Episode 898 - Grandmaster Steve DeMasco
In today's episode Jeremy sits down in person and chats with Grandmaster Steve DeMasco about his thoughts and philosophy around martial arts, as well as his history getting started.Grandmaster Steve DeMasco - Episode 898
SUMMARY
Grandmaster Steve DeMasco shares his journey in martial arts and the importance of humility and service as an instructor. He emphasizes the need for instructors to prioritize the well-being and growth of their students. DeMasco also discusses the dangers of ego in martial arts and the impact of personal experiences on shaping one's philosophy. He highlights the transformative power of martial arts and the importance of respect, self-discipline, and self-improvement. DeMasco encourages instructors to reflect on their own actions and to strive for continuous improvement in their teaching.
In this conversation, Grandmaster DeMasco shares his experiences and insights on maintaining philosophy and control, the impact of childhood experiences, studying psychology, finding purpose in psychology, the pain of self-reflection, being the person you needed, the impact of training philosophy, discovering Kempo, being the black sheep of an organization, cross-training in Kung Fu, studying Chinese martial arts, being invited to China, and final thoughts on the effect we have on others.
TAKEAWAYS
*Instructors should prioritize humility and service, putting the well-being and growth of their students first.
*Ego can be detrimental in martial arts, and instructors should strive to maintain humility and avoid inflating their own importance.
*Personal experiences and mentors play a significant role in shaping an instructor's philosophy and approach to teaching.
*Martial arts have the power to transform lives, instilling respect, self-discipline, and self-improvement.
*The landscape of martial arts instruction is changing, with a greater emphasis on transparency and the need for continuous improvement.
CHAPTERS
00:00 Introduction and Background
02:10 Incorporating Behavioral Psychology into Martial Arts
03:39 The Influence of Personal Experiences
04:33 The Impact of a Mentor
05:03 Lessons from the Rocky Marciano Gym
06:29 The Importance of Education
06:52 The Role of Mentors in Shaping Lives
08:17 The Dangers of Ego in Martial Arts
09:51 The Importance of Being a Servant Instructor
11:37 The Transformative Power of Martial Arts
12:57 The Need for Humility in Martial Arts
13:46 The Importance of Respect and Self-Discipline
15:01 The Impact of Inflated Egos in Martial Arts
19:13 The True Value of Martial Arts Instruction
20:29 The Need for Self-Reflection and Improvement
22:16 Lessons from Personal Experiences
23:55 The Power of Humility and Service
25:08 The Impact of Personal Stories and Books
26:21 The Importance of Emulating the Right Philosophy
29:32 The Changing Landscape of Martial Arts Instruction
30:18 The Importance of Humility and Service
32:57 Maintaining Humility and Service as an Instructor
34:22 Maintaining Philosophy and Control
36:10 The Informative Years
37:31 The Impact of Childhood Experiences
39:11 Studying Psychology
40:26 Finding Purpose in Psychology
41:16 The Pain of Self-Reflection
42:47 Being the Person You Needed
45:23 The Impact of Training Philosophy
48:14 Discovering Kempo
51:36 The Black Sheep of the Organization
55:44 Cross-Training in Kung Fu
59:01 Studying Chinese Martial Arts
01:03:00 Invited to China
01:05:48 Final Thoughts
Show Notes
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Show Transcript
Jeremy (00:01.514)
Hey, what's going on everybody? Welcome, it's another episode of Whistlekick Martial Arts Radio. Today, I'm joined by Grandmaster Steve Damasco. Thank you for being here. We'll start our conversation in just a moment, but for those of you out there, if you're new, make sure you visit whistlekick.com. Make sure you're following us everywhere. If you're a listener to this show, remember we do a video of every episode. Check that out at YouTube. Go to whis for everything. Transcripts, show notes, you know, I'm sure we're gonna...
link some things, your website, your social media, all that stuff from this. So if you wanna go deeper, make sure you do that. Thanks for being here. Appreciate you coming on. So here we are, we're in an office in Keen State College. Both of my two out of the three boys I have went to Keen State. Okay, all right. And you live? I'm still in therapy. My son had a full scholarship for basketball. Oh, nice. Hated the school.
I'm really full, 100% full. Is that why you came here? No, I tried to stay away from this place. So I'm doubly appreciated that you came here. You hated the school and then came to King State to play, which they don't pay. So like I say, I'm still there. And I am a behavioral psychologist. Oh, are you? I have a graduate. I don't practice, well, I practice every day, but I have a graduate degree in behavioral psychology. Okay. It doesn't take much.
effort to see how that could become relevant in teaching it is it's relevant in terms of my studios because we actually have um healthcare professionals that
uh... sent his to us because there everyone in my stuff is comfortable outside mark you train at the views is thirty nine and he's been with me since he was six okay just an example but uh... they uh... you know i train them and didn't get to the he's the learning disabilities opposition to the finances to rest autism so they're literally trained by me
Jeremy (02:10.062)
to deal with kids like that. So Mark has been, especially Mark, because he's been with me the longest, well, one of the longest, but he's incredible with kids. Where did the interest in that for you come from that you went to school for? For our psychology? Yeah. Because both my dad and my stepfather were idiots. You know, I had a very, very difficult life growing up. I grew up in Spanish Harlem, New York.
I thought I was Puerto Rican till I was seven. Really? Yeah, my mother never told me. My mother lived in a hospital for 18 years of her life, a Catholic hospital, and she lost her legs when she was nine. So my dad was, my biological dad was really bad, so we lived in Spanish Harlem together, and I, a woman with no legs, and an eighth grade education. And you know, you, you know, I read a book a long time ago in grad school, and it said it was a man's search for meaning. And it was about, and I know this is, but it is really martial law related in a way.
that they wanted, he was a psychiatrist and he was in the concentration camps. And he was, he took as many notes as he could on why people, some people survived the cramps and others didn't. And to make a long story short, the ones that survived lived for somebody else. They had a reason. They had a reason to live where the other ones, they knew that their family was gone. So, you know, using the information, growing up in the streets from New York
I went to Brockton, Massachusetts. I used to fight in high school. It's another tough town. Well, yeah, tell me about it. I learned how to fight because I'd get my ass kicked at all times, you know? So I- This is all pre-Marchal arts. This is pre-Marchal arts. I fought out of the Rocky Marciano gym. Okay. You know, and I had a good instructor. I remember my first fight, okay, and I'm sitting in the back. It wasn't glorious, you know, they're wrapping my hands, and the guy that I'm gonna fight is sitting right next to me. And he, I said, he looks at me, he says, "'How many fights has your had?' I said, "'Ah, I had a few.' I hadn't had any."
