[op_liveeditor_element data-style=””][text_block style=”undefined” align=”left”]

[/text_block][/op_liveeditor_element]

[op_liveeditor_element data-style=””][text_block style=”undefined” align=”left”]

[/text_block][/op_liveeditor_element]

[op_liveeditor_element data-style=””][text_block style=”undefined” align=”left”]by John Graden

There is a great line attributed to Winston Churchill that “If you are in your 20s and are not a Liberal, you don’t have a heart. If you are in your 40s and not a Conservative, you don’t have a brain.” His message relates clearly to how your belief system can change at different stages of your life and career.

Many of us went from the dungeon dojo to a more motivational school with a big emphasis on personal development. This attracted a huge kids’ market, but did it create better martial artists? I don’t think so. It’s pretty clear I’m not the only one, because we are seeing a return to a more adult-oriented and intense school, but not a return to the dungeon days of past.

The first time I visited New York City, I got into an argument with a black belt who was my host for the weekend in his small townhouse outside the Bronx. It was 1992, and I was in the midst of a transition for my school from a school of adult fighters to a school of kids, with an emphasis on positive development.

The argument rose from a conversation we had concerning his three-year-old son. I asked if he planned to have his kid take martial arts lessons. He made it clear that his son would learn to defend himself. I added that the martial arts are also really good for character development. The line had been drawn in the sand. He said he didn’t care about his kid “helping old ladies across the road.” He wanted his kid to be able to “knock someone on their ass” if needed.

I regurgitated a line that I had heard at a seminar that, “The world didn’t need more fighters, it needed more respect and courtesy.” He scoffed at the notion. He said his kid gets plenty of good messages from his favorite TV shows like Sesame Street. The boy attended church each Sunday with his mom and attended a good school. All of them taught him to be respectful and polite. What they didn’t teach him was how to get out of a fight. He wanted his boy to be able to handle himself. I told him his approach to martial arts was “old-school thinking.” He laughed, and we agreed to disagree.

Now, over a decade later, not only am I a dad, but I’ve also watched the martial arts evolve from a unique, cross-style vantage point. The more I think about it, the more I believe that my foul-mouthed friend had a point.

I certainly don’t feel that the movement towards character development has been bad for schools; it has been great. However, when schools stray away from our core services and values, they become little more than motivational day care centers.[/text_block][/op_liveeditor_element]

[op_liveeditor_element data-style=””][text_block style=”undefined” align=”left”]The story is about two chaps who happen to meet. They were very good friends. One of them was highly successful, he was very upbeat, his business was going well, he looked marvelous and everything was just great. The other poor fellow was demoralized, he was down in the dumps, nothing was going well so he said to him “Michael, what in the world are you doing. You look great. Obviously your business is going well, you have a magnificent attitude. What is it all about? He said “I went to see the guru.” He said “Are you serious?”. He said “Yes, I went to see the guru.” He said “Well, where is the guru?” and he said “The guru is way up in the mountains in Tibet.” He said “Holy Mackerel, you went all the way there.?”. He said “yes, I did.”. “Well what did he tell you.”

He said “he gave me three words that have totally changed my life.”.   “Well, for Pete’s sake, Michael. Tell me what the three words are.” Michael said “it doesn’t work that way.”. “What do you mean?” “Well,” he said, “You’re going to have to get some transportation and go up to see the guru yourself. But I can tell you this, it’ll change your life and it’s well worth going to do it.”

Well, out of sheer desperation, the despondent friend said he’d do it. He got on an airplane, he got on a boat, he got on a bus, he got on a truck, and he got on a mule. He went way up into the mountains of Tibet and he was met by a monk.   And the monk said “I’m going to take you into meet the guru.

You have to promise to be totally quiet and silent and I will let you know what you should do next.” He ushered him into the temple and sure enough there was the guru sitting there surrounded by beautiful flowers. Total serenity. He sat there quietly in front of the guru for what seemed to be long, endless moments and finally the guru said “Humility”.

So our friend sat there and finally he felt a little tap on his shoulder. There was a monk who asked him to come outside. He went outside and he said “Thank you so much for coming.” He said “Wait a minute. Is that it.” “Yes”. “But all he said was ‘humility’.   What am I supposed to do?” He said, “you should take that word and contemplate and think about it.” So off he went back home on this very long trip and of course, he started to think about humility and he thought to himself “well, humility means that you have to be humble and that you have to be meek”.

He started to think for long hours about this and he learned that being meek didn’t mean being weak and being humble didn’t mean that everyone stepped on you or anything like that. As he delved into the meaning of the word, he recognized that humility and being humble had to do with being more gracious, being more receptive, being more kind, being more patient, being more open-minded, being more loving, being more considerate of others and has he learned about some of the ramifications of that word, his character truly began to go through some metamorphosis.

Then on top of it, he learned that humility meant putting your pride aside. It mean getting rid of your ego. It meant putting your self will aside and being, if you will, more interested in the divine will. He was so excited because he began to feel the deep significance of that word “humility” and he could feel it start invigorating his life.

As a matter of fact, several very exciting things began to happen. One of them was, people started coming to him. He seemed to be attracting people to him. There seemed to be a more harmonious relationship with others because of this metamorphosis and his whole approach as he was making this quality of humility part of himself and a very exciting thing happened at school.

Mrs. Murphy came to see him and she said in a very angry voice “my son Eric is very upset. He’s ten years old. He’s been coming for six months. He does not want to come anymore and I want to cancel my contract.” Now, normally, our friend would be on his high horse. He would say “well, I don’t understand that. We give very good classes here and frankly, your son is a little bit spoiled and as a matter of fact, you can’t cancel your contract anyway.”   But he didn’t do that. You know what he did? He said “Mrs. Murphy. First of all, I want to thank you sincerely for coming to see me about Eric. You know, we’re both very fond of Eric. I’m very fond of Eric. He’s a terrific guy. Obviously we have let him down somewhere along the line and Mrs. Murphy, I want you to do me a very special favor. Would you allow me to take Eric in several private lessons and let me work with him. Will you let me do that? I’d be deeply grateful if you did.”

Well, Mrs. Murphy recognized this grace, recognized this humility, this kindness and so on and she said “Fine.”. Well, my friend took Eric in for several lessons, he worked with him very kindly, very warmly, very hospitably. He began to work with Eric in building his self-confidence up and his self-awareness.

He made Eric aware of the fact that he, as the instructor, was genuinely interested in the progress of this child. He became a true friend and needless to say, Eric again began to get excited about his Martial Arts instruction because of this wonderful, personal, deep-seeded genuine attention.

The mother called my friend up a couple of weeks later and she said “Listen, I don’t know what you’ve said to Eric. I don’t know what you’ve done. All I can tell you he is the most amazing little boy and he is the sweetest guy. Tonight he offered to help do the dishes and right now he’s upstairs studying.

His teacher called me and she said he is doing beautifully and needless to say, I want Eric to continue doing what he’s doing.” Well, my friend was elated. He said “I just couldn’t believe my eyes on what’s happening to me” and he said “you know what? I think it’s time for me to go back and find out what the second word is.”

So he got on a plane and he got on a ship and he got on a bus and he got on a truck and he got on a mule, went right back into the mountains and the monk met him again and he said “Don’t forget. You are very quiet when you meet the guru.” And in they went and he sat down in front of the guru. He sat there very quietly with great anticipation and finally the guru said “gratitude”. Well, my friend knew at this point that it was all he needed to hear and here again was his assignment, his study.

