Meet Jalyn Rangel | Martial Arts Business Owner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jalyn Rangel and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jalyn, what do you attribute your success to?
I think the most important factor behind our success is genuinely caring about each student (customer) and their needs. We pride ourselves in holding each student to a high standard. This can be difficult much of the time because it pushes people out of their comfort zone.
Other businesses in our industry just treat each student as a number. It’s a pretty common term in martial arts to hear about “black belt factories” or “McDojos”. Those are the studios that give out black belts in 2-3 years no matter what. For them, each student is on the same timeline to their black belt.
Each one of our students are different. They are all on different timelines and will achieve their goals at a different pace. We are there to guide them in their journey and push them to be their best.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
As I mentioned earlier, what sets us apart from our competition is how high of a standard we try to hold for our students. We pride ourselves in not giving away “participation” belts. Each rank is earned.
It’s definitely not easy to continuously hold a high standard. Sometimes we receive push back but the majority of people appreciate what we do and stay with us because of it.
It’s been hard to find instructors who can hold the standard that we want, that’s been the hardest part. We think eventually we will have many of our students grow into great instructors though.
Something we had to learn really early on was to block out the noise. It’s easier said than done but it’s something any entrepreneur needs to learn. People are going to question you, disagree with you and try to push you down. You need to believe in your vision enough to block out the negative noise and just keep moving forward. Along the way you’ll find your cheerleaders and the people that you want to keep in your corner.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I would definitely take them to Marietta Square, there are many great places to eat.
I like to stay active so we would go climb Kennesaw Mountain.
If it’s Summer time we could go to white water.
Then we might spend a day in the city and see World of Coca-Cola and the Aquarium.
Of course we would also need to drive by the Big Chicken just to see it.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
When we (my husband and I) opened our business we had a lot of help from my parents. Unfortunately COVID shut us down 17 days after we opened. We took this time to renovate. My parents were there daily to help us paint, lay flooring, renovate bathrooms and many other things. We definitely appreciate all the help we received from them at the beginning.

Website: https://www.irondragonmartialarts.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/irondragonma/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/irondragonmartialarts