Tom Callos on Martial Arts Business, Curriculum, a

An Excerpt from a Report on Martial Arts School Management for The 100.

Thu, 23 May 2013 14:17:00 -0700

(NOTE) The following piece is “About # 5” of “5 Concepts for School Owners and Managers” from my martial arts school business, marketing, management, and consulting firm’s on-line campus, www.the100.me.

For the school owner or school manager who might need help, assistance, guidance, and/or inspiration, I do not believe there is a better martial arts consulting firm in the world. School owners may enjoy a 7 to 10 day visit to our on-line think-tank and campus, where we are 24/7, 365 days a year, by using this link: http://the100.me/?xgi=4EvPIjhYxy9Or0

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I think it’s a mistake to see a martial arts school ONLY as a box, as an isolated component of a community, as a thing in and of itself, connected only to the paying customer, as a “business,” and/or “place to learn (name your art here)” —and not something much grander, something more important, and something far beyond style taught or the school’s profit and loss statement.

It could be said that a lot of people see themselves as individuals, disconnected from responsibility to others outside of their immediate circle of friends and family ———and not to their community, to issues outside of those that serve their immediate needs. Then there are people who feel —and more importantly, ACT —as members of something larger, more connected, and “bigger than.”

In “a perfect world,” I would like the master teacher of the martial arts to have a sense of deep and meaningful connection to the community —and a noteworthy (if not spectacular) involvement in his/her community. I think that’s both the right way to live —and something that’s very good for business.

The Measure of a Great Martial Arts Teacher / Master / School Owner

Tue, 21 May 2013 20:39:00 -0700

This is, of course, a piece about thinking. Why thinking? Because when you are thinking clearly, everything changes. What you get changes. What you produce changes. What you want, changes.

OK, so here’s to thinking (my opinions, of course):

The measure of a great teacher is what his 24 year old staff member read last week.

The measure of a great master teacher of the martial arts is found in what her staff added to their project portfolios in the last 30, 60, or 90 days.

The measure of a great teacher is in the mission statement, the statement of intent, the drive, ambition, and motivation behind the work of the teacher directly underneath her —and the teacher below that teacher.

The measure of a great teacher, leader, and master can be found in the blog post or video made within the last 4 weeks by one or more of the students this great teacher has had under his or her wing.

I like to imagine that I can find out what a teacher is made of, by looking at what his next -in-command does with his time. What has she produced? Who is she helping? Who are his heroes? Why is he doing this work? What are his or her goals?

Am I a great teacher? Is Tom Callos a Master Teacher?

My abilities can only be gauged by what you do, in and for the world. I am only as good as what you have read in the last year. Who you consider to be your teachers. What your mission is. How you help others.

Everything I do, all my personal accomplishments, all of my motivation, what I read, who I reach out to, and why I do this work, must be a direct connection to my teacher’s influence on me. In one way of thinking, his work is only as good as my work.

The only way I can do my best work —and the only measure of my value and skill, is your work, mission, purpose, and accomplishments. Every single ounce of my energy is focused on helping you elevate the quality of your thinking, work, and influence, as this is the only measure of my own success.

What This Might Translate Into, As An Action Plan:

Pay attention to what your team reads. Seek to offer them the gift of reading books and other material that gives them a perspective on what is —and/or is not —important in the world.
Pay attention to who your team sees as heroes. Most likely, this area is lacking —and in that it’s lacking, most young people are measuring themselves up against media personalities and people-images manufactured to sell products. Assailants aren’t nearly as dangerous as ignorance.
Look at your own practice. Who do you read, listen to, pay attention to, and what do you use your time to do? What do you write? What do you make? Who do you help? If you’re texting endlessly, playing video games, working too much (and achieving so little), or otherwise wasting your precious time, and/or hanging out with people who do nothing for others, how can you ask others to do what they have to do to represent wisdom?
And if you have a 24 year old (or any age) staff member, teaching on your school’s floor who isn’t seeking to be a living inspiration, at “level 10” for his or her students, then you have a teacher on the floor who isn’t going to ask that of his or her students. What to do? Introduce your team to the best and brightest and most noble —DAILY (like they eat and sleep). You don’t become a true master by doing occasional training. To achieve mastery that is more than a patch reading “MASTER” put on the sleeve of a uniform, you would do well to find real masters, in any and every field, and study what they do, why they do it, and what makes their lives stand out as examples to others.

The message? It’s not about you. Not about what you write, what you donate time to, what you’ve made, what you’ve accomplished, or what YOU are capable of.

We’ll find out how good you are by what your staff members do. If you allow them to do little or nothing —and don’t hold them accountable to the highest ambitions and effort, then you have employees, not students.

If you’ve lost your ability to inspire them to be something more than “workers,” then your role has gone from “Master Teacher” to an Employer, which is not uncommon, but as different as a grave-digger and an architect.

How to Market Your Martial Arts School. The 100. Method

Mon, 06 May 2013 07:10:47 -0700

The handsome photo above is of my friend and former student Michelle Spencer, taken by my friend and former student, photographer Neil Lockhart of Reno, NV.

“If a picture is worth a thousand words, then an action is worth a thousand pictures.” —Martial arts master Jhoon Rhee

Contained in Master Rhee’s quote, is the essence of how the martial arts school owner should, in my opinion, market his/her school —with actions.

Talk is cheap; saying you teach something when you can’t show any real evidence that you do, is bullshit; copying what that guy said in his ad, as you think it “sells” your services or lessons, is the epitome of laziness; being anything but a catalyst for change thru what you DO in your community, with your students and the people in their spheres of influence, is not the best you can do.

The 100. Method is found in taking what you say you teach on your mat and turning it into measurable evidence in your community. It’s advertising your school by having an impact on the world around you.

If you “teach” your students more than kicking, punching, and grappling, then show us what that means in their lives and in the lives of everyone they have the ability and wherewithal to affect. It should be easy.

Respect?

You teach respect? Good, we need some of that.

Now, how has what you’ve taught made a difference in the lives of people you’d like to teach? When you’re able to show how your work matters, you might be able to STOP conventional “marketing” and start being a real leader, an engaged, participative, compassionate teacher-citizen.

That’s what The 100. Method is about; guiding martial arts teachers to be more than business people, more than entrepreneurs, more than coaches; more than athletes; more than just consumers in today’s world; it’s about doing the amazing, as a way of life.

