Leo Vieira: Lessons from Jiu-Jitsu for Life

Hey, it's Nick. Welcome to the next Standlea podcast. Today, I'm speaking with world champion Jiu Jitsu competitor Leo Vieira. He's known as the Yoda of Jiu Jitsu because of his ability to take lessons from a lifetime of overcoming challenges on the mat and to impart that knowledge to others on how to live a better, fuller life. He did not disappoint dropping one negative wisdom after another. He talks about growing up poor in the rough part of Rio de Janeiro, averaging competition to change his life. He shares insights into his epic battle with MMA beast Mark Kerr, and even got me to open up about the first time I ever took a punch in the face and my walk of shame afterwards.

He shares lessons about sport, business, and life that we can all learn from. Here's my interview with Leo. Leo Vieira is one of the most successful Jiu Jitsu competitors of his generation. He's a two-time ADCC world champion and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu world championships gold medal winner. After retiring as a competitor, he created CheckMat, a Jiu Jitsu team which has trained numerous world champions and inspired thousands of Jiu Jitsu students across the world. CheckMat has a strong presence across the globe from the Rio de Janeiro favelas to more than 500 dojos on six different continents. Countries include Germany, Australia, Italy, Switzerland, Portugal, Morocco, Israel, China, Serbia, Qatar, among many others along with more than 100 locations in the United States.

He's also the one FC championship vice president of grappling, one of the biggest promoters in the world of various martial arts events. Despite all that he does, he still finds time to pop in to his various dojos in the Southern California area to teach students and impart lessons from a lifetime of experience in Jiu Jitsu. I can attest to this personally when I spent a few minutes grappling with Leo at his dojo by Leo Vieira in Seal Beach during which time he manhandled me like a child all the while keeping a smile on his face. Leo, so good to have you on the show today. How you doing? I'm doing good.

Thanks for having me. What an introduction. I'm going to take you with me. Just be a promoter. Very good. It's a good journey with a good surprise like going to all different places and different locations and meet different people and like we are here so we still have time. Yeah, and you spend a lot of time in other countries now visiting your different locations and for different events. Is that right? The funny thing is the kid growing up in Rio de Janeiro. My mom always tell me because I was too early. I didn't want to remember but she used to ask like what I want to do when I grew up. I say how should I say the same thing my dream is flying.

It's a flying to airplanes. So I was by the beach and I was looking at the airplanes and mom one day I was flying over there. I want to go in the wings. She said no you don't have to go in the wings. We go inside. Our reality was that like was very far from flying in the flights back in the time. And my first flight experience was already adults flying to Sao Paulo to Rio de Janeiro to work. And now like visiting a lot of different countries is spreading the jujitsu culture. It's funny to do what you're dreaming to do. Jujitsu was this vehicle that allowed all these other dreams to come true as well.

Yeah I saw the jujitsu and what I do is a bridge between people. I thought it was just a martial arts but what I realized is like what I do with check man it's a big network that make a bridge between different country different people different culture and everybody uses jujitsu to make this bridge strong and make a cute network in a very healthy environment. Yeah that's interesting. I was a soccer player and I did a semester in Italy at the end of college. I went over there and a lot of students found it difficult to really penetrate into the culture and actually spend time and hang out and meet people that were Italian that live there and and some of those students had trouble breaking out of the tourist mode.

And for me because I could play football I found these pickup courts and went there and just started playing with some guys and they didn't even want to let me in because they knew I was American for my accent. I waited around sat there for like two hours finally they let me in and then earned a little bit of respect out on the on the court and suddenly it was like hey we're going to this bar later you want to come these guys got a party going at this restaurant you want to join us there and and it was such a great way to get to know people in that culture in a real way and sports can do that. It can be that in a trading line into meeting people that you never otherwise would.

Yeah I think I'd have with this sport that is exactly what you you describe. Jujitsu was not different for me. I was actually like I was like a misfit you know like in different groups. I always was not feeling enough. I was not feeling enough to be in my school. I was not always in the sport. And the sport was making you like engage and with discipline and commitment you break through this bubble and you start getting so confident and then what was all my insecurity became a bridge between two different worlds that I was living for and through the sport and be able to be okay and be from the I'm not feeling enough to become so strong and confident that so was very powerful way to express myself.

I always was a very quiet shy but at the way I was tapping the mat is like was the expression myself like what's all my anxiety as a kid. The way that I communicate myself over the world and competitions at high level was making these everybody like giving me a voice and later on there's two like how powerful is a martial arts how make me face all my fears how make me face all my limitations and make me accomplish so much in my life and then later okay so that's how I want you spread maybe that's the purpose of my life you know. So Jujitsu was the voice that I had that was using to spread like the world.

How you should be building those bridge. Of course there is a lot of different sports but in Jujitsu it's like you have to be very honest about yourself like that a lot of limitations you have to be facing and every day you win and you lose on the mat and that is a very good learning from a life perspective on the mat. So when you learn that this sport is not just armbars and chokes it's not just like a beat and beat up it's also it's a way that you can make a life survive in lifestyle that's it's amazing sport. Yeah it seems like your journey with Jujitsu what you learned in the dojo helped you to overcome these insecurities that you had out in the world and enabled you to build this confidence that took you to a place not just where you succeeded on the mat but even after your career ended succeeded arguably even more in building a business and becoming an ambassador for the sport to the world.

Yeah that's take me to like dojo in CUB to all my schools it's helped the community give back to to the community. I saw how much change in my life my friends my brothers my family my kids you know and then like and then like okay it continues it's not a team that we we training athletes a high-level performance and professors but also big numbers like students part of it is like a sport or the hobby that help you to get fit in training but also face a lot of your mentally issues and like in dealing with a lot of things in daily. I used to running a lot I used to biking or swimming so a lot of sports you do sports but your mind it's always in something so you're always thinking something else and you walk out with Jujitsu it's about decisions and consequence you consistently decision consequence everything what happened it's consequence about decisions you do it's exactly the life experience like we're leaving out or the consequence that you get in now is the about decision we did in the past so Jujitsu shows so much you cannot train a Jujitsu in thinking about what you're gonna eat or what's the no you have to be very present which is very hard nowadays with the social media with all things everybody like it's hard to be present and Jujitsu takes you how to be present how to make decisions how to control your panic how to make right decisions as a as a first time that's why they compare Jujitsu as a chess a game of chess the problem is when you play chess it's one time to another time I move one piece and I have to wait you move another piece in Jujitsu that not such a rules so you can be moving piece as fast as the other person so if I don't catch you in the time imagine if you play chess and I can play as fast as I you can right just like you have to move and how fast you can make right decisions over the circumstance that happening with you over there it's amazing and it teaches like a lot of things that sometimes we just thought it would be a martial art I did chat with several of the professors at your Seal Beach school and just ask them some questions about you and they time and again came back to your ability to think under pressure the thinking skills came up again and again rather than he's a beast he's stronger than everybody well yeah you are a very strong man there's no doubt about that but the I found that interesting the people kept coming back to your brain as opposed to your body when describing your style of Jujitsu can you give us just a little insight into that I think it was just a life you know I'm generic I'm not tall I'm not strong I was always a small kid or small for my group and I never was rapid and strong so I was with my shape of okay for martial art but not like a six pack like people showing up in the academy looking to me and my students and they're always going to the big guy you know repays hey I would like to learn Jujitsu you know and I got a lot of times and people say oh it's that's the guys the professor they look at me and you can I can see the frustration he's a professor yeah you know because you picture it like the professor for martial arts has to be that guy tough yeah like me I don't have that look but grow up in this sport which is your size doesn't really matter you know it's all about technique leverage but also making me learn and survive you know and like a thinking so much under depression because everybody when everybody knows Jujitsu the size matters so I learned how use my limitation how use the timing how the strategy can help me how like my like facing big opponents people with a more experience and having stronger than me also giving the skills to teach people how to do that when they facing opponent they're bigger than that what's interesting so when I was in middle school there was this other kid that had a locker next to mine and he was bigger than everybody and he was a bit of a bully he was always pulling something whenever we ended up with the lockers next to each other and one morning we got there really early and it's myself a friend of mine is nearby and this guy he shoves me just shoves me out of the way to go to his locker and I had decided I wasn't going to let him push me around anymore and somebody had told me hey you just stand up to him he'll back right down that didn't necessarily turn out to be true yes so I come back and I shove him and I said hey I'm just trying to get my stuff out of my locker can you just let me do that and before I even know what happens this guy pops me in the face I mean cracks me in the eye I didn't know what the saying was about seeing stars until that happens right he knocked me silly with his first punch because I did not know it was coming whatsoever the friend of mine just put his head down he didn't want anything to do with this situation because he was scared of this guy too and I left in shame in the in the moment because this guy had had pushed me around and it was maybe two weeks later there was another kid and he's doing the same thing as this other kid outside of a class but this kid was he was really quiet but he had like a certain intensity to him and the guy's shoving this smaller guy and he's saying hey I don't I don't want to do this I don't want to fight you and the bully guy pops the smaller kid just like he did to me right because I was a tiny guy when I was in junior high two and the little guy I mean a switch flipped and he pummels the bully beats this guy until a teacher pulls him off and and I thought a couple things in that moment one I thought I need to be friends with that little guy I like his style and then as I get older my brother becomes a wrestler he was the CIF champion wrestler really good same way he wasn't Mr.

