Other than running epic martial arts classes, which goes without saying, these 3 strategies when done well will simplify your martial arts business growth.

IN THIS EPISODE:

• Is it necessary to build a fancy website to promote your martial arts school?
• The number one mistake martial arts school owners make when creating their trial offer
• The important factors that make an irresistible martial arts offer
• How to use the AIDA formula or ‘The Ultimate Facebook Martial Arts Formula’ to make your martial arts ads work
• How to use The Messenger Student Signup Method to follow up on martial arts prospects
• And more

*Need help growing your martial arts school? Apply Here.

TRANSCRIPTION

Hey, it's George Fourie. Welcome to the Martial Arts Media™ business podcast. Today I'm going to talk about three things that'll get you to 300 students plus, and if you're ready at 300 students, it'll get you to 300 students and beyond. 

And if you're ready there without these three things, it's a great opportunity for you to go back and dial them in and get better results for yourself. How do I know this? Well, dozens of our clients have dialed in these three things and it's skyrocketed their results.

Some are 300 students plus, and they are still just dialed into these three things and instead of adding all the bells and whistles and fancy things and all the noise that you see on the internet, they're just going layers deep on these three things and getting great results.

So I'm going to share with you what these three things are and stick around to the end because I'll share with you a resource and a formula that you can use real quick, will help you implement and optimize your first strategy, which I'll share in a minute, and help you skyrocket your results way quicker. All right, let's jump into the details.

So three things that you need to get to 300 students and beyond. So am I oversimplifying this? You might be thinking, George, you're just oversimplifying this. Well, I probably am, right? Because it's a given. You can't do any of these things if you don't run epic classes. I think we've covered that.

If this is your first time listening to me on this podcast, yep, obviously you need some epic classes because otherwise, no marketing in the world is going to fix that, right?

But let's say you got that, and I assume you do, right? Because all great martial artists have run epic classes. Then there are three things that you can focus on to skyrocket your results. Now, before I go too deep into that, I want to tell you a little story… 

Turn your dead leads into profitable new martial arts students. Here’s a proven strategy to revive, reconnect and reengage potential students that you haven’t reached out to in a while.

IN THIS EPISODE:

• How can dead leads be a potential source of profitable new martial arts students
• How a database of leads collected via Facebook Messenger, email, and walk-ins can be a valuable resource to reach out to dead leads
• How to restart a conversation with a dead lead using the Conversation Carrots
• The pitfall to avoid when reconnecting with dead leads and what to do instead
• Using the 9-word email hack or Bullet Boomerang to get more leads and sales
• And more

TRANSCRIPTION

Hey, it's George Fourie. Welcome back to another Martial Arts Media™ Business podcast. Today I'm going to be talking about signing up students with dead leads or leads that you have just forgotten about.

Leads that have inquired, they never signed up, or you were having a conversation with them and they ghosted you or just disappeared. Or perhaps you have those old students that left unless they left on bad terms and you don't want them back.

But otherwise, just students that left and something life got in the way and you didn't hear from them again and they left. So we're going to talk about a few simple strategies to restart the conversations with those dead leads, all students that have left, super simple but super profitable.

Hang around to the end. I've got a great resource for you, a PDF that we call Conversation Carrots. It's one of the most popular resources we have in our Partners Program, a really simple way to engage and start conversations. I'll give you the details at the end of the podcast, and how to access that. All right, let's jump in.

All right, before we get into the good stuff, a quick life update for any of you that have followed the podcast for a while and know that I haven't posted much on social in a while and done a podcast, this will take 30 seconds approximately.

So I'm recording this in 2023, February, in October last year, we decided to move the family from Perth to the Sunshine Coast. If you're not from Australia, that's equivalent to moving from San Diego to New York, it's that far, and that's what we did.

What decided us to move? Well in the mid-last year, we came here on holiday. I was hosting our first Partners Intensive, which is an event that we run for our Partners group. And we came on holiday the week before.

Absolutely loved it here, loved the beaches, and just loved the vibe of it. And we decided we wanted to do something new, that I'm closer to hosting events on this side of the country but also close to the states for travel and events that we want to host over there. And so we made the big move. That's it.

 

Now, we're back and on track. The other thing that's been keeping us busy the last couple of months is onboarding new clients and working on a few cool things that I'm going to announce in the next month, a couple of weeks or so. Update done, right?

Let's jump into the good stuff. So how does one sign up students from dead leads?

All right, so let's look at a few scenarios. You have leads piled up in your Messenger. If you collect leads via Facebook Messenger, perhaps you have inquiries via Messenger or you have them from your website. So you have email leads, and you have them in your database, preferred.

