69. Mike Dillard – Century Martial Arts – A Fighter’s Guide to Thriving in Business

Mike Dillard:

We didn't have a crystal ball. We didn't realize that businesses were going to be shut down completely, except for those... What was the term? Essential businesses. But because we'd gotten into the masks and helping hospitals, we became an essential business. We didn't know that was going to happen. It was just luck, but that helped us keep the doors open. And we took all the precautions that anybody could take for the safety of our team. We don't call them employees. We have team members. And things worked out for us. I feel very fortunate in that regard.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah, that's awesome.

From HoganTaylor, I'm Aaron Ackerman, and this is How That Happened, a business and innovation success podcast. On each episode of the show, we sit down with business and community leaders behind thriving organizations to learn how business and innovation success actually happens.

Well, welcome to another episode of How That Happened. My guest today is Mike Dillard. Mike is the owner of Century Martial Arts, which was founded in 1976. Century is a worldwide leader in martial arts equipment, does business in all 50 states and 35 different countries. Century does their own R&D in house and has spearheaded a lot of important innovations over the years in the martial arts industry, including, I think, Wavemasters. Is that what you call it, Mike?

Mike Dillard:

Yeah.

Aaron Ackerman:

Wavemaster is the original free-standing punching bag. And BOB, which stands for what? What does BOB stand for?

Mike Dillard:

Body Opponent Bag.

Aaron Ackerman:

Body Opponent Bag. And BOB has appeared in a number of movies and TV shows over the years, including The Office, one of my favorites, Park and Rec, Deadpool, Horrible Bosses, and many others. And Mike, once I looked at the website and I saw the Body Opponent Bag, I recognized... I'm not a martial arts guy at all, never trained or anything, but I recognized it from Hollywood, right?

Mike Dillard:

BOB's really popular.

Aaron Ackerman:

BOB's made some appearances. Mike also founded MAIA, which is Martial Arts Industry Association, in 2001 in order to help schools grow and to promote martial arts in general. And in addition to all of that, Mike, and correct me if I get this wrong, but I researched and you're a ninth-degree black belt. Is that right?

Mike Dillard:

I am.

Aaron Ackerman:

I don't know exactly what that means, but I think it means I need to show you lots of respect and be agreeable in as much as I can.

Mike Dillard:

It might mean I'm the oldest one still standing.

Aaron Ackerman:

Mike's fought at a championship level, has sparred with some of the best martial artists in the world, including a lot of names that I probably wouldn't recognize. But one I definitely do is Chuck Norris, who you befriended earlier in your life through some of your travels, right? And then have worked with Chuck Norris off and on over the years.

Mike Dillard:

I have. Chuck is technically my instructor.

Aaron Ackerman:

Okay. Yeah, that's awesome. And you also spent some time doing stunt work for Chuck Norris in movies and TV and everything.

Mike Dillard:

About 20 years. Yeah.

Aaron Ackerman:

Okay. Well, that's awesome. Well, Mike has definitely led an interesting life, not a boring life. And I'm excited to learn a little bit about Century and martial arts, which is not something I know a lot about. So if you talk to Mike, which I got the chance to do not too long ago in a group, where we just spent some time kind of talking about businesses and life and kind of no agenda. But if you spend even five minutes talking to Mike or five minutes perusing the Century website, you can't help but be struck with the obvious passion for martial arts that Mike has and that the company's built on. And I think you would agree with that, that it's really not just a job or a company, but really it's been a lifestyle for you most of your life, right?

Mike Dillard:

Yeah, I have to agree.

Aaron Ackerman:

So let me ask-

Mike Dillard:

It's the best job I ever had.

Aaron Ackerman:

So how did you... This was something you started early in life, but how did you get started in martial arts? What was your start?

Mike Dillard:

Well, I attended Southeast High School in Oklahoma City. If you've ever driven by that neighborhood, you'll find out it's... You'll figure out real quick it's kind of a tough place. And consequently, martial arts is a pretty good skill to have if you're walking to school every day in some neighborhoods.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah.

Mike Dillard:

I pursued that. I had a friend that was a martial artist, and he was well respected by all of our peers and was kind enough to give me some instruction and get me interested.

