Today we’d like to introduce you to Jason Lau.
Jason, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
My business partner Brandon Florian and I have known each other for years from training in Hapkido martial arts together. As we were both in the process of earning our 3rd degree black belts in 2008, a friend introduced us to this new fitness thing called CrossFit. We decided to try a few CrossFit classes thinking they would be easy since we were in pretty good shape. Well the classes weren’t easy, they were some of the most physical and intense workouts we had ever done. At that point CrossFit was still in its infancy stage, it wasn’t the juggernaut it is today.
In 2010 we decided we wanted to open up our own martial arts school and CrossFit gym. After becoming more involved with the CrossFit world, we saw how similar it was to the martial arts that we had been practicing for so many years, and how well they complimented each other. Both needed discipline and time to improve techniques. You had to set goals in both, whether you were trying to achieve a new belt ranking or hit a new personal recorded in a power lift. The community aspect was also very similar, as you had people in your classes there to help and motivate you to reach those goals.
It took us more than a year to find the location we are currently in now, we first opened our doors in April of 2012. We started with two basic programs, CrossFit and Hapkido. As we slowly grew, we added our Tiny Tiger program which is a martial arts program for 4-6 year olds. Then we added our Mini Cubs program which is a parent and me class that we offer once a week for 2 ½ -4 year olds. As we continued to grow, we hit major milestones. Early last year our 200th active member joined the academy and toward the end of last year, we graduated our very first class of Black Belts. These are the students who have been training with us since the beginning in 2012. In July of this year we will be celebrating our 5 year anniversary.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Just like any other new business, there is no such thing as a smooth road. There are many bumps and road blocks that can appear. It’s learning as you go, adapting to new challenges, minimizing mistakes, building efficient processes, assembling a team, and having good financial discipline. Typically anyone who is interested in starting a martial arts or CrossFit gym starts at rec center, church, home gym. You build a following of a few members and then finally find a small location. We completely broke the norm, started with 0 members and a large facility. Financially that hurt, but I knew it would eventually pay off once we got started. When we initially started with our two basic programs, CrossFit and Hapkido, Brandon and I were both working our corporate careers. He was living in Sherman Oaks and driving to Redondo Beach for work then driving back to the gym in Chatsworth for a 5pm class and I was working as a Systems Engineer in Woodland Hills. My corporate work hours were 5am – 2pm, then I would be at the gym for a 3:30pm class until closing at 8:30pm.
We slowly grinded away and picked up members until we finally had enough members to cover the cost of rent and utilities. At that point, the business was staying open and we both still had our corporate jobs to cover our living expenses.
Even today, with over 240 active members, it’s not always a smooth road. There are always things we are looking to improve. With each new member who joins our program, we encounter new challenges, and as long as the business continues we know that there will always be bumps and hurdles along the way. It’s just adapting to our client’s needs and having clients who are understanding and patient to changes.
Evolution Martial Arts & CrossFit – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Evolution Martial Arts & CrossFit is an academy and gym that specializes in Hapkido martial arts and CrossFit. We offer martial arts classes for children as early as 3 years old, all the way to adults. We also offer CrossFit fitness classes for adults. What sets us apart from others is that there aren’t any places that we know of that offer both traditional martial arts and CrossFit all under the same roof. We are a facility where parents can work out in a CrossFit class while their children can take martial arts classes. We know how busy parents are so it’s very convenient to have families come in together and leave together.
We are proud of the hard work we see day in and day out from all of our members. We love seeing students earn new belt rankings in Hapkido, we love seeing adults achieve fitness goals. What we take most pride in as a business is how much we are helping our community. From helping young kids learn about life skills including working hard, setting goals, and building confidence in what they do, to helping adults just live a healthier and more active lifestyle.
What makes us unique, besides having martial arts and CrossFit under the same roof, is our community. We feel all of our members are all so supportive of each other. Our members are more than just clients who come and take class together. Members become friends outside of Evolution. Over the course of 5 years we have all become a family.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Short term success for us is having martial art students successfully earn stripes on their belts, earning new belts, and eventually a black belt. Short term success for CrossFitters is having them achieve goals and being able to do CrossFit elements they were not able to do before coming to us.
We would love for these members to stay with us forever but that’s not usually the case. The bigger picture for us on defining success is what these members will take away from us after all the years of being with us. We hope children learning martial arts from us will develop life skills, like following directions, showing respect, working hard, understanding its ok to not succeed the first time but to keep trying until they do. We hope these life skills they learn by doing martial arts will help them as they become young adults.
As for the current adults doing CrossFit or Martial Arts, long term success is if they can take away the fact that everyone should stay active, eat healthier, and hopefully they can be role models for their own children to be the same.
Knowing that each individual has their own story is the challenge for us to be able to effectively reach out to them and help them. Overall success is to be able to change each individual who walks into our doors.
Contact Info:
- Address: 20850 Plummer St
Chatsworth, CA 91311 - Website: www.evomaa.net
- Phone: 818-850-0671
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @evomaa
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/evomaa
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/evomaa
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/evolution-martial-arts-and-crossfit-chatsworth
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