I’d like to encourage you to participate in our
exciting upcoming Teleconference with:

Martial Arts Legends:

Jhoon Rhee (Father of American Tae Kwon Do)
And,
Stephen Hayes (legendary Ninjutsu Master.)

Along with myself and NAPMA Director of Sales
and Marketing Toby Milroy.

And,

9th Degree Black Belt Terry Bryan and now Millionaire
Business and Real Estate Coach.

And, Chris Hurn. Business Consultant on Real Estate
Investment Expert.
—————————————–
Call Time: Wednesday,

August, 27th

2:00pm Eastern, 1:00pm Central, 12:00pm Mountain, 11:00am Pacific.

Call In Number: 1-(212) 461-2515
—————————————————————————————–
There’s no charge or obligation to participate in this Teleconference.

Each of the participants will be appearing at the Extreme Success
Academy. http://www.ExtremeSuccessAcademy.com

Time’s running out to register for this event.

Stephen Oliver.

Interestingly  the thing that many get COMPLETELY wrong is a hesitance about increasing rates and asking for higher tuitions when the school is suffering.   The opposite is true.  Expand the value of your program AND increase your tuition.

What are you charging?

For new students coming in your door you should be at a  MINIMUM of $150 a month and $300 downpayment. If you are charging much under that they you are probably massively undervaluing your program and hurting your revenue.

Next, for your renewal (Or, upgrade) you should be able to charge a minimum of a 50% increase in the monthly payment (and, a minimum of $500 down payment.

If you are uncomfortable charging those rates I suggest that you do the following:

#1    Clean up your school.   Make sure it’s spotless.   Touch up the point, clean up the look.  Overall, professionalize (without investing a lot of money initially.)

#2.    Professionalize your staff.  Make sure they are a “Product of the Product.” That they look and act professional and are congruent with what you’re projecting to students.

#3.    Get REALLY good at communicating the VALUE of training in your school.   Use testimonials, stories, real examples to help new students “see through the eyes” of someone who’s just graduated to Black Belt

A Beautiful Sunday … surrounded by Democrats, Media and more than a few left and right wing “crazies”….…

As I write this, I’m sitting here in Downtown Denver at Starbucks in Larimer Square.  I’m directly across from the “Pepsi Center” on Sunday before the Democratic National Convention.   There’s incredible electricity in the air.  Security everywhere. Helicopters overhead.  A level of vigilence that I’ve seen in New York City, but never before in Denver (they did find anthrax in a local hotel last week and certainly are gearing up for the worst.   Today they have some “stop the occupation” group with a 1,000 or so protestors picketing the convention.  It includes that wack-job professor from right here in Colorado.  Cindy Sheehan, and the “green party” presidential candidate…I forget here name too.   Anyway there motto seems to be “recreate ‘68” which apparently refers to anti-war riots of 1968.  Add to that a protest march by “code pink” and others.  Next, comes the news that A man who tried to carry two hunting rifles and two pistols into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s downtown hotel during the weekend. Anyway.  Maybe a typical day in New York or even Washington, D.C.  More excitement that Denver’s seen in years.

For myself I took the Harley out today.   It’s a beautiful sunny day.  The streets are full of delegates, news media, the typical Denver crowd out on a nice Sunday afternoon and literally thousands of others in town or hanging around for the Convention.   I was talking to Jodi earlier in the week and said more to myself “I wonder how many people will be in town for the convention?”   She then said 40,000.   I said 40,000?  That’s a lot but I think it will probably be more than that.  No she said, the outreach workers are expecting 40,000 prostitutes to come in for the conventions (she’s working through a church-group outreach.)  Interesting.  Probably the same story next week for the Republicans.   Maybe typical for Vegas…definitely not for Denver.

I’m reflecting today over the media coverage of the economy and our world in general.  Watched Obama introduce Biden yesterday.  Geeez, if everything is as bad as they say it is I should just hang myself and get it over with.  Now, I know that everyone is playing to the image in the community but really you don’t believe it, do you?

On the Mile High Karate front Les Connard, Tim Sullivan and their partners are our newest Mile High Karate school – in Los Angeles and also regional developers for a portion of that VERY  BIG city.   They brought out 7 staff members for a week of training.  On Friday to celebrate the trip they took the gang to the Capital Grill Restaurant right next to where I’m at now.  I was lucky enough to join them.  Now, Capital Grill if you haven’t been there is $35-$45 Ala Carte Steaks and, $80-$100 a head for Dinner.   I’ve got to tell you I’m sure glad we had reservations!  To tell you the truth I’ve never been to that restaurant for lunch or dinner when it wasn’t packed.

