jan 2009 Martial Arts Professional Magazine Dec-Jan 2009 by NAPMA NAPMA

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“Straight-Talk” Secrets to Develop Your Professional Self-Worth and Implement Higher Tuitions

Stay the

Course! Clear Thinking and Focused Action Will Steer you Clear of the Negative Economy

A Look Back, Looking Forward! Extreme Success Academy Photos NAPMA Quantum Leap The next big step toward success Early registration Free Bonus

The Innovative Mindset for Entrepreneurs, Part 1

Lee Milteer Interviews Dr. Gene Landrum

Contents

Stay the

Course! Clear Thinking and Focused Action Will Steer you Clear of the Negative Economy

28 26

You can thrive and not just survive in this economy when you receive excellent school-growth information from NAPMA, and follow the lead of NAPMA CEO Stephen Oliver. His article will help you avoid the purveyors of negative news, so you can focus your actions on results.

mission: completed 44

The

Innovative MINDSET

The 2008 NAPMA Extreme Success Academy was a new kind of continuing-education event for the industry. Re-live some of the highlights in this pictorial review, and then read more about why you must attend the 2009 NAPMA Quantum Leap—Free Bonus when you register early!

FOR

Entreprenuers

Straight-Talk” Secrets to

Part 1, with Lee Milteer, NAPMA Success Coach, and Dr. Gene Landrum

Develop Your Professional Self-Worth

and Implement Higher Tuitions

Frank Brown, Mile High Karate franchise trainer, has worked with many school owners that often perceive themselves as not being worth the much higher tuition they should be charging. His “straight-talk” secrets will open your eyes to how valuable you are—and the reward you deserve for changing people’s lives.

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To change your mindset to that of an entrepreneur, you must develop your innovative thinking and become a right-brain learner. In part one of this special interview, Dr. Gene Landrum, educator, writer and originator of the Chuck E. Cheese concept, shares his special insights into innovation and innovators.

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Contents

Opinion

Management

Education

AS I SEE IT 8 How to Eliminate the Trial-and-Error Phase of Your School’s Growth

SCHOOL GROWTH POTENTIAL 68 Locking a Steel Cage Around Your Student Body…the Keys to Ironclad Student Retention, Part 7

SANG’S WAY 66 Raising the Standards of Martial Arts Instruction

By NAPMA President Rob Colasanti

SOUND OFF 18 Letters from Readers THE FINAL WORD… MILE HIGH METHODS 82 Thriving in a Scary Economy, Part 1 By Stephen Oliver, MBA, NAPMA CEO

Resources

INDUSTRY INSIDER 12 Featured in Industry Insider…

By Toby Milroy, NAPMA Vice President of Sales and Marketing

NO B.S. SUCCESS 70 Why People Fail: The Wrong People in Charge By Dan S. Kennedy

YOUR SUCCESS COACH 78 Time Integrity for Entrepreneurs: Mental Time Leaks, Part 1 By Lee Milteer, NAPMA Inner Circle and Peak Performers Success Coach

Online at MartialArtsProfessional.com THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SUCCESS The Five Qualities of Productive Work By Brian Tracy

Smith

Norris

By Tom Callos

THE SCIENCE OF FIGHTING 72 The 40 Most Common Mistakes Fighters Commit: #29–32 By Joe Lewis, NAPMA Technical Advisor and Regular Contributor

INTERNET SECRETS TO GROW 74 YOUR SCHOOL The Science Behind Keywords By Elsa Cordero, MBA, MS Oriental Medicine

WARRIORWIZ 76 Protect your Assets with the Right Business Entity, Part 2 By Terry Bryan

Online at MartialArtsProfessional.com THE RADICAL LEFT Two Sustainable Business Practices By Tom Callos

Jackson

FITNESS KICKBOXING How to Maximize Fitness Results for your Students

NAPMA NEWS 24

By Jim Graden

Online at MartialArtsProfessional.com Additional features, interviews, news and columnists, plus contributors’ blogs, readers’ discussions, and archives of past issues—all online and FREE!

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Special Features We’re Willing to Reveal Even More about the 2009 NAPMA Quantum Leap! page 48

NAPMA Teleconferences Free TELECONFERENCES from NAPMA Every Month Learn what you should know to be a successful, winning and championship-level school owner!

LOG INTO THESE TELECONFERENCES NOW! How to Pack Your School Using the Stadium Pitch Chet Homes Visit NAPMA.com/ChetHolmes “I Tripled my Monthly Revenues, After I Conquered My Fear of Change!” Carlos Machado Visit NAPMA.com/CarlosMachado

Martial ArtsProfessional Asks

Special Features in this Issue Join the Fight Against New Jersey Legislation 56 Support New Jersey school owners in their fight against interfering, state legislators from over-regulating the martial arts industry—Read the details on page 56, and then NAPMA.com/LegislativeAlert visit to customize a pre-written letter and send it to New Jersey state officials. Special Features at MartialArtsProfessional.com

Coming in Martial Arts Professional The 2009 NAPMA Quantum Leap, March 20–22, in Denver, Colorado Future articles to be preview featured speakers and other details. Register early at NAPMAQuantumLeap.com and receive a Free Bonus worth $2,750! New Business-Building Series Special articles and features to help you focus on the four most important concepts to grow your school and make it worth much more than the typical small business!

MARCH

Stephen Oliver Mile High Maverick Newsletter School Growth and Development Blog Daily comments and observations

APRIL

JANUARY

bill amelio 2nd-Degree Black Belt and Computer Industry Executive 64

FEBRUARY

TONY ROBBINS Personal Development Expert 54

Hitting Hard in the Martial Arts Business Rob Colasanti, NAPMA President Visit NAPMA.com/RobColasanti Helping you Find the Path to Success Kyoshi Steve LaVallee With Rob Colasanti—visit NAPMA.com/SteveLeVallee The Way of the Mile High Maverick Stephen Oliver With Rob Colasanti—visit NAPMA.com/StephenOliver The Art of Giving Back Jackie Chan With Rob Colasanti—visit NAPMA.com/JackieChan Passive Income and Other Business-Building Concepts Jay Abraham With Rob Colasanti—visit NAPMA.com/JayAbraham Spirit of a Warrior Benny “The Jet” Urquidez With Rob Colasanti—visit NAPMA.com/Benny Urquidez Lessons to Learn, Challenges to Overcome, Successes to Achieve Stephen K. Hayes Visit NAPMA.com/StephenHayes 70 Million Tae Bo Sales Later Billy Blanks Visit NAPMA.com/BillyBlanks

The views of any contributing writer or featured personality are their own. Martial Arts Professional Magazine does not necessarily agree or endorse any opinions shared in this publication. Any political views of any columnist or featured personality are their own and is not necessarily endorsed by Martial Arts Professional Magazine.

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December 2008 / January 2009

As I See It

NAPMA President Rob Colasanti

How to Eliminate the Trial-and-Error Phase of Your School’s Growth

I Rob Colasanti is the president of NAPMA, a veteran Black Belt of more than 20 years, former school operator, the author of How to Build the Martial Arts School of Your Dreams, an ACMA-Certified instructor and a popular speaker on the subject of martialarts-school operations. You may join NAPMA’s Maximum Impact Program at NAPMAFreeOffer.com.

’ve learned that, in the martial arts business, success is a relative term. That’s why I’ll typically avoid giving you advice on how to become more “successful,” until I first understand what “success” means to you. Let me explain. Some instructors with whom I speak associate success with becoming rich or having thousands of students. In their eyes, bigger is better. They won’t be satisfied until they fill their bank accounts with “mega-dollars.” Other instructors I know do not consider money, multiple locations or legions of students as hallmarks of their success. They’re more interested in quality of life. They want less stress and responsibility and more free time. To them, success is going fishing on the weekends, having more time to spend with their family or just being able to spar in the middle of the week. As I said, there are many different definitions of success. It’s not my place to determine what “success” means for you. You have to define it for yourself, based upon your values and the vision you have for your future. I will tell you, however, that there has never been a better time in the history of the martial arts for you to become “successful,” if your goal is to build a highly profitable, properly systemized, thriving martial arts school that kicks butt and takes names. This is true because the finest martial arts business information and resources in the world are readily available to you through NAPMA. There’s no doubt that NAPMA can easily and affordably teach you anything you could possibly want to know about running a top quality, high-grossing, professional school…if that’s something you’re interested in developing. Now, step back for a moment and just think about how fortunate you are to be in the martial arts business at this particular point in time. Many of today’s most successful school owners grew their schools the hard way. They developed their systems after years of trial and error, and built their schools piece by piece, during the course of decades. Today, it doesn’t have to be that way. NAPMA can hand you everything you need to know to run a topnotch school, on a silver platter, thereby, virtually eliminating the trial-and-error phase. This can save you years of wasted time, headaches, risk

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and money. What value can you put on such an incredible opportunity? For these reasons and others, there are no more excuses for lack of “success” in the martial arts business. NAPMA simply has too many resources that can effectively show you the way. NAPMA’s information products and services allow you to jump-start your progress toward your goals immediately. NAPMA will save you plenty of time, and time is the most precious commodity you have. Even more, NAPMA can help you increase your student quality, profitability, retention, business acumen and overall professionalism. My advice to you is simple: First, define “success.” Make sure you have a crystal-clear definition of what that word means

Make the commitment to be highly action-oriented… and implement the valuable information you learn from NAPMA. to you and how it works in relation to the vision that you have for your school. Second, visit NAPMAFreeOffer.com and become a member of NAPMA’s Maximum Impact program today, so that we can become part of your team and help you reach your goals quicker and more efficiently. Third, make the commitment to be highly actionoriented from this point forward and implement the valuable information you learn from NAPMA. Fourth, always aim for constant and never-ending improvement, and never settle for mediocrity. Take these four steps and you’ll put your school on the fast track to “success.” I’ve seen countless others do it, and I know that you can, too. In a very short period of time, the martial arts industry has evolved from the Stone Age to the Information Age. I see this as a tremendous opportunity for all instructors, regardless of style, background or affiliation. I believe that information is power, and NAPMA is providing that information in great abundance. I strongly encourage you to take full advantage of it.

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Dec. 2008/Jan. 2009 President/Advertising Director: Rob Colasanti Creative Director: Gary Smith Managing Editor/Senior Writer: Bob Sillick

Columnists & Contributors Terry Bryan, Rob Colasanti, Tom Callos, Elsa Cordero, Joe Corley, Jim Graden, Tom Hopkins, Dan Kennedy, Joe Lewis, Toby Milroy, Lee Milteer, Stephen Oliver, Jim Rohn, Brian Tracy and Zig Ziglar.

Advisory Board Close Combat: Chris Pizzo Martial Arts Instruction: Jeff Smith Martial Arts Instruction: Frank Brown Martial Art Business: Stephen Oliver

Executive Management Publisher: Stephen Oliver President of NAPMA: Rob Colasanti Martial Arts Professional Magazine is published and distributed by: Martial Arts Marketing, Incorporated Stephen Oliver, CEO 5601 116th Avenue North Clearwater, FL 33760 fax: 1-800-795-9581; 1-800-795-0583 Visit us on the World Wide Web: MartialArtsProfessional.com

Put Your Mouse to Work for You.

Martial Arts Professional has burst from the constraints of print to MartialArtsProfessional.com, to expand the content and our support for all instructors and school ownerss. You’ll find more columns, with more ideas that focus on your specific goals, with business-building secrets of today’s business and martial arts authors, speakers and consultants, who have helped small businesses grow beyond their wildest dreams. Read entire interviews and articles that start in Martial Arts Professional magazine and continue on MartialArtsProfessional.com. Browse past issues and content to benefit fully from the important information you’ll find on every page! Quickly access Martial Arts Professional advertisers’ Web sites with direct links. MartialArtsProfessional.com is more proof of NAPMA’s ever-expanding members’ benefits — and why you should join NAPMA today — because Martial Arts Professional is only the beginning!

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Martial Arts Professional Magazine is distributed internationally, including 100% of martial arts schools in the United States. To advertise in the print or online editions, visit MartialArtsProfessional.com, or contact Rob Colasanti, RobColasanti@NAPMA.com; fax: 1-800-795-0583. The Publisher and Editors are not responsible for unsolicited material. All contributions, photos, news articles, story ideas and letters to the editor should be submitted via MartialArtsProfessional.com. All rights in letters sent to Martial Arts Professional Magazine will be treated as unconditionally assigned for publication and copyright purposes and are subject to our unrestricted right to edit and comment editorially. Copyright © 2008 by Martial Arts Marketing, Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction without permission is strictly prohibited. Martial Arts Professional Magazine is proud to support Chuck Norris’ KICKSTART Program—a nonprofit charity dedicated to providing disadvantaged children with martial arts training.

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Industry Insider

Will Smith and Son, Jaden, Appear to Be Confirmed for Karate Kid Remake

Hollywood, CA—According to Variety, actor Will Smith will be one of the producers of a remake of The Karate Kid, with his son, Jaden, starring in the role made famous by Ralph Macchio, in the four-movie series. Speculation has run rampant for months, but the Variety story seems to confirm that the remake will occur, as the script is being written and the film is scheduled to be shot in Beijing, China and other cities during 2009. Although no other actors have been revealed to play the movie’s major roles, including Mr. Miyagi, current information indicates that the film’s primary plot line will not change.

Karate Instructor, Police Officers Save Student’s Life with Defibrillator

Hamilton Township, New Jersey—Karate instructor Sue Sienkiewicz and three, rapidly-responding township police officers, Ryan Burger, Robert Colletti and Christopher Pullen, recently saved the life of a 13-year-old student who went into cardiac arrest during a class at Shin Karate Institute in Trenton. Sienkiewicz started CPR on the unnamed child, while the three officers immediately responded to the 911-call from the school. They used a defibrillator to revive the boy with one shock. The boy was taken to a local hospital. This and similar incidents has prompted many school owners to include a defibrillator as part of their schools’ standard equipment, although one major study indicates that survival rates increase significantly when trained EMS personnel use defibrillator to revive patients.

MMA Events May Be Controversial, But Could Have Positive Economic Impact in New York State

New York, New York—According to a recent study, UFC® events in New York City and Buffalo, New York, would generate millions in tax and tourist revenues, helping local governments and businesses that are experiencing economic stress. Now that MMA has established itself as one of the highest grossing arena sports in the country, its positive economic impact can no longer be overlooked. A New York City event is expected to generate $11.5 million

in “net new” economic activity, which includes direct-event spending, non-lodging visitor spending, indirect/induced benefits and an additional 1,850-hotel night stays. Each New York City event is expected to add $400,000 in tax revenue for the city and $550,000 for the state from sales tax, hotel occupancy tax, personal income tax, business income tax, boxing/exhibitions tax and auto rental tax. Currently, mixed martial arts is regulated in 36 states, but New York has yet to establish regulations for MMA, one of the fastest growing sports in America. That is expected to change, when legislators address the issue, when the 2009 legislative season begins in Albany in January. Although MMA events are permitted in New York, only 12 of 134 nationwide events since November 1993 have been staged in the New York region.