We'll talk about that maybe a little bit. Maybe people walked in and you took down their details, whatever the scenario, you had people that were inquired but never joined.

 

Now, if you had to track back the last few months, the last few years, how many of these people do you have in your database? If you still have them, we've got a few cool things that we can do with them and I'll chat about that in just a bit.

 

All right, so these perfect prospects inquired, but they never joined. Now, I guess a dangerous thing for us to do is to make some assumptions about them, that they inquired, but now they're just not interested. Well, it could be, but it could also be just something else that happened that we can't control.

 

Life got in the way. Maybe they were tied up in some other engagement and they just haven't had Covid, or maybe it's something deeper, right? There's a fear of what this whole martial life thing is about and they're just not comfortable stepping up and taking action on starting their training yet.

The last time we spoke to Lindsay Guy, we discussed how he tripled his karate school in record time. Today we chat about refining retention to maintain this massive growth.

IN THIS EPISODE:

• How retention impacts martial arts business growth 
• Keeping martial arts classes fun to stimulate young students
• Reaching out to parents on how to keep kids from quitting martial arts
• Setting up your martial arts pro shop for profit
• Keys to leaving a lasting martial arts legacy
• And more

*Need help growing your martial arts school? Start Here.

 

TRANSCRIPTION

GEORGE:  It's George Fourie. Welcome to the Martial Arts Media™ Business Podcast. Today I have a repeat guest with me, Lindsay Guy from Guy's Karate School. Now if you recall episode 117, I had Lindsay Guy on and we spoke about how he had 3x’d his martial arts business moving past the Big C, we'll call it the Big C.

The YouTube and social media channels don't like us talking about what it is, although we probably mentioned it in the episode. Anyway, I wanted to catch up with Lindsay just to see how things are going right now. We spoke about how he 3x’d his business.

I wanted to see where he is now, how things are going, and how he handled the growth. We talked a bit about retention, and a little bit about marketing and it was just a great martial arts conversation. Now, I must warn you, Lindsay is super authentic and as he says, he's got no switch and he speaks very straightforwardly.

And we have this sense of humor where we look for little gaps and opportunities to have a go and have a bit of fun and fun with each other. So that might come out in some of the comments from him and me. Don't take it to heart. 

It's probably easier if you watch the episode because Lindsay's face explains his sense of humor. But yeah, one of my favorite humans to speak to when it comes to a sense of humor and having fun. 

So a lot of fun in this episode and a lot of value. So jump in episode 139. So head over to the website, martialartsmedia.com/139. You can download the transcript and all the resources mentioned in this episode. 

And do me a favor, if you get some good value out of this episode, please share it with someone you love, someone you care about, a martial arts instructor, or martial arts school owner. So they'll get as much value from it as you will.

All right, let's jump in. Lindsay Guy, welcome to the Martial Arts Media™ Business Podcast. Actually, welcome back to the Martial Arts Media™ Business Podcast.

LINDSAY:  Thanks, George. Thanks for having me on again.

Michael Scott shares the 3 core areas he focuses on for a fulfilled life, and building a martial arts business that fuels generational wealth.

IN THIS EPISODE:

• Are Google Ads getting better results than Facebook Ads?
• Having an exit strategy when retiring from your martial arts business
• Your martial arts business as a vehicle to build generational wealth
• Having an accountability partner you can trust and who supports your goal
• Why have membership contracts
• And more

*Need help growing your martial arts school? Learn More Here.

TRANSCRIPTION

GEORGE:  Hey, it's George Fourie. Welcome to the Martial Arts Media™ Business Podcast. Another great interview for you today. Michael Scott from CMA Campbelltown Martial Arts in New South Wales. 

So I've known Michael for a little while. We've been working together in our Partners Group. When you meet someone and they're not the front of the conversation, but when they speak, you want to listen because it's always packed with wisdom. 

In fact, at the end of last year, we did something fun in our Partners Group and we gave out awards within the group, and Michael was named the Wisdom Whisperer, and just for that reason, sits back, observes the conversation, but when he speaks, it's packed with wisdom.

Now, Michael talks about the three areas that he focuses on his life way beyond martial arts and actually how he has used his martial arts business as a vehicle to grow wealth and build generational wealth, and talks about investment strategies and things that he does after that. So, you're going to love it.

In this martial arts business case study, Amanda Saliba and Wayne Ardley share how they increased their revenue by $200,000 in 12 months. 

