Episode 608 - Sensei Mark Parra
Sensei Mark Parra is a Martial Arts instructor and practitioner who’s the founder and Chief Instructor at the House of Champions Academy of Martial Arts.
Us as Martial Artists, we do things most of the time for free or because it’s right. And many, many generations of martial artists never made money running dojos. The commercial world of dojos, UFC, Machados, the Gracie brothers, and these mega schools all over the world… Those stuffs are not around…
Sensei Mark Parra - Episode 608
Having Bruce Lee as an inspiration to be a martial artist is not new to our community, however, being bullied by a girl and breaking an arm after would be unusual. That was the case for Sensei Mark Parra who started out his journey unknowingly walking into the dojo of one of the greats, Benny “The Jet” Urquidez, and there he developed his skills into becoming the founder and Chief Instructor at the House of Champions Academy of Martial Arts. Sensei Parra’s dojo has trained many fighters, celebrities, as well as one of the stars in the hit Martial Arts series, Cobra Kai. Sensei Mark Parra has got a lot of stories and he tells them vividly. Listen to find out more!
Show Notes
You may find out more about Sensei Mark Parra’s Dojo at houseofchampions.com
Show Transcript
You can read the transcript below.
Jeremy Lesniak:
What's happening everybody? Welcome. You're listening to whistlekick Martial Arts Radio Episode 608. With my guest today, Sensei Mark Parra. I am Jeremy Lesniak, I'm your host for the show and the founder of whistlekick. I love martial arts. And that's why we do all the things that we do. We do a lot of things. You want to know the full list of things, go to whistlekick.com. There are a bunch of links, tabs, images, folders, redirects, all kinds of techie Webby things that will connect you from that website to all the stuff that we've got going on. Because Martial Arts Radio is just one of the things that we do whistlekickmartialartsradio.com, of course, is the place to go. To find more about this episode or any of the other shows that we've ever done. Yeah, we don't take old episodes down, you can go back to Episode One, you can hear how rough my interview style was back then you can go to Episode 100. When I was interviewed, you could go to Episode 500. When we did the martial arts time capsule, lots of cool stuff going on. We've done a lot for a long time. And if that means something to you, if this show, and the other things that we're doing at whistlekick means something to you, maybe you'll consider helping us out. There are a bunch of ways you can do it. You could buy some use the code: PODCAST15, you could tell somebody about what we're doing. Word of mouth is still the best thing for us. You could suggest a guest or topic for the show. You could leave a review somewhere. Or you might consider supporting us financially through Patreon, patreon.com/whistlekick, that's where you go, you can get in as little as $2 a month. And yeah, it's set up to be a recurring thing. But that doesn't mean you can't do it one time. Or, honestly, we've got a tip jar set up at Martial Arts Radio website. So, you could do it over there too. But when you contribute with Patreon, it's easy, it's recurring. And you get access to exclusive content. You do not find anywhere else exclusive audio, exclusive video behind the scenes on not just the company, but the show. If you're a fan of this show, if you find yourself listening to every episode, I got to say, not only are you going to support us, help us out with throwing a few bucks a month our way. But I will all but guarantee that you will find value in the additional content because I look at the people that are subscribing. And it is rare that people unsubscribe, people that come along, stick along, stick around, that's not even a sentence, but we're going to run with it stick around for a while. So, they know over the years we've had a number of guests come on, who tell great stories, just about everybody has told great stories. And sometimes we have folks come on the show and they're telling a story and then all of a sudden, something comes out of left field. And I'm standing here saying wait a second, why? What's going on? And this was one of those episodes, we had a few moments in here where my jaw kind of dropped where I kind of wish we weren't doing this video because you would have seen me flabbergasted there's going to work. Well, I hope you enjoy the episode. I hope that you find as much joy in being flabbergasted as I do. And I'll see you during the outro since a borrower Welcome to whistlekick Martial Arts Radio.
Mark Parra:
Thank you very much.
Jeremy Lesniak:
It's great to have you here. And so, you're in Southern California. What's going on there? It's pretty much always amazing weather. Where are you? Are you near San Diego? Is what I'm used to people say, Southern?
Mark Parra:
No, I'm in the San Fernando Valley. I'm in the city. I'm at the dojo at the house of champions right now. Where we're located is in Van Nuys, California, which is a suburb of Los Angeles, the San Fernando Valley. Yeah, it's nice here. I'm about, I don't know, maybe on a good day, 30 minutes from the beach.
Jeremy Lesniak:
It's not too bad. 30 minutes where you are. That's what, is that four miles?
Mark Parra:
How did you know? Oh, yes.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I just read a little bit of time there. And yeah, yeah, I think we all spend roughly the same amount. We think maybe not all of us, but a lot of us spend a lot of the same time in traffic. But in some areas, you travel much further in that time. I mean, you know, here I'm 30 minutes to get anywhere in Vermont. But I'm going to drive 40 miles in that time.
Mark Parra:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
A whole different world. Whole different world. Now, of course, we're not here to talk traffic or weather. Though, you know, talking weather is never a bad thing. We're here to talk martial arts. So, let's talk about martial arts. Let's hit rewind on your life as a martial artist and you know, go back to the beginning and press play and you know, what's the beginning like for you? How'd you get started?
Mark Parra:
She's going to go all the way back. Well, how much time do we have?
Jeremy Lesniak:
We got all the time you need.
Mark Parra:
All right. So, you know, I grew up in San Fernando Valley in the 60s, you know, elementary middle school in the 70s High School, that kind of thing. I just turned 62 weeks ago. So, there you go. When I was a kid, you know, I used to run around and bikes and play sports with everybody in the neighborhood. But in third grade, I'm taking it back to martial arts for me. In third grade, I got bullied by a girl that lived in one of the routes on the way home. And one time we got into a physical confrontation, she knocked me down and I broke my arm. So, I remember going home like dejected and didn't even keep in mind. I was never a fighter, so to speak, or someone that wanted to engage in that anyways, you know, has always been kind of happy go lucky kind of kid. And I'm still that way today. But if you want to know, kind of where the seed was, that might have been something. I didn't want revenge or anything like that, you know, cut to seventh grade. I don't know how many years later, whatever. I get jumped on the way home by three of the local knuckleheads in the neighborhood. Again, this is back in the day when you used to walk or ride your bike to school. So, I remember coming home bloody nose, bloody lip, whatever. My mom's saying, “well, what are you crying about?” And I was like, “I got my ass kicked”. She's like, “calm down, calm down”. And then shortly around there, you know, I wasn't like, I didn't come up with a master plan. I mean, I got over it. It was history, you know. And I remember seeing Bruce Lee. And I thought, oh, you know, I'm five like, 155 pounds right now. But I was imagined, leaner than, but I thought, oh, man, the little guy can kick ass. It's all about what you know, not your size, and all of that. And it got me interested in martial arts. So, I grew up on all those martial arts, you know, the Green Hornet. What else was back then? I don't know, Billy Jack, I was a fan of the hero, you know, the guy that do good. Or, of course, Kung Fu, the series I watched that I was at, I just liked the life the way, the honor, the code of the warrior, all of that kind of stuff to you know, get me kind of interested in it. So, the seed was there, you know, I loved it.