Aaron Ackerman:

So did you just take to it immediately? Once you started learning about martial arts, did you love it right away and thought, "Man, this is great," or did you kind of grow into that?

Mike Dillard:

I think I loved it from day one.

Aaron Ackerman:

You just took into it right away. Yeah. That's awesome. So I know you've got... So this was of particular interest to me as an accountant. You actually have an accounting degree or an accounting background.

Mike Dillard:

I have an accounting degree from Oklahoma State University.

Aaron Ackerman:

Okay. Yeah, perfect. So at least in college, you were kind of training for a different career path, but it seems like you always knew you wanted to do something with martial arts even early on.

Mike Dillard:

Well, I think my mother wanted me to be an accountant. Okay?

Aaron Ackerman:

It's like the sensible thing to do, right?

Mike Dillard:

Right. But she seemed to be okay with my career choice when I made it. But I found myself... I was a second-semester junior and hadn't declared a major yet. I had several hours in accounting, and there's a time to pick what it's going to say on that piece of paper, so I chose accounting. It served me well, no two ways about it.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah. Certainly, we'll probably dive back to that just from a business standpoint. But so you started... I guess, technically you started Century in 1976.

Mike Dillard:

I incorporated it about then.

Aaron Ackerman:

Okay. But when you really first got going, it was just you, right?

Mike Dillard:

Just me.

Aaron Ackerman:

Just you driving around in your van or working out of your garage or whatever.

Mike Dillard:

Actually, I didn't even have a garage. It was my parents' garage.

Aaron Ackerman:

Okay. The ultimate garage company.

Mike Dillard:

A single-car garage.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah. So, I've heard you talk about the early days where you would drive to tournaments and set up a booth to sell the equipment or the uniforms or whatever, and you would fight in the tournament. And if you won, you'd have enough money to get a hotel room that night. And if not, you'd sleep in the van with all your stuff, right? So...

Mike Dillard:

That happened a lot.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah. So just I want to ask you-

Mike Dillard:

It's motivating, believe me.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah, for sure. The grit, kind of the grind of trying to start a company and really bootstrap-

Mike Dillard:

It was motivating to win the fight.

Aaron Ackerman:

So you have a comfortable bed.

Mike Dillard:

I've had a cornerman say, "Mike, it's the van or the hotel." You're going to get back out there then and surround him.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah, that's awesome. So those days when it's just you and you're scrapping... We kind of have this theory that most businesses have a near-death moment or near-death moments throughout their history, where there's a time where you're like, "I don't know if this is going to work or not." But did you have thoughts early on when you didn't win and you're sleeping in the van, did you ever think like, "I really gave this a try, but I need to just go get a real job. This isn't working"? Or did you always kind of have a vision for what it could be?

Mike Dillard:

Well, actually, I couldn't wait to quit my day job, okay? But during the first few years, I had to have a second job, but I didn't... I loved what I was doing. I believe in martial arts. I still do. I believed in it almost to a fault, and I believed in the growth of it. When I quit being an accountant... I worked for Kerr-McGee, and they sent me overseas. I lived in Bombay, now Mumbai. And I lived in Dubai, and then I lived in Seoul, Korea. It wasn't with Kerr-McGee. And it never occurred to me that it wouldn't work, but it did take a long time before it could support me full time.

I worked my way through OSU teaching martial arts for the university and the university class. And I kept a second job when I started Century teaching for different schools around town, martial arts schools. And I worked in a lot of clubs and stuff. That left my days free to pursue the business interest.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah. So that's fascinating that early on, you were kind of gigging, right, different things just to...

Mike Dillard:

Yeah. I was having a good time.

Aaron Ackerman:

Okay. I mean, you loved it, what you were doing.

Mike Dillard:

I did.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah. At what point did you think, "Wow, I've really got something here that's going to be a big business. It's not just going to support me, but I'm going to hire hundreds of people and do all this great stuff for the sport"? That's a big jump from the van and the hotel room, right?

Mike Dillard:

I've got a really big ego, but it's not big enough to jump up one day and say, "I'm going to hire hundreds of people."

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah.

Mike Dillard:

But I did.

Aaron Ackerman:

You did.

