't work out because it wasn't the right time. Not saying it's not something that we wouldn't pursue in the future, but that wasn't the time. But that's where I got involved and…

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Sorry, I forgot about that.

Chris Rickard: 

Yeah. And so my role's been, I talked to Jeremy. I've bounced questions off of him. He has questions, he bounces them off to me. I read things, I ask questions. I read Master Hopkick. I write a book of questions that instructors can use for Matt Chat. That was my effort at like a subtle transition that I just blew out of the water by pointing it out. But that's kind of my role. I've helped out with the Never Settle Awards. It's a lot of looking, a lot of reading, a lot of question kind of stuff.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

whistlekick's kind of blurry in terms of where lines end, right? You know, there are plenty of people for whom whistlekick is the show, right? That's the way that they engage, for some, it’s Free Training Day. And one of the things that I appreciate about you Chris is that no matter what piece it is, if I say, hey, what do you think? I know I'm gonna get a thorough and honest answer. And everyone needs a Chris in their life.

Chris Rickard: 

No, that's not…

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Because not everyone gives good feedback. Feedback is a skill, and most people give feedback in such a way that they're protecting everyone's feelings. You've never once tried to protect my feelings. You've always been, I mean, not that you're intentionally mean, but you recognize that what is important is the work. And you deliver what needs to be delivered and we've built a friendship out of that because I trust you. I know I can trust you completely. And that's not something that one can say about everybody does.

Andrew Adams: 

I mean…

Chris Rickard: 

Yeah, I appreciate that a lot.

Andrew Adams: 

Stephen Watson agrees. Everyone does need a Chris in their life.

Chris Rickard:

And coming from Stephen Watson, I think that is high praise.

Andrew Adams: 

Absolutely.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Sure is.

Andrew Adams: 

You know it, Jeremy, you mentioned that, you know that it's hard, the lines are kind of blurry in terms of where stuff starts and ends and I think that's a great analogy for it because we all do a little bit of everything. You know, we at whistlekick right now we're celebrating whistlekick Martial Arts Radio, but you know, there's a lot more than just Martial Arts Radio that whistlekick does. And so a lot of us have fingers in a lot of different eyes. So, and Chris…

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Chris mentioned two of them. The awards and the books.

Andrew Adams: 

Yeah, absolutely. Well, Chris, thanks so much for coming on. Anything you wanna, any final words you wanna leave the audience with?

Chris Rickard: 

It's a pleasure. It's always fun. You're always gonna learn something. You never know who's going to show up on another episode. Again, I'll throw it out here now so we can get it outta the way at hopefully at some point we're gonna be able to add Chuck Norris to the list. Fingers crossed, like it's there but we'll see. Every story's interesting, every story's unique. And again, gentlemen, you do a great job every week of bringing us another one. So we appreciate it.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Thank you.

Andrew Adams:

Thanks Chris. I'll leave you with this last comment here from Staci. Chris, thank you so much for coming on. It was great to have you back and we'll see you soon.

Chris Rickard: 

Sounds good guys.

Andrew Adams: 

Thanks. Bye-Bye.

Jeremy Lesniak:

That last comment, for anybody watching that is not in on the joke because most of you are not in on the joke, I'm not gonna explain the joke cause jokes are rarely good when they're explained. But I will say that one of the things that's very important to me as we build out this team and we grow this organization is that people have fun. And you can see a lot of that, you know, the meetings that we have. I hate meetings. I absolutely hate meetings. To the point where many years ago I coined Jeremy's corollary of meetings. The more people that show up, the less that gets done. And I make sure that we have fun and we do have fun. And most of what enables the fun is me just getting outta the way. Right?

Andrew Adams: 

Yeah.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Me shutting up and letting people talk, right? Like there's a lot of that.

Andrew Adams:

Yeah. So, quick shout out here to Jarred Wilson. He says congrats on outlasting all the other martial arts podcasts. Persistence is everything in the martial arts.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Well, thank you, Jarred. For those of you who don't know, Jarred and I bonded because he was the host of Martial Thoughts and he came on Martial Arts Radio and I went out on his show and we formed a friendship and he's still involved with Martial Journal. And again, another person that if I want feedback, excuse me, feedback I will reach out to because he, you know, I trust him. He knows what I stand for.

Andrew Adams: 

Yep.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

And Chris mentioned something else that I think is worth mentioning. There's so many other martial arts podcasts out there, and some of them are amazing. They are really good. But 2017 was kind of an interesting time because the ones that came before whistlekick had faded and we weren't quite at the new crop yet. So when we look at, oh, we have 800 episodes, there are plenty of other shows that I think will get there. But they're just gonna be a few years behind.

Andrew Adams: 

Yep. Yep. So we're ready to bring on our next guest, next person that started working for whistlekick and that guest is Staci.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Staci.

Staci Anne Grove: 

Hello. Congratulations.

Andrew Adams: 

Thank you. Thank you so much. Thanks for being here. Thanks for being a part of it. The same question that I asked Lessy and Chris, how did you get connected to whistlekick and talk a little bit about what you're doing now.

Staci Anne Grove: 

There was this guy bringing in plastic garbage bags full of sparring gear to a tournament that I was at, and it didn't seem like he had a lot of help in hands. So I just started hauling stuff with him, and started bonding over you know, sparring gear, being a person who doesn't enjoy sparring but was intrigued by this is a local guy putting out good gear, showing up in my space.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Yeah.

Staci Anne Grove: 

And from there I just kind of fanned out to doing photos for tournament he had, photos for all the various Free Training Days. I've been to all but the very, very first one.

Andrew Adams: 

And the distance ones.

Staci Anne Grove: 

And the what?

Jeremy Lesniak: 

You've been to the northeast ones.

Staci Anne Grove: 

Yeah. Yes. All the northeast ones. Sorry. This is true. I did not go to Washington in Seattle. Now I am the person heading up the funniest meeting on the planet and the Never Settle Awards for whistlekick. I head up a group of people who all of whom hate meetings. We start our meeting at 8:30 at night. So my job is to have a meeting that gets stuff done and gets people laughing.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Someone generally falls on the floor.

StaciAnne Grove: 

That's true.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

And I wanna point something out because this is, you know, I remember a bunch of what say Chris was talking about, I remember a bunch of what Lessy was talking about. I don't remember our exact first meetings. I remember the day she's talking about though because there's a really strong emotional element there for me. I had set up a booth at a local martial arts event where I knew a dozen, two dozen people, large chunk of the people in the room. And it was time to leave. And I'm granted sparring gear isn't heavy, but I'm moving a whole bunch of stuff from one side of a gymnasium, the long way to the other to load up my car. And dozens of people who knew me, they didn't offer to help. They didn't grab bags. Staci just grabbed bags and started walking. She's like, here, I'll help you. And as someone who does not accept help lightly or easily, and as someone who has often prided themselves on doing things by themselves, right? Like I've been pretty independent most of my life, something that, yeah, I know you can relate to that too, Staci.

StaciAnne Grove: 

What is, I dunno what you're talking about.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

That meant a lot. And there was an understanding. And just as with many others, hey, what about this? Would you take pictures? Would you do this? Would you do that? And the answer was always yes.

Andrew Adams: 

There you go.

StaciAnne Grove:

Thank you.

