We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Dave Magliano. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Dave below.

Dave, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

I have studied the martial arts for 40 years. It has been my life-long passion and an integral part of our family. During my 20 years of military service, I had the opportunity to study under several individuals who helped me to understand the real value of martial arts training and inspired me to turn this passion into a living.

My primary job in the military was physical medicine (physical therapy) and I was also a medic. After the military I continued a career in therapy which often lended itself well to martial arts teaching and training. People do get hurt from time-to-time and I think it is incumbent on an instructor to have the skills to avoid or overcome injury.

During my military career I often taught martial classes on base for a nominal fee. Most of us were active duty and didn’t make a lot of money. So, when I retired and moved my family back home to Cincinnati, I hoped to find a community center or church where I could offer the same training for a reasonable tuition. But I found this to be very difficult and I eventually started teaching out of our two-car garage at home. My two sons started training with me when they were five years old and many of their friends in high school knew they studied martial arts. They began to invite friends to train with us and I invited a few people I had met at local martial arts schools and pretty soon, we had a dojo.

This was a unique period because I was working full-time and I was able to offer classes on a donation basis. Young men and women would come to our house three times a week and train in a garage with no heat and no air conditioning. I was tough them because I could be; they were not customers, they were students. And my wife got to know everybody. She would often talk to our students, make them hot meals on cold winter nights after training, talked with them about their hopes, dreams and their families. In a very real sense, we were a “Mom & Pop” martial arts school. My wife and I often talked about opening a commercial space, but our family was still growing and the timing was not where it needed to be.

In 2016, she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer which she fought for four years. True to her nature and love of others, she was still very much a presence for those young men and women even when she didn’t feel well, which was most of the time. She went into hospice in 2020 and her sons and I were blessed to be able to spend of her last days with her. During that time, she made me promise to “go live my life” and that met following through with the dream to open a martial arts school.

I moved out of our house and bought a smaller home with a little bit of property, including a three-car garage that happens to face a main road. In the two years I’ve lived here, we have transformed that space into a martial arts school and integrated wellness center. In May 2021, I took a leap of faith and quit my job so that I could focus all of my attention on the business.

Being and entrepreneur at 56 has been challenging, especially when it comes to running a martial arts school. We are very unique in that we do not have classes for children. Rather, we focus on trying to educate adult learners on the value of martial arts training and how it can enhance their lives mentally, physically and spiritually. The other challenge (for me) has been trying to offer personal training focused on medical and corrective exercise. I have a lot of competition on both fronts and all of our offerings are out of my home which I think makes some potential clients uncomfortable.

However, I enjoy a great deal of support from students who have been with me for seven or more years. They see and understand the vision, which is to offer not just martial arts, but a way of life and community without the trappings of a commercial environment. And though we all come from different backgrounds and life experiences, we are a family…you could call it a clan. And that is precisely the way martial arts schools started a long time ago.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

Like a lot of people, I got into martial arts training because I wanted to learn how to defend myself. I also was a huge Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris fan back in the day.

Before MMA, the sporting aspect of martial arts was kick-boxing as well as point-sparring and full-contact karate. I participated in all of these venues but I learned very quickly that in order to be competitive, I had to learn and hone the type of techniques that were designed for the ring, not necessarily real life situations. Furthermore, there is a lot of ego that accompanies any type of one-on-one competitions.

My prospective on martial arts changed dramatically when I moved to Japan in the early 90s. I had hoped to find a Japanese Jujutsu school or a “hard-core” karate dojo because like a lot of young men, I wanted to have a certain amount of status as a “bad-ass.”

But I was stationed in the small town of Misawa, which was mostly fishing and agriculture. And much to my surprise, there was not a martial arts dojo on every corner. There were schools of Judo, modern Karate, Kendo but these dojos were primarily designed for school children and centered (again) around competition.

Then I happened upon what I thought was a jujutsu school run out of the Misawa City Gym. The students were training vigorously with great falls, complex and fluid throws, lots of sword work, etc. And environment was very disciplined. I had no idea what I was watching was actually Aikido. Aikido is a modern adaptation of classic jujutsu. It’s founder, Morihe Ueshiba, was a master of a type of jujutsu known as “aikijutsu” or “aikijujutsu.” Like other martial arts masters of his generation, Ueshiba sought to alter many of the deadly and destructive techniques and create a platform for students tor train not only for self-defense, but also enlightenment. This was a similar process for the formation of the art of Judo.

The modern Japanese martial arts are known as Budo. “Bu” pertains to war or warriorship. (Do) means the “way to an enlightened state.” So, Budo is the way to enlightenment through warrior (martial arts) training. The important thing here is that the first tenant of Budo is mitigation of the ego. In other words, the martial artist is not concerned with medals, trophies or titles. His or her focus is on physical, mental and spiritual development through harsh training. This is the exact opposite of most martial arts businesses today that more or less sell the concept of discipline and self-defense.

