The Legacy Martial Arts Business Podcast

Nick Castiglia (00:02.746)
What's up everybody? The Martial Arts Business Podcast brought to you by Legacy Martial Arts Consulting Episode 2. Sitting here with one of my closest friends and you know, so many things, you know, so many things. Close friend, coach for Legacy, like, yeah.

Can't say enough good about the infamous Omar Khadi. Omar, how are you doing today?

Omar Kadi (00:38.895)
I'm good man, what's up?

Nick Castiglia (00:41.598)
Um, so martial arts business podcast, you know, we're featuring school owners, sharing their story, um, you know, our successful school owners. And you're very successful, um, sharing their story kind of like where they started and what, what led them to their success and, you know, what are some of the unique things that like have made you successful, you know, and, and taking us through that journey. So why don't you take us through kind of like.

your training journey and how that changed into, you know, you knowing you wanted to open up a martial arts school.

Omar Kadi (01:20.495)
Yeah, so I remember when I first started Jiu Jitsu, I'm like, I was kinda like, what the hell is this shit? Like, oh, I'm like, oh, people actually believe this stuff works. And then I got introduced to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. So I was like, I'm like one of the lowest points of my life. I had, when I grew up in New York, man, so hustling is part of my DNA. I worked, like ever since I was a kid, I was forced to work, my parents.

threw me in the back of my uncle's restaurant at nine years old washing dishes and all that stuff. Hopefully they don't get in trouble for that, but it's all good. They're old as shit. If they go to jail, they'll be all right. But, you know, so fast forward, you know, like I've always worked my whole life, you know, and I worked my way through a corporation, K Jewelers. And I was like, you know, just a hustler. Went out there, started killing it on the sales floor. I was like...

Nick Castiglia (01:57.847)
Ha ha ha.

Omar Kadi (02:17.547)
Oh, how do we get to the top there? You know, I had a really good friend of mine who actually is a mentor, one of my mentors. And he kind of like pushed me along the way and cleaned up the rough edges. Cause you know, like a New Yorker, I was like, I grew up a little bit, you know, ghetto. And you know, I spoke with a New York accent and he's like, hey man, that's not gonna fly. It's not gonna fly out here. It's not gonna fly with these like people that are buying and spending big money on jewelry. And you know, you gotta clean up and polish yourself a little bit more.

So he helped me clean myself up. Long story short, I then became his boss. So I went from working for him as a part-time salesperson to getting full-time job security, full-time job to assistant manager, assistant manager to manager, manager to DM and training, basically like a district manager. So just climbing the ropes and just hard work, put my head down and I was like...

looking for who the best is and I was like, oh, I'm gonna take that person out. And that's just my personality. Like not take them out as I'm like, make them lose their job, but like I wanna beat their numbers. I wanna be, you know, I wanna overcome that challenge like, oh, he has the record, I wanna beat that. So my first year in the jewelry business, I became like rookie of the year or something like that. I got like a whole bunch of awards. Anyways, long story short, I was doing really well.

Now we're gonna go a little bit backwards. My brother and I, when we were kids, we worked in the flea markets, selling brands that were very expensive, so knockoffs. Like maybe I did that, maybe I did it when I was a kid, but you guys understand. So my brother kept doing whatever he was doing.

Nick Castiglia (04:03.627)
Yeah.

Omar Kadi (04:15.519)
and he got caught and I had to take the rap from, you know, Middle Eastern families are really close and tight knit. And whatever the mom and dad says that goes. My mom said like, this is your brother's third offense. He's gonna go to jail for a while, unless you take the charge. And I'm like, oh, okay, no big deal for me. It's like, it's a misdemeanor. But this came right at the time of they were looking for a promotion. And anytime you're getting promoted, they rerun your background. So I ended up losing my job.

And I was like, I went from making 150K owning my own house, to like making $0 collecting unemployment, which I was able to pay. But then my dad lost his job at the same time. And my dad's like, yo, I can't pay my mortgage. And he goes, you know, my dad's prideful. He's like, you know, I'm an old guy. You can't let me look bad in front of the people. So give up your house and come.

uh pay my rent with your unemployment checks which I ended up doing. Luckily I had like the most supportive wife um and she was like yeah whatever you know that's what takes to make your dad happy that's what makes it take you know like that's what we got to do. I'm like alright so that's what we did.

Nick Castiglia (05:25.058)
Bro, how many years I've known you, I've never heard this story. This is crazy, man. I've never heard this.

Omar Kadi (05:30.803)
Yeah. So like that was like the background before. So I put some money together. I was like, you know what? I'm paying my dad's bills. This is the night I opened up a grocery store in the hood, like in the hood hood. If you guys look it up, New Haven, Connecticut, it's like, it was like one of the like, I think it's like the fourth worst city in like the states at one point and like gunshots everywhere. People getting robbed. And at that time I have.

cousin who's in the ATM industry and he was looking to expand and he's like hey Omar I heard you're good at sales and like this is like my best cousin like my best friend and one of my cousins that like when we were kids with like my side of the family was like really poor and his side of the family was like not so poor so I got all of his hand me down like he used to be like hey Omar you know like here take my Jordans or take you know and I'm like Jordans like my parents are trying to buy you pay less shoes for sure give me that you know

And he used to hook me up all the time. So when he's like, hey, you know, I need help growing the business and I know you're good at sales, he's like, can you go out and get accounts? So I built them a credit card route that was like, I mean, uh, ATM route. That was like, I would say probably making closely like 25 to 30 K a month. And he was taking care of me. So basically I would drive around this hood. Um, I opened up this, uh, you know, uh, bodega or, you know, like a corner store in the, in the hood.

