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 months —no talks about how you run an “event” as a smokescreen for aggressive sales —and no talk about your wealth, your cars, his cars, his watch, or how many millionaires are in “the club.”

No inner-circle nonsense, no Dan Kennedy sales tactics, and, well…nothing but honesty. Imagine if your students were actually inspired by what they found; imagine if they thought more of you when they left the site. That’s the work being done at www.the100.us

“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 school?).

• You won’t get your own team involved, so you’re the only conduit into your school for ideas/methods explored here (Your staff get to join for free. If you don’t get them involved, your chances of successfully implementing a lot of the ideas here goes down, Oh, I’d guess about 50%).  

• When you read or watch the work here, you don’t understand you are in-training, that this is the equivalent of a master-level of study, that you can’t get these ideas, at the depth they are delivered here, or in the frequency, anywhere else in the martial arts community (If you don’t get how valuable and special the work is here, go join _______ [name your favorite purveyor of yesterdays ideas and methods here]). 

• Furthermore, you don’t realize that this work is creating an entirely new field of practice and purpose in the industry —and for serious teachers of martial arts. 

• You don’t respect me enough to pay attention —and in that case, my e-mails, the coaching, the messages, and the seemingly un-ending stream of material that comes to you through my effort is an annoyance, an intrusion, something you “can’t keep up with” (Don’t sweat it, I’m just not your teacher. My suggestion: Go find someone you DO respect enough to listen to). 

• You aren’t a person of action. You read a lot, you join, you have every intent of improving your lot, but at the end of each week your “action list” doesn’t reflect the level of involvement that brings about the change you are looking for (You can read 1000 posts here, but if you can’t DO, you’re wasting my time and your money). 

• You play on-line video games, but you don’t have the time to go to a Chamber of Commerce Meeting. You buy coffee at Starbucks, but when you see our tuition price you think you’re over-spending. You make posts on Facebook, but you won’t take 10 minutes to post something that might help others here in the association (I want people who do the work here, not people “paying dues”). 

• You don’t keep (or are unwilling to keep) stats for your business (Which means you will almost never get to the core reasons you’re not making enough income in your school). 

• You’re looking for quick money, a quick “fix,” an easier path, or something that’s “cunningly clever.” This work takes work, it takes intelligence, management skills, and foresight. If you lack self-discipline, you’re going to hate me, so don’t join in the first place.

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 —already written 10 books (at least) —and spend every day writing new chapters, at my on-line campus / library / book, called The 100.

It’s there that I’m writing what I believe is the most advanced, innovative, and smart step-by-step instructions for master teachers of the martial arts —for school owners —and for the next generation of teachers. 

The subjects include social entrepreneurship, community activism as marketing, innovative curriculum, higher education for real master teachers, Project-Based Leadership Training, environmental self-defense, health education and, quite literally, hundreds of ideas and topics you will not find in any other martial arts association, billing service, and consulting firm in the world (that is until we open the door wide enough). 

THE IDEA OF PUBLISHING A BOOK AS A TOOL FOR MARKETING OFFENDS ME

A couple of months ago I got an e-mail from some martial arts marketing “guru” who offered to ghost-write a martial arts book for any client of his, as a tool to legitimize one’s position as “an expert” in some field where the “client” wanted to be an expert, for marketing’s sake. 

Well hell, why don’t you just go out and win the world championships for me? Then I’ll put my name on the trophy (after all, I THOUGHT of winning them) —and then market myself as a World Champion.

I also am turned off on books that are filled with absolute crap, like some of the books I’ve seen come out from martial arts marketing ding-dongs. Books obviously produced because the author was told to produce one to legitimize his/her position as an expert-author. GAG. 

No, I won’t write a book and print it as a marketing ploy. I love and cherish good books —and I won’t produce one just to add a trophy to my shelf. If, however, you’d like to read the most revolutionary martial arts business and curriculum material published in this decade, if not in the last 30 years, AND read “the book” as it’s being written, come see what The 100. has on the stove.

Martial Arts Business, that’s my thing. However, it’s not business as usual —I’m in the business of taking the martial arts out of the dojo and into the world. I teach martial arts school owners how to bring authenticity, honor, and dignity to their chosen profession (after almost three decades of dance-school and health club sales strategies). See my work at www.the100.us

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, in the end (in the now), about “success,” I think. It’s simply not a “success” measured by things, buying power, or accouterments, but by meaning, contribution, compassion, love, kindness, simplicity, and participation.
 
