Digital Social Hour - The TRUTH About Professional Grappling: Uncovered! I Zoltan Bathory DSH #470

Episode Date: May 26, 2024

🎥 **The TRUTH About Professional Grappling: Uncovered!** In this episode of the **Digital Social Hour** with Sean Kelly, we unveil the raw and unfiltered reality of professional grappling! 🥋���� Join us as we sit down with the legendary Zoltan Bathory, founder of Five Finger Death Punch and expert martial artist. From his humble beginnings in a communist country to becoming a black belt in both Judo and Jiu-Jitsu, Zoltan reveals his incredible journey and the secrets behind the **Professional Grappling Federation (PGF)**. 🥇🔥 Don't miss out on Zoltan's insights on how the PGF is revolutionizing the sport, making it faster and more exciting for both practitioners and viewers. Whether you're a seasoned grappler or a curious newcomer, this episode is packed with valuable insights that will change the way you look at martial arts. 🤯 Tune in now and join the conversation! Hit that subscribe button for more insider secrets and stay ahead with the latest trends in the world of sports and entertainment. 🚀 **Keywords:** Digital Social Hour, Sean Kelly, Podcast, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Professional Grappling, Zoltan Bathory, Five Finger Death Punch, PGF Watch now and subscribe for more thrilling episodes! 🎬🔔 #JujitsuTeam #ProGrappling #JudoCompetition #JujitsuInsights #JujitsuGame CHAPTERS: 0:00 - Intro 0:39 - Zoltan Bathory on the Professional Grappling Federation (PGF) 6:17 - Zoltan Bathory on Martial Arts and Success 10:27 - Growing up in a Communist Country 17:44 - Making Your First Guitar 19:06 - Starting Five Finger Death Punch 20:35 - Finding Bandmates for Five Finger Death Punch 23:15 - Do You Still Talk to Your Parents? 29:48 - Why Zoltan is Passionate About Helping Veterans 33:48 - Where to Find Zoltan 35:57 - Outro APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://forms.gle/D2cLkWfJx46pDK1MA BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [e-mail] SPONSORS: Deposyt Payment Processing: https://www.deposyt.com/seankelly LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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with boxing sometimes you know what i mean right so it's cool to see it at a faster pace i mean when you when you when you are a connoisseur when you know what it is when you're part of that sport then i see every inch that's changing okay he's gaining leverage you know but it is, when you're part of that sport, then I see every inch that's changing. Like, okay, he's gaining leverage, you know, but if you're not, then you won't know. Yeah, someone like you can appreciate that, but someone like me has no idea, you know what I mean? Right, exactly.

Wherever you guys are watching this show, I would truly appreciate it if you follow or subscribe. It helps a lot with the algorithm. It helps us get bigger and better guests, and it helps us grow the team. Truly means a lot. Thank you guys for supporting, and here's the episode. Ladies and gentlemen, founder of Five Finger Death Punch, Zoltan Bathory here today. Legend. Thanks for coming. Wow. Thank you. I mean, what you've overcome, man, we'll get into your story, but it's legendary for sure. Time someone thinks it's. And now tell me about PGF. You just got involved with that, right?

PGF. PGF is a professional grappling federation. I'm a martial artist since I was a little kid. And so I've been involved in competitions since I'm about 11 years old. So I started at nine, started to compete at 11. First judo and then jiu-jitsu.

And to this day, I'm competing. Wow. Yeah, I'm a black belt in both jiu-jitsu and judo, and I compete in, you know, not jiu-jitsu. And to this day, I'm competing. So yeah, I'm a black belt in both jiu-jitsu and judo, and I compete in, you know, not jiu-jitsu. But PGF, I was invited to be one of the team captains. It's a team-based, sort of like a team as in a sports league. It's a team-based jiu-jitsu competition, very different from the general competitions.

