 Hey, tribe of journeymen and women. So today I decided to sit down together with you and Obviously have this cup of coffee. So join me with the coffee if you like it And talk to you about a bit about my story and a bit about what this channel is aiming to be So you could say that this is gonna be a trailer and I will be addressing some of the subjects as if For people who do not know me Like for people who just jumped in and they're curious they saw, you know You saw one video or two videos and I was like, who is this guy? And and I'm gonna put this video on, you know, the trailer part of the channel So you could watch this and kind of get to know me what I'm about and what this channel is about And jump into the story right away But also if you do know me from some of the other journeys that are already public and you know, you know, personally I will be doing my best Not only kind of satisfy the new people, but also if if you're already on Going on along this journey I will do my best to also clarify some of the intentions of this channel and share some valuable unique lessons that I learned through this journey so that You could also kind of become more in sync with what's happening here. And so it's not gonna be a waste even if you are You know kind of the general outline of things. This is gonna be a recap, but also I'll add some new things So just kind of as long as you're interested and you're not bored listening to this then, you know, just stick with me Now the first segment I'm intending to introduce a kind of a quick recap of my story of how things got to here and The main kind of most important aspects of my life that happened is well first of all ever since I was little I Always felt that I want to have a positive impact on others And it's I'm kind of grateful For that quality that inherent quality I guess and I was a actually when I was a child and I was little I was a timid shy kid was just like Who's shy now? I do get shy sometimes, but obviously a lot of change happened But me and my brother whom I actually like to show you know, this is a picture of me and him. I'm on the left so me and my brother we He's four years older than me three and a half and he was the kid who was you know all over the place active Outspoken and I guess as it's kind of usual for brothers, you know to choose different roles I think it's common that brothers usually are very distinct my brother was I'm sorry. I was The shy timid kid and I was kind of very thoughtful very imaginative and I spent a lot of time Just kind of playing with myself playing with my imaginary friends. I actually had imaginary friends for a while and I told you this is gonna be some new news So I remember I had my imaginary friends with spider-man. I used to adore spider-man when I was small Then there was venom. He's one of his arching enemies, which is kind of good and bad You know, he's in between, but I kind of like the power behind him Then I had Wolverine which I fell in love with while watching the X-Men animated series and also he had actually surprisingly the Batman of the future Can't remember Tim McGinnis I think anyway, he's I watched his cartoon the modern one which followed the Batman animated series where he is You know a young Batman to become Batman and and I guess I kind of identified more with him I wasn't in love with Batman at that day but those four were my imaginary friends with whom I spent quite some time and I Think I let go of them quite late I think I kind of still gently sometimes reach out to them or talk to them and discuss things and kind of took them as my Mentors for quite a while Not to say though that I did not have friends in my childhood. I Did have a bunch of friends Like you know, I play in the in the yard together with a bunch of other kids and and interesting enough like while I was shy especially at school in the first few years at the same time in the in the in the You know outside of the house which kids used to play outside of the house Not anymore. I guess Interestingly enough I was kind of the leader Because my my imagination was so kind of more developed I guess than my friends that whenever we would play imaginary games that what would you that's what you would do in The past because we didn't have like these crazy video games you have these days So that I would be the one responsible to be the one to create the storyline and then we would get into it And and yeah, I kind of took the leadership role many times but it's kind of what I'm aiming to say and in the storyline is that I I was always very sensitive and thoughtful and imaginative and I think that part of that led me to being also empathetic which I don't know if anybody knows that words in Lithuanian in my language It's a common word, but when you feel for others when you know if somebody Hurts their finger and you're like I hurt you I was very I had a very strong sense of that And when I reflect back into my life, I Actually consider that I'm very grateful. I had this quality because I would feel for people and I would care for them like I imagine I remember there's this Piece of paper Like a notebook from my first year in school or second year in school where we were encouraged to write some stuff and It's a long story, so I'll go short, but part the there was a question. So what do you want to do? Like what's what do you want to do in life or something like that? You know and most people wrote like I want to be an astronaut or whatever, you know president that stuff But I think I from what I remember I wrote that I would like to Eliminate poverty from the world and and kind of Make sure that all homeless people would have a home something like that So it shows that I was very caring and kind of thoughtful from early on and it's just enough I think that kind of always stayed now not to say that That that part of me was always as present especially during the last few years I will come come to that I'm pretty I presume but Especially