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What's it like to walk the path of a world champion in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and a business owner? Victoria Delgado, our guest this week, opens up about the triumphs and challenges of her journey, including her stunning wins at the IBJJF Absolute World Championship, PANS Championship and her recent IBJJF Worlds Championship. Balancing her love for the sport and her online coaching business, Victoria is a beacon of inspiration for those who aim to maintain a healthy lifestyle while pursuing their passions.
We navigate through Victoria's world of Jiu Jitsu, from her initial fears to her first victorious competition as a newcomer. Hear about her struggles as a female practitioner in a predominantly male sport. Victoria’s commitment and dedication lead us to discuss the importance of having a set schedule and how she views Jiu Jitsu not just as a sport, but as a lifestyle.
But there's more to Victoria than just the sport. As we shift focus to her role as a mentor, she shares her experiences with coaches and higher belts at Alliance, and how she aims to inspire the next generation of BJJ practitioners. With insights on maintaining a positive mindset and building relationships in the sport, Victoria offers invaluable advice. And if you're curious about her entrepreneurial journey in fitness, nutrition and health, there's plenty to learn from there too. Join us for an engaging conversation with a champion who’s as passionate about mentorship and entrepreneurship as she is about Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
Contact Victoria on Instagram @victoria.delgadobjj
Contact Host: caffeinatedjiujitsu@gmail.com
Join the Caffeinated Jiu Jitsu IG Community: @caffeinated_jiujitsu
Let's Chat!! Send us a Text Message
What's it like to walk the path of a world champion in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and a business owner? Victoria Delgado, our guest this week, opens up about the triumphs and challenges of her journey, including her stunning wins at the IBJJF Absolute World Championship, PANS Championship and her recent IBJJF Worlds Championship. Balancing her love for the sport and her online coaching business, Victoria is a beacon of inspiration for those who aim to maintain a healthy lifestyle while pursuing their passions.
We navigate through Victoria's world of Jiu Jitsu, from her initial fears to her first victorious competition as a newcomer. Hear about her struggles as a female practitioner in a predominantly male sport. Victoria’s commitment and dedication lead us to discuss the importance of having a set schedule and how she views Jiu Jitsu not just as a sport, but as a lifestyle.
But there's more to Victoria than just the sport. As we shift focus to her role as a mentor, she shares her experiences with coaches and higher belts at Alliance, and how she aims to inspire the next generation of BJJ practitioners. With insights on maintaining a positive mindset and building relationships in the sport, Victoria offers invaluable advice. And if you're curious about her entrepreneurial journey in fitness, nutrition and health, there's plenty to learn from there too. Join us for an engaging conversation with a champion who’s as passionate about mentorship and entrepreneurship as she is about Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
Contact Victoria on Instagram @victoria.delgadobjj
Contact Host: caffeinatedjiujitsu@gmail.com
Join the Caffeinated Jiu Jitsu IG Community: @caffeinated_jiujitsu
Welcome to Kaffinade Jiu Jitsu the blend of white belt enthusiasm, black belt wisdom and a dash of caffeine for that extra kick. Dive deep into the world of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu as we explore the journey, techniques, challenges and the sheer joy of the sport from a white belt's perspective. We've been treating interviews with renowned coaches and professors to playful, fun episodes that'll have you chuckling mid-roll. We've got it all brewed and ready. Now stepping onto the mats and into your ears. Here's your host, joe Motez.
Speaker 2:And welcome everyone to another episode of Kaffinade Jiu Jitsu. I am your host, joe Motez, and everyone. I am beyond excited about today's guest. I have on the show today, or for this episode, a multi-champion black belt and I'm going to be honest, I'm fanboying out a little bit here. I have with us Victoria Delgado. Victoria, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 3:Hi Joe, Thank you so much for having me on this podcast. I'm really excited.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and again I said I was fanboying and this is something I haven't shared with you. I saved it specifically. I know we've had several conversations up to this. So when I got started and everyone knows, kaffinade Jiu Jitsu is like from my perspective white belt, less than two years training. So I started as most people do, or most older people do, as a hobbyist, kind of fell into it.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But then I started learning that, hey, some people compete right, there's a whole competition kind of ring to this thing. And, yeah, I was like I never thought I would be competing but I started watching the matches on YouTube and then when I started training at Alliance, I started watching all of the superstars and all of the Alliance champions training and then I started seeing your videos, ursula's videos and I think her name's Jackie Is there a Jackie? Yeah, all of these videos and I was like, oh my gosh, these are like people competing, kind of like me, like normal, everyday people competing, and it actually inspired me to start competing. So thank you for that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I love that. That's awesome. Well, you're welcome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, see, I saved that, See, I saved something.
Speaker 3:That's awesome.
Speaker 2:All right, so I'm going to go through just a short kind of pedigree here and then we'll jump into some of our topics. Okay, Okay. So you are the and I'm pretty sure I'm not going to butcher this, but if I miss something, let me know you are the 2022 IBJJF Absolute World Champion. It's Masters 1., master 1. You are also the 2023 IBJJF PANS Champion. Yes, master 1. Master 1, this is all, master 1. And then, yeah, all Master 1. And then, most recently, the 2023 World Champion Master 1. Yes, yes.
Speaker 2:And how many Opens have you won? Did you compete in the Opens or did you just go straight to the championships?
