Jeff Price: Avoiding Burnout and Maintaining Passion

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Jeff Price joins us today. He started his career as three-year-old in martial arts and martial arts has been an integral part of his life first to help him grow and second to help others grow. And he is a husband and stepfather to four children, a businessman and entrepreneur owning his own studio and lawn care company. 

He has created programs that have been implemented and respected in both the martial arts industry and educational industry. And he is a huge supporter of sharing his experience. And talents. And that’s why he’s here today. Jeff, thanks for jumping on with us. Thank you. I’m excited about this. So this, this is going to be a fun one.  

Um, because what’s interesting about this conversation is I know nothing about your business. Other than, you know, now my kids are enrolled in your martial arts studio. Um, so what’s kind of a contradiction is I probably know you better than most guests that I’ve had on that. I’ve had very little introduction to, but at the same time I know nothing about you.  

So, so. Um, so let’s start, let’s start there. So Jeff and I got connected. I have my two boys in his martial arts studio and it’s been fun then in his bio, we talked about his enthusiasm and that’s really what’s kept me in the studio. So I want to talk to Jeff about, you know, how this all started and how you go from being a martial arts student to.  

Being a teacher to monetizing it and turning it into a business. So I think maybe where we start is where you mentioned starts at three years old. So your parents put you into karate and then where do we go from there? Okay. Yeah. So, so actually the way this all worked out was, um, I had kind of a unique childhood.  

I was raised by my grandparents and through that whole process, I was at a young age, right? Like two, three years old, when this was happening to my grandparents were like, Kay, what can we get him into the, is going to help him longterm and kind of keep his mind off of what’s going on. Even though I was super young, right?  

I’m still kind of aware. Of the fact that I’m a little different, right? Cause I’m being raised by my grandparents. So anyways, uh, I’m at my daycare. In Ogden and this guy comes in and he offers a karate program and my parents. So there we go. That’s it. You’re here anyways, let’s do this. So I trained with that gentlemen for quite a while.  

Um, and in fact, my grandparents kind of helped get him out of the daycare into like a rec center. Uh, they’re an Ogden and. You know, kind of moving forward from that I started competing and everything, and I hit this like point where maybe I was doing a little too much karate and. It, I was going to all these tournaments and I just got burned out.  

So I took a break for a minute and this other karate studio came to my elementary school and did a demo. The karate they were doing is totally different. They’re doing all these tricks and flips and there’s music. And I’m like, wow, like that’s what I want to do. So I went home and told my grandparents what I wanted to do.  

They took me over and signed me up. I ended up studying martial arts with who I would call my karate instructor, um, for several, several years, all the time, way up until graduating high school and decided, man, I love this. This is what I want to do, which then in turn. Came into like me teaching for him, helping other studios teach and then longterm eventually owning my own karate studio.  

So how big of a gap in time was there between the, your first experience with karate and then when you got burned out and then he saw these other guys and then jumped back into it? I would say, I would say it was about seven years because I was still in elementary school. Yup. I was still in elementary school and we were going to all these tournaments and I loved it.  

Don’t get me wrong. I love, but I was like, I was like any other kid. I, I also played soccer all the way up into high school and there was more to life than just karate. So it just had, had to take a break for a second. Yeah. And I find that in business today, sometimes kids will come in and they’re like, you know, I just.  

Maybe it’s, maybe it’s not for them in that moment. Right. And I don’t try to like come down on them because I understand that I lived it. Right. That’s kind of the beauty of what I do for a living. If you’re going through it. I probably went through it too. Right. Cause I started at age three all the way up into being into high school and dealing with like your, your high school friends being like, Oh man, you’re droughty kid, you know?  

So yeah. It happens more than you think. I totally know. I was talking to a friend the other day and, and he was asking about my kids, go into your studio and, and he’s busting at the jokes. And then I in turn, went back and I was like, man, I know, I remember when I took karate, when I was little, I went for like a year and I still know the guy’s name and he was in high school.  

And, and this guy, I don’t know, I don’t know if you know the name, Dustin Booker. Um, he’s. He is who I went to for briefly when I was younger. And I I’m totally guessing here, but I think he went through the same thing because he was super young, super successful in that world. And then now he, from my outside perspective on it’s nothing to do with it.  

