Until then – I want to
Frankly Discuss MONEY with you and why it’s Okay for
you to be Rich.

As one  Martial Artist to another,
let’s talk frankly about money…..

I know what you may be thinking…. is it really possible to make a big income or even get rich in the martial arts industry?
I’m no different that you.   When I graduated from Georgetown University I put together a business plan and showed it to my first instructors (Gran Moulder & Bob Olinghouse – both Jhoon Rhee Black Belts from the Alan Steen-Pat Burleson lineage.)   I was 22 and excited about moving from Washington, D.C. to Denver, Colorado to open my first school.
I asked Gran for his feedback on my business plan – at the time he was President and Owner of a family business (Moulder-Oldham Janitorial Supply) and even had my other instructor Bob working for him for a while.  I mistakenly thought that as a “real” business person/business owner he might give me some useful ideas..
When I asked his opinion he was really helpful….. you know what he said?   “You can go to Denver and “Play Karate” for a while then get a real job.”    Obviously really helpful feedback about my career objectives!   This really wasn’t the first time I had heard the “how do you expect to make a living doing martial arts” line but this time I was informed enough and prepared enough to ignore it and just execute my plan.
By the way…. A few years later Gran came to visit me in Denver.   I had a new Corvette and a huge house on the side of the mountain overlooking Denver.   1,500+ active students in 5 locations.    I really made him “eat crow” although I felt bad about it later when I learned that the family business in a “real industry” had folded.
It’s unfortunately ingrained in many of us that we’ve chosen an industry where the love of what you are doing trumps the fact that you’ll probably never make much money doing it.
Many martial artists have never gotten over this early, negative “programming.”   It may have been drilled into you by teachers, parents, siblings, friends, even your wife or girlfriend that it’s just not possible to make a comparable or better living than the  “professionals” (Doctor, Dentist, Lawyer, etc) in your family or circle of friends.
Now, I’m sure I don’t have to tell you there’s lots of people who have gotten rich as martial artists and within Martial Arts.    I’m sure you don’t think that Chuck Norris, Jackie Chan, Jean Claude Van Damme, or Steven Seagal have “suffered for their art – financially.”    (I asked Chuck one time while at his ranch in Texas whether all the fortune was worth all the fame – predictably I guess he said: “I’ve been rich and I’ve been poor.. Rich is Better.)
Certainly, those examples don’t help you and I much unless we’re looking to take up acting lessons.    So let’s look at some other examples within Martial Arts.   You may not know them – I do – but I can certainly tell you that Nick Cokinos – founder of Educational Funding Company and Master Reed founder of ASF International are both incredibly wealthy.   Nick drives a new convertible Rolls Royce and has a huge amount of real estate and stock investments.  Master Reed lives full-time on a cruise ship – and I undertand that he just bought another home on the Palm – man made Island in Dubai!
Another example certainly is my friend Mike Dillard who owns Century Martial Arts Supply – and as I hear it about ½ of the commercial real estate in Oklahoma City.
I could go on and on … but your response is probably — OK you can get rich as a martial artist but can you get rich running Martial Arts Schools? Well, frankly I believe in many ways that’s an easier, more predictable, and more practical route.
How do you really get rich running martial arts schools?
There are names in the industry you would know – and, probably more that you wouldn’t know who have run single locations or small multi-location chains effectively.    There’s others who have run bigger organizations.
Some you may be familiar with are Danny “Tiger” Schulman,  Kyoshi Steve Lavallee, Master Bill Clark, and myself.     These are individuals who have mastered multiple school operations and ended up rich running martial arts schools and teaching instructors how to teach and how to manage their martial arts schools.    You probably known one or more of these names and there are others.   I’m sure you would agree that they’ve achieve high income and wealth from running martial arts schools.
I can teach you how to do the same thing.
Our Regional Developer program is the program that gives you the opportunity to become the equivalent of “Tiger Schulman” in New York, Bill Clark in Jacksonville, or Stephen Oliver in Denver.    With proven systems for large school operations without the headaches of a large staff and without spending $100,000 to $200,000 to open each school from your personal resources.
OK, maybe you acknowledge that you can definitely make a lot of money from a multiple school operation but … maybe you really only want to teach and work with students on a daily basis.  Is it really possible to run a single school and make LOTS of income?
Certainly it’s very possible.   I could list off some of our school owners who by following systems, focusing on priorities, and managing their expenses make really good incomes running a single school.   However, you probably haven’t heard of them since they’re not in the public a lot seeking exposure.  By the way, there’s lots of anonymous rich people in the martial arts industry… you just don’t know them.
Some that you may be more familiar with include my friend in Ann Arbor Michigan – Keith Hafner.   I could give  you Keith’s full background but let me give you just a little “snippet” he recently traded his Mercedes 500SL back to the dealer at the end of it’s lease with less than 10,000 miles and converted to a new convertible 911 S4 (that he drives basically two miles back and forth to the school only in the summer.)  A few years ago he built his “Dream House” that’s in the range of 8,500 square feet on a beautiful treed lot, with a built in swimming pool, Jacuzzis, Work out room, and built in massive stereo system throughout the entire house.  He’s run a school doing around $100,000 a month and around 50% net for many years now and still does every enrollment and renewal himself (with his son teaching the majority of the classes.)    There’s lots of examples like that.. my friend Steve Doyon in Connecticut would be another running a $1,000,000 per year single school operations.   I could go on and on about single schools that are doing huge grosses –but also about many that may not gross as much but are running high net profits with proper controls and systems in place.
There are many schools that I’ve personally worked with that have been easily about to grow the $10,000 or more per month net profit.   Even in my own case – my one remaining “Corporate School” last year had a net profit of over $90,000 AFTER paying two full-time Black Belts running it over $100,000 and with almost -0- involvement from me.   (I actually visited the school about 7 times last year – did none of the teaching and none of the sales, and frankly none of the “grassroots’ or on-site marketing either.
In addition to the fact that many of us have been taught that you “Can’t Make Money Teaching Martial Arts” many of us have also been taught that even if you can, you shouldn’t.
I’d to share another story with you.
Many years ago now a close friend of mine Tom Callos (who was working with Jhoon Rhee to put together the book ”Bruce Lee and I”) called me about going to the “Bruce Lee Auction”
You see Linda Lee (Now Linda Lee Caldwell) had decided to auction much of Bruce Lee’s stuff and Tom, Ernie Reyes, and several of my friends planned to attend.   Tom urged me to attend with him.   I was interested in it at the time and asked him to forward to me the auction catalogue.
After looking through the catalogue something caught my attention.  It was a beautifully hand-written goals statement by Bruce Lee.   It said:
“My Definite Chief Aim:

