The Shintaro Higashi Show - Dojo Development | The Shintaro Higashi Show

Episode Date: February 28, 2026

In this episode of the Shintaro Higashi Show, Shintaro and David Kim discuss the growth of Shintaro's dojo network, exploring the idea of affiliations rather than franchises. They delve into marketing strategies for dojos, the importance of business acumen in martial arts, and personal updates on rehabilitation and upcoming events. The conversation highlights the challenges and opportunities in expanding a martial arts business while maintaining quality and community engagement.TakeawaysShintaro is expanding his dojo network through affiliations.Franchising involves complex legalities that Shintaro wants to avoid.The focus is on helping others open dojos without being directly involved.Marketing and business strategies are crucial for dojo success.Shintaro emphasizes the importance of training staff and student engagement.He plans to conduct seminars to support partner dojos.The conversation touches on personal health and rehabilitation journeys.Shintaro is open to collaboration and sharing resources.Upcoming events include a seminar and Olympic qualifications for judo.The hosts express gratitude for their audience's support.00:00 Welcome Back and New Beginnings02:51 Expanding the Dojo Network05:59 Marketing Strategies for Dojos08:53 Rehabilitation and Personal Updates12:02 Upcoming Events and Future Goals🚨 LIMITED-TIME OFFER: 40% OFF 🚨The All-in-One Instructional Bundle just got even better.Every major instructional. One complete system. Now at our biggest discount yet.Grab yours now at 40% off : https://higashibrand.com/products/all-instructionalsThis won’t last. Build your game today.🔥 Get 20% OFF FUJI Gear! 🔥Looking to level up your judo training with the best gear? FUJI Sports has you covered. Use my exclusive link to grab 20% OFF high-quality gis, belts, bags, and more.👉 https://www.fujisports.com/JUDOSHINTARO 👈No code needed – just click and save!Links:🇯🇵 Kokushi Budo Institute (The Dojo) Class Schedule in New York, NY 🗽: https://www.kokushibudo.com/schedule🇯🇵 Higashi Brand Merch & Instructionals: https://www.higashibrand.com📚 Shintari Higashi x BJJ Fanatics Judo Courses & Instructionals Collection: https://bjjfanatics.com/collections/shintaro-higashi/

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Welcome back to the Shantorahashi show with David Kim. I know it's been a while. We took a flight hiatus for the holidays. been kind of nuts. We didn't even plan it. It wasn't even like a thing, right, David? We weren't even like, all right, we're going to take a little bit. We just took a break. Everything is planned down to the letter to the second. I can't believe that you tell people that.

But yeah, happy new year. We haven't, you know, we haven't really gotten together. And, you know, I'm sure there's a new news as to, you know, the new year coming around, new things going on at the dojo, new injuries, you know, we got all sorts of new crap. to talk about. Definitely, definitely. So, yeah, I have some news.

You know, I've been just kind of slaving away at the gym, growing the dojo, and, you know, a lot more people have shown interest in opening a dojo with me. So I have my main flagship gym, Kofi Shibudo, that's been around since forever. And then I started Cano martial arts, and I took an exit recently, maybe like a year ago. And there's a lot of people in my gym who are like,

hey, I want to open up a gym. I want to open up a gym. People will hit me up from all over the country saying, hey, can you help me out? Maybe there's something to work on. So now we're sort of in the process of kind of getting that going, you know? So that's been something that I've been working on pretty actively in the last, like, couple of weeks.

And so this is something that you're open to doing, you know, pretty much anywhere in the country, not just like Northeast Corridor, that kind of thing. Yeah, everywhere in the country. And then the first question is, are you going to make a franchise? And the answer to that is an absolute resounding no, because when you say franchise, there's a lot of legal implications, tons of paperwork, administrative thing. You know, I've done the research.

I went to these, you know, they have these like convention things. You know, you've been to Jacob Javitt Center? Of course, yes. Yeah, they do all these conventions. You know, sometimes it's like a merchant sourcing convention. I even went to a franchising convention and networked and then spoke to all these people who are franchise lawyers, franchisees, franchisors, all the stuff.

It's like a whole network of thing. And then I came to the conclusion that it's far. more work than what I want to put into that, you know? Yeah. So no other franchise. So then how is it? So what are you thinking about it now then? How will you structure the relationship or is that still like TBD?

I mean, we're still kind of trying to figure out all the nitty-gritty details. But I think this is the direction that I want to go. I want to do an affiliation situation with Kempushibiro with myself. And that's a certain fee. And then after about a year, they hold up their end of the bargain. We hold up hours and it's a great sort of union. Then they have an option to go into a partner dojo situation where they have sort of, you know, they give me a part of the business, whether it's a sale or a percentage thing or we kind of work that together. And that has its perks as well.