And the rule set is a little bit different. And so when I saw this particular promotion, again, I saw my share of competitions. This just blew my mind. I thought, wow, this is much more than just Jiu-Jitsu. This is everything you love about sports plus Jiu-Jitsu. The league aspect, the way that uh they sped up you know rules dictate behavior so so they change the rules a little bit so it speeds up the game so even if you're not a connoisseur for for jiu-jitsu you enjoy it because what's happening is super fast and gentlemanly violent you know i don't want to say violent it's gentlemanly violence there are some

rules and uh and when i saw this i'm like i need to be involved with this one i love that because sometimes fights are a little slow for their viewer perspective it's a little boring with boxing sometimes you know what i mean right so it's cool to see it at a faster pace i mean when you when you when you are a connoisseur when you know what it is when you're part of that sport then i see every inch that's changing like okay he's getting leverage you know but but if you're not then you you will know yeah someone like you can appreciate that, but someone like me has no idea, you know what I mean? Right, exactly. So when I saw that, you know, it's like as any business, I look at business like, you know, like let's say you look at somebody's hand of cards, for example, right?

If you have a jack, a ten, and a queen, right, then I can say, okay, well, I have a ten. So let's say I have an ace and a king. We can make a royal fudge. Then this is a business. This can be something. And in life, I look at everything that way, that be the band, be the business, that if we pull together resources,

can we make a difference? And I look at these guys on their own power. Basically, with almost no resources in Alabama, they made this competition five seasons. It became a regional competition that was really well done.

And I'm like, man, if I come in here, we can actually change this sport. Because one of the goals of PGF is professional grappling federation to get these Jiu-Jitsu guys to go pro. Which means in Jiu-Jitsu guys to go pro. Which means in Jiu-Jitsu,

there's not really money. You know, like these athletes, like myself, you know, I train, you put your life in it, you deal with the injuries, you deal with whatever comes, you buy your equipment, you travel, you go to these competitions,

and if you win, you get a medal. Oh, that's it? No money? Yeah, like Olympics, basically. You know, the Olympics are similar. You don't, you know, you don't get paid if you get paid if an olympic uh sportsman sportswoman um you will be athlete that's the word i'm looking for yeah then sponsorships might right but you know i mean but not the league itself so so we thought you know what we can change that so so i could put up a prize a significant prize that is not unheard of in this, you know, in jiu-jitsu. Yeah.

And immediately brought the top of that. Nice. So similar to what UFC did. Yes, basically. So kind of like, so it's, and the whole thing is kind of like Ultimate Fighter. Yeah. From the UFC, but with four teams. And the whole format is like, you know, there are four teams.

There are two, I mean, let's say 20 athletes. So there are 20 professional athletes that are pre-qualified, right? And then they're going to be arranged into four teams, so five on each team. But it goes to an auction. So instead of picking like, hey, here's, let's say, Gracie Humeda or, you know, Athos. These are 10th planet.

These are Jiu-Jitsu organizations or clubs that are nationwide. Some of them are international. Instead of pitting them against each other, which is Jiu-Jitsu is a brotherhood, so it would be kind of weird anyway, right? So because that would create somewhat animosity maybe. Instead of pitting the teams together, it doesn't matter what team you came from, right? There are going to be 20 athletes, and then we're going to have four team captains, and the team captains on the next season are the who's who of jiu-jitsu.

And all of them are going to bid in an auction. Everybody has the same amount of coins, and they bid for the fighters. Interesting. And so what happens, that's already interesting because you have to think about like, okay, I might get the best guy on my team, right? But if I spend all my coins on that one guy, I can't

really play for the other four. So now I have the best guy, but the other four are maybe not as good because it's a team. My team is not necessarily going to win. Yes, you need a balanced team. Right. Interesting. So right from the get-go, it's the strategy you have to think about. It's a team, my team not necessarily going to win. Yes, you need a balanced team. Right. Interesting. So right from the get-go, it's the strategy. You have to think about it as a chess game.

Okay, it's better if I get the second, third, and fourth best grapplers because they're going to score. I love that. I'm a big chess player, so I think like that. It's like fantasy. Fantasy football. Yeah, fantasy football. It's a little bit like that.

