AUTO-GENERATED TRANSCRIPT

Brianna Battles  00:01

Welcome to the practice brave podcast. I am the host Brianna battles, founder of pregnancy and postpartum athleticism, and CEO of everyday battles. I’m a career strength and conditioning coach, entrepreneur, mom of two wild little boys and a lifelong athlete. I believe that athleticism does not end when motherhood begins, and this podcast is dedicated to coaching you by providing meaningful conversations, insights and interview topics related to fitness, mindset, parenting and of course, all the nuances of pregnancy and postpartum, from expert interviews to engaging conversations and reflections. This podcast is your trustworthy, relatable resource for learning how to practice brave through every season in your life. Hey everyone, welcome back to the practice brave Podcast. Today I have Jordan Saya, and I’m really excited to share so much about the work that he’s done throughout years spent in the fitness industry, he’s been a strong voice, really strong influence, and honestly, of just sanity in the fitness industry, where we’ve seen so many different extreme approaches, one thing I really appreciate about Jordan is he has stayed really consistent in his messaging while evolving his coaching, and that’s something that so many of us have a lot to learn from. So Jordan,

Jordan Syatt  01:20

thanks for being here. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it, and I very much admire and respect you, and it’s been wonderful to connect, and I’m excited to be here. So thank you. Well, thank

Brianna Battles  01:30

you for having this conversation. So for those that aren’t as familiar with your work, give us a little bit of your your background, both like as an athlete and then coach and entrepreneur.

Jordan Syatt  01:40

Yeah. So I grew up wrestling. I’m a short, bald, Jewish guy, you know, and my mom was really worried that my brother and I were going to be picked on and when we were kids. So she walked in the living room one day when I was I must have been seven years old or seven years old at the time. No, I was eight. I was eight, and she was like, All right, I’m putting you both in wrestling. And the only wrestling that I knew was like, WWE style wrestling. So I remember I looked at her, and I was like, you want me to hit someone with a chair? And she was like, no, like, Olympic style wrestling. I was like, Okay, I didn’t know what it was, but she put us into wrestling, and I immediately fell in love with it. My entire family, very academic, doctors, lawyers, teachers, professors, superintendents, and I was in special education, and I was I was the black sheep, and that like I was never good in school, but I was good at athletics and sports, and no one else in my family did sports. So I started wrestling, and it just was the best thing. I fell in love with it. I loved it. And by the time I got to high school, I made varsity as a freshman, and then, if I wasn’t already obsessed enough, it just took it to a new new level. But you know, when you’re 14 on varsity, you’re going up against mainly 17 and 18 year olds, and so I had to cut a lot of weight and get stronger. And I was decent from a technical perspective, but my strength was nowhere near where it needed to be as a 14 year old boy going against like 1718, year old boys. So I started to look into strength and conditioning, trying to figure out, how do I, how do I get stronger? And we were living in Massachusetts at the time, so I found a gym. It was a specialized as a Kettlebell Gym, because I was obsessed with kettle bells and I wanted to I thought they were the key and they were wonderful tool, but I thought, like this just must be it, and so and it was when Pavel satsoli was really breaking out and becoming well known. So I wrote an email to this Kettlebell Gym, and I was like, I’ll take the trash out. I’ll clean the floors. I’ll do whatever you need me to do, just Can I come in and learn from you? And I was very blessed, because they they took me under their wing. They let me intern there, and that turned into coaching there. And so I worked there all through high school and learned how to get stronger. And through that, I developed a tremendous passion for strength and conditioning and then nutrition and all that. And this is really the only industry I’ve ever been in is the fitness industry. And from there, after I graduated high school, I was like, You know what? I’m I’m not going to cut weight anymore. So then I went into power lifting, where I continued to cut weight and and I competed in powerlifting, and I trained at West Side barbell and I did that for a number of years. I was very fortunate. I was able to my goal was deadlift four times my body weight, which I did, I deadlifted 530 at 132 then I retired from power lifting. Really went all in focusing on my business for a while, and I got fat and out of shape while I was focusing on my business. And then I started doing jujitsu. And, and that was about four, four and a half years ago. And, and, yeah. So now my wife and I, we live in in Dallas, we have two beautiful daughters, and I just do strength training and nutrition and mobility and performance, and I just try and help people fit fitness into their life, rather than trying to fit life into their fitness and and I want people to I want everyone to know that they can be an. Athlete. You know, you look at me. I’m I’m small again. I’m five, three. I like one, 140, I don’t look like a bodybuilder. So I’ve never really been esthetics training for esthetics guy. I’ve been more like, let’s I want to train to perform really well, and I want people to feel confident in what their body can do. And so that’s what I try and do it. And do, and the vast majority of my my clients are actually women. You anywhere from young 20s all the way to mid 80s, and it’s great. I just recently, a number of women in my membership have started doing a lot of box jumps. For the first time in their life. They’re like, you’ve got people, women in their 40s and 50s and 60s, jumping onto boxes and starting off with half an inch and an inch all the way up, I’ve seen one woman in her 50s going up to like a 20 inch box. It’s just, it’s wonderful. So I My passion is getting people to feel confident in what their bodies can do.

Brianna Battles  05:52

Yeah, you know, in a one sentiment, like, Thank you for sharing all of that I love, like, the the timeline, so people just kind of like, hear like, how you evolved and came up that one thing I’m hearing is, from the beginning, you like, who you are has sort of dictated what you decided to do. You’re like, given your your physicality, you’re like, Okay, I’m gonna go into wrestling despite what the rest of my family has done. And even though, like, this is the career paths of others, I’m really inclined to do this, like you’re able to shoot your shot, so to speak, with working at the different gyms and like having that facilitate where your career went. Sounds like you’ve pretty consistently lived in alignment with who you are and therefore what you’ve done.

