Martial Arts Professional Magazine

An Interview with Master Robert Lewis, Colorado Regional Developer for Mile High Karate.

Learning and utilizing the secrets to success is the real difference maker; and Master Robert Lewis, the Colorado Regional Developer for Mile High Karate, is the one person with the inside information on the franchise system because he works in the trenches with martial arts franchisees everyday.

Master Lewis is uniquely positioned to understand why the franchise system is the best choice for many individual school owners whose goals are long-term success and profitability. That’s also why he is a guest speaker at the 2008 NAPMA Extreme Success Academy, and ready to share his insider’s secrets with you there.

To learn those secrets, you must, first, register at ExtremeSuccessAcademy.com and book your room at the specially discounted, NAPMA member room rates. If you’re not a NAPMA member, then enroll at NAPMAFreeOffer.com because the Extreme Success Academy is a members-only event. Interview by Toby Milroy, NAPMA Vice-President of Sales and Marketing.

Toby Milroy: Master Lewis, tell us about your martial arts background.

Robert Lewis: I started martial arts about 17, 18 years ago, since 1980. I started because one of my daughters was being bullied at school. I decided they needed to learn self-defense and it became an activity we could do together. I’m proud to say that my daughter, LaaQuetta Lewis, is a 4^th-Degree Black Belt and head instructor at our school.

I am a “homegrown” Mile High Karate Fifth-Degree Black Belt and school owner. Mile High Karate’s Americanized Taekwondo is the only system I have ever known. I operate the Lakewood, Colorado location that has been opened since 1983 and my franchise since 1998. I’ve been the Colorado regional director for Mile High Karate franchises since 2005.

Recently, I earned my MBA to expand my business education.

Milroy: What motivated you to take that educational step and to continue your education outside the martial arts?

Lewis: I felt that I was stagnating; I wasn’t growing the way I wanted to grow and I had no idea how to obtain business information, so I decided to educate myself a little bit more. By earning an MBA, I learned how to research, how to find information and how to ask questions. Another benefit of my MBA is that it has opened doors for me. What I mean is that I am able to interact with a businessperson, a CEO, and the principals and teachers of academic schools, at their level. Many of these people have MBAs or some master level of formal education, so I find myself being treated as an equal.

Milroy: I would imagine your MBA experience also taught you that when you feel that there is no more to learn, you tend to become less and less productive. Often, we’re not ready to hear what someone can teach us, until we’re ready to hear it.

Lewis: Yes, exactly. My daddy had an old saying: when the teacher is ready, the student will appear. When the student is ready, the teacher will appear. That is how school owners must approach the marketing of their schools.

When prospects are ready, they will read your ad or flyer and walk in your door. Your responsibility, as a school owner, is to make sure they see your ad or flyer, regularly, so the message is easily available when they are ready.

Milroy: Please explain to our readers your role as one of the regional directors for the Mile High Karate franchise system. Isn’t the support system you provide the seven school franchises in the Denver area very robust, very hands-on?

Lewis: During the last two and a half years, my role has been to create more unity among the seven schools. I serve as the primary support system to all the franchisees. I monitor their use of the Mile High system for sales, marketing, curriculum, staff development, operations, etc. I make sure there is a consistent use of those systems from school to school: leadership classes, intramural tournaments, regional functions to improve retention and enrollment, etc. Although these systems are clearly presented in the operations manual that Master Oliver developed, we don’t just blindly toe the line. We act as a team; we talk about what we’re doing and the results. We bounce ideas off each other and help each other, so we can all be successful.

Milroy: What you’re describing is the mastermind effect in action, just as in NAPMA’s Inner Circle and Peak Performers groups. You gather a small group of smart, like-minded people to share and consolidate ideas and the implementations of those ideas within a system, so it’s most effective for everyone. That mastermind effect can also help the group penetrate the market more deeply with their marketing message and use internal systems, internal activities, such as intramural tournaments, Black Belt retreats, etc.

Please explain why you would host an intramural tournament rather than an open tournament and how you use that intramural tournament within the franchise system in your region to help support individual schools?

Lewis: In my experience, the biggest difference between open and intramural tournaments is poor attitudes on the part of the participants and their lack of respect for adults. When I first started with Mile High Karate, my two young daughters and I would attend local, open tournaments and we would see all kinds of attitudes. Students threw their helmets, became upset and cussed at the judges, and were just generally disrespectful. We started Mile High Karate intramural tournaments, so they would be our tournaments, with our instructors, master instructors and judges.