for the last few years I burnt myself a lot and I got hurt in many different ways one of them was which is covered in a video. It's the I How most my Aikido students abandoned me and then when I opened up the martial arts journey YouTube channel my main channel Now has over 125,000 subscribers as I'm recording this You know, I kind of went into a war with some parts of the martial arts and then a lot of people hated me Criticized me and so I think all of that Kind of dimmed down my my natural inherent quality of caring for people. I think it was always there But when you get hurt, I think you kind of cover it into a shell and you become more careful about you know What you do and how you reach out to others But these days I Realized, you know what I need to own this part I need to come back to that desire that I had ever since I was a kid and just let it lose just like care about everyone 110% and You know, I learned my lessons I kind of learned how not to you know get tricked as much or get or get hurt as much As I used to as I did so I you know, I'm more cautious I'm more aware of what mistakes not to do sure I will do many more still but But now I have more intelligence to how to be that caring and giving person and that's kind of this journey This channel is all about But I kind of jump to the end and let's make sure we then don't skip too many parts and let's come back a bit Back into the past So I was a creative empathetic Empathetic I guess that's how we pronounce it child and very caring and The prom was I was growing up in a rough city I saw a lot of Crimes a lot of violence my friends were good beating up all the time. I have this covered in some other video So I won't go to detail in that but but I think that made me even more caring because I would I would question So why do people do this? Why is this happening and what could I do about that? That later helped me resonate actually with the character of Batman because you know Gotham if you know the mythology Then I discovered Iqido When I was 14 a friend of mine invited me to try out Iqido and I was already in love with the Japanese culture especially the samurai culture, I loved the movie The Last Summary and I always was intrigued about martial arts But never really trained one but then my friend invited me to try out Iqido and from the first time I saw it I was like this is perfect for me. You know, they have the swords which I love and I was a very peaceful kid I didn't like violence and Iqido was promising to Give you a martial art which is peaceful which where you don't use violence to protect yourself and others And it's all about protecting so I was like this is just perfect for me And also there were Hakamas the fancy Iqido pants that you see them wearing which I was like I was like I want one thing is you have to earn one and Iqido they don't give it to you until you get like close to a black belt So so I earned it, but that also kind of motivated me so there were so many things which fell into place and and I really liked Iqido I really liked training it and I So I started when I was 14 just just turned 14 There's kind of a significant point in my life that happened to you is My dad had a stroke actually doing that kind of around that time And now that I think back about it, I do sometimes talk about it, but I feel that really made me more thoughtful because well, I was a timid shy child around when I was 12 I Actually started becoming much more open and I started hanging out with the cool kids We would smoke I started smoking. I was 12. We would drink alcohol a Lot I was the one who drank most Yeah So yeah, and and so I was hanging out with them partying I was the youngest kid with them, but I kind of I guess I was a bit more mature for my age So they really liked me. I was cold. My nickname was demon. I would always wear sunglasses day night I have this kind of character. So so the kids really liked me and and I kind of became party of the soul. I started I Started also doing theater in School. I got main roles It's a whole funny story in its own, but but I kind of really opened up and But I think when my dad Had a stroke and he survived and he's still around and everything and it's a great story about that that it turned out so good But now that I look back, I think it actually Made me think about life a bit more. I think that kind of that experience that Being exposed to that that made me realize somewhere inside that life is unpredictable and it's short It was a direct experience because I saw him How he crumbled I Actually remember that they really well He was my dad is very athletic. He's training every day for like last like 30 years or something and Doesn't skip one day ever besides the moment where he was recovering from the stroke but then he was training and and and he came into the run and he couldn't talk You know and and I saw that I was like what the fuck and I was I guess I was too young. I was I Was I think I was 14 just before I started you know, I guess Or or just yeah, anyway, well, I was I still didn't really cope and understand what's what the heck is happening But I saw him, you know there and the ambulance taking him away and kind of went through that and while I didn't recognize that at the time I Realized that that made me Realized that life is short and that's actually one of the core kind of core parts of my Value system of my of what drives me to this day I keep reminding myself and I I like to remind myself that life is short that it's it can be way shorter than you think and And it's something I I I keep making sure that I would address and remember Sometimes ask not anymore actually but for a while I used to ask very constantly So if I would have one year to live what I would do And I lived like that for a while. I think I just kind of became used to living like that So I don't need to actually even ask that anymore But add that moment Yeah, I realized life is fragile and I think it's such a