My favorite thing about the work I’m doing today, the work we’re involved in, is that we’re forever focusing on how to go deeper, on simplifying, on giving, on contributing to, on being aware, and on redefining the roles of both the teacher of the martial arts (teacher-citizen) and of the martial arts school, in general (from “business” to backbone).
 
So here again, at 3:46 am in Bangkok, Thailand, where I find myself today, I offer my 2-cents to my friends, peers, and students in the international martial arts community:

My Favorite Lesson This Year
My friend, martial arts master teacher Fariborz Azhakh of Los Angeles, told me that the great Master of the martial arts, Benny “The Jet” Urquidez, told him that one of the things he had to agree to as a student, before Master Benny would teach him, was that when Fariborz went home at the end of the day he was to put his key in the lock of his front door —and then stand there and wait 5 minutes before he went inside. In that 5 minutes he was to clear his head and become fully aware that the day’s business wasn’t a fraction as important as his wife and children who waited inside. He was to remember, in that 5 minutes, how important it is for him to be fully present and appreciative and “there” for them.
 
That lesson so touched me, that I can hardly tell you —or anyone —about it without having my eyes fill with tears. How important. How wise. How perfectly wonderful. I didn’t know Master Benny that well before Fariborz told me that story, but after hearing it I realized I had to pay very, very close attention to the man. Spiritual teachers are good things to find. I have since adopted the practice —and would like so suggest that you might want to as well.

 
My Best Advice for School Owners to Help Them Practice Effective Management
1. Sign up for and attend, then put into practice, the Franklin-Covey time management system. Master Ernie Reyes made me take it in my 20’s —and it’s served me every day since. If you haven’t taken this course —and if you’re not putting the common-sense concepts they teach to work in your life, you’re an 8-cylinder motor running on 2-cylinders.

And how can your staff become efficient and effective in the allotted time they have to engage in the work if they don’t have the focused goals and values skills taught by Stephen Covey and his team? Boy, do I hope you’ll pay attention to this piece of advice —as if you did you would forever be in my debt…and, for sure,  you’d never question the financial support you give the 100.

2. Along the lines of Franklin-Covery time management, the YEAR AT A GLANCE calender is the giant, quiet, power friend of the martial arts teacher in the know. There’s only 365 days in most years. There are only one summer in a year, one Christmas, one spring, one winter, one day the kids go back to school, one of these and one of those. There are only 52 weeks, 52 weekends, and 260 working days (give or take).

With a year-at-a-glance calender the smart school owner and teacher/staff member can look into the future and plan…

• Days to clean out the files (you’ll almost always find things you didn’t realize you’d missed).
• The perfect week to start implementing testing procedures or holiday planning or student service issues and/or ANYTHING that needs some work-in-advance.
• Holidays! With a year at a glance you can make sure to plan in down time for everyone on your team. Down time is as important as “up” time.
• A year at a glance calender can give you a tool to take months you know are historically slow —and plan to make them not-slow, months and months in advance. With a good planning calender you can turn slow months into the busiest months (I know, as I’ve done it).

3. Maybe the most important thing a school owner can do to be a better manager is to go inside. To go inside is to look deeply at what I’m reading, to be a better manager, more in-the-moment, more aware of the feelings and conditions of others. To go inside I seek to remove those things I do and think that are incongruous with being an enlightened, wise, compassionate leader. To go inside I look deeply at the things that make me a great problem solver, an active participant, a role model for those around me, a better listener, and someone more fully engaged in the lives of the people I have the privilege to serve.

When I go inside I get to shed some of the selfishness that separates me from others; I get the chance to let go of jealousy, envy, greed, self-righteousness, and any number of delusions that keep me and my loved ones from the pleasures and joy around us. When I go inside I start to realize that martial arts mastery isn’t a fairy tale. When I go inside I want to say “thank you” to the many teachers who kept me in classes, kept encouraging me to train, who showed up for all those 1000’s of classes, day after day, and who today STILL practice the skills that helped bring me to this place, inside, that fuels my work.

4. Like with martial arts practice, it’s engaging in it, it’s doing it, that brings about the change. That’s how I feel about the 100. If you engage in the practice, if you come to class and make XX amount of mistakes, but you actually SHOW UP, eventually the transformation comes. Not showing up for class is a sure-fire way to make nothing of any value happen.

