Black Belt Banter: Martial Arts Business Podcast
Welcome to Black Belt Banter, the best martial arts business podcast for instructors, school owners, and entrepreneurs who want to increase their profits and generate substantial revenue. Whether you're running a single studio or scaling a multi-location empire, we break down the strategies, stories, and systems behind profitable martial arts businesses. From student retention and marketing hacks to leadership, curriculum, and community building, we cover it all. Tune in for weekly insights from Master Chan and Master Jimmy Hong, who’s been in the trenches and come out kicking.
Email us at jimmyhong@blackbeltbanter.com
Black Belt Banter: Martial Arts Business Podcast
#13 | Would You Pay $100K for Martial Arts?
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What would a parent pay for their child to become more confident, disciplined, and positioned for lifetime success? According to Master Chan, a hundred thousand dollars might actually be a bargain when considering the transformative power of martial arts training.
Master Chan opens with a powerful thought experiment: Imagine promising parents that their child will develop unshakable confidence, iron discipline, and leadership skills that guarantee acceptance to elite universities and lucrative careers. Would $100,000 be too much to pay? Not when many parents already spend more on conventional sports for far less comprehensive development.
The hosts compare conventional sports costs ($14,000+ annually for soccer, more for lacrosse or swimming) to martial arts programs that typically run about $2,400 per year. The return on investment becomes clear through student success stories—like the black belt who scored a remarkable 35 on his ACT by applying martial arts discipline, or former students who became medical professionals and researchers at prestigious institutions.
Ready to learn how to communicate this extraordinary value to potential students? Join Masters Jimmy Hong and Chan Lee at the American Sabanim Association meeting in Las Vegas on October 3-4. Register at theblackbeltbanter.com and be part of a community dedicated to changing lives through martial arts excellence.
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In this week's episode we'll discuss our topic. Would a parent pay $100,000 for a martial arts program? 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, welcome. And would a parent pay $100,000 for a martial arts program? It seems outrageous. What say you?
Speaker 2:This is a hypothetical, okay, so I don't want everybody going man, he's charging $100,000. But I want you to. That's what I really believe a martial art membership is worth. And let me just preface to say this If your child came to me and I happened to be some guru and whatever, it wasn't martial arts, just anything. So if I promised a parent and I said, listen, I'm a life coach or whatever I'm going to be doing and I train your child to be a lot more confident, and in any social situation he's going to be the leader and he'll look someone right in the eye. He'll be able to like, take charge of a situation.
Speaker 2:Later on, when your child interviews for a job, it's almost guaranteed he'll be the one that's picked because of just how confident he is. In addition, he's going to have this rock solid discipline. You tell him to read this book and it's got to be done within three days. He'll just sit down and just read it. He'll have that type of discipline to just implement. And if you say, hey, listen, you need to learn this computer program and you know how to code like a rock star, you will do this because your son just will have this discipline to innately learn and be the best at it and so forth, and he'll always be in shape because he's always working out, because he's that disciplined and so forth. And with these skills I can guarantee that your child is going to get into Harvard, and in fact he won't just get into Harvard, he'll get a full scholarship. So your return on investment for that $100,000 will come back in a $400,000 investment in tuition and in addition to that he's going to have a lucrative career that pays him a half million dollars a year, but for the local cost of $100,000, pays them a half million dollars a year, but for the local cost of $100,000, is it worth it to a parent? 100%? That's like they wouldn't even think twice about that.
Speaker 2:And the reason I bring this hypothetical up is I really believe that's what martial arts does that if it's done right and if you teach it correctly, these skills are going to be what parents are going to see. You know what I mean. And so I charge $189 a month and I really believe it's a severe discount of what they're getting and I really give my all in making sure our kids are doing their best and so forth. And what I want to do is how do you expound these benefits? How do you teach these benefits to parents and to your kids that learn underneath you? So they're learning? And if you just teach kicking and punching and they're learning how to do a form or a kick and a punch and so forth, and you don't go beyond that and you're not able to kind of teach that paradigm to people, then I really don't think that parents are going to get the right type of what you're actually doing.
Speaker 2:So let me give you an example. Let's just start with key ops, right, screaming power, scream the key eye, whatever you guys want to call it. And we've all taught this Okay, ready, okay, guarding stance, and you have this like low energy class. Of course you're going to have these naturally shy kids that that come in and then you yell at them louder. I said louder, right, and they go, right, and maybe they get a little bit better. So you threaten them I will take your belts if you don't go. Yet, if you're not going to go louder, you're like okay, so they're, they're, they're yapping or screaming loudly in fear.