I, Bruce Lee, will be the highest paid Oriental superstar in the United States.  In return I will give the most exciting performances and render the
best of quality in the capacity of an actor.
Starting in 1970, I will achieve world fame and from then onward till the end of 1980,
I will have in my possession $10,000,000.
Then I will live the way I please and achieve inner harmony and peace.”

Bruce Lee, January 1969.

That peaked my interest.
Why did it interest me?    I’m a big fan of “Think and Grow Rich” as well as much of the success literature.   I know how important and powerful goal setting and clarity of purpose can be in achieving success.   I was thrilled to see this representation of clarity of focus that Bruce Lee had created for himself (coincidentally during the year I started in Martial Arts.)
I was thinking seriously about getting on the plane to buy that one piece at auction.   About that time I talked to Jhoon Rhee and told him about the auction and the letter.   He said “Yes, I know that one… I was with him when he wrote it in Los Angeles.   He was very excited about it and we talked at length about how he was going to grow his career and achieve financial wealth.”
I don’t remember why now, but something came up and I didn’t get on the plane.   Turns out that one piece  was bought by Planet Hollywood for $35,000.00.   I’m not sure I would have been willing to pay that at the time for a piece of paper written by Bruce Lee, but I certainly regret it now.  However, you can see this one by walking into just about any Planet Hollywood.     A color copy is usually framed by the front door with a photo of Bruce in Sunglasses.
Why do I share this with you?
Well, so many martial artists get hung-up on the “history of what they do” and ignore what it really takes to get rich.
Ask yourself now.   When you are in your 60’ or 70’s what’s going to be more important to you?   The physical specifics of what you taught or the fact that you helped 1,000’s of students achieve tremendous results in their lives while  earning a great living: providing for yourself and your family and.. creating wealth to retire comfortably with whatever toys you desire and knowing that your children are well provided for?
Think about it for a second.  Bruce Lee was perhaps the most accomplished and the most forward thinking martial artist of his generation.  He had no trouble with charging $250 an hour for private lessons (in the 1960’s!)  about driving his new Porsche  around LA at high speed (scaring the bejesus out of Jhoon Rhee among others – something that I’ve also done in my Porsche Turbo by the way, while Jhoon Rhee screamed – “you drive like Bruce Lee”) or about setting a goal to have $10,000,000 CASH in the bank.
Prior to getting his break in acting he was conspiring with Jhoon Rhee about opening a chain of schools in the San Francisco-Oakland area. They shared ideas about advertising, marketing, pricing, and business strategy.  He regularly sent Chuck Norris’ and others martial arts school advertising to Jhoon Rhee and they strategized on best marketing practices!
Here’s a serious question for you:
Do you REALLY want to be financially successful?
In order to accomplish financial success you’ve got to realize that you must focus on what the market will pay for and a system and process that will deliver it most effectively to the most people.
With Mile High Karate we know that there is a huge market for happy, successful, well behaved kids.     That parents will pay just about any amount of money to protect their child from negative peer pressure and give them the tools that they need to be successful.
We also understand that the market is not clamoring for any particular style or methodology but are enthusiastic about the “outcome” that we’ve created for our students.    Your long term career move may be  to affiliate with us and leverage off of  true “National Brand” with systems in place to teach what students and parents really want to learn (and, are willing to pay handsomely to learn.)
We’ve created a system that is easy to implement, that creates a VERY high quality student physically, mentally, and emotionally.   And, frankly more  important:
we’ve created a marketing process that will have your school flooded with students
who want what you teach

