Chris Cooper's Blog, page 10

When “Experts” Tell You to Offer Discounts

I’ll be blunt:

Don’t slash rates in your gym.

Don’t do it as part of a promotion.

Don’t do it for certain professions.

Don’t do it to generate referrals.

Just don’t do it.

Here are the problems with discounts:

1. Your rates are already too low.

2. You won’t “make it up in volume.” This only works with products, not services.

3. They attract short-term clients.

4. Someone always eats the discount: You either underpay your coaches or lose money on delivery.

5. They mostly get applied to people who are already willing to pay full price (the ones who don’t want a discount, don’t need a discount and would never ask for a discount).

6. They’re an avoidance strategy: Instead of just asking for a referral, you’re hinting expensively.

7. You undermine the value of your service.

Let me provide a simple example:

You charge $150 a month for group training—which is already too low.Your profit margin is 33 percent, which is a solid target for a coaching gym.You offer a 40 percent discount to a full-price client who refers a new client, so you are now losing money on an existing membership.You double the error and give the referred client a 40 percent discount, so you are losing money there, too.You are now charging two people just $90 each a month, which makes your coaching service look cheap, when it’s actually a premium service. “Cheap” is not a good way to impress a new client or retain an existing client.You could have obtained a referral simple by saying, “Sam, you mentioned your buddy Tim is struggling in rec-league games right now. What if we invited him in to talk about a conditioning plan like the one you’re using? Think he’d go for it?
Top Gyms Don’t Discount

Discounts kill gyms.

But don’t take my word for it. Look at what the best gyms in the world do:

They don’t discount.They charge more than other local gyms.They work with 150 clients (or fewer) on purpose.They don’t offer incentives or “bribes,” and they don’t play games; they ask for referrals like grownups.

I recently saw a post that recommended the “perfect” plan for referrals. Its premise was to give 40 percent off training to the new person and the referrer for a month.

This is not what the best gyms in the world do.

The “do whatever it takes to get heads in the door” plan is a bad long-term strategy for coaching gyms.

After writing about the coaching business for 15 years, operating the world’s largest mentorship practice for gym owners for almost a decade, working with over 2,500 gyms in our one-on-one program and tracking data from 20,000 gyms worldwide in the largest data set on the planet, I promise you this:

The practice of discounting training is not just dumb but harmful.

Discounting group coaching to get more people into your group doesn’t work. Tens of thousands of former CrossFit affiliates can testify that the model doesn’t work.

Coaching is a high-value service, not a high-volume service. The more people you put in a group class, the higher your churn rate.

But the myth persists because various “biz coaches” want to make a buck instead of making a difference in the industry. Rather than supplying data, proof and tested tactics, they flippantly toss out gimmicks and questionable strategies.

If someone advises you to cut a deep discount into your training rates, you can be sure they aren’t working from a proven model. They’re just guessing.

That means they’re gambling—but they’re not gambling with their own money.

They’re gambling with your money.

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No Gym Left Behind: A Message to Owners Who Feel Stuck

To watch this episode on YouTube, click here.

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No Gym Left Behind: Why Hope—and a Plan—Are Your Most Powerful Tools

Every year, 10,000 fitness coaches step into the industry full of passion and promise.

A year later, 9,000 of them are gone.

Why?

Not because they lacked drive. Not because they didn’t care.

Because they burned out. They ran out of time, money or support.

They loved coaching—but hated the chaos of business.

They didn’t have a path forward.

At Two-Brain Business, we believe no gym should be left behind.

That’s not a motto. It’s our mission.

We exist to extend the healthspan and lifespan of 1 million people—and the way we do that is by helping coaches and gym owners succeed.

Here’s what that looks like:

Clients achieve their first goal, build lifelong habits and become healthier beyond the walls of your gym.Coaches earn a stable income, maintain their own health and rediscover their purpose.Gym owners grow businesses that are sustainable, profitable and built to last—even without 70-hour work weeks.

