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SMALL TOWN, BIG SUCCESS!

ROB PUSHARD FAMILY RUN

BUSINESS STRIKES GOLD

IN MAINE!

RANDY REID TALKS “HUNTING FOR A GURU”

GOOGLE CHANGES YOU NEED TO KNOW!BY “THE NERD OF THE NORTH” DAN MOREL

7 FIGURES A YEAR FROM AFTERSCHOOL DUANE & LAUREN SPIRES SHOW YOU HOW!

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OCTOBER 2018

CONTENTS

EDITORIAL

WHO BUILDSYOUR HOUSE?BY RANDY REID

SMALL TOWNBIG SUCCESS AT MIKA BY RANDY REID

CAN REVIEWS AFFECTYOUR SEO RANKINGS?BY DANIEL MOREL

HOW YOU CAN START AND GROW A WILDLY SUCCESSFUL 6-7 FIGURE PER YEAR MARTIAL ARTS AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAMBY DUANE AND LAUREN SPIRES

WHAT’S CHANGING WITH GOOGLE (AND HOW IT AFFECTS YOU)BY DANIEL MOREL

DAN FLOUNDERS OF ALL HEART ACADEMY OPENS HIS FIRST AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAMBY TERRY E. BUSH

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Dojo Nation University

Learn*Teach*Grow

DojoNation.com

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EDITORIAL

WHO BUILDSYOUR HOUSE?

BY RANDY REID

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I know a guy (let’s call him “Dummy”) who has been spending a $1,000 a month on gurus for the last 15 years...that’s well over $150,000.

His business hasn’t grown more that 10% since he started, he barely makes a living.

I know another guy (let’s call him Jeff Quirk...) who’s spent close to $250,000 on different gurus and mentors.

Jeff’s personal income has soared 10 to 12 times, his school does a million a year and he makes the $250,000 back every three months.

The difference? Jeff implemented, focused and put in the necessary effort to get an extraordinary return on his investment, a return that pays him every month.

Dummy doesn’t do the work. He thinks by writing a check for $1,000 a month his school will magically become successful.

You can buy hammers, boards, nails and a saw at Home Depot, but they won’t build the house for ya.

It’s so interesting, having been part of the martial arts profession for so many years, I’ve attended hundreds of events and I’m constantly amazed at the same people I see at these events, people who still haven’t reached their goals. I mean they’ve been coming to listen to the martial arts

educators for 30 damned years and they still haven’t got it done!

Even within my own Black Belts, I have four guys who are millionaires or very close to being millionaires and I have some who are so broke they can’t afford to pay for half of a free lunch.

Listen, there are some REALLY smart people out there who can accelerate your race toward success, but all they can do is give you the hammers and saws. You’ve got to build the damned house yourself.

So, before you start spending $1,000 bucks a month, ask yourself if you’re ready to put in the time, effort and focus needed to implement that program. If the answer is yes, go ahead. If not, take your $1,000 and go to a two-for-one happy hour. At least you’ll get double the value and a decent ROI.

RANDY REID IS A LIFELONG MARTIAL ARTIST AND EDITOR OF DOJO NATION TIMES AND PROMOTER OF COZTALKS!

BY RANDY REID

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Dojo Nation Success Webinar Series Presents:

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“Second Semester SUCCESS!How to enroll 30-50

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SMALL TOWNBIG SUCCESS

AT MIKA BY TERRY E. BUSH

6 | DOJO NATION TIMES OCTOBER 2018

Maine Isshinryu Karate Academies (also known as MIKA BJJ) is a 4,800 square foot academy located in picturesque

Manchester, Maine and run by the husband and wife team of Rob and Rebecca Pushard. Founded in 1984, this family-run dojo has become one of New England’s most professional and esteemed martial arts academies with over 750 active members and 65 active black belts. Their academies feature a philosophy of bettering mind, body and spirit through MIKA Fit, MIKA Max, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Isshinryu karate among many other types of classes. With kids back in school, we connected with them to talk about the success of their After School Programs.

