The Legacy Martial Arts Business Podcast

Nick Castiglia (00:00.794)
What's up everybody. Welcome to the martial arts business podcast brought to you by legacy martial arts consulting. This is our very first podcast and I am super excited to have, um, one of my most amazing friends, successful gym owner, one of my first clients as well. One of the OG clients of legacy martial arts consulting, Brendan Kalijandic.

Welcome Brendan to the Martial Arts Business Podcast. What is up?

BRENDAN KALIJUNDIC (00:35.512)
not too much thanks for having me guys I'm excited to be your first guest and let's get going

Nick Castiglia (00:42.202)
All right, so first I wanna hear kind of like how you started your first gym. I obviously know your story. I'm sure a lot of your students don't even know your story of like how Cal Samara got started and like the humble beginnings of it. Take us through it.

BRENDAN KALIJUNDIC (01:04.6)
So how it first started, I think I moved up to Ottawa 2008, 2009, something like that. And I was just at a point in my life where I was working at General Motors, had a good job there. I transitioned into the restaurant industry. I was managing a restaurant called Jack Astor's and I was training the whole time, competing and training. And then I just decided I wanted a change of scenery.

And an opportunity came up where I was given an opportunity to go work at the Kanata Jackasters up in the Ottawa area. And I was just like, you know what? I'm going to go check it out just to change the scenery, get away from some people that I was hanging around here with that might not have been the best influences. And I'm just like, I'm going to go to Ottawa, take a break and just focus on training and working. And I moved up there to, and I checked out a couple of gyms in the area that I wanted to train at and I found the

head location on Carling and that's where I was training, started training there, met you and a bunch of the other coaches and a couple years in, then you guys opened a second location in Canada and I'm like, well sweet, this is right close to my work and I remember going there to train and classes were super small which for a gym owner is probably not the best thing but for me, I was loving it because it was like two guys in a class, I think I was training with your brother at the time and you were one of the coaches there and I just, you know,

I had a good time up there and I remember watching the growth from you taking one location and then expanding into two locations, three locations. And just the vibe and the culture of the gym that I was at where you were teaching and managing. I was like, I really like, obviously love the fight lifestyle, but I saw you guys making it a career. And I just, I was like, man, I want to be like Nick. I want to, I want to bring a gym or an industry like this to Bowmanville.

Um, cause Bowmanville in the area of all the gyms down here back then didn't have an established kind of like business sense to what they were doing as well as having highly competitive athletes. I remember you had like Mark Hulse was competing in Gatineau. Um, remember going to all those shows. So I was watching that whole come up and I'm like, I want to take this exact kind of thing that you guys have and do it in, in Bowmanville. Just, you know, getting sick of the industry I was working in, it was paying good, you know, had like a nice,

BRENDAN KALIJUNDIC (03:25.176)
at that time what 12 years ago now or 14 years ago now I was making like a $55 ,000 salary job benefits paid vacations so back then that was pretty good when I was in my early 20s and I just remember just love the fight life and I remember I walked into the gym one day and I'm just like Nick man I think I want to open my own gym you know this is where I'm at and you're just like you should go into your job quit and follow your dream and do it and I quit the next day.

And I remember I came in, I told him, Nick, I just quit. I'm gonna do it. And yeah, so then I moved back to Bowmanville after that and I partnered up with my brother at the time who was also training competing at a high level and we decided to open a gym and we did. So we opened in 2011 in Curtis and you know, you guys were consulting at that time, I believe, or just getting started and I didn't really know about it, but we tried.

opening a gym on our own, doing what we saw. We saw what you guys did and I had a vision. I just didn't know how to do it. And we made all the mistakes you could imagine opening our first location. First biggest mistakes was I didn't know I could negotiate free months rent with the landlord. Met some greasy landlords. I ended up paying for all the construction myself, all the electrical from scratch. And I didn't realize till later.

after years of going to different landlords and tenants that I could negotiate some of that stuff to get put in. So these landlords took advantage of me, greased me, and then it was just the hard grind of opening the gym not knowing what you're doing. And I remember about a year into it, you gave me a call and you're like, hey listen, I'm doing coaching for businesses to help take them to the next level. And you gave me a couple pieces of advice at that time that really changed my course. Because I was living in the gym, lost my house.

Didn't have a car, I was down and out. Like me and Kara were living in bunk beds in the back of the gym behind yoga class. And I was still trying to compete and train at the same time, which I love, but you're like, listen, you need to pick one or the other. You can either have a successful gym or you can follow your fight career, pick one. And I remember at that time, one of the guys I was training with and looking up to, Antonio Carvalho, I saw kind of him get to the UFC, get through five fights, and I saw kind of what's after the UFC.

