As I approached the end of the pier, I noticed a large barrel by the door of one of the restaurants. As I moved closer, I could see that the barrel was full of live crabs-clawing, clanking, crawling all over each other. I looked around and saw no one near the barrel, and I thought to myself, “How could anyone leave a barrel full of crabs outside? Wouldn’t more than one of them with aspirations of sweet freedom crawl from the barrel and take a headlong dive into the deep blue sea? This was bad business practice,” I said, so I went inside to tell the manager my thoughts.

I found the head honcho and began to explain. What were you thinking? A bucket full of live crabs near the water? I told him he was a fool to leave so much of his business to chance, and at the sound of these words, the man replied emphatically, “You’re the fool,” he told me calmly. “Go outside and watch those crabs!”

I wondered what he was exactly saying. Perhaps, there was someone outside watching the beasts to make sure they wouldn’t escape; some young teenager, perhaps, in need of a summer job to pay for his martial arts classes. Perhaps, there was a clear lid on top of the barrel I had missed during my earlier observation.

As I walked outside, I noticed that there was no one watching the crabs and no lid over them, but what I did see was remarkable. If one of the animals attempted to crawl over the side of the barrel during their orgiastic clambering, then the others around it would latch onto it and pull it into the abyss of crab Hades. None of the crabs could escape because the others made sure it didn’t; it’s in their nature.

There was a lesson to be learned on that pier. There are crab equivalents in my life, I thought. There are those around me that try to pull me back when I have my eyes on the prize; the kind of people who, not always intentionally, draw me from the goals I’ve set for myself.

We all want to escape the bucket; in fact, we go to great lengths to make sure that someday we will. We all have crabs around us, however; boyfriend or girlfriend crabs, mother/father crabs, best friend crabs, and the people (crabs) who invite us to a movie when it’s time to train. Maybe, it’s in people’s nature as well; after all, no one wants to go to a movie alone.

I then realized there isn’t much I’m able to do to minimize my contact with some of those people because they’re so close to me. What I can do, however, is keep my eyes on the prize, stay focused on my vision and follow my flight plan. The crabs may grab my body with their claws, but if my mind is able to escape their grip, then the body will soon follow.

The grip of prying claws may not be easy to escape, but there are great rewards beyond the boundaries of the confining barrel. If you’re able to identify those who are keeping you back and free yourself from the allure of non-action, then you will find a vast ocean of opportunities waiting for you, as well.

Fariborz Azhakh is the owner and head instructor of Team Karate Centers Inc. in Woodland Hills, California, and produces martialinfo.com, one of world’s largest and most prestigious martial arts Web sites.

Many of you are probably thinking, My students already achieve fitness results. I’m sure a half dozen or more of your students has told you how much weight they’ve lost and how they are now in better shape; however, that’s not my focus. I’m promoting results by design, and not by accident. You should have a fitness program that allows your students to experience great results if they follow the program. You can achieve that end, when you incorporate the four elements of fitness.

The secret of the success of my UBC Challenge is that it combines four elements of fitness: aerobic conditioning, anaerobic conditioning, flexibility training and a sound nutrition program. All of these elements are required to experience fitness results.

The sales pitches for most weight-loss programs don’t mention the four elements, which is why so many people fail when they try fitness training. Often, their fitness training only includes one or two of those elements. They will run (aerobic condition), but not resistance-train (anaerobic) and they’ll still eat poorly. Some people will lift weights and eat right, but never perform any aerobic conditioning to burn calories and strengthen the heart and lungs.

Worst of all, many people will just restrict caloric intake to lose weight. Calorie-restrictive diets (and all weight-loss diets are calorie-restrictive) don’t work in the long run because you can’t gain lean muscle mass on a caloric-restrictive diet; and it’s the lean muscle mass that burns the most calories.

This means someone can lift weights until they are blue in the face, but it won’t matter. They won’t become any stronger if they aren’t eating right and ingesting enough calories from the right foods. This is why it’s so important not only to include all four elements of fitness in your program, but also to understand how each of them works in relationship to fitness.

This is why the UBC program works so well. It removes the guesswork from the process. The program starts with a complete orientation for students, including an easy-to-understand nutritional program that is designed to help them build lean muscle mass, while, at the same time, cutting body fat. Students also receive a fully illustrated manual/workbook with daily charts that help keep them on track and focused on their goals.

Students start the UBC with a complete evaluation of their current fitness levels, which should improve during the next ten weeks. Fitness kickboxing classes (aerobic) are combined with strength and conditioning classes (anaerobic), so students will achieve remarkable results in ten short weeks.

To make it more palatable, the program includes one play day a week, and for two very good reasons. For most people, the idea of eliminating pizza, beer, ice cream and “favorite” foods and beverages from their diets for 10 weeks is too much to bear; so, on Sunday, they can eat and drink whatever they want and they don’t have to exercise as much as the course requires, Monday through Saturday. Second, as I stated before, you cannot gain muscle tissue on a calorie-restrictive diet, so it’s beneficial for students to ingest an overabundance of calories to feed their muscles at least once a week.

I have offered a money-back guarantee for anyone who completed my course and is not satisfied; and, after eight years, there have been no refunds.

