ATTN: Youth Leaders

Help your kids become “bully-proof” by becoming your organization’s Certified Bully Expert

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My name is Master Chan Lee and I’m a martial arts school owner in Milwaukee, WI. My father, Grandmaster J.K. Lee, started our business in 1975 and I took over the reins in 1996.

Back in 2008, I was a “copycat” school owner — I ran my school the same way as almost every other martial arts school owner.

Then I was introduced to three renowned experts from outside of the martial arts industry and my world changed.

As a result of the training, help, and advice I got from these three professionals, I started taking some radically different approaches to how I ran my school. I effectively abandoned almost everything I’d been taught previously — and my school’s growth exploded.

Today I have six locations (with more to come) and over 2,000 students. It’s been an incredible ride — and I don’t expect things to slow down anytime soon.

The Three Experts

Let me introduce you to these three experts: Gary Klugiewicz, Dave Young and Allen Oelschlaeger.

These three professionals formed a company (Vistelar) in 2009 to leverage their three decades of experience in conflict-management training, mostly in law enforcement. They founded Vistelar to extend their expertise to other markets, such as healthcare, education, business, and security. Their marketing was focused on education rather than advertising.

I attended one of their week-long instructor certification classes in the summer of 2009 and I was totally hooked.

See, law enforcement professionals know that almost all physical confrontations start with verbal and non-verbal interactions, so this entire one-week course was about how to effectively communicate in order to manage conflict.

What I saw was a program that had been proven to work in managing conflict with the most violent of criminals. I thought if it worked there, why wouldn’t it work as well with kids being bullied.

So, I approached them with an idea — what if I took their curriculum, meant for professionals in law enforcement, and adapted it for kids?

The team at Vistelar loved this idea so we started working together to develop a youth-focused anti-bullying curriculum. It took a few years of collaboration and testing to work through the kinks but, ultimately, we had a program that really worked.

Frankly, the results were far beyond my expectations.

I’d Been A Fool

See, everything I’d taught previously about bullying I’d learned from MSU University (making *$#%* up university) and the Vistelar folks let me know that what I thought was good stuff was ALL WRONG.

Gary, Dave and Allen don’t “suffer fools gladly” — and I’d clearly been a fool. I’d been playing with my student’s lives with advice that either I’d made up or someone else concocted who had no authoritative background in conflict management.

Once I started teaching the right stuff, the impact on my students was stunning. I, literally, saw kids being bullied one day and, after learning just a couple of our concepts, had the bullying stop the following day. Then, the results over time were even more incredible.

Seeing this happen was incredibly rewarding but actually, the bigger deal for my school was what this new anti-bullying program did for my credibility. I went from being the local “Karate Guy” to being the recognized anti-bullying authority.

This was partly because, once adults were exposed to the material, it made so much sense to them. But, it was also because, in promoting the credibility of the program, I could reference:

Vistelar’s three decades of conflict-management training experience
Vistelar’s work with law enforcement professionals
The hundreds of thousands of individuals Vistelar has trained
The backgrounds of Gary, Dave and Allen
Vistelar’s many published books and manuals
Over time, the tens of thousands of kids I had personally trained

Frankly, I was astonished by the impact of my new-found credibility as the anti-bullying expert. I was selected to receive Milwaukee’s prestigious 40 under 40 award, I had the opportunity to do an anti-bullying promotion with the Milwaukee Bucks, I was asked to do an anti-bullying talk at school principle conferences, I was repeatedly invited to be a guest on local TV programs, and I received referrals from local school resource officers.

My experience was so incredible it was a no-brainer to turn this program into a product to offer to others who work with kids.

Life-Changing

Since then, hundreds of youth-leaders have been certified as a Bully Expert and over a million kids have had their lives changed by learning to use the tactics taught in the Verbal Martial Arts (VMAC) curriculum.

I confidently say “lives changed” because this program isn’t just an anti-bullying program — it’s actually a life skills program that’s heads and shoulders above any other program out there (and I’ve seen almost all of them).

After teaching the VMAC since 2010, I’ve seen the lasting impact this program has on kids during their journey to adulthood.

In addition, I’ve seen the positive results this program has had on my parents, our school culture and our level of customer service.

Comprehensive Update In 2017

In early 2017, MAMN and Vistelar decided that, despite how great the original program was, an updated program needed to be developed to capture everything we’ve learned about anti-bullying training over the prior seven years. After training more than a million kids at hundreds of youth-focused organizations, we had learned a lot.

An initial version this program was completed in the fall of 2017 and put into a final form late in the year after months of refinements, based on feedback from our current certified Bully Experts.

This comprehensive update to the original program is now available and we’re currently signing up individuals to become certified Bully Experts within their organizations.