To take the word “gratitude” and determine what it meant to him so out he went back home and in that long trip and for the weeks that followed, he studied and studied and thought and contemplated about “gratitude”. Well, that wasn’t so hard. Gratitude means appreciation and it means saying “thanks” and he thought to himself though, it’s got to be something deeper than that. I mean, these seem sort of surface things, a little bit superfluous. It’s got to be more than that and he looked up “gratitude” and he thought about “gratitude” and as he did, he began to realize that what it meant was giving deep thanks.

Not only expressing your appreciation, but doing something about it. He began to recognize that he has to stop and smell the flowers. For a while there, he felt what do I have to express gratitude about. My business wasn’t going too well, I’ve been having hard times with finances and it’s one thing or the other. He said “wait a minute. I have a lot to express my gratitude for. First of all, I’ve got my health. Secondly, I have a wonderful home life.

Thirdly, I’m in a business that I deeply love. And then as a matter of fact, I know I’m something I’m totally grateful about and that is that I have all these students who come to see me and put themselves into my hands for direction and instruction and an education in the martial arts. Not only that, guess what else? I’ve got several terrific staff members who have been very loyal to me and very supportive and I have been sometimes breaking at these guys for being late and not being enthusiastic enough but you know what? I am deeply grateful for these people, for they’ve been very, very loyal and more than just friends.

They’ve been helping me in my school and for Pete’s sake, I know what I’m going to do. I’m going to start expressing this gratitude because gratitude unexpressed is zero. Love unexpressed is zero. It has to be expressed. It has to have a recipient and so one of the first things he did was very interesting.

He got a staff member with whom he had not been getting along with too well. He thought about this chap and he said to him. I wanted to tell you something. I want to express my gratitude for you for being a staff member and being as loyal as you’ve been to me and being a real good representative of the martial arts. The staff member said “Wait a minute. Last week you just chewed my butt. You were griping at me for being late and you thought I should have more enthusiasm.” He said “I know I did that, but I have to apologize for that. I got knocked off balance. Yeah, you were late a couple of times and who knows, maybe your enthusiasm can pick up but your virtues and my association with you and your contribution to the school have been so overwhelming on the positive side it far exceeds your being late a couple of times.

So I want you to know that I’m very grateful to have you on my staff. I appreciate the good work you do.” Well, can I tell you something? Not only was this fellow never late again, not only did his enthusiasm pick up and so on, but he was so anxious to please in any way he could. He deeply appreciated this expression of gratitude. The whole staff began to respond. Every student, he began to talk to, every parent. There was an aura of gratitude, of appreciation, of wanting to service.

Remember that wonderful expression “he who leads must serve”. And he began to feel that and he began to express it. That was the important thing. He began to express it.   And then the real important thing about gratitude that grew up in his thinking was that instead of doting on the problems, instead of thinking about the shortcomings of some of the people, instead of griping about some of the grasping things that the students wanted or one thing or the other, he began to think instead about the wonderful, the positive side of the ledger. He began to recognize that he had so much to be grateful about that the other stuff just seemed like nothing. Well, needless to say, I don’t need to tell you, you know it’s coming.

This new found humility, which means that kindness and that receptivity with getting the ego out of the way. His desire and learning to express gratitude, to generally do it by actions, some startling things began to happen. His whole life began to open up. His business began to improve, his staff members were coming on board. Everything positive was happening. He said “This is marvelous. I got to go back and see the guru and find out what the third word is.”

So he got on the plane, he got on the ship and he got on the bus and he got on the mule and went way up into the temple in the mountains to see the guru. He sat there with great anticipation and incidentally with great humility and incidentally with deep gratitude with what he had received so far and he sat quietly waiting and listening. The guru said “How do you feel”. He said “I feel wonderful.” The guru said “what else?”. He said, “well I feel very happy.” And he said, “what else?”. He said, “I feel positive and I feel progress.”. He said, “what else?”. He said “I feel joy” and the guru said “that’s it. You have at last arrived. If you deeply and continuously feel joy, you now have the essence of life and you must express that joy and you must go forward in demonstrating your humility and your gratitude and always be joyous. Be a force of joy. Express that in your business. Express that in your personal life and most of all, express it with your personnel who love working with you and look forward to your support.”

Now everyone, please forgive me if I got a little heavy there but I got to tell you, in the many years that I’ve watched successful people work with their personnel, these are the qualities that I spotted. Each and every one of the successful persons that gathered a terrific staff and had a great business as a result. These are the qualities that I saw in these very successful people,   I thought to myself, “ I don’t know if these people have been to see the guru or not but I could tell you one thing. They sure have got what it takes.[/text_block][/op_liveeditor_element]

[op_liveeditor_element data-style=””][text_block style=”undefined” align=”left”]by John Graden

Running your own school and stress go hand in hand. Stress can be a real plus in keeping you motivated to continually improve your program. If left unchecked, however, it can be detrimental to your health and to the success of your school

If you own a studio and teach martial arts, your professional life will be particularly challenging and stressful. 
Stress can manifest itself in many ways.

If you are highly stressed, you may have experienced a few of these symptoms:

1. Depression

2. Loss of appetite

3. You may either sleep too much, or suffer from insomnia

4. Eat or drink too much

5. Irritability

6. Mood swings

7. Lack of interest in activities you normally enjoy doing

8. Forgetfulness

9. Indigestion

10. Anxiety

11. Lack of endurance

12. High blood pressure

13. Preoccupied

14. Nervous twitching

15. Chronic headaches

16. Muscular tension resulting in chronic pain in your back and shoulders

If you are experiencing any of these symptoms, make a point of resolving the issues that are at the root of the stress you are experiencing immediately.

Not only does your health depend on this, the success of your school is also at risk. Your staff, students, and the parents of your students, will notice that you are chronically cranky and not teaching your class with the enthusiasm that they’ve come to expect from you.

Bad stress – the kind that causes health problems – often stems from feeling that we are not in control of important situations in our life. Family problems, financial problems, or just trying to keep all the balls in the air at the same time, can leave us feeling overwhelmed and exhausted.

First, find a quiet spot to sit and think about what is creating the stress in your life.

Create a detailed list of situations that you feel are causing you the most stress. 

Then analyze each situation and come up with solutions to each of your problems. This is a brainstorming activity designed to help you realize that you are, indeed, in control.

Your problems won’t dissolve away, however, once you realize that you are in control of many of the aspects of your stressors, your stress will be reduced considerably.

For instance, you may take on the lion’s share of the work at your school because you have difficulty delegating duties to your assistant instructors. You are overworked and you’re beginning not to enjoy your chosen profession anymore.

First, you need to ask yourself why you are having difficulty sharing work with others at your school. Do you feel that they are not qualified? Would you feel left out if some of the less important decisions were made by your assistants?

A couple of solutions come to mind:

1. Cross-train your staff to handle some of the responsibilities that you currently have

2. Hire additional staff

3. Most importantly, learn to delegate some of your less important responsibilities to your assistant instructors. Let them do the work and have them keep you informed about the status of these responsibilities

You may feel anxious when you realize that the amount of work you have seems to exceed the time you have available to do it. You can remedy this by creating a list of long-term goals and prioritizing them in the order of importance.

Begin each morning by creating a prioritized “to do” list you’d like to accomplish that day. This should be a list of duties you feel that you can easily achieve in one day. Make sure that you allow time for unexpected interruptions. As you finish each item on your list, mark it off as completed. 