No, I mean, you know, it’s funny, it’s Dustin. I love that, man. If he’s listening to this, uh, how’s it going? Because I taught side by side with him for years. Actually at my instructor studio, he was hired on, he was one of the instructors there, but yeah, I mean, we’re, you know, we’re kind of, if you really get into martial arts and you get into the tournament’s and you get into the traveling, you’re, you’re gone from some of your classes and all the kids are like, well, what do you do?  

And so it’s not like you fly under the radar. Right. And back then karate wasn’t as big as it is now. It was, it wasn’t. I don’t even think it was considered a sport. Right, right. So, yeah. So anyways. Yeah. So, so if you get burned out, come back to it. Right. And that’s what I did. And I was so thankful. Looking back on it.  

Now that that gentleman came in with his students, to my school for an assembly, and man, it just really lit the fire. And I loved, I haven’t looked back since, so, um, I’ve always been curious of a more specific question related to how, like at what point I remember when I was younger, um, when I, when I briefly went for like a year.  

And Dustin and whatever other gentlemen was, um, teaching. And they said, you know, don’t go home and start teaching your friends karate because you need to, you need to be mature and you need to learn this and get to a certain level before you go out and start doing these things cause you need to be safe.  

And so that, that always kind of that common, always stuck in my mind, especially more as I became an entrepreneur. And for whatever reason, I’ve been curious, like, is there. Like a board or like a governing body that says like, this is how, and when you can, uh, make the transition from  

gone martial arts from an entrepreneurial perspective and start monetizing it. Like, is there rules that are either official or unofficial is when you can do that? You know, there really is not to be honest with you. Um, it’s kind of a lot like a dance studio or a gymnastic studio. If, if you acquire the skillset to be able to teach, right, you don’t have to be the best competitor in the world.  

You don’t have to meet this massive high standard in the martial arts community, but you have to be able to teach. And if you can teach and you have the drive. To be an entrepreneur and say, you know, I’m going to do this. I’m going to give back. This is what I, this is what I love doing. Now. I’m going to go try and make money off of it.  

Then really, it’s kind of like most other businesses aside from like, you know, doctors and attorneys and things like that. If you’re willing to jump in and keep it level-headed you can go. Hmm. Interesting. So are right. So now you have the second instructor and your life and relight the fire. And then you mentioned you worked at a couple other studios.  

Help me understand. Um, I don’t know if you know this, but the first time I was exposed to you guys was, um, at a, uh, Syracuse festival days, Syracuse, whatever, the local cities, you know, annual thing. And so yeah, heritage days. Yeah. And you, you had like the whole crew come out and it was like one of the classes, it was a bunch of little kids and this was before I had kids, but me and my wife were sitting there and we’re like, Oh, that’s cool.  

And we kind of paused and watch you guys do your little routine and you guys just stuck him back in my mind. And so later when I had kids and they got old enough when we put our, our older son in your class first. Like you guys were the first place we went to. And then after we talked with, I think it was Josh.  

And so for the listeners, Josh is one of the sensei’s there and Josh is super cool and super chill and it was like no pressure. And you can just feel like the vibe of appreciation for what he was doing and that it was like fun. It wasn’t going to be one of those. Of course, we can’t have a call without talking about the karate kid.  

And so, you know, it’s like, like in the karate kid where there’s the other dojo and the guy’s like super stiff and he’s just like, be in. Just ruthless to the kids. It wasn’t like that. It was like you go in and you could tell that my kids would have been there. And so that’s how we got in there. So, um, but then I’m curious, how did you get that far?  

Because I assume that when you first start a martial arts studio, you’re kind of starting zero students and, but you still have to pay for the studio. You still have to pay for supplies, stuff to pay. For everything, but little to no income coming in. So how do you float through that startup period? Right.  

So there’s a couple of different ways. So real quick, uh, back to Josh. So he’s amazing. He’s a business partner of mine. He’s more than just an instructor. That guy is a stud and I mean, he’s just. I wouldn’t even want to do this him. He makes it so much fun. Um, but yeah, then to your point, as far as how to start out, you know, there’s a couple different ways you can do it and I’ve kind of coached some people get their studios off the ground.  

One, one of the ways is to get in like a rec center, you know, get into these communities programs where you can go in with no income. You don’t have to have any money and they’ll do most of the marketing for you. And you get in there and you start teaching and you start building this up and then you can kind of move and, you know, maybe you get into three community centers and then you can move into a location, or you’re just super successful with that.  

