The Story of Martial Arts America
“We’ve been working side by side since February of 1995, and it turns out we work really well together because we’re about exactly as opposite as it gets. And I think with the two different perspectives we end up with a really good team to come up with some really good ideas that seem to work. The biggest reason I’m passionate about this is, I know what we teach really gives people results.
As a kid, I really struggled in school, like I really had a hard time focusing and concentrating so all through school, I just always felt defeated. So then when I, as an adult, started karate I started to realize really quickly there was a connection between my ability to focus and concentrate and actually in my ability to learn and retain. When I see them on the karate floor, I’m giving them those strategies. I want them to learn how to focus, how to concentrate and so, instead of feeling defeated at the end of the day. I want them to walk out of the karate school and I want them to feel like, “I am awesome at this.”
Every day when we show up, that’s what my focus is. I want them to leave here feeling like they’re victors, and that they really have something that’s really special about them.
In my childhood my Dad actually passed away, so when I look backward I can see what I really liked about karate, was all my karate teachers were good male role models. They always treated me
like I was something, and I knew with those guys I really had earned a lot of respect just by working so hard.
So, for me when I teach kids, that’s important to me and so I think our whole instructor team takes that seriously, where they just try to provide good role models for kids and guide them and believe in them.
Some kids just need encouragement.Sometimes it’s just building their confidence. If they’re OK at their kick, but ended class very confident, I would say that’s a huge success.
What’s really great about where we’re at now is after 25 years of working hard, we are at a place where we feel extremely happy with our success. We have three locations, almost all three of them
are completely maxed out with our student capacity. So, every day when we come to work, we get the joy of getting to teach all the time.
Our future is about creating opportunities from what we already have within here.Helping to create better jobs maybe for other people, or to bring more instructors on board. And then creating programs that we can take to schools and throughout the community, so even if you’re not part of Martial Arts America, you can still benefit from the things we can teach.
What I like about First National Bank is I know that if we had any question or concern on anything, if I call, Mike’s gonna help us out. He’ll get us an answer, we’re gonna get a callback.
It does not feel like a big corporate thing, it feels just like an at home small-town bank, you know where, even though things are very professional and it’s a growing bank, I know that we’ll be treated really well just like they’re our neighbor.
So, I suppose being a business owner, I think what we really like is the opportunity to do something in a hard-working, honest kind of way.
At the end of the day, you know, some days we make more money, some days we make less, but we always get a chance to make an impact on people. We do care, and they can sense that we care and it’s just, that makes us so different than a business. This is different, you know, and it’s much more about people. That’s something that’s inspiring way more than a paycheck.We get a chance to make an impact on people and change people’s lives.”