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, it really depends on the year. So I've won a few at each belt. So now these are all different belt colors. So for the 2022, it was purple belts and then 2023. So because of that, I got promoted and then 2023 was a brown belt.
Speaker 2:Right and you are recently promoted to black belt right.
Speaker 3:Yes, it's crazy. I was not expecting that at all.
Speaker 2:I mean, like I can't imagine what that feels like, especially off the heels of a world's championship, when it's like, okay, I'm at the top of the mountain and this is awesome, and it can't get any better, and then bam, you know, the following week you're promoted.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was not expecting that. I remember I was telling my goals to Leo Nogarra, our professor, and I was telling him. I was like, yeah, I'm excited for this year. I want to try to get double gold for Opens. I want to try to get double gold for next. I thought I was going to be doing it all over again for brown belt. I was not expecting to get promoted to black. So when you know they did the surprise promotion, I was in complete shock.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh yeah.
Speaker 3:I was like no, I'm not ready yet. I remember I kept saying I'm not ready yet, I'm just talking about you won the 2023 IBGDF master one world championship, you know? So, yeah, it's time to move on.
Speaker 2:I'm like okay, yeah, and this is something that was new to me the alliance, because how to read? Go my, my professor at Roswell Alliance. He was like, yeah, you went master worlds, you're getting promoted. It's like really. He's like, yeah, you just went and you're the best in the world in your division. Like why would you, why would you not? You know you're getting, you're getting on that podium. That's a lot to go through.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And not only are you a multi jujitsu champion and black belt, but you're also a business owner.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes so now.
Speaker 2:is that's new right? You recently started this, or has this been some time and I'm just playing catch up?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I've been brewing for years to come, but it just kind of started happening this summer. But I was preparing for the 2023 world championship master masters and so I kind of put it on pause. But I was working in between because I was trying to get in all my training. And then, after I won the master world championship, I was like, okay, now I can go full force into my business. So, yeah, it is online coaching, nutrition, fitness, health coaching, all of that. And so the reason why I started that was because people kept coming to me asking me what are you doing? What are you doing to get ready for worlds, what are you doing for you know, getting ready for the opens and all of that? I always see you working out and I was like, yeah, let me go ahead and make this into a business, because it was questions after questions like every day, but my heart and soul has always been in nutrition and in integrative medicine and all of that. So that's kind of been my journey and kind of part of my story as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, that's great, and I'm glad you said part of my story, because that's what I want to get into. To kind of start us off is tell us a little bit about your yeah Well, your story, your journey into jujitsu. Yeah, just how you got started and then what motivated you to and this is more personal I want to know a question what motivated you to pursue jujitsu at a competitive level?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so well, going back as part of my story, I grew up in a household of my dad owned a boxing gym in Long Island, new York. So we kind of grew up in just like the fighting sport hobby type of world. Like for like on a Saturday night everyone sat together, we all like watch boxing and we watched like MMA and like that's like what we did as a family. So, yeah, I'm like growing up it was like that. And then, like during the commercials, my dad would be like the rest in the middle of the living room and me, my sister, my brother, we put on like fake, you know, those fake little boxing gloves as you had as a kid.
Speaker 3:Oh, the balloons, the soccer yeah, the soccer and my dad would be the rest and you know he was like all right, fight, and then it would go into like kicking or like you know, like mounting each other and stuff like that. Like I didn't really know it was jujitsu, but it was just kind of like what we did, right. And you know, I kind of just grew up kind of not not really like a tomboy, but we just grew up with a dad who loved to like rough this up a little bit, you know. And so that's kind of how that I think fighting journey kind of started or the competitive journey kind of started Kind of started like with my brother, my sister, my dad and all of that. And it wasn't until I moved to Atlanta, georgia, I was about 17 years old, and I went, I went into like medical missions and all of that. I kind of like traveled and did like mission work and in the medical field and I remember just like I only know how to box, like I don't really know anything else, like if someone attacked me I wouldn't know what to do, and so that's kind of where started researching like different types of like martial arts and jujitsu just kept popping up and then fast forward just a few.
Speaker 3:A few years later, I worked in an integrative medical office and Alliance was right next door. And who would have thought so? I'm sitting here driving to work every single day and I'm like man, I really want to go in there and learn jujitsu, but I'm too scared. I'm too scared. And so it took me years to walk into Alliance and it wasn't so. One of my coworkers is like have they ever tried that? Did you get some place next door? I was like no, but I've been wanting to go for years and just was too afraid to go in. And she's like let's go. I'm like, really, let's go.
Speaker 3:Oh, so that's how it kind of started and we did the intro class together and she kind of like just I don't know, she only did like one week and I just ended up becoming obsessed with that. I was like this is what I've been wanting to do for years, but I was just too afraid to walk inside those doors so I wish I started sooner. But you know, everything happens for a reason. So that's kind of how my jujitsu journey started, but it was through my just wanting to, basically wanting to learn self-defense and how to protect myself. Yeah, so that's taking. Answer your first question.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. And what fascinates me and I've said this on a couple of episodes now people are probably going to get tired of hearing it, but it's like all of us jujitsu practitioners, we kind of just stumble into it or it's something. Or, like your story, it's something that we've wanted to do for a while, and then we try it and, yeah, you either get the bug or you don't, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I'm like you hear yourself and myself, 100% obsessed.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, yeah, a competitive level. What you know there? Had to be a point where you're like, oh my gosh, you know I want to go compete. Just you know I want to do this. Tell me about that, yeah.