outgoing tough guy but he was really tough when the moment came and I noticed a lot of these wrestlers we had a mat in our garage or our house a lot of these other wrestlers would come over to train and I did start to notice a pattern there with a lot of these guys that were really tough were quiet and kind and just they had a different gear when they got out on the mat and the first time I ever crossed paths with you because you're popping over here at the Seal Beach dojo and we just crossed and passing you were in normal clothes as was I I didn't know who you were and I think Alvin one of the co-owners of the dojo introduced us and I immediately was taken right back to high school down the middle school where I went I don't know who this guy is and he seems really nice and he's quiet and he's polite but he's got that intensity in his eyes and that this guy is not one to be messed with and he's somebody I need to make friends with too so that was my first minor interaction with you before I even knew who you were and then later found out I want to explore that a little bit because that seems to be part of the jujitsu culture in a big way a part of the culture is being disciplined and respectful and not starting fights in fact it's trying to avoid fights and I just wanted you to expand on that a little bit more this is exactly the reason of a dojo seal beach so the jujitsu community for the city that a supporting school was 100% the school was 100% design for kids like and doesn't mean it's like the kids who suffer bully or the bully skids but a jujitsu gives you this balance I saw those kids that bully in the school they come to the jujitsu they learn how to come down and control their intensity yeah at the same time I saw those kids that suffer bully they come to the school very insecure and then became confident what I say is like jujitsu give your balance in your intensity you learn the practice daily practices with a more these martial arts give a confidence that you control yourself that you can be violent as much as you need at the same time you can be calm as much as you need so in situations like that you're going to be able to escalate your violence and control your balance as much as you need so and that's what we say like the magic behind the martial arts the jujitsu it's the difference between you and the other kid was like the other kid he knew it that he expecting in advance what was that engagement he's expecting the reaction so he was at their surprise and the bullies they know that so they know who they can fact and then it doesn't matter if you say look you stand up for yourself just look in his in the eyes you push him back no like you be ready to all the consequences that you like decide to stop so you're gonna have to face consequence so the thing is between both of you so you wasn't expect you thought that just the pushing back will stop but you're not gonna stop you know so you have to embrace a little bit more and what you was not expecting and you was surprised you know so probably the other kid with the training daily training he was expecting he did exact what he did but he was already expecting the reaction and he was ahead and that's what jujitsu does he you are ahead of the situation so the way you look the way you they way you look in the eyes the way you talk they're managing the conversation so you make him understand that you know nobody that you know what you're doing and they still have to make decisions to if he wants to pay consequence or not and that sometimes they will try to do something but because you are ahead you expecting like the possibilities of the the engagement and that's what happened to me so when I said that I was having problems you're feeding my two groups of my when I was a child in my school and in my street the reason why I got my school because I was the young and different I was then I was a new kid in the school so take me some circumstances like that you know people push me and I have to push him back and I have to be really fighting was you know for the respect to engage and respect say okay so I'm not gonna touch this guy anymore you know and then I build my respect as a to be myself not to to many of doing anything just to be myself but uh joshitsu is that it's that tool that I give to to everyone and not just like the kids usually we connect the kids of both school and boys but uh how do so we we that are we sort of different things you know and that is uh that's a good confidence to to you know that you're gonna go in the street fighting everyone but you when you confidence to open conversation and express what you thinking what you are and like then it's changed you know yeah well I think that kid could have really used a dojo because I went to high school with him and I later found out his dad would beat up on him and that's how he grew up yeah and so that's where all that anger came from that's why he always wanted to go pick on people and fight people I mean I ended up feeling sorry for him years later when I actually found out the situation and he was somebody who needed the guidance of the professors you guys but yeah but how can you see like every behind every bully that is a violence like uh something it's a home or is uh it's parents or it's cousins friends that is someone being violent with that kid and he need to pay back that what he learns so that's why they will do working with the kids you kind of work with the parents also so with their friends or the environment to fix a kid's attitude but you're right you don't see kids offer the professors you should still go into the school and bully others just because all my father's a martial arts so I'm gonna be martial artists no they act like it's a it's their opposite like you see a lot of those kids that are training as much engaging the sport is more self-control they have you know that's where that quiet intensity comes from they don't need to put it out there and try to push people around let's go back to your beginning you mentioned you were at a school and they were kind of two different worlds for you and you didn't fit into either one how did you grow I grew up in Rio de Janeiro in a very similar uh still beach like a beach place in Panama so very nice noble place neighborhood but we don't want to live there my the only reason we live there was because my father walking the building for the place that we live right so my father worked as a superintendent yeah yeah taking care of the building you know like open closed door drive fixing this and that so we live there right so Rio is very like separate schools so public schools it's no good quality of a school and it's usually like just for like people from Fáthéla, Giro people doesn't have incomes low income private schools it's it's those schools they have uh so most middle class and high class and they go to private school okay so I grew up that's why I say I grew up in a very nice neighborhood but going to school that it was inside the Fáthéla right so inside the Fáthéla all the kids are seven years old 10 years old they all look at me and say oh what are these playboy coming here because the playboys they slam that they use to people who live in the street close to the beach yeah so why these why these uh these kids coming to public school so he's he don't belong to us he doesn't leave in the ghetto he doesn't leave here why he's coming here so that's why I was the different in my street all the kids was people who lived in my building or lived in the street for medium medium class yeah so my father was the one who was walking for them yeah so that I always was a feeling that I'm not belong here right so so he didn't belong in either of us I was I was not finding like uh who am I so I have to be with this kid because I was I was in the morning in the school I'm not feeling this group because they don't see me as a part of this group yeah so all after I knew I was playing with those kids but they are always feeling better than me because of this you know and then with Jiu Jitsu help me to engage maybe because I'm fighting to myself maybe because of fighting to protect them because that's what you learn Jiu Jitsu you start taking sides you know and you have take sides and I I never could see something unproportional of somebody bullying the other kids I step to protect and then this gives me the respect in the both place because all because of fight for myself or fight to protect someone and then like you said that our people was looking me say oh I want to be friend of this guy because I feel protect and they not and he not charge me anything you know so I'm not taking their food I don't know anything really that because I want to be just friend of him and I then making be friends in the school walking with all the kids from the favela and also making me be friend of my street and walking with all the rich kids in my street yeah and then later this sport make a bridge between both of them all the kids oh my my two separate groups start walking together because Jiu Jitsu was connected everybody was practicing Jiu Jitsu at the point everybody knew Jiu Jitsu and everybody was then they look each other as a friend they not look each other anymore as a social difference or status or anything and while playing having fun in the beach or in the street together you know and that was later when the became it was very powerful but when I started I didn't know so actually I didn't like Jiu Jitsu okay so then my first experience was too much grappling I was fun from Bruce Lee and after one week no punching no kick I was very frustrated I said no I didn't like it I want to know how to punch in kick I don't want you you know hugging nobody but the problem was one girl she was beat me the whole time in the class okay and for a 10 years old boy it's like your ego gets smashed yeah I would coming back next day okay I'm gonna pay her back and then she's she smashed me and again I come back next day my father he was saying hey did you like Jiu Jitsu he got he got my father was working so much he never had a time to go watch so he just like asked me how was Jiu Jitsu today actually he was asking how was the karate he all-star was karate he just realized that Jiu Jitsu five years later okay I said daddy I didn't like it because they didn't have a punch in kick but uh but I have to do something else I don't want to say that I get smashed for the girl you know yeah and he say okay but are you gonna continue your stops you know I'll stop later but I have to do something else but every day I was going there she was smashing me smashing me smash me but uh I also was a smart I said look if you work again that girl against me which is I'm stronger than her will help me with my against my my friends which is bigger than me right so and then like instead the quit I say no I'm not gonna quit I'll stay and then was the biggest thing that I did in my life so and then I more than learn it was more that I that I love this spot too and I make all my friends I don't remember to beat that girl I remember that she smashed me every time but that was I need you like my ego yeah like that's what that you should so give her the balance right so help you to be confident but also help you to find out that someone smaller than you is gonna beat you up so bad that you're gonna be rumba yeah yeah that's interesting you don't even remember the point where you ended up on a level playing field or finally beat her but you remember her beating up on you I think she stopped to try to do jiu jitsu before I I'll be able to pay back okay but at that point already in love with the spot and at that point already on this stand I think at that point I was not really looking to pay back because I really already now understood what's the jiu jitsu is about right who's the professor of that school and I'm just gonna preface this for everybody that doesn't know jiu jitsu they call the instructors the teachers they call them professors yeah jiu jitsu yeah so who was that first was a professor homerukavokanj jakare we call he jakare he was living in the name boy that would live pretty close to my father so that's why he was open the school and open a kids program so he invited me to to be part of this first group of kids so and like for the group that I started with like I was one of the youngest and then stay with him always trained with him I took my black belt 10 10 years later yeah oh wow so and what age did you start about eight and I got my black belt as a 20 years old actually okay yeah okay so you trained with him for a very long time and he was an important mentor yeah for like my kind of my father my parents was very close to them he was taking me different competition you know he was like teaching me a lot of things that a lot of conversation that sometimes that I did he had with my father was heavy with him so he was like a those uncle very close to you that taught a lot of things for your life you know so in that I was a kid so I was like in my perspective of life is be like my father so I wanna be like my father work like my father but I honestly wanna become a teenager didn't like what my father do you know so he's like not wrong what he does but it's just like a hard hard work no timing to enjoy a pina which is a warm block by the beach right my father was working very hard for 35 years in the same job you know so and I love it my father was the example of loyalty and simplicity and to me you know honestly but that job wasn't that job that I want for my life but my perspective when I became 17 my father was okay so you start working tomorrow so I start to work with him that's when my coach say well why you missing class I said because I said I have to work helping home say no how much money you making and then I said I said no I'm gonna give a stock the same money but it worked for me that's when I clicked I said oh I can have the same lifestyle as my professor I can live in Rio de Janeiro and have his lifestyle going to the beach enjoy like it's that's what's about that's when this boss clicks to me right so I said that's when start all my conversation what I have to do to have your lifestyle or discipline training you're gonna be teaching you're gonna be a professor gonna compare the competition back in the time does I have a big perspective as you have today but I like that I was starting this part that became very popularly with all MMA martial arts especially with UFC and then when the spot became popular I was already in the structure pop about you know getting brown belt and became one of the professor and competing the spot that was popular and it was already have a big name in this part so I was blessed to be in the right place in the right timing with your father what was the biggest lesson that you learned from him I think it's like like the he how honest he was like no shortcuts I remember I was very that some moments in their life my father was always quiet not much like the guy who let's talk about life but he was teaching me so much about how he lived his life I was watching how he handled a lot of situations how humble he was sometimes simple thing that I'll go to the market and as a kid I want to buy something and then I take what I have to buy I didn't I didn't buy I just walked through because I was thinking something else and I go home my mom would say hello did you buy because you didn't give me the change so you give me the home money I say oh I forget to buy yeah I just walked through and then I forget to buy yeah I say no my father is my parents say okay so go and pay I say no no I'm so better I don't want to go yeah and then I say no you'll go so I don't see one situation that I saw my parents my father being like corrupted with something to take advantage so I never saw this so I grew up this so the last time that my father was how he sacrificed his life to raise me and my my brothers in the place that we grew up yeah because he couldn't come back to his accountry side he could make a little bit money come back and and live his life the way all his his brother did but he sacrificed his life to give me the opportunity that I experienced today so that's one and the second how honestly he did all his job so was that's the big lesson that I take to be yeah and did both your mom and dad grow up without education yeah and they just had to work yeah with physical labor yeah my father like he learned how to read really the bible and I was wanting to help him in he just signed his name that's my room as a kid today he reads he doesn't write my mom she was educated to the second grade but my parents both moved from country side to big city to up to new perspective like to help their family my mom come from a family with 20 kids she has 21 sisters and brothers yeah my father 11 so I grew up with I have over 100 cousins right and the thing and the most the most like funny thing is like our group is very together so Christmas in my high in in my grandma's house was like company party so it was always nice but the family always very friendly very love each other you know so I grew up with a very good example of cousins uncles and like a grandmother's that was was super nice yeah but my parents they make this they have a lot of brothers and sisters they went to big city walk and then came back and buy different land or home and then live their life but my parents stays because I know that they want to make we grow up in this environment to change our life they live with us in United States nowadays back in the time was we cannot expect those we we didn't know that all this will happen clearly that investment paid off when they were doing it for you kids and now you can see the fruits of all that labor yeah so and then I think that at the mentality the heart is like it's such a nice experience when you leave something good but when you when you see your kids accomplish their dreams or accomplish things that they want to it's such a nice my son is 15 years old my daughter is 40 when I saw the accomplished things that I make them happy fulfill my heart yeah so I think it's I learned from that I saw how their sacrifice they did was because they was happy to see our dream coming through now I see my my kids and I can feel as like how they were feeling before right now was in round 17 when that professor said I'll give you money to keep training is that when you realized you were pretty good at this yes yes that's what I realized but at this spot was popular like as a okay you can believe and have a nice lifestyle so the spot was just okay you can you can be if you the top you can open school and survive