Black Belt Banter: Martial Arts Business Podcast

#8 | One Powerful Ingredient Your Martial Arts School Can't Afford to Ignore

• Jimmy Hong • Season 1 • Episode 8

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What separates thriving martial arts schools from struggling ones? Master Lee draws from his family's 50-year legacy to reveal the powerful role culture plays in creating an exceptional martial arts business.

Ever wonder why some martial arts schools consistently grow while others plateau? The secret lies not in marketing tactics or fancy facilities, but in something far more fundamental: culture. Master Chan demonstrates how creating the right environment transforms everything from student retention to parent engagement.

Whether you run a traditional martial arts program or a modern mixed martial arts school, these cultural principles can transform your student experience. Listen now to discover the one ingredient your martial arts school can't afford to ignore. Then share your thoughts with us—what cultural elements have made the biggest difference in your school?

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Speaker 1:

In today's episode, we will discuss the one powerful ingredient your martial arts schools can't afford to ignore. Welcome to Black Belt Banter the best podcast to help your martial arts school increase in profits and generate substantial revenue. I'm Jimmy Hong and my co-host is Master Chan Lee. Master Chan has over 2,100 active students with multiple locations. He is well-renowned and highly respected by his fellow peers for his business acumen in operating martial arts schools. Master Chan Lee, welcome to the podcast. Before we start, though, before we start start, I know you're excited about this subject. We're talking about it on our pre-production meeting. Your your heart is really in this topic and and I know you can't wait to share, but I want to I want to say have you been getting a lot of feedback from the fellow community about the launch of our podcast? Because I've been getting emails, messages. I've been getting so many positive support about how much they're just enjoying our show. What about you, Master Chan?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, the feedback's been incredible and the reason you can see our faces is that it's been by the feedback of everybody that came back and said it'd be nice to see who we are. But I'm gonna assume our viewership and listenership will decline, drop huge after you know they they're seeing our live faces, so 100.

Speaker 1:

This is a one-off, we're gonna do this, and then everybody's gonna say can we go back to just a podcast and no video?

Speaker 2:

only sir right, we have faces for radio, as they say I get that all the time, yeah so but yeah, the response has been absolutely great, thank you.

Speaker 2:

You and I are sons of grandmasters in Taekwondo. We love the martial arts and we want to make sure we are doing whatever we can to help school owners across the country, because the fact still remains less than 3% of the US population does martial arts, and it just boggles my mind, and we really got to do a better job of being able to educate school owners on teaching what they're doing and helping people be their best in the martial arts, and so forth. So that's really the genesis of what this podcast is about this podcast is about.

Speaker 1:

So what I mean and they've been just so the the, the support and the compliments that we receive. It just reaffirms of why we're doing this, because you and I talked about okay, what is our end game here. What is our goal of launching a podcast is exactly this is to connect in a consistent way with our listeners, with the fellow Marshall School owners within the industry that we are already on, but this is a great relevant way for us to stay connected, build a rapport and just build an audience with our supportive listeners.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely, absolutely. And we've met and I know I've met a lot of school owners and fellow martial art teachers through the tournaments, also met a lot of you through other martial art events throughout the country and so forth and after we do these events we're not really connected or not seeing, hearing what exactly is going on in our industry, and I thought this would be a good way. And then I still have the few phone calls I make to the people that I really respect and get feedback from, but even then you feel like you're not getting it the whole story because everybody's busy and so forth. So I thought this would be a good way for us to connect with our audience and let everybody know what's going on and so forth.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. And speaking of that, let's get, just let's dive into this next topic that you're passionate about. What is this topic, what is this thing that you're just so passionate about, master chan?

Speaker 2:

well, I I think there's something that a lot of people don't discuss about the martial art industry I I grew up in a teplondo school. My father was a grandmaster in teplondo. We came typical story we came as immigrants that didn't have a lot of money. Our first martial arts school was in the inner city and not in the best neighborhood, and then later on my father was able to save some money and then opened another location in the suburbs and then that school just took off and everybody looks for business practices. I have a lot of experience as a person that grew up in a martial arts school and also was a student, a part-time instructor. I went off to college, I was away from it for a little bit and then I came back full board to do this and build our schools.

