How To Become A Full Time Martial Arts Instructor And Make Enough Money To Live, Thrive, And Survive

There are two basic things you have to be able to do to survive as a martial arts professional. First, you must be able to meet lots of people and recruit them as students. Second, you have to be able to keep them coming to classes -and paying tuition.

I repeat: These two things are the ESSENTIAL things.

To meet and recruit students, you have to be everywhere you possibly can -and represent yourself in the best possible light. Ask yourself how are you meeting and interacting with people in your community; rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10 as to how much or often you meet people -and it will reveal your level of success. The more people you are engaged with and can impress in SOME way, the more chances of recruitment.

When it comes to KEEPING students, it is all about serving their NEEDS. That is it. You do not serve their needs, they leave. Serve their needs, they might still leave, but the odds are more in your favor.

Now I used a word a paragraph ago -and it was "impress." It was about you being able to "impress people" enough to get them to consider learning from you. What are you doing that's impressive? Really successful instructors are people who consistantly train, who work to elevate their thinking, who do things that are important and relevant to today, and most of all -they are people who DO. Other than that, the rest is made up of bells, whistles, and cosmetics.

Let's assume too, that the martial arts you teach are good, solid, and sound. You are polite, helpful, knowledgeable, and exercise a good deal of common sense in your classes. For most teachers, this is just about all you can ask for -or hope for. To get to "then next level" as a martial arts teacher, to actually thrive, you must squeeze a wee bit more into your program than can be done on the mat. A bit more consciousness, some focus on things the student is interested in, a lot of expansion of the idea and definition of "self-defense."

As Starbucks isn't "just" a place to get coffee (so is a 7-11), your school should be a bit more of an "experience." Starbucks spends a lot of time making your visit an experience -and they make pretty good coffee too.

Now is the time to plan for today, tomorrow, next week -and of course, next year. The more you commit to thinking down the road and big, the more people you can meet -and all the more chances you will have to engage in things that make people stop, look, listen, and engage.