The BOLD and Brilliant Podcast with Tracie Root, with guest Clara Minor

🎧 Episode Summary:
In this powerful episode of the Bold and Brilliant Podcast, Tracie Root sits down with Santa Cruz community icon Clara Minor of Minorsan Self-Defense & Fitness. Clara shares her origin story—growing up with entrepreneurial parents, launching her first business in Alaska during the pipeline days (yes… Wild West energy!), and building a decades-long legacy in martial arts and fitness.

The bold decision that changed everything? Clara chose to step fully into ownership and run the studio on her own—and the universe answered with the right people, the right programs, and a mission that’s only gotten clearer with time: helping women (and teen girls) reclaim confidence, strength, and freedom through their bodies.

✨ What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• How Clara’s entrepreneurial upbringing shaped her leadership (and why she’s the “middle-of-five” who took the bold path).
• The bold decision that transformed her business: leaving partnership behind and building her studio her way.
• Why martial arts discipline creates real-life momentum (small goals → big goals → unshakable confidence).
• How social media visibility can be harder than a stage demo—and how Clara learned to show up anyway.
• Why COVID became a major pivot point: letting go of traditional martial arts structures to focus on women + teen girls.
• How fitness + self-defense training builds automatic response, courage, and empowerment—especially for trauma survivors.

🛠️ Actionable Tips from Clara Minor

• Build strength on purpose: confidence grows when your body proves you can do hard things (pushups, planks, power moves).
• Train for “automatic response,” not information: repetition + practice is what sticks when adrenaline hits.
• Set a clear goal, then break it down: small targets create forward motion—especially when life feels overwhelming.
• Get visible in ways that feel doable: start with curated videos, redo what you don’t like, and keep refining your message.
• Let emotion move through you: if something brings tears up during training, keep breathing and keep moving—release is part of becoming powerful.

🎤 Memorable Quote:

“Your life has value. You have meaning… and you can choose what you need—confidently.”

🔥 Bold Moment of the Episode:

Clara shares how she’s witnessed women process trauma in real time—crying while training, then learning to strike, breathe, and keep moving—until fear loosens its grip and confidence takes its place.

📱 Connect with Clara Minor

https://www.minorsan.com

Instagram: @fighterfitcoach.clara

🚀 Join the Bold and Brilliant Podcast Community

If this episode lit a fire in you, come hang with us inside The Gather Community—where women are taking bold action, building real connection, and becoming more BRILLIANT by the day.

🌟 Rate & Review

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Transcript

Tracie: 0:00

Today we're gonna be talking to Clara Minor from Minorsan self-defense and fitness. Clara is gonna take us through her origin story, how she started doing what she does, and what bold decision she made that defined her current business and her current passion. I can't wait for you to hear about it. Let's hear from Clara now. Clara Minor, welcome to the podcast. I'm so excited to have you on.

Clara: 0:26

Thank you so much. I'm, I'm just pumped to be here with you. Yay.

Tracie: 0:29

Okay. I'm super stoked because you and I have been connected for several years. I was gonna say many years, but several sounds more appropriate. It's been a number of years and you know, because everything during the lockdown is kind of a blur and. Being that you're a part of the Gather community, we've spent time together regularly over these last few years, but I'm really excited for people who haven't had a chance to really learn some of your story, to get to know more about you, because that's when I really became a super Clara fan. I mean, I was already a fan. Because you're a presence in our town. We both live in Santa Cruz and the Santa Cruz area. You're, you know, you're known in the community and I wanted to get to know you, but once we got a chance to meet one-on-one and hear your story, longer story, I really was quite, you know, enamored by the whole situation. So I'm really excited to get to bring that to some people.

Clara: 1:29

Thank you.

Tracie: 1:30

Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so let's start by going back in time because you have been in business for a long time, and we'll definitely talk about that. But let's talk about Clara like. Your kind of personal origin. I know that you have some really strong family ties. You, you know, had a whole journey with your mother who's passed now, but when we first met, she was still around and you were doing so much with her and siblings and all across the country. So give us your kind of Clara origin story on how you became this badass woman that you are.