Jordan Syatt  06:35

Yeah, and I’ve been very blessed. My mom is absolutely incredible, and she’s supported me in everything I’ve done. She’s it’s funny, because personal training has never been seen as a respectable career. It’s just even now, people like I, in fact, I when people ask what I do when I don’t know them and they don’t know me, I always just say personal trainer, because if they treat me differently from when I say personal trainer to when they see my social media, I don’t really want anything to do with that person. And my family always like, again, doctors, lawyers, professors, they’re always like, personal trainer, personal trainer. And even now, my mom will be like, you could always go back to school, be a doctor, be a lawyer, even now. And I love her to death. She’s amazing. But I’ve been so blessed and like, Thank God I was born and I was born, and things have things have happened the way they’ve happened. Because if I was born at a different time, then it likely, it may not have happened that way. I think this is the first time in history in which you can make your passion into a career, whereas before it was like, whatever you got to do to put food on the table, which is still very much a reality for, I think, so many people, but I also think many people don’t realize that we have the resources and the abilities now whatever you’re passionate about, if you want, you can make it a career.

Brianna Battles  07:50

Yeah, I feel that like, and I don’t feel like that was necessarily like, laid out when I was in college, where it was like, if you’re working in the strength conditioning industry, you can be entrepreneurial unless it was open a gym. But even then, like that wasn’t a career path that was really well laid out. And so being able to, like you said, kind of come up in the right era where you started to see more online courses and social media kind of booming when we were coming up in the field of being like professional like that. Timing worked out so well. And with that, like you are one of the few voices that has sustained since way back then. When did you really start coming online and sharing? When was that

Jordan Syatt  08:32

so I, I made my website and started writing my first articles in July of 2011 so it’s, it’s been a while, and at that time I was also, every day, I was doing something called a strength lesson, on on my face, my personal Facebook page, before business pages were really a thing. And to be fair, at that time, I didn’t think, and I didn’t know an online business was possible. My goal wasn’t to build an online business. It was just it was to eventually open a gym, and that’s what I because that was the only career path at that time, and then I was just writing articles. The reason I was doing that is because the coaches that I respected were writing articles at that time. I was like, Okay, this is what I should do. And I was in my college dorm room writing articles, and the kids were going out partying, and they were like, What are you doing? And I was like, I’m writing an article. And I wasn’t really I was a loser in college, like I never went out, I never partied, and I was very alone, and I was like, I’m just gonna study and learn and write. And it wasn’t after, until about a year and a half, two years after, I started writing articles online, and for the first again, year and a half, two years, I only got like 20 views a day on my website, and that was like a really good day, and most of them were my mom. And after a couple of years, I started to get a handful of people following. And the only reason I started I began to realize an online business was possible, is because a random woman from Brazil emailed me, saying, How much do you charge for online coaching? And I was just like, I don’t know. Like, three 300 bucks. I just made it up. 300 bucks. I didn’t have a timeline, I didn’t have a program. I was just like, I don’t know. And she was like, How do I pay you? And I was like, I don’t know. So I googled, how do you make online payments? And I found this thing called paypal.com and I made an account, and this woman sent me $300 and I was like, holy shit. And so then I there was a I was at University of Delaware at the time, and so I went to this coffee shop called brouhaha on Main Street, and for the entire weekend I made this woman. I was like, this woman just sent me $300 I need to make the best training program and nutrition plan that’s ever existed in this world. And I spent the whole weekend at brouhaha making this one woman’s program, and I thought that once I sent it, I thought she was going to send it back and ask for a refund, and she loved it, and it was great. And so that’s like, oh my gosh, this maybe this is something I could do.

Brianna Battles  10:50

Yeah, isn’t it crazy how that hooks you? Like we’re somebody else’s belief in you and, like, validation of the stuff that you’re doing. You just like putting out there for it feels like nobody sees it initially, and then when one person does that’s like, the boost of confidence that’s not coming from our mom, that, like, yes, really drives the next right thing, you know. Like saying, like, my mom was like, Oh, honey. Like, you can do anything, supporter, you know. But like, yeah, when somebody else sees the value that you’re bringing, where it seems like you’re just, like, saying the same thing over and over, and finally, it resonates with somebody. And there’s financial, like, compensation, it’s like, oh my god, this is it?

Jordan Syatt  11:27

Yes, yes, it’s exactly right. Yeah, no.

Brianna Battles  11:31

I mean, it’s been really cool to see you know, your work evolve over the years. How have you stayed consistent in showing up online and honestly, like just evolving your coaching, what you’re doing and how you’re doing it.

