LifeFight Segment 026: Team USA vs Cuba with special guests champions Brendan Raymer & Drew Gigax!

Cuba has finally decided to open its ports to the US after a long spurt of banning Americans from their country. They highly dislike our “capitalist” ways and the dictator doesn’t want us to influence his fellow countrymen! Sooooo… what do WE do as soon as young Castro Jr. decides to unclench his fist, open the ports and allow Americans the opportunity that his father would never allow? WE GO IN AND START A FIGHT!

That’s right. American kickboxing promoter Chip Post saw this as a great opportunity to celebrate this suggestion with a kickboxing match up of Team USA vs Team Cuba! Cuba accepted the challenge and lined up their best men for the battle. Chip Post then went on a search throughout the U.S. to find the top fighters to represent us. One of his stops was Andre’s Academy where he asked for my two champions Brendan Raymer & Drew Gigax. We accepted without hesitation.

Of course I knew the position that he United States was in with Cuba, so when I upped Brendan and Drew’s training for the fight, I also included survival skills training just in case a war broke out. I educated them on how to make weapons from everyday items; rules on maintaining water & food; how to secure their hotel rooms from invaders and more. Raymer and Gigax would arrive in Cuba prepared to fight inside of the ring and outside of it if necessary.

Now if Cuba was going to allow America to “invade” them with their fighters for the 1st historical Team USA vs Team Cuba event, there was no way in the world that Cuba wanted us to walk away with a win. So the dictator, who owns and runs everything in the country from the banks to the carwashes, was sure to find his top fighters to verse Raymer & Gigax. Raymer’s opponent was Yosian Garbey, with at record of 13 wins – and 1 loss plus 20lbs on Raymer. Gigax’s opponent was Javier Mesa with a record of 29 wins -1 loss and 10 Kos! His Kos equaled the number of fights Drew Gigax had within his young career.

On this podcast you will hear the story directly from Raymer and Gigax regarding what occurred in their fights. And I guarantee you that that won’t be the most exciting part. During this podcast I could barely get the two to talk about the fight, because they had so much more to tell about their experience within the country. Their experiences of a lack of food and water; hourly weight drops and gains; overheating; dehydration; and more importantly, their moments with the citizens of this country that once banned Americans from ever stepping foot on their soil.

There’s a great lesson for us all as Americans to learn that can only be taught to you in this podcast by our two American warriors and courageous top fighters who learned more about America while in Cuba, than they did while growing up on U.S. soil. I learned A LOT interviewing them and trust me… you don’t want to miss it! You and everyone that you know needs to listen to this educational and inspiring interview because on this interview I’m no longer the only one in your corner… champions Brendan Raymer & Drew Gigax are too!


Stay Strong!

LifeFight Segment 025: Why we overeat

Just the other day I was explaining to Rebekah how I had eaten so much popcorn, candy, ice cream etc… in one sitting while watching a couple of movies that I made myself sick! I felt like I was about to puke at any moment AND moreover, I WANTED to puke. Now here’s the catch… I didn’t want to puke so I could feel better… I wanted to puke so I could continue to eat more! Yes, me. Now don’t sweat me too much because I’m sure you’ve probably been there a couple of times yourself. But this almost gluttonous moment in my life helped me to realize a new enemy that we had all better learn to stand up to. And that enemy is called, “Overeating!”

This is why I felt it was so important to do this podcast on “Why we overeat.” Overeating is becoming an epidemic in America opposite of other countries whose food epidemics usually stem from starvation or “undereating”. Now of course we know that one of the reasons that we overeat is because our food is easy for us to acquire. We don’t have to hunt, grow or harvest anything! It all sits on a shelf just waiting for us to trade slips of paper for it. I personally feel that this process desensitizes us from appreciating a lot of the food that we can easily buy. We take it for granted which can easily lead to our neglect.

In this LifeFight segment, “Why we overeat”, I give 7 reasons as to why we can’t seem to stop from converting our spoons, and forks into shovels whenever we’re around food. I feel that we all need to control our overeating and the first step is to know “why” we do it. Here are some of the reasons.