The benefits of creating a daily “to do” list is two-fold. First, you’ll be able to focus on what’s most important. Secondly, you’ll have the satisfaction of accomplishing what’s you’ve set out to do that day. It’s a win-win solution.[/text_block][/op_liveeditor_element]

[op_liveeditor_element data-style=””][text_block style=”undefined” align=”left”]by John Graden

People take martial arts lessons for a variety of reasons, and not all of these students present the image or have the skills that are considered ideal among martial arts instructors.

Some students may not be as fit, or as graceful as you might like. You are, however, running a school and not a martial arts training camp for ex-Marines.

The key is that the best way for them to get into shape and gain that warrior attitude is for them to be in your school. That’s hard to do if they don’t feel they are respected.

Regardless of why they’re in your class, and what qualities you think make up an ideal martial arts student, these are paying students that deserve your respect. You’ll find that your retention will fare much better if you treat all students equally and with respect.[/text_block][/op_liveeditor_element]

[op_liveeditor_element data-style=””][text_block style=”undefined” align=”left”]

This sheet is to be completed each week by every staff member. Yes, that includes you.

Weekly Goal Commitment

Name­­­­__________________________ Week ending­­­­__________________________

My goals this week are:

__________________________­­­­________________________________________­­­­__________________________

The students I’ll chat with this week are:

__________________________­­­­________________________________________­­­­__________________________

My goals last week were:

__________________________­­­­__________________________­­­­________________________________________

My level of accomplishment was/why?

__________________________­­­­__________________________­­­­________________________________________

This week my continuing education commitiment will be spent on:

__________________________­­­­__________________________­­­­________________________________________

Contact Diary/Meetings Record

Name or Project                  Detail – Progress – Decisions

_________________________________

_________________________________[/text_block][/op_liveeditor_element]

[op_liveeditor_element data-style=””][text_block style=”undefined” align=”left”]

60-Second Motivational Speeches

For classes, demos, belt exams, TV, radio, and one-on-one, a professional has his/her soundbites down cold. Here are some great motivators to get you started.

60-Second Motivational Speeches

[/text_block][/op_liveeditor_element]

[op_liveeditor_element data-style=””][text_block style=”undefined” align=”left”]At some point while you were dutifully teaching classes for your instructor, I bet a few students and/or parents let you know that they preferred your classes to those of your instructor. At first, you thought they were just being polite, but then you began to notice things your instructor did that you would not do ‘if it were your school.’

You enjoyed the attention and the rewards that came from teaching martial arts. Maybe the martial arts school became your social circle because it was easy for you. You were moving up in rank, training hard, and teaching, which automatically earned you respect and recognition within this community. Meeting people is easy when you outrank them.

You were loyal to your instructor and strongly believed in what you taught, because these techniques and methods brought you out of the darkness of intimidation to being a revered black belt instructor.

It was natural that we developed deep emotional ties to the techniques and the methods of our school. The mere mention of our school, style, or organization brought on fierce feelings of pride. This is also why the suggestion that there may be a better or a different way is met with initial resistance. These connections are so strong they are even parodied in films, because the “my kung fu is better than yours” scene has been played to death in movies. When an art has changed our life, it’s not always easy to admit that it may be flawed in some degree or way.

While you were teaching for your instructor, you may have suggested new ways of doing things, including teaching, testing, and martial arts marketing, but virtually every idea of yours was shot down. Your instructor had everything in his control, and trying something new was a risk he was not willing to take. I understand wanting to stay in your comfort zone. I was certainly that way. Once, as a school owner, I wanted to introduce some energy into classes by clapping in between drills or forms. I literally stayed up at night, thinking through how to introduce this concept. I was afraid my students would think I’d gone sissy and walk out.

Teaching martial arts is nirvana for a control freak. By the time you become a black belt following the path I’ve just described, you are a full-fledged control freak. You control how students move, breathe, where they look, what they should think about and, even in some extreme cases, some spiritual aspects of their lives. So, to risk giving up control for even a minute was very tough for me. This clapping thing became a huge obstacle for me. After all, my instructors would have never done something like this.

I chickened out during the first two classes and decided I would do it in the last class of the night, which was my brown and black belt class. I figured, if it bombed, only they would see it (by the way, don’t introduce new ideas to your advanced students first. They like things the way they are now. That’s why they are here. Some of them have developed deep connections to the way things are, just as you did at that rank).

I had the class do a form, Tan Gun, as a warm up. I was thinking, OK, after this form, I’m going to do it. But, instead of simply saying, “Hey! Give yourself some energy!” and clapping to show them what I meant, I used the classic control-freak method. When they finished the form, I snarled, “Attention!” Everyone snapped to. “Extend your left hand!” Every left hand popped out. “Extend your right hand!” Every right hand popped out. “Clap!”

I had to be in total control of every step of the way to clapping. It was silly. They did it and liked it, and it became part of our school’s energy, but without the micro-managing from me to extend each hand like robots. Much of our hesitation and fear of new ideas and changes are rooted in this control factor. You’ve gained control of your situation, and you are afraid of trying something new that might put you out of control, even for a moment.[/text_block][/op_liveeditor_element]

[op_liveeditor_element data-style=””][text_block style=”undefined” align=”left”]

[/text_block][/op_liveeditor_element]

[op_liveeditor_element data-style=””][text_block style=”undefined” align=”left”]by John Graden

The martial arts business is much like show business. There is confusion and internal conflict about money. “Serious” artists are concerned that they not sell out or become commercial. I saw an obese martial arts “master” on an A&E special. He said, “Martial arts is about changing lives. It’s not about making money.” Master Po has spoken.

That kind of easy-to-spew rhetoric creates confusion in the martial arts industry. The history of martial arts is rife with stories of master instructors teaching the arts altruistically. When you hear one of those stories, it’s usually from someone who thinks charging for martial arts is wrong. Just keep in mind that:

There is a big difference between you and the story teller or the kind master – they don’t have to pay your bills. You do!

Like sex, money is seldom discussed, other than to complain about the lack of it. If you were raised in a family that struggled financially, you may have certain beliefs drilled into your head: such as, “The rich get richer, while the poor get poorer.” “We can’t afford that!” “I’d rather be happy than rich.” “Money is the root of all evil.” “The rich put their pants on one leg at a time.” Or, my favorite of all time, “If money was so important, look at who God gave it to.”

The message is that not only will you not have money but also that people who have money have sold their soul. The truth is that money is like a hammer: it’s just a tool. Money is also blind; it doesn’t care who has it or uses it. If you save your money, your wealth grows. If you spend it, your wealth shrinks. Money doesn’t care one way or the other.

When you combine that kind of negative association with money – which is very common, by the way – and throw in the so-called spiritual underpinnings of the martial arts, you get idiotic statements like the one from the chubby master guy.

Because the martial arts can be a power for good, many of us convince ourselves that we teach to help people. We feel we should sacrifice our own well-being to “help the children.” We charge too little, and we let people train for free and, when they get good enough, we hire them to teach. When they underperform we keep them on, because, well, Sally has been with me for six years. If I fire her, I don’t know what she would do.

Many of us worked hard to make all our students happy, and I don’t mean only from a student service standpoint. Our reward is that smile on little Johnny’s face, or Cindy’s improved grades, or Joe’s raise at work because we gave him the confidence to ask for it. Most professions don’t offer those rewards. In fact, that is all the reward we need, right? Wrong. Very, very wrong. Beware this dangerous trap of rationalization.

