Ep24 Casey Halstead—Quit Shell Oil's Golden Parachute to Build Three Jiu Jitsu Gyms Across Las Vegas

Casey Halstead  0:00  
When you're all scared of spending money and you're scared of what's going to happen, I want to kind of set the tone. We're going to get a bigger space and we're going to blow it up. I'm going to invest more money and I'm going to run a risk, but I'm confident we'll grow it. That's the only reason why we did it. I was trying to send shots across the bow at everybody else and let them know that while you guys are panicking, I'm making big boy moves out here.

Scott Groves  0:25  
Welcome to Henderson HQ. This is the podcast where you get all the stories behind the businesses that make our community tick. Don't forget to subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Hey, ladies and gentlemen. Scott groves here with the Henderson HQ podcast. Don't forget to subscribe to the newsletter at Henderson hq.com today we have my oldest friend in Vegas here, Coach Casey at 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu. And about five years ago, when we moved into the area here in Henderson, we just picked the closest jiu jitsu studio. Wandered in there. I started training. Our kids started training. We had a few months of experience before we moved up here in LA and little did I know that I wandered into one of the best jiu jitsu studios in the country, proceeded to just get stomped on for about two years before I figured out what I was doing. But more importantly, to you all, other than maybe you're interested in that jiu jitsu journey, Casey's built an amazing culture, an amazing business, owns a bunch of different gyms, really, around the country, but three here in Vegas. So Casey, first of all, thanks for being here, man, and congratulations all the success. I don't know what am I supposed to

Casey Halstead  1:26  
say? It's my pleasure. Thank you. Thank you for having

Scott Groves  1:28  
me. So can you talk a little bit, maybe not necessarily, yet, about Jiu Jitsu, although we're going to get there, because you and I can't help but I know you came from corporate America, had a killer paying job at Chevron, and you're like, No. What I really want to do is be self employed and try to make a living charging people 100 200 bucks a month to learn a fighting sport. So can you talk a little bit about that transition from, like, corporate America doing what you're supposed to get a w2 buying a house, to like, No, I think I want to follow this passion project and be a gym owner, because that, to me, is like a very interesting part of your story. I can

Casey Halstead  2:00  
I actually was just training Jiu Jitsu, and one of my training partners asked me to corner him in a fight. And I was trying to fight MMA. I was delusional back then. So I was working for Shell Oil, actually, and they went through a whole process called Lean. It's a Japanese manufacturing model. And so they came into the plant that we were at in Carson, and there was a lot of employees, and they needed to do it as a corporation. I mean, there was managers there that had zero direct reports for like, the last 10 years, and nobody even knew. So they sent some of the foreign management from like, overseas to Japan to study with them. Then they come in and they fired everyone, including me. Every single person at Shell was terminated, and they said that we're going to reduce staff so you're going to reapply for your job. If you win your job back, you're going to get all your seniority. Everything stays the same. And the whole time you were fired, you were still working, same pay, same everything, but about 50% of the workforce at that time realized that their time was possibly up at Shell and this process drug out over the course of about a year or so. And it turns out because my job, specifically the job that I had, was regulated by the Department of Transportation. I had no idea that my job was safe. Nobody bothered to tell me that. And so we had opened up our own academy. It was called subtech MMA, one of my first business partners ever. He was running it. Then I left and came over with him and started assisting him with it, right? And because I have a corporate background management and kind of running the business always came pretty easy to me, developing talent, and then, so when all this started, I was like, Okay, I gotta, I gotta create something else. And we eventually went from sub tech to temp planet Costa Mesa. And despite our efforts to destroy the business. It just thrived. And back then, we didn't have a water heater in the building, or total rent was like $1,400 a month. We had 350 students, holy cow, and it was just a cash cow, like our art and we all had jobs too. So Ron Turner and Rick Marshall, my original business partners, we were all making big money in a real career, and so we would all do our jobs, and based on what time we were doing our jobs, that's what time we were supposed to be in the gym. So Ron worked at night. I worked during the day, and then Rick had like a nine to five. So Ron covered all the morning classes. I covered most of the night classes. Rick covered all the weekend classes, and then some periodic classes throughout the regular work week. And we grew this incredible business, and since I was in control of it, I wasn't paying anybody. And so we ended up building like, I don't know, maybe, like $150,000 in. Cash in the bank account real quick, and it got really big, and then I was like, Well, I don't want to expand. I'm always afraid of a big lease and a big nut to crack every month. So I started thinking, and I used to work for Costco in a previous life, and they cannibalize their own buildings when they move into a market. So let's say they're going to expand into Texas. They build them all close. So the membership has value. If you have, like, three locations you can go to, like, if you're isolated one building, people don't really value the membership to go shop. So I started thinking I did a zip code study, and I was like, dang, we got a lot of people in Fullerton Buena Park area that drive all the way to Costa Mesa. If I open a building there and cannibalize our students, we'll start with like, 50 strong guys over there. And that's what I did. And then organically, that one grew. And then I was like, oh shit, we're just man, we're still not making money. I would call like, a board meeting, and I'd bring my partners in. I'd be like, Okay, we got this much money. We need to do this. How much do we want to get paid? And then we would just take, like, like a bonus check, you know, four grand each, or something like that. We were living, like, super modest, and it was just purely a cash cow. The fuller 10 locate, what was Buena Park back then, $1,200 a month, no water heater. We didn't pay for internet because there was a laundromat next door that had free internet, so we ran all our systems on there, and we didn't even pay for electrical the so we had like, zero overhead. And then back in those days, our coaches, like guys that were helping us out, were just like, give me a free membership, and I'll teach three classes a week, and it was kind of like that. And then we we scaled to orange and built 10 planet orange based on the same business model. And then that one grew and just got really busy. Simultaneously, the company is going through this restructure, and they're trying to bring in the lean manufacturing model. And in my mind, I started to make the disconnect thing, because I'm looking at the money that's coming in. And I love shell though, like I used to identify as like yo. My name is Casey. I work for Shell Oil. It was just an incredible job. Pension for 1k stock options, crazy salary, and if I had to stay late over time, if it rained, I went home and still got paid. It was like the most incredible job ever. And so when this Lean process started happening, we were in the middle of growing and expanding. And then I also had, like, a really big clothing company called Nawaz apparel. It was probably, at one point, it was probably the biggest NoGi jiu jitsu brand, like anywhere, maybe even jiu jitsu brand at the time. Like, we would go to the worlds and set up a booth and we'd make 30 grand in cash. I mean, it was nuts, and no one really knew what we were doing. We're just jiu jitsu was so young that it was just easy to do. There wasn't a lot of jiu jitsu academies other than, like, aoj was close by Gracie Baja headquarters, but we weren't really competing with anybody. And so I didn't get the email from Shell corporate saying that I was getting an interview. And so I was like, Oh man, I'm done. Like, I'm not even getting an interview. And so I went into work and and I talked to my direct boss, and I was like, Yo, what's up? And he goes, Oh, I never told you your job was never on the line like you're qualified to do a job that's governed by the Department of Transportation. I'm like, Dude, I've been thinking I was going to get fired for the last year. And I'm like, That's pretty that's pretty bad. But I realized at that point that corporations don't care how loyal you are. And then that's where I really started, the disconnection from being a corporate guy to an entrepreneur or like, self employed guy. And then there was also something that was happening simultaneously, my wife and I were trying to have our 11 year old for eight years, and we couldn't do it, so the fertility doctor finally was like, Hey, you're getting old. You guys got to do in vitro. So we did in vitro. And my whole life, I would get up at five in the morning. I would drive to Shell I'd work until 330 I would take all my business phone calls on the way home. I would get home. Abby was like young, like 10 or 1112, 13, something like that. And then I would get home and get something to eat, and then my wife would jump in the car, and Abby would jump in the car, and we would drive down to Costa Mesa and train, and then we'd get home at 11, and that just kind of was our routine. And then, so now you introduce Charlie, our 11 year old, into the system, and my good buddy Jerry noche, one of my best friends, had a jiu jitsu Academy, like, right around the corner from our house. So I'm telling my wife, like, all right, I'm home, let's go. And she's like, I got the baby. I'm gonna breastfeed her. And then Abby's like, I'll just go train with Jerry. Like, and then so very quickly. Maybe less than 30 days after the baby was born, I started feeling like really disconnected from the family. And if anyone who knows me, my family is the most important thing in the world to me. So one Sunday night, I was sitting on the couch, and I was probably like, two three beers in, feeling pretty good, and I was just really depressed, and I was watching TV, and I think we still had cable at the time, and flip flop Vegas came on, and I know that it's a total like, it's not real. And I was like, Damn, you can buy a house for like, 180 in Vegas and and I never had a desire to move to Vegas. I was deep into coaching UFC fighters, that was another thing. When I worked for Shell, I had to kick ass at Shell, because I would never really know when I had to travel for a fight. And back then, you know, we were traveling, traveling internationally, and that's a 10 day travel. And if it's, if it's stateside, it's Tuesday to Sunday, so I'd have to take all my vacation time, pretty much, to just travel. And so here's my wife holding down the house. I go out on the road, and then when it's time to go to Cancun, I can't do it because I got to work, and then I got the gym. And so I'm feeling this disconnection and from the family, and I'm a little bit buzzed, and I'm watching flip flop Vegas. I'll never forget it. Uh, you know, it was still in the FMLA period of us having the baby, so I was off of work, and my report date was that Monday to go back. And I'll never forget my wife's such a savage, and she supports me so much. And I just, I went in the room, and I was like, hey, and she was an attorney back then, like, working and and I said, Charmaine, I'm gonna retire from Shell and we're gonna move to Vegas. And without even a hesitation, not even a stutter, she just looked at me and said, will that make you happy? And I was like, yeah, she goes, let's do it. Let's run it so. And then I basically, maybe not exactly that following Monday, but I went in and quit, and then shell was so shocked that I was quitting the job. I mean, they they usually have to severance you out to get you to leave. It's just corporations now are like hands off. So they hire contractors to do all the work, and the corporate guys are more like inspector type guys out there. So physical work. I wasn't doing anything. And he was like. I was like, I'll work until the end of the year so you can get your vacations right. And I had a big bonus coming to me at the end of the year. And he goes, in a perfect world, when would you want to leave? And I go, I don't want to work today. And he goes, Well, I can't let you quit today. I got to get an attorney in from Houston. He's like, just go find a shade tree today and kick back, clean out your work truck, and I'll have someone here in the morning. And then so the next day, they brought me in the office, and they were like, Why are you quitting? Are you going to sue us and all that? And I'm like, No, I love shell. It's just you guys do this Lean process. And during that process, we really started building these academies, and you've become unnecessary in my life, but I love shell like I would have never left. And they were like, okay, and that was it. And then we drove out here. There's a local fighter girl here who was actually staying at my house. I was training her how to fight, and she's from Vegas. And so we drove her home, and then we came and saw like, 15 houses, and we don't even remember, like, we get home and I'm like, I don't even know, and my wife's like, there was one by a park, and I'm like, get it, and we bought it, and amazing. And then we moved here, and that's it.