Why is it important to have a crystal-clear vision of where a person wants to go in life?

Brian Tracy answers…

This is one of the most important things I’ve ever learned: Successful people tend to be future-oriented. Unsuccessful people tend to be present- or past-oriented. You can tell if a person will be successful by listening to his or her predominant conversation.

If people expect to be really successful, then they can talk about the future most of the time. They talk about where they’re going, not where they’ve been. They talk about what they want to accomplish, rather than what’s happened. They talk about their goals, rather than who’s to blame for their problems.

You find that unhappy people are always looking backward, but successful people have a future vision. Now, what is your vision?

To answer that, apply the “magic-wand” technique. Imagine that you can wave a magic wand over your life five years from now and your life would be perfect in every respect. If your life was perfect in every respect five years from now, then what would it be? What would you be doing? How much would you be earning? How much would you have in the bank? In what kind of home would you live? What kind of lifestyle would you and your family be leading?

In other words, just fantasize about this for a period of time. I do this with Fortune 500 corporations. I did this exercise with the top people at a $170-billion-dollar a few years ago.

Now, you have a clear vision of where you want to be in five years. Let’s return to the present and determine what would be the first step that you would take to begin moving toward making your vision a reality. Then, what would be the second step, and so on.

It’s absolutely amazing how your life changes when you imagine that you have no limitations. You create your ideal future vision and then you take that first important step.

For a martial arts school owner, those key questions could be: “How big of a school do I want? How many staff member do I want working for me? How much money do I want to earn? What kind of car do I want to drive?”

Now, here’s an important thing to remember: There are always several ways to reach your goals. So, you start with the end in mind. For example, “How much do I want earn per month or per year?” There are several ways you can do that. One school owner might say, “I can increase the size of my school.” Another school owner may decide, “I’ll open another school.” There are all kinds of ways you can achieve the your financial goal, once you have it

ACMA board member Brian Tracy is a Karate Black Belt and a world-renowned expert in the field of human development and motivation. Much of his success is a result of the discipline he learned through martial arts training.

I suggest that you identify your weaknesses and determine a method to transform then into your strengths.

Often, in the struggle for balance, however, we forget just how much we should be doing. In one of my previous columns, “The Game of Running a Martial Arts School,” I presented the four levels of dedication: 1) Choosing not to play; 2) just playing; 3) not to lose; and 4) WIN, What’s Important Now. Most of us will find ourselves at one or more of these levels; and they relate directly to our struggle for balance in our lives. When you’re fully dedicated to the tasks at hand, the balance of work and play is easy to find and maintain. You will do what must be done and still have time to relax and play.

Many of us, however, live unbalanced lives. We don’t take care of business before pleasure. Our lives are filled with too many tasks and responsibilities. This is a common problem because we often forget exactly what we should be doing and, instead, focus our attention on all the extra activities. This loss of focus is what leads us astray from our goals and, as those who have been lost know, it’s not easy to return to your focused track.

For the most part, however, our inherent feelings or social upbringing helps us to know what we should do to succeed during our lives, and those are our flight plans. Everything else is a distraction.

I’ve known many martial arts school owners who, instead of teaching a basic curriculum from which their students are able to build knowledge, teach less useful, unnecessary course material; perhaps, techniques those school owners have invented, but are counterintuitive to the present curriculum. These confuse students and stunt the learning process. School owners who forget the basics may create Web sites for their schools, but not a basic brochure. In either instance, the school owner is failing to take care of basics first.

From another perspective, if I don’t dedicate sufficient time and energy to my marriage to my wife’s satisfaction, then whenever I buy her flow­ers, etc., she will see that gesture as trite and patronizing. If I’m an inattentive marriage part­ner, then I’ve overlooked a basic part of my life, and all the extras I expect from life become unnecessary and meaningless.

It’s a little known fact that, during a flight from Los Angeles to San Francisco, a plane is off-course 98% of the time. Minor corrections by the pilot, however, ensure the flight arrives at its destination, on time, and with no detours. As soon as the pilot notices that the plane is off-course, he makes a small adjustment. The passengers are satisfied because they arrive on time, and it’s because the pilot sticks to the flight plan.

Too many of us don’t have a flight plan for our lives and sometimes it’s difficult to know when we’re off course. For the most part, however, our inherent feelings or social upbringing helps us to know what we should do to succeed during our lives, and those are our flight plans. Everything else is a distraction.

Fariborz Azhakh is the owner and head instructor of Team Karate Centers Inc. in Woodland Hills, California, and produces martialinfo.com, one of world’s largest and most prestigious martial arts Web sites.

Please elaborate on the importance of continual growth and improvement in the martial arts field, or in any field for that matter?

Tony Robbins answers…

I would add not only in any field, but also in life. Though we all have different backgrounds, educations, languages and religions, I am convinced that humans have six needs. Certainly is one of those needs. One of the attractions of martial arts for many people is to increase their sense of certainty, that in any environment they can be in control of their lives. The martial arts fulfill that need at the highest level because it challenges and stimulates. We all need to feel significant, unique or special, and the martial arts provide a unique way of living at a higher level of discipline. It is a different structure than the average person will experience throughout his or her life.

