20 years later, I finished what I started.
I began Taekwondo in college, but life pulled me in other directions. Over two decades later, I came back — and this time, I wasn’t alone. I returned to the mat with my daughter and together, we earned our black belts.
This journey wasn’t just about martial arts. It was about consistency, courage and following through, qualities that matter just as much in business as they do in the studio.
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Welcome to Under the Brand. I’m your
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host, Valerie Jennings. Today, I want to
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talk a little bit about a personal
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passion of mine. About a year and a half
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ago, I went back to taekwondo. So, as a
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kid, uh, I did karate and then in
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college, I did taekwondo. I got my brown
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belt, which is one before black, but
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didn’t end up staying in it long enough
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to get to my black belt. So, a year and
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a half ago, I was looking for something
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that Alexa, my daughter, and I could do
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together. And um we decided to join
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Taekwondo School and start doing
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classes. So, while I was there, um in a
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short period of time, I was able to
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acquire my black belt as a first degree.
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And at first, it was just an exciting
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thing to do with my daughter. But I
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quickly realized that even though um
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I’ve stayed active as an adult, I wasn’t
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as uh physically and mentally strong as
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I used to be. And obviously as we get
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older, um 46 now, you know, things
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change, schedules change, our our bodies
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change, and we’re not as maybe
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interested in going out and running
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miles and going to the gym and doing
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whatever. But um I started to realize
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that as I kept working out at in the
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classes and at the school um that my
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mental strength was also getting sharper
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and more focused and aware and I always
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um do meditation and journaling and I
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work out regularly but it’s a different
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type of muscle.
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that’s getting worked out um and
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exercise in martial arts. It requires
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not just you know physical fitness but
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um also just the mental to be able to do
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um 55 push-ups. Uh I don’t even think I
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was required to do that in high school.
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So mentally, um, you have to psych
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yourself up to do 55 push-ups,
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especially as an adult, because it’s not
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like we’re getting paid to do this. It’s
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purely our own self motivation um, and
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self-satisfaction and pushing our
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limitations. And um, that really
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resonated with me cuz I started thinking
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about business as also um, a physical
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activity. I mean, yes, we’re we sit at
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our computer and our devices, um, go to
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meetings and, you know, host all kinds
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of workshops and train our team and all
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this stuff and it requires a lot of
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mental focus, but there is a degree of
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physical um, fitness aspect that that
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goes into it. And so, I started changing
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my perspective on what I was actually
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getting out of uh, taekwondo. it wasn’t
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just leveling up um my belts and oh by
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the way this weekend I’m actually doing
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a taekwondo tournament here in Kansas
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City which I’m very excited about and
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you know whatever the outcome is the
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outcome is but it’s more about pushing
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the limits and the boundaries um and all
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of the positive uh mental benefits and
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physical benefits that come from this.
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Again I’m Jennings. You’ve been watching
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Under the Brand.
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[Music]