And this PGF actually has that element too. So we have a fantasy team. Yeah, I can't wait to watch that, man. Yeah, yeah. So it's a little bit like that and it this this pgf actually has that element too so we have a fantasy theme yeah i can't wait to watch that man yeah yeah so it's it's fun now you got into fighting at 11 that's super young so what attracted to you at that young age were you getting bullied back then no not not necessary it's uh you know actually i never really experienced that um wow yeah i'm i'm one of those those kids that i you know i was into martial arts really young no one messed with you? Not really. I was nine years old making my own nunchucks, breaking my teeth, you know what I mean?

I can see why. I can see why no one messed with that. My throwing stars and, you know, like I was a huge Bruce Lee fan. And I grew up in a communist country. I grew up in Hungary. Oh, wow. So we didn't have resources. We didn't really have anything, you know.

And so for us to study kung fu or any martial arts was not really a thing you know was not available but judo is an olympic sport so judo was state sponsored every bigger city had at least one judo academies so it was easier for me to you know and i tried everything so it wasn't like oh i have to be a martial artist i tried everything. So it wasn't like, oh, I have to be a martial artist. I tried everything I could. Yeah, that's super cool. And from all those martial arts, judo was the one that I really fell in love with. And so I started doing that. And then I attribute pretty much everything that later on happened in my life to that.

To the discipline you learned from judo. Yes, because the universe is intelligent there's there's there's a pattern to everything and martial arts are basically you know thousands of years of development and polishing these ideas and it's not just it's not just a fight itself but a philosophy that philosophy that comes with it and so obviously they there are specific principles and those principles are what's shaping your, both your mental and physical, you know, development. And, and when you do that in a very young age, even though I would say, doesn't matter how old you are, start now.

Yeah. Right. But if you do that, you know, you're really engaged and it, it just simply revires your mind. Absolutely. That can impact your whole future because at such a young age of 11, you know, sometimes in your teenage years, you're kind of rebellious, but you had such good discipline at a young age. You were able to translate it into success pretty early on, right? Yes. And you're being thrown into the deep right away.

You know, as a kid, you have to go out on the mat and now you're going to have to fight this other kid, right? And, you know, there are no parents and coaches that can interfere. This is you and the other kid on the mat. And so the things that come out of this is you start to develop these ideas of, well, this is going to happen now. So you might as well accept it. So you start to learn that this is a situation. I'm going to accept it, and I am going to do my best.

And can't brush it under the rug. This is now. This is happening now. Can't run away from it. Then you have to control your body, your adrenaline. You have to control your mind. So you have to calm yourself down. And then you have to execute.

Are you interested in coming on the Digital Social Hour podcast as a guest? Well, click the application link below in the description of this video. We are always looking for cool stories, cool entrepreneurs to talk to you about business and life. Click the application link below, and here's the episode, guys. And it becomes fun. And when it becomes fun, then you start to look at things like, well, this looks like an obstacle, but it's not really an obstacle. It's a challenge. And that little change in your mind that you look at things that they no longer obstacles, but challenges that revives everything. I love that. Now everything, when somebody said to me,

like, Oh, this is not possible, that's when I get excited. That's what makes me like, oh, yeah, let's go. That's so cool. Because you said that it's not possible. That's such a great mindset to have, right? Because other people would say it's not possible and they would agree with them, right? But you have the opposite mindset. Let me achieve that.

And when you dream things. I mean, I came out of Hungary. That was a communist country, as I said. We didn't have passports. We didn't have resources. I came to America with a bag of clothes, a guitar, and $200. Hungary. That was a communist country. I said we didn't have passports, didn't have resources. I came to America with a bag of clothes, a guitar, and $300. Wow. Didn't speak English.

That's crazy. So I'm like, okay, let's go. But that all came from that mindset. It's okay. Let's go. And you came here at 10 years old, right? No, no, no. I was early 20s.

Oh, early 20s. So you left Hungary at 10. No, no, no. I finished my education in Hungary. Okay. And I came here when I was 20, 21. Got it, got it. Now growing up.

