Samuel Mockbee, PBS, The Ultimate Black Belt Test, And Mastery Of The Martial Arts

 In my mind, Samuel Mockbee of the Rural Studio is/was THE GREAT TEACHER -- like Aikido's Morihei Ueshiba was/is.

Ueshiba is called "O-Sensei" --which means "Great Teacher" --and Mockbee in his own way is as great a leader to the martial arts community - in fact, to all teachers, as Ueshiba was. 

The article, to the left (link here), announces a new PBS documentary about Mockbee and his work. 

See a trailer for the film, here.

As you may know, I tried to reach Sam Mockbee to offer help and support to what he was doing --as I saw so many parallels to what he was doing with his students ---and what I hoped to do with my own.

The very day I unsuccessfully tried to phone him, I walked into a book store, took an Architectual Digest off the magazine rack, opened it randomly --and came upon Mockbee's obituary. He had died several months before, of cancer. 

I kept calling The Rural Studio and eventually connected with an intern there, Pam Dorr. I told Pam that I was organizing a group of black belt teachers in a revolutionary teacher training program and that I wanted to bring them to The Rural Studio to help in any way we might help ---just so we could study what Mockbee had done. 

That effort has become a 6 year commitment to going to Alabama to help Pam Dorr and the community there. The next project is in April --the link for you to participate and even donate a few dollars to the effort, is here. 

I urge you to seek out this PBS documentary --and to look at Mockbee's work for inspiration. I also urge you to participate in a martial arts tribute to a Great Teacher --and help us with the next Alabama Project. Go here for more info ---there's an down-loadable poster there --and you may call me at 530-903-0286 for even more information. Donate, participate, get involved. 

The people who will be most influential in the martial arts of the future, who will most shape our educational direction and our ability to make meaningful contribution --will NOT be kickers, punchers, and grapplers. Just as I urge people to take their martial arts 'out of the dojo and into the world,' we must also take the world and bring it into the dojo. This is the only way we can make what we do relevant and important in today's world.  

--Tom Callos

the one hundred Member Benefits

the one hundred Member Benefits

The best help, advice, planning and marketing ideas, management assistance, and common sense guidance in the industry, fast. You know...when you want and/or need it.  

Sound and sustainable business advice, without gimmick, without “hook,” and without anything but the most genuine and healthiest intent. 

Tangible tools to help you market and promote your school, like ad slicks, postcards, banners, planned-presentations, videos, press releases, and more. 

A a good a team of friends, peers, and master teachers as you could ever want; real martial artists who are here because they love the martial arts, not because they love money. 

The most innovative approach to the “business” of being a master teacher in the whole wide world. You want “old school” --go to EFC, NAPMA, MAIA, MATA, or nearly any of the other billing services and consulting companies. If you want smart, fresh, and creative, welcome home.

You can test for rank here in the Ultimate Black Belt Test program, which is free to 12 month members. 

A yearly national convention where we not only share ideas and learn from other master teachers, but we walk are talk. 

The best advice I can give you, if you’re trying to decide whether to be a member, is to call me (Tom Callos), at 530-903-0286. If after our phone call you don’t feel like this association is the right thing for you, you’re right. 

Tom Callos

We Have Turned a Corner in Martial Arts Education. See it Here.

Find more videos like this on The New Way Network

The 5 banners you see in the little video, by Ultimate Black Belt Test alumni Gary Engels, represent a very intelligent curriculum component / education tool / community outreach program I recently designed ----and Gary is perfecting, based on a project called "Kids teaching kids." 

This particular set of banners, available to member of The New Way Network, make up a 15 minute presentation called "The Hero Project."

The Hero Project is designed to teach young people about real heroes --and how to be one too. This is a self-defense issue --as the PEOPLE we hang out with have so much to do with how we think and act. 

Very Smart. Very Healthy. 

An Exact and Definitive Plan for Increasing Your Martial Arts School’s Size, Income, and Popularity

Step 1
Dramatically increase your marketing
5 to 10 acts of marketing every working day of the month by every member of the staff. Acts are categorized as “good,” “great,” and “ingenious.” One act in every 10 should be “ingenious.”

A “good” act is handing out a business card or pass.
A “great” act is getting 10 people to hand out 10

Click to read more ...