Nick Castiglia (06:45.159)
Oh, uh...

Omar Kadi (06:58.159)
And, you know, I was working, hustling, making money, and I had my dad work in the store while I was out loading machines. And it was like, it was a little bit of a sad story. I had one of the guys that became like, he was protecting the store. So anytime I wasn't there, his name was T.I. I mean, God rest his soul. He basically would protect the store and protect my dad. Cause you know, like this is the hood, like, and the guy must've, you know, he might've done some shady stuff or whatever back in the day. And...

So sometimes we like when shit, you know got busy I used to send them to like places to pick up like Boxes of Dutchess, you know, cuz people buy Dutchess to smoke weed or whatever so but he was wearing my ATM bag that day and I think people thought he had the ATM money on him and they tried to rob him ended up shooting and killing this kid Who is like that shit broke my heart man. Like yeah, so

Few months later, I had another guy working for me that was also protecting the store from the neighborhood, smoked a little bit of whatever the hell he smoked. Thought I was the Batman and he was a joker. Tells me, hey Omar, give me a Lucy. Or he says, not Omar, he says, hey Batman, give me a Lucy. So I turn around to give him a Lucy, puts a revolver in my head and pulls the trigger. Thank God there was nothing there. And I'm like, I turn around, I'm like, yo bro, stop playing, man. Stop playing.

He pulls the trigger again and I'm like slapping the gun at the same time and a bullet went into the ceiling It's like i'm gonna fucking kill you batman blah blah. Anyways, he ended up like So I ended up calling the cops going to jail um The local drug dealers from the neighborhood were threatening me and like saying like blah So I ended up getting rid of that store And I was like, you know what? I'm like damn bro, like I can't do that But I'm still doing the atm's and filling up machines and that was kind of like keeping me afloat, but just barely

So I started working out at LA Fitness. I was super heavy, overweight, I was 250 pounds. I saw this guy that was like in shripp, like jacked to shit, like good shape. I was like, hey, what do you do, man? And that turned out to be Mark Cerrone, who I ended up like starting my Jiu-Jitsu training with. And he was like, oh, you know, I do Jiu-Jitsu. And I'm like, yo, whatever that Jiu-Jitsu shit, I just wanna take some of that so I look like you.

Omar Kadi (09:21.359)
He started laughing, he gave me the card, I went to the gym, did my first trial with one of the guys that actually kept me engaged and kept me in jujitsu, his name was rodger. He was working for that guy at the time. Long story short, the guys needed a front desk and I could tell they didn't know anything about sales. Mark had like 25 to 30 members at the time, so I was just like, oh, like helping them out and he had like this random people trying to help him sell memberships and I'm like, boy, here's how you do it.

Here's how you do it. And it was okay. It wasn't great. Like it was what I knew at the time. From like the jewelry sales, I took that and I just applied it to the martial arts sales. So we're still doing pretty good. But then I met you guys and I flew up to Canada. And I was like, I would probably say that was like one of the smartest moves that guy did, Mark Cerrone, is hiring you guys.

You know, he was like, and I think that's one of the things that I think is, uh, underlooked in most businesses. Most business owners think they know what they're doing. I think like, if I had one recommendation, get a mentor, get a consultant as fast as possible. This is not a plug for legacy. Like I don't care who you use. I don't care what you like get a freaking mentor, man. Like it will change your life. I don't care. Like it doesn't have to be us. It could be anybody.

So if you're listening to this podcast, you're not with Legacy and you don't want it, like it's all good. Just find someone that's, yeah, yeah. So I, you know, well, I'll fast forward to when I met you. So I started working with you and this is the night and I'm like, kind of put the bug in Mark's head, like, man, I should go up there and see exactly how they're doing things. Cause they're giving me bits and pieces, little, little at a time. I'm like, let me go up there and like, let me pick their brain. He's like, fine.

Nick Castiglia (10:55.862)
Pick someone, get someone.

Omar Kadi (11:18.895)
You know, he's like, go ahead, I'll pay for the ticket up there. And that time, man, like I had like, like fumes in my bank account, like freaking poor shit, you know, like barely paying for diapers and all that stuff, you remember, and, um, I flew up there day one. I meet you. It was a crazy story. It was like the start of our friendship. I think it was pretty, it's pretty awesome. I probably wouldn't have it in, like, if I could do it, I would do it exactly the same way.

You're like, you pick me up from the airport, you're like, hey man, blah, blah. I'm like, hey man, nice to meet you. You were wearing this tracksuit, typical Italian shit. I was laughing in my, I was like, you know, like the Adidas tracksuit and shit. I was cracking up, I'm like, oh yeah, definitely. Nick is definitely Italian. And then you're like, oh bro, you know, I got some places, you know, like to take you, you're hungry, I'll take you to the sandwich shop. On our way to this like Italian deli sandwich shop, because you knew like I'm from New York, you wanted to take me to Italian deli.

