We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Skyler Zoppi. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Skyler below.

Skyler, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Too often the media represents innovation as something magical that only high-flying tech billionaires and upstarts engage in – but the truth is almost every business owner has to regularly innovate in small and big ways in order for their businesses to survive and thrive. Can you share a story that highlights something innovative you’ve done over the course of your career?

Back in 2008, I had a brand-new student join one of our classes at True Martial Arts. From the very beginning, I could tell that the young boy had some type of special need or behavioral issue that made him extremely emotional, disruptive to others, and difficult to reason with and give instructions to. Immediately I began to receive complaints from parents of some of the other students enrolled in the class. Everything these parents were saying was true; that the new student in class was extremely disruptive and was distracting their children and making it difficult for them to focus and learn. Drills would take twice as long to complete. Even simple parts of class like putting on sparring gear or doing sit-ups as a group became complicated to navigate.

Out of respect for the other students in class, I decided I’d have to talk to the parents of the new student and tell them that I could no longer have their son in class. At the time, it seemed like the only option I had. Surely the parents of the other students weren’t going to put up with continued distractions and disturbances to the class environment. It seemed to me at the time that I either ask this new student to leave, or the whole rest of the class was going to withdraw membership and stop coming.

So, I had that difficult conversation. I told the parents of this new student that I was very sorry but that their child would no longer be welcome to participate in the class. I explained the reasons why, and it seemed like they understood. They walked out of the door never and I thought to myself, that was terrible, but it’s over with. Time to move on. But that wasn’t the last interaction I had with them, and this certainly wasn’t something I could just move on from. Later that night, I received an email many paragraphs in length. It was from the mother of the special needs boy. In the email, she had explained that they had brought their son to my studio because they had heard Martial Arts was highly recommended by doctors for children with ADHD. She continued to say that since her son had such a severe case of ADHD, there were no other activities that her son could participate in, because he had been asked to leave all of them. She continued by letting me know how disappointing it was that nobody would help them and their child.

After reading that email, I was unable to sleep that night. I was restless and left to wonder, what could I do differently? How could I help? Our mission statement is to inspire personal growth in our students through Martial Arts training. But in this case, I failed. There was no growth to be had, just an invitation to exit. After trying to make sense of the situation, a thought came to me. It was more of a vision than a thought, and I knew just who could help me with it.

One of our students, by the name of Lynne Banki was someone I had got to know well both on and off the training floor. She had been training since 1999. She was skilled and had powerful and beautiful movement but was somewhat hampered by a severe case of asthma. Lynne would not let this define her, and she would push on with heavy breaths in the most intensive of times. Those around would be scared for her safety and well-being when Lynne would have a heavy asthma attack, but I trusted her to know how far she could push it. To me what defined Lynne was not her asthma but her indomitable spirit. Another thing I knew about Lynne was she had an autistic son named Caspian.

Lynne had become a leader in our local autism community. She had started bringing Caspian to a farm every day after therapy sessions. She had noticed Caspian was blossoming with the frequent trips to the farm and thought it could be beneficial to other families with autistic children. And that’s how a festival called Autism Day Washington was founded in 2001 at Jubilee Farm. The free event featured a variety of activities and booths and attracted over 1200 people at its highest.

I asked Lynne if she would be interested in starting a Special Needs Martial Arts class. The idea behind the class being started was that anyone should be able to train in martial arts if they have the desire to do so. This is a class for anybody with any need that might require extra help or attention. I thought it was important to offer the class when nobody else was in the studio, so the students could be comfortable and not have people watching them and being judgmental. Lynne agreed to teach the class, along with her other son Damian in the Fall of 2009.

Excitedly, I sent an email to the mother of the boy we had asked to leave, telling her about our new class. This was several months after the incident, and I had looked forward to offering her son the class to try to make it right with them. But I never heard back from her.

The special needs class, which we called SNAP for short, started modestly. Lynne had reached out to a few people from her Autism Day Washington community and the first few students started. Among that first group of students were Megan Boss and Sean Chilberg. The small class grew bigger, and new classes were formed. Soon there were multiple classes happening in multiple rooms.

Some of the innovations to happen in the first couple years of the program were specialized one-on-one lessons for lower functioning students of the class, a dedicated curriculum designed entirely for students with special needs, and the option for SNAP students to integrate into the typically abled classes with the supervision of a SNAP instructor to help them make the transition.

At the peak of the SNAP program under Lynne and Damian, we had over 50 participants with a staff of 15 instructors serving them. Although there is no way to know for sure, we believe that we were the first Martial Arts studio to offer a class entirely designed for students with special needs. Today the program is still thriving with a new generation of instructors using Lynne and Damians innovative systems and over twenty-five participants including Megan and Sean. And we have never had to turn away another student.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I started my Martial Arts journey on the day I turned 5 years old. One lesson, as a birthday gift in our garage from my father, Thomas Zoppi. My Dad was eager to share his passion for Martial Arts with me. Little did I know at the time, that this lesson would be the beginning of an epic adventure that lead me to where I am today.

I achieved Black Belt after 11 years of training in April of 1993. Three years later, I achieved 2nd Degree Black belt right before High School graduation. I went off to Central Washington University that summer. While many teens my age had some idea about what they wanted to do for their career, nothing specifically jumped out at me.

I decided to major in Business and minor in Communications. During my senior year, I gravitated towards leadership and became a student-body Vice President and President of Alpha Kappa Psi, the Professional Business Fraternity. I came out of school not knowing how to connect with what I wanted to do. After graduation, I moved home, resumed my Martial Arts training and tried a couple of short-lived careers in the retail and sales corporate industry.

One month graduated from college on July 12, 2001, my family’s world was literally turned upside down. My Dad passed away from an unexpected and sudden heart attack. Without a clear direction for what I wanted to do with my life, six months later I started working full-time at True Martial Arts. We had school managers, many loyal Instructors and a Chief Instructor in place. My first role was just to learn about the schools from scratch and help out in any way I could. I worked at the front desk, became an Assistant Instructor, and tried to grasp the inner workings of the business.

As I became qualified and comfortable, eventually, I took on more roles and more responsibilities. I started managing our Sammamish location in the mid 2000’s. In 2007, I became Chief Instructor. In 2019, my wife and I became 2nd generation owners of the studio.

What We Teach

Traditional Tae Kwon Do: a Korean martial art distinguished by its long & low stances, high kicks, and jumping & flying kicks. The style is great for increased fitness, stamina, strength, toughness, reflexes, flexibility, balance, and coordination.

Modern Arnis: a Filipino weapons and self-defense art. The style is great for increased hand-eye coordination, quickness, dexterity, depth perception, and practicality for defending yourself from weapon attacks.

Self-Defense: practical, effective and usable self-defense technique from Martial Arts styles and systems around the world including Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Muay Thai, Judo, Kickboxing, Wrestling, and more.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

We have a great local following of over 1000 likes and followers on Facebook. My advice would be to not only focus on marketing and gaining new followers/customers, but also to just remember to be a good storyteller and highlight the achievements and accomplishments of those in the community.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

Our best source of new clients is word-of-mouth and personal reccomendations.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.truemartialarts.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/truemartialarts
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/pinelaketma
• Other: https://gjnskylerzoppi.wordpress.com/