I hate when titles bury the lead. You click on them and need to hear a rambling story about nonsense until they actually get into the meat of it, if they ever do at all. I am not trying to do that. But, if you want to know how I messed up, I have to explain what it is I’m doing, or at least trying to do, so buckle in.
In 2020 I came up with an idea for Grapplerpedia, and online encyclopedia for grappling techniques. I grabbed the name on the socials and proceeded to do nothing with it. Honestly, I don’t know if it’s been a blessing or a curse. I haven’t stopped thinking about it. I knew what I wanted it to be, dreamed up all kinds of features, but I could never figure out the most important part, how to actually build the thing. I am not a programmer, and I don’t have funding. Paralyzed by choice. Convincing myself I was doing “work” by dreaming up a new feature, but in reality accomplishing nothing. It’s haunted me like a specter for 7 years.
I tried once or twice to post some things to build an audience, but it was too difficult to maintain, needing two other people to film any techniques. I couldn’t stay consistent.
But something happened in the last 7 years, I turned 40. Now, I’m full of regrets. Things I wish I did. Things I wish I didn’t. Taking inventory and realizing I’ve been treading water my entire life, waiting for one day. I am most certainly past the halfway point of my life. It is now or never.
In July of 2025 I went for it. Whatever it was. I still didn’t know how to actually get to the point where I could have a website or an audience, but I knew doing nothing would produce just that, nothing. I started filming techniques, posting 3 times per week on the main socials, Instagram, YouTube, and Tiktok. I figured out a schedule, started to film in batches, learned a little bit of editing, and how to stick to a schedule. Be consistent. Let’s be clear, I still needed 2 other people to film, a camera operator and a partner. My wife and daughter, who are both now purple belts, filled those rolls. I can’t thank them enough for donating their time.
On a sidenote, it was also cathartic. Any issues that were brimming below the surface between us at the moment quickly came out during filming and we had to work through them to get the work done. It made us closer.
I was starting to gain momentum. One reel on Youtube really popped off in September. It was just a calf slicer from lockdown. It got something like 10M views that month. Currently, at the end of May 2026 it’s at 30.6 M views. I still have no idea what was going on with that.
In October 2025 I started posting daily. One technique a day, every day. I started to treat this like a business. All the while I have been building grapplerpedia, at least, laying the groundwork. I tracked my numbers daily, saw what worked, saw what didn’t. All videos were 5-12 seconds long, no talking, just a move.
This was where I think I started to mess up. Everyone in jiu-jitsu, on the internet at least, has the answer. Honestly, everyone everywhere has the answer. Answers are meaningless without the question. If you’re learning a Kimura, I could tell you how you’re going to mess it up, but it’s less likely to stick, less likely to be valuable without walking the path. Once you messed it up a few times or struggled with it, then the answer would mean more. My goal is to give you the tools to learn how to ask the question. Just because I posted a technique doesn’t mean I endorsed it. I think at least 70% of the moves I posted were either hype specific or just nonsense. I was trying to promote a discussion or at least show things I thought was interesting. Without saying anything. Smart.
But it worked. Number went up. In February I noticed was close to being monetized on Youtube. It was never a goal, but I thought it would be a good mile marker, a sign I was working in right direction. And I did it. I’ve currently made about $230. I know it’s nothing, but I think it’s impressive to make that much at $0.03 per view. I am going in the right direction.
On May 7th, 2026, I hit 50,000 subscribers on Youtube. I was at 2,000 in July 2025. It was working! I was doing it! I was at 29,800 subs on Instagram, 17,800 subs on TikTok and 36,000 on Facebook. I was building an audience, ready to move into phase 2. I was on track to get the 100k plaque by the end of the year. But then it all started crashing down.
On YouTube, I was at consistently around 10M views per month and 500,000 in 48 hours. But then the numbers started dropping, and dropping, and dropping.
So I dug into the analytics. At least 75% of my audience doesn’t speak English. 50% of my audience is India and Vietnam. In my top 10, the first English speaking country is the US at 8th place with 2.2%. I had built a massive audience that was never going to actually follow me. They couldn’t.
I can’t tell you how much of a massive blow this was. All this work, all this time, wasted. I didn’t build anything.
I took some time to think. What’s the goal? What am I doing? Am I trying to be a social media influencer? No. I wanted to create something new, something different. A brand, an identity, a legacy. Instead I became a slave to the algorithm.
We became good at content production. Really good. As I sit here, I have posted 150 techniques this year, one per day, with 50 edited and ready to go and another 30 ish still to be edited. We haven’t filmed anything since December 16th 2025. That’s how much we stocked up.
I say that like I’m proud of it. I am, but I’m also not. It was a lot of hard work, and time commitment from my family, but it proves I built a system. Just not for the right direction. But, it is a system I will need for Grapplerpedia.
So what now? I have had a 98% collapse in views on Youtube. I went from averaging 500k views in 48 hours to 20k. It’s been like that for 3 weeks now. I don’t think it’s going to come back. Instagram peaked at 30k subs in March, and is also doing down, sitting at 29.7k subs. Finally, it’s happening to Tiktok. This week I have a net growth of 0.
I put the cart before the horse. The social media platforms should be supplement. Instead, I made them the main course. Empty calories.
Now, I going to do this newsletter. Giving me a better opportunity to be me. Put out my ideas about what Grapplerpedia is, the hidden concepts of jiu-jitsu, and most importantly who I am.
I still have 50 ish videos edited, ready to post. I am going to burn them off, ending in the middle of July, and then they’re done. I am going to continue making a longform video once per week. There will be this newsletter. There’s a small project to kick start it I’m doing next I think you will enjoy (more on that soon). But most importantly, the website.
And honestly, I am scared to death of it. It’s been lingering in my mind for too long. I am so scared of it failing. Not finding an audience. Pouring all this work into it, only for it to be rejected. The same level of fear I felt every time my wife went into labor.
But I’m afraid of never knowing more.
Unless there’s a damn good reason, this website will be live by the end of 2026. No matter what Frankenstein like form it launches in. I am sick of this idea screaming in my head, constantly absorbing my thoughts.
It’s now or never.