Empowerment Is Within Reach

Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in personal development but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Fauzia Lala, Founder of Defense Ninjas, located in Los Angeles, CA, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

I teach women, teens, and kids safety, self-defense, and empowerment (psychological).

Tell us about yourself

I started as a software engineer at Microsoft and then moved to work for a Law Firm. While I was working corporate jobs, I got black belts in 2 martial arts. After facing workplace harassment, sexual harassment, religious discrimination, and gender discrimination, I realized that my martial arts training was not helping me become safe and respected at work, so I quit my job and started teaching and learning full-time.

I started teaching three martial arts as a senior instructor full-time to kids and teens. The moms of my students asked me if I would teach a women-only self-defense class, and I agreed. When I spoke to the owner of the school about this idea, he fired me on the spot. This was not the first time I was kicked out of a martial arts school; this was my second. The first time I was asked to leave was at my first school, where I got my first two black belts because I wanted to train in other arts and teach at other places. In both these instances, I realized another thing - martial arts owners have similar issues that corporate workplaces suffer from - male domination.

So then I started learning Brazilian jiu-jitsu because I thought that must be self-defense - it teaches ground defense and must protect women from rape. I was asked several times in class not to do "realistic moves" and keep strict on my martial arts moves, like grabbing a lapel. But there are no lapels in real life. Which attacker walks around wearing a gi and a lapel? My training was useless, so I quit. Then I started learning Krav Maga - this is a self-defense-based martial art, so I thought I had found my golden goose. After being horribly injured because none of the techniques the instructor was teaching was working for my female body, I asked if there was a better way to block without trying to use my softer-than-men bones and weaker-than-men upper body strength. Nope, there wasn't one. Many years before training in Wing Chun, I went shin-to-shin sparring with a male opponent and shattered my shin. I had to do PT for two years and rolfing after that to fully heal. My opponent didn't even have a bruise. I didn't want to get this badly injured again, so I left Krav Maga. Finally, I started training in Wing Chun. This had to be it. It was started by a small-statured woman, and I am a small-statured woman. I was sexually harassed by my male instructor and was told it would take me 14 years to master enough techniques to be able to defend myself, so I left again. I actually trained in 7 martial arts in total over the years and came up empty. Finally, I decided to start teaching by myself when a horrific incident happened. In 2017 a group of Muslim hijabi girls was attacked on a train in portland, and the man defending them was stabbed to death. A few months later, the one mosque in the neighborhood I lived in at the time was vandalized (3 times in 4 months, actually), and another mosque burned to the ground in the act of arson. So some of the Muslim women asked if I would start teaching self-defense. I said "no way - I don't know any self-defense myself. That's what I've been trying to learn." I will never forget what she said: "at least you know more than what we girls do." So I started teaching at the mosque, whatever I knew to the best of my abilities. Over time, I had a powerful group of women attending my classes - a Software Engineering Manager at Microsoft, a High School Teacher, a Software Engineer at Amazon, Healthcare Professionals (nurses, pharmacists), etc. and one day, while teaching kicks and passes (not blocks because that doesn't work for women) I suddenly wondered why they were all here. What are their REAL goals in life? I found out that they were facing workplace harassment and being followed on the trails, being bullied on public transportation, etc. Something suddenly struck me. In none of these scenarios can you actually kick or punch anyone? You can't punch your coworker, and you can't START the fight when someone is merely following you or being verbally abusive (if you throw the first punch, you go to prison for assault), so then what was I teaching? How was that helpful at all in solving their problems? I was a student of psychology at the time and had learned some interesting conflict resolution techniques as well as body language techniques from an ex-FBI agent, so I taught them to my students and asked them to execute these and see what happens. They were such enthusiastic guinea pigs. Within three weeks: my student who had a creepy follower - lost that guy. He never followed her again. My student who was being harassed at work had the coworker fired, and she got promoted (in 3 weeks!), and my commuting students were never verbally abused anymore. This was shocking to me. I taught them psychological skills that made them safe in 3 weeks - none of these self-defense moves helped or were even needed.

In fact, I learned, or re-learned, that prevention is better than cure. If you have to fight (cure), it's too late. We can actually train such that we can PREVENT attacks from happening in the first place. This blew my mind, and I started taking courses in the evenings from universities all over the country (and the world) - Yale, UC Davis, ESSEC Paris, you name it. When the pandemic hit, I went remote. It was the best thing that ever happened to my business. I had no idea how I was going to teach remotely. This was a new problem I didn't know how to solve. Until then, I only had one problem that would keep me awake at night - how do I reach more women and teach this to more women asking them to stop training in self-defense combatives because that's a farce and real safety lies in preventative training, which is all psychological? Suddenly, during the pandemic, it hit me. If I can teach remotely, I can reach women all over the world! And I did :) Now I teach women+, teenage girls (including non-binary), and even kids remotely. I do corporate workshops and DEI training for employees (all gender) and safety workshops for teens and adult women. Every time a person comes to me asking, "how do I become safe?" I tell them that the answer lies inside their mind. 100% of my students have achieved 100% of their goals. Our program has saved lives because it has transformed lives. People come to us wanting to be safe and leave feeling happier, less anxious, and have better relationships, more self-worth, self-esteem, and confidence. Their entire life changes. What makes us unsafe (that which lies within our minds) also makes us weak in many other areas of our life - sleep, mood, anxiety, health, etc. So we perform root cause analysis and break down the issues from the core (which lies within the mind) and empower them from the ground up. That's enough to eliminate predators in their lives. Why? Because people can sense weak people, predators can sense prey behaviors and attitudes. Once you become strong, feel strong, and look strong, attackers (verbal, physical, psychological) leave you alone. Of course, we still teach self-defense techniques as well, which are fully customized to work for each body type and for women specifically - but that's less exciting :)

I'm working with local governments and police departments to start DEI training. I'm also looking to start working with corporations to offer said DEI training along with sexual harassment and prevention training and conflict resolution training, and women in leadership training. The big one is DEI. Today, DEI training is a series of videos created by lawyers to explain to people the law - don't be a jerk, don't touch that woman, don't yell at her, and they teach third parties how to become an "ally." This is all nonsense. Teach the victims how to stand up for themselves, not expect someone else to do it! Also, teach the abusers how to change their core behaviors, identify what's making them abusive (Also psychological) and change them from the inside out. No one wants to hear what the law is - we all know it. We all still behave like jerks anyway. We need behavioral and psychological changes, and that's the new and improved DEI training that I want to bring to the world. We'll change the behaviors/attitudes/psychology of the victims AND the attackers, and once they become NEW people, the workplace harassment issue will vanish, and companies will save millions of dollars in lawsuits.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

The lives of each of my students that I have changed. One student eliminated her anxiety in just one week! Another got promoted in just three weeks! One of my teenage students was being bullied daily, and in just one week - the bullies stopped on their own!

What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?

Financial inconsistency and instability - it takes 7-10 years for most niche businesses to stabilize. Another challenge is that people expect you to save their child for pennies - most offers for workshops are willing to pay only 10% of my asking price, which a business cannot sustain. It surprises me - what is the price of your child's life? People usually spend $100/week on average (family of 4) on dinners/eating out. That's $5K per year. Just stop eating out and invest in your child (we're not even asking $5K for a workshop).

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

Have patience, develop a system to follow so that you don't burn out, and do lots of self-care. Very important to either have a second job or a partner who supports you 100%, or else you won't succeed in your business.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.defenseninjas.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/defenseninjas/

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