Denver GM Professor Carlos Espinosa’s journey into martial arts began early on with wrestling, which he learned as self-defense. Growing up in a rough Miami neighborhood as the youngest and smallest of three brothers, the middle of which was bullied, Carlos decided he needed to get ahead of it.
At just nine years old, he began wrestling with his brother to learn how to defend themselves. Soon after, his brother went to middle school before him, and Carlos would practice with the middle school wrestling team, shrimping along in the corner.
This led to Carlos wrestling all throughout junior high and high school, growing accustomed to that style of competition as opposed to team sports which were often less affordable. Though at the time, he didn’t consider wrestling a martial art, he now recognizes it as completely foundational.
After graduating high school and finding himself missing that competitive athleticism, Carlos sought out a new challenge. He knew he wouldn’t join the USA Wrestling Team, but he had heard about Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) from watching UFC and Pride Fighting, and decided to give it a try.
A friend, who would later also train at Easton, had started training Jiu Jitsu in Miami and encouraged Carlos to give it a try. At 18, now with a job and a car, Carlos signed up for BJJ, and for five years, from 2011 to 2016, he and his three friends, Sebastian, Ricky and Jose, dedicated themselves to training daily together.
In 2016, by then a purple belt, Carlos took a spontaneous trip to Colorado with friends and instantly fell in love with the mountains, the snowboarding and the outdoor culture. Once he decided to make the move and start fresh, he immediately began searching for a new academy to train at.
Carlos made a post on Reddit asking about BJJ academies nearby, and the response was overwhelming – out of 30 replies, 22 recommended Easton, with 17 specifically mentioning Easton Denver.
After his first class, Carlos knew he needed to stay there – even the blue belts were impressive. Six days after he arrived in Colorado, Carlos had joined Easton and begun to train. On September 9, 2023, Carlos earned his black belt from Easton.
A manager’s mindset
As a competitor and practitioner, Carlos has faced the usual challenges — getting tapped out, learning from mistakes, and constantly striving to improve. However, the biggest hurdles along his martial arts journey emerged when he transitioned into management.
Working his way up from front desk to coaching before becoming General Manager of Denver in 2021, Carlos was naturally skilled at working with people. Shifting from a competitor’s mindset to a managerial perspective, however, took some time. Initially, he found himself brushing off minor complaints, such as a leaky faucet or clogged soap dispenser. (After all, hasn’t anyone seen those other gyms in far worse shape?)
“As a GM,” says Carlos, “you have to think like a business owner, not the consumer of the product. For a while, I was just training in the competitor mindset, but then I became a manager. You have to think like a manager, but I stayed in that competitor mindset.”
He quickly realized, however, many of Easton’s members have never trained at any other academy. Not only did they lack a frame of reference when it came to conditions, but they have a right to want their space to feel good. Once Carlos learned to balance his martial arts-focused, competitor mentality with a more member-focused approach, he began to embrace the importance of small details in creating a great training environment.
One of his biggest challenges nowadays comes down to how to best serve the varying needs of Denver’s membership base. While some students enter Easton with a deep love for martial arts and will stay no matter what, others stumble into it with no prior interest.
[Why Competitors and Hobbyists Must Coexist]
They may not have the drive to compete, but they love the community and how the disciplines make them feel or connect to their bodies. Still, they may also have a variety of hobbies outside of the academy, and this means when finances or time get tight, martial arts may be the first to go.
The hardest thing, and one of the biggest goals, comes down to keeping those individuals engaged long-term. In this way, striking a balance between catering to high-level competitors and maintaining a welcoming environment for casual practitioners is key.
“The possibilities are endless as to why we could be at Easton,” says Carlos. “We have to maintain palatableness for everyone, but we also can’t sacrifice our hard-core competitors or testing (and teaching) martial arts at the highest level.”
Through Easton’s vision of creating fierce top-level athletes by forging battle-tested martial arts, when the entire coaching and staff team aligns in the daily practices of creating a welcoming environment, Carlos believes that’s where the real magic of retention happens.
Transformation through BJJ + competition
A naturally driven and hardworking individual, Carlos credits Jiu Jitsu with reinforcing his ability to embrace those traits fully. Though the initial goal was self-defense, he quickly fell in love with grappling as his true passion.
Though not the most academically inclined student, the realization that his natural drive towards grappling could bloom into a career was life-changing. Once he realized he could make money doing it, it was all Carlos wanted to do.
One of the other big elements that played a role in shaping Carlos’s mindset was that of competition.
“Competition is a priceless lesson in anything you do,” says Carlos, “where you’re scared or nervous – anything that could go wrong.”
Seeing himself and others go through those times where the voice inside your head quakes with “what if something goes wrong?” and coming out the other side unharmed and victorious instills a level of confidence that impacts every other aspect of life.
Through competition in both wrestling and BJJ, Carlos learned to navigate the fear and self-doubt that creep up, and now countless times, he’s entered matches initially filled with negative thoughts only to prove those fears unfounded.
[Easton Black Belt and Lowry Co-Owner Professor Amy Fidelis: Commitment to Conquer Fear]
This repeated experience taught him to recognize that the anxious voice in his head held no real power – in fact, his brain gave away more power to his competitor simply through the false narrative it spun. The understanding that failure is only final when one chooses to quit has been one of his greatest lessons.
Beyond his personal growth, Carlos has witnessed countless students transform through Jiu Jitsu and Muay Thai. People might enter the academy timid and uncertain only to gain confidence, form friendships, and challenge themselves in ways they never imagined. Many go on to become assistant coaches and leaders within the community.
For Carlos, martial arts doesn’t just represent a career — it’s his calling. It’s the one thing (outside of his family) he feels fully invested in, and he remains dedicated to helping others experience the same transformative power that shaped his own journey.
His philosophy is simple: every day, new students walk into the academy, and it’s up to the coaches, staff and existing members to ensure they leave feeling better than when they arrived. Small interactions and conversations make all the difference in creating a welcoming environment.
