Intro- Universal: you're listening to, The Grip, where we take hold of mindset and martial arts. Now, let's get started.
Kaylee: Welcome back to The Grip. Today we're diving into one of our special mini episodes where we mix things up with a few fast-paced segments. We'll kick things off with Grip and Go, a round of rapid fire questions to loosen things up and to get to know our guest in a fun way. Then we'll move into Roll Call, where I bring in questions straight from you, our listeners and audience. That way the guests can tackle what's on your mind. And to wrap it all up, we'll finish with Word into Wisdom. In this segment, the guest picks a number between one and a hundred. That number ties to a word from the nice list, which can be motivational and uplifting terms, and the naughty list, the gritty, tough, and sometimes challenging words. Once revealed, the guest unpacks the word, sharing their personal definition and how it's shown up in their life or martial arts journey, and what wisdom they take from it. That's it, three rounds, one conversation. Let's get into it. All right, welcome back to the grip. We have John back with us. And so if you have not already go back and listen or watch our main episode, really good content but for now we are going to dive into our mini episode. so to start off, John, we are gonna go into our grip and go series. So this is more just simple, short and sweet, rapid fire questions. and we will go from there.
Jon: Excellent. Sounds good.
Kaylee: Perfect. All right. So our first question is gi or no gi?
Jon: No gi is growing on me.
Kaylee: Okay. How come?
Jon: well I started off in the Ghee for about two years and then went to no gi and I don't know. It's just it's a little bit more entertaining as somebody who sweats a lot. And so it's easier for me to sort of sneak out of things. It's a it's a double edged sword too, right? it's harder to keep a grip.
Kaylee: Sure.
Jon: I just feel like it's a more it's a more dynamic game.
Kaylee: Mm-hmm.
Jon: but I mean, you know, I'm always gonna have love for the gi in the back of my, heart there. And I think
Kaylee: Yeah.
Jon: it's interesting because you do develop I feel like your technique almost has to be more on point in terms of like you can't try these sneaky let me get north south from under side control and then try to slip a darse in there kind of scenarios, right? You can't maybe you can. I can't get away with that kind of stuff in the ghee.
Kaylee: Yeah. Yeah, very good. favorite cheat meal.
Jon: there's so many. I would say I've been
Kaylee: Yeah.
Jon: a big fan of butter chicken, Indian food with some naan on the side. That's probably my go to cheat meal.
Kaylee: Very good. and you're you're in Indiana right now.
Jon: That's right.
Kaylee: what is like Indiana known for as far as like food?
Jon: well cornfields obviously is what we're known for. But as far as foods, I would say, like, especially here regionally, Skippos and Gri Skippo, I'm sorry, Grippos and Ski. I tried to say that so backwards, but Grippos is
Kaylee: Okay, grippos.
Jon: and that is like a that's like a barbecue chip, but it's got a little spice to it. And then
Kaylee: Okay. Okay.
Jon: ski is sort of like it's sort of like Sprite. It's like a drink. And so Yeah, 'cause those those are manufactured here locally or semi locally. I so I know
Kaylee: Okay.
Jon: there is a pizza joint here that has what they call it a West Cider, which is very specific to Evansville. Like the west side of Evansville is the more rural side, right? Big I don't it's so silly that they call it that. But anyways, point
Kaylee: Yeah.
Jon: being is they sprinkle grippos on it and then a ski reduction as well on the top. So they make like a syrup out of the ski. Yeah.
Kaylee: fancy. Keeping it extra local.
Jon: Yeah, it's delicious.
Kaylee: Very good. ideal submission to win a fight would be according to your son. Rearing down.
Jon: According to my son, it's gonna be a rear naked choke. Obviously, that's his yeah, that's his bread and butter. I mean in terms of like what I hit, you know, my game's pretty lazy. Head and arm triangle is probably right up there. I've been trying to expand my horizons now and like my son, if I take somebody's back, people will often dig their, you know, their their chin and that kind of stuff. And so the transition to the arm bar from the back take, that's been something I've been trying to work on as well.
Kaylee: Nice. submission that you find yourself always getting caught in is
Jon: Kimura. Especially if I'm at Mayhem MMA. shout out Nate Manisk. it's just all the time. It's it is what it is, you know. And I it it's one of those two it's frustrating
Kaylee: Yeah.
Jon: 'cause he'll submit me like forty times in a five minute
Kaylee: Yeah.
Jon: round and it's always a Kimura or something similar to that and I think that I'm trying to prevent it and he finds it somewhere, so
Kaylee: Right. And it's like here it comes again.
Jon: Mm. Yeah.
Kaylee: training morning, afternoon, or night. You already kinda answered this in the main episode, but
Jon: Yeah, basically morning. A lot of it's either eleven, noon, or seven in the morning is typically the classes that'll hit up the seven AM is Friday one and then eleven or noon, depending on which gym I'm training at throughout the week.
Kaylee: Nice. If you could train with any martial artist, alive or dead, it would be
Jon: Alive or dead. Yeah, I don't know. that's a hard one for me. I don't I don't necessarily know that I would have a good opinion on that one. Maybe I would say Hodger Gracie. I know he's actually done some stuff at our gym in the past, but I missed all those seminars. But just from like that
Kaylee: Mm, that's cool.
Jon: that strong long limit guy, you know, seeing another one of those, but obviously that he's perfected his technique.
Kaylee: Mm-hmm.
Jon: I'd like to train with him.
Kaylee: Yeah. your personal fuel before training is not pre workout anymore.
Jon: Not pre workout anymore. Yeah, typically I'll go on an empty stomach. I've got a habit. I'll take two water bottles with me. I'll drink one on the way and then I'll have one that I sip on on the way and that's that's pretty much it that I go
Kaylee: Yeah.
Jon: into training with.
Kaylee: Nice. the phrase you repeat to yourself on hard days is
Jon: I don't tap to pressure. I'll say that too, it's a little cringy, right? But like don't tap to pressure. And so it's very common, you know, As a business owner, as a father, everything's coming at you all at once sometimes
Kaylee: Mm-hmm.
Jon: or individually, you know. The that common quote, I can't catch a break. I don't think anybody can catch a break. The idea is that you just gotta, stay in the fight and kind of focus
Kaylee: Yeah.
Jon: on what's moving the needle.
