Masters Alliance
9th Dan BlackBelt and Olympic Gold Medalist Herb Perez visit with the best and brightest to bring clarity to the future of Martial arts.
Masters Alliance
Master Amitis Pourarian's Blueprint for Success in Taekwondo and Beyond
Discover the inspiring story of Master Amitis Pourarian, who has carved a path from the disciplined world of Taekwondo to the competitive arenas of business and academia. As she sits down with me, Herb Perez, we traverse her journey from the streets of Iran to the academic halls of Stanford, and ultimately, to the forefront of the martial arts community in the United States. Her tale is more than a series of achievements; it's a testament to the transformative power of martial arts on confidence, goal-setting, and the cultivation of a winner's mindset from an early age.
Venture into the philosophical arena where the essence of competition in Taekwondo reflects the cutthroat nature of the business world. Master Pourarian expounds on the parallels, emphasizing that the real battle lies within oneself to consistently outperform personal bests and embrace the relentless quest for excellence. This episode is not just about high kicks and corporate ladder climbs; it's about the steadfast principles of self-belief and perseverance that can guide us to success in all facets of life, including the less-tangible boardrooms of our personal ambitions.
As we wrap up, we contemplate the future of Taekwondo as both a sport and a business, guided by Master Pourarian's ambitious vision. Her leadership, discipline, and respect shine through as she shares her aspirations to mainstream the sport while upholding its traditional values. Her story ignites a spark of inspiration to carry the torch of excellence into our communities and industry. Join us on this motivational journey that challenges listeners to rise to the occasion as leaders and individuals, in all walks of life.
This is the Masters Alliance podcast, uncut, and I am Herb Perez. We have another special guest today, a very inspirational martial artist who leads one of the best organizations in the country for Taekwondo. She also is an outstanding business person, martial artist, competitor and life coach. She helps others maximize their potential and become everything that they thought they could be and things that they could only imagine to be. She has the biggest school in the area over 1,200 members and this success is one of the reasons I wanted her to visit with us today is one of the reasons I wanted her to visit with us today. Join me, strap in as we meet Master Amatis Poryon.
Speaker 1:The future of Taekwondo lies in the hands of its leaders, but before we get started on the leadership of our sport Taekwondo competition organizations, it starts with Taekwondo school owners. Just like myself and all of our guests, we started at schools or programs and we were taught by somebody along the way who inspired us to excel. Today, we are joined by one of the nation's top school owners that not only inspires athletes but every day performs people to maximize their efforts and their outcomes. People to maximize their efforts and their outcomes. Master Amitis Poryan has a formidable background in competition as a former USA team member, but her accolades are just as impressive in business. She graduated from Stanford, she is the CEO of multiple companies and she is the vice president of a national taekwondo organization called Mudo Taekwondo Association. She is also the owner of the studio martial arts and fitness and she blends her passion for taekwondo and business to improve as many lives as possible.
Speaker 1:Now I've been to her school and I'm telling you she has the numbers she says she has. She has earned numerous business awards. She was named Woman of the Year I thought that was my wife Her school has won School of the Year and she has been featured on countless television shows and boasts covers of magazines. Not only is that, but she is also an eighth degree black belt. So please help me welcome eighth degree black belt Master Amatis. How are you today, ma'am? Well, I'm great. I mean, I'm just glad you could join us and I couldn't think of anyone better. We are surrounded by great people in the martial arts, but very, very few times can I count, maybe, on one hand, people that have as many accomplishments as you do in all the various things that make people successful in life. But let's start with you sharing some of your history and some of your background.