Because we teach students respect, discipline, focus and confidence in their classes, those same positive behaviors occur during our intramural tournaments. Another benefit of intramural tournaments is the opportunities to increase retention. Students who participate in the tournaments develop friendships with students from other schools. They know they will see each other from time to time and will very likely test for Black Belt together. You create long-term friendships between students as well as their families. You also improve retention because parents see the respect that all the children have for the instructors and judges.

Retention is certainly a primary benefit of intramural tournaments for school owners, but, at Mile High Karate, we also know that intramural tournaments can also help to generate enrollments and renewals or upgrades. At a basic level, intramural tournaments can generate approximately $110 (on average) in revenue per student, per competitor (ticket sales, entry fees, retail sales), which can be a nice alternative profit center. At another level, however, intramural tournaments are also catalysts for renewals.

Milroy: According to my research, one of the Mile High franchisees did four or five leadership renewals and a couple cash deals, generating approximately $25,000 or $30,000 in cash at a recent intramural tournament in Denver. As the regional developer, you help to create the culture in which that can happen. Explain how an intramural tournament can generate renewals or help facilitate enrollments? How does that work?

Lewis: We create an atmosphere of excitement and fun. We include an open division in the middle of our tournament; a musical open, where demo teams compete against each other. We invite the young kids, the young Black Belts and anyone to compete. We make sure that our renewal candidates - White Belts, Gold Belts, etc. - are there. Everyone is interacting with each other, no one is standoffish, all the master instructors are making sure that students are enjoying the event and meeting and smiling and having fun with all the new students.

Just before we start the intramural tournament, we have a big warm-up session, something like a prep rally before the big football game. We talk about the renewal process, we talk about being a leader, we talk about the steps of being a leader, what is a leader, what do you expect, what are the qualities of a leader, is a good leader born or is a good leader found? We also talk about the three leadership behaviors needed to be successful and we describe the most important roles of a leader. At that point, they are excited, they are going to the intramural tournament and they are having fun. They learn new weapons and new forms - it’s exciting, even for us, and I’ve been doing this for a long time. When I leave an intramural tournament, I am pumped. I want to go back and turn up the heat.

That’s what we’re trying to create all across the country with the Mile High Karate franchises. It’s nearly impossible to benefit from an intramural tournament at that level if you’re a single school in Paducah, Kentucky.

With the Mile High Karate franchise structure, an individual franchisee may only have to do 10% of the work because all he must do is to make sure his students attend the tournament. The structure of the tournament will help him sell his leadership program. It will help him populate that program with new students. It will help him generate interest in the school. Students and parents will ask, “What do I need to do to be a part of this? I saw it at the tournament, I saw what it is all about; it’s really exciting, it’s something I want to do. Tell me more about it.” This same type of positive renewal environment is also created for our Black Belt Retreats.

Milroy: Explain why you hold a retreat and the advantages for a single school operator in the Mile High Karate system. Why is the Black Belt Retreat so valuable?

Lewis: A Mile High Karate Black Belt Retreat is another example of the mastermind effect. For the Black Belts, it’s a great opportunity to meet and interact with Black Belts from other parts of the country. This generates plenty of camaraderie, enthusiasm and excitement. For our school owners, it’s an opportunity to share school-growth ideas and learn from the success of others. We have marketing meetings and planning sessions. School owners also have the opportunity to pick the brains of Master Oliver’s coaching clients, who have very profitable schools. Whenever two or more people gather, you have creativity; and, for Mile High Karate, our Black Belt Retreats make it a stronger and better organization.

Another way to look at the benefits of a Black Belt Retreat is that it helps us promote and share a common framework, a common philosophy. Although I would never say anything negative about an open tournament, most of them are a mixture of cultures and outcomes. Some students at an open tournament have learned the ABC program, while others are trained in XYZ. When they observe the other system, they are often confused. Should they turn their backs or be excited? It’s very important that our organization presents a consistent story, a consistent message to all students and families.

At one of our intramural tournaments or retreats, everyone is doing the same curriculum, everyone’s focused on leadership. Everyone is focused on the highest-level program that you offer in the school. Everyone that walks in the front door sees that social proof. They see that 99% of all the people in the room are leadership students, and that starts parents talking. That is the third-party social proof that’s very, very powerful.