Andrew Adams: 

Says it all right there. And you've done, I mean, when you first got involved with whistlekick, though you weren't doing the Never Settle Awards, was there stuff in the middle there because you were involved actually before I was?

StaciAnne Grove: 

I'd say one of the biggest things I did, also in turn changed my world just a little bit, was when I went off to photograph Jeremy's tournament. He had brought up this group called the United States Breaking Association who we're doing some crazy breaking in the corner. From that, I have gotten involved in the crazy breaking in the corner. You know, stack 'em up, let me add it and that opened a whole lot of doors both in you know, how I function, the martial arts, how I function at work. You know, that to me has been part of it is, yes, it's nominally about martial arts, but it's applicable anywhere.

Andrew Adams: 

Yep. Right. That's awesome.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Right.

Andrew Adams: 

Well, thank you so much for coming on, Staci. Any last things you wanna say before you head out?

StaciAnne Grove: 

I will say congratulations and here's to falling off your chair many, many more nights.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Thank you Staci.

Andrew Adams: 

Before we let you go here, a couple of comments here. First off, you have a superpower. Staci, you keep Tommy and Craig focused. It's like a superpower.

StaciAnne Grove: 

That is a superpower. He's right.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Yes. It is.

Andrew Adams: 

The other one is Chris Rickard wants to know if we get bonus points if Jeremy falls out of a chair?

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Right now?

Andrew Adams: 

During this episode do we get bonus points?

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Sure. I'll hold. Sure.

Andrew Adams: 

Awesome. Staci, thank you so much for being here and for all that you have and continue to do for whistlekick.

StaciAnne Grove: 

Oh, I'm in for the long haul.

Andrew Adams: 

Awesome. Bye-bye.

StaciAnne Grove: 

Thanks guys.

Andrew Adams: 

Well, that was cool.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

It was. You know, one of the things that I find interesting is that whistlekick is a mission-driven organization, right? And Martial Arts Radio is a conduit of that mission, right? Like we, when you and I record our Thursday episodes, it's usually some subject that ties into the things that we stand for.

Andrew Adams: 

Yep. Yep.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

And what I've come to realize in hindsight and as I read more about business and everything cause I'm trying to get better about all of these things, how critically important that is and how much it attracts the right people. You know, I've seen multiple people say some things that kind of resonate that they're not using these words, but they're here for the mission.

Andrew Adams: 

Yeah.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

They're either part of the team for the mission or they listen because of the mission. They come to events because of the mission. And you know, we say it, we say in every episode what our mission is you know, connect, educate, and entertain. We're trying to get people training.

Andrew Adams: 

Yep. All right. So the next person that we're gonna bring on is a gentleman by the name of Andrew. Oh hey. Hey.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

I was really hoping you were gonna have some way of working out a costume change.

Andrew Adams: 

Oh, that would've been nice, but no, no, just me. So the next person that officially came on board was me. I got connected because Lessy, who we already have on, reached out to Patreon subscribers and said, hey, just so you guys know, we're like struggling a little bit with some guests because there was a computer glitch and we lost some recorded episodes, and so we're kind of in the weeds, so I can't, you know, not sure who's gonna be coming on next. And so I reached out and said, come on, if you think my story would be fun, I don't know. And so, you know, that's how we kind of, I got connected on the show with Lessy. And then she decided she needed to, you know, stuff happened in her life and she needed to kind of take a step back, which was fine. And you asked if, no, that's not what happened next. No, that's right. You had put out host something saying that you were thinking about having a co-host and what do you patreon subscribers think of that?

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Yup.

Andrew Adams: 

And I…

Jeremy Lesniak: 

And you wrote to me…

Andrew Adams: 

Yep.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Very quickly after. And you were really excited at the idea.

Andrew Adams: 

Yep.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

And I said, well, shoot, I gotta give this a shot. Because for people who don't know, we met briefly a couple years before? I think it was within the first year? Year and a half? Two years?

Andrew Adams: 

Yeah.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

We could dig back in the emails and we could find it. But you were thinking about doing a drumming podcast.

Andrew Adams: 

Yep. Yep. A pipe band podcast. And so I wanted to know about podcasting and just how it works. And so we met, and you know, longtime listeners of the show will know the story because we've discussed it before. But for any new people, you know, I went up, I drove, I sent an email and Jeremy's like, sure you know, when do you want to have a phone call? And I said no, I'll drive to Montpelier cause it's only a couple hours away from me. So we sat down, had coffee, and you told me about podcasting. And a couple years go by, I don't do my podcast, but you were looking for a co-host. And I said, I would be interested. You probably have a ton of people you could ask.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Yeah.

Andrew Adams: 

But I'd be honored if you'd consider me. And so you said, yes, let's do it. And…

Jeremy Lesniak: 

You didn't know at that point. You'd had your episode.

Andrew Adams: 

Yep.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

At that point. And you know, yet again, here's this thing, I finally shut up and say what about this, I create some space and somebody steps in to fill it?

Andrew Adams: 

Yep. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

And then it's better. 

Andrew Adams: 

And then, you know, Lessy had to take a step back and you said, hey, would you…

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Do you wanna do this?

Andrew Adams: 

Wanna do it? Like, and I said sure. And so that's kind of how it works. And Cara, or Kara, I apologize if I, over those that's how the co-host came in. We work well together. I could not agree more.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

We do.

Andrew Adams: 

We do work very well.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

We do and you know, that didn't take long. And I credit that to your personality.

Andrew Adams: 

Fair.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

You've got a very open, very friendly, playful, gregarious personality. And you know, it's really hard to not have back and forth banter, chemistry, et cetera with you.

Andrew Adams: 

It's partly because I'm best of the best. Okay. I'm gonna bring another guest on. The next guest in our timeline is, adding to the screen right now, Jenni Siu.

Jenni Siu: 

Hey guys.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Hi Jenni.

Jenni Siu: 

How's it going?

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Good, how are you?

Jenni Siu: 

Good. This is fun.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

This is fun.

Andrew Adams: 

This is fun.

Jenni Siu: 

Yeah. Yeah.

Andrew Adams: 

So, Jenni…

Jenni Siu: 

Yeah.

Andrew Adams: 

You know the question I'm gonna ask you.

Jenni Siu: 

Yes. It's funny cause I know the questions and I was thinking about the answers and it in one sense it feels like we've been more or less, Gabe and I have both been a part of whistlekick forever. It feels like we've been a part of the whistlekick family forever. But I think the first introduction to whistlekick was Gabe, my husband, got online. He was fed up with sparring gear falling apart every six months and he got online and started searching for stuff and he found whistlekick Foot Gear and he ordered it and it was the wrong size. So he reached out and said hey, can I exchange? And Jeremy, you connected with him personally and that meant a lot to him. And one thing led to another, you guys ended up continuing to interact. And then, I was trying to think about the timeline of things. I think the next big thing was that he was on an episode with you, talking about training and teaching and…

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Yeah, tell me if this sounds right. He would message once in a while and we would write back and forth.

Jenni Siu: 

Yeah.

Jeremy Lesniak:

 And he wrote in with a question and I said, can we make an episode out of this?

Jenni Siu: 

Right. Okay. Yes.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

And he agreed. And I think, was it the question about after he'd gotten hurt? Is it something about that?

Jenni Siu: 

I think it was before that, actually.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Before that?