Speaker 3:So yeah. So I was basically, I was so obsessed with jujitsu I was training sometimes 7am, then I would take a lunch break and come to new class and then, after work I would come and train in the evening.
Speaker 3:I just wanted to learn everything about jujitsu. I was like I want to be good, I want to learn this technique, I want to understand why this technique does this and why we do that. All of that, like I just was just so into it. And, you know, eight months flew by and I was like am I ready to compete? Like I heard people were competing, I was like I don't know if I'm ready to compete, so I go to my professor. It was Professor Austin at the time. He owns a school now in Huntsville Alabama, and so I go to him. And I go to Professor Leo and DJ Farmer the other professors. I'm like do you think I could compete? And they're like Victoria, you're doing really good, we think you should compete.
Speaker 3:I'm like are you sure, Do you think I should compete? And I was just so nervous you know I'm a white belt and I'm like I don't know. They're like no, this is the time You're a white belt and you want to get your competition nerves and bugs out of the way. You want to experience it for the first time as a white belt. And I was like, okay, I'm going to sign up, I'm going to do this. So that's kind of how it happened. Yeah, it was just like and actually I was very I was, I was nervous, Like that was actually one of my fears was to compete, but something about being fearful, of being scared actually pushed me to wanting to conquer those fears.
Speaker 3:I'm like, no, I can do it. Like I shouldn't be, I shouldn't be conformed and constricted, like by my fears, Like I need to conquer them and and just being in front of people is even just nerve wrecking just for me, just in general. So I was like, oh my gosh, I'm going to be fighting in front of these people. It's even worse. But but, um, you know pushing through, and it's like you know what it's all in the mind I can do it, I can do it. So that's kind of how the competitive journey started.
Speaker 2:Do you as a white belt do you remember anything from that, that first match? Like how many times you had to fight. How you want. What was the outcome?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So, um, I had three fights that day, wow, um, in my division, yeah, and I remember this is actually really funny Um, I remember walking out to the mat and I touched my toes on the mat and I felt like my body just kind of went numb and I was like, uh, like where is like like what's happening here? And I was like you know what, I'm ready to fight, I'm ready to do this. And I just kept like thinking like like it's a fight Like I remember my dad and my sister and I used to see my sister compete as a boxer and she's a golden glove champion and stuff like that. So I was like you know what, I just need to just bring that inner side, fighting side, out of me and I just need to do it. So that's kind of kind of how it went.
Speaker 3:Um, I end up winning. I can't remember. I ended up winning the submission. I think it was a choke. Um, and I really only knew like new five moves. It was like knee cut, coriander. I knew one one uh take down, which was a single leg. Oh no, it was a single leg or a double leg, and I was like I'm just going to do a double leg or a single leg, and when I get to their legs I'm going to do a knee cut and when I get to the side, I'm going to do a side control and then try to mount Like he was, like, literally just like those five moves, but those five moves helped me, you know. Or those three moves helped me. Uh, win, win the three fights.
Speaker 2:So yeah, that's what's amazing, um I think it has been amazing for me as a white belt um is Just how, by perfecting the basic stuff, the toriando pass the knee, cut you know one or two takedowns just by perfecting those and knowing those, it's almost all you need at the moment to do what you need to do Because there's so much. And remember, I ask in my professor is there a book or an encyclopedia somewhere that has every move in Jujitsu? And of course he laughs like no. But then he said you only need to know the basics first. And those basics he said he still does.
Speaker 2:In your black belt you can attest to this. You still do those basic moves, even though you have a Rolodex of a ton of different things and crazy guards, a worm guard, what? What is that?
Speaker 1:I don't know.
Speaker 2:But I just learned that phrase like last week or week before last. I didn't even know that was a guard, but anyway, all these things that you have is a All with a lapel. Yeah, you see, you know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1:I still don't know what it is.
Speaker 2:But, it's all of these things, but it's just the basic stuff, right. Like you can professionally, like you can execute a Toriyondo pass in your sleep, you can do a single leg, a double leg in your sleep, and it's just, it's great. My last competition I did noticeably better than my first, but then again it wasn't a big task to tackle. My first competition lasted 35 seconds, but you know it was. It was focusing on some of the basics right, being your underhook when they're inside, not to get out of it, just stuff like that. So you know I don't want to go on a tangent, but you know something you said really stood out and kind of spoke to me. I think anybody who is listening that is thinking about competing, know your basics. Going into it, know your few moves and believe in yourself.
Speaker 3:I think it's really good. Yeah, really, it's really just believing in yourself and learning the fundamentals. If it's the basic, if it's like the basic five moves you know, work on it. Let that be your foundation, you know, and just drill it, drill, drill, drill, drill drill until you feel really confident. I mean, I didn't feel really really confident, but I felt confident enough to like okay, well, here we go, we're going to go test it out.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So, yeah, and I think also for those who are nervous about competing, there's nerves do fade a little over time. You know, each competition you get less and less nervous. So, or less and less, know, my guess you could say coming onto the mat.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, it's different. Like in the beginning, like as a white belt, when I competed, I felt like my soul like left in the body, like I just felt like my body would just numb and mixing. I know I'm shaking hands and fighting, but now, like when I compete, I'm present, I'm very present. I hear my coaches, like in the like, even as a white belt, like my first one, despite I couldn't really hear them cause my ears was not trained, my ears were not trained yet to listen to my coaches. So I remember, after like my second, my third, my fourth, my fifth competitions, every time I had a goal, I'm going to try to listen to my coaches, I'm going to. You know, I had a different goal each time and I remember when I finally could listen to Leo and I was like I hear your voice, like finally it took, it took a few matches to finally hear your voice. So it's like you know training, training, different parts of your, you know your um, what's the word?
