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
Arlene Limas: Championing Safety and Equality in Sports and Society
What does it take to become the first American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in Taekwondo? Our special guest, Arlene Limas, shares her remarkable journey from starting martial arts at the age of five to her triumphant victory at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Arlene gives us an inside look at her grueling training regimen, the mental and physical challenges she faced, and the emotional moment of standing on the Olympic podium. She also reflects on how the true significance of her achievement only hit her years later. This episode is a testament to perseverance, discipline, and the power of believing in oneself.
But Arlene's story doesn't end with her Olympic triumph. As the CEO of PAVE (Prevention, Proactive Anti-Violence Education), she channels her experience as an elite athlete into advocating for safer workplaces and communities. We dive into how her athletic career shaped her approach to addressing issues like microaggressions, gaslighting, and workplace violence. We also explore PAVE’s impactful initiatives, including a successful partnership with the city of Oakland that pairs paramedics with community members trained in crisis intervention. This conversation highlights the critical importance of creating safer environments through proactive measures and community engagement.
Arlene also shares inspiring anecdotes about the importance of mixed-gender training for female athletes, the challenges of subtle sexism and racism in professional fields, and the power of early mentorship. Her insights into empowerment and resilience offer valuable lessons for athletes and professionals alike. We wrap up with a success story from the Alameda County Library that showcases the real-world impact of PAVE’s training programs. Tune in to be inspired by Arlene Limas' incredible journey and her unwavering commitment to fostering positive change in both sports and society.
Welcome to the Masters Alliance podcast. My name is Herb Perez. Today we are joined by an Olympic gold medalist who has not only achieved a gold medal in the sport of taekwondo the first ever in 1988, but she did it in Korea against the best of the best and beat everyone, was the first woman and American to win an Olympic gold medal. Arlene Lemus stands as a testament to what you can do if you believe in yourself and you're willing to do the work necessary to achieve and overcome any obstacle that's put in front of you. Overcome any obstacle that's put in front of you.
Herb Perez:Ms Lemus is an extremely successful business person and currently serves as CEO of PAVE, which is a workplace violence prevention program that educates people how they can avoid all the small aggressions, the larger aggressions and pretty much just learn how to be better at preventing workplace violence in its many and different forms. Strap in, this is going to be masters alliance podcast uncut, and today I'm joined by someone that I admire and respect and just has an amazing legacy in the sport of taekwondo and then in life Olympic gold medalist and quite a singer, which we found out in 1988, had no idea. Welcome to the podcast, and this is new CEO of PAVE, arlene Lemus.
Arlene Limas:Hello Herb, how are you? Thanks for having me.
Herb Perez:It's always a pleasure and you know, over the years I've seen you in so many different incarnations. But still some of my favorite memories of you are as a fighter and overturning the world's view of Taekwondo what was possible by Americans in general, but, more importantly, going into the lion's den and beating the lions in the lion's den and winning the first ever Olympic gold medal in 1988. And towards that end, I wanted to ask you that question when did you first discover your passion for martial arts or Taekwondo, and how did that lead to your Olympic ambitions?
Arlene Limas:Well, wow, I mean really I don't know. I don't remember much life without martial arts. I started when I was five, so I mean, there's not much I remember that doesn't have a life with martial arts in it. I have four older brothers and they were involved in martial arts and I just wanted you know, you want to do what your older siblings are doing, and so they're substantial not substantially, but they're older than me, I'm the baby by a lot and I just wanted to hang out with them, and so they let me tag along for a little bit, and then I just became a little bit like the mascot for the school, for the most part because at this time this was pre Bruce Lee, so there was, there weren't any kids programs.
Arlene Limas:There weren't, actually, there weren't any females in the school that I can remember. So it was me kind of running around in this martial arts class that was for the most part gangbangers, those who had come back from the military and law enforcement, so what an interesting mix of people, and all men, of course. And then me running around doing whatever they told me to do. Yeah, I was, that's how I started so and I fell in love with it immediately, immediately.