The same evening there was a Bronco Game (Sold-Out - $125 & Up Tickets), a Colorado Rockies Game (full but not sold-out,) and preliminary set-up for the convention.   Everywhere I look it sure seems like a lot of money is moving through the economy.  In front of the Capital Grill a nice collection of Mercedes and BMW’s with the occasional Ferrari.
I also watched the August 16th discussion that Rick Warren had with Barack Obama and John McCain.   Obama made it clear that those of us who earn more than $250,000 in personal income a year need higher taxes.

The data that I’ve seen says that currently our federal budget comes from income earners in the following percentages.TOP 1%: 39.43%. TOP 5%: 59.82%, TOP 10%: 70.45%.  Okay, maybe there are right.   The top 10% is only paying 70% of the federal budget for things like roads, military, etc., etc.   What the studies show is that it’s hard for someone like Obama to get much traction among most American’s by promising to raise taxes on “the rich” since most of us aspire to be in that category.

How about a martial arts school owner?

Is $250,000 or more in personal income doable?   Well, the answer is absolutely.  I have several friends who make more than that (in some cases a multiple of that) running single or multiple schools.  Yes, it’s clearly possible.   I’m very convinced that everyone in our NAPMA “Inner Circle” and everyone of our Mile High Karate “\Regional Developers”  will be in that income range by the time our next president (whether it be Obama or McCain) takes office.    I’m also convince that several of our Mile High Karate franchisees (other than regional developers) and, several of our NAPMA “Peak Performers” will be in that range.

What’s the best I’ve seen a single school owner make directly from their school?  We’ll I’ve seen a number of BIG single school operators and several strong and highly profitable smaller single school operators who have done more than $250,000 a year.  Probably a personal best that I’ve personal VERIFIED is in the range of $50,000 a month Net Income.

Anyway I know for some a discussion of earning $250,000 a year or more in Net Income seems academic since they are struggling to stay afloat.

Whether you are moving from $100,000+ to get to $250.000 Net and beyond, or whether you are struggling the following is a good reminder of how to immediately move your school forward quickly.

Hello everyone. Just a quick note to let you know that the newly revised edition of my book, How to Build the Martial Arts School of Your Dreams, is now available in the member area of NAPMA.com. Simply log in and click on the banner. You can download the book, print it, or simply view it online. I hope you enjoy it and I would love to hear your feeback. Either post your comments here in the forum, or you may email me directly at robcolasanti@napma.com.

Hey there everyone. I just wanted to give the martial arts world a heads up on all the great content appearing on the NAPMA Innovations DVD this month. In case you didn’t know , I put together a DVD full of classroom curriculum, drills and skills that can help introduce unique and exciting elements into your classes and can really keep your class interesting and fun and keep students coming back.

This month on the NAPMA innovations DVD, We wrap up the No More Mister nice guy series as I Speak with Kathy “the punisher” Long about the specifics of teaching a kung first San soo class for self defense. We talk about, among other things, class planning, curriculum and teaching this rough and tumble system to average students. And while we talk you can do a visual review of the last 6 month’s worth of curriculum.

Then, in our Edge MMA segment, we bring you Bjj legend Carlos Machado.
This month he teaches you clever transitions that put you in position to submit your opponent. Learning and teaching these techniques will give your students solid skills they can turn to if they are ever taken to the ground on the cage or in the street.

Tournament Weapons champion Josh Quartin shares with you some of the extreme moves he executes with the sword. These techniques can help take your younger sword students to a new level of excitement using a traditional weapon. These moves help develop a level of agility and control with a bladed weapon that is sure to impress in demos and competition and these moves are also fun to work in class. This will be a great starting place you to introduce extreme sword techniques into your weapons classes.

Then, in our bonus segment we bring you a very well produced promotional video, which highlights average people experiencing extraordinary training and a life changing experience at the Peaceful Dragon Kung Fu academy.
It is used as a lead generation tool for NAPMA Inner circle member, Eric Sbarge’s Peaceful Dragon Kung Fu Academy in Charlotte North Carolina.
He uses very well shot images of ordinary people training in Kung Fu. He uses shots that make the people look good doing the art but, without being overly flashy and impressive. He shows ordinary students training at an attainable level of skill and athleticism.
But’ while the beauty of the kung looks great, the most powerful part of the video is the social proof. He uses testimonials from the people you see training. They effectively eliminate objections and highlight benefits in a very disarming style this makes the entire presentation extremely persuasive and effective as a marketing tool, not just a video calling card for the school.
Eric Sbarge will be attending the Extreme Success Academy in September, so if you have any questions about the video or any part of his very successful organization, you can connect with him there.
So you NAPMA members enjoy the Video and all that Maximum Impact has to offer.
For everyone teaching martial arts classes out there. Remember it is your energy and that of your staff, which is the fuel for your school. The students only have your energy you feed off of. You, and your staff, are the sole renewable energy resource for your school. Knowing that means you know you can never let your energy dip. You can’t leave them in the dark with out energy. Your students are counting on you. And I know I can count on you to be there for your students consistently and enthusiastically. I know you would never leave your student’s on the side of the road out of gas.