Speaker 2:

And there's one thing that I think a lot of people are looking for is like what's the magic sauce? What is like what's the business principles that you guys adhere to as you are running your martial arts school? And I think there's one really important component and this is only from my perspective, so you don't have to agree with me. I'm just telling you what we're doing is a culture of a martial arts school. What exactly is the culture of a martial arts school? What exactly is the culture of a martial arts school? And for us, we're a traditional based martial arts program, so you won't see us wearing, you know, shorts and a t-shirt in class. You have us wearing traditional martial arts uniforms. We bow onto the mat, we say Korean terminology, that's where Taekwondo came from, and there's just a culture that's developed. And then there's some like general stuff. So let me give you an example Like what's the friendliness of your school? Let's start with that. Like when a new person comes in, how friendly is your staff and the people around them? And not only that, how welcoming are your students of the new student that comes in? And that's important, that's super important.

Speaker 2:

Let me just give you an example. We had our sparring class, and by no means am I an MMA school, but I'm just doing regular Taekwondo sparring, right, light contact, everybody's having a good time and they're doing it. I had either a parent or a grandparent I think it was a grandparent watching classes and he was a younger grandparent, like late 50s, and I said, hey, you should start classes and he was like I am completely intimidated by this and so forth. But I knew from the grapevine that this guy was like former military, served overseas, has been in some dangerous situations. And I'm sitting there like how can you be intimidated about coming into a taekwondo class that's doing point?

Speaker 2:

Sparring and I use that as an example is that everybody has a little bit of a preconceived idea of what a martial arts school is like and they're fearful of like getting hurt, being embarrassed. Making sure that they want to be good at it, and if they're around other family members, they want to make sure that they're not being judged. These are all very, very important things. And just making sure everybody says hello and one of the things I do is that I feel like if you walk onto my taekwondo school, you are in a little piece of Korea. So I have all our staff bow to all the parents and all to the kids, like I'm not going to stand there with my black belt and waiting for me. I'm the black belt, so you bow to me, I'm the one that bows first and I have a making sure everybody feels welcome. Hello Pilsung, how you doing. Good to see you. Welcome to our academy. Everybody's smiling and welcome. Good to see you. All right, glad you made it to class. Just everybody has that really positive vibe and sometimes we kind of get away from that and just making sure that we, you know, we have that friendliness feeling.

Speaker 2:

Let me tell you something that has stuck with me my whole life. I'm in my 20s. I am like I want to buy a nice car, something to dream and aspire by. And I'll tell you, I walk into the Mercedes dealership and just I wasn't going to buy anything but I just wanted to take a look at it and just see it and I was treated so poorly that I would never get a Mercedes ever. It just stuck with me.

Speaker 2:

When we were able to afford a decent car, our first purchase was a Lexus. It just stuck with me. I just can't stand to make matters worse. We got a Lexus and then my mother-in-law needed a Lexus. She ended up buying one. I've given this guy like 12 cars People from our church oh, you got a Lexus and ended up buying one. I've given this guy like 12 cars people from our church, oh yeah, you got a Lexus, and who's your guy there? And I gave him the referral. I sold them so many cars just because I got a bad feeling from the Mercedes dealership right here here in my town, and so I want to say to you just make sure your school is just overly friendly and the people that you are there are overly friendly, and so that's the culture that I really want everybody to understand. That's the first thing.

Speaker 1:

Well, master Chan, you have to put yourself. Sometimes we forget at school because we've been doing this day in, day out for years, a long time. But we forget to put ourselves into their shoes. When they walk in first time I don't know, first week, or they're visiting a friend there's all this shouting, kiapping going on, there's instructors and masters just belting out instructions and lessons and motivating, and the environment is very loud and perceived as hostile. So, from their point of view, they walk in, they're coming in from an outside street, they come in and all this noise is going on that they're not accustomed to. They're not accustomed to people shouting, even though it's within that martial arts culture.