Speaker 2:I think just being being present right Learning how to be present in a high stress, high tempo situation. So all right let's talk about some of. Let's talk about some of your early challenges. We've talked a lot about your successes at the at the beginning, being a multi champion and overcoming your fear of of walking into the doors of alliance Um, but what were some of your biggest challenge you faced at the beginning of your your jiu-jitsu career and it can be competitive or non competitive, but, uh, how did you overcome those challenges?
Speaker 3:Yeah, um, I feel like my biggest challenge or one of my challenges wasn't my biggest challenge is because it was actually a lot of fun too, um, but my challenge was just finding other women that were at a competitive level or wanted to not just do it as a hobby, but um wanted to get a little bit more into training, you know, um and and more than just flow rule, but really kind of get into it. And so, um, we had like one or two or three girls um at the time, so we didn't really have a lot of women training. So I had to gear myself more towards the men to get all of my training in. And, um, I felt like it was a little bit of a struggle because I wasn't sure if I was progressing or not. I was like, am I doing good or am I not doing good? Are they taking it easy on me or are they not taking it easy on me? So it was really hard to gauge and I felt like I could really tell where, where I was at when, you know, I chose to compete.
Speaker 3:Um, cause I was like I can't really tell if I'm getting better at jujitsu or not, but um, cause it was just hard. You know, I was like did they let me have that pass, or did I actually get that pass, I don't know. You know so, cause the guys there, you know they're so nice, they're such great training partners and everything. But a lot of my training was with the men and then, um, later on, the girls started like coming up and they're like wanting to compete and all of that, and so it was really nice and just having like really good training partners um together, and there I mean there's such a blessing. Um, we have a lot of girls now who who compete and I just I just love having them as as my training partner and vice versa.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's awesome. I have two follow up questions then, because a couple of things you said brought these to mind. Is um, because I've watched your competitions, um, do you think that being exposed and having to go through that type of training and and training kind of at the beginning more with the guys, do you think it added a level of intensity to, to your jujitsu? Um, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it definitely did, because I had to push a little harder with the guys, you know, because I'm feeling their strength. So I'm like, oh, I got to push a little harder. I mean it's not always about strength, but you know, like, oh, I got to push past this guard more. I really got, when I'm, when I'm breaking this, you know, this clothes guard, I really got to stand up and use all my might to kind of get the right angle, you know. So it definitely, um, it definitely was turned up for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Which I love because it brought me back to when my brothers and my dad and I would spar in the living room. So I was like, oh, this is fun, you know so yeah, I would, I would imagine it did, because.
Speaker 2:So Alliance Roswell, we're very young, I think. We just made a year open in in October, so you can imagine that the ratio is very heavy male and then for us it's, it's heavy white belt, I think we're like 80% white belt down there, and but when, uh, which is kind of cool because we're all coming up together, you know, yeah, it's really really cool.
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh, yeah, that is really cool.
Speaker 2:And, uh, you know the females that do train a lot um, you know, like the Marines, the Sandys, uh, when, when uh like and I'll use Marine as an example, I hope she listens so she can hear me talk cool about her Um, she and I, we will have some really good roles because, let me tell you, she comes so intense to the role that, yeah, it, it there. There's moments where it's it's hey, she's really about to stack past me here.
Speaker 2:So I, you know, I've, I've, I've always wondered that and thanks for taking a minute to answer and the last uh kind of follow up I had is at any time. You know, you started competing in about eight months in and then you were going through all this intense, intense training with you know, kind of the unbalanced uh Academy at first. Did you ever think about quitting?
Speaker 3:Did I ever think about quitting? Hmm, no, I remember I got hurt one time and I had to be out for like a few weeks and the only part of me was like I'm lazy, I don't feel like going, but I never thought about quitting, like I always felt. I kind of felt like I could stay home and just like recover a little bit or I could watch Netflix, but I never thought about quitting. But if you have too many of those, you will eventually quit. Or you don't need, or like you don't want to have too many of those. You want to have a set schedule. So I was just I created a set schedule and I just stuck with it. I was like it's kind of like going to work, you know Like you have to be there at 8am at work. You're there at 8am, you take your lunch break at 12. You know, it's kind of like and I booked in my jujitsu. I booked jujitsu into my life, like that, to where it was kind of like it's a part of my schedule, it's a part of my life.
Speaker 2:It's the jujitsu lifestyle right. I mean that hashtags all over IG and that's exactly what it is. I love hearing you say this because it makes kind of lets me know I'm doing some of the right stuff here, starting out, and that I commit to a minimum of five hours of training a week, a minimum.
Speaker 2:Now I average anywhere from five to seven. Just like you, I go to the morning class. I try to get a lunch in if I can, especially on GDays. I'm a G guy, so it's good to hear that you know someone like yourself who's been so successful in jujitsu to kind of validate that type of mindset and for the listeners too, right you have.