Clara: 2:05

My mom and dad were both entrepreneurs. My dad had his own business fixing semi trucks, I mean semis, and he was sought after all over the Bay Area. He was brilliant, man. He could listen to it, a semi-truck and know exactly what was wrong with it and figure it all out, and so he was very well known for that. And my mom. Worked from home and she made beautiful, outrageous clothing, really outrageous clothing, and my favorite story is that she made about 10 capes, all red velvet capes in the hood, had all these rhinestones in it and all the way down for the queens in the Mexican. Day parades.

Tracie: 2:49

Oh wow. That was a gorgeous,

Clara: 2:51

massive parades. And here comes the queen wearing my mama's cape. I'm like, yeah,

Tracie: 2:56

that's amazing. So I was gonna ask, was it more was she doing costumes or was it actual clothing, clothes? So it sounds like it was almost a hybrid in a sense, but she could do anything.

Clara: 3:06

She could do anything. She made three, three piece men suits. She made wedding dresses, whole wedding ensembles. She made whatever people wanted.

Tracie: 3:14

Wow.

Clara: 3:14

She was amazing. Amazing. Incredible. Yeah. So their entrepreneurial spirit kind of just, I guess I just latched onto that.

Tracie: 3:23

Yeah. Was do you, I know you have siblings, are your siblings also entrepreneurial or is this something that you kind of uniquely grabbed and they went on their own merry way? No. Doing other things.

Clara: 3:33

Nope. My siblings aren't, they all had jobs. They have retired. They're getting their, their pensions and all that stuff. And I'm like, I am serving my community and I'm world.

Tracie: 3:44

And where are, are you in the birth order? Are you on the younger end of your siblings or,

Clara: 3:49

I'm the middle. I'm the middle of five.

Tracie: 3:50

You're in the middle. Okay.

Clara: 3:51

None of them took on the entrepreneurial spirit. However, I have two nieces who did, and they, one of them is a catering company in Nantucket, and the other one is a seamstress. A Sotition. Yeah. And she, she followed in my mom's footsteps and my, and so she's got all the clothing. She makes clothes, she's got her business in San Luis Obispo.

Tracie: 4:16

Very cool. Very cool. Okay, so you started early as an entrepreneur. What was your very first business?

Clara: 4:25

A tiny, tiny, little walkthrough food place that you could only come in order something from the counter and leave in Alaska. And we were frozen yogurt as one of the things when frozen yogurt was not even. No.

Tracie: 4:41

In alaska. In Alaska.

Clara: 4:43

In Alaska. And people would come in winter and have ice cream. Oh, how fun. Household sandwiches made with the bread from a local baker, a cafe that made organic bread. And so we would get their bread, make sandwiches for people and serve soups every day we had soup and sandwich and the ice cream and it was so fun.

Tracie: 5:01

Did you, did you like doing like the restaurant food service?

Clara: 5:04

I love cooking and baking. I love cooking and baking. So yeah, it was fun. I loved it. Awesome.

Tracie: 5:11

And what was, what puts you in Alaska?

Clara: 5:14

Money. It was like, woo, there's this huge pipeline. Let's go up and see what we can do. So we went up and joined the whatever union it was. That hired cooks and cleaners, and that's what we did. Okay. We were, as bull cooks you're called and we cleaned barracks and we helped in the kitchen and, and

Tracie: 5:33

for the, for all the people who were working on the pipeline. Construction and maintenance and everything.

Clara: 5:37

Exactly. And boy, what adventure that was. It was like the wild west. I bet.

Tracie: 5:42

When, so when was this?

Clara: 5:44

That was in 70. Oh gosh. Now you're making me think.

Tracie: 5:48

You can just say seventies

Clara: 5:49

73. Yes. The seventies.

Tracie: 5:51

Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Wild West. I mean, I can imagine. You know, and we see movies even of, you know, like you say, the Wild West. Obviously that's, you know, more like. The team, but it was the same idea, right?