Speaker 2:And and someone said this to me and it's one of my mentors, a guy named Gary Klugwitz. Gary Klugwitz is probably one of the greatest police trainers in the country. He created the red man suit. He wrote the defense and arrest tactics manual in the state of Wisconsin in 1977. He was a Kyokushin fighter, one of the first non-Japanese people to go to Japan and fight, along with Danny Tiger Schulman and Dolph Lundgren. They were like that first group of people that fought Kyokushin karate. Anyway, this guy's a legend and he said something to me once when we were training and he said learning theory. Said something to me once when we were training and he said learning theory.
Speaker 2:If people know why they do things, then they have a tendency to never forget and do it right more often. And I said that's, that's true. So I tell people why you should scream loud. So I tell everybody when I have a class and they're like oh, low energy. I go okay, everybody sit down. Okay, let me know who won. And I have a kid come right in front of me. I said we're going to have a key up contest, so let's see who's louder, you or me Right, and I purposely lose. So the kid goes and I go. Everybody's like why did Master Lee kiaop like that? I said who won, him or me? And they're like he did, all right.
Speaker 2:So if I go, how do I sound? I sound weak, right, sound tired. And if I sound weak, then what do other people think I am? Then they think I'm what? And they could say weak, all right. So let me just tell you, when you guys came out before, that was very low. Was that strong or weak, weak? And are you guys weak and they're like no, we're not weak, then we should sound strong. So let's do it again. I'm like great, that's super important that you got to be loud. When I ask you to be loud, it's not because I want you to be loud, I don't want you to sound weak, all right. So let me ask you a question.
Speaker 2:Bullies, they're kind of like sharks. When sharks smell blood, what do they do? They attack? When bullies smell and see weakness, what do they do? They attack. That is the law of the universe. So I want to make sure my students don't look like they're bully magnets. I need you to sound strong, okay, ready, okay.
Speaker 2:So that's one version of making sure that parents understand. I want your kids to sound strong and I want them to sound confident. So if you're teaching Taekwondo class and you don't have like intense kiapping and they're not kicking hard and they're not loud. It doesn't matter what you teach, it has to be done at that level and you as a teacher have to demand that from your students. Right, and when they see promoting tests, it's sir, ah, it looks militaristic, and they see that this is the type of confidence. And then you ask them to shake your hand and look you in the eye and be loud. And I think these little things are not always taught at all martial arts schools that people are always too focused on the poomsae or the form or the kick and whatever, and the intensity level that goes behind it is not always there.
Speaker 2:Okay, I teach adults and sometimes, when I'm teaching adult class, I do the same thing. The adults are shy about you know, they're odd. They don't even say anything. I tell adults and this is my paradigm for adults I tell them I said listen, what's incredibly important is that this is your fight voice. Someone's going to attack you. You're not going to go, you're going to be. You're going to do it like nice and intense, and not only that, you're also going to use that voice to like back off, get on the ground, get away from my kid. You wouldn't be like can you get away from my kid, can you back off from me? You would do it with a certain level of intensity. So you're developing your fight voice. This is the voice you'll use when you defend yourself, and that's incredibly important that you develop that fight voice as you are training in martial arts.
Speaker 2:So when I ask you to be loud moms and dads or adults that are in class, it's the level of intensity that you bring inside what you do and, in addition, it's the level of intensity when you throw a kick or a technique that you're giving yourself 10 to 15% more power. And, once again, this, to me, is what's important. This is the world of martial arts, this is the understanding of the why. And if you can explain that coherently and I'm giving it to you If you want to use mine, that's great Then your students are more apt to do that, okay. So that's confidence to me.
Speaker 2:Do things with confidence, and the ultimate thing that we do in martial art class is we deliver confidence. Under pressure, just like a fight, someone says I don't like you, I'm going to beat the snot out of you. You're not going to be like I'm shy, I'm nervous, you don't say stuff that Jimmy Hong would say. You would be like what it's on, this is what we're doing Really. You want to bring this, you want a piece of this. I mean, you would bring that level of intensity, you wouldn't cower like a scared cat like Jimmy, you would be confident.
