Episode Summary

In this episode, Ian chats with Frank Barca, a master of Jiu-Jitsu in Australia. Currently based in Melbourne, Australia, he is the first Australian to completely embrace these submission tactics and teach them to others.

Don’t miss:

• Frank shows how martial arts can be amusing and exciting, as well as save lives — yours or others'.
• Frank explains how his expanded involvement in the martial arts business has helped him feel more comfortable in his own skin and in his own teaching.
• He also mentioned that ancient methods of instructing martial arts and pressure practise are used wherever possible when it comes to the training of athletes.
• Frank and Ian had a good time chatting about how much fun you can have with your family while knowing you're physically protecting them.

About the Guest:

Since 2006, Frank Barca has trained at 10th Planet Jiu-jitsu HQ in Hollywood, where he has met several MMA legends and other elite Jiu-jitsu and MMA fighters at Legends Gym, one of Hollywood's most sought after training facilities. Frank has returned 13 times since then to continue learning and training under his master, Eddie Bravo, the creator of 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu.

Frank Barca has trained every year at 10th Planet Jiu-jitsu HQ, in Hollywood, since 2006, coming in contact with many MMA Legends and many other elite Jiu Jitsu and MMA fighters in Hollywood at one of the most sought after training facilities, Legends Gym. Since then, Frank has returned 13 times to continue to learn and train under his master, Eddie Bravo, the founder of 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu.

He is the first Australian to fully embrace these submission strategies and is teaching this unique style of submission grappling down under in Melbourne.

The affiliation is based on mastering 75% of the 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu system, a minimum of 4 years of grappling (Frank had been focusing on his ground game for 6 years at the time), and demonstrating mat sparring application of the world famous 10th Planet JJ method, as well as competing.

By becoming an affiliate at that time, Frank Barca became the first person outside of America and North America licensed to teach authentic 10th Planet Rubber Guard, Twister,, and Half-guard attacks as well as the many other attacks specific to 10th Planet JJ.

Frank Barca has been Eddie Bravo’s first generation student since 2006. Frank has been solely ranked by Master Eddie Bravo from white belt to blackbelt. This is a feat that no other Australian has ever achieved. The first in the Southern Hemisphere.

About the Host:

Ian Hawkins is the Founder and Host of The Grief Code. Dealing with grief firsthand with the passing of his father back in 2005 planted the seed in Ian to discover what personal freedom and legacy truly are. This experience was the start of his journey to healing the unresolved and unknown grief that was negatively impacting every area of his life. Leaning into his own intuition led him to leave corporate and follow his purpose of creating connections for himself and others. 

The Grief Code is a divinely guided process that enables every living person to uncover their unresolved and unknown grief and dramatically change their lives and the lives of those they love. Thousands of people have now moved from loss to light following this exact process. 

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Ian Hawkins 0:02

Are you ready, ready to release internal pain to find confidence, clarity and direction for your future, to live a life of meaning, fulfilment and contribution to trust your intuition again, but something's been holding you back. You've come to the right place. Welcome. I'm a Ian Hawkins, the host and founder of The Grief Code podcast. Together, let's heal your unresolved or unknown grief by unlocking your grief code. As you tune into each episode, you will receive insight into your own grief, how to eliminate it and what to do next. Before we start by one request. If any new insights or awareness land with you during this episode, please send me an email at info at the and Hawkins coaching.com. And let me know what you found. I know the power of this work. I love to hear the impact these conversations have. Okay, let's get into it. Alrighty, welcome, everyone and welcome to today's guest, Frank Barker. How are you mate?

Unknown Speaker 1:09

My man in Hawkins what's going on? Do man I've been busting on this thing for so long seriously, and apologise for last week I got you know, I got the flu and all that stuff. So I'm just recovering. So I might sound a little late night radio.

Ian Hawkins 1:23

Yeah, your voice last week usually on a particularly particularly sexy I loved it.

Unknown Speaker 1:28

Yeah. Yeah, I had you at hello.

Ian Hawkins 1:32

Absolutely. And I think that's the thing that we were talking about last week. We met about four years ago, and I was immediately drawn to your mischievous humour. And, and then you reminded me why that is he goes because you're a cheeky buggy yourself. So I love it. There you go. You got very good. So Frank, tell us 10th planet jujitsu. Tell me tell me about what it is that you do and why you're so passionate about it, man.

Unknown Speaker 1:58

Ian Hawkins 6:38

And we'll come back to prime time because we do share something else in common and that's in we both work for Fox Sports at different times. And I know you're, you did a bit of on air works, and we're going to come back to that. Oh, yeah. So yeah. So Frank, I'm particularly drawn, you said, like, the word fighting. So So what was the passion for martial arts? Was it because as a kid you would get in fights? Is it because you wanted to be able to have that ability to defend yourself? Like, what was the lower to that?

Unknown Speaker 7:03

Well, first of all, I mean, I'm five foot four, you know, 65 kilos. You know, as a young person, I could barely hit 60 kilos, you know, but I was always smaller, lighter. You know, I played soccer as a kid. I played tennis, and whatnot. And I was a musician, and I'm a drummer. So my dad raised me on on boxing and wrestling. He's a huge WWE fan. And he loved boxing, you know, being Italian, Rocky Marciano. The whole thing, you know, the rockets in the middle of the movie, the movies, you know, raised on Rocky and being Italian and Oh, my God. I mean, it was just, you know, it was, it was perfect. Was it meatballs, Paradise, right. So, as a young kid, I was also a huge Bruce Lee fan. And when I heard that there was this karate style at the high school one time, I got down there like quickly and I was all in, you know, I just loved the whole idea of a smaller, weaker person, being able to kick someone's ass that was bigger and stronger than May was everything. So I know, I was led to believe that there was a thing you could do, you could get really strong, you could get really smart and scientific and new skills. And you could overcome these things. I was like, well, so. And you know, Bruce Lee was only a small guy. He was like, five, seven, I think he was or something. He was like, it was like 140 pounds. He was all muscle. And, you know, he, his philosophy on training changed because he got in a situation where he's, he was he didn't perform at his best he was his cardio, respiratory efficiency was bad. He didn't have strength as much as he really thought he needed against these people that were well developed. So he redefined what fitness and and as a martial artist was, and I was all about that. I mean, my bookshelf is loaded with, you know, all these books, and all these writings and philosophies and all that stuff. So from a very, very young age, I learned that you could be really, you could really be in the mix, if you were just Ultra prepared, had super skills, did the work. Push yourself to the max, but you had to excel in it. And that word was like what does that mean? You have to go far beyond above and beyond. In your craft, you have to be the the elite of the elite get to be the best in your craft. If you want to have any chance of defeating someone bigger and stronger than you.

Ian Hawkins 9:23

Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 9:24

your little bro that was the lowest still is today.

Ian Hawkins 9:27

Yeah, like until, from from what I do know of us it that drives you in all areas of life. Right? Like you said, when the haters come and all those people who say that you can't like it's like, no, no, I've got this ability to go through this go through places that other people won't, right.