Scott Groves  13:31  
You know? What's crazy is, like, you're going through this super lean process, which ends your career with Shell, but obviously you implemented the same strategies with every gym that you opened, right? Like, I want to keep expenses low. I don't even pay $50 a month for internet. Was that, just like, did you grow up super frugal, and that's kind of how you think? Or was there any transfer over from Shell, where it's, like, I've seen what happened when companies get too big and spend a lot of money? Or was just out of like, necessity, of like, we have no idea if this is going to succeed. Like, what? What made you think to like, keep expenses really lean, right? Because I think somebody building a new physical location now be like, Oh, I gotta overspend on the decor, and I gotta do this. I have to make sure this is perfect, and I gotta make sure we're gonna attract clients this way. I have to have a pretty website. I have to have the best this. And it's like, no, you don't just build something and they'll either come or they won't. So what made you think like that?

Casey Halstead  14:18  
Well, my first business plan. I should actually pull it up and show you. I mean, it's huge. I spent a lot of time before we opened up tent planet Costa Mesa, and jiu jitsu was the fourth most important thing in my in my business plan, and number one was culture. So we were always culture driven. It was like, one of the things that that I try to do is I realize that most people are living in quiet desperation, you know. And I used to give assignments to my students like, I'd be like, Scott, listen, I want you to go to a business park. You got to leave your phone in the car, and it's got to be around lunchtime. And I want you just to sit down in the middle of the business park. And I want you to just. That look at people and you'll see that they're just slowly dying, and they're miserable. They left a house that they can't afford, a woman that they're not in love with, kids, that they have no control over driving in a car, that they can't afford, to go to a job that they can't stand, and then they go home and do it all again, day after day after day after day. And I realize that jiu jitsu is a solution to most of that, right? We we talked about this last time, but it's like, you start out as a kid and it's compete, compete, compete, improve, improve, and then you get into corporate, corporate America, and then it's like, be average, because if you suck, you're going to get fired. If you're good middle management, scared of you, and they're going to get rid of you anyway. So you learn to operate in the 70th percentile, and that's corrosive to human nature. That'll just destroy you from the inside out. And I know that if I can just get you into Jiu Jitsu, I know that you're going to remember as a 30 year old man like, oh shit, I can be good. I can work hard and be good, and then that you're not really, you're coming for the Jiu Jitsu, but really I'm trying to influence your life. That's what I want the most. So being streamlined and culture driven is the most important thing. So like, if you're opening a business, let's just say you're opening a coffee shop and you're also selling bagels and you're selling cakes and ice cream, and you don't really have a streamlined business, and you're not really an expert in something. So my business model was like, we sell NoGi Jiu Jitsu. It happens to be the best. What's going to keep you coming in when you leave that corporate job and you're driving home and the Lakers are on and you're a drinker, and you're going to stop and get a six pack of beer and go home and watch the Laker game. It's the culture that we created. It's a predictable outcome if you come and then you realize that you just need to show up like you have a gym membership. You have to provide your own motivation, your own workout strategy for the session. When you come into jujitsu, it's all your friends. It's like, it's like going to cheers. Everyone knows your name. You know everybody. You build a relationship with these guys. You can predict the playlist. You know. You know my style, so you already know what we're going to go over. And so I am personally battling all major league sport teams, I take it as a personal affront if my friend Scott groves chooses to go home and watch a Laker game and not train with me, I that keeps me up at night, because I know you're a dad that takes pride. I know you're a businessman that takes pride, and probably the most important thing about you is you're an amazing husband, and I know that if you come into the gym, you're going to get all the wiggles out, you're going to see improvement, and you're going to perform well in all those areas. And to me, that's the most important thing. So when you say, you run it like on a on a shoestring budget, and it's like because all I'm doing is teaching NoGi Jiu Jitsu. You're not going to see yoga in there. You're not going to see a lot of this other stuff. It's like, it's like, yeah, this is the price. We don't have tiered memberships. You come in, you pay this. Everyone pays that. You're going to get amazing training. You're going to get you're going to have a really good time. And it is what it is. It's it's a nice, climate controlled space. There's mats and hard rounds, and you're going to get sweaty and you're going to feel like you got bruised and battered, and you're going to know where you stand as a man, and you're not going to have to go figure it out. And so that was always creating the culture to get the people to come back. And then jiu jitsu was the fourth most important thing in the business, and it just so happens that we have the best right? So it all works, but it is culture driven for sure.

