Jun 19, 2019
In the business of martial arts, you aren't just teaching people how to defend themselves... you are providing an experience that makes customers want to come back day after day. However, it's not as easy as just getting a facility, buying a mat, and offering free trials. A great martial arts school requires great systems that allow for maximum students with maximum experience.
In this episode, you'll hear how sensei Rudy Carrillo has created systems that give his students an amazing and fun experience while also allowing scalability.
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Automated Transcript Below:
Dean Soto 0:00
Hey, this is Dean Soto with freedom in five minutes.com. And we're
here again, with another freedom in five minutes episode. Today's
topic is this. martial arts can be a pretty systematic business,
that and more coming up. Alright, cool. So I'm here in beautiful
San Diego at my jujitsu tournament, which you've heard about
probably for the last few weeks. But we're actually here, I'm not
going to tell you the results until after this podcast because I
actually already did one.
One
match already, and I did get the results. And you will have to hear that in a later podcast. But I'm here with my coach and mentor, the person who gave me the ability to even be here in the first place. Mr. Rudy Korea. Everybody say hi,
Rudy Carrillo 1:01
how you guys doing excited to be here. Nice San Diego, beautiful,
beautiful sunny skies right now just finishing up the day with some
strong matches.
Dean Soto 1:09
Awesome. Awesome. So I wanted to bring Rudy, how can I usually call
him coach or sensei or whatever? If I'm gonna call you, Rudy. Now?
Is that right? Yes. Oh, I wanted to bring him on the podcast,
because one of the things that really struck me as completely just
unique about his particular company, his particular martial arts
studios, is that they are extremely systematic, like extremely
systematic, to the point where I was just absolutely in awe. anyone
listening to this knows how much I love systems, and the audience
loves systems, and so on. And so when I saw what you were doing,
and my kids actually are part of his system, just how smoothly
things run and how many kids you're able to just go back to back to
back to back in your system, it just totally was something that
that blew me away. And so I wanted to share that with you guys. And
how how, even with a martial arts view, you can have a system that
is just just super well oiled something that that brings in more
revenue than if if there were no system, which I've seen a lot of
other martial arts studios just kind of looks like almost like
they're winging it, and they're not able to push that many students
through with also quality instruction. So all that being said, Mr.
Korea, what, like what got you into martial arts? So Well, first
off, tell tell people a little bit about yourself your business and
then get asked you how you got into this in the first place.
Rudy Carrillo 2:45
So myself, I'm a third degree black belt in jujitsu, I started
teaching when I was 12 years old, I just love the art. I started
martial arts when I was nine, maybe going on 10. And my mom put me
in martial just because I was getting bullied in school, I low
confidence. And then you know, I just really believe in myself. So
we started martial arts program, hoping for just a, you know, more
confident, better outcome, being able to defend myself. And there's
nothing like self defense confidence. So once I got in the man, I
was able to just spar, roll to all these amazing things, and then,
you know, really build myself up, she changed my life forever. So
when I was 12, I decided to start helping teach. So red bells, I
was helping out with my instructors classes, every Saturday, I
would do for free, no matter what, I'll just be there just eager to
learn. And then by the time I was 15, I got my black when I was 14,
when I was 15, I was able to teach my T bone classes, I was able to
get my first job. And then I developed myself as an instructor from
there. And now it was scary. I mean, you're you're young, you're
telling these people to listen to you to take you seriously. And
then the presence, you have to have just the confidence in order to
build people up and to make them become exactly what they want to
be. It's just fulfilling and I was so blessed and eager to help
others. And then I just knew that with a right kind of system in
place that I can have a life who have achieved more results. If you
go inside of this martial art school, and there's your randomly
teaching things you people are not able to fill a lot of their
goals, but with the right systems and you building them up step by
step day by day, class by class, we saw different kinds of results
and our students over the long run help me both company.
Dean Soto 4:33
I love it. I love it. And so you are so you own ultimate martial
arts in Fresno. Correct.
Rudy Carrillo 4:38
Right. Oh, Fresno ultimate martial arts, we've been open since
2008. We started in a park, we had I literally opened up the school
on a like three $400 credit card. It got too hot. Students were
about to quit a month in because we were in the sun in Fresno, if
you don't know us to 100 degrees, if not more, in the summer, and
you're asking kid to put on a whole pajama outfit go out there,
practicing the heat. And right away, we had a problem, we were
blessed to have one of our clients at the time, work at a bowling
alley. And she said, you know, you come by our, our facility, and
maybe you can rent out a room and have any money, I had nothing, I
literally had nothing. And they give us opportunity to pay just 50
bucks a month in order to rent on a room and, and start building
our company. And at the time, you know, you you, you have no idea
really where to start. But you just have to start. And then as you
start, you want to simplify it just for the simplest person coming
into have a positive experience. Because if you're not clear on
what you're wanting, then imagine how the person is coming to your
facility, their loss as well. And if you're lost their loss, and
then no one's ever happy. That's great.