Jordan Syatt  11:45

You know, staying consistent online is the exact same way I tell my clients to stay consistent with their training and nutrition. And it’s funny because I see coaches who they berate their clients. It’s like, you just got to stay consistent. Just it’s not that hard. Just eat fruits and vegetables and protein and go work out a few times a week. And then these same coaches will come to me and be like, I’m just my social media is not growing. And then I look at their social media, and they they posted four times in the last six months, and they posted pictures of their pickup truck and their dog, and I’m like, What the fuck like? How in the world can you possibly tell someone to stay consistent and then you’re not doing it. It’s the exact same thing. It’s just, you got to do it. And for years, I would make bi annual so on my birthday, which is in May, and then around the New Year, I would sit down and handwrite my goals and and I would have my objective based goals, like the goals that I wanted to achieve. And then I would have my action based goals, the things that I would do in order to achieve them every day. But at the top of the paper I would, I would write, like, my my mission, like, what was the one thing that I really wanted to do? And the mission is, has never changed from 2011 it was just, I just want to help as many people as possible. And well, how do you help people? You could help people in person. You could have a brick and mortar gym. That’s a great way. But if your goal is online, you’re not helping people, if you’re not posting, if you’re not sharing. So it’s very simple. It’s just, I just have to keep showing up. And I would say at this point I don’t want to post probably 92% of the time, but I’m still posting, and that’s just what you

Brianna Battles  13:17

got to do. Yeah. And even with that, I feel like, you know, you’ve also been able to withstand a lot of backlash, and I appreciate the sarcasm and the approach that you’ve had to a lot of that too, to combating all the people that sort of like want to rebuke things that you say, or the What about all of those things, which, like, in the fitness and health and Nutrition space, there’s always somebody who’s looking and cannot like understand nuance, who wants to like pick apart what you say or how you say it. It’s probably for me, anyway, the most frustrating part of showing up online is knowing that there’s always a What about perspective, and somebody who’s never engaged in your content before chooses to pick apart this one piece, right? How have you navigated that and not just been like, fuck it. This is so discouraging.

Jordan Syatt  14:07

I’m over people. I think it’s, it is very discouraging and frustrating and infuriating and obnoxious. It is, I think, the the only if I wasn’t also getting positive feedback, and knowing that what I was saying was making a difference, then I probably would have quit many, many, many, many years ago. It’s it’s just knowing that every time that I post as long as one person, it helps one person. That’s all I care about. Even long before I was making money doing it, long before that woman reached out and said, How much do you charge? I was spending writing one article for my website. It was very different than social media posts. One article would take between 16 to 24 hours of work in terms of thinking of the topic, planning the topic, writing it, editing it, formatting it, it was, it was a at least 16 to 24 hours of work per article. Yeah, and I wasn’t getting paid for it, and I was doing this for years, all because my form of payment was just one person saying, This was super helpful, that was it. And so as long as I’m focusing on the people that I’m helping, I can’t control that people will misinterpret it deliberately or not, that people won’t pay attention to what I say. They’ll put words in my mouth, or just that they disagree, which is totally fine, but the as long as I know that I’m helping people, then that’s, that’s the payment that keeps me going.

Brianna Battles  15:30

Yeah, I totally agree. Like, I just have to, like, get pissed for a little bit, and then I’m like, Yes, ultimately, ultimately, I know that, like, the majority of people that are following are here and appreciative of whatever I’m putting out there into the world, and I can move on. But I do think that you have to develop some thick skin when you were showing up online, because it’s being like professionally vulnerable is really challenging for most people to like, not just show up like and share your feelings. That’s a different kind of vulnerability, but like to show up as a professional and put your face and your name and your words out there to to help a lot of people also withstand some criticism. Like, that’s a different type of vulnerability.

Jordan Syatt  16:12

Yeah, it is. And quite frankly, I don’t think it’s good for your health, the like, the anger that comes from it and the frustration, like, it’s the stress that listen, I don’t think entrepreneurs are the longest living population, right? I just don’t the amount of stress that comes with it, the anger, the frustration, the fear, all of that. But if it’s what you’re passionate about, then it’s worth it, yeah,

Brianna Battles  16:35

what would you be doing if you weren’t in the fitness industry, if you weren’t an entrepreneur? Have you ever given that like

Jordan Syatt  16:40

some thought, yeah, I’d be a history teacher without a question. Yeah? I mean, I love history. Yeah. I was never good with math and I wasn’t good in school, but I love history, and I love reading about it. I love studying. I love talking about it, and it’s there’s no question I would, I would probably have been a high school history teacher. History teacher. Yeah, I love that.

Brianna Battles  17:04

It’s funny that you mentioned math. I’m trying to help my 12 year old learn sixth grade math, and I’m like, Oh, my God, this is torture. I was using chat GPT to try to, like, Okay, explain this to me like I’m a kid, so then I can, like, turn around and help him, but it’s a it’s a brutal phase to enter into when you’re like, I hated this, and now we’re back.

Jordan Syatt  17:27

I’m my wife, and I talk about it all the time because our daughters are one in three, and so we’re not there yet, but we were both in special education, and so we were both like, What the What are we gonna do when they come home with math homework, and I’m just praying that they are infinitely smarter than we are, and they won’t need our help, because I have, I have no clue how I’m going to be able to do that.

Brianna Battles  17:49

Yeah, this is the first time that he’s, like, solid, solicited some help, and I have to, like, teach him systems and how to, like, manage things. I’m like, Oh, my God, it is. It’s a wild season to enter. And of course, like having little kids brings its own challenges. I Yeah, the whole business around that, but it is funny when you, like, enter a new era and you’re like, Okay, this is our life. Looks different, and how I need to show up for my kids is a little bit different. Now, too,

Jordan Syatt  18:16

my struggle is going to be, I know already it’s gonna, and I’m not gonna. I cannot let myself do this, but going to see the math homework and me being like, this is just pointless. Like, I can’t, I can’t say that because, like, it’s just, it’s not the right message to send, and you have to do it, even if, if you don’t think it’s worth it, like you sometimes you have to do things you don’t want to do. But I know my internal, my internal dialog is like, there’s no reason to be learning this is ridiculous. Yeah, that’s like,

Brianna Battles  18:44

exactly where I’m at, where I’m like, I don’t think there’s a point to this. And you don’t get to have like, autonomy and freedom and all these creativity until, like, you learn how to do things that you don’t want to do, and you know you like, learn from somebody that you don’t necessarily like. Like, that’s the building blocks of creating. Like, you know, more like free thought and entrepreneurship, or whatever else direction that might be. It’ll find him if that’s the pathway he chooses to go down. But, man, I look at it, I’m like, This is dumb. Why are we

Jordan Syatt  19:16

doing this? Do you consider homeschooling?

