Zulfi Ahmed shares insights about his book, The Science and Secrets of Becoming a Master Martial Arts Instructor, and why it's time for the industry to level up.

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IN THIS EPISODE:

What motivated Grandmaster Zulfi Ahmed to write the book, The Science and Secrets of Becoming a Master Martial Arts Instructor
The difference between a Master and Master Instructor
Why the martial arts industry is stuck
The importance of stepping up to a mastery level
The universal philosophy of a great Master Instructor
And more

*Need help growing your martial arts school? Learn More Here.
Download the PDF transcription
TRANSCRIPTION

How do I get them to the next level? What do I teach them? They're doing exactly, they're mimicking me, the way I talk, walk, the way I have fun. They're doing the same thing. What separates me from them, and what separates them from the new upcoming young people? So, there has to be in our industry a body of knowledge, which elevates our industry. But to elevate the industry, we have to elevate the leader, the instructor.

GEORGE: Good day, everyone! And welcome to another Martial Arts Media business podcast episode – and a very special guest that I have with me today and a return guest. If you recall Episode 57, I had Grandmaster Zulfi Ahmed, join us. And that was actually right before The Main Event in San Diego – that's going back – April 2018. And we've spoken a little bit, not the purpose of this chat, because we've got something really important to chat about today.

But one thing I really remember, Zulfi, was when I was at The Main Event, Kyoshi Fred DePalma's The Main Event in San Diego. And after the event, we were both waiting on our flights, you obviously back to Texas, and me to Australia. So, we both got on, we sat down at the breakfast table. And we just had a long chat, and Kyoshi Fred DePalma held an awesome event, but that was the highlight of the event – actually having a conversation with you and just learning from you and your wisdom from the industry. And so, I'm really excited to be speaking with you again today. And I think, just a quick bit of context.

So, Master Zulfi has been in the industry for 49 years, founder of Bushi Ban International, nine locations in Texas, three in Connecticut, and multiple in Pakistan as well. And Master Zulfi's earned over 300 martial arts awards. Countless, countless credentials. But again, not why we are here today. We are here today, because Master Zulfi has put together a masterful book that I just received the other day, and I've just, halfway through it. It's called ‘The Science and Secrets of Becoming a Master Martial Arts Instructor'. We'll leave details and links where you can actually get this, but I think just to kick things off, Master Zulfi, why did you write this book?

ZULFI: George, first of all, thank you so much for having me on your show, and I really appreciate it. And thank you for your kind words. It was a pleasure. And I remember our conversation at breakfast time, waiting for the van to take us to the airport. And it was delightful. And thank you for having the time to spend with me. I've cherished our relationship – distant relationship. And one day I want to go to Australia and share with you more. Yeah, The Main Event was a great, great event. And, Kyoshi, she's a good friend of mine. And if you've not been to that event, you must go to the event.

Back to the book. You know, this is, one of my friends asked me, ‘how long did it take you to write this book?' And I said a lifetime. I've been in martial arts. You know, I will be almost 60 years old in March. And I started formal training at age nine, informal training at five. You know, in Pakistan, wrestling is a predominant sport. So anyway, going into that, so, I asked, you know, he asked me how long it did take – I told him about a lifetime. But actually, this project – writing this book, ‘The Science and Secrets of Becoming a Master M…

Last time we spoke with Cheyne McMahon, he had just gone full time with 110 students when his dojo got flooded. Today, he has 340 students and is thriving as a Karate-only school.

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IN THIS EPISODE:

How action takers work and think differently
The pay off of investing in your instructors
100% Karate! Cheyne’s growth from 110 students to 340 students
Do this to motivate your white belts
And more

*Need help growing your martial arts school? Learn More Here.
Download the PDF transcription
TRANSCRIPTION

As soon as I see the value in it, I'll do it straightaway, whether that's good or bad sometimes, but at the moment, everything I do is working out pretty well.