Scott Groves  18:47  
Hey, guys, just a quick ad from our sponsors here that make this podcast and our newsletter possible. Want to give a shout out to ethereal Med Spa, a gym for your skin. So doesn't matter whether you're doing anything proactive, all the way up to spot removal, all the way up to beautification, right or vanity. Ethereal Med Spa, they got you covered. Scott right over at right auto body. Love them. So anything from a scratch in dent to a big insurance job all the way up to a custom rebuild of a classic car. They got you covered. And shout out to my buddy, Casey Halstead, owner of 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu, which now has three locations. They just opened new location on the west side. So they got our Henderson location. They got a mid city location, and they've got a West Side location. So anywhere in the valley where you're looking to train jiu jitsu, check out 10th Planet Las Vegas. Now back to the show. You know it's interesting because you were talking the other day after one of our morning classes, it's like, Hey, you psychos that get up at five o'clock in the morning to come to morning jiu jitsu because night now with the kids sports and, you know, with Charlie's golf and everything, it's just like nights are pretty much now, just for kids. I'm effectively a professional chauffeur. You were like, what you're really giving up is not the 200 bucks a month or the past. Ability of, like, I don't know, getting sweaty and injured or whatever you're like, what you're really giving up is time away from your family, right? And my wife and I, we had that, that tactical conversation about three years ago, when I switched from going to the night class to the morning class. She was like, I don't need you in the morning. Like, I can get the kids up and they're in a good mood. I get them fed and out to out to school. I really need you at night, but there's still like this little bit of guilt in the back of my head that like, Oh, I'm not there in the mornings. So it's like there is a trade off of, like, time away from the family, time away from your other activities, versus I also know that when I hurt my back a couple months ago because I was being a moron trying to do a move that just is not accessible to a 47 year old, I Karina was asking me, Hey, how's your back? How's your back, how's your back. And then I realized she wasn't asking me because she cared my back. She was asking me because she cared when I went back to Jiu Jitsu, that's right, because I am. I'm not as happy of a person when I don't get that morning workout. So talk a little bit about that, of like, you know, what you're giving up, versus kind of like, what the return on investment is just, just for working

Casey Halstead  21:02  
out, yeah, most people feel like the real expense, or the cost of doing jiu jitsu is financial. And I disagree, like, when you love something, you're going to pay for it, right? So it's kind of like saying, oh, one of my kids needs a heart transplant, and I'm the only one that can give it to them. That is not even a question. I should get no honor. No one should be like, Oh my god, he gave his heart to his kid. What an amazing thing. Anyone that says that clearly has never been a father. So paying for something you love is like to me. I don't even factor that in. But really it's the expense of time. And even if you're getting up at 5am I'm pretty sure your wife wants to cuddle with you in the morning, you know, like, even if they say, like, okay, I get it. Because I used to consider it a plus one, because I was training three times a day for a long time, and I would tell my wife, Dude, I got up at 4:30am and went and ran seven miles, and you can't hold that against me. You were sleeping. And it wasn't until I talked to Rich's wife, and Rich's wife was like, what you don't think we want you guys in bed with us. You're crazy. That still counts. And I was like, holy shit. It only took me 20 years, and it took another woman to tell me that because my wife's ride or die, she's all in with me. She supports me 100% so she would never even tell me. So there is a thing that men require in life. We need to know where we stand in the pecking order, right? So the true importance is understanding how much it impacts your family. That way you appreciate it a little more. Because if you're just saying financially, if the UFC is charging $75 a pay per view, and then all sudden, your cable bill comes in and you owe $400 you write the check. So don't tell me anything about the money like I get it. People are tight on money, but you're gonna pay for what you want, right? So you'll, you'll figure that part out, but when you realize how much time you're taking away from your family, that's when you really start to Okay, going to the gym. I'm going to be really focused. I'm going to get the most out of this that I can. I'm not just saying here like a goober, not really trying, not really listening, just waiting to do my own thing. You're going to really lock in and try to get better. But the other benefit of getting in and training is like, men have this really weird pecking order, and you can hear it when you're just drinking with your friends and there's like 10 guys, and everybody's just one upping each other. That happens all the time. Guys always want to fight. Guys that don't fight need to know where they stand. The safest place you could ever be, the absolute safest place after a UFC fight in the hotel bar, it's got probably, let's say there's 10 fights on the card that day. There's 20 fighters that are at the bar, drunk. Each one of them have a minimum of three coaches with them. So that's another 30 guys. And then they have their friends that came and we're all sitting at the bar. I've never seen a fight break out there, and it's just like, yeah, you're capable of violence, and so am I. Let's just have fun, like we're not trying to do this again. And it's, it's the guy who doesn't struggle. That guy is the one that's going to be the biggest problem. So, you know, one of the real benefits is when you really start taking away from your family, you start to focus on them more. I actually have something that I tell the young guys that are having kids right now and they I don't know why this is happening right now, but everyone's wife is pregnant. If you're under 30 years old, you have a pregnant wife. And in our gym, this is currently happening. I mean, all the cops, like, they walk up to me and they're like, Yo, my wife is pregnant. Don't tell anybody. It's pretty early. Like, we don't want to get it out yet. And I I say a couple of things to them. I say, number one, you're going to have to learn how to water the garden when you have time. I'll talk to you about it. Number two, I hope you have a daughter, because if you have a daughter, she's going to really teach you how to love your wife as much as you think you. Love your wife right now, until the day you have a daughter. You You're, it's, it's impossible to actually love your wife the way that you potentially can. And the manifestation of love that comes from within you, instantaneously, spontaneously, is something that I can't describe. When I saw Abigail come out. It was this, this sense of like I will do anything for her, anything. And I thought I loved my wife until I met my daughter, and then I realized, holy shit, there's a huge difference. And then now with Charmaine, I love her more than ever before, you know, and it's all because of the kids. And I haven't had a son, I imagine you would get a very similar same with the son, but it's different.

