Today we’d like to introduce you to Miguelangel Campo.
Hi Miguelangel, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was born in Newark, New Jersey to immigrated Colombian parents from Barranquilla. The city I grew up in was hard, I was one of the lucky ones to have both parents in my household. Growing up, I saw my parents work hard and sacrifice a lot for me and my brother including time with each other to make sure someone was always there to take care of me and my little brother. We grew up in a little attic that was converted into a one-bedroom apartment.
I was a very shy kid growing up and sports made me feel confident. They came easy to me when it came to learning and playing with them. I feel you; I find lessons in athletics and sports. An athlete at heart finds beauty in all its components. Losing is necessary to find your weaknesses and work on them to not find yourself there again. I learned a lot about teamwork, discipline a lot of times now I wish I would’ve put even more effort more sacrificing time and work. I wasn’t the best athlete but I knew how to use what I had very well, my passion has always been competing and playing I’m very competitive but more than anything it’s what I find fun.
I enjoy learning and seeing where I would get to. My dad introduces me to sports early on, as long as I can remember I remember playing basketball football, baseball you name it. Since I started walking, I would always have a ball in my hand. My dad would take me out to the park and teach us sports…. The outdoors has always been my playground and have always I loved hanging, swinging, and climbing. Also, my parents put me into taekwondo so I like to think I’ve been an athlete my whole life. I like to compete I like the camaraderie I love the demand the sacrifice the lessons that I feel only sports can teach you.
Aside from that my favorite thing was watching sports and movies on tv with my dad. When we weren’t watching Michael Jordan, we were watching movies every kid grew up with in the 90s I was into the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Spider-Man, and Batman. Were my favorite. Out of all the movies we watched I use to love Jean Claude Damme movies. Aside from thinking he was a badass and the coolest guy on the planet. I always liked the characters he played (not so much for the acting). He always had to be able to beat all the odds, search deep inside beat the villain, and become the hero. As a boy thought that’s what a winner should look like. I feel like the things that we intake and watch growing up were exposed to and watched as kids mold us into who we are.
I feel like it has a lot to do with what I’m doing today and is the inspiration for everything I am doing today and what Doyo Dojo is. It’s like All the things I enjoyed as a kid, evolved and rolled into one place. In most of his movies to overcome the unsurmountable odds, and take out the villain he would have to go out and search for a place far away where he can isolate himself to learn the skills needed to be his best version. The place was usually up in a mountain or remote place somewhere where he would meet a sensei who would push him to his brink through tests and intense training, both physical and mental, sometimes even enduring unimaginable pain.
But all his sacrifice all the training that seemed impossible at first would slowly strengthen him and fortify him not only physically but mentally as well. It teaches him confidence, patience, and how to trust his instincts but more importantly it teaches him discipline and I think out of all of that emerges the concept and the spirit of that is Doyo Dojo. The name stands for Do Own Your Own Dojo. Again, going back you have to search within yourself and make a decision to want to better yourself and find out what you’re made of.
The name and the pieces that make up the Dojo have been a collection of my time in athletics, physical fitness, and the things I’ve learned along the way.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
The road has not at all been and still sometimes continues to be a smooth one. And they always tell you that going in and you try and prepare yourself for that but there’s never any way of predicting things. Especially since it is a first-time business. One of the obstacles we ran into is where we were allowed to set up as a business and insurance to cover us.
Our concept is new to most just due to the Ninja Warrior. In addition, I had new concepts, strategies, and ways of training not typical in most, if any other training facilities, and as a “new entrepreneur” most banks or lending institutions don’t want to take a chance on you or something they don’t understand. You find the system of things to be very frustrating and sometimes downright unfair during the process. Which was one of the hardest things to deal with. You find places, lose places, get yes then no’s.
County AND city paperwork depending on what place of town you’re in can become overwhelming. In addition, being a first-time technically “family business “and coming where I come from, I didn’t have a rich daddy or inheritance to work with, so a big team was out of the question. Most of this project was done by between 3-4 people as far as the planning, paperwork, funds security, and building. But I am blessed to have amazing people around me and have a lot of individuals to Thank who in some way shape or form have helped in this project and I can’t express how forever thankful I am for that.
At some point, we even found a place in Kissimmee where we originally wanted to open. It’s been home now for over 15 years and we wanted to bring something cool and new to the city. Unfortunately, with one shady landlord and some inanely ridiculous hoops the city wants you to jump through, we landed in Orlando instead. Between places we had to halt building, move and store what had already been built. This meant spending money meant putting together the business going in that process. Although we had planned and put aside some of the funds, we had available again, you can’t foresee some of these things. The project would be halted for 7 months.
We finally found a new place right near the heart of Orlando just a few blocks away from downtown and 3 of its most popular sports venues. Now came the build-out! It took about another 6-7 months to complete the ninja rig and setup of the overall facility. Most every part of the Dojo was made and put up by hand. As much as it’s a source of pride for those of us involved and just another thing that makes the Dojo special, it was a huge undertaking by a small team that took a lot of sweat, literal blood, and tears. At times it felt as if we’d never finish, a lot gets sacrificed in the process, less sleep more anxiety, it’s all a test.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Around the Dojo they love taking me to call me “sensei” but If I had to label myself anything It have to be a coach. I love to help people unlock and find the confidence to step out of their comfort zones and find out what they’re made of.
I love to see people surprise themselves by doing something they once thought impossible or they could never see themselves ever doing. If there’s anything that I love about what I do is that! To see that look in kids’ and adults’ eyes when they achieve something, they didn’t think they could. You can see their confidence in themselves and their skills growing. And that translates into every day, and other parts of your life. That’s why the Dojo is so unique, the obstacles and challenges in there are the literal metaphors for our lives.
I think my experience as an all-around athlete and my natural ability to communicate and connect with people sets me apart. A lot of times trainers and others in this line of work usually specialize in ONE thing. I’ve never been the fastest, strongest, or most high flying, but in overall athletics and abilities, I humbly believe I’m a much superior athlete to most. There’s nothing I can’t do, and taking sharing and planting that same belief in people is my goal. I’m able to see each client/member as an individual and quickly target their areas of strengths and weaknesses.
I’m able to discover who they are and how their mind works, then show and help them how to use their god given talents to continue to push their limits. The goal is to create the best, strongest, most self-aware versions of themselves not only physically but mentally.
Are there any books, apps, podcasts, or blogs that help you do your best?
Lately, I haven’t had the time to read as much as I used to or would like to. But when I read I usually like anything historical and enjoy creative writing styles. A few of the books that have stayed with me for example are ‘The Diary of Anne Frank” “the general book of Ignorance” and “Macbeth” to name a few. But id have to say my favorite book if I had to choose one would be “Fight Club” by Chuck Palahniuk
Podcasts are another story. I love This American Life, Lore, of course, The Joe Rogan podcast, but have to admit I thoroughly enjoy the murder mystery podcasts as so many others do. I have been a part of 2 podcasts a few years back named “1980something” and then later ‘The Something About”.
We enjoyed fairly moderate success and even had listeners overseas and in other countries. I had an amazing time being a part of those and am beyond proud of what we put out those few years as I feel it was ahead of its time. My hope is someday to have the ability and time to pick that up again.
Pricing:
- Ninja intro class & Day pass -30$ Kids 25$
- Dojo Journey monthly membership -75$ All Access
- Double Dragon (group of 2) – 130$ for all access
- Family package (group of 4) -285$
Contact Info:
- Website: Doyodojo.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/doyodojo?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100087295693233&mibextid=LQQJ4d
Image Credits
Michelle Marie (Love Is Me Photography, Michelle@loveismephotography.com)