So there's like the tier one affiliation thing where they're paying me, obviously for the affiliation, the licensing, all this stuff. And there's sort of a marketing upside, you know, system upside, whereas I'm sharing all the systems that I use at my current gym, whether it's curriculum or sales or, you know, lead generation pipeline, such. And then after about a year, they'll see that their business is grown. Obviously, I wouldn't have done my job that their business doesn't grow. And then from there, they have an option to not pay that affiliation fee

but be a partner gym. Right. I see. Yeah. So that's the initial first step or the idea. But the first step before that is opening up another dojo to kind of trial test all these systems without me there. Right. So maybe opening up a dojo, let's just say in Long Island, far Long Island, like mid-Long Island, you know.

And then I have a couple guys who are like, I want to do it. Can you help me do it? All right. Here we go. This is the thing. And they kind of jump into immediately being the partner gym. But we test the affiliation structure. We test the partnership structure.

that way we have a whole new dojo out in Long Island somewhere, right, that I'm already putting money in, my skin's in the game, I'm already a part owner, and then we're going to see if that works. And then all the systems will be obviously ironed out during that initial phase, and then that whole thing gets packaged and done into the affiliation thing, you know? Yeah, so I guess the real variable here is that you would, you're not actually in the building, right?

So because you obviously have your own systems. You have your own policies. You have all that stuff sort of already set at your, at your own dojo. But I guess not the real thing is like a remote kind of relationship between you and that new location. And you know, I've sort of put it out there like, hey, you know, consult with me, talk to me, collaborate. I mean, let's do something together. I don't know if you remember one of the podcasts that we did. 100%.

I watched the malls, Chondaro. Oh, do you? That's crazy. But no, yeah, you know, probably maybe five to ten people in that range, probably like six or seven people reached out to me about that. And I have ongoing conversations about it. And, you know, the question was like, how often will you come out here and help me was the question? And then, you know, will you do seminars from me? Will you come in and then, you know, help me train staff?

And the answer to that is yes. You know, obviously I can't teach a Tuesday, Thursday class if you're out in Idaho. I just can't do it. You know, like, what, I'm going to fly over there? Why not? Yeah. But you know, every couple of months, maybe twice a year or something, go out there for a seminar. Obviously, there's an affiliation discount and such, and then I'll do a seminar.

And then during that time period that I'm there, we'll do stuff like a staff audit, staff training, all this stuff. You know, helped with marketing. Obviously, I can't help, you know, film the classes as such, but I could accept collaborations. There could be a sort of a certain standard for YouTube stuff. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Because I have a million people watching and listening to me across my platforms. So it's like, you know, that's a very beneficial thing to be able to tap into.

You don't have to build an Instagram from scratch if you're running a dojo. You know, these are sort of the upsides that, you know, for partnering up with me. Yeah, a lot of options. Essentially what I was thinking about. Yeah. A lot of options. Interesting, right, David? Yeah, because a lot of the problem is not really on the technical judo side as you've made, you know, you've made that point many times in the past and others have too.

it's really on the business side. You know, like how do I get my message out there? How do I differentiate myself from other, you know, maybe not even dojoos in the area because it's not like there's a ton of them, right? Yeah. But you're just trying to, you know, make a good business. And ever since I put this idea out there,

it's just kind of been flooded in, hey, let's do it, let's do it. I'm interested. I'm interested. Can you open a dojo with me? So it's like maybe that's my next logical step, you know, do I want to own 100 dojoos and if I want to be the king of you? No, I don't want to do any of that stuff. because then it takes up too much time, right? Yeah. But there's a healthy medium, you know, maybe like 10 affiliations,

maybe two or three flagship gyms. I'm happy with that, you know? And you're the guy to help me do that too, David. I mean, you've got to quit your mortgage tech business and start doing the dojo business. I don't know where you are in your entrepreneurial path. Right, right, yeah. Well, you know, I'm always open to a conversation for sure.

But, no, this sounds interesting, particularly on the marketing side, the YouTube and Instagram and of course like it's almost like a seminar for students and for for staff right because you're going to be there kind of not going over so much

how to do Jima but how to you know treat your your students how to organize your classes how to you know run down lead you know do all that kind of stuff which most people I think either avoid or just don't know what they don't know.

And, you know, that's where you can, I think, give a lot of help. Yeah. You know, years of experience doing this stuff. And, you know, I go do a lot of seminars across the country. And I did one last year. And I was like, all right, let's see it. Let's take a look. And I even told this guy straight up, like, if you don't want my advice, it's okay.

