Take Back Your Marketing. Take Back Your Values.

A few years ago I read a comment on a post I posted about someone telling me I was full of it for believing that not trying to sell so much and servicing people was a crock of nonsense. 

Fast forward today, it's paid off greatly. 

These are the values my dad, my mom and my grandparents taught me when I was little.

It's the same values that my uncles and grand pop built successful businesses.

It's the same values that my grand pop took with him through WW2 and came home to work 3 jobs to do right for his babies. 

But it wasn't about success. It was about consistency. Consistency is way different than just getting success once. 

The thing with success is it's fleeting.

You can be on top one minute and done for the next.

It's a fight to get to the top and it's even a bigger fight to keep the belt.

The problem with most businesses is they aren't consistent. 

And they are at the mercy of others.

Many martial arts school owners don't want to think, they want to be leaders, they want to say they are leaders and act like ballers, but they don't lead.

They follow. Which is a shame. 

For an industry that supposed to train away the ego there is a hell of a lot of ego.

Maybe people have been bowed to one too many times or called sir too often.

But the truth is the MA Marketing industry needs a makeover. 

It needs leaders who will uphold the charecter and values that martial arts is actually based on.

Respect, honor, valor, courage, humility, gratitude, hard work, dedication, loyalty, attitude, family, heart and love. Along with balling, making money, crushing it, killing it, good looks, charisma and swagger. 

Tradition should be upheld but this is also a business.

For a business to be really successful and consistent it needs service.

Service above ALL else. Great products, great service, THEN great marketing.

In that order. 

I don't listen to any martial art consultant who isn't on the mat training... Nor should you. 

Bags and weights don't fight back. Real people fight back. 

The major problem is and I say this with the utmost respect a lot of you respect the wrong thing.

A lot respect flash and status, over substance. Respect big mouths over heart.

As an owner you need to stay on the bleeding edge of everything.

Especially your sales and marketing conduit. 

Now I am not saying all of you are like this, no not at all.

But there is a good portion that want to be psuedo-leaders. 

The truth is for a long time your marketing has been held hostage by others.

Since I've been around at least 2 "marketing deities" have rose to power and fell hard. 

If money is all you have then you are certainly poor.

Everyones is shrouded in mysteries, and their own special sauce.

But really. There is no special sauce. It's the same information we all have. 

Created a long time ago. With little tweaks and tips and changes along the way to fit each style. 

I propose self reliance. When you are self reliant you don't need other people to do stuff for you.

You can grow internally your own staff and system to do in-house what a lot of these people profess for you. And once learned probably do it better, IN your own voice. 

The time has arrived to take back your marketing. 

Look this is how it is.

Some stuff like graphics, cards, videos you can buy. And you should mix it with your own content you create.

That stuff takes more time to create especially higher quality stuff. 

But the content, and the understanding of marketing, and sales process is what is truly going to make you succeed over the long haul. 

Don't want to learn it? Then you don't want to make money. 

As the business owner if you are not in control of your marketing you are not in control of your flow through of sales.

And that means you are SIMPLY NOT IN CONTROL. 

Things like sales funnels and content marketing are invaluable.

My buddy Randy Reid rolled out a program Called Dojo Funnels that's going to change marketing, it's based on Click Funnels - It's insane. Check that out here. 

Owning a business is NOT THE SAME thing as being an instructor.

Point blank we don't have the luxury as an owner of anything to say "I don't want to".

You can only say I don't want to when you fully understand what the thing you don't want to do is.

Until then you have no reference point. 

You have to work really hard, first. To later work smarter.

But you can't be lazy and think you are going to work smarter before you work harder because you don't know what smarter even looks like yet.  

The strategy and the processes behind WHY you market, you MUST learn or forever be at the mercy of others. 

Markets change fast, marketing changes fast but concepts change slow.

So when you know why you are doing what you are doing then you have a huge leg up on everyone.

Matter of fact that's when you can write your own checks.

And writing your own checks with the hard work you have done is amazing. 

I am no different than you. I am not better. I just learned a few things that worked for me. I bet you can do the same or even better.