Maybe it’s kind of a side hustle and you can just run it that way. You know, the way we did it is we just hit the ground hard. We did everything we could come up with. We would go. Sit at booths outside of fitness gyms or any store that would let us kind of like, like selling girl scout cookies, right?  

Like, Hey, you got a minute. Can I talk to you about karate? You know? And so, and we would do all the city events. We would go into, um, as soon as we, we got the ability to write, like through the PTA or through the school principals, we’d get in there and start doing school talks. And we would do these school assemblies and try to spread this growth that we talked about, this, you know, this kind of mindset, personality building and confidence  

And, and we would spread that with martial arts and then. Hopefully, whether it’s our kids doing karate or the way we present it, that in turn puts people inside your studio. How long of a timeframe did it take from taking the leap of faith? To start this to, to having stable cashflow. Right. So I went through a couple of processes.  

When, when I graduated high school, I teamed up with a couple of instructors that I had worked with. And there was a lady named Shelly. She said, you know what? You guys want to do this. And we were young. We didn’t have any money. And she said, let, let’s open a studio, you come work for me and let’s, let’s see if we can have a crack at it.  

You know? And, and that was such an experience. I mean, that I learned so much from that. I was able to have a lot of trial and error. On somebody else’s dime. Right? And so when we moved forward and we started getting big, I kind of had a different vibe. I had a different feeling. I wanted to do something as a little bit different and anybody out there that.  

You know, owns their own business or is even hired to be a manager of a company because they have that vision. They understand what I’m saying when you just got to go, you know, you just got to go and you gotta do your thing because it’s. It’s one thing to stand on your own two feet and say, Hey, I know what I’m doing.  

Let’s do it. Let’s go. And let’s take a shot. It’s a whole nother bag of worms, trying to convince other people to change their vision. Right. And sometimes it’s not even fair to try and get them to change their vision. So I worked with them for several years and then just decided one day, I’m like, you know what, I gotta do this on my own.  

So then I split and. You know, through, you know, through investors and some, some money we had, we said, let’s do it. Yeah, let’s go ahead and jump in. And let’s open our own studio. And that lady gave, gave me her blessing and it was great, you know? And so now, today, having hundreds of students in our location out there in Syracuse, You go through all these ups and downs and bumps and I mean, it’s crazy, right?  

Like it’s not a straight shot to get to where you’re, you’ve got a business up and running and making money. You just got to keep grinding. You just gotta keep going. So, yeah. Yeah. You know, you know, what’s been interesting about, um, from like an outside perspective, it just, just me being an entrepreneur, uh, I’m always analytical and looking at.  

Yeah. A lot of things from a business perspective, but no, I don’t need to. And one thing that I noticed with your studio that is really admirable is that you have, it seems like really oil customers. Um, you know, like you said, there’s been ups and downs and there’s been like things completely unrelated to your business that, um, you know, I remember there was an instructor that was like part time that got into some completely unrelated trouble to the studio, but then of course, like you get dragged through the mud.  

But then what was amazing is all, all these customers come in on social media and replying to the, the little news features about what happened. And they all had your back. Like, I don’t think I ever saw one single customer that was like, Oh man, this thing that happened to this unrelated guy in an unrelated thing, but just because Jeff studio has mentioned, we’re gonna, you know, get down and dirty.  

I didn’t, I didn’t see any of that. Like what, like, is w what do you say? Like, what do you, what do you have to say about that? Like, how does that happen? Or like, what’s your, you tell me what what’s going on there. Why does that happen? Why are you getting the love? Right. You know, I think that, I, I think that people can tell, right.  

If you’re genuine or not, you know, if you, if you really care about your friends, if you really care about your customers and you’re there for them. In their times, right? It’s just, they can see it, right. If you truly are grateful and helpful and you truly love and care about the people that you interact with and you care about their wellbeing, that will come back to you.  

And I, and I’m so thankful for that. And I appreciate all of that love and I hope that we continue to keep growing in that type of environment where we’re all supportive of each other. I think it’s amazing. Yeah, it’s cool to see. Um, especially nowadays, because I think a lot of, um, businesses, I think a lot of people get starstruck and they, they think that business is this big glamorous thing  

And I think social media glorifies it and it should cause entrepreneurship is an amazing thing, but I think it has an unrealistic perspective or presents an unrealistic picture a lot of the times. So. Yeah. All right. So especially when you have people going on hikes and stuff, just to be able to take a picture to put on Instagram, right?  