Mike Dillard:

No, I didn't think I was going to hire hundreds of people, but I did believe the business would grow, and that was from the get-go. I always believed in it.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah. You were able to take something that you were passionate about and make that your job, make that your life. What kind of advice do you give? Because sometimes people have things they're passionate about that never really leave the hobby category. But I'm curious about what you would say to somebody about pursuing what you love and figure out how to get paid doing that. Is that the kind of advice you would give?

Mike Dillard:

Sure. I think so. I think you've used all the key words. You have to have a passion. I mean, you've just got to start with a passion for what you've got, or it is just a job. And if you're lucky enough to turn that passion into something that supports you in a reasonable manner, then you're a lucky person. I didn't have that problem. I'd say I didn't have that problem. I believed in what I was doing, and it turned out on its own to support me fairly... I had some trouble. When I was teaching lessons, I... I mean, lessons were so cheap back then.

I remember I was working for a guy named Jack Wong here in town, and a young man comes in and says he wants to take lessons. And I said, "That's $40 a month." And he said, "Well, Kong down the street only charges 20." And I said, "Kong knows what his lessons are worth. Mine are worth 40, okay?" So I had a realistic sense, I think, of what it took to survive in that world. My words to any young person or other person trying to turn a hobby into... a hobby and a passion into a livelihood is you've got to have passion. You need to have a plan. And I mean, there's got to be some realism to it.

Aaron Ackerman:

Sure.

Mike Dillard:

I see a lot of people that dream. There's a lot of people that kind of fall in love with the idea of building a business, but they fall in love with the idea of building a business, and they procrastinate. They never really start building the business. They just go around talking about it all the time. Well, if you're hungry enough, you'll start building the business, and I certainly didn't lack from being hungry yet. I quit a pretty good job to do this.

Aaron Ackerman:

No, that's well put. Along those lines, so the MAIA, the association you started in the early 2000s, I'm interested what prompted you to do that? And I guess the concept is you're really promoting martial arts, and then you've also got the element where you're helping these schools and dojos and everything around the country to be as good of a business, to be really good businesses, right? So I can imagine that that's good for you to some extent. More schools, bigger schools are going to need more of Century equipment, but it's also good for your competitors. And maybe even association members are your competitors. Why did you start the association, and what was kind of the vision for that?

Mike Dillard:

Well, you have to go back to what our goals are. Although I didn't set out to get rich at martial arts, and I'm not sure how you measure success, but when we figured out we're making enough money to live on, our goal, our focus became more on growing martial arts. That's something I always believed in. And when I said I went to a rough high school, rough high school is another word for lots of bullies, and that's a pretty miserable situation for young people. I wanted more people to enjoy the benefits of martial arts, of which there are many, and especially more kids. So we set out to grow the number of people that are participating, the number of people that are exposed to martial arts. And that was a goal from way back when.

Before 2001, there was a grand master named Jhoon Rhee, who's deceased now, but he and I in different ways... He was in Washington, DC. He taught the congressional Taekwondo class, and he was well known to martial artists worldwide. But he asked me, he said, "What are you going to do for martial arts?" And I said, "I'm going to grow it. Watch me, and you'll see. We will give back from now on." And we did.

So you ask about MAIA, M-A-I-A, Martial Arts Industry Association. We looked out and said, "There is a universe here of schools, which is the main conduit where children and others learn martial arts, is through schools." I mean, there's the Miyagi out there who teaches in his back yard, but mainly at schools. And it's a limited universe. We can help grow the schools, but the best way to help grow the schools is to help them stay in business. And there's about... I don't know. Today, there's probably 20,000-plus schools.

Aaron Ackerman:

In the world or US or...

Mike Dillard:

The US.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah.

Mike Dillard:

There was probably 25,000 pre-COVID, maybe more. I don't have an exact count. But I know how many we market to, and that's close to 20,000 today or in the recent past. But I want to take those schools and make better schools out of them since that's one way to grow it. The other way is to make more schools. Well, if you attract the best and brightest young people, because most instructors are young people, then you can grow. If you don't attract the best people, I mean, you just can't build an A company with B people. And you can't build an A sport with B people.

