Eliot Marshall

Eliot Marshall is a former MMA fighter and UFC veteran that appeared on Season 8 of The Ultimate Fighter.  He's a 4th-degree jiu-jitsu black belt, co-owner of Easton's Training Center in Denver, Colorado, an ADCC Veteran, F2Win Champion, IBJJF Medalist, author, podcaster, entrepreneur, husband and father.

Have you ever wanted to pack up, move, and try something new in life?  As in a fresh start.  We are talking about a new state, a new house, a new neighborhood, new friends, and new places to train.

That’s where I was mentally for a few years back in 2018-2020.

It all started with a fun trip to Denver, Colorado, in 2018. I published my third book, but my first that was related to Jiu-Jitsu. I had a training partner and friend, Tim Leslie, who was on a job rotation in Denver, and he kept telling me about this school(s) out there called Easton’s Training Center(s). 

I had never heard of Easton’s before those conversations with Tim, but he told me how much he loved training there and taking classes from this guy named Eliot Marshall.

Now, I knew Eliot from television.  I was a long-time UFC fan who also used to watch the Ultimate Fighter TV reality series.  I remember watching Eliot fight in the UFC.  But I never really associated him with Easton’s or jiu-jitsu in particular.  Eliot is a 4th-degree jiu-jitsu black belt, a karate blackbelt, the first American to win Pans at blue belt, purple belt, and brown belt (back when Pans were held in Brazil), a Fight2Win champion, an ADCC competitor, and the co-owner of Easton’s in Denver.

Tim mentioned that Eliot was starting a podcast, and if I was interested, he would connect the two of us so we could talk about my new book on the podcast. I thought it was a great opportunity, so I connected with Eliot and told him I would love to come to Denver, CO, to check things out, train, take some classes, and then we could record the podcast.

At the time, Eliot was one of the head coaches of the Elevation Fight Team, which trained out the Santa Fe location for Easton’s (basically the downtown location).  It would be an incredible opportunity to see how a professional fight team trains on random days.

When my wife and I arrived in Colorado, it was love at first sight. I traveled quite a bit for work and have visited many cities and states in the United States. I enjoyed seeing new places. In all my travels, I would find some of the places beautiful or unique, but I never said to myself, “I could totally see myself living here.”  Generally, I would say, “Cool place, but I can’t wait to get home.”

After meeting Eliot, my wife said, “If you want to move here, to train under Eliot, and do jiu-jitsu here, I’ll support it.”   Eliot just had that “it” factor.  I loved listening to him talk about the business side of martial arts, how to run the schools, treat customers, manage employees, and systematize business ownership processes.

I was quite stunned when I learned that Easton’s at the time had seven schools and thousands (yes, I said thousands) of martial arts students. This wasn’t some little random martial arts school tucked behind a dumpster. This was a full-fledged corporate enterprise with an executive team in place.

I was pretty curious about the business side of martial arts, school management, financials, best practices, and teaching methods.  Over the years, I learned a ton from Eliot that carried over to my professional life, even in the financial services industry.

Customer service and how we treat people apply to every business, as does process management. It was endearing that I was able to combine my love of jiu-jitsu and martial arts with my love of business.

The curse of all these trips and learning from Eliot is that once I knew what existed at an Easton school, that became my ideal benchmark. Undoubtedly, when other schools couldn’t match up to my Easton expectations, I would often feel let down or deprived.

I would go to Colorado when I could; when I did, I would always pop into an Easton’s school and try to connect with Eliot. In addition, Eliot was always on the road at the IBJJF major events (Worlds, Pans, Nationals, Master Worlds, Gi, No-Gi), so I would run into him every few months on the road and spend time together while we were hanging around a convention center for days on end.

As fate would have it, we moved Angela’s aging mother to live with us around the time we considered moving to Colorado.  Eventually, COVID hit the world, and my mother-in-law suffered a life-altering stroke.  Things quickly got complicated if we were to move while caring for her aging Mom.

We ultimately decided to stay put in Atlanta while caring for her Mom, and the years ticked by.  Alas, we never moved to Colorado to train under Eliot.

But when it came time for my black belt promotion, I called Eliot and told him the date. As soon as I told him, he blurted out, “Great, I’m there!”

Eliot offers entire online programs and a consulting practice for people interested in growing their martial arts schools. He also hosts a podcast called “Blackbelt Business Podcast” for those interested in managing martial arts schools' jiu-jitsu and taking their schools to the next level.

If you are looking to take your martial arts school to the next level, check out Easton Online here - https://www.easton.online/

And the podcast here - https://www.easton.online/blog