Speaker 2:Well, first thank you for your kind words and the thank you actually goes to you for all the things that you've done for Taekwondo overall and what you continue to do and help people grow and learn. So the appreciation goes to you, sir. But yeah, you know, commonly people love talking about themselves, but more commonly people don't like to hear about other people talking about themselves. So I'll make this super short and give you a little bit of background, just so people have context of where I come from and all that stuff, the history. So I was born in Iran, city of Tehran, and then moved to the United States. After a little tiny stint in Switzerland in the transition, when I was about five-ish, we moved to the United States and that's mainly due to what was happening in Iran with the change of the government into the Islamic Republic and the regime and all that stuff. So at that time my parents had two daughters and then my mom was pregnant with a third daughter. So when things changed in Iran and women's rights and all the liberties were kind of taken away, they made a huge life changing decision to leave their country, literally leave everything behind. We left everything behind, moved to the United States so that their daughters could have, you know, a future doing whatever it is that they wanted to do, and so we kind of never took that for granted, knowing that our parents spoke little to no English, started from scratch, and that always stayed with us, with myself and my sisters and everything we took on in life.
Speaker 2:But long story short, you know, I didn't have a sad story Like. I didn't get beat up on the way to school to start martial arts, so a family friend took me. Now, mind you, I was here during the Iran hostage crisis, so there was, you know, a ton of bullying and this, that and the other and acclimation going on, but at the same time I didn't start taekwondo for any particular reason other than a family friend took me and I immediately, immediately fell in love with it because it was 100% in my control. No one had to pass me the ball for me to make the shot. I could be as good as I wanted to be and I just love that factor about it and it just resonated with me and I wasn't very athletic, but it made me athletic, it made me confident, allowed me to do things that I normally would never have done.
Speaker 2:I ended up playing basketball and tennis in high school and things like that. That again required some level of confidence. That was 100% gained through Taekwondo and that same concept of confidence that I learned through Taekwondo. There's other lessons that I learned, for example, about consistency, about goal orientation. You know when you go through belt to belt, you set goals and that's you know something that resonated with me.
Speaker 2:So I set some goals in my life, even, you know, as a young kid, and ended up graduating high school early just because I couldn't, I wanted I wasn't a brainiac, I just wanted to be done so graduated a little early I think I was 16-ish and then started college. I was too young to go far. So I remember even on campus they're like hey, you want to register to vote? I was like no, I'm like 16, 17 years old. But I set some goals and I wanted to be done with college at a very young age. So I took a five-year program at that time was business, with a concentration in operations management, a concentration in strategic management and a minor in communications. It was a five-year program at the time and I set a goal to finish it in two and a half years, finished it. It was done with the college in 1920, something like that. And I got my real estate license, I got my contractor's license, did all these things, but all of it was because of what I gained in Taekwondo as far as the discipline, the focus, the consistency, the goal orientation and the confidence. And then worked in construction and then went, got my master's degree as well in construction management, and then, you know, was then into the work field and did project engineering, project management for large construction firms and so forth. But during that entire time I never took my foot off the gas of my Taekwondo ever, ever. And even when I was working full time, I always had a school or a club somewhere I taught because I wanted to contribute to Taekwondo and keep continuing to pass it on, attribute to Taekwondo and keep continuing to pass it on. So I, even in San Diego, I had a, you know, a club with inside of a large fitness facility and I had more students than more commercial schools do. And that was just strictly from, you know, passion and loving what I do, and did it on the side for fun. And so that's kind of my background is in terms of education and the.
Speaker 2:How I got started in taekwondo, uh, it made me, like I said, athletic. I ended up being on the US team, uh, also with uh help from you, obviously, I trained with you for a stint and, uh, I have the scars to prove it. People don't know you're the one that broke my wrist. So, yeah, that's my little background on you know where I'm at today. And I left my, I left my job in San Diego. I had a really big project, a few hundred million dollar project, and I won some awards for it.
Speaker 2:And then the new one came up and it was like a huge project that I was going to be a part of and I said I'm leaving. They said are you crazy? I said, what do you mean? Um, they're like you can't leave. You're like, literally, our youngest project executive, you've done this, not the other. And I said, no, I and I came back to Sacramento because my family was supposed to move to San Diego. They didn't, so I moved back, um, and I opened the studio, uh, in 2010. And so, when I opened the studio in 2010. And so when I opened the studio, I taught one person for two weeks and I'm like, wow, that was a stupid decision. And then, but that one person turned into two, two to four, and it just kept going. And now you know, we're over 1000 members between all of our programs here at the studio. I still do real estate and construction and have my other businesses as well but this is my hobby, my passion, gone wild.