Those were my kind of shows, I just liked the fact that, you know, if you knew how and what to do, and you were proficient at it, you could take care of your business, you know, so also, as a kid, I grew up with asthma. So, as I looked back as an adult, I thought, where did I get this? This fighting spirit, you know, that's not something that I can teach to anybody. It’s kind of there. It's not I can, I can help students find it and tap into it. But I started questioning my own, you know, my dad was an aggressive although he played football in high school and was in the Air Force and my mom was a working mother raising me and my three siblings, you know, and everything was kind of cool. For the most part. They ended up divorcing when I was around 14 or 15. And I had great relationships with them. And still do with my dad, my mom had passed maybe four or five years ago. But that was me, you know, unhealthy relationship with my siblings. And you know, I wasn't in a toxic environment or anything like that, you know, I just was fine. You know. So, I found out that, you know, I used to fight for air back in the 60s, they didn't have inhalers and all of that stuff. So, when you had an asthma attack, you had to kind of use old wife's tales type things on how to try to get yourself to calm down and relax, so you could finally breathe again. And in the bad scenario, you'd go to the hospital, I think you'd get a shot. Unfortunately, my older brother Michael, had it bad, more chronic and still, you know, suffers or has to deal with it as an adult. Anyway, so there I tapped into my fighting spirit. One day, a good friend of mine when I was in high school, said I went to go check out this guy named Benny [00:09:39-00:09:44] and I said, “Alright, you know, I didn't know any of any of these guys”. Anybody in that circle. So, we walked back in the day like we did with everything. A short couple miles from my house to a YMCA. North Valley, YMCA, 1976 or 1977 or something like that right late 70s. And he was there. And he was training a bunch of students in the style. My very first style was called Kempo and Shotokan. It was probably one of the first fused systems. At that time, most everything was taught either Kempo or Shotokan or Taekwondo or whatever.
They weren't mixing the styles yet. As far as I knew, so they had incorporated Kempo and Shotokan and created Kempo Shotokan. So, I watched and I saw how hard the training was. And right away, you know, that interest me, you know, he had a little bit of a, not a military or military militant typestyle. But, you know, the basic thing was that, if you couldn't endure or suffer the workout, then don't come back. I remember him telling me that it's $30. And if you have the money, cool. If you don't like it, cool. You know, you can go right? So, I was there. They were, they were known as the [00:11:29-00:11:32] because the oldest brother Arnold was the highest in the pecking order. And then it went down the row, he had several brothers and his sister, Lily. So, we train there and no mats, no gloves, no shin pads. I don't even remember getting them out. I don't even remember how many hardcore. Yeah, it was old school. We did a lot of old school stuff. You know, if he didn't, he didn't like the answer, not like the answer. But if he didn't, or not he so much because they taught as a team. You know, Benny sensei Benny was a young, I want to say was already a world champion, or he was going to be a world champion. Soon he was killing all of the black belt divisions in competitions, like Long Beach internationals, which was head Parker's one of his claim to fame is tournament that ran for years, and they still run it in some format. But Benny's to have to fight the adult division because he'd beat kids up in his kid's division, I don't think he was 18 yet, he was already like, Grand Champion several times fought on us teams. And back then, in the days of Chuck Norris, and those guys Bobwall and you know, some of the pioneers Cecil Peoples, and, you know, the guys that were back around then bringing they called a point karate, to different venues. We'd also compete in forms, empty hand or weapons and things like that. And not to get off track too much. But so, I immediately told my buddy, you know, I wanted to sign up, I don't think he did. But I enrolled. I trained with the up to his family for the first year and a half at the North Valley YMCA. Now keep in mind, belts were like, don't even think about number one, you never as a student, and as an instructor, you know, you never asked about when your next rank is, right. It's something you don't do. So, I came up with that in mind.
So, a year and a half later, I finally got the grade for my yellow belt. I was like, oh my god, you know. And then I think after three years, I made it to a blue belt. Now, keep in mind, I'm a teenager, I'm fighting and doing competitions in the karate circuit at the time, right, including Long Beach, which was cool. I was getting experience getting my feet wet. Learning how to be a competitor and all along just training and doing it because I loved it. You know, I worked full time jobs my whole life. 10 years in the market industry, the grocery union. I worked for companies called [00:14:43-00:14-46]. I was a grocery clerk, so I was making good money that it added through my teens. I started to explore acting in my early 20s, which I still do, and I've done several movies and TV shows. I now train actors for movies; I'm currently working with a woman that's going to be a female lead in a big movie coming up that you'll see but I'm not privy to disclose at this point. But you know, I trained Sylvia Hoke, who did the last Blade Runner. Corey Stoll, he was a star on Law and Order just you know different people throughout the years and I got to work on a bunch of movies and different levels as an actor mostly and then later in my acting career, I started realizing I needed to put my skill sets together. So, I started doing more action stuff lot with I've done tons of movies with guys like Olivier Gruner, Don the dragon, Art Camacho just on and on and on. Right. So those level of movies for a long time getting my feet wet. I ended up, they ended up, Danny's family, Benny ended up opening the jet center. World famous back in the day, Benny the jet center. And his partner was his brother Ruben and his wife, Benny's wife and his sister Lily and her husband Blake. And let's see in between that and the YMCA. I trained with one of Sensei Benny's top black belts, Joe Montero. He was a drill instructor for the Marine Corps. And it was all about you know, just old, push-ups on your knuckles. Hard training, we sparred hard, we trained hard all the time. And I ended up getting up to a brown belt in the Kempo Shotokan system before he closed his school. And Benny opened up the jet Center, which was state of the art. I mean, there's never been a dojo built like that at that time. Especially in the early 80s. You know, saunas and Jacuzzis, locker rooms for men and women. It was at least a 10,000 square foot building two-Storey. It had chiropractor. It had a sports shop at a restaurant at one point. All the world champions, Peter “sugarfoot” Cunningham was a dear friend of mine, a time undefeated world kickboxing champion still teaches with me to this day actually. Matter of fact, I think he's somewhere in the dojo taking a nap. I showed him my spot. And I said, “hey, man, I got a pillow here. Sensei Go, go. Take a little quickie”. So anyways, call the champions came through there. Kathy Long, Danny Steele, [00:17:59-00:18:00]. Lily was one of the first women professional boxing champions ever. Lilly Urquidez Rodriguez, Blake his brother-in-law was a champion. We used to fight guys like Bill Wallace, Joe Lewis. All of those guys came through houses the jet center, and they all train there. And then international fighters, as it became more renowned. Started to come there just to train there.