First-time Chinese Martial Arts Production Scheduled for 2009 Broadway Debut

New York, New York—Broadway audiences will be treated to a first-of-its-kind martial arts stage production during the 2009 season, when The Soul of Shaolin come to the Marquis Theater in January. The Soul of Shaolin has already played to audiences in Sydney, Australia; Macau, China; and the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The Eastern Shanghai Cultural Film and Television Group, an entertainment conglomerate that is supported directly by the Shanghai Mayor’s office, has joined with a worldwide production company in a historic partnership to develop this first theatrical Zhang Zhigang and Yu Fei in project as well as others for Soul of Shaolin. global audiences. Thirty-three Chinese Shaolin Kung Fu artists star in the show, displaying spectacular skills and moves, similar to those featured in such movies as Fearless (starring Jet Li). They tell the story of how the legendary monks of the Shaolin Temple find, protect and raise a boy made homeless by war, who then becomes an accomplished master of Shaolin Kung Fu. According to the joint press release, “China on Broadway will bring an annual theatrical event, featuring leading Chinese artists, to Broadway in celebration of the Lunar New Year.” The show previews on January 13, and begins its run on January 15.

Parents Still Want Martial Arts Benefits for Their Children, Despite School Closing Midland, Ontario, Canada—The recent closing of the Huronia Martial Arts Academy by the property’s landlord has not

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Continued on page 16

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Industry Insider deterred school owner Shawn Buttineau or the parents of his students from continuing the beneficial training of martial arts for the school’s students. Buttineau immediately resumed classes at his home, although he could only accommodate a smaller number of students. More importantly, he reports that a local resident has expressed interest in becoming a business partner, so the school could re-open. Many parents have also shown their support for Buttineau and his school’s program. According to the local news story, John and Amy Copeland represent the point-of-view of many parents. The Copelands said that their 8-year-old son, Ethan, who started lessons in June, has improved his focus, confidence and physical fitness. Copeland, a coach in the Midland Minor Lacrosse Association, stated that programs for children are needed more than ever, considering the economic difficulties affecting the Georgian Bay region. “We need companies to step up and be supportive because, after all, this is for the kids.”

Country Music Star and Local Martial Artists to Promote MMA in Nashville

Nashville, Tennessee—Country music star Darryl Worley, an MMA fan, has started Music City Martial Arts with local attorney Steve Mills, who owns High Velocity Fitness and MMA, and Chuck Burnett, Eighth-Degree Black Belt, to promote monthly MMA events in Nashville. The first fight is scheduled for January 2009. “I’ve been a fan of Mixed Martial Darryl Worley Arts for quite some time,” said Worley. “I jumped at the chance to get involved with Music City MMA, and bring this intense sport to Nashville. I can’t wait for sports fans from this entire area to come out and see what we’re doing.” According to the local news report, Music City Martial Arts is taking advantage of a law passed earlier this by the Tennessee General Assembly that legalized MMA fights in Tennessee.

Martial Arts World Mourns Deaths of Hidetaka Nishiyama and Joe Hyams

80-year-old Hidetaka Nishiyama, one of the world’s greatest Karate masters and president and chairman of the International Traditional Karate Federation, died recently after a long battle with cancer. Sensei Nishiyama was also a charter member of the Japan Karate Association and founding president of the Japan Karate Association International of America. He began training in Kendo at the age of 5 under the instruction of his father, an accomplished Kendo master. At the age of 10, he began his

training in Judo, and in 1943 he joined the Shotokan karate dojo where he achieved his First-Degree Black Belt in 1946 under Master Gichin Funakoshi. “He was truly one of a kind,” said Rick Jorgensen, acting ITKF chairman. “He has greatly influenced and impacted the lives of those who practice Traditional Karate. His vision was very broad. It included people of all ages and all styles of karate.” 85-year-old Joe Hyams, best-selling author of Zen and the Martial Arts, Hollywood insider and veteran martial arts enthusiast, died of natural causes the same day as Sensei Nishiyama. Hyams was also an international journalist, primarily as the Los Angeles Bureau Chief and Hollywood Hidetaka Nishiyama columnist for the New York Herald Tribune. Hyams is credited with introducing Bruce Lee to the Hollywood community, and trained with Lee privately for two years. Hyams became a martial arts enthusiast in the 1950s, when he became one of Ed Parker’s first private students and Black Belts. As Humphrey Bogart’s best friend, Hyams also write the actor’s biography, Bogie. Other books of his include The Flight of the Avenger, Joe Hyams the wartime adventures of George Bush; Little Boy Lost, the biography of James Dean; and Accomplices to the Crime, which was the basis of the movie Brubaker, starring Robert Redford. John Corcoran, former Martial Arts Professional editor and longtime industry writer, said, “I’m greatly indebted to Joe Hyams for 28 years of steady guidance and education as my main writing mentor.”

MMA’s Popularity Continues, Despite Promoters, Broadcast Casualties

New York, New York—Despite recent ratings triumphs over college football games and baseball playoffs among its target demographics, CBS and Showtime will not be broadcasting any further MMA events, for the time being, because of the demise of ProElite, which produced the EliteXC mixed martial arts competitions. Showtime owned 20% of EliteXC. EliteXC fighters, such as Gina Carano, Kimbo Slice and Robbie Lawler, will also have to find new promoters to continue their MMA careers. A Carano spokesperson did not comment on her future plans. Another report suggests that UFC president Dana White has shown some interest in signing “top-10” fighters, such as Lawler and Jake Shields; however, Slice may have more difficulty signing with a promoter. During October, 4.6 million viewers watched a CBS MMA broadcast, making it the top broadcast and cable show in adults Continued on page 18

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Industry Insider 18-34, men 18-34 and men 18-49; and a Strikeforce broadcast on NBC attracted more than 1.1 million viewers. As he continues to attack verbally pay-per-view rival Affliction, White was naturally pleased that EliteXC is no longer a competitor; however, he stated, in a recent press report, that Strikeforce, a growing California promoter, runs a great business. “I wish them all the luck in the world. I have nothing bad to say about guys who are running the right promotion,” said White.

Black Belt Patriotism is Chuck Norris’ Newest Book

Washington, D.C.—Inspired in part by his visit to U.S. troops in Iraq in 2006, Chuck Norris argues in his newest book, Black Belt Patriotism, that fighting terrorists overseas is the best form of border control. “We will either fight extremists overseas or we’ll fight them here,” he wrote. “Two hundred years of our history proves that.” Surprisingly, Norris has also recently stated that it is time to set a withdrawal date from Iraq. During a recent interview with Stars and Stripes, the U.S. military’s independent news source, he suggested that the U.S. should complete the process of helping Iraqi security forces to take control of the country’s provinces, and then tell them, “It’s your job now.” “I really believe we should have a time to leave, but let’s leave as winners, not losers,” he added. “When I first arrived in Iraq, the troops held a huge sign, ‘Chuck Norris is here; we can go home now!’” Norris wrote. “I wish that were true. Deep in their hearts, they’d like to know an end is in sight.” He also wrote that he feels the United States has sometimes “stretched her boundaries too far into other countries’ business. I believe America overplays the role of world peace officer.” Norris would like to visit Iraq again during early 2009. He has received many requests from the troops to come to Afghanistan, as well. Norris is a former U.S. airman and an honorary Marine.

Chinese Martial Arts Choreographer of Matrix Movies to Direct New Kung Fu Epic

Hong Kong, China—According to a recent press release, Yuen Wo Ping, an influential director of Hong Kong action films, is slated to direct True Legend, a new Kung Fu epic. Yuen is best known to Western movie audiences as the choreographer of The Matrix and Kill Bill series of movies. His classic Hong Kong films include Drunken Master and Tai Chi Boxer. So Chan is the primary character of True Legend. He was a Chinese-style martial arts master and a wealthy man of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). He and his family were victimized by various conspiracies that resulted in him becoming a beggar. The film will focus on how he transformed his life to become a Kung Fu legend, patriot and folk hero.

Actor Samuel L. Jackson to Star in The Last Dragon Remake

Hollywood, California—According to a recent story in The Hollywood Reporter, Samuel L. Jackson has agreed to star as Sho’Nuff, the Shogun of Harlem, in a remake of the 1985 cult classic, The Last Dragon, which was produced by Berry Gordy, the founder of Motown Records. The remake will be true to the original plot, which is the quest of a young martial arts student to become the “Last Dragon,” and acquire the Glow, signifying his elevation to the greatest fighter. “I’m a huge fan of the original and look forward to bringing Sho’Nuff into the 21st century,” said Jackson.

Kung Fu Panda Sequel to Start Production Soon

Chengdu, China—On the heels of the November DVD release of Kung Fu Panda, the new director of the sequel stated that the script is almost complete and production will start before the end of 2008, with a June 3, 2011 release date. Jack Black, Angelina Jolie and Jackie Chan have reportedly agreed to reprise their roles in the sequel that will be produced in stereoscopic 3-D. A production team of 30, including Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks Animation, recently visited China’s Sichuan Province, for final research at the Chengdu Breeding and Research Base for giant pandas. According to reports, Mt. Qingcheng, a major giant panda habitat and a sacred place for Chinese Kung Fu, may be the setting for the sequel, which will reveal why Po the panda’s father is a duck. Jennifer Yuh Nelson, who was a storyboard artist on Kung Fu Panda and Madagascar, another blockbuster animation movie, will direct Kung Fu Panda 2. To date, Kung Fu Panda has grossed more than $628 million worldwide, which includes becoming the highest grossing animated film ever in China, and the highest grossing foreign film of 2008.

There’s more to read! News, articles, columnists, and complete archives at MartialArtsProfessional.com

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Sound Off

Tuition Advice from One NAPMA Member to Another [Editor’s Note: The following exchange between NAPMA members comes from the NAPMA Members’ Discussion Boards, a valuable, beneficial and FREE service to NAPMA members that is helping them grow their schools with specific ideas that other members have successfully implemented in their schools.] I’ve been curious about tuition rates for a long time. Some schools charge different amounts for different programs: For example, Little Ninjas at $65 a month (one class a week), juniors at $75 (2x a week) and adults $95 (2x a week). I want to know if big schools, such as Mile High Karate and others, charge one price across the board for all programs or different prices for their various programs. Some schools also charge different prices if students come once a week, rather than twice a week. Is $85 a month too much for Little Ninjas who come twice a week? Sometimes, people feel time in the class affects the price (Little Ninjas classes are 30 minutes and juniors are 45 minutes). I guess it is my job to explain that it’s not the amount of time, but the quality of the time. I’m trying to calculate what my tuition(s) should be, so this is one big area I have trouble with. Also, I am trying to figure if I should charge per month or per class. It seems that most schools charge per class. I’d welcome any thoughts. Thank you all in advance. Elaine In all honesty, training for children should be MORE expensive than adults, for the following reasons: 1. Children require more time/energy/motivation on the part of the instructor to keep kids focused, motivated and progressing. 2. Children receive much more lifetime value and benefits compared to teens and adults. Teens and adults tend to have had negative life experiences; while children are typically a “clean slate.” Being able to prevent a child from suffering negative life experiences because the child is pre-framed to experience “negative” situations as learning experiences is beyond any price! A properly motivated and educated child can earn more than $100,000 for college in scholarships (academic and/or athletic), which we’ve had on more than one occasion in more than one location. So, what’s a reasonable cost for training, if the ROI is in excess of $100,000? Just my thoughts. Jeremy R., the Kung Fu Guy

Aikido Has Evolved to Become Nothing During my four decades in martial arts, I have seen an evolution take place that has been extremely profitable for many martial arts school owners. I can’t understand why so many Aikido instructors still, after 30 years, refuse to advertise their schools. These instructors still rely on word-of-mouth advertising like old-school instructors did. So many Aikido instructors have great programs, and the art offers everything parents want in a martial arts program. These instructors have literally given their students away to the Karate schools down the street. Every Karate teacher in America would love to have all the students

Aikido instructors would want to send him or her. I visit different schools all the time, and it still amazes me that many Karate, TKD or other style schools has 200, 300 or more students. When I visit the Aikido schools in the same town, with same demographics, etc, I find only 20 to 50 students. I must know WHY? The Aikido instructors with whom I’ve talked have only survived because of one of two reasons: they pay the bills from their own pockets or they are independently wealthy. These same schools have other problems, such as charging too little for their services. This happens for any number of reasons, but I think that they just don’t believe that Aikido is worth what the mainstream martial arts schools are charging. If this continues, then we Aikido professionals will be left in the dust of every Karate school in the world. They will enroll the students we want, and there won’t be anything we can do about it. If you love your art, then you better start re-thinking your business practices, and open your school to other markets. Ask Karate teachers how they pay their bills, and they will all say the same thing…kid’s classes! That’s right, if we want Aikido to survive, then we better start teaching the one group that will let it do so. If we don’t, then you can bet your bottom dollar that every child we send away is going down the street to the Karate school. Let’s stop driving our students from our schools to learn another style. ! I want to say to all Aikido instructors, first, understand what you are doing for our art. Then, you must, for the survival of Aikido, change the way you do business. Create curriculums that work for all ages, not just one. Do some research in your area and determine what every other instructor is charging, and match it. Maybe, even charge a little more, because we know that Aikido is worth every penny. I know I do. I have programs that are unique, and work well with the philosophy of Aikido. Lastly, stop giving your students to other teachers, so they can prosper. Attend continuing education programs and read materials about the business of martial arts, and apply those ideas in your daily life, especially in your school/business. Stop doing it for the sake of the art, or one day we will have no art. Let us band together and learn from each other to promote Aikido the way it should be and stop giving our students away! Pete Nappier, 6th Dan Aikido Founder/CEO, Aikido Professionals of America

Why not send us a letter? Martial Arts Professional welcomes your Letters to the Editor, news releases, stories and photos. To submit online: Visit MartialArtsProfessional.com If you prefer e-mail: Editor@MartialArtsProfessional.com See MartialArtsProfessional.com for additional letters not printed due to space limitations, and blogs by Stephen Oliver, Toby Milroy, Rob Colasanti and Tom Callos. Letters may be edited for clarity and length. Please include your name, address and daytime telephone number.

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Why on earth would you even want to consider joining with Mile High Karate for your school, your students and yourself?

Reasons why some schools think they shouldn’t consider Mile High Karate, maybe you are one of them:

It’s not for me: because I’m a member of ______ (fill in the blank for yourself; i.e. WTF, ITF or any other martial arts style association.)

he key reasons why business owners in any business join a franchise rather than go it alone are: robust and complete systems, an opportunity to create real equity and therefore wealth from their business, and the incredible power that comes with organization.

Why would you?

For your particular situation the reasons are clear:

First: Be a Martial Artist. We eliminate your need to be a “marketing expert,” “sales trainer,” “accountant,” and “curriculum and education expert.” You get to be a Martial Artist-Teacher, and we overlay all of the other systems for you.

Second: Cut 10 to 20 years OFF of your LEARNING curve. That’s time that if you do it yourself you’ll never get back. Overnight, you’ll turn on “Plug and Play” systems without having to develop them. Immediately implement proven processes and methods that make your school operate more efficiently and profitably.

Third: Affiliate and work together with other “Winners,” all working to develop a powerful national (and international) brand and school system. There’s incredible power in lots of smart and successoriented owners working together.

Fourth: Plug your students into a huge national support system that helps them grow and enhance their character development, success skills, focus and achievement. You don’t have to be the expert in all things since they will plug into web sites, webinars, and teleconferences.

