Grand Opening: A Day of Controlled Chaos

Grand Opening: A Day of Controlled Chaos
By David Gibson

The morning of Dino Jiu Jitsu’s grand opening was a wild ride. When we walked in, the only thing that was truly ready was the mats on the floor. That was our MVP—mats and a coach. Everything else was a work in progress.

As people started arriving, we were still unboxing and assembling chairs. There was that frantic moment of realizing we hadn’t even put toilet paper in the bathrooms yet. It was a whirlwind of making sure we had the bare essentials—like a sign-in sheet and pens—while guests were literally walking through the door.

Despite the chaos, we had an incredible turnout—around 50 to 60 people showed up throughout the day. Some were curious passersby who saw us while walking by and decided to check us out, which was really cool. That kind of organic interest was a huge boost.

A huge thanks goes to Jessica Gibson, who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to get everything launched. Without her, we wouldn’t have been able to pull it off.

In the end, it wasn’t perfect, but it was real. We opened the doors and started this journey with our community, showing that even a rough start can be the beginning of something great.