18x World Champion MMA & Kickboxing Coach Trevor Wittman | Don’t Let People Hold You Back

Audio Transcription

on today’s show, we’re interviewing a man who has coached fighters to 18 combined world champions that possible in the MMA sport, kickboxing. Wow. Professional boxing, unbelievable. And he shares with us why we shouldn’t let other people hold us back. My man, that’s, that’s a powerful, that’s a powerful knowledge. And he also talks to us about how to fight through your fears. He also talks to us about key pride where he provides us that inside look into the world of boxing, which I couldn’t get into the MMA thing, which I couldn’t get into. The kickback basically even walks us into violent fighting sports that I wasn’t qualified to be in. I don’t know cause they couldn’t have a head gear big enough for your head.

Some shows don’t need a celebrity in the right hair to introduce the show. This show does to my eight kids co-created by two different women, 13 mock time, million dollar businesses. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the thrive time.

Oh boy.

yes, yes, yes and yes. Thrive nation. Welcome back to another exciting edition of the thrive time show

on your radio and podcast download. And another edition of your audio dojo of mojo that you go to FAU show Z. Welcome back to the thrive time show. It’s, I’m so glad to be back and I’m so excited about our guest today because I have a big vision dream I want to cast for Trevor. So I’m just telling you when we’re ready for that, this is going to be something that’s gonna be something big. Let me tee up today’s guest. Okay. This guy has a, he’s a, he’s a coach. He’s coached MMA kickboxing and boxing people to it to a championship. Okay. So boxers, kickboxers, MMA professionals, he’s coached and so he has at least three world champions. Champion shifted, but he’s credited for coaching of the athlete, but he’s done it 18 times. Wow. Z, that might be a world record. Trevor Wittman, welcome on to the thrive time show. How are you?

Yes,

I am wonderful and thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.

Hey brother, I’m a little bit scared of you because of your sparring skills here. So I’m just going to add, I’ll, I’ll, I’ll, I’ll try not to offend you. Don’t wanna get dropped kicked from Denver. Um, but here we go. Um, how did you get here? I mean, you, you are now this massive success, 18 time world champion. Where did it start? What, what, what was life like growing up for you in Connecticut?

[inaudible]

I, well, I, I traveled a lot since I’ve moved to Connecticut. Uh, when I was 12 years old, my dad was a store opener for home Depot, so I did a lot of traveling and, uh, my early life was full of lots of bullying. I was bullied a lot. And so I started in martial and I always loved boxing. Me my, my father would watch boxing and I was always intrigued on how these guys did talk stuff about each other as moms and then go in and hug each other after the bout was over. And it just intrigued me and being bullied that I started in martial arts and would start boxing when I was age 13.

Did you, uh, take to the technical aspects of boxing, the, the skill of it pretty quickly? Or was it hard for you to gain? Was it you guys, I mean, just watching XE when you watch a pro boxer, I mean, it is ridiculous how coordinated and how skilled they are. I mean, did it take you awhile to kind of get comfortable and how long did it take you before you felt like you were, you know, getting your, your game together?

You know, it’s, it’s very unique because tardy then in martial arts or karate, it was all technique and todos and practicing your moves over and over. And I did some 0.5 years prior to doing boxing and I’ve got a funny story. I was, uh, actually went into my buddy boxing gym and I was watching him spar and the coach looked over me and asked me if I wanted to do some boxing and maybe do some sparring. And I told him, he, I do karate. And uh, you know, maybe at some point. And he said, cool, take this waiver home and have your, uh, your parents sign it. So I took the waiver home, asked my parents to sign it and my dad refused to sign it. So, you know, being the wild them kid I was, I, uh, I signed the waiver and my first experience in the, in the ring, I got in there thinking I was very talented and as

good,

I remember lasting about 30 to 30 seconds and I was looking through the eater hole of the head gear.

Wow.

Man. The guy who, he just brought it to me and I don’t know if he ever seen something about Mary, but at the time when he brings Brett Farve in and then he steps out the door and he’s crying, that was me walking home

by jumping up. And then I try and the car went by again. But a, you know when it comes to boxing boxing’s you’re just true war. Like you go in there and they’re in the beginning, there’s not much technique. It’s just, it just really, uh, you know, by down in your mouthpiece and sweet and big punches. And, uh, I didn’t go back to the gym for about a month. I ended up feeling sorry for myself. And, uh, I went back and then my father found out I was doing boxing cause he seen in the newspaper that I had won the regionals and I was doing this all behind his back and he ended up becoming a big fan of what I was doing and pushing me hard. But a kinda funny story. I, I kind of uh, cross the line a little bit. Uh, started it, started my boxing career

tip number one, sign your own waiver. Tip number one. Is it true? No. Do that. Oh sorry.

Not at all. But uh,

okay. I’m sorry. Sometimes I read, sometimes I take non tips and turn them into tips. That’s I lost to make a point to take back that tip. Kids don’t do that. This just ends. All right. So my next Mike’s question here for you, Trevor, is you, um, you’re, you got to be very good. So how long did it take you to get some traction? Were you 15, 18, 22. How old were you when you started to just get it done?

So I bought 10, 13 to 17 and I took a year off after that. But I had close to 105, it was a high eighties and a only one, four bouts. So I had a very, very good record. I was a very talented kid and, uh, I was, I called it the three months. I’d go in and train for three months and it had a whole, a whole bunch of fights cause back when I was bouncing, I’m 43 now, uh, we would fight three times a day and tournament style and then I’d take three months off. So I lacked the consistency. But man, I was super talented and I felt like I was growing as a fighter. But my real traction and my love for the Fort was when I was injured and I actually got the coach and shout out what my real passion was, was giving back. And, uh, I never got emotional when I wanna fight, but every time my fighters would win, it would bring a tear to my eye. And, uh, then finding out that I helping people get to their goals was something I wanted to do.