than sparring and I said how many do you have he said oh 15 14 knockouts so now I'm trying to keep a straight face okay and not show pain and yeah I had no I had not had a little legitimate and a fight at that point other than sparring so we get in the ring I don't know what happened the bell rang and the next thing I know I had knocked them out
Jeremy (04:33.622)
That's not what I'm bragging about. So I come in the next day, okay, now you gotta be in, this was the Rocky Marciano gym was not a glorious place. It wasn't a beautiful place. You know those bars that open up at eight o'clock in the morning and they start drinking? Yeah. And you use the bathroom only if you're dying? Yeah. Okay, so you walk through the bar to get to the gym, which was behind it. It was a gym in a dive bar. It was a boxing gym behind the dive bar. Behind the dive bar. But attached. So he, I mean, so Gigi Sergio was a,
a mafia guy who's a bookie. So he sponsored us kids. And I walk in after that fight, I had won. I was like shocked. Guy had never had 15 fights. But he said- He was just- Yeah, he'd BS'ed me. Yeah. I walk in front of everybody. You know, I'm Italian and I'm obviously animated. In front of everybody I say, Vinny, and he's in the ring with training somebody. Vinny, I'm quitting school. I'm gonna be a next middleweight champion of the world.
and I could do that I left home at 16. And you meant it? I meant it. Okay. Excuse me. So he says, get in the car. No, he says, change up. So after he gave me a beating, which he never did, I was the first from him, he says, get in the car. He drives me to the high school and he takes me to the principal. And our school has 7,200 kids in it, Brockton High.
took me to the headmaster of all four sections and he said, if Steve misses one more day of school, if he could, no, he didn't say that. If Steve quit school, thinks he's gonna quit school, you need to call me right away. Somebody thought it was dry, sorry. Do you need some water? No, yeah, if somebody can get some water, that'd be great. I don't know why it's so dry. It was dry in church, I just came from church. Just making sure. Thanks. Of course.
Jeremy (06:29.872)
Are you okay to continue, Andrew? Yeah. Oh, did you want her? Okay. Yeah.
Jeremy (06:37.964)
We're rolling but I'm just making note of the time so we'll cut that out. So there is a moral to the story. So when he did that, brought me back, we trained and I never quit school. This is just one guy.
Okay, he wasn't a touchy, he was Italian, but he wasn't a touchy-feely guy, but you knew he cared. And I'm sure you knew a marvelous Marvin Hagler. Yeah. He was my best friend. I started him out boxing. No way. Oh yeah, oh yeah, because he came to me. We used to call him short stuff, okay. How did you meet him? We went to Brockton High together. Okay. So he came to me, he knew I was boxing. I mean, I lived with African Americans when I left home at 16, lived with them. So I was, they protected me. And he, and then he said,
to the gym and I said, yeah, talk to Vinny. But there was no room, there wasn't enough lockers. So I sent in a Petronelli and history was the rest of it. But it was that one guy, that one time that changed my life. Think about it, I don't know if I would have been the middleweight champion of the world, sure would have tried like hell. But I have a graduate degree in psychology. I went to the White House, I was a spokesman for the President of the United States for five years on school violence and gangs.
I traveled all over the country. None of this stuff would have ever happened except for that one guy. Let's talk about that moment. So you come in, you're riding high on this wind. You're declaring your intention. And he says, no, you're not. No, no expression on it. No, he didn't even say no. It was no expression on your face. Yeah, he said, change up, we'll work out. Gives me a beating, takes me to the high school.
What was your, what were you thinking at that point? Because here, this is obviously someone that you look up to. Yeah, you're spending tremendously. You had a compelling, a dream, and he's not in words, but telling you, this is not what you are going to do right now. Was it hurtful? Was it disappointing? I'll tell you what it was. I didn't know what he was thinking to begin with. He had no expression on his face. When I told him, well, it is, everybody looked at me in the gym. I thought it was cool.
Jeremy (08:44.822)
But change up, workout. I had no idea what he was thinking until he told me. Even when he told us to get in my car after I changed back up.
and going to the high school, I had no idea what he was going to do. But, you know, and that is the moral of the story is not to tell you everything in my life, but that is how, you know, a martial art organization, or even a martial arts school is directed. The philosophy comes from the master, the grand master. So whatever that philosophy is, no matter how you were trained, 99% of the time, that's the way you're going to run your school. That's the philosophy you're going to use. Okay. And that has been my philosophy
day one. I mean, why don't I practice? Why don't I open up a, I mean, a mental health clinic? It's because this is the only thing on the planet, this sport. I have trained gang members, okay? My school in Connecticut, when I was in Connecticut, I had an office there, and it was one building. And on one side of that building was an alternative school. These were
wannabes and they're the worst. Okay? I mean they had to go through a metal detector there was only like 15 of them in that school. All right? And I went and I talked to the headmaster there. I said I'll train them. So he came to me and asked me if I would because he had heard about the things I've done with kids.
These kids had the jeans down here, they're showing their rear ends, they got the earrings, they got tattoos all over them, they got the necklace, they got all of that. I said, and then I talked to them, and I told them where I came from. See, it doesn't take me long to know that I'm one of them. You can relate. Totally relate, I grew up in the same areas. I had the same no fathers, I had the, we were the same, and I said, I'll train you, but you're gonna take all that stuff off, okay?
Jeremy (10:37.808)
your pants when you walk into the foyer, all right? As a matter of fact, I'm going to give you the uniform and you're going to put it on here with none of this bling on. They walked into this, they would come around to the other side of the building and they would walk into the studio. You would not believe the transformation and that's what's beautiful about this industry if you're a good instructor, if you're able to connect. And that is...
we're all the same. There isn't a sport on the planet like that. Think about it. Baseball is not dependent on one guy. Football, any of those sports, cocky, any of those things is not dependent on one person. But when you, as a student of the martial arts, it's just you. There might be a lot of people and you're all the same. You don't know whether you're standing next to a brain surgeon or a gang member because we all look the same. And there isn't anything on the planet that does that except martial arts.
whole Vinnie story okay about that one guy that changed my life is the philosophy that I have trained my instructors I don't claim to have the best martial artists in the world okay I don't they're good they're good I claim to have the best instructors and that has been my philosophy and this is such an ego driven business I don't play that game I just don't you know they put the belt you know I've been this in a long time you know that okay I've been all
world and because I was used to being in the entertainment business after high school and going through college but I had to travel and so I would go to any karate school like it martial arts school I could get into the train you know they put that belt around their waist think about this okay they were black belt you got people come in and all day long a black belt now if you I don't know what you are or how long you've been doing this but that's a you know not to be philosophical but that's a beginner
and they put that belt and people come in bowing to them all day long. Think about the psychology of that. Okay. All day long. And then ego, you keep, most people can't handle that. And they've stopped. You know what the worst, you know what the diseases of that black belt around your waist, you start to believe it. And that is a problem.
