Tom Callos on Martial Arts Business, Curriculum, a

Martial arts school business, management, marketing, staff training, money management, and curriculum design: Tom Callos is a veteran martial arts teacher, martial arts activist, and business / curriculum consultant to the martial arts community. Tom teaches school owners and instructors to think on their feet, stay independent, avoid degrading tactics for school promotion, and to design and re-design their curriculum and careers until, well...they're masters of their profession. Tom can be reached on SKYPE at tomcallos and/or on G-Mail video chat. Phone [phone].

[tomcallos]

The Ultimate Black Belt Test (UBBT)

The UBBT, Something Different

The Ultimate Black Belt Test isn’t a black belt test, it’s something grander. It’s something designed with the intent of being more meaningful, more effective, and to have more of a profound and life-altering impact on the participants --and people in their sphere of influence.

The UBBT isn’t only about the skills, fitness, perseverance, and self-discipline of the man or woman who participates, it is about the impact the tester has on those around her, on the community he or she lives in, and on the international martial arts community in general.

To reach UBBT coach Tom Callos and to receive program details, call him at 775-501-0644.

The ultimate test would, in my mind, be one that deeply and authentically empowers the person taking the test, but that would only be a small part of the process. The ultimate test would go far beyond personal victory and achievement; the ultimate test could or would be measured by what the test does for others, what it creates, what it is a catalyst for, and for what it leaves behind.

The UBBT, on a Scale from 1 to 10

If the number 1, on a scale from 1 to 10, represents little or no effort, achievement, and movement, and the number 10 represents the most extraordinary results that one might imagine, 10 being the ultimate (within the scope of human possibility), then the goal of the UBBT, its intent, is to design and LIVE a test that is a 10 or as close to it as one can muster.

It has been said that the enemy of excellence is “good,” and so the person entering the Ultimate Black Belt Test process is asked to look deeply and thoroughly at what would be a good effort --and, in contrast to that, what would make an all out black belt test effort that far exceeds the idea of good, that races beyond what is expected, what is common, and/or what has been done in the past.   

A simple example of this idea:

It would be good if a black belt test candidate was expected to maintain a healthy and nutritious diet for the period of his or her training for and taking of the black belt test, a diet that aids the participant’s fitness and performance, and that reflects a level of self-discipline indicative of the rank they’re testing for.

In the UBBT, I would also direct a tester towards a healthy and nutritious diet designed to enhance performance, but that would only be the first step of what might be 1000 steps. I would look for some level of engagement, of experience, that would use each meal ingested as a teaching tool --as three meals a day, recorded, documented, and publicly posted would give the participant 1000 opportunities in a year’s time (365 days x 3 meals a day would equal 1095 posts) to show, by example, his or her students and community exactly what a healthy diet looks like, what it is made up of. It would give the tester 1000 opportunities to send viewers to a website where more dietary information resides, 1000 opportunities to offer help to other people who want assistance in improving the quality of their own diets, 1000 opportunities to direct others to experts in the field, be they authors, dietitians, or activists in the field of nutrition, diet, and health.

The UBBT tester could then sum up what he or she has learned through this immersion in healthy eating in a series of presentation flash cards, a banner presentation, or audio-visual presentation that could then be shared with other people, in person or on-line, so that the chance to educate others and share what has been learned would be greatly expanded. The tester could pledge to dramatically reduce the sugar intake of people in his or her sphere of influence, during the testing process, be in it one other person, 10, 50,  or a 100 +, so that the work the tester is doing on himself is also work that has a healthy and quite possibly a dramatic and life-changing affect on many others.

The ultimate test is one that not only changes the life, habits, and skills of the person taking the test, but that also brings renewal, joy, health, education, and a sense of empowerment to as many people as the participant has the intelligence, creativity, and determination to affect.

To create and live a black belt test that changes the lives of others, profoundly, would be The Ultimate.

The UBBT is My Experiential Business Coaching Program

I am a lifetime martial artist, a student and a teacher --and I teach, coach, and mentor other martial arts teachers, be they novice instructors or polished veterans, in the art of doing what they / we do, more effectively. In many ways, the UBBT is about business, the business of teaching the martial arts, of running a school, that helps the person or people doing this work to have a more meaningful and profound impact on the people they teach and the communities they live in.

The better the teacher, the better the school. Martial arts teachers teach what they know, not what they don’t know. The UBBT is a business development program that focuses, first, on what the teacher knows, is willing to learn and experience, and most importantly what the instructor is doing, for others, that shows a level of understanding, commitment, and intelligence that has value.

How The UBBT Works

I co-design a 1-year (minimum) test with each participant made up of physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and social challenges that can be acted upon nearly every day of the year --and that, on a daily basis, don’t stretch the tester beyond what is sane, balanced, and safe, but when totaled up for the length of the test, become and/or create significant accomplishments.

For example, writing two pages a day of content about something of interest to the tester, would equal 730 pages in a year, which could become the first draft of the participant's book.

160 push ups a day, done throughout the day in sets of 20 simple reps, would equal 58,400 push ups in a year. If the tester could convince 10 other people to participate, the entire group would have achieved 584,000 push ups --which would be an experiential lesson in how little things add up to be significant accomplishments (and play a huge role in fitness). This is a lesson we hope to teach many of the young people in our classes, the power to make big changes and achieve significant goals by taking small daily steps.

Three reps of a single kata or routine done every day becomes more than 1000 reps over a year’s time. What is the power of working on something 1000 times? This is the lesson demonstrated, by example, by the teacher looking to make his or her life a lesson that can inspire others.