DNT: What is the median household income for your marketing area?RP: $36,225.00

DNT: How many After School Program members do you have?RP: 65

DNT: How many evening martial arts students do you have?RP: 170

DNT: How many full-time and part time staff do you employ at your school?RP: We have six full-time staff and a range from six to 20 part-time employees depending on the season.

DNT: Why did you get into After School Programs at your school?RP: We have had a very successful evening

martial arts program and for years we had students get off the bus at the dojo from school. In fact, since our children were little. There was no formal program or a charge. Our “children” are now both adults and we came to realize that our area had an extreme need for a quality program and it made good business sense to create one. This program rolls right into our Summer Camp program which has given us the ability to hire several of our Black Belt students that are in high school and college for summer jobs.

DNT: Who were or are your mentors for the After School Program?RP: It all started with Duane and Lauren Spires and Erica Martin.

BY TERRY E. BUSH

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DNT: What was your biggest challenge when you started your After School Programs?RP: My biggest challenge was myself!

Honestly, just believing that we could do it! We are in a very small town with a population of 2,700. We were less than a mile from the YMCA and across the street from the town’s rec program. If the children in town were not part of these programs, there were in many in-home daycares around. We had “competition” on every corner.

DNT: What is your biggest challenge today?RP: Our biggest challenge today is learning

and navigating the running of a corporation that will gross over three quarters of a million dollars this year!

DNT: What is the most rewarding part of the After School Program?RP: Of course, it would most definitely be

the hundreds of lives we have had the opportunity to impact, giving children the most fun, safe and exciting place to be all year long. There is no longer a rec program in our town or child care at the local YMCA. They all come to us. We are doing some incredible things and with numbers we had only dreamed of.

DNT: What are your plans for the next three years?RP: We have just opened up our second and

third locations. We are thinking that three years from now we should at least be at our tenth location!

DNT: Are you a part of the Martial Arts Success Team (MAST)?RP: Yes, absolutely! We actually were the

first Platinum Members with MAST.

DNT: Why did you initially join MAST?RP: With our desire to begin our After

School Program and to be successful, I had done some research online. I had looked into MAST and as it turns out, I knew one of the owners personally. I trusted them completely and that the information they were sharing was legit!

DNT: What have your results been like since joining MAST?RP: We have had the ability to hire both of

our children full time. Our son, Kaleb Pushard, is the Marketing Director for all three of our locations and our daughter Kianna Pushard is the ASP/SC Director for our flagship studio in Manchester. We have increased our gross revenue by six figures each year since joining MAST! Of course, this allows us a great deal more personal time and more financial freedom than we could ever have imagined.

DNT: Would you recommend MAST to others? RP: Absolutely! I would start by saying

because it works! The systems are without a doubt the definitive formula for success! Not to mention all that it has done for my family, my business and my community!

DNT: Please share a specific story thatdemonstrates why you love doing the After School Programs.

RP: I would say it would have to be last yearwhen I was on my annual hunting trip. For the last 20 years, I would take a week in November to go north and hunt. Last year, I was able to take 20 days! On the 14th day, I got a text from my Marketing Director, (my son Kaleb, age 23) saying that he just made $10,000 in seven minutes on Black Friday! My wife Rebecca, who is the other half of the business, was able to spend most of that time working on holiday preparation and her charity work. Talk about freedom!

The After School Program at MIKA BJJ includes specifically designed karate classes, physical activities, designated homework time, arts and crafts and more. It accommodates children in grades kindergarten through five from 3 to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday.

CHECK OUT MIKA BJJ AThttp://www.maineisshinryu.com/index.php

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CAN REVIEWS AFFECT

YOUR SEO RANKINGS?

BY DAN MOREL

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You might already know that local SEO is the name of the game. It’s essential to send Google signals through keyword use

and other SEO techniques that your business is local, as well as who it serves and where it is.

What you might not know is this:

Your online reviews play a direct role in your business making the cut to appear in the Google local three-pack.