And we’ve created systems to help you provide the highest possible service with the minimum of headaches and the maximum profitability.
Look in any career area.
Is the #1 box office draw at the movies really the most accomplished and skilled technical actor or is he the one who is skilled, charismatic, and marketed well?
How about music.  Was Madonna or Britney – and, whoever is now taking their place really the most accomplished and technically skilled vocalist or have they just tapped into the “pulse” of what the public wants and been properly packaged and marketed?  Surely there are opera stars or other classical singers with better technical skills in an area that the market doesn’t want.
And, do you really think “Dr. Phil” is the most capable psychologist around or was he just genius in packaging and marketing what the public wanted?
Does he do a lot more good – that the psychologists who aren’t willing to market themselves.
I’ll bet there’s a bunch of Harvard Trained “Traditionalist” psychologists all steamed up about him “commercializing” psychology.
That’s right they don’t ‘get it’ either.   It’s not about being right it’s about capturing the public’s imagination and creating a powerful brand that satisfies their needs.   And, Dr. Phil will have a much more powerful influence with the MILLIONS of people who learn from him than the trickle of patients the pissed off guys will work with in their career.
Now,  before you get self righteous and think that I’m talking about watering down the art and “selling out” on quality let me share with you another quote:
“Somebody said to me the Beatles were anti-materialistic.’ That’s a huge myth. John Lennon and I literally used to sit down and say, ‘Now, let’s write a swimming pool.’”
Paul McCartney.
Now, that’s a quote from the most covered band of all time, who still is one of the most popular and profitable bands ever– over 30 years after they disbanded.  There’s even a Cirque Du Solei show now of all Beatles songs.    Regarding Paul McCartney if you don’t know:  He’s considered the most successful pop composer of all time. In the “Guinness Book of World Records” for most records sold, most #1s (shared) and largest paid audience for a concert (350,000+ people, 1989 in Brazil)
If Lennon – McCartney can become the most respected song writing team in history by focusing not just on the “purity of their craft” but also on:  “let’s write a swimming pool”
don’t you think you should give yourself the
right to be rich doing what you love and
creating great results for your students.