So how many, uh, I guess you had 18, uh, fighters that you’ve had a chance to coach into a world champion a championship there. Um, could you maybe share the names of some of these folks for the folks out there? Maybe, maybe there’s a name that some of our listeners would know or some of the names of the, of the fighters that you’ve coached throughout your long career.

Yes, I, in boxing was Bernal. Philip saw JC condello, a kickboxing bang boy is Dwayne bang Ludwig. Uh, and UFC was Rashad Evans. Uh, I had a chance with, to work with George safe here. Uh, Shane Carlin was one of my champions. Rose [inaudible]. Uh, but the list goes on and uh, I’d been in MMA for probably the last old 12 years and I’ve really fell in love with the full aspect of fighting cause there’s so many different ways that can go.

Yeah. A Trevor. So, okay, you’re fighting now you’re 17, you take a year off. When did you start becoming a coach and kind of monetizing it and how did that transition happen? I mean, yeah, you just saw buddy in the, in the gym. You said, dude, you’re not doing that, right? I mean, how did you make that transition? And then when did you start to monetize that? How did that look?

So, so is when I moved to Colorado and I was actually going to turn pro and I was injured in sparring and, uh, I had a punctured lung and I went seen if a doctor told me I, I shouldn’t box Memorial. So I didn’t really listen to that. I went to another [inaudible],

same

thing. And then, you know, now I’m an older kid, so I’m, you know, taking advice from my parents and asked him what they thought and they were just totally against it. And it was something that I dreamed or, you know, it was my passion is what I obsessed. And, uh, I was seeing a counselor at the time and she goes, well, why don’t you become a manager? Why don’t you do something in the sport? So I decided to pick up some myths and uh, they’re holding for other athletes that I, that I was, uh, you know, training with and I just fell in love with it. It’s, uh, again that, that it was the, probably the biggest down part of my life because again, this is something I look forward to for so long. And then, you know, again, I found a new love so I only sell, you know, stayed in that position for a short period of time of, of the depression of it. But, uh, coaching brought me right back out.

Well that’s great. You, you were given limits. He just turned them in. Made eliminated. I bet. I love that. So how did they work? So you pick up some myths. You’ve got your buddy out there and he’s sparring with your, he’s hitting your match or why, I’m not sure exactly the terminology yet, but all of a sudden when you’re done, you look at him and said, but that’ll be $35 please. And we know how to do. How did you go from just kind of helping buddies out to going, uh, here’s a bill, or you want to pay me? Or how about a little money, a little something for the effort? I mean, you know, how’d that, how’d that work?

So I actually started a, a a little gym in my basement and that I started doing it for probably about six months. And I was coaching amateurs and taking into amateur events. So we are competing in at amateur level. And then there was a fighter named Bruno Phillips who came into my gym. I now opened a gym and rented out a place and a, he was a former world champion and he came and just to use the gym. And I remember that the first day he was in there, I was starstruck. Yeah. I mean, it’s a high level boxer. And about two or three days after he was in the gym, he asked me to hit minutes with them and, uh, and then he comes into my office and he goes, Hey, uh, are you ready to go to, uh, up to my Washington? And I said, for why these you’re going to be my coach.

And now my first experience as a professional coach or was on ESPN at Friday night fights main event and uh, I’ll never forget it. I got, got interviewed by Teddy Atlas. I was nervous. I was stuttering or just a funny experience. I kind of laughed at it now. I had one of the funniest parts about it is it burned. I’m getting ready to walk out that TV cam lights turn on and we’re getting ready to do our Watts and he turns around and looks at me and he’s like shadow boxing and he looks at me and he goes, cause like, yo bro, you gonna do good. And I’ll never forget that he told the coach he’s going to do good.

Right.

Do you want to go ship it that first year? And uh, it was, it was just a good process, man. I started starting young and it thought he was a little champion as, as a coach really built my belief in, in what I was doing and uh, what I could do for other asks.

No, I am notorious for doing this. Uh, there and if you don’t like this question, I and you hang up, that’ll be my code. You didn’t like the question. Okay. But see, I have some sound effects here that I’ve queued up this, this, um, without Trevor’s permission. Uh, Justin Rin, our mutual friend introduced us and so I said, Justin, do you think it’s okay if I put microphones all over his office without a masking for the next few months in preparation? And he says, absolutely not. And I said, okay. So I’ve got some audio here of what I think was his training session today. And that pivot I’d like for you explain to me if this is not your actual audio, I might have the wrong file. You might have. I would like for you to explain to me what you actually do in your trading sessions. Let me queue it up real quick. This is what I believed audio of Trevor coaching and athlete as recently as yesterday. So let me queue it up here. This is, wait, let me get there. It is

now. This might be Mike Tyson’s punch out or it could be forever. Um,

okay. First off, if you ever played Mike Tyson’s punch out the video games were played that game.

Yeah. Yeah. And that was actually a, but we’re, we’re fighting a soda pop in CA.

Yes, yes, yes. Let’s see. Well let me see if I can keep the next one. Let’s see if you can tell you this. Says, here we go. Let me get this one right here. You go here. Who’s this?

Did he ever have you said God opponents?