A Message to Members of the one hundred (and a perfect example of our approach)

Out of the Dojo and Into the World

Martial Arts Teachers, This is More than a Slogan

I know --and you know --that something can happen “on the mat” in a martial arts school.

That “something” can contain life-defining moments, build lifelong friendships, and allow lessons to be learned, no, make that “absorbed” --in ways, and with a frequency, that has few equals.

But learning and experiences that take place in a martial arts school that don’t leave the mat, are far, far less important than are the lessons that translate into behaviors off of the mat and in the “real” world.

Click to read more ...

Things You Should Know About the Martial Arts "Industry"

The martial arts convention is DEAD.

Old. poorly thought-out ideas, schmaltzy presentations, bad locations, bad suits, and meaningless expenses. The best ideas, products, services, and instruction will come right to your computer, via text and video. Spend your money on a nice holiday --or go train with a master teacher and his/her school. Conventions are 1991.

Click to read more ...

The Ultimate Black Belt Test, Now Free to New Way/one hundred Members

Every year I play with some aspect of the Ultimate Black Belt Test. I try this, I try that --because I want to see what happens. For the UBBT 8, I am making the test free to members of my association. Here is a letter I sent them this morning that spells out how I feel about the whole thing.

If you love the martial arts and if you are a professional teacher, you might find it interesting:

I have made the UBBT free to all New Way Network members. I've done this as a service to you.

Now I know a good deal of the reasons you can't. I know it doesn't ring your bell. I've pretty much heard every excuse under the sun --as a martial arts teacher.

As you know, we pretty much have to ignore excuses if we're going help our students get from white belts to black belts. They don't really have any idea what awaits them, do they? They don't know how easy / hard it is. They have no idea what happens to them because of the process ---all we can do is to keep pushing them in that direction. They ALWAYS come back and thank us ---and so this is what we do.

If I am to build a dream association (the one hundred), then I need dream martial artists. I don't need angry ones, I don't need people who quit when times get tough, I don't need people who can't think on their feet, who know no loyalty or commitment or who do not demonstrate the best of the best of what it is to be a martial arts master. Those kind of martial artists are a dime a dozen.

I need problem solvers.

I need real, hard working, idealistic, future-thinking black belts. I need people who will walk straight into the battle, right into the fire, and come out stronger. I need real masters who I can point to and say, "NOW HERE is how it is done." I need martial artists who will come together, work together, invest in this effort, and work with and alongside me to lift this dirty, disconnected little "industry" of our up, dust it off, and get it on the right path. The industry as it is today is an embarrassment.

There isn't a martial arts association on the planet that would ask this of it's members, as it's flat-out too much to ask. It's too far out in left field. It's too hard. It's just too much.

Well, I don't know about you, but I'm in this with --and for --EVERYTHING. I'm committed to making progress, to contributing, and to going down in history as a change-maker. Why?

Why not? Do you have something better to do?

The Ultimate Black Belt Test 8, for the year 2011

The Ultimate Black Belt Test (UBBT) is an ongoing experiment. What we’re trying to discover is what happens when highly motivated martial artists are told that they can design their own “ultimate” black belt test.

That’s what the UBBT is --it’s an experiment that allows us to look into the martial arts, through martial arts people (as the martial arts isn’t really a “thing,” it manifests itself through the actions --or inaction --of martial artists).

I’ve laid down a basic curriculum that is a path of activities, physical, mental, spiritual, and social activities, that require participants to engage in daily practice; practice that represents some of “the basics” of various character traits and constructive “life-habits.”

For example, UBBT members have to do sit ups, push ups, forms practice, sparring, and walking/running nearly every day of the week to fulfill the physical requirements of the project. This is of course for the purpose of getting members in shape. But perhaps as --or more --important, is that doing 50,000 sit ups, 50,000 push ups, 1000 reps of a kata, sparring 1000 rounds, and walking or running 1000 miles in a year, requires self-discipline and it puts the martial arts “journey” into a perspective that people can understand. Multiply all of these activities by 1825 days (5 years) and you have what I would consider a fine 1st degree black belt test.

When a martial artist steps up to the plate and says, “I am taking the UBBT,” we all get to open a window into this person’s life. Do they have the commitment it takes? What does this person do in and for the world? How does she handle defeat? How does he support his teammates? What does he eat? What project does she engage in, what does she read, and how articulate is this person?