Dean Soto 5:47
50 bucks a month. I wish I could play in that arena. That's
awesome. Thank you. So so. So like I had mentioned before one of
the that actually struck me. So I I actually came to your to your
martial arts studio because I was in warrior I needed to, to my
target was to do a tournament for Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, which is
what we're doing right now. And I called you up one thing that
actually struck me when I when I once I did call you the way that I
ended up calling you was you you were using, I can see that you
were using Click Funnels, you were using different types of
funnels, I don't think it was just Click Funnels, but you already
had a system for generating leads. That was pretty different than
most martial arts folks, I in fact, we were just looking at
different martial arts studios to to do some open mat last night
and I literally could not find a website force for at least two of
them. And so like that, tell me about that system that you have and
like, and then how you how you to kind of developed some of the
things that you're doing right now from a marketing
perspective.
Rudy Carrillo 6:54
So So with the system we have in place, our website, you know, very
few people go to a website now and decide to scroll through it.
When they go to a website, they want immediate answer. And in few
seconds, if there's too many clicks, they're just going to leave.
So I knew that there were there has to be some kind of better
system like a landing page. So if someone searches on Google, they
type in kids martial arts, they need to be directed to a kid's
martial arts page. And although they have options on where they
want to pursue, you can easily just read our, you know, whatever is
on our page, and quickly say, you know, this is the direction I
want to go into give you more information. And the information that
they're going to give us is simply a name and number. But the
biggest thing I saw from having a website that stirs and directs me
to the right direction is that follow up process? Because once we,
once they see you know what I like what I see you answered, because
there's a lot of questions can be asked in their head mentally. And
what it says on that lane pages has to be short in key for size,
it's going to let them know if they're going to buy or not. And
then when they go to that next step, the follow up process has to
be on point because soon after that they can be contacting other
facilities, they can change their mind things change in life. So
you want to get them when it's hot. You want them to ask a
question, get more information. And then within a few hours, within
24 hours, we have a follow up email that automatically goes out to
them it is asked them information, what makes you want to do
martial arts? Have you had any experience? What made you decide on
our facility? When are you available? Here's the program you asked
for here's the tiles available. And it's automatic, because most
people, at least in our industry, they have common questions. And
so we developed an email based system that automatically response
to them to get those questions answered, that help us better help
them by the time to get into our facility on the mat.
Dean Soto 8:44
Oh, I love that, that that is that is something is something that
is very rare in this industry like completely, very hard to find
that type of, of really specific marketing. And then utilizing, you
know, a good landing page, utilizing email, utilizing pre framing,
things like that, even answering questions ahead of time. So by the
time they're even in there, they've already you're not having a
hard sell them con like because they it's really just kind of
tipping them over to right right to be a an actual client, which is
great. And then what struck me as amazing, was after I joined, I
got to see what you're doing with the kids. And just when it
actually not just kids, kids to adults and so on, is you developed
kind of a system where where almost on the hour, every hour, it you
have one class go right into the next into the next and the next
and the next the next where it's a chain of things, it doesn't feel
like like you're in a fast food restaurant where where you're just
being like, you know, cattle push through, there's there's a lot of
personal attention that comes in through it. But how did you
develop that system? What were some of the kind of the challenges
that you've been led to that?
Rudy Carrillo 10:09
So So our classes are 4040 minutes, what I realized we had a longer
time, at one point 60 minute classes, when I realized that with the
parents, especially in today, they have so many things to do at
nighttime, if you get off work at five, you got to take your
child's have a martial arts class six to seven, and then it
shouldn't choose to be in bed by eight, you literally have zero
time now. So we cut our classes back as much as we could. But our
goal is okay, if we have this much time, 40 minutes, what is our
outcome we want? And then I'm in a structured class, how can I get
to that outcome. And so every class, we have a detail to every 10
minutes, 10 minute warm up 10 minute drill for skill, 10 minute
lesson. And that's going to be for the curriculum based. And then
the last 10 minutes will be probably game and then also a life
lesson. And it has in that manner just because well first off every
every class builds on itself a second, you're systematically
putting him through to make them better, without them ever knowing
that they're getting better. But there's progression slow but
steady progression that's in anything you do. You might not see the
result right away. But definitely it's there, especially for the
time and effort and over a long period of time. And that just took
a little bit of me understanding that the right curriculum, and
especially what we call it, we call it rotating curriculum, that
you're not winging it, you have a set skill you're developing every
six weeks for us is every six weeks. And then every year that same
curriculum repeats itself to build upon foundation.