In case you don’t know, that’s the collection of businesses that appear at the top of Google’s search results when someone searches a local keyword. It turns out that one of the keys to landing a coveted spot in the three-pack is getting good reviews. Here’s what you need to know.

THE PROOF THAT REVIEWS MATTER

How can we tell that reviews make a difference in SEO? Google’s algorithm is proprietary and the known ranking factors (keywords, links, and Google Rankbrain, to name a few) don’t include reviews.

Local SEO experts have been saying this for years, but it’s actually fairly easy to see that reviews are important. Google any local business category and you will get a list of results with a three-pack at the top. When you look at the businesses that made it into the three-pack, you’ll most likely see the following:

• Star ratings pulled directly from online reviews of the business

• Keywords in those reviews

For example, if you searched for the keywords “Spokane karate classes,” you would see reviews that relate to those keywords. That’s all the proof we need to know that reviews make a difference in determining which businesses appear at the top of the SERP.

It’s also worth noting that the Local SEO Guide found that local reviews were the second most influential factor in determining search rank in their 2017 Local SEO Ranking Factors study. The influence in this study did appear to be limited to reviews that specifically included the keywords searched, but customers are likely to use the most commonly searched terms naturally.

In addition, LSI keywords that are related to the search term may also play a role. Try Googling your top keyword and looking at what’s highlighted in the reviews in the three-pack. You may notice that reviews that use semantically-related words show up even if they don’t use the precise term you searched.

THE REASONS GOOGLE LIKESREVIEWS FOR SEO

There are some concrete reasons that Google thinks reviews matter. They’re directly related to the ways that Google’s algorithm has evolved. In the early days of the Internet, it was possible to get a page to rank highly on any search engine by simply stuffing it with keywords.

That changed because it omitted any concern for the experience of a user who clicked through to a site. After all, if you could click on a site because it ranked for a keyword only to find that it was useless to your needs, you wouldn’t revisit it and you might resent the search engine that directed you to it in the first place.

With that in mind, here are the top three reasons that Google likes reviews for SEO:

1. It trusts outside sources more than it trusts you (at least when it comes to the relevance of your site), This first reason is related to the ongoing importance that Google places on authority backlinks. It stands to reason that it would accept mentions and references from other sources as proof that your site is relevant to certain keywords and topics.

2. Google uses written content as a way of determining authenticity. When customers write reviews, they describe your business. They may even include information that’s not on your website. Even if you don’t list reviews on your site, these things can help flesh out the information on your site and give Google more context for its interpretation of your site.

3. Click-through rates also influence Google’s ranking algorithm. That might seem obvious, but what you need to know is that a business with lots of good reviews is, inevitably, going to get more clicks and traffic than a business with a few mediocre reviews. It’s in your best interest to encourage reviews if you want to boost your Google rank.

BY DAN MOREL

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These three things explain why reviews matter to Google. The key takeaways here is that Google takes outside resources into account to help it determine the authenticity and usefulness of your website. Users “vote” for your site by writing reviews and describing your site. Just as web users trust peer reviews to help them make buying decisions, Google trusts them to help it make recommendations of which sites are most likely to be useful for the keyword searched.

HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR REVIEWS

Here are some quick tips to help you make the most of your reviews:

1. Claim your listings on all relevant review sites. This includes Yelp and Google My Business as well as local review sites. You want to make sure that you use keywords in your listing, link to your site and include relevant information that will help people find you.

2. Link to your review pages directly from your website so customers can leave reviews if they want to.

3. Put a reminder about reviews on your receipts or comment cards. Remember that dissatisfied customers are often motivated to leave reviews, but happy customers will do so if you make it easy for them.

4. Automate the feedback and review process with a link to your review sites and ask them to leave a review.

5. Reply promptly to negative reviews to try to resolve them and get the reviewer to update their review.

These things will help you dial up the impact of your reviews and help you get into the coveted local three-pack for your most important keywords.

REVIEWS MATTER…

You know that, and now you can do something about it. Organic traffic is increasingly difficult to come by but encouraging and highlighting your reviews can help you get the biggest possible bang for your marketing bucks.