Kaylee: Yeah, I like that. I mean like I've obviously heard that within training, but I haven't really haven't thought of that as a personal mantra that you could say throughout in life. I like it a lot. a wellness habit you wish you started sooner is
Jon: Drinking more water. as basic as that may sound, I feel like that is a huge secret in terms of keeping your energy levels up, maintaining your eating and stuff like that. I feel like a lot of times people will reach for like junk carbs and stuff because they're dehydrated.
Kaylee: Mm-hmm.
Jon: You get that craving for sugar and typically it's like, Hey, you just need some water. I just feel a huge difference in my energy levels too. Like people will complain you know, the afternoon crash, but if I'm drinking, a gallon of water throughout the day by three PM Yeah, I'm still feeling pretty good.
Kaylee: Yeah. do you have a vice in in terms of drinks? Like are you a big coffee drinker, soda drinker, any of that? Or it's just I needed to drink more water?
Jon: I do drink some coffee. I have recently picked up I've been drinking a lot of Canada Dry as like my go to soft drink of choice.
Kaylee: Mm-hmm.
Jon: but I think it was always just one of those I didn't necessarily drink a whole lot of soft drinks, but I would just not drink enough water for whatever reason. It
Kaylee: Yeah.
Jon: was just one of those things.
Kaylee: Do you have you ever dabbled in like electrolytes?
Jon: absolutely, yeah. And so that is one thing too, yeah. If I'm if I'm training a lot, 'cause I've gotten it before too, where it's like my i I hate it, where both your bicep and tricep will start to cramp and so you're like in this weird spot and that's when you it's the worst. And that's when you know your electrolytes are really messed up when you're cramping that bad, right? So
Kaylee: I have never had that happen.
Jon: So we keep some powdered Gatorade on hand because again I you know, I'm a I'm a big sweater and so you know, if I read too hard I'm sweating. So
Kaylee: Yeah.
Jon: especially if I'm training jujitsu pretty hard, I'm getting a lot of those electrolytes coming out of me.
Kaylee: Sure. you feel most grateful when
Jon: I'm spending time with my son.
Kaylee: Yeah. The best advice you've ever received was
Jon: Again, it's very cringy, but the whole you know, it's not the hand that you were dealt, but how you play the cards. That's yeah, I just feel like that's a bit especially seeing my son, you and and the differences between our childhoods and that kind of stuff and all that. you know, the idea of again well not tapping to pressure kind of feeds into that as well. But it's like, you
Kaylee: Mm-hmm.
Jon: hey, we're just gonna we you know, we have the tools at our hand, what are we gonna do? You know, how do we keep going forward?
Kaylee: Yeah. Very good. Love it, John. Flew through those. Very good. our next kind of series is our roll call series. Okay. So I just gathered questions from the audience that I feel like would pertain to you or that you'd have a a pretty good response to. So we'll start with the first one, which is what's the biggest misconception people have about owning a martial arts gym? Which I'm aware that you don't own a martial arts gym, but you worked with lots of individuals that do. So from your side of things, what do you feel like a big misconception would be?
Jon: Well depends on the gym, but I feel like a lot of people take for granted and they think that, this is all a money grab or whatever, you know, they'll complain. like it just miscellaneous parts on this costs money or why is this so expensive. I think when you look at it too, the the the hard part is a lot of these gym owners are getting squeezed in terms of, there's commercial rent that they're paying for and then they have to deal with you know, their utilities, depending on your area, I know Evansville. our utility company has been increasing the rates significantly and all that. So it's a you know, there's always all these little ancillary things that people aren't taking into account, as well as just the insurance requirements and all that other stuff that's in there.
Kaylee: what's one feature every gym should have?
Jon: As in like the physical feature or I'm yeah.
Kaylee: Not sure. I mean it's just a b it's a pretty broad question, so I feel like you could take it in any direction that comes to mind.
Jon: I day classes. I think that if your gym doesn't
Kaylee: Mm.
Jon: have day classes, people like me are which it's always, you know, it's unfortunate in that typically the day classes are often the most sparse. But
Kaylee: Mm-hmm.
Jon: I feel like you get a lot of good training in there and it's typically safer because it is a bunch of, you know, mid thirties, mid forties professionals, people who are, trying not to get injured. They're in there and oftentimes too it's like because they're going midday, it's somebody who is committed. So maybe, they've already been training for a while and so it's it's good, solid training. But I definitely feel like the the noon classes or, the midday classes are are pretty slept on. But, you know, again I think it's slept on both ways and that, you know, it's unfortunate some communities for whatever reason there's just not a draw. in that
Kaylee: Mm-hmm.
Jon: but I feel like the best jujitsu happens kinda in that in that noon area, in my opinion.
Kaylee: Mm. That's a good point too, because I've definitely experienced gyms that have had and just stick to that either early morning, even if that, you know, I've been to some gyms where it's like only evenings and it is what it is. but yeah, if they have the feasibility and the resources and individuals to teach early mornings as well as during the day, I mean, I think you're hitting a whole different crowd. and so yeah, that's a really good point. what are some of the more memorable gyms that you've worked with and why did they stand out to you?
Jon: Well, obviously Mayhem, 'cause they were an early customer. and too, just, you know, the the small town vibes, early startup, scrappy, seeing what their struggles are, because it it wasn't just an established gym. that was a big one. in terms of working with I mean, some of the North Carolina ones are obviously more remote. I'm onboarding another one here in Texas and that's actually been I don't have as much experience with them, but That's been a very interesting perspective in terms of just seeing the guy. Like I've been texting him and he's loving the system. He's coming from Push Press and talking about how, you know, it's so much easier. And another thing too is he had mention that I guess Push Press had lied to him and that he wanted a late fee for so long and it was one of those things that managed memberships allows. And I guess Push Press told him, Hey, we can't do that because it's a s against Stripes T O S and I found some research on Stripe's website and it's like, no, this is totally not against T O S. I don't know what they were talking about scenario. So that's in terms of the ones that I've worked
Kaylee: Mm. Where's this
Jon: with.
Kaylee: where's this gym out of in Texas? nice. That's great. Yeah,
Jon: Austin, Texas. Mm-hmm.
Kaylee: I feel like the Texas martial arts community is getting bigger and bigger. And so that's cool that you're branching out. Is that your first out of state, you know, gym that you're working with? Six. Nice.