So we set out to teach these instructors who own the schools. And sometimes they're not the instructor. Sometimes they're a retired instructor, or they just have someone who teaches for them. But if you teach those people good business practices or best business practices, then that helps them grow. They've got to first survive.

Aaron Ackerman:

Right.

Mike Dillard:

You'll find that many of them, at that time, were really pretty good martial artists. There's a lot of good martial artists out there, just a whole lot of them. Many of them are just average businessmen or maybe even beginning business people. So we also found that there's a great number of... There's guys that have 10 schools. There's guys that have more than 10. And there's schools that have 500 students in one school. But there's also the guy, on the other hand, who's got five, 10, or 20 students he teaches in his basement, and he's been doing it for 20 years.

Well, sometimes the guy that's in the basement wishes he had the big school, and I found that martial artists are very giving people. They're willing to share. The people with the best business practices and the most success are willing to share with the guy that was in his basement if you just provide a forum for them to meet and exchange ideas. So we started the Martial Arts Industry Association, and the first thing we did was start a magazine called MASuccess, Martial Arts Success. We published it. We've published it ever since 2001, and we give it out. We send it out free every month. Now I think it's gone to every other month, because on the odd months, we send out Black Belt Magazine, which is another publication we own. But in that, you've got the stories about the people that have succeeded. You've got information and topics that are appropriate for the small schools as well as the big schools, and a lot of just fun stuff that everybody that's a martial art enthusiast likes to read or know about.

And then to complement that, we hosted the Martial Arts SuperShow, which is a convention we put on every year. It's always in Las Vegas, other than COVID times. And a few thousand people come to it, and they actually meet and... And they meet the people that we publish articles about. They meet their business and martial art heroes and usually a few screen stars. And it's just a great atmosphere for people that are kindred spirits to get together and give each other a pat on the back or grow together.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah, that's awesome. I really love just the idea of community kind of makes everybody stronger. I think you were telling a story the other day about working with a specific owner of a school or maybe multiple schools, but how you're able to even help or maybe connect people to resources, but help these schools that maybe aren't making enough money or are looking at the potential of not surviving. You help them from a business standpoint. What's your cost structure? How much are you charging for classes? How many students do you have? And all these things that, like you said, maybe someone's a great teacher, a great martial artist, but hasn't been trained in business, which you can help with. I think those kind of stories are really cool.

Mike Dillard:

We do. MAIA has been so successful. It's so successful that now it has splinter groups. One of them is called Elite, which is a more intensive coaching. And one of them is called Wealth, which is basically the people that have succeeded, and they've succeeded enormously. There are people making a million dollars a year in this industry that just own schools, and that's pretty cool. And I think we are given a lot of credit for that, and I think some of our consultants deserve it. But we consult with the schools and get them to plan.

I mean, for example, a school needs to have birthday parties for students. It needs to have celebrations instead of initiations for belt tests, for belt advancement. Student retention is incredibly important, but so is the number of people that you get through your front door. You have got to have introductory classes for beginning people and not just throw beginners into the lion's den, so to speak. The parents sign out. Sometimes sleepovers. Sometimes after-school programs. Sometimes they need... Some schools own vans and go around and pick up students from schools and do almost daycare until parents get off work. They have summer camps.

Sometimes there's tournaments. Tournaments aren't a big part of it. We help them plan seminars, but we also hold them accountable. I've seen some of my top consultants hang up on people and say... These are people that charge a couple of thousand dollars a month, and hang up on them and say, "Call me back when you want to make money and survive," and hang up and wait for the phone to ring back. And if they don't, there's somebody else waiting in line for that consultant.

Aaron Ackerman:

Sure.

Mike Dillard:

But we also help them with advice on signing leases. The one I was telling you about the other day, he has 500 students. He's in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He's a good friend of mine, Phillip Blackman. We helped him buy his school. We helped him buy the building. It was a church. He bought it. We helped him figure out how to finance it. He converted basically the chapel into the teaching floor. Rented some of the other buildings for office space. Those other buildings pay the rent, make the mortgage payment actually now. And he gets the building free and clear. And churches have gigantic parking lots, so it's a win, win, win for him. And suddenly, we're best friends.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah. He's happy.

