Janaina Barral
The fourth day of Lloyd Irvin’s MMA Blueprint 5.0 – The Next Generation conference is underway.
After three days of intense activities, attendees talked to GRACIEMAG about the impact the techniques had on their businesses.
Rafael Lovato Jr, a Gi and No-Gi Jiu-Jitsu world champion and the owner of Oklahoma-based Lovato Jiu-Jitsu, has been a follower of Lloyd’s teachings since 2011. He couldn’t be more clear about how important what he’s learned has been to his academy: “It changed my life! More than the practical side of it and all the improvements you can add to your business, the most important side of it is the change in mindset it creates. You learn that there’s a lot more you can do for your business to become more successful.”
Paul Halme, owner of Peak Performance BJJ in Keller, Texas, has himself been following Lloyd’s recipe for two years: “My academy was in trouble, but the improvement has been amazing. The sales techniques and the instructor-training system are the aspects that helped me a lot. Before I go home, I will get myself more products.”
Rafael Lovato Jr. and Paul Halme
Garth Taylor of Santa Cruz, California-based Kaijin Martial Arts is in his first Lloyd Irvin event. A veteran with over 20 years of Jiu-Jitsu training, Garth wants to upgrade his school with what he learned in Orlando: “My academy was a hobby for me until a while ago, as I had another job in construction. Since I left that job and started to devote myself only to my academy, I got another 40 students. With Lloyd’s techniques, I hope I get a couple hundred more and have a good way of living”.
Janaina Barral and her husband Romulo Barral own California academy Gracie Barra Northridge. She’s in her third LI event and also testifies to how effective the techniques are: “We’re still implementing some of the techniques, ’cause it’s a long proccess, but I can already say that it has improved our academy a lot. One thing I want to say is that the advice is all there, but you have to apply yourself for them to work. If you do it right, the investment in Lloyd’s event will be more than worthwhile”.
Zach Adamson
Zach Adamson co-owns Oregon academy Seaside BJJ with his brother Nathan. He has one of the most dramatic stories of how Lloyd’s teachings can be beneficial: “It’s my second event, and I got tell you it changed our lives. Before we started using his methods, we had only 20 students in our school. After paying for expenses, we would be left with only $200 a month to live on. Sometimes we wouldn’t have enough to eat–a true story. Now we’re over the 200-student mark and last year’s gross income was over $200,000. We were able to invest $100,000 in the gym. Our community is very small, with only 7,000 people, but we knew we could do better, and that’s what we did. The internet marketing and the internal management are the two fields that are very useful for us. It’s so important to let people know how great what you have to offer them is, and after they come in you have to make them feel at home.”
Adem Redzovic
Adem Redzovic is the owner of three Gracie Barra schools in Chicago, Illinois, (The Loop, Lincoln Park and Lincoln Square). His diagnoses of why people come to LI events is interesting: “We are people that learned Jiu-Jitsu and then started teaching it. Many of us are black belts in Jiu-Jitsu but white belts in management and marketing. At the first event I attended, I probably got some stripes on my white belt. I hope to get the blue belt soon.” Redzovic talks of how he benefits from Lloyd’s methods: “More than increasing the number of students, which we did, we learned how to delegate responsibilities. Now I don’t waste time with tasks that can be easily done by others, and I can focus on more important things”.
MMA Blue Print 5.0 – The Next Generation event wraps up this Sunday at 6:00 PM Orlando time.