Brianna Battles  19:19

I’ve thought about it. And I feel like now, like, elementary school was great for my boys. They both really loved it. I feel like now Middle School, like, this is where shits getting real in so many different ways. And I’m seeing with my older one, he’s just, he’s wired. He’s wired exactly like I am, you know. And so I see, like, the ways that I struggled, he struggles. We just didn’t really have a name for it back then for girls. So, you know, I think it’s a it’s something that we’ve talked about, and I’m trying to just give Middle School a go, like, we’re like, one month in seeing how it goes, we’ll see, like, it’s not off. So. Got off the radar, but I don’t know. I’m like, would he be able to learn from me? Would I be able to teach him? How does that affect, like, my day to day business? Like, I don’t know. I’ve given it some thought, but he is very entrepreneurial, leaning in general, like, how he operates, how he thinks, and I feel like so much of that can be fulfilled through homes, yeah, for sure, but I don’t know. Man, this is, like, the stuff that no one that, like, you’re not fully prepared for in parenthood is, like, what? Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t know. What are we doing? It’s exactly right, you know, oh my gosh. But speaking of it, so your your girls are really young. How has becoming a dad changed, just who you are and even, like, changed how you show up in your business.

Jordan Syatt  20:43

Well, I’ve always wanted to be a dad. Ever since I was a kid. I didn’t think I would get married. When I was a kid, my parents had a really horrible marriage, and it was, you know, it was just all that I saw. And I also I love stand up comedy, like I love stand up comedy. And one of the reasons a comedian will be funny is because what they say has truth to it. And so I would, I would watch these stand up comedians, and they’re all talking horribly about marriage, about how terrible it was. And I was like, Okay, so my parents have a horrible marriage. All the comedians are making fun of it, movies, TV, even, like the sitcoms back in the day, there’s like how bad marriage was. And I was like, why would anyone want to get married? Like, this is horrible, and but I always knew I wanted to have kids. And then I met my my wife, and I was like, Okay, nevermind. Marriage could definitely work. And I met some people who had really wonderful marriages, and that was that was great, but I always knew I wanted to be a dad, and I think for having kids, just put me in that, the place where I was like, Okay, this is what I’m supposed to be doing. It’s just I there’s nothing that I love more than being a dad. There’s just nothing better that I’ve ever experienced. I’ve definitely become more of a man, for sure, in terms of, like, the protector, the like, it’s, it’s come out in me in ways that I didn’t know existed before. And I’ve always, you know, done combat sports and all of that. But it’s different. It’s different when I’m not just protecting myself, like I’m protecting my kids and my family and my wife, and it’s come out in a way that I have never felt before. And you know, there are obviously clear hormonal changes that happen with women during pregnancy, postpartum, all of that. And I believe there are also hormonal changes that happen within men when their wife is pregnant or and I would, I would love to see like, what’s going on biologically, because the way that I think and the way that I feel is just completely different. And the love that I feel is I’ve never done like, hallucinogenic drugs. I have nothing against them. I’ve just never done them. But one of the things when I speak to people who have done them, is they’ll say things like, Yeah, you see colors that you didn’t know existed before. And the love that I feel for my kids is an emotion that I’ve never felt before. It’s just it once I’ve had my daughters, the the way that I feel about them, I’ve never felt that actual emotion. And the word love doesn’t really describe it. It’s it’s just completely in a different universe, and it’s it. I don’t even know what else to say, other than it’s just, it’s the most amazing thing in the world.

Brianna Battles  23:34

I totally agree. It is. It’s love doesn’t really define it. It’s like, a deep level of, like, protection. I would do anything for you, like, yeah, and giving them, I mean, I’m not going to speak for you, but for my own boys, like giving them, like, what I didn’t have in a lot of ways, like the lifestyle that we didn’t have, the marriage that I didn’t see reflected back to my sister and I when we were little, like, just being able to give my boys this gift that they don’t even realize is a gift like for them, that’s just like their normal. And I see that, and it’s like, that’s so precious. It is so healing. And I know that it is serving them in a way that like they don’t even they can’t even recognize yet, you know, but it’s, it’s a very special experience to be able to do that when you know it’s a different that when you get to live differently as an adult than how you experience your own childhood, or what your picture of marriage was, or your family dynamic was, yeah, it’s exactly right. Yeah, that’s awesome. I mean, I think, I think it’s pretty cool that you experience something unique like that. Where was it, just like your wife, who had, like, the significant hormonal changes, but like you felt that on such a such an intimate way as well. Yeah?

Jordan Syatt  24:44

I mean, even, even when my wife was pregnant with our first you ever watched the Denzel Washington movie, man on fire? Yeah, it’s like such, such a good movie. I think it’s super underrated as well. Like very few people discuss it, but I remember watching that. Movie and watching him coaching the girl in swimming, and I got that lump in my like, I have nothing against crying. It’s just I don’t really cry very much. And as my wife was pregnant before I even met my first daughter, I had that big lump in my throat watching him coach her, and I was like, What the fuck dude, like, what? What is happening? It’s, it’s, it’s really wild.

