As a martial arts instructor and school owner of a successful “small town” school, I have been challenged to develop and find methods, products, and projects that work on a limited budget.

Every project that I get involved in has to do 2 things.

1. The project needs to fulfill some need in the community. Just like any project on Projabi.com, it needs to benefit someone or something in our community. This is the driving force as a teacher and “Education Activist” (coined by Peter Liciaga) in our local areas. We have a responsibility to provide only the best for our students and our schools.

2. The project should serve to raise awareness for my program. Every project that is done is a form of marketing. But it’s not the kind of hard nose, beat it over their head marketing. Instead, it’s marketing by sharing what your school is capable of. It’s marketing by displaying the many benefits of training at your school through real world examples of your excellence.

Original Bully Banners

One of the projects that I’m the most proud of is our Stop Bullying Banners. The original Bully Banners and the Presentation has been given over and over again last year, sharing the Stop Bullying information. I’m very proud to have helped in creating this project and working to get it out to as many schools as possible.

This first set of banners launched our “KIDS TEACHING KIDS” campaign within the schools. The 6th, 7th, and 8th graders were responsible for giving this simple presentation to the K-5th Graders.

Of all of the “Projects” that we’ve implemented in our school, these Bully Banners and the Kids Teaching Kids program has had the most impact in engaging students, teachers, and community. 

Kids Teaching Kids is Vital. We can talk to these kids until we’re blue in the face really, but when they hear it from another student, who has recently, or is going through exactly what they’re going through, they relate better. They’re engaged more because they’re seeing older students, which is exciting anyway, it’s someone new, someone they can better relate too. When we’re talking about this really important issue [bullying] coming at it from every angle is what we need to do as educators.” – Samantha Tower, Elementary Guidance Counselor, MHLT Elementary in Minocqua, WI.

It’s Time For “Act 2″ – NEW BULLY BANNERS

Feedback is everything, so we listened closely to what the parents, students, teachers, and YOU had to say about these presentations. What we found is that we could simplify the banners down to 4 (to take up less room in the classroom) and redesign the presentation to feel more like a script from a movie. We wanted the presentation to be even MORE engaging and get the students up out of their seats and actively learn about bullying. So, we started from the ground up and redesigned the banner presentation.

Brian Williams and I have spent a ton of time ‘getting it right’. We’ve spent many hours in skype discussions, many hours in researching this subject and talking with school leaders. ALL FOR YOU TO HAVE THIS OPPORTUNITY.

(Please allow 2-4 weeks for shipment)

$500 – 4 Banners + presentation

http://www.vtubetools.com/

Check out this Harvard Business School Review: http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5662.html

Reposted from: http://frankkern.com/the-two-magic-powers/

Her name is Madam C.J. Walker and here she is:

And let me tell you, this lady could have …

Kicked All Of Our Asses …Combined!

Here’s why:

First, the article in Oprah didn’t say much about her except that she became extremely successful selling hair products door-to-door.

All I can really remember is it had her picture and then it mentioned her success.

Now, being a former door-to-door man myself, I decided to check her out.

Here’s what I found:

First, she was born in Louisiana.

On a farm.

In 1865.

Not really an ideal time and place to be born if you’re:

1. A woman.
2. African American.

But she had plenty of additional challenges to face.

She was an orphan at age seven.

At age 14, she got married …reportedly to escape the abuse that she was suffering at the hands of her brother-in-law.

She became a mother at age 17, and a widow at age 20.

She supported herself and her daughter by picking cotton on a farm, by being a laundress, and by working in a barber shop. From what I can tell, the most she ever made during that time was $1.50 a day.

But It Got Worse

At around 25 years old, she began to develop a a condition that caused her to start balding.

Can you imagine? As if she didn’t have enough to deal with …now the poor lady’s hair is falling out.

(And we whine when our cell phone drops a call every now and then… kind of embarrassing.)

Anyway …

Here’s Where It Gets Good

It shouldn’t surprise you that she quickly became a student of “how to fix this damned balding problem”.

In fact, she researched all kinds of treatments, and eventually discovered that sulfur could abolish the scalp disease that was causing people to lose their hair.

(Apparently, people lost their hair a lot back then because they didn’t bathe as much. They would get some nasty scalp infection and their hair would fall out. But if you treated the problem with sulfur, you could knock it out.)

So she did the only logical thing to do, which was to start her own business …selling a product called “Madam Walker’s Wonderful Hair Grower”.

Keep in mind, she was just starting out and didn’t have a big budget (probably NO budget at all) so she had no choice but to …

Go Out, Grab The World By The Balls, And Bend It To Her Will!

And the first thing she did was to go door to door, selling her product.

Listen – nobody really embraces a door to door sales person with open arms these days, you know?

But imagine what it must have been like for Madam Walker in the racist and male dominated environment she was working in back then.

…That took some cojones.

How many times do you think she was rejected?

How many doors do you think were slammed in her face?

How many insults did she hear?

I’m willing to bet she even was threatened …regularly.

But did that stop her?

Hell No!

Not only did she survive …she thrived.

Mrs Walker hung in there and sold more products, developed new ones, and finally opened up a factory in Indianapolis.

By 1913, she was traveling around the world training other women to sell her products.

…And by the time she died in 1919 at age 51, she had become

The World’s First Female Self-Made Millionare!

Against incredible odds, wouldn’t you say?

Man – what a story.

Did I mention that her parents were former slaves? I don’t think I did.

So her story is amazing, and I think her success is largely due to one critical characteristic:

The Amazing Ability To Get Off Of One’s Ass And Get To WORK.

Seems we have a lack of that ability these days.

Think about it.

The real secret to success is to get out there and work like hell.

It's Friday night and so marks the end of my first week of the Ultimate Black Belt Test - Team 9. 