Jenni Siu: 

I think it might have been. Yeah. But, yeah, and then, yeah, we just kept interacting. Gabe was, what was he? The producer of…

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Producer when we launched whistlekick live which we did for 18 months.

Andrew Adams: 

I'm not gonna lie. I forgot about that. Like, it's that I, yeah. I love Gabe. You know that. I just forgot about…

Jenni Siu: 

I love him too.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

He's in the chat. How to balance your own training with teaching?

Jenni Siu: 

Ah, yes.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

That's right. Because that was kind of the transition in, you guys were starting to run the school and he felt like he was being pulled in two different directions and how do you balance those two things?

Jenni Siu: 

Right. Yeah. yeah. He's awesome. He's the best.

Andrew Adams: 

What are you doing now working for whistlekick? Cause you're still here.

Jenni Siu: 

I'm still here, yeah. So…

Jeremy Lesniak: 

We don't let people go. For those of you out there in the chat…

Jenni Siu: 

What I trying to say I'm not looking for an out, so just so you know, you're stuck with me.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

People in the chat are like, how could I work for whistlekick? It's like, you ready? You're, it's a life…

Jenni Siu: 

Be careful what you wish for.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

That's right.

Jenni Siu: 

Yeah. So I ended up writing, I feel super honored to be the one that got to write the origin story of Master Hopkick. I ended up taking on that project and wrote the first book a couple of years ago.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

You rewrote it. We'd had a draft…

Jenni Siu: 

True.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

And I think we were gonna edit it.

Jenni Siu: 

Yes.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

And you started editing it.

Jenni Siu: 

Yeah. So, you and Gabe had a conversation and you had mentioned that you were looking for somebody to edit the first draft that someone else had written. And he knew I love to write and so he suggested I get in contact with you about it. You sent it to me and I looked at it and I went, oh man, this needs more than editing but how do I say that nicely? Long story short, we had a few conversations and it took me a while to receive the message that you didn't care how much I changed it. And so, I kept the core. I think I kept the bones of the story, but I kind of took liberty with everything else. And I'm a researcher, that's my thing. I love history and so one of the things that I wanted to change was just the historical accuracy of some of the things in there. And so I went and I learned way more than I ever set out to learn which was awesome. I love when things take that sort of turn. So, yeah, I did a ton of research. I rewrote some things and it turned into a book. And when we released the first book, I knew we weren't done with the story. And so now I am writing books two and three. It's gonna be a trilogy of Master of the Origin of Master Hopkick. Yeah. And so that has been an honor and it's been a lot of fun. And then, see, we got to come out, we wanted to for a few years and it didn't work out, but we got to come out to Free Training Day Northeast in 2021. Yep. And the night before Chris Rickard found me, and he did what he does best, he just started asking questions really, really excitedly. And that conversation turned into, yes, I agree which I just got the stickers from you. Thank you. 

Jeremy Lesniak: 

You're welcome.

Jenni Siu: 

So yeah, that was exciting. Feel legit now. Got stickers on things. But yeah, that turned into the Matt Chat teacher guide. Which is, it took the book to a whole another level.

Andrew Adams: 

Awesome.

Jenni Siu: 

So yeah, I'm having a lot of fun writing. And that's my big role right now. It's kind of funny. I was just saying to my kids, I'm like, yes, I'm a part of whistlekick. Yes, absolutely. From remote Northern Idaho, I just kind of sit and do my thing, but hopefully it's helping.

Andrew Adams: 

It's great to have you here on the team. There's so much that you and everybody does, but I'm gonna keep saying it, whistlekick would not be what it is today without you. And before I say goodbye, Robin wants to know how you get the first book?

Jenni Siu: 

It's on Amazon.

Andrew Adams: 

Yep.

Jenni Siu: 

And there's actually a couple, there's several different versions. There's several edition, different additions.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Could somebody drop the direct link in the chat for people that might be interested?

Andrew Adams: 

Chris Rickard's gonna do it. I know it.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Great.

Andrew Adams: 

Cause he said Amazon's the best bet, but awesome. Jenni, thank you so much for being here.

Jenni Siu: 

Yeah, thank you guys, and congratulations again. This is awesome.

Andrew Adams: 

Awesome. Bye-bye. Thanks Jenni. Bye-bye.

Jenni Siu: 

Thank you.

Andrew Adams: 

All right. We're saying goodbye to Jenni and we're saying hello to Jenni.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Hi Jenni.

Andrew Adams: 

Hi Jenni.

"Philly" Jenni Nather: 

Hi guys.

Andrew Adams: 

Welcome.

"Philly" Jenni Nather: 

Was that confusing or what?

Jeremy Lesniak: 

It took me so long.

"Philly" Jenni Nather: 

Thank you. It's awesome to be here. You're still not used to it. Don't lie.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

No, I am. But I'm pretty sure that there were emails I sent to one of you that were supposed to go to the other of you. Because the audience…

"Philly" Jenni Nather: 

That may have been sent to the other Jenni because it's not covered. I don't mind.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

They both spell their name in the way that my brain doesn't click with, right? JENNI. My brain wants a Y and so to have two that spell it the quote wrong way for my brain, that was a difficult hurdle to get over.

Andrew Adams: 

Yep.

"Philly" Jenni Nather: 

You're welcome.

Andrew Adams: 

But here you are. You're here. How did you get here and what do you do now?

"Philly" Jenni Nather: 

Awesome. Let's go all the way back to 2015, very early in the Martial Arts Radio world, going through a lot of crap in my personal life. And in order to compensate that I needed more martial arts. So I looked for Martial Arts podcast and this was the search result. And I gave it a try simply because the Bill Wallace episode had just released and I thought, okay, awesome. I was hooked right I was over. I was. Fast forward about a year at that, I wrote a review that read on it that you won't be able to guess, so I read that for. Tony Blauer…

Andrew Adams: 

Nice.

"Philly" Jenni Nather: 

That I get to work on now. 2018, the big step. I was looking for help transcribing the [0:46:12] episode. And I had transcription experience and I reached out and I took care of that for him and that was the beginning. Year after that, he brought me on board to help him write martial artist's handbook. And the results of that one, I sit as where we are now. This was the most recent release for us celebrating women in the martial arts. And there are you know, I brought a couple more just in case, you know, to play with all of that stuff. But you know, the Hopkick book that Chris and Jenni were speaking about. So there mostly available on Amazon if you wanna check those out. We're available in other places now too. We're hoping to get our stuff onto bookstore shelves.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

It's slow getting there.

"Philly" Jenni Nather: And grow our prints. Excited for me to be spearheading all us slowly, but it's amazing. And there's at least three major book projects in the work for this year at least. So yeah.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

More books.

Andrew Adams: 

Yeah. Now Jeremy, what has it meant for you to be able to…

"Philly" Jenni Nather: 

That's more books.

Andrew Adams: 

To be able to produce the multiple books? Cause when I first came on board, you just had the martial artist handbook, I believe.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

We had one or two things before that. People Forget How Not to Hold a Tournament was my first book.

Andrew Adams: 

Definitely.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Because like three people have bought that book. But what it's meant is that there are some people that want to consume information in written form and some of the books that or some of the episodes that we've done that you can listen to it, but some of 'em are actually pretty dense informationally. And for a lot of people being able to underline or highlight or you know, circle or bookmark or whatever, you can't really do that with audio. You can't really do that with video, at least not efficiently. So for some people having some of these episodes come out or you know, we take them when we massage them like martial artist's handbook, you know, it's not a secret that first edition of the book was entirely rooted in episodes. I just reparsed them in a sense. And so Jenni being part of the team means we can take our best stuff and make it available in different ways because people like that.