GEORGE: Hey, George Fourie here. Welcome to another Martial Arts Media business podcast episode. We're on episode 109 and chatting today to a good friend and a repeat guest, Cheyne McMahon. Good day, Cheyne.

CHEYNE: Hey, how are you? 

GEORGE: Good, good, good. So, been a while. Well, I'd say it's been a while since we spoke on the podcast, I was actually checking back and we spoke on episode number 74. Actually back in March 2019, so, depending when you're listening to this, close to the two year mark on doing this again. 

So, I wanted to chat again, really to document his journey, because it's been a long journey. We'll go a bit more into the details, but you can check out podcast number 74 for a bit more of the background – the first time we met, how we got started working together, and your dojo was flooded, wasn't it?

CHEYNE: Yeah, still remember that one like it was yesterday? Yeah.

GEORGE: Flooded dojo, we started working together, did a couple of cool things, and worked out well, you jumped up to 185 students. That was in December. Well, in February, so that was a couple of months later, shot to 200. I'll be prompting you to get that 300, you hit 300 students at the time of recording this. Well, last week, he said you were 325. This week you're at?

CHEYNE: Yeah, that's 348 students.

GEORGE: Just from the sidelines, and I'm going to hand it all over to Cheyne, but you know, one thing I admire about Cheyne is just relentless work ethic. You know, whenever we chat on a Zoom call or something, we chat about something, Cheyne goes quiet, and then he's like, “yep, it's done, it's sent”. 

And so, he's just a religious action taker, we can almost stop the podcast there if you want to get the value out of something and Cheyne's journey on how he progresses so fast, is just taking action all the time. It's probably a good place to start, right? Because what got you to that? What is it that prompts you to take action quickly? Is that something that came from, you know, from childhood? Or is it the discipline of karate? What's got you to that?

CHEYNE: Yeah, I think that that's just sort of my personality. I just want to, I just want to see the value in it, and I’ll just do it straightaway. Just like setting up Calendly. Last week, we were talking about it, as soon as I see the value in it, I'll do it straightaway. Whether that's good or bad sometimes, but at the moment, everything I do is working out pretty well. Some things don't work. But so far it's been it's been pretty good.

GEORGE: Yeah, I can't recall who shared this exactly. I think Elon Musk shared something similar, that the person who makes the most business decisions wins and in context, and I'm probably butchering this, but the overall story is, if you make 100 decisions a week or day, and 50 of them fail, then you still made 50 decisions in the right direction. The problem is when you overanalyze and you sit back, and you make 10 decisions, and still, 50% ratio, five of them fail. 

So, now you've made five steps in the right direction, versus 50. So either, you know, when we, when we think we are doing the wrong things, doing just many things all the time and making decisions rapidly, actually goes a bit further at the end of the day.

As entrepreneurs we can be our own enemy and sometimes sabotage our own progress. Here’s how to get out of your own way and make progress in your martial arts business.

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IN THIS EPISODE:

How to get a clear game plan for your martial arts business
Hitting your marketing goals faster
Pushing through comfort zones
And more

*Need help growing your martial arts school? Learn More Here.
Download the PDF transcription
TRANSCRIPTION

If it's uncomfortable, there's got to be something behind that, right? And how do we go about fixing that? Does that mean it's something that I've got to fix internally? Or do I need to get advice or help from someone that knows how to navigate through that?

Hey, George here, hope you're well. So, do you often get in your own way trying to get to where you want to go? Let me get some context. First up, whenever we want to go into a new direction or we set some big goals, maybe you hire a coach, or you try and get help. 

So you set this big goal and you want to achieve this thing. More often, we are the ones that sort of get into our own way and resist to go into the new direction. 

So, what got me thinking of this, we've got what we call a Game Plan session. Every time we start working with new school owners, we do a Game Plan session, and it’s all about how do we set the big vision, not just the, “yep, I want those extra students, you know, that's going to get me to X”. 