Herb Perez:Well, you know, could you describe? I mean, I was only there for parts of it, but I certainly watched you trained as you prepared for the Olympics up to the games. But could you describe the training regimen that helped you prepare for the Olympics and what kind of mental or physical challenges you had to overcome?
Arlene Limas:Well, I mean, you definitely know the steps they were putting us through. I mean it was well, almost it was to the point where, once we landed in Korea, we had to have a sit down and just say, like coach, you're killing us. We know that this event is super important but yeah, when we landed, I was elected the person to go have a talk with coach Lee and share some of our concerns. But you know what they were putting us through. We were three days a week with long runs, three days a week with sprints. I felt like a track athlete, not a Taekwondo athlete.
Arlene Limas:You know started off with one you know major kicking session and that turned into two kicking sessions a day we were supposed to have Saturdays and Sundays off into two kicking sessions a day. We were supposed to have Saturdays and Sundays off. That turned into more training. So I mean you know what that, the commitment and the effort that that first team put in to get the results that we did in 1988. But yeah, it was. It was incredible. It was something. I mean I've been an athlete all my life. I have been a Chicago Park District gym rat, so I went from like bitty basketball to floor inside floor hockey to Little League. I mean, I've been athletic all my life but that was the most regimented and intense training for an event that I had ever been through. And, yeah, it was crazy.
Herb Perez:Well, you've been asked this question. I mean, I just can imagine just endlessly, but I'm going to ask it because, as we get older, there are people that don't or haven't heard the stories, and I want you to share your story about winning the gold medal. What was it like for you and what impact did it have on your life?
Arlene Limas:wow, um, I mean in the moment it really was a little surreal and it it landed on me kind of like just any other tournament for the most part, you know it. It landed on me like man, this is just a big tournament. And then I remember about a week, maybe a couple of days after that, I was at an event for the Olympic committee there at the games, and someone who had won their medal in the sixties said to me you won't really realize what has happened until several years distanced from this event. And that's true, it didn't really hit until much, much later.
Arlene Limas:And I think as far as it changing my life, I mean, I always say I think it gave me a bigger platform, for whatever reason you and I know it doesn't make you a special person of the world just because you win a gold medal that doesn't happen but it does give you a different type of platform and people will perk up their ear just a little more when they hear that you come to the table winning a gold medal or even being an Olympian. So in that sense, yes, it has changed my life. It's given me a different type of platform that I would like to think I would have gotten something similar without it, but it's undeniable that that platform is there, for sure because of the Olympic Games.
Herb Perez:I mean in retrospect. Were the expectations of winning and the outcomes years later what you expected, or were they different?
Arlene Limas:I think they were about what I thought. You know, I think I had a clear idea even back in the 80s that the Olympic Games has a hierarchy right, and there's your, you know, your basketball and your track and field, and your swimmers and your gymnasts, and they that Olympic medal takes on a completely different life for them. But for those, you know, the smaller sports like ours, I think the expectations landed about what I thought. The reality turned into what I thought.
Arlene Limas:And I think taekwondoists and martial artists in general because now karate and of course we know, judo has been in there I think we're we're uniquely positioned, even different than some of the small sports, in a sense that we can do like you and I have done. We can have successful businesses, training centers, martial arts facilities that someone who is doing a different sport may not have, you know. But yeah, I think what happened after the Olympic Games met my expectations for the most part, but the Games themselves just continue to reward me, to tell you the truth. So it's yeah. So I'm still surprised sometimes at the opportunities I get because of the truth. So it's, it's yeah. So I'm still surprised sometimes at the opportunities I get because of the games, but directly following the games, expectations were met.
Herb Perez:You founded your own martial arts school. Now you lead PAVE Prevention. What inspired you? Your entrepreneurial drive, or what inspired you to create your own businesses? Your entrepreneurial drive, or what?
Arlene Limas:inspired you to create your own businesses Well man when.
