Laurence Sandum

Dear EFC clients,

This is the honest truth about the summit.  Its going to cost you about £1500 all in.  However, if you attend and you apply a few  of the ideas your school will grow by at least £1500 in just a couple of months and then you will be getting that increased income everymonth there on after as long as you service your students correctly.

If you can’t afford the £1500 start saving the money monthly now.

It really is very easy to grow your school.  Just apply what’s in the manuals, attend meeting of minds and network meetings and apply what you are told.  You don’t even need a big advertising budget as you can generate new students internally.

EFC methods and systems work for any style in any town or area in the world.  It works so why not apply it……

I am looking forward to the next summit.

Best wishes,

Laurence Sandum

Ken Pankiewicz

I’ve just returned from the EFC Summit in Washington DC. I wanted to share some highlights with you and give an insight into why you should travel to next year’s event in Nashville. There were over 800 school owners, programme directors or instructors eager to train and improve their business knowledge.
Mike Allen did an excellent job of making sure all the UK visitors met-up several times a day to exchange notes plus introducing them to US school owners. At night we had dinner together and a drink in the bar to continue the networking!

Day 1
Thursday started with registration then four great breakouts. I went to Paul Garcia who gave valuable information on retention. I came away with info on running a “coach’s day” and father and son “punch and lunch.”
Next-up was Steve Doyon who focused on low cost marketing ideas. He handed out a folder with samples of all his internal marketing that he is doing in his school of 700 students! In his 60 minute presentation there was enough info to enrol at least 15 students each month for very little cost.
The other 2 speakers were Charles Chi on Social Media Marketing and Dave Kovar on Mastery Mindset
The evening workout and the Martial Arts being shared were outstanding too. Sifu Luigi Cuellar and Sifu Alex Chan did an awesome six station/six art workout on Thursday night. Followed by the amazing Kyoshi Dave Kovar with his never ending blend of skills and drills.
The evening finished on an emotional high as several high ranks were presented between Hanshi Greg Tearney and Grand Master Fred Degerberg. Multi-styles, multi-generations all demonstrating great respect and support of each other…an awesome start!

Day 2
Friday morning started with us all together. It was a great feeling joining 800 fellow martial artists in the same room. We were asked to think about this year’s theme “the turning point”; how can you make a difference in your martial arts school and community. There were several speakers giving their personal thoughts on the theme backed up with videos. Mr Nicholas Cokinos gave his Chairman’s speech and offered valuable insights and wisdom from his experience in running EFC for over 30 years.
The main martial arts display was headed up by Sifu Dennis Brown; it showed his personal journey from 30 years of Kung Fu training and included a display by the Shaolin Monks. It was great. Then Ernie Reyes the head of West Coast Tae Kwon Do gave a dazzling display with his 3 kids. (I want to look like him, when I am 63 years old!). It was a world class line-up of stars and performers.
The afternoon featured a choice 25 different seminars. The UK group spread themselves out to get to as many as possible. We then will exchange the notes amongst everyone from the group
The evening awards banquet and dinner was an excellent time to see everyone dressed up. Again Mike Allen had organised a table for the UK and Australian clients at the front of the hall. It was great to see many of the awards going to UK clients and staff. I was proud to collect Instructor of the Year on behalf of KickFit instructor Richard Parks.

Day 3
Saturday morning started fast & furious with former Dalai Lama body guard and World renowned Ninja, Stephen Hayes. Plus, Bruce Lee’s daughter, Shannon Lee along with a brief Demo by Garland Johnson and his wife Bridgett.
Then we had Steve LaVallee presenting his keynote speech on “Learn from the Past…Prepare for the Future.”  He always generates great excitement and gave out some real gems of information based on his experience. He had 60 members of his staff at the event!
The three breakouts were divided for Programme Directors, Instructors and Owners. In the owners seminar Mr Cokinos gave plenty of excellent reminders and the weekend came to an exciting Grand Finale with the talented Gabrielle’s Martial Arts Demo Team. What an excellent weekend of bonding, learning, sharing, training and inspiration.

How to Get to Next Year’s Summit
I have been a member of the EFC since 1997, this summit rates as one of the best. I urge you to make the effort and join us for next year. You will be surrounded by world class martial artists and have the chance to add to your business network. Attending each year has helped me grow the KickFit schools to their current level
Rules of 3 to Get to Next Year’s Summit
•    Call your account executive and book your place – consider monthly payments to make it easier to budget
•    Book your flights to Nashville early next year to get the best price. Use a good travel agent eg: Trailfinders or on-line booking eg: Skyscanner or Opodo. Also watch out for airline seat sales, British Airways usually has one during January or February
•    Pay a monthly amount from January, into a separate account to cover your hotel and living expenses. Mike Allen can give you more details on how much
I too would be happy to help with any questions you might have about attending the Summit.

Ken Pankiewicz

Mike Allen, EFC UK General Manager

Good morning everyone!

We have just returned from the Annual EFC International Summit which just gets better every year and this year everyone said it was the best one yet.  The only regret that the UK attendees had was that there were not more of us at the Summit to gather the wealth of information available and to enjoy networking with the most dynamic schools in the Martial Arts field.

Ken Pankiewicz has kindly forwarded me his thoughts and I will forward others to you as I receive them.

Chris Ellis said to me that from the breakouts he and Ginny attended on Thursday afternoon they got so much good information that if they got nothing else over the next two days their trip would still be worthwhile.

