How do you get unstuck?

Getting stuck in your martial arts business is not something that usually happens at the very beginning. In the beginning everything is new and exciting. There are big hills to climb and always something new that needs to be done. There might be a lot of struggle at the beginning but usually it’s the good kind where you find quick solutions often go hand-in-hand with just working harder. This is the fun phase where you get to tell people that you’re hustling and grinding and that you’re unstoppable – mostly because it feels like you are! The real struggles though, come much later and don’t seem as obvious.

It is easy to feel stuck when you realize that you’re doing the same thing over and over year after year and then you see your numbers stop growing and eventually start to decline. So you go at it like you did when you were at the beginning; you hustle and grind, and you get super busy but you don’t really move the ball down the field like you did in the past. Motivation and inspiration aren’t what you need now, and yes you need to work and you need to get stuff done, but you also need to look around and see how the world has changed.

The world will always change, but you won’t always see it. Or at least you won’t see how it affects your martial arts business. So you might want to read a book l, or go to a seminar, or watch a lot of YouTube videos of people like Seth Godin and Gary Vaynerchuk, but the fastest way out, is to go find yourself a mentor or an outside board of advisors. People who don’t have any interest in your martial arts school at all! People who understand that all businesses is the same and so they won’t buy all your excuses and all the lies you’ve told yourself about why your business is failing. And it is failing because once you stop growing you start to die.

Mentors and outside boards are really just experienced people who will see what you cannot see or what you refuse to see. They are also going to be holding you accountable and will be able to help you see which direction you need to go and they won’t allow you to go anywhere else.

So go find yourself a new perspective and most importantly, and accountability coach, and then you can motivate yourself and seek inspiration and learn new things and most importantly get back to work.

Matt Pasquinilli – Painting

That’s right! You are spending too much time getting motivated and educated on how to grow your professional martial arts school. I’ve been there many times myself. You get really focused on learning everything you can about how to be a better marketer or advertiser or manager. The real danger is that you start to trick yourself. I’ve been there too! You feel the squeeze of not enough students or. It enough income, and so you go looking for better answers to how to grow. There is nothing wrong with learning and new ideas, the problem is that you spend too much time studying and not enough time executing. Action is the answer to your needs. You need to be taking consistent and persistent action. It’s the ready, shoot, aim idea where you get moving and then adjust without stopping. Learn to calm down and not slow down. The more action you take, the faster you will learn. And the learning is real and practical. So go learn one new thing or pick something new to try from the hours and hours of YouTube videos and podcasts you’ve been consuming this year, and do it! As the Qualers say, “Pray and move your feet!”

Matt Pasquinilli – from the treadmill

 

 

 

Matt Pasquinilli is the founder of the non-profit martial arts school Asian Arts Center in Dayton, Ohio and has been managing for profit and nonprofit martial arts schools professionally for over 25 years.

 

Learn how to open, operate, and grow a thriving and meaningful martial arts school by learning the marketing, management, human resources, and curriculum strategies, tactics, and techniques that are proven to work.

Matt Pasquinilli, Master Teacher at the Asian Arts Center Taekwondo School in Dayton, Ohio, and vrtkdtutor.com leads you through a basic and comprehensive martial arts warmup to improve fitness and learn practical self-defense.