Martial Arts Media™ Business Podcast

168 - The 5A Content System: How This Martial Arts School Owner Grew 127K Instagram FollowersAlan La from Invincible HQ™, grew to 127K Instagram followers using his 5A Content System,without fancy equipment or viral stunts. In this episode, he breaks down how martial arts school owners can escape the "instructor trap" and create content that actually converts.IN THIS EPISODE:Why the martial arts industry is falling behind in marketingWhy "fly on the wall" content beats produced videosThe $20 tool that makes the biggest differenceHow to turn existing classes into weeks of contentThe 5A Content System (Authority, Access, Applause, Ascension, Action)Making martial arts less intimidating through behind-the-scenes contentAnd more*Bring 50 Enrollments Into Your Martial Arts School Every 90 Days Need help growing your martial arts school? Watch Training + Take The AssessmentTRANSCRIPTIONALAN: So I literally started on the streets and, you know, really just trying to find enough students to keep the dream alive. And I’ll be honest, like back then, I didn’t have a massive marketing budget. I didn’t have money, pretty much, but I was fortunate enough to be starting my school right when social media was beginning. And I took that as an option. I saw social media was this thing where it gave me the ultimate kind of equaliser with other massive schools that have been established for like decades.GEORGE: Hey, it’s George. Welcome to another Martial Arts Media™ Business Podcast. Today I’m joined with Alan La from Invincible HQ. How are you doing, Alan?ALAN: I’m good. Thank you, George. Just want to say again, thank you for having me on and look forward to see how I can help school owners and coaches.GEORGE: Amazing. So a little bit of context that led to this interview. So I met Alan at one of our Partners Intensive events in Sydney, and we just had a brief little chat, spoke marketing, spoke ads. It was in between sessions. And then I had a look at Alan’s socials and I was watching some of his Instagram stuff that he was doing. Firstly, if you want to be inspired as a martial artist, Alan’s skill and kicks are just bar none.But then together with that, just watching how he packaged everything and then just seeing the amount of mass following that Alan has, I think it was 127,000 followers on Instagram. So to learn here from Alan as what he does as a martial artist, but also from the publishing standpoint and growing a mass audience, which are three skills that you very rarely see together in the martial arts space. So thanks so much for jumping on, Alan.ALAN: Thank you. Thank you for having me. I’m grateful to be here.GEORGE: Awesome. So let’s just, I always like to just start from the beginning. What’s a bit of your background? What got you started in martial arts? And we can go from there.ALAN: Okay. Well, first of all, I’m Alan La and I’m the founder of Invincible Worldwide. And most people see me as the guy with a hundred K followers and 20 million views. And they assume that I’ve got some secret marketing degree or whatever. What a lot of people don’t know is that I started out as the furthest thing from what you call the influencer thing. I was a shy kid, just started teaching martial arts in the back of my parents’ house when I finished high school and eventually that grew and then I had to move out to local PCYCs and stuff like that.But then sometimes we’d get kicked out. So I had to teach in local car parks. And so I literally started on the streets and, you know, really just trying to find enough students to keep the dream alive. And I’ll be honest, back then I didn’t have a massive marketing budget. I didn’t have money. Yeah, pretty much. But I was fortunate enough to be starting my school right when social media was beginning.ALAN: And I took that as an option. I saw social media was this thing where it gave me the ultimate kind of equaliser with other massive schools that have been established for like decades. So I decided I’m going to go all in on trying to figure out this social media thing. And I thought that was my way to kind of be heard and get my name out there.I remember then this was like early stages, once a couple of our YouTube videos took off and went viral. I thought, oh, this is amazing, seeing the results. And then I thought, all right, cool. I’ve got this kind of formula and I’ll start playing around with this, experiment with it.ALAN: And then as you know, social media evolved and changes. So I’ve seen it from the early days of YouTube to now Instagram Reels, Instagram carousels and Stories and it’s constantly changing. But what I’ve noticed is that yes, these things change and it’s not about luck, right? I’ve actually realised it’s actually systems and principles. And so I’ve used the same principles to go viral on Instagram as well. And it’s just systems.ALAN: So what I’ve realised is it’s not luck and don’t chase luck or trends. So I’ve used the same principles to now run a seven figure school in Sydney and also be able to help school owners to install the same proven systems to build and also build their team. So they can stop trading hours for dollars and finally build a business that kind of supports their life and do what they want to do.ALAN: Because when I look at a lot of school owners, I feel like particularly