February 2012
4 posts
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The Wakamatsu Tea Colony, Gold Hill, CA
I just finished a meeting with Isaak Egge from The American River Conservancy; we did a walk-about on the historic California property that was/is The Wakamatsu Tea Colony, which is “the cultural Preserve…site of the first agricultural settlement of pioneer Japanese immigrants in North America who established the Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Farm Colony on June 8th, 1869.”
Not only...
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Interview with Martial Arts Business Expert, Tom...
Interview with Martial Arts Business Expert, Tom Callos, for Martialinfo.com Feb. 12, 2012 Interview conducted by Kathleen Harris for www.Martialinfo.com Tom Callos is both an outspoken critic of the martial arts business industry and a leading contributor to its direction. In this interview I ask Mr. Callos questions about what’s not right about the martial arts industry and what is, and what’s...
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Martial Arts Business: Some Thoughts on Your Web...
Some Thoughts on Your Web Presence (Sites) I do not believe a website specifically designed to make sales is the kind of website I want representing my life’s work. I don’t believe canned images, poorly written copy designed to “increase my conversion rate,” and formulaic “act now” buttons is the key to having a website that tells the story of who I am, what the work is about, or that touches...
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Martial Arts Business: The Evolution of a Master...
Evolution of a Teacher to a Master Teacher
This is, my friends, how I see it —today.
Phase 1 The teacher is a fine martial arts athlete. “Look how good I am! I must be a good teacher.” Phase 2 The teacher develops great martial arts students. “Look, my students are winning. I must be a good teacher.” Phase 3 The teacher accrues wealth. “Look at my school, it’s beautiful; look at how...
January 2012
5 posts
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Martial Arts Business: Why What You're Doing Isn't...
If what you are “doing” IS “working,” then this report isn’t for you. If you think there’s some “room for improvement” in your efforts, then feel free to read my ideas on the subject —and take from it what you will.
What’s Wrong?
You don’t use a Franklin Covey Day-Planner, which means your staff doesn’t either. If...
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Molestation, Martial Arts, Community Activism....
Martial Arts Teachers, Molestation, and Community Activism: Real “Self-Defense.”
I’ve received 100 or-so e-mails / messages from martial arts teachers and practitioners over the last few days —after telling my personal story of childhood molestation at the hands of a man who happened to be a black belt instructor at a dojo I attended as a 12 year old. Many of the kind people who’ve...
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40 Years Ago, I Was Molested by a Martial Arts...
When I was 11 or 12 years old there was a black belt instructor at the school I went to in Reno, Nevada, his name was Carl Fernand (might not be the right spelling) and he molested me. It happened over one school year and summer; there were 5 to 10 or so events (I honestly cannot remember, a gift of emotional trauma), which ended when I started taking special care to avoid him and his offers of...
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Martial Arts Business. An Industry with It's Head...
Is “Head in Your Arse” too harsh a thing to say about the martial arts industry —or us?
I think not.
Try this (as a test): Visit 10, 20, 30, or 100 martial arts school websites (as I have, 10 times over) —and look for something unique.
RARE.
“We are a black belt school!” “House of Pain.” “House of Discipline” (says the 28 year...
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Martial Arts Business: The Consequences of Excess
Too much chocolate, as good as it can taste, will make you sick.
Too much training, as much as people say “more is better,” can cause you some serious joint damage, like it did me. The picture above is one of my two artificial hip joints, now more than a decade old.
Many of my peers are enjoying their new hips too, although let me tell you, there’s NO PLEASURE in what leads...
December 2011
4 posts
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Martial Arts Business: Honesty is Our Business
Imagine a martial arts association that your students could go to, see what was being said —and watch the videos…AND YOU WOULDN’T BE EMBARRASSED!
No talk about “upgrades” —no talk about “holding back curriculum —no talk about standing in front of elementary schools, in uniform, and waving big signs —no talk about students only lasting 18...
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Fire Safety Materials for Martial Arts School...
This link will take you to a report I’d written a number of years ago —and then re-written (this version) on The Fire Escape Route Safety Card Game. Here too is a yellow version of the arrow card used in the program.
You may also find downloadable versions of this at www.TomCallos.com
More to come.
