Ever wish you could take a martial arts millionaire to lunch and dive deep into their mind to find out their proven secrets to success?
Well, here’s your chance!
This month, on the M.A. Biz Power Connection show, GCI President, Rob Colasanti, will do all the heavy lifting for you.
Mr. Colasanti’s special “lunch” guest will be his longtime friend Master Melodee Meyer. The two are gearing-up to discuss an amalgam of proven school growth strategies…and you’ll get to be the proverbial fly on the wall as proven strategy after proven strategy is revealed.
Now, in case you are unfamiliar with Master Mel, she operates Martial Arts Family Fitness Center in Santa Barbara, California, with her husband Grandmaster Dave Wheaton.
She is also the founder of a massively successful martial arts fitness system called KUT, which stands for Kickboxers Ultimate Training.
In her martial arts program only, Master Mel teaches more than 500 active students. What’s also interesting (and unusual) is that approximately 80% of these students are adults.
All total, her school grosses well-over a million dollars a year—elevating it to the prestigious top 1% of schools in the nation.
Best of all, she is enjoying a lifestyle that’s so enviable it would make virtually anyone in the martial arts industry flap their eyebrows up and down with delight.
Yes, Master Mel has tons of personal freedom and she’s living the martial arts dream. Now it’s your chance to find out how to get there, too.
According to Mr. Colasanti, “Master Mel is one of my longest standing friends in the martial arts world. She is an exemplary martial arts professional in every respect. She is an expert when it comes to diet and nutrition and keeps herself in fantastic physical condition. Plus, she is a savvy business owner, a no-nonsense entrepreneur, an excellent martial artist, an author, a speaker, and a success coach. I simply can’t wait to expose the GCI members to her vast knowledge involving business and success psychology.”
This exclusive GCI Strategy Session promises to deliver an hour and thirty minutes of no-nonsense discussion on school growth and personal development, and will be posted to the GCI site later this month.
It will teach you how to be a WINNER in the martial arts biz and beyond.
Rob Colasanti’s special guest will be longtime GCI member and friend, Master Josh Arcemont, of HERO Martial Arts Academy, in Spring, Texas.
Master Arcemont is one of the industry’s leading experts when it comes to delivering powerful, potent, profitable School Talks.
Approximately 40% of his 307 active students have originated from him presenting at his local academic schools.
In fact, Master Arcemont currently maintains relationships with more than 20 elementary, middle and high schools in his area—and was recently recognized by the Superintendent in his district.
IMPRESSIVE!
In this exclusive, rapid-fire, GCI Strategy Session interview, Colasanti and Arcemont will give you the “real world” actionable advice you need to make School Talks perform at the highest possible level.
Keep a close eye out for the release—it’s coming later this month!
(Well, it’s more like 10-Minute Thursdays this time around…but you get the idea.)
Anyhow, longtime GCI friend and member Master Keith Wilkes, of FEAR KNOT Martial Arts, walks us through how he generated more than $6,000 with his 6th annual Martial Arts for Kidz Day of Champions event, which took place last week.
We’ve also included a PDF “additional resource” that touches upon:
Where he got his trophies, medals and boards.
How he increased his Facebook “likes” through this promotion.
How he sold 90 t-shirts at the event.
A breakdown of his revenues and expenses that resulted in a profit of over $3,000.
As you’ll see, this is an effective internal event that you may want to model in your own school, if you’re not doing something similar to it already.
Lastly, special thanks to Master Wilkes for taking the time to contribute this awesome video and mini-report!
Master Bryan Zarnett of Durham Modern Martial Arts explains how to use actionable metrics to solve problems and improve your school.
Basically, he tracks which students had an objection upon enrollment, the type of objection they had, and how long he retained them within the first year.
Then, he uses this data to put together a plan (a series of steps, call-outs, and actions) for these students, which he applies over the next 90-days to improve his chances of retaining them.
Master Zarnett uses the objection data to better understand:
What is a true objection and when to make a “no-go” decision.
Elements he needs to clarify early on and up-front.
His ideal student and how to identify them.
How he should properly handle objections.
The real “cost” in time and effort he invests in students with objections.
