What’s up, Champ!

Welcome to the brand new Smart Marketer dojo. This is the accumulation of 15 years of hard work.

I always wanted a gym like this, and I’ve had iterations of it in every place I’ve ever lived (see below), but this is my best one yet.

In this blog post, I’m going to give you a tour and show you all the equipment I use. Then, I’ll tie it all together with an important business lesson I learned in my long journey to build this dream dojo.

Tour the New Smart Marketer Dojo

There it is: the Smart Marketer dojo in all its glory!

This is probably the 7th iteration of this dojo. Throughout the years, I convinced my wife to put a little mat section in all of our apartments, including our tiny Brooklyn loft:

But they were never this fancy. Still, it taught me to work with what I’ve got.

Now, when I get on and off of these mats, I bow. I show respect to the space where I’m going to do work. I treat it nicely, clean up after every workout, and I approach it with humility…

So that when I step on these mats, I know it’s serious. I know I need to treat it with reverence, and I need to show up and be responsible and be present for the work I’m about to do.

If you show up this way in your work-life, your business will go better, too.

Here’s a List of My Favorite Tools

I haven’t always had the money to afford fancy gym equipment…

So if you’re interested in building a dojo like this one, keep in mind that it’s taken me 15 years to figure out the tools I want, so be ready to do some soul searching.

That being said — here’s what I’ve got.

Smooth Series Fuji Mats

The first thing that you’ll notice are these beautiful Fuji smooth mats:

These are smooth mats for jiu-jitsu so you don’t get mat burn. They also work for my judo exercises, too.

You might not know this, but I’m a Hawaii 2003 Hongwanji state champion judoka. I’ve been doing judo since I was four years old.

I haven’t been in the game for a while, but I still do the first warm-ups I ever learned in judo, called Uchikomi:

Specifically, I’m a tai-otoshi specialist, which uses leg and hip throws (see above) to grab somebody and pull them to the ground.

This is my tai-otoshi Uchikomi. You want a nice square stance, and then it’s a one-step, two-step, throw!

Fuji Mats: https://fujimats.com/collections/jiu-jitsu

Grappling Dummy

Next, I want to introduce you to Roll-rigo:

Roll-rigo is what I use to practice my jiu-jitsu technique when I’m not rolling at the gym. (Don’t let him fool you — he’s a beast!)

Here I am putting him into a far-side armbar like the one that Demetrious Johnson caught Ray Borg with when he suplexed him:

I know you’re interested, so the far-side armbar I’m practicing goes like this: grab the shoulder, post on the head, spin around, get your knee on belly — and throw down!

Piece of cake.

Submission Master Grappling Dummy: https://products.grapplingdummy.net/pre-sm-sales-page-a

Rubber Coated Kettlebells

You need different tools to do different things, right?

My Fuji mats allow me to do bodyweight exercises comfortably; Roll-rigo allows me to practice my jiu-jitsu technique; and my kettlebells allow me to do functional, weight-bearing exercises like the Clean & Press:

Rogue Kettlebells: https://www.roguefitness.com/rogue-rubber-coated-kettlebells

Weightlifting Bars & Plates

And then if you really want to clang and bang and go old-school, I have Olympic weightlifting tools like barbells, bumper plates, and benches:

Powerblock Dumbbells: https://powerblock.com/
Rogue TB-2 Trap Bar: https://www.roguefitness.com/rogue-tb-2-trap-bar
Rogue Training Plates: https://www.roguefitness.com/rogue-color-lb-training-2-0-plates
Rogue Bench: https://www.roguefitness.com/rogue-flat-utility-bench

Self-powered Treadmill

Next, I want to holler out to the homie Ricardo “Big Dog” Almeida, who convinced me to buy this thing:

This is a self-powered treadmill.

The treadmills you use at your gym power themselves and actually pull your foot backwards, which helps you. This one you have to power yourself.

I also want to show off my Ricardo Almeida signed gloves.

I was a big fan of Ricardo Almeida growing up. Then I found out he was a Smart Marketer customer, so I hit him up and now we’re buddies.

These gloves are special.

Trueform Trainer: https://trueformrunner.com/products/trueform-trainer

Pull-up Bar

Every gym needs a pull up bar, right?

Pull-up bars are one of the most versatile tools you can buy. Throw some TRX bands on it and you can do some suspension training, too:

Then for a little bit of ambience…

I’ve got my brand logo and tagline (Serve the World Unselfishly and Profit) on the wall pads. Those are words we live by here at Smart Marketer.

Plus, a few smaller tools I use every day that are still important:

Jump Rope: https://www.crossrope.com/
Exercise ball: https://www.amazon.com/Exercise-Ball-Professional-Anti-Burst-Stability/dp/B01DVHNRVM/
Foam Roller: https://www.amazon.com/TriggerPoint-Roller-Instructional-Original-13-inch/dp/B00DT15O3K/

The Lesson?

Start with what you have, and use everything to its greatest benefit.

I’m making it fun by buying all these fancy tools, but all I started with was one of these mats — nothing else, no tools — and I worked my way up from there.

I do the same thing in my business with what I call Top-level Tuesdays.

Top-level Tuesdays

So here’s the part of this dojo philosophy lesson that applies to your work-life: you have more resources than you realize.

Every Tuesday, I take time away from what’s happening right in front of me and I view my businesses from the top, down.

I look at the big picture and I ask myself questions like:

• “What are my goals for the next five years?”
• “What resources do I have access to that I’m not leveraging?”
• “Who’s in my organization that could move up and maybe go from customer support to social media management or to advertising?”

I always have more resources at my disposal than I realize, if I’m willing to see them. That’s the lesson I’m reminded of when I step into my new dojo.

Whether it’s your work-life or your home life, you can respect the space by showing up consistently with a positive attitude, using your resources to their greatest benefit, and getting help to move you forward.

These are just simple things, but when you do them consistently over time, they can help you achieve almost anything.