Speaker 1:

So, to your point, it is very intimidating. They don't want to just go up and be like oh hey, my name is John Doe, I like to get some. It's very intimidating. They don't want to just go up and be like oh hey, my name is John Doe, I like to get some. It's very intimidating. And if they, if your staff or you or your students, don't approach them first, it's highly unlikely that they're going to be the first to come up to the to somebody and be like oh hey, nice to meet you. So that's a very correct point right there, master Chan.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, and I think it's. Sometimes we're comfortable with our environment, but we just don't know what outsiders think, and then that's a really great point. The other thing that I do, which is very important, is that I introduce the new student to the whole school, the whole school. So right before we start classes, I go hey, this is Joey. Hi, joey, welcome to our school. How are you? You're six, okay, joey and Joey and I do a little icebreaker. Joey, what is your favorite fruit? What is your favorite cereal? What is your favorite show that you watch on YouTube? Right, we'll say what's your favorite food? Oh, pizza. Oh, who likes pizza here? Oh, great, okay, well, he's new here today. Kids, make sure you help Joey out in class today and introduce yourself. So all throughout class, I just see who my leaders are and other kids will go hi, my name is Fred Nice to meet you, and I just want a super welcoming environment and everybody is like talking to the new student and so forth, and and everybody is really really kind of keen on what's going on. The other thing I do, too is, as they're doing warmups and stretching, I'll introduce myself to the new parent, obviously, but then I'll have other parents. I'll have the other parents I go. Oh, this is Mrs Jones, she's been here for six months. Ma'am, do you mind just telling them a little bit about our school and so forth? They introduce them to our environment. So the parents also feel a little bit welcome in what's going on. And I think that's just critical because there's a lot of people that they're standoffish and so forth.

Speaker 2:

My daughter plays lacrosse. She's a junior and there's a bunch of freshman parents that, and the first game was just I was just sitting there recording my daughter play and this and that, and there was no like cheering or chattering and so forth. So what I decided? I was like, okay, I'm going to say hi to all the new freshmen parents and hey, my name is my daughter's number nine, and then just get to know everybody. And then now I have a reference point on who I can cheer for, and now all the parents are cheering for each of the kids. I became a little bit of the culture keeper for the lacrosse team and I think that's important also, for your dojang is just making sure it's a really friendly, nice, welcoming culture and so forth. You may also have to like you have to monitor your culture Like I don't know. Like Wisconsin's not a pro-friendly CBD weed culture, Every now and then you meet a parent that just reeks of weed.

Speaker 2:

They'll just come in and I'm like what is going on? They toked up in the car and I just I wouldn't. I don't accept that. I'm like, hey, we have a lot of children here and I believe that's not appropriate for you to do and I want them to feel a little uncomfortable and I want them to understand they shouldn't they shouldn't be doing that. We had an uncomfortable situation too, where a parent reeked of alcohol and I, the staff member, clearly said hey, do you have someone else driving today, you know? And the parent kind of like took notice that that we could smell the alcohol on them and someone else came and drove them home. So I think it's an important piece that you are kind of the culture keeper of your school and so forth.

Speaker 2:

The also very important part to me is that I want a culture of help, and what I mean by that is that if you're a lower or higher rank in my school, every now and then I give them like little mini bites of leadership. So if it's like an orange belt or a third belt in your school purple or whatever belt it is and there's a white belt and the white belt needs help and they're partnered up. I will clearly say, hey, you're the higher rank, I need you to do me a favor and hold the target and then just help this person with the punch, okay, or whatever thing that we're doing. That's incredibly important that you're also kind of fostering that type of idea. And what I do then is like when we're putting away targets or whatever I'll have, okay, my higher rank students, please pick up all the targets or the obstacle course and please put them away for everybody and they'll all help out and clean out and so forth, or time to get the paddle targets, and we're going to start kicking, okay, and I will say, well, listen, I don't like the fact that the higher belts just ran and got your belts and your targets and you ran. You guys should just stay there and start handing out the targets for the lower ranks before you guys ran out.