great gift It's something actually I read once when I was in taekido and I read all the possible books about it There's one I kid instructor who said that specifically and it's a thought I liked He said that death is the greatest gift That human beings have and the way he Justified that argumented it. He said That because you know that life is fleetile that life is can end any time That you will die one day that makes you appreciate it more and strive to do more during that life but But if life would be endless that's kind of what vampire movie sometimes look at Then you kind of become numb and you don't care about anything because we're like it's going forever And I don't necessarily know or think if that's that would be like that But but I kind of resonated with that idea and I thought it's there's some truth And I I do remember remind myself even these days sometimes like life is You know, we all feel like we're we are The hero of our story and to degree we are but the deal is we all most of us feel like we are the center of the world Which is false, you know, we all feel like the world is about me and That you know death is for others other people die No, I won't unless you're exposed to death like you work at a place where death is a common part of it in the western society we kind of try to dim down the the knowledge of death, you know, there's like in India you can Find see corpses on the street Or there's a place where they burn corpses all day long and you can come in as a tourist and watch And so death is not it's really kind of part of life there in the west, you know We really try to kind of pretend like death doesn't exist We don't talk about death much and I think that's I guess we are Trying to make yourself feel more comfortable But at the same time that we lose that gift of death in that way and To make sure that I am the conscious about that I do sometimes stop and even like a couple days ago I did I stopped they looked at you know the sky and the stars and I thought shit, you know, this is It's not gonna last forever Yeah But yeah, I think some people, you know, they they live like they would live forever and They're like, oh, I'm gonna do what I really want to do sometime later and you know doing what you want to do is Not that easy. I'm planning to address that more as we go into the future because you know, I was able to successfully start off a number of projects of Living by doing what I personally Want to do and it's it's a lot of work. It's way more work than people sometimes think especially against the Millenniums But you know, that's a subject for another day, but But yeah, I think embracing that knowledge that life is free tile That you think you're gonna live until it 90 or 100 but to realize that actually any day could be your last one It's a scary thought of course my goodness But when you realize it you suddenly start to appreciate things more and you realize I Don't maybe I don't maybe have as much time as I think so I should start Thinking more and how I want to spend my time and To come back to my own story So, yeah, I guess that exposure To that situation my dad having a stroke kind of made that clear to me and and and I think I started to reflect about that often and I would Think man, I don't know how much I will live So I really need to make sure because I always cared about the world and now I understood that Life can be short life is life is short and it can be even shorter than you think I really need to push hard and and make sure that I Do you something significant? That if I really want to have a positive impact on the world I need to work my ass off and not waste time and and that's where I actually kind of closed down in on myself. I started Pushing away my friends or most of them especially the the cool kids they got into drugs and I didn't I didn't want to go into drugs especially at that time You know, it's way too early to try out drugs and a lot of them, you know went through hard shit because of the drug So I didn't I'm happy I pushed that away but I also kind of exclude myself and and kind of Became even more thoughtful started reading books and and then the whole period went through me Deciding what I will do after high school, which is a tough period, but that's covered in different video But yeah, and then I realized I want to become an Ikea instructor So I devoted myself entirely to reading books and and practicing as much as I can Watching all the possible videos about it So so I kind of intuitively understood that I will be as valuable as much as value I will possess as much as I will know and be able to do that eventually led me to Switzerland to live in a martial arts slash spiritual school and I think that that was kind of also driven by the knowledge that one day I will die and if I really want to become good I need to Fully kind of immerse myself in the learning process So living in a martial arts school was ideal for me at the day and it kind of worked out It did help me achieve my goals. I think actually I kind of Had that quality is that quality of life being fleetile and me wanting to contribute to the world continue to lead me and So when I opened my kiddo school my kiddo dojo my kiddo is meditation yoga There's part of part of me I always try to teach each time I would teach the best class possible That was part of my Methodology and it's a tough one. I don't necessarily recommend it But but that was my my way to go. I would each time I would try to teach the best class possible and because I felt like you know I Who knows how much I can I will be able to give So I was really Heading to the whole school and I was really engaging my community and trying to change their lives Now again, this is covered in another video You know how eventually that part of that made me lose most of my students I took some wrong decisions. I need some more decisions. I copied the wrong things from my kiddo instructor And and I was too young as well and