When your well-being depends on how happy your students are, doctors call that co-dependency, and it will eat you alive. There is no way you can keep all of your students happy. This approach will wear you down and burn you out, because the human experience is a balance of good and bad for all of us, including our students.[/text_block][/op_liveeditor_element]

[op_liveeditor_element data-style=””][text_block style=”undefined” align=”left”]by John Graden

Monster.com, an employment agency, ran a series of commercials that I thought were great. These spots portrayed children describing their future. Most kids dream of jobs like doctor, fireman, or astronaut when they grow up. They dream big dreams. In the monster.com ads however, these kids would say things like, “I want to lay tar, all day long!” the next child would say, “ I want to be mired in middle management forever.” another would say, “I want to be a brown nose.”

The effect was both amusing and chilling. While the shock value of seeing a 10-year claim to aspire to be a brown nose was funny, it was also sad to consider that a young person would make their dream so, well, pedestrian. The power of the word potential is in direct proportion to the age of the person you are describing. A ten-year old seems to have endless potential. An 80-year old would, by most accounts, have less potential.

In seeing this spot over the months, I began to wonder what happens between the time a child dreams of being a rocket scientist and when he ends up nailing shingles on a roof all day long.

My dream as a kid was always to be either an athlete or a teacher. As a sports crazed kid, I read all the sports heroes biographies from Jim Thorpe to Babe Ruth. There was something very appealing about becoming famous for playing a kid’s game. I think the interest in teaching had to do with power and a feeling of significance. Either way, martial arts certainly helped me fulfill those two aspects of my childhood fantasies. I’m sure the same applies to you.

One of the most common questions I received over the course of the NAPMA 2000 World Conference was, “Did you ever imagine it would get this big?”  The first time the question was asked, I had to take a moment to pause and think about it. It was actually a flattering question that threw me off for a second. While not trying to sound cocky or brash, my answer was honestly, “Yes.” This was a lesson I learned from Brian Tracy years ago. Dream big dreams.

Brian taught me to focus on prosperity, not poverty. Rather than focus on what I don’t have, focus on what I wanted to achieve and then to throw myself into that work with abandon. I did and it worked.

Dreaming big dreams only makes sense to me. What’s the alternative? Dreaming of being a brown nose? Dreaming of being a roofer? As Brian also says, “Anything less than a commitment to excellence is an acceptance of mediocrity.” I never forgot that.

Prosperity thinking means you don’t say to yourself, “I can’t afford that.” Instead, you teach yourself to say, “How can I afford that?” The difference is huge. To use a tired phrase, one question empowers you while the other disempowers you.

One of the techniques I used to help keep me motivated was to visit luxury homes for sale. Typically, on a Sunday afternoon you could visit these homes under the pretense of being a potential buyer. I would walk in the house, and just visualize that I was coming home at night after classes. I could see myself throwing my black belt on the hook and heading for the hot tub.  This exercise worked as sort of a time machine for me. If I worked hard, stayed the course, did what needed to be done when it needed to be done whether I liked it or not, this was my future. It also showed me that, if I fall back into old habits and comfort zones, this is what I would be missing.

You have to understand that this was shortly after being so broke that I couldn’t afford to pay for my car insurance. I would run two miles to the school each day for six months because I didn’t dare drive. I’d tell the students it was my warmup.

In order to break out of this place, I had to “fake it ‘til I make it.” Part of dreaming big dreams is to expose yourself to the lifestyle you want to achieve. That’s why I always visit a five-star hotel each year to do my goal setting. Even if I couldn’t afford to spend a night there, I still wanted to put myself in an atmosphere of success and opulence as I reviewed the previous year and planned for the next.

I’m a very future oriented person. While I certainly “stop and smell the roses,” I’m confident the best is yet to come. That’s the beauty of a dream, especially the big ones. The martial arts can be a great career choice and it’s getting better all the time. Like many things today, your career in the arts is what you make it. Let us know how we can help your big dreams come true.[/text_block][/op_liveeditor_element]

[op_liveeditor_element data-style=””][text_block style=”undefined” align=”left”]by John Graden

Here in the Tampa Bay area – the 12th largest TV market in the U.S. – the local CBS TV affiliate did a three-part series called “Black Belt Scandals.” The series exposed a local instructor who had White-Out® on his rank certificate. You could see a 3 was replaced with a 7. He even had a fake chiropractor’s certificate on the wall.

Though this guy was giving neck and back adjustments to students, including children, the chiropractic college reported he had never attended the school. Next, the reporter contacted his martial arts association. They had no record of him. Mind you, I’m less than confident of martial arts associations’ record keeping, but it looked very bad.

As a demonstration, the reporter applied to another martial arts organization for a black belt certificate, which was promptly mailed to her. She made it clear that all she had to do was send in $25 and she was recognized as a black belt, without ever having taken a martial arts lesson in her life.

She then purchased a black belt at a local martial arts supply store and took the certificate and belt to the business licensing office. When asked what was needed to open a black belt school, the lady behind the counter said, “Pay $35 for a business license. That’s it.”

The reporter looked into the camera and remarked that, though she had the belt and the certificate, they were useless because she didn’t need them to open a school. She dumped them both in the trash.

I was on a 10-day tour of Italy with the WAKO USA Team when this happened. When I got back, it was the talk of Tampa Bay.

Beyond exposing a lack of ethics in the martial arts industry, the story illustrated that there are no educational or, for the most part, licensing prerequisites to open a martial arts school in the United States. In the United Kingdom, Canada, and other countries there are some rudimentary licensing requirements, usually having to do with CPR and general safety. There is very little required that is specific to the martial arts.

To be clear, I am not calling for any type of government regulation. I created the American Council On Martial Arts (now the Martial Arts Teachers Association Instructor Certification Program) as a way of educating instructors on teaching methods that are accepted and proven universally by the highest academic standards worldwide. My goal has always been that we raise our own standards of performance and teaching. That is a tough road in this industry, and we will explore why in this section.

There is little question that the martial arts industry has a very low barrier to entry. The range of people opening martial arts schools is vast. Some people open schools after graduating college with an MBA, while others have just been released from prison. The good side is that martial artists are as diverse a group as you can find in any field. The most colorful, interesting people I’ve met in my life have been martial arts instructors. The downside is obvious: like any profession, the indiscretions made by a minority of unethical instructors make it harder for all of us to be taken seriously as professionals.

When researching why some owners take the material and apply it while others let it stack up in their office, my first thought was that owners with higher education probably did better growing a school. However, in the next moment I realized that couldn’t be true. I certainly didn’t have a business background when I opened my school, and my GED didn’t exactly speak to high education. Yet I earned a six-figure income as a school owner in the early 1990s. The fact there are no educational prerequisites allowed me to get started in the first place.

I believe the difference lies in our collective background as martial artists. Keep in mind that the Core Dynamics are unique to those of us who have embraced the rigors of training far beyond those of our classmates. We didn’t just train hard; we made the martial arts our life. Many of us endured beatings, mental abuse, and insane requirements to move up the rank ladder to our black belt and beyond. We stuck it out while our classmates struck out. In appreciation for all that hard work, our instructors often found ways to abuse our loyalty. Who the heck puts up with that? We did.[/text_block][/op_liveeditor_element]

[op_liveeditor_element data-style=””][text_block style=”undefined” align=”left”]A personal brand works best when it is an authentic, congruent, and consistent representation of you.