in martial arts, we tend to get stuck in our old ways and we like to just stick to tradition. As much as we try to keep up with the pace of where the modern world is going, I feel like as an industry, we’re not enough. You know, there are a lot of industries out there where things have moved so fast, but in martial arts, I don’t know, we’re a bit slow. So I’m passionate about really helping school owners and coaches to push forward and yeah, that’s why I’m grateful to be here with you, George and share whatever I can.GEORGE: It’s interesting you mentioned the level playing field because that now again is actually just levelled again. And I’d love to dive into your systems and principles because that’s sort of the language that I resonate with and then everybody can adapt and add their own unique ability to it. But if you think of you saw social media as this opportunity, I can kind of recall when I started this podcast, I also saw it as an opportunity to just, well, nobody’s really doing these kinds of things and it’s good to just use it as a platform.GEORGE: But the old model of you needed all these followers was like, that was the method. And for anyone paying attention to social media now, there’s been this shift of social to interest-based where the algorithms go by interest. And so I guess if you think of what makes this chat with you today relevant is you’ve got all this experience and you’ve got this mass following, but for anybody that’s maybe not there and starting out, adapting principles and being able to produce good content can actually get you the same virality now without the mass following. And so that’s where the algorithms have evolved to.GEORGE: So I would like, and if you could share whatever you feel comfortable sharing, but you mentioned the systems and the principles. How do you go about that? How do you look at content in a way, in a system that gets you the visibility that you’re after?ALAN: Yeah, you’re absolutely right. It’s always changed. For example, Instagram, when it first started, I remember hitting over just 500 followers. I was like, oh man, I got so excited. And then you get to a thousand, you get really excited. And back then it was about the followers. The more followers you had and the more likes, you felt good. And you’re absolutely right, just probably a couple of months ago, Instagram now is all about the views.No one cares about the likes or the followers anymore. And they’ve kind of levelled out the playing field where someone who has fewer followers might actually get more reach than someone who’s got hundreds of thousands of followers. So it’s actually levelled the playing ground really, really well.ALAN: So what that means now even more is that the content that you’re creating has to be even more interesting. Whereas in the past, you just kind of create your own content and if people like it, people will follow. But now you’ve really got to have the ability to capture people’s attention really, really fast, within three seconds. So I think that’s a big thing.ALAN: Going back to principles, I always believe in principles, same thing growing my martial arts school. I don’t believe in following trends. I think you have to be different. Being different is what captures people’s attention. If they scroll and you look the same as every other martial...

Craig Harmer discusses operating multiple martial arts programs in a small town while balancing a full-time law enforcement career and competing at world championship level.IN THIS EPISODE:How to successfully operate Taekwondo, Jiu-Jitsu, MMA, and 4 other programs simultaneouslyFrom 50 struggling members to 150+ profitable studentsWhy world championship success matters for small-town business credibilityThe challenge of competing with rugby, cricket, soccer, and every other local sportHow law enforcement skills create better martial arts instructionDoubling revenue without doubling membership — the exact strategyTRANSCRIPTIONGeorge: Hey, it's George Fourie.Welcome to another Martial Arts Media™ Business Podcast.So today I'm with Craig Harmer and I almost want to say you're probably the busiest guy on the planet, right?Craig: It seems like it sometimes.As we were talking offline, I went to the world championships recently and some of the competitors were talking about how busy they were.One of the other coaches said, busy?You don't know what busy is.Talk to this guy.So I went through my timetable during the week and they were like, yeah, I'm going to shut up now.So everyone's busy.Everyone's got stuff to do.Just get it done.George: A hundred percent.So let's, well, let's dive into that, right?You're a lifelong martial artist.You are still running a full-time job.Craig: Yes.George: And you're running a super successful dojo.Do you refer to it as a dojo, school, academy?Craig: We call it, because I guess we have a number of different programs, I like to call it an academy.George: Academy, cool.Craig: I stole that from our head coach, John Will, as well.It's a place of learning.It was designed to be called Goulburn Martial Arts Academy.I want it to be ownership for everyone that walks through the academy.I didn't want it just to be Craig Harmer's or whatever.I want everyone that walks in to feel as though it's their place to be able to come and learn.So yeah, it's an academy, I guess.

