From Struggling to Successful, and a Second Location with the Right Coach
Stephen Oliver here, CEO of the National Association of Professional Martial Artists. I’m joined today by NAPMA Inner Circle member longtime coaching and a friend of mine, Joe Borucki. Joe, you’re in Maryland. Tell us about your location and where you’re at.
Joe Borucki: Well, my main location is in Hampstead, Maryland, which is about 15 minutes outside the Baltimore beltway. And I’m opening up a new location in Westminster, Maryland at the end of the summer. I currently have about 275 active members and am actually doing very well right now.
Stephen Oliver: Joe, we’ve been working together for quite a while and, let’s step back to the beginning. What are some of the key transitions that you’ve made in your school since we started working together? What would you say were kind of a short list of key things that made your school really turn around?
Joe Borucki: Well, the first one was valuing what I was doing. I was in my school, I was teaching great lessons and bending over backwards to make sure everyone learned what they were supposed to learn; but I didn’t realize the actual value of what the long term effects of what you get out of attaining a black belt. And it gets to something that we’ve talked about many times, that million dollar promise, that if somebody gave you a million dollars in exchange for all the experience and benefit that you got out of your training, would you take it? I do that with my black belts and none of them have ever said I’ll take the money. In school age students, it’s even more dramatic because you see what it does for people, but the value of that is far beyond what anybody would think is possible for children. So that was the first thing that I had to wrap my mind around, valuing what I was doing.
Stephen Oliver: Obviously that ends up manifesting itself, having that low sense of worth and most martial artists don’t think they have a low sense of worth. They just think, you know, there’s a price point the market will bear. Would you agree with that?
Joe Borucki: Oh, absolutely. I was so concerned with asking people to pay more than what I thought the program was “worth,” I didn’t really know how to deliver more value than I was asking for. It turns out that I was wrong. People did value what I was doing at a much higher rate than I was asking for.
Stephen Oliver: What the guy down the street is charging is irrelevant. I can’t say how many times people ask me, “What’s the ‘right’ price for my area,” and the answer is never about the “area”, it’s always about the owners’ thinking.
Joe Borucki: In my case, I am in a very small town, and the only true competition was the Rec Council, which was supplemented by the governmen. I’m a private school, and back then, I was actually thinking about the Rec Council Program being my competition. I was thinking that I was so much more than they were already, and I was worried about being even more over their tuition. But there’s a marked difference in what we do as a professional martial arts school and the value we deliver to our students.
Stephen Oliver: There’s a huge difference in what you do and to anchor that in. What should the differences be in a professional school compared to a community or recreational program?
Joe Borucki: Oh, wow! I guess the first one that I’ve embraced, and I’m not saying this for every school that’s in the Rec Council Program, but actually implementing a solid character development system in your program, and simply going much further than your typical “part time” rec respect and self-discipline lessons on my floor and actually making it a required, measured, graded and rewarded part the program. Developing self-discipline and confidence — the list goes on into your actual lessons and part of your lesson plan. In our school, we have required homework assignments attached to different character development lessons. We have it intertwined into our lessons when we have mat talks. We talk about the value of respect and who you should respect, and make it a big part of rank testing — it’s a robust experience a student goes through. That was one of the major changes when I started with — you teach character development, but you back it up (require progress). At that time, I wasn’t. So that was one of the first changes I made and it really transformed my school, and in turn it transformed the enrollment. The students that made it to Black Belt were more prepared for life and I started seeing a marked difference in them that they were living and breathing examples of the character development lessons I was teaching them.
Stephen Oliver: And different than what most school owners think, is not only do you not water down your curriculum in the process, becoming a highly financially successful school, you actually strengthen it and grow it. Would you say that’s a fair statement?
Joe Borucki: Oh, absolutely. We do so much on our floor well beyond what we used to do. You know, back then, I did what my instructor did and teach excellent martial arts, and, frankly, hope that in turn the character development would happen. But now we have it as part of our curriculum and written down. In every lesson we cover on the floor for every class that we run; and every night we’re running about five classes. Instructors can remember only so much, and then when you’re trying to cover more and more material, it has to be written down in a clear, easy-to-follow planner.
Stephen Oliver: Now, step back from that for a second. In your school ,with currently about 275 active students, what’s your ratio between kids and adults?
Joe Borucki: Oh, I would say that our adult program is easily a third of the school, but it’s actually a number that’s hard to quantify, because in our school, anybody who’s in high school can join our adult classes.