Like a race around a track that starts with 100 people, we get to watch the runners do their thing. Look, there’s someone who tripped! Will he get back up? And there, that person just threw up his arms and quit! We also get to see people who really, down deep, have embraced the martial arts as a way of life. These are people who are willing to offer us a view into what they know, what they’re willing to do, and how much of the philosophy and practices of the martial arts they actually LIVE.

I am a Teacher

I started the UBBT because I felt the martial arts “industry” had lost its way. I was, for more than two decades, deeply involved in the business of providing management advice to schools --and the companies I was working with, over time, started to endorse short-term, fast turn-around, manipulative, and questionable sales tactics and business methods for martial arts school owners.

Oh, and perhaps the worst thing was was that the curriculum to earn a black belt kept getting easier, so as not to impinge upon a school's profits.

It seemed to me that the business aspect of the martial arts “industry” was raising a generation of teachers and school owners who were constantly looking for “the magic pill.” What could we buy or what kind of angle could we take to “get a flood of new students” (a common expression among martial arts business consultants)?

I stepped away from my work with “the industry” and started the UBBT to say, “STOP! Enough already! You can’t be a real world champion without doing the work it takes to own that title --and you can’t be a real master teacher of the martial arts unless you do the work it takes to be one.”

The UBBT’s approach to “doing business” as a martial artist is to, first, BE an extraordinary martial artist. I say MEET your students by engaging in activities they can respect, that touch them or someone they know. Represent the martial arts to your community by BEING an extraordinary thinker and participant in the fabric of the community. Earn your right to be and stay in business NOT through getting people to sign contracts to pay for lessons, but by signing your own contract to be a person that is worthy of teaching others --because you genuinely walk the talk of the martial arts. In fact, FORGET THE MARTIAL ARTS, what happened to being a participative, conscientious, involved member of society?

Most martial artists have not been trained this way.

The UBBT proposes that martial arts teachers allow their own life-activities to be the advertising for their school --a radical but powerful idea.

I have all but made the UBBT 8 free to martial arts teachers who want to engage in a life enhancing experience. If you want to use the year 2011 to transform yourself, your school, the lives of those around you, and your community, contact me, I’m looking for martial artist who can, indeed, walk the talk.

Tom Callos

Mike and Karen Valentine win the 4th Out of the Dojo and Into the World Award

First, Mike and Karen Valentine started "The Green Team," a group of young green belts who came together to do small eco-friendly projects around their school and in the community. 

Then the Valentine's added an environmental clean up project to their black belt testing requirement, making their school the first in the U.S. --and most likely in the world --to do so. 

They also had their school "green certified," by local officials. 

See Practical Martial Arts in Corte Madera, California here. 

Click to read more ...

1825 Days. A New Way to Look At Black Belt Training.

Note: I am finally writing my book --this one is about the martial arts (what a surprise!). Specifically, I am writing about a new vision of what a black belt is, what a teacher does, what training is for, how it's conducted, and everything about the habits, mindset, and practices of the black belt I am practicing to be --and the black belts I would like to be known for producing. 

This is an excerpt from one of the chapters --and it's about food and eating and being a black belt and a master teacher. 

With this published excerpt, I am calling upon and asking all members of the one hundred and The Ultimate Black Belt Test to embrace the 1825 day philosophy --and apply it to the next 5475 meals, as described below. I would like to point to you all as an army of black belt teachers who have embraced a kind of deep and meaningful practice that shows our awareness for the connection of what we consume and what it means for our health, the health of our students, and the health of our planet. 

Tom Callos

There are 1825 days in 5 years. 

If we consume three meals a day for 1825 days, that’s 5475 meals, which is 5475 opportunities to eat with awareness, to look deeply at what we consume and where it comes from. The power in this idea isn’t in looking at the big picture of 5475 meals, it’s looking at each meal individually. 

As diet related diseases are more of a health threat to most (if not all) martial artists than is hand-to-hand combat, eating a healthy diet should become a predominate part of becoming a black belt. Awareness of where ones food comes from and how it is grown or cared for is fast becoming (make that: already) an important societal concern. Pesticides, shipping costs, animal mistreatment, and support of local economies are all things to be considered when shopping for food --as well as in consuming it. 

recommended readingMore than 20% of people living in the North American continent have been diagnosed with diabetes. Multiple sclerosis, heart disease, cancer, and a number of other serious, life-threatening ailments are often the result of poor dietary habits. The fact that proper diet and some form of dietary education isn’t a part of every martial arts school is simply an oversight. We should have been on top of this years ago. 