didn't know many things that Would have been useful And then I lost a lot of my kiddo students that was painful that hurt me, but then I started recovering I started getting some students back and that's when I started my I kiddo channel initially was a YouTube I kiddo channel I Started putting out tutorials you know tutorials and I turned to be turned out to be good So I was running my dojo and simultaneously at the side like as a hobby. I was running my YouTube channel and early enough I noticed I Looked at it, and I was like holy crap This is gonna be big I Will I will be able to sustain myself financially by this and I will have a huge impact through through this channel and Back then I was married. I Got married in 12 oh wait, no, okay. I met my long story for another day I I Started living with my ex-partner in 2012, and I think we got married in 2014 but we were engaged from the first year so Yeah, so I was ready living with my partner probably we were already married when I started my YouTube channel and I Like she actually encouraged me to start the YouTube channel initially and then I saw the potential in it and When they approach her, I'm like, you know what? This is gonna be huge Like you know, this is like we're gonna this is gonna be our main financial base And and I will I will be able to reach out reached so many people and have impact on so many people through this channel It's like it's gonna be amazing and that was like, you know, I had like I don't know 200 subscribers You know a few thousand views, but I could see that and she looked at me. She's like Roku's you're crazy. Like what the fuck are you talking about? And she didn't she didn't believe me. She's like you're talking nonsense. Like what the heck are you? What where are you coming up with this from but I could see it I could feel it in my gut. This is gonna be amazing And so I continue to pursue YouTube more and more it started to take more and more of my life And I started to look on how I can provide value through YouTube as I was running my dojo and There was this funny moment with my ex She Because I kept telling her this is gonna be big this is gonna be good She got she got tired of it and she told me okay when you're gonna earn 400 euros from your YouTube videos then I Will tell you okay, you were right and I will you know, I will never say you're this is nonsense to you anymore I was like, okay, no problem about six or eight months later. I Earned those 400 euros And she's like no actually I said three months if you earn for three months four hundred years in a row Then I will you know, see you right now. I was like, okay, and eventually that happens And there was this funny moment where my ex she was complaining to my parents kind of in a funny way You know, but she's like, you know, I can't say When Rokas comes up with some nonsense and tells me that this is gonna happen And I think what what the heck is he thinking about and he makes it happen He's not he doesn't make it happen But when I come to her and I tell her that and she thinks I'm crazy. She's complaining to my parents that she can't Can't tell me that I'm crazy because now she's she's thinking Maybe he will make it happen. Although I don't even believe in him and my mom laughs and I'm sitting there, too And she's like, oh, we're already used to that. I'm like, what do you mean mom? And she's like well anytime and anytime Rokas comes and tells us something crazy He's planning to do which sounds like impossible and we think it's impossible. We tell him. Yeah, yeah, go ahead honey It's gonna be great And and so so the idea was like they don't necessarily believe me But they they saw me prove them wrong so many times in those big projects That they're like she was laughing and saying that you know that they don't say that I'm crazy anymore because there's a big chance I actually will prove me possible to be possible And I look at my mom and she's and I'm like and I thought you always believe in me turns out You know, you have those doubts, but you just use you're just used to not saying no anymore because you know, I can prove them wrong It's a funny moment But anyway, so I saw the potential in YouTube and I made my Aikido YouTube channel become one of the free biggest YouTube channels in the world Not YouTube. Sorry. Aikido YouTube channels Aikido channels In the world so it was a big thing a lot of Aikido people knew me I became kind of famous like, you know, people started inviting me and They started inviting me and to their own dojo that I taught a seminar in Germany And I was invited to teach a seminar in France and more and more of those discussions came But then I filmed a crucial video in my life a keto versus NMA Which made me question my my martial arts and I realized it's an important subject So I started covering that subject then the Aikido world started hating me and they disowned me most of them That was a tough period that I separated with my Aikido instructor Pretty much due to that as well. And that was a tough experience as well But I lived through it and I kept developing my martial arts journey channel and eventually that led me to closing my dojo moving to the States for About six seven months. I devoted myself to a full-on martial and mixed martial arts program MMA which at the end of I had a mixed martial arts fight and Which is great because it was on my bucket list and again It was kind of the same approach if you want to learn something completely, you know Dive head deep into it. And that's what I did for six months. I was just training every day for you know a couple times per day So that was a great amazing journey and my martial arts journey channel reached a hundred thousand subscribers I I eventually Started making my living off of it All my money came from it still still does most of my money comes from that channel Then I moved to Ireland where I trained with one of the best known mixed martial arts instructors coaches John