
Originally Posted by
KJ Gould
Successful marketing only helps BJJ if these guys who make millions (Avellan claims his sold out Kimura Trap System has made him $100k already, and he and his prother have made $4million in the last 4 years) actually invest that into the sport, setting up new gyms and forming their own competitions for people to openly take part in.
KJ, good to see you on this forum. I'm glad that you couldn't get enough of my brother and I on Sherdog so you had to talk about us on this forum as well

I like you KJ, I have a buddy of mine from high school that you remind me of. However, the statement I quoted above, it seems that you insinuated that the financial success of my brother and have not helped the BJJ community. If I'm wrong with my assumption, my apologies.
But since you are an obvious fan, I'd like to share with you a few of the things I've done to help contribute to the BJJ and MMA community.
I have promoted 18 kickboxing, MMA, and grappling shows in Florida. I was the official NAGA promoter in Florida for years before giving it back to Kipp Kollar so that I could dedicate my time fully to my gyms. I have two MMA gyms that I opened up (not affiliates but schools I have lease agreements with) that together have about a thousand students (back in 2010, my Miami gym had over 1,000 students by itself). As a result, just about every single MMA and BJJ gym in south Florida has an instructor or assistant instructor that got their start at my gym.
With a thousand students and our Miami facility being open 24 hours a day, I have a staff of over 30 employees that are able to make a living by training and teaching martial arts. Those 30 people don't work side jobs - they make enough with their jobs to chase their martial arts dream full time.
My brother and I have blogs where we have been giving away free videos and emails. Outside of my gym website email list, I started a new website, MarcosAvellan.com, which I have been giving away free emails and videos since November of 2011. So far, I haven't put out any products, I've just been having fun building my list and giving free stuff. I lost count, but I think I've put out over 60 videos on that email list. On Youtube, I've put out over 400 videos sharing techniques, my experiences training abroad, martial arts philosophy, and more. All my email lists together have over 18,000 people on it that I've been sharing martial arts knowledge with for the past 11 years that I've been teaching.
I have TWO fighter houses where I currently house 8 fighters. I pay for ALL their bills so that they can train full time. Five of them were recruited as white belts - three of them as blue belts. Not to put anybody's personal business out there - but one of them was homeless and had never done martial arts before. I saw something special about this person, took him in, and now that person has been through my instructor course, business training, internet training, and has a grappling record of 12-1, is about to get the blue belt, and will be making his ammy MMA debut soon.
I have coached literally thousands of grappling matches and hundreds of MMA fights. I've coached three grapplers into the ADCC and a FILA world champion. In MMA, I've coached guys in all the big shows (Bodogfight, EliteXC, WEC, Strikeforce, TUF, and the UFC).
For martial arts instructors, I am a business consultant. I am one of Master Lloyd Irvin's top speakers for his MMA Millionaire's group - and as of right now, I have collected literally over 150 testimonials from martial art gym owners that have said that I have changed their lives forever with my help. I have helped gym owners go from broke with 60 students to now having over 700 students and living debt free. Not only did I help those owners - but I helped them spread their art to hundreds and thousands of students... rather than just to a garage of guys.
My brother sold 500 Kimura Trap DVD sets grossing over $120,000. He has screen shots that he has shared with other school owners. Why? Because he has been helping others in our industry, that are BROKE, learn how to provide for their family by learning how to share their teachings to more people via internet marketing.
KJ, maybe my contributions don't hold a candle to the impact you have made in the grappling community, but I wanted to let you know that the more the sport gives to me - the more I try to give back to it. But yes, I do make money and I don't apologize for that either. My brother and I offer free trials on everything we do (hence the free techniques online and the 30 day free trial at our gyms) and offer money back guarantees on all our products and services (Kimura Trap had a 30 day money back guarantee). If we are making money, it is because people are happy with the services and products they are getting - otherwise they wouldn't buy after our freebies and/or would ask for a refund. In other words, it is a win/win situation, capitalism in its finest form.
I'm glad KJ unwittingly trolled me onto this forum, I've been reading through some of the threads on this forum and I dig some the posts on here, being that I am a strictly no-gi guy myself

I've been a fan of Mr. Bravo, we have a lot in common since we were both amongst the few brave souls that dared open up strictly no-gi schools and ranking systems back when it was considered serious blasphemy
I'm glad that my google alerts found this thread and got me on this forum, nice to meet you guys.