For a martial artist, 5475 repetitions of a technique, over time, is nothing. Every black belt will end up practicing ten-times that many techniques over the course of 5 years. For the development of true mastery, for the reputation and continued evolution of the martial arts, for the health of our students, for the health of our communities, and for the care and consideration our planet deserves, we must integrate dietary issues into the fabric of martial arts training. 

Looking at every meal is a kind of thinking and practice that would be indicative of someone with considerable self-discipline, will-power, focus, and awareness; someone like the black belts and master teachers we plan on producing in the future.

Lawyers study law. Plumbers study plumbing. Black belts study the arts of self-defense. It only takes one look at the list of the top 10 killers of adults in the western world to realize just how important eating a healthy diet is.

Dietary self-defense is more of an issue to personal protection than is physical self-defense. 

There are 1825 days in 5 years. You will sit down to at least 5475 meals in those 5 years. The very next meal you eat is an opportunity to practice the art of living as a martial artist. After the next meal you will have 5474 more training sessions. This isn't a burden, it is a gift.

My life is my dojo.

Brian Williams and www.ThinkKindness.org win Out of the Dojo Award # 3

Brian Williams is a remarkable young man --and the third recipient of the Out of the Dojo and Into The World Award. 

Brian started his efforts on behalf of the martial arts community by pledging to accomplish one million acts of kindness. For this effort he founded www.ThinkKindness.org. 

Since then he has, literally, traveled the world working to bring kindness and kindness programs to communities --directly through martial arts schools. 

One of his most amazing kindness projects has been his efforts on behalf of Orphans in Kenya (see the video below and detail at www.thinkkindness.org).

Click to read more ...

Joe Van Deuren, 2nd Recipient of AWARD: Out of the Dojo and Into the World

Joe Van Deuren and his students are the second recipients of The Out of the Dojo and Into the World Award, given for outstanding achievement in martial arts education and community activism on behalf of the international martial arts community. 

As a part of his participation in The Ultimate Black Belt Test, Coach Van Deuren was asked to formulate a project based on both something he was interested in and that would also serve his community. Out of this quest came the Where Does the Rain Go? Project. The project combined a local environmental issue with art --and with martial arts --and represents a most innovative approach to taking the philosophy of the martial arts and applying it to real-world issues. 

Students and local artists decorated rain barrels as a part of the project. To read more about Where Does the Rain Go, click here. 

To see Coach Van Deuren's school, Balanced Life Skills, click here.

A Note From Tom Callos:

"Mr. Van Deuren, your work on behalf of the environment, in integrating creative art projects into your martial arts school, and in educating young people about social responsibility, experientially, is a model for other master teachers of the martial arts. 

This project is a perfect manifestation of the idea of "out of the dojo and into work in the world." I was --and still am --moved and inspired by your work. Congratulations on receiving this award." 

Gary Engels, The 1st Recipient of the Out of the Dojo and Into The World Award

We are proud to announce that martial arts teacher Gary Engels is the first recipient of the one hundred's Out of the Dojo and Into the World Award. 

Gary and his students are the first school in the nation (and as far as we know, in the world) to build a project portfolio of more than 130 community projects. In addition, Coach Engels designed and launched a National Leadership

Click to read more ...

How to Market Your Martial Arts School, by Tom Callos

Every car is essentially the same, that is, it has wheels, rolls across the ground, and has room for one or more people to sit in it. If you’re walking in the desert at noon and need water and it’s still 10 miles to the next drinking fountain, then you’re not going to really care whether it’s a Hyundai or a Rolls Royce that gets you there --as you just need to find water. 

Click to read more ...

An Example: Today's Message to My Clients (Black Belt School Management / Curriculum Design

I write or film advice for my clients, martial arts school owners, on almost a daily basis. 

Here is today's example --and it represents the kind of approach I take (no punches pulled) --and a kind of message that is, I'm sure, unique in "the martial arts industry."

Here's today's coaching letter:

I want you to be incredibly successful; I want you to be respected; and I want to be a "part of the village" that brings you to a place of genuine and profound martial arts MASTERY.

I don't care what kind of car you drive or where you holiday or the what watch you wear on your wrist. All I think about is carrying on the traditions and practices of the greatest of the great masters (of the martial arts and of "life.").