Clara: 6:04

Yeah. The teamsters would drive up the Alaska Highway with all this alcohol, and then they would sell it to all these people. Oh my God. And there was, we were cleaning a barracks one time, and a whole crap load of people left and in the garbage can was a 3 57 Magnum. Oh my God. Oh my. Oh my God. Oh my God. Yeah. Didn't wanna get caught with it on the plane, so I just put it in the garbage.

Tracie: 6:32

Oh my gosh. That's hilarious. Yeah. Leaving Leaving town. Gotta leave this behind.

Clara: 6:37

Yeah, exactly. Okay,

Tracie: 6:38

That's amazing. So started with a little restaurant in Alaska, made a little money, had a big adventure, and then to keep going, tell me the rest of the story.

Clara: 6:48

Came back to California after my daughter was born up in Alaska. Came back as my parents, everyone was down here and I wanted everyone to get to know her. Yeah. And then ended up staying and within six months we. Had already found a studio in Santa Cruz that we wanted to train in, in the martial arts, and within a six month period of time, we decided that you

Tracie: 7:12

wanted to personally train for your own practice.

Clara: 7:16

Yeah. Yeah. So we were there within six months. We found it. We were there for five years and then purchased it.

Tracie: 7:22

Amazing.

Clara: 7:22

Yeah.

Tracie: 7:23

So you were building, you moved back home, you've got your whole family around you, you're building community, you're raising your child, and decided to go into a new business with your business partner. And this was a long time ago, you told me. I think you've been in business overall 40 years. Yeah.

Clara: 7:40

May 29th. Which is my mom's birthday. It's we signed the papers for the business and it was martial arts studio and ran that for about 25 years, and then 15 years ago I went on my own and I decided to run the studio on my own and just have been doing it since then.

Tracie: 8:02

So tell me about that decision. I mean, obviously you've got kind of business partner personal things that happened that, you know, not everyone needs to know all your dirty, all the nitty gritty of all of that stuff, but making that change, that's your bold decision that like you had to decide to take it on on your own. Yes, after having a partner and having that support system, or maybe it wasn't that supportive, I don't know, but you know, being there where it's not just you. Holding the bag as they say.

Clara: 8:35

Having a partner really makes a difference in, there's pros and cons, and the pros are that you're not relying on just you to make every single decision and bring in all the money and put out all the money and the whole thing. You don't have to make all the decisions. However, I was doing all of the admin and teaching classes, so I was involved in the entire business and

Tracie: 9:01

the heaviest lifter.

Clara: 9:02

Exactly. So I was already kind of set up to do it, except when I, that day that I made that decision, I went, okay, now what am I gonna do?

Tracie: 9:12

Yeah, how are you gonna teach all the classes, do all the admin, and exactly the rest that was being done by someone else as well. And

Clara: 9:19

here comes in the universe doing its thing. Here comes an angel. She comes in, she goes, hi, do you need any instructors? I know Les Mills programs that I went.

Tracie: 9:28

Okay, so you were doing, were you doing only martial arts before?

Audio Only - All Participants: 9:33

No. Added that or tell me changed.

Clara: 9:36

In 1996, added the first kickboxing in the whole county of Santa Cruz, amazing kickboxing classes to music. And from there grew and then it grew into all the other old studios. And then the gyms were doing it, and it peaked about 2003, and then it started falling off because, a lot in gyms, just didn't have the background that you need and didn't know where to take it so it kind of died off. Yeah, but it's still in the martial arts studios. It was still fitness kickboxing and then we added Pilates and Zumba and Body Pump. Body Pump was the big one. That was the Les Mills program that this girl walked in and said, oh, I can do body pump. So that was great'cause she could cover that part. And then I trained her on how to do our, our own kickboxing fitness program. Our kick aerobics. Classes. Mm-hmm. And had her there for quite a while, filling in until I could hire other people. And it was, it, it was magical the way that it all came together. That's

Tracie: 10:32

so great. So you're there, you're trying to figure out how am I gonna make this work? How am I gonna do everything that needs to be done? And here she walks in and says. I'm not gonna do what you're doing, but I could add more, which gives you just a little bit of space. Right.

