Mersina's Story: She Built the School She Always Needed

Mersina opened Lion's Heart Family Martial Arts in Ancaster when she was 21 years old — with no business background, no financial cushion, and a school that had been open for exactly one year before COVID tried to take it all away.

She's been running it for seven years. She has a 4th degree black belt, has represented Team Canada at the World Championships, and has built a school around one principle she will not compromise: make money to do karate. Don't do karate to make money.

In this conversation, we get into what it actually cost her to stay true to herself when every school around her was pivoting. We talk about surviving COVID a year in, building radical inclusion into the DNA of the school, the parent who called expecting to be turned away because her daughter is deaf, and a solo trip to South Africa that gave the school its name.

And we close with the question we ask every guest: what do you want to be remembered for in your community?

Find Mersina at Lion's Heart Family Martial Arts on Instagram and Facebook, or in the business park in Ancaster. Listen to the Lions Den podcast with the kids.

The Loew Down drops every two weeks. Find us on Instagram @theloewdown.co — because your story matters

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

You're listening to the lowdown. I'm Cassidy Lowen. Real conversations with small business owners on Amazon. The version of all their best friends, not the one they both. Because your story matters. So let's get into it. Hi, and welcome back to the lowdown. I'm your host, Cassidy, and today we have Mercedes from Lion's Heart Martial Arts. Welcome, Mercita. Hello, everyone.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

It's good to be here. This is exciting. Thank you. Thank you for being on. I really appreciate it. Yeah, I'm normally hosting my like my own little podcast with the kids, so now I'm like, I don't have the I don't have responsibilities. I can just talk. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

It's Cassie's responsibility to ask you the question. It's all on you today. Amazing. Okay, so let's get into it. Tell us a little bit about Lion's Heart and what it looks like on a regular weekday.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

On a regular weekday, physically we are open at about four and closed at about nine. So everybody's always like, oh, those are such nice hours. And I'm just like, no, just because we're physically here from four to nine does not mean I'm only working from four to nine. But we're good. We're doing we're doing well. We just um last July, yeah, last July we wow, it's been a year already. Uh we moved units, same building, different unit. So that's been going really, really well. And we've just kind of been doing our own thing, like not pushing anything, not we just actually got out of like a I'm gonna call it a contract with like a sort of business coaching company thing. We signed up with them for a year, and then I kind of just took everything I learned and was like, bye. Um, and that's working out really, really well. Yeah, we're just we're here, we're open, we're running, we're all year round, which I find some parents don't have a grasp on because they're so used to their kids being in like seasonal sports. Like soccer starts in June and dance starts in, I don't know, I'm making this up, February, whatever it is. So we're getting a lot of like, oh wait, we can register whenever we want. So that's been a new thing lately. So we're seeing like more and more new faces because they're not trying to time it with whatever other sports they're doing, which is really nice. And yeah, we've got kids, it's been so busy lately. We've got kids going, so we have the national team tryouts on the May Long weekend. Some first-time kids trying, some of us returning. So we'll see how that goes this weekend, on top of like our regular classes with like the kids that are here on the recreation end of it. So it's just it's busy, but it's great. But I am looking forward to summer.

SPEAKER_00 2:39

So that's awesome. So do the classes for the regular kids, does it go through the summer or it just switches to summer camp?

SPEAKER_01 2:46

No, we run through the summer, which everybody thinks I'm nuts for. Um, because they're like, how do you do summer camp and classes? But I like I know of other martial arts studios that run seasonally, like they'll run all year long, but you'll have like your summer season where you pay X amount of months, and then your spring season, and then I never grew up in a studio that did that. It was just like monthly, and it was like sign up when you want, leave if you have to leave for the summer, come back in the fall. So like we run right through the summer. We do have like a condensed schedule in the summer because I have some self-preservation and don't do 9 a.m. camp to 9 p.m. classes anymore. I did that one year, I will never do it again. Wow. So yeah, but we all we go right through the summer, and I call it like a revolving door registration, as in like just come and go as you need to. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:34

That's great. Okay, that's good. Okay, so let's go back to the beginning. So before you even started Lion's Heart, you finished two college programs.