That’s not just theory. It’s happening:

It took us six years to produce our first 27 millionaire gym owners.It took just six months to produce the next 27.A year ago, only 12.5 percent of our clients had hit strong income benchmarks. Now, that number is rising toward 38 percent.96 percent of our clients now move into our Growth Phase, up from 74 percent just a year ago.

The Power of Hope

The gym owners who make it aren’t always the strongest, smartest or most connected.

They’re the most hopeful.

That may sound soft—but hope is actually one of the most strategic assets you have as a business owner.

When I was on the brink of quitting my own gym, it wasn’t hustle or strategy that kept me going—it was hope. A belief that something better was possible. And a willingness to act on that belief.

Because real hope isn’t passive.

It’s not just “I hope this works out.”

Hope is a decision. It’s the choice to take action in pursuit of a better future—even when you don’t feel ready.

The G-A-P Formula for Hope

Here’s how we teach gym owners to build real, actionable hope using Brené Brown’s G-A-P model:

G: Grounded in Reality

Hope doesn’t ignore the truth.

If your gym has retention issues, poor systems or inconsistent lead flow—own it. Face it. Fix it.

A: Agency

Hope requires action.

Every time you raise your rates, fix a broken system or have a hard conversation—you’re building hope.

P: Path Forward

A mentor gives you more than motivation—they give you a map.

That’s how your clients succeed with fitness. That’s how you succeed in business.

What to Do Right Now—Even if You’re Struggling

If you’re barely scraping by, start with our free resources at GymOwnersUnited.com.

But don’t just read them—use them. Make some money. Gain traction.

Then invest in mentorship—because the ROI of mentorship is simple and powerful:

Stop the bleeding (pricing, marketing, retention).Build the foundation (staff, SOPs, systems).Grow with confidence and clarity.

If you’re already doing well (taking home $100,000+)?

Mentorship buys speed. It helps you move faster, grow cleaner and make progress without the costly detours.

From Income to Independence: The Tinker Phase

For high performers who want to build real wealth and legacy—not just income—there’s the Tinker Program.

This is where you make the leap from running a job to owning a company that gives you freedom.

We’ll help you:

Build your second income stream.Scale your business without scaling your hours.Build a lifestyle that aligns with your long-term goals.
One Moment. One Decision.

Right now, think of one area in your business where you feel stuck.

Now ask: What is one action I can take this week to create momentum?

Picture yourself a year from now. Stronger. Smarter. More secure. Helping more people with less stress.

Then remember this:

The road ahead won’t be easy.

But it’s absolutely possible.

And you don’t have to walk it alone.

Hope isn’t just a feeling.

Hope is a decision.

And we’re here to make sure no gym is left behind.

To talk about a plan that will give you hope for your business, book a call here.

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Knowledge Isn’t Enough: Why You Struggle to Take Action

You’re not lazy.

If you’re reading this, you’re probably doing more personal development than ever—listening to podcasts, reading books, attending seminars, following influencers, downloading templates. You’re consuming a ton of information.

But here’s the truth:

Learning isn’t enough.

For the last 16 years, we’ve published thousands of free resources to help gym owners and entrepreneurs grow—blogs, books, videos, guides. And while some people take action and thrive, most don’t. They save those resources for “later.”

But “later” rarely comes.

The Implementation Gap

There’s a term I use often with our clients: the Implementation Gap.

It’s the space between what you learn and what you actually do.

Think of the last five things you learned from a podcast or book. Did you implement any of the ideas? Did you take action? Or did you file the info in your memory and move on to the next idea?

If you learn 50 new things this year but don’t put anything into practice, what impact will that have on your business?

Zero. Nothing will change. You’ll know some stuff, but your business won’t improve at all.

That’s where mentorship comes in—it helps you close the Implementation Gap. A mentor doesn’t just teach. A mentor walks with you, holds you accountable and helps you execute.

Knowledge ≠ Outcome

Jim Rohn said, “Don’t let your learning lead to knowledge. Let your learning lead to action.”