Nick Castiglia (12:13.463)
Huh.

Omar Kadi (12:15.143)
Sandwich shop, you get a call, I think it was like from Pat or someone, and he's like, oh, one of the fucking guys took our truck. I don't know if I'm supposed to swear or not, I'm sorry if I did it, you know. But he's like, one of the guys took our truck, and I'm like, oh damn, man, like, all right, cool. You're like, you wanna ride with me? I'm like, yeah, I got no choice. So I ride with you to this kid's house, and this is how I remember it. You know, you get there, and like.

Nick Castiglia (12:25.897)
No, it's okay.

Omar Kadi (12:41.955)
you knock on the door and I think you slap them or punch them in the face or whatever. And you're like, yo, why'd you steal the truck type thing? And then I remember like a bunch of people like coming out if I remember correctly, like a bunch of people coming out and I'm like, oh shit, the only guy I would know in town is about to either get jumped, stabbed or killed. I think I gotta help them to get out of this situation. So I get out the car and I'm like, what's going on? Like, what's good? And like the guys are like, ah, like who the hell is this guy, you know, but like.

They're like, all right, there's two of them now. And I remember when you got out of that situation, I think from that moment you were like, oh damn bro, like that was mad real. Like you were one of the real ones. Like you didn't have to do all that. And then we became friends and, you know, fast forward to later on when I started like, you know, like, man, you know, you should open up your own gym and this and that. And I think that was like, what got Mark's Saron got upset.

Nick Castiglia (13:30.318)
Thanks for watching!

Omar Kadi (13:40.795)
We were killing it in his gym and he was like doing well. I remember and you know, I don't want to give too many details, but basically I feel like when he found out that I wanted to buy, uh, the Stanford Hensel Gracie gym that wasn't doing well as a blue belt. I think that like pissed them off or whatever, you know, jealousy, envy, hate, whatever it is. I don't like it is what it is. Um, you know, at the time, like he felt like maybe I was like,

I don't know, made him insecure. So he threw up all these like false accusations that I was stealing money from him and this and that. Meanwhile, the guy like owed me money for like paychecks that he hasn't paid me yet and accused me of taking money and like, you know me now for like what, 15 years. So you know, like my moral, like I have way too much morals. Yeah, like I have too much belief in God to like even take.

Nick Castiglia (14:30.399)
You never do that.

Omar Kadi (14:35.831)
a penny from someone unjustly, like let alone like the hen that's feeding me. Anyways, he ended up kicking me out of his gym. His insecurities actually I think probably hurt him. I don't know how he's doing now, but I like from what I hear he's not doing too well. I hope he does well. I don't wish bad upon anybody like he's in his own world under mine. I went to work for Marcio Stambalski. Same shit like.

Nick Castiglia (14:55.874)
for sure.

Omar Kadi (15:04.875)
It wasn't Marcio actually, it was like his staff. And specifically this one guy that he actually like almost raised that got super envious that like me as a blue belt, like I had won a major title, won Pan Ams and running the desk and managing the gym. And I had Marcio's ear and I was helping Marcio get through, you know, get to the next level with his business.

He basically, you know, used he, you know, used that like story of like me, Robin Mark, to kind of like set me up to make it look like I was stealing from Marcio. And anyways, I ended up losing that. My cousin told me, Hey, come work for me in the cell phone store. Um, I started working for him at a cell phone store. And then he's like, Hey bro, you're killing it. Let's open up something together. We opened up a cell phone store, uh, me, him and our partner at the time. His name was Joey.

And you know, the store was doing well, we were selling, hustling, making money. And, you know, then like a whole bunch of things hit. COVID, the companies changed the structure. We started like not making as much money. There was a lot more pressure. And like throughout this whole time, I was breaking my back to accomplish my, like become accomplished at Jujitsu. But this time only in the competitive field. I left Connecticut, moved to New York.

Nick Castiglia (16:31.401)
Yeah, you're training at Marcello Garcia's in New York at this time, right?

Omar Kadi (16:35.951)
Yeah. And so, you know, to all the people that are like, Oh, like, what does it take? I would wake up every single morning at five in the morning, drive to get to Marcellus to do the 7 a.m. Training would leave by nine, drive another hour and a half to work, work from 10 to like 9 p.m. At the cell phone store and then drive an hour and a half home. But in between that time, I was like making the best of my time.

working out, doing push-ups, sneaking away when I had a second staff member to like go do an extra training and you know, so I did what I needed to do to like win a whole bunch of tournaments which I did pretty well, purple and brown belt, like I won like everything there is to win as far as like purple and brown belt in the Masters Division.

Nick Castiglia (17:27.386)
I remember, you know, and it's, I'm a happier talking about this because I remember talking to you at this time. And I remember you, you just shredded right up. And I remember being like, bro, like how, how are you, how are you doing this? Like, because I know what I was doing full time and I know you weren't doing what I was doing full time and you were able to still do that.

And you straight up told me, and I don't know if you remember this conversation, but you're like, yeah, man, like when I have time in the office, like I'll bang out 20 to 50 pushups or 20 to 50 squats or 20 to 50 lunges, you know, or I'll do these different exercises and I end up doing like 600 to 700 exercises a day. And I was just like, man, like that is a guy who wants it. Like, I'm not sure if you remember telling me that, but I remember.

you telling me that at that time, you know?