Jeremy (12:57.63)
No, none of them for years and years should not get that kind, you know, get that kind of acknowledgement. I mean, respect is with both people. You know, every time I give a black belt test, okay, and when I was an instructor just teaching in school, in the school years ago, I would bow and bow together and I'd ask them, do you know why I bow? Out of respect? Out of respect for you. And you do it out of respect for me.
I've been around thousands of martial artists. There's not many people that actually live that. They preach it, an industry that's predicated, respects self-discipline, self-control. Really? We talk about that a lot, Alicia. I'm not...
Saying everybody's like that. No, but I gotta tell you the majority of instructors are like that So let me let me post something to you. Yes one of the arcs over this show from early days We're coming up on our ninth Celebrating our ninth years. Well finishing our ninth year starting our tenth and one of the things, you know And maybe you're uniquely qualified with your
academic experience to respond to this. But it seems to me that a lot of these folks who get promoted up and they end up with these very inflated egos, it's because their instructors didn't temper their ego when they were younger and lower rank. That they saw, you know what? You know what? So-and-so is a jerk.
let me help them become a better person, but you know what? They can do their forms, they can do their techniques, they're a good fighter, I'm gonna give them their yellow blue, and sometime around, you know, depending on the system, brown, red belt, whatever, they realize, kind of missed the boat. If I hold them here until they're a good person, it's gonna take them five years, they're gonna quit. I can tell you exactly why that happens. Please. Okay? It's like being a parent.
Jeremy (15:01.886)
and the child. The kids will always emulate their parents. You know, if you hate, if you're racist, if you're biased, if you swear, if you smoke, 90% of the time that's what the kids will do that. I have seen it multiple times. I have kids that have come into our school at the beginning and they're always respectful.
and if they're not, we teach them how to be respectful. Walk out of the dojo, okay? Mom, go get me a water.
Now, parents, 90% of the time, unless they have special needs, will come into the school and say, we ask them why they want to bring their child to the school, and they'll say, he's arrogant or he doesn't listen, and blah, blah. But the problem with that is that once the kid leaves the dojo, the parents don't reinforce that. So it makes our job extremely difficult. What are we going to see him, two or three times a week? Yeah.
So the answer to your question is, they will emulate. The instructor is the parent. They will emulate exactly the ego that they have. Why wouldn't they? Because I can prove that. I had 50 schools at one time.
and I would make sure because they all come from within that this is the way that school was run, exactly. Because I would talk to parents, they had a line to me. They all had a line to me. They all had my cell phone number. They all had my email address. Okay, and if I ever got an email or something derogatory, it was usually about they didn't want to pay for testing. So no, that's the problem.
Jeremy (16:51.786)
You know, so they think that they're being, they think that they're being humbly instructed. They think that they're personifying respect, self-discipline, self-control.
but they're not because if they're not, their students aren't, they are the parent. And if you disagree, I'd be happy to listen to you. I don't. I find the psychology around ego to be really interesting. Because we get too much of it too soon. Yeah. And I look at my own personal journey. I started extremely young. I earned my black belt as a late teenager. And I was good. I was at a school that was good and I was good in that school. And...
I had, oh, there's Andrew with your water. Thank you. And it took me a long time to understand that what I needed. Now I had some challenges in my home upbringing, but my mother kept me humble.
But it's almost like it's a power, right? The skills that we have and the standing that we occupy is kind of like a power. It's an over-exaggerated power. The cliche. That's my definition of it. Yeah, the cliche of power corrupts, right? And so you hand a 16-year-old the power of a black belt.
do they have necessarily the life experience to use it? And in my case, ultimately I found my way and I was very blessed that I had two wonderful instructors who were like parents to me and they continue to guide me. And my mother was my mother and she made sure that I didn't have too big of a head.
Jeremy (18:37.462)
But I see what you're talking about, so I absolutely don't disagree. Yeah, I mean, again, it's going to, you know, it all flows downhill. And I've told people multiple times, even in interviews, I said, I hate this industry. Hate it. Because of all of this stuff. I've seen it. I've seen it for so long. And I've never been like that. But I love what I do. And I mean, if I didn't, I know what we do, what I do, what they do. We have changed lives.
We've taken kids off medications, okay, because they know how to deal with that.
I mean, when a psychologist will refer their kids to us, that tells you something to us, and it's because we have changed their lives. And that's, I mean, there's nothing better than that. I mean, I can't, do I wanna sit in front of somebody and listen to their problems all day long? Oh, how do you feel about that? What, are you kidding me? I'm not that kind of person. You tell me I have this bad habit of doing this with women. Okay, stop. I'm not gonna look at you like, we're all trained the same in psychotherapy, all the same, because the normal,
normal response to that is, how do you feel about that? Why do you think you do that? Really, so it's really, again, the philosophy of the instructor and the actions of the instructor, the philosophy they have. We all say we teach bully proof schools and we, you know, I'm not here to badmouth schools. I'm here for these people that are listening.
Maybe I can get to them. Maybe they can see exactly what I'm saying and understand that and change a little bit of the philosophy they're using in their schools. Because I've seen more of that than I've seen more of this. What I suspect some of the audience is taking from this.
Jeremy (20:29.818)
is that there are probably some folks out there who agree with you, believe what you're saying, but what you're saying is not the common discussion. And so you're going to give them confidence to lean into it a little bit more, to be a little bit more confident and to a certain degree, pushy, because there's students, their assistant instructors, their schools, whatever, nobody wants to admit they've made mistakes, especially black belts, except that we all do every day. Yeah.
I mean mistakes in their in their philosophy their stakes and how they are as instructors Yeah, no one's they're gonna look at me and say, you know, there's no saying people against you know Trying to convince somebody against their will there's the same opinion still, you know So they're gonna they're gonna look at me and call me an asshole, you know, whatever you think she's all of that He's got the best schools. I don't think that I'm just simply saying that This is the my this is the philosophy and why is that? I was fortunate enough to grow up with a woman
that had four fingers on one hand, no legs, lived in a Catholic hospital for 18 years of her life, okay, and became the founder for the Head Start program in the state of Massachusetts, which required a four-year college degree. And the most humble experience, so I had that. I looked at her. She never complained a day. She had multiple operations, multiples. She didn't even know her legs were gonna be removed when she went in for that operation.