Jon: That'll be the sixth state that I'm in. But yeah, yeah. So North Carolina. North Carolina was was one of the first early out of state ones and then Kentucky is technically out of state, even though again they're you know, 'cause I'm in
Kaylee: Yeah, sure.
Jon: Indiana, but so yeah.
Kaylee: Awesome. That's really great. Was that a l learning curve for you as you started to venture out of just your local community? was like how do I want to set this up and go about working with them from a business standpoint?
Jon: Absolutely, yeah. And so the idea is like with the local ones, I can just show up and I can see what
Kaylee: Right.
Jon: their process is and that it's super helpful to be able to see that because it's not just the software, it's like how their their building is structured, what the flow is, whether or not they have sort of like a a vestibule area and a check in counter scenario.
Kaylee: Mm.
Jon: There's all these weird nuances that could be happening And so yeah, just making sure that my documentation that was a huge task in and of itself.
Kaylee: Mm-hmm.
Jon: because especially too when you're a young scrappy startup trying to just move as quickly as possible and get these features in, oftentimes the documentation is slow to keep up. And so making sure that the documentation process was that there was discipline there. And so now,
Kaylee: Mm-hmm.
Jon: you know, there's a more formal process. When a feature gets released, it gets in the change log and then our help documents get updated and there's an actual process for for deployment there.
Kaylee: And can you explain that a little bit more? So what documents are you even having to deal with, I guess?
Jon: Yeah, so there's a couple different ones. the main one is you know help dot manage membership. So it's just a help documentation
Kaylee: Mm-hmm.
Jon: platform. And you can search for things there. So you know, how do I cancel a member's membership or how do
Kaylee: sure. Mm-hmm.
Jon: I set this up? Any time, you know, anything to use the software. But there's also built in documentation and and and help points. So
Kaylee: Mm-hmm.
Jon: there's several spots where there may be a question mark you can click on and see, hey, what is this? Or At the very bottom there's this main area that you can put there's interactive demos and so you can see, okay, how do I add a family member onto a plan and it'll pull up this thing and show you, yep, you click here and then you click here and then
Kaylee: Mm-hmm.
Jon: and then it you know gives you an explanation as you go there. But just making sure that those those changes are documented properly and you know, information is updated.
Kaylee: Sure. Yeah. Less questions down the road. Yeah,
Jon: Absolutely.
Kaylee: good. next question is how can members support their academies outside of simply just paying their dues?
Jon: Yeah, being vocal, telling your buddies, trying to get people to come in there that's the the lifeblood is you know, the that word of mouth I feel like goes so much further than any of the other marketing that you could do. I mean, my own story, right? I was trying to get our financial plans in order because our son was on the way and this guy starts talking to me about Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and so I really feel like that's the biggest thing that you can do, outside of monetary stuff is just making sure you're getting the word out, like, Hey, this is a great gym, proselytizing, so to speak, or you're being evangelical about your approach.
Kaylee: Yeah. What's one lesson from running a company that surprisingly applies to martial arts or specifically for you would be jujitsu.
Jon: Just maintaining calm in the panic and we may have already covered in some of this, but I feel like that is such a big thread throughout life in general. I mean, you know, my wife tells me we're having a son. Obviously that is like my heart sank. It was one of those like, well, you know, 'cause it's just my life was obviously gonna be changed. For better or worse. I didn't know at the time what's this gonna be
Kaylee: Yeah. Yeah.
Jon: like, you know, and admittedly there's been ups and downs and I mean there's ups and downs in everything, business, relationships, family, even your personal training, or you know, training through martial arts, you're gonna have good days, bad days. And just recognizing that those good days will come, those bad days will come, and
Kaylee: Mm-hmm.
Jon: consistency is what gets you from, one bad day to one good day.
Kaylee: Yeah. Very good. what's one feature or innovation you think every gym will likely have in the next five, ten years? What are you what are you kind of seeing from your end or that you think is gonna evolve?
Jon: I really think that there's been a push towards sort of AI related marketing for better or worse. And so the idea of of chatbots is something I'm seeing integrated more and more and not just like corporate websites, it's sort of the mom and pops, which is something managed memberships doesn't support natively or any of that. That's more of on the marketing side. but also too, just in general, a bigger focus on using that sort of force multiplier that is software. I feel like even the people who are reluctant and who haven't used it in the past, or a lot of, you know, traditional old school martial arts guys are recognizing the power of, you know, everybody's on Facebook, so maybe we're gonna run some Facebook ads or that kind of stuff. Whereas traditionally they would maybe balk at those approaches.
Kaylee: Mm. Yeah. what's something fans don't realize goes into putting on a fight event? And you kind of talked about your whole process and what you're learning from developing this promotion in general. it anything else to add or that you want to kind of summarize from that main conversation?
Jon: Just the sheer amount of paperwork and
Kaylee: Yeah.
Jon: bureaucratic red tape that's involved in it and the the sheer amount of risk and all that and there's all sorts of licensures and and insurance requirements. It's insane. it is amazing that all the amount of work that goes into doing a proper promotion, right? It maybe, you know, if you think you can get away with some of these backyard scrap fests, you know,
Kaylee: Right.
Jon: that's the way to go, but yeah.
Kaylee: Yeah, very good. All right. so last thing, John, we're gonna switch into our last series, which is our word into wisdom. Okay, so we have a naughty list of a hundred words. We have our nice list of a hundred words. So the naughty list is, you know, more challenging words that any or all of us face, and then same thing, the nice list is a little bit more upbeat, motivational terms. And so what you're gonna do is you're just going to pick a number from one to one hundred. And then after we go through what your word is, you can just provide a personal definition, maybe how it's shown up in your life or martial arts journey, or any wisdom that you take from it. So first question is do you wanna start with your naughty list or the nice list?
Jon: We start with the naughty list.
Kaylee: All right. So now one to one hundred fifty-five.
Jon: Fifty five.
Kaylee: Recklessness. So taking dangerous risks without regard for consequences.
Jon: Reckless. Well, yeah, you know, I was probably a lot more reckless in my youth. you know, I always like to make the joke I I didn't make a single good decision until about twenty five. But
Kaylee: Yeah.
Jon: yeah, I feel like, you know, recklessness is obviously the the antonym of discipline, right? And so having an actual approach to the madness, I feel like recklessness in and of itself is sort of just contributing to the chaos and not being mindful of the energy that you're putting into the system.
