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David is a lifelong martial artist who after failing in his (childhood) dreams of becoming a special forces soldier went into the Service Industry for years before being compelled to forge his own path in the entrepreneur landscape. David likes to refer to his journey and experiences as an entrepreneur, “ugly”, not only for the craziness that can occur but to combat the “passive income” hype so many fall into believing, which is wrong for most.
Currently David and his business partner Cris Rodriguez are the Founders of Kids Jitz Academy, an online training and consulting platform which teaches martial art school owners and instructors how to start, build and grow successful kids programs. David is also the head coach at Gracie PAC MMA where he teaches Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and aspires to become one of the best professional speakers in the country.
City where you’re from: Lives in Tampa, FL / Born in Clearwater, FL / Considers Satellite Beach, FL his home town.
Passions: Jiu Jitsu, Coaching/Teaching, Self Improvement, Videography, Helping
Favorite quote: “What’s easy to do is also easy not to do”
Social Accounts: Instagram – @official_davidbamber
Facebook – /Official DavidBamber YouTube – Kids Jitz Academy Channel
What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea?
David Bamber: My main focus right now is going heavy with video ad marketing for Kids Jitz Academy. I began a campaign to humorously convey the struggles of teaching kids to reach martial art school owners and instructors letting them know, “we get it”. My partner and I have been in the martial arts a combined 50 years and have taught over 30,000 kids classes, so we understood the challenges and perfected a system that made our school super successful. A friend of hers began creating digital products and doing affiliate marketing which gave us the idea to do our own. We are a niche inside a niche but with massive potential because every martial arts school must have a kids program and there are no teaching platforms like ours on the market to help you succeed at creating or growing one.
How is your company different?
David Bamber: A lot! We offer a professional yet user friendly platform with not only over 500 kids jiu jitsu videos to include drills, warm-ups, lesson, games, life skills but we teach it the way the instructor should teach it, which is extremely unique and valuable. Meaning instead of just showing a move (in the videos) we teach you how to break it down for each stage of development for yours students from 3-15 years old, which no one in the market is doing. We like to call it, “teaching the teachers”, but upon feedback from our members from all over the globe one of the main reasons they enjoy our services is because of our Closed Facebook Members Only. He wanted to focus so much on providing enormous value and earning credibility so we answer in depth ANY issue our members have and fast! This has created “raving fans” of our business which creates a ripple effect of referrals as you grow.
What’s your dream with your company?
We see our business becoming a multi million dollar enterprise because of its scalability, we just need more exposure, unless we get bought out, haha! Jiu Jitsu is on the rise but still is under the shadow of older martial arts when it comes to number of schools. However jiu jitsu has earned the respect of these older martial arts so they know the effectiveness and value. So we not only want to build kids jiu jitsu programs inside as many bjj schools across the world as possible but develop training programs for other martial arts to become certified as a kids bjj expert. We also have a growing consulting side of our business called J.A.C (Jitz Academy Coaching), where we teach you how to grow and systemize your school in all aspects using our Black Belt in Business Blueprint. We know jiu jitsu is one of the toughest martial arts to teach and we want to help any owner or potential owner create the lifestyle they want teaching martial arts.
How do you creatively advertise?
We are FB ad and Funnel ninjas using curated photos and videos that offer tremendous value to anyone who takes advantage during our ad’s. Also, as mentioned above, we just launched a humorous video ad campaign on IG to relate to the frustrations of teaching kids cause, well, we’ve been there! We are slowly figuring out how to growth hack our YouTube channel as well. You mentioned “ugly entrepreneurship”, can you speak on that some more? Absolutely, let me set the stage. I am still unsure if I was a “born entrepreneur”, but I know I have something in me that can endure a ton of suffering, work to the bone, that enjoys building ideas and creating something new. And as of next month, after 4 years I have to close the doors on my first real business, Legacy Athletics, that I created from scratch which is heart wrenching. I came from a long ride in the service industry where drinking daily and settling for normal and comfortable was a common practice. I still battle with drinking and still fight myself to stay uncomfortable. I have had a long road to even get to this point which is only step one of where I aiming for in my life. It’s been ugly, very ugly and barely ANYONE talks honestly about the struggle and embarrassment and mistakes and setbacks you go through and here’s the kicker…no one shows this side while they’re going through it. Its awesome to hear Tony Robbins, Tom Bilyeu, Eric Thomas, Tai Lopez, Les Brown, Zig Ziglar and the rest we all look up too, but did they document the struggle AS they were going through it? Nope. Only after they were a “name”, so I want to awaken people up to the intense struggle of going after big dreams and goals. And ask others to show their hard reality and sacrifices as they go through the process because it will allow those watching to know they too can chase their dreams.