Yes, he’s on fire. He does like boxing. My goodness. Okay, let me know. I have one more audio clip and Justin said put him on the video again. That’s pretty good stuff. Justin ran, he said, he said, listen, I met Justin rent cause he was on the Joe Rogan podcast and I was crazy enough to reach out to Justin. Now he’s spoken at our conferences, yada yada. Justin Wren, he’s, he’s sort of a big deal. This is the audio. And Justin said, do not, do not whatever you do, do not play this sound clip while you’re interviewing Trevor. To which I said anyway, so let me queue it up. Let me kick me out of this as this is what, uh, Justin promised me. Have people said, please promise you won’t play this. And I said, I can’t say that. So here we go. This is, I got

Jenna, try listen to me. I want you to try to chase this little chicken.

Now this is Trevor Whitman coaching his client there early this morning. Oh yeah,

the chicken fours and the birds. And you know, first because I said so at the second because chicken chasing is how we always just the train. Any old day you catch this thing, you can catch grease lightning ready? I’d rather read it than shirts. [inaudible] very mature though.

Okay. So do you, do you do the chicken chasing method or talk? Talk to us. What is your, what do your coaching sessions look like?

So, so miss miss from a Rocky is a big inspiration. And Hey, if you’re chasing chickens, you can catch the chicken. You got to ask athletes at Justin run about this. Rampage Jackson on season 10 when I uh, met, um, the ultimate fighter season 10. Yup. Jeff and Ron was on that season when I met him and rampage played a goof on this and put chickens in our car and we actually got the chase chickens and it was the hardest thing ever. I tried to catch those chickens was, it was nuts because we let him out of the car in Vegas and they were so hot. We were trying to corner him so we couldn’t get them all grouped up and uh, get them sent back to wherever he got it. But I’ll never forget it. I have to do a full work against [inaudible]

and tell us what, what show that was you were on for the listeners out there that aren’t familiar with that show?

Uh, that was, that was the ultimate fighter season 10, uh, Rashad Evans versus rampage Jackson. And that’s when I met Jeff and Ron was on that season. I had the to work three ultimate fighter season, the season 17 with Shankar win and then also season 1283 with Jeff and Jeff engag. My current answer.

So when you’re not playing Mike Tyson’s punch out chasing chickens are coaching world class athletes. Tell us about Onyx sports.com. What is O NX sports.com?

So it’s a company that I started. It all started by me. I, uh, I actually borrowed my mom’s sewing machine and, uh, started making equipment cause, uh, the equipment that’s that’s being manufactured at the moment just wasn’t holding up. So I reversed engineered submits and they don’t have left and right mids, which is just crazy to me cause the left hand and right hand, uh, totally different. And I’ve got smaller hands, so I was always trying to squeeze it, hold the mitts from flying off. So I started making my own Mitt and a vitamin to the gym. And I have about 15 coaches at my gym at that time and 10 of them wanted mids. So I sold 10 products within probably so a week. And they loved them. And, uh, when I was at different events in locked rooms, warm and my guys out, uh, my network of coaches and brothers in the industry would say, where’d you get those? And, and I ended up becoming about a year behind on making custom equipment for people. And I realized that this is a real thing that people are needing premium, uh, equipment and, uh, combat sports with

Trevor. Um, you know, growing up, boxing was the thing, right for me, I’m 54 years old and I mean the boxing, that’s what it was about. And then all of a sudden it kind of switched over. I don’t know, I don’t know how many years ago exactly what this M M a, you know, just roared up. I mean, it just became very popper. Now I’m sure it’s $1 billion business and $1 billion industry. Right? I mean, that thing is just crazy now, right. Almost, almost took boxing to the, to the back shelf a little bit almost. Um, and now we have this kickboxing and we have different variations of the MMA and all that, the octagon and all that kind of stuff. But yeah, I’ve got, I’ve got something I wanted to talk to you about. It’s a business idea business plan that I think could be $1 billion industry. And I just wanted to share it with you and nobody else cause I figure you’ve been on the inside. We could. We could be on the ground. Yeah.

Flow. Let me, let me, we have about 500,000 and a half. 1 million. They’re not going be there. They’re on break, right? Ninja listeners. Ninja. Oh yeah. Just mute it down real quick. Do you, do you have to get physical with you guys who want to make sure you keep this secret? Okay, so the, I think we’re ready now.

Here’s what I’m thinking. I’m thinking about starting the world league of just donkey kicking. In other words, it’s two guys fighting and all they’re doing all, the only move you could do is a mule kick or a donkey kick. What do you, what do you, and then that’s it. The whole fight and it’s called a, and we have a really cool

looking donkey as, as a logo.

Why would you not watch it? I mean that is entertaining.

Yeah.

You know, I’ve always thought about doing something called Tuesday night, ten five and you’re allowed to use the open Palm and you get to put a little bit of a baby powder on the hand. Whoever is up with the mold, a baby powder on the face wins or excuse me, loses cause we’ve got some the baby powder from getting handed. I’m there. Manny. We should probably talk after this interview and see what we can do. Briefs more entertainment.

I mean to tell you now. Come on. See I have audio of your first pilot of your Yankee kicking challenge. I tell me if this is the right clip. I think I have it. I think I have already gotten that. I’m not sure. Let me

second year.

Let me see.

Wait, hold on. Metal. It’s not, this is a sword fighting. And what could they possibly be doing with Tet dog? It’s just a duck. Don’t kick kick. The mule kick just seems like it’s, I don’t know. I don’t like that because you’re on your back though. It’s your opponents. You know, you’re always trying to kick them from behind. It’s just [inaudible].

