Black Belt Business Newsletter

3 Min Black Belt Business Newsletter

Do you run a martial arts school of any style? Get insights from the top 1% of martial arts biz owners that you can use to get more students, keep more students, and grow your team to create your dream business. 3 days a week, 3 min read, no fluff, all strategy.

Don’t Miss These 4 Red Flags When Hiring Instructor Your Next Instructor

If you want to build a championship team at your martial arts school, you need to get real good at spotting red flags in the hiring process. Hiring the wrong instructor doesn’t just cost you money.It costs you your time, your culture, and sometimes even your reputation. Here are the 4 red fla...

by Matthew Brenner — Aug 22, 2025 hiring red flags team building

We were HORRIFIED at our Black Belt testing…

Not by the students, but by ourselves. A couple years ago, we were watching one of our black belt tests, and something felt off.Sure, our students could perform forms, weapons, self-defense sequences… but when it came to the basics? Sloppy roundhouse kicks. Weak stances. Side kicks with zer...

Aug 20, 2025

What Martial Arts School Owners Can Learn from Hormozi’s $100M Book Launch

Want more students at your next event? Steal this one move from Hormozi. Unless you’ve been living under a wavemaster, you’ve probably seen the buzz about Alex Hormozi’s $100M book launch. People are calling it the biggest moment in internet marketing history. But here’s the part no one is...

by Matthew Brenner — Aug 18, 2025 hormozi marketing mass enrollments

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗢𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝗦𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗔𝗿𝘁𝘀 𝗦𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗼𝗹 𝗢𝘄𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗡𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵

It’s Friday! So today we’re talking about team building. If you’re a solo operator and you like it that way, more power to you. But if you’re training a team of instructors because you don’t want to be the only person holding up your business like Atlas… this one's for you. Here's the trut...

by Matthew Brenner — Aug 15, 2025 financial literacy team building

Why Your Students Might Quit This Month (and How to Stop It Before It Happens)

It’s Wednesday, which means our Black Belt Business Newsletter theme is about retention! Because with the new school year starting, your students (and their parents) are about to get hit with one of the biggest transitions of the year. The kind that messes up routines. Back to school season...

Aug 13, 2025

𝗗𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝗠𝗶𝘀𝘀 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗲 𝟮 𝗚𝗼𝗹𝗱𝗲𝗻 𝗪𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗼𝘄𝘀 𝗧𝗼 𝗦𝗲𝘁𝘂𝗽 𝗦𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗼𝗹 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺𝘀

If you know me, you know I'm the “organic marketing guy.” Especially when it comes to setting up school programs with your local public and private schools. With back-to-school season around the corner, I've been getting the same question on repeat: “When should I start setting these up?” ...

Aug 11, 2025

What Do Supermarkets + Martial Arts Schools Have In Common?

Did you know that at a supermarket, if an item is out of stock three times, customers have a 70% chance they'll just stop shopping there forever? That’s according to a major retail study (scholarworks.waldenu.edu). How Does This Apply to Student Retention? Just like grocery shoppers abandon s...

by Matthew Brenner — Aug 06, 2025 pro shop retail retention

3 Ways to Bring Back Summer Freezes Before They Quit

We’ve all heard it before… “We’re just going on vacation, but we’ll definitely be back in September!” Yeah… sure you are. If you’ve been around the martial arts world for more than 5 minutes, you know that “we’re just taking a break” is just a soft way of saying “we’re not coming back.”...

Aug 04, 2025

The Most Dangerous Sentence in Your School

“That's Not My Job” Will Kill Your School Culture There’s one sentence I never want to hear from a martial arts school team member: “That’s not my responsibility.” You’re not Amazon. You’re not Chase Bank. You’re a small business. A dojo. And in this business? Everything is everyone’s respo...

by Matthew Brenner — Aug 01, 2025 team building

If You Don't Have This In Your Classes, It Will Hurt Your Retention

Ever heard of the SSL Method? I got this from Dave Kovar, and it’s one of the simplest, but most powerful retention tools for your school. Here’s the deal: If your students aren’t Sweating, Smiling, and Learning every time they come to class… Then they’re not coming back for long. Let’s bre...

by Matthew Brenner — Jul 30, 2025 retention ssl

We Are In A ____ Recession

I’m not talking about the economy… I’m talking about a Trust Recession. AI deepfakes. Fake gurus. Fake reviews. Fake “local” businesses that are actually just national chains hiding behind stock photos of smiling kids. No wonder people don’t know what to believe anymore. And here’s the h...

Jul 28, 2025

Do This One (Uncomfortable) Thing To Make Your Classes Better

Let’s be real for a second… You ever get those emails from airlines or Amazon asking for feedback? “Rate your experience!” They’re always trying to improve the customer experience. And there’s a reason billion-dollar companies do this. Because feedback is the fastest way to find your blind ...

by Matthew Brenner — Jul 25, 2025 survey team training

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