Unknown Speaker 9:42

Yeah, they had no idea who they were dealing with like that would that would just keyboard warriors. I had no idea what I was like, already had black belts in 10 different arts. You know, I had 10 Different levels of black belt at this stage already. And in my mind, I always said to myself, I'm like, Yeah, you know, in Brazilian jujitsu. Yeah, I'm not a black belt yet. But that's only a matter of time. It wasn't like In this lot wasn't an if it was like a win. And these people had no give them a background because to them anything other than Brazilian jujitsu was unacceptable. And I was like, Oh yeah, but, you know, learning under Japanese trained martial artists going through 30 Man Kuma day. I'm a two time Ironman triathlete. My brother went to Corona, like, you know, training with world champions like, okay, so when the penny drops, they're gonna go all that's why so then now now it's like, oh, yeah, okay. Well, you know, he's obviously had businesses and you know, he already went through that stuff. And yeah, we know. And now of course, he can do that. And now he's, he's a leader. I'm like, Oh, okay. So before, it's just about being a black belt, but even I've seen black boss, I don't know how to lead black belts that, you know, you know, like, don't have any business sense or acumen and, you know, too proud to, to go and learn off other people. You know what I mean? Like, I'm like, Oh, my God, like, once the penny drops, and people will realise,

yeah,

we're dealing with bro. But my teacher, Eddie Bravo. He knew exactly within, within one visit, he knew what I was about, like, as funny and it eluded a lot of my other teachers in the past that held me back and restricted my, my ability to learn and, you know, abused me and put me down. And, you know, I was the smallest in the room. And, you know, there was no no weight class has always put me against bigger, stronger guys. And like, they just were waiting for me to break, you know, which never came.

They were intimidated by the power and and then tried to find every way to push you down. Wow,

it kind of made me I was delusional on a night, but it kind of felt like that. Tell you? Yeah. Yeah, dude, I mean, oh, man. But that was then them in the past does not equal the future brother. The past does not equal the future, dude.

I love that. I love that. And one of the things that you were talking about earlier was, well, business was something that you kind of fell into the first time. So take us back to, or actually before you there. I want to hear more about the students. Right. So you said at first there was some scepticism and people unsure. But But what are your students get? What is it that you hear from them? That gives you so much joy when they come out the other side of learning what they what they learned from you?

Let me tell you, it wasn't my student. They weren't it wasn't my students who had doubts. They, they were other martial artists, online, outside of my nucleus.

Yeah, so I'm saying I'm saying the students who have had, oh, what is it that like, even like now and over the years, what is it that you love to hear from them? When they when they become more skilled when they have more of that drive when they have like when they come out? Yeah,

they love they love the fact that 10th planet jujitsu was just so unique, you know, that, that were that they're part of a movement that was pioneered, from the very beginning. And that now that they are the greatest, evolved the most evolved version of what I was like as a white belt, blue belt, purple belt, brown belt, black belt. Now when I produce my own blue belts, purple belts, brown belts, black belts, they are like, the highest level version of what I was, it's frickin mind blowing, and they love it, they love it, they love it, because they see how far we have come with their structure, with our evolution, with our innovation with our forward thinking, without keeping up to date with all the latest technology that's going around in martial arts in the world that's pressure tested with every weekend, you know, all these competitions, you know, the fact that I'm a commentator on the biggest stage here in Australia, we touched on that earlier and that you know, I'm their teacher on that coach and I'm out there representing on the voice of for athletes and martial artists in Australia, you know, watching these boys fighting in our country, and then going on to the UFC, which is the greatest the big dance, you know, the greatest testing ground in the world. You know, and watching you know, 30 of our athletes going from next fight series, which I'm a part of and have been from day one. All the way to the big show, and then my students, you know, seeing me put the cans on and go into that and being an expert commentator in knacks I'm a colour commentator, not just a play by play guy, I'm content I break down the fights what's going on in the moments that people are kind of going what's going on you know, what to do and this and that they don't understand what's going on the ground. I got come in and the ground is super technical. You know, wrestling super technical, to break that stuff down. Live. You know, they love they love that dude made they love it because it takes a type of individual to walk into a 10 plan school. You have to be so open minded. I mean, he's open minded about a lot of things. I mean, you just go Google ate Bravo and then just get a large popcorn and a coke. You'll be there for days. Yeah. It'd be like a game or you know, you won't leave your chair. So you know, yeah, you have to be be really open minded and you had to do your homework and, you know really challenges a lot of your thinking. Because our thinking is worst case scenario first, you know what I mean? You're not learning from a position of advantage. Day one, you're learning from the worst case scenario, which is for us, a gold medalist Russian wrestler 99 kilogrammes. Like, where do you think you're going to start the fight, you're going to be on your back, bro, you're going to be on your back, dude. And you better know what to do when you're there. And that's how he raised me. So from the first day, raising me in the worst case scenarios, when I went online to go, Hey, we are here in Australia, we are alive and we are running. I couldn't care less what the what the community had installed. For me. I'm like, bro, I've learned this art from the bottom. worst case scenarios first. And here I am. And I'm a small guy. I'm a light guy. And I've gotten here purely by being technical first, and then being tough. And then being technical. Again, that middle model, what are they going to say? And do that's going to so my students reflect all of this, and then they've been raised

this way. Or it really prepared.

And you know what the game is? Dude, our students, when we go out and the comp circuit, all eyes are on our guys, because they know something exciting is going to happen, something unorthodox is going to happen. Something that they don't don't know how to do, they don't know about, you know, and we go out there, and we do we do now we don't win everything. But man, we got state champions, national champions, like doing big things. In the world. We got world level black belts, we're on world level competitions competing with best in the world in some areas. We've got like, we've got champions in at the top of the list at the top of the game. They don't not right across the board, but who has who has? Yeah, in the mix. And we're pioneers of this. So you know, it's my it's a pleasure for my students. That's a pleasure. Hi.

