We Built Training Lions for Our Son First.
It didn’t begin as a business idea. It began at home.
As parents, my wife and I spent a lot of time thinking about the kind of person we wanted our son, Ayden, to become. We wanted him to think for himself, communicate with confidence, make good decisions, handle money wisely, recognize opportunities, recover from failure, take responsibility, lead others, and create something of value — and to know who he is before the world had the chance to tell him.
Long Before There Was a Website or a Curriculum, There Was Simply Our Family.
We began intentionally teaching Ayden about character, confidence, leadership, entrepreneurship, communication, critical thinking, responsibility, money, failure, opportunity, and purpose.
These weren’t lessons we wanted him to encounter for the first time as an adult. We wanted him to begin developing them while he was still young — when he had the freedom to ask questions, make mistakes, try again, and grow. Some of it happened through teaching. Most of it happened through conversations, experiences, successes, failures, and ordinary moments together as a family.
“If we believed these lessons were important enough to intentionally teach our own son, why wouldn’t we make them available to other children too?”
That question changed everything. Training Lions grew from something we were building for one child into a vision for helping families raise a generation of confident, capable young people.
Education Should Prepare Children for Life — Not Just for the Next Test.
A young person can earn excellent grades and still struggle to make difficult decisions. They can memorize the right answers and still be afraid to speak up. They can graduate without understanding money, leadership, entrepreneurship, communication, negotiation, responsibility, or how to recover when life doesn’t go according to plan.
We don’t simply want students asking, “What do I need to know?”
We want them learning to ask a much bigger question: “Who am I becoming?”
A Lion Isn’t Born Knowing How to Lead a Pride. It Grows Into Its Strength.
It learns. It explores. It faces challenges. It develops confidence through experience. And eventually, the young lion must become capable of standing on its own. We see childhood in much the same way.
Our responsibility isn’t to remove every challenge from a child’s path. It is to help prepare that child to face challenges with courage, wisdom, confidence, character, and resilience. That’s what Training Lions represents — helping young people develop their strength while they are still growing. Not so they can dominate others, but so they can lead themselves, serve others, take responsibility, create value, and have the courage to step forward when life requires something from them.
The People Who Started This
Brad Shrader
Founder & Lead Instructor
Brad holds a bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD in Christian Education. Before founding Training Lions, he built a career as an entrepreneur, business owner, and real estate investor — experience that shapes the practical, real-world foundation of every lesson.
Punnawit Shrader
Co-Founder — Customer Care & Thai Translation
Punnawit holds a bachelor’s degree and spent years as a college professor before founding and owning two learning centers. She brings that same heart for teaching to every family she supports at Training Lions.
Ayden Shrader
Video Editor
The son Training Lions was built for is now part of the team — editing full-time to help bring every lesson to life on screen.
Training Lions Was Never Designed to Replace Parents. It Was Designed to Come Alongside Them.
Some of the most powerful education happens after the lesson ends — when a child sits down with a parent and begins talking about what they learned.
A Lesson About Failure
Becomes a conversation around the dinner table.
A Lesson About Money
Becomes a child’s first small business.
A Lesson About Leadership
Becomes an opportunity to serve someone else.
Someday, Our Children Will Become Adults.
When that day comes, we won’t measure success simply by what title they hold, how much money they earn, or what they own. We’ll ask bigger questions.
- Do they know who they are?
- Can they think for themselves?
- Do they keep their word?
- Can they communicate with confidence?
- Do they have the courage to pursue something difficult?
- Can they recognize an opportunity and act on it?
- Can they get knocked down and stand back up?
- Do they treat people well?
- Can they create value for others?
- And when someone else needs help finding their way, are they willing to turn around and help them?
Those are the qualities we wanted to develop in our own son. They are the reason Training Lions exists today.
It started with Ayden. Now we’re sharing it with yours.
Raise Them Strong. Teach Them to Think. Prepare Them to Lead.
Training Lions was built by parents who wanted something more intentional for their own child — and we built it to be shared with yours.