Inducted into the A.M.A.H.O.F. (Inc) and W.K.U.H.O.F. for 2024
Continual Excellence and Service to the Australasian Martial Arts Community
Website: RandoSpeaks.com
Rick Rando is Owner and President of Kick Masters Karate, LLC, head facilitator at RandoSpeaks.com, and co-host of The Victory Couch Podcast. A martial artist for the past 36 years, Rick owns one of the largest, open-space martial arts schools in the country.
He’s currently a seventh-degree black belt in taekwondo endorsed by martial arts legend, Grandmaster Bill “Superfoot” Wallace, and is a first-degree black belt in kali-silat under Grandmaster Anthony Hockley.
Throughout his martial arts career, Rando has been featured in Black Belt Magazine, MASuccess Magazine, and Lifestyles in Annapolis Magazine as a Motivational/Business Expert. In 2018, Rick was inducted into the United States Martial Artist Association Hall of Fame as Inspiration of the Year, and in 2023, was inducted into the World Karate Union International Hall of Fame earning the Lifetime Achievement Award.
As a keynote empowerment speaker, Rick has conducted thousands of demonstrations/presentations in the education system, and in the business community at large. He’s been the keynote/featured speaker working with such distinguished companies such as Hunter Douglas, The Boys Scouts of America, Columbia Gas/ NiSource, Flagship Rehab, Cintas, Frostburg State University, the Western Maryland Heath System, Garrett College, The Girl Scouts, The Belt Group, Charm City Cakes (from Food Network’s hit show, “Ace of Cakes”), and Chick-fil-A, to name just a few. In fact, Rick is so effective that over 75% of the organizations that hire him, work with him a second time.
Most recently, Rando has been featured on several business Podcasts including MATalk, the 10 Minute Teacher, Heroes Rising, Virtual School Assembly, The New Tip, The Coaching Call, Master Motivation, Warrior’s Mindset, and The Real Deal with Jason Silverman.
Rick recently graduated from the Disney Institute: Disney’s Approach to Business Excellence program, and has earned the “Gold/Platinum Level Mark of Excellence Award” by Century Martial Arts for twelve consecutive years. An accomplished author, Master Rando has penned five cover articles featured in MASuccess Magazine and has appeared on the cover of both Allegany and MASuccess Magazines.
He’s been featured in 5 MAIA Monthly Instructional DVD’s, teaching instructional skills to martial arts school owners around the world, and was named one of Allegany County’s Top 15 Most Fascinating People in February 2013 and again in January of 2019.
In 2004 and 2006 he was awarded the Dream Catcher Award through the Arc of Frederick for working with persons with disabilities, and in 2007, conducted two taekwondo seminars/demonstrations
in Thailand as part of a cultural enrichment program.
In 2019, Rando was selected as Frostburg State University’s Distinguished Alumni of the Year (the youngest person to date to ever earn this award), and was just awarded the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition Community Leadership Award under President Trump.
Rick is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Frostburg State University where he has achieved a B.S. in Criminal Justice and Political Science, with a minor in Sociology. A member of the Phi Eta Sigma and the Pi Sigma Alpha Honor Societies, Rando was a two- time Maryland House of Delegates Scholarship Award winner. As a college senior, he earned the first ever Maryland Sheriff’s Institute Scholarship at FSU, earned the highest award in Criminal Justice at the Convocation Award Ceremony, and worked for Maryland State Senator John J. Hafer.
Additionally, Rick is a Board Member of the Vicki Via Dotson Leukemia Foundation, an honorary Fireman with the City of Frostburg, a little league baseball/basketball/soccer coach, a former high school 9th grade basketball coach, an Eagle Scout, a former independent percussionist with a drumstick endorsement from world-renowned stick manufacturer Silverfox Percussion, a marathon runner, and was a “Congressional Award”
recipient for community service under President Clinton.
Most importantly, Rick is happily married to wife Julie, and father to his son Lawson and daughter Dylan.