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That opens a whole other discussion. Yeah. You see, you see the people, whether it’s, um, you know, in a, in a store or, I mean, everyone knows what we’re talking about. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Right. So, so it sounds, so it sounds like you built up a little bit of savings and then you had some, a little bit of investment before you went solo and started up your own studio  

Um, right. You don’t have to talk about the financials or anything, but it, uh, have you paid yourself back or is the investors paid back? Like, are you close? Are power things looking like, yeah, we’re we’re investor free. We don’t. It’s just Josh and I, and I mean, yeah, we’re, we’re doing well. So we there’s always, you just have to keep growing.  

Right. You have to keep growing. Josh and I are making income off of this. We’ve been able to hire instructors. Um, we have a full time staff member that, you know, the super flexible schedule is able to a full medical benefits for his wife and his kids. And we, we get a higher R. Teenager instructors that are coming up and kind of get some money in their pocket and get them starting to earn and starting to give back and experience what that’s like to be a young adult.  

It’s it’s been awesome. It really has. Yeah, it’s been cool to see. I’ve seen that some of the younger students come in and then, um, They, they get their black belt and then you see them start teaching. Um, so it’s cool to see that it’s cyclical. Like you see just a perpetual motion of people coming in and growing together and then repeating that somewhat of a tradition and then growing others and then repeat and rinse and repeat.  

So it’s kind of cool to see. Um, so what, what what’s been, you know, as I said, I know nothing about. I know a lot about business, but next to nothing about martial arts as a business. So what, is there anything that’s really stood out that has surprised even you as a martial arts studio owner, or maybe it didn’t surprise you, but it might be interesting for our listeners.  

It surprised me. Yeah. I’m sure. Along the journey. Yeah. Right. I think that the thing that was the most eyeopening is. If you don’t get up and go to work. I mean, and this doesn’t really have anything to do with the karate studio per se, but just kind of like that being in business for yourself, if you don’t get up and you don’t work and you don’t bring ideas to the table, nothing moves, right?  

Like it’s, it’s very dependent on you. To be that driving force. And it doesn’t matter. It’s like from the very beginning, right? It doesn’t matter if it’s just keeping your facility clean all the way up to developing new programs and new ideas. Like you’ve really, really, and you have to be involved in everything  

And as you grow and as you get staff members and you can delegate and you can develop these processes and implement that. So things start to run on their own. I think that it really was a shock for me, just the wide array of things that you have to get into in business. Right. Like if you’re just starting out and your toilet starts leaking, you can’t call a plumber because you’re broke, so you better figure it out.  

Right? Like, so that was an eyeopener to me, honestly, it really was. So what, what, um, You know, as a parent of a student in your studio, I come in, my kids learn and then I leave. So on the front end, all I see is the teaching, but in this conversation, we’re talking about the business. So is it really just a straight up business, just as any other businesses behind what I see as a parent?  

Is it like a, do the books make payroll? Is it just the same thing as any other business? Basically? I think that it is except for, you know, if you’re, if you’re paying attention, you get to watch how you affect so many people’s lives. So yes, you have to get up and check your emails and answer your phone calls and you have to try to find new customers and you have to put out fires and there’s all that normal enter your QuickBook, lodge and logs and all that stuff.  

Right. Talk to your accountants, whatever. That all has to take place. But the unique experience that I get is I can watch say your children or, or, or even adults when they come in, I can see them learn something and I can see that light bulb come on and I can see the smile. And, you know, for kids, you know, you can give them that compliment and you see them whip back and look at their parents like, Hey, did you see that?  

And that side of it makes it such a unique business. In my opinion, you know, I mean, sure you sell a shirt and you make that money. They come up, they give you money, they turn around, they walk away, whatever I get that. Right. But the unique side of our business is getting to watch what happens in their lives.  

And I don’t know if that answers your question where you were headed with it, but that’s what popped in my head is just. It is unique because you get to have talks with these kids when they’re having good days, when they’re having bad days, you’re really trying to help them become a better person. Not just here.  

Let me sell you something. I hope it works out for you. I’ll see you later.  