Speaker 1:Well, I think you've done a great job, and I visited your studio, and the story about the arm unfortunately is true, but that's for another podcast. Today, though, I want to talk to you a little bit about, you know, when I meet a lot of people and they tell me their numbers and I'm always, you know, a little hesitant to believe them, what I tell people is when somebody has a school of 250, they tell people they have 350. When somebody has 100 people, they tell them they have 150. But once you pass a certain number, like four or 500, you don't lie anymore. You kind of tell the truth is to number your school.
Speaker 1:When you came to visit me, you told me the number of members in your school, and I wasn't, didn't believe it, to be honest. And then I came up to your school unannounced and you have those numbers. You have over a thousand to twelve hundred students in one location, and I want to talk a little bit about that, because you don't offer just your Taekwondo expertise. The Studio Martial Art and Fitness has other services as part of its martial arts center. Can you tell us a little bit about what you offer besides Taekwondo?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, and our numbers include the other programs too. So by no means do I have, you know, 1200 Taekwondo members. I have a combination of Taekwondo members, and the other services that we provide is American Ninja Warrior style Ninja obstacle course. So just like the TV show and we've been, I think, on five, six seasons of American Ninja Warrior from my ninjas here at the studio we have that. And then we have an extensive fitness program here too, from cardio kickbox to weight training, spin classes, Zumba, things like that. So this is a culmination of really providing three different services. Three different businesses under one umbrella is what we provide, and all of those have their own facets of private lessons for ninja, private lessons for taekwondo, special needs, everything you can name under all of those services. So it's quite a bit. It literally is running three businesses in one.
Speaker 1:So it's quite a bit. It literally is running three businesses in one. Well, Master P, you must have learned a lot of different lessons. And what did you learn in competition that you carried into business?
Speaker 2:There's some things that are ingrained in me and then there's some things that I've absolutely learned. I'll give you a quick story example. So I remember going to one of my first tournaments and I think I was maybe a yellow belt, a beginner, super beginner, first tournament ever. And my family friend that introduced me to Taekwondo took me there and I ended up getting first place in sparring as well, first place in poomsae, and back in the day, man, they had giant trophies this was 30-something years ago, giant trophies and I'm holding two giant trophies. I remember, like it was yesterday, and I have this sad look on my face. My head is drooped and I'm just just super sad. And he comes up to me and he goes what, what is wrong with you? Why are you so sad? You, obviously I'm holding two first place trophies. And I said because I didn't get the highest scores you could possibly get, and at that time I don't know if you guys you know uh, we were ATA back in the day and they would score by hands on poomsae and so I got a 999 and I was like I got I could have got a 10. So I was so disappointed in myself. And he goes no, nine is the highest you could possibly get. Nine was the highest score and I was like it is, this is how novice I was. I didn't know anything. I go, it is, and he goes, yeah, and I go okay.
Speaker 2:But that's resonated with me and that stayed with me and that's how it is always for me is that, whether it's in business or competition, I'm not competing against anyone else. I never have, I never will. I do not compete against the players there. I compete against the maximum that I can possibly do, and that's what I go. And then I leave people in my wake because I'm not competing against them. They're not even a factor, and that's what I go. And then I leave people in my wake because I'm not competing against them. They're not even a factor, and that's something that I do in business as well. I don't compete with who's doing what. I don't keep up with any other schools. I just do what I do.
Speaker 2:And the biggest thing is and this rolls into a lot of people want to go copy what other people are doing. If someone is winning, they're like, oh, I want to do this or I'm going to copy them. I've never been that person, so I always do me what I know and try to be completely different than everybody else and I try to understand what they're doing but beat them. So if I'm sparring, I speak two languages. I speak point sparring and I do Olympic sparring. I'm languages. I speak point sparring and I do olympic sparring.