Martial Arts School Marketing. 4 Categories. Business Talk from Tom Callos

Sat, 04 May 2013 12:01:36 -0700

Let’s say that we divide all (that is, EVERYTHING, every sensible, sane, honest method) of martial arts school marketing into 4 catagories:

Category 1. All the easy, mindless, essential, inexpensive, everyone-knows-this, and everyone, regardless of experience, can-do-this stuff; postcards, tear-sheet fliers, lead boxes, “VIP passes,” print ads like everyone has access to in the martial arts world, and all the, you know, standard stuff. Good, essential, common, and sort of the plate you put your food on. You need it, it serves you, everyone needs plates (or bowls) to put their food on.

Category 2. All the stuff that isn’t so “easy,” but is, nevertheless not rocket science to produce and distribute. Add to this category just about any sort of advertising that a health club does, a Curves, a fast (fat) food restaurant, or a plumber, locksmith, or other business that needs to put out marketing to get customers.

The two categories above are the shoes, sox, undies, pants, and shirts of marketing. You don’t go out of the house naked (most the time), and you don’t go into or operate most businesses without using these easy to find, easy to implement tools.

NOTE: Many, many people try to paint the tactics, above, like there’s some kind of amazing magic to it —and certainly, it all gets better results with a bit of formula applied to it, but to be honest (as in I’m not selling those services), this is all the stuff someone with half (or less) of your experience can buy and put to work, like yesterday. Every Schmo under the sun can —and often will go head to head with you in the common tools of marketing and promotion.

Proceed knowing this (of course).

# 3. The 3rd category belongs to the man or woman with intuition, with a level of intelligence that can see and understand the difference between copying someone’s slogans and images, and a real, honest-to-goodness “unique selling proposition.” This is the actor who not only knows her lines, knows how to hit her marks, and understands how to make her character seem real, but who also knows how to exude some magic —to reach her audience viscerally, so that they forget she’s “acting.”

This is the program you design that’s all yours, that uses unique images unavailable to competitors, that has unique language —that explains what you do in a way that sets you way, way apart from the less experienced owner. This is marketing that requires many steps, a strategy, a plan, some perseverance, some style, and someone who knows how distinguish his work from all the fast-food, easy marketing blah-blah of all the other people vying for the disposable income of people in your target market.

It’s the self-defense program that’s really (maybe even brilliantly) designed; rich in content, deep in purpose, well-thought-out, and expertly, painstakingly thought out and executed.

It’s the children’s program that wasn’t bought from a box, that can’t be purchased by the school-down-the-street. It’s powerful, the teachers are well-trained to deliver what is different and rich about the work. The program is supported by great graphics, well designed lessons, a comprehensive website, and evidence is compiled and distributed that shows just how damn good and effective the program is, FOR REAL.

And then, my friends, there is Category 4.

Category 4 is, most often, the evolutionary step of the practitioner and teacher who knows steps 1 thru 3 like he knows his own name. She knows how to plan a battle, to organize a project, to execute common marketing, to build on it to make something she’s “branded” and can call her own. She knows how to proceed with a sense of style and substance.

Category 4 marketing transcends “marketing.” It’s stuff that comes from the soul, it’s mission-driven, it goes against conventional marketing strategies because marketing is the planet and this category is about the universe; no, it’s about the The WAY.

It’s stupefies the “businessman.” It’s scoffed at by the ad-copy writer. It’s something noble; it’s not driven by formula, it’s driven by a sense of mission, it’s about purpose, it’s not supported even by logic. It’s something you do because there is no other way to proceed without giving up on everything you value, respect, and hold dear.

This is where I go, with my work at www.the100.us. This is where I am when I have, properly, started with the end in mind.

Almost all forms of marketing can get a result, sometimes a good “return on investment,” —-but only category 4 marketing speaks to the absolute ultimate, the best of the best, the best thing for everyone it touches. It isn’t marketing —it’s magic, it’s art, it make the person who is doing it —and the people engaging it, better people.

That’s the kind of work I believe in.

Martial Arts Business, The Path Less Traveled

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 13:15:45 -0700

“You don’t fit the foot to the shoe; you fit the shoe to the foot.”

That’s how I like to work with martial arts school owners and teachers. I don’t seek to “sell” them “the system,” —I like to know what they’re passionate about, you know…what they live for. If it’s money and things, I let ‘em know I’m probably not their man; if they have a mission, then my job becomes “helper” or “participant,” and sometimes, “coach.”

This work is, for me anyway, far more stimulating and interesting than one size fits all. Some instructors carry the banner, for a period of time or forever, of “bully prevention,” or “suicide prevention,” or “health and wellness,” or “self-defense,” or for things that are so far out of the mainstream martial arts world that you have to smile at them —-for their vision and bravado.

My opinion is that the “business” of running a school, the brass tacks, is an all-out 2 year course of study; stats, phone calls, marketing basics, staff meetings —-if you really dive in, you’ve covered it all, twice, in 24 months or so. My complaint about “the industry,” in general, is that they seem to keep returning to the same material year after year, as if we had to suffer thru the freshman and sophomore years of college forever. I started The 100. for school owners who had the basics down and were ready to do something with their schools beyond running a machine that produces more income than it spends.

I confess however, it’s very hard work —as it seems very difficult for martial arts instructors, not all of them, but a lot of them, to break out of the box that currently defines what a teacher does —and/or doesn’t do for —and in —his or her career and community. We are, nevertheless, making headway.

Harder still is to get people to band together and pool resources for the greater good. It’s easy to get people to do things for their own benefit, far more difficult to get them to do things for the benefit of the martial arts community —and beyond.

Martial Arts Business: It Starts from The Top Down

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 09:54:00 -0700

So let’s say you want to run an extraordinary martial arts school.

Let’s say you want to run a school that’s a “10” on a scale from 1 to 10.

This might be, then, your checklist:

1. To run a 10 school, look to the head, the master teacher. Fit? Super-fit? Diet? Perfect diet (a perfect diet is one that’s purposeful, conscientious of where the food comes from and why it’s consumed)? As diet is THE most important element of self-defense in today’s world, you’re not a “10” unless it’s addressed with a master’s level of understanding and thoughtfulness.

2. To run a level 10 school, the lead team must be as outstanding as the head person; is the lead team super-fit? Diet focused? If not, the school is less than its best, period. The best school in the world would be a school where diet was discussed, where a conscientious diet was practiced, and where diet was so connected to “self-defense” that the two were acknowledged as inseparable.