It’s true, yes? 

If you can simply get the people who sign up in your school to come to class, consistantly, something happens. Something of value. If they don’t show up, if they don’t get themselves on the mat, you lose any chance of being a part of their journey. I know you know this —and my goal is to you to show up for class here at the 100, 15  minutes a day, to pick up a lesson, to contribute, to participate, and to sit for 5 minutes, like Master Fariborz standing on the porch of his home, focusing in on some of what’s most important about being a teacher of the martial arts.

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 to produce extraordinary fitness, cultivate a career breakthrough in education and curriculum design, and initiate an aggressive community involvement program in each of their own communities. Martial arts business and curriculum consultant Tom Callos will acts as the team’s coordinator and coach. 

“The new black belt test isn’t one of individual physical or technical skill only,” says Callos, “it’s a test of how much one can positively affect the people in his or her sphere of influence. Can a high ranking black belt, through the process she goes through during black belt test training, dramatically affect the quality of life of her family, coworkers, and classmates? Can a tester affect his community through his personal journey? The UBBT 2012 is an experiment in how —and how much —a tester can take his or her martial arts out of the dojo and put it to work in the world.” 

UBBT 2012 members will, as a part of their training, complete 50,000 push-ups, 50,000 crunches, 1000 repetitions of a single martial arts kata, 1000 rounds of sparring, and walk, run, swim, and/or bike 1000 miles during the duration of the test. Participants will carry a personal video camera for the year and will record every meal they eat as a part of the UBBT’s Mindful Eating Self-Defense Project. 

Returning UBBT member Gary Engels of Woodruff, WI, who will be using the UBBT 2012 to test for his fourth degree black belt, says the testing process has, literally, changed his life. “The UBBT has, experientially, taught me how to practice my martial arts in a way that has strengthened my relationship, made me a better father, teacher, leader, and citizen. It takes a lot of self-discipline to do the program right, but like most things, you get back what you put in.”

For more information on the UBBT 2012, visit www.UltimateBlackBeltTest.com. The UBBT 2012 is a project of www.The100.us.

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 Taekwondo at age 11 —and for the last 40 years I’ve made it a point to try and find the best ideas, the best methods, and associate myself (learn from) the smartest people I could find.
 
I have failed miserably. I’ve succeeded wonderfully. I’ve failed to inspire, to profit, to lead, to succeed, and to pay attention when I should have —on more occasions than I can possibly remember. I have also managed to succeed at a healthy number of things —and the losing and winning, failing and succeeding, being arrogant, abrasive, and downright stupid, as well as being open-minded, willing to change, and coming from a place where I was truly “thinking clearly,” make my advice and council something that you might find worthwhile.
 
That being said, I can’t teach you. I can’t teach you if you don’t respect me. I can’t teach you if you’re so full of what you already know that there isn’t room for something new. I can’t teach you if you’re full of fear or suffer from some kind of crippling ego issue or if you have a belief system that says you’re too busy, too old, too young, or that you come from a “traditional” style that doesn’t make room for things learned from people outside of your “system.”

 
I call my group The 100. —and the idea comes from a letter that Ms. Rosa Parks once sent me (in 1993). The short story is that her letter made me wonder if 100 martial arts MASTERS could, collectively, equal the power to influence, serve justice, and to make change in the world like the diminutive 42-year-old seamstress who, that historic day, simply refused to give up her seat on the bus in order to perpetuate racial discrimination.

The 100. is like a college, in that it provides general education to the beginner —and then gradually asks the student to narrow his or her focus based on personal interests and passions. As a 100. member moves through his/her career, the idea is to begin to work on advanced concepts, like a master, that allows a martial arts teacher/leader to do the work that speaks to her sense of purpose and mission-in-the-world.

My personal mission (in-the-world) is to use my skills, experience, and chutzpah to re-define the role of the martial arts teacher and the martial arts school in today’s world. To do that we must redefine the meaning and definition of “self-defense.” We must design non-partisan educational programs that enhance our understanding of issues such as healthy eating, dietary health issues (diabetes, heart disease, cancer, etc.), hyper-masculine behavior, gender discrimination, violence, non-violent conflict resolution, leadership, bullying, and a number of other topics that would make us smarter, more relevant, better leaders and teachers, and more important members of “the village” it takes to make better, higher-functioning, more participative citizens.