Speaker 2:I'm not going to dumb myself down and just do one because that's what everybody else is doing. That's all they know. I'm not going to bring myself. I speak two languages. Why would I go to one?
Speaker 2:So my mindset is never do what anything what everybody else is doing. So in our business industry, if everyone's selling oh you know, two weeks free in a uniform, 1995, you better believe I will never do that. I'm never going to do what everybody else is doing. I'm going to use my brain, I'm going to use my knowledge, my background and I'm going to do things that make sense to me and not just do whatever else everybody else is doing. So that was like that's one of the things that I transfer from competition into business.
Speaker 2:The other thing is my mindset If it can be done, why not by you? So if someone is on the US team, what do they have that I don't have? They got two legs, two arms and a brain. Cool, I have that. If they can do it, I can do it too.
Speaker 2:If someone is making a million dollars, why can't I do it too? If someone is making a million dollars, why can't I? There's no reason why I can't. And my dad always said if you live in the United States and if, let's say, your goal is to make a million bucks and you don't make a million bucks, whose fault is it? It's your fault. You have all the liberty in the world and you have everything else. So the mindset is so critical. That was in competition. If this person can beat this person, why can't I? If this person could be on the US team, why can't I? That held true. If this person is going to Stanford University, why can't I? And then I did what it took to accomplish that, knowing that it can be done, and so that transferred from competition into everyday life and into my business currently. That transferred from competition into everyday life and into my business currently.
Speaker 2:The other thing that I learned from competition that transfers in business is consistency. So the consistency is the key to success, in my opinion. In order to be good at your taekwondo, you have to be consistent. It doesn't happen by magic. You've got to put the time, you've got to work the effort and the consistency behind it. And so if you're consistent in your business and what you need to do to make it successful, then it will be successful. So consistency is another huge factor.
Speaker 2:And my first job I was 15 years old and I went to Mount Mike's. It was literally down the street so you could just walk there. I went there every single day, consistently for six weeks. Every single day the man said we're not hiring. On week number six he said I would be an idiot to not hire you. If you're this persistent and this consistent, I would be an idiot not to have you as an employee. He wasn't even hiring still, but he hired me on the spot on that sixth week and I took that job to learn what it's like to make minimum wage, because I wanted that experience. So I took that job to learn what it's like to make minimum wage because I wanted that experience, so I'd never have to taste it as an adult. My dad's like what are you doing? I was, like I want to experience this. You could spend my paycheck on the gumball machine on the way out. It was like so small, but it was about the experience. But the consistency got me that job. That was my goal.
Speaker 2:And then the other thing that I learned from competition that transfers in business is time management. Just like you have to manage the time in the ring, if you're ahead or you're behind, you're on defense or offense. How much time you got, what are you going to do in the time, whether it's a three-minute round, two-minute round, minute and a half, whatever it is, you have a lot of period of time. How are you going to maximize? And this lesson that was ingrained in me in literally sparring transferred in my studies. When I went to school I would take literally 10 classes, 30 units. At Stanford, my undergrad didn't matter. Maximize, because the time management allowed me to be successful, because I had to get it done in the time. I had to do it.
Speaker 2:So, and quite often nowadays you hear parents say oh, you know, we're going to have our kids stop taekwondo because they have too much on their plate. And I have a conversation with them. I say you know what tomorrow, when they have kids and a household and bills, are you going to say I'm going to take a kid off the plate? The answer is no, you can't do that. You have to give them tools to be successful with the time that they have. So, instead of taking things off their plate, give them time management and skills to be successful with what's on their plate. In fact, add something to their plate, you know. So time management was another huge thing that I learned in competition that I transfer into my business all the time.
Speaker 1:So it brings me to my next question. Can you tell us a little bit, about which it sounds like you just started to the balance between your business and not losing true martial art components.