If this makes sense to you… then it’s imperative that you get to “Discovery Day” and see everything behind the scenes and up close and personal.  You’ll me me and my key staff.  Tour several Mile High Karate schools and see classes in action.  You’ll have a chance to really see if it’s a good fit for you and an exciting career step.
Just one more thing.  You may want to think about who should not consider Mile High Karate as a career opportunity:
1.    If you insist upon teaching only “hard-core” UFC type of MMA or catering to the narrow slice of market that’s looking for the full-contact MMA training that’s now so popular on TV.
If you are dedicated to the most hard-core MMA or Street Defense for your students -  we may not be for you.
However if you really want the highest quality physical, mental,  and emotional skills for your students you should set aside old beliefs and move forward with at business strategy that will work for you and for your students.  Then come to discovery day and learn more.
Frankly, if you are so hung up on the “what you teach” rather then the “why” you teach it – especially after the above discussion then you really aren’t ready to think of this as a real career at all.
2.    You’d rather spend time “reinventing the wheel” than taking money to the bank.  Clearly there’s a place in the world for “entrepreneurs” We want all of our school owners to be aggressive business minded individuals and we truly expect our regional developers to be martial arts entrepreneurs in their region.    However, it you’d rather start from scratch than benefit from a proven system this may not be for you.
This is an interesting area.    I’ve had several people say to me – I want to be like you, not part of a team or existing system.
In each case I tell them the true story.
When I moved to Denver I hoped to be a Jhoon Rhee Franchisee.   I had hoped to be part of the bigger Jhoon Rhee system that included Nick Cokinos, Jeff Smith and many other talented individuals.
Unfortunately that was not to be.
If things were different and I had the opportunity then (or, now) to be a “Regional Developer” to run multiple schools with a proven system – I would have jumped on it in a heart-beat.
Certainly for some the satisfaction of creating their own path seems like the way to go.  From my experience I can only say:
“Be careful what you wish for… You may get it.”
We already have some of the best entrepreneurial and teaching minds together in the martial arts industry.   With Frank Brown, Jeff Smith, myself and all of our regional developers the resources are truly unparalleled.
For myself, if I had to repeat the last 20 years to get to the stage that I’m in now .. and that becomes the starting point for our regional developers – knowing what it took I’d have to say “Hell No.”
Clearly I’ve learned a lot over 25+ years but, frankly it’s included MANY 100 hour weeks, a lost marriage, no vacations (until 20 years later) and frankly way more irritations, financial perils including a couple of years at $250,000 or move negative, and just plain stress that anyone should have to endure.
We cut 20 years, $25,000,000 invested, and incredible amounts to time and effort from your learning curve.
Also, we give you an on-going “Master Mind” team of truly the best in the industry to associate with and to help you grow.
Oh, one more thing.
If you don’t truly want to create quality students and personally get rich – this isn’t for you.

You’ve got to really want to provide quality service to your student in your community and NOT take a “vow of poverty” to do it.

Until then – I want to
Frankly Discuss MONEY with you and why it’s Okay for
you to be Rich.

As one  Martial Artist to another,
let’s talk frankly about money…..