Mark Graden

A few brief thoughts about thriving in our current economy….and, why the Extreme Success Academy is essential for your success…
with Stephen Oliver and Dan Kennedy.

Stephen Oliver:      Hey, let me get you to address for our members a couple of things before we have to run.  We have as you know, our Extreme Success Academy, which you helped coin our name here for us and we have many people you know on the agenda, obviously myself, Rob Colasanti, Toby Milroy, but we have Lee Milteer here whose our Performance Coach for our “Peak Performers” and  and “Inner Circle Members,” Paul Hartunian, on  public relations and publicity, Chris Hurn, Terry Bryan on Real Estate and a whole line up of martial arts superstars (Jhoon Rhee, Jeff Smith, Joe Lewis, Stephen Hayes) that may not be in your realm.  What would you tell our members about the value of that type of training and specifically this type of line-up we have coming up.

Dan Kennedy:            Well, you’ve got some great speakers, of course.  Significantly, you have a mix of people from inside your industry and people from outside your industry and every industry, every field, every profession tends to drift toward intellectual incest.

The delusional belief that, you know, that the school business is different, that my business is different and our problems and needs and opportunities are unique and so everybody tends to sort of wind up in a circle looking at each other and no business or income breakthroughs ever occur in any business through that process.  At best you can get incremental improvement from looking at each other.

But, the breakthroughs come from turning in the opposite direction and looking outside at what others are doing in other fields that can be transferred and applied and so the exposure to leading experts in specialized areas of advertising, marketing, sales and management who have been brought in diverse experience with a number of different business categories, professional practices and so forth, like Lee Milteer, Paul Hartunian, Chris Hurn, Terry Bryan etc is extremely important.  So, the combination of that opportunity as well as the opportunity to hear from and network with stars and highly successful school owners and that is essentially is like two events in one so it’s pretty time efficient and money efficient, but it is absolutely the right mix.

STEPHEN OLIVER:                 You bet and we are excited to have all of our “Inner Circle” members.  We are going to have twenty school owners; anywhere from half a million up to about a million five and the individual school performance and they really are not the usual suspects.  They are the guys behind the scenes.  You may not have ever heard of them before, but they are really down in the trenches really doing it on a day to day basis, so I think that is going to be very useful as well.

DAN KENNEDY:            Well, you know, the timing is important.  We are in what I call the transition to the new economy and during that transition probably everybody has noticed that there is some adverse things going on and one is that people who have had their kids in five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten organized activities are going to be making choices.  I even noticed the other day, Michelle Obama talking about spending $10,000 a year on all of the organized activities that the two kids are in and you know, they are in ballet, they are in this, they are in that and people like her husband has no idea how much all of this costs.

STEPHEN OLIVER:            You bet.

DAN KENNEDY:            So, you know, it’s pretty important to make sure that yours is one of the chosen ones and so competition now is going to be a little different than competition has been a year ago or two years ago or three years ago and so, at being more adept than ever at making your case, at presenting this not as an interchangeable choice left to the child of what do you want to do this summer, what do you want to do, you know, do you want to swing a bat, do you want to shoot a ball, do you want to ride a skateboard, this is more important and significant than that, making the case that it is different, being able to do that, being able to do a better target marketing job, to briefly plug the other new book of mine that’s out, No BS Marketing to the Affluent, really speaks to that issue of doing business with those least and last affected by recession.

STEPHEN OLIVER:            Absolutely.

DAN KENNEDY:            At being able to better communicate with the students, parents of students, community leaders and other influencers, again so that what you do is viewed as having much greater significance and importance than a lot of other things.  Being able to manage your business, now more efficiently, more effectively, again, you really can’t afford now to have whoever’s at that front desk blowing a prospect, undoing a very good presentation that you just did though some casual off-hand remark or wondering off to reservation in one way, shape or form.  So all of these things now have heightened sensitivity and importance.  The game is going to require more intense performance in order to be successful and that’s all the more reason to get on a plane and come to the academy and sort of recharge batteries, review best practices and strengthen the game plan.

We have FABULOUS Room rates at the Hilton Clearwater Beach.  It sits right on the Beach and all Extreme Success Academy Events will be in this newly renovated hotel.  However, our “room block” discounted rates expire soon (August 28th or when it fills, whichever comes first) and the event (and, hotel) are filling fast.  Book your room before you miss out on these fabulous rates.   Book online through:  www.ExtremeSuccessAcademy.com

Also – Believe it or Not Gas, is High BUT - FLIGHTS are CHEAP if you Book Now.
You’re best to fly into TAMPA, Florida.  The BEACH and the Hotel are just minutes from this international airport.  Today we checked on New York City, Denver, and Seattle flights to TAMPA at Travelocity and found the following fares and flight options.  Book now while they are unbelievably inexpensive.  Don’t forget to bring your staff to the A-Z day and the Staff Training Track.