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My Goal Was Never to Build Champions — Professor Kenny Kim on Mat Made, The Jiu-Jitsu Millionaire & Self-Discipline EP113 episode artwork

EPISODE · Sep 15, 2026 · 57 MIN

My Goal Was Never to Build Champions — Professor Kenny Kim on Mat Made, The Jiu-Jitsu Millionaire & Self-Discipline EP113

from The Josh Button Podcast · host Josh Button

What if the most important stories in jiu-jitsu are the ones nobody is telling? Professor Kenny Kim — @KennyKimBJJ, Kenny Kim Academy Marietta GA, creator of Mat Made, author of The Jiu-Jitsu Millionaire, president of the Korean American Jiu-Jitsu Coalition, and curator of the world's largest BJJ gym directory — built his entire career around one conviction: my goal was never to build champions. My goal was to build people. In this episode Kenny covers how a DM from a Marine who put a pistol down after watching Mat Made confirmed why the show has to exist, the Anthony Bourdain-style docuseries format of the new season, why being in the middle on pricing is killing your gym, the 1977 Chevy Nova maintenance framework for training at fifty, and why self-discipline is the one word that governs every other practice in this conversation.Topics:→ Taekwondo at age 3, junior nationals, boxing and Muay Thai, opened first school at 20→ Finding jiu-jitsu through Roger Gracie's cousin in Alabama — the Brazilian Mike Tyson→ Twenty-plus years building people, not champions — the philosophy that never changed→ Mat Made origin: personal story book → docuseries → new season→ $120,000 quote from the first film crew. $30–40K per episode out of pocket.→ Dave Bautista was supposed to co-host. Hollywood happened.→ Seven full episodes, free on YouTube — the production team behind Atlanta reality TV→ The Marine DM: pistol to his head, watched the episode, put it down, started training→ The woman whose child was murdered. The blind practitioner. The stories the big platforms don't tell.→ New season: Anthony Bourdain docuseries style, smaller crew, same quality→ Vagner Rocha episode: questions about who he is as a man, father, community builder — never asked before→ Peru in November: Guardian BJJ nonprofit, Mancora surf town, Lima→ Ben Kovac, FloGrappling, Amazon Prime conversations — getting jiu-jitsu in front of non-jiu-jitsu people→ Korean American Jiu-Jitsu Coalition — president and community builder→ World's largest BJJ gym directory→ The Jiu-Jitsu Millionaire: co-written with Chris Wojcik, the business blueprint→ Be cheapest or most expensive — never the middle→ Walking into consulting clients with no P&L, no CRM, no student count — and not knowing how they're open→ Meeting Chris Wojcik at PGF finals with Ryan Aitken — organically into a book together→ Training longevity: the 1977 Chevy Nova maintenance phase→ Weight rule: nobody over 185–190 lbs, no exceptions unless high-level and trusted→ Sleep as the primary recovery tool — 10 PM to 2 AM is peak recovery→ Five to six days weight training, daily 2-mile morning walk, two to three rolling days per week→ Complete ACL, MCL, LCL tear and meniscus — his last competition four years ago→ Open invitation to Lima in November — Josh is seriously considering it→ People will remember how you made them feel. That is legacy.→ One word: Self-discipline━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🔗 Kenny Kim:IG: @KennyKimBJJ · Mat Made: @matmade_show🔗 Biospectral Systems — Brand Partner:Josh wears the Luca Nero frames · Code JOSHBUTTON · 15% off · biospectralsystems.com🔗 Lineage Provisions — Podcast Partner:Code JOSHBUTTON · 15% off · lineageprovisions.com🔗 Greco Gum — Brand Partner:Premium mastic gum from the Greek island of Chios · Code IAMJOSHBUTTON · 10% off · grecogum.com🔗 Find Josh:@thatjiujiteiro · @IamJoshButton · @stopkillingtheplants · joshbutton.comFree guides: HardtoKillinMidlife.com👍 Like and subscribe — it helps more people find this content.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

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My Goal Was Never to Build Champions — Professor Kenny Kim on Mat Made, The Jiu-Jitsu Millionaire & Self-Discipline EP113

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