We all need connection and love. The martial arts allow you to connect with your spirit and a higher spirit as well as other people. I believe the highest level of martial arts is where you feel every aspect of your opponent, and you and your opponent are one. That power is extraordinary. There is also the camaraderie and connection we feel in the dojo, as we are learning skills and expanding our minds.

The martial arts meet those four fundamental needs: certainty, uniqueness, connection and love, but the ultimate needs of all human beings are to grow and contribute beyond oneself. Those two needs create fulfillment. We must grow or we die. Those are the laws of the universe. Everything in the universe contributes or is eventually eliminated, if nothing else, by evolution.

We must to live by the philosophy of CANI, Constant And Never-ending Improvement. You are only happy when you are constantly driving yourself to grow. I have a friend who is worth 5-1/2 billion dollars, and he always talks about the tough, early days, when he was scratching to survive because that is when he experienced the most growth. His companies were a source of certainty for him, always challenging him. It was constant significance for him because he knew he had a unique place. He felt connected to the people who worked for him. He had to grow to keep it going. He was always contributing. When he sold his business, he was happy for about four months. He had lost his purpose that formerly satisfied all of his needs, so now he runs a business again.

My advice to anyone in any field is that you must be constantly scheduling your growth. You must go after it, pursue it and schedule it. Then, it is real. If you talk about stuff, then it is a dream. When you plan it, it’s possible. When it is part of your schedule, it is real and you will have a different life.

Anthony Robbins is considered the greatest personal development expert of all time. He is the chairman of six companies, he is a strategic advisor to world leaders, and his teachings have impacted the lives of an estimated 50 million people. He is a Black Belt and the recipient of NAPMA‘s 2003 Lifetime Achievement Award.

The first of these seven ingredients of success, and easily the most important, is peace of mind. As martial artists, inner peace is a phrase we’ve heard often. Inner peace is the highest human good. Without it, nothing has much value. You usually evaluate how well you are doing at any given time by how much inner peace you enjoy.

Peace of mind is your internal gyroscope. You experience peace of mind when you are living in harmony with your values and convictions. If, for any reason, you compromise your values, then your peace of mind is the first to suffer. Peace of mind, or harmony, is essential to your relationships with your students, friends and family members.

The wonderful truth about peace of mind is that it is your birthright. It belongs to you. It is not just for the lucky. Peace of mind is central to your very existence. Achieving inner peace must be a central organizing principle of your life. It must become the primary goal to which all your other goals are subservient. In fact, you are only successful as a person to the degree to which you can achieve your peace of mind.

The very idea of achieving my happiness caused me a good deal of anxiety at one time. My religious background had drummed into me the idea that my happiness was not a consideration for my behaviors. I was told that hap­piness was merely a by-product of living my life to make others happy. If I experienced any happiness, then I was just lucky. If I didn’t, then that was my lot in life.

The very idea of setting happiness as a specific goal was described as selfish and uncaring. A major turning point came for me when I learned two concepts. First, if I didn’t commit to achieving my happiness, then others wouldn’t. If my aim in life were only to make others happy, then I would always be at the mercy of the feelings of others, whoever they might be.

Second, I discovered that I couldn’t give what I didn’t have. I couldn’t make others happy if I was miserable. I couldn’t make others happy unless I could be happy first.

You experience peace of mind when you are free from the destructive emotions of fear, anger, doubt, guilt, resentment and worry. In the absence of nega­tive emotions, you enjoy peace of mind. The key to happiness, then, is to eliminate systematically the negative people, situations and emotions that make you unhappy.

Herein lies the rub. The obstacle to eliminating the negativity that interferes with your happiness is your attachment to the negative people and situa­tions that cause it. Your rational mind provides several clever reasons why you must continue your existing situation.

In future columns, I’ll show you ways to control and eliminate your negative emotions. For the moment, though, project forward in thought and imagine your ideal life. What combination of ingre­dients would be required to be perfectly happy? Don’t worry about what’s possible or not possible for you at the moment. Free your mind from all limitations and be perfectly selfish.

Define your life exactly as it must be to enjoy the peace of mind you desire. What would you be doing? Where would you be? Who would be there with you? How would you spend your time? What would your school look like if it were absolutely excellent in every respect? What would you do more (or less)?

When you set peace of mind as your goal and plan your steps toward that goal, according to whether it helps or hinders your attainment of that goal, you’ll do and say the right things. You’ll find yourself operating from a higher set of principles. You’ll feel wonderful about yourself. Peace of mind is the key.

Part 5: The Anatomy of an Ad: Body Copy

What Is your Sales Story?

Many of the marketing pieces of martial arts school owners start with egocentric descriptions of their businesses and credentials, instead of the information that prospective students and their families need to solve their problems.

This is a common copywriting error that is often discussed during NAPMA Peak Performers and Inner Circle meetings.

“What’s In It For Me?”

Represented by the acronym, W.I.I.F.M is the question prospects ask themselves when reading your ad, flyer or Web site. “Is this worth my time to read and, once I read it, is it worth my time to investigate further, to call the school for these benefits?”