Speaker 2:

So, just, they understand that type of culture of help and that as they move up in rank, they are the ones that are kind of leading that. And then I'll tell you you're also doing a semiview process, like you're looking at, like, which kid is instructor material and you're also seeing which child is going to be not great instructor material. Maybe they they assert themselves like a boss or they're too bossy and you're like, oh okay, this is a kid I'm going to have to put with adults or something Just like looking at these little social interactions is part of your job. So, remember, this is probably a different topic, but I just want to make sure every company has a human resource department. We do not. We are a human resource department, so you've got to always be looking for talent and having them help the lower ranks and doing it is also a great thing as well. So that's just kind of my advice in terms of the culture.

Speaker 2:

The other thing I pointed out is that I want every parent to feel like they are in a place of, like, martial art reverence or martial art respect. For example, I grew up Catholic and Christian and when you go to church there's a little bit of reverence. You're like, okay, I got to have good thoughts and good ideas. I've been to synagogues, I've been to temples and so forth, and even though it's not my religion, I'm quiet, I don't talk in a loud voice. You can just feel the religion and the culture of that I'm. You can just feel the religion and the culture of that. So you just want to make sure you're respectful of that.

Speaker 2:

And so one of the things I do is that, like there's an area of my school that when you walk past our front desk there's absolutely no shoes. So I make all the parents take off their shoes. That's just my culture. So the parents take off their shoes, they take off their shoes with their kids and so forth. And I'll tell you the reason for that is that if I want parents to eventually help out or join my class, I have to kind of lower that barrier for them to want to like get onto the mat. So if their shoes are already off, I'll be like, sir, can you come in, hold the target for me, for your child? We just need to get extra reps in. Their shoes are already off.

Speaker 2:

A cultural thing that we do I think is really important, is that we have the kids bow to their parents. So at the end of every one of my classes I'll go try it face the flags, bow to the flags before I dismiss. You. Bow to the instructors. Say goodbye to your instructors. They bow to the instructors. And the most important bow of the day everybody, turn around, face your mom and dad. Mom and dads, if you could please stand.

Speaker 2:

In Korea, kids bow to their parents as a sign of love and respect. All right, kids, this is the most important bow of the day Attention and kyeong-hye bow. And then they bow deeply to their parents. Okay, now give your parents a big hug. That is how I end my classes and I want the parents to feel appreciated. I want the parents to feel respected. And then I want the parents to bow. Like, I don't tell my parents to bow, but guess what, if I'm constantly bowing to them, their parents are bowing to them. Eventually, I see them and they come in and they bow too. It just they became indoctrinated into our culture and and I think that's important Like and this is not just a Taekwondo thing, let me be clear, I don't want this to say oh, this is, this is such a Korean thing. All right, it's not just a Korean thing.

Speaker 2:

There was a show when I was a kid and that show was called leave it to beaver and it was like a black and white show that I watched in the 70s and 80s. And then you watch the show and one of the kids would come over and be like hey, how you doing, mrs Cleaver, nice to meet you, ma'am. Or hey, ma'am, how are you? And there was like a certain level of respect in the 60s and 70s of how kids talk to adults and so forth. That was the culture, because there was a clear, delineated line between seniors and juniors and moms. And now moms and dads are like call me Jenny, call me Greg. Kids, it's not Mr Jones or Mrs Smith or anything like that. There's a very, very easygoing way of kids getting confused on who's the leader or where the hierarchy is. A little bit. I think, jimmy, you and I are growing up. We would never call any of our dad's friends by their first names.

Speaker 1:

Well, that goes to your point of culture, and not just Korean culture, but Asian, japanese, korean, other Asian cultures. We don't shake hands as a form of greeting, we bow as a form of greeting. We bow as a form of greeting. So the level of respect is already included into all that. Also, the way that we talk to elders, our language is equivalent to, like in English, saying sir, at the end of everything, be like oh, hello sir. In USs we don't say hello sir to, we just say hello, and that's just a familiar tone and familiar that everybody just accepts. But in in korea and japan and other asian cultures, that that we don't accept, that we don't. You can't just say hello to a, a elder. You got to say hello sir, right, and you got to bow instead of shaking hands. You're bound. So that's just the, the culture of that. And on the flip side in us, like they don't.

