Top Rated MMA and The Erik Allen Show on Expert Talk

Expert Talk is sponsored by PodNation TV, the Podcast to Broadcast Network. Hey everybody, welcome to the show. You know where you are Expert Talk with me TGo. And today we got somebody special. Well I say that all the time, but we really, really do other than the fact that he has the coolest beard in the world. We're going to talk about that.

But if you live in Las Vegas, like I do, you can't walk down the strip without seeing signs for MMA. We're going to talk about MMA. We're going to talk about, you know, really fighting for your life and surviving and helping others get over that hurdle as well. Erik Allen is here today. We're going to have some fun sit right there.

We'll be right back. Now. I know you're sitting there and you're going, did you really say you're going to bring on the person with the coolest beard in the world? I sure the heck did Erik Allen's out there, Erik. are you out there TGo. How are you? Thank you so much. That's such an honor to be here.

It's so fun to have you here, man. And you really do have the coolest beard in the world. I mean, you're like Amazon famous man. That's true. Amazon famous. Yeah. You could probably find me on a few different ads out there Now, before we get into anything else, what made you decide to grow the beard out in the first place?

So I used to grow the beard just for like one month out of the year. It wasn't for November just one month out of the year, I'd shave it or, you know, I'd grow it out for 30 days and then shave it off. My wife would fall back in love with me after that year. Right. So it was like, oh,

there's the clean shave. Right? And then my daughter was like three years old. I shaved it off. She said, dad, I missed the beard. And I was like, I'm not shaving out again. So that's kind of how it started. And then we've just kind of kept it around this length for the last, probably eight years. So now we know who has the power in your house,

your daughter runs the house for sure. I see how this is going. So you've already started holiday shopping. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Okay. So if you guys are wondering, it's literally September and this guy has already started holiday shopping. So who knows what's about to happen this year? So let's talk about this. You and I met at a great event,

Hey, to Greg Reid, big high ups to Greg Reid. We met at Prosperity Camp a couple of months ago and I had a blast. What about you? It was so much fun, mind blowing for me to be there my first time being at an event like that and so many good speakers, so many amazing people there. I love that. I got to connect with you and excited to be back for Secret Knock here in just a few weeks.

I'm excited as well. And it was my first time that Prosperity Camp. And I couldn't believe how it was set up. I've been in events for, you know, most of my life. And I've never seen an event set up that way where the VIP's were really VIP's and didn't just have the title. But then they were also, you know,

not behind a rope where you got to go about 50 feet away from and wave and hope they wave back. They were actually talking with you, hanging out with you. You could ask them anything and, and they would actually answer you. You know, it was, it was the coolest thing ever. I thought that was amazing. I can't wait for Secret Knock plus I get to speak at Secret Knock so I'm.

I'm super stoked about that, man. I might actually have to put on a clean shirt or something now. No. Okay. So you yourself are a host, correct? You have your own show. What's your show about? So I have two podcasts, the Eric Allen show. That's where I talk with entrepreneurs, world changers and success minded people that must speak with guys like Ed

Mylett, Brad Lee, Bedros Keuilian and Jim, the rookie Morris Tim Story, Erica Grand, you know, and Dan Caldwell, founder of top Tap Out. And of course, Ken Shamrock a few times, you know, and then the other show that I have is the Top Rated MMA show. And that's where I talk with up and coming in and MMA fighters from around the world.

I love to get their story. You know, why you want to get in the cage, you get punched in the face. And so I like to get them on there that shorts a little bit, or that shows a little bit shorter, maybe 13 to 15 minutes. And it's so cool to just hear these guys who were up, you know,

climb those ranks and they may world about how they're in there. What's that mindset and things like that. And so, yeah, those are my two shows. Okay. So wait, we have to go back because I heard you're talking with entrepreneurs and you know, I know you guys are sitting there going well, TGo's an Entrepreneur and We haven't seen TGo.

I have to pitch from myself cause you're not here. I haven't been on, well, what do I have to do to be on the show? I mean, I want to hang out with you. What's going on? You're On my list. Yes. So I made the mistake earlier this year, recording too many shows in a row. So I built up this large queue.