Master Zarnett has also shared the exact spreadsheet he uses to track his objection statistics and you may download it below.
And special thanks to Master Zarnett for making this generous contribution to GCI!
Webmation CEO, Hersh Sandhoo, shows us what a quality martial arts school overview video should look like.
Hersh recently produced the following customized website video for King Tiger Martial Arts—one of his many clients.
According to Hersh, “Video has been shown to triple website visitors, double the time spent on a website, and increase organic SEO traffic and online purchases.”
The video you’re about to see is an excellent example to model—IF you intend to create such a video for your school’s home page. It’s professionally produced, strategically written and hits all the important hot buttons.
Also, if Hersh’s video “rocks your boat,” contact him at hs@webmation.com and ask about the special offer he’s extending exclusively to GCI members to what a similar custom video to call their own.
You’re going to get a dose of sound advice from one of the top school owners in the world—GCI member, Grandmaster Zulfi Ahmed of Bushi Ban International.
Here, Grandmaster Ahmed reviews the “3 Key Areas of Growth and Success,” which includes:
1. Classroom Management
You must know where, when and who you and your instructors are teaching; what lesson plans you are teaching; how you are going to teach a particular class depending on their age and rank, etc.
2. Attendance Tracking
First, you have to create a system for daily and weekly attendance tracking. Second, you have to effectively connect with students who are not coming to class for any reason. And third, you have to become very good at solving students’ problems so you can get them coming back to class again.
3. Progress Tracking
Are your students making real functional progress in your classes? Are they getting what they came for? You achieve this by making sure your students are attending class consistently, taking their stripe exams (or the equivalent), and then getting promoted.
As Grandmaster Ahmed says, “Progress leads to interest…interest leads to attendance…attendance leads to renewals.”
GCI President, Rob Colasanti, will conduct an in-edpth interview with his longtime friend, Webmation CEO, Hersh Sandhoo.
Sandhoo is a 4th degree black belt and one of the original technology “wizkids” of the martial arts industry.
Often accused of being “ahead of his time,” he helped grow one of his client’s schools from $200K to over a million dollars a year using his integrative digital marketing strategies.
Clearly, as technology continues to proliferate and infiltrate all aspects of marketing, it’s critical that school owners understand how to harness its power.
But sadly, digital marketing remains little understood among many school owners throughout our industry today.
During this exclusive, 1.5 hour, content rich “Strategy Session” titled How to Get More Quality New Student Leads Online—Fast and Affordably, Colasanti and Sandhoo will shine a halogen bright light on this critical subject:
Topics to be discussed include:
The top mistakes martial arts school owners make when it comes to their school’s website.
The seven ways to market your school online for optimum results.
The importance of using video on your landing pages and website.
The dangers of using a template website versus a fully customized site.
Why and how your school should be using a blog to generate quality leads through content marketing.
What a remarketing campaign is and how to use it to your lead generating advantage.
An effective strategy to optimize your school’s reputation online.
Why only 20% of your Facebook followers might be seeing your school’s posts and how to dramatically improve it.
Whether or not you should delegate your school’s marketing and why.
Tips on how to market your school online when working with a very small budget.
The vital role of analytics to measure your school’s online marketing performance.
How to optimize PPC ads on social media sites.
Which social media sites you should be using for each important age group you want to attract.
What to do if your school’s current website is not “responsive.”
How to get your school ranked number one on Google, so you can dominate search in your local area.
Effective ways to monetize your school’s website, besides just driving more traffic to it.
How to claim your school’s listing on Google Maps and why this is so important.
And much much more…
This interview promises to deliver a treasure chest of expert digital marketing advice, thereby giving you strong insights into what it takes to maximize your online lead generation efforts using today’s technologies.
It’s our pleasure to introduce you to longtime GCI member, Mr. Rod Johnson.
Mr. Johnson operates Jon Sun’s Taekwon-do Academy in Vancouver, Canada.
He is also President of the International Taekwon-Do Federation of B.C.
Today, Mr. Johnson will share with you twelve fun, creative, skill-building noodle drills that you can model in your own classes.