This is a distinction that is much more important than any technical components of creating an ad. Always, write and design ads that address your customers’ wants, needs desires and pains, not yours.

It’s an all-too-common mistake for a school owner, with a very professional résumé, to list those credentials, as the major message of ads and other marketing materials. The average consumer doesn’t understand those descriptions of your career advancement, and they don’t answer the question of what you can do to solve their problems.

“Write and design ads that address your customers’ wants, needs desires and pains, not yours.”

The size and beauty of your school and its state-of-the-art equipment are also unimportant in your marketing. It may become more meaningful when prospects visit your school, but, even then, it doesn’t mean much.

To connect with your prospects and demonstrate that you are in business to solve their problems, you want all of your marketing messages, especially the first paragraph, to be benefit statements.

For example, an attorney graduated from prestigious Yale University, could write ad copy that focuses on the fact he is a Yale law school graduate (egocentric), or why that fact is a benefit to prospective clients.

“You can be assured that your case is in the very best hands because this firm hires attorneys that are board-certified and graduated from the top law schools, such as Yale University.”

To write benefits-driven copy, you must know your prime prospects. Too many small business owners often ignore the research necessary to know their prospects thoroughly.

You must learn to think like your prospects. Your body copy should “speak” to them directly, and describe all the reasons that they will benefit from being students at your school. Make a list of all the benefits a student should expect to acquire from training with you. Each of those benefits will become the major themes of your ads, flyers, sales letters, postcards, Web site and all other marketing piece.

You can then expand those messages to describe how students and their families’ lives will change or improve, as a student at your school. As you craft your marketing messages, you’ll know you are off the track, when you start writing about you…rather than them!

Weight trainers, gymnasts, dancers and football or basketball players who have stepped into the professional ring have been quickly destroyed…athletic ability or not.

The goal for the future, dynamic martial artist is to learn how to develop a stable, mobile and fluid platform that can move in any direction, and EXPLODE arms, legs, hands and feet with tremendous force. With some modern schools, this is sometimes confused with explosive dance or gymnastic moves. I suggest that this type of form should be called martial dance, and not martial art.

There is nothing wrong with martial dance. Many cultures have this tradition. In Okinawa, the traditional dances that are performed have many martial movements, but their intent is not to teach combat, but to entertain. The same can be said about classical theater in China. There are many examples of martial style movements, even martial weapons involved in the story plot of the play, but the intent is to entertain…not to fight. Even the traveling Shaolin monks, who appear in many U.S. cities, are clearly all about entertaining and not about combat.

When we are more concerned with how a movement or set of movements looks than we are about how it is used for combat, then we have moved from the area of martial art training to the area of entertainment.

Using kata, or form, to aid the development of a fighter is lost on people in the fighting arena because of this confusion. The “effectiveness” of kata, or form, must first divest itself from using any theatrical props or music, which exists for entertainment value, instead of combat training. That means any prop that is a facsimile of a weapon, instead of the real thing. Clothing that is not functional. Lighting that is distracting.

A classical view of form or kata training should include these seven elements.

1. Move forward, backward or at any angle smoothly and with graceful execution.
2. The body should not “porpoise”, but should move level and smoothly on one plane, unless the additional planes of movement are planned movement, not sloppy execution.
3. All changes of direction are made with perfect balance.
4. All strikes, of whatever type, must be dynamic (of great power).
5. The eyes and mind must be totally focused.
6. All movement is totally efficient. This means that all of the body not needed for the motion is relaxed. No champion fighter was ever tight, tense or frigid, whether in body or countenance.
7. The mind must move from a civilian mode to a warrior mode, during the entire sequence of the form or kata…and then return to a calm civilian mode. This active meditation and mental preparation for combat has great value.

In other words, as I stated at the top of the column, the practicing martial artist endeavors to develop a stable, mobile and fluid platform that can move in any direction and EXPLODE arms, legs, hands and feet with tremendous force and with intention to control or destroy an attacker.

Gruesome, but true.

If you are practicing kata or form in this manner, then you are probably discovering that it is an effective tool to help you become the warrior within and without.

If not, then you will find the exercise very useless.

Until next month, keep teaching and training

Martial Arts Business: Jay, let’s get started by talking a little bit about your background. How and when did you get started helping others with your amazing marketing strategies?

Jay Abraham: I started about 25 years ago and worked for lots of different companies in totally unrelated fields. I had a number of massive and really almost amazing successes. Upon reflecting one day, I realized that the reason I had done so well was because I was able to take totally unrelated strategies, methodologies, selling, marketing and customer client-generating approaches from all kinds of unrelated industries and apply them to industries that had never heard of them. And because of those approaches, their success just skyrocketed.

After I realized how massive these successes were, I stopped working for other people and basically started counseling — first of all, privately. I counseled private clients that make a lot of money. Then we started really trying to help people who couldn’t afford $5,000 an hour or 25% of the profit, people who couldn’t pay enough to make it worth our time. So we started selling training programs, expensive tape programs and $400 books, things of that nature that I sort of migrated into.

Martial Arts Business: You’ve consulted with practically every type of business known to man including martial art schools. What do you think are some of the weak spots in martial arts marketing and what can school owners do to overcome those weaknesses?

