Monday, June 26, 2006

FMA Seminars

Few of my colleagues and close friends told me that FMA seminars are good in a sense because there are new things and ideas have been showcased, good or bad. Here are some pros and cons that we have to consider.

Pros:

  1. It's your own business
  2. You can make lots of money
  3. You're always learning new things
  4. You get to travel if you want
  5. You meet interesting people
  6. You position yourself as the expert in your topic
  7. Understanding the FMA system that is doing the seminar.
  8. Knowledge in different aspects of that particular system,
  9. History of the system and the people behind it.

Cons:

  1. It can be an up and down business
  2. Travel gets tiring
  3. It's energy draining: it's tough to do all the other stuff
  4. It can be very stressful
  5. You spawn a lot of work explaining the entire steps
  6. Not much of a good idea to present styles that are common to other styles
  7. It can be hazardous to peers
  8. Selling videos, shirts, items related to the seminar are too much
  9. Your system is closely scrutinized
  10. Finding the right person to be your practice dummy.

It's your own business.
Unless, you choose to do seminar work for another style or individual, it's your business. You control it, you do what you want, and you run it your way.

You can make lots of money.
With the right topic that's run correctly, the seminar can be very lucrative. Many successful seminar promoters make millions of dollars a year. Others make a very good, high six figure income. If you're good, you won't have to worry about making big money.

You're always learning new things.
If you're doing your homework in your field, you'll always be learning new stuff. If you aren't a continual learner, your seminar content will suffer.

You get to travel if you want.
If you like to travel, you can rack up plenty of frequent flier miles. You can only give so many seminars in your own "home" market without reaching saturation. That means that you'll have to take your show on the road.

You meet interesting people.
I have met some fascinating people in my travels through the seminars. If you like people and are open to meeting them you'll meet plenty. Many will be intensely interesting. This is one ancillary benefit that’s really appealing.

You position yourself as the expert in your topic.
Other than writing books, giving seminars is the ultimate way to position yourself as the expert in your field. You'll be very visible. Many people will see you. Potential students will seek you out. You'll be acknowledged as one of THE experts in your field.

Travel gets tiring.
Like I said earlier, travel can and does take a toll on your body. I would now to prefer to do all of my traveling in my home city. I would then only travel for vacations. Unfortunately, this is tough to do if you're in the finding something to get rid of the stress.

It can be an up and down business.
If you're looking for a business that provides you with enough people to attend, this isn't it. Money comes in very erratically. Some days you're swimming in it and other days there's nothing!

For this reason, it's imperative you do two things. First, develop strategies to smooth your revenue curve. Secondly, put your money in good use like promoting and sending information about the seminar being made not just emails and posting over the forum.

Its energy draining: it's tough to do all the other stuff.
If you do a seminar all day, you'll be dead tired by 8 o'clock. Don't think you can do this and something else the same day.

It can be very stressful.
This is an understatement! There can be a lot of stress associated with this business. People not registering quickly, preparing all of the logistics, etc., etc.

Conclusion
To me, the cons vastly outweigh the pros. But, that's how I feel. You need to review the above items and make the choice for yourself. Most people who get into the seminar business find they love it!

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Student of the Year?

This is something that I don't understand. Recognition is good but when it comes to something you're not familiar with, totally surprising! During the years of training in PTK, I am able to search and research any possible ways to learn more - I got videos and advices to keep me on track but there is nothing compared than learning from a master. I need live one! (laughing aside). Intellectual training is easy but it needs to train both. Motor skills are just a portion of the learning process but this portion serves a great virtue to ones physical being.

Being acknowledged as such, doesn't serve me as a good student but it only serves for the purpose of gaining interests - not for me, for the school. Aha, that must be it! Anyway, there is a plus side of this whole story. Being a Filipino have a large margin of advantages. By blood, majority of Pinoys (Filipinos) are warriors... trade is just third of the equation. Remember the history between Datu Lapu-Lapu and Ferdinand Magellan? The war between these two warriors spun a whole different perspective about fighting. It didn't tell in any history books on how he was killed and type of fighting system was. However, Filipinos have great pride of acknowledging Datu Lapu-Lapu's victory over Magellan.

This must be the reason why Filipinos are such good on learning to fight. Little supervision, he creates tons of tricks of the trade. That's what probably the reason I got the award. Naahhh... they must be happy that I can accomplish great things quickly - natural? don't think so! I just have good understanding on what is infront of me... well, I don't stop learning as long as my brain keeps on electrified with good training.

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

Training In Different System

June 6, 2006 7:05pm |

Every Tuesday I'm always excited to go to a PTK class but not last night. Why? I thought we could have learned more on Pekiti Tersia and unfortunately it was on a different shift. The story begins like this; On Saturday, June 3rd our Guro is visiting Miami, FL school and was advised that to go with my classmates to meet him and train with him. Although I tried to squeeze in my time to be able to be with them but I was unlucky. Came Tuesday, on the night of our class, the people who went to see him were taught a different system. Not that it's bad but I was thinking that they brought in Pekiti Tersia new lessons or lessons to practice. For the whole hour we have not learned any Pekiti Tersia lessons because they've been pumped up with a different style of FMA.

I was a bit disappointed that night because I wanted so much to learn more on PTK and concentrate more on it. This is what I don't like - instead of learning one system up to our potential, they brought wrong lessons. Don't get me wrong about absorbing different systems but I for one, wouldn't be mixed up with different lessons. I may have an excuse not learning more on Balintawak because I have no one to train with and learning PTK is closer.

My frustrations sometimes way above the roof because I wanted to learn more about PTK - I've been adopting the system as a way of life learning the core and tradition. There is so much to learn in PTK and taking other lessons from another style was not my idea of learning... this is my problem, once I started to learn one system; I like to finish it in one system. If there are other lessons from another system then we can use it for analyzing and apply PTK to be more effective