In this context, congruency means that your actions reflect your values. If you value honesty but are prone to gossip, exaggeration, or lying to protect yourself, you’re incongruent. If you intellectually value good health but are overweight and out of shape, you’re not living in congruency.

Congruency also leads to consistency. From your dress habits to how you speak to people, you always represent your brand. How you represent it is the concern.

Just as a company uses its brand to attach a certain personality and uniqueness to the products it sells, your personal brand comprises the qualities and unique traits you relay about yourself. Your personal brand represents the way you want other people to think about you. It also conveys how you think of you. Remember, your brand is loud and clear every day. It’s up to you to take control of that communication and transform into the person you want to be.[/text_block][/op_liveeditor_element]

[op_liveeditor_element data-style=””][text_block style=”undefined” align=”left”]by John Graden

I once read an advice column where a 15-year-old boy wrote, “I am 15, I have zits, my voice is still high, and no girl wants anything to do with me. What should I do?” The answer was really good.

It’s not just you. Most 15-year-old boys are gawky and awkward and have zits. Girls your age are more interested in older boys. The question isn’t what can you do now to improve your odds with girls, because there is really very little you can do now. The real question to focus on is: what kind of 18 year-old do you want to be? What can you do over the next three years to redefine yourself and create the person you think will have more success? Can you start lifting weights? Take martial arts and get a black belt? Get really good at some activity, other than video games or web surfing, so you have something going for you?

Many of us have experienced or observed a metamorphosis from the classic 98-pound weakling getting sand kicked in his face to a respected martial arts Master. Martial arts is truly a great way to redefine yourself.

By embracing the martial arts to the degree you and I did, we took major steps to redefine who we are and how we fit in the world. I thank the heavens for putting me in proximity to Walt Bone and Hank Farrah so that on February 12, 1974, I could take my first karate class.

I can’t imagine what kind of life I would have led or what kind of person I would be had my life not taken that turn. I love having a career in the martial arts, being a black belt and a teacher. Even before training, I used to read biographies of all of my sports heroes. My goal was to become an athlete or a teacher. A career in the Martial arts provided me the opportunity to do both, and I am forever grateful. My goal now is to simply leave the martial arts in a better place than where I found it. That’s a goal that motivates and rewards me daily.

When we learn from a specific instructor, it’s natural for us to mimic somewhat his or her teaching methods, processes of control, and attitudes about teaching and the martial arts. Walt Bone taught me to teach through negative reinforcement. Never compliment a student. Always tell them what they are doing wrong. That’s what I did for years. I became such an expert at pointing out things that could be improved upon that I did the same thing outside of school until a friend said I was hypercritical.

When Mr. Bone said it was an unwritten rule that no one should open a school within five miles, I took that as the law. When Mr. Farrah explained that the purpose of the square block is to block one attacker in front of you with a modified side block and, at the same time, block another attacker from the side with a rising block, that is exactly what I believed.

And, that’s how I taught the square block for almost two decades, until the day I was on a StairMaster® in a gym at the Cooper Institute, watching a karate class in front of me on the basketball court. The instructor was very good, and the 10 or so green belt adults were very attentive as he taught them the square block exactly as I was taught it and as I still taught it. But as I watched, I couldn’t help but think: that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. I wondered how any of us could keep a straight face while explaining this fantasy block.

Finding Your Own Voice is the process of questioning everything you teach, and all the systems within your school, to make sure they represent you and how you want to treat people. You want to make sure your program authentically reflects your beliefs… that it doesn’t simply regurgitate what your instructor perpetuated on you. Just as an abused boy tends to become an abusive adult, abusive teaching practices, insane rituals, faulty reasoning, and myths can be passed on generation to generation until someone breaks the cycle and “finds his voice.”

Finding Your Own Voice simply means you work to have a deeper understanding of the system, so that you don’t keep explaining the square block as I did. You make the style serve your students, rather than the other way around. Just because your beloved martial arts instructor said it doesn’t mean it’s true. Just because some guy said it in the 1920s doesn’t mean it’s right for today. Don’t strive to become a clone of your instructor or the masters in your system. Strive to be authentic as a person who uses martial arts as a way of expressing himself or herself.[/text_block][/op_liveeditor_element]

[op_liveeditor_element data-style=””][text_block style=”undefined” align=”left”]by John Graden

When you finally open your own martial arts school, the control factor continues to be an influence. It is important to make follow-up calls to people who have inquired about your school but never joined.  In order to make these important calls, you need to get motivated.

Three o’clock rolls around, and you stare at that telephone, knowing it’s time to start. What do you do? You decide to drive to the printer’s to pick up your martial arts flyers and then shop for business supplies. By the end of the week, you realize you have not made a single call. You figure, “Hmmm. Maybe I need a time management course or to join National Association Of Professional Martial Artists Squared.” So you take your 10th time management course, although time management has nothing to do with it and stacking more boxes on your desk or shelves will certainly not change the outcome. The problem is the control factor.

Think about where you came from and where you are now. You have your martial arts business. People respect you. People bow to you and refer to you with a respectful title like Master. If you make the telephone calls about joining your school, the distinct prospect is that someone will just say no, and you can’t control that. So what do you do? Anything but make that call.

The control factor creates conflicting goals, and it paralyzes you. One positive goal that will improve your life is to grow your martial arts school, and making those calls is an important part of that growth. The other goal to have absolute control of your life prevents you from making those calls. Your goals conflict and cancel each other out.

Guess what? This happens to every one of us. It is the human experience. The key is to recognize it and then overcome the conflicting goals that are causing you to hesitate.

Remember, The Core Dynamics refer to the underlying forces that control the patterns of thought and behaviors that determine who we are. In this case, the underlying force, or Core Dynamic, is the control factor. How you handle the control factor is illustrated by your patterns of thought and behavior.

This is a key point. The most successful school owners have learned to manage the control factor and have overcome their conflicting goals. They realize and embrace the idea of short-term pain for long-term gain. The long-term gain of growing their school is a stronger goal that overcomes the short-term pain of making the phone calls. The reverse is to take the short-term gain of not making the calls and suffer the long-term pain of a struggling school.

The conflict that arises out of the control factor paralyzes most school owners. In a sense, they are now controlled by the control factor, which in truth puts him or her out of control (again). I call it protecting your puddle. I say puddle because that’s as big as your school will get as long as it stays in the comfort zone of control. The owner has done a good job of using the martial arts to grow as a person but is now in a new arena and, instead of breaking through the conflicting goals to continue to grow, he or she hides inside a new box.

Many owners will avoid making those calls by checking their email 20 times or “networking” with another owner who is also avoiding making follow-up calls. The truth is that success only comes from action. While you are taking your 10th time management course, the successful owners are busy making those marketing phone calls.

While you are doing what you can to avoid doing what you need to do, the successful owners are doing it. They are executing rather than planning or studying. Is studying important? Of course it is, but not during business hours or as an excuse to put off executing.

In the classic comic strip Doonesbury, the character Zonker Harris was a “professional student.” He stayed in school as long as possible to avoid entering the real world. I am a lifelong student myself, but I also know it’s easy to justify studying to avoid the real world of execution (here is a helpful rule: Spend at least five times as much time doing as studying).