As you’ll see, the noodles can be used for warm ups, team cooperation, partner work, boosting retention and much more.
We hope you (and your students) enjoy these “12 Deadly Secrets of the Ninja Noodle” as much as we did.
Lastly, a big bow of gratitude goes out to Mr. Johnson for taking the time to submit this excellent contribution for the benefit of the GCI audience. (Thank you, sir!!!)
Have you ever felt as if you’re “doing everything right,” but yourschool still isn’t growing to the level of your expectations?
Or, that you might be overlooking something simple?
Or, that you’re “better” than the mediocre results you keep getting?
If so, you’re not alone.
This feeling of “something’s missing” has been known to frustrate school owners far and wide.
Truth is…
What’s often holding you back isn’t your marketing, sales, curriculum, location, etc.
In fact, it’s usually something less obvious, but that’s hiding in plain sight.
“What could it be?” you wonder.
Well, the hidden culprit might just be a flawed CULTURE.
Yes, culture!
Make no mistake—developing a rock-solid culture that is a perfect fit for your unique situation is one of the most important, yet challenging, ingredients for creating a highly successful martial arts school.
It’s often what separates mediocrity from magnificence in our profession.
And as you know, I desperately want YOU to be magnificent!
So that’s why in my recent interview with Master Jeff Cvitak, of Martial Arts USA, we covered the A – Z on culture.
Seriously…I don’t think I could have found a more appropriate (and gracious) guest with whom todiscuss this particular topic.
You see, a few years ago, Master Cvitak made a number of high-impact changes to his culture…and the results were nothing short of impressive!
Today, he’s more than doubled his student count to 383 active. He has 16 excellent paid staff members. He operates inside of a gorgeous 5,500 sq. ft. facility. And he’s enjoying an enviable lifestyle as a martial arts entrepreneur on the rise.
During my exclusive “Strategy Session” interview with Master Cvitak foundhere, he openly shares with you precisely what he did to overhaul his school’s culture for the benefit of everyone involved.
Together, we help you understand how to evaluate, improve, or augment yourschool’s culture—so that your retention, enrollments, special events and profits head skyward.
We give you plenty of tested and proven examples of what to do, as well as what not to do.
And—we give you the insights and information you need to create an entirely new culture from scratch, if necessary.
When you listen to this knowledge-loaded session, you will walk away with a treasure trove of actionable tips, tactics, and strategies that will help you analyze and improve yourschool’s culture, regardless of its current status.
Plus, the advice you hear WILL help transform you into a savvier school owner, if you implement it.
To read a more in-depth description of the topics covered, or to listen to this truly outstanding session, please clickherenow.
And special thanks to my friend Master Cvitak for taking the time to contribute his expert knowledge for the betterment of his fellow GCI members around the world.
I believe that your school should reflect your core values, traditions, goals and vision.
It’s your business…and you’ve got to be happy with what it represents.
However, when it comes to growing your business, there are only three ways.
My friend and mentor, Jay Abraham, has taught his “Three Ways to Grow a Business” strategy to millions of entrepreneurs over the years.
Per Jay, you have to:
Increase the number of clients you do business with.
Increase the size of the transactions your clients make.
Increase the frequency that your clients buy from you.
Think about it.
As a school owner, if you enroll more students, retain them longer, and get them to invest more money along the way… you would dramatically accelerate your growth and profitability.
So wouldn’t it make sense to spend the majority of your time focusing on activities that can incrementally improve these three areas?
Now, I’m fully aware that some school owners do not care about growth. They are happy operating their schools as side businesses (or hobbies) that just break even.
That’s fine.
But the majority of school owners I know want to climb higher, faster, farther.
They want more students. More income. And more freedom.
But to get these things, you’ve got to be strategic in your approach.
You’ve got to make sure that the majority of your work related activities are facilitating some or all of Jay’s “three ways” mentioned above. You must devote as much time to these high-return activities as possible on a daily basis. And you must do this consistently over time.
You also have to surround yourself with quality mentors that you can trust and afford.
(Everybody needs a coach).
This is why I have made GCI affordable to virtually any school owner in the world.
It’s also why I do my best to focus all of GCI’s content on the core things you need to master in order to achieve high levels of success as a professional in the martial arts business.