The truth is, is that since 2005 when I started the UBBT (Team 3), then through 2007 when I completed my test, and over the next 4 years of training and teaching... my UBBT has been a part of my life. Thank you Tom Callos.

It's served to define who I am in my school and my community.

Over the last 6 years, through working with the UBBT, I've created the National Leadership Team (Now called Projabi - www.Projabi.com), collaborated on the Kids Teaching Kids idea/program, worked on developing Anti-Bullying programs and curriculum, worked with school owners in the 100 in growing their schools, learned to build websites (never built a website until I met Tom), and have consistently seen growth in my school every year since we've began 6 years ago. 

I'm sure I missed several ideas/projects but those jump out as breakthrough successful programs. 

So, this year, moving forward, what's next?

I recognize that Black Belt Testing is about challenging yourself and reaching new levels. So of course, in completing the UBBT once, I decided to really push this years test. 

www.GaryEngels.com/Black-Belt-Test/  - this site has all of the details of my test.

This week my test consisted of...

750 pushups, 40 pullups, 12 rounds of sparring, cutting out sugar from my diet completely, and changing schedule around to fit this test in with all of the other crazy projects that I have going on right now. 

Also this week we put together a plan to get Projabi into hundreds of schools (martial arts and charter) all over the world this year. I set a goal to hit 1000 projects recorded on the site this year, we're at 443 projects now and should see exponential growth through working with other schools. (contact me at garyengels@gmail.com for more information)

DIET

I decided to start something new every 30 days (from a Ted Video on my BB test site). For January, the challenge was NO SUGAR for 30 Days. I'm on day 6 of no sugar and I feel great. I stopped drinking coffee and switched to tea, cut out any sweets that so easily have found myself picking up, and stopped sugary juice drinks and other sugary foods. In doing some research I've found that sugar metabolizes into acid in the body and slows you down. I feel great after a week, can't wait to record after a month. 

In an unstable, inconsistent world, great leaders are consistent and stable.

Consistently do these 20 things and you’ll be a great leader.

1. Tell the truth.
2. Demand the truth.
3. Act in the best interest of their organization.
4. Get results through others.
5. Celebrate the success of others.
6. Challenge the status quo.
7. Press into the future while honoring the past.
8. Try.
9. Receive criticism.
10. Learn.
11. Inspire.
12. Improve.
13. Encourage.
14. Listen more than speak.
15. Take responsibility.
16. Show gratitude.
17. Pursue clarity and specificity.
18. Engage in self-reflection.
19. Act in alignment with who they are.
20. Rest.

Any others you’d like to add? Please add in the comments section below.

(Thank you LeadershipFreak for the original post)

SatoriChallenge is a Health/Fitness Challenge that lasts 90 days.

Dave Kovar and Satori Systems Inc. created the Satori Challenge.

What is the Satori Challenge?

We can all recall having “Satori Moments” when we’ve been effective, empowered and at our very best.

The objective of The Satori Challenge is to help you develop the ability to maximize the amount of time that you are at your very best. Imagine what it would be like if you were at your very best more of the time. If you fully participate in The Satori Challenge, you will dramatically increase the percentage of time in which you are at your very best, in your ideal performance state.

The Satori Challenge
is a 9 week program that
focuses on 3 primary areas:

1. Basic Fitness Training

2. Practical Healthy Eating

3. The Mastery Mindset

Here’s what Satori Challenge Is NOT…

• This is not just another exercise program, but it does have a unique exercise component that emphasizes all three pieces of the fitness puzzle; Strength, Endurance and Flexibility.
• This is not just another diet program, but the nutritional component of The Satori Challenge will help you look at food and your eating habits in a completely different way.
• And this is not another goal setting clinic but it will help you to accomplish your goals and more importantly it will help you dramatically improve your outlook on life.

The Ice Book (HD) from Davy and Kristin McGuire on Vimeo.

First of all I want to share a quick email

I just received from a ‘PBLT explained’ member.

——————————————

Cheers Gary,
Thank you so much!

I am excited about this website and it’s possibilities. I know you saw this vision a while ago and I do appreciate you creating this site. I believe the Project Based Leadership Training will be truly my USP here in new jersey! NO ONE IS DOING IT! …well, if they are then no one is hearing about it. The better I get at research, communicating, speaking, presenting, blogging, writing, film producing, networking, and “intelligent” conversations the more my community leaders are thinking of me when certain subjects come up.

Yesterday, I received $4000 from a business owner for the film project and in our conversation he said that the other day he was in conversation with someone about bullying and the only name that came up was mine. My ability to “own” the subject of bullying in my community came about when I encouraged a 9-year old to do a bully presentation as a project which eventually grew into the Our Bully Project (aka Stop Bullying Now Project!)

Now I am doing the same thing with other subjects.

Oops, this email is turning into a blog post….

thank you for your quick response to my email and for resolving the website issue.

——————————————–

PBLT is a launching point for YOUR project, for your vision, for your USP to shine in your school.

(USP is Unique Selling Proposition, it’s that ‘thing’ that sets you apart from your competition and helps your clients/students choose your school versus going to the school down the street… very important)

Who am I kidding… as head of your school, you already know all of about your USP.

You can learn more about PBLT here:

www.ProjectBasedLeadershipTraining.com

There’s some free training there as well as a place to get started in the training program known as PBLT explained. Once inside, you’ll find videos and downloads that walk you through the entire PBLT process.

Take care,

~Gary

P.S. Every martial arts instructor I know that has implemented PBLT has got results. It’s a no brainer

as it’s impossible to get started and not engage your students and community like a true Sensei.

www.ProjectBasedLeadershipTraining.com

www.Start100DayChallenge.com