Lifelong martial artist Daniel Jancek shares how fixing pricing and surrounding himself with growth-driven school owners helped him step away from his job and go all-in on his martial arts business.IN THIS EPISODE:How a simple pricing mistake kept a 500-student school stuck.Why shifting from pay-as-you-go to real memberships created instant stability.The fear every school owner faces when raising tuition and what actually happened.How to identify the families who truly value your program.Why premium pricing increases commitment and reduces afterthought attendance.The power of building decisions inside a room of growth-driven school owners.TRANSCRIPTIONGeorge: Hey, it's George Fourie.Welcome to the Martial Arts Media™ Business Podcast.Today, I am with Daniel Jancek.How are you, Daniel?Daniel: Good, George.How are you?George: Good.Did I say Jancek?Did I say it in the proper accent?All right, cool.So I'm going to give a brief intro, but I'm going to let Daniel tell the story.This is sort of a cool part where I get to interview people that are in the Partners group.We tell a bit of a case story, but I also get to chat about things that just probably don't just come up in conversation.So it's a great opportunity for me to get to know Daniel better and just talk about his journey in martial arts.They've had great success in martial arts over the last year, especially going full-time.So we'll dive a bit deeper into that.But yeah, welcome to the call, Daniel.I appreciate it.Daniel: So thanks for having me.George: Cool.So I guess just start right at the beginning for those of you that don't know who you are.Just give us a bit of background on you, your journey, martial arts, and where you got started.Daniel: Yeah, No, love to.So yeah, I basically was a bit of an energetic kid.I suppose you could say when I was really young, I had a lot of energy that I needed to release.I'm a little bit aggressive at times.I was not the most well-behaved kid.So I got into football at a really young age when I was four years old.And when I was about five and a half, yeah.My mom and dad thought it'd be really good to get me into martial arts once a week.So I brought a newsletter home from school.It was like a newsletter pamphlet drop that I got in school.I took that home to Mom and handed that to her and went for our first lesson.And yeah, really never looked back.So I'm 35 now.Well, yeah, going close to 36.It's been a good 30 years that I've been doing martial arts nonstop for.I started as a five-and-a-half-year-old kid that thought it looked pretty cool.I liked the logo.That's what sort of got my attention.It was a boxing kangaroo.The rest is history.

Getting martial arts leads but they keep disappearing? You're not alone. Most martial arts school owners blame "tyre kicker" leads, but the real problem is your follow-ups. Here’s the exact automation system that fixes it.IN THIS EPISODE:Why calling leads "tyre kickers" kills your martial arts business growthThe 60-second automation system that stops lead ghostingHow Amanda turned 11 martial arts leads into 7 premium signups ($83 cost per student)The martial arts marketing follow-up sequence that works across email, SMS, and voicemailWhy Facebook's Andromeda algorithm changes affect your martial arts school adsThe content strategy that creates higher-quality martial arts leadsTRANSCRIPTIONThe world of martial arts marketing, marketing your martial arts school.So let's say you're running ads at the moment; it could be through Facebook, through Google.They typically take a different pathway or a different strategy.So maybe we'll lean into Facebook for now.But regarding leads in general, let's say you are running a campaign and you've got lead enquiries coming in and they just ghost you.So you're all excited, you get a lead notification, see the phone number, and perhaps you pick up the phone and call them.No answer.You try to message them.No answer.So what's the deal?Are all these leads just notoriously bad?Is it just a distraction?Is it too hard to get hold of people?I'm recording this close to December right now.Are people just more distracted than ever, and it's hard to get hold of them?Or are they just all the leads, martial arts leads, just tyre kickers?There are a few things that we can consider here.And if you are in the scenario where you're getting leads and they are ghosting you, there are a few things that could be wrong.Number one, I think I want to address the mindset around leads.And a lot of times I hear school owners talk about how leads are tyre kickers, and it's not typically their fault.Because let's say you're running a campaign and you've got one lead notification, two, three, four, and you can't get hold of anybody.And four leads in, all of a sudden your entire mindset is shifted.You feel here's another time waster.