Okay? Multiple. And when Head Start, you know what Head Start is? Okay, so once that don't, Head Start is a program that was designed for women, okay, that want to educate themselves or work and they don't have some single families, they don't have somebody to watch their kids. So they bring them to Head Start, they get educated, the kids get educated.
That when it was an experimental program and this has stayed with me for my entire life and I've been humbled a lot, trust me. Okay, I mean when you leave home at 16 and you make it, you think you're all that. Okay, and so I didn't escape from any of that either. I did an adult joke because I had my mom to use an example. But the rest of my life, forget about it. So...
Jeremy (22:42.542)
Once she became, it was an experimental program. She worked 60 hours a week for over a year. And they did that all over the country. And when the job became available, it required a four-year college degree. They had it printed, it was a federal job. And she had an eighth grade education. I was out of my...
I wanted to do damage, physical damage to something. I walked up to my mother and I said, Ma, she said I didn't get the job. And she was so calm about it. I said, Ma, aren't you upset about that? And she looked at me and this is so important. And she said, Stevie, I'm just happy that such a great program is going to help so many people.
60 hours a week for a year. And think about the humiliation that she had in eighth grade education and it required a four year degree. She was just happy it was gonna be a federal funded program. It wasn't about her. Oh my God, I mean think about that, the economy. That's huge. Huge, and I've been trying, ever since then.
I've tried to emulate that, that. Have I done it? I think to the best of my knowledge, to my age, yes I have. But there was a book. And I'm not a big reader, I'm a writer. I've written children's books. Yeah, oh yeah. And it was called Looking Out for Number One by Robert Ringer. And it's still on the shelves. I was...
2019. So a couple years ago. Yeah. And I'm reading this book and I'm going oh my god I'm just like this guy. I mean I identified I was him other than I didn't have as much money as him. Okay. I was him and I'm reading this and I'm like and I keep emphasizing this because I mean I don't get attached to people like that.
Jeremy (24:45.802)
but I was him. This guy and I are the same. I'm destined for wealth and happiness, you know, all that. Then about halfway through the book, he said, these are the 10 traits of people you should stay away from. And I'm reading this. Now I was with my brother-in-law, we're right from Florida, because I helped him move, and I'm sitting in the car.
He's the driver. And I'm reading this, number one, number two, I went through 10. And the more I'm reading this, the whiter my face gets, white, white. He pulled over, he thought I was having an anxiety attack. Talking about you. Yeah, me.
here I am totally engrossed in this guy that I am the same and the only reason I didn't get 10, number 10, because it had to do with how much money they have. And he said, those are the 10 people you need to stay. I qualify for 9 out of 10. And so people that are listening got to understand that I'm not the guy that's trying to tell you I'm the best on the planet or my schools because I wouldn't be telling this story.
So that, I mean, I even get, you know, a little anxious here talking about that. It killed me. But it sounds like it changed you. It helped change me. I was still young, but I looked at him and I said, exactly what I just said to you, and I looked at him and I said, Greg, I don't know why anybody even likes me. And it's still, my mom and those kind of, that lesson in life, that...
when I became I always studied martial arts after I went to college and I had to give up boxing. At some point we got to talk about how you. Yeah so it was it was that it was that philosophy but between my mother and that book that said Steve you're a you're an asshole. You know your ego is out of control you know and I understood why not that it's right you know you leave home at 16 you have bad father bad stepfather I would I mean I would be nine
Jeremy (26:51.804)
eight years old doing my bicycle route, paper route, which I was too young to do, so I lied about my age, and I would come home and the milkman would be at the door and I'd give him my money. So from that day on, I've always supported my sisters financially and my mom. So I just, that just devastated, that just destroyed me that day. And I'm glad it happened because it led the path.
of where I want, what I was working towards. And I've worked so hard to get that, that instructor to be that because that's what I am.
that's what i am and that's the philosophy i use we don't you know i studied in schools because i traveled a lot the martial art industry when you're studying with a japanese or korean or chinese you fit into their box and i have trained their people that we don't fit into the box this is not the shalan temple okay this is not the shalan temple these people pay us money we are their servant there was a whole thing on i used to be an adjunct professor at UNH
and I taught philosophy of business. And there was a whole philosophy behind what we call being a servant person. And that is what I do with them. You are a servant person. You're in the service business. Do you know what service means? You know what I mean? I'm not asking you that question, okay? But how many people really live that? I'm the instructor.
You're here for me. Yeah, exactly. But what's an instructor without students? You know, we make the joke on the show. It's teaching to an empty room. Exactly. But they but how many have changed really? How long you've been around a while. It and so let me let me ask you this because it feels like and you're in a great position to talk about this.
Jeremy (28:46.946)
For me, as the internet came up, a lot of the trappings, the mist that a lot of instructors used to maintain their standing and their bubble, because most of them like this were in a bubble, right? Their students couldn't go anywhere else. They couldn't do anything else. They had magically discovered the best fighting system on the planet and the greatest instructor who had won all of the world titles. The internet comes along and shows people.
It's not quite that cut and dry. So I'm starting to see that stuff seems to be fading away. That because they can't remain in a bubble because of...
what's going on in MMA, showing people. You know, there goes the argument that we have the best fighting system on the planet, because, you know, there is no cut and dry. This is the only thing that works, right? The best thing that works. It seems like people that are coming up, and as someone with some great instructors.
Jeremy (29:52.402)
they are a little bit more willing to be servants. Well, if it's possible, you talk to more martial artists than I do. I make it a point to stay away from them. Okay. And again, I don't mean that in a bad way. It's just that I've traveled the world. I mean, I mean, what do you think of when I went to Sicily? Because my family is from Italy and Sicily. So...
This is beautiful. I was in the sticks of Sicily, like there wasn't even a store. And I see this cave, opening of a cave, I mean a stone cave, an opening. And it said Bruce Lee Kung Fu. I mean, now you gotta picture this, okay? Picture yourself in the middle of the Mojave Desert and seeing this, okay? That's what it felt like where I was. Bruce Lee Kung Fu, and I'm okay with that. So I said, Kelly, I was with my wife. I was on my honeymoon. I said, Kelly, we gotta go in there.
So I go in there and I walk in and at the end, and it wasn't that big, but it was big enough, there's a guy in the same outfit, that striped orange thing that Bruce Lee wore, okay? And there's no students. And he knows I'm there and he's doing this to the bag.
