We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Daniel Sala a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Daniel, thanks for joining us today. How do you think about spending on things like coffee when times are tough?

I started Real Thing during a very lean time in my life. I had no savings available to me to start, but I did have a credit card with a pretty high limit. I spent on what I had to and left off the non-essentials. There is never a perfect time to start and in my mind it was now or never. Better to take imperfect action and start, than to wait forever.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Daniel Sala. I started training Brazilian jiu jitsu in 2007. I was a Navy Diver for 6 years and trained sporadically during that time. I moved home and began training at Precision Jiu Jitsu and received my black belt in 2022 from Rob Scheier.

Real Thing Jiu Jitsu provides jiu jitsu instruction for men, women, and kids. We welcome and have something for people of every age, ability, and experience level.

Jiu jitsu can be a means of weight loss, increased physical fitness, self defense, or just a new hobby. But more than any of these things, what I am most tying to build is a sense of community. A place that when people are a member, they know they are a part of something bigger than themselves and that by training and bettering themselves, they are actively helping everyone around them.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

I subscribe strongly to the notice of keeping a Positive Mental Attitude (P.M.A.) I also recently had a discussion with a friend of mine that I started training with who now owns a school of his own. He told me about some of the hard times he had starting out and said “Just don’t quit. You can’t. You’re living the dream. You got a place of you’re own. Can’t stop.” Very simple advice, but it refocused my mind. I might be small now, but I have full and undying belief in what I know I am capable of building.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I think that social media has varying degrees of importance depending on your field. If you are selling any kind of physical good a wide reach is important. I operate a brick and mortar that provides a service. It does very little for me if I have 3000 followers on the west coast if they are never actually going to become members. It is more important to utilize social media as a way of highlighting members and drawing in leads from my surrounding area. Better to have a small but engaged following than an enormous and scattered one.

Contact Info:

• Website: Realthingjj.com
• Instagram: @realthingjiujitsu
• Facebook: Real Thing Jiu Jitsu

Image Credits
Kyu Lee