But, what is the big vision that you actually had when you thought of starting this business? So, big vision, 12 month goals, and then projects and what you got to get done next week. So, it's a great session, and almost everyone that we work with, refer to this session as sort of a pivotal point – as it gives them clarity and knowing the path that they need to go to get to where they want to go. 

But, that's all good – now the session is done. And that's where the problems come up, because you've done the session, but now you actually got to do the things that are going to get you to where you want to go. 

And that means that you're going into a new territory – and new territory brings up anxiety. If you look at four stages of getting to where you want to go – first up, is acknowledging that there's a problem that needs fixing, that's the easy part. 

Well, it can and can't be – you got to obviously reflect and look at what is the actual problem. And sometimes, you know, and sometimes you don't, you know, you might just have a problem, well, “hey, we need to get more students”, you know, that's the big overall problem. 

But deeper inside, there could be other things going on – your belief system about selling, or how you feel about selling, or maybe you're getting tons of leads, but you're just struggling on the conversion part. So, there's always going to be layers to where the problem lies, and that's where coaching can really help. 

First up, there's a problem, you acknowledge that you got a problem. Now, the second part, and the third, and the fourth is not so much spoken about? Well, the second part mostly, and that is the anxiety that comes up of having to do a new thing. 

The anxiety of, “alright, well, I've acknowledged I've got a problem, but now I'm going to actually do something about it”. And so that means you got to break habits, and you got to look at things differently. And, number three, you've got to accept a new solution, a new way of doing things. And that's where a lot of discomfort comes, because, as human creatures, we want to stay in our comfort zone, we don't really as a race want to venture into the discomfort – you know, naturally we're looking for comfort. 

So, moving from anxiety to new solutions – that pushes us out of our comfort zone. And this is where I see a lot of obstacles come up, right, because you fight like hell to stay in your comfort zone. 

And now, you've got the plan, you've got the solution,

If you’re moving in and out of lockdowns, it can be tough to keep a positive attitude. Here’s a few reminders to sidestep negativity and help you lead from the front.

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IN THIS EPISODE:

How to be the voice of reason in negative situations 
Practicing good leadership skills 
How to shift your energy and focus to achieve what you desire
And more

*Need help growing your martial arts school? Learn More Here.
Download the PDF transcription
TRANSCRIPTION

It's good to be the voice of reason and challenge people on their thoughts, especially if they're training martial arts with you. What is martial arts really about? What are we really doing here? Punching, kicking, grappling, these are all the stuff that we do, but what is it really? What do you become when you do martial arts?

Hey, it's George Fourie, hope you're well. So, I wanted to shoot this video as a bit of an inspiration/reminder, depending on where you're at. Now, fortunately for me, I'm super blessed. You know, we've got no restrictions in anything. 

But I was chatting to one of our Partner members a couple of nights ago, and they are on lockdown, at number three. And surprisingly, he was not pretty down about it or anything. But he did mention that he's facing a lot of the same cancellations and a team that has been with him a long time just saying, “Great, we'll see you when you reopen”. 

So, no motivation to train online and so forth. And look, I get it, some people are okay with it, some people aren't. Either way, no judgment as to what is right or wrong. But, at the end of the day, what I do want to chat about is just being the voice of reason. 

So, let's face it, there's so much negativity around – finding a negative conversation or a whinging conversation, or complaining, it's easy to find, right? It's really easy to tap into a negative hemisphere and just latch on to the complaining, or the next complaint, or the next thing to whinge about, really. And, as a reminder, it's good to just be the voice of reason. 

It's good to be the voice of reason and challenge people on their thoughts, especially if they're training martial arts with you. What is martial arts really about? What are we really doing here? Punching, kicking, grappling, these are all the stuff that we do, but what is it really? What do you become when you do martial arts?

I think it's a good reminder for people that get it, to kind of call them on their attitude if people are wanting to quit, want to slow down or, you know, “yeah, we'll do nothing and come back later”. Challenge them on it. 

Really, is that how you're going to handle all problems in life, is just when something comes along, you're just going to sit back and wait till it blows over, you know, and wash your hands, or you're going to face it head on, and work within the constraints in what you have.