Any curriculum, project, or endeavor conceived and then worked on diligently for 365 days, has the chance to become a piece of work of some significance.

I’m looking for black belts interested in making the UBBT a part of their self-imposed testing and life goals, people who are looking to join a program that’s intent is on personal, family, school, and community transformation. Nobody who has given their all to the UBBT process and legitimately engaged their goals, goals of significance and value, has walked away from the Ultimate Black Belt Test feeling it wasn’t one of the most educational, transformational, and empowering experiences of their martial arts career.  

[tomcallos]

The Business of Teaching the Martial Arts, by Tom Callos

If you own a martial arts school, want/intend to own one, or work in one in any capacity, I offer you this unsolicited advice --and attempt at inspiration:

When you teach people your brand of martial arts, whether it originated with this country or that one, whether it was handed down by warriors or poets or housewives, whether it involves circles or lines, groundfighting or knife play, and/or is a recognized Olympic sport or airs on pay-per-view or only comes to be in the most violent of situations ------when you teach people what you know or think you know, you're in the business of empowering people to stretch their limits. You're in the business of "yes, I think I can." You're in the business of cultivating health and, maybe, sanity through movement, through intentional movement, through participating with a teacher, with being a student, with collaboration, and more often than not, with a community of people who, in one way or many ways, encourages you to pursue something you don't presently have.

When you teach, you cultivate participation, re-thinking, exploration, community, belief in oneself, compassion for the struggle, and most of all, you help yourself --through the art of helping others. When you teach, sometimes, you're one of just a small handful of people, may the ONLY person, who stops, looks, and listens intently to the desires and dreams of another person --and that moment may be fleeting, but it can sometimes be one of those VERY important moments --the kind that inspires, changes, encourages, and gets someone from where they are to where they want to be. You are, when you teach, presented with the opportunity to be a changemaker.

When you teach, sometimes, you can collect a small handful of people --and sometimes it starts with just ONE person, that actually believes in you. They trust you --and with that trust comes the weight of deserving, maintaining, and cultivating that trust --and THAT, my friends, is when you realize you might just be (are) getting more from your students than you're giving them. What a (pleasant and humbling) surprise.

Now I'm here to remind you you're not JUST a teacher of an art of war --or an art passed down by this or that man or woman --or an art more effective than that other art. No, you're a teacher --and the people you work with require you to be a good teacher --and maybe even a great teacher.

You know what a great teacher is, yes? A great teacher transcends the subject he or she teaches. It's not about art anymore, it's not about architecture or design, it's not about the published piece, it's not about winning, losing, excelling or failing, it's about life and how to live it with some sense of connection, with having met some of your potential, it's about leaving something where you pass that illustrates the best we can be. It's not about you or me, it's about being the kind of teacher who makes people cry tears of joy, who leaves a selfless imprint of love and compassion and caring and sacrifice and an appreciation for what it feels like to give everything you have for the benefit of others.

Being a great teacher is being very, very good at what you do, AND finding a way to make others even better --and to inspire them to WANT to be better.

So, those of you this resonates with, let me further remind you (and these things are, of course, just my opinions): Don't be a teacher, only, of jiu-jitsu or tkd or judo or karate or whatever your brand is called, connect yourself to humanity, to the struggles, to the rights and wrongs, to the things that cause suffering --and use your work to improve...everything you're smart enough, resourceful enough, resilient enough, compassionate enough, and connected enough to improve.

You don't just teach martial arts, you're a teacher/citizen/student. Be a great one --and start now if you're not there yet, as time is short and you don't have an unlimited amount of it. Before you know it, your time to affect real change will be over.

[tomcallos]

Out of the Dojo and Into the World. Tom Callos on Krista Tippett's On Being. Martial Arts and Martial Artists on a Mission to Do.

All the way back in 2008, journalist Krista Tippett selected my work with a project called The Ultimate Black Belt Test for a story for her show on American Public Radio. See the story here: http://www.onbeing.org/blog/out-dojo/4088

The work continues today --and our next event in Alabama, co-sponsored by www.ZENPLANNER.com, is April 8 to the 11, 2015. See details at http://alabama.flavors.me

Need more info, call me at 530-903-0286. 

[buildvention2014]

So this year, in the Alabama Martial Arts Build-Vention 2015, which I’m happy to say is co-sponsored by www.ZENPLANNER.com, we’re tackling a very cool project. We’re helping Pam Dorr and team to build a new business for the community, to benefit both local residents and the HERO (Hale Empowerment & Revitalization Organization, Inc.)

[tomcallos]

http://alabama.flavors.me/

[tomcallos]

Ray Bradbury, a Brick and Some Old Colored Tiles, Jiu-Jitsu, and There Will Come Soft Rains.

Yesterday, a friend sent me a story she found on-line, the new owner of Ray Bradbury's house was tearing it down, demolishing it. Yes, RAY BRADBURY'S HOUSE. THE Ray Bradbury. The author of The Martian Chronicles, Something Wicked This Way Comes, Dandelion Wine, Fahrenheit 451; the author of my childhood, of imagination and suspense and optimism, space travel, summer, butterflies, sneakers, and carnivals gone dark. The Ray Bradbury I had first written to at age 10, the one who responded to every letter I sent him over the 20 or more years I felt the need to tell him how much his work meant to me. The Ray Bradbury I named my daughter, Eleni Ray, after. 

Well, I happen to be staying in LA for a couple of weeks, not but a few miles from the house in question, so I jumped in my car and headed over there to see some history, solid straight up American history being torn down to make way, most likely, for some new modern abode, as if LA didn't already have enough of them (but only one house Ray Bradbury lived and wrote in). 