SPEAKER_01 3:43

I did. I finished two college programs. So, oh my god, for most of my high school career, I was like, I have no idea what I want to do. And I feel like that's a lot of kids, but like genuinely, kids feel like they're the only ones that don't know what they want to do. It's a thing. Nobody knows what they actually want to do. At one point in high in four years of high school, I wanted to be a vet. I wanted to get into photography, like professionally. I wanted to, there was a third thing, and then I settled on, I went to Mohawk for police foundations because I settled on wanting to oh, I wanted to be a teacher at some point, but I essentially was just realized like I just wanted to help people was was the gist of it. So I went into police foundations with the intention of focusing on like youth programs and like more community involvement because like it doesn't really matter where you are, cops don't always have the best reputation for one reason or another. And I was like determined to change that or start making a change in that or something. So I graduated that program and then the following year went back just for one more year because it was uh the first year of the second program is the same as the first year of pol of police foundations. So I went into community and justice services and only had to take the second year because at that point I was like, oh, I want to get into corrections, but like specifically with youth. I have family that has like a lot, like my younger brother has a lot of mental health diagnoses, and like growing up around that, you really kind of see, mind you, he's in his 20s now, but like you really kind of saw how much they didn't have access or support. It is much better now, but it's still not where I think it should be. So that was the goal. Um, and then I kind of even looked at like uh what was it, social work and like all that kind of stuff, which is what the community and justice program opened doors to. And then at the end of that, I kind of just went, I don't want all this overhead. I like I want to help, but I don't just like when you're in college and you learn like a lot of my profs are like ex ex employees in that profession, and you just hear things and all this overhead and all these policies, and I'm like, these are these are kind of dumb policies. I get why they exist, but they're not actually helping, you know, the youth or the whoever you're in the program for. And I was just like, okay, what on earth can I do? And then some spark in me was like, oh, remember when you were 13 and you like had this daydream about you're gonna be like this karate instructor one day with your own school because you have all these ideas, and then I was like, huh. And now here we are. So I have stuff to fall. I had I was like, I have things to fall back on if this doesn't work, but let's see what happens. And then we opened the year before COVID.

SPEAKER_00 6:16

So And so were you taking karate through college as well?

SPEAKER_01 6:20

Yeah, so I my parents put me in when I was three, and it was my I guess we're technically not related. It was my my aunt's cousin, but my aunt married into the family, so not technically related. He owned a studio. I was there from like the age of like three or four until I was 13. We had a falling out, and I was a very dramatic 13-year-old, and that was it. That was the end of karate. I'm never going back again. Um so I had I had my I had my junior black belt at the time, so at least I hit that milestone. And I was actually two weeks away from completing the test for my second degree black belt, and that's when we had this falling out, and I walked away. And at the time, like I don't know, two years later, I like really, really regretted it. But like looking back, I was like, you know what, it was probably a good thing. So for about three and a half years, so from grade nine all the way through the first half of grade 12, I wasn't training. I was just I'm done with karate, I'm never like there wasn't a lot around either, and I was not going back there. So I I ended up running into one of my old instructors in a Walmart, and yeah, and he was like, Hey, how are you? Like this, this is the man who like mentored me through my entire first degree. Um, like I've known him since I was three, and I just never saw him when I left. So ran into him, did some serious catching up, and he goes, Yeah, like none of us are there anymore. And I was like, Oh, everybody left. Okay. Some left just because of like high school and whatever, but a lot of the instructors, him specifically left for similar reasons that I did. And he was like, Yeah, no, I'm out with uh so-and-so in in Grimsby, like you should come try a class. And I was like, I don't know, like kind of got ruined for me. I gave it a shot and ended up there for five more years, six more years, something like that. And got my second and my third and my fourth degree through that studio. Uh, it's also the studio that I started fully teaching in. So, like, what a lot of us do is like we'll have like junior leaders, or like we called it the leadership team, and it was all colored belts, young kids. For us, for example, I make sure that they are at least halfway through their belt system, but I don't have an age limit. Some studios put an age limit before they can start volunteering, just kind of depends. So I was volunteering, I was 18 at the time for about six months, and then notice I kind of just getting kind of kept getting left with the class anyway. So then we had the conversation of like, what do you think of me actually leading classes, like making them my class, not just the assistant? So yeah, at 18, 18, sorry, I started teaching like my own classes through that studio, but I was one of the lead instructors. Ended up helping the, we call them the the that's not gonna make sense, black belt candidates, essentially. So I ended up joining like the mentor team for them. And then it was while I was still there that I opened this studio, like our studio, Lions Heart, and I was working, so I was volunteering there, teaching twice a week, and then I was also still working mostly full-time at a Taekwondo studio downtown that I absolutely loved. Like leaving that to run this full-time was like one of the hardest decisions I've ever made. I loved it there. I love what she does for those kids as well, and it's it's taught me. I brought a lot of that with me when we opened Lion's Heart. And then there was a brief period where I thought testing for my, I think it was my fourth degree, third degree, it was my third, and I was still playing competitive soccer, and I was working Tim Hortons on the weekend, and I was working the SPCA summer camp during the week all summer long. Wow. I think back to that a lot, and I was like, can I have that energy back? Give me the ability to do that again. I was like, I don't know, 22 maybe. Yeah. I looked back at that and I was like, how in the world did that happen? So yeah, that's kind of just like how it snowballed into this. And it was after college, where I was like, hey mom, what do you think about this? I need like I need genuine, unbiased feedback. And she was like, You have schooling behind you, do it. And I was like, Oh, like that was the entire conversation. There was no conversation. She was like, do it. I think it's a good idea, you're good at what you do, do it. I was like, okay.