Fifth: Immediately start using unparalled sales and marketing materials. You’ll have immediate access to our series of infomercials for upgrades, our infomercial for enrollment, and sophisticated AUTOMATIC sales processes to develop and support your students.

It’s not for me because: I’m a Shotokan, BJJ, Goju, Kenpo or ___________ (fill in the blank for yourself) stylist. Did you know that … It’s NOT about changing your style, changing the root of what you teach your students, or abandoning your lineage or your first love? It is about creating an INCREDIBLY strong “character development” program for kids and families, and overlaying effective marketing, sales, business and accounting systems over your existing curriculum and style. It’s about having access to great teaching support if you need it, but it’s not about changing what or who you are as a Martial Artist.

Did you know that … It’s not abandoning your current association or Master Instructor. It’s about honoring that association by overlaying more effective business practices and student support to help your income SKYROCKET! It’s not for me because: Well, it says Mile High Karate and I’m BJJ, Kung Fu, Tae Kwon Do or ________ (fill in the blank for yourself) school. Did you know that … It’s really about Martial Arts instruction in a high-trust, clean-cut and professional environment. It’s about creating a SCHOOL that teaches character, confidence, focus, and discipline to all ages. You could just as easily think of it as: Mile High MARTIAL ARTS Mile High Kung FU Mile High BJJ Mile High Tae Kwon Do It’s not for me because: I don’t want to “lose my name.” Did you know that … You don’t have to? Really, think about it as “co-branding” — you’re always the key person, the master instructor, of your career. You are the focal point for your students and your community. Mile High brings national clout, and you retain your local credibility. For a complete, no-obligation information package and invitation to our next “Discovery Day,” call or register online today.

Since 1983 www.MileHighFranchise.com 1-800-559-9431

NAPMA News

A Rising Flood of Members Respond to the Money-Saving and Money-Making Opportunities of New NAPMA Member Services

More and more NAPMA members are discovering the many special benefits (like saving and making money) of NAPMA’s newest member services—and they can be yours when you join NAPMA at NAPMAFreeOffer.com. • NAPMA 24/7 Automated & Live Answering Services (NAPMA.com/liveanswer). • NAPMA Online Print Marketing Store (via a link on your members’ section home page). • NAPMA Merchant Services (NAPMA.com/Merchant Services). NAPMA members are telling us that once they review the information about the 24/7 Automated & Live Answering Services, they suddenly realize how many prospects’ phone calls they’ve missed for years. Of course, you can’t measure, statistically, what you don’t know happened! That’s all the reason you should need to become at NAPMA member at NAPMAFreeOffer.com. Then, you can register for the NAPMA answering service, which will answer ALL your calls and answer them professionally. That will have a direct effect on your enrollments and revenues, which means the NAPMA 24/7 Automated & Live Answering Services could help you make thousands of dollars you may otherwise be leaving on the table. Other great reasons to register are the many discounts, savings and special package pricing you’ll receive as a NAPMA member. No doubt, you’ve discovered the convenience and speed of online shopping. You’ll experience the same time savings when you visit the NAPMA Online Print Marketing Store—exclusively for NAPMA members. Select from the growing catalog of print marketing items, customize them online, order a print quantity to be shipped to your school or the Store will mail them for you, when you upload your mailing list. It couldn’t be easier or more convenient! Save money and receive many free bonuses when you add the NAPMA Merchant Account Value Bundle to your school. National Merchant Bancard is the preferred vendor of this new NAPMA service and it is offering all members a special limited time offer—a $495 value! NMB has consistently saved NAPMA members 15% or more on their processing fees and provides 100% full disclosure with a “No Hidden Fees” approach. “National Merchant Bancard took the time to understand our needs, made the process easy and saved us $1,200 per year.” Michael Dinoto, Dinoto Karate, Mt. Laurel, NJ There are dozens of NAPMA member benefits and services, but just these three can save you enough time and money, and potentially make you thousands more, to return to you many times your investment in your NAPMA membership—at NAPMAFreeOffer.com.

More School-Growth Secrets of 2009 NAPMA Quantum Leap Revealed!

It’s no secret that to grow your school, you must become an excellent marketer, with the skills to use your marketing budget wisely, focus your message and marketing methods on the best group of prospects for your school, and maximize the number of enrollments from those prospects. You must also apply your marketing skills to the job of pre-framing those new students for long-term retention through quick renewals into upgrade programs. You’ll learn all this and more at the 2009 NAPMA, March 20–22, 2009, in beautiful Denver, Colorado. Register early and you’ll receive Stephen Oliver’s infamous Martial Arts Marketing Bootcamp (previously $2,750) absolutely free of charge. Visit NAPMAQuantumLeap.com for all the details! The weekend’s agenda will include three major concepts that are essential for you to understand and implement aggressively at your school. Radical, Non-Confrontational Selling is a method that you will prefer because you don’t have to be a traditional salesman. Instead, it’s a more ethical approach that will help you build long-term, positive relationships with prospects and current students and their families and friends to become longterm members of your Black Belt family. You’ll also learn how to use this method to develop a leadership role in your community that will multiple your opportunities for success. Turning New Students into Lifetime, Black Belt Leaders is a second method you’ll learn at the 2009 NAPMA Quantum Leap. We’ll reveal the secrets to convert a much higher percentage of new students into upgrades—at a much higher tuition—and motivate them to ask for the opportunity, without you having to sell them on the idea. Anchoring Success and Developing “World-Class” Black Belts is a third method you can implement that will help you recognize the students that really excel, and then super-charge their motivation to become excellent Black Belts, and remain students for years. Don’t hesitate to change your life, the future growth of your school and the development of your students—register for the 2009 NAPMA Quantum Leap and you may qualify to attend Stephen Oliver’s Ultimate Martial Arts Marketing Bootcamp—absolutely free! Go to NAPMAQuantumLeap.com today!

Your Success Story Could Be a Winner!

NAPMA announces its Marketing Masters Competition for the first quarter of 2009—you could win a $100 discount off your registration fee to the 2009 NAPMA Quantum Leap, March 20–22, 2009, in beautiful Denver, Colorado; or the grand prize: an Apple™ iPhone®. Visit NAPMAQuantumLeap.com to qualify

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The ONLY ® glove worn by UFC fighters in the Octagon.™

Visit CenturyMartialArts.com to see our entire selection of UFC® gear! UFC®, Octagon™, Ultimate Fighting Championship® and As Real As It Gets®, are registered trademarks of Zuffa, LLC. Licensed by Century, LLC. © 2008 Century, LLC. ©2008 Century, LLC. 5723/CMAS/09.08

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www.CenturyMartialArts.com 800.626.2787

NAPMA News for this special competition and register for the Quantum Leap! If you’re a growing school, bringing the benefits of martial arts to people throughout your community, then it’s likely you’ve implemented an internal or external marketing promotion, curriculum improvement, staff development program or other school-building techniques and methods that would help other NAPMA members. Maybe you attended the 2008 NAPMA Extreme Success Academy, and discovered a great idea or two that you are implementing during the first quarter of 2009 at your school, generating amazing results—both NAPMA and the entire membership would like to know about it. Do you have hard results from the use of a NAPMA marketing campaign, Black Belt Report or product that proves how wise of an investment you made? Your fellow members would like to have the opportunity to learn from your wisdom, so they don’t have to re-invent the wheel. You’ve “been there, done that,” so you can save other members valuable time and money, when they follow your lead. Your success story could be the difference between a member closing his school or putting it on the path to increasing enrollments, upgrades and income. To qualify, you must implement and derive results from your promotion or newly implemented program during the first quarter of 2009. E-mail a brief description of your success story and supporting materials to SchoolSuccessSecrets@NAPMA. com, by no later than March 10, 2009. NAPMA will review and judge the entrants and announce the winner(s) at the 2009 NAPMA Quantum Leap. Remember to register early for the Quantum Leap and you’ll receive Stephen Oliver’s infamous Martial Arts Marketing Bootcamp (previously $2,750) absolutely free of charge. Visit NAPMAQuantumLeap.com for all the details!

For example, Cristian Lopez from the Ken Shin Kan Goju Ryu Karate-Do in West Palm Beach, Florida asked: “ I’ve been invited to attend one of the biggest festival here in West Palm Beach, Florida. I will have a booth the entire day, but our school has only been given five minutes to make a presentation. Does anyone have any ideas or experience on how to attract students during the event?” Cristian’s question is very specific, but Ed Gnad, NAPMA Maximum Impact member, from Star Martial Arts in Gainesville, Florida, had a very specific answer. “ Remember, the most important goal is to collect data (name, address, phone number and email address). My school offered a free child identikit at the last community event in which we participated. Each prospect completed the initial form at the event, and then came to the school to pick up a packet with the child’s picture on it. Even though we were a lastminute replacement for another event participant, we obtained 159 names from walk-by traffic, and with no prior advertising. We have enrolled several of those prospects, with the rest in our follow-up sequence. It didn’t cost us anything but time and paper.”

Marketing Master

That’s just one example of the hundreds of communications between members during the last months with proven ideas and techniques. The next great idea that could take your school

You Could Discover New Ideas to Grow Your School at the NAPMA Members’ Discussion Boards

Giving back is a core principle of every martial artist, especially those who have become Black Belts, instructor and school owners—and your best opportunity to give as well as receive are the NAPMA members’ discussion boards, accessible through the members’ section of NAPMA.com. It’s another valuable benefit of a NAPMA membership—and you can join in a matter of minutes at NAPMAFreeOffer.com. Traffic has been particularly robust recently at NAPMA members’ discussion boards, creating a treasure trove of prospectgenerating and revenue-growing ideas and support from a great variety of members.

over the top may be waiting for you to visit the NAPMA members’ discussion boards. NAPMA suggests you visit the discussion boards at least twice a month—and even more often, whenever possible, but you must be a member first. Visit NAPMAFreeOffer.com to start!

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Stay the

Course!

Clear Thinking and Focused Action Will Steer you Clear of the Negative Economy By Stephen Oliver, NAPMA CEO, MBA and 8th Degree Black Belt

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The Worst Economy Since the Great Depression!?

Illustration by Boris Lyubner

s that really true? More about that later. What is true is that SOME schools will THRIVE and MANY will die during the coming months and year. Which will you be? Everywhere you turn you see NEGATIVE headlines on the economy! Unemployment Up! The Stock Market Down! GDP (Gross Domestic Product) Down! Housing Prices WAY Down! I notice that the headlines the other day were about President-elect Obama’s description of our economy as being the worst since the Great Depression (ignoring, for whatever reason, that the unemployment rate is 6.something% today compared to 25% during the 1930s!); and all of the commentators telling us about how bad things are looking. By the way…Thanks a lot for that! All of the studies show that a DROP in consumer confidence preceeds a recession. What’s next? A drop in consumer spending. All of these comments and speculation comes just in time for the HOLIDAY shopping season, when a huge percentage of annual retail spending is transacted. It really is rough times ahead, clearly exacerbated by the Election year rhetoric. You know it’s growing worse when just about everyone asks me: “Will this economy hurt your Karate schools?” To all of them, I should be saying, “Geez thanks for the little extra ‘negative programming,’ as if I couldn’t read enough in the newspapers and magazines, hear on the radio or view on the television…gee, I can’t even watch Boston Legal without being reminded about how scared I should be about the economy! In the meantime, guess what? The rich get richer…the poor get poorer. Now, I know, as usual, my take on this will annoy some. Before you write a letter, let me finish my explanation and show you how you can be in the Rich-get-Richer category. Those who study and learn maintain their business while gaining market share or skyrocketing to the top. What do I mean by rich? In our context, I mean, in part, the following: School owners, who through many years of trial and effort, extreme personal education and focused implementation, have learned EVERY aspect of their chosen profession: Being the deans of their martial arts schools, the CEOs, marketing directors, CFOs, as well as truly the “master teachers.” If you have learned…and continue to learn every aspect of your chosen profession, then you can thrive while others die. You can be the rich (in resources or knowledge) who get richer, rather than the poor who get poorer. I firmly believe that most instructors and school owners in our industry prefer to remain ignorant of the business details

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of their chosen profession. Many steadfastly refuse to join NAPMA; explore franchise opportunities; visit the business section of their local bookstores; or take accounting, administration, marketing and sales courses at their local college or junior college. Some of those individuals who focused only on the technical aspect of their martial arts survived, some even achieved mediocre results during BOOM times. During our past U.S. economy, under Reagan, Clinton and most of the Bush’s administration, EVERYTHING was BOOMING. Now, there’s trouble on the horizon, and those who chose ignorance will DROP LIKE FLIES. In my case, we just added regional developers for many areas, including likely New Zealand, the UK and Miami, Salt Lake City and possibly Knoxville and Ft. Lauderdale! We’re gearing up a Northern Virginia Mile High Karate training center, and even talking to my instructor Jhoon Rhee about working with us at Mile High Karate. My schools? Well, record intro numbers. Certainly some of the parents are “concerned” about losing their job or the effects of all of this “economy stuff.” Frankly, most of our school owners and regional developers who will likely make more than $250,000 SHOULD be worried about the tax increase that Obama and the Democrats plan to inflict upon us. On another front, I noted that the media said not a word about the cost of a barrel of oil DROPPING to $63 a barrel or OPEC being lead by IRAN, worrying about cutting production, due to falling demand to keep the price stable! Wasn’t the recent crises de jour about $150 a barrel oil, and how that would kill us all? Anyway, back to running martial arts schools in today’s economy.

Thriving in a Scary Economy

irst, protect yourself and your staff from the influence of the media and the “Mediocre Majority.” Either filter this crap well or turn off the TV until it’s over. You’ll be told we’re coming into the next Great Depression. During the depression, unemployment was at 25%. Now, it’s between 6% and 7%. The politicians are busy running around, trying to prop up stupid corporations that loaned money to people who couldn’t afford to pay their mortgages on homes that were massively overvalued. They are trying to prop up over-inflated home values. It’s much like trying to prop up the price of “Webvan” and other Dot.Com speculative-era stocks. Foolish and dangerous. In many areas—South Florida, most of California, Boston, etc.— home prices had hit points that were unsustainable, given the median incomes of the populations of those areas. In California, for instance, a huge percentage of homeowners were on interest-only loans; others were exploring 50-year amortizations on their loans or adjustable-rate mortgages that

December 2008 / January 2009

increased in three or five years to unaffordable levels. Who’s to blame? Is it the Republicans or the Democrats? Is it Wall Street or Main Street? Well, the unfortunate truth is that it’s everyone. The Democrats forced lenders to loan money to just about anyone who wanted to own a home, including those with low incomes and incomes below the “median” for any given area. Then Fannie May, Freddie Mac and other lenders packaged and sold mortgages as securities (with little or no hope to collect the money). No one tried to regulate those securities or raise a red flag about them (i,e., The Republican administration). Then, the general public started obtaining money so easily that they used their home as an ATM and were committed to adjustable-rate mortgages that they couldn’t afford. Bet on home prices to continue to escalate at unsustainable rates. So, everyone’s to blame. Take no pity on the failing financial institutions, their stockholders losing their investments and the CEOs out on their butts. The only possible shining light is that like the S&L bailout there is underlying value to all of the mortgages secured by property. It may be 75% of face value (even less), but, regardless whether it’s private money (see Warren Buffet jumping WAY in on this one) or the government, there will likely be profit at the end of the rainbow. The government may spend $700 trillion and make back $900 trillion. It’s unlikely, only because, well, it is government doing it. I guarantee you Warren Buffet and others with the deep pockets that are stepping in will make a huge profit on the deal. How does this affect you? Well, if you are trying to sell a $400,000 home that you thought was worth $650,000, then you are in trouble, if you expect $650,000, or have a mortgage of more than $400,000. Also, there’s a temporary “credit crunch” that means you may have trouble raising money from traditional sources for your business expansion. Other than that, you are mostly battling fear and perception. So, don’t buy into the pundits who are telling you that your business should be failing. Keep growing, and avoid the TV news. You will be bombarded with messages this winter about how scary your world is. Second, “Raging Thunder lizard Evangelists!” What is that you may ask? Well, the first thing you must do to insure that you thrive is to turn every student that you enroll into a RAVING fan. I borrowed the term above from Guy Kawasaki who was a member of the first Macintosh™ development team with Steve Jobs, and then wrote a number of books on the subject of marketing and business start-ups. If you want to really grasp the subject, then I’d recommend that you read his books and a couple of others: The Culting of Brands and Customer Satisfaction is Worthless.