BRENDAN KALIJUNDIC (05:47.352)
And that's when you said that to me and I'm like, hey, you know what? I am going to focus on making a successful life out of this. And started coaching with you that year. I think we started 2012. And here we are 2024 and a lot has changed.

Nick Castiglia (06:06.682)
Yeah, so yeah, it's so funny you cited, you know, like what's after, you know, like what's after fighting. And I think a lot of people don't plan for what's after fighting and you're seeing fighters that go, because like, let's be real here. Like it's like 1 % that like make it, they make it to like the big leagues.

And of that 1%, it's like another 1 % that like makes it to the top, you know, like the top, top of the tier. And those aren't great numbers, you know? And I've seen people fight, you know, like well into their thirties and I applaud them and I think it's amazing, but there's not like a big plan for like what's after, you know? And...

They struggle and I've seen famous, like famous fighters struggle.

BRENDAN KALIJUNDIC (07:08.92)
Yeah, that was the goal at the time. I'm like, oh yeah, let's keep fighting. Like, you know, let's get to the pros, let's get to the UFC. And you know, that was a good goal. And there's still parts of me when you look back, I'm like, oh, I wish I would have fought more. I wish I would have trained more. But as I look back now and see all those guys that did make it to the UFC or the highest levels, I see what they're doing now. I'm much more happy with the path I chose. Yes, I gave up maybe an egotistical.

personal self goal, but I think where I'm at now, I'm able to support my family. I have a path for my son to come up and I've developed my own athletes and that's been, that feels good as well, so.

Nick Castiglia (07:48.398)
Yeah, I think you know, like I think everybody's path is unique to their own so like I'm not gonna knock one or the other but I think I think the point like we're really tired, you know trying to talk about right here is like what's after and I still love doing this. So how do I make more of it after you know, and you know, when we started working together I think you know what you're saying 2012.

Like take us through like kind of, you know, you took us through kind of like the early days, the hard days, the grind days, you know, take us through, you know, your first location or sorry, not your first location, but the Bowmanville location and like the climb, like how did the climb start? What were some of the changes you made in your school? What were things like you didn't do before, but you're like, man, I did these.

five or six things and it was the beginning of changing the game.

BRENDAN KALIJUNDIC (08:49.656)
Okay, so I think the main things and the one key point that you kind of told me and that I said I would do and I did, I stuck to it, was once I stopped focusing on my own personal fight career, when I would be in camp and have a strength and conditioning coach or my jiu -jitsu coach or whoever was coaching me, I would do everything they said. Because I wanted to make sure like, you know, if I'm going to get ready for a fight, they say do this, they say do that, I would do it. And I said I'm going to take that same mentality and put it towards...

Listening to what you advise me in and having my own coach for business and I literally did everything you said and it started with I think the first thing we did was did a walkthrough in the gym So you came in and you're like I had all these checkered mats and crap on the walls You're like, okay everything off the walls fresh coat of paint order brand new mats Made those investments. I think that was a big one So then everybody's first impression on my facility was K top -notch clean facility

The second thing you got me to do was relocate and find a different lower priced facility which I did and I grew it from there so gave notice to that greasy landlord, found a new location that was rent appropriate and started going from there. The third big thing I think that I listened to that was one of the game changers was I didn't value myself and my pricing and my billing to where it should have been. I think at that time a membership at my gym was $70 a month.

this was to sign up. So it was a seven hours a month and the clientele I was getting at $70 a month represented $70 a month clientele. You convinced me you're like, and I remember we gave you pushback, but I'm like, you said to do it, we're going to do it. We upped our prices, basically doubling our prices and we didn't lose any members. We ended up getting a higher end clientele.

I think that would be number three. Number four is we incorporated the uniforms, which I think were a huge hit. The uniforms were good just to show our tribe and get the team together. And then I would say number five is you just put us together with systems and you know, what to do every day and team builders, community events. You taught us how to get out in the community, get more members in. And I think those five things right there were...

BRENDAN KALIJUNDIC (11:06.072)
some of the things that really started changing the direction of the gym moving forward. So I think we went from like 70 members and then in the next like, I think three to six months, we basically doubled and it just kept doubling from there. And I'm on a waiting list now in 2024. So there we go.

Nick Castiglia (11:24.122)
Yeah, that's amazing. I know a ton of like, I think everybody would want to have waiting lists for their schools if they could, if it's functioning at the highest level. It's still a challenge to this day as a martial arts business consulting coach to help people understand their value and the value they're bringing to other people in their life.