I'm going, and he won't look at me. So his ego, I know he was Italian, so I'm going to find my news editor. You went back high in the middle of nowhere. I was married in 1985, OK? You know? And I was teaching then. I had one school. It was me. I taught. And I saw this, and I said, this just reinforced that this industry does that to these guys.
I mean, I'm in the middle of the Mojave Desert only in Sicily. And the guy won't even look at me. And I can speak a little Italian. I know the Sicilian dialect's different. But he wouldn't even look at me. So I'd walk right up to him, shake his hand, and explain to him as best I could that I have a school. You know, I'm a martial artist.
Jeremy (31:55.018)
doing this. I mean he was just, you know, it was, I mean I don't have to go any further with this. You know what I'm going with this. Okay? But that is like the, that is just the epitome of what I see out there. And that's why I can honestly say I hate the industry, but I love what I do. Because of the effect, if you are a good instructor, if that is really, if you emulate the philosophy that you say you teach.
then that's a good thing. And I have seen those instructors do it. So here's a question that I did. It would seem that it could be very easy, 50 schools at one point, which means at least 50 instructors under you. I would assume more. We do some rough math, thousands of students. It seems like it could be easy to let.
Humility or the idea of service? Absolutely human nature's human age. How how did you how did you hold on to that? The way you're talking about this now, I want to set this up right the way you're talking about this now
reading that book and how pivotal that was for you realizing, I am the type of person I don't want to be. And it sounds like you invested a tremendous amount of energy, if not also time to improve yourself. Can't imagine you'd want to backslide. So how do you keep, how do you and how did you keep yourself from doing that? I was, I was an animal. Okay. I work.
I went seven days a week. I was in every, I had those 50 schools in three states. New York, Long Island, New Jersey, and Connecticut.
Jeremy (33:37.562)
And I would, I did all the testing for this at that time. And I would be in, I wouldn't do one school at a time, obviously I would, like where we had, let's hypothetically we had 12 schools in New Jersey. So I would do two tests and we would combine the students in the bigger schools, but I had the instructors there. And every month, every month I would be in all three of those states testing. And they would have to listen to that.
first, because I would say, okay, take the students through the basics, and then start the test. I would watch them do it. And if I saw what you know I'm looking for, we'd have a problem.
And I don't, and again, even though my instructors came from within, human nature is human nature. Okay? And again, it's hard to maintain the philosophy when you got people buying you gifts, okay? Okay? Treating you like you're the messiah, okay? Bowing to you every single day. And what makes it worse is you have people like doctors, lawyers, people of power doing that to a young guy.
or young woman. How can it not get the ahead? And that's how I maintain. And in those days, I could give them a beating, okay? I'd spar with the instructors if I saw their ego was kind of really getting a little bit too much. Today, you can't do that anymore. But, and I don't mean that egotistically either, you know? They'd be good for another six months, you know? It's always like, yeah, so that's how I did it. Because I was in, I had them every month. I could rotate every month
and I could see what they were doing. Because as they get more involved a little bit in the test, I could really see that come out how they're doing things. And that's how I maintained. And I had managers in each state. And there were times they got out of control because they were in charge of the state. So that's what I did. Can you control everything? No, no. You know, we're a product of our past.
Jeremy (35:50.006)
You know, in psychology, it's proven that from zero to three, three to six, six to nine, by the time a child, do you have kids? By the time a child is nine years old, especially women, who they're going to be, what they're going to be is done, 80% done for the rest of their life. And it's because...
what I like to call the informative years. From zero to three, three to six, it's called the unconscious and three, zero to three is unconscious. Maybe the infant cries. You're the parent. One of two things. They're hungry, they're wet, or both. They don't know why they're crying. They're just crying. They can't, they don't have the cognitive skills for that. You change them, you feed them, and they start crying. Now we're talking about
right from that to...
Jeremy (36:44.762)
We can go all the way almost to nine, but especially the worst years or the best years are from birth to six.
because at that stage when you get to be like four years old or three years old, even two years old, they know what they don't like. I don't like that, but they don't know why. So if they're being abused, if their parents are doing whatever, anything, and they don't they know that they don't like it, but they don't have, well how could I at five, six years old, okay, understand why my father was abusing a woman with no legs and abusing me? How could I know that? I know they were doing it. I know I hated it. I cried.
But I don't know why he was like that. And that dictates who we're gonna be.
for the rest of our lives if we don't recognize that early on. And that's why I studied psychology. I didn't study psychology to change people's lives. I studied psychology and all those years to know why I do what I do. To understand why my father did what I did. Cause I hated him. I went to kill him one day, literally physically kill him. How old were you? 16.
That's a long story, but I won't get into it. I did. I was physically going to kill him because of what he's done. And as I got older, I didn't do it, but as I got older, and if I did, I wouldn't have made it out. I'm just kidding. You had a very different conversation. Yeah, as I got older, my stepfather became a psychologist. He was an alcoholic. He was drunk every day, but he became a psychologist and we worked for like a year and quit. But the...
Jeremy (38:29.938)
He would talk to me about, and I hated him, but he would talk to me about some of the cases he had as a kid, and it just fascinated me. And he had the Boston Strangler as one of his patients. And he would talk to me about the Boston Strangler. And it made me think about what got that guy to do, other than being psychotic, what was it? And then it brought the fact to myself.
Like, why do I have these habits? Okay, why? And that's when I started really researching. And that's what brought me into psychology. Because it didn't, you're never gonna change somebody.
You're not. By the time a teenager is 13 years old, if you're not living with that person, if you're not on them every single day, I've had 23 kids living in our homes in our marriage from outside kids, they will never change because that's zero to nine. And then beyond nine, you're not. You're not. You're not. You're not. You're not. You're not. You're
a coach can have a devastating effect on a kid if he was sexually abused or he sat on the bench all the time and kept telling him he was a great player but he never played. Okay, so coaches and teachers, but up to nine it's usually the parent. And that's what got me into psychology. I just want a definition. Why do people do what they do?
I'm not for them. I mean, that's what's got me for a graduate degree, but like in the first two or three years of undergrad, I mean, what am I studying Western civilization for? And in college, and why am I studying math? Okay, what am I studying? Trigonometry, calculus. I mean, I couldn't even spell trigonometry coming out of Brockton High School. I was surprised I even got into college because I worked full time. Where did you go? Brockton High. No, for college. Oh, UMass Dartmouth. And then I got my master's degree.
Jeremy (40:26.16)
degree in Connecticut, University of Connecticut. But yeah, I mean, I just wanted more definition because I mean, I haven't even touched on what, how abusive my life was with my mom. And you just don't, you got to, in order to make a change, past 13 years old, and especially as an adult.