Yeah. Awesome. So you mentioned the word that I want to tap into more. So you're following your masters version of what it is what you just described, yeah. What you just described there is that your people are going and doing things different? Right. So So you must bring your own flavour to that right, your own innovation. So what? Yeah, so what is that? What is it that Frank Barker brings to 10th planet that's unique? That's yeah, that's your own innovation. This style,

I haven't bought any innovation to it at all other than me, just really being such a having such faith in it, that, you know, all of our techniques, I mean, Jesus, so many, I mean, I could, no, I'll give you the exact quote, let me draw on an example. Maybe this might be better for you. In 2016, my teacher asked me to put together 32, drills, 32 exercises, and they're all things. They're all things. And they're the they're the most important things, and consistent things that come up in NoGi, grappling, whether you're in MMA, whether you're in submission only whether you're competing for points, self defence, whatever you want to talk about, we came up with over the years of training, we started to see consistency that always come up, you know, and jujitsu is based on four basic principles, if I can just given the number one, get the fight to the ground. So you start standing, you know, hey, I want you t shirt, well, what's extra, it's cool, and your T shirts, cool, but not I want you or your T shirt or attitude. Okay, so now you're gonna attack me. So I need to get the fight to the ground if I want to defend myself, because that way, everything's pretty equal. Because if you're bigger and stronger than I am, if I leave you standing, you have size, you have weight, you have length, you have distance covered, like you have all these advantages over me because I'm smaller and weaker than you. So if I get you on the ground, now, your backs on the ground. Now the universe, even though the planets are against you, right? rep is assisting me now. So the first rule is get the fight to the ground. That way, your weapons null and void toward the Greek way, way less than if you were standing there wailing on me with your punches and your elbows and your knees. If you're on your ground and you're punching up at me, it's not going to have that much of an effect on me. So number one, get the fight to the ground. Number two, I've got to get around your legs. Because as you know, your legs are very powerful. If I lay on my back and kick my legs up towards you, and you're trying to get to punch me, like if I can just put my arms up and put my legs up man, you know, you might get kicked in the face kicked in the in the in the pelvis and the knees, joints, you know, so the legs are really dangerous. So we can get so we want to get around them. So get the fight to the ground, get around your legs. Number three, I need to be able to hold you down in gonna be able to hold you down. We call a pinning, call a pinning or control. So or positional control. So I want to I want to go chest, the chest. So imagine you're on your back and my chest is on yours. And I use my grips now to hold you so you can't move. You can't wriggle you can't stand up. You can't punch me you can't really do anything. So once I get you down Get around your legs and hold you down. Now I'm going to isolate an arm, a leg or your neck. So I'm going to put in a final, I'm gonna finalise it. So I'm going to finish you

choke, or attack your legs and you know, hurt your legs or limb of choice. So these are the four things in jujitsu, get you down, get around your legs, control you and then can issue. So there are 32 drills that we put together for the whole association in the world. We have 150 schools in the world, right, Eddie, and all the black belts all contribute through competitive competing and trial and Testing, testing, pressure testing daily, not only in our schools, in our dojos in our gyms, but also in on the competitive map. And we draw from that the consistencies. And we put together 32 exercises that reflect the best things in all these different positions, choke, strangles, escapes, reversals, we call them sweeps, wrestling, takedowns, leg attacks, escapes everything counters, in 32 drills. And he asked me out of all the black belts in the world to film these and produce these for the association. So 2016, myself and Josh, my top student. And so our other students, we filmed it, we edited it, we packaged it, and we presented it to Eddie. And it was so well received. These are the 10th planet warmups, the 10 P warm ups. And we and we put anyone on to promote it as the warm ups, because we didn't want to see as like, these are our like, this is our curriculum. No, he wants to say, look, this is just like MIT work. You know, when you warm up on the pads, like, you know, when you warm up when you before you play a game, you do dribbling drills, you do some shooting from these angles, you do some layoffs, and I'm just drawing from a basketball analogy, you know, yeah, just warming up, you know, jumping jacks for your jujitsu, so to speak. Yeah. So we, we, we play it with a lot of Eddie's help, but also with our, our, with my mindset, because Eddie was just shooting me texts on what he wanted to look like. I didn't know how half of these things really look like but I draw on my experience and my training. And we just videotaped it, sent it over there. And he sent it back and we scrutinised it and then polished it. So we launched this in 2016. To this day, our, our warm ups have evolved enormously over because you know, the game evolves. And we just interject these into our warm ups. And we practice these for 15 minutes every day before we do anything else. So if you want to ask me, okay, what's one thing that that that you've brought to the table? As a, you know, the word you use as a innovator? Like what's your What have you done to contribute to the machine? Pretty much, I have to say that, you know, it's not just one like one technique or a move or an escape or something I didn't calm or something like that. It was the warm ups, we really launched those warm ups to the world. And I've got a temporary warm ups Instagram page that I run for the association. And we have 35 and a half 1000 people that do that regularly and use that to help them bridge these techniques that we do in 10th. Planet jujitsu with their own jujitsu, and they don't have to be, they don't even have to be 10 planet schools. I have guys met, I've got guys, dude, I get hit up every time every week from people that say, Hey, we're doing the warm ups today. They videotaped themselves doing them. And they might not be doing them perfectly, or they might not be doing them in no ghee. They may not be using them every day, but they love it because it's added a dimension to their, their martial arts abilities that have really improved them. They've improved, like they've really improved their jujitsu because of that. And that, that my god, I mean, that's all I need.

Yeah, and, and that was pretty extensive given when I first asked the question, you're like, oh, no, like, but you know, you're bringing, you're bringing that magic to the table. Right? It's that's that innovation and then the fact that people are coming to you to ask for exactly that. Like, yeah, it's a little bit like a lot of YC a lot of people look at it is like, it's just so natural to you. That sometimes you don't even see it. Just how good just what I do, right?

Yeah, I had to think about it. But I mean, we have built a chalkboard because I'm always about notes, man. I mean, I need you can see on my wall behind me, this is my wall. And yeah, it's there's there's notes on my computer, this like my computer as notes on there. And, and in my school, you know, I designed my school, like my office, you know, like, you know, what do you do when you go into an office of a successful do? It's, well, if you look at my office, man, it's like a music room. It's like a library. It's like an accolade collector. It's like, I've got photos. I've got books, drum instruments, like it's become computers. It's become a all encompassing thing these days, but You know, if you look at, if you look at Hollywood movies and stuff, your epic, beautiful, you know, oak desk, you know, everything's immaculate, you know the degree on the degree on the wall, and then you have your little talent decks, you know, where you draw your stuff. And then you have a talent decks, you have like a motivational speech on it. We call them, what do we call them these days? You know, like a little saying of the day, but he called

affirmation or affirmations. Yeah,

you have an affirmation, right? Well, I, when I built my school, I put my affirmations on the walks. So that when I walk in, there's an you're immersed in it a whole mental attitude. You know, so a good example. So that you walk in, and on the left, it says, We are here to be our best. So that's like a team thing. Right in the middle of the wall, you know, what's covered now with banners and things, things have evolved over the years. But there was a little analogy in there, defend escape control, attack, just memorise it defend escape control attack, just to just to programme you know, like the government tried to cram us, you know, like, with mainstream media and all that stuff. You know, it's a way of thinking, when you're in trouble the thing, first of all, I then try and get out of the position, then try and get some control, and then mountain attack. So we put that there. And then on the other wall says easy and an option, like it's on the wall easy. And option, it's never going to be easy. So when you find yourself getting smashed on your back, and it's some dudes sweating all over you, you look up and you see the side, right. He said, He's the aid and option. So you're like, Oh, that's okay. It wasn't meant to be easy. Then you move across it says, be technical, beautifully technical. Then the other one says adapt and overcome. Then the other one says virtual before vice valued before vanity and principles before personalities. And then the last thing you see on the outside before you leave, is the more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in battle. So I immersed myself. Yeah. So in a way of thinking,

it's more innovation. So to me like it's like exactly what you said, we're programming your mind like that. If you look around my wall, it's got the same sort of stuff, right? I've got my automations I've got all these like different things I've got going on. And it's just subliminally it's going it's going in and just

up with it, man. So again, sorry, just surrounding myself with 100%.