Clara: 10:48

And then I ended up hiring an admin for the office work to do all the menial tasks and check people in. And so I had an assistant there all the time. And that it worked out. I mean, that was what I needed.

Audio Only - All Participants: 11:01

Yeah.

Clara: 11:02

And it was, I didn't even know how I was gonna do that when I made that decision. And it was just like. Bam. Done. Yep. Was okay. Now what? Oh, I didn't have to think about, I didn't think about it, so I didn't have time to freak out about it. Yeah. It's just what are the next steps? What is gonna open up to me? What's gonna come my way for me to continue to do this, and through all of the ups and downs, the financials, the membership, all of that, I'm still in business. Which is my message from the universe that this is what I am meant to do. This is what I'm supposed to be doing with my life. And that is to help women empower themselves to reach their own freedom through their bodies as the vessel, right. Receiving that badass courage and just standing up for themselves and making their own decisions.

Tracie: 11:54

And you know, Claire, what I, what I see is, you know, you're talking about. You know, your individual like class takers and the community that you've built and like relating that to you, making that decision like you're teaching them because that is what gave you the courage to do your big change. Right? Exactly. Exactly. And so after, you know, 25, 30 lifetime of. Training yourself, training your mind, training, you know, building your own confidence to make that decision. 15 years ago, imagine the decisions. I mean, you've trained hundreds, thousands, thousands, women

Clara: 12:39

of people, thousands,

Tracie: 12:40

Yeah, people. But you know, and now I know you focus a lot on the women, but not nec, not a hundred percent necessarily. And, think of that. I always talk about the ripples in the pond factor, right? Like the, the people that come to the gather community, for example, right? I'm just me and then I have this circle and the circle and the circle, and they all grow. So when you have thousands of people that you've impacted thousands of ripples, thousands of circles, and then they're overlapping, and I mean, can you even wrap your head around? Where that has, where that reach has gone to that you don't even know about. Not

Clara: 13:20

even, not

Tracie: 13:21

even so amazing.

Clara: 13:22

But yeah, people tell me, oh yeah, everybody talks about you. Oh yeah. We know who you are. Oh yeah, yeah. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, we know Minors and we know Clara. We know Clara, and it, it just amazes me. I, I'll go into a store and someone will go. Aren't you? I go, yes. I teach self-defense and fitness. Oh my God, so and so that, oh my God, this is what I heard. Oh my God. Yes, it, it, you're right. It does, it does go out and it just touches people and in whatever way it does, you never know, right? There's no not gonna touch somebody. I hear from people who I, I just had somebody sign up yesterday who hasn't been with me for 10 years. 10

Tracie: 14:01

Oh, when they came back from 10 years ago.

Clara: 14:03

Yeah, I have people who have come back five years later, two years later, eight years later. This one was 10 years, and I was just like blown away.

Tracie: 14:12

Well, because the impact stays with you regardless of where you are personally at the moment, right? We're not all ready today to do the things we did five years ago, 10 years ago, two years ago, and but it might still be in your head. And you know, it might still be something that you're like, I know someday I really wanna do that again, or, that was a great time. What if I tried it again?

Clara: 14:36

Yes. And. It's how they make you feel. That's what you remember. Yeah. Yes. Absolutely fits with this because it's, they remember that feeling of whatever it was they were getting from it.

Tracie: 14:48

Yeah.

Clara: 14:48

The empowerment is what it really gives. Whatever that joy, whatever that was for them, the community, whatever that is, what they remember.

Tracie: 14:57

Well, and I think that's why as I said, you know, I knew of you before we even had met for the same reason. You're in the community. You're, you know, a, a, a figure that that is known whether they've met you or not, right? I knew of you for many years beforehand, and that's because of you knowing your mission and being willing to be seen. Out there in the world, right? You're in the community, you're doing things, you're doing everything that's necessary to reach as many people as you can because you're so mission driven to help everyone be empowered in their body and in their courage.