Speaker 2:I think it's so important to have your why like, why are you doing this? It's so important to have your why like, why are you doing this? Um, I think that you know it's kind of a loaded question in terms of, like, what's true martial arts? And true martial arts for me is not losing the art and the etiquette that comes with it. So, um, which I see lapsing in like sport, um, when I was on the U S team, I took my parents to one of the competitions. We went to Vietnam and I took my parents with me and we were on the bus traveling with the team and the team members granted, some of them were young, some of them were older, whatever, granted, some of them were young, some of them were older, whatever. They were burping, cussing, throwing stuff. It was just like a high school bus of like.
Speaker 2:I literally apologized to my parents and then, when I went to our training sessions, nobody respected the coach, nobody wore their uniform, nobody said yes, sir, nothing. It was so foreign to me I'd never, ever crossed that before in my life in Taekwondo. Because the true art for me, nobody said yes, sir, nothing. It was so foreign to me I'd never, ever crossed that before in my life in Taekwondo, because. But the true art for me was respect, discipline, and I was like, heartbroken. I was like, oh, I worked so hard to get here. And then this is what I, this is what I'm experiencing, and I was heartbroken. I was like, oh, I don't like this.
Speaker 2:So what I do at my school is martial arts first, taekwondo, discipline, integrity. All the tenants we have custom tenants that we say here, all of those come first and then when you have the culture of the art, the business flourishes, it's secondary but it becomes very successful. I don't let go of that and that's so important for me. So I have students right now that are in college and they're on like the sport team or this. They say the same thing. They're like Master P, they don't listen to the coaches. There's no, yes, sir. There's no, yes, ma'am. They don't want their uniforms, they're like in culture shock, because they've been ingrained in discipline and martial arts and what I call two. So the combination of the two how do you not lose it is? You make it primary, you make it the focus, you create the culture around it and then it thrives because it's got roots, it's got a base, it's bigger than you, and then the business flourishes because you have an amazing floor. That's how I combine the two.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean leadership. When I was there, it seemed like leadership was a huge facet of your school. It was a big part of what you do. Can you share with us how you develop your instructors and how you plan for the future?
Speaker 2:The first thing is leading by example. You have to. If you expect your students to train, you better train. If you want them to be fit, you want them to be healthy, you better be fit, you better be healthy. You got to do what it is that you asked of them. And quite often nowadays you don't see that there's so many school owners. They don't have an instructor, they don't train, they haven't done that and kicked in other than do a demonstration in their class. They don't train that and kicked in other than do a demonstration in their class. They don't train, they don't do anything. So one is how can I ask things of people that I'm not doing or haven't done like? That's the first thing lead by example. And then you have to motivate these people without exaggerations.
Speaker 2:My instructors include doctors. I have doctors that are teaching these kids and adults. I have nurses. I have um uh entrepreneurs. I have um real estate moguls. Literally, these are the people that are teaching at my school.
Speaker 2:How am I motivating a doctor to come teach taekwondo? What am I doing? I'm doing that because I'm creating a culture that facilitates that and the instructors really have to um be homegrown and to understand that the, the, the why of the school, the why why are you doing this? And they have to be in concert with it. Um, they have to understand that they're here for personal growth, whether and that's a part of the personal growth is get into the leadership program so they can share what they've gained. They always have to be in a place of gratitude, appreciate the fact that they're doing this and they can help others. And then also, our programs really create our leadership, our leaders. We have 20 something instructors and they come from our leadership programs here and the programs that built them to get to Black Belt. I don't know if that makes sense, but everything is very systemized.
Speaker 1:It does make sense and I saw it there and I was really impressed with the way you did it, but, more importantly, the amount of instructors you have and the people and the way they help you, and I think that's amazing and it's going to lead me into the next question. To be honest, your school is, you know, I think, more than 10 times the size of an average school. You know, the average school in the country has less than 90 members. You have 20 times the revenue of most schools in a month and certainly in a year. What are some of the key factors that have led to your school's success, as well as your personal success?