3. To run a 10 school, the master teacher must be an extraordinary student —of the martial arts, of history, of the world, and of life; humble, peaceful, aware, and engaged. The master teacher who doesn’t study history, doesn’t know much at all.

4. To run a 10 school, the lead team, the staff and/or senior students, must be students-extraordinaire too. Look to their reading/study list, look to what they know of history, and you will reveal their ability to understand, lead, teach, and engage. The master instructor with the most brains is the one who consistently leads her team to a deeper understanding of history, community engagement, and compassion.

5. To run a level 10 school, sales tools must be learned and mastered the way one learns to operate and maintain a vehicle. Then, once put to memory and practice, the level 10 school must not mistake the vehicle for the trip. Where the vehicle takes its passengers is more important than the vehicle itself. Sales methods, as in the offer, the intro, the sales process, and the close, as in the changing of retail displays, sales on sales-heavy days, advertisements, window dressing, and all the tools of salesmanship are the mechanics of running any business —-but they are not the heart and soul of a school.

The man or woman who lives in the right house, drives the right car, wears the right clothes, watch, rings, and who eats or is seen at all the right places, is not necessarily the man or woman with the deepest understanding, not necessarily the spiritual guide, the most clear, the most dedicated to that which is genuinely of value in and to the world.

To run a level 10 school, the practice of the master teacher and his/her staff must be one that causes deep and meaningful introspection. There’s no anger, no illusion, no manipulation, no resentment, no unhealthy or debilitating ego, and no aspect of living in today’s world that isn’t relevant to what is taking place in practice.

6. To run a level 10 school, I would first look at the master teacher. Where the master teacher and his/her staff go, so goes the school.

Assignment (should you be so inclined):

As a master teacher, you need to live by certain tenets; expressing those tenets, clearly, and in a way that promotes cognition / understanding and that inspires people to look more deeply at their own tenets, is a deeply rooted part of your practice.

So express them. Express them 1000 ways, 1000 times a year. Express them, turn them over, re-write them, live with them until they’re true, until their not just words any more, until they are “your marketing,” as there is nothing as important and powerful as having your work sell itself.

Your study is your pitch; your work is your marketing; your results are your pitch; your portfolio of activities are your marketing; what you inspire in others is your pitch; what they accomplish due to your inspiration is your marketing.

How to Operate an HONEST Martial Arts School

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 04:30:52 -0700

On March 18, 2013 between 10 and 10:55 am, I’m going to teach a class, on-the phone, entitled “How to Operate an Honest Martial Arts School.” In this seminar I’ll be guiding current and future martial arts school owners and teachers through the fundamentals of sane, smart, ethical, and sustainable business practices for martial arts school management, marketing, staff training, and curriculum design.

The event is, in part, born out of the scandals, dishonesty, and formulaic and manipulative marketing and business practices currently at use in the martial arts industry, practices that have brought no small amount of shame to the martial arts community —and has served to undermine the general public’s trust and confidence in our work.

The call is limited to 150 participants; to listen in, live, call 1-626-677-3000 at 9:55 am Monday, March 18, 2013. The code to enter thee call is 304298.

I’ll be joined by a number of friends, school owners and teachers, and the topics of discussion will include:

Starting off right: A Smart Business Model Dictates Smart Practices
Marketing isn’t Made of Scam and Artifice, It’s Built on Your Knowledge and Projects
Living Today from Tomorrow’s Money, the Most Destructive Force in School Management.
The Worst Offenses, Lies, and Dishonest Methods Being Used in the Martial Arts Industry Today.

The call will be recorded and distributed, for free, to the martial arts community. How to Operate and Honest Martial Arts School is a fund-raising project for The Alabama House Build-Vention, a charity project where martial artists travel to Greensboro, Alabama to build a home for someone in need. For information visit www.UBBTAlabama.org. Callers will be asked to donate $1 or more during the call, but no donation is required to participate. For information, feel free to contact me at 530-903-0286 or via e-mail at tomcallos at g mail dot com.

How to Market a Martial Arts School, For Real

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 15:14:00 -0800

If you’re not honest, eventually, you will suffer the consequences. Your staff will turn against you. Your students will see you for the fool you are. Your reputation will suffer. You will be mistrusted —and rightly so.

In a martial arts school, we don’t lie in our marketing. We don’t play on people’s fear or greed. We don’t mislead, bait, or begin a relationship with the intent to sell, sell, sell.

Who wants a friend or a teacher like that anyway?

The smart, well-trained, ethical teacher shows respect for her students; respect for his community; and respect for the traditions of the great teachers (not the great marketers).

How to Be Honest in Your Business / Martial Arts School

Transparency

All prices are posted on your web pages. If you’re honest and articulate about the benefits you offer, you’ve nothing to hide. It’s your responsibility to price your programs responsibly —and to let people get to know you’re true to your word, before you can expect them to adequately invest in your school.

No More Contracts for New Students

Eliminate CONTRACTS for membership, until the second year of membership (and then only as a tool to offer win-win membership terms). In a year, you’ll know you’ve turned a customer into a student —and your student will know they have a teacher they can trust.

Tell The Absolute Truth in Your Advertising

NEVER make claims not backed by truth, ever.

If you don’t know BJJ, don’t advertise you do.

Reject Bullshit Marketing Techniques

If you buy into the slimy, manipulative, gimmick-driven website and marketing junk promoted by far too many “marketing geniuses,” it won’t be very long until the slimy and the manipulative and the gimmicky seem like business as usual.

How to be a martial arts master teacher

Sun, 17 Feb 2013 15:05:25 -0800

These thoughts are, of course, how I’m thinking on this great day of February 17, 2013.

1. When you come into the martial arts, study it, whatever aspect that appeals or is available to you, whatever style, with the kind of vigor only a novice can bring to the table.

2. When you’re young and able, but yourself thru the fire of the smartest and hardest training you have the resources and ability to endure. The more you heat and fold and work the steel, the stronger the sword.

3. Stay a student —and for God’s sake, don’t mistake the car for the trip. The martial arts are the car you might be driving, but the car is just a tool; the trip is why you’re in the car. And, if God has graced you with any brains at all, appreciate that the trip is not about the destination, alone; appreciate the scenery and the tourist stops along the way.

