 Hi, I'm Rusty Komori and this is Beyond the Lines. We are broadcasting live from the beautiful Think Tech Hawaii TV studio in the Pioneer Plaza in downtown Honolulu. This show is based on my book, also titled Beyond the Lines, and it's about leadership, creating a superior culture of excellence and finding greatness. Today's special guest is truly extraordinary because he is a world champion in three different sports. He was the best in the world in racquetball, jujitsu, and mixed martial arts. He's the founder and owner of the extremely popular Egan's Boot Camp, and the author of his awesome book, Becoming Relentless. He is the one and only Egan Inoi, and today, we are going beyond world championships. Hey Egan. How's it going? Great to have you here. Thanks for having me. Now you've done so many things in your life, and you continue to do some amazing things, but everybody in Hawaii, we always have to ask, what schools do you go to? And that's a Hawaii thing. And as I started off from an elementary school, then I went to Stevenson, and then I went to Roosevelt, and then I went to university lab school. Cool. Yeah. Then I went to university for a dropout after two years, and then finished it off 10 years later. Wow. And then your family, you have such a beautiful family, and your wife, Marcia, you guys are like a great team together. Yeah. Tell me about Marcia and your five kids. So we have five, two are out of the house. We have three now in the house still, young. Two of them just started school today, which is great. And then Marcia pretty much runs, I would say she runs the show. She keeps everybody in order and keeps the business going really well. Super organized, not like me. And you have five kids. Got five kids. Wow. They're beautiful. Thank you. Yeah. Now, let's get right into it. You have, I mean, you're a two-time world champion in racquetball. What is it about racquetball that you love so much? I think what I liked about racquetball was just the challenge, right? And it started off with my mom being able to beat me, 16 years old. You think you're a great athlete or a good athlete, and then your mom comes and whips you in a sport. That's what really got me going. And then, of course, there's the next person, which was the old guys that had the ankle brace, knee brace, elbow brace, and they can barely walk. I couldn't beat them. Had to beat them. You know, and I just kind of kept going and kept going and kept going. So what propelled you to become the best in the world at racquetball? I think the reason, I mean, it's almost like you crack a code or you figure something out. And I realized that it was about repetition. Yeah. And I think that's what I also enjoyed about racquetball is that you could, you know, in a box, like, you know, 40 by 20, the balls never go too far away. I could hit the balls over and over. I could hit thousands of each shot every single day and just repetition, repetition, repetition. And I realized how, you know, important that is. Geez. Man, that's, I'm, to be a world champion in one sport is amazing. But, I mean, you're a world champion in three sports. I mean, that's crazy, Egan. Now, why did you stop racquetball? And why did you get started into jujitsu? So the reason I stopped racquetball is eventually it just kind of, not only did I get worn out with it a little bit, but I had an injury. Then when I was recovering from that injury, I couldn't, at a certain point, I realized like I wasn't going to be number one again. I didn't want to be top five for the next couple of years. And then slowly go to the top 10 and then pretty soon, you know, just be washed up, right? So I thought I just quit, you know, a little bit early. Yeah. I mean, I probably could have played another two, three years and kept traveling. I wanted to change a little bit. And then, you know, I got it. I got into jujitsu because of my brother, my younger brother. He started jujitsu. And then we had a little street fight and I watched it. I mean, the awesomeness of it where, you know, he had the fight in total control without having to strike. And I thought, wow, that's really great. And that's what I want to do. So what else about jujitsu do you love? I think that what I really like about jujitsu is just about, it's like playing chess, like physically. You know, and the other thing that I really liked about jujitsu was it's non-striking and you can control a lot of a fight just by, and you have to have a lot of confidence in what you do to, you know, not have to hit someone. Yeah. Now, what caused you to become the best in jujitsu in the world? I think jujitsu, one of the things was, I mean, you know, when I first started jujitsu and I really liked it, it was intriguing, like all the things I just said, but it was even more intriguing was there was no buddy, but only Brazilians that won world titles in Brazil. No one else from anywhere else in the world. So they