Real martial arts training is difficult and time-intensive. How you move your body, your posture, mindset, breathing, etc. are all aspects of daily training. One of the most difficult things for people new to Budo to grasp is that regardless of their physical condition or athletic ability, martial arts takes the average person years to become proficient. And there are several aspects to our training that is vastly different from our competition.

First, our dojo is for adults only. While this makes us a very niche type of school, it frees us from the trappings of making parents happy by, as I said, “selling” discipline. Discipline is not a product; rather, it is a skill one develops over time through repeated failure and the willingness to try again. An adult dojo also is much less cumbersome and considerably less liable. Having taught children in the past, I realized I personally did not want to be burdened with the often unrealistic expectations of parents.

Second, we do not attend competitions of any kind because (I feel) that competition only serves to stroke the ego. As I said, Budo is really a path to enlightenment. That’s hard to do if you’re always trying to be a champion of sorts. What most people learn when they come here is that their worst enemy is the person they see in the mirror. Budo training is process to overcome many aspects of ego such as recognition, praise, physical comfort, etc. Over time, one realizes that they only need to compete with themselves. When you have a group of people all focused on self-perfection through physical and mental discipline, this makes for a better society. This is the goal of modern Budo.

Finally, we are not attached to any other organization. This means that our curriculum and promotions are all in-house. While many martial arts schools enjoy a strong relationship with large organizations such as the Japan Karate Association, etc., an independent dojo like ours has the freedom to create and maintain our own standards. This is the way martial arts schools used to be long before becoming commercialized entities.

Our goal is to provide a safe but challenging environment for adults to study martial arts, gain realistic self-defense skills and develop strong relationships with others through vigorous training.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Having never attempted a business prior to last year, I had absolutely no idea how challenging marketing would be, especially on a tight budget.

First, I had to learn how to create a website as well as interesting content. I was fortunate to find Wix, which has been great platform for my business. Building and maintaining our website through this company has been relatively hassle-free. And while I’ve had to go back to the drawing board several times and recreate our site, Wix has made that process a lot easier.

I started trying to make a lot of YouTube videos because that’s what the experts say to do. But I have found that building a YouTube audience had no impact on anyone local who came to our school. I found myself spending a lot time trying to create the perfect video for an audience that ultimately was not going to put any food on the table for us.

We’ve gotten some traction from Google Ads, but again, not enough to warrant spending hundreds of dollars. Facebook has been our best option for reaching people and telling them about our brand.

The main way we’ve gotten our name out is a weekly blog that I started over a year ago through Facebook and I promote the blog and my personal as well professional FB pages. Writing the blogs has not only given me a chance to share insight into our martial arts, but it has also been a cathartic journey for me as it has given me a chance to write about the wonderful marriage I had before my wife past away from cancer two years ago. We’ve reached far more people through this medium and even though they may not be paying clients, I feel this has been a good way for us to engage with our community.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

I was able to start the business because of a small amount of savings I had, partially from my late wife’s life insurance policy.

We talked often about starting a commercial school and it was her wish for me to do so after she past.

But renting even a small amount of space was something I realized I would not be able to maintain being the sole-owner and teacher, so I looked for a residential property that was also zoned for business.

I bought an older home on a main road with a detached three-car garage that had originally been set up as a motor cycle repair shop. I spent several months painting, refurbishing, leveling the floor and a host of other things that I had to YouTube, but saved a lot of money doing most of it myself.

And while we have limited amount of space, I do not have the tremendous overhead and associated stress that most other commercial school owners have. I still have to worry about attracting new students and retention just like others in this business, but I don’t have many of the other burdens, such as paying back a business loan.

On the flip side, our school has had much slower growth, but businesses like this are really word-of-mouth and it takes a while for people to hear about us.

Of course there are plenty of people out there who would not agree with this approach. The old adage, “you have to spend money to make money” is constantly on my mind.

One thing that helps keep me centered is that I ask my students for a lot of feedback. The majority tell me they have no problem training in an old garage with no air-conditioning, no locker rooms and a lot of home-made equipment. There is a certain level of authenticity in a place like this that you can’t find in most other martial arts schools.

But I have not desire to be a six-figure martial arts school. I’d much rather keep things simple and have the ability to pay the bills. It’s all about perspective.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.tatsudojo.com
• Instagram: Instagram.com/tatsudojo
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thetatsu.dojo/professional_dashboard/?ref=profile_action
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdJ-9_XnQvNoKQWJuP4xP0g
• Yelp: https://biz.yelp.com/home/N5ez27HgDLRuQKZ53wtxJA/?gclid=CjwKCAjwg5uZBhATEiwAhhRLHnPAlpUeYuBIiw5YkTm2HBa3-Uc7qV0E9XNXu4jcR3TRl9yoVJw2aBoC3QgQAvD_BwE&promo=GAPCSMD300V12&utm_campaign=ClickLogic-Main_CPC_D_Promo_yelp&utm_content=RSA_Jan_2022&utm_medium=search&utm_source=type%3Aclaim_ad_google

Image Credits
Dave Magliano, Founder