4. Teach like a maniac; teach until you break thru the barrier’s of your own stupidity. Teach until you’ve finally taught yourself that you don’t know much —and that the process wasn’t about what you know/knew at all, but what your students came to teach you.

5. Finally, when you’re ready, realize that the practice of the martial arts are not about the martial arts at all; not one little bit. Being a martial arts master is easy, disgracefully easy. The whole damn thing has been about getting out of the dojo, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, physically, socially —on every level —and into the world. The goal is not “martial arts mastery,” the goal is to become a compassionate, awake, participative, engaged, cognizant human being.

6. When you come into this awareness, even if only momentarily or in waves, study it, whatever aspect that appeals or is available to you, with the kind of vigor only a novice can bring to the table.

Oh, and take a stand for an many things as you’re smart enough to stand for. Spit in the eye of evil. Never hate; compassion and forgiveness is the only healthy path. See no enemies (I mean, you aren’t 10-years-old, right?). Stand up for those who aren’t able to stand up for themselves. Don’t rape, molest, or kill —or, in other words, do no harm. Don’t be a materialistic piece of selfish crap, seek to live a life that is outwardly simple and inwardly rich; live simply so that others may, simply, live. Apologize, sincerely, every time you goof up (and you will goof up 10,000 times, or you’re not really living at all). Stay away from crooks. Try not to lose your marbles before you lose your marbles. When, in your life, you are faced with a moral dilemma, keep in mind that your entire life of training was only to help you make the right decision, in the moment you must.

(I’ve written this, of course, not for you, but for myself)

Martial Arts Teachers and The Tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 13:07:00 -0800

I’m in shock, like everyone I think, over what took place at Sandy Hook Elementary School last week. What pain and sorrow.

I don’t know what to do, exactly, to deal with, prevent, or cope with all the issues and the problems the event has presented us with, but I do feel compelled to offer this suggestion:

A Balance

In all of the 40 years I have studied and engaged in the practice of the martial arts, the number of messages and/or kinds of instruction I have received that relates to using force and technique to cope with problems presented have been about 1000 to 1, at least.

In contrast to the instruction I have received in combat and competitive strategy, I have had very little instruction in that which is not the physical, what is not the counter-attack, the block and defense, the take-down, the palm strike, the choke, the kick to the knee, and the use of physical force to keep from being a victim. There has been some instruction in the non-combative, non-violent resolution of conflict and the embracing of the non-violent “way,” as opposed to kicking and punching, but if I weigh one side against the other, the bulk of all my training has been physical and technical.

So I propose that it is our responsibility as martial arts teachers to balance out the instruction; to provide more direct instruction, discourse, and dialogue in and about the ideas of respect, of non-violent alternatives to problem solving, to the philosophies and concepts that seek to awaken the mind to a deeper level of compassion for the feelings of others.

I don’t see this kind of instruction coming from “the martial arts industry,” which I believe is, sadly and dysfunctionaly, fixated on the sales process and gimmick and formula driven marketing. No, I think what we need to learn to create more balance in our instruction comes from a more spiritually evolved “industry” or group of teachers.

I have jokingly suggested in the past that we include one tidbit of peace-related dialogue in our classes for every 10 kicks to the groin —but in light of recent events, it no longer feels like a joking matter.

Personally, I find much instruction and wisdom in the teachings of the Zen master Thich Nhat Hahn, but I don’t think it’s my place to tell you where to find your “balance” and message of non-violence, peace, and compassion, but I do feel it’s right to suggest we seek a more balanced form of instruction.

We could cultivate, through our own emphasis, more awareness of respect for others, for the thinking that diffuses righteous indignation, for tolerance, and for ideas about how to cope with anger, pain, and other issues regarding the way a healthy individual functions in the world.

Here are some resources you’ve probably seen me post before:

Teachers without Borders and their Peace Education on-line Teacher Training Program

Dr. Tony Fiore’s Anger Management On-line Teacher training for martial arts teachers

These might take you and your team some time to complete —but they are, I think, a step in the right direction.

Martial Arts Business. Some Praise, Some Criticism

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 14:09:07 -0800

The photo, above, is of 99-year-old 10th degree black belt in judo, Sensei Keiko Fukuda. I’ve been talking about her and the film my friend, Yuriko Gamo-Romer made about her (see the trailer here), as one of the things I do as a consultant to martial arts school owners is bring great teacher role models to the forefront of school owners in the international martial arts community.

Praise goes to Sensei Fukuda for her lifetime of dedication.

On another note:

I am an outspoken critic of practices in the martial arts community that I think damage our credibility. For example, I’m not a big fan of the sales hyperbole some firms / consultants use to try and lure in potential clients. Promises of million dollar incomes, floods of new students, and claims that their system is more complete and/or better than any “system” of the past for sales, self-defense, and/or school management…well, it’s not my cup of tea, nor do I think it treats the subjects with respect. Most of the sales garbage is designed to sell more sales garbage. I like straight up honesty, sustainable business practices, and hard work over gimmicks.

Martial Arts School Business: Can I Help You Market, Manage, and Prosper? Yes, if...

Fri, 23 Nov 2012 11:30:00 -0800

Can I help you?

It’s really up to you.

Consulting

I’m not trying to up-sell you, so when we talk, there’s no ulterior motive or steering you towards some new product or service for sale. I’m just here to listen to your story —and offer you my insights.

Money Management

I know about money management, as I’ve managed millions of dollars over the course of my career. I can help you keep more of your money, earn more, and waste less. I can’t do that, however, if we never talk about how you’re making it, what you need to make, what you’re making now, and how you’re spending it.If you want my help making, keeping, and managing money, other than generic “these are my thoughts about money management” articles, you must ask me. My cell phone is 530-903-0286. My skype is tomcallos. The ball is in your court.

I know my fair share about operating budgets, about the pitfalls of unexpected costs and poor financial planning, of how to translate financial needs into daily operating plans, of lease negotiation, and other financial concerns that one learns after 30 years in the game of teaching for a living.

Staff Training

There are, literally, more than 1000 ready-made staff meeting topics on the 100.’s website; we have reports covering any and all topics relevant to building people and teams of people who can really help you achieve your goals.

My suggestion is to direct your team to, over time, go thru every single posting, report, and video on the 100.’s site. As the 100. is “open” 24/7, 365 days a year, a staff member can invest 60 hours a year in training, learning, and thought-stimulation, by simply spending 10 minutes a day reading our front page and/or perusing our rich library of content. Your staff joins for free, making this one of the most affordable training tools you’ll ever find in the international martial arts community.