Mike Dillard:

He's happy. And he is also a model for a lot of others.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah. That is fantastic. Well, the thing that kind of struck me about... You were talking about your consultants that will end a phone call and kind of give that tough love or whatever and hold people accountable. That kind of proves or demonstrates that they're not just chasing fees, because you could keep taking someone's check for two or three grand a month even if they're not moving anything forward for themselves. But it's really more about really wanting to provide value and help these business owners, because ultimately if they're doing well, then this martial arts is doing well.

Mike Dillard:

One of our criteria, one of our mottoes is martial arts changes lives. We're going to change as many lives as we can, and we're going to change them for the positive. And sometimes that means old-school training doesn't cut it anymore. But there's some places where that's what they want to do. That's going to come first and foremost. If there's a profit to it, that's great. If there's not, that's okay. That's our goal. It's just the decision we made. It's been financially rewarding to us, but sometimes we do a lot of things that just don't have a dollar sign at the end of the day.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah. That's really interesting because it's a noble goal, and it sounds like you've always kind of had the philosophy that if we stay devoted to this mission that we'll make enough money. That will follow. I'm assuming, Mike, there's been times over the years where you could have chased something that would've potentially been very lucrative, but maybe wouldn't have been really in line with your stated goal or your mission of martial arts changes lives.

Mike Dillard:

Sure.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah.

Mike Dillard:

Yeah. I mean, there's lots of things we could have done. The grass always looks greener somewhere else. We could have gone into holding tournaments. We did do that for years and years, but there came a time when I recognized that, in the spectrum of martial arts, my customers have to have a piece of the pie where they make money. And one of the ways they make money is hosting tournaments and events. Another thing that they do is they own their schools. Well, we don't own schools really. I have, but... I could open five schools in Oklahoma City next month, but I would probably put five of my customers out of business or at least compete with them with an unfair advantage. But they may put me out of business. I don't know. But that's not the best way to spend our time. We've chosen our path, and we're happy with it.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah. Well, I mean, it takes... Over the long haul that you've been doing this, it takes a lot of discipline to really pick your lane and stay in it and be true to it and not kind of chase every pretty thing that comes along, because I'm sure there's lots of those opportunities. Let me ask you about working with Chuck Norris and not necessarily him specifically, but he was obviously a TV and movie star. But besides that, kind of beyond that, I mean, he was a legitimate world-class athlete, right?

Mike Dillard:

He is.

Aaron Ackerman:

And you tell a story about working out with him. I'm just curious. Working with somebody that's at that elite level, which you were at an elite level yourself as well, but what kind of takeaways or lessons were there about being able to push yourself or... I don't know. I'm just curious. Working with somebody that's a world-class, elite-level athlete, there had to have been some moments where you were like, "Wow, he's a little bit different than other people I've trained or trained with or whatever."

Mike Dillard:

No doubt. You're exactly right. He is different. Chuck taught me a new level of try hard. I thought I tried... I was a high school wrestler. I started wrestling in college and really didn't have the experience and talent for that, especially at OSU where they have such a good program. But I'd been around sports a lot, and I thought I trained really, really hard until I met Chuck, and I found out I was wrong. His workout sessions... I mean, we started at 7:00 AM. We trained for four hours, and there's no resting. There's no talking. There's no emails. There's no texting.

Aaron Ackerman:

It's intense.

Mike Dillard:

Right. It's intense. But back when we started, there were no texts, of course.

Aaron Ackerman:

Well, there's always been distractions of one sort or another, right?

Mike Dillard:

There are. And believe me, when Chuck goes in the gym, nobody bothers him. Nobody dares come in and bother him. My opinion of a college football player is, A, you have to start off being... Let me just regress a little bit.

Aaron Ackerman:

Sure.

Mike Dillard:

The difference between a freak and an animal. An animal is someone who trains so hard it's almost animalistic. They train so hard in the gym or on the field. Okay? A freak is someone that doesn't train, but seems to have all that natural ability.

Aaron Ackerman:

Right.

Mike Dillard:

Okay? Chuck is a freak with animalistic-

Aaron Ackerman:

He's a freak and an animal.

Mike Dillard:

He's got so much natural ability, and he's animalistic in the way he trains to a point you just... I mean, it's indescribable, and it is so painful to do it with him.