SPEAKER_00 10:27

So yeah. Amazing. So then you started and then and then the the year was COVID.

SPEAKER_01 10:33

Yes. So we opened February 2nd, 2019, and March, whatever it was, 2020. So literally a year and a month later, we're running Zoom classes, and like I barely had the the place up on its feet to begin with. Actually, in my memories, one of the original Lion's Heart class schedules came up, and it was like one class on Tuesday night and one class on Saturday morning. And now I look at our schedule and I was like, whoa. Because now we're like, what are we at, four or five classes almost every single night? But yeah, COVID, COVID scared me. I got really lucky. We were subletting hourly in a fitness facility. So if we weren't here, we weren't paying, which was like a blessing in disguise. I I thought it I didn't like that I was doing that, but then COVID hit and I was like, oh, thank God. So it was a lot of like Zoom teaching. And honestly, I don't know how school teachers did it for starters. I couldn't do it for two hours a night, let alone all day long. So kudos to them. But yeah, we we just we shifted back and forth between Zoom and then when we were allowed, we did like outdoor classes, and then we were in here and we had to have these like six-foot boxes, but the boxes themselves had to be half a foot apart, and so then I could only fit like six students in a class. So then, like everybody's scrambling to book class and make sure they get their spot, and it was just it was wild. I was thankful that like the first lockdown, we just did Zoom. I didn't charge anything because we weren't paying rent or anything like that. And then the second lockdown, we charged a discounted membership, but also put those memberships towards community businesses. So what we did was we grabbed gift cards from they're not open anymore, but PubFiction was one of them. Oh my gosh, I think Sammy's was another at the time. There's like a bunch of like local small business gift cards, and then we did like a raffle at the end of the week, as meant like you got your name put in the hat if you were in class. So you came to five classes that week, you had five chances to pull the gift card out, that kind of thing. So that way we were still supporting small businesses and we had some kind of income at the time. I was still working my other part-time job, so I got put on CERB, which was lucky because she just she was like, I we all got an email. She's like, I love you all, but I'm firing you so that you can collect CERB.

SPEAKER_00 12:49

That's how much I love you. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:52

And then we all got our jobs back after COVID.

SPEAKER_00 12:54

So Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:55

Yeah, she's like, We love you, um, but bye. So obviously, like I was grateful for that because it allowed me to collect CERB and and keep keep up with things so that I could keep running Zoom classes. And then when everything finally lifted, it was a weird transition of the way they did it was that sports and recreation, but gyms were not the same timeline as far as lifting restrictions. And there was this very blurred line of are we a sport or are we a gym? Because if we're a gym, technically, like under my business registration, we're technically categorized as a gym because martial arts is way too specific. So, like if we're a gym, we can open, but if we're sports and recreation, we can't open. So there was just this blur for a couple weeks of like, am I gonna get in trouble if I open my doors? Or what are we allowed to do? So I just went with gym because the kids wanted to be back. We were registered as a gym or fitness studio, same category. So we re we opened that, and then bit by bit all the restrictions started lifting, and yeah, and then we were just on a normal flow, and then that's when that's when we really took off because everybody was just looking to get back into something, just do something after being in lockdown.

SPEAKER_00 14:09

So I wanted to talk about something you mentioned that really stuck with me um when we had a phone call a couple weeks ago. So a lot of other places in the area that do extracurriculars, they often shift what they're doing. Whereas you have always stayed true to what you started with.