So we have people out there that uh, I want to know more about your Trevor’s, so if they want to learn more about you, is is O andX sports the best place or is there a YouTube video you’d encourage them to watch? What can we see you be in you

all right? I mean that’s the best way to reach me. And a yes, you can find a whole bunch of stuff on YouTube and a stuff from my career as a coach and also from fighting.

We want to buy stuff from you. Our listeners want to buy stuff from you. What can we buy? What kind of things can we with? This is an entrepreneurship show. Some of us want to buy books, some of us want to buy some boxing gloves. What can we buy? We want to buy things from you,

Matt. Right now Boston globe is a, what we sell. We’re actually working on a new gloss for the UFC right now and then also helping them out with their injury problem and it’s all in training. Like, it’s, it’s crazy to me that 70% of injuries that are happening in training, but that’s typically how combat sports has been for a long period of time. And if you look at equipment as say NFL NFL has now 30%, uh, injury in practice and, but they also had 52 case studies on equipment and when you look at boxing and MMA, there is no case studies on equipment. And I feel like that’s a big loophole is they just think that boxers kickboxers and mixed martial artists are just tough. But Hey, tough enough, just put on this equipment, but it’s mass produced and they really just don’t have any premium stuff out there to keep these guys healthy. Uh, when they’re preparing for, for fights. But we’ve released Globes and unfortunately we are sold out. Again, it’s our fourth run that we’ve done and we’ve sold out every time and now we’re releasing a full training kit, which will be coming here and about Oh, 35 days. It’ll be making it here to America and super cool staff. It’s a good story to sell out, but I always feel bad for all my customers because there they’re just waiting for the next stuff.

Trevor Wittman is so many great. So many great business stories are about a guy or gal that get involved in a sport or get involved in an activity and when they get involved they realize that what’s available for them to purchase is not good. In other words, the guy that started at Oakland just sold it for over a billion dollars. Good job. He got on and he realized that the hand grips on the bicycles weren’t that good. So we started off by making hand grips on the bicycles. So do you see yourself making more money in producing goods for the sport or coaching and having a gym for the sport? Where do you, where do you see that? And Oh, by the way, that is, that is so awesome.

Hmm.

Told. She’s always going to be with me. Like I’m going to coach one or two athletes and I coach too right now. Like, again, I love to help people out, but I’ve been in for 22 years now and, uh, I’ve hit every goal that I wanted to hit as a coach. So now it’s, uh, it’s, it’s about reaching new goals and, uh, accomplishing new things. So now it’s in business and then I’m looking forward to changing the industry and helping industry. That has really helped me, uh, uh, changed my life.

And that is a, that is a lesson for every, every entrepreneur out there or every person that wants to be an entrepreneur or find a problem, make it better, fix it. And that’s what you’ve done with your equipment. You know, you had a problem, you got your mom’s sewing machine and you just started. I love that. I reverse engineered it and I just started making it. I’ve got two more questions I want to ask. You hear Conor McGregor? I know nothing about UFC. I don’t know a lot about it. Uh, uh, I, it’s, it’s unbelievable how, what great shape these athletes are in. I mean it’s just, I just, I, I, I wince when I watch, like, ah, can talk to me about the trash talk that’s going on, on, on during the fight. Cause you can’t see on TV, you can’t see if they’re still talking trash while they’re throwing haymakers at each other. I would think that you’d have to dial that down a little bit while you’re throwing haymakers does come. Have you ever been up at ringside with Conor McGregor? Do people still talk to trash while they’re, like emits to the fighting?

You know, it’s everybody’s different. It kind of vigor. Yes. Is that Bolton name off of the trash-talk? He’s selling fights and uh, you know, I always say that you can all, like, like one of my athletes rows down the units who was a champion at astrol wage, uh, one of the most famous female athletes. And she did it by saying, Hey, I just want you to have one, everybody to hug each other. And she is, she’s all about facing her own fears and, uh, to facing something that’s curious and super talented and has been known because she’s such a technician. But she is real about the fear and fighting. So every athlete has a uniqueness to them. And Conor McGregor definitely talks a lot of stuff. But once that, that, that case door closes, all that goes out, it then becomes real. And you can’t fight man.

If you fight mad, you make bad decisions that you’ve gotta be sharp and a trash talk to me is, is it fake? And when you’re talking about someone else and making stuff up, it is truly what you’re doing. You’re making it up. You’re trying to either get yourself ready for the fight. I’m trying to piss the guy off. And uh, that’s all boxing tactics is try to get in their head and make them, uh, think about you all the time. And then, uh, they lose sleep and lose rests and you’re almost wearing them out without even fighting them. But again, once you’re in there, all that out the door and new use, Alipay sharp and focused

clay, that’s why I think you’ve really missed your Mark with your trash talking ability. Yeah. You could have been one of the best I could have been. You could have been. I missed my call. You did on bull. I asked Mike. See, you know what that makes, that makes me feel bad. Saying that makes me feel bad, sad, sad, feel sad, sad. And uh, but then part of me is I feel, I feel free and I feel like this. Okay. Now I want to ask you this here. Trevor Wittman. Uh, Mike Tyson, the famous American boxer. Uh, now he’s, you know, tours around sharing his story. Um, he has a great quote. I love this quote. I, I’ve used this quote often. In fact, this is the one, this is the one Mike Tyson quote I ever used. He says everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.

