From About $10,000 to $37,000 a Month

Rob has been with the group for roughly four to five years. When he started, his monthly gross was pushing up toward about $10,000 a month. Now, in his words, he’s “easily over around $30,000, $35,000” — and this month the school hit $37,000. He’s not treating that as a finish line: the aim is to keep pushing it up from there. That’s roughly a 3.7x increase in monthly revenue for a Kung Fu school in a mid-sized Canadian market — exactly the kind of school and location that owners assume “the systems” won’t work for.

Objection #1: “This Won’t Transfer to Kung Fu”

When Rob first joined, his biggest concern was that the material wouldn’t transfer to his art. Most of the other owners in the group were teaching Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu or Taekwondo, and Rob taught Kung Fu. Even though he was told it would make a difference, he wasn’t convinced it would carry over to his style and his school’s culture.

Here’s his honest conclusion: the only real problem was his own hang-ups. Once he got over those and recognized that everyone in the group was committed to teaching a high level of martial art, everything transferred over just fine. Better than fine — it added to the quality of his program and to his student value, and it did nothing to bring down the quality of his student body or harm his culture. As Rob puts it, it “all added to the culture.” And there was a marketing dividend: “Now we can market with a lot more confidence, because we know that our program really, really delivers.”

The Character Development Program That Raised Student Value

One of the biggest drivers of Rob’s increased student value was adding the character development pieces into his program. There are a lot of moving parts to it, but once they’re in place, he says, you see real, tangible results that matter to students and to parents.

Rob describes watching students make important, sometimes massive changes in their lives — kids who aren’t just in better physical shape but are noticeably more confident at school, at home, and with their friends, and noticeably more disciplined. That, he says, is what makes him proud of his program. It’s also why his black belts today are “way better” than they were five years ago: the character-development layer raised the quality of the entire student experience, which in turn is exactly what justifies premium tuition and drives retention.

Objection #2: The Investment Felt Risky

Rob is candid that the second thing holding him back was the investment. When he came in, his building’s gross was lower, so committing money to coaching worried him at first. That worry dissolved fast: within the first month or two he saw noticeable results right away, and the program had already paid for itself many times over. This is the pattern we see again and again — the investment feels scariest to exactly the owners who need it most, and it’s usually the fastest thing to earn itself back once the systems go in.

Objection #3: “We’re in Canada”

As one of the Canadian members, Rob also hesitated at first over whether concepts from the U.S. would apply across the border, worrying about cultural differences. What he found once he got into it is worth quoting for every international owner: the other Canadian members following the same system were performing really well. The ones who weren’t getting good results, he observed, were the ones who “kept making that excuse — well, this won’t work in this country because of this and this.”

His conclusion: those objections “are really all just silly little hang-ups that we have in our own mind. The stuff transfers over. It’s pretty easy — just apply it, and then you get the results.”

What Rob’s Story Should Teach You

• Your style is not the exception. Kung Fu, BJJ, Taekwondo, Muay Thai — the marketing, pricing, retention, and character-development systems transfer, and they add to your culture rather than dilute it.
• Your country is not the exception. The Canadian members who followed the system got results; the ones who made excuses didn’t. The variable was execution, not geography.
• The investment objection answers itself. Rob saw results within a month or two and the program paid for itself many times over.
• Character development is a revenue system, not just a feel-good add-on. It raised Rob’s student value, his black-belt quality, and his confidence to market.

The through-line of Rob’s story is that his biggest obstacles were never his art, his country, or his budget. They were the hang-ups in his own head — and the moment he set them aside and committed, the results followed.

Frequently Asked Questions

Get Past Your Own Hang-Ups

If you’ve been telling yourself the systems won’t work for your style, your town, or your country, Rob’s numbers are worth a second look. The fastest way to find out what’s possible for your school is a free, no-obligation Personal Evaluation with our team. Call or text our National Director Bob Dunne at +1 (720) 256-0208, or book online below.