So, you can imagine the pool again, keep in mind, you know, I'm a young black belt. And I'm working with world champions and they're much better boxers and kickers than I was as a karate man. So now I'm doing more boxing. Guys like Hector Lopez. He was a 1980 silver medalist in boxing from Mexico. He became a champion as well professional fighter, his son, Adam Bluenose Lopez is now a top 10 kid and I want to say he's won a title. But so, I got all this great experience, you know, just back in the day at the Jet center, sparring and sparring and working out every day, you know, all the guys around the gym. Now we're now in a ring we're not in. We're not on hardwood floors, for the most part with tape around, you know, competing like they used to do or concrete. I think it was concrete back in Long Beach. Nowadays, they put mats down for whatever reason, but we fought on concrete or wood. So yeah, I got all that experience. I earned a black belt and Danny style called [00:19:44-00:19:46]. I think one of 16 ever to earn the rank because it just wasn't an easy task to try to hang in there. I was training for over 10 years before I got an opportunity to grade for black. So, I felt like I don't want to say paid my dues because I don't think dues are paid. I think it's not like my dues were paid. You don't ever stop paying dues. In my opinion, you're always paying your dues. There's no such thing as “Oh, I paid my dues”. I did it all. I put in my work, man, you did it every day means every day. And that's sort of my philosophy with my team and my students here. You know, that idea of being entitled, like, I paid my dues, and like, you haven't done anything. You know, what have you done? Yeah, so I'm not that generation. And my parents, and my students know it as well. But so yeah, I earned my black belt there, my first black belt there. And then I started teaching for Sensei Benny, and mainly doing the [00:20:51-00:20:51] Khan program. And I started to become very good at being a teacher. And I thought, wow, you know, I enjoyed, I'm a people person, but I had a special way of I don't even know. It's just I became one of those guys, you know, as around great teachers, I became a great teacher, philosopher, therapist, whatever you want to call it as a Sensei...
Jeremy Lesniak:
All the things and an instructor are.
Mark Parra:
Yeah, and I took great pride and still do in that. And, you know, members sensitive any saying, look, it's a privilege to be able to teach on this mat, if I ask you to come up, because I'm going to do a technique on you. That's a privilege being in the UK, right? And if you get popped a little bit, that means, you know, your sensei respects you and so I come from that generation, the [00:21:43-00:21:44] used to kind of get nothing excessive, but yeah, certainly was good attention getter for the students saying that, “okay, now let's work slower and more cautiously with your partner”. So, we don't hurt each other and take that approach. But at one point, when he asked me, you know, “hey, would you like to teach?” I jumped on that. I became the head instructor for the program at the Jet center, especially in the later years, his guys would come and go, I was still the last man standing. In the mid 90s, they closed the jet center. And basically, I was like, now what am I going to do? Right? It wasn't like, it was just a weird thing. I don't even know how to describe it to tell you the truth. But I always thought my sensei would always be there and always teach, you know, hence, I'm still around after 26 years as House of champions, I take a great amount of pride in that, especially after the last year of COVID. You know, I lost my entire business last March, everything and managed to rebuild it over the last 12 months. And now we're better and stronger than ever. But with that said, you know, I'm a fighter. And let me say warrior, and warriors never give up. And a warrior never quits. So, I was built for this COVID challenges, it actually helped me tap into some silver linings and I leaned out, I leaned out my staff, I used to have about 20 instructors and people that ran the front end and all that. I'm down to about less than 10. We're leaner and meaner and I'm back in more of a lead role here again, you know, I got to a point after running this dojo for 26 years, I have over 43 years of continuous martial arts training. I had to step back up and, and you know, be that leader again, and I realized, gosh, we didn't need COVID to be this guy. A lesson to myself, not to get out of touch with my students, my team myself and to be that driving force. I want to say my philosophy or my attitude is sort of the secret sauce and House of champions. I always tell parents when they come in or students are pro fighters or anybody else, you don't need to come to the world-famous House of champions to learn how to kick and punch, anybody can teach you that. They come here for the secret sauce, you know, we have this love but it's dojo, love, blood, sweat and tears, you know, kind of our mantra.
So, anyways in 1995 or whatever it was in the early 90s when they closed the jet center down. One of the parents came to me said, what are we going to do? And I said, I don't know, I was teaching and keep in mind at the time. In those days, instructors didn't get paid, at least, I didn't. But we were also felt like we were raised, like it was a duty to give back and to teach. And a privilege, as I started to get my teaching skills down, so I had a job. I didn't need to make whatever to co-teach karate a few days a week, right. So, I taught for a few years towards the end of the jet center. So, they got used to me being kind of their leader, more than the owners themselves, because they weren't necessarily around that much, especially in the later years. So, when they closed, one of the parents said, what are we going to do? And I must have had about 25 kids, mostly some adults that were just kind of in no man's land. And he said, “why don't you open a dojo sensei?”. And I said, now keep in mind, I'm in my early 30s. I'm going to say that was kind of my prime. But so, I thought about it at the time, oddly enough, I was cast as a lead role in a new movie called Killer be killed. And we never ended up shooting it, but we wrote it. The producer, one of them was God, who's the guy that played Potsie on Happy Days. God, like and I think of him, not the Ron Howard character. Anyways, he was one of the producers and another group of people came in and donated. So, they gave me a check back then for 10 grand, and they wanted to hold me to do the lead in this movie. Oddly enough, one of the producers [00:26:58-00:26:59] Williams, that's the guy, one of the producers. After you know, we shot the show, we did all these interviews with all the studios, I was at Sony Universal Paramount. You name it on Warner Brothers on and on. We did all the meetings and got a director role full time and a TV showed to show starring. Anyway, so he said, “hey, guys, we're going to put the fifth feature on hold, and never ended up getting done”. Long story short, one of the producers, executive producers, who's still a friend of mine, and an investor in the house of champions name is Mark Steinman. He told me, I used to train him and his family. Privately, he said, “Mark, if you ever have a business idea, you know, don't hesitate to come by to pitch it by me”. So, I spent a year putting together a business plan as I was, you know, training. Now keep in mind, I'm kind of a sensei without a sensei.