and have your life that's when I realized that in the worst that's what it can happen to me if I'm the top of the sports right but I was also like learning that you want to learn about everything I was a very cutest person yeah so I want to you know like learn a lot of different things when the things really start to take off for you competition wise color belts purple brown belt 17 18 19 was very important because it's like tells you how strong you're gonna be as a black belt okay so but the black belt that's when you show who you are that's when the most important is right and that's what's when I was already 20 21 years old so the first five years of black belt it's really important to tell how strong as a competitor you are and also back in the time like how many people is gonna be training with you because the people back in the time they want to training with good competitors now with good coach right now they could be high okay so the good coach sometimes doesn't have to be the good competitor but a beef and there is a lot of opportunities nowadays but before doesn't have those opportunities and you have to be very high class and you know competition regarding you have a successful school so for you at that time winning wasn't just about winning was one of the process but it was part of it was about surviving right yeah right you see this life that could be possible for you if you perform well do you remember Luis Suarez the footballer uh came out of Uruguay and then became a European superstar and in the there was a world cup and he bit a player on the shoulder while they were playing I mean just lashes teeth into him and everybody went crazy and and he has some good sides and some bad sides to his his personality but when a reporter asked him about why would you bite this guy that's going a step too far and he said it's because you don't understand where I came from he said I was coming out of a really poor lifestyle and football was my way out of it and so it wasn't just about winning games it was life or death for me even now I'm rich I'm successful it's hard for me to turn that off sometimes when I'm in high level competition and he said I shouldn't a bit the guy but I still have that part of me that thinks it's gonna change my life yeah for a really awful way if we lose in a really good way if we win that is a whole different place to come from in competition I can see like a lot of kids facing this like a work of project with with kids in the favela in Brazil so nowadays even with we have like a lot of different perspective in this part but still have people who embrace it that way it's nowadays we say a competition is a good feedback about what you learning how the process is this that a lot of benefits to compete but back in my time so competition is like winning a lose it's like your life depending like this your future depends on this so we didn't have a perspective like oh you win and then you're gonna have a student otherwise like you're not gonna be your queen so a lot of people quitting a lot of people stopping and go to a different job you know because they're not there wasn't enough and because that feeling with me was not I was always was feeling not enough was make me be sharp I always want to be ready for anything that happened so I was training different martial arts I was making all my discipline take me to like very committed for the sport not party not going there it's not going there like because I want to make this happen I knew that only through the sport I have to really fight to be able to do what I could do to have the life you want to have done so it's so spread and big so you don't have to face you don't have to see the competition this way but it's still like a lot of people that still facing like so struggling situations that they see like okay so if I don't good in jujitsu like I don't know what to do like my brother he has a very high dyslexia so his school for him was tough he always like repeating like repeating like repeating grades because he was very struggling he make he need like a help and like I said like a only school you don't embrace you it's you don't have this so and then we had this conversation because I was the world there said he was a little I already signed my life he was like 15 years old I will be good on this if I don't be good in jujitsu I don't like then I what are gonna do I'm gonna work as a father does yeah so but I'm gonna I'm gonna be the best that I can do in this sport he became 10 times world champion like he was the one who owns the first school in this like he decided he'll I'm not smart you go to school I'm not like I have a you know like hard to thinks but with jujitsu that's my like my life so he's very successful he opened his school he's the only important girl he helping to manage this all my team in Portugal he have like three four different like schools across the world so he became successful athlete successful business school but he was one that from my family that embraced their ways like I say no it's fact that I I struggled with the school so I have to make this happen then no then one other way right and that's it Leandro's I was that's a heko that's he got okay Leandro was was the smart he was the clever one okay everything was very easy to him like school college easy I don't know if you remember this but this was it was a few years ago your daughter was interested in playing soccer and then Leandro brought her out and then he brought a couple other family members out and then I brought my kids and everybody you know just played for like two hours and he was such a dynamic interesting guy and and I love the way he expressed himself he's just wild and has a lot of flair and he's trying to put it through everybody's legs and the guy really loves life yeah he's a fun guy and our education was through jiu jitsu like because my parents just keep us in the jiu jitsu the whole time and jiu jitsu was what opened up for a scholarship that me and my brother did the youngest Leandro so he that we moved to Sao Paulo we went to the college and we that's when it started from Sao Paulo we came to United States okay he was the one that he stayed in Rio de Janeiro he owned his own school that he's okay he grew up without a college education but he did his job as a good way as a sport and pushing the people to do the jiu jitsu let's jump to the mark cur match which I definitely wanted to discuss how old were you when that happened this was in 2000 and from 76 okay yeah so it was 24 so you had you finished college at this point no because I started the college very late because when I moved to Sao Paulo I was from Rio Janeiro I became very popular this sport but I'm not college was not part of my my mind right there knows scholarship in jiu jiu Brazil there knows scholarship for sports okay so it's very rare like schools college gives scholarship then I started teaching Sao Paulo then I met somebody that owns one college we became very close friend and I said look I like I know I'm not that young anymore but I want to do college and say okay so I can give the scholarship and then I that's what I said no I said I don't have to give to me I want to give to my brother yeah so I didn't might say no I give to you and to your brother so we both went to college and then like my brother marketing and something and I did physical therapy okay and I was in Sao Paulo this was in Sao Paulo so that was my connection I was already high high professional athlete coach and college at this doing college at the same time so the mark cur match comes just before going to school you're 24 and I will put a link to the match in the show notes somebody sent me a video of that match listener to set the scene for you so you've got mark cur at this time in American he's regarded by many as the best fighter in the world he was a wrestling champion in college where fun fact he beat Randy Kotur in the division one collegiate championships a mark then goes on to win the USA freestyle wrestling championships and then he turns to MMA and wins the UFC heavyweight division a back-to-back and then he went to pride which was in Japan and he was just destroying one person after another I mean he was at that time he's six three 255 pounds zero body fat I mean just ripped all muscle and had the training to know what to do with it if you were gonna cast a movie for a terrifying special force this guy you could rip your arms off it would be mark cur in 2000 and in this video you see him standing there and it's an open division and then Leo steps out opposite him I think year 510 quite a bit shorter and nearly a hundred pounds lighter than then mark at that time I mean it really looked like David versus Goliath in this match coming into it as a viewer I had seen with my family being involved in wrestling we would watch the NC2A championships every year and so I had seen mark win before liked him and it was like oh he's an American and I'm all fired up and let's see what happens in this match and about a minute or two into it I'm just watching Leo this little guy escape one dangerous situation after another and he's just so quick and smart and able to evade everything that mark cur is trying to do as I'm watching this video I'm like I don't know who this little Brazilian guy is but I like him this is awesome and I want to ask you Leo what is it like in the minutes leading up to that match like what are you thinking you see him this beast of a man what's going through your head at that moment yeah I think the first thing is like it's a safe environment right so it's a martial arts we fight we of course we want you to hurt each other but at the same time there is a trust that he if you tap will stop right so this being said if everything goes worse like you still able to tap and I know how to protect myself to not get hurt before this happen because it can happen sometimes you don't have a time and you can get very big injuries but with my skills I have to be training and competing with a guy like him so it was not something new for me you know so it was the first time that was fighting with a no-ghee so usually we have grips we have gis so it was my first time competing in the rules that I don't know that rules was made by the shake tahnoa shake of abadadi he came up with a rules that making all the different grappling martial arts one rules that unify everybody so it's not about only taking down or pin the back in the ground but it's not just about the submissions about like it's a combination he's giving a opportunity for both fights so my strategy and my opportunity because you can score points and win the match that way or you can submit so it's like being the back in the ground doesn't give him points unless he he take me down or unless like he's being my side of mount position so I knew it how to score the points and I knew how to avoid you know of course that is a lack of difference like the strong and skill like but I knew I trust so much my skills so when I when I saw his name in the bracket I said oh my god man I like he's gonna kill me of course but at the same point my friends came say hello like uh in the second like he's a brackets so try to make him get tired as much possible because the next Brazilian who fight with him he has to be so tired for a week and try to beat him yeah so that was the strategy so maybe you're not gonna win but take his energy as much possible for the next one I say okay I'll do my best my strategy was like a pull god being the bottom be pushing pushing pushing and make it get like uh make him move as much possible but when I pulled god he wasn't on top of me he was so strong that I never faced somebody stronger that point so he was squeezing my arms or my foot just with the part of his wrist and his hands and there was a point to tap I say oh my god no he was squeezing uh in that point that I was in the half god I was in the bottom so he was hugging me and he was one with one hand he was choking my neck and then I usually like nobody choking nobody from the position but he was so strong that the choke was affected I say oh my god I cannot I cannot stay here or I would tap so I put his I had my neck I put his hand on my head he starts squeezing my head and it was so strong that I said no I give my neck against him I'm choking he's got a choke then squeezing my head gonna break my head at that point I realized I cannot be in the bottom because he's gonna be all his strength all his power to smash me and then that's why I decided to change the strategy and I started stand up what was going against the whole strategy that my coaches said so I then I started stand up and then I started fighting surviving and fighting stand up you know I didn't have all the skills to take him down I was not like wrestling I was the jujitsu player but I was very good in reaction so I was using his attack to counter attack I was making he get tired as much possible and then I realized that I could beat him because the rule if he we don't score points we have overtime and my goal became okay let's make as much overtime possible and I'm gonna let his score points so I was letting him take me down but always with the counter attack to escape and every time he wants to rest I was provoking for he tried to take me down again and I escaped and then I was doing again didn't get did it again so the end of the 10 minutes he was no points right so these allowed us to go to five more minutes but what people doesn't know is like that was a new spot you know so they was building the rules by the way so at that it was back in the time there was a supremacy about Brazilians so we we have been winning all the division mochika was the first one that could like break this okay so they don't want he was the hope that this is gonna be it's the first time that someone not Brazilian can win so they act like they help him because he said I'm too tired I'm not gonna do the overtime and then they come up with new rules that say okay Lee you got minus one so they give me penalty because I was stepping back so they're not supposed to use that rule after the time right but they use because they want to promote him I did read there was a lot of controversy over that decision yeah the fact that I survived for 10 minutes right did he change the fact that we supposed to have another fight with five minutes right you know that's making me popular yeah so the fights finish he went to his locker room and he stuck like he can he's sick and he was super tired and then when he has to come back to the next round he say no I'm not gonna come back they call me say hey mocha is out so you have to replace him right but they give the time enough to mark a recovery and then my care come back later he not just came back but he win the whole division he win three more fights he became the one champ in the open class but was a very good experience right was very good fight that that I didn't win but what I win was bigger than just the title like like the way that I faced the way that I fought very similar against somebody three times bigger than me was proved that we want to prove as a martial arts efficiency yeah and it well and it catapulted your yes fame yes was changed the whole thing of my my life yeah open opportunities to engage students sports even like a move to United States later not really was a turning point in your yeah all my life career yes in your life yeah so afterwards what was the public perception of that match and what specifically did it do for you from that point forward that after that thing was like everybody was oh my god jiu jitsu is very efficient as a no-ki because we thought was just with gay but we start seeing like and that competition was the first competition so every year they're gonna make tournaments and every year we'll have the opportunity to show how much the jiu jitsu was very powerful as a grappling because in wrestling judo a lot of grappling it just like a top game so the the razzle in the ground but a lot of top games so we was the only one that I grabbed with the back in the ground looking for sweeps submissions with the back in the ground so that we bring a different perspective for the martial arts you can find a lot of striking you find a lot of sports to take down and control the opponent but you don't find so much as a submission you don't find special you find only one that fights with the back in the ground that's what's usually so right so that was the big mark that changes everything it showed how our sport was strong start with this grappling and became more successful with UFC with high-segrasy pulling guard and fight against big athletes right you and then we're in the ground and we need yeah yeah if you're enjoying this episode please take a moment to rate five stars hit the subscribe button and if you're on apple podcast leave a review and now back to the show what was your lifestyle and training regimen like when you're in your 20s and you're trying to be the best in the world at your sport you know my my lifestyle at 20 was not different I was like 15 years old when I was a low about my lifestyle as a black belt was the same discipline as a low about when I realized that sport was my survivor thing was like the way that it can take me for where I was to give me something so I embraced this with very serious and I was older brother so my parents always put depression on me to be the example to my brother so whatever I do they're gonna be following so if you always like a crazy guy probably my brother is gonna do the same thing so and I took this responsibility very serious so I never would like all in Brazil start very early to go party and you know like crazy life sometimes so I was avoiding the whole thing so even when I have a lot of friends they're going to the nightclubs and like enjoy their lifestyle you know I was very rare I was a guy who was not drinking not drinking or using drugs no anything so sometimes most of the times for a group of friends I was like a this square guy like you go square I don't know how to go here the guy who doesn't do anything you know like oh no you're such a like a old like I was the old old guy yeah you know in the group but I knew what was my my goal right I understand this as one I was a teenager so my decision was like the commitment so I was training like I was fully committing to be on the gym as much possible training my body training everything as much possible of course like I was not eating not as a the way supposed to you know supplements this but I was very engaged with the training okay how many days a week are we talking training?