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Fire Safety is Self-Defense
This morning I heard about the horrible tragedy in Stamford, Connecticut. Three children and their grandparents lost their lives in a fire in their home on Christmas Day. The story is outlined here.
In the next few blogs I’ll offer free resources to teach fire safety to young people and their families —and I’ll also offer free help to any martial arts teacher and/or school...
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Martial Arts Business: Why NOT to Join the 100.
“There are Any Number of Reasons NOT to Join The One Hundred —-and for some unknown reason, some character flaw in me, I feel compelled to list some of them here.”
—Tom Callos
DO NOT JOIN THE 100 if:
You consider yourself too busy to read the posts here, regardless of their number (If you don’t come here to practice, what’s the use of joining the...
November 2011
2 posts
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Martial Arts Business: Confusion About Marketing...
Confusion About Marketing and Community Service
A number of times over the last few months martial arts school owners have said or written something to me about the fact that I’m known, through my work in The 100. and The Ultimate Black Belt Test, to promote martial arts school community service. They tell me this because they want me to know they admire the work, but what they are really...
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Martial Arts Business: Getting Out of High School
I briefly scanned a martial arts business social on-line network this morning, having seen a friend’s name there. The banter was business-related —and I read through the 20 or 30 most current posts. It was a bit like small talk at a martial arts seminar or convention, “Darn, my retail sales are down and…” and “Who enrolls the most students?” And “What’s a good martial arts class?” ...
September 2011
4 posts
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Martial Arts Business: Teaching, Living. School...
Running a martial arts school business is both simple and painfully complex. Raising children is both simple and painfully complex. Maintaining healthy relationships is both simple and painfully complex. Living is both simple and painfully complex. Simple I rise every morning (so far), I show love and respect to everyone around me, I eat sparsely, simply, and for health, I practice good...
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Martial Arts Business: Fear.Less Magazine, a...
I confess: I’m a reader. But I’m a very picky reader —and one of my favorite reading choices comes to me digitally — FEAR.LESS. See the latest edition here: http://fearlessstories.com/.
In the e-mail I received this morning, reminding me a new edition of Fear.Less has arrived, writer Matt Atkinson talks about the little mundane things, DAILY things —and their value...
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Martial Arts Business: Thank you for NOT Writing...
About every two weeks or so, someone sends me a note, “Tom, when are you going to write a book?”
Well, I confess, I will not, most likely, ever publish a “book” —although I consider myself a writer. That is, unless I have something so important to say or point out, that it warrants the money, paper, time, etc. to publish it in hard copy.
I have —anyway...
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August 2011
7 posts
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Sensei Keiko Fukuda: Kickstarter Campaign (HELP)
She is 98 years old —and still teaches at her dojo in San Francisco. She just received her 10th degree black belt in judo, the first woman ever to be awarded the rank. She is the last living student of the founder of judo, Jigoro Kano.
Her name is Keiko Fukuda and her story will touch you, regardless of the style of martial arts you practice, your nationality, or your age. Sensei...
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Why I Love to Teach Martial Arts, Today. (Martial...
Let me tell you what’s fun about my work (as a martial arts teacher).
It’s really fine to coach young men and women to become exemplary athletes; athletes with focus, determination, self-discipline, courage, a great attitude, and the will to succeed. I’ve taught some fantastic athletes too, black belts who could wheel-kick you’re head off, from any position, any time of the day or night....
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Martial Arts Business - Reminders, Teaching,...
My mind is marvelously full of the work to be done, the work that could be done, and the work that would be fun to do. It seems I’m forever trying to ring the bell of awareness for the little things that need to be done to insure you/we enjoy the process, while keeping our eyes on the “big things” that “up” our value to the world —and make the journey something deeply worthwhile.
It is,...
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We Are Not Warriors. Not Even Close. Not Yet.
On the cover of Black Belt Magazine —and on so many MMA mags, at the seminars and conventions, and in print and image and video, we see the modern “warriors” of the international martial arts community. They grimace; they hold knives; they take stances; they pose for the cameras, cutting the throat, kicking the groin, punching the face, and choking the bad guy; they wear camo...