NOW: We SAY the martial arts is many things. We SAY that we build courage and courtesy and indomitable spirit and perseverance and integrity ---and a LOT of other things/character traits/etc.

But, between the two of us (just you and me), we have very little PROOF that we actually do "all of the above." That is why I'm sending you to this site:

It's not a beautiful site, but the concept and the information there is (to me) like some kind of "message from the Gods" directly to you and me.

And the message is:

"Here are examples of young people who are connected to the world in the most extraordinary ways; here are a group of kids that serve as examples of a BLACK BELT level of awareness, of courage, of self-dicipline, of accomplishment, and of SO MANY things we claim to be imparting to our own students --using martial arts training as the vehicle."

I know...the Gods are really long-winded.

But are you GETTING what I get here? Do you see the what this PROJECT PORTFOLIO reveals?

Yeah, yeah --you can teach "form number 1" and "self-defense 1 through 6" and any number of techniques and forms of sparring and arm bars and double nunchuka forms ---but can you teach your students how to do ANYTHING that's worth a shit in the world?

I think you can.

In fact, I think you can do a heck of a lot more that you know, than our "industry" can conceive, and that people expect. I think teaching kids how to turn on their POWER to make a difference is no harder or more complex that teaching them to be black belts. Truth is --it might even be easier. (and if it isn't easier, then we'd better find a group of incredibly patient, self-disciplined, well trained teachers to make it happen....know anyone?).

And let me add to that --I think that if you can get your head around this idea --that you're not much of a martial arts teacher until you transcend the punches and kicks, that you're not much of a martial arts teacher until you teach your students how to "take it out of the dojo and put it to work in the world," and that YOUR JOB is to create and tabulate THE EVIDENCE of HOW your training impacts your student's lives --and in turn, how they affect the lives of others ----well, when you get your head around this idea, you will then start to walk a path of success that's something --indeed.

I want you to know that Gary Engels and I are, as I write this, hard at work on a HERO project that's going to set a new mark for the industry --and blow your minds. That picture, above, is of a postcard that's part of the program --more details coming.

Would you please look over this site: http://www.kidsareheroes.org/index.html ;

and open a window in your mind that maybe the kind of curriculum we use --and our objectives as teachers might be almost 180-degrees off course from where "the industry" has brought us to date...

(or maybe everything we've done to-date has finally prepared us for this step?).

Tom

PS. If YOU want to get involved at this level of coaching --and this level of focus and effort, go to www.thenewwaynetwork.com and sign on as a member. If you're still looking for the cheap and easy, just search "martial arts consulting" --you'll find it.

Annie Leonard, A Black Belt Educator With Something For Us

Annie Leonard is the ingenious force behind The Story of Cosmetics -and Water, and "Stuff." She's one of my "living heroes" for the way she turns complicated issues into digestible understanding. She's an activist I truly admire. 

But let's not forget, I'm a business consultant to martial arts schools, teachers, and the "industry" in general. So let me tell you why Leonard's work is very, very important to us:

We are going to educate our students on-line, about things we don't have time to cover on the floor --BUT that are JUST AS IMPORTANT and relevant to self-defense as anything else we teach. Annie shows us how to do it. In fact, she's just spent a good deal of time, energy, and resources making her latest film --and what I'm trying to teach martial arts instructors is that she's working for us. She gives us ready made tools to talk about self-defense issues that teachers and parents can get their heads around. 

I would say Leonard's work is some of THE most important work in the "martial arts educational" world...it's just hard for most people to connect the dots. The time will come when it's not. 

For me, that time is now. Thank you Annie Leonard. 

the one hundred members launch Verbal Judo blueprint

I love Verbal Judo

--and am very proud to have 2 members of the one hundred launching a program to help martial arts school owners implement the program in their schools. 

Click the picture, or this link,  to see their site. 

Good work to Chan Lee and Gary Engels!

By the way, both men are graduates of The Ultimate Black Belt Test --and there's no better tribute to the test than to see members take their work to the next level!

Last Child in The Woods, A Wake Up Call to Some Martial Arts Teachers

This book, Last Child in the Woods, by Richard Louv, offers the perfect example of what the one hundred is about. It also shows, precisely, what I do --and don't do --as a martial arts consultant. 

Last Child in the Woods is about mental, spiritual, and social "self-defense." No, it's not about blocking punches, it's about living in the world today.