Almost all martial arts school owners are disappointed with their agencies or have a horror story to share. Here’s how I see both sides of the storyIN THIS EPISODE:The flawed martial arts agency model of overpromising.The unrealistic "microwave expectations" about martial arts marketing.The power of the marketing-to-mats feedback loop.The strategic mindset shift from focusing on cost to focusing on return.The advantage of an "open book" martial arts marketing approach.And more.TRANSCRIPTIONI want to talk about everything that, in my opinion, is wrong with martial arts marketing.This is coming from two sides, from both sides: the agency model, the delivery, the expectations that get promised in the market space, and then on the flip side, how it's perceived and the expectations from martial arts school owners of what it is and what it's not.And then there's the inevitable hamster wheel of disappointment that it just never seems to escape.So, who has not had a bad experience with an agency?Everybody talks about how their agency sucks and they're terrible.Is this true?Yes and no.I feel it's on both sides.Now, in my last videos and a few things that I've distributed, I've mentioned my dislike for the traditional agency model.And I'll tell you a little story.Here's where this started.This is now going back. Oh, it's got to be at least five or six years ago.I always feel like I get timelines wrong.

Why most martial arts school owners are struggling with Facebook ads, the influence of AI, and how to take back control of your results. IN THIS EPISODE:What’s really changed with Facebook ads for martial arts schoolsThe downside and power of AI The agency trap that keeps school owners stuck and returning to zeroA 5-step framework to improve your ads from offer to follow-upThe pitfall of not aligning your martial arts marketing strategyAnd more*Bring 50 Enrollments Into Your Martial Arts School Every 90 Days Need help growing your martial arts school? Watch Training + Take The AssessmentTRANSCRIPTIONDo Facebook ads still work for martial arts schools?Or has that ship now sailed?Maybe, maybe not.Well, I want to dive into what I see is working, what's not, and the challenges that are coming up in the market space right now.It's not necessarily just ads; it's market sophistication and a whole lot more.So, let's jump in.First up, do Facebook ads still work?100% yes.Where's the problem there?Why are costs going through the roof?Why are results tapering down?Why is it harder to get hold of people when you get leads?And then when you get leads, why is it even harder for them to show up?The truth of the matter is, market sophistication has evolved.And as times change, we have to level up.So, there are a few things that I see are making a big impact in the market space right now.First up, let's talk about the big one: AI.AI is magic.

Following up on Episode 155, Hakan Manav shares martial arts staff development strategies to build a high-performing team - giving you the freedom to scale and grow.IN THIS EPISODE:• How to transition from solo instructor to building a scalable team• The first hire that can make or break your martial arts school's growth• Why letting go is essential for business expansion and instructor success• A proven framework for training and promoting instructors from within• How to turn parents and adult students into valuable team members• And more INVITATION: If you’d like more info about working with me in and Hakan in Partners Mentor, Just message me ‘Mentor’ on Facebook and I’ll send the details over in a doc (no sales call required) Send Message On Personal Profile >TRANSCRIPTIONGeorge: Hey there, it's George Fourie. Welcome to another Martial Arts Media™ Business Podcast. So, this week I've got Hakan back on the call. Good day Hakan.Hakan: Hey George.George: In the previous episode 155 and you can check that out if you haven't, martialartsmedia.com/155. We spoke about the four obstacles that Hakan and his family overcame over the last 43 years to build their 1800 student strong academy.And so this week we thought we would dive deeper into these obstacles. Thanks for jumping on again, Hakan.Hakan: Pleasure to be here. Thank youGeorge: We spoke a little bit about the product. We spoke about staff development, personal leadership. Let's loop into staff development for this call. Let's just dive a bit deeper and look at the things to watch out for. Why should we even be doing it? Which direction to take when scaling your school? Hakan: Absolutely. Once the product is nailed and you've got a great thing people are coming back for in terms of the actual martial art that you're teaching. The next step we want to think about is how we can deliver this at scale. For a number of reasons? First of all, we love what we do. But there are days that we might feel ill or we might want to go on holiday, or we're going to be away for various reasons. So you need the classes to be running at the same acceptable standard.So we've got those obvious reasons, but I want to touch on a personal experience that we went through as an academy. I'm going to say about 25 years ago now.