Kaylee: Yeah. I think from a like business standpoint or entrepreneurship, do you feel like just being an entrepreneur in general, there has to be like a little bit of recklessness? I mean, or it seems
Jon: Okay, yeah.
Kaylee: I think for people who aren't entrepreneurs, let's just say, that seems like such a foreign concept and the whole process in itself seems reckless. And maybe it's just because of all the If anything goes awry, it's on you, right? Because this is something that you are developing and starting. And so I don't know, when I think of that and then I think of in the terms of people that are really pursuing and like going all in on a passion, I think from an outsider looking in, sometimes it's like that seems so reckless because if s something fails, you know, how detrimental it might be.
Jon: Yeah. Well, and I I feel like that too feeds into there's a big difference between taking risk and gambling. And so like even for instance the fight promotion, that was something, you know, 'cause I was very upfront. Typically, I s sort of just run my business the way I want to run my business. The fight promotion, because it was more capital intensive and the risks were higher, my wife I made sure, she was bought in on the process and there was conversation. And I had spreadsheets of hey, this is what it could look like, right? This is what it could look like if this happens, if we undersell, what's our potential downside, what's our potential upside, where are we at in the middle? And so doing those sort of calculations. And of course you can't ever be one hundred percent, prepared for you know, you don't you can't there's no crystal ball. So I can't say, Yeah, this is gonna be successful, this is gonna fail, whatever. But you
Kaylee: Right.
Jon: can you can make educated guesses as to what the broad range of potential outcomes is and you can do things to limit the potential downside whenever you're doing these sort of things. And so I feel like that's the big difference, right? And so
Kaylee: Yeah.
Jon: I could see from the outside looking in, it's definitely, yeah, this guy's reckless, you know, he's he's you know he's not but
Kaylee: Ha ha.
Jon: in the end it's like listen, there's some spreadsheets backing this up that,
Kaylee: Exactly.
Jon: yeah, this could blow up in my face, but at least the downside has been limited in in this way.
Kaylee: Yes. And I think the whole point is like when somebody is reckless, they're not weighing the potential consequences where a lot of times that's maybe first in mind when people are, you know, entrepreneurs and pursuing something is like, Well, how could this you think about how it would fail, you know, and all the challenges that are faced, but like the whole point is continuing to push through and trying to figure out resolutions for that so it doesn't happen. So
Jon: I will yeah, I will say that is you know, a lot of entrepreneurs, myself included, are hard hardwired in a weird way that we do kinda like that risk, right? It's it kinda helps you feel alive that, hey, what are some stakes that are involved here? You know, is there
Kaylee: Yeah. Yeah.
Jon: potential downside. I and it's almost like I don't know, it is one of those it maybe pride or whatever. It's just like anything, right? you you get to the end of it and it's like, Hey, I did this. And so
Kaylee: Mm-hmm.
Jon: you're sort of chasing that same feeling of, okay, cool, you know, this didn't blow up in my face. I was able to manage the risk and
Kaylee: Yeah.
Jon: This was a success.
Kaylee: Yeah. And then what's the next challenge?
Jon: Absolutely.
Kaylee: Very good. All right. So one to one hundred, we're gonna switch over to our nice list.
Jon: Do forty seven.
Kaylee: Okay. Opportunity, a favorable circumstance or good chance for advancement or progress.
Jon: Yeah, so I mean you know, my story I think as we talked in the the podcast there was the idea of capitalizing on opportunity. You know, I took a bucket handle tear in my meniscus, you know, had me laid out on the couch in a lot of pain and sort of distracting myself. I turned that potential negative into this well, I spotted the opportunity and and turned that into a positive for both myself and, these small gym owners and working through that and just the ability to spot opportunity. I feel like there's a lot of synergy between a lot of the stuff that we're talking here. I don't know if that was intentional or not, but the idea is, you know, you have risk and opportunity. These these are all, you know, related terms, especially in martial
Kaylee: Mm.
Jon: arts as well. You always talk about like the risk to reward ratio of
Kaylee: Yeah.
Jon: various moves and positions.
Kaylee: Yeah. Very good. John, that's all I have for you. is there any final words you have for for the people?
Jon: Just thank you for having me. Again, you know, happy to chat with any potential gym owners there. Feel free, you know, visit managed memberships dot com. Reach out to me directly, John at Managed Memberships dot com as well. happy to help you grow your community and ease all of your technology burdens.
Kaylee: Love it. Love it. John, it's been an absolute pleasure. Again, thank you for the time, the energy, the information. It's great. I hope that we can stay in touch. I'm excited to see where manage memberships goes. It sounds like you're already on the full trek of expansion and really helping and supporting the communities within martial arts and maybe other gym avenues too. And do you hope like if people within a membership system, no matter if it's a you know, shooting range like you supported or twenty four hour gym. Is there any other avenues that you feel like mm, this might be able to be tailored towards this system as well?
Jon: Yeah, I'm I'm I'm open to absolutely, yeah. absolutely. on another podcast I got chat sized a little bit 'cause it seemed like a lot of the stuff I was supporting was very broy in terms of like, you know, shooting ranges, MMA gems and you know, but like Pilates Studios, I would love to work with
Kaylee: Yeah.
Jon: a Pilates studio. oddly enough with the SEO and and AI optimization, there was a A T V park out of Louisiana. that randomly hit me up
Kaylee: yeah.
Jon: and was interested and I wasn't even really that familiar with the concept 'cause like here in Indiana, a of people just go out in the cornfields and and ride around, right? But where
Kaylee: Ha ha ha
Jon: they're at, yeah, they got an actual park and you can rent horses and you can get a day pass
Kaylee: That's great.
Jon: and ride ATVs. And that wasn't something I wasn't even thinking about, but they're like, hey, yeah, you know, let's use this software and they've been using it for a while now, growing their business and it's been exciting working with them.
Kaylee: That's awesome. Yeah. So for anybody listening, whether you're in the martial arts realm or anything regarding memberships in general, I'm sure you could pick John's brain and see if he can be of support to you. So please do that. And John, thanks again. I have nothing more to say besides I just have so much appreciation for you and look forward to see you continue just to expand and help people. So yeah.
Jon: Thank you. Thank you for having me on. It is great.
Kaylee: Thanks for listening to The Grip. If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to follow or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can also follow along on Instagram at the GripPod to stay up to date on new episodes. That way you can send over a DM if you've got a question you'd like to hear answered on our roll call series. Now remember, stay sharp, be grounded, and never lose your grip. See you next time.