So I stopped recording for the last couple months. And I'm actually going to pick that back up in October-ish and I've got a link that's going, you're like a top of my list. You've a link that's going out to you so I can have you on the show. So it'll come out before the end of this year, but I would love to have you on,

it would be such an honor to have you on. I'd love to have, I love to be on it. I'm just giving you a hard time. I have to give you a hard time and it's just my job in life, But I, yep. I got you. You're on my list for sure. I've definitely want to, I didn't want to reach out to people and say,

Hey, it's coming out in five months because I made that mistake earlier. So we're going to, I've definitely got you on my list to bring on. I love it. And then for your MMA show, how did you get into that? What made you cause you're not a fighter, correct? I'm not a fan Big fan. Yeah. So What made you decide I'm going to go out and start talking to these fighters.

MMA as an apparel company in: 2012

We bought a bunch of inventory that didn't sell, and we took off really fast. And then it dropped real quick and it went slow. And then in 2015, I got bored with it. I wasn't making money. I wasn't excited about it. I literally put an ad in Craigslist and said, who wants to buy this company? And one guy called me up.

at do I do with this business: 2017

I was literally just uploading videos to YouTube and Facebook. And I just wanted to ask fighters like, why do you want to get punched in the face? I was in a walk-in closet for almost a hundred episodes, bad lighting, bad camera. Didn't even look into the camera, bad microphone. And now episode like 240 pluses come out and just been blessed to speak with so many people from around the world.

And so that's kind of how it got started, but always been this fan and just wanted to get the, the inside like knowledge of these fighters. Like, why do you want to go get in the cage? That door is going to lock behind you, that guy or girl across the cage wants to physically hurt you. What's that mindset before you step in there.

So now I've got to ask you, you said 240 plus episodes you're in, okay. You've asked this question. Why do they want to get hit in the face? What's the most popular answer for why do they want to get hit in the face? So interesting. I have such diverse, diverse answers. Most of the answers are, Hey, I was in MMA or,

I mean, I was in Karate or TaeKwonDo or wrestling, and it transitioned to MMA. Two guys were like, dude, I've got federal offences and I can't go get a real job, but I can go in a cage and get punched or punch people to put food on the table for my kids. And I, those stories, they rock me when I hear these guys like man,

like that was their last desperation, but they're succeeding in that path that they chose. And they're putting, be able to put food on the table because they're in there, like literally putting their life on the line. So if you're a child, I don't even know at what age people can start, you know, training for MMA. And may do you know what age you can start training?

But my kids are training in, in Brazilian jujitsu and striking right now at 8 and 11, Wait, you're letting your kids get hit in the face at 8 and 11. So they do not do face contact right now. It's just, it's, it's soft sparring. So, but they're both in striking and jujitsu classes. They've only been in,

in about six weeks. They love it. They are huge fans. And this, the confidence level that I've seen, both my kids increased just over the last six weeks from discipline and being in the class and really figuring out how to do those locks with jiu-jitsu and stuff. It's been amazing to see their growth and competence in, in mentality. Have you figured out when it's too late to get into it,

like if you're in your twenties or your thirties or your forties, forget about it, it's too late for you even to think about jumping in that ring. I'm not in the ring maybe, but it just training the jujitsu and stuff like that. I've got a lot of good buddies. I'm 41 years old. A lot of my buddies are like, dude,

come join me at the gym, come, come do some rolls. So, and my kids are inspired me to go get into that. And so, you know, I don't think there's ever an age where you can, or you can start training. I don't know if I would step into a cage at my age, but you know, at least you could start training and,

and get like that self-defense down, You know, here in Vegas, they, you know, the giant marquees, you drive down the strip and giant marquees billboards on the highways. I mean, you know, pay per view. It it's humongous here, right? Yep. Are there matches in other towns that other cities? I have no idea. I've been to one match in my entire life.

