We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Bruce Milligan a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Bruce, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s talk about social media – do you manage your own or do you have someone or a company that handles it for you? Why did you make the choice you did?

We have been very fortunate in the realm of social media and marketing in general. Our head coach, Robert Suchorski, besides having been Polish junior national champion and a member of the Polish national fencing team when he was younger, is also a very accomplished pianist and composer, as well as a videographer.

Robert has made several promotional videos for our club, which can be seen on Facebook, Instagram, our Website and YouTube.

In addition to this, we have had (two so far) several students from the Defense Information School have come to visit us, and they have made professional videos that we could use wherever we wished. In addition, one of them went back to his home base in North Carolina, and he reports that he has joined a fencing club there and is now taking lessons — this, of course, pleases us mightily!

In addition to the above, my first “real job,” ages ago, was as a copywriter on Madison Avenue. So, unlike many fencing clubs, we have a fair amount of talent and experience in the realm of marketing. Many fencing clubs are not so fortunate, and as a result, though they might have a world-class coach and great members, these facts remain unintended secrets until potential fencers or members wander into their club. We aggressively seek members, which, we feel, is one reason we have grown from two members (my wife and myself) to more than a hundred in a bit over a year. This is quite good, for a fencing club!

Bruce, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Most of my career, I have been a writer, editor, and professional (for both commercial and government employers) game designer. I have also been a competitive fencer since I was 14 years old. Until two years ago, however, I never imagined I would own a fencing club.

I had been a coach and member of another local club for 20 years when COVID struck. Our owner, who was originally from China, went back to his home country, and never returned. My wife (and now c0-owner of the club) and I pondered for a while whether or not we should join another area fencing club. Unfortunately, the best choice was about 45 minutes (or more, on a bad day, and there are few good traffic days in this area!) away, and we really didn’t feel like fighting the D.C. Beltway every night.

We live two blocks from a place called Savage Mill. Originally built in 1816, Savage Mill has a long and storied history, having been a textile mill that produced all sorts of fabrics; sails for ships, and, during the Civil War, tents and other military supplies. It is now a mall that contains a wide variety of antique and other shops, a great restaurant, a French bakery, and a superb chocolatier, among other attractions. In other words, it was a perfect venue for a fencing club!

I say this because most fencing clubs are hidden in industrial parks, in old warehouses, in church basements, or in schools where you have to put away all your equipment every night and they never replace the fluorescent bulbs in the ceiling when they burn out.

We became aware that space was available in Savage Mill, at a very reasonable cost. So we found an investor (my 401K, which considering how things went south during COVID, this was a good use of my money!), and dove in.

Most fencing clubs are owned either by fencers who know little about how to run a business, or by business people who don’t know much about fencing. We are fortunate that we have both had a lot of experience in both realms, and also that we (I, at least) have a fair amount of experience in marketing. Having a great product is of little value, if the only people who know about it are yourselves and the people who stumble upon your business.

Our head coach, who is originally from Poland, is not only a great fencing coach, he is also a very accomplished pianist as well as being a videographer. He has helped us generate some great “commercials” that we post on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and our Website, among other places. And the Mill itself is probably our best marketing tool — we are right at the main entrance, down some stairs, and there is what we call our “observation gallery” where visitors to the Mill can look down and watch people fencing in our club.

The product we offer, obviously, is our sport: as one of the signs at our entrance reads, we train fencers from beginners to national champions. Our first desire, as coaches, is to share our love of the sport with those who walk in the door. For some, this extends to generating a desire to compete, and to win, a the highest levels.

What we are most proud of is that, in a bit less than a year and a half, our fencing club has gone from having just two members (my wife Lauren and myself) to over one hundred. We currently have 36 students in our beginner classes, with more on the way. For a fencing club, this is success!

We don’t expect, having mentioned this, to ever become wealthy with this club, at least not for a while. So Lauren and I have kept our day jobs (though we are paying our head coach, Robert, a reasonable salary). But to be able to do something you love, and to subsist, if not to thrive, on it, is abundant reward enough for us, for now.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

My co-founder and business partner Lauren was my student for about eight years, while we were at another club. As a coach, I have always separated my personal life from my professional life, i.e., I had never before dated a student. So when we sort of drifted into a romantic relationship, and then into a very happy marriage, and now an apparently successful business partnership, I was quite surprised — albeit pleasantly so!

Long before I thought I was attracted to Lauren, I considered her the best student I had ever had. She was what my high school football coach would call, “coachable,” which those who have been athletes will understand. At a national competition, in a tough bout, I would suggest a particular action to her once, and she would take it, and score. As a coach, you can’t ask for more than that!

In her age group (40+) Lauren has fenced for a national gold medal twice, in two different events (we call them weapons). Not many people do this — most focus on just one. It is my dream to someday coach her in a veterans (over 40) world championship, and I consider this a quite realistic goal.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

As noted earlier, we are on Facebook (two pages), Instagram, YouTube, Google Business, and we also have a Website.

The key to building an audience on any of these, in my opinion, is to stay current. A lot of people will create a Facebook group, or something similar, post for a week or two, and then just stop updating it. Similarly, I have seen Websites for organizations that might interest me that have not been updated for years.

As a corollary to that, if you have a “Contact Us” link, and someone sends you a message, respond to it! We always try to reply to any queries within 24-48 hours, because these days, that is what people expect.

We have over 1,000 Instagram followers, which is pretty good, I think, for a small fencing club not located near a large city. We have about 150 Facebook followers so far, which is not a lot, but this number is still about 50% larger than the number of members we have, which, to me, suggests that people are paying attention to what we say and what we do. Ditto for our YouTube videos.     

Contact Info:

• Website: www.savagefencingclub.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/savagefencingclub/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SavageFencingClub
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@savagefencing5229

Image Credits
All photos taken by Savage Fencing Club staff. As the owner of the club, I have the right to use these photos, some of which were taken by myself.