Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Shawn Morris. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Shawn thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

Before I turned my school into an actual business, I was working as a contractor for other schools, teaching martial arts as part of their program. While the work was rewarding, it wasn’t exactly what I wanted. I had wanted my own school, with my own students and I wanted to teach kung fu, the system I grew up with. I reached out to my Sifu, Raymond Bennett for permission. At first, he was hesitant, but I had a plan and he approved. I had talked to a local martial arts store owner who had a space next door to their shop, Rising Sun Martial Arts. I rented out some time there and then started to work towards gathering my students. I knew of a few of my friends that had wanted to try it out, so it I started there. Then, as time went on, more students from my other classes wanted to learn what I had to teach, so my school started to grow.

The problem was not so much getting students though, it was keeping them. This was a huge undertaking for me, as I had never really had a full school of my own. I knew some of the logistics of it, but it really hit me when the bills were starting to pile up and the students were leaving for one reason or another. Usually, it had to do with an already busy life, or they simply didn’t have the funds to continue. While I prided myself on keeping the prices to less than most other schools, so it wasn’t prohibitively expensive, I still had to pay for things to keep the school running.

In 2017, I met the person that would help me keep the business going and getting it to grow. She helped me to make the business official and register with the state as an LLC, build the website and turn it into a legitimate business. I was starting to feel like an entrepreneur now and it felt like a huge step up from what I had been doing. To be honest though, I was scared out of my mind.

Now, after 4 years of being a company and 3 years of being married to that same business partner, we have moved locations and our school is growing stronger. It was big risk to take trying to get it off the ground, but here we are and here we go, ready for what the future brings for our school.

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

I have wanted to study martial arts since I was around 10 years old. After watching Saturday afternoon kung fu movies, I was hooked on being just like them. It wasn’t until a few years later, during my junior high school years that I started to train officially with Qi Sheng Raymond Bennett. From there, I started figuring out that I did not just want to learn martial arts, I wanted to teach it. After many years of working with him and picking up lessons from other schools, in 2002, I joined with the Young Americans Schools of Self Defense as an instructor. While it satisfied my need to teach, it was not my school. In 2007, I got permission from Qi Sheng Bennett to open my own school of kung fu.

Despite the bumps and bruises along the way, our school has stayed strong through many changes, including becoming a legitimate business, changing locations and dealing with the COVID crisis. One thing we pride ourselves on is perseverance and it is something we teach all of our students. No matter what happens, success is sometimes one more step away from where you are. Life will always have setbacks for us, but it is important to realize that they are only setbacks, not stopping points. I have attempted to instill this thought in all my students over the years.

I want future students to know that with us, they will grow, not just as martial artists, but as people. We believe in a whole system approach. Training the body is only a third of what we do. We focus on training the mind and the spirit as well. For us, kung fu is a way of life.

If you could go back, would you choose the same profession, specialty, etc.?

I certainly would go back and do this again, though I think that some of the lessons I have learned along the way would help to have been known when I started. Watching someone grow and begin to realize their full potential is highly rewarding and seeing their faces when they take that next step is motivating to continue what we do.

Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?

One of the many things that really helps is learning how to be proactive when it comes to students. While the curriculum we teach is pretty solid, each student is different and how they learn is different. As teachers, we have to know how to meet the student where they are at and help them find the path to where they want to be. By learning from the student, we can see what works and what doesn’t. We can then tailor our lessons specifically to that person.

Beyond that though, is having a plan in place for as many contingencies as possible. Things happen, and it is important to be as prepared as you can, whether it is something like an injured student, or as widespread as the COVID crisis was.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.morrismartialartsllc.com
• Facebook: @smorrismartialarts
• Other: www.patreon.com/MorrisMartialArtsLLC

Image Credits
Photos Belong to Emily Claessens, Qi Sheng Raymond Bennett and Keith Drake Photography