You know, and I know you believe this and I know you've seen it, that in martial arts and through martial arts, we have the ability to make people the best versions of themselves, you know, and transform their lives and then they become the strongest version of themselves, the most confident version of themselves, the healthiest version of themselves. And, you know, that is priceless in a lot of regards, you know, it gives a sense of.

community or a sense of tribe, you know, as we say in legacy, you know, it gives a massive sense of, of tribe. Um, you know, I have something else I want to touch on too. And I think this is really interesting for other gym owners to hear this is like one thing you're really, really well known for is taking great care of your staff and your people that are with you and are behind you. Maybe like,

explain, you know, like, and I know people would be like, oh, of course you got to take care of your people. Yeah, but people don't, people don't take care of their people. So like, why don't you talk a lot about like your experiences, why you do that, you know, your mentality behind that and the different things you're looking for to provide for your people, your staff.

BRENDAN KALIJUNDIC (12:56.92)
Yeah.

BRENDAN KALIJUNDIC (13:11.288)
Yeah, it's, you know, that's a tricky one because every single employee and staff that you get is different. And I think we're also heading into a day and age where I've noticed over the last, I'd probably say two, three years that, you know, work life balance is something that's very important to people. You know, and me and you talk about it as well. Like having that time with our families and our kids is a lot different than when it was 10 years ago.

Me and you were working eight days a week. It was gym, gym, gym, nothing else matters, shows every weekend, but now times have changed for me and you, but I'm also seeing that shift in other staff. So I'm trying to adapt with those times. And you know, one of the things that we're doing right now, I just had a meeting with my team was coming up with more set schedules for my team. Some of my staff that work 40 hours a week that we're doing five days a week, we're gonna try to transition it to doing like four 10s so they can get three days off with their weekends.

So these are things where it's just like adapting and going but I think setting up like staff incentives have been really good so I've moved some of my high performers into you know somewhat of profit sharing or bonus programs but just taking me you know I'm not I you know what screw it I'm gonna knock people it doesn't matter but I remember I looked up to to one guy on how he treated his staff and his people.

And I just remember saying, I will never be like that guy. Cause I remember watching the growth of a massive industry and a massive, massive thing up to many gyms and many people. And he wasn't taking care of his people, right? And I saw that and all of them were my coaches or I looked up to them. And so once I saw them struggling and then leaving, it was really an eye opener to me to be like, Hey, don't be that guy. You got to take care of your people that put food on your table.

So that was really, I'll be totally honest with you, that was probably one of the things that I learned watching somebody else treat their people or their industry on what not to do. And I did completely the opposite. Bonus programs, paid vacation. They wanted to go on a trip because it was their passion covering it. You know, taking that money and investing it into them because they're gonna do the work on the mats and in my four walls that'll directly reflect me later. And if I'm gonna be in this for 10, 15, 20 years,

Nick Castiglia (15:17.882)
cough

BRENDAN KALIJUNDIC (15:26.296)
I want to have those people grow with me instead of go elsewhere and then compete against me. So, yeah.

Nick Castiglia (15:33.754)
That's amazing. That's amazing. And you know, I can say because I've seen it, it's very inspiring, you know, like, uh, you take care of your staff, you take care of your students, you provide so many opportunities and also leadership opportunities as well. And I'm sure you agree with this. Like it's important to empower the tribe under us, like to empower our students and to empower.

are people to be future instructors, assistant instructors, because we have so many people that have so many different skills than we have, you know? And through leadership, you can find a lot of fulfillment in your life as well. And I know a lot of people on our team, certainly, you know, like you just can't find fulfillment through just leadership. There needs to be financial compensation as well, but.

BRENDAN KALIJUNDIC (16:29.752)
Yeah, I think that's number one, to be honest with you right now. And what I'm seeing is you have to take care of them financially. And I know there's industry standards and I'm trying to go a little bit above industry standard and paying them what they almost think they're worth because if they're working for something they don't feel valued for it. So that's been something that I'm navigating right now. But I think we're in a day and age where prices are going up, inflation is going up. So I'm trying to take care of my people so they're not.

Nick Castiglia (16:30.852)
I definitely find it's, you know, it is a valid.

BRENDAN KALIJUNDIC (16:59.702)
feeling those stresses and then looking elsewhere to do anything else.

Nick Castiglia (17:04.154)
Yeah, awesome. You know, something else I wanted to touch, you know, touch into here, because like, you went to, you know, and I want to hear your thoughts on it and different consultants say different things. And I used to be like this while I was younger, like, grow, grow, do everything, do all the things, have multiple locations and this and that. Like you were somebody who had more than one location.

you've downsized to one location. Why don't you just tell us at a glance, like what are your thoughts on like having two schools versus one like mega school? What are your thoughts on that? What was your experience like? What was your experience like?