Aaron Ackerman:

Like physically painful?

Mike Dillard:

Physically painful. Yes. It's exhaustive. And Chuck, he always says the right thing. He always eats the right thing. He gets the right sleep. He's very smart. He's just... I mean, he's superhuman. The guy didn't have any faults, and sometimes I kind of wish he would just show some human faults sometimes. But on the other hand, it makes it easy for me to hold him on a pedestal, which I kind of do.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah. So are those... Well, what's the application there? Obviously, if you're training for martial arts, you can see a person who's an animal and a freak maybe, but you can do more than you think you can do. Do those lessons bleed over into... I mean, you were talking about how he does everything right. He eats right. He sleeps right. I'm sure he was just as disciplined when he was acting in movies and TV. How does that translate into running a business or being a family person or working in your church or your organization? Are there lessons there that we can draw from his four-hour intensity workouts?

Mike Dillard:

Well, there are. One thing you do is... If he draws out a workout, he says, "We're going to do this and this and this," and we won't quit until it's done. It may take more than four hours, but he has a pretty good sense of that. In business, I had a list of things that needed to be done. Everybody makes lists, but you don't quit until the list is finished, and you don't sublimate your goals. You don't procrastinate. You just have to do what you have to do. And if you cross all the Ts and dot all the Is and you make a real list, your chance of success are very good. I mean, in the entrepreneurial world, there's always an element of luck. If anybody tells you there's not, I think they're mistaken. But you have to have a little bit of that to go with it, but a lot of discipline. And that's what martial arts is, is discipline.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah. That's so good. When you were just talking about making the list and him saying, "We're going to do this workout till it's done," it's one thing if, Mike, if you're my boss and I work for you and you say, "You've got to do A, B, and C." If I don't, I'm going to get fired, or I'm going to get in trouble or whatever. And a lot of times, whether you're an entrepreneur or you're the owner, you're Chuck Norris, you're really not accountable to anybody but yourself, ultimately. Chuck could have cut off the last 25% of that workout, and nobody would've said, "Hey, get back on the mat. You've got to finish." He could have walked out and been done.

Mike Dillard:

I worked with him on Walker, Texas Ranger for years and years. He's typically the first one on the set, and he's going to be there, and he's going to make sure everything's right. There'll be some lighting guys and the transportation people. He's the first... I mean, if you look at Walker, Texas Ranger, Chuck's in almost every scene. So he's the first out there. He's the last to leave. We leave there, grab something that did not involve junk food to eat, and go back to his house. And we sit and watch episodes that have already been filmed, and he'd need to cut four minutes off this one or figure out what's wrong with that one. And he's still doing editing. He's not editing, but he's telling the editors what to edit and stuff like that. And then I leave and go to bed, and he's sitting up and working on the script for next week. The guy's phenomenal.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah. I love that. It's like most of us could do less and get away with it. But if you have a commitment to something higher, like to yourself, to being a person of your word, to being committed to the highest quality or whatever it is, having that inside you that drives you to finish the job completely and excellently, even though you don't have to. You could do less. That is amazing. I'm fascinated with that, and I think that's a good thing to take away.

Okay. So I've got to ask you. I've been intrigued. We touched on this just a little bit the other day when we were talking, and I've researched this a little bit. But in your business, so for whatever reason... I'm going to just ask you this. You had an ability to see the pandemic probably before most everyone else. If I've got my facts right, I read, Mike, that at Century, you guys were designing and testing masks, the COVID masks in January of 2020 and were stocking up on supplies from China in February. Now, for most of us, the pandemic wasn't really super high on anyone's radar here in the US until mid-March for just kind of the average person going to work every day. How were you able to be so tuned into that that you were getting ready to produce masks in January and February? That's awesome.

Mike Dillard:

Aaron, did you watch the news? I mean, if you watched the news, China, Italy, headed west, Spain, even the UK, the pandemic is spreading. Nobody's talking about having a cure yet or a vaccine yet or anything. We don't have a cure to speak of yet. The two things we did was we prepared to do that. We did prepare to do some things that we were working with the state. We asked them, "What can we do?" And they wanted us to do some things for hospitals and masks and things like that. We also... It's not rocket scientists. We pulled out of the stock market. Okay? Some people said, "How did you foresee that?" I said, "How did you not? How did you not see that the stock market was going to drop precipitously?"

