This podcast episode presents an engaging dialogue featuring a live conversation with Senior Master Zach Hayden, who discusses the significance of participating in martial arts tournaments, particularly the upcoming Fall Nationals in Pittsburgh. The conversation underscores the notion that individuals, regardless of their current rank or experience, should not hesitate to engage in such competitions, highlighting that the journey in martial arts extends beyond merely achieving belts or titles. The episode further explores the personal experiences of Olivia Palombo, an accomplished ATA black belt, who articulates how her dedication to Taekwondo has profoundly influenced her professional trajectory in journalism. She emphasizes the invaluable life skills acquired through martial arts, such as discipline and resilience, which have been instrumental in her career development. Ultimately, this episode serves as a testament to the enduring impact of martial arts on personal growth and community engagement, encouraging listeners to embrace their journeys and contribute to the ATA family.

Takeaways:

• This live episode of the ATA Nation podcast emphasizes the importance of community engagement in martial arts.
• Listeners are encouraged to participate in upcoming tournaments, particularly the Fall Nationals in Pittsburgh.
• The hosts express their desire to explore different live episode timings to better accommodate their audience's preferences.
• The interview segment highlights how martial arts training cultivates essential life skills, including perseverance and a strong work ethic.
• The discussion reflects on the significant impact of martial arts on personal and professional development, particularly in leadership roles.
• A recurring theme is that participation in martial arts transcends competition and promotes lifelong connections and personal growth.

Sam.

Foreign.

Nation Podcast,.

ATA Nation.

I am your host, senior master Zach Hayden, and this is a live episode of the Ata Nation podcast.

It is episode 214.

Right now we are live on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram.

So.

So hopefully those are all working just fine.

I believe they are.

We are thrilled to have you with us on this live episode.

Our goal is to start doing some live episodes for you so you can watch these on your favorite social media platform as well as always available for replays on YouTube.

Replays on all regular podcast feeds.

You can listen to the audio version there's and of course the video on YouTube.

You can always subscribe on YouTube.

Make sure that you hit every single episode.

But we're going to try some live episodes as well.

We'd love for you to be able to catch this live on a lunch break or whatnot.

We're going to try some different times.

Right now.

We're going to go with Mondays at noon central standard time.

That's going to be our kind of goal for a little while.

If you want to know what is best best.

We would love to know what's best for you guys.

If you comment on here, let us know what is a good time for you.

I see some people out there watching.

All right, thank you.

Nice to see you.

Looks like Dustin's out there.

The Thiel household, some cool people watching live.

We are excited about that.

Now, not every episode will we have all of our guests live.

That takes a little more setting things up, but we will most certainly.

I'll be live and we'll be answering questions live.

We'll be also playing our interviews and things like that now.

Tournament seasons in full swing.

So before we get to our first interview today, I want to remind you to head over to ata easy signup, check out the tournaments, and most importantly, hit that registration button for fall nationals.

This is the last time we're scheduled to be in Pittsburgh.

Let me know in the comments.

You're going to Pittsburgh.

I love Pittsburgh.

We are going to be there.

My family will be there.

I've got staff coming.

I've got students coming.

We are super excited about it.

So if you're going to Pittsburgh, let me know.

But lots of great things going on there.

Not only do we have the regular tournament where, you know, this is a double A tournament, you're getting extra points for.

It is not just for those of you who are big tournament people.

One of the things that I think is often mistaken is that, you know, you might be a colored belt, you might be a parent you might be a newer athlete and you hear people talking about going to nationals from your school and it's a lot of the people who are maybe on the competition, team, team sparring, doing some extreme or creative or, you know, you're higher ranked black belts and you're like, oh, I'll go to nationals.

Run a black belt.

Don't wait to go to nationals till you're a black belt.

Hey, good go now.

It is an awesome event.

My wife's first tournament, she was a white belt at world championships.

My dad almost exclusively competed at national events because he would take me to him as a colored belt.

You can do the dis or excuse me, you can do the recreational division.

You don't have to do the.

Just the regular.

So we would love to have you joining us in Pittsburgh.

It's a beautiful, beautiful city, an amazing venue.

Might be one of my favorite venues because it's got sunlight in it, which I absolutely love to be able to be in there and see the sunlight.

And a great training that week as well, if you're interested in that.