Clara: 15:40

Absolutely. Yeah. However, being visible and showing up. To the world in all the social medias was not easy when,

Tracie: 15:50

so tell us about how that started for you. Because you did it automatically in the classroom. Yes. You do it automatically, I'm sure in person at festivals or you know, whatever in person things that you were out there. If you had a table at a thing to talk to, advertise the studio or whatever it might be that you showed up in real life. Shifting that to social media. Let's talk a little bit about that. I think that's a great one.

Clara: 16:14

The being in front of groups. So I have a whole group of people that I'm teaching. In the martial arts world, we had groups and different ranks. That was presentation that was, it's like a show. Yeah. Almost like a show doing demonstrations. You get up there, you know your stuff, the audience doesn't, so that gives you confidence in doing what you're doing. And that's what I tell anybody who's gonna get up and speak on a stage. You know your stuff. They don't. Yeah. So just get up there and talk about your stuff. Talk about what you do. Yeah. And forget about what they think about you. Just give your presentation. Yeah.'cause you know what you're doing. So because of that, I was then. Doing live was easy. Doing live and teaching was easy. Getting on a stage and doing a demo was easy for me. Presenting to getting up and speaking, that was different, but I pulled in those skills that I had already learned and got up there and did some studying about what you do before you come on stage and how you present yourself when you get on the stage, and how you look around at everybody. Without saying a word, make sure you catch their attention, then you speak and deep breathing. All of those things. I utilize when I have to get in front of people that I don't know who I'm presenting for the first time.

Tracie: 17:34

Yeah.

Clara: 17:35

Going to social media, the first time I had been doing ads, so it was all pictures and, and different things and different posts, but when Facebook started lives. My first two lies were of me showing the camera away from me showing the class or talking about, I went on one of the Warf dwarfs with friends, and I looked at the camera briefly and then turned it away. And those are my first two. Two lies.

Tracie: 18:01

Well, yeah, because you're like, I just wanna show you what I'm doing. Without

Clara: 18:05

who I am, it was like, I don't, I don't, I, I don't know how to do this. I don't want people to see me. I'm, I'm not sure blah, blah, blah. Yeah. So I just showed what I was doing. Mm-hmm. And that was it. And then just through all of the social media growing and growing, and then Instagram switching to reels, and that was what they were pushing. And here comes TikTok and all of the things. I started creating videos and. Just started posting them, and if I didn't like it, I redid it. If I didn't like it, I redid it. I am still not doing a lot of lives, only because I feel like lives are I don't know. I'm not yet there to do live.

Tracie: 18:47

That's a good reason.

Clara: 18:48

They, they are, they. Okay. When I see somebody doing a live

Audio Only - All Participants: 18:53

mm-hmm.

Clara: 18:54

And they have one person watching, if I turn on tune in and I'm like, number two watching, and then it's not interesting to me. I really, really, this is funny, but I don't wanna hurt their feelings. I don't wanna leave because then that brings their energy down.

Audio Only - All Participants: 19:11

Mm.

Clara: 19:11

And that makes it harder for them to keep presenting. Oh, somebody left me. I'm not that important. I'm not that. And as women, I know we all deal with that. So I don't wanna give them. That part that they're gonna just be depleted because I left and now there's just one person. So that's why I don't watch a lot of lives. If I see a live, and I know the person has a lot, a lot of followers, and they always have a lot, I'll log in and watch it and then when I'm done, I just leave. And they don't even know that I left'cause there's 450 people on there. So I haven't really gone to lives really just for that purpose. And I like to curate my videos so that people understand clearly what I'm saying in the message I'm trying to deliver. So if I say something and I go I cut that out. Or I redo it. I don't like and and so, and you know, of course all those filler words, people just get bored with that. They, they're, they lose your message. So I work on getting very clear with my message and every once in a while I still say but I'm working on it.

