How Beacon MMA’s Culture Has Turned First-Timers into Pros for 10 Years

About Beacon Mixed Martial Arts

Beacon Mixed Martial Arts and Fitness is celebrating its 10th year in business in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, just outside Philadelphia. The school, co-owned by husband and wife team Bob and Mekella Peach, offers Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Muay Thai kickboxing, boxing, kids Jiu-Jitsu, CrossFit, and a women-only boot camp.

Before Bob and Mekella purchased it and relaunched it as Beacon MMA, the business was once the flagship in the Daddis Fight Camps association of elite Mixed Martial Arts academies boasting countless regional, national, and world titles in Brazilian-Jitsu, Muay Thai, and Mixed Martial Arts.

From Bob’s perspective though, the competitive aspect isn’t what’s helped the school expand the way it has. Instead, the welcoming, teammate-focused culture has been the catalyst for Beacon MMA’s growth. He describes it as the traditional coach-and-student relationship of martial arts, paired with a family atmosphere.

The school’s website puts it plainly: “There is no such thing as ‘regular students’ here.” And the student base reflects it. While a small percentage of students are there to be competitive, an overwhelming majority are there for fitness, self-defense, a hobby, or just to meet people. On any given night, you might see pro fighters, amateurs, teenagers, and one of Beacon’s 75-year-old students all sharing the same mats.

“Doesn’t matter skill level, fitness level,” Bob said. “We all train together.”

The Win: Building for Beginners While Training Champions

Here’s where Beacon Mixed Martial Arts is different from other schools around the world. Even though a vast majority of its students are hobbyists, Beacon is also producing professional fighters. The school has taken students who walked in with zero experience and developed them all the way to the pro level. In fact, over the last few years, people have started traveling from around the world to train there.

Bob didn’t credit a secret recruiting strategy, though.

“They see the product and the atmosphere and they see the coaching staff and they see our results,” he said. The high-level talent is a byproduct of taking care of everyone else.

His advice for newer school owners is simple: focus on the beginners.

“Beginners are going to be evergreen. They’re always coming in the door,” he said. “The beginner doesn’t care if you’re a black belt or a world champion. They care if you care about them and that you’re going to teach them, and build them up.”

Some of his best competitors, he adds, didn’t look like much in their first few classes. They developed over time because the culture gave them the chance to.

“The really good guys and the really bad people will be a minority of students, but we want to focus on that in-between majority, which is the normal person.”

If you run a Jiu-Jitsu or martial arts school, here’s how to put that into practice this month:

• Audit your intro experience. Walk through your trial class as if you were a nervous first-timer. Who greets them? Who checks in afterward? What makes them feel like they belong on day one?
• Build your schedule and curriculum around the “normal person.” If most of your members are there for fitness, stress relief, and community, make sure your fundamentals classes get the same energy and coaching attention as your competition team.
• Mix the mats on purpose. Beacon MMA’s pros train right alongside teenagers and a 75-year-old. When a white belt rolls with someone at a much higher level who treats them with respect, it builds trust fast, and your advanced students become culture carriers.
• Be patient with talent. Don’t judge potential by the first few classes. Keep beginners around long enough to let some of them surprise you, which is exactly how Beacon built its fight team from the ground up.
• Let your culture do the marketing. Beacon didn’t advertise its way into the attention of international visitors. Results and atmosphere were spread by word of mouth. Remember, if you protect the culture, the reputation follows.

10+ Years of Support: How Wodify Makes it Easy

Beacon has used Wodify since Mekella and Bob took over ownership 10 years ago. For them, the reason is simple: the business can continue to run smoothly even if they aren’t physically in it.

For example, the couple recently took a week-and-a-half vacation to Japan.

“We were on the other side of the world,” said Mekella. “We didn’t have any stress on our plate. We knew all of our things were taken care of with our automations, to our leads, to our current members.”

They feel lucky to have a great staff at Beacon MMA, but automated lead follow-up and member communication meant they didn’t have to micromanage anyone from a different time zone. And when they’re back at home, the time they save allows them to be on the mat more and keep up with their seven-year-old son’s sports schedule.

Mekella hears the same story from the hundreds of fitness business owners she works with at Wodify. Whether they’re just opening their doors or switching gym software from another platform, she’s seen how much better their day gets once the admin work is off their plate.

Here’s how Beacon Mixed Martial Arts uses Wodify day to day:

• Filmed, customized curriculum. Beacon built its own video curriculum inside Wodify. When Bob travels for an event or a fight, he knows his coaches have the curriculum covered, and students can reference techniques between classes.
• No permanent front desk. Beacon hasn’t had a full-time front desk worker in years. New students are already on the schedule and have been contacted before they walk in. Members sign in from home, from the parking lot, or on the school’s tablets.
• One system for the money. Billing and finances run through Wodify, and the QuickBooks integration makes accounting easy. “Being able to manage everything financially through one system is a blessing,” Bob said.
• The business in their pocket. Instead of being stuck at a computer, Mekella and Bob can check who came to class and what’s happening in the business right in the app.

Bob also pointed out a feature that often goes unnoted: Wodify listens.

“When we would like a feature that’s not there, even just mentioning it kind of gets the gears turning,” he said. “One of the best things you can look for in a software that helps you run your business is that they’re adaptable and they’re always getting better.”

That flexibility matters for what’s next. Beacon MMA is already looking ahead to the next 10 years. They’re planning a big push into kids’ martial arts and a bigger investment into the competition team on the adult side, taking fighters from local promotions all the way up to the UFC. But the goal stays the same for every student who walks in.

“If that’s to fight in the UFC or it’s to lose fifty pounds,” Bob said, “we’re going to get that done.”

To learn more about Beacon MMA, visit the website here.

To book a demo with the Wodify team, click here.