Boredom is a big factor in our overeating. When the mind isn’t occupied with tasks it easily steers towards food. Boredom is one of the worse experiences that we encounter as human beings, and we have learned how to battle it with food! No more boring work conventions or weekends at grandmas, because food will be there! So understanding that you may be overeating when you’re bored, offers you some insight that could help you to control this behavior. Find something to do when you’re bored so your mind doesn’t shift to food!

Peer pressure from family, friends, co-workers and even bosses can be a big part of your overeating. If you’re attending lots of business functions that are always catered heavily with food, this may be your vice. If some of your surrounding buddies are dedicated overeaters, they are going to be sure to always include you in the duty as they overstuff themselves. And definitely beware the baking grandmother or mother who may have you confused with Hansel & Gretel. This can be a hard battle because your family, friends, and possibly even boss could feel insulted when you don’t eat the cooking that they put their heart and soul or money into.

Visual attraction is another reason “Why we overeat”. Food companies load their products up with food coloring, carnauba wax, a ½ naked woman and anything else that can convince you to want it for any other reason than simply the taste of it. And if you’re doubting me I want you to think about how tasty the following items appear: Cupcakes; Jelly Beans; Ice Cream; Birthday Cake; Cotton Candy. Now all of these things are basically the same forms of everyday sugar, but the colors and decorations make us want to gobble them down more than we would if they were just brown or white.

Now of course I know that you know that it is my job to do more than just “inform” you of your enemies who make you overeat. I will also educate you on how to defeat them! But you have to listen to the podcast to get that info. But fret not! It’s FREE for you to listen! See. You never have to worry because…Now, I’m your corner!

LifeFight Segment 024: Beyond CCW


Are YOU ready to be a legal vigilante? Well get your tights and cape out because as of now, it is legal for you to be a superhero in most states in the U.S. How do you get signed up to play the position of Kick Ass in your neighborhood? Surprisingly you may be a citizen who already is signed up and has taken on the duty to kick some criminal booty, and in this segment, Beyond CCW, I’m going to give you tips so you don’t end up with your Ass Kicked!



As we zip through space and time things around us change. And if we want to keep up and survive among those changes, we had better make some changes ourselves. One of the changes that we’re finding ourselves having to make as Americans is within our self-defense. Criminals are getting so bold and savvy that they’re manipulating around law enforcement to comment crimes upon the everyday citizen. Carjacking, home invasions, attacking joggers in the park, are all sneaky crimes that have become so hard for law enforcement to stop, that citizens have voted to take the law into their own hands. And the tactic that citizens are using is to arm themselves with guns while away from their homes!



Of course it always seems a sensible solution to fight fire with fire when your enemy is burning the crap out of you. For clarification, I personally do agree with arming the 75 year old woman with a .357 who has to walk past the group of gang members in North St. Louis to buy groceries. All citizens should have an equal chance at immediate defense against a criminal, and we all know that most if not all criminals use guns. Sometimes law enforcement can’t respond before the criminal does his deed, and none of us feel that our life or the life of a loved one is worth taking the chance to see if the police can make it on time, this time.



HOWEVER… even though this has proven to be a sensible solution, there are problems with gun carriers that are beginning to surface. #1: Some gun carriers feel that they aren’t receiving enough training with the certification course so they still won’t carry their firearm. #2. Criminals are targeting gun carriers and robbing them of their guns.



Now you know as well as I do that I could hand you a certificate to carry nunchucks and it wouldn’t matter one bit if you have no training with using them. Furthermore, it may be nice that you can swing them around with fancy moves while we’re in the safety of the dojo and you aren’t under any kind of real attack, but how are you going to respond when there’s a serious threat in front of you? You don’t know because you’ve yet to feel the pressure of an attack with that weapon in your hand.



In this podcast segment, Beyond CCW, I talk about some of the incidents where legal pistol packing citizens are robbed of the pistol that they’re packing by savvy criminals. I also cover the areas where gun carriers are extremely vulnerable to be attacked BECAUSE they are carrying a gun. I will give you tips from my Beyond CCW training course on how to assure that you don’t end up on the embarrassing end of having your gun taken from you.



There’s much to consider in regards to self-defense if you are a gun carrier than just carrying and having the will to shoot. The most important is the action of making an effective draw. There are many things to consider when trying to make an effective draw such as; #1. Where your gun is upon your person. #2. What kind of clothing you have to maneuver through to get to your gun. #3. How close your attacker is to you. #4. What or who is between you and the attacker. That’s a small example of some unconsidered things that can get you stuck in the draw during a panicking situation. And this podcast segment, Beyond CCW will cover many more of the angles that you and the certifying...