Arlene Limas:I was about 13, 14 years old, the school that I was training at closed like in a day. Like I showed up for class on Monday and when I came back on Tuesday it was closed, like locked up. And so my dad, um, put some stuff together in my garage and put some mats and a kicking bag and I started just training in there because, you know, I was already competing a lot in the open circuit at that age, um, and as garages do, they get too warm, they get too hot, right, so you open your door, right, so I opened my door so that I could train. And the next thing I know I've got, like you know, two neighborhood kids squatting down to see what I'm doing and then five neighborhood kids squatting around and before I knew it, you know, I had like 15, 16 tough inner city ready to go kids, peers of mine, really training with me in this garage and I just fell in love with teaching and I learned so much. I became better. My round kick became better because I had to teach somebody how to do a round kick, where before I was just doing a round kick because somebody said kick, like that. But when I had to teach somebody how to do it. Then I'm like, okay, now I know why my round kicks not working because I'm not doing this. So it was just a really cool time for me and I really did feel in love with coaching. I felt like almost immediately because soon after that I started having adults training in my garage, like you know, 35 year old adults coming and wanting to learn from me. It really was clear that I I mean, I had a gift and I could motivate people and I could inspire people through the martial arts. So that's what really led me to continuing that road and opening you know, power Kicks Martial Arts in Stafford, virginia.
Arlene Limas:At the time I learned the business through kind of the jewelry lineage, so I learned the business that way. I didn't quite have a business in my garage, that's for sure. I had a lot of great fighters, but it wasn't a business. I learned the business through that, like I said, grandmaster Jewelry System and then opened my own facility. But yeah, that's what got me there. I would say that my school was successful in spite of me, not because of me. I'm not the best business person per se. I would give everything away if I could, but yeah, it was great and it hit 30 years. It was incredibly successful and incredibly rewarding.
Herb Perez:So I mean, there's got to be some hurdles that you faced when you were starting out, and how did how did your Olympic mindset help you overcome them?
Arlene Limas:I mean, I think any high level athlete has a short memory. You have to have a short memory, right. You have to take everything you can out of an event or a competition or an injury or a training session. Take everything you can out of it and then it's gone and forget it, right, because you can't, you can't dwell on stuff, you can't hold on to stuff, and I think that serves us well every day in everything that we're doing.
Arlene Limas:You know so you take the good and you move forward from that. And I think you know that we can't win everything. We can't win everything, but we can learn from everything that we're going through. So I take, I take that kind of response and that kind of type of approach to everything that I'm doing, even at pay prevention. You know that's what we do. We just keep driving. We learn from every RFP we present. We learn from every grant proposal that we give, whether we get it or we don't, and we get better. We're getting better every single day and I think that kind of athletic or coaching approach serves me well day in and day out.
Herb Perez:You answered my next question, which was you know exactly that I mean. That's the, that's the benefit of being an elite athlete. You've, you've overcome, you've persevered, you've been determined and that translates itself into the way that you do everything that you do. But let's get to. Let's talk about the work of PAVE. Can you explain more to our listeners about PAVE's mission and why you're addressing this serious problem of violence prevention and why it's so important to you?
Arlene Limas:Well, it actually started in my athletic career, this approach and this idea right. So, as you know, high level sports probably I would say all level sport is influenced by predatory behavior. You know, and it's come to light in the last couple of years with Nassar and other predatory coaches, nassar and other predatory coaches, and so really all of my adult life I have been advocating for safer spaces, safer play fields for our athletes, not only Taekwondo athletes but throughout the whole entire Olympic movement. And so that kind of advocacy allowed me to cross paths with a group of mostly women who were doing work in what they called empowerment self-defense. And this movement kind of came out of what was the feminist martial arts movement in the 70s. It really was in response to going to martial arts schools and not having anyone that looked like them and approaches to teaching that really didn't fit them. So they started this empowerment self-defense movement, which focused, yes, on physical skills, but also focused on learning how to use your voice, understanding when you needed to set a boundary. What does inappropriate coercion look like? Needed to set a boundary? What does inappropriate coercion look like? Situational awareness, all of these things right. And so I thought, hmm, here we have some of the most talented physical athletes in the sport of Taekwondo, but they can't set a boundary. Physical skills is not the question. They can't set a boundary with a predatory coach. And so I immediately started pulling this type of training or these type of conversations into the traditional martial arts realm. So I'm doing that.