Speaker 2:If this is something that you want to do, if jujitsu is your thing, you do, you have to be intentional about it. You don't have to be obsessed and you know, crazy about it, like maybe you and I, but you know you do need to plan it, right, yeah. Yeah, apparently, I have kids and a family, so somewhere, but no. So, yeah, let's talk a little bit about some of your career highlights. We talked a little bit, you know, at the beginning we listed what those are. But I kind of want to know what your mindset was and you know what your feelings were. Well, let's just go through the three top kind of championships you know, share your experience and feelings about winning those championships and if either or if any of those championships were more special to you or if they were harder earned, if that makes any sense, and yeah, just kind of what do they mean to you personally and professionally?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I would say the 2022, my first Master 1 World Championship. I think that was, for sure, the best feeling, just because it was always a dream and goal of mine to win a world championship. I mean, I had a little book that I wrote all my dreams and goals in, and so when it happened, I was just like, oh my gosh, I can't believe this actually happened. My dream, my goal actually came forth like no way. But the summer and the spring before that day was dedication and hard work. I mean, every hour of the day was planned and I knew I had that championship coming up in September.
Speaker 3:So I planned out that whole year. I was like, okay, these are my goals. But it was really like six months in, like six months prior, that's when I kind of really started hitting it hard. So I was like, okay, I am preparing. But if you think about it, I felt like I've been preparing since I started Jiu Jitsu. You know all the drilling and all of that. So, and wanting to learn more techniques and how to get out of certain moves and all of that.
Speaker 2:So yeah, Would you like I don't want to phrase this question Do you prefer to win your matches by points or submission?
Speaker 3:Oh man, submission, of course, for sure, For sure. But the goal is to go ahead and get your points first and then, if the submission is there, then go for it. My goal is not to go out and just try to get a submission. My goal is to get the points first and then go ahead and try to get the submission if it's there.
Speaker 2:Do you have a favorite submission?
Speaker 3:I like Chokes. I love Chokes.
Speaker 2:All Chokes. Yeah, I, I, I, yeah, I'm the same. I think Ezekiel Choke has been what I'm most comfortable with, but I landed the least amount and I'm sad about that. I I'm really kind of broken up about it, because I really like it. I think it's super effective.
Speaker 3:It, it will come it will come yeah. It's gonna come into your game for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah I, you're gonna get them.
Speaker 3:Yeah I, I do the hard part is that a lot of your teammates probably know it's coming, so they defend it prior. Um, yeah, yeah, that's the thing.
Speaker 2:So I said earlier that that were heavy white belts. But the only people that show up to the classes that I train at like primary morning as my primary are all these like three year blue belts and I'm like, yeah, of course they know.
Speaker 1:Like same guys just dusted me up.
Speaker 2:Um yeah, no, thanks Thanks for for sharing that. Uh, yeah, I, like you, have a journal. I do this thing now called bullet journaling. I don't know if you've you've heard of this, but, man, you've got to Google. I'm not going to go into it, but it's like life changing. It's bullet journaling. Someone have you ever heard of that? No, I haven't. Oh gosh, you got to. I could have seen you something on that. Um yeah, somebody who knows me really well like gave me this, this as a gift and I thought it was just like a regular journal, because I know I like to write and stuff like that. No, it's this whole system. Anyway, the reason I'm bringing that up is because I too have kind of a list and one of those is to be, you know, a master's world champion, and I'm hoping that you know when I get there. Uh, I can follow up back with you and we can remember the conversation.
Speaker 3:So yeah, oh, that would be great, that's hey, you write it down. And then it's like what do I do each day to get myself to that goal? And you know you just, you just kind of stick to your your plan. You write down your plan. You write down your nutrition plan. You write down your your training plans. You write down, you know, water, you know, don't forget your water, because if you're dehydrated, your training is, it's going to be, it's going to be even harder. So, like every little thing. So that's kind of what I did, you know, prior to the 2022 world championship. I was, I wrote down every little thing In my water, I mean the multivitamins that I took, all of that. And I was like, okay, this is what I'm doing every single day. Okay, for Jiu-Jitsu, this is what I'm going to be practicing. I'm going to be practicing on this escape. So I'm going to be practicing these attacks, all of that, all the way up until I even had a set schedule of when I was working out. I mean it was like to the T.
Speaker 3:So, and it was a really hard summer. I mean I turned down like certain parties and events. I mean that's because I was, I really wanted it bad and I was like sacrifice, I know. I know sacrificing some things will be able to like push me further, so that I mean you don't have to go that extreme. But that's kind of what I did, to kind of just really be focused for that, for that championship. So when I won I was like oh my gosh, like it was the best feeling, literally the best feeling ever, because I was not only fighting that day, I fought the six months prior, you know, wow, so yeah, yeah, it's a champion, champion mindset, right?
Speaker 2:I think that that's, that's what makes the difference between you know, maybe someone who is competing in Jiu-Jitsu to say they competed versus somebody who is there to win. They've put in this time. They've put in, you know, the effort, the training. They wrote the goals down, they checked off their weekly fitness checklist every week and, yeah, it's a champion mindset and that's that's what it sounds like.
Speaker 2:So, so let's go, let's talk a little bit about kind of your professional growth and development, and correct me if I'm wrong, but you are. You're the first black belt female promoted by by your professor, correct?