So, I started exploring other arts. And I've studied with many awesome instructors, I'll mention a few of them in a minute. But had I not been forced or not have to look for someone else to train with, I would still probably be training just the one system under Benny, because, you know, we came up underneath the code and the loyalty with martial artists back then did in train under two different masters. It just was not proper, I guess at least that's what I was taught. Well, my philosophy nowadays is completely opposite. The more, the better. The more exposure, the better. The greater teachers you have in your life, the better. I don't care if it's a baseball coach sensei or whatever. So, I got rid of that philosophy pretty quick. But because of that, I got to train with some great guys and get skill sets in those arts and data and started to find out kind of where the holes were in my art. At the time for me personally, where my strengths and weaknesses were. And so, you know, I started to explore meantime, I'm putting together my business plan. I came up with the name House of champions. I don't know, I'm good with coming up with names. For example, when COVID here, I came up with the yard at the house of champions.
Jeremy Lesniak:
So, whenever an outdoor training environment.
Mark Parra:
Yep, yep, nice. The yard at the house of champions in that became cool. I put big banners, they're out there now. I built an outdoor facility that I would have never built had we not had COVID unfortunate and I have a huge space and I have a huge area in the back not only for parking but for training. So, I made it beautiful. We put our we set up every day, my team takes out the benches and the tables and chairs and we roll out our equipment. And we spread out and we have a great facility outside specially this time of year, as well as the amazing martial art palace of this dojo inside. I don't know if you've been on my website, www.Houseofchampions.com but you could take a tour of the dojo and go “oh, it's a beautiful setup”. And I'm kind of OCD with the cleaning and making sure all the gear is always put back and that this place looks like opening day every day. But we got pretty good at it after 26 years of running the show. I'm not saying I know it all, but we have some good systems going on. So yeah, I proposed my business plan to Mark Steinman. I sat down with him I had all of this. I had all the hard costs, figure out what potential earnings were, you know, the first quarters in a row? Yeah. Long story short, he says, I didn't even talk to him for five minutes. He slides the check over to me. He goes, here you go. And then he told me, here's he wrote another check. He goes “this is if you need it. [00:31:28-00:31:30].
Jeremy Lesniak:
But it's a lot of faith.
Mark Parra:
Yeah. So, I was all over it. You know, it's one thing to be a talented martial artist. Okay, that's a huge group that kind of on, it's a fraternity of men and women on its own, you know, US people that do martial arts. I have relationships internationally with some of the most amazing people. I've ever met that are friends of mine and colleagues of mine today. And you know, before COVID, we'd still get together, you know, Vince Palumbo from Adelaide, Australia. He made a huge impact in my career. And I'll tell you kind of how the style changed little by little in a second. The Grandmaster [00:32:18-00:32:20], from Cebu City, Philippines, amazing mentor, instructor and then all of their people that have been training with them automatically. I'm adopted like a brother. You know, soon as I started training in those systems and spending time and paying my dues, and, you know, competing and teaching and propagating those arts and just became this international community of some of the best friends that I've had to my martial art world. So yeah, so in the early stages, I built my first little humble 2500 square foot dojo, I took what money I had, I was very obviously careful with not wasting it. I found a lease, got the building, did the mirrors, you know, trained on concrete for a couple months till I started making a little money then I put down a mat. I bought a boxing ring, I put a couple bags, I used an old desk that I found in the alley of somebody's neighborhood that was my desk. This is before cell phones and all too. So got to remember it's primitive. Everything's I did all the paperwork. I was the first one in the last one out for the first five years of the house of champions. And then well, let me go back a little bit. And I don't know how much you want me to go into this. But two weeks in, I had a major problem with the local gang.
Jeremy Lesniak:
This sounds like a good story. It is a good story to share as much as you're comfortable.
Mark Parra:
So, one of the kids, you know, again, these are high school kids. 16/17/18 years old. One of the kids he came in, and this is before I knew I had a problem. He says hey, I want to learn boxing. I said yeah, I teach boxing here and I started training him and his friend. Well, a couple of weeks later the dojo is not even built yet. I'm still trying to get the dust out of the out of the place, you know, and teach classes and do everything marketing and this is back when all the marketing if you had money was in the Yellow Pages. I don't know if you know what the yellow pages are. But it was a phone book that everyone used to get services. There wasn't nothing, they could call or open their phone with. So, the only way to get marketing outside of your signage or door hangers or flyers or going around hitting the local schools was everyone had. Have an ad in the Yellow Pages extremely expensive for quarter page, for a page or whatever, always remember going. I don't know, if I have enough to pay for my yellow pages, and I'm in the middle of the valley. So, I had to be in the West book. And in the East book. And at the time, the two books together were probably running me close to about 800 bucks, which was a lot of money, especially back when I first opened the school. I think I was charging 60 bucks a month for the lessons. I mean, I was like, whoa, and I gave that price forever, because my martial artists in me was the one running the dojo, you know, more than my businessman. I think I was alluding to, you can be a great martial artist, right. And then all of a sudden, the next level of that is you become a great teacher. Some of the best martial artists, I know, the best resumes or world champions in whatever discipline, can't teach a lick.
Okay, so keep that in mind. And then the next level is, okay, you're a great martial artist. You're an amazing teacher. Now, I need you to become a businessman. So, some of them and most of them that are great martial artists, World Champions, can't run a business for a lick. And they've come in, they've gone. I don't need to mention any names, and they're out there. Because they don't have the skill set. Or they forgot to keep learning. At some point, their first philosophy is I'm always a student first, that was just hard to manage. And then I think after you become a great businessman, you become a great teacher of teachers, I spend more time grooming my team than the actual student body, but I will be out there in the student body because again, I'm the secret sauce. So, you can tell I like to talk. So, when I go out there, I remind them of some key important things and I feed their soul, and I feed their men. And that's sort of my niche nowadays, because my guys that I've been training, my number one guy, David Hernandez is I've been training him over 30 years, he's got multiple black belts and skill sets. And he does it all right. But he's a great teacher. Now he's a great organizer for students. He's helping me with new, you know, I'm still in the not in the tech age yet, but we just recently are converting to a new app with a company that we can use our iPads around the mat and become a lot more efficient. And you know, I'm still writing stuff on paper, and contracts or agreements, and I have folders, cabinets with students and you know, I have to look up their name alphabetically opposed to hitting the tablet, but now, we're converting into the most all of that stuff now. So finally, but so great teacher of teachers, great business people, just people. I think it's a huge skill set. And I really tried to harness that and hone that with my new team that I'm currently working with. And they're doing a great job. All these young guys that I started training when they were kids, they're now adults in their 30s. They're second third-degree black belts with me. And they can run many different programs or I can put them on the front desk and they can handle a phone call or do a sign up or troubleshoot if there's an irate parent or a student or something. Somebody is having a meltdown or whatever. They got skill sets, and so that's what I do now kind of grooming them and all that but in 1995 that gang came up one afternoon, few car loads, they're drinking and smoking pot and outside park directly in front of my front door. And I'm by myself, I walked out I might have been in my key. I don't even remember, but I just said “Hey guys”, and my happy go lucky attitude. I tried to welcome them right away.