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The Ultimate Black Belt Test: The UBBT 2012
The ninth version of The Ultimate Black Belt Test, called the UBBT 2012, will be officially beginning January 1, 2012. The project will be limited to 40 participants, each training and testing for new black belt rank from second-degree to seventh-degree black belt over a minimum time period of 16 months. Each member of the UBBT 2012 will plan and execute a custom designed training program meant...
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Martial Arts Business: A Letter to a School Owner
A Letter to a Martial Arts School Owner: An Introduction to the work of The 100. You own a martial arts school, a club, teach a class, or plan on doing something along this line in the future. I’m here to introduce you to my work, as it relates to your work. My name is Tom Callos; I took my first martial arts lesson in 1969, when a judo teacher invited me on the mat. I started studying...
July 2011
8 posts
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Martial Arts Business: Time in Nature, Time on The...
Every year I invite a group of martial arts school owners and teachers on a 4-day “eco-adventure” where we put our belongings in backpacks and head out to explore life outside of our normal daily routines. It’s a 4-day business meeting really, but instead of flying into some smoky, noisy hotel in Las Vegas or some other carpeted, blacktopped circus of consumer un-consciousness, we head to a place...
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Martial Arts Business: On Cultivating Value
You make your work important —or trivial —by where your mind is focused.
This is important to “business” —as things that are trivial generally have much less value than things that are important. Ideally, we want to cultivate a product that has recognizable, great, and long-lasting value.
Your staff / your team must also be students of recognizable, great, and long-lasting...
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Martial Arts Business: On Being Poor
Martial Arts Business: On Being Poor and Not Having Many Resources In the practice of the martial arts we often embrace opposites. For example, when the punch is coming at the face, our mind says “flinch and cringe,” but our training says, “block.” When we face a sparring partner some part of our brain might whisper (or yell), “run,” but our training has us stepping back, raising our hands,...
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The 4 Corners of The Dojo, Martial Arts Philosophy...
In the picture above the fellow standing to my right is S. Kai Li of Hawaii. Kai is a lifelong martial artist, a military man, and a member of the Ultimate Black Belt Test who’s helping to keep the whole program going while I labor with the project that is The 100. (www.the100.us, a new martial arts association / college).
Here’s a link to a video of Kai and I in Alabama doing work...
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Martial Arts Business and Teaching. Thoughts from...
Teaching People The Martial Arts: Two Pieces of Advice I’ve been studying and practicing the martial arts for 40 years and helping to teach and/or leading my own classes for more than 30 of those. At 51 years of age, I believe I still have much to learn, about life, about teaching, and about how to make the time I have invested in the martial arts something more than just a narcissistic...
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Martial Arts Business: Benefits of Membership in...
Fast Overview of Our Benefits: 1. Veteran martial arts teacher Tom Callos runs this association —and what that means is 100. members get an overwhelmingly honest, creative, and intelligent approach to business and marketing. Tom doesn’t distribute, endorse, or encourage stupid marketing or management tricks. He’s known and well respected for producing material and curriculum that makes...
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Martial Arts Business: In 1 Years Time
This post and the following ideas are completely and totally brought to you on behalf of The 100. I am actively looking for martial arts school owners and instructors who are ready to shed the nonsense and trivial pursuits of the status quo in the “martial arts industry” (birthday parties, VIP passes, sleep-overs, self-defense courses that don’t teach self-defense, and the...
June 2011
7 posts
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Three Martial Arts Business Concepts that Could...
I’m Tom Callos and I run The 100. , which might best be described as the “alternative radio station” of the martial arts business and management world. I don’t play the oldies, those tired classics (Free Bird!), or those songs that the other stations keep playing over and over, despite the fact they weren’t that great when they first came out (like Ebony and Ivory).
The 100. thinks wrong...
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Tom Callos Seminars in July & Aug. in LA,...
See dates and details here: www.TomCallosSeminar.Ning.Com
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Martial Arts Business. I am a Student of Chase...
OK, Chase Jarvis is a martial arts business genius who, I don’t think, knows anything about owning or operating a martial arts school —or anything in particular about “the martial arts industry.” Chase is a pro photographer and creative. Nevertheless, I am a student of his work, as I have found more instructions, directions, and wisdom in his writing and work in the year...
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Martial Arts Business: Thinking Like a Master...