It's just so so powerful mate. So that's why, like, even just going into your school, they're going to have an impact before they even before they even hit the floor. Right?

Absolutely. Yeah, the Dojo is a whole dimension. It's another dimension that you're walking into. And if you have the opportunity to have one of your own, then you can you can design it however you want. You know, there's no rules. Like if you go the Japanese model, oh my god, it has to be made. I learned under a traditional Japanese trained Sensei, do let me tell you it's but abroad used a lot of what they did. And then I essentially added my own, you know? Yeah, love it. And I don't even remember what your original question was before went into this humongous rant. But anyway,

it was innovation and you and you answered it perfectly. I love it. So Frank, I want to go like back in the story, right? We've already talked a bit about, well, how you got into martial arts. But let's talk about that business journey. So you said, so you came out of school, and your thing was travel. So tell us why you wanted to get into travel. And then tell us tell us the journey. Through learning all you learned about travel and how that all came on down.

Now, this is a ripper. This is a real story, man. All right. So anyway, you know, like, I tried a lot of different things, and I tried to really improve myself in every area I can and you know, you know, through my martial arts training, one thing that was also consistent was music. And I was I went really hard in music and I realised real quick that I wasn't gonna make that much money music and this is why this is this is 1988. Man 87. I was 1718 years old. That wasn't going to happen. So I had to I had to really push myself and I tried as many things that I thought I had, like natural abilities in like really early. I got drummed into me from my mom, my uncle's as well, they were one was a pharmacist, one's a doctor. Was that I'm looking out? We'll find out what find out what you're good at. Yeah, find what you love this from a month, find what you love, never have to work a day in your life. It's really really true. Look, it's not entirely true, because that's my hustle. But the point is, it's a it's a pursuit from passion. You know, it's a pursuit of what you love, you'd rather be doing working hard and those things that you love to make a greater rather than chasing someone else's dream. So that's what that means. But it's always you know, hard work work ethic, you know, you have to be you have to be willing to put in the work and love the process too. And I get that. Okay, so, so I did things like I became like a sports trainer as well, like I'm a qualified massage, sports massage therapist as well. So I worked for the AFL for a couple of years and I didn't like that environment at all. You know, there's another day Another long story, but so then, you know, I just kept on this quest of trying to, you know, add skills. And I wanted to do that because I want to add to my martial arts skill because I wanted to understand the body more, you know, functional anatomy and physiology is a big deal in understanding how, you know, joints bend, you know, you know, and all that stuff and how, you know, circulation system works. And, you know, because there's choking, strain out impact, you know, hypercalcemia impact trauma, how that affects the inner neurological part of the brain, you know, through knocking people out, and I said, so I wanted to learn more about it. So I could be more scientific, because I was a small person, you know, I, you know, like, no one was going to notice me because I was small, so I have to be loud, and I have to be prepared, I had to negotiate. So I'd get people's attention. So I worked this out really, really early. So I immersed myself in education, right. So and, and, and I gotta tell you, before all of that, I'll be honest with you one time when I was young, because I used to be like a watermelon eating cricket fan, footy fan the Olympics, like if the national anthem was playing, you know, I'd be a stand up, I would have I get choked up because I'm like, Oh my God, how amazing would that feel to win a gold medal? You know, representing my country was, you know, I'm a huge soccer fan. So we should get up 3am To watch the World Cup. And you don't understand like, this is like early. Yeah. Early in my in my in my life. And then one time, I saw this club men commercial on TV for club net. And I see this, this young dude with a killer tan, wearing volleyball shorts, playing teaching volleyball at some resort, you know, with these, you know, with all these, you know, like, gorgeous girls and this lifestyle on the beach. And I was like, Fuck, yeah, that's what I want to do. That's all I wanted to do. Let me tell you and this goes back, bro. Like you got, we got back here, right? All I wanted to do was work for Club Med. So much. So I was like, You know what I tried to fit in. I was about 1920. And I was like, You know what? I'm going to go into travel and tourism, I'm finally going to do it. I'm already I was already a black belt. I achieved a few levels of black belt at this stage of my life too. And, you know, I was fit and athletic. I loved outdoors and sport. Like I'm like, Prime Time Baby. I'm gonna do this right. I was ready. So I threw myself into travel and tourism. Now this is unbeknownst to my family. Because if they'd heard me talking like this, no wonder no wonder he went the way it went. And I'll get into it in a second. But anyway, and I don't blame him for that or anything, but this was the truth. Yep. So I went into travel and tourism. And I knew how to make money, because I'd been teaching martial art since I was 15 in my driveway, so I had like nine or 10 students might in year 11 I was doing my two shifts a month, in year. 11. But that's not a lot of money. But in year 11 It's just like, not in what you're living 1986

back then. That's a lot of money for year 11.

I was 1519 8596 Jesus. I was doing about 250 a month. I had about eight or nine of my mates from school and driveway. And I had four girls in the backyard doing anti write classes. Two times a week. My mom's hanging clothes. My mom's Italian mom, right? She had a she was she was entrepreneur like my mom. Anyway. So I I understand what cash felt like in my hands. My dad put a brown paper bag or $5 notes. $1 notes. $2 notes in 1976. Yep. You remember the brown $1 note with the kangaroo on the front? The grain $2 Note the purple $5 note paper paper? Yeah. All right. If that was stuck in your jeans when you watch them you hang them out man you dried he's the stuff like a couple of 100 bucks with the fires in a brown paper bags to go hey, run up to no one knows why grandpa just lived 300 metres down the street. run off to none and he'll know what to do with them. So it looked like I was carrying my lunch. You know what I mean? And I would sprint down more than road Brunswick to where my no noise to live in English to know what to do. So my parents put money in my hand since I was a little tacker since I was a little dude, dude. Yeah, and I loved it and I loved it. Anyway. So going back to it so always made man I knew how to make money always had always wanted to work, didn't want to go to college. I didn't want to go to uni. I want to fucking make money, bro. I want to make paper like early. I wanted the car or the girl I wanted money my account I wanted the gold chains, you know saying like I wanted to pimp because I wanted that because for me, I understood that that in my mind early as a young person. That meant something you know, I mean, like, people were driving sobs and Volvo's and Mercedes and I understood what that meant. Yeah, I mean, I was watching TV Hollywood movies you know? I mean, you know, I've been Italian descent, you know, gangsters, the mafia, the mob all this stuff. I mean, I didn't want to I didn't want any of that not to do my parents, my dad at all my dad was very clearly man still is that to this day, but man, the trophies and all that stuff that came with it I was like obsessed with that shit right so you know who didn't have a Lamborghini you know in their room and who didn't go to the fish and chips shop in 1979 and see the chicken roll chick on a freakin Harley Davidson with jean shorts and boots are gorgeous tan with a chicka rock Yes dad, like what are you talking about?