Stephen Oliver: So, generally, you’re running a predominantly children’s program. The point I want to make as we step back to the character development session at our recent Inner Circle meeting which I thought was very valuable. What was your take on the recent Inner Circle meeting?
Joe Borucki: Oh, incredible. I had a lot of my staff there and they can’t stop talking about what they got out of it too and so very valuable meeting. The one thing that I say to my staff is I’ve been doing this type of meeting for years and years and years and I go to these meetings on a regular basis, about once a quarter and I come home every time with so much material that it’s almost hard to implement, and my school has been existent for 20 years now and for me to be making changes and having new material at these meetings every time I go, it’s actually mind boggling.
Stephen Oliver: Absolutely. And, of course, you and I have been pretty much working every month one on one. Correct me if I’m wrong, it seems like the value of that is in sorting the to-do list and focusing on the things that are going to immediately improve service, bring more students in or create revenue. Is that a fair statement?
Joe Borucki: Oh, absolutely. I don’t subscribe to the point of view of being busy just to stay busy. I want to get something done so doing what’s valuable is so paramount.
Stephen Oliver: We have a wide range of schools. We have several that are predominantly kids-focused. We have several that are predominantly adult-focused. We have one that’s probably on track to be a $2 million a year MMA school in Houston, for example. But the commonality across that is if you’re not doing life skills character development, a traditional martial arts format rank progress to respect to the instructor progress updates with the students, you risk putting yourself on the category of a health club. We saw one of our Inner Circle members running a $297 a month program that turns into a $497 program, that turns into a $997 a month women’s cardio kickboxing program; and, of course, the MMA school running a predominantly men’s program, but, again, doing the same thing. It’s all about formality and the life skills and so forth. Would you expand on that a little bit, Joe? I mean you’ve seen that over and over again across the spectrum.
Joe Borucki: Exactly and over the years, we’ve developed our leadership program into a program that I reserve pretty much for my instructor group and then I sat back and said, “Why couldn’t we teach all of our students this material that CEOs learn in order to run corporations?” If you could teach children at six years old how to be a leader, how valuable would that be to the parents? That just opened up their potential immeasurably. And I’ve already seen it in action. I’ve seen children who are true introverts. You talk to them and they don’t look at you, but through the program, they’re doing public speaking. You know, recently I had a boy who is an introvert who went out for student government. He wanted to be class president. His dad came in to me and said, “There’s only one reason he’s doing that and it’s because you’ve encouraged him to be a leader,” and so now his whole personality has changed in a positive way. And that’s just one example. I have many, many students with stories that are similar. And again getting back to valuing what we do for people, you can’t place the value on opening up the potential of a child.
Stephen Oliver: If you create a program and a process with the child that becomes invaluable, then the tuition rates are never an obstacle, other than the fact that there certainly are some people who can’t afford it, but there’s not going to be a resistance to wanting to afford it. Joe, you say you’ve had the school opened for 20 years, and if you were training martial arts for 20 years, by then you’d probably be a black belt. And unfortunately, we know that the same doesn’t hold true in running a business, right? I mean, many people run a business for five or six or seven years with still a low level of knowledge of how to do it. Our mission is bring people into NAPMA’s Maximum Impact Program, and then move them into Peak Performers once they have a goal of truly being a black belt in running their school. And when is the point, would you say, to decide to be a black belt and then a high ranking black belt equivalent of running your business as an educator. And what was that transition like for you?
Joe Borucki: I struggled for years doing things the way that I was taught from my previous instructor. I have a degree in business from college so I knew a little bit about how to run a business, mostly in a “theoretical, academic” sense. But how to run a martial arts school business is totally different than your average business model. We’re selling intangibles so we can’t place what we’re going to do for people on the table and say it costs this much. That’s not reality. It’s totally different so learning the process of making the value real for your prospective students and their parents is VITALLY important. I can teach you this block and this kick, but in the real world we teach our students not to use this stuff. You don’t use the “physical” kicking and punching skills in your everyday life, but if you can teach true character development, something that they’ll use for the rest of their lives, then the value is immeasurable. So that was the determining point for me. I need help in doing this and getting constant reinforcement. It’s encouraging to go to these meetings and seeing what you’re doing right, and also the list of stuff that you need to work on. I already mentioned all these meetings that I attend. Every time I come back with a list of stuff that I need to work on and improve.
Stephen Oliver: Describe for people what the environment is like in a Peak Performers or an Inner Circle meeting and how that may be a contrast from general seminars they’ve attended or conventions they’ve attended, or maybe some of what other organizations might do.