GATHER MORE REVIEWS WITH A 20-DAY FREE TRIAL OF DOJO REP.

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16 | DOJO NATION TIMES OCTOBER 2018

HOW YOU CAN START AND

GROW A WILDLY SUCCESSFUL 6-7

FIGURE PER YEAR MARTIAL ARTS AFTER SCHOOL

PROGRAMBY DUANE AND LAUREN SPIRES

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Across North America right now, there is a wave of brand new after school programs that are giving school owners

like you the financial freedom and success that you have always wanted. If you have ever looked at your bank account and smiled one month, then struggled to pay bills the next month, this article is written for you. If you have ever wanted to generate more than $100,000 - $300,000 extra per year, this article is also definitely for you. Finally, if you have ever wondered if an after school program is a good fit for your martial arts school, then keep reading below because I am going to show you how to quickly and easily go to the next level.

I’ll never forget how incredible it felt the first time we saw our end of the year revenue reports and realized that we generated over a million dollars with our after school and summer camp programs! My wife Lauren and I celebrated as we successfully enrolled more than 200 after school program students (who each pay $5-6k per year) and realized that our leap of faith paid off bigger than we could have every expected.

Getting to the next level was not easy for us. In fact, we never had coaches or mentors or a proven system to follow. We always took action and invested the little money we had to grow our programs and over the years we experienced just about every mistake that could be made. We made money and we lost money and grew by trial and error, but in the end, we discovered a bullet-proof system of doing business that actually works! This is the MAST system as we know it today.

Now the important question is…does the MAST system work in other martial arts schools? Will it work in schools in large cities, schools in rural areas, and schools across North America? We were up for the challenge and to our surprise, it worked faster than we could have expected!

Since 2014, more than 200 martial arts schools have used the MAST systems and have collectively generated over $50 million dollars in new after school program and summer camp enrollments! MAST works everywhere! It works

for large schools and it works for small small schools. It works for multi-school owners as well as for brand new owners. Like I said, the system is bullet-proof. In fact, the average MAST member increased by more than $75,000 in the first 12 months! We have already had two MAST members generate over $1 million dollars each since joining our coaching program!

A question we hear almost daily is, “Duane and Lauren, do I qualify?” This is a great question. To operate the MAST system in your school, you will need the following:

• A minimum of a 1,000 square feet in your martial arts school.

• A minimum of two elementary schools that are closer than 10-minutes driving time.

• The desire to grow your business, create new jobs, and change the lives of children in your community!

Sounds easy enough, right? Well, sort of… In this article, we are going to reveal the top three things you will need right now to have a successful after school progra. We’ll also give you resources to get even more information after you read this!

1. YOU NEED “AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAM MARKETING” NOT “MARTIAL ARTS MARKETING.” Working families need an after school program for their child right now. This means that you have a huge advantage because you don’t have to “convince anyone” to join. You

BY DUANE AND LAUREN SPIRES

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simply have to have marketing that builds trust and rapport with parents and they will happily enroll at $5,000 - $6,000 per year, per child!

Here are the top eight ways to enroll new after school students who have never heard of your school. We are talking about brand new families:

• Facebook ads• Facebook groups• Google ads• Parent’s Night Outs• School/community events• Snipe signs and outdoor banners• Monthly Referral Contest• Birthday parties

Sounds awesome, right? Yes! These eight strategies have been proven to enroll thousands of new students and we will give you more resources on how to get additional information and examples of each!

2. THE PROPER SALES APPROACH IS IMPORTANT TO ENROLLING CHILDREN IN YOUR MARTIAL ARTS AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAM. Your goal is to create rapport with each new family and to build trust as quickly as possible. Listed below is how we nurture leads and quickly turn them into paying members!

STEP 1 - Your new lead aka “opt-in” is received via your After School Program website.

STEP 2 - A text message is immediately sent to lead to schedule a time to chat.

STEP 3 - Connect with the parent on the phone and determine the parent’s goals for the perfect after school program.

STEP 4 - Close the sale on the phone or invite them into your school for a tour.

