Rejecting Prospects

I actually had to turn down a student recently. I haven't had to do that for a long long time, because the people who are drawn to me and our school tend to be similar in attitude and demeanor.

This particular individual was a total testosterone driven, alpha male, uber competive, control freak, who got power in his life at a young age. He wants to compete in MMA and saw how powerful our striking techniques are and wanted to compliment his training.

That latter part alone is fine. But the individual himself was very unsuited for our school personality-wise. One of our assistant instructors brought him because this prospect is his professor and they talk martial arts all the time.

We noticed a change in our assistant instructor's attitude when this prospect (his professor) tried our class. Our assistant instructor had a challenge of maintaining his authority in the class with him in it.

His professor even put up a fuss for signing a registration form, though he said he loved the class.

So after my Co-Director and I discussed this for awhile, we felt that it is best that he doesn't join our school. He changes the dynamic and mood of our class culture, which we are currently happy with and works for us.

As a business person, I realize that I'm potentially turning down dollars, but I think maintaining a certain atmosphere by NOT having certain personality types in our school is equally (if not more) valuable.

I know this is nothing new for a lot of you all, but it is new for me, as my business is growing. I used to be this idealistic thinker, where I would say, "If you're willing to put the time in, I can make anyone into a really good martial artist". There are now caveats to that statement.

I like how Melody Shuman talks about doing pre-evaluations to QUALIFY people into your programs. I do it with kids, and now I'm going to set it as policy for adults. I generally do, but sometimes my staff brings folks to try classes. So no more of that. Everything must be a pre qualification with me or my co-director first.

I like how Nick Daugherty talks about it actually feeling kind of good to turn someone away, even though that they want to be part of your school, because it means and shows that you care about the quality of your school. It sets an example to your staff especially, that you have standards of the quality of the character of the people who want to join your school.

On a side note, you know what the best part about not being an MMA school is? Fewer knuckleheads to deal with. Annoying parents? Sure! But I prefer them over MMA knuckleheads any day of the week. Let's be real - MMA attracts the most knuckleheads of all the martial arts. Sorry to be blunt. But it does. The fewer of them I have to deal with, the better my days are. Not all MMA interested folks are - I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that MMA attracts the most knuckleheads of all the martial arts. I don't think that's even a debate.

But back to the point on hand, rejecting prospects has definitely opened my eyes and gave me a stronger sense of clarity of what my business' purpose is, because it gave me an insight on what I don't want my business to be.