| Friend,
"I can't make a living teaching my style. It's too hardcore."
If I had a dime for every time I heard that, well... I'd have a $5 roll of dimes. But still, I've heard it often enough for it to annoy me.
The truth is it doesn't matter how "hardcore" your martial art is—what matters is how you treat people.
Case in point? One of my all-time favorite martial arts business podcast interviews. In said episode, my guest was Harley Elmore, a JKD and Sayoc Kali instructor.
In case you don't know anything about Sayoc Kali, it is a brutal art. Here's a video of some Sayoc Kali practitioners sparring full contact the old-school Filipino way.
Meaning, the only "safety gear" is a rattan stick:
Now, it's as obvious as an udder on a boar hog that you can't teach the average person like this. You'll chase them off faster than you can say, "An ER visit and fifty stitches."
However, after you listen to this podcast episode you'll realize that even someone who practices one of the most hardcore and brutal of martial arts can run a successful school.
Take a listen and you'll see what I mean:
Until next time,
Mike Massie MartialArtsBusinessDaily.com
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P.S. - I'm pretty sure that the guys in that video are either instructors, instructor candidates, or they are military personnel learning the art as a means of self-preservation. Compare this example to instructors who have fought and trained to fight in MMA...
No one can say that MMA training is soft. But again, if you train the average person like they are preparing for an MMA fight, you'll run them off. Yet, dozens of professional MMA fighters run successful schools, because they offer a level of training intensity to suit everyone. Just something to consider for those of you who think your art is "too hardcore" for you to make a living as an instructor.
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