Scott Groves  25:48  
There's great comedy skit where the guy is like, I would die for my son, but I would kill somebody. That's right, Otter, that's

Casey Halstead  25:55  
That's exactly it

Scott Groves  25:56  
that nails it. You

Casey Halstead  25:58  
feel like King Kong. And and it's just like this little infant baby, I will, I would, I would kill everybody, or at least die trying, right? Um, so that thing that you get from jiu jitsu just kind of realizing that you're taking time, you start to focus on your family. You have to water the garden. That's a huge one. And it's like, I know that men, we go to our cave, you know, we come home and we carry a lot of stress, a lot more than our women. Like, if you're doing the right thing, you're carrying way more stress than your woman, right? And so we come home and we tend to, like, want to decompress and get in the cave. And my advice to anybody who is expecting a kid and still wants to be able to train and do the things that they like to do, go shooting whatever it is your first 10 minutes. And this is very important order. And I hope my wife's not listening to this, but we have showers in Henderson, but the gyms in the beginning, did not. And I would say this is important to order. You can never change the order. If you change the order, the whole thing's gonna change. You walk in, you're sweaty, you change your clothes, and you tell your wife, honey, tell me about your day. And then she starts talking about Susie and Susie's marriage and this and that. And I just, I'm like, oh my god, I will just shoot myself right now. I don't want to hear about Susie, but I just go, No way. That's what Susie's going through. And then I look down at my watch, and I see that 10 minutes has gone by, and I'm letting her get it all out. She's just talking, and she's getting in and I'm actually paying attention. I care what she's saying, but this is just supposed to be a funny analogy. And then I go, honey, I gotta jump in the shower. I don't want to get ringworm. Hold that thought. I'll be right back. And then I go shower, and I'm washing my hair, and I'm just hoping that I hear her be like, hey, Susie, what's going on? And then when, when I hear her doing something else, I come out. The point of the whole analogy is you have to be present when you're at home, if you have a lot of hobbies, you have to be present right when you go to work and you need time off, you have to be good at work to get the time off you need. So like, when I was traveling for the UFC, I would just call my boss and be like, Hey, I know it's Sunday. I'm sorry to bother you. Cheeto just took a fight. We were leaving on Monday to go to England to fight Brad Pickett. And he's like, Cool, man, I got you. Don't even worry about it. And and I can never relate when I'm like, Hey, we're going to coach these guys here. And the other coaches are like, oh, man, I'm never going to be able to get off of work. I'm like, you suck. You suck at your job. You know, if you're good at your job, you get what you want. Your boss is going to try to take care of you. If you're the number one salesman, and they have a mandatory sales meeting and you're like, I'm not going,

Scott Groves  28:58  
yeah, they don't care.

Casey Halstead  28:59  
They don't care. They're like, keep being number one. I'll see you on Monday, you know. And so, like, I think jiu jitsu really starts to develop all that stuff in your life. I don't know if I answered your question.

Scott Groves  29:10  
No, you did,

Casey Halstead  29:10  
in a roundabout way, this

Scott Groves  29:12  
is great. I want to talk a little bit when you decided to move up here to Vegas because of Flip or Flop. Like, you know, you didn't have a network here in Vegas. You didn't grow up in Vegas. You didn't, you didn't even know

Speaker 1  29:21  
where to go. So I

Scott Groves  29:22  
hated it. Yeah, you hated it, right? Like, because you only had to come up here for fights, or you probably lost a lot of money if you were a 20 year old like me, where did you decide to land? How did you grow the business? Because, like, you know now it's very easy for somebody to walk in, and at our 6am class this morning, there was nine black belts. Everybody's willing to teach every like, it's just, it's, it's an easy environment to plug into at any level, beginner to, like, super advanced UFC fighter, you know, championship level jiu jitsu on day one, there's nobody in there. Just, you like, how did you how did you build the business from scratch here, not knowing anyone.

Casey Halstead  29:59  
Okay, so. This is a mini layer. At that time, I was so confident, right? I was coaching fighters every day, and I was a big pusher at Shell, so I was, like, controlling a lot of people, and I was running multiple businesses, and I didn't really have a lot of free time, so I never, like, kind of sat back and was like, Holy shit, what's going on here? I was just kind of grinding through everything so I knew the gym would be successful. I never even questioned it. You know, until two years ago, I never paid a dime for marketing, never we had a crappy website that was built on Kajabi, and it just didn't function. It didn't work. I was in the UFC every weekend, especially post covid, because we had so many fighters on the roster back then, and we're all local guys. I saw the writing on the wall. I heard that UFC was going to be first to market back open, and I told all my guys, go get your medicals done, even if you're not booked on this card, everyone's got covid, everyone's traveling in, there's going to be hard. It's going to be hard to get into Vegas and pass quarantine and get into fight. So if you guys are local, we need to pass quarantine. Your job is to say yes. Your manager's job is to say no, along with me. Let me protect you. You say yes to every fight. So during covid, we really started grinding. But prior to that, we moved here in 2015 I didn't know anybody. I was zero marketing, but it was all because I was coaching so much. Everybody knew me. They saw me next to Tony Ferguson, Mark Munoz, Joe Benavidez, Tim Elliot, Cody stamen, I mean, Casey O'Neill, the list, just it's endless. And I still don't know why I was placed in that position. I feel like because I'm a good handler, like, if we're traveling internationally, I'm going to be like, Scott, give me your passport, put the headphones on, try not to stress out. We're going to get in the right cab, we're going to get on the right flight, we're going to get to the hotel. You don't have to worry about anything. I got you, and I feel like it's the Father in me and and I feel like they just know I'm not going to sell the farm. But the impact that coaching UFC fighters had on the business was huge. It was huge. And, I mean, think about it, I moved here. No one knew me. 10th Planet, even in 2015 was still kind of counter jiu jitsu culture. And so we, you know, we had a lot of obstacles to overcome, but I only know one way to do it. Just put my head down and work. And you know that last 10 years has been crazy on my body. You know, being 41 versus 51 I was still grinding and scrapping and tearing people up when they came in, and now I'm a shell of what I used to be, that the last 10 years has been really brutal on me. Physically. I trained for two weeks, I'm out for three weeks. I trained for two weeks, I'm out for three weeks. That's just my cycle. For the last like, two years, it was like once I turned 50, couple of things happened. My doctor's appointments became super long and obtrusive, and I get like homework from the doctors, like you got to go to this place and get this test. And then the second thing when I turned 50 is I just started breaking down. And once I retired in 2023 to focus on Charlie's golf, I started to see a decline almost immediately in the people that were coming in just randomly, like, Yo, this is 10th Planet. And it was because I took a step back. And this is a cautionary tale to people

Scott Groves  33:34  
step back from coaching, from

Casey Halstead  33:35  
coaching, yeah, UFC

Scott Groves  33:36  
fighters, yeah.

Casey Halstead  33:37  
And then I also took, I also took a step back from everything, kind of, I mean, I always teach, right? But I used to go to every Naga, every grappling industries. And it was, it was around 2023, when my daughter started getting really good at golf. And I also realized that I didn't see most of Abby's wrestling. You know, your