Arlene Limas:And when I retired from coaching, I'm Just really it had been my exit strategy for a while to come back home to Chicago after my dad passed and when COVID hit, it really was a no brainer for me that I needed to be back in Chicago. So I transitioned my school to my senior student there in Virginia and came home. It was like three weeks and then this empowerment self-defense movement leadership came and said we have paid prevention, proactive anti-violence education ready to go. Would you take the helm of it? Would you? Would you lead it? And so it was a no brainer for me, and we use a lot of the same principles that martial arts or coaching, arts or coaching. I feel like I'm doing the same thing, herb, but now I'm doing it for corporations and organizations.
Herb Perez:And that leads me into the next question, which is we know that you focus on workplace solutions. How do you address the unique types of violence that can occur in the workplace, and what does true prevention look like?
Arlene Limas:I will say that you know, we have in our mind that violence in the workplace is an active shooter situation, right, but that's not what's costing companies millions of dollars every year. What's what's costing corporations, organizations, these, these. I mean it's really in the billions Herb, if you look at the stats. What's costing? That is what I call death by 10,000 paper cuts. It's the microaggressions, it's the gaslighting, it's the offhanded comments, it's the offhanded sexual comments, it's the offhanded racist comments, it's aggressiveness by omission, I'll say, right, like you're not included in certain meetings, or it's all of those little things that get to us and then are hugely impacting productivity, cohesion, communication, everything within the workplace.
Arlene Limas:So that's where we start at. We don't start like, okay, let's do an active shooter evaluation. No, no, no, no, no. We want to stop all those things that are happening day in and day out, and we do that with. We're heavy on assessments. We've created our own proprietary assessments around toxicity in the workplace. We are also informed by the DISC assessment. We believe strongly in the DISC assessment, which is a communication tool on how we like to communicate and be communicated with, communication tool on how we like to communicate and be communicated with. And, yeah, I mean we're having incredible success in really changing culture. That's our goal, you know.
Herb Perez:What successes have you seen with clients who use the PAVE prevention programming?
Arlene Limas:Yeah well, so for me, the closest to our heart and really our first true client was the opportunity to partner with the city of Oakland on their macro community responder program. So macro is the community responder that came out of their task force for reimagining public safety. Task Force for Reimagining Public Safety. It pairs a paramedic or EMT with a community person who's been trained in crisis intervention and then gone through PAVE training. So they're unlike any other community responder program in the country right now is that they can give, they can offer some type of response because they have the EMT along with the community responder.
Arlene Limas:So that was just it's just been such incredibly rewarding work for us. We had access to them for 35 hours of training and amazing on communication styles, understanding when you're adrenalized and how that impacts your decision-making during an event or something that they've rolled up to, of course, some physical skills, de-escalation skills, situational awareness skills. All of that was trained in the academy. In addition to that, a lot of self-care because of everything that they're dealing with day in and day out. How do they? If you can't put your own mask on, you can't put anyone else's mask on. So along that school of thought, but that training was so rewarding for us and continues to be so rewarding for us In their first year. The impact report over 10,000 incidents in the first year that they've responded to. So they're having amazing success. They're having a huge impact on the community they're serving.
Herb Perez:I mean towards that end. You know, one of the next questions I had was you know, as a role model, just in general, and I don't want this to be a gender specific question, because I don't think that's the. I don't see it in that way. I have a young daughter, I have a young man, I teach young women, young men. I look at role models as role models and so, if you could, but if you could understanding the challenges that are faced by young women who are inspired by your story but are aiming for success, what would you tell them?
