MASuccess Magazine

By: Cris Rodriguez, MAIA Digital Marketing Expert

When a school owner fills out an application to work with my company, Grow Pro Agency, to see if we are good fit, one of the questions we ask is, “have you advertised on the Facebook Ads platform before.”

About 80% of our prospective clients end up saying something to the effect of, “Yes, I boost posts all the time.”

I wanted to quickly go over whether or not you should be boosting posts and what type of results you will get from them.

First, what is a boosted post?

There are 11 different Campaign Objectives inside of the Facebook Ads Manager, and Engagement is one of them.

A boosted post is simply an “Engagement Ad” where Facebook will put your ad in front of the audience of your choosing with the purpose of getting you engagement (likes, comments, shares). The reason why it is so popular, is because it is one of the few types of ads that you can create without having to go deep into the...

By Guest Blogger Dwight Trower

At St. Louis Family Martial Arts Academy, we recently held a special class in our year-long series: “Dads and Sons - Doing Good Work.”

Why “good work?”

You might be curious why we chose the phrase for this particular program. It actually goes back to my old boxing days from the late 1980's and early 1990's. In the martial arts, it’s traditional to show respect to your training partners or instructor by bowing or saluting at the end of the workout. The local boxing gym I trained at had a similar customary ending. A typical workout lasted about an hour and a half and was broken down into multiple sessions depending on what each individual boxer was working on that day.

We always began with a simple calisthenic warmup followed by fifteen to twenty minutes of continuous shadow boxing. Next would be up to ten three-minute rounds of work. This might include any combination of heavy bag work, focus...

Social media doesn't have to be hard. Try these organic posting today and improve your following. If you want a done-for-you Social Media Calendar, check out MAIA Edge.

By: Cris Rodriguez, MAIA Digital Marketing Expert

As most of us know, The Facebook Ads Platform is a pay to play platform. Or as I like to call it, an invest for success platform.

But I hear it all the time - “Cris, Facebook Ads don’t work for me.”

Or, “I boosted a post and I didn’t get any new students.”

Or my personal favorite, “Facebook Ads are too expensive.”

All things considered, Facebook Ads are the most cost effective way to advertise.

Tell me any other channel that you can target your EXACT Avatar (insert explanation of Avatar here), show them the perfect messaging, at the perfect time, and convert them.

It’s truly amazing the power of digital marketing.

However, what most school owners don’t understand is that your Organic efforts actually...

Give & get the gift of savings at your holiday event this year. Download your free Holiday Event Planner here.

By: Frank Silverman, MAIA Executive Director

Inside the Century Holiday Planner, you will find ideas and suggestions for making your holiday season a huge success! 

You’ll find ideas that will help you generate more retail sales, as well as advice for how to sell more upgrades, package sets, new memberships, and more.

Want a sample of what the Planner has in store? Below are five methods for improving retail sales, specifically, at your event.

(If you haven’t yet, make sure to download the Century Holiday Planner now.)

1) Make sure items’ prices are clearly labeled.

You wouldn’t buy an item that you didn’t know the price of. Often, people are reluctant to ask how much an item costs because they don’t want to look “cheap” if they then decide not to buy it.

2) Have a variety of items.

Have your...

George Alexander, a shorin-ryu karate pioneer and the president/founder of the International Shorin Ryu Karate Kobudo Federation, began training in judo and karate in the Marine Corps. He currently holds the rank of 10^th dan hanshi, or “teacher of teachers.” Alexander has been inducted into six halls of fame, produced more than 200 instructional DVDs and published 10 books. He is a professor emeritus of East Asian history at the State University of New York and a distinguished research fellow and member of the faculty of the Institute of Martial Arts and Sciences in the United Kingdom. He teaches at the Budokan Martial Arts Honbu Dojo in Palm Coast, Florida.

MASuccess: Where did you grow up and what did your dad do?

George Alexander: I was born on Long Island and grew up in New York. Dad was in real estate there. We moved to Florida when I was 14.

MAS: When did you discover the martial arts?

Alexander: Dad was an officer in the Army Air Corps...

By Dwight Trower

I’ve been training as a martial artist for 38 years. The last 28 of those I’ve also been a school owner. Over that time, I have had the opportunity to visit and network with countless other martial arts professionals. As an industry, we’re all aware that many of our students have learning disabilities or physical limitations, and that we have to be able to adapt our programs to allow them to benefit, while maintaining the integrity of the martial arts and our chosen way of teaching.

One of the things that I’ve learned over the years is that every student is unique. Each and every one of them has their own needs and goals. I’ve seen many schools, just like my own, train and develop elite martial athletes, successful adult students, children with learning disabilities, and those with special needs all within the same program.

October is Down syndrome Awareness Month, so this is a great time for me to get to share how...

By Dwight Trower

October is National Down Syndrome Awareness Month! To shine the spotlight on the amazing members of our martial arts community with Down syndrome, and those who know them training partners, students, family and friends, MAIA is proud to feature this guest article by Dwight Trower, Director of Instruction at St. Louis Family Martial Arts Academy. 

 In my many years as a martial artist and school owner, I have had the fortune of being able to instruct many students with Down Syndrome, as well as others on the autism spectrum and with various mental and physical disabilities. Given the inclusive nature of martial arts (no one sits on the bench!) I know that many of my fellow school owners have also had this experience. However, in 2010, thanks to Deidre Pujols and the Pujols Family Foundation, I was given the opportunity to do even more.

With help from the Foundation, I was able to create a stand-alone program and...

by Dave Kovar

To be quality martial arts instructors, we must keep up with our own training. Over the decades, I’ve relied on a dozen rules that have helped me develop my skills and maintain my longevity in the dojo.

The rules started as unconscious habits, but as time went by, I became mindfully aware of them to such an extent that I solidified them into rules. Whenever I put them into practice, good things happen. I’m confident you will find them as valuable in your training.

1          Empty Your Cup

Most martial arts instructors have their students bow onto the mat before they train and bow off the mat afterward. They do this for a variety of reasons, but the one that’s most important for me is it helps me empty my cup. Bowing can remind you that the world outside ends the moment you step onto the mat.

By making this action a ritual and consciously trying to clear your head before every training...

by Philip E. Goss Jr., Esq.

As a regular contributor to MASuccess, I derive great satisfaction from two things. One is receiving positive feedback in regard to my coverage of certain issues. The second is when someone lets me know that a problem I covered, which had previously flown under the radar, has become a hot-button issue.

On that note, I will bring up two topics that I’ve touched on and that are generating controversy in various jurisdictions: wage theft and salary inquiries. The second topic spans two issues: the ever-increasing prohibition against asking prospective employees about their previous salaries and the practice of paying similarly situated male employees more than females.

Wage Theft

In the past, local government entities were hesitant to become involved in employment-related issues. When it came to wage and hour issues, protection of private-sector employees was minimal at best. Previously, an employee who suffered harm because an employer...

by Nguyen “Tom” Griggs

In this column, I would like to share some perspectives on the value of yielding when it comes to working with others. First, I must make a distinction between yielding and surrendering.

In Japanese jujitsu, the principle of yielding is often essential to the proper execution of a technique and the successful defense of oneself. Yielding can be understood as going with another person’s energy or movement instead of fighting it. Surrendering means giving up and letting the other side have its way at your expense. I hope this helps you see how these two concepts differ.

When I was in my early 20s, I earned my MBA. Our family insurance agent helped me get a job at a local firm. When I left, I went to work for a much larger corporation. My manager — I’ll call him Phil — was a great example of how not to act as a leader.

Phil was self-righteously moralizing, inconsistently strict and condescending. The worst part was, he...