If you wish to thrive, and not just survive, then you must make sure that your students are thrilled with you and your school. Make sure they immediately become huge fans, instant “converts” and evangelists for you. You can look at many different products and brands. While many (Dell™ included) suffer in the current environment, Apple™ keeps hitting records sales numbers and stockpiling ridiculous amounts of cash. Why does Apple thrive while others suffer? Well, a personal example. I need a new laptop for a variety of reasons. I’ve mostly used a MacBook Pro™, but some software we use for NAPMA only works on a PC. Now, I’m in a quandary. A perfectly reasonable solution is the Dell laptop that I saw at Best Buy™. It was around $800, and will do everything I need. My other alternative is a new MacBook Pro, which is $2,500. Now, it’s probably not comparing apples to apples (no pun intended), but which I am more likely to do? Spend $800 for a tool that will fix my problems or $2,500 for what I really want? Well, I’m sure you already know the answer! There’s a car commercial on TV that compares a Hyundai with a BMW. I’m sure the ad works for some. Who doesn’t it work for? Anyone who owns a BMW! The reality is that although a Hyundai may compare favorably for a lower price, few BMW loyalists will jump ship for the savings! So, make sure that your students are all “Raging Thunder Lizard Evangelists.”

hird, keep your prices where they are or raise them with much higher value added. Now’s not the time to “try to make it up in volume” because our industry just doesn’t work that way. You must really focus on high value from each student. Some students and parents may be looking to cut their budgets. You must be so good and so anchored into their world that it’s just not an issue that you’ll be on their budget-cutting lists. Fourth, increase your marketing budget AND your marketing efforts. Now’s not the time to be cheap on your marketing. Expand your efforts and budget to attract new students. Stupid businesses cut back on marketing when it’s more difficult to attract new customers. That’s backwards. Others find their marketing and training budgets easy places to cut expenses. Don’t think that way. Finally, increase your training budget. Go to more seminars. Buy more books. Read more about marketing, service, administration and teaching methodology. Now is the time to invest more in your staff and yourself. Don’t cut back. If you’re not a NAPMA member, then join right away…you can even try it for free at NAPMAFreeOffer.com. Make sure you’re registered to attend the 2009 NAPMA Quantum Leap, March 20-22, in Denver, Colorado. It will be very worth your while. Visit NAPMAQuantumLeap.com. MAP

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Interfering Legislators N

APMA has learned that Joseph J. Roberts, Jr., Democratic New Jersey state assemblyman and president of the state assembly, is sponsoring Bill 2164, which is the known as the “Fitness Professionals Licensing Act.” This bill would affect any “exercise facility,” including “martial arts studios,” and any individual who is a “fitness professional,” “group fitness instructor” and “personal trainer,” as defined by the bill. This bill would establish a State Board of Fitness Professionals and impose the following: • Educational requirements imposed by the Governor-appointed Board, including 150 hours of Board-approved course work. • Certification from the National Board of Fitness Examiners. • Clubs employing fitness professionals must register and pay an undetermined fee every two years. • New applicants for licensure, following SB 2164’s enactment, must complete 300 hours of Board-approved class work, including 50 hours of an unpaid internship, or possess a degree in a related field. (In comparison, a CPA {certified public accountant}, doing business in New Jersey, is only required to complete 120 hours of professional course work every two years.) •

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You can read a synopsis of this bill at njleg.state.nj.us/2008/Bills/ A3500/3356_I1.HTM. NAPMA is joining with other professional associations, such as the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association (IHRSA), American Authority on Fitness (ACE), and others to promote opposition to this bill. NAPMA agrees with IHRSA’s reasons to oppose this bill, as adopted below for our industry. 1. The bill ignores the many martial arts professionals that have embraced accreditation, as a responsible means of self-regulation to ensure consumer safety. Many years ago, NAPMA developed the American Council on Martial Arts (ACMA) Certification Program, in conjunction with The Cooper Institute for Aerobics Research. 2. Nominating a single certifying body ignores the high accreditation standards set by the ACMA. 3. The bill establishes eligibility requirements that would inevitably lead to a dramatic increase in the cost of martial arts training in New Jersey, thereby decreasing the number of people pursuing the benefits of such training in that state. 4. The bill’s education requirements are arbitrary, unworkable and wholly detached from current industry practice. The bill represents an extreme departure from industry practice by requiring New Jersey martial arts professionals to complete an educational prerequisite equal to roughly seven colDecember 2008 / January 2009

Alert! lege courses. It is unclear why such a requirement would be necessary for a non-clinical vocation. It is also important to note that such a course does not currently exist. 5. Licensing requirements could have an especially devastating effect on New Jersey martial arts instructors. The additional costs that the Fitness Professionals Licensing Act would impose on these instructors would undoubtedly have a prohibitive effect on the number of individuals willing to engage in the practice. 6. A professional registry for New Jersey martial arts professionals, as envisioned by this legislation, requires meticulous oversight and maintenance, and may too easily be neglected due to its significant budgetary impact. Considering the difficult budget constraints currently facing the state, an unequivocal, long-term commitment of personnel and tax revenue to the oversight and maintenance of the registry is hard to foresee. NAPMA has also adopted a form letter prepared by the IHRSA that you can customize and send to New Jersey governmental and legislative leaders. It will only take a few minutes, and will show your support for your fellow martial arts instructors and school owners in New Jersey. Your state may be next! Please visit NAPMA.com/ LegislativeAlert. MAP

hroughout her career as an author, speaker and consultant to major corporations and individuals, and now as NAPMA’s Success Coach, Lee Milteer has constantly focused on the single concept that could have the most positive effect on your future: changing your mindset to that of an entrepreneurial thinker. Much of this two-part, Millionaire Smarts™ Coaching Program interview, with Dr. Gene Landrum, centers on the ideas in his latest book, The Innovative Mind: Stop Thinking, Start Being. One of the major points of his book is that to develop innovative thinking, which is how most successful entrepreneurs think, you must learn how to become a rightbrain learner. Lee and Dr. Landrum discuss how fixed, left-brain thinking starts in childhood and, subconsciously, becomes how most people think the remainder of their lives. You may have faced this challenge when your family and friends tried to convince you that you should choose a “safe” job, instead of opening a school. They may have even thought your were weird or had lost your mind, but that is Lee and Dr. Landrum’s goal: to “lose” your left-brain tendency and open your mind to the unlimited possibilities, as the operator of one of the most important educational centers in your community.

The

Innovative MINDSET

FOR

Entreprenuers Part 1, with Lee Milteer, NAPMA Success Coach, and Dr. Gene Landrum

Lee Milteer: I am deeply appreciative that Dr. Gene Landrum agreed to this interview because many of his ideas can be critically important to modifying your thinking process and providing you with the success tools you need to grow your school. Now, I want to give you a little bit of a back story, and many of you know I like to give back stories because I think they’re so important. First, I had the honor to introduce Dr. Gene Landrum at the Renegade Millionaire Retreat a few years ago; and, frankly, he blew my socks off with information that is important to all people who are big thinkers, visionaries, professionals, business owners and entrepreneurs—or want to be. If your personal goal is to grow into one or more of those roles, then his knowledge and wisdom can assist you. This interview focuses on Dr. Landrum’s newest book, The Innovative Mind, subtitled, Stop Thinking, Start Being. I just finished reading his book, which is unusual for most interviewers, because they seldom read an author’s book before interviewing him or her. They generally rely on the questions that authors send them. I don’t do that. I read the books and, in advance, because if they’re not full of good information, then, frankly, I pass on them, and don’t pass them to you, either. If I recommend a book, it’s because I think it has value and information that will move your mind and your success forward. I received a real adrenaline charge when I read his book; in fact, it is entirely outlined and highlighted with three different colors of markers. I swear to you that this book will stimulate your creativity, and occasionally pat you on the back. When you try to think out of the box to improve your life and business, others will often accuse you of being weird or different or having a different mindset than the norm—but that’s one of the secrets to success. Dr. Landrum’s book will explain why that is an advantage for you. I also interviewed Dr. Landrum when two earlier books of his were published, The Superman Syndrome and Paranoia and Power. Those are both great books. The first book of his I read is Profiles of Power and Success, which presents the story of 14 geniuses who broke the rules. My good friend, Dan Kennedy, and I often joke that anyone who is planning to be married, and is an out-of-the-box thinker, should ask his or her potential spouse to read that book. To ensure domestic bliss, I recommend that all entrepreneurs (or future entrepreneurs) to practice full disclosure with their spouses, so they know how and why the entrepreneurial, creative mindset often results in a bit of “insanity.” In my opinion, Dr. Gene Landrum is one of the best thinkers of our time because his real talent is recognizing genius and revealing how geniuses think, act and succeed. Prepare to take notes during this fun-filled, mind-blowing wild ride, with one of my favorite authors, Dr. Gene Landrum. Lee: Gene, I’m so excited that we can have this discussion. My first question is what motivated you to research and write your new book, The Innovative Mind: Stop Thinking, Start Being?

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Gene: As you may or may not know, I didn’t complete my doctoral dissertation until I was fifty years old, but I did it on the innovative mind. Although I have a Ph.D. and I am a graduate school professor, I also have a practical, on-the-street take, if you will, because I’ve run a number of companies, so pragmatism does prevail. Part of my practical perspective is that too many people find themselves lost in the trees, which is a result of left-brain thinking, when they must see both the trees and the forest, so they can deal with the trees. A true story from my university experience illustrates my point. A chairperson of a department at the university where I teach asked me to give her the best paper of one of my students during the last few years. I gave her a paper written by a young lady about Mary Kay Ash, the cosmetic queen. She is famous for promoting her business and herself with the color pink. She dressed in pink, lived in a pink house and gave her top salespeople pink Cadillacs. Before my student completed her paper, I pushed her to be innovative. She responded by using a pink sheet as the front page of her paper. I thought, “Boy, this student is very creative.” I gave her a better grade for her creative thinking. Now, the university environment suffers from considerable left-brain thinking, especially the “rules” that must be followed

“The textbook definition of

innovation is creative destruction.”

when writing and presenting scholastic papers. Some of the rules of The American Psychological Association, which apply to this story, are very good, such as double-spacing your manuscript, Times New Roman, 12-point font, and footnotes and citations of your sources. On the other hand, the APA is suddenly godly, when it comes to innovative thinking. It doesn’t allow students and scholars to include photos or art of any kind, or to use color. The Chinese were right 10,000 years ago, when they coined the phrase, a picture is worth 5,000 words. When you show a one-year-old child a red truck, and say, “This is a red truck,” he or she learns that association as a right-brain function. When they verbalize and say, “red truck” or “bright red truck,” that’s a left-brain function. The optimum learning experience is to be able to flip flop between the left-brain and right-brain. Albert Einstein and Walt Disney had that ability. To return to my story, excuse the expression, but I was so pissed at the chairperson of the department. I put the my student’s excellent paper on the chairperson’s desk and she said, without opening it, “I’d flunk her.” I said, “What?!” I almost fell off my chair. I said, “You haven’t even opened it.” She said, “The APA doesn’t permit any color but white.”

December 2008 / January 2009

Very candidly, nine months later, I quit working for her. Lee: Good for you. This story is so important for all business owners, entrepreneurs and professionals because they work with people with that mindset: bureaucrats and government officials. You might hire a new staff member that comes from a traditional corporate environment who is “infected” by that mindset. Gene: That is such a good point, Lee, and I’d like to just add that 88% of the world tends to be very left-brained. Many of them will say, “You can’t do that. It’s not in the budget.” An innovative right-brainer might respond, “What if sales could be tripled?” Leftbrainers are often lost in the process because it’s safe. Lee: You use a term in your book to describe those people who can only follow the rules. Gene: Yes, concrete sequential learners, but I also use some other terms. Lee: Yes, you did, and some of them weren’t very nice. Gene: A professor at Stanford University calls it a fixed mindset. In another study, which I cite in my book, it was determined that there are only two types that run businesses in an executive leadership format: adapters and innovators. The innovators would prefer to be different, but adapters must be perfect or they feel bad about themselves. Where are you on that continuum? It’s okay to be perfect, but you must sometimes permit your brain to look at life’s possibilities and opportunities and be a bit more innovative, which is why I wrote The Innovative Mind. My experience in having that book published is also a lesson in the innovative mindset. I talked with more than one publisher, including the one that published two of my books. I told him that he might have trouble producing my book because I would insist on breaking the pagination rules of

Dr. Gene Landrum is a high-tech start-up executive, turned educator and writer. He originated the Chuck E. Cheese concept of family entertainment, among other entrepreneurial ventures, and, after many years of interacting with creative and overachieving personalities, decided to write about what makes them tick. His doctoral research was on The Innovator Personality, which inspired the many books he has written since 1993, including Eight Keys to Greatness (1999), Superman Syndrome: You Become What You Think (2005), and Empowerment: The Competitive Edge In Sports, Business & Life (2006). In addition to his writing career, Dr. Landrum is a graduate school professor at Hodges University, a private university with campuses and programs throughout Southwestern Florida.

a book. Look at most books, and you’ll notice that chapters always begin on the right page. I said, “I want to violate that form because, after all, the title of the book is The Innovative Mind. I want the left page to be the beginning of every chapter. It would contain just a few words that will be crucial to altering a reader’s mindset, so he or she is more innovative, making him or her great and imminent. “Then, I want a graphic image, photo or art, that illustrates or communicates the message on the left page. I want readers to open the book to the beginning of any chapter, and see a left-brain message (words) on the left page and a right-brain message (graphics) on the right page.” As an example, an illustration of the Greek god Prometheus is the right-brain message for the first chapter. A statue of Prometheus overlooks the famous skating rink outside 30 Rock Center in Manhattan. I used him because the mythological story is that Prometheus defied his boss, Zeus, first among all Greek gods, by stealing light and bringing it to humans. The ancient Greeks thought Prometheus was the god that helped them be innovative. By the way, Epimetheus, Prometheus’ twin brother, represented someone lost in the trees. He wouldn’t act, good or bad, unless it was written. The name Prometheus means “foresight,” and Epimetheus means “hindsight.” That’s another good way to compare right-brainers and left-brainers. Lee: I know we’ve talked about Walt Disney and his brother as a similar comparison. Gene: Walt Disney was Prometheus and his brother, Roy, was Epimetheus. Walt was the innovator and his brother managed the money. When Walt told him that he would build Disneyland, his brother thought he was nuts and should be committed. Of course Walt defied his brother and found money to start Disneyland by selling his house in Palm Springs and hawking his insurance company. His brother was even more incredulous when Walt bought the land in Anaheim, and proceeded with his dream. Lee: Many people have what I call illusionary views of Walt Disney. Gene: Yes, much of the current adult population watched Uncle Walt on television, as children. He seemed so nice and friendly and especially able to communicate with both adults and children; however, in real life, he was bipolar, obsessive compulsive, an FBI informant, drank a fifth of scotch every day. I’m not trying to be negative, but he had eight nervous breakdowns and tried to commit suicide. Uncle Walt was not normal. I say that in a positive manner, in the sense that many mothers tell their children at a very young age to be normal, but normal is a synonym for mediocrity. Walt Disney would not be Walt Disney, if he had followed his mother’s advice, which presumably his brother did.