Yeah. Can you talk to me about things? I feel like I might have a plan. You know, Z, I’m getting ready to go into the fight. I got myself mentally ready to go. I think I, you know, I’ve been watching Mike Tyson’s punch out. I’d been trained and I’ve been eating, you know, raw eggs. I’ve been running around chasing chickens. I’ve been, you know, doing what Trevor Wittman saying to do and then do it. I’ve got it all. I got the whole thing workings. Yeah, I’m on fire. I got this, this, this energy and I get in there good. And then all of a sudden I get hit one time, I’m out. Can you talk to me about what that feels like to get just bam, just bam, just hitting, how do you keep going? My man,

you know, the key is is it’s like life. It’s like you guys said that business is, I use it in common day life. You can have a plan in business, but if you are hit with something that you’re not used to, you don’t have the experience or you just got to work through it and the key is having a plan, but you’re always going to change and you just gotta be able to adjust. And that’s what makes great fighters, is how they adjust to adversity. The people who go out there and not knock everything out with the first punch. I mean that’s, that’s not a fighter, that’s the one who’s gifted with explosion. But how do they deal with getting off the canvas? And to me, that’s common day life and it’s very easy for you to want to quit. And that, that scenario, because you know, as you get up, it’s going to be tougher and tougher and tougher. But the key is, the best part about getting knocked down is, is being able to get back up. And when you go into business or into a fight, knowing that you’re going to take punches and you’re okay with it, that’s what you signed up for. I mean, that’s the key to success.

Now, what would you, uh, you’ve seen a lot of boxers up close and I’m just tryna think of the boxers that people would know or the fighter, you know, there’s some of the names that everyone would nosy the common man. The PR person isn’t really into boxing that would know. Um, could you share with me Trevor’s or some guy that you’ve seen who, what boxer or what MMA guy or what, you know, kickboxer was truly the most Savage brutal I think of Mike Tyson, but the guy who just was the technique, the ferocity, the had the whole thing working. What’s the box are you look at or the fighter you look at and go, that is the best I’ve ever seen.

Uh, like George st and MMA and, uh, Mike Tyson, when he was priming, I mean, having a video game made just about yourself. He was the, the key in the prime of boxing when, when heavyweights were great. Uh, I mean, you got crashes, clay, Muhammad Ali. But, uh, again, when you go in there with that sense and, and, and you almost see unstoppable, almost like you’re some super human. Uh, but again, you can, you, it’s so hard to be perfect. And any one of the greats out there, you’re gonna see them lose at a certain point. And again, it’s a, I love to see people who are talented and then when they lose, how do they, how do they deal with that? And that’s where I see the true fighter. Cause if they’re ever able to overcome those scenarios because again, one punch will change. Any fight.

Yeah. Trevor, I don’t know, you don’t know clay personally, but from what you know of him, how many rounds do you think he would last against you in the running? I mean, how many rounds did they get last? Does he, you think he’d get one 20. Okay.

Uh, that, that’s, that’s world class. I was not a world class back here. I was very talented. I was an amateur. But those, those guys are world-class. Uh, one thing about caches plays, he was a great talker. He knew how to [inaudible]

no, no, I meant, I meant, I meant you just click for the long run backwards. Backwards.

I wanted to be able to run 25 miles backwards. That’s unique in itself.

Well, no, I met, I met clay Clark by my beautiful, Oh no, don’t do it for man.

Similar names. Hey to get include you guys together. That’s a, that’s a, that’s a cool,

maybe you and I Z together could stay in the ring with Trevor for a minute. [inaudible] on backward for 24 miles, maybe 24 films. My final question for Trevor’s Ian and I’ll let you wrap it up with whatever you want to ask mr Trevor here because I just want to make sure the listeners out there have adequate time to go to ons, sports.com they got to go there. He’s going to go there. But I got, I got one more question. I know you have one more question as well. Um, when you step into the ring, right? And this is kinda, this is the best way I can picture you step in and this is kind of what the music, they’re playing on fight nights or they’re trying to get that hype energy going. Z they got the, you know, they got the lights are going, there’s like a fog machine. Oh yeah. Their opponents walking in wearing the hoodie. Oh yeah. Foggers and there’s those scorecard ladies running around. The room gets dark and they get on the mic. Ladies or gentlemen now wearing the, you know, the blue, the blue shorts from Colorado. It’s Trevor Wittman. And when you come on, when you get out there and the crowd is going, there’s the energy. You know what I’m saying to you? The crowd is just open it up,

get excited. They’re screaming, Oh, I got to ask you, what

are you, what are you thinking? Like, what’s going through your head? Are you going, Oh, are you saying, ah, I’m going to destroy this dude? Are you thinking, I mean, what, what, do you have a mantra? Are you saying something? I just, I have to get, get, let me inside the cranium.

So I would say when you’re in there, and that’s the best part is because you’re, you’re focused. When you’re in there, the hard part is in the locker room and the whole day prior to the fight, uh, getting your hands wrapped up. Uh, those are the times where you’re always second guessing yourself. And that’s, that’s the hard part. Once you’re there, you feel the energy from the crowd. I mean you’re, you’re in it, you’re focused, you, it’s a traumatic situation. So you have to be home then, but it’s, uh, prior to the walk before seeing the crowd, that’s where you’re lost in thought with yourself. And again, with all the questions of doubt, you know, how am I going to win? You know, what did that guy been doing differently than me? That’s where, that’s where you will end up beating yourself. But once you’re in there, I mean we, again, you feel the energy and you’re, you’re focused. That’s awesome. That’s how I felt. I felt when I was in there. If I followed him,

that’d be a little bit of a rush to write Trevor.