Kaylee: Welcome back to The Grip. Today we're diving into one of our special mini episodes where we mix things up with a few fast-paced segments. We'll kick things off with Grip and Go, a round of rapid fire questions to loosen things up and to get to know our guest in a fun way. Then we'll move into Roll Call, where I bring in questions straight from you, our listeners and audience. That way the guests can tackle what's on your mind. And to wrap it all up, we'll finish with Word into Wisdom. In this segment, the guest picks a number between one and a hundred. That number ties to a word from the nice list, which can be motivational and uplifting terms, and the naughty list, the gritty, tough, and sometimes challenging words. Once revealed, the guest unpacks the word, sharing their personal definition and how it's shown up in their life or martial arts journey, and what wisdom they take from it. That's it, three rounds, one conversation. Let's get into it. All right, welcome back to the grip. We have John back with us. And so if you have not already go back and listen or watch our main episode, really good content but for now we are going to dive into our mini episode. so to start off, John, we are gonna go into our grip and go series. So this is more just simple, short and sweet, rapid fire questions. and we will go from there.
Jon: Excellent. Sounds good.
Kaylee: Perfect. All right. So our first question is gi or no gi?
Jon: No gi is growing on me.
Kaylee: Okay. How come?
Jon: well I started off in the Ghee for about two years and then went to no gi and I don't know. It's just it's a little bit more entertaining as somebody who sweats a lot. And so it's easier for me to sort of sneak out of things. It's a it's a double edged sword too, right? it's harder to keep a grip.
Kaylee: Sure.
Jon: I just feel like it's a more it's a more dynamic game.
Kaylee: Mm-hmm.
Jon: but I mean, you know, I'm always gonna have love for the gi in the back of my, heart there. And I think
Kaylee: Yeah.
Jon: it's interesting because you do develop I feel like your technique almost has to be more on point in terms of like you can't try these sneaky let me get north south from under side control and then try to slip a darse in there kind of scenarios, right? You can't maybe you can. I can't get away with that kind of stuff in the ghee.
Kaylee: Yeah. Yeah, very good. favorite cheat meal.
Jon: there's so many. I would say I've been
Kaylee: Yeah.
Jon: a big fan of butter chicken, Indian food with some naan on the side. That's probably my go to cheat meal.
Kaylee: Very good. and you're you're in Indiana right now.
Jon: That's right.
Kaylee: what is like Indiana known for as far as like food?
Jon: well cornfields obviously is what we're known for. But as far as foods, I would say, like, especially here regionally, Skippos and Gri Skippo, I'm sorry, Grippos and Ski. I tried to say that so backwards, but Grippos is
Kaylee: Okay, grippos.
Jon: and that is like a that's like a barbecue chip, but it's got a little spice to it. And then
Kaylee: Okay. Okay.
Jon: ski is sort of like it's sort of like Sprite. It's like a drink. And so Yeah, 'cause those those are manufactured here locally or semi locally. I so I know
Kaylee: Okay.
Jon: there is a pizza joint here that has what they call it a West Cider, which is very specific to Evansville. Like the west side of Evansville is the more rural side, right? Big I don't it's so silly that they call it that. But anyways, point
Kaylee: Yeah.
Jon: being is they sprinkle grippos on it and then a ski reduction as well on the top. So they make like a syrup out of the ski. Yeah.
Kaylee: fancy. Keeping it extra local.
Jon: Yeah, it's delicious.
Kaylee: Very good. ideal submission to win a fight would be according to your son. Rearing down.
Jon: According to my son, it's gonna be a rear naked choke. Obviously, that's his yeah, that's his bread and butter. I mean in terms of like what I hit, you know, my game's pretty lazy. Head and arm triangle is probably right up there. I've been trying to expand my horizons now and like my son, if I take somebody's back, people will often dig their, you know, their their chin and that kind of stuff. And so the transition to the arm bar from the back take, that's been something I've been trying to work on as well.
Kaylee: Nice. submission that you find yourself always getting caught in is
Jon: Kimura. Especially if I'm at Mayhem MMA. shout out Nate Manisk. it's just all the time. It's it is what it is, you know. And I it it's one of those two it's frustrating
Kaylee: Yeah.
Jon: 'cause he'll submit me like forty times in a five minute
Kaylee: Yeah.
Jon: round and it's always a Kimura or something similar to that and I think that I'm trying to prevent it and he finds it somewhere, so
Kaylee: Right. And it's like here it comes again.
Jon: Mm. Yeah.
Kaylee: training morning, afternoon, or night. You already kinda answered this in the main episode, but
Jon: Yeah, basically morning. A lot of it's either eleven, noon, or seven in the morning is typically the classes that'll hit up the seven AM is Friday one and then eleven or noon, depending on which gym I'm training at throughout the week.
Kaylee: Nice. If you could train with any martial artist, alive or dead, it would be
Jon: Alive or dead. Yeah, I don't know. that's a hard one for me. I don't I don't necessarily know that I would have a good opinion on that one. Maybe I would say Hodger Gracie. I know he's actually done some stuff at our gym in the past, but I missed all those seminars. But just from like that
Kaylee: Mm, that's cool.
Jon: that strong long limit guy, you know, seeing another one of those, but obviously that he's perfected his technique.
Kaylee: Mm-hmm.
Jon: I'd like to train with him.
Kaylee: Yeah. your personal fuel before training is not pre workout anymore.
Jon: Not pre workout anymore. Yeah, typically I'll go on an empty stomach. I've got a habit. I'll take two water bottles with me. I'll drink one on the way and then I'll have one that I sip on on the way and that's that's pretty much it that I go
Kaylee: Yeah.
Jon: into training with.
Kaylee: Nice. the phrase you repeat to yourself on hard days is
Jon: I don't tap to pressure. I'll say that too, it's a little cringy, right? But like don't tap to pressure. And so it's very common, you know, As a business owner, as a father, everything's coming at you all at once sometimes
Kaylee: Mm-hmm.
Jon: or individually, you know. The that common quote, I can't catch a break. I don't think anybody can catch a break. The idea is that you just gotta, stay in the fight and kind of focus
Kaylee: Yeah.
Jon: on what's moving the needle.
