The People, Process, & Progress Podcast - One Action Can Change Someone's Life | Foundations Friday #96

Episode Date: June 2, 2023

In One Action Can Change Someone's Life | Foundations Friday #96, remind us how Rob from McDojoLife's friend's one act of giving him a card to call a martial arts school after he was beaten by other students changed the course of Rob's life. I also talk about how a single question to Rob during a Jiu-Jitsu class led him to create the McDojoLife movement that now has thousands of followers around the world and will soon put out a documentary supported by leaders from the Martial Arts industry.

Thanks for playing the KevTalks podcast. Here, you'll hear industry-leading best practices in program, project, and all-hazard incident management with a dash of jiu-jitsu and a smidge of health and wellness. Episodes are sometimes solo with me, your host, Kevin Pinnell, or with my fantastic guests, and together we'll learn more about these people, talk through lessons learned and processes so that you and I can make progress together. Please visit KevTalksPod.com for more info. And now let's get back to this episode. Welcome to the KevTalks Podcast, Foundations Friday, number 96. One action can change someone's life. In particular, this is prompted from my great discussion in KevTalks Podcast, episode 30, Keeping the Martial Arts Legit with Rob from McDojo Life, where Rob has a couple interactions and those actions changed the course of his life and of ours for here talking about it. The first was Rob had been beaten up by other students in his school because he looked different. He had a

cleft palate and before all the surgeries were done and kids picked on him because he was different, right? Kids can be mean. Adults can be mean. And that's what happened to him. And nobody helped him except his one friend who was on his way to class and saw Rob and he'd been beaten and he helped him up and he gave him a card and it was to a martial arts school. And he said, hey, Rob, you need this. And that set off discussion between him and his mom. And then his mom got him lessons. And then he started building confidence and endurance and learning how to fight. And that changed the course of Rob's life. And then down the road, when Rob was training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, a new Jiu-Jitsu student heard Rob and other folks talking about McDojos,

these places that teach no-touch knockdowns and just maybe some less effective martial arts, we'll say, or totally scams. And so he explained what a McDojo was. And then the follow-up question from the new student was, well, why doesn't somebody do anything about that? And there had been other forums, online forums and stuff, as Rob mentioned, but Rob thought, you know what, that's a good point. Why don't they? And that started Rob heading down the road and creating McDojo life and sharing videos of fake martial arts or, gosh, some folks hurting people doing fake martial arts or just being horrible people, frankly, and him really putting in the work. I mean, in our discussion, learning a lot more than just finding a clip and showing

it, but actually following up on the people and doing interviews with them and the folks that they work for and just really good. I highly recommend listening to KevTalks number 30, our full episode. We have a great discussion. I learned a lot myself about not really using the term bullying, but really calling it what it is. It's violence. It's crime, right? It's assault. It's battery. It's those kind of things. And we use bullying, I guess, because it's kids, but they're still the same circumstance. But the difference that was made in Rob's life is because one of his friends cared enough to help him and was honest and said, hey, you need this to help you kind of stick up for yourself and learn how to fight and build confidence. And martial arts has so many great

benefits, not just to learn how to fight. In fact, we talk about that where it's really most of them aren't the fighting part. It's camaraderie and community and being accepted and not isolated. And then the person that just asked the question that prompted him to start McDojo Life, hey, why doesn't someone do that? And Rob thought, you know what, I can be that someone. So I think we all have opportunity to be that someone in someone else's life. We see a coworker sitting by themselves in the break room. Do we say hi? Do we go sit with them and say, hey, can I eat lunch with you? Or we see someone that's really upset. We're at the store and they're standing there. Do we check? I them and say, hey, can I eat lunch with you? Or we see someone that's really upset. We're at the store and they're standing there.

Do we check? Right? I think we're so nervous. And like Rob and I talk about, some folks are more comfortable just holding their phone up and recording it than they are doing the right thing. And that sucks, frankly. But it's not hard to make a difference, to say something, to break your own comfort barrier and just reach out to a fellow human being

like Rob's friend did and like the other student did that asked him. So thank you all for being here, for making a difference in my show, for listening and showing that there's still some interest. That means a lot to me, and I hope it does to you, this and other content that I'll have coming out and what I've put out so far.

But try and be that person that makes a difference. Get out there. You know, this is the get involved part of the have a plan, stay informed and get involved. You know, we need to get involved, whether it's at work or personal lives, or maybe even with strangers, just, just really making a difference. We've been apart and been at each other's throat for years. It seems these, these past few years. And, you know, it's, it's a good thing to do more positive and put that out in the world. It makes us feel better. It's the right thing to do. So thank you so much. Please go to capstalkspod.com. There's more of the writeup and links to all the McDojo life stuff and apparel and operation smile. That's fixing smile and cleft palate, you know, conditions, which is

outstanding. So folks can't afford that surgery. They do it for little to no cost, which is awesome. Rob's work. There's a follow him on Instagram, McDojoLife. And if you're so inclined, you can donate to the McDojoLife documentary, and then you get access to this group on Instagram. But follow McDojoLife on Instagram. It's got links to everywhere else that McDojoLife is and is about. Same for me. I'm on Instagram at PenelKG and Twitter.

Same thing. There's a Facebook page for the KevTalks podcast KevTalksPod.com there you can click on the link BFS gear breathe frame survive pretty cool looking decal and shirts I'm going to put up some wallpapers for iPhones out there I was messing around with that yesterday it's kind of neat thank you so much for being here for listening and remember stay informed with facts right not? Not just fear. Have that plan so you can keep your teams alive and get involved. Be the difference in someone's life that you don't even know or the folks that you do know in your household or in your business. Godspeed, y'all. Thank you.