After 13 years and working with 400+ martial arts school owners, I share my refined vision from helping school owners break the 100 student barrier, to 300, to $1M revenue per year. IN THIS EPISODE:The three-part framework to attract, convert, and retain students for long-term growthWhy most martial arts school owners struggle with marketing—and how to fix itA new lead follow-up engine that automates engagement and increases conversionsThe one overlooked strategy that can increase school revenue by 20-30%How to scale without burnout while maintaining a balanced personal and professional lifeAnd more  INVITATION: If you’d like more info about working with me in Partners, Just message me ‘Partners’ on Facebook and I’ll send the details over in a doc (no sales call required)Send MessageTRANSCRIPTIONToday I want to take you through my plan to help 100 martial arts school owners scale from 100 to 300 students and help 10 martial arts school owners scale to 1 million dollars in annual revenue. I'm going to go through the whole plan. I'm going to take you through this google doc and I'm probably going to go a little off script just to give you a bit more context around how the story evolved, what got me here, what brought on this plan and all the rest. So, I'll start at the semi-beginning. 13 years ago I discovered martial arts at my five-year-old's first martial arts class. I'd never been to a martial arts class, and didn't know much about it. I saw the movies. All that I thought is, you know, for me as a first-time parent, what a great activity this looked like for my child to get into. And I was watching this class and to me the only words I could find to describe it was personal development in the physical form. I was seeing these kids stand six feet tall, disciplined, confident, and I thought wow these kids are learning like life-changing skills and it's all disguised as fun and they don't even know it. And that moment in hindsight was a life-changing impact for me which brought me to this life-changing journey. So I started helping the school where my son was training with lead generation.This came about completely not on purpose. I actually bumped into one of the instructors at a kid's playground where my child was playing and got talking to the instructor and learned what they were doing. And this was the first time I sort of got some insight just on how the business was running etc.And my marketing brain kind of just triggered a few ideas and I thought look I know a few things that could definitely help you guys. I'd love to come and share what it is. And so at this time in my life I was deep into the trenches of online marketing.I was doing Google ads. I was mainly running online affiliate type products. Doing Google ads to landing pages and emails and I'd gotten a little bit of success.My biggest aha moment was being in Australia at the time and selling to someone in the United States that I've never met and they bought my product and I said oh wow this the possibilities of this are endless. I know it's common now but at that time it wasn't that common. Anyway, the school was already successful.

In this martial arts business case study, Evan and Erica share how they scaled their martial arts school from 30 to 170 members, boosting monthly recurring revenue by $10,000. IN THIS EPISODE:A unique perspective of Evan and Erica on the connection between music and martial artsThe business relationship when it comes to their martial arts schoolProblems that Evan and Erica faced in their martial arts school businessBalancing martial arts tradition and businessThe benefits of joining the Partners program and the influence of its communityWhat is the A.I.R. model, and how is it going to help you in your martial arts businessInvolvement of Evan and Erica’s children in the martial arts schoolDriven by a vision of financial independence and lifestyle flexibilityBreaking away from Conventional LifeAnd more  FREE: Swipe the exact plan I use to fill martial arts schools with 200+ students within 7 months (And make sure your students are an incredible fit > Learn MoreTRANSCRIPTIONGEORGE: Hey, it's George Fourie. Welcome to another Martial Arts Media™ Business Podcast. Today, I've got two awesome guests with me, and this is my favorite episode to be doing because it's a martial arts business case study with two amazing clients who I've known for a little over a year.Evan Whetter and Erika Graf, soon to be Erika Whetter, welcome to the show.ERICA: Thank you.EVAN: Thanks, George. It's great to be here.GEORGE: You've got a bit of an interesting story, and I want to explore both because you're long-time business owners and you're also two very well-established musicians, which I really admire because that was like part of my history for a long time in my life. Leaving school, I played drums, and I didn't want to do anything else but play drums.And I would play in cover bands and bands, and I would travel all around, and that was my thing. Until I realized I couldn't cut it as a musician, and then life took over. But you guys have really made it work, and we're going to talk about all the martial arts stuff and everything. But you also run a music school, right?

