Joshua T.
George

Seventh-degree black belt in combat martial arts, author on conversational self-defense, and speaker on how one trains you for the other.

This page exists because I've got my hands in too many things and no good way to point people at them. A book, a nonprofit, one of the largest Shaolin Kempo libraries anywhere, and thirty-five years on the mat.

This is what happens when you don't have a social life.

I'm an authority on the combat part. The life part I still get wrong on a regular basis. I've just gotten faster at noticing.

TEDx Arkansas State University speaker poster for Joshua T. George

Coming up

The Lower the Stakes, the Worse I Get

TEDx Arkansas State University

September 18, 2026 · 1:00–7:00 PM · Fowler Center, Jonesboro, Arkansas

Do you know your conversation pattern?

Avoider, Replayer, Stabilizer, Reactor. Most people are running one of them and have never noticed. The quiz takes about ninety seconds, and it lives over on kenatus.com.

Find your pattern on Kenatus
Ken
Ken is fist, po is law or method. Kenpo is the physical discipline — strikes, tactics, continuous adaptation. The how.
atus
From conatus: the innate drive to persist in being, the engine that keeps a person standing and adapting. The why.

The Law of Striving. The Fist That Persists.

Kenatus

kenatus.com

Composure under life-and-death stakes is trainable. Martial arts has known that forever. What surprised me was how completely it transfers to a hard conversation — the threat is different, the internal work is nearly identical.

Kenatus is where that work lives: the four conversation patterns, the writing, the keynotes, and the podcast appearances.

Visit kenatus.com
A student holding the Yellow Belt Club board after earning her place on it

Believing Through Achieving

btateam.org

I named the nonprofit Believing Through Achieving because that's the order it happens in. You achieve something first — a belt, usually, and usually one you never thought you'd earn — and the belief follows.

Thirty-five years of teaching showed me it doesn't stay on the mat. It turns up everywhere else in a person's life. We built BTA so that wouldn't be limited to people with means and status.

Visit btateam.org
Joshua T. George demonstrating a block and counterstrike in the studio

Kempo Made Easy

kempomadeeasy.com

Most people learn the punch, the kick, the block. Far fewer learn what any of it is actually for. The application is the part that's gone missing.

One of the largest Shaolin Kempo libraries anywhere — lessons and pointers from the fundamentals through complex application, the what and the why and the when, for beginners and advanced students alike. Members have come from a range of martial arts backgrounds, which tells me the breakdowns hold up outside Kempo.

Visit kempomadeeasy.com
Sword and shield form from the Weapons Made Easy library

Weapons Made Easy

weaponsmadeeasy.com

Weapons instruction at this depth barely exists anywhere, which is why it gets its own place rather than a footnote.

Thirty-six forms, beginner through advanced, with complete instruction — broadsword, nunchaku, staff, spear, and fan.

See the weapons library

Background

  • Seventh-degree black belt, Shaolin Kempo
  • Master instructor
  • Thirty-five years teaching — civilians, law enforcement, and military
  • Founder, Believing Through Achieving, a 501(c)(3)
  • Author, Fear No Conversation, Greenleaf Book Group, June 2027

Looking to book me?

Keynotes, corporate workshops, and podcast interviews all start at Kenatus. If you're a producer or an organizer weighing whether to reach out — please do. I don't take the ask for granted.

Booking and speaking

Video

A sample of what's in the libraries. These open on YouTube in a new tab.

Jeff working through the principles behind a Snake technique
Jeff working through the principles behind a Snake technique
A look inside the weapons library
A look inside the weapons library