Tracie: 20:10

Yeah. Well, and so what you touched on was two different things. I love that we're talking about this'cause. You know, this is real, real life for what you're doing to grow your business. You're doing these videos so that people understand who you are, what you're doing, what your mission is, how they can connect with you, what it is they're gonna learn when they do all these, you know, really great marketing and educational items. I just said marketing and educational like points, right? So the curated and tightly edited. Informational videos, great. But you know, I wanna, I wanna invite you to think about the lives in a different way, because you are right. People might see that you're on, and then if you leave, they might be see that you leave, but not everyone thinks, oh, I'm not good because they left. Most of us will say, oh, okay, well let's see if anyone else shows up. Right? There's no. We have to learn to remove the self-judgment of what we're putting out there. And part of that is allowing yourself to decide what you wanna see. If you wanna watch someone's live, watch it. If you can only watch the first five minutes, at least you've seen them for five minutes and they can be like, I'm glad Claras off five minutes. Even if Right. Switch it. I also think that, and the other piece of it is that specifically with Facebook, Facebook Live loves live video and we'll show it to more people if you put it out there. So as far as like increasing your ship for other stuff. If you do lives, you're gonna start to have more followers. So something to think about. And you know, and it really comes down to we all get to do whatever it is that makes the most sense for us. The work that you do, and I actually am, what I love about seeing you do your thing is you are, and it's part of your training, right? You're very consistent and deliberate and you know what you want and you know how you're gonna do it. And you are always in action and you have a plan. And it might be a giant plan that's overwhelming, but you know that if you do this piece, then at least that piece is gonna be done. Right. Right. You know a lot of folks in coaching. The coaching world will struggle with taking that one action knowing that there's 20 other actions that also need to be done because the 20 is overwhelming them and they never do the one. So what I think is inspiring about you is you do that one, you're like, I'm doing this. This is what I'm working on today. One of the things you come to the most with the Gather community is our coworking sessions, because you've always got stuff to do. So today, in this hour, I'm gonna get this done. And you do it and you're, it's very, it's, I would say that you're one of the, the most like deliberately focused people that I know. And I think it is from all of your training, from all of your years in business, and it is part of that, you know, having an understanding of martial arts training, not having trained myself, but my kids did and et cetera. The, the mental strength that comes along with all of that is why you are that way. Right. This is I mean, it's also because of your upbringing, your entrepreneurial spirit and everything, but the, the practice of. Of being intentional about what it is you're trying to accomplish is something that you do very well, that I think everyone could be inspired from.'cause I know that am

Clara: 23:40

Well, what the martial arts does is it gives you a goal, it always, to these smaller goals. To eventually reach that bigger, bigger goal of getting your black belt right,

Tracie: 23:49

getting your progressing through all of that.

Clara: 23:52

That's what keeps you going. That's what keeps you training. That's what keeps you studying to get to that goal and getting better and better and better. I would train for three and four hours a day before I got my black belt. It was sometimes overwhelming just going over and over and over. Physically, there's a lot body do the stuff.

Audio Only - All Participants: 24:10

Yeah.

Clara: 24:10

And that kind of discipline absolutely carries over to this is what I need to do, how am I gonna get it done? Do I need help in getting this done?

Audio Only - All Participants: 24:20

Mm-hmm.

Clara: 24:20

Where am I gonna go with this? And really working on just one thing, getting it done, and then going onto the next thing. And for me, that works the best. I just doing little snippets here and there is. It doesn't work for me, do it.