The tables turn as the interviewer becomes the interviewee: George Fourie shares his life experiences and journey through marketing and martial arts on the Kyl Reber Podcast.IN THIS EPISODE:George's journey from studying computer programming to selling computers, working on a cruise ship, and eventually starting Martial Arts Media™The story behind George's most impactful $37 saleGeorge's near-death experience as a pivotal wake-up call that transformed his outlook on life and careerHow George discovered a passion for martial arts and saw potential in combining this with his marketing expertiseHow Martial Arts Media™ was founded, focusing on supporting school owners to grow their businesses through digital marketingAnd more*Need help growing your martial arts school? Start Here.TRANSCRIPTIONHey, it's George Fourie. Welcome to the Martial Arts Media™ Business Podcast. Today, I am going to feature an episode, an interview that I had on the Kyl Reber Podcast. Kyl, a good friend of mine, interviewed me. You can look him up on kylreber.com.au. Also, martialartsmedia.com/145.I had the pleasure of having Kyl on our podcast. By the way, I was looking at it. In episode 145, we were talking about him having 370 students. I know that number's almost up to 500 now. They are booming, to put it mildly. Anyway, go have a listen to that if you haven't yet.For this episode, I really wanted to feature it because I got to tell you. I've been trying to record a podcast where I tell a bit of my story and just background where I came from, how this all got together, and I've given the pieces and inside of this over the years. I just had a look. We had episode 150, and I actually started this podcast in 2016, July of 2016.I'm probably in the race for the longest-going podcast with the least amount of episodes, but 150 awesome episodes it has been, and I'm going to continue to do this for a while. Anyway, I've really wanted to have an in-depth– about my story, and I tried to record it a couple of times solo by myself, and I've got to say, it felt weird.I did it about three times, and I deleted it every time. Then, I got on Kyl’s podcast, and Kyl gave me 10 questions just to prepare for the podcast. I did that, and I thought it was going to be enough, but Kyl's questioning technique was really solid and in-depth. Every time I answered, he dug a little deeper and dug a little deeper.I’ve got to be honest. I probably spoke about things that I maybe just haven't shared over the years. Nothing too serious, but just things that I've buried in my past and let go. But Kyl did a really good job of unpacking all the details about me and asking a lot of questions. So, this podcast is going to be a bit longer.I highly recommend you check out Kyl Reber’s podcast. I will have all the links for that at martialartsmedia.com/150. That's it for me. I hope you enjoy this. I would love to know your feedback afterward. Let's dig in...