Kavana Who is you know, I hate to say this part, but I guess it's not able to say but you know He's he's also known for being the coach of Conor McGregor But not that it's you know, not that that's most important. The thing is John is just an amazing human being and a coach and I felt I feel such a great privilege that I had a chance to just spend time with him because I was I was Helping him out with filming videos for him and training for him training with him and So I had a chance a lot of time to spend with him and talk with him and he's just amazing. No Conor McGregor He's amazing too, but I think you know, some people sometimes focus too much about the part of Coach John Kavana, you know being the coach of Conor McGregor and they they kind of dismissed everything They're the huge other things he has achieved in his life. So so I would like to focus more on that actually But yeah, so that was a great experience and but eventually after a few months of living in Dublin. I came back to Lithuania I Got divorced doing that time by the way, that was the thing on its own and I discovered I found a New lady a different lady in my life and I'm very happy about that. She's a wonderful woman now. I Know we are in a relationship for almost a year now. She's super cool I'm gonna talk a bit more about that in the future as well But then when I came back to spend time with her in Lithuania and I moved back to Lithuania I realized I kind of break myself out From martial arts and I realized like it's not satisfying anymore. I started feeling like I did share the main pointers I did tell the main things about martial arts that I wanted to I did tell my story About martial arts and that impacted a lot of people. So I'm very happy about that like one of the best moments For me was when I would see someone writing me a comment. Oh, you inspired me your martial arts journey inspired me And I was like It's all about that But then I started to feel like I'm only reaching people who are doing martial arts and that frustrated me I was like I need to know As long as I'm alive. I need to make sure I have the most biggest possible positive impact on the world as I can and that led me to a Realization that I need to expand my journey and I need to make sure because I wasn't I was never just about martial arts Martial arts was a vehicle for me But I also did so many other things, you know, I spent so much time learning to meditate and I did yoga and I did all those crazy projects I did a lot and and none of that is covered in the martial arts journey and and I can't cover it there because people are Not gonna People who are subscribed on the martial arts journey channel. They're not very interested in what else I do It's just you know, they expect martial arts there. It's you know, that's the name and so I tried pushing some of my stuff Outside of martial arts into that channel, but it wasn't really accepted. I did some sticks core mistakes myself how I approached that But eventually a long story short that that let me open up a new channel, which is this channel and it was a whole journey of discovering it was like a difficult challenging beginning long story, I'll cover it in different videos why but But yeah, and I had to rediscover my voice I was like asking myself I was kept asked myself so how can I really deliver most value to people and the latest thing I discovered is videos like this Just being completely honest with you Sharing my story and that's I'm pretty sure that that's just one of the parts I have a vision how I will expand later from it But there are valuable lessons. I learned the hard way Which I feel that me sharing my story honestly and learning my Sharing about my failures and successes and insights that they may benefit that may benefit other people Hopefully prevent them from making the same mistakes or become more You know Intelligent through this way. So so that's what I'm focusing on right now Probishing my main stories, which I feel can be valuable to people But my main goal that I want to go to is Even wrote it down as a phrase on one of my desk desktops But basically the biggest vision I would have the biggest dream I have that I would want to want to accomplish while I am alive is to create a movement a Culture of people who are completely devoted to becoming the best possible versions of themselves Who are always constantly working themselves to improve for the better of everyone else and their own as well Let's not forget ourselves. You know, I'm I'm all about that you have to live a life that you enjoy yourself but also you have to live a life that is valuable to everyone and I know that not a lot of people do that not like and I could you know talk forever about that and probably I will why is that in my experience why why we are so focused on our own story we're so protective and And we don't spend most of us don't spend so much time being concerned about others, especially people. We don't like for example But I I would like to inspire as many people as I can to make that shift and to consider everyone else more than they do today and Become the best possible versions of themselves so that they would enrich the world And I feel that that's a great way to also live a life where you're happy It's also a bit of a stressful life, but also it's also demanding and it's important to maintain balance in it That's my experience. I have to make sure always that I make sure that I don't burn myself out and I'm gonna make a video about that but That being said that's that's my biggest aim I would love to create movement a culture of people devoted to becoming their best possible selves owning their shit being open honest vulnerable hard-working happy and Also Devoted to make this world a better place It's 34 minutes a good time to wrap up We'll continue other videos, but I hope that by watching this video. You got a better feel for who am I? what I'm about and I hope we will continue this journey together