You gotta know, you gotta deep, and it's like looking in the mirror and saying, this is a behavior that I hate, but I can't stop doing it. And it's not done overnight. It's the first thing is like AA. You never, they keep, even the ones that don't drink for years are still getting up saying, I'm an alcoholic.
So that's for an adult, that is so, so hard. It was painful for me. I mean, I had habits that, I won't talk about those on levels.
I didn't hurt people, I wanted to, but that was very difficult for me to have to say to myself, Steve, this is so bad what you do. It's not only damaging to the people around you, and I've always been good to people, I'm a very generous person, my mom, okay? But it was more detrimental to me. But to admit that.
When you're 20, 25, 30, 40 years old, very, very painful. I've worked very hard. I'm not there, I'll never totally be there because there's things that just never leave you. But I've been able to use that because there's not a kid on this planet, no, excuse me, not on this planet, in the United States that can sit in front of me.
Jeremy (42:23.85)
and tell me something that I haven't already been through. And that gives me the ability to help them because I've been able to do this with myself. What I'm- If that all makes sense. It does and if I, what I'm hearing, and I, this is something that I think a lot of us-
do. What I'm hearing is you've worked hard to be the person that you needed when you were a kid. Yeah. And I was that for my kids. That was that for my kids. My wife homeschooled all three boys, which I was totally against at the beginning until they, that's another story, but I don't want to deal with it. It's too long, but she homeschooled. She was brilliant. I told you, CAH right out of college and, and humble, forget about it. I mean, this woman is brilliant.
a rug with her brain. She still does. I got to a point with her I can't I don't disagree and I start to argue my point and I just stop because I know I swear to God I know right from the beginning she's gonna be right she's always right and I'm not gonna win even if I still think I'm right but my kids
I remember walking, and this is the same, and why, it's like they're saying, oh, see, he's talking about life story. Well, the life story, the examples, the things that we've had to do, I did, and we did, pertains to back to the beginning, when you, about how, what the philosophy is of my organization and how I train my instructors. So I'm walking, I had twins, so they're this big, and we're walking into a store, I mean a department store, and we go through the door,
And I turn her, and Kelly's not there. My wife's not there. I said, where's Ma? And we turn around and she's standing outside the door. I said, boys, you know what my mom said? It hit me that the three of us walked in that door without opening the door for her.
Jeremy (44:31.306)
And it's not that my wife needed the door open. The woman was a state long jump champion. She's an athlete. Capable of opening the door. Yes, she's capable of opening the door. But it was, those kind of lessons are what formed my boys. And to this day, my boys are 32, the twins, and Johnny's 26, okay? They opened the car door for their wives and their girlfriend, Johnny with his girlfriend. And they still to this day will not walk into a place
mother does.
Jeremy (45:04.998)
How many people do that? So if you take that philosophy, that training, I don't even say philosophy, it's training, and bring that to the studio, you could have 10 students or you could have 500 students.
Jeremy (45:23.406)
still make an impact. Huge impact. Let's talk about your training. So boxing, leaving home at 16, college, and if I heard you correctly it was after college you started what's called a traditional. No I did it in college. Okay. How did you get a couple of that? Living in Brockton, okay. It was in college. I don't know whether it was in my first year. Probably my first year because I was looking for something anyway to train. I never even thought about karate.
Okay, never thought about it. Okay, it wasn't that popular then. So, I hadn't seen this kid from high school in a long time. Because I went to college and whatever he did. And I saw him, his mouth was all wired. I said, Jesus, what happened to you? He said, I was fighting full contact competitively and this guy know how to use his hands and he did this to my face.
because most karate guys, especially at that time, didn't know how to, I mean, I still see it today where they're punching from their shoulders and not here with the whole body. And he said, I said, wow, and he knew I was a boxer, and a former boxer, and he said, and I still box, but he said, if you teach me how to box, I go to this school, you come to this school, I'll teach you for free. And it was a Weiji-ryu school, Matson Academy of Karate, it was my first school. And that's how it started.
think about it. I said, okay, that sounds good. I mean, this is like, oh, that's great. Let me do this. I just needed something because I was training boxing, amateur boxing is three punches basically, six days a week, two, three hours a day. That's it. That's it. Because you can either look at it as very simple or very boring. You think three rounds is not a lot. Three rounds in a real boxing match is a lot. It's exhausting. That's why you train so hard. So I said, yeah, I'll do that. And the match at Academy had a great reputation. I found that.
later because again I wasn't into martial arts but I loved it because it was hardcore, the training. I mean it's a simple, I'm not simple system but in terms of being a beginner it was simple you know in terms there wasn't a lot of technique you know weiji rule the okinawa style I mean the Japanese are known for like less technique and better at it okay that's why Japan beat China you know they have a thousand weapons and what are the Japanese say what's the first thing you think about a weapon with a Japanese sword samurai sword
Jeremy (47:49.56)
Exactly. And their steel was better than China's. But anyway, I loved it. I loved it. I mean, we was, you know, that was hardcore in those days. But anyway- So we're talking about the eighties? Yeah, no, I'm old. I'm talking about the seventies. Okay. So, yeah, unfortunately, did you know? I didn't want to say that. I'm doing my math badly. I didn't want to say that. I like your math. Okay.
Sure, we can shave off today. So that's how it happened. We can make it as old as we want. And then one day, so now I'm a green belt. And I was selling shoes, going to school, college, selling shoes to make some money. I always made money.
uh... even high school i mean we had split sessions i was working forty hours a week in high school okay i used to have to bake some of my teachers i'd always wanted to go to college there's no damasco i'd ever gone to college and that's another story but i always knew i wanted to go to college so i took college courses in high school and uh... you know i skipped school a lot so
I would do well on tests. I was fairly intelligent, but not my wife. But I mean, I would be, there were a couple classes that I needed for college that were between a high D and a low C, and I would beg the teacher, say, look, if you don't give me a C, I can't go to college.
and they would give me the C. I mean, what a difference it would make to them. So anyway, yeah, so I'm a green belt and I'm selling shoes. And this kid comes in, he knew me from school, and he says, yeah, I'm at this Kempo school. And I said, what is that? What do they do, what do you do? Now, I mean, I had one, I think I was a green belt, I had two forms, not really much technique. And he goes, yeah, we studied the tiger, the crane, you know, the leopard, we do the, you know, I mean, it was crude anyway,
Jeremy (49:40.706)
And I'm ADD as you can probably tell and I'm saying wow.