I was an adult and I was alone. So it's. Oh, you didn't come with your parents? No, no, no. It was me, a bag of clothes and a guitar. That's crazy. And a Hungarian English dictionary. I taught myself to speak English by reading Soshenk Redemption.

Somebody left that from the room I was staying. Somebody left that book. And so I took the Hungarian English dictionary and I... Word by word? Word by word. Wow. Had no idea of the grammar.

And I would watch television. There was a little black and white TV with a closed caption on it. So I could recognize the words that I'm reading and what they say. That's crazy. So it took me like three, four months to kind of have an idea. Okay.

That's pretty quick, actually. Three, four months. I read that book, I don't know, 25 times because eventually I started to understand. Nice. Like, oh, this is a really good book. So I restarted it. Did you see the movie too? Yeah.

Yeah. That's a great movie. So growing up in a communist country, did your family live in a state of fear a lot? Well, that was, yes, especially that I was kind of a rebellious kid. So this was a real thing that they would be like, kids, stop talking about this or that, you know, like just zip it because we're going to get arrested. You're going to get us in trouble.

That was a real thing. The generation before me was the one that was really hit by it. So my parents. They were, as I said, I was a rebellious kid. So I was always saying, we're going to grow up. This is our generation. We're going to grow up and we're going to destroy this. We're going to take this down.

This is not acceptable for us. And our parents lived the times when if you speak out, you will just disappear. And then that's it. And if somebody has questions, you will just disappear. And then that's it. And if somebody has questions, they will disappear too. Wow. Oh, yeah. This was a serious thing. That's scary, man.

Yeah. And I remember I usually style this story because it's kind of illustrating how it really was. And I was about seven, eight. There was a strike in America. I think it was a transportation industry was on strike and i saw it on tv and you know communism it was that was one tv channel and they were just blaring you know communist ideology ideas and everything was about politics and right and whatever supports that and so they were gloating about this like man look look at that the bourgeois

is falling in america you know like that the worker class is taking them down and you know and and it comes to a screeching halt so they were really loitering about this like wow and i was watching this and and i i look at my dad i'm like so that in america i can go out on the streets with a sign and scream that i don't like the system and i disagree and i don't get arrested i don't disappear nobody shoots me i think i gotta get the hell out of it you know and and and the the his face kind of told me everything the confusion that he was looking at look you know because it was so embedded in them wow then i at that moment i realized like i have nothing to do with my parents and this generation dang because their their their souls are destroyed they're controlled they they don't even see the way out they can't even

understand when i was saying these things like man i'm gonna go to america i'm gonna be in a rock band and i'm gonna tour the world everybody was looking at me like I'm crazy. Like literally. Not just like, oh, you're crazy. No, you are crazy. You don't have passports. You can't leave the country. There's a minefield. There are border patrol.

There's no way out. And I was like, no, I'm going to do this. So that was an impossible dream for them. Wow. Right? And it's going to take still generations before that whole thing is out of their system. It's still like that now?

The nearest generation obviously is now over that. As long as that generation is alive, what that system did to them is still affecting the society as a whole. That's so crazy. There is that fear.

They live by fear. there is that fear. You know, there is that. Yeah, they live by fear. You know, there is that experiment where they put the fleas in a jar. Probably you saw this. And they put a lid on it. And then eventually the fleas not jumping any higher than the lid. And they take off the lid and the fleas don't jump back. Even though they could.

That's a perfect illustration. Perfect, yeah. That they were mentally and spiritually just destroyed. Wow. That they could not see another way. That's so crazy. This was their entire existence. Like how your circumstances, your education just shapes you.

And if there is no other information, then you believe. And that's your system. That's your belief system. That's how you can operate. So coming here must have been a huge change for you right oh yeah i mean for me the statue of liberty was like it hit me hard wow you take it for granted as citizens but yeah hearing your perspective on it makes a lot of sense the freedom aspect of it yeah i i thought like okay now i'm here and i knew what it was, you know, it stood for. And I, you know, we were very well educated actually. So that's one thing that they did right.