I’m looking for very smart, very proactive people, preferably martial arts teachers who have trained hard enough and smart enough to distinguish what’s dysfunctional in the martial arts community —and what we have the potential to create (and do) in the world. However, I often accept people into The 100. who are not “masters” of any particular art, but who just don’t subscribe to the paradigm supported by the “martial arts industry.”

Here’s what you get if and when you join The 100. You get to be around someone who doesn’t believe you’ve reached even 1/10th of your potential. You get to be around someone (a group of us really) that believes we’re here for something more than the limited definition currently promoted in the martial arts world.

You get to be around a group of people who are looking to elevate the work, the sense of mission, purpose, and intent of it all. We’re here to change the way the general public looks at the “Sensei” (or whatever you choose to call yourself) —and the actual way the martial arts teacher works in, contributes to, and influences his or her community.

We call this “good business” —and “our business.”

I help school owners with their schools and careers. I help school owners recognize what is bullshit and what is genius, what’s worth perpetuating and what should probably be discarded, and what works and what is probably not healthy. I connect smart people. I invent programs designed to scream “WE ARE WHO WE SAY WE ARE.” I’m here to subvert the dominant paradigm of the “martial arts industry,” as it’s failing, miserably, to organize itself in a way that is indicative of the “mastery” we claim the study of the martial arts instills.



If you can’t see why you would ever be involved in something like this —or to put yourself in a place where you might listen to someone like me —don’t worry, I understand. There are a 1000 people in my world I should listen to, but don’t. I recognize that I can’t hear much from people I don’t know and respect, that I don’t learn much when my head isn’t in the right place, and that sometimes, no matter how smart someone is, they simply are not, ever, going to be “your teacher.”

I blame all of the above on my teacher, Master Ernie Reyes, Sr., who, when I was young and in exactly the right place to learn some life-lessons, taught me about what it takes to be a champion, a father, a leader, an athlete, a student, a teacher, and a centered, participative human being.

The 100. represents the things I’ve learned, the things I hope to learn, and the kind of association and community I’d like to be a part of.

Tom Callos

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 where the sidewalks are dirt and wildflowers, where the water runs cold over the rocks, and where even a cup of instant coffee tastes like the best brew Starbucks has to offer.
 
This year we are heading to Lake Tahoe and the Pacific Crest Trail. We’ll strike out from Echo Lake and make our way to Carson Pass and back, which is just a stone’s throw from the area known as Desolation Wilderness. We go to spend time together, to turn off our electronics and disconnect from some of what keeps us so very disconnected.
 


My motive for the trip is to reacquaint my friends to the simple pleasures of time spent outdoors; you see, I believe that each of my guests have an opportunity to do the same for their own students —and it’s my long term goal to help start a “movement” in the international martial arts community that ends up taking thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of “karate kids” out into nature. I’m a big fan of the book, Last Child in the Woods, and so this trip is meant to be the catalyst for a lot of other trips to make sure that young people who study the martial arts connect time in nature to mental, emotional, and spiritual self-defense (as that’s exactly what it is).
 
There are, currently, only a handful of martial arts schools in the world that have any kind of curriculum component that requires (or encourages) students to spend time outdoors. These eco-adventures are my way of saying time in nature, unstructured playtime especially, is as important to self-defense as anything else we do.
 
When you spend time with your feet on the ground, when you sleep under the stars, and when you move only as fast through your surroundings as your legs can manage, you have some time to slow down, to contemplate, and to experience life without the latest celebrity updates, your Twitter feed, and the never-ending shock-and-awe assault of advertising. You get some time to talk and listen, to look and see, to hear and appreciate.
 


We need self-defense from wall-to-wall carpet, from ads for adult diapers and Viagra, from the latest news about self-indulgent celebrities, from the horrors of far too many wars and “conflict zones,” and from the want, want, want of a thousand things that we don’t genuinely want or need. While 4-days on the trail hardly stands as a counter-balance to the hundreds of days each year we all spend living and working in so many artificially illuminated boxes, it’s a start; it’s a statement; it’s a request; and it’s a part of the on-going training that every master teacher of the martial arts should not only go through, but introduce to students as a way to find some clarity and simplicity in a world that is both so far —and so close —to nature.

I’d like to suggest that readers visit www.treehugger.com

Here’s a link to Richard Louv’s Last Child in the Woods.

Here’s a link to my martial arts association for school owners, The 100.