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“Many mothers tell their children at a very young age to be normal, but normal is a synonym for mediocrity.” Parents tell their children not to speak to strangers, which is good advice when you’re a child, but when you’re 25 and about to take on the world, you better be ready to talk with strangers because that networking leads to career advancement and entrepreneurial success. Of course, parents are just trying to protect their children, but I’ve learned through my research that if you hear such advice for just 16 seconds, and mom keeps repeating it for years, then it is imprinted on your unconscious mind. As an adult, you may not be aware that your mind is responding with fear or apprehension when you meet others for the first time. Xenophobia, or a fear of the unknown, a fear of the foreign, sets in. Your unconscious mind sees them as strangers, but that isn’t a very productive mindset when you have the opportunity to meet someone new that could provide a career or business-growth opportunity. I was fortunate. I didn’t have parents. I was raised in a military academy, and I was on my own. No one was imprinting those negative thoughts on my mind. Consequently, you can drop me in a foreign environment, such as Indonesia, tomorrow, and I can make it. I’m not afraid. Lee: I was lucky, too. My parents thought if there was food on the table and a roof over your head, then they had done their job. Let’s talk about a topic I really love: learning in reverse. Many of my Millionaire Smarts™ Coaching Program members have developed that skill, but our NAPMA members and Martial Arts Professional readers probably don’t have much experience with that concept. No doubt, the rest of the world thinks us entrepreneurs are weird because we learn in reverse. Please explain that concept. I think it’s extremely important. Gene: Occasionally, a student where I teach or someone I meet will ask, “How do you write a book?” I tell him or her to write the last sentence first, and then start the first chapter because now you know your destination. In my book, I tell the story of Leonardo da Vinci and his relationship with Pope Leo. Leonardo was hired to design and build Leo’s tomb. During one of their frequent meetings, Pope Leo expressed his frustration with da Vinci, calling him lost because he always started at the end. Leonardo da Vinci was ambidextrous. He painted The Last Supper with both hands. He always started at the end because if you

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don’t know where you’re going, then you’ll never reach there. If you’re running a business, then you better know the end objective. Sure, you know you must create various documents and marketing materials and follow systems that make your operations more efficient and effective, but you should know where you’re going, so you’ll create the materials and follow the systems that will take you to the finish line. Many people have difficulty with the learning-in-reverse concept because they’ve been so spoon-fed by the school systems and their bosses that they should start here and then move to the next step and the next step, etc. I’ve seen so many people suddenly realize during their mid-40s that they have been following the same path as their parents. Your parents had the opportunity to chase their dreams. You should be chasing yours. Find your dream and then determine where you want to be in five, 10 or 20 years. Then, do whatever it takes to reach your goal because if you don’t know where you are going, then it doesn’t matter which road you take. They quote me at school, in fact, “Dr. Gene says, ‘When you don’t know where you are headed, jump on any road. It will lead you to nowhere.’” Lee: Let’s now talk about mental rehearsal and visualizations, the workshop of your mind. I have used this my entire life. Even today, just before our interview started, I closed my eyes and imagined myself turning to the sound engineer in the studio and saying, “That was great! That was fun! That was fantastic!” I imagined the end result of our interview, the outcome that I wanted. Then, when we started, I felt so lighthearted. I felt the fun. I don’t care how I reach that desired end. I just want that end result. Gene: That is why you have been so successful. In almost a mythological sense, which I wrote about in my book, The Superman Syndrome, you must not be what you are, but become what you want to be. Many studies verify that 95%

December 2008 / January 2009

“The rest of the world thinks us entrepreneurs are weird because we learn in reverse.” of our behavior is unconscious; we are so grounded. Sometimes, we are better being unconscious than allow our conscious mind to be driving us 95% of time. I tell my students, “If you have a big problem at work, then go to the beach. Taking a walk on the beach or in a park will turn off left side of the brain, which inhibits you from accomplishing goals. Your left-brain will say, “You can’t do that. You can’t reach there.” Many entrepreneurs and business owners—I have and I’m sure you have—have awakened at three o’clock in the morning with the solution to a challenge. The reason why is that at three o’clock in the morning your left-brain is mostly quiet. It permits the right brain to think, which is the source of our intuition. The intuitive geniuses of the world are able to shut down their left-brains. Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric, never held a major sales meeting or a conference at the office because people are grounded in policy, structure and the phone. Put yourself in an environment where your right brain can flourish. You can be anything. Stop being structured. Leave the trees. Lee: That refers to the subtitle of your book, Stop Thinking and Start Being. Gene: Right. To use a Superman™ metaphor, we all have a bit of kryptonite in our brain and that is the enemy. There is much good stuff in our brains, but there is also bad stuff, inhibition that keeps us from being as successful as we could be. We are not always aware of it because it has been trying to keep us safe from a very early age. That is the way to be safe. Let’s be secure. Let’s not do that; it’s dangerous. Of course, if you don’t take any risks, then you don’t earn any rewards. If you try to be too careful, then you cannot be correct and you cannot be creative. In fact, I mention a Harvard study of five years ago in my new book. Very creative students were compared to average students, wiring their brains to receive feedback. The study found that the creative students had seven times less inhibitions. Their left-brains weren’t telling them, “Be careful. Don’t talk to strangers. That isn’t the safe way to act.” An example of this is the recent downturn of the stock market; investors are selling everything. Why? Because people are afraid! “I’ll buy gold instead. The

country is going down the tubes.” The pendulum never seems swings to the middle. It always swings too far to the other side. Lee: Exactly. If someone’s investments have been too conservative, then his or her pendulum tends to swing. The next big investment is some wild, crazy, insane choice that won’t work. Gene: Yes, he or she follows a totally different tangent. It is highly predictable. Lee: In your new book, you write about innovation as creative destruction. Although many entrepreneurs and business owners are suffering from the troubled economy, and the media only wants to focus on the negative, there are opportunities for all of us. When we experience bad economic times, we are also receiving permission to break all of the rules, to leap to a brand new level of success and money. Gene: I had one of those periods in my life, and I didn’t know it until much later. At the time, it almost destroyed me. What doesn’t destroy you permits you to stop being lost in what everyone says that you must do. The textbook definition of innovation is creative destruction. For example, if you own a house on a lot where you want a new house, then you must be willing to destroy the current house. As I write in the book, paranoia or fear or change are like little creatures in your head, trying to keep you safe. Take control and find those little creatures and write over them. In attempting to protect us, they inhibit us from being innovative. Walt Disney is another good example. He had his first of eight breakdowns when various New York distributors stole his first cartoon character, Oswald. He was out of business, until he returned to California, and drew Mickey Mouse for the first time. Mickey would have never been created had Disney not reached the bottom. When you are at the bottom, you have very few constraints. The opening chapter of the legend of Elvis Presley is very similar. At 19, he went to Sun Studios and recorded his first song. While Sam Phillips, owner of Sun Studios and Records, was sitting in the control room trying to determine if what Elvis had just recorded would ever sell, Elvis and the other two musicians started playing the old song, That’s All Right Mama. Elvis was inspired by his love for his mother and was playing without the pressure of recording. When Sam Phillips heard what he was playing and singing, he ran into the studio and told Elvis that what he was doing was different, innovative and that they should record it, immediately. Elvis was no longer lost among the trees of the structured recording process. That one moment created his success. A great majority of humans are afraid to work, create, outside the structure of their professions, jobs and lives. They are happier living among the trees. MAP

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December 2008 / January 2009

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December 2008 / January 2009

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December 2008 / January 2009

Ringstar Sparring Shoes are the best thing to come along for competitors and the sport since the invention of the safety equipment! I just wish Steve Shepard would have invented it when he and I were competing! Lucky for us he invented a shoe for Instructors, too! He even thought of it before Nike did! What a genius, and to think he was a full contact fighter! Jeff Smith 9th-Degree Black Belt Former World Champion

How N A PM A C reat ed a New Kind of Cont inuin g-Ed ucat ion Even t for the Indu stry , and Why You Mus t A tten d the Next â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the 2009 N A PM A Quan tum Leap my was a To say the 2008 NAPMA Extreme Success Acade - would be A NAPM as success for all who attended - as well an understatement. on professional Creating and hosting an event that focused general industry education and school growth more than most of Stephen Oliwords gatherings was a challenge, but, in the expectations bever, NAPMA CEO. The turnout exceeded our ct high quality cause, in all honesty, our mission was to attra and their schools, school owners who wanted to grow the sport better stuop devel and learn how to enroll more students, students." dents and generate more revenue from their together "I think we did a really good job of bringing growth-oriented, instructors and school owners who are really was phenomenal. t onmen with positive attitudes; the peer envir much to the taI think that by and large everyone brought excited about ble. They were very enthusiastic, focused and Oliver added. d," worke event the where we were going and how of the ights highl the You're invited to re-live some of Then, . pages 2008 Extreme Success Academy on the following NAPMA Quanturn to page 48 to read more about the 2008 and Stephen ado, Color r, Denve tum Leap, March 20-22, 2009, in that you amp Bootc Oliver's infamous Martial Arts Marketing um Leap Quant the can attend for FREE, when you register for today at NAPMAQuantumLeap.com. By Bob Sillick, Senior Writer

THE 2008 NAPM A EX TR E M E S U C C E S S ACADEMY

mission: completed

The Spirit of the Extreme Success Academy

Lee Milteer, NAPMA success coach, helped attendees understand that, regardless of what technical business training they receive; they must change their mindsets if they expect their results to change. She also emphasized that they must choose to surround themselves with peers who are moving forward, which is one of the major benefits of attending the Extreme Success Academy and the Quantum Leap.

By Toby Milroy, NAPMA Vice President of Sales and Marketing “I think the culture and spirit of the weekend deserves some attention, not just the contents; and Stephen Hayes, our very special guest, helped me to understand it. I had the opportunity to go to dinner with Stephen the night before the Academy. “He’s a beautiful human being, such an absolute pleasure to be around and one of the most inspiring individuals. During dinner, I explained our vision for the weekend. Then, on Sunday, the last day of the event, he pulled me aside and said something that had a great impact on me and that I want to share with our members and Martial Arts Professional readers. “He said he had been at many industry events, but what he saw that was different at ESA was the attendees now understood that it’s not only possible to make a great living, to create a great future, but also it has now become common. They realized that it’s now a reality for many school owners. He said that when he attended past conferences there might have been two or three school owners who thought they could make $10,00 0 or $20,00 0 a month at their schools. “He said now NAPMA was able to surround the ESA attendees with dozens of schools that are doing $500,0 00, $600,0 00, and even $1 million a year. It’s an experience that will help them expand their thinking. I thought Steven’s comments were a great compliment that NAPMA has created a culture for school owners who really want to grow, and gave them all the social proof they need to give them the confidence to be successful.”

Toby Milroy, NAPMA vice president of sales and marketing, addresses the A to Z Blueprint Day audience, which created plenty of buzz on the first day of the Extreme Success Academy. The attendees really like the nuts-and-bolts presentation, focused on rotating curriculum and class and program management. Those in the audience were definitely turned on by the content.

Jeff Smith, Mile High Karate chief instructor, focused on technical knowledge, such as how to be more effective on the phone, book more appointments and convert more appointments to intros and intros to enrollments. More importantly, he helped school staff members think more like business owners and take responsibility for their results more than just their tasks.

NAPMA President Rob Colasanti opened the Extreme Success Academy with his Keynote Address. “There’s one thing that symbolizes this entire event and what we’re all trying to accomplish, and that is change. What I’ve noticed is that many martial arts instructors have a very tough time with change. If you are not wiling to change, then the world will just change around you because everything is moving and changing. There must be a death of the old self before there can be a birth of the new self.”

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December 2008 / January 2009

An-shu Stephen Hayes received a standing ovation and the biggest round of applause. His goal was to convince his audience that making money is not evil, they are worthy of success and their art and families are worthy of dignity. He wanted to help them believe that the most wonderful thing they could do for their communities is to be a success, and provide high value to people.

“I Was Proud of all the Professionalism.” By Rob Colasanti, NAPMA President “Having been with NAPMA since its founding, I have been to dozens of NAPMA and industry events, but I can honestly say the Extreme Success Academy was truly something new—and what will always remain with me is the incredibly high-level of professionalism of all who attended. “Our living legends, great masters and special guests were clearly dedicated to helping NAPMA members learn specific concepts, strategies and methods that they can implement in their schools immediately, and reap the rewards almost as quickly. “Attendees were just as professionally committed to serious learning; our valued vendors presented their products and services with great integrity; and NAPMA and Mile High Karate staff members worked tirelessly to manage the event and help members with their questions. “I had the opportunity to attend most of the presentations, and a number of them were highlights for me as well as our attendees. “Tommy Lee was very well received and, in his unique style, explained the entire front- end sales process, including answering objections and building value. I personally enjoyed Kyoshi Terry Bryan’s class. Not only is he an 8th-Degree Black Belt, but also one of the premier real estate success coaches in the country. What I like about Terry is that he provided many facts and figures, and painted a detailed picture of how any martial arts professional can become a real estate entrepreneur.

Kiyoshi Terry Bryan is an 8th-Degree Black Belt and former school owner that has become one of the most successful real estate investment coaches in the U.S. During his presentation, he provided many facts and figures to reveal how any martial arts professional could learn how to supplement his or her income with real estate investments.

Paul Hartunian’s presentation about how small business owners can use low-cost publicity methods to attract more customers, and often more than paid advertising, and how to become a community celebrity, was so well received that a third of the attendees purchased his program materials.

When Master Sang Koo Kang revealed that he had recently sold $80,000 in private lessons, his audience was stunned, and swarmed to him after his seminar, wanting to learn more about his systems and procedures. Master Sang explained how to charge big dollars for high-end private lessons, and how to structure a program and market it.

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Honoring Our Legends and Masters The highlights of Friday’s events were the presentations of the first NAPMA Living Legend Award to Grandmaster Jhoon Rhee and the 2008 NAPMA Lifetime Achievement Award to Grandmaster Jeff Smith.