Dean Soto 11:43
Yeah, that is that is something that I could see with my son Soren
in your class he went from he went from being completely awkward in
the in within the first week to saying Hey, Dad, can we practice
brawling? Can we do this, can we do that, and I you know, I would
go for his leg and boom, he'd sprawled is like, boom, like, like
that. And by the end of the few weeks, and and it was great,
because you you can tell he was it wasn't like this, this, you
know, hard practice, you need to learn, you need to learn all this
right now. It was fun, it was engaging, right? And it was little by
little. And you do that even with the adults. Right? Right? We
Rudy Carrillo 12:26
do with the adults. We all need to have a game but you don't go to
college and someone doesn't say okay, we're gonna win you for four
years. And then we're gonna give you a degree, you know, you go to
a class, there's chapters, you have to read pages, you have the
right or really essence you have to write and then there's, of
course, midterms and tests. And you systematically get through that
class and have the end result whether you like the results based on
your effort during the class, of course. But I mean, you don't just
dropped it what other sport or really what why should any sport
ever just not have a precise outcome what they want when people
want precise results? It doesn't make sense.
Dean Soto 13:00
Yeah. I love it. I love it. Yeah, cuz. So from personal experience,
seeing that particular system, every every time we start a new
curriculum, I'm like, I can't do this. This is so hard. I don't
know what I'm doing. And there and by the end of the month, or end
of the six weeks, I'm like, Oh, I got this. This is easy. This is
awesome. Like the last one that we did. We did several different
arm bars. We did all these different passes and all this. And I was
telling, I was telling Nick, when we were rolling, who's another
one another one of his students. I was telling Nick, that, man,
this sequence we learned we learned so much. And it was it was
amazing. And I didn't even realize I was actually learning at the
time. Right? So that's that's just fantastic system,
Rudy Carrillo 13:50
you know that that's the aha moments when you able to have that aha
moment, like, Oh, my gosh, I just, I just like multiplied my game.
It's just, you know, there's nothing like that, that feeling that
going to keep you coming back? because now you're so engaged
learning even more? Yeah. And that's what we love about it. Yeah. I
love it.
Dean Soto 14:06
So speaking of aha moments, one of the things we do on this podcast
is find that five minute change of mindset, that five minute
decision that you made, that really changed the way that you do
business really changed the way that you played the game, you play
the game. And so what's one thing that it was just a quick mindset
shift, and you said, You know what, I have to do this and figure
out a way to do it, that that really changed the game for you when
it came to your martial arts studio.
Rudy Carrillo 14:38
You know, the biggest change that I had to do, and I'm sure it's
our most business owners is just trusting in your people, and
letting go, if you did the proper job of training them, and getting
them in the right mindset of being in doing their job to its full
capacity. Someone told me once time that if they can do 80%, of
what you do, you need to let it go, because then you can invest
that 80% or even your hundred percent of your time and another area
in your company, which really needs to be monitored. So letting go
of the things that I knew that it was hard that I could let go of,
and trusting my team has really helped me develop not only as a
business owner as a person, because my gosh, as I get older, and as
my staff improves, it's important that we build each other and
create a really dynamic company that wouldn't be able to be done
without them. I love
Dean Soto 15:38
that is so awesome. That's awesome. So how many so with your staff,
and so on? What do they what do they do right now? What do you How
does that work with your with your staffing and with what you've
delegated, and so on.
Rudy Carrillo 15:52
So establishing we're a team. I don't like anyone being below each
other. So as a team, we clean we, we clean the mats were there we
go over curriculum structures, they provide feedback on what we
should be teaching how we can adjust. And then we also have them
assistant teaching classes. So we have multiple instructors that
are school, and some are incredibly talented at teaching the inner
children. Some are incredibly talented teaching the adults and we
delegate them to where they're best at. And then they're able to
with our curriculum and what we teach, they're able to follow our
system and go with the system and be able to do what I've been
doing for so many years. That's also I love this, I love this.
Dean Soto 16:34
Well, I'm in I'm in all of your systems and what you've built. It's
it's something that that like I said, is very, very, very rare to
see. And it honestly is like for anyone who loves system loves
systems and processes like you have to check out and see how he
does what he does. It's it's absolutely amazing. So with that being
said, How can people see you reach you? How can people join your
classes, things like that.
Rudy Carrillo 17:01
Oh, of course, we're Fresno ultimate martial arts and Fresno,
California. You can always contact your school 559 to 612805 you
have any questions, but also feel free to email us at Udacity
martial arts at gmail. com. We're an open book, we love to help
anyone we understand that this is a game we're all playing
together, whether it be martial arts industry, produce industry,
whatever industry might be, and there's a lot of similarities where
everyone can help.
Dean Soto 17:28
I love it. Well, thank you so much for coming on. Coach Rudy, I
appreciate you and we're actually good in a wet like one or two
hours. We're gonna head back in and actually I have my ghee
match.
Rudy Carrillo 17:39
This last few matches here. We were ready. We're super excited. We
had a great morning and we have a better afternoon right now.
Dean Soto 17:47
So yeah, it's gonna be great. And so we're gonna after that we're
gonna head back home. But until then, this has been another episode
of the freedom in five minutes podcast and we will check you out in
the next episode.