So is there matches in other cities and towns, like, are there amateur like levels and then pro is it like that? How does that break down? Yeah. So where I'm at in Idaho, there's not a lot of local MMA. There is a really great promotion about 30 miles from here. It's called Proven Ground MMA. It's put on by Warrior Camp,

which is a gym out of Spokane. And that was started by, or that gym is owned by Pablo. Fonzo used to fight in the big leagues like Bellator and, you know, a World Series of Fighting and stuff like that. So up here, there's not a lot of pro fights that it happens. Like maybe once every three months out in Spokane,

which is about 35 miles from me. And about every month or month and a half, they have that Proven Grounds, all amateur fight card, which I love. I sit cage side. I usually do the live Results for those guys. It's ran very professionally for being an all amateur show and they bring in a ton of crowd and it's awesome to see these guys.

You're like, maybe I should test the water of this MMA thing. And they go in there and they either win or they don't, but it's a learning opportunity either way. Alright. Alright. Well, I mean, I'm getting a flag from the producer saying, you know, we got to go to break. We got to go to break. So what we're going to do is we're going to go to break right now.

And then when we're going to come, we're going to come back because I saw something on social media. You know, Erik is hitting a hundred interviews this year and I think he's on like number 60 or 70 or something like that. And then we're going to talk about the, he made at the age of 14. So sit right there. We'll be right back.

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We look forward to working with you Everybody. Welcome back. We're talking with Erik Allen and we're talking about in the MMA, we're talking about his entrepreneurial journey and I forgot to ask him a question, Erik, you out There I am here. Yes. Thank you so much. So I got to ask, you know, I don't know is MMA real cause you know,

they say wrestling, the kind you see on TV may not be as real as they try to make it. Is it real? I have seen lots of knockouts and lots of blood. And from a personal perspective, yes, it is 100% real. Okay. Okay. Now we're changing subjects because you now have given me the willies. Alrighty. I know we're moving on.

doing a hundred interviews in: 2021

And so I came into 2021. I said, I'm just going to do four X that I'm doing a hundred this year. This year is all about growth for me. And I'm changing the way that I see things I want to grow financially. I want to grow my business. I want to grow my networking, grow my marriage, grow in finances,

h as many people as we can in: 2021

No, Maybe, but I don't know. I, yeah, I I've got, so I'll release a hundred episodes of my own podcast plus be a guest of a hundred this year. So it'll be an interesting, Yeah, that's awesome. I love that. I love that. So let's, let's talk a little bit about your journey yourself because you know,

you and I had this much time to talk at the event at Prosperity Camp, San Diego. And I was blown away because you literally, you know, raised yourself from the age of 14 and, and there are people out there right now, you know, I was an adopted child. I was the lucky one I got adopted at the age of six months.

So, but there are people out there right now that are in the system that are stuck outside of the system and are really going through a tough time because of the pandemic. You know, what, what happened? How did that happen and how did you survive? It was tough. Yeah. So I grew up in, I thought it was a typical household up until I was 11 years old,

you know, played little league and went to Sunday school. My parents got divorced when I was 11. I had never even heard that word before. None of my friends were had parents who were divorced or anything. And so it was a big shocker to me that my parents got divorced. I never saw my parents fight. I knew my Dad drank a little bit as a kid.

I saw like, you know, vodka bottles in the garage, but I never saw any crazy arguments or anything like that. My parents get divorced. My Mom immediately gets together with a guy who is very physically abusive, almost like the first date that I remember. And I remember standing outside the house, looking through the window when they're arguing, he's hitting her with,

the cordless phone back when those were out. Right. You know, and my Mom never pressed charges. It drove me nuts. I didn't understand. And then they did a smart thing. They got pregnant and they decided, Hey, we're going to move to small town, Montana, Stevensville, Montana. So they moved up. I used to, I grew up in Eastern Washington is where that was from.

ington or Montana population,: 1200

who's four years younger, you get to live in the garage. So I literally had this bed and then a plastic tarp at the end of my bed that separate my bed from the truck that would pull in. I had a fireplace in my half of the garage that would keep me semi-warm in those negative degree, winters and Montana. But when I was 13 years old,

they came up arguing and it wasn't anything different than any other night. I'm brushing my teeth. And I felt like God was talking to me in that moment saying, dude, you got to turn around. There's some serious stuff going on. So the way the house was set up was behind me was the kitchen to the pantry, to the garage where I stayed.