Andrew Adams: 

Awesome. Couple of comments here. Jeff is absolutely enjoying seeing the curtains drawn back and getting a peek at the team. That's kind of cool. That tournament changed Staci's life, so that's pretty cool. Well Jenni, thanks for coming on, bringing the last thing you wanna add here before you head on out? No?

"Philly" Jenni Nather: 

Very briefly, in case you guys haven't figured this out, whistlekick is family. This team is family, but whistlekick is family and it's beautiful that they all started with you, Jeremy, and it grew. You attracted all these amazing people and look at us now where we go.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Thanks for being part of it.

Andrew Adams: 

Thank you, Jenni. Thank you so much.

"Philly" Jenni Nather: 

Thank you for having me. Bye guys.

Andrew Adams: 

All right.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

I just wanna say something cause I wanna make sure people understand this, you know, it's all Martial Arts Radio, right? Because this, as you're hearing, everything that happens is you know, one to two degrees of separation from Martial Arts Radio.

Andrew Adams:

Yep.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

And you know, it's led to my statement that I've said often our best stuff is free.

Andrew Adams: 

Yep.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

You know, the events that attract the most people, they're free. Martial Arts Radio is free. Thanks, Karen. If you want to go deeper, we have paid options, you know, we keep doing that, but I always want the best stuff to be free. Cause I want as few barriers between what we do and people being able to enjoy it or learn from it.

Andrew Adams: 

And you said something which leads perfect into our next real short chat, short thing we'll chat about here, which is what you said is that everything's only one degree of separation from whistlekick Martial Arts Radio. A number of years ago you started running a morning talk show.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Yeah.

Andrew Adams: 

I mean, it's not a talk show in terms of you bring guests on, you talk to them, it's just you.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Yeah.

Andrew Adams: 

But, you know, First Cup is something that you started doing how long ago?

Jeremy Lesniak: 

We're over a thousand episodes, so four? I honestly don't know that. Time gets so blurry for me on this stuff.

Andrew Adams: 

Yeah. But it would be, people would be hard pressed to say that your work doing First Cup has not impacted whistlekick Martial Arts Radio. It absolutely has. And you know, you did First Cup for a while, just yourself, and then you brought on Frank who's unable to join us tonight. But I know he's in the chat. What was that like to have Frank be able to help you as a producer for First Cup?

Jeremy Lesniak: 

It meant that the thing that I had the hardest time with, which was coming up with what to talk about you know. And it's, you know, if you come to First Cup now, you know, there's an audience. When I started First Cup, there wasn't an audience. You have to have some thing before there's an audience. And so there would be days I would be doing this morning show, which originally was meant to be 10 minutes and no one would show up. Because it was new.

Andrew Adams: 

Yeah.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

It's really hard to have a spontaneous conversation without an audience. Hey, Andrew. Past guest. And what happened was, I think Frank started posting them in the chat, I don't remember, was it quotes or jokes? He started posting something in the chat and somehow that led to, hey, would you like to do this formally? And so now for years, Frank has made sure we have quotes to quote fall back on. And we almost always end up talking about them, but it becomes, it's sort of similar to the word association episodes that we do of Martial Arts Radio, where, okay, here's a quote. You know, it was a famous quote like, today we had quotes from Dolly Parton. It was questions. Okay. Frank also has a brilliant memory. He'll remember what quotes we've used years ago. His skill with this is unparalleled. And so I'll take these quotes and I'll read them to the audience and we'll talk about them and we will relate them back to martial arts. And it's interesting and it's fun and if one of the things that it has directly affected Martial Arts Radio with First Cup is I have to be spontaneous. I have to keep the conversation going. You go back to the early days of First Cup. it's very similar to the early days of Martial Arts Radio. And now I have this, and we talked about this on, I think it was on 700, that I can talk and think at the same time. I can run two parallel tracks which I don't know how my brain does it, but I can do it and it allows me to keep talking while I'm thinking about the next thing that I'm going to bring up.

Andrew Adams: 

Yep. Awesome. All right. Are you ready for your next guest?

Jeremy Lesniak: 

I'm never ready for the next guest.

Andrew Adams: 

I don't know if anybody's ready for the next guest.

Craig Wharem: 

Hey! Oh, wait, Andrew, this is awkward.

Andrew Adams: 

Oh, we're wearing the same thing except mine…

Craig Wharem: 

Hold on, hold on, hold on. It's fine. Episode 800. You finally are at the number of episodes that I have dragon hoodies.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

How many hoodies are you wearing? This is…

Craig Wharem: 

No, just the one.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

We're not Russian nesting doll.

Craig Wharem: 

Yeah.

Andrew Adams: 

For those that are only listening, Craig showed up wearing a dragon hoodie. A yellow and a maroon one. Yes?

Craig Wharem: 

Yeah. Yellow and red. My Iron Man one.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Similar in color to yours.

Andrew Adams: 

Similar to mine. Mine is maroon gold and black, and Craig, when he saw that we were both wearing a dragon hoodie, took one dragon hoodie off to show that he was wearing another dragon hoodie underneath red and black. Jenni fell out of her chair for the second time.

Craig Wharem: 

You're welcome, Jenni.

Andrew Adams: 

Nice. Yep. So Craig, welcome. You've been listening here. You know what I'm gonna ask you, how did you get connected to the show and what is it you're doing now?

Craig Wharem:

I dunno. No, so I actually had time to look this up. So, the first time Jeremy and I chatted was six years ago, 2017. I went all the way back in our Facebook chat which took a while. And I had found the show probably about a year prior to me actually having the, I didn't gonna say the courage to reach out, to have Jeremy come down and teach at the school. And I found the show because my friend, Terry Dow had an episode and I saw his name. And so I listened and it just, I liked the way the conversation went and it was there. I would actually say the first conversation that Jeremy and I had about joining the team was probably in 2018 and then we decided it wasn't time yet. And so I was always there and in the background, but never officially responsible for anything. I was kind of Jeremy's sounding board. And then about a year and a half ago, we decided to make MATTC happen, Martial Arts Teacher Training Certification. And that's kind of been my focus along with any other project or random episode y'all need me for. Cause this one would count so this is episode number 13 for me. I counted

Jeremy Lesniak: 

It's the Craig show.

Craig Wharem: 

Yeah. You know, yeah. But it's been a fun ride, man. It's a lot of fun. It's a good time. Also, I want to point out, cause Jenni was on here earlier, talked about her Master Hopkick stickers, I also have MATTC stickers now.

Andrew Adams: 

Nice.

Craig Wharem: 

And I feel just as cool as she does.

Andrew Adams: 

I only have whistlekick Martial Arts Radio stickers, but I put them all on my printer. I see. This is my whistlekick printer.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

It looks better because of that.

Andrew Adams: 

Yep.

Craig Wharem: 

My other nonofficial role, I am part of Andrew's road team for comic-con. And so I also have about 800 whistlekick stickers here at the house.

Andrew Adams: 

Just hold on to it. We'll need them in November.

Craig Wharem: 

Whenever someone says hi, we just don't want a sticker. Yeah. No, it's been fun. It's a good ride. The Never Settle Awards, the books, MATTC, it's episodes. It's all good.