Milroy: One of Master Oliver’s genius moves was to bring in professionals from outside the Mile High Karate family or system. Please talk for a moment about the value that they bring to the organization and individual schools and the positive effect that will have on the future of Mile High Karate.

Lewis: The future is wide open because we’re bringing other people into the organization that will help us. Grand Master Jeff Smith, Mile High Karate chief instructor, helps us create different tasks for our Black Belts that advance through the ranks. By the time a student reaches first-degree or second-degree, they have learned the basics of Taekwondo and the Filipino arts. That is Master Runolfo Gonzales’ expertise, so we can create a curriculum in the Filipino arts that offers students different Black Belt levels. Masters Alan Condon and Mike Bidwell can create a jujitsu program. This is another key to long-term retention. By bringing outside talent into the Mile High Karate system, students have the opportunity to specialize in other curriculums, which means they are more likely to continue their training beyond second- or third-degree.

Many schools, even very successful schools, have huge retention problems once their students reach Black Belt. Mile High Karate’s eclectic curriculum helps Black Belts feel like White Belts again. Remember, we were never more excited than when we were White Belts and we saw all of those new moves and techniques that we were to learn. In most cases, we were never less excited than when we were Brown Belts and saw that the next, new kick looks just like the last kick we did. You want a curriculum in your school that makes your Black Belts feel competent, but very excited about the next step in their training. You’ll find that atmosphere in almost every highly successful school.

“If you don’t have a system in place, then much of your efforts will be trial and error, and you’ll probably make some mistakes. Too many mistakes and you’ll upset parents and lose students.”

Milroy: Please expand on what occurred during a recent Black Belt Retreat in Breckenridge, Colorado, especially the student outcomes.

Lewis: You might say that this was the year of the Grand Masters - Jeff Smith, Bill “Superfoot” Wallace, Joe Lewis - and even a little time with Chuck Norris. Of course, these guys are legends; they’re heroes to everyone in martial arts. They are the ones who pioneered the martial arts and made it what it is today. It was an unbelievable opportunity for our young Black Belts and leadership students. They were able to observe and work closely with these Grand Masters. We sat with them, had lunch together and talked with them; they are just so down to earth. Our students were excited. They were happy and experienced a weekend that only Mile High Karate could provide.

One thing about Mile High Karate that I’ve noticed since I’ve been involved in the organization is that the big guys in the industry, the legends, work together. They don’t fight each other. I don’t know why we think one art is better than the next. At a Mile High Karate Black Belt Retreat, everyone feeds off each other and helps each other grow; and it makes the art stronger.

Milroy: We discussed earlier how an intramural tournament can increase enrollments and renewals, but how does a Black Belt Retreat generate enrollments and renewals to benefit the individual school owner, directly?

Lewis: The main key is promotion in the schools to generate renewals. We decorated the schools with posters of the Grand Masters coming to the Retreat. We distributed information about them. We talked about the Retreat and special guests in every class. We showed video clips of Grand Master Smith, Lewis and Wallace.

We only invited the leadership students to the Retreat, not Black Belts. Those invited were just White Belts, Gold Belts, Orange Belts and anyone ranked below Black Belt. We also invited those students who wanted to become a member of our leadership program. These students wanted to renew to come see the world’s greatest martial artists. This was the first time ever that these legends would be together and maybe one of the last.

It would be a wasted opportunity just to invite your Black Belts. It was a huge opportunity to use it as leverage to promote to the leadership students. Johnny is in the decision-making process. He is a White or Gold Belt and his parents are considering the future of martial arts for him. Should he be a leadership student? If Johnny is on the edge, then a Black Belt Retreat with Joe Lewis, Bill Wallace and Jeff Smith may just push him over that edge to a renewal.

The message I want to make sure MAPro readers understand is that special events at your schools is not just an opportunity for some quick cash, such as a $35 ninja night. You must change your mindset to use that event as an enrollment, retention, renewal and student quality opportunity. That is why the Mile High Karate system is so important to the franchise schools I support. These events are part of a plug-and-play system. All of these events are scheduled throughout the year and focused on helping individual franchisees with their enrollments, retention, renewals and student quality.

“You want a curriculum in your school that makes your Black Belts feel competent, but very excited about the next step in their training.”

Milroy: As a regional developer, you focus on the individual schools. How do you work with the individual school owners? How do the franchisees feel about their role and how they benefit?

