Today we’d like to introduce you to Catherine Marcelino.
Hi Catherine, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Our family ran the first independently owned Taekwondo school in the Philippines and my uncle and my brother were the instructors. I didn’t take classes and was just happy to watch and hang out with the students. When I was 11 years old, my brother won the gold medal at the Asian Taekwondo Championships, which made him the first Filipino to win that coveted achievement. For some reason, things clicked in my mind and I decided to start Taekwondo. In hindsight, I guess his victory became my inspiration to start.
Many years later, I became a member of the Philippine National Taekwondo Team. Two of my sisters became part of the team as well, including one who eventually represented the Philippines in the Olympic Games.
While I consider being part of the national team one of the best times of my life, it was also grueling as I had to balance my time between the team and school. The hardest part was preparing for the world championships and completing my thesis for graduation. Fortunately, I was able to do both. I earned my degree in Mathematics and competed in my last world championship in Hong Kong. Although I did not get the result that I desired, I walked away with plenty of lessons and a sense of accomplishment.
We immigrated here when my husband, Ulysses, who was also a member of the Philippine team, and I retired. At that time, we wanted to pursue corporate careers so we both worked for a major national insurance company. Having our own business was not on our radar.
After several years, we felt that we missed the personal connection, structure, energy, and camaraderie that were omnipresent in martial arts training. With our knowledge and experience in practicing and teaching Taekwondo for many years, we believed that we would be able to help many people, especially children so we opened our school in January 2001.
I strongly believe in the transformative power of martial arts. Taekwondo’s greatest gift lies in its Tenets – self-confidence, modesty, indomitable spirit, perseverance, and etiquette. All of us aspire to achieve and live by these as we do so, we forever remain students.
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?
For the longest time, we had a running joke that we are black belts in Taekwondo but white belts in business. When we opened our school in 2001, we were amateurs in business. All we had was our passion in Taekwondo and a strong belief in the benefits that it offers. We had zero students in the first few months but the business remained afloat due to our day jobs.
For several years, we worked full-time during the day and taught in the evenings until about 9:00 PM. The weekends were spent cleaning, performing administrative tasks, and buying inventory. Admittedly, it was exhausting but due to our training as martial artists and athletes, it was in our nature to push as hard and as far as we could.
In 2008, we seriously considered selling our school as it was not performing as well as we thought it should. We were also saddled with business and personal debts. In the same year, we attended a martial arts conference and met a consultant whom we believed was a good fit with us. Ulysses and I took a deep breath, pulled out our last credit card, and signed up for his services. It felt like jumping into the unknown, not knowing whether you will survive or perish. That was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made! It resurrected our business and we even grew in spite of the economic downturn.
We learned a few lessons from this experience. First, be always open to learning from others. Second, don’t be afraid to take calculated risks. Third, build strong systems as these will be the foundation of your business. Finally, patience is one of the keys to success.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
For over 20 years, our school has helped improve the physical and mental health of people in our community through instruction in martial arts, fitness, and self-defense.
Life skills and character development lessons are incorporated into the curriculum and they are based on two pillars – the Tenets of Taekwondo and the Taekwondo Spirit. The Taekwondo Spirit is about overcoming oneself to contribute to the betterment of the world.
Several attributes make us unique in our community. First, our school is a member of official state, national, and international Taekwondo organizations. Future and current students are assured that the lessons they learn adhere to strict standards and their Black Belt rank is recognized worldwide by Taekwondo schools and organizations. Second, we develop Taekwondo athletes and our school has produced state and national champions. Some made it to the US National Taekwondo team and represented our country at the world championships. We participate in local, state, and national championships. Third, our classes are segregated by age and rank. Fourth, we have a low student to instructor ratio in every class. We have 11 instructors and this allows us to run and manage our classes effectively.
We are proud of our unique hiring and employment structure which we built from the ground up. Our students become our instructors and we mostly only hire from within. Candidates have to go through several processes before they are hired and the entire process is outlined beforehand for transparency. We value the trust of our employees and customers.
There are many advantages to this structure. First and foremost is that the potential employees are already familiar with our curriculum and the students and customers are likewise familiar with them; they practically grew up in our school. Our current batch of instructors are between 16 to 21 years old and all of them started with us as children, with a couple of them starting at the age of three. Second, we are able to provide employment within our school and we are proud to say that our starting wage is much higher than the minimum wage in the City of Los Angeles. Having a decent wage allows them to save for college and obtain a sense of pride in their profession. We train them regularly and send them to classes and conferences that will benefit them and our students.
Many schools in the nation struggle to find instructors. Modesty aside, we do not have this challenge and currently, we have 11 instructors with four reserves. They will be hired once we hit our growth target.
We consider our employees our most valuable customers. When they are treated well and with respect and given the opportunity to grow, the customers and the community will benefit. The growth of our employees is everyone’s growth and benefit.
The combination of these attributes assures our current and future students that they will be in a safe and nurturing environment that will allow them to go out of their comfort zones in order to grow.
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
For me, success is best defined by the tag lines that we use at our school – Believe. Commit. Excel. Lead. Give.
Belief in oneself and in one’s potential and goals are the seeds from which success is born. Commitment to one’s growth and goals is necessary for achieving excellence.
When one finally achieves excellence and success, the next step is to lead, which is one of the most challenging but important roles that one can play in life. It is hard because everything in your life must be congruent – your words, thoughts, and actions. Congruence allows you to achieve harmony with yourself and with others. It also helps you achieve one of the most difficult ways of leadership, and that is to lead by example.
Serving others is the hallmark of leadership. Giving oneself to others is the foremost sign of success.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.exceltkd.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/exceltaekwondo/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/exceltaekwondocenter
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@exceltkd/about
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/excel-taekwondo-center-canoga-park?osq=taekwondo