What, what percent? So you talked about kids and, and for the first, let’s see, this is, um, we did two years and then we took a year break and then we came back. And so this is, um, Now this, now this revisit, we brought our other boy in. And so for me, I’m on the parents side of things. And so I, I largely secret kids.  

Um, approximately what percent would you say is kids as students versus adults? Because I think a lot of listeners, uh, I, I think they either think one or the other kids do credit or adults probably, and they don’t see the blending of it. Sure. So our studio right now is largely kids. I mean, it’s 80, 80% kids.  

Now I do have an adult program. And it’s when you say that, because just yesterday I was talking to, to a business coach of mine. Like they coach me and we’re working on building and developing more of an adult program. Um, in the beginning I noticed that, uh, It was easier to hook kids because of it. It’s just a fun activity for them.  

Right. And so with adults, You have to have a lot more flexibility with their schedule. Um, we, we have, we have adults in there that love our program, that that will talk to you and say, you gotta get in here and get here and do this. But that’s definitely something that we’re growing within our studio. I teach a lot more adults in a seminar setting, so I will go to accompany.  

And I will teach their employees, or I will like, I’ve been invited upon the air force base and I’ve taught a lot of the airmen up there and I’ve also done. Where, you know, a group of friends will come in and say, we want to do a self defense class, and it’ll be kind of like a, you know, a onetime two or three hours self-defense course.  

So I teach tons of that, but man, I would encourage adults to get more involved in martial arts because you’re improving so many. Functions of your body and you’re losing weight. You do all these things you’re trying to do at a gym, but you’re also coming out of it with, um, the self-defense aspect. So short answer to your question right now, majority of kids, but we do teach a lot of adults outside of the studio.  

Now, one thing you said reminded me of something that’s I actually, so we had, we actually had class yesterday or studio with our kids and I was, I leaned over to my wife and I, and I said, I’m always been curious this when I have the opportunity to ask you this question, I’ve always been curious. Um, How you deal with the repetition?  

Cause I, I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t do the same thing over and over and over like, you know, X block wedge block, this block, this kick, and then just like 10 times over and over and over like, is, is, is that just something you’re okay with? Or is it something you had to kind of teach yourself to, to, to work through and be able to do that repetition gracefully every day?  

Right. Um, you know, it, sometimes it hits you, right? Because you wake up and you’re like, Oh my gosh, I got to go do this again, you know? But, um, you get a fine, you get to find the humor in each class and each interaction with the kids and with the parents, because you might have, let’s just say you have a class that has 10 kids in it.  

Right. And those 10 kids come in on Monday. It’s going to be a totally different class when those same 10 kids come in on Wednesday because of what’s going on in their life and what’s going on in their day. So I’m, hopefully you’ve noticed that we try to encourage some of our instructors and stuff to interact with the parents, ask them how their day’s going, walk over, give them a piece of candy or something, try to brighten up their day.  

And it, that social aspect. That gets to change on a day to day or even class by class basis. That kinda gets away from the repetition of the moves. Cause you’re completely right. You know, you got these kids coming in, you gotta teach them the same thing over and over and over and over again. So it’s the social aspect, interacting with the people that gets, that keeps you motivated and excited.  

That makes a lot of sense because I, I do notice that every day, but I just never connected the dots and from that perspective, but I do notice, you know, whether it’s you or Josh or whatever sensei and the kids walk in and, and, and you say, Yeah, dude, you’re wearing your, your socks are mismatched or, uh, your shirts on backwards or like, whatever it is.  

I noticed those little comments. So that, that makes sense. So yeah, we want it to be kind of like, kind of like cheers, right from way back in the day where everybody knows your name. Everybody have fun. So. How so, so speaking to Josh, we brought him up a couple of times. And you mentioned he’s your partner.  

Yes. Is there anything that you can say about working with a partner? Because we’ve had a lot of guests on the show where there’s, there’s been polar opposite opinions on partnerships. Some people say it’s the best move. Other people say it’s the worst move. And I don’t think there’s a right answer, but I’d be curious about what your take on it is.  

Sure. Um, you have to have. You either have to have the same vision or you have to be willing to work on each other’s vision with the same amount of enthusiasm as your own side of it. Right. Because there’s going to be days where you can’t stand each other and it doesn’t, I don’t know why it just happens where you just, it just doesn’t rub you the right way.  