You don’t need more ideas. You need one great idea—and the discipline to act on it consistently. That’s how growth happens.

Mentorship helps you do that. It gets you 10 times further 10 times faster. Not because mentors have secret knowledge but because they help you implement what you already know.

The Real Cost of Inaction

You miss opportunities when you don’t take action. But inaction is also very expensive.

I’ve seen gym owners lose over $100,000 a year because they hired staff without clearly defined roles.

I’ve seen others miss out on $5,000 every month in sales because they didn’t have a pricing binder.

One gym spent thousands on ads—but their website didn’t convert, so the leads went nowhere.

These aren’t abstract “business lessons.” These are real mistakes with real price tags. And gym owners often don’t even know they’re making them until it’s too late.

It gets worse.

When you don’t have a mentor, your errors multiply and your mistakes compound.

You start trusting your own opinions too much. You begin to believe that reading more will eventually lead to clarity. But it won’t.

It’s like diagnosing yourself with Google instead of seeing a doctor. Sure, you might be right. But you’ll probably miss something important. Doctors aren’t perfect, but they’re a lot more accurate than you are when you make guesses based on symptoms and five minutes on WebMD.

Business is the same way. Without an outside expert to help diagnose the real issues, you’ll keep treating surface-level symptoms and miss the real cause.

You don’t know what you don’t know.

You’re Not Alone—You’re Just Unguided

You might think, “I just need more time” or “I need to get more organized” or “I’ll start once I finish this course.”

But here’s the hard truth: You’ve probably already tried that. It didn’t work—not because you’re broken or undisciplined but because you don’t have a clear plan. You don’t have someone to tell you “here’s what to do next.”

That’s what mentorship gives you:

A clear prescription.A proven path.Accountability to take action.

I’ve seen gym owners turn their businesses around in months—after years of spinning their wheels—because they finally had the right guide.

There’s more information available today than ever before, but content isn’t the problem.

Implementation is.

So stop drowning in content. Stop confusing knowledge with growth.

Close the gap between knowing and doing.

Get a mentor. Make changes. Grow your business.

You can start here.

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Knowledge Isn’t Enough: Why Gym Owners Need Mentorship

To watch this episode on YouTube, click here.

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All the Secrets From a 420-Member CrossFit Affiliate in Portugal

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The Foundation Beneath Million-Dollar Gyms

When I was analyzing our most recent monthly leaderboard, I couldn’t help but think about this business pyramid:

We showcase gyms that have a lot of clients because client count is important, especially when multiplied by great average revenue per member and length of engagement.

But after we see the gaudy numbers—400+ clients!—we go to the leaders and ask them what they’re doing. We want to know if someone came up with an amazing new tactic or created a plan that’s working perfectly.

Every so often, we find out about a new idea, which we then test rigorously. If it passes the test and will work in other gyms, we add it to our curriculum for clients.

Most of the time, we actually get “boring answers” when we ask our leaders for their secrets. They say stuff like “I followed the plan” and “I did what my mentor told me” and “I focused on the basics.”

I say these answers are “boring” because writing standard operating procedures for lead nurture isn’t sexy. And role-playing objection handling isn’t going to make it into the next Tom Cruise movie.

But these answers are music to my ears. They’re the literal ground-level proof that solid operating systems are the rock-solid foundation of the best gyms in the world.

Millionaire gym owners first wrote playbooks, made checklists, learned how to read a P&L statement and mentored their staff members. They didn’t skip any steps or swing at bad pitches from shady marketers.

They followed the plan and built the foundation with the help of an expert. Now they’re reaping incredible rewards and posting numbers I couldn’t have dreamed up as a young gym owner 20 years ago.

I’d like that same success for you. If you currently work with us, lean on your mentor and commit to doing the work. I promise you it will pay off.

And if you don’t work with us, consider doing so. You can talk about that right here.

If you aren’t ready to chat yet, I want you to see the exact plan that rests under gyms with 500 or more clients.