Speaker 1:

Parents don't want to feel old. That's their culture. They don't want to be associated as their, as their mom or their dad. They don't want to be hearing like oh, mr joan, the mr joan's my dad, I don't want to be considered old, call me tom and. And they want to feel relevant, don't want to be considered old Call me Tom and they want to feel relevant and they want to feel younger and that's the culture of the U S U S culture. So it's not right or wrong, it is like to your point, it's the culture.

Speaker 1:

But what's refreshing is they're getting sometimes that that that tone of familiar instead of of respect, that gets blurred by these younger, their kids, their younger kids, and that's where they come to and learn martial arts, because their kids are learning the respect of culture which they don't enforce in their homes. So they come in and they're like it's refreshing to see all the students bow, showing respect, the way they talk yes, ma'am, no sir, yes, sir and they want their child to be influenced by that. So when they come and learn, yes, kicking and punching and physical aspects, but also the cultural respect, that's when they're like oh wow, this is great. You know what I want to be called Mr Jones instead of Thomas, and the reason for that is because there should be a level of respect that I want my kids to learn. So that is that culture you're talking about. Absolutely, master John.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and, like I said, it's one of these things where, if you don't, I think kids get confused. So you're really teaching and this works for me. I did Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and there's a lot of informality in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and it works for them in that culture. So I'm not saying this is the only way, but it works for us and I think in our traditional environment parents appreciate it. That's like I don't know. Think about this you go to a Japanese restaurant and no one is wearing a kimono, they're wearing t-shirts, right. And then they come in, they're like're like, hey, what type of sushi roll you want? And you'll eat it and it's good sushi and so forth. That that's one way of looking at. But like you go to another sushi restaurant and they've got the kimonos and they've got the, and they, they come in, they say hi in japanese and you go oh man, this place is authentic. Like you can feel the authenticity right and and they're not even Japanese right.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2:

You know, yeah, yeah, and there are a bunch of non-Japanese back there and an Indian guy and a Japanese guy and a, you know, and a Korean guy back there. Sounds like a bad joke, but anyway. So that's the type of feeling I want my my students to feel and my customers to feel, and the culture that I'm trying to build in my classroom and so forth. And then here's another important culture, and I have black belts that have been with us 10, 20, 30 years, that have been with us for a very, very long time. I was just reminded, next year, jimmy, our organization has been around 50 years. Isn't that crazy?

Speaker 1:

What? 50 years? No way.

Speaker 2:

That's crazy, and so we're going to do a big celebration, and there are some people still a part of our school from back then oddly enough.

Speaker 2:

And I think my father created this, so I'm not going to take credit for it think I helped develop that, that it amplified. The culture that he created was that if you're a black belt, you have the duty to also give back to the lower belts. Just like a lower belt, a black belt helped you. And so it's just a mentality that I have, where if you are a black belt, please choose one class a week just to come in to help out. Don't just come in to train for yourself. Find a training partner, find someone that you can inspire. And so, if you're a smaller school and remember, our family came here in 1975 and 76. My father didn't have a lot of students but he did have a lot of help and it was that culture of of you help the lower belts and you help them and develop them and so forth. And my father quickly found out who, who his good instructors were and so forth. So you have that. You have that as a part of your culture is that you get a certain rank, have them come back to one class that is below them. So that is a culture of help.

Speaker 2:

Once again, I'm not saying this is right or wrong, but in the culture of our school. We really don't do private lessons. I know some people in my friends group they charge a pretty penny for private lessons and they make a good income doing that, and I'm not saying it's wrong, it's just not our culture. If someone needs extra help, I will give set aside 20 minutes right after class to help them out, or I'll have one of my senior black belts do it, or my instructors, if they have time, they will come and do that. I have blocked out times and I shout out to Master Mertens this is a Master Mertens idea and you know we have booster classes where we have a class.

Speaker 2:

We need a got to be a reason. They're at your school and you need to know what that is and that's important Is it? Is it because they they need to get in better shape, but they need to be more disciplined, they need to be more focused? You constantly have to remind them that they did a good job of that, and so if you're just going in there and just teaching a class and everybody's smiling and you're like, okay, bye, get out of here, just making sure that you guys really, really hone that and that and that's a culture that I think is very important because that that that's going to help your retention.