Omar Kadi (18:24.163)
Yeah, so like, even like my friends, like literally like even a bunch of the guys at Marcelo are like, bro, this guy's on the sauce. And like, because I used to go train at like another local gym when I was in Long Island, once in a blue and everybody was like, man, like this guy's on the sauce. And that guy that actually was like, he's a friend of mine. He brought me one of his guys to work with me because the area was like a Spanish speaking area and I need someone to speak Spanish.

So he brought me to one of the guys who actually became a super close friend of mine. His name is Manny and long story short, I worked with this guy for like four years. And when he first came to my store, he was also really heavy. And he would like look at me and he's like, Oh my, what are you doing? I'm like, I mean, we have no customers right now. So I'm going to bang out 25 pushups. I have a goal to reach every single day and it's a minimum of 500 and I'm here for 10 hours a day. So what do I do with my time? Like I need to.

bang out my pushups. So one day I would do pushups with like core exercises in between. And you don't have to go crazy. Four sets of 25 is a hundred, you know? And you could break it up throughout the whole day. So like, you know, people that make excuses, oh, I don't have time to get fit. It's not hard. And you know, number one, like if you can, and I actually learned this from one of our friends, mutual friends, Hammer.

Nick Castiglia (19:31.521)
Yeah.

Omar Kadi (19:49.747)
And he said to me one day, he's like, it doesn't matter how much you lift, if you can't lift your own body weight. Like, he's like, what could you do with your body weight? And that like, when I was like a white belt, or maybe like, I think I was still a white belt, like when I first met you guys, or maybe just a blue belt, like that resonated with me. And I said like, from that day, I'm gonna like start, you know, like I just, I don't need weights, I can do squats.

If you do 500 squats, I guarantee your legs will be burning. You do 500 lunges, your legs will be burning and you're gonna get stronger. And you're gonna get real strength. You do 150 or 200 pull-ups a day, you're gonna get stronger. 500 pull-ups, you're gonna get stronger. And people were like, man, how is this guy so strong? It's just because I was doing that all day every day. Like when I'm bored at the cell phone store, like what else do I do with my time? And that was kind of like...

Nick Castiglia (20:33.739)
Yeah.

Nick Castiglia (20:43.191)
Yeah.

Omar Kadi (20:46.483)
One of those things is like, you know, make the best of everything that you have. Don't make excuses. Just do what you can with what you have.

Nick Castiglia (20:54.924)
So we're up to like in your kind of like story we're up to like okay, you're at Marcelo's

You're trying to wrap up your competition career. You know, what's next? Like, where are we? What year are we in around?

Omar Kadi (21:12.851)
I would say like 2017 at Brown Belt and I was hungry for my black belt. Like hungry. I remember like early 2017, I asked him like, man, what do you think it's going to take to get my black belt? And I remember Marcelo, I don't know if you remember this conversation, he goes, Omar, you won purple belt at Feather and brown belt at Feather. But if you really want to show that you're good.

step up, go to lightweight. And that was like a cool challenge. I was like, oh, okay, cool. So I went the following year and I won brown belt at lightweight, you know? Yeah, master's worlds to be clear. So, and so, and it was good. It was like a really good challenge. And then shortly after that, I got my black belt in December, 2018, but I had like, I had a, like, you know,

Nick Castiglia (21:51.551)
at Worlds.

Nick Castiglia (21:55.167)
Yeah, Masters or else, yeah.

Omar Kadi (22:11.279)
pans, I won fasting in pans. And then I did the open weight and I got silver in the open weight and I think I lost by a rough decision in the final. And I was like, yeah, I have pictures. There's one picture. It literally looks like there's a big fish swallowing a small fish. That's how big this, I'm a small guy. I'm like 5'5 and 160 pounds. And the guy that I was going against was 290. He was just a b****.

Nick Castiglia (22:15.588)
I remember that.

Nick Castiglia (22:21.931)
Wild.

Omar Kadi (22:39.079)
big dude, like a big giant dude. And I ended up like, yeah. So I'm like, I ended up, you know, beating most of those guys, including that guy. And then I lost to the final to a guy who's actually a good friend of mine now. Like we message each other. I see him at tournaments all the time. He literally supports my son at every tournament. So, yeah, it's like, it's been really cool. So, and then I got my black belt.

Nick Castiglia (22:41.291)
monster.

Nick Castiglia (23:06.194)
Okay, so you wrap up your career at, well, not like you wrap it up, but like, so like you get your black belt, so when do you decide you're like, okay, I wanna open up my gym? You just get your black belt, you know, like when does that thought come in? Like what made you do that? What made you decide, okay, I'm gonna.

Omar Kadi (23:26.119)
So there's a bug in my ear for many years, you know, like every like six or eight months, I would keep in touch with this guy and he'd be like, man, you should really open up a gym. Man, you would kill it as a gym owner. Man, you would do really well. Like man, I can't wait to see you like change your life. And I'm like, I'm like, yeah, for sure, for sure. But in my head, I'm like, man, I don't have like the finances to do that, you know, and he would be like, oh, that's an excuse. And he was right. Nick, that's you.

by the way, just for the people that are wondering. And you know, like you were right, it was an excuse. Like when I wanted the funds, I could have probably asked for help, but I'm one of those guys that doesn't like to ask for help. So although, and like, this is like, I'm training really hard, getting really hard, COVID hits, Marcelo shuts down, I need a place to train. So we start training in the park. And like the guy, like I did a bunch of charity work.