It’s all laid out for you here, and you’ll note that after we get you some quick wins, we start mixing concrete to create a broad, strong foundation for your business:

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Gyms With 370+ Clients Do This

The Two-Brain gyms with the most clients aren’t using secret ad campaigns to flood their gyms with leads and push people into cheap memberships.

In fact, they’re doing the opposite.

Our top 10 gyms all have more than 370 members, and they’re focusing on business fundamentals rather than one-time-wonder marketing tricks. Here’s what our leaders are working on:

Lead nurture and sales with the Prescriptive Model.Retention and A+ business systems.Sustainable growth (one gym actually reduced ad spend to focus on staffing so new clients don’t overwhelm their systems).Average revenue per member (ARM).Impeccable service delivery and solid staffing.

And here are the client totals that plan can produce:

These are incredible numbers, and they’re all from single locations (the No. 2 and No. 3 gyms are owned by the same person, but we ranked them separately).

These gyms also all sell coaching. We don’t include access-only gyms on this board. We see a clear line in our metrics: Gyms that sell access only have ARM scores of about $40 or $50, while gyms that sell access and coaching have three-figure ARM scores.

For example, one gym on our leaderboard sells everything from 24/7 access to PT with a consultative process. People don’t just buy an access membership and hit the leg press at 3 a.m. They have a conversation, and the salesperson recommends the best path—which might be a basic access membership or a high-value PT package.

This gym is a great example of how fitness facilities can boost ARM with high-value services: Its ARM is two to three times that of an access-only gym.

Take a look at your ARM: What would happen to your business if every single client paid another $10 a month? What about $20?

How about $80?

 I’m serious here, not just asking you to daydream. High-value service can make those numbers a reality. (Proof: Our most recent ARM leaderboard.)

To help you acquire and retain more high-value clients, I’ll give you the top tips from our leaders for client count.

Tips From Gym Owners With 370+ Members

Nurturing and Sales Skills

“Over the past month, we’ve cut our ad spend by more than 50 percent and shifted our focus toward sales training and lead nurturing instead. We maintained the same intake rate and even saw a slight increase in front-end revenue—all while spending half as much on ads. So that’s been amazing.”

Retention

“We doubled down on reaching out to at-risk clients. Normally, we track members who haven’t visited the gym in 14 days. We’ve now lowered that threshold to just eight days. Naturally, that increased the number of people on the list significantly, but we committed to calling through it four days a week. Out of 472 members, only eight haven’t shown up in the past eight days, so the effort is definitely paying off.”

“The first thing we worked on when we bought the gym in 2023 was the systems. The churn rate was high, so we started on retention and systems. We saw a lot of change and progress.”

Hybrid: Group, Small Group, Hyrox

“The main service is group classes: 400 students, with lots of scheduled classes—all CrossFit, Hyrox or simpler metabolic classes. Plus, we added small-group training, with 28 members so far. … After six months of running the business, we realized we wanted higher revenues and added small-group training. We are using our metrics to make decisions.”

“We added Hyrox in December 2024. Conditioning classes are similar to Hyrox, so this was easy to add. The Hyrox brand is getting a lot of exposure. It’s been a good experience. We added the classes when we didn’t have anything else scheduled and have 26 people in a class.”

Calculated, Sustainable Growth

“Last month, we turned on ads and needed to turn those down because we don’t have enough staff now. Adding to the team is the new focus.”

Metrics-Based Decisions

“We are trying to reduce the total members because we are trying to increase ARM. We started at 500 Kroner 7.5 years ago when we opened up, and now we’re 649. The increase has come across the last three years.” Note: This is an increase of about $76 to $100 USD, but in Denmark, this is a very big deal. Fitness in Denmark is undervalued, and our gyms are working to change that.

Staffing

“I hired a CSM for a three-month internship. We measured the No Sweat Intros and goal reviews. Her goal is to double the goal reviews and NSIs. She is also doing three months of internship with the marketing agency we use. She is tasked with uncovering what is our top 10 percent of content and seeing how that’s doing so we can produce less media overall and focus only on the high-performing stuff.”