STEP 5 - Give the tour and make the sale. (Our system teaches you exactly what to say on the phone and on tours so you will begin to get new students right now).

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Congrats, but this is just the beginning of the sales process! It’s important to remember that your relationship is just starting. Too many school owners get the sale, then fail to focus on maintaining trust and positive rapport. When you follow the MAST system, you will have happy parents and students for many years to come. In fact, the average lifetime retention of a new student (depending on their age) is three or more years at $5-6k per year!

3. TEAMWORK MAKES YOUR DREAM WORK! Building the right team is vital to your future success! The good news is that this is super easy to do and we teach our members how to do the entire process. Follow the steps listed below to hire the right people so you can get started right now. It’s time to change lives, make more money and get the freedom you deserve as a business owner!

STEP 1 - Launch your After School Program hiring ads! Craigslist, Facebook, and Indeed.com are the top three online sources for new applicants.

STEP 2 - Host a phone interview to determine if the applicant has the energy and enthusiasm level you are looking for! MAST pro-tip: Schedule the interview at the exact time you need them to start their shift. Make sure they call you on time. *Do not call them.

STEP 3 - Schedule your one-on-one interview.

STEP 4 - (Very important) Schedule the applicant’s 30-minute audition to see how they interact and entertain your current students!

STEP 5 - Offer them the new position and begin the training process!

WHAT ARE MY NEXT STEPS? Now you are probably thinking, “This sounds amazing, but how do I get more information and examples of the awesome strategies mentioned in this article?” Don’t worry, we have got you taken care of! Visit our website right now to get more information about these systems and to apply for a free breakthrough call with one of us! ($500 value)

On our call, we will identify how you can get started, how much you need to charge, and the fastest ways to create success. Get ready to enroll more students, make more money and change more lives! It’s going to be incredible and you will look back in a few weeks from now and know this was the best decision you could have made for your school!

VISIT US AT www.MartialArtsSuccessTeam.com AND ALSO APPLY TO JOIN OUR FREE GROUP ON FACEBOOK AT Facebook.com/groups/MartialArtsSuccessTeam

BY DUANE AND LAUREN SPIRES

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Free Quick-Start Guide! ($1,000 Value) www.MartialArtsSuccessTeam.com

Attention School Owners!

"You will easily make an extra 100-250k per year in your martial arts school by

following this proven After School Program and Summer Camp system!"

REAL SCHOOLS. REAL RESULTS. GUARANTEED.

Duane & Lauren Spires

22 | DOJO NATION TIMES OCTOBER 2018

WHAT’S CHANGING WITH GOOGLE (AND HOW IT

AFFECTS YOU) BY DAN MOREL

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Trying to pin down Google’s algorithm is a little like trying to nail Jell-O to a wall. Why would you even try? It’s just going to fall off

the nail anyway.

If that’s how you feel, it’s understandable. It can be frustrating. You want your site to appear on the first page of Google’s search results. But, the algorithm isn’t public and Google is notoriously close-mouthed about it. But guess what?

You can’t stop trying.

Ranking high on Google is a must for every local business. The businesses that appear in the top five spots on Google get the lion’s share of the traffic. If you miss the mark, you’ll be missing out on business.

With that in mind, here are the most important things you need to know about what’s changing with Google – and why you should care.

#1: GOOGLE SEARCHES WILL BE MOBILE-FIRST

This first one is a big one and you can expect it to have a big impact on your business. Google has a huge advantage in mobile search. One estimate is that while Google garners approximately 63% of desktop services, it grabs a whopping 95% of mobile search. People with smartphones really need to go out of their way to use a search engine other than Google.

Google knows that people are more likely to search local business on their mobile devices than on a desktop, and it also recognizes the importance of the “near me” search term when people are out and about.

Do you want to make sure that your business grabs one of those top spots in mobile search? Here are some quick tips to help you ensure that it does:

• Claim and optimize your Google My Business listing and check your other online listings for accuracy

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• Make sure that your website is mobile-optimized and has a responsive format that will adjust to any device

• Produce plenty of mobile-friendly content for your site

These things will ensure that Google knows your site is useful to mobile users.

