: is a university professor and martial artist. He holds Black Belt ranks in Judo, Jujitsu, Taekwondo and Hapkido, and has been training for more than 30 years. He is the owner of the Starkville Martial Arts Academy and is Chair of the United States Judo Association Coaching Education Committee
Have you ever wondered if you are a manager or a leader? Or are you perhaps a bit of both? Was General Patton a great leader or a phenomenal manager of his resources? Or was Patton a resource that was used effectively by his superiors? In order to ponder these questions, let’s look at the [...]
The 13 additional business mistakes that I’ve made owning and operating my school are presented below. Words of wisdom: Don’t repeat them in your school, and if you already have, then it’s time to take corrective measures. Mistake #8: Changing too much, too soon. This is the other side of the coin, where you trash [...]
Although experience is the best teacher, I believe that most established business owners would want new business owners to avoid falling into the traps that can appear on the way to business success. I am confident you will avoid some of my mistakes, twenty of which I’ve gathered in a series of articles; this column [...]
Last month, I told you how I moved away from the deck. This month, I want to take the role of devil’s advocate: How can I return to the deck again? If you’ve ever read Michael Gerber’s business book, The E-Myth, then you know that most of us who opened martial arts schools [...]
As we finish our exploration of becoming a strategist, another factor can sometimes add to the mix. Some of us open multiple schools. So now we have several dragons with which to contend, and it is obvious that we can’t be teaching classes in two locations at the same time. At this time, all [...]
During the next two months, I’ll focus on a critical transition in the life of a martial arts school. The transition is the one that takes the school owner from being a tactician to being a strategist and frequently takes us away from what we love the most, teaching classes. First, I want to set [...]
This month, I want to continue my presentation of the Conditions of Learning by focusing on goal setting as it relates to teaching. Most of us think that we have a rather good notion of how to engage in goal setting. After all, we reached Black Belt and beyond, and we run our businesses successfully. [...]
The basis of any successful business is a series of reproducible, result-producing systems. Small and large businesses, including martial arts schools, create and implement systems for accounting, customer services, marketing, etc. You hire staff members to implement those systems and you train them to implement them correctly. Then, you teach, which is something else entirely. [...]
Is it possible to over stretch? Is it possible to over reach a technique? Is it possible to over commit resources? Obvious answers, right? I wonder why so many of us do exactly that as business owners. We counsel our students to do appropriate stretches; we reinforce the correct form. Yet, we sometimes find ourselves [...]
As I explained in Part 1 of this multi-part column, our Black Belt tests are very large rank-requirement classes filled with students from Green through Black Belt. There is much hard work, fun and sweat during our Black Belt tests. The tests take an entire evening, but they are not rigid, discipline-driven events; and they [...]
When I promote students to Black Belt, I want them to feel enriched, excited, nurtured and worthy. Black Belt tests should be a celebration of victory, not a journey into the unknown reaches of physical exertion, some mystical event that isn’t to be discussed in the dojo, or even an opportunity for the grading board [...]
Why I Love Martial Arts Fitness
I’ve recently been reflecting on the impact my programming has had on people and the difference between what I hear my students say today as opposed to when I taught only a traditional martial arts program. In the past, the compliments were mostly about how a child improved in school or how much more confident [...]
Protect your Assets with the Right Business Entity, Part 1
As I wrote in my August/September column, the best way to keep what you have is not to have anything in your name. To implement that strategy, you must choose the right business entity (or entities) to limit exposure of your assets to (successful) lawsuits and separate your asset ownership. This month, I’ll explain Sole [...]
When I served my three tours of military duty in Southeast Asia, we used multiple layers of defensive methods, or multiple redundancy defenses, to protect an installation. For example, my job as a dog handler was to be the first level of defense, encountering the enemy outside the perimeter of the installation. We were also [...]
