“What really disturbs me is how many martial arts instructors somehow feel they must ‘take a vow of poverty’ in order to teach quality martial arts. They earn a living comparable to professionals with similar levels of training in any field.” . – Grandmaster Stephen Oliver, 8th Dan
This month, the owner of the martial arts school interviews one of the most prominent individuals in the martial arts, eighth degree black belt, president and founder of Mile High Karate, Grandmaster Stephen Oliver. From the beginning of our meeting I realize that it is more than a lifetime commitment to hard training and technical excellence that has allowed Grandmaster Oliver to achieve so much in a career that has spanned over thirty years. . Perhaps it is the true passion that he has for providing high-quality instruction to his students while providing an opportunity for his school owners and staff to make an incredible living and even going as far in his marketing campaign to affirm boldly that ‘that every single Black Belt ever developed in Mile High Karate has said that the experience was not only worth $1,000,000.00, but was literally priceless! Or is it his unwavering commitment to community projects like Chuck Norris’s ‘Kick Drugs Out of America’? The answer is that Grandmaster Oliver’s success cannot be attributed to one particular factor in his career. He easily combines all of the savvy business and marketing techniques available to any business person, while also demonstrating the true attributes of a traditional martial arts instructor. So whatever stage he finds himself at with teaching him, there is something to be learned from Grandmaster Oliver. He has become the leading consultant in the field through his school owner’s training program and his Mile High Karate schools are busy expanding internationally through Regional Developer “Master” franchises.
After graduating from high school, Master Oliver moved to Washington DC to continue his studies at Georgetown University and to help pay for his education, he began teaching at a branch of the Jhoon Rhee Institute. However, it soon became clear that the way martial arts were taught needed a change. ‘During the 1960s and 1970s in the United States, martial arts appealed more to a lower class of people who focused primarily on fighting more effectively. In Texas and Oklahoma, the contact rules in competition were really open to flexible interpretation.’ It was clear to Grandmaster Oliver that if he was going to open his knowledge of martial arts to a wider audience and build a sustainable martial arts school business, he needed to reduce the ‘blood and guts’ attitude that had come to dominate the world. art in that early period. Over the years, since their early days of teaching at the university, both the percentage of students graduating as Black Belt and their skills when they get there have improved dramatically and also our students tend to be more highly educated, as who are interested in the broader range of development benefits the program offers.’
It was during this early period in college that Grandmaster Oliver began to entertain the idea that his passion for the arts could truly become his livelihood. “In the early 1980s, I was finishing my undergraduate degree at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. I was a branch manager for the Jhoon Rhee Institute (which had 9 locations in Washington, DC). I thought I was going to go to a MBA at Harvard or Stanford University and then a career in a big corporation.” Ending up in Georgetown, Grandmaster Oliver courted several of the world’s most recognizable companies including Procter & Gamble, IBM, and several large banks including New York City-based Chase Manhattan. However, after thinking of that path as a career and seeing what he could earn in college, he decided to put together an extensive business plan and move to Denver, Colorado to open a chain of martial arts schools. “My model was really the Jhoon Rhee Institute and when I moved I opened five schools in 18 months, with only about $10,000 in capital. I knew I was ridiculously undercapitalized, but I did it anyway.” Following his passion for the arts was something that would pay off and at the age of 25 he was the head of a million dollar operation.
However, he is the first to admit that over thirty years of a martial arts career has not been all smooth sailing. “Clearly I ran into a lot of roadblocks over the years. My biggest crisis was in 1989, when I basically lost about 70% of my staff and went through a lengthy divorce at the same time. It all coincided with the biggest economic collapse in the US economy. Colorado. It took me several years to get rid of that, and it led me to go back to get my MBA, which was more for an emotional break than to really learn more about how to run my business. Being very successful again was an incredibly valuable experience.” . Through it all though, Grandmaster Oliver never lost sight of the passion and drive to be innovative in the martial arts with his Mile High Karate chain of schools. “We’ve done a number of things that I think are unusual. First, a lot of organizations that are trying to expand nationally and internationally are focusing on one, sometimes two areas of the business, but failing to combine them all.” Adding that; “With my schools, we’ve been able to support individual schools by having someone else do the billing, bookkeeping, and payroll.”
Another key foundation of Mile High Karate is providing training programs focused on the three critical success factors that every school must focus on:
1.) Effective internal and external marketing systems
2.) Structured pricing systems and submission processes to effectively enroll and upgrade students, largely supported with automated processes or incredibly effective sales tools.
3.) Effective instructor training systems combined with a scientifically structured curriculum to ensure the highest possible quality of students. At the same time, Grandmaster Oliver remains fully focused on instilling core values and philosophies in the growing Mile High Karate chain, “the overall culture of the organization is very important.
We really work to make sure that all of our staff and black belts work interdependently. It is very important for everyone to always be “a product of the product” by focusing on both high physical ability and achieving the highest level of mental and emotional mastery. We truly focus on each instructor and member of the organization always displaying the highest levels of integrity and drive to succeed.”
During my time with Grandmaster Oliver, it was clear that in addition to being a very talented martial artist and instructor, he is a person who believes that the path to success lies through constant learning. Although he is fortunate to have had a college education and the opportunity for further formal training in various business disciplines, he strongly believes that anyone with the drive for greater self-improvement can achieve it; adding that “most formal education is about learning how to learn, not so much about learning something specific that is useful as an entrepreneur or as a teacher. Over the years, I have been very focused on continuing to pick a subject and , either formally or informally educating myself to a very high level in areas that are practical and necessary for my continued success not only as a business person but as a martial arts school owner.” Building one of the most successful martial arts school chains in the US hasn’t been easy, and has required some tough decisions along the way combined with great business acumen, quickly adding that “I often have a reputation for focusing in money – but that’s not exact.
We have developed an incredible martial arts organization with Jeff Smith and many other high quality Black Belts in the leadership hierarchy, making sure we have the best Black Belts possible and providing a situation where school owners and their staff can match or exceed your income opportunities from any other endeavor.” In fact, the reality for Grandmaster Oliver is that the better he does at developing his students and creating a quality school, the easier it becomes to earn a comparable living. to professionals with similar levels of training in any field.