So I need stimulation. And he's telling me about all these animal techniques. I said, this is great. I love that. So I went up to the school. I went up to the Kempo school. So was this, so New England's 70s? Is this? It's in the 70s, yeah. Nick Sirio? No, you know, Nick Sirio is another story. I was already a master and I met Nick and he asked if we could work out together. So I worked out with him every week for a year. I never met him, but I always heard amazing things. Great guy, great guy. But anyway.
So I'm like thrilled about this, like I was just fascinated. So I'm young. I'm 18 or 19, 18 years old. I walk into the school, okay, I had a lot of, I was very humble at that time. And I sat down in the chair and I looked at the instructor and I said, why should I study with you?
Jeremy (50:38.41)
Obviously, I was a green belt and I'm a fighter. So I could fight, I mean, I beat up a lot of karate guys because we fought hard in those days. Okay, and they didn't know how to use their hands. So if I could- For those who don't know, Weichiru was known for being kind of tough, lot of conditioning. Oh God, they were killers, but I loved it. Okay, because boxing was like, training was like that. So he looked at me and he said, I'm not gonna swear, but he looked at me and said, you shouldn't, get the F out. And then I knew.
I came back and I said, think to myself, this is the place I need to be. And that's how I started getting into Kempo. I was the black sheep of the, it was a Volari school, but I was the black sheep of the Volari organization. The Volari organization started in the 70s? It was called United Studios. Okay, okay. At that time. And Fred changed it to Fred Volari Studios years later.
Jeremy (51:36.55)
So yeah, so anyway.
I loved it. I loved studying Kenpo, but why was I the black sheep of the family? One, I left Kenpo because it had, I mean, I worked hard on my kicks. I mean, I never stretch, you know, I hadn't started stretching. We didn't stretch in boxing much. We ran, we did, you know, strain. And when I started weijiu and I started doing the stretching, holy shit, I couldn't even touch my toes. So, and it hurt, but, uh, where was I in this? Why you love Kenpo? Oh yeah. Yeah. So, oh no, why I was the black sheep of the family.
of the Fred Valari because Fred, you know, they're called Fred a cult and I don't think many organizations like that have organizations is much different but he didn't want anybody studying outside the system but I saw the flaws I loved the technique but I saw the flaws in the training and why did I see the flaws because years later I found out that Fred never that Fred went Nick
Jeremy (52:38.966)
Nick never badmouthed Fred. That's how nice a guy he was a Christian. That's how nice a guy he was but he said to me Fred only wanted honorary second-degree black belt
Jeremy (52:51.51)
he never took any lessons. When we were big, at 350 schools, we would make up stories about Fred being in Puerto Rico, taking on 10 guys, whatever, you know what I mean? And because Fred had a bad reputation with the martial art world, but he was a multi-millionaire, I mean he was brilliant. There were, you know, so... So that's why I was a black. I grew up in Maine, and you know, there were
and no part of Maine. I grew up just north of Portland, our northern Portland, and there was a Volari school in town called Wyndham, which was not that far from here. My first school in Portland was Portsmouth. I mean Portland. But Volari schools had a reputation as promoting quickly and giving...
fairly novice.
martial artists their own schools? I can tell you we didn't promote quickly, okay? Because, and I'll tell you why, not to defend it because I have no desire to defend Fred. This is all third, fourth, fifth hand stuff. Everything else was correct. I mean what can you teach if you got the master or whatever you wanted to call Fred, okay, the head guy and only went to honorary second, the only ones he promoted quickly were the two guys that ran his company. I don't
Jeremy (54:21.3)
back. I mean we would go for green, I don't say green belt and it could take years because they didn't want to give the rank. They didn't want anybody getting that close to them and the higher we got because they had at some point promote us, the higher we got, the higher they got. I remember being at a workout, a Fred Valori workout with only instructors and he didn't know I was standing behind the door over there and he said, Charlie, Fred,
it's time to put another stripe on. Because we were getting rank at that time. So yeah, I mean, so we didn't, other than those guys, and I'm not gonna talk about them as martial artists, I don't do that, but what I will say is those are the only people, we weren't a belt factory. It appeared to be a belt factory because we had so many schools. But they held us back all the time, all the time.
because they didn't want us that close. So you were talking about being the black sheep and seeing some of the flaws in the system. Because I studied it, I saw the flaws. So did that have a I went into China town. An impact on how they treated you? Oh yeah, totally. So were you held back even more than others? My black belt test, I'm survived, I physically, physically survived it. And I don't mean from endurance, because I always worked out hard.
for endurance because of boxing I had that training in my head Fred had this horse whip that he would use in those tests and he would always hit somebody but me He beat that shit out of me with that horse whip because he knew start I started as a purple belt
training in Chinatown. And I never stopped. That's how I got to China. That's why I got to train with the headmaster in the Shaolin Temple for 20 years. So you were cross-training in Kung Fu? Yeah. And I always thought that was a weak system, because all the Chinese martial artists I saw looked weak to me. I mean, they had pretty forms, but they were weak. Then there was this one guy I got invited. I'll tell you how cocky I was. Debbie Mangoni, which was Larry Mangoni's wife.
Jeremy (56:33.832)
Was big in the Chinese. She was a big sister for Chinese. She loved the Chinese people. They loved her She was Italian and I don't know I said that but anyway She she said you gotta I said she said you should you should look at this you should look at this System I said Debbie these people can't fight. I was a fighter Okay When I was training I remember going up for my green belt brown belt and Charlie came to give us that we were terrified Because we had all these stories and I did my form and they laughed
Not that their form was any better, but my form sucked. I wasn't into forms. Okay? I was into fighting. You know, and the technique. So...
She says, this guy, Champoy, from the Wallaum system, he said, you gotta come to this. And it was a big, they had a big, I mean, they rented a big place. I didn't know he was that big on stage. So I walk by, I'm walking to my seat and Champoy is sitting over here. Debbie says, that's Champoy. Now he looked like he weighed probably from sitting down 130 pounds, soaking wet. And I said, I looked at Debbie's seat.
I had no ego, right? I looked at him and I said, I'll kick his ass. You know, so I'm looking at that. I went because Debbie, I love Debbie. I love her. And so I'm watching these martial artists on stage. I'm not that impressed. Then one of his top people that came from Hong Kong with him, his name was Yali.
not Yan Li, Yao Li. And he does this form, he's 5'11", weighed about 180 pounds, and he does this form called the swallow form. I didn't know what it was called at that time.
Jeremy (58:16.138)
I looked at him and I said, oh shit, the power that this guy did. I mean, there's one move where you jump up in the air, throw your kicks and land on your knee, like your knees almost. I learned that form, I ripped my knee when I did it. But I did, I ripped my cartilage.