And not because I expected anything. I did this for almost like four or five years where I would teach at a local mosque during Ramadan.

Nick Castiglia (24:29.482)
Yeah, because it's a good thing to do. Yeah, because it's a great thing to do.

Omar Kadi (24:32.547)
Yeah. And then like the guys were like, man, let us let us like help you open up a gym, let us help. And they say I'm like you like for like two years or three years. And I'm like, no, it's okay. No, I don't want to like I'm sure you guys can allocate those funds to something better. I'm sure you guys can put those funds into something better. And like I was like, no, like, you know, and then finally during COVID, I was like, you know what, I think this is the time to take the chance, you know, and the guys from the mosque.

like helped us get the money, they loaned us the money. And we opened up the gym like in the scariest time ever. Like literally probably the scariest time ever. Like everything was shutting down and I was just like, I mean, I was like out in like in the middle of COVID doing ATMs because nobody wanted to work. And I was like one of the only guys would like, bro like, oh, this guy, like none of these guys wanna go fill up ATMs. So I would like drive around with bags of like.

Nick Castiglia (25:09.998)
COVID, I remember COVID.

Omar Kadi (25:30.451)
cash like four or five hundred K and go fill up ATM machines for money and just charge a premium for it and then so I stacked a little bit of money I barred a little bit of money and then we opened up a gym my partners and I so they didn't have capital but I just said to them I said like it's all good bro like we've been friends we've been dreaming about this forever Ali and you said I said you know we've been talking about this my brother

And it was kind of like the perfect storm. Everything came together. You know, Ali was working at a PT place and he's like, you know, I'm sick of working for like crumbs, 16 bucks an hour. He has two kids. So like, he wasn't making much money. So he took a chance on me. And he believed in me. He believed in glory. He believed in the vision. And we started Glory. And...

There was a lot of scares, there was a lot of up and downs. I remember one of the first things that I did is I said to the guys, I said, look, man, I have a good friend of mine, I'm gonna call him up and I'm gonna reach out to him and we're gonna do consulting right away. And do you remember they fought me on it?

Nick Castiglia (26:42.698)
Yeah, I do remember.

Omar Kadi (26:44.115)
And they're like, bro, you know everything. They're like, you know everything. I'm like, I don't know everything and I never will know everything. But also like, this guy has 20 years of experience. He has not walked away from, at that time I think you had like 20 something, 20 plus years of experience. I said he has not walked away from the game. He didn't work at a cell phone store. He didn't work at a jewelry store. He has 20 years of martial arts experience in the martial arts industry.

at one of the most successful brands in Canada at the time in the Ottawa region. And not only that, he branched off and recreated everything and he's killing it. So the first two months were like a little bit rough. They're like, Oh, you know, we don't have, we have $0, but we have to give up, you know, X amount to like pay this consultant guy. And I'm like, bro, it'll be worth it. It'll be worth it. And I remember like in month two,

or month two and a half, like right before month three, you said something that literally would have cost us, would have been a $70,000 mistake.

Nick Castiglia (27:53.395)
I remember.

Omar Kadi (27:54.323)
that and that what I'm not gonna talk about it because I don't want to talk about it on the in the video but had we made that decision and They were pressuring me to make that decision had we made that decision. We would have been shot our Gym would have died where it was. It would have been a $70,000 mistake and it would have also been the downfall of the gym

So, you know, again, going back to like find a mentor, find someone, if you think you know it all, you don't know it all. If you think you have all the experience, you don't have all the experience. It's always two heads are better than one. And obviously with legacy, we have more.

Nick Castiglia (28:31.85)
I just had a mentor.

Nick Castiglia (28:36.626)
Uh, I just, yeah, legacy, we have more, but, uh, I just had a mentor that I didn't listen to that if I would have listened to gave me some advice, what is, you know, it only, it only ended up costing me like $12,000, but if I would have listened to him from the, from the get-go about it, I wouldn't have lost that $12,000 and if I didn't listen to him, I would have lost $50,000. Like if I didn't come around and listen to him, like

And people, and I get it, like people have a hard time hiring a business coach and even like quantifying it in like, you know, for instance, like say somebody charges, I don't know, like $800 a month, you know, but they forget about the one time they save your skin, it's like, it could be worth a hundred thousand dollars, you know, like that's like literally putting a hundred thousand dollars back in your pocket, you know, and I think sometimes people are

um, short-sighted in that like a coach has made all the mistakes that, or the better coaches have made the majority of the mistakes already, you know, and that's what they're charging for. They're charging for so you don't make that mistake, but here's the monthly fee on that charge. But anyway, sorry, I cut you off, but I thought that was an interesting point that we talk a lot about in legacy.

Omar Kadi (29:35.955)
Thanks for watching!

Omar Kadi (30:02.775)
Yeah, I remember like, um, one of the things that like, uh, resonated with me was when we first started, like we were, it was like, you know, Omar, we're going to do legacy. We're going to do some coaching, blah, blah. And I'm like, yeah, for sure. I'm all for it, bro. Let's do it. I said the one thing that I like, I always tell people when, you know, I'm talking to people about like doing consulting, if you're giving me a dollar, I'm giving you $2 in value and you're going to see that you're going to see that.