I got they gave me pushback and they were all like, I'm like you guys coming around. You guys want to learn some boxing, you want to learn some skills and they're all like, oh, we'll pop a cap in it. You know, and excuse my language but that's kind of how they came. I'm like “oh, okay, okay, I get it boys”. Well, I see so you're good. But look, check it out. I'm getting ready to open it. I need you to take your party somewhere else. And they were all, they got smart that a couple of them start getting out of the car. Next thing, I know probably 10/12, these guys kind of around me, one of my guys ends up showing up, he was a Vietnam veteran. So, he came out with a sword. And I'm like, “oh, God, this is going to get bad”. And now keep in mind, I've only been in the building for a month, I'm already thinking ahead, if this turns into a fight, I'm going to have a fight for life. And they're never going to surrender, right? This says the gang mentality, which I'm aware of. Long story short, it broke out into a fight. So, I had two guys with me. And we're in the middle of battle. And if you know, the San Fernando Valley, traffic stopped in both directions we're fighting with. I don't know, it seemed like 10 or 15 of these gangsters. And one of my guys puts the main dude in a chokehold on the ground. And the other ones are all threatening as they, you know, this is after the beginning of the skirmish, and they're all yelling, “we're going to kill you. You're dead, you're dead”. And I'm trying to tell my guy “Don't kill this guy”. And when the Vietnam veteran guys tell him to break his neck, you know, and I'm like, yeah, I'm like, “dude, let him up, let him up, let them finally, let him up”. The kid's mom is on the side. Now imagine people on both sides of the sidewalk, watching. Traffic stopped in both directions. He lets him up. The kids are all kind of dispersed. They don't want to get anywhere near us, because he just got the [00:41:42-00:41:43]. And nothing bad. By the way, I would say nothing bad. There was nobody that needed to go to the hospital. So, they were all able to leave there on them with their own common sense. But so, the main gangster than everybody else, they're all gone. That night, I'm teaching class. Oh, first, get this. I get a call. This is before the gang fight from a local police officer who's doing a program called Pals. It's to help keep through youth at risk off the street, mostly gangsters and things like that. And they're doing these pal programs. I volunteered to teach them for free boxing twice a week. Now, these aren't the kids that came and attacked me. But it's just ironic that I end up having a gang problem and opening up my heart and my dojo to these young kids at risk, right.
So, this police officer would bring his kids in a van once or twice a week, and I would teach him boxing. Right. Keep in mind, these weren't my people that were my problem. But after the fight happened that day, I called him and I said, Mike, I just want you to know, we had a very intense fight with the local gang. Who are they? And I told him that. And he said, well, there's nothing really you can do unless they come back and they're inside your building. I said what I mean, all right. So, I figured that much. That night, I'm in my Gi. I'm teaching an adult class about eight o'clock at night. I'm there with one of my team members. And he told me “They're here, Sensei”, and I said, “what”, four guys all shaved down. I look up the side window, I see the car pull up, they all four walks out their panel Chin up at the top. But, you know, they were older gangsters. These weren't the kids that came that we thought it was it looked like their big brothers or somebody else, maybe higher ups in their crew get out and they start to walk towards the front door. Now I skipped the part but after the fight, one of my guys came back and I said, you know I'm scared. They're going to come back. So, he came back a couple hand guns. I had a shotgun behind the desk, and I would never pull the weapon on anybody in my life. You know, even though I've had one pulled on me, which is another story, but I simply told my high rank to keep the class going. I walked in; I grabbed the double barrel shotgun. I walked past the front mat and they could all see me in the mirror. I had the gun to my side. I locked out the front door went around the corner and I wanted them to see the barrel. My other guy was kind of covering the back door and when they saw me come around, they all ran and jumped in the car and took off. Okay, so now I know number one we had a fight number two, they're not going to come back. They did come back. They have a plan. Long story short, the kid that I was teaching boxing, calls me the next day. He says “Sensei, they're going to come do a hit on you tomorrow”. And I said “Word, they're going to come to a hit on me tomorrow”. Again, I call the police officer. I said, “hey, we had the fight”, they came back that night, that you can do more. And I have weapons, and they threatened to kill me. Nothing you can do, marks they come in, you have the right to defend yourself. Do not go outside with any kind of weapon that was the off. That was the advice from the LAPD officer. And I'm like, you know, after that you killed me, I'm going to sit here behind my desk and they walk in and get a jump on me. I mean, that's just not how I roll. But I just thought, “oh, man”, so I ended up calling somebody else. I know who was a community leader. And he was doing gang intervention.