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah. I mean, I guess, you acted. You made some decisions earlier than, I don't know, than most people did, I guess. And you were ready in a lot of ways, ready to go with...

Mike Dillard:

We were, but I can't imagine why anybody didn't see this. This germ knows no boundary. It doesn't know about borders. It didn't know that we were building a wall between here and Mexico or not.

Aaron Ackerman:

Right. So then throughout the pandemic, I want to ask you about some of the pivots you had to make at Century. So as things are shut down, martial arts schools are shut down. So some of your most sold items are uniforms and equipments used in training. That stopped for a while, almost overnight, right?

Mike Dillard:

It did. Almost overnight.

Aaron Ackerman:

Almost overnight.

Mike Dillard:

99% of the schools just closed.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah.

Mike Dillard:

We helped, through MAIA, we helped people do videos. Everybody kind of knows that we put together a program. You can do videos to teach your lessons to your students online, basically Zoom meetings or podcasts, and you can choose how to do that. But they can continue to pay their tuition. You continue to interact with them. And that went on for hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands of schools. We kept them working. We didn't sell many uniforms at all. We did sell belts because you can do a Zoom belt test, just like you can do a Zoom lesson.

We also transitioned to home fitness. And I can tell you, we sold not tens, but a few hundred thousand punching bags. And with those go boxing gloves, bag gloves, hand wraps, things like that during that time period. But it involved repurposing a lot of our manufacturing area, building some new machinery, some new jigs. You'd be surprised. There's more pieces to a punching bag than you would think, and that material doesn't just fall into the bag, the stuffing. We build machines that are two stories tall to facilitate doing that. We have several of them. We can make as many as a thousand bags a day, which for a time period, there was that demand. Now it's back to normal levels and probably will be. It's just a quick pivot, but keeping your customers alive.

We also went... Through MAIA, we taught them. We said, "Look, PPP money is real. You can get it, and we're here to help you. Call us. Talk to us." And we helped thousands of schools get PPP money and keep their doors open.

Aaron Ackerman:

So for MAIA, I mean, some of the consulting opportunities were probably off the charts. Everybody needed help. How do I stay open? How do I...

Mike Dillard:

Well, the consulting opportunities were off the charts. We didn't receive any money for helping people with PPP loans. We didn't receive any extra money for helping them do video teaching. We did what you did. I mean, you help your neighbors. This is a family to us.

Aaron Ackerman:

Oh, yeah. Yeah. But at Century, you had to make some pretty quick decisions, or maybe those decisions were almost made for you. Just like you said, nobody's buying uniforms because their schools are closed.

Mike Dillard:

We got lucky. We didn't have a crystal ball. We didn't realize that businesses were going to be shut down completely except for those... What was the term? Essential businesses. But because we'd gotten into the masks and helping hospitals, we became an essential business. We didn't know that was going to happen. It was just luck. But that helped us keep the doors open. And we took all the precautions that anybody could take for the safety of our team. We don't call them employees. We have team members. And things worked out for us. I feel very fortunate in that regard.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah. That's awesome. Well, thanks for sharing all of that. I think that I appreciate your transparency. Really, really interesting kind of the way Century came about, MAIA came about. I think there's so much good stuff there. If people want to learn more about martial arts, learn more about MAIA or Century or Mike Dillard, what is the best place to go to find out more about it?

Mike Dillard:

What was your phone number? I don't know. Go online.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah.

Mike Dillard:

I mean, there's a lot of good schools. People ask me about schools all the time, about their kids and stuff. And I tell them there's a few things you need to be sure of. One is go view classes. If they won't let you watch the class, there's probably a reason, and it's probably not a good reason. Go view classes at more than one school. They're not all the same. And remember, Mom, you're going to be bringing little Johnny for the next few years. Don't drive across town if there's a school nearby, but make sure it's that good school. Don't be afraid to participate with him. You can sit there and read a book while he does class three or four, five times a week and you gain 20 pounds a year, or you can get out there in class with him and be just as in shape and have something in common with your child.