Brianna Battles  25:25

Yeah, no, it is. I mean, it really, like, brings you into, like, a different you meet a different version of yourself on the other side. Yeah, you know. And I, something I echo a lot through my work, is you, you become a new person, like you evolve through motherhood. And it’s not just about exercise modifications. It’s about the like, the entire like, transformation that occurs when you, when you become a parent, like, it’s, it’s just that it’s, it’s transformation. There’s no going back. It’s moving forward and discovering who you are on the other side of parenthood.

Jordan Syatt  25:55

Yeah, that’s a great way to put it. That’s exactly right.

Brianna Battles  25:58

Yeah. So you mentioned that you know, you’ve always done combat sports, you grew up wrestling, and now you almost have like, this primal like need and desire to want to protect your family. So you discovered jiu jitsu about for little over four years ago. What has that been like for you to get involved in a sport that’s not just about fitness, it’s not lifting weights, it’s not swinging a kettlebell, and obviously it’s very adjacent to wrestling, but to enter a combat sport in your 30s, ish, what has that been like for you?

Jordan Syatt  26:29

Yeah, so Well, I knew about jiu jitsu ever since I started wrestling, or actually since it’s high school wrestling, because I was really getting into mixed martial arts, and I was watching the Ultimate Fighting Championship and pride and Bellator, where I was watching all these different organizations. And man, do I miss pride. That was such an amazing organization, and I always wanted to do it. There was a kid on my wrestling team, Tim leggett, who did jiu jitsu at the same time, and he would put me in a triangle choke and be like, What the hell like. It was just. It was amazing. It was incredible. It seemed like magic. And after high school, I did try Jiu Jitsu. I went so I was living in Massachusetts. I was living in Boston, and Kenny Florian has an academy in Massachusetts, and I was young and egotistical. And when I was living in Boston, I was like, You know what? I’m going to try Jiu Jitsu. And I must have been 24 at the time, and I looked on the website, and I saw they had beginners classes and advanced classes, and me being a young, egotistical wrestler, I was like, I’m not going to the beginner class. I’m gonna go to the advanced class. So I show up and I tell them, I’m blue belt, which was not true. It was my first day in jiu jitsu ever, and I knew the belts, and I knew that, but, like, I didn’t know. I had no idea. And I I’m going with an actual blue belt, and I went two times, and this kid cranked my neck so hard in guillotines, which is what wrestlers get caught in all the time. I literally, I remember getting out of bed, I, like, had to put my hand behind my head to lift my head off of the pillow. And I went, did two times, and I was like, You know what? I’m not doing this. Like, it’s affecting my business. Like, I couldn’t record videos. I was like, I’ll get back to another time. Then, like, four years go by and I see some, you know? Oh, this is what happened. I saw a post from George St Pierre on Instagram and with a couple of his training partners, and I see he tagged them. So I tap one of them, and I see he follows me. One of George St Pierre’s training partners had followed me, and so I sent him a message, and I was like, Hey, man, I great to see you following me. Like, I love GSP, all this stuff. And this guy ended up being a coach at and actually owning henzo Gracie academies in Connecticut, and he coached at the one in New York City. So he was like, why don’t you come to henzos and just come train? And I was 28 or No, I was 2029 at the time, and I went, and I was hooked immediately. And it was a much better starting point. I was at a less egotistical phase in my life, but I did a couple one on ones with him, and then I started going to the classes, and I still had that little bit of ego, because my first class there was this, you know, there’s a big difference between a day one white belt versus, like, a six month white belt. Huge difference. And I was going with this little girl, like a woman, she was in her 20s, and she was this little, like petite Asian woman. She was like two stripe white belt, and Brianna, she fucking wrecked me. And I’m a 10 year wrestler and and I was stronger than her, I was more athletic, and this fucking tiny woman wrecked me, and I was like, What in the hell is going on? It flipped my world upside down because I was. Was like, I was overly confident. I was like, I’m a wrestler. I’ve done this. Like, if I need to protect myself or protect my girlfriend, at that time, I was like, I’m good. I was not good. And fortunately, at this point my life, I was like this. I need to, I need to know how to do this. I need to learn how to do this, because, God forbid something ever does happen. I need, like, I it knocked every ounce of confidence out of me. The ego was gone, the confidence was gone, the bravado was gone. And I started, I was like, I’m gonna go two times a week. Well, then I start going six times a week. And I was just, I was obsessed. I was and it’s also it was, it was different, because as a strength coach in fitness, you’re like, Yeah, you only needed to train a few times a week, but then you see these jiu jitsu athletes training two times a day, seven days a week. And I was like, Okay, maybe I’ve been under selling myself on what I can actually do. So I start going six times a week, and I became obsessed with it, and it has improved my life in every way, shape and form. And it’s it’s made me a better man, a better husband, a better father, it’s and you know what’s funny is the when I was walking around untrained,

Jordan Syatt  31:11

i i Listen, I never got into fights and I never looked for them, but I was way more confident. And now when I walk around, if there’s a whiff of something, I’m like, tell my wife. I’m like, Let’s go another direction. It’s like, I don’t even want to get close to where an altercation could happen. The more trained I get, the less I even want to consider the option, which I think a lot of people think about fighters. Oh, they’re looking for fights. It’s like, from the men and women that I train with, the more trained you are, the more you know how awful things can go, and the less you even want to potentially put yourself in that situation. So it’s made me more aware. It’s made me stronger. It’s made me like, not just stronger, physically, stronger, mentally and emotionally, and more confident in the ability to just say this isn’t worth fighting for. It’s just, I mean, listen, you get choked out in the morning. It’s a great feeling because, like, Hey, I lived. I made it. I made it out of that session. I’m alive. I can go have a great day in real life. You don’t want that. You don’t. There’s no referee, there’s no training party, you don’t tap. It’s just, it’s, it’s, it’s made me a much better, more controlled individual.