So some training that's open to you, the general public, not just instructors.

Something like Clash of the Blades could be a really great one to take.

There's some other awesome training events there.

So head over to atamarcialarts.com fall nationals to get all the schedule, the details, the rooms, all that kind of stuff.

And then of course, ata easy sign up to get registered right away.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, I was at World championships and I was.

I got caught by Chief Master Sky.

As the Chief Master, sky was like, hey, this lady here, you need to interview this lady because she is going beyond the belt and man, is she.

I'm so excited to bring you guys this interview.

I with a young lady doing amazing things with her martial arts training.

So let's get to that interview.

ATA nation.

I am super excited to have with us today an ATA black belt.

Could you introduce yourself for us, ma'?

Am?

Yes.

Hi, everybody.

My name is Olivia Palumbo.

I am a fifth three black belt from San Diego, California, also certified instructor and have been doing Taekwondo for almost.

I started when I was five, I'm 22 now, so upwards of 15 years, which is insane to think about, but yeah, that's who I am.

That is a long time.

But obviously, you know, it's gone pretty well.

What before we get into kind of what you're doing these days, what got you started in martial arts?

I got started in Taekwondo, honestly by Luck and some parents that worked on the pta.

So I started because my mom and dad were at a PTA MTA meeting in my hometown of San Diego at our elementary school.

They'd really wanted this particular gift basket that had a, like, thumbprint portrait of all of my kindergarten class, and I was one out of maybe like 150 thumbprints.

So for some reason, they really, really wanted this.

My mom ended up going in back and forth with a couple of the other moms, but ultimately she was extremely successful and got the package.

And then in that ended up also having some free lessons to Taekwondo, which happened to be down the road in Poway.

So that's how I had gotten my start.

My parents had always kind of had an idea that they really wanted me to be in martial arts to some degree, just to learn life skills like confidence, honesty, respect, all the things that you learn in ATA Taekwondo, and then also to just be able to take care of myself physically with exercise and general health and setting up good habits for the rest of my life, but also to be able to defend myself practically as a young woman in a big city.

And I feel like those life skills and the physical aspect of my journey have really paid off in the long run.

Yeah, well, what a.

What a neat way to get started.

And obviously there was something that kept you going in it.

You know, we have a students all the time who start and then they're like, oh, maybe I.

So what was it that kind of kept you going?

Yeah, so it's actually really funny.

At the time that I had started Taekwondo, I was also doing ballet and gymnastics and a few other sports through my elementary school at the time.

And I honestly think that what had hooked me originally was that ATA Taekwondo was just the most fun out of all of my activities.

I remember leaving ballet and always telling my parents, oh, I'm bored.

Or, like, I would leave gymnastics and be like, well, I can't.

I can't do, like, the backwards rol on the bar, so they're not moving me up.

And for some reason, Taekwondo just really caught on.

And by no means am I a natural at it.

And I think that every single instructor that I've ever had can attest to that.

I just think it was always the most fun.

And I also think that as I had gotten older and started growing up through the competition circuit, I was also able to make a community that I still am really in contact with today, and I still keep up with everyone on social media.

And we were just at Worlds about a month ago, and I have seen some of these people in over a year at that point.

But we talked and chatted like no time has passed.

So I think at the beginning, it was just.

It was something fun to do after school and something to, you know, get me out of the house.

But it's really about the community and the lifelong network of people that you acquire along the way.

Yeah, I mean, you.

You inherit a whole new family when you.

When you join ATA 100, just keeps growing and growing every time you go to an event or something, so.

Exactly.

You and I, we.

We met real quick at world Championships.

Chief Master Sky's brush you over and was like, hey, this lady is going beyond the belt.

And he was like, you gotta.

You gotta interview.

And he didn't even really give me much detail, but I'm doing a little sleuth in just a little bit.

You tell us kind of where you are now.

Yes.

So like I had mentioned at the beginning of this call, I'm actually moving out to Washington, D.C. this Thursday, which is so nuts.

I've actually just accepted a position working in Fox News newsroom in D.C. at this current moment.

I am a political embed.

So I'm one of four political embeds, and we cover national politics across the entire United States.

I was the only embed based out of our Los Angeles bureau for the last four months, since about April was when we kind of started ramping up our midterm election coverage.

And so therefore, I was responsible for the entire western region of the United States.

