Today we’d like to introduce you to Bobby Popham.
Bobby, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
When I first started working I had jobs at Walmart and working for my martial arts instructor as an assistant, but I realized the potential of starting my own business so I did just that in 2003. I did private coaching for high school wrestling for a few years while I went to college to be a robotics and industrial systems tech but after graduating I realized I wanted to give a martial arts school a serious run.
In 2007, I began teaching and promoting mixed martial arts and started to gain ground, accumulating students and running MMA charity events to help the community. I did five events before the popularity of MMA declined and I transitioned back to more traditional martial arts in 2010 and started teaching Hapkido, the style of martial arts I learned growing up. I lost a good bit of clients when I made this change but I knew, business wise, I could run a more stable, family friendly, school so I started over. The change really helped as I gained students and surpassed any other avenue I tried. I haven’t looked back since. I’m still asked if I teach MMA and due to that we decided to open up a kickboxing class to help facilitate these inquiries. We are blessed each year as we gain more martial arts enthusiasts that join our school, our numbers continue to grow with no sign of slowing down!
I’ve recently started a non-profit, Humans to Heroes INC., to do free community classes on bullying, women’s self-awareness, and to help give less fortunate kids a positive direction growing up in society. This is something we plan to grow into something big, the sky’s the limit!
Has it been a smooth road?
There have been times things have run smoothly, but there have been many struggles. When I decided to be an entrepreneur, I left a job at Walmart where I was making around 25K a year on an hourly wage but at the time I was very immature, hanging around with bad people, and making wrong decisions. I needed a change whether I was ready or not. I talked with my parents and decided to go to college. Anyone who does any kind of post high school education knows how much a student struggles with money while in school and teaching amateur wrestling doesn’t make anywhere near what I made at Walmart. I was broke but I thought if I could get through school, it would be worth it. I graduated and was ready to get a job but I really wanted to work for myself. I discussed this decision with many people and it was not the popular decision. I heard things like “Get a real job.” and “Why did you go to college if you aren’t going to use it?” I still remember one of my mentors, who is now my martial arts instructor, say it (opening a martial arts school) would be one of the hardest things I will ever do. Boy was he right? I struggled with keeping students, paying the bills, finding what works and doesn’t work, dealing with people, sacrificing my time for free, and pretty much putting my personal relationships on hold. It went up and down for a few years, I thought the MMA program would take off or I would run a profitable MMA event once I transitioned it from charity to commercial but the second, for profit, event I promoted lost 6K that night so I was in a pretty decent hole financially. I sat outside of my gym until 4am thinking about it. At this point, I was really considering getting that “real” job but I just kept saying to myself, “Bobby, you can still make this work.” I borrowed the money and paid my debt back until I came out of that hole. So, I kept running the MMA training and coaching side of it while letting the promoting go. We would train during the week and watch the UFC events on the weekends. I got the bright idea to even host a UFC event at the gym one night for the students. Big mistake. Apparently, it’s illegal to show a PPV event in a commercial facility due to licensing policies. A couple of college students who were invited by my students came in a took photos and sent them to Joe Hand Productions, the provider of showing UFC PPV’s, and I was sent a letter by their lawyer suing me for showing it. So, here we go again. I ended up paying them 13k as part of the settlement. Again, thoughts of “quitting” and getting that real job started to creep up as I had no idea how I was going to pay this settlement. But I got back on the horse and borrowed the money but this time I was done with mixed martial arts, especially the UFC. I know I was in the wrong and made a mistake but I said to myself “If this is how UFC treats their fans then I want no part of supporting them in any way.” This is when I took the hit on losing students and starting over teaching traditional Hapkido. Honestly, I look back on the pitfalls I encountered doing MMA and I am somewhat thankful those things happened since they toughened me up to persevere in the business world not to mention I would never treat my clientele the way I was treated by those people. As I started building my hapkido school, I used the things I learned early on, good and bad, and feel much more seasoned when it comes to issues. The best advice I can give is to never give up if you really want it. The Juice is worth the squeeze.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
In 2003, I created Popham Athletics. This business was designed to coach wrestling to kids but transitioned to mixed martial arts in 2007. When I started teaching Hapkido, a Korean form of martial arts, I created Georgia Hapkido Academy as a “child” to Popham Athletics. We specialize in teaching martial arts to men, women, and children. We still coach kids in wrestling, as well as, help coach the junior high school team. We run our non-profit classes from time to time on the weekends to help kids who need guidance and positive influence. I’m most proud of the fact that I get to teach such a structured, respectful, art to students who can take what we give them and have a fun, fulfilling, and positive life. What really sets us apart from others is the fact that we put programs in place that helps the community around us. We know if we can keep the community going strong and help out others every time we can, then we can preserve it for future generations.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Yes, I feel like our city is a great place to help anyone who would like to achieve their dreams, no matter what the dream.
Contact Info:
- Address: 205 Commerce Pkwy Cornelia Ga, 30531
- Website: georgiahapkido.com
- Phone: 706-776-8571
- Email: pophamathletics@me.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/georgiahapkido
Image Credit:
Photos by Funky Time Photography. Regina Olgesby
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