SPEAKER_01 14:27

Yeah, we've like we opened as martial arts. Now I very carefully put martial arts and not karate because what we do is already a mix of different martial arts, but there is there's someone I know who like no no hard feelings or anything towards anyone, but I know that there's someone who we were like kind of looking at partnering with for certain things way back, like literally the month we opened, to just kind of get word out. But we oh what were they? Oh no, we were looking into where to we were looking in for we were looking for space. So we were just kind of looking around, and they ran, run, I don't even know anymore, uh, wrestling program. And so they had a wrestling gym, which means it was matted, it was perfect for what we needed, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. That didn't work out. So since then, I still have like I still have their socials and stuff. And in after COVID, they kind of shifted into parkour, Ninja Warrior kind of stuff. And I was like, how do you like that was a big shift that like one is not related to the other. Wrestling, I could relate like like karate to wrestling is one thing, but wrestling to like Ninja Warrior is not the same thing to me. But so they shifted to that. I don't know if they also still run wrestling. I know they were for a bit doing both, but even before that, before they were a wrestling school, I know the one co-owner managed or owned, I'm not sure, restaurant chains. So I was just kind of like, how in the world are you? It was just like, and there's nothing wrong with it. Like, follow the money, I get it. But it was just like all these shifts, and I'm like, how do you have the energy, one, to keep rebuilding a brand over and over and over? And two, to have that be sustainable. Like, I s I see where the Ninja Warrior stuff took off. Like Hamilton Warrior Factory is doing a wonderful job, but that's all they do, and that's all they've ever done. So, like for us, it was very, very important to me that we stick to what we know how to do. One, because that that just comes into quality, what you're getting, what the kids are getting. We were actually approached, or not approached, in conversation with the wrestling parkour Ninja Warrior place. They were like, Oh, well, what if like we run the martial arts program, but you teach it? And I was like, So I'm just back on somebody's payroll, so no. But also, like, okay, thankfully I didn't because like now, like I said, now they're doing Ninja Warrior. And so I was like, how long would that have really lasted? But for us, like, it's always been, you know, stick with what your values are. I told my mom and a couple of the parents, uh, like from like a couple of our original parents, I was like, if I ever start behaving, so to speak, the way some of my old instructors did, because it became very less family-oriented and just you could tell it was more about the money. And I was like, if I if you ever catch me doing that, somebody just be like, no, like slap me across the face and tell me to wake up because it's not, it's not what I want. And like I can see where it's very easy to get lost, but I've left two studios because of that. I grew up the first studio, I had this group of friends, we all went to the same high school. Some of them were in my elementary school, and we were like this, and then it just very clearly became about the money and not so much about us as kids. And then the second studio, the same kind of thing happened. It just became like I found that vibe again when I tried that class at the second location. I had that vibe, and then within five years, it was just kind of like, oh, we're not doing, you know, movie nights anymore, we're not doing these community activities anymore. It was just kind of like kids come in, kids come out, they don't really know anything about each other. COVID did mess with that a little bit because we had to, you know, we had to kick parents out because of the capacity in the building. So parents couldn't come watch anymore. So part of that is COVID, but I feel like, you know, we got it back after COVID. And it just, yeah, it was much less community. And that's that I fully believe the community aspect is what developed, or yeah, I guess what is the right word. That's what developed me into, you know, who I am and how I think. And I know these days, like kids don't get that. They also don't have the safety to get that. They can't just go hang out at the park till seven o'clock because who knows who's gonna be at the park or what's gonna be at the park, right? So I was determined to create a space that they were all just they're just themselves, they're not obligated to, you know, be any specific way. Obviously, we still have our, you know, like the respect and the discipline and all of that is still involved, but there's no frame or mold that every single kid has to fit into. And I've always told myself, it's one of my favorite quotes: make money to do karate, not do karate to make money. And obviously, like this is my livelihood, like this is what I do full time. But at the end of the day, if my focus is on the money, then we're gonna lose the quality and the space that we've created and that I've worked so hard to create the last like seven years now. And I still get those comments from parents of like, oh my god, thank you. Like they love coming here. This is their favorite activity, the things like that. That just like I don't hear about that at soccer anymore. Like, I was a competitive soccer player and I was close knit with my soccer team too. Like they were some of my best friends, but now, like, the kids don't hang out unless it's at soccer practice. I'd be over at my soccer, my soccer team's house swimming. Like, community is not there as much anymore. So I was just determined to have that and keep that and not spiral off of that.

SPEAKER_00 19:47

Yeah, so I mean, for Lions Heart, aside from offering classes, what else do you have that helps make it community-based?

SPEAKER_01 19:55

Oh, yeah. So I mean a lot of a lot of Hamiltonians are are familiar with Mud Girl. So almost every single year now, we've done a Mud Girl team. And it's like everything is just optional. It's like you want to come, come. You don't want to come, don't come. So we've had Mud Girl teams, and then it got to the point actually where my male students, all the boys, were like, Can we come? And I was like, uh no, it's a female only event. Oops, and they actually like some of them were like genuinely like, well, what the heck? Why can't we go? So this year, actually, we're gonna do foam fest in July. As much as it's not a fundraiser, and I hate that it's not a fundraiser like Mud Girl is, it gives the boys an opportunity to come with us. So we've got a foam fest group, we do movie nights. The one time, the very first time we tried a teen movie night, which was only to students, or actually the public as well. It's not limited to students. It was 10 to I didn't really cap it. I advised 10 to 14, and it was a hit. There was less of them. I didn't have like 20 like I normally do for a movie night. We had like maybe 10, 12 of them, but they loved it. We just threw board games on the floor. We did a board game theme. We did another one that was a potluck theme. I told the kids, I was like, you're not allowed to tell your parents to cook it, and you're not allowed to tell your parents to go buy it. If you want to go buy it, that's fine, but you need to go with them. Give them just that sense of like, hey, I did this.

SPEAKER_00 21:13

Responsibility. And yeah, yeah, I did it myself. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:16

Some of them had like they actually went through the hassle at like 13 years old to make cupcakes, and they were so excited about their cupcakes and sharing their red velvet cupcakes with everybody. It was amazing.

