We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kyle Billingsley a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Kyle, appreciate you joining us today. Was there a moment in your career that meaningfully altered your trajectory? If so, we’d love to hear the backstory.

I don’t think it’s uncommon for people in this modern world to change careers as they grow through life experience all the different things that they would like. I first moved to LA to work in the sound industry and spent 10 years as a Foley recordist/mixer in post-production audio. At the same time I was getting married, and starting my journey in Pa Kua martial arts, alongside my carrier in post audio. When I had my first child in 2011 he’d spend a lot of time with me at the studio in the evenings because my wife at the time was often away for work. He would fall asleep in his car seat when he was little, and then as he learned to walk he would do warm-ups with us and then he would fall asleep on the mat and I would move him to his car seat to sleep. I taught classes from 8pm-10pm because of his and my family schedule.

I kept on teaching while he slept and then would take them home and put him to bed. Whenever I was responsible for my son I would bring him with me. Then I had a second child in 2014, When he was born I was no longer able to live this life that I had built in the same way, and I quickly realized I didn’t have a time in the day to be a father, a martial arts instructor, and a foley recordist.

So the start of 2016 I decided to quit my job in Foley and open my own studio.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Throughout my teenage years I always was inspired by the idea of the virtuous and noble practice of martial arts or the honor of knights or of samurai. I like the idea of protecting and supporting others and I like the idea of stoicism as a philosophy, so throughout my childhood I did a little bit of martial arts, usually through rec centers or community events. However they never really cought my attention the same way and were more of a sport than what I thought of as a martial art. Then in 2005 I moved to Los Angeles and happened to move down the street from World Pa Kua Martial Arts & Health. So I started classes there doing tai chi, martial arts, and weapons. I quickly spent all my time there. I’d go to yoga classes in the morning before work and then on my way home I’d go to swords and martial arts classes.

I had recently moved to Los Angeles, so I didn’t have that many friends, and the studio was a place that I could always go and be welcomed and practice. It wasn’t long before I was one of the main people at the studio, everyone knowing me, and within a year and a half or two I received my black belt and starting teaching classes. I often spend 15 to 20 hours in a week between the studio, the park training with my teacher, in classes, and training at the studio, and I did that for many years. Eventually in 2016 opening my own school where I still teach in Burbank.

What drew me to Pa Kua in the first place and what keeps me always going throughout all the years I’ve practiced is the diversity of the internal and external practices and techniques that we use. We have nine different disciplines, martial arts, swords, acrobatics, kickboxing, archery, Chinese yoga/Chigong, tai chi, reflexology, and energy studies. 500 years ago when you would practice or learn it wasn’t separated into nine disciplines as it is today. It was a complete study with all of the topics integrated into the same apprenticeship in the same tradition. However in the modern world people only have a couple of hours a week in which they might be able to practice, and so we’ve divided up all of the knowledge into categories that are similar so that we can keep the oral tradition, the techniques, and knowledge as useful and accessible for everybody in their daily life.

For example one of those categories is empty hand marital techniques or martial arts, another is slow therapeutic movements or Tai Chi. The thing that makes Pa Kua rich is that each of these is an understanding and expression of the philosophies and concepts that we have inside Pa Kua. The tai chi class relates to the martial arts class in many of the movements but is defined very differently by the intention of what we’re trying to produce. We would say that martial arts and tai chi are like yin and yong expressions of the same movements.

What that means is that there are still many things to study and not have time study them. It also means that when I am trying to teach something to a student about a technique or a philosophy, I understand it from many different perspectives and have many different disciplines in which I can try to impart the knowledge that helps the student in their daily life. I believe that the things that I learned inside of the studio help me to be a calmer and more steady presents for my family and the people around me. That is the main thing that we teach inside of Pa Kua. The techniques that make us better stronger people, with more self knowledge, and my passion for life then when we started.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I’m sure everybody can relate to the story of the Covid shutdowns. I opened my school in 2016, and as most business people will tell you it takes five years to grow a business to a good healthy place. In January 2020 I signed a three-year lease at my location, and I was feeling really good about my students. I had just reached a point in my business where I was starting to transfer class times to other people to take more of a managerial role because this the studio is becoming successful. I have a goal of reaching 80 students I had 75 students, I felt that 2020 was going to be a fantastic year. Of course, in March 2020 we shut down all social gatherings and events, and I went down to 8 paying students. I wasn’t legally allowed to run classes for 15 months at my studio, so I really struggled to produce anything and I spent most of all of the money I had made and more to keep my studio open. Because I just signed a lease I wasn’t able to close my business without paying a huge amount of fees and so I decided to keep myself open at that location.

I would ride my bike to the studio with my older son to make him do homework while I taught video classes and tried to do things at the studio. Over the course of the year of 2020 and into 2021, I grew the studio to about 20 students. Sometimes I taught at parks, some I taught online, some were returning students that I taught privately. Starting the studio again from scratch after so recently having spent so much time and energy starting the studio, really took a lot of internal motivation and challenging situations. I found it hard to spend the time that I had been previously spent to get my 20th student, getting my 25th student, that I was so excited about just a couple years before. It was a big mental challenge to get over the fact that two months after I felt like I had been successful I had to start all over again.

However now I’m back up to a good number of students where I can live my life, pay my rent, buy groceries, and generally enjoy my life. I look forward to the next two years in which I complete my second five year of starting a school from scratch.

Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?

I think there are a couple things that make people successful in business. But I think the two most important things are the same in every field, mine or any other. Resilience and a plan. There’s only so much time in a month and it’s important to focus on specific things. Those things need to change every month according to each of our personal lives, our business lives, and our plan. Some months it may be important to spend time with family or children or taking vacations, and in those months we may not make any money or grow our business. Other months it might be important to find a way to get more clients/students/work and not to spend so much time with family and friends.

For example right now both my kids on summer break, so I spend my afternoons and evenings (outside of class) with them instead of staying at the studio passing out flyers or working on my website/email/etc. I’m still teaching all my classes and running my business, but I’m spending my flex time for family instead of on growing the studio. However that is part of my yearly plan, so I can be comfortable knowing that I will be back to spending all that time on my business when my kids are back to school or go to visit their grandparents.

Resilience is the other thing that we need in life. When were walking through a forest going to destination, it’s hard to see how far we’re walking, because the scenery doesn’t change much. We might take 10,000 steps and feel like we’re not really moving, but then with five steps we pass from the forest into the plains, and those five steps feel like a huge amount of change is happening. It’s the 10,000 steps that got us here, but the five steps are the ones that we see. As long as we have a plan and we keep on walking, the scenery will change.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://burbankpakua.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/burbankpakua/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/burbankpakua
• Linkedin: kyle-billingsley-5b7924126
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/world-pa-kua-martial-arts-and-health-burbank

Image Credits

Photo’s by Patrick Rivera Photography