Kaylee: Yeah, I like that. I mean like I've obviously heard that within training, but I haven't really haven't thought of that as a personal mantra that you could say throughout in life. I like it a lot. a wellness habit you wish you started sooner is
Jon: Drinking more water. as basic as that may sound, I feel like that is a huge secret in terms of keeping your energy levels up, maintaining your eating and stuff like that. I feel like a lot of times people will reach for like junk carbs and stuff because they're dehydrated.
Kaylee: Mm-hmm.
Jon: You get that craving for sugar and typically it's like, Hey, you just need some water. I just feel a huge difference in my energy levels too. Like people will complain you know, the afternoon crash, but if I'm drinking, a gallon of water throughout the day by three PM Yeah, I'm still feeling pretty good.
Kaylee: Yeah. do you have a vice in in terms of drinks? Like are you a big coffee drinker, soda drinker, any of that? Or it's just I needed to drink more water?
Jon: I do drink some coffee. I have recently picked up I've been drinking a lot of Canada Dry as like my go to soft drink of choice.
Kaylee: Mm-hmm.
Jon: but I think it was always just one of those I didn't necessarily drink a whole lot of soft drinks, but I would just not drink enough water for whatever reason. It
Kaylee: Yeah.
Jon: was just one of those things.
Kaylee: Do you have you ever dabbled in like electrolytes?
Jon: absolutely, yeah. And so that is one thing too, yeah. If I'm if I'm training a lot, 'cause I've gotten it before too, where it's like my i I hate it, where both your bicep and tricep will start to cramp and so you're like in this weird spot and that's when you it's the worst. And that's when you know your electrolytes are really messed up when you're cramping that bad, right? So
Kaylee: I have never had that happen.
Jon: So we keep some powdered Gatorade on hand because again I you know, I'm a I'm a big sweater and so you know, if I read too hard I'm sweating. So
Kaylee: Yeah.
Jon: especially if I'm training jujitsu pretty hard, I'm getting a lot of those electrolytes coming out of me.
Kaylee: Sure. you feel most grateful when
Jon: I'm spending time with my son.
Kaylee: Yeah. The best advice you've ever received was
Jon: Again, it's very cringy, but the whole you know, it's not the hand that you were dealt, but how you play the cards. That's yeah, I just feel like that's a bit especially seeing my son, you and and the differences between our childhoods and that kind of stuff and all that. you know, the idea of again well not tapping to pressure kind of feeds into that as well. But it's like, you
Kaylee: Mm-hmm.
Jon: hey, we're just gonna we you know, we have the tools at our hand, what are we gonna do? You know, how do we keep going forward?
Kaylee: Yeah. Very good. Love it, John. Flew through those. Very good. our next kind of series is our roll call series. Okay. So I just gathered questions from the audience that I feel like would pertain to you or that you'd have a a pretty good response to. So we'll start with the first one, which is what's the biggest misconception people have about owning a martial arts gym? Which I'm aware that you don't own a martial arts gym, but you worked with lots of individuals that do. So from your side of things, what do you feel like a big misconception would be?
Jon: Well depends on the gym, but I feel like a lot of people take for granted and they think that, this is all a money grab or whatever, you know, they'll complain. like it just miscellaneous parts on this costs money or why is this so expensive. I think when you look at it too, the the the hard part is a lot of these gym owners are getting squeezed in terms of, there's commercial rent that they're paying for and then they have to deal with you know, their utilities, depending on your area, I know Evansville. our utility company has been increasing the rates significantly and all that. So it's a you know, there's always all these little ancillary things that people aren't taking into account, as well as just the insurance requirements and all that other stuff that's in there.
Kaylee: what's one feature every gym should have?
Jon: As in like the physical feature or I'm yeah.
Kaylee: Not sure. I mean it's just a b it's a pretty broad question, so I feel like you could take it in any direction that comes to mind.
Jon: I day classes. I think that if your gym doesn't
Kaylee: Mm.
Jon: have day classes, people like me are which it's always, you know, it's unfortunate in that typically the day classes are often the most sparse. But
Kaylee: Mm-hmm.
Jon: I feel like you get a lot of good training in there and it's typically safer because it is a bunch of, you know, mid thirties, mid forties professionals, people who are, trying not to get injured. They're in there and oftentimes too it's like because they're going midday, it's somebody who is committed. So maybe, they've already been training for a while and so it's it's good, solid training. But I definitely feel like the the noon classes or, the midday classes are are pretty slept on. But, you know, again I think it's slept on both ways and that, you know, it's unfortunate some communities for whatever reason there's just not a draw. in that
Kaylee: Mm-hmm.
Jon: but I feel like the best jujitsu happens kinda in that in that noon area, in my opinion.
Kaylee: Mm. That's a good point too, because I've definitely experienced gyms that have had and just stick to that either early morning, even if that, you know, I've been to some gyms where it's like only evenings and it is what it is. but yeah, if they have the feasibility and the resources and individuals to teach early mornings as well as during the day, I mean, I think you're hitting a whole different crowd. and so yeah, that's a really good point. what are some of the more memorable gyms that you've worked with and why did they stand out to you?
Jon: Well, obviously Mayhem, 'cause they were an early customer. and too, just, you know, the the small town vibes, early startup, scrappy, seeing what their struggles are, because it it wasn't just an established gym. that was a big one. in terms of working with I mean, some of the North Carolina ones are obviously more remote. I'm onboarding another one here in Texas and that's actually been I don't have as much experience with them, but That's been a very interesting perspective in terms of just seeing the guy. Like I've been texting him and he's loving the system. He's coming from Push Press and talking about how, you know, it's so much easier. And another thing too is he had mention that I guess Push Press had lied to him and that he wanted a late fee for so long and it was one of those things that managed memberships allows. And I guess Push Press told him, Hey, we can't do that because it's a s against Stripes T O S and I found some research on Stripe's website and it's like, no, this is totally not against T O S. I don't know what they were talking about scenario. So that's in terms of the ones that I've worked
Kaylee: Mm. Where's this
Jon: with.
Kaylee: where's this gym out of in Texas? nice. That's great. Yeah,
Jon: Austin, Texas. Mm-hmm.
Kaylee: I feel like the Texas martial arts community is getting bigger and bigger. And so that's cool that you're branching out. Is that your first out of state, you know, gym that you're working with? Six. Nice.
Jon: That'll be the sixth state that I'm in. But yeah, yeah. So North Carolina. North Carolina was was one of the first early out of state ones and then Kentucky is technically out of state, even though again they're you know, 'cause I'm in
Kaylee: Yeah, sure.