I mean, you have to read between the lines because they just obviously had a massive, you know, skew to their ideology. But as standard education, you know, you have to, you know, know everything. You can't just pass grades. And high school was not, high pass grades and high school was not high school

even high school was a privilege. So you can't just go to high school. Really? Yeah, no, no, no. You have to have a 4.0. Damn! You know, so that means like we have five grades, one to five. Five is a top and one is a fail. And you have to have a 4.0 average

just to be able to apply. If you don't bring 4.0 and behavior was part of it. So if you run a straight A student, but a lunatic, you still can't go to high school. Interesting. Right. And so you have to have 4.0 and then they put you to really difficult tests, like a thousand questions.

A thousand questions? Yeah, something like that. Oh my gosh. And then whoever scores the highest, tests, like a thousand questions. A thousand questions? Yeah, something like that. And then whoever scores the highest, those are the guys getting the seats. And then if you didn't get into that, let's say 500 seats available, if you're 501, sorry. You have a chance to go to a secondary choice, another high school. And if your score fit in there, then you get in and you knock out another kid. And whoever knocked out, they will not have a high school education.

You're going to go to trade school and maybe at night you can go to a special school to attain it. So it was hardcore. Same with college. You're an idiot. You're not going to be a doctor. If you don't know your stuff, you're not.

So they were super hardcore about that. A 10-year-old kid was already very well aware of self-made pit bull that knew that, okay, I can't screw up. I can't screw up because we don't have a private sector. So it's not like I drop out of school and I'm going to go and start a factory or company or whatever, a startup. No entrepreneurship there. Wow. So you had no choice but to go and start a factory or company or whatever, a startup. No entrepreneurship there. Wow. So you had no choice but to go to school. So by the time I was growing up, there were some privately owned little shops and this and that, but nothing on the large scale.

That's crazy. And you were doing that while balancing the rock stuff on the side, right? The music? Well, when I was a kid, even the guitar, the first guitar I had, right? So we couldn't afford one. So I took a jigsaw at my parents' coffee table. This could be a pretty good guitar. So I literally cut out a shape.

I was a big fan of BC Ridge guitars, and I cut out a shape, one of those crazy guitar shapes. I bought some pawn shop parts and put together a guitar that was barely playable, but it looked metal, you know, it was my guitar. So that, yeah, that's how I started. That was your first guitar,

man. Humble beginnings for you. You know, it's, but that's kind of an Eastern philosophy compared to Western philosophy. That's the big difference. Yeah. Because we didn't have resources.

If, if I asked you like, Hey, we have to go to the moon. Um, what do you need? You're going to have a long list of things that you're going to need to get there. Eastern Europe is like, okay, well, let me look at what we have in the garage.

We have some gasoline and this and that. Let's see how far we can go. So it's a nomadic sort of mentality that whatever I have, I'm going to use that and go as far as I can. And hopefully in a way we can pick up resources versus having a laundry list of things that I need to succeed. And I think that's why a lot of people who come out of there have a little bit of an advantage because of their mindset. Yeah, I agree. So coming here at 21, how long did it take before five-finger death punch started from there? Oh, like more than a decade. Okay. So 10 years you were just hustling, trying to find a living. Right. Well, basically, you know, I had, I finished my education. So I

had various degrees. I have a microelectric, micro electronic engineering degree. I have a, what you would call, translate to commercial art and design degree, you know, so I kind of, I was a designer, so that's why, you know, and I was pretty good at that. So you were working for someone else? Yeah, I was working for someone else for a while. I was, you know, I was doing merchandise for even Star Wars and all that. Oh, nice. Yeah, WWE at the time, WWF and NASCAR.

And, you know, I was doing merch for a lot of different companies through licensors and whatnot. And then eventually had my own design studio. And that's what I was doing while the band was already developing. While we were on tour, in the first couple of years, I was still a consultant. I was working in the space industry. Oh, wow. Yeah, I was designing stuff for Answer Space Alliance.