Nick Castiglia (30:29.026)
For sure.

Omar Kadi (30:32.899)
And I guarantee you're gonna see that. Like it's something that I can like literally guarantee. If you do what I'm telling you, your dollar is gonna turn into $2. And you've seen it, like people that listen to us, you know, we've, some guys that are like doing really, really well, some guys that are doing okay. And the guys that are doing super well are the guys that are like following step by step what we're telling them. And...

I also apply this in my own business, you know, with my own partners, you know, like, I, you know, like as long as we stick to the game plan. Sorry, go ahead.

Nick Castiglia (31:06.207)
Well, I think he...

Nick Castiglia (31:10.362)
If we talk about your success, you know, like the first year, your first year when you opened your first gym, you followed the game plan and you were one of the fastest risers I had ever coached. I think you were the fastest. Like you signed up over, I'm pretty sure it was 350 people in your first 12 months. Like in martial arts schools, like one, you know, many martial arts schools never make it to 350 people. And two,

Not many people get 350 people, you know, paying New York City prices ever in their life. So like your success was like, you know, probably, you know, it was through the system that we teach. And I think that you know, like you already knew it, we had already been friends for a long time. We had already worked together for a long time when you worked at the other gyms as well.

So I think you actioning it and seeing it happen right in front of your eyes, it just makes you more of a believer, right?

Omar Kadi (32:17.839)
Yeah, and the good thing about it is like, the difference was I had full control. You know, I actually, like in the other gyms, they were like fighting me on like the changes. And I think that's what slowed down their success. Versus like, you know, cause like when I was working, when I worked for Henzos in Connecticut, you know, like there was things that he wanted to do and things that he didn't want to do. So he was getting, you know, it's like.

If you do 100%, you're gonna get 100% of the result. But if you do 70%, you're probably gonna get 70% of the result. And these guys were doing like 60 to 70%. So they were getting 60 to 70% of the result. I went in and I did 100%. So it was 100% of the result. And that's, I believe that's why I got to, where I got to so quickly, you know?

Nick Castiglia (33:08.086)
Yeah, like I'm bang on there with you. I remember that time. So you go, you open up your first gym, first year, massive success, 350 students in your first year, just crushing it. And then when do you decide? Because, you know, and I think this is an interesting part of the journey, you know, to talk about, you decide to open up a second gym. What brought that on?

Omar Kadi (33:35.391)
Well, yeah, it's my hunger, you know the hustle mentality I always want more so you know, I think It was right after you came down and you're like man, you know Staten Island is like kind of right like I came over and stay with me in my house and I drove you around Staten Island. We went out and got some food. I don't remember we have some good food and And you're like man this area is like I feel like would be better than Brooklyn and I'm like

You know, I'm like, why not open up in my backyard where I live? So as soon as that happened, um, you know, I opened up and I opened up literally in, you know, like 15 minutes from my house and we started killing it there as well. Um, and when I say I, like, I just want to make sure that I am like super transparent about this and super clear, uh, as an entrepreneur.

I don't know any successful entrepreneurs that did it by themselves. And if they do, they're not successful. Like you can't be an entrepreneur, be successful and do everything by yourself because you're not an entrepreneur. You're just working for yourself. Like you're working for your business. Like you're working in your business. You're an employee of your business. And we talk about this all the time. And you know, yeah, you own a job.

Nick Castiglia (34:38.53)
The Never.

Nick Castiglia (34:57.814)
Yeah. You own a job.

Omar Kadi (35:01.995)
And like, I always tell people like, you can't clap with one hand. You know, if you wanna clap, you need both hands. And I'm one part of the equation, and my team is the other part of the equation. Now, this is another thing that I always think about, is like being a jack of all trades, right? If you're driving and texting, right? Like you're multitasking, yeah? Do you think like you're super focused on driving or texting? Probably not a good idea, right?

That's what I equate to, to people that want to like control every aspect of their business. I am literally like a piece of the business and then all my counterparts are the other piece and my job is to get them to be better than I am at what they're doing. Maybe they can't like, I can do all of the things. I can do all of the things pretty well. But if you had to ask me like, who's the expert on

you know, creating, you know, like the systems or creating this or running the jujitsu program. Are you the best jujitsu instructor? Are you the best Muay Thai instructor? No, for sure not. You know, who has the best way of dealing? Like, for example, I'll give you guys the simplest example. I can come off as like really rough and like brute and like get to the point. Like, come on, I don't have time to sit there and hear you cry or complain about your story. That's where my-

you know, like one of my closest friends and my business partner Ali comes in. He is like, he's, he actually looks scarier than I do. And like, you know, he's like a six foot two guy and he's like pretty big, has the same face, big beard, jacked up ears. And, but when I tell you like the softest, like if you need a shoulder to crown, you go to Ali, you definitely don't go to Omar. Yeah. Um, and

Nick Castiglia (36:51.85)
So kind. Yeah, so kind.

