 Hi everyone, today's just a little bit of a bonus episode. We recently had the pleasure to speak with Master Jeff Speekman and he gave us a tour of his developing the system of American Kempo 5.0 as well as his background in Goju Rukerate. If you have not seen those episodes, please find them down in the link below. There's some fascinating stuff that he talked to us about. But also when we were talking, we just had some extra questions and topics and back and forth and just some life aspects and some candid stuff. So today's just a little bit of a bonus episode, an off the mat discussion if you will. Just sit back and enjoy. And like I said, please be sure to check out the other videos, the interviews we have with him. And this is just a look at life, movies and philosophy with Master Jeff Speekman. You know, I always go back to Chuck Norris's The Octagon for a couple of reasons. One is you could obviously see the quality of the martial arts that was in the movies. Phenomenal, especially when you put it back in the day of when it was done. And I personally know Mr. Norris and I think he's just one of the most outstanding people I've ever met. And interestingly enough, when I was coming out with the perfect weapon, of course, with Paramount, this big company, and I'm about to go on a world tour and open this movie. I mean, it was a big deal. So they hired a very, very popular company about so they could come in and teach me about public speaking and about how to present yourself. And so I went through this whole thing with that they prepped me for going around the world. And here's what's interesting. They would say to me over and over again, you know, they would say, here's what you need to do. And here's a and you know who's great at that is Chuck Norris. He's he's the best at this kind of thing. And and it's true. He was best because the guy's a genuine human being who really cares about other people. And I just found it really interesting that they over and over again would say, oh, and by the way, the guy you want to look at is Chuck Norris. So there's my admiration for what he's done. My great pleasure to have met him. And it's also that he's done so many wonderful things with his life that he wound up being, you know, an example for me to follow. So that's why I love that movie and and what he's done with his life. You know, I came very close to death in 2013 with my stage four throat cancer. And when you come out of something like that, you you're I mean, look, you're changed, you know, you can't you can't go through something like that and go, oh, great, glad that's over. What's next? You know, you just, you know, you're you're a completely changed person. And I became deeply motivated to make the greatest impact I can through the martial arts, through the Kempo 50, through the 50 family, however you want to look at it. And found that before I wasn't able to do that. And I didn't even know why. But because when I came out of the cancer and it looked like I was going to live and I felt like I was going to live going back to the gym every day. And I had like the strength of a 12 year old, you know, I was just a mess. I lost 80 pounds, eight zero pounds. In those times, I had 34 sessions of radiation five days a week with eight sessions of chemotherapy simultaneous. So every week I had my chemo with my radiation. And that was seven, eight hours at the hospital that day when I did both those things and lost all that weight was heavily addicted to the oxy cotton that I had to take because it was tongue cancer, but throat and the pain of swallowing, you can't swallow. So I lost all that weight anyway. When I came out of that and was close to not making it out of that, I had a feeding tube, you know, 18 inches of tube circled around and take to my stomach and had to inject for quite some time. That's those were the darkest days of my life. No doubt. And then when you come out of that, I thought, you know, I really don't have any fear anymore. I really don't. I'm going to come out. I'm going to say the way it is. This is the way it's supposed to be. We should all the stuff that you and I have gone over. But interestingly, I took me three years. But then I started asking this question that I didn't answer for three years, which is, OK, you feel this liberation that you're no longer afraid. What were you afraid of? Because I never thought of myself as a fearful person. But yet I felt intuitively this lift of a fear and the limiting factors of what fear does to you. And after like three years, I realized it was the fear of of standing up and saying, no, we're not doing that. We're doing this. We're doing this thing we call chemo fiber. And there's all these people that are my seniors. You're not doing anything about it. So I am. And I'm not going to feel guilty about that anymore. I'm not going to be afraid of whether you like me or you don't like me or you prove it or you don't prove of it. I'm no longer judging my life on your opinion. A good friend of mine by the name of Bob White, a very well known chemo practitioner, told me something many, many years ago that has been one of the truths of my life. And he said, other people's opinion of me is none of my business. And I thought, wow, that's because that's what was killing me. Right. I was getting these negative opinions from all these people who, by the way, weren't doing anything to change the art of evolving, create solutions. But they were bombarding me with this over email from my own chemo family. And they were just treating me like not good. And then I want to keep we're not doing that anymore. And if you don't like it, then you don't like it. And if you're going to come over here and beat me up, OK, go ahead and do that. It ain't going to mean that you're right because you can beat me up. It just means this is what you're going to do. And I'm not changing. I'm moving full force forward with what I intuitively know. This is what Parker wanted me to do. And and when I came out of the cancer, I said, OK, I'm not holding back on that anymore. I'm doing it no matter what. So that's how we we move forward with Kempo 5-0. What is your favorite unwritten rule? Wow, I think all my rules are written. I don't I don't think I have an unwritten rule. I'm one of these really weird people who actually read books. And and I have for a long time here, I'm sitting here in my office and there's steps of books all over the place. I really believe in diverse opinions, you know, and I respect people, I respect one of the the things I used to to look at and judge if someone is an intelligent person or not, is can they argue the other side of their position? You know, can you come up and give me the A and the B? I choose a for this. But I recognize that B is that if we can have that kind of conversation, I can go, OK, I can get my head around. I go, oh, how interesting. I never thought of it that way. Well, what do you think of that? See, now we're having an interplay, but we are when people come up and they simply make a statement, then their feet are dug in about that. And they're going to argue that position about, OK, you know, if you want to do that, I guess we'll do that. But I don't see where we're all going to come out ahead of that. I'll listen to you, but you need to listen to me. Then we need to do this ping-pong thing back and forth. And even if you don't like what I have to say, you need to listen. And judge whether what I'm saying is something that's important or not. Either way, it's fine with me. But we're not going to get anywhere until we get this. When humans confuse absolute truth with relative truth is where you see the very worst of what it is to be a human. What is something you wish people would ask you? Oh, gosh, you know, I think I'd like to answer that by saying instead of instead of pinpointing what I want them to ask me, I just wish that people would ask me whatever, you know, I I have become isolated in my world, not by my choice, but by the choice of other people who don't want to hear what I have to say. And so it's the absence of that interaction. It's the absence of the communication that I think is a problem and it's going to continue to be a problem. What makes you laugh? Pretty much everything. I have often described myself as having Tourette's syndrome with sarcasm because I just I just can't help myself, you know, I'd let it let it fly. Even if I know I'm going to be the only one who gets the joke and laughs, I still say it anyhow, you know, I'm constantly looking for humor and enjoyment. And then it's one of the things I share very closely with my five old family. They're all the same way. And, you know, we've got to find a way to laugh. We've got to find a way to smile and talk and think of positive things. And and just my interaction with everybody, the the the life I live now, this amazing marriage that I have, this wonderful person that I found and life is very, very rich and rewarding for me right now. I plan on keeping it that way until it's time for me to transition to the other side. And I just hope that and and with all intent, I set up the Kempo five old world to move on when I'm dead. And it's a system that's set up that that isn't dependent on me. And I don't want it to be because I want those people that I love dearly to continue to have a good life and believe in what they built so their children can come in and then the next generation and the next. And it lives and it grows on its own.