SPEAKER_00 21:27

Oh, that's adorable. Oh, that's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 21:30

And these were like the 13-year-old boys, like, not even, you know, you get that stereotype of like, oh, the girls bake, the boys don't. And I was like, no, no, this is a like, you're not, this kid's not gonna talk about this at school because you can't, God forbid. And then we've got like we've got our camps, summer camps, PA da camps, as most places do. And then in the last three years, we've had a really big focus on fundraising. So two years ago, this being year three, my instructor was like, Oh, you should try out for the the Provincial team. And I was like, I've done two tournaments in my entire life. What no? He was like, just do it, just see what happens. So I dragged two of my students with me. And I was like, if I'm doing this, you're doing this. Um, and then we all made it and qualified for their national tryouts. So then we go to nationals and we're like, no, like, this is not gonna work. And then we ended up on the national team, and we were in Portugal that fall for the world championship. So that year sparked a lot of fundraising ideas, and we did a barbecue fundraiser, and everybody loved that, even aside from the fact that it was a fundraiser. They were all like, Can we do another one next year, even if you guys don't go for the national team? We were like, sure. We partnered with uh a lot of our parents are small business owners or entrepreneurs in their own way as well. So we partnered with a bunch of them to do some fundraisers. One of our students' dads is a beekeeper, so we have access to honey almost from like May to September. So we do that, and we've done like crossover seminars. We've got one coming up in June, for example, and it's a free seminar because it's a friend of mine and they're coming here to run that seminar. We're gonna go there to run one for them, and it's all free just to expose the kids to other things without bouncing back and forth from activity to activity.

SPEAKER_00 23:15

So tell us about the name. Where did Lion's Heart come from?

SPEAKER_01 23:19

Yeah, I get that one a lot because a lot of studios use like last name martial arts, but that really only works if your last name is maybe two syllables. It doesn't work if it's longer than that because it's just too wordy. So for I had like I had the idea that this is what I wanted to do after after college, and the timeline's almost when you explain the story, the timeline is backwards. But I was struggling for so long to be like, what my last name does not work. It's I have like seven letters in my last name, and it's not like it's not a common last name either. So I was like, what what do we what on earth do we call it? And I was like looking into like all these one-word options, like words that mean something. So like duh, I'll use a couple other studios as an example, but like there's determination martial arts, there's evolution martial arts, there's like there's revolution that's like a club in England, and it just it makes sense, but I was like, I don't want one, they're already taken, so I don't want to be the studio that gets Googled and it's like the club in England. But two, I was like, I it didn't, none of them stuck well enough for me. So after I graduated, police foundations, I had an opportunity to go on a volunteer trip. It was my first solo trip. I was 19, maybe 20, when I went, and my mom almost forbade me from going because I was going to South Africa. And she was like, You've never traveled alone and you're going to South Africa. What is wrong with you? But it was a volunteer trip. So it was with a group. She was like, You need to be careful. She bought me bear spray and everything. So I was like, okay, I'll be fine. It's fine. She started spooking me to the point where I was like, Do I go? This isn't safe anymore. But no, it was perfectly safe. It was through a volunteer group, and it was, I've always been an animal lover. Well, that was one of the other options in high school was to be uh the SPCA animal control officers. So I had an opportunity to take up this program, and they have a bunch of different branches, but I've always specifically been into big cats: lions, tigers, panther-like, I don't know what it was, but like since I was a kid, obsessed. And I had an this this branch of the program was living with big cats. And it was exactly what you would think a volunteer mission, like a volunteer trip is you go down there, you pay your fees to go down there. Super cheap trip, in all honesty. We was down there for two weeks. We live on site, we would spend days, you know, they had elephants on site, so we would spend days mucking out the elephant stalls. We would spend days out in the bush gathering wood for the fire that night. We would, you know, actual work and we'd be up at like 7 a.m. Like it this was not a luxury trip, but it was it was so fun. And I got really lucky. The group that I went down with at that time, I say lucky, but then that actually sounds really bad. There were these three lion cubs, they're all siblings. Now the property for this program is massive. Like it was very rare that we ever ran into a fence line. So it was, yeah, it was a reserve, and all of the animals they had on site were either being rehabilitated to be released or couldn't be and lived on site, some of them in smaller enclosures because they're not native to Africa. So like they had two lions, uh not lions, they had two tigers on site. Tigers are not native to Africa. They were caught, I don't know what it was. It was like a poaching bust or something, and the these poachers had two tigers, and it was like, well, what are we supposed to do with them? Because they've been raised around humans, but they're not native to Africa, so we can't just let them go. So it was animals like those that were kept in enclosures, but even then those enclosures were within the property, and those were huge.

SPEAKER_00 26:44

Okay. So it was this big massive animal sanctuary.