Let's face it, if you're under lockdown, number three, there could be a number four, there could be a number five, that could never change, you can't change that. But, you can change how you handle the situation and what you do in the situation. 

And this is where your students obviously look up to your leadership, right? And look at, well, what are you doing? Are you leading from the front? Or are you burying your head in the sand with everyone else? 

And I think that could just be a reminder for everyone, because it's easy to get stuck in misery. It's easy to get stuck in how bad a situation is, versus taking the leadership role and just saying, “well, yeah, it's not great. But here's the plan. This is what we're going to do, this is how are we going to navigate through this”. 

So we're going to get through this, and before you know it, we're back on track, and everybody that was sitting on their butts watching Netflix, etc., are going to be way behind you guys who jumped in and kept on training and kept on doing the thing. 

Anyway, I hope that hit home,

If growing and scaling your martial arts business is taking longer than you’d like, this simple shift might help. 

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IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN:

One simple shift to get results faster 
Why martial arts business owners struggle asking for help
Do this ‘hack’ to boost your marketing results
And more

*Need help growing your martial arts school? Learn More Here.
Download the PDF transcription
TRANSCRIPTION

Do you struggle asking someone to help you? Is there some sort of pride? Because, let's face it, sometimes asking for help is kind of a vulnerable thing, right? You expose a weakness in a way.

Hey, George here, hope you're well. Want to quickly chat about moving faster, getting things done faster, and struggling less.  

So, a quick backstory: when I got started online marketing – it was a bit of a different world. We didn't have access to social media and this two-way conversation on the internet that we really take for granted – this way to communicate flawlessly and send messages back and forth, and video chat, and so forth. It was a bit more old school, it was quite difficult to get information.  

To get information, you would really have to read, you know, the coaching movement wasn't that big either. You would have to buy – well, in my circle, at least, you know, it wasn't, probably was, it just wasn't in my sphere of what I was exposed to. 

So, you know, I just started out with books and really, really struggled to get things done and learn things. And you know, when I look back on it, it's not a way I'd recommend to get started with anything. Take martial arts, for example, and imagine buying a book and trying to learn martial arts – you're going to struggle, right, because you don't have a coach, you don't have someone that's actually helping you and showing you, and directing you, and correcting your moves, and putting you in the right direction. 

When I got started, it was a big struggle. I started out direct response marketing with Google Ads and I saw that as the only viable way to get people to buy things online. It's all there was, right? I mean, there was maybe Yahoo and a couple of other things. No Facebook, no social networks, unless you could advertise on MySpace. It was a big struggle – it was a really big struggle, I lost so much money. 

And now, if I look at it, it wasn't actually a lot of money. It was nothing compared to what I'd lose now in a campaign to figure things out. But, when you've never made money, and it just feels like you are pouring money into this hole, and there's never a return, other than seeing somebody might have clicked on it. You just don't know why, and you don't know who to ask. It's kind of a dark road. 

I think I've shared this story before, but I mean, I poured money into Google, day in and day out. I reached my last 300 bucks, it was my last 300 bucks that I was ever going to spend on this business thing. And I was really about to throw in the towel, because it was just too difficult. I got to about $32 left, and I made a sale for $37. 

The best 37 US dollars I've made in my entire life, because I got a conversion. I've got somebody in a country different than mine to buy a product from me without ever seeing me. That was the most exciting moment of my life, because that was opportunity – and grew from there, one sale came after the other. The reward of that was just phenomenal.  

But, would I recommend anybody struggle like that to get it done? No. It's too hard. That comes down to really what I'm trying to get across in this podcast is – do you struggle asking someone to help you? 

Is there some sort of a pride, you know? Because, let's face it, sometimes asking for help is kind of a vulnerable thing, right? You expose a weakness in a way. 

And I know for a lot of guys, it's a hard thing to do. Sometimes, I think there's even some, there could be like an ego attached to it, right? Something that,

If your energy took a dive in the last few months, here’s a quick way to get your mojo back (passing kidney stones not essential!).