Okay, I shouldn't have been ready for that form. Okay. I didn't think it was the form I learned at that time. I think I was just trying to move. So, but he was powerful. He was, don't try to move. He was powerful. And I said, and I'm a power guy. I said, that was the first guy that I, Chinese, that I said, I want to study with him. And I was a purple belt, I think, a green belt to something in Gimbal. So already green belt in the, in Rui Ji Rui.
So I went to a school. And before that, I went, actually I started before that. I started with Yan Li, Yan Li. And Yan Li never liked me. To this day, I don't think he liked me. But he's the one that taught at Harvard for years. Anyway.
He taught, trained me privately only because Debbie wanted him to. He loved Debbie. They all loved Debbie. So, but it was a three hour lesson. One hour of Chinese medicine, because that's their philosophy. I didn't know. One hour of cooking for meditation. And then I get 45 minutes to an hour of the, uh, the, uh, the mantas. Okay. But his mantas wasn't strong, but I studied with him. Let me tell you, let me tell you the philosophy. I went up to one day and I said, why is,
Why is it that the more I stretch, the tighter I get? He looked at me and said, stretch more.
Jeremy (59:59.318)
I'm waiting for this philosophical answer. Big and deep. Okay, but he, you know, and that was it. And then when I saw this Yan Li, Yao Li, okay, I do everything wrong in the beginning. It always, I don't know how I do it. I just happen to walk into this stuff. So I go in and I'm gonna impress Yan Li, Yao Li, about that I've already studied with Yao Li. Wait a minute, he's Yao Li, Yan Li. I had already studied with Yan Li. So.
What do I do? I go and say, yeah, I've been studying privately with Yan Li. And I saw this look on his face. He hated him. Ha ha ha.
How do I do it? He was one that came over, the two of them came over from Hong Kong, I found out later, and the Yan and the Yao get to me. The Yan Li left Shampoie and started his own thing. They hated him. Of all the things I could have said, I said the wrong thing. So that's how it started. But I took, I had my own school at that time too. A little later I had my own school. And I drove from Concord to Boston
single week for 14 years and trained privately with him. Did you ever cross paths with Bowson Mark?
Oh, I know Paul's boss in Mark very well. But when I say, you know who she is. I do? Yeah, I mean, she was commissioned by the country of China to start that combined Tai Chi. But Larry- At a time when women were not recognized doing anything. Yeah. But they commissioned her. Because she was that- Who's that Kempo, that, I mean that...
Jeremy (01:01:43.87)
Wing Chun guy that's in all the movies. What's his name? Donnie Yen. That's his son. Yeah, and the daughter was famous in the Chinese Kung Fu Olympics. Famous, but anyway, great. I mean, he's great, Donnie Yen. But Larry Mangoni has been studying from her. I don't know if he still does, because he's getting old now.
for probably 30, 40 years, privates every week. So that's how I knew about her, was through Larry. And I met her once, she was very gracious, she was very nice. I was lucky enough to spend a little bit of time with her interests and get some stories, yeah. Pretty cool day. Yeah. So that's why I was the black sheep of the Bellari Organization for years until I started making Fred money. Okay, then he loved me. Everything for Fred was about money. So.
But yeah, that's why, because I met once as I started with Yan Li as a blue belt. So, and I never stopped in the, in the, in the, that's how I got invited to China. When I was, I was, I was a spokesperson for education, gangs, school violence for the president of the United States. And the only president I think China's ever really liked, because I see his pictures when I went there the first time, was Bill Clinton's.
And I was invited as a guest because we had just blown up. And I was working with the FBI then too. But we had just blown up one of their ambassadors. They were always mad at us for something. CIA did not have the intel that one of their ambassadors was in a hit they were doing. So again, they wanted to kill us. But because of the ones I studied with in Chinatown, they knew those masters. And then the fact that I was a representative of Bill Clinton,
got to Shaolin Temple. They took me everywhere. They picked me up in a, they threw me in first class and they picked me up in a general's limo. Here I am in a general's limo, okay, with the big red stuff on the front, with two Chinese, I don't want to say bodyguards, but translators and stuff. It was unbelievable. They took me everywhere, Beijing University. I did well. Oh my god. And then the last stop was the Shaolin Temple.
Jeremy (01:03:56.162)
So that's how it started. And I went there every year for 20 years. I think we're gonna have to have you back on. This is, this is- I'm sorry to carry it away, but- No, no, don't apologize. When you ask a question, it's like triggers something else. Well, that's what we do on this show. And you're asking a good question. Thank you, thank you. This has been a lot of fun. I know we've gone over our time, so. But that's okay, other than, you know, we've got-
we've got one of your guys that we're going to bring in. Sunday. He's a good guy. He's been since he was six. I can tell we've scratched the surface. So we're going to have to have you back on it at some point. If people want to follow what you're doing, your schools, what's the website? If they want to follow what I do, the website we use for the states that we're in is sdss. Steve Damasco, Shama Studios, sdsskungfu.com.
I do because I had to have the White House gave me a publicist because I election all over the country for the president so I had to have this yeah you know and that's a Steve Damasco calm okay so they can do whatever they want we'll get that stuff from the show notes okay whis make sure you go check out everything all the links I mean probably gonna be a lot coming out of today and this work
honest with you, I mean it's Sunday, I'm Catholic and I came from church to here. So I don't do these, no I wasn't saying it for that, it's just that I don't do, my wife and I don't do anything on Sundays. But I promise Mark really wanted me to do this. Yeah. And I'm really- This is why. And I'm really, no, I'm really glad I did. This is the things that we talked about, the things you asked me, I really enjoyed this. Good, thank you. So I always ask the guests to kind of close us up, so you know the audience is still hanging on.
leave them with, you know, final thoughts, words, summary, you know, something of that nature. I don't know. Everything to me is, I have an honorary doctor degree in philosophy. And I, this is my mantra. What we do truly, and I think by listening to me, you'll believe what I'm, that I believe this, what we do in this lifetime, that goes on to eternity.
Jeremy (01:06:15.67)
And I have a foundation for inner city kids. Nobody gets paid. All the money that I get, I give to not just martial artists, martial arts schools, but they have to have a, it could be boxing, it could be anything, long as they have a strong mentoring program. So everything in my life is a movie. That came from Gladiator. And I named my foundation, the Strength and Honor Foundation. There's a website for that. It's stre
and that came from the gladiator movie. I love that movie. It's a good movie. So that's it. What we do in our lifetime, the effect that we have on these people that we train from kids to adults will carry on to eternity. Awesome. Thanks for being here. My pleasure, appreciate it. It was great. I really enjoyed this.