Before joining the Double Your Dojo program, Master Michael Mertens was already at the top of the martial arts industry.

His five Taekwondo schools in Western New York were serving over 1,700 active students, with a proven team, decades of experience, and a reputation as one of the region’s most established operators. But despite that, Michael knew there was more potential, especially with organic marketing.

“We were doing pretty well… but I knew there was still more juice in the lemon,” he said.

Although his schools had tried school and daycare programs before, they never found a consistent, scalable system that worked across all five locations without burning out the staff.

Yes, he got new students from doing school programs, and working with some daycares, but he knew there was more potential.

It’s not about changing everything, it’s about small adjustments. Small hinges swing big doors.

That’s when Michael scheduled a discovery call to learn more about the Triangle Codex.

Together, we helped his team:

✅ Build a fresh “Hit List” of overlooked daycares, afterschool programs, and third-party providers ✅ Simplify his outreach and program setup to avoid exhausting his team ✅ Refine his white belt graduation flow to increase conversions ✅ Train his staff (across all five schools) to enroll students consistently, without relying on leads from ads

The result?

📈 400+ new leads (worth $20,000+ in ad spend value) 📈 61 new students enrolled and counting 📈 $146,000+ in projected new revenue THIS YEAR 📈 26 school programs set up through a single third-party partnership 📈 51 New Strategic Partnerships in the education system.

And they’re just getting started.

If you're tired of hearing “we're doing the best we can with the leads we have,” this is your sign to start giving your team the tools to create their own.

Should you run ads for your school? Yes, but that shouldn’t be your only source of new students. A strong team knows how to go out and recruit new students, even if the pipeline is dry.

This episode is a continuation from the Part 1 episode with the same name.

In this episode, Matthew and Solomon Brenner discuss the journey of scaling martial arts schools, focusing on the transition from the Builder Phase to the Scaler Phase.

Revenue Range: $30K–$50K/month
Focus: Build the machine. Stop being the machine.

• Key Responsibilities:
• • Full-time team roles (head instructor, program director, admin)
  • Dialing in retention and pricing for profitability
  • Weekly team meetings and accountability systems
• Must Master:
• • Staff development
  • Metrics tracking (conversion rates, attrition rates, per-student value)
  • Leading vs. doing

We'll have a follow up episode for...

Level 4: The CEO Phase

Revenue Range: $50K–$83K/month

Stay tuned..

In this episode of the Black Belt Business Podcast, Matthew Brenner is joined by his brother and Action Karate founder, Solomon Brenner, to reveal the 4 phases every martial arts school owner must go through to scale from $0 to $1M in annual revenue.

Whether you're just starting out or you're already making over $50K/month, you'll walk away with actionable strategies tailored to your school’s growth stage.

From the Hustler Phase ($0–$10K/month) to the CEO Phase ($50K–$83K+/month), they break down the exact skills, systems, and mindset shifts required to grow a 7-figure martial arts business. They share personal stories from their journey scaling Action Karate to over 30 locations and $12M/year, plus what mistakes to avoid and what to focus on at each level of growth.

Perfect for school owners looking to:

• Increase student enrollment without relying on Facebook ads

• Improve retention with better systems and staff development

• Build a leadership team that runs your school when you're not there

• Stop feeling stuck at 100–150 students and finally break through

• Turn a small martial arts school into a million-dollar lifestyle business

If you're serious about growing your school and want to know how top-performing school owners are doing it without gimmicks, listen to this episode.

👉 Subscribe for more episodes on martial arts business coaching, student retention, marketing, team building, and leadership development.

This episode is part 1, part 2 will be released later for $30K+ schools and $50K+ schools.