Jon: Indiana, but so yeah.
Kaylee: Awesome. That's really great. Was that a l learning curve for you as you started to venture out of just your local community? was like how do I want to set this up and go about working with them from a business standpoint?
Jon: Absolutely, yeah. And so the idea is like with the local ones, I can just show up and I can see what
Kaylee: Right.
Jon: their process is and that it's super helpful to be able to see that because it's not just the software, it's like how their their building is structured, what the flow is, whether or not they have sort of like a a vestibule area and a check in counter scenario.
Kaylee: Mm.
Jon: There's all these weird nuances that could be happening And so yeah, just making sure that my documentation that was a huge task in and of itself.
Kaylee: Mm-hmm.
Jon: because especially too when you're a young scrappy startup trying to just move as quickly as possible and get these features in, oftentimes the documentation is slow to keep up. And so making sure that the documentation process was that there was discipline there. And so now,
Kaylee: Mm-hmm.
Jon: you know, there's a more formal process. When a feature gets released, it gets in the change log and then our help documents get updated and there's an actual process for for deployment there.
Kaylee: And can you explain that a little bit more? So what documents are you even having to deal with, I guess?
Jon: Yeah, so there's a couple different ones. the main one is you know help dot manage membership. So it's just a help documentation
Kaylee: Mm-hmm.
Jon: platform. And you can search for things there. So you know, how do I cancel a member's membership or how do
Kaylee: sure. Mm-hmm.
Jon: I set this up? Any time, you know, anything to use the software. But there's also built in documentation and and and help points. So
Kaylee: Mm-hmm.
Jon: there's several spots where there may be a question mark you can click on and see, hey, what is this? Or At the very bottom there's this main area that you can put there's interactive demos and so you can see, okay, how do I add a family member onto a plan and it'll pull up this thing and show you, yep, you click here and then you click here and then
Kaylee: Mm-hmm.
Jon: and then it you know gives you an explanation as you go there. But just making sure that those those changes are documented properly and you know, information is updated.
Kaylee: Sure. Yeah. Less questions down the road. Yeah,
Jon: Absolutely.
Kaylee: good. next question is how can members support their academies outside of simply just paying their dues?
Jon: Yeah, being vocal, telling your buddies, trying to get people to come in there that's the the lifeblood is you know, the that word of mouth I feel like goes so much further than any of the other marketing that you could do. I mean, my own story, right? I was trying to get our financial plans in order because our son was on the way and this guy starts talking to me about Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and so I really feel like that's the biggest thing that you can do, outside of monetary stuff is just making sure you're getting the word out, like, Hey, this is a great gym, proselytizing, so to speak, or you're being evangelical about your approach.
Kaylee: Yeah. What's one lesson from running a company that surprisingly applies to martial arts or specifically for you would be jujitsu.
Jon: Just maintaining calm in the panic and we may have already covered in some of this, but I feel like that is such a big thread throughout life in general. I mean, you know, my wife tells me we're having a son. Obviously that is like my heart sank. It was one of those like, well, you know, 'cause it's just my life was obviously gonna be changed. For better or worse. I didn't know at the time what's this gonna be
Kaylee: Yeah. Yeah.
Jon: like, you know, and admittedly there's been ups and downs and I mean there's ups and downs in everything, business, relationships, family, even your personal training, or you know, training through martial arts, you're gonna have good days, bad days. And just recognizing that those good days will come, those bad days will come, and
Kaylee: Mm-hmm.
Jon: consistency is what gets you from, one bad day to one good day.
Kaylee: Yeah. Very good. what's one feature or innovation you think every gym will likely have in the next five, ten years? What are you what are you kind of seeing from your end or that you think is gonna evolve?
Jon: I really think that there's been a push towards sort of AI related marketing for better or worse. And so the idea of of chatbots is something I'm seeing integrated more and more and not just like corporate websites, it's sort of the mom and pops, which is something managed memberships doesn't support natively or any of that. That's more of on the marketing side. but also too, just in general, a bigger focus on using that sort of force multiplier that is software. I feel like even the people who are reluctant and who haven't used it in the past, or a lot of, you know, traditional old school martial arts guys are recognizing the power of, you know, everybody's on Facebook, so maybe we're gonna run some Facebook ads or that kind of stuff. Whereas traditionally they would maybe balk at those approaches.
Kaylee: Mm. Yeah. what's something fans don't realize goes into putting on a fight event? And you kind of talked about your whole process and what you're learning from developing this promotion in general. it anything else to add or that you want to kind of summarize from that main conversation?
Jon: Just the sheer amount of paperwork and
Kaylee: Yeah.
Jon: bureaucratic red tape that's involved in it and the the sheer amount of risk and all that and there's all sorts of licensures and and insurance requirements. It's insane. it is amazing that all the amount of work that goes into doing a proper promotion, right? It maybe, you know, if you think you can get away with some of these backyard scrap fests, you know,
Kaylee: Right.
Jon: that's the way to go, but yeah.
Kaylee: Yeah, very good. All right. so last thing, John, we're gonna switch into our last series, which is our word into wisdom. Okay, so we have a naughty list of a hundred words. We have our nice list of a hundred words. So the naughty list is, you know, more challenging words that any or all of us face, and then same thing, the nice list is a little bit more upbeat, motivational terms. And so what you're gonna do is you're just going to pick a number from one to one hundred. And then after we go through what your word is, you can just provide a personal definition, maybe how it's shown up in your life or martial arts journey, or any wisdom that you take from it. So first question is do you wanna start with your naughty list or the nice list?
Jon: We start with the naughty list.
Kaylee: All right. So now one to one hundred fifty-five.
Jon: Fifty five.
Kaylee: Recklessness. So taking dangerous risks without regard for consequences.
Jon: Reckless. Well, yeah, you know, I was probably a lot more reckless in my youth. you know, I always like to make the joke I I didn't make a single good decision until about twenty five. But
Kaylee: Yeah.
Jon: yeah, I feel like, you know, recklessness is obviously the the antonym of discipline, right? And so having an actual approach to the madness, I feel like recklessness in and of itself is sort of just contributing to the chaos and not being mindful of the energy that you're putting into the system.
Kaylee: Yeah. I think from a like business standpoint or entrepreneurship, do you feel like just being an entrepreneur in general, there has to be like a little bit of recklessness? I mean, or it seems
Jon: Okay, yeah.
