MASuccess Magazine

by Melissa Torres, MAIA Division Manager

There’s an old saying about coaching from the late, great UCLA basketball coach John Wooden that I think about a lot when it comes to MAIA: “A good coach can change the game; a great coach can change a life.”

That quote strikes a chord with me every time I think about it. A good coach can help you become better within a skill, career or hobby, but a great coach can instill something deeper, something life changing, something that alters the course of your life forever and opens your mind to possibilities never before seen.

We truly believe that here at MAIA. We believe that great coaching and mentoring can be a catalyst for unexpected growth and unprecedented discovery. We understand that no man or woman is an island, and even we did not get to the place we are today by going it alone. We all need some help from time to time.

That’s why I want to remind you of a feature on the MAIA website that allows us to...

by Beth A. Block

As I was considering the impending wave of fall festivities, I decided to do some online research. (Many of you know that I’m a bit of a research nerd.) One of the first cases that jumped out at me involved a studio that had put together a Halloween festival in conjunction with several other local businesses.

This type of joint venture is an excellent way to find new prospects for your studio. Each of the businesses invited its own clients, and the event was promoted throughout the community. Talk about an opportunity to crank up your sales funnel! It’s important that we all continue the momentum of increased enrollments. For most of us, 2020 took a harsh toll on our student body, and we need to be creative in our approach to recruiting new people.

The festival I found during my research went off without a hitch — but I’ll play a bit of “what if” with you. After all, you know that I have true stories about bad situations in...

If You Haven’t Started Posting Promotional Videos, What Are You Waiting For?

by Cris Rodriguez

I can remember every time my parents left the house to run errands in the early 1990s. I would run over to the television, turn on MTV and watch music videos — this was back when they actually played music videos.

Between commercials, MTV often would play a clip from the song Video Killed the Radio Star, by The Buggles. The song reminds us that “We can’t rewind, we’ve gone too far; video killed the radio star.”

Video — along with the vehicle on which we watch it, the smartphone — has killed a lot more than just the radio. The ubiquitous smartphone has replaced the following, just to name a few:

• Cameras
• Photo albums
• Televisions
• Paper maps
• Books
• Laptops
• Video-game consoles

The smartphone has changed how we communicate, how we date, and how we conduct our relationships and friendships. And we are addicted. Americans spend an average of...

Let’s face it, online advertising works awesome, but it costs money. 

It’s a pay-to-play platform. 

And it’s one that requires skills and strategy — two things that many martial arts school owners have when they are on the mat — but put them in front of the Facebook Ads Manager, and they are tying on a white belt. 

When times are tough and your marketing budget is low, leaders adapt and overcome. 

And while paid advertising is the fastest way to gain new students, it’s not the only way. 

Smart school owners leverage the power of Social Media and the Internet every single day. 

And while you might not have a large marketing budget, that doesn’t mean you are out for the count. 

This is why I put together 7 ways for you to reach your audience online…for free. 

That’s right. 

These techniques and strategies won’t cost you a dime. 

So what’s the catch? 

It will cost...

Being that this is a very male-dominated industry, sometimes more vulnerable topics don’t often get spoken about.

Let me preface this by saying that I don’t have a degree in psychology, and I am definitely not a psychiatrist.

But stress and anxiety often go hand-in-hand with owning a small business, especially with the past year and a half that we've gone through.

So I wanted to share my mantra for when I am feeling anxious.

And that is: Action Alleviates Anxiety

I have been through quite a lot in my 10 years of being an entrepreneur.

And 2015 was almost the year that broke me.

First, I was audited by the IRS.

It was almost an entire year of having my accountant on speed dial, my employees being interviewed, and every financial document in my business under a
microscope.

I took action and made sure that my accountant and auditor had everything they needed at the exact time they needed it.

You’ll never believe what the final resolution...

There is no shortage of knowledge in our industry.

There are great coaches and consultants out there (and some not so great ones too) that will give you all of their knowledge.

Information is plentiful thanks to Google and YouTube (I joke all the time that I built a 7 figure business off of using those two platforms as resources).

So the issue isn’t information and knowledge. The information is WHERE DO I START?

All of us are in unique places in our martial arts schools.

Some of us are just getting started.  Some of us have been at this for decades.
Some of us are struggling with recruiting, others with retention.

So where do you START?

I think why most coaching and consulting programs fail is because they word vomit all of their knowledge onto a school owner without providing them with a timeline of what they should implement based on where they are in their business.

This is why MAIA is a step above the rest. Our model provides a Pathway...

by Tu Le

In May 2018, my team at InCourage Martial Arts and I were preparing to open a brand-new martial arts studio in Fairfax, Virginia.

This studio was going to be in a new location, starting completely from scratch with no existing students. On top of that, as the owner, I would be off-site. We would need someone to handle the onsite operations.

Considering all these factors, I concluded that resources were limited and costs needed to be kept as low as possible.

The existing business model in most martial arts studios requires both a program director and an instructor to keep things running smoothly. For this new studio, however, our goal was to do it with just one full-time staff member.

Of course, running anything with just one person (at least, one full-time person) is challenging because there are so many things that need to be done: marketing for new students, keeping current students, coming up with fun and engaging class plans, recruiting and hiring part-time...

by Cris Rodriguez

As I was thinking of a title for this article, I tried not to be overly dramatic, but I’m standing by my statement that “Facebook is changing forever.” It’s certainly a big deal, but it shouldn’t come as a shocker — with any technology, the one thing you can count on is that nothing is going to stay the same for long.

My goal in writing this is that by the end of the article, you’ll understand what’s taking place, why it’s happening, how it will impact your advertising and, most important, why you need to prepare for this.

As I write this in late March 2021, there are still many unknowns surrounding Apple’s next iOS 14 update for the iPhone and iPad, so much so that even Facebook is unsure of the impact it will have. With that being said, I’ll be transparent about what I’m unsure of, as well. Until the “ATT prompt” goes live, there will be much speculation.

Although Facebook...

They say you are the culmination of the people you spend the most time with.

Well what kind of outcome do you think would occur if you hung out with these all-stars:

Chatri Sityodtong
Brent Gleeson
Robert Teschner
Frank Silverman
Cris Rodriguez
Mike Metzger
Shane Tassoul
Kelly Murray Gry
Eric Santamaria
Abid Benwali
Nick Peterman

Leveling up your inner circle is a sure-fire game plan to leveling up your life.
And the above list of all-stars are coming straight to your computer with the Martial Arts Industry’s biggest training and education event: The 2021 Martial Arts Super Show.

While in-person events are my personal favorite, with the pandemic and Nevada’s
restrictions, we had to go virtual for one more year.

What does this mean for you?

A super affordable Martial Arts Super Show with an amazing speaker line up!

After a year of running online classes, most of you are Zoom Wizards, but I wanted to share some tips to get the most out of our 2021 Super Show and...

When looking back on 2020, there were so many lessons that were learned.

My mantra during Covid was pretty simple:

After every recession - there is a rebound.
After every recession - there IS a rebound.
After every recession - there IS a REBOUND.

And that’s where we are today. Many of you have your schools opened — some of
you with restrictions — and then there are places like Florida where we have absolutely no restrictions in our academy.

And it’s time to rebuild.
It’s time to RECRUIT.

Which means it’s time to go pedal to the metal with getting your school back to pre-COVID numbers and beyond. Which is what brings me to this blog today.

One of the things I missed most during 2020 was live events.  While virtual events like the Super Show and my 8-Hour Marketing Mastermind Course were amazing, there is nothing like being there in person.

Now that the pandemic is slowing down here in the states, we are seeing more live
events...