Building Confidence in Yourself and Others

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Lois Paula: Whether you’re hoping to heal the world or heal yourself. This podcast is here for you to highlight how kindness moves.

Nan: Yeah, how kindness moves you to action, you yourself. Maybe it’s just something you feel, something so good, it’s contagious. You might have been touched by a simple act of kindness. Maybe you want tips on how you can act now in your community or you just love the feeling of doing good.

Lois Paula: Welcome to Kindness Moves, a new podcast brought to you by the INC Giving Project. We’re your hosts, LP, and Nan. That’s right. Our very own host also of the INC Media program Blueprint– Nan Zapanta.

Nan: Hi everyone. Hi LP.

LP: So Nan, today we are tackling you know a topic that might not seem like an obvious trait or characteristic that we need in order to help others, but it makes sense when you really think about it. Okay, today we discuss confidence. And for those who might not say you know it’s not really needed you know to be kind to do good. Our guest today just might change your mind.

Nan: Yeah you know LP, it’s really interesting what you mentioned about confidence, not being an obvious trait or characteristic, you know most people probably think, oh, you have to be nice. You have to be patient. You have to have a kind heart. You know those are the main traits that they associate with a person that wants to help others and I totally agree. Those are great traits and are definitely needed, but confidence, confidence is too and it makes total sense.

LP: Yes, and for any of our listeners who are on the fence, you know about going out and volunteering or reaching out to those who may need help– maybe you don’t know where to start. You know I myself, you know, sometimes I doubt myself. I get a little bit timid, you know, maybe you feel like you’re not qualified or you’re not good enough to help as in you know you feel like what you have to offer isn’t that valuable. But hopefully, today’s discussion will dispel any doubt, and it will give you a push towards the right direction. So for today’s show, let’s welcome from Las Vegas, Nevada, Ludan Taquiqui. Hey Ludan.

Ludan: Hello.

Nan: Hey Ludan.

Ludan: Hey Nan.

Nan: Oh, it’s so awesome to have you. I heard your story and I’ve met you in person, we’ve had cool discussions in person and it’s so cool to hear from you again.

Ludan: Oh most definitely. Same here.

Nan: So Ludan let’s just jump right into it. You know we’re talking about confidence. You are an entrepreneur, you’re a boxing trainer. When I was over there I was privileged to visit your gym and I got to see you and your students in action. Can you tell our listeners a little bit about your boxing training, the gym that I was able to visit, and your goal in helping your students?

Ludan: Okay so my boxing training, it’s really to help people to better defend themselves. And also, basically living out my passion of sharing the talent that God gave me. And if you could share that with others, basically what happens is you get lost in time, when you get lost in time you just start to help people with unconditional love and energy. And it just, it just makes everything simple. 

Nan: I witnessed it first hand you know when, like I mentioned, I was able to visit you at the gym I don’t know if you remember, I was definitely not at the same level as you and your students but I got to see it happen and, and it does feel like time kind of slows down and you’re really just focused on the task at hand and what made it really cool it was it wasn’t just seeing everyone into boxing, it was like into helping each other, you know, I even saw your students helping each other and kind of like what you’re talking about how you get lost and doing these acts of kindness.

Ludan: Absolutely and and it’s just it’s just so organic, because once one hopes out each other, I want others to help hope out of each other and basically it’s just, it’s a gift that keeps on giving.

LP: Yeah, absolutely. Ludan how long have you been boxing for? Has this always been a part of your life, or you know, how did this start?

Ludan: Basically, when I used to live in Colorado, I saw Manny Pacquiao back in the day and that was like uh, about 2001 and I really wanted to do boxing but in Colorado didn’t have nothing. So when I moved to Vegas in 2003. That’s when it all began. Yeah, so it’s been since 2003 with the training and learning the sport. 

LP: Which is awesome because you know you would think that boxing it’s competitive, you know it’s super physical but you’re not only just training, you know your body you’re training for a fit mind and you know all of that. 

Ludan: Right. 

LP: That’s pretty inspiring. For all of our viewers who want to see, Ludan actually has a feature from the INC Giving Show. You can check it out on incgiving.org, where we kind of take a look into, you know his gym, like Nan said, we see him and his students in action. But we know Ludan that there’s so much more to your story we kind of want to dive in deeper into your inspiration behind all of what you’re doing. You mentioned in your story, you mentioned free classes. So you’re not only providing training for these students but you’re providing something else in addition to that. Being an athletic sports trainer, it’s like a big platform that you’ve chosen to take and you built on it, even beyond physical training. So, can you share with us a little bit about, you know, what you’ve done with, with your studio and how you’re taking further steps to, again, not only to have a fit body, but a fit mind as well for your students.

Ludan: Definitely. So mandatory before training we always pray. We gotta pray before training.

Nan: Nice. Nice.

LP: I’ve never heard a boxing gym that does that.

Ludan: Yeah, we basically got to ask for God’s guidance, we ask Him to coach us, to teach us, and to really send, send the Holy Spirit to be with us because at the end of the day, I couldn’t do it without God. And my boys is working with an Olympian that got signed to Top Rank and praise God, He’s been with us you know so I’m like wow. To get back to your question, so basically– mandatory, we always got to pray. And then at the end of every boxing session, we have a conversation. We talk about what we learned. There’s always ways to take a particular story and infuse it with, with the teachings that we learn daily. Yeah, so that’s basically the key to the success that we’re gaining as a squad, so like wow.

LP: We’re so grateful that your students are receptive to it. Can you tell us a little bit about the students that come in, you know, to your gym to, who are they, young are they older?

Ludan: Yeah. So basically, a lot of them are young right now but there’s actually a couple. There’s a handful of students who are actually a little bit older, who are like an Air Force officer, there’s some realtors. But like a majority are young, so basically what happened was, what I did was, donate my time to a rec center, to help out with boxing, and eventually like when I was donating my time, the classes got way big, and they started double charging the kids. And I’m like “Oh no that’s, that’s not right.” because the parent started talking to me and I was like “Oh what’s going on?”, they’re like “Yeah they double charging us now.” I was like “Wow, so you know what, yeah we’ll train at the park. We’ll train at the park so you guys don’t have to worry about that.” And they’re like, “Are you serious?” I said “Yeah yeah.” I said “But there’s a condition though.”, and they’re like, “What’s the condition?”. The condition was, you have to do Bible study and each Bible study gets you a free class. 

LP: Wow. 

Ludan: They’re like, “Are you serious?”, “Yeah.”

Nan: You know, and that’s what really makes it even more awesome, is the fact that these are free classes. As we all know, 2020 was a hard time for all families. So how much more impactful was it to have free classes and and why do you choose to do free classes because anyone, anyone that has a skill and knowledge can charge something, even if it was just even a small amount they could charge something. But why do you choose free classes for these families and the students?

Ludan: There are certain people who I do charge. There are certain people. Like if I know they can handle it, alright cool I’ll charge. But if I know that the family is going through it, you can kind of tell. You know, you can kind of  see it. So, the reason, the way I look at that, about giving free classes, it’s like, hang on, hang on real quick.

Nan: It’s ok, take your time. It’s alright.

Ludan: Yeah, the way I look at that is, it’s l like a offering, you know what I’m saying? So it’s like an offering. Because if God gave you a particular skill or a particular talent. The way you could give back is by