I have Monday-June Sunday so there's no arrest I was in the gym Monday Tuesday Sunday I was always running or doing something else I like to run so much back in the time and swimming surfing when I moved so bow so my discipline was very tough because I was competing at high level competitors and I was teaching class with a very very responsibility and the challenge that I was facing in this new place is because the academy that I had need to teach didn't have competition team I think I was the first one to create like a fighter house or camp so I brought two guys was my close friends I brought two guys that you leave with me exclusive to training with me so there was purple belt back at that time but was young guys one who strong and one who fast so I can train a different ability with them so and I was leaving six hours from from where I was to leave it before so it was fully committing from them to I was paying their salary I was paying like a home I was giving like all the resources that they need at the same time for them was amazing experience there was a purple belt with the opportunity to train if someone were bigger name as a black belt to learn directly from from them so this environment create a lot of champions because it make they become a champion make we connect with another athletes inside the academy that before it wasn't a competitor place became a competitor so even Demi Amaya which is a big name a UFC so he was one of the products that we have in this house because Demi he wants to compete and he was from Sao Paulo he saw me and two other athletes was competing Sao Paulo and make a lot of noise in the city so he enjoyed to training to learn jujitsu because he wants to do MMA but he was just a white belt like a young guy wants to do a white belt so and then he came up to train with us and he end up like living some training he was very dedicated he training so much and then he was most of the time like leaving me first too because I have a big house very close to the gym to support the athletes and then I like we I was taking the athletes from different place to stay with me and training make camps and then Sao Paulo Academy and my city over there became one of the in our team one of the biggest like a competition team and everything start for this with my discipline so my discipline was to train those athletes training myself and later on I start with the college and then like I was waking up 5 a.m.