Oh yeah. The funny part is I talked to my athletes all the time. It’s a, everybody’s fears heightened, you know, are you sure what the outcome’s going to be? But once you’re done, win, lose or draw, once it’s over, your asking, when’s the next one? Right. No rush like it. And again, it’s a key to life. Face your fears. If a facing your fears once you’re done with it, it wasn’t that bad. It’s always that scenario. It’s not that bad. And if you can go and choose life like that, if you feel it, you know they have Tinder now where you can swipe left swipe right. But when I grew up you had to go ask the girls number and if I looked scared to ask the girls number and I was and I was afraid to talk to her, I was worried about what she would say. And if you fear things in life, that’s the key to life. If you fear it, chase it and life becomes a fun ride and you’re usually chasing something you want if it scares you.

Okay. Trevor, my last question, you’ve been in the business of the fighting world for around 20 years or so. From my calculations, right? Plus or minus around 20 years, he picked up

coaching 22 and about about 30 years in the game. Yeah,

well 30 years of the game, but coaching to the business side of it, I would say like, like where you’re making the money, you’re the making the mind for 2020 some odd years. The making the money, you’re making them an offer. The kid refuse that you want to come into my gym, it’s going to take, Colorado was about two. What is what? My big quit. So if you could go back 20 years or 22 years specifically and have a conversation with yourself as you’re beginning the entrepreneur or the business side of the fight world, what would you tell yourself? Going back 20 years. Here we go. Going back, I would

say, I would say one of the keys is, is don’t listen to everybody. A lot of times we have conversations with the people around us, people that love us, but a lot of points I feel like that will break down what you’re really trying to chase, what you see, what Picasso painted. He knew what he was going to paint and he would, if he were to tell someone, Oh, he’s going gonna paint. They can’t see what he’s going to paint. When you tell people what you’re going to do, usually it comes with, Oh, how are you going to do that? You know? And again, when you things to yourself and you have no, you’re just driven to face that target. A lot of times when you open up to other people you’re facing, Oh they can’t do it. And again, you start to live in a mindset of thought of all that bad chatter and the and the drifting of how you’re not gonna do it.

I always say, Hey, keep it to yourself and to make sure that your circle is strong and the people that you around are chasing the same things because a lot of people can hold you back. A lot of times you open up your thoughts to other people and I feel like everybody’s kind of just living in that. Well how and and why would you do it differently? And again, everybody’s unique to itself. Everybody likes different flavors of ice cream. So find out what it is that you like on stats it and it’s just a destination. Make sure you get there.

No, that’s great. Great advice. Great advice. See that is great. Can we use that as tip one? Can we substitute your other tip signing fight agreements as a, as a juvenile verse. Yeah. Well we’re going to give him a place. This what is deployed.

Nobody is stupid. It’s significant.

We give him a mega pot. He leaves with a mega point,

no break rules, especially with your parents.

All right, well Trevor, we appreciate you so much for your time and uh, this show will be uh, uh, I know well received by our listening audience and uh, again, we just appreciate all you do and I’d love to have you on again.

Yeah. Thank you for having me. I had a blast. You guys are a fun group to talk to.

Alright, you take care of take care of Trevor and now without any further ado, three

Thank you for calling the thrive time show. This is clevis. How can I help you? Oh, I don’t know how I can help you. You are listening to the podcast, so I should probably teach you something. All right, here’s the deal at the elephant in the room. Um, our men’s grooming lounge chain or at Oxi fresh, the carpet cleaning franchise that is owned by my partner and friend Jonathan Barnett or any of the businesses that I’m involved in or, or, or own, or I’m a, I’m a partner with, we record our calls now. I thought a great way to explain why we record our calls, uh, would be to have Daisy the, the flower of the phones, the call center manager hop on the show. And, and Daisy, could you explain why we record our calls at the elephant in the room?

Oh yeah, absolutely. So it’s a great tool for accountability in holding your employees responsible for sticking to a script. And it’s a great way to catch any weirdness that might result as a product of not sticking to that script.

Yeah, we have great, great customers and great employees. Okay. But how often per week, cause we have about 4,000 customers that you manage there. Uh, how often per week does somebody who’s a customer call in and say that they said something that they didn’t actually say, Oh gosh, at least five times a day. Okay. So five times a day a customer will call in and say that they said something that they didn’t say. Oh yeah. How often do you catch an employee saying they said something that they didn’t say? Probably six times a day. All right, so the reality is is you want to know what your people are actually doing. I, Andrew Carnegie, the world’s wealthiest man during his lifetime who grew up poor and started working at the age of 13 he wants wrote, he says, as I get older, I pay less attention to what men say.

I just watch what they do. Well, how are you going to know what your people are doing if you can’t hear the calls? If you were a basketball coach, how could you coach the team if you weren’t at the game and didn’t watch the game? I mean, how? How could you help your football team get better if you didn’t watch the game or at least watched the video of your team at the game? How could you just look at the scoreboard and say, well guys, we’re losing so we should probably run a new play. Don’t know. You’ve got to actually watch the game. You’ve got to listen to your calls. Andy Grove, Andy Grove, write that name down. Andy Grove, the CEO, the CEO, the former co founder of Intel, Intel, the microchip people. He says, only the paranoid survive. Only the paranoid survive. Y w we’ll call you that.