Scott Groves  33:58  
older daughters,

Casey Halstead  33:59  
yeah, yeah, she wrestled in college. I only saw her wrestle in four years. Being a varsity college wrestler, I only saw her wrestle live one tournament, everything else I was watching, and it was a lot of that had to do with covid, making it extremely hard to travel, but it also had to do with my crazy travel schedule on top of it and being quarantined basically from 2020, to 2022, pretty much. And these are moments. Someone told me, you get your you get your kids 99% of the time from birth to 18, and then 1% of the time until you die after that. And I was like, Okay, well, I can't, I can't do this. And if you want me to do it, you got to pay me a minimum to travel to Australia for a fight, 30,000 and they can't afford it, and I'm actually not worth it. It's like, if you're going to make a million, you want to pay me 30. That's cool. Like, I'll go. But Adam Frank, he's been. In the corner with me so many times. I trained him for so long. He's just super stoked to go to Australia, and he's also young and a good training body, and he knows all the call outs that I would do, I basically became irrelevant in the coaching space, and most of it was because I priced myself out. But the other part was, because of physically, I just can't have Lance Palmer beating the shit out of me in the back, right? I'm on the shelf for like, three weeks after that. Um, so moving here, I didn't lack confidence at all, and I was able to hold the fort. And I was in the gym every single class I was there unless I was traveling for a fight. And then little by little, you know, people started seeing what was up, and they started coming in. And of course, if you walk in there, there'd be 15 UFC fighters in there. So it's, like, really easy to sell a membership. Some kid walks in and it's like, oh shit, that's Cody Stayman. I'm gonna train here like I saw him beat up. Brian Kelleher last weekend, you know. And so it was easy, and then when I retired, it became a little bit more challenging. I had to pivot and use my corporate hat a little bit more, and but, yeah, I didn't lack any confidence. The one thing I was kind of hoping would happen never happened, and I'm totally shocked by it. I thought somebody would come in and try to fight me. And it's never happened. You know, when I first moved here, I wanted that to happen. You know, I wanted someone to walk in and be like, hey, I want to challenge you, Sensei. And I'm like, I was like, dude, I'll whoop your ass, put it online and get Insta famous immediately. Everyone that did it be mad, beat up a weight lifter. Like, really nice and his his post went crazy Chai from Long Beach. I mean, you see it all the time.

Scott Groves  36:43  
One guy tried to storm the gym, yeah.

Casey Halstead  36:45  
And then he had, like, a he had one of his girls choke the guy unconscious. And those things are great, man. And it's never happened to me. Now that I'm 51 I actually don't want it to happen anymore. I kind of say you probably heard it tongue in cheek when I'm teaching, I'm like, when someone gonna run up here and challenge me. The biggest problem

Scott Groves  37:02  
is put Andy or somebody on that,

Casey Halstead  37:03  
yeah, yeah. The biggest problem is that they would have to get through everybody else.

Scott Groves  37:09  
Yeah,

Casey Halstead  37:10  
we have. Can I tell a little funny story? Sure, my blade Trevor, who probably one of the best jiu jitsu athletes I've ever met. Rest in peace. We were in the gym, just three of us. The 11am was over, and this guy comes walking in, and he like, pulls up, and he's like, Hey, who's the instructor? And I'm like, I am. And he's like, Well, we have to fight. And I was like, what? And he's like, Yeah, we have to fight. I'm like, All right, cool. And I thought, like, Oh man, this is a day, and this was not long ago, and I go, you have to fill out a waiver first. And Trevor put his hand on my chest, and he's, like, I got this. And then the guy, he had, like, one of the chest fanny packs, and he took it off and threw it on the ground. He kicked his slides off, and he jumped on the mat. And Trevor's eye started tweaking, you know, the eyelid was doing that, like, nervous twitch, and the dude's like, Oh man, I'm just messing with you guys. Man, have a good day. And he took off. And then about 10 minutes later, I looked at Trevor, and he was still locked in. And I'm like, bro, the guy's gone. You need to settle down. Yeah, Trevor would have killed him. Oh yeah, I would have been bad, but there was so I have a feeling now, if someone ran up in the gym, I would have to tell everybody, no, no, I want this one, because it'd be really hard for them to get to me. I know if Andy's Andy's, like, he's got to go through me first, and I'm like, Well, I was not gonna get my chance to shine. You're gonna get more Instagram famous.

Scott Groves  38:35  
Yes, you know, you mentioned something there briefly that, like, until two years ago you had never done marketing. Like, what's that like as a business owner? Be like, Okay, I don't have as many UFC fires in here anymore. I'm not in here 24/7 to, like, attract people and build the relationship. I got to do some more traditional marketing. Like, how did you decide on that? Because I, I know people, especially Facebook ads or whatever, that have just blown through a mountain of gold, and got very little, very little from it. So

Casey Halstead  39:04  
I'll tell you a story. So one of my frenemies got a black belt at Eddie's gym, and I was clapping and cheering. And I used to train at Eddie's on Tuesdays and Thursday night, his practices start at 830 usually like nine, and Jean Jacques Machado has a practice at 6pm so I would drive up to La on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I had no responsibilities in the gym, and I would train with John Jacques, and then I would drive over to downtown and train with Eddie and so my Buddy gets promoted. Doesn't even know John jock doesn't even train with Jean jock. I, at this point, was a brown belt for like, four years, and I already knew running my own academy that you never talk about promotions with your instructor. And whenever someone gets a black belt, you cheer whether your song. About it or not, and I'm just sitting on the mat, and this is going to answer your question. I promise. I'm sitting on the mat and Yoda Jean Jacques walks up to me, and he's like, Casey, my brother, you should never worry about someone getting promoted to Black Belt. And I was just in shock. I was just sitting there, numb like dizzy, and I'm like, John Jack. I've never said anything. I go, how do you know? And he's all, I pay attention, and he just walked off. And I was like, holy shit. And so what that taught me? I mean, I always kind of knew this, but I have to pay attention. So the writing's on the walls, like, here's something that most people don't know, post or pre covid, the UFC fans. Post covid, the UFC fans. There's 90% more UFC fans after covid came on than there were before covid came on. What people don't know is the betting. Sports Betting is so huge. Everybody's betting on football, baseball, anything, boxing, anything. UFC was the first to market, back to market, and they opened up the betting lines again, so everyone that wasn't a traditional UFC fan, all of a sudden was able to scratch their itch and start betting. And the UFC was the only sport that did it in the natural way. I mean, it was like the little building, but like you look at the NBA, everyone's wearing masks, everybody's looking super weird. They kind of like tried to Cove it out, like all the sports and in the octagon, the dudes are just still naked fighting, and it looked real. It looked like it used to be. So the amount of fans that came on post covid, they've never seen George St pier fight live. That's incredible to think about. We have a famous, probably one of the best fights of all time, two of them actually, gray Maynard, Frankie Edgar, some of the best UFC fights of all time. Gray Maynard comes in and trains at the gym, and he asked, like, one of our blue belts, like, Hey, you want to get around? And then just smashed him. And then when gray went to go roll with someone else, the blue belt came to me and was like, Who the hell is that? And in my mind, I was like, shocked. I'm like, What do you that's gray man? How do you not know who that is? Oh, I just, you know, I just started watching the UFC last month, you know, yeah. And so, like, how that impacted me is 90% of people getting into jiu jitsu have no idea who I am. They don't know that I was some, like, important coach within my fighter group, because they just came on board after I was already gone, pretty much. And so, like, knowing that these things are going on just kind of let me know that, okay, now you're gonna have to attack this different you know, you're gonna have to be more of like everybody else you're gonna have to get. And I use MMA Marketing Pro guy named Jeremy Henderson in Pennsylvania. He's super good, and he handles all that for me. That's

Scott Groves  43:16  
nice. So you kind of went with that. Who not what? Like you're not gonna sit down and learn Facebook ads and stuff, you just find someone you trust and let them run with

Speaker 1  43:23  
it.

Casey Halstead  43:23  
I mean, I could either choose to be a subject matter expert in that field, which would take a considerable amount of time, and that kind of that kind of stuff I don't like to do. Yeah, I mean, I'm not. I'm not the kind of guy that kind of stuff gives me anxiety like figuring that out. So I'd rather just outsource it to the guy who knows it already. I've always said this, I don't need to read the book to get good at the thing. I just watched the guy who read the book, and I mimic his actions, you know, like as a father, like I look to you. I just, you don't know that I'm looking. You're talking to Gabe on the benches, and I'm just like, I'm looking, and I'm getting better, and I'm watching. We don't have to have a conversation. I can observe, and then I could take what I like and dismiss what I don't like. And so being a strong businessman is knowing where your strengths are and just living there. And so, like, at 51 years old, I'm not trying to make a hard pivot. I have to outsource that stuff.

