Brett Fenton's guest appearances

Brett Fenton

Martial Arts Media™ Business Podcast

Tech Leaders Talk podcast

Mark Cohen

Stuart Grant

Dana White

Ross Cameron

Rhonda Britten

Kelsey Hightower

Jackie Chan

Brannon Beliso

John Will

Andrea Harkins

Ben Vickers

Sean Allen

Martin Nguyen

Errol Doebler

Damien Martin

OwlTail

Lifelong martial artist Brett Fenton talks about taking action fast, navigating through obstacles and transitioning to virtual gradings.﻿.IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN: 	How Brett navigated his martial arts business through the pandemic 	Evaluating if it’s your time to throw in the towel 	The steps Brett took to pivot his business successfully 	How Brett's agile leadership helped his team to adapt the right mindset 	Brett's recovery plan 	And more*Need help growing your martial arts school? Learn More Here.Download the PDF transcriptionTRANSCRIPTIONIt is a great time to evaluate where you sat as far as life goes. So you can go, “Do I really love doing martial arts? Do I love teaching? Do I love turning up and doing all of this?” Here's the perfect opportunity for some people in the world to go, “You know what, I'm gonna actually jump out of this, because it's not actually something I enjoy doing anymore.” But for me, it actually made me assess the other way and go. “I love this so much, I've got to keep this going. I will turn over every rock to find a way to make this keep happening.”GEORGE: Hey everyone, this is George Fourie from martialartsmedia.com and welcome to another Martial Arts Media business podcast. So I have with me today something that I speak to quite regularly within our Partners program. Great martial artist, great school owner, Brett Fenton from Red Dragon Martial Arts. How are you doing today Brett?BRETT: I'm awesome George, thanks for having me on your podcast.GEORGE: Thank you. And so a little bit of an insight: this is round two, but round one.BRETT: Correct.GEORGE: So we actually did a podcast... Well, it would be a good six months ago?BRETT: Yeah, absolutely.GEORGE: Yeah. And I had my laptop stolen unfortunately and there were two files that did not upload into the cloud. And one of them was Brett’s podcast. So it's been a long time in the making. Lots of change in the world, but here we are.BRETT: Absolutely, a bit of a different environment now.GEORGE: Exactly. So we can chat a bit about that, but first up, just for anyone who doesn't know who you are, just give us a bit of a roundup: who you are, what you do and a bit of your background.BRETT: Absolutely, thanks George. I’m a lifetime martial artist. I've been training since I was a kid, and jumped around different styles depending on which family member taught it to me, or friend. Didn't have a lot of money as a kid, so I latched on to anyone that looked that knew any martial arts and basically got it for free as a kid. Moved to Brisbane in the late 80s and basically started training with my still sifu Tom Lowe for the last 30 years. I trained with him in Wing Chun, Jow Ga Kung Fu, Wu Style Tai Chi funnily enough, because he thought I was an angry young teenager that needed some calming down, so he taught me that. Later on, taught me crucial lion and dragon dancing, so I did all the whole Chinese culture, immersed myself in their culture for a very long time. Lived over near Sunnybank for a long time as well, then obviously went down the route of when the UFC came out, MMA, Brazilian jiu-jitsu with John Will. Trained and traveled overseas a lot, started with the extreme martial arts in the mid to late 90s and 2000s and started bringing that out, probably late 2000s started teaching that, and Kali and Escrima with Ray Floro. So just basically, just gone on this journey of trying to find the very best martial arts to suit me. And funnily enough along the way, a lot of other people that I've taught have gone, “That's cool, I want to learn it.” And so now we have over 400 students. We run nearly 100 classes a week, full-time facility with multiple rooms. But we started in 97’ in a community hall, so we've done the usual kind of thing for most professional martial arts instructors. Community hall to full-time school over about 23 years.

