Build A School That Can
Grow Beyond You.
Two days on marketing, sales, retention, people, systems and leadership — for schools of every size, taught by two owners running a five-location group of 2,000+ students, including a single location with more than 1,300 active members.
Foundation pricing ends 12 September · Seats fully transferable · Owners travelling from overseas welcome
School Owners Kept Asking For A Room.
We're on calls with school owners every week, across Australia, New Zealand, Europe and the US. The thing they ask for most often isn't another course or another download.
It's a room. Somewhere to sit with other operators, ask the questions you can't ask publicly, and hear how someone else solved the thing you've been stuck on for eight months. There are fewer of those rooms than there used to be, and almost none of them are close to home.
So we're making one. Two days, one room, everybody in it.
You Won't Be In A Ballroom.
This year Growth Con runs inside Australian Martial Arts Academy in Sydenham — a school operating since 1982 that today runs more than 1,300 active members out of one location.
Classes are cleared for the two days, so you get the run of the place. How the floor is laid out. How the front desk is set up and what sits on it. What's on the walls and why. Where retail goes. How one building moves that many students through a week without falling over.
Most events describe a school that works. You'll be standing in one.
Marketing gets people through the door. Sales gets them started. But the quality of your product, your people and the experience on your floor is what keeps them — and what makes them bring their friends.
That's why this isn't a marketing conference. Half of what we cover is about what happens on the mats: class quality, instructor development, leadership, and the standard your team holds when you're not watching. Growth that doesn't rest on those things doesn't last.
Worth Two Days Away From Your Mats?
Built for schools of every size — 40 students or 1,000. The frameworks scale, and the room will have both.
Come if…
- ✓You own or run a martial arts school — any style, anywhere. Most of the room will be from Australia and New Zealand; owners travel further and always have.
- ✓You're growing, and you want the next stage to be built on systems rather than on your own hours.
- ✓You've got a partner, co-owner or head instructor you want in the room hearing exactly what you hear.
- ✓You want the scripts, frameworks and templates behind the ideas, not just the ideas.
- ✓You're at 40 students and building your first real systems — or at 1,000 and working out what breaks next. Both are the right room.
Probably not if…
- ✕You're after technical instruction. None of this is about kicking or grappling.
- ✕You want to be entertained. It's a working two days, not a show.
- ✕You're hoping to sell to the room. There are no vendor booths and no sponsor stages.
- ✕You already have every system running and a team that holds the standard without you.
Specific Things, Not Pages Of Notes.
The enrolment conversation, scripted
Word for word, objection by objection — the scripts running across 2,000+ active students, in a form you can adapt to your own school and hand to your team.
A way to see which classes actually make money
The framework we use to review a timetable against profitability, worked through live with real numbers.
A retention plan for the first 90 days
Where most dropouts happen. Holds, cancels and absentee follow-up, with the triggers and the messages.
An instructor pathway on one page
Student to assistant to paid instructor to leader — so your best people can see a career instead of a ceiling.
The automations we run, and how to apply them
Lead follow-up, absentee chasing and the admin that eats your evenings — shown in full, with guidance on adapting them to whatever software you're on.
Clarity on where your school goes next
What the next stage of growth actually requires, and what has to change to get there. For a lot of owners this is the part that matters most.
Two Days. Real Strategies. Real Conversations.
A stronger tomorrow for your school. No breakout tracks — everyone in every session, 9:00 to 5:00 both days.
Attract. Convert. Retain.
- 9:00 – 9:55Where Enrolments Actually Come From NowHakan & Mark
- 9:55 – 10:50Marketing That Works: Paid, Organic & ReferralsHakan & Mark
- 10:50 – 11:10Morning break (20 mins)
- 11:10 – 12:05The Enrolment Conversation: Sales, Pricing & ObjectionsHakan & Mark
- 12:05 – 12:50Lunch break (45 mins)
- 12:50 – 1:45The First 90 Days: Retention by DesignHakan & Mark
- 1:45 – 2:40The Science of Storytelling & How to Use It on the FloorGuest session · Kyoshi Fred DePalma
- 2:40 – 3:00Afternoon break (20 mins)
- 3:00 – 3:55What's Working Right Now?Interactive RoundtablesAll Attendees
- 3:55 – 4:50Open Owner Session: Growth Questions, Challenges & OpportunitiesHakan, Mark & Guests
- 4:50 – 5:00Day 1 Wrap-UpKey takeaways + Day 2 previewHakan & Mark
Systemise. Develop. Scale.
- 9:00 – 9:55The Product on the Floor: Class Quality & Student ExperienceHakan & Mark
- 9:55 – 10:50Instructor Development: Building Leaders & Teams That Hold the StandardHakan & Mark
- 10:50 – 11:10Morning break (20 mins)
- 11:10 – 12:05Timetable, Staffing, Payroll & ProfitabilityHakan & Mark
- 12:05 – 12:50Lunch break (45 mins)
- 12:50 – 1:45AI & Automation: Building Systems That Give You Time BackHakan & Mark
- 1:45 – 2:40What Makes a School Valuable & What an Exit Actually Looks LikeGuest session · Kyoshi Fred DePalma
- 2:40 – 3:00Afternoon break (20 mins)
- 3:00 – 3:55Solve My SchoolInteractive Group ExerciseAll Attendees
- 3:55 – 4:50The 12-Month School: Programs, Events & Building the Year AheadHakan & Mark
- 4:50 – 5:00Growth Con ClosingCommitments + next stepsHakan & Mark
More than a conference — it’s a working academy.