"Today is January 16, 2015," said a voice from the kitchen ceiling, "in the city of Los Angeles, California." It repeated the date three times for memory's sake. "Today is Mr. Featherstone's birthday. Today is the anniversary of Tilita's marriage. Insurance is payable, as are the water, gas, and light bills."

I couldn't remember Mr. Bradbury's address, except that he lived on Cheviot Drive, as I'd written the name of his street on dozens of letters over the years. I rounded the corner of Cheviot and sure enough, there were two giant dumpsters filled with house parts --and gaping holes in the walls of the old house where I could see RAY BRADBURY'S BOOKSHELVES, empty now. 

As I parked in front of the house another car crept by, then turned around and parked in the empty space in front of me. I got out of my car and so did he --and I asked him, "Are you here to see Ray's house too?" He was. He worked in film animation --and, like me, Ray Bradbury had touched him; Ray had touched him enough for him to drive away from his office and go see history being torn down, to see where the man himself had lived and worked. 

I went up into the yard, now partially fenced off, and the fellow came in behind me; he noticed I was wearing a Team ATOS  jiu-jitsu T-shirt. Turns out he was a jiu-jitsu student too, a student of Rickson Gracie black belt Henry Akin, who I'd just trained with the day before. Go figure.

From there we walked around the yard picking up pieces of our author hero's home; seems like we both needed to have something that was connected to Ray, even if the owner didn't seem to give a damn. 

It's silly I guess, picking up old tiles and pieces of stucco --but then, this was Ray Bradbury's house. I imagine they tore down Steinbeck's house, right? Hemingway's?  Henry David Thoreau's place? Mark Twain's home too, yes? Eudora Welty's? Henry Ward Beecher's abode?

Dawn showed faintly in the east. Among the ruins, one wall stood alone. Within the wall, a last voice said, over and over again and again, even as the sun rose to shine upon the heaped rubble and steam:

"Today is January 16, 2015, today is January 16, 2015, today is..."

If you loved/love Ray Bradbury too, maybe you'll join me in a reading of There Will Come Soft Rains  It's one of my favorite Bradbury short's --and I haven't been able to read it, not for the last 20 years, without weeping.  

[tomcallos]

Knowing You Should Save Money is NOT Saving Money. Martial Arts School Owner Business Advice from Tom Callos

Knowing you should market your school to your community is not marketing your school to your community.

Knowing you should serve your students in a way that keeps them coming is not serving your students in a way that keeps them coming.

Knowing you should and could be cultivating a richer, more meaningful, more relevant unique selling proposition, one that your competitors can't produce or even comprehend, is not...well, you know (hint: NOT actually doing it).

Part of the work I do with martial arts teachers and school owners involves practice; repeated, consistent (if not endless), tireless, focused practice. It's one thing to KNOW something, but we all recognize it's a completely different thing to actually put that knowledge to use in a way that brings about the changes we desire.

When you join the 100. (www.the100.us), you join a group that asks you to commit yourself to DOING what you know --and with a consistency that most people would find shocking. This, my friends, is the difference between those who would like to be champions --and those who will be.

Wanting to take your school to the next level of success and influence is not taking your school to the next level of success and influence.

Knowing how to contact me for help, coaching, and support is not contacting me for...well, you know. My number is 530-903-0286. You know you should call me; I wonder what it will take to actually take action on that knowledge?

[tomcallos]

Grandmaster Jhoon Rhee, Eighty Three. A Happy Birthday Acknowledgment.

According to my FB notice, Grandmaster Jhoon Rhee is 83 years old today. While there are many people who have spent far more time with him than I have, I was very fortunate to have befriended him in my late 20's --and as a result he deeply influenced what I taught my students, what I worked on as an instructor, and the things I came to believe about the work of being a martial arts teacher. Other than my beloved teacher Ernie Reyes, Sr., no other martial artist has left such a lasting impression on me --or to this day sits so deeply in my head, like a listen-when-you-can guide, as I navigate the ups and downs of life, on and off the mat. GM Rhee was never afraid to show his vulnerability. He often spoke of the mistakes he had made, with students, with business, with employees, and in life in general. Being a 20-something and having grown up with his books on my shelves and in my gym bag, I saw him as a man of power and magic, so his discussions of his own flaws and mistakes taught me something --something I didn't understand at the time as clearly as I do today, but that nevertheless shaped me.  He struggled with students and their lack of loyalty and support, something I can relate to, but instead of accusing them of some kind of ignorance or flawed character, he would acknowledge the mistakes he had made, his own self-absorption, ---and in that he taught me, via his own experience, something about personal responsibility and the power of looking inside instead of placing blame on others. Of course my folks had tried to teach me the same concepts --but who listens to their parents? GM Rhee, being who he was, was someone I felt enough respect for to actually "get" some of the lessons I hadn't yet heard from any number of other teachers. Funny how that works, yes? I was a very unpolished, undisciplined, self-centered young man when I met GM Rhee --and he, in the time we shared and over the years, coached me, by his example, how to shore up my game. And while I'm still horribly ignorant, I'm not as thick as I might have been, for the gentle and subtle encouragement of someone who sought to walk the talk of martial arts mastery. 