SPEAKER_01 26:48

Yeah, essentially. So I guess just outside property, there were some poachers that they ended up catching the mom, and she didn't make it, so they had just, I don't know how, but they came across the cubs and took them in because otherwise they're they're not gonna make it on their own. I'm not at the stage they were at in life. So when I went down there, they were finally at a stage where they weren't being bottle fed anymore. So we got lucky enough to interact with them and do what they called enrichment because they wanted them used to humans because they can't let them go. But at the same time, they were not like trained by any means. They just wanted them to understand don't attack the volunteers, is pretty much what it was for when they grew up. But yeah, everything was just like it was, I'm gonna say like leash-free, no chains, no cages, unless it was for like medical reasons, or going in to clean up their enclosures. They were put in like a small cage for half an hour while we cleaned, that kind of stuff. And it was working with those cubs that I realized how like lions live in prides, but like you don't really understand what that means until you see it up close. Documentaries do not justify it. And like how much, even though these three cubs have no mother, how much they were like watching each other's backs and like they actually cared about each other and like grooming each other and all these different things. And at the same time, there were multiple moments on my trip where you watched them get embarrassed, like you could actually see them, like, oh, they'd trip over their own paws, and then they'd be like, Nobody saw that? Okay, good. So, like, did you see it? Yeah, they would actually get like actually embarrassed, and so it was just like how much, yeah, how much like pride and like love they have for each other, which is that's kind of just how this came up. And it was like, you know, the way these animals carry themselves comes from the heart, and that's exactly what I need/slash want my students to realize is like, yes, this is an individual thing, yes, it's your life, yes, it's you know, your goals, but everybody here is here to support you and like have your back. So Lion's Heart had a nice ring to it.

SPEAKER_00 28:56

We're here together. Oh, amazing. And you're inclusive too with accepting all students, no matter what they have going on. Can you tell us a little bit more about that?

SPEAKER_01 29:06

Yeah, that kind of also tracks back to like what we were talking about earlier with the with the whole like staying true to who you are. I watched now this is gonna sound not bad, but like this is gonna sound very cliche. Both of my past instructors were very old school in the way that they taught slash handled things, but that's because they were also older gentlemen. And I'm not talking like old school, like cobra Kai, not that kind of old school, just like they didn't have the understanding all the time that you know this kid is not gonna perform like this kid because of autism or because of you know, severe ADHD, down syndrome, whatever. But like I was always taught at the same time growing up that like this is a journey about you and you're supposed to be improving. It's a martial art in the sense of like an actual art, it's a lifelong, supposed to be a lifelong thing. But I oh time and time again, we had a student not here in the past, a different like one of my other studios that I trained at. He was on the autism spectrum for sure, never got past like halfway because like the standards were just too high for him. Eventually, his parents were like, Okay, well, if we're not getting anywhere, we're gonna leave. And I was like, That's like I saw him progressing in his own way, but it wasn't my call. So I swore that, like, again, that was not something I've never had to turn anybody away here. We've gotten close, we've had like kids come to PA day camp and it's not disclosed that they have something going on, or maybe they don't have a diagnosis yet, but there's very clearly like we need one-to-one support, and that is where I would have to draw a line because none of my staff are ECEs, none of us are certified as one-to-one support. We're also a small business, so to hire someone for a one-to-one support is like it's very, very hard to do because of like payroll obligations, but also like the way we operate. That person's coming in every Tuesday because this student is coming in and they need the one-to-one, but then this student doesn't show up on Tuesday, and now this one-to-one support is just here for no reason. It also just like logistically doesn't work, but I've I I've never ended up having to do that so far because like a lot of the kids that we get, I'd say maybe like a good a good third of our students are some kind of neurodiverse, and that's ranging from like ADHD to nonverbal, but they all have given me something to track. They're not just like down here, oh, we have autism or oh, we have whatever it is, and they don't use it as an excuse. I don't allow them to use it as an excuse, but they've all progressed. We have a student with Down syndrome right now who's nonverbal, who's gotten to her yellow belt. We've got physical disabilities that have gotten halfway through belts. We've gotten, yeah, our autism spectrum kids. Some of them are like doing their black belts next year, and everybody looks at me and they're like, How can someone like that, quote, you know, earn their black belt? And I'm like, Because, like, are they gonna look like how I look when I do it? No, but I'm also almost 30, they're 12. You know, you can't. I'm very dead set on we don't compare student to student. It's we compare you to you yesterday. We have a deaf student as well who's newer, I'd say in the last, I don't know, six months, and broke my heart when mom came in and or no, she called. Mom called inquiring and you know, getting all the information, blah, blah, blah. And she's like, Okay, one more thing, and this may change your mind on setting up a trial. Because we do trial program. And I was like, Okay. And she was like, she's like fully deaf, like sign language and everything. And I was like, Okay, like I you don't need to hear me, you need to see me. And even then, if you can't see me, as long as you can hear me, I have to I do have to have like some leeway here, right? But so mom was like, Oh, she was in shock that I said yes. And in getting to know mom in person and chatting, mom got like very emotional when we said it wasn't an issue, and just watching how we were handling her daughter and like how we were trying to adapt for her instead of making her adapt for us. And she got very emotional. She's like, We've tried dance, we've tried tear, we've tried, you know, all these other things, and like other than your typical soccer, no one, no like structured program, so to speak, would take her. And like, and that's with the parents offering to sit in class and do all of the translating every week. So, and I don't even I don't have the parents in class at all. They get to do whatever they want because I'm like, it's there's different ways to teach kids, and you just have to be able to recognize that. And that that is one of the many reasons why I'm like, I know I can do that, and I know my staff can do that, so why would I ever turn someone away? Unless it was like an actual physical danger, that would be different. But uh, and yeah, so she's been here like six months now. She just got her yellow belt. I've picked up on so much sign language. One of the students that she made friends with went home, came back, and signed, hi, my name is so and so. What's your name? And I was like, whoa, unprompted. Oh, I think I was like, that's wow, and I was like, that is the exact, that is exactly what we were going for. That kind of vibe around here.