I’ve recruited, hired, trained, retained, AND let go of more staff members than but a handful of martial arts master teachers I know. I know it’s a challenging job that nobody has all the answers for, but I can help you if it’s help you need.

Marketing and Promotion

There can be no talk about marketing and promotion that doesn’t have STUDENT RETENTION as a factor. I have spent hundreds-of-thousands of dollars marketing, thousands of hours designing marketing materials for other organizations (like EFC, NAPMA, and MAIA back when they were viable companies in the industry), and I know real, deep, genuine marketing for martial arts schools as good or better than anyone in the world.

If you need help marketing, I can and will help you, but let me warn you, I don’t do gimmicks, I won’t waste your time telling you to say and do things that aren’t “you,” and I won’t tolerate hyperbole and/or dishonesty.

Do you need help with getting (and keeping) more students? Then ask me for help. If you will listen, take action, and follow thru, I’ll help you fill your school.

Curriculum Design

Ask me and I’ll help you design the smartest most effective curriculum that you, personally, can conceive and execute.

Your Education

Your education limits or empowers your staff members and students. Your circle of friends, peers, and mentors can shape how you think about your work/career, what you aim for, what you avoid, and how you plan, think, and enjoy what you do. What you “do” and “work on” shapes what you have to market and “sell.”

I can help you in all these areas IF you engage, participate, and talk with me. If you are silent, absent, and don’t show up for classes or ask for help, my ability to assist you is minimal, at best.

Martial Arts Business: Sexual Misconduct With Children -- and Martial Arts Teachers

Wed, 05 Sep 2012 11:22:00 -0700

The certificate, above, belongs to martial arts teacher Heidi Wilmott. It was awarded to her this week by the organization Darkness to Light (www.d2l.org). Heidi earned it by taking a $10 on-line educational course called Stewards of Children.

I found Darkness to Light’s extensive, well-designed, and emotionally powerful website and programs after more than one of my students recommended them. After the suicide of a prominent martial arts teacher and leader in the industry due to pending charges involving sexual misconduct with students, I had pledged to create a course for martial arts teachers outlining basic guidelines and procedures to help them prevent sexual abuse in their own schools —and in their communities. After all, the sexual abuse of children is a SELF-DEFENSE ISSUE, and thus right up our alley.

I struggled with what to include in the course and how best to deliver it, until I found Darkness to Light’s brilliant material.

I am currently taking the course myself and highly recommend that you not only join me, but make this training a requirement for all of your teachers —AND senior students. In self-defense, ANYTHING you can do before an incident is, I believe, about 1000 times better —and more important —than anything you can say or do after one.

Prevention IS self-defense. Will you join me, please, at www.d2l.org.

Martial Arts Business: Why (I Think) Meeting Julia Butterfly Hill is Important to Your Career

Mon, 27 Aug 2012 11:04:00 -0700

I would not be surprised if the majority of the martial arts community sees no connection whatsoever with environmentalism and the martial arts ——or, more specifically, between the environmental activist Julia Butterfly Hill and anything that has to do with teaching or practicing the martial arts.

But I see a very important, vital, and relevant connection between this young lady and her work —and the work I’ve engaged in for the last 40 + years of my life.

If that day in 1971 when I walked into a martial arts school and took my first formal lesson were a rock thrown in the center of a pond, then each of the last 40 years have been an ever-widening ripple of growing awareness and understanding about the martial arts and self-defense.

As I’ve grown up as a martial artist I have come to understand the connection between my hands and arms and protecting my head and upper torso. I have come to understand the importance of dodging, ducking, and footwork —when it comes to both avoiding attacks and delivering my own.

I have learned how to use my words to defuse conflict.

I have become aware of the value of avoiding potential conflict as a method of self-defense, so I don’t have to fight or protect myself, physically, at all.

I have come to understand that the way I treat my family, the way I eat, the way I engage my friends and my community, and the way I think are just as important to self-defense as is the block, the punch, and the kick.

My view of the martial arts, what I have learned in the process of studying and practicing, might best be called a “global” view; a big picture view.

If and when you are absorbed in your own issues, the world can feel pretty small. I’ve been there, immensely absorbed in who I was, what my skills were, and what it all mean to me and mine.

Step back from your own problems to look at how others suffer and it can put your own issues into a different perspective. I’ve been there, as a teacher and friend to others. You too, yes?

Likewise, stepping way back and looking at the world, at history, at global issues, and what’s really important on a grand scale (what is “self-defense” globally?) —and it can (should) affect how you feel and what you teach others.

That idea might best be phrased, “Think globally, act and teach locally.”

From this viewpoint, environmental concerns are as relevant to self-defense as any other issue on the sliding scale between the micro, such as the block of the punch, to the macro, as in, for example, the destruction of our planet’s rain forests.

Julia Butterfly Hill is someone who I admire for her ability to live her life with more than her own personal concerns in mind. She’s part of the village of teachers who I look to for instruction on self-defense for big picture issues. From my viewpoint, Julia Butterfly Hill is as much a proponent of self-defense as an environmental activist, as I am as a teacher of the martial arts.

What’s Your Tree?

Julia will be the first person to point out that climbing an old-growth redwood tree and refusing to come out of it for 738 days is not for everyone. That tree was HER concern, but she doesn’t presume tree-sitting is yours.

But what she follows that idea with is what makes her so very important to the master teacher of the martial arts, as she asks, “What’s your tree?”

In other words, what do YOU care about enough to put yourself on the line for? And this, my friends, is a manifestation of the spirit of the warrior. This is what we want, in part, from our years of training, from what we hope we might instill in the minds and hearts of our students:

Conviction.

Courage.

Resolve.

Perseverance.

Indomitable Spirit.

Values.

Determination.

Julia Butterfly Hill is every young person we have the honor and privilege to teach and, hopefully, influence and empower. She’s an example of how an average person, two legs, two arms, one head, and without backup or money or anything much more than a certain fearlessness and a conviction to do what she believes is right, can have a profound influence on others and on the world.

When you meet Julia, understand you are in the presence of someone who contains the spirit you’d love to, be lucky to, instill in any of your students. Look her over carefully —and recognize that because she did what she did, you can be certain that others can do it too. What’s your tree? That’s the question to ask yourself. That’s the question to ask every student you ever are gifted with teaching. That’s the question that might be the ultimate aim of all martial arts training:

What is the battle you are willing to fight with everything you have?