Tracie: 24:33

Well, it's, it's also see the big picture and narrow it. And narrow it and narrow it, and that's the path. Yeah. Right. And yeah, I, I, it reminds me actually when my kids were in martial arts and it was COVID and, you know, so continuing to attend class on Zoom was very hard. They did it and my youngest one, my oldest one had already achieved some junior black belt levels, but my old, my younger one hadn't yet, was still a brown belt. And and I kept saying look, I know that this is a challenge doing things on Zoom. And eventually we did outdoor, they did outdoor classes in the park or whatever, which was great. And, but I said, you know, do you wanna get to black belt?'cause if you do. You're gonna need to keep going. You need to go to class, you need to keep training, you need to keep practicing. And he said, yes, I do wanna do that. I'm like, if that's still what you wanna do, if that's still your goal, let's keep moving forward. And it was a big help to have that goal. Or really that's the only reason why I kept going was because he did have that goal to achieve that rank. And you know, once that happened, COVID was still kind of going on and things weren't. It weren't what he'd envisioned it being longer term. So once achieved that goal, that was kind of the end of it. But both of my kids have said that they would be interested in going back at some point in their lives, whether it's, you know, as young people or when they grow up or whatever. Because it's all a positive. Experience. Yeah. So let's talk about the experience. So you're doing a lot of fitness, but you're still doing martial, martial arts, or tell us what Yeah. You do most, it's a fitness studio mostly, right? It's a fit, a self-defense, fitness studio, self-defense. Okay. So talk about, yeah, talk about specifically what you're doing in your studio that is reaching. Your clients today.

Clara: 26:29

Okay. First of all, COVID is what made me make this change. Mm-hmm. That was the second thing that brought me. I let go of traditional martial arts training, which mean the uniform and the belt. Yep, yep. And all of that stuff. The testing and all of those things out the door and C on Zoom for the kids class is what made me let go of the kids. It was overwhelming. It was. Too much. It was, yeah, I would teach. I can't imagine like the five-year-olds and the 10 year olds, even at that time. I'm teaching 45 minute sessions and I'm like this, okay, come back in the camera. Jody, where are you? Come on. Yep, yep. Right. I need to be able to see you. Okay. Okay. Leave the dog alone. Come back into the training constantly and I was, when I finished that kid's class, I'd be sitting here. Huh? Exhausted at my computer for five minutes before I could even get up and do anything. It was so exhausting. So I, before the kids, eventually in 2022 on May the fourth be with you, may the fourth. I, I graduated my last child, two junior black belt, and that was the end of the children's program. Mm-hmm. And I decided, I'm focusing on women and teen girls because. Teen girls are the most vulnerable population out there.

Tracie: 27:46

Yeah,

Clara: 27:46

I believe it. They're young. They're out on their own without their parents. They, they know everything in the world and women and getting adult women to say, stop doing what you're doing if it's not working any longer, and start doing what you love. And through that, that's where I came to my women and teen girls or my main focus. However, I also do the workshops. For all groups organizations and businesses and anybody else who wants their group to have a special workshop. I do those all the time.

Tracie: 28:22

Yeah, great.

Clara: 28:22

So those, so really learning self-defense through fitness. Gives you the body knowing it gives you

Tracie: 28:31

mm-hmm.

Clara: 28:31

Empowerment. It gives you the strength, the stability, the power, which creates the confidence. And then in learning how to actually defend yourself. So out of the martial arts I was doing, I grabbed all the techniques and that's what I'm teaching to my women on a regular basis. And it's about repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition. And that's why I do not do how to technique videos. Throw them up on YouTube or throw them on socials because that doesn't work. Yeah, it never has worked, and it's a disservice to people going, oh, look at that cool thing. Let me try it. Let's try it. Well, you're never gonna get it without correction. Unique correction all

Tracie: 29:13

and regular practice. Right. It tends to be a more one and done kind of attempt.

Clara: 29:18

Yeah. So that's why, that's how I got, that's how I got to, yeah. Doing what I'm doing now and the, the blending the two together is, is I love it. I love it because you're, you're getting strong, you're getting fit. You can do pushups and planks and all the things and squats and jumps and jacks and. But you also know how to fight. Yeah. You know how to defend yourself. Your body is becoming that automatic response. That's what you want is the automatic response.'cause that's what you're gonna use when, if ever you get physically attacked, automatic response is gonna come on right away. And that's what I'm training women to do.