So the band took some years to take off. It wasn't from day one. Yeah, it's a completely self-made stuff like the first record we literally did it in my bedroom that's crazy you know it's like and that record is almost platinum now so really yeah you can do it it's like you know it was really that that you know again the same attitude let's let's go let's roll up your sleeve and just pedal to the metal and achieve. How did you find your bandmates? Well, so I had to lay down the bricks first. So that means the first record that we did, I had almost the entire record,

like maybe one song short. And so I had that idea already recorded. That way it's not just an idea that i'll tell you like i would like to do this this and this it's like here it is this is what i'm doing and i've been in so many bands generally i start my bands there was one band i ever just sort of joined and see if that works for me i quickly realized i'm not a follower it doesn't work for me you know and then and then it's this one because of the experience of having so many bands before that i pretty much told everyone look here's the idea

this is what i want to do this is the direction and you're in then you're in if you want to argue about it then you're not the guy i have a very specific vision where we want to go so it's a dictatorship well not really um once i had that idea of this is it the guys joined right the first record i mean i had to somebody had to start right yeah the second to record now it's a team everybody's working yeah yeah so it is a band nice right i set the direction of the band and i said that the course and to this day i deal with most of the business like you know my my singer is in my opinion is one of the best wow performers i ever seen he's he's a ninja or that and and you know so we have this agreement that he was also he was actually a big band before and uh he hates the music industry. He hated the whole shady stuff that was happening.

And so he kind of, at the time when I recruited him, he quit the industry. He said, I don't want to be part of it. He's skeptical. Yeah, like this is not why I started music. So he's a purist that way. This is not what music is about. This is not why I started.

I don't want to be involved the way this works. And I told him in the beginning, like, look, you just be a musician. Be as crazy as you want. Do whatever you want. Be an artist. I'll handle the business stuff.

I'll deal with that. You don't, you never have to do that. Yeah. Right. I'll take care of that stuff. I'm good at that. So,

so that agreement, you know, kind of how he joined the band. I said, okay, I'll give this a shot. And then it exploded. Exploded. Now you're touring worldwide. Yeah.

And still to this day, you know, he can be the singer he wants to be. Now we obviously have a massive management and a lot of people helping us. But, you know, it was a self-made band from the beginning. Yeah, it's so cool to see you achieve your childhood dreams. Do you still talk to your parents? No, it's, so that little story when I was, you know, seven, eight, and I realized that, man, we have nothing in common. And so, you know, maybe it's harder to understand from America or Western society how the emotional state behind the Iron Curtain, how the emotional state of people are.

So this might be an alien concept, but for me, it was – like for most of us, this is always about survival. And that's a harsh reality. And I'm talking about survival, not just physical survival, this is always about survival. And that's a harsh reality. And when I'm talking about survival, not just physical survival, but mental, spiritual survival. And so that age, I really realized like the dream I'm dreaming is a crazy dream. And I know that. So and I always say this to you, like, man, if your dreams are not crazy, they're not big enough. So my dreams were kind of crazy. And I always say this to you, like, man, if your dreams are not crazy, they're not big enough. So my dreams were kind of crazy. And I know that.

I don't need another person to, you know, to emphasize how crazy. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. Because you have a crazy dream that you will not protect. You will not defend. Like, yes, I know it's crazy. But I think I can achieve this. And I don't need other people in my life telling me that it's impossible.

I know it's near impossible. So I don't want other people around me grinding me down so I start disbelieving as well. And that was at 11 years old? Yeah, somewhere in there. As I said, in those countries, at 10 years old, you're mental and adult. Because you know that if I screw up now, because it's a bureaucratic system, we have a private sector, I will be a cog in the machine sweeping the streets. Wow.

Because they must see all your success now and they must want to talk to you. You know what I mean? Yes. I separated when I was 14. Wow. I went to a boarding school and I never went back home.

Dang. Yeah, because they were both in the military, high-ranking officers. And that was their life. That was how they view the world. And I eventually realized there is no conversation here. There is no spiritual, emotional connection. Like we don't speak the same language.