He knew all the gangs. He was trying to do this peace treaty back in the 90s, which worked for a while. There was a lot of gang problems, a lot of deaths. His own son was killed by a gang in a drive by. So, it's a bittersweet thing. And he became a person that was trying to bring peace. And I said, hey, I had this fight. I called him because I'm desperate now. He says, “What's the name of them?” He goes, I'll look into it. He looked into it. He called me back. He said, “you know what, I think they're just a little tiger crew, Mark”. I don't. I don't, you know, they're not like an OG like, established, you know, a bunch of killers or anything, you know, the hold down and like MS 13 stuff. And I said, “huh, alright, nothing he could do”. I get the call that day, they're going to come do a hit on you. I'm feeling hopeless. So, I call the police again. And I said, “hey, this happened. And that happened”. Now I just got a call from a guy on the inside said they're going to come do a hidden hit on me today. I'm armed. I told the police officer, I'm armed. And I had two of my guys that were armed one waited outside in a car behind my dojo. And the other one was, I don't know he was floating, somehow floating around somewhere. I'm in the dojo the next day. I have a nine-millimeter in my belt. And I have a shotgun. And I know my guys, and I'm thinking there's not going to be anybody here to come help me. Superman, Batman. They're not going to show up. So, it's around 10 minutes before they start to roll up on me and I look out the window, I see an undercover car with two cops sitting down in the seat. And that was my first time of relief. I was like, Oh my god, they're here. I can't even tell you. Sigh is an understatement. And then I looked out back and I saw on the street. Another undercover car with two guys and I was like, God, 10 minutes later, they start to pull up in their cars and on foot must have been 30 of them coming from all angles. Around my dojo, the phone rings and the police officer tell me, not the one I was trying to get ahold of, some other started says marked, stay inside do not come outside and do not come outside with a weapon. Because he's got officers everywhere. Next thing I see is black and whites. Helicopter to right over my building. And gangsters running like cockroaches. A car pulls up in front of one of the undercover guys for gangbangers step out and the cops come out of their car with their weapons drawn. They put them on their knees. They arrest. Long story short, 20 minutes later, black and white pulls up and said it's over. “You can you come with me and go identify the guys?” I said yes. Put me in the back of the car. They go block over where they ran to a house that one of the gangsters lived in. And they were all lined up on the side on the curb. All in handcuffs. And I did every one of them even if they weren't there the original fight.
So, now they were charging them with terror terrorist threats, which is a serious offense. Minors and adults keep in mind some of these guys reminded 16/17-year-olds with some 18/19/20-year-olds type of thing. As we're Idina, police officers come out of the house with two five-gallon paint buckets you know, that looks like right. Filled to the top with AK 47 ammo to partially assembled a case and some other various weapons and I was like “oh my god, these guys”. I don't know if that was part of their plan for me. Or maybe one of the kids, it's their dad stuff. And I don't know what happened. But the officer called me the next day said they're counting, they had to count each and every round for, you know, to book the ammo and the weapons. He said it was over 10,000 rounds of AK 47. And I was like, whoa. Okay, so cut to the chase. I'm cool. They arrested the gang. But am I going to be able to relax and run a dojo there?
Jeremy Lesniak:
And this is a month after you opened? Yes. I'm laughing not that it's funny, because it's not funny. I'm laughing at the intensity. I've been an entrepreneur all my life, I've faced many difficult challenges in running a business. I've never faced anything that overwhelming. And certainly, you know, the early days tend to be the fun days. And here, you're facing this. And I'm just I, I can't wrap my mind around it.
Mark Parra:
Yeah, it was way more than anything I could imagine. So, what's next, I'm there a month. I'm thinking gosh, I've only... I don't even have the mat down yet. I just put the mirrors up of a boxing ring in there and an old desk from the alley, maybe I should just move to another neighborhood. And let's try somewhere else. And then you know, my Aries, nature kicked in. And I said, If I leave here, what they're going to come to Northridge, they're going to come to North Hollywood, every time somebody comes over that wants to beef with me or whatever, I'm going to pull my tail up and I'm going to run. So, I said, I'm going to make my stand here. As I'm staying here. I am not going nowhere. So, I'm still worried. Now I'm driving to the dojo every day with a loaded gun on the seat of my car. And before I open the dojo kind of looking around, making sure someone's not standing around waiting to do something bad to me. But it was incredibly stressful, especially since I had students in the dojo, who knows if they were going to come by and the dojo at the time had plenty of Windows. And it wasn't protected. You know, there's no way I could protect them. And it wasn't their battle. So how can I cut to the chase. So, I have a friend who was a what? They call an Oji. From a very hardcore gang, and I won't mention any of the names of the gangs, but they're still around. They've been around for a long time. And I called them and I said, hey, this is what happened. And I told him everything. I just told you over the last 20 minutes. And he was like, What? He's like, he goes I'll get back to you. So, he sent out his soldiers. I told him where they hung out. And I told him where I thought some of them went to school. And basically, they made their life nice for good few weeks. And not in a nice way. You know, his boys when they would roll up and they started talking these guys and, and just bad stuff, right? And one day, they got the main guy at a laundromat by himself. And that was a bad day for him. But afterwards, he called me and he said, yeah, it's done. He said, you won't have to worry about it anymore. Now it's like really? Sure. It's like Yeah, man. It's done. You know, trust me. If he even walks down the street. He knows he is good. He's going to have problems way worse than what he's experienced. Not just him, but people he might love right, that whole idea. Anyway, anyways. Yeah, I ended up surviving that. I kind of survived...
Jeremy Lesniak:
That as a school and I think you can survive anything. COVID seems? Yeah, I don't want to say trivial that seems insignificant in comparison to fearing for your life.
Mark Parra:
Yeah, well, COVID people feel for their life. I lost all my money. I lost every single student if it was a silent ninja style of an attack this last year, different than what I did in 95. But as significant as a battle. In other words, my one of my epics battles this last year, you know, I could talk about that for a whole day. But just compare that time in my life 26 years ago with what's happened in the last year of my life. Maybe it made me more resilient. But it the opponent was equally as dangerous or devastating. So, I survived that. I've survived COVID. So far less of the new comes up, which you never know with everything here. But right now, the dojo is going gray, my team's great, students are loving that, we're better than ever. Soon as the world gets back to some better place, I think I'll be on a whole another level. Because keep in mind, I have a whole business that hasn't come back yet that might come back or may never come back. But I can't sit around hoping for my old students to come back. Consequently, maybe 10% of them have come back in the last year. And they trinkle in one or two, three or four months, so and so calls, hey, I want to get my kids back in and they're starting to come out again. So, but on top of that, I build a new business with brand new people, that's amazing. And the energy, the secret sauce is at the house of champions, it's better than ever, you know, but that was a crazy time, you know, the gangs and the idea of having to close reopen bodily harm for me or having to hurt somebody seriously. All the ins and outs with the unknowns at that time was, well, I would have never guessed. And if you would have told me, “Hey, Mark, you know, you get to open your own business, it's going to be world famous, it's going to be world renowned. It's going to change people's lives and impact that community forever, this legacy that is going to be bestowed on you. But you're going to have to endure the first month. And after 25 years, you're going to have to do a year of it after that again, do you really want this? Do you really think that you're up for this”? And I would have to say yes. You know, definitely, it's just my nature. So, you know, it's been an interesting road.
