If you’ve been following whistlekick for a while, you may have noticed that we’ve recently tried to better support martial arts schools of all kinds. We feel strongly that the better the martial arts landscape – including the health of the various styles of schools – the stronger the martial arts industry. Hence our recent push to expand our martial arts school consulting offering.
In case you’re not aware, our mantra at whistlekick is “connect, educate, and entertain” and it’s in support of a very simple mission – we’d love everyone in the world to train in martial arts, even if only for six months.
Our new priority on martial arts consulting work is just that – a priority. We’ve offered these services for a long time, and we’ve had clients for years. These clients have seen success and it’s because of them that we’re making such a strong push into this space. We believe, to be quite simple, that we can offer a type of consulting offering that no other organization can. Further, we believe that offering to be of greater value to a significant portion of the martial arts school landscape.
Our martial arts school consulting offerings have, and will remain, rooted in one-on-one support that is custom-designed to meet the needs, wants, goals, and budget of the client. We put out a lot of information that applies to many schools via our Martial Arts Radio podcast. For many schools, this information is all they’re looking for. For others, however, they want to go further and receive the type of integrity-driven recommendations that lie at the heart of all we do.
Karate School Consulting – Benefits
Consulting for a karate school (or any type of martial arts school) is a simple (but not easy) process rooted in learning about the client, finding where they can make improvements, and helping them make those improvements. When done well, karate school owners (again, or other styles of martial arts) find not only increased revenue, profit, and/or student enrollment, but also joy.
In the vast sea of schools, I see so many owners and head instructors that no longer have fun. They started in this space because they loved what they did. Yet, somewhere along the way, that love faded. It became just a job. And that makes me sad.
This is why one of the most important elements I use in our discovery process is listening. I listen to what clients say, and I read between the lines. Is the person I’m talking to passionate about what they’re doing? If not, we need to solve that.
And this is one of the main benefits of karate consulting (you get the gist by now 😉). In general, and whistlekick Consulting specifically – our priorities. We do not have a one-size-fits-all approach. Or a pile of templates that we make you fill out, promising it will solve all of your problems.
We talk. And we listen. And we form a bond rooted in a mutual desire to help you and your karate school improve.
Martial Arts Academy Consulting – Downsides
Martial arts consulting isn’t always easy. In fact, it can be downright difficult. It’s one of the things we hear frustration about in our industry, which is one of the many reasons we decided to throw our hat into this ring. If approached incorrectly, this sort of work can drain you of time, energy, and money. Which can make doing what you’ve been doing all along even more difficult.
Of course, that’s the opposite of the goal.
Selecting a martial arts consultant is no simple task. As of this writing, I’ve recorded over 764 podcast episodes. What I believe, and who I am is very well documented. I don’t expect that we’ll have legions of consulting clients come in from outside our podcast audience, but we might. In the case that someone is curious of what we do as consultants, or who I am, there’s plenty of material.
And this is why I work with all of our clients, directly. That could change in the future, especially as we bring on more consultants who have additional skills I do not. After all, our goal is to provide the best fit, not the most convenient fit.
Watch out for promises, beware of guarantees. We promise absolutely nothing with our martial arts academy consulting. But that’s also why our clients have remained as long as they have, see the success they do, and elect to upgrade their consulting relationship with us – without prompting.
Taekwondo School Consulting Choices
Taekwondo consulting offerings abound. If you do a Google search you’ll find quite a few results, many of which are offered from folks that… let’s just be honest; it doesn’t sound like they’ve ever trained, let alone run a successful business.
But if you dig around, ask questions, and move slowly, you can find the right fit. It takes any established business time to see the impact of their changes, so beware of any organization that wants you to sign a lengthy contract right away. We don’t, but we do offer discounts when the time is right.
TKD school consulting, or kung fu consulting (or whatever it is we want to call it) can be a powerful engine for growth and change in your dojo, dojang, etc. But making the right choice can be a costly setback. We don't pretend whistlekick consulting is the best fit for everyone. In fact, I’m sure we’re not. But I feel strongly that we’d at least be an excellent fit for most schools, and no worse than a good fit for the rest.
If you’d like to learn more, schedule a free and no-obligation first call (yes, we give away our best stuff, free, because how else do we know this is a fit?) then click HERE.
To read more of my thoughts on what we're doing about consulting, here's another blog post I wrote.