Andrew Adams: 

Staci needs a MATTC sticker. Just, you know.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

She'll be getting one. 

Craig Wharem:

Stay tuned.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Everybody who's attended MATTC will be getting a sticker. Watch your mailbox.

Craig Wharem: 

Yes.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Watch your emailbox first. We're gonna confirm addresses.

Andrew Adams: 

Awesome.

Craig Wharem: 

So, what do you guys wanna talk about? What were we raising money for? What's happening? Is this a comic-con?

Andrew Adams: 

This is not a [0:58:16].

Jeremy Lesniak: 

We're raising money for poor children who can't afford dragon hoodies.

Craig Wharem: 

Well, okay, I'm in. I've got a couple.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

I know you do.

Craig Wharem: 

There's actually one right over there. The yellow one.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

And I intentionally didn't wear one. This is the newest hoodie.

Andrew Adams: 

Most everyone showing up has been wearing a hoodie though. Not everyone, but most everyone has worn a hoodie.

Craig Wharem: 

I should point out I have more than just dragon hoodies. I've got the Free Training Day hoodies, I've got the fuzzy hoodie. Yeah, I got a lot of stuff.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Oh fuzzy hoodie?

Craig Wharem: 

Anytime we have a team meeting, this is a good peek behind the curtain and Jeremy says, check out this product. I buy it before the meeting's over.

Andrew Adams: 

That sometimes happens.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Yeah.

Andrew Adams: 

Staci, missed the hoodie memo. So I find that that's kind of funny. Well, Craig, thanks for being here. Thanks for all that you do.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Thanks, buddy.

Andrew Adams: 

You know, you are obviously, you're a part of the whistlekick team, and we are all family, but you, as you and I man, we're like kindred spirits.

Craig Wharem: 

Oh. You're like an older brother to me, Andrew. We've been on a lot of adventures.

Andrew Adams: 

Yep. And a lot more to come. And thank you for being here and all that you do.

Craig Wharem: 

Hey, my pleasure. Have fun guys.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Bye.

Andrew Adams: 

Awesome. Thanks so much.

Craig Wharem: 

See ya.

Andrew Adams: 

That was fun. It's always fun when Craig's around.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

For sure.

Andrew Adams: 

Anything you wanna want to add before we chat about the next segment?

Jeremy Lesniak: 

I don't think so.

Andrew Adams: 

Josh says whistlekick charity fundraising.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

If we do a charity, we're gonna do it right and we're not there yet, but believe me.

Andrew Adams: 

The next couple of people to talk about, actually, well, we're gonna lump them together. They could you join us today but there are two people that I deal with on a weekly basis, CJ and Joanne. And you know, I want to chat just a little bit about what they do for the company and how it helped to what we do.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Yeah. So one of the challenges for those of you who haven't really thought about like this, how do you tell people about a podcast? You can have a podcast, but unless people are looking for a podcast, how do you get them to check out a podcast? And we've done a lot of things over the years to spread the podcast, get people to check it out, and CJ and Joanne are part of those efforts. Pardon my yawning. One of them, CJ is the one that does the video clips, and you've seen those usually on release day. We'll put those out. They show up in reels, they show up on TikTok, they show up all over the place. And Joanne does something similar. She takes the quotes that, some of the quotes from the episode and makes awesome graphics out of them. I mean, she really does crush that. And what you don't know is that we are not telling them what to pull. We're not telling them what section goes for the clip. We're not telling them what quote, they pull the stuff that they find interesting. And we can see a difference. You know, we can see a difference with an episode when that stuff goes out versus once in a while, you know, something doesn't line up. We forget a post doesn't go out something. And I can see it in the numbers and I appreciate the work that they do. Andrew, you and I have talked about this, I think we're up to eight people involved in every episode.

Andrew Adams: 

Yep. Yep. When an episode is recorded and released, by the time it gets to your ears, listeners or watchers, about eight people have had their hands on that episode, and CJ and Joanna are two of those eight people. And you know, it's interesting that people don't often think about all of the stuff that's going on. When an episode comes out, like when it comes out, like I go in the Facebook group and let people know whistlekick Martial Arts Radio behind the scenes. But when I post it, I always post a graphic that has a photo of the guest says their episode number and it's got a quote from their episode. Somebody had to create that.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Yep.

Andrew Adams: 

You know.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

It wasn't me.

Andrew Adams: 

Joanne is the one that does that. She'll go in and listen to the episode and find, pull these quotes and she'll send them to me to make sure that, you know, this is a good one or is an appropriate one. Just so that there's, cause we want to, you know, there's double checks on everything that we do.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Yeah.

Andrew Adams: 

And then if you are on…

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Instagram primarily.

Andrew Adams: 

You will see that when we come out with an episode, there is a short video of Jeremy and I, or Jeremy and the guest, whoever's talking and it's, you know, subtitled on the bottom. Somebody has to put that together. Somebody has to physically transcribe what was said…

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Yep.

Andrew Adams: 

And put it in the video and upload it on Instagram and that's what CJ does. And you know, he'll send it to me as a double check just to make sure that everything lines up right. But their work is definitely something that we appreciate for sure.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Yeah. Yeah. You know, when we look at the output now, the professionalism of the team and the things that we do, the details that go into it, you know, you and I actually are spending a lot of time talking about this now, about the next evolution of that detail and emails and processes because it's growing and we're trying to continue that momentum.

Andrew Adams: 

Yeah. All right. So moving on, a couple quotes here. Karen says, dragon hoodies are great. It's part of Craig's training uniform. And then, Victor said I guess I need a dragon hoodie. It's like the company uniform. And what a perfect time to bring Victor on board.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

What a segue.

Andrew Adams: 

I know.

Victor Guarino: 

The master of segues. Hey, happy 800 episodes.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Thank you.

Victor Guarino: 

Jeremy, real quick. I sent you an email an hour ago and with cold medicine information in it, and I realized I sent no context. It was in context to like the very first thing that you were saying.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Sure.

Victor Guarino: 

So if you receive a random email from me and you're like, what is he talking about? That's the context of the email. Anyway…

Andrew Adams: 

I also want state Victor, before you get into anything, for the audience watching and listening, when people come on the show like this, we have a waiting room that they are placed in and we can see, I can see them, but you, the listener, watcher can't see them and you can't hear them. And I definitely laughed pretty hard when we were Victor got up, ran behind, grabbed the hoodie and put it on just so he would match the theme of the show which is the hoodie.

Victor Guarino: 

Sometimes I forget I'm on camera so.

Andrew Adams: 

It's all good. It's all good. So Victor, welcome. You know…

Victor Guarino: 

Thank you, thank you.

Andrew Adams:

Listeners to the show will recognize you, and recognize your voice cause you've done a couple of recent episodes with us.

Victor Guarino: 

This is my third one.

Andrew Adams: 

But talk to everyone how you got connected and about what you're doing.

Victor Guarino: 

So, my connection story is gonna probably really resonate with “Philly” Jenni. We gotta go back to about two or three years.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

It's your fourth one.

