By: Mike Metzger, MAIA Elite Consultant
If you turn on your T.V, hop on your iPhone or surf the Internet, there is one word that keeps popping up all around the world:
Coronavirus.
As of about two weeks ago, we have entered uncharted territory for our industry. Because of COVID-19, people are staying home, classes are getting canceled and school owners are really starting to feel the pressure for their small businesses.
The world we live in right now isn’t exactly beaming with hope either.
However, with every challenge comes a new opportunity. And as long as you keep an open, proactive mind (which is tough nowadays), you can get through this (and maybe better out the other side).
So today, I want to share with you some new strategies we’ve been implementing with the COVID-19 disruption and how we, at Championship Martial Arts, are changing the way we do business to combat this pandemic.
In this blog post, I’m going to highlight 4 shifts in mindset that are going to be crucial if you want to survive in the coronavirus world and then I’ll link to a Facebook Live we did that’s super important for moving your school forward in this time of crisis.
So with all that said, let’s dive in and get started.
1. How You Think About This Disruption Will Dictate Your Level of Success
Before we highlight anything else, I have to put this out there because it’s important. If you don’t make this mindset shift first, you might as well stop reading now because nothing else matters. It’s so important I bolded it.
How you think about this time and how you choose to react to the hand we’ve been dealt will dictate YOUR LEVEL OF SUCCESS over the next few months.
Think about that for a second. Really think about it.
I don’t want to be a downer but if you choose to react like you’re doomed and you’re a victim of the world we now live in, what do you think going to happen to you, your school, or your staff?
I know you’ve probably fallen on rough times, we all have. We all had to adapt, but guess what?
So many other people in this COVID-19 world are choosing to see it as “woe is me”, are you going to join them? Or are you going to be different?
While so many people view this as a challenge and a burden, I say let’s use it as a new life and an opportunity to make even more meaningful connections with our members in completely new ways.
Don’t just fall into despair. Think outside the box (see #4) and show your people how far you’re willing to go to make their lives a little better.
I can’t express this enough: How you respond to the coronavirus world is a whole lot more important than the new circumstances itself.
2. Virtual Training is Here.
While shifting your mindset is the most important thing you can do, if you don’t shift your tactics, the mindset shift doesn’t matter.
Enter virtual training.
This shift is now a non-negotiable. There is no way around it. With people being told (and in some states forced) to stay home, you have no other option than to start teaching classes online.
We just shifted our classes to the Zoom Video Platform. We are now teleconferencing in with our students and teaching classes.
In a nutshell, Zoom allows us to send our members a link and an email to tune in to a live teleconference while we teach a class.
With so many kids at home doing nothing but sitting around, this is the perfect opportunity to be different and show more value while we are in this new COVID-19 environment.
We’ve dived in so much so that we’ve updated our class schedule.
If you want to survive in this new world, you have to be different. Try Zoom out today and get started.
3. Customer Service Just Got Incredibly More Important
Now that we’ve covered the new mindset with this world and we’ve discussed the new tactics needed, it’s time to shift to strategy.
Customer service just got a whole lot more important.
With everything being shifted to digital, how much you communicate will be key.
If you thought you had to communicate when everyone showed up in person, how much more do you think you’ll have to communicate when everyone is at home?
Phone calls, text messages, Facebook messages, emails, any digital communication just ramped up in importance.
So over-communication will be important for the next few months.
4. You’re Going to Have to Do Things Outside the Box
I saved this for last because it sums up the first three points altogether.
There is no way around it: You’re going to have to think outside the box during this time.
As I hinted at earlier, while most people consider the coronavirus a challenge, you can take it as an opportunity.
You can show your members that no pandemic is going to hold you back. You’re going to keep moving forward and giving value to those you care about, even if you can’t do it in person.
So with that said, I want to show you a few outside-the-box things we’re doing in our schools so you can start to do the same in yours.
www.maiahub.com