say, oh, only Brazilians can do it. Whoa, that's interesting. Now we're talking my game. So that's why I really wanted to do it, right? Wanted to be the first non-Brazilian to win a world title in Brazil. And that's what drove me. And again, same thing. It was another sport where you could do repetitions. And the same thing from Racket Boy, I brought that same mindset about focusing and being, you know, short workouts, but lots of repetition in it. Wow. And then so you started into MMA, Mixed Martial Arts, and you're a five-time world champion in Mixed Martial Arts. Why did you leave Jiu Jitsu to do MMA? You know, it was by accident, right? I took the place of my brother, one of the fights he couldn't fight. I went and fought that fight for him. And then it just led to, you know, getting paid to fight. And I never enjoyed fighting. I mean, I never did my whole career. Every time before a fight, I'd be like, I'm never doing this again. This is it. And then of course it's do it again. But it's so challenging because it's like, it's not just like one sport. There's like eight different sports mixed in one. And you gotta figure out when do you strike? When do you strike with your knees, your hands, your elbow, your kicks? When do you take it into a wrestling mode? When do you take it to a judo mode? And when do you take it to a Jiu Jitsu mode? You gotta be able to function on all those different lines. And I think that's what was intriguing about fighting for me. In split seconds too. In split seconds, yeah. Because it's like strategy and tactics are critical. Exactly. Wow. So what's your most memorable experience as an MMA athlete? I think the most memorable, I mean there's a lot of different memorable times in MMA but I think the one that really stood out was my comeback. So I was 43 years old and I made a comeback and I fought a 21 year old. I think, you know, like anything else you always expect, you're expecting to win. But you also know that, you know, you're not gonna, I mean it's gonna be a tough win. And I think that's what I, you know, that was my most memorable because I was planning to go the whole distance in that fight and it ended up finishing in 57 seconds. So that was memorable. Yeah, cause you had retired and then you came out of retirement to do that fight. Exactly. And you wanted it in 57 seconds. Not even one minute, huh? Yeah, and it was, I mean it had some close calls. I mean, I can't just miss me with just getting the top of my head. I mean. Yeah, so it was a scary fight. Wow. So what's the worst injury you ever had, Egan? You know, that I haven't, you know, I had a fractured eye orbit from sparring, broke a finger, but from fighting itself, not that bad at all. Increased cartilage in my rib. But nothing major. Wow, lucky. Yeah, pretty lucky, yeah. So then you started Egan's boot camp. You're the founder and owner and your wife, Marcia, you guys are fitness and health experts. And why did you start Egan's boot camp? Well, it started off, before we started Egan's boot camp, I started this thing called the studio. And it was more based upon martial art training for regular people and not people who really wanted to fight. And then that failed miserably. And as we were failing, Marcia goes, hey, we should try this boot camp stuff. I'm like, oh man, if it's gonna be aerobic classes, I'm not it. If it's gonna be this Taibo or any of these other kind, no, I'm not in, because those are great workouts. And not that I'm trying to belittle it, but coming from a real fighting and then you do turbo kickboxing or something like that, it's not real fighting. So I didn't want to do it. I didn't want to do the Richard Simmons thing. And I was like, that was a long time ago. And she goes, just try it. So I had to put my ego on the side and we tried it and it was super fun. I mean, for me as an instructor and the people who did the class. Awesome. So what locations do you have and what are the training sessions like? So we have, we have Honolulu, the old Punho Spa, we're right in that corner. And then we have Kailua and we have IAEA. The training sessions are only 30 minutes long. And that's what I believe is the best way to train. You get in, you work hard, and you get out. I think what's important to know about it is that in 30 minutes, if you think about it, if it's a one hour class, it's like, oh, I've got to pace myself. If it's 30 minutes, you can do 30 minutes and you can work hard for 30 minutes and you can stay focused for 30 minutes. Yeah. And make the most of your time. Yeah. That's all you really need. Well, Egan, a lot of my friends do your Egan's boot camp and they absolutely love it. And they all tell me two things. They go, it's really tough, but it's really fun. And they get results. I mean, it's guaranteed results. I mean, they listen to you, they listen to Marcia and all your trainers. I mean, they're committed. Now, you also train Wifi Vols, Alex