If you want friends, you have to be friendly. If you are bored, then do something in a focused and enthusiastic way. You get what you give, and when you give out energy, happiness, excitement, and fun, then you get all of it back in great abundance. When life is tough, get tough. Then pray and move your feet, or your hands…
In their fantastic book, “The Go Giver”, by Bob Burg and John David Mann, the authors define your worth in the world of work with this question, “How much more can you give in value than you can take in payment?” Answer this question well, and you will be on your way to operating a highly successful martial arts school.
Value added services are complimentary offerings that add to the core value of your programs. Teaching great classes in a clean and modern facility is a great start, but if you want to increase the value you represent to your students, then you are going to have to come up with some extras that don’t necessarily cost you money, and more importantly, leverage the relationship you already have with your students.
Here is a list of questions you can ask yourself to get started on some value added service ideas. While you go over this list, remember the platinum rule, “Treat your customers the way they want to be treated.”
There are countless questions that you can ask. Asking is the starting point, and if you don’t look for value added services that you can offer to your members for free and that are of great interest to them, then your school will never be as good as it can be. After the questions are answered, get to work immediately on creating something and implementing it in through your operating plan.
Here are some examples of value added services that we have created and use with great success. It is only a starting point, and you should always be asking these questions and adding or refreshing your list of offerings
There are a lot more and many are proprietary. The best ones are those that you will come up with on your own after talking to your parents and thinking about what they need and want. Grab a pencil and a piece of paper and take a few minutes to work on your business.
Matt Pasquinilli is the Executive Director of the non-profit Asian Arts Center Taekwondo School in Dayton, Ohio. www.aacdayton.com
Learn more about “The Go-Giver” here: www.thegogiver.com
Increase your true worth by investing in your business education.
2011 is all but over. 2012 is hours away. I spend this day writing thank you cards to all the people in my life, new and old, who have given me much to be thankful for. That’s a lot of ink and a lot of cards. Writing these thank you notes helps me to stay focused on who and what add value to my life and to seek more of it in the coming year.
I firmly believe that you get what you give, and more importantly, you get more of what you think about. If you are living in fear and anger, and you spend most of your time complaining or worrying, you don’t have to guess as to what your life will be filled with. Want something better, something more than moaning and groaning and self-pity? Then you are going to have to spend more time giving thanks for all that you have and let go of your limiting and self-defeating thoughts of lack and poverty. Seeing everything you have makes you very wealthy. Seeing all the things you don’t have, can only make you feel poor and needy. No one likes a needy whiner, so take a deep breath, look around, and acknowledge all the things you do have. Still can’t see anything to be thankful for? Try taking a visit to a homeless shelter or the cancer ward of a children’s hospital and then make your list.
Happy New Year!
Matt Pasquinilli is the Executive Director of the non-profit Asian Arts Center Taekwondo School, in Dayton, Ohio. Matt is also the author of “The Child Whisperer” and co-author of “Behavior Coaching” with Dr. Scott Hall.
JustWorld International raises money and changes lives around the world. It’s impressive work, but most impressive is the way in which JustWorld founder, Jessica Newman, enlists the caring and support of young people and their families from the international equestrian community. Take a look at this short video and visit http://www.justworldinternational.org to learn more. Oh yeah, you don’t have to ride a horse to give, so consider an end-of-year donation or a gift to start 2012 with a powerful intention. You get what you give.
Pray and move your feet. This is one of the most inspirational sayings I have ever come across. The Quakers are credited with this great concept and I have become truly convinced that it is one of the key ideas that will lift you out of a funk faster than anything else.
Failing is not the problem. In fact, failure is a great opportunity to grow and learn. Failing often leads to great success and enlightenment. The problem that we sometimes have, is that we don’t get back up after we fall. I’m not really talking about grieving a loss here though, that is a natural process and requires its own timeline. But grieving too can turn into a negative thing when we get stuck and refuse to let go of negative emotion and live in fear and sorrow. Resilience becomes a way of thinking about loss and failure that accepts that we are designed to fall in order to learn how to get back up onto our feet and get going again.
Having a sense of purpose, a reason for being, allows you to fall and get up again over and over. Pray and move your feet means that you are in touch with your purpose and that you let go of your own ego and attitude and let a higher power to keep you moving in the direction of your meaningful life. What are you here to do? What excites and fulfills you? Are you following your dreams, or have you resigned to a safe, but boring life? Find your sense of purpose and commit to it. Don’t worry about how others feel about your dreams, it’s your life, not theirs. They won’t want to see you change, not because they don’t want to see you succeed, but because they don’t want to have to adjust to your change. That is not a good enough reason for you to settle for an unfulfilled life.