Scott Groves  44:19  
Yeah, talking a little bit about my son, Gabe, you know, Andy's grown this amazing kids program. And then, more recently, Val's bringing up all these kids that I can already see, the way some of these seven year olds are moving like they're gonna be killers when they when they grow into their body. So can you talk a little bit about the kids program? Because I talked to Gabriel about this, where he's like, oh, man, I'm getting beat up by Jackson. Oh, I'm never gonna be as good as CO it's like, Gabriel, you don't understand ADCC, which, for people watching this who don't know Jiu Jitsu. ADCC is like, the Super Bowl of jiu jitsu happens every two years. Two years ago, when ADC ADCC happened, four of the best youth competitors in the world. Old all came from your one little room there in Henderson. And I know Andy, your co coach there, has done a great job building that. But like, I try to tell Gabriel, I'm like, you're getting pretty good at Jiu Jitsu. We go and travel and we go to another gym, and you just wreck these kids. But in your two hours of time at Jiu Jitsu, four of the kids in there are the best in the world. So can you talk a little bit about, you know, you're coaching UFC fighters. It doesn't seem like a normal pivot to be like, Okay, well, now we want to do the beginner stuff with these little kids that, you know, don't even know how to wipe their behind. What? What made you have a desire to grow the kids class, you know? And then, how has that happened over the last couple years?

Casey Halstead  45:38  
So initially, 10th Planet is not good for kids. Generally. Back in the day, all the Brazilians act like they didn't smoke weed, but they all did, and so obviously, I've got Abby. She started training when she was four years old. She had her first kick boxing fight at eight. Wrestled in college. She's been a combat athlete her entire life. If you talk to Abby, next time ask her, when did you start training, including boxing, kickboxing and Jiu Jitsu, she'll say, there was no start. I was born. I have zero memories of not being in a gym. It was just the way her life has developed. So, you know, being a dad, older guy, I always knew we had to build a Kids program. So thank God for Andy. Like I take no credit. The only credit I take is culturally. I'm the one that set up the culture. People don't know this, but Andy used to play rubber guard, like you can go back at look, he's hitting flying triangles on people in competition. He would play off his back a little bit, here and there. And the culture that I established was always MMA based. It's like, if I can choose the position I'm choosing to be on top, period, right? The only way I'm ever going to play closed guard is if you could out wrestle me. Period, that's it. The easiest path is using God giving gift of gravity. I'm gonna get on top. I'm gonna wear you out. I'm gonna be able to punch you in the face. And it was during covid When Andy started doing Sugg is when we really started switching over to thinking more about Jiu Jitsu. We're like, okay, because you can make money this way, because he was a fighter. That's why he came here. People don't understand how good of a fighter Andy is if Andy, if covid wouldn't have happened, Andy would have had a UFC career. He's so good. He lost his last fight because he was compromised. He was Michael Keyes main training partner in the beginning when he came here and he hurt his knee in training. Mike kiasa fought in the weekend after Andy fought and Andy was getting leg kicked in his smoked knee. And of course, Andy's not a complainer. He just, he just eats it, and I knew he was compromised, and he ended up losing, but there's no way he loses that fight if he's healthy. People don't realize that health has a lot to do, especially when you're an explosive athlete like Andy, you take away one of the wheels, and you just can't operate the same way. And then he started making big money, like taking out guys like Sean, Strickland, Hyson, Rita, Satoshi ishi, and then he's like, wow, I'm not getting my my head punched, and I get to go out and compete against these legends, Olympic gold medalists. You know, it's crazy. So we really started focusing on jiu jitsu at that point, I mean, but our style was always wrestle, get on top, grind them out, take their back strangles over breaks. Strangles are way better than breaks in self defense and MMA, you just turn people off. It doesn't matter how tough you are. If I'm cutting the blood, you're going to sleep. So the only credit I can take for the kids program is just the culture, the way, you know, the way that they do it, the how that's all Andy and then. And then, one of the things that i i recently come to a realization, we beat guys that are better than us all the time we have, like Brady. When Brady was a purple belt, fastest guy I've ever had to purple the fastest. I'm notoriously a very slow grader like you there. What I want is, when you're traveling, people to be like, Oh my God, you're only a blue belt. This doesn't make any sense. Your coach is a dick. He should promote you, because that feels better than what you're a purple belt. Like, Damn man. Like your school sucks, you know? And it's because I want people to actually, when I give you the belt, I don't want you to cry and get all emotional about it. I want you to be like, yeah, give me that shit. Because that's how I felt when I got my black belt. I'm like, Man, you should have given this to me a long time ago. Thank you. But, yeah, I deserve this. And then subsequently got tapped in the first round of my black belt life. Like, in two minutes, I was tapping, and I was like, Thank God I got that one out of the way. Now I don't have to defend like, this untapped black belt for like, a long time and get injured. So it was cool, but what I found is people think we're doing jiu jitsu and we're fighting, and by the time they realize that we're in a fight, they're getting choked, and we get a lot of wins like that. Is because people aren't ready for the smoke that we're going to bring. So Andy has been able to take that kind of idea with this crazy, savant, technical knowledge of Jiu Jitsu. And the one thing that he's always done is he's created treated the kids as adults. He doesn't treat them as kids. He's showing them like, you go to a lot of jiu jitsu academies, and they're like, Okay, so here's what we're gonna do, and they dumb it all down. And Andy's like, No, these are like, little men and Little Women, and we're gonna treat them. And before this crop of jiu jitsu athletes came in, we had some really good ones, like, really good ones Maggie and her brother, they were out killing everybody, just little like tiny, little kids, and they were just killing everybody. And Jake Scholl still around. He's the our longest running student out of anybody. And, you know, Andy's just kind of always treated them as adults and given them actually Jiu Jitsu, like, Oh, you guys want a leg lock? Okay, if you're going to leg lock, you got to do it right. Here you go. This is how you do it, even though, in most comps, you can't do that, but, and then you see it now, like these guys are doing crazy stuff out there. And so I think culturally, just, I view that that's my job, right, to set the culture like all, let's just say you come in tomorrow and you're like, I want to be a leg locker. I'm going to be like, okay, like, go ahead, do that. But in general, I'm trying to get the mass of our students to move as grinders, you know, because I think, I think that's way more devastating in self defense. And since jiu jitsu was always number four, it was always culture, health and fitness, self defense and Jiu Jitsu. So it's like, okay, you want to do that, but I know you could smash any human that doesn't train. It would be just so easy. So I feel like I'm giving the culture and then Andy's just run with it. But yeah, dude, it's just being a dad. You know, you got to have kids. I mean, kids eventually become teenagers, teenagers that eventually go up to the adult advanced class. They're coming in as green belts, and they're only blue belts, but they're really black belts. They're just too young to get a black belt, and then, all sudden, you just got this army. And I would actually recommend, if somebody was going to open a jiu jitsu Academy, I would say, don't even do adults like start out with little kids, pre teens and teens, and have zero adults. And then just grow your program to like 800 kids and really focus on them. And then when your teens turn like 16, you move them, and then you create the adult class out of those guys. And then you start accepting adult members, and you just have a room of like, these guys, these boys that are like, 15, they're going through puberty, and they smell like bleach every day when you see them. And you're just like, Dude, I could smell the testosterone just pouring through your body. And that's how you that's how you build a really strong Academy, you know? And it starts with a Kids program, because eventually, and we're 10 years in. So most of these kids started 567, so now they're like 1516, 1710, years later, and when they the progression to the adult classes already happened with some of them, but you see them, we black belt comes in smaller like Koa, and koa gives him the business cola is, like, all over