IN THIS EPISODE:

• A martial arts hobby turned into a successful martial arts business
• When to get help from a marketing expert?
• How the ‘Partners OnRamp’ helps boost martial arts schools 
• Quitting your day job to become a full-time martial arts instructor
• Tapping into a pool of knowledge through Martial Arts Media™ Partners
• And more

TRANSCRIPTION

GEORGE:  Hey, it's George Fourie. Welcome to the Martial Arts Media Business Podcast. Today, I'm doing one of my favorite episodes to create, which is a case study. A case study documenting a client's journey from when they started working with us to where they are now. 

Today I'm speaking to Amanda Saliba and Wayne Ardley, all the way from Melbourne. And I love this episode simply because Amanda is so committed, has big goals, and same as Wayne, still in the workforce, positioning out of that going full time into the business. And in the time that we've spent working together, they've increased their income with an additional $200,000 over the last 12 months.

What I love about this is that we zoomed out on this journey. You know, we love to talk about marketing on the show, attracting the right students, increasing sign-ups and retaining more members. And sometimes the emphasis is on getting more students, getting more students, but we all know there's more to that, right? 

There's the retaining, keeping the students, which is the biggest part, really. And well, you can't have one without the other. So this case study really documents the journey of staying with the course, you know, not looking for the quick fix, doing the work.

You know, we are on coaching calls every week. Amanda's always on the coaching calls. There are lots available, Amanda's always on all of them, and does the work, implements, makes the refinements, and really commits to the journey. And that's really what it takes.

So I love doing this interview. You definitely gonna get a lot of value from this head over to martialartsmedia.com/137 if you'd like to download the podcast transcript and the resources mentioned in this episode. And that's it. Let's jump in. Amanda and Wayne, welcome to the Martial Arts Media Business Podcast.

WAYNE:  Hello.

AMANDA:  Thanks for having us, George.

GEORGE:  Cool. So I wanted to bring you guys on the show, and this is one of my favorite interviews to do because we get to talk a bit about a customer journey working together and the awesome results that you guys have managed to do over the last 12 months, which is really, really exciting and look forward to diving a bit more into the details on that. 

But just before we kick things off, if you don't mind sharing just a bit of an intro, who is Amanda? Who is Wayne, and what do you do in the martial arts space?

Over and above professional wrestling, martial arts, and the Master Motivation podcast, Jason shares how giving back to the community powers his martial arts school and 2 other businesses. 

IN THIS EPISODE:

• How community networking and fundraisers help promote martial arts schools
• A traditional marketing strategy that works
• Why promotions should focus on the benefits of martial arts training
• What helps improve student retention during the summer
• Why giving back to the community matters to martial arts schools
• And more

 

*Need help growing your martial arts school? Start Here.

TRANSCRIPT

GEORGE: Hey, it's George Fourie. Welcome to the Martial Arts Media Business Podcast. Today, we're back with another epic interview with a phenomenal martial arts school owner, Jason Flame from Moorpark Karate and Krav Maga.

So, this episode, the value per minute was super high. We spoke about community engagement, how to infiltrate your community organically and be involved, and we also spoke about him running three separate businesses. He likes to call it the trifecta and how the 3 businesses actually operate and help boost his martial arts school.

Jason is also a professional wrestler, so he spoke about wrestling, and what I really got a lot of value from is his student retention strategies that's really, really helpful, especially through your long summer months or when students want to take a break and how they boost their attendance through that.

So, all the show notes and the transcript of the show, you can download at martialartsmedia.com/136. The number is 136. You're probably going to want to do that for this episode because as I said, the value per minute is really high. So do that, and by all means, if you love this episode and get some good value from it, please share this with another martial arts instructor or another martial arts school owner, and help us grow the show and get it out to more people.

All right. Hope you enjoy the show. Let's jump in! Jason Flame, welcome to the Martial Arts Media Business Podcast.

Sean Allen's thriving martial arts school supports his lifestyle of training, learning and surfing. Discover how his passion for teaching drives demand and impacts his community.

IN THIS EPISODE:

• Sean Allen: The Antichrist of martial arts marketing?
• The 1 sentence that trumps all other martial arts marketing methods
• How the dunbar number boosts relationship between student and instructor
• Capturing 10% of your martial arts school’s target audience
• Turning class challenges and discomfort into teachable moments 
• Getting parents off the phone and focused on their kids martial arts class 
• And more

 

*Need help growing your martial arts school? Start Here.

 

TRANSCRIPTION

GEORGE: Hey, it's George Fourie. Welcome to the Martial Arts Media™ Business podcast. In today's episode, we're back with interviews and I'm really, really excited to have a repeat guest with us, Sean Allen from Margaret River Martial Arts. 

So Sean and I connected way back on episode number 8. I had a look yesterday when we did the recording, it was just over six years ago that we had our first chat. First up, it was great to chat and tap into a different insight that Sean Allen delivers. 