going to the college come back 12 o'clock and then training myself 12 to 4 o'clock and then teacher class 6 to 9 and then going to sleep very late wake up next day 5 a.m. onion again to start everything again that was for five years was tough and so you're in the gym basically 12 o'clock to 9 o'clock then yeah that's why my house was like a shared wall to wall with the gym that was there for the whole time now what supplements were you taking during that time well honestly like I never took any soba just fruits just fruits and eating like eating like a very clean during that camps in the competition but I remember back in the time popular supplement was a you know acids yeah like a liquids then like a whey protein those are the most like a popular but uh but not even like a protein shake or anything like that I grew up as a kid I didn't have money to afford like supplements so I was just eating food and fighting and I was already winning competition so and then there's no reason why you're gonna supplement because if you have a result in performance I was very genetic I was blessed to be able to without supplements beating people with a supplements and then I was not making sense why should I use you know but later on I can understand okay how important it is but I was already too late because I never had the education I think the correct they're the right education but when I teach my athletes I saw how the important was and then I hired a nutritionist I hired like a sports of physical condition for giving conditional training I hired like psychologists for the sport yeah for my athletes for the performance because I knew it that I didn't have it but for some I knew it how important will be for my athletes I was introduced them to this environment everything to do a better performance in the in the sport and what was your lowest moment in your journey to become the world's best I think the life is fully with like those moments right so like but I think those the moment that I show how powerful you are to maybe the first one I think is always the heart the biggest you know because it's it's surprise you and the first one you don't know how to react like I told you like with those two guys I brought you those two guys to 20 for me yeah and then I give things to them like I never did to even make it to my brothers so salary food like all friendship like it was there no difference between me and and then yeah so we share a lot of things a lot of everything I put so much I invest so much not money but like loyalty and friendship and then one day one of these guys he just like decides to be by himself and this was was like a surprise you know and the way that the turn was not like the nice way you know and then like that was a very big disappointed you know and it was at the same time that we had in the Jewish team have a very big like division and also my professor who has taught me everything so he also make a decision to be with another group not with this guy but with another group and not giving support he takes sides in one like problem that we was facing as a team and then like that was like what came everything the same time so like it was with my professor picking sides with to support like between it's like a father who takes sides to to when the two brothers fight yeah so that's hurts me and the other was like when one of my was like my son or my brother like I just should not be my my brother anymore and like and then he laughed was a situation that I thought that I said oh man like it's maybe I'm the wrong sport maybe I'm doing this something and I was already making physical therapy I was facing like if I if I stop and I'll stop because I was like it's it's like I was with no floor not I did it I lost everything in that time there was when I was mad my wife to we was dating back at the time so she was my north she was the one there strong support that helped me to get all my peace you know and build up together again by myself and then with with other students and then we built something was better than before that was nice because what we built after that was bigger than we was before you know and with more values so that was good overcoming but the process was long was not easy you know and it was very tough and more emotionally because you get a touch with people that are close to you and you guys share so many so many things in their lives so that's that's was the that's was the tough when I've seen with you and Frank and Alvin who you for those who don't know the work together in the ownership of the Seal Beach dojo and just how close you guys are and how important loyalty and trust is for all of you and Alvin had mentioned that you don't partner with anybody for a new gym like you can't just contact Leo Vieira out of the blue and say hey I want to start a new dojo in X or Y city it's you've got to know somebody in the inner circle so that there's trust from the very beginning I could imagine how hard that situation would have been when there was a split yeah the thing is like a size my childhood and to this into a that situation I was a soldier like a going to the war like I was just getting the mission and making the mission be accomplished so I was a captain leading my team to any battle that was sending right so that's the way I saw so you don't make a questions about the mission is you don't you don't argue with your father so I never argue with my father doesn't matter if my father was right or wrong about my thinking so I was doing anyway because he was my father that's the way I grew up so you were hanging my father so the way I saw my team was with the same authority so whatever they were telling me to do what I was doing but then I realized later that the difference between my father and the team was my father was in the end he wants to the best for me and what I saw in the team he they didn't want to the best for the outlets they want the best for just one or two person that is the top of the pyramids then make your mission going to the for for longer reasons and that's when you start ugly inside that's when you start to say like I create a leadership over a people because I want people fight for freedom I don't want the people fight for their own goals but for for everybody you know and people want more they have control more than want to control so an hour's the voice from the other side that are two ones to make they understand the boundaries too and people has the rights and the professor in the student has the rights like that was a big issue inside the team that's why the team fights because one who's in the power doesn't want to lose the power but the other people doesn't want to be in this system the martial arts culture put it as a loyalty okay I'm loyal but I'm loyal for what you know we're loyal for what do we believe but when we saw that the result of my loyalty it's causing wrong things or it's not for the right cause like I know I'm not gonna give him my loyalty and that's when I I decide to open my own when I open my own I didn't have like any excuse as a leadership I just have the power as a leadership because of I was the voice of those minorities so then I have a lot of people following me because they believe that what I was doing is fair but they're these families I learned with my father I didn't learn in my in my joshitsa team and and now okay how do I build the team they're based in in in fairness when I don't have something to copy then I studied I had to read about leadership I had to read it to you about skills that I didn't have before and I didn't know what I'm gonna build I just know which one I doesn't want to build so all my research then take me to the Bible I always was a Christian and always was like even when I'm in and out like you always fear and respect God and when the life taken to those situations that's when you became more spiritual because then nobody can it can help anymore when you have no more resource or nobody can really that's when you have to thinking about something else like something can help you because nobody can help you mean when you hit those low points low points yeah was a very super low points at that point I say okay so what I I don't know what to do what what should I do and then and I find all the resource that I need you know in the Bible I start copying the the model that that Jesus with the apostles and like the values they have that the way to think and then I saw like so many answers for my questions and then I start building my team we we're big network we're not a franchise and the reason we do open franchise with invitations that's models because of the trust we want to build I don't have no problem to people use all our resource and share with others I have problem with people use our resource and not share or just be selfish so the way that we build the team it was like about connecting by loyalty but also by friendship and then we became very popular everybody wants to wants to enjoy us and everybody is we be welcome and then we build this system that we we teach the professor how he became a professor how to he be a professor and like how what he's the right we don't create dependence he don't need me so I teaching how he be independent but he choose to be with us because in the end we all know that together we're strong the team was growing their way with this mentality to not grow to be the best team or the biggest team we never aim to be the they want change on team so we want to make the team the help of they want to make the team that take people from one start and change their starts like make they be successful as a professor successful as a business owner successful as a competitor so our main goal is how is a people development and we use the joujitsu as the way that we help people develop themselves jiu jitsu as a vehicle to help people develop themselves and as a side consequence there happened to have been several champions that have come up through your schools but that's not the reason you're doing it yeah it's just consequence because I don't try to push people to do what they don't want to do so we help people we motivate so if you are a competitor we're gonna give you reasons to to make you understand why you're doing and how much that's gonna be taken as a it's a lot of commitment and then we have the resource to make you be a world champion so the things like how much that you want to pay the price his own person who can pay is himself right well like you said you were in the gym nine hours a day yeah ten hours a day sure sometimes I can afford someone to be nine dollars a day and give their best for nine hours a day but everybody go to the gym with a different perspective it's not everybody wants to go to the gym it's to be a world champion we try to understand that that's what the professors understand what each individual has as a ghost you know it's not like we don't have one goal as a candidate be the world champion oh my academy we're gonna he you're gonna join the own pro-artless no but we focus in achieve your own goals so it's individual goals and sometimes your goals change because you start falling off the sport and then you change okay so what you start a hobby now I want you like often in frank so there was a hobby like there was working with a totally different things you know have their own like a lawyer office when I met them and then like they became a white belt they start training they they decide to make the competition they fight they got the belt they blue belt and the purple belt the brown belt oh let's open the school because it would be good like for the community they open the school now they're professors so they don't work anymore in the office the hobby became the so passionate they became their job then you work with a lot of young athletes in different schools how's it different than when you came up and tell you feel young athletes should train when I start we didn't have so much data about like how we should start what should we do not even like a so much competition we don't know how the sport can take us to what kind of successful you should I expect back in my time you want to train because you want to prove for somebody else that you're strong that you can protect yourself that was about survive back in my time when the competition starts was like to show to people you was enough because remember I was saying I have always definitely I'm not enough or they take me to the competition is to prove not to me you know like prove to people that I was enough I was like I'm I can do it I can prove that they was wrong when if for everybody that thought they was wrong so that's what once you prove to them but nowadays that is a lot of opportunities as a jujitsu you can become a professor you can be just an investor in the schools you can be a high-level professional athlete so there is a lot of different lifestyle inside the sport so kids nowadays they start as a sport but a lot of a lot of young kids they already start aiming to be a world-shaped as a black belt with very commitment you know and the data that we have to how to training kids how to make the perform we know how to training how to build young athletes a healthy way for they be a body to shape and like mentally strong physically strong and be able to perform as a lower belt and continuous performs as a higher belt because only once you get a black belt it's like a reset everything we did before forget was just experience right now it's important what you're gonna do now because all your titles start counting again so people count the title by the belt okay so you're trying to win at the purple belt level doesn't matter how many words have you had a junior brown belt you start over a black belt you know so that's what you start your professional career something that's going on in a lot of sports our parents driving the process instead of the kids driving the process almost professional level training when kids are yeah even seven or eight years old doing six seven days a week do you have any thoughts on that has that bled into jiu-jitsu as well yeah even with our sport it's not a spot who gives like scholarship but it's still very popular because you don't see like our sport is the sport who can guarantee future so even like with not a scholarship so our sport is a sport that's very successful as a professor as a competitor like daughter marshal has like a wrestling in the high school perform pretty good you can get in the college but then it's over a little so you don't have like a older competing wrestlers or something so there's a lot of wrestling that goes to MMA but then you don't see so much like a private school or a wrestling school the same you see a jiu-jitsu school shiu-jitsu make a very good like a marketing and establish themselves with a family that make the competitions be very powerful they're successful it's very fair sport as a to compete so you're gonna fight you someone with your level within your in your age and your group and your and in your weight class yeah so it's very challenging for you and very fair yeah that's why it's attracted kids to adults and and others right so no matter how young or old you are you're gonna be matched up appropriately so they challenge you sometimes when you work with kids you have working kids and the parents yeah that is a lot of expectation that the parents have and sometimes can over impression the kids yeah because in the end the kids they want to make the parents proud sure and if if the parents if they first trade we would be bad and then once sooner or later they they will quit so I have my kids training shiu-jitsu I don't coach my kids yeah so my kids ask me when they they start ask how daddy are you asking your coaches you know I'm not your coach I'm your father yeah that is five coaches in the gym and they teach kids class you have to fit with one of these to see which one you feel more comfortable with and then we will guide you or whatever you have to do yeah my our relationship it's father and son yeah so we go to the gym with training you teach me something I give you a thought like give a tip like with trainees together but I'm