O'Loughlin and Scott Kahn. How is it working with those guys? So working with them is a little different because what it is, is they really want the training in martial arts, in Jiu-Jitsu basically. And Jiu-Jitsu is one of those sports where you work every muscle in your body. You got to work your mind a lot while you're doing it. And the training with them goes really well for, it's a good workout for me. And Alex, I've progressed him from a white belt. Now he's a brown belt. And, you know, he's gonna be a black belt someday. And besides his training, it's like Jiu-Jitsu is a lot to do with life. Yeah. So it helps him out on the show and same with Scott. Scott's a black belt now. Geez. Yeah, and he started with me on the second season or the first season. And he was a blue belt. So he's moved all the way to black belt. Well, and those guys, I mean, they're such nice guys. I mean, and what they're doing for Hawaii is amazing. And I mean, what you're doing for Hawaii is amazing too. I mean, you're helping improve countless people's lives. Now, why is fitness and health such a passion of yours? You know, I think fitness and health is a passion of mine. And I just realized it recently that that's what it was because I talk about Jiu-Jitsu, I talk about Racketball, I talk about MMA. All of those things I was super passionate about but I kind of like Racketball, I never even touched a racket anymore. I don't even look at it. You know, and, you know, Jiu-Jitsu, I still do MMA, not really that interested in it. The thing, the common thread is physical fitness. And I realized I got a certain point, like, if you don't have your fitness and you don't have your health, it doesn't matter what else you have in life. You can't enjoy it to the fullest. And the quality of your life isn't gonna be great. I feel like that's why I have such a passion for fitness, not only for myself, but for everyone else. Oh, and I can feel that too. I mean, I feel your passion, Egan. Now, when you guys, when you're doing the trainings at Egan's Bootcamp, what specific things are there if you can share just some of the exercises that you guys do? So what we try to focus on is a thing called afterburn. So what it is is everyone's had it at some point in their life where they did something and they worked really hard and then they're driving home and they're still sweating. They take a shower and they're still sweating. That's afterburn. And so what we try to create is that afterburn in 30 minutes. And then what that does is it makes you burn more calories at rest for the rest of the day up to 36 hours. So, you know, different, we have different days. Every day is a different workout. So Monday, we try to go a little slower because it's the day that there's most, the most heart attacks and I don't want no one to die in my gym, right? So we do like stations and the little slower movements. And Tuesday is what we call Tabata Tuesdays which is high intensity, like real high intensity workouts where it's a 20 seconds on, 10 seconds rest. You do that for eight times. And then Wednesday we have a different type of stations. And then Thursday is like an MMA where to get to hit the heavy bags and kick shields. And then Friday is like a fun Friday. So the workout's extra fun, right? But you still get a workout. And then Saturday we have a boxing classes. Well, that's a great structure that you guys have. So we change it up, right? So it's not boring. Yeah. Oh, it's definitely not boring. Now I know why my friends tell me how tough it is but it's fun. I mean, they all look forward to going and they feel so great once they're done with the workout. Now, you wrote an awesome book called Becoming Relentless. What compelled you to write that book? So I wrote that book just because I had so many people telling me, you got to write a book. You got to tell that story in a book. You got to, you know, they kept saying that. And finally I was like, you know, I'll just write a book. And you know, a book writing for me, if you look at my past, it's like, obviously I'm not the scholar kind of guy, right? I'm more athletic or the dumb jock, right? The stereotype. And so that was a challenge, you know? And I think just because it was such a big challenge, that's what even got me more so wanting to write a book. What's two of the big parts in the book that you want to share with our audience? I think the main reason I wanted to write that book is what I heard so much was people would be like, man, Egan, you're such a great athlete. And you've done so much stuff, you're so lucky. So in that book, I share a lot about the obstacles and all the things I had to overcome. And also showing the different instances where I'm not really that great of an athlete. I'm not uncoordinated, but I'm a good athlete. But there's a lot better athletes than I was. It should have been world champion, but never did. And it's the obstacles that they couldn't