Martial Arts Professional Magazine

In the July and August NAPMA Resources Kits, all NAPMA members received parts 1 and 2 of an interview by Rob Colasanti with my instructor Jhoon Rhee. Jeff Smith and I have been associated with Jhoon Rhee for 45 and coming up on 40 years, respectively.

If you are not a NAPMA member, then you can receive this complete interview, the transcript and a bundle of other great interviews with martial arts legends and masters and business gurus at napmafreeoffer.com.

This month’s column includes the four additional lessons you’ll learn when you listen to the Jhoon Rhee interview.

Lesson 4: Having the resources to produce incredibly high quality students. At the same time that Grand Master Rhee’s school had a huge percentage of the world ranked kick-boxers on staff and the current and future World Forms Champions (John Chung and then Charlie Lee), other Washington, D.D. areas schools called Jhoon Rhee a “Belt Factory.” In reality, Jhoon Rhee’s schools had a very high (for the era) graduation rate to Black Belt. The Black Belts were rigorously screened. Not only were children required to have physical mastery, but also good grades and behavior. The quality of the students across seven, nine and then 12 schools was incredibly HIGH. Far from “Selling Out,” the Jhoon Rhee schools produced many of today’s industry leaders. That would have been impossible unless two full-time instructors per location were able to make good livings (in the 1970’s) by running a martial arts school. (I was making a $30,000 base plus commissions, equaling approximately 10% of the gross, while a full-time student at Georgetown University in 1980.)

Lesson 5: Jhoon Rhee relentlessly sought experts to help him grow his business. In the pre-NAPMA days, he sought publicity experts (hiring a full-time PR guy AND Sugar Ray Leonard’s publicist). He pulled Nick Cokinos from the dance industry and relentlessly looked for experts in sales, marketing, teaching, management and even franchising to help him grow his organization.

Lesson 6: Relentless Promotions. As a staff member of Jhoon Rhee’s organization (and a full-time college student), I was annoyed by the constant parade of promotions: A HUGE demo at the 4^th of July celebration on the Washington Mall each year; classes taught to the FBI; presentations at elementary schools, high schools and colleges; and a parade of classes taught to everyone from local police officers to Congressmen. Jhoon Rhee was relentless in finding ways to introduce the public to Tae Kwon Do (and specifically to “Jhoon Rhee Karate”). It was a total, never-ending quest to fill the schools and, therefore, improve the gross and staff salaries and “spin-off” resources for other purposes. He discusses Muhammad Ali as being a very good promoter - and Jhoon Rhee learned from him and many others how to promote himself. By the way, Grand Master Rhee was able to convince Muhammad Ali to mention his name in front of 50 million TV viewers and join him in front of millions of fans during their tour of Korea.

Lesson 7: Goals Orientation. Jeff Smith and I were talking with Grand Master Rhee during a recent late night (12 midnight his time!). He reminded me, “When you were 10 years old, you told me you would go to Denver and open Jhoon Rhee Karate schools.” It’s interesting that he remembers and was impressed. Truth is that when I was 10, I said I wanted to open Jhoon Rhee schools. I was about 18 when the idea of doing it in Denver bubbled to the surface. However, the fact that he remembers shows how rarely we set serious goals and follow through. To be successful, you first must make a decision; you can call it setting a target or being goal oriented.  You must decide that there will be no excuses and you will make it happen.

What should you take from the interview with Jhoon Rhee? At the least, you should know that it’s okay to make money and grow your school. You should also know that commercialism does not imply “selling out” and that the more resources you have the better you can make your students.  Next, you need to spare no expense in associating with a quality mastermind team and in developing knowledge (and hiring experts) to shorten your own learning curve. Finally, you need to be tireless in promoting your school and make sure that you have the tools and resources to do that effectively.