Speaker 3:Yes, correct.
Speaker 2:What impact, if you can put it into words, has his mentorship had on you in your career?
Speaker 3:Everything. I mean, he has showed me how to work hard, not to give up, to keep training, to drill when you can. You know, sometimes you're like, oh, I got this move, you know, I feel like it did really good. And then he'll be like, okay, let's go ahead and critique this here, let's critique this here, let's try to be better. So he always, he has always been pushing me to be better and all of us at Alliance. He pushes all of us to try to be better. Right when we think, oh, I feel like we're doing good, he's like, nope, nope, work harder, work harder. So I feel like that's why I feel like we have multiple world champions coming out of our school, because he does that with all of us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, the professors and the mentors and the coaches and even the higher belts at Alliance. They're so giving with their knowledge, they're so helpful. They're not critiquing in a mean way. There's no arrogance about any of them?
Speaker 3:No, no, not at all.
Speaker 2:And for the listeners, you know your professors Leo Noguera, multi world champion Blackbell and he is absolutely one of the very first you know people or instructionals. I watched on VJJ Fanatics because I was like I really suck at passing, so let's see if there's something on here for passing. Oh, this is.
Speaker 3:Leo.
Speaker 2:Noguera, I had no clue. This was when I was training at Iron Wolf and which is down in Brouselton, georgia. Because of a job, I moved up and that's how I got to Alliance and we'll get in on that. But had no clue. He taught right down the road from where I just joined. And then Rodrigo's like yeah, I know him, he's my friend. Like what do you mean? He's your friend? It's like no, he teaches at Alliance. Like, oh my God. So yeah, another fanboy moment when I got to meet him, he doesn't know, this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he has no clue, he just was taking a picture. But yeah, awesome, amazing. And then at the seminar, oh gosh, what was it? It was the Lucas Lapri seminar.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, that was a great seminar.
Speaker 2:It kind of felt like we had like a mini championship when they kind of started rolling. Do you remember that you were there, right? I know we continued, yeah, no, I was hoping we were sitting there, like me, and Derek were sitting there, like this guy that goes to our gym and train with. We're like, oh my God, we're like watching this right here. So, no, that's awesome. Other question I have is trying to think how to phrase this, because I think it's important, especially for our female practitioner listeners. How do you hope to inspire and mentor upcoming BJJ practitioners, and especially women not only women, but especially women, because they're in these academies facing some of those same challenges that you faced. Almost every academy is gonna be male heavy, right?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Very few are gonna have a higher fee, I would say if any, at least in the US, are gonna have a higher ratio of female. So how do you hope to inspire?
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, I just hope that just through actions, just like through the actions, hoping to inspire, I don't know. Like I had one of the white belts girls come to me I think it was after I won the World Championship. She's like I wanna be you one day.
Speaker 3:I was like oh my God, really, I was like no way, like, and that really touched my heart because I never would have thought somebody would ever say that to me. And she was like no, I hope to be like like through my inspiration. I hope to be you one day. Like you give us hope that like we can do it. And I was like, really, I was like that's awesome. I was like, well, just train hard, keep drilling and don't give up.
Speaker 3:That's all I had to say you know, so that's all I have to say to just everyone. Listening, like, just train hard, don't give up, have a positive attitude. I really feel like mindset, our mind, can really get the best of us, and mindset is really where things turn around. You know, you can have the skill, you can have the aggression, you can be first. But if your mind is just like I don't know if I can do it, I don't know if I can win, I don't know if maybe I'm too small, maybe I'm too lighter that girl's bigger than me Like no, like you can do it. You have the technique, you can do it. You just have to tell yourself I can do it. You don't wanna say I don't or I can't do it. You wanna say I can do it, believe in yourself. And it takes even just like practicing. When you're at the school, when you're drilling with your teammates, you know you see a bigger girl or a bigger guy comes to you like, hey, I wanna roll, I can do it. Yes, they're bigger, but I can do it. Yes, like no, I'm not gonna sit this one out. Like I can do it.
Speaker 3:You know, it's just kinda just training your mind during your training as well. It's not just training your mind when you're on the mats or competing. It's training it during your day to day, your Monday through Friday. You know, so really just having a positive mindset and smile and be nice to one another. And you know, just and really just like build relationships, build friendships and be open. You know, like something that maybe I know, like I'm gonna share it with you I'm not gonna hold it back because I may see that you're I don't know, but I can't even think of the word but you wanna share, like the more you give, the more you get. So that's what I believe.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And that's how I feel like other women can really just to grow in this sport for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I know, I know that's a big question to ask and thank you for sharing that, because I think that's absolutely and we're talking from two different perspectives.
Speaker 2:You know me as someone who has less than you know, again two years. And you, who has multi years, multi, you know world titles and a black belt. But that's exactly what we need and the listeners need is you know the black belts, the purple belts, brown belts, even blue belts, sharing their knowledge and just you know, not holding back, cause that's how Jiu Jitsu continues, right Can?
Speaker 2:you imagine if any amount of knowledge was withheld back. You know, back in the day we wouldn't be where we are now. So, yeah, I think that's a big way to inspire is just knowledge share. Hey, I'm gonna show you. You know, I noticed something this may help you. I'm gonna give it to you, you know, and I'm not gonna charge you $19.95 or anything like that, but we're going, we're gonna get through this together. So I wanna make a pivot.