Going back to 2000, when I outgrew the place, and I opened this amazing facility, when I needed to find a new lease, a new spot. Keep in mind in 95, I looked around and you know, I didn't have the credit. I didn't know how much I could open; you know, everything was going to go towards rent. I didn't pay myself a dime for the first five years of the house of champions. I did, however, survive nicely on private lessons. So, keep in mind while I'm trying to build a humble dojo, you know, I'm teaching many hours every day driving around going to people's homes, meeting them at the dojo lessons and lessons and lessons. That's how I paid my rent. But at the time, I was single, no kids. And you know, I needed two grand a month to live off of total with everything, right? So, I'm like, I'm good. I'm good. So, for five years, I didn't draw myself a nickel. But then at one point, I said, okay, it's time to start putting myself even my sister who's my bookkeeper early on, I said, Lisa, I just need a check. I'm starting to lose my love for everything I do. I need, not that I needed the money as much as just to recognize myself, what am I, the symbol? What? Yeah, what's my value? You know, us as martial artists, we do things most of the time for free, or because it's right. You know, and many generations of martial artists never made money running dojos. The commercial world of dojos and UFC and [00:58:47-00:58:48] and Gracie's brothers and these mega schools that are all over the world and all of that stuff wasn't around. You know, guy used to work in a shoe store 40 hours or 50 hours a week and then when he got off at five o'clock, he'd go open his little dojo. Guy was a mechanic all day long, the sensei and then he'd go, you know, open his dojo at night. And, you know, trying to raise his family and keep his wife off his back because he's like, what are you doing that for? You're not making any money? You know, what about your family? And they don't understand the heart and the mind of a martial artist or a Sensei, you know, that's another conversation we could have. But so, and then when I started. It was kind of the beginning of the new age of, hey, how can we live not just survive, but thrive, as martial arts instructors and as an industry as a real legitimate industry. Now, there's no union. There's no government certification that says your qualified underneath, whatever, but your sensei's signature was all you need. “Did you know people don't say, oh, are you?” “Do you have your whatever...” “no, I'm a black belt under this, this, this, this, this, this and that?” Oh, okay. I mean, I don't think anybody looks for documents, they either know...
Jeremy Lesniak:
None that I've ever heard of now.
Mark Parra:
It's kind of hard if you're special to. You know, we just see right through its other martial arts like this guy's crap. This guy's a clown, this stuff crap. And not that we have to say all our techniques better than the other, but just their philosophy about how they do martial arts, the Cobra Kai mentality, guys that are out there still exist. No mercy and all that, but less than less. I think the more my style, you know, Miyagi Do, kind of guy that mentors and takes a young person into their adulthood and shows them a way of life is more tempting for me as a father to have a mentor, that my son can be around for years and years and years. And unfortunately, if they're not good businessman, as good as martial artists, they are that person still won't be there for you, because they don't have the skill set to keep their dojo open. So, I'm very blessed and grateful and happy that I've been bestowed with certain skill sets some better than others, but you know, so that's what we do. 26 years, you know, I've had thousands and thousands and thousands of students come through here. You can imagine, you know, 10s of it's, it's in the 10s of 1000s, I might even be more than that, but over 26 years, you know, and I take great pride in the quality of what they get here. I tell the kids or the adults, I say, “Tell me one person that is or has been involved in your life besides your parents or your blood relatives that will teach and guide you for more than a season”. A soccer coach, a baseball coach, piano teacher, a great tutor. Um, but you know, at the most maybe couple years there underneath somebody that I've ever saw and so they were my favorite. I said a sensei is a very special. A true Sensei, let me just say that. Not Sensei, I don't want to use a true sensei teacher will mentor and guide you for all of his days. Period. Not because I get a movie career, I'm going to give up my students or cash in on my dojo, or stop teaching a great instructor. Master Grandmaster, like the grey Grandmaster [01:02:51-01:02:53]. It's every all day, every day, even though you may do not technical teachings or things like that. But that's it, we sign up pretty much for life unless you leave, I'm not going nowhere. If you don't burn the bridge by doing something asinine where I can't have you around, like you're a threat, or dangerous or you lose your mind. But I'll still be there for you. Once you want to get your mind back and I can say, “hey, none of us are perfect”.
I tell my students all day long. My Halo has a lot of nicks and dings in it, trust me. And I tell them to guess what? So do your parents and so do your teachers. I don't care who they are. So, get over the fact that you know, oh, my parents got divorced. Oh, well, that's a good reason for me to go be a little smile for the rest of my life because my daddy is not around anymore. Or mommy left or whatever. I'm like, I'm sorry. I get it. I feel for you. I don't agree with it. But, I mean, what can we do now? You know, I don't... I had a mom tell me “Well, my kid”. My kid has some issues. You know, he's always going to have these issues. He has anger issues, right. And he went off and when he gets mad and sparring, he goes excessive and he has a meltdown. And the parent dumping ammo he has issues. I said, okay, well, guess what? When you're here, I get it. I'm aware of it. I make my team aware of it as the shepherd of the flock. I can't. Just because your kid, I can't allow him to have a meltdown and hurt another student because he's on a meltdown. He's not hearing me. And if you know a teenager when they have a meltdown, they're just not there. He can't... they need to walk it off. So, there's ways we can deal with meltdown. But that skill set, we're just like, whoa, I teach. My bottom line is I teach them all the same. Oh, my kid has autism. My kid has Asperger's. My kid has issues with... This is my girl. I'm like, “Hey, kids, let me tell you something here, our black belt is one black belt. I don't have a woman's black belt test, I don't have a kid that has a little bit of struggles black belt test, it's black belt, you get treated the same”. Quit telling your kid and giving them the crutch of “Oh, it's okay for you to melt down. Because you have that you have that issue. And you're always going to have it.” I'm like, why would you feed somebody that? You know what I mean? I would bring attention to that. I would just say, hey, look, let's deal with the issue. But that becomes a crutch like, oh, well, I have ADD, so I can go wild anytime I want. You know what I mean? Because my mom keeps telling me I do. And that's just my nature and other that it does. So, she accepts my meltdowns. And then you got a 40-year-old living at home with you. That doesn't work. Playing video games all day. Because they want to, they want the upper hand. You know, I'm just big on parenting. When I teach, you know, I just tell them how it is. I always tell the parents and the kids I go like a [01:06:06-01:06:08] bar. I'm salty on the outside, but I'm sweet and yummy in the middle.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You know, like that?