Grandmaster Jeff Smith is presented the 2008 NAPMA Lifetime Achievement Award from the industry’s leading school owners and professionals. Left to right: Masters Bill Clark, Jeff Smith, Stephen Hayes, Jhoon Rhee, Joe Lewis, Ernie Reyes, Sr. and Stephen Oliver. NAPMA CEO Stephen Oliver, right, joins with Grandmaster Jeff Smith, to congratulate Grandmaster Jhoon Rhee on receiving NAPMA’s first Living Legend Award.

Grandmaster Jhoon Rhee closes his awards ceremony with a few words of encouragement and inspiration.

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Grandmaster Smith shares his thoughts and thanks, as the newest NAPMA Lifetime Achievement Award recipient.

December 2008 / January 2009

“My Thanks to Everyone! ” By Stephen Oliver, NAPMA CEO “I was excited and impressed that Ernie Reyes, Sr. would fly from California to Clearwater, Florida just for the opportunity to help present the 2008 NAPMA Lifetime Achievement Award to Jeff Smith. Master Reyes is always motivational, inspirational and dynamic. “Master Bill Clarke, with whom I’ve had a relationship for more than 25 years, was phenomenal. He came with new ideas, not old ideas, and dramatic growth ideas. “Chris Pizzo is a close friend of mine, and instrumentally involved with NAPMA, helping us grow. He led a little private session just for our Inner Circle and Peak Performers; and I’m told that even though it started at about 8:30, there were still people in the room at 1:30 a.m., working with Chris. He is truly one of the stealth marketing business minds in the martial arts today. He has an $8- to 10million-dollar-a-year business with a huge percent net; he’s doing a phenomenal job. Those attendees, who stayed with him until the wee hours of the morning, received $10,00 0 worth of value just from his session.”

Master Ernie Reyes, Sr., recipient of the 2002 NAPMA Lifetime Achievement Award, is the surprised presenter of the 2008 Award to Grandmaster Smith.

A Memorable Weekend! attitudes: everyone attending the 2008 NAPMA Extreme Success Academy— members, guests, speakers, vendors and staff—were seriously engaged in transforming ideas and information into action and success…extreme success! Martial artists can sit still, however; they crave action, so there were many opportunities to workout everyday with master instructors, such as Jhoon Rhee, Jeff Smith, Joe Lewis and Ernie Reyes, Sr.

The Academy attracted a full house of school owners clearly absorbed in learning what they need to know to accelerate their school growth.

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Master Bill Clark takes the time to answer an attendee’s question and provide individual attention, following Master Clark’s

Kyoshi Terry Bryan, center, and An-shu Stephen Hayes, left, discuss their Extreme Success Academy presentations, as Master Ernie Reyes, Jr. listens to the current speaker.

To balance the intense learning experience, attendees could clear their heads with a relaxing stroll on Clearwater, Florida’s

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“ We Sold Out All our Inventory!” “My husband, Stan Lee, and d Harry & Friends create I Black Belt Principles, and we were a vendor at the NAPMA Extreme Success Academy. It was totally awesome. The demand was so great that I’ll have to print more DVDs for next year’s event. “If you’re an industry vendor and you want to sell out your products, then you should register for next year’s Academy. I was invited to present our product from the stage, and then hundreds of school owners that were very approachable. Our results were so great that we are definitely going to the NAPMA Quantum Leap in Denver in March. I will see you there.” Sarah Tucker Harry & Friends Black Belt Principles

NAPMA’s valued vendors were important contributors to the Extreme Success Academy. They offered the products and services to help members implement what they’ve learned during the weekend, systematize their school operations and benefit from cost-cutting efficiencies.

“ I Enjoyed Exhibiting... !” “The Extreme Success Academy was fantastic. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to the attendees Thursday evening. I had great responses to SendOutCards the next day, and some school owners thanked me for the presentation. “It was also great to learn more about NAPMA, and the awesome learning experiences NAPMA provides its members. WOW! What a fabulous experience. I enjoyed exhibiting at the NAPMA ESA.” Rosalind Juko SendOutCards

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October 2008

We’re Willing More abou 2009 NAPMA With the recent NAPMA Extreme Success Academy setting the bar high on the high quality information that NAPMA provides its members, the 2009 NAPMA Quantum Leap must aim even higher. That is why this event, and the FREE Martial Arts Marketing Bootcamp you can also attend, will focus you attention entirely on the marketing strategies and tactics that will help you thrive, not just strive, in this challenging economy. If there was ever a time to learn how to seek, find and enroll the students and families that are able and willing to pay your tuition and upgrade into your higher revenue generating programs, then the 2009 NAPMA Quantum Leap is your greatest opportunity to arm yourself with the knowledge to prosper. Make sure your reserve seats for your staff members and yourself at NAPMAQuantumLeap.com—and when you register early, you’ll also qualify to attend Stephen Oliver’s infamous Martial Arts Marketing Bootcamp absolutely free (A $2,750 value).

More Effective Marketing Begins with a Different Mindset The three big ideas you’ll learn at the 2009 NAPMA Quantum Leap will dramatically change your approach to marketing and “selling” your school; the biggest secret you’ll learn is that you don’t have to “sell” at all! • Radical, Non-Confrontational Selling: This is a method to build long-term, positive relationships with prospects and current students, so their perception of you is as a pillar of the community, an educational leader who has the expertise to help them change their lives. We’ll show you how building bridges in your community is a much better ethical strategy than chasing cash and using high-pressure, pushy tactics to close as many contracts as possible. • Turning New Students into Lifetime, Black Belt Leaders: Developing and implementing upgrade programs, such as Black Belt Club, Master’s Club and/or Leadership Programs, are important; but what you really need to know is how to convert a higher percentage of new students into those upgrade programs—sooner and at maximum tuition rates. • Anchoring Success and Developing “World-Class” Black Belts: Attracting more of the best prospects and upgrading them to higher paying programs is only the first two steps, which won’t work to their maximum levels for you unless you also learn how to create and keep excellent students, and to re-motivate them to grow into excellent Black Belts. As soon as you start to wrap your mind around these mind-changing concepts, you’ll be led directly into the even more hardcore, educational sessions of Stephen Oliver’s Martial Arts Marketing Bootcamp. It’s a one-two punch that will probably send you reeling—but also believing that you can implement these ideas and methods and become more successful than you ever thought possible. Your marketing workout begins when you register for the 2009 NAPMA Quantum Leap, and when you register early you’ll qualify to attend the Martial Arts Marketing Bootcamp.

to Reveal Even t the Quantum Leap! “I Added $250,000 to my School’s Revenue During the 12 Months Following my First Bootcamp!” “A quick note of thanks for another excellent Bootcamp. You provided the most impressive representation of martial arts success I have ever seen in one place. I counted eight individuals who represented more than 60 locations. I toyed with trying to estimate their collective net worth, but clearly each of them had easily exceeded the million-dollar mark. “I originally attended your Bootcamp because you are one of the rare individuals who has experienced the fortunes and pitfalls of being a multiple school operator. Now, thanks to the Bootcamp, I was privileged to hear, meet and converse with many more. Thanks again for a truly invaluable experience.” Master David Shirley 7th-Degree Black Belt Villari’s Martial Arts Centers

“I Got Much More in Than I Expected!” “I attended your last Bootcamp somewhat skeptical, but willing to learn. I came away with a whole new understanding on upgrading students into bigger, better and more profitable programs. “There were so many ideas, new technologies and new systems that it boggles the mind. I took 16 pages of notes on my laptop, and when you made us circle for Bill Clark’s presentation I took another 5 pages on my PDA. PAGE 51 “There are many consulting and AD_NAME billing companies that have great information for new martial arts school owners or for smaller schools; but there are very few that offer that information and legitimate, working programs and systems for larger schools and/or older schools that have been employing the basics and other martial arts business practices they’ve learned and already implemented. “I got much more in than I expected. I feel it was well worth the time, effort and expense.” William “Scott” Kifer 8th Degree Black Belt President of USA Karate, Inc.

“I Think I Learned Enough During the First Hour to Pay for the Bootcamp at least Two-Fold!” “I have a school of 150 students and I’m 25 years old, so I came here with a very open mind. I think I’m overwhelmed. I learned a tremendous amount. I think I learned enough during the first hour to pay for the Bootcamp at least two-fold. I’m very excited about the prospects for my future and I will definitely come back and do this again. Rocky Abild Elite Martial Arts Center Renton, Washington

Reach the summit of marketing mastery and school-growth success, when you attend the 2009 NAPMA Quantum Leap, March 20–22, 2009, in beautiful Denver, Colorado.

Details at NAPMAQuantumLeap.com

NAPMA Success Stories: Frank Brown Mile High Kar

Straight-Talk” Secrets to

Develop Your Professional Self-Worth and Implement Higher Tuitions Interview by Toby Milroy, NAPMA Vice-President of Sales and Marketing

frank brown As the Mile High Karate franchise trainer, Frank Brown is in a unique position to observe why school owners are unable to grow their schools; and, often, the major reason is a misperception of their self-worth. That low self-worth results in low tuition rates, which then negatively affects their schools’ position or image. It’s a truism in the general marketplace that those businesses charging a lower rate for a similar or identical product or service for which other businesses charge a much higher rate are perceived as lacking in quality, experience or student outcomes, in the case of a martial arts school. This, of course, makes it nearly impossible for those school owners, without a proper pricing structure, to have the capital to re-invest in their marketing, attract higher paying students, develop upgrade programs that excite students and parents, and improve their schools’ retention rates and bottom lines. That is why so many school owners are attracted to the Mile High Karate franchise program because it not only provides the systems and processes to reverse those negative trends, but also helps new franchisees develop the mindset, that is a prerequisite for success. Throughout this comprehensive interview, you’ll discover some of the secret strategies and wisdom that will first change your mindset and then provide you with practical implementation tactics to generate the revenues to grow your school and prosper, personally.

Frank Brown, Mile High Karate franchisee trainer, left, and Grandmaster Jeff Smith, Mile High Karate chief trainer, enjoy a light moment during a busy day.

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Toby Milroy: This month’s Success Story interview is with Master Frank Brown who, as the key trainer for the Mile High Karate franchise system, has extremely detailed and in-depth knowledge about how that structure and system works. He is also the key facilitator for the Extraordinary Marketing Program, which is a very high-level, advanced coaching program for the martial arts industry. Master Brown has been the “soldier on the ground” for several years in that program, helping martial arts school owners across the U.S. to accelerate their growth from 20 to 30 students and monthly revenues in the $3,000 to $5,000 range to 200 to 300 students and $40,000 to $50,000 a month. Some of his most notable successes have been Miko Peled and Joe Borucki, who were featured as NAPMA Success Stories in recent issues of Martial Arts Professional. Let’s start at the beginning, Frank. What are the three or four primary steps in the developmental process to accelerate the growth of a school? Frank Brown: I think the first step, which most school owners overlook, is their pricing structure. Too many instructors devalue what they’re teaching or the systems they’ve developed. They price themselves just a little low and that affects their marketing, their ability to attract new students and exposing their students to a broader and deeper curriculum, which eventually affects school owners’ bottom lines. I encourage all Martial Arts Professional readers to develop a proper pricing structure, so they have the revenue to provide the highest quality student service, which may include uniforms, success opportunities or training tools. The proper pricing structure also helps to ensure that a school owner can stay in business, so his or her students can continue to train. Many school owners are afraid that they might price their training beyond their markets’ ability to pay. The reality is that martial arts is marketed in a vacuum because the average student or parent doesn’t know what martial arts should cost. Toby Milroy: It’s certainly not a commodity and, even with commodity products, there’s plenty of price elasticity. NAPMA members are able to access a very extensive report on tuition pricing on the members’ section of the NAPMA Web site. Our research shows that many NAPMA members and nonmembers, in various locations and serving a broad range of students, are dramatically undercharging for their services. For many of them, they must first address their thinking, their mindset, before they can revise their current pricing structures. School owners must learn how to value what they do in the marketplace. For example, there is a Huntington Learning

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Center across the street from one of my schools in central Florida, and it guarantees a letter-grade improvement in three or four months. I think its program is $1,700 a month for the average student. Now, it may not be possible to compare a Huntington Learning Center with a martial arts school directly, but they both help to improve and change children’s lives, so they are better prepared to succeed. You may not be able to guarantee an improvement in a child’s academic performance, but that child’s martial arts training will certainly have a positive effect on his or her academic results. If a martial arts school owner is charging $180, $190 a month, then that’s barely a fraction of what Huntington

“ School owners with

higher price points that perceive themselve as a supplement to academic education have

a longer business life” charges. That is why a mindset adjustment is needed before a pricing adjustment. It’s almost impossible to price yourself from the market when you compare what you offer to similar services that attract children and families in your community. What spectrum of pricing have you seen across the country? What do you think is appropriate or inappropriate, what’s the bull’s eye? Frank Brown: I’ve seen pricing from $49 to $997 a month. You hit the nail on the head when comparing a martial arts school to a Huntington Learning Center. You must determine on what your students would spend money that is an equal service. You’re obviously running a school, so what does a private school, learning center or university charge? A useful approach to determine your tuition is to calculate your average student worth. If the average student is

Learn more about Mile High Karate franchise opportunities at MileHighFranchise.com

December 2008 / January 2009

spending $250 or $300 a month, then you’re on target. If your average student value is $100 a month, then you’re a little bit behind the eight ball. If they are spending only $49 a month, then that is scary. According to the old saying, you’re rearranging deck furniture on the Titanic, and you’re going down. Toby Milroy: Again, you must take a half-step back, and address your value as a martial arts school owner. If you choose to operate a school as a career, a profession, or as a hobby, then that has a dramatic impact on your perception of your value and, ultimately, your tuition structure.

From left to right: Jeff Smith, Stephen Oliver and Frank Brown, with Frank’s father and mother, Frank and Eunice Brown.