SPEAKER_00 34:16

Yeah, this is why you've built Lion's Heart. It's an inclusive space for everyone, it's community focused.

SPEAKER_01 34:23

So we do open houses every year for this reason.

SPEAKER_00 34:26

Like Oh, that's incredible. So, what advice would you have for someone who was starting a business in terms of if they're not sure what they want to start with, what they want to do?

SPEAKER_01 34:36

I honestly would I'm gonna say exactly what my mom said to me and just do it. You know, if uh on in a if you're worried, you know, if you're worried like from a I don't know, safety financial standpoint, like you don't have a cushion. I mean, I didn't have a cushion either. I opened oh my god, I was 21 when we opened. I d I had no kind of cushion. I still had student loans. So, you know, have a backup plan in place or have a backup idea at least, but just do it. Maybe don't dive into it full time right away, but just try and see what happens because as it goes, you can adjust, right? Like I was working part-time and had to leave that part-time job because this got too busy, right? And it's just you gotta try, or you're not you're not gonna know.

SPEAKER_00 35:18

Yeah, definitely. And I mean stay true to what you started with too.

SPEAKER_01 35:23

Yes, absolutely. Like, no, everybody talks about branding. Branding, yes, that is important, but what people don't realize is branding is more than your design and your colors. Branding is what you stand for, and I think the biggest help actually recently was someone asked me, like, for our mission statement. And I was like, I don't have one. Like, I know what it is, but I don't have that one line of like make it clear. So that's something that I'm working on. But like, as the more I think about it, the more I'm like, this would have been helpful to know when we opened because it's just easier to stay on track when you know how to sum up your mission statement as well.

SPEAKER_00 35:59

Yeah, because then when you're making choices or decisions with what you want to do, it's okay, come back. Why why am I here? Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. Oh, wait, so what's the next step for Lion's Heart?

SPEAKER_01 36:09

I have no idea. Um, I've I've actually been asked that a lot recently. I have like these goals in mind, but they're not like they're not like do or die. So like I'm at a position right now where I love our space, it's big enough, it functions. I would like a second floor. The issue with that is like I don't have the staff because I'm very picky with my staff as well. Oh, currently, all of my teaching staff are in-house. They started training here or they came here from somewhere else, whatever. But like they are in-house staff. My event staff, that's a little bit easier because you don't have to know what we're doing. But like, I'd love to have either a second floor or right now, like my office is the lobby, which makes it very hard to have like, I have to speak to this parent or I have to speak to this student. And it's like it ends up being in the hallway, hopefully when no one's around. So just like that little bit of expansion would be nice. I don't want to leave the building that we're in. Um, we've got new neighbors, and I absolutely adore them. Um, it's a new dance studio, and we're just we're very in line with like she thinks of community the same way I do. And last year we did a joint open house just because like she wanted to get known and get off the ground. And I was like, we just moved units so we could use it as like a grand reopening, and it was wild. We did it out in the parking lot, parking was off site, and we had like a bounce house and we had a barbecue, and we had free classes, and we just mesh really, really well. We've got a bunch of stuff planned together for later this summer. Our demo team is doing like an intermission thing at their dance recital uh in June, I think it is. Like it's dance and it's karate, they have nothing to do with each other, but like the owners are like-minded. So I don't want to move where we are. I'd like to expand, but then expanding means that she doesn't have her unit either. So it's like this deviled two-sided coin. But yeah, there's not really plans.

SPEAKER_00 38:02

Oh, well, it sounds like a good partnership though.

SPEAKER_01 38:05

It is, it's been great and an unexpected partnership, but the best kind. Completely unexpected. The the neighbors we had beforehand, I had no issue with them, but there was no communication really. They did their thing, we did our thing. But yeah, we don't have like any major next step goals. I mean, I guess the next step is qualifying for the Canadian team and then dealing with a trip to Spain potentially in the fall for those of us that qualify. But long term, it's like I just I'm so focused on keeping things the way we have them and like expanding, but goal-wise. I just I like where we are.

SPEAKER_00 38:41

So that's great. No, that's good. I love everything that you're doing right now.