Joe Borucki: Well, it’s a bunch of like-minded school owners. Even though we’re teaching, I don’t think any of us are teaching the same style; and if we are, not very many, which really isn’t the important part of it. The important part is that we’re helping each other. The environment is basically, hey, you’re doing this right. You need to work on this and then we share stuff that’s working for us with everybody and very valuable.
Stephen Oliver: And, of course, none of the old martial arts thing of being shy or protective, or what it is you’re doing. Is that a fair statement?
Joe Borucki: Oh, absolutely, absolutely. I’ve opened up what I do at these meetings completely. You know, I’ve been holding nothing back and it seems like no other member is doing that either. range of results in quite a range of cities. You are in, as you said, a small town. What’s the population?
Joe Borucki: In a five-mile radius, it’s up to 50,000, but closer in, it’s much smaller, and the median income is only $42,000.
Stephen Oliver: So, it’s neither a rich area nor a densely populated area, and you’ve got 275 active students now. At 275, tell people what you’re charging? What’s your new enrolment tuition? What’s your renewal process like?
Joe Borucki: Starting tuition is about $179 a month, then we have a Master Club and Leadership Program. The Master Club is $259 a month and Leadership is $359 a month.
Stephen Oliver: On the $179, is that a contract? Is there a down payment? How does that work?
Joe Borucki: $179 a month is a yearly agreement and there is a down payment; we ask for $269 down. Leadership is $997 down, $359 a month. There are discounts for early enrollment, so we do discount the down payment by $500. The Master Club is very similar.
Stephen Oliver: What’s the down payment for Master Club?
Joe Borucki: Master Club down payment is just under $700.
Stephen Oliver: A lot of people are going to think that in their city, in their state, in their country with their students, with their style, you can’t charge those kinds of price points. You already told us that you’re not in a particularly high income area and you’re not in a particularly high population area. But what would you tell them about how they think about that?
Joe Borucki: They’re not valuing what they’re doing for people, but I have to tell a quick story that I think would help everyone. When I first started doing coaching with you, you shared the tuition that you were charging at that time. I came home and I was laughing. I thought, “This guy is crazy. He’s out of his mind.” Finally, I wrapped my mind around it and said, hey I don’t value what I’m doing. I’m the crazy one. And so that was the best lesson for me. Everybody else who’s reading should think about this. You need to value what you’re doing for people. Sit down and think about what you do for people and that will help you. Charge what’s appropriate. When I first started doing coaching with you, you shared the tuition that you were charging at that time. I came home and I was laughing. I thought, “This guy is crazy. He’s out of his mind.” Finally, I wrapped my mind around it and said, hey I don’t value what I’m doing. I’m the crazy one.
Stephen Oliver: Well, any time you have the reaction of there’s no way I could or there’s no way that in my city, state, town, school, whatever; anytime you have that reaction, it’s so important to just empty your cup, I mean that’s a standard metaphor in martial arts, right? You need to empty your cup. You need to empty your cup and just think about it for a second. What probably is the most valuable thing about the Peak Performers and Inner Circle groups is that you’re sitting in a room with a whole bunch of other people who are doing what it is that we’re talking about – so have you ever had the reaction of sitting in a meeting of well these guys are doing X, Y, Z. They’re doing three to four times the revenue that I’m doing and, frankly, they’re not as smart as I am. The Inner Circle was based in part on two different mastermind opportunities I had over my career. In both cases, I remember sitting in the rooms and having people who are in one area or another just kicking in my butt. Yes, this guy is no smarter, no more talented, doesn’t have a better situation, doesn’t have a better environment, doesn’t have a better city, state whatever than I do, and so if he can do it, I can do it. There’s so much of the value in seeing the other people and realizing that if Robert Blum can do it in Fishkill, New York, that you can do it in Maryland, and you can do it in Houston, you can do it in Bahrain, Amsterdam or anywhere. It could be done in your area.
Joe Borucki: My area is a farming community, at best a commuter town. I’ve been at seminars with martial artists and who ask me about my school. I tell them what we do in our school and the price points. They look at me and say, I can never do that work. I already talked about how character development must be a part of your program or the value is decreased. The one thing I made clear to my instructors is that people are paying us to train them in martial arts and we’re going to do an outstanding job of that. We have a 1-to- 8 ratio on our floor, if not better, for most of our classes. Character development is a must for every lesson that we do, including the adult classes. You’re not just going to raise your prices and expect people to say, “Oh that’s great.” You’re just teaching them the basic martial arts. It has to be the full program. n