Brianna Battles  32:23

Yeah, man, there’s so many points in there I’d love to touch on like I am. Sometimes people say I wish I would have started earlier. And I feel like, maybe you and I are of the same camp where I’m like, or you did try to start earlier. And I think if I would have started earlier, I would have run to the same like, ego issues kind of getting in the way, because we assume, well, I’m fit, I’m really strong, I’m an athlete, but jiu jitsu certainly humbles you. And I think you have to be ready to be humbled, and there needs to be a certain level of athletic maturity where you can go in there and not just try it, but keep showing up. And I think the people that you know maybe could be really successful in the sport, get discouraged because their ego is doesn’t really allow them to be a beginner, be a beginner again. And we know as coaches that there’s so much value in being a beginner, but there’s not always that many opportunities. Like we’ve both been in the game for a long time. Like we are. We’re looked to as being the people with the answers. And so to go into a role where you’re like, I’m I don’t know this sport. I don’t know this move, jiu jitsu is great because you are chronically a beginner in some capacity, yes, forever. And we don’t have that opportunity in so many other aspects of life, business, you just are sort of expected to have a baseline of knowing what you’re doing, strength and conditioning, baseline of knowing what you’re doing. You’re not really a beginner. You just, you kind of keep adding on those building blocks. But Jiu Jitsu, you always sort of stay a beginner. Yeah, it’s

Jordan Syatt  33:55

also and I’ve done many sports and many different like, whether it was soccer, baseball, I did team sports, I did individual sports. I did everything I love, rock climbing, everything I loved, all of it gymnastics when I was a kid, which I think every kid should do. But jiu jitsu is unlike literally any other sport and any other activity from the perspective of when think about strength training. When you start strength training, you have this thing called newbie gains, where you get stronger. Literally every time you go to the gym. It’s why it’s so addicting, because every time you go, you get better, every time with jujitsu, when I first started for real, when I went to henzos, Damien Anderson, I asked him, because he was training hands with the time, and I was like, Hey, man, like, what’s your best advice? And he said, You’re gonna suck for the first two years. Just don’t quit. Jiu Jitsu is the only thing I’ve ever tried in which, no matter how much I go and no matter how much I do in those first couple of years, you. It feels like it’s not working. It feels like like I’m just getting wrecked over and over and over and over. And it’s not just like, wrecked with a barbell where you’re sore or it didn’t move it. I’ll never forget the first time I rolled with a purple belt. We were doing positional drills, and he was in top side control and I was in bottom. And it was just like, okay, just it was, it wasn’t submission. It was just like, position only just try and maintain position for the top and try and escape if you’re on bottom. Brianna, I couldn’t move. I literally couldn’t move. And I’m a wrestler, like, that’s a great position for me, because I know how to fight off my back and and I’ll never forget, because the purple, well, he after about, I don’t know if it felt like forever, but it was probably only about five to 15 seconds. He was like, Hey, man, you gotta, you gotta try and get out. And I was and I said, I was like, Dude, I’m trying. I’m actively trying to get out. And it was so demoralizing. Jiu jitsu is jiu jitsu is showing up every single day for literally years and getting your ass kicked every single day, physically, not being able to impose your will on someone, and actually having someone else easily impose their will on you. And I’m just gonna keep showing up. I’m just gonna it’s, it’s unbelievably scary and humbling, and if you can it’s why they have such a high dropout rate from from white belt, like so many people don’t ever get their blue belt, because, I mean, I get it, it’s, it’s horrifying and it’s scary, and it’s, it’s demoralizing, because you’re, you feel like you’re not making progress. And I think what shifted for me was starting to look for progress in different ways, like because when I first started, I would learn a move, and then we would we would roll, and then I would be like, Wait, what was the move? And I wouldn’t even remember what the move was. And I remember the first time I considered myself making progress was when I was I was in the middle of a match of rolling, and I just remembered, oh, I can do this here. I didn’t get it. I didn’t even remember how to get it. I just remembered, oh, this is a position. And it was thinking back as an Americana. I was like, Oh, I could get Americana from top side control. And then, and then I lost the position. But I was like, Oh, that was good. I remembered, I remember that’s where I could get that movement. And you have to fight for every ounce of progress and seeing, like, Okay, so for me, the progressive overload today, and that the progress was remembering that in this position, I can do this move. It’s just the teeniest, tiniest bits of progression, yeah.

Brianna Battles  37:40

I mean, it really instills grit. When you think that you already have it, you’re like, I have grit, like, I have been successful in this category of life. I, you know, whatever, we check a lot of boxes along the way, and jiu jitsu exposes where, like, you have more vulnerability, whether it’s, you know, physical vulnerability, or even just like, the mental roller coaster of it, of like, developing that grit where you’re like, damn, like, Why do I for me? I’m like, Why do I care so much about this? Like, the drives home, like, where I’m driving home in silence, you know, or like, I mean, a grown ass woman, and I still cry when I lose sometimes, like, I just I’m so mad at myself, or so frustrated, I keep falling into the same shit. And it’s like that little girl for me, like she never died. She’s still there, and it exposes so much of the shit we still need to work on, even as adults, because you are quite literally putting yourself into the arena to be exposed to show like, what you know, what you don’t know, whether it’s in practice or in a competition, it’s, it’s one of the few sports that just really, you know, I think we like to assume the best of ourselves. I’m fit, I’m healthy, I’m strong, I’m all of these things. I can protect myself and my kids if I’m out there because I’m fit, because I’m strong. But no, like you don’t know, and I think jiu jitsu was, again, it exposes this vulnerability, but also this opportunity to, like, do something about it.