Arlene Limas:Wow, I would say, if we're talking about sport. If we're talking about sport, I think we've gotten so hyper-focused on female athletes, just training with female athletes, and I think that's great. But I think if you speak to any female athlete right now who's having success, they didn't train with just female athletes, they trained in all-gender or mixed-gender situations, and I'm not meaning this as any attack or any affront to female athletes, but we need, we can be challenged so much more and quicker, especially in the sport of Taekwondo, if we're sparring and training with men. So I think for me that was very important and that contributed to my success because, having trained as a young person through my teens really only fighting boys, by the time I moved into the women's division I had a different skill set than if I would only train with women, have trained with women.
Arlene Limas:So I would say that when you can get yourself out of that comfort zone and trained in mixed gender situations in whatever sport you're in, and then professionally, man I just just seeing what I see through PAVE now Herb, you just got to keep fighting, man, women just got to keep fighting. It's just unfortunately not a level playing field and you know you just have to still be a little better, a little smarter. You know work longer hours, but yeah, that's it, unfortunately, and be prepared for that, don't let it derail you. And the cream is going to rise to the top. So you know, the proof will be in your pudding and you'll get there and then you can change it for someone who comes behind you, but right now we still have to do that.
Herb Perez:And I think that's a good point. My wife is in an industry you know, she's an eye doctor, and majority of the practitioners are men, and then the overtone of that as well is they're usually white men, and so she finds herself and here, you know, in California I know you do a lot of work. Here there's what I call a subtle racism or a subtle sexism, and, having served in public service as well, here I would hear it behind closed doors, you know, and from people that shouldn't say it, you would think. But it's always fascinating the subtle ways that that's done. And so some of what you spoke about resonates with me, because my wife tries to empower people in her world and we certainly try to empower both of our children in their worlds. But in your through line, in your journey, it seems whether it was martial arts or now what you're doing it was about empowering and it's about empowerment, both personal empowerment and empowering others. Can you elaborate a little bit more on what this means for you or why it resonates with you?
Arlene Limas:You know, at a very young age I was very fortunate Well, I'm incredibly fortunate to have the parents that I had to be born.
Herb Perez:You have an incredibly. I've met your mom and your mom was just, you know, no stronger woman that I've ever met.
Arlene Limas:Yeah, I mean, you're right on that. But even my dad, in his subtle way, just just so supportive and so like if I came to them with something that I was uncomfortable with or I didn't, like this is wrong, like I have a clean, a clear sense of justice for me and even at like third grade, I would come home and say, man, I shouldn't this, I shouldn't have to write this 50 times, I will not talk during the fire drill because I wasn't talking during the fire drill. You know, and you know, my mom and dad empowered me at such a young age. Okay, if you don't want to write that, then you have to write to your teacher why you don't think you should write that, which, in turn, now, instead of something that would have taken me 15 minutes, now I'm writing for an hour on how unfair it was and I wasn't doing this, and you know, but it put it in my hands. You know, when I felt like something wasn't clearly defined or it wasn't fair, they empowered me to act. Clearly defined or it wasn't fair, they empowered me to act, and I think that went along. I know that it's gone a long way.
Arlene Limas:In addition to that, I don't know why, herb. But even at a very young age, people have made a genuine effort to come to me and say you're special, you're going to be awesome man. For no reason. I mean people like Roy Kerbin, who at the time was the number one fighter in the world for point fighting. I'm fighting in the peewee division and he's why is he watching a peewee division, I don't know and then to be moved to come to me and give me his book and say to the future number one female fighter in the world when I'm like nine.
Arlene Limas:I mean, you know, I've had several of those kind of interactions with people at a very young age. So when other people believe in you, then what the heck? You start believing in yourself, because I know the other kids that were living on my block. They weren't believing in themselves. So I have to say that those are the things that helped me get to where I'm at right now. It's those weird things. So I mean I try to pay that forward like that all the time. And I see a kid who just looks like, you know, super coordinated on a skateboard and I'm like, dude, you're awesome man, you know. So yeah, we just need people to believe in us. We need people to empower us at a young age. It's so important.
Herb Perez:And I think you know, I recognize that in you, and I certainly remember when I first met you, and I understood what you were capable of, and you overcame, um. You overcame a lot of external factors that could have affected you, um, in in getting to the Olympics Right, and, and so I've seen that in your life. Can you, though, share one of the biggest success stories you've witnessed with PAVE prevention and how that may have transformed you, or the transformations how they impacted you?