BRENDAN KALIJUNDIC (17:43.734)
Yeah, so it was good. So it was good while it lasted and I opened up my Port Perry location about eight years ago. And speaking, if we go back to Antonio Carvalho, he was one of those guys that once he exited the UFC, tried opening a gym, did it for a couple of years in Port Perry, didn't work out, closed down. And then I'm like, all right, a couple of years later, I'm like, I'm going to go to Port Perry. I'm going to try this because I believe I have the business sense.

of this industry to make it happen and we did that. Had a highly successful business. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the satellite location. It was making money. It was profiting. The community was great. The people were great. I just felt that you will have to stretch out your main players. So like as much as I wanted to be there once or twice a week, you know, then Bowmanville would kind of get affected. So I felt, you know,

I was able to develop its own team and its own coaches, but having those aces, the Nick Castiglia's or the Justin Bruckman's on the mat, it was hard. And I think the way I looked at it was it took a little bit of my attention off of Bowmanville where I wanted to go all in on Bowmanville, expand my one main location and consolidate. And I think the deciding factor was when I had my son and I was just like, you know what, I want to be able to spend more time with my family.

I'm going to go all in on one location, expand it, consolidate with the top coaches, and crush and understand my numbers at one gym to make it more profitable. Focus on better systems, focus on better staff training, clean up the numbers at one big facility, and then sell off the second location. So I was able to sell off my second location. I'm two minutes away from my main gym where I can be home in five minutes. And I'm...

putting 100 % focus instead of 90 % focus into this location. There's pros to it. If you're hungry and you got the time to do it and you're able to stretch yourself out, go for it. But if you're the kind of guy that wants to be able to take Sundays off or Saturday nights off and not be out coaching events, I don't know if two locations would be good for you. So I've decided to focus on one location, clean my systems up, and just crush it here.

BRENDAN KALIJUNDIC (20:01.88)
Two locations was good before I had a kid, but now I just want to focus on my family.

Nick Castiglia (20:05.51)
Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, we preach a lot about the family, work -life balance, and I don't know if there ever is a balance, but one thing's for sure, you know, like getting behind, you know, as we talk about in the Tribalnomics course, we talk about, you know, the self and family as being the top two tiers of the things you got to think of in your life and not the other way around, not work first, you know, and I know you being a family man and...

loving husband, a lot of our self identity ties into our relationship with our significant other or our kids. And that's what makes us feel fulfilled in our life. And I think that's a decision you're going to be proud of for your whole life. Nobody's ever going to say, hey, I did this for my kids. I wasn't proud of that. And I think that's super, super admirable. And it sets a great example for...

other business owners too, because, and you know, you've seen it, sometimes people got it backwards, you know, they're putting everything else first, except for the things that matter, you know.

BRENDAN KALIJUNDIC (21:14.808)
And I know one of the things, before you go to the next question, I know one of the things I was kinda talking to you in our consulting calls was, you know, navigating, you know, is my school having 600 members good or am I gonna be better at 400 members with a cleaner, tighter system? So like almost like a less is more kind of mentality. I know we've been discussing that, but we'll chat about that more as we go.

Nick Castiglia (21:39.354)
Yeah, yeah, you know, like I find a martial artist for whatever reason, you know, they're like, I have a 8 ,000 square foot facility, you know, like, when like ultimately like that doesn't matter, you know, it doesn't mean anything. Or, you know, I have, you know, I have 1500 students, you know, between all my locations, like, and again, like,

I don't know why people say these things. It's kind of silly. Or even when somebody says, I do a $60 ,000 a month gross. Well, that's no good if your expenses are 59, you know, that doesn't matter. You know, I think like when we hear people say things like that, you know, you know, not, not to judge them. They're obviously proud. They're proud of what they have, or they're proud of what they've built or their.

BRENDAN KALIJUNDIC (22:14.84)
I have a present for you.

Nick Castiglia (22:31.514)
You know, they're just proud in general, which is fine, you know, like be that way. However, like let's be real here. Like that doesn't matter. You know, like, like we, when we look as business owners at our business, we need to look at the whole picture. We need to look at, okay, well, what's my gross? What's my expenses? What, you know, what am I able to take home? What's leftover later to invest?

BRENDAN KALIJUNDIC (22:48.792)
Hmm.

Nick Castiglia (22:59.002)
in the future, you know, from me to 10x later or 100x later, how much money can I put towards that later? And I think, you know, us as leaders, you know, in the industry, I think we, I think there needs to be a reeducation process. Like, let's stop talking about how big our gym is or how many students we have or how many gyms we have. Like, let's focus on, you know, the numbers that matter and, and focus on those things, you know.

BRENDAN KALIJUNDIC (23:03.232)
Mm -hmm.

BRENDAN KALIJUNDIC (23:18.092)
Yeah.