I know what you may be thinking…. is it really possible to make a big income or even get rich in the martial arts industry?
I’m no different that you.   When I graduated from Georgetown University I put together a business plan and showed it to my first instructors (Gran Moulder & Bob Olinghouse – both Jhoon Rhee Black Belts from the Alan Steen-Pat Burleson lineage.)   I was 22 and excited about moving from Washington, D.C. to Denver, Colorado to open my first school.
I asked Gran for his feedback on my business plan – at the time he was President and Owner of a family business (Moulder-Oldham Janitorial Supply) and even had my other instructor Bob working for him for a while.  I mistakenly thought that as a “real” business person/business owner he might give me some useful ideas..
When I asked his opinion he was really helpful….. you know what he said?   “You can go to Denver and “Play Karate” for a while then get a real job.”    Obviously really helpful feedback about my career objectives!   This really wasn’t the first time I had heard the “how do you expect to make a living doing martial arts” line but this time I was informed enough and prepared enough to ignore it and just execute my plan.
By the way…. A few years later Gran came to visit me in Denver.   I had a new Corvette and a huge house on the side of the mountain overlooking Denver.   1,500+ active students in 5 locations.    I really made him “eat crow” although I felt bad about it later when I learned that the family business in a “real industry” had folded.
It’s unfortunately ingrained in many of us that we’ve chosen an industry where the love of what you are doing trumps the fact that you’ll probably never make much money doing it.
Many martial artists have never gotten over this early, negative “programming.”   It may have been drilled into you by teachers, parents, siblings, friends, even your wife or girlfriend that it’s just not possible to make a comparable or better living than the  “professionals” (Doctor, Dentist, Lawyer, etc) in your family or circle of friends.
Now, I’m sure I don’t have to tell you there’s lots of people who have gotten rich as martial artists and within Martial Arts.    I’m sure you don’t think that Chuck Norris, Jackie Chan, Jean Claude Van Damme, or Steven Seagal have “suffered for their art – financially.”    (I asked Chuck one time while at his ranch in Texas whether all the fortune was worth all the fame – predictably I guess he said: “I’ve been rich and I’ve been poor.. Rich is Better.)
Certainly, those examples don’t help you and I much unless we’re looking to take up acting lessons.    So let’s look at some other examples within Martial Arts.   You may not know them – I do – but I can certainly tell you that Nick Cokinos – founder of Educational Funding Company and Master Reed founder of ASF International are both incredibly wealthy.   Nick drives a new convertible Rolls Royce and has a huge amount of real estate and stock investments.  Master Reed lives full-time on a cruise ship – and I undertand that he just bought another home on the Palm – man made Island in Dubai!
Another example certainly is my friend Mike Dillard who owns Century Martial Arts Supply – and as I hear it about ½ of the commercial real estate in Oklahoma City.
I could go on and on … but your response is probably — OK you can get rich as a martial artist but can you get rich running Martial Arts Schools? Well, frankly I believe in many ways that’s an easier, more predictable, and more practical route.
How do you really get rich running martial arts schools?
There are names in the industry you would know – and, probably more that you wouldn’t know who have run single locations or small multi-location chains effectively.    There’s others who have run bigger organizations.
Some you may be familiar with are Danny “Tiger” Schulman,  Kyoshi Steve Lavallee, Master Bill Clark, and myself.     These are individuals who have mastered multiple school operations and ended up rich running martial arts schools and teaching instructors how to teach and how to manage their martial arts schools.    You probably known one or more of these names and there are others.   I’m sure you would agree that they’ve achieve high income and wealth from running martial arts schools.
I can teach you how to do the same thing.
Our Regional Developer program is the program that gives you the opportunity to become the equivalent of “Tiger Schulman” in New York, Bill Clark in Jacksonville, or Stephen Oliver in Denver.    With proven systems for large school operations without the headaches of a large staff and without spending $100,000 to $200,000 to open each school from your personal resources.
OK, maybe you acknowledge that you can definitely make a lot of money from a multiple school operation but … maybe you really only want to teach and work with students on a daily basis.  Is it really possible to run a single school and make LOTS of income?
Certainly it’s very possible.   I could list off some of our school owners who by following systems, focusing on priorities, and managing their expenses make really good incomes running a single school.   However, you probably haven’t heard of them since they’re not in the public a lot seeking exposure.  By the way, there’s lots of anonymous rich people in the martial arts industry… you just don’t know them.
Some that you may be more familiar with include my friend in Ann Arbor Michigan – Keith Hafner.   I could give  you Keith’s full background but let me give you just a little “snippet” he recently traded his Mercedes 500SL back to the dealer at the end of it’s lease with less than 10,000 miles and converted to a new convertible 911 S4 (that he drives basically two miles back and forth to the school only in the summer.)  A few years ago he built his “Dream House” that’s in the range of 8,500 square feet on a beautiful treed lot, with a built in swimming pool, Jacuzzis, Work out room, and built in massive stereo system throughout the entire house.  He’s run a school doing around $100,000 a month and around 50% net for many years now and still does every enrollment and renewal himself (with his son teaching the majority of the classes.)    There’s lots of examples like that.. my friend Steve Doyon in Connecticut would be another running a $1,000,000 per year single school operations.   I could go on and on about single schools that are doing huge grosses –but also about many that may not gross as much but are running high net profits with proper controls and systems in place.
There are many schools that I’ve personally worked with that have been easily about to grow the $10,000 or more per month net profit.   Even in my own case – my one remaining “Corporate School” last year had a net profit of over $90,000 AFTER paying two full-time Black Belts running it over $100,000 and with almost -0- involvement from me.   (I actually visited the school about 7 times last year – did none of the teaching and none of the sales, and frankly none of the “grassroots’ or on-site marketing either.
In addition to the fact that many of us have been taught that you “Can’t Make Money Teaching Martial Arts” many of us have also been taught that even if you can, you shouldn’t.
I’d to share another story with you.
Many years ago now a close friend of mine Tom Callos (who was working with Jhoon Rhee to put together the book ”Bruce Lee and I”) called me about going to the “Bruce Lee Auction”
You see Linda Lee (Now Linda Lee Caldwell) had decided to auction much of Bruce Lee’s stuff and Tom, Ernie Reyes, and several of my friends planned to attend.   Tom urged me to attend with him.   I was interested in it at the time and asked him to forward to me the auction catalogue.
After looking through the catalogue something caught my attention.  It was a beautifully hand-written goals statement by Bruce Lee.   It said:
“My Definite Chief Aim:

I, Bruce Lee, will be the highest paid Oriental superstar in the United States.  In return I will give the most exciting performances and render the
best of quality in the capacity of an actor.
Starting in 1970, I will achieve world fame and from then onward till the end of 1980,
I will have in my possession $10,000,000.
Then I will live the way I please and achieve inner harmony and peace.”