Speaker 1:You. You had something to say. Well, I'm too scared to say it now. Master Chod, you know parents appreciate the life skills being taught. I mean, everybody knows it's a fact. But I've met parents that spent tens of thousands of dollars of therapy on their kids and, honestly, a hundred thousand dollars is not a hypothetical masterly, because when you when you not only say, and you actually do it listen. Your kid had to go through how many years of therapy because they weren't confident enough and and they scared to go to school from day one to the end of the summer school. And then they go through our martial arts training program and in just a matter of months and years their shoulders are out, their chest is up, they're faking it until they make it. They're shouting loud, they're answering, they're projecting confidence. That type is invaluable.
Speaker 1:Parents will pay unlimited amount to transform their child and behavior to be able to be fit and achieve success in their community and society. I'm a soccer dad. Do you know how much I pay a year? Not the life of my 12-year-old son soccer One year. I'm paying $14,000 a year. You just add a couple of years, that's going to be $100, dollars before they graduate high school. It's not unheard of paying this much? And soccer is it? Where I'm at, southern california, is one of the lower costs of sports. When they're doing golf, tennis, swimming, volleyball, it costs way more than soccer. So honestly, master ch, master Chan, $100,000 for a membership is not that unheard of. If you add it up and parents with, who will spend unlimited amount of resources to improve their child's life, to prepare them for adulthood and the future in college, they will pay that money, absolutely they will.
Speaker 2:If you can deliver A hundred percent, and that's that's the whole point is that if you're not developed developing kids, that you go, sir, stand up, demonstrate the form in front of everybody, and the kid doesn't do it with confidence. Sir, you have a seven-year-old and mom and dad have a dinner party and they have people come over and that kid can't come up to the other parents and go hey, how you doing, mrs Jones, thank you for coming to our house or whatever. These are the things, the soft skills of life, that parents are just going. Okay, this is what I'm paying for. Yes, I want my kids to know how to defend themselves. Yes, they need to throw a proper sidekick to break a board and all that. But more importantly is making sure that we're delivering the confidence to take on life, and statistically, most of our kids will never get into a fight. But them asking for a raise at work, them doing an interview to get into a good college, them doing a job interview, those are all things that are going to eventually come down the pipeline and we want to make sure our students and our kids will have the type of skills to take those on as they are growing. And so that, to me, is the biggest point, is that deliver those skills, you know.
Speaker 2:The other thing that I want, which I'm going to share with you, is developing discipline in your students, having control. I want kids to have fun, but when I say line up, they snap to attention and they're standing still. If I go, hey, this is black belt test, and everybody stands straight and they're not like moving around or can't. If they can't do that, then they're not ready to test. And that, to me, is an incredibly important part of being able to have good self-control and being disciplined. And I tell our students, like, if you want to kick high, you got to stretch every day. If you want to punch hard, you got to do your pushups, you got to develop your self-discipline to make that part of your habits. I can't help you kick high, you need to help yourself kick high. Show me your disciplines that you can do that you want to do well in your tournament or forms. Forms is a level of discipline to me. So if I give you direction and you practice it and I come back and I see that you've made improvements, then show me your discipline and that to me is important. Then you transfer that discipline to other parts. So I think I shared this in other podcasts that we have a sheet of paper.
Speaker 2:All the kids have to write down all the things that they've done disciplined, brushing your teeth every night, so your parents don't have to tell you If you're in martial arts. Be more disciplined. Being able to do your homework without your parents telling you, that's all showing discipline. So just being able to show additional strength and helping the kids having a disciplined lifestyle is a very important part of doing it.
Speaker 2:The other thing I tell kids, too, is that listening is a sign of respect. So if I ask you to do a kick and you don't do it and I say, hey, can you do the kick, and then the third time you're not really paying attention and then you do the kick. I don't like to teach where I have to repeat myself two or three times. I should just tell you once and you just do it. That's being a good listener. However, listening to your parents is more important than listening to me. So if your parents tell you to do something, you should do it right away. So if they tell you to put the iPad down, go brush your teeth for bed right, read a book, get ready in the morning. These are types of skills we should start recording and reward the kids for being disciplined at home. So we have a discipline sheet that they have to fill out. So I want my students to display discipline not only on the floor and looking straight and not moving and practicing, but I really want them to understand that they should display these life skills outside of the dojang as well. And the more I can translate that and the more that I see that right, then these are like great stories. I have a great story.
Speaker 2:I have a student too. Student got a 34 on the ACT. He's one of my junior instructor black belts. And I said hey, you are a senior and you're going to a good college, tell the rest of the kids how you did it. And he goes sir, what I did is a sophomore year, or my freshman to sophomore year. I got a book called the ACT Black Book. I studied it all summer. I studied an hour a day and that's how I got my score Okay. And I said all right, guys, write this down, go get the ACT Black Book, study it. And all you got to do is follow Rahul's formula yes, sir, okay, good, fast forward. Two years later I have this kid come up to me and he goes sir, I did Rahul's strategy. I took the ACT as a sophomore. I got a 32. I said, dang, that's really good he goes, I can do better. This kid ended up getting a 35 his junior year and he said, sir, all it took was discipline. How much is that worth to that parent?