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IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN:

What is the 75 Hard Challenge
How to revive your energy and get your mojo back
Do this and it will help grow your martial arts business 
And more

*Need help growing your martial arts school? Learn More Here.
Download the PDF transcription
TRANSCRIPTION

As a martial artist, for me, it was always I train a lot and I'm doing what I can so I'm doing okay, but reality is, I was not, and I really needed to do a couple of things to uplift my energy and get back on track and feel alive. 

Hey, it's George Fourie, hope you're well. So, if you've been feeling a little sluggish, or your energy's down, just the last couple of months of craziness has really gotten down to you, then hopefully, this episode will help. 

So, a slightly different podcast episode, we normally talk about marketing, business, or interview people. This one is about health and being at your optimal state. And I know, as a martial artist, for me, it was always I trained a lot. And I'm doing what I can. So, I'm doing okay, but reality is, I was not. And I really needed to do a couple of things to uplift my energy and get back on track and feel alive. 

So, I've done just that. In the last couple of weeks I've been part of this challenge. It's called the 75 Hard Challenge, you can look it up at 75hard.com. In fact, I'll link to a podcast in this episode, which gives all the details. You can access that at martialartsmedia.com/105. 

So, I'll give you a bit of a background about how the challenge works. Now, it's not a weight loss challenge. It's a mental toughness challenge. And I'm not normally one to jump on board challenges. And, let's be honest, if I had to be honest with myself, every time I've jumped into a challenge as well, I probably didn't follow through the way I should have. 

So, a bunch of people in a coaching group that I belong to jumped into this. And I thought, I'm gonna do this, and I'm just gonna give it a go. And I'll tell you what, it's been pretty amazing. It's been tough. I expected it to be tougher, but it's been pretty amazing. And a couple of crazy things that happened, which I'm going to be sharing in this episode. 

So, I'll quickly pull it up on the app, actually, and just show you the details. So, it's basically an app that keeps track of your progress. Now, every day, you've got to do two 45-minute workouts. I believe they've got to be two hours apart. One must be outside. 

Follow a diet, that can be any type of diet, obviously not Krispy Kremes, or something crazy, but an actual diet. No alcohol and cheat meals. That catches a lot of people. Right? That one is a killer for most people, especially the time of year when I'm recording this now, leading up to Thanksgiving and Christmas. Drink a gallon of water. So, a gallon of water is about 3.7 liters. Read 10 pages of a non-fiction book and take a progress pic. That's basically it. Well, it's not basically it, right, because it's quite a bit to do. 

So, for me, I just decided well, okay, let me see if I can shuffle my routine, I need to do two 45-minute workouts. I'm just going to up my jujitsu game. And, so, I've done that, and out of the 17 days, I've trained 14 days. I've been on the mats, I train at lunchtime, so it's super easy for me. 

So, I've been on the mats, 14 days out of the 17. And I must admit the three that I did, were probably the hardest because I had to find exercises to do that weren't in my routine. My other exercise would be, I'll do yoga, or I've got a rebounder where I do some jumping. Or I'll just actually, just, fast brisk walk at the beach with the family and that will add to the exercise time. 

The drinking water, now, I'll actually see what's happened because of the drinking the water. That's actually been pretty simple.

Every student at Higher Jiu Jitsu knows their mission statement. John Smallios shares how a clear purpose simplifies their message.

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IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN:

The mission statement that John upholds in his Jiu Jitsu academy
The critical factors that influenced the close-knit culture in Higher Jiu Jitsu
The one thing that John avoided which now guides his students on the same path to learning
Aristotle’s philosophy of learning
And more

*Need help growing your martial arts school? Learn More Here.
Download the PDF transcription
TRANSCRIPTION

With regards to the mission, hopefully if you ask any Higher Jiu Jitsu student, they will tell you that our mission at Higher Jiu Jitsu is we help everyday people build quality of life with Gracie Jiu Jitsu. And that's in my mind all the time.