BRENDAN KALIJUNDIC (23:28.216)
Yeah, 100%.

Nick Castiglia (23:28.41)
instead of talking about like, you know what I mean? Kind of silly, you I got this money, you know, like who cares? You know, like, that doesn't matter.

BRENDAN KALIJUNDIC (23:34.2)
Yeah, I just know that like it's on the reports that you got you originally gave us to fill out like every month It's like a number of students that are not up. So that was always the top line So I'd always know that number But now it's funny. I'm sitting down with my general manager and I'm like, hey We're gonna go from this amount of members to this amount of members. So I started I went in last week I cleaned out like 10 probably 10 students that weren't good fits that weren't fitting the mold and

Nick Castiglia (23:46.668)
Mm -hmm.

BRENDAN KALIJUNDIC (24:00.056)
cleaned them out and I told her, I'm like, we're going from here down to here and we're going to clean everything up and it's going to be better. So that's what we're on right now, actually.

Nick Castiglia (24:06.482)
Yeah, and I'm actually, I'm happy you mentioned that before I move on to my next question, because I think GM owners, GM owners, martial arts school owners, they get into the habit, or I say we, because it's we as a community, all of us, we get into the habit, we're like trying to like make everybody fit all the time. And you know, like, sure, we want to have a program and a place for everyone if...

if it sees fit, but I think it's important to hear from other school owners that some people just don't fit the vibe of your tribe and that's okay. There's a better tribe out there for them or a better martial arts school out there for them that's going to be a better fit for them. And I think it's important not, you know, not that students will listen to this, but you know, some of our students may, may listen to this or other students may listen to this and they need to know that like,

BRENDAN KALIJUNDIC (24:42.104)
Yeah.

Nick Castiglia (25:02.01)
you know, that's going to happen. People are going to come, people are going to go, not everybody's going to fit in the mold or not have the same beliefs of a certain school. And that's okay. You know, they can move on to going to train at another school that is better suited for them. You know, I think we get hung up on it sometimes, you know, we get hung up, especially if you've put energy into someone or you've had a longstanding relationship with somebody. And then just maybe that relationship has expired.

BRENDAN KALIJUNDIC (25:16.856)
100%.

BRENDAN KALIJUNDIC (25:27.8)
Yeah.

Nick Castiglia (25:30.906)
And that's okay, you know, and I think we just need to, as we say, respect the expiration sometimes, right?

BRENDAN KALIJUNDIC (25:31.288)
Yeah. Yeah.

BRENDAN KALIJUNDIC (25:38.072)
100%. You nailed it.

Nick Castiglia (25:40.698)
Okay, so next for me, and I've been lucky enough to work with you on a few of these things, but I wanna talk about it because I feel like school owners need to see, the school is one tool to generate income, but you are for sure a master of running events, okay? And.

BRENDAN KALIJUNDIC (26:00.184)
Yep.

Nick Castiglia (26:08.026)
I want to talk, you know, I want to hear you talk about that a little bit, talk about how you got into events, where you started, the highest level, because I think it's really cool because you're one of the few people in Ontario, or if not Canada, that has covered the whole gamut of events. Like not many people in Canada have done all the different types of events that you have done. So maybe, maybe talk about that. Talk about how...

BRENDAN KALIJUNDIC (26:11.074)
Thank you.

Nick Castiglia (26:36.57)
how it's good for your school, how it's good for the bottom line, how it all works as like feeding the ecosystem, if you could share that with.

BRENDAN KALIJUNDIC (26:44.578)
Yeah, so it's good. It's a good a good thing to have for your team because you have your own events It kind of builds up the energy of the tribe and you know gets everybody competing I think you know I'm really enjoying now throwing jujitsu tournaments because you know since you had to you've been focusing on Legacy and everything up in Ottawa with with your family I've been able to now work with other partners, so I never thought I would have a partner I

that would work as hard as you until I met Janine. So now that I've partnered with Janine on the Jiu Jitsu show, she's really lit a fire under my butt to like get going and keep up. Where I thought before I'd have to be, I'd be telling other people to keep up with me. So it's been really fun working on Jiu Jitsu events with Janine. Those tournaments have been really good. Gets the families involved, gets the team involved. A lot of the parents really love being able to volunteer and help out. They really feel a part of it and instead of just their kids.

As for all the Muay Thai shows, Muay Thai shows I find now are getting a little bit more challenging just with the amount of shows that are happening. So the matchmaking becomes its own full -time job which can be very stressful because you're limited on your fighter pool. So I think we're heading into new times with shows where I think I'm gonna slow down a little bit on the amount of shows that I throw and go a little bit more like precise, clean and tight.