Speaker 1:A hundred, that's worth a hundred thousand dollars. Right there, A 35 on that test is worth a hundred thousand. Parents bribe universities. Over a hundred thousand dollars. To get into that university to get a score on that test is over a hundred thousand dollars. To get into that university to get a score on that test is over a hundred thousand dollars so, absolutely, I think that's the level of influence that you have to look at.
Speaker 2:Influence for good, I mean um and, and that, to me, is like the stories I tell our students because I want them to grow into these amazing young individuals. You know what I mean. You know, master, jimmy, I have was it a year ago? Last summer, I was in Washington DC with my daughters and we're on this lacrosse journey and we're going to different.
Speaker 1:By the way, you said lacrosse journey On average. How much do you pay for lacrosse? I don't want to it's more, it's. It's more than your soccer is it more than my 14 000 or less than my level? We're a little bit more because of the fact that we do a lot more travel, right but my point is is that if you pay more than 14 000 and we're charging $200 a month for a martial arts school, that's $2,400 a year we're not charging that much.
Speaker 1:I understand and our audience and our listeners. We're not charging at all. $200 a month is peanuts compared to other sports that parents pay much more for and why?
Speaker 2:For the possibility to get into a good school or the possibility to get some scholarship money for your child's education. So you invest in these things.
Speaker 1:I have actually looked into the probability and the percentage. The percentage of high school athletes playing, athlete playing in college is is seven percent. It's from like two, two to seven percent. If you're talking in all sport, not just once. We're baseball, football, soccer, lacrosse, you name. Basketball, you name hey, so majority of these kids are not.
Speaker 2:Did I show you my four hundred thousand dollar cup?
Speaker 1:400,000. No, can we see it, master Chan, our listeners don't know that your oldest daughter just recently got into Northwestern.
Speaker 2:She's already there, she just finished her freshman year at Northwestern, that's right. So the four years I'll bring you down. This is what I got, like a nice $400,000 cup.
Speaker 1:You seem like you're enjoying the drink, whatever drink you have.
Speaker 2:Let me just tell you but why. She could have gone to a state school. I would have paid a lot less money, but this school had the major she needed. She's in neuroscience. They've invented some Alzheimer drugs there. That's a passion of hers. She's been working at labs in college and or in high school. That kind of piqued her interest and so she wants to get into brain sciences. So so what am I paying for? I I'm helping her fund a dream of possibly getting a good career in something that she enjoys doing.
Speaker 2:That's that that there's no, there's no price tag on that for for parents. And if you can do it, you try to do the best you can in terms of doing that. And and and I say that is, we're blessed If we're in the martial art industry. We're totally blessed, and I'm blessed that I have my power, my superpower, my gift as my gift as a martial art teacher is the ability to influence my students, to want to be better for themselves, and my tool and vehicle is the martial arts. But I have to connect that bridge of education and I have to really constantly tell them this is what we're learning. So when you learn this, this is what we're doing, that we're learning. We're not just stretching, you're just showing. You're showing me how disciplined you are about it. When you show off your form in front of everybody or you spar in front of or you even test in front of everybody, you're working on your confidence. These are all the additional ancillary skills that you've got to always constantly remind parents and the kids that they're developing themselves to be the best version of themselves later on, when they go on in life. That's what parents are paying for, right? And the vehicle that delivers. That happens in the martial arts and here's my last tearjerker, great talk. I do, and I really believe this, and I tell kids this. It's super important Every day this is true because I believe this is what I do with my own kids is that every day, a parent wakes up in the morning and they hope that their kids are happier than them.
Speaker 2:They hope that someday in the future right, and I do this I have kids sit down and go. Everybody. Look at your moms and dads. Mom and dads, tell me if this is true. Every day you wake up, you hope your kids are happier than you, right? In fact, you hope that you eventually have your kids become smarter than you. Eventually, you want your kids to be more successful than you, right? And parents, is this true? You want your kids to living better than you. Maybe they have a bigger house and making more money. Would you like all that? You all go? Yes, sir, okay.