Speaker 2:First and foremost is know your why and then be consistent and stick to the why and make sure everybody knows your why and make sure everyone around you is in concert with your why. They have to have the same. I had a conversation this morning with another school owner. I said if they're not in concert with why and how you do things, it's not a fit. They might be a great fit somewhere else. It's not a fit for you. That's the first thing. The second thing is having the right people in the right places, right people in the right jobs, finding out what their fortes are, what they're good at, and then making sure that you're meeting their needs on their why, why are they doing this, and making sure you're fostering that and building that team. The other thing I think is really important is contributing to the posterity of Taekwondo overall, not just the posterity of your Taekwondo school. There's a bigger picture. So if we are all in for the what's in it for me, my school, my school, my school well, at some point the bigger picture of Taekwondo is going to dwindle and we have to contribute to the posterity of Taekwondo by contributing the next generation, the philosophy and maintaining the traditions and the history. So I think contribution to the posterity of Taekwondo overall is a big factor to the success here because it's bigger than us and we foster that. We also have a funnel of future instructors in our instructor programs that we have set in place. So we're always looking to the future to see who's the next generation of instructors. Because instructors leave, they go off to school, they have injuries, life happens, they move, there's a lot of reasons. So sometimes people get comfortable and they go oh, I got some instructors and then I'm good, and then they don't look for the future. We're three generations ahead of us right now looking at our next set of instructors and we have cadet programs that we put them in as color belts and we prepare them to be leaders in the future. We do that systematically now and that contributes to our growth and our success. That's a huge, huge part of that. And then having like systems and processes in place for all facets of the operation. This includes the floor, enrollment, our programs, leadership programs name it. Everything has systems in place to make sure it's successful. So it's not just random. There's no randomness here. Everything has, even how the black belts progress, what they do, how they do. It's very systematic, so that helps us with our continued growth and our success.
Speaker 2:The other thing is I have replaced myself in all the facets of my business deep. So, in fitness, I am one, two, three, four deep. So if I don't show up or if I don't have to be, I'm a luxury. I've made myself a luxury. I have four people that can do what I do In my operations. I have replacements on the floor. I have replacements. So what happens is I am 100% of luxury, so that I can work on my business and not in my business, but I am 100% influencing the culture of my business. Um, so my personality, my persona, is here, but it's not required and I'm not spread thin. I can go on vacation, I can stay, I can do whatever, and I can do whatever I want is basically where I'm at, and that's only because I've replaced myself and all the things that I'm responsible for.
Speaker 1:Well, I have one last question, and it's really about the future. I mean, what do you see for the future of taekwondo and the martial arts business as a business?
Speaker 2:Well, I would prefer to answer it to say what I would love to see versus what I, because I, if things don't make a turn, it won't be very positive in my opinion. So I want to stay on the positive side and I'll share with you what I'd love to see. I'd love to see professionalism, number one. So for every other industry, whether it's the dentist industry, real estate, business, law firms they all have licenses and requirements and things that they have to go through Right. In our industry we have nothing. Any Joe Schmo can teach Taekwondo. Any Joe Schmo can teach Taekwondo. And then we have a lot of people that do teach Taekwondo. Let's say they love Taekwondo, they're good at Taekwondo, but they know nothing about business or they're not professional. I would love for us to be as professional as the real estate, the dental, the medical I don't care Any industry that's professional. I want us to be as professional as them. Have requirements in place, make sure we're delivering systems and services that are of the utmost professional out there. That's the first thing I'd like to see Taekwondo, business and Taekwondo go in that direction. That means like if we actually trained our instructors to be good, effective instructors, to transfer curriculum and, instead of dumbing it down, where they're like, oh kids, don't learn forms, where I'm not going to teach them forms anymore, oh kids can't teach or learn a round kick, we'll just take round kicks out of our curriculum, whatever. Instead of dumbing things down, learn how to teach better. Be a professional. I can teach a room with eight different belts, all different ages, whatever, and make sure at the end of the cycle they all get their content down. But it's because I came up in 30 years of systematic teaching, which is very unique and we're very blessed to have the instructor that we had and all that stuff. So we're a dying breed of what I'm talking about. So what I'd like to see is number one professionalism in our industry.