Omar Kadi (36:57.099)
You know, we always like joke around like we're yin and yang, you know, like, uh, I'm, you know, I'm like the evil twin and he's like the, you know, the nice guy. But that's what you need. They're everybody, you know, you put your aces in their places. Every, every successful person, business person is made up of a team of a bunch of successful people and that they're more successful in their area than you are. And that's what makes you successful.

Nick Castiglia (37:22.878)
So, okay, so like, you know, man, this story, you know, like your story, there's a bunch of stuff, I'm just still blown away. Like I never knew about, you know, your hardships and some of the things you had faced. You know, you find Jiu-Jitsu, you start pursuing it, you start pursuing, you know, what Jiu-Jitsu does for most of us, which is like, or martial arts does for most of us, gives us...

Omar Kadi (37:25.688)
Cough

Nick Castiglia (37:52.654)
in addition to personal excellence, which is the best part of martial arts, in my opinion. You know, we constantly want to be being the best version of ourselves. Sometimes we find that through competition and we learn many of those life lessons through there. You open up your first gym, you have great success. You open up your second gym, you have great success. You have a great team around you. You have great partners that you work with.

So if you could talk to your younger self, or if you could talk to the you that is just about to open the gym, and really you're talking to other gym owners or other gym owners who are having a tough time, what are the top three things you would say, guys, listen, if I were to say, these top three things led to my greatest success?

These are them. What would those three things be?

Omar Kadi (38:49.459)
So build a strong team. And in the beginning, that can be really tough. So actually, let's go back. So when you're slow, when the business is slow, that is the time to systemize the business, right? To get everything so that it's automated, right? So that to get everything, so to have everything ready so that when someone is ready to, when you're ready to take a new person on, there's a system for them to follow.

and you're not just winging it, you're not shooting from the hip. So one of the most important things is like writing down your thoughts, writing down your ideas, writing down like what each person's task is in the business and their job, and what your expectation of them is, and giving that to them as they start. Because otherwise, you're thinking in your mind that they know what you want, they're not reading your mind. And if you have a mind reader, let me know, I will.

Nick Castiglia (39:46.678)
And you get mad, you get mad at them. Get mad at them, because they're not doing, they can't read your mind.

Omar Kadi (39:50.14)
Yeah.

Omar Kadi (39:53.539)
Yeah, and I remember like that was one of the things that I had the hardest time with. I'm like, man, like, why can't everybody be just like me? Like, why doesn't like, you know, you know, Ali do this or why doesn't you do that? And I was like, complain about them. Like, just being honest, they're probably going to hear this podcast and probably like this guy, you know, but I would complain about them to you and complain about them to my like. And that was like one of the biggest mistakes, you know? So something I wouldn't.

Nick Castiglia (40:22.061)
So systemizing.

Omar Kadi (40:25.147)
Systemizing the business, this way people know what to expect and what they need to do. The other thing is hire a coach. We talked about this before. Hire a coach yesterday if you're going to open up a business. And I would vet your coaches. We talked about this. There's many people that claim all the success.

blah and they tell you they've done this or they've done that. Ask. Ask around. Find out. Do some digging. Do some research on the people that you're going to be working with. Make sure that their values and their morals align with yours.

Nick Castiglia (41:05.962)
Yeah, I think you nailed that. Make sure their morals and values align with yours. And I think there's two things. If I were just to interject what to look for when looking for a coach, they've achieved the success that you're looking for, number one, and or number two, or they've helped others achieve the exact success that you're.

Looking for you know, like those are my like two things and I'm looking for a coach. Those are those are the two things I'm looking for sorry. I cut you off there

Omar Kadi (41:39.183)
No, no worries. I think that's a very good point. And I think the last thing is learning to have balance. I think it's like one of the most important things. And we both know that like, you know, our personalities are like, you know, tunnel vision, hyper-focused, I gotta get to, you know, to point B as fast as possible. Like, you know, I might be running some people over in the way, but like, you know, I just gotta get to point B and-

unfortunately the people that we're running over are the closest ones to us. Our business partners, our life partners, our wife, our kids, you know, our mom, our dad, like you know, like if your parents are still alive and this like family to me is everything and I just like I wouldn't be who I am without my family and I wouldn't be who I am without my close friends, you know.

And that's like one of the things that like, is often not talked about, you know, like when we're having business talks, but that's like one of those things that like, if you don't have balance and you don't give, like time to your family and your loved ones, you're gonna wake up one day and you're gonna have all this money and nothing to do with it because you have nobody around you. You have nobody in your circle. Nobody wants to be around you because you were such, you know, like.

you could say a tyrant in getting to what you want to get to, that you lose all the important parts of you along the way. And I think that's like one of my pieces of advice.

Nick Castiglia (43:14.774)
Yeah, you f-

Yeah, forget your why, you know, like for me, that's my why. Like, I don't want, I don't want to be so busy that I'm don't never get to see my kids, you know, like I need to seeing my kids is what fills me with life, you know? So why am I going to do something to get more money to never spend time with my kids when all that when

spending time with my kids is what gives me life or what gives me energy, you know? And I think we put such a, we assign such a value to money. Do we need money? Yes. Does money provide comfort? Yes. Does money provide opportunities? Yes. Is money a necessity? Absolutely yes. Like all of these things. However, not at the cost of our mental health, not at the cost of the relationships with the people we love.

you know, and care about. I would say those, you know, for me, those are like the two ways that I like to articulate it. Like we cannot.

have success at the cost of our mental health or at the end. And sometimes our mental health ties into our relationship with our significant other. Our mental health ties into our relationship with our children, okay? Or our relationship with close people around us. And we get so hyper-focused, especially those A type personalities. It's like you said, you know, the blinders go on.