Bruce Lee, January 1969.

That peaked my interest.
Why did it interest me?    I’m a big fan of “Think and Grow Rich” as well as much of the success literature.   I know how important and powerful goal setting and clarity of purpose can be in achieving success.   I was thrilled to see this representation of clarity of focus that Bruce Lee had created for himself (coincidentally during the year I started in Martial Arts.)
I was thinking seriously about getting on the plane to buy that one piece at auction.   About that time I talked to Jhoon Rhee and told him about the auction and the letter.   He said “Yes, I know that one… I was with him when he wrote it in Los Angeles.   He was very excited about it and we talked at length about how he was going to grow his career and achieve financial wealth.”
I don’t remember why now, but something came up and I didn’t get on the plane.   Turns out that one piece  was bought by Planet Hollywood for $35,000.00.   I’m not sure I would have been willing to pay that at the time for a piece of paper written by Bruce Lee, but I certainly regret it now.  However, you can see this one by walking into just about any Planet Hollywood.     A color copy is usually framed by the front door with a photo of Bruce in Sunglasses.
Why do I share this with you?
Well, so many martial artists get hung-up on the “history of what they do” and ignore what it really takes to get rich.
Ask yourself now.   When you are in your 60’ or 70’s what’s going to be more important to you?   The physical specifics of what you taught or the fact that you helped 1,000’s of students achieve tremendous results in their lives while  earning a great living: providing for yourself and your family and.. creating wealth to retire comfortably with whatever toys you desire and knowing that your children are well provided for?
Think about it for a second.  Bruce Lee was perhaps the most accomplished and the most forward thinking martial artist of his generation.  He had no trouble with charging $250 an hour for private lessons (in the 1960’s!)  about driving his new Porsche  around LA at high speed (scaring the bejesus out of Jhoon Rhee among others – something that I’ve also done in my Porsche Turbo by the way, while Jhoon Rhee screamed – “you drive like Bruce Lee”) or about setting a goal to have $10,000,000 CASH in the bank.
Prior to getting his break in acting he was conspiring with Jhoon Rhee about opening a chain of schools in the San Francisco-Oakland area. They shared ideas about advertising, marketing, pricing, and business strategy.  He regularly sent Chuck Norris’ and others martial arts school advertising to Jhoon Rhee and they strategized on best marketing practices!
Here’s a serious question for you:
Do you REALLY want to be financially successful?
In order to accomplish financial success you’ve got to realize that you must focus on what the market will pay for and a system and process that will deliver it most effectively to the most people.
With Mile High Karate we know that there is a huge market for happy, successful, well behaved kids.     That parents will pay just about any amount of money to protect their child from negative peer pressure and give them the tools that they need to be successful.
We also understand that the market is not clamoring for any particular style or methodology but are enthusiastic about the “outcome” that we’ve created for our students.    Your long term career move may be  to affiliate with us and leverage off of  true “National Brand” with systems in place to teach what students and parents really want to learn (and, are willing to pay handsomely to learn.)
We’ve created a system that is easy to implement, that creates a VERY high quality student physically, mentally, and emotionally.   And, frankly more  important:
we’ve created a marketing process that will have your school flooded with students
who want what you teach