Arlene Limas:Well, with PAVE right now, you know, because we are so new, I believe in my heart we have a certain skill and we have a skill to change culture, but we're new. So every client now that we are running programming through and then we receive our data, post-training data, and it is so culture changing and it's so positive. It's like man, we're doing this, we're doing this. We thought this was going to work, but it is working. Not, this was going to work, but it is working. So really, every client of ours we're learning something from. And then the feedback we're getting has been off the charts positive.
Arlene Limas:We just finished up work in Alameda County for the Alameda County Library. We trained 120 people. We have a three-year relationship with them, but we have a three year relationship with them and probably will extend that to six, but we we trained 120 of their employees and it's changing. It's changing their culture. I'm going to share one success story already. So we have a situation in Dublin and it's St Patrick's Day, and so the whole city of Dublin, as you can imagine, does this big, huge party.
Herb Perez:I played at the Irish pub there with a band the last couple of years. It's a huge. They love St.
Arlene Limas:Paddy's Day. Yeah, so you get it right. So the library there is situated right downtown and so a lot of extra activity going on in the city and a larger than normal police presence. And so a person who comes into the library day in and day out, makes his normal routine and enters into the library. He is a large man of color who is most likely unhoused, and he comes in carrying a big stick every day. He is a frequent flyer. He comes into the library every day. Flyer. He comes into the library every day. Okay, but on this day, two police follow him in, four police follow him in, six police follow him in. Eight police follow him into the library. Within a few minutes he is handcuffed he is.
Arlene Limas:And so someone who has gone through our training, one of the library workers, goes through an evaluation that we teach them to go through. Okay, what kind of situation is this? We use a stoplight. Is this a red, yellow or green situation? And where am I? Where am I emotionally and am I adrenalized? So they decide. They decide well, I'm red, but I need to do something, so I'm going to bring myself down to yellow. They ground themselves and then they intervene. They tell the police officers. Please stop this.
Arlene Limas:This is a normal patron of ours, this is a member of this library system. Please, please, let him go. He comes in like this every day. We have no problem with him and completely deescalated and diffused the situation. So those are the type of things that we want to happen.
Arlene Limas:We do some post-coaching sessions with the participants and this is a story that they shared with us and they literally said we that whole process of checking in with ourselves, understanding when we're adrenalized and then intervening, being a good bystander, finding a safe way to intervene. That's what happened. And now that member I'll also share with you that member although they came in every day, herb, they really didn't talk, they grunted, they youunted and just in the last coaching session a couple weeks ago, leadership of that branch said we've set him up an email. He says hello to us now. So the goodwill that was built because of that situation, because that library worker intervening the way they did, did beside the obvious, right, the obvious is that could have gone sideways and gotten really, really bad, but all this other goodwill that is coming now because of the way that event was handled.
Herb Perez:So listen, it's a great program, it's a great initiative and I know you're three years in and running and successful, but can you tell the listeners more about how they could support your work or their volunteer opportunities or other ways for companies to partner with you?
Arlene Limas:Sure, I mean, we're looking, of course, for like minded people that you know want to make this type of change. The bottom line, herb, is violence is impacting us every day. So to say that we don't have violence in our workplace, to say that we don't have violence in our schools, it's, you know, for some reason we don't say it, we do. We have those things. So let's try to make it better, because we bring our whole selves every day to work. Right. We bring our whole selves, or at least we hope that we can. You know if we're dealing with a domestic violence situation that's going to impact our know if we're dealing with a domestic violence situation that's going to impact our work, if we're dealing with an obnoxious coworker that's going to impact our work, right. So this is the time to make those type of changes. So we're looking for like-minded organizations that want to make these changes. That's what we're looking for. So you know you can find us on paypreventioncom.