And I basically put them in a box that you are harmful to me. You're harmful to my development. You're harmful to my spiritual and mental development. You will never understand what I'm doing. And yeah, at one time I tried to reconnect. Like somebody told me like, well, you know, everybody deserves a second chance. I'm like, oh, this is actually chance 15. And, and you know,

the first in, within the first, I made a phone call to my mom and literally in a, in a first minute, I think minute and a half, she did drop like, are you still playing that stupid guitar? And I'm like,

all right, we're done. Damn. Still after this many years, they could not understand that, you know, to them, it was like, Hey, if you lay bricks, that's a job. That's a man's job.

Do that. And I'm like, you know, I'm a musician. I'm not an artist. I'm painting. I'm playing guitar. I was going to these schools that are specifically, because we were separated, various schools in those systems. They would test you in kindergarten. And they said, okay, you're good at this, so we're going to put you in those systems. They would test you in kindergarten, and they said, okay, you're good at this, so we're going to put you in this school.

You're good at that. So I went to a school that was math, mathematics-specific. So we were jamming down theoretical math since I was seven. We had two, three math classes a day. That's how we were rolling this. So I was really interested in science, particle science. I was working at an observatorium by the time of 10. So pretty much my life was judo, science, and art.

And none of those things connected to them. They didn't understand that. And that's why I'm like, okay. I understand that there's a blood connection, but to me, I like the idea that I choose my circle. I choose my friends. I choose who I associate with. I'm similar. I've actually gone through moments where I've cut some family members off. You know what I mean?

And out here in America, I think people place a lot of emphasis on family, and they think it's a bad thing to cut them off. But if they're toxic, like you're saying, sometimes you got to distance yourself. Yeah. I mean, I'm assuming you had your dreams, you have your aspirations and anybody, that's how you succeed. Anybody who's going to come to your life, I'm pretty sure you're doing that because people who are successful where you are today, you have to achieve that. People who are successful, almost all of them have this element of getting rid of toxic people, getting rid of people who are harmful to the idea you're trying to achieve.

Because you have to have a dream first. That creative visualization is a real thing. It worked for me my entire life. There's no other way for me to think that I know that I had to imagine something and then keep that intent and keep that vision in my mind and then work toward it and achieve it. Manifest. Manifest, right?

And if you have people in your life that interfere with that, that's the most toxic. Super toxic. And yeah, it used to be my own mother at certain points as well. Yeah, I mean, a way to sort of prove my case to people when we talk about creative visualization is that I give them a pencil. Like, hey, draw a straight line. They can. Draw a triangle.

They can draw a triangle. Okay, draw a circle. As good as you can. And most people can draw a pretty decent circle. Okay, so let's go for a square. There's a square. Okay. draw a circle as good as you can and most people can draw a pretty decent circle okay so you know you know let's go for a square there's a square okay so you could draw every single element every single shape basically that is needed for you to paint the mona lisa then why can't you right you can't paint the mona lisa because because painting the mechanical skills you have, like you just demonstrated with the pencil,

you have to have a vision of what you're painting and copy that onto the canvas from your mind. So this is all about your creative visualization. This is all about you holding a picture and then translate it down to the paper. And this is the same with music. You have to hear that in your head and compose the music. And this is the same with music. You have to hear that in your head and compose the music. And this is the same with life. It will manifest your life exactly how you imagined it.

Right. I love that. And then so that's my proof. Like here's a pencil. And why can't you paint? Yeah. That's so powerful. You also help a lot of veterans. Correct. Why did you become so passionate about the veteran community? So various reasons, but to put them in order, I grew up in a military base.

I was born in a military base. So, from an early age, I saw how even though these guys were serving a different system that I did not agree with, I did understand how different those people are. The warrior class, basically. And there's a utopistic idea. Imagine how cool it would be if nobody broke the law, if countries were not warring, we don't need any weapons because nobody thinks of hurting others.

That would be fantastic. It's not the case. Unfortunately, it's not going to be the case for a long time to come. And so if you accept that, and you kind of have to because this is reality, then you do need the guys, men and women, who will sign up for defending the agreed-upon rules. We agreed upon that we're not going to steal from each other. We agreed upon that we're not going to hurt each other. We agreed upon that we're not going to steal from each other. We agreed upon that we're not going to hurt each other.