By design…virtually everything you receive from GCI will help you either get more new students, increase your average student value, or improve your retention.
My goal is to help you improve each of these three areas concurrently…so that you earn record month, after record month!
Going forward—when you plan your days and do your work, my sincere hope is that this simple message haunts you in the most positive way possible.
How?
By reminding and challenging you to always stay focused on the high-return activities that will have the biggest impact on your business.
By giving you the strength to block out or delegate the trivial stuff, while you immerse yourself in activities that will truly help you achieve your written goals.
And by encouraging you to manage your time wisely…even if you’re the boss and nobody is actually holding you accountable.
None of this is easy.
But when these skills become automatic to you, all of your school related goals will begin falling into place.
Our upcoming guest on the M.A. Biz Power Connection show will be GCI member, Master Jeff Cvitak.
Master Cvitak, and GCI President Rob Colasanti, will cover the A-Z on how you can immediately begin improving the culture within your school.
Today, in advance of the interview, Master Cvitak is going to give you a brief tour of his truly impressive Martial Arts USA facility, located in Springfield, Missouri.
As you’ll see, this school is clean, professional, inviting and GORGEOUS!
I have the good fortune pf speaking with awesome school owners virtually every day.
Often, financial matters come up.
I hear the good, the bad and the ugly.
To give you some context, here’s a few recent situations that are fresh on my mind:
The other day, a school owner told me he’s having record month after record month—and just had his best grossing month in 20 years. Hooray! I know just how hard he’s worked for this.
Another school owner reported that his sales funnels are reaching all time high levels of success and emailed me his “eye-popping” stats. He’s written 219K worth of new student contracts during the first six months of this year. Seriously impressive, remarkably profitable.
On the other hand, a high profile school owner who’s been in business for 35 years informed me that his once booming school is now on the verge of financial collapse. I was shocked and disheartened to hear this news.
Yet another school owner (and longtime friend) revealed that he just lost $250,000 in a bizarre lawsuit with another family member. Ouch…what a hit!
Another moved his school to a better location. Invested a large sum of money in the build out, but struggled for months to get his business license. He eventually got it, but would have been in financial ruin if he was ultimately denied. He was really sweating that one.
So my conversations typically span the spectrum of financial success and failure. But that’s reality; the real world of business. It’s not all wine and roses.
And this makes me wonder—are you financially fit?
Do you have a financial cushion built-up in case an unexpected set-back suddenly rocks your world?
Are you saving adequately for your retirement?
What about asset protection? Making money is one thing. Keeping it is another. Are you protected, or are you a target for an unscrupulous opportunist?
Can your school sustain a few poor income months…or will the power company be shutting the lights off?
If you’re not a good money manager have you looked for a reputable fiduciary who can guide you?
Do you have a decent investment strategy?
Are you deriving income from anywhere besides your school, or are all your eggs in that one basket?
I could go on with questions such as these…
But regardless of whether you’re on top of these sorts of “money matters” or not, here’s five simple reminders that you can never hear enough times:
1. The road to wealth is paved with goals. Set financial targets, keep them realistic, review them often and move heaven and earth to achieve them.
2. Always pay yourself first. Make this a habit. Even better, make it automatic. But always pay yourself BEFORE you pay any of your other bills—EVERY MONTH!
3. Live beneath your means, not above it. Otherwise, it’s going to be very hard for you to save or create sustainable financial security for yourself and your family.
4. Never waste money. Eliminate all unnecessary expenses and never overpay for anything. Err on the side of frugality. All that extra money you save will add up and help you build wealth over time.
5. Learn the asset protection laws in your state and leverage them to your maximum advantage. This is especially important if you currently have assets that someone else might want to take.
I’ve seen many hardworking, entrepreneurial school owners (and industry leaders) go from rags to riches. But I’ve also seen others lose everything they have, and rarely do they ever get back up on their feet again. I want you to be in the first category ONLY.
Let’s face it—you never know what life if going to throw at you. But when it comes to money matters, I encourage you to start early, be smart and be preemptive.