#2: SEO IS YOUR KEY TO SHOWING GOOGLE YOUR RELEVANCE

It’s no secret that Google prioritizes the user experience over everything else. That’s why keywords have diminished in importance while things like LSI, authority backlinks, and local reviews have risen as indicators of a site’s relevance and usefulness.

Keywords may not have the impact they once had, but there are other elements of SEO that are essential to ensuring that Google knows what your site’s about and why users will care about it.

The first thing is creating optimized content that’s highly engaging and useful to your site visitors. The more recent the content the better. If your site doesn’t have a blog, it should – and you shouldn’t wait to add one. Every blog post you write gives Google another reason to crawl your site and users another reason to visit.

The second thing is your data. If you’re not already drilling down into your data from Google Analytics and social media, you should start. Those numbers aren’t just numbers – they’re a map that can show you the kind of content that’s most appealing to your followers.

#3: CONTENT STILL REIGNS SUPREME

Speaking of content, there’s simply no way to overstate its importance. While you’ll still need to optimize your site for keywords and use appropriate tags, your content is what will ultimately make a user decide to stay on your site or – alternatively – to click the dreaded back button and try again.

The truth is that posting content regularly is likely to garner you up to five times the results that you’ll get without regular content updates. That’s not a statistic you can afford to ignore and you can be sure that Google will notice if you don’t create content that users care about.

Of course, content can take many forms. It might include:

• Blog posts on your website• Curated content that you post on

your social media pages• Text messages you send to people who

have opted in to receive them• Videos you post on YouTube• Tweets you send out• The emails you send to your subscribers

BY DAN MOREL

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Google won’t see all of these directly but that doesn’t mean they won’t have an impact on your Google search rank. If a text message prompts a mobile user to visit your site, Google will notice the traffic – and your site’s ranking may ultimately be affected by it.

#4: VIDEO CONTENT IS HUGE

Finally, there’s reason to believe that 2018 will truly be the Year of Video Marketing. We’ve been talking about the rise of video for a while now, but its importance continues to increase. Let’s start with this:

By 2021, 82% of all global IP traffic will be video traffic.

Whoa. We’re not talking about a tiny chunk of traffic here. Video traffic was already at 73% as of 2016 and its rise is ongoing.

Visitors to your site are four times more likely to watch an explainer video about your product or service than they are to read a page of text. Of course, there are exceptions – but you can’t afford to ignore the fact that preferences have changed.

The good news is that video is cheaper and easier than ever to product. You can pay big bucks for a professional videographer to make videos for your business, but you don’t need to. Even a decent smartphone camera can shoot video that’s good enough to represent your business. Some videos – the more formal ones that appear on your site, for example – might benefit from high production values. But the videos that you post on social media can be casual and short and don’t forget about live video as an option, too.

NOW, ABOUT THAT JELL-O…

Yes, it’s a pain to keep up with Google’s constant changes. But ultimately, getting a nail through that Jell-O – even if you have to do it again tomorrow – is worth the time and effort. It’s the thing that will bring new visitors to your site and help your business earn more revenue.

26 | DOJO NATION TIMES OCTOBER 2018

To Win An ALL EXPENSES

PAID TRIP TO CozTalks 2019!

You Win: Airfare, Hotel and

Admission! ($1500 value)

Enter To Win At: www.CozTalks.com

27

28 | DOJO NATION TIMES OCTOBER 2018

DAN FLOUNDERS OF ALL HEART ACADEMY

OPENS HIS FIRST AFTER SCHOOL

PROGRAMBY TERRY E. BUSH

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30 | DOJO NATION TIMES OCTOBER 2018

Dan Flounders of All Heart Academy in Hamilton, NJ is often referred to as Dan Heart because of the name of his facility,

but he doesn’t mind one bit. For this relative newcomer, making a difference in kids’ lives is his passion and his heart is one hundred percent in it. We sat down with Dan to talk to him the day before opening his first after school program for kids.