Speaker 1:

Well, I know a couple of years, a couple of years back, there was a a friend of mine who was operating school and he wasn't doing very well. He had less than 100 students, I want to say less than 60. They were. He had no discipline in the class, meaning at the end of the class the kids just leave. Before the master leaves, before the instructor leaves. There was no discipline shown. And then he visited your school, he visited my school, he visited my school, he visited other schools and then he saw at the beginning of the class how disciplined the students were. At the end of the class the students couldn't leave After bowing to our nation's flag and then the master instructor. They couldn't leave until the master instructor left or the head instructor left, and then the students were able to walk in a discipline line afterwards.

Speaker 1:

And this is really impressive to parents at the end of the class coming in to pick up their kids. It's not impressive. When oh class is over, see you guys and all the kids are like running around, like lost ants. They like. That's why they brought the kids there is to learn discipline. So they like that formality of okay. They understand that the master has to leave first, the kids are leaving in a discipline orderly line, and that is a more impressive thing than what he was doing at the time. It was just like at the end of the class all right, see you guys, see you guys next class. And that was it. So after he saw what we were doing, he changed that. He turned us that with many other things he changed that school around. He got up to like over 200 kids. It was a discipline class, it was a discipline school. He understood that mentality and that's the culture that he instilled into that and that culture, along with other things that he implemented, helped turn that school around.

Speaker 2:

So here's a kind of a me it's. It sounds like a really small thing, but it makes a big difference. Here In my neighborhood there was this like fledgling bar and I know this bar because I was looking to buy that building. So I was kind of like waiting for this bar to like go out of business so I can possibly move my school into the building and buy it. And it's always been under like weird ownership and so forth. It's in a hot, hot spot and one of the patrons of the bar was a huge fan of the show Bar Rescue. Do you remember that show?

Speaker 1:

Bar Rescue. I do remember. I haven't seen it, but I know of it. Yes, right, so this guy like I forgot the guy.

Speaker 2:

There's a guy that comes in, he looks into a restaurant or a bar and then he goes and fixes it or whatever. And apparently he said every bar needs a hook or something, right. So their hook became free bacon. So like you order a drink in, like popcorn or peanuts or whatever is at a bar, they give free bacon. So there's fried bacon for people just munch on as they're like drinking their drinks and so forth Right, really unique concept. And then they changed the sign to a pig grabbing a beer and all that stuff. That little shift made a huge difference in that bar. They didn't go out of business. So I'm like kind of pissed and I was like, oh my God, but the place got famous.

Speaker 1:

Not only did they not go out of business, you start going to that bar.

Speaker 2:

That's right, Because it was free bacon, I mean. So what I'm trying to say is that it's advice about culture. You're like, oh, okay, I get it, Whatever you could change one thing. And all of a sudden, all the parents are watching it and they're like, Ooh, I like this, Okay.

Speaker 2:

And and remember my previous talks, it's that if you run a traditional martial arts school, your, your student base or your your target customer is usually a mom right Between the ages of what? 35 and 45, 30 to 45, somewhere in that age range, and what would they like to see their kids do? And at six years old. So it's a really powerful thing, that little lineup how they line up, how straight they stand. Before you start classes, we bow to the flags. We still do a one-minute meditation. It sends chills up my spine. I see the kids sit there still. Just all these little things adds up. And having the culture I have parents come out onto my mat and help they hold targets at certain parts of our drills. I go, hey, I need parental volunteers to come out to help hold the targets for this next drill. We have a tournament coming up and I partnered them up with their kids and that's slowly breaking that barrier down for them to want to absolutely take class someday in the future.

Speaker 1:

So you have let me get this straight you have parents who are sitting down in their regular clothes and you ask them to come into the class and participate by holding targets or whatnot. Yes, that's, that's brilliant, because then then they'll be like, oh hey, they'll get familiar with being on the mat. They could see themselves imagine themselves practicing doing these kicks correct and then correct, join the Be. Like they could visualize joining the family class with their kids.