not coaching you right you don't want me as a coach because I'm not nice with my like I have to do things that are the father cannot do it and their relationship between father and coach would be mixed never we know when we may have father when we be the coach because they find the coach if sometimes they have to battle it's the battle with the son and father or the coach and son coach and father let's say like uh because as a coach I'm gonna put so much pressure in the outlet yeah because I know he can handle you know but also he's the one that we all under stress his father is gonna be talked to me he says hey Leo hey I think he's going too much and then I can listen and be watching or he says no no don't worry I'm watching I know he can handle all I can be more flexible but I'm feeling the father and the coach who's gonna support this kid he has no someone can protect him the father is the one who protects the coach the one that he was gonna push him for he gives performance okay father like I don't handle him okay so quit let's go let's do something else like your father has to be the one that saves you it's like open arm and come on like okay forget come on no it's too much for today or whatever he has to be the one that hugs you yeah the coach is gonna be the one that wanna be kicking you I say hey you go you have to go you know so you have to do what you have to do yeah like I will see my outlets cry and how to make they come back you know they share with me I don't think I can do it and then I have to make the belief but I know also the experience that they give me there how much that I can push if he really can see I'm not pushing you know but I have I first as a coach I have to change the way he see if he don't see one opportunity to win over somebody else I say okay so don't get the fight because you don't believe we only fight if you believe we have to believe even if our chance was small can be one we must believe there you have motivations to push you to do something because you're gonna have you have strategy you have one shot but if you don't believe and you don't see it so that's why I know how to push but the father is important that the father is my feedback about how he's attitude in home how he's attitude in schools how he's attitude changing because as a coach the competitions change so much kids attitude the connection is important that's why both it's important the father needs to know he has to be the father no reward kids after all if you beat their kids or give a day or if you win give like that's the wrong thing because you reward results right instead of the hard work exactly so then if you reward results like for you the most important results so you're gonna learn how to cheat he's gonna learn how to do this you're gonna learn to give you what you expect you know in the end what you want is hard work that's gonna be the more important when the father and the coach in the same page together we can get the best performance for the kid yeah that's interesting I see it a lot in soccer with parents reward if you score gold you get 20 bucks 50 bucks I'm gonna take you to a special dinner but the real work is the training part of it and that's what leads to the results and sometimes you're gonna miss and sometimes you're gonna score but if for me my philosophy is the same if you put in the work to be prepared for that moment whether you succeed or not in the individual moment is not really the point in my heart of hearts believe over time you keep putting in the work keep getting ready for those moments eventually all those moments are gonna start going your way if you keep at it yeah now you have a lot of schools in the Brazilian favelas I noticed on the website what does that mean to you I grew up over there so it's part of my life you know like we share the same school we shall you know luncheon day the recess so I grew up with those kids you know like and when I opened my first school back in the time in Rio de Janeiro so those kids was a part of my was my first students right and like be able to give back to the to those community it's like a give the chance for those kids became a one champion in their life you know we have so much kids that became a man and they became like living in different countries and they support their family you know so we know how important it is we have to always like to look at the community that you are and question yourself like how did you jiu jitsu can help the people around you because that is people who can pay that is people who cannot pay you know and but everybody needs you jiu jitsu so like open your school for those that they need make the jiu jitsu be the resource or the bridge between like to unite people you have to be the filter you have to be the one to protect all the values that your your academy are this that's why like I don't try to be a franchise otherwise I had to make everybody work is the same way with the same environment the same attitude and I believe that different culture need different needs so they face in different issues so that's why every school that we have first we look for a local instructor or we look for the instructor who can fit what the city needs every city community needs something that the jiu jitsu can help we just have to match the professors going to teach over there be able to give what the community needs and when you have this then that's why every school has like a different like a personality because he provide what's to fixing what's the community needs yeah now checkmate is the name of your organization that oversees all these dojos and this began while you were still competing but then you really leaned into it once you retire from competition why did you call it checkmate ah we need a name for this competition we didn't have a name we like the only thing I knew it that I don't want to use my own name right as a team because I want to something that are bigger than anyone and then with all random names I think was my wife came up with checkmate you know and then I said no it's so weird name but at the same time always they associate jiu jitsu as a chess because like how clever was this martial arts how like strategies you know a lot of points that was always associated with the chess and then like looks funny the name you know and then like we start okay but I would have to come up with the name and then I choose okay let's take this name as a sample and then I took checkmate and then we we take it before was checkmate so take the the e and then we became just checkmate what's the meaning so it's uh king and dad but now when you take the e will be it's king and mat as a tatania they say oh my god okay so sounds good okay let's play with this let's come up and then we come up for the logo like in three days like we come up with the name logo or everything we said I said look guys we have to come up with the name because one name we take I know it's our identity the name is important but the more important is what how is going to make the name it became strong the person is going to be behind the name so the values that we have what we're going to do we'd be important for the name became big right and that's when I said so doesn't matter what name let's just pick this name as a sample checkmate doesn't matter is a funny name's long so I don't think I also I don't like it but I think we work you know because what's gonna make is our work it's our job right and then with this speech we start making the sample and then okay let's take checkmate and then became okay let's then check me I checkmate agree agree agree okay let's go and then yeah yeah when I saw the logo with the chess piece then it all came together for me I was like oh it's a combination of the mat and checkmate and I I really like the name because it links up with the way you approach the sport which is that it's a high thinking yeah endeavor yeah I like that because everybody thinks of jujitsu as being a physical strength based sport yeah but man you get in there you can be against the skinnyest weakest person but if they know a lot more than you do they will tie you in knots and have their way with you yeah yeah over the name we bring a different perspective a lot of people back in their time was using like animals or things like a lot of things that show like how tough is we come up with something that more like the ideas you show something more simple more smart you know like a strategy something like more intellectual but both have the same goals everybody wants you you know finish the point and make the point and quit you know and at the same and the end we always very gentle you know like the shake hands yeah so come up with a big good name like we were lucky okay now what's it like to start a business in America as an immigrant you know the funny story because my first like a US trip I was traveling to United States and competing and in 2005 I compete one of the biggest competition ADCC I was in California and I was coaching a virtual bell for I was coaching some MMA outlets it was the first time that I had a opportunity to open a school in California we have some conversations so we start making the process and a couple years later I got my visa canceled and I was I wasn't deported but they canceled my visa they sent me back I was not allowed to to come to United States for three years that I was in Brazil traveling to Europe can travel everywhere but not US so I was destroyed like I was coming here to US to coach one of MMA outlet to be his camp and still bell for no different a different guy I was going to Denver he he hired me to be his she's a coach so my flight stops it in Houston okay and then the immigration I was asking what I'm going I said look I'm going to this place I'll be there I'll be in the training camp for this guy and then I start making weird questions like okay I have to take it to a different room oh so they take me to a different room and then start say look I know what I mean what are you doing here I just want you you know I say oh my god I don't know what I don't know what I'm talking about I'm telling that I I'm going to this place training jiu jitsu because this guy he's America he's gonna fight yeah I'll be I mean how gonna help but I'm not helping you guys to be to performance you know I come here to this say no so I want to you tell the truth I say it was all day and then take me every time they take me to a different room every room there we go it's more small is small is small and then he read my rights you know like I was I was in shock because I didn't have the English that I have today reading your rights like they're gonna rest yes I say hey do you are under federal law so I could gonna make an interview whatever you say everything you're gonna be recorded I say look I speak in Portuguese I can say something can make me in trouble in my mind was just like going to tell them what I could you know like say man like I'm not criminal I'm not doing anything right like and I'm telling I'm going to call those guys ask them yeah like I'm going to teach them yeah and then I was trying to say look I was here a couple weeks ago I was with my family in the gzisraelan I came back to my family I don't want to move my to us I'm not working illegal so I'm coming I came a couple weeks ago I was with my family why not why I'm not a stay I came back so I live in Brazil I'm gonna live in Brazil so right now I come here I'm gonna spend like a couple weeks training this guy which is gonna fight I don't know whether you what you can see in your computer but you let me know for the protecting myself because I don't know I don't know I say yeah I know we're giving like you have to tell me I say I cannot tell what I don't know in the end he finger-printed he asked me if I was like he saw my passport like I was traveling so much he asked God have you been traveling who who paid for all your trips I said I paid my trips or and then he was putting my name in the Interpol or anything to see if I have if I was one in one of the country so there's nothing there's nothing because I would use you to guy like you know like nothing wrong and then like in the end they take my bags they watch they see just geez and closings like training closings clubs mouthpiece and then they say okay but uh uh we we change your tickets you're gonna come back tonight so they send me back you know at the same night you can make a two phone calls one to the embassy that say that you're not gonna be in the United States and you're gonna call to someone to tell that you come back to Brazil so I call the embassy and I call my wife you know to say hey I'm coming back early I don't know what's going on so they cancel my visa I came back I say look I hear for all day answer your questions yeah so I want to know why I'm not allowed to be in the United States right he said look I don't have this answer as I know you are too much for the for the visa you have I say look is it you visiting too often uh visiting the United States because the United States like one of us are Brazilian you apply for that one only one visa that I apply and that's what I explained to that I say he was trying to tell me that I have too much status for my visa okay and I say I say look when I come to the United States I don't choose what visa I want I tell what what I would do so when I come to the United States I always fight it's always connect to jiu jitsu so I fight or I have fun with my family so they choose what visa they give to me my visa is B1 and B2 B1 and B2 it's a it's a touristy visa and you can be in conference you can be kind of business without making money so I don't know like what is wrong but I don't what are you guys trying to say they say look we have to cancel your visa you have to apply for another visa okay but they didn't give me the right answer they didn't tell me they just say look you're not able to be here you have to change your visa so what kind of visa should I change because when I apply for their visa I want to apply for the same visa they not so what visa should I know because if I have a different visa I should know but they didn't give me those information they just send me back and then for three years now they didn't let me apply so I make application every year but they did decline decline decline and four years later finally they are set to the interview you know in American Embassy in Brazil so I went to the embassy and they have a two console interview me he asked what was the problem that happened before over there I said yeah that's that's I want to know yeah because for three years I'm my athletes competing competitions in the United States I cannot coach them because I'm not allowed I'm not welcome I want to know why I'm not a welcome when I did nothing wrong so you guys have to tell me what's wrong for I can fix because all the words competitions it's in California I cannot travel to California so at the end they never told me what happened but they gave me the same visas before and I said I said look with the same visa maybe they're gonna they're gonna they're gonna do that again yeah so after that I was coming to United States and I always my trip with a two three hours between like connections because they take me to this room make them the same questions again every time every time for me and then take me like a two hours to explain always the same thing they are like always talking the same thing and I was trying like I said look I don't know what you guys see but I never did nothing wrong I say look how long like every time this happened when this gonna finish you say this only finish if you want there you became citizenship if you get the green card I say hmm and then I got a lawyer I say hey what do I have to do to get the green card I say I say you have such a strong name you can get a green card here very quick yeah but I say but the green card you must you live in us I say look right now the way the spot change I want to live in us it's okay so you should apply I apply five days they give to me so it was four years just trying to visit and then in five days you get the green card yeah that is crazy the process take me