GM Rhee is a national living martial arts treasure whose influence stretches from the first day he arrived in America from Korea to attend college (with less than $100 to his name), to Joe Lewis, Bruce Lee, Muhammad Ali, Jeff W. Smith, Sugar Ray Leonard, and thousands of other people, historical figures, presidents, senators, congressmen, writers and intellectuals, doctors, athletes, and an entire generation of men and women who love and practice the martial arts. He invented things, innovated and broke traditions, he coached and wrote and spoke about the martial arts everywhere, all the time, from The Washington Post to Larry King Live to Modern Maturity (I wrote the article!) to the United Nations and in front of Congress ---the man was fearless, persistent, polished, and I think he was --and is --the preeminent communicator of the benefits and purpose of the martial arts --in the entire world, maybe in the history of the world (and at least right alongside the likes of the other great martial philosophers, including Sun Tzu, Musashi, and Ueshiba). I have never been the friend to GM Rhee that he was --and is --to me. He gave me too much, I think, to be able to return. I'm pretty sure that many other people feel the same way. In my work today, I genuinely try to live up to the things, ideas and examples, that I picked up (stole) from GM Rhee --everything I talk about and teach, philosophically, has its roots in something he said or suggested or guided me to. I don't know how to pay that kind of debt back --except to express my unconditional love and respect for one of the most iconic, human, flawed, perfect, and flat out brilliant man I have ever had the pleasure to know, to travel with, and to listen to.  Poet, inventor, rebel, artist, choreographer, musician, icon, husband, father, teacher, student, citizen, friend ----Great Grandmaster Jhoon Goo Rhee, we, all of us, from every martial artist from the 1950's on, to my sons Shannone Callos and Keenan Cornelius and all the new generation of martial artists, whether they know your name or not, all of us --we all owe you something: gratitude, appreciation, respect.  Happy Birthday my / our most special, special teacher.  To Sir, with love.

[tomcallos]

Zen Planner and Martial Arts School Member Retention, Business!

Well, if you run or work in ANY kind of martial arts school, you've two primary focuses:

1. Sales (selling the unique benefits of your services), and;

2. SERVICE --as in "servicing your members."

One of the official sponsors of the Alabama Build Vention 2015 is ZEN PLANNER and, well...ZEN PLANNER is hosting a free webinar about member retention strategies. 

May I suggest you tune in. Find details here: http://info.zenplanner.com/member-retention-webinar-0

Key topics will include:

Nurturing prospects to establish loyalty before their first class

Creating a customer journey that generates longevity and retention

Effective use of customer engagement to build community and increase loyalty

Predictive analytics to identify engagement need flags

Effective save strategies

Learning from losses

Get practical advice to increase your engagement, retention and profit.

[tomcallos]

Martial Arts Business Meeting, In a Podcast, by Tom Callos. Feel free to Listen

I've restarted the 100's (www.the100.us) weekly on-the-phone and on-line business meeting. Here's a link to this week's martial arts business and marketing phone call: http://t.co/4wARDLBJRj

You may also call in on a phone and listen here: 

If you'd ever like to chat about martial arts business, if you need help, reach out to me. I will help. 

Tom Callos

[tomcallos]

Tom Callos Martial Arts Business Info for Europe and Alabama, w/ Zen Planner too!

I will be teaching a class in The UK at Mat Chapman's school in London, then on to Mallorca, Spain on March 22 and 23 teaching for Stefan Billen's organization. If you're living in Europe and would like to meet me (I'd like to meet you) and/or have me to your school, I've couple of open dates.

On April 8, I'll be in Greensboro, Alabama for the Alabama Martial Arts Build-Vention 2015 with Dave Kovar, Julia Hill, Keshia Thomas, the team from ZEN PLANNER http://zenplanner.com. Amal Easton and Casey Easton ---and some of you, I hope. Come build-for-charity with Pam Dorr of www.herohousing.org and attend seminars and classes in ethical, intelligent, forward thinking martial arts school management.

Need info? Feel free to contact me at 530-903-0286 or via private message on Facebook or otherwise. The Alabama event is free, if you attend you will be responsible for crowd-funding a $1000 donation to Hero Housing.

[tomcallos]

Some) Things for Martial Arts School Owners to Do, in 2015, as Suggested by Tom Callos

Well, since you're (not) asking, allow me to give you my improve-your-teaching-value suggestions for the coming year:

1. Join Keenan Cornelius' on-line BJJ techniques and coaching website. It's all too affordable and, well, Keenan knows jiu-jitsu.http://keenancornelius.kajabi.com/sp/25912-keenanjitsucom

2. Join The 100. Method, as you won't find more sensible advice and coaching on school management ---that is: straight up, no nonsense, no sell out or BS, good for you and your team and your school coaching. And if you actually take my advice and stick around, you'll find yourself with a school and approach that's 10 years ahead of your competitors.

3. I'd learn about student micro-management as I teach it. Student retention is the key to solid, smart, ethical school management.

4. I'd learn what it means (and how to practice) the concept that "you are your own media company." I'd like to train you to use what you really do, every day, to "sell" what you offer your community.

5. Come to the Alabama Martial Arts Build-Vention 2015 in April, 2015. What you learn there, what you see happening in real time, could (if you pay attention) give you 5 years worth of marketing fuel, curriculum design ideas, and career motivation, if not more.

6. I'd use every single day of 2015 to get in the best shape of your life, physically, mentally, emotionally, and socially ----and to do that I would cultivate practices that allow you to walk-the-talk of using the practice of the martial arts to make more contribution to your community and the people in it (as only by giving will you get).

Tom Callos

[tomcallos]

The Alabama Build-Vention 2015, a Decade of Martial Arts Teachers Working for Others. The Story (Some of It).

