MA Business Success 88: Social Events

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Man: Go TIMA, innovating martial arts industry.

Graham: Good day everyone, welcome to the Martial Arts Business Success. We're at our episode number 88.

Phil: 88.

Graham: Jeepers. So Phil, what do we got today? We've got some pretty great topics that we love to discuss and share with you guys.

Phil: Of course.

Graham: What's the big one?

Phil: Before we get started, I just wanna make sure that we're all aware of some of the things that we support and, you know, the further on education that we can provide the viewers, the listeners out there in in the internet land is, you know, what we try to do with TIMA is to give people just like you, great sound advice, some tips, tools, and strategies, and techniques on how you can build your business. Now, we do that absolutely free through podcasts and videos if you're following us, but we also have the next level education as well. We have a free course on our website, we also have a paid course as well. And something that we've just started doing which has been really, really good for our members is a TIMA Mastermind. So for those who are part of that sort of paid membership, its $99 a month and you get humongous resources of videos and education to run your business, but also weekly Mastermind calls, live Q&As; with us on a week to week basis, which we've been getting the feedback from everyone that it's absolutely valuable. So that's something that we're doing.

So if you are interested in taking us up on that offer, we do have sort of like an opportunity for you to try it out, five days for $5. It's sort of that pull the curtain behind and check out what's underneath, you know? But if you wanna check it out, go to our website, tima.com...I'll say that again, time.com.au. Go check it out, try five for five, and the education's there for you. So today, we're specifically gonna drill down on social events, social night, social days, things that are taking our students from the actual training floor and into a social environment. It has its pros and it has its cons. So what should you do? Should you do 'em? What are they? Are you doing 'em? You know, we're gonna try and give you everything that we've learned about social events, and, you know, the good, and the bad, and the ugly. Graham?

Graham: Before we dive, I guess, deep into that topic, I guess we've gotta explain to you guys who are watching or listening why, how, and when we're strategic in running? For example, we just ran a campaign which is an adult one, and it was about bringing your friend at a training, so two weeks of training. And what we like to do is have these social events at the end of that two-week period, and the reason for that is for those who bring their mates down to that class, they're getting a chance to meet some new friends in the dojo and the school, they're developing that relationship, and then if you have this social event, it's another chance for them to build those bonds. So they're more likely to stick around and be a part of your school because really, that's the idea. If they get a good vibe from the school, they develop some new friendships, well the rest is easy. So, strategic in that sorta planning and the time. So we just recently ran one, it was a great night and, you know, it's always exciting for students to enjoy themselves, see the instructors in clean clothes rather than their uniforms and whatnot, but I certainly know that we have, you know, great results, and the focus for our staff and our team is very much on developing and building relationships.

Phil: Excellent. So social night, let's just go to the adult, so some of the good things that we do with social events or nights as well, you know, we've gone out to the pubs and do a social environment there, you can do your go-karting, you can do paintballing, you can do other... the lawn balls, [inaudible 00:03:26], you know? The list depending where you are obviously listening, if you're in a place where there's very bad weather and it's snowing, your social events are gonna be different. But there's so many things you can do, but the benefit of it is, you know, I don't know if you've ever heard this quote [inaudible 00:03:42] who keep together, stick together." Well you take it to the next level if you can build a group of people who socialize with each other as well. It just takes that next level of, I guess, camaraderie. And, you know, I know when I was a student, it was really fantastic to hang out with other students who are people who could then go, "I've been there. I've done that," and they can help preempt and show you the path that they've been traveling as well, and then you're like, "Oh, you know," we're rubbing shoulders with black belts and white belts and all that sorta thing. It's just...it's different level of communication and different level of rapport with your students.