Lifelong martial artist Brett Fenton talks about taking action fast, navigating through obstacles and transitioning to virtual gradings. ﻿.IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN: 	How Brett navigated his martial arts business through the pandemic 	Evaluating if it’s your time to throw in the towel 	The steps Brett took to pivot his business successfully 	How Brett's agile leadership helped his team to adapt the right mindset 	Brett's recovery plan 	And more *Need help growing your martial arts school? Learn More Here. Download the PDF transcription TRANSCRIPTION It is a great time to evaluate where you sat as far as life goes. So you can go, “Do I really love doing martial arts? Do I love teaching? Do I love turning up and doing all of this?” Here's the perfect opportunity for some people in the world to go, “You know what, I'm gonna actually jump out of this, because it's not actually something I enjoy doing anymore.” But for me, it actually made me assess the other way and go. “I love this so much, I've got to keep this going. I will turn over every rock to find a way to make this keep happening.” GEORGE: Hey everyone, this is George Fourie from <a href="http://martialartsmedia.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">martialartsmedia.com</a> and welcome to another Martial Arts Media business podcast. So I have with me today something that I speak to quite regularly within our Partners program. Great martial artist, great school owner, Brett Fenton from Red Dragon Martial Arts. How are you doing today Brett? BRETT: I'm awesome George, thanks for having me on your podcast. GEORGE: Thank you. And so a little bit of an insight: this is round two, but round one. BRETT: Correct. GEORGE: So we actually did a podcast... Well, it would be a good six months ago? BRETT: Yeah, absolutely. GEORGE: Yeah. And I had my laptop stolen unfortunately and there were two files that did not upload into the cloud. And one of them was Brett’s podcast. So it's been a long time in the making. Lots of change in the world, but here we are. BRETT: Absolutely, a bit of a different environment now. GEORGE: Exactly. So we can chat a bit about that, but first up, just for anyone who doesn't know who you are, just give us a bit of a roundup: who you are, what you do and a bit of your background. BRETT: Absolutely, thanks George. I’m a lifetime martial artist. I've been training since I was a kid, and jumped around different styles depending on which family member taught it to me, or friend. Didn't have a lot of money as a kid, so I latched on to anyone that looked that knew any martial arts and basically got it for free as a kid. Moved to Brisbane in the late 80s and basically started training with my still sifu Tom Lowe for the last 30 years. I trained with him in Wing Chun, Jow Ga Kung Fu, Wu Style Tai Chi funnily enough, because he thought I was an angry young teenager that needed some calming down, so he taught me that. Later on, taught me crucial lion and dragon dancing, so I did all the whole Chinese culture, immersed myself in their culture for a very long time.  Lived over near Sunnybank for a long time as well, then obviously went down the route of when the UFC came out, MMA, Brazilian jiu-jitsu with John Will. Trained and traveled overseas a lot, started with the extreme martial arts in the mid to late 90s and 2000s and started bringing that out, probably late 2000s started teaching that, and Kali and Escrima with Ray Floro. So just basically, just gone on this journey of trying to find the very best martial arts to suit me. And funnily enough along the way, a lot of other people that I've taught have gone, “That's cool, I want to learn it.”  And so now we have over 400 students. We run nearly 100 classes a week, full-time facility with multiple rooms. But we started in 97’ in a community hall, so we've done the usual kind of thing for most professional martial arts instructors. Community hall to full-time school over about 23 years.

98 – Brett Fenton – Evaluating Your Martial Arts Life & Transitioning To Virtual Gradings

About Brett Fenton Brett started his life as a research scientist working in uranium chemistry. He quickly moved into technology, working for Netregistry until the company was sold. Brett is now an executive director at Arq group. Brett is very people focussed which becomes very apparent during the podcast. In this episode, you will learn   03:24 - Learn more about Arq Group and Brett’s role at Arq Group   04:05 - Learn why Brett moved from research to technology   09:38 - Learn how Arq group uses podcasting internally and how Brett like communicating with the team.   15:12 - Brett tells how a tragic event helped shape the way he thinks as a leader.   17:46 - Building trust with your team   21:40 - Creating and implementing a strategy   26:35 - How Brett like to communicate with this team through various channels   31:46 - Learn how Brett uses books to help with team building   42:00 - What advice would you give your 20 years younger self?  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

About Brett Fenton Brett started his life as a research scientist working in uranium chemistry. He quickly moved into technology, working for Netregistry until the company was sold. Brett is now an executive director at Arq group. Brett is very people focussed which becomes very apparent during the podcast. In this episode, you will learn <ul> <li> 03:24 - Learn more about Arq Group and Brett’s role at Arq Group </li> <li> 04:05 - Learn why Brett moved from research to technology </li> <li> 09:38 - Learn how Arq group uses podcasting internally and how Brett like communicating with the team. </li> <li> 15:12 - Brett tells how a tragic event helped shape the way he thinks as a leader. </li> <li> 17:46 - Building trust with your team </li> <li> 21:40 - Creating and implementing a strategy </li> <li> 26:35 - How Brett like to communicate with this team through various channels </li> <li> 31:46 - Learn how Brett uses books to help with team building </li> <li> 42:00 - What advice would you give your 20 years younger self? </li> </ul>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.

E1: Brett Fenton Interview