The Story of Why I Chose to Bring Martial Arts Teachers to Greensboro, Alabama to Learn How to Be Better Leaders, Instructors, and Martial Arts Practitioners

By Tom Callos

A Living Quarters Made of Waxed Cardboard;

A Clothing Designer for Victoria's Secret;

Hundreds of Black Belts in The Black Belt;

A $20,000 House;

An Academy Award Winning Filmmaker;

Julius Rosenwald, Booker T. Washington, and Martin Luther King;

Environmental Activist Julia Butterfly Hill;

Pies, Bikes Made of Bamboo, and;

$250,000 in donations, 40,000 hours of volunteer labor.

For the last 10 years I've been asking my friends in the martial arts community to raise money for home construction and renovation projects in the small and rather obscure southern town of Greensboro, Alabama. Not only have they complied, but hundreds of them have actually traveled there with me and provided hands-on labor for the projects, more than 20 different projects to date.

I now call the yearly event The Alabama Build-Vention, as it has evolved into a martial arts business convention built around doing charitable design-build and renovation projects for people and buildings in need of some tender loving care. 

It all got started in 2001 when I happened across a photo in an in-flight magazine about the work of architect Samuel Mockbee and his students in and around Greensboro. At the time I was working for a company teaching people about martial arts school management, flying all over the country leading workshops and seminars, while daydreaming about a simpler life and lifestyle.

The photo I came across showed a small living structure, a "pod," built by some of Mockbee's students that was made of big bales of waxed cardboard with a roof over it. It intrigued me due to its use of simple found-object materials (the bales were found sitting behind a grocery store). 

The idea of a simple and inexpensive living structure appealed to me, so I started looking into the work of Mockbee to see what else he and his students had been doing. What I found, besides some really cool structures, was that Mockbee operated from a philosophy that sounded in many ways like the philosophy I promoted (or wanted to promote) as a martial arts master teacher. It wasn't much of a stretch to take quotes from Mockbee and replace "architecture" with "martial arts."

For example:

"The practice of architecture not only requires participation in the profession but it also requires civic engagement." --Mockbee

I read: 

"The practice of the martial arts not only requires participation in the profession but it also requires civic engagement."

(source: http://samuelmockbee.net/quotes)

So one day in 2001 I decided to call Samuel Mockbee. Unfortunately I was not able to reach him, but did leave messages for him at his office and with the architecture department at Alabama's Auburn University. On that very same day, in the evening, I went into a local Border's Books, walked up to the magazine rack, saw the latest copy of Architectural Digest, pulled it off the rack and flipped it open --right to Mockbee's obituary. He had passed several months earlier from cancer. I felt like I'd lost a friend, despite the fact I never got to meet the man.

The next day I called Mockbee's office at The Rural Studio (www.ruralstudio.org) and was connected to a former clothing designer for Victoria's Secret, Pam Dorr.  Pam had also been inspired by Mockbee's work and had left a lucrative career in San Francisco to be an intern in his program. 

Pam and I started talking about how I might help with work being done there in Alabama, as for some odd reason I felt like I was supposed to, somehow, DO SOMETHING there. I was a top teacher in an industry that worshiped membership sales and upgrades, retail sales, and tactics designed to bring in "floods of new students," but something about Mockbee's efforts as a teacher spoke to me about a different approach to teaching the martial arts.

As strange as it seemed for a martial arts teacher to want to be involved in a program to mentor young architects and creatives, I kept at Pam for several years to see if there might be some way for me to participate in what was happening in and around Greensboro. 

In 2004 I had started a project called The Ultimate Black Belt Test, which was an experiment in innovative black belt testing curriculum. I phoned Pam and told her I was going to bring a bunch of these testers down to Greensboro and provide labor for anything she might need help with. 

"Pam, we'll dig ditches, clean up junk, and work like dogs if we have to," I remember saying. I was certain that there was no better place to bring the team to discuss creativity and out of the box thinking than Greensboro.

Typical martial arts events or conferences were held at fancy hotels in convention cities, like Las Vegas, where we would do some training and then sit in chairs for hours being pitched new products. I was so bored with that approach and sought, instead, to DO something interesting.  It was my hope that the martial arts teachers who came with me would connect to Mockbee's approach to teaching, as I saw it as so applicable to what we do as martial arts instructors. What I didn't know at the time was how influential and important Pam Dorr, the former Rural Studio intern, would become to my own work and to the town of Greensboro. 

That offer to help ended up becoming a house build, Pam's first, for a man who was living in a trailer that had been partially burned, had a leaky roof, and was generally just a hazard. 

This film, below, shows members of the Ultimate Black Belt Test (UBBT) working on "The Bunk House," a antebellum cabin that was leaning dangerously to one side, but that we helped save with funding and renovation. The Bunk House now serves as a place to house visiting students and volunteer groups. Our first house build recipient, Henry Lawson, can be seen in the piece. 

The video was produced for The Hallmark Channel by UBBT member and Academy Award winning filmmaker Nancy Walzog.

Over the last 10 years we've funded and engaged projects such as The Rosenwald School renovation. The Rosenwald Schools were the brainchild of Sears and Roebuck President Julius Rosenwald and Booker T. Washington; they were schools built to educate African-American children who weren't being taught in the public schools of the time. We were blessed with having Rosenwald's great-granddaughter, New York graphic designer Laurie Rosenwald, make a commemorative print for the event. 

As you can see in the three photos below, the Rosenwald School renovation project was a big one. The building was, literally, falling apart. The restoration brought back to life a building of no small importance to the community and to the history of the region. 