Abraham: You know that’s a really barbed leading question, but I will do my very best to try to answer it in a instructional way that everybody can really gain from.

The first thing is that you have got to understand from the get-go what a student — I’ll call it a client — is worth to the school, to your business, over the course of his or her expected life. Most people don’t look at marketing or advertising in the right light. They say, “I’m going to spend $1,000 a month or I am going to spend five percent of sales on advertising.” That’s ludicrous! You have to know how many of your students convert to $500, $1,000 or more, and how many of those students train for a year or two or three years. Until you know what the cumulative implications of every body coming to your system is worth in dollars and cents, you don’t know how much you can afford to invest — not spend, but invest — to bring people in.

So, I call that “marginal net worth of a lifetime value.” You have got to learn that first. Second of all, you’ve got to learn that marketing is a continuous, strategic process. It is not an episodic, tactical process. Everything has to be designed to advance, enhance and achieve a continuous progressive goal.

Martial Arts Business: How would you describe most martial arts school owners when it comes to marketing?

Abraham: Most people in your field are, at best, episodic; they are totally tactical; they run ads that don’t make any sense. They don’t run things continuously. They don’t understand any of the process of integrated marketing. When you understand that, it makes you many times more successful very quickly. Probably over six or nine months, you can double, triple, quadruple or improve your esults by 10 times! It can be quite profound.

The next thing is you must be able to clearly, definitively, immediately define, describe and articulate what your “unique selling proposition” is. You must be able to explain instantly to somebody the reason why he/she is foolish not to avail themselves of your school, of your training, of your courses. What’s in it for them?

Martial Arts Business: In your own words, for our readers today, Jay, please explain what a “unique selling proposition” is and why every martial arts school owner should create one.

“ You must be able to clearly, definitively, immediately define, describe and articulate what your unique selling proposition is. You must be able to explain instantly to somebody the reason why he/she is foolish not to avail themselves of your school, of your training, of your courses.”

Abraham: Why don’t I demonstrate it, rather than explaining it in a technical or an academic sense? When Federal Express first came out, it was a really gruff, scruffy, undependable environment. The company came out and said, “When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight by 10 a.m., Fed Ex guarantees it.” That’s a unique selling proposition.

When pizza was only available if you called in and came to the store to pick it up, Domino’s came out and said, “Hot, fresh, delicious pizza delivered to your door in 30 minutes or less or it’s yours free.” That’s a unique selling proposition.

When Nordstroms department stores came out, they built their own business on a very simple positioning, a unique selling proposition. It was: “If you are unsatisfied with any purchase for any reason, at any time in the future, you can have a refund, you can have a credit or you can have a replacement — no questions asked.” The next thing you’ve got to be able to do is systematically, strategically and continuously mine and harvest a constant and qualitative flow of referrals, and it’s not episodic or intermittent. When I look at companies in all fields, but in the martial arts field particularly, I ask, “How much of your business comes from word of mouth or from referrals?”

Unless you’ve got a terrible school, unless you’re really abrupt and rude and coarse and call us with your students, I would say that most schools would probably have somewhere between 20% pecent and 100% of their business, of their students, emanate from referrals or word of mouth.

Martial Arts Business: Many schools we work with get a ton of referrals.

Abraham: And what is the average size school? What is its annual revenue?

Martial Arts Business: The average size school is probably about one-hundred-fifty to two-hundred students, but in the NAPMA organization, we work with everybody from the small-time instructor to school owners that are grossing millions a year.

Abraham: Would you say that, reasonably, a school that does $200,000 a year is average, low or high?

Martial Arts Business:That’s tough to say because all schools are very different. Let’s say that’s about average.

Abraham: Okay, so let’s take the $200,000 a year. Let’s say that 40%t comes from referrals. Is that reasonable? Martial Arts Business: It depends on the school. Some people we know have eliminated most of the advertising and they’re getting most of their new students just from referrals.

Other people report the opposite.

Abraham: It should be 40%. You can have a by-referral-only business that virtually dispenses with advertising. But in order to do that, you have to be very strategic in your ability to structure proactive, systematic, formalized, continuous referral systems.

Let’s say the referral rate is 40%. At seminars or when training groups, I ask, “Stand up if at least f40% of your business is referral-generated.” And then all of them would stand. Forty percent of $200,000 — if that’s the average revenue a year — is $80,000. Incrementally, you could argue that figure is almost all profit, if the rest of your business is coming from your advertising.

But then I say to these groups, “Stay standing if you have in place at least one formalized, systematized, ongoing, referral-generating system that really has worked every day, all the time, in every scenario, with all your students?” This includes positioning them from the beginning that your business is based on referrals. And after you teach them what you have promised and they see the transformation of skill and character, they agree from the beginning that they will refer two or three like-minded families, friends, parents, children, whatever. When I pose this question, almost everyone in the group sits down.

Martial Arts Business: How many referral systems should a school have in place?

Abraham: Unless you have at least one ongoing, referral-generating system in place, you’re dead. Most people don’t even have one. They do it intermittently. They do it just through organic growth, which is stupid.