Julia Butterfly Hill is a warrior for the things she believes in. Is there anything more important you would like to instill in those young people you teach?

She will be joining us in Greensboro, Alabama, April 10 to 14, 2013 in The 100.’s / UBBT’s Alabama Build-Vention. I suggest you come and make friends with someone who will teach you/remind you about the kind of courage we want to cultivate in ourselves —and most certainly in our students.

Be sure to get a copy of Julia’s book, One Makes the Difference: Inspiring Actions that Change our World. Need more information on our Build-Vention, call me, Tom Callos, at 530-903-0286.

Martial Arts Business: 10 Things to STOP Doing, Today (For School Owners & Teachers) # 1

Fri, 10 Aug 2012 14:18:47 -0700

ONE

Well, first, stop lying, stop insinuating you know or do things you really have no actual knowledge of, such as LEADERSHIP. Stop selling leadership courses which have no actual curriculum and are nothing more than a tool you use to sell another program. You started selling this course because you heard someone else was doing it and making money from it, but you’re misleading yourself and others by claiming to “teach” leadership without even a term paper’s worth of study about the subject.

Instead, immerse yourself in leadership training, as Gary Engels of The Leadership Academy of Woodruff, WI did. Gary’s school has, at last count, been a catalyst for 500 documented community / leadership projects created and executed by his students. Now THAT is where “leadership training” begins.

Stop pretending you teach self-defense, as it’s very likely that you know little or nothing about the subject —and besides that, you’ve not created one single tool to be used to teach self-defense, written a treatise on the subject, studied hyper-masulinity, or read anything on the subject other than what’s fallen across your lap through the popular media.

If you actually taught self-defense that was worth anything, you’d know the top 10 killers of men, women, and children, off the top of your head. You’d know who Jackson Katz is, you’d have trained in non-violent conflict resolution, and/or you’d have an actual background in law enforcement. You certainly wouldn’t be giving self-defense the half-assed, superficial, hand-to-hand, “traditional” karate approach that far too many “self-defense experts” pass off as an understanding of what self-defense is in today’s world.

Instead, go through at least a yearlong immersion in the subject. Study with Bill Kipp, Tony Blauer, Rory Miller, Peyton Quinn, Rob Pincus, and reach out to my friends at http://www.nsdi.org (The National Self-Defense Institute), and THEN, after you AND YOUR TEAM have done an intensive research and study of the subject, MAYBE, THEN, start to help your community address the issues of self-defense with some intelligence and a level of thoroughness we can all point to as an example of how the work should be done.

Look at the ads you use. You know, the ones you bought from someone else, the words you copied from the guy you met at the convention, the words that you put on your ads because you think they “sell” your lessons, and ask yourself a couple of questions:

1. Have I given my team even a day’s worth of training in any of these areas, these words?

2. Can my helpers (or can I) genuinely say we teach “integrity” and that our training improves “study skills?” Or are we hoping that, by magic, those things happen because we will them to?

I think there are martial arts teachers who will be shocked at my insinuation that they don’t know much about what they claim to teach. Sorry. Getting REAL might be painful, at first, but in the long run we’ll all be better off if we start dealing with the issues that have turned far too many martial arts school business consulting programs into endeavors seeking to dumb-down and make sales-ready a kind of martial arts that lacks any substantive study or research.

And don’t claim to teach MMA or BJJ or any style, unless you’ve actually learned the art. Don’t repackage your old stuff and call it something just to try and “capture” a market you hope to profit from. Do the work, in spades, first.

—————

Case in point: I had a chat with a friend of mine who works with a sizable “commercial” martial arts school that subscribes to the billing service and high pressure sales tactics of our “industry.” They want to charge $180 a month for their lessons; So, just as a litmus test of their value-building strategies I asked them if their teachers had ever gone though even a 1 hour training course in martial arts history, teen suicide prevention, domestic violence issues, girl-on-girl bullying, cyber-bullying, anatomy and physiology, dietary or nutritional training, anger management, first aid, or ANY subject other than how to prepare students to do the physical curriculum of the school and/or prep students for membership upgrades. NO, on all accounts.

And here, my friends, is why, when you go to martial arts seminars, to the conventions, or open the industry’s trade magazines, it all smells of cheap and easy, of repetitive scam, of “GET MORE STUDENTS,” and of something far less that the dignified educational approach we could (and should) be taking to increase the REAL value of what martial arts teachers and school owners do, today, in and for the world.

The 100's BUILD-VENTION, April 2013! Martial Arts Business, PLUS!

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 14:20:00 -0700

Parents, Enroll Your Children in Martial Arts Lessons

Sun, 29 Jul 2012 05:09:00 -0700

When I was 9-years-old I was given my first martial arts lessons when an old judo teacher invited me to step on his mat and learn how to perform a forward roll. This year I will be 53-years-old —and if I could, I would go back to that judo man and thank him. I would press my forehead against his, as I have seen Pacific Islanders do. I would hold him by the shoulders, eye to eye, and try to communicate something more than words, alone, could express. I am most certain I would cry; they would be tears of joy and soulful appreciation.

In the 44 years that have passed since that day, I have spent many thousands of hours practicing, participating in, promoting, and “being in” the martial arts world. I’ve been mindless in my practice —and mindful. I’ve been absent and present, an obstacle and a guide, a student and a teacher, a friend and the enemy.

As the 9-year-old boy, returning to tell you about his adventure, as the pre-teenager, sharing his emerging sense of self-confidence, as the 17-year-old deeply immersed in preparation for his black belt test, as the 25-year-old leading his first students, as the 32-year-old at the peak of his physical skills, as the 44-year-old using the practice to maintain his center, and as the 52-year-old teacher sitting at his computer reaching out to you, I would encourage you to bring your own children to a martial arts school, to a teacher, in your community.

While my English teachers taught me appreciation for the written word and language, while math and science teachers helped me to solve problems, while my parents struggled to teach me all that parents are burdened with teaching, my martial arts teachers, all of them, taught me the art of putting my feet solidly on the ground. They taught me to fall, if at all possible, softly, and to regain composure quickly. They taught me to block and counter, to embrace and relax in the struggle, to focus on the solution, and to understand as deeply as understanding can root itself in one’s mind, the power and path of practice.