And last year we ended up actually throwing the first professional MMA show in outside of like prospect BTC. We, myself and Brad Silva opened Durham Fight Series and we threw the first ever pro MMA show in Oshawa and that was the amount of work involved. It was basically a full -time job. I tell everybody behind the scenes like I feel like it took a year off my life.

Because of the amount of work that was involved in throwing a pro MMA show But the success on it was was amazing, but I remember having to give you calls be like Nick What do I do here like I am like we're about to have to cancel this show. We've got three fights We ended up with 12 fights 4 ,000 plus spectators in attendance You know, we made a lot of investments into that event so that the future events would be more successful

BRENDAN KALIJUNDIC (29:00.28)
But however, you know making all the the basic investments into the amateur kickboxing shows and jiu -jitsu tournaments We're now starting to see a good return so it is a nice little side income for gym owners and it's something where if you're able to work at home a little bit more too and that was one of the things where I wanted to put energy into working on shows because I could do a lot of that work at home and have my one location now kind of run itself and pop in when I want to pop in so

You definitely got to be able to dot your t's cross your eyes can't be lazy Shows shows are basically a whole other whole other job on itself

Nick Castiglia (29:36.89)
And you know, something I would, you know, want to add and I think...

I think a lot of gym owners don't see it as like this. They see it kind of like as a nuisance for some people. But the events, the extra events are amazing, you know, create amazing opportunities for our students to be more involved, to be more involved not only just fighting, but coaching, volunteering for our youth, our young guys, learning some leadership, you know, and feeling...

more valued by, like we use the word tribe, feeling more valued by their tribe. What are your thoughts on that? On like it helping the ecosystem of the school and helping the student.

BRENDAN KALIJUNDIC (30:22.688)
Oh yeah, 100%. Like we've got, like when we do our home show, we'll have parents volunteer to help fundraise on the snack bar so they can raise money for their kids for the competition team. We'll have girls that might not compete that are just like loving the sport that they'll be the ring girls for the night. So their parents come, everybody has a good time. All the dads come out to have a beer and they want to volunteer to help take down the ring to be a part of it. Like it's just, everybody has a role in there and it kind of really brings the team together. And then for everybody else that just wants to come watch the show.

and see the guys they train with fighting. It's just, you know, it's always been a good success, good team builders. And yeah, definitely, if you can pull off one a year, one a year is good. But I think I'm going to slow down a little bit and just really clean up what we do and when we do it.

Nick Castiglia (31:07.322)
Yeah, you know, and you're talking about the, the saturation of shows. I was, you know, uh, as you know, but not everybody else knows as I'm stationed in Ottawa and I was working with the community here and speaking to all the different coaches and gym owners, uh, to try and get like a yearly calendar of just Thai boxing shows. And there's 14 shows scheduled in 12 months in Ottawa, in just Ottawa, like just auto.

BRENDAN KALIJUNDIC (31:36.024)
That's what I mean. It's too much. I almost well actually your fighters need opportunity I get that but like as a matchmaker and a promoter it does get very very challenging like I've got guys reaching out to me like hey Can you fight on my show? I'm like aren't you throwing a show like the week after as well there you're doing two shows in a month and you want me to send Fighters to both. I'm like slow down here like it's it's getting a little bit much out there and it's very challenging and I think how I'm starting to work is I

I'm sending athletes to promoters or people that throw shows that have sent athletes to our shows because there's only a limited amount. Like if I have like one fighter, say Jacob Pigum, karate kid there, he can only fight six times a year. So I have to look through and be like, all right, Nick has a show in Ottawa. This guy has a show here. This guy has a show. I'll designate him for those events because that's all he can fight instead of answering messages for every weekend for fighters. I would love to see a little bit more.

I don't know, but maybe we just need more fighters in the pool.

Nick Castiglia (32:40.058)
I don't know, 14 events in 12 months in one city. That's a lot of events. And that's not even, you know, I'm sure other people aren't in the mix yet and they want to have a show too. So it's a lot. Moving on, you know, probably the, you know, the last thing I really wanted to talk about is, you know, you have done this amazing, you know, thing for the community and...

BRENDAN KALIJUNDIC (32:43.768)
Too much. It's too much.

BRENDAN KALIJUNDIC (32:51.32)
Yeah, it's too much.

Nick Castiglia (33:08.992)
I think this story, and I'm lucky to be close to you, I know the story, I know how it came about, and it's kind of a heartbreaker of a story about your hearts for martial arts, how that started, how it got its kickoff, how many kids you have sponsored, the change it's made in the community, and just kind of like where that's headed to. I'm super interested to hear.

hear that and share that with everyone as well.