Sean does a bit of a contrast of what we speak about, which is how to do marketing, online marketing, attract the right students, increase signups, and so forth. Sean does no marketing and his school is at capacity with a one-year waiting list. So we might say there's no marketing in there, but there's obviously a lot in there to generate that type of demand.

And I really wanted to chat with Sean about having this lifestyle martial arts business, his choice of where he relocated to which is just in Australia. Margaret River is like the surf Mecca of Australia of the world, you'll hear that from the Margaret River Pro. And Sean decided to relocate there and really build this lifestyle martial arts business that serves his lifestyle.   

But we took a strong turn in the episode and spoke about teachable moments in martial arts instruction. There's some real, real value in there for you as a martial arts school owner and instructor. So buckle up, this is a great episode. 

Jump in all the show notes are on martialartsmedia.com/135. So you can go there and download the transcript of this episode. And if you've got some value out of this, please share it with someone that you feel… Share it with an instructor that would get some great value from this. All right, that's it for me. Let's jump in.

Hey Sean, welcome back!

SEAN: Thank you very much, George.

GEORGE: The last time we spoke on podcast 8, I was just looking back a few minutes ago and exactly a few days past six years ago that we actually spoke, episode 8.

SEAN: Lot's have changed.

GEORGE: All right, and so let's jump into that. I wanted to have you back just to have a chat of those changes and a few things that we do differently now. So I'm going to kick it off with the question that I like to ask. What's been your best marketing strategy since we've spoken or just in general that generates the most students for you?

IN THIS EPISODE:

• A look at what's included in the 170-page Partners Intensive workbook
• What’s wrong with most martial arts business events
• A walkthrough of Ross Cameron’s world-class martial arts facility
• Nailing your socials with vertical videos
• Google’s bigger comeback
• Creating martial arts curriculum using the Curriculum Creator 
• Getting young instructors to run high-level classes
• How to Run a 6 Figure Open Day   
• And more

*Need help growing your martial arts school? Learn More Here.

TRANSCRIPTION

Hey, it's George Fourie. Welcome to the Martial Arts Media™ Business Podcast. So today I'm going to give you a full review of our most recent martial arts business event, our Partners Intensive, which was a private martial arts business event for our private clients, and our Partners members, and it was held in Brisbane, on July 2022. 

So I'm going to give you a full review of just what we covered, what we did, and what made the event cool, different, and exciting. And stick around, I will also share with you how to access the recordings of the event and how you can potentially be invited to the next one, or on martialartsmedia.com/134. But let's jump into the details.

All right. So our Partners Intensive, that was it. If you're watching this, I'm holding up a big, thick workbook, 170 pages of strategies, notes, models, and things that we worked through from front to back. Why so many pages? Well, you didn't ask that, but I think I'm just going to tell you, because you think, “170 pages. That sounds like hard work.”

Well, it actually means less work, right? It means that we did the hard work upfront. And in the sessions, our members were able to take notes. The strategies were already done for them. And it was a great way to just really refine things and keep track and walk away with a clear plan.

So let me start with that. Events. Now, I don't know what type of events you've been to. There are great events, and there are not-so-great events. And then there are events that you think are great events and you feel like it was a great event because it was, but when you look at the content, you kind of walk away with a scatterbrain. You walk away with all these ideas. And you're on this dopamine high, so you feel really good about attending this event. And you've come back with ideas and you think, “Oh, wow, I've got all these things that I've got to do.”

And so you're on this mental high because of the event. But now you get home and now you got to make a plan. Now you got to put this all together. Now you got to make it practical for yourself. And that's hard to do if you don't have a structured strategy and an outline for you to be able to take everything and implement it fast, because, let's face it, information without implementation means squat.

So you might feel good about the event and you might have gotten a lot of ideas, but if you weren't able to capture it and capture the strategy of how to implement it, it sort of becomes like that whole long to-do list of stuff that just never gets done. And so it doesn't take long, and you look at it, and it probably causes more overwhelm than actual results because you just can't get to the things that were mentioned.

So I'd like to say we go about it a little bit differently. Now, our events are for our private clients. So these are paid for events by us, our members who pay to be in our program, and so we run the events for free for them. We structure it over three days, and we make sure that our members can walk away, get the strategies, but also get the work done and be able to implement. And so that when they get home, they have a clear plan and they know what to do. All right.

So I'm going to jump into exactly what we did over three days. So first off, this event was really special because one of our Partner members, Ross Cameron from Fightcross in Albion, Brisbane, created a… When I say world-class, I don't even think it does it justice, but their new gym is a combination of a complete lifestyle center and a gym, martial arts gym.