“Two years ago, I hired a box manager. … If I see there are improvements we need, the GM comes up with the solution as an operator.”

Mentorship After Starting With Free Resources

“We’ve been growing since starting with Two-Brain in February 2025. This is a box with 13 years of history, and we’ve owned it since 2023. We were mainly growing from the Two-Brain methods laid out in free content, and we went from 289 clients with the old owners to 400+. We decided to invest in the business—with Two-Brain. We focused on adding on-ramp, and we usually have 10-15 new clients per month. Cancelations are down.”

Business Virtuosity

I hope these quotes from real gym owners convince you that solid fundamentals are the secret to huge client counts.

Not ads or discounts or low prices.

If you focus on fundamentals—if you pursue business virtuosity—your gym will grow on the strength of high-value members who stay for years, not months.

Here’s something simple you can do today to add to your client count: Send a message to five of your former members and ask them how they’re doing. Then message five leads and ask them if they want to talk about their fitness goals today.

And if you want help creating a wide foundation of systems for a fitness business that will last for 30 years, book a call to talk about mentorship.

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How the Top Gyms Serve 370+ Clients (Without Burning Out)

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Double Your Revenue in One Weekend?

Did you notice all the fine upholstery in the pic above?

That’s what I saw from the stage at the 2016 Two-Brain Summit.

Back then, we had more empty seats than people.

Here’s another look:

The empty seats didn’t matter to me at the time. I was totally focused on the special people who were in attendance.

There’s an old story in the music biz about a certain record released in the late ‘60s. As the story goes, only 50 people bought it—but every one of them started a band. The album was that influential. And the bands its buyers started changed music forever.

The early summits felt like that.

We were doing something important with a small group of special people who wanted to improve the fitness industry. We had bright-eyed, eager gym owners who weren’t content to try to build their businesses by “being great coaches.”

They wanted more—models, spreadsheets, data and proof. They wanted a plan. We created one—nothing existed in the industry before—and constantly improved it.

And each year more people wanted to come to our annual summit and find out how to run a world-class gym.

Here’s what it looks like when they show up these days:

In 2016, I was surrounded by empty seats.

In 2025, the Crowne Plaza in Chicago is out of rooms, and I literally told my staff to figure out how to get more people in the building next year.

Yes, we’re literally at the point where we have to look at the fire code to see exactly how many gym owners we can put in a ballroom.

That’s amazing because I know everyone who attends is going to get huge ROI on the trip. We have the codes for success in the gym business. They aren’t “cheat codes” because you still have to do the work. But the codes unlock all the doors on every level of gym ownership.

I believe you can come to our summit and double your revenue in the next 12 months.

I don’t say that casually. I say it because I heaped pressure on our speakers and told them, “You can’t go onstage if you can’t help gym owners get massive ROI.”

I’ve seen their rehearsals; they’re going to deliver on that on the owners and coaches sides of the room. It’s going to be amazing.

The good news for you: We shoved a few more things around in the conference center, and we have a handful of seats remaining.

If you’re reading this and have nothing on the calendar for the weekend, here’s my personal invite:

Come to Chicago. Make connections. Learn how to earn more. Take action. Generate monster ROI. Stabilize your gym. Build momentum. Then reach for the stars.

The very last tickets are available here.

I’ll circle back to that 2016 summit. Check out the slide behind me: long-term planning. That wasn’t really a thing in 2016. It was more “try to sell enough group classes to pay next month’s rent.”

Guess what? The people in the room actually created long-term plans. Some of them are still clients, and I can see their metrics. They are absolutely crushing the gym business after nine years of mentorship.

I bet their ROI on that early summit is 100X.

And they did improve the fitness industry for everyone—other gym owners, coaches and clients.

So where will your gym be in a year if you join me in Chicago this weekend?

And in 10 years?

I can’t wait to find out.

Here’s your last call: Two-Brain Summit 2025.

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