At one year's event, we built a house for a delightful elderly woman by the name of Ms. Georgia. Ms. Georgia lived across the street from The Safe House Museum. From the Rural Studio's blog:

On the night of March 21, 1968,  Martin Luther King Jr. sought refuge from the Ku Klux Klan inside a small shotgun style home in the depot neighborhood of Greensboro, Alabama.  Today that house is known as The Safe House Black History Museum. It is a site of great significance to American Black History as well as the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950’s and 1960’s. The museum documents the struggle for equality at the local level, along with other highlights of the civil rights movement in hale county. The Safe House Museum is unique as it contains many artifacts of the struggle from slavery to equality, as well as unpublished local and state photos of the civil rights movement. There is living history at the museum as it is directed by Ms. Theresa Burroughs, a Greensboro native who participated actively as a foot soldier during the movement.  Theresa and her family kept Martin Luther King Jr. safe in their home on the night of March 21, 1968.

(Photo credited to Timothy Hursley, from the Rural Studio's Safe House Museum page)

Ms. Georgia and many of her neighbors were there that night that Reverend King hid in Ms. Theresa's family home. 

One year, before we restored the bunkhouse for Hero Housing, I happened to read an article in a graphic design magazine about this forward thinking graphic design and communications teacher, John Bielenberg. John mentioned in the piece that he had seen Mockbee speak at a convention and it had inspired him to incorporate some of his philosophy into his own work, such as the unique PROJECT M.

I sent an e-mail to and then called John and suggested that we might collaborate on something in Greensboro, as I explained what I had been doing there and the impact Samuel Mockbee had had on my own work. 

John eventually brought Project M to live and work in there --and the result has been a number of very interesting projects, including:

Pie Lab

The Buy a Meter Project

And The Alabamboo Make and Ride Project, which is now Bike Lab. 

At our 2014 event we had the good fortune of a special guest builder, Julia Butterfly Hill, an author and environmental activist best known for sitting in an old growth redwood tree in Northern California, for more than 2 years, to keep it from being cut down by a logging company. 

Julia came to help me emphasize to attendees the importance and relevance of environmental issues and our notion of what is self-defense. In 2015 Julia will be returning --and this year we're delighted to have three other special guests.

Our Next Event

in 2015, Dave Kovar, Keshia Thomas, and organic cooking chef Casey Easton will join us in Greensboro. Julia and Casey will be preparing meals for the team, offering some of the young attendees to participate in the food prep and cooking. Dave Kovar, an accomplish author and veteran martial arts teacher will be explaining his national bully prevention program. Keshia Thomas will be speaking about courage and activism, as Keshia is someone who has made her life about both issues. 

In 1996 Keshia, in the image above, was one of Life Magazine's "pictures of the year" when photographer Mark Brunner caught her throwing her body over a white alleged Klu Klux Klan supporter being beaten by protestors at a Klan rally in Ann Arbor, MI. 

In 2015, over 4 days April 8 to the 11th, we're going to tackle some small renovation projects, perhaps a few of the team will help Pam's Youth Build program finish a house they're working on, but our main project will be to BUILD A BUSINESS for Pam, Hero Housing, and Greensboro. 

We're going to help Pam design and build an outdoor bread oven to open Greensboro's first fresh bread bakery since the 1930's. This project originated from a phone call I made to Pam while traveling thru the south last year giving seminars. I was stay a few nights in Greensboro and called Pam from Jackson, MS and asked her if there was anything she needed me to bring. 

"A good loaf of bread," she said. Turns out that there was no decent fresh bread being sold in little old Greensboro. 

Coincidentally, I'd been eyeballing an outdoor wood bread stove built by a couple of organic produce farmers near my house. South Fork Farm and Bakery bakes these mouthwatering loaves of bread, so good that you have to buy two; one to take home and one to eat on the way home. 

Pam had been, as of late, starting small businesses in Greensboro to help fund HERO Housing, so the bakery oven will not only provide Greensboro with fresh baked bread, but it will give HERO another potential income stream. 

See the CBS News story below about Pam's small business success in Greensboro:

Over the last decade the Alabama Build-Vention has brought in somewhere close to $250,000 in donations for the martial arts community --and helped to facilitate more than 40,000 man hours of volunteered labor to Greensboro. 

For the international martial arts community, the  Build-Vention has give me --and many of my colleagues --a platform with which to discuss community engagement, volunteerism, experiential leadership training, and any number of topics previously absent from the agenda of the martial arts "industry."

Many of the black belts and martial arts students who have come to The Black Belt, this very poor region of America, have gone back to their own schools and designed community outreach projects from seeds planted in Greensboro. 

For more information on the 2015 event, to offer to participate and/or to help with fundraising and donations, reach out to Tom Callos at tomcallos at g mail dot com --or by phone at 530-903-0286. 

This year's co-sponsor is ZEN PLANNER Software. They'll be sending some of their staff to build with us --and has donated generously to the project. 

[tomcallos]

How to Measure a Great Martial Artist; My Opinions, of Course. By Tom Callos.