GEORGE: Good day, George here, and welcome to another Martial Arts Media Business Podcast, episode number 104. So today I've got an old friend with me, someone I haven't spoken to in a while, and we got chatting again on Facebook and thought we'd catch up, talk a bit about Jiu Jitsu business and things past the whole pandemic. So I'm with John Smallios.

JOHN: How is it going, man?

GEORGE: Good. How are you?

JOHN: I'm doing well. Thank you very much. Thanks for having me on.

GEORGE: Your school's name is Higher Jiu Jitsu, right?

JOHN: Yep. That's the one.

GEORGE: I've always wanted to ask you, where did you get the name Higher Jiu Jitsu? What was the thinking behind it?

JOHN: It's pretty cool, right? Well, basically, I had a nutrition coaching and personal training venture that I was into at the beginning, and the name of that was Higher Health, because I was always interested in getting better and improving on health in many different ways. And there's always ways to improve in that realm. And then I was running the BJJ Commune.

I think there might have been a time maybe when you came to Higher potentially. I think it was still the commune at that time. And the commune was that because it was an open map pretty much. Everyone was more than welcome to come. There was no affiliation at the time. And then things developed and changed. And then I was faced with a little bit of a spot where it was very hard running two businesses at the same time.

And I was kind of doing a similar thing, because I was looking at helping people, whether it was during nutrition or movement, or in this case Jiu Jitsu. So I thought, you know what? It's time to amalgamate the two and make it one, and Higher Jiu Jitsu was born. And I like it. It's got a nice ring to it. And I just love the idea now that it's endless refinement and you can always do better on the Jiu Jitsu mats and off the Jiu Jitsu mats, of course. But Higher Jiu Jitsu it is.

GEORGE: There we go. Actually, you just from minded me now of the first conversation we had, because you worked with us way back, version one of our Academy Program, which is a coaching program for school owners with marketing and emails and contents and so forth. I recall being on a call with you and you had this divided attention of how are you going to make this thing a thing?

Because you had the health of the business working with Jiu Jitsu. But when I stopped by in Sydney at your location and you had me joining for the open mat session there, I recall that step was already refined and you were already on your way with this whole amalgamated venture, as you say.

JOHN: Yeah. It was actually really tough at the time because I'm just so passionate about all of those realms. It was hard to make… I think I put more pressure on myself than I had to at the time and I wanted everything to just be seamless and perfect, in a way. Things aren't always perfect. But I guess changes had to be made and it was within me. I'm sure you weren't the only person I was chatting to that about.

It was just a constant dilemma in my head like, how can I make this work better?

You only get one shot of making a great first impression. Francine shares how to do that with martial arts photos that demand attention.

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IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN:

3 keys to taking epic martial arts photos
Why every martial arts school owner needs professional photos 
How simple smartphone photography can boost retention
And more

*Need help growing your martial arts school? Learn More Here.
Download the PDF transcription
TRANSCRIPTION

It's quite difficult to take martial arts photos. Some of my clients that I go to regularly, they've mentioned that a lot of them have had someone take photos, but they just weren't good. Because even sports photographers struggle. Martial arts is so specific and so intricate that you really have to understand the arts, the movement. You got to be a mover yourself. You got to be a martial artist almost yourself.

GEORGE: Good day, everyone. George here from martialartsmedia.com and welcome to the Martial Arts Media business podcast. So, an awesome guest with me today, Francine Schaepper. How are you, Francine?

FRANCINE: How are you?

GEORGE: Very good. I'm going to give a brief about Francine, but she'll fill in all the gaps. So, Francine is from Switzerland and is a professional martial arts photographer. So, Francine's taken 15,000 plus martial arts photos. When you look at the photos that Francine takes, you can't help but do a little gut check and think, “Well my photos aren't that great.”

So, we're going to chat a bit about photos, why they're important and especially for you as a martial artist, why do you need professional photos? We'll get into that, but first welcome to the call, Francine.