Once an individual is certified as a Bully Expert, they have the rights to incorporate the Verbal Martial Arts Course into their curriculum for kids, parents, and adults — and give anti-bullying presentations and workshops within their community.

In addition, by learning and teaching the material, our Bully Experts become exceptional role models for effectively managing conflict with their kids, with their parents, and in their personal life. This program develops an individual’s knowledge, skills, and abilities to interact with anyone — in person, by phone or in writing — and to:

Not cause or unnecessarily escalate conflict
Confidently deal with verbal abuse
Engage in difficult conversations
Effectively de-escalate conflict
Persuade others to cooperate
Stay safe in crisis situations
Know what to do when word-based tactics fail
End an interaction in a better place than where it started
Look good on camera no matter where an interaction ends up (an increasingly important issue with the omnipresence of video cameras)

Become your organization’s Bully Expert

Bullying is one of the biggest issues facing kids, parents, schools and youth-focused organizations and everybody is scrambling for answers. And the answers they are finding (e.g., ignore it, walk away, fight back, tell the teacher) don’t work because they’re based on myths and opinions instead of real-world experience.

In contrast, Verbal Martial Arts is based on:

Over thirty years of conflict management experience with contact professionals, such as police officers, healthcare workers, educators and customer service representatives — with hundreds of thousands trained.
Over eight years of anti-bullying experience within hundreds of youth-focused organizations and with over a million kids trained.
The published content in Vistelar’s many books and manuals

When you couple this with the word-of-mouth enthusiasm of kids and parents who are exposed to the program (as well as the media attention in which this enthusiasm often results), our Bully Experts rapidly become known as their organization’s recognized anti-bullying authority.

How to apply and, if you’re accepted, what’s included

We have specific standards for individuals to become certified Bully Experts so we require individuals to go through a simple application process.

To apply, please fill out the form at the bottom of this page and we’ll get back to you with our determination within a couple of days.

Then, if you’re accepted and decide to sign up, here’s what you’ll get:

1. Access to our online Verbal Martial Arts Course, which includes:

Eight anti-bullying video lessons (each less than ten minutes long) where I (Chan Lee) train you on what to teach and how to teach it. Included with each lesson are written key points from the video and a downloadable one-page overview of the lesson to provide to your parents (named “Car Talks” because they include an assignment for parents to complete with their child while driving).
For each lesson, a five to ten-minute video where I demonstrate — in an actual class — exactly how to teach that lesson
Cyberbullying lesson — what it is, how to prevent it and what to do about it once it happens
Six modules that, via eighty minutes of audio and transcribed text, provide you with the fundamentals of Vistelar’s Conflict Management Framework™ and Systemized Structure of Tactics for preventing and managing conflict at the point of impact. This section covers these topics:
- Foundations
- Conflict Triggers
- Non-Escalation
- De-Escalation
- Ending An Interaction
- Fundamentals Review

The information in these six modules will help you develop a deeper understanding of the anti-bullying information from the previous module. The information in these modules will enhance your knowledge, skills, and abilities to deliver this program to kids.

This information will also provide you with a solid foundation for you to talk with parents about how to help their children prevent and manage bullying.

In addition, you’ll find that this information will help you better manage conflict in your professional and personal lives and help you deliver exceptional customer service within your organization.

Video of me (Chan Lee) teaching a 45-minute anti-bullying workshop
Downloadable certificate of completion, suitable for framing

The entire course takes less than three hours to go through.

2. Box of publications shipped to your organization to support your learning and for use to enhance your credibility when talking with parents and others within your organization. In this shipment, you will receive:

Bound transcripts of the anti-bullying video lessons in the online program (eight modules), to provide you with a written reference of the content covered in these videos
Vistelar’s Conflict Management Workbook, which can be used in conjunction with the six-module conflict management section of the online program
These published books
- Conflict Management For Everyday Life: How to Prevent and Manage the Inevitable Conflict in Your Work and Personal Life
- Conflict Management For Campus Life: The Must-Have Safety Resource for Every College and College-Bound Student
- Conflict Management For Sports Officials: Practical Tips for Staying Out of the CrossFire and Keeping Peace During the Game
This published manual: Conflict Management For Youth-Focused Organizations
Ten Non-Escalation De-Escalation reminder cards

Again, the first step to becoming your organization’s recognized anti-bullying authority is to apply so we can determine if you meet our standards. Just fill out and submit the form below and we’ll get back to you within a couple of business days.

Note, this application is just meant to ensure we aren’t wasting your time if you don’t meet our standards. It doesn’t create any obligation to sign up. If we decide you should not be one of our Bully Experts, we’ll let you know right away. However, if you are accepted, then we can get on the phone to discuss if becoming your organization’s Bully Expert makes sense for you.