Today.
Tomorrow.
Next week.
Two weeks out.
Next month.
90 Days from now.
6 months from now.
Next year.
Two years from now.
5 years from today.
Your career.
7 generations.
This is how I’d like to get you to think about your marketing, curriculum, staff training, money management, education, and contribution to your community and beyond.
I don’t think any one of the 12...
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10 Levels of Teaching (for Martial Arts Teachers)
On a scale between 1 and 10.
A “1” teacher is unprepared, lacks the skills, and shouldn’t be leading a class, nevertheless, he or she is, indeed, “leading the class.” You’ve seen them, yes? At one time you might have been a “1” teacher —I know I was.
A level “10” teacher is someone who doesn’t just give you a workout,...
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Advice to Martial Arts School Owners, Worth (I...
I can’t make it simpler than this: Measure your management (and especially your marketing) in quantities of 100.
That is: 100 acts of marketing or 100 posts discussing a topic you intend to dominate or own in your community or 100 daily efforts in defining and re-defining your school’ curriculum or marketing campaign or black belt testing program or whatever it is that you do that requires more...
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May 2011
20 posts
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Thoughts on Testing for the Black Belt
It should take 5 to 8 years of steady training to earn a 1st degree black belt.
Black belts should be reserved for age 18 and older.
The test should take up the entire year before graduation; the 365 day test would be life-comprehensive and the deciding factors for “passing” would be based on accumulative effort.
The black belt test should include 365 days or 52 weeks of...
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The 100. A Revolution in Thinking? Maybe
I’m just one person, like you. I have a house I live in, I sit at my computer. I go practice at the dojo. I eat too much. I read a bit. And I’m trying to figure out how to do my work in a way that is living my life with passion and purpose. I don’t pay much attention to trivial pursuits, although I participate in some.
I started this association, The 100. with...
sosmartialarts asked: Hello there Tom, really fascinating blog! We're so pleased to find somebody that is actively taking on the degrading tactics that has become so common inside of Martial Arts schools, it's something we too are trying to actively eradicate from visiting instructors.
Keep up the inspiring and interesting words and thank you for taking the time to read this!
With respect from...
Keep up the inspiring and interesting words and thank you for taking the time to read this!
With respect from...
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Forget your karate, your taekwondo, your aikido,...
Forget your karate, your taekwondo, your aikido, your gung fu, your jiu-jitsu, your kenpo; mixed martial arts (MMA) is the ultimate martial art.
Mixed Martial Arts –In Perspective
By Tom Callos (originally published, July 20, 2007)
Mixed martial arts is the perfect art for the space it occupies. I mean, why not use what works when it’s needed? Why not forget a style’s country of origin, its...
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Fighting Belongs in the Ring
Fighting Belongs in the Ring
By tom callos
(Originally published March 31, 2008)
I have been grappling (pun intended) with the brutality of fighting in the UFC and the other MMA fighting venues. I mean, on one hand, I love it. I love the technical aspects of the fighting, the diversity and no-nonsense realism. On the other hand, I am often repelled by the violence, by the crowd’s behavior, and...
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On Earning High Ranking Black Belts (Testing...
There’s been a little talk on Facebook lately about (earning) rank. Black belt rank, specifically, about high ranks, like 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th dan. I’ve put some thought into how rank is earned; as many of you may know, how people earn high rank today is subjective. Some people can serve years of apprenticeship under another teacher to earn high ranks, while some people can get it the way...
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Things I Write About for Martial Arts Teachers,...
What I’m writing here is my opinion, of course. It’s not aimed AT you, it’s a reminder to me. If it serves you too, all the better.
Let’s not forget that what we do, as martial arts teachers, is —for the most part, a big pile of bullshit in a world that has some real problems. Most of us are NOT highly educated —or if educated, not actually fulfilling much...
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My Life is My Dojo 1 Year Martial Arts Sabbatical
I am putting a year aside, taking a sabbatical of sorts, to study martial arts in Thailand and other countries abroad, to do some social work in some of these countries, and to take some time to deepen my spiritual pursuits.
Of course, I will be reporting —extensively —on what I find, what I think it means for us as teachers, and I will —with careful scrutiny, be looking for...