To Your Success,
Rob
Rob Colasanti President, GCI
PS: A couple months ago I recommended you read Tony Robbins’ new book called Money: Mastering the Game. Did you? If not, I still recommend you do, as you will glean many valuable insights from it..
My friend Matt Furey invited me to be his guest at a seminar he hosted this weekend in Clearwater Beach, Florida.
The three-day, thousand dollar a ticket event was called Regain Your Brain.
Matt co-hosted the seminar with a man named Michael J. Lavery, aka “The Hammer Man.”
I did not know what to expect going into this event, but it turned out to be truly unique and enlightening.
Seriously—I could very easily write you a 7,500 word email about my experience and all I learned. But I’ll keep it brief out of respect for your time.
Mainly, the event shed light on how technology and other factors are are dumbing-down our brains—especially when it comes to children.
But the event also delivered many ways to awaken our brains…to improve short-term memory…and to help stave off the effects of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other neuromuscular diseases.
In fact, we were taught many drills to strengthen the hippocampus—the area of the brain that governs memory, emotion and the autonomic nervous system.
For example, we learned how to recite the alphabet backwards.
We learned how to memorize (in order) the full names of all 44 United States Presidents and the particular term each served, i.e. James A. Garfield was the 20th President of the United States.
And we did an abundance of cursive handwriting and penmanship drills. Why? Because other than speaking, nothing we can do stimulates the brain more than writing in cursive (a dying skill in today’s world).
But we also did a variety of physical drills to strengthen the brain ranging from Tai Chi moves to hammer drills, which leads me to the central thrust of this message.
I think you’ll love doing the hammer drills.
All you need is a golf ball and a rubber mallet from Home Depot.
Your goal is to simply hit the golf ball up into the air several inches while trying to do as many repetitions as possible without missing.
Sounds easy, but it isn’t.
Now, Mr. Lavery holds the world record for the most consecutive golf ball bounces on the rounded edge of a ball-peen hammer and he’s even performed his “super human” skills on the David Letterman Show.
He can literally do thousands of repetitions on the mallet without a single miss.
He can do it with a 4 pound sledge hammer. He can do it while running. He can alternate hands with ease. He can even do it while reciting the first 100 digits of Pi in 25 seconds…the alphabet backwards from various points…or the powers of the numeral two right up into the billions.
He can stop and balance the ball on the head of the hammer…or on the handle (it’s next to impossible to do this)!
Matt Furey even demonstrated how he does the hammers while simultaneously reciting passages from the Tao Te Ching.
It was truly amazing to see all this…
When I returned home from the event, I had a headache because I activated previously dormant areas of my brain (this was normal and expected).
Still, I showed my wife and son how to do the hammer drills with the mallet and golf ball Matt gave me.
My 11 year old son couldn’t can’t stop practicing. I mean, he was all over it.
That night, he was able to do about 20 repetitions without missing. On the second day, he did 73. His goal today is to reach 100.
One man at the event says he recently did 3,600+ reps without missing…and he’s shed nearly 4% of his body fat in just a few months. He attributes it entirely to the hammer drills and other brain stimulating activities he’s learned through coaching with Matt and Michael.
A really intelligent 18 year old boy (baseball player) I met there has been doing the hammer drills for a few months now and he’s put on 12 pounds of muscle mass.
And these are just two examples of many such testimonials I heard after interacting with the other attendees.
When you do the hammer drills, it causes a process known as steroidogenesis to occur in your brain. This causes the natural release of testosterone, growth hormone and other neuro-chemicals, which results in a wide range of health benefits from increased muscle mass to more energy to greater mental clarity.
The key to understand here is that both halves of your brain are connected by a bridge called the corpus callosum. When you do the hammer drills, it increases blood flow into this “bridge.” That gets both halves of your brain working together simultaneously. So if you’re using your left brain or your right brain too much…these drills will help balance you out.
Supposedly, doing the hammer drills awakens unused regions of your brain, increases hand and forearms strength, improves your memory, skyrockets your hand-eye coordination, sharpens your focus, helps you become ambidextrous, etc.
If you’d like to see Mr. Lavery demonstrating his hammer drills, click here. But you can find many other videos of him on the Web.