The most successful school owners have learned to delegate, let go of control and try new ideas without fear of failure. They are not held back by their conflicting goals. They attack every day.[/text_block][/op_liveeditor_element]

[op_liveeditor_element data-style=””][text_block style=”undefined” align=”left”]by John Graden

When you read the title of this article – the Lower the Price, the Lower the Expectations – what came to mind? Did you feel that meant that the market would have lower expectations of your school if it was low price? Or did you feel you would not have to meet high expectations if your price was low? For far too many owners, the second description is more accurate.

As your skills as a teacher improve and your system for operating the school becomes more polished and professional, you can begin to raise your standards of performance and your tuition with it.

This is not to say people don’t like a good deal. Everyone does. However, there are certain things you don’t expect to have discounted and, in fact, may not want them if they are. Health care is at the top of that list. Rarely do we say, “Give my kids the cheapest medical exam possible.” Education is much like that. Parents don’t work hard to give their children the cheapest education possible. Your martial arts school is not a gym where club owners compete over $29 membership fees. You want to be compared to the local private schools, not the local gym.

In establishing your tuition, divide your area’s pull potential student base into three levels of income: the lowest third, the middle third, and the highest third of income earners. You want to price your tuition for the middle and highest thirds, not the lowest. It is much easier to manage quality and teach 100 students paying you $150 per month than 300 students paying you $50 per month. The gross is still a projected $15,000 per month, but the amount of work and stress to manage 300 students is much more than just three times what it is for 100.

The top two thirds of income earners are not terribly concerned over $100 or so one way or the other. They are concerned about getting a return on their investment and feeling as though they are valued members of your school. They will also want to train with people in the school who are like them and want to be trained by a staff of professionals.

The Screen Money Provides

To a degree, the high-income earners’ market will want to train at a club that not everyone can afford. This is not out of snobbery as much as the natural screening process that money affords them. This is why people belong to country clubs and private golf courses. I’ve belonged to plenty of each, and usually they are not any nicer than upper-scale public facilities. The difference is that by paying more for what everyone else can have for less, you don’t have to do it with everyone else. The levels of expectation are much higher for the private club, and so is the price.

The School Down the Street is Cheaper

Here’s a great response to a prospect that points out that the school down the street is cheaper: “Mrs. Jones, we could charge that same tuition. But you know what? We would be packed, and it would be a lot harder to give your son personal attention and to maintain the quality of students we are known for. Plus, it probably wouldn’t be as safe with loads of kids in here on a discounted program. We’re all about quality, and our tuition helps us keep our student standards high. Our school is really for the families who want the best for their children.”

Don’t you love that last line? “Our school is really for the families who want the best for their children.” What parent is going to respond, “Well, that’s not us. We want less than the best for our kids.”

The most important thing to understand is that this market will not expect you to be the best instructor and the cheapest at the same time. However, at a good price, they will expect you to be the best, so make sure you are always studying and expanding your skills as a martial artist, a teacher, and a businessperson. Then, make sure you are training your staff at least two hours per week to carry out the mission of Being the Best.[/text_block][/op_liveeditor_element]

[op_liveeditor_element data-style=””][text_block style=”undefined” align=”left”]by John Graden

As stated in one of my previous articles, I don’t feel that the movement towards character development has been bad for martial arts schools.  Actually, it’s been great. On the other hand, when schools drift away from their core values, they become little more than motivational day care centers.

The life-skills programs in schools too often are there for one reason; to overcome the concerns of the mothers of the kids in class. Most dads want their kid to be honest and respectful, but dads tend to understand the value of being able to deal with bullies and life’s physical threats more than most moms.

There are many students who come to us from bad situations where they have few if any role models of good behavior, and this is where the martial arts school can shine. Still, I think that child will be influenced more by a powerful black belt conducting himself or herself in a respectful manner and not abusing his power than the reciting of a sterile end-of-class story about the tortoise and the hare.

In traditional martial arts, respect is a word that is emphasized from day one. The belts work as a great goal-setting program and, certainly, developing a never-quit attitude is key to moving through the ranks.

To be clear, I see nothing wrong with organizing the lessons of martial arts into life skills to make sure they are articulated and apparent to the students and their families. That is like spice on the meal; it is not the meal.

Today it seems that instructors are focused more on their ability to get kids to recite pledges of good behavior and scream “YES SIR” than on their students’ capacity to “knock someone on their duffs” if they need to.

I know an excellent black belt who has transformed his school from adults to kids and now back to adults again. Like me, he had marketed to kids and cloned what the “Big Schools” were doing for character development. He began to pass kids for their “effort” in order to save their “self esteem.” More and more he found his school had become a kids’ center with hundreds of children yelling “YES, SIR!” at all the right moments during a speech.

Never mind that many of the kids really didn’t know what they were responding to. They just knew at the end of a question to scream “YES, SIR!” He also noticed that his upper-ranks began to look pretty weak. His exams became celebrations of mediocrity with lots of smiles, high fives, and weak technical skills. While passing every kid in exams may be good for retention, that very fact means eventually you are going to have a school full of Pooh Bears. Kids who are soft and nice, but easy targets, despite the color of the belt.

In time, my friend began to dislike his own school. He didn’t want to be there. He missed the camaraderie and pride of creating black belts to whom he could teach fighting, without upsetting the student’s mommy.

Then one day, a threshold event occurred that left him disgusted and ready to make some serious changes. One of his 11-year-old Pooh Bears came running into the school, bleeding and crying. It seems another kid, who was no bigger or older, had popped him in the nose. The student had been standing in front of his karate school, wearing his uniform and his BLACK BELT while waiting for his parents. Somehow he got into an exchange of words with a neighborhood kid who punched or slapped him in the nose.

My friend was sickened. Not only had an unfortunate incident happened in front of his school, but one of his black belts was crying and bleeding. To paraphrase Tom Hanks in the movie A League of Their Own, “there’s no crying as a black belt!”

My friend was humiliated. That’s not supposed to happen. When we were students, stories of our school’s black belts defending themselves always ended with the bad guy in the hospital. That event was the catalyst for the end of the student creed and passing exams for merely making the effort to show up. It has taken him two years, but he now is back to nearly as many active students, with only 20 percent under the age of 12 – a complete reversal of where he had been when the kid got popped.

He looks forward to going to his school each night and is enjoying running the school with a healthy mixture of personal development and realistic training and expectations.

My friend is one of the best black belts I know. He and I have talked about this new dynamic in the industry dozens of times. The conclusion that I’ve come to is that the introduction into the classroom of positive character development is a good “undercurrent” for a school. It’s the perfect counter-balance to good physical training and self defense.

But many schools are out of balance. The line that, “We don’t just teach punching and kicking…” has become a cop out for not teaching strong core self defense and technical skills. Don’t apologize for teaching punching and kicking (or grappling).

Technical execution and self defense have become an afterthought to personal development. Why? It’s a heck of a lot easier to teach a kid to act like a Boy Scout with a belt than to take the time, effort, and honesty required to produce a black belt who can defend himself or herself.

But, as many people have discovered, in time you may be teaching at a school you hardly recognize. You will have students who stand up straight when shaking hands during their “polite greetings” but who have rubber backbones.

It’s important to be OK with the fact that martial arts can’t be all things to all people. The very term martial means military. Military relates to matters of war. This doesn’t mean each class is devoted to killing or war tactics; it means that our foundation is one of peace through superior firepower. It’s a program of self worth that starts with the concept that:

‘I am worth protecting. No one will touch me without my permission.’