Segment 023: Impossible Self-Defense Situations

Hello strong listener. I hope all is well for you. In this LifeFight segment, Impossible Self-Defense Situations, I plan to give you some tips, info and even strategies to assure that you never get caught in a situation where it may be impossible to use self-defense. This could happen to you and believe it or not, it happens to people every day. This is because criminals think just as we do, and they are becoming savvier in working around awareness and even security features. And this is why I plan to give you some Intel to keep you ahead in the battle.

In the opening of Impossible Self-Defense Situations podcast I cover one of the current lessons at my Mixed Martial Arts Academy. I’m sure you know that most self-defense development occurs inside the safety of the dojo walls, where strong measures are taken to assure that injuries don’t happen. This gives students and members a confident feeling of safety while also shielding them from the harsh weather conditions. As necessary as these elements are in a modern dojo for it to operate correctly for modern day people, these comforts can weaken the trainees defense. How you ask? By programming the mind to always be comfortable and familiar when executing self-defense techniques. This will happen to the brain if the trainees always train in the same environment, with the same tone and the same classmates. Therefore, I took it upon myself to bring a change to my members, and we all trained outside in the parking lot, in our cars! I showed them how to Hammer Fist the groin of an unwanted passenger; how to donkey kick someone who tries to force their way in the car and more! It was a great experience for them all that brought a small shock to the brain. Be sure to extend your self-defense training outside the classroom.

Let’s move along into Impossible Self-Defense Situations. The first situation that was brought to my attention was the shooting of a reporter while she was conducting an interview. The gunman walked right up to her and open fired. She never saw him coming. Unfortunately she and her cameraman were both killed. A situation such as this one proves to be very difficult to defend, because reporters are taught to zone out their surroundings when they are reporting. It is not only a honed skill; it is a requirement that allows them to perform their job well. Sadly this skill totally diminishes their awareness at that moment. However, as hopeless as a situation such as this may seem, there is something that can be done to detour this outcome. I reveal this tactic in this podcast.

Another Impossible Self-Defense Situation that was brought to my attention was a carjacking that occurred in a woman’s garage. A lady drove her Toyota Camry into her home garage and hit the button to close the main door. She stepped out of her vehicle as the door closed but then the door suddenly opened back up. She looked over at the garage door to see 2 gunmen coming at her through the opening garage door. They assaulted her and stole her vehicle.

In this situation the attackers obviously stalked this lady to learn her behaviors, hid as she drove up, then used the safety feature of the garage to gain access to her home while she was alone and secluded. These carjackers had a thorough plan that they executed in a timely manner. These types of attacks can be hard to defeat but not impossible. If you want to assure that you don’t become the victim of a harder working, thinking criminal then you have to work harder on your awareness. In this podcast I will give you some advice, and tactics to blow the whistle on a sneak attack like this.

The next Impossible Self-Defense Situation that was thrown at me was very upsetting. I was surprised that situations such as this one even existed, but horribly they do. I was even shown video of people getting...

Segment 022: Magnificent Martial Art Movie Messages

Hello strong listener! In this LifeFight segment, “Magnificent Martial Art Movie Messages”, I am going to reveal hidden messages of morale that I have found in numerous martial arts movies. Of course I know just as you do that movies were created mainly for entertainment, but I think there are some movie creators whose intentions are a little more than just selling a ticket.

The original “KARATE KID” may be a corny, old timer’s movie to today’s younger generations, but it is definitely on the top of my list as a deliverer of a Magnificent Martial Art Movie Message. Even though the main character, Danny, did commit himself to training hard and practicing the martial arts to defeat his neighborhood bullies, there is something else that Danny had that made him trainable, and gave him true hope to defeat the rival experts who had been training way longer than him. Of course this trait in Danny was never officially pointed out in the movie, and many people may not have even noticed it about Danny. This trait existed within Danny before he even met the martial arts instructor who guided him on the path to change his life. This trait of Danny’s was courage. All through the movie Danny refused to back down to the bullies, even when he knew he was going to get beat up by the whole group. This is the main power that gave Danny potential to defeat his enemies, and I think the writer and director did an excellent job of strategically placing this message within the movie.