Here’s a link to a book by Andreas Cohrs about a friend of mine, Colin Fletcher, who inspired me to explore life with everything you really need to own…on my back. Colin walked the very trail we’ll be on this weekend. 

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 value.

What is recognizable value?

What is great value?

What is long lasting value?

Philosophy has all of the above. Simplicity has all of the above. Love has all of the above. Right action, community involvement, care for the elderly, reading, meditation, the cultivation of clear and compassionate thinking, and conscious consumption, art and literature and music, are all of the above. 

Staff Training has less to do with what you cover in meetings —and far more to do with what is read, what is listened to, who is listened to, what is done, and a clear definition of mission and intent.

Some Suggestions for Action

• Throw your TV away. If it must be on, let it be on for no more than 1 hour a day (1 hour too long). I encourage you to eliminate TV from your life —for at least a year.

• Cut your use of disposable plastics by 50 to 90 percent.

• Limit your cell phone use to 1/2 the day —then put it away. 

• Double your book and magazine reading time.

• Write 1 blog entry very day —and always make it a chapter in the book of how aware you are.

Why This is Important for Sales and Business

• You don’t “sell” lessons, you serve others by striving to be an evolved and high functioning human being.

• If you wake up every day seeking clarity of thinking and purity of intent/spirit/purpose, you increase your value as a teacher by 99.9%.

• What you’re doing when you’re not teaching —teaches more than what you impart in your classes. 

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 fascination with the subject.
 
While I acknowledge that I still have a long way to go, the following thoughts / observations represent some things I have learned about the martial arts (practicing, teaching) thus far. I reserve the right to change my opinion about anything I write, but as of today, I believe these things to be true (and if not “true” then simply the version of truth that I operate from at the present):
 
 

Fitness 
When designing a martial arts school’s curriculum (and a school’s curriculum should, always, be in a state of perpetual redesign, as it must evolve as the teacher’s awareness evolves — or, in other words, the curriculum grows up as the teacher grows up), fitness should be the primary goal of the first year’s worth of training.

But I’m not referring to just physical fitness, but to dietary habits, the understanding and execution of how and why to set long term goals, attitudinal fitness (will anything else hurt us as much as our attitude about things, circumstances, people, etc.?), fitness of relationships, the health of one’s role as a member of the community, and mental health.
 
In addressing “fitness,” we are actually addressing self-defense at the highest level, as habits and attitudes about food, wealth, health, anger, simplicity, family, relationships, tolerance, contribution, and the habit of regular exercise (of the body, mind, and spirit), are more relevant to self-defense in today’s world than are any set of techniques, blocks, arm-bars, or kicks.



Instructor Education
Every instructor worth his/her weight in gold comes from a background of long-term and intense physical training and practice. Of course, “intense practice” is a relative term, as the standards for training, fitness, and practice in the martial arts community are all over the board. Some people earn their black belts showing up for 1-hour classes 2 or 3 times a week, while others prepare for their tests like they were getting ready to compete in the Olympics.

So let’s acknowledge that intense physical training —and an immersion in all things physical with regard to the practice of the martial arts —is a given for the teacher. But, if we are to elevate the martial arts to something more than just “good exercise” and the execution of techniques, we need a kind of instructor education that far exceeds what is currently available —and/or emphasized in the martial arts community.

We need teacher training that deals with anger, gender and racial discrimination, all forms of violence, food and the production of food, and health issues like those represented by the top killers of adults in today’s world (like heart disease, cancer, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [lung diseases], diabetes, and kidney disease).

Well, we don’t HAVE to have —or emphasize —this kind of instructor training in the martial arts community, as we can very easily define our role as teachers of hand-to-hand combat, vigorous exercise, sport fighting, and “traditional” arts, but if we did embrace higher education as teachers, we could, quite literally, change our role in today’s world.

By changing our role, we would change our value to our communities and the world.

Instructors, I don’t think we should allow “the martial arts industry,” as it is today, to define our role and the services we can or will provide. As it in now, if you open the trade magazines for the martial arts, it’s a mix of hucksterism and commerce that for me —and a lot of other martial artists (not to mention the general public) —is simply a reflection of some real base thinking. We could and should be aiming a LOT higher.

In much the same way as we have learned the intricacies of our various arts, we could educate ourselves in any number of relevant-to-self-defense topics, like those mentioned above.

