School owner here for support

[Melody Shuman]

Hello Everyone,

I wanted to introduce myself to the forums. My name is Melody Shuman and I am a martial arts school owner and professional consultant in the industry. I found this forum when I was doing some research.

I joined the forum, because like most of you, I started martial arts when I was young and can't imagine working in any other field. I have "been there" and "done that" on many of the thread that I see posted. Some parts of my journey I am very proud of, and some of it I am not. I had several great mentors in my life that have helped me reach the level I am at now. I would like to extend my support to all of you in appreciation of the help I have received through the years.

Without taking up too much space in this thred, here's a brief list about me:
- I was the creator of NAPMA's Little Ninja program

- I was an ATA World Champion and the coached my S.W.A.T. team to over 36 would titles between all of us.

- I co-owned and operated 4 martial art schools in south Florida that peaked
700+ students and grossed nearly $1 million per year.

- I left my schools (to my ex) after feeling like we were becoming a "belt factory" and I was at the point where I was not happy any longer as a school owner.

- I spent 2 years traveling the world teaching Little Ninja seminars and eventually martial arts business seminars.

- I opened a consulting company to help the people I met along the way (www.shumanconcepts.com)

- I recently opened a new school in St. Petersburg, Florida in March 2005. My main objective in this school is to avoid operating it like a belt factory, and at them same time developing great martial artists.

I am still young, at least I look young, and very motivated now that I have opened my new school. I would be more than happy to help those that need ideas on how to open a school to those of you that need ideas on how to grow your school without selling out.

Enough about me, if you are interested in networking say what' up!

Best Regards,
Melody

[Garland]

My main objective in this school is to avoid operating it like a belt factory, and at them same time developing great martial artists.

I would be more than happy to help those that need ideas on how to open a school to those of you that need ideas on how to grow your school without selling out.

I'm by no means an expert, but from what I've observed, alot of the "selling out" of arts is pretty much unavoidable to one degree or another, I mean, after all, you have to package an art in a way to literally get it sold to a consumer.
Forgive me, I'm going to make some generalizations;

TMA's are probably the biggest offenders, mostly with an emphasis on children...most of this could be parent's looking for a place to put their kid like a daycare for an hour or two, or to teach their kid some confidence or (hopefully not this naive) self defense. The parents, who are paying for the lessons, expect results in terms of belts, some physical evidence that their little bastards are in some way progressing or learning something.

RBSD work on the premise that they will help prepare you for the "street" although most of the stuff out there is just conjecture and theory...with a focus on selling the art to fearful women...and they may or may not be helping depending on the group.

Combative arts {like Krav Maga, Systema and ROSS (thumbs way fucking down there) and WW2 combatives, defendu, defendo (a step in an okay direction, but...meh.)} market, intentionally or not, to would be hard-asses who want to learn how to kill, or under the illusion of being super soldiers.

Combat Sports sell out on the fighting aspect, people these days think that a few months of muay thai and/or BJJ and their the ultimate badass. They'll be able to fight better then the above in most situations not involving a weapon, because their conditioned, but their missing many aspects of the game.

Niche arts-like the FMA(filipino martial arts, probably the best work for surviving or using edged and impact weapons), JKD(which, unfortunately, has a cult following and has been stigmatized by Bruce Lee fans...the concepts are actually VERY sound)

IMHO
It's all in how you market it...but you WANT to sell your art to make money, or the student count will drop. People don't have the dedication to stick around just because something works, or because something has inherent value...people usually sign up for a (bad or unrealistic) reason, and then move along.

It's hard to run any buisness on integrity alone.

[grappler-jordan]

Well done on your site, great marketing layout, good design, overall good appeal.

Looks like you will be providing alot more support then you will be recieving. Lots of great accomplishments listed. I applaud you on your children's program work as well, that is always such a challenge.

Well, welcome to the community/forum, I look forward to hearing your input and opinions...