So everything west of Colorado.

So I know, right?

There's some pretty hot races going on over there.

Exactly.

It's no news.

Exactly.

Exactly.

So that's kind of what I've been doing for the last couple of months.

Before that, I worked in a visual verification newsroom for about four months in New York City.

I graduated with a bachelor's of arts in journalism and then also a minor in economics.

And a lot of my work in college kind of was, I guess, specialized in economics, politics, things like that.

And obviously couldn't have done it without the life skills and the hard work that I feel like I had kind of built up and acquired as a child going through Taekwondo.

I think that my parents would drop me off at the studio for, like, multiple hours in a day over the summer leading up to world championships, and they just be like, okay, practice.

And so that kind of really laid the foundation for my education and where I'm at in my career.

So On Thursday and officially as of next week, I'll be transitioning to working full time as an associate producer in the D.C. bureau and also working on a few of Fox's most popular and most watched weekend shows, which is Fox News Live with Aisha on Saturdays and the Sunday Briefing.

Wow.

I mean, if you get moved, move to dc, that is definitely like you're, you know, like DC and New York are kind of the two places that are the top ones.

So obviously you're doing something right.

Yes.

So now, like, I'm personally just interested in news stuff and whatnot, but what kinds of things?

Let's take a step back to maybe like looking at high school and than college, because those set you up for obviously succeeding in college and then succeeding in.

In the job market.

What about martial arts?

What about what you learned through taekwondo helped you with that?

And can you give us some examples?

Yes.

So I think it's kind of, and I think I had alluded to it a little bit in my last answer, but it was truly just the work ethic that I had developed through taekwondo.

And I think that a lot of other competition kids, and even kids that just do taekwondo for fun, you know, for exercise, you can really understand and start to see how we become so successful in the job market and, you know, after college and just in life.

Because, like I had said, my parents dropping me off at the studio for eight to nine hours a day over the summer, every single day ahead of world championships, allowed me to really understand what it means to work hard and what grit means and what it means to go after what you want, you know, because you don't like, you don't just mess around either when you're at the studio for eight to nine hours a day, and especially with, you know, the churches, they really make you work hard.

And there's.

There's not a single person at that time or there's not a single person in that studio that wasn't working hard at that time, you know, so not only are you pushing yourself, but because you're in, you know, basically a shark tank, you're pushing each other.

And I think that that's also something that has really become valuable to me is that when I'm in a room, like when I was in the Taekwondo studio or when I'm in a newsroom now, when other people are working hard, it pushes me to work that much harder.

And I think that that kind of environment is something that we cultivated at the studio.

And it really showed me what it truly means to work Hard and to be the best and also to want to be surrounded by greatness.

And I also just, yeah, I was just gonna say I feel like that's pretty much it.

But it's just the, the life skills of working hard and something that you can't really replicate outside of a competitive sport environment and particularly an at tech window.

Yeah.

Now, okay, so this is, you know, we just came off of world Championships.

We had, you know what, like 10% of the people walked home with a title that they were like, hey, I got these red letters, I got these.

And 90% didn't.

Because that's how it happened.

Of course, so often people are, their, their attitude, their things.

Hang on.

Whether they got that title or not, what would you say to that person who was in the, you know, in the studio, working hard, training on that time, didn't get the title?

That doesn't, I, I'm gonna guess, doesn't mean that you didn't learn the lesson, lessons didn't get, couldn't get the, the effort learned that is going to get you to a job like yours, a career, those kind of things.

Right.

I think that you learn so much more, I think through your quote unquote losses.

And I think that when I was younger I looked at these kinds of situations, like being more black or white, you know, like.

And everyone again, can attest to this.

I'm a very competitive person.

I've been competing in Taekwondo for, obviously been doing it for over 15 years and have been competing for maybe just, just that same amount, if not more.

And so I would really, really take those losses hard when I did not get that.

So I understand being in that point.

But just because you didn't take home the title, it doesn't mean that you didn't win something else.

Whether that being with your community, putting yourself out there, going for what you want, all things that you get in the professional world, just because you apply to a job, you have all of the references, that doesn't mean that you're going to get it.

And that's happened to me too at many other networks and also in any, in many other positions, even in high school and in college, just because you don't walk away with the red letters doesn't mean that you weren't learning something invaluable at that point.

