A few months ago I met with the owners of a local martial arts studio. They wanted to increase business so we talked about some ways to get the word out about who they are and what they do.

Their business is a franchise and they each cover a small territory, usually one or two communities. They thought it made sense try to get the franchise owners from neighboring communities to work with them since much of their promotional efforts would overlap. So, they asked me to contact the other owners and ask if they'd like to participate. I agreed to do so.

A primary market for these martial arts studios is kids. And one of their big selling points to the kid's parents is that they will teach their kids respect.

So, as part of our promotion, we included this selling point. And I think it made sense. How many parents would not want their kids to learn a little more about respect?

Before we could begin the promotional campaign, I needed to meet with the other two franchise owners to see if they wanted to participate. All I needed was a "yes" or a "no" so it didn't seem like a big task.

Wow, was I wrong!

Over the next four weeks we tried unsuccessfully to make contact with these people.

Eventually, one of them scheduled a meeting with me but he failed to show. Then he never returned any of my phone calls to reschedule. In fact, he never even apologized for missing our meeting.

Finally, I left one last message for him. In this message I asked how they can claim to teach kids respect when they fail to treat people with respect? I suggested this was a critical failure on their part and they should rethink how they operate their business.

This message did prompt a response. However by that time I had decided not to do business with them. I told them I have a policy of not doing business with people who waste my time and who treat people with such disrespect.

For him, maybe the "respect" thing is just an empty marketing slogan. Or maybe he feels it's okay to tell his students: "do what I say and not what I do!"

But I know better and I think his students know better too. You teach through your actions as much as (if not more than) your words.

We all know we should live our words not just talk them. Yet, none of us are perfect so we all will fail at this once in a while. The key is to be aware and look for signs that you're not "walking your talk".

This disrespectful martial arts guy gives us a perfect example of someone who has forgotten to practice what he preaches. He provides a useful reminder that any of us can fall into this trap.

For that (and that alone) I thank him