If I were a part-time martial arts instructor who teaches just 15 or 20 students in a recreation center once a week, and I do that because I want an extra $800 to $1,000 a month in my pocket to pay for my boat, then that’s great; there’s nothing wrong with that mindset. If, on the other hand, you consider yourself a professional martial arts school operator with the responsibility of a commercial lease, payroll and other operating costs, then you must think about your business differently, and that’s where the pricing elasticity argument comes into play. Never consider the part-time instructor at the recreation center to be your competition because he or she is offering a completely different product to the market. Frank Brown: Let me interject that what I’ve also seen is that school owners have a skewed way of thinking that the instructor or school down the street is competition. That’s false security; they’re not your competition. Very rarely will you find people who will shop martial arts schools face-to-face. They may do it on the phone, but no one takes a class with you, learns what your tuition will be and then tries the school down the street. Your competition is all the other activities, not the other

local martial arts schools. You’re competing with conventional sports, the Sylvan and Huntington Learning Centers, etc. It’s important to understand the competitive landscape of your market before you can determine if you charge enough tuition. Compare what a local, highly professional dance studio charges for private ballet lessons to your similarly high quality martial arts and character development lessons, if you’re a fulltime school operator or working to become one. Toby Milroy: You’re absolutely right. I’m concerned that we have a sad state of affairs because I believe that the character development programs in most martial arts schools are second to none, and the opportunities we provide kids and families to change their lives is also second to none. I have a personal perspective on this issue. I have a very close friend with an 8-year-old daughter, who has attended a cheerleading school for two years. My friend probably pays double for cheerleading, compared to the lessons at the average martial arts school. Recently, I was in the company of my friend and his daughter; I think we were going to the park. She said that we couldn’t go with Sally and Susie because they’re not popular. Obviously, she was modeling the attitudes of the older girls in the cheerleading school. That doesn’t happen at most martial arts schools. We teach a culture of respect, discipline and cooperation in a positive environment. It’s just another example of what you must take into consideration when determining your real value, and how much you should be charging. The cheerleading school across the street probably reinforces negative social experiences (and the owner and instructors are not conscious of it); and the martial arts school on the other side of the street has very conscientious instructors who are trying to teach the right lessons, the right way, but charge half as much. It just seems as if we have a hard time perceiving that for ourselves. The Mile High Karate standard pricing model for a new enrollment is $197 a month, for Masters Club, $259 a month, and Leadership is $359. That is also the standard pricing structure for Mile High Karate franchise schools, so you can measure yourself against that yardstick. Let me ask you one more question on this pricing issue because that certainly seems to be where there are many missed opportunities in the industry. How does the current economic climate play into the price elasticity in the marketplace and how does that relate to the students that you’re attracting, if you’re a very under-priced school? Frank Brown: If you’re an under-priced school, then you’ll attract those who don’t have the money to spend or who aren’t willing to spend the money. If you have a high price point for enrollment and upgrade programs, such as Masters Club or Leadership, then you’ll attract more affluent students and fami-

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lies, those that are willing to pay more to better their children. You’ll find many parents who really can’t “afford” your tuition; however, if you do a great job explaining the benefits for their children, then they’ll do whatever is necessary to give their children a better opportunity or, at least, the same opportunity as the parents. If you’re under-priced, then you will attract the students, who aren’t willing to spend the money, won’t be as serious about their training, probably won’t put forth much effort and probably not be as supportive of your school. Toby Milroy: One of your points is very important for our readers. If you position your school and its programs as an inexpensive hobby or pastime, then that will have a direct proportion on your retention rate. Students will perceive your school as the next alternative to soccer for a season, or the next alternative to baseball for three months, and then that’s it. If you position yourself the complete opposite, as an educational experience or as a lifetime journey of discovery, then your market of prospective students will have a very different perception of your school. You’re programming prospective students and their families in a completely different way, when they come for their enrollment conferences. What do you think is the relationship between tuition amounts and retention rates, and the model of a school to improve that relationship? Frank Brown: Positioning and perception are totally linked. Your mindset of your school and how you position yourself with prospects are functions of the higher tuition you can charge and the higher retention rate you can achieve. School owners with higher price points that perceive themselves as a supplement to academic education have a longer business life. Those who consider themselves as a recreation club, or just another sport, don’t necessarily last as long. Don’t get me wrong, there are martial arts schools that are focused on the athletics of martial arts, whether it’s competition or Olympic training, and that’s another legitimate niche or position. You must realize, however, that your market is much smaller when you’re that specific. The more upscale and professional your school, the more it is a supplement to academics versus another athletic endeavor, the stronger the result and retention, and the stronger your school will be. Toby Milroy: How universal is that concept? Does it depend on the city where your school is located and your market’s demographics? Frank Brown: Of course, many school owners will respond that their city, county and state are different, but it has nothing to do with your geographic location. Again, it’s your mindset, your perception of your school: How do you, as a school owner, see yourself, how do you want to be seen and what actions are you taking to be seen by your prospective market in that way. Toby Milroy: Many NAPMA members respond with the same mindset: my town and state are different; they have different state laws. Those differences may exist, but human con-

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stants are more important; those are the triggers that relate to the human psyche. There are people in every city and town and any demographic that value education at a high level, and are willing to invest in high quality, educational programs. NAPMA’s main mission is to accelerate and increase the quality of school programs throughout the industry, regardless of their locations, thereby, increasing their market penetration and level of success. Those that respond with that my-city-is-different syndrome are actually saying that their thinking is different. They’re saying that they don’t understand how to perceive themselves in a way that attracts those families who value high quality, educational programs. Let me reinforce one more point before we move to the next topic, which is one we repeat again and again at NAPMA, and that is don’t focus on current economic conditions, the media’s reports of doom and gloom and the rhetoric of political campaigns. Instead, focus on what you can to do to be successful, despite the general conditions. Another way to look at why tuition pricing is so important is to compare two schools: Both have 100 students, but one charges a low tuition and the other a much higher tuition. It should be obvious that during a general economic downturn, as we are experiencing now, the school with the low price point will have very little capital to reinvest in its marketing to attract more students. Additionally, those students that the low-tuition school is attracting have very little room in their families’ budgets, so when their monthly expenses increase, they are more likely to consider cutting their children’s martial arts training. Those families who can afford to send their children to a school with higher tuition tend to have more disposable income, and are less likely to want to cut their children’s training. Those parents have the economic latitude to skip an expensive latté today, while the others may have to choose between a full tank of gas and lunch on Friday. How have you seen the school owners you coach in the Denver area and across the country respond to these economic factors? Frank Brown: Despite a general fear about the direction of the economy, many of the school owners with whom I’ve worked (and many our NAPMA members and NAPMA Inner Circle members) have experienced record months. Toby Milroy: Does their success have a direct correlation to the economy, or to their actions? Frank Brown: Obviously, it’s directly correlated to what they’re doing. Essentially, they are focused on the economies of their schools and not the economy of the country. MAP

There’s more! Read the complete interview with Frank Brown at MartialArtsProfessional.com

December 2008 / January 2009

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Haveyoueverdreamedofhaving10,15,20,35ormoremartialartsschools operatingunderyou? Ofdevelopingseveralhundred BlackBeltsand thousandsofstudents?Oreven20,30,orasmanyas100instructors? If you have, then read on about a very limited opportunity for a select number of highly-qualified individuals with the potential to do just that! What happens when you combine the industry’s leading marketing and business expert with a legendary world champion martial artist?

territory. You will be included in the Mile High Karate® infrastructure, and you’ll train directly with me, Jeff Smith, and our entire regional training staff. We will be converting many martial arts schools to individual Mile High Karate® affiliates, but that’s not what this opportunity is all about. If you are capable of being trained to develop multiple locations, and would be excited to affiliate with leaders in our industry, then take action now. Go to www.MileHighFranchise.com, call 1-800-559-9431, or e-mail me at StephenOliver@MileHighKarate.com. Sincerely,

Stephen Oliver

Stephen Oliver, MBA 8th Degree Black Belt Founder/President Mile High Karate®

Stephen Oliver

Jeff Smith

Youget achance toaffiliate withtop MartialArts industryleaders andgrow ahighlysuccessfulchain of schools. Mile High Karate®, one of the nation’s top martial arts organizations, is offering executive self-employment position developing martial arts schools and instructors. Just this spring, several forces collided and something incredible happened. I have teamed up with legendary fighter and world champion 9th Degree Black Belt Jeff Smith to create a never-before-offered opportunity. This opportunity may be right for you, if you fall into one of two categories: First: You are an existing, successful school owner, with at least one school grossing a minimum of $30,000 per month or more, or you have several profitable locations. You’re ready to move your career to the next level without ending up with a huge number of employees and having to pay the start-up costs yourself to open each location. Second: You are a martial arts enthusiast who has been successful in your primary career, and are now ready to move on to self-employment, or to expand into an additional business. You are adequately capitalized (start-up costs of $209,900– $628,369, some of which may be financed), love training and working with people, and would like to “plug into” a successful and proven marketing and business plan and grow a large regional martial arts school organization. We have just established re g ional tra i n i ngcenters in: Victoria, British Columbia; Dunkirk, Maryland; Ora nge City, Florida; Salt Lake City, Utah; Philadelphia, PA*; New York City* and New Jersey,* and a na t ional training center in Denver, Colorado, which will be overseen by World Champion and G ra nd Master Jeff Smith. We are looking for a limited nu m b e r of individuals to own a territory capable of as few as 9 to as many as 70 school locations. We will teach you how to develop the area, help you recruit owner-operators to affiliate with our organization, and provide the necessary tools to grow your business in your * Targeted opening in early 2007.

P.S. We are talking about a real martial arts organizations that focuses on developing kids and families at an incredible high level. This is not “McDojo’s” or a similar sales-and-marketing only system. Mile High Ka rate® is one of the nation’s top martial arts organizations. We are looking only for individuals willing to develop the highest quality students. P.P.S. We are also looking for single school operators who want the power and resources of affiliating with our organization. Contact me if you want an opportunity to grow your schools, but are not interested in a multiple school opportunity. W hat som e of our franchisees are saying: When we decided to open a Mile High Karate Fra nchise®, it was the best decision we have ever made. We get great support from everyone in the Mile High Karate® organization. —Daphne and Larry Bows e r Mile High Karate® has been the best business and personal growth decision my husband and I have ever made. The operation of our business is fun and exciting dealing with quality parents and families. —Stephen & Amanda Christensen I joined the Mile High Karate® organization as their first franchisee and have never regretted the decision. It’s been great improving my lifestyle, income and career opportunities, beyond any t h i ngI would have imagined.—Robert Lew i s, MBA

Since 1983 www.MileHighKarate.com 1-800-559-9431

This advertisement is for ge ne ral information only and is not intended to be an offer of a franchise. An offering can be made only after the delivery of an effective franchise prospectus in complia nce with applicable fede ral and state law. NEW YORK: An of f e r i ngmust be filed first with the Departme nt of Law of the State of New York. Such filing does not constitute a p p roval by the Department of Law.

Martial Arts Professional Asks… Tony Robbins

Personal Development Expert Many small business owners, including martial arts school operators, experience roadblocks to their success. Please explain some of the strategies they can use to overcome those roadblocks.

Anthony Robbins is considered the greatest personal development expert of all time. He is the chairman of six companies and his teachings have impacted the lives of an estimated 50 million people. He is a Black Belt and the recipient of NAPMA’s 2003 Lifetime Achievement Award.

Tony Robbins answers… Let me provide some straight talk about what kills people’s success because succeeding is actually quite easy if you avoid the roadblocks. If you learn how to deal with them, then your life can be extraordinary. These simple ideas have really helped me, whenever I’ve been challenged in business and life. Martial artists know better than any other professionals that the best way to deal with a challenge is not to wait until it’s upon you, but to be prepared for it. It’s the reason we spar again and again, so we have the skills to anticipate what’s coming at us. The secret to life is not avoiding challenges, but learning how to utilize those challenges. When you’ve prepared for your opponent’s

best moves, then the confrontation is no longer a challenge; it’s an opportunity to win, to succeed. I call these basic ideas the five keys to wealth and happiness. These are the keys that unlock those roadblocks and open the way to success. The first key to wealth and happiness is to master frustration. Martial artists know that if you can frustrate your opponent in a fight, then you own him. You must be willing to make frustration your friend. You must understand it’s your partner and the secret is to convert frustration into fascination. The second key is to master rejection and failure, which you will experience if you expect to accomplish anything worthwhile. Not only must you risk

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rejection to succeed, but also once you do, you risk even more. You must learn to turn rejection into rewards because every time you are rejected you’re closer to your goals. Every time you fail to achieve, you learn something valuable. The third key is to master financial pressure, which is constant and never disappears. If you manage financial pressure, then it can be an advantage. The greatest method to sidestep the finan-

“The secret to life is not avoiding challenges, but learning how to utilize those challenges.”

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cial pressure roadblock is gratitude. Gratitude is what makes you wealthy. If you’re experiencing financial pressure, then stop and write a list of all that makes you grateful. The fourth key is to master complacency; in fact, destroy it. The secret to overcome that complacency is to have a vision that inspires you to know your purpose. Thankfully, you picked an industry in which you must constantly contribute because you’re rewarded in direct proportion to the amount of value you add to your students’ lives. The fifth key is the most important of all: make sure you always give much more than you expect to receive. If you become the kind

You Can Be a Karate

of person that can accomplish this, then you’ll never be disappointed because you’ll always find that it comes back tenfold. Plus, you feel alive when we’re giving because life is not just about you. MAP

Tony Robbins has long been a favorite of martial arts professionals and enthusiasts. He has contributed to the growth of martial arts and the industry in many ways. In this free teleconference with NAPMA President Rob Colasanti, he presents his perspective on leadership, stating, surprisingly, “You don’t have to work on your leadership skills as much as you do your spiritual intent. If your intent is high, you will seek out masters in the area of leadership.” Visit NAPMA.com/TonyRobbins for more information.

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“Karen’s inside understanding of how the media thinks allows her to quickly and easily get the right kind of attention. Within weeks of engaging Karen, we had four major TV media exposures, a 10-minute radio interview, and a full-page newspaper article, plus karate magazine exposure. I would not even consider trying to navigate the media maze without her!” Sam Rosenberg CEO, INPAX, Pittsburgh PA

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MASTER KAREN EDEN is a published author and former radio and TV personality, who has appeared on CNN, FOX National and Animal Planet. She has also appeared in two major Hollywood productions. Karen has written for and appeared in many martial arts publications over the years. Her books include The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Tae Kwon Do (Penguin Books) and I Am a Martial Artist (Century Martial Arts.) She is also the poet behind the popular I Am a Martial Artist product line.

Martial Arts Professional Asks… Bill Amelio

Bill Amelio, 2nd-Degree Black Belt and CEO of Lenovo

Bill Amelio, the former head of Asian operations for PC giant Dell joined Lenovo, China’s biggest PC maker, in 2007. Not long after, the Chinese company bought IBM’s global PC operations, creating the world’s third-biggest PC vendor, behind Dell and Hewlett Packard.

One of the challenges of martial arts professionals and school owners is a resistance to change. Do you believe in change, if it makes sense? Absolutely. The world is changing around us and if we aren’t able to adapt to that change, then we’ll perish. As Tony Robbins says, either grow or die. Just as we never stop trying to perfect our martial arts skills, we should never stop trying to perfect our time and management skills. I have a simple game plan that my team uses to manage our time more effectively and stay productive. We focus on the critical few versus the trivial many. That is what is important to help prioritize your time and manage, effectively. Our leverage technology and tools and resources help to keep my schedule efficient. For example, I spend a fair amount of time traveling, so I find myself in many airport lounges or hotels. I use that time to reply to e-mails; and it’s great to be able to do that with my notebook, with

wireless technology and easy access to broadband. I also have an excellent administration assistant who keeps me organized. In my view, talent is everything, especially the people that most influence your business performance. As simple of a concept as that is, you would be surprised at how many people can’t do it. It’s important for every business owner to reflect on a daily basis and ask, “Am I working on the right stuff or being dragged into things that are less important?” This idea of constant prioritization and making sure that you are working on the critical things that will make a huge difference to your business is so vitally important for every key business leader. Let’s focus for a moment on continuing education. There is a saying, ”Your level of success will only grow as much as you do.” How true is this and what advise would you give to every martial arts school owner when it comes to furthering their business knowledge base?