So let's say I'm a veteran martial arts teacher / practitioner, like...oh say, 44 years of participation / practice. And let's say that I have some students; that is, people who, in one way or another, look to me for a bit of direction / coaching in whatever it is I've learned and/or observed during the year's I've been studying / practicing various martial arts methods under various teachers. Let's say, further, that part of my self-proclaimed job and/or responsibilities as a senior practitioner is to offer some guidance, when possible, to younger or less experienced practitioners. Maybe it is even the way I take my own practice to a deeper place? Perhaps I even go so far as to offer some acknowledgment for a student's progress, like I received as I was coming up, if and when it might be warranted.  If any of this were the case, here's some of the advice I might give: 1. Becoming proficient at the physical skills of the martial arts, be it jiu-jitsu or karate or any method, is step one of the practice. It can be difficult --a difficult road to follow, as there's pain involved, there are long periods of time when the obstacles to improvement seem far greater than measurable progress, but if you don't get the practice of the physical skills and the mental game involved with becoming adept, physically, you will probably not receive the benefits of what comes from this aspect of the training. If you choose to make the martial arts something you use for your own benefit, then step 1 is to practice long, hard, and smart enough to reap what comes from the effort.  2. It is a huge, painful, and common mistake to think that your physical skills, no matter how talented you are, are the most important aspect of your practice. No matter how deadly you think you are, no matter how many awards you garner from competition, no matter how badly you can "kick ass" on your fellow man/woman, to think physical skill is the be-all / end-all of the training is like thinking that the only obligation a parent has to his or her child is to offer them shelter, food, and clothing. Those are, obviously, the essentials of survival, but there are so many other things than children require to grow up sane, healthy, participative, and compassionate, yes? 3. Beyond your impressive, hard-earned physical skills, in whatever the brand-name of your method is, is something equally --if not in the long run, far MORE --important, and that is your ability to take what you practice so diligently and consistently on the mat and apply it to things that have little or nothing to do with punching, kicking, or choking other people --in the world. To be able to contribute to a better and more peaceful world, I would say, is the desired end-result of all the practice. To seek to make a difference for others takes a level of courage and awareness and selflessness that, I think, should be the Holy Grail of the effort, overall. If I were to award rank to practitioners today, as a teacher / mentor, a high level of physical skill would be a must, it would be expected, but nothing I've learned during my own journey has taught me that this is the really important, primary, end-all goal of the practice of the martial arts. I would be looking for my students to engage their communities in meaningful ways, in ways that people with less courage and/or perseverance might avoid or ignore. I would be looking for students to do, for example, the work of people like Alexandra Fuller and her associates at Level Ground Mixed Martial Arts. I would certainly acknowledge a high level of skill in my students, but if it ended there, if beating other practitioners or "winning" matches or "street fights" were mistaken for the path and purpose of the training, I would be severely disappointed; I would look at it like a personal failure to pass on what I've learned from those who mentored me.  Developing decent, good, great, and/or even world class athletes is just one leg of a three-legged table. The highly skilled martial arts practitioner is one that embraces a practice that cultivates physical skill, mental clarity, and emotional depth. The table of those three concepts should be a platform for doing what the great people, the heroes, the doers of the world do ---and that is to make a difference for others; to do no harm; to grow into fully engaged, compassionate, contributive, participative, loving human beings.  I take some care to find and cultivate and/or contribute to martial artists who are not only physically talented, but who have grown up enough --or are aware enough (for whatever reason and by whatever methods) to see what the practice is, ultimately, for. My growing list of my own personal martial arts teaching heroes may be found at www.the100blog.com.  The "ultimate black belt test" is, to me anyway, not about how much of a bad-ass someone is, but a measurement of how skilled the practitioner is at taking the work out of the dojo and putting it to work, in the world, to the benefit of other people, places, and things. The practice is to transcend the purely physical, to transcend the realm of commerce, and to seek not to be a great martial artist, but a stellar human being.

[tomcallos]

Unsolicited Business and Career Advice for Martial Arts Teachers / School Owners, from Tom Callos:

1. Promoting your school / business is no longer promoting your business, it's a quest for clarity, development of the language you own and use, and an exercise (vigorous training you put yourself thru) for your brain, your creativity, and your ability to make things (good things, for yourself and other people) happen.

Understand this and marketing isn't a burden or a chore, instead it becomes a form of art and a kind of spiritual / intellectual training. Promotion of a school with the correct mindset shows us and/or is an indicator as to whether the training has been, for you, more than simply exercising and learning techniques.

2. When you embrace the mindset that every student you have is to be treated like your only student, you become a practitioner of "student micro-management." When you learn to practice student micro-management, you know 1/3 of the secrets you need to run a profitable, powerful, successful school.

If / when you're ready to 1. Become a school owner who uses his/her school in the most powerful ways, for reasons that matter; 2. When you're ready to transcend the crass and tired gutter-mentality of sell-out tactics promoted as smart in the martial arts "industry," and/or when you're ready to make the management of your school a passionate and purposeful endeavor (rather than a distraction from your training or "busy-work"), reach out to me, I can help you, if you've some self-discipline, the ability to set a course and stick to it, and an interest in doing the best work you're capable of. I can't do the work for you, but I can help you improve your game. Tom Callos 530-903-0286 --or begin by filling out the AUDIT at www.the100.us

[tomcallos]

Martial Arts Business: Self-Defense and Our Job. Prevention.

It's my opinion that most martial arts teachers (99%) who claim or infer that they "teach" self-defense go about it with a strategy (or lack thereof) that is deeply flawed and at best, grossly inadequate.

However, I think that with a shift in how we see our role in self-defense instruction, we could go about the work in a way that actually makes people far safer, reduces more suffering, and that might actually save lives.

Point # 1

Our job is PREVENTION We don't carry the weapons, enforce the laws, put the criminals on trial, or incarcerate offenders; our job is prevention. Our job is to educate people, to warn them, about what could happen --and how to avoid potentially dangerous situations BEFORE they get that way.

FACT: Anything you / we say BEFORE an event, an assault, a rape, an altercation or confrontation, a murder, and/or any act of violence -- is about 1000 times better / more beneficial than anything we might say AFTER an event. Teaching someone after they have been accosted is not quality self-defense instruction; teaching someone how to avoid becoming a victim is self-defense instruction at its best.

