After 8 months of development, our beta launch for The Martial Arts Media™ mobile app has begun. Here’s a brief intro why we created this for the martial arts business community.
IN THIS EPISODE:
- Why we created the Martial Arts Media™ mobile app
- The reason why we’re moving our communities from Facebook
- What’s included in the Martial Arts Media™ mobile app
- And more
*Need help growing your martial arts school? Learn More Here.
TRANSCRIPTION
Ten years from now, I don't want my community to be on – I don't want my business to be so dependent on Facebook, because they can change direction at any given point in time, like they have so many times, and then I'm at the mercy of that. So, I really wanted to build a platform that I own, I can control.
Hey, George here, hope you're well. So, I wanted to give you a quick update on a couple of really cool things we've created. Life update and a cool business update.
So, first up, I've just got to keep a listen out for – I don't know if you saw my previous, one of our previous podcasts about the blinds and the solar guy? Well, there's a guy coming to measure some blinds – a different company.
Anyway, go listen to the podcast, and you'll get the context. But a couple of things that's been going on: I've been fiercely working one-handed for the most part on a mobile app, and I'm really, really excited about you checking it out and the impact that it's going to make.
So, first up, I say one-handed, I've just come out of surgery. If you're watching this, you can see I had my tendon come off my bone, a nice little injury. So, I'm not allowed to really, I don't have much range, right, that's what I can do with it right now.
Fortunately, it's out of the sling and I can type again. So, getting a bit of functionality back, but it's been a lot of hard work with my right hand, and I'm left handed!
So yeah, it's been interesting and I've been talking a lot to text, which is, I think the one big thing that's come out of it, not to go too deep into this topic on the podcast, but not being able to type and talking to text with everything that I've been doing, it's been super productive, actually.
So, let's talk – the app. I think I hinted on this a while back. You know, COVID has done a few different things for a lot of us, right? You know, made us reshuffle, rethink, you know, think of what-ifs? How do we go about business when things are not the way it should be?
And so, you know, I also have a lot of those moments, and one moment that I really did have is, I've been putting off doing the thing that I've always wanted to do. The vision that I've always wanted to, you know, the thing I wanted to really build for the industry, and the reason I stopped pursuing that dream is just the technicalities of doing it.
Having a background in developing websites – and that's how I got into helping martial arts school owners – was working a lot on the technical side of things. And I think personally, for me, swapping between being a technical guy, being a marketing guy, being a coach, it's a lot of hats to juggle, really.
Even though I just work with martial arts school owners, people say, “Hey, I just work with martial arts school owners,” but there's a lot of, you know, facets that come with that. So, I've been really trying to align just all the things I do.
But really, that's probably why I just put it off, you know, because I knew the technical mountain that I'd have to dive into to get it done. Anyway, I stopped putting it off, and I did it!
I started building the mobile app and started late 2020. And we just, after a lot of back and forth with Apple, it's just released into the App Store. Now, depending on when you're listening to this, if it's right now, go check it out, go download it, there's a free trial. Right now, it's really just set up for members of our programs.
Although there's a huge bonus if you do jump in, right, so we've taken all our courses, our Academy course that, you know, we've sold separately for 1000 US dollars, the previous Academy version, and Digitize Your Dojo, there's about $2,500 worth of courses in there, right now, and you can access them right away if you try out the app, they are there to watch. That's a nice little bribe, right? You just need to check the app out.
But there's so much more to the app, just not yet. So, one of the technical things that we ran into getting the app out was just how strict Apple is, and it was a whole new venture for me. And, you know, we started with the 15.0 version, and I brought it down to the beta version and just peeled back all the features to get it in the App store to just complicate it less. So, where we're at today is that the app is now live in the App Store.
You can go to Google Play and Apple App Store. Few people have had a few issues searching for it in the Google Play Store. So, if you do, just go to martialartsmedia.com and message us, but it is there, and it's in the Apple App Store.
So, we got them both live. Today we just released our first update, just to see how smooth that process is, and this week, we're going to start releasing the features that we really wanted in the app. And so, what is in the app? Right now it's a place where all our courses are, in the program we've got all our courses, all our content, we are also taking all our communities over to the app.
So, there are groups, kind of like Facebook, just a bit simpler. Groups, and one place really where people can learn, our members can learn, and have conversations and get help. The one thing about, although I love Facebook and its great options for business, it always has me nervous. I don't know about you and if you've had any issues with Facebook, or ad accounts, one day things work or they don't.
Ten years from now, I don't want my community to be on – I don't want my business to be so dependent on Facebook, because they can change direction at any given point in time, like they have so many times, and then I'm at the mercy of that. So, I really wanted to build a platform that I own. I can control, and then I've got the skills to actually build all the things and everything that I wanted to put in it.
So, the app right now is a place where you can grab all the content, have conversations and so forth, but what I'm really excited about rolling out in the app is a way to deliver coaching and combine high level coaching with technology, the right technology to prompt you to get you to do the things that's going to move you forward in business.
That's what is really exciting me, you know, the last few years within our Academy and Partners programs, we've covered a lot, we've worked with a lot of school owners, learned a lot of things that work and a lot of things that don't and, you know, when it comes to the things that don't, I always try and refine and see how do we improve our delivery of coaching programs?
How do we help people get to their goals faster, you know, and that's really the metric that we track, is how do we get your student numbers to go up? That's the big thing for us, and we've developed some really cool technology that's going to help keep you on track and help move you forward.
So, exciting for our members, exciting for us to, yeah, roll out something that's, I dare say not really available anywhere else, especially not in the industry. So, this is all stuff that we've created and modified and things that we've learned and put together, and it's…
Anyway, I don't want to ramble on about it, but I wanted to give you a good update. This won't be the last time I talk about it, for sure.
But this will be the, I really want to invite you to check it out. Give the trial a good run. If you've got any questions, let us know and have a play with it, and if, by all means, you just, dive into the free courses that are available right now then do that, and yeah, get a result from that.
Those foundational courses, marketing courses, are, from my experience, the fastest way that you can get traction online. And we've seen it with so many members that have just gone from nothing to really creating something, those that have a substantial student base, being able to increase it. And these Academy courses are the most direct path on how you can get that. So, there's the app, go give it a try.
Over the next couple coming weeks, we'll be doing a couple of things that we're launching and a couple of added things that are within the app, and yeah, it's exciting times. It's cool. Anyway, I really wanted to get that out to you and, so yeah, if you do manage to log into the App Store and get it, let us know, give us some feedback.
You can just go to martialartsmedia.com/contact, and there's a little ‘Chat with us' button. Click on that, it brings up a chat window, and you can have a chat with us there. As a matter of fact, if you log into the app by the time you do, it might actually be the same chat window available where you can have a conversation with us right there. So, either way, I would love to hear from you. We'd like to hear what you think about it. And I'll give some more updates on it real soon.
Anyway, that's it for me. The blinds guy is not here yet. So, we made it. I will speak to you in the next episode. Cheers.
Here are 3 ways we can help scale your school right now.
1. Join the Martial Arts Media™ community.
It's our new Facebook community where martial arts school owners get to ask questions about online marketing and get access to training videos that we don't share elsewhere – Click Here.
2. Join the Martial Arts Media™ Academy and become a Case Study.
I'm working closely with a group of martial arts school owners this month. If you'd like to work with me to help you grow your martial arts school, message me with the word ‘Case Study'.
3. Work with me and my team privately.
If you would like to work with me and my team to scale your school to the next level, then message me with the word ‘private'… tell me a little about your business and what you would like to work on together and I'll get you all the details.
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