Another favorite of mine that delivers a Magnificent Martial Art Movie Message is “KUNG FU HUSTLE!” This movie is an incredible act of humor, special effects and super powered martial artists. It has many messages that it delivers, and one of my favorite ones is the message that, “just because you do the right thing doesn’t mean that you are going to win.” Of course this message was delivered in a heartbreaking scene, where the star of the show steps in as a child to save a blind girl who is being bullied by a gang of older boys. Now the star of the show had previously been practicing “The Rotating Palm” martial art style daily before this incident. He had even developed enough power to make the trees sway when he delivered his deadly strike in the air. Well, things don’t work out like he expects when he decides to strike one of the bullies with his Rotating Palm technique. The technique fails and the bullies beat the snot out of him then celebrate by urinating on the defeated child. Of course our little star is shamed in front of the little girl, and he runs off as she tries to pick him up. Now the Magnificent Martial Art Movie Message that I saw in this scene was that the little boy succeeded in his effort even though his martial art failed in the way that he wanted to use it. He still saved the girl even though he had to take the beaten that she may have ended up taking. This is an important message that we all must learn when it comes to playing the true hero. Heroes don’t always shine.

The last Magnificent Martial Art Movie Message that I’m going to reveal to you comes from one of my personal favorite movies, KUNG FU PANDA! KUNG FU PANDA delivers so many messages that I think the writer, and director had to be levitating over a lily pad when they put this hilarious, heart wrenching movie together. One of the powerfully Magnificent Martial Art Movie Messages that was delicately placed was that, “one’s weakness can become one’s greatest strength when given proper attention.” Throughout the movie the star character, Po, was ridiculed and even hated for his obese stature. Even he knew that his body structure did not fit that of the great martial artist that he was expected to become to save the village from the ruthless villain Tae Lung. When the show down arrived, Tae Lung even defeated Po’s heroes, “The Furious Five”. But when Tae Lung...

Segment 021: How to be the baddest Mo Fo in the room

Hello strong listener! I hope you’re taking all that life can give you and smiling with every trying step that empowers your character! Today’s LifeFight podcast session is titled, “How to be the baddest Mo Fo in the room!” And in case you’re wondering what I may mean with this title, I am speaking in regards to being the toughest, roughest, readiest to kick but sum bit*h everywhere that you go! Now I know you’re wondering how in the heck am I going to convert you into this Double Bad, Fire Breathing Jet Li Dragon over the radio without the disposal of my dojo, pads, bags, and sticks to beat you into shape with! Well, it’s time that I give you my secrets on how I assure to always be the “The Baddest Mo Fo In The Room” before I even ball a fist.

The first thing that I am going to teach you is to research who else is going to be where you’re planning to go. You can’t be the baddest Mo Fo in the room if you choose to attend a place where the losing team of a bunch of pissed off, steroid pumped, muscle head Rugby players are going to go, and drink after getting their butts handed to them by their rivals! So step one is to always get the best recon that you can on who else may be where you’re going to be. Now if you choose to attend a High School’s 50 year reunion… you might have being the baddest Mo Fo in the room in your pocket before you walk in the door.

The next strategy to assuring that you’re the Baddest Mo Fo in the Room is to wear loose fitting clothing that you can maneuver comfortably in. You never know when you may have to defend yourself, so don’t ever skimp on being properly prepared. When I worked as a nightclub Bouncer I watched too many people lose battles they should have won due to tight pants, tight shirts and jackets. Every punch, kick or movement that they tried to make during the intense moment was restricted, and basically restrained by their sexy outfits. Clothing that was too loose was also the dreaded failure of many wanna be Hipsters, as their sweatpants bottoms rolled under their shoes giving their foe the winning advantage as he tripped to the ground.

Carrying secluded weapons is another way to stay on top of your gain to be the Baddest Mo Fo in the Room! Now understand what I mean when I say, “secluded”! This means no showing off and bragging to your buddies about it! Keep it to yourself in an unknown, concealable, easy to get to spot. Now I don’t want you to think that I’m offering you the freedom to break the law because I’m not. You’d be surprised at the legal items that you can carry that make better weapons than the one’s regulated by law. And yes I actually do reveal some of these items in this podcast to help you be the Baddest Mo Fo in the Room!