And you’re like, ah, okay. And if you have, if you have a good relationship, then you can talk about it and you can work it out before you leave that day. You know, and that’s kind of one of our rules being a partnership is if somebody’s got something going on, or if somebody is really off that day at the end of the day, we just take five to 10 minutes.  

And we just say, Hey, is everything all right? Like it’s a rule that we have with each other that we address the situation because you know, maybe it’s something that’s business related or something that’s personal outside of business. And you got to take that time to build that relationship because being in partner partnership, you’re there day in and day out through the thick and the thin.  

Right. So. I would not want to do this nearly as much as I do without Josh. So in my situation, the partnership has been great, you know, but I hear you, you know, you hear horror stories of people that get into a partnership and they’re like, Oh my gosh, I just, what did I do? You know? Yeah. So, yeah. But, but I mean, I like it.  

I really do. I enjoy it. There’s always somebody there to back me up. There’s always somebody there to jump in if I’m having a super off day and I wouldn’t have it any other way. To be honest with you. Yeah. Um, I told you this the other day that, um, I was on your website a while back and there was a video that said, sensei, Josh doing Ninja stuff.  

And, and it was, it was really cool for me to see, because again, I’m just, um, dad and some they’re watching my little kids and I, and I see the repetitive stuff cause we’re just, you know, you’re just teaching little kids. And so I don’t see the cool, amazing flips and kicks and things like that. And it’s been, um, you know, I don’t know where I’m going with.  

Bring this up, but it’s, it’s been really interesting when they get those little glimpses of like, Oh, damn, Jeff could really mess somebody up. Cause you just see you just see, you just see the fun side and the light side and the teaching side. So it’s almost like you have, you have to have like two.  

Different personalities because I clearly see the difference sometimes. So I said, we got our two boys, so our, our older boy whose now he’ll be nine in two weeks. So he started when he was probably four. And so he went through the kids courses and so it’s nice and fun. And. You input, you incorporate games and keep their attention.  

Now, now that he’s in the adult class, like I catch those little moments, those little five minutes at the end of classes. So I’ll have my two kids at the same time on my right is my younger, five-year-old doing the kid class. And on my left is my soon to be nine year old. And it’s always fun and entertaining on the kids side.  

But every once in a while there’s less five minutes on the adult side where it’s like, guys, pull your head out, you’re screwing up. And so it’s almost like. You almost have to maintain two different mindsets to be like, always be fun and bubbly over here, but like, make sure they’re getting value over here.  

And if that means I got to put them in check, then I got to put them in check. Cause it’s their it’s for their own benefit. So like, do you have to balance that? Like, do you have to, do you have to acknowledge that you have those two different personas you have to fulfill? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, when you’re entering into those classes, you have to be.  

Engaging and speaking with them at their level, and you also have to set expectations, right. Or them at their age and level. So the way you’re going to, and we try to spend a lot of time with our instructors. On this, working on this, when you’re teaching three to five year olds, you’re a completely different person than when you’re teaching.  

Even like a 13 year old, you can’t interact with them the same. You can’t have the same expectations. And when you comes to self-defense, you can’t even take the same approach on what would work for them, right? Yeah, because if I got like a little kid over here, It’s like six years old and we’re thinking, okay, somebody grabs you at a grocery store.  

What are you going to do? Well, I’m not going to teach that six year old to actually strike or hit this person. It grabs them because it’s not going to work. Yeah. I’m going to teach them to, to, yeah, I’m going to teach them to. To draw attention and like really make it somebody else’s problem in that store.  

Like maybe kicking something over, right. And then a manager comes over, says, Hey, you gotta pay for that or else I’m gonna get in trouble. And then, so you transitioned into that other class with adults where maybe the scenario is there home and somebody comes into their house in the middle of the night.  

So no, you’re a hundred percent correct. You have to, you have to enter that class. At the level that works for your audience, and sometimes it can get away from you, but for the most part, you just watch their, their reactions and the way they’re acting. And it tells you right where you can go with that class.  

Yeah. So you’re newly married, new newish. How long you been? Yeah. Huh? How long has it been? Uh, just a little over a year. Very cool. Congratulations. Over a year. We’ve been together for three. Yeah, that’s awesome. Um, what’s, what’s that been like? I know, um, I find, we briefly talked one day about how it’s, it’s opened up your eyes about how different it is because before, so now you’re a stepdad.  