DNT: We last talked shortly after you attended

CozTalks 2018. How have things been for

you since then?

DF: Between CozTalks and MAST, it’s literally changed my life.

DNT: Let’s talk about your school. How many

square feet is it?

DF: It’s 5,000 square feet.

DNT: What’s the median household income of

your marketing area?

DF: It’s $67,000.

DNT: How many after school program

enrollments will you have when you start

your program?

DF: We’re going to start our first day with 20 students.

DNT: Tell us a little about your after school

program. DF: We pick the kids up at 3:30 and keep them

here until 6:00 p.m.

DNT: How many evening martial arts students

do you have?

DF: We have one hundred evening students.

DNT: How many full-time and part-time

employees do you have?

DF: We have ten on average through day camps and summer camps.

DNT: Why did you get into starting an after

school program?

DF: Personally, there’s a void here and a good opportunity for structured classes. The kids only have one or two other options and they aren’t really structured.

DNT: What kinds of activities will you have

your after school participants doing?

DF: The kids will be doing Ninja Warrior obstacles, kids’ fitness and a whole host of other things.

DNT: Who were and are your mentors for the

after school program?

DF: Duane Spires for sure.

DNT: What was your biggest challenge of

getting the after school program up and

going for the first time?

DF: I don’t think it was too crazy of a challenge. Getting in with the tools and financing the van wasn’t too too hard. I think sales and marketing is still my biggest challenge sometimes, but overall getting started wasn’t too bad. We had just come off our first summer camp and had our name out there and kids that transferred over.

BY TERRY E. BUSH

31

DNT: This was your first summer camp?

DF: Yes. It was a full camp all summer long, a full-time job. We sold like 650 weeks. It was great.

DNT: What’s been the most rewarding part of

the after school program as far as

anticipating for it?

DF: It’s pretty exciting. I love working with kids and making a positive impact. I know my coaches are making a positive impact, too. I’m a little bit different than most other dojos out there because we focus more on the Ninja aspect and the fitness aspect than we do on the traditional karate and stuff.

DNT: What are your plans for the next three

years?

DF: Within the next three years, I plan to have five locations. I plan on opening another location in February 2019 and one or two each February after that.

DNT: Are you a part of MAST and if so, why did

you join?

DF: Yes I am and I joined because I feel they actually truly want you to succeed and they are in it for more than just the financial benefit. I think that you can tell they care about their kids and they care about how we as coaches can impact kids’ lives and it goes way way beyond the financial benefit compared to other coaches out there who talk about money 24/7.

DNT: What have your results been like since

you joined MAST?

DF: It changed my business, it changed mindset and it changed everything. I see things differently and I have huge plans and I can’t wait to move forward with everything. While I’m new to this industry, I have a vision of where I want to go. I’ve set huge goals for myself and I’ll work my butt off to go get them. Duane [Spires] kind of opened my eyes and let me know that I’m here to make a difference. I know

I’m on the right path and this is only the beginning.

DNT: Would you recommend MAST to others

and if so, why?

DF: Yes, a hundred percent, and for a couple of reasons. One is because of their mentorship. Like I said, they truly want the best for you. They know what they are doing and they are very successful at it. MAST clearly works but it’s also because of the family vibe you get. Everybody around the country in MAST roots, cheers for and helps support each other and it’s really cool to be part of a family of like-minded people from around the country who all want to win and who all want to help and who are all just so positive and are the right type of people to be around.

DNT: Has there been a moment thus far that

solidified why you are starting an after

school program for kids?

DF: It’s the same reason I run my entire gym—just to see the positive change in kids. You see kids who get picked on or kids who have been bullied and you see when they walk in that they look different—they glow. You can see that impact on kids’ lives a hundred percent and that’s what I want.

Dan Flounders is the owner and operator of All Heart Athletic Academy in Hamilton, NJ, which offers classes in martial arts, wrestling and Ninja Warrior obstacles for kids ages four and up. It also offers seasonal after school and summer programs to keep kids fit, active and healthy. For more information, check out www.allheartacademy.com

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