Scott Groves  53:24  
him. It's been crazy to watch over the last five years. You know, when I, when I got to the gym, a lot of these kids, like Koa, Micah, Ethan, they were children, children, and now they're young men. And it's, it's an interesting transition to see. Just reminds reminds me that I'm getting old. Yeah, I want to ask you a business question, like, when, when do, you know, it's time to expand? Because obviously, Henderson was smallest, cheapest room you could find. Then you upgraded to a, you know, a giant room that has a much bigger, you know, monthly expense. And then you're like, Okay, I want to add more value. I want to kind of do that Costco model, open one downtown. That location has changed, but still kind of, you know, mid city. And then just recently, you opened the one, or absorbed one in West Vegas, over by IKEA. Like, when do you know it's time to expand? Is it a money thing? Is it a location thing? Is it a people thing? Like, how do you make those decisions?

Casey Halstead  54:14  
Okay, so there's a couple questions in there I'll answer. So I had no intention of moving 10th Planet, Las Vegas, and Henderson over that big location I had, I liked the $2,500 a month rent. We had about 350 students, 400 students, something like that. And I had no intention. I was like, dude, Andy, you're making money. I'm making money. It's small. Every class feels packed like this is awesome. We'll just add more classes. And then I started looking around during covid, and people were taking the PPP, and they were getting, like, 200,000 gym owners, and then they just closed their gym. They let the memberships run one more month, and then they go in and they pack up, and they move to a different state, and they. Buy a house and they become a cop or something. That was happening a lot. And then the other gyms, there was a group chat with just gym owners, and the other gyms were panicking. And since I've always ran pretty lean, we had we were cash flow positive. Like, all through covid, we also have some tremendous students, like, I don't want to name him, because he would hate it, but he was like, hey, during covid, when we're locked down, charge me for two memberships. And I was like, There's no way I can't do it. And he goes, if you don't charge me for two memberships, he paid 129 a month back. Then he's like, I'm gonna leave $130 in front of the gym on the first of every month. And some homeless guy's gonna pick it up. And he's also, you might as well do it so you get it. And most people kept their memberships on, like the amount of like, everybody was getting government money anyway, so they were, like, letting them run. And we were, we were running training. We were doing it in like, age groups. So we the pro fighters, would go in in the morning and train, and then our competitive jiu jitsu athletes would go in and train, and then the older guys would go in and train. And I was trying to isolate people based on their exposure to covid, like dads at home that have jobs, they come in with other dads that are at home and have jobs, and the kids that are out trying to date girls and do this, and they're they're at a higher risk of exposure. We tried to clump those guys up, and then we just kept the pros and an amateur fight team together. But I'm watching all these gyms, and they're all panicking, and then I'm like, You know what? I'm gonna expand now, because fuck those guys. I'm gonna let them know when you're all scared of spending money and you're scared of what's gonna happen, I want to kind of set the tone. We're going to get a bigger space, and we're going to blow it up, and we're going to, I'm going to invest more money, and I'm going to run a risk, but, but I'm confident we'll grow it. And that's why we did it. That's the only reason why we did it. I was trying to send shots across the ballot everybody else and let them know that while you guys are panicking, I'm making big boy moves out here, and that's, that's when we expanded. And that shit was not cheap. It was not cheap. And I mean, as far as, like, even having to put a sewer line in, run the gas line to the building that unit had never been occupied in the entire time that that shopping center was open, and so that that's why we did that. As far as the Southwest location, I'm I'm at the stage of my life where I just want everything to run smooth. I don't want to expand, but the owner called me and just offered it to me, and I didn't even really want to do it, to be honest. I just know it's a lot more stress, a lot more stuff. And I'm like, man, we're doing okay right now. And so, like, I don't really want to expand, but I did it, and now we're just kind of, like, getting through, like, most of the stuff now, like the signs are finally going up. I'm getting control of the Google. And really, we weren't ready to come on board until April. April 1 I had it. I spent all night making a progression plan, and we met at Starbucks, like, February, and on a Sunday before open, Matt, and he's like, I want you to take it over on Monday. And I'm like, oh shit, we're not ready, okay? And I did, and we weren't ready. Like, it's been real clunky. It's been a really clunky thing, because if I would have come in in April, I would have had all this stuff done, and we would have come in with our systems, because we're taking over an existing school, right? And so there was, I've never done that either. I mean, I've gotten into schools that were still operating and, like, implemented a jiu jitsu program there, but I've never taken over a school where the owner takes off. And so there's, there's this, like, really long courting process where you're, like, trying to keep people right? It's easier to keep somebody than to find a new guy, right? So you're trying to, it's just, it's been tough. It's been really tough, but I'm glad I went through it, because it's making me better. I'm sharp. 51 still getting sharp. You know,

Scott Groves  58:50  
with I know that you've ran a dozen different gyms. You still have ownership and five of them now, the clothing brand, the everything I'd love to hear, best business decision you ever made, worst business decision you ever made,

Casey Halstead  59:02  
okay, the best business decision I ever made was also the worst business decision I ever made. So if you want stress in your life, you have to be an entrepreneur, right? If you want a stress free life, you need to have a job. If someone calls me at three in the morning on my work phone and they want to buy a membership, you better believe I'm going to be up selling a membership. There's no way I'm not taking that membership sell right? So as an entrepreneur, the shot clock is running 24 hours a day. Even being a high level corporate guy that that stops. Because there are, I mean, I'm always on call when I was at Shell but there are times where, like, something busy was going on, I would turn the work phone off and be like, whatever it is, I can deal with it in a couple hours. So I was able to actually disconnect. I'll be out on the golf course with Charlie. Me and I carry so there's, there's two phones that I use for the business. One, if you're trying to cancel, you call Jesse. If you're trying to sign up, you call me. And I realized that nobody's going to sell a membership or work harder at trying to get a membership than me, and I actually enjoy to do it right? So it doesn't matter what time it is, I'm going to pick it up. Leaving shell was the best decision I ever made because it allowed me to spend a lot of time with my family. And quitting shell was also the worst decision I ever made, because it's like, what do they call it? A golden parachute? Yeah, you know it was like, everyone that stays at Shell for 30 years is a multi millionaire. Every single person, it's impossible not to be you, like you got to be a total idiot, because built in the culture of those companies is like, what's cool with the cool guys that work at Shell is the cool guys that work at Shell, they own apartment complexes that they ran out. They have $30,000 a year in dividends from now. It's called Shell, S, H, E, L, but back then it was called Royal Dutch, or no, no. What was it called? The stock, r, d, s, a Royal Dutch something, but they pay dividends, and shell would pay us to buy them. And so there's many times like they're paying you to buy them, and then they give you a 30% Dude, this is crazy. You get a pension, a 401 k a. Crazy salary, crazy benefits. I didn't have to pay anything. Co pays, nothing. I just walk into the hospital and get what I need done and I go home. It's it was, but it was crazy how good it was when, when I actually came on to the company and they brought me through the onboarding. I was like, Are you kidding me? Like, is this what you guys offer employees? And they were like, yeah, why? Like, because they're all, like, all the admin people. They were all like, lifelong Shell employees. And they're like, Yeah, doesn't everybody do this? And I'm like, No, this is totally unique. And when I came over, I didn't know that it was so great the deal that they had. But dude, that that rdsa stock, they would give you a 30% discount from January or December. 31 to January 1. They impound your money in an account you're not actually buying shares all year. Then they say, What was the stock price at its lowest in that calendar year, and you buy it at the lowest stock price in that calendar year with a 30% discount. That's what you're buying it at.