And just because you lose one or two competitions, it doesn't mean that, you know, next year or that next competition isn't going to be yours.

And if anything, you are defined by what you do after that quote unquote loss, you know, to turn that energy into something productive, whether that be pushing yourself even harder next year and looking back and saying, okay, well that time at the studio at 9 o' clock at night when I didn't want to do one more rep, maybe this next year I'm doing one more, if not two more reps, because that's just who I want to be.

And you know, you see people being successful and that's what they do and that's just kind of how it is.

And it's, it translates exactly into the professional world where, you know, maybe ahead of a job interview, you didn't want to read that one extra article or you didn't want to do the extra legwork looking up who you're interviewing with, or looking up, you know, the company's positions and values and how that aligns with you.

But no, for next time, maybe that's something that you do and you add into the routine and, you know, it makes you even more successful that next go around.

That's great.

I, I mean it really looking at your situation, especially talking about how competitive, how that, you know, hard work.

Yes.

You know, beyond the belt, you know, we could say beyond the title as well.

You know, it's, you know, obviously you have achieved something pretty big.

I mean, working in D.C. for Fox News is, is kind of, they're not a lot of people.

You know, a journalism degree that is going there, you know, that's big.

Right.

Okay.

About the job as on the way, what's, what's been something that was just like a big surprise for you as a part of this job, did you meet somebody super cool?

I mean, and it might be a political nerd thing, but, you know, that was just super cool about the job.

Job.

I think the coolest thing about the job is that I am 22 years old and I find myself in a place that a lot of very long time career professionals are being able to interview really important people.

And these candidates that you see on TV or on social media every single day, you know, that's, that's no small task.

And when you show up to these places, you really just kind of have to put yourself out there and have no shame about your questions, truly.

So I think that I kind of had one of those experiences covering my first debate.

Debate during the California primary election.

I had driven out to Pomona.

The debate was at Pomona College.

And originally the people that I was working with, it wasn't in the original plan that I would go into the spin room after the debate, which is like, if you've never heard of a spin room, it's all the candidates that participate in a debate sit up on stage after, and it's just like a free for all.

Like all of the press corps that was waiting, like, they have all of these questions and you have to, like, squeeze your way through, like, these big cameras and these people that have been doing this for years.

But, you know, like, I was able to go and do that and be really successful and get a lot of good stuff that ended up on TV all day, that next day.

And I think it really just comes with all of the things that I learned through taekwondo.

Right.

Like, that level of confidence and in yourself and being able to say, you know, even though I am 22 and I'm in a room with people that are at least 10 years older than me and have been doing this 10 years longer than me, that doesn't mean that I'm not going to answer.

I'm not going to ask questions, and I'm not going to, you know, try my hardest to do my best.

If anything, again, I feel like it just pushes me more.

So I think that that's.

That's kind of been one of the.

One of the highlights.

And, you know, amongst a lot of the other things of just being on the road and being able to be super independent and cover national news for, you know, a legacy media out, it's.

It's really, really cool.

And I didn't think I was going to be here so quickly in my career.

The spin room.

That takes me back to an episode of the West Wing.

That's why.

Exactly.

And that's exactly, like, what it is.

You know, West Wing is exactly what this whole world is, and it's not.

Are you heading to the White House briefing room at some point?

Is that.

Oh, my gosh, I really hope so.

I think my ultimate goal for my life would to be the White House press secretary.

So maybe you will see me up there.

Well, not maybe.

I shouldn't say maybe you will definite see me up there one day.

That'd be amazing.

Don't forget us little people.

Oh, of course not.

See, that's.

The other thing is, like, how could I have done this without ata?

And how could I have done this without everybody?

That, you know, has really paved my way.

I think, like, something that's also really, really great about ATA tech window is there's this, like, emphasis on having gratitude and really, you know, forming a legacy.

Like, literally the legacy program.

Right.

Not only are we setting people up and setting future students up to know, create a legacy for themselves and to be able to pass on this tradition that we have in this community.

But we really could not do anything without the people that have come before us, you know, and that's why there's really an emphasis on the people that you learn from.

They're your instructors, they're not your coaches.

Because our instructors always say that, you know, coaches can be replaced.

They come and go, but your instructors are your mentors for life.

And I feel that way about, you know, all of my Taekwondo instructors.

So, like.