Graham: Yup. Look, I really encourage you guys to make sure that you've got an agenda for your social night. And what I mean by that is simply just start at the pub, have some drinks together. It's not necessarily a structured social. What do you wanna try and accomplish and get out of it? You know, for us with a larger sorta student base, it's important for us to make sure that we're doing these events to, you know, build that relationship, allow people to meet and greet but at the same time too, that doesn't mean an excuse to get trashed and kinda speak bad about people, or again, just have a really bad shine. There's nothing worse than, you know, you being a good role model at the dojo and then just being an absolute clown when you're out on a social night. So you really do need to make sure that when you run these, there's that...still that professional standard that you're expecting from yourselves. Still enjoy yourself, but at the end of the day, you are still working, dare I say it, to make sure that you can't just let let your matters go and leave 'em at the door, you're still gonna make sure your Ps and Qs and whatnot are in align [SP] as well.

Phil: Definitely gonna be some rules and regulations for your staff and even for yourself. You know, you're still seen as that authority, you're still seen as that person who's giving them the education, and the problem is, is if you're preaching one thing on the dojo floor and doing something completely different off the floor, well then there's some incongruencies there, and people are gonna go, "Actually, you know, you're saying that we should be doing this and living a healthy lifestyle and looking after ourselves, and then you're going and doing this." Well, that's contradictory and people are gonna leave just as fast as, you know, or faster than they're coming, and that's not a good thing.

When it comes to, you know, an agenda as well, it's like there's gonna be a reason for the social event, and we've always talked about that sort of is it a retention-based thing or is it a student drive? And so we've done one, this recent one was more of a student drive because it was at the end of a campaign and it was a way to get those friends come in and socialize with your students and instructors, but we'll also do those ones where it's just strictly students and, you know, the paintball days and go-kart days where it's really a lotta fun. It's a chance for, like I said, the students to call you by your first name rather than by Jihan [SP] or whatever it may be, it's just that another level of rapport. And if you can just really scrape that back to, you know, there's the dojo version of you and there's the real-life version. Now you wanna keep those two hats and you wanna keep 'em separate, but you also wanna blend the two a little bit as well, and if you can do that, that's how you're gonna build a tribe, a tribe of students who will follow you and do...and stay with you forever.

Graham: Look, I remember back very clearly, fond memories of some of the social events that we had coming up through the ranks, and it's...when I asked our instructors who have been with us for, you know, decades plus, we ask them, "What got you there?" And it was definitely the friendships they developed as they gone along. Because unfortunately, I think we all know about it, students will come and go, but if you can have that friendship last, it may be that one reason why they stayed a little bit longer. So you're definitely developing those long-term relationships, which at the end of the day keeps the students a lot longer and trainees as well too, which is good.

Phil: Cool. Next thing I sorta wanna talk about is, you know, when should you do 'em, how should you do 'em, and have that structure, because if you're just doing it willy-nilly like, "What are we gonna do? Let's do a social event." You know, that's okay, but it's only gonna get you so far. So what we try to do within our schools and our businesses is go, you know, we have really three age demographics that we focus on. One is the younger kids, you know, I say are probably up to the ages of 9 to 10, maybe a little bit older. And then you have the sort of teenagers that they're too cool for school, they're not gonna go hang out with the little kids, but they're not quite adults, so you need to focus on them. And then you have the adult ones as well. So we only have three, so if we break that down every three months, we're rotating it through, so let's say January we do the little kids, February we do the teenager type group, and then the next month we do the adults, and then that rotates. So there's not a social event every month because if you have it too regularly, you know, it just gets boring and it's hard for your instructors. But then obviously if you just rotate that through, you're getting an opportunity for your instructors and your students to take that to the next level.

Graham: So Phil, we talked a little bit about, you know, the adults one. What are some of the things that we've done with the kids in the past? I guess for you guys, everyone's gonna have some different suggestions on what they can do and whatnot, but what have we done in the past that we had some great success over, especially with trying to get those good leads of good, I guess, numbers in the teens one, or the little kids one, obviously the adults one we spoke a little bit about. What have we done in the past, mate?