You know, like you could tell me, you know, buy your own business. Right. But let's take a look. Yeah. If you mind? And he was like, no, no, no, please, please. And then, you know, we started off with the website. And the website was so information.

dense. The history of judo techniques, what we do, what the curriculum is, this, that, this. It was like concepts and ideas, blurbs some Jaguar O'Connell and all these different champions and pictures. And it was like an unbelievable resource, but I was like, this doesn't do anything for your business. I'm sorry. This is an amazing resource.

I enjoyed looking through his website, but this is exactly the opposite of what you want for your business website. And here are the things that I would do to change it. You know, and then they have like the. forms to fill out and such and I fill out the forms and some of the links are broken and it took you to a different resources page you know this is what you can expect from judo

and it was like it took them off the website so it's like wait a minute you know you want me to come in for a class you're kicking me to another website you know like this is like you're bleeding here yeah you know it's like you're catching water with a sieve you know when you're doing pasta

and you're trying to dip the thing and you just dunking water through it with the leads in this case it's money for the ads that you paid for that you're just losing on this thing and Google will gladly take your money still. Yes. It's like, all right, let's take some of these things and since then I think

they have a much better website. And the number of these... They're more interested in probably like safety, hygiene, you know, like some of those things probably more than Juga-Ocano's latest last, you know, words. So...

But yes, so this is the, you know, I've had so much experience. It's like, all right, let me take a look at your gym. These are the numbers that I want. Bang, bang, bang. You know, they're called KPI business. Keep performance indicators. You look at those KPI's and, you know, there's all this data.

It's like, what do you even look at, you know? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Right. Yeah. So it sounds like you're, you know, still early stages, right? Trying to figure out the structure for this. But sounds like it would be a good win-win, right?

People get. kind of some additional exposure, additional training. Yeah. And, you know, you get compensated too. So I think it's like a nice thing. Yeah. And then I've been lifting a lot trying to rehab my knee. Oh, your knee is still, is it still bothering you?

You know, it's much better. Like I got surgery in April and by October, it was like getting a better in a way where it didn't hurt me on a day-to-day basis. And then starting in October, I started like, a really strong lifting regimen, and I've been on that for three months. Uh-huh. And so now I'm like, all right, do I now jump back into like full-blown judo, you know?

Right. Is my like almost a year. They said nine to 12 months until it heals completely. Yeah. And we're right there, you know, we're about 10 months in. So it's like, all right, you know, this is the time. Don't you?

I think you're supposed to practice by kicking your students, aren't you? You just like, yeah, yeah. Just sort of. Backspin kick. Yeah, 300, you know, Spartan, Spartan kick them. through the wall.

We're going to pass the guard with that front kick. That's right. Yeah. Yeah, I've got a new injury. My neck is messed up. So my left arm is, I got nerve pain in my left arm. So I'm not really training right now.

Does it hurt right now? Yes, it hurts right now. I got like my pinkies numb and, you know, got some pain in my neck and stuff. So MRI tomorrow night. Wow. We'll see what we can see. But I am hopeful. because I think I mentioned it to you before.

I'm not afraid of sneezing, which, you know, back when I had time. But the neck is like you got the thing right here. You don't get claustrophobic in there? Oh, in the MRI? Yeah. No. The only thing that annoys me is I can't take a nap in there. Because it's kind of loud.

And if you twitch, you know, it creates blurs. Like in the imagery, so you really got to stay still. But I really just, that's like an opportunity for me to kind of just pass out. But, you know, you just... You know, the hardest thing, man? I got a knee MRI last year for my surgery, and then my legs started itching. Oh, yeah.

And I couldn't scratch it for like 20 minutes. And it was like, it was so uncomfortable. And I was just like, it was like my back was cramping. Like, you know, like... It's all your mind. It's all in your mind. It's all in here. You can't move.

Because, yeah, I can imagine that, though. Yep. But any other, like, goals for the new year? I mean, obviously it's February. So we're well past new years, but anything, other things that you're looking forward to this year, opposed aside from these kind of new affiliations and rehabbing your knee, anything else that's going on. You got the Mariyama thing coming up, don't you? Is that over a morayama seminar.

That's coming up in February. I mean, a couple weeks, maybe two weeks, right? Something like that. Yeah. Yeah, that's soon. Yeah. The Olympic qualifications are out now for judo, so that's exciting. Oh, they actually, they finally put that out, huh?

They finally put it out, so that's kind of exciting, you know. Oh, we're going to have to talk about that. Talk about that. And, you know, we dedicated it a good hour to, you know, record a bunch today, so at least for the next few weeks we'll be consistent. Thank you guys for sticking in there. And, you know, all the positive notes that you guys have been sending me. I appreciate it.

Thank you so much. Awesome. All right. Well, that's a nice little recap. And, you know, we'll see in the next episode, as Peter you used to say. That's for that.