When Amy's dad Kyoshi Andrew Roberts sadly passed she was left with 2 options: Quit or continue the family legacy. She's doing the latter.
IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN:
What made Amy Gardam continue the legacy of her dad, Kyoshi Andrew Roberts
The dad and daughter bond that was cemented by martial arts
How Edge Martial Arts got back on track after losing 80 students
Spotting young talented instructors early and making it known
How you can help the Kyoshi Andrew Roberts Foundation and its mission to help families who have a loved one in palliative care
And more
Download the PDF transcription
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TRANSCRIPTION
AMY: I felt like he was there, I felt close to him and I felt happy to be here, I prefer to be here than at home – this was my home.
GEORGE: Amazing, so you truly are living a legacy.
AMY: I think so, it's a good feeling.
GEORGE: Good day, this is George Fourie and welcome to another martial arts media business podcast, episode number 42. I have today with me Amy Gardam from Edge Martial arts in Mt. Evelyn, Victoria, how are you doing today Amy?
AMY: I’m good thank you, George, how are you?
GEORGE: Excellent, thank you. So we're going to have a bit of a chat about you and running your school and a whole bunch of other things that have happened and the journey that you've taken to… if it's right me saying that way, that you really continuing a legacy within your family, would that be the right way to say it?
AMY: Yes.
GEORGE: All right, so we've got lots to talk about, so I'm going to jump into the interview. Just a few things: the show notes for this interview is at martialartsmedia.com/42, so that's 4, 2 as in the numbers. And that's it, let's get started. So, Amy, first and foremost, tell us about you: who is Amy Gardam?
AMY: Ok. So, I'm a mother of two, I'm married, I've got my husband. I started martial arts when I was 4 years old with my dad. We started in just a local school hall at the time and eventually, the martial arts took off and he opened up a little part time center. And then when I was 15, just shy of being 15, I actually started teaching with him, just teaching the little kids. And from that moment on, and loved it, made it a career and now I run the business. I've got my two kids, and I'm a full-time working mum.
GEORGE: Ok, awesome. So you are running the business full time and you're a mum and so you're really just born into the martial arts, this is everything you know, right?
AMY: My whole life I've done martial arts, it's all I've known.
GEORGE: All right, cool. So now, you're also running the business and that's just you at this point in time?
AMY: Yeah, running the business with my staff, but my husband has recently, in the last three weeks quit his job as a welder to come onboard and we've brought it together, so we are running the business together and he's slowly learning martial arts basically.
GEORGE: All right, awesome. So he's coming from a completely different angle then. He hasn't trained martial arts yet, but he’s also stepped in to help?
AMY: Yeah. He did kick boxing, but that was about six years ago. He did it for six years back then, but he's never done karate or mixed martial arts, no.
GEORGE: Ok, so what's the main reason that your husband has jumped on board into the business?
AMY: He didn't love his job, welding was hard work. He always came home dirty and he didn’t like being dirty from work. But also, being a mum and running the school, it was really quite tricky to do it on my own because we have two schools that are full time. This particular school I'm in at the moment, we actually own the building and it was very hard to maintain, just things like painting, light fittings, you know, things breaking down as they do in a normal house, let alone a business. I just couldn't do that and teach and run the book work by myself,
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