Speaker 2:The second thing I'd like to see is I'd like to see Taekwondo not as popular, but more popular than soccer. So when parents have a decision, they have a choice to make. They go am I going to put my kid in soccer or Taekwondo? They always choose Taekwondo because they understand, because it's mainstream and they've seen and heard the benefits of Taekwondo and they put them in Taekwondo over soccer or anything else. I want it to be that popular.
Speaker 2:So that's where I'd like to see the future of martial arts business and Taekwondo go for sure, masters and instructors, you know, contributing to posterity of Taekwondo, like we talked about on a greater, grander scale.
Speaker 2:You know our organization, the Mudo Taekwondo Association, ran by Grandmaster Jack Corey and myself. We don't need to do this, but we do it to help the next generation have that foundation and make sure that we don't lose the, the art piece, uh, the traditions of taekwondo, um, and marry it still with the sport. So we're trying to instill that in everybody that follows us in our organization and provide amazing tournament circuits and all this stuff. But because it lacking but we don't need to do it, but we're doing it we give up our time and our days and our time away from our family for the greater good of Taekwondo, for the bigger picture, um, and so I'd like to see more people doing that, um, athletes still holding onto the roots of martial arts and not forgetting to bow and show respect to their coaches and all the people that are contributing to their success. That's something that's huge, huge, um, but more so than anything.
Speaker 1:I think professionalism is where I'd like to see the martial arts business go well. I again, I, I all that resonates with me and and as a person, um, that you've been, uh, you've been helping me as well, and so I can't say anything but thank you introducing me to your amazing organization and then, um, to speak frankly, seeing the success you've had um post pre, during COVID just has been inspiring for me as a school owner, because we all suffered during COVID and your school didn't suffer as much because of the community that you built and continue to build. But I applaud you for the time that you spend and spend to help others grow and your organization and recognizing people that have contributed to the martial arts that haven't been at your last big event up in Sacramento, and seeing Grandmaster Simon Rhee there and meeting him and then many of the other individuals, all different martial art levels of excellence, and then just the commonality and the inclusiveness, was something that I was greatly impressed with. With all that said, you know, I want to thank you today for everything that you've shared about what you have done, what you do, everything that you've shared about what you have done, what you do, and I encourage others to reach out to you, whether it's to learn more about you or more about what your efforts are, or more about the Mudo Taekwondo Association and its efforts to help grow people. But I can't think of anyone better to learn what's necessary in what I'd like to call a no-nonsense approach to martial arts in general. You don't ask for much. You expect a lot from the people that you work with, and I think that's why you've been able to grow your school and your organization to the levels that you continue to and have, and I look forward to seeing what's the next chapter for you. I'm going to invite you to some other things that we're holding on the state of the sport, the state of the art, and I know your thoughts.
Speaker 1:And again, the story about the arm is for another day, but there's a lesson that was learned as a result of that unfortunate and for legal reasons I think the statute of limitations has passed, so I will admit to the arm break, but it was a lesson and it was a teaching moment, so I hope it served as a learning moment for you. But again, I apologize for well well, kind of apologize, because I was a different individual in my new incarnation of a better Buddhist self that I'm trying to become. It's a moment of impermanence. May it have passed quickly. But again, on behalf of the Masters Alliance, uncut, I'd like to thank you for taking this time to share your vision, your passion for what you do, and we look forward to seeing the great things that you will continue to do. Thank you, sir. Much appreciated your passion for what you do and we look forward to seeing the great things that you will continue to do.
Speaker 2:Thank you, sir, much appreciated. I appreciate everything you do for the Tecumadu community.
Speaker 1:Well, like I said, that was going to be an amazing podcast and it was. Master Porian has a passion for what we do, how we do it and why we do it. As a competitor, business person, graduate of Stanford, she had shared that information with her students, her community and all of us. So I challenge you to take that passion forward and to increase your ability to do what you do and become a better instructor, a better teacher, a better leader and a better member of our community. I know she has inspired me to do that and probably has inspired you today in this amazing podcast. This has been a Master Alliance podcast, uncut. I am Herb Perez, and don't forget to check out the other episodes we have with those great martial artists and leaders in our community.