Info for Martial Arts School Owners and Instructors

The Martial Arts Teachers’ Association (MATA) is a professional organization that helps martial arts school owners and instructors improve their teaching skills and grow their schools with proven marketing, management, and curriculum design.

Click JOIN MATA to learn more.

martial arts instructor association and curriculum

19. How Mark Moore Grew a 425 Student School While Teaching Just 2 Classes a Night

by | Offline Marketing & Sales

Setting Expectations for Martial Arts Students Upfront

Authority is highly influenced by emotion.

While your staff and students may intellectually understand that you are the boss and master instructor, they have to feel it, not think it.

It’s the emotional connection that anchors your authority on a deep level.

If there is one powerful moment in your role as a professional martial arts instructor, it’s in the enrollment conference.

While the parents may see you as the master black belt, they usually don’t have an authoritative reverence at this early stage.

The enrollment conference is a seminal moment for you to establish your authority and gain the respect and gratitude of the family you’re dealing with.

Presenting the programs and their cost to parents can be tense at times. Some parents want to negotiate. Others might object to the agreement. Some want a safety net in case their child wants to quit.

While it’s important that you are prepared to overcome any objections, it’s when the bottom line is signed and the initial investment is completed that you have a critical window to demonstrate your authority.

Many owners complete the transaction and gush with statements like, “Awesome. It’s great to have you on board. Johnny, you did an awesome job tonight. High five! Thanks Mrs. Jones it’s great to have Johnny as part of our family. Let me know if I can help with anything.”

Barf.

Who has the role of authority here? Mrs. Jones and her credit card. That was a missed opportunity.

Let’s try again. You would adjust this script to the age and circumstance, but here is an authority template for the enrollment conference.

Mom has just enrolled Johnny into the program.

You, “Johnny. You want to learn Empower Kickboxing, right?”

“Yes sir.”

“Good. I want you to understand that your mom just enrolled you into a six month program. You are going to learn a lot of great skills and lessons. It’s going to be fun and sometimes it’s going to be hard. That’s the good part because that means you’re learning. So you have to pay attention and practice at home 20-minutes a day when you don’t have class.

Are you going to work hard and practice?”

“Yes sir.”

“I’m glad. Your classes are Monday and Wednesday at 5pm. When are your classes?”

“Monday and Wednesday at 5pm.”

“Good. You’re a smart guy. That means that you have to be ready to come to class by 4:30 on Monday and Wednesdays so that you’re not late. Will you do that?”

“Yes sir.”

“No matter what you are doing, you will be ready by 4:30, right?”

“Yes sir.”

“Good. The first lesson is integrity. Integrity means that you do what you say you are going to do. You keep your promises. You promise to work hard and be ready for class, right?”

“Yes sir.”

“No matter what you’re doing. Right?”

“Yes sir.”

“Great. We’re going to be so proud of you. Your mom just enrolled you, so please turn to her and say, ‘Thank you mom.”

“Thank you mom.”

“Alright. When someone does something good for you, you always say thank you. That’s called gratitude. What’s it called?”

“Gratitude.”

“Correct. So you’ve learned two important lessons today. Integrity and gratitude. What does integrity mean?

“Keeping your promises.”

“Yes. What does gratitude mean?”

“Saying thank you.”

“You got it! You are going to do great, I can tell already.”

“Remember, your class is…”

“Monday and Wednesday at 5pm.”

“When will you be ready to come to class?”

“4:30pm.”

“You have a good head on your shoulders Johnny. You’re going to be good at this.”

“Because you’ve showed your mom gratitude and you’re going to keep your promises, here is a school t-shirt for you to wear. Every time you put it on, I want you to think of integrity and gratitude. Will you do that?”

“Yes sir.”

“I just gave you a shirt. How do you show gratitude?”

“Thank you sir.”

As taught in the MATA Certification program, it’s also a good idea to let mom know that it’s important that she control what Johnny is doing around 4:30 which is the agreed upon to be ready for class.

If Johnny is playing with his friends or deep in a video game, it’s going to be harder to get him to get ready than if he is cleaning his bedroom or something he’d like to leave to go to class.

Keep in mind that mom is watching this happen before her eyes. What have you done to establish your authority?

  1. You’ve provided her with a language pattern that both her and Johnny understand. This is huge.
  2. You’ve given mom the “integrity” framework to deal with any reluctance to go to class.
  3. You’ve provided her with a strategy to engage Johnny in less fun activities so that going to class is an easy decision.
  4. You’ve laid out when Johnny should get ready for class without complaint.
  5. Before her eyes, you taught her son important lessons with real world examples. No doubt, your authority sky-rocketed in her eyes and in her heart.

Look for places where you can make these kinds of strong emotional connections.

Demonstrate true authority and leadership. That will last much longer than a trite, shallow compliments like “Awesome! Good job.”

This will help your students to understand how and why they are training with the best school.

19. Mark Moore–Show Notes (Click to see)

:30 Why Mark started martial arts

4:00 Why Mark left martial arts

5:25 What motivated him to return to the arts

5:50 How he organized his curriculum and rank process

8:00 School stats prior to COVID

8:15 Why curriculum has to be easy to learn post COVID

9:00 How he teaches only two classes a night with 50 kids in each.

10:00 How you can consistently engage a veteran black belt in the same class as a gold belt?

10:30 Traditional martial arts adds complexity

11:30 what has been limiting the martial arts in the USA for over 50 years

12:00 how advice from Leadership Expert John Maxwell helped Mark grow his school

12:45 Defining the Student Centric School vs Style Centric

13:50 Why schools would benefit from being future focused rather than focused on out-date training methods

14:20 What Mark advises school owners to do to recover from COVID-19 

15:00 How he grew his school to 450 students without a sales system or paid marketing

15:35 How he gives back to the community and leverages that for growth

17:50 How he kept his school growing during COVID-19

19:00 The single strategy that fuels his success

19:10 Why Mark changed the school name early in the pandemic

20:30 Operation Retention

20:50 How the John Maxwell program helped Mark as a leader

23:30 How he gives 45-minute school speeches for $1,000 each

25:00 Time Management process

27:40 Advice for those planning a school or trying to save their school post COVID-19

29:30 Self Defense for Employees

30:00 the Importance of a service first mindset

30:43 Why it’s hard to go back to traditional martial arts post COVID

Mark Moores’ Daily Dojo Planner

Mark Moore’s Facebook Page

self defense class pose
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn

International Women's Self-Defense Instructor Day Registry

Facebook API Error: {"error":{"message":"Error validating access token: The session has been invalidated because the user changed their password or Facebook has changed the session for security reasons.","type":"OAuthException","code":190,"error_subcode":460,"fbtrace_id":"AcLzDW23Ta4FrXTg2HvUDb2"}}
Reconnecting to Facebook may fix the issue.
___________________

Hosts & Guests

John Graden

Tony Robbins

 Share Episode

Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn 

0 Comments

You May Also Like…

0 Comments