The Business of Jiu Jitsu

I'm excited to have Mike back on the show to talk about his first year in business. While this isn't his first dive into owning a martial arts school this is the first school he has opened in Calgary.

Anyone who owned a gym has had the thought, "if I startefd from scratch again what would I do to make my business successful?" Well Mike has been able to answer that question for himself and it has been awesome to se...

If you've owned a Jiu Jitsu academy for more than a year you know summers can be brutal. Once students start to cancel and no one is coming into replace them you start to feel the financial squeeze. Well the good news is you can plan around it, you can engineer summer to be one of your most profitable seasons with kids camps, or just a great season if you plan ahead.

From one gym owner to another I hope this helps you not just ...

This episode is me speaking from experience on a few topics so hopefully you can avoid stepping on the same rakes as I did.

I start by talking about an IG post I saw where a gym was asking it's members if it "failed" by closing over the holdidays. The short answer is "yes" if that person wanted to come train. Then I go a little deeping into how to handle bigger policy changes and lastly not being afraid ...

With 30 years of Jiu Jitsu experience under his belt Eli does everything from instructionals to seminars and private lessons. Eli saw the need for online Jiu Jitsu content before the big online boom and has since become a successful online name due to his consistency, persevernce and approachable teaching style.

We also go into some detail about his back ground (which is an impressive lineage), his influences coming up through the b...

I think in systems and I love structure. I also find it really helpful to create a common language to talk about business, the same way we talk about Jiu Jitsu. That common language/understanding helps move everyone forward.

And so I made this episode in hopes that I could share some of that language and structure about the business side of Jui Jitsu. I also want it to make it easy for Jiu Jitsu academy owners to self identify what...

Chris is a polarizing figure in Jiu Jitsu for a lot of reasons, he swears like a sailor which some find endearing and others off putting, he’s got a dry sense of humor and he is trying very hard to preserve the roots of Gracie Jiu Jitsu. All in all Chris is very smart, incredibly passionate about Jiu Jitsu and teaching his students. If you want to learn more about Chris I’d highly recommend following him on social media and checkin...

After being in business for two summers I was over it. I had a bad July and a worse August as members went on hold or quit. So I decided right then and there I wouldn't be caught again next summer in the same situation, scraping the bottom of my savings to pay bills until members came back.

The craziest part is it worked! I was no longer a reactive business owner riding this roller coaster waiting to see what would happen. I wa...

The season is changing right now from winter to spring. This is another 'new year's like' vibe that shifts people to both reflect back and look forward.

Naturally it is a great time to reconnect with former students who have taken breaks and even trial students who didn't join. Seasonal changes are also a good time to run events and promotions with your current student base.

Lastly something I didn't mention in ...

I'm a fan of Josh's podcast, so naturally I was stoked to have him on as a guest. We covered a range of topics in this episode but there were a few that stood out as significant. The first being to keep things simple in your business, and the second is understanding what makes your academy special and being able to put it into words as a valuable differentiator?

Josh has great insight and answers to both of these questions ...

Ever wonder why someone takes a free trials class, seems to enjoy it but then doesn't join?

I can say from personal experience it's pretty frustrating when this or some variation of this happens. This can happen for a variety of reasons but if you create a good process around your free trials it will happen less and less often.

The net result of having a better free trial process is consistent growth, more students to share ...

If the pet rock was a million dollar idea, I think this one is even better. As a BJJ practicioner Ollie once missed out on a phenomal seminar he wanted to attend, being held right in his city. The problem was he had no idea there was a seminar being held in the first place.

Out of frustration he decided to solve a problem he sees in the BJJ community. Not being able to easily find good seminars to attend or good talent to host local...

This episode is a full reading of my book "The Unstuck Academy". There is some additional color commentary, rabbit holing, and ad libbing in the audio version.

The goal of this book is really simple, help Jiu Jitsu Academy owners get Unstuck in their business. In my own personal experience from running my gym the first step in running a successful business was realizing it was much more than just teaching classes.

After tha...

Revoy and I are old training partners and though he was always significantly better than me at jiu jitsu, he was always kind about it. On this episode he reminded me that we were both promoted to blue belt the same day, and while I am still a blue belt, he's gone on to earn his black belt and open his own academy.

We have a great conversation about his take on running a Jiu Jitsu academy which is taught me two things I did not ...

As the saying goes, you don't know what you don't know. On this episode I talked about my journey through understanding my business, its various parts and functions, and ultimately how to run it better.

In these caffinated ramblings there were three big sections I stumbled upon which were:

1. Gaining general awareness of what your entire business needs.

2. Learning how the "machinery" of your business works and starting to operate ...

I have to appologize the audio in this episode does change pitch a few times but it clear without static.

I don't want that to take away any attention from today's guest as Nico is one of the most hard working and determined people I've ever met. I had never heard of door to door karate or martial arts sales before this episode, but what a way to cut your teeth and learn sales. Aside from that Nico worked multiple jobs, ...

I've made just about all the mistakes you can in gym ownership. In the early days of gym ownership I was so wrapped up in teaching classes that was all I focused on.

So much so that outside of class times I didn't do much else. It was partly because I was unaware of what it actually took to run my gym like a real business and partly because I was so wrapped up in the role of technician. "No one can do it as well as I c...

Right from the start I knew Tim was going to be a great guest. His inspiration to start martial arts came from old school UFC tapes. He fought MMA professionally for 10 years before transitioning into academy ownership.

We cover a range of topics in the podcast but the highlights were high background and experience, his experience and thoughts on what it takes to run a successful business. Lastly his take on teaching and training Ji...

After a a year and a half of strugglign in in my gym I'd had enough. Though I loved the people and the environment I created I certainly wasn't as successful as I wanted to be in my business.

The first step towards my own personal success was learning how to think. I did this in multiple stages the first of which was getting the right perspective on my business. The second of which was being shot out of a cannon and learning...

Funny enough I was actually a customer of his for years using Pushpress to run my gym, but he wasn't on my radar until long after I sold my gym. What brought Dan to my attention was his social media presence, he's very outspoken in his beliefes and values.

His content really isn't political or devicive, but it is honest. If he sees BS in the gym/software industry hes going to point it out. In the world we live in now w...