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Well, we really have to be masters of our own destiny. We can choose to make the best or worst of any situation, just as we can choose to learn or not learn. I think that the owners of martial art schools are in a very unique position. They can leverage the disciplines and instruction from their forms of art to benefit their businesses, just as I have personally experienced in my professional development. Take the concept of self-mastery in self-competition; compete with yourself everyday to improve. You’ll run

Listen to More of Bill Amelio’s Success Secrets at NAPMAFreeOffer.com You can fill your continuing-education calendar immediately, when you visit NAPMAFreeOffer.com, where you can listen to Bill Amelio’s Computing the Science of Success and 24 other exciting and fast-paced, school-building interviews, with the very best marketing, business and motivational experts; celebrity martial artists; and top school owners. • The inspirational stories of Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Jean Claude Van Damme. • The secrets of hard work from the great champions, such as Joe Lewis, Jeff Smith, Kathy Long and Evander Holyfield. • Highly successful entrepreneurs, such as Jhoon Rhee and Stephen Oliver, tell their wealth-building stories. • Great business, marketing and sales geniuses, such as Dan Kennedy, Jay Abraham and Tom Hopkins, will guide your success. • The “masters” of motivation, Zig Ziglar, Tony Robbins and Lee Milteer, will change your mindset. Visit NAPMAFreeOffer.com to access these interviews and receive a Free School-Building Bonus Package worth $2,310.12.

“ Just as we never stop trying to perfect our martial arts skills, we should never stop trying to perfect our time and management skills. ” a business that also improves day by day. Take execution; staying focused on one business objective is just as important to the well being of your students as it is the understanding of the principles of learning karate. If your business is not successful, then how can you continue to teach and influence so many others? MAP

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T h e I n t e r n at i o n a l K i d - J i t s u

December 2008 / January 2009

A s s o c i at i o n

Sang’s Way

Sang Koo Kang and Earl S. Bagan

Raising the Standards of Martial Arts Instruction

P Sang Koo Kang owns Master Sang’s TNT Martial Arts Centers in Miami Beach, Florida, where he teaches 800 students. Master Sang is a 6th-Degree Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do and a master of Hapkido, Muay Thai boxing and weapons training. Earl S. Bagan has been a student of Master Sang’s for 11 years and holds a 3rd-Degree Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do. They can be reached at NAPMA.com/tnt.

reviously, I wrote about how the martial artist and martial arts instructor have never reached the level of recognition of other professional athletes. In fact, the average person does not even consider martial artists as professional athletes. In part, this is due to the fact that most instructors and school owners do not perceive themselves as such or project that image to their communities. I created the TNT system for many reasons, including an attempt to raise our “profession” to the level associated with and currently reserved for premier athletes, such as professional basketball, baseball and football players. These individuals hold a highly esteemed and revered place in our society. They are elevated above most of us, as celebrities equal to movie stars. Most adults envy them and most children want to be like them. This is how society should see martial arts instructors as well. The only way you can make that happen is to think and act that way yourself. By creating a standardized system for others to learn, follow and implement at their schools, we can establish a level of professionalism never before achieved by martial artists. You must establish yourself as the premier martial arts instructor in your community. Tell everyone you meet how you are unique from the others. You must make your school the location or locations where everyone wants to train and grow. You must see yourself as a professional athlete, worthy of the fame and fortune that other sports stars attain. Be a product of the product! Then, promote yourself as your community’s personal safety expert, and become a local celebrity. Believe it inside and act it on the outside, and soon those around you will begin treating you as a local star athlete. As with other professionals, and professional athletes, you have dedicated your life to your profession, spending 20 years and more, to become an expert and perfecting your techniques. What can you do to convince your local community to think of you as a professional expert,

Martial Arts Professional

see you as the best of the best, and recognize that you’ve reached the mountaintop? One way is as a NAPMA Maximum Impact member. Your association with and membership in NAPMA lends credence to you, as a professional martial artist. Attainment of and adherence to professional goals and standards established though the TNT system is another crucial way. You and your community will benefit when you let everyone know you’re a TNT-affiliated school and you have been certified as an instructor of these methods. I have spent the last decade developing and perfecting TNT. It is a unique combination of martial arts and training techniques. I’ll teach you how to custom fit TNT lessons to your students’ needs in all areas, and you will be certified in this revolutionary and industry changing method. For years, I been involved in community events, and nourished contacts with local media. I’ve held special events and distributed press releases about those events to the media. I then became the local expert that they contacted whenever they had a question or an idea for a story. After much newspaper, magazine, radio and TV exposure, everyone in my area knows Master Sang; and everyone knows that I am the teacher you want to choose for top results. I’ll teach you my TNT system, so you can establish yourself, similarly, in your community. You must demonstrate the professionalism and confidence with which you carry yourself and promote your school. You must explain the benefits of private lessons and one-on-one attention. Show the student how you can adapt to fulfill any and all of his or her needs, while producing all the desired results Once you do this, you can receive the acknowledgment and the rewards of a true professional athlete.

www.napma.com

School Growth Potential

Learn from Toby Milroy att NAPMA Quantum Leap, Spring 2009 NAPMAQuantumLeap.com

Toby Milroy NAPMA Vice-President of Sales and Marketing

napma

Quantum leap

Locking a Steel Cage Around Your Student Body…the Keys to Ironclad Student Retention, Part 7

A 1.

2. Toby Milroy is a 4thDegree Black Belt, school owner, Mile High Karate Regional Director and NAPMA’s Vice President of Sales and Marketing. He can be contacted through NAPMAFreeOffer.com or MileHighFranchise.com.

3. 4.

s a quick re-cap: The essential keys to “lock the back door” for long-term student retention are: Over-delivering on the expectations of customer at every turn. Clearly communicating the benefits of ongoing training at your school, not only to the student, but also the entire family unit. Creating a positive community in your school. Exciting, valuable and productive classes. (Classes that the client perceives to be valuable.)

Key 4: Exciting, VALUABLE, Productive Classes with High “Perceived” Value It’s VERY important to understand that YOU are NOT one of your customers! You are NEITHER one of your STUDENTS, nor their family members! The principles and goals that YOU feel are valuable may not be valuable to your customers. It is important to take a long, hard look at your school and what exactly you’re selling and promising your students they will accomplish during their training! During this exploration, you’ll find that what the mothers of your 9-year-old students want and need from your program may be very different than the 24-year-old athletic adult or the 56-year-old overweight adult. It’s important not only to deliver actual value to your students and their families, but also in such a manner that they see and perceive that they’re receiving that value. It’s not just enough to be a great teacher and motivator and teach great classes. Students and their families must perceive your greatness and are consistently receiving the benefits they really want. Understanding very specifically the needs and wants of customers and fulfilling those needs and wants in a way that the CUSTOMER feels is valuable is one of the biggest differences between schools that struggle and schools that are marvelously successful! Those successful schools also have many systems in place to make absolutely sure that

Martial Arts Professional

customers experience those benefits and are accomplishing their training goals. What I’ve written in my recent columns applies here too: You must be using every media at your disposal, to inform continuously and constantly your students and educate them that they are actually gaining the benefits they want and need. Of course, this should include social-proof testimonials from students in class who are accomplishing those goals, and then using them examples in e-mails, voicemails, snail mail, postcards, newsletters, Webinars, teleconferences, CDs, DVDs, a video playing in your lobby, etc. etc. etc. For example, you should create a system in your classes that allows your instructors to be constantly looking for students who are making

It’s important not only to deliver actual value to your students and their families, but also in such a manner that they see and perceive that they’re receiving that value. progress and present those students as positive examples to the rest of the class. We use a tool called a “High-Five Award” for children’s classes. Each instructor is required to present a minimum of two High-Five Awards in each class, and at least one award must be “intentionally public.” The instructor must identify a student that is improving and displays good focus skills, etc. The instructor then stops the class and awards the student, while describing why the students earned the award. This is a simple example of how to build a system that will guarantee that your students and families will “see” and perceive that they are gaining the skills and benefits they want from your training.

MartialArtsProfessional.com

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No B.S. Success

Dan S. Kennedy

Why People Fail: The Wrong People in Charge

I Dan Kennedy is a marketing and sales strategist and consultant and the author of many books, including No B.S. Direct Marketing, The Ultimate Marketing Plan, The Ultimate Sales Letter and numerous other business books. He can be contacted at NAPMA. com/DanKennedy.

n a National Football League “shocker” earlier this season, the Dallas Cowboys lost a game to the improving, but still seriously inferior, Washington Redskins. Close study revealed that an amazing one-third of all offensive plays were called to go to Terrell Owens (T.O.), the Cowboys star pass receiver. The Dallas play-callers abandoned a solid running game, with a tandem of good running backs, as well as the balanced offense schemes that had previously served the team so well. What happened? The coaches gave in to T.O.’s petulant complaints about a lack of touches of the ball, particularly, during the prior week’s game, when he was involved only six times—and the Cowboys won. The coaches let the wrong guy take charge. In another “shocker,” the week I wrote this column, our elected representatives handed more than $700 billion or so of our money to the guys and the cohorts of the guys who made the mess on Wall Street and let it expand into a dire crisis. Many of their cronies absconded with hundreds of millions of dollars, including one who, from two weeks’ work as a bank CEO, left with $20 million. Paulson & Friends are the wrong people to put in charge, similar to the fox guarding the henhouse or the pickpocket holding you wallet. These incidents made me think about the ohso-ordinary mistake of putting the wrong people in charge of the wrong tasks and responsibilities; and this includes you and your employees. We err with others in any number of ways. There’s the infamous “Peter Principle,” named for management guru Dr. Laurence Peter, who recognized the negative phenomenon of so many people being promoted past their level of competence. As an example, the top salesman made sales manager, so you lose your best sales pro who is replaced by a poor manager; a two-fer. Another example is foolish multi-tasking: asking a good bookkeeper with a barracuda’s personality also to take incoming phone calls from new customers. The list is long. It’s one of a myriad of topics in my new book, No B.S. Guide to Ruthless Management of People And Profits, which I un-humbly recommend. It’s available at all online booksellers and bookstores. Martial Arts Professional

We err worse with ourselves. I constantly see people claiming to want major money, but only majoring in minor matters. Playing Trivial Pursuit™, instead of Monopoly™. Letting their intellect, time, energy and personal motivation be drained by the mundane, tasks and chores in which they have no interest or competence, while neglecting those tasks central and critical to make money. Maybe worst, is expending all their time on tasks and technology, so they have no time to think. If I could determine how much time you devote daily to read relevant newsletters and books, listen to relevant CDs, review competitive intelligence, study your school statistics, and think, deeply think about how you can be of

As an example, the top salesman made sales manager, so you lose your best sales pro who is replaced by a poor manager; a two-fer. greater interest, attraction and service to your clientele, then I can tell you the direction of your income, without seeing bank balances or tax returns. If I knew how much time you invest per month away from your business, associating, networking and opportunity-searching with other likeminded, success-oriented businesspeople in your industry and a broad spectrum of others, and working with experience-based expert coaches, consultants, teachers and advisors, then I can predict your future, without the help of a crystal ball. If you have no time for such chief responsibilities, then you’ve put yourself in charge of the wrong priorities.

MartialArtsProfessional.com

The Science of Fighting

Joe Lewis NAPMA Technical Advisor and Regular Contributor

The 40 Most Common Mistakes Fighters Commit One of an ongoing series of columns.

In a career spanning more that four decades, Joe Lewis has won more competition titles and instituted more innovations than anyone in the history of martial sports. That’s why he is “The Greatest Fighter in the History of Karate.” Joe can be reached at Martial ArtsProfessional.com

Mistake # 29: Some hardheaded fighters have a tendency to refuse to listen to their trainers and allow their egos to dictate their actions, instead of following directions. Sometimes, a fighter may be his own trainer or finds himself the victim of a poor trainer. In such cases, he must not fall into the trap of allowing his ego to override the importance of sticking to his strategy. Mistake # 30: Besides failing to be in outstanding physical shape, the greatest mistake any fighter makes is allowing his opponent to become set. If you can master controlling your opponent’s set-point and maintaining your distance of advantage, then you should be able to beat ninety-percent of all the fighters in your sport. Mistake # 31: Avoid taking chances by being cute and doing the ridiculous, without either

knowing or sticking to the fundamentals. Mistake #32: Some fighters may become mentally lazy by holding back and not letting their techniques go. A fighter must, by reflex, and not by just a reaction involving thought, be able to fire the moment his opponent is in range. This is another example of a combination of a mental and physical mistake. This habit comes from a lack of sparring, being out of shape, a lack of using a strategy and a lack of practicing impulsive-reaction sparring drills.

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Martial Arts Professional

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What would 10 new Leadership Team members be worth to you?? What would that add to your school’s gross income each month? How would that help your school’s student retention? x x x x x x

The Level 10 Leadership Seminar Program includes: Outline of the seminar and step-by-step instructions on how to conduct all aspects of the seminar for a hugely successful event. Customizable Poster (11 x 17 and 13 x 19 formats) as well as sign up sheet for seminar Application for students to fill out for acceptance into your leadership program 4-Minute Motivational DVD guaranteed to increase response by at least 10% Motivational Story to tell during seminar that truly encapsulates leadership Complete done-for-you e-mail campaign to promote the event

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Internet Secrets to Grow Your School

Elsa Cordero MBA, MS Oriental Medicine

The Science Behind Keywords

I For 15 years, Elsa Cordero was involved in the martial arts—teaching, competing (seven-time National and International Forms Champion and Inductee of the Diamond National’s Hall of Fame), and finally co-owning three martial arts schools. Elsa completed her Master of Business Administration in 2003, and then earned her Masters in Traditional Chinese Medicine. You can contact Elsa through Martial ArtsProfessional.com.

n this series of columns, I have been presenting a step-by-step process to develop successful, search-engine-friendly Web sites packed with relevant content and a “call to action.” I have also covered the basics of how Web sites are found and indexed by search engines. I highlighted the importance of crafting your content around a main key phrase and the popularity your Web site can attain, if you do this effectively. In this month’s column, I want to focus specifically on your strategy; I want to examine keywords (or key phrases) and determine which you should use. Finally, I want to give you some tools that will help with this process. As a side note, ‘keyword’ is a misnomer; the word is singular, but it also refers to key phrases. As you will see below, the single keyword is often too generic and vague, which is why I want to focus on key phrases. Let’s start by defining a keyword, using my favorite quick reference online guide, Wikipedia: “It is a term that captures the essence of the topic of a document or a search query. When a descriptor is descriptive, it can be an effective search parameter. It can consist of a word, phrase or alphanumerical term.” What does this mean? The keyword or phrase you target must describe in a nutshell the fundamental nature of what you are offering, and in a way that search engines will recognize. Grab a pencil and paper to develop your dream list of keywords, about 30 or so, before testing their effectiveness. Follow these guidelines to help you narrow your keyword list. Select a keyword that is specific. You are probably part of a large groups of schools that will want to use “martial arts” or your style name (“karate,” for example) as part of your key phrase. These words are descriptive enough; they are not ambiguous at all, BUT they are too vague for your purpose. If I search the word “karate” with Google, then the top results on the first page are: a definition of karate, karate movie clips, a link to information about the movie, The Karate Kid, karate supplies, etc. No karate school related sites appear on the first search page! This reinforces what I have already mentioned in previous columns: “karate” is too vague a word; you need to be more specific. Martial Arts Professional

Study the chart below, which I borrowed from Search Engine News and adapted it for our needs. Karate, martial arts, tae kwon do

Generic

Low value, high competition, poor conversion to sales

Karate classes