This Christmas give yourself and your school the best present you will ever have, by booking your place at the 2011 EFC Summit to be held on the 10/11/12 November 2011 in the stunning Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville Tennessee, please click on the link:  Gaylord Hotels

I guarantee that you will be stunned by the information and camaraderie that abounds, so call your AE today for more details.

Regards

Mike

The EFC Drills & Skills Workshop run by Ken Pankiewicz and his staff at his Kickfit Academy HQ in Slough was an outstanding success.  Twenty six clients and staff from all over the UK enthusiastically arrived bang on time, in uniform ready for what proved to be one of the very best ‘on the mat’ Workshops we have run so far.

The meeting started with an actual Little Champions class with ten small children being taught by their regular Instructor Richard Howton.  The class started with the children bowing to the parents who all stood up and recited the Student Creed with the children.  Richard then skilfully worked through his lesson plan, handling the ‘spinners’ and ‘chatterboxes’ with great skill.  The children were kept busy throughout and they thoroughly enjoyed the class.

Once the parents and children had left there was a very lively Q&A about the class.  Everyone then got on the mat and Richard took them through some additional Little Champions Drills with the attendees as the students.

Kickfit Instructors Richard Parks and Sarah Davis then took the attendees through Junior Class drills including warm up routines, message of the week and pad work drills.  The class was followed by a Q & A and general critique by Ken.

Ken then covered some Adult Class Drills before running through the Instructor Reference Guide that he uses to train his instructors, concluding the meeting with another Q & A session.

The workshop then closed and after some general networking the attendees left with many of them having very long journeys back to North Wales, Cornwall, the South Coast, the East Coast and the West Country, but all of them were looking forward to the exciting changes they were going to make in their school.

The Workshop was very good and we have received excellent feedback.  Every one was very appreciative of the information they received and the enthusiasm and time that Ken and his Instructors gave us so freely.

Over seventy dedicated Martial Arts School owners and their staff battled their way for up to six dark hours through torrential rain and high winds to John Lynn’s Black Belt Academy in sometime sunny Rhyl in North Wales.  Some might question why these men and women were so enthusiastically giving up their time and energy, but to these  ‘Business Black Belts’ the journey was a minor hurdle.

These outstanding entrepreneurs were travelling to attend one of EFC UK’s famous Meeting of Minds Business Seminars, featuring top USA school owners Keith and Debbie Thompson, top UK school owner John Lynn and new super star Vince Cassar.

The meeting was a fantastic experience for every one.  John and Lynne Lynn and their staff were wonderful hosts making every one feel welcomed and their school was a superb venue.  Keith and Debbie Thompson are very busy people running two terrific schools (soon to be three), as well as their extensive duties as members of the EFC Board of Directors and EFC Advisory Board respectively.  Somehow they managed to find the time to make their second visit to our shores to help their friends in the UK and Ireland.

Keith kicked off the meeting to talk to us about the essential elements of professional martial arts success, which was

very illuminating.  Following a very tasty buffet lunch the attendees were split with Debbie talking to the staff and Keith the owners.  Debbie talked to the staff about how they should best use their time when they start in the morning, how they should start thinking like an owner and how they can improve their income.  Meanwhile Keith talked to the owners about staff training and building staff to ensure that you have bench strength.  John Lynn explained the systems he uses, which not only allow him to run JLBBA, but also enable him to run his Merit Badges business, all while living in the USA for much of the year, very impressive!   The attendees then reconvened together and Debbie talked about event planning and how to run a successful Pizza party and Keith told us the keys to student retention.

It was then time to get on the floor for some Ninjutsu training with Keith before retiring to a local hotel for a very pleasant evening meal and lot’s of networking.

Sunday morning started with a bang as the ever enthusiastic John Lynn taught every one his famous chants or ‘Focus Anchors’.  This was not only useful for waking up any sleepy heads, but also taught great techniques for use in any martial arts school.  John was followed by Vince Cassar who was speaking at his first EFC seminar.  At the Summit I asked Vince how he had managed to grow by 300% in just nineteen months from £5K to over £15K.  He said ‘I just stopped getting in my own way!’ and that was the subject of his talk.  Vince detailed in a very practical commonsense way how he broke down his own objections in order to make sure that he introduced all of the EFC systems and the success followed.  Vince’s advice to every one was ‘Stop getting in your own way’, which I think could well become a popular maxim within EFC.

Keith then spoke about marketing to attract more children and the purpose and value of networking followed by a lively and enjoyable Q&A session.  After a great deal of networking over another excellent buffet lunch the attendees said their goodbyes to their host, the presenters and their new EFC friends.   Loaded with notes and action plans they made their way home on a warm and pleasant afternoon all now clearly knowing exactly where they are going!

The feed back from the meeting has been very positive and we are all grateful to our hosts John and Lynne Lynn, Vince Cassar and of course to the wonderful team of Keith and Debbie Thompson.

Mike Allen
EFC UK General Manager

I was impressed when I heard Mr. Cokinos speaking about our purpose in promoting black belts. Students entrust us with their time and their bodies in order to promote themselves to black belt. I think it is important that we all work harder to get our students to the place they need to be.

It is important to put time into our students. Also, we have to have a plan. If students have a game plan, their chances of performing well are higher, provided they put in time and effort.

If you were a student of mine, I would grade you in five different areas when it comes to black belt promotions: attendance and commitment, spirit and energy (it is our job as coaches to pull it out of them), knowledge and skills, fitness (flexibility, strength and stamina) and lastly, martial arts protocol. These have to be explained to students so they know how to achieve them, and this is done right from the beginning, when they go in for their first round of testing.