We were lucky to catch up with Apolo Ladra recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Apolo thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Folks often look at a successful business and imagine it was an overnight success, but from what we’ve seen this is often far from the truth. We’d love to hear your scaling up story – walk us through how you grew over time – what were some of the big things you had to do to grow and what was that scaling up journey like?
I had humble beginnings in the martial arts industry 1st taking the first step in becoming a student, then finding my calling to becoming an instructor and taking the leap into the management and business operations. One location turned in to two and then 57 brick and mortar businesses under my watch. It was always my dream to reach a larger audience, but with only so many hours in a day and being just one person, there arose a fear of taking on too much.
As a teacher, I realized to take on my own advice of a methodology I shared with my students every day; “Learn to Teach, Teach to Learn”. This simple action philosophy led me to not just have clients/students in my local area, but through pivoting using live seminar touring and utilizing technology for online access libraries and video conferences, half of my new base of clients were now school owners located globally. This decision to scale with entrepreneurs, each with their own base of clients made sense in my vision to not just survive but to thrive during a time so many businesses were closing.
Using this strategy will also provide me a bench team to acquire the best of the best in my industry to partner with, but also a means to scale at all levels of critical roles as the objective was to learn, understand and apply all of my curriculum and business practices.
This brings us to today with a fresh and motivated outlook on reaching high goals in 2023.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Tuhon (Grand Master) Apolo Ladra has trained the martial arts for over 40 years. Having reached the rank of 7th Degree in several Tae Kwon Do Associations and teaching thousands of students while managing 57 martial arts schools for a leading organization, he is most noted for his pioneering efforts of promoting the Filipino Martial Art of Kali.
Achieving the Rank of Master under the direct Heir of Pekti Tirsia Kali, Grand Tuhon Leo T. Gaje Jr., Tuhon Apolo has been honored with the Black Belt Magazine’s Hall of Fame as “Weapons Instructor of the Year” for his technical knowledge and spread of the Combat Arts…
Tuhon Apolo Ladra is the Founder of the iKALI and the World Kali Association. The WKA was created to standardize curriculum and requirements for students, instructors and school owners while spreading the indigenous art of the Philippines, the Art of Blade, worldwide. The WKA serves to provide real-time resources for school owners and instructors as well as deliver distance learning courses for students who want personalized instruction for him.
Tuhon Apolo also founded the Filpino Kali Academy network and it’s Interactive Virtual University counterpart. The FKA now has locations around the globe as an official training location with certified instructors in the iKALI Curriculum.
His concept of “Learn to Teach, Teach to Learn” has produced countless young leaders from adolescence to adults. Impressively his programs are designed to complement any martial arts style utilizing endless fun, challenging and exciting drills to invigorate and retain students and are being utilized by school owners in countries to include Brazil, Hong Kong, Puerto Rico, Philippines, Australia, Canada, Caribbean and throughout the United States. Currently, over 30,000 kids have and/or are currently training under his iKali4Kids program.
Grand Master Apolo began his career in the Philippines as a student of Korean Karate, a discipline in which he became the top-ranked Eastern Regional Champion during the 1980s. He then entered the national and international Sport Karate circuits, winning more than 100 first-place trophies and grand championship titles and quickly became a world-class champion. For four consecutive years (1985-1988), Master Apolo was recognized as Instructor of the Year and Master of Tae Kwon Do by the premier US martial arts organization Jae Kim Institute of Tae Kwon Do at the Hall of Fame held in Pocono, PA. In 1991, he was asked to join a select delegation of American Martial Artists in the first Russian World Championship Martial Arts Tournament, where he earned both an individual gold and a team silver medal. That same year, Grand Master Apolo was named a member of the National Tae Kwon Do Team sent to represent the Philippines in the 1992 Olympics.
Grand Master Apolo’s tenacity and love for Tae Kwon Do would lead him to run 57 schools for Master Jae Kim’s Organization while in his early twenty’s where he certified over 5,000 Black Belts. He would later train with and earn additional Tae Kwon Do Mastership under Grandmaster Ernie Reyes as a member of the world-famous Ernie Reyes World Demonstration Team. Later he would become the Director of Combat for Karate America and Lead Instructor for Warrior Kali under Grandmaster William Clark. His combat weapons teaching has produced numerous combat sparring champions in the American Tae Kwon Do Association. He is much sought after for his seminars, guidance, leadership and mentorship.
Grand Master Apolo has trained 18 national champions, seven Olympians, and 57 state champions during his first three years of operation at his first Tae Kwon Do school, and his success has earned him featured coverage in newspaper, radio, and TV. In 1997 and 1999, he was inducted into the World Martial Arts Hall of Fame. Additionally, Master Apolo was inducted in the Action Magazine Hall of Honors in Atlantic City, New Jersey in 2013.
From 2002-2005 Grand Master Apolo formed an elite team of Filipino Martial Arts (FMA) Stick Fighters training directly under Grand Tuhon Leo Gaje specifically to tour the United States participating in numerous FMA sanctioned full contact stick bouts. The group toured the United States and Master Apolo completed all bouts with an undefeated record.
His influence in the Filipino Martial Arts Community continues to grow. During the Martial Arts Supershow by Century in 2013, He was honored by presenting the first ever program that would bring Filipino Martial Arts to the forefront of the Martial Arts Industry. More recently in 2018, he was honored again by being inducted in Black Belt Magazine’s Hall of Fame as “Weapons Instructor of the Year”
Find out more at www.artofblade.com and www.filipinokaliacademy.com
Where do you think you get most of your clients from?
Social Media has been a source of consistently exposing my business services and products by relating on different levels. From Tutorials on YouTube to FB and Instagram with highlighting events and testimonials have increased traffic to my website and opt ins for listbuilding to campaign.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
Identifying some of the leaders in my industry (martial arts) and making a point they know the quality of my work and to consistently have endorsements which influence their followers as well as stay in contact with my every day clients and show how important they are to me which created trust in our relationship.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.artofblade.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/apololadra/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TuhonApolo/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/iKaliTV
Image Credits
All images are property of Apolo Ladra