Like, Chief Master Church and Master Church and, you know, Chief Master Skiles and everyone else.

It's.

You really could not have done it without them.

Oh, that's so cool.

You know, as you.

We have a lot of students across the ATA who look at, you know, they're.

They're in high school, they're getting ready to go to college, and sometimes they're like, okay, I'm going off to college.

It's time to put that Taekwondo thing away.

And obviously, you're busy.

You know, like, there's no way you can be 22 doing the job you're doing and not crazy busy.

I'm sure you're not training weekly, doing whatever, but it seems like you are.

You're.

You're gonna stay part of the ATA family.

You're gonna do this thing.

What do you say to those people who are, like, I'm, you know, gonna step away and.

And, you know, never reconnect with this group?

Yeah, I think that ATA is so much more than, you know, just doing Taekwondo, you know, that's why I was literally at World Championships.

All I was there to do was to volunteer my time to be able to help where I needed it and to be able to reconnect with my friends and my family that I haven't seen in, you know, multiple years.

But I think that when people think about Taekwondo as just a sport that they're physically doing, I think it's a lot easier to be like, okay, well, I'm going to take a break, and I'm going to put it down because I don't have time for this.

But.

But it's really so much more than that.

You know, it's being able to volunteer and to help out and to teach class if, like, if you can, or, you know, just for your own physical health.

Right.

It's.

You don't always.

And this is also a lesson that I really, really had to learn.

And it was really hard for me to grapple with as someone who was going from training every single day, multiple times a day, to traveling every single month, to doing absolutely nothing for a period of time, like for months, and not.

Not training, not picking up the kettlebell, not doing bands, like, nothing like that.

That, you know, even though you're not in a place where you need to be training all the time and you're, like, competing for something, you can still do it whenever you want.

I think that that's also one of the greatest gifts that ATA gives you, is that you don't have to be doing it all the time to win a world title.

That's not the only goal.

You know, there are.

There's more to life in the ATA than just kind of working out.

So I would.

That are moving on with their lives and going to college to find and explore those other ways that they can be involved.

Like if you can go to tournaments like our TTL in your region, or, you know, go and judge or score keep or just offer to run packets back and forth, you know, whatever it may be.

Because everyone needs help.

Data entry.

Exactly.

Exactly.

Well, that's great.

I agree.

I mean, there's.

I think often people don't realize that you can go into a new stage of your life in martial arts and it will look different and will change again.

You know, I've know people who have stepped away, but then they have kids and they come back and take classes with their kids.

You can always be coming in.

This family ain't kicking anybody out.

I mean, maybe we will, but only if you're really bad.

Right.

If you love ata, the ATA will love you back.

Exactly.

That's exactly it.

Yeah.

There's a place for you here so that, you know, obviously you're focused on big career things.

You got lots going on.

Are there goals maybe for the future of you being master someday, things like that, too?

Yes, 100%.

It's actually something that I'm still striving towards personally.

I am a fifth degree right now.

I just did one midterm, I think, under my belt.

So I'm trying to, like, stay on track in terms of midterming, which is why I'm actually already planning to come out to spring nationals.

Now that I'll be on the east coast, it'll be much closer for me to hopefully be able to get out to Pittsburgh again, because when I was younger, me and my mom would travel there all the time for ATA tournaments.

So it feels very full circle.

But I think that, like, on that note of, you know, ATA can, like, grow with you, and you can kind of get to a different stage in your life.

I would always say that ATA is like, in staying in it in that respect of keeping rank and being able to do seminars and volunteer and stay up to date with the material and teach where I can.

That's something that's a huge priority for me, because not only does it.

Well, now, having a 9 to 5 doesn't make my life so much more exciting outside of the office.

It also gives me something to talk about at work.

And I think we had talked about this a little bit when we had met, but.

But Taekwondo has always been on my resume because I think it's one of my greatest accomplishments of my entire life, you know, and it always comes up.

And I've had people ask me, like, you know, why do you keep it on there?

Like, that seems so silly.

I'm like, no, it comes up in every single job interview without fail.

And, like, if I could give any advice to anyone who's, like, entering the professional world, have your instructor level.

You know, your.

If you have world titles, have your world titles there, because those skills that you learn on the mat are so applicable into your professional life.

Because then right there, when people ask you about it in the interview, they're like, okay, tell me a time when you had to face a challenge of, like, easy, you know, like, exactly.