overcome. And I feel like those obstacles is what I'm talking about in that book and how to overcome those obstacles and the mindset on how to do it. And tough times, where do you go? Where do you fall back on? And that's kind of what my book's about. No, I know because I read it and I love the book. But I love the mindset and overcoming obstacles and really looking forward to challenges. Egan, we're going to take a quick break and when we come back, we're going to continue going beyond world championships. Cool. You're watching Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii with my special guest, Egan Inoi. We will be back in 60 seconds. Hey, hello, everyone, and welcome to the Think Tech Hawaii studio. My name is Andrew Lanning. I'm the host of The Three Matters Hawaii. We air here every Tuesday at 10 a.m. Hawaii time trying to bring you issues about security that you may not know, issues that can protect your family, protect yourself, protect our community, protect our companies, the folks we work with. Please join us and I hope you can maybe get a little different perspective on how to live a little safer. Aloha. Hi, guys. I'm your host, Lillian Cumick from Lillian's Vegan World. I come to you live every second Friday from 3 p.m. And this is the show where I talk about the plant-based lifestyle and veganism. So we go through recipes, some upcoming events, information about health, regarding your health, and just some ideas on how you can have a better lifestyle, eat healthier, and have fun at the same time. So do join me. I look forward to seeing you and Aloha. Welcome back to Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii. My special guest today is a world champion in three different sports. He is Egan Inoi. And today we are going Beyond World Championships. Egan, in my book Beyond the Lines, I talk about creating a superior culture of excellence and you obviously have that superior culture of excellence. What are some of the principles you live by? So one of the principles I live by is non-negotiables. You gotta have non-negotiables. And the non-negotiables are things, and every sport I did it, and just throughout my life I've accumulated a few that even if I'm not competing or I'm not going out for another world title or anything, I still have those non-negotiables. And one of them is like my protein shakes first thing in the morning. Soon as I wake up, that's a guarantee. The other thing is I do my breathing exercises and that's for sure. And getting to bed at a certain time and waking up at a certain time, those are non-negotiables. And that's a kind of, to me, that's some of the principles that just start everything else. Yeah, and it's things that you have total control of. Totally, yeah. Now in terms of discipline, I mean every successful person, every successful team has discipline and you gotta have good habits. How do you build good habits? For myself, I feel like building good habits is just being able to like repetition, like just like racquetball. You gotta keep doing it. And like what I shared with the boot camp the other day is something Mike Tyson said when he was coming up when Custom Model was his coach and he said that when you're doing things that you don't like to do, and do it as if you love it and then you might love it one day. And I feel like that's exactly what it is. You just keep doing it, you keep digging, you keep grinding and pretty soon it becomes automatic. Yeah, I love that. And a huge part in my book too, I talk about welcoming adversity, looking forward to challenges. And you as a champion, I mean you definitely have that right mindset, looking forward to challenges. What's the biggest adversity you faced in your life? And how did you overcome it? I think the biggest adversity I had was traveling for a whole year. I traveled about 100,000 miles from Hawaii to all the different racquetball events and I didn't win one single game. And racquetball is like, we were playing three games out of five, 11 points. I didn't win one of those games. Really? Three games everywhere across the United States for one whole year. I think that was the toughest adversity because at the end of that year, I got lucky and the coach wanted me to be an alternate for the US team for the first world championships in 1986. And I didn't want to go because I was like, I don't want to be an alternate. I want to be the world champ. And my dad talked me out of it and basically told me, you're such a punk. I didn't know I raised such a punk that you wouldn't do it. And I'm like, wow. So I went and I jumped on that plane that night because I only had six hours to decide. And then when I got there, I was the first alternate. And then by the next morning, I was actually playing. And for the adversity there was so tough because I didn't win all year. I started thinking like, do I even know how to win? I didn't even know if I knew how to win. And so