a little bit but the moment that he he applied five days I got answered right was a three years that I was training my athletes to perform say us and I could I could not follow them right always with stuff yeah oh it was crazy at that point you do move to the us yeah and then what other challenges do you face trying to build the business yeah because then I have a new clue how to build the business I knew what that I want to be in Long Beach because that's what the word competition is I have a friend that was opening a crossfit box and he said well I have a space that I can't sublise for you have your mats I say okay but how do I open the company they say okay I help you so he helped me to sublise so and then I met Frank and Alvin they was what the angel that in my life here in the US so there was show me all the resource how should I open the LLC how like apply for the business how business licenses how the process stacks and I will say I don't want you guys to do to me I want learn because that's my that's what I like to learn but they have been the one that are like my angels in the United States like help me to any all the questions that I have regarding business and though they was the one they're like always patient try to tell me because it's very different the way that we do things in Brazil right they my brother my brother that I find here yeah I am still blown away that they gave you such a hard time for so many years to visit here especially looking backwards where you become a citizen you live here in America now you have more than a hundred branches across the US that's but back in that time I have three students that was living here and one of these was my brother were some of the other major athletes in the sport that you've worked with because a few names and I know you're not a name drummer but a few names have just popped up in the conversation these are high level guys yeah in MMA I was coaching a virtual balfa that was open up to this you know to coaching MMA I was making working the camps and coaching um BJ Penn back in the time and then MMA was my students and then I was coaching like in some of those fights right that's more like as MMA as a jujitsu like the biggest name in the sport Marcus Busceca so he's our black belt and now he's do fighting MMA he's a very well recognized name in the sport then Lukas Laje, Jerome Aseesh, Punnishu that a lot of guys that came to US that's multiple times world champion those guys they they bring a lot of others champions but directly from me it was like those was the the first the first important names right what was your best moment as a coach as a coach nowadays I train you so much as a coach to be a coach right so I'm not the person directly as a coach right so I have I'm in that different like situation right now but as a coach when I see Busceca achieving his title that he was in like his last world championship and being the corner oh it's nice because you see like worth it like although he came through the camp worth it because he wins when and now I teach coach to be the coach so my last competition when I saw Johnson beating Tainan D'Aupra which you have been unbeatable for 65 and then he beat the guy in the final the words was one of the biggest moment because also I saw his coaching which is his brother being the coach that I was training right the one thing is like everybody need me as a coach so I'm I'm the processor I'm doing right now it's a building coach yeah because if I build correct good coach I build it I multiply athletes and competitors if I'm the only one can make athletes it's one thing but if I can make coach make so that's why I focus on watching coach right now so when I see his brother which is John Ather who coaching my academy being his coach during the camp and be his coach in the corner and make his brother win the tournament against the guy who was unbeatable for 60th match I say okay I'm doing something right yeah I really like that because it's a whole different skill set yeah to coach coaches to then go coach beat one thing you coach one thing you teach people how to coach it's like because when you fight it's all about yourself you have to be very selfish because it's about how much can you perform every single day coach you have to be very empathy for the person I I can't create an empathy for my athlete to learn I need to know him better than he knows to to feel to give him what he needs to perform but when you coach of the coach it's like how to you can teach someone to create this empathy that is like man that's it's next level yeah that's a negative because you have to teach people to be empathy you know oh my god yeah and when you see this happen I say okay that's it so then now we have the former now how to just replicate yeah oh that's fantastic early in the interview you said jujitsu is choice consequence just like life is choice consequence what are some of the other things that you take from jujitsu and bring it into life or things that you're teaching coaches on how to help their athletes make those connections between lessons learned on the mat and taking that into life yeah we we're never going to stop in this podcast if to start like naming like all the benefits that we had how much we can we associate you know but that's one of the things that I always said to everybody it's like everybody wants to succeed in jujitsu as the first as a white belt if anybody wants to first survive after survive they want to learn techniques to to control and then they want to work submissions so that it stops and like it's an individual journey because you have to face your fears you have to learn things that sometimes you don't want to touch you know you have to learn about your comfortable zone and your weakness and you have to face your weakness regarding to have a balance in your game I always make a question today and say look if you compete against yourself what should be the strategy so that strategy that's what you have to be practicing more because that's your weakness it's going to be uncomfortable but that's going to give you confidence and develop yourself in this and that's it for everything like as a kid everybody scary off of the with the lights until they turn on the lights but I have to get inside the room the dark room and find the the outlet the plug for for a turn on the light I need to face my my fears if I don't face it's like I just put boundaries and make me smaller so just do the same thing you know so a more more I face my fears my weakness it's more I also I expand my confidence and competition people say I don't like compete I say yeah because make you face it's not about winning those but show so much about how you deal with control emotional but that's what competition is nice I say we usually don't like the competition because we think in the results we don't think in the process but every day you compete you're gonna work at school you have a test you have you have something that you have to you have to perform but no matter what you have to perform but it's the discipline that in the time you put that and you and competition is a good like a time before you see like the way that you commitment to compete you start thinking different because now you worry about you're looking to strategy you're looking to your game you take care of your what do you eat you take care of your rest you're looking to training your weakness you look to strategy to compete you hold you learn so much about like things that make you be excited they make that you calm down so you have to because everybody has to be you cannot be too calm you cannot be too excited so you have to find the balance to perform you want to defeat you want to the body being the in the balance of adrenaline that you because you will help you if you have no fear no adrenaline you're gonna do whatever it takes you know like you don't care but when you care and what make you care if fears what make you cares it's the adrenaline so I have to put the adrenaline in the right toes so the process of competition you learning how you control mentally like what you have to read you have to listen the people around you make you be more strong but also the same time what you can make you calm you know so that are there are a lot of things that are not let's say look if the internet like it's stressed so much don't use internet in the in the week the fight week you know so you have to learn so much about not just a skills but also mentally to control yourself and then the competition happens it's about how you perform how you perform what you be training for and then the after is the feedback okay so what was your mistake because doesn't matter what do we really win or if you lose you need the feedback to develop yourself or the next so what's gonna make you better you know there's a time people win they think they don't have to but that is so there always a situation that you have to be focusing with so competition is something that helps so much to people face a lot of things mentally and physically to be make they also for their life because one day you're gonna prepare yourself for the test or for the job opportunity for the interview and you have to be more prepared you are for that interview for that day it's more you perform you're gonna perform I couldn't agree more and I run a test prep school right for the test to get into college and I don't like the test themselves because I don't think they're great indicators of who you are what you're capable of your intelligence but I think the process can be transformative because it is this big moment with pressure and you have to prepare for it in the same way and if you flip it and you're not so focused on the result you're focused on the process and then you see the result as feedback did the preparation work you can flip that dynamic and make it something where you learn lessons for life in how to prepare for pressure-filled situations do you bring in expert help whether that's winning a jiu-jitsu match or performing on this test can you absorb that information can you be disciplined leading up to this pressure moment and then can you face your fears surrounding whatever this big pressure moment is to perform under pressure to me those are skills that serve you again and again and again if you can become comfortable with that process yeah and that's what we do in the gym because we create a stress moment for you perform but in the safe environment so then you can be learning how to get stress and perform stress and perform and then as long as you you're dealing with the stress we making this stress get bigger and then like and then you not realize but you started enjoying the fact that the challenges and then like you start like consistently to how to control yourself and perform pretty good in those challenges and that's you take forth quite a different areas of your life right because once you like the challenge and you like the pressure then you can really excel in those moments even if it's just having to do an interview for a job but that's one of the biggest fear is speaking public you know yeah you know people shake it just be like I was like I was a kid I was a stuttler I have a very big problem to communicate myself to speak nowadays I speak English I won't travel the world speaking different language of talking people like a for a thousand people the confidence that I have about what I will speak like that's also make me feel comfortable to speak I'm not going to be talking about something that I don't know and that's why I give me but that's the point that the jiu jitsu gave the disability to be in the safe environment and that we control the level of the stress for you became over and over again more confident in the stress that you're facing now as you move through this journey of your life right to overcome all these different obstacles as a competitor and have these different mentors that guide you through it and then back down to zero with starting a business and same thing overcoming these obstacles now that you're on the other side of it succeeding as both a competitor and a business owner how are your kids lives different from how you grew up I think the big difference they have a lot of things that I didn't have in my time but they deserve because of the how behaved they are and how responsible they use all these spoil things I sometimes I make a joke there you got your kids you guys so spoiled because I didn't have this right but it's saying that they're very responsible but with everything what they have so that's the reason also I give because I have no problem to tell them no I have no problem to say it's not the time I'm just blessed to give them what they not just they need but also what they want a lot of things that they want it's not in the time and they don't want to get they understand and they wait but they have everything what they desire but the reason is because they very good they behave and they responsible but I think was the same thing with me and my parents I think my parents give everything what was able for they give it to me I think the things that they didn't give it to me was because they could not afford or because they wasn't on the right timing their relationship that I have my son my kids is even that my father has with me so my father was the guy who never speaks so much I speak I very verbal with my kids about everything I don't want to be his friends I tell say look I'm your father I have no problem to you just like me you know I don't know things because of you like me I do this because I love you because you need if you understand it make me be your friend would be great but I have no problem to not be your friend but I know what kind of man you're gonna be right it's my the point so we have a lot of conversation we have a very good relationship so we talk about a lot of different things so that we bring like a lot of subject to conversation that divide people politics and different things and then we bring this together for we we see the point of view you know and like we have a lot of those conversation and like I'm very very happy to see the man and the woman that they become me yeah yeah they're good kids like I said like my father didn't talk so much but I wanted like I learned so much the way he was acting so I was very behaved my parents especially my father my other brother not the leader of the youngster the middle he always challenged so much one day he was challenging my father so much he was talking talking he was just big modem loud and my father my father said hey sit down let me teach you something when I saw this my father he usually he doesn't say anything I said man what he's gonna say I was look my father went to their kitchen he come back with two eggs one is a chicken egg one quay wag okay and then he open your hands my brother opened their hands he put the chicken eggs in one hand he put the quay wags in the other hand and he say what's the difference and my my brother was looking those eggs and I can see he's like I don't understand and me and my other brother behind my father was laughing because of me also we don't get at the joke I said man what what daddy was trying to say and then I say watch the difference and my brother said I don't know I say like one big one small I say yes and it was very it was very like a rude way he said I say okay that's my balls that's your balls when you're balls when you are egg became bigger than mine you can talk for me like that you do this that's my house it's my rules you know and after this like we laughing laughing behind but he was quiet they're like I gotta say oh my god like it's my brother after that he never egging anything with my father he understood that at that point my father's gonna open their door I said go if you're gonna leave your life go leave your life you know at that point he understood then I was laughing because I said oh my god I want to get my son when my son started challenging me I want to say my son was very good I never needed I never needed so he always was very quiet okay but was uh was fun but that was a memory that I had so much that's great.