Speaker 3:We're willing to help each other. Yeah, yeah 100%, 100%.
Speaker 2:So I wanna make a pivot, you know, cause I know we got some time left, but we're coming to the kind of back end of the episode. But I wanna talk about your business, your being entrepreneurial and things like that. So could you share a little bit more of kind of about your fitness and nutrition business, kind of what it is, what you do specifically, maybe a little overview of how you work with your clients? And then I have a few more questions.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I have an online coaching nutrition business along with personal training as well. So basically I'll have men, women, come to me asking for nutritional guidance. It could be how to prepare before a tournament, what do I eat, what do I drink, kind of like what do I eat before Jiu Jitsu? What do I eat before weight training? What do I eat before a marathon? Stuff like that and I'll go ahead and guide them, also giving them functional exercises and trainings that they can add on on top of. You know if they're preparing for a marathon or preparing for a Jiu Jitsu competition or just wanting to just lose weight in general and just feeling better overall.
Speaker 3:So my business is just helping men and women wanting to just feel healthier throughout their day, have more energy, have energy to fuel their workouts and all of that. So I do that basically online and I have weekly phone calls, accountability calls, with them every single week. They also follow me through, so I give them the guidance through an app as well so I can see what they're eating and what they're saying. And it's not a judgemental zone at all. It's like, hey, go ahead and add in more protein. Your protein is only like a small piece of chicken, like go ahead and add like a protein shake, you know or go ahead and add in more carbs I know you're about to train Jiu Jitsu. You're gonna need that to fuel you for your trainings. You know a lot of people under eat and don't eat enough or forget to eat or don't hydrate enough. So that's what I'm there for. I just basically coach you every single day.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So that's what yeah.
Speaker 2:It's like yeah.
Speaker 3:And then through that, and then through that I mean weight loss comes or building muscle comes. It really just depends on physically how much they're eating.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's the issue I have right now is, well, one kudos for the convenience and being kind of that. I am your virtual Victoria nutrition All things help guide. I think that's amazing, the way health and nutrition is more accessible now than it has ever been through businesses like yours. You know, one of the biggest things for me. I don't know if I shared this with you either. Maybe I kept some of the good stuff for our conversation today. Yeah that. So in January, when I started training at Alliance January 2023, I weighed gosh. I think I weighed like 210 pounds and I'm only 5'11", so I was overweight. But since then, since training Jujitsu, I have lost, I think, 34 pounds. 34 pounds. It's crazy. But the problem with that is I did it incorrectly, right?
Speaker 1:I just was training.
Speaker 2:You know, in Jujitsu what do we burn in a training hour? Like 600 calories or something.
Speaker 3:Like I it really depends on your weight. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I did. I had started taking this medication too. That had curbed my appetite, and I didn't know that was one of the side effects, but it did. So I was doing Jujitsu six to seven hours a week. I was taking in maybe 1200 calories, maybe a day, my goodness you're under 18. Right, yes, yes. So I lost, like everybody's like, oh man, you're looking good, but what was happening? Was, I was losing all of my strengths too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're also and I started getting crushed in the rolls, I was like why am I so fatigued? And I'm like duh when I started looking at it. But that's always been an issue. That's always been an issue is the nutrition part. So it's good that someone like yourself understands not just the nutrition part, but specifically for Jujitsu practitioners and how the things that they need to be working at and the strenuous I can't say that word.
Speaker 3:The Strenuous right.
Speaker 2:There you go. Yes, that they go through. How do you think your experience in jujitsu has influenced your approach to business? That's a good one right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's good for sure. Well, for me it's working hard and not giving up. When it gets tough, you still work through it, and it's similar to when you're in that psyching position and you can't get that escape when you want. Oh.
Speaker 1:I like that.
Speaker 3:You know like you still push through, you still fight. You know and that's kind of how I apply it to being an entrepreneur when it gets hard or when you don't see just the results that you want yet, you know you just have to keep pushing through. It's going to come, you know. So it's just a that's how you apply it. You apply the pressure in jujitsu to, and overcoming that pressure in jujitsu to your entrepreneurship. In whatever business that you have, you know just keep fighting. You know, keep learning, keep expanding your knowledge and having that positive mindset. I mean you have a positive mindset when you're training, when you're rolling and then when you're having your business. You know keeping that positive mindset and just setting goals. Setting goals really helps. So when you set goals in jujitsu it helps, and when you set goals in your own business, it helps as well.
Speaker 2:Oh, perfect, perfect, yeah, and thank you for sharing that, and I think it's important because I would wager that somewhere out there in the jujitsu verse, or, yeah, the let's call it the jujitsu verse. I like that. Okay, there's someone thinking about starting a business. It may not be anything with health and nutrition, but you know, it's good to hear and it sounds like your advice would be go for it, go for it.
Speaker 3:Just do it, yeah, just do it Right, just start yeah. Yeah, exactly, just start yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because so I've been. So I'm retired first off, but I retired from government work. I was in the military for 14 years and then I, so my career now is a second career, but I've always had and I've met the corporate level, senior leader level, and you know I'm in talent acquisition and recruiting healthcare, as a matter of fact. Yeah, yeah, so we got that in common. Yeah, but I've always toyed with the idea of launching a recruiting business, and you want to know what it's going to be called when I do.