Jordan Syatt  39:07

That’s my favorite. When big bodybuilder dudes come in, yeah, and they’re like, and they’re like, hey, like, let’s roll. And they think that they’re gonna, like, show that jiu jitsu doesn’t work. And then they go with me, and, you know, 531, 40, and and they go nuts for the first 30 seconds, and they can’t breathe like they thought they were in shape. It’s, it’s, there’s a difference between being fit and being in fighting shape. They’re very, very different things. And then when you have that fight or flight mode kick in, and oh my gosh, it is. It’s really, it’s, which is, you know, I see a lot of people in fitness who who think that they’re tough and think that, like, they they can do whatever because they deadlift a lot or because they have a lot of muscle. I’m like, it’s different. Yeah, it’s very different.

Brianna Battles  39:55

It is. And, I mean, I’m so grateful that I found it when I did, because. Is, you know, to bring it, like, full circle, like, I feel like it’s really helped me in business, because, again, it keeps me in alignment with, like, how do we stay in the game? It’s doing a little bit over time, right? It’s like progressive overload applied to life business training, like, who we are evolving into as people. And I feel like jiu jitsu is such a great physical outlet for so much of what we’re trying to like create in other categories of our life.

Jordan Syatt  40:27

Yeah, I completely agree.

Brianna Battles  40:29

Yeah. So what? What does your business look like today? In 2025 you got two little girls at home. You are devoted to your family. You are still an athlete, pursuing that side of yourself. What is the actual business side of your coaching world look like?

Jordan Syatt  40:46

So right now, when I first started, it was all one on one online. Well, first it started like coaching in person, but then I went to online, and it was all one on one, and then in 2015 I had started a I had a lot of one on one clients, and I was like, this is unsustainable. I was spending like 16 hours a day doing emails. And so then I made what I now call my inner circle, which is just a membership, and it’s probably about 70% women of many ages, and 30% men and everyone in there, from high level jiu jitsu athletes to people who weigh over 400 pounds and have never worked out a day in their life. And I try and make it as accessible to everybody as possible. So we have nutrition, and you can track your calories and do your like, your macro tracking in there, and we track calories, protein, fiber. I’m not really worried about carbs and fats, so you can track that. Or if you have a history of disordered eating and you don’t want to track calories, we have a different option for that. Strength training programs, new new programs every month, three times a week. Option, four times a week. Options, mobility programs, running programs. It’s like everything, and it’s constantly trying to, we’re always trying to improve it. Holy shit. Apps are really expensive. It’s people don’t understand. It’s, it’s hundreds and hundreds of 1000s of dollars, like every year to get this thing, to keep it going. And that’s just for the app, never mind videographers and filming and all that so but it’s, it’s, it’s absolutely wonderful. I The community is incredibly kind and supportive and that that’s really, that’s it, that’s, that’s my main thing. I have another thing for coaches as well, but that’s my main business. And what I’m really excited about, no,

Brianna Battles  42:39

I mean, and you’ve done such a great job of of just keeping things simple, keeping it real, and again, like your messaging just resonating with so many people, because we’re in an era where there’s information overload on the internet, there’s a lot of opinions, there’s a lot of hot takes, and that can be really hard to navigate. I feel like you’ve done a really great job of just staying steady with it.

Jordan Syatt  43:02

Thank you. I try. I really appreciate that a lot, and I think

Brianna Battles  43:05

you do as well, also trying. So what advice do you have for coaches that maybe, like, do get discouraged by how do I have my voice stand out in an industry that sometimes feels like it’s there’s not a lot of integrity in it, or there’s, like, a lot of BS in this industry. So what advice you have for, like, really good, well meaning coaches,

Jordan Syatt  43:25

tell the truth. In an industry that is lacking integrity, tell the truth and be what you think is missing. I’ll start with like, Well, what I don’t know what to make content about. This one infuriates me. I fucking hate when coaches I don’t know to make content about it’s like you have clients who ask you questions all the time, and like I don’t I’m How do I hit my protein? Make a post on that. What foods are high in protein? Make a post on that. My back hurts when I deadlift. Make a post on that. I mean. And by the way, it’s not just one post I’ve made. You’re going to say the same thing over and over and over and over, and you’re going to repeat yourself. And if you think that the first time you make a post on something, your post is is the only post you’ll ever need, you’re out of your mind. Your clients wants to the same questions over and over and over again. So make the same post over and over and over again, and just do it better. Do learn. Like, get better. Like, the first time you make a video, if you go to my YouTube channel and you reorder them from oldest to newest, you’ll see my first video, I think was 2012 they actually was funny. Someone in the inner circle just posted a screen grab of it. In the inner circle, be like I was just looking at your old videos. How old were you here? I was like, 21 years old. My videos were so bad, it was awful. They were so bad, but it’s still so many of the same messages just packaged differently, and so just you say the same thing over and over and over and over again, and do a better job giving your message. Make it more clear, make it more concise, make it more sticky. Say things in a way that people will understand, become a better storyteller, but in terms of, how do you stand out? You stand out by telling the truth and having integrity. That’s how you stand out in an industry in which it’s lacking. That’s That’s it and and what I would say is the majority of your content should be about helping people solving their very real problems. What I will say, though, and this is scary for many people, myself included, but the more I’ve done it, the less scary. It’s become same thing with literally everything scary the first time you do it. But I used to just say, everything should just be fitness, just That’s it. Don’t get your personal stuff involved. Now I go the complete opposite way. Share what you believe. Share about who you are, not just fitness wise in your life. Share what you believe in your life, in your heart and your soul, weight, however you believe to be true, because there are many coaches online. There are many, many people, and the truth is, your knowledge is not unique. Your knowledge is not special. Many coaches have the exact same knowledge as you, if not better, but people. They’re not paying for coaching. They’re paying for coaches, they’re paying for you. And there will be many people who hate you for what you believe, and there will be many people who love you for what you believe. And so in order to stand out and to find clients who resonate with who you are, share what you believe be, be you in every sense of the word and share it unapologetically. I it’s very scary, because judgment will come in and people will tear you down for it, but then other people will love you for it, and they’ll appreciate you for it. And I just in keeping mind is something I changed my mind on, because I used to say, keep it out of it. Just all fitness. And again, I do think the majority of your content should be helpful fitness content the majority, but make sure people know who you are and what you stand for as well.

