We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Aaron Quintana. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Aaron below.
Aaron, thank you so much for joining us today. Let’s jump right into something we’re really interested in hearing about from you – being the only one in the room. So many of us find ourselves as the only woman in the room, the only immigrant or the only artist in the room, etc. Can you talk to us about how you have learned to be effective and successful in situations where you are the only one in the room like you?
Combat sports is a very competitive sport. Nowadays whenever I hear somebody say, “They want to be the best in the world” most of them don’t realize what it takes to get there. In my opinion, there’s only two ways to qualify an individual: you either act upon or you are acted upon, meaning you are either a passenger on your own journey being a spectator or you are the one making the calls. When you see it like this you come to the conclusion that if you either win or lose that the outcome is completely up to you. I have also learned that comfort and fear have destroyed more relationships, careers, and world changing ideas than any armed conflict has ever done. So if these are what destroys our human nature, the only logical thing is to do the opposite of these things. If you wanna be your own person, the one that calls the shots in your life, you gotta be the one in the room that is different. You gotta be willing to endure more and become more mentally resilient than anybody in that room. This allows you to attack your fears and get out of your comfort zone with confidence. The way you build that confidence is through the proper education and putting in practice the knowledge acquired. You have to be willing to go through constant trial and error situations to cultivate your experience and knowledge but most importantly, to get to know yourself better both the good and the bad. This doesn’t happen overnight, everybody’s different, some might get to it quick, some might take days, months, years but that shouldn’t matter, because all it matters is the end result. You think the price to really find out who you really are is too high? Wait ‘til you get the bill for regretting not doing it.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
We are a Mixed Marital Arts gym that specializes in the instructions of combat sports, “MMA, Jiu Jitsu, Wrestling, Muay Thai, and Boxing.” We also provide personal training services focusing around general fitness whether it’s to lose weight, build muscle mass, or be more athletic. What I enjoy most about mixed martial arts is that it’s honest work – you can’t fake being good at it. If you are all talk and no walk you will be put on the spot. It’s either going to humble you enough to get better or destroy your ego to the point you quit. It requires for you to keep a student mindset if you are looking to get good results in the long run.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
I would say: -Discipline.
-Realistic and challenging goal setting.
-Learning to train your mind to obtain the right mindset.
My advice if you have an issue learning and mastering this skills, look for a mentor that you can learn from. There’s different ways you can learn from a mentor, the most common one is directly learning from them by having some kind of direct contact. This can be through working as an intern to have a chance to shadow them and learn from their daily activities. The other one is also learning by studying their habits, experiences and knowledge that is found mostly in books. Pick some role models that already have done what you’re trying to accomplish and study them so you can learn as much from their experiences as you can; this route is usually the most accessible one. Regardless of which one you pick, just remember that precious knowledge comes with a price. Sometimes you have to invest monetarily to continually educate yourself but most importantly, you have to be ready to invest the time, energy and focus that is required to educate and master the skills you’re lacking to accomplish a constant level of progress towards your goals.
Who is your ideal client or what sort of characteristics would make someone an ideal client for you?
I don’t really look for athleticism or skills, those are attributes that anybody can get just by putting in the time and effort, it’s something scalable. I like to train people that have the willingness and an open mind to do things that will get them out of their comfort zone. I like working with people that have fears and insecurities but that are willing to attack those regardless of what it takes. Those who are dying to prove something to themselves, it might be like a chip on the shoulder; these individuals are hungry for change. I like working with those who are ready to commit to themselves. Those are the dangerous ones, because they won’t stop at nothing until they have felt they obtained success, never budge, never quit. Those are attributes that are hard to teach, I feel that either you have it in on you or you don’t. Life experiences teach you those and if you’re careful enough to stop and watch for a second, you’ll find many instances in your life that have taught you these things. It’s up to us to see the situation as an annoyance or as a lesson in disguise that later becomes a blessing.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.quintanacombat.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/quintanacombat
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100075146805635
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@quintanacombatfitness4570
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/quintana-combat-and-fitness-dallas
Image Credits
-Zach Roe -Q The Photographer/Felix Quinones