I had to dig super deep and think about all the practice sessions, all the hours I spent hitting ball after ball after ball, right? And then I had to build my confidence on what I did for practice. And that was the biggest, and that's where I think I made my biggest leap because I realized how good I was. And up to that point, I didn't realize how good I was. But what else did you learn from your dad? Well, I learned a lot from my dad and one of the things, and it goes back to that World Championships. I was losing my first match. I was just getting murdered. I got murdered the first game and I was about to lose my second game. And I thought to my dad, and my dad told me this, he goes, if you ever see a guy that's trying to look too pretty, you can mess him up. And I'm like, how would you mess him up? He goes, you just fix their collar or do something. I don't know. Anyway, this guy kept, when he walked by the glass court, he kept fixing his hair. So the next time he hit a nice shot, I was like, hey, good shot, and I messed his hair. He didn't score a single point. I won that game that I was losing and I won the tie break. And from that day on, I realized how important mindset is. Yeah. Oh, that's funny. Messing up the hair. Yeah, messing up the hair. Egan, you know what's funny is they cannot mess up your hair now. That's right. That's why I shaved it off, man. You shave them off. They can't get you back. That's right. Now, everybody defines success in different ways. I want to know your definition of success. I think, well, to me, what I feel success is, is when you're doing something that you love. When you finally find what you're passionate about, what you enjoy, and then when you go to work, it's not really work. Yeah. You know, like I always tell my boot campers, I'm so lucky because I'm coaching you guys, this is my work, I love this. This is like the best thing I can do and seeing you drop five pounds or you're getting more confident or you're getting more muscle tone. You know, helping everyone hit their goals, not only in the gym, but when people hit those goals and build confidence, they hit their goals everywhere else in life and that's what I love. It becomes contagious. Totally. Yeah, totally. So Egan, why are you successful? Why? Yeah. I don't know. Thanks for saying that. I mean, I always think that maybe I'm not that successful. I'm always trying to be successful and I feel like if I go back to what I say success is, it's because I'm getting to do what I really love. Yeah, totally. And you know, you're a man of great character and very successful in business as well and I want to know who was somebody that had a huge positive influence in shaping your character? I think there was not one person that helped shape my character. I think it was the different coaches that I had along the way. Of course, my parents, my grandparents, my grandfather actually had a lot to do with how I think. And one of the things that my grandfather told me once is he said, yeah, you know, you're Asian guy. You cannot compete against the rest of, like, you know, all the other guys. You're built for sports. You're not. And like that really got my mindset, thinking like, hey, you know, and then when people would say, oh, Egan, you're not going to make an Iraqi ball because, you know, all the best players are on the mainland. I was like, oh, really? I'll show you. You can't be the best Brazilian jujitsu guy because it's only Brazilians. Oh, really? And that, you know, that mindset of you can't do something, change to you can do it, right? And you know, my dad also told me something that also made a real lot of sense is the days that I didn't feel like practicing, he goes, you know, Egan, the guy who's going to beat you, he's practicing when you're not. And that's, you know, something that I carry all throughout my life still to today. And it's choices that you make. I mean, you have a conscious choice and the power of choice to make it. And it's up to you. And you can either improve your life or not. Now, I want to ask you, Egan, what is it that you learned about yourself today versus you 20 years ago? Well, I think what I learned about myself today, I realized like now, I feel like back before, it was that didn't have that term ADD or ADHD, right? And I realized like, that's me. I'm like so ADD, like if we can be talking, I can start talking about something else and come right back to it. And you know, and I think that I've always been that way. And I never realized it. And what I do realize though, is that if you can put that focus on something, that ADHD can be controlled a lot by focus and by doing something that you enjoy. Yeah, I like hearing that. ADD, ADHD, exactly. So I want to know some of the best advice you've ever received from others. You know, through the years, and we've all got some words of wisdoms from people. What are some words of wisdoms you receive? I think