In a good program, as your skills improve, your sense of contribution, respect, and responsibility increases as well. Today, we’re seeing hybrid black belts awarded for blindfolding themselves so they can know what it’s like to be blind or spending a day in a wheelchair. This seems more like a high school sociology class than a study in the martial arts. To me, the ultimate black belt is a noble warrior who uses the martial arts as a method of personal and physical growth. It is a very individual pursuit that is better taken eyes wide open than blindfolded.

These are core attitudes and benefits that were inherent in the arts long before any student creed or message of the week.[/text_block][/op_liveeditor_element]

[op_liveeditor_element data-style=””][text_block style=”undefined” align=”left”]by John Graden

One time I had a guy come into my school with one of my flyers. The offer was three months and a uniform for $249. He said he stopped by another school by mistake. When he presented the flyer to the school’s owner, his comment was, “I can tell you one thing: he’s charging you too much.”

This guy was 10 years my senior and had made his living as a martial arts school owner for much longer than I had. Yet I had three times as many students at twice the tuition. He was a 10th degree black belt, and I was just a third or fourth at the time. What did he mean when he said I was charging too much? What is too much? Why did he place less value on martial arts than I did?

If I could pay you $10,000, would you sell me your black belt? Would you strip martial arts from your life for 10 grand, as though you never took that first class? How about 20? Deal? I didn’t think so. I’ve never met a black belt who would. If you could take a new student forward in time to give him or her the feeling of being a black belt, do you think they would miss classes? Do you think they would hesitate to join your school at twice the price you are currently charging? How are you reflecting that value in your school?

In a Western society, quality is always associated with higher price. I’m not just trying to get you to raise your prices; I really don’t care what you charge. But I do care that you recognize and Value What You Do. That sense of value is reflected in a number of ways, including tuition. In more than a decade of consulting with school owners, I find this is the Core Dynamic that stifles them the most. Yet it is the most common problem for school owners.

This is an especially important message for those of you teaching a traditional system. Many traditionalists place a high value on what they teach, but they don’t demonstrate or reflect that value. Their school is kind of ratty, the systems on how to enroll are unclear, and the efforts to create and keep students are haphazard at best. They may speak of the value of martial arts, but they don’t demonstrate it.

This could apply to any school, but traditionalists have taken the noble path of preserving our core martial arts styles. In order for that to happen– and I certainly hope it does – the value of what martial arts represent has to be reflected in every element of your black belt school.

At the core of Value What You Do is this attitude:

I am a highly skilled, unique martial arts professional in our community. There are very few, if any, people who can provide the service and benefits that I can. I am not going to spend my time, stress, and money teaching people who are not committed to earning a black belt with me.

If your response is, “That would never work in my area,” then the Core Dynamic of Value What You Do is exactly the issue for you to focus on. Again, this is the most common problem with martial arts schools.

Even though we have personally undergone an amazing transformation through the martial arts, and we speak about the high value of martial arts, many of us do not demonstrate it in how we run our business. This is not about tuition. This is about every aspect of your school, from logo design to black belt graduations.

Ask your local private school about the enrollment process. I guarantee you they have a specific step-by-step process to qualify the student and then enroll him or her. You can be sure they have a contract and that a child will fail for underperformance. However, the school has few failures, because they have a system to get students ready to pass.

When you have a clear, consistent process to enroll students and qualify them for black belt, you show them that you Value What You Do. If you fear setting your prices more than $10 higher than the competition, you do not Value What You Do. Price, contracts, or using a billing company are not deciding factors for joining a school.

If your enrollment process is to let whoever answers the phone do her best – without consistent training – to get the prospect to come in, you don’t Value What You Do. Like the private school – you show prospects the value of what you do by making sure the system for answering the phone and setting appointments is clear and consistently booking 8 out of every 10 phone calls into good appointments.

If your enrollment process is to teach an intro or just let them join the class, without a proven system for moving a prospect from stranger to student 8 out of 10 times, you don’t Value What You Do. You demonstrate to your prospects that you Value What You Do by having a trial lesson program that is well thought out and rehearsed so that 8 out of 10 students who take it enroll.

If you advertise that you are a month-to-month school and that students can cancel anytime, you don’t Value What You Do. You Value What You Do when you adopt the attitude that you are a skilled professional, and you will not pour your heart into teaching someone who is only going to drop out when football season starts.

Here is the truth. In every market, the school that sets the highest tuition and uses contracts and has a professional system from the logo to the black belt exam and beyond has the most students. Everything about their operation demonstrates that they place a high value on what they do. Smaller schools that offer no contracts and lower tuition usually surround the high-value schools, yet they struggle.

These Things Demonstrate That You Value What You Do:

1. Your Black Belt Club is only for students who have committed to earn their black belt.

2. Your black belt exam process includes extra classes and opportunities to train for black belt candidates.

3. You have a professionally designed logo and marketing materials.

4. You indoctrinate the student from day one on the value of earning a black belt.

5. You keep a very clean school and replace worn equipment.

6. You have systems for every aspect of your school.

7. You use agreements instead of a month-to-month option.

8. You fail students who do not perform to the standards of the rank.

9. You study and train like a student for life.

10. You realize you can’t be the best and the cheapest, so you commit to being the best.

The most successful school owners highly value what they do… and it shows in every aspect of their school.[/text_block][/op_liveeditor_element]

[op_liveeditor_element data-style=””][text_block style=”undefined” align=”left”]by John Graden

I have learned that you can’t honestly give yourself to anyone unless your needs are met first. Initially it sounds selfish, but it’s a healthy kind of selfishness. In the safety briefing before a flight, the attendant reminds you to fasten your own oxygen mask before you help someone else. You will be in a much better position to help people in your black belt school if you are grossing $30,000 per month, because you are taking care of yourself first, rather than grossing $10,000 because you are “helping the children.”

The reason you sign the lease, risk your money, risk lawsuits, risk losing everything is not to help the children. The reason is to build wealth for your family.

This is a key mindset, and the top black belt school owners are crystal clear on it.

The purpose of your school is to build wealth for your family and to maintain a career in the martial arts. You accomplish this by becoming the best teacher in your town and having a strong business system to support your teaching, so that you can reach and help more people. You create wealth by helping people.

Imagine you are the owner of a television network. You don’t take a risk like that just to have shows that will help the children. You offer some educational programs in the public interest and others that are pure entertainment. But you bought the network to create wealth for your family. You do that by hiring the best talent, equipment, and programming possible.

This is especially true when you have a family. It’s simply not fair to drag your spouse and children through the life of a martial artist if you are not going to build a future for them.

The purpose of launching your martial arts business is to send your kids to good schools, to provide your spouse with a feeling of security and certainty that things are going to be OK financially and to give you the opportunity to retire in dignity. You accomplish this by being the best martial arts school owner and instructor in your town. Once you adopt this attitude, business becomes less stressful, because it’s easier to make decisions when you have Clarity of Purpose.

Chase your passion but don’t chase away profits or your families’ future doing so.

As Abraham Lincoln put it, “We can’t help the poor by becoming one of them.” I heard one of my mentors, a plastic surgeon, speak on the phone with a patient who asked for a discount or payment terms. He said, “Miss, this is how I earn my income. You can make payments and, when they are all done, we can do the surgery; otherwise, we’re going to have to wait until you can afford it.” That is Clarity of Purpose. Plastic surgery, like martial arts, is a choice.