Spot on.

So this is this is what winning in my head and this is. This was very acute to me. So I was ready to go do it as a as a as a late teen. I'm like, fuck this. I'm an idiot. So I went into trouble. Well, I got my diploma I graduated I get all those ducks in the class. I went and did the tear the tires course make this is a language that no one really even understands existed existed. This was the travel industry automated systems, computer programming course, that only the best in the ducts of the class was invited to write. And it was so intense Dude, it was like, it was like it was only for about I think it was only about cheese. I really can't even remember, I think it might have been three months. But it was like different language. I had to learn computer language like coding all the country code. So I had to be able to book people in with all the codes and organise their travel and I thought I'm out of here. Do I want to do this? I did it. I did it. I got my papers. I had my shoot on my briefcase. I was straight. My parents bought a delicatessen. Right? Yeah, that was it. I said, Listen, I'll get into travel and tourism. He said, I'm out of here. So I'm doing this and I got plans. I said, I'm not gonna get no tied down into no business. Look, please. I'm gonna be going to school at this stage for like two years at this stage now. Yeah, it was like the toy as programme course was a bridge course to it. After travel already done my time. I'm like, What are you kidding me? So I walked into the deli on a Friday night. Now Friday nights in a deli business back in 1990. It was 16 people across, and three, four people deep. And this is 7pm. And this started from 10 in the morning on a Friday. And it would end at nine o'clock on a Friday night and Saturday. What even worse, it was like But we had the hottest Deli in Coburg, dude. We were known. We're a family business where All right, so I walked in there and I'm seeing my sister slave and my mom, my dad, my brother, we had a worker helping us and my sister's husband, there was six or six of them behind there walking in my suit. And my briefcase watching him slaving? Well, let me tell you something, dude. And this is every Italian and maybe Greeks too, and maybe other nationalities. But my mom would put a little drop of guilt in every meal, you understand. When I walked in there, and I'm looking at him, you can imagine how I feel how I felt. My brother in law, my sister, my brother, my mom, my dad, this was looking at me standing there. How long do you think a person like me? At 20 years of age? How long can I stand in watching them for

you? Not long?

Right? So what do I do? I took off my tie and my suit jacket and put my briefcase down for the last fucking time. And I never ever saw a day in travel.

Wow. Because

what Italian son is going to say no, I'm not doing that. You can do it. I can You can be in a box bro. You don't go against the family right? You're gonna generally make the pick in your generality was the local Undertaker in the north. So I never saw it day in trouble. Dude, I'm telling you now are what I really wanted to do. I wanted to get out of Australia. I wanted to go to some beautiful exotic European location and go and teach fucking volleyball and canoeing. Seriously, I wanted to just I wanted to have skin look like an old Sharon. You know, I wanted to be just like Donald Trump. You know, orange, orange, man bad.

So, did that answer the question? My starting business bro. So did that eat away at you then the fact that you did you never actually went in it? Or how long did that sort of player was always sort of nagging there? Or is it still nagging there?

What do you think?

I want the audience to hear bro.

I look let's keep it positive. Listen, man. I mean, I'm a 51 year old man now. I've got two kids family married the whole thing and be married for 25 years. And you know, I mean, I've been in business my whole life, always trying to make it you know, and finding more innovative ways to, you know, evolve, you know, and find the best people I could afford to get in front of and then I could get in front of and have access to get in front of. And I just went all the way through, you know, I went through the whole Tony Robbins programme, I put myself through the 30 day programme back in shit 1998 I put myself through it. I was at wit's end I had like 286 bucks left in my account. I was up so late one day with a back severe back injury, didn't know what I was going to do. I had no one in my school, and I bought the 30 day programme and I committed to it. I did the journaling. I listened to all the programme i i took action every single day. And I started building personally developing myself from the ground up. I was newly married. Oh my god, do it. People walk into my school and say, God, you're so lucky this, Eddie, you know, are you go to America? I call Do you have no idea? You have no idea what to look like Becky? Not in 1998 Dude. Oh my god. I was out of shape. I was overweight. I was in the worst condition of my life. You know, I was just struggling struggle city bro. Like fuck you. Dude. It was late. You should be interviewing my missus. You know what I mean? Way, way better story my mind. She was like, Oh, wow. Yeah, really open married.

So good. So good. So far to this day, I tell it what are you doing here? What are you doing here? I mean, you, you touched on something that I think is like people know, but it's important to reiterate is like this is not an overnight success. Right? Like the luck comes because you're prepared to go into places that other people aren't prepared to go.

Two years to become an overnight it took me like, like 20 years to become an overnight success. I didn't meet Eddie until I was 36 years. 35 years of age, bro. Yeah, there you go. I've been full time since 93. When I was 22 years old. Yep. So I didn't mean it. And I went through the mill dude, I Dude, look, I don't want to make this a negative thing. But let me tell you, dude, I put all my chips on red. I follow the sensei do that. It's an it's another story complete, but I want to get into it. But say just just just believe me when I tell you that. Before I met Edie, I didn't know where I was going. I had really put all my chips on red with the sensei at the time. And I became the best student. I was on the front cover of toobeez World journals. I was the face of two of his highest selling DVDs. I was one guy that had faith in his programme in Australia than anyone else. He went on to create a college university diploma a martial arts diploma course in Brisbane. I took my students over there we were up there with the best in the world. And man, I got treated like a piece of crap, dude. Like a piece of crap dude. And I had to I should I should be grateful. I should be grateful. When I met Edie, at that time, I was like, I don't know how I'm gonna work. I'm gonna go from here. Alright, know where to go. I had a dojo running. I was still successful in a lot of minds of a lot of people. But in my mind, I was like, I'm not going to be abused for the rest of my career. I'm not going to die with three white belts in my dojo at 86 years of age. It's just how it's gonna fuck an end. I'm like, I'm not. I am underutilised. Here I need to be utilised. I need to be put out into the force into the workforce. I need to be a shining example for people to come and train. I need to develop leaders. I need to develop these programmes I need to get out there I need to I need to establish a martial art in this country I need to contribute as a community based contributor to the martial arts computer community. And I want to I want to I want to be known for that. Like I really felt like this is what was a hit for me but hey, no wonder I just didn't believe in the product bro. There was no product that was almost like this. This is filled with scumbags. People just trying to make it there's only one guy at the top than the rest of just scumbags. I'm like, we're just minions, you know, disposable. I don't like and when I met Edie, and he showed more faith and belief in me in two trips to the States than some of my instructors. Specially the current one at the time. Was and let me tell you, I thank them all. All of my instructors over the years and I'm not shitting on knowing Hey, this is the truth. This is the truth. I'm not naming names, but this is the truth. It was I was so abused and abused, bro. I was like, I was like a crash test dummy to these people.