Speaker 2:

A hundred percent. A hundred percent. That's why I do hey, I need extra parent help today. Do you guys mind coming out on the floor and holding for your child? Yeah, I always use this analogy right, and it's. It's this I'm a girl dad, so I've got daughters and they're older now. And it's this I'm a girl dad, so I've got daughters and they're older now. But if my daughter did ballet, like if I said to you, Mr Hong, and I said, Jimmy, I need you to wear these pink tights and a tutu, you'd be like get out of here, I'm not going to wear that, right. But if I was a dance instructor, I'm like, hey, Mr Hong, I really need your help. Your daughter needs a dance partner and we need to get her ready for a recital. Can you help me out? You're like absolutely, what do you need me to do? I need you to wear these tights and a tutu, All right, and be on the oh yeah, sure, that's what you're saying when you're asking a parent to like wear a uniform.

Speaker 1:

You know, think of-. Well, I wear that without being asked anyway, so that's not an issue.

Speaker 2:

I know, so please don't stand up. We'll probably see it right now.

Speaker 1:

I'm wearing it right now, Master Cha.

Speaker 2:

We've got cameras now, so be careful, be careful, be careful what you wish for the cameras are a waste of.

Speaker 2:

That's right.

Speaker 2:

That's right. We can only use our imaginations right now. So, anyway, my point being is that, you know, these are just little cultural things that I think are super important in your academy, that you have a culture of respect, culture of friendliness, culture of people wanting to help out, and that's really important. The last thing I want to leave you with is this I had a fundraiser last night and one of the things that my father's black belts did is we were originally in central city Milwaukee and that's where our program started. So when we moved out to the burbs, there was kind of a hole of not having a school in the central part of Milwaukee and underserved areas. So we started in a nonprofit. It's been going like 10, 10 plus years strong and we're teaching in schools, community centers. My Black Belt's volunteered to that and they help out. And last night we had our annual gala and we had over 120 people there and at that gala we raised over $50,000. And our students donated that and everybody pitched in and helped out to help this nonprofit teach Taekwondo. And so what I'm saying is this culture of help went to another level. Right that, hey, our contribution to the city of Milwaukee is that we really feel like we brought martial arts to our city to make our city stronger. And because we're making our city stronger, right, we want to make sure we help our kids become stronger. They become better citizens. So what better way to do that than teach in the underserved areas of Milwaukee? So you know, it was awesome. In fact, I'm going to post that they just did a new story on us and so forth.

Speaker 2:

But that is the culture that works for us and that, to me, is an important part of the reason our school has done well in this area is because it's not just about having a commercial school, it's also about giving back. Okay, now let me say this first too You've got to get to a level where your school is sustainable, that you have to be successful yourself. Like the airplane's about to crash and the oxygen masks come out, they go wear that mask first before you help your children. So you've got to make sure you have a successful school before you guys can do that, those other parts and other things, and you can give back in spades to your community and so forth. And so I'm not telling you to go out and do a nonprofit, not just yet, just make community and so forth, and so I'm not telling you to go out and do a nonprofit, not just yet. Just make sure you guys have a sustainable model that you're very successful at.

Speaker 1:

That you can you can do that, so I think that's a very important point in terms of developing the culture of your school. I would love to do a whole episode on on the process and what you do for your your fundraiser. I know we could talk tons about it, from setup to how to make it successful in the event, so that's definitely in the pipeline.

Speaker 2:

We would love to do that, master chan yeah, I will have our executive director who runs it, who is a very smart woman, has a law degree. I I'm also very blessed to be surrounded by brilliant people, very smart people that help us just create some amazing programming for our industry.

Speaker 1:

So Awesome, master Chan. So the answer is culture. Culture is that one powerful ingredient your martial arts schools can't afford to ignore? Let's conclude here. If you are enjoying our show, please go ahead and rate and review our podcast or YouTube channel. Starting today, our YouTube channel will be visual along with the audio only that was previously passed. Whether you like it or not, our goal is to make our show as successful as possible, to reach out to all the school owners, and your review will definitely help achieve that. Have a great week listeners. Fellow Marshall School owners, master Chan and I look forward to our next episode.