Here’s my attempt to end the age-old debate about the pros and cons of having your club fees listed on your martial arts website.

N THIS EPISODE:

• The honesty vs dishonesty debate about prices on martial arts websites
• The pros and cons of listing prices on your martial arts website
• Getting the best results from your martial arts website
• How an irresistible martial arts offer boosts your conversions
• When is it actually a good idea to list prices on your martial arts website?
• And more

*Need help growing your martial arts school? Learn More Here.

 

TRANSCRIPTION

Hey, it's George Fourie. Welcome to the Martial Arts Media™ Business Podcast. Today, I'm going to revise one of my first podcast episodes discussing, should you have your prices listed on your martial arts website? 

Should you have your club fees listed? If you don't, what should you have listed? And if you do, how does that impact your sales and your conversions? And if you don't, are you just hiding stuff and being all weird? 

All right. Let's dive in. Make sure you stick to the end, and I'll share with you a cool resource that you can have on your website that boosts your conversions and helps you sign up more students. All right. Let's dive in.

Having your prices listed on your martial arts website, should you do it or shouldn't you do it? I see this topic come up often, and I just dug through the archives of the Martial Arts Media™ Business Podcast, and I actually covered this on episode number four, my fourth podcast. It was 2016. And I wanted to have a look if my stance has changed on it. And I could say, “No, it hasn't,” but I want to give some context to what that stance was and where the exceptions to the rules are.

First up, short answer, is it a good idea to have your prices listed on your website? No, it's not a good idea. Now, what I've been noticing over the years is people get really weird when you say that. People go the whole honesty and dishonesty route. 

People get really angry about this, that if you don't put your prices on your website, you're hiding stuff, and you're not being ethical, and you're being sleazy. And it gets really nasty, which I find really odd and weird. 

I want to explain the psychology of why it's actually not a good idea to have your prices listed on your website, and it's actually the reverse. If you don't have your prices on your website, you are serving your potential prospects way better. You are able to establish way more value around what it is that you provide.

Let's dive into a few scenarios. As a recap of what is discussed in episode four, in the younger version, I had no beard and maybe the camera's a bit better. Hopefully, I've got this podcast thing a bit smoother, more relaxed, and better after a couple of years down. 

All right, let's just cover one scenario. You've got a mom sitting in front of her computer. She's thinking about enrolling her child in martial arts. In context, she's never done martial arts before, she doesn't understand it, somebody might have told her it's a good idea, somebody might have mentioned it and said, “The benefits are X, Y, Z,” or she's done some Googling and researching, or maybe she's got a child that's being bullied. She's kind of figured out that martial arts could be a good thing for her child, but she knows nothing about it.

Here's a simple martial arts marketing tip, if you're not already doing it, to get fast results.

IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN:The importance of tracking marketing strategies that work

• Why you should never be reluctant to reuse past content
• And more

*Need help growing your martial arts school? Learn More Here.

TRANSCRIPTION

When was the last time you repeated something that worked in the past? 

Hey, it's George. Hope you're well. So I want to share a quick marketing tip with you, something you can do right now. It's not rocket science. It could potentially get you good results and maybe you're already doing it, maybe you're not. Maybe you've forgotten or maybe you're doing it routinely. Either way, I hope this serves a good reminder. 

Now, I know I haven't shot a video in a while. I've been busy with some secret stuff. No, just doing stuff behind the scenes. Really working, looking after our members and working on our member portal. We're sitting up doing a bit of behind the scenes stuff, which is kind of contrary to the advice I'm actually going to be giving today, so I kind of got to look myself in the mirror for this one.

Anyway, back onto the topic. So on the topic, obviously the last few months have been a little different, a bit crazy for some, and for the most part, I feel people have at least mentally moved on. I don't want to say move on and I don't want to take for granted where you're at and what situation you're facing. 

I know for us in Perth, things have been back to normal for a long time. That's us. We're just lucky for where we live, and I know for our clients in Queensland, they've been doing great. New Zealand as well. I know there are some spots where you're still facing restrictions and lock downs and crazy stuff.

So I know it's not an even play for everyone, but whatever the situation is, I feel there has been a mental shift, at least. Whether that is people are used to the situation or things are sort of starting to look up for the better. So that comes down to the sip and it comes down to this question. “When was the last time you repeated something that worked in the past?” 

This is something actually we did with … and we've been doing this as restrictions have lifted wherever our clients have been at. The first thing that we've actually done is we just looked at what worked in the past and hit repeat. That could be on Facebook ads, just looking at your Facebook ads and looking, “All right. Well, what type of ads were working prior to COVID and the pandemic?” and we just hit reactivate…