Victor Guarino: 

Is it my fourth one? Oh wow. Yeah, I guess it is. Anyway, so we're gonna have to go back to about two, three years before I even contacted you. I was living in Florida. My school had shut down. I was working there and I wasn't training. And I love martial arts. It's my peaceful place. It's my happy place. And I spent about five years where I would just train alone in this little side alley next to my apartment or in my 400 some odd square foot living room. And because I'm crazy, I don't listen to music when I work out, I listen to podcasts. And since I lived alone and worked out a lot, I go through podcasts a lot and I get very frustrated when I catch up to where they are currently. That was not the case with whistlekick, so I loved it because I'm like, I'm never gonna catch up. So, fast forward a little bit, I moved from Florida to New Jersey and I had some time to kind of get my feet under me that looking for a job and stuff. And I was like, you know what, It'd be fun to work for a podcast. I wonder if whistlekick hiring. So I shot Jeremy an email and he never got back to me. So I got a job at Dunkin Donuts, no lie. And then, so I think it was like two months after that I was working at a different job and I opened my email and there's an email from Jeremy, hey, sorry, I'm just getting to this. I was in the middle of something I guess, and he goes, are you still interested? And we literally had a Zoom conversation like I think that week. And it was for something completely, not completely unrelated, but kind of not what I do now. It started out as just, hey, do this. Let's do this thing. And so we agreed on it without really any timeframe for me to come on and do anything. And then that was a right around the time that you were going to Philly to do a seminar and I was like, I should probably like meet this dude. That would be good. So I called my cousin because he trains too and I was like, hey, what are you doing Saturday? I know you're coming to Philly with me. We're driving into the city and we're gonna go train. And we hung out with you and Andrew and Jenni and a whole bunch of other people all day long. And only Jeremy knew who I was. And it was awesome. It was hilarious because I still remember at the end because my cousin doesn't let me live it down cause he thinks it was hilarious, is that when I finally said goodbye to everyone, I think it was Andrew, who you were like, oh, this is our Victor.

Andrew Adams: 

This is Victor.

Victor Guarino: 

Yeah. This is our Victor, right? And I'm like, yeah, yeah, that's me. And so now here I am. That was two years ago at this point so.

Andrew Adams: 

Cause we had not met. Like Jeremy had mentioned in the car because I drove down with you Jeremy. You know, you had mentioned that this, you know, we had this guy coming on board. You're onboarding this guy named Victor and this is what he is gonna do. And I was like, oh, that's great. And then we'd go to the training, we train for the day, and at the end of the day we're saying goodbye and you said, oh, you know, we met officially at the end when we're saying goodbye to each other. And you said, Victor, and I said, oh, you're our Victor.

Victor Guarino: 

Yeah.

Andrew Adams: 

That was pretty funny. Jenni remembers that day too when I realized that you were our Victor.

Victor Guarino: 

Yeah.

Andrew Adams: 

That's so funny. Now Victor, what is it that you're doing for the company now?

Victor Guarino: 

So, originally it started out as the manager of a brand ambassadors. So we started looking for individuals who were social media influencers who wanted to kind of fly the whistlekick flag. And it was an interesting endeavor to try to do and to get people to come on board with that because like, I was just talking to someone about this today and then you just said it yourself Jeremy, most of our best stuff we give away for free. And what do brand ambassadors do? They sell products for a brand. So how do you get people to sell products that are free for a brand on social media? And then I was doing that a little bit with some kind of working out and you said, hey Victor, I think you'd be good at it at this job. And I want you to think about it. I say you were looking to do sponsorships and partners to find people to buy Ad Space to advertise on the whistlekick podcast. And it was at that moment that I realized that, oh yeah, it is the only podcast that I listened to that doesn't have weird as advertisements at the top or in the middle. And I was like that's kind of weird. And so I said yes because you gave me the weirdest compliment anyone's ever given me. And you said, I think you'd be very okay with people just saying no to you and you'd be okay with that. So that's why I think you'd be good for this job. And I'm like, okay, thanks, I guess. And so I came on and after doing a little bit of that, and I'm on an episode that actually posted what last, a week ago or so, something like that. And where I talk more about this so I won't get into it, but what I like to think of as I've dubbed myself is I am the sponsors and partnership guy. I look for…

Andrew Adams: 

Great.

Victor Guarino: 

Other companies and other people who I think would team well with our goal, our vision, and the heart and spirit that is whistlekick. So that instead of them giving us compensation and us saying how great they are that we can actually come together and rising tide raise all ships. So that we are mutually beneficial to everyone which I think is a very martial principle to begin with is martial artists, at least my experience, have always existed in my life to help and support each other. And why not extend that past our family as Jenni called us to, you know, those we're listening to bring them before quality things and services that they could use while at the same time finding quality businesses and services that maybe could use a little bit of a push to be given a stage in front of an audience.

Andrew Adams: 

That's great. Jeremy, anything you wanna add before we think about it? 

Jeremy Lesniak:

I think I've told you this Victor, but we knew pretty early on that the brand ambassador stuff wasn't quite gonna go where we were hoping it was.

Victor Guarino: 

Yeah.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

And you know, and that is 100% not your fault. It's the fault of lots of scammy companies that have destroyed that terminology and you know, there's only so much you can do to overcome perception. But when I saw your persistence, there was something in the back of my mind that said maybe this is the right guy for ads. Because we were set up to take ads years ago. Just the right person hadn't come along. In fact, Andrew, you and I talked about it.

Andrew Adams: 

Yeah.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

I said, would you like to sell ads? This is before Victor. You were around and you said, no.

Andrew Adams: 

No.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

I don't wanna do that. I was like, well, shoot. I don't want to do that. And a lot of other people were not going to be good fits for that because it required a lot of research and a lot of comfort with being told no. You know, someday we'll get to the point where people, where brands are reaching out to us, where they're doing the hard work for us, much like the guests, right? Andrew? Like, we have plenty of people reaching out now they want to come on the show. In the early days, we had to reach out to everybody. And so when I saw that it wasn't working, the ambassador stuff, I said, okay, I think this is the right guy. But you had a couple things that you were working on that you wanted to try. And I said, okay, I can't be premature on this. I need to make sure that he's gonna follow through. So you were being tested in a sense for quite a while. Because I really desperately wanted to just say go do this cause I think you'll crush it. Yeah.

Victor Guarino: 

And to be fair, like I think that because I feel like you've gotten to know me fairly well over our time knowing each other. But I feel like if you had given me that job opportunity right away and that I would've probably just said no. I wouldn't have or at least I wouldn't have approached it in the same way just because of my mindset and where I was in my life.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Yeah.

Victor Guarino: 

I needed that time. Which is funny cause as you think as a martial artist, I'd be used to like failure. But no, not, I still can't deal with it sometimes. But I needed that time of hitting my nose against a wall because that now I even more so don't care when people don't get back to me or when they get back to me two months after I email them on a whim. Because it would be fun to work for a company that is about martial arts.

Andrew Adams: 

Cool.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

And so the audience might be thinking, well, you know, where are these sponsors? Where are these ads? Invoice for the first one, because we knew the first one was gonna be the hardest. We had to figure all this stuff out on the fly. You did a ton of work and it'll be very soon.

Andrew Adams: 

I was just about to ask, are we gonna agree to announce who it is? But no, not yet. Okay.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

No. I just need to be dotted, it need to be crossed, and we really aren't down to that at that point. Actually, it's not even that. We've sent them the paperwork. They just need to return something small, and once that happens, we will move forward. And you even had, if I remember correctly, what I'm expecting to be number two.