Mark Parra:
I like and they like it. Most of the parents, you know, they want discipline, they want structure. They want their kids to focus. They want their kids to be hard workers, all of those things, and they bring them to the dojo. This is what excites them, they want to learn how to kick and punch or do a choke or an armbar, whatever it is a takedown, and I want to hit hearts and minds, you know more than anything. And so, you know, I tell them at the end of the day, I could care less how good your kid throws that kick. Obviously, I do because I'm a teacher. But my point is, that's not my main, that's not my main purpose or my main ingredient. They're going to get good at it, mom, trust me. But just keep in mind, I don't you know, I don't, that's not my priority. And I also let the parent know, hey, if you're bringing your kid here to me, and you want to build, you know, he has no discipline, he hits me, he calls me names and all that he runs the show is what happens. And if I don't get what I want, I'm going to have a meltdown. And I'm going to break up the room and punch holes in my door because you make me come home at midnight. I told you if you discipline me, I'm going to melt down. Okay, you took my phone meltdown? I can't drive. Oh, that's a good meltdown. You know? And in enabling that I'm like, oh, heck no. So, we have these generation of kids that are terrorists. If they don't get what they want, they're going to have a meltdown. If they don't like what they hear they're going to have a meltdown. You know? And I'm just like, don't feed that mom, and then bring them to me and expect me to like, talk sense to them?
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah, I suspect we have a number of listeners and nodding along right now. You know, you're certainly not alone in these thoughts, and I'm on board with a lot of what you're saying. Let's shift gears a little bit. Let's look ahead. We've talked a lot about where he came from, and utterly amazing story training at the Jet center. I can't imagine how wonderful that was and just what sounds to be the random luck of ending up there. Just I'm jealous. And then stepping into your own school. And, you know, we spent some time with a pretty powerful story that I think my major takeaway there is how dedicated you were and, you know, clearly that is the reason why you've stuck it out for so long. But let's shift gears towards the future. Because through COVID, there were a lot of martial arts school owners who said, you know, this is a good opportunity. And for some excuse for me to step away for me to call it quits.
Mark Parra:
Now, bow bow. Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And you certainly did not do that. So, I guess that leads me to the general question of, what are you looking towards in the future? You know, you're certainly not at the age where, you know, you're done? No, but you are old enough to that. If you said, I'm ready to call it good on this. Putting in 26 years, you know, nobody would have. I don't think anybody would have said, you know, yeah, I don't understand that. You know, if it 40, almost 42 if I said I'm retiring, you know, people look at me funny, having put in the work that you did. I don't think anybody would have looked at you funny in doing that. So, what is it that you are looking forward to? What are your goals? What are you, you know, just that that general future? Approach? You know, what's coming?
Mark Parra:
Yeah. So, you know, I'm in talks right now with my trademark attorney and all of that. We're in talks about how we could make a house of champions franchise, right. Never even when I go away, maybe as the day-to-day guy. I would not walk away from the legacy itself; it would be handed down to my top guy, my team, this particular facility. So, I would feel confident in saying that house of champions could go another 25 years and then 25 after that, and hopefully just be installed, you know, in this community and around other people that might be interested in upgrading or changing their format school owners that are looking for a makeover, from head to toe on how to put together a good, a great dojo, good systems. I know you have a lot of smart people out there that know how to do systems and make things work. But I think the secret sauce has to come from, from me. So, my next chapter, kind of as a statesman, you know, my athletes gone. What's after that? My business person is kind of coming to the end of his run. And my statesman is kind of coming up, you know, let me give it to the next guys, I have a 13-year-old son who I would love to be involved at some level, but would never say, “Hey, you know, put the pressure of him like you got to carry the torch because I have a great guy here, that would be my number one choice and a great team that could handle it”. But besides more of the house of champions, I mentioned earlier, I'm involved in the movie industry. I have a current feature film project that's in development and show that's an episodic that's in development that we're currently getting close to putting all the pieces together for those things.
So, I would like to do content or material that has an impact, tell stories that have an impact or leave an impression in life, not just do a movie a bunch of killing and who can kill the most people and be the worst guy on the planet. I rather tell stories, like mine. And give hope and an insight to people that watch our shows, our films and things like that. So that part of it still in me, you know, my two skill sets would be entertainment and martial arts. And to bring those two together at some point, in any format is a current goal way to get more exposure, way to turn people on even like this interview. You know, just turn people on to what we've talked about over the last hour and say, “oh, wow, that's cool”. Maybe it planted a seed in somebody. And they become the next Mark Parra, you know, or the next house of champions in their part of their world. You know, I always tell my students that. They asked, they asked Michelangelo, years ago, how did you ever conceive the statue of David. And he said, I never did. David was already in the stone. All I did was chip away the excess. And I feel that is my mantra as a Sensei, whether you're at 35 years old, 50 years old, bad knees, bad attitude, bad, whatever. It's in there. Let me help chip away until you can see it. And of course, the chunks come off big in the beginning, but the last, you know, the later years it's all detailing, I might just take a little nick off the side of the year and then put my chisel down and then I'll come back and maybe I'm working more in the beginning and then as you get to see become aware of the masterpiece within you. I don't think I ever really put my chisel down though. Even with my guys now grown men with families. I still have other ways to you know, work my chisel, just the subtle ways to make them see it for themselves. So that's one of my things I use in the dojo. I like it.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Nice. And this feels like a good point for us to transition out and yeah, record the outro and a little bit, but I always like to give the guests the sort of, most say the last words that sounds so final, but a bit of advice or, you know, last thoughts for the folks. Okay, great. I had a feeling you did. Let's see.
Mark Parra:
I have a great one. So, I'll use a Bruce Lee quote. Bruce Lee said, I do not pray for an easy life. I pray for the strength to endure a difficult one. Use that my friends.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I told you during the intro. Those were some stories, weren't they? I mean, can you imagine randomly walking into a school and it being Benny the jet school? We just so cool. So cool. Thank you, Sensei. I appreciate you coming on the show and telling such wonderful stories. My mind is still reeling. Even though we recorded this a little while ago, I'm just... If you the listener want to go deeper on this episode. Other episodes, go to whistlekickmartialartsradio.com. Check out the page for this episode, show notes and eventually we add transcripts, we got photos and videos and links and all that good stuff over there. And if you're down to support us in all of our work, remember you've got a bunch of choices. You can consider buying one of our amazon books, telling people about the show or consider supporting us at patreon, patreon.com/whistlekick. Did you know we have the only speed development program for martial artists? I made it you can get it whistlekickprograms.com and you have my word. If you follow this program, you will get faster, significantly faster. All the feedback on this program is through the roof. Don't forget the code PODCAST15 is going to get you 15% off everything. And if you have guest suggestions, topic suggestions, let me know. Email me jeremy@whistlekick.com. Our social media the best place to stay up on what's going on @whistlekick. Everywhere you could think of. Until next time, train hard, smile and have a great day.