Exploring Life & Business with James And Johanna Norris of Cincinnati Quest Martial Arts

Today we’d like to introduce you to James And Johanna Norris.

Hi James and Johanna, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
James Norris began training martial arts when he was 11 years old in Washington State. When he read books about ninja by legendary martial artist Stephen K. Hayes, as a kid, he told all he friends he would one day be a student of his. Years later, he moved to Ohio, and become only the second person ever to earn a 9th degree black belt in the martial art of To-Shin Do under Mr. Hayes. Now he and his wife own a dojo in Cincinnati and are passionate about teaching self-defense and self-empowerment skills in a way everyone can learn.

As a kid, Johanna always knew she would be and artist – she just didn’t realize she would be a MARTIAL artist. As a young woman Johanna wanted to be able to travel and have fun adventures without being constantly afraid – so she started training martial arts to be able to respond effectively to the things that scared her. During this time, Johanna was working in arts education, and she realized that although many of the kids and youth she was working with were incredibly talented, many would never find the success their talent deserved because of past trauma or current experiences of violence in their homes and communities. She realized that the most important thing she could do with her creative energy was to teach safety and empowerment skills so that young people would have a chance of sharing their gifts in the world. When she moved across the country to study with the person most able to deliver effective self protection and personal empowerment – Stephen K. Hayes – she met and fell in love with James Norris, who is now her husband,

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
We teach people how to protect themselves from physical and emotional violence. We even teach the tools to help people manage fear, anxiety, and anger so we are not accidentally creating more hurt in the world or continuing learned cycles of violence. However, we cannot eliminate violence from the world.

And although our program teaches life saving physical skills, and mental strategies to create success and happiness -people still sometimes think kids soccer is more important. That is frustrating. We make classes fun, (we know people learn better while they are having fun) but the tools we teach – focus, self discipline, setting effective boundaries, stopping an assault on self or loves one, knowing how to turn an obstacle into an opportunity, learning to build and protect a life you love – just seems so much more important. We wish everyone could see that.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Our full time professional martial arts school teaches intelligent self protection for the whole family. To-Shin Do has its roots in old Ninja and Samurai martial systems, and uses these strategies from the past to solve modern problems. We are a very practical system, but also very sophisticated and nuanced – dealing not just with physical problems (strikes, grappling, modern and historical weapons) but also verbal and psychological – even legal considerations.

We partner with businesses, schools and organizations to teach shorter workshops that help solve specific challenges that those communities might struggle with – designing programs specifically for nurses, veterinarians, schoolteachers and college students.

We teach fitness classes combine foundational self defense moves with kettlebell and mobility drills to help improve peoples health and quality of life.

For those who don’t live in the area we have online lessons, and even a website Toshindo.online so people can learn from anywhere in the world.

Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
We love what we do. We know our work provides incredible value to the families we train – literally saving lives while providing confidence and skills to deal with violence that will create long term positive changes in the course of entire families.

But running a small business is not for the weak hearted – there are long hours and personal risk involved. When you find something you are passionate about – if we won the lottery, we would keep doing it, but just at a larger scale – then the long hours and personal risk are just part of the adventure. Also – it is fun – we laugh a lot, that is important.

Pricing:

• 3 week trial for $49 (a uniform included)

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.CincinnatiQuestCenter.com
• Instagram: https://www.Instagram.com/CincyQuest
• Facebook: https://www.Facebook.com/CincyQuest