And before that, um, I don’t believe you had kids and in your day to day interactions. And so you said that’s really opened your eyes about how, how difficult it is for your customers as parents. To, to make it happen and to get to karate and balance all those things. I talk about that a little bit, right?  

Yeah. I mean, you get a seat, the side of it when, um, you’re, you’re doing all that running around, trying to take one, one kid to tumbling and another kid to a school activity and fitting in karate. I had never realized. How difficult that was, you always hear about it, but you don’t, you don’t understand it.  

You know, another thing is when my kids come home and they complain about going go into one of their activities and how that, that changes your, your atmosphere. Right. Okay. And on the flip side of that, how excited kids come home, something went great for them and how it changes the atmosphereat home there too. 

  

So it was really interesting for me. When a parent comes up to me and talks to me about how the kids react to it. It’s very interesting to actually be at the dinner table and see that and experience that and try to figure out those schedules and see how hard it is for parents. So it changed. It’s changed our business.  

A little bit also with that new understanding where, you know, give the makeup classes, if they miss a class and, you know, make sure they have these makeup classes that they can come to and try to be super cool, super flexible with this schedule and, and do everything you possibly can to help that parent, because it’s tough.  

It’s tough getting multiple kids in there and it’s a lot of work. So it definitely is, has helped my business getting to experience that. Yeah, well, as we get kind of closer to wrapping up, um, we’ve got two other questions. So we covered a lot of ground and how you, how you grew this from a personal, um, you know, interest into something that you can monetize and still enjoy on that personal level.  

Um, but what about on the more on that we’ve talked a lot about business, but more on that personal side, has this journey helped you. Learn anything about yourself? Like, is there something that is very clearly, um, that you very clearly picked up? Absolutely. And along this absolutely. And I think it’s business and also martial arts related, but, um, you have to, let’s see how you explain it, right?  

Like, like you have to be able to rest your mind at night. Because when you go to sleep, you’re there all by yourself. No, you lay your head down on the pillow and you’re the only one there in that conscious. Right. And you have to make sure that every single thing that you do throughout your day and your week is something that you’re going to be proud of.  

And that you’re going to be happy with so that when you lay your head down on that pillow, you can rest easy. Right. And so that’s probably one of the biggest things I’ve learned. In business and interacting with all these customers and interacting with all these families and kids and their lives and their ups and their downs is how we react in that moment.  

And the wings, the things that we bring to the table. That’s what rests in my mind at the end of the day. And I have to be able to rest easy and go to sleep. That makes sense. I’m always thinking about that. Yeah. Yeah. I think, I think that’s a good thing to, to wrap up with, especially with entrepreneurs, we just get so caught up in our minds, um, and to a large extent, selfishly.  

And so it’s interesting that you put into perspective where you observe. And internalize external things and how they influence you, you know, internally. Sure. Like it. Alright. Uh, Jeff, I want to give you a moment to kind of put out contact information, which website is Facebook, anything you want to put out or people can learn more about you, right?  

Um, evolutionary martial arts. We’re out in Syracuse, Utah, you can find us on Facebook. Um, you can also look at our website, evolutionary-martial-arts.com. And then of course, if you’re in the Weaver or Davis County area of Utah, we have priced right lawn care. Uh, you can look us up on Facebook also, or you can email me directly at priceright@lc.com. Very cool. I’m going to, I’m going to extend this 90 seconds and ask you about that. So as I didn’t, I didn’t know that until your, tell your lawn and tell your bio thing, like, is this a little side hustle thing you’re doing? Or when did this come to life? You know, this is super recent. Um, my father reached out to me, he’s owned many businesses, he’s retired a couple of times and he gets bored and, and he called me and he says, you know, Hey, I want to work for five more years.  

Do you want to get involved in a lawn care business with me? And I said, sure, let’s do it. And we just hit the ground running. We have four employees plus myself and him, and we’ve been able to land. Some commercials, some residential, some HOA groups and it took off. It was crazy. Yeah. It’s been super fun and I’ve gotten to spend a lot of time with him.  

That’s cool. Very cool. All right. Jeff Price, everybody. Last question, Jeff. I like to ask our guests, if anything, what comes to mind when you are asked? How do you want to be remembered? I just want to be remembered as a good person that truly, truly cared about everybody. I interacted with. Honestly, that’s how I want to be remembered.  

There you go. Jeff Price, evolutionary-marshall-arts.com. Thanks Jeff. Thank you.