Wellio with all you have done and all your past successes what is next for Leoviera? Yeah with the position of one championship as a vice president the grappling so we're trying to build like the grappling sport the challenge is like the industry is a lot of striking MMA boxing moita kick boxing so we are the grappling discipline inside this platform so and grappling can be very boring for those who don't understand and it can be very attractive for those that understand but we with a huge big audience which is people sometimes never training anything before they want to understand something very easy so the challenge is introduce grappling to a striking audience it's like introduce soccer for any B.A.

fans one sport is longer slow sometimes zero and you can have so much fun because the game was so good but and the N.B.A. is pointed behind the point point point after point point very fast so that's the challenge that we face but uh haven't been good so far because we have the best athletes grappling the world we have the fighting in the cage so in their rules that show aggressivity that show submission so very easy to understand and also we're using the grappling inside one championship to educate the audience to how to understand how the judge criteria is the way that they perform as an MMA so the judge criteria is about submission it's about like we don't have damage the damage we have is how aggression we are for the other opponent we build the rules that it's very aggressive as grappling so they looking to the whole time about the submission because that's what's making the the score points it being very successful so every show we have one or two bouts in the card so our last one in the United States was in Denver and it was very successful the feedback was amazing because the US will have a huge like a grappling community and we coming back in next year again with four events in United States that is uh opportunity for we build our own like grappling event at the same time we're gonna have one only grappling show and we're gonna still perform as a grappling side the one championship so this we're gonna keep more active like all the grappling athletes so it'll be something very nice Leo this is very exciting i know from speaking to your partners that building grappling into a huge televised sport is a long-held dream of yours and you've partnered with the perfect organization to make that happen if there are two people on this planet that can level up grappling into a mainstream sport it's you and Chautree the owner of one championship you both possess that rare combination of decades of martial arts experience combined with incisive business acumen i love Chautree's vision with one championship to showcase multiple martial arts disciplines and then the stories that they share about their athletes his vision for martial arts it's amazing you know his life story it's unbelievable and like he's a person behind not just one championship but also behind the jujitsu to make it the grappling became very popular inside one championship beside this platform well i know you have a you're flying out of the country today you have a flight to catch if anybody wants to learn more about Leo Vier where can they follow you i think it's easy to follow me like a true instagram with my it's my name Leo Vierra bjj it's the easy way to connect with me one of my schools in sial beach so in dojo or the check medhejde kore in siganohio so those are the two schools that i'm always around okay and i will put that in the show notes we've got at leo Vierra bjj and then we've got at check map hq and then at dojo seal beach at one championship okay we're gonna get all that in the show notes if anybody wants to follow any or all of those you can leo thank you so much for making the time because i know your schedule is jam packed i mean listener he is literally leaving to go fly around the world for the next month so thank you so much yeah thank you thank you so much for opening a platform invite me and make this spread you know and that's it thanks thank you for listening to the nix Standlea podcast if you enjoyed this episode please subscribe rate five stars and leave a review the best way to support this podcast is to visit our sponsors in the description follow on instagram at nik stanley at n i c k s t a n d l e a ask questions don't accept the status quo be curious