So I turned around and I see him on top of my Mom and the pantry. And it's just, boom, boom, boom, one shot after the other, punch her in the face. I'm like, dude, I got to stop this guy. So I walked up and I grabbed a cast iron pan and I swung as hard as I could.

And I split the back of his head open and he turned around and he said, what the As He said that I took another swing, a swing and split his forehead open. I'd fallen in that swing to the ground. And I remember him standing in a and he was bleeding and he started to yell. My mom jumps up, lands like six punches in a row.

There's blood splattered on the wall. Cops show up finally and take him to jail for the night. Again, no charges were pressed. And at that point I was kicked out of the house. I had three months left in my freshman year of high school. So I bounced around from friend's houses and to finish out my freshman year of high school there in Montana.

And they moved back to live with my Dad in Washington state. He rented a house for him and I, and he would put 20 bucks in a cup from a lunch money, Hungry Man meals in the freezer and cereal milk in the house. And then he would go stay with his girlfriend. So I had no accountability, no adult supervision. So my house became the party house.

So I was getting into drugs early. I was smoking a lot of pot, acid mushrooms, you know, cough syrup because it had morphine in it like getting into real. A lot of it all the time, you know, before school, during lunch, after school. And when I was 18 years old, I got arrested for having a bong,

e state of Washington. But in: 1998

But so I didn't smoke pot for a year, but I enhanced my drinking skills. So I started drinking. Right. And then two weeks after I graduated high school woke up to a post-it note on the bathroom mirror that said you can't comply with house rules at 48 hours to get out. Wow. So I was like, okay. So I was basically living off of credit cards between the age of 18 and 21.

I moved 21 times. And by the time I'm 21, I'm $20,000 in debt and had to file bankruptcy. And I made a move to Seattle with a hundred dollars in my pocket. And that was part of that moving around a lot. But yeah, that was, that was the craziness that I was in before I got into the music business after that.

Wow. So I mean, a lot of people are in the darkness, you know, it seems like, especially through, in this pandemic, some people saw the light and found their way because they had time to just stop and listen and hear and see. And then some felt like their world just shut down because they couldn't go do everything they were used to doing.

If you were in, that's such a dark space, how did you find your way to the light? How did you find your way back to your own reality? I spent that between 21, 23, I worked in the music business for universal records and went to about 175 concerts open tab. So continue that drinking. I got laid off from my university record on my one-year anniversary during the Napster days.

If you remember those, I was the bottom of the totem pole. So I got laid off with a few others from the office and kind of went into this depression. I was working at Starbucks at night. I'd get off and go to get my six pack of beer and then go to my ghetto apartment there across the street from where Jimmy Hendrix is buried in Renton,

Washington, and, and drink myself to sleep. And one night, while I was working, this girl walked into Starbucks and said, Hey, we've got this cool college age event at our church. Would you be interested in going? And I'm depressed? I have no friends. She's really good looking. Absolutely what time do I need to be there?

Like that's, what's going through my mind. And so a couple of days later, I go to this event and I ran in all these guys that I knew from high school. I haven't seen in five years, haven't seen in seven years. It's crazy. And I think God was planting a seed in me at that moment. Because about a month later,

it was Easter,: 2004

So I decided in that moment, I gave life. I gave my life to Christ and I quit drinking cold Turkey, drug cigarettes, drinking everything in that moment. And I called that girl up. I got her voicemail and said, Hey, thanks for inviting that church event. And maybe I'll see you at the store sometime. And a month later we were dating and now we've been married for almost 17 years.

Wow. That's amazing. That's an awesome story. I didn't know that you were returning. I knew you were going to sit out with your wife, but 17 years ago, I didn't think it was, you were going to say 17 years ago. So I'm going to ask you a question that you've probably been asked many times, or maybe never been asked before.

Cause I know when we started the conversation, we were talking about your daughter, you know, if your daughter's in a relationship later on down the road in a relationship, what are you going to tell her to look for signs that, you know, if you see this, if you see that you, you get out, you call Dad, you do whatever,

but you don't stay there and take it. What are you going to tell her? Yeah, I think what I need to tell her is, you know, I want my wife and I, we both come from the craziness. So we've been teaching our kids that, Hey, you know what, we're breaking the chains of abuse, rejection, and addiction that we battled and that we dealt with or that we're around.