You’re not being positive. Well, president Ronald Reagan. Okay. Reaganomics okay. He said the 40th president of the United States, he said, what’d he say? He said, trust, but verify. That’s, Oh, that’s huge. So I decided, let’s bring Tim on the show. Tim actually works in the call center. He’s a great guy. Uh, Tim, can you share with the listeners out there, what were you doing before you joined the elephant in the room team? I worked at Reesers pharmacy. You worked there and you knew a, I believe Jonathan Kelly, right? Oh yeah. So Jonathan Kelly, who’s the manager of all things in the office was, it was a buddy of yours from your time at research, I believe. And John told me that you’d be a great fit for the team. How did you hear about the job up here?

Oh, Jonathan asked me to come in and check it out. And uh, it was actually like a surprise interview for me because I had no idea what was going on and didn’t let you leave without taking the job. And, and Jonathan was like, yeah, I’ll take a half day. And I showed up and he was like, all right, so I’m going to head out and you’re going to fall clay around. And I was like, doesn’t, doesn’t clay own the company? He’s like, yeah, you’re just gonna follow him around

in ambush job recruitment there. Now, um, you are, your calls are recorded and can you share with the listeners how having your call recording, how having your calls recorded and being able to hear your own calls has been able to impact you or help you improve?

Oh yeah. It’s, it’s made a world of difference. When I got here, I was, I was honestly horrendous, which is terrifying because I’ve been talking to people on the phone for six years now for work. So yeah, if that’s been a constant, I’ve never listened to my calls until I started here. And I’ve never had any feedback on it. So you don’t even know if you’re doing a good job or a bad job. No, it’s, and you do it. You do a really good job. Now, uh, could you maybe explain how you’ve improved, cause you’ve, I feel like you’ve made huge improvements. I know you have. Um, but I’d like to hear from your perspective, and I know the listeners would too, how have you been able to improve as a result of hearing your calls? Oh, let’s may know a world of difference because, you know, because we have all the recorded calls in, we have plenty of information to go off there and we’ll have the group meetings once a week and listen to the calls and hearing my own and mistakes others have made.

You know, it’s something that I can constantly have in the back of my mind while I’m on the phone about what needs to be done, what shouldn’t be done. And it’s just, you know, makes all the difference. Now Daisy, what I thought we would do is I thought we would queue up at our expense, the worst calls ever. Well we’re going to cure it, but we won’t play a customer’s name over the air. And you won’t play an employee’s name over the year. But we are going to play audio and, and I will say this, Tim, you’ve gotten your, your energy is better on the phone. Your, your pacing is better. Uh, it sounds great but I use more marketed improvement. How long did it take you to get good at your job? You think with the calls because you do a great job now. Um Hmm. I don’t have, I didn’t save the date but as soon as I uh, I got over being some nervous about it. And you know,

30 days. 60 days. Yeah, less than a month. I would say less than a month. And that, and I will just tell you, if you’re out there listening today, what you don’t know will absolutely kill you. You see, when you assume it makes a boop and if you and me, when you, when you assume it makes a you and me, what’s that word? What’s that sound? When you assume it makes a [inaudible] out of you and me. So days is going cue up a a terrible, not so good, very bad, terrible call. And we’re going to break down what’s wrong with the call and you can understand why if you don’t regard your cause, you’re going to lose. If you’re a pastor of a church and you don’t watch your own praise and worship service and sermons, you will lose. If you are a pastor and you don’t watch the youth pastor preach, you will lose. And if you’re a football coach, you don’t watch the game film, you will lose. And if you’re a call center manager and the flour, the phones, you don’t record your calls, you will lose. You cannot win if you don’t know what’s happening, what’s happening, what’s happening is bad things, terrible things. According to the us chamber of commerce, 75% of American employees steal from the workplace. And that includes time employees sitting around not answering the phone. Daisy, we have video cameras installed.

Yeah, why? So that we can hold people accountable and make sure they’re not doing weird stuff. And yes,

and one might say, well, clay, what phone system do you use to record the calls? I use clarity, voice, C, L a, R I, T, Y, clarity, voice, and you might say, why do you use clarity voice?

Do they pay you to say that? Well, here’s the no,

they don’t. I use clarity. Voice because it’s the best. It Oxi fresh. They use clarity. Voice. We use clarity. Voice at an elephant in the room, a tip top, canine uses clarity. Voice. It’s the best system. It’s the best system. Now here’s the deal. I’m so passionate about the system that I’ve been telling hundreds of people, thousands of people to use, clarity, voice, and then they reached out to me, boop, boop, and they said, Hey, we would like for you to be like a sponsor guy, like an endorser guy. Since she referred us all the time, why don’t you become a sponsor guy? So here’s how it works. If you go to thrive time show.com forward slash clarity, thrive time, show.com forward slash clarity go slower. I’m using an etch a sketch, thrive time show.com. Forward slash. Clarity, C, L, a, R. I. T. Y. They’re going to give you all sorts of free stuff, all sorts of discounts. They can track it and then I might make some extra money so I can go buy some more Yeezys. All right, so throughout the time should have comp board slash. Clarity. Now let’s go ahead and queue up some a no good, terrible, very bad rotten phone calls so you can hear what happens when you don’t record your calls

for calling elephant in the room. This is something that IOP, which room is it? And they’re like a bunch of stories every year. Um, there should be an elephant, a sticker on the window, uh, of the office building without really looking at it or being able to see what you’re looking at. It’s kind of hard to tell. Oh, I’m by this somewhere in monkey. What’d you say? I’m sorry. Give me one second.

So awkward. Now see that you could see if you were a customer, why you would be frustrated if the person you’re calling doesn’t even know where you’re located. Um, and, and Daisy, what other kinds of abominations with that particular individual do over and over before we finally had to let them go?