Speaker 2:So, everyday kids, your parents wish that you win in life. They want you to be the best. That's what they want you to do, and so your job is to listen. Your parents never do this. Hey, let's go play in the middle of the road. It's look safe. Hey, eat this. It's terrible for you. Play in the middle of the road, it looks safe. Hey, eat this. It's terrible for you. You know what? Why don't you guys smoke this cigarette? Your parents only tell you good things. Hey, turn off the iPad. Time to go to bed. It's time to rest that brain of yours so you can take on the day tomorrow. Go read a book. They only tell you good things because they want you to win, right.
Speaker 2:So I'm going to tell you a secret. Kids Know that your parents want the best for you, and next time they tell you to do something, I want you to say yes mom, yes dad, and then say thank you for reminding me we need to sound different than the other kids. While the other kids are complaining to their moms and dads about turning off the iPad or turning off the video games and whatever, the secret to success, who wants to be successful in here? Yes, sir, I'll tell you what I sometimes look. I have like parents crying in the lobby and I'm telling you that's what we do, this is what we do. We're helping these kids be the best they can. And as I'm saying this to you, you interrupted me on my lacrosse story.
Speaker 2:I met like three of my best black belts. We're in DC, they're living in DC, they're doing some really cool stuff. So I said, hey, I'm in town for a little bit, can we meet for lunch? So we meet at like 1130 for lunch and one of my black belts works at the National Institute of Health and he is. He worked on the COVID vaccine under Dr Fauci and he's doing the effects of long-term COVID and the effects of the vaccine long-term right, graduated from Princeton University and then a graduate program at University of Chicago. I have another girl who's at the National Institute of Health for Cancer Research. She is working on cancer education or like helping through cancer is essentially what she's doing. And I had a third girl who used to be my assistant instructor, one of my closest instructors that I work with. She is at Georgetown Medical School second year and yeah.
Speaker 2:I created a couple national champions in Taekwondo, but that, to me, is the champions of what we do. Those kids still credit, you know, the hard discipline, the ideas of putting them in front of others I don't want to say embarrassing them, but putting them on the spot for martial arts and they shaped me. My student, who works at the National Institute of Health, said he predicted that coronavirus would happen and he was telling me that in November he had to do a briefing in front of the Pentagon on exactly what this is and how to protect the soldiers. And he remembers the talk that I did about less than, greater than, or don't look weak, project your voice, and all this stuff. And I was just shocked and I'm flexing here and I just want to let everybody know how amazing of a teacher I am. So just keep that to heart, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1:But are you though? Are you master John?
Speaker 2:The real reason I'm telling you this is that I know for a fact every one of you out there is doing the exact same thing. You've affected a life and and they you've changed them forever for the better, and because of your level of influence. Why don't we do more of that? Why don't we teach more kids? Why aren't we in every public school in the country and teaching kids smart arts and making them the best they can be? We can really fix a lot of the ills of what's going on with children right now, especially past COVID and mental health and so forth. But parents, they don't know what we do. They don't really understand that this is one of the greatest tools.
Speaker 2:I mean and this is not a dig on Joe Rogan I like BJJ. Joe Rogan was a Taekwondo person, but now he's pushing BJJ. I think traditional martial arts are great Taekwondo, karate, kung fu, they're all great. But it's important. It's important that we educate, that we go beyond the kicking and punching, that we're going to really be helping these people with the life skills long-term. But anyway, everybody, thank you for hearing my rambles about how valuable martial arts schools are and so forth, and people are paying an immense amount of money on a lot of different things for their children to be the best they can be.
Speaker 2:I just want to remind everybody on this podcast that Master Jimmy Hong and I will be in Las Vegas October 3rd and 4th and we'll be at the American Sabanim Association or American School Owners Association meeting, and we would love to see you there. It's a great way for us to network, learn from one another. I don't want to profess, to say I'm a guru. I'm sure a lot of you are doing some amazing things. It would be great to see you guys there so we can all see what you guys are up to and network together and so forth. And if you go to our website, asammartialartscom, we'd love to see you there.
Speaker 1:Meet Master Chan personally. Meet Master Tony Chung personally, meet myself. Let's network, let's learn and let's grow our business, our martial arts school, to the next level. Come to the ASA Summit. We would love to see you guys there. Find out more information or register at our website, theblackbeltbantercom. We'll have it in the show notes below or in the comments below as well. And there you have it, folks. The $100,000 is not a hypothetical. $100,000 is not a hypothetical. Your martial arts program is worth $100,000 to change the course of their parents' kids' life. We will see you on our next episode. Have a great week, everybody.