What were your biggest failures and biggest successes? What did you learn from them?
I’ll keep these answers short because I’ve explained a lot already. I truly believe everything happens for a reason so it’s hard to see things as failures long term. However letting my first business fail hurts but hurts more because I let my business partner and customers down. Next up is I let slip away an opportunity to be a co-owner of a massive Escape Room entertainment business plan. My biggest success was taking the leap into developing my gifts and designing my own life. From my failures I learned and internalized that as a owner everything is up to you. You understand this intellectually but until you have people counting on you to support their families and customers who really rely on your service/product and then let them down, its hard for you to get how truly important taking full responsibility for every inch of your business is. From my main success I have learned that I actually have a real gift that can massively impact the world and slowly that feeling is getting stronger and stronger. It gives me chills of excitement and I wish that feeling on all of you reading this, it’s worth it even without the millions.
Value-add questions Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have.
One Short Answer: You know the answers to the questions you ask yourself, you must look deep and be honest with yourself. Second Long Answer: After you jump and decide to go after your vision/goal/dream. There will be times where you are not sure what direction to go and those around you won’t understand plus you will have a hard time fully explaining because you don’t fully understand yourself. But you need to trust that you began on this path for a reason. Please trust me that your vision of who you want to be and where you want to go becomes clearer as you take one more step. Each step uncovers a different aspects of the “picture”. One day you’ll notice you have the knowledge, know how and strength to take another baby step up and up and up. The 4 Most Important Numbers in your Business: Know your numbers! There are 4 key numbers you must know to increase sales. #1: How many leads are coming in. #2: How many leads are clicking to the next stage of your funnel or how many leads are booked for appointments. #3: How many of those who clicked through or booked appointments show up or wanted to buy your product. #4: How many of those who clicked to the final sales page or showed up for their appointment converted into sales. Now to see a huge change in sales you only need to focus on improving 10% of the first 3 stages, because it adds up. Hopefully you have a system for each phase and if not it’s a good time to design one.
What’s something new you’ve learned in the past month?
I learned how to post to IG from my Mac laptop. DM me and I’ll let you know how. Teach us something we don’t know. The best way to get children to listen is to live the values you are trying to teach them. Because you will have the ability to speak to your own struggles and benefits. Always remember, kids are not your property, you are raising adults. Plus it helps to act like the silliest cartoon in the world if you want to break away shyness.
What do you think you do better than most people?
Coaching/Teaching. That’s my gift that I am developing to the furthest possible extent.
What should an entrepreneur focus on?
Using the little wins to keep pushing forward and fighting your demons. Personally and professionally, because they work side by side.
What are some of the best books you’ve ever read?
I’ve noticed you read books at different stages of your entrepreneurial journey and even circle back around to the books you’ve read and get different value out of it because you were reading to listen to the advice. So keep re-reading the books you’ve already covered. However the most recent books that have helped are the following: Traction by Gino Wickman; Profit First by Mike Michalowicz and Success Through Stillness by Russell Simmons.
Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years?
Our goal for Kids Jitz Academy is to double in size by this time next year. Also we will be opening up another martial arts location in the Tampa Bay area next year. Also I want to begin a public speaking career by the end of this year. So if you are reading this and interested in my story or enjoy my thoughts please email me at DavidAlanBamber@gmail.com. Youtube link: Kids Jitz Academy
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