Phil: So let's just go to the teens, I guess the group that's the hardest one to crack. Most schools are the same, that's that teen group that I said they're too cool for school. You know, we're trying to do all the movie nights again, if you have all the kids in there, you gotta be selective of the movie. So yeah, you can have a movie, but you wanna really put it out to them and see what move was cool to them, so again we go back to that sales...cracking the sales, go find out what they want, go get it, give it to them, don't give 'em what you want, what you want like we're gonna put "Kung Fu Panda" on and ask the 16-year-old to come when it's not really their vibe, you know what I mean?

Graham: Yeah.

Phil: So find out what is the hot buttons of this age group. And what we've found that works really, really well is more of just a social night. And a social night would be, yeah, we might have a TV screen over there playing something, but over there we've got three gaming stations, over there we've got some music going on, "Guitar Hero", you know, all the [inaudible 00:09:41]. So they get a choice. They can just hang out, and just socialize, and chat, which most of 'em do, but when that gets boring or they wanna move on because the attention span of a teen is like that, they can go over and play a bit "Guitar Hero", "Call of Duty", watch a movie, whatever it may be.

Graham: Look, we've had some great success with the teens, and that's something that we've test and measured over the years. You know, do we charge for these, Phil? What do we do to...for the guys who are listening in to be able to implement and run this sorta stuff?

Phil: Absolutely not. I think, you know, at the end of the day these are...most of these social things are retention-based off for us. They're a way that we can add value, it's a way that we can have our students just be a part of the club, you know, take that next level of rapport, and build that tribe because at the end of the day, what we really want is our group of students to talk about us. I want 'em to talk about us in a positive way like, "It's so cool to be a member there." You know, and by doing that, then they're gonna bring their friends down, bring their friends down, they're gonna stay even longer. And our journey, I guess, our goal is to have someone training in martial arts for life and not just stop and start. And if we can create that network and that bond, then we're gonna have a greater chance of success.

Graham: Guys, some of the stuff that we've done, we've definitely done because of our climate over here in WA, in Perth. A lotta stuff that revolves around the beach, beach training, you know, social days in that regard, we've had started it here. We had the widest splash, so, you know, a massive, big, you know, fun day where we had kids inside and outside this particular pool place, water fights, all the rest. And that's kinda cool in that regards, especially for this client, and it's fairly low cost on being able to do this sorta stuff. You know, you mentioned before there's some of the teens and even probably more so the adults, the paintballing and whatnot. Again, you got social events that are simply just a gathering at a restaurant, or a pub, or something like that, so that's quite an easy one. Quiz nights at your school, okay, so that's one that you can do that has a particular reason for that, so that's, again, a little bit more adult-focused. Bring a plate, bring a mate ones, they're always a great one, really low cost to [inaudible 00:011:43].

Phil: You know us Aussies, we have a sling for everything, so.

Graham: Catchphrases. But the whole idea was, you know, you run it like a birthday party or just a party, an hour and a half on on a weekend, and the kids who come along, just bring a plate. Now, you know, it's an easy one to share. If anyone's got food restrictions, they just bring their own stuff. You're allergic to nuts, yeah obviously you're well aware of that, but generally the whole idea was not to make it too difficult, because if you can have these fun events where people are just having a good time, as we said before, they're a lot more likely to stick around and have some fun.

Phil: Cool. All right, guys, well that's a wrap. Look, if we haven't covered or you wanna know some more information about what we do as social events or you have anything that you'd like to add value in, please, remember this is for you. So like, share, comment wherever you're watching this video or if you're listening to the audio, do your part and give us some feedback. If you have some questions for us that we can add into the show, please send that through, too. And I just wanna do a quick little sorta final shout out to our crew, Hyper. So if you're interested in any sort of upgrade programs, blackboard club programs, bully buster stuff, you know, any of...they have...if you haven't heard of Hyper, go check 'em out. We've partnered with them, we've been with them for many, many years so we've got a relationship where we get to give you a $100 off each month, part of their membership there. So all you need to do is go to the web link that will be in the page somewhere and hit "TIMA," and that will get you a discount promo code, okay guys? Thank you very much, champs. We'll see you guys on the flip side, and have a fantastic week.