Exactly.

So I would definitely say sticking with those goals.

It's.

It's definitely in my future.

Like, that's fantastic.

There's no world, which I don't think it would be.

You know, there's no.

There seems like there should be a, you know, an ATA club out in D.C. i just.

I agree.

I agree.

I was talking with my.

My aunt actually lives out there, and I was kind of joking with her.

I was like, you know, if you ever need childcare, babysitting, like, I can babysit, but, you know, I might end up teaching him Taekwondo.

Like, I don't.

I don't know what's gonna happen.

And then she was like, wait, no, that's actually such a good idea.

Like, if you want to do that and you want to set up a club, like, let me know.

Like, I can get all the Capitol Hill moms in on it.

So if you see, like, you know, a bunch of political staffers or, like.

Or kids taking Taekwondo in the National Mall, you know, you know who's behind it, it's me.

Well, we'll be back for another interview for that, for sure.

Totally.

I have to do it in person.

I'll Come over and check that out.

Yeah, right.

Wow, what a story.

So cool.

And, you know, it's just really neat to see people outside of the, you know, the Dojong working and how they are taking what they're learning outside, you know, beyond the belt and still staying involved as well.

Well, you know, so thank you so much for your time and, man, congratulations on just all the achievements.

Thank you so much, sir.

It was great to talk and, you know, hopefully my story can serve as an example for others and that, you know, you don't need to hang up Taekwondo fully and it'll always be here for you.

And if anything, I feel like Taekwondo has changed my life in so many ways, and I know that so many others can relate in very similar ways.

So thank you again for your time.

You're welcome.

And we look forward to, you know, seeing you on the press secretary stage sometime.

It'll be, you know.

Yes, I interviewed her, so totally.

Thanks, ma'.

Am.

Well, I don't know about you guys, but how cool is that?

Good.

Can you imagine?

Imagine having the press secretary be an ATA black belt, an ATA master.

How amazing.

And just to take what we've learned in martial arts and go beyond the belt into our careers and being able to realize that you can go into your career.

If you decide not to do a career in martial arts, which is totally a sweet career, you can go and use that other places and continue to train in our ATA nation.

Super cool.

Anyways, I look forward to meeting more of you guys out when we go to Pittsburgh at Fall Nationals.

I love to get to do in person interviews, and I got to do that for our athlete of the week this week.

Let's check it out.

Okay.

Ha Nation, we are super excited.

We have one of our athletes of the week here with us.

Us from World Championships.

We're right here at World Championships.

So introduce yourself.

Hi, my name is Kamaria George, and I am from Sandy Springs, Georgia.

Sandy Springs, Georgia.

Okay, so who's.

Whose school you're at there?

Chris Roda.

Okay, excellent.

Very good.

And I see you're a.

You're a Blue Bell.

So is this your first World Championships?

This is actually my second.

Second one, yes.

Okay, so now, I mean, I don't want to be rude, but most of.

Our athletes of the week are kids.

And if I'm not mistaken, you're an adult.

Yep.

So what got you involved in martial arts?

What got me involved in martial arts was there was a.

A contest at my job and somebody won the free lessons and they gave them to Me.

And I started taking and I just kept on after the free lessons ended.

Really?

That's awesome.

Very good.

Had you ever thought of doing martial arts or.

I'd actually thought about it.

I'd seen the martial arts movies and I thought that would be so cool to learn how to do that.

Yeah.

Okay.

And so it seems like you started, you kept going.

You're kind of loving it.

Yes, I'm definitely loving it.

Okay, so you did world last year.

What rank were you then?

You had to have been like an orange belt or.

I was a camo belt, camouflage belt.

Okay, very cool.

Okay.

So this year you were just mentioning you went to the Master ceremony.

Yes.

Enjoyed it.

Yes.

It was one of the most phenomenal experiences I've ever experienced.

I was just.

Just sobbing because.

Just thinking about everything that everybody went through to get to that point.

And also just the.

The symbolism of the mountain and then climbing the mountain to get to the top.

Oh, it's amazing.

I love it every time.

Had you been to it before?

Did you go last year?

This year.

This is your first year?

This is my first year going to it.

Okay.

Yeah.

So what else about World Championships is something that you've enjoyed watching because you can't.