Remember to NEVER sacrifice safety and security for comfort and/or fun. If an incident happens to you or someone that you care for, it will be devastating and will cause unpredictable changes in the life that you’re used to living. Listen to “How to be the Baddest Mo Fo in the Room” and learn some easy preparedness and awareness tactics that may someday save your life. Then assure that everyone that you care for also listens so all of you can always be safe and ready.

Jermaine Andre’

“Now I’m in YOUR corner!”

SEGMENT #020: 8 Ways to destroy your workout

Hello! I hope your morning is going good because NOW it is time for me to really get on you about that workout! If you are a student or client of mine’s then this is a place that I get to mini-monitor in this podcast where you can usually hide from my pointing finger! And if you are not a student or client of mine’s you are about to receive some FREE overspray lessons as I shower everyone in this LifeFight podcast episode with, 8 Ways to Destroy Your Workout!


The funny thing about this podcast is that it has absolutely nothing to do with what you do in the gym, on the track, in the pool or wherever you choose to get your fit on. This has to do with what YOU (and I) do when we’re not under the judging eyes of our fellow fitness and/or martial arts associates. 8 Ways to Destroy Your Workout is about what we do at home, at work, for entertainment and even before AND after our workouts! These are the moments that we can destroy everything that we busted our whoohoos to create while leaving us in a fog as to why we aren’t getting the results that we’re seeking.


But before I get into that juicy and possibly upsetting info, I definitely have to cover the story about the National Guard leader who was told by the Governor to put down the cheeseburgers, cake & ice cream! Yes, believe it or not our General of the National Guard is doing an excellent job in representing the American people in the area of obesity. And he’s doing such a good job that the Governor had to step in and pull him away from the dinner table! It sounds like this National Guard leader could probably add some powerful information to this podcast! Lol!


Getting back to the 8 Ways to Destroy Your Workout, the first point that I make is in regards to the lack of stretching! Neglecting stretching can destroy your workout in many ways with the main culprit being INJURIES! Stretching is neglected by fitness enthusiasts because it isn’t exciting or very active. This leaves us to feel as if we aren’t accomplishing much towards our fitness goal because we aren’t sweating or breathing heavy. And the flipside of this coin is even worse, because we may even use our precious stretching time to sit and be lazy instead of properly stretching. Well in 8 Ways to Destroy Your Workout I will give you my secrets to stretching, and how I can still put the bottom of my foot on a 6 foot tall standing man’s forehead, while maintaining the figure of a bodybuilder.


Another big “boo boo” that we all do in this world that demands all of our time and energy just to survive is a lack of recovery rest. It’s funny that I writing to you about this one in exact, because I am actually taking a day off because I was lacking rest. My past 2 days of workouts have $ucked badly. I’ve been weak and tired during my workouts and couldn’t complete my full tasks. I’ve had to crawl out of bed tired and even had to drag myself through the days. It was time for a break because I was destroying my workout by not allowing my muscles to recover and heal. I slept in this morning and took the day off of the training floor to allow some rest and recovery time. Now I should be 100% better when I face back off with that heavy bag tomorrow!


More opponents to your workout that I cover include but are not limited to; eating bad foods; overdosing supplements; ignoring potential injuries and much more. Working out is hard and the last thing that we want to do is to lose everything that we worked so hard to gain. 8 Ways to Destroy Your Workout will help you to identify when you may be breaking down your hard work. Ignorance is destructive and knowledge is constructive. The knowledge of 8 Ways to Destroy Your Workout will empower you with the vision to see the minute mistakes that can have a massive impact on your results. Be sure to listen to this...

LIFEFIGHT Segment #019: Special guest Shawn Stevenson of the Model Health Show

On this segment of LifeFight I have Shawn Stevenson sitting in the studio with me to bring you some of the nutrition advice that I don’t have the time or experience to give you. Lol! Shawn Stevenson is a bestselling author and creator of The Model Health Show, featured as the #1 Nutrition and Fitness podcast on iTunes. A graduate of The University of Missouri – St. Louis with a background in biology and kinesiology, Shawn went on to be the founder of Advanced Integrative Health Alliance, a successful company that provides Wellness Services for both individuals and organizations worldwide. Shawn is also a dynamic keynote speaker who has spoken for TEDx, universities, and numerous organizations with outstanding review. However, one of the main reasons that I chose to bring Shawn on my show is because he has an amazing story healing himself of an incurable disease through nutrition and fitness.