Oh my goodness. So he went in and edited the schedule and did not show up for a shift on Saturday. Told me, Oh, I must’ve gotten the wrong schedule. And I looked back and was like, I know.

And because we have keystroke recorders, and because Google tracks, we were able to see he did right.

What? He changed his own schedule and tried to make me think he was only scheduled from 12 to five, which I have never scheduled anyone ever to do.

Tim, is this shocking to you? You worked at Reesers at great places. It’s shocking to you that an employee would lie about his hours. Ah, come on, man. You were, I would never even consider doing something myself. Do you ever work with somebody who did fabricate through hours or did do something shady at work? Ever much of angels? Nothing back like that ever happened back in my department. But you hear about stuff like that all the time, for sure. Now again, is it shocking to you, Daisy, that the call he did, he’d no point did he bring energy. At no point did he really help that guy. Does it shocking to you?

It’s painful. It’s very, very painful.

Yeah. And I could sit there and play calls all day except everyone would be laughing at my expense. It’s not cool when you take a customer into the sauna of awkwardness with you, where you’re like, ah, people, they freak out when there’s that silence. Yeah. It’s just that weird. They can’t hit. They don’t, they don’t, they don’t want to go in the sauna with you. All they want to know is where you’re located. They don’t wanna have you just breathing on the phone line. So again, if you’re out there today and you’re not recording your calls, there’s a, there’s a, uh, if you, if you don’t know what to do that there, that that’s like, okay, I didn’t know what to do. I’m getting educated. Thank you. That’s fine. But if you know what to do and you choose not to do, and I don’t care whether you use a clarity voice, I mean you should because they’re good, but you could use eight by eight.

That’s a great company. Clarity of voice is a great company. Eight by eight, it’s eight X. Let me pull it up here. It’s eight X eight.com has a great company. Okay, clarity voice’s a great company. But if you know what to do, if you’re somebody who understands what to do and you’re going, I know what to do, I just, I don’t really want to do it. Um, you know, I mean, I, I know what to do. I know to record my calls, I just, I just, um, you know, don’t want to do it. Um, I’m trying to think of a word I think would come to mind. I think it would be foolish. Um, and then it kind of thinking of what word means foolish, uh, or a person affected by extreme. Uh, the inability to comprehend, cause and effect. The kind of person who doesn’t know what you’re talking about.

That person would be defined as an idiot. No, I’m not saying you, the listener are an idiot if you don’t record your calls. I’m saying that people who don’t record their calls or are idiots, not you. Other people. So again, if you care about your business at all, Daisy, how often do we catch abominations crimes that get crimes against humanity, Jay and Jack ass. Hurry on the phones at, at the elephant in the room or any of the other clients we work with literally every single day, every single day. And we list off for me some of the crazy things that you have caught customers saying, where our team said over the years that have caused us to either fire a customer or fire an employee or to make some drastic changes.

Uh, they’ll make inappropriate remarks. So I had somebody that tried to buy time with one of my employees. Um, yeah. Was trying to bet that he knew what her age was and if he guessed her age, he would have to give her a gift card. And he, she would have to be the one to check him out for his haircut at the evening. And then she made this, uh, he made this comment that uh, he would prefer for her to call him names. Wow. Do you mind if we dance with your dates?

Weird things? Have you heard customers saying on the phone lines, uh, over the years? Just weird stuff where you thought, I don’t know why. I don’t know. I didn’t know that life worked this way.

Yeah. They’ve asked for massages. Whoa. See this one I’ve taught, I would want to talk about it. Have you ever heard a recorded call where you thought to yourself, I don’t even want to tell you, you feel shame just by hearing the recordings? Yeah, I definitely need a therapy session afterwards. Some of them get pretty weird.

I hear an abomination on the phone lines. I either my clients or one of my businesses every single day. And let me tell you what customers can vote with their dollars. Okay. Customers can vote with their dollars if they’re not happy with the service, they can go somewhere else. All right. But also as an, as a business owner, if I’m not happy with the client who’s, who’s being, uh, sexually inappropriate to one of our female stylists, I can pump them too. So again, principals, I want you to understand today you have to record your calls or your business will fall off a cliff called mediocrity. You’ve got to record your calls or your business will bolt off. Cliff called mediocrity. Now, what’s the company I recommend? I recommend clarity. Voice. How do you get a good deal? Go to thrive time, show.com, forward slash. Clarity, thrive time, show.com forward slash.

Clarity. Tim, um, you work in the call center. What’s your final justification and reason why you think all the business owners out there should record their calls? Yeah, if you, uh, you wanna make sure you actually have a good call and don’t sound like you’re having a panic attack while you’re talking to another customer, it probably be a good idea to record your calls. Daisy, what’s your final encouragement as a call center manager? How impossible would your job be without recording calls? What’s your final tip for the, for the listeners out there as to why they should record their

cool. Well, I just look at Tim. He’s like my personal testimony. We literally called him the nervous bomb diffuser for the first six months. He worked with me and it’s like he went from nervous bomb diffuser to Brad Pitt over night. I used to be the fast talking confused guy, my first job. Then they played my calls and they’re like, wow, you talk fast and wow, you’re confused. And so we all have some sort of dysfunction that we can’t fix, right? Absolutely. Can’t hear the calls. Absolutely. So if you’re out there today, again, go to [inaudible] dot com slash clarity and without any further ado, we’d like to in each and every show with a boom. So Tim, are you ready to bring the boom? Oh yeah. Are you prepared to bring them up? I’m so ready to go.