I mean, you're an athlete that can't do TOC yet.

I don't know if you did any seminars.

Most of the time people aren't quite ready for seminars at early ranks.

But what are you enjoying most here about Worlds?

I love supporting the students.

The students know me as Ms. Kamaria and they've been cheering me on, actually.

And so I get the opportunity to cheer them on while I'm here.

Oh, that's great.

And competing.

Yes, I am.

So what events are you competing in here at the Worlds?

I am competing in traditional and creative and extreme.

Yes.

Excellent.

How exciting.

What's your favorite event to compete in?

I like Creative Forms.

Creative Forms.

That's my favorite.

Yes.

I really like to make.

Make your own.

Have your own.

Do you have music to it?

Yes.

What.

What kind of vibe does your music.

I'm guessing it.

It's a pretty hype, bubbly, fun.

Not like one of those hardcore rock ones, but.

Is it.

It's actually doing.

I'm doing a hard kind of hardcore rock.

Really?

Yes.

Oh, man, that's so exciting.

It.

Oh, that's cool.

Okay, man.

Do you do any weapons?

Yes, I do nunchucks and I just learned bo staff, so.

Yes.

Okay.

Do you have a favorite weapon right now?

It's nunchucks.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay.

Because that's one that, like, some people are, like, they love and some people are like, my body just doesn't do these things very well.

So you like them, though?

Man, I practiced so hard and I was like, Mr. Devins help for a lot of it.

And when, when I finally did it, it just.

So amazing.

Oh, that's fantastic.

Yeah, it's a tough one to get when you start.

So what if you had to pick, like an event, like a tournament event, maybe that was your, like, not my favorite yet, probably.

Sparring is not my favorite one yet because I'm still learning, but the kids are getting me in shape because you.

You have to learn how to think on your feet when the kids coming at you.

It is true.

It's true.

It can be a little crazy.

Those kids are out for blood sometimes.

Yeah.

Oh, that's awesome.

Okay, what would you say to a.

Another adult who is just out there thinking, ah, I don't know, martial arts, that's for kids and whatnot.

What would you say to somebody like that?

Well, basically, Taekwondo's changed my life.

It's helping me to be just more confident just about everyday life and just.

And I, I can't think of just.

I'm just amazed by just how much I'm changing and people that I work with and people around me are, wow, you're more confident when you give speeches.

You know, you're more dynamic.

So I love.

Wow, that's so great.

And it's such a short time, too.

So you've been doing what, about two years?

A year and a half.

Two years?

About two and a half years.

Okay, excellent.

Very good.

And are you part of the leadership program there?

Yes, I am part of leadership.

Okay, so taking some of that working, you're helping with the kids some.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay.

Okay.

What's your.

So, you know, we look at our life skills that we have in martial arts, and I usually try to see what's the.

What's the life skill that maybe either you really, like, struggled with.

And so it's been a really good one to work on or one that's just.

It's your favorite one to be, like, focused on.

Definitely.

I guess discipline is.

Because I'm kind of a fly by the night type of person, but I'm learning how to be more organized, and that's just helping every area of my life.

That discipline, you know, it is a tough one.

I think of the interviews that I've done, when I asked that question, discipline, I think comes up the most because it's just so easy to just be like one more piece of cake.

What?

You know, I'll sleep in a little more today, whatever it might be.

So.

And that's not just for kids.

That's for us adults as well.

Okay.

Oh, man.

So cool.

What?

You know, you've heard we are making champions beyond the belt.

What's it mean to you to be an athlete that goes beyond the belt Belt?

To be an athlete that goes beyond the belt is somebody that mains character in my everyday lives, somebody that's a leader in my everyday life.

And I actually took a step out to become an entrepreneur, and that is actually partly because of just my training and the always take action.

Fantastic.

What is the kind of entrepreneurial endeavor that you're taking on a public speaking.

Company to move people from anxiety to joy?

Oh, that's fantastic.

What a great use of your.

The.

The skills that you've used in martial arts.

I mean, that's a. Anxiety these days.

You know, it's.

It's a big thing out there for all ages.

Yes.

And so how.

What a great representative.

I love that.

Well, congratulations on being an athlete of the week.

Good luck in your competition.

It's going to be great.

And thanks for your time.

Thank you, sir.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, how cool it is to have two awesome adults on the show today.

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