And we’ve created systems to help you provide the highest possible service with the minimum of headaches and the maximum profitability.
Look in any career area.
Is the #1 box office draw at the movies really the most accomplished and skilled technical actor or is he the one who is skilled, charismatic, and marketed well?
How about music.  Was Madonna or Britney – and, whoever is now taking their place really the most accomplished and technically skilled vocalist or have they just tapped into the “pulse” of what the public wants and been properly packaged and marketed?  Surely there are opera stars or other classical singers with better technical skills in an area that the market doesn’t want.
And, do you really think “Dr. Phil” is the most capable psychologist around or was he just genius in packaging and marketing what the public wanted?
Does he do a lot more good – that the psychologists who aren’t willing to market themselves.
I’ll bet there’s a bunch of Harvard Trained “Traditionalist” psychologists all steamed up about him “commercializing” psychology.
That’s right they don’t ‘get it’ either.   It’s not about being right it’s about capturing the public’s imagination and creating a powerful brand that satisfies their needs.   And, Dr. Phil will have a much more powerful influence with the MILLIONS of people who learn from him than the trickle of patients the pissed off guys will work with in their career.
Now,  before you get self righteous and think that I’m talking about watering down the art and “selling out” on quality let me share with you another quote:
“Somebody said to me the Beatles were anti-materialistic.’ That’s a huge myth. John Lennon and I literally used to sit down and say, ‘Now, let’s write a swimming pool.’”
Paul McCartney.
Now, that’s a quote from the most covered band of all time, who still is one of the most popular and profitable bands ever– over 30 years after they disbanded.  There’s even a Cirque Du Solei show now of all Beatles songs.    Regarding Paul McCartney if you don’t know:  He’s considered the most successful pop composer of all time. In the “Guinness Book of World Records” for most records sold, most #1s (shared) and largest paid audience for a concert (350,000+ people, 1989 in Brazil)
If Lennon – McCartney can become the most respected song writing team in history by focusing not just on the “purity of their craft” but also on:  “let’s write a swimming pool”
don’t you think you should give yourself the
right to be rich doing what you love and
creating great results for your students.

If this makes sense to you… then it’s imperative that you get to “Discovery Day” and see everything behind the scenes and up close and personal.  You’ll me me and my key staff.  Tour several Mile High Karate schools and see classes in action.  You’ll have a chance to really see if it’s a good fit for you and an exciting career step.
Just one more thing.  You may want to think about who should not consider Mile High Karate as a career opportunity:
1.    If you insist upon teaching only “hard-core” UFC type of MMA or catering to the narrow slice of market that’s looking for the full-contact MMA training that’s now so popular on TV.
If you are dedicated to the most hard-core MMA or Street Defense for your students -  we may not be for you.
However if you really want the highest quality physical, mental,  and emotional skills for your students you should set aside old beliefs and move forward with at business strategy that will work for you and for your students.  Then come to discovery day and learn more.
Frankly, if you are so hung up on the “what you teach” rather then the “why” you teach it – especially after the above discussion then you really aren’t ready to think of this as a real career at all.
2.    You’d rather spend time “reinventing the wheel” than taking money to the bank.  Clearly there’s a place in the world for “entrepreneurs” We want all of our school owners to be aggressive business minded individuals and we truly expect our regional developers to be martial arts entrepreneurs in their region.    However, it you’d rather start from scratch than benefit from a proven system this may not be for you.
This is an interesting area.    I’ve had several people say to me – I want to be like you, not part of a team or existing system.
In each case I tell them the true story.
When I moved to Denver I hoped to be a Jhoon Rhee Franchisee.   I had hoped to be part of the bigger Jhoon Rhee system that included Nick Cokinos, Jeff Smith and many other talented individuals.
Unfortunately that was not to be.
If things were different and I had the opportunity then (or, now) to be a “Regional Developer” to run multiple schools with a proven system – I would have jumped on it in a heart-beat.
Certainly for some the satisfaction of creating their own path seems like the way to go.  From my experience I can only say:
“Be careful what you wish for… You may get it.”
We already have some of the best entrepreneurial and teaching minds together in the martial arts industry.   With Frank Brown, Jeff Smith, myself and all of our regional developers the resources are truly unparalleled.
For myself, if I had to repeat the last 20 years to get to the stage that I’m in now .. and that becomes the starting point for our regional developers – knowing what it took I’d have to say “Hell No.”
Clearly I’ve learned a lot over 25+ years but, frankly it’s included MANY 100 hour weeks, a lost marriage, no vacations (until 20 years later) and frankly way more irritations, financial perils including a couple of years at $250,000 or move negative, and just plain stress that anyone should have to endure.
We cut 20 years, $25,000,000 invested, and incredible amounts to time and effort from your learning curve.
Also, we give you an on-going “Master Mind” team of truly the best in the industry to associate with and to help you grow.
Oh, one more thing.
If you don’t truly want to create quality students and personally get rich – this isn’t for you.

You’ve got to really want to provide quality service to your student in your community and NOT take a “vow of poverty” to do it.