Nick Castiglia (44:45.97)
And I am like a machine, like crush, kill, destroy, get my goal, next goal, next this, next that. Need to get the gym to here, do this by any means necessary. And then when you know, you think at the end of it, you have all the money at the end, but then you have nobody to share with. Like that's not the party you want to be at, you know, so I definitely like I second that.

Omar Kadi (45:07.419)
Or you missed out on time, man. You missed out like, even okay, even if your family puts up with it, right? Like now like your kid's like, you know, grown and they didn't really have like good memories of you. They were like, oh yeah, my dad worked hard. He provided me with like this and that, you know? Oh yeah, I'm driving a BMW thanks to my dad. But like, I guarantee you that kid would trade that BMW for a little quality time, you know?

Nick Castiglia (45:33.75)
Yeah, for memories, for memories, experiences.

Omar Kadi (45:35.563)
And if she did, if she doesn't, you failed. That's exactly back to the point is you failed, right? So if the kid's like, no, my BMW is more valuable than spending time with my dad, it's because you failed as a dad.

Nick Castiglia (45:47.298)
That's right, that's right, 100%. 100%, I think you nailed that. So, you shared your top three things to be, that if you were to, the gym owner that's watching this says, man, I want more, I wanna be better, I wanna achieve more, you shared your top three things that I think are so important. And I think you picked three great.

things and this is something we cover in all the podcasts. It's like I want to hear like what are your top three or what are your top five. Is there anything you know because we're running in on closing out here. Like in closing you know you got you got gym owners watching this you know they want to hit the next level. They're struggling. They're having a tough time. You know like what's your message to people out there?

You know, that may be going through a hard time, but they're listening to this to maybe get some guidance, get some inspiration. Like what is the Omar Khadi mic drop that you could give them?

Omar Kadi (46:57.755)
Look for the positives. Like don't, you know, like yeah, for.

Omar Kadi (47:09.747)
the things that are going well and use that to grow your gym, grow your systems. I think that's really important. Like for me, like, you know, when things were like, when things were tough, I always found what was working well and focused on that and tried to do more of that. And then, you know, giving that more attention led to more success and gave me more fuel to

to get rid of the stuff that was weighing me down.

Nick Castiglia (47:45.026)
focus on the positives because they're I'm sure you I'm sure you agree with this like it's a state of mind you know it can be you know like oh man you know like I really want to start a gym I'm gonna figure it out or it can be like I really want to start a gym but you know I'm really

It's all a state of mind. It's all finding the way, finding the reason, finding the good in things, even the good in the challenges, even the good in mistakes. Yeah, I completely agree with that. Omar Khady of Glory Martial Arts Center, Brooklyn and Staten Island. Two amazing, beautiful schools, guys. If you're in New York City, go and check these guys out. They have some of the best instructors.

Amazing Jiu Jitsu, amazing striking. Got the famous Jeff Chan out there from MMA Shredded, former One Fighting Championship fighter. Omar, I just want to say thank you to you. Thank you for your friendship. Thank you for sharing your time on the podcast. And just thank you for sharing your story. I think anybody who heard it, no matter who you are or where you are in your journey, like there's tons of inspiration and valuable knowledge.

be taken from it. So I just want to say from the martial arts business podcast, thank you for spending the hour with us today.

Omar Kadi (49:13.355)
My pleasure. I wanted to add one thing for those people out there that are like skeptical of You know, can you be? Successful at jujitsu or can you be successful at MMA and run a business? Pull up man pull up Flat in New York City pull up man You know, I'm like, I don't know like I'm successful at business word

Also, we have a successful competition team from the Muay Thai circuit. Just check out my Instagram. You know, like look at my Instagram. Oh, you know, oh, okay, Omar, you created it. You did it for yourself. Can you recreate that? Yeah, for sure. And you know, like Nick, you know what we're doing with our programs.

Nick Castiglia (49:56.362)
And your son, Musa, the goat, Musa, he just won Worlds, didn't he? Didn't he just win Worlds this year?

Omar Kadi (50:03.727)
Yeah, so last year, well, 2023, he won everything, Worlds, Pans, everything, Giyanogi, he just won Euros like last month and probably gonna get win hopefully everything this year again. And he's not just like winning, he's submitting everybody, which is, I'm really proud of him. But like not only just him, but like we have other kids that are like killing it, on the Jiu-Jitsu circuit.

And on the Muay Thai circuit as well, like our guys are doing, thanks to Jeff Chan and my brother Youssef, these guys are killing it. So can you be a successful business owner and still like run a super credible program? The answer is yes. Call me or call Nick. I got you. I got you guys.

Nick Castiglia (50:49.21)
Yeah, we'll get you there. We'll get you there. Thank you so much Omar for sharing your time. Guys, hit us up, lega Share the Martial Arts Business Podcast, and that's a bam. Thank you so much Omar.

Omar Kadi (51:06.451)
You're welcome. Have a good one, man. Talk to you soon.