BRENDAN KALIJUNDIC (33:39.768)
Okay, so how it started, I would say number one would be, you know, when we first started the gym and I'd be working the front desk where people would catch me at the front desk, any kind of sob story or, and it would happen all the time, any kind of sob story or, oh, my kid's in gymnastics and I can't afford the extra, sorry, we can't do it, or whatever it may be. I'm going through a divorce, I wish my kid could train, but we can't afford it. I was giving away memberships at my own gym for years to anybody that would give me a sob story.

and there's a lot of them were justified. A lot of them were actual legit stories, but some my staff started figuring out that people know they could take advantage of me and I would just give it to them because I want to see those kids train. So I remember once my wife got me off the front desk, the gym started making more money, but I still wanted to find a way to help people out. Now COVID happened and my Jiu -Jitsu coach Justin Bruckman,

who was a staple in the community for community work, helping with women's shelter, sponsoring kids, food donations, just helping in any way he could. He was really known in his community for doing that. And when he shut his gym down during COVID, because COVID crashed a lot of the top gyms in my area, or like staples in the community, Motor City Boxing, Bruckman Martial Arts, it was a devastating time.

But once I saw him close down his gym and all the community work that would be lost, I'm like, what can I do to really help out and then get the right people involved? So I figured instead of just me doing it, with Bruckman having such a history and success and people know that he's given back so much, I had to sit down with him and a couple others, and I remember I picked your brain on it too, about putting together a not -for -profit charity called the Hearts for Martial Arts Foundation where we would...

raise funds, put it into an organized pool, because Bruckman is not organized. Bruckman doesn't have the business sense, but I did, but I knew he had the passion and the heart, and if I could put it all together, then we could start like actually making a difference. So we went through the motions of opening a registered not -for -profit, getting the website built, getting our social media pages done, getting a board of directors together, sitting down and making a plan.

BRENDAN KALIJUNDIC (36:03.416)
And then when we launched the Hearts for Martial Arts Foundation, to date we have raised over $40 ,000. We have sponsored 40 kids across Ontario and we've put them into clubs, World Championship Martial Arts, you name it, Loyalist Martial Arts, half the gyms in your legacy page we've donated to, Napanee, all over, Rob Reed, Adio's Gym, Fernando's Gym, we've sent them thousands of dollars so that they could use those funds to

find, because I know every gym owner has that story and if I asked you right now I'm like Nick, I know you got somebody in your gym that is quitting or this is happening, I am gonna leave it in your judgment to sponsor somebody. So today we've got 40 kids enrolled under the Hearts for Martial Arts Foundation and we have a lot of other companies now coming in offering us big gifts. Like we just had a company called CW Investments give us two boxes to the Leafs and Raptors game. Those are $10 ,000 prize packages.

So we're currently doing a raffle right there and then all the funds that come in, we're gonna be able to hit some other gyms and get some kids enrolled. So that's been good, it's a feel good. It really makes you feel good, because you are making a difference. And I have some kids in my gym that have been sponsored over the last eight years, they're just me sponsoring them on my own. And I've seen them go from pre -teen through their teens in our gym. And if we would have lost them at that teenage year.

their parents with the drug problems they had and where they were at they could have been on the on a bad road and like guys like me and I had to look back to like I was given a free ride at at Brockman's gym he helped me out when I couldn't afford it and you know if I didn't have that where would I have been and you've given me your free time on the pads when I was in Ottawa and it's made a difference so it's time for us to give back it feels good and it's just something that

really makes me know when I look at the end of the day, like we crunched the numbers in our business, we need to make money, we need to pay our team, we need to pay ourselves, but then I'm like, what can I do that's not gonna so much come out of my pocket, but the community can work together to make a change, and we've done that. So, people can check out the websites, heartsformartialarts .com, and it's specifically for martial arts facilities and martial arts kids that we're gonna be doing. Because we've had kids, what's the one, people's, jumpstart, jumpstart.

BRENDAN KALIJUNDIC (38:22.488)
When people try to go through jumpstart, it's paperwork, paperwork, paperwork, and it's a nuisance. And I have this one grandma who had to take care of her granddaughter because the parents ended up in prison. And she was just telling me she's having a hard time filling out the paperwork. It doesn't get back in time. So I'm like, I tried to eliminate all that. I'm going straight to the gym owners of Facilities Across Ontario. And I'm just being like, I trust your judgment right now. You guys pick who it is and we're spreading it out around all those gyms. And so far it's been awesome.

Nick Castiglia (38:26.298)
Yeah, it's okay.

Nick Castiglia (38:50.198)
Yeah, I think, you know, like, man, I think it's amazing what you're doing. And in truth, like, let's be real here, like most of the amazing martial arts school owners that are out there, they're giving away memberships, you know, every year to help out, you know, for people who have been struggling or maybe, you know,

BRENDAN KALIJUNDIC (39:05.144)
All the time.