We agreed upon that, right? But some will break those rules. And so you need muscle. You need men and women with that mentality that I sign up to defend the agreed upon rules. Like so many times, let's say a police gets a lot of crap to, you know. It's like, okay, they did make the rules. If you want to change the rules, you need to vote people in who will change the rules. They just follow what they were told.

Now, there are some issues, yeah, in any case, of course. There are, you know, there are people who maybe shouldn't be there, right? But that's the case with everything. And if I wanted to compare let's say how many injuries or how many issues police officers cause, well, the medical field causes way more. Way more. Way more. Infinitely more. So we don't go out to the street with signs like, down with the doctors. But when it comes to both military and police, I look at them as these are the guys who risk their lives to protect the agreed upon rules that allows us to be a society.

Right. If we disconnected electricity or shut down the food chain for three days, you know what would happen? It's absolute chaos. If the police didn't go to work for three days, what would happen? If the military just quit, all of them today, what would happen? So it's kind of crazy. You know, of course, we always look at it war. War is terrible. Yes, it is.

But again, as long as it's happening, as long as there are elements that want more and elements that want to break the system, elements that violate the agreed upon rules, you know, then you, these guys are necessary. And you and I,

you know, you wake up in the morning and we do a lot of business. I'm not thinking like, man, maybe this is the day that I'm not making it home. I don't think about that. They do. So,

you know, so at least they deserve the respect for, for that. Absolutely. So I kind of look at them as that, like the lost Spartans, the lost warrior class who sign up to – and look, there's a firefight happening. The military and the police runs toward it.

Everybody else runs the other way, obviously, right? Yeah. So you got to recognize that. That's a different kind of person. And I respect that. And being a martial artist, obviously that's close, you know, that's a, that's a close thing to me. I train with a lot of them. I train a lot of them, you know, so.

That's cool. I love that. Zoltan, it's been fun, man. Where can people find you and anything you want to promote? I know you got the Coconut Water brand. Yes. That's, you know, that's another, once upon I know you got the coconut water brand. Yes, that's another. Once upon a coconut, the best coconut water ever.

You know what? Here's the thing. I didn't really like coconut water. It was not a thing until I tried that. I'm like, I need to be part of this. They're addicting, man. Every time I see one in my fridge, I pound it. Right.

That's definitely the best one in the world. I'm part of that business as well. That's the idea. I'm checkmarking everything. I came from there. I was 20 years behind. So now it's pedal to the metal and everything. I can be involved with everything I ever wanted to do.

I kind of checkmark, checkmark, checkmark. And I know you got Epic Roll too. Oh, Epic Roll, yeah. That's another one. That's a Jiu-Jitsu brand. So I'm building my little empires. But every time I get involved with something, it's the same thing I just told you. That I look at a situation, I look at a business, can I be helpful here?

If I have to reshuffle the cards then i'm not the right guy so you know coconut water epic roll i have various companies i mean obviously the band is my main yeah music is my my main thing but but on the side this is fun for me everything i can build entrepreneurship is is something where because it's a chess game yeah you know it's a chess game. Yeah. You know, it's a chess game. And if I can do something like this, this is good. There is no other ingredient but coconut water. Right. Like I stay away from sugar as much as possible. You know, unfortunately, it's kind of difficult.

Yeah. You know, so I look at something like this. I'm like, okay, this is 100% healthy, so I can step behind it and say, okay. You know, or my Epic Roll is a brand that's one of the best, you know, most comfortable jiu-jitsu gear I've worn.

So before I got involved with that company, I already was using their gear, and then I thought, okay, if I get involved, I can help. Love it. Everything's a line. Same thing. Everything, if I can add one, then I'm interested. Yeah. Love it.

We'll link it all in the video, man. Thanks so much for coming on. Thank you so much. Yeah. Thanks for watching, guys. As always, see you tomorrow.