We actually studied 7,137 unrelated industries. We found 93 unduplicated referral-generating systems that almost nobody knows about! Of course, you don’t need ninety-three systems. Most martial arts schools, however, don’t even use one system regularly.

If you used five or six ongoing, referral-generating systems, you could double, triple, quadruple your clientele. And the kind of clientele that emanates from a referral is the kind that you can close quicker, they argue and negotiate fees less, they come more often, they are more qualitative, they are more enjoyable, they refer more people and they are far more profitable.

Martial Arts Business: Yes, the least expensive and highest quality source of new business. That’s a fact. Abraham: In terms of advertising, I would say that if you were going to run the ads, make sure the ads are designed to be direct response. Make sure you know what your goal is. Make sure that they’re designed to be focused strictly on the reader and what is in it for him or her, the reader.

Make sure that you have a call to action. Make sure that you have some offer of information or an experience or an observation or something that will really give them a benefit relative to some area of their life or their family’s life they are looking to reach. For example, you want to transform your child’s confidence? You want to find a way to build your health? Reduce your stress? Open your mental acuity? And, have a great time to boot. Martial Arts Business: While we’re talking about advertising, Jay, what are your thoughts on Yellow- Page ads, since this is really one of the most common ways that martial arts schools advertise?

Abraham: I think the Yellow Pages can be useful. However, most people run terrible Yellow-Page ads that are static. They don’t really understand. Somebody is only going to look in there when they’re looking to take action. The headline is 80% to 90% of the whole impact of any ad that you run, including a Yellow Pages ad. The headline, you could say, is the ad for the ad. Half of the ads don’t have a headline. The rest that do have headlines have terribly weak, tepid, anemic, self-serving headlines or they’re just not benefit oriented headlines.

The difference between the right benefit-oriented headline [in an advertisement] and the wrong one could be 21 times more or less effective. Martial Arts Business: That’s an amazing difference!

Abraham: Yes, 2,100% greater yield from the same expense. Yet, when I’m perusing 20 or 30 of them, most advertisers don’t have anything in their headline to denominate what’s in it for me. It should read, “We will turn you into blank and blank.” Or, “It’s free!” Or, “We will let you experience it before you ever have to pay!”

Whatever the benefits are, they should appear in the headline. You are selling benefits, you are not selling features. It is not about you.

There’s a constant rub called the “you attitude.” When I’m working for a client, I don’t care about the client’s needs or desires. I care about the people they are trying to serve. It is all about them; it is not about the client. The client is enriched only after he fulfills, satisfies, enriches, enhances, protects, expands, entertains, whatever, by rendering the service.

Martial Arts Business: Like any membership-driven organization, a martial arts school is constantly trying to enroll new members but in a cost-effective manner. What are some of the low-cost marketing strategies that you believe would work well for instructors that are on a limited budget?

Abraham: Well, I’m going to go back to what I said at the beginning of this interview. “Cost-effective” is a relative term. If you find out that every time you get 10 people to start an experience, four of them convert, and the average person spends $2,000 a year and stays for four years.

Four students times $2,000 per year is $8,000, times four years of training equals $32,000. You could probably afford to spend a non-inconsequential amount of money to bring them in, couldn’t you?

Martial Arts Business: Well, it depends on your expenses.

Abraham: Yes, as long as you know what they are worth, you know how much you can expend in ads, sales commission, joint ventures, etc. So, I would advertise more but more effectively. Now that you know what each new student is worth, I would approach organizations that already have a strong affinity with the market and work out joint ventures with them. You could have a deal where an organization invited all their members to come for special private classes, or a three- or six-month preview or for a discounted rate. You just want to get a lot of people started, and your goal in life is to lower the barrier of entry and to accelerate the buying process so people get into the groove faster. Consequently, you start making more money over a longer period of time. It’s very logical, but most people in your field don’t do this.

Most of them are pretty dedicated, and have very high integrity. They are very qualitative people. Many of them are spiritual. They’ve got incredible character and they do a lot of good.

But I don’t think they’ve got a clue about marketing and the business dynamics and how to really make a lot of qualitative and ethical money in this business. You’ve got to start by taking a deep breath and looking at dynamics like that.

Martial Arts Business: On that note, on a scale of one to 10 — with ten being the best — how would you rate most of the martial arts print ads you have seen?

Abraham: They are not very good. And that is not the right question. Let me give a little primer in Lead Generating 101. Lead Generating 101 is about the quantity of people you bring in — the quality, the convertibility and the residual value. What they buy the first time, and how long they stay with you. Most people that I’ve seen in your field don’t have any kind of strategic, integrated, systematic approach.

We have found, in all the clients that we’ve worked with, that today people need to be respectfully, benevolently approached numerous, sequential times to maximize the yield. We conducted an experiment where we did a mailing to a list that pulled nothing.

Then we did 25 subsequent communications over four months and brought $5 million out of the same list that didn’t do anything in the beginning.

What we found is that most people don’t understand the lead generating and conversion process.

You run an ad, you get leads. Some people come in and some don’t.

Some call, some don’t show up, some try it, some leave. Most people in your field feebly follow-up or don’t follow-up at all. They are very super- ficial. They are very limited. They are very episodic in what they do.