TOM OPINION: In that real self-defense instruction is found in education (in advance of an event), the real teacher of self-defense has license to reach out to his or her community 1000 times a year ---to coach, to instruct, to warn, to help people avoid danger, to foster awareness, and to carry out the mandate that self-defense is avoiding danger before it has a chance to strike. EVERYONE will become an expert, be outraged, cry for something to be done, AFTER a tragedy ---only the intelligent teacher of self-defense has the awareness that after-the-fact education isn't what self-defense is.

HOW today's martial arts teachers might go about transforming their role --and doing the work effectively, is what I'm coaching members of www.the100.usin, now --and every day of the year.

TIP: Self-defense isn't knowledge alone, real self-defense is a practice. Teaching self-defense isn't found in offering classes, it's found in coaching people to make self-defense awareness a practice.

A school that understands its role in self-defense instruction, knows how to reach its community (marketing).

[tomcallos]

Martial Arts Business: The Power of 1 and The Power of 100.

Every new year is a new beginning, as is every month, every week, every day, every hour, every minute. In 2015 I pledge to work, hard and smart, to make The 100. a tool for change, for growth of consciousness in the international martial arts community, and a place where people can come and both find and give inspiration.

We, the martial arts community, can do better than we're doing. We can be a force for change and wisdom; we can expand the idea of "self-defense" to include subjects such as compassion, nonviolence, and empathy, food and food production and diet, issues of the media's portrayal of negative stereotypes and the disabling distortion of self-image in young people, issues of health, environmental issues of concern, and community activism.

The 100. teaches martial arts school owners, teachers, and their staff members about running schools that are smarter, ethical, engaged, and that cultivate the bravest of actions, the most worthwhile and uplifting of activities ---activities that take the work out of our dojos and into the world.

But one school owner can only do so much. One martial artist can only do so much. What happens when 100 or 200 or 1000 of us decide we're going to play a part in the redesign of the role of the martial artist and the martial arts school in today's world?

We don't yet know.

Step # 1 is to encourage instructors to think beyond the immediate return, the profit and loss statement, their own little kingdoms, and to step out of the mad dash for money, wealth, and more things. In the whole-hearted pursuit of improving the quality of our work, individually and collectively, we will find the profitability we hoped for.

"The power of one, if fearless and focused, is formidable, but the power of many working together is (far, far) better." --Gloria Macapagal Arroyo

[tomcallos]

Martial Arts Business: The Business of Cultivating Martial Arts Teachers That Cultivate Change. Mike Valentine Earns 6th Dan.

"Any artist works for and is at the service of his or her community." --Romuald Hazoume of Africa.

Last night at Mike Valentine's 6th dan test, overseen by Dave Kovar and I, some of Mike's young students came out between his physical demonstrations and told the stories of their work in the community on behalf of bully prevention, of charity work, of environmental cleanup projects, and other acts of community engagement.

Mike and his wife, Karen Valentine were my first students and the first school in the nation --and maybe in the world, that added the requirement to their black belt tests of an environmental clean-up or service project conceived and initiated by each tester. They've now made these types of "out of the dojo and into the world" projects a requirement (or expectation) of all their young students. They were also the first school in the world, to my knowledge, that sought to be "green certified" in their community --and they launched the initial work of my idea that "environmental self-defense" was/is, in todays' world, as relevant to modern self-defense as any block, kick, punch, or wrestling maneuver.

Moreover, Mike and Karen are ardent supporters, both thru dues paid and contribution to, The 100. Method, which is my school for master teachers and their staff members where I teach and cultivate extraordinary practices, ideas, and methods in and for martial arts school owners -----including ideas about environmental self-defense, issues of diet and food production, anger management, peace education and conflict resolution, hyper-masculinity, the media's influence on the thinking of young people, and community engagement as martial arts.

Ironically, for an industry that relies so heavily on student loyalty and group engagement, I have found it the rare exception that a school owner understands and acts upon the need to fund and support his/her association ---which is really a manifestation of what many can bring to the table that one could not do alone. Some of my students who have received the most benefit from my work, whose very USP is built upon my work, ignore or don't understand the importance of supporting something larger than their own school. Mike and Karen do --and it makes it an obligation and an honor to serve them to the best of my abilities.

For Mike's balance of fine physical skills (20 amature boxing fights, 40 years of training, 20 year of BJJ and earning his black belt), for running a school built upon service over gimmick, one built upon the most ethical practices, for designing programs that serve his community, and for cultivating a student body that takes what they practice on the mat and seeks to put it to work to serve other people, places, and things, I consider it my duty to advance Mike to 6th dan, a level of proficiency that should go only to the man or woman living the practice of martial arts mastery as it could be, not as it is.

This photo at the top of the page, taken from the test table, of one of Mike's students addressing the spectators at the event, is the work of a master teacher --and at 6th dan one's accomplishments can --and should be --measured more on how the teacher's practice affects others, then on what the teacher can do himself. For physical skill and dedication, for managing a school with unique, pragmatic, eclectic curriculum, for development of a small army of highly trained black belts who represent the high standards promised in the school's marketing and promotion, for cultivating curriculum adopted by local schools to combat bullying, for experimentation with unconventional curriculum and getting profound results with it, and for service to the international martial arts community, I'm honored to sign my name to his certificate ---and I urge other school owners to seek Mike out as a big brother, a mentor, a role model, a friend, and a student / teacher.

Good work Mike. Now, let's blow the thing up and begin anew.