Victor Guarino: 

Yeah. I had that conversation today and it was great. It was awesome. Golden companies, great things for our listenership and great opportunities for everyone all around.

Andrew Adams: 

Great. Well, Victor, thank you so much for coming on. Thanks for all that you do and that you are continuing to do to help make the podcast happen.

Victor Guarino: 

Thanks. Always a pleasure. Thanks for letting me be a part of it, guys.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Of course.

Andrew Adams: 

Awesome, thanks. So a couple little chat comments here. Staci, someone who helps with sponsorships for the hospital. Partnership is so much more valuable than just money, which is absolutely true.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Yeah.

Andrew Adams: 

So, we've got one more guest to bring on our most recent person that we've onboarded onto the team. And I'm gonna bring that person on right now and he's wearing a hoodie, so that's good.

Brian Sargeant: 

What's going guys?

Andrew Adams: 

Brian.

Brian Sargeant: 

Hey guys.

Andrew Adams: 

How are you Brian?

Brian Sargeant: 

Good, so excited. Episode 800.

Andrew Adams: 

Pretty cool. Pretty cool.

Brian Sargeant: 

Yeah, it's very cool looking at the lighting, just like

Jeremy Lesniak: 

You're fine. Don't worry about it. You're good.

Brian Sargeant: 

Yeah.

Andrew Adams: 

So how did you get connected? Jenni says hi.

Brian Sargeant: 

Hi Jenni.

Andrew Adams: 

How did you get connected and what is it you're doing for the team?

Brian Sargeant: 

So, as listening to all the team members and the new family, you know, Jeremy and I have a longer history than most?

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Anybody. I think anybody.

Brian Sargeant: 

So real quick, Craig, I was gonna order a dragon hoodie, but they were on back order for Craig. Anyway, so I knew Jeremy pre-whistlekick. We've known each other for just over two decades. We started as acquaintances from town. We had a mutual friend, Jeremy had the computer store. I was a computer nerd. I'd hang out, sit and stuff. You know, and then fast forward many years later, I got back into Taekwondo at the school that we both go to Grandmaster Rhoda and in Randolph. And you know, when I knew Jeremy at the computer store, I didn't actually realize he was an accomplished martial artist for almost all his life. And then when I saw him, when I went back to class for my middle boy, cause he was having trouble, so that was part of the suggestion from the counselor to get him into martial arts, I saw Jeremy in class one day. And then I was like, wait a minute. And we kind of got to talking and honestly, that changed our dynamic of knowing each other instantly. We became a lot more close in that regard. More of a, you know, a kinship, brothership, fellowship, however you wanna say it. And then I remember when he started whistlekick and, you know, and kind of some of the struggles that went along with that at first. And he always pressed on, which was inspiring to see. And then, you know, long story short, Jeremy reached out to me, I wanna say last year a little bit. There was one project we were looking at that might be a good fit for me, wasn't a good time. You know, we backed off and then we kinda revisited it. And now I'm essentially kind of helping direct some of the communication with all these people because the lines are so blurred and there's so many things going on all the time.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

And so many people.

Brian Sargeant: 

Right and so many people. And as it continues to grow, it's just, you know, it's a little, it's another node to kind of help direct traffic. And I'm sure that we'll morph into other things as well. In fact, I was thinking about it when I went to my first Free Training Day down in New Hampshire when actually Andrew and I split a room, which was nice cause that helped with the cost and things. Thank you again. I remember kind of just volunteering and Chris handing, like, I was helping him with the name tags and stuff, with a list of stuff. And I was almost like, thinking back like, was that my trial and I didn't know? Like the commitment to the whistlekick mission, which was, I just had a lot of fun doing it. So I presume as the events happen and things, I will, I feel like I will become a little bit more integral to those type events I want to.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

It's like any other, you know, think about a family business.

Brian Sargeant: 

Right.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Right. What happens in a family business and anybody who's ever worked. In or known a family business especially. Think of like a restaurant, like a family run restaurant. You know, you've got like the eight year old running around, like filling the salt shakers. Like it's just all hands on deck. Especially, you know, when it's busy, you know, Friday night, Labor Day weekend or whatever, and it's just swamped and no, you can't go out, you're not going on that date, you're not going to the movies. Everybody's here. We've got work to do. And not that, you know, I say things like that, but that is what happens, right? You know, people just show up, when the time is right and yeah. You know, you got a front row seat to the beginnings of being in whistlekick in a way that very few other people did. You know, he was around for a lot of the trials and me trying to figure out how to even talk about the sparring gear and stuff like that. And yeah, it set a tone for our friendship. It changed some things in a really positive way. And I'm thankful you're around because the thing you know, I mentioned there are things that Andrew and I are working on to take the show up a level and you're a part of that, you know. The communication, you know, when you've got eight people touching an episode.

Brian Sargeant: 

Right.

Andrew Adams: 

Yeah. Excellent. That's awesome. So, Brian, you are the most recent addition to the whistlekick team, but I'm sure that you'll not be the last.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Sure.

Brian Sargeant: 

No, no.

Andrew Adams: 

We will continue to grow. So you're the new guy. You're the new guy right now, but only for a little while.

Brian Sargeant: 

Right.

Andrew Adams: Awesome. 

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Thanks, Brian.

Andrew Adams: 

Well, anything you wanna leave us with any words you wanna leave us with before you go?

Brian Sargeant: 

Yeah. The one thing I wanted to add was, you know, when I moved into the house and stuff and started listening to the First Cup Show as part of my morning routine, you know, I had struggled personally, mentally getting back into martial arts because I had broken a foot and stuff and things of that nature. And this journey has solidified my love again for martial arts and my commitment, like going to class tonight, the kids weren't with me, but, you know, it's not just about the kids for me anymore. So that's part of the mission of whistlekick really is to spread that love of martial arts and I'm living proof that it works.

Andrew Adams:

Awesome. Brian, thank you so much for being here. And thanks for all that you do, my friend.

Brian Sargeant: 

Yes, sir.

Andrew Adams: 

All right. Bye-Bye.

Brian Sargeant: 

Bye bye.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Andrew's a very small difference between the gesture you made and the Italian version of that gesture.

Andrew Adams: 

Oh.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Just be careful.

Andrew Adams: 

Okay. I know that for those listening, I made the ASL sign for thank you.

Jeremy Lesniak: From the lips is thank you. If you come up under the chin, it means something completely different.

Andrew Adams: 

Oh, I see, I see, I see from the line.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

And you know this is a good time to say, you know, we're always open to help. If you want to get involved, email me jeremy@whistlekick.com and I'm gonna ask you, the first question I'm gonna ask you is what are you good at or what do you want to learn? Because that's where we root it. Are you hiring? Always. Always. And full disclosure, most people are either volunteering or they're working for profit share on a thing that has not made profit yet. I've been very, very open about that. But I also work hard and Andrew, you know this as well as anyone, I will always find ways how can I compensate you? How can I make your life better? How can I make things easier, you know? Because I appreciate the work that everyone does cause I know what it was like when it was just me and it was hard and we couldn't do all the things that we do if it was just me, I would try, but I would die.

Andrew Adams: 

Yeah. So we brought on a bunch of guests today.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

We did.