I tell people, be sure you try to... I don't know how to say this. You want to match your child or your situation to the art you study. Grappling arts such as jui-jitsu and judo are not for everybody, but they are incredibly good self-defense. But some ladies I know do not want to get on the mat and have some guy lay on top of them and sweat. Okay? So that may be a situation for a stand-up martial arts, such as karate or taekwando. Some love it. Go figure. And some kids are going to be better off in a situation where there's a lot more "yes sirs, no sirs," et cetera.

I would say to a parent, "Every child needs to fit in, and they can fit in in a martial arts school." They need to stand out. They can stand out. That's why we have stripes on belts, different-colored belts, different ranks. They need discipline. They need self-confidence. I say, "Every parent should make sure their child learns to swim and to defend themself."

Aaron Ackerman:

Right.

Mike Dillard:

Okay? In martial arts, nobody ever sits on the bench. You won't find that you have to drive 200 miles every weekend to a tournament, if you don't want to, because they're on a team. You shouldn't feel that way. And it's a lifetime sport. The skills that they learn now they can practice for the rest of their lives, and you can be proud that they do.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah. Wow! Well said. All right, so to wrap up, Mike, I've got five questions. We ask all of our guests these questions. They're kind of fun. So you ready?

Mike Dillard:

Okay. You didn't tell me about this.

Aaron Ackerman:

No, I didn't. What's the first way you ever made money?

Mike Dillard:

Mowing lawns.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah, same. Yeah. I think this question may be particularly hard for you compared to some other people, because you've been so focused in your career. But what would you be doing if you had a completely different career?

Mike Dillard:

If I could write myself a letter, I'd say, "Join the Marines." I'd probably have been in the military, although like everybody in your office here, I'm pretty handy with numbers. But I'd rather be... I'd like to have been a soldier.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah. Yeah. You don't seem like somebody that's going to sit behind a desk very long at a time.

Mike Dillard:

I made two years of that after college. That was it.

Aaron Ackerman:

What would you go back and tell 20-year-old Mike Dillard?

Mike Dillard:

Marry Darcy sooner.

Aaron Ackerman:

Great answer. All right. What's the title of your autobiography?

Mike Dillard:

I don't know. Something about life with a passion.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah. I like it. I think that is you. I see that. All right, last one. What's the best advice you've ever received?

Mike Dillard:

You know, this is an age-related question. I don't know for sure what the best advice. But Chuck told me, he said, "Don't ever let yourself get..." I'm almost 72. Okay? I weigh the same as I weighed since I got out of college. Okay? I'm fairly physical. Chuck said, "Don't let yourself get out of shape." He said, "If you do, you may never be able to get back in shape." He said, "You always want to be able to respect yourself. And Mike, you won't respect yourself if you're fat and sloppy and let yourself go."

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah. Stay in shape. I love it. That makes everything in life easier, if you're...

Mike Dillard:

In 1990, I fought the Russian champion in Leningrad. And after the fight, we had a banquet and all that, because it was a sport thing. It wasn't a big-money fight or anything like that. And I remember our host, he raised a glass of vodka, of course, in Russia. And of course, it was the Soviet Union then. And he raised a glass and said, "We'll drink to your health. We think you capitalists can buy everything else you need." But your health is really important.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah. That's great.

Mike Dillard:

So we focus on that.

Aaron Ackerman:

Well, Mike, thanks so much. Congrats on all the success at Century and just the way you've been instrumental in moving martial arts forward. I know you're a very humble guy, but you've done a lot to put that sport on the map more all the time. And congrats, and just appreciate everything you do here in Oklahoma City, and I'm glad that we got to meet.

Mike Dillard:

Hey [inaudible 00:48:42]. I appreciate it.

Aaron Ackerman:

Thanks.

Mike Dillard:

All right.

Aaron Ackerman:

That's all for this episode of How That Happened. Thank you for listening. Be sure to visit howthathappened.com for show notes and additional episodes. You can also subscribe to our show on iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcast, or Stitcher. Thanks for listening. This content is for information purposes only and does not constitute professional advice. Copyright 2022 HoganTaylor LLP, all rights reserved. To view the HoganTaylor general terms and conditions, visit www.hogantaylor.com.