I did a seminar about nine months ago and I had 700 people pay $5,000 to come. You can do the math: That is $3.5 million.

But that’s not what is impressive. I wanted to prove to people the point I just made. I had done about 25 different sequences of communications, promotions, advancing and enhancing processes to move people through the migration path to closure for that seminar. At the seminar, I named everything that I did and I had people attending stand up and go to the wall who were finally impacted to action by that particular communication.

I started with the first one that I did, and I’d say about 50 of the 700 people there went to the wall. So, if I had stopped my promotional campaign there, I would have only made a quarter-million dollars instead of adding $3.5 million in revenue. I announced the next one and another 60 people moved to the wall, and so on.

The point I am making is most people in your field give up prematurely.

Martial Arts Business: Well, here’s a scenario. I’m a martial arts school owner and I’ve got, say, a variety of different marketing strategies in place out there in the field.

Roughly, how many times does a potential student have to hear my name or see my ad before he or she finally takes action and calls my school? Abraham: Until it stops being profitable. You see, I believe in polarization. We believe in the philosophy called the Power Parthenon of Geometric Business Growth. We believe in accessing a market from as many sustainable focal points as possible. We believe in advertising, strategic alliances, e-mails, joint ventures, space advertising, radio joint ventures, preview weeks.

Martial Arts Business: So, you’re generating a lot of different leads from a lot of different sources.

Abraham: Because it’s very easy for people today to procrastinate, equivocate. Ask yourself this question: Is there anything in your life right now that you have wanted to do, but you are procrastinating on it? Martial Arts Business: There are a couple of things.

Abraham: Like maybe going on a trip, getting a brochure about a good locale maybe finding out about a new hotel, to do a seminar in, or interviewing or monitoring a speaker.

Any of a million things.

Now, is the reason that you put interested or because it really isn’t somewhat important?

Martial Arts Business: No.

Abraham: Did you then put it off because it was easy to procrastinate because it wasn’t top-of-mind awareness?

Martial Arts Business: Exactly.

Abraham: The job for the promoter is to, first, keep your proposition aware at a higher level than anybody else, and second, to understand the Baskin-Robbins theory of marketing.

It’s bulletins, benefits and hot buttons. If the whole world just loved vanilla and chocolate ice cream, there wouldn’t be a Baskin-Robbins.

The variety translates to different stimulus, different reasons why people might be interested. You might write to me and say, “Hey, how would you like to have your character built?” Well, maybe that appeals to some people. Then you write me again or communicate, “Jay, I know character-building is important, but I’ll bet health is just as important to you.” Or, “I’ll bet confidence is important.” And then you write to me again and say, “You know, a lot of people tell us that the character and the confidence is really high-ranking, but they really love the stress relief.”

Look for part two of this interview with Jay Abraham in the Winter 2010 issue of Mastering the Martial Arts Magazine, and at MartialArtsProfessional.com

I was involved in a rather toxic IRS audit of one of my client’s tax return (a plumber who was operating his business as a sole proprietorship). The auditor was intent on not allowing my client’s business deductions because, although his income had been steadily increasing, his expenses had increased also. This had happened largely because of extensive education AND more extensive and aggressive marketing. My client had been operating in the red for more than three years.

After several hours, during which each of the “validations” of expense were produced, and then systematically challenged as being necessary, I politely asked the auditor if she had ever been in the plumbing business. When she replied in the negative, I said, “Neither have I, but this man has for nearly seven years, and previously he worked with his father in business for more than 10 years. Can’t we give him the benefit of the doubt of these items that don’t make that much sense to us?”

After a short consideration of the question, and a couple of finger-taps on her desk, the auditor said, “Good point!” Within a few minutes the audit was over. The result was “no change.”

Approximately two years later, the same client was audited again. His gross revenue is now greater than two million dollars; and he is still operating as a sole proprietor. This time it’s one of the IRS’s dreaded “office audits.”

The auditor comes and nest with you, right where you live. He or she will stay from a few hours to a few days. It can be quite unnerving and disruptive to business, to say the least. For my client, however, it was business as usual, while the situation moved to its completion.

This field auditor was very thorough! The plumber had more than 150 items of depreciable assets. The auditor studied the purchase records and the depreciation worksheets of each of these assets with the diligence of an NSA Cold War code breaker!

He changed nothing.

Amazingly though, the auditor managed to find a flaw. This was very important to my client as well as the auditor, however. One of my client’s office personnel, who worked in accounts payable did not know how to record credit card charges correctly, and then correctly record their payments in the computerized accounting system.

Generally, when credit card charges are recorded, the expense related to the charge is recorded at the same time. When subsequent payments are correctly made on the charges, however, the credit card balance is reduced, without touching the expense again. The accounts payable employee had this a little inside-out!

When she made the payments, she also “added” to the expense, again!  As a result of this error, not only was the expense being overstated, but also the credit cards’ balances were increasing, instead of decreasing! Of course, these overstatements had an impact on the income statement and the balance sheet! Overstatements on expenses decrease net income, which decreases new worth.  Overstatements on credit card balances also lower net worth! Those are two very important issues to business owners and their families, their bankers, as well as the IRS!