Andrew Adams: 

We talked about the beginning of where whistlekick was. We did a nice little chronological timeline. Where do you see whistlekick going from here? And that episode 801 is a cop out.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

That's great. You know, it's interesting that there are, I have this thought, if we think about Martial Arts Radio, I have this thought, you know, am I gonna do this forever? I don't think so. But then I also think, okay, well when would I stop? And I don't have an answer. My involvement in this show, my role with whistlekick everything, I will continue to do it as long as it makes sense. I don't see the mission changing, but there could be a time where there's something that is of more benefit to the mission involving my time than this show. So that's why I'm not saying, you know, I'll always be the primary host on this show or I may not be. We will continue to find ways to serve the martial arts public, to serve our mission. And a lot of that is dictated by who we have on the team, right? You know Victor was a good example. I had this idea, I thought we could have someone in charge of partnerships, but I couldn't force someone into that role. It needed to be the right person in that role. And everybody who's come on has ultimately found their right role. We've tried people in other roles, we've shifted some things around and said, no, that doesn't quite work for you. Let's  move you back over here. And so we will grow in a way that makes sense based on who the people are that are coming on and will always look for roles, those roles are providing value to everyone including the person doing it. You know, I never want someone to look at an email from me and go, another email from Jeremy. I never wanna be a boss.

Andrew Adams: 

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think the best analogy that you've given is find the right people that you want on the bus and then find them a sit.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Right.

Andrew Adams: 

And I truly, truly believe that that's the best analogy. Like Victor is an amazing person. I mean, I'm signalling Victor out cause I see him in the waiting room still. But like Victor, Brian, Craig, Jen…

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Everybody,

Andrew Adams: 

Everybody are so amazing. We needed them. We the whistlekick, needed them on the bus working, doing something for the company. But that doesn't mean that we, the royal, we knew what that stump something was.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Right.

Andrew Adams: 

And Victor's a perfect example. You met him and said, oh, he's gonna have add value, but we're gonna figure out where it's the best place for that to happen and I think that's okay because we have the right people on the team.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Yeah. And it's, you know, it's kind of funny that you bring that up as, something I said prior that comes from Jim Collins's book from Good to Great. Which is My Business Bible. If anyone out there has a business and hasn't read it, I would strongly encourage you to the consulting work that I do with folks, it's a book that comes up often. It's an absolutely fantastic book. Well, I'm also reading the next book that Jim Collins wrote. There's kind of a trilogy and it's called Built to Last. And as I was driving home yesterday, I was listening to it in the car, and without getting into too much detail, he's comparing companies. Some that have been very successful versus others that, you know, on paper should have been about the same, but were not. And as he's talking about them, I'm like, it's the mission. It's the why, the successful companies have a mission. And in the very next sentence, it was like, and what we found in our research was the companies didn't have a very strong why statement. I was like, aha, right? We've got a really strong why. We've got a mission that we wear on our sleeve. We want more people doing martial arts because we know what it's done for us. And I do not believe that there is a better way for me to leave some mark on the world than leading this organization. Because let's face it, if the more people that train, the better the world gets. We know that martial arts helps bring out better versions of ourselves. And so the more people we can get to train, we're making an improvement and that's why we do what we do. It is really that simple. Doesn't mean it's easy, but it is that simple.

Andrew Adams: 

Yeah. Perfect. In reference to, you know, a lot of the people on the team are volunteering, Jenni made this comment, which I think is perfect, the bonus of the friendships I've made, thanks to whistlekick Martial Arts Radio is the best payment of all. It is pretty amazing that we're all family. Staci said back on the bus, we've all got stuff to do. And then Jenni said, move 'em right along from the Muppets comes to mind. It's pretty funny so…

Jeremy Lesniak: 

And then I wanna put this one up. It's a great example. It's a nerdy comment. We have a lot of nerdy things going on. We're a big group of nerds, but there's room for all kinds of nerds. And Staci says, and much like the Tardis, there's always room for more good people and there are, you know. So again, if anybody wants to be part of this and we have people that put in, you know, an hour a month, two hours a month, yeah people who put in that a day, you know, if you're interested in getting involved, we'll find a spot for you.

Andrew Adams: 

Yeah. And there are projects that you could be a part of that. I mean, I'm thinking one in my head right now, that would be five minutes on a week.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Yeah. There really is. If you can handle the discipline of doing things on an ongoing basis, yeah. We can use, yeah. We'll put you to work.

Andrew Adams: 

One of the last comment you know, we're wrapping up here, but there's another comment here that came in that, we're a big group of nerds better rounded up on a dragon hoodie or something.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Maybe, maybe it will.

Andrew Adams: 

Well, if it did, we know we'd sell one to Craig.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

That's right. There are times I'm like, I don't know if I should put this out, but if I do, Craig will buy one.

Andrew Adams: 

Jeremy, we're wrapping up here. Episode 800 has come to a close.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Andrew, I wanna thank you for putting this together. This was a bunch of work on your part and I appreciate it. I appreciate you. I think your participation in the show is the most obvious example to publicly of how the show has changed. And it not just on the episodes that you're a part of, right? It's very clear if you look at, you know, and I suspect everybody will agree with this, that if you find a point in time, you know, pre Andrew, with Andrew, that it got a lot better. You know, our Thursday episodes are dramatically better. I don't know if I've told you this, but before you were part of Thursday shows there was a dramatic drop off. People love the interview episodes. They were not such a fan of me rambling on solo. But once you became part of it, there are now people who prefer the Thursday episodes, that those are of the two formats, those are the ones they like more. Nobody really said that before you, so thank you.

Andrew Adams: 

Well, it's been a true pleasure and an honor to be a part of the show. And not just the show. I mean, people know that I do more than just co-host the show. I mean, and produce the show. I mean, I'm involved in other stuff as well. And I'm honored to be a part of it because I truly believe in what whistlekick stands for. And it's one of the reasons why I'm still a Patreon subscriber. Like people find that weird. But like these stickers I'm pointing to here, these are because I'm a Patreon subscriber, I get these free stickers every three months I get free sticker. So like, even though I am on the show, I'm still paying for the show because it means that much to me so.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Yeah.

Andrew Adams: 

Thank you Jeremy, for all that you do, because obviously this podcast wouldn't exist without you.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

That's true.

Andrew Adams: 

You know, I mean, it might continue in the future, who knows? But it wouldn't be here if you didn't exist, so.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

That's true.

Andrew Adams: 

Couple last minute, last little things here. Congratulations to Jeremy and the team. Change the World one episode at a time. I agree.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Trying.

Andrew Adams:

 Anything Jeremy you wanna say to close out?

Jeremy Lesniak: 

I wanna thank everybody for being here. I want to thank everyone who gave of their time either to watch or to participate. I want to thank everyone's for their continued support. If it, we did not have an audience, it would just be crazy people rambling on talking to nobody and that's not really fun. But…

Andrew Adams: 

Instead, crazy people rambling on talking to people.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Right. To other crazy people who enjoy the rambling. And I appreciate that. You know, this has been, this is a good turnout for this and I'm really thankful for that. And if anybody has feedback, thoughts, ideas, guests, topics, whatever, you know, we're always down to hear it so.

Andrew Adams: 

Excellent. We're leading the field and are the Joe Rogan of Traditional Martial Arts podcast.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Anybody can help me get on there, I really want to have a chat with Joe about MMA.

Andrew Adams: 

Yep. All right, Jeremy. Until next time.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

All right. Train hard, smile, have a great day. All right. I'm hitting end.