Nick Castiglia (39:14.234)
have suffered a family tragedy or so on and so forth, to try and take care of those kids and make a difference in their life. So yeah, that's absolutely amazing. Thank you so much for sharing that and just thanks for what you're doing for the community. I think it's so powerful because in 40 minutes you're giving a snapshot of your life and you're talking about...

BRENDAN KALIJUNDIC (39:41.218)
Yeah.

Nick Castiglia (39:44.57)
all the hard times, you went through some of the hard times, you went through the climb, you went through having two locations, one location to running in -house events, to running amateur events, to running professional mixed martial arts events, to running Brazilian Jiu Jitsu tournaments and, you know, wrapping up, you know, towards the end, you know, talking about, you know, the charity that you had started to, you know,

change your community have an effect right at home. I think it's, I think you have an amazing story and it's like my pleasure to have you on here to share it. So before we wrap up, let's say, you know, you have, you have gym owners, okay, because like let's, let's be real here. A lot of martial arts school owners, I would say like, you know, if we had to pick a percentage, probably 50 % are just,

BRENDAN KALIJUNDIC (40:17.912)
Yeah.

Nick Castiglia (40:42.682)
paying the bills, maybe more, maybe 60. I've worked with a lot of gyms and when they start, they're just getting by, they're not making a whole lot. And they're actually, they're taking a chance by hiring for consulting and that because they're like, I know I need help, but this is gonna cut it pretty close. For the guys that are having a tough time making it by, is there any like...

couple words of advice, like a couple top tips, any thoughts in the top of your mind that you would recommend to the homeowners that have been having a hard time, that have been having, you know, that have been struggling on some things that they could do to either change your business right away or just like what you think in the top of your mind when I say that, when I say that situation.

BRENDAN KALIJUNDIC (41:19.264)
Please

BRENDAN KALIJUNDIC (41:33.992)
Yeah, I think number one, I see a lot of, and it's kind of like I talk about it with our Jiu Jitsu guys, and every grading we do, we talk about all the blue belts that are gonna get their blue belt and quit. I think number one, we see a lot of people that maybe they consult, or someone like me, like I've gotten my black belt in consulting Jiu Jitsu with you, and I'm still staying on. I think guys that may sign up.

once you get to a certain level, don't stop, continue. For those that are struggling, I think Extreme Ownership, reading that book was a real game changer for me. Extreme Ownership, like not blaming anybody else but yourself. Don't make any excuses. Quit drinking, get in the gym, be in your gym 24 -7. Do all the hard work yourself, do all the extras and leave no excuses. When I first started and was struggling, I moved my ass into the gym.

and I did the work until I was to a point where I could be like, all right, I'm ready to slow down, but you know, don't leave any stone unturned, do every single thing you gotta do. If you find yourself watching TV, you should be out handing out flyers, knocking on doors. I was knocking on doors, doing bottle drives, handing out free lessons, trick or treating, handing out fucking free one week passes. So if you are not doing everything it takes, then you've gotta blame yourself. If you wanna be successful, then you gotta put in the work.

Leave no excuses unturned. Read extreme ownership because there's nobody else to blame but yourself.

Nick Castiglia (43:03.01)
Bam.

BRENDAN KALIJUNDIC (43:04.384)
I guess that's straight up. Straight up.

Nick Castiglia (43:06.806)
Well, that's awesome. Crew B, Crew Brendan Kalijundek, I just want to thank you so much. It's been my pleasure to be your friend and to work with you and work with your team throughout the years. This is awesome, as I knew it would be for our first podcast on the Martial Arts Business Podcast. Is there any last things you just want to share before we sign off here?

BRENDAN KALIJUNDIC (43:36.408)
Well everything you just said nice about me right back at you Nick. You were the one I looked up to and wanted to be like and you know here we are this many years later and thank you for guiding me and checking on me and answering my calls at 5am when I'm asking if you're up I need help. So you know I wouldn't be here without you and half of it's because of you. So thanks for all you do to you and Sam and you know proud of everything you've accomplished with legacy as well.

Nick Castiglia (44:02.682)
Yeah, thank you so much. Guys, the Martial Arts Business Podcast. Hope you enjoyed our first episode. Okay, make sure to follow Legacy Martial Arts Consulting, Instagram, Facebook. Check us out on all our channels and share this podcast around. Thank you again, crew Brendan Kalijundic, the leader of the Cal Samarit Army. It has been a blast. Have a great day, everyone.

BRENDAN KALIJUNDIC (44:26.232)
Awesome. Peace out guys.

Nick Castiglia (44:28.602)
Bam. Love, how do I stop this thing?