FRANCINE: Oh, thank you. Sorry my kitten's distracting me. She's trying to climb up on me. Yeah, some of you know me. I'm Swiss, I've been here for awhile. In the first place, I'm a professional photographer and the martial arts snuck its way into it and we'll probably talk about that a little bit. So, that's what I do for work. That's a quick overview, really.

GEORGE: That's super quick. Well then, go into how did the martial arts part fall into place?

FRANCINE: Okay, well look, when I started photography, I think I started photography about 10 years ago. So I've got a corporate background, business marketing background. I've always loved cameras, I've always loved it, but then at some point decided, okay, I'll just make this my business. God knows why, but I've done it.

Well, it actually started at uni when I was studying photography and we had to put together our final folio. We had to find photos that we wanted to kind of copy to showcase that we could do it. Obviously as a martial artist, I thought I want my front page to be a really cool martial arts shot.

So, I started Googling and looking around and it was really hard finding any decent martial arts photo. I'm not talking about somebody standing there with a gi. I was looking for something more commercial looking, something if you think of like Nike, or Adidas campaign, something of that kind of matter. It's something really dynamic with a lot of elements that will make it look good.

I literally almost gave up. I just found this one guy in the States who does amazing commercial photography. He did a test with a very quick, a very fast camera and super fad, and they chose martial arts because it's very dynamic. They took a series of really cool shots, and that was literally the only four shots I could find, and I Googled for weeks.

I felt personally we're representing martial arts the way I thought it should be represented. That got me into this whole thinking of, well, why does nobody take photos of martial arts the way I think they should take them? So then I went down that avenue and started taking photos for the kung fu school that I was training and teaching at, and got into it that way. So that was why, so now that's a niche standing on its own because it's a very sp…

Martial arts school owner Costa Prasoulas shares how philosophy influences his life of acting and martial arts.

.IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN:

Costa’s ancient ancestral history of martial arts 
The philosophy that Costa upholds in his martial arts academy
How Costa’s career in martial arts movies began
Observing martial arts fight scenes from a different perspective 
The self defense approach to Covid-19
And more

*Need help growing your martial arts school? Learn More Here.
Download the PDF transcription
TRANSCRIPTION

I think of philosophy and its beautiful relation to martial arts is the fact not that it gives you answers, but it creates questions. It creates an open channel of thinking. In relation to martial arts, there's not one answer. There's many ways from a technical avenue, from a stylistic perspective and many answers, there's not one thing, right? That's why there's so many variations and so many possibilities.

GEORGE: Good day, this is George and welcome to another Martial Arts Media™ business podcast. So today I'm joined with a special guest all the way from Marrickville, Sydney, New South Wales. We were going to, actually like a lot of things, do this interview a couple of months back, but at the time of recording this, as we all know, the world changed and so things got delayed. So welcome to the call Costa Prasoulas. How are you today Costa?

COSTA: Yeah good thank you George, I'm very well thank you. It’s nice to be with you.

GEORGE: Cool. Costa has an interesting background and who better to tell us – look, if somebody has a Wikipedia page, it deserves mentioning, right? So who better to tell us a bit of an intro and then Costa can take over, but… Costa Prasoulas is an Australian actor and martial artist trained in Muay Thai, Hapkido, Taekwondo, Pankration and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, having won the Australian Open Martial Arts Championship in 1992, Intercontinental Kickboxing Champion and won a silver medal at the 2009 World Games. His acting credits include Cop's Enemy and Z-End.

How cool is that? My work was done for me and a really good intro.

COSTA: It's quite interesting, you know, I didn't even know that I had a Wikipedia page until about last year when my daughter came up and she is like, “Dad, guess what?” I said “What?” She goes “Oh, we were looking at you at school with some friends of mine. My daughter is in year 12 mind you. And she goes, “You’re on Wikipedia!” I said, “Really?” I had no idea. And so it only came to my attention that I was actually on Wikipedia like maybe over the last sort of what, 18 months. So it's quite interesting. But it's cool that you said that, I didn't even know myself.