Arlene Limas:We run a podcast which is so much fun for me to participate in. It's called Disrupting the Dominoes, and that means disrupting the dominoes of violence. We're in our second season of that and that was a lot of fun. And, yeah, we're in our second season of that and that was a lot of fun. Um, and yeah, we're just starting our first um paid professional training, so we're increasing our trainer and facilitator pool. Um, yeah, I mean reach out. Reach out. If this is something you want to learn more about, reach out.
Herb Perez:We're going to have to we're. You know we're going to have to reach out to you. Reach out, we're gonna have to we're. You know we're gonna have to reach out to you. Certainly you know the group that I work with because you know we see three to four hundred um taekwondo instructors, um across the gamut when they try to do these trainings, um to become master level instructors and, and I think this would be wonderful content for them and uh, it's actually in your neck of the woods. So I'm going to reach out to those individuals and ask them to host you and and figure out what the next nexus is for it. But you know, as we wrap this up, do you have any final thoughts or is there a message or a piece of wisdom you'd like to leave the listeners with?
Arlene Limas:I mean, we're just at such nutty times right now, you know, if we could just take a breath. Just take a breath before we enter into situations and even when we respond to a question, or just take a breath, man, cause it's just nutty right now. We need like a worldwide de-escalation. So we need like a worldwide de-escalation.
Herb Perez:Well, you know, it's no doubt you've hit it right on the head. These are, I wonder and worry for the world in general, considering the things that go on just in general, just not even locally, the quiet, passive, aggressive hostilities to one another, to people in general, and then the things that are said when you leave the room are more concerning to me, because it is what it is. But hopefully, efforts like yours and people like you who take the strength that they've gathered through life and good parenting and good education and then great experiences and obviously you know, listen, you're still, in my opinion, one of the greatest, if not the greatest Olympian that we've had. That's won a gold medal and you've taken that platform that you described and shared it with so many people, and I always see you still with your foot in the pool and your finger in the temperature of the water, willing to speak out on things that others won't speak on. And so we need more people like you and we need you to inspire more people, to make sure that they continue to do the work.
Herb Perez:And I think what people forget and I'm sure this is part of your training is when you stand idly by the side. You become a cohort or you become a co-conspirator. You need to. It's not enough just to be there and not say anything. You need to say something or do something, and it's only through action.
Arlene Limas:Yeah, I mean, I think that's been happening worldwide, right, not only in sport. But you know, everybody just kind of turns around and goes ah, you know, but no, you know, we can't, we can't do that, we can't.
Herb Perez:Man, it's so many people have just their lives are just being derailed and I don't think our I don't think anybody would say arlene Lemus just stands by and doesn't do anything and we've only touched on a handful of this could have been an entire podcast about your experiences as an athlete and the things that you've shared with others, and we just glossed over the amazing success you had at PowerKicks when you were there and the amount of athletes that you developed on a national and international level. But I really wanted to focus on this effort because I'm always interested in how people take their experience and knowledge and then transform it into another impactful place in their life, and you've certainly done that.
Arlene Limas:Oh well, thank you. Thank you, we're trying, we're trying.
Herb Perez:Well, I'm going to make sure we make all the links happen on this so people can get back to you. I want to invite you back on another podcast we're going to have on some other subjects, because I think it would be really important to have you as part of that conversation. But, on behalf of Martial Arts Alliance podcast on Cut, just thank you again for taking the time out. I know you're extremely busy.
Arlene Limas:No problem, thank you.
Herb Perez:Thank you so much. Well, I told you that was going to be a great podcast and it was. Over the years, I've come to know Ms Lemus in many different forms and many different venues, and she always maintains herself in the same way ethically, morally correct, but, more importantly, as a role model for others to follow and for to set an example for others to emulate. Her latest venture, pave, is certainly making a difference, and you can, too, take a moment to reach out, look at PAVE and see what they're doing and see the great work they're doing, teaching people how to avoid and not become part of the problem, but rather become part of the solution. We need more people like Arlene Lemus, who are willing to take the time to change the world and follow their passion and make a difference for others. Again, this has been a Masters of Lies podcast, uncut. Please join us for our other podcast as well, and I am Herb Perez.