Your/our curriculum, in the future, should (must) include a more comprehensive approach to “self-defense,” than that which is offered in most schools today. The Internet makes this idea much easier to implement, but it’s our attitude and beliefs about what the role of the martial arts teacher is —and/or should be —in today’s world, that will most dramatically affect our value in the future.

About The Author

Tom Callos oversees www.The100.us, the “alternative radio station” of martial arts associations and teacher training programs in today’s international martial arts community.

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 careers, makes money, and makes sense.
 
2. The Smartest Work in the Martial Arts Industry. While the martial arts industry repeatedly promotes marketing concepts such as birthday parties, VIP passes, sleep-overs, text message spamming, and standing in the lobby of theaters to solicit patrons before and after martial arts films, Tom Callos teaches 100 members about anger management and environmental self-defense programs, community activism and film-making, and on-line digital campuses to enhance curriculum.
 
The martial arts industry is stuck in the freshman year of school owner development, endlessly repeating the same ideas. The 100. is a school and a classroom for masters who have moved beyond the basics and are tackling advanced concepts for dominating their markets and building programs of value.
 
3. Get Help With Your Work and Your School. You’re not like everyone else, are you? You have a certain overhead, specific goals, experiences, and skills (weaknesses too) that make you and your situation unique.

Maybe your specialty is MMA? Maybe it’s self-defense? Capoeira or Taekwondo or traditional Karate or Aikido? You might have 3 children or own your own building or have a rent of $1000 a month or live in a town of 50,000 people, whatever your situation is, it needs to be considered when developing a plan.
 
The 100. doesn’t force you to embrace the status quo, The 100. is about developing your strengths, analyzing and overcoming your weaknesses, and working on your own unique vision of your career —even as you change.

There is no better form of help for the school owner and/or master teacher.

4. The 100. is a think tank —and the best ideas, hands down, in school marketing, management, and curriculum design are coming from this organization, period.

5. The 100. is a networking center, a community of like minded people who aren’t going to follow the pack that has already lead the martial arts industry into its most embarrassing and impotent period in history.

To see where the talk turns into action, visit The 100.s revolutionary on-line campus. School owners and managers may have a one week trial, click here to begin.

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 endless pursuit of more, more, more, while creating less value than ever before, etc.). 

Someone has to step up for change —and a change of direction for the martial arts. If the following piece speaks to you, you are invited to a 1 week trial of our on-line campus, think tank, and center for change and improvement in the international martial arts community; click here: http://thenewwaynetwork.ning.com/?xgi=1NL7sCCyS8aka0

—Tom Callos

In 1 Year’s Time

In 1 year’s time you could:

• Get in the best shape of your life —-and bring 100 people with you.

• Learn enough about food and the food industry to add a legitimate “dietary self-defense” component to your curriculum.

• Produce 365 (minimum) videos depicting why you are a teacher / person worth studying with.

• Write 365 blog posts explaining what it is that makes you and yours any different from them and theirs.

• Teach 10 others how to blog and film about their own martial arts journeys —and in doing so produce 10-times the content on the web, explaining to people what it is that makes you and yours worth the time and energy.

• Completely ingratiate yourself with your local public school system.

• Produce THE most comprehensive bully-prevention website in your community’s history.

• Record 100 “Bully Stories” to accompany the site.

• Increase your student count by at least 100 students.

• Design and implement a system for listening to —and communicating with —your students and the people in their sphere of influence, in a way that decreased your student drop-outs by at least 50%.

• You and 40 others could log 100,000 acts of kindness, which would represent a community PR and promotion campaign worth $100,000.

• Create and populate an on-line campus that supports and enhances what you teach on the floor (and in a way that NOBODY in your community has ever done —or will do for some years to come).

• Create a full and realistic plan for financial freedom and any sort of retirement you dream of (more of less).

• Save 1 child’s life.

• Learn about and embrace domestic violence education, rape issues, gender discrimination, environmental self-defense, diabetes awareness, hyper-masculinity and violence education, and 10 or so other subjects that would make you a teacher who has taken his/her self-defense study to a new and relevant level.

• Own “Self-Defense (Your Community)” —and teach real self-defense, relevant to today’s world, better than anyone has or does within a 100 mile radius of you.

• Be almost exactly where you are today, 12 months from now. Same amount of students, nothing new learned or implemented, and searching the martial arts billing services and “consulting” firms for “new” ideas about how to get and keep new students.

See dates and details here: www.TomCallosSeminar.Ning.Com