This is truly my bill. I believe it and it's Yeah,

jokes about me, bro. Because I was small. They make jokes about me because I was little they made they laughed at me behind my back bro. But why did I didn't know that couldn't run like I could they couldn't push up me. They couldn't outwork me that couldn't jump me. They could not they have to kill me to stop me.

Love it. And I think well I can definitely relate. And I know other people listening will be able to relate whether there's been times where like, like, I've given so much to this, and and I've got, I haven't got back what, what I was meant to get back. And that to me, that's usually exactly when that person shows up that takes you across to the other side. And I can definitely relate to having someone come into my world at exactly that time where I'm like, Man, I don't know what to do now. I've done all that I've done all the programmes, I've invested all the money, I've done all that and then like, what do I What do I do now? And that's exactly when the person shows up. Right? And that's when everything changes. Yeah.

My, my students, I was I wanted to go to LA, because there was two people I wanted to train with. And my brother in law Josh, who's also a black belt now, it's so crazy how things happen and then, but um, and he runs the South Melbourne School, attend planned South Melbourne. And he was on a world trip at 21. He goes, I'm gone back to Argentina. I'm gonna go travel the world. He went to lay went to the UK went to the States. And he goes, I'm going to the States, Frank, who should I train with? I said, Look, I would train with John Jacques Machado, or Eddie Bravo. That's what I would do. And I go, John Jackson, Eddie's teacher, and Eddie's on this new thing that he's really launching, and he's early in his career. He's only been doing it for three years. And he wasn't established. He was the only school in the world. I said, I'd go there. And some of my students said, Oh, you mean, oh, Josh is going to train with Eddie. Why don't you be in there when he goes, because because Josh was leaving Australia first to go to the, to the UK, while a while whatever it were, he was gone. I can't remember exactly. And he was gonna end up in LA. And my students said to me, some of my black belts at the time who I've raised, said, Hey, we'll hold down the school. You go, you deserve it. You've been here all these years. Go, go and meet him there and go and meet Eddie. And I'm like, awesome. Yeah. So I went home, I spoke to my wife. Karina said, Hey, Kat, what he thinks she was Pocky. Let's go see, we can afford it. Let's do it go. So I went and met Eddie. And then I came back and I said, Guys, our ground game, there's a big hole in our ground game, because at the time that the martial art I was doing was an all encompassing, like a classical MMA kind of karate tradition. And we were amazing at it. But on the ground, we were, we weren't as good as these guys. I was like, Let's inject this new, innovative, no gi grappling, to and bring that to the system that we're in and let's make that better. Like our contribution. I realised that this was I was like, Eddie was like, really fucking Wonka, you know, I'm saying, and I found the fucking golden ticket, bro. I'm not kidding. And Eddie real quick, real quick, I established a very, very strong relationship with Eddie very quickly. And we're the same age we're only six months apart. We're both into music. We both have drummers both into kids both into metal, you know, the whole lifestyle both into fighting and fights and martial arts. And, you know, all that stuff. We had like a parallel existence, you know, him in LA, in from Santa Ana and California. Me here in Melbourne, Australia. You know what I mean? It was crazy. Dude, it was, it was nuts. It was nuts how the parallels were, and we just hit it on

magic. So yeah, so you're part of that comes when you get clarity on what you want. Right? Then that person shows up. So it's, it's a massive credit to how far you come to that point. I want to touch on a couple of things. And to like, just to talk about your desire and will to to be better. You've done two Ironman trail triathlons, now, yeah, distances in that driving that fat? How do you end up deciding that you can do an Ironman while he's there? And just tell everyone the distances so they know the magnitude of what we're talking so yeah,

so it's 226 kilometre race. So you do you swim 3.8 kilometres with 1500 people and, and don't die during that. So then then you get out and you get straight on your bike and you ride 180.2 kilometres? Yeah, that's about five hours. 19 For me, it's what five hours 19 And my best swim was one hour and 28 seconds. My goal was to beat an hour in the swim and I fell by 28 seconds. And it's only because in the last 400 metres, I got to cramps in my calf muscles at the end of the swim from like hyper kicking my brains out trying to flush my legs to get ready to stand up after swimming in it for an hour. You know, like, physiologically strange things happen to you when you're racing at these distances, you know, a bit so, so, so, and then I wrote 519 So it's five hours 90 And off the bike and then you did you're pushy. And then you're getting your running shoes and you run a marathon which is 42.2 kilometres ridiculous. And this is all back to back. You don't rest you don't take a break. You don't have a meal, you don't lay down yet. And you race it. You don't just participate in your race it Well, that's what I want to do anyway, and I did it twice. So yeah, look, I was a little bit out of shape in 98, which I alluded to earlier because I was teaching so much and trying so hard and I was actually really depressed and really down and out and just confused and conflicted and, and there was no internet and you know, I'm writing letters I'm like, man, like, so prehistoric compared to, you know what we have today. But, um, I went back into running, which is something I loved and all my life and I sought out my Muay Thai kickboxing teacher. He was an avid runner at the time, and he invited me to run it isn't in athletics, and I went down there, trained with him a couple of seasons. And then even my running coach, my distance coach, Bill Burke, he was 92. And actually, he actually ran the Ballarat marathon back in 1914, or something like that at the top. He felt so good. And he said to me, and he's husky voice. He used to call me sprinter is to call me sprint. Listen, as we're now some things you can't change in your sprint. I get over there at the 100 metres to go and go train with those guys. Like he kicked me. He sent me for eat. He got rid of me on the first day I said, Coach, I said, I want to run distance. I know it doesn't look like a Bulgarian weightlifter trying to run distance, right? I was about 76 Kill 76 kilogrammes I was I was way out of shape. I was about 1012 kilogrammes out of shape. And it was just life at the time. There's just confusion, man, it's just but anyway, I got back into it. Well, after one full season of running, I went from running 3k local, you know, distance to a half marathon in one season. So I kind of got injured. And I hurt my I've got bulging discs in my back and I you know, it was a real mess. So I had to swim. So I said you never gonna run competitively. Again, this is 99. Right? At this stage, you're never going to run competitively again. So it's like, Ah, I don't think so. I don't know you're talking to I'm only, you know, 28 years of age. I'm gonna run competitively. Yeah, right. Anyway, that was just the backward thinking of the physiotherapist at the time. And I fired him after that conversation and I got a new physio and then the rest is history. But so I started swimming with my brother, who was a good swimmer. And he was an awesome athlete. So I got over my injuries. I went back to running and I was kept up the swimming. And while I was swimming, we rode bikes, because I couldn't run. And then my brother, he goes and says, Frank, there's a there's a fun triathlon data. St. Kilda, I'm entering you into it on my, okay. Just so you could have a good laugh at me, right? Yeah. So I went and this was my brother entering me into this laughed, wanting to laugh at me his younger brother, but 18 months, my brother ended up going to Kona Hawaii and competing in the World Championships in 2003. Let that bucket thinking anyway. Wow. So that's what it turned into. So to cut a long story short, I entered a fun try. And I just went to the next distance, next distance next distance, and then I took it seriously. So now I want to compete. So I sought out half Ironman, I sought out Tony Benson, who was a he was the 92 Australian track and field coach for Australia. He was my coach asked me for three years for two years. I brought my brother on board because he thought I'm nuts. He gets his training Tony Benson What the hell, he came on board and my brother ends up in two years, we qualify for Ironman we went to went to foster Tuncurry, which was in the East Coast, New South Wales, we have to take a little, a little aeroplane to get there. One of those wrecks, yours bricks

that shake and shatter, and you are gonna stay in the air.