During Shawn’s younger years he was a highly accomplishing athlete with plans to take on the world! Everything was working in that direction for him until he learned from a doctor that it was game over for him. He was informed that he had an incurable condition that would leave him handicap, in pain and on medication for the rest of his life. The doctor informed Shawn that there was nothing that he could do about it. It was inevitable.

Shawn respectfully took the professional doctor’s advice and seized his mission in athletics. He gained bad weight and was quickly converted from Shredded Athlete Shawn to Fluffy Sit Around Shawn. The condition started to take Shawn to a state of depression and self pity. Shawn couldn’t believe how this could happen to him at such a young age especially when he was such a healthy and athletically powerful person. And Shawn couldn’t believe it so much… that he STOPPED believing it!

I’m not going to go any further into the story because I don’t want to spoil what occurred next, but I will assure you that you don’t want to miss this inspiring story of how Shawn cured himself by going AGAINST the directions of his doctor. The steps that Shawn took can be the same steps that you take to get control of your body when the professional, certified experts tell you that you can’t do a damn thing about it!

I reminded Shawn of how 80% of the food that is sold to us is loaded with sugar and that sugar has been clinically proven to be 3x more addictive than heroin. I then informed Shawn that I love sugar just as most Americans do. And after throwing my own dirty laundry out in the street right in front of Shawn and my strong listeners, I assured that there was also NO way that Shawn to escape the studio without giving ME and my listeners some tips on how to break the sugar habit. Shawn gave exceptional tips on how to snap through this addiction that is advertised and programmed into our American brains all day long. One tip was to be sure to find a replacement for the sugar when you take it out of your eating habits. A great replacement that he named was sweet potato!

So enjoy listening to The Model Health Show’s Shawn Stevenson as we chop up some nutrition plans to help everyone not only get a little healthier, but to possibly even cure something that the experts are telling you is incurable! Thanks for always being a strong listener and please feel more than free to load me up with your reviews! Your reviews feed the needs of myself and my co-host Rebekah Beck.

Jermaine Andre’

“Now I’m in your corner.”

LifeFight Segment 018: Youth Attacking Back in School

Hello. I hope all is well for you. I’d like to congratulate you on your endurance to keep in stride with me on the past LifeFight Segments. There’s been some very intense segments and some funny ones. A lot of life lessons have been taught and I’m sure some questions and thoughts have surfaced in your mind. And the best part of all of this is that we haven’t even begun!

In this LifeFight Segment, Youth Attacking Back in School we discuss whether kids should or shouldn’t be allowed to fight back when attacked. But before we get into that conversation we discuss Rebekah’s mysterious 2 week disappearance and how it happened. Rebekah is back in the studio with healthy and ready to blame everything on me. Lol!

Of course we all know that we can cause serious harm to our bodies by over eating and not working out. But did you know that you can also cause serious harm to your body by not eating enough and working out too much!? This is what happened to Rebekah. She put herself on a cut and ate small meals while doubling her workouts. This didn’t fare well and it even lead to the dehydration and malnourishment of her body. In the beginning of this segment we’ll discuss how this occurred and how you can avoid this from happening to you.

With regard to Youth Attacking Back in School, I’m sure you’re more than excited to hear my daughter Kaitlyn’s thoughts on this topic, and of course I have her in studio with me. My having her in studio with me also keeps me in check because I can’t tell you to do something with your kid that I wouldn’t do with mine. We all know that the word among the administration in junior and high school is that if a bully attacks you, don’t fight back! Well, what do you think I tell my daughter Kaitlyn to do if a bully attacks her? You will surely learn in this podcast.

