Today we’d like to introduce you to Chad Cannon.
Hi Chad, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I grew in in a family of black entrepreneurs who owned a cable and internet company from the late ’80s until 2007. From a young age, I knew that I wanted to be a business owner from the influence my parent’s business had on me, but I did not know exactly what I wanted to do until I started martial arts at seven years old. After the first year of starting martial arts, I knew that I wanted to become a martial arts school owner. Within the first five years of martial arts, I earned my black belt, multiple states, national, and world titles. The mindset and experience that shaped my childhood from training and having amazing mentors in my life lead me into wanted to help others reach their goals in life, find themselves, and learn the qualities of martial arts that can go beyond the martial arts institution.
After high school, I attended the university or Mary-Hardin Baylor to pursue my degree in Exercise Science and played football all four years. Throughout college, I began to work on my business plan, mindset towards entrepreneurship and input myself into jobs that helped me gain education on fitness, child development, and martial arts school ownership. Shortly after college, I began my business owner journey with fitness, corporate wellness, and by the grace of God birthing Martial Athletes, the current martial arts institution that I and mentor/business partner Carmichael Simon own today. Our business started as a live group in City Reach Church that grew into a brick-and-mortar business about six months after.
Martial Athletes is not your typical martial arts facility. We don’t just teach martial arts. We specialize in athletic development through utilizing techniques from martial arts, freestyle dance, professional athletic drills, and much more.
Our mission is to build our students both mentally and physically to help prepare them for sports, entertainment, and their personal goals. We believe that everyone has hidden talents within that need to be unlocked through experienced mentors and masters of the art.
Our goal is to provide our students with the tools to set their goals and develop the mindset to master their lifestyles.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The road to this point has honestly taken well over 20 years. Knowing at a young age, it took years of dedicating myself to the art, building up my reputation through accomplishments, and sacrificing time and money to begin and maintain the process. There have been times where I had no money in the bank, plenty of money in the bank, and just enough to maintain. But through faith, endurance, and hard work the doors have continued to stay open. I’ve even fought through a broken foot and knee surgery, having to teach on crutches and build up other leaders to keep classes flowing at a high level. Last year was one of the biggest challenges with COVID-19. That was the only time in which I felt that I may have to shut the doors. Martial Athletes transitioned to fully online classes, instructing about 12 classes a week to keep our students active. Thankfully we have amazing, loyal members who stayed. There was a hand full that we lost but as mentioned before, it always seems to work out at the end of the day. Given a tough year, we were able to partner with Heart & Pride wrestling Club to move into a 5000 sqft facility that we collectively name MASTER INSTITUTE.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Martial Athletes is not your typical martial arts facility. We don’t just teach martial arts. We specialize in athletic development through utilizing techniques from martial arts, freestyle dance, professional athletic drills, and much more.
Our mission is to build our students both mentally and physically to help prepare them for sports, entertainment, and their personal goals. We believe that everyone has hidden talents within that need to be unlocked through experienced mentors and masters of the art.
Our goal is to provide our students with the tools to set their goals and develop the mindset to master their lifestyles.
– We teach Jhoon Rhee Taekwondo, karate, kickboxing, and martial arts stunts/tricking.
– World renown instructors.
– We specialize in martial arts, sports conditioning, fitness, and child development.
– What sets us apart is that It’s not just about getting belts or punches and kicks. Our facility offers programs that help to develop leaders through learning and training our seven qualities of a Champion (Flexibility, Endurance, Balance, Posture, Quickness, and Power).
– We are most proud of the community of strong leaders developed through our programs and training.
– Martial Athletes offers classes up to 5 days a week with unlimited memberships for ages 4+ You can reach us on www.martialathletes.com/ccannon@martialathletes.com/ 512-731-2030.
What matters most to you?
That our students can become confident from their martial arts training to defend themselves, become leaders within their community, and develop a mindset to accomplish goals in life.
Pricing:
- 150
Contact Info:
- Email: ccannon@martialathletes.com
- Website: www.martialathletes.com
- Instagram: martialathletes
- Facebook: martialathletes
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqUlL7cqXlgYDRRei-0gkvw