So we go to we go to foster, I don't I don't qualify for Kona, I missed out by about 28 minutes, but my brother does. He goes to Kona, he competes in the World Championships on the Australian team. It's bananas. So that's how I got into Ironman. But as I went back, finally, brick, that's what

any motivation, that's good. So what you touched on something there that I think is really important for people to hear is not accepting people's opinions of what is the future, right? Like so because because I've had that same experience, right? You shouldn't be running anymore. You shouldn't be lifting, you shouldn't be playing sport. And honestly, I'm like, I'm like, I'll just find someone else who will give me a different opinion. And they'll find a way me. Oh, great.

I'm 51 and I'm still pushing myself, I'm still doing things better. Like, you know, I'm an unfit I'm really really fit. I'm one of the fittest in my school. Like I'm known for being in shape and my conditioning and my fitness and you know, my science approach to my lifestyle, my diet, nutrition, my rehabilitation, the modes of different things. I put myself through like a meditation. I've been meditating since 2011. It was twice a day for five years flat out now. I'm meditating once a day and I'm doing my best to keep that up. You know, transcendental meditation that is by the way You know, all these things that I contribute to this, it's not just one thing that there's so many things that I've tried and tested and stuck to and realised and found people to teach me and whatnot. I'm still pushing myself to this frickin day, bro. Like, seriously, I'm trying to get over this call so and get back in the pool and go back to my sprints and go back to the mat and kick started, you know, rolling again, I competed only a month ago in a professional as a black belt and a big shows in the CO Main Event Queensland, against the black belt. You know, so you know, I'm, you know, I'm slighted, slated to fight on the on July 15 on a big show in Melbourne. Like, you know, I'm still man, what

are you talking about these people that listen to that shit? That was 100% 100%

I agree with you, man. I love that you're doing that. That's awesome, man.

Yeah, 100%. And like you I love to show other people that it's possible for them to right because if we if we open our mind, which is something you said early on to different possibilities, then we don't know what's possible for us like Ironman Triathlon, like mind blowing. Imagine if I'd said to you, five years before that, you'll be running an Ironman Triathlon, you would have just laughed in my face, right?

100% 100% But you know, what you do the work, get educated. Get in front of the best people you can afford, or you can find and get a second, third, fourth opinion, you know, and then weigh it all up and have a you know, and have a real open minded discussion with yourself, you know, family and see what you want to do. Um, and whether you have a family or not, I mean, if you're if you young person and I'm oh my god these days, in the current climate, with so much bullshit and fraudulence, and fakery, and fake bullshit, you know, like, you know, tick tock bullshit that's going on, I look at that stuff on slickwater. Like, people just being distracted with all this bullshit, you

know, like, words distraction? Yeah.

No, no, no, no, you need to be single minded you pursuit, you need to make sure you've got all your eyes dotted, and your T's crossed. So good education, get in front of the right people, get the right opinions, have a good plan. Make sure you know someone that's done it, that you want to do it in your age bracket with your circumstances, talk to them, be willing to work hard, be willing to stay up late, be willing to get up early, and I was training at 435 o'clock in the morning, I was up for two years straight and then training second sessions of the day, and then working in between being a dad to little kids under three. What are you talking about? We talked about? Why cuz your mom would continue every frickin night. You got your clothes on your bed? What are you talking about? We're talking about?

What are you talking about? 100%. Man, you gotta find that discipline, right to do what needs to be done? I want to I want to touch on two things in the one question, because that I think that I can see a link there. So if you look at musician, and just make it about the drummers, the favourite drummers I've had. They're entertainers, right. And so and then the same with the colour you're bringing to the broadcast. Does that being in that space? Being like, on a stage and performing? That's something that really fills you up and gives you a lot of joy?

Oh, absolutely, it does. It gives me all those things. But I never did it. For those reasons. I never did it to be famous or to I'm not famous, but I'm just saying I never did it for buying. And I did it for the money like fortune. I did it because I wanted to. I came from a position of contribution. I was just so tired. I mean, I was listening to how many times have you heard a commentator on your favourite sports? And they're terrible. Have you ever heard of the commentator doesn't know what's going on missing key moments, key moments, not like I just couldn't stand it. You know, I just I was like, What is this anyway, so it fell in my lap because I wasn't trying to be a commentator. Because I would be pretty much calling shots on the couch for 10 years with my best mate. Then I'll look at this is gonna throw a right hand. Look at this. He's open for that head kihira Cuff porn head kick Nokia, and then look at me like your education. When you're all about it. It's what comes out, you know? So, look, I can't believe my luck, dude. I just I can't believe that someone said hey, why don't you put these on and I used to do a radio show on Sen. 1116 in Melbourne at one in the morning for 10 minutes on MMA. And I turn that in 12 months into one hour show every week for ASEAN Living 16. They should do boxing and wrestling and then they said Hey Frank, why don't you come on and talk about the UFC that's coming to Australia. That's how it started. And they said I wanted to put these on and commentate the fight I had one of my guys fighting was Josh actually to fighting? Oh god, I have to coach him. But I'll come back. Yes, I'll start coaching and I call the first four fights I call the outcome of the first four fights, just by an analysis. And then on the council gonna be like what? Right so anyway, now I'm doing these shows and it's been what that was 2010 It's been 12 years later. I'm doing all the top shows on the East Coast. I did Fox Sports. I did use a bypass. Yeah, man. I I never ever wanted to do it for fame fortune, none of that shit. I'm just like, they want to listen to me talk. So I put my frickin headphones on and a microphone and they just want me to talk about what's going on in front of me. I'm like, Okay.

And you're gonna pay me for this.

It took me all over Australia. It took me to Asia. I'm one of the few Australian commentators in history that I've done professional commentary for in Singapore in China. Like I've done five shows in the Asia market for rebel FC. It's unbelievable. Yeah. I'm lucky to lucky.

Oh, yeah. But the harder you work, the luckier you get. Right. Something like that. Yeah. So yeah. There's a certain like rhythm to your life. And to me that's, like, It's curious. Given that that love for drumming? Is that something you still do?