Speaker 3:What is it? Caffeinated.
Speaker 2:Caffeinated recruiting no, what? All right, I wonder if I can trademark caffeinated. I don't think I can but I should.
Speaker 3:I mean it's so, it's so genius, it's so good.
Speaker 2:So one of my it's all on caffeine for sure. Yeah, so one of the people I follow and I've read a couple of his books is Richard Branson, you know, the founder of Virgin Airlines, like, and that's basically all he did was just take the word virgin and like. I don't know if you trademark it but he just branded it right, and he's got like Virgin airline and there's alcohol and there's clothing, there's hotels, there's crazy stuff Anyway going off topic here.
Speaker 2:So let's talk future goals. Let's kind of close this thing out. What are your future goals? And jujitsu in your business what's next?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So I definitely want to win a few opens and championship at a Black Belt level. Nice, I will be fighting women who have been training jujitsu for way longer than probably my whole jujitsu journey in itself. I would love to just win a championship for sure. As a Black Belt Also teaching jujitsu, I want to get better at communicating how to break down the techniques and teaching other women teaching men and women in general Because I feel like if you can teach it, you'll better understand and being able to apply it in your roles as well. So, yeah, those are the two goals for jujitsu Awesome, yeah, awesome. And then for my business, just keep working hard, taking it day by day and setting goals for this year and try to help as many people as I can. That come my way, so yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's awesome. I would imagine you're training some of either alliance clients or some jujitsu practitioners. Are there any clients that you have that are training for something kind of wild and unexpected? This is what I mean by this. Sorry, this question just popped in my head. I did strength training, I got into jujitsu, I was powerlifting and competing in powerlifting and the gym that I went to my coach he was training someone get this who was trying to get better at parkour. He made him a workout plan to help him get better at parkour. So do you have any clients that are just doing something like crazy?
Speaker 2:I don't yet Like how challenging is that going to be? I want to be a professional shuffleboarder. Make me better. Like what, Like what. Are you trained for that? How do you train for that?
Speaker 3:Right, right, so that would be my fear doing what you do.
Speaker 2:Somebody comes to me with something crazy.
Speaker 3:I think I know someone. I will find someone that can definitely help you excel in this.
Speaker 2:For sure, if it's something like parkour and stuff, I'm like ah, yeah, yeah, like okay, yeah, there's nothing I can do to train you to jump off a building, so anyway, and then the office show comes to mind, where they're jumping in the trashcans and all of that.
Speaker 1:So, gosh.
Speaker 2:So any advice for listeners who are, who may have been inspired by your journey to start jujitsu or are thinking about starting jujitsu. Any final parting words?
Speaker 3:Just my advice is you know, conquer your fears, don't be afraid to jump in. If you are afraid, just do it anyways. Go ahead and just start. Just take that first step, because you never know where that first step is going to lead you.
Speaker 3:When I took my first step into alliance and school, into jujitsu, I had no idea that I was going to be where I am at today, but I literally just put one foot in front of the other each day and set small goals and that's how I was able to accomplish my dreams and my goals.
Speaker 3:And I just want to say to all the listeners out there if you have goals, if you have dreams, go ahead and write them down. And write down what are some things that can do each day that can push me towards that goal and push me to meeting that goal, you know. And then find some friends, find a community, find people that you look up to and have them help you stay accountable and get into those goals and to those dreams, because without you can't do it by yourself. You have to have that workout partner in the morning. When you have your 6.30 am trainings, you know that you have a friend there that's going to help you. Sometimes you don't. Sometimes you just got to just say a prayer and, man, I just got to get past my sleepiness just to go train, but just having people in your life to help push you, Awesome, awesome.
Speaker 2:And how can people who are inspired by listening to your journey and our conversation today and want to learn more about you and maybe your business, and we haven't even said the name of your business? What is the name of your business?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So it's simple, it's success.
Speaker 2:What is the?
Speaker 3:success with the eyes. It's short for Victoria coaching Awesome.
Speaker 2:And how can they contact you? What's the best way for them to reach out to you?
Speaker 3:Yeah, they can contact me through my Instagram. My Instagram is victoriadilgadobjj, and so just look me up there and they can reach out to me there and I can help them with whatever they need.
Speaker 2:Awesome, awesome, and thank you so much, victoria, for taking time this evening and listeners we're doing this at like 9 pm, by the way.
Speaker 3:So yes, we are.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much, and the world to me, and I know the listeners are going to enjoy the conversation. Thank you for sharing, thank you for being on. Thank you, joe.
Speaker 3:I really appreciate it. It's a pleasure talking with you and I am just so excited for your business and how many people this podcast is going to reach and just changing people's lives. So this is great. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2:Awesome, awesome and I hope you enjoy the listeners. As always, stay grounded, stay caffeinated and let's roll through this journey together. We will see you on the mats in the next episode.
Speaker 1:And that's the final tap on today's episode of. Caffeinated Jujitsu. A big thanks to all of our listeners, especially today's insightful guest, for sharing their BJJ knowledge and tales. If you felt that adrenaline rush and are hungry for more, hit, subscribe, drop a review and spread the Jujitsu buzz. For show notes and to contact the host, reach out to the email provided in the podcast description and to join our grappling community, head over to Instagram. Let those geese crisp. You're coffee strong and always be prepared for the next roll.