Yesterday my oldest son, after many years of study, was awarded his black belt. Today his brother will be competing in a martial arts tournament in Japan, trying to stretch a years worth of record breaking performances and victories a bit farther. Parents: The effort it took to bring them to classes, to weather their resistance to the repetitive and rigorous practice, to get them to the right teachers, and to pass to them the spirit of what is behind the technique, it has all been (so very) worth it.

If you are looking for something that might instill in your children the lessons they will undoubtedly need to survive and thrive in this tumultuous world, if you are looking for someone who can assist you in teaching your children how to keep their feet firmly planted, their eyes on the right things, and to master the art of turning obstacles into opportunities, I would like to encourage you to look carefully for a good teacher of the martial arts. The cost of tuition is worth it. The time you invest is worth it. Enduring the demands of teachers who seem to be committed beyond good judgement, is worth it.

In all the things that I’ve created in my life, of all the struggle, the love, the adventures, and the sorrows I’ve experienced, there hasn’t been a more abundant source of strength, support, and regeneration than what I have learned practicing the martial arts. As you may know, “martial” means “war,” and the art my many warrior-teachers taught me is about the struggle to appreciate your parents, brothers, sisters, and friends, while they are here and still available. I have learned to fight my ever-present ego and ignorance, apathy, and disconnection, opponents who seem ever-ready to dump you on your ear if caught unaware. I have learned, even, how to live a life of kindness —a kind of life that has become outwardly simple, but inwardly rich; which are self-defense lessons extraordinaire.

It may, for a long time, be difficult to connect the kicks, punches, and wrestling your children do in a martial arts class to the experiences and my testimony above, but trust me, there is a connection. The long awards ceremonies, the hassles of formal belt testing, the tournaments, the bumps, black eyes, and bruises will be hard to endure, but I am confident that they will produce a positive outcome if you stick to the training.

I’m hoping this letter reaches you, as that teacher reached out to me so many years ago now. I would like to encourage and invite your child to step onto the mat, to get his or her first lesson. I know the potential of what awaits the committed student. I know how much the lessons have supported the very same things I wanted my children to learn —as a parent. In today’s world, the martial arts teacher can help us prepare our children for those things that await them, with courage, with a sense of self-dicipline and patience. What more could a parent ask for?

Martial Arts Business: Dealing with Sexual Abuse, Molestation, Shame, and Your Profits

Sun, 17 Jun 2012 05:00:00 -0700

If you haven’t heard the news, the man who was thought of by many as the preeminent martial arts school / industry business teacher in the world, hung himself last week, just a day before his arraignment on misdemeanor charges for unsolicited sexual advances (molestation) on a young man he accosted during a “massage” at his martial arts school.

The charge was only a misdemeanor, not high treason, but the general consensus is that it was only the tip of the iceberg of information regarding what was likely 20 or 30 years of molestation, much of it aimed at underage boys in this martial arts teachers care.

It is a tragedy of epic proportions for the man’s family, his friends, his students, the martial arts “industry,” and, of course, for all the children this man accosted under the cover of his role as “Kyoshi” (a title, mostly used by Americans, to indicate they are high ranking “masters” or “professors” of the martial arts).

There’s no two ways about it, it’s bad news. Instead of the man being recognized for 35 years of service to others, he’s going to be remembered by the general public as just another pedophile.

There’s a parallel story, not a good one, that has to accompany this man’s tragic downfall —and that’s the story of how people who knew of the molestation of children in the man’s care stood silent, for months —and, apparently, in many cases for years, essentially allowing the perpetrator to be among other children, constantly, without the parental warning label of “registered sex offender.”

Here are the rules:

When you become aware of a man or woman molesting or otherwise abusing a child, whether it happened an hour before or 20 years ago —and this man or woman lives or works in the proximity of underage children, you are obligated to act as an advocate on behalf of the children, all children, everywhere. You must report the infraction, the crime and all your knowledge of it, to the proper authorities.

You don’t hide what you know to protect your ego; you don’t hide the knowledge to protect his or her family; you don’t hide the knowledge to protect your business or the potential loss in profits you or others might suffer as a result of this person’s crime; your job number one, is to protect the boys and girls who have either been a victim of this person’s crimes —or who might become a victim if the knowledge you have isn’t reported and acted upon immediately.

This is every citizen’s responsibility —and I’d like to suggest that when the man or women or organization in question uses or involves the word “teacher,” the obligation to report molestation and/or abuse is multiplied by 10.

Teachers who are supposed to educate and mentor children are not, under any circumstances here in the 21st Century, allowed to rape, fondle, or otherwise molest a child of any age, period. Unreported crimes perpetuate other crimes.

So, victims of this man didn’t come forward, we can guess, due to the shame involved in being molested by someone they looked up to or otherwise trusted. It’s horrible to be preyed upon by an obvious sociopath, but it’s equally horrible to let the offender go on to inflict the same crimes on other children.

You HAVE TO report molestation as soon as it happens, as these people, these teachers, can’t be left to hunt for other children to abuse —without parents being able to intervene.

If you own or work for a company that has the potential to lose money or clients due to a sex offender’s behavior, you are obligated to put the welfare of young people and the protection of victims or potential victims above the protection of your assets, profits, and reputation. You do this because it’s the right thing to do, because that child, as if it were your child, is more important than your billing clients, your gross revenue, or your image.

We have to self-govern the martial arts industry by having a ZERO TOLERANCE policy with regard to children, teachers, and sexual impropriety of any kind involving either. If you have first hand knowledge of an adult molesting a child —or can get it —you report it, immediately.

If you witness an inappropriate or criminal act between a child and an adult, you report it, immediately.

The martial arts industry, like the Catholic Church, like Penn State, has been disgraced by this child molester and any number of others. We seem to be stricken with a lack of accountability and common-sense self-regulation. It looks like people and companies that were told, that had first or second-hand knowledge of children being molested, didn’t know what to do. So instead of calling for justice and accountability, when the man hung himself so that he wouldn’t have to endure arraignment, arrest, and the long hard stare of parents, students, and friends he betrayed, people and organizations just turned a blind eye.

One company in particular, who I personally told about the abuse I’d heard about first hand from a victim 4 months ago, chose to ignore the crime and actually released abundant praise for the sex offender upon his suicide. Their glowing tribute received, in just a few days, more than 1000 negative comments and one video hosting company demanded it be removed or they would delete the posters entire account. Just a PR tip: Next time a teacher/sex offender is exposed for any sexual crime against children, don’t sing his praises. People expect you/us to be horrified by the crime. When a teacher breaks that sacred trust with parents, all praise goes out the fricking window.