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, man, I'm out there. I'm on the kick. Look, you know, I haven't been well lately. So you know. You know, I haven't been on a cube for maybe a couple of weeks. But if you ask my family, they'll tell you, he's on kill all the time. I'll get home and I'll put like, the beautiful thing about virtual drums, like the drums, I've got this beautiful Roland set up for my son because he's a drummer, he's a musician. And which is that's another story. That's just I can't believe it. But, and He's amazing. He's way better than me. But, um, yeah, I could put my headphones on. And all you hear is me hitting rubber. Like there's no noise and, but if you want to run the thump, I'll run the amp, you can make it sound like you're on stage. You know, so it's, you know, and just the innovation of playing and all the different genres they're out in music and being skilled in all different areas of drumming, you know, from having jazz fusion right up through Miss speed metal, right through just playing field playing, you know, even just love songs, you know, adding my own take on slow love tracks, you know, just adding my own, playing backwards and adding little things. I mean, I know, dude, all y'all get on the kid all the time. Now. I love it. I like physical too. You know, I feel like I'm moving. I'm contributing, you know, I mean, it's physical. For me. I love it. I love it. I've always loved drum since I was a little kid. You know, Led Zeppelin was the first band I ever heard. Deep Purple. You know, my mom gave me a little. She gave me a little one of those. Remember those little was a little single. We should call them a single in the album, like a little singles narrow stack of them on there. Hear the opening riff out of black night from Deep Purple, you know, hearing the drums Dukkha Dukkha Dukkha hearing that blew my frickin mind is a little four year old five year old, you know, stacking up my sewing sewing school stores because she used to teach sewing lessons. And she'd have 2030 Girls a night coming in. And also stack them up because Peter Chris was the first drummer or you know, Peter, Chris was the cat and kiss. Yeah, and the first time I saw a drum set, it was just drums, all the way from Little, little octave bands all the way to 810 12 1314 1618 and drums, cymbals, everyone's quartile so as to stack up the stools and make them look like and I still use my grandmother's knitting needles. She wasn't well she had cancer and she used to live with us and she used to knit used to have these knitting needles to play with even he's put holes in the chip. But mommy still got bananas. Yeah, and that's another story.

Yeah. Face pain and everything because I remember my brother got massive kiss fans still is and doing doing good. Always. Always the drummer the drummer. And he do these same thing or go great memories.

We used to put I used to wet my face and put baby powder. Yeah. And then I used to do the star you know? Yeah. From ace really? You know what I mean? Or you can never do Gene Simmons he was the demon I was never do that right. You know maybe some Peter Chris You know, some some whiskers on their

green right?

Crazy. Yeah, crazy. So

good. We are. Here we are. Here we are frank on blood, the journey. And I've loved like, so much learning through that and you're still going and still going forward. So what what does the future hold for you and 10 planet? But what do you see for the impact that you can have? Not just where you are now but as you expand as well?

Yeah, absolutely. I think we're gonna see 1000s of people taking on NoGi jiu jitsu and grappling submission only movement is just growing and growing. We're gonna see more and more and more people. And it's also the culture that 10 planet brings, you know, the combat the comedy, the lifestyle, it's, it's a fun thing to do. It's a great bunch of people, open minded people to be around. It's martial arts. So you know, you can save your life. You can protect your family, you can protect your possessions, you know, with the uncertainty of what's going on these days. You know, I mean, look where we are right now we don't we're trying to we're trying to shake this whole pandemic off. We're trying to get away from this. This this the hypocrisy we see Right now, throughout the whole medical profession and throughout the, you know, the way that governments are running things and whatnot, we're trying to get away and I see more people getting pushed to things like 10th planet jujitsu, for sure. I see us thriving, our best is yet to come. I think that the future is way brighter than it was where I've come from, that's for sure. We just have to, we just have to get on with it. You know, we have to get past where we are right now. Because, you know, consumer competence is, you know, it's, it's huge in your market. And it's huge in ours. And I think, as things progress, and we we get above and beyond this current state of the world, I think that we're going to be we're gonna have our hands full, we're going to be so busy, we're going to see more schools pop up in Australia around the world.

When you come into Sydney,

ah, well see the interesting. That's a good question. And I know we're out for an hour. So we've got to wrap this up. But Sydney is the one place that hasn't really taken on 10th planet jujitsu. And we don't choose where our schools open. We don't choose where they open. We you can't put someone in Sydney, it doesn't work like that. You have to be from there. You have to understand the culture of 10 plans jiu jitsu you have to love no gauge jujitsu. You have to love pushing yourself and being self motivated. And being a real pioneer in your own right. You have to be a leader you got to have those great qualities. You have to have thick skin you have to be able to overcome adversity. You have to be able to not care about what the market says and thinks of you. You have to be have a really solid plan you have to be a black belt. So you've got to go through all of that to be a black belt in jujitsu do that's another podcast completely if you think that anyone you think that anyone can become a black belt your dream and do you're not anyone can be a black belt in jujitsu, bro. Yeah, no way. We are like a one percenters were like the navy seals of the martial arts dude. And no Gi. Ah, oh, that's another level of insanity altogether. So until that person is born it's unlikely it's gonna happen unless it comes from there. So it has to come from the earth, you know?

Love that. Yeah. Where can people find you, Frank?

Oh, they can find me on. Obviously, Instagram tends planet Melbourne on Instagram. Frank Barker on Facebook. 10th. Planet jujitsu, Melbourne on Facebook. We have our own website at WWW dot 10 planet.com.au. We have a kickass latest website, a hot website right now. We only launched it not even six months ago. So it's got everything you need our classes and where to find us. Our podcast is on there. You can find it on there. You can find every other school in the world from there. We have a podcast called The 10. The 10 podcast. We've been podcasting for four years this December. We have 146 shows online, just go to your favourite platform. You know, iTunes, Stitcher, the rest of it. We're on Instagram. They're at the tanner podcast as well. And on Facebook, on the T n 10 podcasts as well.

Great stuff. Awesome. Chad Frank love the NG love the stories. Thank you so much. Really great to see.

I apologise to all the listeners will have blown their earphones out on a couple of occasions. I apologise for that, but it's really hard not to get wound up and, and, you know, what's the word? I'm very animated. You know? I've gotten pulled over in the past by police and police to stop because I'm standing on the side trying to explain to jitsu to the copper. You know, because my cause block was plastered with jujitsu stickers all over it and all this stuff. So so I'm a little animated. So from a little bit too much. I don't apologise.

I love it. Love it. Thanks again.

I appreciate it tremendously this opportunity. Maybe we should do it again sometime. Oh, absolutely. So it's all about something calm and peaceful. Not violence.

Exactly. I hope you enjoyed this episode of The Grief Code podcast. Thank you so much for listening. Please share it with a friend or family member that you know would benefit from hearing it too. If you are truly ready to heal your unresolved or unknown grief. Let's chat. Email me at info at Ian Hawkins coaching.com You can also stay connected with me by joining the Grief Code community at Ian Hawkins coaching.com forward slash The Grief Code and remember, so that I can help even more people to heal. Please subscribe and leave a review on your favourite podcast platform