Built On The Floor.
We're both lifelong martial artists, we both still operate schools every week, and we both coach school owners around the world. Everything on the agenda is something we're running ourselves.
Mark Loughran
Co-founder, Martial Arts Mentors
- 5th Dan Black Belt, Taekwondo — almost 20 years training
- Active operator across a five-location group
- Coaches school owners across Australia, New Zealand, Europe and the USA
Built the enrolment and retention scripts used across 2,000+ active students, now rolled out across 20+ schools worldwide.
Hakan Manav
Co-founder, Martial Arts Mentors
- 7th Dan Black Belt, Taekwondo — Hall of Fame inductee
- A whole life in martial arts, and an active operator today
- Coaches school owners worldwide
Runs operations and staff development across a team of nearly 40 staff weekly, and built the operational systems behind 2,000+ active students.
What It Looks Like When It Works.
I've had a 60% increase in student count by implementing the information in the Business Mastery Program.
Staff pathways, upgrade programs and lead generation ideas have been fantastic. Mark and Hakan hold us to account.
It's been fantastic, not only for me, but my staff that have taken on and learnt so much about the possibilities.
Why It's Two Seats, Not One.
$297 covers two people from your school. That's deliberate, and it's the whole idea behind the event.
In every school we've worked with, the plans that got implemented were the ones where two people heard the same thing at the same time. The owner comes home from an event with eleven pages of notes and a lot of energy — and then has to sell all of it, secondhand, to the person who actually has to run it. Most of the time that conversation never quite happens, and by Wednesday nothing has changed.
So we priced it for two, and we're running every session together, so nobody has to translate anything on the drive home.
Your registration includes two seats. One has your name on it. The other is for whoever has to agree before anything changes in your school.
Yes, We'll Tell You What We Do.
We coach school owners for a living, so at the end of Day 1 and again at the end of Day 2 we'll take a few minutes to explain how that works — because after a day of this, some of you will want to know.
What we won't do is hold anything back to sell it to you later. Every script, framework and number goes on the screen across those two days whether you ever work with us or not.
One Ticket. Two People.
Every ticket covers two people from the same school. Extra team members $97 each.
- Both full days, every session
- Printed Growth Con playbook — scripts, frameworks and templates
- Lunch both days
- Specialist panels and open owner sessions
- Extra team members $97 each
- The Early Room — a private 60-minute owners' Q&A with Mark and Hakan before Day 2 opens, capped at 15 schools
- Reserved front-row seating
- Priority check-in
- Full session recordings for 12 months
- Sunday 18 October — the 2027 Strategy Day
- Small-room coaching. 30 seats total.
- You leave with a written 2027 plan, not notes
- Extra team members $197 each, within the 30 seats
All prices in Australian dollars and include GST. Bringing a bigger team? Talk to us about a group rate.
The 2027 Strategy Day
Days 1 and 2 are where you get the ideas. Day 3 is where you and your second sit at a table with a coach and turn them into an actual plan — before you go home. Most owners run the same year twice.
You'll leave with all of it written:
- 2027 student and revenue targets, month by month
- Marketing plan and 12-month marketing calendar
- Sales plan and sales training calendar
- Timetable review, based on class profitability
- Staffing gaps, and who you're hiring or promoting
- Instructor development and staff training calendar
- Payroll and rostering review
- Staff check-in system, scheduled into the year
- Event calendar — gradings, parties, camps, in-house events
- The whole thing on paper, in your hands, on the Sunday
Thirty seats is the whole room. We can't build individual plans with two hundred people in it. Two people per school included; extra team members $197 each, within the thirty.
The venue
Australian Martial Arts Academy, 47–51 Unwins Bridge Rd, Sydenham. Operating since 1982.
Getting there
Sydenham Station is a short walk — train or Metro, and you're in the CBD in under 10 minutes. Street parking is available around the venue.
Flying in?
Arrive Thursday, home Saturday night — or stay for the Strategy Day on Sunday. Plenty of hotels within 15 minutes of the venue.
Before You Ask.
Is $297 for two people, or per person?
Will there be a pitch?
Are there breakout tracks?
I'm travelling from overseas. Is it worth the trip?
What size school is this built for?
My school is small. Will I be out of my depth?
My school is large. Will I learn anything?
What's the difference between VIP and the Strategy Day?
Can I get a refund?
What about dietary requirements?
What styles is this for?
Build. Scale. Lead.
Build a school that can grow beyond you.
Claim My School's 2 Seats$297 per school · Foundation pricing ends 12 September · Seats fully transferable