Note: This is NOT OK. Next time something like this happens —and it will happen again —you get brave, you do the right thing, you think of others before you think of yourself, you put your company and your damn business aside, and REPORT IT. Your first loyalty in a business, in a world, where integrity is so essential, is to the children we are expected to “teach” and protect. Our accountability to parents and children is more important than self-protection.

Martial Arts Business: Junk Food Martial Arts School Management

Wed, 06 Jun 2012 06:55:45 -0700

Junk Food Martial Arts School Management

Junk food is abundant, it’s cheap, it’s fast, it fills your belly, it fills your immediate needs, and it’s EVERYWHERE. It’s on every corner. It’s in every gas station. It’s at the movies. It’s at school. It’s at the bookstore. And everyone eats it (or so it seems).

Junk food martial arts school management is everywhere too. It’s on Youtube. You can find it there —fast. It’s the guy standing in front of the whiteboard telling you how to be a successful school owner. Nevermind that half the words on the board are misspelled, never mind that the guy’s school is a mess, and that he looks like a cast member of Jersey Shores.

It’s at far too many seminars and “industry” conventions. You can hear them coming: “MASS ENROLLMENTS!” “TRUCKLOADS OF NEW STUDENTS!” “DOUBLE YOUR GROSS!” GUARANTEED TO WORK!” And my favorite, “WE’VE DONE IT ALL FOR YOU!”

It’s all over the Internet and in the magazines. It’s processed, it’s refined, it’s sweet, and it’s abundant. The problem with junk food martial arts school management, is that junk food, while immediately satisfying, eventually diminishes the health and vitality of the person who consumes it. Junk food is junk. It kills. It destroys. The people who make it know this. They know it, but they choose to ignore the facts —and in doing so, they’re helping to destroy the health and vitality of millions of people. And what for? For profit and/or for the quick-fix something sweet, sticky, and cheap supplies the person needing something right now, the future be damned.

The RIght “Food” to Eat as a Martial Arts School Owner and Master Teacher

First, the owner of a school, a master teacher, has to radiate health. How does one radiate health? By having a beautiful, balanced, healthy diet. By walking the talk of his/her exercise. The school owner who sits at her computer sucking down 7-11 buckets of Coke and Red-Bulls, who can’t seem to exercise the self-control it takes to eat for health, who is constantly carrying around 20, 30, 40 or more extra pounds of weight —is on a self-destructive path that undermines the best things she should be “selling.”

Second, the master teacher has to aggressively pursue education. The martial arts teacher with no education whatsoever in anatomy and physiology, in bullying prevention, in anger management, in effective self-defense, in history, in philosophy, in leadership training, and in much of anything more than the techniques of his or her art, are as common as Snickers bars.

The very instructors who wonder why more people aren’t lining up at their schools for lessons are most often the same ones who have ceased to become vital, participative students of so many of the things in the world that have real value. It’s like the person who lives on junk food and then wonders why he’s getting sick.

And third, the right food for the master teacher, for the owner of a martial arts school, is found in service to others / service to his or her community. And here’s a key point, TEACHING the martial arts is NOT the kind of service I’m referring to. I’m talking about serving the community by teaching people to take their martial arts out of the dojo, off the mat, and into the world. The martial arts, in and of themselves, are not the heart of what a great sensei teaches. It’s the martial arts applied to life; that’s the health food of the martial arts. What the school owner does for others, is what the school owner does for herself.

My Students, BJ Penn and Keenan Cornelius: How to Create Martial Arts Champions

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 08:18:00 -0700

Well, as of this last weekend, two of my students, two young men I started as white belts, have become the stuff of martial arts legend. BJ Penn became my student at age 17 —and, well, everyone knows his story. My son, Keenan Cornelius, this last weekend, became the first person in the International Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Federation’s history to win double gold-medals in “The Grand Slam.” This means he won 1st in his division and the absolute division of The Pan Am Games, the European Champions, The Brazilian Nationals, and The World Championships.

The accomplishments of these two fine martial artists —and my connection to them —make me somewhat of “an expert” in the discussion of how to “make” champions. So, here, I’m going to share my secrets on what it takes to take young people and turn them into world-class performers:

I don’t know.

I don’t know why, exactly, BJ and Keenan are so darned good. Honestly, I don’t know why they shine so brightly —but I can say, resolutely, that I don’t think my role in their success was/is a big one. I was just at the right place at the right time. I made introductions. I came with a certain skill set —and for some reason, I was the first one to start rolling the ball that eventually became an avalanche of accomplishment and skill in these two young men’s lives.

I can, however, attribute my success to the fine people I’ve been influenced by —and in turn, I can say that without them, these two world-class athletes would have had to meet someone else to “get the ball rolling in their careers.

Bruce Lee played a little role in where I came from and why I do what I do; had he not been in The Green Hornet, which I first saw as a little boy, I might not have sought out martial arts training as early as I did. Jigoro Kano and the very first martial arts teacher I ever took a lesson with (in 1969 no less!), a judo teacher, played a role. Lou Grasso, my first Taekwondo teacher played a huge role, as did my many classmates and friends from his school. Ernie Reyes, Sr. played a giant role —in too many ways to list here, but I can say for certain that without his leadership and friendship I wouldn’t have done much, as a martial artist, for anyone else.

Jhoon Rhee, Joe Lewis, Bill Wallace, Jeff Smith, Dan Inosanto, O’Sensei, Mike Swain, Fukuda Sensei, and 100 other martial arts athletes and teachers who’ve inspired me over the years —they’ve all played a role.

Being absorbed in the martial arts world, completely, whole-heartedly, and with love and respect, these are the things that put me in the right place at the right time. The practice. The training. The struggle. The path set out for me through the examples of my seniors and other martial arts icons, that’s what helped me contribute, in the small way I’ve contributed, to the careers of these two martial artists.

How can you make this happen in your own career? How can you be a champion-maker too? Lol. I don’t know —except to suggest that you follow as clean and clear a path as you possibly can. That you train, yourself, as hard as you are able —and that you keep an open mind and be as straight-up as you can. The rest is, as far as I can tell, luck.

Oh, and I’ve discovered that I’m not the teacher, I’m really the student. I owe far more to BJ and Keenan than they’ve received from me.