one of the best ones was one of my racquetball coaches. He told me, Egan, if you had to screw a screw in with a screwdriver, would you use a hammer? And then if you had to pound a nail in, would you use a screwdriver? And I was like, no, no. He goes, well, that's what you gotta figure out. When you're playing racquetball, you gotta hit the right shots at the right time and not try to force it with the hammer every single time. And then I took that into everything that we do in life. And it's the same thing. It's like, when it's time to use the hammer, you gotta use the hammer. When it's time to be more finesse and you gotta use a screwdriver, it's time to use a screwdriver. I think that's one of the greatest advice I've ever had. I like that one. I like that. Wow. Now, Egan, I wanna ask you, why do champions become champions? I think champions become champions because they put everything they got into it. And life becomes a little off balance because you're focused on one thing. And I feel like in life, it's super, if you wanna balance life, it's really tough to be a champion or be great at one thing. And I think that's why the people learn how to make sacrifices. They have discipline, they have perseverance. They can overcome obstacles. And I always tell people, what do you think of the word struggle? And a lot of people are like, oh, I tell you, you gotta change that mindset. You gotta enjoy struggle because when you struggle, the greater struggles that you have, when you overcome that, you're that much better. Do you have a story about resiliency? I probably do. I definitely do. And it can be something as simple as what I'm doing now, foil boarding. It's like when you fall on a foil board, the board lifts up out of the water and you're moving fast. And when you hit the water, I don't even have time to put my hands up before my head hits the water. So the slap's pretty hard. I think it's a tough thing to do, but the resilience of taking that chance, it's gonna happen again, it's gonna happen again. But you keep doing it and keep doing it and learn how to control it. And that's a quick story that's recent for me. No, I like the videos you post on Facebook about you doing the foiling. I mean, it's amazing. I mean, and you're ripping it on that. Yeah, you're flying. So when you fall, I mean, it hurts. Yeah, it does, it hurts. How often do you fall? I fall every day. Every day that I go, it's for sure I'm gonna hit one. And if I don't, it's a lucky day. Yeah, but you love that. I do, I love it. That's my passion now. Okay, now, Egan, what, well, personally, what's something that you want to accomplish in your future that you haven't done yet? You know, for me, whatever I want to accomplish, it just kind of happens. So I don't necessarily always have like, okay, this is the next thing I want to do. I don't really have that right now. I mean, right now it's foil boarding and just getting more consistent and being able to catch a lot of waves without having to lay down and paddle again. I mean, those are my goals. And the other thing is like trying to help more people through our boot camps, you know, right now the promotion that we're doing now, we're bringing in some people that really have to lose weight, you know, to be healthy. And like those things are like, that's what I love, helping those people. And you're helping tons of people. I hope so, I'm trying, we're trying for sure. I'm trying too, I'm trying to help improve people. Wow, now, before we wrap, I want to ask you one more question. Who or what gives you fulfillment? You know, I think what gives me a lot of fulfillment is really like helping people, you know, and you know, just to hear someone say, man, I feel so much better or my energy level is so much better or now I can do this and I couldn't do it before. Like that for me is fulfillment. Yeah, that's a lot. It's like when they win, we win. Exactly. We feel that. Yeah. And if they lose, we feel like we lose too. Exactly. And it goes way beyond like, you know, like all the world championships that I've won, it's like that's nothing. This is the greatest thing that I've ever done. Well, Egan, I totally appreciate you being on the show today. Thank you. I mean, you are somebody that definitely goes beyond the lines. I mean, you're awesome. I mean, you have great character. You're an outstanding person. And I want everybody to go to Egan's boot camp. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for being here, Egan. Thanks for having me. And thank you for watching Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii and a special thank you to my clothing sponsor, Eolani Incorporated. For more information, please visit RustyKamori.com and my book is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. I hope that Egan and I will inspire you to create your own superior culture of excellence and to find your greatness and help others find theirs. Aloha.