(Ignore the 70’s music he’s singing if it’s not your cup of tea. Yes, he’s a musician, too).
I am letting you know about this because I thought you might enjoy practicing these drills as much as I did, especially if you feel Lazy Brain Syndrome setting in.
Or, it might be interesting for you to try these drills in your next staff meeting, or with some of your students, once you’re able to articulate the benefits behind it and demonstrate it properly.
It’s fun, challenging, unique and beneficial to see who can do the most reps.
Give it a shot.
As for me…I’ve gotta run. It’s time for me to do my hammer drills. My current goal is to be able to do 1,000 reps without missing.
In this week’s 3-Minute Thursdays segment, we’d like to introduce you to GCI member Master Josh Arcemont.
Master Arcemont operates HERO Martial Arts Academy in Spring, Texas.
He employs three instructors, three assistants and three office staff members.
He teaches 313 active students and grosses an average of $40K per month.
Today, Master Arcemont gives you a brief tour of rather impressive school…plus, he shares some valuable tips with you along the way.
GCI salutes Master Arcemont for being an exemplary school owner—and for contributing this educational video to our worldwide community of martial arts professionals.
It’s our pleasure to introduce you to longtime GCI member Master Bryan Zarnett, who operates Durham Modern Martial Arts in Ontario, Canada.
In this week’s 3-Minute Thursdays segment, Master Zarnett shares his “Power Meetings” concept with you.
He explains how these 10-15 minute action-oriented meetings get staff members to answer three vital questions that help them stay on track for getting results.
Then, he gives you several important ideas that will help you maximize the effectiveness of these meetings.
Lastly—special thanks to Master Zarnett for always being first in line to contribute to GCI. Your willingness to share symbolizes what GCI is all about!
GCI’s Director of Membership Services, Master Mike Lee, shares 5 high-intensity interval techniques with you.
He normally has his students perform them on a freestanding bag for 30 seconds per side.
Master Lee uses this strategy to finish his private lessons or group workouts on a high note—which ensures that his students leave sweaty, smiling and sore.
My instructor used to say, “Staff members: Can’t live with ’em…can’t shoot ’em!”
Okay, so perhaps it’s a bit audacious of me to repeat this here today.
But it comes on the heels of a host of GCI members griping to me about various staff related challenges they’re grappling with.
Here’s a sampling:
One school owner I know had to fire a staff member because the “young stud” was servicing a rather long list of karate moms after hours. (DANGER, DANGER, WARNING, WARNING!)
Another mentioned that his main instructor retired after many years. And with nobody to replace her, he’s back out on the training floor working harder than ever. (She was a gem—replacing her is NOT going to be easy.)
Another said that she’s tried for 10 years to develop staff, but just can’t get it going. She wrote, “The biggest barrier: Parents. Parents don’t see this as a viable career path for their kids and discourage them—insisting that they go to college instead.”
Yet another associate closed his school in June after 25 years because he couldn’t find quality staff and had to “babysit” the ones he did have. Sadly, he finally decided to throw in the towel and move on to something new.
And, a good friend just mentioned that the employees at one of his schools gradually “lost their fire.” This has really hurt his overall numbers and now he’s putting forth a Herculean effort to repair the damage and get the school back on track.
Rob Colasanti interviews Sensei Matt Dorsey on his powerful staff development system
I could go on…
But one thing’s for sure—as a school owner, you’ve already encountered staff issues of your own, or you will.
It’s the nature of the beast in the martial arts business.
And that’s why I’ve decided to focus my next “strategy session” interview on staff recruitment, staff development and staff retention.
My guest will be my long time friend, Sensei Matt Dorsey.
With three successful Martial Arts America schools in New York and 15 quality employees, he knows a thing or two about staff development.
No doubt, this interview (called How to Find, Hire and Keep the Staff of Your Dreams) will be chock full of actionable strategies that you can use to improve YOUR staff situation immediately—no matter what level you are at.
So sit tight…I’ll notify you the moment it’s available on the private GCI membership site for you to hear.
success?
This month on the M.A. Biz Power Connection show…
This month on the M.A. Biz Power Connection show…