No, it's not about competing in the Olympics or the UFC or The Nationals; it's about brain development and appreciation for the natural world. 

While I've been talking about Louv's book and his work for 2 years, I've only had a handful of instructors that have begun to weave its ideas into the way they teach. That is, by the way, a handful of instructors I want to know. 

Click to read more ...

Consumers, Beware the Martial Arts School Owner

Consumers, Beware the Martial Arts School Owner

A warning to parents and potential students of martial arts schools, things are not always what they seem. Some martial arts school owners are using manipulative sales tactics meant to pressure you into “upgrading” your membership. 

by Tom Callos

I know the “martial arts industry” as good or better than anyone in the world. The “industry” is made of martial arts school owners and the businesses that serve their needs; this includes wholesale equipment manufactures and distributors, billing companies, computer software companies, publishers, and business and school management consultants.

Click to read more ...

A Suggestion (or two). From Tom Callos and The Ultimate Black Belt Test

I'm very fond of the Ultimate Black Belt Test --and of course, I started it, so that's one reason; but what I really like about it is the one year focus on transformation. 

Every UBBT (and actually...every day) is a chance to say, "I begin AGAIN!" Every test I know that I can use the coming year to step forward, to advance projects, and to TRANSFORM, physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and --of course, financially. 

As this blog is for my business association, I'd like to remind you that you can completely transform your business and income in a year's time ---but you have to go at it like your a man or woman on a MISSION.

So many people will, at the end of 2011, be making the same mistakes, continuing the same negative habits, and living much the same way they were at the end of 2010 -----and it doesn't have to be that way. 

If I were you, I'd embrace the UBBT fully, play the game full out, come on board and help me shift the focus of the industry --and the general public's understanding and appreciation for what it is we do--AND use the project to make huge and important change in your own life, the lives of those around you, in your community --and, obviously, in the school that is your life's work.

For crying out loud, the darn program is FREE. IF you get 20 of your students involved, you won't pay a penny for tuition. I mean, the only way I could make it easier is if I did the training for you.

The big perception problem with the UBBT is people think it's another martial arts industry "program" --but it is so, so much more than that. It's a formula for success --which starts with your own habits --and radiates out from there. 

Increase Your School's Revenue by Deepening Your Quest for Mastery

Maybe it's wrong --or stupid...but I have this idea that the real success you're seeking as a martial arts teacher will come when YOU find your perfect center.

That is, when you're coming from a place of mastery --and your intent, your motives, your actions, and your thinking are perfectly right and sound. In other words, you're doing the right things, for the right reasons, as a role model for the world, with consideration for others, with compassion ---and a sense of mission.

I see all the other "stuff" as socks and shoes and scarves and undies ---things you use for comfort, but that aren't really who you are or what you're about.

So I'm asking you, as a matter of BUSINESS, to BE a master teacher. To look deeply at your work, to enhance what you teach and accomplish NOT for the sake of a $5000 increase in "gross revenue," but because without improving and striving to be something more than just a cog in the machine of commerce --you're not REALLY doing the work that offers you the most "return on investment."

To increase your revenue you must increase your value --and your value doesn't come from a box, a program you buy, a new logo, a new "strategy" for mass sales -------it comes from your center.

And what a beautiful thing ---that your work would polish your soul.

Here's what I'm suggesting, to increase your revenue, authentically and in a sustainable way:

• Practice a kind of mastery reflecting the master or masters you most admire and respect. Surpass your hero's life.
• Work on something that contributes to something bigger than you and your school. We're here to do something a lot more important than give you the money you need for your car payment (although we all know we need that too).
• Engage here --and contribute...so that you can show your students and community HOW to engage and contribute. Note: You will get back what you give. You want it cheap? Expect the same from the people underneath and around you. You want to be here and not GIVE or participate (other than in the most minimal way)? Expect the same from your own people.

I doubt very much that you will ever receive a "business" letter from any other person or group in the martial arts community like this one --asking so much of you...but my friends, profit be damned, I have to tell you what I know. I have to tell you the truth as I see it.

There are plenty of guys/gals out in the martial arts community that will tell you about their system and its success. I know, first hand, that most of that work is only a quick and impermanent fix. To dramatically increase your revenue, you must dramatically increase your contribution. You don't "get" until you give.

Tom