Lewis: I meet twice a week with the seven franchisees. We come together as a team Monday mornings for a two-hour meeting. We discuss marketing; that is our marketing day. We discuss how to improve retention and renewals and any problems that we’re having at the schools. We meet again on Friday, which could be considered “play time.” We review the curriculum and make sure all the instructors are on the same page and they’re learning and teaching the exact curriculum. We actually sweat that day. The master instructors have an opportunity to put us through our paces. By being part of an organization, we have an opportunity to bounce renewal, retention and marketing ideas off each other. We talk about what worked and didn’t work this week. We talk about how to “defeat” a “gatekeeper,” such as a school principal or parent that was denying access to prospects or signing a renewal.

In my support role, I have the time to gather information that the school owners wouldn’t have time to do. They don’t have to reinvent the wheel, so to speak. They have a regional developer who is beating the bushes; researching and learning new information that will help their schools grow and be successful. I learn ideas from conference calls. I spend time with various advertising vendors, such as movie theaters, coupon books, infomercials, etc. I review it, select the good ideas and share those with my franchisees during our Monday meeting.

Another part of my role is to help the franchisees remain on track with the system. They can become distracted by activity over accomplishment, but, most of the time, I don’t have to introduce the next new thing to help them return to the system. I just help them refocus on the steps in the system that is already in place.

When franchisees tend to jump the track, it’s not because the system, marketing piece or internal referral system didn’t work. It’s because they missed a step or two or a key component or they didn’t quite fully understand why X should be like Y or not like Z.

With the Mile High Karate franchise system, the wheel’s already invented. It does take a little bit of refocusing from time to time to make sure that franchisees are still turning the wheel in the right direction.

Milroy: From your perspective, how can the individual school owner with 150 students in Wisconsin benefit from the type of activities and events that he or she can organize and manage, so they produce enrollments, retention, renewals and student quality?

Lewis: If you’re not part of a system, such as Mile High Karate and you have 150 students, it would be devastating, from a financial standpoint, to try to duplicate some of the things that Mile High Karate can do as a team. You probably don’t have the resources to host a retreat with the star power at a Mile High Karate Black Belt Retreat.

If you don’t have a system in place, then much of your efforts will be trial and error and you’ll probably make some mistakes. Too many mistakes and you’ll upset parents and lose students.

When I became a regional director, all the systems were already in place. The “system” had a relationship with a trophy vendor that knew exactly what we needed. We had support staff to rent a facility and be event runners. School owners can concentrate on optimal curriculum and developing excellent student quality.

If I’m the individual school owner in Paducah or Wisconsin and I want to try to replicate that type of culture, then I must focus my energy and thinking, so the purpose of every school event is enrollments, renewals, retention and quality. If I want a future tournament, retreat or other event be a very productive activity, then I should be racking my brains everyday trying to determine how I use that event to generate enrollments and renewals, help with retention and increase student quality

If my fellow school owners, reading this interview, learn one lesson, then it’s that a belt test must work for renewals. If it’s a tournament, then you must make that work for renewals. If it’s a movie night, then make it work for renewals. The second lesson, of course, is that there is an alternative to spending years trying to develop these systems, or reinventing the wheel, and that is the Mile High Karate system may be a perfect fit for your school.

Milroy: What does it take to be hyper-successful in the martial arts industry?

Lewis: I think to be successful in the industry you must have 20 to 30 actions that you’re doing each and every month to generate enrollments. There is no one single tactic that you can do to fill your school. You need an array of ideas that are working for you, simultaneously.

Another way to look at this is very well presented in Jim Collins book, Good to Great. One of his concepts is The Flywheel Principle. He found that this was a common denominator of all businesses that were at a mediocre level, but then accelerated to a very successful level and stayed there.

Think of your business as a big stone flywheel. One little push on the wheel doesn’t net any results, but one little push after another little push after another little push starts the wheel to turn slowly. Once it starts turning, it’s much easier to make it turn faster than the first push. The companies that Collins researched for his book felt that they were the beneficiaries of the Flywheel Principle, No one thing made their businesses accelerate to the next level of performance. It was a million little things. It was little tweaks here and there.

Every activity you do - internal, external or otherwise - must be focused on enrollments, renewals, retention and student quality, and there’s a million ways to make that happen. As you keep spinning the flywheel, putting a little bit more labor into the flywheel each day, it begins to go faster and faster. Before long it’s spinning very fast and no one thing really accomplished that; it was the sum total of all the small parts. That is a concept that makes a lot of sense in martial arts schools - and the kind of concept we share and use in our Mile High Karate franchise schools.