SPEAKER_01 38:45

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 38:46

Before we wrap up, what's one thing you want every small business owner listening to walk away with today? Oh, that's a good one.

SPEAKER_01 38:52

I would say walk away, kind of kind of what I said earlier about advice, but like walk away with the confidence to try something new. Like within obviously, like we're we're assuming that you already own the small business, but like try something new, try a collaboration, try, you know, oh gosh, it's I'm so like karate focused and like team focused. But like the I swore we would never be the school with like a tournament team. And we still don't technically have a tournament team, but I opened up tournaments to kids and now they go. And we have a demo team now, and just all these things where I was like, no, we won't be that school, we won't be that school, because that typically leads into things I don't want to end up doing as far as our brand is concerned. But I tried it and we were able to do both. We were able to stay community-based and have these like tryouts and these groups of kids that have to, you know, try out for something and get on the team, but they know that if they don't make the team, it's not the end of the world. There's no competition amongst the students. So it's just it's have the courage to just try something. If it doesn't work, don't do it again.

SPEAKER_00 39:53

Exactly. And where can our listeners find you and support you?

SPEAKER_01 39:57

A few places. So we have Facebook, which is mostly not for certain generations anymore, but we are on Facebook. Um we are on Instagram. We post equally to both, so you'll find us no matter what. Facebook, Instagram. If you just type in Lions Heart Family Martial Arts, we should come up. Same with Google. We do have a podcast that is just like it's mostly me and the kids. Um, and we just chat about things that have happened. Uh, we'll have a podcast after Nationals is over because that's a three-day tournament. And it's just like it gives people the kids' perspective. So that is the Lion's Den podcast. And then physically, you can find us in the business park in Ancaster.

SPEAKER_00 40:35

Amazing. And what do you have going on for this summer? Do you have summer camps? Oh gosh.

SPEAKER_01 40:39

We have summer camps. We have summer camps all summer long. We have our foam fest team run that's open again to the public. Join our team if you want. We've got some seminars coming up that again are not necessarily just for our students. June 27th, we have a fundraising car wash and barbecue for the students that qualify for Spain because we are on Team Canada. Canada does not actually pay for any of this. Um August something, the end of August, we have a joint open house fundraiser with our dance neighbors next door because they have some fundraising they would like to do, and that's going to be like free classes, barbecue, bounce house. Last year we had our mascot there. So hopefully Sensei Rory is back. Yeah, we've got like a whole boatload of stuff happening this summer on top of like our regular classes and stuff that are always open.

SPEAKER_00 41:28

So we'll be here. Incredible. Well, I just want to add in too that being a mom in the area as well, the parents of kids that are going to your classes, they love them. That's awesome. They don't say enough good things about your your studio. And uh same with my kids, they really enjoy your camp. And it it is the only one that my daughter feels safe saying on all day.

SPEAKER_01 41:52

That's great. That makes me feel so happy. Everybody says, like, oh, the moms always talk about you, and I'm like, I I don't I'm not a mom, so I don't know that they talk. You're always you're all staying it's you today, so it's it's nice to hear from someone that I know that is not just like, oh, I've heard about you from someone else, you know. So I've known you for a bit, and it's nice to actually hear that from somebody.

SPEAKER_00 42:10

So no, you are doing great things in the community. It's incredible. And and I mean you're doing it all for youth, you're making a huge impact on their lives.

SPEAKER_01 42:18

So that's yeah, we don't I I had that growing up and it kept disappearing. So I was like, no, we're gonna create it and we're gonna keep it.

SPEAKER_00 42:26

Amazing. Well, maybe we kind of just answered that, but how do you want to be remembered for in the community? You and Lion's Heart.

SPEAKER_01 42:32

Yeah, that would pretty much, yeah. I would rather be remembered for the space that we have and for the ability of students from like all walks of life to join a sport versus like the quality, if you will, of black belts that we like pump out. You know, we're never gonna be that like, you know, world every single one of my black belts is some kind of world champion. That's not my goal. I'd rather be like, they earn it, don't get me wrong, they earn it. Ask any one of them. But there's I'd rather be known for the ability for everyone to be here and known in the community for what we do versus like the high quality. If you want high quality, I will send you. I mean, I'd like to think it's high quality, but if you want that, you know, that like championship kid, you want your kid, you know, gold medals left, right, and center, I will point you in the right direction. So we have kids that do that, and we have kids that won't be able to do that, and that's fine.

SPEAKER_00 43:24

Yeah. Well, thank you so much for your time today.

SPEAKER_01 43:27

Thank you for having me. This was great, and I can't wait to hear it later.

SPEAKER_00 43:31

Yay! Okay, thanks, Arcina. Take care. No problem. Bye, Cassidy. Bye. That's the lowdown for this week. If something in this conversation landed for you, send it to one person who needs to hear it. That's how we build this. One story at a time. I'm Cassidy Lohan, and we'll see you in the next episode.