Here’s how using an irresistible martial arts offer can almost completely squash your no-show rate for martial arts trial appointments.IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN: Adding a human touch to automated messages with martial arts prospects How to write a successful follow-up email sequenceComparing free and paid martial arts trialsUsing high-converting landing pages when you’re time-poorUsing The Messenger Signup Method to sign up prospectsAnd more*Need help growing your martial arts school? Start Here.TRANSCRIPTIONHey, it's George Fourie. Welcome to another Martial Arts Media™ Business podcast. Today, I'm going to be talking about how to reduce no-shows.  Prospect inquires, books a trial appointment with you, but then ghost you; they don't show up. And sometimes, it's really hard to re-engage and get the conversation back going and get them to reschedule. So, I'm going to be talking about a couple of ways that you can reduce no-shows, almost eliminate them completely. Some are going to be simpler, and some are going to be a little bit more complex. There's going to be a few options for you to consider. I'm going to cover those. Make sure to head over to martialartsmedia.com/148. That is where we've got the show notes, downloads, and everything for this episode. Head over there, and hey, let's jump in. Okay, some context first. I was talking at a martial arts business event in Texas late last year, that’s 2023 and was chatting to a lot of martial arts business owners that were experiencing a lot of no-shows. A bunch of these guys was using different types of marketing agencies and just various problems that were coming up, mainly no-shows. Out of the 10 leads that they were getting, only three were actually showing up—three to four. I’m kind of shocked, to be honest. That's like a really, really high no-show, right? So, there are a few things that you can do to mitigate this now. There are a couple of dangers and a couple of things to consider here, right? If you are trying to automate things as much as possible and be as hands-off as possible, that might be the price that you're going to pay, right? Is that you're going to have some no-shows, and there's going to be little investment of time and following up and doing things, but you're going to get fewer leads. You're going to be paying a lot more for leads to show up. That's just going to be the nature of the beast for you.But, if you're keen to be a bit more invested and thinking, “Well, I want to get my dollars’ worth.” Like, “I want to really reduce the cost per acquisition of getting these students in, really want to bring that cost down, control it.” There are a couple of things that you can do, so let's explore them. Number one is, first up, just looking at the automation that happens, your automated follow-up sequences. What happens once a new trial, a parent or an adult books a trial to come and take their first class with you? What happens from that point? Are they getting automated email messages instantly and then timed all the way to their appointment? Are they getting text messages or follow-ups? What else? Is there some personalization? Maybe it's a real quick, like a video message—something that is a bit more personal. Because, let's face it, we're living in a world of AI automation, and everything is getting automated. The more human elements are getting removed, the more kind of numb you get to the messaging, right? Because it's almost like you're not responsible for answering to a human. So, you feel off the hook if you don't stick to your word for the machine, right? The more personalization you're going to remove from that process, you're probably going to be experiencing some form of no-shows. So, that's the first thing to look at. Look at what you can automate, but rather than automate, is there some personalization that you can do? It could be just grabbing the phone, doing a quick video message, and saying, “Hey, Johnny, I saw you're booked in for a class on X, Y, Z day. I’m really looking forward to meeting you. So is the team.” Whatever you want to do, right? Or show them around, etc. If you don't want to be that specific, the way you can get out of that is to say, “Hey, George. I just wanted to say thanks so much for booking your class.” You can introduce yourself, but make it a bit more automated, but still have a personal feel to it. That's one thing you can do, right? Optimize your automation, but then insert some form of personalization that makes it a bit more personal if that’s what you want—human to human. All right. That's option number one...

George Fourie explores the highlights and game-changing strategies shared from the Partners Intensive - a live martial arts business event held on the Sunshine Coast, Australia. IN THIS EPISODE:What Was Covered At The Partners Intensive: A Premium Martial Arts Business EventThe 1 Thing That All Martial Arts Business Owners DesireWhat’s Special About Hosting Martial Arts Business Events On The Sunshine Coast?The Magic Delivered By Bushi-Ban International’s Grandmaster Zulfi AhmedThe 90-Day Growth Plan That Eliminates Overwhelm, Clarify Goals, And Delivers Martial Arts Business Success*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 be doing a bit of a review of an epic martial arts business event that we ran here on the Sunshine Coast in Australia. We are going to be talking about the highlights, epic, real cool things that we did. And most importantly, also talk about the next event that's coming up and how you can potentially be part of it.All show notes can be found at martialartsmedia.com/146. Head over there and download everything, and you'll get all the resources on how you can potentially join us for the next event. All right, let's jump in.A couple of months back, we hosted our Partners Intensive. Now, some context: you've heard me talk about Partners if you've been on the podcast. If you haven't, Partners is our martial arts business group that we work with, school