Kaylee: I think for people who aren't entrepreneurs, let's just say, that seems like such a foreign concept and the whole process in itself seems reckless. And maybe it's just because of all the If anything goes awry, it's on you, right? Because this is something that you are developing and starting. And so I don't know, when I think of that and then I think of in the terms of people that are really pursuing and like going all in on a passion, I think from an outsider looking in, sometimes it's like that seems so reckless because if s something fails, you know, how detrimental it might be.
Jon: Yeah. Well, and I I feel like that too feeds into there's a big difference between taking risk and gambling. And so like even for instance the fight promotion, that was something, you know, 'cause I was very upfront. Typically, I s sort of just run my business the way I want to run my business. The fight promotion, because it was more capital intensive and the risks were higher, my wife I made sure, she was bought in on the process and there was conversation. And I had spreadsheets of hey, this is what it could look like, right? This is what it could look like if this happens, if we undersell, what's our potential downside, what's our potential upside, where are we at in the middle? And so doing those sort of calculations. And of course you can't ever be one hundred percent, prepared for you know, you don't you can't there's no crystal ball. So I can't say, Yeah, this is gonna be successful, this is gonna fail, whatever. But you
Kaylee: Right.
Jon: can you can make educated guesses as to what the broad range of potential outcomes is and you can do things to limit the potential downside whenever you're doing these sort of things. And so I feel like that's the big difference, right? And so
Kaylee: Yeah.
Jon: I could see from the outside looking in, it's definitely, yeah, this guy's reckless, you know, he's he's you know he's not but
Kaylee: Ha ha.
Jon: in the end it's like listen, there's some spreadsheets backing this up that,
Kaylee: Exactly.
Jon: yeah, this could blow up in my face, but at least the downside has been limited in in this way.
Kaylee: Yes. And I think the whole point is like when somebody is reckless, they're not weighing the potential consequences where a lot of times that's maybe first in mind when people are, you know, entrepreneurs and pursuing something is like, Well, how could this you think about how it would fail, you know, and all the challenges that are faced, but like the whole point is continuing to push through and trying to figure out resolutions for that so it doesn't happen. So
Jon: I will yeah, I will say that is you know, a lot of entrepreneurs, myself included, are hard hardwired in a weird way that we do kinda like that risk, right? It's it kinda helps you feel alive that, hey, what are some stakes that are involved here? You know, is there
Kaylee: Yeah. Yeah.
Jon: potential downside. I and it's almost like I don't know, it is one of those it maybe pride or whatever. It's just like anything, right? you you get to the end of it and it's like, Hey, I did this. And so
Kaylee: Mm-hmm.
Jon: you're sort of chasing that same feeling of, okay, cool, you know, this didn't blow up in my face. I was able to manage the risk and
Kaylee: Yeah.
Jon: This was a success.
Kaylee: Yeah. And then what's the next challenge?
Jon: Absolutely.
Kaylee: Very good. All right. So one to one hundred, we're gonna switch over to our nice list.
Jon: Do forty seven.
Kaylee: Okay. Opportunity, a favorable circumstance or good chance for advancement or progress.
Jon: Yeah, so I mean you know, my story I think as we talked in the the podcast there was the idea of capitalizing on opportunity. You know, I took a bucket handle tear in my meniscus, you know, had me laid out on the couch in a lot of pain and sort of distracting myself. I turned that potential negative into this well, I spotted the opportunity and and turned that into a positive for both myself and, these small gym owners and working through that and just the ability to spot opportunity. I feel like there's a lot of synergy between a lot of the stuff that we're talking here. I don't know if that was intentional or not, but the idea is, you know, you have risk and opportunity. These these are all, you know, related terms, especially in martial
Kaylee: Mm.
Jon: arts as well. You always talk about like the risk to reward ratio of
Kaylee: Yeah.
Jon: various moves and positions.
Kaylee: Yeah. Very good. John, that's all I have for you. is there any final words you have for for the people?
Jon: Just thank you for having me. Again, you know, happy to chat with any potential gym owners there. Feel free, you know, visit managed memberships dot com. Reach out to me directly, John at Managed Memberships dot com as well. happy to help you grow your community and ease all of your technology burdens.
Kaylee: Love it. Love it. John, it's been an absolute pleasure. Again, thank you for the time, the energy, the information. It's great. I hope that we can stay in touch. I'm excited to see where manage memberships goes. It sounds like you're already on the full trek of expansion and really helping and supporting the communities within martial arts and maybe other gym avenues too. And do you hope like if people within a membership system, no matter if it's a you know, shooting range like you supported or twenty four hour gym. Is there any other avenues that you feel like mm, this might be able to be tailored towards this system as well?
Jon: Yeah, I'm I'm I'm open to absolutely, yeah. absolutely. on another podcast I got chat sized a little bit 'cause it seemed like a lot of the stuff I was supporting was very broy in terms of like, you know, shooting ranges, MMA gems and you know, but like Pilates Studios, I would love to work with
Kaylee: Yeah.
Jon: a Pilates studio. oddly enough with the SEO and and AI optimization, there was a A T V park out of Louisiana. that randomly hit me up
Kaylee: yeah.
Jon: and was interested and I wasn't even really that familiar with the concept 'cause like here in Indiana, a of people just go out in the cornfields and and ride around, right? But where
Kaylee: Ha ha ha
Jon: they're at, yeah, they got an actual park and you can rent horses and you can get a day pass
Kaylee: That's great.
Jon: and ride ATVs. And that wasn't something I wasn't even thinking about, but they're like, hey, yeah, you know, let's use this software and they've been using it for a while now, growing their business and it's been exciting working with them.
Kaylee: That's awesome. Yeah. So for anybody listening, whether you're in the martial arts realm or anything regarding memberships in general, I'm sure you could pick John's brain and see if he can be of support to you. So please do that. And John, thanks again. I have nothing more to say besides I just have so much appreciation for you and look forward to see you continue just to expand and help people. So yeah.
Jon: Thank you. Thank you for having me on. It is great.
Kaylee: Thanks for listening to The Grip. If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to follow or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can also follow along on Instagram at the GripPod to stay up to date on new episodes. That way you can send over a DM if you've got a question you'd like to hear answered on our roll call series. Now remember, stay sharp, be grounded, and never lose your grip. See you next time.