And so we want our daughter to realize like, you know what, I want my daughter to see a man that hopefully treats there treats her, like I treat my wife, you know, I try to, you know, be respectful. Right. You know, you're, you're on time. You're, you know, you're being there for them. Right.

And so anybody who tries to get a line now my daughter, she's tough and she'll probably tap them out with the Brazilian, Brazilian jujitsu moves. But like, I'm not a hundred percent worried about that, but you know, I'm the guy who's like when the first boy shows up to take my daughter for date, I'm going to make him dig a six foot hole in the backyard.

Right. Like, that's like, you know what? This is, this is just for later, bro. Like, I mean, that's, I'm going to be that scary Dad, like, you know, for Bad Boys when they answer the door I was gonna say I just had that scene of Bad Boys in my head Like the best scene ever. And I'm like, dude, I'm going to take that to life.

So yeah. I mean, I definitely want to put a little bit of fear in those boys when they come over ever, you know, but I think my daughter she's really smart, but we also have to have to have that conversation like, Hey, you need to watch out for these things. You know, they need to be respectful and they need to be opening doors.

They need to not be pushing hard for anything else. Right. And so, and absolutely I'll wake up in the middle of that and go get or wherever that happens to be. But yeah, she's, she's good to go. I think So then I got to ask because I've got grandsons, you know, and it just seems to be the, it may be a small window of six months and they'd be a wide window of seven years,

but it seems to be that all boys go through this crazy time before they find some kind of sanity. So what are you going to tell your son? So maybe his crazy time is maybe six minutes. What are you going to tell him so that he doesn't go through even a little bit of what you went through? The cool thing is my son takes very much after my wife who is a very loving and very like protective immediately.

Like I wasn't that way as a kid. I mean maybe when I, when I was 13, but as a kid, I wasn't that way. My son is very much aware of his surroundings. Very smart. And he's very respectful for, for girls. And we teach them that too. Like, Hey, you know what? We have to respect girls.

We can't open the door just to, so if you want to walk in, you got to knock on the door. Cause sissy might be in there going to the bathroom. Right? Like you can't change in front of sissy. Like we are kind of teaching them that right off the bat. And he is so smart when it comes to that. And just being respectful with the girls that he interacts with at class.

Now my son he's got long curly hair and he says, every girl in class wants to marry him. Right. Which is pretty cool. But at the same time, I'm like, dude, you got to take, take your time. You gotta respect. And you know, he's in elementary school. So he's not like in that girlfriend mode or anything quite yet.

Oh, oh, oh, all right. We're going to have to have you back on in 10 years when you start to go through the girlfriend mode and see how that's doing. Cause that may need therapy right about then. So you know, our producer, Allen, he's bouncing up and down saying, we're, you know, we're out of time and I've been having such a blast with you.

We're going to have to have you come back. But you're not only are you a host, but you're also a speaker as well. Right? So can you tell everybody in case they're listening and not watching, how do they get in touch with you if they want to be on your show, if they want you to come and speak, how do they get in touch with you?

ErikAllenMedia.com is the website I'm really active on Instagram so they can shoot me a DM. I respond to every DM, every comment. So yes. Do public speaking, do voiceover. I do brand videos for products and things like that. So I love work with brands and love collaborating with brands to do videos. And that's really, my passion is to talk with people and then put out great content.

And ErikAllenMedia.com is the website. I want to thank you for bringing the coolest beard in the country. Come and hang out with me for a little bit. Erik, you are so cool. And I hope you'll come back and hang out with me again really soon. Absolutely such an honor to be here, TGo. Thank you so much for the opportunity.

I appreciate it. Hey everybody, that was Erik Allen. I love hanging out with cool people. I love hanging out with entrepreneurs that are doing what they do trailblazing, but remembering to turn around and bring a bunch of people with them and show them, you know, how to jump over those pitfalls and those potholes along the way on the road. I hope you enjoyed this episode.

I hope you'll come back next time. And as always I'm TGo I'll talk to you next time.