GEORGE: That actually makes it a lot better, you know. If it was instigated from the marketing standpoint and, you know, it's still good that you can get it. But the fact that it was up there without you knowing…

COSTA: Yeah, I had no idea. I had absolutely no idea, no idea.

GEORGE: That can lead to the next question, like: how did it come to that? I mean, you've obviously done some cool things within the martial arts space and then movies. So give us a bit of a background, how this all got started for you and where you came from?

COSTA: Sure. Primarily, from a very young age, I was about five and a half or six years of age when I started really sort of getting involved with martial arts. And the primary reason was my father. My father was actually, he dabbled in amateur Greco-Roman wrestling in Greece. When my parents sort of settled then in Australia, in Sydney and I was, you know, my dad was always sort of in the combative arts anyways, so I had that primarily from a cultural background, that Hellenic combative ideal of you know, mind, body and spirit. My ancient ancestors you know. And so that was kind of like, I never really sort of, I kind of grew up with that sort of mentality. To me that was normal because of the way that my life a…

Reflections of 100 Martial Arts Media™ Business Podcast episodes and where it all began.

.IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN:

Why you should keep a close ear to the ground like never before
Reflections and celebrations for 100 Martial Arts Media™ Business Podcast Episodes
How I got started helping martial arts school owners 
Why there could still be a ‘gold rush’ coming your way
And more

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

If there's one thing that's more important than ever, it's to have a real close ear to the ground. There's a thing in marketing where we refer to speaking to the conversation going on in people's mind. Now, the interesting thing in the last few months has been that kind of conversation has sometimes shifted on a day to day basis, sometimes multiple times a day.

Hey, this is George Fourie and welcome to the episode number 100 of the Martial Arts Media business podcast! How cool is that? I've been waiting to say that number for quite a while. 100 episodes. Cool! So that is, I don't know, 30-40 hours of interviews with top martial arts school owners, top martial artists, top leaders from around the world and just sharing great resources and marketing tips and things that have worked for us in the work that we do with martial arts school owners.

So, look, thanks for listening if this is episode number one for you. Welcome! Here's to the next hundred episodes and there's 100 behind us that were pretty cool. I'd like to think. And if this is your 100th episode, or close to that, thanks for all the support, really, really appreciate it. Love the feedback that I've gotten from the podcast. And if you are listening and I don't know who you are, and we haven't had a connection, then do reach out to connect with me on Facebook or leave us a review on iTunes or Spotify or wherever you listen to this podcast, it would be much appreciated.

So I've had a few things planned for episode number 100. But in all honesty, I just want to kind of sit back and reflect and share a couple of things that I've learned over my journey of doing this podcast, and more importantly, a couple of things that I've learned especially the last few months. At the time of recording this, martial arts has faced a few hardships around the world. And yeah, I mean, it's been some interesting chart times with the whole pandemic and everything.

And for me, it's been really, really focused on keeping a real close ear to the ground and being real present all the time. And especially, you know, doing, especially in our Partners group where we have martial art school owners that we work with from all around the globe. It's really interesting to just see the different perspectives from where school owners that you know, from across Australia and New Zealand, I mean, every state in Australia, different opinion, every state in the United States different opinion, then New Zealand, UK, so never before have I seen just so many, you know, there's just so many different nuances and different variations of where you can be in and, you know what approach you can be taking.

The great thing is being able to ‘predict the future’ based on who's ahead of the curve. And that's been New Zealand and Perth, where, where I'm based. And if you're not in any of those places, I can tell you that there's been a huge influx of a student boom, you know, of people getting back into training and getting on the mats and, you know, some of our clients have had some of their best months. So if that's not you, I hope and you know, and things aren't great for you right now, I hope that's some of the most positive news that you've heard. And so there's one tip I can give you from that is just have a close ear to the ground because the minute things shift for you, you want to be on top of it and just grab on to the gold rush if we can call it that.

So look,