We were lucky to catch up with JC Torres recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi JC, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about the best boss, mentor, or leader you’ve ever worked with.
The best bosses I’ve ever had is my current one, Master and Mrs. Aguilar. They are the type of leaders who are very cutthroat and will tell you what you do well and what you can do to improve. As leaders, they always lead by example. They show you not just how to do it, but also why it is important, and I firmly believe that knowing the ‘why’ is the most important thing when you are handling everyday life.
They’re not just bosses, but they are more like a family to me. They’ve been there on my lowest lows and my highest highs, and even on days where I never believed in myself, they were always there telling me how I am so capable of achieving greatness.
A leader is someone who inspires, influence, impact, and ignite positive change in someone, and they are exactly just that.
JC, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
The reason why I got into the martial arts industry was because I wanted to learn martial arts tricking, which is an aesthetic discipline of martial arts that combines high flying kicks, gymnastic flips and twists, and even break dancing. I wanted to do this because I used to dance hip hop a lot. Little did I know that this would change my life.
From a very unfocused teen going into adulthood, this was exactly what I needed. I needed structure, discipline, and a way to channel my energy. Not only that, but martial arts has taught me how to set goals for myself which I never felt like I had in dance. I later started competing, met awesome people along the way, and in the end, started teaching.
Martial arts gave me a purpose in life, which is to inspire positive change in others. I’ve seen people who lacked confidence, grow better self -esteem through martial arts. I’ve witnessed kids who lacked focus and discipline (like me) become more structured and disciplined.
Martial arts changes lives, and I am always excited to show how martial arts can improve others.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
We are a firm believer that all the marketing will not help if you do not have a strong ‘why.’ Our why is our secret sauce as to why we have such a strong reputation.
KickForce’s mission is ‘To inspire others to be great in life through martial arts’ and we ensure that every person that steps inside our studio, we create a fun and positive environment where we teach people life-skills, like discipline, respect, self – esteem, and many more to promote a positive change in their life.
We know how martial arts has changed us for the better, and we’ve seen results first – hand, which is what helped us build our foundation for our reputation.
Any advice for managing a team?
One of the best advice is to always lead by example. You can’t manage a team if you are not willing to do things and show them the way. Also, as a leader, we have learned to never leave a team member behind. We make sure to guide them in every step of the way for our junior and assistant instructors.
Most importantly, compassion is key. We never know what they are going through, so we do our best to understand and appreciate their world, and we also tell them the purpose as to why things should be done and not just show them how.
The why is always the most important and if they don’t know why we do what we do, then it’s going to be hard to manage the team and keep them motivated.
Contact Info:
- Website: [email protected]
- Instagram: @kickforcema / @itsjctorres
Image Credits
Abby Jones