Focus on your purpose and define what your life will look like when you are living your purpose. Identify the daily actions that you have to take to live your purpose and then get to work. Start small but dream big. Don’t put a limit on your purpose, but be willing to start from where you are in move in the direction of your fulfilled life. Expect to fail and to fail often and sometimes in big ways. Your commitment to this purpose will be the first step in becoming resilient. Everything after is just plain work. Fall on your face, see your self living in purpose, pray for strength and wisdom, get up and move your feet!
One final thought, we all have an inner dialogue. It was put there before we were even born, and while some of it might be positive and supportive, some of it can be so negative that it will stop us in our tracks and convince us that we can never have the life we want. You need to hear that voice and accept that it is a part of who you are, and then turn the volume on it down. Replace it with positive affirmations that occur to you or that you pick up from reading and listening to empowering self-help books and programs. Control your thoughts because your thoughts control your words and actions. Emotions are energy and can’t be controlled. That emotional energy is just energy and you choose how to think about it. Allow yourself to feel and then choose how you think about it.
Pray and move your feet!
Matt Pasquinilli is the Executive Director of the non-profit Asian Arts Center Taekwondo School and author of “The Child Whisperer” and co-author of “Behavior Coaching” with Dr. Scott Hall.
The author standing atop the Mt. Washington Observatory in 80mph winds on Mount Washington. New Hampshire.
I finished another Tough Mudder run this past weekend. It is my third this year and they are getting easier. They are in no way easy, but definitely easier. It is a great challenge and the event is populated by happy, positive people. Finding ways to move the body and spend time with good and happy people is a sure way to live a better life.
Tough Mudder Virginia
by Matt Pasquinilli and Dennis Schaefer
Whether you hire instructors from within your student body, hire Black Belts from outside your school, or train them from scratch solely for the purpose of teaching like you do, you must have a system for training them to be effective and professional employees. There are specific attributes that we look for in an instructor candidate. These attributes are usually predictors of future success. Few people ever earn a Black Belt and even fewer become good instructors. Hiring the right people and training them to teach allows you to start with a person most likely to become a great instructor.
Tip 34 – Hiring Instructors
Hire the right person and teach them how to teach martial arts. The attributes that we look for in a great instructor are kindness, compassion, energy, excitement, and great communication skills. While we do have some Black Belts who also possess these attributes, our success has come from finding a fun, mature, professional person with an open mind who is looking for a meaningful job with good pay and decent benefits. Write a list of attributes that you think would help a person be successful as a martial arts instructor and then start looking for that person. Ask the professional people that you already know if they know of someone who might fit your description, and then set up an interview.
Tip 35 – Meeting with Your Instructors
Organize short, weekly meetings for your instructors. The weekly meetings allow you to pass on information and find out what issues your instructors might be struggling with. It also keeps everyone on the same page as far as curriculum and teaching. During our weekly meetings, we are often brainstorming ways to handle problems that might be happening in class. It gives everyone a sense of ownership and support. Ideas and solutions flow freely and everyone leaves feeling like they are ready for a new week of teaching.
Tip 36 – Training Sessions
Plan monthly training sessions for your instructors. Monthly training should be hands on with a lot of role playing. These training sessions are usually two or three hours long. All of our staff members are required to attend and are paid for their time. Each month we introduce or reintroduce one or two new drills to keep classes fresh and exciting. Our role playing focuses on behavior issues that might happen in class or cover brief, “mat chats” where instructors develop short, 30 second scripts to talk to students about the tenets of our training and how it can be used at home, work, or school.
Tip 37 – Lead by Example
Teaching by example is mandatory and requires that instructors practice martial arts and the martial arts spirit each day, know the curriculum, and constantly monitor and evaluate their behavior. This includes you, the school owner and head instructor.
Matt Pasquinilli is the Executive Director of the non profit Asian Arts Center Taekwondo School in Dayton, Ohio. Dennis Schaefer is a professional martial arts instructor and author living in Oakwood, Ohio. www.aacdayton.com, www.aacdayton.ning.com
Matt Pasquinilli is the author of "The Child Whisperer" and co-author of "Behavior Coaching" with Dr. Scott Hall.
Matt serves as the Executive Director of the non-profit Asian Arts Center Taekwondo School, in Dayton, Ohio.
www.aacdayton.com 
Asian Arts Center Taekwondo School