The bottom line is that this mistake “cost” my client just a bit more than $1,100 in taxes (which, by the way, was all he paid in taxes that year, on more than two millions in gross revenue!). He saved many times that amount or would have lost it by not having that little discrepancy isolated and corrected quite quickly.

I was originally interested in aikido because I loved the beauty of the art and the concept of aligning with your opponent, and not necessarily having to harm them to change their perspective. But, the privilege of working with Master Rhee was enormous. He said to me, “This is an art I think you would love, and I’m willing to work with you. I think you could develop your black belt in a very short period of time.” I told him that I would love to do it in a year. His eyes got really big, and then, I said, “I’m not trying to find a short cut, but I would love to live in total immersion with you.”

So, Master Rhee gave me an extraordinary privilege and opportunity. We became very close friends, traveled together, and I trained every single day learning from one of the best that ever existed. And, frankly, it was one of the greatest gifts of my life. In hindsight, I jammed in too much, and I injured myself several times, as you might guess. In my youth I was trying to do everything in a shorter period of time, but I learned there is a great benefit in taking your time so that you take in some of the greater subtleties. While I did achieve my black belt, I learned a lot about making sure to really enjoy myself rather than just to experience the discipline of getting it done. And I approach things differently in my life today as a result of it. I sometimes use martial arts in my programs, because I think they are fundamental tools for life.

I do it to demonstrate to people specific tools and techniques for taking control of their mental and emotional focus to change their state of mind, literally in an instant. Using your body as a way to change your mental and emotional state is the single most powerful and the fastest factor you can access. To demonstrate it, I sometimes do board breaking, brick breaking and then breaking with my head. I have one set of events where we teach amateurs board breaking as a metaphor for breaking through their limitations and fears. Many people have gone on to become involved with martial arts as a result of their exposure to our seminars, because they love the state, the psyche that comes from the discipline of martial arts.

When I was younger I would set goals and say, “I want to do this exact thing.” Then, I’d point to an exact spot in the future. I push things slightly differently today. Now, I pick the direction of the mountain I am heading toward knowing that, as I get close to the mountain, I will have choices. I may want to go over it, around it or through it. There are all kinds of choices, but if you move in the direction of the goal you visualize, but stay flexible and open, you’ll achieve it, or something greater.

Most people are drawn to fitness because they want to look better. Unfortunately, that kind of motivation is usually short-lived. It lasts long enough to convince people to join a fitness center or buy a piece of home workout equipment. Rarely will they stay focused on fitness just because of the way they look. Think of how many treadmills are sitting in homes today just being used as expensive clothes hangers.

The fitness industry mainly focuses on one thing and that’s to drive prospects to the door, and join. Practically no one focuses on retention in the fitness industry.

What the average fitness center offers is just too boring to hold the interest of the average consumer. Fitness has been so “dummied down” that no one can remain motivated for long. If clients don’t have other goals than just the way they look, then most likely they’ll become bored, and quit.

This has created a great opportunity for martial arts fitness programming. I believe, and have been proven right with my UBC programming, that if you give fitness students more than just a treadmill, weight machines or a step class, then you can retain them and even up-sell them.

I created my UBC five-week and ten-week weight loss and fitness courses to capitalize on the “must-lose-weight-and-be-in-shape-now” mentality of the average fitness consumer. I then created my maintenance program to retain students, and my elite martial arts fitness course to up-sell them to a long-term program.

It’s becoming more and more evident that if you want results from fitness training, then you must exercise at a moderate to intense pace 30-60 minutes a day, 4-5 days a week. Walking around the block three times a week just doesn’t cut it for weight control. If the average adult must work out 4-5 days a week for the rest of his or her life, then why not create a fitness program that has a long-term vision?

I’ve tried to develop a martial arts system that keeps students growing, in their quest for fitness. I explain to my student, “Fitness is like a dollar bill. A dollar is either making you money or losing value. Its value is always fluctuating because of inflation. Fitness is the same. You are either improving your shape or regressing because of the aging process.”

To keep students moving forward in fitness, I’ve created the Elite Martial Arts Fitness System, which is an adult-only, traditionally-structured and modern martial arts fitness course that provides students with opportunities to achieve fitness and martial arts goals for years to come.

 ”If you give fitness students more than just a treadmill, weight machines or a step class, then you can retain them and even up-sell them.”

What makes my fitness program different is that it’s progressive. Students build upon what they already know, so every workout is a little different. It’s fitness training with a purpose: to earn a Black Belt.

My Elite system is different from other martial arts programs because fitness and long-term health benefits are its primary focuses. It’s not a watered-down martial arts system, but skill development and requirements of the highest standard. It’s designed with the understanding that the average mature adult will not want to participate in a kickboxing match or a Karate tournament.

By adding a short-term fitness course (5-10 weeks) that will attract the fitness market, you will have a ready audience to then up-sell to your martial arts program. Look at your traditional program to determine what barriers might be keeping the average adult from participating. By making some small adjustments, you may be able to convert those short-term fitness students to a long-term martial arts fitness goal.

The idea is to give the adult fitness market not just a workout, but also a program that will give students a long-term goal in their fitness training.