Western society will never take martial arts seriously as a business, activity, or potential career if we all live hand to mouth. How can you teach the success life skills so popular today if you have never experienced success as a teacher? Would you want someone to teach you how to run a martial arts school who has never even owned a business, much less a martial arts school? I hope not.

Cardinal Rule – Never sacrifice the needs of your family for your students.

The most successful school owners are crystal clear that the purpose of their school is to build wealth for their families. Create profit – not poverty – from your passion.[/text_block][/op_liveeditor_element]

[op_liveeditor_element data-style=””][text_block style=”undefined” align=”left”]by John Graden

A classic branding story involves a letter being mailed and successfully delivered to the Playboy mansion in Chicago in the early 1960s. The envelope had no address on it; the only thing on the envelope was the iconic Playboy bunny logo. That is branding.

Hugh Hefner is a master of branding personally and professionally. While Donald Trump, Steve Jobs, and Richard Branson all have powerful professional brands, Hefner effectively wove his personal and professional brands together.

Professional branding is the communication of what a client or customer will experience when interacting and, hopefully, doing business with your company.

Branding is not about pleasing everyone in every case. Wal-Mart has a brand that is totally different than Nordstrom’s. They sell plenty of the same items, but the experience in each is totally different. Apple’s OS X and Microsoft’s Windows operating systems are both successful, but they have completely different brands and fans.

• Professionally designed marketing materials (logo, stationery, ads, etc.)

• Professional Website with Mobile
• Cleanliness of your facility
• Level of client or customer service
• Consistency of your marketing on and offline
• Consistency of colors and look on and offline
• Consistency in how your staff treats clients
• Updated bio

• Updated professionally shot headshot

As with personal branding, your professional brand is loud and clear every day. Take control of that message and build a brand you can be proud of.[/text_block][/op_liveeditor_element]

[op_liveeditor_element data-style=””][text_block style=”undefined” align=”left”]by John Graden

After the trail lesson, your goal is to convince any potential students to sign up at your school.  It’s all about trial and error and as an experienced martial arts school owner, here are three closes I have used that I would not recommend.

When all else fails, go to a third party to help the prospect make a decision – in this case, I chose Benjamin Franklin, of all people:

“I can see you are having a hard time making a decision. Here’s a technique Ben Franklin used to use. He would draw a line down the middle of a piece of paper and list all the positives to moving forward, and then he would list any negatives. Let’s do the positives first. You will get in better shape, like you said you wanted to. You will have more confidence. You said stress relief was really important to you, and you felt your health was not what it should be. When I asked you if you ever thought about being a black belt, you said it has been on your “wish list” for years. Of course, learning self defense ties right in with that. Let’s see, that’s one-two-three-four-five-six major positives if you enroll. Now tell me, what are the negatives?”

How about this for a hard close? I call it the “Back to the Future” close:

“Joe, I want you to close your eyes for a moment and just imagine what your future life will be like if you earn your black belt. You are in great shape. You’re flexible. You’re powerful, and you are getting high levels of respect and admiration from your friends and family. You have become a leader in their eyes. Now Joe, isn’t that what you really want?”

Then there is the take-away close. I used this for years. You make the financial presentation and then add some artificial inflation:

“As a first-visit incentive, we will reduce the registration by $50 for enrolling today to make it easier for you to get started. So which program works best for you?”

I told you they were rough. Don’t write those down. I know they are good, but only for parties. Don’t use them…

If you have to use these 1980s closes, you didn’t do your job in the trial lesson. This type of hard close often leads to buyer’s remorse. No one likes to be sold, but everyone likes to buy. Trial programs take a lot of the buyer’s remorse out of the process, because the prospect feels in control of the decision and has a clearer understanding of what that decision entails. It’s more comfortable for him or her and a lot easier than drawing lines down the middle of papers or taking people on a contrived time machine. They surely know that any artificial $50 incentive will be available the next day as well as today. Wouldn’t you?

After a good trial program, the paper work should be pretty easy. Imagine your prospect on his tiptoes at the precipice of enrolling, and you are behind him. With the most gentle, soft nudge in the back he or she takes the step. The closes above are more like a bulldozer trying to move a building. There is too much resistance, or you wouldn’t have to resort to such nonsense. Promise me that if you use closes like those you will first put on a polyester suit with wide lapels.

Rather than a tug-of-war, collaborative selling is more like two of you on the same side of a huge rock, pushing it towards enrollment. If one stops pushing, the process is suspended until you both are at it again. This takes longer than a 15-minute sales pitch.

Martial arts instruction is a relationship business. Getting to know what your student really needs and how he can benefit from your school is an important building block of that relationship. At the same time, to be an effective instructor, you have to build the trust of your student so he will not just believe you but believe in you. The trial lesson is a big first step in accomplishing these important goals.

Twelve-month New Student Agreements collected by a good third-party billing company are best sold with a trial-lesson strategy. With good instruction and student service, a school following this plan should be able to build a solid receivable base that will make the cash flow more consistent and help the owner sleep at night.[/text_block][/op_liveeditor_element]

[op_liveeditor_element data-style=””][text_block style=”undefined” align=”left”]by John Graden

Parents are always searching for a constructive, educational activity for their children. And, while martial arts will obviously burn off excess energy, some parents might mistakenly associate this activity with violence.

Many people don’t know that the martial arts instill within students a lot more than the ability to defend themselves.

It also creates confidence in oneself. Theres something empowering about knowing you have the ability to protect yourself if the need arises.

Discipline is an attractive by-product, particularly to parents. Discipline and accountability, a way to release negative feelings and relieve stress are just a few of the benefits of attending a martial arts school.

It is your job to educate parents on the advantages of attending your martial arts school, and to let them know that money spent on lessons is actually a wise investment in their children’s future.[/text_block][/op_liveeditor_element]

[op_liveeditor_element data-style=””][text_block style=”undefined” align=”left”]by John Graden

Know who you are, and why you are doing this. When I became a billing client of EFC, I attended one of their seminars in Atlanta. I was doing pretty good, but nothing like some of the EFC stars of the day. Still, it seemed the guys in Atlanta knew my name as a fighter, which was nice. As usual at these events, we shared information about student counts and, when I mentioned I had 245 students, they seemed impressed. They were even more impressed that my student body was mostly adults.

I didn’t know there had been a huge boom in the children’s market at the time due to The Karate Kid. The guys in Atlanta implied that I was missing half the market because I didn’t have a lot of child students. I listened, thought about it, and then made one of my worse decisions as a school owner. I started doing the things they did to attract and keep kids. I started the student creed, message of the week, and had kids screaming, “Yes, Sir!” on cue. In time, my school had totally changed from an adult school to a school full of kids or, as some like to call them, “a family school.” Mind you, this was more the influence of EFC clients than EFC itself.

My income increased. I paid off my house and socked the money away, but I hated it. I didn’t want to be at the school anymore. It was no fun explaining to a mom why her Miss Perfect daughter who gets straight As in school failed her blue belt exam. I had strayed big time from who I was as a martial artist and as a teacher.

Quality of life is a big issue with me and, for the first time in my martial arts career I had a job I didn’t like. Most of the kids were fine, and many were great. But some kids just drove me nuts mostly because of the control factor. Controlling kids and their parents is not a fun way for a control freak to spend time. A lot of instructors like to teach kids, but I don’t.

I had lost my way because I subscribed to someone else’s voice. But I learned something important. Since then, I’ve tried to make it clear that you need to know yourself and what you want to do. This is especially true today, when so many programs are available.[/text_block][/op_liveeditor_element]