owners from around the world. We get together online a lot, well, two to four times per week.But it's also important to get together in person. And so, we put together the Partners Intensive, which was a three-day event that we hosted on the Sunshine Coast here in Australia. I've got to be honest; it way exceeded my expectations of how amazing it was. We had speakers from multiple parts of Australia and also Grand Master Zulfi Ahmed from Bushi Ban International, who flew over from the United States to come and join us for the event.I'll tell you what. You've probably been to a business event, but if you haven't, it's the one thing that brings it all together, right? It's great that we've got all these online tools, and we can switch on Zoom and teleport virtually altogether from all different locations and connect fast.And there’s nothing that beats that quick way of accessing information. But when it comes to human-to-human connection, we martial artists like to be around people, and the same goes with the events. Plus, you can get all the content that you want online, but it's that one conversation you have with a person who sits next to you, that insight that you get, that conversation that you're a part of where the magic happens. And I want to say, whether it's my event or someone else's, but if you're going to go, look at the business, look at it as a nice little tax write-off to get away and do it because whatever you spend, you get back tenfold plus form awesome relationships with like-minded people, other martial arts, business owners, et cetera. That was a universal plug for all events, including ours. Coming up. I want to give a bit of a rundown. I'll tell you what, a bit of insight from me. We moved across the country from Perth, which is in Western Australia, all the way to the East, which is the Sunshine Coast. For those of you, maybe if you're in the United States, that's the equivalent of moving from San Diego all the way through to New York, give or take. So, opposite sides of the country, right? Of the, in our case, the continent. And I knew we had to put this event together. I was thinking, “Look, where do we go? Where do we go?” It's always good. I was putting this event together, and I was thinking, “Where do I host it around the country?” Most events typically happen in a nice city, and people fly in from all over, so it's going to be easy to be accessible. At the time I was standing in this thought process, I was standing on a beach close by, Mooloolaba, that's how you say it. I got it wrong a few times anyway. My daughter's playing in the playground, which is down by the beach and the sand. I'm standing there thinking, “We could do it on the Gold Coast. We could do it in Sydney.” As my daughter's playing, I look up and see, here's the Mantra Hotel. I look the other way, and I see the ocean, and I look back up at the hotel, and I'm like, “Well, it's got to be there, right?” It's in my backyard. We moved here because I believe it’s one of the most beautiful places in the country, if not the world. And I thought, “Wow, wouldn't it be magnificent to bring martial arts school owners from all over the world to meet up on the Sunshine Coast?” And so that was it. It was so successful that I've already booked the hotel for next year, June 2024. So, how did the event go down? All right. I played mostly part as a host, which is what I wanted to do. I think everybody in our group hears me talk a lot. I like the aspect of bringing so many people around and bringing people, having people from our community step up and share a lot of great insights. I think I'm just going to break it down from top to bottom. I kicked off the event, and straight after me, we had Ross Cameron, who spoke about the $20,000-a-month pro shop formula. This was a really exciting session. And, you know, when I was promoting the event, I promised that within day one, you would walk away with six figures. Strategies that would get you six figures in the bank if implemented within the next 12 months. And we did that on day one. A big part of this was Ross Cameron's $20,000-a-month pro shop formula. That's generating $20,000 a month from your pro shop. Ross, being an engineer by trade, went down into all the aspects to look at and how to design your pro shop, from the layout, where it should be exactly, how to display the items, what to display, and where to source them from, changing stock. There was so much to cover. It was a really, really impactful 90 minutes. Next up, we had Cheyne McMahon, who spoke about the open day—a six-figure open-day formula. That's something we've covered a lot. Shane's done really well with running open days. We call it the six-figure open day because that's what's generated on the day in student value.For him, his record, I think, was 89 students signups on the day. When I moved up to the Sunshine Coast, Shane lives in Brisbane, and I knew he was running an open day. I thought, hang on, I want to get this on film. We've talked about the strategies and bounced it around, but I've never really been hands on a part of it. I drove down to Brisbane, filmed the entire open day, and just watched him. Watch the whole process. It was great because we got to talk about it after, but we got to run through the open day live and break down exactly each strategy, what to do from the marketing, how to fill the room, what to do during the day, the demos, who to get involved, organic marketing through the community. And so we did a rundown through the video and basically covered all the strategies from that. Awesome. Next up, this is all day one. We had Lindsay Guy. Lindsay Guy was talking about retention boosting strategies, things that they've done within their school. When we started working with Lindsay Guy, it was reported that he's grown his business by 233% since being in the community. He attributes a lot of that to things he gets from our community. That's not “me and me. Give myself a pat on the shoulder”, but the weekly calls