Serious, permanent damage can be done during a bullying attack and this is one of the reasons that I am not a fan of a child allowing another aggressive child to just pound on them until adult help hopefully arrives. Teeth can be lost, bones can be broken and even serious brain trauma can occur to a person who isn’t fighting back when brutally attacked. So the protocol of “not fighting back” in school brings up the concern of serious injury to the child who didn’t initiate the attack and may be innocent. I ask you… Is this the American way to lay back and accept an attack while hoping that someone may aid you? Is this a direct violation of civil rights to tell a child that he will lose his schooling if he defends himself?

Many of us older folks know that when an everyday kid finally puts a smack down on the neighborhood bully, it shuts down that bully. I tell a story on this Youth Attacking Back in School podcast about my fourth grade experience in school with a bully, and how what I did to him not only shut down him as a bully, it shut down his bigger older brothers. This was always an effective way for youth to deal with bullying 20 years ago. But now with the “NO FIGHT BACK” clause in schools, this neighborhood remedy has been eliminated.

You may know that I am no stranger to the hallways of at-risk schools and children. I spend my time in these types of schools teaching calmness and self-control to some of the youth through Mixed Martial Arts. This has fortuned me to see things from the administration and teacher’s perspective also. Believe it or not, the teachers who work in schools that have bullying concerns deal with a high level of stress every second. AND through my experience in the halls with the fights, and the young mobs, I have learned the sensible reason why teachers, principals and school administrators must have a policy that DOES NOT allow youth to “fight back!” or things will get worse for everyone!

It appears that youth today are in a predicament while...

LIFEFIGHT-Show 017-Beware of Human Trafficking

Hello! This is a very important segment for you to listen to. It is on Human Trafficking. Human Trafficking is a multibillion dollar industry that operates here in America, and possibly even in your neighborhood. The modern organizers of Human Trafficking have developed trapping tactics that can make it directly into your living room while you’re standing there watching. In this segment, Beware Human Trafficking I will have an expert researcher, Christy Huse, on the line with me who will expose these tactics. I will then give you ways to be prepared, aware and to defend if Human Trafficking ever happens to land on your doorstep.

One of the ways that Human Traffickers can operate is by identifying who they are going to kidnap off of the desires of their clients. Orders can be placed for certain types of victims and the kidnappers will go out to find what is wanted. This alone can make anyone an immediate target that may not have been a target just seconds ago.

The average target age for a victim is 13 years old. Girls are the main target but boys are also targets. Human Traffickers usually target run-aways and/or those from abusive family backgrounds. They do however adjust their webs to snare those from normal backgrounds if the description of the victim and situation fits.

All Human Trafficking doesn’t involve a violent kidnapping. Your neighbor, friend or even a family member can be a part of a Human Trafficking cell. Human Traffickers can be men and even women. Men can step into a targets life and play the role of the understanding boyfriend while turning the target against her family as he builds her trust. Female Human Traffickers can do the same by playing the “mother role” to young, girls. These types of Human Traffickers will usually be loaded with a fake identity and will shower their target with gifts.

All victims of Human Trafficking aren’t necessarily kidnapped and shipped out to another country. Many are even allowed to return home while forced to continue to work when called upon. They are controlled with threats of injury or death to them and/or their loved ones. Many young victims of Human Trafficking still live at home with their parents, and attend Junior High School or High School. Eventually these type of Human trafficking victims are brainwashed to believe that the cell is their family and they are converted into recruiters.

Christy points out that parents have to be stricter on their children. Don’t be afraid to upset your child because your are questioning them, snooping or saying no to things that you aren’t comfortable with. Get to know their friends and don’t’ allow them to go to parties and places that you know nothing about. Christy revealed that another way that Human Traffickers operate is to drug the drink of a target at a party so she will pass out. Once she passes out they sell use of her body to predators while she is unconscious. Then she will awaken the next morning having no idea as to what occurred.

Beware photoshoots and modeling invites on the social media. Human traffickers also play on girls’ dreams to be a star. Never allow your child to attend one of these functions alone even if it seems legit, and is under the name of a legit company. Human Trafficking cells have mastered masking themselves behind the names of legit companies. They then trap the ladies of choice who attend these try outs. Always research these companies and attend them with your child.

Human Trafficking is a big problem in the U.S. and world. Please don’t ever think that it can’t make it to your front door. Pay attention to the people that you allow around your child and stay deeply involved in your child’s life. Traffickers usually look for easy targets but they have also devised tactics that allow them to get to more difficult targets if...