Brianna Battles  47:01

Now that is really powerful advice, and it simple, like, tell the truth about who you are, what you believe, what is true, and that will be what sustains, because the flashy stuff that comes in, the false promises, the people come and go, and I think there’s a lot to be said about coaches like yourself, who have steadily and consistently stayed in the game with what you’re you know what you’re saying, and evolving that over time.

Jordan Syatt  47:32

And when you have to pretend to be someone you’re not, when you have to not take a stance, pretend you you’re sitting on the fence, you’re you’re faking it, and the person who that really hurts the most is you. It hurts your soul. It’s like, that’s why it’s so draining, or one reason why it’s so draining because you’re not being yourself. It’s if you really want to stay in the game and have more staying power. Imagine being in a relationship and not really telling the person your relationship with who you are, like having to hide certain things, it’s makes their relationship. Then you start blaming the relationship and resenting the other person, which is what people do with social media. They start blaming social media. And trust me, social media has a lot of problems, like, a lot a lot of problems, but a lot of coaches who are blaming social media. It’s like, actually, you need to look in the mirror, because you’re not being honest. You’re not telling the truth,

Brianna Battles  48:21

that’s your fault. Yeah, all right, they’re in such a consumption phase that they’re not using anything productively to like, okay, then go be the change. Go create something and that will shut you up. Like that takes away from the noise of social media. Or what’s draining is when you’re actually contributing in a way that feels meaningful, even, like you said earlier, even if it’s for one person, when you contribute in a way that is meaningful for one person, and then that starts to multiply. That is the addicting thing that does keep you in the game. That is what helps scale a business.

Jordan Syatt  48:51

Yeah, and I know I’ll say this, coaches always get a little bit taken aback when I say it. I think it sort of puts a mirror in their face. But if you’re a coach who tells your clients, Listen, stop caring so much about the scale, it’s just a number. But then you’re freaking out about number of followers or number of likes, you are the biggest hypocrite. It’s like, it’s just a number, not to mention, I’ve only got 300 followers. Like, could you imagine standing in front of a room of 300 people? You’d shit yourself, and what you’re actually doing is dehumanizing every individual who’s hit that follow button, right? Stop looking at it as like a number of followers, like each one is individual, an individual that you have the ability and the opportunity and the blessing to have the chance to help them. It’s like if you have 300 followers and you get 25 of them as clients, that’s a that’s a hell of an income. It’s a hell of an online business.

Brianna Battles  49:42

Absolutely, absolutely Jordan, this was super powerful and really inspiring to have this conversation. I know that a lot of coaches will find a lot of value from it. What you’re doing, tell us where we can find out more about the work that you’re doing, or can follow you.

Jordan Syatt  49:58

Yes, I mean site Fitness on. Instagram, at my own podcast, the Jordan site podcast. I also I have a podcast for personal trainers called the how to become a personal trainer podcast. So I think that one would be beneficial for coaches, but that’s it. And I really think that if they follow you and this podcast, that’s everything they need. So just keep following you Brown. I think you’re amazing.

Brianna Battles  50:18

Wow. Thank you so much. I appreciate you, Jordan,

Jordan Syatt  50:21

thank you likewise.

Brianna Battles  50:26

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the practice brave podcast. If you enjoyed the show, please leave a review and help us spread the work we are doing to improve the overall information and messaging in the fitness industry and beyond. Now, if you are pregnant and you are looking for a trustworthy exercise program to follow, I have you covered. The pregnant athlete training program is a well rounded program for pregnancy with workouts for each week that are appropriate for your changing body. That’s 36 weeks of workouts, three to four workouts each week, and tons of guidance on exercise strategy. We also have an at home version of that program. If you are postpartum and you’re looking for an exercise program to follow. The eight week postpartum athlete training program would be a really great way to help bridge the gap between rehab and the fitness you actually want to do from there, we have the practice brave fitness program, which is an ongoing strength conditioning program where you get new workouts each week and have a lot of guidance for myself and my co coach, Heather Osby, this is the only way that I’m really offering ongoing coaching at this point in time. If you have ever considered becoming a certified pregnancy and postpartum athleticism coach, I would love to have you join us pregnancy and postpartum. Athleticism is a self paced online certification course that will up level your coaching skills and help connect the dots between pelvic health and long term athletic performance, especially during pregnancy and postpartum, become who you needed and become who your online and local community needs by becoming a certified pregnancy and postpartum athleticism Coach, thank you again for listening to the practice brave podcast. I appreciate you, and please help me continue spreading this messaging, this information and this work.