I'm back from NYC. Chinatown was amazing, got to do some kung fuing, and just generally hang out with people I don't see that often. I enjoyed it a lot, and hope to do a bigger write-up later on. I'm also planning on going back next year at the least.

Now that I'm back, my next mission is to get more students. I've been putting 0 work into marketing, and the results have been proportional. Where I'm getting stuck is that I hate the entire premise of marketing; I hate everything from the buzzwords and the obviously massaged and manufactured wording to the insincere enthusiasm. Meanwhile, if I told people why I love what I do, they wouldn't believe me, because it would sound like the worst kind of nonsense that people make up about a martial art. I also don't teach MMA, which people have decided for some reason is the gold standard for self-defense (even though it isn't). From what I've heard talking to some small business owners, it's all about word of mouth and building relationships in this town. But social interaction is at best draining for me, and I find 99% of people I interact with dull and uninteresting. This is at least partially on my end, of course, since my brain can't stay on one topic for very long, but even just the act of speaking is frustratingly tedious and slow.

The answer is probably "do it anyway," but I think my dislike of the whole process shows through and makes it pretty ineffective. (Social media has the same issues.) I do have some ideas for online stuff, and that may have to be enough.