Tracie: 29:56

I love it. I love it. Yeah. I, I am imagining the, you know. The first kind of self-defense little workshop thing that I ever attended was, I don't know, five years ago or something like that, which I'm in my fifties, so that's already a lot too late. But anyway, that's neither here nor there. Too late. I remember going, it's never too late, but, you know, 30 years before would've been great. But I remember being in there and being. Terrified to make a big move, right? To, to use the powerful muscles and your whole body to do this kind of example that we were doing together. And so I love the idea of you're in there and you're fitness and you're doing big movements to work your body, and then you can relate those big movements to what's needed when you're in a moment of crisis or fear or escape or fight or whatever. So I love that

Clara: 30:53

so much. Exactly there. I've had women who have come into the studio, trained with me through trauma, and their first two or three classes here we are moving and they're crying. And I go, that's okay.

Tracie: 31:05

Yeah, I believe it.

Clara: 31:06

It's okay. Throw the cross. Throw the cross. Just let your tears come. Throw the cross. Okay? Do this and work them through that. Letting those tears flow and working one-on-one with them and just being present right there with them while we're doing that movement, allowed them to release the trauma. I love it. It is just amazing how that works, and it's been more than one woman who has cried in my classes and I'm there to support women wherever they are. Their lives, whatever trauma they have had in the past. And to empower them, help them empower themselves, and it works. It works. I have a video that I just posted on Instagram about, I think I'm in my car saying, here's a testimonial quick of one of my members. And she's been with me over a year now. And it's just, that's what happens. That's what happens. She's, her confidence have just gone sky high.

Tracie: 31:59

Amazing. Amazing. Well, I think that we are, we need to wrap up. Because we could just keep talking and we could keep hearing stories about all these people that you've touched and, and talk more about how it feels and, and all of it. But I guess what I have to just say is, Clara, I mean, I've heard you speak, we've talked several times like this, and I am it makes me so happy to know you're doing this for people. I, when you were talking about people crying in class, I knew exactly. That's, that's what you were gonna say, because it's so terrifying. And then empowering

Clara: 32:38

mm-hmm.

Tracie: 32:38

To go on the journey from being the victim or being afraid to just not being terrified anymore.

Clara: 32:49

Having confidence in yourself and in your abilities and in who you are

Tracie: 32:53

and knowing that that is who you can be from this point forward. Yes. Like life is different.

Clara: 33:00

Yes.

Tracie: 33:00

Starting now you have that.

Clara: 33:02

Exactly. Exactly. You're, you're a valid human being. Your life has value. You have meaning in your life, and you can do whatever it is want, whatever. It's without consideration for other people's needs or wants or desires or grabs or bullying and all the stuff that other people try to put on us. You can just say, this is what I'm choosing to do.

Tracie: 33:21

Yep.

Clara: 33:21

I have girlfriends like that. We'll be, oh, we're planning things up. Not gonna work today. Okay, cool. It just, we know life and we know that we have to make choices based on what we need. And that's the way it is. It's, it's being able to do that confidently. Yeah. And change your mind instead of saying, sorry, you can apologize if something, you did something bad, but getting into that word, sorry. Ugh. We all need to get rid of that word. The

Tracie: 33:50

sorry's. The shoulds, the, ugh. All of that. Exactly.

Clara: 33:53

And just being in, this is where I am right now. This is the decision I have to make and I'm making this decision.

Audio Only - All Participants: 33:58

Yeah.

Clara: 33:59

They don't one for me. Well go see their therapist because it's not my issue. It is yours. Yep.

Tracie: 34:07

Yeah. Absolutely. All right, my friend. Thank you for being with us today so much. I so appreciate you. I, you know, you said something about you just did this video, whatever. Obviously this is gonna live beyond that video being anything considered new, but we're gonna have all of your contact info and everything, how people can find out about you. See those videos engage with you in the show notes and in our promotion and stuff, and we're gonna get this out to all of the women who need to hear that they have the power to be that badass that you see for them, even if they don't see it for themselves yet.

Clara: 34:47

Exactly. Thank you for having me. This has been a joy.

Tracie: 34:51

I love it. Thank you so much, my friend. All right,

Clara: 34:54

thanks. We see you soon. Take care. Bye. Bye.