Scott Groves  1:02:30  
No brainer.

Casey Halstead  1:02:31  
It was so dumb, and I'm like, and so like, being wealthy and being smart with your money was encouraged in Shell it was, it was like, driven into the culture of the business. And so had I stayed there, I'd be retiring soon, and I would have some crazy pension. I would have, like, millions of dollars in Shell stock. I'd be making 30 grand a year in dividends on rdsa stock. But it's really hard to be focused and and actually grow when you work for corporate America, because you're, you're putting so much energy into something that you don't own. So it's, it's kind of like, if you spend your life doing that, are you really being present as a father, like right now on a Friday, I'm sitting here talking to my one of my best friends in town. And it's so cool, you know? And it's like, it's like, if I had stayed at show, we wouldn't be doing this, right? I wouldn't be nearly as interesting. I don't think

Scott Groves  1:03:30  
fair. You know, what's, uh, what's next in the business? Like, when you think ahead, as a business owner, 510, years since you don't have the rdsa, you know, million dollars? Yeah, yeah. What do you think about? Like, what are you either excited about, or what keeps you up

Speaker 1  1:03:43  
at

Casey Halstead  1:03:45  
night? So we're going to continue moving forward, having a crazy, competitive team. But really, what I'm looking for the most forward to the most is kind of embracing myself as I age, and building a subculture in our culture of fathers and executives and law enforcement, and creating more room for guys that want to train twice a week, and they're not really interested in getting really good at Jiu Jitsu. I mean, they're gonna get good training with us. It's just impossible not to but kind of enjoying that role, kind of like getting older, kind of role and and learning that. So you're gonna see a lot of that. Like, we're gonna have the haters, we're gonna have the young guys grinding and making it happen. But I'm really spending time, and you could see it already happening if you pull up at 6am like, you know, I was talking about it today to the girls, and I was like, nobody's credit card bounces at 6am I'm not chasing any money here. And it's just, and it just shows, you know, 11 black belts. What does a black belt actually represent for the most part? I mean, would call them on the map, time on the map, but it's 10 years, right? So if you started training jiu jitsu at 30, now, you're 40, you're a little bit older. You probably have kids, you have a job, you have a wife, and I actually see us adding, like, more of that, like, that's really what I want, you know, I have, you know? Well, you are a perfect example of, like, how healthy a gym is. You have a business owner, an amazing dad that dedicates a ton of time. You're in love with your wife, and you're also an absolute savage on the mats. And I know this, and I know you're too humble to say it, but when you travel, everyone knows how good you are, and so that is really what shows the health of the gym, as much as like Andy does, and like Spencer and Nick and the young guys, but those guys are like, all about IT professional grapplers. It's guys like you and Chevy and those guys that that are dads, real professionals, and they're absolute killers. That's hairy. And it's just like, yeah, man, like that. We want that. We want both sides. And you know, a few years ago, I was really focused on the competitive edge the young guys. And now I'm like, Okay, Andy, you got that, eventually, one day, he'll move on, and somebody else will come up, you know? And then you got that, and I'm gonna stay with the dads stood

Scott Groves  1:06:12  
by. Then we will be granddads, my friend.

Casey Halstead  1:06:14  
Yeah, hell yeah, I'm looking forward to that. You

Scott Groves  1:06:16  
and I both have kids that are old enough to where that call could come any day.

Casey Halstead  1:06:19  
Oh, dude, I'm looking I mean, I hope it's not any day like tomorrow, but I also hope it's not too old for me to actually guide them like the grandkids. I I'll be such a good grandfather that my kids will be like Dad. They're my kids. Yeah, you know, it's just, you know, we talk about this all the time, like my kids have to be elite. They have no choice. It's like you will not sit on the couch. You are not doing that, and you feel you have the illusion of choice. You get to choose a sport, but the sport is always going to be wrestling. So if you hate wrestling, you choose golf thing. Those are your choices. You're going to wrestle or you're going to golf. And the reason why is because they're exactly the same. If you don't work, you won't win. If you work, you're probably going to lose anyway. But what it does develop is confidence, the ability to get out in front of people and perform as a solo contributor to yourself. And it exactly demonstrates, the harder you work, the better you get. You could be part of a soccer team. You dogged it all day long, all week long. You sucked in practice. You were not feeling good, you didn't want to be there for whatever reason. And then you go out and you get a huge win, and you get your hand raised, even though you sucked, your other teammates helped you win. And so you get this illusion, I'm part of a team. Our team is good, but we know you suck. You know you suck, but you still won. You walk away with a feeling of winning in an individual sport like Jiu Jitsu, wrestling or golf, it's like, yeah, I know you lost. You were dogging it in practice. I've been seeing it all week. Of course, you lost, right? So next time, let's work a little bit more focused. Doesn't have to be harder, but it has to be more focused, more intention, to be incredible. Don't be afraid to impress yourself. And let's go out and try to get a win. That's why it's so important.

Scott Groves  1:08:09  
That's the way in a podcast. And as usual, I will see you within the next 24 hours somewhere.

Casey Halstead  1:08:14  
Yeah, hell yeah. All right, thanks

Scott Groves  1:08:15  
for coming on, man. And for anybody that's thinking about it, three locations here in Vegas, whether you got a little kid or your young lady. We didn't even have a chance to get to the women's class and the stuff that Val's building. So we'll talk about that the next time we have you in. But check out 10th Planet Vegas, Henderson, West Vegas, downtown, all of them.

Casey Halstead  1:08:33  
One membership.

Scott Groves  1:08:34  
There you go.

Casey Halstead  1:08:35  
Three locations. We don't do tiers. We don't do any of that. You buy a membership in Henderson, you have access to Central, you have access to Southwest, full unlimited schedule, as well as when you go on the road and travel, if there's a 10th Planet there, you just say you train with me. You train for free.

Speaker 1  1:08:53  
Awesome.

Scott Groves  1:08:54  
Thanks again. Casey, appreciate it, man. Thank you, brother. Hey, it's Scott groves with the Henderson HQ podcast. I hope you got something out of that episode. If you enjoyed it, please don't forget to like, comment and subscribe to the podcast. It really helps the show grow. And by the way, if you are a business owner, or you know a business owner who has an interesting product, service or just an interesting backstory, please, please get in touch with us. Email us at the Henderson hq@gmail.com we would love to interview you, because that's what this show is all about. It's about building community, supporting local, individually owned businesses, and just making Henderson a great place to live. And don't forget, go to Henderson hq.com and make sure you sign up for our newsletter. We send out a once a week newsletter, no spam, about the most interesting local businesses, hot spots, restaurants, community events. Thanks for watching the show. Really appreciate you. You.